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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/38687-0.txt b/38687-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b1d839f --- /dev/null +++ b/38687-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14642 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Zoological Mythology, Volume I (of 2), by +Angelo de Gubernatis + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Zoological Mythology, Volume I (of 2) + or The Legends of Animals + +Author: Angelo de Gubernatis + +Release Date: March 4, 2012 [EBook #38687] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY, VOL I *** + + + + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Douglas L. Alley, III, Bill +Tozier and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + +ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY + +OR + +THE LEGENDS OF ANIMALS + +BY + +ANGELO DE GUBERNATIS + +PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE IN THE ISTITUTO DI +STUDII SUPERIORI E DI PERFEZIONAMENTO, AT FLORENCE +FOREIGN MEMBER OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF PHILOLOGY AND ETHNOGRAPHY +OF THE DUTCH INDIES + +_IN TWO VOLUMES_ + +VOL. I. + +LONDON + +TRÜBNER & CO., 60 PATERNOSTER ROW + +1872 + +[_All rights reserved_] + + + + +PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY +EDINBURGH AND LONDON + + + + + TO + + MICHELE AMARI AND MICHELE COPPINO + + This Work + + IS DEDICATED + + AS A TRIBUTE OF LIVELY GRATITUDE AND + + PROFOUND ESTEEM + + BY + + THE AUTHOR. + + + + +ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY; + +OR + +THE LEGENDS OF ANIMALS. + +First Part. + +THE ANIMALS OF THE EARTH. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE COW AND THE BULL. + + +SECTION I.--THE COW AND THE BULL IN THE VEDIC HYMNS. + +SUMMARY. + + Prelude.--The vault of Heaven as a luminous cow.--The gods and + goddesses, sons and daughters of this cow.--The vault of Heaven as a + spotted cow.--The sons and daughters of this cow, _i.e._ the winds, + Marutas, and the clouds, Pṛiçnayas.--The wind-bulls subdue the + cloud-cows.--Indras, the rain-sending, thundering, lightening, + radiant sun, who makes the rain fall and the light return, called + the bull of bulls.--The bull Indras drinks the water of + strength.--Hunger and thirst of the heroes of mythology.--The + cloud-barrel.--The horns of the bull and of the cow are + sharpened.--The thunderbolt-horns.--The cloud as a cow, and even as + a stable or hiding-place for cows.--Cavern where the cows are shut + up, of which cavern the bull Indras and the bulls Marutas remove the + stone, and force the entrance, to reconquer the cows, delivering + them from the monster; the male Indras finds himself again with his + wife.--The cloud-fortress, which Indras destroys and Agnis sets on + fire.--The cloud-forest, which the gods destroy.--The cloud-cow; the + cow-bow; the bird-thunderbolts; the birds come out of the cow.--The + monstrous cloud-cow, the wife of the monster.--Some phenomena of + the cloudy sky are analogous to those of the gloomy sky of night and + of winter.--The moment most fit for an epic poem is the meeting of + such phenomena in a nocturnal tempest.--The stars, cows put to + flight by the sun.--The moon, a milk-yielding cow.--The ambrosial + moon fished up in the fountain, gives nourishment to Indras.--The + moon as a male, or bull, discomfits, with the bull Indras, the + monster.--The two bulls, or the two stallions, the two horsemen, the + twins.--The bull chases the wolf from the waters.--The cow + tied.--The aurora, or ambrosial cow, formed out of the skin of + another cow by the Ṛibhavas.--The Ṛibhavas, bulls and wise + birds.--The three Ṛibhavas reproduce the triple Indras and the + triple Vishṇus; their three relationships; the three brothers, + eldest, middle, youngest; the three brother workmen; the youngest + brother is the most intelligent, although at first thought stupid; + the reason why.--The three brothers guests of a king.--The third of + the Ṛibhavas, the third and youngest son becomes Tritas the third, + in the heroic form of Indras, who kills the monster; Tritas, the + third brother, after having accomplished the great heroic + undertaking, is abandoned by his envious brothers in the well; the + second brother is the son of the cow.--Indras a cowherd, parent of + the sun and the aurora, the cow of abundance, milk-yielding and + luminous.--The cow Sîtâ.--Relationship of the sun to the + aurora.--The aurora as cow-nurse of the sun, mother of the cows; the + aurora cowherd; the sun hostler and cowherd.--The riddle of the + wonderful cowherd; the sun solves the riddle proposed by the + aurora.--The aurora wins the race, being the first to arrive at the + barrier, without making use of her feet.--The chariot of the + aurora.--She who has no feet, who leaves no footsteps; she who is + without footsteps of the measure of the feet; she who has no slipper + (which is the measure of the foot).--The sun who never puts his foot + down, the sun without feet, the sun lame, who, during the night, + becomes blind; the blind and the lame who help each other, whom + Indra helps, whom the ambrosia of the aurora enables to walk and to + see.--The aurora of evening, witch who blinds the sun; the sun + Indras, in the morning, chases the aurora away; Indras subdues and + destroys the witch aurora.--The brother sun follows, as a seducer, + the aurora his sister, and wishes to burn her.--The sun follows his + daughter the aurora.--The aurora, a beautiful young girl, deliverer + of the sun, rich in treasure, awakener of the sleepers, saviour of + mankind, foreseeing; from small becomes large, from dark becomes + brilliant, from infirm, whole, from blind, seeing and protectress of + sight.--Night and aurora, now mother and daughter, now + sisters.--The luminous night a good sister; the gloomy night gives + place to the aurora, her elder or better sister, working, purifying, + cleansing.--The aurora shines only when near the sun her husband, + before whom she dances splendidly dressed; the aurora Urvaçî.--The + wife of the sun followed by the monster.--The husband of the aurora + subject to the same persecution. + +We are on the vast table-land of Central Asia; gigantic mountains send +forth on every side their thousand rivers; immense pasture-lands and +forests cover it; migratory tribes of pastoral nations traverse it; +the _gopatis_, the shepherd or lord of the cows, is the king; the +gopatis who has most herds is the most powerful. The story begins with +a graceful pastoral idyll. + +To increase the number of the cows, to render them fruitful in milk +and prolific in calves, to have them well looked after, is the dream, +the ideal of the ancient Aryan. The bull, the _fœcundator_, is the +type of every male perfection, and the symbol of regal strength. + +Hence, it is only natural that the two most prominent animal figures +in the mythical heaven should be the cow and the bull. + +The cow is the ready, loving, faithful, fruitful Providence of the +shepherd. + +The worst enemy of the Aryan, therefore, is he who carries off the +cow; the best, the most illustrious, of his friends, he who is able to +recover it from the hands of the robber. + +The same idea is hence transferred to heaven; in heaven there is a +beneficent, fruitful power, which is called the cow, and a beneficent +_fœcundator_ of this same power, which is called the bull. + +The dewy moon, the dewy aurora, the watery cloud, the entire vault of +heaven, that giver of the quickening and benignant rain, that +benefactress of mankind,--are each, with special predilection, +represented as the beneficent cow of abundance. The lord of this +multiform cow of heaven, he who makes it pregnant and fruitful and +milk-yielding, the spring or morning sun, the rain-giving sun (or +moon) is often represented as a bull. + +Now, to apprehend all this clearly, we ought to go back, as nearly as +possible, to that epoch in which such conceptions would arise +spontaneously; but as the imagination so indulged is apt to betray us +into mere fantastical conceits, into an _à priori_ system, we shall +begin by excluding it entirely from these preliminary researches, as +being hazardous and misleading, and content ourselves with the humbler +office of collecting the testimonies of the poets themselves who +assisted in the creation of the mythology in question. + +I do not mean to say anything of the Vedic myths that is not taken +from one or other of the hymns contained in the greatest of the Vedas, +but only to arrange and connect together the links of the chain as +they certainly existed in the imagination of the ancient Aryan people, +and which the _Ṛigvedas_, the work of a hundred poets and of several +centuries, presents to us as a whole, continuous and artistic. I shall +indeed suppose myself in the valley of Kaçmîra, or on the banks of the +Sindhus, under that sky, at the foot of these mountains, among these +rivers; but I shall search in the sky for that which I find in the +hymns, and not in the hymns for that which I may imagine I see in the +sky. I shall begin my voyage with a trusty chart, and shall consult it +with all the diligence in my power, in order not to lose any of the +advantages that a voyage so full of surprises has to offer. Hence the +notes will all, or nearly all, consist of quotations from my guide, in +order that the learned reader may be able to verify for himself every +separate assertion. And as to the frequent stoppages we shall have to +make by the way, let me ask the reader not to ascribe these to +anything arbitrary on my part, but rather to the necessities of a +voyage, made, as it is, step by step, in a region but little known, +and by the help of a guide, where nearly everything indeed is to be +found, but where, as in a rich inventory, it is easier to lose one's +way than to find it again. + +The immense vault of heaven which over-arches the earth, as the eternal +storehouse of light and rain, as the power which causes the grass to +grow, and therefore the animals which pasture upon it, assumes in the +Vedic literature the name of Aditis, or the infinite, the inexhaustible, +the fountain of ambrosia (_amṛitasya nabhis_). Thus far, however, we +have no personification, as yet we have no myth. The _amṛitas_ is simply +the immortal, and only poetically represents the rain, the dew, the +luminous wave. But the inexhaustible soon comes to mean that which can +be milked without end--and hence also, a celestial cow, an inoffensive +cow, which we must not offend, which must remain intact.[1] The whole +heavens being thus represented as an infinite cow, it was natural that +the principal and most visible phenomena of the sky should become, in +their turn, children of the cow, or themselves cows or bulls, and that +the _fœcundator_ of the great mother should also be called a bull. +Hence we read that the wind (_Vâyus_ or _Rudrâs_) gave birth, from the +womb of the celestial cow, to the winds that howl in the tempest +(_Marutas_ and _Rudrâs_), called for this reason children of the cow.[2] +But, since this great celestial cow produces the tempestuous, noisy +winds, she represents not only the serene, tranquil vault of the shining +sky, but also the cloudy and tenebrous mother of storms. This great +cow, this immense cloud, that occupies all the vault of heaven and +unchains the winds, is a brown, dark, spotted (_pṛiçnis_) cow; and so +the winds, or Marutas, her sons, are called the children of the spotted +one.[3] The singular has thus become a plural; the male sons of the +cloud, the winds, are 21; the daughters, the clouds themselves, called +the spotted ones (_pṛiçnayas_) are also three times seven, or 21: 3 and +7 are sacred numbers in the Aryan faith; and the number 21 is only a +multiple of these two great legendary numbers, by which either the +strength of a god or that of a monster is often symbolised. If +_pṛiçnis_, or the variegated cow, therefore, is the mother of the +Marutas, the winds, and of the variegated ones (_pṛiçnayas_), the +clouds, we may say that the clouds are the sisters of the winds. We +often have three or seven sisters, three or seven brothers in the +legends. Now, that 21, in the _Ṛigvedas_ itself, involves a reference to +3, is evident, if we only observe how one hymn speaks of the 3 times 7 +spotted cows who bring to the god the divine drink, while another speaks +of the spotted ones (the number not being specified) who give him three +lakes to drink.[4] Evidently here the 3, or 7, or 21 sister cows that +yield to the god of the eastern heavens their own nutritious milk, and +amidst whose milky humours the winds, now become invulnerable, +increase,[5] fulfil the pious duties of benevolent guardian fates. + +But if the winds are sons of a cow, and the cows are their nurses, +the winds, or Marutas, must, as masculine, be necessarily represented +as bulls. In reality the Wind (_Vâyus_), their father, is borne by +bulls--that is, by the winds themselves, who hurry, who grow, are +movable as the rays of the sun, very strong, and indomitable;[6] the +strength of the wind is compared to that of the bull or the bear;[7] +the winds, as lusty as bulls, overcome and subdue the dark ones.[8] +Here, therefore, the clouds are no longer represented as the cows that +nurse, but with the gloomy aspect of a monster. The Marutas, the winds +that howl in the tempest, are as swift as lightning, and surround +themselves with lightning. Hence they are celebrated for their +luminous vestments; and hence it is said that the reddish winds are +resplendent with gems, as some bulls with stars.[9] As such--that is, +as subduers of the clouds, and as they who run impetuously through +them--these winds, these bulls, are the best friends, the most +powerful helpers, of the great bellowing bull; of the god of thunder +and rain; of the sun, the dispeller of clouds and darkness; of the +supreme Vedic god, Indras, the friend of light and ambrosia--of +Indras, who brings with him daylight and fine weather, who sends us +the beneficent dew and the fertilising rain. Like the winds his +companions, the sun Indras--the sun (and the luminous sky) hidden in +the dark, who strives to dissipate the shadows, the sun hidden in the +cloud that thunders and lightens, to dissolve it in rain--is +represented as a powerful bull, as the bull of bulls, invincible son +of the cow, that bellows like the Marutas.[10] + +But in order to become a bull, in order to grow, to develop the strength +necessary to kill the serpent, Indras must drink; and he drinks the +water of strength, the _somas_.[11] "Drink and grow,"[12] one of the +poets says to him, while offering the symbolical libation of the cup of +sacrifice, which is a type of the cup of heaven, now the heavenly vault, +now the cloud, now the sun, and now the moon. From the sweet food of the +celestial cow, Indras acquires a swiftness which resembles that of the +horse;[13] and he eats and drinks at one time enough to enable him to +attain maturity at once. The gods give him three hundred oxen to eat, +and three lakes of ambrosial liquor[14] to drink, in order that he may +be able to kill the monster serpent. The hunger and thirst of the heroes +is always proportioned to the miracle they are called upon to perform; +and for this reason the hymns of the _Ṛigvedas_ and of the +_Atharvavedas_ often represent the cloud as an immense great-bellied +barrel (_Kabandhas_), which is carried by the divine _bull_.[15] + +But when and how does the hero-bull display his extraordinary +strength? The terrible bull bellows, and shows his strength, as he +sharpens his horns:[16] the splendid bull, with sharpened horns, who +is able of himself to overthrow all peoples.[17] But what are the +horns of the bull Indras, the god of thunder? Evidently the +thunderbolts; Indras is, in fact, said to sharpen the thunderbolts as +a bull sharpens his horns;[18] the thunderbolt of Indras is said to be +thousand-pointed;[19] the bull Indras is called the bull with the +thousand horns, who rises from the sea[20] (or from the cloudy ocean +as a thunder-dealing sun, from the gloomy ocean as a radiant sun--the +thunderbolt being supposed to be rays from the solar disc). Sometimes +the thunderbolt of Indras is itself called a bull,[21] and is +sharpened by its beloved refulgent cows,[22] being used, now to +withdraw the cows from the darkness, now to deliver them from the +monster of darkness that envelops them,[23] and now to destroy the +monster of clouds and darkness itself. Besides the name of Indras, +this exceedingly powerful horned bull, who sharpens his horns to +plunge them into the monster, assumes also, as the fire which sends +forth lightning, as that which sends forth rays of light from the +clouds and the darkness, the name of Agnis; and, as such, has two +heads, four horns, three feet, seven hands, teeth of fire, and wings; +he is borne on the wind, and blows.[24] + +Thus far, then, we have heavenly cows which nurture heavenly bulls, +and heavenly bulls and cows which use their horns for a battle that is +fought in heaven. + +Let us now suppose ourselves on the field of battle, and let us visit +both the hostile camps. In one we find the sun (and sometimes the moon), +the bull of bulls Indras, with the winds, Marutas, the radiant and +bellowing bulls; in the other, a multiform monster, in the shape of +wolves, serpents, wild boars, owls, mice, and such like. The bull Indras +has cows with him, who help him; the monster has also cows, either such +as he has carried off from Indras, and which he imprisons and secretes +in gloomy caverns, towers, or fortresses, or those which he caresses as +his own wives. In the one case, the cows consider the bull Indras as +their friend and liberating hero; in the other, those with the monster +are themselves monsters and enemies of Indras, who fights against them. +The clouds, in a word, are regarded at one time as the friends of the +rain-giving sun, who delivers them from the monster that keeps back the +rain, and at another as attacked by the sun, as they who wickedly +envelop him, and endeavour to destroy him. Let us now go on to search, +in the _Ṛigvedas_, the proofs of this double battle. + +To begin with the first phase of the conflict, where in the sky does +Indras fight the most celebrated of all his battles? + +The clouds generally assume the aspect of mountains; the words _adris_ +and _parvatas_, in the Vedic language, expressing the several ideas of +stone, mountain, and cloud.[25] The cloud being compared to a stone, a +rock, or a mountain, it was natural,--1st, To imagine in the rock or +mountain dens or caverns, which, as they imprisoned cows, might be +likened to stables;[26] 2d, To pass from the idea of a rock to that of +citadel, fortress, fortified city, tower; 3d, To pass from the idea of +a mountain, which is immovable, to that of a tree which, though it +cannot move from its place, yet rears itself and expands in the air; +and from the idea of the tree of the forest to the shadowy and +awe-inspiring grove. Hence the bull, or hero, or god Indras, or the +sun of thunder, lightning, and rain, now does battle within a cavern, +now carries a fortified town by assault, and now draws forth the cow +from the forest, or unbinds it from the tree, destroying the +_rakshas_, or monster, that enchained it. + +The Vedic poetry celebrates, in particular, the exploit of Indras +against the cavern, enclosure, or mountain in which the monster +(called by different names and especially by those of Valas, Vṛitras, +Cushṇas, of enemy, black one, thief, serpent, wolf, or wild boar) +conceals the herds of the celestial heroes, or slaughters them. + +The black bull bellows; the thunderbolt bellows, that is, the thunder +follows the lightning, as the cow follows its calf;[27] the Marutas +bulls ascend the rock--now, by their own efforts, moving and making +the sonorous stone, the rock mountain, fall;[28] now, with the iron +edge of their rolling chariots violently splitting the mountain;[29] +the valiant hero, beloved by the gods, moves the stone;[30] Indras +hears the cows: by the aid of the wind-bulls he finds the cows hidden +in the cavern; he himself, furnished with an arm of stone, opens the +grotto of Valas, who keeps the cows; or, opens the cavern to the cows; +he vanquishes, kills, and pursues the thieves in battle; the bulls +bellow; the cows move forward to meet them; the bull, Indras, bellows +and leaves his seed in the herd; the thunder-dealing male, Indras, and +his spouse are glad and rejoice.[31] + +In this fabled enterprise, three moments must be noted: 1st, The +effort to raise the stone; 2d, The struggle with the monster who +carried off the cows; 3d, The liberation of the prisoners. It is an +entire epic poem. + +The second form of the enterprise of Indras in the cloudy heavens is +that which has for its object the destruction of the celestial +fortresses, of the ninety, or ninety-nine, or hundred cities of +Çambaras, of the cities which were the wives of the demons; and from +this undertaking Indras acquired the surname of _puramdaras_ +(explained as destroyer of cities); although he had in it a most +valuable companion-in-arms, Agnis, that is, Fire, which naturally +suggests to our thoughts the notion of destruction by fire.[32] + +In a hymn to Indras, the gods arrive at last, bring their axes, and with +their edges destroy the woods, and burn the monsters who restrain the +milk in the breasts of the cows.[33] The clouded sky here figures in the +imagination as a great forest inhabited by _rakshasas_, or monsters, +which render it unfruitful--that is, which prevent the great celestial +cow from giving her milk. The cow that gives the honey, the ambrosial +cow of the Vedâs, is thus replaced by a forest which hides the honey, +the ambrosia beloved by the gods. And although the Vedic hymns do not +dwell much upon this conception of the cloudy-sky, preferring as they do +to represent the darkness of night as a gloomy forest, the above passage +from the Vedâs is worthy of notice as indicating the existence at least +during the Vedic period of a myth which was afterwards largely amplified +in zoological legend.[34] + +In this threefold battle of Indras, we must, moreover, remark a curious +feature. The thunder-dealing Indras overpowers his enemies with arrows +and darts; the same cloud which thunders, bellows, and therefore is +called a cow, becomes, as throwing darts, a bow: hence we have the +cow-bow, from which Indras hurls the iron stone, the thunderbolt; and +the cord itself of that bellowing bow is called a cow; from the bow-cow, +from the cord-cow, come forth the winged darts, the thunderbolts, called +birds, that eat men; and when they come forth, all the world +trembles.[35] We shall come upon the same idea again further on. + +Thus far we have considered the cow-cloud as a victim of the monster +(that Indras comes to subdue). But it is not uncommon to see the cloud +itself or the darkness, that is, the cow, the fortress, or the forest +represented as a monster. Thus, a Vedic hymn informs us that the monster +Valas had the shape of a cow;[36] another hymn represents the cloud as +the cow that forms the waters, and that has now one foot, now four, now +eight, now nine, and fills the highest heaven with sounds;[37] still +another hymn sings that the sun hurls his golden disc in the variegated +cow;[38] they who have been carried off, who are guarded by the monster +serpent, the waters, the cows, are become the wives of the demons;[39] +and they must be malignant, since a poet can use as a curse the wish +that the malign spirits, the demons, may drink the poison of those +cows.[40] We have already seen that the fortresses are wives of demons, +and that the demons possessed the forests.[41] + +It is in the beclouded and thundering heavens that the warrior hero +displays his greatest strength; but it cannot be denied that the great +majority of the myths, and the most poetical, exemplify or represent the +relation between the nocturnal sky (now dark, tenebrous, watery, horrid, +wild, now lit up by the ambrosial moon-beams, and now bespangled with +stars) and the two glowing skies--the two resplendent ambrosial +twilights of morning and evening (of autumn and spring). We have here +the same general phenomenon of light and darkness engaged in strife; +here, again, the sun Indras is hidden, as though in a cloud, to prepare +the light, to recover from the monster of darkness the waters of youth +and light, the riches, the cows, which he keeps concealed; but this +conquest is only made by the hero after long wandering amidst many +dangers, and is finally accomplished by battles, in which the principal +credit is often due to a heroine; except in those cases, not frequent +but well worthy of remark, in which the clouds, hurricanes, tempests of +lightning and thunderbolts, coincide with the end of the night (or of +winter), and the sun Indras, by tearing the clouds, at the same time +disperses the darkness of night and brings dawn (or spring) back to the +sky. In such coincidences, the sun Indras, besides being the greatest of +the gods, reveals himself to be also the most epic of the heroes; the +two skies, the dark and the clouded, with their relative monsters, and +the two suns, the thundering and the radiant, with their relative +companions, are confounded, and the myth then assumes all its poetical +splendour. And the most solemn moments of the great national Aryan epic +poems, the _Râmâyaṇam_ and the _Mahâbhâratam_, the _Book of Kings_, as +well as those of the _Iliad_, the _Song of Roland_ and the _Nibelungen_, +are founded upon this very coincidence of the two solar actions--the +cloudy and shadowy monster thunderstruck, and the dawn (or spring) +delivered and resuscitated. In truth, the _Ṛigvedas_ itself, in a +passage already quoted,[42] tells us that the clouds--the three times +seven spotted cows--cause their milk to drop to a god (whom, from +another similar passage,[43] we know to be Indras, the sun) in the +eastern sky (_pûrve vyomani_), that is, towards the morning, and +sometimes towards the spring, many of the phenomena of which correspond +to those of the aurora. The _Pṛiçnayas_, or spotted ones, are beyond +doubt the clouds, as the Marutas, sons of Pṛiçnis, or the spotted one, +are the winds that howl and lighten in the storm cloud. It is therefore +necessary to carry back the cloudy sky towards the morning, to +understand the Pṛiçnayas feeding the sun Indras in the eastern heavens +and the seven _Añgirasas_, the seven sunbeams, the seven wise men, who +also sing hymns in the morning;--it seems to me that the hymn of these +fabled wise men can be nothing else than the crash of the thunderbolts, +which, as we have already seen, are supposed to be detached from the +solar rays. Allusions to Indras thundering in the morning are so +frequent in the Vedic hymns, that I hope to be excused for this short +digression, from which I must at once return, because my sole object +here is to treat in detail of the mythical animals, and because the road +we have to take will be a long one. + +Even the luminous night has its cows; the stars, which the sun puts to +flight with his rays,[44] are cows: the cows themselves, whose +dwellings the dwellings of the sun's cows must adjoin, are called the +many-horned ones.[45] These dwellings seem to me worthy of passing +remark, they are the celestial houses that move, the enchanted huts +and palaces that appear, disappear, and are transformed so often in +the popular stories of the Aryans. + +The moon is generally a male, for its most popular names, _Ćandras_, +_Indus_, and _Somas_ are masculine; but as Somas signifies ambrosia, +the moon, as giver of ambrosia, soon came to be considered a +milk-giving cow; in fact, moon is one among the various meanings given +in Sanskrit to the word _gâus_ (cow). The moon, Somas, who illumines +the nocturnal sky, and the pluvial sun, Indras, who during the night, +or the winter, prepares the light of morn, or spring, are represented +as companions; a young girl, the evening, or autumnal, twilight, who +goes to draw water towards night, or winter, finds in the well, and +takes to Indras, the ambrosial moon, that is, the Somas whom he loves. +Here are the very words of the Vedic hymn:--"The young girl, +descending towards the water, found the moon in the fountain, and +said: 'I will take you to Indras, I will take you to Çakras; flow, O +moon, and envelop Indras.'"[46] The moon and ambrosia in the word +indus, as well as somas, are confounded with one another; hence, +Indras, the drinker _par excellence_ of _somas_ (somapâtamas), is also +the best friend and companion of the ambrosial or pluvial moon, and so +the sun and moon (as also Indras and Vishṇus) together come to suggest +to us the idea of two friends, two brothers (Indus and Indras), two +twins, the two Açvinâu; often the two twilights, properly speaking, +the morning and the evening, the spring and the autumn, twilights, the +former, however, being especially associated with the red sun which +appears in the morning (or in the spring), and the latter with the +pale moon which appears in the evening (or in the autumn, as a +particular regent of the cold season). Indras and Somas (_Indrâsomâu_) +are more frequently represented as two bulls who together discomfit +the monster (_rakshohaṇâu_), who destroy by fire the monsters that +live in darkness.[47] The word _vṛishaṇâu_ properly means the two who +pour out, or fertilise. Here it means the two bulls; but as the word +_vṛishan_ signifies stallion as well as bull, the two stallions, the +vṛishaṇâu Indras and Somas, are, by a natural transition, soon +transformed into two horses or horsemen, the two Açvinâu. Hence, in +popular tales, we find near the young princess the hero, who now leads +out the cows to pasture, and now, as hostler or groom, takes excellent +care of the horses. But we must not anticipate comparisons which we +shall have to make further on. Having noticed that, in the _Ṛigvedas_, +we find the moon represented either as a bull or a cow (the masculine, +_Indus_, _somas_, _ćandras_, is always a bull; while the feminine, +_râkâ_, suggests more naturally the idea of a cow), let us now +consider the bull Indras in relation to the cow Aurora (or spring). + +Five bulls stand in the midst of the heavens, and chase out of the way +the wolf who crosses the waters;[48] the luminous Vasavas unbind the +cow that is tied by its foot.[49] + +How now is this cow brought forth? + +This ambrosial cow is created by the artists of the gods, by the three +brothers _Ṛibhavas_, who draw it out of the skin of a cow; that is, +they make a cow, and, to give it life, cover it with the skin of a +dead cow.[50] It being understood that the cow Aurora (or Spring) dies +at even (or in the autumn), the Ṛibhavas, the threefold sun Indras, +_i.e._, the sun in the three watches of the night, prepares the skin +of this cow, one Ṛibhus taking off the skin from the dead cow, another +Ṛibhus preparing it during the night (or winter), and the third +Ṛibhus, in the early morning (or at the end of winter) dressing the +new cow, the aurora (or the spring) with it. Thus it is that Indras, +in three distinct moments, takes the skin from off the girl that he +loves, who had become ugly during the night, and restores her beauty +in the morning.[51] And the three Ṛibhavas may, it seems to me, be the +more easily identified with the triple Indras, with Indra-Vishṇus, who +measures the world in three paces, since, as Indras is called a bull, +they also are called bulls;[52] as Indras is often a falcon, they also +are named birds;[53] and their miracles are sometimes also those of +Indras. This identification of the bulls Ṛibhavas, whom we speak of +here as producers of the cow Aurora (the same sterile cow of the +sleeping hero Çayus, that which the Açvinâu, the two horsemen of the +twilight, restored to youth by the Ṛibhavas, rendered fruitful +again),[54] with the bull, or hero Indras, appears to me to be of the +greatest importance, inasmuch as it affords us the key to much that is +most vital to the Aryan legends. + +The Ṛibhavas, then, are three brothers. They prepare themselves to +procure the cups which are to serve for the gods to drink out of. Each +has a cup in his hand; the eldest brother defies the others to make +two cups out of one; the second defies them to make three out of one; +the youngest brother comes forward and defies them to make four. The +victory is his, and the greatest workman of heaven, the Vedic Vulcan, +_Tvashtar_, praises their wonderful work.[55] The youngest of the +three brothers is therefore the most skilful. We find in the +_Ṛigvedas_ the name of _Sukarmas_, or maker of fine works, good +workman, given to each of the three brothers; and though only one of +them, who is properly called Ṛibhus, or _Ṛîbhukshâ_, is said to serve +the god Indras in the quality of a workman (whence Indras himself +sometimes received the name of Ṛibhukshâ, Ṛibhvan, or Ṛibhvas), yet +the other two brothers, _Vâǵas_ and _Vibhvan_, are in the service, one +of all the gods, the other of Varuṇas, the god of night.[56] It would +seem natural to recognise in Ṛibhus, the protégé of Indras, the most +skilful of the three brothers, who, as we have seen above, was the +youngest; yet, as we cannot infer anything from the order in which the +hymns name the three brothers--as, in one, Vâǵas is first named, then +Ṛibhukshâ, and finally Vibhvan; in another, Vâǵas first, Vibhvan +second, and Ṛibhus third;[57] in another, again, Ṛibhus is invoked +first, then Vibhvan, and lastly Vâǵas; and as we also find all the +Ṛibhavas saluted under the common epithet of Vâǵas, and Vâǵas himself +by the name of Indras, or rather Indras saluted in his triple form of +Ṛibhus, Vibhvan, and Vâǵas,[58] it remains uncertain which of these +was the proper name of the third brother of the Ṛibhavas. But what +seems to be sufficiently clear is, that Indras is identified with the +Ṛibhavas (_Indravantas_), that the third brother is the most skilful, +and that the three brothers serve the lords of heaven as workmen. And +here we meet with an interesting element. In two hymns of the +_Ṛigvedas_, the host of the Ṛibhavas appears as one only, Indras +himself, or the sun (Savitar), under the name of _Agohyas_ (_i.e._, +who cannot be hidden). During the twelve days (the twelve hours of the +night, or the twelve months of the year) in which they are the guests +of Agohyas, they bring as they sleep every species of prosperity to +the land, by making the fields fertile, causing the rivers to flow, +and refreshing the grass of the field. In this, however, let us not +forget that they are the beneficent sons of _Sudhanvan_, the good +archer, and archers themselves, representatives of the great celestial +archer, of the thunder-dealing and rain-giving Indras; and that +therefore their sleep is only a figure of speech to express their +latent existence in darkness and the clouds of night. + +But the _Ṛigvedas_ introduces the three brothers under other names, +and especially in one, and that an important aspect. The third brother +is called _Tritas_, or the third, and as such, is also identified with +Indras. Thus, for instance, the moments of Indras in the sky are +three--evening, night, and towards morning; and the horse of Tritas +(the horse that Tritas has received from _Yamas_) is now mysteriously +Yama himself, now the son of Âditis (whom we have already seen to be +the cow, or the son of the cow), now Tritas himself, whom Tritas alone +can yoke, and Indras alone ride upon, a horse bedewed with ambrosia, +which has three relationships in heaven, three in the waters, three in +the ocean;[60] that is to say, one relation is Yamas, the elder +brother; the second is the son of the cow, or the second brother; the +last is Tritas himself, or the youngest brother. This Tritas is called +intelligent; he therefore corresponds to the third brother, who makes +four cups out of one. How then does he appear sometimes stupid? The +language itself supplies the explanation. In Sanskrit, _bâlas_ means +both child and stolid; and the third brother is supposed to be stolid, +because, at his first appearance especially, he is a child,--and we +constantly see him as a child do wonderful things, and give proofs of +superhuman wisdom. With this key, the meaning of the myth is obvious. +The eldest brother, Yamas, the dying sun, with all his wisdom and +experience, is unable of himself to recover the ravished or missing +princess; the son of the cow Âditis, that is, Âdityas, the sun in the +middle of the night, gives often proof of strength great enough to +disperse the darkness and the clouds, and break the incantation; but, +generally it is the third sun, the morning sun, Indras in his third +moment, Vishṇus taking his third step,[61] the third brother, Tritas, +who seems to obtain the victory, and deliver the young aurora from the +monster of night. All this seems to me to be very evident. + +Tritas, like Indras, drinks the water of strength, and thereupon tears +the monster in pieces;[62] the victory of the young hero must be +achieved in the same way in which it is accomplished by Indras, his +more splendid and grandiose impersonation. But Tritas, or _Trâitanas_, +after having killed the monster of the waters, is afraid that the +waters themselves may devour him; after cutting off the head of the +monster, some enemies have lowered him down into the waters.[63] The +sun has vanquished the monster that kept the fountain of waters +shut--he has unchained the waters, but he himself has not been able to +break through the cloud; he has delivered from the dark and cloudy +monster the princess, the dawn that was to have been its prey, but he +himself does not yet come forth--is still invisible. Now, who are the +enemies here that have placed the young hero in the cistern, down into +the well, in the sea? We have already seen that Tritas has two +brothers; and it is these two brothers who, in a fit of jealousy, on +account of his wife, the aurora, and the riches she brings with her +from the realm of darkness, the cistern or well, detain their brother +in the well,--all which is told us in a single but eloquent verse of +the Vedas. The intelligent Tritas in the well calls out (_rebhati_) on +account of his brothers;[64] and the two horsemen of the twilight, the +Açvinâu, come to deliver the invoker (_rebhas_) covered and enveloped +by the waters.[65] In another hymn, the deliverer appears to be +Bṛihaspatis, the lord of prayer, who having heard how Tritas, thrust +down into the well, was invoking the gods, made the large from the +small;[66] that is to say, opened for the young hero a way to escape +from the well and show himself in his glory. + +Having seen how in the Vedic hymns Tritas, the third brother, and the +ablest as well as best, is persecuted by his brothers, it is +interesting to note the form of the myth in popular Hindoo +tradition:--"Three brothers, _Ekatas_ (_i.e._, the first), _Dvitas_ +(_i.e._, the second), and _Tritas_ (_i.e._, the third), were +travelling in a desert, and distressed with thirst, came to a well, +from which the youngest, Tritas, drew water and gave it to his +seniors. In requital, they threw him into the well, in order to +appropriate his property, and having covered the top with a +cart-wheel, left him within it. In this extremity he prayed to the +gods to extricate him, and by their favour he made his escape."[67] + +Thus have we brought the three brothers, of whom Tritas is the +youngest, into close affinity with the three Ṛibhavas, and both the +former and the latter into an equally close connection with the three +moments of Indras. We have already said that the Ṛibhavas created the +cow; in the same way _Uçanâ Kâvyâs_, the desiring wise one protected +by Indras, another name for the sun-hero of the morning, sends the +cows together before him;[68] and Indras himself is the only lord of +the cows, the only real celestial shepherd;[69] or, rather, it is he +that begets the sun and the aurora,[70] or, as another hymn says, who +gives the horses and the sun and the cow of abundance.[71] + +Here, therefore, the aurora is explicitly the cow of abundance; she is +still also the milk-giving and luminous cow, in which is found all +sweetness;[72] and finally, _usrâ_ or _ushâ_ are two words, two +appellations, which indiscriminately express aurora and cow as the red +or brilliant one. The identification of the aurora with the cow, in +the mythical sky of the Vedas, is therefore a certainty. + +Another of the names which the milk-yielding cow assumes in the +_Ṛigvedas_, besides the ordinary one of _Ushâ_, is _Sîtâ_, whom Indras +also causes to descend from heaven, like the aurora, and who must be +milked by the sun-god _Pûshan_,[73] the nourisher, the _fœcundator_, +compared in one hymn to a pugnacious buffalo.[74] This Indras, +protector and friend of Sîtâ, prepares therefore Vishṇus, the +protector, in the form of Râmas, of his wife Sîtâ. And even the +Ṛibhavas are the protectors of the cow, as well as the producers.[75] + +But Indras, whose special function it is to lighten, to thunder, to +fight the monster of darkness, and to prepare the light, generally +figures in the popular imagination, at dawn (aurora), as the sun, +under his three names of _Sûryas_, of _Ṛitas_, and of _Savitar_. + +The sun, with respect to the aurora, is now the father, now the +husband, now the son, and now the brother. As begotten of Indras +simultaneously with the aurora, he is the brother; as following and +embracing the aurora, he is the husband; as simply coming after the +aurora, he is the son; and as sending the cow or the aurora before +him, he is the father. These four relationships of the sun to the +aurora or dawn are all mentioned in the _Ṛigvedas_. + +In one of the hymns, the pure effulgence with which the aurora chases +away the shadows of night is said to resemble the milk of a cow;[76] +that is, the whitish light of the daybreak precedes in the eastern +heavens the rosy light of aurora. The aurora is the cow-nurse, and the +oriental mother of the old sun; at the sound of the hymn in praise of +the dawn, the two horsemen of twilight, the Açvinâu, awaken.[77] Two +cows--[_i.e._, the two twilights, that of the evening and that of the +morning, related to the two horsemen, the evening one and the morning +one, whom we also find together in the morning, the one white and the +other red, the one in company with daybreak and the other with the +aurora, and who may therefore be sometimes identified with the two +morning dawns, the white dawn (alba) or daybreak, and the red dawn +(aurora), and, from another point of view, the lunar dawn and the +solar one]--drop milk towards the sun, in the heaven.[78] The aurora +is the mother of the cows.[79] + +As the sun approaches, the heavenly cows, who walk without covering +themselves with dust, celebrate him[80] with songs. The red rays of the +high sun fly and join themselves to the sun's cows.[81] The seven wise +_Añgirasas_ (the seven solar rays, or else the Angiras, the seven-rayed +or seven-faced sun, as another hymn[82] represents him) celebrate in +their songs the herds of cows which belong to the aurora, who appears +upon the mountain.[83] Let us notice more particularly what is said of +the aurora that appears with the cows upon the mountain. It is the sun +that enables the Añgirasas to split the mountain, to bellow along with +the cows, and to surround themselves with the splendour of the +aurora.[84] The aurora, the daughter of the sky, the splendid one, +appears; at the same time, the sun draws up the cows.[85] The aurora is +carried by red luminous cows, whilst the sun, the hero-archer, kills +the enemies.[86] The aurora breaks open the prison of the cows; the cows +exult towards the aurora;[87] the aurora comes out of the darkness as +cows come out of their stable.[88] As the solar hero, Indras, is the +guardian or shepherd of horses and of cows,[89] so the auroras are often +celebrated in the _Ṛigvedas_ as _açvâvatîs_ and _gomatîs_, that is, as +provided with and attended by horses and cows. The aurora keeps together +the herd of red cows, and always accompanies them.[90] + +Thus have we passed from the pastor-hero to the pastoral heroine upon +the mountain. The pastoral aurora, unveiling her body in the east, +follows the path of the sun;[91] and the sun is represented to us in +the following riddle as a wonderful cowherd:--"I have seen a shepherd +who never set down his foot, and yet went and disappeared on the +roads; and who, taking the same and yet different roads, goes round +and round amidst the worlds."[92] The sun goes round in the ether, and +never puts down a foot, for he has none; and he takes the same, yet +different, roads in the sky, _i.e._, luminous by day, and gloomy by +night. The puzzle of the riddle lies in its self-contradiction; and +the beautiful girl is the prize appointed for him who, by his actions, +resolves it. A similar riddle is, in the _Ṛigvedas_ itself, proposed +to _Mitras_, the sun, and to _Varuṇas_, the night. The riddle is as +follows:--"The first of them who walk afoot (_padvatînam_) comes +without feet (_apâd_);" and the two divine heroes are asked, "Which of +you two has guessed it?"[93] He who solves this enigma we may be sure +is Mitras, the sun, who recognises the aurora, the girl who comes +making use of feet, although she seem to have none, for she comes +borne in a chariot, of which the wheels appear to be feet, which is +the same luminous chariot that rolls well,[94] given by the Ṛibhavas +to the two horsemen Açvinâu (represented sometimes as two old men made +young again by the Ṛibhavas, and sometimes simply as two handsome +youths), into which chariot she mounts by the help of the Açvinâu; and +the daughter of the sun is, in the race, the first to come to the +winning-post, amid the enthusiastic plaudits of the gods.[95] Then the +hymns to the aurora sometimes represent that vast chariot as belonging +to the eastern aurora, who guides a hundred chariots, and who, in +turn, helps the immortal gods to ascend into the chariot beside +her.[96] The aurora, as the first of those who appear every day in the +eastern sky, as the first to know the break of day,[97] is naturally +represented as one of the swiftest among those who are the guests of +the sun-prince during the night; and like her cows, which do not cover +themselves with dust (this being an attribute which, in the Indian +faith, distinguishes the gods from mortals, for the former walk in the +heavens, and the latter upon earth), she, in her onward flight, leaves +no footsteps behind her. The word _apâd_ (_pad_ and _pada_, being +synonymous) may, indeed, mean not only she who has no feet, but also +she who has no footsteps (that is, what is the measure of the foot), +or, again, she who has no slippers, the aurora having, as appears, +lost them; for the prince Mitras, while following the beautiful young +girl, finds a slipper which shows her footstep, the measure of her +foot, a foot so small, that no other woman has a foot like it, an +almost unfindable, almost imperceptible foot, which brings us back +again to the idea of her who has no feet. The legend of the lost +slipper, and of the prince who tries to find the foot predestined to +wear it, the central interest in the popular story of Cinderella, +seems to me to repose entirely upon the double meaning of the word +_apâd_, _i.e._, who has no feet, or what is the measure of the foot, +which may be either the footstep or the slipper; often, moreover, in +the story of Cinderella, the prince cannot overtake the fugitive, +because a chariot bears her away. + +The word _apâd_, which we have heretofore seen applied to the heroine, +was applied, moreover, to the hero, giving rise to another popular +legend, of which the _Ṛigvedas_ offers us the mythical elements. We have +already seen the sun as _anipadyamanas_, _i.e._, the sun who never puts +his foot down; but this sun who never puts down his foot easily, came to +be conceived of and represented as a sun without feet, or as a lame +hero, who, during the night, by the perfidy of the witch, the dusk of +evening, became also blind. In one hymn, the blind and the lame are not +one, but two, whom propitious Indras guides;[98] in another, the +blind-lame is one person, with the name of _Pâravṛig_, whom the two +horsemen Açvinâu, the two friends of the dawn, enable to walk and to +see.[99] The lame one who sees, shows the way to the blind who is able +to walk, or the lame carries the blind; Indras, the hidden sun, guides +the blind and the lame; or, the blind and the lame, lost in the forest, +help each other; in the morning, the Açvinâu, the two horsemen, friends +of the aurora, with the water of sight and of strength (that is, +Páravṛig, the blind-lame having discovered the hidden fountain of the +young girls of the dawn,[100] with the ambrosia of the aurora, with the +aurora itself), make the blind see, and him who has no feet, the lame, +walk; that is, they burst forth into the upper air again, transfigured +now into the luminous sun who sets out on his heavenly voyage. I have +said above that the hero becomes blind and lame through the perfidy and +magic of the evening aurora: nor was the assertion unfounded; for the +Vedic hymn in which Indras guides the blind and the lame, _i.e._, +himself or the sun, in the gloomy tardy night, is the very same hymn in +which is celebrated his heroic and manly enterprise of the destruction +of the daughter of the sky. The sun Indras revenges himself in the +morning upon the aurora of the morning, for the wrong done him by the +aurora of the evening, beautiful, but faithless. + +For the aurora counts among her other talents that of magic; when the +Ṛibhavas created the aurora cow of morning, investing her with the +skin of the aurora cow of evening, they endowed her with Protean +qualities (_Viçvarûpâm_), and on this account the aurora herself is +also called witch or enchantress (_Mâjinî_).[101] This aurora, this +virago, this Amazon, this Vedic Medea, who, treacherously plunging her +husband, or brother, the solar hero, into a fiery furnace, blinds and +lames him, is punished in the morning for her crime of the evening. +The hero vanquishes her, overcomes her incantations, and annihilates +her. The Vedic hymn sings--"A manly and heroic undertaking thou hast +accomplished, O Indras, for an evil-doing woman, the daughter of the +heavens, thou hast smitten; the growing daughter of the heaven, the +aurora, O Indras, thou hast destroyed; from the chariot, broken in +pieces, fell the aurora, trembling, because the bull had struck +her."[102] Here the mythical animal reappears on the same stage with +the heroes, and for the image of the hero and the heroine there is +substituted that of the cow and the bull.[103] + +The sun and the aurora, therefore, do not always seek each other from +promptings of affection only, nor is the hateful part always played by +the aurora. The sun, also appears as a perverse persecutor in his +turn. One Vedic hymn advises the aurora not to stretch out the web +she works at too far, lest the sun, like a robber, with hostile +intention, set fire to and burn her.[104] Another hymn tells us that +the handsome one follows the beautiful one, the brother the sister, +like a lover,[105]--the aurora fleeing from the sun, her brother, out +of shame, and her brother following her, actuated by a brutal +instinct. Finally, a third hymn shows us the Vedic Vulcan, the +blacksmith of the gods, the sun Tvashṭar, called also the omniform sun +(_Sâvitâ Viçvarûpah_), as father of Saraṇyû, another name for the +aurora, omniform herself, like her father (and, like the cow, +undergoing the triple transmutation at the hands of Tvashṭar, _i.e._, +the three brothers, the Ṛibhavas), creating another form of himself, +that is, the sun _Vivasvant_, to be able to espouse the aurora. +Saraṇyû, perceiving perhaps that Vivasvant is her father under another +shape, creates another woman like herself, and flees away on the +chariot that flies of itself, and that was before given her by her +father; and thereupon Vivasvant, in order to overtake her, transforms +himself into a horse.[106] + +But sometimes the alienation the sun and the aurora, the young husband +and wife, is not due to evil propensities in themselves, but the +decree of fate working through the machinations of monsters. The two +beautiful ones are at bottom united by love and reciprocal gratitude; +for now it is the sun who delivers the aurora, and now the aurora who +liberates the sun; and we have already seen the aurora making the +ambrosial milk drop for the sun from her cows, and the sun drawing up +and delivering the cows of the aurora. There is a hymn in which the +divine girl, the aurora, comes up in the east, with a lascivious air, +smiling, fresh, uncovering her bosom, resplendent, towards the god who +sacrifices himself,[107] that is to say, towards the sun, towards +_Çunahçepas_ (the sun), who, in three verses of another hymn,[108] +invokes her, the well-known legend of which, narrated in the +_Âitareya-Brâhmaṇam_, I shall briefly relate. The aurora has also the +merit of having, with her pure and purifying light, opened the gates +of the gloomy cavern, discomfited the enemies, the shades of night, +and exposed to view the treasures hidden by the darkness (and here we +have Medea again, but this time in a benignant form); she awakens to +activity the sleepers and everything with life (and therefore, among +the living sleepers, the sun, her son, whom one of the hymns +represents as sleeping profoundly in the bosom of the darkness of +night); she is the saviour of mortals,[109] that is to say, she +protects mortals from death, and resuscitates them; she sees and +foresees everything.[110] The awakener is also the awakened; the +illuminator is also the illumined, or the wise; and the illumined or +luminous one is also the beautiful one. From being small, she is +become large[111] (the heroes and heroines of mythology are only small +at birth, and pass at once into fulness of stature); from being infirm +and sombre-visaged, by the grace of Indras and of the Açvinâu, she is +cured and restored to strength and clearness.[112] But why was she +dark at first? Because her mother, the night, is the black one; she, +the white one, is born of the black one.[113] + +During the night, the young girl was blind, and she recovers her sight +by the grace of a wise one, one who, protected by Indras, another +shape of Indras, has become enamoured of her. We have seen above that +it is the Açvinâu who, with the aurora, give back to the sun his +sight; here it is the sun who makes the aurora see, it is the sun who +gives her light; and she who, having been blind, recovers her sight, +becomes the protectress of the blind and preserver of vision,[114] +like St Lucia, virgin and martyr, in the Christian Mythology. Physical +truth and the mythical narration are in perfect accordance. + +The night is now the mother, now the sister of the aurora; but the +gloomy night is sometimes her step-mother, sometimes her half-sister. +There is a riddle which celebrates the luminous night and the aurora, +as two diversely beautiful ones who go together, but of whom one goes +while the other comes.[115] Another hymn sings of them thus: "The +brilliantly-decked one approaches, the white aurora comes; the black +one prepares for her her rooms. The one immortal having joined the +other, the two appear alternately in the heavens. One and eternal is +the path of the two sisters; they follow it, one after the other, +guided by the gods; they do not meet, and they never stand still--the +two good nurses, night and aurora, one in soul yet different in +form."[116] The two good nurses, night and aurora, whose hues +alternate eternally, nourish between them one and the same child (the +sun).[117] But the _Ṛigvedas_ itself tells us that the night is not +always the legitimate sister of the aurora; the latter "abandons now +the one that is, now the one that is not, properly its sister."[118] +Here probably we must understand by the proper sister of the aurora +the luminous or moonlight night, and by the half-sister, the gloomy +night, the night without a moon. This is the sister whom, in a hymn, +the aurora removes, sends far away from her, while she shines to be +seen of her husband;[119] and her half-sister, the night, is obliged +to resign her place to her elder or better sister,[120] the word +_ǵyeshṭhas_ meaning not only the eldest, but the best. We have +already seen that the aurora is the first to appear; as such, and as +she who in the evening precedes the night (the evening aurora), she is +the first-born, the eldest, the most experienced, the best; while, +from another point of view, she is represented to us as the little one +who becomes great, and, in this case, as younger sister of the night +(the morning dawn). The dawns, or auroras, are saluted with the +epithet of workwomen,[121] just as the good sister, with respect to +the bad one, is always she who works, doing wonderful work, that is, +spinning or weaving the rosy cloth. But the auroras are not only the +workers, they are also the pure purifying and cleansing ones;[122] +hence one can understand how one of the tasks imposed upon the +youngest sister was that of purifying, purging, or separating the +grain during the night, taking from it all that is impure, in which +task she is assisted sometimes by a good fairy, sometimes by the +Virgin Mary, who, according to all probability, is the moon. + +One of the singular qualities of the younger sister is that she +displays her beauty only before the eyes of her husband. The wife +aurora manifests herself in the sight of her husband;[123] united, in +her splendour, with the rays of the sun,[124] like a wife she prepares +the dwelling of the sun.[125] Very brilliant, like a wife cleansed by +her mother, she uncovers her body;[126] like a bather who shows +herself, the shining one unveils her body;[127] she adorns herself +like a dancer, uncovering, like a cow, her breast;[128] she displays +her luminous garments;[129] all-radiant, with beautiful face, she +laughs;[130] and he who has made the aurora laugh, her, the beautiful +princess, who, at first, that is, during the night, did not laugh, +espouses her; the sun espouses the aurora. + +The celestial nuptials take place, and the ceremony is minutely +described in the 85th hymn of the 10th book of the _Ṛigvedas_. But the +marriage of the two celestials is never consummated except under +conditions; these conditions are always accepted and afterwards +forgotten, and it is now the husband who, by forsaking his wife, now +the wife who, by abandoning her husband, violates the promise given. +One of these estrangements, these temporary alienations of husband and +wife, is described in the _Ṛigvedas_ by the poetical myth of the dawn +_Urvaçî_ and her husband _Purûravas_, one of the names given to the +sun. Urvaçî says of herself, "I have arrived like the first of the +auroras;"[131] thereupon Urvaçî suddenly abandons her husband +Purûravas, because he breaks an agreement made between them. We shall +see further on in this chapter what this agreement was. Besides, +having given him a son before her departure, she consoles him by +permitting him to come and find her again in heaven, that is, by +endowing the sun with the immortality she possesses herself. In the +morning the aurora precedes the sun; he follows her too closely, and +she disappears, but leaves a son, _i.e._, the new sun. In the evening +the aurora precedes the sun; he follows her again, and she loses +herself, now in a forest, now in the sea. The same phenomenon, a +divorce of husband from wife, or a separation of brother and sister, +or the flight of a sister from her brother, or again, that of a +daughter from her father, presents itself twice every day (and every +year) in the sky. Sometimes, on the other hand, it is a witch, or the +monster of nocturnal darkness, who takes the place of the radiant +bride, or the aurora, near the sun; and in that case the aurora, the +beauteous bride, is spirited away into a wood to be killed or thrown +into the sea, from both of which predicaments, however, she always +escapes. Sometimes the witch of night throws the brother and sister, +the mother and son, the sun and the aurora, together into the waves of +the sea, whence they both escape again, to reappear in the morning. + +All these alternative variations of a mythical representation become +each in turn a legend by itself, as we shall see again more in detail, +when the study of the different animals that take part in them shall +furnish us with opportunities of doing so. In the meantime, we have +here finished our enumeration of all that in the hymns of the +_Ṛigvedas_ refers in any way to the bull and the cow,--to the wind, +moon, and sun bulls, to the cow-cloud, moon, spring and +aurora,--leaving it, however, to be understood how natural it is to +pass from the bull to the handsome hero-prince, and from the cow to +the beautiful girl, the rich princess, the valiant heroine, or the +wise fairy. For though in the mythical hymns of the _Ṛigvedas_ we have +little more than hints or foreshadows of the many popular legends +which we have thus referred to, often without naming them, these are +so many and so precise that it seems to me to be almost impossible +not to recognise them. To demonstrate this, however, it will be +necessary for me to show further what form the mythological ideas and +figures relating to the animals dispersed in the Vedic hymns +afterwards assumed in the Hindoo traditions. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Mâ gâm anâgâm aditiṁ vadhishṭa; _Ṛigv._ viii. 90, 15. + +[2] Gomâtaraḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 8, 1, 3.--Aditis, called "mâtâ rudrâṇâm;" +_Ṛigv._ viii. 90, 15. + +[3] Tubhyaṁ (to Vâyus, to the wind), dhenuḥ sabardughâ viçvâ vasûni +dohate aǵanayo maruto vakshaṇâbhyaḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 134, 4. + +[4] Imâs ta indra pṛiçnayo ghṛitaṁ duhata âçiram; _Ṛigv._ viii. 6, +19.--Trir asmâi sapta dhenavo duduhre satyâm âçiram pûrvye vyomani; +_Ṛigv._ ix. 70, 1.--Trîṇi sarâṅsi pṛiçnayo duduhre vaǵriṇe madhu; +_Ṛigv._ viii. 7, 10.--In the _Râmâyaṇan_, i. 48, the Marutas also +appear in the number of 7. + +[5] Pra çaṅsâ goshv aghnyaṁ krîḷaṁ yać ćhardho mârutam ǵambhe rasasya +vâvṛidhe; _Ṛigv._ i. 37, 5. + +[6] Ime ye te su vâyo bâhvoǵaso 'ntar nadî te patayanty ukshaṇo mahi +vrâdhanta ukshaṇaḥ dhanvań ćid ye anâçavo ǵirâç, ćid aǵirâukasaḥ +sûryasyeva raçmayo durniyantavo hastayor durniyantavaḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. +135, 9. + +[7] Ṛiksho na vo marutaḥ çimîvâṇ amo dudhro gâur iva bhîmayuḥ; _Ṛigv._ +v. 56, 3. + +[8] Te syandrâso nokshaṇo 'ṭi shkandanti çarvarîḥ; _Ṛigv._ v. 52, 3. + +[9] Tvam vâtâir aruṇâir yâsi; _Tâittiriya Yaǵurvedas_, i. 3, +14.--Ańǵibhir vy ânaǵre ke cid usrâ iva stṛibhiḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 87, 1. + +[10] Vṛishâ vṛishabhih; _Ṛigv._ i. 100, 4.--Gṛishṭiḥ sasûva sthaviraṃ +tavâgâm anâdhṛishyaṃ vṛishabhaṁ tumram indram; _Ṛigv._ iv. 18, +10.--Sa mâtarâ na dadṛiçâna usriyo nânadad eti marutâm iva svanaḥ; +_Ṛigv._ ix. 70, 6. + +[11] Vṛishâyamâṇo vṛiṇita somam; _Ṛigv._ i. 32, 3.--Pituṁ nu stosham +maho dharmâṇam tavishîm yasya trito (Tritas, as we shall see, is an +_alter ego_ of the god Indras) vy oǵasâ vṛitram viparvam ardayat; +_Ṛigv._ i. 187, 1. + +[12] Pibâ vardhasva; _Ṛigv._ iii. 36, 3. + +[13] Indro madhu sambhṛitam usriyâyâm padvad viveda çaphavan name goḥ; +_Ṛigv._ iii. 39, 6. + +[14] Trî yać ćhatâ mahishâṇâm agho mâs trî sarâṇsi maghavâ somyâpâḥ +kâraṁ na viçve ahvanta devâ bharam indrâya yad ahim ǵaghâna; _Ṛigv._ +v. 29, 8. + +[15] Vasoḥ kabandhamṛishabho bibharti; _Atharvavedas_, ix. 4, 3. + +[16] Sruvati bhîmo vṛisḥabhas tavishyayâ çṛiñge çiçâno hariṇî +vićakshaṇaḥ; _Ṛigv._ ix. 70, 7. + +[17] Yas tigmaçṛiñgo vṛishabho na bhîma ekaḥ kṛishṭîç ćyâvayati pra +viçvâḥ; _Ṛigv._ vii. 19, 1.--Idaṁ namo vṛishabhâya svarâǵe +satyaçushmâya tavase 'vâći; _Ṛigv._ i. 51, 15. + +[18] Çiçîte vaǵraṁ teǵase na vaṅsagaḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 55, 1. + +[19] Abhy enaṁ vaǵra âyasaḥ sahasrabhṛishṭir âyatârćano; _Ṛigv._ i. +80, 12. + +[20] Sahasraçṛiñgo vṛishabho yaḥ samudrâd udâćarat; _Ṛigv._ vii. 55, 7. + +[21] Vi tigmena vṛishabheṇa puro 'bhet; _Ṛigv._ i. 33, 13. + +[22] Priyâ indrasya dhenavo vagraṁ hinvanti sâyakaṁ vasvîḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. +84, 10, 11, 12. The root, HI, properly signifies to _distend, draw +out_; here, to _draw out_ the arm of Indras seems to me to mean to +elongate it, to render it as fine as a thread--to sharpen it (in +Italian, _affilare_); the cows that sharpen (It. _affilanti_), are a +variety of the cows that _spin_ (It. _filanti_). + +[23] Yuǵaṁ vaǵraṁ vṛishabhaç ćakra indro nir ǵyotishâ tamaso gâ +adukshat; _Ṛigv._ i. 33, 10. + +[24] Çiçîte çṛiñge rakshase vinikshe; _Ṛigv._ v. 2, 9.--Ćatvâri çṛiñgâ +trayo asya pâdâ dve çîrshe sapta hastâso asya; _Ṛigv._ iv. 58, +3.--Tapurǵambho vana â vâtaćodito yûthe na sâhvân ava vâti vaṅsagaḥ +abhi vraǵann akshitam pâǵasâ raǵaḥ sthâtuç ćaratham bhayate +patatriṇaḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 58, 5. In this stanza, however, _Vaṅsagaḥ_ may +probably signify rather _the stallion_ than _the bull_, as we find in +the second stanza this same Agnis already compared to a radiant horse +(atyo na pṛishṭham prushitasya roćate). + +[25] _Adris_ and _parvatas_ properly mean mountain, but, in the Vedâs, +often cloud; and among their many meanings there is also that of tree; +_agas_ (properly that which does not move) expresses equally tree and +mountain. Hence perhaps the Italian proverb: _Le montagne stanno +ferme, ma gli uomini s'incontrano_, Mountains stand still, but men +meet; hence the cry of Râmas in the _Râmâyaṇam_, ii. 122, that the +Himâlayas would move before he should become a traitor; hence the +assurance with which Macbeth, after the celebrated prophecy of the +witches, can say: "That will never be; who can impress the forest; bid +the tree unfix his earth-bound root?" _Shakespeare_ (_Macbeth_, iv. +1.) Nevertheless the forest moved, as it not unfrequently does in the +myths, where the tree-clouds walk, and fill all with terror wherever +they go, where heroes and monsters often fight, by unrooting the trees +of a whole forest. Cfr. _Râmâyaṇam_, iii. 3, 5, and the chapters of +this work which treat of the Horse, the Bear, and the Monkey. + +[26] Vraǵam gaćha gosthânam; _Tâittir. Yaǵúr._ i. 1, 9; cfr. +_Çatapathabrâhmaṇam_, i. 2, 3, 4. + +[27] Kṛishṇo nonâva vṛishabhaḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 79, 2.--Vâçreva vidyun +mimâti vatsaṁ na mâtâ sishakti; _Ṛigv._ i. 38, 8. + +[28] Açmânaṁ ćit svaryam parvataṁ girim pra ćyâvayanti yâmabhiḥ; +_Ṛigv._ v. 96, 4. + +[29] Pavyâ rathânâm adrim bhindanty oǵasâ; _Ṛigv._ v. 52, 9. _Pavis_, in +general, is the iron part, the iron end (of a dart, or a lance); here it +would appear to be the iron tire of the chariot's wheels, which, driving +furiously over the mountain, break it,--thunder, in fact, often suggests +the idea of a noisy chariot making ruin in heaven. + +[30] Vîraḥ karmaṇyaḥ sudaksho yuktagrâvâ ǵâyate devakâmaḥ; _Ṛigv._ +iii. 4, 9. + +[31] Ayaṁ çṛiṇve adha ǵayann uta ghnann ayam uta pra kṛiṇute yudhâ gâḥ; +_Ṛigv._ iv. 17, 10.--Viḷu ćid âruǵatnubhir guhâ ćid indra vahnibhiḥ +avinda usriyâ anu; _Ṛigv._ i. 6, 5.--Tvaṁ valasya gomato 'pavar adrivo +bilam; _Ṛigv._ i. 11, 5.--Vi gobhir adrim âirayat; _Ṛigv._ i. 7, +3.--Ukshâ mimâti prati yanti dhenavaḥ; _Ṛigv._ ix. 69, 4.--Yad anyâsu +vṛishabho roravîti so anyasmin yûthe ni dadhâti retaḥ; _Ṛigv._ iii. 55, +17.--Pûshaṅvân vaǵrint sam u patnyâmadaḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 82, 6. + +[32] Indrâgnî navatim puro dâsapatnîr adhûnutam sâkam ekena karmaṇâ; +_Ṛigv._ iii. 12, 6; _Tâitt. Yaǵurv._ i. 1, 14. Cfr. chap. on Serpent. + +[33] Devâsa âyan paraçûṅr abibhran vanâ vṛiçćanto abhi viḍbhir âyan ni +sudrvaṁ dadhato vakshaṇâsu yatrâ kṛipîṭam anu tad dahanti; _Ṛigv._ x. +28, 8. + +[34] Cfr. the chapter on the Bear and the Monkey. + +[35] Vṛikshe-vṛikshe niyatâ mîmayad gâus tato vayaḥ pra patân +pûrushâdaḥ viçvam bhuvanam bhayâte; _Ṛigv._ x. 27, 22.--Tvam âyasam +prati vartayo gor divo açmânam; _Ṛigv._ i. 121, 9. + +[36] Brihaspatir govapusho valasya nir maǵǵânaṁ na parvaṇo ǵabhâra; +_Ṛigv._ x. 68, 9. + +[37] Gâurîr mimâya salilâni takshaty ekapadî dvipadî sâ +ćatushpadî--ashṭâpadî navapadî babhûvushî sahasrâksharâ parame vyoman; +_Ṛigv._ i. 164, 41. + +[38] Utâdaḥ parushe gavi sûraç ćakraṁ hiraṇyayam; _Ṛigv._ vi. 56, 3. + +[39] Dâsapatnîr ahigopâ atishṭhan niruddhâ âpah paṇineva gâvaḥ; +_Ṛigv._ i. 32, 11. + +[40] Vishaṁ gavâṁ yâtudhânaḥ pibantu; _Ṛigv._ x. 87, 18. The same +passage can, however, be also translated: "The demons of the cows may +drink the poison." + +[41] _Ṛigv._ iii. 12, 6; x. 27, 22. + +[42] _Ṛigv._ ix. 70, 1. + +[43] viii. 6, 19. Cfr. the chapters on the Horse and the Cuckoo. + +[44] Vi raçmibhiḥ sasṛiǵe sûryo gâḥ; _Ṛigv._ vii. 36, 1. + +[45] Ta vâm (the gods Vishṇus and Indras) vâstûny uçmasi gama-dhyâi +yatra gâvo bhûriçṛiñgâ ayâsaḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 154, 6. Here all the stars +or cows together form _many horns_; but perhaps each star or cow in +itself was supposed to have but _one horn_; for the stars, like the +moon, shed but one ray of light, but one light. This, it appears to +me, may be inferred from the name of _Ekaçṛiñgâs_ or _unicorns_, +given, in the later mythology of the Indians, to an entire order of +Mani, of whom the stars are represented as the supreme habitations, +and even purest forms. + +[46] Kanyâ vâr avâyatî somam api srutâvidat astam bharanty abravîd +indrâya sunavâi tvâ çakrâya sunavâi tvâ.--Indrâyendo pari srava; +_Ṛigv._ viii. 80, 1, 3. + +[47] Indrâsomâ tapataṁ raksha ubǵataṁ ny arpayataṁ vṛishaṇâ +tamovṛidhaḥ; _Ṛigv._ vii, 104, 1.--The following stanzas reproduce and +develop the same argument. + +[48] Pańćokshaṇo madhye tasthur maho divaḥ--Te sedhanti patho vṛikaṁ +tarantaṁ yahvatîr apaḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 105, 10, 11. + +[49] Vasavo gâuryaṁ ćit padi shitâm amuńćatâ yaǵtrâh; _Ṛigv._ iv. 12, 6. + +[50] Takshan dhenuṁ sabardugham; _Ṛigv._ i. 20, 3.--Niç ćarmaṇo gâm +ariṇîta dhîtibhiḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 161, 7, e, iv. 36, 4. + +[51] This interesting particular is more fully developed in the +chapters which treat of the Wolf, the Pig and the Wild Boar, _q. +v._--To avoid useless and troublesome repetitions, I must observe here +that the myths of morning and evening are often applied to spring and +autumn, and the myths of night to winter. + +[52] Rayim ṛibhavaḥ sarvavîram â takshata vṛishaṇo mandasânâḥ; _Ṛigv._ +iv. 35, 6. + +[53] Rayim ṛibhavas takshatâ vayaḥ; _Ṛigv._ iv. 36, 8.--Here again we +have the cow in relation to the birds, since the riches given by the +Ṛibhavas consist above all in cows. (Ye gomantaṁ vâǵavantaṁ suvîraṁ +rayiṁ dhattha vasumantam purukshuṁ te agrepâ ṛibhavo mandasânâ asme +dhatta ye ća râṭiṁ gṛiṇanti; _Ṛigv._ iv. 34, 10.) + +[54] Çayave ćin nâsâtyâ çaćibhir ǵasuraye staryam pipyathur gâm; +_Ṛigv._ i. 116. 22.--Yâ ǵarantâ yuvaçâ tâkṛiṇotana; _Ṛigv._ i. 161, 7. + +[55] Ǵyeshṭha âha ćamasâ dvâ kareti kanîyân trîn kriṇavâmety âha +kanishṭha âha ćaturas kareti tvashṭa ṛibhavas tat panayad vaćo vaḥ; +_Ṛigv._ iv. 33, 5. + +[56] Vâǵo devânâm abhavat sukarmendrasya ṛibhukshâ varuṇasya vibhvâ; +_Ṛigv._ iv. 33, 9. + +[57] Te vâǵo vibhvân ṛibhur indravantaḥ; _Ṛigv._ iv. 33, 3. + +[58] Ṛibhur vibhvâ vâǵa indro no aćhemaṁ yaǵńaṁ ratnadheyopa yâta; +_Ṛigv._ iv. 34, 1.--Pibata vâǵâ ṛibhavo; _Ṛigv._ iv. 34, 4. + +[59] Dvâdaça dyûn yad agohyasyâtithye raṇann ṛibhavaḥ sasantaḥ +sukshetrâkṛiṇvann anayanta sindhûn dhanvâtishṭhann oshadhîr nimnam +âpaḥ; _Ṛigv._ iv. 33, 7.--Cfr. _Ṛigv._ i. 161, 11-13. + +[60] Yamena dattaṁ trita enam âyunag indra eṇam prathamo adhy +atishṭhat; _Ṛigv._ i. 163, 2.--Asi yamo asy âdityo arvann asi trito +guhyena vratena asi somena samayâ vipṛikta âhus te trîṇi divi +bandhanâni trîṇi ta âhur divi bandhanâni trîṇy apsu trîṇy antaḥ +samudre; _Ṛigv._ i. 163, 3, 4. + +[61] Vishṇus the three-faced is already spoken of in the _Ṛigvedas_ +and in the _Yaǵurvedas_. The third step of Vishṇus is taken among the +cows with the great or many horns: Gamadhye gâvo yatra bhûri-çṛiñgâ +ayâsaḥ atrâ 'ha tad urugâyasya vishṇoḥ paramam padam ava bhâti bhûreḥ; +_Tâittiriya Yaǵurv._ i. 3, 6. + +[62] _Ṛigv._ i. 187, 1, the passage already cited, when speaking of +the water of strength. + +[63] Na mâ garan nadyo mâtṛitamâ dâsâ yad îm susamubdham avâdhuḥ çiro +yaḍ asya trâitano vitakshat; _Ṛigv._ i. 158, 5. We shall have occasion +to return more than once to an analogous myth referring to Indras. + +[64] Tritas tad vedâptyaḥ sa ǵâmitvâya rebhati; _Ṛigv._ i. 105, +9.--_Gâmitvâ_ is properly the relation of brotherhood, and also +relationship in general. _Rebhas_, or the invoker, represented as a +hero, is no other than our _Trita âptyas_. + +[65] Rebham nivṛitaṁ sitam adbhyaḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 112, 5. + +[66] Tritaḥ kûpe 'vahito devân havata ûtaye tać ćhuçrâva bṛihaspatiḥ +kṛiṇvann aṅhûraṇâd uru; _Ṛigv._ i. 105, 17. + +[67] _Nîtimańǵarî_, quoted by Wilson, _Ṛigvedas-Saṁhitâ_, vol. i. + +[68] Â gâ âǵad uçanâ kâvyaḥ saćâ; _Ṛigv._ i. 83, 5. + +[69] Patir gavâm abhavad eka indraḥ; _Ṛigv._ iii. 31, 4. + +[70] Ǵaǵâna sûryam ushâsam; _Ṛigv._ iii. 32, 8. + +[71] Sasânâtyâṅ uta sûryaṁ sasânendraḥ sasâna purubhoǵasam gâm; +_Ṛigv._ iii. 34, 9. + +[72] Mahi ǵyotir nihitaṁ vakshaṇâsu âmâ pakvaṁ ćarati bibhratî gâuḥ +viçvaṁ svâdma sambhṛitam usriyâyâm; _Ṛigv._ iii. 30, 14. + +[73] Indraḥ sîtâm ni gṛihṇâtu tâm pûshânu yaćhatu sâ naḥ payasvatî +duhâm uttarâm-uttarâṁ samâm; _Ṛigv._ iv. 57, 7. + +[74] Mṛidha ushṭro na; _Ṛigv._ i. 138, 2. + +[75] Yat saṁvatsam ṛibhavo gâm arakshan yat saṁvatsam ṛibhavo mâ +apiṅçan; _Ṛigv._ iv. 33, 4. + +[76] Ushâ nâ râmîr aruṇâir aporṇute maho ǵyotishâ çućatâ goarṇasâ; +_Ṛigv._ ii. 34, 12. + +[77] Dhenuḥ pratnasya kâmyaṁ duhânântaḥ putraç ćarati dakshiṇâyâḥâ +dyotaniṁ vahati çubhrayâmoshasaḥ stomo açvinâv aǵigaḥ; _Ṛigv._ iii. +58, 1. + +[78] Ṛitâya dhenû parame duhâte; _Ṛigv._ iv. 23, 10. + +[79] Gavâm mâtâ; _Ṛigv._ v. 45, 2. + +[80] Areṇâvas tuǵa â sadman dhenavaḥ svaranti tâ uparatâti sûryam; +_Ṛigv._ i. 151, 5. + +[81] Ud apaptann aruṇâ bhânavo vṛithâ svâyuǵo arushîr gâ ayukshata; +_Ṛigv._ i. 92, 2 + +[82] Yenâ navagve añgire daçagve saptâsye revatî revad ûsha; _Ṛigv._ +iv. 51, 4.--The sun is also said to be drawn by seven fair horses; +_Ṛigv._ i. 50, 9.--Cfr. the following chapter. + +[83] Ta usho adrisâno gotrâ gavâm añgiraso gṛiṇanti; _Ṛigv._ vi. 65, 5. + +[84] Ṛiteṇâdriṁ vy asan bhidantaḥ sam añgiraso navanta gobhiḥ çûnaṁ +naraḥ pari shadann ushâsam; _Ṛigv._ iv. 3, 11. + +[85] Praty u adarçy âyaty ućhantî duhitâ divaḥ--Ud usriyâḥ sṛiǵate +sûryaḥ saćâ; _Ṛigv._ vii. 81, 1, 2. + +[86] Vahanti sîm aruṇâso ruçanto gâvaḥ subhagâm urviyâ prathânâm +apeǵate çûro asteva çatrûn bâdhate; _Ṛigv._ vi. 64, 3. + +[87] Ruǵad dṛiḷhâni dadad usriyâṇâm prati gâva ushasaṁ vâvaçanta; +_Ṛigv._ vii. 75, 7. + +[88] Gâvo na vraǵaṁ vy ushâ avar tamaḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 92, 4. + +[89] Yo açvânâṁ yo gavâṁ gopatiḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 101, 4. + +[90] Yuñkte gavâm aruṇânâm anîkam; _Ṛigv._ i. 124, 11.--Esha gobhir +aruṇebhir yuǵânâ; _Ṛigv._ v. 80, 3. + +[91] Avishk Kṛinvânâ tanvam purastat ṛitasya panthâm anv eti; _Ṛigv._ +v. 80, 4. + +[92] Apaçyam gopâm anipadyamânam â ća parâ ća pathibhiç ćarantaṁ sa +sadhrîćîḥ sa vishûćir vasâna â varîvarti bhuvaneshv antaḥ; _Ṛigv._ x. +177, 3. + +[93] Apâd eti prathamâ padvatînâṁ kas tad vâm ćiketa; _Ṛigv._ i. 152, 3. + +[94] Ratham ye ćakruḥ suvṛitam; _Ṛigv._ iv. 33, 8.--Takshan +nâsatyâbhyâm pariǵmânaṁ sukhaṁ ratham; _Ṛigv._ i. 20, 3. + +[95] Yuvo rathaṁ duhitâ sûryasya saha çriyâ nâsatyâvṛiṇîta; _Ṛigv._ i. +117, 13.--Â vâm rathaṁ duhitâ sûryasya kârshmevâtishṭhad arvatâ +ǵayantî viçve devâ anv amanyanta hṛidbhih; _Ṛigv._ i. 116, 17. + +[96] Yuktvâ ratham upa devân ayâtana; _Ṛigv._ i. 161, 7.--Pṛithû ratho +dakshinâyâ ayogy âenam devâso amṛitâso asthuḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 123, +1.--Devî ǵirâ rathânâm; _Ṛigv._ i. 48, 3.--Çataṁ rathebhiḥ subhagoshâ +iyaṁ vi yâty abhi mânushân; _Ṛigv._ i. 48, 7. + +[97] Ǵânaty ahnaḥ prathamasya; _Ṛigv._ i. 123, 9. + +[98] Anu dvâ ǵahitâ nayo 'ndhaṁ çroṇaṁ ća vṛitrahan; _Ṛigv._ iv. 30, 19. + +[99] Sakhâbhûd açvinor ushâḥ; _Ṛigv._ iv. 52, 2.--Parâvṛiǵam prandhaṁ +çroṇaṁ ćakshasa etave kṛithaḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 112, 8.--I here explicitly +abandon the hypothesis I advanced six years ago in the "Life and +Miracles of the God Indras in the Ṛigvedas," pp. 22 and 24, to the +effect that the hero Pâravṛiǵ is the lightning flashing from the dark +cloud; whereas the blind-lame seems now to me the sun in the darkness +of night or winter. + +[100] Sa vidvâṅ apagohaṁ kanînâm âvir bhavann udatishṭhat parâvṛik +prati çronaḥ sthâd vy anag aćashṭa; _Ṛigv._ ii. 15, 7. + +[101] _Ṛigv._ v. 48, 1. + +[102] Etad ghed uta vîryam indra ćakartha pâuṅsyam striyaṁ yad durhaṇâ +yuvaṁ vadhîr duhitaram divaḥ divaç ćid ghâ duhitaram mahân mahîyamânâm +ushâsam indra sam piṇak aposhâ anasaḥ sarat sampishṭâd aha bibhyushî +ni yat sîm çiçnathad vṛishâ; _Ṛigv._ iv. 30, 8-11. + +[103] The two arms of Indras are said to vanquish the cow (or the +cows); Goǵitâ bahû; _Ṛigv._ i. 102, 6. + +[104] Vy ućhâ duhitar divo mâ ćiraṁ tanuthâ apaḥ net tvâ stenaṁ yathâ +ripuṁ tapâti sûro arćishâ; _Ṛigv._ v. 79, 9.--Cfr. the chapter which +treats of the Spider. + +[105] Bhadro bhadrayâ saćamâna âgât svasâraṁ ǵâro abhy eti paçćat; +_Ṛigv._ x. 3, 3. + +[106] Cfr. _Ṛigv._ x. 17, and Max Müller's "Lectures on the Science of +Language," second series, 481-486. + +[107] Kanyeva tanvâ çâçadânâṅ (arepasâ tanvâ çâçadânâ; _Ṛigv._ i. 124, +6), eshi devi devam iyakshamâṇam saṁsmayamânâ yuvatiḥ purastâd âvir +vakshâṅsi kṛiṇushe vibhâtî; _Ṛigv._ i. 123, 10. + +[108] _Ṛigv._ i. 30, 20-22. + +[109] Vy û vraǵasya tamaso dvâroćhantîr avran ćhućayaḥ pâvakâḥ; +_Ṛigv._ iv. 51, 2.--Apa dvesho bâdhamânâ tamâṅsy ushâ divo duhitâ +ǵyotishâgât; _Ṛigv._ v. 80, 5.--Spârhâ vasûni tamasâpagûḷhâ âvish, +kṛiṇvanty ushaso vibhâtîḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 123, 6.--Sasato bodhayantî; +_Ṛigv._ i. 124, 4.--Viçvaṁ ǵivaṁ ćarase bodhayantî; _Ṛigv._ i. 92, +9.--Martyatrâ; _Ṛigv._ i. 123, 3. + +[110] Viçvâni devî bhuvanâbhićakshyâ; _Ṛigv._ i. 92, 6.--Praǵânatî; +_Ṛigv._ i. 124, 3. + +[111] Arbhâd îshate na maho vibhâtî; _Ṛigv._ i. 124, 6. + +[112] As to Ghoshâ, cured by the Açvinâu (_Ṛigv._ i. 117, 7), and +Apalâ, cured by Indras (_Ṛigv._ viii. 80), see the same subject +discussed more in detail in the chapter which treats of the Hog. + +[113] Çukrâ kṛishṇâd aǵanishṭa çvitîćî; _Ṛigv._ i. 123, 9. + +[114] Yasyânakshâ duhitâ ǵâtvâsa kas tâṁ vidvâṅ abhi manyâte andhâm +kataro menim prati tam mućâte ya îm vahâte ya îm vâ vareyât; _Ṛigv._ +x. 27, 11.--Vṛitrasya kanînikâ 'si ćakshushpâ asi; _Tâittir. Yagurv._ +i. 2, 1. + +[115] Apânyad ety abhy anyad eti vishurûpe ahanî saṁ ćarete; _Ṛigv._ +i. 123, 7. + +[116] Ruçadvatsâ ruçatî çvetyâgâd ârâig u kṛishṇâ sadanâny asyâḥ +samânabandhû amṛite anûćî dyâvâ varṇaṁ ćarata âminâne samâno adhvâ +svasror anantas tam anyânyâ ćarato devaçishṭe na methete na tasthatuḥ +sumeke naktoshâsa samanasâ virûpe; _Ṛigv._ i. 113, 2, 3. + +[117] Naktoshâsâ varṇam âmemyâne dhâpayete çiçum ekaṁ samîćî; _Ṛigv._ +i. 96, 5. + +[118] Nâǵâmiṁ na pari vṛiṇakti ǵâmim; _Ṛigv._ i. 124, 6. + +[119] Vyûrṇvatî divo antân abodhy apa svasâraṁ sanutar yuyoti +praminatî manushyâ yugâni yoshâ ǵarasya ćakshasâ vi bhâti; _Ṛigv._ i. +92, 11. + +[120] Svasâ svasre ǵyâyasyâi yonim ârâik; _Ṛigv._ i. 124, 8. + +[121] Nârîr apasaḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 92, 3. + +[122] Çućayaḥ pâvakâh; _Ṛigv._ iv. 51, 2. + +[123] Yoshâ ǵârasya ćakshasâ vibhâti; _Ṛigv._ quoted above, i. 92, 11. + +[124] Yatamânâ raçmibhiḥ sûryasya; _Ṛigv._ i. 123, 12.--Vyućhantî +raçmibhiḥ sûryasya; _Ṛigv._ i. 124, 8. + +[125] Ritasya yoshâ na minâti dhâma; _Ṛigv._ i. 123, 9. + +[126] Susaṁkâçâ mâtṛimṛishṭeva yoshâvis tanvaṁ kriṇushe dṛiçe kam; +_Ṛigv._ i. 123, 11. + +[127] Eshâ çubhrâ na tanvo vidânordhveva snâtî dṛiçaye no asthât; +_Ṛigv._ v. 80, 5. + +[128] Adhi peçâṅsi vapate nṛitûr ivâporṇute vaksha usreva barǵaham; +_Ṛigv._ i. 92, 4. + +[129] Bhadrâ vastrâ tanvate; _Ṛigv._ i. 134, 4. + +[130] Smayate vibhâtî supratîkâ; _Ṛigv._ i. 92, 6. + +[131] Prâkramisham ushasâm agriyeva; _Ṛigv._ x. 95, 2. + + +SECTION II. + +THE WORSHIP OF THE BULL AND OF THE COW IN INDIA, AND THE BRÂHMANIC +LEGENDS RELATING TO IT. + +SUMMARY. + + The princes called bulls.--The bull the symbol of the god + Çivas.--The cow was not to be killed.--Exchange of the bull and the + cow for other animals; the bull and the cow, considered as the + greatest reward desired by the legislating priests of India.--The + cow's hide in nuptial usages a symbol of abundance; its elasticity + and power of extension; the cow and its hide during the pregnancy of + women an augury of happy birth, and in funeral ceremonies an augury + of resurrection.--Cows sent to pasture with auguries.--Cows seen by + night in a dream are a sinister omen; meaning of this Hindoo + superstition.--The black cow which produces white milk in the Vedic + hymns.--The reins of the cow or black goat sacrificed in funerals + given as a viaticum or provision to the dead man, that they may + contribute to his resurrection.--The variegated cow comes again in a + brâhmaṇam, and is interpreted as a cloud.--The coming out of the + cow-dawns feasted.--The cornucopia.--The milk of the cows is the + serpent's poison.--The salutary herb.--The enchanted gem, the ring + of recognition.--The moon, as a female, a good fairy who works for + the aurora, and who entertains and guides the hero.--The moon, as a + male, a white bull.--The city of the moon.--Indras consoles and + nourishes the unhappy Sîtâ.--Râmas assimilated to Indras.--The + coadjutors of Râmas are those of Indras.--The bull Râmas.--The names + of the monsters and the names of the heroes in the + Râmâyaṇam.--Râmas, the Hindoo Xerxes, chastises the sea.--The + celestial ocean; the cloud-mountains carried by the heroes; the + bridge across the sea made of these mountains; while the bridge is + being made, it rains.--The battle of Râmas is a winter and a + nocturnal one, in a cloudy sky.--The monster barrel again; the + monster trunk with a cavity; Kabandhas.--The dying monster thanks + the hero, who delivers him from an ancient malediction, and becomes + again a handsome luminous youth.--The dawn Sîtâ sacrificed in the + fire.--Sîtâ daughter of the sun.--The Buddhist legend of Râmas and + Sîtâ.--Sîtâ predestined as the reward of valour.--An indiscretion of + the husband Râmas causes him to lose his wife Sîtâ.--The story of + Urvaçî again, the first of the auroras; the wife flees because her + husband has revealed her secret, because her husband has looked at + another woman, because he has let himself be seen naked; the + fugitive wife hides herself in a plant.--The wife stays with her + husband as long as he says nothing displeasing to her.--The wife + kills her sons; the husband complains and the wife flees.--The + contrary.--The story of Çunaḥçepas again.--The god Varuṇas, who + binds; the son sacrificed to the monster against his will by his + father.--The hero-hunter.--The middle son sold, the son of the + cow.--The cow herself, Aditi, or Çabalâ, or Kâmadhuk, wife of + Vasishṭas, sacrificed instead of the son of Viçvâmitras.--Indras + delivers the bound hero, _i.e._, he delivers himself. The aurora, or + the daughter of the black one, liberates Çunaḥçepas, bound by the + black one, that is, she delivers the sun her husband.--The fetters + of Varuṇas and of Aǵigartas are equivalent to the bridle of the + horse and to the collar of the dog sold to the demon in European + fairy tales.--The golden palace of Varuṇas on the western + mountain.--Monstrous fathers.--Identification of Hariçćandras, + Aǵigartas, and Viçvâmitras.--The contention of Viçvâmitras and + Vasishṭas for the possession of the cow Çabalâ.--Demoniacal + character of Viçvâmitras.--The sister of the monster-lover or + seducer of the hero.--The cloud drum.--The cloudy monster Dundubhis, + in the form of a buffalo with sharpened horns, destroyed by the son + of Indras.--The buffalo a monster, the bull a hero.--Kṛishṇas the + monster becomes a god.--The god Indras fallen for having killed a + brâhman monster.--The three heads of the monster cut off at a + blow.--The three brothers in the palace of Lañkâ; the eldest brother + has the royal dignity; the second, the strong one, sleeps, and only + wakens to eat and prove his strength; the third is good and is + victorious.--The three brothers Pâṇdavas, sons of Yamas, Vâyus and + Indras in the Mahâbhâratam; the first is wise, the second is strong, + the third is handsome and victorious; he is the best.--Again the + three working brothers entertained by a king.--The three disciples + of Dhâumyas.--The blind one who falls into the well.--The voyage of + Utañkas to hell.--He meets a bull.--The excrement of the bull, + ambrosia.--The stone uplifted with the help of the lever, of the + thunderbolt of Indras.--The earrings of the queen carried off; their + mythical meaning.--Indras and Kṛishṇas also search for the + earrings.--The three Buddhist brothers.--The eldest brother frees + the younger ones by his knowledge in questions and riddles.--The + hero and the monster ill or vulnerable in their feet.--The two rival + sisters.--The good sister thrown into the well by the wicked + one.--The prince comes to deliver her.--The wicked sister takes the + place of the good one.--The three brothers again.--The sons make + their father and mother recognise each other.--The third brother, + Pûrus, the only good one, assists his aged father Yayâtis, by taking + his old age upon himself.--The old blind man, Dîrghatamas, thrown + into the water by his sons.--Yayâtis and Dîrghatamas, Hindoo King + Lears.--The queen Sudeshnâ makes her maid or foster-sister take her + place; a Hindoo form of Queen Berta.--The blind and the crooked or + lame, or hunchbacked, again with the three-breasted princess.--They + cure each other.--The bride disputed by the brothers.--The aurora + and the sun flee from each other.--The beautiful girl, the daughter + of the sun, flees after having seen the prince upon the + mountain.--The prince cannot overtake her; the third time, at last, + the prince marries the daughter of the sun.--The marvellous cow of + Vasishṭhas.--The hero Vasishṭhas wishes to kill himself, but cannot; + he is immortal; he throws himself down from the mountain and does + not hurt himself; he goes through fire and is not burnt; he throws + himself into the water and does not drown; mythical signification of + these prodigies.--The wind runs after women.--Conclusion of the + study of the myth and of the legends which refer to the bull and the + cow of India. + +Just as the importance of the cattle to primitive and pastoral Aryan +life explains the propensity of the Aryan mind to conceive of the +mobile phenomena of the heavens, at first considered living beings, as +bulls and cows, so the consecration of these animals, associated and +identified with the celestial phenomena and the gods, naturally gave +rise to the superstitious worship of the bull and the cow, common to +all the Aryan nations, but particularly, through the intervention of +the brâhmanic priests, to the Hindoos. + +It is a remarkable fact that the words _vṛishas_, _vṛishabhas_, and +_ṛishabhas_, which mean the bull as the one who pours out, the +_fœcundator_, is often used in Sanscrit to denote the best, the +first, the prince; and hence the bull, that is to say, the best +_fœcundator_, is in India the most sacred symbol of royalty. For this +reason the phallic and destroying god, the royal _Çivas_, who inhabits +_Gokarṇas_ (a word which properly means cow's ear), has both for his +steed and his emblem a brâhmanic bull, _i.e._, a bull with a hunch on +its back; the _nandin_, or joyful attribute, being given to Çivas +himself, inasmuch as, being the _Deus phallicus_, he is the god of +joyfulness and beatitude.[132] + +Still more honour is paid to the cow (like the Vedic dawn _anavadyâ_, +innocent or inculpable[133]), which therefore it was a crime to +kill.[134] An interesting chapter of the _Âitareya-brâhmaṇam_,[135] on +the sacrifice of animals, shows us how, next to man, the horse was the +supreme sacrifice offered to the gods; how the cow afterwards took the +place of the horse; the sheep, of the cow; the goat, of the sheep; +and, at last, vegetable products were substituted for animals;--a +substitution or cheating of the gods in the sacrifice, which, perhaps, +serves to explain even more the fraud of which, in popular stories, +the simpleton is always the victim; the simpleton here being the god +himself, and the cheater man, who changes, under a sacred pretext, the +noblest and most valued animals for common and less valuable ones, and +finally for vegetables apparently of no value whatever. In the Hindoo +codes of law we have the same fraudulent substitution of animals under +a legal pretext. "The killer of a cow," says the code attributed to +_Yâǵńavalkyas_,[136] "must stay a month in penitence, drinking the +_pańćagavyam_ (_i.e._, the five good productions of the cow, which, +according to Manus,[137] are milk, curds, butter, urine, and dung), +sleeping in a stable and following the cows; and he must purify +himself by the gift of another cow." Thus, according to +_Yâǵńavalkya_,[138] the killer of a parrot is purified by giving a +two-year-old calf; the killer of a crane by giving a calf three years +old; the killer of an ass, a goat, or a sheep, by the gift of a bull; +the killer of an elephant by the gift of five black bulls +(_nîlavṛishâp_). And one need not be astonished to find these +contracts (which remind one of that between Jacob and Laban) in the +Hindoo codes of law, when, in the Vedic hymns themselves, a poet +offers to sell to whoever will buy it, an Indras of his, that is to +say, a bull, for ten cows.[139] Another interesting verse of +_Yâǵńavalkyas_[140] tells us they die pure who are killed by lightning +or in battle for the sake of the cows or the brâhmans. The cow was +often the object heroes fought for in heaven; the Brâhman wished to be +the object heroes should fight for upon earth. + +We learn from the domestic ceremonies referred to by _Gṛihyasûtrâni_ +with how much respect the bull and the cow were treated as the symbols +of abundance in a family. In _Âçvalâyanas_,[141] we find the bull's +hide stretched out near the nuptial hearth, the wife seated upon it, +and the husband, touching his wife, saying, "May the lord of all +creatures allow us to have children;"--words taken from the Vedic +nuptial hymn.[142] We have seen above how the Ṛibhavas, from the hide +of a dead cow, formed a new and beautiful one, or, in other words, +how, from the dusk of evening, by stretching it in the night, they +formed the dawn of morning. This cow's hide plays also an important +_rôle_ in the popular faith; an extraordinary elasticity is attributed +to it, a power of endless expansibility, and for this reason it is +adopted as a symbol of fecundity, upon which the wife must place +herself in order to become a mother of children. The cow's hide +(_goćarman_), in the _Mahâbhâratam_,[143] is the garment of the god +Vishṇus; and the goćarman divided into thongs, and afterwards fastened +to each other, served formerly in India to measure the circumference +of a piece of ground;[144] hence the cow's hide suggested the idea of +a species of infinity. Further on we shall find it put to +extraordinary uses in western legend; we find it even in the hymns of +the Vedic age used to cover the body of a dead man, the fire being +invoked not to consume it, almost as if the cow's hide had the virtue +of resuscitating the dead.[145] + +The cow, being the symbol of fruitfulness, was also the companion of +the wife during pregnancy. _Âçvalâyaṇas_[146] tells us how, in the +third month, the husband was to give his wife to drink of the sour +milk of a cow that has a calf like itself, and in it two beans and a +grain of barley; the husband was then to ask his wife three times, +"What drinkest thou?" and she was to answer three times: "The +generation of males." In the fourth month, the wife, according to +_Âçvalâyaṇas_, was to put herself again upon the bull's hide, near the +fire of sacrifice, when they again invoked the god _Praǵâpatis_, lord +of all creatures, or of procreation; the moon, like a celestial bull +and cow, was invited to be present at the generation of men;[147] and +a bull, during the Vedic period, was the gift which sufficed for the +priest. In the Vedic antiquity, neither bulls nor cows were allowed to +go to pasture without some special augury, which, in the domestic +ceremonials of _Âçvalâyaṇas_,[148] has been also handed down to us; +the cows were to give milk and honey, for the strength and increase of +whoever possessed them. Here we have again the cows not only as the +beneficent, but as the strong ones, they who help the hero or the +heroine who takes them to pasture. + +But although beautiful cows, when seen by day, are a sign of good +luck, seen in dreams they are of evil omen; for in that case they are +of course the black cows, the shadows of night, or the gloomy waters +of the nocturnal ocean. Already in the _Ṛigvedas_, the dawn, or the +luminous cow, comes to deliver the fore-mentioned solar hero, Tritas +Aptyas, from the evil sleep which he sleeps amidst the cows[149] of +night. _Âçvalâyaṇas_, in his turn, recommends us when we have an evil +dream, to invoke the sun, to hasten the approach of the morning, or, +better still, to recite the hymn of five verses to the dawn which we +have already referred to, and which begins with the words, "And like +an evil dream amidst the cows." Here the belief is not yet an entirely +superstitious one; and we understand what is meant by the cows who +envelop us in the sleep of night, when we are told to invoke the sun +and the dawn to come and deliver us from them. + +A cow (probably a black one), often a black goat, was sometimes also +sacrificed in the funeral ceremonies of the Hindoos, as if to augur +that, just as the black cow, night, produces the milky humours of the +aurora, or is fruitful, so will he who has passed through the kingdom +of darkness rise again in the world of light. We have already seen the +black night as the mother of the white and luminous aurora; I quote +below yet another Vedic sentence, in which a poet ingenuously wonders +why the cows of Indras, the black ones as well as the light-coloured +(the black clouds, as well as the white and red ones), should both +yield white milk.[150] And even the gloomy nocturnal kingdom of Yamas, +the god of the dead, has its cows of black appearance, which are +nevertheless milk-yielding; and thus the black cow of the funeral +sacrifices comes to forebode resurrection. + +In the same way the viaticum, or provision of food for his journey, +given to the dead man is a symbol of his resurrection. The journey +being considered as a short one, the provision of food which is to +sustain the traveller to the kingdom of the dead is limited, and each +dead hero carries it with him, generally not so much for himself, as +to ensure a passage into the kingdom of the dead. For this reason we +read, even in the domestic ceremonials of _Âçvalâyaṇas_, that it is +recommended to put into the hands of the dead man,[151] what is the +greatest symbol of strength, the reins of the animal killed in the +funeral sacrifice (or, in default of an animal victim, at least two +cakes of rice or of flour), in order that the dead man may throw them +down the throats of the two Cerberi, the two sons of the bitch +_Saramâ_, so that they may let the deceased enter scatheless into the +death-kingdom, the mysterious kingdom of Yamas; and here we find the +monster of the popular tales, into whose house the hero, having passed +through many dangers, enters, by the advice of a good fairy or of a +good old man, giving something to appease the hunger of the two dogs +who guard its gate. + +They who return from the funeral must touch the stone of Priapus, a +fire, the excrement of a cow,[152] a grain of barley, a grain of +sesame and water,--all symbols of that fecundity which the contact +with a corpse might have destroyed. + +The Vedic hymns have shown us the principal mythical aspects and +functions of the cow and the bull; we have also seen how the brâhmanic +codes confirmed, by the sanction of law, the worship of these animals, +and how jealously the domestic tradition of the Hindoos has guarded +it. Let us now see from the _Âitareya-brâhmaṇam_, how the Brâhmans +themselves, those of the era immediately following that of the Vedâs, +interpreted the myth of the cow. + +We have recognised in the Vedic heavens, as reflected in the hymns of +the _Ṛigvedas_, three cows--the cow-cloud, the cow-moon, and the +cow-aurora. These three cows, and especially the first and the third, +are also quite distinct from one another in the _Âitareya-brâhmaṇam_. + +It tells us how the _gâuh pṛiçnih_, the variegated cow, or spotted +cow, of the _Ṛigvedas_, must be celebrated to make the earth +fruitful[153] (or that one must sing to the cloud that it may +fertilise the pastures and fields with rain), and how one must +sacrifice a bull to _Viçvakarman_ (or the one that does all), who is +transformed into the god Indras when killing the demon Vṛitras,[154] +or the monster who keeps the rain in the cloud. + +It shows us the full moon, _Râkâ_, joined to the aurora, as a source of +abundance,[155] and the aurora with the cow.[156] It tells us explicitly +that the characteristic form of the aurora is the red cow, because she +moves with the red cows.[157] The gods, after having discovered the cows +in the cavern, open the cavern with the third libation of the +morning;[158] when the cows come out, the gods, the _Âdityâs_, also come +out; hence the coming forth of the gods (_Âdityânâm ayanam_) is +equivalent to the coming forth of the cows (_gavâm ayanam_). The cows +come out when they have their horns, and adorn themselves.[159] + +The aurora is a cow; this cow has horns; her horns are radiant and +golden. When the cow aurora comes forth, all that falls from her horns +brings good luck; hence in the _Mahâbhâratam_,[160] the benefits +received from a holy hermit, called Matañgas, are compared to those of +a _gavâm ayanam_, _i.e._, a coming out of cows. To understand this +simile, besides a reference to the Vedic texts, it is necessary to +compare it with the modern usages of India, in which, in celebration +of the new solar year, or the birth of the pastoral god Kṛishṇas (the +god who is black during the night, but who becomes luminous in the +morning among the cows of the dawning, or among the female cowherds), +it is customary, towards the end of December, to give cows to the +Brâhmans, exchange presents of cows and calves, besprinkle one another +with milk, to adorn a beautiful milch cow, crown her with flowers, +gild her horns, or paint them various colours, to deck her to +overloading with flowers, fruit, and little cakes, and then hunt her +from the village to the sound of drums and trumpets, in order that, +full of terror, she may flee away with distraction and impetuosity. +The cow loses her ornaments in her flight, and these, being estimated +as propitious treasures, are eagerly picked up by the faithful, and +preserved as sacred relics.[161] + +In the _Âitareya-brâhmaṇam_,[162] the sun is born of the cows +(_goǵâ_), is the son of the cow aurora; as the sun's mother she +naturally nourishes him with her milk; hence the same _Âitareya_[163] +tells us that the gods Mitras and Varuṇas, by means of the curdled +milk, took from the drink of the gods the inebriating poison which the +long-tongued witch (_Dîrghaǵihvî_) had poured into it. This curdled +milk is the same milky sea, with health-giving herbs scattered in it, +and which the gods agitate to form ambrosia, in the _Râmâyaṇam_, the +_Mahâbhâratam_, and the Puranic legends; a sea and herbs which we find +already spoken of together in a Vedic hymn.[164] But in the sky, where +the ambrosial milk and the health-giving herbs are produced, there are +gods and demons; and the milk, which is at one time the rain, at +another ambrosia, is now in the cloud, now in the moon (called also +_Oshadhipatis_, or lord of herbs), now round the dawn. Hanumant, who, +in the _Râmâyaṇam_, goes in quest of the health-giving grass to +restore their souls to the half-dead heroes, looks for it now between +the mountain bull (_ṛishabhas_) and the heavenly mountain _Kâilasas_, +now between the Mount Lunus (_Çandras_) and the mountain cup +(_Droṇas_); and the mountain which possesses the herb for which +Hanumant is searching is itself called herb (_oshadhis_), or the one +that causes to rejoice with perfumes (_Gandhamâdanas_[165]), which two +words are used synonymously. Here the milky, ambrosial, and healthful +humour is supposed to be produced, not by a cow, but by an herb. And +the gods and demons contend in heaven for the possession of this herb, +as well as for the ambrosia; the only difference being that the gods +enjoy both one and the other without corrupting them, whilst the +demons poison them as they drink them; that is to say, they spread +darkness over the light, they move about in the darkness, in the +gloomy waters, in the black humour which comes out of the herb itself, +which, in contact with them, becomes poisonous, so that they in turn +suck the poison. On the other hand, the _Gandharvâs_,[166] an +amphibious race, in whom at one time the nature of the gods +predominates, at another that of the demons, and who consequently take +now the side of the gods, now that of the demons, are simply guards +who, as against theft, keep watch and ward over the perfumes and +healthful herbs, which are their own property, and the healthful or +ambrosial waters, the ambrosia which belongs to their wives, the +nymphs; they are, in a word, the earliest representatives of the +enjoying and jealous proprietor. We have already heard, in the +_Ṛigvedas_, the demoniacal monsters call on each other to suck the +poison of the celestial cows; and we have seen that the +_Âitareya-brâhmaṇam_ accuses a witch of being the poisoner of the +divine ambrosia; we have, moreover, noticed that a Vedic hymn already +associates together the ambrosial milk and the healthful herb, and +that, in the brâhmanic cosmogony, the milk and the herb which produces +it are manifested together, which herb or grass is beneficent or the +reverse according as the gods or the demons enjoy it; from all which +it will be easy to understand this interesting Hindoo proverb, "The +grass gives the milk to the cows, and the milk gives the poison to the +serpents."[167] It is indeed the milk of the cow of the dawn and of +the cow of the moon which destroys the serpents of darkness, the +demoniacal shadows of night. + +But the idea of the healthful herb is incorporated in another image, +very familiar to the popular Indo-European legends, and which is +contained even in the Vedic hymns. The cow produces the sun and the +moon; the circular shape, the disc of sun and moon, suggests variously +the idea of a ring, a gem, and a pearl; and the sun, _Savitar_, he who +gives the juice, and the generator, is introduced in a Vedic hymn, as +the one who has immortal juice, who gives the pearl.[168] The humours of +the cow have passed to the herb, and from the herb to the pearl; and the +naturalness of this figure recommends itself to our modern conception, +for when we would describe a diamond or other gem as of the purest +quality, we say it is a diamond or gem of the first water. Even the +pearl-moon and the pearl-sun, from their ambrosial humours, have a fine +water. In the _Râmâyaṇam_,[169] at the moment of production of ambrosia +from the stirring up of the milky sea, we see, near the healthful herb, +the gem _Kâustubhas_, the same which we afterwards find on the +breast of the sun-god Vishṇus, and which is sometimes his navel; +whence Vishṇus, in the _Mahâbhâratam_,[170] is saluted by the name of +_ratnanâbhas_--that is to say, he who has a pearl for his navel; as the +sun is in like manner saluted by the name of _Maṇịçṛiñgas_--_i.e._, who +has horns of pearls.[171] In the _Râmâyaṇam_,[172] the bright-shining +grass and the solar disc appear together on the summit of the mountain +Gandhamâdanas; no sooner does he smell its odour than the solar hero +_Lakshmaṇas_, delivered from the iron that oppressed him, lifts himself +up from the ground; _i.e._, scarcely has the sun formed his disc, and +begun to shine like a celestial gem, than the sun-hero, whom the +monsters had vanquished during the night, rises in victory. And it is on +the summit of the mountain that, with a mountain metal of a colour +similar to that of the young sun,[173] the sun _Râmas_ imprints a +dazzling mark on the forehead of the dawn Sîtâ, as if to be able to +recognise her--that is to say, he places himself upon the forehead of +the aurora or dawn. When the sun Râmas is separated from the dawn Sîtâ, +he sends her in recognition, as a symbol of his disc, his own ring, +which appears again in the famous ring given by King _Dushmantas_ to the +beautiful _Çakuntalâ_, the daughter of the nymph, and by means of which +alone the lost bride can be recognised by the young and forgetful king; +and Sîtâ sends back to Râmas, by the hands of Hanumant, as a sign of +recognition, the dazzling ornament which Râmas had one day placed upon +her forehead in an idyllic scene among the mountains known to them +alone. This ring of recognition, this magic pearl, often turns up in the +Hindoo legends. It is enough for me to indicate here the two most famous +examples. + +The aurora who possesses the pearl becomes she who is rich in pearls, +and herself a source of pearls; but the pearl, as we have already +seen, is not only the sun, it is also the moon. The moon is the friend +of the aurora; she comforts her in the evening under her persecutions; +she loads her with presents during the night, accompanies and guides +her, and helps her to find her husband. + +In the _Râmâyaṇam_, I frequently find the moon as a beneficent fairy, +who succours the dawn Sîtâ; for the moon, as _ráganîkaras_ (she who +gives light to the night), assumes a benignant aspect. We have already +said that the moon is generally a male in India; but as full moon and +new moon it assumes, even in the Vedic texts, a feminine name. In a +Vedic hymn, _Râkâ_, the full moon is exhorted to sew the work with a +needle that cannot be broken.[174] Here we have the moon personified +as a marvellous workwoman, a fairy with golden fingers, a good fairy; +and in this character we find her again in the _Râmâyaṇam_, under the +form of the old _Anasûyâ_, who anoints the darkened Sîtâ (for Sîtâ, +like the Vedic girl, is dark and ugly during the night, or winter, +when she is hidden) in the wood, with a divine unguent; gives her a +garland, various ornaments, and two beauteous garments, which are +always pure (as, _i.e._, they do not touch the earth, like the cows of +the Vedic dawn, who do not cover themselves with dust), and similar in +colour to the young sun;[175] in all which the fairy moon appears as +working during the night for the aurora, preparing her luminous +garments--the two garments, of which the one is for the evening and +the other for the morning, one lunar and of silver, the other solar +and of gold--in order that she may please her husband Râmas, or the +sun Vishṇus, who is glad when he sees her thus adorned. In the +_Svayamprabhâ_, too, we meet with the moon as a good fairy, who, from +the golden palace which she reserves for her friend Hemâ (the golden +one), is during a month the guide, in the vast cavern, of Hanumant and +his companions, who have lost their way in the search of the dawn +Sîtâ. To come out of this cavern, it is necessary to shut the eyes, in +order not to see its entrance; all Hanumant's companions are come out, +but Taras, who shines like the moon,[176] would wish to return. The +same moon can be recognised in the benignant fairies _Triǵâtâ_, +_Suramâ_, and _Saramâ_, who announce to Sîtâ that her husband will +soon arrive, and that she will soon see him. The first, while the +arrival of Râmas is imminent, dreams that the monsters, dressed in +yellow, are playing in a lake of cow's milk;[177] at the time when +Suramâ announces to Sîtâ the approach of Râmas, Sîtâ shines by her own +beauty, like the opening dawn;[178] finally, Saramâ (who seems to be +the same as Suramâ), whom Sîtâ calls her twin-sister (_sahodarâ_), +penetrating underground, like the moon Proserpine, also announces to +Sîtâ her approaching deliverance at the hands of Râmas.[179] As to +Triǵaṭâ, it is not difficult to recognise in her the moon, when we +remember that Trǵiaṭas is a name which is frequently given to the +evening sun, or rising moon, _Çivas_, who is represented with the moon +for a diadem, whence his other name of _Çandraćûḍas_ (having the moon +for his diadem). Suramâ I believe to be, not a mythical, but only an +orthographical variation, and more incorrect one, of Saramâ, whose +relation to the moon we shall see in detail when we come to the +chapter which treats of the mythical dog. + +Thus far we have a moon fairy; but we find the moon designated at other +times in the _Râmâyaṇam_ by its common masculine name. The guardian of +the forest of honey, _Dadhimukhas_, in which forest, with its honey, the +heroes who accompany Sîtâ enjoy themselves, is said to be generated by +the god Lunus.[180] And the moon, who assists Hanumant in his search of +Sîtâ, is said to shine like a white bull with a sharpened horn, with a +full horn;[181] in which we come back to the moon as a horned animal, +and to the cornucopia. Moreover, we find the same lunar horn again in +the city of _Çṛiñgaveram_, where first the solar hero Râmas, and +afterwards his brother Bharatas, are hospitably received when the sun is +darkened,[182] by _Guhas_, king of the black _Wishâdâs_, who also is of +the colour of a black cloud;[183] and Râmas and Bharatas take their +departure in the morning from Guhas, who is said to wander always in the +forests.[184] Now, this Guhas, who, though always hidden, yet wishes to +entertain the solar hero during the night with presents of the town of +Çṛiñgaveram, appears to me to be just another form of the solar hero +himself, who enters and hides himself in the night, hospitably received +in the lunar habitation, another form of the god Indras, whom we have +seen in the _Ṛigvedas_ united during the night to Indus or Somas--that +is, to the moon--and who, in the _Râmâyaṇam_[185], when Sîtâ is in the +power of the monster, comes down during the night to console her, lulls +her keepers to sleep, and nourishes her with the ambrosial milk (with +Soma, the moon, the same moon which, in the _Ṛigvedas_, the dawn, the +girl beloved of Indras, and whom therefore he does good to, brings him +as a present), encouraging her with the prospect of the near advent of +Râmas, the deliverer. + +But it remains to us to adduce clearer evidence to show that in the +_Râmâyaṇam_ Râmas is the sun, and Sîtâ the dawn, or aurora. + +Without taking into account that Râmas is the most popular +personification of Vishṇus, and that Vishṇus is often the solar hero +(although he is not seldom identified with the moon), let us see how +Râmas manifests himself, and what he does in the _Râmâyaṇam_ to +vindicate especially his solar nature. + +It is my opinion that the best way to prove this is to show how Râmas +performs the very same miracles that Indras does. Râmas, like Indras, +gives, while still young, extraordinary proofs of his strength; Râmas, +like Indras, achieves his greatest enterprises while he is himself +hidden; Râmas, like Indras, vanquishes the monster, reconquers Sîtâ, and +enjoys of right the company of his wife. Till Râmas goes into the +forests, as Indras into the clouds and shadows, his great epopee +does not begin. Indras has for assistants the winds (the Marutas); +Râmas has for his greatest help Hanumant, the son of the wind +(_Mârutâtmagah_);[186] Hanumant amuses himself with the monsters, as the +wind with the archer-clouds of the thousand-eyed Indras;[187] and it is +said that Râmas gets on Hanumant's back, as Indras does on the elephant +_Âiravatas_. The elephant with a proboscis is not unfrequently +substituted, in the brâhmanic tradition, for the horned bull of the +Vedâs.[188] But the bull Indras is reproduced in the bull Râmas, and the +monkeys who assist Râmas have kept at least the tail of the Vedic cows, +the helpers of Indras, whence their generic name of _golâñgulâs_ (who +have cows' tails).[189] The bow with which Râmas shoots the monsters is +made of a horn, whence his name of _Çârngadhanvant_ (he who shoots with +the horn);[190] Râmas receives the shower of hostile darts, as a bull +upon its horns the abundant rains of autumn.[191] Sîtâ herself calls +both her Râmas and his brother Lakshmaṇas by the name of +_siṇharshabhâu_,[192] or the lion and the bull, which are conjoined so +frequently in the mythology, on account of equal strength; hence the +terror of the lion when he hears the bull bellow in the first book of +the _Pańćatantram_, and in all the numerous Eastern and Western +variations of that book. Indras has his conflicts in the cloudy, rainy, +and gloomy sky; these are also the battle-fields of Râmas. The names of +the monsters of the _Râmâyaṇam_, as, for instance, _Vidyuǵǵivas_ (he who +lives upon thunderbolts), _Vaǵrodarî_ (she who has thunderbolts in her +stomach), _Indraǵit_ (who vanquishes Indras with magical arts), +_Meghanâdas_ (thundering cloud),[193] and others, show us the nature of +the battle. In the battle-field of Râmas, instead, the assisting hero is +now a bull (_ṛishabhas_), now an ox's eye (_gavâkshas_), now _gavayas_ +(_bos gavœus_), and beings of similar appellations, which remind us of +the Vedic deities. Indras strikes with lightning the celestial ocean; +Râmas, an Indian Xerxes, chastises the sea with burning arrows.[194] +Indras, in the _Ṛigvedas_, crosses the sea and passes ninety-nine +rivers; Râmas crosses the ocean upon a bridge of mountains, in carrying +which Hanumant, the son of the wind, shows himself peculiarly skilful; +the winds carry the clouds, which we have seen, in the language of the +Vedâs, represented as mountains. And that clouds, and not real +mountains, are here spoken of, we deduce from observing, as we read, +that while the animal army of Râmas carries the bridge on to the ocean, +or the winds carry the clouds into the sky, the sun cannot burn the +weary monkey-workers, because that clouds arise and cover it, rain +falls, and the wind expires.[195] The field of this epic battle is +evidently the same as that of the mythical battle of Indras. And in the +_Râmâyaṇam_ we find at every step the similarity of the combatants to +the dark clouds, the bellowing clouds, the clouds carried by the wind. +The forest which Râmas goes through is compared to a group of +clouds.[196] The name of wanderer by night (_raǵanîćaras_), afterwards +given frequently in the _Râmâyaṇam_, to the monster whom Râmas combats, +implies, of course, that the battle is fought by night. The fact that, +as we read, the witch _Çûrpaṇakhâ_ comes in winter to seduce Râmas +whilst he is in the forest,[197] and the monster _Kumbhakarṇas_ awakens +after six months' sleep, like a rainy cloud which increases towards the +end of summer (_tapânte_),[198] shows us that the epic poem of Râmas +embraces, besides the nightly battle of the sun over darkness, also the +great annual battle of the sun in winter to recover and rejoin the +spring. Anyhow, it is always a battle of the sun against the monster of +darkness. Râmas, in the very beginning of the great poem, says to his +brother Lakshmaṇas:--"See, O Lakshmaṇas, Mârićas is come here with his +followers, making a noise like thunder, and with him the wanderer by +night Subâhus; thou wilt see them to-day, like a mass of dark clouds, +dispersed by me in a moment, like clouds by the wind."[199] Here we find +almost the whole battle of Indras. + +And similar battles in the clouds are found in several other episodes of +the _Râmâyaṇam_. The dart of Râmas falls upon the monster _Kharas_ (the +monster ass), as upon a great tree falls the thunderbolt hurled by +Indras.[200] Heroes and monsters combat with stones and rocks from the +great mountain, and fall, overthrown on the earth, like mountains. The +monster Râvaṇas carries off Sîtâ with the magic of the wind and the +tempest.[201] Heroes and monsters fight with trunks of trees from the +great forest; moreover, the trunks themselves, having become monsters, +join the fray, stretch out their strange arms, and devour the hero in +their cavities. And here we come upon the interesting legend of +_Kabandhas_, in which we find again the forests and trees combating, +and the barrel of the Vedâs carried by the divine bull. The _Dânavâs_ or +demons also appear, in the _Mahâbhâratam_,[202] in the forms of sounding +barrels. In the _Râmâyaṇam_, the highest of the demons (_dânavottamah_) +is called by the name of _Kabandhas_ (barrel and trunk), compared to a +black thundering cloud, and represented as an enormous trunk, having one +large yellowish eye, and an enormous devouring mouth in his chest.[203] +In Tuscany, we say of water that gushes copiously out of a reservoir, +that it pours as from a barrel's mouth. The monster Kabandhas draws +towards himself, with his long arms, the two brothers Râmas and +Lakshmaṇas (compared several times in the _Râmâyaṇam_[204] to the two +Açvinâu, who resemble each other in everything). Râmas and Lakshmaṇas, +_i.e._, the two Açvinâu, the morning and evening, the spring and autumn +suns, the two twilights, who, in a passage of the _Râmâyaṇam_, are +called the two ears of Râmas, cut off the two extremities, the two long +arms, of the monster _Kabandhas_; upon which the trunk, able no longer +to support itself, falls to the ground. The fallen monster then relates +to the two brothers that he was once a beautiful demon; but that, by a +malediction, Indras one day made his head and legs enter his body; his +arms having been lacerated by the two brothers, the monster is +disenchanted from this malediction, and having resumed his form of a +splendid demon, he ascends to heaven in a luminous form. Here we have +the all-radiant sun shut up in the cloud, he being the yellow eye, the +burning mouth, of Kabandhas, and, in union with the cloud, forming a +hideous monster; the hero comes to destroy his monstrous form, and the +monster thanks him, for thus he becomes the glorious god, the splendid +being, the handsome prince he was before. Râmas who delivers Kabandhas +from his monstrous form by cutting off his two arms, is the sun Râmas +coming forth from the gloomy forest, and uncovering the sky in the east +and in the west. Râmas delivering Kabandhas is simply the sun delivering +himself from the monster of gloom and cloud that envelops him. And, +indeed, the greater part of the myths have their origin in the plurality +of appellations given to the same phenomenon. Each appellation grows +into a distinct personality, and the various personalities fight with +each other. Hence the hero who delivers himself becomes the deliverer of +the hero, viewed as a different person from the hero; the monstrous form +which envelops the hero is often his own malediction; the hero who comes +to kill this monstrous form is his benefactor.[205] + +This theory of the monster who thanks the hero that kills him, agrees +with what we find on several other occasions in the _Râmâyaṇam_, as in +the case of the stag _Marîćas_,[206] which, after being killed by +Râmas, re-ascends to heaven in a luminous form; of the sea-monster, +which Hanumant destroys, and restores to its primitive form, that of a +celestial nymph; of the old Çavarî, who, after having seen Râmas, +sacrifices herself in the fire, and re-ascends young and beautiful to +heaven (the usual Vedic young girl, the dawn whom, ugly during the +night, Indras, by taking off her ugly skin, restores to beauty in the +morning); an episodical variation of what afterwards happens to Sîtâ +herself, who, having been ugly when in the power of the monster +Râvaṇas, recovers her beauty by the sacrifice of fire, in order to +prove her innocence to her husband Râmas, and shines again a young +girl, like the young sun, adorned with burning gold, and wearing a red +dress;[207] and when Râmas comes near (like the young dawn, when she +sees her husband), she resembles the first light (Prabhâ), the wife of +the sun.[208] This Sîtâ, daughter of Ǵanakas (the generator), whom the +_Tâittiriya Brâhmaṇam_ calls Savitar[209] or the sun, seems to me to +be no other than the dawn, the daughter of light, the daughter of +Indras, the god of the Vedic texts. These, indeed, sometimes represent +Sûryâ, the daughter of the sun, as the lover of the moon (who is then +masculine); but we find more frequently the loves of the dawn and the +sun, of the beautiful heroine and the splendid solar hero, while the +moon is generally the brother, or the pitying sister of the hero and +the heroine, the beneficent old man, the foreseeing fairy, the good +hostess, who aids them in their enterprises; although we also find the +dawn as a sister of the sun and his succourer. In fact, the Buddhist +tradition of the legend of Râmas, illustrated by Weber,[210] +represents Sîtâ to us as the sister of the two brothers Râmas and +Lakshmaṇas, who go into banishment for twelve years to escape the +persecutions of their cruel step-mother (of whom the _Kâikeyî_ of the +_Râmâyaṇam_ offers a confused image), in the same way as the Vedic +dawn is united to the twin Açvinâu; and the same tradition makes +Râmas, at the termination of his exile, end with marrying his own +sister Sîtâ, as the sun marries the dawn. And the fact of Sîtâ being +not born from the womb, but produced from the ground, a girl of +heavenly beauty, destined to be the reward of valour,[211] not only +does not exclude her relationship with the dawn, but confirms it; for +we have seen the dawn rise from the mountain, as the daughter of light +and the sun, whom the young sun wins for his bride, as a reward for +his wonderful skill as an archer against the monsters of darkness; and +we have seen that the dawn marries only her predestined husband, and +her predestined husband is he who performs the greatest miracles, +restores her lost gaiety, and most resembles her. We have just seen +the old Çavarî and the ugly Sîtâ, at the sight of the sun Râmas, +deliver themselves in the fire from every mortal danger, and become +beautiful and happy once more. + +But the concord between the mythical husband and wife is not more +steadfast than that of mortal couples. Râmas is very apt to be +suspicious. Having returned to his kingdom of Ayodhyâ, he allows +himself to brood upon what his subjects may say of him for having +taken back his wife, after she had been in the hands of the monster +(they were not present at the first fire-sacrifice of Sîtâ); Râmas +reveals his suspicions to Sîtâ, and blames the evil-speaking of the +citizens for originating them; she submits a second time to the trial +by fire, but, offended by his continual suspicions, she flees from her +husband, and on a car of light, drawn by serpents (_Pannagâs_), goes +down again underground (which appears to mean simply this--the dawn, +or spring, marries the sun in the morning, or she stays all day, or +all summer, in his kingdom, and in the evening, or in the autumn, goes +down into the shades of night, or of winter).[212] It is an +indiscretion of the husband which causes his wife to abandon him. + +Thus, in the _Ṛigvedas_, we have seen _Urvaçî_, the first of the +dawns, flee from the sun _Purûravas_. In _Somadevas_,[213] the king +Purûravas loses his wife Urvaçî, because he has let it be known in +heaven that she was with him; in Kâlidâsas's drama of _Vikramorvaçî_, +the king Purûravas, having helped Indras in the fight, receives from +him Urvaçî to wife, with whom he engages to stay till a child is born +to them; the king, shortly after having espoused Urvaçî, looks at +another nymph, Udakavatî (the watery). Urvaçî, offended, flees; she +enters a wood to hide herself, and is transformed into a creeper. In +the brâhmanic tradition of the _Yaġurvedas_, referred to at length by +Professor Max Müller, in his "Oxford Essays," Purûravas loses sight of +Urvaçî, because he has let himself be seen by her without his regal +dress, or even naked. + +We find yet another similar legend in the _Mahâbhâratam_.[214] The +wise and splendid Çântanus goes to the chase on the banks of the +Gañgâ, and there finds a beautiful nymph whom he becomes enamoured of. +The nymph responds to his suit, and consents to remain with him, on +condition that he will never say anything displeasing to her, +whatever she may do or meditate; and the enamoured king assents to the +grave condition. They live together happily, for the king yields to +the nymph in everything; but in the course of time, eight sons are +born to them; the nymph has already thrown seven into the river, and +the king, although inwardly full of grief, dares not say anything to +her; but when she is about to throw the last one in, the king implores +her not to do it, and challenges her to say who she is. The nymph then +confesses to him that she is the Gañgâ itself personified, and that +the eight sons born to their loves are human personifications of the +eight divine Vasavas, who, by being thrown into the Gañgâ, are +liberated from the curse of the human form: the only Vasus who is +pleased to remain among men is Dyâus (the sky), in the form of the +eunuch Bhîshmas, whom Çântanus would not allow to be thrown into the +waters. The same curse falls upon the Vasavas for having ravished the +cow of abundance from the penitent Apavas. We shall find a legendary +subject analogous to this one of Çântanus in several of the popular +tales of Europe, with this difference that, in European tradition, it +is generally the husband who abandons his indiscreet partner. The +Hindoo tradition, however, also offers us an example of the husband +who abandons his wife, in the wise Ǵaratkarus, who marries the sister +of the king of the serpents, on condition that she never does anything +to displease him.[215] One day the wise man sleeps; evening comes on; +he ought to be awakened in order to say his evening prayers; if he +does not say them, he does not do his duty, and she would do wrong did +she not warn him. If she awaken him, he will be enraged. What is to +be done? She takes the latter course. The wise man awakes, becomes +enraged, and abandons her, after she had given him a son.[216] + +The glowing aspect of the sky, morning and evening, suggested the +idea, now of a splendid nuptial feast, now of a fire. In this fire, +sometimes the witch who persecutes the hero and heroine is burnt, and +sometimes the hero and heroine themselves are immolated. The sacrifice +of Çavarî and of Sîtâ, who are delivered by the sun Râmas, is only a +variation of that of Çunaḥçepas, liberated by the dawn in the +_Ṛigvedas_. The story of Çunaḥçepas has already been made known by +Professor Rodolph Roth,[217] and by Professor Max Müller,[218] who +translated it from the _Âitareya-brâhmaṇam_; and I refer the reader to +these translations, as well as to the English version which Professor +Martin Haugh has given us of all the _Âitareya_. I shall, therefore, +here give but a short account of it, with a few observations apropos +to the subject in hand. + +The king Hariçćandras has no sons; the god Varuṇas the coverer, the +gloomy, the watery, the king of the waters,[219] obliges him to +promise that he will sacrifice to him whatever is born to him. The +king promises; a child is born, who is named the red (Rohitas). +Varuṇas claims him; the father begs him to wait till the child has +cut his teeth, then till his first teeth are cast, then till he is +able to bear armour. It is evident that the father wishes to wait till +his son be strong enough to defend himself against his persecutor, +Varuṇas. Varuṇas thereupon claims him in a more resolute manner, and +Hariçćandras informs the son himself that he must be given up in +sacrifice. Rohitas takes his bow and flees into the woods, where he +lives by the chase. This first part of the legend corresponds with +those numerous European popular tales, in which, now the devil, now +the aquatic monster, now the serpent, demands from a father the son +who has just been born to him without his knowledge. The second part +of the story of Çunaḥçepas shows us the hero in the forest; he has +taken his bow with him, and hence, like Râmas in the _Râmâyaṇam_, who +has scarcely entered the forest than he begins to hunt, Rohitas turns +hunter, and hunts for the six years during which he remains in the +forest. But his chase is unsuccessful; he wanders about in quest of +some one to take his place as the victim of Varuṇas; at last he finds +the brâhmaṇas Aġigartas, who consents to give his own second son, +Çunaḥçepas, for a hundred cows. The first-born being particularly dear +to the father, and the third being especially beloved by the mother, +cannot be sacrificed; the second son, therefore, is ceded to Varuṇas, +the gloomy god of night, who, like Yamas, binds all creatures with his +cords. We have already observed how the middle son is the son of the +celestial cow Aditis, the hidden sun, the sun during and covered by +the darkness of night, or, in other words, bound by the fetters of +Varuṇas--and it is his own father who binds him with those fetters. +His sacrifice begins in the evening. During the night he appeals to +all the gods. At last Indras, flattered by the praise heaped upon +him, concedes to him a golden chariot, upon which, with praises to the +Açvinâu, and help from the dawn, Çunaḥçepas, unbound from the fetters +of Varuṇas, is delivered. These fetters of Varuṇas, which imprison the +victim, bound and sacrificed by his own father, help us to understand +the second part of the European popular tale of the son sacrificed +against his will to the demon by his father; for Çunaḥçepas, towards +the end of the European story, takes the form of a horse, Varuṇas that +of a demon, and the fetters of Varuṇas are the bridle of the horse, +which the imprudent father sells to the demon, together with his son +in the shape of a horse;[220] the beautiful daughter of the demon (the +white one, who, as usual, comes out of the black monster) delivers the +young man transformed into a horse; as in the Vedic story of +Çunaḥçepas, it is explicitly the dawn who is the young girl that +delivers.[221] Varuṇas is called in the _Râmâyaṇam_ the god who has in +his hand a rope (_pâçahastas_); his dwelling is on Mount Astas, where +the sun goes down, and which it is impossible to touch, because it +burns, in an immense palace, the work of Viçvakarman, which has a +hundred rooms, lakes with nymphs, and trees of gold.[222] Evidently, +Varuṇas is here, not a different form, but a different name of the god +Yamas, the pâçin, or furnished with rope, the constrictor _par +excellence_; for we are to suppose the magic display of golden +splendour in the evening heavens not so much the work of the sun +itself, as produced by the gloomy god who sits on the mountain, who +invests and surprises the solar hero, and drags him into his kingdom. +As to Hariçćandras and Aġigartas, Rohitas and Çunaḥçepas, they appear, +in my opinion, to be themselves different names for not only the same +celestial phenomenon, but the same mythical personage. Hariçćandras is +celebrated in the legends as a solar king; Rohitas, his son, the red +one, is his _alter ego_, as well as his successor Çunaḥçepas. +Hariçćandras, moreover, who promises to sacrifice his son to Varuṇas, +seems to differ little, if at all, from Aġigartas, who sells his own +son for the sacrifice. The _Râmâyaṇam_,[223] has given us a third name +for the same unnatural father,[224] in Viçvâmitras, who asks his own +sons to sacrifice themselves, instead of Çunaḥçepas, who is under his +protection, and as they refuse to obey, he curses them. + +The variation of the same legend which we find in the +_Harivanças_[225] proves these identities, and adds a new and notable +particular. The wife of Viçvâmitras designs, on account of her +poverty, to barter her middle son for a hundred cows, and with that +view already keeps him tied with a rope like a slave. The grandfather +of Rohitas, Hariçćandras's father, Triçañkus, wanders through the +woods, and delivers this son of Viçvâmitras, whose family he +thenceforth protects and maintains. The deeds of Triçañkus, who begs +of Vasishṭas to be allowed to ascend to heaven bodily, and who, by +grace of Viçvâmitras, obtains instead the favour of remaining +suspended in the air like a constellation, are also attributed to his +son Hariçćandras; whence we may affirm, without much risk of +contradiction, that as Triçañkus is another name for his son +Hariçćandras, so Hariçćandras is another name for his son Rohitas, and +that, therefore, the Triçañkus of the _Harivaṅças_ is the same as the +Rohitas of the _Âitareya_, with this difference, that Triçañkus buys +the son destined to the sacrifice in order to free him, while Rohitas +buys him to free himself. But the first hundred cows given by +Triçañkus to Viçvâmitras do not suffice for him, and the fruits of his +hunting in the forest are not enough to maintain the family, a +circumstance which weighs upon him almost as much as if the family +were his own; upon which, in order to save Viçvâmitras, in order to +save Viçvâmitras's son, and, we can perhaps add, to save himself, he +resolves to sacrifice, to kill the beautiful and dearly-prized wife of +Vasishṭas (the very luminous). I have said the wife of Vasishṭas, but +the _Harivaṅças_ says, speaking strictly, it was the cow of Vasishṭas +who was killed. But we know from the _Râmâyaṇam_[226] that this cow of +Vasishṭas, this kâmadhuk or kâmadhenus, which yields at pleasure all +that is wished for, this cow of abundance, is kept by Vasishṭas, under +the name of Çabâlâ, as his own wife. Viçvâmitras is covetous of her; +he demands her from Vasishṭas, and offers a hundred cows for her, the +exact price which, in the _Harivaṅças_, he receives from Triçañkus for +his own son. Vasishṭas answers that he will not give her for a +hundred, nor for a thousand, nor even for a hundred thousand cows, for +Çabâlâ is his gem, his riches, his all, his life.[227] Viçvâmitras +carries her off; she returns to the feet of Vasishṭas, and bellows; +her bellowing calls forth armies, who come out of her own body; the +hundred sons of Viçvâmitras are burned to ashes by them. These armies +which come out of the body of Vasishṭas's cow remind us again of the +Vedic cow, from which come forth winged darts, or birds, by which the +enemies are filled with terror. Vasishṭas is a form of Indras; his cow +is here the rain-cloud. Viçvâmitras, who wishes to ravish the cow from +Vasishṭas, often assumes monstrous forms in the Hindoo legends, and is +almost always malignant, perverse, and revengeful. His hundred sons +burned to cinders by Vasishṭas remind us, from one point of view, of +the hundred cities of Çambaras destroyed by Indras, and the hundred +perverse Dhṛitarâshtrides of the _Mahâbhâratam_; whence his name, +Viçvâmitras, which may also mean the enemy of all (_viçva-amitras_), +would agree well with his almost demoniacal character. + +This story of the cow of Vasishṭas, whose relationship with the legend +of Çunaḥçepas cannot be doubted, brings us back to the animal forms of +heroes and heroines from which we started. In the story of Vasishṭas, +the cow-cloud, the cow çabâlâ, or the spotted-cow, plays in the epic +poem the part of the cow Aditis, the cow pṛiçnis (spotted, variegated), +with which we are already familiar in the Vedic hymns. This cow is +benignant towards the god, or the hero, or the wise Vasishṭas, as the +pṛiçnis is to the god Indras. But we have seen in the _Ṛigvedas_ itself +the cloud as the enemy of the god, and represented as a female form of +the monster, as his sister. This sister generally tries to seduce the +god, promising to deliver into his hands the monster her brother, and +she sometimes succeeds, as the witch Hidimbâ of the _Mahâbhâratam_, who +gives up her brother, the monster Hidimbas, into the hands of the hero +Bhîmas, who thereupon espouses her. On the other hand, Çûrpaṇakhâ, the +sister of the monster Râvaṇas, does not succeed in her intent; making +herself beautiful, she endeavours to win the affection of the hero +Râmas; but being ridiculed by him and by Lakshmaṇas, she becomes +deformed, and sends forth cries like a cloud in the rainy season,[228] +exciting her brothers to annihilate Râmas. + +The same cloud-monster is found again in the _Râmâyaṇam_, under the +name of Dundubhis, in the form of a terrible buffalo with sharpened +horns.[229] The buffalo, as a wild animal, is often chosen to +represent the principle of evil, in the same way as the bull, +increaser of the bovine herds, is selected as the image of good. This +bellowing buffalo, whence his name of Dundubhis (drum), strikes and +knocks with his two horns at the door of the cavern[230] of the son of +Indras (Bâlin), the king of the monkeys. But Bâlin takes Dundubhis by +the horns, throws him on the ground, and destroys him. + +Dundus is also a name given to the father of Kṛishṇas, or the black one, +who in the _Ṛigvedas_ is still a demon, and only later becomes the god +of cows and cowherds, a govindas, or pastor _par excellence_.[231] +Indras, his enemy in the Vedas, having fallen from heaven, he became one +of the most popular gods, and even sometimes the most popular form of +the deity. In the _Mahâbhâratam_, for instance, he is almost the _deus +ex machina_ of the battles between the Pâṇḍavas and the Dhârtarâshṭrâs, +and presents many analogies to the Zeus of the Iliad; whereas Indras +plays only a part in the episodes, the rain-giver and thunderer being +often forgotten for the black one who prepares and hurls the light. But +the fall of Indras begins in the Vedâs themselves. In the _Yaǵurvedas_, +Viçvarûpas, the son of Tvashṭar, whom Indras kills, appears as no less +than the purohitas or high-priest of the gods, and son of a daughter of +the Asurâs; he has three heads, of which one drinks the ambrosia, +another the spirituous drink, while the third eats food. Indras cuts off +Viçvarûpas's three heads, in revenge of the one which drinks his +ambrosia; he is therefore charged with having killed a Brâhman, and +decried as a brâhmanicide.[232] In the _Âitareya-brâhmaṇam_,[233] the +criminality of Indras in this regard is confirmed, to which the +_Kâushîtaki-Upanishad_ also refers. In the seventh book of the +_Râmâyaṇam_, even the multiform monster Râvaṇas is represented as a +great penitent, whom Brâhman fills with supreme grace; in the sixth +book, the son of the wind, Hanumant, cuts off the three heads of the +Râvanide monster Triçiras (having three heads), as one day Indras cut +off the three heads of the monster Vṛitras, son of Tvashṭar;[234] and he +cuts all the three heads off together (_samas_), as the hero of the +European popular tales must cut off, at a blow, the three heads of the +serpent, the wizard, otherwise he is powerless, and able to do nothing. +The monster, like the hero, seems to have a special affinity for the +number three: hence the three heads of Triçiras, as also the three +brothers of Lañkâ--Râvaṇas, the eldest brother, who reigns; +Kumbhakarṇas, the middle brother, who sleeps; Vibhishaṇas, the third +brother, whom the two others do not care about, but who alone is just +and good, and who alone obtains the gift of immortality.[235] We have +evidently here again the three Vedic brothers; the two eldest in +demoniacal form, the youngest a friend of the divine hero, and who, by +the victory of Râmas over the monster Râvaṇas, obtains the kingdom of +Lañkâ. As to the brothers Râmas and Lakshmaṇas, and the brothers Bâlin +and Sugrîvas, their natural place is in the story of the two twins, +which will be referred to in the next chapter, although Hanumant, the +son of the wind, figures second to them in the character of strong +brother. + +The three interesting heroic brothers come out more prominently in the +_Mahâbhâratam_, where of the five Pâṇdavas brothers, three stay on one +side, and are Yudhishṭhiras, son of the god Yamas, the wise brother; +Bhîmas (the terrible), or Vṛikodâras (wolf's belly), son of Vâyus (the +wind), the strong brother (another form of Hanumant, in company with +whom he is also found in the _Mahâbhâratam_, on Mount Gandhamâdanas); +and Argunas (the splendid), the son of Indras, the genial, dexterous, +fortunate, victorious brother, he who wins the bride. The first +brother gives the best advice; the second shows proof of greatest +strength; the third brother wins, conquers the bride. They are +precisely the three Vedic brothers Ṛibhavas, Ekatas, Dvîtas, and +Tritas, in the same relationships to one another and with the same +natures; only the legend is amplified.[236] As to their other +brothers, twins, born of another mother, Nakulas and Sahadevas, they +are the sons of the two Açvinâu, and feebly repeat in the +_Mahâbhâratam_ the exploits of the two celestial twins. Bhîmas or +Vṛikodâras, the second brother, is considered the strongest, +(balavatâṁ çreshthaḥ), because immediately after birth, _i.e._, +scarcely has he come forth out of his mother (like the Vedic Marutas), +than he breaks the rock upon which he falls, because he breaks his +fetters as soon as he is bound with them (like Hanumant when he +becomes the prisoner of Râvaṇas), because he carries his brothers +during the night (as Hanumant carries Râmas), as he flees from the +burning house prepared by the impious Duryodhanas (_i.e._, from the +burning sky of evening), and because in the kingdom of serpents, where +Duryodhanas threw him down (that is, the night), he drinks the water +of strength. A serpent, wishing to benefit Bhîmas, says to Vasukis, +king of the serpents--"Let there be given to him as much strength as +he can drink from that cistern in which is placed the strength of a +thousand serpents."[237] Bhîmas, at one draught, drinks the whole +cisternful; and with similar expedition, he drains consecutively eight +cisterns.[238] The first-born of the Pânḍavas is dear to his father +Yamas, the god of justice, Dharmarâǵas,--and is himself indeed called +Dharmarâǵas; and when he prepares himself to ascend into heaven, the +god Yamas follows him in the form of a dog: by his skill in solving +enigmas, he saves his brother Bhîmas from the king of the serpents. +The third brother, Arǵunas, son of Indras, is the Benjamin of the +Vedic supreme God. Indras welcomes him with festivals in heaven, +whither Arǵunas had gone to find him. Arǵunas is an infallible archer, +like Indras; like Indras, he several times regains the cows from the +robbers or from the enemies; and, like Indras, he wins and conquers +his bride; he is born by the assistance of all the celestials; he is +invincible (_aġayas_); he is the best son (_varaḥ putras_);[239] he +alone of the three brothers has compassion on his master Droṇas and +delivers him from an aquatic monster.[240] + +But there is yet another particular which shows the resemblance between +the three brothers Pâṇḍavas and the three brothers of the Vedas; it is +their dwelling, hidden in the palace of the king Virâṭa, in the fourth +book of the _Mahâbhâratam_. They are exiled from the kingdom, like +Râmas; they flee from the persecution of their enemies, now into the +woods, now, as the Ṛibhavas, disguised as workmen in the palace of +Virâṭas, to whom their presence brings every kind of happiness. + +We meet with these three brothers again, episodically, in the three +disciples of Dhâumyas, in the first book of the _Mahâbhâratam_.[241] The +first disciple, Upamanyus, takes his master's cows out to pasture, and, +out of sensitive regard for his master's interest, refuses to drink not +only their milk, but even the foam from their mouths, and fasts till, +like to perish of hunger, he bites a leaf of arkapatrâ (properly, leaf +of the sun, the _aristolochia indica_), when he instantly becomes +blind. He wanders about and falls into a well; he there sings a hymn to +the Açvinâu, and they come immediately to deliver him. The second +brother, Uddâlakas, places his body, as a dike, to arrest the course of +the waters. The third brother is Vedas, he who sees, he who knows, whose +disciple Utañkas is himself in the form of a hero. Utañkas, like the +Vedic Tritas, and the Pâṇḍavas Arǵuṇas, is protected by Indras. He is +sent by the wife of his master to abstract the earrings of the wife of +King Pâushyas. He sets out; on his way he meets a gigantic bull, and a +horseman, who bids him, if he would succeed, eat the excrement of the +bull; he does so, rinsing his mouth afterwards. He then presents himself +to King Pâushyas and informs him of his message; the king consigns the +earrings to him, but cautions him to beware of Takshakas, the king of +the serpents. Utañkas says that he is not afraid of him, and sets out +with the earrings; but as he puts down the earrings upon the shore, in +order to bathe, Takshakas presents himself in the shape of a naked +mendicant, whips them up, and flees away with them. Utañkas follows him, +but Takshakas resumes his serpent form, penetrates the ground, and +descends under it; Utañkas attempts to follow the serpent, but does not +succeed in cleaving the entrance, which corresponds to the Vedic rock +under which the monster keeps his prey. Indras sees him tiring himself +in vain, and sends his weapon, in order that it may be for a help to +Utañkas; that weapon, or club, penetrating, opened the cavern.[242] This +club, this weapon of Indras is evidently the thunderbolt.[243] Utañkas +descends into the kingdom of the serpents, full of infinite wonders. +Indras reappears at his side in the shape of a horse,[244] and obliges +the king, Takshakas, to give back the earrings; having taken which, +Utañkas mounts the horse, that he may be carried more swiftly to the +wife of his master, from whom he learns that the horseman seen by him on +the way was none other than Indras himself; his horse, Agnis, the god of +fire; the bull, the steed of Indras, or the elephant Âiravatas; the +excrement of the bull, the ambrosia, which made him immortal in the +kingdom of the serpents. In another episode of the same (the first) book +of the _Mahâbhâratam_,[245] we again find Indras busied in the search of +the earrings, that is to say, of the excessively fleshy part hanging +from the ears of Karṇas, the child of the sun, who, as soon as born, had +been abandoned upon the waters. We have seen above how the two Açvinâu +are also represented in the _Râmâyaṇam_ as the two ears of Vishṇus Râmas +(as the sun and moon are said to be his eyes); hence it seems to me that +these mythical earrings, coveted by Indras, and protected by him, are +nothing else than the two Açvinâu, the two luminous twilights (in +connection with the sun and the moon), in which Indras, and, still more +than he, the aurora, his wife, take such delight.[246] + +In the commentary of _Buddhagoshas_ on the Buddhist Dhammapadam, we +have the three brothers again; the two eldest are represented as fleeing +from the persecution of their cruel step-mother; the third brother, +Suriyas (Sûryas, the sun), goes to overtake them. The eldest counsels or +commands, the second lends his aid, and the youngest fights. The second +and third brothers fall into a fountain, under the power of a monster; +the first-born saves them by his knowledge, as, in the _Mahâbhâratam_, +Yudhishṭhiras, by his skill in solving riddles, delivers the second +brother from the fetters of the forest of the monster serpent. + +This mode of delivering the hero, by propounding a question or a riddle, +is very common in the Hindoo legends. Even in the _Pańćatantram_,[247] a +Brâhman who falls under the power of a forest monster who leaps on his +shoulders, frees himself by asking why his feet are so soft. The monster +confesses that it is because, on account of a vow, he cannot touch the +earth with his feet. The Brâhman then betakes himself to a sacred pond; +the monster wishes to take a bath, and the Brâhman throws him in; the +monster orders him to stay there till he has bathed and said his +orisons. The Brâhman profits by this opportunity to make his escape, +knowing that the monster will not be able to overtake him, as he cannot +put his feet to the ground. It is the usual vulnerability, weakness, or +imperfection of the hero, or the monster, in the feet, and, if an animal +is spoken of, in the tail.[248] + +The _Mahâbhâratam_ has shown us the three Vedic brothers, of whom the +youngest has fallen into the well; it also presents to us, in the +witch (_asurî_) Çarmishṭhâ, daughter of Vṛishaparvan, king of the +demons, and in the nymph Devayânî, daughter of Çukras, who credits +herself with the virtue of Indras as the rain-giver,[249] the two +rival sisters of the Vedas, the good and the evil. In the +_Râmâyaṇam_,[250] the witch Çûrpanakhâ, who seduces Râmas, in order to +take the place of Sîtâ at his side, is compared to Çarmishṭhâ, who +seduced Nâhushas. In the _Mahâbhâratam_, Çarmishṭhâ assumes the guise +of Devayânî, whom she throws into a well. Yayâtis, son of King +Nâhushas, goes to the chase; feeling thirsty, he stops near the well; +from the bottom of the well a young girl looks up, like a flame of +fire.[251] The prince takes her by the right hand and draws her up; +and because in the marriage ceremony, the bride is taken by the right +hand,[252] the prince Yayâtis is said to marry Devayânî. But even +after she is a wife, Çarmishṭhâ continues to seduce her husband, to +whom she unites herself. Two sons are born of Devayânî, Yadus and +Turvasas, similar to Indras and Vishṇus (a new form of the twins, of +the Açvinâu); three are born of Çarmishṭhâ, Duhyus, Anus, and Pûrus; +and here also the third brother is the most glorious and valiant. And +in this way the episode is connected with the essential legend of the +_Mahâbhâratam_, and one and the same general myth is multiplied into +an infinity of particular legends. As the genealogy of the gods and +heroes is infinite, so is there an infinite number of forms assumed by +the same myth and of the names assumed by the same hero. Each day +gave birth in the heavens to a new hero and a new monster, who +exterminate each other, and afterwards revive in an aspect more or +less glorious, according as their names were more or less fortunate. + +It is for the same reason that the sons always recognise their fathers +without having once seen them or even heard them spoken of; they +recognise themselves in their fathers. Thus Çakuntalâ and Urvacî +enable their mother to find again the husband that she has lost, and +their father to recover his lost wife. Thus in the episode of Devayânî +and Çarmishṭhâ, when the former wishes to know who is the father of +the three sons of Çarmishṭhâ, so similar to the sons of immortals, she +turns to them, and they tell her at once. + +For this fault, Yayâtis, from being young, is fated to become old. He +then beseeches the two eldest of the three sons that he had by +Çarmishṭhâ to take on themselves the old age of their father; they +refuse, but the third son, Pûrus, out of reverence for his father, +consents to become old in his stead, to give up his youth to his +father. After a thousand years, the king Yayâtis, satiated with life, +restores to his son Pûrus his youth, and although he is the youngest, +along with his youth, the kingdom, because he found him the only one +of the three who respected the paternal will; and he expels the two +eldest brothers.[253] + +Sometimes, however, the blind old father is entirely abandoned by his +sons. Thus the old Dîrghatamas (of the vast darkness), blind from birth, +is deprived of food, and thrown into the water by his wife and +sons,[254] but a heroic king saves him, in order, by his wife, to beget +sons for him. We have in Dîrghatamas and Yayâtis, King Lear in embryo. + +In the same legend of Dîrghatamas, we find an exchange of wives. Queen +Sudeshnâ, instead of going herself, sends her servant-maid, her +foster-sister, to be embraced by Dîrghatamas.[255] In the cunning +Sudeshnâ we have an ancient variation of Queen Berta. + +Other blind men occur frequently in the Hindoo legends. I shall here +cite only Andhakas (the blind one) and Vṛishṇis (the sheep, as the lame +one),[256] who appear in the _Harivanças_[257] as the two sons of Mâdrî. +But we know from the _Mahâbhâratam_, that the two sons of Mâdrî are a +human incarnation of the celestial twins, the Açvinâu; and here we come +again upon the blind-lame one of the Vedas, the solar hero in his twin +forms, the two Açvinâu protected by Indras, and companions of the dawn. + +The _Pańćatantram_[258] represents the blind and the crooked, or +hunchbacked,[259] in union with the three-breasted princess (_i.e._, +the triple sister, the aurora in the evening, the aurora in the night, +the aurora in the morning; the breast of the night nourishing the +defective, the monstrous, which the morning sweeps away). The crooked +guides the blind with a stick; they both marry the three-breasted +princess. The blind recovers sight by the steam of the poison of a +black serpent, cooked in milk (the darkness of night, or of winter, +mixed with the clearness of day, or of the snow); he then, being a +strongly-built man, takes the hunchback by the legs, and beats his +hunch against the third and superfluous breast of the princess. The +anterior prominence of the latter, and the posterior one of the +former, enter into their respective bodies;[260] thus the blind, the +crooked, and the three-breasted princess help and cure each other; the +two Açvinâu and the aurora (or the spring) reappear together in +beauty. The Açvinâu and the aurora also come forth together from the +monstrous shades of night; the Açvinâu contend for the aurora; as we +shall see soon, and in the next chapter, the delivered bride disputed +for by the brothers. + +The sun and the aurora flee from each other; this spectacle has been +represented in different ways by the popular imagination; and one of +the most familiar is certainly that of a beautiful young girl who, +running more quickly than the prince, escapes from him. This incident, +which is already described in the _Ṛigvedas_, occurs again in the +_Mahâbhâratam_,[261] in the legend of the loves of the virgin Tapatî, +daughter of the sun (the luminous and burning aurora, and also the +summer season, ardent as Dahanâ), with the king Saṁvaraṇas, son of the +bear (_ṛikshaputras_, a kind of Indras). The king Saṁvaraṇas arrives +on horseback with his retinue at the mountain, in order to hunt; he +ties his horse up and begins the chase, when he sees on the mountain +the beautiful girl, the daughter of the sun, who, covered with +ornaments, shines like the sun; he declares his love and wishes to +make her his own; she answers not a word, but flees and disappears +like the lightning in the clouds;[262] the king cannot overtake her, +because his horse, while he was hunting, has died of hunger and +thirst; he searches in vain through the forest, but not seeing her, he +throws himself almost breathless to the ground. As he lies there the +beautiful girl appears again, approaches and wakens him; he again +speaks to her of love, and she answers that he must ask her father the +sun, and then, still quite innocent, she disappears swiftly on high +(_ûrdhvam_). The king again faints; his minister sprinkles him with +the water of health, and makes him revive, but he refuses to leave the +mountain, and having dismissed his hunting company, he awaits the +arrival of the great purohitas Vasishṭhas, by whose mediation he +demands from the sun his daughter Tapatî to wife; the sun consents, +and Vasishṭhas reconducts to Saṁvaraṇas, for the third time, the +beautiful girl as his legitimate wife. The husband and wife live +together happily on the mountain of their loves; but as long as King +Saṁvaraṇas remains with Tapatî upon this mountain, no rain falls upon +the earth; wherefore the king, out of love for his subjects, returns +to his palace, upon which Indras pours down the rain, and begins again +to fructify the earth.[263] + +We said a little ago that Vasishṭhas himself caused it to rain +(_abhyavarshata_); and the mention of Vasishṭhas reminds us of the +particularly rain-giving, cloudy, and lunar function of his cow +Kâdmadhenus, whose wonderful productions are again described in the +_Mahâbhâratam_.[264] Besides milk and ambrosia, she yields herbs and +gems, which we have already referred to, as analogous products in +mythology. The cow of Vasishṭhas is, besides her tail, celebrated for +her breasts, her horns, and even her ears ending in a point; whence +her name of _çañkukarṇâ_ (the masculine form of which is generally +applied to the ass). And in the _Mahâbhâratam_, also, the wise +Viçvâmitras is covetous of this wonderful cow; the cow bellows and +drops fire from her tail, and radiates from every part of her body +armies which disperse those of the son of Gadhis. Viçvâmitras then +avenges himself in other ways upon the sons of Vasishṭhas; having, +_e.g._, become a cannibal, he eats them. + +Vasishṭhas cannot endure the pain this causes him: he tries to throw +himself down from the summit of Mount Merus, but he falls without +hurting himself; he throws himself into the fire, but does not burn +himself; and, finally, he leaps into the sea, but is not drowned. +These three miracles are accomplished every day by the solar hero, who +throws himself down from the mountain into the gloomy ocean of night, +after having passed through the burning sky of evening. + +Vasishṭhas ends by freeing, with the help of charmed water, the +monster Viçvâmitras from his curse; and the latter is no sooner +delivered from the demon who possessed him, than he begins again to +illumine the forest with his splendour, as the sun illumines a +twilight cloud. The friendships, enmities, and rivalries of Vasishṭhas +and Viçvâmitras seem to be another version of those of the two +Açvinâu, whom we shall particularly describe in the next chapter. + +Meanwhile, it is high time, as the reader will think, to conclude this +part of our study, which treats of the mythical cow of India. We might +easily, indeed, have made it much larger, had our design been to chain +together, link by link, all the traditions and legends in which the cow +plays a primary or subordinate part. But it is better to stop short, +lest, by expatiating further, we should lose sight of the essential aim +of our work, and be tempted into digressions from the legends relating +to beasts to those relating to men; besides, we think that we have +sufficiently proved the thesis of this chapter, and shown how the +principal mythical subjects of the Vedic hymns are not only preserved, +but developed, in the posterior Hindoo traditions. It is not entirely +our fault if, from cows, we pass so often to princesses, and from bulls +to princes; the myth itself involves and indicates these +transformations. Hence we find the bull Indras, the winner of the cows, +become a winner and a seducer of women; we see the bull Wind, who aids +Indras in the conquest of the cows, become the violator of a hundred +damsels;[265] we read of the bull and god Rudras, as husband of Umâ, +given up to sensual indulgence for a hundred years without a pause; that +the son of the bull, or of the wind, Hanumant, does prodigies of valour +and strength for the sake of a beautiful woman, and receives, as a +reward for his zeal, from the king Bharatas, a hundred thousand cows, +sixteen wives, and a hundred servant-maids.[266] What could Hanumant +have done with so many wives and maids, if he were simply a bull? or +what could he have done with so many cows, if he had been an ape? It is +these inconsistencies which have caused mythology to be condemned by the +crowd of old but prolific pedants, as a vain science; whereas, on the +contrary, it is precisely these inconsistencies which raise it, in our +esteem, to the rank of a valid science. He who handed down to us the +feats of Hanumant, took care also to tell us how he had the faculty of +changing his form at will; and this faculty, attributed to this +impersonation of a celestial phenomenon, is the fruit of one of the most +_naïve_ but just observations of virgin and grandiose nature. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[132] I must, however, observe that competent authorities, such as +Professor Weber, consider the phallical worship of Çivas to have +originated in the beliefs of the indigenous tribes of Dravidian race. + +[133] _Ṛigv._ i. 123, 8. + +[134] Vidique saepe, sed cumprimis anno 1785 in Malabaria ad flumen +templo celebri Ambalapushe proximum, extra oppidum Callureàta in +silvula, sententia regis Travancoridis Ráma Varmer, quinque viros arbori +appensos et morti traditos, quod, contra regni leges et religionis +præscripta, voluntarie unicam vaccam occiderint; _Systema Brahmanicum_, +illustr. Fr. Paullinus a S. Bartholomæo, Romæ, 179.--Cfr. +_Mânava-Dharmaçâstram_, xi. 60, and _Yâgńavalkya-Dharmaçâstram_, iii. +234. + +[135] ii. 1, 8. + +[136] Pańćagavyaṁ piban goghno mâsam âsîta saṁyataḥ goshṭreçayo go +'nugâmî gopradânena çudhyati; _Dharm._ iii. 263. + +[137] _Dharm._ xi. 166. + +[138] Ibid. iii. 271. + +[139] Ka imaṁ daçabhir mamendraṁ krîṇâti dhenubhiḥ; _Ṛigv._ iv. 24, 10. + +[140] _Dharm._ iii. 27. + +[141] _Gṛihyasûtrâṇi_, i. 8, 9.--It was, moreover, on the occasion of +a marriage, the custom to give cows to the Brâhmans; in the +_Râmâyaṇam_, i. 74, the King Daçarathas, at the nuptials of his four +sons, gives 400,000 cows. + +[142] Â naḥ praǵâṁ ǵanayatu praǵâpatiḥ; _Ṛigv._ x. 85, 43. + +[143] Goćarmavasano hariḥ; xiii. 1228. + +[144] Cfr. Böhtlingk u. Roth's, _Sanskrit Wörterbuch_ s. v. _goćarman_. + +[145] Âçvalây. _Gṛihyasû._ iv. 3. + +[146] _Gṛihyasû._ i. 13.--The commentator _Nârâyaṇas_, quoted by +Professor Stenzler, in his version of _Âçvalâyanas_, explains how the +two beans and grain of barley express by their form the male organs of +generation. + +[147] _Gṛihyasû._ i. 14. + +[148] _Gṛihyasû._ ii. 10.--The St Antony, protector of animals, of the +Vedic faith was the god Rudras, the wind, to whom, when the cattle +were afflicted by a disease, it was necessary to sacrifice in the +midst of an enclosure of cows.--Cfr. the same, _Âçvalây._ iv. 8. + +[149] Yać ća goshu dushvapnyaṁ yać ćâsme duhitar divaḥ tritâya tad +vibhâvary âptyâya parâ vahânehaso va ûtayaḥ suûtayo va ûtayaḥ; _Ṛigv._ +viii. 47, 14. + +[150] Payaḥ kṛishṇâsu ruçad rohiṇîshu; _Ṛigv._ i. 62, 9.--Cfr. _Ṛigv._ +i. 123, 9. + +[151] _Gṛihyasû._ iv. 3. + +[152] Âçvalây; _Gṛihyasû._ + +[153] v. 4, 23. + +[154] Indro vâi vṛitraṁ hatvâ viçvakarmâbhavat; iv. 3, 22. + +[155] iii. 2, 37. + +[156] Ushase ćaṛuṁ yoshâḥ sâ râkâ so eva trishṭup gave ćarum ya gáuḥ +sâ sinîvâlî (the new moon) so eva ǵagati; iii. 2, 48. + +[157] Abhûd ushâ ruçatpaçur ityushaso rûpam; i. 2, 18.--Gobhiraruṇâir +ushâ âǵimadhâvat tasmâd ushasyagatâyâm aruṇam ivaeva +pra-bhátyusḥasorûpam; iv. 2, 9.--Abhûd ushâ ruçatpaçur ityushaso +rûpam; i. 2, 18. + +[158] _Âit.-brâhm._ vi. 4, 24. + +[159] _Âit.-brâhm._ iv. 3, 17. + +[160] iii. 8080. + +[161] Cfr. Weber's _Über die Kṛishṇaǵamâshtamî_, Berlin, 1868; _L'Inde +Française_, par Eugène Burnouf, Paris, 1828; _The Hindoos_, London, +1834, vol. i. + +[162] iv. 3, 20. + +[163] i. 3. 22. + +[164] Mahînâm payo 'sy oshadhînáṁ rasaḥ; _Taittir. Yagurv._ i. 1, +10.--Kshîrodaṁ sâgaraṁ sarve mathnîmaḥ sahitâ vayaṁ nâuâushadhîḥ +samâhṛitya prakshipya ća tatastataḥ; _Râmây._ i. 46.--Cfr. Kuhn's _Die +Herabkunft des Feuers und des Göttertranks_, Berlin, 1859. + +[165] The _Gandhamâdanas_ is especially defended by the _Gandharvâs_, +a word which seems to be composed of _gandha_, perfume, and _arvas_, +the one who goes on (and afterwards the horse), from the root _arv_, +expansion of _ṛiv_; according to this, they would therefore be those +who go in the perfumes, as the nymphs beloved and guarded by them are +they who go in the waters (ap-sarasas). Cfr. the chapter on the Ass. + +[166] Cfr. _Râmây._ vi. 82, 83. + +[167] Böhtlingk's _Indische Sprüche_, 122, erster Theil; 2^te Aufl. S. +Petersburg, 1870.--Cfr. _Mahâbhâratam_, i. 1143-1145. + +[168] Abhi tyaṁ devaṁ savitâram ûṇyoḥ kavikratum arćâmi satyasavasam +ratnadhâm abhi priyam matiṃ; _Tâittir. Yagurv._ i. 2, 6. + +[169] i. 46. + +[170] xiii. 7034. + +[171] Hariv., 12,367. + +[172] Âruhya tasya çikhare so 'paçyat paramâushadîṁ dṛishṭvâ +ćotpâtayâmâsa viçalyakaraṇîṁ çubhâm.--Viçalyo niruǵaḥ +çîghramudatishṭhanmahîtalât; vi. 83. + +[173] Sa nighṛishâñgulim râmo dhâute manaḥçilâgirâu ćakara tilakaṁ +patnyâ lalâṭe rućiraṁ tadâ bâlârkasamavarṇena tena sâ giridhâtunâ +lalâṭe vinivishṭhe na sasaṁdheva niçâbhavat; _Râmây._ ii. 105. + +[174] Sîvyatu apaḥ sûćyâćhidyamânayâ dadâtu vîraṁ çatadâyam ukthyam; +_Ṛigv._ ii. 32, 4. + +[175] Tataḥ çubhaṁ sâ taruṇârkasaṁnibhaṁ gataklamâ vasrayugaṁ sadâ +malaṁ sraǵo 'ñgarâgaṁ ća vibhûshaṇâni ća prasannaćetâ ǵagṛihe tu +mâithilî; _Râmây._ iii. 5. + +[176] _Râmây._ iv. 50-53. + +[177] Pîtâirnivâsitâ vastrâiḥ krîdanto gomaye hrade; _Râmây._ v. +27.--Cfr. vi. 23. + +[178] Sîtâmuvâća ha dîpyamânâm svayâ lakshmyâ saṅdhyâmâutpâtikîmiva; +_Râmây._ v. 52. + +[179] Samarthâ gatanaṁ gantumapivâ tvaṁ rasâtalam--Aćirammokshyase +sîte; _Râmây._ vi. 9, 10. + +[180] Sâumyaḥ somâtmagáḥ; _Râmây._ vi. 6. + +[181] Sitaḥ kakudvâniva tîkshṇaçṛiñgo rarâǵa ćandraḥ paripûrṇaçṛiñgaḥ; +_Râmây._ v. 11.--Cfr. v. 20. + +[182] Babhâu nashṭaprabhaḥ sûryo raǵanî ćâbhyavartata; _Râmây._ ii. 92. + +[183] Nishâdarâǵo guhaḥ sanîlâmbudatulyavarṇaḥ; _Râmây._ ii. 48. + +[184] Sadâ vanagoćaraḥ; _Râmây._ ii. 98. + +[185] iii. 63. + +[186] _Râmây._ iv. 1. + +[187] Sahasrâkshadhanushmadbhis toyadâiriva mârutaḥ; _Râmây._ v. 40. + +[188] _Râmây._ v. 73.--In the _Râmâyaṇam_ itself, Râmas, overpowered +with grief, is compared now to a bull (v. 34), now to an elephant +tormented by a lion (v. 37). + +[189] _Râmây._ vi. 105. + +[190] _Râmây._ vi. 102. + +[191] Çâradaṁ sthûlapṛishataṁ çṛiñgâbhyâm govṛisho yathâ; _Râmây._ +iii. 32. + +[192] _Râmây._ v. 28.--The monster Kabandhas salutes them both with +the name of _Vṛishabhaskandhâu_, or they who have bulls' shoulders; +_Râmây._ iii. 74. + +[193] _Râmây._ vii. 36-38. + +[194] _Râmây._ v. 93. + +[195] Çrantâṅstu na tapet sûryaḥ kathańćidvânarânapi abhrâṇi ǵaǵnire +digbhyas ćhâdayitvâ raveḥ prabhâṁ pravavarsha ća parǵanyo mârutaçća +çivo vavâu; _Râmây._ v. 95. + +[196] _Râmây._ iii. 77. + +[197] _Râmây._ iii. 23. + +[198] _Râmây._ vi. 37. + +[199] Paçya lakshmaṇa mârîćaṁ mahâçanisamasvanam sapadânugamâyântaṁ +subâhuṁ ća niçâćaraṁ etâvadya mayâ paçya nîlâńćanaćayopamâu asmin +kshaṇe samâdhûtâvanilenâmbudâviva; _Râmây._ i. 33. + +[200] Çakreṇeva vinirmukto vaǵrastaruvaropari; _Râmây._ iii. 35. + +[201] Mâyâmâçritya vipulâṁ vâtadurdinasaṁkulâm; _Râmây._ iii. 73. + +[202] Te nikṛittabhuǵaskandhâs kavandhâkṛiti ekadarçanâḥ nadanto +bhâiravânnâdânnâpatanti sma dânavâs; _Mbh._ iii. 806. + +[203] Atha tatra mahâghoraṁ vikṛitaṁ tam mahoććhrayaṁ +vivṛiddhamaçirogrîvaṁ kabandhamudare mukham romabhirnićitaṁ +tikshṇâirmahâgirimivoććhritam nîlameghanibhaṁ ghoraṁ +meghastanitanisvanam mahatâ ćâtipiñgena vipulenâyatenaća ekenorasi +dîrgheṇa nayanenâtidarçinâ; _Râmây._ iii. 74.--The one yellowish eye +of Kabandhas reminds us of Vâiçravaṇas with only one yellowish eye +(_ekapinghekshaṇas_), his other eye having been burnt out by the +goddess Parvatî; _Râmây._ vii. 13. + +[204] i. 49; ii. 7, _et passim_. + +[205] Cfr. the chapter on the Wolf. + +[206] iii. 40, _et seq._ + +[207] Taruṇâdityasaṁkâçâm taptakâńćanabhûshitâṁ raktâmbaradharâm +bâlâm; _Râmây._ vi. 103.--Of the dress of Sîtâ we read in another +place that it shines "like the light of the sun upon the summit of a +mountain" (Sûryaprabheva çâilâgre tasyâḥ kâusheyamuttamaṁ; iv. 58). + +[208] _Râmây._ vi. 99. + +[209] Cfr. Weber's _Ueber das Râmâyaṇa_, Berlin, 1870, p. 9. + +[210] Ibid. p. 1. + +[211] Vîryaçulkâ ća me kanyâ divyarûpâ guṇânvitâ bhûtalâdutthitâ +pûrvaṁ nâmnâ sîtetyayoniǵâ; _Râmây._ i. 68. + +[212] _Râmây._ vii. 104, 105. + +[213] _Kathâ sarit sâgaras_, iii. 17. + +[214] i. 3888-3965. + +[215] "Apriyańća na kartavyaṁ kṛite ćâinâm tyaǵâmyaham," says +Ǵaratkarus; _Mbh._ i. 1871. + +[216] _Mbh._ i. 1870-1911. + +[217] _Indische Studien_, vol. i. pp. 457-464, vol. ii. pp. 111-128. + +[218] _History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature._ + +[219] Varuṇas, the god of night, has, like the night, a double aspect; +now he is the gloomy ocean, now the luminous milky ocean without a moon. +He is represented under the latter aspect in the 7th book of the +_Râmâyaṇam_ (canto 27), in which the solar hero, having entered the +celestial city of Varuṇas, finds the cow which always yields milk (payaḥ +ksharantâm satataṁ tatra gâṁ ća dadarça saḥ), whence the white-rayed +moon emerges, whence also the ambrosia and the nectar (yataçćandraḥ +prabhavati çîtaraçmiḥ--yasmâdamṛitaṃutpannaṁ sudhâ ćâpi). + +[220] Cfr. the chapter on the Horse. + +[221] In the _Râmâyaṇam_, i. 63, the deliverer is Indras, who, even in +the _Âitareya_, does much for Çunaḥçepas. + +[222] Teǵasâ gharmadah sadâ--Prâsâdaçatasambâdhaṁ nirmitaṁ +viçvakarmanâ çobhitaṁ padminîbhiçća kâńćanâiçća mahâdrumâiḥ nilayaḥ +pâçahastasya varuṇasya mahâtmanaḥ; _Râmây._ iv. 43. + +[223] i. 64. + +[224] The Puranic-legend gives an instance of such another father in +Hiraṇyakaçipus, who, persecuting his own son Prahlâdas, tries to +destroy him in several ways, and finally throws him into the sea; +Prahlâdas praises Vishṇus, and is delivered.--Cfr. _The Vishṇu +Purâṇa_, translated by H. Wilson, i. 17-20. London: Trübner, 1864. + +[225] Chap. xii. 13. + +[226] i. 54-56. + +[227] Etadeva hi me ratnametadeva hi me dhanam etadva hi sarvasvam +etadeva hi ǵivitam; _Râmây._ 1. c. + +[228] Nanâda vividhân nâdân yathâ prâvṛishi toyadaḥ; _Râmây._ iii. 24. + +[229] Dhârayan mâhishaṁ rupaṁ tîkshṇaçriñgo bhayâvahaḥ; _Râmây._ iv. +9.--Further on, instead (iv. 46), the buffalo is said to be the +brother of Dundubhis, and to have the strength of a thousand serpents +(balaṁ nâgasahasrasya dhârayan) or elephants, for the word _nâgas_ is +equivocal. + +[230] Çṛiñgâbhyâmâlikhan darpat taddvâram; _Râmây_, iv. 9.--Cfr. the +two chapters which treat of the Horse and the Monkey. + +[231] I do not insist upon this brâhmanic god, because his legend is +now popular.--Cfr., for the rest, for the relationship of Kṛishṇas +with the cows, the cowherds, and the cow-maiden, the whole 5th book of +the _Vishṇu Purâna_, translated by H. Wilson, and the _Gîtagoviṅdas_ +of Gayadevas, edidit Lassen, Bonn, 1836. + +[232] Viçvarûpo vâi tvâshṭraḥ purohito devânâm âsît svasriyo 'surâṇâm +tasya trîṇi çirshâny asant--Indras tasya vaǵram âdâya çîrshâny aćhinad +yat somapânam--Brahma-hatyam upâ 'griḥṇat--Tam bhûtâny abhy akroçan +brahmahann iti; _Tâittirîya Saṁhitâ_, ed. Weber. ii. 5, 1-6. + +[233] vii. 5, 28. + +[234] Sa tasya khañgena mahâçirâṅsi kapiḥ samas tâṁ sukuṇḍalâṁ +kruddhaḥ praćiććheda tadâ hanûmâns ṭvâshṭrâtmaǵasyeva çirânsi çakrah; +_Râmây._ vii. 50. + +[235] _Râmây._ vii. 10. + +[236] _Mbh._ i. 4990.--Cfr. also the three phallical and solar brothers +of the story of Çunaḥçepas (him with the luminous tail or phallus). + +[237] i. 4775. + +[238] Balaṁ nâgasahasrasya yasmin kuṇḍe pratishṭhitaṁ yâvatpivati bâlo +'yaṁ tâvad asmâi pradîyataṁ--ekoććhvâsâttataḥ kuṇḍaṁ danaḥ; _Mbh._ i. +5030, 5032.--A similar legend is found again in the third book of the +_Mahâbhâratam_, under the form of an impenetrable forest, in which the +king of the serpents envelops Bhîmas. + +[239] _Mbh._ i. 4777. + +[240] i. 5300-5304. + +[241] i. 680-828. + +[242] Tam kliçyamânamindro 'paçyatsa vaǵraṁ presḥayâmâsa--gaććhâsya +brâhmaṇasya sâhâyyaṁ kurusveti--atha vaǵram daṇḍakâshṭhamanupraviçya +tadvilamadârayat; _Mbh._ i. 794-795. + +[243] In a legend of the Tibetan Buddhists, referred to by Professor +Schiefner in his interesting work, _Ueber Indra's Donnerkeil_ (St +Petersburg), 1848, we find two valiant heroes who, upon Mount +Gṛidhrakûṭa (the vulture's peak), strive, in presence of their master, +to lift the vaǵram (that is, the arm in the form of a wedge, the +lever-rod, the thunderbolt of Indras), but in vain; Vaǵrapâṇis alone +succeeds in lifting the vaǵram with his right hand. Râmas makes a +similar trial of strength in the _Râmâyaṇam_, when he lifts and breaks +in pieces a bow, which no one had before been able even to move. + +[244] Cfr. the following chapter. + +[245] i. 2772-2783. + +[246] To the myth of the ravished earrings is almost always joined, even +in the popular tales, the story of the horse, which is always especially +referred to the Açvinâu, as that of the bull to Indras. In the Puranic +legends, Kṛishṇas receives from the earth the earrings of Aditis (whom +we already know to be a cow), whilst he frees the princesses from the +infernal Narakas.--Cfr. the _Vishṇu Purâṇa_, v. 29. + +[247] v. 17. + +[248] Cfr. the chapters which treat of the Wolf, the Fox, and the +Serpent; and also the foregoing discussion on the Vedic riddles, where +the sun is called _anipadyamânas_. + +[249] Ahaṁ ǵalaṁ kimuńćâmi praǵânâm hitakâmyayâ; _Mbh._ i. 3317. + +[250] iii. 23, 24. + +[251] Dadarça râǵâ tâm tatra kanyâmagniçikhâmiva; _Mbh._ i. 3294. + +[252] _Mbh._ i. 3379-3394 + +[253] _Mbh._ i. 3435-3545. + +[254] _Mbh._ i. 4193-4211. + +[255] _Mbh._ i. 4211-4216. + +[256] We shall find the lame goat in the chapter which treats of the +Lamb and the Goat. + +[257] 1908. + +[258] v. 12. + +[259] The word _badhiras_ means here the crooked, the crippled one, +and not the deaf (from the root _badh_ or _vadh_, to wound, to cut); +the more so that here the name of the blind man's companion is +Mantharakas, a word which properly means the slow one. The curved line +and the slow line correspond; and the curved one, who cannot stand +upright, may be the hunchback just as well as the cripple, the +crooked, the lame.--Cfr. The chapter on the Tortoise. + +[260] For the incident of the hunchback who betrays the blind man, in +the same popular tale, cfr. next chapter. + +[261] i. 6527. + +[262] Sâudâminîva ćâbhreshu tatrâevântaradhîyata; _Mbh._ i. 6557. + +[263] Tasminnṛipatiçârdûle pravishṭe nagaraṁ punaḥ pravavarsha +sahasrâkshaḥ çasyâni ǵanayanprabhuḥ; _Mbh._ 6629, 6630. + +[264] i. 6651-6772. + +[265] The hundred daughters of King Kuçanabhas, and of the nymph +Ghṛitâći, who walks in curdled milk, recalling to us the mythical +cow.--Cfr. _Râmây._ i. 35. + +[266] Cfr. Virgil, _Ænëid_, I. 65-75, where Juno gives the nymph +Deiopea to Æolus. + + +SECTION III. + +THE BULL AND THE COW IN IRANIAN AND TURANIAN TRADITION. + +SUMMARY. + + The bull the first created in Persian tradition.--The bull of + Mithra.--Mithra and Yamas.--The excrements of the celestial cow and + bull.--Exorcisms for chasing the evil one away from the beasts of + the stable.--The salutary herb, rue.--The heavenly cypress and the + mythical forest.--The mountain and the gem.--The mountain of the + heroes.--The defenceless soul of the bull recommends itself to the + mercy of the gods.--The moon, as a cow or bitch, guides the hero + over the funereal bridge.--The many-eyed god.--The golden-hoofed + bull.--The spinners of the sky.--Friendship between sun and + moon.--The Geusurva is the full moon.--The purifying + moon.--Ardhvî-Çûra-Anâhita, the Persian aurora, has all the + characteristics of the Vedic aurora, elevated, luminous, discomfiter + of the demons, deliverer of the hero Thraetaona from the water, + having golden shoes, swift, the first to arrive with her chariot, + guesser of riddles, revered at the break of day.--The aurora sung to + by her own name, the cow-aurora.--Mithra, the shepherd-god,--Mithra, + the hero who fights to recover his cows.--The bull + Veretraghna.--Thrita and Thraetaona.--The three brothers in the + Avesta.--The two brothers.--The three sisters.--The strength of the + solar hero consists in the wind.--The winds have golden shoes and an + especial foible for women, as the women have for them.--Indras + envious of the Marutas.--Kereçâçpa envious of the wind.--The wind, + with its whistling and wailing, makes everything tremble; the hero + presses him tightly and forces him to be silent.--The bound + hero.--The bow-cow, and the birds coming out of the cow in the + Avesta.--The darts, horns of the cow.--The rich brother and the poor + one.--The poor one, who has a lean ox and a lean horse, makes his + fortune.--Ashis Vag̃uhi, another equivalent of the aurora who also + frees the hero Thraetaona.--Other names of the three Persian + brothers.--Importance of the Avesta on account of its mythical + contents.--The hero exposed on the mountain.--The hero-shepherd, the + wonderful child, Cyrus.--Feridun.--The three brothers, sons of + Feridun; the third brother is the best, and is murdered by the two + elder ones.--Sal, with white hair, the hero exposed and nourished by + a bird, solves riddles, and receives in reward the daughter of the + king.--The hero Rustem, with the mace of a bull's head, with the + strong horse that vanquishes the lion, the strong hero, the Persian + Orlando, kills and binds demons, monsters, and giants, who fight + with rocks.--From black comes white.--The prince Kawus recovers his + sight after the death of the monster.--The demon in the mountain, + who keeps back the waters, is the same as the demon in the + mill.--The hero Rustem unites himself with the daughter of the + demoniacal and hostile king.--Sohrab is born of this union, with a + demoniacal nature.--Gurdaferid, the Persian amazon princess, + assailed in her white castle by the hero-demon Sohrab.--Rustem + fights, wins, and kills his son Sohrab; he then retires from + warfare.--Explanation of this myth.--The end of Rustem in an + ambuscade.--Sijavush persecuted by his stepmother, whose love he had + disdained; the young prince submits to the trial by fire, and comes + out safely: the cruel stepmother was to have undergone the same + trial, but Sijavush intercedes for her; she continues to persecute + him; Sijavush dies in the country of his demoniacal father-in-law, + and is avenged by Rustem, who kills the cruel stepmother.--The + child-hero Kai Khosru consigned to the care of shepherds; during his + childhood he performs prodigies of valour, and passes a river with + dry feet.--The strength of the hair of the hero Firud.--The two + hero-brothers again; one brother avenges the other.--The old hero + becomes a penitent, and disappears in a tempest upon a + mountain.--The seven heroic undertakings of Isfendiar.--The legend + of Iskander.--The Tuti-Name.--The hero who wishes to kill himself + for the king's sake; the deity prevents the sacrifice.--The story of + the poor man and the rich one again.--The beautiful woman persecuted + by her brother-in-law the seducer; the oriental Crescentia or + Geneviève.--The sea, invited to the wedding, brings pearls and + gold.--The maiden who discovers the thief by means of a riddle.--The + girl who gives his eyesight back to the blind man against her + will.--The lovers flee upon the bull's back.--The lover forsakes his + mistress on the shore after having despoiled her.--The three + brothers deliver the beautiful maiden and dispute for her; the + maiden takes refuge in a convent.--The wise child who distinguishes + false from true, honest from dishonest.--The money of the dead + man.--The adulterer condemned to death who bites off the nose of his + companion in guilt and dissoluteness.--The wife despoiled of her + riches by her husband and thrown into the water.--Romeo and Juliet + in the East.--The three brothers: the seer; the strong carrier, or + Christophoros; the victorious one.--The disputed bride again.--The + little pipkin of abundance; Perrette in the East.--The small + porringer of abundance, which the two brothers contend for.--The + shoes which take one in an instant wherever one wishes to go.--The + little purse which is filled as fast as it is emptied.--The sword + which makes a city rise.--The animals which contend for the division + of the prey, and the third comer who profits between two + disputers.--The four mines of the four brothers.--Why old men have + white hair.--Calmuc and Mongol tradition.--The six companions are + the same as three.--The bride torn in pieces.--A man unites himself + with a cow, which brings forth a Minotaur of a good nature, who + fights against the demons in favour of the gods.--The gem in the + cow's litter.--The bull lost.--The three sisters; the third sister + marries the monster bird; she loses him, because she has burned the + aviary.--The painter and the woodman in Paradise; the painter is + burned.--The two brothers, the rich one and the poor one; the rich + brother ends badly.--The husband who despoils his wife and hides her + in a chest in the sand of the desert.--The gem of the prince falls + to the ground; his nose bleeds and he dies; explanation of this + myth.--The wonderful hammer, which, when used, brings one whatever + is wished for.--The rich and poor brothers; the poor one becomes + rich.--The lengthened nose and the corresponding Italian + proverb.--The wife kills her husband with the hammer, wishing to + knock a protuberance off his nose.--The old man who eats his last + cow; his wife continues, even after its death, to nourish and + protect him until the wild beasts in the cavern devour him.--The + woman disguised as a solar hero.--The lion and the bull friends, or + foster-brothers; their friendship is put an end to by the fox.--The + projects of Perrette again.--The horns of the dead buffalo.--The + grateful animals.--The laughing princess.--The wise + herd-children.--The wise puppets.--The prince born of a cake.--The + boy learns in the forest every art, even devilish ones.--The son of + the wolves who understands their language.--Heroes and demons cut + in pieces multiply themselves.--The hero has good luck, because he + has performed funeral services to the dead.--Four young shepherds, a + new form of the Ṛibhavas, make a beautiful maiden of wood, and then + dispute for her.--The wife throws her husband into the fountain out + of jealousy, having heard another voice, perhaps the echo of her + own.--The princess Light of the sun, who must be seen by no one, and + who is visited by the minister Moon.--Turanian tradition in + Siberia.--The three brothers dream upon the mountain; the third + brother is persecuted on account of his dream; he finds the blind + woman and lame man, and induces them to adopt him; he hunts, fights + against the devil, and vanquishes him; from the body of the demon + come forth animals, men, and treasures; he fishes up in the sea of + milk the casket which contains the eyes of the blind woman; receives + extraordinary gifts, and above all the faculty of transforming + himself; wins his predestined bride, and kills his own cruel + father.--The hero who solves enigmas.--Ancient and modern + riddles.--The cow devours the wolf, and the wolf devours the + cow.--The bow of horn.--The wolves fastened to the calf's tail.--The + soul of the black bull in the rainbow, the bridge of souls, wounded + by the young hero, who then espouses the daughter of the sky, after + attaining the third heaven, and accomplishing heroic undertakings to + merit her.--The sleeper in the cup, the gem in the fish.--The + Argonauts and Medea in Turan.--The Finnish Diana.--The Finnish + thundering God, Kave Ukko.--The little sun, the Finnish + dwarf-hero.--The second of the three brothers.--The strong + bear.--The monster giant darkness or cloud.--The Orpheus and the + lyre of the Finns; grief the inspirer of song.--Finnish and Aryan + myths.--The Sampo.--Esthonian tradition.--The three sisters; the + third is the most beautiful, and is persecuted by her stepmother, + and delivered by the prince.--The bird of light.--The maiden + transformed into a pond-rose, and delivered by her husband in the + shape of a shrimp.--The witch is burned in the form of a cat.--The + gold of the witch.--Explanation of several myths.--The third brother + is the swiftest.--The wise maiden.--The golden fairy.--The + puppet.--The magical rod makes the cock come out of the + mountain.--The fairy is good towards the good, and punishes the + wicked.--The cow lost.--The old hospitable dwarf.--The leaf which + carries the hero across the waters.--Heroic undertakings against the + serpent and the tortoise.--The third brother, expelled from home, + travels and solves riddles on the way.--The rod which makes a + bridge.--In heaven and in hell time passes quickly.--The hero + under-cook.--The golden birds and the voyages to hell.--The brothers + punished, and the bride won by the magical sword.--The son of + thunder.--The weapon carried off from the god of thunder.--The + weapon recovered.--The fisherman-god.--The marvellous musical + instrument; the magical flute.--The three dwarfs.--The hat that + makes its owner invisible, made of men's nails; the shoes which + carry one where-ever one wishes, and the stick which fights of + itself.--The proverb of the third who profits between two disputers + again.--The third brother is the son of a king, exposed when a + child; he awakens the princess who sleeps in the glass mountain; + _non est mortua puella, sed dormit_.--Passage from the dawn of the + day to the dawn of the year.--The child sold by his father without + the latter's knowledge.--The boy exchanged.--The boy sets out to + deliver the maiden from the demon.--The pea, the kidney-bean, the + cabbage, and the pumpkin of funerals accompany the solar hero in his + nocturnal voyage.--The symbol of abundance, of generation, of + stupidity.--The nuptial beans.--Meaning of the myth concerning + vegetables.--The region of silence.--The region of noise.--The wise + girl helps the hero.--The cow milked and the calf bound.--The + luminous ball comes out of the calf.--The antithesis of white and of + black.--Hungarian proverbs.--The luminous ball comes out of the + stone.--The luminous ball and the ring.--The fearless hero frees the + castle from spirits.--The Esthonian story of Blue Beard.--The + charivari in the nuptials of widowers.--The widow who burns + herself.--The hero exposed, and then brought up among cowherds, + feels himself predestined to reign, and learns the art by guiding + herds.--The German (or Western) witch endeavours to take the red + strawberries from the Esthonian hero.--The boy avenges this injury + by causing her to be devoured by wolves, who will not touch her + heart.--The gardener's daughter.--The broken ring; the two parts of + the ring unite again; the husband and wife find each other once + more.--The maiden born of the egg in the shape of a puppet.--The + casket which brings good luck disappears when the young couple are + married. + +Moving now from India westwards, we find on one side the Iranian, and +on the other the Turanian traditions. We cannot pass into Europe +without at least indicating the general character of each. + +In the Persian cosmogony, the bull (_gâus aevo dâto_) is one of the +first of created existences, being as old as the elements. It is, +moreover, well known how much importance was ascribed to the bull +among the Persians in the mysteries of the solar god Mithra, who is +represented as a beautiful youth, holding the horns of a bull in his +left hand, and having the knife of sacrifice in his right. Mithra +sacrificing the bull is just the solar hero sacrificing himself in the +evening. Indeed, in the Persian tradition, Mithra, like the Hindoo +Yamas, holds the office of god of the dead, and as such, like Yamas, +is of a monstrous aspect, and is found in the _Yaçna_ represented with +a thousand ears and ten thousand eyes. + +As in India, so in Persia, the urine of the cow is used in ceremonies of +purification, during which it is drunk.[267] We have already seen in the +story of Utañkas how the excrement of the bull, upon which Utañkas fed, +was ambrosia itself; and, indeed, all is beneficial which is given by +the cow of abundance (the moon, the cloud, and the aurora), and by the +divine bull (the moon and the sun). The mythical belief was natural, +however disgusting when we insist on literal interpretation. + +And even in the Persian tradition itself, a distinction already exists +between common bulls or oxen and sacred or privileged ones. This +distinction appears in the legend of Gemshid, whose bulls were all +devoured by the devil, as long as they were protected by no magical +rites; whilst, when he was given a red ox (or bull) cooked in old, +that is strong, vinegar, to which was added garlic and rue (famous for +its potency in exorcism), he disappeared and was never seen +again.[268] The rue is probably the fabulous plant which the Zend +tradition surmises to have sprung from the sea _Vôuru-Kasha_, whence +Ahura Mazda draws the clouds, from which all healthful water is +derived, and which corresponds to the sea of milk of Hindoo tradition, +in which the ambrosia is agitated. + +Thus the funereal cypress of Kishmar (planted by Zarathustra, with a +branch from the tree of Paradise), under which more than two thousand +cows and sheep could pasture, and the innumerable birds of which +darkened the air, obscuring the light of the sun, reminds us of the +celestial forest of the Vedâs, in which the shepherd-hero and the +hunter-hero wander and are lost. + +The idea of the funereal tree recalls to us that of the Persian +mountain Arezûra or Demâvend, where the demons met together to plot +evil, and where was the gate of hell.[269] + +The Zend word _açma_, which signifies stone and heaven, yields us, in +its double meaning, the key to the interpretation of the myth. This +stone, inasmuch as it is dark, is of evil omen; inasmuch as it shines, +it is a gem, or gives the gem (the moon or the sun); whence, according +to the _Minokhired_, the sky is the progeny of a precious stone.[270] + +Thus to the mountain of the demons (where the sun goes down), is +opposed in Persian tradition the glorious mountain, out of which are +born the heroes and the kings (or from which the sun rises and the +moon); because Haoma is born there (the Hindoo Somas), the ambrosial, +golden, and health-bringing god, who gives them the divine +nourishment, and because the sacred bird, which stays on that +mountain, feeds them with ambrosia, whence the _Yaçna_[271] invites +Haoma to grow on the road of the birds. + +In a rather obscure passage of the _Gâthâ Ahunavaiti_, confirmed by the +_Bundehesh_, the soul of the bull (or of the cow, as the case may be), +despoiled of his body by the evil one, complains to the Supreme Creator +that he is without defence against the assaults of his enemies, and that +he has no invincible protector. Ahura Mazda seems to wish only to give +him spiritual help, but the bull continues to declare himself +unsatisfied, until Zarathustra, the defender, accords it, and he +receives the gift of efficacious favours which Ahura Mazda alone +possesses.[272] Zarathustra is himself also born upon a mountain;[273] +while his son Çaoshyańç, the deliverer, comes out of the waters. + +A sacred cow, or at least a bitch which guards the cows (_paçuvaiti_), +seems, besides a good fairy, to be, in the _Vendiad_ itself,[274] the +conductor of the souls across the bridge Ćinvat, created by Ahura Mazda, +to the kingdom of the blessed. The cow, as the guide of the souls[275] +lost in the kingdom of the dead, and placed upon the bridge, is probably +the moon; the bitch (also the moon) reminds us of the Hindoo Saramâ, the +bitch which aids the heroes who have lost themselves in the nocturnal +forest, grotto, or darkness. In the same chapter, after accounts of the +bridge, we read the praise of the good Çaoka, who has many eyes (like +the brâhmanic Indras, disguised as a woman, having a thousand eyes, and, +after the adventure of Ahalyâ, a thousand wombs--the god hidden in the +night, who looks at the world through a thousand stars); after Çaoka, of +the splendid Veretraghna (who corresponds to Vṛitrahan, properly the +discomfiter of the all-covering darkness); and after him, of the +luminous star Tistar, which seems a bull with golden hoofs,[276] which +again must refer to the moon; as the Gâhs, who, according to Anquetil, +"sont occupées à filer des robes pour les justes dans le ciel," like the +cows and Madonnas in our popular tales, cannot be very different from +the fairy, or at least from the stars which form her crown. The _Khorda +Avesta_, in its hymns in praise of Mithra, celebrates the perfect +friendship which reigns between the sun and the moon, and sings of the +moon immediately after singing of the sun Mithra, and the splendid +Tistar immediately after the moon, whose light is said to come from the +constellation Tistrya. + +We can thus divine the meaning of Geusurva (the soul of the bull or +the cow), of which, besides the soul, the body also is invoked in the +_Yaçna_.[277] The Geusurva appears in the _Yaçna_ itself[278] as the +protectress of the fourteenth day of the month, or of the full-moon, +viewed as a full cow. And when it is said in the _Khorda Avesta_[279] +that one must not sacrifice to the Geusurva at the time when the +Daevas, or demons, are practising their evil-doings, it seems to me to +indicate clearly enough that the sacrifice was to take place while the +moon was increasing, and not while it was diminishing. Thus Asha +Vahista, who reminds us of the Hindoo Vasishṭhas and his marvellous +cow, has the power of conjuring away illness, north winds--in a word, +evil of every kind--only when Ag̃ro-maiṇyus appears without help.[280] + +We have seen in the legend of Utañkas how, as the youth is on his way +to take the queen's earrings, he meets a bull, upon the excrement of +which he feeds, as upon ambrosia; that this ambrosial bull stays near +Indras, as Indras and Somas are invoked together; and we noticed that +from this mythical belief was derived the superstitious Hindoo custom +of purifying one's self by means of the excrement of a cow. The same +custom passed into Persia; and the _Khorda Avesta_[281] has preserved +the formula to be recited by the devotee, whilst he holds in his hands +the urine of an ox or cow, preparatory to washing his face with +it:--"Destroyed, destroyed be the demon Ahriman, whose actions and +works are cursed. His actions and works do not come to us. May the +thirty-three Amshaspands (the immortal saints, who correspond to the +thirty-three Vedic devâs), and Ormazd, be victorious and pure!" It is +said this remedial formula was used for the first time by Yima, when, +from having touched Ahriman, in order to extricate from his body, by +fraud, Takh mo Urupa, whom the demon had devoured, he had an eruption +on his hand. Finally, it is interesting to learn that one of the Zend +names of the moon is _gaoćithra_, which means he that contains the +seed of the bull, since, according to the _Bundehesh_, the seed of the +primitive bull passed into the moon, who, having purified it, used it +to procreate other cattle (_pôuru çaredho_). + +As to the aurora, there seems to be no doubt but that she was +represented in ancient Persia by Ardvî Çûra Anâhita, the elevated, the +strong, the innocent or pure, according to the interpretation of +Professor Spiegel; she also drives a chariot drawn by four white +horses, which she guides herself; she has a veil, a diadem, and +bracelets of gold, beautiful earrings (the Vedic Açvinâu), a dress of +beavers' skin, and prominent breasts; she is beautiful, and she is a +good young girl who protects men and women. She is often invoked in +the _Khorda Avesta_, like the Vedic aurora, to exorcise the demons, +and to help the heroes who combat them; she herself has the strength +of a thousand men, and is a marvellous heroine, like the Vedic amazon +whom Indras fought with; her body is girt round with a girdle. The +probability of this comparison seems to pass into certainty after +reading a hymn of the _Khorda Avesta_,[282] even in the version of +Professor Spiegel, who perhaps would have introduced some little +variation if he had recognised the aurora in Ardvî Çûra Anâhita. In +this hymn, the victorious and mighty Thraetaona, in the form of a +bird, flies for three days and three nights, which reminds us of the +fugitive Indras of the _Ṛigvedas_, who wades across the rivers after +his victory; at the end of the third night he arrives near the aurora, +and beseeches Ardvî Çûra Anâhita (that is, as it seems to us, the +aurora herself, elevated, mighty, and innocent) to come and help him, +that he may pass the waters and touch the ground at her habitation. +Then Ardvî Çûra Anâhita appears in the shape of a beautiful, strong, +and splendid girl, having a golden diadem and wearing shoes of gold +(cfr. the _Yast_, xxi. 19) on her feet (this is perhaps another feeble +foreshadow of Cinderella's slippers); the beautiful girl takes him by +one arm (the bird has, it seems, become a hero), and gives him back +health and strength. But the certainty increases still more when, as +the Vedic aurora is the first of those who arrive, winning the race in +her chariot, the so-called Ardhvî Çûra Anâhita appears in the _Khorda +Avesta_ as "the first who guides the chariot;"[283] and we are +recommended to offer up sacrifices to her at break of day, before the +sun rises.[284] We have seen the Vedic aurora and the sun propose and +solve riddles; we have seen the Hindoo solar hero free himself from +the monster by proposing or solving insoluble enigmas; in the same +way, in the _Avesta_, the hero Yaçto Fryanananm asks Ardvî Çûra +Anâhita to help him to solve ninety-nine enigmas, in order that he may +free himself from the monster Akhtya. + +Add to this that Ardvî Çûra Anâhita, like the Vedic aurora, is a giver +of cows and horses, and that these animals are offered to her by her +devotees. The aurora herself, in the invocation made to her in the +sixth prayer of the _Khorda Avesta_, is also called "elevated," and +furnished with swift and splendid horses.[285] The fact of finding the +Anâhita drawn by four white horses, like the sun Mithra, enhances the +evidence of this identity. And if the aurora is not explicitly +represented in the _Avesta_ as a cow, we infer that it was so +conceived of, from the worship of Mithra, who was adored from the +first streak of daylight till midday. Mithra often receives the +epithet of "he who possesses vast pasture-lands;" the morning sun is +therefore a pastoral god; and if so, we are constrained to think of +the Persian aurora too as, if not a cow, at least a female cowherd. + +But Mithra is not a god of mere idyllic exploits, he is also a hero; +the _Vendidad_[286] salutes him as "the most victorious of the +victors." The booty of his victory [essentially due to his immediate +predecessors Veretraghna (Vṛitrahan) and Çraosha][287] must have been +the cows of the aurora, without which his immense pasture-lands would +have been of no use to him. Indeed it is said that Mithra enables +owners of herds to recover their lost oxen.[288] + +But Mithra is not the only prominent hero of the _Avesta_. Besides him, +the above-cited Veretraghna, with all his secondary and tertiary +reflections, plays an important part in it. Now, this Veretraghna, who +offers numerous analogies to the Vedic Indras, killer of Vṛitras, is, +like Indras, now a hero, now a horse, now a bird, now a sheep, now a +wild boar, and now a bull.[289] As the bull Indras assists Tritas, +Trâitanas, and Kavya Ućanas[290] in the _Ṛigvedas_, so the bull +Veretraghna in the _Avesta_, partaking of the nature of one Thrita[291] +who is rich, splendid, and strong, and who, like Indras, cures maladies +by the help of the guardian of the metals (the usual co-relation between +the hero and the magic pearl), assists Thraetaona, the killer of the +serpent Duhâka (Azhi Dahâka) and the hero Kava Uça, of which Kava +Haoçrava is another name rather than another form. The Thrita and +Thraetaona of the _Zend_ are peculiarly interesting, because they remind +us, though vaguely, of the Vedic myth of the three brothers. Only the +_Avesta_ names Thrita and Thraetaona as two distinct divine heroes; it +attributes to Thraetaona the second place among the three brothers; and +as in the _Mahâbhâratam_, it is the second brother, the strong Bhîmas, +who falls into the waters, whilst the third brother, Arǵunas, delivers +others from the marine monster by his valour, so in the _Avesta_ it is +Thraetaona who comes out of the waters, or who is the son of Athvya +(-Âptya). But every one can see the point of contact, connection, or +identification between the two hero-brothers. It is Bhîmas who comes out +of the waters, and Arǵunas who extricates him, that is, who extricates +his own strength, expressed in Bhîmas (the subject, and his virtue, +become the object, being inclosed in one person). They are confounded +together, inasmuch as Thraetaona, son of him who stays in the waters, or +of the watery one, or he who comes out of the waters, and kills the +demon, must be the same as Thrita, the third one, who has the virtue of +curing demoniacal diseases. Thraetaona, the killer of the serpent, and +Thrita, who destroys the evil-doing ones, are found again, with a +different splendour, in the same heroic adventure. Scarcely an instant +transpires between the time when the hero was a victim and that in which +Veretraghna, or Thraetaona, or Thrita, the hero, triumphs in his own +liberation. + +In the _Yaçna_,[292] we find three men who, by their piety, win the +favour of the god Haoma (Soma, the lunar god, the moon, the good +magician, the good fairy). The first is Vivaghâo, the second Âthvya, +and the third Thrita; from which we are led to conclude that Vivaghâo is +the eldest brother, Âthvya the second, and Thrita the youngest. On +account of their piety, they obtain sons; the son of Vivaghâo is Yima +(the Vedic Yamas), the wise, the happy, the heavenly; the son of Âthvya +is Thraetaona, the warrior who discomfits the monster; the third, +Thrita, called the most useful, has two sons, Urvâksha and Kereçâçpa, +who remind us of the Açvinâu. Âthvya's son and Thrita being confounded +in one person, Thraetaona, or Thrita, forms a new triumvirate with +Urvâksha and Kereçâçpa, as the Vedic Indras with the two Açvinâu. The +story of the three brothers and that of the two brothers seem to be +interwoven even in the myth, as they certainly are afterwards in the +legend. To the three brothers, moreover, correspond, in the _Avesta_, +the three sisters, the three daughters of Zarathustra and of Hvôvi: +Freni, Thriti, and Pourućiçsta.[293] The first seems to correspond to +Yamas, the second to Âptya and his son Thraetaona (or Thrita), the +third, the luminous, the beautiful (as being the aurora), to the two +handsome brother horsemen, Urvâksha and Kereçâçpa (the Açvinâu). + +The solar hero comes out of his difficulties, and triumphs over his +enemies, not only by force of arms, but by his innate strength and +prowess. This extraordinary strength, by which he moves and is borne +along, and which renders him irresistible, is the wind, invoked by the +heroes in the _Avesta_ under the name of Râman. The wind, according to +the _Avesta_, is not only the swiftest of the swift, but the strongest +of the strong (like the Marutas, Hanumant, or Bhîmas, Hindoo winds, or +sons of the wind). Even in the _Avesta_, he fights and assures the +heroes of victory, and is dear to woman and girls. (In the same way, +Sîtâ has a leaning for Hanumant, and Hidimbâ, of all the Pâṇḍavas, +gives the preference to Bhîmas.) Moreover, in the _Avesta_, girls +invoke the wind in order to obtain a husband.[294] + +A hymn of the _Ṛigvedas_, however, celebrates a kind of quarrel +between the winds Marutas and the god Indras, prompted by rivalry; a +quarrel which ends in Indras having the advantage. It is interesting +to find in the Persian tradition[295] the same rivalry between the +wind (vâta) and the son of Thrita, the hero Kereçâçpa. An evil genie +informs the wind that Kereçâçpa boasts of being superior to him in +strength. Thereupon the wind begins to howl and rage in such a +terrifying manner that nothing can resist him, and the very trees are +cleft in two or torn up, till Kereçâçpa comes and squeezes him so +tightly in his arms that he is obliged to cease. This interesting +mythical incident is a prefigurement of the loud whistle of the heroes +and the monsters in fairy tales, which is brought to an end in a +summary fashion, similar to that of the Persian legend; which also +leads us to suppose that Thraetaona vanquished the serpent Dahâka, +merely by tying him to the demoniacal mountain Demâvend.[296] This +style of vanquishing the enemy by binding him occurs often enough in +the Persian legends and in the _Avesta_ itself;[297] and is also +mentioned in the Hindoo traditions. The arrows of the monsters hurled +against the heroes of the _Râmâyaṇam_ bind them; the god Yamas and the +god Varuṇas bind their victims; the first draws tight, tightens the +reins (_i.e._, the evening sun shortens his rays); the second +envelops, covers and binds with the darkness that which Yamas reined +in. The solar ray which shortens itself, the shadow which advances, +are images of the ensnarer of heroes; whereas the solar ray which +lengthens itself, the thunderbolt which traverses all the heavens, +surrounded by clouds and darkness, represents the hero who grasps +around, presses tightly, and strangles the monster. + +The bow of Mithra is formed of a thousand bows, prepared from the +tough hide of a cow; these bows, in the _Avesta_, also hurl a thousand +darts, which fly with winged vultures' feathers.[298] This carries us +back again to the Vedic myth of the birds which come out of the cow. + +The bow being considered a cow, this cow sharpens its horns; whence +the _Khorda Avesta_ celebrates the horned darts of the bow of Mithra, +_i.e._, the horns of the cow, which have become weapons[299] or the +thunderbolts. + +The legend of the two brothers is connected more with the myth of the +horse than with that of the cow or the ox. But inasmuch as it presents +the two brothers to us as the one poor and the other rich, the riches +are symbolised by the ox. However, if I am not mistaken, there are +two heroes, celebrated in the _Avesta_ one after the other (and whom I +therefore suppose to be brothers), who derive their origin from this +legend; one is called Çrîraokhsan (or who has a fine ox), the other +Kereçaokhsan (or who has a lean ox). As the _Avesta_ does not go on to +develop this subject more in detail, I dare not insist upon it; +nevertheless it is gratifying to me to remark that, of the two +brothers, Kereçaokhsan was the most valiant, as of the two brothers +Urvâksha (a word which may perhaps signify the one who has the fat +horse, and which is perhaps synonymous with Urvâçpa[300]) and +Kereçâçpa (he of the lean horse), it is the second who is the glorious +hero; as in the Russian popular tales, we shall find the third +brother, though thought to be an idiot, despised by the others, and +riding the worst jade of the stable, yet becoming afterwards the most +fortunate hero. Kereçâçpa avenges his brother Urvâksha against +Hitâçpa, whom Professor Spiegel[301] interprets to mean the bound +horse, but which can also be rendered he who keeps the horse bound, +which would bring us back again to the story of the bridle and of the +hero-horse, whom the demon keeps bound to himself, which we have +already noticed above in the story of the sacrifice of Çunaḥçepas, +delivered by the aurora. + +It is uncertain whether we must recognise the aurora or the moon, in +the _Avesta_, in the so-called Ashis Vag̃uhi, the elevated (like Ardvî +Çûra Anâhita), who appears upon the high mountain, rich, beautiful, +splendid, golden-eyed, beneficent, giver of cattle, posterity, and +abundance, who discomfits the demons, guides chariots, and is invoked +by the son of the watery one, Thraetaona, in the _Ashi Yast_,[302] in +order that she may help him to vanquish the three-headed +monster-serpent Dahâka. Now, Thraetaona, the victorious and rich in +oxen,[303] being a well-known form of the solar hero Mithra, it is +interesting to learn how the heroine, the so-called Ashis Vag̃uhi (the +aurora, or the moon, as the three words Ardvî Çûra Anâhita are simple +names of the aurora), having the same supreme god for her father, has +three brothers, of whom the first is Çraosha, the pious; the second, +Rashnus, the strong; and the third, Mithra, the victorious. + +She is, moreover, herself represented as being pursued by enemies on +horseback; and it is now a bull, now a sheep, now a child, anon a virgin +who hides her from her pursuers. Not knowing where to go, whether to +ascend into heaven, or creep along the earth, she applies to Ahura +Mazda, who answers that she must neither ascend into heaven nor creep +along the earth, but betake herself to the middle of a beautiful king's +habitation.[304] How is it possible not to recognise in her the moon, or +the aurora, who follows the path of the sun her husband, the moon, or +the aurora, who appears on the summit of the high mountains? + +Other facts not devoid of mythological interest might perhaps be found +in the _Avesta_, which, on account of the uncertainty attending the +translation of the original texts, has hitherto been, it seems to me, +utterly neglected by mythologists. And yet, though Anquetil, Burnouf, +Benfey, Spiegel, Haugh, Kossowicz, and all who have turned their +talents and science to the interpretation of the Zendic texts, +disagree in the more abstruse passages, there are many of which the +interpretation is certain, in which the learned translators agree, +which offer interesting mythological data, and permit us, in any case, +to extract from the _Avesta_ an embryo of mythology, in the same way +as an embryo of grammar has already been extracted from it. The brief +references which I have now made to the myth of the cow and the bull +in the _Avesta_, anyhow appear to me sufficient to warrant the +conclusion I draw, that the cow and the bull presented the same +aspects, and generated the same myths and the same beliefs in Persia +as in India, albeit in a form far more feeble and indeterminate. + +The solar hero of Persia occurs again in the costume of historical +legend in the Cyrus (Κυρος) of Herodotus and Ktesias, the +first of which represents to us the child exposed by his parents, +saved and educated during his infancy (like the Hindoo Karṇas, child +of the sun, and Kṛishṇas) among the shepherds, where for some time he +gives extraordinary proofs of his valour; the second shows us the +young hero who wins his own bride, Amytis, daughter of Astyages. + +Finally, the same hero appears in several splendid and glorious forms +in the _Shahname_. + +As in the _Ṛigvedas_, Tritas or Trâitanas, and in the _Avesta_, +Thraetaona (of whom Thritas is a corresponding form), accomplish the +great exploit of killing the monster, and more especially the serpent, +so Feridun, the Persian synonym (by means of the intermediate form +Phreduna) for the Zendic Thraetaona is, in subsequent Persian +tradition, the most distinguished hero in the struggle against the +monster. I shall not insist upon the deeds of Feridun and his mythical +valour, after the learned paper written upon the subject by Professor +R. Roth, which appears in the Transactions of the Oriental Society of +Leipzig, and the able and highly-valued essay by Professor Michael +Bréal on the myth of Hercules and Cacus. I shall therefore content +myself with quoting from the legend of Feridun the episode of his old +age, which reminds us of the Vedic myth of the three brothers. + +The great king Feridun has three sons, Selm, Tûr, and Ireǵ (Selm, Tûr, +and Er are also the sons of Thraetaona); he divides the world into +three parts and gives the west to the first-born, and the north to the +second, whilst he keeps Iran for the youngest. The two eldest are +jealous, and announce to their father their intention of declaring war +against him, unless he expels their younger brother Ireǵ from the +palace. Feridun replies to their impious threat with haughty reproofs, +and meanwhile warns the young Ireǵ of the danger he is in. The youth +proposes to go in person to his brothers, and induce them to make +peace; his father is unwilling to let him go, but finally consents, +and gives him a letter for the two brothers, in which he commends him +as his best-loved son to their care. Ireǵ arrives at his brothers' +dwelling; their soldiers see him, and cannot take their eyes off him, +as though they already recognised him for their lord. Then Selm, the +eldest, advises Tûr, the second, the strong one, to kill Ireǵ; Tûr +thereupon assaults the defenceless Ireǵ, and transfixes his breast +with a dagger. Ireǵ is afterwards avenged by the son of his daughter +(born after his death of a maid whom he had left pregnant), the hero +Minućehr, who kills Selm and Tûr. + +The hero who succeeds Minućehr is Sal, the son of Sam, whom, because +born with white hair, his father had exposed upon Mount Alburs, where +the bird Simurg nourished and saved him. Sal proves his wisdom before +Minućehr by solving six astronomical riddles which King Minućehr +proposes to him. The king, satisfied, orders him to be dressed in +festive clothes; he then, to prove his strength, challenges him to run +a tilt with the horsemen; Sal is victorious, and obtains another robe +of honour and innumerable royal gifts; after which he espouses Rudabe, +daughter of King Mihrab. + +Sal distinguishes himself, like Minućehr, in his wars against the +perverse Turanians, the dragons and the monsters, in which he takes +along with him as his chief helper the mighty hero Rustem, whose +weapon is a club surmounted with the head of a bull[305] or a horned +mace (the hero is the bull, the thunderbolts are his horns), and whose +horse is so powerful as by itself to fight and vanquish a lion while +Rustem is asleep. The hero himself kills a dragon, and a witch +transformed into a beautiful woman, but who resumes her monstrous +shape as soon as the hero pronounces the name of a god. He thunders +like a cloud, is dark, and describes himself as a thunder-cloud which +hurls the thunderbolt.[306] He binds the warrior Aulad, and obliges +him to reveal where the demons detain in prison King Kawus, who is +become blind in their kingdom of darkness. Kawus then informs Rustem +that to recover his sight his eyes must be anointed with three drops +of blood from the slain demon Sefid; upon which Rustem sets out to +kill the demon. The demons can be vanquished only by day; when it is +light, they sleep, and then they can be conquered, says Aulad to +Rustem; for this reason, Rustem does not begin the enterprise till the +sun is in mid-heaven;[307] then he thunders and lightens at the +demons. Like a sun, he sets out towards the mountain (no doubt, +towards sunset), where the demon Sefid sits, and arrives at the mouth +of a deep and gloomy cavern, from which Sefid sallies forth in the +form of a black giant just awakened from his sleep. The giant himself, +like an enormous mountain assaulting the earth, hurls a rock like a +millstone at Rustem; Rustem strikes the monster on the feet, and lops +away one of them; the lame giant continuing the fight, Rustem at last +wrestles with him, lifts him into the air, then beats him several +times furiously against the ground, and so takes his life. He throws +the body of Sefid into the mountain cavern, whilst his blood saturates +the earth, and gives back to the prince Kawus his eyesight and his +splendour. The myth is a beautiful and an expressive one. As from the +black venomous serpent comes white healthy milk, so from the black +monster, at his death, comes blood, which gives back his eyesight to +the blinded prince; the red aurora is here represented as the blood of +the nocturnal monster, discomfited by the solar hero. + +Let me ask the reader to notice the Persian comparison of the rock +thrown by the demon to a millstone, as it is important to explain a +superstition still extant in the West, to the effect that the devil +goes under the millstone to carry out his evil designs. The stone or +mountain fractured by the waters was naturally compared to a millstone +moved by the waters; the demons inhabit the cavernous mountain to +guard the waters; thus the devil, the evil one, the hobgoblins, prefer +mills as their dwellings. + +Rustem fights, in the _Shahname_, many other victoriously successful +battles against Afrasiab the Turanian, and other demoniacal beings, in +the service of sundry heroic kings, with epic incidents to boot, which +are nearly all uniform. His struggle against his son Sohrab, however, +is of an entirely different character. + +Rustem goes to the chase. In the forest, Turkish bandits rob him of +his invaluable horse while he sleeps; he then sets out, alone and sad, +towards the city of Semengam, following the track left by his horse. +When he appears, emerging from the wood, the king of Semengam and his +courtiers note the phenomenon as though it were the sun coming out of +the clouds of morning.[308] The king receives Rustem with great +hospitality, and, as if to fill to the full the measure of his +courtesy, he sends at night to the room where he sleeps his +exceedingly beautiful daughter Tehmime. The hero and the beauty +separate in the morning; but Rustem, before parting from Tehmime, +leaves her a pearl of recognition. If a daughter is born to their +loves, she is to wear it as an amulet in her hair; if a son, he is to +wear it on his arm, and he will become an invincible hero. After nine +months, Tehmime gives birth to Sohrab; at the age of one month he +seems a year old, at three years of age he amuses himself with arms, +at five he gives proof of a lion's courage, and at ten he vanquishes +all his companions, and asks his mother to inform him of his father, +threatening to kill her if she does not tell him. Scarcely does Sohrab +learn that he is the son of Rustem, than he conceives the desire of +becoming king of Iran and supplanting Kawus; he then commences his +persecution of the Iranian heroes by assaulting the white castle (the +white morning sky, the alba), defended by a beautiful warrior +princess, Gurdaferid, dear to the Iranian warriors. Sohrab conquers +and destroys the white castle, but in the moment of triumph, the +warrior maiden disappears. The old hero Rustem then moves against his +own son Sohrab; the latter throws him down, but Rustem, in his turn, +mortally wounds Sohrab. In the old Rustem thrown down on the mountain +it is not difficult to recognise the setting sun; in Sohrab mortally +wounded by Rustem, the sun itself, which dies; and in fact, the dying +sun has a different appearance from the new sun which rises and +triumphs in the heavens: these two appearances might give rise to the +idea of a struggle between the old and the young sun, in which both +are sacrificed. Indeed, Rustem feels, when he mortally wounds Sohrab, +that he is wounding himself; he curses his work and immediately sends +for a healing balsam; but in the meantime Sohrab dies. The only one +who could destroy the young sun was the old sun; the sun grows old and +dies; Rustem alone could kill Sohrab. With the death of Sohrab the +glory of Rustem is also eclipsed; he retires unto solitude, and the +most grandiose period of his epic life comes to an end. After this he +only reappears in episodic battles or enterprises; as, for instance, +in his setting fire to Turan, in which he resembles Hanumant, burner +of Lañkâ; in the liberation of the young hero Bishen, who had been +taken prisoner and incarcerated by the Turanians; in the killing of +the powerful and perverse Turanian Afrasiab; and in his own death in +an ambuscade set by young rivals of the old lion, who dies taking +vengeance on his enemies. + +In the very palace of Kawus (he who was protected by Rustem), a +notable legendary drama takes place. Sijavush, son of King Kawus, is +seduced by the queen-mother Sudabe, who burns with love for him. The +youth spurns this love, upon which she accuses him to King Kawus as +her seducer. The father, after hearing his son's defence in proof of +his innocence, cannot believe the queen; and thereupon she devises +another method for destroying the young Sijavush. She concerts with a +slave she has, who is a sorceress, and persuades her to create two +little venomous monsters, which she straightway proclaims aloud are +the children of Sijavush. Then Sijavush, to prove his innocence, +submits willingly to the trial by fire; he enters the flames upon his +black horse, after having embraced his trembling father; both horse +and horseman come out of the immense fire, amid the plaudits of all +the spectators. Then the king gives orders to strangle the unnatural +queen; but his son Sijavush intercedes in her favour, and Sudabe is +allowed to live by grace of the young prince, whom, however, she +continues to persecute, till, on the death of Sijavush, Rustem, who +bewailed him as his own son, or as his other self, avenges him first +by killing Sudabe, on account of whom Sijavush had been obliged to +repair to Turan, and afterwards by carrying the war into Turan, where, +after a very agitated life, Sijavush had fallen into the power of his +father-in-law, Afrasiab, and been put to death. + +The wife of Sijavush, Ferengis by name, being pregnant, is hospitably +entertained by Piran, and gives birth to the hero Kai Khosru; and no +sooner is he born than he is consigned to the shepherds of the +mountain. As early as seven years of age, his favourite amusement is +that of drawing the bow; at ten, he confronts wild boars, bears, +lions, and tigers with only his shepherd's staff. When Afrasiab sees +the young shepherd, he inquires at him about his sheep and the +peaceful pursuits of shepherds; the boy replies with stories of lions +having sharp teeth, and of other wild animals, of which he is not +afraid. As soon as he comes to manhood, he flees from Turan, followed +by the Turanians; he arrives at the banks of a river, where the +ferryman asks impossible conditions to take him over; upon which, like +Feriḍun, he crosses the river safely, but without a boat, and on dry +feet (it is the sun traversing the cloudy and gloomy ocean without +wetting himself);[309] arrived at length in Iran, he is feasted and +fêted as the future king. His reign begins; he then assigns different +tasks to different heroes, among whom is his brother Firud, born of +another mother, of whom it is said that a single hair of his head has +more strength in it than many warriors (one ray of the sun is enough +to break the darkness). One evening, however, at sunset, Firud is +killed in his castle upon the mountain, being surrounded by a crowd of +enemies, after having lost his horse, and after his mother Cerire had +dreamt that a fire had consumed both mountain and castle. His mother +Cerire (the evening aurora) throws herself among the flames with her +maids, and dies also. Kai Khosru bewails the loss of his brother Firud +all the night through, till the cock crows; when morning comes he +thinks of avenging him. + +After this, the life of Kai Khosru is consumed in battles fought by +his heroes against the Turanians. Only towards the end of his days +does he become a penitent king; he will no longer allow his subjects +to fight, and his only occupation is prayer; he takes leave of his +people and his daughters in peace, ascends a mountain, and disappears +in a tempest, leaving no trace of himself. In a similar manner the +heroes Yudhishṭhiras, Cyrus, and Romulus disappear (not to speak of +the biblical Moses, still less of Christ, as we do not wish to +complicate a comparison of which the materials are already so +extensive, by mixing up the Aryan elements with those of Semitic +origin; although the legends of the serpent, of Noah, of Abraham and +his regained wife, of Abraham and his son Isaac, of Joseph and his +brethren, of Joshua, of Job, and other and more recent biblical +heroes, by their mythical or astronomical import, present numerous +analogies with the Indo-European legends); in a similar manner, the +old sun, weary of reigning in the heavens and fighting for his life, +becomes invisible every evening on the mountain-peaks. + +The _Shahname_ contains numerous other legends besides those which we +have thus far briefly described; and one of the most notable is, +beyond a doubt, that of Isfendiar, who goes with his brother Bishutem +to deliver his two sisters, imprisoned in a fortress by the Turanian +king Ardshasp. The seven adventures of Isfendiar, _i.e._, his meeting +with the wolf, the lion, the dragon, the witch (who makes herself +beautiful, but who is no sooner bound with the enchanted necklace of +Isfendiar [the solar disc] than she becomes old and ugly again), the +gigantic bird, the tempest and the river, all of which dangers he +victoriously overcomes, are reproductions, in an analogous form too, +of the seven adventures of Rustem. + +Finally, the legend of Iskander or Iskender (the name of Alexander of +Macedon), full of extraordinary adventures, became exceedingly popular +in Persia, and thence, no doubt, passed with all its charms into Europe. +The audacity and good fortune, the glory and the power of the great +conqueror were the reasons why there grouped round his name so many +extraordinary stories, which wandered dispersedly through the world +without epic unity. To make up one glorious and never-to-be-forgotten +hero, were combined together the achievements of many anonymous or +nearly forgotten ones. The Persian _Iskendername_ of Nishâmi, is, as its +name denotes, entirely taken up with the celebration of the deeds of the +Macedonian hero, of which the most illustrious are the liberation of the +princess Nushâbe (taken prisoner by the Russians), and the voyage in +search of the fountain of life and immortality, which, however, Iskander +cannot find. From Persia the same legend afterwards passed, with new +disguises, into Egypt, Armenia, and Greece, whence it was diffused +during the middle ages over almost the whole of Western Europe.[310] + +As a bridge of transition between the Hindoo and Persian, and the Turk +or Tartar traditions, we shall make use of three works: the Turkish +version[311] of the Persian _Tuti-Name_, itself a translation and in +part a paraphrase of the Hindoo _Çuka-Saptatî_, _i.e._, the seventy +(stories) of the parrot; the Mongol stories of _Siddhi-kûr_, and the +Mongol history of _Ardshi-Bordshi Khân_,[312] the first being a +paraphrase of the Hindoo _Vetâla-Pańćavinçatî_, _i.e._, the +twenty-five of the Vetâla (a kind of demon), and the second of the +Hindoo _Vikrama-ćaritram_ (the heroic action). + +We have seen in the _Âitareya Brahmânam_ the father who prepares to +offer up his son, and in the _Mahâbhâratam_, the son who forfeits +youth that his father may live. In the _Tuti-Name_,[313] the faithful +Merdi Gânbâz prepares to sacrifice his wife and sons, and afterwards +himself, to prolong the life of the king; but his devotion and +fidelity being proved, he is arrested by God before he can accomplish +the cruel sacrifice, and receives numberless benefits from the king. + +In the story of the goldsmith and the woodcutter, the _Tuti-Name_[314] +reproduces the two brothers or friends, of whom one is wicked, rich, and +avaricious, while the other is defrauded of the money due to him, +because, though, in reality intelligent, he is supposed to be an idiot. +The woodcutter avenges himself upon the goldsmith by a plan which we +shall find described in the legend of the bear, and recovers, thanks to +his craftiness, the gold which his brother or friend had kept from him. + +In the interesting story of Merhuma,[315] we read of the wife who is +persecuted by the seducer her brother-in-law. To avenge her refusal, he +causes her to be stoned during the absence of his brother; being +innocent, she rises again from under the stones; being sheltered by a +Bedouin, a monster of a slave seduces her; being repulsed, he accuses +her of the death of the Bedouin's little son, whom he had himself +killed; the beautiful girl flees away; she frees a youth who was +condemned to death, and who in his turn seduces her. She then embarks in +a ship; while she is at sea all the sailors become enamoured of her and +wish to possess her; she invokes the god who caused Pharaoh to be +drowned and who saved Noah from the waters. The waves begin to move; a +thunderbolt descends and burns to ashes all who are in the ship, with +the exception of the beautiful girl, who lands safe and sound upon the +shore (it is the aurora coming out of the gloomy ocean of night, and the +monsters who persecute her are burned to ashes by the thunderbolts and +the sun's rays); she thence escapes into a convent, in which she +ministers to the unfortunate, cures the lame, and gives eyesight to the +blind. Among the latter is her persecutor, the brother of her husband; +she pardons him and gives him back his eyesight; in the same way she +cures all her other persecutors. It is scarcely necessary for me to +remind the reader how this oriental tale, which developed itself from +the myth of the persecuted and delivering aurora which we have seen in +the Vedic hymns, reappears in numerous very popular western legends, of +which Crescentia and Geneviève are the most brilliant types. + +The aurora comes out of the gloomy ocean and is espoused by the sun; +these heavenly nuptials in proximity to the sea gave rise to the +popular tale[316] of the king who wishes the sea with its pearls to be +present at his nuptials; the pearls of the bride-aurora are supposed +to come out of the sea of night. The sea sends as gifts to the king a +casket of pearls, a chest of precious dresses, a horse that goes like +the morning wind, and a chest full of gold. + +The wise aurora figures again in the story of the ingenious +princess[317] who discovers, by means of a story-riddle, the robbers +who, during the night, stole the precious gem destined for the king. + +The aurora imparts splendour and eyesight to the blinded sun. The story +of the three-breasted princess who, while she meditates poisoning the +blind man, in order that she may enjoy unrestrained the affections of +her young and handsome lover, relents and gives him back his sight, +reappears in a rather incomplete form in the _Tuti-Name_.[318] + +The girl who has been married to a monster, whom she flees from to +follow a handsome young lover, who, arriving at the banks of a river, +despoils her of her riches, leaves her naked and passes over to the +other side, after which she resigns herself to her fate and resolves to +return to her husband the monster,[319] represents the evening aurora, +who flees before the monster of night to follow her lover the sun, who, +in the morning, after adorning himself with her splendour, leaves her on +the shore of the gloomy ocean and runs away, the aurora being thereupon +obliged in the evening to re-unite herself to her husband the monster. +It is interesting, moreover, as bearing upon our subject, to note the +expression of which the youth who flees with the beautiful woman makes +use to express his fear of discovery. He says that the monster-husband +will follow them, and that should he sit upon the horns of the bull (the +moon) he would be sure to recognise him. The story of two young people +fleeing upon a bull, and followed by the monster, occurs again in the +Russian popular tales. By the horns of the bull, the youth means the +most prominent and visible situation; and he knows, moreover, that if +the monster overtakes them, he will be sure to demonstrate the truth of +the brave proverb which advises us in arduous undertakings to take the +bull by the horns. + +It is also the aurora who is represented by the beautiful maiden[320] +whom her father, mother, and brother have, without each other's +knowledge, severally affianced to three youths of different +professions. The three young men contend for her person, but while the +quarrel is undecided, the girl dies. The three then go to visit her +tomb; one discovers her body, the second finds that there is still +some life in her, and the third strikes her and raises her up alive, +upon which the quarrel is resumed. She flees from them, and withdraws +into another living tomb, a convent. In the most popular form of this +legend the three companions, or three brothers, fighting for the +bride, divide her; the aurora is torn into pieces as soon as the sun, +her true lover and rightful suitor, appears. + +From darkness comes forth light; from the old, the young; from death, +life; from the dust of a dead man's skull, tasted by a virgin, is born a +wonderful child, who knows how to distinguish false pearls from real, +dishonest women from honest ones[321] (the morning sun can distinguish +between light and darkness); the wise boy (the young sun) is the brother +of the wise girl (the young aurora). The flesh of a killed Brâhman is +turned into gold in another story of the _Tuti-Name_.[322] + +We have seen that the aurora and the sun are mother and son, brother +and sister, or lover and mistress. The sun in the evening dies +ignominiously, is sacrificed and hanged upon a gibbet, and with +himself sacrifices his mother or his mistress. The legend is popular +and ancient which speaks of the robber son, when about to end his life +upon a gibbet,[323] biting the nose off his mother, who gave birth to +him and brought him up badly. In the _Tuti-Name_,[324] it is the young +adulterer (and robber too) who, condemned to death for his adultery, +asks to see his mistress once more before his death and kiss her, and +who, as she does so, gratifies his revenge by inflicting upon her a +like indignity. It is remarkable how, even in the Hindoo popular tale, +the story of the adulterer is confounded with that of a thief; the +adulterer ends by being thrown into the water (the sun and the aurora +fall into the gloomy ocean of night). + +In the next story it is the wicked husband who, travelling with his +rich wife for change of dwelling-place, despoils her of her clothes, +and then throws her into a well in order to ensure possession of her +jewels and wardrobe. These riches, however, do not last long; he +becomes poor and goes begging alms, dressed as a mendicant, until he +finds his wife again, who had been saved by divine intervention from +the well, and provided anew with clothes and jewels of equal +gorgeousness. The husband passes some time with his wife, and then +sets out again on a voyage with her; he arrives at the same well, and +throws her in as before to enjoy alone her stripped-off garnitures and +riches. (The meaning of the myth is evident; it is the sun throwing +the splendid aurora into the gloomy waters of the night.) + +A king becomes enamoured of the beauteous Mahrusa;[325] his +councillors tear him from his love, upon which he pines away in +solitude and dies. The beautiful girl unites herself to him in the +grave (Romeo and Juliet, the evening aurora and the sun die together). + +The story of the three brothers, the Ṛibhavas, occurs again in the +_Tuti-Name_,[326] with other particulars which we already know. The +first brother is the wise one; the second is a maker of talismans +(amongst other things he can make a horse which will run in one day +over a space of ground that would take other horses thirty); the third +and youngest brother is the victorious archer. They set out to search +for the beautiful maiden who has fled by night from the house of her +father. The first brother discovers, by his wisdom, that the maiden +was carried off by the fairies into an island-mountain which men +cannot reach. The second creates a wonderful animal upon which to +traverse the intervening waters (Christophoros or Bhîmas). Having +arrived at the island-mountain, the third and youngest brother fights +the demon, the lord of the fairies, vanquishes him, and frees the +beautiful girl, who thereupon is conducted back to her father. Then +there arises the usual quarrel between the three brothers as to who is +to possess the bride. + +In the Vedâs, we have the sky and the moon represented as a cup. From +the little cup of abundance (the moon) it is easy to pass to the +miraculous little pipkin (the moon), in which the kind-hearted but poor +housekeeper of the Pâṇḍavas, in the _Mahâbhâratam_, still finds +abundance of vegetables, after her powers of hospitality had been +exhausted on the god Kṛishṇas disguised as a beggar--to the pipkin from +which can be taken whatever is wished for. In the _Tuti-Name_,[327] a +woodcutter finds ten magicians round a pipkin, and eating out of it as +much and whatever they want; they are pleased with the woodcutter, and, +at his request, give him the pipkin. He invites his acquaintances to a +banquet at his house, but not able to contain himself for joy, he places +the pipkin upon his head, and begins to dance. The pipkin falls to the +ground and is broken to pieces, and with it his fortune vanishes (the +story of Perrette). + +A variation of the small cup is the wooden porringer (the moon), which +two brothers (the Açvinâu) dispute for, in the history of the king of +China,[328] and from which can be taken whatever drink and food is +wished for; as, in the same story, we find the enchanted shoes which +carry us in an instant wherever we wish to go;--which brings us back +to the fugitive Vedic aurora, the swiftest in the race, and to the +popular tales relating to Cinderella, who is overtaken and found again +by the prince only when she has lost her enchanted slipper. With the +porringer and the enchanted shoes we find, in the popular tales, the +little purse full of money which fills again as fast as it is emptied +(another form of the cup of abundance), and a sword which, when +unsheathed, causes a fine, rich, and great city to arise in a desert, +which city disappears when the sword is put back into the sheath (the +solar ray is the drawn sword, which makes the luminous city of the +rich aurora arise; scarcely does the sun's ray vanish, or scarcely is +the sword sheathed, than the marvellous city vanishes). The rest of +the story is also interesting, because it applies to three men a +double and well-known fable of the animals which contend for the prey +(as the three brothers contend for the beautiful maiden whom they have +found again). The animals cannot divide it equally; they refer to the +judgment of a man passing by; he divides it so well that the animals +are ever after grateful to him, and help him in every danger. The +story of the _Tuti-Name_ touches upon this form of the myth, but soon +abandons it for another equally zoological, and a more familiar one, +that of the third who comes in between two that quarrel, and enjoys +the prey. The young adventurer undertakes to put an end to the dispute +of the two brothers as to the division of the purse, the porringer, +the sword and the wonderful shoes; he does so by putting the shoes on +his feet and fleeing away with the other three articles contended for +(the two brothers Açvinâu, the two twilights, contend for the moon and +also for the aurora, as we shall see better in the next chapter; the +sun puts an end to their quarrel by espousing her himself). + +We are already familiar with the Vedic Ṛibhavas who out of one cup make +four. Probably upon this legend depends that of the four brothers of the +_Tuti-Name_,[329] who, as they let each a pearl fall from their forehead +upon the ground, see four mines open, one of copper, the second of +silver, the third of gold (the third brother is here again the +favourite), the fourth only of iron. The gem appears to be the sun +itself. The four mines seem to me to represent respectively the coppery +sky in the evening, the silver sky in the moonlight night, the sky in +the morning, golden with the dawn, and the iron sky, the grey or azure, +of the day. The word _nîlas_ in Sanskrit means azure, as well as black, +and between azure and black is grey, the colour of iron. + +Of the three brothers, the most learned, he who solves the enigmas, is +often the eldest; and in the story of the _Tuti-Name_,[330] the eldest +of the three brothers explains why old men have white hair, saying +that this whiteness is a symbol of the clearness of their thoughts. + + * * * * * + +Let us now pass to the Calmuc and Mongol stories of _Siddhi-kûr_, +which, as we have said above, are also of Hindoo origin. + +In the first story, the three companions, forming at first three +groups of two, have resolved into six. The night-time is divided into +three, into six, into seven (six, _plus_ an extraordinary one, born +afterwards), into nine (three groups of three), into twelve (three +groups of four). Hence, near the monster with three, six, seven, nine, +or twelve heads, we find sometimes three, sometimes six, seven, nine, +twelve brother-heroes. The last head (or the last two, three, or four +heads) of the monster, the decisive one, is the most difficult, and +even dangerous, to cut off; the last of the brothers is he who, by +cutting it off, is victorious. In the first Calmuc story of +_Siddhi-kûr_, six brothers or companions separate where six rivers +take their rise, and go in search of fortune. The first-born perishes; +the second, by means of his wisdom (he partakes of the wisdom of the +first-born, with whom he is grouped), discovers the place where the +dead one is buried; the third, the strong one, breaks the rock under +which the eldest is hidden; the fourth resuscitates him by means of a +health-bringing drink, as Bhîmas, the strong hero of the +_Mahâbhâratam_, arises again when he drinks the water of health and +strength; the fifth brother creates a bird, which the sixth colours; +this bird flies to the bride of the eldest brother, and brings her +among his companions, who, finding her exceedingly beautiful, become, +one and all, enamoured of her; they fight for her, and, that each may +have a part, end by cutting her to pieces. We already know the +mythical meaning of this legend. + +The third and fourth Calmuc tales introduce explicitly the bull and +the cow. In the third, a man who possesses but one cow unites himself +to her, in order to make her fruitful. Of this union a tailed monster +is born, having a man's body and a bull's head. The man-bull +(Minotauros) goes into the forest, where he finds three +companions--one black, one green, and one white--who accompany him. +The man-bull overcomes the enchantments of a dwarf witch; his three +companions lower him into a well and leave him there, but he escapes. +He meets a beautiful maiden drawing water, at whose every footstep a +flower arises; he follows her, and finally finds himself in heaven; he +fights against the demons, in favour of the gods, and dies in this +enterprise. This story, of Hindoo origin, where the bull and the cow +take the place of the hero and the maiden, appears to me to justify +the amplitude of the comparisons. + +We have already seen the beneficial qualities of the excrement of the +cow. In the fourth story, it is under the excrement of a cow that the +enchanted gem, lost by the daughter of the king, is found. It is of +the cow that the pearl is the secretion. The moon-cow and the +aurora-cow are rich in pearls; they are pearls themselves, like the +sun; the sun comes out of the aurora, the pearl comes out of the cow. + +The subject of the seventh tale is the three sisters who, taking the +cattle to pasture, lose a buffalo, or black bull. In their search for +it, they came across an enchanted castle, tenanted by a white bird, +who offers to marry them. The third sister consents, and marries him. +The bird turns out then to be a handsome cavalier (a form of +Lohengrin). But having, by the advice of a witch, burned the aviary, +she loses him, and cannot recover him till the aviary is restored. We +shall see the sun as a bird in the Vedic hymns; the aurora is the +aviary, made of flames, of this divine bird. When the aviary is burned +at morn, the aurora and the sun separate; they meet again in the +evening, when the aviary is reconstructed. + +Another beautiful myth of analogous import occurs again in the eighth +story. A woodman and a painter envy each other; the painter makes the +king believe that the woodman's father, who is in heaven, has written +ordering his son to repair to paradise, in order to build him a temple, +and to take the route that the painter shall indicate. The king orders +the woodman to set out for paradise. The painter prepares a funeral +pyre, by way of exit; from this the woodman succeeds in escaping, and, +going back to the king, he tells him that he has been to paradise, and +presents a letter which his father has given him, ordering the painter +to come by the same road, and paint the temple. The king requires the +summons to be obeyed, and the perfidious painter perishes in the flames. +The morning sun emerges safe and sound from the flames of the morning +aurora; the evening sun passes through those flames, and dies. + +The tenth Calmuc tale gives us the myth of the two brothers; the rich +one avaricious and wicked, and the poor one virtuous. The story ends +in a manner analogous to that of the dying adulterer, who, as we have +seen in the _Tuti-Name_, bites off his mistress's nose. + +The eleventh story is a variation of that of the lover, or husband, +who abandons or kills his wife, after having despoiled her of her +riches; but instead of the waters of the sea, we have here the sea of +sand, the sandy desert, in a cavity of which is deposited the young +girl, shut up in a chest, the same chest which in other popular tales +drifts about on the surface of the water.[331] But into the place +where it was laid, the chest having been taken away by a young prince, +a tiger enters; the unworthy husband turns up himself to abstract the +chest, and is torn to pieces by the tiger. The sterile night is a vast +desert, a sea of waters, a sea of sand; the sun-prince frees the +aurora from the waters, out of the well, or the cavern of the desert; +the tiger kills the monster-husband. + +In the twelfth tale, a thief steals the enchanted gem from the prince; +he throws the gem to the ground, the consequence of which is that the +prince's nose bleeds so excessively that he dies. The nose is the most +prominent part of the face, the most conspicuous and splendid part; it +is the gem of the sun-prince. The sun falls at night upon the +mountain; the gem falls to the ground; the prince's nose bleeds; he +has struck his nose against the ground, and it bleeds. The sun-prince +dies, and the evening sky is tinged red, blood-colour; the sun, who +loses his blood in the evening, dies. + +The thirteen Calmuc stories are followed by ten Mongol tales; in all, +twenty-three, of which the sixteenth, however, is lost. + +The fourteenth tells us of the rich and avaricious man whose poor +brother goes in despair into the forest to die upon a rock; but his +presence not being known to the spirits, he has the good luck to come +upon a hammer and a sack, of which the former, when struck against an +object, produces whatever is desired by the owner, the latter being +used to carry away the objects thus obtained, this hammer and this +sack having been left there by the hobgoblins. Thus the poor brother +becomes rich, and is envied by the other, who goes to the same place, +in hopes of experiencing the same good fortune; but as he does not +hide himself, the hobgoblins see him, and believing him to be the man +who stole the hammer and the sack, avenge themselves upon him by +lengthening his nose, and covering it with protuberances. To this myth +may perhaps be referred the origin of the Italian expression, "Restare +con uno o due palmi di naso," to remain with one or two spans of the +nose; that is to say, to be laughed at, and with the gesture by which +derision is accompanied, and which is addressed to the man who is +laughed at, by applying one or sometimes both hands to the end of +one's nose. The poor brother, now rich, visits the miserly brother, +who has a long nose covered with protuberances, and knocks them off +with his hammer. He had already knocked off eight, and only one +remained, when, at his wife's request, he desisted and left the last +one on. The rich man's wife, seeing how the protuberances had been +taken off by striking them, tries herself to remove the last one, and +strikes it with a hammer; but not calculating her aim accurately, she +splits her husband's head open, and he dies. + +In the seventeenth Mongol story, an old man and an old woman have nine +cows. The old man is fond of meat, and eats all the calves; the old +woman, on the other hand, has a great liking for milk and butter, with +which she satiates herself. When the old man has eaten all the calves, +he thinks that one cow more or less will not affect his wealth; +reasoning thus, he eats all the cows except one, which he spares out +of respect for the whim of his old wife. But one day that the old +woman is out, the old man cannot resist the temptation, and kills the +last cow. His wife returns, is angry, and abandons him, upon which he +throws after her one of the cow's breasts. The woman, in grateful +memory of the milk and butter she liked so much, takes it up and goes +up the mountain, where she strikes the cow's breast against the summit +of the rock, and thereupon there flow out milk and butter in rivers. +She satisfies her appetite, and then remembers that her husband is +perhaps dying of hunger, feeding, as he does, upon ashes; she +therefore, but secretly, throws butter into the house down the +chimney, and then disappears. In this attention the old man recognises +the love of his wife, and resolves upon the plan of following her +footsteps during the night upon the snow. He comes to the mountain, +sees the breast, and cannot resist the temptation it offers; he eats +it, and takes the butter away with him. The old woman wanders about +till she comes upon a herd of deer, who pasture freely, and who, +instead of fleeing, let themselves be milked. Again, she thinks of her +husband, and she throws deer's butter down the chimney. The old man +follows her over the snow, finds her near the deer, and kills them in +his inordinate passion for meat. The old woman continues to wander +about, and stumbles this time upon a cavern of the wild beasts, +guarded by a hare. The hare defends her from the wild beasts; but she +then conceives the idea of giving her husband a stick, and throws it +down the chimney whilst he is taking the ashes up with a spoon. He +follows her, and comes to the cave of the wild animals, who, seeing +them arrive together, tear them to pieces. Here again we have the myth +of the sun and the aurora (or the fine season); the hare who guards +the cavern and tames the wild beasts is, as we shall see in the +chapter which treats of it, the moon, the cows and the deer being the +same. The ferocious animals of the cavern of night rend both sun and +aurora (or fine season), both old man and old woman. + +The eighteenth Mongol story is too indecent for me to relate, or for +the reader to peruse; suffice it to say, that we have in it a comic +variation of the Amazon heroine, and that this heroine calls herself +Sûrya (the sun) Bagatur (to which corresponds the bagatír; or hero, of +the Russians). + +In the twentieth tale we have a calf and a lion's whelp brought up +together by a lioness upon the same milk.[332] When grown, the lion +goes and inhabits the forest, or the desert, and the bull, the +mountain illumined by the sun, meeting as good friends and brothers to +drink the same water. This good understanding is, however, put an end +to by their perfidious uncle the fox, who persuades the lion to +believe that the bull designs to kill him, and adds that when the bull +in the morning strikes the ground with his horns, and bellows loudly, +will be the sign that he is going to carry his purpose into effect; he +then tells the bull that the lion has a similar design against him. In +the morning, when the two brothers, bull and lion, go to drink the +same water, they approach each other with suspicion, engage in battle +and kill each other, the fox, or wolf, being the only one to benefit +by the quarrel. This is a form of the story of the two twilights (the +Açvinâu), which we shall illustrate in the following chapter. + +The beginning of the twenty-first Mongol story offers a new analogy +with the apologue of Perrette.[333] A poor father and mother find a +little lamb's-wool; they consult together, and resolve with the wool +to make cloth, and with the cloth to buy an ass. Upon this ass they +will place their little child, and go a-begging; by begging they will +become yet richer, and buy another ass. Of the two, a young ass will +be born. The youngster immediately exclaims that if a young donkey is +born he will ride upon it; whereupon his mother answers, "You would +break its back," when, accompanying these words with the movement of a +stick, she strikes the youngster's head with it, and kills him; with +him the fine projects of the poor parents also vanish. + +In the last of the stories of _Siddhi-kûr_, which is joined to the +three legends of the grateful animals, the disguises, and the laughing +princess, a man uses the horns of his dead buffalo to grub up the +roots upon which he lives in exile. + +The history of _Ardshi-Bordshi_ also contains several interesting +stories. + +It begins with a challenge among the children who keep the king's cows +to run a race from the summit of a mountain. The first who comes to +the winning-post is honoured as a king by his companions for that day, +and acts and judges on the spot where the race takes place as a real +king; indeed, he judges and decides as a court of final appeal on +cases which have not been well examined by the great king of the +country. He unmasks and convicts robbers and false witnesses acquitted +by the king as innocent, and sends a missive to the king, recommending +him to be more cautious in future in his judgments, or else to resign +his royal dignity. The great king wonders at the extraordinary wisdom +of the king of the children, and ascribes his preternatural sagacity +to the magical influence of the mountain where the children who guard +the cows play their games. On another occasion, the king of the +children, by his craftiness, detects a demon in one whom the king had +thought to be the legitimate son of his minister. The discovery is +made by means of a challenge to the minister's real son and his +demoniacal counterfeit to get into a small jug at hand. The real son +cannot; but the supposititious makes himself small and enters the jug, +in which the king of the children shuts him up with a diamond, and +administers thereupon fresh reproof to the great king for his +carelessness. The great king then visits the mountain of the children, +and sees a golden throne with thirty-two steps emerge from the ground; +upon each step there is a wooden puppet (the moon). The great king has +the throne carried into his palace, and endeavours to ascend it; the +puppets arrest him, and one of them tells him that this was once the +throne of the god Indras, and afterwards of King Vikramâdityas. The +great king inclines himself in reverence, and one of the puppets +begins to narrate the history of Vikramâdityas. + +The history of Vikramâdityas, narrated by the puppets, refers to a wise +child, born of the wife of the king, after she had eaten a cake made of +earth mixed with oil, and dissolved in water in a porcelain vase (of +which cake the servant-maid eats the remainder). The young Vikramâdityas +passes his infancy in the forests, where he learns all the arts, not +excluding the art of thieving, taught him by the most experienced +robbers, as well as every kind of mercantile fraud; by cheating, he +becomes possessed of an enchanted gem which was in the hip of a dead +man, and of a child who has the faculty of understanding the language of +the wolves, and who calls himself son of the wolves, but was, in fact, +born by the roadside of the maid who had eaten the rest of the cake; +this child is nursed by his mother, and although at first ill-favoured, +becomes in the long run very handsome. Vikramâdityas afterwards kills +the king of the demons in battle, in which it is remarkable that as many +new demons arise to combat him as there are pieces into which the hero +cuts the demon, until the hero multiplies himself in his turn, and to +every demon opposes a lion sprung from his own body. Vikramâdityas +mounts upon a throne where those who had sat before him had all +perished, each after a reign of twenty-four hours, because they had +omitted to offer up funeral sacrifices to the dead during the night; +Vikramâdityas, with his companion, the son of the wolf, fulfils the +sacred duty, and escapes death. + +In the same story, which reminds us of the _Ṛibhavas_ and the four cups +and the cow, four young shepherds, one after another, work at the same +piece of wood; one gives it the general shape of a woman, the second +colours it, the third imparts the features peculiar to the feminine +form, and the fourth gives it life; they then dispute for her person. +The case is referred to the king; a wise man pronounces that the two +first who worked the wood are the father and mother, the third is the +priest, the fourth, who gave it life, is the legitimate husband. Thus +the four become three, by making a group of the first two. + +Next comes the legend of the wife who, taking her husband by the feet, +makes him fall into a fountain, because she hears a melodious voice, +perhaps an echo of her own, which charms her; she sees a monster +instead, and bewails her lost husband. In zoological mythology, the +fable of the dog who, at the sight of his own shadow, lets the meat +drop into the river, is analogous to this legend, which, however, we +introduce here, only because of its relation to the similar stories of +the wife who kills her husband, and of the husband who kills his wife +by throwing her into the water, already vaguely hinted at in the Vedic +hymns. + +The last of the tales contained in the history of _Ardshi Bordshi_ +shows us, on the other hand, a far too complaisant wife. A king has a +daughter, named Light of the sun, who is to be seen by no one. The +daughter asks to be allowed to go out into the city to walk on the +15th of the month (at full moon); this granted, the king orders every +one to stay that day in his house, and all the doors and windows to be +shut; and capital punishment is the penalty of disobeying the king's +command. (The like occurs again in the British legend of Godiva, the +Countess of Mercia, in the eleventh century.) A minister, Ssaran by +name (moon), cannot repress his curiosity, and observes her from a +balcony; the girl makes signs to him, inviting him to join her; the +wife of the inquisitive minister interprets the signs to him, and +urges him to overtake the beautiful girl, giving him, at parting, a +pearl of recognition. Light of the sun and Light of the moon meet at +the foot of a tree, and spend the night until sunrise in amorous +dalliance. One of the persons employed to guard the princess discovers +this intrigue, and denounces it before the king; the wife of the +minister Ssaran ascertains, by means of the pearl, that her husband is +in danger; she rejoins him, disguises and disfigures him, suggesting a +formula of oath by which Light of the sun swears that it was the +monster, and the monster only she embraced; which seeming impossible +to the king and courtiers, the minister Ssaran and Light of the sun +are acquitted. (The aurora, or the sun, hides during the night, and no +one sees, no one is allowed to see her; the god Lunus shows himself; +he remains during the night with the sun, or with the solar aurora, +whom no one can see during the night; the god Lunus then transforms +and disfigures himself, so that he becomes unrecognisable, invisible; +the guilty one glides away, and escapes; it then seems impossible that +the god Lunus, who is no longer seen, can have been with the light of +the sun; their loves having come to an end, the adulterers being +separated, their guilt is no longer believed, their innocence is +recognised, and the morality of the myth is left to take care of +itself as best it can.) + +But the Calmuc and Mongol stories _Siddhi-kûr_, and the history of +_Ardshi Bordshi_, being, as they are, only paraphrases of Hindoo +tales, would not alone suffice to prove the derivation from the +zoological legends of Aryan mythology of the oral Turco-Finnic +tradition, properly speaking. We must, therefore, search for the +proofs of their influence in other quarters as well. + +A Turanian story of the south of Siberia[334] combines together +several of the mythical subjects which we are already acquainted with. + +A poor old man and woman have three sons; the three sons go upon the +mountain to dream; the two eldest dream of riches, and the third dreams +that his father and mother are lean camels, his brothers two hungry +wolves running towards the mountains, while he himself, between the sun +and the moon, wears the morning star upon his forehead. The father +orders the brothers to kill him; they dare not do so; they only expel +him from the house, and kill the dog instead, the blood of which they +take to their father, who, thinking it is his son's, says they have done +well. The young man wanders about till he comes to a hut where a lame +old man and a blind old woman are eating out of a golden cup, which of +itself fills with meat as they empty it (the moon). The hungry youth +helps himself to some of this meat, but the old man finds, as he +continues to eat the food, that some one has put his teeth into it; with +a hook, which he whirls around him, he clutches hold of the young man, +who begs for his life, pledging himself to be the eye of her who has no +eyes, and the foot of him who has no feet. This proposal pleases the old +couple, and they adopt him as their son; he makes himself a bow and a +wooden arrow, and goes to hunt wildfowl for their support. The old man +lends him his iron-grey horse, one day old, but advises him to ride him +only by day; the young man, thinking that by night he conceals +treasures, cattle, and people, disobeys, and rides by night. What the +horse then does we shall see in the next chapter. The youth fights and +vanquishes the demon, by fastening one of his lips to the heavens, and +the other to the earth; the defeated demon advises him to rub himself +with the fat of his stomach; inside his stomach he will find a casket of +silver, inside that a casket of gold, and inside that another casket of +silver; he is to take it and throw it into the sea of milk. From the +monster's stomach, cut open, come forth innumerable animals, men, +treasures, and other objects. Some of the men say, "What noble man has +delivered us from the black night? what noble man has shown us the clear +day?" The youth finds in the caskets money and a white handkerchief, +which he puts into his pocket; from the last casket come forth more men, +animals, and valuables of every kind; he drives the white cattle before +him and returns home, where the old couple are asleep. He opens the +handkerchief, and finds in it the old woman's eyes; whilst he is smoking +near the fire, the old people waken, see him, and embrace him. The old +man then endows him with the power of transforming himself into a fox, a +wolf, a lion, a vulture, and other shapes, at will. He goes, to find for +himself a wife, to the residence of the prince Ai-Kan; the latter +promises to give his daughter to whoever will bring him the necessary +amount of gold. It is in the shape of a vulture[335] that the young man +sets out to search for it; he then wins the young maiden who has the +gold, and she, who is herself the daughter of Ai-Kan, says to him, "Thou +art my husband." After various other transformations, in one of which +the two lean camels reappear, _i.e._, his two parents, of whom he had +dreamt, whom he loads with a sack, he ends by taking to himself another +wife, the daughter of Kün-Kan, and he lives now with one, now with the +other, to whom he gives the flesh of his own infanticide father to eat. +Let us recapitulate the moments of this significant legend:--1st, We +have the presage, the dream of the mountain-peak; 2d, The three +brothers, the third of whom, predestined to good fortune, the others +wish to sacrifice; 3d, The lame and the blind in the forest; 4th, The +hero's hunt; 5th, The struggle with the monster of night; 6th, The +treasures, spiritual and material, which come out of the monster; 7th, +The cattle in conjunction with the sea of milk; 8th, The passage of the +hero from the milky sea to the fireside, from the alba to the aurora, +from the whitish sky to the reddish one; 9th, The awakening of the +sleepers, and restoration of sight to the blind, whilst he sits by the +fire, whilst the sun is united to the aurora; 10th, The transformation +of the hero himself; 11th, Winning his bride, by procuring the necessary +amount of gold; 12th, His marriage of two wives; 13th, His revenge on +his persecuting father. The legend is in itself an epic poem, and we can +only regret that the Altaic story-tellers did not give it a more +artistic form than that in which it appears in the excellent collection +of Radloff. + +Another interesting Turanian story, in the same collection, which +preserves several traces of the primitive myth, is another version of +the story of the hero who solves the riddle proposed by his +father-in-law, and thus wins his wife. A father has three sons; the +first-born dreams that their cow has devoured a wolf; he goes to see, +and finds it is true (the aurora destroys the night). We have already +seen that, as the third brother is the wise child, so the first-born +of the three is often the one who possesses the secret of solving +riddles. The father of the three brothers wishes to obtain a wife for +his first-born son, and the bride's father, to give her up, demands +that the bridegroom's father should come to take her, arriving, the +first time, with a fur-coat and without one (in the morning the old +man, by the advice of the eldest son, departs wearing a coat of fur +which seems to be one, but is not, being in reality a coat of mail), +and coming, the second time, without touching the road, yet not off +the road, on horseback, yet without horses (the old man, by the advice +again of his first-born son, arrives at the father-in-law's abode, +going on the side of the road, and riding on a stick; thus he obtains +permission to take the bride away for his son). + +Professor Schiefner gives a Finnic variation of the same story. A king +orders the son of a peasant to come neither by day nor by night, +neither by the road nor by the road-side, neither on horseback nor on +foot, neither dressed nor naked, neither inside nor outside. The +intelligent boy makes a robe of goat's skin, goes to the city lying +in the bottom of a coffin, during the morning twilight, having a sieve +fastened to one foot, and a brush to the other, and stops on the +doorstep of the antechamber, with one leg out and the other in. + +Such was the humour, and such the wisdom of our fathers; ingenuity was +measured by skill in solving astronomical riddles. Now the riddles have +taken another form; they are strokes of diplomacy, amorous hieroglyphs, +ethical ambiguities, metaphysical nebulosities, which we, the men of +progress, must solve; but not wishing to acknowledge our inferiority in +acuteness to the children of the legends, we are fain to persuade +ourselves that the new riddles are more obscure than the ancient. + +In the Vedic riddles proposed to one another by the aurora and the sun, +we have seen how they were solved in the morning by the nuptials of the +guesser and the guessee. Thus in the two riddles which we have just +described, the son of the old man and the child solve the riddle in the +morning. As to the sieve, the brush, and the coffin, they are mythical +furniture of great interest and obvious import. The nocturnal sky is the +great coffin; to sweep the sky of night, we must have a brush; to sunder +the good grain from the bad during the night, as the cruel mother-in-law +commands, we must have a sieve; the child-sun arrives, in the twilight, +in the bottom of the coffin, at the doorstep of the royal palace, and +presents to the maiden aurora (the Vedic cleaner or purifier) the brush +and the sieve. The sun, at twilight, is neither in nor out. In the +second Scottish story of Mr J. F. Campbell, the giant commands the hero, +among other things, to cleanse, in one day, the stables which had not +been cleansed for seven years (Heraklés and Augeias). + +But let us continue our subject, for the path is a long one. + +A Mongol tradition, contained in the _Mongol Crestomathy_ of +Papoff,[336] speaks of the boy who comes riding upon a black ox, +instead of in a coffin. + +We have seen above the cow who eats the wolf; in another Altaic legend +we find an old woman who gives up her seven azure (dark-coloured) cows +to be eaten by the seven wolves, in order that the latter may spare the +child Kan Püdai, whom she had found at the foot of a tree; meanwhile the +child, who has fed upon two hundred hares,[337] has become strong, and +breaks his iron cradle (the iron sky of night is the cradle of the young +sun); from the horns of six roebucks he makes himself a bow; from the +skin of a colossal marine animal (the cloud, the gloomy one), he makes a +string for the bow (the string of the Hindoo bow is also called _go_, +_i.e._, cow, as a cloud in the sky, and as being formed from the hide of +a cow); he rides upon the azure calf (the dark calf, which recalls our +attention to the black ox, and leads us to conclude the colossal animal +to have been a cow), and subdues and tames it; he then comes to a field +of snow, upon which he breathes a black and numbing wind, and where he +finds the seven wolves; he ties them to the tail of his calf, and drags +them along the ground till they die. The boy continues his wild beast +hunt; he kills the black and fat ones, and leaves the yellow and lean +ones alone. He goes into a black sea, and erects there a black castle, +into which he receives both the old woman who had sustained him, and his +azure (_i.e._, dark-coloured) calf. Thereafter the young Kan Püdai, +applying himself to warfare, forsakes or exchanges his calf for a horse. +We shall see in the next chapter what he does with his horse;--suffice +it to notice here, that, in the end, he meets the black bull, who will +one day be the king of the Altaï. The soul of the black bull takes +refuge in a red thread in the middle of the rainbow (in the popular +belief of the East the rainbow was supposed to be a bridge, a road +traversed by the souls of mortals); the young Kan Püdai transfixes it +with his arrows. He wins the white cattle, kills the monstrous Kara +Kula, and, taking the latter's wife and daughter with him, returns home; +and for seven days there is eating, drinking, and festivity in the house +of Kan Püdai. But up to this point it is not said that he has espoused +the daughter and the wife of Kara Kula. Kan Püdai is, on the contrary, +passionately enamoured of Tämän Ökö, the daughter of the sky (duhitar +divas, or daughter of the sky, is the name usually given to the aurora +in the Vedic hymns), and ascends, in order to secure her and make her +his wife, to the third heaven (it is the third step of Vishṇus; it is +the third brother, the sun of the third night-watch, who carries off the +palm against the gloomy monster). In order to become worthy of the +daughter of the sky, Kan Püdai has to kill two monsters; to scatter +ashes on the field of victory, and lead away from it the white cattle; +to catch the three bears; to take the three black bulls and make them +swallow three hills; to take the tiger and give it the grass of the +three mountains to eat; to kill the whale in the azure sea (all +different forms of one and the same mythical and heroic battle); and, +finally, to play upon the mountain-peak with the golden-haired monster +Andalma. He then obtains his bride, and returns with her to his own +country, where he hunts, and makes war, and vanquishes all his enemies, +until he grows old; he then renounces all except his old companion (the +old sun and the old aurora meet again in the evening). + +Here evidently the mythology is really zoological. + +In the complicated legend of Ai-Kan, we have in the brother Altyn +Ayak, who sleeps in the form of a golden cup, and who awakens to help +Ai-Kan, a figure which, though not the same as, is similar to, that of +the sleeping brother Kumbhakarṇas (conch-ear) in the _Râmâyaṇam_, who +awakens to help Râvaṇas. We have the inebriating liquor which gives +strength to the hero, who is resuscitated three times from death, +after having been the food of dogs; the wolves who devour Sary-Kan, or +the fair-haired prince; the hero (the sun) who beats the wife (the +aurora) given him by the two brothers (the Açvinâu); the friendly dog +and cat; the golden cup in which the brother of Ai-Kan is shut up +asleep, and which falls into the sea; the grateful animals which +search for the cup; the gem found in the stomach of a fish (from the +whale of the nocturnal ocean the gem comes forth); and the consequent +awakening of the sleeping Altyn Ayak. + +The following is from an Altaic saga, in the collection of +Radloff:--Beyond the sea, on a rock surrounded with treasures, a dwarf +girl is brought up, against whom aggressive warriors can prevail +nothing. She sends all enemies away, after loading them with gold and +silver, and placing on their heads part of the hair of her forehead, +which proves to be sufficient to cover seven men. In this marvellous +hair, in this enchanted maiden, and in the warriors who come by sea, +who does not recognise the veil of the maiden aurora of the Vedâs, who +uncovers her bosom before the sun her husband, and the sea which the +warrior-sun crosses, and from which he emerges to come to the +aurora?--who does not recognise the golden fleece, Jason, Medea, the +Argonauts of Hellenic tradition? + +In the Finnic mythology of the _Kalevala_[338] also, we have upon the +mountain a good and pure hostess, a generous giver, from the golden +windows of whose house are observed the women who give the wildfowl; +but in this Finnic representation, it is not the heroic girl-aurora, +it seems to me, we recognise, but the moon, Diana the huntress (the +German _Helljäger_), who also appears on the mountain-peak, surrounded +by the stars of the nocturnal forest, where the wildfowl is found, +which she can therefore lavish upon the hero. + +The Finns worship a thundering god, united with the clouds, who has +the thunderbolt for his sword, and who is called Ukko,[339] father of +Väinämöinen, the valorous and wise hero, who speaks in the womb of his +mother, who performs prodigies when yet a child, and who produces the +sun and the moon. + +This child-hero occurs again in their dwarf-god (_pikku mies_), who, +although, like the Hindoo Vishṇus, he is but a span long, wields in his +hand an axe the length of a man, with which he cuts down an oak-tree +that no one had yet been able to bring to the ground. The sun-hero is +little; but his ray, his thunderbolt, his weapon, his hand, lengthen +themselves, extend themselves as far as the dwarf-hero can desire, in +order to destroy the enemy, who wears here the well-known aspect of the +trunk of a tree, or of a dark forest. The woodcutter is therefore a +favourite figure in popular tradition. And the fact that Väinämöinen, +having grown old and truthful in speech, cuts down in the +_Kalevala_,[340] by the help of the little god, the prodigious oak, +shows us that this little god is a new and junior form, a younger and +victorious brother, or self-reproduction of the erewhile child-hero +Väinämöinen, who has lived his life of a day. The valiant child-sun of +morning has become the experienced old sun of evening; but as this old +sun is not strong enough to cut down the oak-tree, under whose shadow he +loses himself, he is obliged to become a child again to develope the +requisite amount of strength; he needs a younger brother, a hero or +dwarf-god, to free him from the evil shades of the forest of night. To +this end he also invokes the sun and the moon to illumine the forest, +and also the bear (the middle brother)--(in the _Kalevala_, of the three +heroes it is the bear Ilmarinen who shows the greatest strength, and who +wins the virgin for his bride)--in order that by his strength he may +root up the tree. But to root up the tree is all that bears can do, +while Väinämöinen wishes it to be cut down; and so this victorious +enterprise is intrusted to the dwarf-god. Thus, without explicit mention +of their names, we find the three brothers described in the entirely +mythical epopee of the Finns. + +Alongside of the dwarf, by force of antithesis, there arises, even in +the Finnic mythology, the idea of a giant, a Titan who amuses himself +with uplifting and hurling rocks and mountains. The cloud, the monster +of darkness, being represented as a mountain, the monster inhabiting +this country must fight by means of the mountain itself. The cloudy +mountain moves; it is a giant monster that moves it; it is the second +brother, the strong brother, the son of the cow, the bear, who amuses +himself with it, who shakes, carries, and throws it like a weapon. And +such mythical battles must have seemed so much the more natural in the +age in which the greater number of the myths were conceived and +produced, as we know it to have been the age which archæologists call +the age of stone. The sun, as a dwarf, destroys the vast cloud, the +vast darkness, viewed as a giant. + +But battles are not always going on in the heavens; even the wild +animals of the gloomy forest become tame and rest themselves; music +fills the soul with calm sentiments. Therefore even the warrior +Gandharvâs of the Hindoo Olympus are transformed into expert +musicians, who entrance the very gods with wonder. The song of the +Sirens attracts and seduces the traveller; the lyre of Orpheus draws +after it mountains, trees, and animals; the harp of Väinämöinen, in +the _Kalevala_, makes the wolf forget his ferocity, the bear his +wildness, the fish his coldness. And it is grief which is the first +inspirer of song; the first stanza of the poet Vâlmîkis had its origin +in the sorrow he felt upon seeing a bird bereft of its companion. +Orpheus (the Thracian sun) sings and plays for grief, when the serpent +(the shade of night) has bitten and thrown into the gloomy regions his +sweet bride Eurydice (the aurora), and moves the demons to pity; the +harp of Väinämöinen is also born of sorrow.[341] + +The epopee of the Finns contains, moreover, several other myths cognate +with those of Aryan mythical tradition;--such as the resuscitated hero; +the winning of the maiden by display of heroism; the bride heroically +won and afterwards cut in pieces; the cup of abundance, or the +cornucopia (the Sampo); the golden cradle; the marvellous vessel in +which the hero crosses the sea; the three sisters, of whom one gives +black milk, one white, and one red (night, the alba or moon, and +aurora); the invulnerable shirt; the magician who makes children of gold +and silver; and others of secondary importance,[342] but all tending to +prove that formerly the Turanian and Aryan races, in their neighbouring +abodes, were originally much more similar to each other than they now +appear, on account of partly diversity of language, and partly their +different degrees of civilisation. + +I have just named the Finnish Sampo as a cup of abundance or +cornucopia; it does, in fact, yield marvellous abundance to whoever +possesses it, and wherever it falls. It is made of the feather of a +swan, or of a duck (the swan and the duck are, as we shall see, +confounded together in tradition, and the duck, like the hen, is a +symbol of abundance), of a tuft of wool, of a grain of corn, and of +chips from a spindle, all evident symbols of abundance; and it becomes +so large that it has to be carried by a hundred-horned ox (reminding +us of the horns of the cow which spin). The ox bears abundance upon +its horns, it yields abundance from its horns. The cornucopia is, in +my mind, unmistakably implied in these mythical data. + +The same mythical correspondence which we have found to exist between +the Finnic epos and the various legendary Aryan traditions is observable +between the latter and the Esthonian popular tales. In the collection of +Frederic Kreuzwald[343] we find numerous proofs of this correspondence. + +In the first story we have, in a hut in the forest, three sisters, of +whom the youngest is the most beautiful. The old witch, her +step-mother, persecutes her, and always gives her filaments of gold to +spin, hiding from time to time the gold she has spun in a secret room. +During the summer the old woman goes out of the house, no one knows +where, after having apportioned their respective tasks to the three +sisters. While the old woman is out, a young prince, having lost +himself in the forest, finds his way to the hut, and becomes enamoured +of the youngest of the three sisters. The young couple speak to each +other of love in the light of the moon and of the stars; while the old +king, impatient at the absence of his son, falls into grief, and sends +everywhere to look for him. After three days he is found; before going +back to the palace, he secretly promises to the youngest sister that +he will return. Meanwhile the old woman comes back, finds the work +badly done, curses, threatens, and maltreats the girl. Early in the +morning, while the old woman and the two elder sisters are slumbering, +the maiden slips out, and leaves the house. During her childhood she +had learned the language of birds; accordingly, when she meets a crow, +she salutes him by the name of "bird of light," and sends him as a +messenger to the young prince, to warn him not to come back to see +her, on account of the fury of the old woman. The prince then names +her another trysting-place, and the young couple meet under a tree, +between the second and third crowing of the cock; and when the sun +rises, they flee away together. The old witch causes them to be +followed by a ball made of nine evil herbs, and carried by malignant +winds. The fugitives are overtaken on the banks of a river, where the +ball strikes the prince's horse; it rears up on its hind legs, and the +girl falls off into the river, into the hands of a marine monster; +upon which the prince is struck by a disease which no one can cure. By +eating the flesh of a hog, the prince acquires a knowledge of the +language of birds; he sends the swallows as messengers to the magician +of Finland, that he may teach him the way to free a girl who has been +transformed into a pond-rose (lotus-flower). The answer, instead of +being brought by the swallows, is brought by an eagle. The prince must +become a shrimp, in order to enter the water without being drowned; he +must detach the lotus by its root, draw it along the surface of the +water to the bank, near a stone, and pronounce these words, "From the +pond-rose, a maiden--from the shrimp, a man." The crow confirms the +eagle's words. The prince hears a song issue from the rose; he then +determines to deliver the girl. The two young people emerge together +from the water. The maiden is ashamed of being naked, and the prince +goes to procure nuptial robes for her; after which he conducts her to +the palace in a beautiful chariot, where a joyous and gorgeous +wedding-festival is celebrated. Soon afterwards the old witch dies, to +appear again in the form of a cat, which is taken by the tail and +flung into the fire. In the witch's house are found mountains of spun +gold, which serve for the dowry of the three sisters. We have already +said that the three sisters correspond to the three brothers, and the +youngest sister to the youngest brother. The epithet of _young_ is +often given to the Vedic aurora, whom the sun marries. Here the prince +marries the youngest of the three sisters; the morning aurora is +united to the sun. Towards night she falls into the water; it is the +witch (night) who throws her in; the hog which the prince (the sun) +eats we shall see to be a figurative representation of the nocturnal +monster, or the moon. Eating the hog, staying in the forest of night, +the prince learns the language of birds. The prince frees the maiden +from the waters; the sun delivers the aurora from the gloomy ocean of +night, and robes her in his splendour, causing the witch of night to +be burned in the flames of the aurora, and taking from the witch's +abode the spun gold or golden fleece. + +In the third Esthonian story, a woman, called mother-of-gold, bears, +by the favour of a dwarf, three dwarf-sons at the same time, who +become three heroes. The first is the seer (the wise brother), the +second has a ready arm (the strong brother), the third runs swiftly in +the race (a quality distinctive of the third brother, Arǵunas, in the +_Mahâbhâratam_, and which is applicable to the victorious sun of +morning, who wins the race, together with the aurora). + +A variation of the story relating to the youngest sister and the dwarf +is that of the girl seven years old, the wise girl (the aurora), in the +fourth Esthonian tale, who, being persecuted by her step-mother, retires +into the forest (the night). While there, it seems to her that she is in +heaven, where, in a house of crystal and pearls, she is received by a +well-dressed woman of gold (the fair-haired moon). The girl asks the +golden woman to be allowed to take care of the cattle, like the cowmaid +aurora. In the history of _Ardshi Bordshi_ we have seen the wise +puppet. This form of the wise girl, the dressed girl of wood, occurs +again in the Esthonian story; in which she is made of wood from the +forest, of three anchovies, of bread, of a black serpent, and of the +blood of the girl herself, to whom the image has a great likeness, and +which may be beaten by the old step-mother without being hurt. From the +forest-tree, wood, or wooden box of the night, with the juice of the +black serpent of night and the blood of the girl aurora of evening, +comes forth the maiden aurora of morning, the wise, the speaking puppet, +the puppet who guesses the riddles. The girl who comes out of wood is +represented as a wooden puppet; more frequently the puppet is the moon, +the wise fairy who comes out of the forest. In the same story we have +the magic rod which produces a cock upon the mountain, beside which a +tablecloth spreads itself out, while the chairs range themselves in +their places, and the dishes are filled of their own accord. The story +ends with the usual marriage between the beautiful maiden, and a king's +son returning from the chase (or the son who comes out of the forest of +night, viewed as infested by ferocious animals). + +In the sixth Esthonian tale, the poor girl finds a woman in a white +robe (the moon), adorned with gold, upon a rock near a fountain, who +announces her approaching marriage with a youth as poor as herself; +but the good fairy godmother--for in the legends the godmother is +represented as good, as the stepmother is wicked--promises to make +them both rich and happy. She calls herself the lady of the waters, +secret wife of the wind, and she judges the criminals who present +themselves at her tribunal (Proserpina or Persephonê). + +In the seventh tale, a boy nine years of age, the third son of two +poor people, goes out to be a cowherd; his master treats him well, but +his mistress gives him more floggings than bread. One day the young +cowherd is unfortunate enough to lose a cow; he searches for it all +through the forest, but in vain. He re-enters the house with the +cattle, after the sun has set some time. The observant eye of his +mistress perceives at once that there is a cow missing; she beats the +boy without pity, and sends him out to look for it, threatening to +kill him if he returns without it. He wanders through the forest; but +when the sun arises from out the bosom of the dawn, he resolves to +stay out of the house, and not to return to his persecutor (the young +morning sun flees from the old and perverse night). In the evening, +the boy finds an old dwarf, who is his host during the night (the +moon), and who says to him, "When the sun rises to-morrow, carefully +observe the spot in which he rises. Thou must go in that direction, so +that every morning thou may'st have the sun before thee, and every +evening the sun behind thee. Thus thy strength will increase more and +more every day." How can one indicate better the apparent course of +the solar hero, or of the sun in the night? The hero, in order to go +towards the morning sun, must necessarily have the sun of evening +behind him. The old dwarf also gives him a sack and a little barrel, +in which he will always find the food and drink he requires; but he +recommends him never to eat or drink more than is necessary, that he +may have to give to a hungry bird or a thirsty wild beast. He also +leaves him a rolled-up leaf of burdock, upon which, by rolling it out, +he will always be able to cross water (a new form of the cup). We know +how the Hindoos represented their god as floating upon a lotus-leaf in +the midst of the waters, and how Padmaǵas (born of the lotus-flower, +or the rose of the waters, which shuts during the night) was one of +the names of Brâhman; here we have the god or hero shutting himself up +in the flower, from which he afterwards comes out. In the chapters on +the Serpent and the Frog we shall again see how the god sometimes +shuts himself up in a monstrous form in this flower, the rose, on +account of a curse from which he is to be freed by a beautiful maiden. +We have seen how the Esthonian girl, who was by the curse of the old +woman thrown into the water, was transformed into a water-rose or +lotus-flower, and delivered by the young prince. The Esthonian boy +finds himself before a small lake; he throws the leaf in, and it +becomes a magical boat, which carries him over. Meanwhile he has +become strong. Upon the mountain he sees a serpent, a tortoise, and an +eagle, all three of enormous dimensions, approaching to attack him, +with a man upon a black horse, which has wings on its feet, in the +rear of them. He kills the serpent and the tortoise, but the eagle +flies away. The man with the black horse takes the boy into his house, +and appoints him to look after the dogs, that they may not get loose +from their chains, a danger against which the man provides by making +twelve colossal oxen fetch rocks upon rocks, to repair the damage done +by the dogs. The rocks, touched by a magical rod, arrange themselves +upon the car drawn by the oxen. At last, by the advice of the eagle, +he steals his master's horse, and departs to sojourn among mankind, +taking a wife with him. + +In the eighth Esthonian story too, the third brother is the cunning one. +His two elder brothers, after the death of their father, despoil him of +his share of the inheritance, and he is reduced to wander alone and +impoverished about the world in quest of good fortune. He falls in with +a woman who complains to him that her husband regularly beats her when +she is unable to procure for him the things he wants, which he asks for +in the form of a riddle. The third brother solves the enigma for the +woman (the moon), who, in gratitude, gives him provisions for his +travels. He then comes to a palace, where the king is engaged in +celebrating a summer festival, and he undertakes to provide and prepare +the feast. A magician presents himself at the festival in the shape of +an old man, and asks to taste the food. The young man suspects him, but, +seeing a ring upon his finger, he consents to allow him if he gives him +a pledge. The magician vows that he has nothing to give. The youth asks +for his ring, and the old man in his gluttony at once gives it up; upon +which the youth, who, along with the ring, has taken all the magician's +strength away, first binds and derides him, and then has him beaten by +seven strong men. The old man breaks the ropes and disappears; however, +the young man, having the ring in his hands, possesses the means of +tracking his footsteps and making him his. (This is the usual disc, +lasso, or bridle which is now in the hands of the hero, now in those of +the monster.) The youth follows the magician underground. The latter, it +appears, is served by three maidens, who, when they perceive that the +sorcerer has lost his ring, and that they have a young man for +companion, enjoy themselves with him while the magician is asleep. The +youth learns from them that the old wizard also possesses a sword which +can destroy armies, and a magical rod which can create a bridge to span +the sea; these, therefore, he steals, and departs, returning by a +wonderful bridge thrown over the sea to the palace whence he had +started. It seems to him as if his journey had lasted only two nights, +instead of which a year has passed.[344] He finds on his arrival his +two brothers in the king's service, one as coachman and the other as a +valet, both enriched because they have received the pay due to their +younger brother for having prepared the great feast. The young man now +engages himself in another capacity, in a species of service especially +dear to the young hero, next to those of stable-boy and cowherd; that is +to say, he becomes under-cook of the king. (In the _Vîrâṭa-Parvam_ of +the _Mahâbhâratam_, it is the second of the brothers who disguises +himself as a cook, in order to prepare good sauces and substantial food +for the king whose guest he is; the elder brother is disguised as a +Brâhmanas, a wise adviser; the third brother, Arǵunas, the agile, the +swift one, pretends to be a eunuch, is given in exchange for a woman, +and teaches dancing, music, and singing in the gynecium. Of the two sons +of the Açvinâu, one becomes a groom, the other a cowherd.) His brothers +continue to dislike him, and because he boasts to them that he had seen +in hell golden birds, they induce the king to send him to hell in order +to procure them. He accomplishes this undertaking with great difficulty, +and brings the birds in a sack made of spiders' webs, which is so strong +that the birds enclosed in it cannot extricate themselves. In the same +sack, during another expedition, the young man brings from hell many +precious objects of gold and silver. In compensation, he only asks of +the king to send the princess, his daughter, to listen for one evening +to the conversation of his two brothers the coachman and the valet. Both +boast of having enjoyed to satiety the favours of the princess. The +latter, indignant and full of shame, runs to tell the king everything, +upon which he arraigns them before him and has them judged. The third +brother is named Counsellor; with his enchanted sword he destroys an +entire army of enemies, and obtains in reward for his services and his +valour the king's daughter to wife. + +The ninth Esthonian story presents to us the son of the thunder, who +sells his soul to the devil, on condition that the latter serves him +for seven years. The time agreed upon is nearly come to an end, and +the son of the thunder wishes to escape from him, and profits by an +opportunity which has chanced. The devil sees a black cloud, which is +a sign of an approaching tempest; he is afraid, hides himself under a +stone, and asks the son of the thunder to keep him company. The latter +consents; but seeing that the devil is afraid, at each thunderclap he +presses his ears and eyes in such a manner as to make him perspire and +shiver all over. The devil, believing this to be the effect of the +thunder, promises the son of the thunder that he will not only leave +him his soul, but give him three other souls, if he will deliver him +from the evils which he suffers on account of the thunder, by taking +from the thundering god, the father of the clouds, his weapon (which +is also a musical instrument). This weapon, having been ravished from +the god, is taken by the devil into hell, into a chamber of iron, shut +up within seven castles. A great drought coming upon the earth, the +son of the thunder repents of having rendered such a service to the +devil; he finds means, however, of informing the thunder-god where his +weapon is concealed. The thunder-god then becomes a child, and engages +himself in the service of a fisherman, near a lake which the devil is +accustomed to visit to steal the fishes. He surprises him in the act +of robbery, and by the help of a magician takes him prisoner, and has +him beaten without pity, until he promises to pay a heavy ransom in +money to be let free, the fisherman and his child to accompany him to +hell itself to receive the sum of money. Arrived in hell, the devil +entertains them like a gentleman. The child tells the fisherman to ask +the devil to show them the musical instrument which he keeps enclosed +in the iron room. The devil kindly consents, but cannot draw from the +instrument anything more musical than the mewing of a cat or the +grunting of a pig. The fisherman then laughs at the devil, and says +that his boy can play better. The devil does not believe it, and +laughingly gives the instrument, which he calls bagpipes, to the boy. +The latter blows into them and makes such a noise that all hell +resounds with it, and the devils fall to the earth as if dead. The +child then becomes the god of thunder again, and returns to heaven, +where by the noise of his instrument he opens the celestial reservoirs +and lets out the beneficent rain. The description of the tempest which +occurs in many Vedic hymns is the germ of this interesting myth. The +drum or kettledrum thunder is a familiar image in Hindoo poetry, and +the Gandharvâs, the musician-warriors of the Hindoo Olympus, have no +other instrument than the thunder. The conch of the warrior Pâṇḍavâs +in the _Mahâbhâratam_, and the famous horn of Orlando (which comes +from the golden horn of Odin), are epical reminiscences of thunder. +Orpheus, who in hell plays on his lyre and tames the animals, is a +more lucid and more perfect form of this Esthonian thunder-god who +plays the bagpipes in hell. It is also remarkable how, in harmony with +the pastoral bagpipes, in the tenth Esthonian story, which is a +variation of the preceding one, the god transformed into a powerful +boy is called a little shepherd or cowherd--another interesting fact, +which completes his identification with Orpheus.[345] The magic flute +is a variation of the same celestial musical instrument. The magic +flute, the bagpipes or wonderful pipe, occurs again in the +twenty-third Esthonian story, in which the good Tiidu, by means of it +and of his virtue, obtains riches. The magical harp of Gunnar in the +Edda has the same marvellous effects. + +Evidently the monster-dwarf is a favourite subject of Esthonian +tradition, and it often occurs in the Hindoo and in the German +traditions, as well as in the Franco-Latin tradition of Charlemagne. +The eleventh story introduces us to three dwarf-brothers who contend +for the inheritance left by their father, consisting of a miraculous +hat, which enables its wearer to see everything, whilst he can himself +be visible or invisible at pleasure (this hat is made of pieces of +men's nails cut up);[346] of a pair of slippers which transport the +owner in an instant wherever he wishes (we must not forget that +Cinderella, when she loses the slipper, is overtaken by the prince +bridegroom); and of a stick which strikes of itself, and destroys +everything, even stronger than the thunderbolt (the thunderbolt +itself). The three brothers maintain that these three articles, to be +really useful, must be the property of one; but who is to enjoy this +privilege? A man comes up to put an end to the dispute, and feigns +disbelief in the virtue of these three things, unless he proves it +himself. The three simpletons give them to him that he may prove them. +The man takes them off, and the three dwarfs are left to meditate upon +the truth of the above-quoted proverb, "Between two disputers the +third profits," or at least that variation of it which their own case +suggests "Between three that dispute, the fourth profits." + +In the thirteenth Esthonian story, the privileged character of the +third brother is explained, as we are told that he is the son of a +king, but was exchanged by a witch during his infancy for the child of +a peasant. The latter died in the palace, whilst the king's son grew +in the hut, showing in every action his royal pedigree. Here we have +the story of the hero who is exposed on the mountains intimately +connected with that of the third brother. To this third brother, who +alone shows himself to be devoted to his father, and who alone makes a +vow to watch by his grave, is also attributed the merit of having +delivered, upon a high mountain of crystal, from a seven years' sleep, +a princess, who then becomes his wife. We have seen the +aurora-awakener in the Vedic hymns--the sun and the aurora arouse each +other: the sun sends forth the aurora; the aurora draws out the sun. +The myth reproduces itself every day, and expresses in its entirety a +daily phenomenon of light in the heavens. In Northern countries, where +the contrast is great between winter and spring, and therefore the +impression is striking which is caused by the cessation of vegetation +in autumn, the earth also assumed the aspect of a dead young princess; +but an omniscient magician having said, _Non est mortua puella, sed +dormit_, the third brother, predestined to the enterprise, lays down +his poor robes, and dresses himself, on the first occasion, in the +colour of bronze; on the second, the colour of silver; on the third, +the colour of gold, and ascends the mountain of crystal, or ice, +whence he brings forth the beautiful spring. The sky, grey in autumn, +snowy in winter, and golden in spring, corresponds to the grey sky of +evening, the silver one of night, and the golden one of morning. +Spring is the dawn of the year; the primitive myth is but amplified; +the last hour of the day awakens the aurora; the last month of the +solar year awakens the spring. The application of the myth of the day +to the year is one of the greatest simplicity. + +In the fourteenth story, the king of the golden country loses himself in +the forest full of ferocious animals, and cannot find his way out. A +stranger (no doubt the devil) conducts him out, on condition that he +will give him whatever first comes to meet him. The king promises. The +first thing he sees on his return is his royal child, who, carried by +his nurse, stretches out his arms to his father. The king exchanges him +for a peasant's girl, whom he gives up to the stranger, allowing his own +son to be brought up among the peasant's herds. The king's son, having +grown to manhood, determines to go and deliver the poor girl. He +disguises himself as a poor man, puts a sack of peas on his shoulders, +and goes into the forest where his father was lost eighteen years +before. He also loses himself, and meets the stranger, who promises to +direct him if he will give him the peas which are in the sack, as they +will serve, he alleges, to recompense the assistants at the funeral of +his aunt, who died in poverty during the night.--This pulse in funeral +ceremonies refers to a very ancient custom. The Vedic ceremonials +already mention them in connection with funerals; and in the Greek +belief, the dead carried vegetables with them to hell, either for the +right of passage or as provisions for travelling. In Piedmont, it is +still the custom on the second of November (All Soul's Day) to make a +great distribution of kidney-beans to the poor, who pray for the souls +of the dead. Vegetables, peas, vetches, and kidney-beans are symbols of +abundance, and to this belief may be traced the numerous Indo-European +stories in which mention is made of beans which multiply themselves in +the pipkin, or of peas which grow up to the sky, and up the stalk of +which the hero climbs to heaven. The vegetables necessary for being +introduced into the kingdom of the dead, and the pea by means of which +the hero enters heaven, are variations of the same mythical subject. In +Hindoo tradition, besides the pea or kidney-bean, we have the pumpkin as +a symbol of abundance, which is multiplied infinitely, or which mounts +up to heaven. The wife of the hero Sagaras gives birth to a pumpkin, +from which afterwards come forth sixty thousand sons. The kidney-bean, +the pea, the vetch, the common bean, and the pumpkin are also symbols of +generation, not only on account of the facility with which they +multiply, but also on account of their form. We have seen in the Vedic +ceremonials what organs are represented by the two kidney-beans; we +shall also see, in the chapter on the Ass, how the names given to the +organs of generation are also used to designate fools. Now, it is worthy +of notice that the Sanskrit word _mâshas_ (or kidney-bean) also +signified the foolish, the stolid one, in the same way as in Piedmont a +_bonus vir_ is called a kidney-bean. Thus, too, the pumpkin, which +expresses fecundity, also means, in Italian, idiocy or stupidity. As to +beans, I have already remarked, in my work upon "Nuptial Usages," upon +their symbolical meaning, and cited the Russian and Piedmontese custom +of putting a black and a white bean into the cake eaten at Epiphany, one +of which represents the male and the other the female, one the king and +the other the queen. The two who find the beans kiss each other with +joyful auguries. As all these vegetables personify the moon, which we +know to be considered as a giver of abundance, and which, by its form of +a turning ball, can well be represented by the turning pea, in this +personification we must search for the solution of the principal myths +relating to vegetables.--The young prince of the Esthonian story, having +obtained the stranger's favour in the gloomy forest by means of the +peas, engages himself in his service, with intent to deliver the girl +who had freed him by taking his place with the stranger during eighteen +years. He therefore follows him; but on the way he lets a pea fall to +the ground from time to time, in order to know the way back. He is +conducted by a strange and wild subterranean passage, where silence as +of the tomb reigns--it is, in fact, the kingdom of the dead--where birds +have the appearance of wishing to sing, dogs to bark, and oxen to low, +but cannot, and where the water flows without a murmur. The young prince +feels in his heart a kind of anguish; the universal stillness in the +midst of animated beings oppresses him. Having passed the region of +silence, they come to that of deafening noise. The young prince thinks +he hears the excruciating din of twenty-four saws at work; but the old +stranger tells him that it is only his grandmother who has fallen +asleep, and is snoring. At last they come to the stranger's dwelling, +where the prince finds the beautiful maiden, but the old stranger will +not let him speak. He sees in the stable a white horse and a black cow, +with a white or luminous-headed calf. This cow the young prince is +ordered to milk until there is not a drop of milk in its breast; instead +of milking it with his fingers, he, by the advice of the girl, uses for +that purpose red-hot pincers. Another time the youth is told to lead +away the enchanted calf with the white or luminous head. In order that +it may not escape, the girl gives him a magic thread, of which one end +is to be tied to the left leg of the calf, and the other to the little +toe of the prince's left foot.--The little finger, although the +smallest, is the most privileged of the five. It is the one that knows +everything; and in Piedmont, when the mothers wish to make their +children believe that they are in communication with a mysterious spy, +who sees everything that they do, they are accustomed to awe them by the +words, "My little finger tells me everything."--At last the two young +people resolve to flee. Before starting, the prince splits open the +forehead of the white-headed calf; from its skull comes forth an +enchanted little red ball, which shines like a small sun. He wraps it +up, leaving part of it uncovered to light the way, and flees away with +the girl. Being followed by malignant spirits, who are sent by the old +man to follow them, the two fugitives, by means of the enchanted little +ball (or pearl), turned round three times, become, first the one a pond +and the other a fish, then the one a rose-bush and the other a rose, +then again the one a breeze and the other a gnat, until the stone which +covers the entrance to the subterranean world having been lifted up, +they arrive again safe and happy upon the earth; and by means of the +little red ball, they show themselves to mankind in splendid and +princely robes. I scarcely think it necessary to explain to the reader +the sense of this lucid mythical story. The black cow which produces the +calf with the white or luminous head is a Vedic antithesis which we have +already seen;[347] the cow (night) produces the calf (the moon). The +prince takes the little red ball out of the calf; by means of this ball, +the girl is delivered from the regions of gloom. The little ball moves +the stone; the sun and the aurora come out together from the mountain, +after having travelled together in the kingdom of shadows; the sun +delivers the aurora. This story unites together and puts in order +several myths of an analogous character, but born separately. + +The three next stories describe other voyages made by the solar hero to +heaven, or in hell, and end by meaning the same thing. In the eighteenth +story we again find the enchanted ring, called Solomon's ring, which the +young hero goes to search for; when he finds it, by taking it from the +daughter of hell, and puts it on his finger, he is of a sudden endowed +with such strength that he can split a rock with one blow of his fist. +The little red ball of the story just described, which lifts up the +rock, and this ring which splits the stone, represent the same mythical +object, _i.e._, the sun, the sun's ball or disc. + +The twenty-first story shows us the fearless hero who frees a castle +from the presence of the demons, and who thus gains a treasure; riches +are the reward of valour. + +The twentieth Esthonian story is a variation of the exceedingly +popular tale of Blue Beard, the killer of his wives. The Esthonian +monster-husband has already killed eleven, and is about to murder the +twelfth, by way of punishing her for having, against his express +prohibition, visited the secret room opened by the golden key (perhaps +the moon), when a youth who takes care of the goslings, the friend of +her childhood, comes to deliver her. From the subject itself, and the +expressions used in this story, we can discover the origin of the +terrible charivari in the nuptials of widowers or widows. This savage +custom is intended not only to deride the lust of the old man or woman +who marries again, but to warn the girl who marries the one, or the +youth who marries the other, of the possibility of a fate similar to +the first wife or husband. When, therefore, the wife _apatighnî_ (who +does not kill her husband) is praised to the Vedic husband, we must +understand that the _patighnî_ (or killer of her husband) is a widow, +whom no one must marry, as being suspected of murder. Hence, to free +herself from this suspicion, an honest Hindoo wife (like Gudrun in the +Edda) was to throw herself into the fire after the death of her +husband; the evening aurora, after the death of the sun, dies too. + +In the twenty-second story we have once more the myth of the young +pastoral hero; he is the son of a king. By the order of his +step-mother, a witch, who carries off shepherds, steals him from the +palace during his infancy, and abandons him in a solitary place, where +he is brought up by cowherds, and becomes himself an excellent +cowherd. An old man finds him and says, looking at him and at the +cattle, "Thou dost not seem to me born to remain a cowherd." The boy +answers that he knows he was born to command, and adds, "Here I learn +the duties of a commander by anticipation. If things go well with the +quadrupeds, I shall also prosper with bipeds." The shepherd is +therefore a little king; a good shepherd will become a good king. The +boy goes through several adventures, in which he displays his valour. +A wicked German lady wishes to take from him the strawberries which he +has plucked. He defends himself bravely; his mistress persecutes him; +and he takes twelve wolves, shuts them up in a cavern, and each day +gives them a lamb to eat, in order to avenge himself upon his wicked +mistress, to whom he simply says that the wolves have devoured them. +At last he causes her to be devoured herself by the wolves, who eat +her all up, leaving only the heart (the sun) and the tongue, which are +too full of venom for the wolves of the night, because they burn their +mouths. At the age of eighteen, the youth has several other +adventures. He becomes enamoured of a gardener's daughter, and is +found again by the king his father, who, before allowing him to marry +the beautiful gardener's daughter, wishes to prove that they are +predestined to each other. He cuts a ring in two with his sword, and +gives one part to the young prince and the other to the maiden; the +two halves must be preserved by both, and one day they will meet of +themselves and form again the whole ring, in such a manner that it +will be impossible to find the place where it was broken.--In a Tuscan +story, the beautiful maiden gives half her necklace to the third +brother. The young couple lose each other; their meeting again and +mutual recognition take place when the two parts of the necklace join +each other. The use of the wedding-ring has a mythical origin. The +solar (and sometimes the lunar disc) is the ring which unites the +heavenly husband and wife.--When, after other adventures, the two +young people of the Esthonian story join together the two halves of +their ring, their misfortunes come to an end; they marry and live +together happily, whilst the cruel step-mother, who meanwhile has +become a widow, is expelled from the kingdom. + +The last Esthonian story tells of the extraordinary births, in the same +day, of a handsome prince and a beautiful princess. The princess is born +in a bird's egg, laid like a pearl in the bosom of the queen; she has at +first the form of a living puppet, and afterwards, when warmed in wool, +she becomes a real girl. Whilst she undergoes this transformation, the +queen also gives birth to a beautiful boy. The two children are +considered as twins, and baptized together. To the baptism of the girl +there comes as godmother, in a splendid chariot drawn by six horses, a +young woman dressed in rose-coloured and golden robes, who shines like +the sun, and who, as she lets her veil drop, like the beautiful Argive +Helen, fills the bystanders with admiration. [The aurora, who, before +appearing in the form of a beautiful girl, is enclosed in the wood of +the forest, is a wooden puppet, and becomes a wooden puppet once more +when, fleeing from the sun, she hides herself in a creeping-plant, like +the Hindoo Urvaçî (the first of the dawns), or in a laurel-plant, like +the Hellenic Daphne (the Vedic Dahanâ-aurora). The aurora is born +together with the sun; the beautiful doll-maiden is born with the little +prince. The mother and the beneficent godmother seem to be the moon, or +a more ancient aurora.] The mother, dying, leaves her daughter, putting +it upon her breast, a gem which is to bring her happiness; that is, the +little basket which contained the bird's egg, with the eggshell itself. +By means of the magical little basket, and by pronouncing some magic +words, the maiden can find all that she searches or wishes for. The +young man and woman end by marrying each other, having discovered that, +although both born of a king, they are children of different fathers; +they marry, and the little basket of happiness mysteriously disappears. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[267] _Anquetil du Perron, Zendavesta_, ii. p. 545. + +[268] Misit itaque Deus justissimus citissime Angelum Behman quasi +esset fumus (jubendo): Ito et bovem rubrum accipiens mactato in nomine +Dei qui prudentiam dat; eumque coquito in aceto veteri, et cave +accurate facias, allio ac rutâ, superadditis; et in nomine Dei ex olla +effundito: deinde coram eo adpone ut comedat. Cumque portiunculam +panis in íllud friasset, Diabolus ille maledictus inde aufugit, abiit, +evanuit et disparuit, nec deinde, illum aliquis postea vidit; +_Sadder_, p. 94.--The Russian peasants still believe that a household +devil, the damavoi, enters into the stable, who, during the night, +mounts on horses and oxen and makes them sweat and grow lean.--Cfr. +also, on the _Damavoi_, Ralston's _Songs of the Russian people_, +London, 1872, pp. 119-139. + +[269] Cfr. Spiegel's _Avesta_, vol. ii.; _Einleitung_, vii. + +[270] Cfr. Spiegel's _Avesta_, vol. ii. 21. + +[271] x. 11. + +[272] xxix. + +[273] Cfr. Spiegel's _Avesta_, vol. ii. p. 8. + +[274] xix. 99-101. Professor Spiegel translates "Mit dem Hunde, mit +Entscheidung, mit Vieh, mit Stärke, mit Tugend, diese bringt die +Seelen der Reinen über den Harabezaiti hinweg: über die Brücke Chinvat +bringt sie das Heer der himmlischen Yazatas." + +[275] Cows and calves, as a funeral gift, are spoken of in the _Khorda +Avesta_, li. 15, Spiegel's version. + +[276] Cfr. also the Tistrya with a whole eye of the _Khorda Avesta_ of +Spiegel, p. 9, and all the _Tistar Yast_ in the _Khorda Avesta_, xxiv. +If Tistar is the moon, Tistrya would appear to perform the same duties +as the good fairy--that is, of showing, by means of her good eyes, her +good eyesight, and her splendour, the way to the lost heroes. The +Hindoo cow of Vasishṭhas, which yields every good thing, and which +then fights in the clouds against Viçvâmitras, would sometimes appear +to be the moon veiled by the rainy cloud; thus we can explain the +rain-giving character of the star Tistrya, which, according to the +_Bundehesh_, by raining ten days and ten nights, destroyed the +monsters of dryness created by the demon Ag̃ro-maiṇyus. + +[277] xxxix. 1. + +[278] xvii. 25. + +[279] Spiegel's version, p. 149.--Cfr. the three litanies for the body +and soul of the cow, in the fragments of the same vol. p. 254. + +[280] _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's version, _Einl._ x. + +[281] Spiegel's version, p. 4. + +[282] These are the exact terms used by Spiegel:--"Dieser opferte der +frühere Vifra-navâza, als ihn aufrief der siegreiche, starke Thraetaona, +in der Gestalt eines Vogels, eines Kahrkâça. Dieser flog dort während +dreier Tage und dreier Nächte hin zu seiner eigenen Wohnung, nicht +abwärts, nicht abwärts gelangte er genährt. Er ging hervor gegen die +Morgenröthe der dritten Nacht, der starken, beim Zerfliessen der +Morgenröthe und betete zur Ardvî Çûra, der fleckenlosen; Ardvî Çûra, +fleckenlose! eile mir schnell zu Hülfe, bringe nun mir Beistand, ich +will dir tausend Opfer mit Haoma und Fleisch versehene, gereinigte, wohl +ausgesuchte, bringen hin zu dem Wasser Ragha, wenn ich lebend hinkomme +zu der von Ahura geschaffenen Erde, hin zu meiner Wohnung. Es lief +herbei Ardvî Çûra, die fleckenlose, in Gestalt eines schönen Mädchens, +eines sehr kräftigen, wohlgewachsenen, aufgeschürzten, reinen, mit +glänzendem Gesichte, edlen, unten am Fusse mit Schuhen bekleidet, mit +goldnem Diadem auf dem Scheitel. Diese ergriff ihm am Arme, bald war +das, nicht lange dauerte es, dass er hinstrebte kräftig zu von Ahura +geschaffenen Erde, gesund, so unverletzt als wie vorher, zu seiner +eignen Wohnung;" _Khorda Avesta_, pp. 51, 52. + +[283] Welche zuerst den Wagen fährt; _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's +version, p. 45. + +[284] Professor Spiegel says, however, "Vom Aufgang der Sonne bis +Tagesanbruch," which in a note he explains, "Vom Sonnenaufgang bis +Mitternacht," which it appears to us cannot stand scrutiny, any more +than the conclusion inferred from this, that the sacrifice was to be +made "den ganzen Tag hindurch." Zarathustra would not have been obliged +to ask the precise time at which to sacrifice to the goddess, if she was +to answer him in such a general way. What occasion is there to pray in +midday, in full daylight, that the darkness may be dispersed?--If there +be any equivoque, it can only be, in my opinion, in the rather frequent +exchange of the maiden Aurora and the fairy Moon. + +[285] Cfr. _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's version, pp. 7, 27. + +[286] xix. 52. + +[287] Cfr. the chapter which treats of the Cock. + +[288] Cfr. _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's version, _Einl._ xxv., and all +the important _Mirh Yast_, or collection of hymns in honour of Mithra, +in the _Khorda Avesta_, xxvi. + +[289] Cfr. _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's version, _Einl._ xxxiii., and the +_Bahrâm Yast_ in the _Khorda Avesta_, xxx. 7, Spiegel's version. It is +then that he says of himself, "As to strength, I am the strongest." +Further on it is said that strength belongs to the bull (or the cow). + +[290] In a hymn, Indras even calls himself Uçanâ, with the added +denomination of kavis; Ahaṁ kaviruçanâ: _Ṛigv._ iv. 26, 1. + +[291] _Vendidad_, xxii. 11. + +[292] Chap. ix. + +[293] Cfr. _Farvardin Yast_ in the _Khorda Avesta_, xxix. 30, +Spiegel's version. + +[294] Cfr. _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's version, _Einleit._ xxxiv., and +the _Râm Yast_ in the _Khorda Avesta_, xxxi. 40.--The 57th strophe +appears to be a real Vedic hymn to the Marutas; the wind is celebrated +as the strongest of the strong, the swiftest of the swift, having arms +and ornaments of gold, a golden wheel and a golden chariot; his golden +shoes and his girdle of gold besides show his sympathy and relation +with the Ardvî Çûra Anâhita, who, in the form of aurora, is referred +to in the 55th strophe. + +[295] Cfr. _Khorda Avesta_, p. lxix. + +[296] Cfr. ibid. p. lxi. + +[297] Denn Verethraghna, der von Ahura geschaffene, hält die Hände +zurück der furchtbaren Kampfesreihen, der verbündeten Länder und der +mithratrügenden Menschen, er umhüllt ihr Gesicht, verhüllt ihre Ohren, +nicht lässt er ihre Füsse ausschreiten, nicht sind sie mächtig; +_Khorda Avesta._ xxx. 63, Spiegel's version. + +[298] Cfr. the _Mihr Yast_ in the _Khorda Avesta_, xxvi. 128, 129. + +[299] Cfr. ibid. + +[300] Urvâksha is also called the accumulator; _Khorda Avesta_, xl. 3, +Spiegel's version. + +[301] _Khorda Avesta_, p. 155. + +[302] _Khorda Avesta_, xxxiii., Spiegel's version. + +[303] Mögest du reich an Rindern sein wie (der Sohn) de Athvyânischen +(clanes); _Khorda Avesta_, xl. 4, Spiegel's version. + +[304] Soll ich zum Himmel aufsteigen, soll ich in die Erde kriechen? +Darauf entgegnete Ahura Mazda: Schöne Ashi, vom Schöpfer geschaffene! +steige nicht zum Himmel auf, krieche nicht in die Erde; gehe du hieher +in die Mitte der Wohnung eines schönen Königs; _Khorda Avesta_, +xxxiii. 59, 60, Spiegel's version.--Cfr. xxxiv. 3, and following, +where are celebrated the handsome husband of the beautiful Ashis and +his rich kingdom. + +[305] Die Stierkopfkeule in der Rechten schwingend; Schack, +_Heldensagen von Firdusi_, iv. 2.--Cfr. viii. 9. + +[306] Die Donnerwolke bin ich, die Blitzeskeule schleudert; Schack, +_Heldensagen von Firdusi_, v. 5. + +[307] Die Diwe (the demons) pflegen um Mittagszeit zur Ruhe sich zu +legen; das ist die Stunde sie zu besiegen. Nicht eher schreitet Rustem +zu der That, bis sich die Sonne hoch erhoben hat; _Schack, Heldensagen +von Firdusi_, v. 5. + +[308] Ist's Rustem? ist es nicht die Sonne, die durch Morgenwolken +bricht? _Schack, Heldensagen von Firdusi_, vii. 2. + +[309] Indeed, this undertaking seems to the ferryman himself so +supernatural, that he says these cannot be called men: "In Wahrheit, +Menschen kann man sie nicht heissen." _Schack, Heldensagen von +Firdusi_, x. 27. + +[310] Cfr. Spiegel's _Die Alexandersage bei den Orientale_, Leipzig, +1851; and Zacher's _Pseudocallisthenes, Forschungen zur Kritik und +Geschichte der ältesten Aufzeichnung der Alexandersage_, Halle, 1867. + +[311] Georg Rosen's version, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1858, 2 vols. + +[312] Bernhard Jülg's version, Innsbruck, 1867-1868. + +[313] i. 5. + +[314] i. 6. + +[315] _Tuti-Name_, i. 7. + +[316] _Tuti-Name_, i. 13. + +[317] _Tuti-Name_, i. 14.--Cfr. Afanassieff, _Narodnija ruskija +skaski_, vi. 23. + +[318] iii. 27. + +[319] ii. 17. + +[320] _Tuti-Name_, ii. 19. + +[321] ii. 21. + +[322] ii. 28. + +[323] This story was current in Italy as early as the fifteenth +century, having been related to her son by the mother of the +philosopher and man of letters Pontano, as I find from his biography, +published last year by Professor Tallarigo (Sanseverino-Marche). + +[324] ii. 21. + +[325] _Tuti-Name_, ii. 25. + +[326] ii. 24. + +[327] ii. 26. + +[328] ii. 28. + +[329] ii. 29. + +[330] ii. 29. + +[331] Cfr. also the chapter on the Hog, where we shall expound the +myths and legends relating to disguises. + +[332] Cfr. also the chapters on the Lion and the Fox. + +[333] Cfr. on the story of Perrette, an interesting essay of Professor +Max Müller in the _Contemporary Review_, 1870. + +[334] Radloff, _Proben der Volkslitteratur der Türkischen Stämme +süd-Sibiriens_. + +[335] Professor Schiefner has already compared with this passage a story +published by Ahlquist in his _Versuch einer Mokscha-Mordwinischen +Grammatik_, p. 97. + +[336] Kasan, 1836, quoted by Professor Schiefner in the introduction +to the _Proben_, &c., of Radloff. + +[337] Cfr., for the meaning of this myth, the chapter which treats of +the Hare. + +[338] _Rune_, 7.--Cfr. Castren's _Kleinere Schriften_, Petersburg, +1862, and the French translation of the _Kalevala_, published in 1867 +by Leouzon le Duc. + +[339] I find combined in the _Kleinere Schriften_ of Castren (p. 25) +the same _Ukko_ with the word _Kave_ (_Kave Ukko_). I would with +diffidence ask the learned Finnish philologists, whether, as _Ukko_ is +a Finnish form of the deity whom the Hindoos called Indras, and as the +hero protected by Indras, the hero in whom Indras is reproduced, is +called in the Vedic (and Iranian) tradition _Kâvya Uçanâ_, or even +_Uçanâ Kavis_, the words _Kave Ukko_ may not have some relation to the +name given to the Vedic and Iranian hero? + +[340] Väinämöinen, alt und wahrhaft, konnt durch ihn die Eiche fällen; +_Kal._ 24, in Castren's _Kleinere Schriften_, p. 233. + +[341] Nur aus Trauer ward die Harfe, nur aus Kummer sie geschaffen; +harten Tagen ist die Wölbung, ist das Stammholz zu verdanken, nur +Verdruss spannt ihre Saiten, andre Mühsal macht die Wirbel; +_Kanteletar_, i., quoted by Castren in the _Kleinere Schriften_, p. 277. + +[342] The origin of the bad and poor mythical iron, described in the +_Kalevala_, is one of these: the mythical iron is the cloudy or +tenebrous sky. The description is original, but the myths to which it +refers are known to Indo-Europeans; as, for instance, the honey which +becomes poison. + +[343] _Ehsthnische Märchen_ aufgezeichnet von Fried. Kreuzwald, aus +dem Ehsthnischen, übersetzt von F. Löwe, with notes by A. Schiefner +and R. Köhler, Halle, 1869. + +[344] This is the phenomenon which occurs in the winter solstice on +Christmas Eve and that of New Year's Day, in which we pass from one +year to another; in one night we become older by a year. + +[345] In a popular Swedish song, the maiden Gundela, who plays +marvellously upon the harp, and, in order to play it, demands the king +to marry her, is also a shepherdess.--Cfr. _Schwedische Volkslieder +der Vorzeit_, übertragen von Warrens, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1857. + +[346] Cfr. the note of F. Löwe, illustrating this passage, in his +version of the collection of Kreuzwald, pp. 144 and 145.--[This is +also a myth of easy interpretation, if I am not mistaken: at evening, +the sun loses his rays; the lion, the hero, loses his nails; these +nails are picked up by the demoniacal monster, who forms out of them a +hat (the gloom of night, or the clouds), by which the wearer has the +gift of seeing without being seen. The magician who sees with his eyes +shut is an interesting variation of this subject.] + +[347] A similar antithesis is found in a Hungarian proverb, +communicated to me by my learned friend Count Geza Kunn, together with +other notices of Hungarian beliefs relating to animals. This proverb +is as follows: "Even the black cow's milk is white." The black cow is +spoken of in two other Hungarian proverbs; one says, "The black cow +has not trodden upon his heel," meaning that no misfortune has +happened to him; it is the usual vulnerable heel, the heel of +Achilles, the posterior part, for which is substituted sometimes, as +we shall see in the chapter on the Fox and the Serpent, the tail or +extreme hind part. Another proverb is, "In the dark all cows are +black;" but it does not seem to have any mythical importance. + + +SECTION IV. + +THE BULL AND THE COW IN SLAVONIC TRADITION. + +SUMMARY. + + The red cow and the black cow; what they prognosticate.--The red hue + of evening.--The bull that drinks.--The bull corrupts the + water.--The bull's hoofs.--The cow in the bartering of animals.--The + hero ascends into heaven.--The bull sold to the tree; the tree, + split open, yields gold.--The fool sells the bull.--Two bulls + conduct the poor brother to riches.--The bull carries the fugitive + home.--The bull is split in two, and is useful even after + death.--Ivan and Helen, followed by the bear, flee upon the bull + with their faces turned to the part whence the bear is likely to + come.--The dwarf comes out of the bull's bones; the dwarf dies amid + the flames.--The beasts of prey help the hero.--John and Mary, sun + and aurora of the Christians.--The saviour-bull again.--From the + dead bull an apple-tree springs up.--Ivan delivers Mary.--Mary, the + step-daughter, and persecuted.--The cow that spins, the good fairy, + the Madonna, the moon.--The maiden who combs the hair is the same as + the purifier.--The demoniacal cow obliges men to kiss her under her + tail.--The witch who sucks the beautiful girl's breast whilst the + latter combs her hair.--The hide of the demoniacal cow taken + off.--The eye which does not sleep and plays the spy.--From the cow, + the apple-tree; from the apple-tree, the branches which wound the + wicked sisters, and let the good one pluck their fruit; from the + apple, the husband.--The maiden bows to the right foot of the + beneficent cow; a tree springs up again from the killed cow.--The + red apples which cause horns to grow, and the white ones which give + beauty and youth.--Ivan, the sun, persecuted by the witch his + sister, is saved by the sister of the sun, the aurora.--The mythical + scales; the scales of St Michael.--The cows with golden horns and + tails.--The black demoniacal bull strikes the ground with his horns, + in order to prevent a wedding from taking place.--The hare and the + crow put obstacles in the way of nuptials.--The demon blinded whilst + drinking.--The third son of the peasant throws down the bull.--The + avaricious merchant.--The epidemic among the animals, and the bull + killed because he has stolen some hay from a priest.--The bull in + the forest.--The robber of cows and of oxen.--The black bull led + away by Ivan, by means of a cock.--The hero comes out of the + cow.--The intestines of the calf eaten by the fox.--Out of the calf + come birds.--The son of the cow, the strongest brother.--The three + brothers reduced to one with the qualities of the three.--The third + brother mounts into heaven by means of the cow's hide.--He who + ascends does not come down again.--Dreams.--The wife of the old man, + carried to heaven in a sack, is let fall to the ground and + dies.--The ascent into heaven by means of + vegetables.--Turn-little-Pea, the third brother, the killer of + monsters; Turn-little-Pea and Ivan identified.--Ivan followed by the + serpent-witches.--The female serpent tries to file the iron gate + with her tongue, which is caught by the pincers and burned.--The + three brothers, the evening one, the midnight one, and the + clearly-seeing one; the third is the victorious hero; he delivers + three princesses out of three castles of copper, of silver, and of + gold, and receives from them three eggs of copper, of silver, and of + gold, new forms corresponding to those of the three brothers; the + third brother, abandoned by his elders, after various vicissitudes, + finds his bride again; explanation of this beautiful myth.--Ivan + identified with Svetazór.--The mother of the birds, in gratitude, + delivers the hero.--The third brother, the cunning one, despoils his + two elder brothers of their precious objects.--Ivan of the dog is + equivalent to Svetazór; the story of the goldsmith.--Ivan the great + drinker.--Ivan the prince, Ivan the fool; Ivan and Emilius, foolish + and lazy, are one and the same person.--The red shoes in the + legend.--The sister kills her little brother to take his red shoes; + a magical flute discovers the crime.--The slippers attract the + bridegroom; corresponding nuptial usages.--The slipper tried on; the + toe cut off.--The change of wives.--The ugly one becomes + beautiful.--The grateful pike.--The barrel full of water, which + walks of its own accord.--The forest which is cut down and walks of + itself, the chariot which goes on by itself, the stove that moves + and carries Emilius where he wishes, the cask in which the hero and + heroine are shut up and thrown into the sea, all forms of the cloud + and of the gloom of night; the ugly becomes beautiful; the poor, + rich and pleasing.--The wine allowed to run out of the barrel, + _i.e._, the cloud which dissolves itself in rain.--Ivan, thought to + be stupid, makes his fortune out of having watched by his father's + grave.--Ivan, thought to be stupid, speculates upon his dead mother; + his brothers try to do the same by their wives, and are + punished.--The law of atavism in tradition.--The foolish mother and + the cunning son.--The funereal storks.--The thief cheats the + gentleman in several ways, and finally places him to guard his + hat.--Ivan without fear; a little fish terrifies him.--Various + heroical forms of Ivan in Russian tradition: Alessino, the son of + the priest, invokes the rain against the monster-serpent; Baldak + spits in the Sultan's face--the star under his heel; Basil and + Plavaćek, who demand a gift from the monster; the fortunate + fictitious hero; the cunning little Thomas; the third brother, who + does not allow himself to be put to sleep; the thief Klimka, who + terrifies the other thieves in order to rob them; the Cossack who + delivers the maiden from the flames, and receives precious gifts; + Ilia Muromietz and his companions; the merchant's son educated by + the devil; the boy who understands the language of birds; the + virtuous workman, who prefers good advice to a large reward.--The + flying ship; the protector of the unfortunate rewarded; eating and + drinking.--The girl who solves the riddle of the prince, who comes + with the hare and the quail, and obtains her husband.--The dwarf + Allwis obtains the bride by answering the questions of his + father-in-law.--The wonderful puppet (the moon), that sews for the + priest's daughter (the aurora) the shirt destined for the + prince.--The girl-heroine, protectress of her brother, helper of the + young hero in dangers and trials of heroism.--The cow-herd's + daughter, who never says anything displeasing to her husband the + king, whatever the latter does.--By contact with the monster, the + heroine is perverted, and also becomes a persecutor of the hero, her + brother or husband; analogous types of the perfidious + woman.--Dangerous trials imposed on the hero.--The sister bound to + the tree.--The wife subdued, and the magical belt.--The tooth of a + dead man thrust into Ivan's head; the animals deliver him; the fox + knows better than the rest how to manage it.--The towel which causes + a bridge to spring up across the water; the hero's sister steals the + towel, and unites herself to the monster-serpent; she demands from + her brother Ivan wild beasts' milk, and the flour or powder of gold + which is under a mill guarded by twelve gates.--The monster burned, + and the hero's sister condemned to weep and to eat hay.--The + exchange of the hero.--The crow brings the water of death and of + life.--The stepmother who persecutes Ivan.--Ivan resuscitated by his + two sons.--Ivan chaunts his death-song; the liberating animals + appear to help him.--Ivan and his preceptor persecuted by his wife + Anna.--The blind man, the lame man, and the beautiful girl whose + breast is sucked by the witch.--The witch is forced to find the + fountain of life and of health; the blind man sees, the lame walks, + and the girl recovers her good health.--The maiden blinded; the wife + changed; the dew which gives eyesight; the girl finds her husband; a + Russian variety of the legend of Berta. + +Having drawn so far the general outline of the Turanian boundaries of +Slavonian tradition, it is now time to begin to study the tradition of +the Slaves itself, as far as it concerns the myth and the legend of +the bull and the cow. + +The Russian peasants and shepherds are accustomed to remark that the +weather will be fine when a red cow places herself at the head of the +herd, and that it will rain or be bad weather when, on the contrary, +the first of the cows to re-enter the stable at evening is a black +one. We already know what the black and the red cow signify in the +language of the Vedâs. The aurora of morning and evening, that is, the +red cows promise fine weather; the cloud (or black cow) announces wet +weather. In Piedmont, when a beautiful evening aurora is observed, it +is the custom to say-- + + "Rosso di sera, + Buon tempo si spera." + (Red at eve, we hope for fine weather.) + +Let us now follow the Russian tradition relating to the cow and the bull +in two of the many invaluable collections of popular stories already +printed in Russia, as well as in the celebrated fables of Kriloff.[348] + +We shall begin with those stories and fables in which the cow or the +bull is explicitly mentioned. They show us the bull who protects the +hero and the heroine, the bull who enriches the hero, the bull that is +sold, the grateful bull, the bull who sacrifices himself, the +persecuted bull, the demoniacal bull; the cow who spins, the +beneficent cow, the son of the cow, the birds that come out from the +cow, the cow's hide which becomes a rope to mount up to heaven, the +cow exchanged, the demoniacal cow, the cow's horns. Here, again, +therefore, we have the double aspect of the Vedic cow; the +dark-coloured one (cloud and darkness), generally monstrous, the +luminous one (moon and aurora), usually divine and beneficent. + +One of the special characteristics of the bull and of the cow is their +capacity of drinking. We have already seen how much the bull Indras (the +sun in the cloud) drank. In the third story of the first book of +_Afanassieff_, when the good maiden, persecuted by the witch, stretches +out a towel, and thus causes a river to arise, in order that the witch +may not overtake her, the latter leads forward the bull to drink up the +river (a form of the Hindoo Agastyas, who, in the _Mahâbhâratam_,[349] +absorbs the sea). But the bull, who could dry up the river, refuses to +do so on account of a debt of gratitude he owes to the good maiden. The +water where this bull, or cow, belonging to the witch, drinks, has the +property of transforming into a calf the man who drinks of it;[350] nay, +to drink out of the hoof of the bull itself is enough to turn him into a +calf.[351] The water which comes out of the hoof of the demoniacal bull +is the opposite of the water of Hippokrene, which flows from the hoofs +of the divine horse of the Hellenes, the Pêgasos. + +In the second book of _Afanassieff_, there is a story which speaks of +the exchange of animals in the very same order as in the +_Âitareya-brâhmaṇam_, _i.e._, the gold for a horse, the horse for a cow, +the cow for a goat or sheep. The Russian peasant goes on with his +unfortunate exchanges; he barters the sheep for a young pig, the young +pig for a goose, the goose for a duck, the duck for a little stick with +which he sees some children playing; he takes the stick home to his +wife, and she beats him with it. In the twelfth story of the fifth book +of _Afanassieff_, an old man also begins to barter the golden stockings +and silver garters received in heaven from God for a horse, the horse +for a bull, the bull for a lamb; his last exchange is for a little +needle, which he loses. In the second story of the sixth book, the same +foolish liberality is attributed to the third brother, the stupid one +(who, in another Russian variation of the same story, is the cunning +one), who, having learned that in heaven cows are cheap, gives his cow +for a fly, his ox for a horse-fly, and mounts up to heaven. + +But, generally speaking, the bull and the cow are the beginning of +good luck for the heroes of popular tales. + +In the fifty-second story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the third +brother, the truthful and fortunate fool, has, for his inheritance from +his father, one bull alone; he goes to sell it, and passes a dry old +tree, which rattles; thinking that the tree wishes to buy his bull, he +gives it, promising to come back for the money. On his return the bull +is gone; he asks the tree for the money, and, receiving no answer, +proceeds to cut it down with his hatchet, when from the tree there drops +out a treasure which some robbers had hidden in it;[352] the young man +then takes it up and carries it home. In a variation of the same story, +in the collection of _Erlenwein_,[353] the third son of the miller, +before going to sell his bull, or ox, seeing the second son milking the +cow, endeavours to milk the bull too; finding that his efforts are in +vain, he resolves upon selling an animal which appears to him to be so +utterly useless. + +In the thirty-fourth story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, we meet +again the two brothers, one rich and miserly, the other poor; the poor +one borrows from a neighbour two bulls, and is conducted by Misery +(gory) to a stone, under which he finds a cavity full of gold. The +poor man fills his waggon, and, on coming out, tells Misery that there +is plenty more inside. Misery turns in to see; the ex-pauper thereupon +closes up the entrance with the stone, and returns home.[354] + +But the bull and the cow do not only provide the hero with riches, +they help him in danger. In the eleventh story of _Erlenwein_,[355] +Ivan Tzarević, or the Prince John,--the name of the favourite hero of +Slavonian popular tradition (he is the third brother, the strongest, +the most fortunate, the victorious, the most intelligent, after having +been the most foolish)--wishes to flee from the serpent, and, not +knowing how, sits down on the trunk of a tree and weeps. The hare +comes to carry him away, but is killed by the serpent; the wolf +comes, but is killed too. At last the ox or bull comes, and carries +him off. Ivan having arrived at his dwelling, the ox has himself +divided in two; one part must be placed under the sacred images, which +ornament a corner of every room in Russian houses, the other part +under the window; Ivan must then look out sharp till two dogs and two +bears appear, who will serve him in the chase, and be his strength. + +In the twenty-seventh story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, Ivan +Tzarević and the beautiful Helen are pursued by a monstrous bear with +iron bristles; they escape upon a bull (the moon), and Ivan, by the +bull's advice, rides him with his face turned towards the place whence +the pursuing bear is likely to come, in order that he may not take +them by surprise. When Ivan sees that the bear is coming, the bull +turns round and tears his eyes out; the blind bear follows them still, +but the fugitives pass a river on the bull's back, in which the bear +is drowned. Ivan and Helen feel hungry; the bull tells them to cut him +to pieces and eat him, but to preserve his bones, and to strike them +together; from the bones of the bull, when struck, a dwarf, the height +of a finger-nail, but with a beard a cubit long, comes out; he assists +Ivan in finding the milk of a wolf, a she-bear, and a lioness, until +he is swallowed by the burning bird, whose eggs he wished to steal. +(The bear is the night; the bull is the sun's steed in the night, the +moon; the bull-moon is sacrificed; then comes forth a little sun with +long rays, the dwarf with a long beard, an _alter ego_ of Ivan, who +ends his life in the burning furnace of the phœnix, or of the evening +aurora.) Ivan is threatened with death when the dwarf dies, but he is +at that moment helped by the wild beasts he had tamed and fed, who +save him from danger. These were, as we have seen before, given to him +after the death of the bull, his deliverer, being born of the bull +himself, cut in pieces (the wild animals of the forest of night are +born as soon as the evening sun is sacrificed). + +The same subject occurs again, with some variations, in the +twenty-eighth story, which follows; only instead of John and Helen, we +have John and Mary, the sun and the aurora of the Christians. Near the +abode of Ivan and Mary a funeral pile arises, on which the bull +sacrifices himself. The bull's bones are sown in three furrows; from +the first furrow a horse comes forth, from the second a dog, and in +the third an apple-tree grows up. Ivan mounts upon the horse, followed +by the dog, and hunts wolves' whelps and young bears, which he +afterwards tames and uses to kill the serpent, who has shut up his dog +in a cavern, and carried off his sister; he forces the entrance of the +place where the dog is hidden, by striking the bolt of the door with +three small branches of the apple-tree; the bolt breaks into pieces, +the door bursts open, and the dog is delivered; dog, wolf, and young +bear then worry the serpent, and Ivan liberates the Princess Mary. + +In the sixth book of _Afanassieff_,[356] the young Mary, being +persecuted, is miraculously assisted by a cow. An old woman has three +daughters of her own (of whom one has one eye, another two, and the +third three), and a step-daughter called Mary; her own three do +nothing, and eat much; the step-daughter must work hard and eat +little. Her step-mother gives her for one night alone, while she takes +the cow to pasture, to spin, make into skeins, weave, and bleach, the +weight of five pounds. The maiden goes to the pasture-ground, embraces +her variegated cow, leans on her neck and bewails her fate. The cow +says to her, "Beautiful girl, enter one of my ears, and come out by +the other, and all will be done."--In the Italian variety of this +story,[357] the cow spins with her horns for the good maiden, whilst +she combs the head of the old woman or the Madonna. I think I have +already said that I recognise in this good old woman, fairy, or +Madonna, the moon. The moon, like the sun, is considered as in +relation with the aurora, and especially the evening aurora, which she +accompanies; she is the hostess, the guide, and the protectress of the +hero and heroine of evening, lost and pursued in the night; after the +evening aurora, the white moon comes out, in the same way as after the +morning aurora the sun comes out in effulgence. We have seen that the +name of purifier, cleanser, is given to the Vedic aurora; from this +expression to the image of comber or cleanser of the head of the old +Madonna the transition is easy;[358] from, _i.e._, after, the aurora, +the moon comes out shining and clean, in a beautiful and serene sky; +and on this account pearls fall from the Madonna's head; but when, on +the other hand, the beautiful maiden, the aurora, does not come, when +the step-mother sends to the pasture-ground, near the old woman, one +of her own daughters, foul lice fall from the head of the old fairy or +Madonna, inasmuch as the moon cannot show herself in her splendour +amid the shadows of the cloudy and black night. The Russian story +shows us how the beneficent cow of the good maiden, who caresses her +and serves her well, and the Madonna or good old woman grateful for +the careful combing of her hair of Italian tradition, are one and the +same thing. In the thirty-fifth story of the fifth book of +_Afanassieff_, on the contrary, where the cow appears in a demoniacal +aspect, whom the hero Ivan, condemned from a prince to become a +cowherd, must kiss under her tail, which she lifts with this intent, +we meet with an old witch who sucks the white breasts of the beautiful +girl, while the latter is obliged to hunt the vermin in her head; in +the witch, as well as in the cow who insolently lifts up her tail, we +can recognise the gloomy night, an explanation which is justified by +the fact that the hero-shepherd Katoma, the adorned one, the +agile-footed, ends by flaying the shameless cow (the morning sun, +shepherd of the luminous cows, takes off the skin of the dark-coloured +cow of the gloomy night). But, to return to the fifty-fourth +story.--When the stepmother sees that the girl has done all the work +assigned her, she begins to suspect that there is some one who helps +her, and so sends next night her first daughter, who has but one eye, +to watch the daughter-in-law, who goes to the pasture-ground. The +young Mary then says to her, "Eye, sleep;" and immediately her +step-sister falls asleep, thus allowing the cow to assist her without +any one perceiving it. The second night, the second daughter, who has +two eyes, is sent; Mary says twice to her, "Eye, sleep," and obtains, +without being seen, the same favours from the cow. The third night, +the third sister, who has three eyes, is sent; Mary does not remember +the third eye, and only says twice, "Eye, sleep:" and so the third +sister sees with her remaining eye[359] what the cow does with Mary, +and in the morning tells everything to her mother, who gives orders +that the cow be killed. Mary warns the cow; and the cow recommends +her to eat none of her flesh, to keep the bones, sow them in the +garden, and water them. The maiden does so; every day, however hungry +she may be, she eats none of the meat, only collects the bones +together. From the bones sown in the garden arises a marvellous +apple-tree, with leaves of gold, and branches of silver, which prick +and wound the three daughters of the stepmother, whilst, on the other +hand, they offer apples to the beautiful maiden, in order that she may +present one to the young and rich lord who is to make her his wife. In +the following story, the fifty-fifth, which is a variation of the +preceding one, the girl is named Mary, and her husband Ivan Tzarević; +when she goes to the pasture, and when she returns, she is accustomed +to make obeisance to the right foot of the cow. When the cow, being +killed, revives again in the shape of a tree, it swarms with birds, +which sing songs for kings and peasants alike, and make the sweet +fruits fall upon Mary's plate. + +The apples that cause horns to grow, and those which beautify and make +young, mentioned in the thirty-sixth story of the fifth book, and +again in the last book of the collection of _Afanassieff_, as well as +in other European variations of the same subject, are connected, in my +opinion, with the myth of the evening sky, and of the lunar night, in +the shape of an apple-tree. In the fifteenth story of the collection +of _Erlenwein_, the third brother, the usual Ivan, comes to an +apple-tree which has red apples, and eats four of them, upon which +four horns grow on his head, to such a height that he cannot enter the +forest; he goes to an apple-tree that bears white fruit, eats four +apples, and the four horns disappear. (The solar hero at evening +approaches the tree with the red apples, the evening aurora, and +immediately becomes deformed; horns grow on his head; he loses +himself in the shades of night; in the moonlight and the alba, he +approaches the tree with the white apples, loses his horns, and +becomes young and beautiful again.) + +In the fifty-seventh story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff's_ +collection, Ivan Tzarević is presented with the apples which restore +youth to him who eats them, by the sister of the sun, to whose abode he +is lifted in the following manner: Ivan (the sun) has for his sister (no +doubt half-sister) a serpent-witch (night), who has already devoured his +father and mother (the sun and the aurora of evening, which create the +night, and are destroyed by it); the witch persecutes her little brother +Ivan, and endeavours to eat him; he flees, and she overtakes him in the +vicinity of the dwelling of the sister of the sun (the aurora, the true +sister of Ivan). The witch makes a proposal to Ivan, that they be +weighed together in the scales. Ivan accepts this proposal, upon which +the one enters the one scale, and the other the other; no sooner does +the witch put her foot on the scale than, as she weighs so much more +than Ivan, he is lifted up to heaven, the dwelling of the sister of the +sun, where he is welcomed and admitted. (A beautiful myth, of which the +meaning is evident. Ivan is the sun, the aurora is his sister; at +morning, near the abode of the aurora, that is, in the east, the shades +of night go underground, and the sun arises to the heavens; this is the +mythical pair of scales. Thus, in the Christian belief, St Michael +weighs human souls: those who weigh much sink down into hell, and those +who are light arise to the heavenly paradise.) + +By means of the sister of the sun, Ivan saves himself from the witch. +In another story in _Afanassieff_,[360] by means of the sister of the +hero Nikanore, the same Ivan, running after the cows, causes them to +have golden horns and tails, with sides formed of stars; and +afterwards, with the assistance of the hero Nikanore in person (of the +sun, that is, of himself), he kills the serpent. + +We have already seen the cloudy and the gloomy sky represented in the +Vedic poems, now as a black cow, now as a stable which encloses the +bulls and cows. The black bull or cow of night is considered to be +demoniacal. In a story given in _Afanassieff_,[361] we find the devil +in the shape of a bull, which bellows, and throws up the earth with +its horns, arresting a nuptial procession. From a bull he turns into a +bear, then a hare, and then a crow, to put obstacles in the way of the +marriage, until, having presented himself in the form of a devil, a +soldier-hero blinds him while he is drinking. A variation of this +soldier is the third son of the peasant,[362] who is so strong that +with a snap of his fingers he makes the bull and the bear fall dead, +and then by a single pinch strips off their skins. The same hero hires +himself to a merchant, whom he engages to serve for two years, on +condition of receiving as his reward, at the end of them, the +permission to give him a snap with the fingers and a pinch. The +merchant thinks he is getting the man's service for nothing, but pays +for it with his life. The merchant seldom plays a good part in popular +stories. He and the miser are synonymous,--the miser is the monster +which keeps treasures hidden; and on this account, as we have already +seen in the Vedic hymns themselves, the enemies of the gods, the +monsters that ravish and conceal the treasures, are represented as +paṇayas or merchants, cheats, robbers, or misers. The currency of this +epithet as a term of infamy must have been owing in part to the +dislike with which the priestly sacrificers of the last Vedic period +regarded the merchants, in whom they saw only a pack of misers, +because, on account of their wandering life, they had neither cows nor +bulls to give them for sacrifice, but carried with them all their +fortune, and did not require the fertilising rain of the god Indras to +multiply their gold and their silver. + +The celestial bull comes out of the night or the nocturnal stables +either, as we have seen, to help the hero, to be sacrificed, to flee +from persecution, or because he has been stolen by a skilful thief. + +In one of Kriloff's fables, God sends a terrible plague among the +animals, of which they perish in great numbers. They are so terrified +by it that they forsake their habits, and begin to wander aimlessly +hither and thither. The wolf no longer eats the sheep; the fox leaves +the hens unmolested; the turtle-doves no longer make love to each +other. Then the lion holds a council of the animals, and exhorts them +all to confess their faults. The cunning fox essays to quiet the +lion-judge by assuring him that though he stole some sheep, he did not +thereby commit a fault; and so he justifies his own ravages; as also +do the bear, the tiger, the wolf, and all the most wicked of the +animals. Then the simple bull comes forward, and, in his turn, +confesses that he stole a little hay from the priest. This crime +appears so heinous that the council of animals sentences the bull to +be offered in sacrifice.[363] + +Sometimes, on the contrary, the bull, either because he cannot bear the +bad treatment that he receives from his masters, or in order to avoid +the danger of being killed or sold by the stupid son, who is in need of +money that he may marry a wife, a danger of which he has a +presentiment, abandons the stable with other animals, constructs a hut +or isbà and shuts himself up in it.[364] He has with him the lamb, the +goose, the cock, or else some other tame animals. The fox passes by, +hears the crowing of the cock, and goes to call his friends the bear and +the wolf to help him. The bear opens the door, the fox enters, and the +bull by goring him with his horns, the lamb by butting against his +sides, and the cock by pecking his eyes out, put an end to the unwelcome +intruder. The wolf, who goes in, curious to see what is going on, has +the same fate, and the bear, who comes last, only succeeds with great +difficulty, and after having been severely maltreated, in effecting his +escape. In another variation of the same story, the bear dies of fear, +and the stupid son takes his skin, sells it and makes money; then, the +danger of being sold having passed by, the bull and his company return +home. The battle between the tame and the savage animals, won by the +former, is an expression in zoological form of the victory of the heroes +(the sun and the moon) over the monsters of darkness. + +The story of the hero-thief is generally connected with the carrying +off of his master's horse; but not unfrequently the hero, like the +monster, becomes a robber of cows and oxen. + +The thief Ivan[365] is required to steal from his master a black bull or +ox tied to the plough; if he succeeds, he is to have a hundred roubles +for his reward; but if he does not, he is to receive instead a hundred +bastinadoes. In order to steal it, Ivan adopts the following device: he +takes a cock, plucks it, and puts it alive under a clod of earth. The +ploughmen come with the oxen; while they are ploughing, the cock starts +up; they leave the plough to run after it, upon which Ivan, who was +hidden behind a bush, comes out. He cuts off one ox's tail and puts it +in another ox's mouth, and then leads away the black ox. The ploughmen, +not having been able to overtake the cock, come back, and when they see +only two animals instead of three, conclude that one ox has eaten the +black ox and is beginning to eat the tail of the other, the variegated +ox. In the twenty-first story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the +boy-dwarf steals an ox from the priest and eats its tripe.[366] + +From the cow the hero is born; under a putrid cow thrown into a ditch +lies Ivan Tzarević; a bird takes the water off and Ivan Tzarević comes +forth.[367] In another story of _Afanassieff_, the fox-heroine, +companion of the wolf, whilst the wolf is absent, eats the intestines +of the calf, their common property (which they had received from +cowherds in exchange for a certain cake contaminated by their +excrement, the usual excrement which is the beginning of riches); she +then fills the calf or cow with straw and sparrows, and departs. The +wolf returns, is astonished that the calf should have eaten so much +straw that it comes out, and draws out the straw. The birds fly away, +the calf falls, and the wolf flees away terrified.[368] With these two +myths are connected two more, that of the son of the cow and that of +the ascent into heaven by means of the cow's hide. + +The king has no sons; he catches a pike, which the cook washes, giving +thereafter the dirty water to the cow to drink; the fish they give to +the black girl to carry to the queen; the black girl eats a piece of +it on the way, and the queen eats what remains. At the expiration of +nine months, the cow, the maid, and the queen, give each birth to a +son. The three sons resemble each other completely; but the son of the +cow, the hero-tempest, is the strongest of the three brothers, and +accomplishes the most difficult enterprises. In another variation of +the same story, in _Afanassieff_,[369] instead of the cow we have the +bitch giving birth to the strongest of the three brothers.[370] In the +nineteenth story of _Erlenwein_, instead of the cow and the bitch, we +have the mare; the strongest brother is here the son of the black +girl, Burghraver or the hero-tempest (Burya-Bagatír). In the third +story of _Erlenwein_, Ivan Tzarević appears as the son of the black +girl. As in numerous other Russian stories, Ivan Tzarević, usually the +third brother, appears not only (as) the most skilful, but the +strongest of the brothers, we are driven to recognise in the three +brothers, the son of the black girl, the son of the cow, and the +queen's son, who alternately accomplish the same heroic undertakings, +the same solar personage, whose mother, Night, is represented now as a +queen, now as a cow (we have just seen Ivan Tzarević come out of the +putrid cow), now as a black slave (the negro washerwoman, the Saracen +woman of Italian stories [Holda]; the cleaned fish which is carried by +the black girl may perhaps be a link connecting the imagery of Russian +tradition with that of Italian legend). + +In the second story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the third +brother, the cunning one, by means of the hides of his cows and oxen +converted into thongs, ascends into heaven; thus, in a variation of +the same story, the third brother thinks to let himself down by the +cow's hide, cut into pieces and made into thongs, being fastened to +the confines of heaven; but he perceives on the way that the thong is +not long enough. Some peasants are threshing corn, and the chaff rises +into the air; he tries to make a rope with this chaff, but the rope +breaks and he falls to the ground. This successful ascent into heaven, +followed by an unlucky descent, is often referred to, with curious +details, in Russian popular legend; to which a play of words in the +language must have not a little contributed. It is as follows, "He who +mounts does not descend,"[371] _i.e._, when one is doing one thing he +cannot be doing the contrary. This elementary truth was afterwards +altered by changing the tenses. "He who has been able to ascend will +not be able to come down again;" which is only partly true, and means +that while in dreams we require only a thin thread to mount up high, +when we wish to come down from the world of dreams to that of reality, +the fall is heavy; we come down with leaden wings, with that +difficulty in breathing which oppresses us in dreams when we seem to +fall from a height with painful slowness. And as at the end of the +dream, after the painful fall from the sky, we awaken alive, so the +story does not say of the hero who fell from heaven that he is dead, +only that his dreams are dead. He is only unlucky when, the second +time, he attempts the descent with a greater weight. + +While reasonings such as these may have helped to diffuse the myths, I +believe that the myths, at their formation, pleased more as images of +nature than of reason, and as the images of mythology are almost all +celestial, so in the third brother, or old man of other varieties of +the story, who mounts up to heaven and comes down again by means of +the cow's hide, I always recognise the sun. The old man who ascends +into heaven, after the cow is dead, does so also by means of a +vegetable of funereal omen which grows up in a marvellous manner. + +An old man and an old woman have one daughter; she eats some beans and +lets one fall to the ground; a plant (the moon) grows up till it +reaches the sky. The old man mounts up and then comes back again. He +tries to take his wife up in a sack, but unable to bear the weight, he +lets her fall to the ground, when she dies.[372] + +A cabbage grows up near an old man's dwelling, till in like manner it +rises up to the sky. The old man climbs up, makes a hole in the sky, +and eats and drinks to satiety. He then returns and narrates +everything to his wife. She wishes to go up too; when they are half +way, the old man lets the sack drop, the old woman dies, and her +husband prepares her funeral, calling in the fox[373] as a mourner. + +Other variations of the same story offer us, instead of the cow's +hide, the cabbage, and the beanstalk, the pea-plant, and even the +oak-tree, which grows up to heaven.[374] + +From the vegetable or funereal plant,--a symbol, as we have already +remarked, at once of abundance and resurrection,--by which the hero +ascends to heaven, where he finds riches and abundance of food, the +transition was very natural to the pea which turns round, of which the +hero Turn-little-Pea (the son of the king of the peas) is born. + +In the second story of the third book of _Afanassieff_,[375] +Turn-little-Pea appears as the third of the brothers, as the youngest +brother, who delivers his sister and his two brothers from the +monster. But the ungrateful brothers (perhaps covetous of the maiden, +here called a sister, but, who is virtually the same, the bride +delivered and disputed for by the three brothers in numerous +Indo-European legends), tie him to an oak-tree and go home alone. +Turn-little-Pea unroots the whole oak and goes off. He afterwards +kills three more monster-serpents, and the she-serpents their wives. + +In the thirtieth story of the second book of _Afanassieff_, this +enterprise against the serpents, male and female, is attributed to the +usual Ivan. He goes with his brothers against the serpent with twelve +heads, and with his iron stick alone kills nine of them, and the three +remaining ones by the help of his two brothers. Then the she-serpent and +her three daughters persecute the three brothers, and Ivan in +particular. She causes them to find a beautiful cushion upon the ground; +Ivan, who is suspicious of some trick, first beats the cushion, upon +which blood gushes out of it (in the story of _Turn-little-Pea_, the +young hero averts the danger by making the sign of the cross with his +sword, when blood comes out). The serpent then tempts them by an +apple-tree with gold and silver apples. The brothers wish to pluck some; +Ivan, however, first strikes the tree, and blood flows from it. They +then come to a beautiful fountain, where the brothers would like to +drink; Ivan strikes the fountain, and again blood comes from it. The +cushion, the apple-tree, and the fountain were the three daughters of +the serpent. Then the serpent, having failed to deceive them, rushes +upon Ivan; the latter escapes with his brothers into a forge shut by +twelve iron gates; the serpent licks the doors with her tongue to force +a passage, and her tongue is caught with red-hot pincers. + +In the fourth story of _Erlenwein_, the three brothers occur again with +interesting mythical names. A woman bears three sons; one at evening, +who is on this account called Većernik, or the evening one; the second +at midnight, whence he is named Polunoćnik, or the midnight one; the +third at the aurora, who is named Svetazór, or the clearly-seeing. The +three brothers become adults in a few hours. The most valiant of the +three is Svetazór, the last one. To prove his strength, he goes to the +blacksmith and orders an iron club that weighs twelve puds (480 pounds); +he throws it into the air and catches it on the palm of his hand, the +club breaks. He orders one of twenty puds (800 pounds), throws it up, +catches it on his knee, and it breaks. Finally he orders one of thirty +puds (1200 pounds), throws it up, and catches it on his forehead; it +bends but does not break. Svetazór has it straightened and takes it +with him, as he goes with his two brothers to deliver the three +daughters of the Tzar, carried off by three magicians into the three +castles of copper, silver, and gold. Svetazór, after having drunk the +water of strength, and received from the first princess an egg of +copper, from the second one of silver, and from the third a golden one, +delivers the three princesses and brings them out. The two brothers, +seeing that the third princess is more beautiful than the others, think +that the youngest brother is reserving her for himself, and throw him +into the water. Svetazór wanders about the subterranean world, and +delivers the daughter of another Tzar by killing a monster and burying +him under a rock. A soldier boasts before the Tzar of having +accomplished this heroic act. Svetazór invites the soldier to prove his +strength, and so the truth of his boast, by lifting the rock up. He does +not succeed, and Svetazór wins the trial of strength, upon which the +soldier is executed by order of the Tzar. After this, Svetazór, for +having once spared the life of a crow, is carried by it into the world +of the living, on condition that he gives it something to eat by the +way. Svetazór has at length to feed the crow with his own flesh, yet is +in the end set down again safe and sound, with all his flesh, in the +world above, where, with the eggs of copper, silver, and gold, he causes +the castles formed of these metals to arise, in which are found the +ring, the slipper, and the robe demanded from their bridegrooms by the +three princesses, who hoped by this expedient to see again their lost +Svetazór. Then Svetazór begins to sweep out the terrace of the golden +castle. The third princess expresses her intention to take him for her +husband. The nuptials are celebrated, Svetazór pardoning his two elder +brothers and giving them the two elder sisters of his bride. (The +princess of the copper is the evening aurora, the princess of the silver +is the silvery moon, and that of the gold is the morning aurora, to whom +Svetazór, the clearly-seeing, the illumined, the sun, is married.) + +In the sixth story of the first book of _Afanassieff_, the same +undertaking is accomplished by the third brother, Ivan. The monster +which carries off the three sisters is an aquatic one, an otter. +Abandoned by his brothers in the nether world, Ivan is overtaken by a +great tempest; he takes pity upon some young birds that are bathing, +and saves them under his dress, upon which the grateful mother of the +birds brings him back to the upper world. In the fifteenth story of +_Erlenwein_, the third brother is the cunning one, who, by a +stratagem, and by means of his purse, which is self-replenishing, +steals from his two brothers the snuff-box out of which issue as many +armies as are wished for, and the cloth which makes the wearer +invisible (both figures to represent the cloud from which come forth +riches, solar rays, thunderbolts, and weapons, and which hides the +hero, that is, renders him invisible). In the fifty-fourth story of +the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, Ivan of the dog, the hero sacrificed +by his brothers, is the strong one, he who delivers the three +princesses, who possesses the three rings, and gives them to the +goldsmith from whom they were ordered, and who is not able to make +them, by which means he is recognised. + +Ivan Tzarević, inasmuch as he was born of a cow, as we have also seen +above, was necessarily represented as a bull; the bull displays part +of his strength by drinking; Ivan Tzarević drinks, at a gulp, whole +barrels of wine of marvellous strength. In this capacity he resembles +Indras, the great drinker of somas, and the drinker Bhîmas, the second +brother of the Pâṇḍavas. + +The third brother is now Prince Ivan (Ivan Tzarević, Ivan Karoliević, +Ivan Kraliević), now the stupid Ivan (Ivan durak), Ivan the little fool +(Ivan Duraćiok). But, as I have already remarked, the fool generally +makes his fortune, either because the kingdom of heaven is for the poor +in spirit, or because the stupidity of Ivan is feigned, or else because +the fool becomes wise. In a story given in _Afanassieff_,[376] the fool +is also lazy, and takes the name of Emilius. + +Emilius is sent with a barrel to draw water; he only goes on account +of the promise made him by his sister, that he will receive as a +reward a pair of red boots.--This desire of the boy-hero, and of the +girl-heroine, is spoken of in many popular songs, and among others, in +a Piedmontese one, as yet unpublished. In the seventeenth story of the +fifth book of _Afanassieff_,[377] the sister kills her brother, Little +John, to possess herself of his red strawberries (as in the Esthonian +tale), and his red little shoes. Upon his grave a fine cane grows; a +shepherd makes a flute of it, and the flute, pressed to the lips, +begins to emit the following lamentation:-- + + "Gently, gently, little shepherd, play; + Do not wound my heart! + My little sister, the traitress, + For the red little strawberries, for the red little shoes!" + +When the flute is pressed to the sister's lips, instead of the word +"little shepherd," it says, "Little sister, thou hast betrayed +me,"[378] and her crime is thus discovered. These little red shoes +are simply a variation of the slippers which are lost by the fugitive +aurora, and found again by the sun, and which both wish to wear. (I +refer to this myth the origin of the nuptial custom in Europe of +maidens, towards the new year, throwing the slipper to know whether, +during the next year, they will be married, and who is to be their +husband.)[379] The slipper lost by the maiden, Little Mary (Masha, the +Marion of Piedmontese and French legends), and found by the prince, +also occurs in the Russian tales. In the thirtieth of the sixth book +of _Afanassieff_, Little Mary's elder sister begins by trying on the +slipper; but it is too small; the foot will not go in. Seeing this, +Little Mary's step-mother advises her daughter to cut off her great +toe, which would not enter; then the foot goes in, and the messengers +of the prince lead the eldest sister away; but two doves fly after +them and cry out, "Blood on her foot, blood on her foot." The deceit +is discovered, and the eldest sister sent back; the prince causes his +true and predestined bride, Little Mary, to be carried off. (This is +the usual exchange of wives, upon which I have remarked in my "Essay +on the Comparative History of Nuptial Usages," and of which the +legend of Queen Berta is one of the most popular examples. The +Russian Little Mary, like Cinderella, is at first of ugly aspect, and +then beautiful. In the Russian story, the maiden becomes beautiful by +mounting upon the stove. Sîtâ comes forth, beautiful in her innocence, +passing through the fire; the morning aurora only seems beautiful when +it passes through the flames of the Eastern sky. The stove brings us +back to the interrupted story of the foolish and lazy Emilius (or +Ivan).--On account, therefore, of the promise made to him of the red +boots, he goes to the fountain with the barrel to draw water. In the +fountain he catches a pike, who beseeches him to set him at liberty, +and promises in return to make him fortunate. Being lazy, the greatest +favour that he wishes for at this moment is that he may be helped to +carry the barrel; the grateful pike performs the miracle of the barrel +full of water which walks of its own accord. (I have already +endeavoured to explain this myth: the cloud is represented as a barrel +in the Vedic hymns; it moves on of its own accord; the barrel does the +same; the hero, as long as he is shut up in the cloud, remains +foolish; the barrel of the fool walks of itself.) Emilius is then sent +to cut wood; by favour of the grateful pike, it is enough for him to +send his hatchet, which cuts the wood of itself; the wood piles itself +upon the waggon, and the waggon, without being drawn by any one, +advances, passing or crushing whatever it meets; they endeavour to +arrest its progress, when the trunk of an oak-tree detaches itself +from the waggon, and, like a stick, beating on every side, sweeps the +road (these are all curious variations of the walking forest or +cloud). The Tzar then sends to invite him to court, and knowing his +weak penchant for things of a red colour, he promises him a red robe, +a red hat, and red boots. When the Tzar's envoys arrive, Emilius, +like his _alter ego_ Ivan Durak (Ivan the fool), is warming himself at +the stove; grudging all trouble, he obtains from the pike the favour +of being carried by the stove itself to the Tzar at court. The Tzar's +daughter falls in love with him; the Tzar shuts the young couple up in +a cask (the usual cloud-barrel, which occurs in the form of a little +chest in other stories, a variation of the wooden dress), and has them +thrown into the sea. Emilius, who was drunk in the cask, sleeps; the +princess wakens him, and beseeches him to save her; by means of the +pike, the cask comes to a beautiful island, where it breaks open; +Emilius becomes handsome, rich, and happy in a beautiful palace with +the young princess. (The aurora and the sun of evening are thrown +together into the ocean of night, until they land on the happy isle of +the east, where they reappear again together in all their splendour.) +One of the most popular stupidities of the fool is that of letting the +wine contained in the barrel flow out upon the ground, when he is left +alone at home; in the Russian story, too, Ivan the fool leaves the +beer that is fermenting in the barrel open (Indras with his lightning +makes a hole in the cloud-barrel, and the rain comes out).[380] + +The fool Ivan takes his good luck from the living, but he also does so +from the dead. On account of having watched three nights by the tomb +of his father, his luck begins,[381] the shade of his father having +blessed him; but, as the dead bring good luck (a belief which, at any +rate, has always been entertained by the heirs of rich men deceased), +the third brother speculates on the body of his own mother. We do not +know whether he does so out of pure simplicity, or with some hidden +and far-seeing design, presumable from the ease with which he +exchanges the character of a fool for that of a cunning schemer (the +first Brutus of popular tradition). In the seventeenth story of +_Erlenwein_, after he has carried a treasure home, by selling his ox +to the tree, and then cutting down the tree, which contains money, he +always guards his money, and sleeps upon it. His brothers know this, +and resolve to go and kill him. But that very night, the third, the +foolish brother, leaves his mother in charge of the treasure; the +brothers come and kill his mother by mistake, instead of him. He turns +up, and threatens to give them up to justice; they bribe him with a +hundred roubles to keep silence. Then the third brother takes his +mother's body and carries it into the middle of the road, in order +that a merchant's waggon may crush it; when this happens, he accuses +the merchant of murder, until the latter gives him a hundred more +roubles to say nothing about it. He then comes to a village by night +with his mother's corpse; he places it against a peasant's door, and +knocks at the window; the peasant opens the door, the body falls, and +the peasant treads upon it, upon which the so-called stupid son cries +out that he has killed his mother, and receives another hundred +roubles, on promise of silence. Then the two elder brothers, finding +that it is possible to speculate upon corpses, and make one's fortune, +kill their wives, and go to town with their bodies; they are +immediately arrested and put into prison. + +The law of atavism evolves itself in the generation of the heroes of +mythical legends, no less than in that of simple mortals upon earth. +Of a stupid father is born a wise son, and then the wise son in turn +has a foolish one. I do not as yet know how to explain this singular +fact of natural history; its appearance in mythology, however, is not +difficult to understand. To the luminous day succeeds the gloomy +night, and then again to the dark night the luminous day; to summer +succeeds winter, and to winter summer; to white black, and to black +white; to heat cold, and to cold heat. + +On this account, in legends, when the mother is intelligent, the son, +generally speaking, is silly; whereas, when the mother is silly,[382] +the son is usually intelligent. + +In the fifth story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, a soldier enters +the house of a woman, while her son is travelling, and induces her to +believe that he has just returned from hell, where he had seen her son +employed in taking the storks to pasture, and greatly in want of money; +the soldier says that he is about to return to hell, and will be happy +to take with him whatever the woman wishes to send to her son. The +credulous woman gives him some money, directing him to take it +immediately to hell, and give it to her poor child. The soldier +disappears, and shortly afterwards the woman's son returns home; his +mother is greatly astonished at his appearance, and tells him how she +has been deceived; he gets angry and leaves the house again, swearing +never to return till he finds some one more foolish than his mother. He +is a skilful thief; he steals from a lady, whilst her husband is absent, +a hog with its little pigs, and puts them in safe concealment; the +husband returns, hears what has taken place, and follows the thief with +a carriage and horses. The robber hears him coming; squats down on the +ground, takes off his hat, and pretends to be covering with it a bird +or a falcon, which wishes to escape. The husband comes and asks him if +he has seen the robber; the latter answers that he has seen him, but +that he is a long way off, and that the roads by which he can be +overtaken are many and winding. The husband, who, perhaps, does not know +the proverb which says, "Who wishes, let him go; who wishes not, let him +send," asks the robber to overtake the fugitive; the thief demurs, +saying that he has under his hat a falcon, which cost his master three +hundred roubles, and that it may escape. The gentleman promises to take +care of it, and if the falcon escapes, to pay the three hundred roubles. +The thief does not believe his promise, and desires the three hundred +roubles in pledge of his good faith; the gentleman gives them, and the +thief goes off with the carriage, the horses, and the three hundred +roubles. The gentleman stays till evening looking at the hat, waiting +for his friend to return; at last he loses patience, wants to see what +there is under the hat, and finds nothing--but a proof of his own +stupidity.[383] + +Ivan (John), and oftener still Vaniusha (Little John, the Giovannino +of Italian legends), distinguishes himself, not only by his thieving +accomplishments, but also by his courage. In order to play the part of +a thief, as Little John does in all the Indo-Europeans legends, not +only industry, but courage must be called into requisition; hence he +acquires, like the Chevalier Bayard, the good reputation of a hero +without fear and without reproach. The hero Ivan is now the son of a +king, now of a merchant, and now of a peasant; the merchants wished, +no less than the peasants, to appropriate to themselves the most +popular hero of tradition. In the forty-sixth story of the fifth book +of _Afanassieff_, neither the shades of night, nor brigands, nor +death, can make the hero afraid; but he is terrified and dies, falling +into the water, when the little _iersh_ (the perch) leaps upon his +stomach, whilst he is asleep in his fishing-boat. In the Tuscan +story,[384] the fearless hero Giovannino, after having confronted +every kind of danger, dies from the terror the sight of his own shadow +inspires him with. In the same way, in the _Ṛigvedas_, the god Indras, +terrified at his own shadow, or, probably, that of his dead enemy, +takes to flight after the killing of the serpent Ahis.[385] + +The following heroes are also variations of Prince Ivan, Ivan the son +of the cow, Ivan the peasant's son, Ivan the merchant's son, and the +cunning Ivan:--1st, Alessino Papović, the son of the priest (it is +well known that the Russian priests are not bound to celibacy), who +kills Tugarin, the son of the serpent, by prayer, that is, by praying +to the Holy Mother of God, to order the black cloud to cause drops of +rain to fall on the monster's wings, upon which the son of the +serpent, like the Vedic Ahis, when Indras opens a way for the rivers +to come out, instantly falls to the ground;[386] 2d, Baldak, son of +Boris, the boy seven years old, who succeeds in spitting in the +Sultan's face--(I have already remarked, in the preface to this work, +that the king of the Turks is, in the Slavonic tradition, as well as +in that of Persia, the representative of the devil; the demon, when +the hero approaches, smells the odour of human flesh in India, of +Christian flesh in Western stories,[387] and of Russian flesh in +Russian fairy tales)--but who afterwards becomes the Sultan's +prisoner, because he appears to the third daughter of the latter with +a star under his heel, or shows his heel (which is the vulnerable part +of both hero and monster); 3d, Basil Bes-ćiastnoi, who goes, by his +father-in-law's order, into the kingdom of the serpent, in order to +receive a gift from him, with adventures similar to those of the young +Plavaćek in Bohemian stories, when he goes to seek the three golden +hairs of the old Vsieveda (the all-seeing, the Vedic sun +Viçvavedas);[388] 4th, The third brother who exchanges two sacks of +flies and gnats he has caught for good cattle.[389] The same hero +takes the name of Little Thomas Berennikoff; being blind of one eye, +he kills an army of flies, and boasts of having killed an army of +heroes; he thus dishonestly gains the reputation of being a hero, and +is fortunate in having an opportunity offered him of proving his +bravery by killing a monster-serpent, who, out of foolhardiness, shuts +both eyes when he sees that Thomas has but one; he afterwards destroys +an army of Chinese with the trunk of a tree, rooted up by his +indomitable horse, which a real hero had bound to the tree;[390] 5th, +The cunning rogue, Little Thomas (Thomka; the quacks in Piedmont are +accustomed to give the name of Tommasino to the little devil which +they conjure out of a phial), who, by means of disguises, cheats and +robs the priest;[391] 6th, The third brother who does not suffer +himself to be put to sleep by the witch (as we have seen above the +third sister who keeps one of her three eyes open);[392] 7th, The +famous robber, Klimka,[393] who, by means of a drum (in Indian tales a +trumpet), terrifies his accomplices, the robbers, and takes their +money, and then steals from a gentleman his horse, his casket of +jewels, and even his wife; 8th, The Cossack who delivers the maiden +from the flames, and carries her to his golden house, where there are +two other maidens (be it understood, the one in the silver house, and +the other in that of copper); from which three maidens the Cossack +receives a shirt which renders him invulnerable, a sword which +produces the most marvellous effects in slaughtering men, and a purse +which, when shaken, drops money;[394] 9th, The celebrated Ilia +Muromietz (Elias of Murom), round whom, as also around Svetazór and +Svyatogor (holy mount), Dobrynia Nikitić, and the heroes of Vladimir, +is grouped an entire heroic Russian epic poem.[395] + +Other variations of the same hero are the son of the merchant given +up to be educated by the devil, who teaches him every kind of craft; +the boy Basil, who understands the language of birds, and who makes +his parents serve him;[396] the merchant or son of a peasant,[397] +who, because he prefers good advice to money, acquires a fortune; the +virtuous workman, who receives by way of pay for his labour only three +kapeika, which, spent in good works, enables him at last to marry the +king's daughter, or the princess who did not laugh.[398] + +The legend of the hero Ivan has yet other interesting forms, +reflective of the beautiful Vedic myth of the Açvinâu, who into their +flying chariot-vessel also take up the unhappy. In _Afanassieff_,[399] +the third brother, thought to be foolish, is ill-treated by his +parents, who dress and feed him badly. The king issues a proclamation, +that whoever can make a flying vessel will obtain his daughter to +wife. The mother sends forth her three sons in quest of the necessary +enchantment; to her third son she gives a little brown bread and +water, whilst the two eldest go provided with good white loaves and +some brandy. The fool meets on the way a poor old man, salutes him, +and begins to share with him his scanty store of food; the old man +transmutes his brown bread into white, and his water into brandy, and +then advises him to enter the forest, to make the sign of the cross +upon the first tree he finds, and to strike it with his axe; then to +throw himself on the ground and stay there until he wakens; he will +see a vessel ready before him: "Sit down in it," added the old man, +"and fly whither your behest requires you; and by the way take up +beside you as many as you meet."[400] This chariot is freighted with +abundance, both to eat and to drink; the young man overtakes several +needy beggars, and invites them up into the chariot; he receives only +poor people, not a single rich man.[401] But these poor men afterwards +show their gratitude to the hero, and help him in other adventures +imposed upon him by the Tzar, who hopes by this means to get rid of a +son-in-law of such vulgar origin. One of the new tasks imposed +requires him to eat twelve oxen, and to drink at one gulp forty +barrels of wine; in this he is helped by Eating (Abiédalo) and by +Drinking (Apiválo), whom he had entertained in his chariot-ship, and +who eat and drink instead of him.[402] At last he comes to claim and +marry the young princess. (The hero-sun, taken up into the chariot of +the Açvinâu, by the grace of the Açvinâu, invoked by him in danger, is +delivered, and espouses the aurora.) + +In a variation of this legend, a prince, fifteen years of age, who has +been lost by his parents, is found again by means of a riddle which +they propose, and which he alone can solve.[403] In the Vedic hymns it +is now the aurora, the beautiful maiden, who delivers the hero-sun, +and now the hero-sun who delivers the beautiful maiden, the aurora. +In the forty-first story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, a little +girl, seven years old (semilietká), presents herself to the Tzar, who +must marry her, inasmuch as she solves the riddle proposed by him, by +arriving riding on a hare (an animal which represents the moon), with +a quail (an animal which seems to represent the sun) tied to her +hand.[404] She too, like the aurora, knows all; she too protects the +poor against the rich, and the innocent against the guilty. The dwarf +Allwis is a form of this child. Allwis is the omniscient man of the +Edda, who solves all the questions put to him by the god Thor, in +order to obtain his daughter; when he is done with answering these +questions, day breaks, and the sun shines. + +The wondrous girl of seven years of age (the aurora), brings us back +to the marvellous puppet (generally, the moon). It is three puppets +(the wooden chest of Marion d'bosch, or wooden little Mary of the +Piedmontese story, the dark forest of night, the tree that hides the +splendid treasures of the evening aurora; another variety of the same +myth in relation to the sun) that hide the three splendid dresses of +the stars, the moon and the sun, which belong to the beautiful maiden, +the daughter of the priest (a variation of the Vedic aurora, duhitar +divas, or daughter of the sky). It is the three puppets which enable +the beautiful girl to descend through the ground, and so escape from +the persecutions of her father and seducer (in other versions, of her +brother), and which go down with her, dressed as old women, and enter +a forest, where, near an oak-tree, there is the house of a princess, +who has a young and handsome son.[405] In a variation of this +story,[406] the girl is persecuted, not by her father, but the +well-known cruel stepmother, for whom she divides the wheat from the +barley, and draws water at the fountain (like the Vedic maiden Apalâ); +she goes three times splendidly dressed to church (which takes the +place of the ball-room of other stories), where she is seen three +times by a handsome prince; she is twice followed, and twice +disappears; the third time the prince has gum (pitch, in other +variations) put on the ground; the fugitive loses her golden slipper +in consequence, which the prince picks up, and tries on all the +maidens till he finds his bride. In another story,[407] where the +relation of the aurora with the two Açvinâu comes out in wonderful +distinctness,[408] it is by means of her marvellous speaking puppet +(_i.e._, the moon, the Vedic Rakâ, very small, but very intelligent, +enclosed in the wooden dress, in the forest of night) that the girl, +persecuted by her step-mother, weaves a cloth so fine that it can pass +like a thread through the eye of a needle (just as the girl's feet are +very small, so also are the puppet's hands). The marvellous cloth is +brought to the Tzar, but no one is found who is able to sew it into a +shirt for the Tzar.[409] The maiden alone, by the help of her puppet, +succeeds; the Tzar wishes to see the girl who prepared his +extraordinary shirt, and goes to find her; he is astonished at her +beauty, and marries her. In the _Ṛigvedas_, the aurora weaves a robe +for her husband the sun. + +The same girl (the aurora) whom we have here only as a good, +beautiful, intelligent, and skilful maiden, appears in other stories +given in _Afanassieff_ as a heroic damsel. In the seventh story of the +first book she disguises herself as a man, and mocks the Tzar three +times. In the fourteenth story of the first book, the same girl, under +the name of Anastasia the beautiful, vanquishes and binds the serpent, +and discovers the secret of how he can be killed. Under the name of +Helen, or Little Helen, she is the protectress of her little brother, +Ivanusca (Little John),[410] and his guide through the world; and when +the boy, by the incantation of a witch, is transformed into a lamb or +kid (in a story of the Canavese, in Piedmont, the seven monks, +brothers of the courageous girl, are transformed into seven hogs), she +recommends him to the care of the prince, her husband, in order that +he may destroy the evil work of the witch. The same maiden is found +again as the very wise Basilia (Vasilisa Premudraia), who succours the +young hero, because, after stealing her dress while she was bathing in +the sea, he restores it to her, agreeably to her prayer. For this +favour she gratefully accomplishes for him the labours imposed upon +him by the king of the waters, and ends, after many vicissitudes, by +marrying him.[411] She appears once more as the royal maiden +(Tzar-dievitza), who comes three times with her ships by sea to lead +away the young Ivan, beloved by her;[412] and I also place among the +girl-heroines the daughter of the shepherd in the twenty-ninth story +of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, of which this is an abridgment. +There was once a king who could not find a maiden beautiful enough to +suit his taste. One day, returning from the chase (the solar hero +always meets the aurora, his bride, when returning from the hunt in +the forest of night), he meets a shepherd's daughter, who is leading +out the flock to pasture, so beautiful that her like would be sought +for in vain over the world. He becomes enamoured of her, and promises +to make her his wife, but only on condition that she will never say +anything displeasing to him, whatever he may do; the poor enamoured +maiden consents, the nuptials are celebrated, and the couple live +together happily for a year. A boy is born to them; then the king says +roughly to his wife that the boy must be killed, that it may never be +said the heir to the throne is the son of a shepherdess. The poor +woman resigns herself to her fate, remarking, "The will of the king +must be done." Another year passes, and a daughter is born. The king +informs his wife that she too must be killed, as she can never become +a princess, but will always remain a peasant girl. The unhappy mother +once more bows her head to the will of the king, who, however, +consigns his son and daughter, not to an executioner, but to his +sister, that they may receive all the attentions due to their royal +pedigree and standing. Years pass away; the little prince and princess +grow up beautiful, healthy, good, and happy, and pass adolescence. +Then the king puts his wife to the last proof. He sends her back to +her house in the dress of a shepherdess, signifying at the same time +that she has lived with him long enough. Then he orders her to return, +to put the rooms in order, and to wait upon the new bride whom he +intends to take her place; the shepherd's daughter obeys again without +a murmur. The new bride arrives, and is set down at the table; they +eat, drink, and are merry; the shepherd's daughter is obliged to see +and hear all, and to serve in silence; at last the king asks her, +"Well, is not my bride beautiful?" To which the unhappy woman +responds with a heroic effort, "If she seem beautiful to thee, still +more does she seem so to me." Then the king, at the summit of his +felicity, exclaims, "Dress thyself again in thy royal robes, and place +thyself by my side; thou hast been, and shalt always be, my wife, my +only wife; this, my supposed bride, is thy daughter, and this handsome +youth is thy son." The poor heroine had undergone the last proof of +her virtue, and triumphed. + +But the virtue of the legendary heroine is not always so sound. Often +the good wife, sister, maiden, or woman is corrupted by contact with the +wicked. We have already seen how the beautiful aurora, the pitying and +beneficent maiden, becomes, in the Vedic hymns themselves, the +evil-doer, whom the god Indras overthrows and destroys. The Hellenic +Amazons, the beautiful and proud warrior-women, were also pursued, +fought with, and vanquished by the Hellenic heroes. Thus the +Scandinavian warrior, Walkiries, has a double aspect, a good and a bad. +The Russian stories also supply numerous instances of the ease with +which the good degenerates into the demon, the hero into the monster, +and the beautiful heroine into the powerful and mischief-working witch. + +This good sister Helen or Little Helen, so careful a guardian of her +brother John, ends, when she conceives a passion for the monster, with +becoming his perfidious persecutor. (The evening aurora is represented +as a friend of the monster of night, who conspires with him against +her brother the sun; and whoever observes the sinister aspect often +assumed by the reddish sky of evening, will find this fiction a very +natural one. I have said above that a Piedmontese proverb predicts bad +weather for the morrow from a red evening; but in Piedmont the belief +is also widely diffused that the red of evening signifies blood, and +that this bloody redness signifies war. It certainly does mean war, +but a mythical war--the war in which the hero, fighting against the +monster, succumbs and sheds blood. It is a woman that is the hero's +destruction. A counter-type of the biblical Delilah is found in all +the popular Indo-European traditions; the Vedic aurora, the sister of +Râvaṇas in the _Râmâyaṇam_, the sister of Hidimbas in the +_Mahâbhâratam_, the Hellenic Dejanira, Ariadne, Medea, the Amazons, +Helen, the Slavonic Helen, and Anna the Sabine woman, the Scandinavian +Walkiries, Freya, Idun, Brünhilt, Gudrun, the Germanic Krîmhilt, are +all forms of one and the same heroine, conceived now in the light of a +saint, and now in that of a witch. + +In the Russian story,[413] after the bull has saved from the bear the +fugitive brother and sister, Ivan Tzarević and Helen the exceedingly +beautiful (Prekraçna), they enter a brigand's house. Their bull, +having become a dwarf, kills all the brigands, and shuts their bodies +up in a room, which he forbids Helen to enter; the latter, not +attending to the prohibition, enters, and seeing the head of the +brigand chief, falls in love with him, resuscitates him by means of +the water of life, and then conspires with him to destroy her brother +Ivan, by requiring him to accomplish enterprises in which death seemed +inevitable, or else by ordering him to bring her, first, the milk of a +wolf, then that of a she-bear, and then that of a lioness. Ivan, by +the help of his dwarf (or the sun grown small during the night, and +perhaps also the moon), accomplishes all these undertakings. We have +already seen how white comes from black; the milk of the wolf, the +bear, and the lioness is the _alba luna_, or the white morning sky +brought back by the solar hero. Ivan is then sent to fetch the eggs of +the burning bird (Szar-ptitza). Ivan goes with his dwarf (that is to +say, the moon, or he makes himself a dwarf, in other words, renders +himself invisible); the bird is enraged, and swallows the dwarf +(_i.e._, the red sky of evening, the burning bird, or phœnix, absorbs +the moon or the sun in its flames.[414]) Ivan goes back to his sister +without the eggs, upon which she threatens to burn him in the bath. +Ivan, with the help of the wolf's, the bear's, and the lion's whelps, +or Ivan, with the young wolf, bear, or lion (the moon), or Ivan the +son of the wolf, Ivan the son of the bear, Ivan the son of the lion +(Ivan born of the she-wolf Night, the she-bear Night, or the lioness +Night), tears the brigand to pieces, and binds his sister (as the +Vedic cow) to a tree (the aurora almost always loses herself in a tree +or the water). Then Ivan wishes to marry a heroine. [Two myths are +here united in the story, originating in one and the same phenomenon, +which seems twofold, because observed at different, almost literally +succeeding, instants. The morning sun comes and puts to flight his +sister the aurora, driving her back into the forest of night, and +binding her to the tree; the morning sun passes safe and sound through +the flames (like Sîfrit in the _Nibelungen_), vanquishes and subdues +the aurora, makes her his, and espouses her.] He fights with her +first, and succeeds in throwing her with his lance from her horse, and +subduing her. The first night--that is, when evening comes, she +embraces and presses him so tightly, and with such strength, that he +cannot succeed in extricating himself (the evening aurora envelops and +surrounds the sun; it is the famous nuptial belt, the belt of +strength of the god Thor, the shirt of Nessus). At last, however, +towards morning, Ivan vanquishes, subdues, and throws down (like +Sîfrit in the _Nibelungen_) the girl-heroine (the morning sun, as +Indras, throws down the aurora). He then thinks of liberating his +sister Helen, who is bound to the tree, in order to take her with him; +but she, under the pretext of combing his hair, thrusts a dead man's +tooth into his head. Ivan is about to die. Here the primary myth of +the sun and aurora, as brother and sister, reappears, and the +secondary one of the husband and wife is forgotten. The lion's whelp +comes forward and extracts the tooth; the lion is on the point of +dying, when the young bear runs up and extracts it again. He is also +about to die; the fox then comes up, who assumes towards the end of +the story the part played in the middle by the young wolf (in the same +way as in Indian tales the jackal is substituted for the fox), and, +with more cunning, throws the dead man's tooth into the fire, and thus +saves himself--_i.e._, the solar hero, passing through the flames, +comes out of the shadows which enveloped him during the night. Helen +is attached to the tail of a horse (of Ivan's solar horse itself), and +is thus made to perish (when the sun comes forth in the morning the +aurora loses herself behind him). + +The same story of Ivan's perfidious sister, of which the mythical +sense appears to me more than usually evident, occurs again in other +forms in Russian tales. + +Whilst Ivan is travelling with his sister towards the kingdom where +all the people die[415] (that is, towards the night), a fairy gives +him a towel, by shaking which a bridge may be thrown across a +river--(is this bridge the milky way, the bridge or road to be taken +by the souls in the Persian and Porphyrian belief, as well as in the +German?)--but advises him never to let his sister see him shake it. +Ivan arrives with his sister in the kingdom of the dead; they come +upon a river on the further bank of which there is a serpent, who has +the power of transforming himself into a handsome youth; Ivan's sister +becomes enamoured of him, and he induces her to steal the towel from +her brother and shake it. The sister, under the pretext of washing the +dirty linen, takes off the fairy's towel and shakes it; a bridge +rises, upon which the serpent crosses the river, and then conspires +with the girl with intent to work Ivan's ruin. They demand the usual +milk, which Ivan brings; then the flour which is shut up within twelve +doors. Ivan goes thither with his beasts of prey, takes the flour and +brings it away, but his beasts remain shut up inside; then his +strength diminishes, and the serpent, boasting that he fears him no +longer, prepares to devour him. Ivan, by the advice of a crow, prays +for time, and procrastinates till his beasts of prey, gnawing the +twelve doors through, come to his help, and tear the serpent in +pieces. The serpent's bones are burned in the fire, its ashes are +dispersed to the four winds, and the sister is bound to a stone pillar +(to the rock or mountain upon which the aurora arises, fading away +afterwards when the sun appears). Ivan places near her some hay and a +vessel full of water, that she may have whereof to eat and drink, and +another empty vessel, which she is to fill with her tears: when she +has eaten the hay, drunk the water, and filled the vessel with her +tears, it will be a sign that God has forgiven her; when Ivan too will +forgive her. Meanwhile, Ivan goes into a kingdom where there is +nothing but mourning, because a twelve-headed serpent is massacring +all the people (the usual nocturnal sky, where it is now the hero-sun, +now the heroine aurora that sacrifices itself), and the king's +daughter is the next victim. Ivan, by the help of his hunting animals, +cuts the serpent to pieces, and then goes to sleep on the knees of the +king's daughter. While he sleeps, a water-carrier passes towards +morning, cuts off his head, and presents himself to the king as the +deliverer of the princess, whom he demands for his wife. The beasts of +prey come up, descry the crow upon Ivan's corpse, and prepare to eat +it, when the crow begs for its life; they consent, and in return +require it to search for the water of life and death, by means of +which Ivan is resuscitated; the water-carrier's deceit is found out, +and Ivan marries the princess whom he had delivered from the monster. +Then he goes to look for his sister, and finds she has eaten the hay, +drunk the water, and filled half the vessel with tears; upon this he +pardons her, and takes her away with him. + +In another story,[416] instead of the perfidious sister, we have the +perfidious mother (probably step-mother), who, to please her demon +lover, feigns illness, and demands from Ivan the heart, first of the +three-headed, then of the six-headed, and finally of the twelve-headed +monster. Ivan accomplishes these undertakings. He is then sent to a hot +bath, to weaken his strength. Ivan goes, and his head is cut off by the +monster. But Ivan's two sons resuscitate him by rubbing a root upon his +body; the demon lover of Ivan's mother dies as soon as the hero revives +again. In the two sons of Ivan we recognise again the myth of the +Açvinâu, the celestial physicians who resuscitate the solar hero. + +In another story, Ivan Karoliević (king's son) is threatened with +death by his own wife,[417] who, feigning illness, demands the usual +milk of a she-wolf, a she-bear, and a lioness, and then the enchanted +powder (powder of gold or flour), which is under the devils mill, +barred behind twelve doors. Ivan comes out, but his beasts remain +inside. He returns and finds his wife with the serpent, the son of the +serpent; he chaunts the song of death--he sings it three times;[418] +on hearing which the serpent is thrown down, and the beasts, regaining +strength to deliver themselves, come out and tear the serpent, and +with him the perfidious wife is put to death. + +Ivan's perfidious wife occurs again in the thirty-fifth story of the +fifth book of _Afanassieff_, under the name of Anna the very beautiful +(Prekraçnaia). She has married Ivan Tzarević against her will, because +she could not solve a riddle which he proposed to her; she does not love +him, and endeavours to destroy him by requiring an extraordinary proof +of his valour,[419] in which, by the help of his tutor, Katoma, Ivan is +victorious, so that Anna falls into his hands. But, understanding that +Ivan's strength is not in himself, but his tutor, she induces Ivan to +send him away, after depriving him of his feet. Anna then sends Ivan to +take the cows to pasture. The lame Katoma finds in the forest a blind +man, also made so by Anna;[420] they become friends and consociate +together, and carry off a beautiful maiden to be their sister; but a +witch comes and makes the maiden comb her hair, whilst she sucks her +breast (we must remember that in the Indian story the girl has three +breasts, or is defective in her breast, in the same way as the witch +makes the Russian girl so by sucking her breast). The poor girl grows +thin and ugly, until the old witch is surprised in her evil doings by +the two heroes, fallen upon by them like a mountain of stone, and +pressed so tightly that she cries for mercy. Then they demand to be +shown where the fountain of life and healing can be found. The old woman +conducts them into a dense forest, and shows them a fountain. They first +throw a dry twig in, which immediately takes fire; they threaten to kill +the old witch, and force her to lead them to another fountain, into +which they throw another dry twig; it becomes green again. Then one rubs +his eyes, and the other his feet, with the water, and both become +healthy and strong again. They throw the witch into the fountain of +fire. Katoma, in a shepherd's dress, goes to deliver the hero Ivan from +the demon cow, which lifts up its tail and gives him back his strength +and splendour. This is again the Vedic myth of the Açvinâu united to the +aurora, who cure the blind and the lame, _i.e._, themselves, and save +the multiform solar hero. + +Finally, such as we have found the blind girl in the Vedic hymns, so +we meet her again in Russian tradition.[421] A servant-maid takes out +the eyes of the maiden her mistress, after having put her to sleep by +means of a herb, and marries the king in her stead. The girl awakens, +hears but does not see; an old shepherd receives her into his house; +during the night she, although blind, sews a crown for the Tzar and +sends the old man to court to sell it for an eye (this is a variation +of Queen Berta in the forest). The servant-maid, now become queen, +tempted by the beauty of this crown, takes one of the girls eyes out +of her pocket and gives it to the old man. The maiden arises at the +aurora, washes her eye in her own saliva (_i.e._, the dew. In Tuscany, +the peasants believe that whoever washes his face in the dew before +the sun rises on St John's Day, will have no illness all the year +following), puts it in the socket and sees. She then sews another +crown, and, in the same manner, recovers her other eye at the next +aurora. Then the servant-queen learns that she is alive, and makes +hired murderers cut her to pieces. Where the maiden is buried, a +garden arises and a boy shows himself. The boy goes to the palace and +runs after the queen, making such a din that she is obliged, in order +to silence him, to give him the girl's heart, which she had kept +hidden. The boy then runs off contented; the king follows him, and +finds himself before the resuscitated maiden. He marries her, and the +servant-girl is blinded, and then torn to pieces by being fastened to +the tails of horses. Like the German Geneviève and the Hindoo +Çakuntalâ, the Russian wife is recognised by her husband by means of a +boy. This is the young sun, who enables the old one to be born again, +to arise again and be young once more; this is the son who, in the +Hindoo legend, gives his father his eyesight back, and by doing so, +naturally imparts to him the means of recognising his wife, whom he +had forgotten, or rejected, or lost, according to the various forms +assumed by the celestial myth of the separation of husband and wife. + +I might now carry on this comparison by entering the mythical field of +the more Western Slavonic nations;[422] but it is not my intention to +convert this modest volume into an entire library of legends; neither is +it necessary for my purpose, as by so doing I should not add much more +evidence to that which I have thus far attempted to collect, in order to +prove how zoological mythology is the same in existing Slavonic +tradition as it was in Hindoo antiquity. I have, moreover, gone rather +minutely into the contents of Russian tradition in particular, because, +on account of our ignorance of the language, which is beautiful and +worthy of study, it is little known, and because it is of especial +importance in our present inquiry. I believe, if I do not deceive +myself, that I have, up to this point, given an account of all the more +essential legends developed in the Eastern Aryan world relating to the +myth of the cow and the bull; and now, in moving towards the West, I +think I may venture to proceed with greater expedition, because we shall +find ourselves in a region already familiar to us. It seemed to me that +it was especially necessary, for a just comparison, to determine and fix +the character of Oriental tradition, in order that it may be easy for +the student to classify the interminable stories and traditions which +have already been collected in Western Europe, and which are published +in languages which are, certainly, different from each other, but all, +comparatively speaking, readily accessible. If I have succeeded in +imparting to the reader an understanding of the more authentic sources +of legendary traditions and their most probable meanings, I shall go on +with more courage and a greater confidence to the investigations that +follow. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[348] These last have already been translated into English, and +illustrated, by W. R. S. Ralston, M.A. The _Narodnija Skaski_ +sabrannija selskimi ućiteliami, isdanie A. A. Erlenwein (Moskva 1863), +and the more voluminous N. Aphanasieva, _Narodnija ruskija skaski_, +Isd. 2 (Moskva 1860, 1861), have not thus far been translated into +other European languages. I have therefore thought fit to make copious +quotations from them as well for the use of Western readers, as on +account of the real importance of their mythical contents, whilst +awaiting the publication of the competent work which Mr Ralston is +expressly preparing upon Russian songs. + +[349] iii. 8805, and following. + +[350] _Afanassieff_, ii. 29. + +[351] iv. 45. + +[352] This subject is already given in _Æsop's Fables_, in the +twenty-first fable (ed. Del Furia, Florence, 1809): the man prays to a +wooden idol (xülinon theon) that it may make him rich; the statue does +not answer; he breaks it to pieces, and gold comes out of it. + +[353] Seventeenth story. + +[354] Cfr. also in _Afanassieff_, the story, v. 19. + +[355] Cfr. also, for the variations, the twenty-second of _Erlenwein_, +and iii. 24, of _Afanassieff_. + +[356] Story 54. + +[357] Cfr. the first story of my collection of the _Novelline di Santo +Stefano di Calcinaia_, Torino, A. F. Negro, 1869. I am also acquainted +with a Piedmontese variation, differing but little from this Tuscan +story. + +[358] In the story, ii. 27, of the collection of _Afanassieff_, the +beautiful princess, near the sea, combs the youngest son of the Tzar, +who goes to sleep. + +[359] Cfr. the chapter on the Goat. + +[360] v. 37. + +[361] v. 50. + +[362] v. 9. + +[363] In Lafontaine, _Fables_, vii. 1, the animal sacrificed is the ass. + +[364] _Afanassieff_, iv. 20-22.--In a Lithuanian song, which describes +the nuptials of animals, the bull appears as a woodcutter or +woodman.--Cfr. Uhland's _Schriften zur Geschichte der Dichtung und +Sage_, iii. 75. + +[365] _Afanassieff_, v. 6. + +[366] Cfr. the chapter which treats of the Wolf. + +[367] _Afanassieff_, v. 41. + +[368] _Afanassieff_, iv. 1.--In another variation of the same myth, +which we have already referred to in the Vedic hymns, the birds come, +on the contrary, out of a horse. + +[369] v. 54. + +[370] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 54, and the chapters on the Fish and the +Eel. + +[371] I read in the travels of Olearius in Persia during the year +1638, French translation: "Les Persans disent que la montagne de +Kilissim a une telle propriété que tous ceux qui y montent n'en +descendent point; que le schach Abas obligea un jour un de ses +chasseurs, en lui promettant une grosse somme d'argent, à monter sur +cette montagne, et qu'il y monta effectivement, l'ayant fait connoître +par le feu qu'il alluma; mais qu'il n'en descendit point, et que l'on +ne sçait point ce qu'il devint avec son chien, qu'il menait avec lui." + +[372] _Afanassieff_, iv. 9.--In the well-known English story of _Jack +and the Bean-stalk_, it is the giant who is killed by the fall from +heaven, when Jack cuts the bean-stalk close to the ground. + +[373] _Afanassieff_, iv. 7.--Cfr. the chapter on the Fox. + +[374] _Afanassieff_, v. 12, and vi. 2.--Cfr. the chapters on the Goat, +the Fox, the Wolf, and the Duck, where other episodes of this legend +are found again.--In the twelfth story of the fifth book of +_Afanassieff_, the old man goes up to heaven to call God to account +for the peas that He has taken from the top of the pea-plant; God +gives him in exchange stockings of gold and garters of silver. + +[375] Cfr. also v. 24. + +[376] v. 55.--Cfr. also vi. 22.--Cfr. the _Contes et Proverbes +Populaires recueillis en Armagnac_, par Bladé (Paris, 1867), where the +foolish and lazy one occurs again under the name of Joan Lou Pigre. + +[377] Cfr. also the two variations in _Afanassieff_, vi. 25. + +[378] + + Po malu, malu, sestritze, grai + Nie vraszi ti mavó serdienká vkrai! + Ti-sz mini szradila + Sza krasni yagodki, sza ćorvonni ćobotki! + +Also cfr. the chapter on the Peacock. + +[379] In the Festival of the Epiphany, which is also a festival of the +husband and wife, the good fairy is accustomed to bring to the child, +husband, and wife, a boot or a stocking full of presents. This nuptial +boot occurs again in the English custom of throwing a slipper after a +newly-married couple. Another meaning was also given to the slippers +which are thrown away in the popular belief. Instead of being the +heroine's shoes which, having been abandoned, serve to attract and +guide the predestined husband, they are also considered as the old +shoes which the devil leaves behind him when he flees (his tail, which +betrays itself). The Germanic wild huntress Gueroryssa, another form +of the Frau Holle--the phantom of winter expelled at Epiphany--is +represented with a serpent's tail. Hence in the German carnival the +use of the _Schuh-teufel laufen_, or running in the devil's slippers. + +[380] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 4, and the chapter on the Stork. + +[381] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, ii. 25, ii. 28, iv. 47, v. 37. + +[382] The _mère sotte_ has become proverbial in France, where, in the +sixteenth century, Pierre Gringore wrote a satirical comedy with the +title of _Le Jeu de Mère Sotte_, in which the Mère Sotte is the Catholic +Church. + +[383] A similar story, which, on account of its indecent details, I +was not able to publish in my collection of the _Novelline di Santo +Stefano di Calcinaia_, is narrated upon the hills of Signa, near +Florence. It is also told, with some variations, in Piedmont.--Cfr. a +Russian variety of the same story in the chapter on the Hen. + +[384] _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_, 22. + +[385] Cfr. the chapter on the Fishes. + +[386] _Afanassieff_, vi. 59.--But in the tale v. 11, he knows how to +fight well. + +[387] In England the monster smells the blood of an Englishman, as in +the familiar lines in _Jack the Giant-Killer_-- + + "Fe fo fum, + I smell the blood of an Englishman; + Be he alive or be he dead, + I'll grind his bones to make my bread." + +[388] Cfr. Teza, _The Three Golden Hairs of the Grandfather Know-all_, a +Bohemian tale (_I tre Capelli d'oro del Nonno Satutto_, Bologna, 1866). + +[389] _Afanassieff_, ii. 7. + +[390] v. 11. + +[391] _Afanassieff_, v. 7, 8. + +[392] iv. 46. + +[393] v. 6; _Erlenwein_, 7. + +[394] _Erlenwein_, 5.--In the first story of _Erlenwein_, the +last-born, Vaniusha (Little John), takes from disputing peasants, by a +stratagem, first a marvellous arrow, then a hat which makes the wearer +invisible, and, finally, a mantle which flies of itself. He promises +to divide them equitably, and for this service makes them pay him +beforehand, each of the three times, a hundred roubles; he then throws +the objects far away and says, that he who is able to find them will +have them; all search, but he alone finds them. (Thus Arǵunas, in the +_Mahâbhâratam_, hides his wonderful arms in the trunk of a tree, in +which he alone can find them.) + +[395] Cfr. Schiefner, _Zur Russischen Heldensage_, Petersburg, 1861. +This is how the hero Svyatogor is described in a Russian popular epic +song cited by Ralston (_The Songs of the Russian people_): "There +comes a hero taller than the standing woods, whose head reaches to the +fleeting clouds, bearing on his shoulders a crystal coffer." + +[396] _Afanassieff_, vi. 41. + +[397] v. 31, and _Erlenwein_, 16. + +[398] v. 32. + +[399] vi. 27. + +[400] Çadis v nievó, i leti kuda nadobno; da po daroghie zabirái k +sebié vsiákavo vstriećnavo. + +[401] Na karablié niet ni adnavó pána, a vsió córnie ludi. + +[402] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 23.--Ice, in the form of an old man, +comes to try the boiling bath into which the king of the sea wishes to +throw the young hero; when Ice has tried the bath, the youth enters it +without suffering any harm.--The trial of drinking occurs again in a +grandiose form in the combat between Loki and Thor to empty the cup in +the Edda of Snorri, a different form of the Hindoo legend of Agastyas, +who dries up the sea.--Odin, too, as Indras and as Bhîmas, at three +gulps dries up three lakes of mead. + +[403] _Afanassieff_, v. 42. + +[404] Cfr. the chapters on the Hare and the Quail. + +[405] _Afanassieff_, vi. 28, and ii. 31. + +[406] _Afanassieff_, vi. 20.--Cfr. i. 3, and ii. 31, where we have the +same particular of the prince who strikes three times the disguised +girl who serves him, as in the Tuscan story of the Wooden Top (the +puppet), the third in my collection of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano +di Calcinaia_. + +[407] iv. 44. + +[408] Cfr. next chapter. + +[409] Cfr. the chapter on the Spider. + +[410] _Afanassieff_, ii. 29, and iv. 45. + +[411] v. 23. + +[412] v. 42. + +[413] _Afanassieff_, v. 27. + +[414] Cfr. the chapter which treats of the Eagle, the Vulture, and the +Falcon. + +[415] _Afanassieff_, vi. 52. + +[416] _Afanassieff_, vi. 63. + +[417] vi. 51. + +[418] In the story, vi. 52, Ivan, by playing in a marvellous manner on +a flute, is recognised by the princess whom he had delivered from the +monster. + +[419] Cf. next chapter. + +[420] We find the blind-lame man again in an epigram by Ausonius of +Bordeaux, a writer of the fourth century:-- + + "Insidens cæco graditur pede claudus utroque, + Quo caret alteruter, sumit ab alterutro. + Cæcus namque pedes claudo gressumque ministrat, + At claudus cæco lumina, pro pedibus." + +[421] _Afanassieff_, v. 39. + +[422] The student who wishes to extend his researches in Slavonic +tradition may consult with profit, among others, the following +works:--Schwenck, _Mythologie der Slaven_; Hanusch, _Slavische +Mythologie_; Woycicki, _Polnische Märchen_; Schleicher, _Littauische +Märchen_; Wenzig, _Westslavischer Märchenschatz_; Kapper, _Die Gesänge +der Serben_; Chodzko, _Contes des Paysans et des Pâtres Slaves_; Teza, +_Itre Capelli d'oro del Nonno Satutto_, a Bohemian story; Miçkiević, +_Canti Popolari Illirici_. + + +SECTION V. + +THE BULL AND THE COW IN THE GERMANICO-SCANDINAVIAN AND FRANCO-CELTIC +TRADITIONS. + +SUMMARY. + + The four bulls, sons of the virgin Gefion.--The bull which comes out + of the sea.--The bull progenitor of royal races.--The bull who + carries the maiden.--The cow of abundance, Audhumla, nurse and + mother of heroes.--The three brothers of Scandinavian and German + mythology.--The warrior-cow.--The sacred cow of Ögwaldr burned upon + the hero's tomb.--The rod-phallos used to strike the cow, as an + augury of abundance and fecundity.--The head of the ox used as a + hook to catch the sea-serpent.--The Scandinavian cornucopia made of + the horns of oxen.--The horn full of honey.--The horn-trumpet.--The + daughter that milks.--The hero who eats oxen.--Atli eats the hearts + of his sons, believing them to be the hearts of + calves.--Hornboge.--To a wicked cow God gives short horns; to cut + off the cow's horns; to take the bull or cow by the horns, three + Germanic proverbs.--To dream of eagles announces the vicinity of + cows; Scandinavian corresponding legend.--A red cow on a certain + bridge announces a battle.--The Germanico-Scandinavian mythical + bridge.--The red cow and the black cow yield white milk.--Digression + upon mythical proverbs, and the explanation which seems to be the + most likely.--To shut the stable after the cow has been + stolen.--When the daughter is stolen, shut Peppergate.--He who has + lost a cow and gets its tail back again has not much, but he has + more than nothing.--To take by the horns.--Even if the cow's tail + moves it does not fall.--The tails in the mud.--The virtues of the + tail.--The ascent to heaven by means of the tails.--The hero in the + sack made of a cow's hide thrown into the sea.--The punishment of + the bull.--When the cow places herself upon the eggs, do not expect + fowls.--The black cow has crushed him.--The sack of the wolf or of + the black beast is his body itself.--The trial between hero and + monster to take off their skins; the hero gives cows' skins, but the + monster is obliged to give his own.--The cow's hide, when sold, is + the beginning of good luck.--The daughter flees from her father, who + wishes to seduce her; the story of the slipper again.--The cow can + pass before the hare.--The cow jumped over the moon.--Tarde sed + tute.--To take the hare with the chariot.--All those who blow the + horn do not hunt hares.--As a blind cow finds a pea.--Marvellous + pipkins and amphoræ.--The cow that laughs.--The princess who + laughs.--The cow that speaks.--The language of animals.--Phallical + mysteries.--What the king said in the queen's ear.--Because they + have spoken, the husband and wife are separated.--Bulls that speak + at Rome.--Women know everything, even how Zeus married Hêra.--The + mythical laugh is in the sun's ray and in the lightning.--The fishes + that laugh; Phallic meaning of the myth.--If the cow-maid must spin, + there will be little yarn.--The cows that spin.--The spinning + Berta.--Berchta and Holda.--The time is passed when Berta spun.--The + times of King Pipino.--Berta with the large foot.--Berta with the + goose's foot.--St Lucia and St Luke.--Virgins after + parturition.--The old husband Pepin, a form of St Joseph.--The wife + Berta changed.--The Italian proverbs dare la Berta and dare la Madre + d'Orlando.--Continuation of the story of Berta persecuted in the + forest.--Orlando and Charlemagne.--The bull-priest and the + priest-bull.--The bull in funerals, in pregnancy, and as the food of + the hero.--The dwarf and the giant.--A French dwarf explains a myth + to us; a Scandinavian explains other myths to us. + +I shall here combine under one category the Germanico-Scandinavian and +Franco-Celtic traditions, as traditions which, in the Middle Ages +especially, had a close and continual correlation of correspondence +with each other. + +The _Edda_ of Snorri begins with the voyage of Gefion, with the four +oxen, her sons (although she is a virgin), yoked to a plough. The king +Gylfi concedes to her the right of occupying and possessing as much +ground as she can plough in twenty-four hours. When they come to the +western sea-board, the four oxen rush forward and drag Gefion with them +into the sea, until they arrive at the land of Seelund (Seeland).[423] +In which, it is obvious we have again the Vedic bull with a thousand +horns which comes out of the sea, and the bull which carries off the +maiden. The bull which comes out of the sea is also found in Irish +legends, and in German ones. According to a German legend, of which +several variations exist, a shepherd received a dinner every day and a +clean shirt every Sunday from a variegated bull that came out of the +sea.[424] A bull on the seaside begets, by the sleeping queen, the king +Meroveus, the first of the Merovingians; perhaps it is on this account +that we find a golden bull's head represented on the tomb of King +Childeric. Charles Simrock[425] found a similar legend also in Spain. +The bull which carries the girl, which we have already met with in the +Russian stories, occurs again in the Norse tale[426] of "_Katee Wooden +Cloak_ (Dasent), endowed with the powers of wish. In its left ear is a +cloth (which reminds us of that spun on the cow's horns), which, when +spread out, is covered with dainties of all kinds for the dawn-maiden, +who has been thrust out of her father's house; but when the step-mother +informs her that she cannot rest until she has eaten the dun bull's +flesh, the animal, hearing her, engages to deliver her, and offers, if +she so wills, to carry her away." + +In the voyage of Gylfi in the _Edda_ of Snorri, we find that the cow +Audhumla, the cow of abundance, was the parent of the supreme +Scandinavian god Odin, as it was of the supreme Vedic god Indras. The +cow Audhumla nourishes with her milk Ymir, the first of the giants. She +licks the salt mountain of ice (the Esthonian ice-mountain, the twelve +glasses of the Russian princess, through which the young hero Ivan +penetrates to kiss her). From the ice which the cow has licked, comes +forth, first the hair, then the head, then the whole body, of the hero +Buri. (The sun arises little by little from the mountain of the east, +warmed, attracted by the cow-aurora, and shows, first a few rays, then +his disc, and then himself in all his splendour and strength; and that +which the sun does every day he repeats on a larger scale once a year, +rising again from the ice of winter through the tepidity of spring.) Of +Buri, who is at birth strong, is born Bör, who has, by Bestla, the +daughter of the giant Bölthorn, three sons, Odin, Wili, and We (the +usual three brothers of the legends), who correspond to the three sons +of Mannus in German tradition, that is, Inguis, Istio, and Irminius. The +Swedish king Eistein had a great veneration for the cow Sibilia, and +used to take her with him to battle, that she might terrify the enemy by +her lowing. (The lowing of cows plays an important part in the battles +of the Vedic hero Indras. In the _Pańćatantram_, as we have noticed, the +bellowing of the bull fills the lion with terror.) The Scandinavian +king, Ögwaldr, was accompanied everywhere by a sacred cow, of which he +drank the milk, and with which he desired to be buried. In the +_Ṛigvedas_, as we have seen, the hero Indras makes the cow fruitful; +and the thunderbolt of the god, penetrating the cloud, takes the form of +a phallos. Afterwards, as a symbol of the rod-phallos, the branch or rod +of the tree palâças was adopted, with which the cow was struck to make +it fruitful; such a magic rod is used in Germany to this day, where it +is in many parts the custom to strike the cow, in the belief that it +will render her fruitful.[427] + +It is with the head of the most beautiful of the giant Hymir's oxen +fastened to his hook that, in Snorri's _Edda_, the god Thor goes to +fish up the immense serpent of Midgard from the bottom of the sea, and +destroys it upon the sea-shore. (This myth, if I am not mistaken, has +the following meaning:--The head of the solar, or lunar, bull is +devoured by the monster of night; this same head, tossed about, draws +up, towards morning as sun, and towards evening as moon, upon the +shore of the sea of night, that is to say, on the eastern mountain, +the monster-serpent: thus Hanumant, in the _Râmâyaṇam_, passes over to +the opposite shore of the sea, crossing the body of the marine +monster, which he causes to burst; thus Indras kills Ahis the serpent +upon the mountain). + +Nor is there the cow of abundance only. Scandinavian tradition, in the +short poem on the dwarf Allwis, offers us the cornucopia in the cup +formed of the defence of oxen (_i.e._, with their horns), in which the +god Thor drinks hydromel. Thus Sigurd offers to Brünhilt a horn full of +mead to drink. And this horn, moreover, besides serving as a cornucopia, +becomes as a golden horn the war-trumpet of Odin (the Giallarhorn). + +The Scandinavian hero then, it appears also, has his relationship with +cows, though his life has far more of a warlike character than a +pastoral one; he therefore accuses Loki, and in so doing fills him with +shame, with having passed eight winters underground occupied in milking +the cows like a woman. (It is known that the Hindoo word _duhitar_, +whence Tochter, means she who milks). The Scandinavian hero, instead of +milking cows, eats bulls. We find more than once in the _Eddas_ the +heroes occupied in roasting oxen. Atli, the husband of Gudrun, boasts of +having killed some oxen and having eaten them with her. Gudrun, the +Scandinavian Medea, gives Atli the hearts of his two sons to eat, +assuring him that they are calves' hearts. The god Thor, disguised as +the goddess Freya, drinks three barrels of mead, and eats a whole bull, +when he sets out on the enterprise of recovering his marvellous hammer. +The bull's or cow's horn, moreover, not only supplies mead to the hero, +nor is it only used to call his friends to his aid and to throw down the +enemy; it also forms the hero's bow, which therefore, in the _Vilkina +Saga_,[428] also takes the name of Hornboge, and, as such, assists the +greatest hero, Thidrek or Dîtrich, and is the parent of the celebrated +hero Sigurd (Sîfrit, or Siegfried). And, in conclusion, the horns are +considered such an important weapon of the cow and bull, that a proverb, +which is at once Slavonic, German, and Italian, says, "To a wicked cow, +God gives short horns" (that it may do no harm, or rather, because it +wears them away by use); to cut off the cow's horns means, in a German +proverb, to surmount a difficulty; and to take the bull or cow by the +horns, is to disarm them.[429] + +In the Greenland poem on Atli, in the _Edda_ of Sömund, Högni says, that +when many cattle are killed much blood is seen, and that when one dreams +of eagles, oxen are not far distant. In the _Edda_ of Snorri, whilst +Odin, Loki, and Hönir are cooking an ox under a tree, an eagle on its +summit prevents the meat from being cooked, till the heroes consent to +give him part of it. The heroes consent, but the eagle carries off no +less than the two thighs and the two shoulders of the ox. The eagle has +in the _Edda_ the same demoniacal and infernal character that is in +other traditions ascribed to the crow, the funereal stork, and the +vulture: it searches for oxen; and therefore to dream of eagles is an +intimation that an ox is near, in the same way as they say the presence +of a vulture is a sign of the proximity of a corpse. + +A German legend, cited by Kuhn and Schwartz,[430] makes a battle begin +"as soon as a red cow is led over a certain bridge." We remember the +Russian story of the girl who, by means of the magical towel of her +brother, makes a bridge arise over the river, over which the +monster-serpent, in the form of a handsome young man, crosses to take +her; how the brother is sacrificed in the battle which he is obliged to +fight against the monster, who disarms him by fraud; and how the battle +between the hero and the monster begins when the maiden, passing the +bridge, abandons the hero, her brother, who falls and sheds his blood in +the unequal struggle. I have already remarked that in the popular +belief the bloody sun of evening forebodes war, and the red cow of +German tradition represents no other than this sky. As to the bridge, an +interesting note of Kuhn and Schwartz[431] seems to confirm the +hypothesis which I have already hinted at in connection with the +Slavonic story, _i.e._, that it represents the milky way; from this +note, too, in which a resemblance is noticed between the bridge of the +red cow, which determines the beginning of a battle, and the +Scandinavian celestial Bîfröst (as perhaps there is between it and even +the Persian bridge Ćinvant itself), I gather that in Frisia the milky +way is called Kau-pat (or Kuh-pfad, cow's-path). That is to say, it is +supposed that the red cow of evening passes during the night along the +milky way, scattering her milk over it; whence perhaps is derived the +German proverb, "Even red cows yield white milk,"[432]--like that other +which we have already seen current in India, and met with again in +Turanian tradition, and which exists as a German, Slavonic, and Italian +proverb, "Even the black cow yields white milk"--(the black night which +produces the alba or white dawn of morning, and we might add, the silver +moon and the milky way). + +Since it seems to me, therefore, as I trust it also does to the +reader, that the maiden who crosses the bridge in the Slavonic +stories is, without doubt, the same as the red cow which does the like +in German legend, and if I have not been mistaken in identifying the +maiden who travels with her brother to the kingdom of the dead with +the evening aurora and the dying sun, I shall here adduce a few other +German proverbs, which may also be said to be universal in European +tradition, relating to the cow, all pointing to a similar conclusion. +They are as follows:--"Shutting the stable after the cow has been +stolen." "He who has lost a cow, and recovers her tail, has not much, +but he has more than nothing." "A cow's tail might reach heaven, if it +were only a long one."[434] "A cow does not know what her tail is +worth till she loses it." "To take the cow by her tail." "The black +cow has crushed him, or has got upon him." "A cow cannot overtake a +hare." "The cow has outrun the hare." "Not all who sound the horn hunt +the hare." "When the cows laugh." "As a blind cow can find a pea." "He +must be carried about in an old cow's hide." "If the cow-maid spins, +there will be little yarn." "The cow will learn to spin first."[435] + +Meditating upon all these German proverbs, it is, it appears to me, +not difficult to recognise in them a reminiscence of ancient myths +with which we are already acquainted. When we reflect that almost +every proverb has passed into contradictory forms and varieties, and +as in these varieties we may trace the elements of the history of a +great number of strange proverbs, it does not seem rash to affirm that +the said history generally had, in like manner, its origin in a myth. +Not to wander from the subject in hand, that the same proverb is +attributed to different animals, not only by different nations, but in +the oral traditions of the same people, I must refer the reader to +what I have remarked in the preface to this volume concerning the +contradiction which exists between certain superstitious beliefs. The +contradiction between many proverbs, as also between many +superstitions, compared with each other, can only be reconciled by +referring both back to the battle-field of mythology, where an +inconceivable number of myths arise, and can only arise, out of +contradictions; that is, out of contrasted aspects which celestial +phenomena present, even to the same observer, still more so to +different observers. The comparative history of mythical proverbs is +yet to be written, and perhaps it is not yet possible to write it +according to rigorous scientific method in all its completeness. A +preliminary study of the details is necessary to understand a proverb +as well as a popular custom, a superstitious belief, a legend, or a +myth; and this study will demand some labour; for one proverb, +completely illustrated, may involve the development of an entire +epical history. I shall not presume here to solve the enigma of the +above-quoted German proverbs, but only to indicate what seems to me to +be the way of arriving at their most probable solution. In the study +of a proverb, it is necessary to lay great stress upon its +intonation. Upon the different tones in which an ancient proverb was +originally pronounced, and afterwards repeated, passing from tongue to +tongue, and from people to people, depends a great part of the +alteration in the meaning even of the most interesting of the +proverbs, which are a patrimony we owe in common to Aryan tradition. A +proverb, for instance, began by being a simple affirmation, the simple +expression of a natural mythical image; with the lapse of time the +expression remained, and the myth was forgotten; the expression then +appeared to refer to a strange thing, and was accompanied, when +pronounced, with a doubtful mark of interrogation; it was now adopted +in the denial of an impossible thing, and became an instrument for +satire. Thus many proverbs which have become satirical, must have been +originally nothing more than mythical affirmative phrases. + +"To shut the stable after the cow has been stolen." In England, instead +of the cow, we have in the proverb a girl: "When your daughter is +stolen, shut Peppergate" (the name of a little gate of the city of +Chester, which it is said the mayor ordered to be shut when his daughter +had been carried off). The proverb is now used to stir up a laugh at the +expense of those who are at pains to guard their property after it has +been robbed; but it perhaps had not always the same meaning. We are +already familiar in Hindoo tradition with the hero who delivers the +beautiful maiden out of the enclosure, and have seen how she is scarcely +free, when she is led away by iniquitous brothers or companions, after +shutting up the legitimate proprietor of the cow or maiden in the cave +whence the cow or girl came forth; how the ravishing brothers shut the +door of the stable or cavern, after having carried off the maiden. The +hero imprisoned in the stable, the hero shut up in the darkness of +night, often assumed in mythology the form of a fool. Hence from the +idea of shutting the gate of the stable upon the hero, by the ravishers +of his cow, the transition seems natural, in my opinion, to the hero +lost in the cavern, to the hero become foolish, to the peasant who shuts +the door of the stable when the cow has been robbed, or to the mayor of +Chester, who, being shut up in the town, shuts the Peppergate, through +which the girl who had been carried off passed. + +"He who has lost a cow and recovers its tail has not much, but he has +more than nothing." This proverb also appears to me to have a mythical +meaning. I have already remarked that the tail, the heel, the feet, +that is to say, the lower or hinder extremities, betray the mythical +animal; which we shall see more convincingly when we come to examine +the legends which refer to the wolf, the fox, and the serpent. It is +the footprint which, in all the European traditions, betrays the +beautiful maiden in her flight; and when the brigand Cacus carried off +the oxen of Hercules, the hero, to recover them, searches for their +footprints. But in order that these may not be recognised, the cunning +brigand, instead of leading the oxen by their heads, takes them by +their tails,[436] and makes them walk backwards. Hence, to take by the +tail, means to take hold of the wrong way, and it is applied to the +ass as well as the cow. It is said in Germany that a cow once fell +into a ditch from which none of the bystanders dared to extricate it. +The peasant to whom the cow belonged came up, and, according to some, +took it fearlessly by the horns, while, according to others, he +dragged it out by its tail, whence can be explained the double proverb +to take by the horns, _i.e._, to take by the right side, and to take +by the tail, or, as we have said, to take by the wrong. But the +peasant could only take his cow out by the horns, or by the tail, +according to the way in which it had fallen in; that is, if it had +fallen down head foremost, it could only be dragged out by the tail, +and if, on the contrary, it had fallen in tail foremost, he could only +extricate it by laying hold of its horns. The cow-aurora is taken by +surprise and devoured by the wolf, bear, wild-boar, or serpent of +night, who takes her by the shoulders (it is on this account that, in +the Russian story, we have seen the bull recommend the fugitive hero, +accompanied by his sister, to keep his face turned in the direction +whence the pursuing monster might be expected to come up). The monster +(the shadow, or the cloud) clutches the cow by her tail and devours +her, or drags her into his cave. The hero, in order to deliver his cow +out of the cave, can take her by the horns only on condition that he +penetrates into the cavern by the same way by which the cow entered, +that is, by the monster's mouth; but, as the monster endeavours to +surprise the hero from behind, so the hero often wounds the monster +from behind, catches hold of him by the tail, and in this way drags +him out of the cavern, ditch, or mud--his fallen cow. In a Hindoo +fable in the second book of the _Pańćatantram_, we have the story of a +jackal, who, to satisfy a desire of his wife, follows the bull for +whole years together, in the hope that his two hanging testicles might +fall some day or another. In a joke of Poggius, and in Lessing,[437] +we find the same subject spoken of, of which a variation is given in +a German proverb, "Though the cow's tail moves, it does not +fall."[438] In the hope of this it is that the wolf, or the fox, runs +after the tail of the cow or bull. There is a Piedmontese story which +I heard in my infancy, one comic feature of which lingers vividly in +the memory: a boy who took the hogs to pasture, cut off their tails +and stuck them in the mud, and then made off with the animals. The +owner of the hogs, seeing their tails, is under the impression that +they have sunk into the mud. He tugs at them, brings away their tails, +but cannot fish up their bodies. In a Russian story given by +_Afanassieff_,[439] we read that the cunning Little Thomas (Thomka, +Fomka) cheats the priest of his horse (in some versions his ass) by +cutting off its tail and planting it in the mud of a marsh. He makes +the priest believe that his horse has fallen into the marsh; the +priest, thinking to pull it out, gives one stiff tug, and falls down +on his back with the tail in his hand; upon which Tom persuades him to +believe that he has broken it off himself, and to be content with the +recovery of so much of the lost animal. In the fifty-seventh Gaelic +story of Campbell,[440] a priest endeavours to pull out of the water a +drowning sheep, but the tail comes away, and the story-teller adds, +"If the tail had not come off, the story would have been longer." And +so the owner of the cow, the robber of which has left the tail behind +as a consolation, has in reality but little, but yet this little is +something; for, just as the slipper left behind her by the fugitive +girl, although it is of little value, enables the hero to identify +her, so in the tail of his cow the owner has something in hand to set +out on its search with, and to recover his lost property; either +because the tail of an animal is like its shadow and serves to trace +it, as the slipper does the maiden by showing the footstep; or else, +because tailless cows are evidently stolen ones. (In the myth of +Cacus, in which Hercules traces the stolen oxen by the footprints, and +Cacus drags them by their tails, the mythical figure of the slipper +and that of the lost tail are perhaps united. It is possible that the +tails of the oxen came off in the hands of Cacus when dragging them +into the cavern, and that, thrown away by the brigand, and found by +Hercules, they may have served him as a guide to recover his oxen. It +is also possible that Cacus, pursued by Hercules, had not time to +drive the oxen in entirely, but that their tails still protruded and +betrayed their whereabouts. Relative to the Latin legend of Cacus, +these are simply hypotheses, and I have therefore enclosed them in a +parenthesis; but inasmuch as in the above-quoted Russian story, we +find the horse's tail cut off by the robber, and as in the chapter on +the fox, we shall see the fox who betrays himself by not drawing in +his tail, whence the proverb, "Cauda de vulpe testatur," the two +hypotheses advanced above are, after all, not so visionary.) In +_Pausanias_[441] the hero Aristomenes, who has been thrown into a deep +cistern, liberates himself in a marvellous manner by means of an +eagle, after a fox had opened a passage. The fox's tail has such a +bewitching power of attraction, that according to popular tradition, +when it is moved the cock falls down unable to resist the charm. +According to popular belief, the tail (as well as the nose and mouth) +is the most splendid part of the body of an animal. The great monkey +Hanumant, with his tail on fire, burns Lanka (in the same way as the +burning tails of the foxes of the biblical Samson burn the ripe +harvests of the Philistines). The grey, or black, horse of mythology +(having devoured the solar white, or red horse) emits fire from his +mouth or tail. This black horse being the night, the horse's jaws and +tail, which emit fire, represent the luminous heavens of evening and +of morning; when, therefore, the tail of his horse (stolen by the +robber in the same way as the bull and the cow[442]) remains in the +mythical hero's hand, this light-streaming tail is enough to enable +him to find the whole animal, _i.e._, the solar hero comes out of his +hiding-place (Hanumant comes out of the hinder parts of the marine +monster, the dwarf comes out of the wolf's back[443]), the bull-sun +finds his cow the aurora again; the prince sun, the princess aurora; +the peasant recovers his ass or his cow; Hercules, his oxen; the white +horse comes out of the tail of the black horse, who had eaten him, and +then, by means of the tail, ascends to heaven;[444] the white bull +comes out of the black one; the white, or the red, cow comes out of +the black cow; the tail comes out of the body; the hero comes out of +the sack, or hide, in which he had been enclosed or sewed up. The sack +plays a great part in the tradition of the hidden or persecuted hero; +this sack is the night or the cloud, or the winter; the hero shut up +in the sack, and thrown into the sea, is the sun. The hero enclosed in +the sack and thrown into the sea, and the heroine shut up in a chest +(covered, moreover, with a cow's hide, in the myth of Pasiphäe) or +barrel, and abandoned to the water,[445] are equivalent to each other, +and so are the heroes shut up in the well, in the cavern, in the +stables, and even in the cow. Inasmuch as the sack in which, according +to the proverb quoted above, the delinquent hero is to be sewed, is an +old cow's-hide, or else the hide of an old cow, or a dark one (of the +night), when this black cow sits on the eggs of the bird of evening, +to hatch them, the eggs come to evil; whence I derive the German +proverb, "When the cow sits upon the eggs, do not expect fowls."[446] +And when the night was observed to overwhelm the sun and withdraw him +from human sight, this other proverb took its origin, "The black cow +has crushed him." The black cow does not only crush the hero, but, as +the wolf does, shuts him up in her own hide,[447] in her own sack, +_i.e._, devours him--to fill the sack is the same as to fill the body, +and to empty the sack as to empty the body. In the Piedmontese story +of the dwarf child (the Norwegian Schmierbock), whom the wolf[448] +encloses in the sack, the dwarf comes out of the sack while the wolf +is emptying his body. Of two Russian stories given by _Afanassieff_, +which we shall examine in the chapter on the wolf, one shows us the +wolf who puts the peasant in a sack, and the other the wolf who puts +the dwarf-hero in his body; and both peasant and dwarf save +themselves. The two variations took their origin in the comparison +drawn between the body and a sack, which, in mythical speech, are +therefore the same thing. The hide of the black bull, black ox, black +or grey horse, or black or grey wolf, and the sack which wraps up the +hero or the devil, play a great part in popular Indo-European +tradition.[449] From the sack of the funeral stork (the night), in a +Russian story,[450] come forth two young heroes (the Açvinâu), +defeaters of their enemies, who spread out the tablecloth of abundance +(the aurora), and a horse which drops gold (the sun). The hero shut up +in the sack, or the cow's hide, and thrown into the water, escapes +from shipwreck in the same way as those navigators of the Chinese sea +described in his voyages by Benjamin of Tudela, who, he says, when +shipwrecked, escaped being swallowed up by the waves by covering +themselves with the whole hide of a cow or an ox; for the eagles, +mistaking them for real, flew to the spot and pouncing upon them, drew +them ashore. The ship with the buffalo's hide is found again in +popular stories. This is evidently a reminiscence of mythical +derivation (from which was, perhaps, afterwards derived the idea of +torture, as in the famous bull of Phalaris, in which many see a symbol +of the god of the waters, the bull's hide in which the tetrarch +Acarnides, vanquished by Memnon, was sewed up,[451] in antiquity, and, +in the Middle Ages, the ox's hide in which, according to the +chronicles, the horrid Duke of Spalato Euroia orders Paulus Chuporus, +prefect of the Emperor Sigismond, to be sewed, to revenge himself upon +him, because he had, out of contempt, saluted him by bellowing like an +ox). Thus with the Celtic hero Brian,[452] the pretended fool, who +speculates upon the stupidity of those who are reputed wise. When one +of these so-called sages, deceived by him, proposes to throw him into +the sea shut up in a sack, he makes another man take his place by +means of a witty invention, as Goldoni's liar would say, whilst he +himself comes back to the shore with a whole herd of cattle. In the +other Celtic, Slavonic, German, and Italian variations of this story, +the would-be fool begins his fortune-making, in one version, by +putting a few coins into his dead cow's hide, and then selling it at a +very high price as a purse which will give out money whenever shaken; +and in another, by palming off his ass or horse, persuading the +purchaser, by means of an easy deceit, to believe that it yields gold +and silver, and thus obtaining a high price for it. With the cow are +also connected the two horns, by blowing into which he causes his +wife, who feigns death, to rise to life again, which horns he thus +prevails on his brothers or companions to buy at a great ransom, who, +thinking themselves cunning, and wishing by means of the horns to +speculate upon corpses,[453] begin by killing people, and are ruined. +I have said above, that the sack in which the hero is generally +enclosed is the same as the chest in which the heroine is usually shut +up on account of her beauty, that is to say, in which the beautiful +heroine hides her splendour, or in which the red cow, the evening +aurora with the sun, loses herself. The fourteenth Scottish story of +Mr J. F. Campbell's contains the following narrative:--A king, whose +first wife (the morning aurora) is dead, engages to marry the woman +whom the dead queen's dresses will fit, and finds no one who can wear +them except his own daughter (the evening aurora). She makes her +father give her gold and silver dresses and shoes (that is, she takes +from her father, the sun, the splendour of the morning aurora); she +shuts herself up with them in a chest, and lets herself be thrown into +the sea. The chest drifts about on the waves, and comes at last to the +shore; the beautiful maiden enters the service of a young king; she +shows herself in church with her splendid robes; the young king, who +does not recognise his servant-maid in this beautiful princess, +becomes enamoured of her, and hastens to overtake her; she flees and +loses her golden slipper; the king finds it, and to discover her, has +it measured on every foot; many maidens cut off their toes to make the +slipper go on, but a bird divulges the deceit; the young king marries +the beautiful maiden who came out of the wooden chest. Here we have +again, not only the heroine who escapes, but the walking heroine; this +heroine is the aurora, and the aurora is often a cow. Another swift +cow passes in the proverb before the hare (the leaping moon), in the +fable of the ant and the grasshopper, of which the former represents +the cloud or the night, or Indras or the aurora in the cloud of night, +or the earth,[454] and the latter, the leaping one, the moon; the ant +passes the grasshopper in the race, not because it walks faster, but +because the two runners must necessarily meet, and therefore the one +must pass the other. The English infantile rhyme, "Hey! diddle, +diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon," refers +to the myth of the cow which jumps over the hare. The observation of +celestial phenomena being afterwards neglected, and it being forgotten +that the running ant or cow meant the cloud, or the sun, or the +aurora, or the earth, and the jumping hare or grasshopper the moon, +only a regular and parallel race, on the terrestrial soil, between cow +and hare, or ant and grasshopper, was seen; and from the myth of the +two animals which meet and pass each other in the sky, was derived, +according to the different characters of nations or eras, a double +proverb--one deriding the slow and rash animal which presumes to try +and overtake the swift one in the race, the other serving as an +example to prove the truth of the sentence, "Tarde sed tute," which, +in Italian, is "Chi va piano va sano e va lontano" (he who goes +slowly, goes well and far). The first proverb has for its parent the +Greek one, "to hunt the hare with an ox," which, in Italian, is +"pigliar la lepre col carro" (to take the hare with a car);[455] +referring to cases where means disproportionate to the end are made +use of. When the hare and the cow meet, if the cow is obliged to stop +the hare, she crushes it, as we have seen above that she crushes the +bird's eggs instead of hatching them. The idea, moreover, of the ox +hunting the hare arose naturally out of the idea of the ox or cow +overtaking and passing beyond the hare. To these proverbs can perhaps +be joined the next German one:--"All who blow the horn do not hunt +hares," which is now directed against those who think by an easy +method, such as blowing a horn, to accomplish a difficult enterprise, +such as hunting a hare; in the same way as in Germany it is said, that +all thunder-clouds do not give rain, and the cow must do more than low +in order to have much milk, or the cow that lows most is not the one +that yields most milk.[456] In fact, a cow which lows much is unwell, +neither while it is lowing can it eat and make milk; so he who +fatigues himself with blowing the horn is not able, at the same time, +to run after the hare; as in the Italian proverb, "Il can che abbaia +non morde" (the dog that barks does not bite), for the simple reason +that whilst he opens his mouth to bark, he cannot shut it to bite. The +hen that clucks, on the other hand, is the one that lays the egg, +because the act of clucking with the mouth does not interfere with the +operation of egg-laying; there is no incompatibility of offices. + +The German proverb, "As a blind cow finds a pea," is now used to +indicate an impossibility; and yet in the myth the blind cow (or the +night) really finds the pea, kidney-bean, or bean (the moon), which +are the same thing to all intents and purposes. The night is sacred to +the dead; for the dead are as eaten vegetables--kidney-beans, vetches, +peas, and cabbages--lunar symbols of resurrection and abundance. In +the ninth story of the fourth book of _Afanassieff_, the daughter of +the old man and woman eats beans; a bean falls upon the ground, and +grows up to the sky; upon this bean the old man (the sun) climbs up to +heaven and sees everything. In the numerous stories in which the young +hero sells a cow or cow's hide, we almost always find a pipkin full of +kidney-beans, which he induces people to think can cook themselves, +the hero having first cooked them, and then placed them upon the fire +covered with ashes (the darkness); the pipkin is also the moon. The +stories of the pipkin belonging to the house-mother in the +_Mahâbhâratam_, which the god Kṛishṇas, having been hospitably +entertained by her, refills with beans, and of the lord who, in an +unpublished Piedmontese legend, disguised as a poor old man, throws +pebbles into the kettle of the pious widow, which, as soon as thrown +in, become kidney-beans, involve the same myth. In the same way I +think the kidney-bean is evidently intended by the fruit of fruits, +which, according to the _Mahâbhâratam_, the merciful man receives in +exchange for the little black cow (_kṛishṇadhenukâ_) given to the +priest.[457] In the English fairy tale of "Jack and the Bean-stalk," +Jack barters his cow for some beans; his mother (the blind cow) +scatters the beans; one of them takes root, and grows up to the +sky.[458] By means of the black cow, of the funereal or blind cow, of +the cow-aurora, which becomes black or blind during the night, the +hero finds the bean or the pea of abundance (the moon), by means of +which he sees again in the morning and becomes rich. + +We have seen a sack, instead of the hide of a black cow, used to +signify the night; in like manner, after or instead of this same cow's +hide (which the hero goes to sell), as well as the pea or bean, we +have the pipkin--the poor hero finds the moon. The Slavonic story of +the potter who becomes rich, and that of the brother believed to be +stupid, who sells at a high price his pipkin, which makes the beans +boil without a fire, are varieties of the same subject. In a Russian +story in _Afanassieff_,[459] the amphora takes the place of the pipkin +that makes its owner rich. The poor brother draws it out of the water; +from the broken amphora comes a duck, which lays one day golden eggs, +and the next silver ones--the sun and the moon (at morning the aurora +hatches the golden day, at evening the silver night). + +We have still to explain the proverbs of the cow that laughs and the +cow that spins. The laughing aurora (after having, during the night, +acted the princess that never laughs) and the spinning aurora (in +relation with the cow, the moon, that spins by means of its horns) are +already known to us. The aurora laughs at morn in the sky, at the +sight of her husband; thus the princess that never laughs, in a +numerous series of Slavonic, German, and Italian stories, laughs when +she sees her predestined husband.[460] The proverb of the cow that +laughs is connected with that of the cow that speaks; it is perhaps on +this account that bulls and cows (and other animals) which speak, and +say and do complimentary things among themselves, in an entire cycle +of Indo-European stories, which have been learnedly illustrated by +Professor Benfey, in _Orient und Occident_, under the title of "Ein +Märchen von der Thiersprachen," always make the man who understands, +and indiscreetly listens to their language, laugh. But if the man +reveals what the bulls or cows (or other animals) have said to each +other, he prepares his own ruin: the language and the inner life of +animals must not be divulged to all; if published abroad, the augury +is a sinister one. That which makes the princess of the Russian tale +laugh, is seeing the courtesy which the animals, like men, show to the +man taken out of the mud; that which makes the man who understands the +language of animals laugh, is seeing them speak and act to each other +exactly as men do in similar private relations. To betray this mystery +is to wish for one's death. No one must know what the bull said in +secret to the cow, the sun to his mistress, what the king said in the +queen's ear. The violator of the mysteries of Venus is guilty of +sacrilege, and merits the punishment of death, or at least brings evil +down upon his head. Woe to the heroine if the hero hidden in the skin +of an animal, on account of some indiscretion, or because she has +spoken to her sisters, shows himself naked in his human form; she +loses him, and their separation is inevitable. + +We are already acquainted with the cloud-cow and the cloud-bull; the +cloud thunders, the bull bellows and speaks. The clouds, the Vedic +_gnâ devapatnîs_, _gnâ devîs_,[461] that is, the goddesses, or divine +and knowing wives, the fairy goddesses (women with their +presentiments, the women that know more than the devil), are also +prophetic cows; these cows, in their character of fairies, speak with +a human voice, and so do the cloud-bulls. Hence the Romans could take +their auguries from an ox that spoke with a human voice. It has been +said that this omen was a sinister one, but it is a mistake. According +to Livy, under the consulate of Cn. Domitius and L. Quintius, an ox +threw Rome into terror by the words, _Cave tibi, Roma_. These words +seem to have a sinister meaning, but they are in reality nothing more +than a friendly counsel or admonition, as much as to say, Look to your +field occupations, O Rome; the thunder has been heard which announces +the summer. Thus, when we read in the fifth book of Pliny's _Natural +History_ that whenever an ox was known to have spoken with a man's +voice, the Roman Senate was accustomed to meet in the open air--_sub +dio_, I only see in this allusion, and in ascribing this practice to +the Senate, one way of saying that when thunder is heard (that is to +say, when the ox speaks) it is a sign of summer, and we may go out +into the country and sleep in the open air. And so, finally, when, +according to Eusebius, an ox said, that for the death of Cæsar (which, +as every one knows, took place on the Ides of March, that is to say, +at the beginning of spring) there would be more blades of corn than +men, I see a most evident announcement of the approach of summer, in +which men or reapers are in fact never too many, and even rare when +the harvest is a large one. The ox that with a man's voice heralds the +near advent of summer corresponds to the cuckoo, the legend of which +we shall reserve for a special chapter. Meanwhile, to confirm still +more our identification, we shall cite here the almost proverbial +verse of Theocritos: Women know everything, even how Zeus married Hêra +(or that which the king said in the queen's ear). Zeus, transformed +into a cuckoo, flew to the mountain, and alighted on the knees of +Hêra, who, to protect him from the cold, covered him over with her +robes. The cuckoo, or Zeus, disappears soon after having spoken, that +is, announced the summer loves of the sun. After St John's Day the +cuckoo, who appears in March, is no longer seen; so the ox, soon after +it has spoken and betrayed the loves of Zeus, or soon after the cloud +has thundered, revealing the secret loves of the sun within the sky +covered with clouds, or the confidential speeches and secret caresses +of the animals, pays for this indiscretion by his own death. As the +aurora is represented in the Vedic hymns by a maiden who does not +laugh, and smiles only when she sees her husband,[462] so the +lightning that tears the cloud and comes before the thunder is +compared to the laughing of an ox or a cow, or else of the man who has +seen their loves. As long as the sky only lightens, or merely +smiles,[463] there is little harm done. No one can know as yet why the +ox or the cow, the hero or heroine, or the third person who is looking +on, smiles before the spectator; but when the hero or the heroine +speaks, betraying the thought or singular surprise which makes him or +her smile, the penalty of the indiscretion is death; the thundering +cloud is soon dissolved into rain. Nor will my identification of the +cloud that lightens (making a distinction between the lightning and +the thunderbolt) with the smiling cow, or ox, or man who, +understanding the language of animals, as they speak in low tones, and +seeing their most familiar habits, smiles, seem forced when we reflect +that our language has preserved the figures of a ray of joy, of a +flash of joy, to indicate a smile, of which we say that it shines, +illumines, or lightens. Lightning is the cloud's smile. In the ninth +story of the third book of _Afanassieff_, we meet with a fish which +laughs in the face of the onlooker (the cloud that lightens, and also +the moon that comes out of the ocean of night), and for which, on +account of this singular property, the poor man (the sun in the cloud +or in the night) obtains an extraordinary sum from a rich lord, even +all his riches--_i.e._, the poor man takes the place of the lord; the +splendid sun takes the place of the sun hidden in the cloud or in the +darkness. In a Hindoo story of _Somadevas_ (i. 5), a fish laughs upon +seeing men disguised as women in the king's apartment. In the +_Tuti-Name_ (ii. 21), the fishes laugh when they see the prudery of an +adulteress. With this is connected the fable of Lafontane, "Le Rieur +et les Poissons" (viii. 8). In the legend of Merlin, the magician also +laughs because the wife of Julius Cæsar lives with twelve heroes +disguised as women, and because he himself allowed himself to be taken +by Grisandole, a princess disguised as a cavalier.[464] + +The fish is a phallic symbol (in the Neapolitan dialect, _pesce_, +fish, is the phallos itself). The fish that laughs because it has been +the spectator of adultery is the phallos itself _in gaudio Veneris_. +The thunderbolt of Indras is his phallos that breaks the cloud. In +Ovid,[465] we have Jupiter, who, by means of riddles, teaches Numa the +way of forming the thunderbolt. + + "Cœde caput, dixit, cui Rex, Parebimus, inquit; + Cœdenda est hortis eruta cepa meis. + Addidit hic, Hominis: Summos, ait ille, capillos. + Postulat hic animam: cui Numa, Piscis, ait. + Risit; et His, inquit, facito mea tela procures, + O vir colloquio non abigende meo." + +The joke of the April fish (le poisson d'Avril), with which so many of +our ladies ingenuously amuse themselves, has a scandalously phallical +signification.[466] The fishes of the Zodiac are twins, a male and a +female bound together, born of Erôs (Amor) and Aphroditê (Venus). In +the Adiparvam of the _Mahâbhâratam_, we read of a fish which devours a +man's seed, and a girl who, having eaten it, brings forth a child. The +same myth occurs again in the Western popular tales. + +The cow that spins still remains to be explained. We have already seen +that the cow spins with her horns for the maiden; this cow is, +generally, the moon, which spins gold and silver during the night. The +aurora is ordered by her step-mother, the night, both to pasture the +cow (the moon) and spin. If the cow-maid is to take care of her cow +and guard her well, she will be able to spin but little; whence the +German proverb is right when it says that if the cow-maid must spin +there will be little yarn. The good cow-maid prefers to keep her cow +well, and pays every regard to it, in order that it may find good +pasturage; then the grateful cow (the moon) puts gold and silver upon +its horns to spin for the maiden.[467] In the morning the girl +appears upon the mountain with the gold and silver yarn, with the gold +and silver robes given her by the good fairy or by the good cow.[468] +And when the old woman kills the cow, the girl who keeps its bones and +sows them in the garden sees, instead of the cow, an apple-tree with +gold and silver apples grow up, by offering one of which to a young +prince the maiden obtains a husband, whilst perverse women are beaten +by the apple-tree or find themselves opposed by horns. This +apple-legend is a variation of the star which falls upon the good +maiden's forehead on the mountain, and of the horns, or donkey's tail, +which grow out of the forehead of the bad sister who has maltreated +the cow or badly combed the Madonna's head. The story of the good +maiden and the wicked one, of the beautiful and the ugly one, finishes +with the attempt made by the ugly and wicked girl to take the place of +the beautiful and good one in her husband's bed, in the same way as, +in other stories, a black washerwoman tries to take the place of the +beautiful princess; and this conclusion brings us to the interesting +story of the spinning Berta, or Queen Bertha, as she is called. + +In German mythology we have the luminous Berchta, who spins, in +contrast with the dark and wild Holda at the fountain (the washerwoman +of fairy tales). The former seems to be (besides the moon as a white +woman, in her period of light, the silvery night) the aurora, the +spring, or the luminous aspect of the heavens; the latter (besides the +moon in her period of darkness, Proserpina or Persephonê in hell), the +dark night, winter, the old witch.[469] The same name is given to the +various phenomena of the gloomy sky, in the same way as a contrary +name is given to the various phenomena of the luminous heavens. On +this account lunar and solar myths, daily and annual myths, enter into +the story of Berta or Berchta. + +Berta, like the cow of the fairy tales, spins silver and gold. +Therefore, when we say in Italy that the time when Berta spun is +past,[470] this expression means, that the golden age, the age in +which gold abounded is past. And instead of this expression we also +use another in Italy to denote an incident which took place in a very +ancient era, at a time very remote from the memory of men; we say, in +the times of King Pipino (Pepin). Queen Berta having been the wife of +Pepin, it was natural that the times of the husband should correspond +to the fabled era of his wife, who was, tradition alleges, mother of +Charlemagne, the hero so-named of the legends, of whom it is said, in +Turpin's Chronicle, that he had long feet, and his _alter ego_ Orlando +(a new and splendid mediæval form of the twin heroes), rather than of +the King Charlemagne of history. + +Berta has a large foot, like the goddess Freya, the German Venus, who +has swan's feet. It is this large foot that distinguishes her from other +women, and enables her husband to recognise her, in the same way as it +is the foot, or footprint (the sun follows the path taken by the +aurora), that betrays and discovers the fugitive maiden, who, we have +said, is the aurora with the vast chariot (the vast chariot which, if it +pass over the hare, may crush it. Frau Stempe, and Frau Trempe, and the +large-footed Bertha, are the same person)--vast, because she occupies a +large extent of the heavens when she appears. When standing on the +chariot, she seems to have no feet, or a very small, an imperceptible +foot; but the chariot on which she stands and which represents her foot +is so much the larger; therefore when we leave the chariot out of +account, and suppose, on the contrary, that she goes on foot, inasmuch +as, when walking, she takes up much room, the swan's, or goose's, or +duck's foot given to her in the myth of Freya and the legend of Berta is +quite suited to her. And seeing, as we have said, that the foot (the +myths almost always speak of one foot alone; even the devil is lame, or +has only one foot) and the tail of an animal are often substituted for +each other in mythology, we can understand how, in a Russian story,[471] +the hero who has fallen into a marsh was able to deliver himself by +clutching hold of the tail of a duck. This duck being the aurora, and +having a wide spreading tail as well as a large foot, the solar hero, or +the sun, can easily, by holding on to her, raise himself out of the +swamp of night. There is a German story[472] in which the white woman, +or the Berta, is transformed into a duck. In another German legend,[473] +instead of the swan-footed Berta, we have the Virgin Mary (who, as a +maiden, represents the virgin aurora, always pure, even after having +given birth to the sun; like the Kuntî of the _Mahâbhâratam_, who gives +birth to Karṇas, the child of the sun, and yet is still a virgin. On the +other hand, when a good old woman, good woman or Madonna, she generally +personifies, in the legends, the moon) who, in the shape of a swan, +comes to deliver from the prison of the infidels (the Saracens or Turks, +here the black demons, or the darkness of night), and carry off by land +and by sea, the young hero whom she protects (the aurora delivers the +sun from the night).[474] The same luminous Berta also assumes, in +popular German tradition, the form of St Lucia, that is, the saint who, +after having been made blind, became the protectress of eyesight. Of the +blind or black cow of night is born the luminous cow of morning, the +aurora that sees everything herself and makes us see everything. For the +same reason that the cow or duck, Berta, is consecrated to St Lucia, +whose appearance she assumes, the bull (the sun) is sacred to St Luke, +the festival of whom is on this account celebrated at Charlton, near +London, with a horn-fair or exhibition of horns, generally ornamented +and perfumed. + +In the above-quoted Hindoo legend of the _Mahâbhâratam_, the queen +will not sleep with the old blind man, but sends instead her +servant-maid. In the _Reali di Francia_, King Pepin is advised by his +barons to take a wife, when he is already "far advanced in years" (he +is a form of St Joseph). The barons look for a wife, and find, in +Hungary, Berta, the daughter of King Philip, "the most beautiful and +skilful horsewoman," or Berta with the large foot upon a beautiful and +stately horse, which goes along the road bounding, whilst she is +always laughing. Berta has a maid called Elizabeth, who resembles her +in every respect except her feet. King Pepin is married by proxy to +Berta, sends for her, and comes to meet her. Berta when she sees that +King Pepin is so ill-favoured, grieves "although forewarned of his old +age." When evening comes she takes off her royal robes and gives them +to Elizabeth, that she may take her place and sleep with the +king.[475] Hence the Italian proverbs, "Dar la Berta" (to give the +Berta), and "Pigliar la Berta" (to take the Berta), meaning to deride +and to be derided. But instead of to give the Berta, in Italy we also +say, "Dar la madre d'Orlando" (to give the mother of Orlando). The +_Reali di Francia_ informs us that King Pepin had, by Elizabeth, two +perverse bastards, Lanfroi and Olderigi, and by Berta, Charlemagne and +another Berta, mother of Orlando; but the Italian proverb is perhaps +nearer the mythical truth when it recognises the mother of Orlando as +herself Pepin's wife, so that Charlemagne and Orlando are brothers; +and, in fact, they accomplish several of the undertakings mentioned in +the legend of the two brothers. In the so-called Chronicle of +Turpin[476] when Orlando dies, Charlemagne says that Orlando was his +right arm, and he has no longer anything to do in life without him; +but he lives long enough to avenge the death of Orlando; and after +this vengeance, the heroic life of Charlemagne comes at once to an +end. In the _Chanson de Roland_, too, after the death of his hero, +whom he avenges, Charlemagne feels the burden of life, weeps, tears +his beard, unable to support this solitude; but in the _Chanson_, as +well as in the _Reali di Francia_, Orlando explicitly appears as the +nephew of Charlemagne, that is, as the son of his sister Berta. (As +the Vedic aurora was now the mother, now the sister of the sun and of +the Açvinâu, thus Berta may, mythically, be mother or sister of +Charlemagne, and yet be always the mother of Orlando). + +It would be a never-ending work to collect together all the Germanic, +Scandinavian, and Celtic legends which, in one way or another, are +connected with the myth of the cow and of the bull. The literature +relating to this subject is composed not of one or a hundred, but of +thousands of volumes, of which some (such, for instance, as the poem +of the _Nibelungen_, and the poems of the _Round Table_) individually +contain, in the germ, almost the whole diverse world of fairy tales. I +must therefore limit myself to the indication of the more general +features, leaving to more diligent investigators the minuter +comparisons; and esteeming myself, I repeat, too happy if my brief +notices should be found clear enough to spare others the labour of +preparing the warp upon which to weave comparisons. + +From what we have said thus far, it seems to me that two essential +particulars have been made clear:--1st, That the worship of the bull +and the cow was wide-spread, even in northern nations; 2d, That the +mythical bull and cow were easily transformed into a hero and heroine. + +The sacred character ascribed to the cow and the bull is further +evidenced by a Scandinavian song, in which, on the occasion of the +nuptials of the animals (the crow and the crane), the calf (perhaps +the bull) appears as a priest, and reads a beautiful text.[477] As a +symbol of generation, the bull is the best adapted to propitiate the +married couple; so the priest in the _Atharvavedas_ teaches the +inexperienced husband and wife, by formulas _ad hoc_, the mysteries +of Venus. Thus the _jus primæ noctis_ was conceded to the Brahman in +mediæval India; and so in the ritual of mediæval France, we still find +indications of the priest _pronubus_. The beautiful text that the +calf, or bull, recites in the Scandinavian song must be the same +which, according to the ceremonial recorded by Villemarqué, the priest +recited, whilst sprinkling them with incense, to the married couple +_sedentes vel jacentes in lectulo suo_.[478] Thus, when the wolf dies +(in a German writing of the twelfth century), it is the ox that reads +the gospel.[479] Besides marriages and funerals, the bull or ox also +appears, finally, as in the Hindoo ceremonial, in pregnancy. +Gargamelle, while she has Gargantua in her womb, eats an excessive +quantity[480] of tripe of fattened oxen. When she feels the pains of +child-birth, her husband comforts her with an agricultural proverb of +Poitou, "Laissez faire aux quatre beufz de devant;" and she then gives +birth to Gargantua, who comes out of her left ear, in the same way as +in the Slavonic stories we find the heroes come out of the ears of the +horse (or of the ass of night; the luminous solar hero comes out of +the ears of the ass, or of the grey or black horse; the twin horsemen +come out of the two ears). Rabelais, to explain this extraordinary +birth, asks "Minerve ne naquit-elle pas du cerveau par l'aureille de +Iupiter?" No sooner is Gargantua born, than he asks with loud cries +for something to drink; to give him milk, 17,913 cows are brought, his +mother's breasts not being enough, although each time she is milked +she yields "quatorze cens deux pipes neuf potées de laict." This is +the giant of popular tradition, whom the gigantic phantasy of Rabelais +has coloured in order to make him the butt of an immense satire. It is +an amplified and humorous rendering in a literary form of the popular +Superlatif,[481] whose mythical character is revealed in the curse +hurled against him by the old dwarf-fairy, whom he maltreated: "One +sun, to accomplish his work, eats eleven entire moons; but this time +every moon will eat the work of a sun." The ascending and descending +life of the solar hero is thus indicated. Superlatif will become +continually smaller, until it seems as though he were about to +disappear altogether; but at that very instant the curse comes to an +end, and from a dwarf, he grows into a giant again in the arms of his +bride.[482] Thus the days become continually shorter and shorter, +till the winter solstice, till Christmas. At Christmas the sun is born +again, the days lengthen, the dwarf grows tall; the sun, by a double +but analogous conception of ideas, passes once each day and once each +year from giant to dwarf, and from dwarf to giant. + +And the dwarfs of tradition know and reveal the mythical how and why +of their transformations, since, though they are dwarfs and hidden, +they see all and learn all. It is from the knowing dwarf Allwis, his +diminutive _alter ego_, that the mighty Thor, in the _Edda_, learns +the names of the moon, the sun, the clouds, and the winds. The moon, +according to Allwis, when it is in the kingdom of hell (in the kingdom +of death, in the infernal world, when it is Proserpina), is called a +wheel that is hurrying on; it then shines among the dwarfs (_i.e._, in +the luminous night, in which the sun hides itself; it becomes an +invisible dwarf). The sun among the dwarfs (_i.e._, when it is a +dwarf) plays with Dwalin (the mythical stag, probably the horned +moon); among the giants (_i.e._, when in the aurora, it becomes a +giant again), it is a burning brand; among the gods (the Ases), it is +the light of the world. The cloud, the dwarf Allwis goes on to inform +us, is the ship of the winds, the strength of the winds, the helmet +(or hat, or hood) which makes its wearer invisible. The wind, again, +is the wanderer, the noisy one, the weeper, the bellower, the +whistler (no one can resist the cries or the whistling of the hero of +fairy tales; the bellowing of the bull makes the lion tremble in his +cave). In this learned lesson on Germanico-Scandinavian mythology, +given us by the dwarf Allwis, we have a further justification of the +transition which we here assume to have been made from the natural +celestial phenomenon to its personification in an animal, and to the +personification of the animal in a man: Allwis, who knew all things, +has explained the mystery to us. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[423] _Les Eddas_, traduites de l'ancien idiome Scandinave par Mdlle. +du Puget, 2ème édition, p. 16. + +[424] Kuhn und Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche_, +p. 501. + +[425] _Handbuch der Deutschen Mythologie_, mit Einschluss der +nordischen, 2te. aufl. p. 437.--We find also in Eginhardus (_Vita +Caroli Magni_): "Quocumque eundum erat, carpento ibat, quod bubus +junctis et bubulco rustico more agente, trahebatur."--The bull is a +symbol of generation; the man who fears the bull is a stupid and +ridiculous eunuch. We find in Du Cange, Lit. Remiss, ann. 1397, "Le +suppliant, lui dist, Eudet, vous avéz un toreau qui purte les gens et +ne osent aler aux champs pour luy; lequel Eudet luy respondis: as tu +nom Jehannot?" Faire Johan dicitur mulier, quæ marito fidem non servat +(a variety of the Mongol Sûrya Bagatur). + +[426] Recorded by Cox, _Mythology of the Aryan Nations_, vol. i. p. +438, when speaking of the Hellenic myth of Zeus and Eurôpâ. + +[427] Cfr. Kuhn, _Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Göttertranks_, p. +181 and following.--In Du Cange, _Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ +Latinitatis_, s. v. Acannizare, we read an extract of a paper of +Jacob, i. _Regis Arag._ fol. 16: "Quicunque Acannizaverit vaccam vel +bovem, si bos vel vacca fecerit damnum casu fortuito, dum Acannizatur, +cujus est amittat ipsum bovem vel vaccam, nisi Acannizetur causa +nuptiarum;" and in Du Cange also: "Ut in anserem ludendo baculos +torquere in usu fuit, ita et in bovem." + +[428] _Die Deutsche Heldensage_, von Wilhelm Grimm, 2te Aus., No 102, +182. + +[429] Cfr. the chapter on the Goat and He-goat for more information on +mythical horns. + +[430] _Vide_ p. 497. + +[431] Diese Brücke wird keine andere sein, als die himmlische Bîfröst, +deren er hütet, eine Vermuthung, die noch an Wahrscheinlichkeit +gewinnt, wenn man den friesischen Namen der Milchstrasse Kaupat, der +Kuhpfad, hinzunimmt; denn Milchstrasse und Regenbogen berühren +einander sehr nahe. Dieser ist die Tagesbrücke zwischen Göttern und +Menschen, jene die nächtliche. + +[432] Rothe Kühe geben auch weisse Milch; Wander, _Deutsches +Sprichwörter Lexicon_, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1870. + +[433] Auch eine schwarze Kuh gibt weisse Milch; Wander, _ibid._ + +[434] This reminds us of the familiar English riddle, "How many cows' +tails would it take to reach the moon? One, if it were long enough." + +[435] Wenn die Kuh gestohlen ist, verwahrt man den Stall.--Wer eine +Kuh verloren und den Schwanz zurück erhält, hat nicht viel, aber mehr +als nichts.--Die Kuh könnte mit dem Schwanze bis an den Himmel +reichen, wenn er nur lang genug wäre.--Une vache ne sceit que lui +vault sa queue jusques elle l'a perdue.--Die Kuh beim Schwanz +fassen.--Die schwarze Kuh hat ihn gedrückt.--Eine Kuh kann keinen +Hasen erlaufen.--Die Kuh überläuft einen Hasen.--Nicht alle, die +Hörner blasen, jagen Hasen.--Wenn die Kühe lachen.--Wie eine blinde +Kuh eine Erbse findet.--Den sollt man in einer alten Kuhhaut +herumfahren.--Soll die Kuhmagd spinnen, wird man wenig Garn +gewinnen.--Man würde eher einer Kuh spinnen lehren; Wander's _Lexicon +of German Proverbs_, ii. 1666-1695. + +[436] Livius i.: "Quia si, agendo, armentum in speluncam compulisset, +ipsa vestigia quærentem dominum eo deductura erant, aversos boves +eximium quemque pulchritudine caudis in speluncam traxit." + +[437] _Facetiæ_, Krakau, 1592, quoted by Benfey in his introduction to +the _Pańćatantram_, Leipzig, Brockhaus, p. 323: "Quia testiculi mei +quadraginta annos pependerunt casuro similes et nunquam +ceciderant."--And in Lessing, xi. 250, we read of Lachmann-Maltzahn: +"De vulpe quadam asini testiculos manducandi cupido."--In Aldrovandi, +_De Quadrupedibus Bisulcis_, i. Bologna, 1642, we read, "Membrum tauri +in aceto maceratum et illitum, splendidam, teste secto, facit faciem; +Rasis ait, genitale tauri rubri aridum tritum, et aurei pondere +propinatum mulieri, fastidium coitus afferre; e contrario quidam +recentiores, ut in viris Venerem excitent, tauri membrum cæteris hujus +facultatibus admiscent." + +[438] Wenn auch der Kuhschwanz wackelt, so fällt er doch nicht ab; in +Wander, _Deutsches Sprichwörter Lexicon_. + +[439] v. 8. + +[440] Referred to by Köhler in _Orient und Occident_. + +[441] iv. 15. + +[442] Whence the proverb quoted above, relating to the stable that is +shut when the cow is stolen, is also quoted as follows: "Shutting the +stable when the horse has been stolen." + +[443] Cfr. the chapter on the Wolf, where the dwarf enters the wolf by +his mouth and comes out by his tail. + +[444] In a Russian story, in _Afanassieff_, vi. 2, when the old peasant +(the old sun) falls from the sky into a marsh (the sea of night), a duck +(the moon or the aurora) comes to make its nest and lay an egg upon his +head; the peasant clutches hold of its tail; the duck struggles and +draws the peasant out of the marsh (the sun out of the night), and the +peasant with the duck and its egg flies and returns to his house (the +sky whence he had fallen).--In a variation of the same story in +_Afanassieff_ (the two stories together refer to that of Aristomenes) +the old man falls from heaven into the mud. A fox places seven young +foxes on his head. A wolf comes to eat the young foxes; the peasant +catches hold of his tail; the wolf, by one pull, draws him out; by +another, leaves his tail in the peasant's hand. The tail of the wolf of +night is the morning aurora.--In the story of _Turn-Little-Pea_, +_Afanassieff_, iii. 2, the young hero enters into the horse after having +taken off his (black) hide, and after having taken him by the tail, +_i.e._, he becomes the luminous horse of the sun. + +[445] In the Russian story of lazy and stupid Emilius, who makes his +fortune, the hero is shut up in a barrel with the heroine, and thrown +into the sea: the sun and the aurora, made prisoners, and shut up +together, cross together the sea of night. + +[446] Wenn sich eine Kuh auf die Eier legt, so erwarte keine Hühner; +Wander, the work quoted before. + +[447] In the Russian story of _Afanassieff_, v. 36, the hero-workman +kills the monster-serpent by gambling with him for the price of his +own skin. Thinking that he may lose, he has provided himself +beforehand with seven ox hides and with iron claws. He loses seven +times; each time the monster thinks he has him in his power, but the +workman as often imposes upon him with an ox's hide, inducing him to +believe that it is his own. At last the serpent loses, and the +workman, with his iron claws, really takes off his skin, upon which +the serpent dies. To take the sack or hide from the monster, to burn +the skin of the monster-serpent, goat, hog, frog, &c., to burn the +enchanted mantle or hood in which the hero is wrapped up, is the same +as to kill the monster. + +[448] See the chapter on the Wolf. + +[449] For the German one, cfr. Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 199. + +[450] _Afanassieff_, ii. 17. + +[451] Acarnides insutus pelle juvenci; Ovidius, _In Ibin_. + +[452] Köhler, _Ueber T. F. Campbell's Sammlung gälischer Märchen_, in +_Orient und Occident_.--Cfr. the 30th of the _Novelline di Santo +Stefano di Calcinaia_. + +[453] Köhler, the work quoted above. + +[454] To this myth of the cow which goes over the moon, the +observation of a lunar eclipse might have contributed materially, in +which the cow earth (in Sanskṛit, _go_ means earth as well as cow) +really passes over the moon or hare. Or else, the cloud and the night, +as a black cow, very frequently goes over the hare or moon. + +[455] In the Russian superstition, when a hare passes between the +wheels of the vehicle which carries a newly-married couple, it bodes +misfortune; nor is this without reason: the hare is the moon; the moon +is the protectress of marriages; if she throws obstacles in the way, +the marriage cannot be happy; consequently, marriages in India were +celebrated at full moon. + +[456] Die Kuh, die viel brüllt, gibt nicht die meiste Milch. + +[457] Phalânâm phalam açnoti tadâ dattvâ; _Mahâbhâratam_, iii. 13, 423. + +[458] In the German legend of King Volmar, in Simrock, the work quoted +before, p. 451, we find the peas in the ashes. In the seventh of the +_Contes Merveilleux_ of Porchat, we have the pot in which the cabbages +are boiled, from which come forth money and partridges. In the sixth +of the same _Contes Merveilleux_, the young curioso sees a nest upon +an elm-tree, and wishes to climb up; the ascent never comes to an end; +the tree takes him up near to heaven. On the summit of the elm-tree +there is a nest, from which comes forth a beautiful fair-haired maiden +(the moon). + +[459] i. 53. + +[460] In the story, vi. 58, of _Afanassieff_, the honest workman, when +he wishes to fix his eyes upon the princess who never laughs, falls into +a marsh; the fish, the beetle, and the mouse, in gratitude, clean him +again; then the princess laughs for the first time, and marries the +honest workman. In the 25th of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano_, an +analogous detail is found, but this is not enough to make the princess +laugh; it is the eagles which draw after themselves everything they +touch that accomplish the miracle of making the queen's daughter laugh. +In the third story of the _Pentameron_, the princess laughs upon seeing +Pervonto carried by the faggot of wood, instead of carrying it. The +Russian stories of the ducks which save the hero, in _Afanassieff_, vi. +17-19, and the faithless wife and her lover bound together, are +variations of the eagles of the Tuscan story. + +[461] _Ṛigvedas_, v. 46, 8; v. 43, 6; i. 61, 8. + +[462] In the _Nibelungen_, Krîmhilt, who has never saluted any one, +(diu nie gruozte reeken), salutes for the first time the young Sîfrit, +the victorious and predestined hero, and, whilst she is saluting him, +turns the colour of flame (do erzunde sich sîn varwe). + +[463] In a mediæval paper in Du Cange, s. v. _Abocellus_, we read: "De +quodam cæco vaccarum custode," who, "quod colores et staturam vaccarum +singularium specialiter discerneret," was believed to be demoniacal; +hence the sacrament of confirmation was given him to deliver him from +this diabolical faculty, and the paper narrates that he was +immediately deprived of it. The blind hero who sees, who distinguishes +his cows from each other, is the sun in the cloud. No sooner does he +receive confirmation (which is a second baptism), than he ceases to +see his cows, for the simple reason that the clouds are dissolved in +rain, or that himself has recovered his vision. + +[464] Cfr. the papers relative to Merlin by Liebrecht and Benfey in +_Orient und Occident_. + +[465] _Fasti_, iii. 339. + +[466] Cfr. the chapter on the Fishes; where the custom of eating fish +on Friday is also explained. + +[467] In the first of the stories of _Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_, the +cow-maid says to her cow, "Cow, my cow, spin with your mouth and wind +with your horns; I will make you a faggot of green boughs." + +[468] The maiden spins for her step-mother; the fairy gives luminous +robes to the maiden; the maiden weaves dresses for her husband; these +are all details which confound themselves in one. In the _Nibelungen_, +the virgins prepared dresses of gold and pearls for the young hero +Sîfrit. + +[469] Holda, or Frau Holle, is burnt every year in Thuringia on the +day of Epiphany, on which day (or, perhaps, better still, on the +Berchtennacht, the preceding night, or Berta's night) the good fairy +expels the wicked one. In England, too, the witch is burned on the day +of Epiphany.--Cfr. Reinsberg von Düringsfeld, _Das festliche Jahr_, p. +19. + +[470] In the _Pentameron_ of Basil, i. 9, we read: "Passaie lo tiempo +che Berta filava; mo hanno apierto l'huocchie li gattille." + +[471] _Afanassieff_, vi. 2. + +[472] Cfr. Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 409, and the ninth of +the _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_, in which the luminous +maiden disguised as an old woman is uncovered by the geese, when she +puts down the dress of an old woman. + +[473] Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 410. + +[474] Wuotan also saves him whom he protects upon a mantle;--this is +the flying carpet or mantle, hood, or hat, which renders the wearer +invisible, and for which the three brothers disputed, which is also +represented as a tablecloth that lays itself. Thus the poor man who +goes to sell his cow's hide finds the pot of abundance and riches. The +dispute for the tablecloth is the same as the dispute for riches, for +the beautiful princess who is afterwards divided, or else carried off +by a third or fourth person who takes the lion's share. We must not +forget the fable of the animals who wish to divide the stag among +themselves, of which the lion takes all, because he is named lion. In +the _Nibelungen_, Schilbung and Nibelung dispute with each other for +the division of a treasure; they beg Sîfrit to divide it; Sîfrit +solves the question by killing them both and taking to himself the +treasure, and the hood that makes its wearer invisible (Tarnkappe). + +[475] The romance of Berta continues in the _Reali di Francia_ in +harmony with the popular stories of an analogous character; the false +wife really causes King Pepin to marry her, and sends Berta into the +forest to be killed; the hired murderers pity her, and grant her her +life. Berta, whilst in the forest bound to a tree (like the Vedic +cow), is found by a hunter; out of gratitude she works (she, no doubt, +spins and weaves), in order that the hunter may sell her work at Paris +for a high price. Meanwhile her father and mother dream that she is +beset by bears and wolves who threaten to devour her, that thereupon, +throwing herself into the water, a fisherman saves her (in the dream, +the water has taken the place of the forest, and the fisherman that of +the hunter). King Pepin goes into the forest, finds her, recognises +and marries her, whilst Elizabeth is burnt alive. The change of wives +also occurs in a graceful form (with a variation of the episode of the +beauty thrown into the fountain) in the twelfth of the _Contes +Merveilleux_ of Porchat, Paris, 1863. + +[476] _Histoire de la Vie de Charlemagne et de Roland_, par Jean +Turpin, traduction de Alex. de Saint-Albin, Paris, 1865, preceded by +the Chanson de Roland, poème de Théroulde.--Cfr. the _Histoire +Poétique de Charlemagne_, par Gaston Paris. + +[477] Uhland's _Schriften zur Geschichte der Dichtung und Sage_, iii. +77. + +[478] "Seigneur, bénissez ce lit et ceux qui s'y trouvent; bénissez +ces chers enfants, comme vous avez béni Tobie et Sara; daignez les +bénir ainsi, Seigneur, afin qu'en votre nom ils vivent et vieillissent +et multiplient, par le Christ notre Seigneur.--Ainsi soit-il." +Villemarqué, _Barzaz Breiz, Chants Populaires de la Bretagne_, sixième +édition, Paris, 1867, p. 423. + +[479] Uhland, the work quoted above, p. 81.--In the French romance of +_Renard_, on occasion of the apparent death of the fox, the gospel is +read, on the contrary, by the horse. In the German customs the bull also +appears as a funeral animal, and is fastened to the hearse. If, while he +is drawing the hearse, he turns his head back, it is considered a +sinister omen. According to a popular belief, the bulls and other +stalled animals speak to each other on Christmas night. A tradition +narrates, that a peasant wished on that night to hide himself and hear +what the bulls were saying; he heard them say that they would soon have +to draw him to the grave, and died of terror. This is the usual +indiscretion and its punishment.--Cfr. Rochholz, _Deutscher Glaube und +Brauch_, Berlin, 1867, i. 164, and Menzel, _Die Vorchristliche +Unsterblichkeits-Lehre_, Leipzig, 1870.--We have the speaking oxen again +in Phædrus's fable of the stag who takes refuge in the stable, ii. 8, +where the master is called "ille qui oculos centum habet." + +[480] Elle en mangea seze muiz, deux bussars et six tupins; Rabelais, +_Gargantua_, i. 4. + +[481] Cfr. Porchat, _Contes Merveilleux_, Paris, 1863. + +[482] In _Porchat_, Superlatif, while he is a dwarf, is shut up in a +clothes-press; he is a male form of the wooden girl, of the wise puppet, +of the sun hidden in the trunk of a tree, in the tree of night, in the +nocturnal (or cloudy, or wintry) night, full of mysteries, which the +little solar hero surprises from his hiding-place. The hero in hell, or +who, educated by the devil, learns every kind of evil, is a variation of +this multiform idea. The dwarf of _Porchat_, who comes out of the +clothes-press, is in perfect accord with the popular belief which makes +the man be born in the wood, on the stump of a tree, of which the +Christmas-tree is a lively reminiscence. + + +SECTION VI. + +THE BULL AND THE COW IN GREEK AND LATIN TRADITION. + +SUMMARY. + + Preparatory works.--Bos quoque formosa est.--Zeus as a bull.--Iô and + Eurôpê as cows.--The cow sacred to Minerva, the calf to Mercury, and + the bull to Zeus.--Demoniacal bulls.--Taurus draconem genuit et + taurum draco.--White bulls sacrificed to Zeus, and black ones to + Poseidôn.--Poseidôn as a bull.--The horn of abundance broken off the + bull Acheloos.--The bulls of Aiêtas.--The bull who kills + Ampelos.--Dionysos a bull.--The bull that comes out of the sea.--The + eaters of bulls.--The sacrifice of the bull.--The intestines of the + bull.--From the cow, the lamb.--The bull's entrails are wanting when + the hero is about to die, that is, when the hero has no heart.--Even + the bull goes into the forest.--The bull that flees is a good omen + when taken and sacrificed.--The bull and the cow guide the lost + hero.--Analogy between solar and lunar phenomena.--Hêraklês passes + the sea now on the cow's neck, now in a golden cup.--Hêraklês shoots + at the sun.--The moon, the bull of Hêraklês, becomes an apple-tree; + anecdote relating to this.--The moon as a golden apple.--The moon as + a cake.--The funeral cake.--Instead of a cow of flesh, a cow made of + paste, in Plutarch and Æsop.--Ashes and excrement of the cow.--L'eau + de millefleurs.--The bulls of the sun.--Hêraklês stable-boy and + cleaner of the herds.--The bull Phaethôn.--The myth of the bull and + the lion.--The bull's horns.--The god a witty thief; the demon an + infamous one.--The myth of Cacus again.--The worm or serpent that + eats bulls.--The bellowing or thundering bull, celestial + musician.--The bull and the lyre.--The voice of Zeus--Bull-god and + cow-goddess. + +In descending now from the North upon the Hellenic and Latin soils, to +search for the mythical and legendary forms assumed there by the bull +and the cow, the mass of available material in point which offers, +instead of diminishing, has increased prodigiously. Not to speak of the +rich literary traditions of mediæval Italy and Spain (as to those of +France, they are often but an echo of the Celtic and Germanic), nor the +significant traditions of the Latin historians and poets themselves, nor +the beliefs, superstitious customs, and legends still existing on the +half-Catholic, half-Pagan soil of Italy, all of which are notably +fraught with the earliest mythical ideas, we here find ourselves face to +face with the colossal and splendid edifice of Greek poetry or mythology +itself; for that which constitutes the greatness and real originality of +Greek poetry is its mythology, by means of which it is that a divinity +breathes in every artistic work of Hellenic genius. The poet and the +artist are almost always in direct correspondence with the deities, and +therefore it is that they so often assume such a divine and inspired +expression. It would, therefore, be a bold presumption on my part if I +were to essay to extract and present, in a few pages, the soul, the +contents of this endless mythology. I have, moreover, the good fortune +of being able to plead relief from the obligation to venture on any such +attempt, by referring the reader to the learned preparatory works +published in England, in the same interest, by Max Müller and George +Cox, upon the Hellenic myths in relation to the other mythologies. It is +certainly possible to take exception to interpretations of particular +myths proposed by these two eminent scholars, as, no doubt, might be the +fate of many of mine, were I to enter into minute explanations, and were +my lucubrations fortunate enough to obtain any measure of consideration. +But as I flatter myself with the hope that, notwithstanding occasional +diversions, in which I may have gone aside and lost myself for a few +minutes, I am taking the royal road which alone leads to the solution of +the great questions of comparative mythology, I recognise with gratitude +the labours of Max Müller and Cox upon Greek mythology, the writings of +Michael Bréal upon Roman mythology, the immortal work of Adalbert Kuhn +upon the Indo-European myth of fire and water, and a few other helpful +beacon-towers which send their light-shafts clear and steady athwart the +waste, and serve as useful guides to the studious navigator of the _mare +magnum_ of the myths. And because that which there is yet to do is +immense in proportion to the little that has been done well, I shall +take for granted what has already been demonstrated by my learned +predecessors (to one and all of whom I confidently and respectfully +refer my readers), and go on with my own researches, restricting myself, +however, entirely to the zoological field, in order not to increase, out +of all proportion, the dimensions of this opening chapter, which already +threatens to straiten the space I must leave for the rest of my +undertaking. + + "Bos quoque formosa est," + +says Ovid, in the first book of the _Metamorphoses_, when the daughter +of Inachos is transformed into a luminous cow by Jupiter. The bull +Zeus of Nonnos is also beautiful, as he swims on the sea, carrying the +beautiful maiden Eurôpê. Her brothers wonder why oxen wish to marry +women; but we shall not wonder when we remark that Iô and Eurôpê are +duplicates of one and the same animal, or, at least, that Iô and +Eurôpê both took the shape of a cow--one as the moon especially,[483] +the other, the far-observing daughter of Telephaessa, the +far-shining,[484] as the moon also, or the aurora. In the first case +it is the heroine that becomes a cow; in the second, it is the hero +who shows himself in the shape of a bull.[485] These forms are, +however, only provisional and unnatural, in the same way as in the +Vedic hymns the representation of the aurora, the moon, and the sun as +cow and bull is only a passing one. The cow and the bull send their +calf before them; the sun, the moon, and the aurora are preceded or +followed by the twilight. Jupiter and Minerva have for their messenger +the winged Mercurius; and hence also Ovid[486] was able to sing:-- + + "Mactatur vacca Minervæ, + Alipedi vitulus, taurus tibi, summe Deorum."[487] + +The fruit of the nuptials of Iô and of Eurôpê with Zeus is of a +monstrous nature, such as the evil-doing daughters of Danaos, who, on +account of their crimes, are condemned in hell to fill the famous barrel +(the cloud) that is ever emptying (the counterpart of the cup which, in +the Scandinavian myth, is never emptied); such too as Minôs, he who +ordered the labyrinth to be made, the infernal judge, the feeder of the +Minôtauros (of which the monstrous bull of Marathon, first subdued by +Hêraklês and afterwards killed by Theseus, is a later form), the son of +his wife and the gloomy and watery black bull Poseidôn. Even Kadmos, the +brother of Eurôpê, ends his life badly. He descends into the kingdom of +the dead in the form of a serpent. Of good, evil is born, and of evil, +good; of the beautiful, the hideous, and of the hideous, the beautiful; +of light, darkness, and of darkness, light; of day, night, and of night, +day; of heat, cold, and of cold, heat. Each day and each year the +monotonous antithesis is renewed; the serpent's head always finds and +bites its tail again. A Tarentine verse of Arnobius expresses very +happily these celestial vicissitudes: + + "Taurus draconem genuit et taurum draco." + +Thus, in the romance of Heliodoros (_Aithiopika_) we read that the +queen of Ethiopia, being black, gave birth to a white son; that is to +say, the black night gives birth to the white moon and to the white +dawn of morning. To Zeus (Dyâus, the luminous,) are sacrificed white +bulls; to his brother Poseidôn, black ones; indeed, entirely +black[488] ones, according to the Homeric expression. + +Poseidôn, in Hesiod (_Theog._ 453), is the eldest brother; in Homer +(_Il._ xv. 187), he is, on the contrary, the youngest; and both are +right; it is the question of the egg and the hen; which is born first, +darkness or light? The son of Poseidôn, Polyphêmos the Cyclop, is +blinded by Odysseus. Poseidôn, representing the watery, cloudy, or +nocturnal sky, his one-eyed son seems to be that sky itself, with the +solar star, the eye of the heavens, in the midst of the darkness or of +the clouds (the mouth of the barrel). When Odysseus blinds his son, +Poseidôn avenges him by condemning Odysseus to wander on the waters +(that is, lost in the ocean or the clouds of night). Inasmuch, moreover, +as Zeus, properly the luminous one, is often called and represented by +Homer as black as the clouds and pluvial,[489] he is assimilated to +Poseidôn, the _presbýtatos_ or oldest; in fact, in the oldest Hellenic +myths, Poseidôn is essentially the pluvial form of Zeus. When Poseidôn, +in the form of a bull, seduces Pasiphaê, the daughter of the sun and +wife of Minôs, he appears, indeed, of a white colour, but has between +his horns a black spot.[490] This spot, however small, is enough to +betray his tenebrous nature. Thus Acheloos, vanquished by Hêraklês in +the shape of a serpent, rises again in that of a pugnacious bull, one of +whose horns Hêraklês breaks,[491] which he gives to the Ætolians, who +receive abundance from it (the waters of the Acheloos fertilise the +country traversed by them; the dragon of the cloud kept back the waters; +Hêraklês discomfits the dragon, _i.e._, the darkness, and it then +reappears in the form of a bull; when its horns are broken, abundance is +the consequence). This monster reappears in the two perverse and +terrible bulls of King Aiêtas, with copper feet (_taurô chalkópode_), +which breathe dark-red flames and smoke, and advance against the hero +Iêsôn in the cavern; in the same way as the king of the monkeys in the +_Râmâyaṇam_ vanquishes the demoniacal bull that fights with its horns, +by taking hold of the horns themselves, and throwing it down; so Iêsôn +does in Apollônios.[492] The same bull is repeated in that ridden by the +youth Ampelos, dear to Diónysos (who has also the nature of a bull, +_taurophüsês_, but of a luminous one). Ampelos, persuaded by the +death-bringing Atê (_thanatêphóros Atê_), mounts on this bull, and is +thrown by it upon a rock where his skull is broken, because he was full +of pride against the horned moon, her who agitates the oxen, who, +offended, sends a gadfly to the bull and maddens it. The bull Diónysos +wishes to avenge the young Ampelos, by fixing his horns in the belly of +the perverse and homicidal bull.[493] In this myth, the black bull of +night and the bull-moon are confounded together in one sinister action. + +From the ocean of night comes forth the head of the solar and lunar +bull, and on this account, in Euripides[494] Okeanos is called the +bull-headed (_taurókranos_); or else the head of the solar bull enters +the nocturnal forest, or that of the lunar bull comes out of it. This +phenomenon gave rise to several poetical images. The bull is devoured +by the monsters of night; hence in the _Seven at Thebes_ (xlii.) of +Æschylos, the messenger accuses of impiety the seven eaters of bulls, +who touch with their hands the blood of bulls; hence in the +forty-third fable of Æsop, the dogs flee, horrified, from the peasant +who, being of a gluttonous nature (like the old man of the Russian +story who eats all his cows), after having devoured sheep and goats, +prepares to eat the working oxen themselves.[495] The bulls head, or +even the bull itself, or the milch-cow, which must not be eaten, can, +however, be sacrificed; nay, he is lucky who offers them up (except +when the deity is named Heliogabalus, who receives the _taurobolium_ +as a homage due to him, without giving anything in exchange to the +devoted sacrificers).[496] According to Valerius Maximus,[497] the +empire of the world would, by an oracle of the time of Servius +Tullius, belong to the nation who should sacrifice to the Diana of the +Aventine a certain wonderful cow belonging to a Sabine (the aurora or +the moon, from the sacrifice of which the sun comes out at morning). +The Sabine prepares to sacrifice it, but a Roman priest takes it from +him by fraud, whilst the Sabine is sent to purify himself in the water +near at hand. This is a zoological form of the epico-mythic rape of +the Sabines, of the exchange of the wife or of the precious object, of +the exchange effected in the sack. + +In Ovid,[498] the same myth occurs again with a variation: + + "Matre satus Terra, monstrum mirabile, taurus + Parte sui serpens posteriore fuit. + Hunc triplici muro lucis incluserat atris + Parcarum monitu Styx violenta trium. + Viscera qui tauri flammis adolenda dedisset, + Sors erat, æternos vincere posse Deos. + Immolat hunc Briareus factu ex adamante securi; + Et jam jam flammis exta daturus erat. + Jupiter alitibus rapere imperat. Attulit illi + Milvus; et meritis venit in astra suis." + +We shall return to this myth in the following chapters. The monster is +killed only when his heart, which he keeps shut up, is taken away. +Sometimes he does not keep it shut up in his own body, but in a duck +(the aurora), which comes out of a hare (the moon sacrificed in the +morning).[499] When this duck is opened, a golden egg (the sun) is +found. When the egg is thrown on the ground, or at the monster's head, +the monster dies. The golden duck, whence the monster's heart, the +sun, comes forth, is the same as the cow which gives birth to the lamb +(the night gives birth to the aurora, and the aurora to the solar +lamb). The historian Flavius cites, among the prodigies which preceded +the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem, a miracle of this kind, +which took place in the middle of the temple itself, in the case of a +cow led thither to be sacrificed. It occurs still every morning in the +mythical heavens, and was a phenomenon familiar to human observation +in the remotest antiquity, when it became a proverb; but, as often +happened, the proverb which affirmed an evident myth, when its sense +was lost, was adopted to indicate an impossibility; wherefore we read +in the second satire (cxxii.) of Juvenal:-- + + "Scilicet horreres maioraque monstra putares, + Si mulier vitulum, vel si bos ederet agnum?" + +In Greek and Latin authors[500] we find frequent examples of the +sacrifice of a bull a short time before the death of the hero by whom +it was ordered, in which it was noticed as a very sinister omen that +the entrails were missing, and particularly the heart or the liver. +Having observed that the monster's heart is the solar hero, or the sun +itself, we can easily understand how, in the sacrifice of a bull, this +heart must be wanting when the hero approaches his end. In the +mythical bull sacrificed at evening, the hero's heart is not to be +found; the monster has eaten his intestines, of which, according to +the legend, he is particularly greedy. + +But the bull does not always let himself be sacrificed patiently; he +often flees in order not to be killed. We have seen in the Russian +stories how the bull, which his owner intends to sacrifice, flees into +the forest, with the lamb (the bull and the lamb are two equivalent +forms of the morning and evening solar hero) and the other domestic +animals. The proverb of Theokritos, "Even the bull goes into the +forest,"[501] can have no other origin than in the two analogous myths +of the moon which wanders through the forest of night, and of the sun +who hides himself in the same forest, when he sees the preparations +made for the sacrifice; the sun in the night becomes the moon. + +I have said that the bull, when sacrificed, often, on account of his +being devoid of intestines, forebodes unlucky occurrences to the hero; +the solar bull of the evening is without strength, he has no heroic +entrails. But after he has been to pasture freely in the forest, after +having exercised his powers in battle with the wolves of night, after +having, by his bellowing (in the darkness, in the thundering cloud), +filled all the animals with terror, the bull is found again and led +towards his dwelling of the morning, full of light, like a sacrificed +hero; heroic entrails are found in him; from the black bull who is +sacrificed towards morning, from the forest, from the bull of night, +come forth the heart, the liver, the life and strength, the sun, the +hero-sun; and the human hero, observing his sacrifice, considers it a +good omen. We can thus understand the narrative of Ammianus Marcellinus: +"Decimus (taurus) diffractis vinculis, lapsus ægre reductus est, et +mactatus ominosa signa monstravit."[502] Whilst he is hidden in the +forest, the solar bull is black, but often (_i.e._, in all the nights +illumined by the moon), giving up his place to the moon, he appears in +the form of a white bull or cow, who guides the hero lost in the +darkness. Thoas is called the king of the Tauroi (or bulls) in the +_Iphigenia in Tauris_ of Euripides, because he has wings on his feet. +The cow Iô flees without stopping in the _Prometheus_ of Æschylos. +Euripides[503] says that she gave birth to the king of the Kadmœans. +Here, therefore, we find once more the intimate relation between Iô and +Eurôpê, the sister of Kadmos, which I noticed above. Kadmos, the brother +of Eurôpê, unites himself with Iô. But Iô is a cow, and we find a cow, a +travelling cow, marked with a white spot in the shape of a full moon +(the moon itself, or Iô), in the legend of Kadmos in Bœotia, according +to Pausanias,[504] and to Ovid,[505] who sings-- + + "Bos tibi, Phœbus ait, solis occurret in arvis,[506] + Nullum passa jugum, curvique immunis aratri. + Hac duce carpe vias, et, qua requieverit herba, + Mœnia fac condas: Bœotia ilia vocato. + Vix bene Castalio Cadmus descenderat antro: + Incustoditam lente videt ire juvencam, + Nullum servitii signum cervice gerentem. + Subsequitur, pressoque legit vestigia gressu; + Auctoremque viæ Phœbum taciturnus adorat. + Jam vada Cephisi, Panopesque evaserat arva; + Bos stetit; et, tollens spatiosam cornibus altis + Ad cœlum frontem, mugitibus impulit auras. + Atque ita, respiciens comites sua terga sequentes, + Procubuit, teneraque latus submisit in herba." + +This is the good fairy, or good old man, who shows the way to the +heroes in popular tales; it is the cow which succours the maiden +persecuted by her step-mother, the puppet which spins, sews, and +weaves for the maiden aurora. For just as we have seen that the wooden +girl is the aurora herself, which at morn comes out of, and at even +re-enters, the forest of night,[507] as is clearly shown by the myths +of Urvaçî and of Daphne, so in like manner the moon comes out of and +re-enters the nocturnal forest, transforming herself from a tree to a +cow, and from a cow to a tree, wooden girl, or puppet. Some myths +relating to the aurora are also applicable to the moon, on account of +the resemblance of the phenomena (the lunar and solar bulls also are +interchangeable), as they both come out of the nocturnal gloom, both +drop dewy humours, and both run after the sun, of which the aurora is +the deliverer in the morning, and the moon the protectress, guide, +hostess, and good advising fairy, who teaches him the secret by which +to avoid the ambuscades of the monster. Hêraklês passes the sea upon +the neck of the cow-moon; but instead of the cow, we also find in the +mythical sky of Hêraklês the golden cup, which is the same thing. From +the cow-moon comes forth the horn of abundance; from the cornucopia to +the cup the passage is easy. It is said that Hêraklês, approaching the +oxen of Geryon, the West, felt himself burned by the sun's rays, and +shot arrows at him (in the same way as Indras in the _Ṛigvedas_ breaks +a wheel of the car of Sûryas, the sun). The sun admires the courage +and strength of the hero, and lends him his golden cup, upon which +Hêraklês passes the sea. This being accomplished, Hêraklês restores +the cup to the sun, and finds the oxen. + +The bull which carries the hero and heroine, in the Russian story, +arises again in another form, if its essential part (now the +intestines, now the bones, now the ashes) is preserved. The cow which +helps the maiden becomes, as we have already seen, an apple-tree, and +helps her again in this form. We find the same myth transformed in +Greece. In _Cœlius_, quoted by Aldrovandi,[508] we read, "Cum rustici +quidam Herculi Alexicaco bovem essent immolaturi, isque rupto fune +profugisset (the bull destined to the sacrifice repairs to the forest +of night), nec esset quod sacrificaretur, malum arreptum suppositis +quatuor ramis crurum vice, deinde additis alteris duobus ceu cornuum +loco, bovem utcumque fuisse imitatos, idque ridiculum simulacrum pro +victima sacrificasse Herculi." This account is confirmed by the facts +recorded by Julius Pollux,[509] that the apple-tree was sacrificed to +Hêraklês. The moon, on account of its circular form, assumed, besides +the figure of a pea, a pumpkin and a cabbage, also that of a golden +apple. As it contains honey, the sweet apple represents well the +ambrosial moon. Moreover, in the same way as we have seen the pea +which fell on the ground become a tree, and rise to heaven, so the +apple became an apple-tree, the tree of golden apples found in the +Western garden of the Hesperides. + +The moon, besides the form of a horned cow, also assumed, in the +popular Âryan belief, that of a tart, of a cake, either on account of +its circular shape, or of the ambrosial honey supposed to be contained +by the moon, because of the dew or rain which it spreads on the +ground. The cake has in Slavonic tradition the same importance as the +pea, kidney-bean, or cabbage. The bull or cow of the fool, bartered +for a pea, is perhaps the same as the sun or aurora of evening, +bartered during the night for the moon, or else meeting the moon. The +funereal pea or kidney-bean, the vegetable which serves as provision +for the journey in the kingdom of the dead, and which brings the hero +riches, is perhaps only the moon, which the solar hero finds on the +way during the night, and which he receives in exchange for his cow's +hide. When the hero possesses this pea, he is assured of every kind of +good fortune, and can enter or ascend into the luminous sky, as well +as come out of the gloomy hell, into which the monster has drawn him. +A similar virtue is attributed to the cake, which we find in +Indo-European funeral customs instead of the vegetable of the dead. + +After this we can understand what Plutarch tells us in the Life of +Lucullus concerning the Cyziceni, of whom he writes, that, pressed by +siege, they offered up to Proserpine (the moon in hell) a cow of black +paste, not being able to offer up one of flesh; and he adds, that the +sacrifice was agreeable to the goddess. Thus, in the thirty-sixth +fable of Æsop, we read of an invalid who promises to the gods that he +will sacrifice a hundred oxen to them in the event of a cure; when +cured, as he does not possess a hundred oxen of flesh, he makes a +hundred of paste, and burns them upon the hearth. But, according to +Æsop, the gods were not satisfied, and endeavoured to play off a joke +upon him; an attempt, which, however, did not succeed, inasmuch as the +cunning man used it to his own profit; for the solar hero in the +night, not being really a fool, merely feigns to be one. + +But, to return to the cow-moon: we must complete the explanation of +another myth, that of the excrement of the cow considered as purifying. +The moon, as the aurora, yields ambrosia; it is considered to be a cow; +the urine of this cow is ambrosia or holy water; he who drinks this +water purifies himself, as the ambrosia which rains from the lunar ray +and the aurora cleans the paths of the sky, purifies and makes clear +(_dîrghaya ćakshase_) the paths of the sky which the shadows of night +darken and contaminate. The same virtue is attributed, moreover, to +cow's dung, a conception also derived from the cow, and given to the +moon as well as to the morning aurora. These two cows are conceived as +making the earth fruitful by means of their ambrosial excrements; these +excrements, being also luminous, both those of the moon and those of the +aurora are considered as purifiers. The ashes of these cows (which their +friend the heroine preserves) are not only ashes, but golden powder or +golden flour (the golden cake occurs again in that flour or powder of +gold which the witch demands from the hero in Russian stories), which, +mixed with excrement, brings good fortune to the cunning and robber +hero. The ashes of the sacrificed pregnant cow (_i.e._, the cow which +dies after having given birth to a calf) were religiously preserved by +the Romans in the temple of Vesta, with bean-stalks (which are used to +fatten the earth sown with corn), as a means of expiation. Ovid[510] +mentions this rite:-- + + "Nox abiit, oriturque Aurora. Palilia poscor, + Non poscor frustra, si favet alma Pales. + Alma Pales, faveas pastoria sacra canenti; + Prosequor officio si tua festa pio. + Certe ego de vitulo cinerem, stipulasque fabales, + Sæpe tuli plena februa casta, manu." + +The ashes of a cow are preserved both as a symbol of resurrection and +as a means of purification. As to the excrements of the cow, they are +still used to form the so-called _eau de millefleurs_, recommended by +several pharmacopœias as a remedy for cachexy.[511] + +I have noticed above the myth of Hêraklês, in which, having passed the +sea upon the golden cup, he finds the oxen upon the shore. These oxen +are thus described by Theokritos, in the myth of King Augeias, as the +child of the sun. The sun, says Theokritos, granted to his son the +honour of being richer than all other men in herds. All these herds are +healthy, and multiply without limit, always becoming better. Among the +bulls, three hundred have white legs (like the alba of morning), two +hundred are red (like the sun's rays), with curved horns. These bulls +are to be used for purposes of reproduction; besides them there are +twelve sacred to the sun, which shine like swans. One of them is +superior to all the rest in size, and is called a star, or Phaethôn (the +luminous, an epithet given to Hêlios, the sun, in the _Odyssey_, the +guider of the chariot of the sun, who, after finishing his diurnal +course, is unable to rein in the horses, and is precipitated with the +chariot into the water, in order that the burning horses may not set +fire to the world. Instead of solar oxen, which draw the chariot, and +fall, at evening, into the nocturnal marsh, we find in this myth the +chariot drawn by horses overturned into the waves; but the Phaethôn, the +very luminous and excellent ox, as represented by Theokritos, justifies +our identification of the two mythical episodes of the ox and of the +horse which falls into the water). The bull Phaethôn of Theokritos sees +Hêraklês, and, taking him for a lion, rushes upon him and endeavours to +wound him with his horns. The sun, as a golden-haired hero, is a very +strong lion (Hêraklês, Samson); as a golden-horned hero, he is a very +strong bull; enclosed in the cloud, they roar and bellow. The two images +of the sun-lion and of the sun-bull are now in harmony and now in +discordance, and fight with one another. In the _Râmâyaṇam_ we found the +two brother-heroes Râmas and Lakshmaṇas, an epic form of the two +Açvinâu, represented respectively as a bull and a lion. In the Hellenic +fables we frequently find the lion and the bull together, and afterwards +in discordance, as happens in the legend of the two brother-heroes. In +Æsop and in Avianus, the bull (perhaps the moon) fleeing from the lion +(_i.e._, from the sun in its monstrous evening or autumnal form of a +lion), enters the hiding-place of the goat (the moon in the grotto of +night), and is insulted and provoked by it. In another Æsopian fable, on +the contrary, it is the lion who fears the horns of the bull, and +induces him to part with them, in order that the bull may become his +prey.[512] In yet another Æsopian fable taken from Syntipa, the bull +kills the lion, while asleep, with his horns. In Phædrus, the wild boar +with his tusks, the bull with his horns, and the ass with kicks, put an +end to the old and infirm lion. In Phædrus's fable of the ox and the ass +drawing together, the ox falls inert upon the ground when he loses his +horns. Aristoteles, in the third book on the Parts of Animals, censures +the Momos of Æsop, who laughs at the bull because he has his horns on +his forehead instead of on his arms, showing that if the bull had his +horns on any other part of his body, they would be a useless weight, +and would impede his other functions without aiding him in anything. The +ox and the lion were also painted together in Christian churches.[513] + +To continue the legend of the solar hero and the oxen, we find again in +Hêraklês, as employed among the herds in the service of King Augeias, +the sun, the usual hostler-hero; he is not only to guard the herds well, +but in one day to cleanse them thoroughly, and make them shine. +Defrauded of the price by Augeias, he kills him, and ravages all his +country. In the same way, in Homer, Apollo guards, for a stipulated +price, the herds of King Laomedon upon Mount Ida, and is cheated of his +reward. In the same way, Hermes takes the herds of King Admetos to +pasture; he leads them to browse near the herds of Apollo, from whom he +steals a hundred bulls and twelve cows, preventing the dogs from barking +(as Hêraklês does when he leads away Geryon's oxen). This Hermes, this +god Mercury, god of merchants, this merchant and robber, is the same as +the skilful and cunning thief of the stories who carries off horses, +draught oxen, caskets, and ear-rings from the king; he is the +hero-thief; but a shade distinguishes him from the monster brigand or +Vedic demoniacal Paṇis; the hero who hides himself and the monster that +hides things both do a furtive action. When Hermes leads away the herds +stolen from the solar god, the sun, he also takes care to fasten +branches of trees to their tails, which, by sweeping the road, shall +destroy the track of the bulls and cows that have been led away. The +shepherd Battos plays the spy, although, as the price of his silence, +Hermes has promised him a white cow (the moon, and perhaps Battos +himself, the spy, is the moon). Hermes tests him, by disguising himself +and promising him a bull and a cow if he speaks. Battos speaks, and +Hermes punishes him by transforming him into a stone:-- + + "Vertit + In durum silicem, qui nunc quoque dicitur index."[514] + +This god Mercury, who steals the bulls from Apollo (as Hêraklês leads +away the oxen of Geryon), is the divine form of the thief. His +demoniacal form, is--Cacus, the son of Vulcan (as the Vedic Vṛitras is +the son of Tvashṭar), who vomits fire; a giant who envelops himself in +darkness, in Virgil; three-headed (like the Vedic monster), in +Propertius;[515] who inhabits in the Aventine forest a cavern full of +human bones (like the monster of fairy tales); who thunders (flammas +ore sonante vomit), who fights with rocks and trunks of trees, in +Ovid[516] (like the heroes in the Hindoo, Slavonic, German, and +Homeric tradition); who steals the cows from Hêraklês, and hides their +footprints by dragging them backwards into the cavern, in Livy; who +also tells us that the cows in the cavern low, wishing for the bulls +from whom they are separated (as in the Vedic hymns). The hero, +hearing them, finds the cavern, overturns with a great noise the rock +which five pair of oxen yoked together could scarcely have moved (like +the Marutas who break the rock, like Indras who splits the crag open), +and with the three-knotted club (trinodis) kills the monster and frees +the cows. The solar hero who at evening leads away oxen or cows, or +who at morning steals them from the stable, is a skilful robber who +has acted meritoriously, and marries, in reward, the princess aurora; +the cloudy or gloomy monster who steals the solar cows to shut them up +in the cavern, whence he then throws out smoke and flames, is an +infamous criminal. The divine thief steals almost out of playfulness, +either to show his craftiness or to prove his valour; the demoniacal +thief steals because of his malevolent character, and instinct to +devour what he steals, as does the fabled worm of the river Indus (the +Vedic Sindhus, or heavenly ocean), who draws into the abyss and +devours the thirsty oxen who go to drink.[517] + +The monster of the clouds who whistles and thunders only terrifies; the +god who whistles and thunders in the cloud, on the other hand, is _par +excellence_ a celestial musician; his musical instrument, the thunder, +astonishes us by its marvels,[518] and makes stones and plants tremble, +that is, makes stones and plants move, especially celestial ones +(_i.e._, cloud-mountains and cloud-trees); it draws after it the wild +animals (of the heavenly forest), tames and subdues them. The bellowing +bull terrifies the lion himself. We, therefore, also read in +Nonnos,[519] that Dionysos gives a bull in reward to Æagros, who has won +in the competition of song and of the lyre, whilst he reserves a hirsute +he-goat for him who loses; on this account we find on the capitals of +columns in old Milanese churches, calves and bulls represented as +playing on the lyre.[520] It is a variation of the myth of the ass and +the lyre, which has the same meaning. The bull and the ass, for the same +reason, are found represented together, because they bellow and bray +(like Christian Corybantes) near the cradle of the new-born god, in +order to hide, by their noise, his birth from the old king or deity who +is to be dethroned.[521] The conch of Bhîmas, the elephant-horn of +Orlando, the Greek war-bugle tauraia, by means of which armies were +moved, derived their character and their name from the mythical bull, +the thundering god. The voice of the bull is compared in Euripides to +the voice of Zeus;[522] the music which pleases the heroes is certainly +not the air of the _Casta diva_; it is the braying of the ass,[523] the +roar of the lion, the bellowing of the bull, who occupies the first +place in the heavens, and has occupied us so long, because the supreme +god took his form, after having carried off Eurôpê. Zeus left on the +earth his divine form, and the more generally preferred heroic form of a +bull took him up to heaven:-- + + "Litoribus tactis stabat sine cornibus ullis + Juppiter, inque deum de bove versus erat. + Taurus init cœlum."[524] + +We thus, after a long pilgrimage in the fields of tradition, return to +the Vedic bull Indras, from whom we started, and to his female form, +which, having a human nature, became a cow, and being a cow, assumed a +divine shape:-- + + "Quæ bos ex homine, ex bove facta Dea."[525] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[483] According to Eustatius, "Iô gar hê selênê katà tên tôn Argetôn +dialekton." + +[484] Cfr. Pott, _Studien zur griechischen Mythologie_, Leipzig, +Teubner, 1859; and Cox, the work quoted before. + +[485] _Dionysiakôn_, i. 45, and following; iii. 306, and following. + +[486] _Metamorphoseôn_, iv. 754. + +[487] In England, as I have already noticed, the bull or ox is sacred to +St Luke; in Russia, to the saints Froh and Laver. In Sicily, the +protector of oxen is San Cataldo, who was bishop of Taranto. (For the +notices relating to Sicilian beliefs concerning animals, I am indebted +to my good friend Giuseppe Pitrè.) In Tuscany, and in other parts of +Italy, oxen and horses are recommended to the care of St Antony, the +great protector of domestic animals. In the rural parts of Tuscany, it +was the custom, on the 17th of February, to lead oxen and horses to the +church-door, that they might be blessed. Now, to save trouble, only a +basket of hay is carried to be blessed; which done, it is taken to the +animals that they may eat it and be preserved from evil. On Palm Sunday, +to drive away every evil, juniper is put into the stables in Tuscany. + +[488] Taúrous pammélanai, in the _Odyssey_; the commentator explains +that the bulls are black because they resemble the colour of water. + +[489] Kelainefès-nefelêgeréta Zeús; _Odyssey_, xiii. 147 and 153. + +[490] + + Signatus tenui media inter cornua nigro + Una fuit labes; cœtera lactis erant. + Ovidius, _De Arte Amandi_. + +[491] In _Diodoros_, Hammon loves the virgin Amalthea, who has a horn +resembling that of an ox. The goat and the cow in the lunar and cloudy +myth are the same; and on this account we find them both in connection +with the apple-tree, a vegetable form, and with the cornucopia, since +both are seers, and spies, and guides. The golden doe is a variation +of the same lunar myth. + +[492] _Argonantikôn_, iii. 410, 1277. + +[493] Nonnos, _Dionysiakôn_, xi. 113 and following. + +[494] _Orestês_, 1380. + +[495] _Ergazoménous Bóas._--In the twelfth book of his _History of +Animals_, Ælianos writes: "Among the Phrygians, if any one kills a +working ox, he atones for it with his life." And Varro, _De Re Rusticâ_: +"Bos socius hominum in rustico opere et Cereris minister. Ab hoc antiqui +ita manus abstineri voluerunt ut capite sanxerint si quis occidisset." + +[496] _Scriptores Historiæ Augustæ_, Lampridius, in the life of +Heliogabalus. + +[497] vii. 3. + +[498] _Fasti_, iii. 800. + +[499] Cfr. the chapter on the Hare. + +[500] Plutarch, in the Life of Marcellus, Arrianos and Appianos among +the Greeks, Livy, Cicero (De Divinatione), Pliny the elder, Julius +Capitolinus, Julius Obsequens among the Latins. + +[501] _Éba kai táuros an hülan_, xiv. 43. In Theokritos, the proverb +is used to intimate that he is gone to other and perfidious loves; he, +too, is a traitor. + +[502] _Rerum gestarum_, xxii.--Cfr. the episode of the ox which lets +itself fall into the marsh or swamp, in the various versions of the +first book of the _Pańćatantram_.--The astrologers placed the brain +under the protection of the moon, and the heart under that of the sun; +Celoria, _La Luna_, Milano, 1871. + +[503] Kadmeiôn Basilêas egeinato; _Phoinissai_, 835. + +[504] _Boiotia._ + +[505] _Metam._, iii. 10.--Cfr. Nonnos, _Dionys._, iv. 290, and +following. + +[506] Or, on the path of the sun in the sky. + +[507] In an unpublished Piedmontese story, which is very widely spread, +the girl carried off by robbers escapes from their hands, and hides in +the trunk of a tree. + +[508] _De Quadrupedibus Bisulcis_, i. + +[509] _De Vocabulis_, i., quoted by Aldrovandi. + +[510] _Fasti_, iv. 721. + +[511] Cfr. Ott. Targioni Tozzetti, _Lezioni di Materia Medica_, +Firenze, 1821. + +[512] In an Æsopian fable taken from Syntipa, which corresponds to the +first of Lokman, two bulls combine against the lion, and resist him; +the lion excites them against each other, and tears them to pieces. In +the sixth fable of Aphtonios, the bulls are three; in the eighteenth +of Avianus, they are four. The lion already knew the motto of kings: +"Divide et impera." + +[513] Durandus, _Rational._ i. 3, quoted by Du Cange. + +[514] Ovidius, _Metam._, ii. 706. + +[515] Per tria partitos qui dabat ora sonos; _Ecl._ iv. + +[516] _Fasti_, i. 550. + +[517] Philê, _Stichoi peri zôôn idiotêtos_, lix. + +[518] In Italian, _attonito_ (or, properly speaking, struck by +thunder) is the same as "who is much surprised"). + +[519] _Dionys._ xix 58. + +[520] Cfr. Martigny, _Dictionnaire des Antiquités Chrétiennes_, s. v. +_veau._ + +[521] In _Phædrus_, as we have already observed, the ox and the ass +are yoked together. + +[522] _Ippolitos_, _Ôs fonê Diòs_, 1200-1229. + +[523] Cfr. the chapter relating to the Ass. + +[524] Ovidius, _Fasti_, v. 615. + +[525] _Ib._ v. 620. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE HORSE. + + +SUMMARY. + + The horse, favourite animal of the solar hero.--Attributes of the + Vedic solar hero.--Animals which draw the Vedic gods.--The Açvinâu + sons of a mare.--The mule, the ass, and the horse in relation to + each other.--The hero's horse, prior to being noble and handsome, is + vile and ill-favoured; proofs.--The teeth of the horse.--The figs + that make tails grow.--The excrement of the horse.--Three colours of + the heroic horse.--Pluto's horses abhor the light.--Pêgasos an + imperfect horse.--The black horse generally demoniacal.--The + hippomanes.--The monster that makes horses perspire and grow lean; + the fire in stables.--To dream of black horses.--The horse of the + third brother is small, humpbacked, and lame.--The hero transforms + himself into a horse.--The grey horse differs from the black + one.--The red horse frees the hero.--The three steps, the three + races, the three leaps, the three castles, the three days, the three + brothers, and the three horses correspond to each other.--Two + horsemen change the hero's bad horse into a heroic steed.--The + horse's ears; the hero in the horse's ears.--The horse's head + blesses the good maiden, and devours the wicked one.--The black + horseman, the white horseman, and the red one.--The horse-monster + that devastates the field surprised by the hero, and destroyed by + fire, in the _Ṛigvedas_.--The Dioscuri washing the sweat off their + horses.--Salt on the horse's back.--The hero-horse covered by the + waters.--The Açvinâu and Agnis give a good horse to the hero who has + a bad one.--The three steps of Vishṇus are made by the horses of + Indras.--Vishṇus as horse.--Indras and the Açvinâu find the bride on + horseback.--Râmas as horse.--Dadhyańć and his ambrosial horse's + head, which discomfits the hostile monsters.--The bones of the + horse.--The exchange of heads.--The two brother horses Pêgasos and + Chrüsaor in opposition to one another.--Castor and + Pollux.--Discussion upon the nature of the Açvinâu.--The two + brothers at discord; Sundas and Upasundas.--Nakulas and + Vasudevas.--Râmas and Lakshmaṇas.--The brothers who resemble each + other; Bâlin and Sugrîvas; the brother betrays his brother and + steals his wife.--Kereçâçpa and Urvâksha.--Piran and Pilsem.--The + sky a mountain of stone; heroes, heroines, and horses of stone.--The + brother seducer in the _Tuti-Name_.--Sunlight and moonlight, two + brothers.--The minister's son and the king's son.--Horse and + cat.--The two brothers on a journey; one becomes a king, the other + spits gold; the candle of one of the two brothers lights of its own + accord, and he therefore obtains the kingdom; the other brother's + treasure.--Digression concerning the interpretation of the + myth.--Agamêdês and Trophonios; Piedmontese story of the skilful + thief.--The two brothers who resemble each other; mistaken one for + the other by the wife of one of them; the brother sleeps with his + sister-in-law without touching her; the legend of the pilgrim who + comes from Rome; the head fastened on again.--The horse led away out + of hell.--The solar horse destined for sacrifice carried off by + Kapilas; that is, the solar horse escapes, like the solar bull, from + the sacrifice.--The stallion destined for the sacrifice touched, and + the horse's fat smelted by Kâuçalyâ as an augury of + fruitfulness.--The horse's head as the mouth of hell.--The robber of + the horse and of the treasure.--The horns of the stag, the horns or + mane of the horse, and the hair of the hero, which catch and fasten + themselves to the trees of the forest.--The thief now protects + thieves, and now protects men from thieves.--The Miles gloriosus; + hero, horse, and tree, united together, discomfit the enemies.--The + heroic horse.--The tail of Indras's horse, and the Hindoo + war-horse.--The war-horses of Rustem, of Alexander, of Bellerophon, + and of Cæsar; the winged horse.--The horse goes through water and + fire.--The horse and the apple.--The chains of the heroic horse, and + the difficulty of riding him.--The horse that speaks; the + horse-spy.--The chariot that speaks.--The solar horse bound that it + may not come back again.--The hero who flees in the shape of a + horse, and the horse sold with the bridle; transformations of the + horse.--The sun without a horse and without a bridle.--The horses of + the sun, arrested or wounded, precipitate the solar hero into the + waters.--The eternal hunter.--Etaças, Phaethôn, Hippolytos.--The + horse that delivers the hero.--The neighing of Indras's horse; the + horse of Darius which neighs at the sight of the sun on account of + the smell of a mare.--Number of the solar horses.--The hero born of + a mare.--The mare's egg.--The hare born of a mare devours the + mare.--Spanish mares made pregnant by the wind.--Horses sons of the + wind.--The hero Açvatthâman neighs immediately after birth.--The + horses that weep; mythical signification of these tears.--Vedic + riddle and play of words upon the letter _r_, and the root _varsh_ + relative to the horse.--The foam from the horse's mouth destroys + enemies and cures the cough.--The Açvinâu, the Dioscuri, Asklêpios + and his two sons as physicians.--Caballus.--Ambrosia from the hoof + of the Vedic horse.--Hippokrênê; the horse's hoof in relation with + water.--Exchanges between moon and sun and between bull and + horse.--Horses sacred to the gods and to saints.--Holy horsemen who + help the heroes _mercede pacta_. + +The myth of the horse is perhaps not so rich in legends as that of the +bull and the cow, but certainly no less interesting. As the horseman +is the finest type of the hero, so the horse which carries him is in +mythology the noblest of animals. + +We have already observed that the best of the three brothers, the third, +the victorious one, the morning sun, is, in tradition, distinguished +from the other brothers by his swiftness; and that the morning dawn or +aurora, which is the third sister, the good one, the best of the three +sisters, is she who wins the race. It is, therefore, natural that the +favourite animal of the hero should be his horse. The two Hindoo +Dioscuri, that is, the Açvinâu, the two horsemen, derive their name from +the açvas or horse, as being the swift one;[526] and they are very +probably identical with the two fair-haired, amiable, splendid, and +ardent coursers of Indras, of Savitar (the sun), and proper and worthy +to bear heroes,[527] who yoke themselves at a word,[528] are maned, +adapted to make fruitful, full of life,[529] having eyes like the +sun,[530] made by the Ṛibhavas,[531] who, as they made the cow out of a +cow, also made a horse out of the horse,[532] black, with white feet, +drawing the chariot with the golden yoke, revealing the beings;[533] the +two rapid ones; the two most rapid ones;[534] plunging into the +inebriating drink before Indras yokes them;[535] beautiful, by means of +which the chariot of the Açvinâu is as swift as thought;[536] who carry +Indras, as every day they carry the sun;[537] are the two rays of the +sun;[538] who neigh, dropping ambrosia;[539] the very pure horses of the +bull Indras, inebriated, who illumine the sky,[540] with manes the +colour of a peacock,[541] bridled sixty times (properly six times twice +five);[542] beneficent, winged, indefatigable, resolute destroyers (of +the enemies).[543] The _Âitareya Brâhmanam_, when giving the +characteristics of the race of each god, whilst it tells us that Agnis, +at the marriage of Somas and Sûryâ, is drawn by mules, and the aurora +by red cows (or bulls), teaches us that Indras is drawn by horses, and +the Açvinâu by asses; the Açvinâu carried off the prize.[544] In the +_Mahâbhâratam_,[545] we find another important circumstance, _i.e._, the +Açvinâu represented as sons of a mare, or of Tvashtrî, wife of the sun +Savitar, who took the form of a mare. Therefore we have here the sons of +the mare, who may be horses or mules, according as the mare united +herself with a horse or with an ass. Here, then, we have already an +evident proof of the identification of the heroes Açvinâu with the +animals, horses or asses, which draw them. The _Ṛigvedas_ does not as +yet know the word _açvatara_, or mule, but in representing the Açvinâu +drawn now by horses and now by asses, it shows us the intermediate +character of the real animal that draws the Açvinâu, a grey beast, +dark-coloured, and white only in its fore parts. Night is the mule that +carries the Açvinâu or twilights, in the same way as, in the +above-quoted _Âitareya_, it carries or awakens Agnis, fire or light. In +the _Iliad_,[546] mules are sung of as being better adapted than oxen to +draw the plough. + +The hero's horse, like the hero himself, begins by being ugly, +deformed, and inept, and ends by becoming beautiful, luminous, heroic, +and victorious. + +The mythical horse of the Hungarians, the horse Tátos, or Tátos lo, +when born, is of an ugly aspect, defective and lean; it is therefore +said in Hungarian, that "the Tátos comes out of a defective horse." It +is, however, always born with teeth,[547] although its chin is +sometimes wanting; its bursts out of a black pentagonal egg on an Ash +Wednesday, after the hero has carried it for seven summers and seven +winters under his arm. In the _Mahâbhâratam_,[548] the first created +horse Uććâiḥçravas, the king of the horses (and therefore the horse of +Indras), which is as swift as thought, follows the path of the sun, +and is luminous and white, has, however, a black tail, made so by the +magic of the serpents, who have covered it with black hairs. This is +probably the black ass's or horse's tail which remains upon the ugly +or wicked sister's forehead, in the popular European story of the two +sisters.[549] It must also be remarked that, as the word +_Uććâiḥçravas_ means, properly, him of the high ears, it indicates +the ass better than the horse. + +In the same way, therefore, as the hero of popular tales before +becoming a wise man is generally an ass, the animal ridden by the +solar hero, prior to being a real and noble horse, is usually a +worthless jade, or a dark-coloured ass. The sun, in the beginning of +the night, rides a black horse, and afterwards a grey one, or else an +ass or a mule, but in the morning, on the contrary, a white and +luminous horse, which has a black tail; or else the dark horse of +night has a white head, or white legs, or anterior parts of the body, +with golden ears, and the nape of the neck formed of pearls.[550] The +monstrous Trojan horse too, of Epeios, a figure which represents the +horse of mythology, in Tryphiodôros the Egyptian,[551] has a golden +mane, red eyes, and silver teeth. + +In the Turkish stories of Siberia,[552] it is upon an iron-coloured +horse that the third brother, hated by his father and his two elder +brothers, advances against the demon Ker Iutpa. The hero becomes the +excrement of a horse, and the horse a crow; the former glues the +monster's lower lip to the earth, the latter suspends his upper lip to +the sky. In order better to understand this strange myth, we must +remember that the name of one of the Valkiries is "Mist," a word which +means excrement and fog. The fog, or frost, or rain, or dew, falls to +the ground; the solar horse, or the sun, rises in the sky; the +monster of night or of clouds is dispersed. + +In the thirteenth Esthonian story of _Kreutzwald_, the third brother +comes three times to deliver the princess from the mountain of glass +(or ice), where she sleeps. The first time he is dressed the colour of +bronze, upon a bronze-coloured horse; the second time dressed in +silver, upon a horse the colour of silver; and the third time upon a +gold-coloured horse, dressed in gold. + +In an unpublished Piedmontese story, the young prince, whose beloved +princess has been ravished beyond seas, is borne over the waves by an +eagle, which he feeds with his own flesh. Arrived beyond the sea, he +hears that the princess is destined to be the wife of the hero who wins +the race three times; the first time he appears dressed in black, upon a +black horse; the second time dressed in white, upon a white horse; and +the third time dressed in red, upon a red horse. Each time he wins the +race, and thereafter receives the beautiful princess in marriage. + +Thus we see the first horse of the hero is always dark-coloured, like +the devil's horse, like the horses of Pluto, which, accustomed to +darkness, are terrified by light;[553] it then becomes the grey horse +of the giantess, the grey horse which smells the dead hero Sigurd in +the _Edda_. Pêgasos himself, the _hieros hippos_ of Aratos, is born +semi-perfect (êmitelês),[554] an expression which reminds me of the +_equus dimidius_ of an Alsatian paper of 1336, in Du Cange, by which +the mule is meant. The Hindoo Aruṇas, charioteer of the sun (or even +the brother of the sun himself, inasmuch as he is the brother of +Garuḍas, the solar bird), is said to be born with an imperfect +body;[555] he can be luminous and divine only in part. The black +horse, on the contrary, has generally an evil and demoniacal nature; +the black horse corresponds to the black devil; the colour black +itself is, according to popular superstition, the product of bad +humours.[556] Every horse, when born, has, according to Maestro +Agostino, a piece of black flesh upon its lips, called hippomanes by +the Greeks: "La quale carne dici lo vulgo essere molto sospettosa a li +maleficii." Maestro Agostino adds, moreover, that the mother refuses +to give suck to the colt as long as it carries this piece of flesh +upon its lips, and some say that the mother herself eats it. In an +idyll of Theokritos, we read that the Hippomanes is born among the +Arcadians, and maddens colts and swift mares.[557] In the first +chapter we mentioned the Russian _damavoi_, the demon who, during the +night, rides upon cows, oxen, and horses, and makes them perspire. +This superstition was already combated in Italy in the sixteenth +century by Maestro Agostino;[558] and to it can probably be traced the +custom, still observed by many grooms, of leaving a lamp lighted in +the stable during the night. The devil, as is well known, is afraid of +the light (Agnis is called rakshohan, or monster-killer), and his +black horse likewise. It is therefore a sinister omen, according to +two verses in _Suidas_,[559] to dream of black horses, whilst, on the +contrary, it is a good omen to dream of white ones. In the Norman +legend of the priest Walchelm, a black horse presents itself to him in +the first days of January of the year 1091, and tempts him to mount +upon its back; scarcely has Walchelm done so, than the black horse +sets off for hell.[560] The dead, too, according to the popular +belief, often ride upon black or demoniacal horses.[561] + +A well-known Russian story in verse, the _Kaniok Garbunok_, or _Little +Hump-backed Horse_, of Jershoff, commences thus:--An old man has three +sons, the youngest of which is the usual Ivan Durák, or Ivan the fool. +The old man finds his corn-field devastated every morning; he wishes +to find out who the devastator is, and sends his first-born son to +watch the first night. The first-born has drunk too much, and falls +asleep, and so does the second son, and from the same cause, on the +second night. On the third night it is Ivan's turn to watch; he does +not fall asleep. At midnight he sees a mare which breathes flames +coming. Ivan ties her by a rope, leaps upon her, seizes her by the +mane, torments and subdues her, until the mare, to be let free, +promises to give Ivan one of her young ones, and carries him to the +stable where her three young ones are. She gives Ivan a little +hump-backed horse with long ears (the Hindoo Uććâiḥsravas), that +flies. By means of this little hump-backed horse, Ivan will make his +fortune; when he leads it away, the mare and the two other colts +follow it. Ivan's two brothers steal the mare and two colts, and go to +sell them to the Sultan. Ivan rejoins them, and the three brothers +stay in the Sultan's service as grooms; sometime afterwards, Ivan +saves himself from drowning by means of his horse. + +In the third of _Erlenwein's_ Russian stories, a stallion is born to +the Tzar's mare, that had drunk the water in which a certain fish (a +pike, in the nineteenth story) had been washed, at the same time as +the Tzar's daughter and her maid give birth to two heroes, Ivan +Tzarević and Ivan Diević--_i.e._, John of the Tzar and John of the +girl, a form representing the Açvinâu. Ivan Tzarević rides upon the +stallion. In the nineteenth story, the son of the mare is called +Demetrius of the Tzar (Dmitri Tzarević); hero and horse being +identified. In the fifth story of _Erlenwein_, a Cossack goes into the +forest, where he is betrayed into the enemy's hands, who gives orders +that he be cut in pieces, put into a sack, and attached to his horse. +The horse starts, and carries him to the house of silver and gold, +where he is resuscitated. During the following night, an old man and +woman, whose guest the Cossack is, drag him, in order to waken him, by +the cross which hangs on his neck, and he is thus transformed into a +horse of gold and silver. Towards evening, the horse, by the Tzar's +order, is killed, and (like the bull and the cow) becomes an +apple-tree of silver and gold. The apple-tree is cut down, and becomes +a golden duck. The golden duck is the same as the golden horse, or as +the hero resuscitated, _i.e._, the morning sun. The sack and the horse +which carry the hero cut in pieces represent the voyage of the sun in +the gloom of night, or the voyage of the grey horse, the imperfect +horse, the bastard mule, or the ass. + +In the Russian tales, moreover, a distinction is made between the grey +and the black horse; the grey horse helps the hero in the night very +effectively, and the black one, on the contrary, is the herald of death. +When, in the ninth story of _Erlenwein_, the horse of Ivan the +merchant's son goes to search for the horses of the princess from beyond +the sea, Ivan waits for him upon the shore. If he sees grey horses come +forth, it is to be a sign that his own steed is alive; but if, on the +other hand, black horses appear, he is to conclude that his own horse is +dead. Grey is the colour of sadness, black is the colour of death. + +In _Afanassieff_, we find new interesting data. Ivan the fool watches +during the night to surprise the horse which devastates his father's +crops, and succeeds in binding it with rods from a linden-tree, after +it has smelt the odour of tobacco. Then, by the help of the sister of +the hero Nikanore, it acquires the faculty, when running after cows +and horses, of turning their tails into gold, as well as their horns +or manes, and their flanks into stars. What better image could there +be of the starry sky of night, the golden tail of which is the red +evening, and the front parts, also of gold, the morning aurora?[562] + +In another story,[563] we have Ivan the son of the bitch occupying the +place and playing the part of Ivan the son of the mare. Ivan of the +bitch, after having delivered the three princesses from the deep +cistern, is himself thrown into it. The black horse comes to deliver +him, and cannot; the grey horse comes, and cannot either; the red horse +comes, and succeeds in dragging the hero out. The black horse represents +the dark night, the grey horse the night beginning to clear, and the red +horse the roseate morning, which delivers the sun or solar hero. + +The third brother Ivan, mounted on a marvellous horse, comes first to +the bronze castle, then to the silver one, and lastly to that of +gold.[564] This is a variety of the same myth, and represents +similarly the solar voyage from evening to morning. The next mythical +legend, however, probably alludes rather to the three days of the +winter solstice, which the sun takes to return. The hero, Theodore, +finds a horse that has been just brought forth, which the wolves have +driven towards him; he makes it pasture upon the dew for three dawns +(like the Hungarian Tátos, who feeds upon the golden oats in a silver +field, that is to say, who, during the silvery night, or else during +the white dawn, or the snowy winter, absorbs the dewy humours of the +spring, or the morning aurora). The first day, the young horse becomes +as high as half a tree; the second, higher than the tree; the third +day it is as high as the heavens, and bears the hero Theodore and his +wife Anastasia on its back. + +Ivan Durák watches three nights at his father's tomb.[565] His father +tells him that if at any time of need he calls with a hero's whistle, +a wonderful grey horse will appear to help him, whose eyes shoot +flames, and from whose nostrils issues smoke. Ivan does so, and is +answered; he gets into his right ear, and comes out of the left. By +means of this horse, Ivan succeeds in taking down the portrait of the +Tzar's daughter three times, though hung high up on the wall of the +palace, and thus obtains the beautiful princess to wife. + +According to another variety of this story,[566] Ivan, the third and +foolish brother, goes with the most worthless jade in the stable into +the open air, and calls up the grey horse with a loud shout; he enters +into him by one ear, and comes out at the other. Two young horsemen (the +Açvinâu) appear to him, and make a horse with golden mane and tail come +forth; upon this horse Ivan succeeds in three times kissing, through +twelve glasses (the glass mountain of the Esthonian story), the daughter +of the Tzar, who therefore becomes his wife. Here, therefore, we find +the ugly horse which is made beautiful by the two horsemen, represented +by the two ears of the grey horse out of which they come. These two +horsemen give the hero a better steed. Be it understood that their own +heroic steed (that is, the sun's horse), from being ugly or asinine +during the night, became beautiful and noble; in the Küllaros of the +Dioscuri, too, we ought probably to recognise a courser that has been +transformed from an ass to a heroic horse. + +Sometimes, instead of the horse, we have only its head. The +step-mother persecutes the old man's daughter;[567] the persecuted +maiden finds a mare's head, which beseeches her to relieve and cover +it; at last it invites her to enter the right ear and come out of the +left one. The persecuted girl comes out in the form of an exceedingly +beautiful maiden. The step-mother sends her own daughter to try the +same means of becoming beautiful; but she maltreats the mare's head, +and the mare's head devours her. + +There is also a singularly clear allusion to the Açvinâu in the +forty-fourth story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, which seems to +me to be a full confirmation of these interpretations. When Basiliça, +the girl persecuted by her step-mother, approaches the house of the +old witch (the baba-jegá), she sees galloping towards the great door +of it a black horseman, dressed all in black, upon a black horse, who +disappears underground, upon which night begins.[568] When the day +begins to appear, Basiliça sees before her a white horseman, dressed +all in white, upon a white horse, caparisoned in white. The maiden +goes on; when the sun begins to rise, she sees a red horseman, dressed +in red, upon a red horse.[569] The myth does not require comment; but +it happens to be given to us in the story itself by the witch, who, to +appease the curiosity of the girl Basiliça, reveals to her that the +black horseman represents the dark night (noć tiómnaja), the white +horseman the clear day (dien jasnoi), and the red horseman the little +red sun (solnishko krasnoje). + +Returning from Slavonic to Asiatic tradition, we meet with the same +myths. + +Let us begin with the demoniacal horse, or demon of horses. The +_Ṛigvedas_ already knows it; the yâtudhanas, or monster, feeds now +upon human flesh (like the Bucephalus of the legend of Alexander), now +upon horse flesh, and now milk from cows. We have said it seems +probable that the custom of keeping a lamp lighted in the stables is a +form of exorcism against the demon; the _Ṛigvedas_, indeed, tells us +that Agnis (that is, Fire, with his flame) cuts off the heads of such +monsters.[570] But this is not enough; the _Ṛigvedas_ offers us in the +same hymn the proof of another identification. We have seen in the +last chapter how Rebhas, the invoker, is the third brother, whom his +envious and perfidious brothers threw into the well; and we have seen +above how Ivan, who is also the third brother, invokes with a sonorous +voice the grey horse which is to help him, and how the same Ivan is +the one that discovers the monstrous horse which ravages the seed or +the crops in his father's field. In the same Vedic hymn where the +flame of Agnis beats down the heads of the monster that torments +horses, Agnis (that is, fire) is invoked in order that the hero Rebhas +may see the monster which devastates with its claws.[571] Rebhas and +Bhuǵyus are two names of the hero who falls into the cistern in the +_Ṛigvedas_. We have seen, not long ago, in the Russian story, that +Ivan, the third brother, who is thrown down into the cistern, is +delivered by the red horse. The Açvinâu, in the _Ṛigvedas_, deliver +Bhuǵyus out of the sea by means of red-winged horses.[572] Here the +grey and imperfect horse of night is become a red horse. In the same +Vedic hymn, Rebhas, overwhelmed in the waters, is identified with his +own horse (Ivan is son of the bitch, or the cow, or the mare), he +being compared to a horse hidden by wicked ones.[573] + +We saw above, in the Russian story, how the two horsemen who come out +of the grey horse's ear give to the foolish Ivan, who has an ugly and +worthless horse, a handsome hero's palfrey, by means of which he +accomplishes the arduous undertakings which entitle him to the hand of +the king's daughter. It is remarkable how completely the Vedic myth +agrees with this European legend. The Açvinâu have given, for his +eternal happiness, a luminous horse to him who has a bad one.[574] In +another hymn, the god Agnis gives to his worshipper a pious, truthful, +invincible, and very glorious son, who vanquishes heroes, and a swift, +victorious, and unconquered horse.[575] + +We have seen, moreover, how Ivan, the most popular type of the Russian +hero, has always to make three essays before he accomplishes his +undertaking upon the wonderful horse which he has obtained from the +two horsemen. The _Ṛigvedas_, which celebrates the famous mythical +enterprise of the three steps of Vishṇus, of the great body +(bṛihaććharîraḥ),[576] of the very vast step (urukramishṭaḥ),[577] +who, in three steps, measured or traversed the whole span of the +heavens,[578] betrays in another hymn the secret of Vishṇus's success +in this divine enterprise, since it says that when, with the strength +of Indras, he made his three steps, he was drawn by the two +fair-haired horses of Indras[579] (that is, the two Açvinâu lent him +the swift and strong horse which was to bear him on to victory). The +three steps of Vishṇus correspond, therefore, to the three stations of +Ivan, to the three races of the young hero to win the beautiful +princess. Vishṇus also appears in the _Râmâyaṇam_,[580] in the midst +of the sea of liquified butter, attractive to all beings, in the form +of a horse's head. Hero and the solar or lunar horse are identified. + +Indras is requested to yoke his right and his left (horses), to +approach, inebriated, his dear wife.[581] By means of the horse +obtained from the two horsemen, the Russian Ivan acquires his wife; in +the _Ṛigvedas_, the two Açvinâu themselves, by means of their rapid +chariot, became husbands of the daughter of the sun.[582] The horses +of the sun are so fully identified with the chariot drawn by them, +that they are said to be dependent on it, united with it, and almost +born of it.[583] The Açvinâu, therefore, by means of the horse now +enable the wife to be found by the solar hero, by the old Ćyavanas +made young again (Tithôn),[584] now by the sun, and now find her +themselves (perhaps drawing the chariot like horses). Râmas, too, who +is represented in the _Râmâyaṇam_[585] as the deliverer of Sîtâ, is +compared to the solar horse, to the sun born upon the mountain. + +We have seen in the Russian stories how the horse's head possesses the +same magic power as the marvellous horse which the two horsemen give to +the hero Ivan. Thus, in the Vedic myth, and in the corresponding +brâhmanic tradition, the horse's head Dadhyańć stands in direct relation +with the myth of the Açvinâu. The wise Dadhyańć shows himself pious +towards the Açvinâu, to whom, although he knows that he will pay with +his head for the revelation he makes, he communicates what he knows +concerning the ambrosia or the Madhuvidyâ. For this, accordingly, +Dadhyańć forfeits his head; but the Açvinâu present him with a horse's +head (his own), which heroically achieves wonders. With the bones of +Dadhyańć, or with the head of the horse Dadhyańć (he who walks in butter +or ambrosia), fished up in the ambrosial lake Çaryaṇâvat (the head of +the horse Vishṇus in the sea of butter),[586] Indras discomfits the +ninety-nine hostile monsters (as Samson the Philistines with the jawbone +of an ass).[587] This exchange of heads seems to be common to the +traditions which are founded upon the myth of the Açvinâu, that is, to +the legends of the two brother or companion heroes. In the +_Tuti-Name_,[588] the heads of the prince and of the Brâhman, who are +exceedingly like each other, are cut off and then fastened on again; +but, by some mistake, the head of the one is attached to the body of the +other, so that the prince's wife is embarrassed between them. This +exchange of the husband (which corresponds to the exchange of the wife +in the legend of Berta, referred to in the first chapter) is very +frequent in the legend of the two brothers, and often ends in the +rupture of the perfect concord reigning between them. The two brothers +or companions who dispute about the wife, is a variety of the legend of +the three brothers who, having delivered the beautiful princess, wish to +divide her between them. + +The _Ṛigvedas_ does not seem as yet explicitly to exhibit the two +Açvinâu at discord--they generally are united in doing good; but as we +already know the Vedic blind man and lame man who are cured by the +grace of Indras, or of the Açvinâu themselves; as we know that the +Açvinâu, in the _Ṛigvedas_, make Dadhyańć, who has a horse's head, +conduct them to the ambrosia, or indicate where it is, probably in +order that they may procure health and strength for themselves; as in +the ninth strophe of the 117th hymn of the first book of the +_Ṛigvedas_, the marvellous horse of the Açvinâu, which kills the +monster-serpent (ahihan), is but one; as we know that the Açvinâu run +to gain the bride for themselves; and as we cannot ignore the fact +that in the story of the blind and lame man, when a woman comes upon +the scene, they endeavour to do harm to each other; as we know that of +the two Hellenic brothers, the Dioscuri, one alone had from the gods +the gift of immortality; as, finally, it is known to us that of the +two brothers, he alone is the true hero who, by means of his horse, +gains the victory over the monster,--it is clear that if we have not +as yet in the _Ṛigvedas_ the myth of the two brothers at discord, we +have, at least, in the ambrosia, and in the bride won by them the +origin of the myth already indicated; and from the idea of the +privileged brother that of the envious one would naturally arise. + +In Hesiod's _Theogony_ we have the two brothers Chrysäor and Pêgasos, +that come out of the Medusa (the evening aurora), who is made pregnant +by Poseidôn, after Perseus has cut off her head. Pêgasos, the younger +brother, becomes the heroic horse. In Hesiod himself, and in the +_Metamorphoses_ of Ovid, he carries the thunder and the thunderbolts +for Zeus. The hero Bellerophontes rides him, and vanquishes, by his +help, the Chimaira and the Amazons; he becomes the horse of the +aurora, the horse of the Muses, the ambrosial steed. The monstrous +Chimaira appears, in the _Theogony_ of Hesiod, as the daughter of +Typhaon and the Echidna, the monstrous daughter of Chrysäor. Therefore +in the conflict which Bellerophontes maintains against the Chimaira, +we have a form of the battle which goes on between the twin horses +Pêgasos and Chrysäor, the one divine, the other demoniacal. + +In the analogous myth of the Hellenic Dioscuri (the sons of the +luminous one, _i.e._, of Zeus, just as the Vedic Açvinâu are the sons +of the luminous sky;[589] Zeus is united with the Dioscuri, as Indras +is with the Açvinâu), we again find the twins who fight to recover a +woman who had been carried off from them, _i.e._, their own sister +Helen. One of the two brothers is mortal, and the other immortal; he +who is immortal passes the night in hell with his mortal brother. The +double aspect of the sun, which at evening enters and loses itself in +the night, now black, now illumined by the moon, and which, in the +morning, comes forth in a luminous form, has enriched the story of +the two brothers of mythology. One of the two brothers, the red +horseman, is in especial relation with the morning sun; the other, in +intimate connection with the silvery moon, the white horseman, and +when the latter is amissing, with the infernal gloom. + +Several mythologists have interpreted the Açvinâu as only the two +twilights; but it seems more exact, inasmuch as they are often found +together, whilst the two twilights are always apart, to recognise in +them two crepuscular lights, the lunar of evening and autumn, and the +solar of morning and spring.[590] Of the twin-brothers, one is always +imperfect; the lunar crepuscular light offers us a similar +imperfection, with respect to the sun. Inasmuch as the Açvinâu are +affiliated both to the sun and the moon, when they come out of the two +ears of the horse of night, we should understand, it would appear, +that on one side the moon goes down, while on the other the sun is +born, or that the solar horse arises, upon which the young hero lost +in the night mounts and wins the princess aurora. In the Russian +stories referred to in the preceding chapter, we have seen how the +maiden abandons her hero-husband, or brother, to give herself into the +monster's hands; the evening aurora forsakes the sun to throw herself +into the night, and the evening twilight stays for a long time with +the evening aurora (the reddish sky of evening), when the sun is +already gone. In the morning the two lovers, the twilight, or sun and +moon, and the aurora, meet once more; when the sun, or solar hero, +arrives, he surprises them _in flagrante delicto_, and punishes them. +Sometimes, on the contrary, the twilight and the aurora stay together, +preserving their chastity; in this case the brother twilight figures +as the good and honest guardian of the rights of his brother the sun. +This appears to me to have been the most ancient, as it is the most +subtle, interpretation of the myth; afterwards, it is possible, and +even probable, that in the two Açvinâu only the two gods of morning +and of evening were seen, with their respective twilights, considered +as two brothers, so like that they were easily mistaken for each +other. But from the data of the Russian story, which gives us the +lunar twilight as a white horseman and the rising sun as a red one, +the aurora being found exactly between the white and the red horsemen, +between the moon or the white dawn (alba) and the sunrise, and seeing +that the _Ṛigvedas_, which makes the aurora mount upon the chariot of +the Açvinâu, considers them in the celebrated nuptial hymn as the +_paranymphoi_ of Sûryâ, the daughter of the sun or of the aurora +herself, I venture to insist upon my interpretation as the most +obvious, and perhaps the most logical one. The two brothers may very +naturally be conceived of as contending for the possession of the +bride when they have her between them, since the Açvinâu, considered +as lunar light and sun, really take the aurora between them. The Vedic +hymn cited above shows us how both the Açvinâu, arriving on the +swift-running chariot, became the husbands of Sûryâ, the daughter of +the sun. But this very Sûryâ, in the Vedic nuptial hymn, must be +satisfied with one husband, who is called Somas, so that the Açvinâu +can only occupy the place of paranymphs. The Açvinâu, therefore, would +appear to be excluded from the wedding of Sûryâ as principal +personages; they would seem to be nothing more than assistants, and, +in fact, they often assume this part in the Vedic hymns, by enabling +now the bride to find a husband, now the husband to recover his bride. +We know already that by means of them Ćyavanas, the old sun (a Vedic +Tithôn), became young again, and was able to espouse the aurora. We +know that they gave sight to Vandanas (properly, the Face), that they +made the blind see,[591] the lame walk, and performed sundry other +works of charity, which would, however, have been much more glorious +if these acts did not, in fact, always issue in benefit to themselves, +as blind, lame, or drowned. It is hence very probable that when they +give a bride to the hero, they, being now lunar, now solar heroes, do +only appropriate her to themselves. When, therefore, we read that the +Açvinâu assist as paranymphs at the nuptials of Sûryâ and Somas, we +are much inclined to think that under Somas in this case one of the +Açvinâu is hidden. In Indras and Somas, often sung of together in the +_Ṛigvedas_, it seems to me that we have just another form of the +Açvinâu, the more so because I also find them both, like the Açvinâu, +personified in one and the same horse, whose back is covered with +honey, and who is terrible and swift,[592] and because they are +invoked together against the yâtudhânas, which, by the grace of the +Açvinâu, the hero Rebhas succeeds in discovering and then chasing +away.[593] The _Tâittiriya_ _Brâhmaṇam_[594] represents to us the +daughter of the sun (Sâvitrî) by the name of Sîtâ, as enamoured of +Somas, who, on the contrary, loves another woman, the Çraddhâ (_i.e._, +Faith), almost as if the daughter of the sun, the aurora, were, for +him at least, a symbol of infidelity. Probably this embryo of a myth +refers to the passage of the aurora, in the morning, from her amours +with the white horseman (the white twilight), which, as we have said, +was supposed to be in particular relation with the moon (Somas), to +her amours with the red horseman (the sun), or, _vice versa_, to the +aurora who, in the evening, abandons the red horseman, the sun (now +her father, now her husband), to throw herself into the arms of the +white horseman, the white twilight, the king Somas, or silver god +Lunus. Moreover, Yâskas, in the _Niruktam_,[595] already notices that +the Açvinâu were identified now with the day and the night,[596] now +with the sun and the moon. + +When, therefore, we read that the Açvinâu obtained for their wife the +daughter of the sun, and when we learn that she chose both for +husbands,[597] we must interpret the passage with discrimination, and +conclude that one of them was sometimes preferred, inasmuch as the +Vedic nuptial hymn speaks of only one husband of Sûryâ, with the name +of Somas, with whom, as we have said, Yâskas identifies one of the +Açvinâu. We read in _Pausanias_ that, among the Greek usages, when the +bride was conducted to the bridegroom's house, she was accustomed to +mount a chariot and sit down in the middle, having the bridegroom on +one side, and on the other her nearest relation as paranymphos. The +preference given to one of the two brothers over the other is +naturally suggestive of a contention between them; however, as I say, +the _Ṛigvedas_, which offers us already the myth of the third brother +abandoned in the well by his relations, does not record any example of +an open strife between the two brothers (_i.e._, the Açvinâu, the +lunar and the solar light). + +An evidently Hindoo variation of this myth is contained in the +well-known episode of the _Mahâbhâratam_, which relates the adventures +of Sundas and Upasundas, two inseparable brothers, who lived together +in love and concord, each being ruled by the will of the other, and +who had never all their lives either said or done anything to +displease each other. The gods become envious of their virtue, and +wish to prove it, and send to seduce them a nymph of enchanting +beauty. The two brothers, on seeing her, desire each the exclusive +possession of the divine maiden, and strive between themselves to +carry her off. They fight so long and so desperately that they both +die (the moon and the sun see the aurora in the morning, and dispute +for her; they see her again in the evening, and fight so long that +they both perish miserably, and die in the night). The gods who are +envious of the virtue of the two brothers Sundas and Upasundas, are +the same as those who, envying the good which the Açvinâu do to +mankind, treat them as celestial Çudrâs, under the pretext that they +pollute themselves by their contact with men, and refuse to admit +them, being impure, to the sacrifices.[598] + +In the twin brothers, Nakulas and Saladevas, sons of the Açvinâu, the +Açvinâu themselves revive again, are made better, according to the +expression of the first book of the _Mahâbhâratam_. The first-born, +Nakulas, too, is perhaps the real Açvin who kills the monster. Nakulas +is the name given to the _viverra ichneumon_, the mortal enemy of the +serpents, which refers us back to the horse Ahihan (or killer of the +serpent), as the horse of the Açvinâu, or perhaps rather of one of the +Açvinâu, is called, in the _Ṛigvedas_. Of the two Dioscuri, moreover, +one alone is especially the horseman; the other is the valiant in +combat.[599] The mortal brother, he who has to remain in hell, and who +has to fight the monsters of night, is Castor the horseman. Pollux, +the strong-armed, is, on the contrary, the immortal one, the daily +sun, he who profits from the victory obtained by his brother who has +fought in the night, during which the Gandharvâs (the horses in the +perfumes, they who walk in perfume) also ride upon war-horses, heroic, +invulnerable, divine, exceedingly swift, who change colour at +will--the Gandharvâs, whose strength increases during the night, as +one of them informs Arǵunas in the _Mahâbhâratam_, when communicating +to him Gandharvic knowledge.[600] + +In the _Râmâyaṇam_, the two brothers Râmas and Lakshmaṇas are +compared to the Açvinâu, to the sun and moon, as similar the one to +the other; and their reciprocal love reminds us of that of the +Açvinâu.[601] Râmas and Lakshmaṇas are always at peace with each +other; there is, however, a passage which may serve as a link to +connect the myth of the two friendly brothers and that of the two +hostile ones. When Râmas combats alone in the forest thousands of +monsters, Lakshmaṇas stays with Sîtâ, hidden in a cavern. + +But the _Râmâyaṇam_ itself shows us the two brothers in open strife in +the legend of the two brothers Bâlin and Sugrîvas, children of the sun, +beauteous as the two Açvinâu, so perfectly like one another that it is +impossible to distinguish one from the other; and so that when Râmas, to +please Sugrîvas, wishes to kill Bâlin, he does not know which to strike, +until Sugrîvas puts a garland on his head as a sign of recognition.[602] +Once Bâlin and Sugrîvas were intimate friends, but, on account of a +woman, they became mortal enemies. Sugrîvas complains that Bâlin, his +elder brother, has deprived him of his wife Rumâ;[603] but it is not +certain that Sugrîvas did not rather steal Bâlin's wife. Bâlin seems +especially to represent the evening sun; the _Râmâyaṇam_[604] says of +him that, while the sun is not risen (_i.e._, in the night), he is +unweariedly passing from the western to the eastern ocean; by this is +described the supposed voyage of the sun in the ocean of night, in the +grotto or the darkness. When Bâlin is in the grotto, he is betrayed by +his brother Sugrîvas. The two brothers, Bâlin and Sugrîvas, while still +friends, set out together to follow the monster Mâyâvin (the brother of +Dundubhis, who, in the _Râmâyaṇam_ itself,[605] fights in the shape of +a demoniacal buffalo against Bâlin, near the entrance of the cave). The +moon rises to show them the way. The monster escapes into the cavern, +upon which Bâlin enters and follows him, whilst Sugrîvas remains +without, awaiting his return. After waiting a long time, Sugrîvas sees +blood flow out of the cave (in analogous legends, instead of blood, it +is a treasure, or else a princess or a beautiful maiden comes out in +shining garments). This is the blood of the monster, killed by Bâlin; +but Sugrîvas believes it to be that of his brother Bâlin. He returns +home, and showing his sorrow in public, declares that Bâlin is dead, and +allows himself to be consecrated king in his stead (probably also +enjoying with the crown the wife of his brother). Meanwhile Bâlin, after +having killed the monster Mâyâvin, endeavours to come out of the cavern, +but he finds the entrance closed. Attributing at once this wicked action +to the brother Sugrîvas, he succeeds, after great efforts, in effecting +an opening; he comes out, returns to the palace, and expels Sugrîvas +from it, whom he persecutes ever after.[606] Even Añgadas, Bâlin's son, +irritated one day with Sugrîvas, accuses him of having once shut up his +brother Bâlin in the cave, in order to possess himself of the latter's +wife. + +In the _Avesta_, the name and the myth of Kereçâçpa seems to me to be +of special interest. To the Zend word _kereçâçpa_ corresponds the +Sanskṛit _kṛiçâçvas_ (the name of a warlike ṛishis and hero), that is, +he of the lean horse. The hero Kereçâçpa has, in the _Avesta_, a +brother called Urvâksha (a word which is perhaps the same as +_urvâçpa_, and, if this equivalence is admitted, _urvâksha_ would mean +him of the fat or great horse, of the heroic horse.[607] We have +already noticed that the Vedic and Slavonic hero begins his fortune +with an ugly and bad horse; the hero Kereçâçpa, too, of the two +brothers of the Zend myth, is the good, the heroic, and truly glorious +one. His brother, Urvâksha, according to a Parsee tradition,[608] was +banished to hell because he had struck the fire which did not obey his +commands (the evening sun which descends into the infernal night); +Kereçâçpa avenges him. This is evidently a Persian form of the myth of +the Dioscuri, who, as it seems to me, reappear once more in the two +Zend brothers, Gustâçp and Açpâyaodha (he who fights with the horse). + +In the epic poem of Firdusi, the two brothers Piran and Pilsem, who +fight together against the Turanians, and of whom the former and elder +delivers the latter and younger from the dangers that he is exposed to +among the enemies, seem to me re-embodiments of the same myth. + +We find the cloudy or tenebrous sky of night represented in the +_Ṛigvedas_ and in the _Avesta_ as açman, or mountain of stone. When +the evening sun falls upon the mountain, it turns to stone, and the +whole sky assumes the colour of this mountain. When the hero of the +popular story follows the monster, the latter hides under a rock; the +hero lifts up the rock and descends into the grotto, that is, hides +himself in the mountain of stone, or is turned to stone, and if he has +a horse, it undergoes the same transformation. + +In the story of Merhuma, who is stoned (the aurora lost in the mountain +of stone), in the _Tuti-Name_,[609] we have the brother possessed by a +demon, who seduces the wife of his brother, who is travelling abroad. In +that of Mansûr, in the same _Tuti-Name_,[610] the monstrous Fari assumes +the very shape of the absent husband, and succeeds in seducing his wife. +In another story in the _Tuti-Name_,[611] two brothers, finding +themselves deceived in their expectations, set out together, each, for +love of the other, wandering about the world in search of a better fate. +These are three forms of the myth of the Açvinâu. With them is connected +the story of the maiden who comes out of the wood, of whom as many men, +when she appears, become enamoured.[612] + +The fifth Calmuck story (of Hindoo origin) is unmistakably a +reproduction of the myth of the Açvinâu, even to the very mythical names +themselves. The king, Kun-snang (he who illumines all, like the Vedic +Viçvavedas and the Slavonic Vsievedas, the all-seer), has by two +different mothers two sons--Sunlight (born in the year of the tiger; +perhaps in the sol-leo, in July, in summer, under the solar influence) +and Moonlight. The second wife does not love her step-son Sunlight, and +persecutes him, but the two brothers are devoted to each other, and when +Sunlight goes into exile (like Râmas), Moonlight follows him (as +Lakshmaṇas follows Râmas, as the white lunar twilight follows the sun in +the forest of night). On the way, Moonlight is thirsty; Sunlight goes to +find water for him, but in the meantime Moonlight dies.[613] Sunlight +returns, and is in despair at the sight of his dead brother; however, a +hermit has pity upon him, and, having resuscitated Moonlight, adopts the +two brothers as his own sons. Near his abode there is a kingdom where +the dragons keep back the waters, unless they are given a young man born +in the year of the tiger. It oozes out that Sunlight is such a young +man, and he is led away to the king of that country. The daughter of the +king falls in love with him, and begs Sunlight not to be given to the +dragons. The king is furious against his daughter, and has her thrown +with Sunlight into the swamp where the dragons are.[614] The young +couple break out into such piteous lamentations, that the dragons are +touched, and let Sunlight and the young princess go free. When free, +they find Moonlight, who also becomes the husband of the beautiful +princess, the two brothers being inseparable, like the Vedic Açvinâu. +The three personages (white twilight, or white moonlight, aurora, and +sun) return together into the kingdom of their birth, where, upon seeing +them arrive, Sunlight's step-mother (Night) dies of terror. Here the +legend has all its mythical splendour. + +In the sixteenth Mongol story, on the contrary, the friendship of the +two companions cannot last, because of the perfidy of one of them; +while they are travelling in the forest, the minister's son kills the +king's son. + +In the history of _Ardshi-Bordshi_, the two men born in the palace +are so like each other in everything, in shape, complexion, dress, and +horses, that they cannot be distinguished one from the other; hence +they dispute between themselves for the possession of everything, of +wife and sons. One is made like the other by witchcraft; he is the son +of a demon; and it is the marvellous king of the children who +discovers the secret.[615] + +This exchange of husbands, or heroes, by means of demoniacal craft, +often occurs in European fairy-tales, like the exchange of wives. The +demon is now a water-carrier, now a washerman, now a woodcutter, now a +charcoal-burner, now a gipsy, now a Saracen, and now the devil _in +propria persona_. + +The Russian fairy-tales show us the two forms of the two brothers or +companions, _i.e._, the two that remain friends _usque ad mortem_, and +the friend betrayed by his perfidious companion. + +We find a zoological form of the legend of the two friends in one of +Afanassieff's stories. The horse delivers the child of one of his +masters from the bear, upon which his grateful masters feed him +better, whereas before they had almost let him die of starvation. The +horse (the sun) remembers in prosperity his companion in misfortune, +the cat (the moon), who is also allowed to starve, and gives it a part +of what he receives from his masters. The latter perceive this, and +again ill-treat the horse, who then forms the resolution of killing +himself, in order that the cat may eat him; but the cat refuses to eat +his friend the horse,[616] and is also determined to die. + +The two brothers who, because they have eaten one the head and the +other the heart of a duck, are predestined, in _Afanassieff_,[617] +one to be king and the other to spit gold, flee from their perfidious +mother (probably step-mother), who persecutes them in their father's +absence. They meet with a cowherd taking his cows to the pasturage, +and are hospitably entertained by him. Then, continuing their journey, +they come to a place where two roads meet, where, upon a pillar, this +is written, "He who goes to the right (to the east) will become a +king; he who goes to the left (to the west, into the kingdom of +Kuveras, the western sun, the god of riches; when the sun rises in the +east the moon goes down in the west) will become rich." One goes to +the right; when it is morning, he rises, washes, and dresses himself. +He learns that the old king is dead (the old sun), and that funeral +honours are being paid to him in church. A decree says that he whose +candle lights of itself will be the new Tzar.[618] The Vedic god also +has the distinctive attribute of this wonderful candle, that of being +lighted by himself, of shining of himself, _i.e._, he is svabhânus. +The candle, therefore, of our youth predestined to be king lights of +its own accord, and he is immediately proclaimed the new king. The +daughter of the old king (the aurora) marries him, recognising in him +her predestined husband, and makes with her golden ring (the solar +disc) a mark upon his forehead (as Râmas does with Sîtâ). The young +man (the sun), after having remained some time with his bride (the +aurora), wishes to go towards the part where his brother went (that +is, to the left, to the west). He traverses for a long time different +countries (_i.e._, the sun describes the whole arc of heaven which +arches over the earth), and finds at last (in the western sky, +towards the setting sun) his brother, who lives in great wealth. In +his rooms whole mountains of gold arise; when he spits, all is gold; +there is no place to put it,[619] (the evening sky is one mass of +gold). The two brothers then set out together to find their poor old +father (the sun during the night). The younger brother goes to find +for himself a bride (probably the silvery moon), and the wicked mother +(the step-mother, night) is forsaken. Here, too, the legend is +entirely of a mythical character. In the two brothers we see now +twilight and sun, now the two twilights, now the spring and autumnal +lights, now the sun and the moon, but always the Açvinâu, always two +deities, two heavenly beings closely connected with the phenomena of +the lunar and solar light. + +And here allow me to say that I deem it enough for me to collect in +one body legends which betray a common origin; as to explaining all +mythology in the legends, this is beyond my power, and therefore +outside my pretensions. I only point out, as I proceed, +interpretations which I think come near the truth; but the objects +embodied in mythology are so mobile and multiform, that, if grasped +too tightly, they easily evaporate and disappear. Their richness +consists in their very mobility and uncertainty. If the sun and moon +were always seen in the same place, there would be no myths. The myths +which originated the greatest number of legends are those which are +founded upon the most fleeting phenomena of the sky.[620] The myth of +the Açvinâu cannot be solved by mathematical demonstrations, +precisely on account of the uncertainty presented by the crepuscular +light which probably gave rise to it. This continuous succession of +shadows, penumbræ, chiaroscuri, and shades of light, from the black +darkness to the silver moon, from the silver moon to the grey twilight +of morning, which gradually melts into, and confounds itself with the +dawn, from the dawn to the aurora, from the aurora to the sun; the +same variations recurring, but inversely, in the evening, from the +dying sun to the reddish and blood-coloured sky or evening aurora, +from the evening aurora to the grey twilight, from the grey twilight +to the silver moon, from the silver moon to the gloomy night,--this +continual change of colours, which meet, unite with, and pass into +each other, originated the idea of celestial companions, friends, or +relations, who are now in unison and now separate, who now approach to +love each other, to move together and affectionately follow each +other, now rush upon each other to fight, despoil, betray, and destroy +each other turn by turn, who now attract and are now attracted, are +now seduced and now seducers, now cheated and now deceivers, now +victims, now sacrificers. Where there is a family, there is love, +hence come exemplary brothers, husbands, wives, sons, daughters, +fathers, and mothers, full of tenderness; that is the obverse of the +medal: where there are relations, there are disputes, hence +contentions between brothers, out of jealousy in love, or envy of +riches; perverse mothers-in-law, step-mothers, and sisters-in-law, +tyrannous fathers, perfidious wives; that is the reverse. This +contradiction of feelings is difficult to explain psychologically even +in man; how much more, therefore, is it so when it has to be analysed +in a mythical image, which assumes an animal form in one rapid flash +of imagination, and then disappears? On this account, in the case of +some myths, we must content ourselves with a general demonstration, at +least until new and positive data appear, on which it may be possible +to base, in a solid foundation, the real nature of the details of +mythology. In the absence of these data, we can only offer +probabilities, and not rules to the reader. As to the Vedic Açvinâu, +this much is certain: they are found in unison with their wife, the +aurora, after having passed through the dangers of night, or after +having enabled the heroes protected by them--that is to say, their own +heroic forms--to pass through them; they are two splendid +brother-horsemen; and they are especially invoked in the first hours +of morning. The myth in this Vedic form would not appear to be of +dubious interpretation. The white moon and the sun take the aurora +between them, that is, marry her; or else they present her in marriage +to Somas (with whom one of the Açvinâu, the white light or twilight, +is in particular relation), in the quality of paranymphs. The aurora, +in the morning, as well as in the evening, taken between the sun and +the moon, disappears. One would think that the twilight and the sun +present her together at the same time to the king or god Somas, or +Lunus, for whom the daughter of the sun has affection. One would also +think that she was especially united with the twilight, which is in +especial relation with Somas, observing how in the morning the aurora +immediately succeeds the twilight, and disappears when the sun shows +himself, that is, rejoins the twilight and forsakes the sun; and how +in the evening, when the sun hides himself, or when her husband is +absent, she again unites herself with the twilight, with whom she +again flees and disappears, to reappear once more with him in the +morning. To continue; the absence of the sun during the night +tormented the popular phantasy in several ways. As much as the aspect +of the sky was negative with regard to the mythical hero--that is to +say, as much as the hero or god hides himself from the view--just so +much the more does popular imagination invest him with positive +qualities and exalt his greatness. The greatest of all deities is that +which is seen the least;--would that Roman Catholic priests understood +this mythological truth! Indras and Zeus are great when within the +thundering and lightning cloud. The sun becomes a hero when he loses +himself in the darkness of night and in the cloud. But it is just at +this very point that the demonstration of mythical particulars becomes +more difficult, because the myths are now founded, not merely upon an +external appearance or image, but often upon a simple subjective +hypothesis; and while the ancient image, possessing an objectivity +irrespective of the subject, can always be reconciled with the +observation of the new celestial phenomena which reproduce it, the +subjective hypothesis, being an individual phantasy, is lost. The +demonstration is therefore possible only in the essential parts. When +the sun was seen to disappear in the nocturnal sky, this sky appeared +in the various aspects of an ocean, a mountain, a forest, a cavern, or +a voracious monster which devoured the hero. But has the sun lost +himself by accident, or has he been precipitated into the night by the +aurora and her crepuscular lover, perfidiously united together, in +order that they may have more freedom in their loves? This is a +dilemma of which the two solutions originate a double series of +legends,--the brother betrayed by the brother, and the hero who goes +to succour his unfortunate brother fallen into the power of the +monsters. The hour of day which the French indicate by the expressive +phrase _entre chien et loup_, is the great epical hour of the fox, +which partakes of the nature of the domestic dog and the savage wolf. +It is the hour of betrayals, of perfidies, of doubts, and mythical +uncertainties. Who can tell whether the aurora is a widow by an +accident which happens to her husband the sun, or whether she herself +has betrayed him?--whether she has been a chaste and faithful +Geneviève, or a perfidious and luxurious Helen? It is these very +mythical doubts which have made the fortune and the charm of +tradition, as they are the despair of mythologists. When, moreover, +the sun is within the night, what can he do? According to the +different aspect assumed by the night, the acts of the solar hero lost +in it are modified, and these modifications can be explained without +too great an effort of imagination; but, sometimes, the relations +between the hero and his companions or brothers in the world of the +dead, can only be conceived by means of poetical dreams. When the sun +is seen to enter the obscure night in the evening, and to come out of +it safe and sound in the morning, after having dispersed the darkness, +it is natural to think that throughout the night he is singly intent +upon killing the monster. The action of the principal hero is well +defined, and therefore evident; and the reference is equally clear +when the aurora is represented as experiencing the same fate as the +sun, her husband or brother. They descend together into the night, +which makes them invisible, and together emerge from it happily. + +The myth becomes richer when the aurora throws herself into the arms of +a rival of her husband, because the character of this rival is various. +Now he is a handsome youth who resembles the legitimate husband, either +as the twilight or as Lunus; now he is a real demoniacal monster, the +demon himself, the black night. In proportion to the variety of aspects +and relations which the hero's rival assumes, does the myth become more +complicated, and its interpretation more difficult; hence the +story-tellers are often in the habit of interrupting their narrative by +saying, "Now, let us leave this or that hero, and return to such or such +another." These interruptions of the stories have their mythological +reason. We can understand, for instance, how the aurora, or daughter of +the sun, should be conceived of as, in a moment of feminine weakness, +falling in love with the moon, which she sees on the other side of the +heavens, and desirous of being conducted to him as his bride. We can +understand how Lunus, reciprocating the love-glance of the aurora at the +other extremity of the sky, should appear to be drawing her to himself, +and wishing to seduce her. We can also understand how now the moon, now +the sun, appears to seduce the aurora and carry her off from her +legitimate husband. In these cases the infidelity of the hero or the +heroine is evident; but woe to him who attempts to carry the +demonstration or the proof of this interpretation too far, for when the +seducer and seduced, be the seducer male or female, are thought of as +enjoying together the fruits of their perfidy, the myth must come to an +end, as no one can conceive the possibility of the moon and the aurora +living or doing anything together; no one can tell what the aurora and +the twilight, phenomena appertaining exclusively to the morning and +evening, and which only appear when the sun rises from the mountain, do +together in the night. The phenomenon ceases, the mythical personages +vanish too, and the story-teller breaks off his narrative, because he +possesses no data upon which to continue it. And so with all the myths; +they can only be explained on the condition that we do not insist upon +explaining too much. We must therefore be contented to see the girl +aurora carried off in the evening and the hero sun recover her in the +morning, or to conceive of the aurora and the sun fleeing away together +into the night, but we must not be too inquisitive as to the manner in +which they do so. The moon, or good fairy, sometimes teaches them the +way; but their nocturnal actions are but little seen into; those which +are spoken of as performed by them at night refer either to the moment +in which night begins, or to that in which it comes to an end. During +the night they wander about until they see a light (the guiding moon or +delivering light of day); they remain in the chest or cask thrown into +the water until it is carried to the other shore beyond the sea, or on +the eastern coast. In their nocturnal journey the moon plays the part +now of the good old man, or the good fairy; now of the good cow, or the +bull; now of the grey horse, the steed of night, who, in three stations, +bears them to their goal; now of the bird who, nourished upon their +flesh, carries them to their destination; and now we have, on the +contrary, the monster itself, or the step-mother who threatens, +tortures, and persecutes them. The hero shows his greatest strength +when hidden, but it is used now to send out the cows, now to recover the +ravished bride, now to unchain the rivers kept back by the dragons, now +to make the water of health gush forth, and now to destroy the monster +and deliver himself. The hero displays his greatest powers when +contending with the monster; but it is in order to his own deliverance. +In the earliest epochs of the legend he is foolish, ill, drunken, +unhappy, and stony; one can only speak of him by what is seen of him +externally. The cloud-barrel moves; it is the barrel full of water which +moves of its own accord in order to please the hero: the cloud-barrel +drops rain upon the earth; it is the foolish one who lets the wine run +out of the cask: the cloud-forest moves; it is the trunk of a tree which +attaches itself to the horse ridden by the hero, and massacres his +enemies--_i.e._, the cloud or darkness disappears, and the hero comes +out victorious. The part performed by the solar hero in the night or in +the cloud seems to me, therefore, almost always of a nearly certain +interpretation, but only so long as he is alone, or with but one +companion; when the one hero is transformed into three, or five, or six, +who accompany each other, or when he meets other mythical personages of +a nature akin to his own, and when he speaks and acts in unison with +them, the legend confuses the myth, in order to explain which, we are +often obliged to stretch the sense of the adverb _together_ to the +signification, now of a whole night, and now of an entire year. When we +find, for instance, in tradition, the twelve months of the year +associated with twelve old men round the fire, we know that the fire is +the sun, round which the twelve months turn in the sky in the space of a +year. Here _together_ is amplified to denote, therefore, the period of a +year and the entire width of the sky. + +I have been led into this long, but, I trust, not idle digression, in +order to explain the Russian story of the two brothers, of whom it is +said that they go together, one to the right and the other to the +left. In whatever way the Açvinâu are to be understood, whether as +twilight and sun, as spring and autumn, or as sun and moon, it is +impossible to comprehend how they can travel in the same direction; +the ways they take must therefore be separate. The sun and the evening +twilight do not advance in opposite directions; the morning sun and +that of evening occupy opposite positions, but not at the same time; +the sun and moon advance at the same time in the sky, but not +conjointly and upon the same path, like two travelling companions. It +is therefore necessary to suppose that the journey of the two brothers +either happens at different periods, although it may be in the same +night or the same day, or else takes its start from different places, +although always in the sky; in the evening the moon is seen advancing +from east to west, whilst the hidden sun travels from west to east; +when the sun has arrived in the east, the moon goes down in the west. +The eastern sun is bent, in the daytime, upon following and finding +his brother who has gone to the west; and when he arrives there he +sees, besides his brother, his brother's immense treasures also. With +this is connected the other version of the myth of the Açvinâu, the +poor brother and the rich one. This is probably the weary, thirsty, +and hungry sun, who, having during the day given all his wealth away, +demands hospitality from, and offers his services to, his rich +brother; the latter drives him away, and the poor brother wanders +alone, poorer and sadder than before, into the forest, where he makes +his fortune by digging up a treasure which enriches him, whilst his +rich brother in the west becomes poor. The story of the treasure, in +connection with the two brothers and the skilful thief, was familiar +to the Greeks in the vicissitudes of Agamêdês and Trophonios (in +_Pausanias_[621]), who stole King Hürieus's treasure, on which account +one of the two brothers was to lose his head. + +Were I to follow the story of the two brothers in its Western +versions, I could compose an entire volume on the subject, which is +indeed of such interest that a student, by connecting it with that of +the three brothers, might profitably address himself to the work. But +to resume the account of the horse. I must here limit myself to +recording only one other interesting variety of this legend, offered +us in the seventh story of Basile's _Pentamerone_.[622] + +There were once two brothers, named respectively Cienzo and Meo +(Vincenzo and Meo). When they were born two enchanted horses and two +enchanted dogs also came into the world. Cienzo goes about the world +in search of fortune; he comes to a place where there is a dragon with +seven heads, from whom a beautiful princess must be delivered. As long +as he does not cut all the heads off, the dragon goes and rubs itself +against a herb which possesses the virtue of fastening on to the body +again the head which had been cut off. Cienzo cuts off all the +dragon's heads, "pe gratia de lo sole Lione" (by the grace of the Lion +sun, _i.e._, when the sun is in the sign of Leo, which corresponds to +the tiger of the Indo-Turanian story recorded above, or when the solar +hero possesses all his strength; the lion and the tiger are equivalent +in Hindoo symbolism as heroic types, and are therefore all the same in +the zodiac). Cienzo marries the beautiful princess delivered by him; +but a beautiful fairy who lives in the opposite house fascinates him +by her beauty, attracts him, and binds him with her hair. Meanwhile +Meo, who by signs settled upon beforehand learns that his brother +Cienzo is in danger, comes to the house where the latter's wife lives, +accompanied by his enchanted horse and dog. The wife believes him to +be Cienzo (the story of the Menechmi, of the two brothers who resemble +each other in everything, was no doubt taken by the Greek poet, and +afterwards by Plautus, from popular tradition), fêtes him on his +arrival, and receives him into her bed; but the faithful brother, in +order not to touch her, divides the sheets between them so that they +have one each, and refuses to touch his sister-in-law. Thus Sifrît, as +well as his Scandinavian _alter ego_ Sigurd, places a sword between +himself and Brünhilt, the destined bride of the king, in order not to +touch her when she lies beside him; and when Brünhilt throws herself +upon the funeral pyre, she also places a sword between herself and +Sigurd's corpse.[623] In the royal or heroic weddings by proxy of the +Middle Ages a similar custom was observed. In the popular Piedmontese, +Bergamasc, and Venetian song[624] of the pilgrim who comes from Rome, +the pilgrim is separated from the woman only by a wisp of straw. +Towards morning Meo also sees the beautiful fairy in the house over +the way; he guesses that Cienzo has been drawn into her snare, and +goes to deliver him. He makes his enchanted dog devour her, and frees +his brother, awakening him out of his sleep. Cienzo learning that Meo +had slept with his wife, cuts off his head; but when he learns from +his wife how Meo had divided the sheets when he lay beside her, he +bewails his rashness, has recourse to the herb with which the dragon +rubbed itself when one of its heads had been cut off, and by this +means fastens Meo's head on to his body again. + +The principal auxiliary, however, to one in particular of the two +brothers, as of the third in the legend of the three brothers, is his +horse. + +When the hero devotes himself to the trade of thieving, his most +glorious achievement is robbing the king's horse. + +When the young hero has been educated by the devil, it is in the shape +of a horse that he succeeds in escaping from him. + +When the solar hero fights, his greatest strength is in his horse. + +When the hero dies, his horse, too, is sacrificed. + +Let us now illustrate, by some examples, these four circumstances +relative to the myth of the horse. + +In the _Mahâbhâratam_,[625] the god Indras appears in the form now of +a horseman, now of a horse. It is, moreover, upon such a heroic horse +that the young Utañkas flees from the king of the serpents, after +having recovered from him the queen's earrings, which the king of the +serpents had stolen. In this legend reference is made to several +myths; to that of the hero in the infernal regions, to that of the +hero-thief, and to the legend of the horse which saves the fugitive +hero, the same as the hero who leads away the horse. + +In the _Vishṇu P._,[626] we have Kapilas, a form of Vishṇus, or of the +solar hero (inasmuch as he is of a reddish colour, or else of the +evening sun), who carries off the horse destined for the açvamedhas, +that is to be sacrificed. (In other words, the solar horse, the horse +which was meant for the sacrifice, escapes from it, in the same way as, +in the preceding chapter, we have seen the bull escape into the +forests.) In the _Râmâyaṇam_,[627] the horse destined for the sacrifice +is, on the contrary, carried off by a serpent (_i.e._, the monster of +night ravishes the evening sun, whilst, in the western sky, the fire is +being prepared for his immolation). The sons of Sagaras (the clouds of +the heavenly ocean, the word _sagaras_ meaning sea), make a noise like +thunder, searching for the horse that had been carried off from them. +They find it near the god Vishṇus or Kapilas (here the sun himself, the +solar horse itself, carried off into the cloudy ocean of night); +believing him to be the ravisher, they assail him; Kapilas (or the solar +horse), full of indignation, burns them to ashes. Their nephew, +Aṅsumant (he who is furnished with rays, the radiant sun of morning), on +the contrary, delivers the horse out of the forest. In the evening he is +reconducted back to the place of sacrifice, on the golden pavement, +after having made the journey round the world.[628] In the same way as +we have seen, in the preceding chapter, that the bull or the cow is +touched or struck as an augury of fruitfulness and abundance, in the +_Râmâyaṇam_,[629] Kâuçalyâ touches the horse (a stallion) in order to be +fruitful, as he desires to have sons (_putrakâmyayâ_), and the king and +queen smell the odour of the burnt marrow or fat of the horse, as a +talisman which may work for them the gratification of a like wish.[630] +Of course we must always refer the legend to the myth of the solar +horse, which, even when sacrificed, makes itself fruitful, so that it +may rise again in the morning in a new and young form. And we can easily +prove that the horse of the açvamedhas was a mythical horse, since the +açvamedhas was originally a celestial ceremony, seeing we read in the +_Ṛigvedas_ how the swift heroic horse destined to be sacrificed was born +of the gods, and how the Vasavas had adorned it with the colours of the +sun.[631] We saw a short time ago how in the _Ṛigvedas_ itself it is +now the Açvinâu, and now Agnis who give the heroic steed to the +predestined youth. Agnis, moreover, who gives a horse to the hero, is +himself now a handsome red horse, and now an excellent ghṛidhnus,[632] a +word which means the ravisher, as well as the vulture (as a bird of +prey). The thief plays a principal part, even in the Vedic myths. In the +war between the demons and the gods, described at length in the first +book of the _Mahâbhâratam_, there is a continual strife between the two +sides as to who will show himself the most skilful in stealing the cup +which contains the ambrosia. And the horse's head which, according to +Hindoo cosmogony, is born in the very production of the ambrosia with +the mythical gem, the horse's heads of Dadhyańć and of Vishṇus, which +are found in the ambrosia [through the mouth of which (Vaḍavamukhas) it +is necessary to pass in order to enter hell, where one hears the cries +and howls of the tormented, who inhabit the water[633]], shows us how +already in the myth the legend of the theft of the earrings (the +Açvinâu), or of the queen's gem (the sun), or of the treasure, must be +united with the theft of the horse (the sun itself), as it seems to be +united in the legend of Utañkas, before quoted, in which Utañkas flees +upon the divine horse as he carries away from hell the earrings of the +queen, which another skilful thief, the king of the serpents, had, in +his turn, stolen from him. (Herodotos already knew the story of the +skilful thief who robs the king's treasure and obtains the king's +daughter to wife; he applies it to the king of Egypt, Rampsinitos.) + +When the stag, in the fable, flees in the forest, his high horns betray +him; when the bull flees, he fears that his horns may betray the +fugitives; even the mane of the solar hero takes the name of horns. The +Vedic hymn describing the horse destined for the sacrifice, represents +it as having golden horns, and feet as rapid as thought (like the stag), +whose horns (or whose mane, like the hair of the biblical Absalom, who +revives again in the legendary tradition of Mediæval Europe under an +analogous form), stretching here and there, are caught in the trees of +the forest.[634] Here, therefore, we have the swift-footed animal, whose +mane and horns are entangled to the trees. Another Vedic hymn presents +to us the hero Tugras lost in the sea, who embraces a tree, and is saved +by means of it.[635] In popular stories, the hero is often saved upon a +tree, either because the thieves or the bear cannot see him, or because +he is thus able to see the horizon; the tree brings good luck to him, +now because by letting something drop or making a noise, he terrifies +the thieves, now because he cheats the cowherds, whose cattle he wishes +to possess himself of, by appearing now upon one tree, and now upon +another; whereupon the cowherds begin to dispute about his identity, one +affirming that it is the same person, another that it cannot be; they +therefore hastily go back to inspect the first tree, and leave the +cattle unguarded, upon which the hero-thief descends from the tree, and +drives them away before him (this occurs in _Afanassieff_; the enemy of +robbers is generally himself an exceedingly skilful thief; Kereçâçpa was +no less a cunning thief than Mercury, the god of robbers, who discovers +the deceit of others, because he is himself so expert a deceiver). In +the nineteenth Mongol story, which is of Hindoo origin, the young hero, +after having discharged his pious filial duties at the tomb of his +father, mounts a fiery horse, while he seizes the branch of a tree. The +tree is uprooted, and with it the horse and the hero massacre the army +of the king, whose daughter the hero wishes to marry. In the Russian +story[636] which narrates the adventures of Little Thomas Berennikoff, +blind of an eye, the _miles gloriosus_, Little Tom, after killing an +army of flies, begins to boast of the heroism he had shown in +overthrowing, by himself, a whole army of light cavalry. He meets with +two real heroes, Elias of Murom and Alexin Papović (son of the priest), +who, on hearing him narrate his achievements, immediately own and honour +him as their elder brother. The valour of the three is soon put to the +proof; Elias and Alexin show themselves to be true heroes; at last it +comes to Little Tom's turn to make proof of his valour; he kills a +hostile hero whilst his eyes are shut, and then endeavours to ride his +horse, but cannot. It is a hero's horse, and can be ridden only by a +hero. At length he fastens the horse to an oak-tree, and climbs up the +tree in order to leap from it upon the horse's back. The horse feels +the man on his back, and plunges so much that he roots up the whole +tree, and drags it after him, carrying Tom away into the heart of the +Chinese army. The Chinese are struck down by the oak-tree and trodden +under foot by the furious charger, and those who are not killed are put +to flight. (The mythical wooden horse which proved so fatal to the +Trojans appears to be a mythical variety of this horse with the tree so +fatal to the Chinese.) The Emperor of China declares that he will never +make war again with a hero of Little Tom's strength. Then the King of +Prussia, an enemy of the Chinese, gives, in gratitude to Tom, and as a +reward for his valour, his own daughter to wife. It is remarkable that, +in the course of the story, Alexin once observes to Elias that the horse +which Little Tom had brought from his house showed none of the +characteristic qualities of a hero's horse. Alexin, as the priest's son, +is the wise hero; Elias, the strong one, who had conceived a high +opinion of his new colleague, Little Tom, seriously answers that a +hero's strength consists in himself, and not in his horse. However, the +development of the story shows that Alexin was right; without the fiery +horse of the dead hero, Tom would not have dispersed the Chinese. + +Thus, in a Vedic hymn,[637] we read that Indras, when he removes +himself from his two horses, becomes like to a weak and wearied +mortal; when he yokes them, he becomes strong. The enemies in the +battles cannot resist the charge of the two fair-coloured horses of +the god Indras;[638] and not only this, but one part alone of the +divine horse is sometimes sufficient to give assurance of victory to +the hero-god. Another hymn[639] sings, "A horse's tail wert thou then, +O Indras;" that is, when Indras vanquished the monster serpent. It is +with the head of the horse Dadhyańć that Indras discomfits his +enemies.[640] The horse of the Açvinâu, which kills the monster +serpent, has already been referred to in these pages. The solar horse +Dadhikrâ, the same as Dadhyańć, in another hymn of the +_Ṛigvedas_,[641] is celebrated as a swift falcon, luminous, impetuous, +who destroys his enemies like a hero-prince, who runs like the wind. +His enemies tremble, terrified by him, as by the thundering sky; he +fights against a thousand enemies--invincible, formidable, and +resplendent. Finally, the horses of the god Agnis are said to vanquish +the enemies with their fore-feet.[642] + +When Añgadas wishes to fight with the monster Narântakas, in the +_Râmâyaṇam_,[643] he strikes with his fist the head of his great and +swift-footed horse, and then with another blow he smites the monster +in the chest, and kills him. + +In the seven adventures of Rustem, related by Firdusi, the hero's horse +fights against the monster, and drives him away, while the hero sleeps. + +It is said of Bucephalus, the horse which Alexander the Great alone +was able to tame--so called because he had, it would seem, on his head +protuberances similar to the horns of a bull (we saw not long since +how the mane of the solar horse is spoken of as horns in the Vedic +hymns)--that he several times saved Alexander in battle, and that, +though mortally wounded, in an engagement in India, in the flank and +head, he still summoned up strength enough to flee away with +extraordinary swiftness and save his master, and then died. Pliny, +quoting Philarcus, says that when Antiochus was slain, the warrior who +had killed him endeavoured to ride his horse, but that the latter +threw him on the ground, and he expired. + +Of Pêgasos, the winged horse which bore the hero Bellerophon over the +waters, and by means of whom that hero won his glorious victories, we +know that the warrior-goddess Pallas wore the effigy upon her helmet. + +Suetonius writes of the horse of Julius Cæsar that it had almost human +feet, with toes ("pedibus prope humanis, et in modum digitorum ungulis +fissis"), from which the aruspices prognosticated to Cæsar the empire +of the world; this horse, like Bucephalus, and every heroic courser, +would bear no other rider than its master--the great conqueror. + +The horse Baiardo, in _Ariosto_, fights the enemies with its feet. The +hippogriff of Ariosto has, moreover, the privilege of being winged +like Pêgasos, and of walking on air, like the Tatos of the Hungarians. +The name of Falke, given to the horse of the Germanic and Scandinavian +hero Dietrich or Thidrek (Theodoricus), induces us to believe that it +too had the same winged nature. + +In the _Edda_, Skirner receives from Frey a horse which carried its +rider through fogs (waters) and flames, and the sword which strikes of +itself when the wearer of it happens to be a hero. The horse of Sigurd +or Sîfrit exhibits the same bravery in bearing the hero intact through +the flames. This happens in the morning, when the sun emerges safe and +sound from the flames of the aurora; in the evening, on the contrary, +when the sun loses itself in the flames of the aurora, or when the +solar hero dies, his horse, too, like the horse of Balder in the +_Edda_, is burned upon the pyre or sacrificed; the resurrection of the +dead horse and that of the dead hero happen at the same time. The +horse's head which protrudes out of the window, represented in ancient +Hellenic tombs, and preserved in Germanic customs,[644] is, for man, a +symbol of resurrection. The head of Vishṇus, that of Uććâiḥçravas, and +that of Dadhyańć, in Hindoo tradition, have the same meaning. He who +enters into this head finds death and hell; he who comes out of it +rises again to new life. The pious Christian belief in the +resurrection that is to come, and the numerous mediæval legends of +Europe concerning dead heroes or maidens who are resuscitated, had +their origin and ground in the contemplation of the annual and daily +resurrection of the sun. + +In the thirty-eighth story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the +young prince receives from an enchanted bird the present of a +war-charger, and of an apple the colour of the sun. (The youth gives +the golden apple to a beautiful princess for the pleasure of passing +the night with her; remark here, again, the relation of the horse and +the apple, and probably of the horse and the bull, the sun and moon). +In other Russian stories, the horse of the hero, Ivan Tzarević, is at +first bound underground by twelve iron chains; when Ivan rides him, he +breaks them all.[645] The horse which Ivan the thief is told to carry +off from his master[646] is shut up within three gates made fast by +six bolts; if he steals it, he is to receive a reward of 200 roubles; +and if he does not, 200 bastinadoes will be his punishment. Ivan takes +his master's clothes, disguises himself as a gentleman, and, imitating +his voice, orders the grooms to bring him his favourite horse. The +grooms are deceived, and obey, and thus Ivan carries the horse off. +Finally, in a third Russian story,[647] Ivan Tzarević must ride a +hero's horse on the occasion of his nuptials with the beautiful but +wicked Anna. He has recourse to his preceptor Katoma, surnamed Hat of +Oak (here we find again the hero in relation with the tree and the +horse), who orders the blacksmith to prepare a hero's horse; twelve +young blacksmiths (the twelve hours of the night, or else the twelve +months of the year) draw twelve bolts, open twelve doors, and lead out +an enchanted horse, bound with twelve iron chains. Scarcely has the +preceptor mounted on its back when it flies higher than the forest +which stays still, and lower than the cloud which moves.[648] The +preceptor subdues it by taking hold of its mane with one hand, and +striking it with the other between the ears with four pieces, one +after another, of an enchanted iron pillar. The horse then begs, with +a man's voice, for its life, the power of speech being a distinctive +attribute of the hero's horse (a power of which it often makes use, as +Rustem's horse does, for instance, to warn the hero of the dangers +which surround him, and to give him good advice; sometimes, on the +contrary, when it is in the monster's power, it plays the part of a +spy upon the hero's actions, and reports them to the monster);[649] it +promises also to do the will of the preceptor. Katoma, calling the +horse dog's flesh, orders it to stay still the next day, which is the +day fixed for the wedding, and, when the bridegroom Ivan is to ride +it, to seem as though it were oppressed by a great weight. + +In the seventh Esthonian story, the young hero steals the horse from the +master (the devil, or the black monster of night) in whose service he +had engaged himself. When he comes to the place where the sun sets, he +bethinks himself of binding the horse with iron chains (the rope of +Yamas, or Varuṇas, the nocturnal coverer or binder, which binds the +Vedic hero Çunaḥçepas, the sun, he of the golden rod), in order that it +may not escape and go back again. This particular is very interesting, +as rendering the meaning of the myth more manifest. Seeing that the sun, +in the evening, does not return, it was supposed that the solar horse +had been bound by the hero himself, who had stolen it. + +In the European popular tales we sometimes have, instead of the hero +who carries off his master's horse, the hero himself, who escapes from +his master in the form of a horse, helped in his flight by the +daughter of his master, by the magician's or demon's daughter or black +maiden (who afterwards becomes beautiful and luminous). In the +Hungarian belief, the youngest of the witch's daughters (the aurora) +often assumes the form of the heroic horse of the Tatos. She becomes +Tatos when the hero, meeting her, strikes her on the forehead with the +bridle; then she carries him, in the shape of a horse, into the air. +In the Russian story,[650] the son of a merchant goes to be instructed +by a wise magician, who teaches him every kind of knowledge, and, +among the rest, what sheep say when they bleat, birds when they sing, +and horses when they neigh. At last the young man, having learned +every species of mischief, returns home and transforms himself into a +horse, in order that his father may sell him at the market and make +money; but he warns his father not to give up the bridle, that he may +not fall again into the hands of the magician. The father forgets, and +sells horse and bridle together. The magician attaches the horse by a +ring to an oak-tree; the black maiden (dievki ćernavke), the sister of +the devil, gives the horse millet and hydromel; the horse thus gains +strength enough to break the chain which binds him to the tree, and +escapes. The devil follows him; the horse becomes a fish, and from a +fish a ring; the king's daughter buys the ring and puts it on her +finger; during the day it is a ring (the solar disc), and during the +night a handsome youth, who lies in the bed of the queen's daughter +(the hidden sun, or the moon, in the darkness of night). One day the +princess lets the ring fall on the ground, and it breaks into a +thousand pieces (the evening sun which falls upon the mountain); then +the devil becomes a cock, to pick up the pieces of the broken ring; +but a little piece falls under the princess's foot; this piece is +transformed into a falcon, which strangles and devours the cock. + +In the bridle which binds this hero who becomes a horse, I think I can +recognise the lasso with which Varuṇas keeps Çunaḥçepas bound in the +_Âitareya Br._ In the _Ṛigvedas_,[651] we have Sûryas, the sun, as +Sâuvaçvyas, or son of Svaçvyas, that is, of him who has fine horses; +but as, besides Svaçvyas, we find Svaçvas, he who has a fine horse, +the sun itself would seem to be this horse. The legend narrates that +Svaçvas, having no children, requested the sun to give him some, and +that the sun, to please him, was himself born of him. Svaçvas, he who +has a fine horse and has no sons, is perhaps the same as the old man +who has lost his son by selling the horse; when the sun returns his +son also comes back again. In the Vedic expressions, _without a horse, +born without a bridle, the sun_ (as a courser[652]), the hero would +seem to be indicated who has not as yet that horse or that bridle, +without which he is powerless; for the idea of the hero is rarely +unaccompanied by that of the horseman. + +For the horseman hero his horse is his all, and sometimes it even takes +the bit in its mouth, then the hero punishes it. We have already noticed +the well-known Hellenic myth of Phaethôn, who is, with both the chariot +and the horses, precipitated into the waters, because the horses +threatened to set the earth on fire. This happens every day towards +evening, when the sun sets; the whole sky goes down, then the sun is +thrown down into the ocean of night; the course of the solar steeds is +interrupted, and the wheels of the chariot no longer turn. A similar +catastrophe is repeated on St John's Day, at the summer solstice, in +which the sun stops and begins to retire, for which reason the light of +day, from this time to Christmas, grows less and less. + +It is a custom on St John's Day, in Germany,[653] for hunters to fire +at the sun, believing that they will thereby become infallible +hunters. According to another popular German belief, he who, on St +John's Day, fires towards the sun is condemned ever after to hunt for +ever, like Odin, the eternal hunter; and both superstitions have their +reason. In the night, as well as in the period during which the +splendour of the sun diminishes, and especially in autumn, the gloomy +forest of heaven is filled with every kind of ferocious animal; the +sun enters this forest, becomes moon, and hunts the wild beasts in it +during the whole of the night, or of the year that is, until he is +born again. In the _Ṛigvedas_, where we have seven sister-mares yoked +to the sun-chariot,[654] Indras, to please his favourite, Etaças, +after having drunk the ambrosia, pushes the clouds that had fallen +behind before the flying steeds of the sun,[655] that is to say, he +prevents the solar hero, drawn by horses, either by the cloud in a +tempest, or by the darkness of night, from going on; and he even +strikes the wheels themselves of the solar chariot to arrest its +incendiary course. From these Vedic data it is easy to pass to the +Hellenic Phaethôn, who is precipitated into the waters on account of +the horses. The hero killed on account of his horses is a frequent +subject of mythology, and the Greek name Hippolytos refers to this +kind of death. Hippolytos, the son of Theseus, fleeing from his +father, who supposes him guilty of incest with his step-mother Phedra, +is thrown from the chariot broken to pieces, when the horses that draw +it approach the sea and are terrified by marine monsters. This is a +variation of the legend of the young hero, persecuted by his +step-mother, who is thrown into the sea, with the novel and remarkable +accompaniment that it is his horses themselves which are the cause of +his death. The Christian legend of St Hippolytos has appropriated this +particular trait, representing the holy martyr, who was prefect under +the emperors Decius and Valerian, as dying, having been condemned to +be torn in pieces by horses. The poet Prudentius comments upon the +story in these two curious distichs, on the occasion of the Roman +judge pronouncing capital punishment against St Hippolytos-- + + "Ille supinata residens cervice, quis inquit + Dicitur? affirmant dicier Hippolytum. + Ergo sit Hippolytus; quatiat turbetque jugales + Intereatque feris dilaceratus equis." + +But the horses which draw the hero into the water are the same as +those that save him by carrying him over the deep, drawing the chariot +or ship on the sea towards the shore. The Açvinâu do the same in the +_Ṛigvedas_, where they save from the waves both themselves and other +heroes upon their chariot, which is compared to a ship.[656] Hero and +horse always have the same fate. + +When the hero approaches, or when some fortunate incident is about to +happen to the hero, his horse neighs for joy. + +In the _Ṛigvedas_,[657] on the arrival of the god Indras, the horse +neighs, the cow lows, like a messenger between heaven and earth. The +neighing of this horse, and the lowing of this cow, are the thundering +of the sun in the cloud. By this neighing or lowing, man is informed +that the hero-god Indras is beginning his battles in heaven. Another +hymn, which calls the two horses of Indras two rays of the sun +(sûryasya ketû), celebrates them as neighing and pouring out +ambrosia,[658] _i.e._, the sun makes rain fall from the clouds; when +he shows himself in the east at morn, his horse neighs and drops the +dew on the ground. + +Herodotus, and, after him, Oppianos and Valerius Maximus, relate the +mythical story of Darius Hystaspes, who unexpectedly succeeded to the +empire from having persuaded his colleagues to decree that he should +obtain the crown whose horse happened first to neigh at the sight of +the sun. It is narrated that when he came to the place, Darius, in +order to assure himself of success, made his horse smell the odour of +a mare.[659] Neighing is the laughter of the horse. We have seen, in +the preceding chapter, how the bull speaks and the fish laughs at +sight of coition; and so we have here, in the story of Darius, the +horse who neighs on account of the mare.--To return to the horse of +mythology; the solar horse neighs within the thundering-cloud which, +as a cow, the bull makes pregnant, and as a mare, the stallion, and +neighs at the approach of the aurora, who appears now as the driver of +a hundred chariots[660] (a round number, like the hundred thousand +horses which, in another hymn,[661] the god Indras drives; a favourite +number, like seven, which is applied to the same solar horses, solar +rays and Añgirasas[662])--on which account it can be compared with the +Hellenic Aphroditê Hippodameia--now even as a real mare. The sun is +now a driver of horses, and now himself a horse; in the same way, the +aurora is now an Amazon horsewoman, now a driver of chariots, now +açvâvatî, and now a mare. When the sun approaches the aurora, or when +the horse approaches the mare, the horse neighs. We know how the +Açvinâu considered themselves sons of the wife of the sun, Saraṇyû, +daughter of Tvashṭar, who united herself to the sun in the form of a +mare. Whether this Saraṇyû be the cloud or the aurora, we have in her, +anyhow, a mare with which the sun, solar hero, or solar horse, unites +himself to produce the twin heroes, who are, for this reason, also +called the two sons of the mare.[663] We have already seen, in the +preceding chapter, a hero and a heroine who are hatched from eggs; of +the Dioscuri, we know that they were born of the egg of Leda; and the +mare's egg is the subject of a story in the _Ukermark_.[664] Greek +writers have handed down several cases of coition between men and +mares, and between horses and women, with corresponding births of +monstrous conformation. Now, unnatural as such births must appear to +us, they are, in mythology, in strict accordance with nature. In the +preceding chapter we saw the cow which leaps over the hare, and +explained this phenomenon by the cloud or darkness covering the moon, +and also by the earth covering the moon in eclipses. In Herodotus and +Valerius Maximus, a mare, in the time of Xerxes, gives birth to a +hare; and we must here understand the hare to be the moon, coming out +of the darkness or clouds; and when we read that the hare suffocated +the mare, we must understand it to mean the moon as dispersing the +darkness or clouds (perhaps also the sun or evening aurora). We must +have recourse in this way to the myth to comprehend the examples of +parturition without coition found in some Hindoo legends, and applied +to heroes, as well as the curious discussions and information which we +find in the ancients, from Aristotle, Varro, Pliny, Columella, +Solinus, and St Augustin, to Albertus Magnus and Aldrovandi, +concerning mares, and especially Spanish and Portuguese mares, made +pregnant by the wind (called by Oppianos[665] of the windy feet), and +which are also spoken of in the _Pentamerone_,[666] with less +decency, in reference to the myth of the maiden born of the tree. + +The horse of Ariosto, too, has a similar nature-- + + "Questo è il destrier che fu dell' Argalia + Che di fiamma e di vento era concetto + E senza fieno e biada si nutria + De l'aria pura e Rabican fu detto." + +The horse of Ciolle, in a Tuscan proverb, also feeds upon wind alone. + +The horse of Dardanos, son of Zeus, was also said to be born of the +wind, which brings us back to the Vedic Marutas, whose chariots have +horses for wings, and to the _volucer currus_ of the Diespiter of +Horace.[667] In the Sanskṛit tongue, the expression _vâtâçvas_, or +wind-horse, is very common, to indicate a very swift-footed horse. + +No sooner is the horse Uććâiḥçravas born than he neighs; and like him, +in the _Mahâbhâratam_, the hero Açvatthâman laughs, the son of Droṇas, +properly he who has strength in his horse, which is the same as the +hero-horse. + +Moreover, as the horse exults by neighing over the good fortune of the +hero who rides him, so he not only becomes sad, but sheds real tears +when his rider is about to meet with misfortune. + +When Râvaṇas, in the _Râmâyaṇam_, comes forth in his chariot, to join +in final combat with Râmas, his coursers shed tears,[668] as a +sinister omen, Râvanas is the monster of darkness and clouds; when the +cloud begins to disperse, drops of rain fall, that is, the horses of +the monster weep. The treacherous sister who is confederate with the +monster against her brother, in Russian stories, is condemned by her +brother, who kills the monster, to fill a whole basin with her +tears.[669] These tears are also a legendary symbol of the rain which +falls when the solar hero has torn the cloud in two. + +Suetonius, in the Life of Cæsar, writes that the horses consecrated by +Cæsar to Mars, and then set at liberty after the passage of the +Rubicon, refused to eat, and wept abundantly.[670] Note that this +legend of the horses that weep is connected with the passage of water, +of the Rubicon (a river which no geographer has been able to identify +with certainty, probably because the legend of Cæsar relating to it is +a fable of mythical origin. We know how mythical beliefs incline to +assume a human form, and are especially prone to group themselves +round the great personages of history--Cyrus, Alexander, Romulus, +Cæsar, Augustus, Vespasian, Attila, Theodoric, and Charlemagne are +proofs of this; and perhaps a day will come in which Napoleon I. or +Garibaldi will offer a new _mannequin_ to some popular tradition, +which is now uncertain and wandering). Thus it is said that Cæsar's +horse itself shed tears for three days before the hero's death. In the +_Iliad_,[671] the horses of Achilleus weep for the death of +Patroklos, whom Hektor has thrown from his chariot into the dust; in +the _Paraleipomenoi_ of Quintus Smyrneus,[672] the horses of Achilleus +weep bitterly for the death of their hero. This is a variety of the +legend of the horses which throw the solar hero down into the waters, +the ocean of night or the clouds, and of that of the horses of +Poseidôn. The mists which after sunset in the evening impregnate the +air, and the diurnal or nocturnal rains, as well as the autumnal ones, +cause tears to fall upon the ground, or weep over the (apparent) death +of the solar hero. + +The dew of the morning, on the contrary, which comes from the mouth of +the solar horse like foam, or from its hoof as ambrosia and salutary +water, is fraught with every species of healthful influence. + +The horse and the bull of mythology are pourers out _par excellence_. In +a Vedic strophe--which seems in my eyes to be one of those riddles which +are recited in order to loosen the thread of the tongue--relative to the +two outpouring or fertilising horses of Indras, there is a continual +play kept up upon the root _varsh_ or _vṛish_, which means at once to +pour out and to make fruitful,[673] and upon the letter _r_ which enters +into almost every word of the verse. Not only do the horses of Indras +pour out and make fruitful; the same virtue is attributed to the chariot +which they draw.[674] We have seen already that the horse of the +Açvinâu is the killer of the monster serpent, and that the horse's head +Dadhyańć, he who goes in the milk or in the liquefied butter, and who is +found in a sea of milk, discomfits the enemies of Indras. A Vedic hymn +sings that, with the foam of the waters, Indras beats down the head of +the monster serpent.[675] In Tuscany, the whooping-cough is called the +horse-cough or asinine-cough,[676] and it is thought that the cough is +cured by giving the children to drink the foam from the horse's mouth, +or causing them to drink in the water where a horse has been drinking. +This is a remedy founded upon the principle _similia similibus_, the +foam being used against the convulsive cough, which, like all +convulsions in general, brings much saliva or foam to the mouth. The +credit, however, of this marvellous medicine is slightly compromised +when we read that the same foam is also very efficacious for ear-ache. +Pliny, Sextus Empiricus, and Marcellus, quoted by Aldrovandi,[677] also +recommend the saliva of a horse as a cure for cough, particularly in the +case of consumptive patients, adding that the sick person is cured in +three days, but that the horse dies; a superstition which must have had +its origin in the mythical horse who feeds on ambrosia, and who loses +his strength, and expires when his saliva, foam, ambrosia, or dew is +taken from him. It is well known that the Açvinâu, besides being +luminous horsemen, were, as friends of men, also exceedingly skilful +physicians; nor could they be otherwise, having in their power the head +of Dadhyańć which is in the ambrosia, that is, whose foam is ambrosia. +The Dioscuri also frequently appear, in European legends, as unexpected +and miraculous deliverers. With this mythical belief of the horse that +produces ambrosia, is also connected the transformation, described by +Ovid in the second book of the _Metamorphoses_, of Ocyroe into a mare, +because she had predicted that Æsculapius would save men from death by +the medical art. It is a well-known fact that Æsculapius was revered +near fountains whose waters were supposed to have salutary effects, and +that he was protected by the sun-god Apollo; and the two physicians, +sons of Asklêpios or Æsculapius, seem to be nothing more than a specific +form of the Dioscuri. + +But the solar horse does not produce ambrosia with his mouth alone. + +He has great strength in his hoofs (whence Isidorus and other mediæval +etymologists derived the name _caballus_, thus, "Quod ungula terram +cavet"[678]), and makes use of them in the myth, and in the legend, +not only to combat the enemies, but also to break open the earth, and +cause ambrosial fountains to spring out of it. Sometimes ambrosia +pours out of the hoof of the horse itself. In the _Ṛigvedas_,[679] the +horses of Agnis are said to have hands (_i.e._, hoofs of the +fore-feet) that pour out; and the horse given by the Açvinâu to the +hero protected by them (that is, to the solar horse, to the morning +sun), with his strong hoof fills a hundred jars with inebriating +liquor.[680] It is not necessary for me to instance here the famous +fountain of the horse, or Hippokrênê, which Bellerophon's horse +Pêgasos caused to spring out of the earth by breaking the soil with +his hoof (called also for this reason _Pêgasía krênê_). In Latin +tradition, the horse's hoof was worshipped on a spot near Lake +Regillus, where it is said that the Dioscuri had appeared.[681] In a +Russian story,[682] when Johnny (Ivanushka) sees a horse's hoof, he is +sorely tempted to drink out of it, but is dissuaded by his sister. He +experiences the same temptation upon seeing a bull's hoof, and +afterwards that of a kid. At last he gives way, drinks from the kid's +hoof, and is himself transformed into a kid. In the footprint of a +horse's hoof, in other stories, the ant is in danger of being drowned; +saved by a man, it is ever afterwards grateful to him.[683] + +Several myths which we have already noticed in the preceding chapter +as applied to the bull, occur again in connection with the horse; as, +for instance, the birds which come out of the horse; the hero who +takes the horse's skin off, seizing it by the tail in order to make a +sack of it; the swift horse of Adrastus, which runs after the tortoise +(a Greek proverb);[684] the lunar horse, and the solar one. These +exchanges between moon and sun, and between bull and horse, are +happily indicated by the Latin poet, Fulgentius:-- + + "Jam Phœbus disjungit equos, jam Cynthia jungit, + Quasque soror liquit, frater pede temperat undas: + Tum nox stellato cœlum circumlita peplo + Cœrula rorigenis pigrescere jusserat alis + Astrigeroque nitens diademate luna bicornis + Bullarum bijugis conscenderat æquora tauris." + +The gods had often a liking to transform themselves into horses; so much +so, that the sacrifice of the god, that is, the god's death, is +represented by the death of the horse. Every one knows that gods and +heroes delighted in showing themselves good horsemen, or, at least, good +charioteers. On this account, it would be difficult to say to which god +in particular the horse is sacred. The Vedic Açvinâu, the Vedic aurora, +who wins the race in her chariot, Agnis, Savitar, Indras, victorious and +splendid by means of their steeds, the hippios Poseidôn, the hippeia +Athênê, the hippodameia Aphroditê, the horsemen Dioscuri, Mars, Apollo, +Zeus, Pluto, and the German Wuotan (like his _alter ego_, St Zacchæus), +never show themselves otherwise than on horseback; hence the horse was +naturally sacred to all of them. In the Christian faith, the innumerable +gods of the ancients having become innumerable saints (when they were +not so unfortunate as to degenerate into devils), the horse is now +recommended in its stable to the protection of several saints, from the +obscure Sicilian St Aloi to the no less modest Russians St Froh and St +Laver, who take the horse, as well as the mule and the ass, under their +especial protection, not to speak of the glorious horsemen St George, St +Michael, St James, St Maurice, St Stephen, St Vladimir, and St Martin, +especially revered by warriors, and in whose honour the principal orders +of knighthood in Europe were founded. But religions being, from one +point of view, the caricature of mythologies, there is now some +difference between the mythical old deities and the legendary new ones, +inasmuch as the former would at times ingenuously accept the homage of +the animal in effigy, as we have observed in the preceding chapter; +while the latter, and they who purvey to them upon earth, not being +quite so simple, never leave their devotee in peace until they have +received, at sight and without discount, the full value of their +favours. In the Life of San Gallo, we read that, in the times of King +Pepin (we already know what these times mean), a certain Willimar, being +ill, promised, if cured, to offer a horse to the Church of San Gallo. +Having recovered his health, he forgot his promise; but passing one day +before the church of the saint, his horse stopped before the gate, and +by no possibility could it be induced to-move on, until Willimar had at +last declared his intention of fulfilling his vow. In the Life of St +Martin, there is a rather gayer variation of the same anecdote. King +Clodoveus, after having become a Christian, when fighting against the +Visigoths, promises his own horse to St Martin, if he grants the victory +to him. Having obtained it, Clodoveus regrets being obliged to deprive +himself of his good charger, and beseeches St Martin to be kind enough +to take money instead, offering him a hundred pieces of gold. St Martin +thinks the sum insufficient, and asks for double, which Clodoveus gives; +but, inasmuch as a little heretic blood still runs in his veins, he +cannot refrain from aiming a pointed witticism at him: "Martinus, +quantum video, auxiliator est facilis, sed mercator difficilis!"[685] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[526] The word _atyas_ has the same meaning. + +[527] Yunǵantv asya kâmyâ harî vipakshasâ rathe çonâ dhṛishṇû +ṇṛivâhasâ; _Ṛigv._ i. 6, 2. + +[528] Vaćoyuǵâu; _Ṛigv._ i. 7, 2. + +[529] Yukshvâ hi keçinâ harî vṛishaṇâ kakshyaprâ; _Ṛigv._ i. 10, 3. + +[530] Sûraćakshasaḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 16, 1. + +[531] Indrâya vaćoyuǵâ tatakshur manasâ harî; _Ṛigv._ i. 20, 2. + +[532] Saudhanvanâ açvâd açvam atakshata; _Ṛigv._ i. 161, 7. + +[533] Vi ǵanâń ćhyâvaḥ çitipâdo akhyan rathaṁ hiraṇyaprâugaṁ vahantaḥ; +_Ṛigv._ i. 33, 5. + +[534] Indro vañkû vañkutarâdhi tishṭhati; _Ṛigv._ i. 5, 11. + +[535] Yukshvâ madaćyutâ harî; _Ṛigv._ i. 81, 3. + +[536] Vâm açvinâ manaso ǵaviyân rathaḥ svaçvah; _Ṛigv._ i. 117, 2. + +[537] Â tvâ yaćhantu harito na sûryam ahâ viçveva sûryam; _Ṛigv._ i. +130, 2. + +[538] Harî sûryasya ketû; _Ṛigv._ ii. 11, 6. + +[539] Ghṛitaçćutaṁ svâram asvârshṭâm; _Ṛigv._ ii. 11, 7. + +[540] Pra ye dvitâ diva ṛińǵanty âtâḥ susammṛishṭâso vṛishabhasya +mûraḥ; _Ṛigv._ iii. 43, 6. + +[541] Indra haribhir yâhi mayûraromabhiḥ; _Ṛigv._ iii. 45. 1. + +[542] Shoḷhâ yuktâh pańća-pańćâ vahanti; _Ṛigv._ iii. 55, 18. + +[543] Patatribhir açramâir avyatibhir daṅsanâbhiḥ; _Ṛigv._ vii. 69, 7. +The Açvinâu also are called dravatpânî (swift-hoofed); _Ṛigv._ i. 3, 1. + +[544] Açvatarî--rathenâgnir âǵimadhâvattâsâṁ prâǵamâno +yonimakûlayattásmâttâ na viǵâyaṅte. Gobhiraruṇâirushâ +âǵimadhâvattasmâdushasyagatâyâmaruṇamivaeva +prabhâtyushasorûpamaçvarathenendra âǵimadhâvattasmâtsa uććâirghosha +upabdimânkshatrasya rûpamâindro hi sa gadarbharathenâçvinâ +udaǵayatâmaçvinâvâçnuvâtâm; _Ait. Br._ iv. 2, 9. + +[545] Tvâshtrî tu savitur bhâryâ vadavârupadhâriṇî asûyata mahâbhâgâ +sâ 'ntarîkshe 'çvinâvubhâu; _Mbh._ i. 2599. + +[546] _Il._ x. 352. + +[547] In the Monferrato, according to the information kindly given me, +concerning the beliefs relative to animals current in this country, by +Dr Giuseppe Ferraro, the young collector of the popular songs and +stories of the Monferrato, it is believed that the horse's teeth hung +upon the necks of infants at the breast cause them to cut their teeth, +and that the two incisors of the horse, when worn, are a spell to +charm away every evil. + +[548] _Mbh._ i. 1093-1237. + +[549] Cfr. the first of the Tuscan stories of _Santo Stefano di +Calcinaia_.--In the preceding chapter, we have seen how the apples of a +certain apple-tree cause horns to grow on whoever eats them. In an +unpublished Italian story, instead of the apple-tree, we have the +fig-tree, and instead of horns, the tail. It is narrated by an old man +of Osimo, in the Marches:--Three poor brothers, having but little +inclination for work, go in search of fortune round the world. Overtaken +in the country by night, they fall asleep in the open air. A fairy, +under the aspect of a hideous old woman, comes up and wakens them, +offering herself as their wife. The three brothers excuse themselves, +and declare that they wish for nothing except a little money with which +to make merry. The fairy answers, "Tell me what you wish for, and you +shall have it." The first asks for a purse, which shall always be full +of money; the second for a whistle, by blowing into which a whole army +of brave combatants would be summoned to his side; the third a mantle, +which would make its wearer invisible. The fairy satisfies them, and +then disappears in flames, like the devil. The eldest brother, Stephen, +goes with his purse into Portugal, where he plays and loses, but still +remains rich. This comes to the queen-dowager's ears, who wishes to see +the stranger, hoping to possess herself of his secret; she feigns to +love him, and the wedding-day is fixed; but before it comes she has +already gained his confidence, and taking the purse from him, she orders +him to be flogged. Stephen returns to his brothers, relates his +grievance, and proposing to revenge himself upon the queen, induces them +to lend him the whistle, which calls armies into existence. The queen +softens towards him, protesting that she expected to the last that he +would have appeared on the day appointed for the wedding, and that he +had been flogged without her knowledge. Stephen gives way, and the +whistle passes out of his hands into those of the queen. He is flogged +again, but twice as severely as before. Again he has recourse to his +brothers; he implores, supplicates, and promises to get everything back +by the miraculous mantle; but having obtained it, he allows himself to +be deceived once more by the queen. Deprived of everything, he wanders +about in despair, reduced to beggary. In the middle of January, he sees +a tree covered with beautiful figs; desirous of them, he eats with +avidity; but for every fig that he swallows, a span of tail as thick as +a boa grows on to him. He goes on his way, still more desperate, till he +finds more figs, of a smaller size; he eats them, and the tail +disappears. Contented with this discovery, he fills a basket with the +first figs, and disguised as a countryman, comes to the palace of the +Queen of Portugal. Every one marvels on seeing such fine figs in +January. The queen buys the basket, and every one eats; but tails +immediately grow on their backs. Stephen then dresses himself as a +doctor, and with the little figs, cures many persons. The queen has him +called; he obliges her to confess to him first, and in the confession +makes her say where the three marvellous gifts of the fairy are kept. +Having recovered them, he leaves the queen with ten spans of tail, and +returns rich and happy to his brothers. In this story there must be some +parts wanting; it is probable that the fairy warned the brothers not to +discover their secret to any one. The last enterprise, moreover, is more +likely to have been undertaken by the third brother, who always assumes +in fairy tales the part of the cunning one, than by the first-born, who +in this story represents the part of the fool.--Polydorus speaks of the +horse's tail as a chastisement for an insult to Thomas Archbishop of +Canterbury, in the thirteenth book of his _Hist. Angl._:--"Irridentes +Archiepiscopum, caudam equi cui insidebat, amputarunt. At postea nutu +Dei ita accidit, ut omnes ex eo hominum genere qui id facinus fecissent, +nati sunt instar brutorum caudati." + +[550] Hiraṇyakarṇam maṇigrîvam arṇas; _Ṛigv._ i. 122, 14. + +[551] _Ilíou Halôsis_, 65-72. + +[552] In the before-quoted collection of Radloff, _Täktäbäi Märgän_. + +[553] + + Longa solitos caligine pasci + Terruit orbis equos; pressis hæsere lupatis + Attoniti meliore polo; rursusque verendum + In chaos obliquo pugnant temone reverti. + Claudianus, _De Raptu Proserpinæ_, ii. 193. + +[554] _Phainomena_, 215. + +[555] _Mbh._ i. 1470, 1471. + +[556] Quelli cavalli che sono de pilo morello se fanno de humore +colerico impero che e più caldo humore et sicco che non e lo sangue et +per questo produce ad nigredine el pelo. _I tre Libri della Natura Dei +Cavalli et del Modo di medicar le Loro Infermità_, composti da Maestro +Agostino Columbre; _Prologo._ 6, Vinegia, 1547. + +[557] + + Hippomanes phüton esti par Arkasi tôi d'epi pasai + Kai pôloi mainontai an ôrea, kai thoai hippoi; ii. 48. + +[558] Devennosi corrigere et emendare quelli li quali se posseno dire +heretici, impero che voleno dire che quelle tal bestie che portano li +crini advolte et atrezate; et con loro poco cognoscimento dicono che +sono le streghe che li cavalcano et chiamanli cavalli stregari;" +_Prologo._ 10, the work quoted before.--Cfr. on the Damavoi, Ralston, +_The Songs of the Russian People_, p. 120, 139. + +[559] + + Hippous melaínas ou kalon pantôs blepein + Hippôn de leukôn opsis, aggelôn phasis. + +In Tuscany, flying horses, when seen in dreams, announce news; no +doubt, this flying horse seen in dreams can only refer to the +nocturnal voyage of the solar horse. + +[560] Cfr. Menzel, _Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre_, +Leipzig, 1870. + +[561] The Hungarians call the bier of the dead St Michael's horse; +Neo-Greek popular songs represent the ferryman of the dead, Charon, on +horseback; in Switzerland, the sight of a horse is a harbinger of +approaching death for a person seriously ill.--Cfr. Rochholtz, +_Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_, i. 163, 164. + +[562] _Afanassieff_, v. 37. + +[563] _Ib._ v. 54. + +[564] _Afanassieff_, i. 6. + +[565] _Ib._ ii. 25.--Cfr. iii. 5, iv. 27. + +[566] _Afanassieff_, ii. 28. + +[567] _Ib._ iv. 41.--In the twenty-first story of _Erlenwein_, the +poor brother obtains wealth by means of a mare's head, while the rich +brother, on the other hand, becomes poor.--In _Af._ v. 21, the +dwarf-boy, who possesses great strength, enters into the ear of one of +the two horses when in the act of ploughing; upon which they plough of +their own accord, and the old father of the dwarf is at liberty to +rest.--In the sixth Calmuck story, the head of the dead horse, when +fallen from the tree, brings riches and good luck to him who lets it +fall, who finds under it a golden cup: this is a form of the ambrosia +which comes out of the horse's head, which we shall find farther on. + +[568] The Russian text seems to me of too much importance, in the +history of myths, not to deserve to be recorded here: "Iediet apiát +vsadnik: sam ćornoi, adiet va vsiem ćornom; na ćornom kanié; padskakál +k varótam babijaghí i is-ćesz, kak skvosz szemliń pravalílsia; nastála +noć." + +[569] Idiót aná i draszít. Vdrúg skaćet mimo iejá vsadnik sam bieloi, +adiet v bielom, kon pod nim bieloi, i sbruja na kanié biélaja; na dvarié +stalo raszvietát. Idiót aná dalshe, kak skaćet drugoi vsadnik; sam +krasnoi, adiét v krasnom i na krasnom kanie; stalo vshódit solntze. + +[570] Yaḥ pâurusheyeṇa kravishâ samañkte yo açvyena paçunâ yâtudhânaḥ +yo aghnyâyâ bharati kshîram agne teshâin çîrshâṇi harasâpi vṛiçća; +_Ṛigv._ x. 87, 16.--Cfr. the dragon that torments the horses in the +_Tuti-Name_ of Rosen, ii. 300. + +[571] Tad agne ćakshuḥ prati dhehi rebhe çaphâruǵam yena paçyasi +yâtudhânam; _Ṛigv._ x. 87, 12.--The demon Hayagrîvas killed by Vishṇus, +which is the same as horse's neck, and Hayaçiras, or horse's head, +another monster giant in the _Râmâyaṇam_, iv. 43, 44, always refer to +the Vedic açva-yâtudhânas. We are already acquainted with the demon who, +during the night, makes the horses sweat and grow lean, _i.e._, who +makes them ugly. In the Latin tradition, after having assisted the +Romans in the battle of the Lake Regillus, Castor and Pollux were seen, +near the ambrosial lacus Iuturnæ (Ovidius, _Fasti_, i.), to wash the +sweat off their horses with the water of this lake, which was near the +temple of Vesta. To this Macaulay alludes in his verses-- + + "And washed their horses in the well + That springs by Vesta's fane." + --_Battle of the Lake Regillus_, xxxix. + +The salutary water of the Dioscuri, or sons of the luminous one, would +here occupy the place of the fire lighted by night in stables, and of +the Vedic Agnis who kills the monster of horses. My friend Giuseppe +Pitrè writes me, that in Sicily, when an ass, a mule, or a horse is to +enter a new stable, salt is put upon its back (a form of Christian +baptism), in order that the fairies may not lame it.--The Küllaros, +the heroic horse of the Dioscuri, is perhaps not unrelated to the word +_küllos_, which means lame and bent; the solar horse, before being +heroic, is hump-backed, lame, lean, and ugly; the lame hero, the lame +horse (ass or mule), the lame devil, seem to me to be three _penumbræ_ +of the solar hero, or of the sun in the darkness. + +[572] Vibhir ûhathur ṛigrebhir açvâiḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 117, 14.--Cfr. vii. +69, 7. + +[573] Açvain na gûḷham açvinâ durevâir ṛishiṁ narâ vṛisḥaṇâ rebham +apsu; _Ṛigv._ i. 117, 4.--The Açvinâu pass the sea upon a chariot, +which resembles a ship; this chariot is said to have the sun for a +covering--rathena sûryatvaćâ; _Ṛigv._ i. 47, 9. + +[574] Yam açvinâ dadathuḥ çvetam açvam aghâçvâya çaçvad it svasti; +_Ṛigv._ i. 116, 6. + +[575] Agnis tuviçravastamain tuvibrahmâṇam uttamam atûrtaṁ çrâvayatpatim +putram dadâti dâçushe--Agnir dadâti satpatiṁ sâsâha yo yudhâ nṛibhiḥ +agnir atyaṁ raghushyadaṁ ǵetâram aparâǵitam; _Ṛigv._ v. 25, 5, 6. + +[576] _Ṛigv._ i. 155, 6. + +[577] i. 154, 4. + +[578] Vishṇor nu kaṁ vîryaṇi pra voćam yaḥ pârthivâni vimame raǵâṅsi +yo askabhâyad uttaraṁ sadhasthaṁ vićakramâṇas tredhorugâyah; _Ṛigv._ +i. 154, 1. + +[579] Yadâ te vishṇur oǵasâ trîṇi padâ vićakram âd it te haryatâ harî +vavakshatuḥ; _Ṛigv._ viii. 12, 27. + +[580] _Râmây._ iv. 40. + +[581] Yuktas te astu dakshiṇa uta savyaḥ çatakrato tena ǵâyâm upa +priyâm mandâno yâhy andhaso yoǵâ; _Ṛigv._ i. 82, 5. + +[582] Tad û shu vâm aǵiraṁ ćeti yânain yena patî bhavathaḥ sûryâyâh; +_Ṛigv._ iv. 43, 6.--In the following hymn, strophe 1st, the aurora is +called now daughter of the sun, now cow: Tam vâṁ rathaṁ vayam adyâ +huvema pṛithuǵrayam açvinâ saṁgatiṁ goḥ--Taḥ sûryâṁ vahati. + +[583] Rathasya naptyaḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 50. 9. + +[584] _Ṛigv._ i. 116, 10. + +[585] vi. 9. + +[586] The lake of Brâhman, visited by Hanumant in the _Râmâyaṇam_, vi. +53, has the form of a horse's snout (hayânanam). + +[587] Indro dadhîćo asthabhir vṛitrâṇy apratishkutaḥ ǵaghâna navatîr +nava; _Ṛigv._ i. 84, 13, 14, i. 117, 22, and the corresponding +commentary of Sâyaṇas.--The bones of the heroic horse possess strength +equal to that of the horse itself; thus in the last chapter we have +seen how, when the bones of the sacrificed bull or cow are kept, it +springs up again with renewed strength.--Cfr. concerning this subject +the interesting and copious details relating to European beliefs to be +found in Rochholtz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_, i. 219-253. + +[588] ii. 24. + +[589] Divo napâtâ; _Ṛigv._ i. 182, 1. + +[590] As to the Vedic passage, v. 76, 3, where it would seem that the +Açvinâu are invoked in the morning, at midday, and in the evening, +there seems to me to be room for discussion. The text says: Utâ yâtam +sañgave prâtar ahno (that is, in the early dawn, when the cows are +gathered together), madhyandine (which, in my mind, is the middle term +which separates the gloomy hours from the luminous ones), uditâ +sûryasya (which, meaning the rising of the sun, cannot express +evening, but precisely the rising of the morning sun). We too would +have thus expressed the three moments in the morning in which it was +opportune to invoke the Açvinâu. + +[591] Sushupvâṅsaṁ na nirṛiter upasthe sûryaṁ na dasrâ tamasi +kshiyantam çubhe rukmaṁ na darçataṁ nikhâtam ud ûpathur açvinâ +vandanâya; _Ṛigv._ i. 117, 5. + +[592] Madhupṛishṭhaṁ ghoram ayâsam açvam; _Ṛigv._ ix. 89, 4. + +[593] _Ṛigv._ viii. 104, 15-25. + +[594] Quoted in Muir's _Sanskṛit Texts_, v. 264.--Somas united with +Agnis in the _Ṛigvedas_, Somas united with Rudras, seem, in my opinion, +to be the same as Somas united with Indras.--Cfr. Muir, v. 269, 270. + +[595] xii. 1, quoted by Muir in his _Sanskṛit Texts_, v. 224. + +[596] In the _Edda_ we find the Açvinâu under the forms of night and +day. Odin took Natt and Dag her son, gave them two horses and two +drays, and placed them in the heavens to go round the earth in +twenty-four hours. Natt was the first to advance with Hrimfaxe, her +horse; he scatters every morning the foam from his bit upon the earth; +it is the dew. The horse of Dag is named Skenfaxe; the air and the +earth are illumined by his mane. + +[597] Â vâm patitvaṁ sakhyâya ǵagmushî yoshâvṛiṇîta ǵenyâ yuvâm patî; +_Ṛigv._ i. 119, 5. + +[598] Cfr. the legends relating to Ćyavanas cured by the Açvinâu in +the _Çatapatha Brâhmaṇam_ and in the _Mahâbhâratam_, referred to by +Muir in the above-quoted fifth volume of the _Sanskṛit Texts_, p. 250, +and those following. + +[599] In the _Ṛigv._ i. 8, 2, also, the invokers of Indras desire to +fight the enemies, the monsters Mushṭihatyayâ and Arvatâ, by fist and +by horses. + +[600] _Mbh._ i. 6484-6504. + +[601] _Râmây._ i. 49, ii. 7. + +[602] iv. 12. + +[603] iv. 7, 17. + +[604] iv. 8. + +[605] iv. 10. + +[606] _Râmây._ iv. 8. + +[607] The Persian hero often takes his name from his horse or his +horses; hence Kereçâçpa, Vîstâçpa, Arǵâçp, Gustâçp, Yapâçp, +Pûrushâçpa, Açpâyaodha, &c. + +[608] Cfr. Spiegel's _Avesta_, ii. 72.--In the Servian stories of +Wuck, one of two brothers sleeps, transformed into stone with all his +people, until the other comes to free and resuscitate him. + +[609] i. 91, and following, Rosen's version. + +[610] ii. 20, and following. + +[611] ii. 157. + +[612] _Tuti-Name_, i. 151. + +[613] Cfr. a zoological variety of this myth in the chapter on the +Cock and the Hen. + +[614] This is a variety of the legend of the Tzar's daughter enamoured +of Emilius, the foolish and idle, though fortunate, youth, whom the +indignant Tzar orders to be shut up in a cask and thrown with her +lover into the sea, as we have seen in the first chapter. + +[615] iv. 24. + +[616] We shall shortly find the hare (the moon) who devours the mare. + +[617] i. 53. + +[618] U kavó preszde sviećâ sama saboi zagaritsia, tot tzar budiet. + +[619] Tzelijá kući zolotá v anbarah nasipani; ćto ni pluniet on, to +vsié zólotom; dievat niekudá! + +[620] It will, I hope, be deemed not inappropriate to quote here the +words with which Professor Roth begins his essay upon the legend of +Çunaḥçepas in the first volume of the _Indische Studien_: "Die Deutung +der indischen Sagengeschichte sucht noch die Regeln, nach welchen die +das überlieferte verworrene Material behanden soll. Eine und dieselbe +Sage wird vielleicht in zehn verschiedenen Büchern in zehnfacher Form +erzählt. Glaubt man einen festen Punkt gefunden zu haben, auf welchen +nach einem Berichte die Spitze der Erzählung zusammenläuft, so streben +andere Berichte wieder nach ganz anderem Ziele und treiben denjenigen, +der einen festen Kern der Sage fassen will, rathlos im Kreise herum. Die +Widersprüche, mit welchen ein Sammler und Ordner griechischer +Heldensagen zu kämpfen hat, sind lauter Einklang und Klarheit im +Vergleiche zu dem wirren Knäuel, in welchen die Willkühr indischer +Poeten die reichen Ueberlieferungen ihrer Vorzeit zusammengeballt hat." + +[621] ix. 37, 3.--I observe that the same craft as that used by the +two brothers to steal the treasure, in an as yet unpublished fairy +tale of the Canavese in Piedmont, was employed by the inexperienced +robber, who becomes at length very skilful to rob the loaves from the +baker's oven. The Piedmontese thief makes an opening from without, and +thus carries the bread off. The same thief then steals the king's +horse. At first, he learns his profession from the chief of the +robbers. The chief sends him the first time to waylay some travellers, +and bids him leap upon them; the young thief obeys these directions to +the letter; he makes the travellers lie down and then jumps upon them, +but does not rob them. The second time the chief tells him to take the +travellers' quattrini (the name of a very small coin, by which money +in general is also expressed). The young thief takes the quattrini +alone, and lets the travellers keep their dollars and napoleons. At +last, however, he becomes an accomplished thief. + +[622] Cfr. in the same _Pentamerone_, the ninth story of the first +book; the eighteenth of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_; +the thirty-ninth of the Sicilian stories of the _Gonzenbach_; the +sixtieth and the eighty-fifth story of Grimm's collection, _Kinder und +Hausmärchen_; the tenth of Kuhn and Schwartz's _Märchen_; the +twenty-second of the Greek stories of Hahn, _Griechische und +Albanesische Märchen_; the fourth of Campbell's in _Orient und +Occident_; the first book of the _Pańćatantram_, and the twelfth story +of the fifth book of the same; and Cox, the work quoted before, i. +141, 142, 161, 281, 393, &c. + +[623] In the _Pentamerone_, i. 9, the queen's son does the same with +the wife of his twin-brother; "Mese la spata arrancata comme staccione +'miego ad isso ed a Fenizia." + +[624] In the corresponding collections of Ferraro, Bolza, and +Wolf.--Cfr. the end of the twenty-eighth of the _Novelline di Santo +Stefano di Calcinaia_. + +[625] i. 807 and following. + +[626] iv. 4. + +[627] i. 41-43. + +[628] _Râmây._ i. 13. + +[629] i. 13. + +[630] In the Western stories, instead of the horse's fat or marrow, it +is generally the fish eaten by the queen and her servant-maid which +gives life to the two brothers, who become three when the water in +which the fish was washed is given to be drunk by the mare or the +bitch, whence the son of the mare or bitch is born. I have already +attempted to prove the identity of the fish with the phallos; the fish +eaten by the queen, the maid, the mare, or the bitch, which renders +them pregnant, seems to me a symbol of coition. The horse's fat or +marrow smelled by the queen seems to have the same meaning. + +[631] Vâǵino devaǵâtasya sapteḥ pravakshyâmo vidathe vîryâṇi; _Ṛigv._ +i. 162, 1.--Sûrâd açvaṁ vasavo nir atashṭa; _Ṛigv._ i. 163, 2. + +[632] Sâdhur na gṛidhnuḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 70, 11. + +[633] Vikroçatâm nâdo bhûtânâm salilâukasâm çrûyate bhṛiçâmârttânâṁ +viçatâm vaḍavâmukham; _Râmây._ iv. 40.--Aurvas, who, in the shape of a +horse's head, swallows the water of the sea and vomits flames, is a +variety of the same solar myth; _Mbh._ i. 6802, and following verses. + +[634] Hiraṇyaçṛiñgo yo asya pâdâ manoǵavâ; _Ṛigv._ i. 163, 9.--Tava +çṛiñgâṇi vishṭhitâ purutr âraṇyeshu ǵarbhurâṇâ ćaranti. 11.--We find +the stag in relation with the horse, as his stronger rival until man +mounts upon the horse's back, in the well-known apologue of Horace, +_Epist._ i. 10. + + "Cervus equum pugna melior communibus herbis + Pellebat, donec minor in certamine longo + Imploravit opes hominis, frenumque recepit; + Sed postquam victor discessit ab hoste, + Non equitem dorso, non frenum depulit ore." + +[635] Vṛiksho nishṭhito madhye arṇaso yaṁ tâugryo nâdhitaḥ +paryashasvaǵat; _Ṛigv._ i. 182, 7. + +[636] _Afanassieff_, v. 11. + +[637] Apa yor indraḥ pâpaǵa â marto na çaçramâṇo bibhîvân çubhe yad +yuyuǵe tavishîvân; _Ṛigv._ x. 105, 3. + +[638] Iasya saṁsthe na vṛiṇvate harî samatsu çatravaḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 5, 4. + +[639] Açvyo vâro abhavas tad indra; _Ṛigv._ i. 32, 12; and the Hindoo +commentator notes that Indras chased the enemy as the tail of a horse +shakes off the insects that place themselves upon it, which it is much +more natural to believe of the tail of Indras's horse, which is +covered with milk, butter, honey, and ambrosia. + +[640] _Ṛigv._, the hymn quoted before, i. 84, 13, 14; Agnis, too, is +honoured as a tailed horse (vâravantam açvam), _Ṛigv._ i. 27, 1. + +[641] Ṛiǵipyaṁ çyenam prushitapsum âçum ćarkṛityam aryo nṛipatiṁ na +çûram--vâtam iva dhraǵantam--uta smâsya tanyator iva dyor ṛighâyato +abhiyuǵo bhayante yadâ sahasram abhi shîm ayodhîd durvartuḥ smâ +bhavati bhîma ṛińǵan; _Ṛigv._ iv. 38, 2, 3, 8. + +[642] Avakrâmantaḥ prapadâir amitrân; _Ṛigv._ vi. 75, 7. + +[643] vi. 49. + +[644] Cfr. Simrock, _Handbuch der Deutschen Mythologie_, p. 375, and +Rochholtz, the work quoted before. + +[645] _Afanassieff_, ii. 24. + +[646] _Ib._ v. 6. + +[647] _Ib._ v. 35. + +[648] Povíshe liessú stajáćavo, ponísze ablaká hadiáćavo. + +[649] For instance, in the _Pentamerone_, iii. 7, where the king of +Scotland sends Corvetto to steal the horse of the ogre who lives ten +miles distant from Scotland: "Haveva st' Huorco no bellissimo cavallo, +che pareva fatto co lo penniello, e tra le autre bellizze no le +mancava manco la parola." When Corvetto carries off the horse, it +cries out, "A l'erta ca Corvetto me ne porta."--Cfr. also the +_Pentamerone_, iii. 1.--Not only has the horse the gift of speech, but +the chariot too: in the seventh book of the _Râmâyaṇam_, 44, the +chariot Pushpakam speaks to Râmas, and says to him that he alone is +worthy of driving it. + +[650] _Afanassieff_, vi. 46.--Cfr. also v. 22, and the 26th of the +_Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_. + +[651] i. 61, 15. + +[652] Anaçvo ǵâto anabhîçur arvâ; _Ṛigv._ i. 152, 5. + +[653] Cfr. Menzel, _Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre_. + +[654] Sapta svasâraḥ suvitâya sûryaṁ vahanti harito rathe; _Ṛigv._ +vii. 66, 15. + +[655] Adha kratvâ maghavan tubhyaṁ devâ anu viçve adaduḥ somapeyam yat +sûryasya haritaḥ patantîḥ purah satîr uparâ etaçe kaḥ; _Ṛigv._ v. 29, 5. + +[656] Â no nâvâ matînâṁ yâtam parâya gantave, yuńǵâthâm açvinâ ratham; +_Ṛigv._ i. 46, 7. + +[657] Krandad açvo nayamâno ruvad gâur antar dûto na rodasî ćarad vâk; +_Ṛigv._ i. 173, 3. + +[658] Ghṛitaçćutaṁ svâram asvârshṭâm; _Ṛigv._ ii. 11, 7. + +[659] ... in equæ genitalem partem demissam manum, cum ad eum locum +ventum esset, naribus equi admovit, quo odore irritatus ante omnes +hinnitum edidit, auditoque eo sex reliqui summæ potestatis continuo +equis dilapsi candidati, ut mos est Persarum, humi prostratis +corporibus Darium regem salutarunt; Valerius Maximus, _Mem._ vii.; +_Herodotus_, iii. 87. Herodotus also refers to another variation of +the same anecdote, where he adds, that at the first dawn of day it +lightninged and thundered. + +[660] Devî ǵîrâ rathânâm; _Ṛigv._ i. 48, 3.--Çataṁ rathebhiḥ +subhagoshâ iyaṁ vi yâty abhi mânushân; i. 48, 7. + +[661] Upa tmani dadhâno dhury âçûnt sahasrâṇi çatâni vaǵrabâhuḥ; +_Ṛigv._ iv. 29, 4. + +[662] Cfr. _Ṛigv._ iv. 3, 11; iv. 13, 3. + +[663] Cfr. Böhtling u. Roth, _Sanskṛit Wörterbuch_, s. v. _açvin_. + +[664] Kuhn u. Schwartz, p. 330.--The English proverbial expression, "a +mare's nest," now used to denote an impossibility, probably originally +referred to a real myth. + +[665] _Künêgetikôn_, i. 284. + +[666] ii. 3.--"Allecordatose d'haver 'ntiso na vota da certe +stodiante, che le cavalle de Spagna se'mpreñano co lo viento;" and the +story goes on to speak of the ogre's surprise, who, seeing a beautiful +maiden in his garden, "penzaie che lo shiavro de lo pideto, havesse +'ngravedato quarche arvolo, e ne fosse sciuta sta penta criatura; +perzo abbracciatala co gran'ammore, decette, figlia mia, parte de sto +cuorpo, shiato de lo spireto mio, e chi me l' havesse ditto mai, che +co na ventosetate, havesse dato forma a ssa bella facce?" Varro +seriously wrote: "In fætura res incredibilis est in Hispania, sed est +vera, quod in Lusitania ad Oceanum in ea regione, ubi est oppidum +Olyssipo monte Tagro, quædam e vento concipiunt equæ, ut hic gallinæ +solent, quarum ova hypanemia appellant, sed ex his equis qui nati +pulli, non plus triennium vivunt." + +[667] Rathebhir açvaparṇâiḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 88, 1.--In Horace, _Carm._ i. +14-- + + "Namque Diespiter, + Igni corusco nubila dividens, + Plerumque per purum tonantes + Egit equos, volucremque currum." + +[668] Açrûṇi ćâsya mumucurvâǵinaḥ; _Râmây._ vi. 75. + +[669] In the corresponding Italian stories, the hero or heroine, +punished for some indiscretion, must, before being pardoned, wear out +seven pairs of iron shoes, and fill seven flasks with their tears. + +[670] Proximus diebus equorum greges, quos in trajiciendo Rubicon +Marti consacraverat, ac sine custodibus vagos dimiserat, comperit +pabulo pertinacissime abstinere, ubertimque flere. + +[671] xvii. 426. + +[672] iii. 740. + +[673] Vṛishâ tvâ vṛishaṇaṁ vardhatu dyâur vṛishâ vṛishabhyâm vahase +haribhyâm sa no vṛisha vṛisharathaḥ suçipra vṛishakrato vṛishâ vaǵrin +bhare dhâh; _Ṛigv._ v. 36, 5.--In Piedmont there exists a game of +conversation, consisting in the description of the presents which one +intends making to one's bride, in which description the letter _r_ +must never enter; he who introduces it loses the game. + +[674] Vṛishâyam indra te ratha uto te vṛishaṇâ harî; _Ṛigv._ viii. 13, +31. + +[675] Apâm phenena namućeḥ çira indrod avartayaḥ; _Ṛigv._ viii. 14, 13. + +[676] It is also called the canine cough, and it is believed on this +account that it is cured when the children are made to drink where a +dog has been drinking. + +[677] _De Quadrupedibus_ i. + +[678] Du Cange, _Gloss. Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis_, s. v. _caballus_. + +[679] Vṛshapâṇayo 'çvâḥ; _Ṛigv._ vi. 75, 7. + +[680] Kârotarâć ćhaphâd açvasya vṛishṇaḥ çataṁ kumbhâṅ asińćataṁ +surâyaḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 116, 7. + +[681] "One spot on the margin of Lake Regillus was for many ages +regarded with superstitious awe. A mark, resembling in shape a horse's +hoof, was discernible in the volcanic rock; and this mark was believed +to have been made by one of the celestial chargers."--Macaulay, +Preface to the _Battle of the Lake Regillus_. + +[682] _Afanassieff_, iv. 45. + +[683] The milk of white mares, which, according to Olaus Magnus (i. +24) was poured into the ground by the king of the Goths every year, on +the 28th of August, in honour of the gods, who received it with great +avidity, would seem to be an announcement of the imminent rains of +autumn; the horse loses his ambrosial humour, and his end is at hand. + +[684] The Græco-Latin proverb, "Equus me portat, alit rex," would seem +also to have a mythical origin, and to refer to the mythical legend of +the betrayed blind man, who carries the cunning hunchback or lame man; +who sometimes only feigns lameness, in order to play off his practical +jokes upon his companion. + +[685] The fable in _Phædrus_, iv. 24, of the poet Simonides saved by the +Dioscuri, is well known; but the gods punish the miser who refuses to +give the reward that he had promised, not on their own account, but on +account of the wrong done to the poet, whom they love. It is remarkable +that, as the Latin legend shows us the horses of the Dioscuri +perspiring, so Phædrus represents the Dioscuri themselves as-- + + "Sparsi pulvere + Sudore multo diffluentes corpore." + +This sweat must be the crepuscular mists, in the same way as the poet +Simonides, who alone escapes, being delivered by the Dioscuri, the +ceiling of whose banqueting-hall he had ruined, seems to conceal an +image of the sun saved from the night. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE ASS. + + +SUMMARY. + + Glory has been pernicious to the ass.--The purely stupid ass not an + ancient belief in India.--Eastern and Western asses; the ass of an + inferior quality pays the penalty of the reputation acquired in the + East by his superior congener.--Christianity, instead of improving + the condition of the ass, has aggravated it.--The mediæval hymn in + honour of the ass is a satire.--The ass in the sacred ceremonies of + the Church.--Physical and moral decadence of the ass.--Indian names + of the ass; equivoques in language form myths.--Gardabhas and + gandharbas.--Identification of the mythical ass with the gandharvas; + both are in connection with salutary waters, with perfumes or + unguents, and with women.--The ass which carries mysteries.--The + flight into Egypt; the ass laden; the old man, the boy, and the + ass.--Peau d'âne.--The onokentauros.--Urvaçî and Purûravas in + connection with the gandharvas; Cupid and Psyche in connection with + the ass.--The mythical ass and the kentauros correspond, as well as + the ass and the gandharvas.--The Hindoo onocentaur and satyr; monkey + and gandharvas as warriors.--Kentauros, gandharvas, and ass in the + capacity of musicians and dancers.--Kṛiçâçvas + dancing-master.--Kṛiçânus and Kereçâni.--Hybrid nature of the + mythical ass and of the gandharvas.--The Açvinâu ride asses, and + give youth to Ćyavanas; the youthfulness of the ass.--The Vedic ass + as a warrior.--The Vedic ass flies.--The decadence of the ass dates + as far back as the Vedâs; its explanation.--The phallic ass and the + punishment of the ass for adulterers.--The braying of the ass in + heaven; Indras kills the ass.--The funereal and demoniacal ass of + the Hindoos; the ass piçâćas; the faces of parrots; equivoque + originated by the words _haris_ and _harit_.--The golden ass.--The + ass in love.--The ass in the tiger's skin.--The ass who betrays + himself by singing.--The Zend lame ass who brays in the + water.--Rustem, devourer of asses.--The ass's kick.--The fool and + the ass, the trumpet and the drum, the trumpet of Malacoda.--The + king Midas in the Mongol story; the hero forced to speak, in order + not to burst.--The ass among the monkeys.--Midas, king of Phrygia, + in connection with the ass, with Silenos, Dionysos, the roses, gold, + blades of corn, and waters.--The centaurs among the flowers.--The + ass awakens Vesta whilst she is being seduced.--Priapos and the ass + of Silenos.--The ass as a musical umpire between the cuckoo and the + nightingale.--Midas judges between Pan and Apollo.--The ears of King + Midas; his secret revealed by the young man who combs his hair.--The + Phrygian ass held up to derision by the Greeks.--The Greek spirit of + nationality still more pernicious to the ass.--The ass of Vicenza + impaled.--Pan and the ass.--Gandharvâs and satyrs.--Pan and the + nymphs.--Syrinx and the reed or cane; the leaf of the cane, and the + ass.--Pan chases away fear; the ass's skin gives courage.--The ass + in hell; golden excrements.--The heroic ass and Pan.--Perseus who + eats asses.--The ass and the water of the Styx; the horned ass.--The + cornucopia.--Ass and goat.--The asses save the hero out of the + water.--The asses in heaven.--The ass carries the water of + youth.--Ass's milk has a cosmetic virtue.--Youth and beauty of the + ass.--The deaths of the ass.--The ass carries wine and drinks + water.--The ass wet by the rain, the ass's ears predict rainy + weather.--The shadow of the ass; the ass's wool; lana caprina; to + shear the ass; the gold on the ass's head.--Asini prospectus.--The + ass and the gardener.--The ass chases the winds away.--The third + braying or flatus of the ass kills the fool.--The prophetic ass; the + kick of the ass kills the lion; the ass a good listener, who hears + everything; the hero Oidin Oidon; the ears of Lucifer. + +The ass, in Europe at least, has had the misfortune to have been born +under an evil star, a circumstance which must be reckoned to the +account of the Greeks and Romans, whose humour it was to treat it as a +sort of Don Quixote of animals. Its liability to be flogged has always +increased with its celebrity, which, no one can deny, is great and +indefeasible. The poor ass has paid very dear, and continues to pay +still dearer, upon earth for the flight which the fantasy of primeval +men made it take in the mythical heavens. May this chapter--if it +produce no other effect--have at least that of sparing the poor +calumniated animal some few of the many blows which, given in fun, it +is accustomed to receive, as if to afford a vent for the satirical +humour of our race, and _ad exhilarandam caveam_. + +The germ of the reputation the ass has of being both a stupid and a +petulant animal, acquired in Greece and in Italy, spreading thence +into all the other parts of Europe, may already be found in the +ancient myths of the Hindoos. Professor Weber,[686] however, has +proved, in answer to Herr Wagener, that the idea of a stupid and +presumptuous ass, such as we always find it represented in the fables +of the _Pańćatantram_, was diffused in India by the Greeks, and is not +indigenous to Hindoo faith and literature. + +In India, the ass was not a particular object of ridicule; and this +was perhaps for the simple reason that the Eastern varieties of the +asinine family are far handsomer and nobler than the Western ones. The +ass in the East is generally ardent, lively, and swift-footed, as in +the West it is generally slow and lazy, having no real energy except +of a sensual nature. For if even the West (and especially the south of +Europe) possesses a distinct species of ass, which reminds us of the +_multinummus_ ass of Varro (in the same way as the East also, though +exceptionally, has inferior varieties), the asinine multitude in +Europe is composed of animals of a low type and a down-trodden +appearance, and it is against them that our jests and our floggings +are especially directed. This is the proverbial ass's kick against the +fallen; the poor outcast of the West dearly pays the penalty of the +honours conceded to his illustrious mythical ancestors of the East. We +think that the ass of which we hear heroic achievements related is the +same as that which now humbly carries the pack; and since we no longer +regard him as capable of a magnanimous action, we suppose that he +(unfortunate animal!) appropriates to himself all these ancient +glories out of vain presumption, for which reason there is no affront +which we do not feel entitled to offer to him. Nor did Christianity +succeed in delivering him from persecution,--Christianity, which, as +it represents the Sun of nations, the Redeemer of the world, as born +between the two musical animals, the ox and the ass (who were to +prevent His cries from being heard), and introduces the ass as the +saviour of the Divine Child persecuted during the night, and as the +animal ridden by Christ, in his last entry into Jerusalem, invested +him with more than one sacred title which ought from its devotees to +have procured for him a little more regard. Unfortunately, the same +famous mediæval ecclesiastical hymn which was sung in France on the +14th of January in honour of the ass, richly caparisoned near the +altar, to celebrate the flight into Egypt, was turned into a satire. +It must have been not without some gay levity that priest and people +exclaimed "Hinham!" three times after the conclusion of the mass, on +the day of the festival of the ass.[687] Nor did the inhabitants of +Empoli show him more reverence, when, on the eighth day after the +festival of the _Corpus Domini_--that is, near the summer +solstice--they made him fly in the air, amid the jeers of the crowd; +nor the Germans, who, in Westphalia, made the ass a symbol of the dull +St Thomas, who was the last of the apostles to believe in the +resurrection. The Westphalians were accustomed to call by the name of +"the ass Thomas" (as in Holland he is called "luilak") the boy who on +St Thomas's Day was the last to enter school.[688] On Christmas Day, +in the Carnival, on Palm-Sunday, and in the processions which follow +the festival of _Corpus Domini_,[689] the Church often introduced the +ass into her ceremonies, but more in order to exhilarate the minds of +her devotees than to edify them by any suggestion of the virtues it +represents in the Gospels; so that, notwithstanding the great services +rendered by the ass to the Founder of the new religion, he not only +received no benefit in return from Christianity, but became instead +the unfortunate object of new attentions, which rather depressed than +heightened his already sufficiently degraded social condition. + +And so the Greeks and Romans first, and the Catholic priests afterwards, +combined, by their treatment of him, to make the ass more indifferent +than he would otherwise have been to the passion and spirited struggle +for life shown in all the other animals. He was perhaps intended for a +higher fate, if man had not come upon earth, and interfered too +persistently to thwart his vocation. And probably his race gradually +deteriorated, just because, having become ridiculous, few cared to +preserve or increase his nobleness. As the proverb said that it was +useless to wash the ass's head, so it seemed useless for man to +endeavour to ameliorate or civilise his form: the physical decadence of +the ass was contemporary and parallel with his decline morally. + +But although it was in Greece and Rome that the poor ass was thrown +completely down from his rank in the animal kingdom, the first decree of +his fall was pronounced in his ancient Asiatic abode. Let us prove this. + +In the _Ṛigvedas_, the ass already appears under two different +aspects--one divine and the other demoniacal--to which may perhaps be +added a third intermediate or gandharvic aspect. + +In the _Ṛigvedas_, the ass has the names of _gardabhas_ and +_râsabhas_; in Sanskṛit, also those of _kharas, ćakrîvant, ćiramehin_, +and _bâleyas_. + +It is important to notice how each of these designations tends to +lapse into ambiguity; and ambiguity in words plays a considerable part +in the formation of myths and popular beliefs. + +Let us begin with the most modern designations. + +_Bâleyas_ may mean the childish one (from _bâlas_ = child, and +stupid[690]), as well as the demoniacal (from _balis_; and indeed, +besides being a name given to the ass, _bâleyas_ is also a name for a +demon). + +_Ćiramehin_ is the ass as _longe mingens_ (a quality which can apply +to the ass, but still more so to the rainy cloud). + +_Ćakrîvant_ means he who is furnished with wheels, with round objects or +testicles (an epithet equally applicable to the ass and his phallos). + +_Kharas_ signifies he who cries out, as well as the ardent one (and +_kharus_, which ought to have the same meaning, signifies, according +to the Petropolitan Dictionary, foolish, and horse; perhaps ass too). + +_Râsabhas_ is derived from the double root _ras_, whence _rasa_ = +humour, juice, water, savour, sperm, and _râsa_ = din, tumultuous noise. + +_Gardabhas_ comes from the root _gard_,[691] to resound, to bellow; but +I think I can recognise in the word _gardabhas_ the same meaning as +_gandharbas_ or _gandharvas_, and _vice versa_. The _gardabhas_ explains +to me how the _gandharvas_ was conceived to be a musician; and the +_gandharvas_ (a word which, I repeat, seems to me composed of _gandha_ + +_arvas_, developed out of a hypothetic _ṛivas_,[692] that is, he who +walks in the unguent, or he who goes in the perfume) helps me to +understand the proverb, "Asinus in unguento," and the corresponding +legends. The equivocal word _râsabhas_, in its two meanings, seems to +unite together the sonorous _gardabhas_ with the _gandharbas_ who likes +perfumes, or the _gandharvo apsu_ (_gandharvas_ in the waters) of the +_Ṛigvedas_,[693] the guardian of the ambrosial plant.[694] The mythical +ass and the Vedic _gandharvas_ have the same qualities and the same +instincts. The gandharvâs, for instance, are represented in the +_Âitareya Br._ as lovers of women,[695] so much so that for a woman's +sake they allow themselves to be deprived of the ambrosia (or somas); +and it is also known from the story of Urvaçî how jealous they are of +their nymphs, the _apsarâs_, or them who flow by on the waters (the +clouds), and from the story of Hanumant, in the _Râmâyaṇam_, how greedy +they are of their salutary herbs and waters.[696] The mythical and +legendary ass also has a foible for beautiful maidens; it is unnecessary +to give the reason of this belief.[697] When Circe wishes to give, by +means of an unguent, an ass's head to Odysseus, we find an allusion to +the loves of the ass and the beautiful woman. When the Lucius of +Apuleius, while endeavouring to change himself into a bird (another of +the names by which the phallos is indicated), becomes instead, by means +of the woman's unguent, an ass, the ass is another name for the +phallical bird. And as the Vedic ass delights in the _rasas_, or humour, +water or sperm (the two words _râsas_ and _rasas_, derived from a common +root, being easily interchangeable); as the mythical ass, when it finds +the ambrosia of the roseate morning aurora, once more becomes the +splendid young sun; so the ass of Apuleius, too, becomes Lucius again, +or the luminous and handsome youth that he was before, as soon as he has +an opportunity of feeding upon roses: he becomes an ass for love of a +woman, and regains his splendour in the rosy aurora. During the night, +being subject to the enchantment of a beautiful fairy, the hero remains +an ass; and in the form of an ass, and under an ass's skin, he carries +the priapœan mysteries, whence the expression of Aristophanes in the +_Frogs_, "The ass which carries mysteries" (onos agôn müstêria), the +same mysteries as the Phallagia or Perifallia of Rome. In the Christian +myth, this mystery is the flight of the new-born Divine Child into +Egypt;[698] in the story of Perrault, it is the beautiful maiden, the +evening aurora, the girl persecuted by her father and would-be seducer, +who disguises herself during the night with an ass's skin;[699] the +beautiful girl evidently transfers her erotic sympathies to the ass that +loves her. Of loves such as these,--of an ass with a maiden, or of the +young hero and an ass,--are born the monstrous onokentaurs and Empusa, +now a beautiful maiden, and now the terrifier of children, who is +represented with ass's feet, because her mother was an ass, and her +father, Aristoxenes, enamoured of an ass. It is now the evening aurora, +now the dying sun, and now both, who, under the cloud of night, or in +winter, are represented as covered with an ass's skin. Professor Kuhn +has already proved the close affinity, amounting to identity, between +the gandharvâs and the Hellenic kentauroi, both of which come before us +in connection with the inebriating drink; but the kentauros is +essentially a hippokentauros, or, still better, an onokentauros,[700] +or centaur ass. The fable of Cupid and Psyche in Apuleius, in its +relation with the story of the ass, perfectly agrees with the analogous +Hindoo fable of the loves of Purûravas and Urvaçî, united with the story +of the Gandharvâs. Peau d'âne, Psyche, and Urvaçî are therefore mythical +sisters. + +Professor Kuhn's proof of the identity of the gandharvas and the +kentauros being admitted, the identity of the gardabhas with the +gandharbas, and of the ass with the gandharvas, seems to follow as a +natural consequence. The myth of the kentauros, either hippokentauros or +onokentauros, no less than the myth of the gandharvas, corresponds +entirely with that of the ass. The kentauros loves wine and women; he +plays the lyre upon the car of Dionysos in conjunction with satyrs, +nymphs, and bacchantes; he teaches on Mount Pelion music,[701] the +science of health, and the prophetic art to the Dioscuri, which are all +subjects that occur again with slight modifications in the Hindoo +legends concerning the gandharvâs, and in the fable of the ass, as we +shall prove hereafter.--But to return to the Hindoo myth; in the same +way as the gandharvâs has a hybrid nature, and shows himself at one time +in the aspect of a demi-god, at another in that of a semi-demon, so the +mythical ass of India has now a divine nature, and now a human. The +gandharvas is the guardian of riches and waters: inasmuch as he defends +them from the demoniacal robbers, preserves them from mortals, and +distributes them among the pious, he appears under a beneficent and +divine aspect; inasmuch, on the other hand, as he carries them off and +keeps them shut up like a miser, he resembles the monster that is fabled +to guard fountains and treasures, the demon who keeps the waters shut +up, the thieves who gather treasures together, and the devil, the master +of all riches. For the same reason we already find in Hindoo tradition +the beneficent ass and his evil-doing congener. The sun (sometimes the +moon also) in the cloud and the darkness of night is the same as the +treasure in the cavern, the treasure in hell, and the hero or heroine in +the gloomy forest; and this cavern and hell sometimes assume the form of +an ass's skin, or of an ass simply. That which comes out of the cloud, +and of the gloom, also comes out of the ass; the soul of the ass is the +sun, or the hero or heroine, or the riches which he conceals. The +Açvinâu are often found in connection with the worthless horse, which +afterwards becomes handsome by means of the ambrosia itself that the +horse produces; the gandharvâs, a more nocturnal and cloudy form, if I +may use the expression, of the solar or lunar hero, are in near relation +with the ass, their _alter ego_, who enjoys the blessing of eternal +youth. The Açvinâu themselves, the two horsemen who have given youth to +the old Ćyavanas, rode upon asses before they rode upon horses. The myth +of the gandharvâs and that of the Açvinâu, the myth of the horse and +that of the ass, are intimately connected: from the gandharvâs the açvin +comes forth; from the mythical ass the horse comes out. This is +unnatural in zoology, but it is very natural in mythology: the sun +comes, now out of the grey shades of night, and now out of the grey +cloud. + +The Vedic hymns already present us with several interesting myths +concerning the ass. + +The ass of the Açvinâu is swift; the devotees ask the Açvinâu when they +are to yoke it, that they may be carried by it to the sacrifice.[702] In +another hymn, as the Açvinâu are two, so are their asses two (râsabhâv +açvinoḥ). Finally, the second strophe of the 116th hymn offers us a +twofold significant particularity, viz., the ass, that vanquishes a +thousand in the rich battlefield of Yamas (or in the nocturnal battle, +in the struggle in hell, in which the ass appears as a real warrior, +joined with riches, and fighting for riches), and is helped by strong +and rapid wings (in which it shows us the ass that flies).[703] + +The _Ṛigvedas_ also represents the ass of Indras as swift-footed.[704] +But in the same hymn we already see the reverse of the medal, that is +to say, the swift ones who deride him who is not swift, the horses +that are urged before the ass.[705] The solar hero, towards morning, +substitutes the horse for the ass, or appears with horses, leaving the +ass or asses behind. We have learned in the preceding chapter how, in +the heavenly race of the Vedic gods, the asses gained the palm of +victory; but it was an effort superior to their powers. The _Âitareya +Br._ informs us that by this effort they lost their swiftness and +became draught animals, deprived of honey, but yet preserving great +vigour in their sperm, so that the male ass can generate offspring in +two ways, that is, mules by union with a mare, and asses by union with +an ass.[706] Here, therefore, the ass is already considered an animal +of an essentially phallical nature, which notion is confirmed by the +precept of Kâtyâyanas, recorded by Professor Weber,[707] which enjoins +the sacrificing of an ass to expiate violated chastity. To chastise +the ass, to sacrifice the ass, must mean the same as to chastise and +to mortify the body,[708] and especially the phallos; and the Eastern +and Western punishment of leading adulterers about upon an ass has the +same meaning; the real martyr, however, in this punishment being the +ass, who is exposed to every kind of derision and ill-treatment. In +the same way, the henpecked husband who allowed himself to be beaten +by his wife, used, in several villages of Piedmont, only a few years +ago, to be led about ignominiously upon an ass: a husband who lets his +wife impose upon him, and cannot subdue her, deserves to be chastised +by means of an ass; he is not a man, and his ass, the emblem of his +manly strength, must on this account suffer the punishment, because +he has not shown himself able to assert his marital rights. The +adulterer upon the ass, and the silly husband upon the ass, are +punishments for phallic offences in, and in connection with, the +person of that which represents the phallos: one is chastised for +having wished, in this regard, to do too much, and the other for not +having been able to do enough. On this account the condemned person +was forced, in similar cases, to ride upon an ass with his face turned +towards the animal's tail, another image which is yet more manifestly +phallical; whence the very name of the punishment, "asini caudam in +manu tenere."[709] As to the other proverb which says, "He to whom the +ass belongs, holds him by the tail," it is explained by the narrative +of a peasant who drew his ass out of a swamp, taking it by the tail; +but this story too seems to have a phallic signification. + +The ass, therefore, is already deposed from his noble place as a +swift-footed courser in the _Ṛigvedas_ itself. And in the _Ṛigvedas_, +too, where we have observed the ass described as a warrior who fights +for the gods, we find him in the demoniacal form of a disagreeable +singer who terrifies the worshippers of the god Indras; the latter is +therefore requested by the poet to kill the ass who sings with a +horrible voice.[710] Here the ass already appears as a real monster, +worthy even of the steel of the prince of the celestial heroes +himself, who prepares to combat him. The ass, therefore, is already +sacred to the monsters in the white Yaǵurvedas.[711] + +In the _Râmâyaṇam_,[712] the slowness of the ass has already become +proverbial. The modest Bharatas excuses himself from not being able to +equal his brother Râmas in the science of government, just as the ass, +he says, cannot run like the horse, or other birds cannot fly like the +vulture. The mythical ass, moreover, appears in this epic poem[713] in +a demoniacal and infernal aspect: Bharatas, in fact, dreams of seeing +his dead father Daçarathas, in blood-coloured clothes, borne to the +southern funereal region on a car drawn by asses; and we are told that +when a man is seen upon a car drawn by asses, it is a sign of his +departure for the abode of Yamas. Kharas, a word which, as we already +know, means ass, is also the name of a younger brother of the great +monster Râvaṇas. Râvaṇas himself is drawn by asses upon a chariot +adorned with gold and gems. These asses have the faces of the monster +Piçâćâs,[714] that is, faces of parrots, as Hanumant afterwards +informs us when he speaks of the monsters which he has seen in Lañkâ, +which he also says are as swift as thought.[715] We know that the +coursers of Râvaṇas were asses, and therefore the asses with the faces +of the Piçâćâs, and the horses of the monsters with the faces of +parrots, are the same. The monster Piçâćâs, therefore, has the face of +a parrot. How is it that the parrot is reared in India as a sacred +bird? It appears to me that equivocation in language had something to +do with the formation of this singular mythological image. The word +_piçâćas_ is derived, like _piçañgas_, which means golden and red, +from the root _piç_, to adorn; whence also the Vedic feminine _piç_, +ornament, and the Vedic neuter, _peças_, coloured tissue. The ass +piçâćas, who draw the chariot full of gold, are therefore themselves, +at least in their face, in their foremost part, golden asses, or red +like the colour of gold, red like the colour of the sun; in fact, we +find kharas (the ardent) as the proper name of an attendant on the +sun, and kharâṇçus or khararaçmiḥ, he of the burning ray, as Sanskṛit +names of the sun. Kharaketus, he who has a burning ray, is also the +name of one of the monsters in the _Râmâyaṇam_.[716] We therefore +already see here the golden ass and the infernal monster identified +with the sun; and hence we are very near the monster with the parrot's +face. In the preceding chapter we observed how the solar horse appears +in the morning luminous at first in its foremost parts,--now in its +legs, now in its face, now in its mane, which is called golden; it is +only the head of the horse which is found in the butter; of Dadhyańć +we perceive only his head in connection with the ambrosia. Thus of the +nocturnal ass, of the demoniacal ass, of the demon himself, the +piçâćas (the piçâćâs are called carnivorous[717]), only the face is +seen, in the same way as of the piçâćâs, and of the horses belonging +to the monsters, only the head is that of a parrot. But what +connection can there be between the gold colour of the ass piçâćas and +the green colour of the parrot? The equivoque lies probably in the +words _hari_ and _harit_, both of which, in the Hindoo tongue mean +yellow, as well as green. Haris and hari signify the sun, and the +moon, as being yellow; harayas and haritas are the horses of the sun; +harî are the two horses of Indras and of the Açvinâu, of whom we also +know that they more usually rode upon asses. We thus arrive at the +light-coloured asses, at the asses that are golden, at least in their +foremost parts, that is, in the morning twilight, when after his +nocturnal course, the solar horseman is on the point of arriving at +his golden eastern destination, whence the head of the ass which +carries the divine horseman is illumined by him. But _haris_, besides +signifying the solar hero as being yellow, also signifies the parrot +as green; on this account the ass or demon with a golden head was +exchanged with the ass or monster with the green head, or with the +parrot's head. We shall see in the chapters concerning birds how the +bird was often substituted for the horse in the office of carrying the +deity or the hero. + +To conclude the subject of the Hindoo mythical ass, it is certain that +it existed in the heavens; it is certain that it flies in the sky, +that it fights in the sky like a valiant warrior, that it terrifies +its enemies in the sky with its terrible voice; that, in a word, it +was a real and legitimate heroic animal. It is certain, moreover, +that, considered under another aspect, it not only throws down the +heroes, but carries them to hell, serves the infernal monsters, and is +found in connection with the treasures of hell. Moreover, admitting, +as I hope the reader will, my identification of the mythical ass with +the gandharvas, we have the ass as dancer, the ass as musician, the +ass who loves women, and the ass in the odorous ointment and in the +inebriating drink, the somas which occupies the place of the wine of +the Dionysian mysteries, in which the Hellenic ass took a solemn part. + +In the fables of the _Pańćatantram_, the ass is partly modelled on the +Hellenic type and partly preserves its primitive character. The fourth +book shows us the ass twice attracted towards the lion by the jackal, +who induces him to believe that a beautiful female ass is awaiting +him. The ass is distrustful and shows his fear, but the argument of +the female ass, upon which the artful jackal insists, overcomes his +timidity. He is, however, cunning enough to send the jackal before +him; and at the sight of the lion he perceives the jackal's treachery +and turns, fleeing away with such rapidity that the lion cannot +overtake him. The jackal returns to the assault, and convinces the ass +that he did wrong to abandon the beautiful female ass when he was on +the point of receiving her favours; and thus touching the tender +chord of his heart, he goes on to assure him that the female ass will +throw herself into the fire or the water if she does not see him +return. "Omnia vincit amor;" the ass returns, and this time the lion +surprises and tears him to pieces; upon which the lion, before +partaking of his meal, goes to perform his ablutions and devotions. +Meanwhile the jackal eats the ass's heart and ears, and makes the +lion, on his return, believe that the stupid animal had neither the +one nor the other, because if he had had them, he would not have +returned to the dangerous spot after having once escaped. The lion +declares himself to be perfectly satisfied with this explanation. Here +we have a mixture in the ass of swift-footedness, lust, and stupidity, +his stupidity being caused by his lustfulness. Now, it is possible +that his acquaintance with the Hellenic ass may have induced the +author of the _Pańćatantram_ to embody in the ass a quality which is +generally attributed in fables of Hindoo origin to the monkey; but +this is not absolutely necessary in order to explain the narrative of +which we have now given the epitome. + +On the other hand, in the fourth book of the _Pańćatantram_, the fable +of the ass in the tiger's skin--an insignificant variety of the ass in +the lion's skin--was, as Professor Weber has already proved, taken +from the Æsopian fable. Another fable, in the fifth book, which tells +us of the ass who, being passionately fond of music,[718] insisted +upon singing, and was thus discovered and made a slave of, also seems +to be of Hellenic origin. But, although the editing of these two +Hindoo fables in a literary form had its origin in the knowledge of +Hellenic literature, the original myth of the ass-lion (haris, which +is the horse of Indras, also means the lion), and that of the +ass-musician (as gandharvas and gardabhas), can be traced as far back +as the Vedic scriptures. + +In the Zendic _Yaçna_,[719] I find a new proof, which appears to me a +very satisfactory one, of the identification which I have proposed of +the ass with the gandharvas. I have already mentioned the gandharvas +who guards over the somas in the midst of the waters, and I observed +how the gandharvas kṛiçânus of the Vedâs, and the Zend kereçâni who +guards over the _hom_ in the _Vôuru-Kasha_, have been identified. But +the same office is fulfilled in the _Yaçna_ by a three-legged ass, +that is, a lame ass (or the solar horse who has become lame during the +night, in the same way as the solar hero becomes lame, or a lame +devil), who, by braying, terrifies the monsters and prevents them from +contaminating the water. + +In the first of the seven adventures of Rustem, in the _Shah-Name_ of +Firdusi, the starving Rustem goes with his brave heroic horse to chase +wild asses. The asses flee, but the hero's horse is swifter than they, +and overtakes them; Rustem takes one by means of a lasso, and has it +cooked, throwing away the bones. He then goes to sleep (_then_ +sometimes expresses in the myths the interval of a whole day or of a +whole year.--The hero does almost the same in his second adventure and +in the book of _Sohrab_). While Rustem sleeps, a monstrous lion makes +its appearance to surprise the hero; Rustem's heroic horse throws the +lion down and tears it to pieces with its hoofs and teeth. This +battle between the horse of the sleeping hero and the monster lion is +an epic form of the fable which represents the animals as being +terrified in the forest by the braying of the ass, and of that of the +lion itself killed by the ass's kick. Probably the bones of the dead +ass, when preserved, gave heroic strength to Rustem's horse. + +In the Mongol stories, of which we have on a previous occasion +indicated the Hindoo origin, we find two other legends relating to the +ass. In the eighteenth Mongol story, a foolish man goes with his ass +to hang up some rice; he hides his ass in a cave; some merchants pass +by with their goods, and the fool sends forth, by means of a trumpet, +such a sonorous shout, that the merchants, thinking brigands are +hidden in the cavern, escape, leaving their goods in the ass's +possession. Here the fool and the ass are already identified. The +trumpet and the blowing made by the fool correspond to the braying of +the ass, of whom we shall soon see other miracles related. The sense +of the myth is this: the solar hero in the night or in the cloud grows +stupid; he becomes an ass during the night or in the cloud; the cloud +thunders, and the thunder of the cloud gives rise to the idea now of +the braying and now of the flatus of the ass (or the fool), now of a +trumpet,[720] and now of a drum. We must not forget that the word +_dundubhis_ which properly means kettledrum or drum, is also the name +of a monster, and that Dundubhî is the proper name of the wife of a +gandharvas, or of a gandharvî. The skin of the drum being made of an +ass's hide is one more reason why the thundering cloud, being very +naturally likened to a drum, the thunder should be also considered now +as a _flatus oris_, now as a _flatus ventris_ of the celestial ass, or +of the foolish hero who accompanies him. + +In the twenty-second Mongol story we have a variety, though partly a +less complete and partly a richer one, of the fable of the Phrygian king +Midas. A king who has golden ass ears, has his head combed every night +with golden combs by young men, who are immediately after put to death +(to comb the ass's head is about the same as to wash it; but however +much it is combed, the ears can never be abolished). One day a young man +predestined to the highest honours, before going to comb the king's +head, receives from his mother a cake made of her own milk and flour. +The young man offers the cake to the king, who likes it, and spares the +youth's life on condition that he tells no one, not even his mother, the +great secret, _viz._, that the king has golden ears. The youth promises +to preserve silence, and makes a very great effort indeed to keep his +promise, but this effort makes him seriously ill, so much so that he +feels he will burst if he does not tell the secret. His mother then +advises him to go and relieve his mind by whispering it into a fissure +of the earth or of a tree. The young man does so; he goes into the open +country, finds a squirrel's hole, and breathes gently down it, "Our king +has ass's ears;" but animals have understanding and can speak, and there +are men who understand their language. The secret is conveyed from one +to another, till the king hears that the young man has divulged it. He +threatens to take his life; but relents when he hears from him how it +happened, and not only pardons him, but makes him his prime minister. +The fortunate youth's first act is to invent a cap of the shape of the +ears of an ass, in order that the king may be able to conceal the +deformity; and when the people see the king with a cap of this shape, it +pleases them so much that they all adopt it; and so the king, by means +of his young minister, is no longer obliged to live secluded, and in the +constant tormenting dread of discovery, but lives at his ease and +happily ever afterwards. + +Having thus examined under its principal aspects the most popular +Asiatic tradition relative to the ass, let us now go on to epitomise +the European tradition, and, if possible, more briefly; all the more +that the reader, having, as I hope, now the key of the myth, will be +of himself able to refer to it many analogous particulars of +Græco-Latin tradition. I say Græco-Latin alone, because the myth of +the ass among Slavonic and Germanic nations, where the ass is little, +if at all, known, had no especial and independent development. In +Slavonic countries, the part of the ass is generally sustained by Ivan +the fool or Emilius the lazy one, as also by the bear or wolf, as in +India it is often sustained by the monkey;[721] ass, bear, wolf, and +monkey, as mythical animals, represent almost identical phenomena. + +Let us take the story of Midas again at its commencement. + +Midas appears in _Herodotus_, not only as a king of Phrygia, but as a +progenitor of the Phrygians. In the Tusculans of Cicero, the drunken +satyr Silenos (originally another form of the same Midas, the satyrs +having ass's ears), the master of Dionysos, loses himself in the +rose-garden belonging to Midas, before whom he is conducted, and by +whom he is benevolently received and entertained, and then sent back +with honour to the god, who, in gratitude, concedes to Midas the gift +of turning to gold everything that he touches, to such an extent as to +affect the food that he wishes to eat and the water in which he +bathes. This myth is probably of a complex nature. Midas ought, like +the ass, to turn to gold what he has eaten, that is, to turn his food +and drink into excrements of gold, to fructify the golden ears of +corn, _i.e._, in heaven, the solar rays. Cicero himself leads us to +suppose that the myth of Midas is in relation with the ears of corn, +when, in his first book _De Divinatione_, he says that the ants +carried grains of wheat into the mouth of Midas when a child; these +being symbols of abundance and of fecundity which are quite applicable +to the mythical ass. For although the common ass is not a privileged +fœcundator, the mythical ass, in its capacity of a rain-giving cloud +or ćiramehin, is the best fertiliser of the fields. The sun, or gold, +or treasure, comes out of the ass-darkness or ass-cloud. The ass +Lucius, after having eaten the roses of morning or the east, again +becomes Lucius the luminous one (the sun). On this account the ass +Midas, too, who also delights in roses, turns to gold whatever he +eats, as well as the dew or ambrosial fountain in which he bathes; the +rosy becomes the golden; the sun comes out of the contact of the ass +of night with the aurora. + +Servius, in his commentary on the sixth book of the _Æneid_, also +tells us the centauri "in floribus stabulant," as the Hindoo +gandharvas in the perfumes. These perfumes are rain and dew. The ass +crowned with loaves of bread[722] and flowers, in the Latin worship +of Vesta, who remembered the service rendered to her one day by the +braying of the ass, which aroused her from her sleep when some one was +attempting to violate her, is another variety of the myth of the +aurora who awakes out of the night, golden, that is, rich in golden +oats and in golden wheat. The ass itself is sacrificed, because, +perhaps, it was the ass itself that had made an attempt to deprive +Vesta of her chastity; but having betrayed itself, as it often happens +in fables, by its braying, it arouses Vesta, who punishes it by +offering it in sacrifice. In a variation of the same story in the +first book of Ovid's _Fasti_, where instead of Vesta we have the nymph +Lothis asleep, the red Priapos, who wishes to violate her, also loses +his opportunity, because the ass of Silenos-- + + "Intempestivos edidit ore sonos," + +on which account it is killed by Priapos: + + "Morte dedit pœnas auctor clamoris, et hæc est + Hellespontiaco victima sacra Deo." + +The apologue is well known of the long-eared ass, who, when called +upon to judge between the nightingale and the cuckoo as to who has the +sweetest voice, decides in favour of the cuckoo. The nightingale then +appeals to man with the sweet song that we are all acquainted +with.[723] In the myth of Midas, the Phrygian hero is given ass's +ears as a chastisement by Apollo, because, having been called upon to +judge between the cithern or lyre of Apollo (whence the proverb +"Asinus ad lyram") and the pastoral pipe (calamus agrestis) of Pan +(who is represented as a horned and bearded satyr, with a tail and +long ears), he pronounced that the pan-pipes were the most harmonious +instrument. Midas hides his ears in a red cap, but his comber lets out +the secret, as in the Mongol story, and in a manner almost identical-- + + "Ille quidem celat, turpique onerata pudore + Tempora purpureis tentat velare tiaris: + Sed, solitus longos ferro resecare capillos, + Viderat hoc famulus: qui, cum nec prodere visum + Dedecus auderet, cupiens efferre sub auras, + Nec posset reticere tamen, secedit; humumque + Effodit, et domini quales aspexerit aures, + Voce refert parva: terræque immurmurat haustæ. + Indiciumque suæ vocis tellure regesta + Obruit, et scrobibus tacitus discedit opertis. + Creber arundinibus tremulis ibi surgere lucus + Cœpit; et, ut primum pleno maturuit anno, + Prodidit agricolam: leni jam motus ab Austro + Obruta verba refert; dominique coarguit aures."[724] + +The same Greeks who held the ass up to derision, made the Phrygian +king Midas, of the ass's ears, the object of their satire. This is a +particular form of the mythico-heroic struggle between Greeks and +Phrygians or Trojans. Apollo is the enemy of the Trojans, as he is the +enemy of the Phrygian king Midas. The Trojans and Troy are +represented by the ass, and the Greeks, who vanquish and take by +assault the Trojan fortress, by the horse; the sun disperses the +night; the hero kills the centaur; the horse defeats the ass, the +Greek the Trojan; and every one can see how the fact that the Greeks +personified in the ass their enemies in Asia Minor, must have damaged +the reputation of the poor long-eared animal. The most bitter and +cutting satire is always that which is directed towards one's own +enemies; and the ass, unfortunately, had at one time the honour of +representing the Phrygian, the traditional enemy of the Greek. The ass +bore the load of this heroic war, in the same way as in the Middle +Ages he was publicly impaled by the Paduans for having had the +misfortune of being the sacred animal on the arms of the city of +Vicenza, with which the Paduans lived in rivalry.[725] + +In the same eleventh book of Ovid where the transformation of the +human ears of Midas into ass's ears is described, it is very +remarkable that the new ears are called whitish, as in the Mongol +story they are said to be golden. This confirms still more the +interpretation of the myth, to the effect that the ass is the solar +steed during the night. The head and the tail of the night, conceived +as an animal, are now the two whitish or grey twilights, and now the +two golden auroras of morning and evening. + + "Nec Delius aures + Humanam stolidas patitur retinere figuram, + Sed trahit in spatium villisque albentibus implet + Instabilesque illas facit et dat posse moveri." + +The changeableness of the twilights must have served very well to +express the mobility of the ears of an ass. + +In the story of the ass, Midas, the musical critic, the predestined ass, +pronounces in favour of Pan; and he does so not only on account of the +consanguinity between himself and the god, but also from a patriotic +feeling. Pan was born in a forest of Arcadia, of Zeus and the nymph +Kallisto; and it is well known that antiquity celebrated the asses of +Arcadia above those of every other country. The ass as a musician, the +ass as a musical critic, Pan the musician, and Pan preferred by the ass, +are the same person. Arcadia, the country of pastoral music, of +whistling shepherds, which made the Italy of the seventeenth and +eighteenth centuries bleat out so many useless verses, the country of +Pan the satyr, _par excellence_, is the country of the ass. Arcadia is +the most mountainous and wooded part of Greece,[726] and therefore, when +the Olympians came down from heaven, celestial nymphs and satyrs came to +people the forests and fountains of Arcadia. The divine guardian of the +ambrosia in the heavenly cloud takes, in the Arcadian forest, the form +of Pan, god of shepherds, who keeps guard over the honey. The +gandharvâs, who danced and sung in the Hindoo Olympus with the +apsarasas, has descended into Arcadia in the shape of Pan, to dance and +sing with the nymphs.[727] Pan who goes alone into the gloomy forest, +Pan who chases fear away, connected as he is with the story of the ass, +reminds us on the one hand of the superstition recorded by Pliny, to the +effect that an ass's skin put upon children chases fear from them[728] +(in the same way as in the province of Girgenti, in Sicily, it is +believed that shoes made of a wolf's skin, put on children's feet, make +them daring and lucky in battle), and, on the other hand, of the +unpublished Piedmontese story of the fearless Giovannino, who, in reward +for his courage in going alone to hell, brings away with him an ass +which throws gold from its tail.[729] In Tzetzas[730] I find again the +curious notion that Midas sold his own _stercus_ out of avarice, that +is, that he changed it into gold, as Vespasian used to do by selling the +excrement of his horse. + +The Æsopian ass, when he goes to battle, terrifies by his braying all +the animals of the forest; so Pan defeats his enemies by means of his +terrible voice; and according to Herodotus,[731] in the heroic battle +of Marathon, the Athenians were helped by the powerful voice of the +god Pan. Finally, as we have seen Apollo to be the rival of Pan and +the enemy of the Phrygian Midas, the predestined ass, as well as of +the Trojans, so, in the eleventh of the Pythic odes of Pindar, we find +the hero Perseus, among the Hyperboreans,[732] eating asses.[733] The +morning sun devours the ass of night, as we have seen the solar hero +Rustem do in the _Shah-Name_, where he eats the wild asses. + +But we must look for more mythical personages in connection with the +ass Midas in Arcadia, as the region of Pan and of asses. The ass Midas +is considered as a rich progenitor of races, and is supposed to have +been the first Phrygian. Windischmann has already observed (with the +examples of Yamas, Yima, Manus, Minos, and Radamanthüs) the connection +between the rich progenitor of races and the rich king or judge of +hell. To Midas the progenitor and to Midas the judge, corresponds the +ass whose excrements are of gold, the ass judge and prophet, the +Arcadian and prophetic Pan. The Arcadians considered themselves not +only autocthonoi, but proselênoi, or anterior to the moon. But they +are also considered in the light of inhabitants of an infernal region. +In Arcadia was situated the lake Stümphalos, the demoniacal birds of +which were slain by Hêraklês in Arcadia; in a chasm formed of wild +rocks was the source of the Styx, the principal infernal river, that +by which the Hellenic infernal beings were accustomed to swear. Greek +and Latin writers used to narrate of the ass (and the mule) that it +had an especial aversion to the water of the Styx, as being poisonous. +This superstition, when referred to the myth, appears to mean that, +when the solar hero drinks this water--the water of the dark or cloudy +ocean--he becomes a dark ass. (We find in Russian stories the hero who +is transformed into a bull, a horse, or a he-goat, when he drinks +water of which a demoniacal bull, horse, or he-goat has previously +drunk.) Ælianos, in his tenth book relative to animals, speaking of +the horned asses of Scythia, writes that they held in their horns the +water of the Styx. A similar narrative is given by Philostratos in the +third book of his romantic Life of Apollonios, concerning the fabulous +horned ass of India. "It is said," he writes, "that in the marshy +ground near the Indian river Hyphasis many wild asses are to be found; +and that these wild beasts have on their heads a horn with which they +fight bravely like bulls" (this seems to be a reminiscence of the +Indian rhinoceros); "and that the Indians form out of these horns +drinking-cups, affirming that those who drink out of these cups are +delivered from every illness for all that day; when wounded they feel +no pain, they pass safely through flames, nor, when they have drunk +out of it, can they be hurt by any poison. They say that these cups +belong to kings alone, nor is it permitted to any other than a king to +hunt the animal. It is narrated that Apollonios (the hero of the +romance) had seen this animal and observed its nature with wonder. +Moreover, to Damis, who asked him whether he had faith in what was +commonly said concerning the virtue of this cup, he answered 'I will +believe it when I shall have learned that in this country the king is +immortal.'" And no doubt Apollonios would have believed had it been +impossible for him to divine that the king who makes use of this +marvellous cup is the immortal sun, to whom alone it is reserved to +kill the ass of the nocturnal forest, the ass whose hairy ears are +like horns,[734] whose ears are of gold. + +The horn of the Scythian ass full of Stygian water, the horn of the +ass which, when used as a cup, gives health and happiness to him who +drinks out of it, remind us (not to speak of Samson's jaw-bone of an +ass, which makes water flow) especially of the myth of the cornucopia +and that of the goat, with which the satyrs and fauns, having goat's +feet, stand in particular connection. It is also for this reason that +the ass is found in relation with Pan; wherefore it is too that +Silenos rides upon an ass, and appears, as we have already seen, in +the story of Midas, in his garden of roses; indeed the mythical +centaurs or onocentaurs, satyr, faun, ass, and goat are equivalent +expressions. We have seen, a few pages back, the Zendic three-legged +ass; in the following chapter we shall find the lame goat. + +As the ass was ridden by Silenos,[735] so was he the animal dedicated to +Bacchus and to Priapos, whose mysteries were celebrated in the Dionysian +feasts. It is said that when Bacchus had to traverse a marsh, he met +with two young asses, and was conveyed by one of them, who was endowed +with human speech, to the other side without touching the water. (The +116th hymn of the first book of the _Ṛigvedas_ merits being especially +compared with this. In it, immediately after having represented the +Açvinâu as drawn by winged asses, the poet celebrates the Açvinâu as +delivering the hero Bhugyus out of the waters upon a vessel that moved +of itself in the air.)[736] On this account it is said that Bacchus, in +gratitude, placed the two young asses among the stars.[737] This is +another confirmation of the fact that the mythical ass really had the +virtue of flying; and the proverb "Asinus si volat habet alas"[738] +alludes to this myth. The fable of the ass who wishes to fly, and the +flight of the ass, are derisive allusions, applied to the earthly ass. +The celestial myth lingers in the memory, but is no longer understood. + +In the myth of Prometheus, in _Ælianos_ (vi. 5), we have the ass who +carries the talisman which makes young again, which Zeus intended for +him who should discover the robber of the divine fire (Prometheus). The +ass, being thirsty, approaches a fountain, and is about to drink, when a +snake who guards the fountain prevents him from doing so. The ass offers +the snake the charm which he is carrying, upon which the serpent strips +off its old age, and the ass, drinking at the fountain, acquires the +power of becoming young again. The ass of night, when he drinks the dew +of the dawn, grows young and handsome again every day. It is on this +account, I repeat, that youth is celebrated as a peculiar virtue of the +ass; it is on this account that the Romans attributed a great cosmetic +virtue to ass's milk[739] (the white dawn, or moon). + +The mythical ass seems to die every day, whereas, on the contrary it +is born anew every day, and becomes young again; whence the Greek +proverb does not celebrate the death in the singular, but the deaths +of the ass ("Onou thanatous"). + +The Italian proverb of the ass that carries wine and drinks water, +probably alludes to the ass that carries the water of youth, and then, +being thirsty, drinks at the fountain in the legend of Prometheus. The +wine of the Hellenic and Latin myth corresponds to the inebriating +drink or somas in which Indras delights so much in the _Ṛigvedas_. The +ass bears the drunken Silenos on its back. + +The sun, who in the cloud is covered with the skin of an ass, carries +the rain; whence the Greek proverb the ass is wetted by the rain +("Onos hüetai"), and the popular belief that when the ears of the ass +or of a satyr (that is to say, of the ass itself) move, it is an +indication of rainy weather (or dew). When the sun comes out of the +shadows of night, he drinks the milk or white humour of the early +morning sky, the same white foaming humour which caused the birth of +Aphroditê, the same humour out of which, by the loves of Dionysos (or +of Pan, of a satyr, or of the ass itself) and Aphroditê, the satyr was +procreated--Priapos, whose phallic loves are discovered by the ass. +The satyr serves as a link between the myth of the ass and that of the +goat. On this account (that is, on account of the close relation +between the mythical ass and the mythical goat) two ancient Greek and +Latin proverbs--_i.e._, to dispute about the shadow of the ass ("Peri +onou skias") and to dispute, "De lana caprina"--have the same meaning, +a dispute concerning a bagatelle (but which is no trifle in the myth, +where the skin of the goat or of the ass is sometimes changed into a +golden fleece), which seems so much the more probable, as the Greeks +have also handed down to us another proverb in which the man who +expects to reap where he has not sown is laughed at as one who looks +for the wool of the ass ("Onou pokas zêteis"), or who shears the ass +("Ton onon keireis"). We have seen, in the myth of Midas, the king, +whose ears, when combed, betray his asinine nature. The Piedmontese +story of the maiden on whose forehead a horn or an ass's tail grows, +because she has badly combed the good fairy's head, is connected with +this story of the combing of the long-eared Midas. The combed ass and +the sheared ass correspond with one another; the combed ass has golden +ears, in the same way as gold and gems fall from the head of the good +fairy combed by the good girl in the fairy tale. To this mythical +belief, I think, may be traced the origin of the mediæval custom in +the Roman Church, which lasted till the time of Gregory VII., in which +public ovations were offered to the Pope, and an ass bearing money +upon its head was brought before him.[740] + +The shadow of the ass[741] betrays him, no less than his ears, his +nose, and his braying. The shadow of the ass and his nose are found in +connection with each other in the legend of the Golden Ass of +Apuleius, which, after narrating how the ass, by putting his head out +of the window, had betrayed his master the greengrocer or gardener +(the friend of perfumes, "Gandharvas, asinus, in unguento, onos en +müro"), concludes thus: "The miserable gardener having been found +again, and taken before the magistrates to pay the fine, they lead him +to a public prison, and with great laughter cease not, says the ass +Lucius, to "make merry with my face;" whence also was derived the +popular proverb concerning the face and shadow of the ass ('De +prospectu et umbra asini')." The ass who betrays his master the +greengrocer or gardener by his face is a variety of the ass who, +dressed in the forest in the lion's skin[742] (like Hêraklês who goes +into hell dressed in a lion's skin), betrays himself by his braying, +and of the ass who discovers by his braying Priapos, who delights in +gardens (the vulva), Priapos the gardener, like the ogre[743] of the +_Pentamerone_, who finds before him in his garden a beautiful maiden. + +The ass can restrain neither his voice nor his flatus; we have already +seen something similar in the story of Midas, where the comber of the +ass feels he will burst if he is not permitted to relieve himself of +the secret of the ass. Diogenês of Laertes narrates that the fields of +Agrigentum being devastated by malignant winds which destroyed the +crops, the philosopher Empedocles instructed them to take asses' +skins, and having made sacks of them, carry them to the summits of the +hills and mountains, to chase the winds away. Ælianos, confounding one +noise with another, suggests, to prevent the ass from braying, the +advantage of appending a stone to its tail. This ancient Greek fable +is to this day very popular in Italy, and the narrator is accustomed +to furbish it up with a character of actuality, as if it had happened +yesterday, and among his acquaintances. + +In the Italian stories,[744] when the ass brays upon the mountain, a +tail grows on the forehead of the step-mother's ugly daughter; the third +crowing of the cock is the signal for the monster's death; the third +braying or flatus of the ass announces the death of the fool. With the +end of the night the ass disappears, and the fool also disappears or +dies. The braying of the ass cannot mount up into heaven; after the ass +has brayed, after the cloud has thundered, the ass comes down upon the +earth, is dissolved into rain, is dispersed and dies; the dark ass +cannot remain in the luminous sky, it can only inhabit the cloudy, +watery, or gloomy sky of hell. The way in which the fool of the story +tries to elude death resembles that which was used, according to +Ælianos, to prevent the ass from braying. In a story of Armagnac,[745] +Joan lou Péc runs after a man whom he believes to be a sage, and asks +him when he will die; the man answers, "Joan lou Péc, mouriras au +troisièmo pet de toun ase." The ass does so twice; the fool endeavours +to prevent the third: "Cop sec s'en-angonc cerca un pau (a stake) bien +pounchut et l'enfouncéc das un martet dens lou cu de l'ase. Mes l'ase +s'enflec tant, e hasconc tant gran effort, que lou pau sourtisconc coumo +no balo e tuèc lou praube Joan lou Péc." + +In _Herodotus_, the Scythians are defeated when the asses bray, and +the dogs bark among Darius's tents. The braying of the ass, the +thunder of the cloud, is an oracle; the ass that brays is a judge and +a prophet. In hell everything is known; the devil knows every art, +every species of malice, every secret; the ass in hell participates in +this knowledge. The ass Nicon, in _Plutarch_, in the Life of Antony, +predicts to Augustus his victory at the battle of Actium; on the +contrary, in the Life of Alexander, by the same author, an ass who +kills with a kick a great lion belonging to the Macedonian, appears to +the great conqueror in the light of an evil omen. The dying sun of +evening, the old lion, is killed in the evening by the ass of night; +in the morning, on the contrary, the ass of night announces his +fortune to the solar hero, who again becomes luminous and wise. The +ass can predict all things, because it knows all things; it knows +everything, because it hears everything, and it hears everything by +means of its exceedingly long ears; the ass of Apuleius says of +itself: "Recreabar quod auribus præditus cuncta longule etiam dissita +sentiebam." And this ass which listens from a distance reminds us +again of the third brother, now a fool, and now only supposed to be a +fool; to the Andalusian Oidin-Oidon, hijo del buen oidor (a relation +of the already cited Vedic Indras âçrutkarṇas), of the second cuento +of Caballero,[746] who hears everything that is done in the deepest +parts of hell, where Lucifer sits, horned and large-eared. The hero +who combats with Lucifer only thinks of cutting off his ear; the ass +without ears is no longer an ass; the ears of the mythical ass are its +vital and characteristic organs. Instead of ears, give horns to the +mythical ass, and we have the mythical goat; take the horns away and +we have now the mythical abject sheep, now the hog; this is what we +shall see in the two next chapters. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[686] _Ueber den Zusammenhang indischer Fabeln mit griechischen_, eine +kritische Abhandlung von A. Weber, Berlin, 1855. + +[687] Here is the hymn as given by Du Cange in his _Gloss. M. et I. +L._:-- + + "Orentis partibus + Adventavit Asinus, + Pulcher et fortissimus, + Sarcinis aptissimus. + Hez, Sire Asnes, car chantez, + Belle bouche rechignez, + Vous aurez du fom assez + Et de l'avoine à plantez. + + "Lentus erat pedibus + Nisi foret baculus + Et eum in clunibus + Pungeret aculeus. + Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. + + "Hic in collibus Sichem, + Jam nutritus sub Ruben, + Transiit per Jordanem, + Saliit in Bethleem. + Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. + + "Ecce magnis auribus + Subjugalis filius + Asinus egregius + Asinorum dominus. + Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. + + "Saltu vincit hinnulos, + Damas et capreolos, + Super dromedarios + Velox Madianeos. + Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. + + "Auram de Arabia, + Thus et myrrhum de Saba + Tulit in ecclesia + Virtus Asinaria. + Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. + + "Dum trahit vehicula + Multa cum sarcinula, + Illius mandibula, + Dura terit pabula, + Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. + + "Cum aristis hordeum + Comedit et carduum; + Triticum a palea + Segregat in area. + Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. + + "Amen, dicas, Asine, + (_Hic genuflectabatur._) + Jam satur de gramine: + Amen, amen itera + Aspernare vetera. + Hez va! hez va! hez va! hez! + Bialz! Sire Asne, car allez; + Belle bouche car chantez." + +[688] Cfr. Reinsberg von Düringsfeld, _Das festliche Jahr_. + +[689] Sometimes the place of the ass is taken by the mule. At Turin, for +instance, it is narrated that the church dedicated to the _Corpus +Domini_ was erected several centuries ago on account of the miracle of a +mule which carried some sacred goods stolen by an impious thief. Having +arrived in the little square where the Church of the _Corpus Domini_ now +stands, the mule refused to go any farther; and out of a cup, which was +among the sacred objects stolen, a wafer containing the body of our +Saviour rose into the air. Nor would it come down again until the bishop +came forth, and, holding the cup high in the air, besought the wafer to +come back into it; which having been miraculously accomplished, the +Church of the _Corpus Domini_ was erected on the spot, from which starts +and to which returns the solemn procession which takes place annually at +Turin on the festival of _Corpus Domini_, and in which, about twenty +years ago, the princes and great dignitaries of the state, with the +professors of the university, used to take part in all the pomp of +mediæval ceremony and costume.--In Persia the festival of asses is +celebrated at the approach of spring; the ass personifying here the end +of the winter season. + +[690] The same analogy presents itself in the Sanskṛit word +_arbhakas_, which means little and foolish. + +[691] Cfr. the root _gad_, from which we might perhaps deduce an +imaginary intermediate form, gadarbhas, besides the known gardabhas +and gandharbas or gandharvas. + +[692] Cfr. _arvan_ with the roots _arv, arb, arp, ṛiph, riph, riv, +ṛinv_. + +[693] x. 10, 5. + +[694] Gandharva itthâ padam asya rakshati.; _Ṛigv._ ix. 83, 4. + +[695] Strîkâmâḥ vâi gandharvâḥ; i. 27. + +[696] Professor Kuhn (_Die Herabkunft_, d. f. &c.) has already compared +to this the Zend Gandhrawa, who, in the Lake Vôuru-Kasha, keeps guard +over the tree _hom_ (the Vedic Somas). Kuhn and Weber, moreover, have +identified the Vedic gandharvas, Kṛiçânus, who wounds the ravisher of +the Somas, with the Zend Kereçâni, who endeavours to destroy riches; +here the gandharvas would appear to be a monstrous and demoniacal being. + +[697] ... ut omittam eos, quos libidinis ac fœdæ voluptatis causa, +coluisse nomen illud atque imposuisse suis, a scriptoribus notatur, +qualis olim Onos ille Commodi; qualis exsecrandus Marci Verotrasinus, +qualis et alterius Onobelos, quales, quos matronis in deliciis fuisse +scimus. Unde illud atque alium bipedem sibi quærit asellum, ejus nempe +membri causa, quod, in asino, clava, a Nicandro dicitur; _Laus Asini_, +Lugd. Batavorum, ex officina Elzeviriana, p. 194. + +[698] To this flight into Egypt upon the ass can be referred the +Piedmontese custom among children in the middle of Lent--that is, near +the festival of St Joseph--of attaching to their companions now a saw, +now a devil's head, now an ass's head, pronouncing the words, "L'asu +cariá che gnün lu sa" (the ass burdened, and no one knows it). +Moreover, it seems to me that to the Christian tradition of Joseph, +and of the child Jesus carried upon the ass, can be referred the +well-known European fable of the old man, the boy, and the ass, of +which numerous varieties may be read in the article upon the _asinus +vulgi_ in the _Orient und Occident_ of Benfey. + +[699] Professor Benfey, in his learned Einleitung to the +_Pańćatantram_, p. 268, says that the disguise by means of the skin of +an ass is found in a Latin poem of the fifteenth century. + +[700] "Addo ex Conrado Lycosthene in libro de ostentis et prodigiis +hanc iconem quam hippokentauri esse credebam, ipse vero (nescio ex +quo) Apothami vocat, Apothami (inquit) in aqua morantes, qui una parte +hominem, alia vero caballum sive equum referunt. Sic etiam memoriæ +tradiderunt mulieres esse capite plano sine crinibus, promissas autem +barbas habentes. Atqui ea descriptio plane ad Onocentauros pertinere +videtur, quos Aelianus et Philes sic fere delineant. Quæ vero de +Onocentauro fama accepi, hæc sunt: Eum homini ore et promissa barba +similem esse, simul et collum et pectus, humanam speciem gerere; +mammas distantes tamquam mulieris ex pectore pendere; humeros, +brachia, digitos, humanam figuram habere; dorsum, ventrem, latera, +posteriores pedes, asino persimiles et quemadmodum asinum sic cinereo +colore esse; imum ventrem leviter exalbescere: duplicem usum ei manus +præstare; nam celeritate ubi sit opus eæ manus præcurrunt ante +posteriores pedes; ex quo fit, ut non cæterorum quadrupedum cursu +superetur. Ac ubi rursus habet necesse vel cibum capere vel aliud +quidpiam tollere, qui ante pedes erant manus efficiuntur, tumque non +graditur, sed in sessione quiescit: Animal est gravi animi acerbitate; +nam si capiatur, non ferens servitutem, libertatis desiderio ab omni +cibo abhorret, et fame sibi mortem consciscit, licet pullus adhuc +fuerit. Hæc de Onocentauro Pythagoram narrare testatur Crates, ex +Mysio Pergamo profectus;" Aldrovandi, _De Quadrupedibus_, i.--In the +Indian satyrs described by Pliny, in the seventh book of his _Natural +History_, we find represented an analogous animal: "Sunt et satyri +subsolanis Indorum montibus (Cartadulonum dicitur regio) pernicissimum +animal, turn quadrupes, turn recte currens, humana effigie, propter +velocitatem nisi senes aut ægri, aut capiuntur." Evidently this refers +to some kind of monkey (probably the orang-outang); but as the myth of +the monkey does not differ much from that of the ass, as we shall see, +even the Hindoo gandharvas is represented as a monkey.--"In _A. V._ +iv. 37, 11, the gandharvas, a class of gods, who are described as +hairy, like dogs and monkeys, but as assuming a handsome appearance to +seduce the affections of earthly females, are implored to desist from +this unbecoming practice, and not to interfere with mortals, as they +had wives of their own, the Apsarases;" Muir's _Sanskṛit Texts_, v. +309.--We have the monkey-gandharvas and the warrior-gandharvas in the +Vedic hymns, the warrior-monkey in the _Râmâyaṇam_, and the +warrior-kentauros and warrior-ass in Hellenic myths. + +[701] We also read of the ass that dances, which reminds us of the +gandharvas in their capacity of heavenly musicians and dancers, who +teach the gods how to dance. Nor is it perhaps without reason that the +author of precepts for dancers and mimics is named _Kṛiçâçvas_: +kṛiçâçvas means, as we already know, he who possesses a lean horse, or +simply the lean horse. Between the lean horse, the mule, and the ass, +the distance is short; nor can we overlook the fact that in the +gandharvas Kṛiçânus is recognised as he who causes to become lean, +which calls us back to the monster who makes horses grow lean, to the +monster of horses, the ugly horse, the horse-monster, who destroys the +golden ears of the fields, making them dry up, like the monster +Çushṇas, or the destroyer of riches, like the Zend Kereçâni.--In the +before-quoted book, _Laus Asini_, the author says in jest, "Fortassis +Pegasum fuisse asinum;" and in this jest a great truth is contained. + +[702] Kadâ yogo vâǵino râsabhasya yena yaǵńaṁ nâsatyopayâthaḥ; _Ṛigv._ +i. 34, 9. + +[703] Viḷupatmabhir âçuhemabhir vâ devânâṁ vâ ǵûtibhiḥ çâçadânâ tad +râsabho nâsatyâ sahasram âǵâ yamasya pradhane ǵigâya. + +[704] Yatrâ rathasya bṛihato nidhânaṁ vimoćanaṁ vâǵino râsabhasya; +_Ṛigv._ iii. 53, 5. + +[705] Nâvâǵinaṁ vâǵinâ hâsayanti na gardabham puro açvân nayanti; +_Ṛigv._ iii. 53, 23. + +[706] Gardabharathenâçvinâ udaǵayatâmaçvinâvâçnuvâtâṁ yadaçvinâ +udaǵayatâmaçvinâvâçnuvâtâṁ tasmâtsasṛitaǵavo dugdhadohaḥ +sarveshâmetarhi vâhanânâmanâçishṭo retasastvasya vîryaṁ nâharatâm +tasmâtsa dviretâ vâǵî; _Âit. Br._ iv. 2, 9. + +[707] _Ueber den Zusammenhang indischer Fabeln mit griechischen_, +Berlin, 1855. + +[708] St Jerome, in the Life of Saint Hilarion: "Ego, inquit, Aselle, +faciam ut non calcitres necte hordeo alam, sed paleis; fame te +conficiam et sitis gravi onerabo pondere; per æstus indagabo et +frigore, ut cibum potius quam lasciviam cogites."--St Paulinus wrote, +"Sit fortis anima mortificans asinum suum."--In Italian, too, there is +a low term by which we say, _il mio asino_, instead of _il mio corpo_. + +[709] A. c. i. m. t.,--pœna seu mulcta, quæ reis irrogari solebat, ut +colligitur ex decreto Nepesini populi ann. 1134.--Iis et maxime +maritis, qui a suis vapulabant mulieribus; quod eo usque insaniæ +deventum erat, ut si maritus aufugisset, proximior vicinus eam ipse +pœnam luere teneretur; quem morem non omnino periisse audivi. Du +Cange, whose words these are, gives several examples of a similar +chastisement.--In the _Tuti-Name_, ii. 20, a certain man complains to +a sage that he has lost his ass, and begs the wise man to find it +again for him; the latter points out a man who grew old without having +known love; he who does not love is a fool.--It is a remarkable fact +that the ass, generally considered a very lustful animal, is sometimes +despised as unadapted to make fruitful, and the reason of this is +given by Aldrovandi (_De Quadrupedibus_, i.)--Quamvis modo libidine +maxime pruriat, ob verendi tamen enormitatem, qua supra modum præditus +est, ad generandum admodum segnem esse compertum est, sicuti et +homines qui simili genitalis productione conspicui sunt, quod in +emissione per eam longitudinem semen transmeans hebetetur et frigidius +fiat. Testaturque Ælianus inter causas cur Ægyptii asinos odere, et +hanc quoque accedere putari, quod eum populi prædicti omnes fœcundos +animantes colant, asinus minime fœcundans nullus in honore sit. + +[710] Sam, indra, gardabham mṛiṇa nuvantam pâpayâmuyâ; _Ṛigv._ i. 29, 5. + +[711] Quoted by Weber, _Ueber den Zusammenhang indischer Fabeln mit +griechischen_, where the braying ass would also appear to be born of the +omniform monster: "Entsteht, nach Ç. xii. 7, 1, 5, nebst Ross und +Maulthier, aus dem Ruhm (yaças, which, however, may perhaps here also +simply mean splendour), welcher dem Ohr des getödteten Viçvarûpa +Tvâshṭra entfloss, worin der Bezug auf sein lautes Geschrei wohl nicht +zu verkennen ist."--We have already seen, in the Russian stories quoted +in the preceding chapter, how the two horsemen who protect the hero come +out of the ears of the grey horse, and how the hero himself, entering by +one ear, and coming out of the other, finds a heroic horse. Here we can, +perhaps, detect an allusion to the long-eared ass, in the same way as in +the appellation of âçrutkarṇas, or the ear which listens, given to +Indras (_Ṛigv._ i. 10, 9), the long-eared Indras may possibly be a form +representing the long-eared Midas, or the ass with long ears. + +[712] Gatiṁ khara ivâçvasya suparṇasyeva pakshiṇaḥ anâgantuṁ na çakto +'smi râǵyam tava mahîpate. + +[713] _Râmây._ ii. 71. + +[714] _Râmây._ iii. 38, 48. + +[715] _Ib._ v. 12. + +[716] vi. 74. + +[717] Kravyâdaḥ piçâćâḥ, in the _Atharvavedas_, viii. 2, 12. + +[718] Cfr. also the _Tuti-Name_ of Rosen, ii. 218, for the musical +ass; and the same, ii. 149, for the ass in a lion's skin. + +[719] xli. 28.--Cfr. the _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's _Einleitung_, p. +54: "Dort ist der dreibeinige Esel der in der Mitte des Sees steht und +mit seinem Geschrei die bösen Wesen vertreibt und alles Wasser, das +mit unreinen Wesen und Dingen in Berührung kommt, sogleich reinigt." + +[720] Readers of Dante are acquainted with the trumpet of the devil +Malacoda, which is used in the same way as the fool uses his in the +Mongol story. + +[721] In Menander, quoted by Aulus Gellius, a husband complains of the +injuries done him by his wife, using the proverb, "The ass amongst the +monkeys." Monkeys are well known for their impudent lasciviousness; +the ass, who represents the phallos, among this lascivious fraternity +finds himself often in the condition of an impotent and weak husband. + +[722] + + Lampsacus huic soli solita est mactare Priapo. + Apta asini flammis indicis exta damus. + Quem tu diva memor de pane monilibus ornas; + Cessat opus; vacuæ conticuere molæ. + --Ovidius, _Fasti_, vi. + +[723] From the myth of the ass, as a musician and judge of music, is +derived the Tuscan game of the ass, which is thus described by Signor +Fanfani in his _Vocabolario dell' Uso Tuscano_, Firenze, 1863:--"Each +member of the party chooses an animal whose voice or song he must +imitate. The head player represents the ass, and is the king of the +other animals. When the head player, sitting in the middle, calls one +of the animals who encircle him, the dog, for instance, this animal +must bark; when he calls the cock, it must cry chicchiricù; when he +calls the ox, he who represents it must bellow, and so on. When the +ass brays, then all the animals emit their respective cries. Whoever +laughs, or omits to give forth the voice or song of the animal which +he represents, pays a forfeit." + +[724] Ovidius, _Metam._ xi. 180. + +[725] According to the _Annals of Padova_, cited by Berrardino +Scardeone, in Aldrovandi. _De Quadrupedibus_, i. + +[726] The German proverb, "Wald hat Ohren, Feld hat Gesicht," is well +known. Cfr. the varieties of this proverb upon the ears of the forest, +in the third vol. pp. 120 and 173, of Uhland's _Schriften zur +Geschichte der Dichtung und Sage_, Stüttgart, 1866. + +[727] The reader is acquainted with the myth of the nymph Syrinx, +beloved of Pan, who was changed into a cane or reed, from which Pan made +a flute. We find the leaf of the cane in connection with the ass in +Hungarian tradition. A singular indentation can be observed upon the +leaves of the cane, which has a great resemblance to the mark of three +teeth. To explain this strange mark the Hungarian people narrate, that +the ass of the Redeemer once bit the leaf of a cane, but as Christ was +in a hurry, the ass was unable to eat the leaf, and so it happened that +its three teeth only left the mark of the bite upon the cane. From that +time forward every leaf of a cane bears record to this. The two lines +which stretch down the two flanks of the ass are said in Hungary to be +caused by the blood of our Redeemer. The popular belief in Ireland is +that these lines remain as a memorial of Christ having once struck the +ass.--Cfr. the chapter on the Peacock and that on the Eel, where we +shall find the hero and the heroine again transformed into canes. + +[728] The loss of heart or courage is expressed in Italian by the low +term "Quí mi casca l'asino" (here my ass falls). This expression, +however, may perhaps be of Hellenic origin; the equivoque between the +two equisonant expressions, "ap' onou" and "apo nou" is well-known; +whence to fall off the ass and to fall from one's mind became +synonymous. + +[729] There is an unpublished story which I heard narrated at Antignano, +near Leghorn, of a mother who has a silly son named Pipetta. The latter +asks his mother for a quattrino (a small coin) to buy a vetch, and +afterwards a bean, because it grows higher; he sows it, and it attains a +marvellous height. Climbing up the bean-stalk he comes to the gates of +paradise, which are opened to him, but St Peter sends him back; he then +finds the entrance to hell, which he wishes to visit. The devil shows +him all the sights; the two then play at cards, and Pipetta wins a +sackful of souls. The devil fears that Pipetta will empty hell, so he +allows him to depart with the sack, and an ass which throws gold from +its tail; he mounts up to heaven, and consigns the sack of souls to St +Peter. The story ends with the usual exchange of asses at the inn where +Pipetta sleeps upon his descent from the beanstalk. + +[730] _Biblion Istorikon_, i. 116.--It is added, that when Titus +remonstrated with his father on his avarice, Vespasian made him smell +the gold for which the horse's dung had been sold, asking him whether +it smelt bad.--In the Mongol story we saw the fool who goes out with +his ass and hides it in a cavern afterwards despoiling a merchant's +caravan.--_Tzetzas_, i. 128, records the existence in Phrygia of a +village called "Ass's-ears" (ê klêsis onou ôta), inhabited by robbers, +and belonging to Midas; he thinks, moreover, that Midas was surnamed +the large-eared on account of this village of his. + +[731] vi. 105. + +[732] Kleitas onôn hekatombas, xi. 51. + +[733] In _Anton. Liberalis_ we find a long narrative from which we +gather that Apollo would only suffer the ass to be sacrificed to him +among the Hyperboreans. + +[734] I read on this subject in the curious volume _Laus Asini_, +printed at Leyden by Elzevir, the following notice: "Si quis graviter +a scorpione ictus, id in aurem insusurret asino, ex tempore curetur." + +[735] + + "Te senior turpi sequitur Silenus asello + Turgida pampineis redimitus tempora sertis + Condita lascivi deducunt orgya mystæ." + --Seneca, _Œdipus_. + +[736] Tam ûhathur nâubhir âtmanvatîbhir antarikshaprudbhir +apodakâbhiḥ; strophe 3.--Cfr. strophe 4th and 5th of the same hymn. + +[737] Another reason is also assigned for the honour given to the ass +in heaven: the ass and Priapos contend together as to who is superior; +Priapos defeats the ass, and Dionysos takes pity upon the vanquished, +and places it in heaven among the stars. + +[738] _Laus Asini_, Ludg. Batavorum, ex officina Elzeviriana. + +[739] "Conferre aliquid et candori in mulierum cute existimatur. +Poppaea certe Domitii Neronis conjux quingentas secum per omnia +trahens fætas balnearum etiam solio totum corpus illo lacte macerabat, +extendi quoque cutem credens;" _Aldrov._ To which custom Juvenal +alludes in his 6th satire: + + "Atque illo lacte fovetur + Propter quod secum comites educit asellas + Exul hyperboreum si dimittetur ad axim." + +[740] "Finitis laudibus, surgit quidam archipresbyter, retro se +ascendit asinum preparatum a curia; quidam cubicularius tenet in +capite asini bacilem cum xx. solidis denariorum," &c.; in Du Cange, +the work quoted before, _s. v. cornomannia_.--We also find in Du Cange +that a soldier was called in the middle ages "caput asini, pro +magnitudine capitis et congerie capillorum." + +[741] In the _Pentamerone_, iii. 8, the night is called "l'aseno de +l'ombre." + +[742] In the _Pentamerone_, ii. I, we have a variation of the other +Æsopian fable of the lion who is afraid of the ass. The old witch, in +order to deliver herself from the lion which Petrosinella has caused to +rise, flays an ass and dresses herself in its skin; the lion, believing +it to be really an ass, runs off.--In the thirteenth of the Sicilian +stories collected by Signora Laura Gonzenbach, and published at Leipzig +by Brockhaus, the ass and the lion dispute the spoil; the young hero +divides it, giving to the ass the hay that the lion has in its mouth, +and to the lion the bones in the ass's mouth. But probably the lion here +represents the dog, according to the Greek proverb, "Küni didôs achüra, +onôi ta ostea," to express a thing done the wrong way. + +[743] In the _Pentamerone_ again, in the island of the ogres, an old +ogress feeds a number of asses, who afterwards jump on to the bank of +a river and kick the swans; here the ass is demoniacal, as it is in +the _Râmâyaṇam_; the swans, as we shall see, are a form of the +luminous Açvinâu.--In obscene literature, the _mentula_ as a gardener, +and the _vulva_ as a garden, are two frequent images; cfr., among +others, the Italian poem, _La Menta_. + +[744] Cfr. the first of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_, +in which we also find the third brother, believed to be stupid, who +makes his ass throw gold from its tail; the foolish Pimpi, who kills his +ass whilst cutting wood; the son of the poor man, who amuses himself by +sending the ass before him tied to a string, and then making it return; +the peasant who drags up the ass which had fallen into the marsh, and +who then marries the daughter of the king of Russia (the wintry, the +gloomy, the nocturnal one), who never laughed and whom he causes to +laugh; and the ass who dies after eating a poisoned loaf. + +[745] _Contes et Proverbes Populaires recueillis en Armagnac_, par J. +F. Bladé, Paris, Franck. + +[746] _Cuentos y Poesias Populares Andaluces_, collecionados por +Fernan Caballero, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1866. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE SHEEP, THE RAM, AND THE GOAT. + + +SUMMARY. + + The sun-shepherd, and the sun-lamb, ram, or goat.--The dark-coloured + he-goat.--The goat-moon.--Aǵas; explanation given by Professor + Bréal; the Finnic aija.--Meshas; she-goat, ram, skin, sack.--The ram + Indras.--The goats Açvinâu.--The he-goat Veretraghna.--The lamb and + the goat in the forest opposed to the wolf.--The apple-tree and the + she-goat; the cloud and the apple-tree.--The goat, the nut-tree and + the hazel-nuts.--The wolf assumes the goat's voice; the wolf in the + fire.--The witch takes the voice of the little hero's mother; the + child born of a tree.--The hero among the sheep, or in the spoils of + the sheep, escapes from the witch.--Pûshan aǵâçvas and his + sister.--The brother who becomes a kid while drinking; the sister in + the sea.--The husband-goat; the goat's skin burned; the monster + appears once more a handsome youth; the funereal mantle of the young + hero; when it is burned, the hero lives again handsome and + splendid.--The children changed into kids.--The cunning Schmier-bock + in the sack.--Aǵamukhî--Ilvalas and Wâtâpis.--Indras meshâṇḍas, + sahasradhâras and sahasradâras.--The rams of the wolf eaten.--The + goat of expiation, the goat and the stupidity of the hero disappear + at the same time.--The devil-ram; the putrid sheep that throws gold + behind it.--The goat which deprives men of sight.--The young prince, + riding on the goat, solves the riddle.--The spy of heaven; the eye + of God.--The constellation of the she-goat and two kids.--The lame + goat.--The heroine and the goat her guide and nurse.--The milky way + and the she-goat.--The goat's blood, manus Dei; the stone + bezoar.--The cunning goat.--The goat deceives the wolf; the goat + eats the leaf.--The she-goat possessed of a devil.--The + ram-vessel.--Ram and he-goat fœcundators.--The he-goat and the + horned husband.--Zeus he-goat and the satyr Pan; Hêraklês the rival + of a goat; the old powerless man called a he-goat.--Hellenic forms + of the myth of the goat.--Phrixos and Helle; Jupiter Ammon; the + altar of Apollo; the fleece of the Iberians; the golden ram of + Atreus; Aigüsthos; Diana and the white sheep; Neptune a ram; satyrs + and fauns; Hermês krioforos; the sheep of Epimenis; lambs, rams, and + he-goats sacrificed; aixourania and the cornucopia.--The mythical + goat; its threefold form; black, white, and light-coloured + lambs.--Pecus and pecunia. + +When the girl aurora leads out of the stable in the morning her +radiant flock, among them there are found to be white lambs, white +kids, and luminous sheep; in the evening the same aurora leads the +lambs, the kids, and the sheep back to the fold. In the early dawn all +this flock is white, by and by their fleeces are golden fleeces; the +white, and afterwards the golden heavens of the east (or the west) +constituting this white and golden flock, and the sun's rays their +fleeces. Then the sun himself, who steps forth from this flock, is now +its young shepherd-king, and now the lamb, the ram, or he-goat. When +the sun enters into the region of night, the he-goat or lamb goes back +to the fold and becomes dark-coloured; the sun veiled by the night or +the cloud is a dark-coloured ram, he-goat, or she-goat. In the night, +says the proverb, all cows are black; and the same might be said of +goats, except in the case of the goat, luminous and all-seeing, coming +out of the nocturnal darkness in the form of the moon. We must, +therefore, consider the sheep or goat under a triple aspect; the +principal and most interesting aspect being that of the sun veiled by +the gloom, or by the cloud, which wears often a demoniacal form, such +as that of the ass or of the hero in hell; the second being that of +the grey-white, and afterwards golden sky of morning, or of the golden +and thereafter grey-white sky of evening which, as a luminous, is +therefore generally a divine form of the goat; and the third aspect +being that of the moon. + +The richest myths refer to the sun enclosed in the cloud or the shades +of night, or to the cloud or darkness of night closing round the sun. +The shifting shadow and the moving cloud on the one side, the damp +night and the rainy cloud on the other, easily came to be represented +as a goat and as a ram. In the Indian tongue, or even the Vedic, +_aǵas_ is a word which means, properly speaking, pushing, drawing, +moving (agens), and afterwards he-goat; the he-goat butts with its +horns; the sun in the cloud butts with its rays until it opens the +stable and its horns come out.[747] The ram is called _meshas_, or +_mehas_, that is, the pourer or spreader, mingens (like the ass +ćiramehin), which corresponds with the _meghas_, or cloud mingens. +Moreover, as in Greek from _aix_,[748] a goat, we have _aigis_, a skin +(Ægis), so in Sanskṛit from _aǵas_, a goat, we have _aǵinas_, a skin; +and from _meshas_, a ram, _meshas_, a fleece, a skin, and that which +is formed from it; whence the Petropolitan Dictionary compares with it +the Russian _mieh_ (Lithuanian, _maiszas_) skin and sack. + +Let us now first of all see how these simple images developed +themselves in the Hindoo myth. + +Indras, the pluvial and thundering god, is represented in the first +strophe of a Vedic hymn as a very celebrated heroic ram;[749] in the +second strophe, as the one who pours out ambrosial honey (madaćyutam); +in the third strophe, as opening the stable or precinct of the cows to +the Añgirasas;[750] in the fourth strophe, as killing the serpent that +covers or keeps back; in the fifth strophe, as expelling the +enchanters with enchantments, and breaking the strong cities of the +monster Piprus;[751] and in the sixth strophe, as crushing under his +foot the giant-like monster Arbudas[752] or monster serpent. Thus far +we have two aspects of the myth, the ram which pours out ambrosial +honey, and the ram which opens the gate and crushes with its foot. In +another hymn the Açvinâu are compared to two he-goats (aǵeva), to two +horns (çṛiñgeva), and to two swift dogs.[753] A third hymn informs us +that Indras by means of a ram killed a leonine monster.[754] + +Here we evidently have a heroic he-goat or ram. + +Let us compare it with other traditions. In the _Khorda Avesta_[755] +we find Veretraghna (the Zend form of Indras, as Vṛitrahan) "with the +body of a warrior he-goat, handsome, and with sharpened horns." + +In the Russian tale given by _Afanassieff_,[756] the lamb, companion of +the bull in the wood, kills the wolf by butting against its sides, while +the bull also wounds the ferocious beast with its horns. In another +variation of the same story,[757] the cat is confederate with the lamb +against the wolf; the lamb butts hard at the wolf, while the cat +scratches it till blood flows. In yet another version, besides the lamb, +the he-goat also appears; the cat twists some of the bark of the +birch-tree round the horns of the he-goat, and bids the lamb rub against +it to produce fire; sparks come from it, the cat fetches hay, and the +three companions warm themselves. The wolves come up, and the cat makes +them run, presenting them the goat as a scarecrow, and frightening them +further by ominous hints as to the strength contained in its beard. +Finally, we have in the Russian stories two singular variations of the +fable of the goat, the kids, and the wolf.[758] The goat is about to +give birth to her young ones under an apple-tree. (We have seen in +Chapter I. the apple-tree, the fruit of which, when eaten, causes horns +to sprout. It is well-known that in Greek, _mêlon_ means a goat and an +apple-tree, as the Hindoo masculine noun _petvas_, which means a ram, is +in the neuter _petvam_ = ambrosia. The mythical apple-tree is ambrosial, +like the cornucopia of the goat of mythology; and it seems to me that +here, too, I can find an analogy in the Slavonic field itself between +the Russian words _óblaka_, clouds, in the plural _ablaká_, the clouds, +and _iablony_, apple-tree, plural _jáblogna_, the apple-trees, _jablok_, +the apple.) The apple-tree advises the goat to betake itself to some +other place, as the apples might fall upon its new-born kids and kill +them. The goat then goes to give birth to her young ones under an +equally shady walnut-tree; the walnut-tree also advises her to go away, +as the nuts might fall and do serious harm to her little ones;[759] upon +which the goat goes to a deserted tent in the forest, another form of +the cloud of night. When the kids are brought forth, the goat issues +forth out of the tent to procure food, and cautions her children not to +open to any one (the fable is well known in the West, but the Slavonic +variations are particularly interesting). The wolf comes and pronounces +the same password as the goat to induce the kids to open, but they +perceive by the rough voice of the wolf that it is not their mother, and +refuse to admit him. The wolf then goes to the blacksmith, and has a +voice made for him resembling that of the goat; the deceived kids open, +and the wolf devours them all except the smallest, who hides under the +stove (the favourite place where the little Slavonic hero, the third +brother, the ill-favoured fool, who afterwards becomes handsome and +wise, is accustomed to squat). The goat returns, and learns from the kid +which has escaped the massacre of its brothers. She thinks how to avenge +herself, and invites her friend and gossip the fox with the wolf to +dinner; the unsuspecting wolf arrives along with the fox. After dinner, +the goat, to divert her guests, invites them to amuse themselves by +leaping over an opening made in the floor; the goat leaps first, then +the fox leaps, and then the wolf, but falls down on the burning ashes +and is burnt to death, like the witch in some other stories, as the +night is burned by the morning aurora; and the goat chaunts a marvellous +_Te Deum_ (ćudesnoi pamin) in the wolf's honour. The other Russian +version adds some new and curious details. The goat goes to find food, +and leaves the kids alone; they shut the door after her. She returns +and says, "Open, my sons, my little fathers; your mother is come; she +has brought some milk, half a side full of milk, half a horn full of +fresh cheese, half a little horn full of clear water (the +cornucopia)."[760] The kids open immediately. The second day the goat +goes out again; the wolf, who had heard the song, tries to sing it to +the kids; but the latter perceive that it is not their mother's voice, +and do not open. Next day the wolf again imitates the mother's voice; +the kids open the door, and are all devoured except one which hides +itself in the stove, and afterwards narrates to the mother-goat all that +has happened. The goat avenges herself as follows: She goes into the +forest with the wolf, and comes to a ditch where some workmen had cooked +some gruel, and left the fire still burning. The goat challenges the +wolf to leap the ditch; the wolf tries and falls into it, where the fire +makes his belly split open, from which the kids, still alive, skip out +and run to their mother. + +Another story, however,[761] affords us still more aid in the +interpretation of the myth; that is, in leading us to see in the goat +and her kids the sun horned or furnished with rays, as it issues radiant +out of the cloud, or darkness, or ocean of night, and in the wolf, or in +the wolf's skin, split open or burned, out of which the kids come, the +dark, cloudy, watery nocturnal sky. Instead of the wolf we have a witch, +instead of the goat a woman, and instead of the kids the young Vaniushka +(Little John); the witch has a voice made by the blacksmith like that of +Vaniushka's or Tereshićko's mother, and thus attracts him to her. +Tereshićha says that he was originally the stump of a tree, which his +father and mother, being childless, had picked up in the forest, and +wrapped up and rocked in a cradle till he was born. + +The monster wolf, or the witch, having the faculty of simulating the +voice of the goat,[762] and an especial predilection for both sheep +and goats,--so much so that the witch Liho (properly Evil) keeps some +in her house, and those which come out (of the dark sky) in the +morning, and which re-enter (the dark sky) in the evening, are +considered her peculiar property,[763]--often transforms the hero (the +evening sun) into a kid (into the darkness or cloud of night). Of +course, as the dark and cloudy monster is often represented as a wolf, +it is easy to understand his wish that everything should be +transformed into a lamb in order to eat it. But the mythical lamb or +kid, the young solar hero, generally escapes out of the jaws of the +wolf, out of the hands of the witch, or out of the darkness, the +waters, or the cloud of night. + +A Vedic hymn celebrates the strong Pûshan, who has a he-goat for his +horse (or who is a goat-horse), and is called the lover of his sister. +Perhaps these words contain the germ of the Russian story of Little +John, brother of Little Helen, who is changed by witchcraft into a +kid. I have already observed in Chapter I. how Helen, who at the +commencement of the story shows affection for her brother John, ends +by betraying him. The Vedic hymn would appear to contain the notion of +the brother Pûshan transformed into a he-goat (the sun which enters +into the cloud or darkness of night), because he has loved his sister. +In another Vedic hymn we have the sister Yamî, who seduces her brother +Yamas. In European fairy tales, the sister loves her brother, who is +metamorphosed by the art of a witch, now into a young hog, and now +into a kid. In the forty-fifth story of the fourth book of +_Afanassieff_, Ivanushka (Little John) becomes a kid after drinking +out of a goat's hoof. In the twenty-ninth story of the second book of +_Afanassieff_, Ivanushka and Little Helen, the children of a Tzar, +wander alone about the world. Ivanushka wishes to drink where cows, +horses, sheep, and hogs feed and drink; his sister Little Helen +advises him not to do so, lest he should turn into a calf, a colt, a +lamb, or a young pig; but at last John is overcome by thirst, and, +against the advice of his sister, he drinks where goats drink, and +becomes a kid. A young Tzar marries the sister, and gives every honour +to the kid, but a witch throws the young queen into the sea (Phrixos +and Helle; in other European stories, into a cistern), and usurps her +place, inducing the people to believe that she is Helen, and +commanding the kid to be put to death. The kid runs to the shore and +invokes his sister, who answers from the bottom of the sea that she +can do nothing. The young Tzar, to whom the affair is referred, +hastens to deliver Helen out of the sea; the kid can again skip about +in safety, and everything is green again, and flourishes as much as it +withered before; the witch is burnt alive.[764] + +According to the fiftieth story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, a +merchant has three daughters. He builds a new house, and sends his +three daughters by turns to pass the night there, in order to see what +they dream about. (The belief that the man dreamed of by a maiden +during the night of St John's Day, Christmas Day, or the Epiphany, is +her predestined husband, still exists in the popular superstitions of +Europe.) The eldest daughter dreams that she marries a merchant's son, +the second a noble, and the third a he-goat. The father commands his +youngest daughter never to go out of the house; she disobeys; a +he-goat appears and carries her off upon his horns towards a rocky +place. Saliva and mucous matter fall from the goat's mouth and +nostrils; the good maiden is not disgusted, but patiently wipes the +goat's mouth. This pleases the animal, who tells her that if she had +shown horror towards him, she would have had the same fate as his +former wives, whose heads were impaled on a stake. The geese bring to +the girl news of her father and sisters; they announce that the eldest +sister is about to be married; she wishes to be present at the +wedding, and is permitted by the goat to go, who orders for her use +three horses as black as a crow, who arrive at their destination in +three leaps (the three steps of Vishṇus), whilst he himself sits upon +a flying carpet, and is transported to the wedding in the form of a +handsome and young stranger. The same happens on the occasion of the +second sister's marriage, when the third sister guesses that this +handsome youth is her own husband. She departs before the rest, comes +home, finds the skin of the goat and burns it; then her husband always +preserves the form of a handsome youth, inasmuch as the enchantment of +the witch has come to an end.[765] + +The lamb, the he-goat, and the sheep are favourite forms of the +witch. In the European story, when the beautiful princess, in the +absence of the prince, her husband, gives birth to two beautiful sons, +the witch induces the absent prince to believe that, instead of real +sons, his young wife has given birth to pups. In the seventh story of +the third book of _Afanassieff_, the young queen gives birth, during +the king's absence, to two sons, of whom one has the moon on his +forehead, and the other a star on the nape of his neck (the Açvinâu). +The wicked sister of the young queen buries the children. Where they +were buried a golden sprout and a silver one spring up. A sheep feeds +upon these plants, and gives birth to two lambs, having, the one the +moon on its head, the other a star on its neck. The wicked sister, who +has meanwhile been married to the king, orders them to be torn in +pieces, and their intestines to be thrown out into the road. The good +lawful queen has them cooked, eats them, and again gives birth to her +two sons, who grow up hardy and strong, and who, when interrogated by +the king, narrate to him the story of their origin; their mother is +recognised, and becomes once more the king's wife; the wicked sister +is put to death.[766] + +The witch is sometimes herself (as a wolf-cloud or wolf-darkness) a +devourer of young luminous kids or lambs, such as the Schmierbock in +the Norwegian story. The witch carries Schmierbock three times away in +a sack; the first and second time Schmierbock escapes by making a hole +in the sack; but the third time the witch succeeds in carrying him to +her house, where she prepares to eat him. The cunning Schmierbock, +however, smuggles the witch's own daughter into his place, and, +climbing up, conceals himself in the chimney (a variation of the +stove, the place where the young Russian hero usually hides himself, +in the same way as in the Tuscan story the foolish Pimpi conceals +himself in the oven). From this post of security he laughs at the +witch, who endeavours to recapture him; he throws a stone down the +chimney and kills her, upon which he descends, rifles her +treasure-stores, and carries off all her gold. Here the young hero is +called a he-goat; in the chapter on the wolf, we shall find the witch +of the Norwegian story actually bears the name of wolf. These two data +complete the myth; the wolf which wishes to devour the little hero, +and the witch who endeavours to eat the little lamb, are completed by +the fable which represents the wolf as, at the rivulet, eating the +lamb, which, in the mythical heavens, means the cloudy and gloomy +monster which devours the sun. + +We have seen above the witch who imitates the voice of the mother of +the little hero, in order to be able to eat him, and the wolf who +mimics the voice of the goat and eats the kids; but the wolf does more +than assume the goat's voice; he sometimes even takes her form. + +In the _Râmâyaṇam_,[767] Aǵamukhî, or goat's face, is called a witch, +who wishes Sîtâ to be torn to pieces. In the legend of Ilvalas and +Vâtâpis,[768] the two wizard brothers who conspire to harm the +Brâhmaṇâs, Vâtâpis transforms himself into a wether, and lets himself +be sacrificed in the funeral rites by the Brâhmaṇâs. The unsuspecting +Brâhmaṇâs eat its flesh; then Ilvalas cries out to his brother, "Come +forth, O Vâtâpis!" and his brother, Vâtâpis, comes out of the bodies +of the Brâhmaṇâs, lacerating them, until the ṛishis Agastyas eats of +himself the whole of Vâtâpis, and burns Ilvalas to ashes. The +_Râmâyaṇam_ itself explains to us why, in these sacrifices, a wether, +and not a ram, is spoken of,[769] when it narrates the legend of +Ahalyâ. It is said in this passage that the god Indras was one day +condemned to lose his testicles by the malediction of the ṛishis +Gâutamas, with whose wife, Ahalyâ, he had committed adultery. The +gods, moved to pity, took the testicles of a ram and gave them to +Indras, who was therefore called Meshâṇḍas; on this account, says the +_Râmâyaṇam_, the Pitaras feed on wethers, and not on rams, in funeral +oblations. This legend is evidently of brâhmanic origin. The +Brâhmaṇâs, being interested in discrediting the god of the warriors, +Indras, and finding him called in the Vedâs by the name of Meshas or +ram, invented the story of the ram's testicles, in the same way as, +finding Indras in the Vedâs called by the name of Sahasrâkshas +(_i.e._, he of the thousand eyes), they malignantly connected this +appellation with the same scandalous story of the seduction of Ahalyâ, +and degraded the honourable epithet into an infamous one, he of the +thousand wombs, probably by the confusion arising out of the equivoque +between the words _sahasradhâras_, the sun (as carrying, now a +thousand stars, now a thousand rays), or _sahasrânçus_, and +_sahasradâras_, which has a very different meaning. + +In the important 116th hymn of the first book of the _Ṛigvedas_, +Ṛiǵrâçvas (_i.e._, the red horse, or the hero of the red horse) eats a +hundred rams belonging to the she-wolf (in the following hymn, a +hundred and one); his father blinds him on this account; the two +marvellous physicians, the Açvinâu, give him back his two eyes.[770] +Evidently the father of the solar hero is here the gloomy monster of +night himself; the sun, at evening, becomes the devourer of the rams +who come out of the she-wolf, or who belong to the she-wolf; it is for +this reason that the monster wolf blinds him when evening comes. The +red horse Ṛiǵrâçvas, or the hero of the red horse, who eats the rams +of the she-wolf, affords a further key to enable us to understand the +expiatory goat, which in the _Ṛigvedas_ itself is sacrificed instead +of the horse. We are told in a hymn, that in the sacrifice of the +horse the omniform he-goat (aǵo viçvarûpaḥ) has preceded the +horse;[771] and the _Âitareya Br._, commenting on this exchange of +animals, also speaks of the he-goat as the last animal destined for +the sacrifice. In the Russian stories, too, the goat has to pay the +price of the follies or rogueries done by the man, and is +sacrificed.[772] This sacrificed he-goat appears to be the same as the +ass which undergoes punishment for all the animals in the celebrated +fable of Lafontaine (which becomes a bull in the hands of the Russian +fabulist Kriloff, who could not introduce the ass, an animal almost +unknown in Russia); and we already know that the ass represents the +sun in the cloud or the sun in the darkness; and we have also said +that the ass and the fool die together in the legend. The she-goat +dies in the Russian story to deliver the fool, who, after her death, +is a fool no longer, his folly having died with her.[773] The popular +story offers us another proof of the identity of the mythical ass and +the mythical goat. We have also seen above, in the Norwegian story, +how the witch possesses a treasure which is carried off by the +Schmierbock, who kills her; the magician, or the devil, is always +rich. The ass which the devil gives to Little Johnny throws gold from +its tail; the ass personifies the devil. But the devil, as we have +observed, also has a predilection to embody himself in a ram, a lamb, +or a he-goat. I remember the puppets who every day improvised popular +representations in the little wooden theatre on the Piazza Castello, +at Turin, when I was a boy; the final doom of the personage who +represented the tyrant was generally to die under the bastinadoes of +Arlecchino, or to be carried to hell by the devil in the form of a +bleating lamb, which came upon the scene expressly to carry him away +with him, this disappearance being accompanied by much throbbing of +the spectators' hearts, to whom the manager preached a salutary +sermon.[774] In the twenty-first of the Tuscan stories published by +me, it is not the devil, but the little old man, Gesù, who gives to +the third brother, instead of the usual ass, a putrid sheep, which, +however, has the virtue of throwing louis-d'or behind it. This putrid, +or wet, or damp sheep represents still better the damp night. + +Ṛiǵrâçvas, as we have said, eats the ram and becomes blind, his father +having blinded him to avenge the she-wolf to whom the rams belonged; but +the mother of the rams being the sheep, it is probable that the she-wolf +who possessed the rams had assumed the form of a putrid sheep, in the +same way as we have seen her above transformed into a she-goat; the +father of Ṛiǵrâçvas, who avenges the she-wolf on account of the hundred +rams, may perhaps himself have been a horned wolf transformed into a +he-goat, and have blinded Ṛiǵrâçvas with his horns. In the popular +story, the she-goat, when she is in the forest, takes a special pleasure +in wounding people's eyes with her horns; hence is probably derived the +name of the reptile aǵakâvas, conjured with in the _Ṛigvedas_,[775] as +durdṛiçikas, or making to see badly, damaging the eyesight, and the name +of aǵakâ, given to an illness in the eyes by the Hindoo physician +Suçrutas. However, we must not forget the connection between the idea of +skin and that of goat, by which the aǵakâ might mean simply the thin +membrane that sometimes harms the pupil of the eye, and produces +blindness. This thin membrane, stretched over the eye of the solar hero, +blinds him. We shall see in the chapter on the frog and the toad, which +very often represent, in the myths, the cloud and the damp night, that +the toad[776] causes blindness only by means of the venom which it is +fabled to exude, like the reptile aǵakâvas. + +But, as the hero in hell learns and sees everything, the goat, which +deprives others of sight, has itself the property of seeing +everything; this is the case, because the goat, being the sun enclosed +in the cloud or gloomy night, sees the secrets of hell, and also +because, being the horned moon or starry sky, it is the spy of the +heavens. We have already observed in the first chapter how the +marvellous girl of seven years of age, to answer the acted riddle +proposed by the Tzar, arrives upon a hare, which, in mythology, +represents the moon. In a variation of the same story given by +_Afanassieff_,[777] instead of riding upon a hare, the royal boy comes +upon a goat, and is recognised by his father; the goat, in its +capacity of steed of the lost hero, seems here to represent the moon, +as the hare does. + +We have already spoken of Indras sahasrâkshas, _i.e._, of the thousand +eyes; Hindoo painters represent him with these thousand eyes, that is, +as an azure sky bespangled with stars. Indras as the nocturnal sun hides +himself, transformed, in the starry heavens; the stars are his eyes. The +hundred-eyed or all-seeing (panoptês) Argos placed as a spy over the +actions of the cow beloved of Zeus, is the Hellenic equivalent of this +form of Indras. In Chapter I. we also saw the witch's daughter of the +Russian fairy tale who has three eyes, and with her third eye plays the +spy over the cow, which protects the good maiden. In the second story of +the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, when the peasant ascends into heaven +upon the pea-plant, and enters into a room where geese, hogs, and pastry +are being cooked, he sees a goat on guard; he only discovers six eyes, +as the goat has its seventh eye in its back; the peasant puts the six +eyes to sleep, but the goat, by means of its seventh eye, sees that the +peasant eats and drinks as much as he likes, and informs the lord of the +sky of the fact. In another variation of the story, given by +_Afanassieff_,[778] the old man finds in heaven a little house guarded +in turns by twelve goats, of which one has one eye, another two, a third +three, and so on up to twelve. The old man says to one after the other, +"One eye, two eyes, three eyes, &c., sleep." On the twelfth day, instead +of saying "twelve eyes," he makes a mistake and says "eleven;" the goat +with twelve eyes then sees and secures him. The eye of God which sees +everything, in the popular faith, is a variation of Argos Panoptês, the +Vedic Viçvavedas, and the Slavonic Vsievedas, the eye of the goat which +sees what is being done in heaven. When the moon shines in the sky, the +stars grow pale, the eyes of the witch of heaven fall asleep, but some +few eyes still stay open, some few stars continue to shine to observe +the movements of the cow-moon, the fairy-moon, the Madonna-moon, who +protects the young hero and the beautiful solar maiden lost in the +darkness of night. + +This spying goat's eye is perhaps connected with the constellation of +the goat and two kids. Columella writes that the kids appear in the +sky towards the end of September, when the west, and sometimes the +south, wind blows and brings rain. According to Servius, the goat +united with the two kids in the constellation of Aquarius is the same +goat which was the nurse of Zeus; he says that it appears in October, +with the sign of Scorpio. Ovid, in _De Arte Amandi_, and in the first +book _Tristium_, and Virgil in the ninth book of the _Æneid_,[779] +also celebrate the goat and the kids of heaven as bringers of rain. +Horace, in the seventh ode, elegantly calls the goat's stars insane:-- + + "Ille nothis actus ad Oricum + Post insana capræ sidera, frigidas + Noctes non sine multis + Insomnis lachrymis agit." + +We have already seen Indras as a ram or pluvial cloud; and the goat +with only one foot (ekapâd aǵaḥ), or he who has but one goat's foot, +who supports the heavens, who lightens and thunders,[780] is a form of +the same pluvial Indras who supports the heavens in the rainy season. +We have seen the Açvinâu compared to two goats, two horns, two hoofs; +each, therefore, would seem to have but one horn, but one goat's foot +(which might perhaps explain the ekapâd aǵaḥ); hence on one side the +cornucopia, and on the other the lame goat.[781] The nymph Galathea +(the milky one), who loves a faun (or one who has goat's feet), seems +to be a Hellenic form of the loves of Esmeralda and the goat with +Quasimodo. The goat loves him who has goat's feet; the solar hero (or +heroine) in the night has goat's feet; he is a satyr, a faun, a +he-goat, an ass; he is deformed and foolish, but he interests the good +fairy, who, in the form of a she-goat (as the moon and as the milky +way), guides him in the night, and, as the dawn (white aurora) in the +morning, saves him and makes him happy. In the German legend, the poor +princess who, with her son, is persecuted in the forest, is assisted +now by a she-goat, now by a doe, which gives milk to the child; by +means of this animal, which serves as his guide, the prince finds his +lost bride. This guiding she-goat, or doe, the nurse of the +child-hero, which Servius recognised in the constellation of the goat +(with respect to Zeus, who is essentially pluvial, as the Vedic Indras +has the clouds himself for his nurses), must have generally +represented the moon. But even the milky way of the sky (the bridge of +souls) is the milk spilt by the she-goat of heaven; the white morning +sky is also the milk of this same she-goat. The horned moon,[782] the +milky way, and the white dawn are represented in the form of a +beneficent she-goat which assists the hero and the heroine in the +forest, in the darkness; whilst, on the contrary, the sun enclosed in +the cloud, the darkness, or the starry sky of night (with the insana +capræ sidera), is now a good and wise he-goat or ram, full of good +advice, like the ram who advises the king of India in the +_Tuti-Name_,[783] and now a malignant monster, a demoniacal being. +Inasmuch as the goat gives light and milk, it is divine; inasmuch as +it conceals the beauty of the young hero or heroine and opposes them, +it may be considered demoniacal. + +The connection between the she-goat and the milky way can also be +proved from the name St James's Way, given by the common people to the +galaxy, or galathea, or way of milk;[784] and it is interesting to +learn from Baron Reinsberg,[785] how, in several parts of Bohemia, it +is the custom on St James's Day to throw a he-goat out of the window, +and to preserve its blood, which is said to be of potent avail against +several diseases, such, for instance, as the spitting of blood. In the +_Lezioni di Materia Medica_ of Professor Targioni-Tozzetti,[786] we +also read that the he-goat's blood was known by no less a name than +_manus Dei_, and believed to be especially useful against contusions +of the back, pleurisy, and the stone. But the disease of the stone was +supposed to be cured by the stone called _capra_ (goat), which was +said to be found in the bodies of some Indian goats. Targioni-Tozzetti +himself seriously describes the goat-stones as follows:--"These stones +are usually clear on their surface, and dark-coloured; they have an +odour of musk when rubbed and heated by the hands. In them (the stone +Bezoar[787]) analeptic and alexipharmic virtues were supposed to +exist, which were able to resist the evil effects of poison and +contagious diseases, the plague not excepted, and to save the patient +by causing an abundant and healthy perspiration to break out on his +skin. For this reason these stones were sold very dear. The same +virtues are attributed to those found in the West, but in a much less +degree." When the heavenly goat dissolves in rain or in dew, when +moisture comes from the goat-cloud, the mountain-cloud, or the +stone-cloud, these humours are salutary. When St James, who is joined +with the goat and the rain, pours out his bottle, as the Piedmontese +people say, the vapour which falls from the sky on these days is +considered by the peasants, as in fact it is for the country, and +especially for the vines, a real blessing. In the fable of _Babrios_, +the vine, whose leaves are eaten by the he-goat, threatens it, saying +that it will nevertheless produce wine, and that when the wine is made +(_i.e._, at the Dionysian mysteries), the goat will be sacrificed to +the gods. In the spring, on the other hand, or on the Easter of the +resurrection, it was the custom to sacrifice in effigy the _Agnus +Dei_, in the belief that it would serve to defend the fields and +vineyards against demoniacal wiles, thunderbolts and thunder, +facilitate parturition, and deliver from shipwreck, fire, and sudden +death.[788] In the Witches' Sabbath in Germany, it was said that the +witches burned a he-goat, and divided its ashes among themselves.[789] + +The cunning she-goat is an intermediate form between the good wise +fairy and the witch who is an expert in every kind of malice. In the +same way as the hero, at first foolish, learns malice from the devil, +to use it afterwards against the devil himself, it may be presumed +that the hero, in his form of a goat, has learned from the monsters +all that cunning by which he afterwards distinguishes himself. The +Vedic ram, Indras, also uses magic against the monster magicians. + +In the second of the Esthonian stories, we read that the king of the +serpents has a golden cup containing the milk of a heavenly goat; if +bread is dipped into this milk, and put into the mouth, one can +discover every secret thing that has happened in the night, without +any one perceiving how. + +In the French mediæval poem of _Ysengrin_,[790] the she-goat deceives +the wolf in a way similar to that in which, in the first number of +_Afanassieff's_ stories, the peasant cheats the bear, and in the +Italian stories the same peasant defrauds the devil. The she-goat +shows a fox-like cunning, keeping for itself the leaf of the corn, and +leaving the root for the wolf. Hence, in my eyes, the origin of the +Piedmontese proverbial expression, "La crava a l'à mangià la föja" +(the goat ate the leaf), and even the simple one of "Mangé la föja" +(to eat the leaf), meaning to understand cunning.[791] I heard from a +certain Uliva Selvi, at Antignano (near Leghorn), the narrative of a +witch who sent a boy every day to take the she-goat to the pasturage, +ordering him to pay attention that it should eat well, but leave the +corn alone. When the goat returned, the witch asked it-- + + "Capra, mia capra Mergolla, + Come se' ben satolla?" + (Goat, my goat Mergolla, + Are you quite satiated?) + +To which the goat answered-- + + "Son satolla e cavalcata, + Tutto il giorno digiunata." + (I am satiated, and have been ridden; + I have fasted all day.) + +Then the boy was put to death by the witch. It happened thus to twelve +boys, until the thirteenth, more cunning, caressed the goat and gave +it the corn to eat; then the goat answered to the witch's question-- + + "Son ben satolla e governata, + Tutto il giorno m' ha pasturata." + (I am quite satiated, and have been well kept; + He has given me to eat all day.) + +And the boy, too, was well treated. + +The devil's pupil always outwits his master; the she-goat beguiles the +wolf to its destruction. We have seen this in the Russian story, and +it is confirmed in the legend of _Ysengrin_. The peasants of Piedmont +and of Sicily have, for this reason, so much respect for the goat, +that they consider it brings a blessing to the house near which it is +maintained; and if, by chance, they show a perverse nature, this +perversity is attributed to the devil himself, who, they believe, has +maliciously taken possession of them. A few years ago, a goatherd of +the Val di Formazza, in the Ossola in Piedmont, had two goats which he +believed to be possessed by some evil spirit, for which reason they +always wandered about, in order, as he thought, that the demon might +at last be able to throw them down some abyss. One day the two goats +were lost; the goatherd searched for them for a short time, but +finding his search bootless, he resolved to go and make a vow to the +Madonna of Einsiedlen. Chance so arranged it, that at the very moment +in which he was returning from his pious pilgrimage, his two goats +also approached the door of his house; therefore, of course, this was +declared to be a miracle in Formazza, and as such it is still believed +in that district.[792] + +In the preceding chapter we saw the ass represented in two aspects, as +regards its generative capabilities; that is, it is now represented as +an ardent, insatiable, and competent fœcundator, and now as a +ridiculous imbecile, and powerless to generate. We also saw the ass +closely connected with the satyrs with goat's or he-goat's feet. The +he-goats and rams, too, have a double and self-contradictory reputation. +We know, for instance, that the god Thor, the god of the Scandinavians, +who thunders in the cloud, is drawn by he-goats (the vessel of Thor and +Hymir, the cloud, is called in the _Edda_ a navigating ram or he-goat, +in the same way as the Vedic Indras is represented as a god-ram); he +is, moreover, the protector of marriages. Scandinavian mythology, +therefore, appears to regard the goat as essentially the one that makes +fruitful, as a pluvial cloud. In the Hindoo mythology of the brâhmanic +period, the god Indras loses, on the contrary, his divine power, becomes +stupid and obscure, and is lost in his form of a ram. In one of his +_Passeggiate nel Canavese_, Signor A. Bertolotti recently observed, at +Muraglio, a curious custom which is observed by the young men of the +country when a projected wedding falls through; they run up to the +bride's house and obstreperously demand her to give her sheep up to +them, upon which they go to the bridegroom's house and cry out, "Vente a +sarrar quist motogn" (come and shut up these rams). Here the ram +represents the husband, and the sheep the wife. In Du Cange the name of +goat (caper) is given to the "in pueris insuavis odor cum ad virilitatem +accedunt."[793] In _Apuleius_, unmeasured lasciviousness is called +"cohircinatio." According to Ælianos, the he-goat, at the age of seven +days (of seven months according to Columella), already yearns for +coition. + +But in the same way as the ass is the stupid patient animal, the ram +is the stupid quiet one. The he-goat is said to be an indifferent +husband, who allows his she-goats to be covered by other goats without +showing a sign of jealousy; hence our expressions, "horned goat," and +simply "horned," to indicate the husband of an unfaithful woman, that +is, of a woman who makes him wear horns, like the goat, and the +Italian proverb, "E meglio esser geloso che becco" (it is better to be +jealous than a he-goat). This reputation, however, as assigned to the +he-goat, is contrary to all that has been said and written, and that +is known concerning the lust of the he-goat. On the contrary, +Aristotle says explicitly that two he-goats, which have always lived +together in concord at the pasturage, fall out and fight with violence +in the time of coition. Moreover, the verse of Pindaros is well known, +in which he makes he-goats unite even with women. It is also said that +Hermês, or Zeus, assuming the form of a he-goat, united himself with +Penelope, whence was born the great goat-footed satyr, Pan; that +Hêraklês (as an ass, in his lion's skin) competed with a he-goat in +phallical powers (in Athenaios he joins himself with fifty virgins in +the space of seven nights); that, in Ælianos, a jealous he-goat +punished with death the goatherd Crathis, who had incestuously joined +himself with one of his she-goats. Nevertheless, the Greeks already +called by the name of _aix_, as we Italians by that of _capra_, a +woman of an immoral life, or an adulteress. Columella gives us the key +of the enigma, observing that the he-goat, by abuse of the Venus, +which he uses too soon (like the ass), becomes powerless before the +age of six years, so that it is not out of indifference that he is +simply a spectator of his she-goat's infidelity, but only because he +cannot do otherwise. Hence the application of _hircosus_, which +Plautus gives to an old man. + +It is the Hellenic tradition which, more than any other, developed to +a greater extent the myth of the goat and the sheep, under all their +aspects--demoniacal, divine, and hybrid. + +The golden fleece, or the fleece of the sheep or ram which had been +transported into Colchis by Phrixos, the son of Nephêlê (the cloud) +and of Helle;[794] Jupiter Ammon (in the fifth book of Ovid's +_Metamorphoses_), who, afraid of the giants (as, in the last book of +the _Râmâyaṇam_, the gods, terrified by the monsters, transform +themselves into different animals), hides himself in Lybia in the +shape of a horned ram; the altar of Apollo in the isle of Delos, +constructed with innumerable horns; the woolly skins in which, +according to Strabo,[795] the Iberians gathered up gold, whence the +Greek geographer believed the fable of the golden fleece to have +arisen; the golden lamb kept by Atreus, which was to bring Thyestes to +the throne, and the name of Aigüsthos, born of the incestuous loves of +Thyestes with his own daughter; Pan (with goat's feet, the son of the +he-goat Zeus or Hermes), who, in the fifth book of the _Saturnalians_ +of Macrobius, loves the moon and obtains its favours by means of sheep +with white but rough and coarse wool; Endymion, who, according to the +commentator Servius, induces the moon to love him by means of +exceedingly white sheep; Neptune, who, in the form of a ram, in the +sixth book of the _Metamorphoses_ of Ovid, seduces the beautiful +virgin Bisaltis; the satyrs, the fauns with goat's feet, into which +the gods transform themselves in order to seduce nymphs or maidens of +the earth, as, for instance, Jove again, in the same book of Ovid-- + + "Satyri celatus imagine pulchram + Jupiter implevit gemino Nycteida fœtu;" + +Hermês, called Krioforos, or carrier of a ram (that is, of a ram which +delivers the land from the plague, a form of St James); the two +predestined sheep which Epimenides sacrifices to make the Athenian +plague cease, in the twenty-seventh Olympiad, in Diogenes Laertês; the +bleating goats that King Priam (in the fragments of Ennius) sacrifices +to dissipate the evil threatened by sinister dreams; the black sheep +sacrificed to Pluto, Proserpine, the Furies, and all the infernal +deities; the lamb, the ram, and the he-goat sacrificed to the genital +Fates in the Sybilline verses translated by Angelo Poliziano-- + + "Cum nox atra premit terram, tectusque latet Sol;" + +the white lamb sacrificed to Hercules, to Mars, to Jove, to Neptune, +to Bacchus, to Pan (the goat being sacrificed to Diana), to Apollo +(_i.e._, when the sun shines), to Ceres (the goddess of the +light-coloured ears of corn), to Venus, to the gods and goddesses; to +his divine forms (similia similibus); and several other mythical +notions (not to speak of the very popular legend relating to the goat +Amalthea, who nourished Zeus with her milk, and was by Zeus translated +for this service to the stars, under the name of Aixourania, or +heavenly goat, after he had taken off one of its horns, to give, in +gratitude to the two nymphs who had protected him, the faculty of +pouring out everything that was wished for);[796] all these account, +in an eloquent manner, for the wide-spread worship that the goat and +the sheep received, even in Græco-Latin antiquity, enriching with many +episodes the mythical and legendary traditions of these nations, now +as the type of a god, now of a demon, and now of an intermediate +being, such as the satyr, for instance. + +In the same way as the mythical horse has, from evening to morning, +three conspicuous moments of action--black, grey, and white or +red--and as the mythical ass throws gold from behind and has golden +ears, so the mythical goat and sheep, which are dark-coloured in the +night or in the cloud, throw gold from behind and have golden horns +which pour out ambrosia, or else have even the cornucopia itself. It +is always the same myth of the cloudy and aqueous, of the nocturnal +and tenebrous sky, with its two glowing twilights or auroras, or else +of the luminous heavenly hero who traverses the night or the cloud (or +the wintry season), disguised in the shapes of various animals, now by +his own will, now by a divine malediction or by diabolical witchcraft. + +In the third book of Aristotle's _History of Animals_, we read of the +river Psikros in Thrace, that white sheep, when they drink of its +waters, bring forth black lambs; that in Antandria there are two +rivers, of which one makes the sheep black, and the other white, and +that the river Xanthos or Skamandros makes the sheep fair (or golden). +This belief involves in itself the three transformations of the +celestial hero into the three he-goats or rams of different natures, +of which we have spoken. The last transformation calls our attention +to the sheep with golden wool, the golden lamb, and the _Agnus Dei_, +the symbol of happiness, power and riches. Wealth in sheep, even more +than wealth in cows, became the symbol of universal riches. The horn +poured out every kind of treasure upon the earth, and upon the earth +itself the _pecus_ became _pecunia_. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[747] The Petropolitan Dictionary sees in the he-goat aǵas, the movable +one (agilis). To illustrate the same analogies in the case of the Greek +myth, it will be useful to repeat the words of Professor Bréal: "Le +verbe grec _aïssô_, qui signifie s'élancer, a fait d'une part le +substantif _aix_, chèvre (à cause de la nature bondissante de l'animal), +et de l'autre les mots _kataïx, kataigis, tempête_ (as it seems to me, +that which shakes, which causes to move or tremble, inasmuch as I +maintain that _aǵas_ does not mean the movable, or him that rushes, so +much as him that pushes, that butts, or causes to move). De là une +nouvelle série d'images et de fables où la chèvre joue le rôle +principal. L'égide, avant d'être un bouclier fait en peau de chèvre, +était le ciel au moment de l'orage; Jupiter aigiochos était le dieu qui +envoie la tempête; plus tard, on traduisit le dieu qui porte l'égide. +Homère semble se souvenir de la première signification, quand il nous +montre, au seul mouvement du bouclier le tonnerre qui éclate, l'Ida qui +se couvre de nuages et les hommes frappés de terreur." Mr Ralston +compares very well the Russian _ablakagragonniki_ (cloud-compellers) to +the Zeus _nephelêgeretes_. In the _Ṛigv._ i. 10, 8, it is said similarly +to Indras: ǵeshaḥ svarvatîr apaḥ saṁ gâ asmabhyaṁ dhûnuhi. + +[748] Let Finnish philologists observe whether it is not possible to +refer to this their Aija, an equivalent of Ukko, their Indras, called +hattarojen hallitsia, the master of the cloud-lambs.--Cfr. Castren's +_Kleinere Schriften_, St Petersburg, 1862, p. 230. + +[749] Mesham puruhûtam; _Ṛigv._ i. 51, 1.--Tad indro arthaṁ ćetati +yûthena vṛishṇir eǵati; _Ṛigv._ i. 10, 2. + +[750] Tvaṁ gotram añigirobhyo 'vṛiṇor; _Ṛigv._ i. 51, 3. + +[751] Tvaṁ mâyâbhir apa mâyino 'dhamaḥ--tvam pipror nṛimaṇaḥ prâruǵaḥ +puraḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 51, 5. + +[752] Mahantaṁ ćid arbudaṁ ni kramîḥ padâ; _Ṛigv._ i. 51, 6.--Arbudas +is also in Sanskṛit the proper name of a mountain and of a hell; the +cloud-mountain and the hell in the cloudy and nocturnal sky have +already been noticed in this volume. + +[753] Çaphâv iva ǵarbhurâṇâ tarobhiḥ; _Ṛigv._ ii. 39, 3. + +[754] Siṅhyaṁ ćit petvenâ ǵaghâna; _Ṛigv._ vii. 18, 17.--In Firdusi we +find, in the adventures of Isfendiar, two horned wolves that catch +lions; these seem to be demoniacal forms of the ram of Indras which +kills the lion. + +[755] xxx. 9.--Here the horns are the sun's rays or the thunderbolts, +which come again in the Italian superstition on the _iettatura_; the +horns of the goat, it is said, and the red coral horns excel the devil +and his magic. + +[756] iv. 21. + +[757] iii. 18.--In the story, i. 20, we are told that the lamb fled +away into the forest with the he-goat, because its master took the +skin off one of its sides (that is, the wool). The lambs appear in the +morning and in the evening with luminous wool; they are sheared during +the night. + +[758] _Afanassieff_, ii. 4; iv. 17. + +[759] The walnut-tree is also found in relation with the goat in a fable +of _Afanassieff_, ii. 1, that of the accused who exculpate themselves by +inculpating others. The cock and the hen gather nuts together; the cock +throws one which strikes the hen on the ear; the hen weeps; a boiard +asks the reason; the hen accuses the cock, the cock accuses the +walnut-tree, the walnut-tree accuses the goat, the goat accuses the +shepherd, the shepherd accuses the housewife, the housewife accuses the +hog, the hog accuses the wolf, the wolf accuses God, but beyond God it +is impossible to go.--In another jest in verse, intended to exercise the +memory and loosen the tongue, and given by _Afanassieff_, iv. 16, we +find the goat in connection with hazel-nuts. The he-goat begins to +complain that the she-goat does not come back with the hazel-nuts (níet +kaszi s ariehami); the song goes on to say, that the he-goat will send +the wolf to find the she-goat, the bear after the wolf, the men after +the bear, the oak-tree after the men, the axe after the oak-tree, the +grindstone after the axe, the fire after the grindstone, the water after +the fire, and the hurricane after the water; then the hurricane sends +the water, the water the fire, the fire burns the grindstone, the stone +grinds the axe, the axe cuts down the oak-tree, the oak-tree made into a +stick (as we have already seen in Chapters I. and II.) beats the men, +the men shoot against the bear, the bear fights with the wolves, the +wolves hunt the she-goat, and here the she-goat comes back with the +hazel-nuts (vot kasza s ariehami). + +[760] + + Ah vi, dietuski, + Moi batiuski + Ataprìtessia + Atamknítessia; + Vasha mat prishlá + Malaká prinieslá + Polni baká malaká, + Polni ragá tvaragá + Polni kopitzi vaditzi. + +[761] _Afanassieff_, vi. 17. + +[762] In the story, ii. 32 of _Afanassieff_, a similar voice has the +same effect as that of the ass; it terrifies all the other animals. +However, here, a goat that has been shorn is alone spoken of,--that +is, the goat which has lost its hair or luminous wool, the thundering +goat-cloud.--In the twenty-fifth story of the first book of the +_Narodnija iusznoruskija Skazki_ (_Popular Stories of South Russia_), +edited by Rudcenko, Kiev, 1869, the goat terrifies by its voice the +first fox and then the wolf, until she herself is terrified by the +voice of the cock. (The morning sun, personified in the cock, destroys +the she-goat of night.) + +[763] _Afanassieff_, iii. 15.--She sends them to the pasturage; a young +blacksmith, who is in her power, adopts the follow mode of deliverance: +He puts his pelisse on outside-in, feigns himself a sheep, and passes +out with the other sheep, escaping thus from the witch: the young sun +comes out at morn like a shepherd-hero among the sheep. Thus Odysseus +delivers himself from the grotto of Polyphemos with his companions, by +hiding himself among the flock which comes out of it. + +[764] Cfr. the eleventh of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano di +Calcinaia_, where we have the lamb instead of the kid. + +[765] A very interesting variation of this is contained in another +unpublished story which I heard from a certain Marianna Nesti of +Fucecchio in Tuscany. + +There was once a queen that had a son, who, at the age of seven years, +was enchanted, so that he lay constantly in bed like one deprived of +life. Only at midnight he went out of the house, returning at one +o'clock, covered with blood, and throwing himself as if dead into the +bed. A woman had to remain regularly on the watch for the purpose of +opening the door for him at midnight and at one o'clock; but no girl +had, from very fright, been able to continue in the service more than +one night. Near the city lived an old woman with three daughters; the +two eldest tried to discharge the prescribed duty, but were overcome +with fear; the youngest, more courageous, remained. The first night, +at twelve o'clock, the dead man lifts up one arm; she runs to him and +lifts the other; he tries to raise himself; she helps him to get out +of bed. At one o'clock he returns covered with blood, and the girl +asks him who has reduced him to this condition, but he answers +nothing, and throws himself on the bed as if a corpse. The second +night she follows him, and sees him enter a subterranean cavern; he +comes to the foot of a flight of stairs, puts down his mantle and +remains as naked as when he was born, a handsome youth of eighteen +years of age. At the summit of the stairs two great witches cry, "Here +he is! come, pretty one!" He ascends and is beaten by the witches for +an hour till blood flows, he crying out the while for mercy. At one +o'clock he is allowed to go, comes back to the foot of the stairs, +takes his mantle and returns home dead. The third night his attendant +again follows him, and when he puts down his mantle at the foot of the +stairs and goes up, she takes the mantle and presses it tightly; the +witches scream. The young man comes to the summit; but when they try +to beat him they cannot lift the stick. Perceiving this, the girl +presses and bites the mantle; when she does so, the witches feel +themselves bitten; then the girl runs to the palace, orders a great +fire to be lighted, and throws the mantle into it; upon its being +burnt, the two witches expire, their enchantment is destroyed, and the +prince marries his deliverer. + +[766] In the eighth story of the first book of the _Pentamerone_, the +ungrateful young woman, Renzolla, is condemned by her own protecting +fairy to have the face of a horned goat until she shows her repentance. + +[767] v. 25. + +[768] iii. 16. + +[769] i. 50; vii. 38. + +[770] Çatam meshân vṛikye ćakshadânam ṛiǵrâçvam tam pitândhaṁ ćakâra +tasma akshî nâsatyâ vićaksha âdhattam dasrâ bhishaǵâv anarvan; _Ṛigv._ +i. 116, 16.--Cfr. 117, 18. + +[771] Esha ćhâgaḥ puro açvena vâǵinâ; _Ṛigv._ i. 162, 3. + +[772] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 7, where the rogue passes the she-goat +off as his sister, and lets her be killed, in order to oblige the +murderer, by threats of exposure, to give him a large sum of money in +compensation; and v. 52, where the head of a goat is cut off to +conceal the murder of a sacristan, committed by the foolish third +brother.--Cfr. _Erlenwein_, 17. + +[773] The she-goat is also sacrificed, in the eighth of the Sicilian +stories collected by Laura Gonzenbach, to test the virtue of a +truthful peasant. The wife of a minister who is jealous of the peasant +Verità (Truth), who has the custody of a goat, a lamb, a ram, and a +wether belonging to the king, persuades him to believe that her life +is forfeit, and can be ransomed only by the sacrifice of the wether. +The peasant, overcome partly by love and partly by compassion, gives +way and consents to the sacrifice. The minister hopes that the peasant +will conceal his fault, but is disappointed in his expectation, +inasmuch as, on the contrary, he ingenuously confesses everything; and +he becomes, in consequence, yet dearer to the king. + +[774] The devil also presents himself to do his evil deeds in the +_Bélier de Rochefort_, in Bonnafoux, _Légendes et Croyances +Superstitieuses Conservées dans le Départment de la Creuse_, Gueret, +1867, p. 17.--In a legend of Baden, too, recorded by Simrock (work +quoted before, p. 260; cfr., in the same work, p. 501), the devil +appears with the feet of a he-goat. + +[775] vii. 50, 1.--In the _Classical Dictionary of Natural History of +Audouin, Bourdon_, &c., first Italian translation, Venice, Tasso, 1831, +we read: "Goat, species of ophidian reptiles, indigenous in Congo, and +also in Bengal; as yet unclassified by zoologists, and which, it is +said, throw from afar a kind of saliva causing blindness." + +[776] Cfr. the lacerta cornuta of the _Pentamerone_. + +[777] vi. 42. + +[778] iv. 7. + +[779] + + Differ opus, tunc tristis hiems, tunc pleiades instant + Tunc et in æquorea mergitur hædus aqua. + Sæpe ego nimbosis dubius jactabar ab hædis. + Nascitur Oleneæ signum pluviale capellæ. + --_Ovid._ + + Quantus ab occasu veniens pluvialibus hædis + Verberat imber humum. + --_Virgil._ + +[780] Pâvîravî tanyatur ekapâd aǵo divo dhartâ; _Ṛigv._ x. 65, 13.--Cfr. +the aǵa ekapâd invoked after Ahirbudhnya and before Tritas, in the +_Ṛigv._ ii. 31, 6, and the aǵâikapâd, a name given to Vishṇus, in the +_Hariv_; the reader remembers also the _goat-footed races_ of Herodotus. + +[781] We also find the lame goat, or he-goat, in the legend of Thor. +The god kills his he-goats, takes off their skins, and keeps their +bones, to be able to resuscitate them at pleasure. His son, Thialfi, +steals the thigh-bone of one of the goats, in order to go and sell it; +then one of the he-goats of Thor, being resuscitated, is lame.--Cfr. +for the analogous traditions the notices given by Simrock, work quoted +before, p. 260. + +[782] In a Russian song we read: "Moon! moon! golden horns!" + +[783] ii. 240. + +[784] Cfr. Du Cange, _s. v._ galaxia. + +[785] _Das festliche Jahr_, zweite Ausg., p. 216. + +[786] Florence, Piatti, 1821. + +[787] Concerning this stone, cfr. a whole chapter in Aldrovandi, _De +Quadrupedibus Bisulcis_, i. + +[788] Cfr. Du Cange, _s. v. Agnus Dei_, where we even find the verses +with which Urban V. accompanied the gift of an _Agnus Dei_ to John +Paleologus.--In the month of October, the Thuringians celebrate the +festival of the race after the ram, which, when overtaken, is led to a +large rock and there killed. For the race after the ram, cfr. also +Villemarqué, _Chants Populaires de la Bretagne_.--In a popular song, +in which _England_ is transformed into _Engelland_ (or country of the +angels), Mary, the nurse of God, appears with the white lamb:-- + + "Die Himmelsthür wird aufgehen; + Maria Gottes Amme + Kommt mit dem weissen Lamme." + +[789] Menzel, the work quoted before. + +[790] Professor Emilio Teza has published a mediæval Italian version +of this poem with notes. + +[791] Cfr. the before-quoted fable of _Babrios_, in which the vine +complains of the he-goat which eats its leaves.--In the Italian +proverb, "Salvar la capra e i cavoli," the she-goat is again indicated +as an eater of leaves.--The leaves of the sorb-apple, according to the +Norwegian belief, cure sick goats, by which the god Thor is +drawn.--Cfr. Kuhn, _Die H. d. F. u. d. G._ + +[792] From a narrative made to me by my friend Valentino Carrera, an +intrepid Alp-climber and popular dramatist. + +[793] Referred to by Martial's epigram:-- + + "Tam male Thais olet, quam non fullonis avari + Tecta vetus media, sed modo fracta via. + Non ab amore recens hircus," &c. + +[794] With this myth of the brother Phrixos and of the sister Helle, +who pass the sea or fly through the air with the sheep, is connected +the Russian story recorded above of Ivan and Helena; Ivan is changed +into a little kid or lamb. In the Italian variety of the same story, +the sister is thrown into the sea by the witch. Whilst the brother and +sister pass the Hellespont upon the golden ram, Helle falls into the +sea. We learn from Apôllonios, in the second book of the _Argon._, +that the fleece of the sheep became gold only when, on its arrival in +Colchis, it was sacrificed and suspended upon an oak-tree. The +cloud-ram becomes golden only in the morning and evening sky.--The +luminous fleece can perhaps be recognised in the bride of the +_Ṛigvedas_, who, leaning towards the relations of Kakshîvant, says: +"Every day I shall be (properly speaking, I am) like the little woolly +sheep of the gandhâri (sarvâham asmi romaçâ gandhârîṇâm ivâvikâ);" +_Ṛigv._ i. 126. As there is an etymological analogy, so there may be a +mythical analogy between the gandhâri and the gandharvâs. + +[795] Book x. + +[796] Ovid calls the goat "hædorum mater formosa duorum," and sings +that the goat herself broke one of her horns against a tree, which +horn the nymph Amalthea wrapped-- + + "decentibus herbis + Et plenum pomis ad Jovis ora tulit;" + +and Jupiter, when lord of heaven, in reward-- + + "Sidera nutricem, nutricis fertile cornu + Fecit, quod dominæ nunc quoque nomen habet." + +END OF VOL. I. + +PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY +EDINBURGH AND LONDON + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + Page 1 - Added a missing -- separator (... for cows.--Cavern where + ...) + + Page 24 - Removed the second "the" (... it is the third sun ...) + + Page 178 - Added missing period. (... him from danger. These were + ...) + + Page 196 - There is an unmatched round bracket starting on this + page (... carried off. (This is the ...) + + Page 211 - There is an unmatched round bracket starting on this + page (... perfidious persecutor. (The evening ...) + + Page 313 - There is an unmatched round bracket starting on this + page (... called Urvâksha (a word ...) + + Page 335 - Removed an extra "the" (... seizes the branch of ...) + + Corrected misspellings throughout the text + + There are multiple spellings of many names throughout, all of + which appear valid, left per the text. + + There are many words that are both hyphenated and unhyphenated + in the text (i.e. cowmaid and cow-maid). Words were left to match + the text. + + Footnotes 59 and 433 have no anchor in the text + + Added closing quotes to the end of Footnotes 395 and 436 + + Footnote 167 - Superscript changed for plain text (... erster + Theil; 2^te Aufl. S. ...) + + Footnote 518 - There is an unmatched round bracket in this + footnote (... _attonito_ (or, properly ...) + + Footnote 558 - There is an unmatched quote in this footnote (... + cavalli stregari;" _Prologo._ 10 ...) + + Footnote 579 - Replaced the final comma with a period. + + Footnote 612 - Replaced comma with period after "i" (_Tuti-Name_, + i. 151.) + + Footnote 659 - Changed "lightned" to "lightninged" (... day it + lightninged and thundered.) + + Footnote 715 - Added second period after "v" (... _Ib._ v. 12. + ...) + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Zoological Mythology, Volume I (of 2), by +Angelo de Gubernatis + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY, VOL I *** + +***** This file should be named 38687-0.txt or 38687-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/6/8/38687/ + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Douglas L. 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Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/38687-0.zip b/38687-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cb91bcb --- /dev/null +++ b/38687-0.zip diff --git a/38687-8.txt b/38687-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c2200a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/38687-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14635 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Zoological Mythology, Volume I (of 2), by +Angelo de Gubernatis + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Zoological Mythology, Volume I (of 2) + or The Legends of Animals + +Author: Angelo de Gubernatis + +Release Date: March 4, 2012 [EBook #38687] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY, VOL I *** + + + + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Douglas L. Alley, III, Bill +Tozier and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + +ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY + +OR + +THE LEGENDS OF ANIMALS + +BY + +ANGELO DE GUBERNATIS + +PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE IN THE ISTITUTO DI STUDII +SUPERIORI E DI PERFEZIONAMENTO, AT FLORENCE +FOREIGN MEMBER OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF PHILOLOGY AND ETHNOGRAPHY +OF THE DUTCH INDIES + +_IN TWO VOLUMES_ + +VOL. I. + +LONDON + +TRBNER & CO., 60 PATERNOSTER ROW + +1872 + +[_All rights reserved_] + + + + +PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY +EDINBURGH AND LONDON + + + + + TO + + MICHELE AMARI AND MICHELE COPPINO + + This Work + + IS DEDICATED + + AS A TRIBUTE OF LIVELY GRATITUDE AND + + PROFOUND ESTEEM + + BY + + THE AUTHOR. + + + + +ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY; + +OR + +THE LEGENDS OF ANIMALS. + +First Part. + +THE ANIMALS OF THE EARTH. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE COW AND THE BULL. + + +SECTION I.--THE COW AND THE BULL IN THE VEDIC HYMNS. + +SUMMARY. + + Prelude.--The vault of Heaven as a luminous cow.--The gods and + goddesses, sons and daughters of this cow.--The vault of Heaven as a + spotted cow.--The sons and daughters of this cow, _i.e._ the winds, + Marutas, and the clouds, Prinayas.--The wind-bulls subdue the + cloud-cows.--Indras, the rain-sending, thundering, lightening, + radiant sun, who makes the rain fall and the light return, called + the bull of bulls.--The bull Indras drinks the water of + strength.--Hunger and thirst of the heroes of mythology.--The + cloud-barrel.--The horns of the bull and of the cow are + sharpened.--The thunderbolt-horns.--The cloud as a cow, and even as + a stable or hiding-place for cows.--Cavern where the cows are shut + up, of which cavern the bull Indras and the bulls Marutas remove the + stone, and force the entrance, to reconquer the cows, delivering + them from the monster; the male Indras finds himself again with his + wife.--The cloud-fortress, which Indras destroys and Agnis sets on + fire.--The cloud-forest, which the gods destroy.--The cloud-cow; the + cow-bow; the bird-thunderbolts; the birds come out of the cow.--The + monstrous cloud-cow, the wife of the monster.--Some phenomena of + the cloudy sky are analogous to those of the gloomy sky of night and + of winter.--The moment most fit for an epic poem is the meeting of + such phenomena in a nocturnal tempest.--The stars, cows put to + flight by the sun.--The moon, a milk-yielding cow.--The ambrosial + moon fished up in the fountain, gives nourishment to Indras.--The + moon as a male, or bull, discomfits, with the bull Indras, the + monster.--The two bulls, or the two stallions, the two horsemen, the + twins.--The bull chases the wolf from the waters.--The cow + tied.--The aurora, or ambrosial cow, formed out of the skin of + another cow by the Ribhavas.--The Ribhavas, bulls and wise + birds.--The three Ribhavas reproduce the triple Indras and the + triple Vishnus; their three relationships; the three brothers, + eldest, middle, youngest; the three brother workmen; the youngest + brother is the most intelligent, although at first thought stupid; + the reason why.--The three brothers guests of a king.--The third of + the Ribhavas, the third and youngest son becomes Tritas the third, + in the heroic form of Indras, who kills the monster; Tritas, the + third brother, after having accomplished the great heroic + undertaking, is abandoned by his envious brothers in the well; the + second brother is the son of the cow.--Indras a cowherd, parent of + the sun and the aurora, the cow of abundance, milk-yielding and + luminous.--The cow St.--Relationship of the sun to the + aurora.--The aurora as cow-nurse of the sun, mother of the cows; the + aurora cowherd; the sun hostler and cowherd.--The riddle of the + wonderful cowherd; the sun solves the riddle proposed by the + aurora.--The aurora wins the race, being the first to arrive at the + barrier, without making use of her feet.--The chariot of the + aurora.--She who has no feet, who leaves no footsteps; she who is + without footsteps of the measure of the feet; she who has no slipper + (which is the measure of the foot).--The sun who never puts his foot + down, the sun without feet, the sun lame, who, during the night, + becomes blind; the blind and the lame who help each other, whom + Indra helps, whom the ambrosia of the aurora enables to walk and to + see.--The aurora of evening, witch who blinds the sun; the sun + Indras, in the morning, chases the aurora away; Indras subdues and + destroys the witch aurora.--The brother sun follows, as a seducer, + the aurora his sister, and wishes to burn her.--The sun follows his + daughter the aurora.--The aurora, a beautiful young girl, deliverer + of the sun, rich in treasure, awakener of the sleepers, saviour of + mankind, foreseeing; from small becomes large, from dark becomes + brilliant, from infirm, whole, from blind, seeing and protectress of + sight.--Night and aurora, now mother and daughter, now + sisters.--The luminous night a good sister; the gloomy night gives + place to the aurora, her elder or better sister, working, purifying, + cleansing.--The aurora shines only when near the sun her husband, + before whom she dances splendidly dressed; the aurora Urva.--The + wife of the sun followed by the monster.--The husband of the aurora + subject to the same persecution. + +We are on the vast table-land of Central Asia; gigantic mountains send +forth on every side their thousand rivers; immense pasture-lands and +forests cover it; migratory tribes of pastoral nations traverse it; +the _gopatis_, the shepherd or lord of the cows, is the king; the +gopatis who has most herds is the most powerful. The story begins with +a graceful pastoral idyll. + +To increase the number of the cows, to render them fruitful in milk +and prolific in calves, to have them well looked after, is the dream, +the ideal of the ancient Aryan. The bull, the _foecundator_, is the +type of every male perfection, and the symbol of regal strength. + +Hence, it is only natural that the two most prominent animal figures +in the mythical heaven should be the cow and the bull. + +The cow is the ready, loving, faithful, fruitful Providence of the +shepherd. + +The worst enemy of the Aryan, therefore, is he who carries off the +cow; the best, the most illustrious, of his friends, he who is able to +recover it from the hands of the robber. + +The same idea is hence transferred to heaven; in heaven there is a +beneficent, fruitful power, which is called the cow, and a beneficent +_foecundator_ of this same power, which is called the bull. + +The dewy moon, the dewy aurora, the watery cloud, the entire vault of +heaven, that giver of the quickening and benignant rain, that +benefactress of mankind,--are each, with special predilection, +represented as the beneficent cow of abundance. The lord of this +multiform cow of heaven, he who makes it pregnant and fruitful and +milk-yielding, the spring or morning sun, the rain-giving sun (or +moon) is often represented as a bull. + +Now, to apprehend all this clearly, we ought to go back, as nearly as +possible, to that epoch in which such conceptions would arise +spontaneously; but as the imagination so indulged is apt to betray us +into mere fantastical conceits, into an _ priori_ system, we shall +begin by excluding it entirely from these preliminary researches, as +being hazardous and misleading, and content ourselves with the humbler +office of collecting the testimonies of the poets themselves who +assisted in the creation of the mythology in question. + +I do not mean to say anything of the Vedic myths that is not taken +from one or other of the hymns contained in the greatest of the Vedas, +but only to arrange and connect together the links of the chain as +they certainly existed in the imagination of the ancient Aryan people, +and which the _Rigvedas_, the work of a hundred poets and of several +centuries, presents to us as a whole, continuous and artistic. I shall +indeed suppose myself in the valley of Kamra, or on the banks of the +Sindhus, under that sky, at the foot of these mountains, among these +rivers; but I shall search in the sky for that which I find in the +hymns, and not in the hymns for that which I may imagine I see in the +sky. I shall begin my voyage with a trusty chart, and shall consult it +with all the diligence in my power, in order not to lose any of the +advantages that a voyage so full of surprises has to offer. Hence the +notes will all, or nearly all, consist of quotations from my guide, in +order that the learned reader may be able to verify for himself every +separate assertion. And as to the frequent stoppages we shall have to +make by the way, let me ask the reader not to ascribe these to +anything arbitrary on my part, but rather to the necessities of a +voyage, made, as it is, step by step, in a region but little known, +and by the help of a guide, where nearly everything indeed is to be +found, but where, as in a rich inventory, it is easier to lose one's +way than to find it again. + +The immense vault of heaven which over-arches the earth, as the eternal +storehouse of light and rain, as the power which causes the grass to +grow, and therefore the animals which pasture upon it, assumes in the +Vedic literature the name of Aditis, or the infinite, the inexhaustible, +the fountain of ambrosia (_amritasya nabhis_). Thus far, however, we +have no personification, as yet we have no myth. The _amritas_ is simply +the immortal, and only poetically represents the rain, the dew, the +luminous wave. But the inexhaustible soon comes to mean that which can +be milked without end--and hence also, a celestial cow, an inoffensive +cow, which we must not offend, which must remain intact.[1] The whole +heavens being thus represented as an infinite cow, it was natural that +the principal and most visible phenomena of the sky should become, in +their turn, children of the cow, or themselves cows or bulls, and that +the _foecundator_ of the great mother should also be called a bull. +Hence we read that the wind (_Vyus_ or _Rudrs_) gave birth, from the +womb of the celestial cow, to the winds that howl in the tempest +(_Marutas_ and _Rudrs_), called for this reason children of the cow.[2] +But, since this great celestial cow produces the tempestuous, noisy +winds, she represents not only the serene, tranquil vault of the shining +sky, but also the cloudy and tenebrous mother of storms. This great +cow, this immense cloud, that occupies all the vault of heaven and +unchains the winds, is a brown, dark, spotted (_prinis_) cow; and so +the winds, or Marutas, her sons, are called the children of the spotted +one.[3] The singular has thus become a plural; the male sons of the +cloud, the winds, are 21; the daughters, the clouds themselves, called +the spotted ones (_prinayas_) are also three times seven, or 21: 3 and +7 are sacred numbers in the Aryan faith; and the number 21 is only a +multiple of these two great legendary numbers, by which either the +strength of a god or that of a monster is often symbolised. If +_prinis_, or the variegated cow, therefore, is the mother of the +Marutas, the winds, and of the variegated ones (_prinayas_), the +clouds, we may say that the clouds are the sisters of the winds. We +often have three or seven sisters, three or seven brothers in the +legends. Now, that 21, in the _Rigvedas_ itself, involves a reference to +3, is evident, if we only observe how one hymn speaks of the 3 times 7 +spotted cows who bring to the god the divine drink, while another speaks +of the spotted ones (the number not being specified) who give him three +lakes to drink.[4] Evidently here the 3, or 7, or 21 sister cows that +yield to the god of the eastern heavens their own nutritious milk, and +amidst whose milky humours the winds, now become invulnerable, +increase,[5] fulfil the pious duties of benevolent guardian fates. + +But if the winds are sons of a cow, and the cows are their nurses, +the winds, or Marutas, must, as masculine, be necessarily represented +as bulls. In reality the Wind (_Vyus_), their father, is borne by +bulls--that is, by the winds themselves, who hurry, who grow, are +movable as the rays of the sun, very strong, and indomitable;[6] the +strength of the wind is compared to that of the bull or the bear;[7] +the winds, as lusty as bulls, overcome and subdue the dark ones.[8] +Here, therefore, the clouds are no longer represented as the cows that +nurse, but with the gloomy aspect of a monster. The Marutas, the winds +that howl in the tempest, are as swift as lightning, and surround +themselves with lightning. Hence they are celebrated for their +luminous vestments; and hence it is said that the reddish winds are +resplendent with gems, as some bulls with stars.[9] As such--that is, +as subduers of the clouds, and as they who run impetuously through +them--these winds, these bulls, are the best friends, the most +powerful helpers, of the great bellowing bull; of the god of thunder +and rain; of the sun, the dispeller of clouds and darkness; of the +supreme Vedic god, Indras, the friend of light and ambrosia--of +Indras, who brings with him daylight and fine weather, who sends us +the beneficent dew and the fertilising rain. Like the winds his +companions, the sun Indras--the sun (and the luminous sky) hidden in +the dark, who strives to dissipate the shadows, the sun hidden in the +cloud that thunders and lightens, to dissolve it in rain--is +represented as a powerful bull, as the bull of bulls, invincible son +of the cow, that bellows like the Marutas.[10] + +But in order to become a bull, in order to grow, to develop the strength +necessary to kill the serpent, Indras must drink; and he drinks the +water of strength, the _somas_.[11] "Drink and grow,"[12] one of the +poets says to him, while offering the symbolical libation of the cup of +sacrifice, which is a type of the cup of heaven, now the heavenly vault, +now the cloud, now the sun, and now the moon. From the sweet food of the +celestial cow, Indras acquires a swiftness which resembles that of the +horse;[13] and he eats and drinks at one time enough to enable him to +attain maturity at once. The gods give him three hundred oxen to eat, +and three lakes of ambrosial liquor[14] to drink, in order that he may +be able to kill the monster serpent. The hunger and thirst of the heroes +is always proportioned to the miracle they are called upon to perform; +and for this reason the hymns of the _Rigvedas_ and of the +_Atharvavedas_ often represent the cloud as an immense great-bellied +barrel (_Kabandhas_), which is carried by the divine _bull_.[15] + +But when and how does the hero-bull display his extraordinary +strength? The terrible bull bellows, and shows his strength, as he +sharpens his horns:[16] the splendid bull, with sharpened horns, who +is able of himself to overthrow all peoples.[17] But what are the +horns of the bull Indras, the god of thunder? Evidently the +thunderbolts; Indras is, in fact, said to sharpen the thunderbolts as +a bull sharpens his horns;[18] the thunderbolt of Indras is said to be +thousand-pointed;[19] the bull Indras is called the bull with the +thousand horns, who rises from the sea[20] (or from the cloudy ocean +as a thunder-dealing sun, from the gloomy ocean as a radiant sun--the +thunderbolt being supposed to be rays from the solar disc). Sometimes +the thunderbolt of Indras is itself called a bull,[21] and is +sharpened by its beloved refulgent cows,[22] being used, now to +withdraw the cows from the darkness, now to deliver them from the +monster of darkness that envelops them,[23] and now to destroy the +monster of clouds and darkness itself. Besides the name of Indras, +this exceedingly powerful horned bull, who sharpens his horns to +plunge them into the monster, assumes also, as the fire which sends +forth lightning, as that which sends forth rays of light from the +clouds and the darkness, the name of Agnis; and, as such, has two +heads, four horns, three feet, seven hands, teeth of fire, and wings; +he is borne on the wind, and blows.[24] + +Thus far, then, we have heavenly cows which nurture heavenly bulls, +and heavenly bulls and cows which use their horns for a battle that is +fought in heaven. + +Let us now suppose ourselves on the field of battle, and let us visit +both the hostile camps. In one we find the sun (and sometimes the moon), +the bull of bulls Indras, with the winds, Marutas, the radiant and +bellowing bulls; in the other, a multiform monster, in the shape of +wolves, serpents, wild boars, owls, mice, and such like. The bull Indras +has cows with him, who help him; the monster has also cows, either such +as he has carried off from Indras, and which he imprisons and secretes +in gloomy caverns, towers, or fortresses, or those which he caresses as +his own wives. In the one case, the cows consider the bull Indras as +their friend and liberating hero; in the other, those with the monster +are themselves monsters and enemies of Indras, who fights against them. +The clouds, in a word, are regarded at one time as the friends of the +rain-giving sun, who delivers them from the monster that keeps back the +rain, and at another as attacked by the sun, as they who wickedly +envelop him, and endeavour to destroy him. Let us now go on to search, +in the _Rigvedas_, the proofs of this double battle. + +To begin with the first phase of the conflict, where in the sky does +Indras fight the most celebrated of all his battles? + +The clouds generally assume the aspect of mountains; the words _adris_ +and _parvatas_, in the Vedic language, expressing the several ideas of +stone, mountain, and cloud.[25] The cloud being compared to a stone, a +rock, or a mountain, it was natural,--1st, To imagine in the rock or +mountain dens or caverns, which, as they imprisoned cows, might be +likened to stables;[26] 2d, To pass from the idea of a rock to that of +citadel, fortress, fortified city, tower; 3d, To pass from the idea of +a mountain, which is immovable, to that of a tree which, though it +cannot move from its place, yet rears itself and expands in the air; +and from the idea of the tree of the forest to the shadowy and +awe-inspiring grove. Hence the bull, or hero, or god Indras, or the +sun of thunder, lightning, and rain, now does battle within a cavern, +now carries a fortified town by assault, and now draws forth the cow +from the forest, or unbinds it from the tree, destroying the +_rakshas_, or monster, that enchained it. + +The Vedic poetry celebrates, in particular, the exploit of Indras +against the cavern, enclosure, or mountain in which the monster +(called by different names and especially by those of Valas, Vritras, +Cushnas, of enemy, black one, thief, serpent, wolf, or wild boar) +conceals the herds of the celestial heroes, or slaughters them. + +The black bull bellows; the thunderbolt bellows, that is, the thunder +follows the lightning, as the cow follows its calf;[27] the Marutas +bulls ascend the rock--now, by their own efforts, moving and making +the sonorous stone, the rock mountain, fall;[28] now, with the iron +edge of their rolling chariots violently splitting the mountain;[29] +the valiant hero, beloved by the gods, moves the stone;[30] Indras +hears the cows: by the aid of the wind-bulls he finds the cows hidden +in the cavern; he himself, furnished with an arm of stone, opens the +grotto of Valas, who keeps the cows; or, opens the cavern to the cows; +he vanquishes, kills, and pursues the thieves in battle; the bulls +bellow; the cows move forward to meet them; the bull, Indras, bellows +and leaves his seed in the herd; the thunder-dealing male, Indras, and +his spouse are glad and rejoice.[31] + +In this fabled enterprise, three moments must be noted: 1st, The +effort to raise the stone; 2d, The struggle with the monster who +carried off the cows; 3d, The liberation of the prisoners. It is an +entire epic poem. + +The second form of the enterprise of Indras in the cloudy heavens is +that which has for its object the destruction of the celestial +fortresses, of the ninety, or ninety-nine, or hundred cities of +ambaras, of the cities which were the wives of the demons; and from +this undertaking Indras acquired the surname of _puramdaras_ +(explained as destroyer of cities); although he had in it a most +valuable companion-in-arms, Agnis, that is, Fire, which naturally +suggests to our thoughts the notion of destruction by fire.[32] + +In a hymn to Indras, the gods arrive at last, bring their axes, and with +their edges destroy the woods, and burn the monsters who restrain the +milk in the breasts of the cows.[33] The clouded sky here figures in the +imagination as a great forest inhabited by _rakshasas_, or monsters, +which render it unfruitful--that is, which prevent the great celestial +cow from giving her milk. The cow that gives the honey, the ambrosial +cow of the Veds, is thus replaced by a forest which hides the honey, +the ambrosia beloved by the gods. And although the Vedic hymns do not +dwell much upon this conception of the cloudy-sky, preferring as they do +to represent the darkness of night as a gloomy forest, the above passage +from the Veds is worthy of notice as indicating the existence at least +during the Vedic period of a myth which was afterwards largely amplified +in zoological legend.[34] + +In this threefold battle of Indras, we must, moreover, remark a curious +feature. The thunder-dealing Indras overpowers his enemies with arrows +and darts; the same cloud which thunders, bellows, and therefore is +called a cow, becomes, as throwing darts, a bow: hence we have the +cow-bow, from which Indras hurls the iron stone, the thunderbolt; and +the cord itself of that bellowing bow is called a cow; from the bow-cow, +from the cord-cow, come forth the winged darts, the thunderbolts, called +birds, that eat men; and when they come forth, all the world +trembles.[35] We shall come upon the same idea again further on. + +Thus far we have considered the cow-cloud as a victim of the monster +(that Indras comes to subdue). But it is not uncommon to see the cloud +itself or the darkness, that is, the cow, the fortress, or the forest +represented as a monster. Thus, a Vedic hymn informs us that the monster +Valas had the shape of a cow;[36] another hymn represents the cloud as +the cow that forms the waters, and that has now one foot, now four, now +eight, now nine, and fills the highest heaven with sounds;[37] still +another hymn sings that the sun hurls his golden disc in the variegated +cow;[38] they who have been carried off, who are guarded by the monster +serpent, the waters, the cows, are become the wives of the demons;[39] +and they must be malignant, since a poet can use as a curse the wish +that the malign spirits, the demons, may drink the poison of those +cows.[40] We have already seen that the fortresses are wives of demons, +and that the demons possessed the forests.[41] + +It is in the beclouded and thundering heavens that the warrior hero +displays his greatest strength; but it cannot be denied that the great +majority of the myths, and the most poetical, exemplify or represent the +relation between the nocturnal sky (now dark, tenebrous, watery, horrid, +wild, now lit up by the ambrosial moon-beams, and now bespangled with +stars) and the two glowing skies--the two resplendent ambrosial +twilights of morning and evening (of autumn and spring). We have here +the same general phenomenon of light and darkness engaged in strife; +here, again, the sun Indras is hidden, as though in a cloud, to prepare +the light, to recover from the monster of darkness the waters of youth +and light, the riches, the cows, which he keeps concealed; but this +conquest is only made by the hero after long wandering amidst many +dangers, and is finally accomplished by battles, in which the principal +credit is often due to a heroine; except in those cases, not frequent +but well worthy of remark, in which the clouds, hurricanes, tempests of +lightning and thunderbolts, coincide with the end of the night (or of +winter), and the sun Indras, by tearing the clouds, at the same time +disperses the darkness of night and brings dawn (or spring) back to the +sky. In such coincidences, the sun Indras, besides being the greatest of +the gods, reveals himself to be also the most epic of the heroes; the +two skies, the dark and the clouded, with their relative monsters, and +the two suns, the thundering and the radiant, with their relative +companions, are confounded, and the myth then assumes all its poetical +splendour. And the most solemn moments of the great national Aryan epic +poems, the _Rmyanam_ and the _Mahbhratam_, the _Book of Kings_, as +well as those of the _Iliad_, the _Song of Roland_ and the _Nibelungen_, +are founded upon this very coincidence of the two solar actions--the +cloudy and shadowy monster thunderstruck, and the dawn (or spring) +delivered and resuscitated. In truth, the _Rigvedas_ itself, in a +passage already quoted,[42] tells us that the clouds--the three times +seven spotted cows--cause their milk to drop to a god (whom, from +another similar passage,[43] we know to be Indras, the sun) in the +eastern sky (_prve vyomani_), that is, towards the morning, and +sometimes towards the spring, many of the phenomena of which correspond +to those of the aurora. The _Prinayas_, or spotted ones, are beyond +doubt the clouds, as the Marutas, sons of Prinis, or the spotted one, +are the winds that howl and lighten in the storm cloud. It is therefore +necessary to carry back the cloudy sky towards the morning, to +understand the Prinayas feeding the sun Indras in the eastern heavens +and the seven _Agirasas_, the seven sunbeams, the seven wise men, who +also sing hymns in the morning;--it seems to me that the hymn of these +fabled wise men can be nothing else than the crash of the thunderbolts, +which, as we have already seen, are supposed to be detached from the +solar rays. Allusions to Indras thundering in the morning are so +frequent in the Vedic hymns, that I hope to be excused for this short +digression, from which I must at once return, because my sole object +here is to treat in detail of the mythical animals, and because the road +we have to take will be a long one. + +Even the luminous night has its cows; the stars, which the sun puts to +flight with his rays,[44] are cows: the cows themselves, whose +dwellings the dwellings of the sun's cows must adjoin, are called the +many-horned ones.[45] These dwellings seem to me worthy of passing +remark, they are the celestial houses that move, the enchanted huts +and palaces that appear, disappear, and are transformed so often in +the popular stories of the Aryans. + +The moon is generally a male, for its most popular names, _Candras_, +_Indus_, and _Somas_ are masculine; but as Somas signifies ambrosia, +the moon, as giver of ambrosia, soon came to be considered a +milk-giving cow; in fact, moon is one among the various meanings given +in Sanskrit to the word _gus_ (cow). The moon, Somas, who illumines +the nocturnal sky, and the pluvial sun, Indras, who during the night, +or the winter, prepares the light of morn, or spring, are represented +as companions; a young girl, the evening, or autumnal, twilight, who +goes to draw water towards night, or winter, finds in the well, and +takes to Indras, the ambrosial moon, that is, the Somas whom he loves. +Here are the very words of the Vedic hymn:--"The young girl, +descending towards the water, found the moon in the fountain, and +said: 'I will take you to Indras, I will take you to akras; flow, O +moon, and envelop Indras.'"[46] The moon and ambrosia in the word +indus, as well as somas, are confounded with one another; hence, +Indras, the drinker _par excellence_ of _somas_ (somaptamas), is also +the best friend and companion of the ambrosial or pluvial moon, and so +the sun and moon (as also Indras and Vishnus) together come to suggest +to us the idea of two friends, two brothers (Indus and Indras), two +twins, the two Avinu; often the two twilights, properly speaking, +the morning and the evening, the spring and the autumn, twilights, the +former, however, being especially associated with the red sun which +appears in the morning (or in the spring), and the latter with the +pale moon which appears in the evening (or in the autumn, as a +particular regent of the cold season). Indras and Somas (_Indrsomu_) +are more frequently represented as two bulls who together discomfit +the monster (_rakshohanu_), who destroy by fire the monsters that +live in darkness.[47] The word _vrishanu_ properly means the two who +pour out, or fertilise. Here it means the two bulls; but as the word +_vrishan_ signifies stallion as well as bull, the two stallions, the +vrishanu Indras and Somas, are, by a natural transition, soon +transformed into two horses or horsemen, the two Avinu. Hence, in +popular tales, we find near the young princess the hero, who now leads +out the cows to pasture, and now, as hostler or groom, takes excellent +care of the horses. But we must not anticipate comparisons which we +shall have to make further on. Having noticed that, in the _Rigvedas_, +we find the moon represented either as a bull or a cow (the masculine, +_Indus_, _somas_, _candras_, is always a bull; while the feminine, +_rk_, suggests more naturally the idea of a cow), let us now +consider the bull Indras in relation to the cow Aurora (or spring). + +Five bulls stand in the midst of the heavens, and chase out of the way +the wolf who crosses the waters;[48] the luminous Vasavas unbind the +cow that is tied by its foot.[49] + +How now is this cow brought forth? + +This ambrosial cow is created by the artists of the gods, by the three +brothers _Ribhavas_, who draw it out of the skin of a cow; that is, +they make a cow, and, to give it life, cover it with the skin of a +dead cow.[50] It being understood that the cow Aurora (or Spring) dies +at even (or in the autumn), the Ribhavas, the threefold sun Indras, +_i.e._, the sun in the three watches of the night, prepares the skin +of this cow, one Ribhus taking off the skin from the dead cow, another +Ribhus preparing it during the night (or winter), and the third +Ribhus, in the early morning (or at the end of winter) dressing the +new cow, the aurora (or the spring) with it. Thus it is that Indras, +in three distinct moments, takes the skin from off the girl that he +loves, who had become ugly during the night, and restores her beauty +in the morning.[51] And the three Ribhavas may, it seems to me, be the +more easily identified with the triple Indras, with Indra-Vishnus, who +measures the world in three paces, since, as Indras is called a bull, +they also are called bulls;[52] as Indras is often a falcon, they also +are named birds;[53] and their miracles are sometimes also those of +Indras. This identification of the bulls Ribhavas, whom we speak of +here as producers of the cow Aurora (the same sterile cow of the +sleeping hero ayus, that which the Avinu, the two horsemen of the +twilight, restored to youth by the Ribhavas, rendered fruitful +again),[54] with the bull, or hero Indras, appears to me to be of the +greatest importance, inasmuch as it affords us the key to much that is +most vital to the Aryan legends. + +The Ribhavas, then, are three brothers. They prepare themselves to +procure the cups which are to serve for the gods to drink out of. Each +has a cup in his hand; the eldest brother defies the others to make +two cups out of one; the second defies them to make three out of one; +the youngest brother comes forward and defies them to make four. The +victory is his, and the greatest workman of heaven, the Vedic Vulcan, +_Tvashtar_, praises their wonderful work.[55] The youngest of the +three brothers is therefore the most skilful. We find in the +_Rigvedas_ the name of _Sukarmas_, or maker of fine works, good +workman, given to each of the three brothers; and though only one of +them, who is properly called Ribhus, or _Rbhuksh_, is said to serve +the god Indras in the quality of a workman (whence Indras himself +sometimes received the name of Ribhuksh, Ribhvan, or Ribhvas), yet +the other two brothers, _Vgas_ and _Vibhvan_, are in the service, one +of all the gods, the other of Varunas, the god of night.[56] It would +seem natural to recognise in Ribhus, the protg of Indras, the most +skilful of the three brothers, who, as we have seen above, was the +youngest; yet, as we cannot infer anything from the order in which the +hymns name the three brothers--as, in one, Vgas is first named, then +Ribhuksh, and finally Vibhvan; in another, Vgas first, Vibhvan +second, and Ribhus third;[57] in another, again, Ribhus is invoked +first, then Vibhvan, and lastly Vgas; and as we also find all the +Ribhavas saluted under the common epithet of Vgas, and Vgas himself +by the name of Indras, or rather Indras saluted in his triple form of +Ribhus, Vibhvan, and Vgas,[58] it remains uncertain which of these +was the proper name of the third brother of the Ribhavas. But what +seems to be sufficiently clear is, that Indras is identified with the +Ribhavas (_Indravantas_), that the third brother is the most skilful, +and that the three brothers serve the lords of heaven as workmen. And +here we meet with an interesting element. In two hymns of the +_Rigvedas_, the host of the Ribhavas appears as one only, Indras +himself, or the sun (Savitar), under the name of _Agohyas_ (_i.e._, +who cannot be hidden). During the twelve days (the twelve hours of the +night, or the twelve months of the year) in which they are the guests +of Agohyas, they bring as they sleep every species of prosperity to +the land, by making the fields fertile, causing the rivers to flow, +and refreshing the grass of the field. In this, however, let us not +forget that they are the beneficent sons of _Sudhanvan_, the good +archer, and archers themselves, representatives of the great celestial +archer, of the thunder-dealing and rain-giving Indras; and that +therefore their sleep is only a figure of speech to express their +latent existence in darkness and the clouds of night. + +But the _Rigvedas_ introduces the three brothers under other names, +and especially in one, and that an important aspect. The third brother +is called _Tritas_, or the third, and as such, is also identified with +Indras. Thus, for instance, the moments of Indras in the sky are +three--evening, night, and towards morning; and the horse of Tritas +(the horse that Tritas has received from _Yamas_) is now mysteriously +Yama himself, now the son of ditis (whom we have already seen to be +the cow, or the son of the cow), now Tritas himself, whom Tritas alone +can yoke, and Indras alone ride upon, a horse bedewed with ambrosia, +which has three relationships in heaven, three in the waters, three in +the ocean;[60] that is to say, one relation is Yamas, the elder +brother; the second is the son of the cow, or the second brother; the +last is Tritas himself, or the youngest brother. This Tritas is called +intelligent; he therefore corresponds to the third brother, who makes +four cups out of one. How then does he appear sometimes stupid? The +language itself supplies the explanation. In Sanskrit, _blas_ means +both child and stolid; and the third brother is supposed to be stolid, +because, at his first appearance especially, he is a child,--and we +constantly see him as a child do wonderful things, and give proofs of +superhuman wisdom. With this key, the meaning of the myth is obvious. +The eldest brother, Yamas, the dying sun, with all his wisdom and +experience, is unable of himself to recover the ravished or missing +princess; the son of the cow ditis, that is, dityas, the sun in the +middle of the night, gives often proof of strength great enough to +disperse the darkness and the clouds, and break the incantation; but, +generally it is the third sun, the morning sun, Indras in his third +moment, Vishnus taking his third step,[61] the third brother, Tritas, +who seems to obtain the victory, and deliver the young aurora from the +monster of night. All this seems to me to be very evident. + +Tritas, like Indras, drinks the water of strength, and thereupon tears +the monster in pieces;[62] the victory of the young hero must be +achieved in the same way in which it is accomplished by Indras, his +more splendid and grandiose impersonation. But Tritas, or _Tritanas_, +after having killed the monster of the waters, is afraid that the +waters themselves may devour him; after cutting off the head of the +monster, some enemies have lowered him down into the waters.[63] The +sun has vanquished the monster that kept the fountain of waters +shut--he has unchained the waters, but he himself has not been able to +break through the cloud; he has delivered from the dark and cloudy +monster the princess, the dawn that was to have been its prey, but he +himself does not yet come forth--is still invisible. Now, who are the +enemies here that have placed the young hero in the cistern, down into +the well, in the sea? We have already seen that Tritas has two +brothers; and it is these two brothers who, in a fit of jealousy, on +account of his wife, the aurora, and the riches she brings with her +from the realm of darkness, the cistern or well, detain their brother +in the well,--all which is told us in a single but eloquent verse of +the Vedas. The intelligent Tritas in the well calls out (_rebhati_) on +account of his brothers;[64] and the two horsemen of the twilight, the +Avinu, come to deliver the invoker (_rebhas_) covered and enveloped +by the waters.[65] In another hymn, the deliverer appears to be +Brihaspatis, the lord of prayer, who having heard how Tritas, thrust +down into the well, was invoking the gods, made the large from the +small;[66] that is to say, opened for the young hero a way to escape +from the well and show himself in his glory. + +Having seen how in the Vedic hymns Tritas, the third brother, and the +ablest as well as best, is persecuted by his brothers, it is +interesting to note the form of the myth in popular Hindoo +tradition:--"Three brothers, _Ekatas_ (_i.e._, the first), _Dvitas_ +(_i.e._, the second), and _Tritas_ (_i.e._, the third), were +travelling in a desert, and distressed with thirst, came to a well, +from which the youngest, Tritas, drew water and gave it to his +seniors. In requital, they threw him into the well, in order to +appropriate his property, and having covered the top with a +cart-wheel, left him within it. In this extremity he prayed to the +gods to extricate him, and by their favour he made his escape."[67] + +Thus have we brought the three brothers, of whom Tritas is the +youngest, into close affinity with the three Ribhavas, and both the +former and the latter into an equally close connection with the three +moments of Indras. We have already said that the Ribhavas created the +cow; in the same way _Uan Kvys_, the desiring wise one protected +by Indras, another name for the sun-hero of the morning, sends the +cows together before him;[68] and Indras himself is the only lord of +the cows, the only real celestial shepherd;[69] or, rather, it is he +that begets the sun and the aurora,[70] or, as another hymn says, who +gives the horses and the sun and the cow of abundance.[71] + +Here, therefore, the aurora is explicitly the cow of abundance; she is +still also the milk-giving and luminous cow, in which is found all +sweetness;[72] and finally, _usr_ or _ush_ are two words, two +appellations, which indiscriminately express aurora and cow as the red +or brilliant one. The identification of the aurora with the cow, in +the mythical sky of the Vedas, is therefore a certainty. + +Another of the names which the milk-yielding cow assumes in the +_Rigvedas_, besides the ordinary one of _Ush_, is _St_, whom Indras +also causes to descend from heaven, like the aurora, and who must be +milked by the sun-god _Pshan_,[73] the nourisher, the _foecundator_, +compared in one hymn to a pugnacious buffalo.[74] This Indras, +protector and friend of St, prepares therefore Vishnus, the +protector, in the form of Rmas, of his wife St. And even the +Ribhavas are the protectors of the cow, as well as the producers.[75] + +But Indras, whose special function it is to lighten, to thunder, to +fight the monster of darkness, and to prepare the light, generally +figures in the popular imagination, at dawn (aurora), as the sun, +under his three names of _Sryas_, of _Ritas_, and of _Savitar_. + +The sun, with respect to the aurora, is now the father, now the +husband, now the son, and now the brother. As begotten of Indras +simultaneously with the aurora, he is the brother; as following and +embracing the aurora, he is the husband; as simply coming after the +aurora, he is the son; and as sending the cow or the aurora before +him, he is the father. These four relationships of the sun to the +aurora or dawn are all mentioned in the _Rigvedas_. + +In one of the hymns, the pure effulgence with which the aurora chases +away the shadows of night is said to resemble the milk of a cow;[76] +that is, the whitish light of the daybreak precedes in the eastern +heavens the rosy light of aurora. The aurora is the cow-nurse, and the +oriental mother of the old sun; at the sound of the hymn in praise of +the dawn, the two horsemen of twilight, the Avinu, awaken.[77] Two +cows--[_i.e._, the two twilights, that of the evening and that of the +morning, related to the two horsemen, the evening one and the morning +one, whom we also find together in the morning, the one white and the +other red, the one in company with daybreak and the other with the +aurora, and who may therefore be sometimes identified with the two +morning dawns, the white dawn (alba) or daybreak, and the red dawn +(aurora), and, from another point of view, the lunar dawn and the +solar one]--drop milk towards the sun, in the heaven.[78] The aurora +is the mother of the cows.[79] + +As the sun approaches, the heavenly cows, who walk without covering +themselves with dust, celebrate him[80] with songs. The red rays of the +high sun fly and join themselves to the sun's cows.[81] The seven wise +_Agirasas_ (the seven solar rays, or else the Angiras, the seven-rayed +or seven-faced sun, as another hymn[82] represents him) celebrate in +their songs the herds of cows which belong to the aurora, who appears +upon the mountain.[83] Let us notice more particularly what is said of +the aurora that appears with the cows upon the mountain. It is the sun +that enables the Agirasas to split the mountain, to bellow along with +the cows, and to surround themselves with the splendour of the +aurora.[84] The aurora, the daughter of the sky, the splendid one, +appears; at the same time, the sun draws up the cows.[85] The aurora is +carried by red luminous cows, whilst the sun, the hero-archer, kills +the enemies.[86] The aurora breaks open the prison of the cows; the cows +exult towards the aurora;[87] the aurora comes out of the darkness as +cows come out of their stable.[88] As the solar hero, Indras, is the +guardian or shepherd of horses and of cows,[89] so the auroras are often +celebrated in the _Rigvedas_ as _avvats_ and _gomats_, that is, as +provided with and attended by horses and cows. The aurora keeps together +the herd of red cows, and always accompanies them.[90] + +Thus have we passed from the pastor-hero to the pastoral heroine upon +the mountain. The pastoral aurora, unveiling her body in the east, +follows the path of the sun;[91] and the sun is represented to us in +the following riddle as a wonderful cowherd:--"I have seen a shepherd +who never set down his foot, and yet went and disappeared on the +roads; and who, taking the same and yet different roads, goes round +and round amidst the worlds."[92] The sun goes round in the ether, and +never puts down a foot, for he has none; and he takes the same, yet +different, roads in the sky, _i.e._, luminous by day, and gloomy by +night. The puzzle of the riddle lies in its self-contradiction; and +the beautiful girl is the prize appointed for him who, by his actions, +resolves it. A similar riddle is, in the _Rigvedas_ itself, proposed +to _Mitras_, the sun, and to _Varunas_, the night. The riddle is as +follows:--"The first of them who walk afoot (_padvatnam_) comes +without feet (_apd_);" and the two divine heroes are asked, "Which of +you two has guessed it?"[93] He who solves this enigma we may be sure +is Mitras, the sun, who recognises the aurora, the girl who comes +making use of feet, although she seem to have none, for she comes +borne in a chariot, of which the wheels appear to be feet, which is +the same luminous chariot that rolls well,[94] given by the Ribhavas +to the two horsemen Avinu (represented sometimes as two old men made +young again by the Ribhavas, and sometimes simply as two handsome +youths), into which chariot she mounts by the help of the Avinu; and +the daughter of the sun is, in the race, the first to come to the +winning-post, amid the enthusiastic plaudits of the gods.[95] Then the +hymns to the aurora sometimes represent that vast chariot as belonging +to the eastern aurora, who guides a hundred chariots, and who, in +turn, helps the immortal gods to ascend into the chariot beside +her.[96] The aurora, as the first of those who appear every day in the +eastern sky, as the first to know the break of day,[97] is naturally +represented as one of the swiftest among those who are the guests of +the sun-prince during the night; and like her cows, which do not cover +themselves with dust (this being an attribute which, in the Indian +faith, distinguishes the gods from mortals, for the former walk in the +heavens, and the latter upon earth), she, in her onward flight, leaves +no footsteps behind her. The word _apd_ (_pad_ and _pada_, being +synonymous) may, indeed, mean not only she who has no feet, but also +she who has no footsteps (that is, what is the measure of the foot), +or, again, she who has no slippers, the aurora having, as appears, +lost them; for the prince Mitras, while following the beautiful young +girl, finds a slipper which shows her footstep, the measure of her +foot, a foot so small, that no other woman has a foot like it, an +almost unfindable, almost imperceptible foot, which brings us back +again to the idea of her who has no feet. The legend of the lost +slipper, and of the prince who tries to find the foot predestined to +wear it, the central interest in the popular story of Cinderella, +seems to me to repose entirely upon the double meaning of the word +_apd_, _i.e._, who has no feet, or what is the measure of the foot, +which may be either the footstep or the slipper; often, moreover, in +the story of Cinderella, the prince cannot overtake the fugitive, +because a chariot bears her away. + +The word _apd_, which we have heretofore seen applied to the heroine, +was applied, moreover, to the hero, giving rise to another popular +legend, of which the _Rigvedas_ offers us the mythical elements. We have +already seen the sun as _anipadyamanas_, _i.e._, the sun who never puts +his foot down; but this sun who never puts down his foot easily, came to +be conceived of and represented as a sun without feet, or as a lame +hero, who, during the night, by the perfidy of the witch, the dusk of +evening, became also blind. In one hymn, the blind and the lame are not +one, but two, whom propitious Indras guides;[98] in another, the +blind-lame is one person, with the name of _Pravrig_, whom the two +horsemen Avinu, the two friends of the dawn, enable to walk and to +see.[99] The lame one who sees, shows the way to the blind who is able +to walk, or the lame carries the blind; Indras, the hidden sun, guides +the blind and the lame; or, the blind and the lame, lost in the forest, +help each other; in the morning, the Avinu, the two horsemen, friends +of the aurora, with the water of sight and of strength (that is, +Pravrig, the blind-lame having discovered the hidden fountain of the +young girls of the dawn,[100] with the ambrosia of the aurora, with the +aurora itself), make the blind see, and him who has no feet, the lame, +walk; that is, they burst forth into the upper air again, transfigured +now into the luminous sun who sets out on his heavenly voyage. I have +said above that the hero becomes blind and lame through the perfidy and +magic of the evening aurora: nor was the assertion unfounded; for the +Vedic hymn in which Indras guides the blind and the lame, _i.e._, +himself or the sun, in the gloomy tardy night, is the very same hymn in +which is celebrated his heroic and manly enterprise of the destruction +of the daughter of the sky. The sun Indras revenges himself in the +morning upon the aurora of the morning, for the wrong done him by the +aurora of the evening, beautiful, but faithless. + +For the aurora counts among her other talents that of magic; when the +Ribhavas created the aurora cow of morning, investing her with the +skin of the aurora cow of evening, they endowed her with Protean +qualities (_Vivarpm_), and on this account the aurora herself is +also called witch or enchantress (_Mjin_).[101] This aurora, this +virago, this Amazon, this Vedic Medea, who, treacherously plunging her +husband, or brother, the solar hero, into a fiery furnace, blinds and +lames him, is punished in the morning for her crime of the evening. +The hero vanquishes her, overcomes her incantations, and annihilates +her. The Vedic hymn sings--"A manly and heroic undertaking thou hast +accomplished, O Indras, for an evil-doing woman, the daughter of the +heavens, thou hast smitten; the growing daughter of the heaven, the +aurora, O Indras, thou hast destroyed; from the chariot, broken in +pieces, fell the aurora, trembling, because the bull had struck +her."[102] Here the mythical animal reappears on the same stage with +the heroes, and for the image of the hero and the heroine there is +substituted that of the cow and the bull.[103] + +The sun and the aurora, therefore, do not always seek each other from +promptings of affection only, nor is the hateful part always played by +the aurora. The sun, also appears as a perverse persecutor in his +turn. One Vedic hymn advises the aurora not to stretch out the web +she works at too far, lest the sun, like a robber, with hostile +intention, set fire to and burn her.[104] Another hymn tells us that +the handsome one follows the beautiful one, the brother the sister, +like a lover,[105]--the aurora fleeing from the sun, her brother, out +of shame, and her brother following her, actuated by a brutal +instinct. Finally, a third hymn shows us the Vedic Vulcan, the +blacksmith of the gods, the sun Tvashtar, called also the omniform sun +(_Svit Vivarpah_), as father of Sarany, another name for the +aurora, omniform herself, like her father (and, like the cow, +undergoing the triple transmutation at the hands of Tvashtar, _i.e._, +the three brothers, the Ribhavas), creating another form of himself, +that is, the sun _Vivasvant_, to be able to espouse the aurora. +Sarany, perceiving perhaps that Vivasvant is her father under another +shape, creates another woman like herself, and flees away on the +chariot that flies of itself, and that was before given her by her +father; and thereupon Vivasvant, in order to overtake her, transforms +himself into a horse.[106] + +But sometimes the alienation the sun and the aurora, the young husband +and wife, is not due to evil propensities in themselves, but the +decree of fate working through the machinations of monsters. The two +beautiful ones are at bottom united by love and reciprocal gratitude; +for now it is the sun who delivers the aurora, and now the aurora who +liberates the sun; and we have already seen the aurora making the +ambrosial milk drop for the sun from her cows, and the sun drawing up +and delivering the cows of the aurora. There is a hymn in which the +divine girl, the aurora, comes up in the east, with a lascivious air, +smiling, fresh, uncovering her bosom, resplendent, towards the god who +sacrifices himself,[107] that is to say, towards the sun, towards +_unahepas_ (the sun), who, in three verses of another hymn,[108] +invokes her, the well-known legend of which, narrated in the +_itareya-Brhmanam_, I shall briefly relate. The aurora has also the +merit of having, with her pure and purifying light, opened the gates +of the gloomy cavern, discomfited the enemies, the shades of night, +and exposed to view the treasures hidden by the darkness (and here we +have Medea again, but this time in a benignant form); she awakens to +activity the sleepers and everything with life (and therefore, among +the living sleepers, the sun, her son, whom one of the hymns +represents as sleeping profoundly in the bosom of the darkness of +night); she is the saviour of mortals,[109] that is to say, she +protects mortals from death, and resuscitates them; she sees and +foresees everything.[110] The awakener is also the awakened; the +illuminator is also the illumined, or the wise; and the illumined or +luminous one is also the beautiful one. From being small, she is +become large[111] (the heroes and heroines of mythology are only small +at birth, and pass at once into fulness of stature); from being infirm +and sombre-visaged, by the grace of Indras and of the Avinu, she is +cured and restored to strength and clearness.[112] But why was she +dark at first? Because her mother, the night, is the black one; she, +the white one, is born of the black one.[113] + +During the night, the young girl was blind, and she recovers her sight +by the grace of a wise one, one who, protected by Indras, another +shape of Indras, has become enamoured of her. We have seen above that +it is the Avinu who, with the aurora, give back to the sun his +sight; here it is the sun who makes the aurora see, it is the sun who +gives her light; and she who, having been blind, recovers her sight, +becomes the protectress of the blind and preserver of vision,[114] +like St Lucia, virgin and martyr, in the Christian Mythology. Physical +truth and the mythical narration are in perfect accordance. + +The night is now the mother, now the sister of the aurora; but the +gloomy night is sometimes her step-mother, sometimes her half-sister. +There is a riddle which celebrates the luminous night and the aurora, +as two diversely beautiful ones who go together, but of whom one goes +while the other comes.[115] Another hymn sings of them thus: "The +brilliantly-decked one approaches, the white aurora comes; the black +one prepares for her her rooms. The one immortal having joined the +other, the two appear alternately in the heavens. One and eternal is +the path of the two sisters; they follow it, one after the other, +guided by the gods; they do not meet, and they never stand still--the +two good nurses, night and aurora, one in soul yet different in +form."[116] The two good nurses, night and aurora, whose hues +alternate eternally, nourish between them one and the same child (the +sun).[117] But the _Rigvedas_ itself tells us that the night is not +always the legitimate sister of the aurora; the latter "abandons now +the one that is, now the one that is not, properly its sister."[118] +Here probably we must understand by the proper sister of the aurora +the luminous or moonlight night, and by the half-sister, the gloomy +night, the night without a moon. This is the sister whom, in a hymn, +the aurora removes, sends far away from her, while she shines to be +seen of her husband;[119] and her half-sister, the night, is obliged +to resign her place to her elder or better sister,[120] the word +_gyeshthas_ meaning not only the eldest, but the best. We have +already seen that the aurora is the first to appear; as such, and as +she who in the evening precedes the night (the evening aurora), she is +the first-born, the eldest, the most experienced, the best; while, +from another point of view, she is represented to us as the little one +who becomes great, and, in this case, as younger sister of the night +(the morning dawn). The dawns, or auroras, are saluted with the +epithet of workwomen,[121] just as the good sister, with respect to +the bad one, is always she who works, doing wonderful work, that is, +spinning or weaving the rosy cloth. But the auroras are not only the +workers, they are also the pure purifying and cleansing ones;[122] +hence one can understand how one of the tasks imposed upon the +youngest sister was that of purifying, purging, or separating the +grain during the night, taking from it all that is impure, in which +task she is assisted sometimes by a good fairy, sometimes by the +Virgin Mary, who, according to all probability, is the moon. + +One of the singular qualities of the younger sister is that she +displays her beauty only before the eyes of her husband. The wife +aurora manifests herself in the sight of her husband;[123] united, in +her splendour, with the rays of the sun,[124] like a wife she prepares +the dwelling of the sun.[125] Very brilliant, like a wife cleansed by +her mother, she uncovers her body;[126] like a bather who shows +herself, the shining one unveils her body;[127] she adorns herself +like a dancer, uncovering, like a cow, her breast;[128] she displays +her luminous garments;[129] all-radiant, with beautiful face, she +laughs;[130] and he who has made the aurora laugh, her, the beautiful +princess, who, at first, that is, during the night, did not laugh, +espouses her; the sun espouses the aurora. + +The celestial nuptials take place, and the ceremony is minutely +described in the 85th hymn of the 10th book of the _Rigvedas_. But the +marriage of the two celestials is never consummated except under +conditions; these conditions are always accepted and afterwards +forgotten, and it is now the husband who, by forsaking his wife, now +the wife who, by abandoning her husband, violates the promise given. +One of these estrangements, these temporary alienations of husband and +wife, is described in the _Rigvedas_ by the poetical myth of the dawn +_Urva_ and her husband _Purravas_, one of the names given to the +sun. Urva says of herself, "I have arrived like the first of the +auroras;"[131] thereupon Urva suddenly abandons her husband +Purravas, because he breaks an agreement made between them. We shall +see further on in this chapter what this agreement was. Besides, +having given him a son before her departure, she consoles him by +permitting him to come and find her again in heaven, that is, by +endowing the sun with the immortality she possesses herself. In the +morning the aurora precedes the sun; he follows her too closely, and +she disappears, but leaves a son, _i.e._, the new sun. In the evening +the aurora precedes the sun; he follows her again, and she loses +herself, now in a forest, now in the sea. The same phenomenon, a +divorce of husband from wife, or a separation of brother and sister, +or the flight of a sister from her brother, or again, that of a +daughter from her father, presents itself twice every day (and every +year) in the sky. Sometimes, on the other hand, it is a witch, or the +monster of nocturnal darkness, who takes the place of the radiant +bride, or the aurora, near the sun; and in that case the aurora, the +beauteous bride, is spirited away into a wood to be killed or thrown +into the sea, from both of which predicaments, however, she always +escapes. Sometimes the witch of night throws the brother and sister, +the mother and son, the sun and the aurora, together into the waves of +the sea, whence they both escape again, to reappear in the morning. + +All these alternative variations of a mythical representation become +each in turn a legend by itself, as we shall see again more in detail, +when the study of the different animals that take part in them shall +furnish us with opportunities of doing so. In the meantime, we have +here finished our enumeration of all that in the hymns of the +_Rigvedas_ refers in any way to the bull and the cow,--to the wind, +moon, and sun bulls, to the cow-cloud, moon, spring and +aurora,--leaving it, however, to be understood how natural it is to +pass from the bull to the handsome hero-prince, and from the cow to +the beautiful girl, the rich princess, the valiant heroine, or the +wise fairy. For though in the mythical hymns of the _Rigvedas_ we have +little more than hints or foreshadows of the many popular legends +which we have thus referred to, often without naming them, these are +so many and so precise that it seems to me to be almost impossible +not to recognise them. To demonstrate this, however, it will be +necessary for me to show further what form the mythological ideas and +figures relating to the animals dispersed in the Vedic hymns +afterwards assumed in the Hindoo traditions. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] M gm angm aditim vadhishta; _Rigv._ viii. 90, 15. + +[2] Gomtarah; _Rigv._ i. 8, 1, 3.--Aditis, called "mt rudrnm;" +_Rigv._ viii. 90, 15. + +[3] Tubhyam (to Vyus, to the wind), dhenuh sabardugh viv vasni +dohate aganayo maruto vakshanbhyah; _Rigv._ i. 134, 4. + +[4] Ims ta indra prinayo ghritam duhata iram; _Rigv._ viii. 6, +19.--Trir asmi sapta dhenavo duduhre satym iram prvye vyomani; +_Rigv._ ix. 70, 1.--Trni sarnsi prinayo duduhre vagrine madhu; +_Rigv._ viii. 7, 10.--In the _Rmyanan_, i. 48, the Marutas also +appear in the number of 7. + +[5] Pra ans goshv aghnyam krlam yac chardho mrutam gambhe rasasya +vvridhe; _Rigv._ i. 37, 5. + +[6] Ime ye te su vyo bhvogaso 'ntar nad te patayanty ukshano mahi +vrdhanta ukshanah dhanvan cid ye anavo gir, cid agirukasah +sryasyeva ramayo durniyantavo hastayor durniyantavah; _Rigv._ i. +135, 9. + +[7] Riksho na vo marutah imvn amo dudhro gur iva bhmayuh; _Rigv._ +v. 56, 3. + +[8] Te syandrso nokshano 'ti shkandanti arvarh; _Rigv._ v. 52, 3. + +[9] Tvam vtir arunir ysi; _Tittiriya Yagurvedas_, i. 3, +14.--Angibhir vy nagre ke cid usr iva stribhih; _Rigv._ i. 87, 1. + +[10] Vrish vrishabhih; _Rigv._ i. 100, 4.--Grishtih sasva sthaviram +tavgm andhrishyam vrishabham tumram indram; _Rigv._ iv. 18, +10.--Sa mtar na dadrina usriyo nnadad eti marutm iva svanah; +_Rigv._ ix. 70, 6. + +[11] Vrishyamno vrinita somam; _Rigv._ i. 32, 3.--Pitum nu stosham +maho dharmnam tavishm yasya trito (Tritas, as we shall see, is an +_alter ego_ of the god Indras) vy ogas vritram viparvam ardayat; +_Rigv._ i. 187, 1. + +[12] Pib vardhasva; _Rigv._ iii. 36, 3. + +[13] Indro madhu sambhritam usriyym padvad viveda aphavan name goh; +_Rigv._ iii. 39, 6. + +[14] Tr yac chat mahishnm agho ms tr sarnsi maghav somyph +kram na vive ahvanta dev bharam indrya yad ahim gaghna; _Rigv._ +v. 29, 8. + +[15] Vasoh kabandhamrishabho bibharti; _Atharvavedas_, ix. 4, 3. + +[16] Sruvati bhmo vrishabhas tavishyay rige ino harin +vicakshanah; _Rigv._ ix. 70, 7. + +[17] Yas tigmarigo vrishabho na bhma ekah krisht cyvayati pra +vivh; _Rigv._ vii. 19, 1.--Idam namo vrishabhya svarge +satyaushmya tavase 'vci; _Rigv._ i. 51, 15. + +[18] ite vagram tegase na vansagah; _Rigv._ i. 55, 1. + +[19] Abhy enam vagra yasah sahasrabhrishtir yatrcano; _Rigv._ i. +80, 12. + +[20] Sahasrarigo vrishabho yah samudrd udcarat; _Rigv._ vii. 55, 7. + +[21] Vi tigmena vrishabhena puro 'bhet; _Rigv._ i. 33, 13. + +[22] Priy indrasya dhenavo vagram hinvanti syakam vasvh; _Rigv._ i. +84, 10, 11, 12. The root, HI, properly signifies to _distend, draw +out_; here, to _draw out_ the arm of Indras seems to me to mean to +elongate it, to render it as fine as a thread--to sharpen it (in +Italian, _affilare_); the cows that sharpen (It. _affilanti_), are a +variety of the cows that _spin_ (It. _filanti_). + +[23] Yugam vagram vrishabha cakra indro nir gyotish tamaso g +adukshat; _Rigv._ i. 33, 10. + +[24] ite rige rakshase vinikshe; _Rigv._ v. 2, 9.--Catvri rig +trayo asya pd dve rshe sapta hastso asya; _Rigv._ iv. 58, +3.--Tapurgambho vana vtacodito ythe na shvn ava vti vansagah +abhi vragann akshitam pgas ragah sthtu caratham bhayate +patatrinah; _Rigv._ i. 58, 5. In this stanza, however, _Vansagah_ may +probably signify rather _the stallion_ than _the bull_, as we find in +the second stanza this same Agnis already compared to a radiant horse +(atyo na prishtham prushitasya rocate). + +[25] _Adris_ and _parvatas_ properly mean mountain, but, in the Veds, +often cloud; and among their many meanings there is also that of tree; +_agas_ (properly that which does not move) expresses equally tree and +mountain. Hence perhaps the Italian proverb: _Le montagne stanno +ferme, ma gli uomini s'incontrano_, Mountains stand still, but men +meet; hence the cry of Rmas in the _Rmyanam_, ii. 122, that the +Himlayas would move before he should become a traitor; hence the +assurance with which Macbeth, after the celebrated prophecy of the +witches, can say: "That will never be; who can impress the forest; bid +the tree unfix his earth-bound root?" _Shakespeare_ (_Macbeth_, iv. +1.) Nevertheless the forest moved, as it not unfrequently does in the +myths, where the tree-clouds walk, and fill all with terror wherever +they go, where heroes and monsters often fight, by unrooting the trees +of a whole forest. Cfr. _Rmyanam_, iii. 3, 5, and the chapters of +this work which treat of the Horse, the Bear, and the Monkey. + +[26] Vragam gacha gosthnam; _Tittir. Yagr._ i. 1, 9; cfr. +_atapathabrhmanam_, i. 2, 3, 4. + +[27] Krishno nonva vrishabhah; _Rigv._ i. 79, 2.--Vreva vidyun +mimti vatsam na mt sishakti; _Rigv._ i. 38, 8. + +[28] Amnam cit svaryam parvatam girim pra cyvayanti ymabhih; +_Rigv._ v. 96, 4. + +[29] Pavy rathnm adrim bhindanty ogas; _Rigv._ v. 52, 9. _Pavis_, in +general, is the iron part, the iron end (of a dart, or a lance); here it +would appear to be the iron tire of the chariot's wheels, which, driving +furiously over the mountain, break it,--thunder, in fact, often suggests +the idea of a noisy chariot making ruin in heaven. + +[30] Vrah karmanyah sudaksho yuktagrv gyate devakmah; _Rigv._ +iii. 4, 9. + +[31] Ayam rinve adha gayann uta ghnann ayam uta pra krinute yudh gh; +_Rigv._ iv. 17, 10.--Vilu cid rugatnubhir guh cid indra vahnibhih +avinda usriy anu; _Rigv._ i. 6, 5.--Tvam valasya gomato 'pavar adrivo +bilam; _Rigv._ i. 11, 5.--Vi gobhir adrim irayat; _Rigv._ i. 7, +3.--Uksh mimti prati yanti dhenavah; _Rigv._ ix. 69, 4.--Yad anysu +vrishabho roravti so anyasmin ythe ni dadhti retah; _Rigv._ iii. 55, +17.--Pshanvn vagrint sam u patnymadah; _Rigv._ i. 82, 6. + +[32] Indrgn navatim puro dsapatnr adhnutam skam ekena karman; +_Rigv._ iii. 12, 6; _Titt. Yagurv._ i. 1, 14. Cfr. chap. on Serpent. + +[33] Devsa yan paranr abibhran van vricanto abhi vidbhir yan ni +sudrvam dadhato vakshansu yatr kriptam anu tad dahanti; _Rigv._ x. +28, 8. + +[34] Cfr. the chapter on the Bear and the Monkey. + +[35] Vrikshe-vrikshe niyat mmayad gus tato vayah pra patn +prushdah vivam bhuvanam bhayte; _Rigv._ x. 27, 22.--Tvam yasam +prati vartayo gor divo amnam; _Rigv._ i. 121, 9. + +[36] Brihaspatir govapusho valasya nir maggnam na parvano gabhra; +_Rigv._ x. 68, 9. + +[37] Gurr mimya salilni takshaty ekapad dvipad s +catushpad--ashtpad navapad babhvush sahasrkshar parame vyoman; +_Rigv._ i. 164, 41. + +[38] Utdah parushe gavi sra cakram hiranyayam; _Rigv._ vi. 56, 3. + +[39] Dsapatnr ahigop atishthan niruddh pah panineva gvah; +_Rigv._ i. 32, 11. + +[40] Visham gavm ytudhnah pibantu; _Rigv._ x. 87, 18. The same +passage can, however, be also translated: "The demons of the cows may +drink the poison." + +[41] _Rigv._ iii. 12, 6; x. 27, 22. + +[42] _Rigv._ ix. 70, 1. + +[43] viii. 6, 19. Cfr. the chapters on the Horse and the Cuckoo. + +[44] Vi ramibhih sasrige sryo gh; _Rigv._ vii. 36, 1. + +[45] Ta vm (the gods Vishnus and Indras) vstny umasi gama-dhyi +yatra gvo bhririg aysah; _Rigv._ i. 154, 6. Here all the stars +or cows together form _many horns_; but perhaps each star or cow in +itself was supposed to have but _one horn_; for the stars, like the +moon, shed but one ray of light, but one light. This, it appears to +me, may be inferred from the name of _Ekarigs_ or _unicorns_, +given, in the later mythology of the Indians, to an entire order of +Mani, of whom the stars are represented as the supreme habitations, +and even purest forms. + +[46] Kany vr avyat somam api srutvidat astam bharanty abravd +indrya sunavi tv akrya sunavi tv.--Indryendo pari srava; +_Rigv._ viii. 80, 1, 3. + +[47] Indrsom tapatam raksha ubgatam ny arpayatam vrishan +tamovridhah; _Rigv._ vii, 104, 1.--The following stanzas reproduce and +develop the same argument. + +[48] Pancokshano madhye tasthur maho divah--Te sedhanti patho vrikam +tarantam yahvatr apah; _Rigv._ i. 105, 10, 11. + +[49] Vasavo guryam cit padi shitm amuncat yagtrh; _Rigv._ iv. 12, 6. + +[50] Takshan dhenum sabardugham; _Rigv._ i. 20, 3.--Ni carmano gm +arinta dhtibhih; _Rigv._ i. 161, 7, e, iv. 36, 4. + +[51] This interesting particular is more fully developed in the +chapters which treat of the Wolf, the Pig and the Wild Boar, _q. +v._--To avoid useless and troublesome repetitions, I must observe here +that the myths of morning and evening are often applied to spring and +autumn, and the myths of night to winter. + +[52] Rayim ribhavah sarvavram takshata vrishano mandasnh; _Rigv._ +iv. 35, 6. + +[53] Rayim ribhavas takshat vayah; _Rigv._ iv. 36, 8.--Here again we +have the cow in relation to the birds, since the riches given by the +Ribhavas consist above all in cows. (Ye gomantam vgavantam suvram +rayim dhattha vasumantam purukshum te agrep ribhavo mandasn asme +dhatta ye ca rtim grinanti; _Rigv._ iv. 34, 10.) + +[54] ayave cin nsty acibhir gasuraye staryam pipyathur gm; +_Rigv._ i. 116. 22.--Y garant yuva tkrinotana; _Rigv._ i. 161, 7. + +[55] Gyeshtha ha camas dv kareti kanyn trn krinavmety ha +kanishtha ha caturas kareti tvashta ribhavas tat panayad vaco vah; +_Rigv._ iv. 33, 5. + +[56] Vgo devnm abhavat sukarmendrasya ribhuksh varunasya vibhv; +_Rigv._ iv. 33, 9. + +[57] Te vgo vibhvn ribhur indravantah; _Rigv._ iv. 33, 3. + +[58] Ribhur vibhv vga indro no achemam yagnam ratnadheyopa yta; +_Rigv._ iv. 34, 1.--Pibata vg ribhavo; _Rigv._ iv. 34, 4. + +[59] Dvdaa dyn yad agohyasytithye ranann ribhavah sasantah +sukshetrkrinvann anayanta sindhn dhanvtishthann oshadhr nimnam +pah; _Rigv._ iv. 33, 7.--Cfr. _Rigv._ i. 161, 11-13. + +[60] Yamena dattam trita enam yunag indra enam prathamo adhy +atishthat; _Rigv._ i. 163, 2.--Asi yamo asy dityo arvann asi trito +guhyena vratena asi somena samay viprikta hus te trni divi +bandhanni trni ta hur divi bandhanni trny apsu trny antah +samudre; _Rigv._ i. 163, 3, 4. + +[61] Vishnus the three-faced is already spoken of in the _Rigvedas_ +and in the _Yagurvedas_. The third step of Vishnus is taken among the +cows with the great or many horns: Gamadhye gvo yatra bhri-rig +aysah atr 'ha tad urugyasya vishnoh paramam padam ava bhti bhreh; +_Tittiriya Yagurv._ i. 3, 6. + +[62] _Rigv._ i. 187, 1, the passage already cited, when speaking of +the water of strength. + +[63] Na m garan nadyo mtritam ds yad m susamubdham avdhuh iro +yad asya tritano vitakshat; _Rigv._ i. 158, 5. We shall have occasion +to return more than once to an analogous myth referring to Indras. + +[64] Tritas tad vedptyah sa gmitvya rebhati; _Rigv._ i. 105, +9.--_Gmitv_ is properly the relation of brotherhood, and also +relationship in general. _Rebhas_, or the invoker, represented as a +hero, is no other than our _Trita ptyas_. + +[65] Rebham nivritam sitam adbhyah; _Rigv._ i. 112, 5. + +[66] Tritah kpe 'vahito devn havata taye tac churva brihaspatih +krinvann anhrand uru; _Rigv._ i. 105, 17. + +[67] _Ntimangar_, quoted by Wilson, _Rigvedas-Samhit_, vol. i. + +[68] g gad uan kvyah sac; _Rigv._ i. 83, 5. + +[69] Patir gavm abhavad eka indrah; _Rigv._ iii. 31, 4. + +[70] Gagna sryam ushsam; _Rigv._ iii. 32, 8. + +[71] Sasntyn uta sryam sasnendrah sasna purubhogasam gm; +_Rigv._ iii. 34, 9. + +[72] Mahi gyotir nihitam vakshansu m pakvam carati bibhrat guh +vivam svdma sambhritam usriyym; _Rigv._ iii. 30, 14. + +[73] Indrah stm ni grihntu tm pshnu yachatu s nah payasvat +duhm uttarm-uttarm samm; _Rigv._ iv. 57, 7. + +[74] Mridha ushtro na; _Rigv._ i. 138, 2. + +[75] Yat samvatsam ribhavo gm arakshan yat samvatsam ribhavo m +apinan; _Rigv._ iv. 33, 4. + +[76] Ush n rmr arunir apornute maho gyotish ucat goarnas; +_Rigv._ ii. 34, 12. + +[77] Dhenuh pratnasya kmyam duhnntah putra carati dakshinyh +dyotanim vahati ubhraymoshasah stomo avinv agigah; _Rigv._ iii. +58, 1. + +[78] Ritya dhen parame duhte; _Rigv._ iv. 23, 10. + +[79] Gavm mt; _Rigv._ v. 45, 2. + +[80] Arenvas tuga sadman dhenavah svaranti t uparatti sryam; +_Rigv._ i. 151, 5. + +[81] Ud apaptann arun bhnavo vrith svyugo arushr g ayukshata; +_Rigv._ i. 92, 2 + +[82] Yen navagve agire daagve saptsye revat revad sha; _Rigv._ +iv. 51, 4.--The sun is also said to be drawn by seven fair horses; +_Rigv._ i. 50, 9.--Cfr. the following chapter. + +[83] Ta usho adrisno gotr gavm agiraso grinanti; _Rigv._ vi. 65, 5. + +[84] Ritendrim vy asan bhidantah sam agiraso navanta gobhih nam +narah pari shadann ushsam; _Rigv._ iv. 3, 11. + +[85] Praty u adary yaty uchant duhit divah--Ud usriyh srigate +sryah sac; _Rigv._ vii. 81, 1, 2. + +[86] Vahanti sm arunso ruanto gvah subhagm urviy prathnm +apegate ro asteva atrn bdhate; _Rigv._ vi. 64, 3. + +[87] Rugad drilhni dadad usriynm prati gva ushasam vvaanta; +_Rigv._ vii. 75, 7. + +[88] Gvo na vragam vy ush avar tamah; _Rigv._ i. 92, 4. + +[89] Yo avnm yo gavm gopatih; _Rigv._ i. 101, 4. + +[90] Yukte gavm arunnm ankam; _Rigv._ i. 124, 11.--Esha gobhir +arunebhir yugn; _Rigv._ v. 80, 3. + +[91] Avishk Krinvn tanvam purastat ritasya panthm anv eti; _Rigv._ +v. 80, 4. + +[92] Apayam gopm anipadyamnam ca par ca pathibhi carantam sa +sadhrch sa vishcir vasna varvarti bhuvaneshv antah; _Rigv._ x. +177, 3. + +[93] Apd eti pratham padvatnm kas tad vm ciketa; _Rigv._ i. 152, 3. + +[94] Ratham ye cakruh suvritam; _Rigv._ iv. 33, 8.--Takshan +nsatybhym parigmnam sukham ratham; _Rigv._ i. 20, 3. + +[95] Yuvo ratham duhit sryasya saha riy nsatyvrinta; _Rigv._ i. +117, 13.-- vm ratham duhit sryasya krshmevtishthad arvat +gayant vive dev anv amanyanta hridbhih; _Rigv._ i. 116, 17. + +[96] Yuktv ratham upa devn aytana; _Rigv._ i. 161, 7.--Prith ratho +dakshiny ayogy enam devso amritso asthuh; _Rigv._ i. 123, +1.--Dev gir rathnm; _Rigv._ i. 48, 3.--atam rathebhih subhagosh +iyam vi yty abhi mnushn; _Rigv._ i. 48, 7. + +[97] Gnaty ahnah prathamasya; _Rigv._ i. 123, 9. + +[98] Anu dv gahit nayo 'ndham ronam ca vritrahan; _Rigv._ iv. 30, 19. + +[99] Sakhbhd avinor ushh; _Rigv._ iv. 52, 2.--Parvrigam prandham +ronam cakshasa etave krithah; _Rigv._ i. 112, 8.--I here explicitly +abandon the hypothesis I advanced six years ago in the "Life and +Miracles of the God Indras in the Rigvedas," pp. 22 and 24, to the +effect that the hero Pravrig is the lightning flashing from the dark +cloud; whereas the blind-lame seems now to me the sun in the darkness +of night or winter. + +[100] Sa vidvn apagoham kannm vir bhavann udatishthat parvrik +prati ronah sthd vy anag acashta; _Rigv._ ii. 15, 7. + +[101] _Rigv._ v. 48, 1. + +[102] Etad ghed uta vryam indra cakartha punsyam striyam yad durhan +yuvam vadhr duhitaram divah diva cid gh duhitaram mahn mahyamnm +ushsam indra sam pinak aposh anasah sarat sampishtd aha bibhyush +ni yat sm inathad vrish; _Rigv._ iv. 30, 8-11. + +[103] The two arms of Indras are said to vanquish the cow (or the +cows); Gogit bah; _Rigv._ i. 102, 6. + +[104] Vy uch duhitar divo m ciram tanuth apah net tv stenam yath +ripum tapti sro arcish; _Rigv._ v. 79, 9.--Cfr. the chapter which +treats of the Spider. + +[105] Bhadro bhadray sacamna gt svasram gro abhy eti pacat; +_Rigv._ x. 3, 3. + +[106] Cfr. _Rigv._ x. 17, and Max Mller's "Lectures on the Science of +Language," second series, 481-486. + +[107] Kanyeva tanv adnn (arepas tanv adn; _Rigv._ i. 124, +6), eshi devi devam iyakshamnam samsmayamn yuvatih purastd vir +vakshnsi krinushe vibht; _Rigv._ i. 123, 10. + +[108] _Rigv._ i. 30, 20-22. + +[109] Vy vragasya tamaso dvrochantr avran chucayah pvakh; +_Rigv._ iv. 51, 2.--Apa dvesho bdhamn tamnsy ush divo duhit +gyotishgt; _Rigv._ v. 80, 5.--Sprh vasni tamaspaglh vish, +krinvanty ushaso vibhth; _Rigv._ i. 123, 6.--Sasato bodhayant; +_Rigv._ i. 124, 4.--Vivam givam carase bodhayant; _Rigv._ i. 92, +9.--Martyatr; _Rigv._ i. 123, 3. + +[110] Vivni dev bhuvanbhicakshy; _Rigv._ i. 92, 6.--Pragnat; +_Rigv._ i. 124, 3. + +[111] Arbhd shate na maho vibht; _Rigv._ i. 124, 6. + +[112] As to Ghosh, cured by the Avinu (_Rigv._ i. 117, 7), and +Apal, cured by Indras (_Rigv._ viii. 80), see the same subject +discussed more in detail in the chapter which treats of the Hog. + +[113] ukr krishnd aganishta vitc; _Rigv._ i. 123, 9. + +[114] Yasynaksh duhit gtvsa kas tm vidvn abhi manyte andhm +kataro menim prati tam mucte ya m vahte ya m v vareyt; _Rigv._ +x. 27, 11.--Vritrasya kannik 'si cakshushp asi; _Tittir. Yagurv._ +i. 2, 1. + +[115] Apnyad ety abhy anyad eti vishurpe ahan sam carete; _Rigv._ +i. 123, 7. + +[116] Ruadvats ruat vetygd rig u krishn sadanny asyh +samnabandh amrite anc dyv varnam carata minne samno adhv +svasror anantas tam anyny carato devaishte na methete na tasthatuh +sumeke naktoshsa samanas virpe; _Rigv._ i. 113, 2, 3. + +[117] Naktoshs varnam memyne dhpayete ium ekam samc; _Rigv._ +i. 96, 5. + +[118] Ngmim na pari vrinakti gmim; _Rigv._ i. 124, 6. + +[119] Vyrnvat divo antn abodhy apa svasram sanutar yuyoti praminat +manushy yugni yosh garasya cakshas vi bhti; _Rigv._ i. 92, 11. + +[120] Svas svasre gyyasyi yonim rik; _Rigv._ i. 124, 8. + +[121] Nrr apasah; _Rigv._ i. 92, 3. + +[122] ucayah pvakh; _Rigv._ iv. 51, 2. + +[123] Yosh grasya cakshas vibhti; _Rigv._ quoted above, i. 92, 11. + +[124] Yatamn ramibhih sryasya; _Rigv._ i. 123, 12.--Vyuchant +ramibhih sryasya; _Rigv._ i. 124, 8. + +[125] Ritasya yosh na minti dhma; _Rigv._ i. 123, 9. + +[126] Susamk mtrimrishteva yoshvis tanvam krinushe drie kam; +_Rigv._ i. 123, 11. + +[127] Esh ubhr na tanvo vidnordhveva snt driaye no astht; +_Rigv._ v. 80, 5. + +[128] Adhi pensi vapate nritr ivpornute vaksha usreva bargaham; +_Rigv._ i. 92, 4. + +[129] Bhadr vastr tanvate; _Rigv._ i. 134, 4. + +[130] Smayate vibht supratk; _Rigv._ i. 92, 6. + +[131] Prkramisham ushasm agriyeva; _Rigv._ x. 95, 2. + + +SECTION II. + +THE WORSHIP OF THE BULL AND OF THE COW IN INDIA, AND THE BRHMANIC +LEGENDS RELATING TO IT. + +SUMMARY. + + The princes called bulls.--The bull the symbol of the god + ivas.--The cow was not to be killed.--Exchange of the bull and the + cow for other animals; the bull and the cow, considered as the + greatest reward desired by the legislating priests of India.--The + cow's hide in nuptial usages a symbol of abundance; its elasticity + and power of extension; the cow and its hide during the pregnancy of + women an augury of happy birth, and in funeral ceremonies an augury + of resurrection.--Cows sent to pasture with auguries.--Cows seen by + night in a dream are a sinister omen; meaning of this Hindoo + superstition.--The black cow which produces white milk in the Vedic + hymns.--The reins of the cow or black goat sacrificed in funerals + given as a viaticum or provision to the dead man, that they may + contribute to his resurrection.--The variegated cow comes again in a + brhmanam, and is interpreted as a cloud.--The coming out of the + cow-dawns feasted.--The cornucopia.--The milk of the cows is the + serpent's poison.--The salutary herb.--The enchanted gem, the ring + of recognition.--The moon, as a female, a good fairy who works for + the aurora, and who entertains and guides the hero.--The moon, as a + male, a white bull.--The city of the moon.--Indras consoles and + nourishes the unhappy St.--Rmas assimilated to Indras.--The + coadjutors of Rmas are those of Indras.--The bull Rmas.--The names + of the monsters and the names of the heroes in the + Rmyanam.--Rmas, the Hindoo Xerxes, chastises the sea.--The + celestial ocean; the cloud-mountains carried by the heroes; the + bridge across the sea made of these mountains; while the bridge is + being made, it rains.--The battle of Rmas is a winter and a + nocturnal one, in a cloudy sky.--The monster barrel again; the + monster trunk with a cavity; Kabandhas.--The dying monster thanks + the hero, who delivers him from an ancient malediction, and becomes + again a handsome luminous youth.--The dawn St sacrificed in the + fire.--St daughter of the sun.--The Buddhist legend of Rmas and + St.--St predestined as the reward of valour.--An indiscretion of + the husband Rmas causes him to lose his wife St.--The story of + Urva again, the first of the auroras; the wife flees because her + husband has revealed her secret, because her husband has looked at + another woman, because he has let himself be seen naked; the + fugitive wife hides herself in a plant.--The wife stays with her + husband as long as he says nothing displeasing to her.--The wife + kills her sons; the husband complains and the wife flees.--The + contrary.--The story of unahepas again.--The god Varunas, who + binds; the son sacrificed to the monster against his will by his + father.--The hero-hunter.--The middle son sold, the son of the + cow.--The cow herself, Aditi, or abal, or Kmadhuk, wife of + Vasishtas, sacrificed instead of the son of Vivmitras.--Indras + delivers the bound hero, _i.e._, he delivers himself. The aurora, or + the daughter of the black one, liberates unahepas, bound by the + black one, that is, she delivers the sun her husband.--The fetters + of Varunas and of Agigartas are equivalent to the bridle of the + horse and to the collar of the dog sold to the demon in European + fairy tales.--The golden palace of Varunas on the western + mountain.--Monstrous fathers.--Identification of Haricandras, + Agigartas, and Vivmitras.--The contention of Vivmitras and + Vasishtas for the possession of the cow abal.--Demoniacal + character of Vivmitras.--The sister of the monster-lover or + seducer of the hero.--The cloud drum.--The cloudy monster Dundubhis, + in the form of a buffalo with sharpened horns, destroyed by the son + of Indras.--The buffalo a monster, the bull a hero.--Krishnas the + monster becomes a god.--The god Indras fallen for having killed a + brhman monster.--The three heads of the monster cut off at a + blow.--The three brothers in the palace of Lak; the eldest brother + has the royal dignity; the second, the strong one, sleeps, and only + wakens to eat and prove his strength; the third is good and is + victorious.--The three brothers Pndavas, sons of Yamas, Vyus and + Indras in the Mahbhratam; the first is wise, the second is strong, + the third is handsome and victorious; he is the best.--Again the + three working brothers entertained by a king.--The three disciples + of Dhumyas.--The blind one who falls into the well.--The voyage of + Utakas to hell.--He meets a bull.--The excrement of the bull, + ambrosia.--The stone uplifted with the help of the lever, of the + thunderbolt of Indras.--The earrings of the queen carried off; their + mythical meaning.--Indras and Krishnas also search for the + earrings.--The three Buddhist brothers.--The eldest brother frees + the younger ones by his knowledge in questions and riddles.--The + hero and the monster ill or vulnerable in their feet.--The two rival + sisters.--The good sister thrown into the well by the wicked + one.--The prince comes to deliver her.--The wicked sister takes the + place of the good one.--The three brothers again.--The sons make + their father and mother recognise each other.--The third brother, + Prus, the only good one, assists his aged father Yaytis, by taking + his old age upon himself.--The old blind man, Drghatamas, thrown + into the water by his sons.--Yaytis and Drghatamas, Hindoo King + Lears.--The queen Sudeshn makes her maid or foster-sister take her + place; a Hindoo form of Queen Berta.--The blind and the crooked or + lame, or hunchbacked, again with the three-breasted princess.--They + cure each other.--The bride disputed by the brothers.--The aurora + and the sun flee from each other.--The beautiful girl, the daughter + of the sun, flees after having seen the prince upon the + mountain.--The prince cannot overtake her; the third time, at last, + the prince marries the daughter of the sun.--The marvellous cow of + Vasishthas.--The hero Vasishthas wishes to kill himself, but cannot; + he is immortal; he throws himself down from the mountain and does + not hurt himself; he goes through fire and is not burnt; he throws + himself into the water and does not drown; mythical signification of + these prodigies.--The wind runs after women.--Conclusion of the + study of the myth and of the legends which refer to the bull and the + cow of India. + +Just as the importance of the cattle to primitive and pastoral Aryan +life explains the propensity of the Aryan mind to conceive of the +mobile phenomena of the heavens, at first considered living beings, as +bulls and cows, so the consecration of these animals, associated and +identified with the celestial phenomena and the gods, naturally gave +rise to the superstitious worship of the bull and the cow, common to +all the Aryan nations, but particularly, through the intervention of +the brhmanic priests, to the Hindoos. + +It is a remarkable fact that the words _vrishas_, _vrishabhas_, and +_rishabhas_, which mean the bull as the one who pours out, the +_foecundator_, is often used in Sanscrit to denote the best, the +first, the prince; and hence the bull, that is to say, the best +_foecundator_, is in India the most sacred symbol of royalty. For this +reason the phallic and destroying god, the royal _ivas_, who inhabits +_Gokarnas_ (a word which properly means cow's ear), has both for his +steed and his emblem a brhmanic bull, _i.e._, a bull with a hunch on +its back; the _nandin_, or joyful attribute, being given to ivas +himself, inasmuch as, being the _Deus phallicus_, he is the god of +joyfulness and beatitude.[132] + +Still more honour is paid to the cow (like the Vedic dawn _anavady_, +innocent or inculpable[133]), which therefore it was a crime to +kill.[134] An interesting chapter of the _itareya-brhmanam_,[135] on +the sacrifice of animals, shows us how, next to man, the horse was the +supreme sacrifice offered to the gods; how the cow afterwards took the +place of the horse; the sheep, of the cow; the goat, of the sheep; +and, at last, vegetable products were substituted for animals;--a +substitution or cheating of the gods in the sacrifice, which, perhaps, +serves to explain even more the fraud of which, in popular stories, +the simpleton is always the victim; the simpleton here being the god +himself, and the cheater man, who changes, under a sacred pretext, the +noblest and most valued animals for common and less valuable ones, and +finally for vegetables apparently of no value whatever. In the Hindoo +codes of law we have the same fraudulent substitution of animals under +a legal pretext. "The killer of a cow," says the code attributed to +_Ygnavalkyas_,[136] "must stay a month in penitence, drinking the +_pancagavyam_ (_i.e._, the five good productions of the cow, which, +according to Manus,[137] are milk, curds, butter, urine, and dung), +sleeping in a stable and following the cows; and he must purify +himself by the gift of another cow." Thus, according to +_Ygnavalkya_,[138] the killer of a parrot is purified by giving a +two-year-old calf; the killer of a crane by giving a calf three years +old; the killer of an ass, a goat, or a sheep, by the gift of a bull; +the killer of an elephant by the gift of five black bulls +(_nlavrishp_). And one need not be astonished to find these +contracts (which remind one of that between Jacob and Laban) in the +Hindoo codes of law, when, in the Vedic hymns themselves, a poet +offers to sell to whoever will buy it, an Indras of his, that is to +say, a bull, for ten cows.[139] Another interesting verse of +_Ygnavalkyas_[140] tells us they die pure who are killed by lightning +or in battle for the sake of the cows or the brhmans. The cow was +often the object heroes fought for in heaven; the Brhman wished to be +the object heroes should fight for upon earth. + +We learn from the domestic ceremonies referred to by _Grihyastrni_ +with how much respect the bull and the cow were treated as the symbols +of abundance in a family. In _valyanas_,[141] we find the bull's +hide stretched out near the nuptial hearth, the wife seated upon it, +and the husband, touching his wife, saying, "May the lord of all +creatures allow us to have children;"--words taken from the Vedic +nuptial hymn.[142] We have seen above how the Ribhavas, from the hide +of a dead cow, formed a new and beautiful one, or, in other words, +how, from the dusk of evening, by stretching it in the night, they +formed the dawn of morning. This cow's hide plays also an important +_rle_ in the popular faith; an extraordinary elasticity is attributed +to it, a power of endless expansibility, and for this reason it is +adopted as a symbol of fecundity, upon which the wife must place +herself in order to become a mother of children. The cow's hide +(_gocarman_), in the _Mahbhratam_,[143] is the garment of the god +Vishnus; and the gocarman divided into thongs, and afterwards fastened +to each other, served formerly in India to measure the circumference +of a piece of ground;[144] hence the cow's hide suggested the idea of +a species of infinity. Further on we shall find it put to +extraordinary uses in western legend; we find it even in the hymns of +the Vedic age used to cover the body of a dead man, the fire being +invoked not to consume it, almost as if the cow's hide had the virtue +of resuscitating the dead.[145] + +The cow, being the symbol of fruitfulness, was also the companion of +the wife during pregnancy. _valyanas_[146] tells us how, in the +third month, the husband was to give his wife to drink of the sour +milk of a cow that has a calf like itself, and in it two beans and a +grain of barley; the husband was then to ask his wife three times, +"What drinkest thou?" and she was to answer three times: "The +generation of males." In the fourth month, the wife, according to +_valyanas_, was to put herself again upon the bull's hide, near the +fire of sacrifice, when they again invoked the god _Pragpatis_, lord +of all creatures, or of procreation; the moon, like a celestial bull +and cow, was invited to be present at the generation of men;[147] and +a bull, during the Vedic period, was the gift which sufficed for the +priest. In the Vedic antiquity, neither bulls nor cows were allowed to +go to pasture without some special augury, which, in the domestic +ceremonials of _valyanas_,[148] has been also handed down to us; +the cows were to give milk and honey, for the strength and increase of +whoever possessed them. Here we have again the cows not only as the +beneficent, but as the strong ones, they who help the hero or the +heroine who takes them to pasture. + +But although beautiful cows, when seen by day, are a sign of good +luck, seen in dreams they are of evil omen; for in that case they are +of course the black cows, the shadows of night, or the gloomy waters +of the nocturnal ocean. Already in the _Rigvedas_, the dawn, or the +luminous cow, comes to deliver the fore-mentioned solar hero, Tritas +Aptyas, from the evil sleep which he sleeps amidst the cows[149] of +night. _valyanas_, in his turn, recommends us when we have an evil +dream, to invoke the sun, to hasten the approach of the morning, or, +better still, to recite the hymn of five verses to the dawn which we +have already referred to, and which begins with the words, "And like +an evil dream amidst the cows." Here the belief is not yet an entirely +superstitious one; and we understand what is meant by the cows who +envelop us in the sleep of night, when we are told to invoke the sun +and the dawn to come and deliver us from them. + +A cow (probably a black one), often a black goat, was sometimes also +sacrificed in the funeral ceremonies of the Hindoos, as if to augur +that, just as the black cow, night, produces the milky humours of the +aurora, or is fruitful, so will he who has passed through the kingdom +of darkness rise again in the world of light. We have already seen the +black night as the mother of the white and luminous aurora; I quote +below yet another Vedic sentence, in which a poet ingenuously wonders +why the cows of Indras, the black ones as well as the light-coloured +(the black clouds, as well as the white and red ones), should both +yield white milk.[150] And even the gloomy nocturnal kingdom of Yamas, +the god of the dead, has its cows of black appearance, which are +nevertheless milk-yielding; and thus the black cow of the funeral +sacrifices comes to forebode resurrection. + +In the same way the viaticum, or provision of food for his journey, +given to the dead man is a symbol of his resurrection. The journey +being considered as a short one, the provision of food which is to +sustain the traveller to the kingdom of the dead is limited, and each +dead hero carries it with him, generally not so much for himself, as +to ensure a passage into the kingdom of the dead. For this reason we +read, even in the domestic ceremonials of _valyanas_, that it is +recommended to put into the hands of the dead man,[151] what is the +greatest symbol of strength, the reins of the animal killed in the +funeral sacrifice (or, in default of an animal victim, at least two +cakes of rice or of flour), in order that the dead man may throw them +down the throats of the two Cerberi, the two sons of the bitch +_Saram_, so that they may let the deceased enter scatheless into the +death-kingdom, the mysterious kingdom of Yamas; and here we find the +monster of the popular tales, into whose house the hero, having passed +through many dangers, enters, by the advice of a good fairy or of a +good old man, giving something to appease the hunger of the two dogs +who guard its gate. + +They who return from the funeral must touch the stone of Priapus, a +fire, the excrement of a cow,[152] a grain of barley, a grain of +sesame and water,--all symbols of that fecundity which the contact +with a corpse might have destroyed. + +The Vedic hymns have shown us the principal mythical aspects and +functions of the cow and the bull; we have also seen how the brhmanic +codes confirmed, by the sanction of law, the worship of these animals, +and how jealously the domestic tradition of the Hindoos has guarded +it. Let us now see from the _itareya-brhmanam_, how the Brhmans +themselves, those of the era immediately following that of the Veds, +interpreted the myth of the cow. + +We have recognised in the Vedic heavens, as reflected in the hymns of +the _Rigvedas_, three cows--the cow-cloud, the cow-moon, and the +cow-aurora. These three cows, and especially the first and the third, +are also quite distinct from one another in the _itareya-brhmanam_. + +It tells us how the _guh prinih_, the variegated cow, or spotted +cow, of the _Rigvedas_, must be celebrated to make the earth +fruitful[153] (or that one must sing to the cloud that it may +fertilise the pastures and fields with rain), and how one must +sacrifice a bull to _Vivakarman_ (or the one that does all), who is +transformed into the god Indras when killing the demon Vritras,[154] +or the monster who keeps the rain in the cloud. + +It shows us the full moon, _Rk_, joined to the aurora, as a source of +abundance,[155] and the aurora with the cow.[156] It tells us explicitly +that the characteristic form of the aurora is the red cow, because she +moves with the red cows.[157] The gods, after having discovered the cows +in the cavern, open the cavern with the third libation of the +morning;[158] when the cows come out, the gods, the _ditys_, also come +out; hence the coming forth of the gods (_ditynm ayanam_) is +equivalent to the coming forth of the cows (_gavm ayanam_). The cows +come out when they have their horns, and adorn themselves.[159] + +The aurora is a cow; this cow has horns; her horns are radiant and +golden. When the cow aurora comes forth, all that falls from her horns +brings good luck; hence in the _Mahbhratam_,[160] the benefits +received from a holy hermit, called Matagas, are compared to those of +a _gavm ayanam_, _i.e._, a coming out of cows. To understand this +simile, besides a reference to the Vedic texts, it is necessary to +compare it with the modern usages of India, in which, in celebration +of the new solar year, or the birth of the pastoral god Krishnas (the +god who is black during the night, but who becomes luminous in the +morning among the cows of the dawning, or among the female cowherds), +it is customary, towards the end of December, to give cows to the +Brhmans, exchange presents of cows and calves, besprinkle one another +with milk, to adorn a beautiful milch cow, crown her with flowers, +gild her horns, or paint them various colours, to deck her to +overloading with flowers, fruit, and little cakes, and then hunt her +from the village to the sound of drums and trumpets, in order that, +full of terror, she may flee away with distraction and impetuosity. +The cow loses her ornaments in her flight, and these, being estimated +as propitious treasures, are eagerly picked up by the faithful, and +preserved as sacred relics.[161] + +In the _itareya-brhmanam_,[162] the sun is born of the cows (_gog_), +is the son of the cow aurora; as the sun's mother she naturally +nourishes him with her milk; hence the same _itareya_[163] tells us +that the gods Mitras and Varunas, by means of the curdled milk, took +from the drink of the gods the inebriating poison which the long-tongued +witch (_Drghagihv_) had poured into it. This curdled milk is the same +milky sea, with health-giving herbs scattered in it, and which the gods +agitate to form ambrosia, in the _Rmyanam_, the _Mahbhratam_, and +the Puranic legends; a sea and herbs which we find already spoken of +together in a Vedic hymn.[164] But in the sky, where the ambrosial milk +and the health-giving herbs are produced, there are gods and demons; and +the milk, which is at one time the rain, at another ambrosia, is now in +the cloud, now in the moon (called also _Oshadhipatis_, or lord of +herbs), now round the dawn. Hanumant, who, in the _Rmyanam_, goes in +quest of the health-giving grass to restore their souls to the half-dead +heroes, looks for it now between the mountain bull (_rishabhas_) and the +heavenly mountain _Kilasas_, now between the Mount Lunus (_andras_) +and the mountain cup (_Dronas_); and the mountain which possesses the +herb for which Hanumant is searching is itself called herb (_oshadhis_), +or the one that causes to rejoice with perfumes (_Gandhamdanas_[165]), +which two words are used synonymously. Here the milky, ambrosial, and +healthful humour is supposed to be produced, not by a cow, but by an +herb. And the gods and demons contend in heaven for the possession of +this herb, as well as for the ambrosia; the only difference being that +the gods enjoy both one and the other without corrupting them, whilst +the demons poison them as they drink them; that is to say, they spread +darkness over the light, they move about in the darkness, in the gloomy +waters, in the black humour which comes out of the herb itself, which, +in contact with them, becomes poisonous, so that they in turn suck the +poison. On the other hand, the _Gandharvs_,[166] an amphibious race, in +whom at one time the nature of the gods predominates, at another that of +the demons, and who consequently take now the side of the gods, now that +of the demons, are simply guards who, as against theft, keep watch and +ward over the perfumes and healthful herbs, which are their own +property, and the healthful or ambrosial waters, the ambrosia which +belongs to their wives, the nymphs; they are, in a word, the earliest +representatives of the enjoying and jealous proprietor. We have already +heard, in the _Rigvedas_, the demoniacal monsters call on each other to +suck the poison of the celestial cows; and we have seen that the +_itareya-brhmanam_ accuses a witch of being the poisoner of the divine +ambrosia; we have, moreover, noticed that a Vedic hymn already +associates together the ambrosial milk and the healthful herb, and that, +in the brhmanic cosmogony, the milk and the herb which produces it are +manifested together, which herb or grass is beneficent or the reverse +according as the gods or the demons enjoy it; from all which it will be +easy to understand this interesting Hindoo proverb, "The grass gives +the milk to the cows, and the milk gives the poison to the +serpents."[167] It is indeed the milk of the cow of the dawn and of the +cow of the moon which destroys the serpents of darkness, the demoniacal +shadows of night. + +But the idea of the healthful herb is incorporated in another image, +very familiar to the popular Indo-European legends, and which is +contained even in the Vedic hymns. The cow produces the sun and the +moon; the circular shape, the disc of sun and moon, suggests variously +the idea of a ring, a gem, and a pearl; and the sun, _Savitar_, he who +gives the juice, and the generator, is introduced in a Vedic hymn, as +the one who has immortal juice, who gives the pearl.[168] The humours of +the cow have passed to the herb, and from the herb to the pearl; and the +naturalness of this figure recommends itself to our modern conception, +for when we would describe a diamond or other gem as of the purest +quality, we say it is a diamond or gem of the first water. Even the +pearl-moon and the pearl-sun, from their ambrosial humours, have a fine +water. In the _Rmyanam_,[169] at the moment of production of ambrosia +from the stirring up of the milky sea, we see, near the healthful +herb, the gem _Kustubhas_, the same which we afterwards find on the +breast of the sun-god Vishnus, and which is sometimes his navel; +whence Vishnus, in the _Mahbhratam_,[170] is saluted by the name of +_ratnanbhas_--that is to say, he who has a pearl for his navel; as the +sun is in like manner saluted by the name of _Manirigas_--_i.e._, who +has horns of pearls.[171] In the _Rmyanam_,[172] the bright-shining +grass and the solar disc appear together on the summit of the mountain +Gandhamdanas; no sooner does he smell its odour than the solar hero +_Lakshmanas_, delivered from the iron that oppressed him, lifts himself +up from the ground; _i.e._, scarcely has the sun formed his disc, and +begun to shine like a celestial gem, than the sun-hero, whom the +monsters had vanquished during the night, rises in victory. And it is on +the summit of the mountain that, with a mountain metal of a colour +similar to that of the young sun,[173] the sun _Rmas_ imprints a +dazzling mark on the forehead of the dawn St, as if to be able to +recognise her--that is to say, he places himself upon the forehead of +the aurora or dawn. When the sun Rmas is separated from the dawn St, +he sends her in recognition, as a symbol of his disc, his own ring, +which appears again in the famous ring given by King _Dushmantas_ to the +beautiful _akuntal_, the daughter of the nymph, and by means of which +alone the lost bride can be recognised by the young and forgetful king; +and St sends back to Rmas, by the hands of Hanumant, as a sign of +recognition, the dazzling ornament which Rmas had one day placed upon +her forehead in an idyllic scene among the mountains known to them +alone. This ring of recognition, this magic pearl, often turns up in the +Hindoo legends. It is enough for me to indicate here the two most famous +examples. + +The aurora who possesses the pearl becomes she who is rich in pearls, +and herself a source of pearls; but the pearl, as we have already +seen, is not only the sun, it is also the moon. The moon is the friend +of the aurora; she comforts her in the evening under her persecutions; +she loads her with presents during the night, accompanies and guides +her, and helps her to find her husband. + +In the _Rmyanam_, I frequently find the moon as a beneficent fairy, +who succours the dawn St; for the moon, as _rgankaras_ (she who +gives light to the night), assumes a benignant aspect. We have already +said that the moon is generally a male in India; but as full moon and +new moon it assumes, even in the Vedic texts, a feminine name. In a +Vedic hymn, _Rk_, the full moon is exhorted to sew the work with a +needle that cannot be broken.[174] Here we have the moon personified +as a marvellous workwoman, a fairy with golden fingers, a good fairy; +and in this character we find her again in the _Rmyanam_, under the +form of the old _Anasy_, who anoints the darkened St (for St, +like the Vedic girl, is dark and ugly during the night, or winter, +when she is hidden) in the wood, with a divine unguent; gives her a +garland, various ornaments, and two beauteous garments, which are +always pure (as, _i.e._, they do not touch the earth, like the cows of +the Vedic dawn, who do not cover themselves with dust), and similar in +colour to the young sun;[175] in all which the fairy moon appears as +working during the night for the aurora, preparing her luminous +garments--the two garments, of which the one is for the evening and +the other for the morning, one lunar and of silver, the other solar +and of gold--in order that she may please her husband Rmas, or the +sun Vishnus, who is glad when he sees her thus adorned. In the +_Svayamprabh_, too, we meet with the moon as a good fairy, who, from +the golden palace which she reserves for her friend Hem (the golden +one), is during a month the guide, in the vast cavern, of Hanumant and +his companions, who have lost their way in the search of the dawn +St. To come out of this cavern, it is necessary to shut the eyes, in +order not to see its entrance; all Hanumant's companions are come out, +but Taras, who shines like the moon,[176] would wish to return. The +same moon can be recognised in the benignant fairies _Trigt_, +_Suram_, and _Saram_, who announce to St that her husband will +soon arrive, and that she will soon see him. The first, while the +arrival of Rmas is imminent, dreams that the monsters, dressed in +yellow, are playing in a lake of cow's milk;[177] at the time when +Suram announces to St the approach of Rmas, St shines by her own +beauty, like the opening dawn;[178] finally, Saram (who seems to be +the same as Suram), whom St calls her twin-sister (_sahodar_), +penetrating underground, like the moon Proserpine, also announces to +St her approaching deliverance at the hands of Rmas.[179] As to +Trigat, it is not difficult to recognise in her the moon, when we +remember that Trgiatas is a name which is frequently given to the +evening sun, or rising moon, _ivas_, who is represented with the moon +for a diadem, whence his other name of _andracdas_ (having the moon +for his diadem). Suram I believe to be, not a mythical, but only an +orthographical variation, and more incorrect one, of Saram, whose +relation to the moon we shall see in detail when we come to the +chapter which treats of the mythical dog. + +Thus far we have a moon fairy; but we find the moon designated at other +times in the _Rmyanam_ by its common masculine name. The guardian of +the forest of honey, _Dadhimukhas_, in which forest, with its honey, the +heroes who accompany St enjoy themselves, is said to be generated by +the god Lunus.[180] And the moon, who assists Hanumant in his search of +St, is said to shine like a white bull with a sharpened horn, with a +full horn;[181] in which we come back to the moon as a horned animal, +and to the cornucopia. Moreover, we find the same lunar horn again in +the city of _rigaveram_, where first the solar hero Rmas, and +afterwards his brother Bharatas, are hospitably received when the sun is +darkened,[182] by _Guhas_, king of the black _Wishds_, who also is of +the colour of a black cloud;[183] and Rmas and Bharatas take their +departure in the morning from Guhas, who is said to wander always in the +forests.[184] Now, this Guhas, who, though always hidden, yet wishes to +entertain the solar hero during the night with presents of the town of +rigaveram, appears to me to be just another form of the solar hero +himself, who enters and hides himself in the night, hospitably received +in the lunar habitation, another form of the god Indras, whom we have +seen in the _Rigvedas_ united during the night to Indus or Somas--that +is, to the moon--and who, in the _Rmyanam_[185], when St is in the +power of the monster, comes down during the night to console her, lulls +her keepers to sleep, and nourishes her with the ambrosial milk (with +Soma, the moon, the same moon which, in the _Rigvedas_, the dawn, the +girl beloved of Indras, and whom therefore he does good to, brings him +as a present), encouraging her with the prospect of the near advent of +Rmas, the deliverer. + +But it remains to us to adduce clearer evidence to show that in the +_Rmyanam_ Rmas is the sun, and St the dawn, or aurora. + +Without taking into account that Rmas is the most popular +personification of Vishnus, and that Vishnus is often the solar hero +(although he is not seldom identified with the moon), let us see how +Rmas manifests himself, and what he does in the _Rmyanam_ to +vindicate especially his solar nature. + +It is my opinion that the best way to prove this is to show how Rmas +performs the very same miracles that Indras does. Rmas, like Indras, +gives, while still young, extraordinary proofs of his strength; Rmas, +like Indras, achieves his greatest enterprises while he is himself +hidden; Rmas, like Indras, vanquishes the monster, reconquers St, and +enjoys of right the company of his wife. Till Rmas goes into the +forests, as Indras into the clouds and shadows, his great epopee +does not begin. Indras has for assistants the winds (the Marutas); +Rmas has for his greatest help Hanumant, the son of the wind +(_Mruttmagah_);[186] Hanumant amuses himself with the monsters, as the +wind with the archer-clouds of the thousand-eyed Indras;[187] and it is +said that Rmas gets on Hanumant's back, as Indras does on the elephant +_iravatas_. The elephant with a proboscis is not unfrequently +substituted, in the brhmanic tradition, for the horned bull of the +Veds.[188] But the bull Indras is reproduced in the bull Rmas, and the +monkeys who assist Rmas have kept at least the tail of the Vedic cows, +the helpers of Indras, whence their generic name of _golguls_ (who +have cows' tails).[189] The bow with which Rmas shoots the monsters is +made of a horn, whence his name of _rngadhanvant_ (he who shoots with +the horn);[190] Rmas receives the shower of hostile darts, as a bull +upon its horns the abundant rains of autumn.[191] St herself calls +both her Rmas and his brother Lakshmanas by the name of +_sinharshabhu_,[192] or the lion and the bull, which are conjoined so +frequently in the mythology, on account of equal strength; hence the +terror of the lion when he hears the bull bellow in the first book of +the _Pancatantram_, and in all the numerous Eastern and Western +variations of that book. Indras has his conflicts in the cloudy, rainy, +and gloomy sky; these are also the battle-fields of Rmas. The names of +the monsters of the _Rmyanam_, as, for instance, _Vidyuggivas_ (he who +lives upon thunderbolts), _Vagrodar_ (she who has thunderbolts in her +stomach), _Indragit_ (who vanquishes Indras with magical arts), +_Meghandas_ (thundering cloud),[193] and others, show us the nature of +the battle. In the battle-field of Rmas, instead, the assisting hero is +now a bull (_rishabhas_), now an ox's eye (_gavkshas_), now _gavayas_ +(_bos gavoeus_), and beings of similar appellations, which remind us of +the Vedic deities. Indras strikes with lightning the celestial ocean; +Rmas, an Indian Xerxes, chastises the sea with burning arrows.[194] +Indras, in the _Rigvedas_, crosses the sea and passes ninety-nine +rivers; Rmas crosses the ocean upon a bridge of mountains, in carrying +which Hanumant, the son of the wind, shows himself peculiarly skilful; +the winds carry the clouds, which we have seen, in the language of the +Veds, represented as mountains. And that clouds, and not real +mountains, are here spoken of, we deduce from observing, as we read, +that while the animal army of Rmas carries the bridge on to the ocean, +or the winds carry the clouds into the sky, the sun cannot burn the +weary monkey-workers, because that clouds arise and cover it, rain +falls, and the wind expires.[195] The field of this epic battle is +evidently the same as that of the mythical battle of Indras. And in the +_Rmyanam_ we find at every step the similarity of the combatants to +the dark clouds, the bellowing clouds, the clouds carried by the wind. +The forest which Rmas goes through is compared to a group of +clouds.[196] The name of wanderer by night (_ragancaras_), afterwards +given frequently in the _Rmyanam_, to the monster whom Rmas combats, +implies, of course, that the battle is fought by night. The fact that, +as we read, the witch _rpanakh_ comes in winter to seduce Rmas +whilst he is in the forest,[197] and the monster _Kumbhakarnas_ awakens +after six months' sleep, like a rainy cloud which increases towards the +end of summer (_tapnte_),[198] shows us that the epic poem of Rmas +embraces, besides the nightly battle of the sun over darkness, also the +great annual battle of the sun in winter to recover and rejoin the +spring. Anyhow, it is always a battle of the sun against the monster of +darkness. Rmas, in the very beginning of the great poem, says to his +brother Lakshmanas:--"See, O Lakshmanas, Mricas is come here with his +followers, making a noise like thunder, and with him the wanderer by +night Subhus; thou wilt see them to-day, like a mass of dark clouds, +dispersed by me in a moment, like clouds by the wind."[199] Here we find +almost the whole battle of Indras. + +And similar battles in the clouds are found in several other episodes of +the _Rmyanam_. The dart of Rmas falls upon the monster _Kharas_ (the +monster ass), as upon a great tree falls the thunderbolt hurled by +Indras.[200] Heroes and monsters combat with stones and rocks from the +great mountain, and fall, overthrown on the earth, like mountains. The +monster Rvanas carries off St with the magic of the wind and the +tempest.[201] Heroes and monsters fight with trunks of trees from the +great forest; moreover, the trunks themselves, having become monsters, +join the fray, stretch out their strange arms, and devour the hero in +their cavities. And here we come upon the interesting legend of +_Kabandhas_, in which we find again the forests and trees combating, +and the barrel of the Veds carried by the divine bull. The _Dnavs_ or +demons also appear, in the _Mahbhratam_,[202] in the forms of sounding +barrels. In the _Rmyanam_, the highest of the demons (_dnavottamah_) +is called by the name of _Kabandhas_ (barrel and trunk), compared to a +black thundering cloud, and represented as an enormous trunk, having one +large yellowish eye, and an enormous devouring mouth in his chest.[203] +In Tuscany, we say of water that gushes copiously out of a reservoir, +that it pours as from a barrel's mouth. The monster Kabandhas draws +towards himself, with his long arms, the two brothers Rmas and +Lakshmanas (compared several times in the _Rmyanam_[204] to the two +Avinu, who resemble each other in everything). Rmas and Lakshmanas, +_i.e._, the two Avinu, the morning and evening, the spring and autumn +suns, the two twilights, who, in a passage of the _Rmyanam_, are +called the two ears of Rmas, cut off the two extremities, the two long +arms, of the monster _Kabandhas_; upon which the trunk, able no longer +to support itself, falls to the ground. The fallen monster then relates +to the two brothers that he was once a beautiful demon; but that, by a +malediction, Indras one day made his head and legs enter his body; his +arms having been lacerated by the two brothers, the monster is +disenchanted from this malediction, and having resumed his form of a +splendid demon, he ascends to heaven in a luminous form. Here we have +the all-radiant sun shut up in the cloud, he being the yellow eye, the +burning mouth, of Kabandhas, and, in union with the cloud, forming a +hideous monster; the hero comes to destroy his monstrous form, and the +monster thanks him, for thus he becomes the glorious god, the splendid +being, the handsome prince he was before. Rmas who delivers Kabandhas +from his monstrous form by cutting off his two arms, is the sun Rmas +coming forth from the gloomy forest, and uncovering the sky in the east +and in the west. Rmas delivering Kabandhas is simply the sun delivering +himself from the monster of gloom and cloud that envelops him. And, +indeed, the greater part of the myths have their origin in the plurality +of appellations given to the same phenomenon. Each appellation grows +into a distinct personality, and the various personalities fight with +each other. Hence the hero who delivers himself becomes the deliverer of +the hero, viewed as a different person from the hero; the monstrous form +which envelops the hero is often his own malediction; the hero who comes +to kill this monstrous form is his benefactor.[205] + +This theory of the monster who thanks the hero that kills him, agrees +with what we find on several other occasions in the _Rmyanam_, as in +the case of the stag _Marcas_,[206] which, after being killed by +Rmas, re-ascends to heaven in a luminous form; of the sea-monster, +which Hanumant destroys, and restores to its primitive form, that of a +celestial nymph; of the old avar, who, after having seen Rmas, +sacrifices herself in the fire, and re-ascends young and beautiful to +heaven (the usual Vedic young girl, the dawn whom, ugly during the +night, Indras, by taking off her ugly skin, restores to beauty in the +morning); an episodical variation of what afterwards happens to St +herself, who, having been ugly when in the power of the monster +Rvanas, recovers her beauty by the sacrifice of fire, in order to +prove her innocence to her husband Rmas, and shines again a young +girl, like the young sun, adorned with burning gold, and wearing a red +dress;[207] and when Rmas comes near (like the young dawn, when she +sees her husband), she resembles the first light (Prabh), the wife of +the sun.[208] This St, daughter of Ganakas (the generator), whom the +_Tittiriya Brhmanam_ calls Savitar[209] or the sun, seems to me to +be no other than the dawn, the daughter of light, the daughter of +Indras, the god of the Vedic texts. These, indeed, sometimes represent +Sry, the daughter of the sun, as the lover of the moon (who is then +masculine); but we find more frequently the loves of the dawn and the +sun, of the beautiful heroine and the splendid solar hero, while the +moon is generally the brother, or the pitying sister of the hero and +the heroine, the beneficent old man, the foreseeing fairy, the good +hostess, who aids them in their enterprises; although we also find the +dawn as a sister of the sun and his succourer. In fact, the Buddhist +tradition of the legend of Rmas, illustrated by Weber,[210] +represents St to us as the sister of the two brothers Rmas and +Lakshmanas, who go into banishment for twelve years to escape the +persecutions of their cruel step-mother (of whom the _Kikey_ of the +_Rmyanam_ offers a confused image), in the same way as the Vedic +dawn is united to the twin Avinu; and the same tradition makes +Rmas, at the termination of his exile, end with marrying his own +sister St, as the sun marries the dawn. And the fact of St being +not born from the womb, but produced from the ground, a girl of +heavenly beauty, destined to be the reward of valour,[211] not only +does not exclude her relationship with the dawn, but confirms it; for +we have seen the dawn rise from the mountain, as the daughter of light +and the sun, whom the young sun wins for his bride, as a reward for +his wonderful skill as an archer against the monsters of darkness; and +we have seen that the dawn marries only her predestined husband, and +her predestined husband is he who performs the greatest miracles, +restores her lost gaiety, and most resembles her. We have just seen +the old avar and the ugly St, at the sight of the sun Rmas, +deliver themselves in the fire from every mortal danger, and become +beautiful and happy once more. + +But the concord between the mythical husband and wife is not more +steadfast than that of mortal couples. Rmas is very apt to be +suspicious. Having returned to his kingdom of Ayodhy, he allows +himself to brood upon what his subjects may say of him for having +taken back his wife, after she had been in the hands of the monster +(they were not present at the first fire-sacrifice of St); Rmas +reveals his suspicions to St, and blames the evil-speaking of the +citizens for originating them; she submits a second time to the trial +by fire, but, offended by his continual suspicions, she flees from her +husband, and on a car of light, drawn by serpents (_Pannags_), goes +down again underground (which appears to mean simply this--the dawn, +or spring, marries the sun in the morning, or she stays all day, or +all summer, in his kingdom, and in the evening, or in the autumn, goes +down into the shades of night, or of winter).[212] It is an +indiscretion of the husband which causes his wife to abandon him. + +Thus, in the _Rigvedas_, we have seen _Urva_, the first of the +dawns, flee from the sun _Purravas_. In _Somadevas_,[213] the king +Purravas loses his wife Urva, because he has let it be known in +heaven that she was with him; in Klidsas's drama of _Vikramorva_, +the king Purravas, having helped Indras in the fight, receives from +him Urva to wife, with whom he engages to stay till a child is born +to them; the king, shortly after having espoused Urva, looks at +another nymph, Udakavat (the watery). Urva, offended, flees; she +enters a wood to hide herself, and is transformed into a creeper. In +the brhmanic tradition of the _Yagurvedas_, referred to at length by +Professor Max Mller, in his "Oxford Essays," Purravas loses sight of +Urva, because he has let himself be seen by her without his regal +dress, or even naked. + +We find yet another similar legend in the _Mahbhratam_.[214] The +wise and splendid ntanus goes to the chase on the banks of the +Gag, and there finds a beautiful nymph whom he becomes enamoured of. +The nymph responds to his suit, and consents to remain with him, on +condition that he will never say anything displeasing to her, +whatever she may do or meditate; and the enamoured king assents to the +grave condition. They live together happily, for the king yields to +the nymph in everything; but in the course of time, eight sons are +born to them; the nymph has already thrown seven into the river, and +the king, although inwardly full of grief, dares not say anything to +her; but when she is about to throw the last one in, the king implores +her not to do it, and challenges her to say who she is. The nymph then +confesses to him that she is the Gag itself personified, and that +the eight sons born to their loves are human personifications of the +eight divine Vasavas, who, by being thrown into the Gag, are +liberated from the curse of the human form: the only Vasus who is +pleased to remain among men is Dyus (the sky), in the form of the +eunuch Bhshmas, whom ntanus would not allow to be thrown into the +waters. The same curse falls upon the Vasavas for having ravished the +cow of abundance from the penitent Apavas. We shall find a legendary +subject analogous to this one of ntanus in several of the popular +tales of Europe, with this difference that, in European tradition, it +is generally the husband who abandons his indiscreet partner. The +Hindoo tradition, however, also offers us an example of the husband +who abandons his wife, in the wise Garatkarus, who marries the sister +of the king of the serpents, on condition that she never does anything +to displease him.[215] One day the wise man sleeps; evening comes on; +he ought to be awakened in order to say his evening prayers; if he +does not say them, he does not do his duty, and she would do wrong did +she not warn him. If she awaken him, he will be enraged. What is to +be done? She takes the latter course. The wise man awakes, becomes +enraged, and abandons her, after she had given him a son.[216] + +The glowing aspect of the sky, morning and evening, suggested the +idea, now of a splendid nuptial feast, now of a fire. In this fire, +sometimes the witch who persecutes the hero and heroine is burnt, and +sometimes the hero and heroine themselves are immolated. The sacrifice +of avar and of St, who are delivered by the sun Rmas, is only a +variation of that of unahepas, liberated by the dawn in the +_Rigvedas_. The story of unahepas has already been made known by +Professor Rodolph Roth,[217] and by Professor Max Mller,[218] who +translated it from the _itareya-brhmanam_; and I refer the reader to +these translations, as well as to the English version which Professor +Martin Haugh has given us of all the _itareya_. I shall, therefore, +here give but a short account of it, with a few observations apropos +to the subject in hand. + +The king Haricandras has no sons; the god Varunas the coverer, the +gloomy, the watery, the king of the waters,[219] obliges him to +promise that he will sacrifice to him whatever is born to him. The +king promises; a child is born, who is named the red (Rohitas). +Varunas claims him; the father begs him to wait till the child has +cut his teeth, then till his first teeth are cast, then till he is +able to bear armour. It is evident that the father wishes to wait till +his son be strong enough to defend himself against his persecutor, +Varunas. Varunas thereupon claims him in a more resolute manner, and +Haricandras informs the son himself that he must be given up in +sacrifice. Rohitas takes his bow and flees into the woods, where he +lives by the chase. This first part of the legend corresponds with +those numerous European popular tales, in which, now the devil, now +the aquatic monster, now the serpent, demands from a father the son +who has just been born to him without his knowledge. The second part +of the story of unahepas shows us the hero in the forest; he has +taken his bow with him, and hence, like Rmas in the _Rmyanam_, who +has scarcely entered the forest than he begins to hunt, Rohitas turns +hunter, and hunts for the six years during which he remains in the +forest. But his chase is unsuccessful; he wanders about in quest of +some one to take his place as the victim of Varunas; at last he finds +the brhmanas Agigartas, who consents to give his own second son, +unahepas, for a hundred cows. The first-born being particularly dear +to the father, and the third being especially beloved by the mother, +cannot be sacrificed; the second son, therefore, is ceded to Varunas, +the gloomy god of night, who, like Yamas, binds all creatures with his +cords. We have already observed how the middle son is the son of the +celestial cow Aditis, the hidden sun, the sun during and covered by +the darkness of night, or, in other words, bound by the fetters of +Varunas--and it is his own father who binds him with those fetters. +His sacrifice begins in the evening. During the night he appeals to +all the gods. At last Indras, flattered by the praise heaped upon +him, concedes to him a golden chariot, upon which, with praises to the +Avinu, and help from the dawn, unahepas, unbound from the fetters +of Varunas, is delivered. These fetters of Varunas, which imprison the +victim, bound and sacrificed by his own father, help us to understand +the second part of the European popular tale of the son sacrificed +against his will to the demon by his father; for unahepas, towards +the end of the European story, takes the form of a horse, Varunas that +of a demon, and the fetters of Varunas are the bridle of the horse, +which the imprudent father sells to the demon, together with his son +in the shape of a horse;[220] the beautiful daughter of the demon (the +white one, who, as usual, comes out of the black monster) delivers the +young man transformed into a horse; as in the Vedic story of +unahepas, it is explicitly the dawn who is the young girl that +delivers.[221] Varunas is called in the _Rmyanam_ the god who has in +his hand a rope (_pahastas_); his dwelling is on Mount Astas, where +the sun goes down, and which it is impossible to touch, because it +burns, in an immense palace, the work of Vivakarman, which has a +hundred rooms, lakes with nymphs, and trees of gold.[222] Evidently, +Varunas is here, not a different form, but a different name of the god +Yamas, the pin, or furnished with rope, the constrictor _par +excellence_; for we are to suppose the magic display of golden +splendour in the evening heavens not so much the work of the sun +itself, as produced by the gloomy god who sits on the mountain, who +invests and surprises the solar hero, and drags him into his kingdom. +As to Haricandras and Agigartas, Rohitas and unahepas, they appear, +in my opinion, to be themselves different names for not only the same +celestial phenomenon, but the same mythical personage. Haricandras is +celebrated in the legends as a solar king; Rohitas, his son, the red +one, is his _alter ego_, as well as his successor unahepas. +Haricandras, moreover, who promises to sacrifice his son to Varunas, +seems to differ little, if at all, from Agigartas, who sells his own +son for the sacrifice. The _Rmyanam_,[223] has given us a third name +for the same unnatural father,[224] in Vivmitras, who asks his own +sons to sacrifice themselves, instead of unahepas, who is under his +protection, and as they refuse to obey, he curses them. + +The variation of the same legend which we find in the +_Harivanas_[225] proves these identities, and adds a new and notable +particular. The wife of Vivmitras designs, on account of her +poverty, to barter her middle son for a hundred cows, and with that +view already keeps him tied with a rope like a slave. The grandfather +of Rohitas, Haricandras's father, Triakus, wanders through the +woods, and delivers this son of Vivmitras, whose family he +thenceforth protects and maintains. The deeds of Triakus, who begs +of Vasishtas to be allowed to ascend to heaven bodily, and who, by +grace of Vivmitras, obtains instead the favour of remaining +suspended in the air like a constellation, are also attributed to his +son Haricandras; whence we may affirm, without much risk of +contradiction, that as Triakus is another name for his son +Haricandras, so Haricandras is another name for his son Rohitas, and +that, therefore, the Triakus of the _Harivanas_ is the same as the +Rohitas of the _itareya_, with this difference, that Triakus buys +the son destined to the sacrifice in order to free him, while Rohitas +buys him to free himself. But the first hundred cows given by +Triakus to Vivmitras do not suffice for him, and the fruits of his +hunting in the forest are not enough to maintain the family, a +circumstance which weighs upon him almost as much as if the family +were his own; upon which, in order to save Vivmitras, in order to +save Vivmitras's son, and, we can perhaps add, to save himself, he +resolves to sacrifice, to kill the beautiful and dearly-prized wife of +Vasishtas (the very luminous). I have said the wife of Vasishtas, but +the _Harivanas_ says, speaking strictly, it was the cow of Vasishtas +who was killed. But we know from the _Rmyanam_[226] that this cow of +Vasishtas, this kmadhuk or kmadhenus, which yields at pleasure all +that is wished for, this cow of abundance, is kept by Vasishtas, under +the name of abl, as his own wife. Vivmitras is covetous of her; +he demands her from Vasishtas, and offers a hundred cows for her, the +exact price which, in the _Harivanas_, he receives from Triakus for +his own son. Vasishtas answers that he will not give her for a +hundred, nor for a thousand, nor even for a hundred thousand cows, for +abl is his gem, his riches, his all, his life.[227] Vivmitras +carries her off; she returns to the feet of Vasishtas, and bellows; +her bellowing calls forth armies, who come out of her own body; the +hundred sons of Vivmitras are burned to ashes by them. These armies +which come out of the body of Vasishtas's cow remind us again of the +Vedic cow, from which come forth winged darts, or birds, by which the +enemies are filled with terror. Vasishtas is a form of Indras; his cow +is here the rain-cloud. Vivmitras, who wishes to ravish the cow from +Vasishtas, often assumes monstrous forms in the Hindoo legends, and is +almost always malignant, perverse, and revengeful. His hundred sons +burned to cinders by Vasishtas remind us, from one point of view, of +the hundred cities of ambaras destroyed by Indras, and the hundred +perverse Dhritarshtrides of the _Mahbhratam_; whence his name, +Vivmitras, which may also mean the enemy of all (_viva-amitras_), +would agree well with his almost demoniacal character. + +This story of the cow of Vasishtas, whose relationship with the legend +of unahepas cannot be doubted, brings us back to the animal forms of +heroes and heroines from which we started. In the story of Vasishtas, +the cow-cloud, the cow abl, or the spotted-cow, plays in the epic +poem the part of the cow Aditis, the cow prinis (spotted, variegated), +with which we are already familiar in the Vedic hymns. This cow is +benignant towards the god, or the hero, or the wise Vasishtas, as the +prinis is to the god Indras. But we have seen in the _Rigvedas_ itself +the cloud as the enemy of the god, and represented as a female form of +the monster, as his sister. This sister generally tries to seduce the +god, promising to deliver into his hands the monster her brother, and +she sometimes succeeds, as the witch Hidimb of the _Mahbhratam_, who +gives up her brother, the monster Hidimbas, into the hands of the hero +Bhmas, who thereupon espouses her. On the other hand, rpanakh, the +sister of the monster Rvanas, does not succeed in her intent; making +herself beautiful, she endeavours to win the affection of the hero +Rmas; but being ridiculed by him and by Lakshmanas, she becomes +deformed, and sends forth cries like a cloud in the rainy season,[228] +exciting her brothers to annihilate Rmas. + +The same cloud-monster is found again in the _Rmyanam_, under the +name of Dundubhis, in the form of a terrible buffalo with sharpened +horns.[229] The buffalo, as a wild animal, is often chosen to +represent the principle of evil, in the same way as the bull, +increaser of the bovine herds, is selected as the image of good. This +bellowing buffalo, whence his name of Dundubhis (drum), strikes and +knocks with his two horns at the door of the cavern[230] of the son of +Indras (Blin), the king of the monkeys. But Blin takes Dundubhis by +the horns, throws him on the ground, and destroys him. + +Dundus is also a name given to the father of Krishnas, or the black one, +who in the _Rigvedas_ is still a demon, and only later becomes the god +of cows and cowherds, a govindas, or pastor _par excellence_.[231] +Indras, his enemy in the Vedas, having fallen from heaven, he became one +of the most popular gods, and even sometimes the most popular form of +the deity. In the _Mahbhratam_, for instance, he is almost the _deus +ex machina_ of the battles between the Pndavas and the Dhrtarshtrs, +and presents many analogies to the Zeus of the Iliad; whereas Indras +plays only a part in the episodes, the rain-giver and thunderer being +often forgotten for the black one who prepares and hurls the light. But +the fall of Indras begins in the Veds themselves. In the _Yagurvedas_, +Vivarpas, the son of Tvashtar, whom Indras kills, appears as no less +than the purohitas or high-priest of the gods, and son of a daughter of +the Asurs; he has three heads, of which one drinks the ambrosia, +another the spirituous drink, while the third eats food. Indras cuts off +Vivarpas's three heads, in revenge of the one which drinks his +ambrosia; he is therefore charged with having killed a Brhman, and +decried as a brhmanicide.[232] In the _itareya-brhmanam_,[233] the +criminality of Indras in this regard is confirmed, to which the +_Kushtaki-Upanishad_ also refers. In the seventh book of the +_Rmyanam_, even the multiform monster Rvanas is represented as a +great penitent, whom Brhman fills with supreme grace; in the sixth +book, the son of the wind, Hanumant, cuts off the three heads of the +Rvanide monster Triiras (having three heads), as one day Indras cut +off the three heads of the monster Vritras, son of Tvashtar;[234] and he +cuts all the three heads off together (_samas_), as the hero of the +European popular tales must cut off, at a blow, the three heads of the +serpent, the wizard, otherwise he is powerless, and able to do nothing. +The monster, like the hero, seems to have a special affinity for the +number three: hence the three heads of Triiras, as also the three +brothers of Lak--Rvanas, the eldest brother, who reigns; +Kumbhakarnas, the middle brother, who sleeps; Vibhishanas, the third +brother, whom the two others do not care about, but who alone is just +and good, and who alone obtains the gift of immortality.[235] We have +evidently here again the three Vedic brothers; the two eldest in +demoniacal form, the youngest a friend of the divine hero, and who, by +the victory of Rmas over the monster Rvanas, obtains the kingdom of +Lak. As to the brothers Rmas and Lakshmanas, and the brothers Blin +and Sugrvas, their natural place is in the story of the two twins, +which will be referred to in the next chapter, although Hanumant, the +son of the wind, figures second to them in the character of strong +brother. + +The three interesting heroic brothers come out more prominently in the +_Mahbhratam_, where of the five Pndavas brothers, three stay on one +side, and are Yudhishthiras, son of the god Yamas, the wise brother; +Bhmas (the terrible), or Vrikodras (wolf's belly), son of Vyus (the +wind), the strong brother (another form of Hanumant, in company with +whom he is also found in the _Mahbhratam_, on Mount Gandhamdanas); +and Argunas (the splendid), the son of Indras, the genial, dexterous, +fortunate, victorious brother, he who wins the bride. The first +brother gives the best advice; the second shows proof of greatest +strength; the third brother wins, conquers the bride. They are +precisely the three Vedic brothers Ribhavas, Ekatas, Dvtas, and +Tritas, in the same relationships to one another and with the same +natures; only the legend is amplified.[236] As to their other +brothers, twins, born of another mother, Nakulas and Sahadevas, they +are the sons of the two Avinu, and feebly repeat in the +_Mahbhratam_ the exploits of the two celestial twins. Bhmas or +Vrikodras, the second brother, is considered the strongest, +(balavatm reshthah), because immediately after birth, _i.e._, +scarcely has he come forth out of his mother (like the Vedic Marutas), +than he breaks the rock upon which he falls, because he breaks his +fetters as soon as he is bound with them (like Hanumant when he +becomes the prisoner of Rvanas), because he carries his brothers +during the night (as Hanumant carries Rmas), as he flees from the +burning house prepared by the impious Duryodhanas (_i.e._, from the +burning sky of evening), and because in the kingdom of serpents, where +Duryodhanas threw him down (that is, the night), he drinks the water +of strength. A serpent, wishing to benefit Bhmas, says to Vasukis, +king of the serpents--"Let there be given to him as much strength as +he can drink from that cistern in which is placed the strength of a +thousand serpents."[237] Bhmas, at one draught, drinks the whole +cisternful; and with similar expedition, he drains consecutively eight +cisterns.[238] The first-born of the Pndavas is dear to his father +Yamas, the god of justice, Dharmargas,--and is himself indeed called +Dharmargas; and when he prepares himself to ascend into heaven, the +god Yamas follows him in the form of a dog: by his skill in solving +enigmas, he saves his brother Bhmas from the king of the serpents. +The third brother, Argunas, son of Indras, is the Benjamin of the +Vedic supreme God. Indras welcomes him with festivals in heaven, +whither Argunas had gone to find him. Argunas is an infallible archer, +like Indras; like Indras, he several times regains the cows from the +robbers or from the enemies; and, like Indras, he wins and conquers +his bride; he is born by the assistance of all the celestials; he is +invincible (_agayas_); he is the best son (_varah putras_);[239] he +alone of the three brothers has compassion on his master Dronas and +delivers him from an aquatic monster.[240] + +But there is yet another particular which shows the resemblance between +the three brothers Pndavas and the three brothers of the Vedas; it is +their dwelling, hidden in the palace of the king Virta, in the fourth +book of the _Mahbhratam_. They are exiled from the kingdom, like +Rmas; they flee from the persecution of their enemies, now into the +woods, now, as the Ribhavas, disguised as workmen in the palace of +Virtas, to whom their presence brings every kind of happiness. + +We meet with these three brothers again, episodically, in the three +disciples of Dhumyas, in the first book of the _Mahbhratam_.[241] The +first disciple, Upamanyus, takes his master's cows out to pasture, and, +out of sensitive regard for his master's interest, refuses to drink not +only their milk, but even the foam from their mouths, and fasts till, +like to perish of hunger, he bites a leaf of arkapatr (properly, leaf +of the sun, the _aristolochia indica_), when he instantly becomes +blind. He wanders about and falls into a well; he there sings a hymn to +the Avinu, and they come immediately to deliver him. The second +brother, Uddlakas, places his body, as a dike, to arrest the course of +the waters. The third brother is Vedas, he who sees, he who knows, whose +disciple Utakas is himself in the form of a hero. Utakas, like the +Vedic Tritas, and the Pndavas Argunas, is protected by Indras. He is +sent by the wife of his master to abstract the earrings of the wife of +King Pushyas. He sets out; on his way he meets a gigantic bull, and a +horseman, who bids him, if he would succeed, eat the excrement of the +bull; he does so, rinsing his mouth afterwards. He then presents himself +to King Pushyas and informs him of his message; the king consigns the +earrings to him, but cautions him to beware of Takshakas, the king of +the serpents. Utakas says that he is not afraid of him, and sets out +with the earrings; but as he puts down the earrings upon the shore, in +order to bathe, Takshakas presents himself in the shape of a naked +mendicant, whips them up, and flees away with them. Utakas follows him, +but Takshakas resumes his serpent form, penetrates the ground, and +descends under it; Utakas attempts to follow the serpent, but does not +succeed in cleaving the entrance, which corresponds to the Vedic rock +under which the monster keeps his prey. Indras sees him tiring himself +in vain, and sends his weapon, in order that it may be for a help to +Utakas; that weapon, or club, penetrating, opened the cavern.[242] This +club, this weapon of Indras is evidently the thunderbolt.[243] Utakas +descends into the kingdom of the serpents, full of infinite wonders. +Indras reappears at his side in the shape of a horse,[244] and obliges +the king, Takshakas, to give back the earrings; having taken which, +Utakas mounts the horse, that he may be carried more swiftly to the +wife of his master, from whom he learns that the horseman seen by him on +the way was none other than Indras himself; his horse, Agnis, the god of +fire; the bull, the steed of Indras, or the elephant iravatas; the +excrement of the bull, the ambrosia, which made him immortal in the +kingdom of the serpents. In another episode of the same (the first) book +of the _Mahbhratam_,[245] we again find Indras busied in the search of +the earrings, that is to say, of the excessively fleshy part hanging +from the ears of Karnas, the child of the sun, who, as soon as born, had +been abandoned upon the waters. We have seen above how the two Avinu +are also represented in the _Rmyanam_ as the two ears of Vishnus Rmas +(as the sun and moon are said to be his eyes); hence it seems to me that +these mythical earrings, coveted by Indras, and protected by him, are +nothing else than the two Avinu, the two luminous twilights (in +connection with the sun and the moon), in which Indras, and, still more +than he, the aurora, his wife, take such delight.[246] + +In the commentary of _Buddhagoshas_ on the Buddhist Dhammapadam, we +have the three brothers again; the two eldest are represented as fleeing +from the persecution of their cruel step-mother; the third brother, +Suriyas (Sryas, the sun), goes to overtake them. The eldest counsels or +commands, the second lends his aid, and the youngest fights. The second +and third brothers fall into a fountain, under the power of a monster; +the first-born saves them by his knowledge, as, in the _Mahbhratam_, +Yudhishthiras, by his skill in solving riddles, delivers the second +brother from the fetters of the forest of the monster serpent. + +This mode of delivering the hero, by propounding a question or a riddle, +is very common in the Hindoo legends. Even in the _Pancatantram_,[247] a +Brhman who falls under the power of a forest monster who leaps on his +shoulders, frees himself by asking why his feet are so soft. The monster +confesses that it is because, on account of a vow, he cannot touch the +earth with his feet. The Brhman then betakes himself to a sacred pond; +the monster wishes to take a bath, and the Brhman throws him in; the +monster orders him to stay there till he has bathed and said his +orisons. The Brhman profits by this opportunity to make his escape, +knowing that the monster will not be able to overtake him, as he cannot +put his feet to the ground. It is the usual vulnerability, weakness, or +imperfection of the hero, or the monster, in the feet, and, if an animal +is spoken of, in the tail.[248] + +The _Mahbhratam_ has shown us the three Vedic brothers, of whom the +youngest has fallen into the well; it also presents to us, in the +witch (_asur_) armishth, daughter of Vrishaparvan, king of the +demons, and in the nymph Devayn, daughter of ukras, who credits +herself with the virtue of Indras as the rain-giver,[249] the two +rival sisters of the Vedas, the good and the evil. In the +_Rmyanam_,[250] the witch rpanakh, who seduces Rmas, in order to +take the place of St at his side, is compared to armishth, who +seduced Nhushas. In the _Mahbhratam_, armishth assumes the guise +of Devayn, whom she throws into a well. Yaytis, son of King +Nhushas, goes to the chase; feeling thirsty, he stops near the well; +from the bottom of the well a young girl looks up, like a flame of +fire.[251] The prince takes her by the right hand and draws her up; +and because in the marriage ceremony, the bride is taken by the right +hand,[252] the prince Yaytis is said to marry Devayn. But even +after she is a wife, armishth continues to seduce her husband, to +whom she unites herself. Two sons are born of Devayn, Yadus and +Turvasas, similar to Indras and Vishnus (a new form of the twins, of +the Avinu); three are born of armishth, Duhyus, Anus, and Prus; +and here also the third brother is the most glorious and valiant. And +in this way the episode is connected with the essential legend of the +_Mahbhratam_, and one and the same general myth is multiplied into +an infinity of particular legends. As the genealogy of the gods and +heroes is infinite, so is there an infinite number of forms assumed by +the same myth and of the names assumed by the same hero. Each day +gave birth in the heavens to a new hero and a new monster, who +exterminate each other, and afterwards revive in an aspect more or +less glorious, according as their names were more or less fortunate. + +It is for the same reason that the sons always recognise their fathers +without having once seen them or even heard them spoken of; they +recognise themselves in their fathers. Thus akuntal and Urvac +enable their mother to find again the husband that she has lost, and +their father to recover his lost wife. Thus in the episode of Devayn +and armishth, when the former wishes to know who is the father of +the three sons of armishth, so similar to the sons of immortals, she +turns to them, and they tell her at once. + +For this fault, Yaytis, from being young, is fated to become old. He +then beseeches the two eldest of the three sons that he had by +armishth to take on themselves the old age of their father; they +refuse, but the third son, Prus, out of reverence for his father, +consents to become old in his stead, to give up his youth to his +father. After a thousand years, the king Yaytis, satiated with life, +restores to his son Prus his youth, and although he is the youngest, +along with his youth, the kingdom, because he found him the only one +of the three who respected the paternal will; and he expels the two +eldest brothers.[253] + +Sometimes, however, the blind old father is entirely abandoned by his +sons. Thus the old Drghatamas (of the vast darkness), blind from birth, +is deprived of food, and thrown into the water by his wife and +sons,[254] but a heroic king saves him, in order, by his wife, to beget +sons for him. We have in Drghatamas and Yaytis, King Lear in embryo. + +In the same legend of Drghatamas, we find an exchange of wives. Queen +Sudeshn, instead of going herself, sends her servant-maid, her +foster-sister, to be embraced by Drghatamas.[255] In the cunning +Sudeshn we have an ancient variation of Queen Berta. + +Other blind men occur frequently in the Hindoo legends. I shall here +cite only Andhakas (the blind one) and Vrishnis (the sheep, as the lame +one),[256] who appear in the _Harivanas_[257] as the two sons of Mdr. +But we know from the _Mahbhratam_, that the two sons of Mdr are a +human incarnation of the celestial twins, the Avinu; and here we come +again upon the blind-lame one of the Vedas, the solar hero in his twin +forms, the two Avinu protected by Indras, and companions of the dawn. + +The _Pancatantram_[258] represents the blind and the crooked, or +hunchbacked,[259] in union with the three-breasted princess (_i.e._, the +triple sister, the aurora in the evening, the aurora in the night, the +aurora in the morning; the breast of the night nourishing the defective, +the monstrous, which the morning sweeps away). The crooked guides the +blind with a stick; they both marry the three-breasted princess. The +blind recovers sight by the steam of the poison of a black serpent, +cooked in milk (the darkness of night, or of winter, mixed with the +clearness of day, or of the snow); he then, being a strongly-built man, +takes the hunchback by the legs, and beats his hunch against the third +and superfluous breast of the princess. The anterior prominence of the +latter, and the posterior one of the former, enter into their respective +bodies;[260] thus the blind, the crooked, and the three-breasted +princess help and cure each other; the two Avinu and the aurora (or +the spring) reappear together in beauty. The Avinu and the aurora also +come forth together from the monstrous shades of night; the Avinu +contend for the aurora; as we shall see soon, and in the next chapter, +the delivered bride disputed for by the brothers. + +The sun and the aurora flee from each other; this spectacle has been +represented in different ways by the popular imagination; and one of the +most familiar is certainly that of a beautiful young girl who, running +more quickly than the prince, escapes from him. This incident, which is +already described in the _Rigvedas_, occurs again in the +_Mahbhratam_,[261] in the legend of the loves of the virgin Tapat, +daughter of the sun (the luminous and burning aurora, and also the +summer season, ardent as Dahan), with the king Samvaranas, son of the +bear (_rikshaputras_, a kind of Indras). The king Samvaranas arrives on +horseback with his retinue at the mountain, in order to hunt; he ties +his horse up and begins the chase, when he sees on the mountain the +beautiful girl, the daughter of the sun, who, covered with ornaments, +shines like the sun; he declares his love and wishes to make her his +own; she answers not a word, but flees and disappears like the lightning +in the clouds;[262] the king cannot overtake her, because his horse, +while he was hunting, has died of hunger and thirst; he searches in vain +through the forest, but not seeing her, he throws himself almost +breathless to the ground. As he lies there the beautiful girl appears +again, approaches and wakens him; he again speaks to her of love, and +she answers that he must ask her father the sun, and then, still quite +innocent, she disappears swiftly on high (_rdhvam_). The king again +faints; his minister sprinkles him with the water of health, and makes +him revive, but he refuses to leave the mountain, and having dismissed +his hunting company, he awaits the arrival of the great purohitas +Vasishthas, by whose mediation he demands from the sun his daughter +Tapat to wife; the sun consents, and Vasishthas reconducts to +Samvaranas, for the third time, the beautiful girl as his legitimate +wife. The husband and wife live together happily on the mountain of +their loves; but as long as King Samvaranas remains with Tapat upon +this mountain, no rain falls upon the earth; wherefore the king, out of +love for his subjects, returns to his palace, upon which Indras pours +down the rain, and begins again to fructify the earth.[263] + +We said a little ago that Vasishthas himself caused it to rain +(_abhyavarshata_); and the mention of Vasishthas reminds us of the +particularly rain-giving, cloudy, and lunar function of his cow +Kdmadhenus, whose wonderful productions are again described in the +_Mahbhratam_.[264] Besides milk and ambrosia, she yields herbs and +gems, which we have already referred to, as analogous products in +mythology. The cow of Vasishthas is, besides her tail, celebrated for +her breasts, her horns, and even her ears ending in a point; whence +her name of _akukarn_ (the masculine form of which is generally +applied to the ass). And in the _Mahbhratam_, also, the wise +Vivmitras is covetous of this wonderful cow; the cow bellows and +drops fire from her tail, and radiates from every part of her body +armies which disperse those of the son of Gadhis. Vivmitras then +avenges himself in other ways upon the sons of Vasishthas; having, +_e.g._, become a cannibal, he eats them. + +Vasishthas cannot endure the pain this causes him: he tries to throw +himself down from the summit of Mount Merus, but he falls without +hurting himself; he throws himself into the fire, but does not burn +himself; and, finally, he leaps into the sea, but is not drowned. +These three miracles are accomplished every day by the solar hero, who +throws himself down from the mountain into the gloomy ocean of night, +after having passed through the burning sky of evening. + +Vasishthas ends by freeing, with the help of charmed water, the +monster Vivmitras from his curse; and the latter is no sooner +delivered from the demon who possessed him, than he begins again to +illumine the forest with his splendour, as the sun illumines a +twilight cloud. The friendships, enmities, and rivalries of Vasishthas +and Vivmitras seem to be another version of those of the two +Avinu, whom we shall particularly describe in the next chapter. + +Meanwhile, it is high time, as the reader will think, to conclude this +part of our study, which treats of the mythical cow of India. We might +easily, indeed, have made it much larger, had our design been to chain +together, link by link, all the traditions and legends in which the cow +plays a primary or subordinate part. But it is better to stop short, +lest, by expatiating further, we should lose sight of the essential aim +of our work, and be tempted into digressions from the legends relating +to beasts to those relating to men; besides, we think that we have +sufficiently proved the thesis of this chapter, and shown how the +principal mythical subjects of the Vedic hymns are not only preserved, +but developed, in the posterior Hindoo traditions. It is not entirely +our fault if, from cows, we pass so often to princesses, and from bulls +to princes; the myth itself involves and indicates these +transformations. Hence we find the bull Indras, the winner of the cows, +become a winner and a seducer of women; we see the bull Wind, who aids +Indras in the conquest of the cows, become the violator of a hundred +damsels;[265] we read of the bull and god Rudras, as husband of Um, +given up to sensual indulgence for a hundred years without a pause; that +the son of the bull, or of the wind, Hanumant, does prodigies of valour +and strength for the sake of a beautiful woman, and receives, as a +reward for his zeal, from the king Bharatas, a hundred thousand cows, +sixteen wives, and a hundred servant-maids.[266] What could Hanumant +have done with so many wives and maids, if he were simply a bull? or +what could he have done with so many cows, if he had been an ape? It is +these inconsistencies which have caused mythology to be condemned by the +crowd of old but prolific pedants, as a vain science; whereas, on the +contrary, it is precisely these inconsistencies which raise it, in our +esteem, to the rank of a valid science. He who handed down to us the +feats of Hanumant, took care also to tell us how he had the faculty of +changing his form at will; and this faculty, attributed to this +impersonation of a celestial phenomenon, is the fruit of one of the most +_nave_ but just observations of virgin and grandiose nature. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[132] I must, however, observe that competent authorities, such as +Professor Weber, consider the phallical worship of ivas to have +originated in the beliefs of the indigenous tribes of Dravidian race. + +[133] _Rigv._ i. 123, 8. + +[134] Vidique saepe, sed cumprimis anno 1785 in Malabaria ad flumen +templo celebri Ambalapushe proximum, extra oppidum Callureta in +silvula, sententia regis Travancoridis Rma Varmer, quinque viros arbori +appensos et morti traditos, quod, contra regni leges et religionis +prscripta, voluntarie unicam vaccam occiderint; _Systema Brahmanicum_, +illustr. Fr. Paullinus a S. Bartholomo, Rom, 179.--Cfr. +_Mnava-Dharmastram_, xi. 60, and _Ygnavalkya-Dharmastram_, iii. +234. + +[135] ii. 1, 8. + +[136] Pancagavyam piban goghno msam sta samyatah goshtreayo go +'nugm gopradnena udhyati; _Dharm._ iii. 263. + +[137] _Dharm._ xi. 166. + +[138] Ibid. iii. 271. + +[139] Ka imam daabhir mamendram krnti dhenubhih; _Rigv._ iv. 24, 10. + +[140] _Dharm._ iii. 27. + +[141] _Grihyastrni_, i. 8, 9.--It was, moreover, on the occasion of +a marriage, the custom to give cows to the Brhmans; in the +_Rmyanam_, i. 74, the King Daarathas, at the nuptials of his four +sons, gives 400,000 cows. + +[142] nah pragm ganayatu pragpatih; _Rigv._ x. 85, 43. + +[143] Gocarmavasano harih; xiii. 1228. + +[144] Cfr. Bhtlingk u. Roth's, _Sanskrit Wrterbuch_ s. v. _gocarman_. + +[145] valy. _Grihyas._ iv. 3. + +[146] _Grihyas._ i. 13.--The commentator _Nryanas_, quoted by +Professor Stenzler, in his version of _valyanas_, explains how the +two beans and grain of barley express by their form the male organs of +generation. + +[147] _Grihyas._ i. 14. + +[148] _Grihyas._ ii. 10.--The St Antony, protector of animals, of the +Vedic faith was the god Rudras, the wind, to whom, when the cattle +were afflicted by a disease, it was necessary to sacrifice in the +midst of an enclosure of cows.--Cfr. the same, _valy._ iv. 8. + +[149] Yac ca goshu dushvapnyam yac csme duhitar divah tritya tad +vibhvary ptyya par vahnehaso va tayah sutayo va tayah; _Rigv._ +viii. 47, 14. + +[150] Payah krishnsu ruad rohinshu; _Rigv._ i. 62, 9.--Cfr. _Rigv._ +i. 123, 9. + +[151] _Grihyas._ iv. 3. + +[152] valy; _Grihyas._ + +[153] v. 4, 23. + +[154] Indro vi vritram hatv vivakarmbhavat; iv. 3, 22. + +[155] iii. 2, 37. + +[156] Ushase carum yoshh s rk so eva trishtup gave carum ya guh +s sinvl (the new moon) so eva gagati; iii. 2, 48. + +[157] Abhd ush ruatpaur ityushaso rpam; i. 2, 18.--Gobhirarunir +ush gimadhvat tasmd ushasyagatym arunam ivaeva +pra-bhtyushasorpam; iv. 2, 9.--Abhd ush ruatpaur ityushaso +rpam; i. 2, 18. + +[158] _it.-brhm._ vi. 4, 24. + +[159] _it.-brhm._ iv. 3, 17. + +[160] iii. 8080. + +[161] Cfr. Weber's _ber die Krishnagamshtam_, Berlin, 1868; _L'Inde +Franaise_, par Eugne Burnouf, Paris, 1828; _The Hindoos_, London, +1834, vol. i. + +[162] iv. 3, 20. + +[163] i. 3. 22. + +[164] Mahnm payo 'sy oshadhnm rasah; _Taittir. Yagurv._ i. 1, +10.--Kshrodam sgaram sarve mathnmah sahit vayam nuushadhh +samhritya prakshipya ca tatastatah; _Rmy._ i. 46.--Cfr. Kuhn's _Die +Herabkunft des Feuers und des Gttertranks_, Berlin, 1859. + +[165] The _Gandhamdanas_ is especially defended by the _Gandharvs_, +a word which seems to be composed of _gandha_, perfume, and _arvas_, +the one who goes on (and afterwards the horse), from the root _arv_, +expansion of _riv_; according to this, they would therefore be those +who go in the perfumes, as the nymphs beloved and guarded by them are +they who go in the waters (ap-sarasas). Cfr. the chapter on the Ass. + +[166] Cfr. _Rmy._ vi. 82, 83. + +[167] Bhtlingk's _Indische Sprche_, 122, erster Theil; 2^te Aufl. S. +Petersburg, 1870.--Cfr. _Mahbhratam_, i. 1143-1145. + +[168] Abhi tyam devam savitram nyoh kavikratum arcmi satyasavasam +ratnadhm abhi priyam matim; _Tittir. Yagurv._ i. 2, 6. + +[169] i. 46. + +[170] xiii. 7034. + +[171] Hariv., 12,367. + +[172] ruhya tasya ikhare so 'payat paramushadm drishtv +cotptaymsa vialyakaranm ubhm.--Vialyo nirugah +ghramudatishthanmahtalt; vi. 83. + +[173] Sa nighrishgulim rmo dhute manahilgiru cakara tilakam +patny lalte ruciram tad blrkasamavarnena tena s giridhtun +lalte vinivishthe na sasamdheva nibhavat; _Rmy._ ii. 105. + +[174] Svyatu apah scychidyamnay dadtu vram atadyam ukthyam; +_Rigv._ ii. 32, 4. + +[175] Tatah ubham s tarunrkasamnibham gataklam vasrayugam sad +malam srago 'gargam ca vibhshanni ca prasannacet gagrihe tu +mithil; _Rmy._ iii. 5. + +[176] _Rmy._ iv. 50-53. + +[177] Ptirnivsit vastrih krdanto gomaye hrade; _Rmy._ v. +27.--Cfr. vi. 23. + +[178] Stmuvca ha dpyamnm svay lakshmy sandhymutptikmiva; +_Rmy._ v. 52. + +[179] Samarth gatanam gantumapiv tvam rastalam--Acirammokshyase +ste; _Rmy._ vi. 9, 10. + +[180] Sumyah somtmagh; _Rmy._ vi. 6. + +[181] Sitah kakudvniva tkshnarigo rarga candrah pariprnarigah; +_Rmy._ v. 11.--Cfr. v. 20. + +[182] Babhu nashtaprabhah sryo ragan cbhyavartata; _Rmy._ ii. 92. + +[183] Nishdargo guhah sanlmbudatulyavarnah; _Rmy._ ii. 48. + +[184] Sad vanagocarah; _Rmy._ ii. 98. + +[185] iii. 63. + +[186] _Rmy._ iv. 1. + +[187] Sahasrkshadhanushmadbhis toyadiriva mrutah; _Rmy._ v. 40. + +[188] _Rmy._ v. 73.--In the _Rmyanam_ itself, Rmas, overpowered +with grief, is compared now to a bull (v. 34), now to an elephant +tormented by a lion (v. 37). + +[189] _Rmy._ vi. 105. + +[190] _Rmy._ vi. 102. + +[191] radam sthlaprishatam rigbhym govrisho yath; _Rmy._ +iii. 32. + +[192] _Rmy._ v. 28.--The monster Kabandhas salutes them both with +the name of _Vrishabhaskandhu_, or they who have bulls' shoulders; +_Rmy._ iii. 74. + +[193] _Rmy._ vii. 36-38. + +[194] _Rmy._ v. 93. + +[195] rantnstu na tapet sryah kathancidvnarnapi abhrni gagnire +digbhyas chdayitv raveh prabhm pravavarsha ca parganyo mrutaca +ivo vavu; _Rmy._ v. 95. + +[196] _Rmy._ iii. 77. + +[197] _Rmy._ iii. 23. + +[198] _Rmy._ vi. 37. + +[199] Paya lakshmana mrcam mahanisamasvanam sapadnugamyntam +subhum ca nicaram etvadya may paya nlncanacayopamu asmin +kshane samdhtvanilenmbudviva; _Rmy._ i. 33. + +[200] akreneva vinirmukto vagrastaruvaropari; _Rmy._ iii. 35. + +[201] Mymritya vipulm vtadurdinasamkulm; _Rmy._ iii. 73. + +[202] Te nikrittabhugaskandhs kavandhkriti ekadaranh nadanto +bhiravnndnnpatanti sma dnavs; _Mbh._ iii. 806. + +[203] Atha tatra mahghoram vikritam tam mahocchrayam +vivriddhamairogrvam kabandhamudare mukham romabhirnicitam +tikshnirmahgirimivocchritam nlameghanibham ghoram +meghastanitanisvanam mahat ctipigena vipulenyatenaca ekenorasi +drghena nayanentidarin; _Rmy._ iii. 74.--The one yellowish eye +of Kabandhas reminds us of Viravanas with only one yellowish eye +(_ekapinghekshanas_), his other eye having been burnt out by the +goddess Parvat; _Rmy._ vii. 13. + +[204] i. 49; ii. 7, _et passim_. + +[205] Cfr. the chapter on the Wolf. + +[206] iii. 40, _et seq._ + +[207] Tarundityasamkm taptakncanabhshitm raktmbaradharm +blm; _Rmy._ vi. 103.--Of the dress of St we read in another +place that it shines "like the light of the sun upon the summit of a +mountain" (Sryaprabheva ilgre tasyh kusheyamuttamam; iv. 58). + +[208] _Rmy._ vi. 99. + +[209] Cfr. Weber's _Ueber das Rmyana_, Berlin, 1870, p. 9. + +[210] Ibid. p. 1. + +[211] Vryaulk ca me kany divyarp gunnvit bhtaldutthit +prvam nmn stetyayonig; _Rmy._ i. 68. + +[212] _Rmy._ vii. 104, 105. + +[213] _Kath sarit sgaras_, iii. 17. + +[214] i. 3888-3965. + +[215] "Apriyanca na kartavyam krite cinm tyagmyaham," says +Garatkarus; _Mbh._ i. 1871. + +[216] _Mbh._ i. 1870-1911. + +[217] _Indische Studien_, vol. i. pp. 457-464, vol. ii. pp. 111-128. + +[218] _History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature._ + +[219] Varunas, the god of night, has, like the night, a double aspect; +now he is the gloomy ocean, now the luminous milky ocean without a moon. +He is represented under the latter aspect in the 7th book of the +_Rmyanam_ (canto 27), in which the solar hero, having entered the +celestial city of Varunas, finds the cow which always yields milk (payah +ksharantm satatam tatra gm ca dadara sah), whence the white-rayed +moon emerges, whence also the ambrosia and the nectar (yatacandrah +prabhavati taramih--yasmdamritamutpannam sudh cpi). + +[220] Cfr. the chapter on the Horse. + +[221] In the _Rmyanam_, i. 63, the deliverer is Indras, who, even in +the _itareya_, does much for unahepas. + +[222] Tegas gharmadah sad--Prsdaatasambdham nirmitam +vivakarman obhitam padminbhica kncanica mahdrumih nilayah +pahastasya varunasya mahtmanah; _Rmy._ iv. 43. + +[223] i. 64. + +[224] The Puranic-legend gives an instance of such another father in +Hiranyakaipus, who, persecuting his own son Prahldas, tries to +destroy him in several ways, and finally throws him into the sea; +Prahldas praises Vishnus, and is delivered.--Cfr. _The Vishnu +Purna_, translated by H. Wilson, i. 17-20. London: Trbner, 1864. + +[225] Chap. xii. 13. + +[226] i. 54-56. + +[227] Etadeva hi me ratnametadeva hi me dhanam etadva hi sarvasvam +etadeva hi givitam; _Rmy._ 1. c. + +[228] Nanda vividhn ndn yath prvrishi toyadah; _Rmy._ iii. 24. + +[229] Dhrayan mhisham rupam tkshnarigo bhayvahah; _Rmy._ iv. +9.--Further on, instead (iv. 46), the buffalo is said to be the +brother of Dundubhis, and to have the strength of a thousand serpents +(balam ngasahasrasya dhrayan) or elephants, for the word _ngas_ is +equivocal. + +[230] rigbhymlikhan darpat taddvram; _Rmy_, iv. 9.--Cfr. the +two chapters which treat of the Horse and the Monkey. + +[231] I do not insist upon this brhmanic god, because his legend is +now popular.--Cfr., for the rest, for the relationship of Krishnas +with the cows, the cowherds, and the cow-maiden, the whole 5th book of +the _Vishnu Purna_, translated by H. Wilson, and the _Gtagovindas_ +of Gayadevas, edidit Lassen, Bonn, 1836. + +[232] Vivarpo vi tvshtrah purohito devnm st svasriyo 'surnm +tasya trni irshny asant--Indras tasya vagram dya rshny achinad +yat somapnam--Brahma-hatyam up 'grihnat--Tam bhtny abhy akroan +brahmahann iti; _Tittirya Samhit_, ed. Weber. ii. 5, 1-6. + +[233] vii. 5, 28. + +[234] Sa tasya khagena mahirnsi kapih samas tm sukundalm +kruddhah praciccheda tad hanmns tvshtrtmagasyeva irnsi akrah; +_Rmy._ vii. 50. + +[235] _Rmy._ vii. 10. + +[236] _Mbh._ i. 4990.--Cfr. also the three phallical and solar brothers +of the story of unahepas (him with the luminous tail or phallus). + +[237] i. 4775. + +[238] Balam ngasahasrasya yasmin kunde pratishthitam yvatpivati blo +'yam tvad asmi pradyatam--ekocchvsttatah kundam danah; _Mbh._ i. +5030, 5032.--A similar legend is found again in the third book of the +_Mahbhratam_, under the form of an impenetrable forest, in which the +king of the serpents envelops Bhmas. + +[239] _Mbh._ i. 4777. + +[240] i. 5300-5304. + +[241] i. 680-828. + +[242] Tam kliyamnamindro 'payatsa vagram preshaymsa--gacchsya +brhmanasya shyyam kurusveti--atha vagram dandakshthamanupraviya +tadvilamadrayat; _Mbh._ i. 794-795. + +[243] In a legend of the Tibetan Buddhists, referred to by Professor +Schiefner in his interesting work, _Ueber Indra's Donnerkeil_ (St +Petersburg), 1848, we find two valiant heroes who, upon Mount +Gridhrakta (the vulture's peak), strive, in presence of their master, +to lift the vagram (that is, the arm in the form of a wedge, the +lever-rod, the thunderbolt of Indras), but in vain; Vagrapnis alone +succeeds in lifting the vagram with his right hand. Rmas makes a +similar trial of strength in the _Rmyanam_, when he lifts and breaks +in pieces a bow, which no one had before been able even to move. + +[244] Cfr. the following chapter. + +[245] i. 2772-2783. + +[246] To the myth of the ravished earrings is almost always joined, even +in the popular tales, the story of the horse, which is always especially +referred to the Avinu, as that of the bull to Indras. In the Puranic +legends, Krishnas receives from the earth the earrings of Aditis (whom +we already know to be a cow), whilst he frees the princesses from the +infernal Narakas.--Cfr. the _Vishnu Purna_, v. 29. + +[247] v. 17. + +[248] Cfr. the chapters which treat of the Wolf, the Fox, and the +Serpent; and also the foregoing discussion on the Vedic riddles, where +the sun is called _anipadyamnas_. + +[249] Aham galam kimuncmi pragnm hitakmyay; _Mbh._ i. 3317. + +[250] iii. 23, 24. + +[251] Dadara rg tm tatra kanymagniikhmiva; _Mbh._ i. 3294. + +[252] _Mbh._ i. 3379-3394 + +[253] _Mbh._ i. 3435-3545. + +[254] _Mbh._ i. 4193-4211. + +[255] _Mbh._ i. 4211-4216. + +[256] We shall find the lame goat in the chapter which treats of the +Lamb and the Goat. + +[257] 1908. + +[258] v. 12. + +[259] The word _badhiras_ means here the crooked, the crippled one, +and not the deaf (from the root _badh_ or _vadh_, to wound, to cut); +the more so that here the name of the blind man's companion is +Mantharakas, a word which properly means the slow one. The curved line +and the slow line correspond; and the curved one, who cannot stand +upright, may be the hunchback just as well as the cripple, the +crooked, the lame.--Cfr. The chapter on the Tortoise. + +[260] For the incident of the hunchback who betrays the blind man, in +the same popular tale, cfr. next chapter. + +[261] i. 6527. + +[262] Sudminva cbhreshu tatrevntaradhyata; _Mbh._ i. 6557. + +[263] Tasminnripatirdle pravishte nagaram punah pravavarsha +sahasrkshah asyni ganayanprabhuh; _Mbh._ 6629, 6630. + +[264] i. 6651-6772. + +[265] The hundred daughters of King Kuanabhas, and of the nymph +Ghritci, who walks in curdled milk, recalling to us the mythical +cow.--Cfr. _Rmy._ i. 35. + +[266] Cfr. Virgil, _nid_, I. 65-75, where Juno gives the nymph +Deiopea to olus. + + +SECTION III. + +THE BULL AND THE COW IN IRANIAN AND TURANIAN TRADITION. + +SUMMARY. + + The bull the first created in Persian tradition.--The bull of + Mithra.--Mithra and Yamas.--The excrements of the celestial cow and + bull.--Exorcisms for chasing the evil one away from the beasts of + the stable.--The salutary herb, rue.--The heavenly cypress and the + mythical forest.--The mountain and the gem.--The mountain of the + heroes.--The defenceless soul of the bull recommends itself to the + mercy of the gods.--The moon, as a cow or bitch, guides the hero + over the funereal bridge.--The many-eyed god.--The golden-hoofed + bull.--The spinners of the sky.--Friendship between sun and + moon.--The Geusurva is the full moon.--The purifying + moon.--Ardhv-ra-Anhita, the Persian aurora, has all the + characteristics of the Vedic aurora, elevated, luminous, discomfiter + of the demons, deliverer of the hero Thraetaona from the water, + having golden shoes, swift, the first to arrive with her chariot, + guesser of riddles, revered at the break of day.--The aurora sung to + by her own name, the cow-aurora.--Mithra, the shepherd-god,--Mithra, + the hero who fights to recover his cows.--The bull + Veretraghna.--Thrita and Thraetaona.--The three brothers in the + Avesta.--The two brothers.--The three sisters.--The strength of the + solar hero consists in the wind.--The winds have golden shoes and an + especial foible for women, as the women have for them.--Indras + envious of the Marutas.--Kerepa envious of the wind.--The wind, + with its whistling and wailing, makes everything tremble; the hero + presses him tightly and forces him to be silent.--The bound + hero.--The bow-cow, and the birds coming out of the cow in the + Avesta.--The darts, horns of the cow.--The rich brother and the poor + one.--The poor one, who has a lean ox and a lean horse, makes his + fortune.--Ashis Vaguhi, another equivalent of the aurora who also + frees the hero Thraetaona.--Other names of the three Persian + brothers.--Importance of the Avesta on account of its mythical + contents.--The hero exposed on the mountain.--The hero-shepherd, the + wonderful child, Cyrus.--Feridun.--The three brothers, sons of + Feridun; the third brother is the best, and is murdered by the two + elder ones.--Sal, with white hair, the hero exposed and nourished by + a bird, solves riddles, and receives in reward the daughter of the + king.--The hero Rustem, with the mace of a bull's head, with the + strong horse that vanquishes the lion, the strong hero, the Persian + Orlando, kills and binds demons, monsters, and giants, who fight + with rocks.--From black comes white.--The prince Kawus recovers his + sight after the death of the monster.--The demon in the mountain, + who keeps back the waters, is the same as the demon in the + mill.--The hero Rustem unites himself with the daughter of the + demoniacal and hostile king.--Sohrab is born of this union, with a + demoniacal nature.--Gurdaferid, the Persian amazon princess, + assailed in her white castle by the hero-demon Sohrab.--Rustem + fights, wins, and kills his son Sohrab; he then retires from + warfare.--Explanation of this myth.--The end of Rustem in an + ambuscade.--Sijavush persecuted by his stepmother, whose love he had + disdained; the young prince submits to the trial by fire, and comes + out safely: the cruel stepmother was to have undergone the same + trial, but Sijavush intercedes for her; she continues to persecute + him; Sijavush dies in the country of his demoniacal father-in-law, + and is avenged by Rustem, who kills the cruel stepmother.--The + child-hero Kai Khosru consigned to the care of shepherds; during his + childhood he performs prodigies of valour, and passes a river with + dry feet.--The strength of the hair of the hero Firud.--The two + hero-brothers again; one brother avenges the other.--The old hero + becomes a penitent, and disappears in a tempest upon a + mountain.--The seven heroic undertakings of Isfendiar.--The legend + of Iskander.--The Tuti-Name.--The hero who wishes to kill himself + for the king's sake; the deity prevents the sacrifice.--The story of + the poor man and the rich one again.--The beautiful woman persecuted + by her brother-in-law the seducer; the oriental Crescentia or + Genevive.--The sea, invited to the wedding, brings pearls and + gold.--The maiden who discovers the thief by means of a riddle.--The + girl who gives his eyesight back to the blind man against her + will.--The lovers flee upon the bull's back.--The lover forsakes his + mistress on the shore after having despoiled her.--The three + brothers deliver the beautiful maiden and dispute for her; the + maiden takes refuge in a convent.--The wise child who distinguishes + false from true, honest from dishonest.--The money of the dead + man.--The adulterer condemned to death who bites off the nose of his + companion in guilt and dissoluteness.--The wife despoiled of her + riches by her husband and thrown into the water.--Romeo and Juliet + in the East.--The three brothers: the seer; the strong carrier, or + Christophoros; the victorious one.--The disputed bride again.--The + little pipkin of abundance; Perrette in the East.--The small + porringer of abundance, which the two brothers contend for.--The + shoes which take one in an instant wherever one wishes to go.--The + little purse which is filled as fast as it is emptied.--The sword + which makes a city rise.--The animals which contend for the division + of the prey, and the third comer who profits between two + disputers.--The four mines of the four brothers.--Why old men have + white hair.--Calmuc and Mongol tradition.--The six companions are + the same as three.--The bride torn in pieces.--A man unites himself + with a cow, which brings forth a Minotaur of a good nature, who + fights against the demons in favour of the gods.--The gem in the + cow's litter.--The bull lost.--The three sisters; the third sister + marries the monster bird; she loses him, because she has burned the + aviary.--The painter and the woodman in Paradise; the painter is + burned.--The two brothers, the rich one and the poor one; the rich + brother ends badly.--The husband who despoils his wife and hides her + in a chest in the sand of the desert.--The gem of the prince falls + to the ground; his nose bleeds and he dies; explanation of this + myth.--The wonderful hammer, which, when used, brings one whatever + is wished for.--The rich and poor brothers; the poor one becomes + rich.--The lengthened nose and the corresponding Italian + proverb.--The wife kills her husband with the hammer, wishing to + knock a protuberance off his nose.--The old man who eats his last + cow; his wife continues, even after its death, to nourish and + protect him until the wild beasts in the cavern devour him.--The + woman disguised as a solar hero.--The lion and the bull friends, or + foster-brothers; their friendship is put an end to by the fox.--The + projects of Perrette again.--The horns of the dead buffalo.--The + grateful animals.--The laughing princess.--The wise + herd-children.--The wise puppets.--The prince born of a cake.--The + boy learns in the forest every art, even devilish ones.--The son of + the wolves who understands their language.--Heroes and demons cut + in pieces multiply themselves.--The hero has good luck, because he + has performed funeral services to the dead.--Four young shepherds, a + new form of the Ribhavas, make a beautiful maiden of wood, and then + dispute for her.--The wife throws her husband into the fountain out + of jealousy, having heard another voice, perhaps the echo of her + own.--The princess Light of the sun, who must be seen by no one, and + who is visited by the minister Moon.--Turanian tradition in + Siberia.--The three brothers dream upon the mountain; the third + brother is persecuted on account of his dream; he finds the blind + woman and lame man, and induces them to adopt him; he hunts, fights + against the devil, and vanquishes him; from the body of the demon + come forth animals, men, and treasures; he fishes up in the sea of + milk the casket which contains the eyes of the blind woman; receives + extraordinary gifts, and above all the faculty of transforming + himself; wins his predestined bride, and kills his own cruel + father.--The hero who solves enigmas.--Ancient and modern + riddles.--The cow devours the wolf, and the wolf devours the + cow.--The bow of horn.--The wolves fastened to the calf's tail.--The + soul of the black bull in the rainbow, the bridge of souls, wounded + by the young hero, who then espouses the daughter of the sky, after + attaining the third heaven, and accomplishing heroic undertakings to + merit her.--The sleeper in the cup, the gem in the fish.--The + Argonauts and Medea in Turan.--The Finnish Diana.--The Finnish + thundering God, Kave Ukko.--The little sun, the Finnish + dwarf-hero.--The second of the three brothers.--The strong + bear.--The monster giant darkness or cloud.--The Orpheus and the + lyre of the Finns; grief the inspirer of song.--Finnish and Aryan + myths.--The Sampo.--Esthonian tradition.--The three sisters; the + third is the most beautiful, and is persecuted by her stepmother, + and delivered by the prince.--The bird of light.--The maiden + transformed into a pond-rose, and delivered by her husband in the + shape of a shrimp.--The witch is burned in the form of a cat.--The + gold of the witch.--Explanation of several myths.--The third brother + is the swiftest.--The wise maiden.--The golden fairy.--The + puppet.--The magical rod makes the cock come out of the + mountain.--The fairy is good towards the good, and punishes the + wicked.--The cow lost.--The old hospitable dwarf.--The leaf which + carries the hero across the waters.--Heroic undertakings against the + serpent and the tortoise.--The third brother, expelled from home, + travels and solves riddles on the way.--The rod which makes a + bridge.--In heaven and in hell time passes quickly.--The hero + under-cook.--The golden birds and the voyages to hell.--The brothers + punished, and the bride won by the magical sword.--The son of + thunder.--The weapon carried off from the god of thunder.--The + weapon recovered.--The fisherman-god.--The marvellous musical + instrument; the magical flute.--The three dwarfs.--The hat that + makes its owner invisible, made of men's nails; the shoes which + carry one where-ever one wishes, and the stick which fights of + itself.--The proverb of the third who profits between two disputers + again.--The third brother is the son of a king, exposed when a + child; he awakens the princess who sleeps in the glass mountain; + _non est mortua puella, sed dormit_.--Passage from the dawn of the + day to the dawn of the year.--The child sold by his father without + the latter's knowledge.--The boy exchanged.--The boy sets out to + deliver the maiden from the demon.--The pea, the kidney-bean, the + cabbage, and the pumpkin of funerals accompany the solar hero in his + nocturnal voyage.--The symbol of abundance, of generation, of + stupidity.--The nuptial beans.--Meaning of the myth concerning + vegetables.--The region of silence.--The region of noise.--The wise + girl helps the hero.--The cow milked and the calf bound.--The + luminous ball comes out of the calf.--The antithesis of white and of + black.--Hungarian proverbs.--The luminous ball comes out of the + stone.--The luminous ball and the ring.--The fearless hero frees the + castle from spirits.--The Esthonian story of Blue Beard.--The + charivari in the nuptials of widowers.--The widow who burns + herself.--The hero exposed, and then brought up among cowherds, + feels himself predestined to reign, and learns the art by guiding + herds.--The German (or Western) witch endeavours to take the red + strawberries from the Esthonian hero.--The boy avenges this injury + by causing her to be devoured by wolves, who will not touch her + heart.--The gardener's daughter.--The broken ring; the two parts of + the ring unite again; the husband and wife find each other once + more.--The maiden born of the egg in the shape of a puppet.--The + casket which brings good luck disappears when the young couple are + married. + +Moving now from India westwards, we find on one side the Iranian, and +on the other the Turanian traditions. We cannot pass into Europe +without at least indicating the general character of each. + +In the Persian cosmogony, the bull (_gus aevo dto_) is one of the +first of created existences, being as old as the elements. It is, +moreover, well known how much importance was ascribed to the bull +among the Persians in the mysteries of the solar god Mithra, who is +represented as a beautiful youth, holding the horns of a bull in his +left hand, and having the knife of sacrifice in his right. Mithra +sacrificing the bull is just the solar hero sacrificing himself in the +evening. Indeed, in the Persian tradition, Mithra, like the Hindoo +Yamas, holds the office of god of the dead, and as such, like Yamas, +is of a monstrous aspect, and is found in the _Yana_ represented with +a thousand ears and ten thousand eyes. + +As in India, so in Persia, the urine of the cow is used in ceremonies of +purification, during which it is drunk.[267] We have already seen in the +story of Utakas how the excrement of the bull, upon which Utakas fed, +was ambrosia itself; and, indeed, all is beneficial which is given by +the cow of abundance (the moon, the cloud, and the aurora), and by the +divine bull (the moon and the sun). The mythical belief was natural, +however disgusting when we insist on literal interpretation. + +And even in the Persian tradition itself, a distinction already exists +between common bulls or oxen and sacred or privileged ones. This +distinction appears in the legend of Gemshid, whose bulls were all +devoured by the devil, as long as they were protected by no magical +rites; whilst, when he was given a red ox (or bull) cooked in old, +that is strong, vinegar, to which was added garlic and rue (famous for +its potency in exorcism), he disappeared and was never seen +again.[268] The rue is probably the fabulous plant which the Zend +tradition surmises to have sprung from the sea _Vuru-Kasha_, whence +Ahura Mazda draws the clouds, from which all healthful water is +derived, and which corresponds to the sea of milk of Hindoo tradition, +in which the ambrosia is agitated. + +Thus the funereal cypress of Kishmar (planted by Zarathustra, with a +branch from the tree of Paradise), under which more than two thousand +cows and sheep could pasture, and the innumerable birds of which +darkened the air, obscuring the light of the sun, reminds us of the +celestial forest of the Veds, in which the shepherd-hero and the +hunter-hero wander and are lost. + +The idea of the funereal tree recalls to us that of the Persian +mountain Arezra or Demvend, where the demons met together to plot +evil, and where was the gate of hell.[269] + +The Zend word _ama_, which signifies stone and heaven, yields us, in +its double meaning, the key to the interpretation of the myth. This +stone, inasmuch as it is dark, is of evil omen; inasmuch as it shines, +it is a gem, or gives the gem (the moon or the sun); whence, according +to the _Minokhired_, the sky is the progeny of a precious stone.[270] + +Thus to the mountain of the demons (where the sun goes down), is +opposed in Persian tradition the glorious mountain, out of which are +born the heroes and the kings (or from which the sun rises and the +moon); because Haoma is born there (the Hindoo Somas), the ambrosial, +golden, and health-bringing god, who gives them the divine +nourishment, and because the sacred bird, which stays on that +mountain, feeds them with ambrosia, whence the _Yana_[271] invites +Haoma to grow on the road of the birds. + +In a rather obscure passage of the _Gth Ahunavaiti_, confirmed by the +_Bundehesh_, the soul of the bull (or of the cow, as the case may be), +despoiled of his body by the evil one, complains to the Supreme Creator +that he is without defence against the assaults of his enemies, and that +he has no invincible protector. Ahura Mazda seems to wish only to give +him spiritual help, but the bull continues to declare himself +unsatisfied, until Zarathustra, the defender, accords it, and he +receives the gift of efficacious favours which Ahura Mazda alone +possesses.[272] Zarathustra is himself also born upon a mountain;[273] +while his son aoshyan, the deliverer, comes out of the waters. + +A sacred cow, or at least a bitch which guards the cows (_pauvaiti_), +seems, besides a good fairy, to be, in the _Vendiad_ itself,[274] the +conductor of the souls across the bridge Cinvat, created by Ahura Mazda, +to the kingdom of the blessed. The cow, as the guide of the souls[275] +lost in the kingdom of the dead, and placed upon the bridge, is probably +the moon; the bitch (also the moon) reminds us of the Hindoo Saram, the +bitch which aids the heroes who have lost themselves in the nocturnal +forest, grotto, or darkness. In the same chapter, after accounts of the +bridge, we read the praise of the good aoka, who has many eyes (like +the brhmanic Indras, disguised as a woman, having a thousand eyes, and, +after the adventure of Ahaly, a thousand wombs--the god hidden in the +night, who looks at the world through a thousand stars); after aoka, of +the splendid Veretraghna (who corresponds to Vritrahan, properly the +discomfiter of the all-covering darkness); and after him, of the +luminous star Tistar, which seems a bull with golden hoofs,[276] which +again must refer to the moon; as the Ghs, who, according to Anquetil, +"sont occupes filer des robes pour les justes dans le ciel," like the +cows and Madonnas in our popular tales, cannot be very different from +the fairy, or at least from the stars which form her crown. The _Khorda +Avesta_, in its hymns in praise of Mithra, celebrates the perfect +friendship which reigns between the sun and the moon, and sings of the +moon immediately after singing of the sun Mithra, and the splendid +Tistar immediately after the moon, whose light is said to come from the +constellation Tistrya. + +We can thus divine the meaning of Geusurva (the soul of the bull or +the cow), of which, besides the soul, the body also is invoked in the +_Yana_.[277] The Geusurva appears in the _Yana_ itself[278] as the +protectress of the fourteenth day of the month, or of the full-moon, +viewed as a full cow. And when it is said in the _Khorda Avesta_[279] +that one must not sacrifice to the Geusurva at the time when the +Daevas, or demons, are practising their evil-doings, it seems to me to +indicate clearly enough that the sacrifice was to take place while the +moon was increasing, and not while it was diminishing. Thus Asha +Vahista, who reminds us of the Hindoo Vasishthas and his marvellous +cow, has the power of conjuring away illness, north winds--in a word, +evil of every kind--only when Agro-mainyus appears without help.[280] + +We have seen in the legend of Utankas how, as the youth is on his way +to take the queen's earrings, he meets a bull, upon the excrement of +which he feeds, as upon ambrosia; that this ambrosial bull stays near +Indras, as Indras and Somas are invoked together; and we noticed that +from this mythical belief was derived the superstitious Hindoo custom +of purifying one's self by means of the excrement of a cow. The same +custom passed into Persia; and the _Khorda Avesta_[281] has preserved +the formula to be recited by the devotee, whilst he holds in his hands +the urine of an ox or cow, preparatory to washing his face with +it:--"Destroyed, destroyed be the demon Ahriman, whose actions and +works are cursed. His actions and works do not come to us. May the +thirty-three Amshaspands (the immortal saints, who correspond to the +thirty-three Vedic devs), and Ormazd, be victorious and pure!" It is +said this remedial formula was used for the first time by Yima, when, +from having touched Ahriman, in order to extricate from his body, by +fraud, Takh mo Urupa, whom the demon had devoured, he had an eruption +on his hand. Finally, it is interesting to learn that one of the Zend +names of the moon is _gaocithra_, which means he that contains the +seed of the bull, since, according to the _Bundehesh_, the seed of the +primitive bull passed into the moon, who, having purified it, used it +to procreate other cattle (_puru aredho_). + +As to the aurora, there seems to be no doubt but that she was +represented in ancient Persia by Ardv ra Anhita, the elevated, the +strong, the innocent or pure, according to the interpretation of +Professor Spiegel; she also drives a chariot drawn by four white +horses, which she guides herself; she has a veil, a diadem, and +bracelets of gold, beautiful earrings (the Vedic Avinu), a dress of +beavers' skin, and prominent breasts; she is beautiful, and she is a +good young girl who protects men and women. She is often invoked in +the _Khorda Avesta_, like the Vedic aurora, to exorcise the demons, +and to help the heroes who combat them; she herself has the strength +of a thousand men, and is a marvellous heroine, like the Vedic amazon +whom Indras fought with; her body is girt round with a girdle. The +probability of this comparison seems to pass into certainty after +reading a hymn of the _Khorda Avesta_,[282] even in the version of +Professor Spiegel, who perhaps would have introduced some little +variation if he had recognised the aurora in Ardv ra Anhita. In +this hymn, the victorious and mighty Thraetaona, in the form of a +bird, flies for three days and three nights, which reminds us of the +fugitive Indras of the _Rigvedas_, who wades across the rivers after +his victory; at the end of the third night he arrives near the aurora, +and beseeches Ardv ra Anhita (that is, as it seems to us, the +aurora herself, elevated, mighty, and innocent) to come and help him, +that he may pass the waters and touch the ground at her habitation. +Then Ardv ra Anhita appears in the shape of a beautiful, strong, +and splendid girl, having a golden diadem and wearing shoes of gold +(cfr. the _Yast_, xxi. 19) on her feet (this is perhaps another feeble +foreshadow of Cinderella's slippers); the beautiful girl takes him by +one arm (the bird has, it seems, become a hero), and gives him back +health and strength. But the certainty increases still more when, as +the Vedic aurora is the first of those who arrive, winning the race in +her chariot, the so-called Ardhv ra Anhita appears in the _Khorda +Avesta_ as "the first who guides the chariot;"[283] and we are +recommended to offer up sacrifices to her at break of day, before the +sun rises.[284] We have seen the Vedic aurora and the sun propose and +solve riddles; we have seen the Hindoo solar hero free himself from +the monster by proposing or solving insoluble enigmas; in the same +way, in the _Avesta_, the hero Yato Fryanananm asks Ardv ra +Anhita to help him to solve ninety-nine enigmas, in order that he may +free himself from the monster Akhtya. + +Add to this that Ardv ra Anhita, like the Vedic aurora, is a giver +of cows and horses, and that these animals are offered to her by her +devotees. The aurora herself, in the invocation made to her in the +sixth prayer of the _Khorda Avesta_, is also called "elevated," and +furnished with swift and splendid horses.[285] The fact of finding the +Anhita drawn by four white horses, like the sun Mithra, enhances the +evidence of this identity. And if the aurora is not explicitly +represented in the _Avesta_ as a cow, we infer that it was so +conceived of, from the worship of Mithra, who was adored from the +first streak of daylight till midday. Mithra often receives the +epithet of "he who possesses vast pasture-lands;" the morning sun is +therefore a pastoral god; and if so, we are constrained to think of +the Persian aurora too as, if not a cow, at least a female cowherd. + +But Mithra is not a god of mere idyllic exploits, he is also a hero; +the _Vendidad_[286] salutes him as "the most victorious of the +victors." The booty of his victory [essentially due to his immediate +predecessors Veretraghna (Vritrahan) and raosha][287] must have been +the cows of the aurora, without which his immense pasture-lands would +have been of no use to him. Indeed it is said that Mithra enables +owners of herds to recover their lost oxen.[288] + +But Mithra is not the only prominent hero of the _Avesta_. Besides him, +the above-cited Veretraghna, with all his secondary and tertiary +reflections, plays an important part in it. Now, this Veretraghna, who +offers numerous analogies to the Vedic Indras, killer of Vritras, is, +like Indras, now a hero, now a horse, now a bird, now a sheep, now a +wild boar, and now a bull.[289] As the bull Indras assists Tritas, +Tritanas, and Kavya Ucanas[290] in the _Rigvedas_, so the bull +Veretraghna in the _Avesta_, partaking of the nature of one Thrita[291] +who is rich, splendid, and strong, and who, like Indras, cures maladies +by the help of the guardian of the metals (the usual co-relation between +the hero and the magic pearl), assists Thraetaona, the killer of the +serpent Duhka (Azhi Dahka) and the hero Kava Ua, of which Kava +Haorava is another name rather than another form. The Thrita and +Thraetaona of the _Zend_ are peculiarly interesting, because they remind +us, though vaguely, of the Vedic myth of the three brothers. Only the +_Avesta_ names Thrita and Thraetaona as two distinct divine heroes; it +attributes to Thraetaona the second place among the three brothers; and +as in the _Mahbhratam_, it is the second brother, the strong Bhmas, +who falls into the waters, whilst the third brother, Argunas, delivers +others from the marine monster by his valour, so in the _Avesta_ it is +Thraetaona who comes out of the waters, or who is the son of Athvya +(-ptya). But every one can see the point of contact, connection, or +identification between the two hero-brothers. It is Bhmas who comes out +of the waters, and Argunas who extricates him, that is, who extricates +his own strength, expressed in Bhmas (the subject, and his virtue, +become the object, being inclosed in one person). They are confounded +together, inasmuch as Thraetaona, son of him who stays in the waters, or +of the watery one, or he who comes out of the waters, and kills the +demon, must be the same as Thrita, the third one, who has the virtue of +curing demoniacal diseases. Thraetaona, the killer of the serpent, and +Thrita, who destroys the evil-doing ones, are found again, with a +different splendour, in the same heroic adventure. Scarcely an instant +transpires between the time when the hero was a victim and that in which +Veretraghna, or Thraetaona, or Thrita, the hero, triumphs in his own +liberation. + +In the _Yana_,[292] we find three men who, by their piety, win the +favour of the god Haoma (Soma, the lunar god, the moon, the good +magician, the good fairy). The first is Vivagho, the second thvya, +and the third Thrita; from which we are led to conclude that Vivagho is +the eldest brother, thvya the second, and Thrita the youngest. On +account of their piety, they obtain sons; the son of Vivagho is Yima +(the Vedic Yamas), the wise, the happy, the heavenly; the son of thvya +is Thraetaona, the warrior who discomfits the monster; the third, +Thrita, called the most useful, has two sons, Urvksha and Kerepa, +who remind us of the Avinu. thvya's son and Thrita being confounded +in one person, Thraetaona, or Thrita, forms a new triumvirate with +Urvksha and Kerepa, as the Vedic Indras with the two Avinu. The +story of the three brothers and that of the two brothers seem to be +interwoven even in the myth, as they certainly are afterwards in the +legend. To the three brothers, moreover, correspond, in the _Avesta_, +the three sisters, the three daughters of Zarathustra and of Hvvi: +Freni, Thriti, and Pourucista.[293] The first seems to correspond to +Yamas, the second to ptya and his son Thraetaona (or Thrita), the +third, the luminous, the beautiful (as being the aurora), to the two +handsome brother horsemen, Urvksha and Kerepa (the Avinu). + +The solar hero comes out of his difficulties, and triumphs over his +enemies, not only by force of arms, but by his innate strength and +prowess. This extraordinary strength, by which he moves and is borne +along, and which renders him irresistible, is the wind, invoked by the +heroes in the _Avesta_ under the name of Rman. The wind, according to +the _Avesta_, is not only the swiftest of the swift, but the strongest +of the strong (like the Marutas, Hanumant, or Bhmas, Hindoo winds, or +sons of the wind). Even in the _Avesta_, he fights and assures the +heroes of victory, and is dear to woman and girls. (In the same way, +St has a leaning for Hanumant, and Hidimb, of all the Pndavas, +gives the preference to Bhmas.) Moreover, in the _Avesta_, girls +invoke the wind in order to obtain a husband.[294] + +A hymn of the _Rigvedas_, however, celebrates a kind of quarrel +between the winds Marutas and the god Indras, prompted by rivalry; a +quarrel which ends in Indras having the advantage. It is interesting +to find in the Persian tradition[295] the same rivalry between the +wind (vta) and the son of Thrita, the hero Kerepa. An evil genie +informs the wind that Kerepa boasts of being superior to him in +strength. Thereupon the wind begins to howl and rage in such a +terrifying manner that nothing can resist him, and the very trees are +cleft in two or torn up, till Kerepa comes and squeezes him so +tightly in his arms that he is obliged to cease. This interesting +mythical incident is a prefigurement of the loud whistle of the heroes +and the monsters in fairy tales, which is brought to an end in a +summary fashion, similar to that of the Persian legend; which also +leads us to suppose that Thraetaona vanquished the serpent Dahka, +merely by tying him to the demoniacal mountain Demvend.[296] This +style of vanquishing the enemy by binding him occurs often enough in +the Persian legends and in the _Avesta_ itself;[297] and is also +mentioned in the Hindoo traditions. The arrows of the monsters hurled +against the heroes of the _Rmyanam_ bind them; the god Yamas and the +god Varunas bind their victims; the first draws tight, tightens the +reins (_i.e._, the evening sun shortens his rays); the second +envelops, covers and binds with the darkness that which Yamas reined +in. The solar ray which shortens itself, the shadow which advances, +are images of the ensnarer of heroes; whereas the solar ray which +lengthens itself, the thunderbolt which traverses all the heavens, +surrounded by clouds and darkness, represents the hero who grasps +around, presses tightly, and strangles the monster. + +The bow of Mithra is formed of a thousand bows, prepared from the +tough hide of a cow; these bows, in the _Avesta_, also hurl a thousand +darts, which fly with winged vultures' feathers.[298] This carries us +back again to the Vedic myth of the birds which come out of the cow. + +The bow being considered a cow, this cow sharpens its horns; whence +the _Khorda Avesta_ celebrates the horned darts of the bow of Mithra, +_i.e._, the horns of the cow, which have become weapons[299] or the +thunderbolts. + +The legend of the two brothers is connected more with the myth of the +horse than with that of the cow or the ox. But inasmuch as it presents +the two brothers to us as the one poor and the other rich, the riches +are symbolised by the ox. However, if I am not mistaken, there are +two heroes, celebrated in the _Avesta_ one after the other (and whom I +therefore suppose to be brothers), who derive their origin from this +legend; one is called rraokhsan (or who has a fine ox), the other +Kereaokhsan (or who has a lean ox). As the _Avesta_ does not go on to +develop this subject more in detail, I dare not insist upon it; +nevertheless it is gratifying to me to remark that, of the two +brothers, Kereaokhsan was the most valiant, as of the two brothers +Urvksha (a word which may perhaps signify the one who has the fat +horse, and which is perhaps synonymous with Urvpa[300]) and +Kerepa (he of the lean horse), it is the second who is the glorious +hero; as in the Russian popular tales, we shall find the third +brother, though thought to be an idiot, despised by the others, and +riding the worst jade of the stable, yet becoming afterwards the most +fortunate hero. Kerepa avenges his brother Urvksha against +Hitpa, whom Professor Spiegel[301] interprets to mean the bound +horse, but which can also be rendered he who keeps the horse bound, +which would bring us back again to the story of the bridle and of the +hero-horse, whom the demon keeps bound to himself, which we have +already noticed above in the story of the sacrifice of unahepas, +delivered by the aurora. + +It is uncertain whether we must recognise the aurora or the moon, in +the _Avesta_, in the so-called Ashis Vaguhi, the elevated (like Ardv +ra Anhita), who appears upon the high mountain, rich, beautiful, +splendid, golden-eyed, beneficent, giver of cattle, posterity, and +abundance, who discomfits the demons, guides chariots, and is invoked +by the son of the watery one, Thraetaona, in the _Ashi Yast_,[302] in +order that she may help him to vanquish the three-headed +monster-serpent Dahka. Now, Thraetaona, the victorious and rich in +oxen,[303] being a well-known form of the solar hero Mithra, it is +interesting to learn how the heroine, the so-called Ashis Vaguhi (the +aurora, or the moon, as the three words Ardv ra Anhita are simple +names of the aurora), having the same supreme god for her father, has +three brothers, of whom the first is raosha, the pious; the second, +Rashnus, the strong; and the third, Mithra, the victorious. + +She is, moreover, herself represented as being pursued by enemies on +horseback; and it is now a bull, now a sheep, now a child, anon a virgin +who hides her from her pursuers. Not knowing where to go, whether to +ascend into heaven, or creep along the earth, she applies to Ahura +Mazda, who answers that she must neither ascend into heaven nor creep +along the earth, but betake herself to the middle of a beautiful king's +habitation.[304] How is it possible not to recognise in her the moon, or +the aurora, who follows the path of the sun her husband, the moon, or +the aurora, who appears on the summit of the high mountains? + +Other facts not devoid of mythological interest might perhaps be found +in the _Avesta_, which, on account of the uncertainty attending the +translation of the original texts, has hitherto been, it seems to me, +utterly neglected by mythologists. And yet, though Anquetil, Burnouf, +Benfey, Spiegel, Haugh, Kossowicz, and all who have turned their +talents and science to the interpretation of the Zendic texts, +disagree in the more abstruse passages, there are many of which the +interpretation is certain, in which the learned translators agree, +which offer interesting mythological data, and permit us, in any case, +to extract from the _Avesta_ an embryo of mythology, in the same way +as an embryo of grammar has already been extracted from it. The brief +references which I have now made to the myth of the cow and the bull +in the _Avesta_, anyhow appear to me sufficient to warrant the +conclusion I draw, that the cow and the bull presented the same +aspects, and generated the same myths and the same beliefs in Persia +as in India, albeit in a form far more feeble and indeterminate. + +The solar hero of Persia occurs again in the costume of historical +legend in the Cyrus ([Greek: Kyros]) of Herodotus and Ktesias, the +first of which represents to us the child exposed by his parents, +saved and educated during his infancy (like the Hindoo Karnas, child +of the sun, and Krishnas) among the shepherds, where for some time he +gives extraordinary proofs of his valour; the second shows us the +young hero who wins his own bride, Amytis, daughter of Astyages. + +Finally, the same hero appears in several splendid and glorious forms +in the _Shahname_. + +As in the _Rigvedas_, Tritas or Tritanas, and in the _Avesta_, +Thraetaona (of whom Thritas is a corresponding form), accomplish the +great exploit of killing the monster, and more especially the serpent, +so Feridun, the Persian synonym (by means of the intermediate form +Phreduna) for the Zendic Thraetaona is, in subsequent Persian +tradition, the most distinguished hero in the struggle against the +monster. I shall not insist upon the deeds of Feridun and his mythical +valour, after the learned paper written upon the subject by Professor +R. Roth, which appears in the Transactions of the Oriental Society of +Leipzig, and the able and highly-valued essay by Professor Michael +Bral on the myth of Hercules and Cacus. I shall therefore content +myself with quoting from the legend of Feridun the episode of his old +age, which reminds us of the Vedic myth of the three brothers. + +The great king Feridun has three sons, Selm, Tr, and Ireg (Selm, Tr, +and Er are also the sons of Thraetaona); he divides the world into +three parts and gives the west to the first-born, and the north to the +second, whilst he keeps Iran for the youngest. The two eldest are +jealous, and announce to their father their intention of declaring war +against him, unless he expels their younger brother Ireg from the +palace. Feridun replies to their impious threat with haughty reproofs, +and meanwhile warns the young Ireg of the danger he is in. The youth +proposes to go in person to his brothers, and induce them to make +peace; his father is unwilling to let him go, but finally consents, +and gives him a letter for the two brothers, in which he commends him +as his best-loved son to their care. Ireg arrives at his brothers' +dwelling; their soldiers see him, and cannot take their eyes off him, +as though they already recognised him for their lord. Then Selm, the +eldest, advises Tr, the second, the strong one, to kill Ireg; Tr +thereupon assaults the defenceless Ireg, and transfixes his breast +with a dagger. Ireg is afterwards avenged by the son of his daughter +(born after his death of a maid whom he had left pregnant), the hero +Minucehr, who kills Selm and Tr. + +The hero who succeeds Minucehr is Sal, the son of Sam, whom, because +born with white hair, his father had exposed upon Mount Alburs, where +the bird Simurg nourished and saved him. Sal proves his wisdom before +Minucehr by solving six astronomical riddles which King Minucehr +proposes to him. The king, satisfied, orders him to be dressed in +festive clothes; he then, to prove his strength, challenges him to run +a tilt with the horsemen; Sal is victorious, and obtains another robe +of honour and innumerable royal gifts; after which he espouses Rudabe, +daughter of King Mihrab. + +Sal distinguishes himself, like Minucehr, in his wars against the +perverse Turanians, the dragons and the monsters, in which he takes +along with him as his chief helper the mighty hero Rustem, whose +weapon is a club surmounted with the head of a bull[305] or a horned +mace (the hero is the bull, the thunderbolts are his horns), and whose +horse is so powerful as by itself to fight and vanquish a lion while +Rustem is asleep. The hero himself kills a dragon, and a witch +transformed into a beautiful woman, but who resumes her monstrous +shape as soon as the hero pronounces the name of a god. He thunders +like a cloud, is dark, and describes himself as a thunder-cloud which +hurls the thunderbolt.[306] He binds the warrior Aulad, and obliges +him to reveal where the demons detain in prison King Kawus, who is +become blind in their kingdom of darkness. Kawus then informs Rustem +that to recover his sight his eyes must be anointed with three drops +of blood from the slain demon Sefid; upon which Rustem sets out to +kill the demon. The demons can be vanquished only by day; when it is +light, they sleep, and then they can be conquered, says Aulad to +Rustem; for this reason, Rustem does not begin the enterprise till the +sun is in mid-heaven;[307] then he thunders and lightens at the +demons. Like a sun, he sets out towards the mountain (no doubt, +towards sunset), where the demon Sefid sits, and arrives at the mouth +of a deep and gloomy cavern, from which Sefid sallies forth in the +form of a black giant just awakened from his sleep. The giant himself, +like an enormous mountain assaulting the earth, hurls a rock like a +millstone at Rustem; Rustem strikes the monster on the feet, and lops +away one of them; the lame giant continuing the fight, Rustem at last +wrestles with him, lifts him into the air, then beats him several +times furiously against the ground, and so takes his life. He throws +the body of Sefid into the mountain cavern, whilst his blood saturates +the earth, and gives back to the prince Kawus his eyesight and his +splendour. The myth is a beautiful and an expressive one. As from the +black venomous serpent comes white healthy milk, so from the black +monster, at his death, comes blood, which gives back his eyesight to +the blinded prince; the red aurora is here represented as the blood of +the nocturnal monster, discomfited by the solar hero. + +Let me ask the reader to notice the Persian comparison of the rock +thrown by the demon to a millstone, as it is important to explain a +superstition still extant in the West, to the effect that the devil +goes under the millstone to carry out his evil designs. The stone or +mountain fractured by the waters was naturally compared to a millstone +moved by the waters; the demons inhabit the cavernous mountain to +guard the waters; thus the devil, the evil one, the hobgoblins, prefer +mills as their dwellings. + +Rustem fights, in the _Shahname_, many other victoriously successful +battles against Afrasiab the Turanian, and other demoniacal beings, in +the service of sundry heroic kings, with epic incidents to boot, which +are nearly all uniform. His struggle against his son Sohrab, however, +is of an entirely different character. + +Rustem goes to the chase. In the forest, Turkish bandits rob him of his +invaluable horse while he sleeps; he then sets out, alone and sad, +towards the city of Semengam, following the track left by his horse. +When he appears, emerging from the wood, the king of Semengam and his +courtiers note the phenomenon as though it were the sun coming out of +the clouds of morning.[308] The king receives Rustem with great +hospitality, and, as if to fill to the full the measure of his courtesy, +he sends at night to the room where he sleeps his exceedingly beautiful +daughter Tehmime. The hero and the beauty separate in the morning; but +Rustem, before parting from Tehmime, leaves her a pearl of recognition. +If a daughter is born to their loves, she is to wear it as an amulet in +her hair; if a son, he is to wear it on his arm, and he will become an +invincible hero. After nine months, Tehmime gives birth to Sohrab; at +the age of one month he seems a year old, at three years of age he +amuses himself with arms, at five he gives proof of a lion's courage, +and at ten he vanquishes all his companions, and asks his mother to +inform him of his father, threatening to kill her if she does not tell +him. Scarcely does Sohrab learn that he is the son of Rustem, than he +conceives the desire of becoming king of Iran and supplanting Kawus; he +then commences his persecution of the Iranian heroes by assaulting the +white castle (the white morning sky, the alba), defended by a beautiful +warrior princess, Gurdaferid, dear to the Iranian warriors. Sohrab +conquers and destroys the white castle, but in the moment of triumph, +the warrior maiden disappears. The old hero Rustem then moves against +his own son Sohrab; the latter throws him down, but Rustem, in his turn, +mortally wounds Sohrab. In the old Rustem thrown down on the mountain it +is not difficult to recognise the setting sun; in Sohrab mortally +wounded by Rustem, the sun itself, which dies; and in fact, the dying +sun has a different appearance from the new sun which rises and triumphs +in the heavens: these two appearances might give rise to the idea of a +struggle between the old and the young sun, in which both are +sacrificed. Indeed, Rustem feels, when he mortally wounds Sohrab, that +he is wounding himself; he curses his work and immediately sends for a +healing balsam; but in the meantime Sohrab dies. The only one who could +destroy the young sun was the old sun; the sun grows old and dies; +Rustem alone could kill Sohrab. With the death of Sohrab the glory of +Rustem is also eclipsed; he retires unto solitude, and the most +grandiose period of his epic life comes to an end. After this he only +reappears in episodic battles or enterprises; as, for instance, in his +setting fire to Turan, in which he resembles Hanumant, burner of Lak; +in the liberation of the young hero Bishen, who had been taken prisoner +and incarcerated by the Turanians; in the killing of the powerful and +perverse Turanian Afrasiab; and in his own death in an ambuscade set by +young rivals of the old lion, who dies taking vengeance on his enemies. + +In the very palace of Kawus (he who was protected by Rustem), a +notable legendary drama takes place. Sijavush, son of King Kawus, is +seduced by the queen-mother Sudabe, who burns with love for him. The +youth spurns this love, upon which she accuses him to King Kawus as +her seducer. The father, after hearing his son's defence in proof of +his innocence, cannot believe the queen; and thereupon she devises +another method for destroying the young Sijavush. She concerts with a +slave she has, who is a sorceress, and persuades her to create two +little venomous monsters, which she straightway proclaims aloud are +the children of Sijavush. Then Sijavush, to prove his innocence, +submits willingly to the trial by fire; he enters the flames upon his +black horse, after having embraced his trembling father; both horse +and horseman come out of the immense fire, amid the plaudits of all +the spectators. Then the king gives orders to strangle the unnatural +queen; but his son Sijavush intercedes in her favour, and Sudabe is +allowed to live by grace of the young prince, whom, however, she +continues to persecute, till, on the death of Sijavush, Rustem, who +bewailed him as his own son, or as his other self, avenges him first +by killing Sudabe, on account of whom Sijavush had been obliged to +repair to Turan, and afterwards by carrying the war into Turan, where, +after a very agitated life, Sijavush had fallen into the power of his +father-in-law, Afrasiab, and been put to death. + +The wife of Sijavush, Ferengis by name, being pregnant, is hospitably +entertained by Piran, and gives birth to the hero Kai Khosru; and no +sooner is he born than he is consigned to the shepherds of the +mountain. As early as seven years of age, his favourite amusement is +that of drawing the bow; at ten, he confronts wild boars, bears, +lions, and tigers with only his shepherd's staff. When Afrasiab sees +the young shepherd, he inquires at him about his sheep and the +peaceful pursuits of shepherds; the boy replies with stories of lions +having sharp teeth, and of other wild animals, of which he is not +afraid. As soon as he comes to manhood, he flees from Turan, followed +by the Turanians; he arrives at the banks of a river, where the +ferryman asks impossible conditions to take him over; upon which, like +Feridun, he crosses the river safely, but without a boat, and on dry +feet (it is the sun traversing the cloudy and gloomy ocean without +wetting himself);[309] arrived at length in Iran, he is feasted and +fted as the future king. His reign begins; he then assigns different +tasks to different heroes, among whom is his brother Firud, born of +another mother, of whom it is said that a single hair of his head has +more strength in it than many warriors (one ray of the sun is enough +to break the darkness). One evening, however, at sunset, Firud is +killed in his castle upon the mountain, being surrounded by a crowd of +enemies, after having lost his horse, and after his mother Cerire had +dreamt that a fire had consumed both mountain and castle. His mother +Cerire (the evening aurora) throws herself among the flames with her +maids, and dies also. Kai Khosru bewails the loss of his brother Firud +all the night through, till the cock crows; when morning comes he +thinks of avenging him. + +After this, the life of Kai Khosru is consumed in battles fought by +his heroes against the Turanians. Only towards the end of his days +does he become a penitent king; he will no longer allow his subjects +to fight, and his only occupation is prayer; he takes leave of his +people and his daughters in peace, ascends a mountain, and disappears +in a tempest, leaving no trace of himself. In a similar manner the +heroes Yudhishthiras, Cyrus, and Romulus disappear (not to speak of +the biblical Moses, still less of Christ, as we do not wish to +complicate a comparison of which the materials are already so +extensive, by mixing up the Aryan elements with those of Semitic +origin; although the legends of the serpent, of Noah, of Abraham and +his regained wife, of Abraham and his son Isaac, of Joseph and his +brethren, of Joshua, of Job, and other and more recent biblical +heroes, by their mythical or astronomical import, present numerous +analogies with the Indo-European legends); in a similar manner, the +old sun, weary of reigning in the heavens and fighting for his life, +becomes invisible every evening on the mountain-peaks. + +The _Shahname_ contains numerous other legends besides those which we +have thus far briefly described; and one of the most notable is, +beyond a doubt, that of Isfendiar, who goes with his brother Bishutem +to deliver his two sisters, imprisoned in a fortress by the Turanian +king Ardshasp. The seven adventures of Isfendiar, _i.e._, his meeting +with the wolf, the lion, the dragon, the witch (who makes herself +beautiful, but who is no sooner bound with the enchanted necklace of +Isfendiar [the solar disc] than she becomes old and ugly again), the +gigantic bird, the tempest and the river, all of which dangers he +victoriously overcomes, are reproductions, in an analogous form too, +of the seven adventures of Rustem. + +Finally, the legend of Iskander or Iskender (the name of Alexander of +Macedon), full of extraordinary adventures, became exceedingly popular +in Persia, and thence, no doubt, passed with all its charms into Europe. +The audacity and good fortune, the glory and the power of the great +conqueror were the reasons why there grouped round his name so many +extraordinary stories, which wandered dispersedly through the world +without epic unity. To make up one glorious and never-to-be-forgotten +hero, were combined together the achievements of many anonymous or +nearly forgotten ones. The Persian _Iskendername_ of Nishmi, is, as its +name denotes, entirely taken up with the celebration of the deeds of the +Macedonian hero, of which the most illustrious are the liberation of the +princess Nushbe (taken prisoner by the Russians), and the voyage in +search of the fountain of life and immortality, which, however, Iskander +cannot find. From Persia the same legend afterwards passed, with new +disguises, into Egypt, Armenia, and Greece, whence it was diffused +during the middle ages over almost the whole of Western Europe.[310] + +As a bridge of transition between the Hindoo and Persian, and the Turk +or Tartar traditions, we shall make use of three works: the Turkish +version[311] of the Persian _Tuti-Name_, itself a translation and in +part a paraphrase of the Hindoo _uka-Saptat_, _i.e._, the seventy +(stories) of the parrot; the Mongol stories of _Siddhi-kr_, and the +Mongol history of _Ardshi-Bordshi Khn_,[312] the first being a +paraphrase of the Hindoo _Vetla-Pancavinat_, _i.e._, the +twenty-five of the Vetla (a kind of demon), and the second of the +Hindoo _Vikrama-caritram_ (the heroic action). + +We have seen in the _itareya Brahmnam_ the father who prepares to +offer up his son, and in the _Mahbhratam_, the son who forfeits +youth that his father may live. In the _Tuti-Name_,[313] the faithful +Merdi Gnbz prepares to sacrifice his wife and sons, and afterwards +himself, to prolong the life of the king; but his devotion and +fidelity being proved, he is arrested by God before he can accomplish +the cruel sacrifice, and receives numberless benefits from the king. + +In the story of the goldsmith and the woodcutter, the _Tuti-Name_[314] +reproduces the two brothers or friends, of whom one is wicked, rich, and +avaricious, while the other is defrauded of the money due to him, +because, though, in reality intelligent, he is supposed to be an idiot. +The woodcutter avenges himself upon the goldsmith by a plan which we +shall find described in the legend of the bear, and recovers, thanks to +his craftiness, the gold which his brother or friend had kept from him. + +In the interesting story of Merhuma,[315] we read of the wife who is +persecuted by the seducer her brother-in-law. To avenge her refusal, he +causes her to be stoned during the absence of his brother; being +innocent, she rises again from under the stones; being sheltered by a +Bedouin, a monster of a slave seduces her; being repulsed, he accuses +her of the death of the Bedouin's little son, whom he had himself +killed; the beautiful girl flees away; she frees a youth who was +condemned to death, and who in his turn seduces her. She then embarks in +a ship; while she is at sea all the sailors become enamoured of her and +wish to possess her; she invokes the god who caused Pharaoh to be +drowned and who saved Noah from the waters. The waves begin to move; a +thunderbolt descends and burns to ashes all who are in the ship, with +the exception of the beautiful girl, who lands safe and sound upon the +shore (it is the aurora coming out of the gloomy ocean of night, and the +monsters who persecute her are burned to ashes by the thunderbolts and +the sun's rays); she thence escapes into a convent, in which she +ministers to the unfortunate, cures the lame, and gives eyesight to the +blind. Among the latter is her persecutor, the brother of her husband; +she pardons him and gives him back his eyesight; in the same way she +cures all her other persecutors. It is scarcely necessary for me to +remind the reader how this oriental tale, which developed itself from +the myth of the persecuted and delivering aurora which we have seen in +the Vedic hymns, reappears in numerous very popular western legends, of +which Crescentia and Genevive are the most brilliant types. + +The aurora comes out of the gloomy ocean and is espoused by the sun; +these heavenly nuptials in proximity to the sea gave rise to the +popular tale[316] of the king who wishes the sea with its pearls to be +present at his nuptials; the pearls of the bride-aurora are supposed +to come out of the sea of night. The sea sends as gifts to the king a +casket of pearls, a chest of precious dresses, a horse that goes like +the morning wind, and a chest full of gold. + +The wise aurora figures again in the story of the ingenious +princess[317] who discovers, by means of a story-riddle, the robbers +who, during the night, stole the precious gem destined for the king. + +The aurora imparts splendour and eyesight to the blinded sun. The story +of the three-breasted princess who, while she meditates poisoning the +blind man, in order that she may enjoy unrestrained the affections of +her young and handsome lover, relents and gives him back his sight, +reappears in a rather incomplete form in the _Tuti-Name_.[318] + +The girl who has been married to a monster, whom she flees from to +follow a handsome young lover, who, arriving at the banks of a river, +despoils her of her riches, leaves her naked and passes over to the +other side, after which she resigns herself to her fate and resolves to +return to her husband the monster,[319] represents the evening aurora, +who flees before the monster of night to follow her lover the sun, who, +in the morning, after adorning himself with her splendour, leaves her on +the shore of the gloomy ocean and runs away, the aurora being thereupon +obliged in the evening to re-unite herself to her husband the monster. +It is interesting, moreover, as bearing upon our subject, to note the +expression of which the youth who flees with the beautiful woman makes +use to express his fear of discovery. He says that the monster-husband +will follow them, and that should he sit upon the horns of the bull (the +moon) he would be sure to recognise him. The story of two young people +fleeing upon a bull, and followed by the monster, occurs again in the +Russian popular tales. By the horns of the bull, the youth means the +most prominent and visible situation; and he knows, moreover, that if +the monster overtakes them, he will be sure to demonstrate the truth of +the brave proverb which advises us in arduous undertakings to take the +bull by the horns. + +It is also the aurora who is represented by the beautiful maiden[320] +whom her father, mother, and brother have, without each other's +knowledge, severally affianced to three youths of different +professions. The three young men contend for her person, but while the +quarrel is undecided, the girl dies. The three then go to visit her +tomb; one discovers her body, the second finds that there is still +some life in her, and the third strikes her and raises her up alive, +upon which the quarrel is resumed. She flees from them, and withdraws +into another living tomb, a convent. In the most popular form of this +legend the three companions, or three brothers, fighting for the +bride, divide her; the aurora is torn into pieces as soon as the sun, +her true lover and rightful suitor, appears. + +From darkness comes forth light; from the old, the young; from death, +life; from the dust of a dead man's skull, tasted by a virgin, is born a +wonderful child, who knows how to distinguish false pearls from real, +dishonest women from honest ones[321] (the morning sun can distinguish +between light and darkness); the wise boy (the young sun) is the brother +of the wise girl (the young aurora). The flesh of a killed Brhman is +turned into gold in another story of the _Tuti-Name_.[322] + +We have seen that the aurora and the sun are mother and son, brother +and sister, or lover and mistress. The sun in the evening dies +ignominiously, is sacrificed and hanged upon a gibbet, and with +himself sacrifices his mother or his mistress. The legend is popular +and ancient which speaks of the robber son, when about to end his life +upon a gibbet,[323] biting the nose off his mother, who gave birth to +him and brought him up badly. In the _Tuti-Name_,[324] it is the young +adulterer (and robber too) who, condemned to death for his adultery, +asks to see his mistress once more before his death and kiss her, and +who, as she does so, gratifies his revenge by inflicting upon her a +like indignity. It is remarkable how, even in the Hindoo popular tale, +the story of the adulterer is confounded with that of a thief; the +adulterer ends by being thrown into the water (the sun and the aurora +fall into the gloomy ocean of night). + +In the next story it is the wicked husband who, travelling with his +rich wife for change of dwelling-place, despoils her of her clothes, +and then throws her into a well in order to ensure possession of her +jewels and wardrobe. These riches, however, do not last long; he +becomes poor and goes begging alms, dressed as a mendicant, until he +finds his wife again, who had been saved by divine intervention from +the well, and provided anew with clothes and jewels of equal +gorgeousness. The husband passes some time with his wife, and then +sets out again on a voyage with her; he arrives at the same well, and +throws her in as before to enjoy alone her stripped-off garnitures and +riches. (The meaning of the myth is evident; it is the sun throwing +the splendid aurora into the gloomy waters of the night.) + +A king becomes enamoured of the beauteous Mahrusa;[325] his +councillors tear him from his love, upon which he pines away in +solitude and dies. The beautiful girl unites herself to him in the +grave (Romeo and Juliet, the evening aurora and the sun die together). + +The story of the three brothers, the Ribhavas, occurs again in the +_Tuti-Name_,[326] with other particulars which we already know. The +first brother is the wise one; the second is a maker of talismans +(amongst other things he can make a horse which will run in one day +over a space of ground that would take other horses thirty); the third +and youngest brother is the victorious archer. They set out to search +for the beautiful maiden who has fled by night from the house of her +father. The first brother discovers, by his wisdom, that the maiden +was carried off by the fairies into an island-mountain which men +cannot reach. The second creates a wonderful animal upon which to +traverse the intervening waters (Christophoros or Bhmas). Having +arrived at the island-mountain, the third and youngest brother fights +the demon, the lord of the fairies, vanquishes him, and frees the +beautiful girl, who thereupon is conducted back to her father. Then +there arises the usual quarrel between the three brothers as to who is +to possess the bride. + +In the Veds, we have the sky and the moon represented as a cup. From +the little cup of abundance (the moon) it is easy to pass to the +miraculous little pipkin (the moon), in which the kind-hearted but poor +housekeeper of the Pndavas, in the _Mahbhratam_, still finds +abundance of vegetables, after her powers of hospitality had been +exhausted on the god Krishnas disguised as a beggar--to the pipkin from +which can be taken whatever is wished for. In the _Tuti-Name_,[327] a +woodcutter finds ten magicians round a pipkin, and eating out of it as +much and whatever they want; they are pleased with the woodcutter, and, +at his request, give him the pipkin. He invites his acquaintances to a +banquet at his house, but not able to contain himself for joy, he places +the pipkin upon his head, and begins to dance. The pipkin falls to the +ground and is broken to pieces, and with it his fortune vanishes (the +story of Perrette). + +A variation of the small cup is the wooden porringer (the moon), which +two brothers (the Avinu) dispute for, in the history of the king of +China,[328] and from which can be taken whatever drink and food is +wished for; as, in the same story, we find the enchanted shoes which +carry us in an instant wherever we wish to go;--which brings us back +to the fugitive Vedic aurora, the swiftest in the race, and to the +popular tales relating to Cinderella, who is overtaken and found again +by the prince only when she has lost her enchanted slipper. With the +porringer and the enchanted shoes we find, in the popular tales, the +little purse full of money which fills again as fast as it is emptied +(another form of the cup of abundance), and a sword which, when +unsheathed, causes a fine, rich, and great city to arise in a desert, +which city disappears when the sword is put back into the sheath (the +solar ray is the drawn sword, which makes the luminous city of the +rich aurora arise; scarcely does the sun's ray vanish, or scarcely is +the sword sheathed, than the marvellous city vanishes). The rest of +the story is also interesting, because it applies to three men a +double and well-known fable of the animals which contend for the prey +(as the three brothers contend for the beautiful maiden whom they have +found again). The animals cannot divide it equally; they refer to the +judgment of a man passing by; he divides it so well that the animals +are ever after grateful to him, and help him in every danger. The +story of the _Tuti-Name_ touches upon this form of the myth, but soon +abandons it for another equally zoological, and a more familiar one, +that of the third who comes in between two that quarrel, and enjoys +the prey. The young adventurer undertakes to put an end to the dispute +of the two brothers as to the division of the purse, the porringer, +the sword and the wonderful shoes; he does so by putting the shoes on +his feet and fleeing away with the other three articles contended for +(the two brothers Avinu, the two twilights, contend for the moon and +also for the aurora, as we shall see better in the next chapter; the +sun puts an end to their quarrel by espousing her himself). + +We are already familiar with the Vedic Ribhavas who out of one cup make +four. Probably upon this legend depends that of the four brothers of the +_Tuti-Name_,[329] who, as they let each a pearl fall from their forehead +upon the ground, see four mines open, one of copper, the second of +silver, the third of gold (the third brother is here again the +favourite), the fourth only of iron. The gem appears to be the sun +itself. The four mines seem to me to represent respectively the coppery +sky in the evening, the silver sky in the moonlight night, the sky in +the morning, golden with the dawn, and the iron sky, the grey or azure, +of the day. The word _nlas_ in Sanskrit means azure, as well as black, +and between azure and black is grey, the colour of iron. + +Of the three brothers, the most learned, he who solves the enigmas, is +often the eldest; and in the story of the _Tuti-Name_,[330] the eldest +of the three brothers explains why old men have white hair, saying +that this whiteness is a symbol of the clearness of their thoughts. + + * * * * * + +Let us now pass to the Calmuc and Mongol stories of _Siddhi-kr_, +which, as we have said above, are also of Hindoo origin. + +In the first story, the three companions, forming at first three +groups of two, have resolved into six. The night-time is divided into +three, into six, into seven (six, _plus_ an extraordinary one, born +afterwards), into nine (three groups of three), into twelve (three +groups of four). Hence, near the monster with three, six, seven, nine, +or twelve heads, we find sometimes three, sometimes six, seven, nine, +twelve brother-heroes. The last head (or the last two, three, or four +heads) of the monster, the decisive one, is the most difficult, and +even dangerous, to cut off; the last of the brothers is he who, by +cutting it off, is victorious. In the first Calmuc story of +_Siddhi-kr_, six brothers or companions separate where six rivers +take their rise, and go in search of fortune. The first-born perishes; +the second, by means of his wisdom (he partakes of the wisdom of the +first-born, with whom he is grouped), discovers the place where the +dead one is buried; the third, the strong one, breaks the rock under +which the eldest is hidden; the fourth resuscitates him by means of a +health-bringing drink, as Bhmas, the strong hero of the +_Mahbhratam_, arises again when he drinks the water of health and +strength; the fifth brother creates a bird, which the sixth colours; +this bird flies to the bride of the eldest brother, and brings her +among his companions, who, finding her exceedingly beautiful, become, +one and all, enamoured of her; they fight for her, and, that each may +have a part, end by cutting her to pieces. We already know the +mythical meaning of this legend. + +The third and fourth Calmuc tales introduce explicitly the bull and +the cow. In the third, a man who possesses but one cow unites himself +to her, in order to make her fruitful. Of this union a tailed monster +is born, having a man's body and a bull's head. The man-bull +(Minotauros) goes into the forest, where he finds three +companions--one black, one green, and one white--who accompany him. +The man-bull overcomes the enchantments of a dwarf witch; his three +companions lower him into a well and leave him there, but he escapes. +He meets a beautiful maiden drawing water, at whose every footstep a +flower arises; he follows her, and finally finds himself in heaven; he +fights against the demons, in favour of the gods, and dies in this +enterprise. This story, of Hindoo origin, where the bull and the cow +take the place of the hero and the maiden, appears to me to justify +the amplitude of the comparisons. + +We have already seen the beneficial qualities of the excrement of the +cow. In the fourth story, it is under the excrement of a cow that the +enchanted gem, lost by the daughter of the king, is found. It is of +the cow that the pearl is the secretion. The moon-cow and the +aurora-cow are rich in pearls; they are pearls themselves, like the +sun; the sun comes out of the aurora, the pearl comes out of the cow. + +The subject of the seventh tale is the three sisters who, taking the +cattle to pasture, lose a buffalo, or black bull. In their search for +it, they came across an enchanted castle, tenanted by a white bird, +who offers to marry them. The third sister consents, and marries him. +The bird turns out then to be a handsome cavalier (a form of +Lohengrin). But having, by the advice of a witch, burned the aviary, +she loses him, and cannot recover him till the aviary is restored. We +shall see the sun as a bird in the Vedic hymns; the aurora is the +aviary, made of flames, of this divine bird. When the aviary is burned +at morn, the aurora and the sun separate; they meet again in the +evening, when the aviary is reconstructed. + +Another beautiful myth of analogous import occurs again in the eighth +story. A woodman and a painter envy each other; the painter makes the +king believe that the woodman's father, who is in heaven, has written +ordering his son to repair to paradise, in order to build him a temple, +and to take the route that the painter shall indicate. The king orders +the woodman to set out for paradise. The painter prepares a funeral +pyre, by way of exit; from this the woodman succeeds in escaping, and, +going back to the king, he tells him that he has been to paradise, and +presents a letter which his father has given him, ordering the painter +to come by the same road, and paint the temple. The king requires the +summons to be obeyed, and the perfidious painter perishes in the flames. +The morning sun emerges safe and sound from the flames of the morning +aurora; the evening sun passes through those flames, and dies. + +The tenth Calmuc tale gives us the myth of the two brothers; the rich +one avaricious and wicked, and the poor one virtuous. The story ends +in a manner analogous to that of the dying adulterer, who, as we have +seen in the _Tuti-Name_, bites off his mistress's nose. + +The eleventh story is a variation of that of the lover, or husband, +who abandons or kills his wife, after having despoiled her of her +riches; but instead of the waters of the sea, we have here the sea of +sand, the sandy desert, in a cavity of which is deposited the young +girl, shut up in a chest, the same chest which in other popular tales +drifts about on the surface of the water.[331] But into the place +where it was laid, the chest having been taken away by a young prince, +a tiger enters; the unworthy husband turns up himself to abstract the +chest, and is torn to pieces by the tiger. The sterile night is a vast +desert, a sea of waters, a sea of sand; the sun-prince frees the +aurora from the waters, out of the well, or the cavern of the desert; +the tiger kills the monster-husband. + +In the twelfth tale, a thief steals the enchanted gem from the prince; +he throws the gem to the ground, the consequence of which is that the +prince's nose bleeds so excessively that he dies. The nose is the most +prominent part of the face, the most conspicuous and splendid part; it +is the gem of the sun-prince. The sun falls at night upon the +mountain; the gem falls to the ground; the prince's nose bleeds; he +has struck his nose against the ground, and it bleeds. The sun-prince +dies, and the evening sky is tinged red, blood-colour; the sun, who +loses his blood in the evening, dies. + +The thirteen Calmuc stories are followed by ten Mongol tales; in all, +twenty-three, of which the sixteenth, however, is lost. + +The fourteenth tells us of the rich and avaricious man whose poor +brother goes in despair into the forest to die upon a rock; but his +presence not being known to the spirits, he has the good luck to come +upon a hammer and a sack, of which the former, when struck against an +object, produces whatever is desired by the owner, the latter being +used to carry away the objects thus obtained, this hammer and this +sack having been left there by the hobgoblins. Thus the poor brother +becomes rich, and is envied by the other, who goes to the same place, +in hopes of experiencing the same good fortune; but as he does not +hide himself, the hobgoblins see him, and believing him to be the man +who stole the hammer and the sack, avenge themselves upon him by +lengthening his nose, and covering it with protuberances. To this myth +may perhaps be referred the origin of the Italian expression, "Restare +con uno o due palmi di naso," to remain with one or two spans of the +nose; that is to say, to be laughed at, and with the gesture by which +derision is accompanied, and which is addressed to the man who is +laughed at, by applying one or sometimes both hands to the end of +one's nose. The poor brother, now rich, visits the miserly brother, +who has a long nose covered with protuberances, and knocks them off +with his hammer. He had already knocked off eight, and only one +remained, when, at his wife's request, he desisted and left the last +one on. The rich man's wife, seeing how the protuberances had been +taken off by striking them, tries herself to remove the last one, and +strikes it with a hammer; but not calculating her aim accurately, she +splits her husband's head open, and he dies. + +In the seventeenth Mongol story, an old man and an old woman have nine +cows. The old man is fond of meat, and eats all the calves; the old +woman, on the other hand, has a great liking for milk and butter, with +which she satiates herself. When the old man has eaten all the calves, +he thinks that one cow more or less will not affect his wealth; +reasoning thus, he eats all the cows except one, which he spares out +of respect for the whim of his old wife. But one day that the old +woman is out, the old man cannot resist the temptation, and kills the +last cow. His wife returns, is angry, and abandons him, upon which he +throws after her one of the cow's breasts. The woman, in grateful +memory of the milk and butter she liked so much, takes it up and goes +up the mountain, where she strikes the cow's breast against the summit +of the rock, and thereupon there flow out milk and butter in rivers. +She satisfies her appetite, and then remembers that her husband is +perhaps dying of hunger, feeding, as he does, upon ashes; she +therefore, but secretly, throws butter into the house down the +chimney, and then disappears. In this attention the old man recognises +the love of his wife, and resolves upon the plan of following her +footsteps during the night upon the snow. He comes to the mountain, +sees the breast, and cannot resist the temptation it offers; he eats +it, and takes the butter away with him. The old woman wanders about +till she comes upon a herd of deer, who pasture freely, and who, +instead of fleeing, let themselves be milked. Again, she thinks of her +husband, and she throws deer's butter down the chimney. The old man +follows her over the snow, finds her near the deer, and kills them in +his inordinate passion for meat. The old woman continues to wander +about, and stumbles this time upon a cavern of the wild beasts, +guarded by a hare. The hare defends her from the wild beasts; but she +then conceives the idea of giving her husband a stick, and throws it +down the chimney whilst he is taking the ashes up with a spoon. He +follows her, and comes to the cave of the wild animals, who, seeing +them arrive together, tear them to pieces. Here again we have the myth +of the sun and the aurora (or the fine season); the hare who guards +the cavern and tames the wild beasts is, as we shall see in the +chapter which treats of it, the moon, the cows and the deer being the +same. The ferocious animals of the cavern of night rend both sun and +aurora (or fine season), both old man and old woman. + +The eighteenth Mongol story is too indecent for me to relate, or for +the reader to peruse; suffice it to say, that we have in it a comic +variation of the Amazon heroine, and that this heroine calls herself +Srya (the sun) Bagatur (to which corresponds the bagatr; or hero, of +the Russians). + +In the twentieth tale we have a calf and a lion's whelp brought up +together by a lioness upon the same milk.[332] When grown, the lion +goes and inhabits the forest, or the desert, and the bull, the +mountain illumined by the sun, meeting as good friends and brothers to +drink the same water. This good understanding is, however, put an end +to by their perfidious uncle the fox, who persuades the lion to +believe that the bull designs to kill him, and adds that when the bull +in the morning strikes the ground with his horns, and bellows loudly, +will be the sign that he is going to carry his purpose into effect; he +then tells the bull that the lion has a similar design against him. In +the morning, when the two brothers, bull and lion, go to drink the +same water, they approach each other with suspicion, engage in battle +and kill each other, the fox, or wolf, being the only one to benefit +by the quarrel. This is a form of the story of the two twilights (the +Avinu), which we shall illustrate in the following chapter. + +The beginning of the twenty-first Mongol story offers a new analogy with +the apologue of Perrette.[333] A poor father and mother find a little +lamb's-wool; they consult together, and resolve with the wool to make +cloth, and with the cloth to buy an ass. Upon this ass they will place +their little child, and go a-begging; by begging they will become yet +richer, and buy another ass. Of the two, a young ass will be born. The +youngster immediately exclaims that if a young donkey is born he will +ride upon it; whereupon his mother answers, "You would break its back," +when, accompanying these words with the movement of a stick, she strikes +the youngster's head with it, and kills him; with him the fine projects +of the poor parents also vanish. + +In the last of the stories of _Siddhi-kr_, which is joined to the +three legends of the grateful animals, the disguises, and the laughing +princess, a man uses the horns of his dead buffalo to grub up the +roots upon which he lives in exile. + +The history of _Ardshi-Bordshi_ also contains several interesting +stories. + +It begins with a challenge among the children who keep the king's cows +to run a race from the summit of a mountain. The first who comes to +the winning-post is honoured as a king by his companions for that day, +and acts and judges on the spot where the race takes place as a real +king; indeed, he judges and decides as a court of final appeal on +cases which have not been well examined by the great king of the +country. He unmasks and convicts robbers and false witnesses acquitted +by the king as innocent, and sends a missive to the king, recommending +him to be more cautious in future in his judgments, or else to resign +his royal dignity. The great king wonders at the extraordinary wisdom +of the king of the children, and ascribes his preternatural sagacity +to the magical influence of the mountain where the children who guard +the cows play their games. On another occasion, the king of the +children, by his craftiness, detects a demon in one whom the king had +thought to be the legitimate son of his minister. The discovery is +made by means of a challenge to the minister's real son and his +demoniacal counterfeit to get into a small jug at hand. The real son +cannot; but the supposititious makes himself small and enters the jug, +in which the king of the children shuts him up with a diamond, and +administers thereupon fresh reproof to the great king for his +carelessness. The great king then visits the mountain of the children, +and sees a golden throne with thirty-two steps emerge from the ground; +upon each step there is a wooden puppet (the moon). The great king has +the throne carried into his palace, and endeavours to ascend it; the +puppets arrest him, and one of them tells him that this was once the +throne of the god Indras, and afterwards of King Vikramdityas. The +great king inclines himself in reverence, and one of the puppets +begins to narrate the history of Vikramdityas. + +The history of Vikramdityas, narrated by the puppets, refers to a wise +child, born of the wife of the king, after she had eaten a cake made of +earth mixed with oil, and dissolved in water in a porcelain vase (of +which cake the servant-maid eats the remainder). The young Vikramdityas +passes his infancy in the forests, where he learns all the arts, not +excluding the art of thieving, taught him by the most experienced +robbers, as well as every kind of mercantile fraud; by cheating, he +becomes possessed of an enchanted gem which was in the hip of a dead +man, and of a child who has the faculty of understanding the language of +the wolves, and who calls himself son of the wolves, but was, in fact, +born by the roadside of the maid who had eaten the rest of the cake; +this child is nursed by his mother, and although at first ill-favoured, +becomes in the long run very handsome. Vikramdityas afterwards kills +the king of the demons in battle, in which it is remarkable that as many +new demons arise to combat him as there are pieces into which the hero +cuts the demon, until the hero multiplies himself in his turn, and to +every demon opposes a lion sprung from his own body. Vikramdityas +mounts upon a throne where those who had sat before him had all +perished, each after a reign of twenty-four hours, because they had +omitted to offer up funeral sacrifices to the dead during the night; +Vikramdityas, with his companion, the son of the wolf, fulfils the +sacred duty, and escapes death. + +In the same story, which reminds us of the _Ribhavas_ and the four cups +and the cow, four young shepherds, one after another, work at the same +piece of wood; one gives it the general shape of a woman, the second +colours it, the third imparts the features peculiar to the feminine +form, and the fourth gives it life; they then dispute for her person. +The case is referred to the king; a wise man pronounces that the two +first who worked the wood are the father and mother, the third is the +priest, the fourth, who gave it life, is the legitimate husband. Thus +the four become three, by making a group of the first two. + +Next comes the legend of the wife who, taking her husband by the feet, +makes him fall into a fountain, because she hears a melodious voice, +perhaps an echo of her own, which charms her; she sees a monster +instead, and bewails her lost husband. In zoological mythology, the +fable of the dog who, at the sight of his own shadow, lets the meat +drop into the river, is analogous to this legend, which, however, we +introduce here, only because of its relation to the similar stories of +the wife who kills her husband, and of the husband who kills his wife +by throwing her into the water, already vaguely hinted at in the Vedic +hymns. + +The last of the tales contained in the history of _Ardshi Bordshi_ +shows us, on the other hand, a far too complaisant wife. A king has a +daughter, named Light of the sun, who is to be seen by no one. The +daughter asks to be allowed to go out into the city to walk on the +15th of the month (at full moon); this granted, the king orders every +one to stay that day in his house, and all the doors and windows to be +shut; and capital punishment is the penalty of disobeying the king's +command. (The like occurs again in the British legend of Godiva, the +Countess of Mercia, in the eleventh century.) A minister, Ssaran by +name (moon), cannot repress his curiosity, and observes her from a +balcony; the girl makes signs to him, inviting him to join her; the +wife of the inquisitive minister interprets the signs to him, and +urges him to overtake the beautiful girl, giving him, at parting, a +pearl of recognition. Light of the sun and Light of the moon meet at +the foot of a tree, and spend the night until sunrise in amorous +dalliance. One of the persons employed to guard the princess discovers +this intrigue, and denounces it before the king; the wife of the +minister Ssaran ascertains, by means of the pearl, that her husband is +in danger; she rejoins him, disguises and disfigures him, suggesting a +formula of oath by which Light of the sun swears that it was the +monster, and the monster only she embraced; which seeming impossible +to the king and courtiers, the minister Ssaran and Light of the sun +are acquitted. (The aurora, or the sun, hides during the night, and no +one sees, no one is allowed to see her; the god Lunus shows himself; +he remains during the night with the sun, or with the solar aurora, +whom no one can see during the night; the god Lunus then transforms +and disfigures himself, so that he becomes unrecognisable, invisible; +the guilty one glides away, and escapes; it then seems impossible that +the god Lunus, who is no longer seen, can have been with the light of +the sun; their loves having come to an end, the adulterers being +separated, their guilt is no longer believed, their innocence is +recognised, and the morality of the myth is left to take care of +itself as best it can.) + +But the Calmuc and Mongol stories _Siddhi-kr_, and the history of +_Ardshi Bordshi_, being, as they are, only paraphrases of Hindoo +tales, would not alone suffice to prove the derivation from the +zoological legends of Aryan mythology of the oral Turco-Finnic +tradition, properly speaking. We must, therefore, search for the +proofs of their influence in other quarters as well. + +A Turanian story of the south of Siberia[334] combines together +several of the mythical subjects which we are already acquainted with. + +A poor old man and woman have three sons; the three sons go upon the +mountain to dream; the two eldest dream of riches, and the third dreams +that his father and mother are lean camels, his brothers two hungry +wolves running towards the mountains, while he himself, between the sun +and the moon, wears the morning star upon his forehead. The father +orders the brothers to kill him; they dare not do so; they only expel +him from the house, and kill the dog instead, the blood of which they +take to their father, who, thinking it is his son's, says they have done +well. The young man wanders about till he comes to a hut where a lame +old man and a blind old woman are eating out of a golden cup, which of +itself fills with meat as they empty it (the moon). The hungry youth +helps himself to some of this meat, but the old man finds, as he +continues to eat the food, that some one has put his teeth into it; with +a hook, which he whirls around him, he clutches hold of the young man, +who begs for his life, pledging himself to be the eye of her who has no +eyes, and the foot of him who has no feet. This proposal pleases the old +couple, and they adopt him as their son; he makes himself a bow and a +wooden arrow, and goes to hunt wildfowl for their support. The old man +lends him his iron-grey horse, one day old, but advises him to ride him +only by day; the young man, thinking that by night he conceals +treasures, cattle, and people, disobeys, and rides by night. What the +horse then does we shall see in the next chapter. The youth fights and +vanquishes the demon, by fastening one of his lips to the heavens, and +the other to the earth; the defeated demon advises him to rub himself +with the fat of his stomach; inside his stomach he will find a casket of +silver, inside that a casket of gold, and inside that another casket of +silver; he is to take it and throw it into the sea of milk. From the +monster's stomach, cut open, come forth innumerable animals, men, +treasures, and other objects. Some of the men say, "What noble man has +delivered us from the black night? what noble man has shown us the clear +day?" The youth finds in the caskets money and a white handkerchief, +which he puts into his pocket; from the last casket come forth more men, +animals, and valuables of every kind; he drives the white cattle before +him and returns home, where the old couple are asleep. He opens the +handkerchief, and finds in it the old woman's eyes; whilst he is smoking +near the fire, the old people waken, see him, and embrace him. The old +man then endows him with the power of transforming himself into a fox, a +wolf, a lion, a vulture, and other shapes, at will. He goes, to find for +himself a wife, to the residence of the prince Ai-Kan; the latter +promises to give his daughter to whoever will bring him the necessary +amount of gold. It is in the shape of a vulture[335] that the young man +sets out to search for it; he then wins the young maiden who has the +gold, and she, who is herself the daughter of Ai-Kan, says to him, "Thou +art my husband." After various other transformations, in one of which +the two lean camels reappear, _i.e._, his two parents, of whom he had +dreamt, whom he loads with a sack, he ends by taking to himself another +wife, the daughter of Kn-Kan, and he lives now with one, now with the +other, to whom he gives the flesh of his own infanticide father to eat. +Let us recapitulate the moments of this significant legend:--1st, We +have the presage, the dream of the mountain-peak; 2d, The three +brothers, the third of whom, predestined to good fortune, the others +wish to sacrifice; 3d, The lame and the blind in the forest; 4th, The +hero's hunt; 5th, The struggle with the monster of night; 6th, The +treasures, spiritual and material, which come out of the monster; 7th, +The cattle in conjunction with the sea of milk; 8th, The passage of the +hero from the milky sea to the fireside, from the alba to the aurora, +from the whitish sky to the reddish one; 9th, The awakening of the +sleepers, and restoration of sight to the blind, whilst he sits by the +fire, whilst the sun is united to the aurora; 10th, The transformation +of the hero himself; 11th, Winning his bride, by procuring the necessary +amount of gold; 12th, His marriage of two wives; 13th, His revenge on +his persecuting father. The legend is in itself an epic poem, and we can +only regret that the Altaic story-tellers did not give it a more +artistic form than that in which it appears in the excellent collection +of Radloff. + +Another interesting Turanian story, in the same collection, which +preserves several traces of the primitive myth, is another version of +the story of the hero who solves the riddle proposed by his +father-in-law, and thus wins his wife. A father has three sons; the +first-born dreams that their cow has devoured a wolf; he goes to see, +and finds it is true (the aurora destroys the night). We have already +seen that, as the third brother is the wise child, so the first-born +of the three is often the one who possesses the secret of solving +riddles. The father of the three brothers wishes to obtain a wife for +his first-born son, and the bride's father, to give her up, demands +that the bridegroom's father should come to take her, arriving, the +first time, with a fur-coat and without one (in the morning the old +man, by the advice of the eldest son, departs wearing a coat of fur +which seems to be one, but is not, being in reality a coat of mail), +and coming, the second time, without touching the road, yet not off +the road, on horseback, yet without horses (the old man, by the advice +again of his first-born son, arrives at the father-in-law's abode, +going on the side of the road, and riding on a stick; thus he obtains +permission to take the bride away for his son). + +Professor Schiefner gives a Finnic variation of the same story. A king +orders the son of a peasant to come neither by day nor by night, +neither by the road nor by the road-side, neither on horseback nor on +foot, neither dressed nor naked, neither inside nor outside. The +intelligent boy makes a robe of goat's skin, goes to the city lying +in the bottom of a coffin, during the morning twilight, having a sieve +fastened to one foot, and a brush to the other, and stops on the +doorstep of the antechamber, with one leg out and the other in. + +Such was the humour, and such the wisdom of our fathers; ingenuity was +measured by skill in solving astronomical riddles. Now the riddles have +taken another form; they are strokes of diplomacy, amorous hieroglyphs, +ethical ambiguities, metaphysical nebulosities, which we, the men of +progress, must solve; but not wishing to acknowledge our inferiority in +acuteness to the children of the legends, we are fain to persuade +ourselves that the new riddles are more obscure than the ancient. + +In the Vedic riddles proposed to one another by the aurora and the sun, +we have seen how they were solved in the morning by the nuptials of the +guesser and the guessee. Thus in the two riddles which we have just +described, the son of the old man and the child solve the riddle in the +morning. As to the sieve, the brush, and the coffin, they are mythical +furniture of great interest and obvious import. The nocturnal sky is the +great coffin; to sweep the sky of night, we must have a brush; to sunder +the good grain from the bad during the night, as the cruel mother-in-law +commands, we must have a sieve; the child-sun arrives, in the twilight, +in the bottom of the coffin, at the doorstep of the royal palace, and +presents to the maiden aurora (the Vedic cleaner or purifier) the brush +and the sieve. The sun, at twilight, is neither in nor out. In the +second Scottish story of Mr J. F. Campbell, the giant commands the hero, +among other things, to cleanse, in one day, the stables which had not +been cleansed for seven years (Herakls and Augeias). + +But let us continue our subject, for the path is a long one. + +A Mongol tradition, contained in the _Mongol Crestomathy_ of +Papoff,[336] speaks of the boy who comes riding upon a black ox, +instead of in a coffin. + +We have seen above the cow who eats the wolf; in another Altaic legend +we find an old woman who gives up her seven azure (dark-coloured) cows +to be eaten by the seven wolves, in order that the latter may spare the +child Kan Pdai, whom she had found at the foot of a tree; meanwhile the +child, who has fed upon two hundred hares,[337] has become strong, and +breaks his iron cradle (the iron sky of night is the cradle of the young +sun); from the horns of six roebucks he makes himself a bow; from the +skin of a colossal marine animal (the cloud, the gloomy one), he makes a +string for the bow (the string of the Hindoo bow is also called _go_, +_i.e._, cow, as a cloud in the sky, and as being formed from the hide of +a cow); he rides upon the azure calf (the dark calf, which recalls our +attention to the black ox, and leads us to conclude the colossal animal +to have been a cow), and subdues and tames it; he then comes to a field +of snow, upon which he breathes a black and numbing wind, and where he +finds the seven wolves; he ties them to the tail of his calf, and drags +them along the ground till they die. The boy continues his wild beast +hunt; he kills the black and fat ones, and leaves the yellow and lean +ones alone. He goes into a black sea, and erects there a black castle, +into which he receives both the old woman who had sustained him, and his +azure (_i.e._, dark-coloured) calf. Thereafter the young Kan Pdai, +applying himself to warfare, forsakes or exchanges his calf for a horse. +We shall see in the next chapter what he does with his horse;--suffice +it to notice here, that, in the end, he meets the black bull, who will +one day be the king of the Alta. The soul of the black bull takes +refuge in a red thread in the middle of the rainbow (in the popular +belief of the East the rainbow was supposed to be a bridge, a road +traversed by the souls of mortals); the young Kan Pdai transfixes it +with his arrows. He wins the white cattle, kills the monstrous Kara +Kula, and, taking the latter's wife and daughter with him, returns home; +and for seven days there is eating, drinking, and festivity in the house +of Kan Pdai. But up to this point it is not said that he has espoused +the daughter and the wife of Kara Kula. Kan Pdai is, on the contrary, +passionately enamoured of Tmn k, the daughter of the sky (duhitar +divas, or daughter of the sky, is the name usually given to the aurora +in the Vedic hymns), and ascends, in order to secure her and make her +his wife, to the third heaven (it is the third step of Vishnus; it is +the third brother, the sun of the third night-watch, who carries off the +palm against the gloomy monster). In order to become worthy of the +daughter of the sky, Kan Pdai has to kill two monsters; to scatter +ashes on the field of victory, and lead away from it the white cattle; +to catch the three bears; to take the three black bulls and make them +swallow three hills; to take the tiger and give it the grass of the +three mountains to eat; to kill the whale in the azure sea (all +different forms of one and the same mythical and heroic battle); and, +finally, to play upon the mountain-peak with the golden-haired monster +Andalma. He then obtains his bride, and returns with her to his own +country, where he hunts, and makes war, and vanquishes all his enemies, +until he grows old; he then renounces all except his old companion (the +old sun and the old aurora meet again in the evening). + +Here evidently the mythology is really zoological. + +In the complicated legend of Ai-Kan, we have in the brother Altyn +Ayak, who sleeps in the form of a golden cup, and who awakens to help +Ai-Kan, a figure which, though not the same as, is similar to, that of +the sleeping brother Kumbhakarnas (conch-ear) in the _Rmyanam_, who +awakens to help Rvanas. We have the inebriating liquor which gives +strength to the hero, who is resuscitated three times from death, +after having been the food of dogs; the wolves who devour Sary-Kan, or +the fair-haired prince; the hero (the sun) who beats the wife (the +aurora) given him by the two brothers (the Avinu); the friendly dog +and cat; the golden cup in which the brother of Ai-Kan is shut up +asleep, and which falls into the sea; the grateful animals which +search for the cup; the gem found in the stomach of a fish (from the +whale of the nocturnal ocean the gem comes forth); and the consequent +awakening of the sleeping Altyn Ayak. + +The following is from an Altaic saga, in the collection of +Radloff:--Beyond the sea, on a rock surrounded with treasures, a dwarf +girl is brought up, against whom aggressive warriors can prevail +nothing. She sends all enemies away, after loading them with gold and +silver, and placing on their heads part of the hair of her forehead, +which proves to be sufficient to cover seven men. In this marvellous +hair, in this enchanted maiden, and in the warriors who come by sea, +who does not recognise the veil of the maiden aurora of the Veds, who +uncovers her bosom before the sun her husband, and the sea which the +warrior-sun crosses, and from which he emerges to come to the +aurora?--who does not recognise the golden fleece, Jason, Medea, the +Argonauts of Hellenic tradition? + +In the Finnic mythology of the _Kalevala_[338] also, we have upon the +mountain a good and pure hostess, a generous giver, from the golden +windows of whose house are observed the women who give the wildfowl; +but in this Finnic representation, it is not the heroic girl-aurora, +it seems to me, we recognise, but the moon, Diana the huntress (the +German _Helljger_), who also appears on the mountain-peak, surrounded +by the stars of the nocturnal forest, where the wildfowl is found, +which she can therefore lavish upon the hero. + +The Finns worship a thundering god, united with the clouds, who has +the thunderbolt for his sword, and who is called Ukko,[339] father of +Vinminen, the valorous and wise hero, who speaks in the womb of his +mother, who performs prodigies when yet a child, and who produces the +sun and the moon. + +This child-hero occurs again in their dwarf-god (_pikku mies_), who, +although, like the Hindoo Vishnus, he is but a span long, wields in his +hand an axe the length of a man, with which he cuts down an oak-tree +that no one had yet been able to bring to the ground. The sun-hero is +little; but his ray, his thunderbolt, his weapon, his hand, lengthen +themselves, extend themselves as far as the dwarf-hero can desire, in +order to destroy the enemy, who wears here the well-known aspect of the +trunk of a tree, or of a dark forest. The woodcutter is therefore a +favourite figure in popular tradition. And the fact that Vinminen, +having grown old and truthful in speech, cuts down in the +_Kalevala_,[340] by the help of the little god, the prodigious oak, +shows us that this little god is a new and junior form, a younger and +victorious brother, or self-reproduction of the erewhile child-hero +Vinminen, who has lived his life of a day. The valiant child-sun of +morning has become the experienced old sun of evening; but as this old +sun is not strong enough to cut down the oak-tree, under whose shadow he +loses himself, he is obliged to become a child again to develope the +requisite amount of strength; he needs a younger brother, a hero or +dwarf-god, to free him from the evil shades of the forest of night. To +this end he also invokes the sun and the moon to illumine the forest, +and also the bear (the middle brother)--(in the _Kalevala_, of the three +heroes it is the bear Ilmarinen who shows the greatest strength, and who +wins the virgin for his bride)--in order that by his strength he may +root up the tree. But to root up the tree is all that bears can do, +while Vinminen wishes it to be cut down; and so this victorious +enterprise is intrusted to the dwarf-god. Thus, without explicit mention +of their names, we find the three brothers described in the entirely +mythical epopee of the Finns. + +Alongside of the dwarf, by force of antithesis, there arises, even in +the Finnic mythology, the idea of a giant, a Titan who amuses himself +with uplifting and hurling rocks and mountains. The cloud, the monster +of darkness, being represented as a mountain, the monster inhabiting +this country must fight by means of the mountain itself. The cloudy +mountain moves; it is a giant monster that moves it; it is the second +brother, the strong brother, the son of the cow, the bear, who amuses +himself with it, who shakes, carries, and throws it like a weapon. And +such mythical battles must have seemed so much the more natural in the +age in which the greater number of the myths were conceived and +produced, as we know it to have been the age which archologists call +the age of stone. The sun, as a dwarf, destroys the vast cloud, the +vast darkness, viewed as a giant. + +But battles are not always going on in the heavens; even the wild +animals of the gloomy forest become tame and rest themselves; music +fills the soul with calm sentiments. Therefore even the warrior +Gandharvs of the Hindoo Olympus are transformed into expert +musicians, who entrance the very gods with wonder. The song of the +Sirens attracts and seduces the traveller; the lyre of Orpheus draws +after it mountains, trees, and animals; the harp of Vinminen, in +the _Kalevala_, makes the wolf forget his ferocity, the bear his +wildness, the fish his coldness. And it is grief which is the first +inspirer of song; the first stanza of the poet Vlmkis had its origin +in the sorrow he felt upon seeing a bird bereft of its companion. +Orpheus (the Thracian sun) sings and plays for grief, when the serpent +(the shade of night) has bitten and thrown into the gloomy regions his +sweet bride Eurydice (the aurora), and moves the demons to pity; the +harp of Vinminen is also born of sorrow.[341] + +The epopee of the Finns contains, moreover, several other myths cognate +with those of Aryan mythical tradition;--such as the resuscitated hero; +the winning of the maiden by display of heroism; the bride heroically +won and afterwards cut in pieces; the cup of abundance, or the +cornucopia (the Sampo); the golden cradle; the marvellous vessel in +which the hero crosses the sea; the three sisters, of whom one gives +black milk, one white, and one red (night, the alba or moon, and +aurora); the invulnerable shirt; the magician who makes children of gold +and silver; and others of secondary importance,[342] but all tending to +prove that formerly the Turanian and Aryan races, in their neighbouring +abodes, were originally much more similar to each other than they now +appear, on account of partly diversity of language, and partly their +different degrees of civilisation. + +I have just named the Finnish Sampo as a cup of abundance or +cornucopia; it does, in fact, yield marvellous abundance to whoever +possesses it, and wherever it falls. It is made of the feather of a +swan, or of a duck (the swan and the duck are, as we shall see, +confounded together in tradition, and the duck, like the hen, is a +symbol of abundance), of a tuft of wool, of a grain of corn, and of +chips from a spindle, all evident symbols of abundance; and it becomes +so large that it has to be carried by a hundred-horned ox (reminding +us of the horns of the cow which spin). The ox bears abundance upon +its horns, it yields abundance from its horns. The cornucopia is, in +my mind, unmistakably implied in these mythical data. + +The same mythical correspondence which we have found to exist between +the Finnic epos and the various legendary Aryan traditions is observable +between the latter and the Esthonian popular tales. In the collection of +Frederic Kreuzwald[343] we find numerous proofs of this correspondence. + +In the first story we have, in a hut in the forest, three sisters, of +whom the youngest is the most beautiful. The old witch, her +step-mother, persecutes her, and always gives her filaments of gold to +spin, hiding from time to time the gold she has spun in a secret room. +During the summer the old woman goes out of the house, no one knows +where, after having apportioned their respective tasks to the three +sisters. While the old woman is out, a young prince, having lost +himself in the forest, finds his way to the hut, and becomes enamoured +of the youngest of the three sisters. The young couple speak to each +other of love in the light of the moon and of the stars; while the old +king, impatient at the absence of his son, falls into grief, and sends +everywhere to look for him. After three days he is found; before going +back to the palace, he secretly promises to the youngest sister that +he will return. Meanwhile the old woman comes back, finds the work +badly done, curses, threatens, and maltreats the girl. Early in the +morning, while the old woman and the two elder sisters are slumbering, +the maiden slips out, and leaves the house. During her childhood she +had learned the language of birds; accordingly, when she meets a crow, +she salutes him by the name of "bird of light," and sends him as a +messenger to the young prince, to warn him not to come back to see +her, on account of the fury of the old woman. The prince then names +her another trysting-place, and the young couple meet under a tree, +between the second and third crowing of the cock; and when the sun +rises, they flee away together. The old witch causes them to be +followed by a ball made of nine evil herbs, and carried by malignant +winds. The fugitives are overtaken on the banks of a river, where the +ball strikes the prince's horse; it rears up on its hind legs, and the +girl falls off into the river, into the hands of a marine monster; +upon which the prince is struck by a disease which no one can cure. By +eating the flesh of a hog, the prince acquires a knowledge of the +language of birds; he sends the swallows as messengers to the magician +of Finland, that he may teach him the way to free a girl who has been +transformed into a pond-rose (lotus-flower). The answer, instead of +being brought by the swallows, is brought by an eagle. The prince must +become a shrimp, in order to enter the water without being drowned; he +must detach the lotus by its root, draw it along the surface of the +water to the bank, near a stone, and pronounce these words, "From the +pond-rose, a maiden--from the shrimp, a man." The crow confirms the +eagle's words. The prince hears a song issue from the rose; he then +determines to deliver the girl. The two young people emerge together +from the water. The maiden is ashamed of being naked, and the prince +goes to procure nuptial robes for her; after which he conducts her to +the palace in a beautiful chariot, where a joyous and gorgeous +wedding-festival is celebrated. Soon afterwards the old witch dies, to +appear again in the form of a cat, which is taken by the tail and +flung into the fire. In the witch's house are found mountains of spun +gold, which serve for the dowry of the three sisters. We have already +said that the three sisters correspond to the three brothers, and the +youngest sister to the youngest brother. The epithet of _young_ is +often given to the Vedic aurora, whom the sun marries. Here the prince +marries the youngest of the three sisters; the morning aurora is +united to the sun. Towards night she falls into the water; it is the +witch (night) who throws her in; the hog which the prince (the sun) +eats we shall see to be a figurative representation of the nocturnal +monster, or the moon. Eating the hog, staying in the forest of night, +the prince learns the language of birds. The prince frees the maiden +from the waters; the sun delivers the aurora from the gloomy ocean of +night, and robes her in his splendour, causing the witch of night to +be burned in the flames of the aurora, and taking from the witch's +abode the spun gold or golden fleece. + +In the third Esthonian story, a woman, called mother-of-gold, bears, +by the favour of a dwarf, three dwarf-sons at the same time, who +become three heroes. The first is the seer (the wise brother), the +second has a ready arm (the strong brother), the third runs swiftly in +the race (a quality distinctive of the third brother, Argunas, in the +_Mahbhratam_, and which is applicable to the victorious sun of +morning, who wins the race, together with the aurora). + +A variation of the story relating to the youngest sister and the dwarf +is that of the girl seven years old, the wise girl (the aurora), in the +fourth Esthonian tale, who, being persecuted by her step-mother, retires +into the forest (the night). While there, it seems to her that she is in +heaven, where, in a house of crystal and pearls, she is received by a +well-dressed woman of gold (the fair-haired moon). The girl asks the +golden woman to be allowed to take care of the cattle, like the cowmaid +aurora. In the history of _Ardshi Bordshi_ we have seen the wise +puppet. This form of the wise girl, the dressed girl of wood, occurs +again in the Esthonian story; in which she is made of wood from the +forest, of three anchovies, of bread, of a black serpent, and of the +blood of the girl herself, to whom the image has a great likeness, and +which may be beaten by the old step-mother without being hurt. From the +forest-tree, wood, or wooden box of the night, with the juice of the +black serpent of night and the blood of the girl aurora of evening, +comes forth the maiden aurora of morning, the wise, the speaking puppet, +the puppet who guesses the riddles. The girl who comes out of wood is +represented as a wooden puppet; more frequently the puppet is the moon, +the wise fairy who comes out of the forest. In the same story we have +the magic rod which produces a cock upon the mountain, beside which a +tablecloth spreads itself out, while the chairs range themselves in +their places, and the dishes are filled of their own accord. The story +ends with the usual marriage between the beautiful maiden, and a king's +son returning from the chase (or the son who comes out of the forest of +night, viewed as infested by ferocious animals). + +In the sixth Esthonian tale, the poor girl finds a woman in a white +robe (the moon), adorned with gold, upon a rock near a fountain, who +announces her approaching marriage with a youth as poor as herself; +but the good fairy godmother--for in the legends the godmother is +represented as good, as the stepmother is wicked--promises to make +them both rich and happy. She calls herself the lady of the waters, +secret wife of the wind, and she judges the criminals who present +themselves at her tribunal (Proserpina or Persephon). + +In the seventh tale, a boy nine years of age, the third son of two +poor people, goes out to be a cowherd; his master treats him well, but +his mistress gives him more floggings than bread. One day the young +cowherd is unfortunate enough to lose a cow; he searches for it all +through the forest, but in vain. He re-enters the house with the +cattle, after the sun has set some time. The observant eye of his +mistress perceives at once that there is a cow missing; she beats the +boy without pity, and sends him out to look for it, threatening to +kill him if he returns without it. He wanders through the forest; but +when the sun arises from out the bosom of the dawn, he resolves to +stay out of the house, and not to return to his persecutor (the young +morning sun flees from the old and perverse night). In the evening, +the boy finds an old dwarf, who is his host during the night (the +moon), and who says to him, "When the sun rises to-morrow, carefully +observe the spot in which he rises. Thou must go in that direction, so +that every morning thou may'st have the sun before thee, and every +evening the sun behind thee. Thus thy strength will increase more and +more every day." How can one indicate better the apparent course of +the solar hero, or of the sun in the night? The hero, in order to go +towards the morning sun, must necessarily have the sun of evening +behind him. The old dwarf also gives him a sack and a little barrel, +in which he will always find the food and drink he requires; but he +recommends him never to eat or drink more than is necessary, that he +may have to give to a hungry bird or a thirsty wild beast. He also +leaves him a rolled-up leaf of burdock, upon which, by rolling it out, +he will always be able to cross water (a new form of the cup). We know +how the Hindoos represented their god as floating upon a lotus-leaf in +the midst of the waters, and how Padmagas (born of the lotus-flower, +or the rose of the waters, which shuts during the night) was one of +the names of Brhman; here we have the god or hero shutting himself up +in the flower, from which he afterwards comes out. In the chapters on +the Serpent and the Frog we shall again see how the god sometimes +shuts himself up in a monstrous form in this flower, the rose, on +account of a curse from which he is to be freed by a beautiful maiden. +We have seen how the Esthonian girl, who was by the curse of the old +woman thrown into the water, was transformed into a water-rose or +lotus-flower, and delivered by the young prince. The Esthonian boy +finds himself before a small lake; he throws the leaf in, and it +becomes a magical boat, which carries him over. Meanwhile he has +become strong. Upon the mountain he sees a serpent, a tortoise, and an +eagle, all three of enormous dimensions, approaching to attack him, +with a man upon a black horse, which has wings on its feet, in the +rear of them. He kills the serpent and the tortoise, but the eagle +flies away. The man with the black horse takes the boy into his house, +and appoints him to look after the dogs, that they may not get loose +from their chains, a danger against which the man provides by making +twelve colossal oxen fetch rocks upon rocks, to repair the damage done +by the dogs. The rocks, touched by a magical rod, arrange themselves +upon the car drawn by the oxen. At last, by the advice of the eagle, +he steals his master's horse, and departs to sojourn among mankind, +taking a wife with him. + +In the eighth Esthonian story too, the third brother is the cunning one. +His two elder brothers, after the death of their father, despoil him of +his share of the inheritance, and he is reduced to wander alone and +impoverished about the world in quest of good fortune. He falls in with +a woman who complains to him that her husband regularly beats her when +she is unable to procure for him the things he wants, which he asks for +in the form of a riddle. The third brother solves the enigma for the +woman (the moon), who, in gratitude, gives him provisions for his +travels. He then comes to a palace, where the king is engaged in +celebrating a summer festival, and he undertakes to provide and prepare +the feast. A magician presents himself at the festival in the shape of +an old man, and asks to taste the food. The young man suspects him, but, +seeing a ring upon his finger, he consents to allow him if he gives him +a pledge. The magician vows that he has nothing to give. The youth asks +for his ring, and the old man in his gluttony at once gives it up; upon +which the youth, who, along with the ring, has taken all the magician's +strength away, first binds and derides him, and then has him beaten by +seven strong men. The old man breaks the ropes and disappears; however, +the young man, having the ring in his hands, possesses the means of +tracking his footsteps and making him his. (This is the usual disc, +lasso, or bridle which is now in the hands of the hero, now in those of +the monster.) The youth follows the magician underground. The latter, it +appears, is served by three maidens, who, when they perceive that the +sorcerer has lost his ring, and that they have a young man for +companion, enjoy themselves with him while the magician is asleep. The +youth learns from them that the old wizard also possesses a sword which +can destroy armies, and a magical rod which can create a bridge to span +the sea; these, therefore, he steals, and departs, returning by a +wonderful bridge thrown over the sea to the palace whence he had +started. It seems to him as if his journey had lasted only two nights, +instead of which a year has passed.[344] He finds on his arrival his +two brothers in the king's service, one as coachman and the other as a +valet, both enriched because they have received the pay due to their +younger brother for having prepared the great feast. The young man now +engages himself in another capacity, in a species of service especially +dear to the young hero, next to those of stable-boy and cowherd; that is +to say, he becomes under-cook of the king. (In the _Vrta-Parvam_ of +the _Mahbhratam_, it is the second of the brothers who disguises +himself as a cook, in order to prepare good sauces and substantial food +for the king whose guest he is; the elder brother is disguised as a +Brhmanas, a wise adviser; the third brother, Argunas, the agile, the +swift one, pretends to be a eunuch, is given in exchange for a woman, +and teaches dancing, music, and singing in the gynecium. Of the two sons +of the Avinu, one becomes a groom, the other a cowherd.) His brothers +continue to dislike him, and because he boasts to them that he had seen +in hell golden birds, they induce the king to send him to hell in order +to procure them. He accomplishes this undertaking with great difficulty, +and brings the birds in a sack made of spiders' webs, which is so strong +that the birds enclosed in it cannot extricate themselves. In the same +sack, during another expedition, the young man brings from hell many +precious objects of gold and silver. In compensation, he only asks of +the king to send the princess, his daughter, to listen for one evening +to the conversation of his two brothers the coachman and the valet. Both +boast of having enjoyed to satiety the favours of the princess. The +latter, indignant and full of shame, runs to tell the king everything, +upon which he arraigns them before him and has them judged. The third +brother is named Counsellor; with his enchanted sword he destroys an +entire army of enemies, and obtains in reward for his services and his +valour the king's daughter to wife. + +The ninth Esthonian story presents to us the son of the thunder, who +sells his soul to the devil, on condition that the latter serves him +for seven years. The time agreed upon is nearly come to an end, and +the son of the thunder wishes to escape from him, and profits by an +opportunity which has chanced. The devil sees a black cloud, which is +a sign of an approaching tempest; he is afraid, hides himself under a +stone, and asks the son of the thunder to keep him company. The latter +consents; but seeing that the devil is afraid, at each thunderclap he +presses his ears and eyes in such a manner as to make him perspire and +shiver all over. The devil, believing this to be the effect of the +thunder, promises the son of the thunder that he will not only leave +him his soul, but give him three other souls, if he will deliver him +from the evils which he suffers on account of the thunder, by taking +from the thundering god, the father of the clouds, his weapon (which +is also a musical instrument). This weapon, having been ravished from +the god, is taken by the devil into hell, into a chamber of iron, shut +up within seven castles. A great drought coming upon the earth, the +son of the thunder repents of having rendered such a service to the +devil; he finds means, however, of informing the thunder-god where his +weapon is concealed. The thunder-god then becomes a child, and engages +himself in the service of a fisherman, near a lake which the devil is +accustomed to visit to steal the fishes. He surprises him in the act +of robbery, and by the help of a magician takes him prisoner, and has +him beaten without pity, until he promises to pay a heavy ransom in +money to be let free, the fisherman and his child to accompany him to +hell itself to receive the sum of money. Arrived in hell, the devil +entertains them like a gentleman. The child tells the fisherman to ask +the devil to show them the musical instrument which he keeps enclosed +in the iron room. The devil kindly consents, but cannot draw from the +instrument anything more musical than the mewing of a cat or the +grunting of a pig. The fisherman then laughs at the devil, and says +that his boy can play better. The devil does not believe it, and +laughingly gives the instrument, which he calls bagpipes, to the boy. +The latter blows into them and makes such a noise that all hell +resounds with it, and the devils fall to the earth as if dead. The +child then becomes the god of thunder again, and returns to heaven, +where by the noise of his instrument he opens the celestial reservoirs +and lets out the beneficent rain. The description of the tempest which +occurs in many Vedic hymns is the germ of this interesting myth. The +drum or kettledrum thunder is a familiar image in Hindoo poetry, and +the Gandharvs, the musician-warriors of the Hindoo Olympus, have no +other instrument than the thunder. The conch of the warrior Pndavs +in the _Mahbhratam_, and the famous horn of Orlando (which comes +from the golden horn of Odin), are epical reminiscences of thunder. +Orpheus, who in hell plays on his lyre and tames the animals, is a +more lucid and more perfect form of this Esthonian thunder-god who +plays the bagpipes in hell. It is also remarkable how, in harmony with +the pastoral bagpipes, in the tenth Esthonian story, which is a +variation of the preceding one, the god transformed into a powerful +boy is called a little shepherd or cowherd--another interesting fact, +which completes his identification with Orpheus.[345] The magic flute +is a variation of the same celestial musical instrument. The magic +flute, the bagpipes or wonderful pipe, occurs again in the +twenty-third Esthonian story, in which the good Tiidu, by means of it +and of his virtue, obtains riches. The magical harp of Gunnar in the +Edda has the same marvellous effects. + +Evidently the monster-dwarf is a favourite subject of Esthonian +tradition, and it often occurs in the Hindoo and in the German +traditions, as well as in the Franco-Latin tradition of Charlemagne. +The eleventh story introduces us to three dwarf-brothers who contend +for the inheritance left by their father, consisting of a miraculous +hat, which enables its wearer to see everything, whilst he can himself +be visible or invisible at pleasure (this hat is made of pieces of +men's nails cut up);[346] of a pair of slippers which transport the +owner in an instant wherever he wishes (we must not forget that +Cinderella, when she loses the slipper, is overtaken by the prince +bridegroom); and of a stick which strikes of itself, and destroys +everything, even stronger than the thunderbolt (the thunderbolt +itself). The three brothers maintain that these three articles, to be +really useful, must be the property of one; but who is to enjoy this +privilege? A man comes up to put an end to the dispute, and feigns +disbelief in the virtue of these three things, unless he proves it +himself. The three simpletons give them to him that he may prove them. +The man takes them off, and the three dwarfs are left to meditate upon +the truth of the above-quoted proverb, "Between two disputers the +third profits," or at least that variation of it which their own case +suggests "Between three that dispute, the fourth profits." + +In the thirteenth Esthonian story, the privileged character of the +third brother is explained, as we are told that he is the son of a +king, but was exchanged by a witch during his infancy for the child of +a peasant. The latter died in the palace, whilst the king's son grew +in the hut, showing in every action his royal pedigree. Here we have +the story of the hero who is exposed on the mountains intimately +connected with that of the third brother. To this third brother, who +alone shows himself to be devoted to his father, and who alone makes a +vow to watch by his grave, is also attributed the merit of having +delivered, upon a high mountain of crystal, from a seven years' sleep, +a princess, who then becomes his wife. We have seen the +aurora-awakener in the Vedic hymns--the sun and the aurora arouse each +other: the sun sends forth the aurora; the aurora draws out the sun. +The myth reproduces itself every day, and expresses in its entirety a +daily phenomenon of light in the heavens. In Northern countries, where +the contrast is great between winter and spring, and therefore the +impression is striking which is caused by the cessation of vegetation +in autumn, the earth also assumed the aspect of a dead young princess; +but an omniscient magician having said, _Non est mortua puella, sed +dormit_, the third brother, predestined to the enterprise, lays down +his poor robes, and dresses himself, on the first occasion, in the +colour of bronze; on the second, the colour of silver; on the third, +the colour of gold, and ascends the mountain of crystal, or ice, +whence he brings forth the beautiful spring. The sky, grey in autumn, +snowy in winter, and golden in spring, corresponds to the grey sky of +evening, the silver one of night, and the golden one of morning. +Spring is the dawn of the year; the primitive myth is but amplified; +the last hour of the day awakens the aurora; the last month of the +solar year awakens the spring. The application of the myth of the day +to the year is one of the greatest simplicity. + +In the fourteenth story, the king of the golden country loses himself in +the forest full of ferocious animals, and cannot find his way out. A +stranger (no doubt the devil) conducts him out, on condition that he +will give him whatever first comes to meet him. The king promises. The +first thing he sees on his return is his royal child, who, carried by +his nurse, stretches out his arms to his father. The king exchanges him +for a peasant's girl, whom he gives up to the stranger, allowing his own +son to be brought up among the peasant's herds. The king's son, having +grown to manhood, determines to go and deliver the poor girl. He +disguises himself as a poor man, puts a sack of peas on his shoulders, +and goes into the forest where his father was lost eighteen years +before. He also loses himself, and meets the stranger, who promises to +direct him if he will give him the peas which are in the sack, as they +will serve, he alleges, to recompense the assistants at the funeral of +his aunt, who died in poverty during the night.--This pulse in funeral +ceremonies refers to a very ancient custom. The Vedic ceremonials +already mention them in connection with funerals; and in the Greek +belief, the dead carried vegetables with them to hell, either for the +right of passage or as provisions for travelling. In Piedmont, it is +still the custom on the second of November (All Soul's Day) to make a +great distribution of kidney-beans to the poor, who pray for the souls +of the dead. Vegetables, peas, vetches, and kidney-beans are symbols of +abundance, and to this belief may be traced the numerous Indo-European +stories in which mention is made of beans which multiply themselves in +the pipkin, or of peas which grow up to the sky, and up the stalk of +which the hero climbs to heaven. The vegetables necessary for being +introduced into the kingdom of the dead, and the pea by means of which +the hero enters heaven, are variations of the same mythical subject. In +Hindoo tradition, besides the pea or kidney-bean, we have the pumpkin as +a symbol of abundance, which is multiplied infinitely, or which mounts +up to heaven. The wife of the hero Sagaras gives birth to a pumpkin, +from which afterwards come forth sixty thousand sons. The kidney-bean, +the pea, the vetch, the common bean, and the pumpkin are also symbols of +generation, not only on account of the facility with which they +multiply, but also on account of their form. We have seen in the Vedic +ceremonials what organs are represented by the two kidney-beans; we +shall also see, in the chapter on the Ass, how the names given to the +organs of generation are also used to designate fools. Now, it is worthy +of notice that the Sanskrit word _mshas_ (or kidney-bean) also +signified the foolish, the stolid one, in the same way as in Piedmont a +_bonus vir_ is called a kidney-bean. Thus, too, the pumpkin, which +expresses fecundity, also means, in Italian, idiocy or stupidity. As to +beans, I have already remarked, in my work upon "Nuptial Usages," upon +their symbolical meaning, and cited the Russian and Piedmontese custom +of putting a black and a white bean into the cake eaten at Epiphany, one +of which represents the male and the other the female, one the king and +the other the queen. The two who find the beans kiss each other with +joyful auguries. As all these vegetables personify the moon, which we +know to be considered as a giver of abundance, and which, by its form of +a turning ball, can well be represented by the turning pea, in this +personification we must search for the solution of the principal myths +relating to vegetables.--The young prince of the Esthonian story, having +obtained the stranger's favour in the gloomy forest by means of the +peas, engages himself in his service, with intent to deliver the girl +who had freed him by taking his place with the stranger during eighteen +years. He therefore follows him; but on the way he lets a pea fall to +the ground from time to time, in order to know the way back. He is +conducted by a strange and wild subterranean passage, where silence as +of the tomb reigns--it is, in fact, the kingdom of the dead--where birds +have the appearance of wishing to sing, dogs to bark, and oxen to low, +but cannot, and where the water flows without a murmur. The young prince +feels in his heart a kind of anguish; the universal stillness in the +midst of animated beings oppresses him. Having passed the region of +silence, they come to that of deafening noise. The young prince thinks +he hears the excruciating din of twenty-four saws at work; but the old +stranger tells him that it is only his grandmother who has fallen +asleep, and is snoring. At last they come to the stranger's dwelling, +where the prince finds the beautiful maiden, but the old stranger will +not let him speak. He sees in the stable a white horse and a black cow, +with a white or luminous-headed calf. This cow the young prince is +ordered to milk until there is not a drop of milk in its breast; instead +of milking it with his fingers, he, by the advice of the girl, uses for +that purpose red-hot pincers. Another time the youth is told to lead +away the enchanted calf with the white or luminous head. In order that +it may not escape, the girl gives him a magic thread, of which one end +is to be tied to the left leg of the calf, and the other to the little +toe of the prince's left foot.--The little finger, although the +smallest, is the most privileged of the five. It is the one that knows +everything; and in Piedmont, when the mothers wish to make their +children believe that they are in communication with a mysterious spy, +who sees everything that they do, they are accustomed to awe them by the +words, "My little finger tells me everything."--At last the two young +people resolve to flee. Before starting, the prince splits open the +forehead of the white-headed calf; from its skull comes forth an +enchanted little red ball, which shines like a small sun. He wraps it +up, leaving part of it uncovered to light the way, and flees away with +the girl. Being followed by malignant spirits, who are sent by the old +man to follow them, the two fugitives, by means of the enchanted little +ball (or pearl), turned round three times, become, first the one a pond +and the other a fish, then the one a rose-bush and the other a rose, +then again the one a breeze and the other a gnat, until the stone which +covers the entrance to the subterranean world having been lifted up, +they arrive again safe and happy upon the earth; and by means of the +little red ball, they show themselves to mankind in splendid and +princely robes. I scarcely think it necessary to explain to the reader +the sense of this lucid mythical story. The black cow which produces the +calf with the white or luminous head is a Vedic antithesis which we have +already seen;[347] the cow (night) produces the calf (the moon). The +prince takes the little red ball out of the calf; by means of this ball, +the girl is delivered from the regions of gloom. The little ball moves +the stone; the sun and the aurora come out together from the mountain, +after having travelled together in the kingdom of shadows; the sun +delivers the aurora. This story unites together and puts in order +several myths of an analogous character, but born separately. + +The three next stories describe other voyages made by the solar hero to +heaven, or in hell, and end by meaning the same thing. In the eighteenth +story we again find the enchanted ring, called Solomon's ring, which the +young hero goes to search for; when he finds it, by taking it from the +daughter of hell, and puts it on his finger, he is of a sudden endowed +with such strength that he can split a rock with one blow of his fist. +The little red ball of the story just described, which lifts up the +rock, and this ring which splits the stone, represent the same mythical +object, _i.e._, the sun, the sun's ball or disc. + +The twenty-first story shows us the fearless hero who frees a castle +from the presence of the demons, and who thus gains a treasure; riches +are the reward of valour. + +The twentieth Esthonian story is a variation of the exceedingly +popular tale of Blue Beard, the killer of his wives. The Esthonian +monster-husband has already killed eleven, and is about to murder the +twelfth, by way of punishing her for having, against his express +prohibition, visited the secret room opened by the golden key (perhaps +the moon), when a youth who takes care of the goslings, the friend of +her childhood, comes to deliver her. From the subject itself, and the +expressions used in this story, we can discover the origin of the +terrible charivari in the nuptials of widowers or widows. This savage +custom is intended not only to deride the lust of the old man or woman +who marries again, but to warn the girl who marries the one, or the +youth who marries the other, of the possibility of a fate similar to +the first wife or husband. When, therefore, the wife _apatighn_ (who +does not kill her husband) is praised to the Vedic husband, we must +understand that the _patighn_ (or killer of her husband) is a widow, +whom no one must marry, as being suspected of murder. Hence, to free +herself from this suspicion, an honest Hindoo wife (like Gudrun in the +Edda) was to throw herself into the fire after the death of her +husband; the evening aurora, after the death of the sun, dies too. + +In the twenty-second story we have once more the myth of the young +pastoral hero; he is the son of a king. By the order of his +step-mother, a witch, who carries off shepherds, steals him from the +palace during his infancy, and abandons him in a solitary place, where +he is brought up by cowherds, and becomes himself an excellent +cowherd. An old man finds him and says, looking at him and at the +cattle, "Thou dost not seem to me born to remain a cowherd." The boy +answers that he knows he was born to command, and adds, "Here I learn +the duties of a commander by anticipation. If things go well with the +quadrupeds, I shall also prosper with bipeds." The shepherd is +therefore a little king; a good shepherd will become a good king. The +boy goes through several adventures, in which he displays his valour. +A wicked German lady wishes to take from him the strawberries which he +has plucked. He defends himself bravely; his mistress persecutes him; +and he takes twelve wolves, shuts them up in a cavern, and each day +gives them a lamb to eat, in order to avenge himself upon his wicked +mistress, to whom he simply says that the wolves have devoured them. +At last he causes her to be devoured herself by the wolves, who eat +her all up, leaving only the heart (the sun) and the tongue, which are +too full of venom for the wolves of the night, because they burn their +mouths. At the age of eighteen, the youth has several other +adventures. He becomes enamoured of a gardener's daughter, and is +found again by the king his father, who, before allowing him to marry +the beautiful gardener's daughter, wishes to prove that they are +predestined to each other. He cuts a ring in two with his sword, and +gives one part to the young prince and the other to the maiden; the +two halves must be preserved by both, and one day they will meet of +themselves and form again the whole ring, in such a manner that it +will be impossible to find the place where it was broken.--In a Tuscan +story, the beautiful maiden gives half her necklace to the third +brother. The young couple lose each other; their meeting again and +mutual recognition take place when the two parts of the necklace join +each other. The use of the wedding-ring has a mythical origin. The +solar (and sometimes the lunar disc) is the ring which unites the +heavenly husband and wife.--When, after other adventures, the two +young people of the Esthonian story join together the two halves of +their ring, their misfortunes come to an end; they marry and live +together happily, whilst the cruel step-mother, who meanwhile has +become a widow, is expelled from the kingdom. + +The last Esthonian story tells of the extraordinary births, in the same +day, of a handsome prince and a beautiful princess. The princess is born +in a bird's egg, laid like a pearl in the bosom of the queen; she has at +first the form of a living puppet, and afterwards, when warmed in wool, +she becomes a real girl. Whilst she undergoes this transformation, the +queen also gives birth to a beautiful boy. The two children are +considered as twins, and baptized together. To the baptism of the girl +there comes as godmother, in a splendid chariot drawn by six horses, a +young woman dressed in rose-coloured and golden robes, who shines like +the sun, and who, as she lets her veil drop, like the beautiful Argive +Helen, fills the bystanders with admiration. [The aurora, who, before +appearing in the form of a beautiful girl, is enclosed in the wood of +the forest, is a wooden puppet, and becomes a wooden puppet once more +when, fleeing from the sun, she hides herself in a creeping-plant, like +the Hindoo Urva (the first of the dawns), or in a laurel-plant, like +the Hellenic Daphne (the Vedic Dahan-aurora). The aurora is born +together with the sun; the beautiful doll-maiden is born with the little +prince. The mother and the beneficent godmother seem to be the moon, or +a more ancient aurora.] The mother, dying, leaves her daughter, putting +it upon her breast, a gem which is to bring her happiness; that is, the +little basket which contained the bird's egg, with the eggshell itself. +By means of the magical little basket, and by pronouncing some magic +words, the maiden can find all that she searches or wishes for. The +young man and woman end by marrying each other, having discovered that, +although both born of a king, they are children of different fathers; +they marry, and the little basket of happiness mysteriously disappears. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[267] _Anquetil du Perron, Zendavesta_, ii. p. 545. + +[268] Misit itaque Deus justissimus citissime Angelum Behman quasi +esset fumus (jubendo): Ito et bovem rubrum accipiens mactato in nomine +Dei qui prudentiam dat; eumque coquito in aceto veteri, et cave +accurate facias, allio ac rut, superadditis; et in nomine Dei ex olla +effundito: deinde coram eo adpone ut comedat. Cumque portiunculam +panis in llud friasset, Diabolus ille maledictus inde aufugit, abiit, +evanuit et disparuit, nec deinde, illum aliquis postea vidit; +_Sadder_, p. 94.--The Russian peasants still believe that a household +devil, the damavoi, enters into the stable, who, during the night, +mounts on horses and oxen and makes them sweat and grow lean.--Cfr. +also, on the _Damavoi_, Ralston's _Songs of the Russian people_, +London, 1872, pp. 119-139. + +[269] Cfr. Spiegel's _Avesta_, vol. ii.; _Einleitung_, vii. + +[270] Cfr. Spiegel's _Avesta_, vol. ii. 21. + +[271] x. 11. + +[272] xxix. + +[273] Cfr. Spiegel's _Avesta_, vol. ii. p. 8. + +[274] xix. 99-101. Professor Spiegel translates "Mit dem Hunde, mit +Entscheidung, mit Vieh, mit Strke, mit Tugend, diese bringt die +Seelen der Reinen ber den Harabezaiti hinweg: ber die Brcke Chinvat +bringt sie das Heer der himmlischen Yazatas." + +[275] Cows and calves, as a funeral gift, are spoken of in the _Khorda +Avesta_, li. 15, Spiegel's version. + +[276] Cfr. also the Tistrya with a whole eye of the _Khorda Avesta_ of +Spiegel, p. 9, and all the _Tistar Yast_ in the _Khorda Avesta_, xxiv. +If Tistar is the moon, Tistrya would appear to perform the same duties +as the good fairy--that is, of showing, by means of her good eyes, her +good eyesight, and her splendour, the way to the lost heroes. The +Hindoo cow of Vasishthas, which yields every good thing, and which +then fights in the clouds against Vivmitras, would sometimes appear +to be the moon veiled by the rainy cloud; thus we can explain the +rain-giving character of the star Tistrya, which, according to the +_Bundehesh_, by raining ten days and ten nights, destroyed the +monsters of dryness created by the demon Agro-mainyus. + +[277] xxxix. 1. + +[278] xvii. 25. + +[279] Spiegel's version, p. 149.--Cfr. the three litanies for the body +and soul of the cow, in the fragments of the same vol. p. 254. + +[280] _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's version, _Einl._ x. + +[281] Spiegel's version, p. 4. + +[282] These are the exact terms used by Spiegel:--"Dieser opferte der +frhere Vifra-navza, als ihn aufrief der siegreiche, starke +Thraetaona, in der Gestalt eines Vogels, eines Kahrka. Dieser flog +dort whrend dreier Tage und dreier Nchte hin zu seiner eigenen +Wohnung, nicht abwrts, nicht abwrts gelangte er genhrt. Er ging +hervor gegen die Morgenrthe der dritten Nacht, der starken, beim +Zerfliessen der Morgenrthe und betete zur Ardv ra, der +fleckenlosen; Ardv ra, fleckenlose! eile mir schnell zu Hlfe, +bringe nun mir Beistand, ich will dir tausend Opfer mit Haoma und +Fleisch versehene, gereinigte, wohl ausgesuchte, bringen hin zu dem +Wasser Ragha, wenn ich lebend hinkomme zu der von Ahura geschaffenen +Erde, hin zu meiner Wohnung. Es lief herbei Ardv ra, die +fleckenlose, in Gestalt eines schnen Mdchens, eines sehr krftigen, +wohlgewachsenen, aufgeschrzten, reinen, mit glnzendem Gesichte, +edlen, unten am Fusse mit Schuhen bekleidet, mit goldnem Diadem auf +dem Scheitel. Diese ergriff ihm am Arme, bald war das, nicht lange +dauerte es, dass er hinstrebte krftig zu von Ahura geschaffenen Erde, +gesund, so unverletzt als wie vorher, zu seiner eignen Wohnung;" +_Khorda Avesta_, pp. 51, 52. + +[283] Welche zuerst den Wagen fhrt; _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's +version, p. 45. + +[284] Professor Spiegel says, however, "Vom Aufgang der Sonne bis +Tagesanbruch," which in a note he explains, "Vom Sonnenaufgang bis +Mitternacht," which it appears to us cannot stand scrutiny, any more +than the conclusion inferred from this, that the sacrifice was to be +made "den ganzen Tag hindurch." Zarathustra would not have been obliged +to ask the precise time at which to sacrifice to the goddess, if she was +to answer him in such a general way. What occasion is there to pray in +midday, in full daylight, that the darkness may be dispersed?--If there +be any equivoque, it can only be, in my opinion, in the rather frequent +exchange of the maiden Aurora and the fairy Moon. + +[285] Cfr. _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's version, pp. 7, 27. + +[286] xix. 52. + +[287] Cfr. the chapter which treats of the Cock. + +[288] Cfr. _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's version, _Einl._ xxv., and all +the important _Mirh Yast_, or collection of hymns in honour of Mithra, +in the _Khorda Avesta_, xxvi. + +[289] Cfr. _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's version, _Einl._ xxxiii., and the +_Bahrm Yast_ in the _Khorda Avesta_, xxx. 7, Spiegel's version. It is +then that he says of himself, "As to strength, I am the strongest." +Further on it is said that strength belongs to the bull (or the cow). + +[290] In a hymn, Indras even calls himself Uan, with the added +denomination of kavis; Aham kaviruan: _Rigv._ iv. 26, 1. + +[291] _Vendidad_, xxii. 11. + +[292] Chap. ix. + +[293] Cfr. _Farvardin Yast_ in the _Khorda Avesta_, xxix. 30, +Spiegel's version. + +[294] Cfr. _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's version, _Einleit._ xxxiv., and +the _Rm Yast_ in the _Khorda Avesta_, xxxi. 40.--The 57th strophe +appears to be a real Vedic hymn to the Marutas; the wind is celebrated +as the strongest of the strong, the swiftest of the swift, having arms +and ornaments of gold, a golden wheel and a golden chariot; his golden +shoes and his girdle of gold besides show his sympathy and relation +with the Ardv ra Anhita, who, in the form of aurora, is referred +to in the 55th strophe. + +[295] Cfr. _Khorda Avesta_, p. lxix. + +[296] Cfr. ibid. p. lxi. + +[297] Denn Verethraghna, der von Ahura geschaffene, hlt die Hnde +zurck der furchtbaren Kampfesreihen, der verbndeten Lnder und der +mithratrgenden Menschen, er umhllt ihr Gesicht, verhllt ihre Ohren, +nicht lsst er ihre Fsse ausschreiten, nicht sind sie mchtig; +_Khorda Avesta._ xxx. 63, Spiegel's version. + +[298] Cfr. the _Mihr Yast_ in the _Khorda Avesta_, xxvi. 128, 129. + +[299] Cfr. ibid. + +[300] Urvksha is also called the accumulator; _Khorda Avesta_, xl. 3, +Spiegel's version. + +[301] _Khorda Avesta_, p. 155. + +[302] _Khorda Avesta_, xxxiii., Spiegel's version. + +[303] Mgest du reich an Rindern sein wie (der Sohn) de Athvynischen +(clanes); _Khorda Avesta_, xl. 4, Spiegel's version. + +[304] Soll ich zum Himmel aufsteigen, soll ich in die Erde kriechen? +Darauf entgegnete Ahura Mazda: Schne Ashi, vom Schpfer geschaffene! +steige nicht zum Himmel auf, krieche nicht in die Erde; gehe du hieher +in die Mitte der Wohnung eines schnen Knigs; _Khorda Avesta_, +xxxiii. 59, 60, Spiegel's version.--Cfr. xxxiv. 3, and following, +where are celebrated the handsome husband of the beautiful Ashis and +his rich kingdom. + +[305] Die Stierkopfkeule in der Rechten schwingend; Schack, +_Heldensagen von Firdusi_, iv. 2.--Cfr. viii. 9. + +[306] Die Donnerwolke bin ich, die Blitzeskeule schleudert; Schack, +_Heldensagen von Firdusi_, v. 5. + +[307] Die Diwe (the demons) pflegen um Mittagszeit zur Ruhe sich zu +legen; das ist die Stunde sie zu besiegen. Nicht eher schreitet Rustem +zu der That, bis sich die Sonne hoch erhoben hat; _Schack, Heldensagen +von Firdusi_, v. 5. + +[308] Ist's Rustem? ist es nicht die Sonne, die durch Morgenwolken +bricht? _Schack, Heldensagen von Firdusi_, vii. 2. + +[309] Indeed, this undertaking seems to the ferryman himself so +supernatural, that he says these cannot be called men: "In Wahrheit, +Menschen kann man sie nicht heissen." _Schack, Heldensagen von +Firdusi_, x. 27. + +[310] Cfr. Spiegel's _Die Alexandersage bei den Orientale_, Leipzig, +1851; and Zacher's _Pseudocallisthenes, Forschungen zur Kritik und +Geschichte der ltesten Aufzeichnung der Alexandersage_, Halle, 1867. + +[311] Georg Rosen's version, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1858, 2 vols. + +[312] Bernhard Jlg's version, Innsbruck, 1867-1868. + +[313] i. 5. + +[314] i. 6. + +[315] _Tuti-Name_, i. 7. + +[316] _Tuti-Name_, i. 13. + +[317] _Tuti-Name_, i. 14.--Cfr. Afanassieff, _Narodnija ruskija +skaski_, vi. 23. + +[318] iii. 27. + +[319] ii. 17. + +[320] _Tuti-Name_, ii. 19. + +[321] ii. 21. + +[322] ii. 28. + +[323] This story was current in Italy as early as the fifteenth +century, having been related to her son by the mother of the +philosopher and man of letters Pontano, as I find from his biography, +published last year by Professor Tallarigo (Sanseverino-Marche). + +[324] ii. 21. + +[325] _Tuti-Name_, ii. 25. + +[326] ii. 24. + +[327] ii. 26. + +[328] ii. 28. + +[329] ii. 29. + +[330] ii. 29. + +[331] Cfr. also the chapter on the Hog, where we shall expound the +myths and legends relating to disguises. + +[332] Cfr. also the chapters on the Lion and the Fox. + +[333] Cfr. on the story of Perrette, an interesting essay of Professor +Max Mller in the _Contemporary Review_, 1870. + +[334] Radloff, _Proben der Volkslitteratur der Trkischen Stmme +sd-Sibiriens_. + +[335] Professor Schiefner has already compared with this passage a story +published by Ahlquist in his _Versuch einer Mokscha-Mordwinischen +Grammatik_, p. 97. + +[336] Kasan, 1836, quoted by Professor Schiefner in the introduction +to the _Proben_, &c., of Radloff. + +[337] Cfr., for the meaning of this myth, the chapter which treats of +the Hare. + +[338] _Rune_, 7.--Cfr. Castren's _Kleinere Schriften_, Petersburg, +1862, and the French translation of the _Kalevala_, published in 1867 +by Leouzon le Duc. + +[339] I find combined in the _Kleinere Schriften_ of Castren (p. 25) +the same _Ukko_ with the word _Kave_ (_Kave Ukko_). I would with +diffidence ask the learned Finnish philologists, whether, as _Ukko_ is +a Finnish form of the deity whom the Hindoos called Indras, and as the +hero protected by Indras, the hero in whom Indras is reproduced, is +called in the Vedic (and Iranian) tradition _Kvya Uan_, or even +_Uan Kavis_, the words _Kave Ukko_ may not have some relation to the +name given to the Vedic and Iranian hero? + +[340] Vinminen, alt und wahrhaft, konnt durch ihn die Eiche fllen; +_Kal._ 24, in Castren's _Kleinere Schriften_, p. 233. + +[341] Nur aus Trauer ward die Harfe, nur aus Kummer sie geschaffen; +harten Tagen ist die Wlbung, ist das Stammholz zu verdanken, nur +Verdruss spannt ihre Saiten, andre Mhsal macht die Wirbel; +_Kanteletar_, i., quoted by Castren in the _Kleinere Schriften_, p. 277. + +[342] The origin of the bad and poor mythical iron, described in the +_Kalevala_, is one of these: the mythical iron is the cloudy or +tenebrous sky. The description is original, but the myths to which it +refers are known to Indo-Europeans; as, for instance, the honey which +becomes poison. + +[343] _Ehsthnische Mrchen_ aufgezeichnet von Fried. Kreuzwald, aus +dem Ehsthnischen, bersetzt von F. Lwe, with notes by A. Schiefner +and R. Khler, Halle, 1869. + +[344] This is the phenomenon which occurs in the winter solstice on +Christmas Eve and that of New Year's Day, in which we pass from one +year to another; in one night we become older by a year. + +[345] In a popular Swedish song, the maiden Gundela, who plays +marvellously upon the harp, and, in order to play it, demands the king +to marry her, is also a shepherdess.--Cfr. _Schwedische Volkslieder +der Vorzeit_, bertragen von Warrens, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1857. + +[346] Cfr. the note of F. Lwe, illustrating this passage, in his +version of the collection of Kreuzwald, pp. 144 and 145.--[This is +also a myth of easy interpretation, if I am not mistaken: at evening, +the sun loses his rays; the lion, the hero, loses his nails; these +nails are picked up by the demoniacal monster, who forms out of them a +hat (the gloom of night, or the clouds), by which the wearer has the +gift of seeing without being seen. The magician who sees with his eyes +shut is an interesting variation of this subject.] + +[347] A similar antithesis is found in a Hungarian proverb, +communicated to me by my learned friend Count Geza Kunn, together with +other notices of Hungarian beliefs relating to animals. This proverb +is as follows: "Even the black cow's milk is white." The black cow is +spoken of in two other Hungarian proverbs; one says, "The black cow +has not trodden upon his heel," meaning that no misfortune has +happened to him; it is the usual vulnerable heel, the heel of +Achilles, the posterior part, for which is substituted sometimes, as +we shall see in the chapter on the Fox and the Serpent, the tail or +extreme hind part. Another proverb is, "In the dark all cows are +black;" but it does not seem to have any mythical importance. + + +SECTION IV. + +THE BULL AND THE COW IN SLAVONIC TRADITION. + +SUMMARY. + + The red cow and the black cow; what they prognosticate.--The red hue + of evening.--The bull that drinks.--The bull corrupts the + water.--The bull's hoofs.--The cow in the bartering of animals.--The + hero ascends into heaven.--The bull sold to the tree; the tree, + split open, yields gold.--The fool sells the bull.--Two bulls + conduct the poor brother to riches.--The bull carries the fugitive + home.--The bull is split in two, and is useful even after + death.--Ivan and Helen, followed by the bear, flee upon the bull + with their faces turned to the part whence the bear is likely to + come.--The dwarf comes out of the bull's bones; the dwarf dies amid + the flames.--The beasts of prey help the hero.--John and Mary, sun + and aurora of the Christians.--The saviour-bull again.--From the + dead bull an apple-tree springs up.--Ivan delivers Mary.--Mary, the + step-daughter, and persecuted.--The cow that spins, the good fairy, + the Madonna, the moon.--The maiden who combs the hair is the same as + the purifier.--The demoniacal cow obliges men to kiss her under her + tail.--The witch who sucks the beautiful girl's breast whilst the + latter combs her hair.--The hide of the demoniacal cow taken + off.--The eye which does not sleep and plays the spy.--From the cow, + the apple-tree; from the apple-tree, the branches which wound the + wicked sisters, and let the good one pluck their fruit; from the + apple, the husband.--The maiden bows to the right foot of the + beneficent cow; a tree springs up again from the killed cow.--The + red apples which cause horns to grow, and the white ones which give + beauty and youth.--Ivan, the sun, persecuted by the witch his + sister, is saved by the sister of the sun, the aurora.--The mythical + scales; the scales of St Michael.--The cows with golden horns and + tails.--The black demoniacal bull strikes the ground with his horns, + in order to prevent a wedding from taking place.--The hare and the + crow put obstacles in the way of nuptials.--The demon blinded whilst + drinking.--The third son of the peasant throws down the bull.--The + avaricious merchant.--The epidemic among the animals, and the bull + killed because he has stolen some hay from a priest.--The bull in + the forest.--The robber of cows and of oxen.--The black bull led + away by Ivan, by means of a cock.--The hero comes out of the + cow.--The intestines of the calf eaten by the fox.--Out of the calf + come birds.--The son of the cow, the strongest brother.--The three + brothers reduced to one with the qualities of the three.--The third + brother mounts into heaven by means of the cow's hide.--He who + ascends does not come down again.--Dreams.--The wife of the old man, + carried to heaven in a sack, is let fall to the ground and + dies.--The ascent into heaven by means of + vegetables.--Turn-little-Pea, the third brother, the killer of + monsters; Turn-little-Pea and Ivan identified.--Ivan followed by the + serpent-witches.--The female serpent tries to file the iron gate + with her tongue, which is caught by the pincers and burned.--The + three brothers, the evening one, the midnight one, and the + clearly-seeing one; the third is the victorious hero; he delivers + three princesses out of three castles of copper, of silver, and of + gold, and receives from them three eggs of copper, of silver, and of + gold, new forms corresponding to those of the three brothers; the + third brother, abandoned by his elders, after various vicissitudes, + finds his bride again; explanation of this beautiful myth.--Ivan + identified with Svetazr.--The mother of the birds, in gratitude, + delivers the hero.--The third brother, the cunning one, despoils his + two elder brothers of their precious objects.--Ivan of the dog is + equivalent to Svetazr; the story of the goldsmith.--Ivan the great + drinker.--Ivan the prince, Ivan the fool; Ivan and Emilius, foolish + and lazy, are one and the same person.--The red shoes in the + legend.--The sister kills her little brother to take his red shoes; + a magical flute discovers the crime.--The slippers attract the + bridegroom; corresponding nuptial usages.--The slipper tried on; the + toe cut off.--The change of wives.--The ugly one becomes + beautiful.--The grateful pike.--The barrel full of water, which + walks of its own accord.--The forest which is cut down and walks of + itself, the chariot which goes on by itself, the stove that moves + and carries Emilius where he wishes, the cask in which the hero and + heroine are shut up and thrown into the sea, all forms of the cloud + and of the gloom of night; the ugly becomes beautiful; the poor, + rich and pleasing.--The wine allowed to run out of the barrel, + _i.e._, the cloud which dissolves itself in rain.--Ivan, thought to + be stupid, makes his fortune out of having watched by his father's + grave.--Ivan, thought to be stupid, speculates upon his dead mother; + his brothers try to do the same by their wives, and are + punished.--The law of atavism in tradition.--The foolish mother and + the cunning son.--The funereal storks.--The thief cheats the + gentleman in several ways, and finally places him to guard his + hat.--Ivan without fear; a little fish terrifies him.--Various + heroical forms of Ivan in Russian tradition: Alessino, the son of + the priest, invokes the rain against the monster-serpent; Baldak + spits in the Sultan's face--the star under his heel; Basil and + Plavacek, who demand a gift from the monster; the fortunate + fictitious hero; the cunning little Thomas; the third brother, who + does not allow himself to be put to sleep; the thief Klimka, who + terrifies the other thieves in order to rob them; the Cossack who + delivers the maiden from the flames, and receives precious gifts; + Ilia Muromietz and his companions; the merchant's son educated by + the devil; the boy who understands the language of birds; the + virtuous workman, who prefers good advice to a large reward.--The + flying ship; the protector of the unfortunate rewarded; eating and + drinking.--The girl who solves the riddle of the prince, who comes + with the hare and the quail, and obtains her husband.--The dwarf + Allwis obtains the bride by answering the questions of his + father-in-law.--The wonderful puppet (the moon), that sews for the + priest's daughter (the aurora) the shirt destined for the + prince.--The girl-heroine, protectress of her brother, helper of the + young hero in dangers and trials of heroism.--The cow-herd's + daughter, who never says anything displeasing to her husband the + king, whatever the latter does.--By contact with the monster, the + heroine is perverted, and also becomes a persecutor of the hero, her + brother or husband; analogous types of the perfidious + woman.--Dangerous trials imposed on the hero.--The sister bound to + the tree.--The wife subdued, and the magical belt.--The tooth of a + dead man thrust into Ivan's head; the animals deliver him; the fox + knows better than the rest how to manage it.--The towel which causes + a bridge to spring up across the water; the hero's sister steals the + towel, and unites herself to the monster-serpent; she demands from + her brother Ivan wild beasts' milk, and the flour or powder of gold + which is under a mill guarded by twelve gates.--The monster burned, + and the hero's sister condemned to weep and to eat hay.--The + exchange of the hero.--The crow brings the water of death and of + life.--The stepmother who persecutes Ivan.--Ivan resuscitated by his + two sons.--Ivan chaunts his death-song; the liberating animals + appear to help him.--Ivan and his preceptor persecuted by his wife + Anna.--The blind man, the lame man, and the beautiful girl whose + breast is sucked by the witch.--The witch is forced to find the + fountain of life and of health; the blind man sees, the lame walks, + and the girl recovers her good health.--The maiden blinded; the wife + changed; the dew which gives eyesight; the girl finds her husband; a + Russian variety of the legend of Berta. + +Having drawn so far the general outline of the Turanian boundaries of +Slavonian tradition, it is now time to begin to study the tradition of +the Slaves itself, as far as it concerns the myth and the legend of +the bull and the cow. + +The Russian peasants and shepherds are accustomed to remark that the +weather will be fine when a red cow places herself at the head of the +herd, and that it will rain or be bad weather when, on the contrary, +the first of the cows to re-enter the stable at evening is a black +one. We already know what the black and the red cow signify in the +language of the Veds. The aurora of morning and evening, that is, the +red cows promise fine weather; the cloud (or black cow) announces wet +weather. In Piedmont, when a beautiful evening aurora is observed, it +is the custom to say-- + + "Rosso di sera, + Buon tempo si spera." + (Red at eve, we hope for fine weather.) + +Let us now follow the Russian tradition relating to the cow and the bull +in two of the many invaluable collections of popular stories already +printed in Russia, as well as in the celebrated fables of Kriloff.[348] + +We shall begin with those stories and fables in which the cow or the +bull is explicitly mentioned. They show us the bull who protects the +hero and the heroine, the bull who enriches the hero, the bull that is +sold, the grateful bull, the bull who sacrifices himself, the +persecuted bull, the demoniacal bull; the cow who spins, the +beneficent cow, the son of the cow, the birds that come out from the +cow, the cow's hide which becomes a rope to mount up to heaven, the +cow exchanged, the demoniacal cow, the cow's horns. Here, again, +therefore, we have the double aspect of the Vedic cow; the +dark-coloured one (cloud and darkness), generally monstrous, the +luminous one (moon and aurora), usually divine and beneficent. + +One of the special characteristics of the bull and of the cow is their +capacity of drinking. We have already seen how much the bull Indras (the +sun in the cloud) drank. In the third story of the first book of +_Afanassieff_, when the good maiden, persecuted by the witch, stretches +out a towel, and thus causes a river to arise, in order that the witch +may not overtake her, the latter leads forward the bull to drink up the +river (a form of the Hindoo Agastyas, who, in the _Mahbhratam_,[349] +absorbs the sea). But the bull, who could dry up the river, refuses to +do so on account of a debt of gratitude he owes to the good maiden. The +water where this bull, or cow, belonging to the witch, drinks, has the +property of transforming into a calf the man who drinks of it;[350] nay, +to drink out of the hoof of the bull itself is enough to turn him into a +calf.[351] The water which comes out of the hoof of the demoniacal bull +is the opposite of the water of Hippokrene, which flows from the hoofs +of the divine horse of the Hellenes, the Pgasos. + +In the second book of _Afanassieff_, there is a story which speaks of +the exchange of animals in the very same order as in the +_itareya-brhmanam_, _i.e._, the gold for a horse, the horse for a cow, +the cow for a goat or sheep. The Russian peasant goes on with his +unfortunate exchanges; he barters the sheep for a young pig, the young +pig for a goose, the goose for a duck, the duck for a little stick with +which he sees some children playing; he takes the stick home to his +wife, and she beats him with it. In the twelfth story of the fifth book +of _Afanassieff_, an old man also begins to barter the golden stockings +and silver garters received in heaven from God for a horse, the horse +for a bull, the bull for a lamb; his last exchange is for a little +needle, which he loses. In the second story of the sixth book, the same +foolish liberality is attributed to the third brother, the stupid one +(who, in another Russian variation of the same story, is the cunning +one), who, having learned that in heaven cows are cheap, gives his cow +for a fly, his ox for a horse-fly, and mounts up to heaven. + +But, generally speaking, the bull and the cow are the beginning of +good luck for the heroes of popular tales. + +In the fifty-second story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the third +brother, the truthful and fortunate fool, has, for his inheritance from +his father, one bull alone; he goes to sell it, and passes a dry old +tree, which rattles; thinking that the tree wishes to buy his bull, he +gives it, promising to come back for the money. On his return the bull +is gone; he asks the tree for the money, and, receiving no answer, +proceeds to cut it down with his hatchet, when from the tree there drops +out a treasure which some robbers had hidden in it;[352] the young man +then takes it up and carries it home. In a variation of the same story, +in the collection of _Erlenwein_,[353] the third son of the miller, +before going to sell his bull, or ox, seeing the second son milking the +cow, endeavours to milk the bull too; finding that his efforts are in +vain, he resolves upon selling an animal which appears to him to be so +utterly useless. + +In the thirty-fourth story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, we meet +again the two brothers, one rich and miserly, the other poor; the poor +one borrows from a neighbour two bulls, and is conducted by Misery +(gory) to a stone, under which he finds a cavity full of gold. The +poor man fills his waggon, and, on coming out, tells Misery that there +is plenty more inside. Misery turns in to see; the ex-pauper thereupon +closes up the entrance with the stone, and returns home.[354] + +But the bull and the cow do not only provide the hero with riches, +they help him in danger. In the eleventh story of _Erlenwein_,[355] +Ivan Tzarevic, or the Prince John,--the name of the favourite hero of +Slavonian popular tradition (he is the third brother, the strongest, +the most fortunate, the victorious, the most intelligent, after having +been the most foolish)--wishes to flee from the serpent, and, not +knowing how, sits down on the trunk of a tree and weeps. The hare +comes to carry him away, but is killed by the serpent; the wolf +comes, but is killed too. At last the ox or bull comes, and carries +him off. Ivan having arrived at his dwelling, the ox has himself +divided in two; one part must be placed under the sacred images, which +ornament a corner of every room in Russian houses, the other part +under the window; Ivan must then look out sharp till two dogs and two +bears appear, who will serve him in the chase, and be his strength. + +In the twenty-seventh story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, Ivan +Tzarevic and the beautiful Helen are pursued by a monstrous bear with +iron bristles; they escape upon a bull (the moon), and Ivan, by the +bull's advice, rides him with his face turned towards the place whence +the pursuing bear is likely to come, in order that he may not take +them by surprise. When Ivan sees that the bear is coming, the bull +turns round and tears his eyes out; the blind bear follows them still, +but the fugitives pass a river on the bull's back, in which the bear +is drowned. Ivan and Helen feel hungry; the bull tells them to cut him +to pieces and eat him, but to preserve his bones, and to strike them +together; from the bones of the bull, when struck, a dwarf, the height +of a finger-nail, but with a beard a cubit long, comes out; he assists +Ivan in finding the milk of a wolf, a she-bear, and a lioness, until +he is swallowed by the burning bird, whose eggs he wished to steal. +(The bear is the night; the bull is the sun's steed in the night, the +moon; the bull-moon is sacrificed; then comes forth a little sun with +long rays, the dwarf with a long beard, an _alter ego_ of Ivan, who +ends his life in the burning furnace of the phoenix, or of the evening +aurora.) Ivan is threatened with death when the dwarf dies, but he is +at that moment helped by the wild beasts he had tamed and fed, who +save him from danger. These were, as we have seen before, given to him +after the death of the bull, his deliverer, being born of the bull +himself, cut in pieces (the wild animals of the forest of night are +born as soon as the evening sun is sacrificed). + +The same subject occurs again, with some variations, in the +twenty-eighth story, which follows; only instead of John and Helen, we +have John and Mary, the sun and the aurora of the Christians. Near the +abode of Ivan and Mary a funeral pile arises, on which the bull +sacrifices himself. The bull's bones are sown in three furrows; from +the first furrow a horse comes forth, from the second a dog, and in +the third an apple-tree grows up. Ivan mounts upon the horse, followed +by the dog, and hunts wolves' whelps and young bears, which he +afterwards tames and uses to kill the serpent, who has shut up his dog +in a cavern, and carried off his sister; he forces the entrance of the +place where the dog is hidden, by striking the bolt of the door with +three small branches of the apple-tree; the bolt breaks into pieces, +the door bursts open, and the dog is delivered; dog, wolf, and young +bear then worry the serpent, and Ivan liberates the Princess Mary. + +In the sixth book of _Afanassieff_,[356] the young Mary, being +persecuted, is miraculously assisted by a cow. An old woman has three +daughters of her own (of whom one has one eye, another two, and the +third three), and a step-daughter called Mary; her own three do +nothing, and eat much; the step-daughter must work hard and eat +little. Her step-mother gives her for one night alone, while she takes +the cow to pasture, to spin, make into skeins, weave, and bleach, the +weight of five pounds. The maiden goes to the pasture-ground, embraces +her variegated cow, leans on her neck and bewails her fate. The cow +says to her, "Beautiful girl, enter one of my ears, and come out by +the other, and all will be done."--In the Italian variety of this +story,[357] the cow spins with her horns for the good maiden, whilst +she combs the head of the old woman or the Madonna. I think I have +already said that I recognise in this good old woman, fairy, or +Madonna, the moon. The moon, like the sun, is considered as in +relation with the aurora, and especially the evening aurora, which she +accompanies; she is the hostess, the guide, and the protectress of the +hero and heroine of evening, lost and pursued in the night; after the +evening aurora, the white moon comes out, in the same way as after the +morning aurora the sun comes out in effulgence. We have seen that the +name of purifier, cleanser, is given to the Vedic aurora; from this +expression to the image of comber or cleanser of the head of the old +Madonna the transition is easy;[358] from, _i.e._, after, the aurora, +the moon comes out shining and clean, in a beautiful and serene sky; +and on this account pearls fall from the Madonna's head; but when, on +the other hand, the beautiful maiden, the aurora, does not come, when +the step-mother sends to the pasture-ground, near the old woman, one +of her own daughters, foul lice fall from the head of the old fairy or +Madonna, inasmuch as the moon cannot show herself in her splendour +amid the shadows of the cloudy and black night. The Russian story +shows us how the beneficent cow of the good maiden, who caresses her +and serves her well, and the Madonna or good old woman grateful for +the careful combing of her hair of Italian tradition, are one and the +same thing. In the thirty-fifth story of the fifth book of +_Afanassieff_, on the contrary, where the cow appears in a demoniacal +aspect, whom the hero Ivan, condemned from a prince to become a +cowherd, must kiss under her tail, which she lifts with this intent, +we meet with an old witch who sucks the white breasts of the beautiful +girl, while the latter is obliged to hunt the vermin in her head; in +the witch, as well as in the cow who insolently lifts up her tail, we +can recognise the gloomy night, an explanation which is justified by +the fact that the hero-shepherd Katoma, the adorned one, the +agile-footed, ends by flaying the shameless cow (the morning sun, +shepherd of the luminous cows, takes off the skin of the dark-coloured +cow of the gloomy night). But, to return to the fifty-fourth +story.--When the stepmother sees that the girl has done all the work +assigned her, she begins to suspect that there is some one who helps +her, and so sends next night her first daughter, who has but one eye, +to watch the daughter-in-law, who goes to the pasture-ground. The +young Mary then says to her, "Eye, sleep;" and immediately her +step-sister falls asleep, thus allowing the cow to assist her without +any one perceiving it. The second night, the second daughter, who has +two eyes, is sent; Mary says twice to her, "Eye, sleep," and obtains, +without being seen, the same favours from the cow. The third night, +the third sister, who has three eyes, is sent; Mary does not remember +the third eye, and only says twice, "Eye, sleep:" and so the third +sister sees with her remaining eye[359] what the cow does with Mary, +and in the morning tells everything to her mother, who gives orders +that the cow be killed. Mary warns the cow; and the cow recommends +her to eat none of her flesh, to keep the bones, sow them in the +garden, and water them. The maiden does so; every day, however hungry +she may be, she eats none of the meat, only collects the bones +together. From the bones sown in the garden arises a marvellous +apple-tree, with leaves of gold, and branches of silver, which prick +and wound the three daughters of the stepmother, whilst, on the other +hand, they offer apples to the beautiful maiden, in order that she may +present one to the young and rich lord who is to make her his wife. In +the following story, the fifty-fifth, which is a variation of the +preceding one, the girl is named Mary, and her husband Ivan Tzarevic; +when she goes to the pasture, and when she returns, she is accustomed +to make obeisance to the right foot of the cow. When the cow, being +killed, revives again in the shape of a tree, it swarms with birds, +which sing songs for kings and peasants alike, and make the sweet +fruits fall upon Mary's plate. + +The apples that cause horns to grow, and those which beautify and make +young, mentioned in the thirty-sixth story of the fifth book, and +again in the last book of the collection of _Afanassieff_, as well as +in other European variations of the same subject, are connected, in my +opinion, with the myth of the evening sky, and of the lunar night, in +the shape of an apple-tree. In the fifteenth story of the collection +of _Erlenwein_, the third brother, the usual Ivan, comes to an +apple-tree which has red apples, and eats four of them, upon which +four horns grow on his head, to such a height that he cannot enter the +forest; he goes to an apple-tree that bears white fruit, eats four +apples, and the four horns disappear. (The solar hero at evening +approaches the tree with the red apples, the evening aurora, and +immediately becomes deformed; horns grow on his head; he loses +himself in the shades of night; in the moonlight and the alba, he +approaches the tree with the white apples, loses his horns, and +becomes young and beautiful again.) + +In the fifty-seventh story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff's_ +collection, Ivan Tzarevic is presented with the apples which restore +youth to him who eats them, by the sister of the sun, to whose abode he +is lifted in the following manner: Ivan (the sun) has for his sister (no +doubt half-sister) a serpent-witch (night), who has already devoured his +father and mother (the sun and the aurora of evening, which create the +night, and are destroyed by it); the witch persecutes her little brother +Ivan, and endeavours to eat him; he flees, and she overtakes him in the +vicinity of the dwelling of the sister of the sun (the aurora, the true +sister of Ivan). The witch makes a proposal to Ivan, that they be +weighed together in the scales. Ivan accepts this proposal, upon which +the one enters the one scale, and the other the other; no sooner does +the witch put her foot on the scale than, as she weighs so much more +than Ivan, he is lifted up to heaven, the dwelling of the sister of the +sun, where he is welcomed and admitted. (A beautiful myth, of which the +meaning is evident. Ivan is the sun, the aurora is his sister; at +morning, near the abode of the aurora, that is, in the east, the shades +of night go underground, and the sun arises to the heavens; this is the +mythical pair of scales. Thus, in the Christian belief, St Michael +weighs human souls: those who weigh much sink down into hell, and those +who are light arise to the heavenly paradise.) + +By means of the sister of the sun, Ivan saves himself from the witch. +In another story in _Afanassieff_,[360] by means of the sister of the +hero Nikanore, the same Ivan, running after the cows, causes them to +have golden horns and tails, with sides formed of stars; and +afterwards, with the assistance of the hero Nikanore in person (of the +sun, that is, of himself), he kills the serpent. + +We have already seen the cloudy and the gloomy sky represented in the +Vedic poems, now as a black cow, now as a stable which encloses the +bulls and cows. The black bull or cow of night is considered to be +demoniacal. In a story given in _Afanassieff_,[361] we find the devil +in the shape of a bull, which bellows, and throws up the earth with +its horns, arresting a nuptial procession. From a bull he turns into a +bear, then a hare, and then a crow, to put obstacles in the way of the +marriage, until, having presented himself in the form of a devil, a +soldier-hero blinds him while he is drinking. A variation of this +soldier is the third son of the peasant,[362] who is so strong that +with a snap of his fingers he makes the bull and the bear fall dead, +and then by a single pinch strips off their skins. The same hero hires +himself to a merchant, whom he engages to serve for two years, on +condition of receiving as his reward, at the end of them, the +permission to give him a snap with the fingers and a pinch. The +merchant thinks he is getting the man's service for nothing, but pays +for it with his life. The merchant seldom plays a good part in popular +stories. He and the miser are synonymous,--the miser is the monster +which keeps treasures hidden; and on this account, as we have already +seen in the Vedic hymns themselves, the enemies of the gods, the +monsters that ravish and conceal the treasures, are represented as +panayas or merchants, cheats, robbers, or misers. The currency of this +epithet as a term of infamy must have been owing in part to the +dislike with which the priestly sacrificers of the last Vedic period +regarded the merchants, in whom they saw only a pack of misers, +because, on account of their wandering life, they had neither cows nor +bulls to give them for sacrifice, but carried with them all their +fortune, and did not require the fertilising rain of the god Indras to +multiply their gold and their silver. + +The celestial bull comes out of the night or the nocturnal stables +either, as we have seen, to help the hero, to be sacrificed, to flee +from persecution, or because he has been stolen by a skilful thief. + +In one of Kriloff's fables, God sends a terrible plague among the +animals, of which they perish in great numbers. They are so terrified +by it that they forsake their habits, and begin to wander aimlessly +hither and thither. The wolf no longer eats the sheep; the fox leaves +the hens unmolested; the turtle-doves no longer make love to each +other. Then the lion holds a council of the animals, and exhorts them +all to confess their faults. The cunning fox essays to quiet the +lion-judge by assuring him that though he stole some sheep, he did not +thereby commit a fault; and so he justifies his own ravages; as also +do the bear, the tiger, the wolf, and all the most wicked of the +animals. Then the simple bull comes forward, and, in his turn, +confesses that he stole a little hay from the priest. This crime +appears so heinous that the council of animals sentences the bull to +be offered in sacrifice.[363] + +Sometimes, on the contrary, the bull, either because he cannot bear the +bad treatment that he receives from his masters, or in order to avoid +the danger of being killed or sold by the stupid son, who is in need of +money that he may marry a wife, a danger of which he has a +presentiment, abandons the stable with other animals, constructs a hut +or isb and shuts himself up in it.[364] He has with him the lamb, the +goose, the cock, or else some other tame animals. The fox passes by, +hears the crowing of the cock, and goes to call his friends the bear and +the wolf to help him. The bear opens the door, the fox enters, and the +bull by goring him with his horns, the lamb by butting against his +sides, and the cock by pecking his eyes out, put an end to the unwelcome +intruder. The wolf, who goes in, curious to see what is going on, has +the same fate, and the bear, who comes last, only succeeds with great +difficulty, and after having been severely maltreated, in effecting his +escape. In another variation of the same story, the bear dies of fear, +and the stupid son takes his skin, sells it and makes money; then, the +danger of being sold having passed by, the bull and his company return +home. The battle between the tame and the savage animals, won by the +former, is an expression in zoological form of the victory of the heroes +(the sun and the moon) over the monsters of darkness. + +The story of the hero-thief is generally connected with the carrying +off of his master's horse; but not unfrequently the hero, like the +monster, becomes a robber of cows and oxen. + +The thief Ivan[365] is required to steal from his master a black bull or +ox tied to the plough; if he succeeds, he is to have a hundred roubles +for his reward; but if he does not, he is to receive instead a hundred +bastinadoes. In order to steal it, Ivan adopts the following device: he +takes a cock, plucks it, and puts it alive under a clod of earth. The +ploughmen come with the oxen; while they are ploughing, the cock starts +up; they leave the plough to run after it, upon which Ivan, who was +hidden behind a bush, comes out. He cuts off one ox's tail and puts it +in another ox's mouth, and then leads away the black ox. The ploughmen, +not having been able to overtake the cock, come back, and when they see +only two animals instead of three, conclude that one ox has eaten the +black ox and is beginning to eat the tail of the other, the variegated +ox. In the twenty-first story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the +boy-dwarf steals an ox from the priest and eats its tripe.[366] + +From the cow the hero is born; under a putrid cow thrown into a ditch +lies Ivan Tzarevic; a bird takes the water off and Ivan Tzarevic comes +forth.[367] In another story of _Afanassieff_, the fox-heroine, +companion of the wolf, whilst the wolf is absent, eats the intestines +of the calf, their common property (which they had received from +cowherds in exchange for a certain cake contaminated by their +excrement, the usual excrement which is the beginning of riches); she +then fills the calf or cow with straw and sparrows, and departs. The +wolf returns, is astonished that the calf should have eaten so much +straw that it comes out, and draws out the straw. The birds fly away, +the calf falls, and the wolf flees away terrified.[368] With these two +myths are connected two more, that of the son of the cow and that of +the ascent into heaven by means of the cow's hide. + +The king has no sons; he catches a pike, which the cook washes, giving +thereafter the dirty water to the cow to drink; the fish they give to +the black girl to carry to the queen; the black girl eats a piece of +it on the way, and the queen eats what remains. At the expiration of +nine months, the cow, the maid, and the queen, give each birth to a +son. The three sons resemble each other completely; but the son of the +cow, the hero-tempest, is the strongest of the three brothers, and +accomplishes the most difficult enterprises. In another variation of +the same story, in _Afanassieff_,[369] instead of the cow we have the +bitch giving birth to the strongest of the three brothers.[370] In the +nineteenth story of _Erlenwein_, instead of the cow and the bitch, we +have the mare; the strongest brother is here the son of the black +girl, Burghraver or the hero-tempest (Burya-Bagatr). In the third +story of _Erlenwein_, Ivan Tzarevic appears as the son of the black +girl. As in numerous other Russian stories, Ivan Tzarevic, usually the +third brother, appears not only (as) the most skilful, but the +strongest of the brothers, we are driven to recognise in the three +brothers, the son of the black girl, the son of the cow, and the +queen's son, who alternately accomplish the same heroic undertakings, +the same solar personage, whose mother, Night, is represented now as a +queen, now as a cow (we have just seen Ivan Tzarevic come out of the +putrid cow), now as a black slave (the negro washerwoman, the Saracen +woman of Italian stories [Holda]; the cleaned fish which is carried by +the black girl may perhaps be a link connecting the imagery of Russian +tradition with that of Italian legend). + +In the second story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the third +brother, the cunning one, by means of the hides of his cows and oxen +converted into thongs, ascends into heaven; thus, in a variation of +the same story, the third brother thinks to let himself down by the +cow's hide, cut into pieces and made into thongs, being fastened to +the confines of heaven; but he perceives on the way that the thong is +not long enough. Some peasants are threshing corn, and the chaff rises +into the air; he tries to make a rope with this chaff, but the rope +breaks and he falls to the ground. This successful ascent into heaven, +followed by an unlucky descent, is often referred to, with curious +details, in Russian popular legend; to which a play of words in the +language must have not a little contributed. It is as follows, "He who +mounts does not descend,"[371] _i.e._, when one is doing one thing he +cannot be doing the contrary. This elementary truth was afterwards +altered by changing the tenses. "He who has been able to ascend will +not be able to come down again;" which is only partly true, and means +that while in dreams we require only a thin thread to mount up high, +when we wish to come down from the world of dreams to that of reality, +the fall is heavy; we come down with leaden wings, with that +difficulty in breathing which oppresses us in dreams when we seem to +fall from a height with painful slowness. And as at the end of the +dream, after the painful fall from the sky, we awaken alive, so the +story does not say of the hero who fell from heaven that he is dead, +only that his dreams are dead. He is only unlucky when, the second +time, he attempts the descent with a greater weight. + +While reasonings such as these may have helped to diffuse the myths, I +believe that the myths, at their formation, pleased more as images of +nature than of reason, and as the images of mythology are almost all +celestial, so in the third brother, or old man of other varieties of +the story, who mounts up to heaven and comes down again by means of +the cow's hide, I always recognise the sun. The old man who ascends +into heaven, after the cow is dead, does so also by means of a +vegetable of funereal omen which grows up in a marvellous manner. + +An old man and an old woman have one daughter; she eats some beans and +lets one fall to the ground; a plant (the moon) grows up till it +reaches the sky. The old man mounts up and then comes back again. He +tries to take his wife up in a sack, but unable to bear the weight, he +lets her fall to the ground, when she dies.[372] + +A cabbage grows up near an old man's dwelling, till in like manner it +rises up to the sky. The old man climbs up, makes a hole in the sky, +and eats and drinks to satiety. He then returns and narrates +everything to his wife. She wishes to go up too; when they are half +way, the old man lets the sack drop, the old woman dies, and her +husband prepares her funeral, calling in the fox[373] as a mourner. + +Other variations of the same story offer us, instead of the cow's +hide, the cabbage, and the beanstalk, the pea-plant, and even the +oak-tree, which grows up to heaven.[374] + +From the vegetable or funereal plant,--a symbol, as we have already +remarked, at once of abundance and resurrection,--by which the hero +ascends to heaven, where he finds riches and abundance of food, the +transition was very natural to the pea which turns round, of which the +hero Turn-little-Pea (the son of the king of the peas) is born. + +In the second story of the third book of _Afanassieff_,[375] +Turn-little-Pea appears as the third of the brothers, as the youngest +brother, who delivers his sister and his two brothers from the +monster. But the ungrateful brothers (perhaps covetous of the maiden, +here called a sister, but, who is virtually the same, the bride +delivered and disputed for by the three brothers in numerous +Indo-European legends), tie him to an oak-tree and go home alone. +Turn-little-Pea unroots the whole oak and goes off. He afterwards +kills three more monster-serpents, and the she-serpents their wives. + +In the thirtieth story of the second book of _Afanassieff_, this +enterprise against the serpents, male and female, is attributed to the +usual Ivan. He goes with his brothers against the serpent with twelve +heads, and with his iron stick alone kills nine of them, and the three +remaining ones by the help of his two brothers. Then the she-serpent and +her three daughters persecute the three brothers, and Ivan in +particular. She causes them to find a beautiful cushion upon the ground; +Ivan, who is suspicious of some trick, first beats the cushion, upon +which blood gushes out of it (in the story of _Turn-little-Pea_, the +young hero averts the danger by making the sign of the cross with his +sword, when blood comes out). The serpent then tempts them by an +apple-tree with gold and silver apples. The brothers wish to pluck some; +Ivan, however, first strikes the tree, and blood flows from it. They +then come to a beautiful fountain, where the brothers would like to +drink; Ivan strikes the fountain, and again blood comes from it. The +cushion, the apple-tree, and the fountain were the three daughters of +the serpent. Then the serpent, having failed to deceive them, rushes +upon Ivan; the latter escapes with his brothers into a forge shut by +twelve iron gates; the serpent licks the doors with her tongue to force +a passage, and her tongue is caught with red-hot pincers. + +In the fourth story of _Erlenwein_, the three brothers occur again with +interesting mythical names. A woman bears three sons; one at evening, +who is on this account called Vecernik, or the evening one; the second +at midnight, whence he is named Polunocnik, or the midnight one; the +third at the aurora, who is named Svetazr, or the clearly-seeing. The +three brothers become adults in a few hours. The most valiant of the +three is Svetazr, the last one. To prove his strength, he goes to the +blacksmith and orders an iron club that weighs twelve puds (480 pounds); +he throws it into the air and catches it on the palm of his hand, the +club breaks. He orders one of twenty puds (800 pounds), throws it up, +catches it on his knee, and it breaks. Finally he orders one of thirty +puds (1200 pounds), throws it up, and catches it on his forehead; it +bends but does not break. Svetazr has it straightened and takes it +with him, as he goes with his two brothers to deliver the three +daughters of the Tzar, carried off by three magicians into the three +castles of copper, silver, and gold. Svetazr, after having drunk the +water of strength, and received from the first princess an egg of +copper, from the second one of silver, and from the third a golden one, +delivers the three princesses and brings them out. The two brothers, +seeing that the third princess is more beautiful than the others, think +that the youngest brother is reserving her for himself, and throw him +into the water. Svetazr wanders about the subterranean world, and +delivers the daughter of another Tzar by killing a monster and burying +him under a rock. A soldier boasts before the Tzar of having +accomplished this heroic act. Svetazr invites the soldier to prove his +strength, and so the truth of his boast, by lifting the rock up. He does +not succeed, and Svetazr wins the trial of strength, upon which the +soldier is executed by order of the Tzar. After this, Svetazr, for +having once spared the life of a crow, is carried by it into the world +of the living, on condition that he gives it something to eat by the +way. Svetazr has at length to feed the crow with his own flesh, yet is +in the end set down again safe and sound, with all his flesh, in the +world above, where, with the eggs of copper, silver, and gold, he causes +the castles formed of these metals to arise, in which are found the +ring, the slipper, and the robe demanded from their bridegrooms by the +three princesses, who hoped by this expedient to see again their lost +Svetazr. Then Svetazr begins to sweep out the terrace of the golden +castle. The third princess expresses her intention to take him for her +husband. The nuptials are celebrated, Svetazr pardoning his two elder +brothers and giving them the two elder sisters of his bride. (The +princess of the copper is the evening aurora, the princess of the silver +is the silvery moon, and that of the gold is the morning aurora, to whom +Svetazr, the clearly-seeing, the illumined, the sun, is married.) + +In the sixth story of the first book of _Afanassieff_, the same +undertaking is accomplished by the third brother, Ivan. The monster +which carries off the three sisters is an aquatic one, an otter. +Abandoned by his brothers in the nether world, Ivan is overtaken by a +great tempest; he takes pity upon some young birds that are bathing, +and saves them under his dress, upon which the grateful mother of the +birds brings him back to the upper world. In the fifteenth story of +_Erlenwein_, the third brother is the cunning one, who, by a +stratagem, and by means of his purse, which is self-replenishing, +steals from his two brothers the snuff-box out of which issue as many +armies as are wished for, and the cloth which makes the wearer +invisible (both figures to represent the cloud from which come forth +riches, solar rays, thunderbolts, and weapons, and which hides the +hero, that is, renders him invisible). In the fifty-fourth story of +the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, Ivan of the dog, the hero sacrificed +by his brothers, is the strong one, he who delivers the three +princesses, who possesses the three rings, and gives them to the +goldsmith from whom they were ordered, and who is not able to make +them, by which means he is recognised. + +Ivan Tzarevic, inasmuch as he was born of a cow, as we have also seen +above, was necessarily represented as a bull; the bull displays part +of his strength by drinking; Ivan Tzarevic drinks, at a gulp, whole +barrels of wine of marvellous strength. In this capacity he resembles +Indras, the great drinker of somas, and the drinker Bhmas, the second +brother of the Pndavas. + +The third brother is now Prince Ivan (Ivan Tzarevic, Ivan Karolievic, +Ivan Kralievic), now the stupid Ivan (Ivan durak), Ivan the little fool +(Ivan Duraciok). But, as I have already remarked, the fool generally +makes his fortune, either because the kingdom of heaven is for the poor +in spirit, or because the stupidity of Ivan is feigned, or else because +the fool becomes wise. In a story given in _Afanassieff_,[376] the fool +is also lazy, and takes the name of Emilius. + +Emilius is sent with a barrel to draw water; he only goes on account +of the promise made him by his sister, that he will receive as a +reward a pair of red boots.--This desire of the boy-hero, and of the +girl-heroine, is spoken of in many popular songs, and among others, in +a Piedmontese one, as yet unpublished. In the seventeenth story of the +fifth book of _Afanassieff_,[377] the sister kills her brother, Little +John, to possess herself of his red strawberries (as in the Esthonian +tale), and his red little shoes. Upon his grave a fine cane grows; a +shepherd makes a flute of it, and the flute, pressed to the lips, +begins to emit the following lamentation:-- + + "Gently, gently, little shepherd, play; + Do not wound my heart! + My little sister, the traitress, + For the red little strawberries, for the red little shoes!" + +When the flute is pressed to the sister's lips, instead of the word +"little shepherd," it says, "Little sister, thou hast betrayed +me,"[378] and her crime is thus discovered. These little red shoes +are simply a variation of the slippers which are lost by the fugitive +aurora, and found again by the sun, and which both wish to wear. (I +refer to this myth the origin of the nuptial custom in Europe of +maidens, towards the new year, throwing the slipper to know whether, +during the next year, they will be married, and who is to be their +husband.)[379] The slipper lost by the maiden, Little Mary (Masha, the +Marion of Piedmontese and French legends), and found by the prince, +also occurs in the Russian tales. In the thirtieth of the sixth book +of _Afanassieff_, Little Mary's elder sister begins by trying on the +slipper; but it is too small; the foot will not go in. Seeing this, +Little Mary's step-mother advises her daughter to cut off her great +toe, which would not enter; then the foot goes in, and the messengers +of the prince lead the eldest sister away; but two doves fly after +them and cry out, "Blood on her foot, blood on her foot." The deceit +is discovered, and the eldest sister sent back; the prince causes his +true and predestined bride, Little Mary, to be carried off. (This is +the usual exchange of wives, upon which I have remarked in my "Essay +on the Comparative History of Nuptial Usages," and of which the +legend of Queen Berta is one of the most popular examples. The +Russian Little Mary, like Cinderella, is at first of ugly aspect, and +then beautiful. In the Russian story, the maiden becomes beautiful by +mounting upon the stove. St comes forth, beautiful in her innocence, +passing through the fire; the morning aurora only seems beautiful when +it passes through the flames of the Eastern sky. The stove brings us +back to the interrupted story of the foolish and lazy Emilius (or +Ivan).--On account, therefore, of the promise made to him of the red +boots, he goes to the fountain with the barrel to draw water. In the +fountain he catches a pike, who beseeches him to set him at liberty, +and promises in return to make him fortunate. Being lazy, the greatest +favour that he wishes for at this moment is that he may be helped to +carry the barrel; the grateful pike performs the miracle of the barrel +full of water which walks of its own accord. (I have already +endeavoured to explain this myth: the cloud is represented as a barrel +in the Vedic hymns; it moves on of its own accord; the barrel does the +same; the hero, as long as he is shut up in the cloud, remains +foolish; the barrel of the fool walks of itself.) Emilius is then sent +to cut wood; by favour of the grateful pike, it is enough for him to +send his hatchet, which cuts the wood of itself; the wood piles itself +upon the waggon, and the waggon, without being drawn by any one, +advances, passing or crushing whatever it meets; they endeavour to +arrest its progress, when the trunk of an oak-tree detaches itself +from the waggon, and, like a stick, beating on every side, sweeps the +road (these are all curious variations of the walking forest or +cloud). The Tzar then sends to invite him to court, and knowing his +weak penchant for things of a red colour, he promises him a red robe, +a red hat, and red boots. When the Tzar's envoys arrive, Emilius, +like his _alter ego_ Ivan Durak (Ivan the fool), is warming himself at +the stove; grudging all trouble, he obtains from the pike the favour +of being carried by the stove itself to the Tzar at court. The Tzar's +daughter falls in love with him; the Tzar shuts the young couple up in +a cask (the usual cloud-barrel, which occurs in the form of a little +chest in other stories, a variation of the wooden dress), and has them +thrown into the sea. Emilius, who was drunk in the cask, sleeps; the +princess wakens him, and beseeches him to save her; by means of the +pike, the cask comes to a beautiful island, where it breaks open; +Emilius becomes handsome, rich, and happy in a beautiful palace with +the young princess. (The aurora and the sun of evening are thrown +together into the ocean of night, until they land on the happy isle of +the east, where they reappear again together in all their splendour.) +One of the most popular stupidities of the fool is that of letting the +wine contained in the barrel flow out upon the ground, when he is left +alone at home; in the Russian story, too, Ivan the fool leaves the +beer that is fermenting in the barrel open (Indras with his lightning +makes a hole in the cloud-barrel, and the rain comes out).[380] + +The fool Ivan takes his good luck from the living, but he also does so +from the dead. On account of having watched three nights by the tomb +of his father, his luck begins,[381] the shade of his father having +blessed him; but, as the dead bring good luck (a belief which, at any +rate, has always been entertained by the heirs of rich men deceased), +the third brother speculates on the body of his own mother. We do not +know whether he does so out of pure simplicity, or with some hidden +and far-seeing design, presumable from the ease with which he +exchanges the character of a fool for that of a cunning schemer (the +first Brutus of popular tradition). In the seventeenth story of +_Erlenwein_, after he has carried a treasure home, by selling his ox +to the tree, and then cutting down the tree, which contains money, he +always guards his money, and sleeps upon it. His brothers know this, +and resolve to go and kill him. But that very night, the third, the +foolish brother, leaves his mother in charge of the treasure; the +brothers come and kill his mother by mistake, instead of him. He turns +up, and threatens to give them up to justice; they bribe him with a +hundred roubles to keep silence. Then the third brother takes his +mother's body and carries it into the middle of the road, in order +that a merchant's waggon may crush it; when this happens, he accuses +the merchant of murder, until the latter gives him a hundred more +roubles to say nothing about it. He then comes to a village by night +with his mother's corpse; he places it against a peasant's door, and +knocks at the window; the peasant opens the door, the body falls, and +the peasant treads upon it, upon which the so-called stupid son cries +out that he has killed his mother, and receives another hundred +roubles, on promise of silence. Then the two elder brothers, finding +that it is possible to speculate upon corpses, and make one's fortune, +kill their wives, and go to town with their bodies; they are +immediately arrested and put into prison. + +The law of atavism evolves itself in the generation of the heroes of +mythical legends, no less than in that of simple mortals upon earth. +Of a stupid father is born a wise son, and then the wise son in turn +has a foolish one. I do not as yet know how to explain this singular +fact of natural history; its appearance in mythology, however, is not +difficult to understand. To the luminous day succeeds the gloomy +night, and then again to the dark night the luminous day; to summer +succeeds winter, and to winter summer; to white black, and to black +white; to heat cold, and to cold heat. + +On this account, in legends, when the mother is intelligent, the son, +generally speaking, is silly; whereas, when the mother is silly,[382] +the son is usually intelligent. + +In the fifth story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, a soldier enters +the house of a woman, while her son is travelling, and induces her to +believe that he has just returned from hell, where he had seen her son +employed in taking the storks to pasture, and greatly in want of money; +the soldier says that he is about to return to hell, and will be happy +to take with him whatever the woman wishes to send to her son. The +credulous woman gives him some money, directing him to take it +immediately to hell, and give it to her poor child. The soldier +disappears, and shortly afterwards the woman's son returns home; his +mother is greatly astonished at his appearance, and tells him how she +has been deceived; he gets angry and leaves the house again, swearing +never to return till he finds some one more foolish than his mother. He +is a skilful thief; he steals from a lady, whilst her husband is absent, +a hog with its little pigs, and puts them in safe concealment; the +husband returns, hears what has taken place, and follows the thief with +a carriage and horses. The robber hears him coming; squats down on the +ground, takes off his hat, and pretends to be covering with it a bird +or a falcon, which wishes to escape. The husband comes and asks him if +he has seen the robber; the latter answers that he has seen him, but +that he is a long way off, and that the roads by which he can be +overtaken are many and winding. The husband, who, perhaps, does not know +the proverb which says, "Who wishes, let him go; who wishes not, let him +send," asks the robber to overtake the fugitive; the thief demurs, +saying that he has under his hat a falcon, which cost his master three +hundred roubles, and that it may escape. The gentleman promises to take +care of it, and if the falcon escapes, to pay the three hundred roubles. +The thief does not believe his promise, and desires the three hundred +roubles in pledge of his good faith; the gentleman gives them, and the +thief goes off with the carriage, the horses, and the three hundred +roubles. The gentleman stays till evening looking at the hat, waiting +for his friend to return; at last he loses patience, wants to see what +there is under the hat, and finds nothing--but a proof of his own +stupidity.[383] + +Ivan (John), and oftener still Vaniusha (Little John, the Giovannino +of Italian legends), distinguishes himself, not only by his thieving +accomplishments, but also by his courage. In order to play the part of +a thief, as Little John does in all the Indo-Europeans legends, not +only industry, but courage must be called into requisition; hence he +acquires, like the Chevalier Bayard, the good reputation of a hero +without fear and without reproach. The hero Ivan is now the son of a +king, now of a merchant, and now of a peasant; the merchants wished, +no less than the peasants, to appropriate to themselves the most +popular hero of tradition. In the forty-sixth story of the fifth book +of _Afanassieff_, neither the shades of night, nor brigands, nor +death, can make the hero afraid; but he is terrified and dies, falling +into the water, when the little _iersh_ (the perch) leaps upon his +stomach, whilst he is asleep in his fishing-boat. In the Tuscan +story,[384] the fearless hero Giovannino, after having confronted +every kind of danger, dies from the terror the sight of his own shadow +inspires him with. In the same way, in the _Rigvedas_, the god Indras, +terrified at his own shadow, or, probably, that of his dead enemy, +takes to flight after the killing of the serpent Ahis.[385] + +The following heroes are also variations of Prince Ivan, Ivan the son +of the cow, Ivan the peasant's son, Ivan the merchant's son, and the +cunning Ivan:--1st, Alessino Papovic, the son of the priest (it is +well known that the Russian priests are not bound to celibacy), who +kills Tugarin, the son of the serpent, by prayer, that is, by praying +to the Holy Mother of God, to order the black cloud to cause drops of +rain to fall on the monster's wings, upon which the son of the +serpent, like the Vedic Ahis, when Indras opens a way for the rivers +to come out, instantly falls to the ground;[386] 2d, Baldak, son of +Boris, the boy seven years old, who succeeds in spitting in the +Sultan's face--(I have already remarked, in the preface to this work, +that the king of the Turks is, in the Slavonic tradition, as well as +in that of Persia, the representative of the devil; the demon, when +the hero approaches, smells the odour of human flesh in India, of +Christian flesh in Western stories,[387] and of Russian flesh in +Russian fairy tales)--but who afterwards becomes the Sultan's +prisoner, because he appears to the third daughter of the latter with +a star under his heel, or shows his heel (which is the vulnerable part +of both hero and monster); 3d, Basil Bes-ciastnoi, who goes, by his +father-in-law's order, into the kingdom of the serpent, in order to +receive a gift from him, with adventures similar to those of the young +Plavacek in Bohemian stories, when he goes to seek the three golden +hairs of the old Vsieveda (the all-seeing, the Vedic sun +Vivavedas);[388] 4th, The third brother who exchanges two sacks of +flies and gnats he has caught for good cattle.[389] The same hero +takes the name of Little Thomas Berennikoff; being blind of one eye, +he kills an army of flies, and boasts of having killed an army of +heroes; he thus dishonestly gains the reputation of being a hero, and +is fortunate in having an opportunity offered him of proving his +bravery by killing a monster-serpent, who, out of foolhardiness, shuts +both eyes when he sees that Thomas has but one; he afterwards destroys +an army of Chinese with the trunk of a tree, rooted up by his +indomitable horse, which a real hero had bound to the tree;[390] 5th, +The cunning rogue, Little Thomas (Thomka; the quacks in Piedmont are +accustomed to give the name of Tommasino to the little devil which +they conjure out of a phial), who, by means of disguises, cheats and +robs the priest;[391] 6th, The third brother who does not suffer +himself to be put to sleep by the witch (as we have seen above the +third sister who keeps one of her three eyes open);[392] 7th, The +famous robber, Klimka,[393] who, by means of a drum (in Indian tales a +trumpet), terrifies his accomplices, the robbers, and takes their +money, and then steals from a gentleman his horse, his casket of +jewels, and even his wife; 8th, The Cossack who delivers the maiden +from the flames, and carries her to his golden house, where there are +two other maidens (be it understood, the one in the silver house, and +the other in that of copper); from which three maidens the Cossack +receives a shirt which renders him invulnerable, a sword which +produces the most marvellous effects in slaughtering men, and a purse +which, when shaken, drops money;[394] 9th, The celebrated Ilia +Muromietz (Elias of Murom), round whom, as also around Svetazr and +Svyatogor (holy mount), Dobrynia Nikitic, and the heroes of Vladimir, +is grouped an entire heroic Russian epic poem.[395] + +Other variations of the same hero are the son of the merchant given +up to be educated by the devil, who teaches him every kind of craft; +the boy Basil, who understands the language of birds, and who makes +his parents serve him;[396] the merchant or son of a peasant,[397] +who, because he prefers good advice to money, acquires a fortune; the +virtuous workman, who receives by way of pay for his labour only three +kapeika, which, spent in good works, enables him at last to marry the +king's daughter, or the princess who did not laugh.[398] + +The legend of the hero Ivan has yet other interesting forms, +reflective of the beautiful Vedic myth of the Avinu, who into their +flying chariot-vessel also take up the unhappy. In _Afanassieff_,[399] +the third brother, thought to be foolish, is ill-treated by his +parents, who dress and feed him badly. The king issues a proclamation, +that whoever can make a flying vessel will obtain his daughter to +wife. The mother sends forth her three sons in quest of the necessary +enchantment; to her third son she gives a little brown bread and +water, whilst the two eldest go provided with good white loaves and +some brandy. The fool meets on the way a poor old man, salutes him, +and begins to share with him his scanty store of food; the old man +transmutes his brown bread into white, and his water into brandy, and +then advises him to enter the forest, to make the sign of the cross +upon the first tree he finds, and to strike it with his axe; then to +throw himself on the ground and stay there until he wakens; he will +see a vessel ready before him: "Sit down in it," added the old man, +"and fly whither your behest requires you; and by the way take up +beside you as many as you meet."[400] This chariot is freighted with +abundance, both to eat and to drink; the young man overtakes several +needy beggars, and invites them up into the chariot; he receives only +poor people, not a single rich man.[401] But these poor men afterwards +show their gratitude to the hero, and help him in other adventures +imposed upon him by the Tzar, who hopes by this means to get rid of a +son-in-law of such vulgar origin. One of the new tasks imposed +requires him to eat twelve oxen, and to drink at one gulp forty +barrels of wine; in this he is helped by Eating (Abidalo) and by +Drinking (Apivlo), whom he had entertained in his chariot-ship, and +who eat and drink instead of him.[402] At last he comes to claim and +marry the young princess. (The hero-sun, taken up into the chariot of +the Avinu, by the grace of the Avinu, invoked by him in danger, is +delivered, and espouses the aurora.) + +In a variation of this legend, a prince, fifteen years of age, who has +been lost by his parents, is found again by means of a riddle which +they propose, and which he alone can solve.[403] In the Vedic hymns it +is now the aurora, the beautiful maiden, who delivers the hero-sun, +and now the hero-sun who delivers the beautiful maiden, the aurora. +In the forty-first story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, a little +girl, seven years old (semilietk), presents herself to the Tzar, who +must marry her, inasmuch as she solves the riddle proposed by him, by +arriving riding on a hare (an animal which represents the moon), with +a quail (an animal which seems to represent the sun) tied to her +hand.[404] She too, like the aurora, knows all; she too protects the +poor against the rich, and the innocent against the guilty. The dwarf +Allwis is a form of this child. Allwis is the omniscient man of the +Edda, who solves all the questions put to him by the god Thor, in +order to obtain his daughter; when he is done with answering these +questions, day breaks, and the sun shines. + +The wondrous girl of seven years of age (the aurora), brings us back +to the marvellous puppet (generally, the moon). It is three puppets +(the wooden chest of Marion d'bosch, or wooden little Mary of the +Piedmontese story, the dark forest of night, the tree that hides the +splendid treasures of the evening aurora; another variety of the same +myth in relation to the sun) that hide the three splendid dresses of +the stars, the moon and the sun, which belong to the beautiful maiden, +the daughter of the priest (a variation of the Vedic aurora, duhitar +divas, or daughter of the sky). It is the three puppets which enable +the beautiful girl to descend through the ground, and so escape from +the persecutions of her father and seducer (in other versions, of her +brother), and which go down with her, dressed as old women, and enter +a forest, where, near an oak-tree, there is the house of a princess, +who has a young and handsome son.[405] In a variation of this +story,[406] the girl is persecuted, not by her father, but the +well-known cruel stepmother, for whom she divides the wheat from the +barley, and draws water at the fountain (like the Vedic maiden Apal); +she goes three times splendidly dressed to church (which takes the +place of the ball-room of other stories), where she is seen three +times by a handsome prince; she is twice followed, and twice +disappears; the third time the prince has gum (pitch, in other +variations) put on the ground; the fugitive loses her golden slipper +in consequence, which the prince picks up, and tries on all the +maidens till he finds his bride. In another story,[407] where the +relation of the aurora with the two Avinu comes out in wonderful +distinctness,[408] it is by means of her marvellous speaking puppet +(_i.e._, the moon, the Vedic Rak, very small, but very intelligent, +enclosed in the wooden dress, in the forest of night) that the girl, +persecuted by her step-mother, weaves a cloth so fine that it can pass +like a thread through the eye of a needle (just as the girl's feet are +very small, so also are the puppet's hands). The marvellous cloth is +brought to the Tzar, but no one is found who is able to sew it into a +shirt for the Tzar.[409] The maiden alone, by the help of her puppet, +succeeds; the Tzar wishes to see the girl who prepared his +extraordinary shirt, and goes to find her; he is astonished at her +beauty, and marries her. In the _Rigvedas_, the aurora weaves a robe +for her husband the sun. + +The same girl (the aurora) whom we have here only as a good, +beautiful, intelligent, and skilful maiden, appears in other stories +given in _Afanassieff_ as a heroic damsel. In the seventh story of the +first book she disguises herself as a man, and mocks the Tzar three +times. In the fourteenth story of the first book, the same girl, under +the name of Anastasia the beautiful, vanquishes and binds the serpent, +and discovers the secret of how he can be killed. Under the name of +Helen, or Little Helen, she is the protectress of her little brother, +Ivanusca (Little John),[410] and his guide through the world; and when +the boy, by the incantation of a witch, is transformed into a lamb or +kid (in a story of the Canavese, in Piedmont, the seven monks, +brothers of the courageous girl, are transformed into seven hogs), she +recommends him to the care of the prince, her husband, in order that +he may destroy the evil work of the witch. The same maiden is found +again as the very wise Basilia (Vasilisa Premudraia), who succours the +young hero, because, after stealing her dress while she was bathing in +the sea, he restores it to her, agreeably to her prayer. For this +favour she gratefully accomplishes for him the labours imposed upon +him by the king of the waters, and ends, after many vicissitudes, by +marrying him.[411] She appears once more as the royal maiden +(Tzar-dievitza), who comes three times with her ships by sea to lead +away the young Ivan, beloved by her;[412] and I also place among the +girl-heroines the daughter of the shepherd in the twenty-ninth story +of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, of which this is an abridgment. +There was once a king who could not find a maiden beautiful enough to +suit his taste. One day, returning from the chase (the solar hero +always meets the aurora, his bride, when returning from the hunt in +the forest of night), he meets a shepherd's daughter, who is leading +out the flock to pasture, so beautiful that her like would be sought +for in vain over the world. He becomes enamoured of her, and promises +to make her his wife, but only on condition that she will never say +anything displeasing to him, whatever he may do; the poor enamoured +maiden consents, the nuptials are celebrated, and the couple live +together happily for a year. A boy is born to them; then the king says +roughly to his wife that the boy must be killed, that it may never be +said the heir to the throne is the son of a shepherdess. The poor +woman resigns herself to her fate, remarking, "The will of the king +must be done." Another year passes, and a daughter is born. The king +informs his wife that she too must be killed, as she can never become +a princess, but will always remain a peasant girl. The unhappy mother +once more bows her head to the will of the king, who, however, +consigns his son and daughter, not to an executioner, but to his +sister, that they may receive all the attentions due to their royal +pedigree and standing. Years pass away; the little prince and princess +grow up beautiful, healthy, good, and happy, and pass adolescence. +Then the king puts his wife to the last proof. He sends her back to +her house in the dress of a shepherdess, signifying at the same time +that she has lived with him long enough. Then he orders her to return, +to put the rooms in order, and to wait upon the new bride whom he +intends to take her place; the shepherd's daughter obeys again without +a murmur. The new bride arrives, and is set down at the table; they +eat, drink, and are merry; the shepherd's daughter is obliged to see +and hear all, and to serve in silence; at last the king asks her, +"Well, is not my bride beautiful?" To which the unhappy woman +responds with a heroic effort, "If she seem beautiful to thee, still +more does she seem so to me." Then the king, at the summit of his +felicity, exclaims, "Dress thyself again in thy royal robes, and place +thyself by my side; thou hast been, and shalt always be, my wife, my +only wife; this, my supposed bride, is thy daughter, and this handsome +youth is thy son." The poor heroine had undergone the last proof of +her virtue, and triumphed. + +But the virtue of the legendary heroine is not always so sound. Often +the good wife, sister, maiden, or woman is corrupted by contact with the +wicked. We have already seen how the beautiful aurora, the pitying and +beneficent maiden, becomes, in the Vedic hymns themselves, the +evil-doer, whom the god Indras overthrows and destroys. The Hellenic +Amazons, the beautiful and proud warrior-women, were also pursued, +fought with, and vanquished by the Hellenic heroes. Thus the +Scandinavian warrior, Walkiries, has a double aspect, a good and a bad. +The Russian stories also supply numerous instances of the ease with +which the good degenerates into the demon, the hero into the monster, +and the beautiful heroine into the powerful and mischief-working witch. + +This good sister Helen or Little Helen, so careful a guardian of her +brother John, ends, when she conceives a passion for the monster, with +becoming his perfidious persecutor. (The evening aurora is represented +as a friend of the monster of night, who conspires with him against +her brother the sun; and whoever observes the sinister aspect often +assumed by the reddish sky of evening, will find this fiction a very +natural one. I have said above that a Piedmontese proverb predicts bad +weather for the morrow from a red evening; but in Piedmont the belief +is also widely diffused that the red of evening signifies blood, and +that this bloody redness signifies war. It certainly does mean war, +but a mythical war--the war in which the hero, fighting against the +monster, succumbs and sheds blood. It is a woman that is the hero's +destruction. A counter-type of the biblical Delilah is found in all +the popular Indo-European traditions; the Vedic aurora, the sister of +Rvanas in the _Rmyanam_, the sister of Hidimbas in the +_Mahbhratam_, the Hellenic Dejanira, Ariadne, Medea, the Amazons, +Helen, the Slavonic Helen, and Anna the Sabine woman, the Scandinavian +Walkiries, Freya, Idun, Brnhilt, Gudrun, the Germanic Krmhilt, are +all forms of one and the same heroine, conceived now in the light of a +saint, and now in that of a witch. + +In the Russian story,[413] after the bull has saved from the bear the +fugitive brother and sister, Ivan Tzarevic and Helen the exceedingly +beautiful (Prekrana), they enter a brigand's house. Their bull, +having become a dwarf, kills all the brigands, and shuts their bodies +up in a room, which he forbids Helen to enter; the latter, not +attending to the prohibition, enters, and seeing the head of the +brigand chief, falls in love with him, resuscitates him by means of +the water of life, and then conspires with him to destroy her brother +Ivan, by requiring him to accomplish enterprises in which death seemed +inevitable, or else by ordering him to bring her, first, the milk of a +wolf, then that of a she-bear, and then that of a lioness. Ivan, by +the help of his dwarf (or the sun grown small during the night, and +perhaps also the moon), accomplishes all these undertakings. We have +already seen how white comes from black; the milk of the wolf, the +bear, and the lioness is the _alba luna_, or the white morning sky +brought back by the solar hero. Ivan is then sent to fetch the eggs of +the burning bird (Szar-ptitza). Ivan goes with his dwarf (that is to +say, the moon, or he makes himself a dwarf, in other words, renders +himself invisible); the bird is enraged, and swallows the dwarf +(_i.e._, the red sky of evening, the burning bird, or phoenix, absorbs +the moon or the sun in its flames.[414]) Ivan goes back to his sister +without the eggs, upon which she threatens to burn him in the bath. +Ivan, with the help of the wolf's, the bear's, and the lion's whelps, +or Ivan, with the young wolf, bear, or lion (the moon), or Ivan the +son of the wolf, Ivan the son of the bear, Ivan the son of the lion +(Ivan born of the she-wolf Night, the she-bear Night, or the lioness +Night), tears the brigand to pieces, and binds his sister (as the +Vedic cow) to a tree (the aurora almost always loses herself in a tree +or the water). Then Ivan wishes to marry a heroine. [Two myths are +here united in the story, originating in one and the same phenomenon, +which seems twofold, because observed at different, almost literally +succeeding, instants. The morning sun comes and puts to flight his +sister the aurora, driving her back into the forest of night, and +binding her to the tree; the morning sun passes safe and sound through +the flames (like Sfrit in the _Nibelungen_), vanquishes and subdues +the aurora, makes her his, and espouses her.] He fights with her +first, and succeeds in throwing her with his lance from her horse, and +subduing her. The first night--that is, when evening comes, she +embraces and presses him so tightly, and with such strength, that he +cannot succeed in extricating himself (the evening aurora envelops and +surrounds the sun; it is the famous nuptial belt, the belt of +strength of the god Thor, the shirt of Nessus). At last, however, +towards morning, Ivan vanquishes, subdues, and throws down (like +Sfrit in the _Nibelungen_) the girl-heroine (the morning sun, as +Indras, throws down the aurora). He then thinks of liberating his +sister Helen, who is bound to the tree, in order to take her with him; +but she, under the pretext of combing his hair, thrusts a dead man's +tooth into his head. Ivan is about to die. Here the primary myth of +the sun and aurora, as brother and sister, reappears, and the +secondary one of the husband and wife is forgotten. The lion's whelp +comes forward and extracts the tooth; the lion is on the point of +dying, when the young bear runs up and extracts it again. He is also +about to die; the fox then comes up, who assumes towards the end of +the story the part played in the middle by the young wolf (in the same +way as in Indian tales the jackal is substituted for the fox), and, +with more cunning, throws the dead man's tooth into the fire, and thus +saves himself--_i.e._, the solar hero, passing through the flames, +comes out of the shadows which enveloped him during the night. Helen +is attached to the tail of a horse (of Ivan's solar horse itself), and +is thus made to perish (when the sun comes forth in the morning the +aurora loses herself behind him). + +The same story of Ivan's perfidious sister, of which the mythical +sense appears to me more than usually evident, occurs again in other +forms in Russian tales. + +Whilst Ivan is travelling with his sister towards the kingdom where +all the people die[415] (that is, towards the night), a fairy gives +him a towel, by shaking which a bridge may be thrown across a +river--(is this bridge the milky way, the bridge or road to be taken +by the souls in the Persian and Porphyrian belief, as well as in the +German?)--but advises him never to let his sister see him shake it. +Ivan arrives with his sister in the kingdom of the dead; they come +upon a river on the further bank of which there is a serpent, who has +the power of transforming himself into a handsome youth; Ivan's sister +becomes enamoured of him, and he induces her to steal the towel from +her brother and shake it. The sister, under the pretext of washing the +dirty linen, takes off the fairy's towel and shakes it; a bridge +rises, upon which the serpent crosses the river, and then conspires +with the girl with intent to work Ivan's ruin. They demand the usual +milk, which Ivan brings; then the flour which is shut up within twelve +doors. Ivan goes thither with his beasts of prey, takes the flour and +brings it away, but his beasts remain shut up inside; then his +strength diminishes, and the serpent, boasting that he fears him no +longer, prepares to devour him. Ivan, by the advice of a crow, prays +for time, and procrastinates till his beasts of prey, gnawing the +twelve doors through, come to his help, and tear the serpent in +pieces. The serpent's bones are burned in the fire, its ashes are +dispersed to the four winds, and the sister is bound to a stone pillar +(to the rock or mountain upon which the aurora arises, fading away +afterwards when the sun appears). Ivan places near her some hay and a +vessel full of water, that she may have whereof to eat and drink, and +another empty vessel, which she is to fill with her tears: when she +has eaten the hay, drunk the water, and filled the vessel with her +tears, it will be a sign that God has forgiven her; when Ivan too will +forgive her. Meanwhile, Ivan goes into a kingdom where there is +nothing but mourning, because a twelve-headed serpent is massacring +all the people (the usual nocturnal sky, where it is now the hero-sun, +now the heroine aurora that sacrifices itself), and the king's +daughter is the next victim. Ivan, by the help of his hunting animals, +cuts the serpent to pieces, and then goes to sleep on the knees of the +king's daughter. While he sleeps, a water-carrier passes towards +morning, cuts off his head, and presents himself to the king as the +deliverer of the princess, whom he demands for his wife. The beasts of +prey come up, descry the crow upon Ivan's corpse, and prepare to eat +it, when the crow begs for its life; they consent, and in return +require it to search for the water of life and death, by means of +which Ivan is resuscitated; the water-carrier's deceit is found out, +and Ivan marries the princess whom he had delivered from the monster. +Then he goes to look for his sister, and finds she has eaten the hay, +drunk the water, and filled half the vessel with tears; upon this he +pardons her, and takes her away with him. + +In another story,[416] instead of the perfidious sister, we have the +perfidious mother (probably step-mother), who, to please her demon +lover, feigns illness, and demands from Ivan the heart, first of the +three-headed, then of the six-headed, and finally of the twelve-headed +monster. Ivan accomplishes these undertakings. He is then sent to a hot +bath, to weaken his strength. Ivan goes, and his head is cut off by the +monster. But Ivan's two sons resuscitate him by rubbing a root upon his +body; the demon lover of Ivan's mother dies as soon as the hero revives +again. In the two sons of Ivan we recognise again the myth of the +Avinu, the celestial physicians who resuscitate the solar hero. + +In another story, Ivan Karolievic (king's son) is threatened with +death by his own wife,[417] who, feigning illness, demands the usual +milk of a she-wolf, a she-bear, and a lioness, and then the enchanted +powder (powder of gold or flour), which is under the devils mill, +barred behind twelve doors. Ivan comes out, but his beasts remain +inside. He returns and finds his wife with the serpent, the son of the +serpent; he chaunts the song of death--he sings it three times;[418] +on hearing which the serpent is thrown down, and the beasts, regaining +strength to deliver themselves, come out and tear the serpent, and +with him the perfidious wife is put to death. + +Ivan's perfidious wife occurs again in the thirty-fifth story of the +fifth book of _Afanassieff_, under the name of Anna the very beautiful +(Prekranaia). She has married Ivan Tzarevic against her will, because +she could not solve a riddle which he proposed to her; she does not love +him, and endeavours to destroy him by requiring an extraordinary proof +of his valour,[419] in which, by the help of his tutor, Katoma, Ivan is +victorious, so that Anna falls into his hands. But, understanding that +Ivan's strength is not in himself, but his tutor, she induces Ivan to +send him away, after depriving him of his feet. Anna then sends Ivan to +take the cows to pasture. The lame Katoma finds in the forest a blind +man, also made so by Anna;[420] they become friends and consociate +together, and carry off a beautiful maiden to be their sister; but a +witch comes and makes the maiden comb her hair, whilst she sucks her +breast (we must remember that in the Indian story the girl has three +breasts, or is defective in her breast, in the same way as the witch +makes the Russian girl so by sucking her breast). The poor girl grows +thin and ugly, until the old witch is surprised in her evil doings by +the two heroes, fallen upon by them like a mountain of stone, and +pressed so tightly that she cries for mercy. Then they demand to be +shown where the fountain of life and healing can be found. The old woman +conducts them into a dense forest, and shows them a fountain. They first +throw a dry twig in, which immediately takes fire; they threaten to kill +the old witch, and force her to lead them to another fountain, into +which they throw another dry twig; it becomes green again. Then one rubs +his eyes, and the other his feet, with the water, and both become +healthy and strong again. They throw the witch into the fountain of +fire. Katoma, in a shepherd's dress, goes to deliver the hero Ivan from +the demon cow, which lifts up its tail and gives him back his strength +and splendour. This is again the Vedic myth of the Avinu united to the +aurora, who cure the blind and the lame, _i.e._, themselves, and save +the multiform solar hero. + +Finally, such as we have found the blind girl in the Vedic hymns, so +we meet her again in Russian tradition.[421] A servant-maid takes out +the eyes of the maiden her mistress, after having put her to sleep by +means of a herb, and marries the king in her stead. The girl awakens, +hears but does not see; an old shepherd receives her into his house; +during the night she, although blind, sews a crown for the Tzar and +sends the old man to court to sell it for an eye (this is a variation +of Queen Berta in the forest). The servant-maid, now become queen, +tempted by the beauty of this crown, takes one of the girls eyes out +of her pocket and gives it to the old man. The maiden arises at the +aurora, washes her eye in her own saliva (_i.e._, the dew. In Tuscany, +the peasants believe that whoever washes his face in the dew before +the sun rises on St John's Day, will have no illness all the year +following), puts it in the socket and sees. She then sews another +crown, and, in the same manner, recovers her other eye at the next +aurora. Then the servant-queen learns that she is alive, and makes +hired murderers cut her to pieces. Where the maiden is buried, a +garden arises and a boy shows himself. The boy goes to the palace and +runs after the queen, making such a din that she is obliged, in order +to silence him, to give him the girl's heart, which she had kept +hidden. The boy then runs off contented; the king follows him, and +finds himself before the resuscitated maiden. He marries her, and the +servant-girl is blinded, and then torn to pieces by being fastened to +the tails of horses. Like the German Genevive and the Hindoo +akuntal, the Russian wife is recognised by her husband by means of a +boy. This is the young sun, who enables the old one to be born again, +to arise again and be young once more; this is the son who, in the +Hindoo legend, gives his father his eyesight back, and by doing so, +naturally imparts to him the means of recognising his wife, whom he +had forgotten, or rejected, or lost, according to the various forms +assumed by the celestial myth of the separation of husband and wife. + +I might now carry on this comparison by entering the mythical field of +the more Western Slavonic nations;[422] but it is not my intention to +convert this modest volume into an entire library of legends; neither is +it necessary for my purpose, as by so doing I should not add much more +evidence to that which I have thus far attempted to collect, in order to +prove how zoological mythology is the same in existing Slavonic +tradition as it was in Hindoo antiquity. I have, moreover, gone rather +minutely into the contents of Russian tradition in particular, because, +on account of our ignorance of the language, which is beautiful and +worthy of study, it is little known, and because it is of especial +importance in our present inquiry. I believe, if I do not deceive +myself, that I have, up to this point, given an account of all the more +essential legends developed in the Eastern Aryan world relating to the +myth of the cow and the bull; and now, in moving towards the West, I +think I may venture to proceed with greater expedition, because we shall +find ourselves in a region already familiar to us. It seemed to me that +it was especially necessary, for a just comparison, to determine and fix +the character of Oriental tradition, in order that it may be easy for +the student to classify the interminable stories and traditions which +have already been collected in Western Europe, and which are published +in languages which are, certainly, different from each other, but all, +comparatively speaking, readily accessible. If I have succeeded in +imparting to the reader an understanding of the more authentic sources +of legendary traditions and their most probable meanings, I shall go on +with more courage and a greater confidence to the investigations that +follow. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[348] These last have already been translated into English, and +illustrated, by W. R. S. Ralston, M.A. The _Narodnija Skaski_ +sabrannija selskimi uciteliami, isdanie A. A. Erlenwein (Moskva 1863), +and the more voluminous N. Aphanasieva, _Narodnija ruskija skaski_, +Isd. 2 (Moskva 1860, 1861), have not thus far been translated into +other European languages. I have therefore thought fit to make copious +quotations from them as well for the use of Western readers, as on +account of the real importance of their mythical contents, whilst +awaiting the publication of the competent work which Mr Ralston is +expressly preparing upon Russian songs. + +[349] iii. 8805, and following. + +[350] _Afanassieff_, ii. 29. + +[351] iv. 45. + +[352] This subject is already given in _sop's Fables_, in the +twenty-first fable (ed. Del Furia, Florence, 1809): the man prays to a +wooden idol (xlinon theon) that it may make him rich; the statue does +not answer; he breaks it to pieces, and gold comes out of it. + +[353] Seventeenth story. + +[354] Cfr. also in _Afanassieff_, the story, v. 19. + +[355] Cfr. also, for the variations, the twenty-second of _Erlenwein_, +and iii. 24, of _Afanassieff_. + +[356] Story 54. + +[357] Cfr. the first story of my collection of the _Novelline di Santo +Stefano di Calcinaia_, Torino, A. F. Negro, 1869. I am also acquainted +with a Piedmontese variation, differing but little from this Tuscan +story. + +[358] In the story, ii. 27, of the collection of _Afanassieff_, the +beautiful princess, near the sea, combs the youngest son of the Tzar, +who goes to sleep. + +[359] Cfr. the chapter on the Goat. + +[360] v. 37. + +[361] v. 50. + +[362] v. 9. + +[363] In Lafontaine, _Fables_, vii. 1, the animal sacrificed is the ass. + +[364] _Afanassieff_, iv. 20-22.--In a Lithuanian song, which describes +the nuptials of animals, the bull appears as a woodcutter or +woodman.--Cfr. Uhland's _Schriften zur Geschichte der Dichtung und +Sage_, iii. 75. + +[365] _Afanassieff_, v. 6. + +[366] Cfr. the chapter which treats of the Wolf. + +[367] _Afanassieff_, v. 41. + +[368] _Afanassieff_, iv. 1.--In another variation of the same myth, +which we have already referred to in the Vedic hymns, the birds come, +on the contrary, out of a horse. + +[369] v. 54. + +[370] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 54, and the chapters on the Fish and the +Eel. + +[371] I read in the travels of Olearius in Persia during the year +1638, French translation: "Les Persans disent que la montagne de +Kilissim a une telle proprit que tous ceux qui y montent n'en +descendent point; que le schach Abas obligea un jour un de ses +chasseurs, en lui promettant une grosse somme d'argent, monter sur +cette montagne, et qu'il y monta effectivement, l'ayant fait connotre +par le feu qu'il alluma; mais qu'il n'en descendit point, et que l'on +ne sait point ce qu'il devint avec son chien, qu'il menait avec lui." + +[372] _Afanassieff_, iv. 9.--In the well-known English story of _Jack +and the Bean-stalk_, it is the giant who is killed by the fall from +heaven, when Jack cuts the bean-stalk close to the ground. + +[373] _Afanassieff_, iv. 7.--Cfr. the chapter on the Fox. + +[374] _Afanassieff_, v. 12, and vi. 2.--Cfr. the chapters on the Goat, +the Fox, the Wolf, and the Duck, where other episodes of this legend +are found again.--In the twelfth story of the fifth book of +_Afanassieff_, the old man goes up to heaven to call God to account +for the peas that He has taken from the top of the pea-plant; God +gives him in exchange stockings of gold and garters of silver. + +[375] Cfr. also v. 24. + +[376] v. 55.--Cfr. also vi. 22.--Cfr. the _Contes et Proverbes +Populaires recueillis en Armagnac_, par Blad (Paris, 1867), where the +foolish and lazy one occurs again under the name of Joan Lou Pigre. + +[377] Cfr. also the two variations in _Afanassieff_, vi. 25. + +[378] + + Po malu, malu, sestritze, grai + Nie vraszi ti mav serdienk vkrai! + Ti-sz mini szradila + Sza krasni yagodki, sza corvonni cobotki! + +Also cfr. the chapter on the Peacock. + +[379] In the Festival of the Epiphany, which is also a festival of the +husband and wife, the good fairy is accustomed to bring to the child, +husband, and wife, a boot or a stocking full of presents. This nuptial +boot occurs again in the English custom of throwing a slipper after a +newly-married couple. Another meaning was also given to the slippers +which are thrown away in the popular belief. Instead of being the +heroine's shoes which, having been abandoned, serve to attract and +guide the predestined husband, they are also considered as the old +shoes which the devil leaves behind him when he flees (his tail, which +betrays itself). The Germanic wild huntress Gueroryssa, another form +of the Frau Holle--the phantom of winter expelled at Epiphany--is +represented with a serpent's tail. Hence in the German carnival the +use of the _Schuh-teufel laufen_, or running in the devil's slippers. + +[380] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 4, and the chapter on the Stork. + +[381] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, ii. 25, ii. 28, iv. 47, v. 37. + +[382] The _mre sotte_ has become proverbial in France, where, in the +sixteenth century, Pierre Gringore wrote a satirical comedy with the +title of _Le Jeu de Mre Sotte_, in which the Mre Sotte is the +Catholic Church. + +[383] A similar story, which, on account of its indecent details, I +was not able to publish in my collection of the _Novelline di Santo +Stefano di Calcinaia_, is narrated upon the hills of Signa, near +Florence. It is also told, with some variations, in Piedmont.--Cfr. a +Russian variety of the same story in the chapter on the Hen. + +[384] _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_, 22. + +[385] Cfr. the chapter on the Fishes. + +[386] _Afanassieff_, vi. 59.--But in the tale v. 11, he knows how to +fight well. + +[387] In England the monster smells the blood of an Englishman, as in +the familiar lines in _Jack the Giant-Killer_-- + + "Fe fo fum, + I smell the blood of an Englishman; + Be he alive or be he dead, + I'll grind his bones to make my bread." + +[388] Cfr. Teza, _The Three Golden Hairs of the Grandfather Know-all_, a +Bohemian tale (_I tre Capelli d'oro del Nonno Satutto_, Bologna, 1866). + +[389] _Afanassieff_, ii. 7. + +[390] v. 11. + +[391] _Afanassieff_, v. 7, 8. + +[392] iv. 46. + +[393] v. 6; _Erlenwein_, 7. + +[394] _Erlenwein_, 5.--In the first story of _Erlenwein_, the +last-born, Vaniusha (Little John), takes from disputing peasants, by a +stratagem, first a marvellous arrow, then a hat which makes the wearer +invisible, and, finally, a mantle which flies of itself. He promises +to divide them equitably, and for this service makes them pay him +beforehand, each of the three times, a hundred roubles; he then throws +the objects far away and says, that he who is able to find them will +have them; all search, but he alone finds them. (Thus Argunas, in the +_Mahbhratam_, hides his wonderful arms in the trunk of a tree, in +which he alone can find them.) + +[395] Cfr. Schiefner, _Zur Russischen Heldensage_, Petersburg, 1861. +This is how the hero Svyatogor is described in a Russian popular epic +song cited by Ralston (_The Songs of the Russian people_): "There +comes a hero taller than the standing woods, whose head reaches to the +fleeting clouds, bearing on his shoulders a crystal coffer." + +[396] _Afanassieff_, vi. 41. + +[397] v. 31, and _Erlenwein_, 16. + +[398] v. 32. + +[399] vi. 27. + +[400] adis v niev, i leti kuda nadobno; da po daroghie zabiri k +sebi vsikavo vstriecnavo. + +[401] Na karabli niet ni adnav pna, a vsi crnie ludi. + +[402] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 23.--Ice, in the form of an old man, +comes to try the boiling bath into which the king of the sea wishes to +throw the young hero; when Ice has tried the bath, the youth enters it +without suffering any harm.--The trial of drinking occurs again in a +grandiose form in the combat between Loki and Thor to empty the cup in +the Edda of Snorri, a different form of the Hindoo legend of Agastyas, +who dries up the sea.--Odin, too, as Indras and as Bhmas, at three +gulps dries up three lakes of mead. + +[403] _Afanassieff_, v. 42. + +[404] Cfr. the chapters on the Hare and the Quail. + +[405] _Afanassieff_, vi. 28, and ii. 31. + +[406] _Afanassieff_, vi. 20.--Cfr. i. 3, and ii. 31, where we have the +same particular of the prince who strikes three times the disguised +girl who serves him, as in the Tuscan story of the Wooden Top (the +puppet), the third in my collection of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano +di Calcinaia_. + +[407] iv. 44. + +[408] Cfr. next chapter. + +[409] Cfr. the chapter on the Spider. + +[410] _Afanassieff_, ii. 29, and iv. 45. + +[411] v. 23. + +[412] v. 42. + +[413] _Afanassieff_, v. 27. + +[414] Cfr. the chapter which treats of the Eagle, the Vulture, and the +Falcon. + +[415] _Afanassieff_, vi. 52. + +[416] _Afanassieff_, vi. 63. + +[417] vi. 51. + +[418] In the story, vi. 52, Ivan, by playing in a marvellous manner on +a flute, is recognised by the princess whom he had delivered from the +monster. + +[419] Cf. next chapter. + +[420] We find the blind-lame man again in an epigram by Ausonius of +Bordeaux, a writer of the fourth century:-- + + "Insidens cco graditur pede claudus utroque, + Quo caret alteruter, sumit ab alterutro. + Ccus namque pedes claudo gressumque ministrat, + At claudus cco lumina, pro pedibus." + +[421] _Afanassieff_, v. 39. + +[422] The student who wishes to extend his researches in Slavonic +tradition may consult with profit, among others, the following +works:--Schwenck, _Mythologie der Slaven_; Hanusch, _Slavische +Mythologie_; Woycicki, _Polnische Mrchen_; Schleicher, _Littauische +Mrchen_; Wenzig, _Westslavischer Mrchenschatz_; Kapper, _Die Gesnge +der Serben_; Chodzko, _Contes des Paysans et des Ptres Slaves_; Teza, +_Itre Capelli d'oro del Nonno Satutto_, a Bohemian story; Mikievic, +_Canti Popolari Illirici_. + + +SECTION V. + +THE BULL AND THE COW IN THE GERMANICO-SCANDINAVIAN AND FRANCO-CELTIC +TRADITIONS. + +SUMMARY. + + The four bulls, sons of the virgin Gefion.--The bull which comes out + of the sea.--The bull progenitor of royal races.--The bull who + carries the maiden.--The cow of abundance, Audhumla, nurse and + mother of heroes.--The three brothers of Scandinavian and German + mythology.--The warrior-cow.--The sacred cow of gwaldr burned upon + the hero's tomb.--The rod-phallos used to strike the cow, as an + augury of abundance and fecundity.--The head of the ox used as a + hook to catch the sea-serpent.--The Scandinavian cornucopia made of + the horns of oxen.--The horn full of honey.--The horn-trumpet.--The + daughter that milks.--The hero who eats oxen.--Atli eats the hearts + of his sons, believing them to be the hearts of + calves.--Hornboge.--To a wicked cow God gives short horns; to cut + off the cow's horns; to take the bull or cow by the horns, three + Germanic proverbs.--To dream of eagles announces the vicinity of + cows; Scandinavian corresponding legend.--A red cow on a certain + bridge announces a battle.--The Germanico-Scandinavian mythical + bridge.--The red cow and the black cow yield white milk.--Digression + upon mythical proverbs, and the explanation which seems to be the + most likely.--To shut the stable after the cow has been + stolen.--When the daughter is stolen, shut Peppergate.--He who has + lost a cow and gets its tail back again has not much, but he has + more than nothing.--To take by the horns.--Even if the cow's tail + moves it does not fall.--The tails in the mud.--The virtues of the + tail.--The ascent to heaven by means of the tails.--The hero in the + sack made of a cow's hide thrown into the sea.--The punishment of + the bull.--When the cow places herself upon the eggs, do not expect + fowls.--The black cow has crushed him.--The sack of the wolf or of + the black beast is his body itself.--The trial between hero and + monster to take off their skins; the hero gives cows' skins, but the + monster is obliged to give his own.--The cow's hide, when sold, is + the beginning of good luck.--The daughter flees from her father, who + wishes to seduce her; the story of the slipper again.--The cow can + pass before the hare.--The cow jumped over the moon.--Tarde sed + tute.--To take the hare with the chariot.--All those who blow the + horn do not hunt hares.--As a blind cow finds a pea.--Marvellous + pipkins and amphor.--The cow that laughs.--The princess who + laughs.--The cow that speaks.--The language of animals.--Phallical + mysteries.--What the king said in the queen's ear.--Because they + have spoken, the husband and wife are separated.--Bulls that speak + at Rome.--Women know everything, even how Zeus married Hra.--The + mythical laugh is in the sun's ray and in the lightning.--The fishes + that laugh; Phallic meaning of the myth.--If the cow-maid must spin, + there will be little yarn.--The cows that spin.--The spinning + Berta.--Berchta and Holda.--The time is passed when Berta spun.--The + times of King Pipino.--Berta with the large foot.--Berta with the + goose's foot.--St Lucia and St Luke.--Virgins after + parturition.--The old husband Pepin, a form of St Joseph.--The wife + Berta changed.--The Italian proverbs dare la Berta and dare la Madre + d'Orlando.--Continuation of the story of Berta persecuted in the + forest.--Orlando and Charlemagne.--The bull-priest and the + priest-bull.--The bull in funerals, in pregnancy, and as the food of + the hero.--The dwarf and the giant.--A French dwarf explains a myth + to us; a Scandinavian explains other myths to us. + +I shall here combine under one category the Germanico-Scandinavian and +Franco-Celtic traditions, as traditions which, in the Middle Ages +especially, had a close and continual correlation of correspondence +with each other. + +The _Edda_ of Snorri begins with the voyage of Gefion, with the four +oxen, her sons (although she is a virgin), yoked to a plough. The king +Gylfi concedes to her the right of occupying and possessing as much +ground as she can plough in twenty-four hours. When they come to the +western sea-board, the four oxen rush forward and drag Gefion with them +into the sea, until they arrive at the land of Seelund (Seeland).[423] +In which, it is obvious we have again the Vedic bull with a thousand +horns which comes out of the sea, and the bull which carries off the +maiden. The bull which comes out of the sea is also found in Irish +legends, and in German ones. According to a German legend, of which +several variations exist, a shepherd received a dinner every day and a +clean shirt every Sunday from a variegated bull that came out of the +sea.[424] A bull on the seaside begets, by the sleeping queen, the king +Meroveus, the first of the Merovingians; perhaps it is on this account +that we find a golden bull's head represented on the tomb of King +Childeric. Charles Simrock[425] found a similar legend also in Spain. +The bull which carries the girl, which we have already met with in the +Russian stories, occurs again in the Norse tale[426] of "_Katee Wooden +Cloak_ (Dasent), endowed with the powers of wish. In its left ear is a +cloth (which reminds us of that spun on the cow's horns), which, when +spread out, is covered with dainties of all kinds for the dawn-maiden, +who has been thrust out of her father's house; but when the step-mother +informs her that she cannot rest until she has eaten the dun bull's +flesh, the animal, hearing her, engages to deliver her, and offers, if +she so wills, to carry her away." + +In the voyage of Gylfi in the _Edda_ of Snorri, we find that the cow +Audhumla, the cow of abundance, was the parent of the supreme +Scandinavian god Odin, as it was of the supreme Vedic god Indras. The +cow Audhumla nourishes with her milk Ymir, the first of the giants. She +licks the salt mountain of ice (the Esthonian ice-mountain, the twelve +glasses of the Russian princess, through which the young hero Ivan +penetrates to kiss her). From the ice which the cow has licked, comes +forth, first the hair, then the head, then the whole body, of the hero +Buri. (The sun arises little by little from the mountain of the east, +warmed, attracted by the cow-aurora, and shows, first a few rays, then +his disc, and then himself in all his splendour and strength; and that +which the sun does every day he repeats on a larger scale once a year, +rising again from the ice of winter through the tepidity of spring.) Of +Buri, who is at birth strong, is born Br, who has, by Bestla, the +daughter of the giant Blthorn, three sons, Odin, Wili, and We (the +usual three brothers of the legends), who correspond to the three sons +of Mannus in German tradition, that is, Inguis, Istio, and Irminius. The +Swedish king Eistein had a great veneration for the cow Sibilia, and +used to take her with him to battle, that she might terrify the enemy by +her lowing. (The lowing of cows plays an important part in the battles +of the Vedic hero Indras. In the _Pancatantram_, as we have noticed, the +bellowing of the bull fills the lion with terror.) The Scandinavian +king, gwaldr, was accompanied everywhere by a sacred cow, of which he +drank the milk, and with which he desired to be buried. In the +_Rigvedas_, as we have seen, the hero Indras makes the cow fruitful; +and the thunderbolt of the god, penetrating the cloud, takes the form of +a phallos. Afterwards, as a symbol of the rod-phallos, the branch or rod +of the tree palas was adopted, with which the cow was struck to make +it fruitful; such a magic rod is used in Germany to this day, where it +is in many parts the custom to strike the cow, in the belief that it +will render her fruitful.[427] + +It is with the head of the most beautiful of the giant Hymir's oxen +fastened to his hook that, in Snorri's _Edda_, the god Thor goes to +fish up the immense serpent of Midgard from the bottom of the sea, and +destroys it upon the sea-shore. (This myth, if I am not mistaken, has +the following meaning:--The head of the solar, or lunar, bull is +devoured by the monster of night; this same head, tossed about, draws +up, towards morning as sun, and towards evening as moon, upon the +shore of the sea of night, that is to say, on the eastern mountain, +the monster-serpent: thus Hanumant, in the _Rmyanam_, passes over to +the opposite shore of the sea, crossing the body of the marine +monster, which he causes to burst; thus Indras kills Ahis the serpent +upon the mountain). + +Nor is there the cow of abundance only. Scandinavian tradition, in the +short poem on the dwarf Allwis, offers us the cornucopia in the cup +formed of the defence of oxen (_i.e._, with their horns), in which the +god Thor drinks hydromel. Thus Sigurd offers to Brnhilt a horn full of +mead to drink. And this horn, moreover, besides serving as a cornucopia, +becomes as a golden horn the war-trumpet of Odin (the Giallarhorn). + +The Scandinavian hero then, it appears also, has his relationship with +cows, though his life has far more of a warlike character than a +pastoral one; he therefore accuses Loki, and in so doing fills him with +shame, with having passed eight winters underground occupied in milking +the cows like a woman. (It is known that the Hindoo word _duhitar_, +whence Tochter, means she who milks). The Scandinavian hero, instead of +milking cows, eats bulls. We find more than once in the _Eddas_ the +heroes occupied in roasting oxen. Atli, the husband of Gudrun, boasts of +having killed some oxen and having eaten them with her. Gudrun, the +Scandinavian Medea, gives Atli the hearts of his two sons to eat, +assuring him that they are calves' hearts. The god Thor, disguised as +the goddess Freya, drinks three barrels of mead, and eats a whole bull, +when he sets out on the enterprise of recovering his marvellous hammer. +The bull's or cow's horn, moreover, not only supplies mead to the hero, +nor is it only used to call his friends to his aid and to throw down the +enemy; it also forms the hero's bow, which therefore, in the _Vilkina +Saga_,[428] also takes the name of Hornboge, and, as such, assists the +greatest hero, Thidrek or Dtrich, and is the parent of the celebrated +hero Sigurd (Sfrit, or Siegfried). And, in conclusion, the horns are +considered such an important weapon of the cow and bull, that a proverb, +which is at once Slavonic, German, and Italian, says, "To a wicked cow, +God gives short horns" (that it may do no harm, or rather, because it +wears them away by use); to cut off the cow's horns means, in a German +proverb, to surmount a difficulty; and to take the bull or cow by the +horns, is to disarm them.[429] + +In the Greenland poem on Atli, in the _Edda_ of Smund, Hgni says, that +when many cattle are killed much blood is seen, and that when one dreams +of eagles, oxen are not far distant. In the _Edda_ of Snorri, whilst +Odin, Loki, and Hnir are cooking an ox under a tree, an eagle on its +summit prevents the meat from being cooked, till the heroes consent to +give him part of it. The heroes consent, but the eagle carries off no +less than the two thighs and the two shoulders of the ox. The eagle has +in the _Edda_ the same demoniacal and infernal character that is in +other traditions ascribed to the crow, the funereal stork, and the +vulture: it searches for oxen; and therefore to dream of eagles is an +intimation that an ox is near, in the same way as they say the presence +of a vulture is a sign of the proximity of a corpse. + +A German legend, cited by Kuhn and Schwartz,[430] makes a battle begin +"as soon as a red cow is led over a certain bridge." We remember the +Russian story of the girl who, by means of the magical towel of her +brother, makes a bridge arise over the river, over which the +monster-serpent, in the form of a handsome young man, crosses to take +her; how the brother is sacrificed in the battle which he is obliged to +fight against the monster, who disarms him by fraud; and how the battle +between the hero and the monster begins when the maiden, passing the +bridge, abandons the hero, her brother, who falls and sheds his blood in +the unequal struggle. I have already remarked that in the popular +belief the bloody sun of evening forebodes war, and the red cow of +German tradition represents no other than this sky. As to the bridge, an +interesting note of Kuhn and Schwartz[431] seems to confirm the +hypothesis which I have already hinted at in connection with the +Slavonic story, _i.e._, that it represents the milky way; from this +note, too, in which a resemblance is noticed between the bridge of the +red cow, which determines the beginning of a battle, and the +Scandinavian celestial Bfrst (as perhaps there is between it and even +the Persian bridge Cinvant itself), I gather that in Frisia the milky +way is called Kau-pat (or Kuh-pfad, cow's-path). That is to say, it is +supposed that the red cow of evening passes during the night along the +milky way, scattering her milk over it; whence perhaps is derived the +German proverb, "Even red cows yield white milk,"[432]--like that other +which we have already seen current in India, and met with again in +Turanian tradition, and which exists as a German, Slavonic, and Italian +proverb, "Even the black cow yields white milk"--(the black night which +produces the alba or white dawn of morning, and we might add, the silver +moon and the milky way). + +Since it seems to me, therefore, as I trust it also does to the +reader, that the maiden who crosses the bridge in the Slavonic +stories is, without doubt, the same as the red cow which does the like +in German legend, and if I have not been mistaken in identifying the +maiden who travels with her brother to the kingdom of the dead with +the evening aurora and the dying sun, I shall here adduce a few other +German proverbs, which may also be said to be universal in European +tradition, relating to the cow, all pointing to a similar conclusion. +They are as follows:--"Shutting the stable after the cow has been +stolen." "He who has lost a cow, and recovers her tail, has not much, +but he has more than nothing." "A cow's tail might reach heaven, if it +were only a long one."[434] "A cow does not know what her tail is +worth till she loses it." "To take the cow by her tail." "The black +cow has crushed him, or has got upon him." "A cow cannot overtake a +hare." "The cow has outrun the hare." "Not all who sound the horn hunt +the hare." "When the cows laugh." "As a blind cow can find a pea." "He +must be carried about in an old cow's hide." "If the cow-maid spins, +there will be little yarn." "The cow will learn to spin first."[435] + +Meditating upon all these German proverbs, it is, it appears to me, +not difficult to recognise in them a reminiscence of ancient myths +with which we are already acquainted. When we reflect that almost +every proverb has passed into contradictory forms and varieties, and +as in these varieties we may trace the elements of the history of a +great number of strange proverbs, it does not seem rash to affirm that +the said history generally had, in like manner, its origin in a myth. +Not to wander from the subject in hand, that the same proverb is +attributed to different animals, not only by different nations, but in +the oral traditions of the same people, I must refer the reader to +what I have remarked in the preface to this volume concerning the +contradiction which exists between certain superstitious beliefs. The +contradiction between many proverbs, as also between many +superstitions, compared with each other, can only be reconciled by +referring both back to the battle-field of mythology, where an +inconceivable number of myths arise, and can only arise, out of +contradictions; that is, out of contrasted aspects which celestial +phenomena present, even to the same observer, still more so to +different observers. The comparative history of mythical proverbs is +yet to be written, and perhaps it is not yet possible to write it +according to rigorous scientific method in all its completeness. A +preliminary study of the details is necessary to understand a proverb +as well as a popular custom, a superstitious belief, a legend, or a +myth; and this study will demand some labour; for one proverb, +completely illustrated, may involve the development of an entire +epical history. I shall not presume here to solve the enigma of the +above-quoted German proverbs, but only to indicate what seems to me to +be the way of arriving at their most probable solution. In the study +of a proverb, it is necessary to lay great stress upon its +intonation. Upon the different tones in which an ancient proverb was +originally pronounced, and afterwards repeated, passing from tongue to +tongue, and from people to people, depends a great part of the +alteration in the meaning even of the most interesting of the +proverbs, which are a patrimony we owe in common to Aryan tradition. A +proverb, for instance, began by being a simple affirmation, the simple +expression of a natural mythical image; with the lapse of time the +expression remained, and the myth was forgotten; the expression then +appeared to refer to a strange thing, and was accompanied, when +pronounced, with a doubtful mark of interrogation; it was now adopted +in the denial of an impossible thing, and became an instrument for +satire. Thus many proverbs which have become satirical, must have been +originally nothing more than mythical affirmative phrases. + +"To shut the stable after the cow has been stolen." In England, instead +of the cow, we have in the proverb a girl: "When your daughter is +stolen, shut Peppergate" (the name of a little gate of the city of +Chester, which it is said the mayor ordered to be shut when his daughter +had been carried off). The proverb is now used to stir up a laugh at the +expense of those who are at pains to guard their property after it has +been robbed; but it perhaps had not always the same meaning. We are +already familiar in Hindoo tradition with the hero who delivers the +beautiful maiden out of the enclosure, and have seen how she is scarcely +free, when she is led away by iniquitous brothers or companions, after +shutting up the legitimate proprietor of the cow or maiden in the cave +whence the cow or girl came forth; how the ravishing brothers shut the +door of the stable or cavern, after having carried off the maiden. The +hero imprisoned in the stable, the hero shut up in the darkness of +night, often assumed in mythology the form of a fool. Hence from the +idea of shutting the gate of the stable upon the hero, by the ravishers +of his cow, the transition seems natural, in my opinion, to the hero +lost in the cavern, to the hero become foolish, to the peasant who shuts +the door of the stable when the cow has been robbed, or to the mayor of +Chester, who, being shut up in the town, shuts the Peppergate, through +which the girl who had been carried off passed. + +"He who has lost a cow and recovers its tail has not much, but he has +more than nothing." This proverb also appears to me to have a mythical +meaning. I have already remarked that the tail, the heel, the feet, +that is to say, the lower or hinder extremities, betray the mythical +animal; which we shall see more convincingly when we come to examine +the legends which refer to the wolf, the fox, and the serpent. It is +the footprint which, in all the European traditions, betrays the +beautiful maiden in her flight; and when the brigand Cacus carried off +the oxen of Hercules, the hero, to recover them, searches for their +footprints. But in order that these may not be recognised, the cunning +brigand, instead of leading the oxen by their heads, takes them by +their tails,[436] and makes them walk backwards. Hence, to take by the +tail, means to take hold of the wrong way, and it is applied to the +ass as well as the cow. It is said in Germany that a cow once fell +into a ditch from which none of the bystanders dared to extricate it. +The peasant to whom the cow belonged came up, and, according to some, +took it fearlessly by the horns, while, according to others, he +dragged it out by its tail, whence can be explained the double proverb +to take by the horns, _i.e._, to take by the right side, and to take +by the tail, or, as we have said, to take by the wrong. But the +peasant could only take his cow out by the horns, or by the tail, +according to the way in which it had fallen in; that is, if it had +fallen down head foremost, it could only be dragged out by the tail, +and if, on the contrary, it had fallen in tail foremost, he could only +extricate it by laying hold of its horns. The cow-aurora is taken by +surprise and devoured by the wolf, bear, wild-boar, or serpent of +night, who takes her by the shoulders (it is on this account that, in +the Russian story, we have seen the bull recommend the fugitive hero, +accompanied by his sister, to keep his face turned in the direction +whence the pursuing monster might be expected to come up). The monster +(the shadow, or the cloud) clutches the cow by her tail and devours +her, or drags her into his cave. The hero, in order to deliver his cow +out of the cave, can take her by the horns only on condition that he +penetrates into the cavern by the same way by which the cow entered, +that is, by the monster's mouth; but, as the monster endeavours to +surprise the hero from behind, so the hero often wounds the monster +from behind, catches hold of him by the tail, and in this way drags +him out of the cavern, ditch, or mud--his fallen cow. In a Hindoo +fable in the second book of the _Pancatantram_, we have the story of a +jackal, who, to satisfy a desire of his wife, follows the bull for +whole years together, in the hope that his two hanging testicles might +fall some day or another. In a joke of Poggius, and in Lessing,[437] +we find the same subject spoken of, of which a variation is given in +a German proverb, "Though the cow's tail moves, it does not +fall."[438] In the hope of this it is that the wolf, or the fox, runs +after the tail of the cow or bull. There is a Piedmontese story which +I heard in my infancy, one comic feature of which lingers vividly in +the memory: a boy who took the hogs to pasture, cut off their tails +and stuck them in the mud, and then made off with the animals. The +owner of the hogs, seeing their tails, is under the impression that +they have sunk into the mud. He tugs at them, brings away their tails, +but cannot fish up their bodies. In a Russian story given by +_Afanassieff_,[439] we read that the cunning Little Thomas (Thomka, +Fomka) cheats the priest of his horse (in some versions his ass) by +cutting off its tail and planting it in the mud of a marsh. He makes +the priest believe that his horse has fallen into the marsh; the +priest, thinking to pull it out, gives one stiff tug, and falls down +on his back with the tail in his hand; upon which Tom persuades him to +believe that he has broken it off himself, and to be content with the +recovery of so much of the lost animal. In the fifty-seventh Gaelic +story of Campbell,[440] a priest endeavours to pull out of the water a +drowning sheep, but the tail comes away, and the story-teller adds, +"If the tail had not come off, the story would have been longer." And +so the owner of the cow, the robber of which has left the tail behind +as a consolation, has in reality but little, but yet this little is +something; for, just as the slipper left behind her by the fugitive +girl, although it is of little value, enables the hero to identify +her, so in the tail of his cow the owner has something in hand to set +out on its search with, and to recover his lost property; either +because the tail of an animal is like its shadow and serves to trace +it, as the slipper does the maiden by showing the footstep; or else, +because tailless cows are evidently stolen ones. (In the myth of +Cacus, in which Hercules traces the stolen oxen by the footprints, and +Cacus drags them by their tails, the mythical figure of the slipper +and that of the lost tail are perhaps united. It is possible that the +tails of the oxen came off in the hands of Cacus when dragging them +into the cavern, and that, thrown away by the brigand, and found by +Hercules, they may have served him as a guide to recover his oxen. It +is also possible that Cacus, pursued by Hercules, had not time to +drive the oxen in entirely, but that their tails still protruded and +betrayed their whereabouts. Relative to the Latin legend of Cacus, +these are simply hypotheses, and I have therefore enclosed them in a +parenthesis; but inasmuch as in the above-quoted Russian story, we +find the horse's tail cut off by the robber, and as in the chapter on +the fox, we shall see the fox who betrays himself by not drawing in +his tail, whence the proverb, "Cauda de vulpe testatur," the two +hypotheses advanced above are, after all, not so visionary.) In +_Pausanias_[441] the hero Aristomenes, who has been thrown into a deep +cistern, liberates himself in a marvellous manner by means of an +eagle, after a fox had opened a passage. The fox's tail has such a +bewitching power of attraction, that according to popular tradition, +when it is moved the cock falls down unable to resist the charm. +According to popular belief, the tail (as well as the nose and mouth) +is the most splendid part of the body of an animal. The great monkey +Hanumant, with his tail on fire, burns Lanka (in the same way as the +burning tails of the foxes of the biblical Samson burn the ripe +harvests of the Philistines). The grey, or black, horse of mythology +(having devoured the solar white, or red horse) emits fire from his +mouth or tail. This black horse being the night, the horse's jaws and +tail, which emit fire, represent the luminous heavens of evening and +of morning; when, therefore, the tail of his horse (stolen by the +robber in the same way as the bull and the cow[442]) remains in the +mythical hero's hand, this light-streaming tail is enough to enable +him to find the whole animal, _i.e._, the solar hero comes out of his +hiding-place (Hanumant comes out of the hinder parts of the marine +monster, the dwarf comes out of the wolf's back[443]), the bull-sun +finds his cow the aurora again; the prince sun, the princess aurora; +the peasant recovers his ass or his cow; Hercules, his oxen; the white +horse comes out of the tail of the black horse, who had eaten him, and +then, by means of the tail, ascends to heaven;[444] the white bull +comes out of the black one; the white, or the red, cow comes out of +the black cow; the tail comes out of the body; the hero comes out of +the sack, or hide, in which he had been enclosed or sewed up. The sack +plays a great part in the tradition of the hidden or persecuted hero; +this sack is the night or the cloud, or the winter; the hero shut up +in the sack, and thrown into the sea, is the sun. The hero enclosed in +the sack and thrown into the sea, and the heroine shut up in a chest +(covered, moreover, with a cow's hide, in the myth of Pasiphe) or +barrel, and abandoned to the water,[445] are equivalent to each other, +and so are the heroes shut up in the well, in the cavern, in the +stables, and even in the cow. Inasmuch as the sack in which, according +to the proverb quoted above, the delinquent hero is to be sewed, is an +old cow's-hide, or else the hide of an old cow, or a dark one (of the +night), when this black cow sits on the eggs of the bird of evening, +to hatch them, the eggs come to evil; whence I derive the German +proverb, "When the cow sits upon the eggs, do not expect fowls."[446] +And when the night was observed to overwhelm the sun and withdraw him +from human sight, this other proverb took its origin, "The black cow +has crushed him." The black cow does not only crush the hero, but, as +the wolf does, shuts him up in her own hide,[447] in her own sack, +_i.e._, devours him--to fill the sack is the same as to fill the body, +and to empty the sack as to empty the body. In the Piedmontese story +of the dwarf child (the Norwegian Schmierbock), whom the wolf[448] +encloses in the sack, the dwarf comes out of the sack while the wolf +is emptying his body. Of two Russian stories given by _Afanassieff_, +which we shall examine in the chapter on the wolf, one shows us the +wolf who puts the peasant in a sack, and the other the wolf who puts +the dwarf-hero in his body; and both peasant and dwarf save +themselves. The two variations took their origin in the comparison +drawn between the body and a sack, which, in mythical speech, are +therefore the same thing. The hide of the black bull, black ox, black +or grey horse, or black or grey wolf, and the sack which wraps up the +hero or the devil, play a great part in popular Indo-European +tradition.[449] From the sack of the funeral stork (the night), in a +Russian story,[450] come forth two young heroes (the Avinu), +defeaters of their enemies, who spread out the tablecloth of abundance +(the aurora), and a horse which drops gold (the sun). The hero shut up +in the sack, or the cow's hide, and thrown into the water, escapes +from shipwreck in the same way as those navigators of the Chinese sea +described in his voyages by Benjamin of Tudela, who, he says, when +shipwrecked, escaped being swallowed up by the waves by covering +themselves with the whole hide of a cow or an ox; for the eagles, +mistaking them for real, flew to the spot and pouncing upon them, drew +them ashore. The ship with the buffalo's hide is found again in +popular stories. This is evidently a reminiscence of mythical +derivation (from which was, perhaps, afterwards derived the idea of +torture, as in the famous bull of Phalaris, in which many see a symbol +of the god of the waters, the bull's hide in which the tetrarch +Acarnides, vanquished by Memnon, was sewed up,[451] in antiquity, and, +in the Middle Ages, the ox's hide in which, according to the +chronicles, the horrid Duke of Spalato Euroia orders Paulus Chuporus, +prefect of the Emperor Sigismond, to be sewed, to revenge himself upon +him, because he had, out of contempt, saluted him by bellowing like an +ox). Thus with the Celtic hero Brian,[452] the pretended fool, who +speculates upon the stupidity of those who are reputed wise. When one +of these so-called sages, deceived by him, proposes to throw him into +the sea shut up in a sack, he makes another man take his place by +means of a witty invention, as Goldoni's liar would say, whilst he +himself comes back to the shore with a whole herd of cattle. In the +other Celtic, Slavonic, German, and Italian variations of this story, +the would-be fool begins his fortune-making, in one version, by +putting a few coins into his dead cow's hide, and then selling it at a +very high price as a purse which will give out money whenever shaken; +and in another, by palming off his ass or horse, persuading the +purchaser, by means of an easy deceit, to believe that it yields gold +and silver, and thus obtaining a high price for it. With the cow are +also connected the two horns, by blowing into which he causes his +wife, who feigns death, to rise to life again, which horns he thus +prevails on his brothers or companions to buy at a great ransom, who, +thinking themselves cunning, and wishing by means of the horns to +speculate upon corpses,[453] begin by killing people, and are ruined. +I have said above, that the sack in which the hero is generally +enclosed is the same as the chest in which the heroine is usually shut +up on account of her beauty, that is to say, in which the beautiful +heroine hides her splendour, or in which the red cow, the evening +aurora with the sun, loses herself. The fourteenth Scottish story of +Mr J. F. Campbell's contains the following narrative:--A king, whose +first wife (the morning aurora) is dead, engages to marry the woman +whom the dead queen's dresses will fit, and finds no one who can wear +them except his own daughter (the evening aurora). She makes her +father give her gold and silver dresses and shoes (that is, she takes +from her father, the sun, the splendour of the morning aurora); she +shuts herself up with them in a chest, and lets herself be thrown into +the sea. The chest drifts about on the waves, and comes at last to the +shore; the beautiful maiden enters the service of a young king; she +shows herself in church with her splendid robes; the young king, who +does not recognise his servant-maid in this beautiful princess, +becomes enamoured of her, and hastens to overtake her; she flees and +loses her golden slipper; the king finds it, and to discover her, has +it measured on every foot; many maidens cut off their toes to make the +slipper go on, but a bird divulges the deceit; the young king marries +the beautiful maiden who came out of the wooden chest. Here we have +again, not only the heroine who escapes, but the walking heroine; this +heroine is the aurora, and the aurora is often a cow. Another swift +cow passes in the proverb before the hare (the leaping moon), in the +fable of the ant and the grasshopper, of which the former represents +the cloud or the night, or Indras or the aurora in the cloud of night, +or the earth,[454] and the latter, the leaping one, the moon; the ant +passes the grasshopper in the race, not because it walks faster, but +because the two runners must necessarily meet, and therefore the one +must pass the other. The English infantile rhyme, "Hey! diddle, +diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon," refers +to the myth of the cow which jumps over the hare. The observation of +celestial phenomena being afterwards neglected, and it being forgotten +that the running ant or cow meant the cloud, or the sun, or the +aurora, or the earth, and the jumping hare or grasshopper the moon, +only a regular and parallel race, on the terrestrial soil, between cow +and hare, or ant and grasshopper, was seen; and from the myth of the +two animals which meet and pass each other in the sky, was derived, +according to the different characters of nations or eras, a double +proverb--one deriding the slow and rash animal which presumes to try +and overtake the swift one in the race, the other serving as an +example to prove the truth of the sentence, "Tarde sed tute," which, +in Italian, is "Chi va piano va sano e va lontano" (he who goes +slowly, goes well and far). The first proverb has for its parent the +Greek one, "to hunt the hare with an ox," which, in Italian, is +"pigliar la lepre col carro" (to take the hare with a car);[455] +referring to cases where means disproportionate to the end are made +use of. When the hare and the cow meet, if the cow is obliged to stop +the hare, she crushes it, as we have seen above that she crushes the +bird's eggs instead of hatching them. The idea, moreover, of the ox +hunting the hare arose naturally out of the idea of the ox or cow +overtaking and passing beyond the hare. To these proverbs can perhaps +be joined the next German one:--"All who blow the horn do not hunt +hares," which is now directed against those who think by an easy +method, such as blowing a horn, to accomplish a difficult enterprise, +such as hunting a hare; in the same way as in Germany it is said, that +all thunder-clouds do not give rain, and the cow must do more than low +in order to have much milk, or the cow that lows most is not the one +that yields most milk.[456] In fact, a cow which lows much is unwell, +neither while it is lowing can it eat and make milk; so he who +fatigues himself with blowing the horn is not able, at the same time, +to run after the hare; as in the Italian proverb, "Il can che abbaia +non morde" (the dog that barks does not bite), for the simple reason +that whilst he opens his mouth to bark, he cannot shut it to bite. The +hen that clucks, on the other hand, is the one that lays the egg, +because the act of clucking with the mouth does not interfere with the +operation of egg-laying; there is no incompatibility of offices. + +The German proverb, "As a blind cow finds a pea," is now used to +indicate an impossibility; and yet in the myth the blind cow (or the +night) really finds the pea, kidney-bean, or bean (the moon), which +are the same thing to all intents and purposes. The night is sacred to +the dead; for the dead are as eaten vegetables--kidney-beans, vetches, +peas, and cabbages--lunar symbols of resurrection and abundance. In +the ninth story of the fourth book of _Afanassieff_, the daughter of +the old man and woman eats beans; a bean falls upon the ground, and +grows up to the sky; upon this bean the old man (the sun) climbs up to +heaven and sees everything. In the numerous stories in which the young +hero sells a cow or cow's hide, we almost always find a pipkin full of +kidney-beans, which he induces people to think can cook themselves, +the hero having first cooked them, and then placed them upon the fire +covered with ashes (the darkness); the pipkin is also the moon. The +stories of the pipkin belonging to the house-mother in the +_Mahbhratam_, which the god Krishnas, having been hospitably +entertained by her, refills with beans, and of the lord who, in an +unpublished Piedmontese legend, disguised as a poor old man, throws +pebbles into the kettle of the pious widow, which, as soon as thrown +in, become kidney-beans, involve the same myth. In the same way I +think the kidney-bean is evidently intended by the fruit of fruits, +which, according to the _Mahbhratam_, the merciful man receives in +exchange for the little black cow (_krishnadhenuk_) given to the +priest.[457] In the English fairy tale of "Jack and the Bean-stalk," +Jack barters his cow for some beans; his mother (the blind cow) +scatters the beans; one of them takes root, and grows up to the +sky.[458] By means of the black cow, of the funereal or blind cow, of +the cow-aurora, which becomes black or blind during the night, the +hero finds the bean or the pea of abundance (the moon), by means of +which he sees again in the morning and becomes rich. + +We have seen a sack, instead of the hide of a black cow, used to +signify the night; in like manner, after or instead of this same cow's +hide (which the hero goes to sell), as well as the pea or bean, we +have the pipkin--the poor hero finds the moon. The Slavonic story of +the potter who becomes rich, and that of the brother believed to be +stupid, who sells at a high price his pipkin, which makes the beans +boil without a fire, are varieties of the same subject. In a Russian +story in _Afanassieff_,[459] the amphora takes the place of the pipkin +that makes its owner rich. The poor brother draws it out of the water; +from the broken amphora comes a duck, which lays one day golden eggs, +and the next silver ones--the sun and the moon (at morning the aurora +hatches the golden day, at evening the silver night). + +We have still to explain the proverbs of the cow that laughs and the +cow that spins. The laughing aurora (after having, during the night, +acted the princess that never laughs) and the spinning aurora (in +relation with the cow, the moon, that spins by means of its horns) are +already known to us. The aurora laughs at morn in the sky, at the +sight of her husband; thus the princess that never laughs, in a +numerous series of Slavonic, German, and Italian stories, laughs when +she sees her predestined husband.[460] The proverb of the cow that +laughs is connected with that of the cow that speaks; it is perhaps on +this account that bulls and cows (and other animals) which speak, and +say and do complimentary things among themselves, in an entire cycle +of Indo-European stories, which have been learnedly illustrated by +Professor Benfey, in _Orient und Occident_, under the title of "Ein +Mrchen von der Thiersprachen," always make the man who understands, +and indiscreetly listens to their language, laugh. But if the man +reveals what the bulls or cows (or other animals) have said to each +other, he prepares his own ruin: the language and the inner life of +animals must not be divulged to all; if published abroad, the augury +is a sinister one. That which makes the princess of the Russian tale +laugh, is seeing the courtesy which the animals, like men, show to the +man taken out of the mud; that which makes the man who understands the +language of animals laugh, is seeing them speak and act to each other +exactly as men do in similar private relations. To betray this mystery +is to wish for one's death. No one must know what the bull said in +secret to the cow, the sun to his mistress, what the king said in the +queen's ear. The violator of the mysteries of Venus is guilty of +sacrilege, and merits the punishment of death, or at least brings evil +down upon his head. Woe to the heroine if the hero hidden in the skin +of an animal, on account of some indiscretion, or because she has +spoken to her sisters, shows himself naked in his human form; she +loses him, and their separation is inevitable. + +We are already acquainted with the cloud-cow and the cloud-bull; the +cloud thunders, the bull bellows and speaks. The clouds, the Vedic +_gn devapatns_, _gn devs_,[461] that is, the goddesses, or divine +and knowing wives, the fairy goddesses (women with their +presentiments, the women that know more than the devil), are also +prophetic cows; these cows, in their character of fairies, speak with +a human voice, and so do the cloud-bulls. Hence the Romans could take +their auguries from an ox that spoke with a human voice. It has been +said that this omen was a sinister one, but it is a mistake. According +to Livy, under the consulate of Cn. Domitius and L. Quintius, an ox +threw Rome into terror by the words, _Cave tibi, Roma_. These words +seem to have a sinister meaning, but they are in reality nothing more +than a friendly counsel or admonition, as much as to say, Look to your +field occupations, O Rome; the thunder has been heard which announces +the summer. Thus, when we read in the fifth book of Pliny's _Natural +History_ that whenever an ox was known to have spoken with a man's +voice, the Roman Senate was accustomed to meet in the open air--_sub +dio_, I only see in this allusion, and in ascribing this practice to +the Senate, one way of saying that when thunder is heard (that is to +say, when the ox speaks) it is a sign of summer, and we may go out +into the country and sleep in the open air. And so, finally, when, +according to Eusebius, an ox said, that for the death of Csar (which, +as every one knows, took place on the Ides of March, that is to say, +at the beginning of spring) there would be more blades of corn than +men, I see a most evident announcement of the approach of summer, in +which men or reapers are in fact never too many, and even rare when +the harvest is a large one. The ox that with a man's voice heralds the +near advent of summer corresponds to the cuckoo, the legend of which +we shall reserve for a special chapter. Meanwhile, to confirm still +more our identification, we shall cite here the almost proverbial +verse of Theocritos: Women know everything, even how Zeus married Hra +(or that which the king said in the queen's ear). Zeus, transformed +into a cuckoo, flew to the mountain, and alighted on the knees of +Hra, who, to protect him from the cold, covered him over with her +robes. The cuckoo, or Zeus, disappears soon after having spoken, that +is, announced the summer loves of the sun. After St John's Day the +cuckoo, who appears in March, is no longer seen; so the ox, soon after +it has spoken and betrayed the loves of Zeus, or soon after the cloud +has thundered, revealing the secret loves of the sun within the sky +covered with clouds, or the confidential speeches and secret caresses +of the animals, pays for this indiscretion by his own death. As the +aurora is represented in the Vedic hymns by a maiden who does not +laugh, and smiles only when she sees her husband,[462] so the +lightning that tears the cloud and comes before the thunder is +compared to the laughing of an ox or a cow, or else of the man who has +seen their loves. As long as the sky only lightens, or merely +smiles,[463] there is little harm done. No one can know as yet why the +ox or the cow, the hero or heroine, or the third person who is looking +on, smiles before the spectator; but when the hero or the heroine +speaks, betraying the thought or singular surprise which makes him or +her smile, the penalty of the indiscretion is death; the thundering +cloud is soon dissolved into rain. Nor will my identification of the +cloud that lightens (making a distinction between the lightning and +the thunderbolt) with the smiling cow, or ox, or man who, +understanding the language of animals, as they speak in low tones, and +seeing their most familiar habits, smiles, seem forced when we reflect +that our language has preserved the figures of a ray of joy, of a +flash of joy, to indicate a smile, of which we say that it shines, +illumines, or lightens. Lightning is the cloud's smile. In the ninth +story of the third book of _Afanassieff_, we meet with a fish which +laughs in the face of the onlooker (the cloud that lightens, and also +the moon that comes out of the ocean of night), and for which, on +account of this singular property, the poor man (the sun in the cloud +or in the night) obtains an extraordinary sum from a rich lord, even +all his riches--_i.e._, the poor man takes the place of the lord; the +splendid sun takes the place of the sun hidden in the cloud or in the +darkness. In a Hindoo story of _Somadevas_ (i. 5), a fish laughs upon +seeing men disguised as women in the king's apartment. In the +_Tuti-Name_ (ii. 21), the fishes laugh when they see the prudery of an +adulteress. With this is connected the fable of Lafontane, "Le Rieur +et les Poissons" (viii. 8). In the legend of Merlin, the magician also +laughs because the wife of Julius Csar lives with twelve heroes +disguised as women, and because he himself allowed himself to be taken +by Grisandole, a princess disguised as a cavalier.[464] + +The fish is a phallic symbol (in the Neapolitan dialect, _pesce_, +fish, is the phallos itself). The fish that laughs because it has been +the spectator of adultery is the phallos itself _in gaudio Veneris_. +The thunderbolt of Indras is his phallos that breaks the cloud. In +Ovid,[465] we have Jupiter, who, by means of riddles, teaches Numa the +way of forming the thunderbolt. + + "Coede caput, dixit, cui Rex, Parebimus, inquit; + Coedenda est hortis eruta cepa meis. + Addidit hic, Hominis: Summos, ait ille, capillos. + Postulat hic animam: cui Numa, Piscis, ait. + Risit; et His, inquit, facito mea tela procures, + O vir colloquio non abigende meo." + +The joke of the April fish (le poisson d'Avril), with which so many of +our ladies ingenuously amuse themselves, has a scandalously phallical +signification.[466] The fishes of the Zodiac are twins, a male and a +female bound together, born of Ers (Amor) and Aphrodit (Venus). In +the Adiparvam of the _Mahbhratam_, we read of a fish which devours a +man's seed, and a girl who, having eaten it, brings forth a child. The +same myth occurs again in the Western popular tales. + +The cow that spins still remains to be explained. We have already seen +that the cow spins with her horns for the maiden; this cow is, +generally, the moon, which spins gold and silver during the night. The +aurora is ordered by her step-mother, the night, both to pasture the +cow (the moon) and spin. If the cow-maid is to take care of her cow +and guard her well, she will be able to spin but little; whence the +German proverb is right when it says that if the cow-maid must spin +there will be little yarn. The good cow-maid prefers to keep her cow +well, and pays every regard to it, in order that it may find good +pasturage; then the grateful cow (the moon) puts gold and silver upon +its horns to spin for the maiden.[467] In the morning the girl +appears upon the mountain with the gold and silver yarn, with the gold +and silver robes given her by the good fairy or by the good cow.[468] +And when the old woman kills the cow, the girl who keeps its bones and +sows them in the garden sees, instead of the cow, an apple-tree with +gold and silver apples grow up, by offering one of which to a young +prince the maiden obtains a husband, whilst perverse women are beaten +by the apple-tree or find themselves opposed by horns. This +apple-legend is a variation of the star which falls upon the good +maiden's forehead on the mountain, and of the horns, or donkey's tail, +which grow out of the forehead of the bad sister who has maltreated +the cow or badly combed the Madonna's head. The story of the good +maiden and the wicked one, of the beautiful and the ugly one, finishes +with the attempt made by the ugly and wicked girl to take the place of +the beautiful and good one in her husband's bed, in the same way as, +in other stories, a black washerwoman tries to take the place of the +beautiful princess; and this conclusion brings us to the interesting +story of the spinning Berta, or Queen Bertha, as she is called. + +In German mythology we have the luminous Berchta, who spins, in +contrast with the dark and wild Holda at the fountain (the washerwoman +of fairy tales). The former seems to be (besides the moon as a white +woman, in her period of light, the silvery night) the aurora, the +spring, or the luminous aspect of the heavens; the latter (besides the +moon in her period of darkness, Proserpina or Persephon in hell), the +dark night, winter, the old witch.[469] The same name is given to the +various phenomena of the gloomy sky, in the same way as a contrary +name is given to the various phenomena of the luminous heavens. On +this account lunar and solar myths, daily and annual myths, enter into +the story of Berta or Berchta. + +Berta, like the cow of the fairy tales, spins silver and gold. +Therefore, when we say in Italy that the time when Berta spun is +past,[470] this expression means, that the golden age, the age in +which gold abounded is past. And instead of this expression we also +use another in Italy to denote an incident which took place in a very +ancient era, at a time very remote from the memory of men; we say, in +the times of King Pipino (Pepin). Queen Berta having been the wife of +Pepin, it was natural that the times of the husband should correspond +to the fabled era of his wife, who was, tradition alleges, mother of +Charlemagne, the hero so-named of the legends, of whom it is said, in +Turpin's Chronicle, that he had long feet, and his _alter ego_ Orlando +(a new and splendid medival form of the twin heroes), rather than of +the King Charlemagne of history. + +Berta has a large foot, like the goddess Freya, the German Venus, who +has swan's feet. It is this large foot that distinguishes her from other +women, and enables her husband to recognise her, in the same way as it +is the foot, or footprint (the sun follows the path taken by the +aurora), that betrays and discovers the fugitive maiden, who, we have +said, is the aurora with the vast chariot (the vast chariot which, if it +pass over the hare, may crush it. Frau Stempe, and Frau Trempe, and the +large-footed Bertha, are the same person)--vast, because she occupies a +large extent of the heavens when she appears. When standing on the +chariot, she seems to have no feet, or a very small, an imperceptible +foot; but the chariot on which she stands and which represents her foot +is so much the larger; therefore when we leave the chariot out of +account, and suppose, on the contrary, that she goes on foot, inasmuch +as, when walking, she takes up much room, the swan's, or goose's, or +duck's foot given to her in the myth of Freya and the legend of Berta is +quite suited to her. And seeing, as we have said, that the foot (the +myths almost always speak of one foot alone; even the devil is lame, or +has only one foot) and the tail of an animal are often substituted for +each other in mythology, we can understand how, in a Russian story,[471] +the hero who has fallen into a marsh was able to deliver himself by +clutching hold of the tail of a duck. This duck being the aurora, and +having a wide spreading tail as well as a large foot, the solar hero, or +the sun, can easily, by holding on to her, raise himself out of the +swamp of night. There is a German story[472] in which the white woman, +or the Berta, is transformed into a duck. In another German legend,[473] +instead of the swan-footed Berta, we have the Virgin Mary (who, as a +maiden, represents the virgin aurora, always pure, even after having +given birth to the sun; like the Kunt of the _Mahbhratam_, who gives +birth to Karnas, the child of the sun, and yet is still a virgin. On the +other hand, when a good old woman, good woman or Madonna, she generally +personifies, in the legends, the moon) who, in the shape of a swan, +comes to deliver from the prison of the infidels (the Saracens or Turks, +here the black demons, or the darkness of night), and carry off by land +and by sea, the young hero whom she protects (the aurora delivers the +sun from the night).[474] The same luminous Berta also assumes, in +popular German tradition, the form of St Lucia, that is, the saint who, +after having been made blind, became the protectress of eyesight. Of the +blind or black cow of night is born the luminous cow of morning, the +aurora that sees everything herself and makes us see everything. For the +same reason that the cow or duck, Berta, is consecrated to St Lucia, +whose appearance she assumes, the bull (the sun) is sacred to St Luke, +the festival of whom is on this account celebrated at Charlton, near +London, with a horn-fair or exhibition of horns, generally ornamented +and perfumed. + +In the above-quoted Hindoo legend of the _Mahbhratam_, the queen +will not sleep with the old blind man, but sends instead her +servant-maid. In the _Reali di Francia_, King Pepin is advised by his +barons to take a wife, when he is already "far advanced in years" (he +is a form of St Joseph). The barons look for a wife, and find, in +Hungary, Berta, the daughter of King Philip, "the most beautiful and +skilful horsewoman," or Berta with the large foot upon a beautiful and +stately horse, which goes along the road bounding, whilst she is +always laughing. Berta has a maid called Elizabeth, who resembles her +in every respect except her feet. King Pepin is married by proxy to +Berta, sends for her, and comes to meet her. Berta when she sees that +King Pepin is so ill-favoured, grieves "although forewarned of his old +age." When evening comes she takes off her royal robes and gives them +to Elizabeth, that she may take her place and sleep with the +king.[475] Hence the Italian proverbs, "Dar la Berta" (to give the +Berta), and "Pigliar la Berta" (to take the Berta), meaning to deride +and to be derided. But instead of to give the Berta, in Italy we also +say, "Dar la madre d'Orlando" (to give the mother of Orlando). The +_Reali di Francia_ informs us that King Pepin had, by Elizabeth, two +perverse bastards, Lanfroi and Olderigi, and by Berta, Charlemagne and +another Berta, mother of Orlando; but the Italian proverb is perhaps +nearer the mythical truth when it recognises the mother of Orlando as +herself Pepin's wife, so that Charlemagne and Orlando are brothers; +and, in fact, they accomplish several of the undertakings mentioned in +the legend of the two brothers. In the so-called Chronicle of +Turpin[476] when Orlando dies, Charlemagne says that Orlando was his +right arm, and he has no longer anything to do in life without him; +but he lives long enough to avenge the death of Orlando; and after +this vengeance, the heroic life of Charlemagne comes at once to an +end. In the _Chanson de Roland_, too, after the death of his hero, +whom he avenges, Charlemagne feels the burden of life, weeps, tears +his beard, unable to support this solitude; but in the _Chanson_, as +well as in the _Reali di Francia_, Orlando explicitly appears as the +nephew of Charlemagne, that is, as the son of his sister Berta. (As +the Vedic aurora was now the mother, now the sister of the sun and of +the Avinu, thus Berta may, mythically, be mother or sister of +Charlemagne, and yet be always the mother of Orlando). + +It would be a never-ending work to collect together all the Germanic, +Scandinavian, and Celtic legends which, in one way or another, are +connected with the myth of the cow and of the bull. The literature +relating to this subject is composed not of one or a hundred, but of +thousands of volumes, of which some (such, for instance, as the poem +of the _Nibelungen_, and the poems of the _Round Table_) individually +contain, in the germ, almost the whole diverse world of fairy tales. I +must therefore limit myself to the indication of the more general +features, leaving to more diligent investigators the minuter +comparisons; and esteeming myself, I repeat, too happy if my brief +notices should be found clear enough to spare others the labour of +preparing the warp upon which to weave comparisons. + +From what we have said thus far, it seems to me that two essential +particulars have been made clear:--1st, That the worship of the bull +and the cow was wide-spread, even in northern nations; 2d, That the +mythical bull and cow were easily transformed into a hero and heroine. + +The sacred character ascribed to the cow and the bull is further +evidenced by a Scandinavian song, in which, on the occasion of the +nuptials of the animals (the crow and the crane), the calf (perhaps +the bull) appears as a priest, and reads a beautiful text.[477] As a +symbol of generation, the bull is the best adapted to propitiate the +married couple; so the priest in the _Atharvavedas_ teaches the +inexperienced husband and wife, by formulas _ad hoc_, the mysteries +of Venus. Thus the _jus prim noctis_ was conceded to the Brahman in +medival India; and so in the ritual of medival France, we still find +indications of the priest _pronubus_. The beautiful text that the +calf, or bull, recites in the Scandinavian song must be the same +which, according to the ceremonial recorded by Villemarqu, the priest +recited, whilst sprinkling them with incense, to the married couple +_sedentes vel jacentes in lectulo suo_.[478] Thus, when the wolf dies +(in a German writing of the twelfth century), it is the ox that reads +the gospel.[479] Besides marriages and funerals, the bull or ox also +appears, finally, as in the Hindoo ceremonial, in pregnancy. +Gargamelle, while she has Gargantua in her womb, eats an excessive +quantity[480] of tripe of fattened oxen. When she feels the pains of +child-birth, her husband comforts her with an agricultural proverb of +Poitou, "Laissez faire aux quatre beufz de devant;" and she then gives +birth to Gargantua, who comes out of her left ear, in the same way as +in the Slavonic stories we find the heroes come out of the ears of the +horse (or of the ass of night; the luminous solar hero comes out of +the ears of the ass, or of the grey or black horse; the twin horsemen +come out of the two ears). Rabelais, to explain this extraordinary +birth, asks "Minerve ne naquit-elle pas du cerveau par l'aureille de +Iupiter?" No sooner is Gargantua born, than he asks with loud cries +for something to drink; to give him milk, 17,913 cows are brought, his +mother's breasts not being enough, although each time she is milked +she yields "quatorze cens deux pipes neuf potes de laict." This is +the giant of popular tradition, whom the gigantic phantasy of Rabelais +has coloured in order to make him the butt of an immense satire. It is +an amplified and humorous rendering in a literary form of the popular +Superlatif,[481] whose mythical character is revealed in the curse +hurled against him by the old dwarf-fairy, whom he maltreated: "One +sun, to accomplish his work, eats eleven entire moons; but this time +every moon will eat the work of a sun." The ascending and descending +life of the solar hero is thus indicated. Superlatif will become +continually smaller, until it seems as though he were about to +disappear altogether; but at that very instant the curse comes to an +end, and from a dwarf, he grows into a giant again in the arms of his +bride.[482] Thus the days become continually shorter and shorter, +till the winter solstice, till Christmas. At Christmas the sun is born +again, the days lengthen, the dwarf grows tall; the sun, by a double +but analogous conception of ideas, passes once each day and once each +year from giant to dwarf, and from dwarf to giant. + +And the dwarfs of tradition know and reveal the mythical how and why +of their transformations, since, though they are dwarfs and hidden, +they see all and learn all. It is from the knowing dwarf Allwis, his +diminutive _alter ego_, that the mighty Thor, in the _Edda_, learns +the names of the moon, the sun, the clouds, and the winds. The moon, +according to Allwis, when it is in the kingdom of hell (in the kingdom +of death, in the infernal world, when it is Proserpina), is called a +wheel that is hurrying on; it then shines among the dwarfs (_i.e._, in +the luminous night, in which the sun hides itself; it becomes an +invisible dwarf). The sun among the dwarfs (_i.e._, when it is a +dwarf) plays with Dwalin (the mythical stag, probably the horned +moon); among the giants (_i.e._, when in the aurora, it becomes a +giant again), it is a burning brand; among the gods (the Ases), it is +the light of the world. The cloud, the dwarf Allwis goes on to inform +us, is the ship of the winds, the strength of the winds, the helmet +(or hat, or hood) which makes its wearer invisible. The wind, again, +is the wanderer, the noisy one, the weeper, the bellower, the +whistler (no one can resist the cries or the whistling of the hero of +fairy tales; the bellowing of the bull makes the lion tremble in his +cave). In this learned lesson on Germanico-Scandinavian mythology, +given us by the dwarf Allwis, we have a further justification of the +transition which we here assume to have been made from the natural +celestial phenomenon to its personification in an animal, and to the +personification of the animal in a man: Allwis, who knew all things, +has explained the mystery to us. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[423] _Les Eddas_, traduites de l'ancien idiome Scandinave par Mdlle. +du Puget, 2me dition, p. 16. + +[424] Kuhn und Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Mrchen und Gebruche_, +p. 501. + +[425] _Handbuch der Deutschen Mythologie_, mit Einschluss der +nordischen, 2te. aufl. p. 437.--We find also in Eginhardus (_Vita +Caroli Magni_): "Quocumque eundum erat, carpento ibat, quod bubus +junctis et bubulco rustico more agente, trahebatur."--The bull is a +symbol of generation; the man who fears the bull is a stupid and +ridiculous eunuch. We find in Du Cange, Lit. Remiss, ann. 1397, "Le +suppliant, lui dist, Eudet, vous avz un toreau qui purte les gens et +ne osent aler aux champs pour luy; lequel Eudet luy respondis: as tu +nom Jehannot?" Faire Johan dicitur mulier, qu marito fidem non servat +(a variety of the Mongol Srya Bagatur). + +[426] Recorded by Cox, _Mythology of the Aryan Nations_, vol. i. p. +438, when speaking of the Hellenic myth of Zeus and Eurp. + +[427] Cfr. Kuhn, _Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Gttertranks_, p. +181 and following.--In Du Cange, _Glossarium Medi et Infim +Latinitatis_, s. v. Acannizare, we read an extract of a paper of +Jacob, i. _Regis Arag._ fol. 16: "Quicunque Acannizaverit vaccam vel +bovem, si bos vel vacca fecerit damnum casu fortuito, dum Acannizatur, +cujus est amittat ipsum bovem vel vaccam, nisi Acannizetur causa +nuptiarum;" and in Du Cange also: "Ut in anserem ludendo baculos +torquere in usu fuit, ita et in bovem." + +[428] _Die Deutsche Heldensage_, von Wilhelm Grimm, 2te Aus., No 102, +182. + +[429] Cfr. the chapter on the Goat and He-goat for more information on +mythical horns. + +[430] _Vide_ p. 497. + +[431] Diese Brcke wird keine andere sein, als die himmlische Bfrst, +deren er htet, eine Vermuthung, die noch an Wahrscheinlichkeit +gewinnt, wenn man den friesischen Namen der Milchstrasse Kaupat, der +Kuhpfad, hinzunimmt; denn Milchstrasse und Regenbogen berhren +einander sehr nahe. Dieser ist die Tagesbrcke zwischen Gttern und +Menschen, jene die nchtliche. + +[432] Rothe Khe geben auch weisse Milch; Wander, _Deutsches +Sprichwrter Lexicon_, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1870. + +[433] Auch eine schwarze Kuh gibt weisse Milch; Wander, _ibid._ + +[434] This reminds us of the familiar English riddle, "How many cows' +tails would it take to reach the moon? One, if it were long enough." + +[435] Wenn die Kuh gestohlen ist, verwahrt man den Stall.--Wer eine +Kuh verloren und den Schwanz zurck erhlt, hat nicht viel, aber mehr +als nichts.--Die Kuh knnte mit dem Schwanze bis an den Himmel +reichen, wenn er nur lang genug wre.--Une vache ne sceit que lui +vault sa queue jusques elle l'a perdue.--Die Kuh beim Schwanz +fassen.--Die schwarze Kuh hat ihn gedrckt.--Eine Kuh kann keinen +Hasen erlaufen.--Die Kuh berluft einen Hasen.--Nicht alle, die +Hrner blasen, jagen Hasen.--Wenn die Khe lachen.--Wie eine blinde +Kuh eine Erbse findet.--Den sollt man in einer alten Kuhhaut +herumfahren.--Soll die Kuhmagd spinnen, wird man wenig Garn +gewinnen.--Man wrde eher einer Kuh spinnen lehren; Wander's _Lexicon +of German Proverbs_, ii. 1666-1695. + +[436] Livius i.: "Quia si, agendo, armentum in speluncam compulisset, +ipsa vestigia qurentem dominum eo deductura erant, aversos boves +eximium quemque pulchritudine caudis in speluncam traxit." + +[437] _Faceti_, Krakau, 1592, quoted by Benfey in his introduction to +the _Pancatantram_, Leipzig, Brockhaus, p. 323: "Quia testiculi mei +quadraginta annos pependerunt casuro similes et nunquam +ceciderant."--And in Lessing, xi. 250, we read of Lachmann-Maltzahn: +"De vulpe quadam asini testiculos manducandi cupido."--In Aldrovandi, +_De Quadrupedibus Bisulcis_, i. Bologna, 1642, we read, "Membrum tauri +in aceto maceratum et illitum, splendidam, teste secto, facit faciem; +Rasis ait, genitale tauri rubri aridum tritum, et aurei pondere +propinatum mulieri, fastidium coitus afferre; e contrario quidam +recentiores, ut in viris Venerem excitent, tauri membrum cteris hujus +facultatibus admiscent." + +[438] Wenn auch der Kuhschwanz wackelt, so fllt er doch nicht ab; in +Wander, _Deutsches Sprichwrter Lexicon_. + +[439] v. 8. + +[440] Referred to by Khler in _Orient und Occident_. + +[441] iv. 15. + +[442] Whence the proverb quoted above, relating to the stable that is +shut when the cow is stolen, is also quoted as follows: "Shutting the +stable when the horse has been stolen." + +[443] Cfr. the chapter on the Wolf, where the dwarf enters the wolf by +his mouth and comes out by his tail. + +[444] In a Russian story, in _Afanassieff_, vi. 2, when the old peasant +(the old sun) falls from the sky into a marsh (the sea of night), a duck +(the moon or the aurora) comes to make its nest and lay an egg upon his +head; the peasant clutches hold of its tail; the duck struggles and +draws the peasant out of the marsh (the sun out of the night), and the +peasant with the duck and its egg flies and returns to his house (the +sky whence he had fallen).--In a variation of the same story in +_Afanassieff_ (the two stories together refer to that of Aristomenes) +the old man falls from heaven into the mud. A fox places seven young +foxes on his head. A wolf comes to eat the young foxes; the peasant +catches hold of his tail; the wolf, by one pull, draws him out; by +another, leaves his tail in the peasant's hand. The tail of the wolf of +night is the morning aurora.--In the story of _Turn-Little-Pea_, +_Afanassieff_, iii. 2, the young hero enters into the horse after having +taken off his (black) hide, and after having taken him by the tail, +_i.e._, he becomes the luminous horse of the sun. + +[445] In the Russian story of lazy and stupid Emilius, who makes his +fortune, the hero is shut up in a barrel with the heroine, and thrown +into the sea: the sun and the aurora, made prisoners, and shut up +together, cross together the sea of night. + +[446] Wenn sich eine Kuh auf die Eier legt, so erwarte keine Hhner; +Wander, the work quoted before. + +[447] In the Russian story of _Afanassieff_, v. 36, the hero-workman +kills the monster-serpent by gambling with him for the price of his +own skin. Thinking that he may lose, he has provided himself +beforehand with seven ox hides and with iron claws. He loses seven +times; each time the monster thinks he has him in his power, but the +workman as often imposes upon him with an ox's hide, inducing him to +believe that it is his own. At last the serpent loses, and the +workman, with his iron claws, really takes off his skin, upon which +the serpent dies. To take the sack or hide from the monster, to burn +the skin of the monster-serpent, goat, hog, frog, &c., to burn the +enchanted mantle or hood in which the hero is wrapped up, is the same +as to kill the monster. + +[448] See the chapter on the Wolf. + +[449] For the German one, cfr. Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 199. + +[450] _Afanassieff_, ii. 17. + +[451] Acarnides insutus pelle juvenci; Ovidius, _In Ibin_. + +[452] Khler, _Ueber T. F. Campbell's Sammlung glischer Mrchen_, in +_Orient und Occident_.--Cfr. the 30th of the _Novelline di Santo +Stefano di Calcinaia_. + +[453] Khler, the work quoted above. + +[454] To this myth of the cow which goes over the moon, the +observation of a lunar eclipse might have contributed materially, in +which the cow earth (in Sanskrit, _go_ means earth as well as cow) +really passes over the moon or hare. Or else, the cloud and the night, +as a black cow, very frequently goes over the hare or moon. + +[455] In the Russian superstition, when a hare passes between the +wheels of the vehicle which carries a newly-married couple, it bodes +misfortune; nor is this without reason: the hare is the moon; the moon +is the protectress of marriages; if she throws obstacles in the way, +the marriage cannot be happy; consequently, marriages in India were +celebrated at full moon. + +[456] Die Kuh, die viel brllt, gibt nicht die meiste Milch. + +[457] Phalnm phalam anoti tad dattv; _Mahbhratam_, iii. 13, 423. + +[458] In the German legend of King Volmar, in Simrock, the work quoted +before, p. 451, we find the peas in the ashes. In the seventh of the +_Contes Merveilleux_ of Porchat, we have the pot in which the cabbages +are boiled, from which come forth money and partridges. In the sixth +of the same _Contes Merveilleux_, the young curioso sees a nest upon +an elm-tree, and wishes to climb up; the ascent never comes to an end; +the tree takes him up near to heaven. On the summit of the elm-tree +there is a nest, from which comes forth a beautiful fair-haired maiden +(the moon). + +[459] i. 53. + +[460] In the story, vi. 58, of _Afanassieff_, the honest workman, when +he wishes to fix his eyes upon the princess who never laughs, falls into +a marsh; the fish, the beetle, and the mouse, in gratitude, clean him +again; then the princess laughs for the first time, and marries the +honest workman. In the 25th of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano_, an +analogous detail is found, but this is not enough to make the princess +laugh; it is the eagles which draw after themselves everything they +touch that accomplish the miracle of making the queen's daughter laugh. +In the third story of the _Pentameron_, the princess laughs upon seeing +Pervonto carried by the faggot of wood, instead of carrying it. The +Russian stories of the ducks which save the hero, in _Afanassieff_, vi. +17-19, and the faithless wife and her lover bound together, are +variations of the eagles of the Tuscan story. + +[461] _Rigvedas_, v. 46, 8; v. 43, 6; i. 61, 8. + +[462] In the _Nibelungen_, Krmhilt, who has never saluted any one, +(diu nie gruozte reeken), salutes for the first time the young Sfrit, +the victorious and predestined hero, and, whilst she is saluting him, +turns the colour of flame (do erzunde sich sn varwe). + +[463] In a medival paper in Du Cange, s. v. _Abocellus_, we read: "De +quodam cco vaccarum custode," who, "quod colores et staturam vaccarum +singularium specialiter discerneret," was believed to be demoniacal; +hence the sacrament of confirmation was given him to deliver him from +this diabolical faculty, and the paper narrates that he was +immediately deprived of it. The blind hero who sees, who distinguishes +his cows from each other, is the sun in the cloud. No sooner does he +receive confirmation (which is a second baptism), than he ceases to +see his cows, for the simple reason that the clouds are dissolved in +rain, or that himself has recovered his vision. + +[464] Cfr. the papers relative to Merlin by Liebrecht and Benfey in +_Orient und Occident_. + +[465] _Fasti_, iii. 339. + +[466] Cfr. the chapter on the Fishes; where the custom of eating fish +on Friday is also explained. + +[467] In the first of the stories of _Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_, the +cow-maid says to her cow, "Cow, my cow, spin with your mouth and wind +with your horns; I will make you a faggot of green boughs." + +[468] The maiden spins for her step-mother; the fairy gives luminous +robes to the maiden; the maiden weaves dresses for her husband; these +are all details which confound themselves in one. In the _Nibelungen_, +the virgins prepared dresses of gold and pearls for the young hero +Sfrit. + +[469] Holda, or Frau Holle, is burnt every year in Thuringia on the +day of Epiphany, on which day (or, perhaps, better still, on the +Berchtennacht, the preceding night, or Berta's night) the good fairy +expels the wicked one. In England, too, the witch is burned on the day +of Epiphany.--Cfr. Reinsberg von Dringsfeld, _Das festliche Jahr_, p. +19. + +[470] In the _Pentameron_ of Basil, i. 9, we read: "Passaie lo tiempo +che Berta filava; mo hanno apierto l'huocchie li gattille." + +[471] _Afanassieff_, vi. 2. + +[472] Cfr. Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 409, and the ninth of +the _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_, in which the luminous +maiden disguised as an old woman is uncovered by the geese, when she +puts down the dress of an old woman. + +[473] Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 410. + +[474] Wuotan also saves him whom he protects upon a mantle;--this is +the flying carpet or mantle, hood, or hat, which renders the wearer +invisible, and for which the three brothers disputed, which is also +represented as a tablecloth that lays itself. Thus the poor man who +goes to sell his cow's hide finds the pot of abundance and riches. The +dispute for the tablecloth is the same as the dispute for riches, for +the beautiful princess who is afterwards divided, or else carried off +by a third or fourth person who takes the lion's share. We must not +forget the fable of the animals who wish to divide the stag among +themselves, of which the lion takes all, because he is named lion. In +the _Nibelungen_, Schilbung and Nibelung dispute with each other for +the division of a treasure; they beg Sfrit to divide it; Sfrit +solves the question by killing them both and taking to himself the +treasure, and the hood that makes its wearer invisible (Tarnkappe). + +[475] The romance of Berta continues in the _Reali di Francia_ in +harmony with the popular stories of an analogous character; the false +wife really causes King Pepin to marry her, and sends Berta into the +forest to be killed; the hired murderers pity her, and grant her her +life. Berta, whilst in the forest bound to a tree (like the Vedic +cow), is found by a hunter; out of gratitude she works (she, no doubt, +spins and weaves), in order that the hunter may sell her work at Paris +for a high price. Meanwhile her father and mother dream that she is +beset by bears and wolves who threaten to devour her, that thereupon, +throwing herself into the water, a fisherman saves her (in the dream, +the water has taken the place of the forest, and the fisherman that of +the hunter). King Pepin goes into the forest, finds her, recognises +and marries her, whilst Elizabeth is burnt alive. The change of wives +also occurs in a graceful form (with a variation of the episode of the +beauty thrown into the fountain) in the twelfth of the _Contes +Merveilleux_ of Porchat, Paris, 1863. + +[476] _Histoire de la Vie de Charlemagne et de Roland_, par Jean +Turpin, traduction de Alex. de Saint-Albin, Paris, 1865, preceded by +the Chanson de Roland, pome de Throulde.--Cfr. the _Histoire +Potique de Charlemagne_, par Gaston Paris. + +[477] Uhland's _Schriften zur Geschichte der Dichtung und Sage_, iii. +77. + +[478] "Seigneur, bnissez ce lit et ceux qui s'y trouvent; bnissez +ces chers enfants, comme vous avez bni Tobie et Sara; daignez les +bnir ainsi, Seigneur, afin qu'en votre nom ils vivent et vieillissent +et multiplient, par le Christ notre Seigneur.--Ainsi soit-il." +Villemarqu, _Barzaz Breiz, Chants Populaires de la Bretagne_, sixime +dition, Paris, 1867, p. 423. + +[479] Uhland, the work quoted above, p. 81.--In the French romance of +_Renard_, on occasion of the apparent death of the fox, the gospel is +read, on the contrary, by the horse. In the German customs the bull also +appears as a funeral animal, and is fastened to the hearse. If, while he +is drawing the hearse, he turns his head back, it is considered a +sinister omen. According to a popular belief, the bulls and other +stalled animals speak to each other on Christmas night. A tradition +narrates, that a peasant wished on that night to hide himself and hear +what the bulls were saying; he heard them say that they would soon have +to draw him to the grave, and died of terror. This is the usual +indiscretion and its punishment.--Cfr. Rochholz, _Deutscher Glaube und +Brauch_, Berlin, 1867, i. 164, and Menzel, _Die Vorchristliche +Unsterblichkeits-Lehre_, Leipzig, 1870.--We have the speaking oxen again +in Phdrus's fable of the stag who takes refuge in the stable, ii. 8, +where the master is called "ille qui oculos centum habet." + +[480] Elle en mangea seze muiz, deux bussars et six tupins; Rabelais, +_Gargantua_, i. 4. + +[481] Cfr. Porchat, _Contes Merveilleux_, Paris, 1863. + +[482] In _Porchat_, Superlatif, while he is a dwarf, is shut up in a +clothes-press; he is a male form of the wooden girl, of the wise puppet, +of the sun hidden in the trunk of a tree, in the tree of night, in the +nocturnal (or cloudy, or wintry) night, full of mysteries, which the +little solar hero surprises from his hiding-place. The hero in hell, or +who, educated by the devil, learns every kind of evil, is a variation of +this multiform idea. The dwarf of _Porchat_, who comes out of the +clothes-press, is in perfect accord with the popular belief which makes +the man be born in the wood, on the stump of a tree, of which the +Christmas-tree is a lively reminiscence. + + +SECTION VI. + +THE BULL AND THE COW IN GREEK AND LATIN TRADITION. + +SUMMARY. + + Preparatory works.--Bos quoque formosa est.--Zeus as a bull.--I and + Eurp as cows.--The cow sacred to Minerva, the calf to Mercury, and + the bull to Zeus.--Demoniacal bulls.--Taurus draconem genuit et + taurum draco.--White bulls sacrificed to Zeus, and black ones to + Poseidn.--Poseidn as a bull.--The horn of abundance broken off the + bull Acheloos.--The bulls of Aitas.--The bull who kills + Ampelos.--Dionysos a bull.--The bull that comes out of the sea.--The + eaters of bulls.--The sacrifice of the bull.--The intestines of the + bull.--From the cow, the lamb.--The bull's entrails are wanting when + the hero is about to die, that is, when the hero has no heart.--Even + the bull goes into the forest.--The bull that flees is a good omen + when taken and sacrificed.--The bull and the cow guide the lost + hero.--Analogy between solar and lunar phenomena.--Hrakls passes + the sea now on the cow's neck, now in a golden cup.--Hrakls shoots + at the sun.--The moon, the bull of Hrakls, becomes an apple-tree; + anecdote relating to this.--The moon as a golden apple.--The moon as + a cake.--The funeral cake.--Instead of a cow of flesh, a cow made of + paste, in Plutarch and sop.--Ashes and excrement of the cow.--L'eau + de millefleurs.--The bulls of the sun.--Hrakls stable-boy and + cleaner of the herds.--The bull Phaethn.--The myth of the bull and + the lion.--The bull's horns.--The god a witty thief; the demon an + infamous one.--The myth of Cacus again.--The worm or serpent that + eats bulls.--The bellowing or thundering bull, celestial + musician.--The bull and the lyre.--The voice of Zeus--Bull-god and + cow-goddess. + +In descending now from the North upon the Hellenic and Latin soils, to +search for the mythical and legendary forms assumed there by the bull +and the cow, the mass of available material in point which offers, +instead of diminishing, has increased prodigiously. Not to speak of the +rich literary traditions of medival Italy and Spain (as to those of +France, they are often but an echo of the Celtic and Germanic), nor the +significant traditions of the Latin historians and poets themselves, nor +the beliefs, superstitious customs, and legends still existing on the +half-Catholic, half-Pagan soil of Italy, all of which are notably +fraught with the earliest mythical ideas, we here find ourselves face to +face with the colossal and splendid edifice of Greek poetry or mythology +itself; for that which constitutes the greatness and real originality of +Greek poetry is its mythology, by means of which it is that a divinity +breathes in every artistic work of Hellenic genius. The poet and the +artist are almost always in direct correspondence with the deities, and +therefore it is that they so often assume such a divine and inspired +expression. It would, therefore, be a bold presumption on my part if I +were to essay to extract and present, in a few pages, the soul, the +contents of this endless mythology. I have, moreover, the good fortune +of being able to plead relief from the obligation to venture on any such +attempt, by referring the reader to the learned preparatory works +published in England, in the same interest, by Max Mller and George +Cox, upon the Hellenic myths in relation to the other mythologies. It is +certainly possible to take exception to interpretations of particular +myths proposed by these two eminent scholars, as, no doubt, might be the +fate of many of mine, were I to enter into minute explanations, and were +my lucubrations fortunate enough to obtain any measure of consideration. +But as I flatter myself with the hope that, notwithstanding occasional +diversions, in which I may have gone aside and lost myself for a few +minutes, I am taking the royal road which alone leads to the solution of +the great questions of comparative mythology, I recognise with gratitude +the labours of Max Mller and Cox upon Greek mythology, the writings of +Michael Bral upon Roman mythology, the immortal work of Adalbert Kuhn +upon the Indo-European myth of fire and water, and a few other helpful +beacon-towers which send their light-shafts clear and steady athwart the +waste, and serve as useful guides to the studious navigator of the _mare +magnum_ of the myths. And because that which there is yet to do is +immense in proportion to the little that has been done well, I shall +take for granted what has already been demonstrated by my learned +predecessors (to one and all of whom I confidently and respectfully +refer my readers), and go on with my own researches, restricting myself, +however, entirely to the zoological field, in order not to increase, out +of all proportion, the dimensions of this opening chapter, which already +threatens to straiten the space I must leave for the rest of my +undertaking. + + "Bos quoque formosa est," + +says Ovid, in the first book of the _Metamorphoses_, when the daughter +of Inachos is transformed into a luminous cow by Jupiter. The bull +Zeus of Nonnos is also beautiful, as he swims on the sea, carrying the +beautiful maiden Eurp. Her brothers wonder why oxen wish to marry +women; but we shall not wonder when we remark that I and Eurp are +duplicates of one and the same animal, or, at least, that I and +Eurp both took the shape of a cow--one as the moon especially,[483] +the other, the far-observing daughter of Telephaessa, the +far-shining,[484] as the moon also, or the aurora. In the first case +it is the heroine that becomes a cow; in the second, it is the hero +who shows himself in the shape of a bull.[485] These forms are, +however, only provisional and unnatural, in the same way as in the +Vedic hymns the representation of the aurora, the moon, and the sun as +cow and bull is only a passing one. The cow and the bull send their +calf before them; the sun, the moon, and the aurora are preceded or +followed by the twilight. Jupiter and Minerva have for their messenger +the winged Mercurius; and hence also Ovid[486] was able to sing:-- + + "Mactatur vacca Minerv, + Alipedi vitulus, taurus tibi, summe Deorum."[487] + +The fruit of the nuptials of I and of Eurp with Zeus is of a +monstrous nature, such as the evil-doing daughters of Danaos, who, on +account of their crimes, are condemned in hell to fill the famous barrel +(the cloud) that is ever emptying (the counterpart of the cup which, in +the Scandinavian myth, is never emptied); such too as Mins, he who +ordered the labyrinth to be made, the infernal judge, the feeder of the +Mintauros (of which the monstrous bull of Marathon, first subdued by +Hrakls and afterwards killed by Theseus, is a later form), the son of +his wife and the gloomy and watery black bull Poseidn. Even Kadmos, the +brother of Eurp, ends his life badly. He descends into the kingdom of +the dead in the form of a serpent. Of good, evil is born, and of evil, +good; of the beautiful, the hideous, and of the hideous, the beautiful; +of light, darkness, and of darkness, light; of day, night, and of night, +day; of heat, cold, and of cold, heat. Each day and each year the +monotonous antithesis is renewed; the serpent's head always finds and +bites its tail again. A Tarentine verse of Arnobius expresses very +happily these celestial vicissitudes: + + "Taurus draconem genuit et taurum draco." + +Thus, in the romance of Heliodoros (_Aithiopika_) we read that the +queen of Ethiopia, being black, gave birth to a white son; that is to +say, the black night gives birth to the white moon and to the white +dawn of morning. To Zeus (Dyus, the luminous,) are sacrificed white +bulls; to his brother Poseidn, black ones; indeed, entirely +black[488] ones, according to the Homeric expression. + +Poseidn, in Hesiod (_Theog._ 453), is the eldest brother; in Homer +(_Il._ xv. 187), he is, on the contrary, the youngest; and both are +right; it is the question of the egg and the hen; which is born first, +darkness or light? The son of Poseidn, Polyphmos the Cyclop, is +blinded by Odysseus. Poseidn, representing the watery, cloudy, or +nocturnal sky, his one-eyed son seems to be that sky itself, with the +solar star, the eye of the heavens, in the midst of the darkness or of +the clouds (the mouth of the barrel). When Odysseus blinds his son, +Poseidn avenges him by condemning Odysseus to wander on the waters +(that is, lost in the ocean or the clouds of night). Inasmuch, moreover, +as Zeus, properly the luminous one, is often called and represented by +Homer as black as the clouds and pluvial,[489] he is assimilated to +Poseidn, the _presbtatos_ or oldest; in fact, in the oldest Hellenic +myths, Poseidn is essentially the pluvial form of Zeus. When Poseidn, +in the form of a bull, seduces Pasipha, the daughter of the sun and +wife of Mins, he appears, indeed, of a white colour, but has between +his horns a black spot.[490] This spot, however small, is enough to +betray his tenebrous nature. Thus Acheloos, vanquished by Hrakls in +the shape of a serpent, rises again in that of a pugnacious bull, one of +whose horns Hrakls breaks,[491] which he gives to the tolians, who +receive abundance from it (the waters of the Acheloos fertilise the +country traversed by them; the dragon of the cloud kept back the waters; +Hrakls discomfits the dragon, _i.e._, the darkness, and it then +reappears in the form of a bull; when its horns are broken, abundance is +the consequence). This monster reappears in the two perverse and +terrible bulls of King Aitas, with copper feet (_taur chalkpode_), +which breathe dark-red flames and smoke, and advance against the hero +Isn in the cavern; in the same way as the king of the monkeys in the +_Rmyanam_ vanquishes the demoniacal bull that fights with its horns, +by taking hold of the horns themselves, and throwing it down; so Isn +does in Apollnios.[492] The same bull is repeated in that ridden by the +youth Ampelos, dear to Dinysos (who has also the nature of a bull, +_taurophss_, but of a luminous one). Ampelos, persuaded by the +death-bringing At (_thanatphros At_), mounts on this bull, and is +thrown by it upon a rock where his skull is broken, because he was full +of pride against the horned moon, her who agitates the oxen, who, +offended, sends a gadfly to the bull and maddens it. The bull Dinysos +wishes to avenge the young Ampelos, by fixing his horns in the belly of +the perverse and homicidal bull.[493] In this myth, the black bull of +night and the bull-moon are confounded together in one sinister action. + +From the ocean of night comes forth the head of the solar and lunar +bull, and on this account, in Euripides[494] Okeanos is called the +bull-headed (_taurkranos_); or else the head of the solar bull enters +the nocturnal forest, or that of the lunar bull comes out of it. This +phenomenon gave rise to several poetical images. The bull is devoured +by the monsters of night; hence in the _Seven at Thebes_ (xlii.) of +schylos, the messenger accuses of impiety the seven eaters of bulls, +who touch with their hands the blood of bulls; hence in the +forty-third fable of sop, the dogs flee, horrified, from the peasant +who, being of a gluttonous nature (like the old man of the Russian +story who eats all his cows), after having devoured sheep and goats, +prepares to eat the working oxen themselves.[495] The bulls head, or +even the bull itself, or the milch-cow, which must not be eaten, can, +however, be sacrificed; nay, he is lucky who offers them up (except +when the deity is named Heliogabalus, who receives the _taurobolium_ +as a homage due to him, without giving anything in exchange to the +devoted sacrificers).[496] According to Valerius Maximus,[497] the +empire of the world would, by an oracle of the time of Servius +Tullius, belong to the nation who should sacrifice to the Diana of the +Aventine a certain wonderful cow belonging to a Sabine (the aurora or +the moon, from the sacrifice of which the sun comes out at morning). +The Sabine prepares to sacrifice it, but a Roman priest takes it from +him by fraud, whilst the Sabine is sent to purify himself in the water +near at hand. This is a zoological form of the epico-mythic rape of +the Sabines, of the exchange of the wife or of the precious object, of +the exchange effected in the sack. + +In Ovid,[498] the same myth occurs again with a variation: + + "Matre satus Terra, monstrum mirabile, taurus + Parte sui serpens posteriore fuit. + Hunc triplici muro lucis incluserat atris + Parcarum monitu Styx violenta trium. + Viscera qui tauri flammis adolenda dedisset, + Sors erat, ternos vincere posse Deos. + Immolat hunc Briareus factu ex adamante securi; + Et jam jam flammis exta daturus erat. + Jupiter alitibus rapere imperat. Attulit illi + Milvus; et meritis venit in astra suis." + +We shall return to this myth in the following chapters. The monster is +killed only when his heart, which he keeps shut up, is taken away. +Sometimes he does not keep it shut up in his own body, but in a duck +(the aurora), which comes out of a hare (the moon sacrificed in the +morning).[499] When this duck is opened, a golden egg (the sun) is +found. When the egg is thrown on the ground, or at the monster's head, +the monster dies. The golden duck, whence the monster's heart, the +sun, comes forth, is the same as the cow which gives birth to the lamb +(the night gives birth to the aurora, and the aurora to the solar +lamb). The historian Flavius cites, among the prodigies which preceded +the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem, a miracle of this kind, +which took place in the middle of the temple itself, in the case of a +cow led thither to be sacrificed. It occurs still every morning in the +mythical heavens, and was a phenomenon familiar to human observation +in the remotest antiquity, when it became a proverb; but, as often +happened, the proverb which affirmed an evident myth, when its sense +was lost, was adopted to indicate an impossibility; wherefore we read +in the second satire (cxxii.) of Juvenal:-- + + "Scilicet horreres maioraque monstra putares, + Si mulier vitulum, vel si bos ederet agnum?" + +In Greek and Latin authors[500] we find frequent examples of the +sacrifice of a bull a short time before the death of the hero by whom +it was ordered, in which it was noticed as a very sinister omen that +the entrails were missing, and particularly the heart or the liver. +Having observed that the monster's heart is the solar hero, or the sun +itself, we can easily understand how, in the sacrifice of a bull, this +heart must be wanting when the hero approaches his end. In the +mythical bull sacrificed at evening, the hero's heart is not to be +found; the monster has eaten his intestines, of which, according to +the legend, he is particularly greedy. + +But the bull does not always let himself be sacrificed patiently; he +often flees in order not to be killed. We have seen in the Russian +stories how the bull, which his owner intends to sacrifice, flees into +the forest, with the lamb (the bull and the lamb are two equivalent +forms of the morning and evening solar hero) and the other domestic +animals. The proverb of Theokritos, "Even the bull goes into the +forest,"[501] can have no other origin than in the two analogous myths +of the moon which wanders through the forest of night, and of the sun +who hides himself in the same forest, when he sees the preparations +made for the sacrifice; the sun in the night becomes the moon. + +I have said that the bull, when sacrificed, often, on account of his +being devoid of intestines, forebodes unlucky occurrences to the hero; +the solar bull of the evening is without strength, he has no heroic +entrails. But after he has been to pasture freely in the forest, after +having exercised his powers in battle with the wolves of night, after +having, by his bellowing (in the darkness, in the thundering cloud), +filled all the animals with terror, the bull is found again and led +towards his dwelling of the morning, full of light, like a sacrificed +hero; heroic entrails are found in him; from the black bull who is +sacrificed towards morning, from the forest, from the bull of night, +come forth the heart, the liver, the life and strength, the sun, the +hero-sun; and the human hero, observing his sacrifice, considers it a +good omen. We can thus understand the narrative of Ammianus Marcellinus: +"Decimus (taurus) diffractis vinculis, lapsus gre reductus est, et +mactatus ominosa signa monstravit."[502] Whilst he is hidden in the +forest, the solar bull is black, but often (_i.e._, in all the nights +illumined by the moon), giving up his place to the moon, he appears in +the form of a white bull or cow, who guides the hero lost in the +darkness. Thoas is called the king of the Tauroi (or bulls) in the +_Iphigenia in Tauris_ of Euripides, because he has wings on his feet. +The cow I flees without stopping in the _Prometheus_ of schylos. +Euripides[503] says that she gave birth to the king of the Kadmoeans. +Here, therefore, we find once more the intimate relation between I and +Eurp, the sister of Kadmos, which I noticed above. Kadmos, the brother +of Eurp, unites himself with I. But I is a cow, and we find a cow, a +travelling cow, marked with a white spot in the shape of a full moon +(the moon itself, or I), in the legend of Kadmos in Boeotia, according +to Pausanias,[504] and to Ovid,[505] who sings-- + + "Bos tibi, Phoebus ait, solis occurret in arvis,[506] + Nullum passa jugum, curvique immunis aratri. + Hac duce carpe vias, et, qua requieverit herba, + Moenia fac condas: Boeotia ilia vocato. + Vix bene Castalio Cadmus descenderat antro: + Incustoditam lente videt ire juvencam, + Nullum servitii signum cervice gerentem. + Subsequitur, pressoque legit vestigia gressu; + Auctoremque vi Phoebum taciturnus adorat. + Jam vada Cephisi, Panopesque evaserat arva; + Bos stetit; et, tollens spatiosam cornibus altis + Ad coelum frontem, mugitibus impulit auras. + Atque ita, respiciens comites sua terga sequentes, + Procubuit, teneraque latus submisit in herba." + +This is the good fairy, or good old man, who shows the way to the +heroes in popular tales; it is the cow which succours the maiden +persecuted by her step-mother, the puppet which spins, sews, and +weaves for the maiden aurora. For just as we have seen that the wooden +girl is the aurora herself, which at morn comes out of, and at even +re-enters, the forest of night,[507] as is clearly shown by the myths +of Urva and of Daphne, so in like manner the moon comes out of and +re-enters the nocturnal forest, transforming herself from a tree to a +cow, and from a cow to a tree, wooden girl, or puppet. Some myths +relating to the aurora are also applicable to the moon, on account of +the resemblance of the phenomena (the lunar and solar bulls also are +interchangeable), as they both come out of the nocturnal gloom, both +drop dewy humours, and both run after the sun, of which the aurora is +the deliverer in the morning, and the moon the protectress, guide, +hostess, and good advising fairy, who teaches him the secret by which +to avoid the ambuscades of the monster. Hrakls passes the sea upon +the neck of the cow-moon; but instead of the cow, we also find in the +mythical sky of Hrakls the golden cup, which is the same thing. From +the cow-moon comes forth the horn of abundance; from the cornucopia to +the cup the passage is easy. It is said that Hrakls, approaching the +oxen of Geryon, the West, felt himself burned by the sun's rays, and +shot arrows at him (in the same way as Indras in the _Rigvedas_ breaks +a wheel of the car of Sryas, the sun). The sun admires the courage +and strength of the hero, and lends him his golden cup, upon which +Hrakls passes the sea. This being accomplished, Hrakls restores +the cup to the sun, and finds the oxen. + +The bull which carries the hero and heroine, in the Russian story, +arises again in another form, if its essential part (now the +intestines, now the bones, now the ashes) is preserved. The cow +which helps the maiden becomes, as we have already seen, an +apple-tree, and helps her again in this form. We find the same myth +transformed in Greece. In _Coelius_, quoted by Aldrovandi,[508] we +read, "Cum rustici quidam Herculi Alexicaco bovem essent immolaturi, +isque rupto fune profugisset (the bull destined to the sacrifice +repairs to the forest of night), nec esset quod sacrificaretur, malum +arreptum suppositis quatuor ramis crurum vice, deinde additis alteris +duobus ceu cornuum loco, bovem utcumque fuisse imitatos, idque +ridiculum simulacrum pro victima sacrificasse Herculi." This account +is confirmed by the facts recorded by Julius Pollux,[509] that the +apple-tree was sacrificed to Hrakls. The moon, on account of its +circular form, assumed, besides the figure of a pea, a pumpkin and a +cabbage, also that of a golden apple. As it contains honey, the sweet +apple represents well the ambrosial moon. Moreover, in the same way as +we have seen the pea which fell on the ground become a tree, and rise +to heaven, so the apple became an apple-tree, the tree of golden +apples found in the Western garden of the Hesperides. + +The moon, besides the form of a horned cow, also assumed, in the +popular ryan belief, that of a tart, of a cake, either on account of +its circular shape, or of the ambrosial honey supposed to be contained +by the moon, because of the dew or rain which it spreads on the +ground. The cake has in Slavonic tradition the same importance as the +pea, kidney-bean, or cabbage. The bull or cow of the fool, bartered +for a pea, is perhaps the same as the sun or aurora of evening, +bartered during the night for the moon, or else meeting the moon. The +funereal pea or kidney-bean, the vegetable which serves as provision +for the journey in the kingdom of the dead, and which brings the hero +riches, is perhaps only the moon, which the solar hero finds on the +way during the night, and which he receives in exchange for his cow's +hide. When the hero possesses this pea, he is assured of every kind of +good fortune, and can enter or ascend into the luminous sky, as well +as come out of the gloomy hell, into which the monster has drawn him. +A similar virtue is attributed to the cake, which we find in +Indo-European funeral customs instead of the vegetable of the dead. + +After this we can understand what Plutarch tells us in the Life of +Lucullus concerning the Cyziceni, of whom he writes, that, pressed by +siege, they offered up to Proserpine (the moon in hell) a cow of black +paste, not being able to offer up one of flesh; and he adds, that the +sacrifice was agreeable to the goddess. Thus, in the thirty-sixth +fable of sop, we read of an invalid who promises to the gods that he +will sacrifice a hundred oxen to them in the event of a cure; when +cured, as he does not possess a hundred oxen of flesh, he makes a +hundred of paste, and burns them upon the hearth. But, according to +sop, the gods were not satisfied, and endeavoured to play off a joke +upon him; an attempt, which, however, did not succeed, inasmuch as the +cunning man used it to his own profit; for the solar hero in the +night, not being really a fool, merely feigns to be one. + +But, to return to the cow-moon: we must complete the explanation of +another myth, that of the excrement of the cow considered as purifying. +The moon, as the aurora, yields ambrosia; it is considered to be a cow; +the urine of this cow is ambrosia or holy water; he who drinks this +water purifies himself, as the ambrosia which rains from the lunar ray +and the aurora cleans the paths of the sky, purifies and makes clear +(_drghaya cakshase_) the paths of the sky which the shadows of night +darken and contaminate. The same virtue is attributed, moreover, to +cow's dung, a conception also derived from the cow, and given to the +moon as well as to the morning aurora. These two cows are conceived as +making the earth fruitful by means of their ambrosial excrements; these +excrements, being also luminous, both those of the moon and those of the +aurora are considered as purifiers. The ashes of these cows (which their +friend the heroine preserves) are not only ashes, but golden powder or +golden flour (the golden cake occurs again in that flour or powder of +gold which the witch demands from the hero in Russian stories), which, +mixed with excrement, brings good fortune to the cunning and robber +hero. The ashes of the sacrificed pregnant cow (_i.e._, the cow which +dies after having given birth to a calf) were religiously preserved by +the Romans in the temple of Vesta, with bean-stalks (which are used to +fatten the earth sown with corn), as a means of expiation. Ovid[510] +mentions this rite:-- + + "Nox abiit, oriturque Aurora. Palilia poscor, + Non poscor frustra, si favet alma Pales. + Alma Pales, faveas pastoria sacra canenti; + Prosequor officio si tua festa pio. + Certe ego de vitulo cinerem, stipulasque fabales, + Spe tuli plena februa casta, manu." + +The ashes of a cow are preserved both as a symbol of resurrection and +as a means of purification. As to the excrements of the cow, they are +still used to form the so-called _eau de millefleurs_, recommended by +several pharmacopoeias as a remedy for cachexy.[511] + +I have noticed above the myth of Hrakls, in which, having passed the +sea upon the golden cup, he finds the oxen upon the shore. These oxen +are thus described by Theokritos, in the myth of King Augeias, as the +child of the sun. The sun, says Theokritos, granted to his son the +honour of being richer than all other men in herds. All these herds are +healthy, and multiply without limit, always becoming better. Among the +bulls, three hundred have white legs (like the alba of morning), two +hundred are red (like the sun's rays), with curved horns. These bulls +are to be used for purposes of reproduction; besides them there are +twelve sacred to the sun, which shine like swans. One of them is +superior to all the rest in size, and is called a star, or Phaethn (the +luminous, an epithet given to Hlios, the sun, in the _Odyssey_, the +guider of the chariot of the sun, who, after finishing his diurnal +course, is unable to rein in the horses, and is precipitated with the +chariot into the water, in order that the burning horses may not set +fire to the world. Instead of solar oxen, which draw the chariot, and +fall, at evening, into the nocturnal marsh, we find in this myth the +chariot drawn by horses overturned into the waves; but the Phaethn, the +very luminous and excellent ox, as represented by Theokritos, justifies +our identification of the two mythical episodes of the ox and of the +horse which falls into the water). The bull Phaethn of Theokritos sees +Hrakls, and, taking him for a lion, rushes upon him and endeavours to +wound him with his horns. The sun, as a golden-haired hero, is a very +strong lion (Hrakls, Samson); as a golden-horned hero, he is a very +strong bull; enclosed in the cloud, they roar and bellow. The two images +of the sun-lion and of the sun-bull are now in harmony and now in +discordance, and fight with one another. In the _Rmyanam_ we found the +two brother-heroes Rmas and Lakshmanas, an epic form of the two +Avinu, represented respectively as a bull and a lion. In the Hellenic +fables we frequently find the lion and the bull together, and afterwards +in discordance, as happens in the legend of the two brother-heroes. In +sop and in Avianus, the bull (perhaps the moon) fleeing from the lion +(_i.e._, from the sun in its monstrous evening or autumnal form of a +lion), enters the hiding-place of the goat (the moon in the grotto of +night), and is insulted and provoked by it. In another sopian fable, on +the contrary, it is the lion who fears the horns of the bull, and +induces him to part with them, in order that the bull may become his +prey.[512] In yet another sopian fable taken from Syntipa, the bull +kills the lion, while asleep, with his horns. In Phdrus, the wild boar +with his tusks, the bull with his horns, and the ass with kicks, put an +end to the old and infirm lion. In Phdrus's fable of the ox and the ass +drawing together, the ox falls inert upon the ground when he loses his +horns. Aristoteles, in the third book on the Parts of Animals, censures +the Momos of sop, who laughs at the bull because he has his horns on +his forehead instead of on his arms, showing that if the bull had his +horns on any other part of his body, they would be a useless weight, +and would impede his other functions without aiding him in anything. The +ox and the lion were also painted together in Christian churches.[513] + +To continue the legend of the solar hero and the oxen, we find again in +Hrakls, as employed among the herds in the service of King Augeias, +the sun, the usual hostler-hero; he is not only to guard the herds well, +but in one day to cleanse them thoroughly, and make them shine. +Defrauded of the price by Augeias, he kills him, and ravages all his +country. In the same way, in Homer, Apollo guards, for a stipulated +price, the herds of King Laomedon upon Mount Ida, and is cheated of his +reward. In the same way, Hermes takes the herds of King Admetos to +pasture; he leads them to browse near the herds of Apollo, from whom he +steals a hundred bulls and twelve cows, preventing the dogs from barking +(as Hrakls does when he leads away Geryon's oxen). This Hermes, this +god Mercury, god of merchants, this merchant and robber, is the same as +the skilful and cunning thief of the stories who carries off horses, +draught oxen, caskets, and ear-rings from the king; he is the +hero-thief; but a shade distinguishes him from the monster brigand or +Vedic demoniacal Panis; the hero who hides himself and the monster that +hides things both do a furtive action. When Hermes leads away the herds +stolen from the solar god, the sun, he also takes care to fasten +branches of trees to their tails, which, by sweeping the road, shall +destroy the track of the bulls and cows that have been led away. The +shepherd Battos plays the spy, although, as the price of his silence, +Hermes has promised him a white cow (the moon, and perhaps Battos +himself, the spy, is the moon). Hermes tests him, by disguising himself +and promising him a bull and a cow if he speaks. Battos speaks, and +Hermes punishes him by transforming him into a stone:-- + + "Vertit + In durum silicem, qui nunc quoque dicitur index."[514] + +This god Mercury, who steals the bulls from Apollo (as Hrakls leads +away the oxen of Geryon), is the divine form of the thief. His +demoniacal form, is--Cacus, the son of Vulcan (as the Vedic Vritras is +the son of Tvashtar), who vomits fire; a giant who envelops himself in +darkness, in Virgil; three-headed (like the Vedic monster), in +Propertius;[515] who inhabits in the Aventine forest a cavern full of +human bones (like the monster of fairy tales); who thunders (flammas +ore sonante vomit), who fights with rocks and trunks of trees, in +Ovid[516] (like the heroes in the Hindoo, Slavonic, German, and +Homeric tradition); who steals the cows from Hrakls, and hides their +footprints by dragging them backwards into the cavern, in Livy; who +also tells us that the cows in the cavern low, wishing for the bulls +from whom they are separated (as in the Vedic hymns). The hero, +hearing them, finds the cavern, overturns with a great noise the rock +which five pair of oxen yoked together could scarcely have moved (like +the Marutas who break the rock, like Indras who splits the crag open), +and with the three-knotted club (trinodis) kills the monster and frees +the cows. The solar hero who at evening leads away oxen or cows, or +who at morning steals them from the stable, is a skilful robber who +has acted meritoriously, and marries, in reward, the princess aurora; +the cloudy or gloomy monster who steals the solar cows to shut them up +in the cavern, whence he then throws out smoke and flames, is an +infamous criminal. The divine thief steals almost out of playfulness, +either to show his craftiness or to prove his valour; the demoniacal +thief steals because of his malevolent character, and instinct to +devour what he steals, as does the fabled worm of the river Indus (the +Vedic Sindhus, or heavenly ocean), who draws into the abyss and +devours the thirsty oxen who go to drink.[517] + +The monster of the clouds who whistles and thunders only terrifies; the +god who whistles and thunders in the cloud, on the other hand, is _par +excellence_ a celestial musician; his musical instrument, the thunder, +astonishes us by its marvels,[518] and makes stones and plants tremble, +that is, makes stones and plants move, especially celestial ones +(_i.e._, cloud-mountains and cloud-trees); it draws after it the wild +animals (of the heavenly forest), tames and subdues them. The bellowing +bull terrifies the lion himself. We, therefore, also read in +Nonnos,[519] that Dionysos gives a bull in reward to agros, who has won +in the competition of song and of the lyre, whilst he reserves a hirsute +he-goat for him who loses; on this account we find on the capitals of +columns in old Milanese churches, calves and bulls represented as +playing on the lyre.[520] It is a variation of the myth of the ass and +the lyre, which has the same meaning. The bull and the ass, for the same +reason, are found represented together, because they bellow and bray +(like Christian Corybantes) near the cradle of the new-born god, in +order to hide, by their noise, his birth from the old king or deity who +is to be dethroned.[521] The conch of Bhmas, the elephant-horn of +Orlando, the Greek war-bugle tauraia, by means of which armies were +moved, derived their character and their name from the mythical bull, +the thundering god. The voice of the bull is compared in Euripides to +the voice of Zeus;[522] the music which pleases the heroes is certainly +not the air of the _Casta diva_; it is the braying of the ass,[523] the +roar of the lion, the bellowing of the bull, who occupies the first +place in the heavens, and has occupied us so long, because the supreme +god took his form, after having carried off Eurp. Zeus left on the +earth his divine form, and the more generally preferred heroic form of a +bull took him up to heaven:-- + + "Litoribus tactis stabat sine cornibus ullis + Juppiter, inque deum de bove versus erat. + Taurus init coelum."[524] + +We thus, after a long pilgrimage in the fields of tradition, return to +the Vedic bull Indras, from whom we started, and to his female form, +which, having a human nature, became a cow, and being a cow, assumed a +divine shape:-- + + "Qu bos ex homine, ex bove facta Dea."[525] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[483] According to Eustatius, "I gar h seln kat tn tn Argetn +dialekton." + +[484] Cfr. Pott, _Studien zur griechischen Mythologie_, Leipzig, +Teubner, 1859; and Cox, the work quoted before. + +[485] _Dionysiakn_, i. 45, and following; iii. 306, and following. + +[486] _Metamorphosen_, iv. 754. + +[487] In England, as I have already noticed, the bull or ox is sacred to +St Luke; in Russia, to the saints Froh and Laver. In Sicily, the +protector of oxen is San Cataldo, who was bishop of Taranto. (For the +notices relating to Sicilian beliefs concerning animals, I am indebted +to my good friend Giuseppe Pitr.) In Tuscany, and in other parts of +Italy, oxen and horses are recommended to the care of St Antony, the +great protector of domestic animals. In the rural parts of Tuscany, it +was the custom, on the 17th of February, to lead oxen and horses to the +church-door, that they might be blessed. Now, to save trouble, only a +basket of hay is carried to be blessed; which done, it is taken to the +animals that they may eat it and be preserved from evil. On Palm Sunday, +to drive away every evil, juniper is put into the stables in Tuscany. + +[488] Tarous pammlanai, in the _Odyssey_; the commentator explains +that the bulls are black because they resemble the colour of water. + +[489] Kelainefs-nefelgerta Zes; _Odyssey_, xiii. 147 and 153. + +[490] + + Signatus tenui media inter cornua nigro + Una fuit labes; coetera lactis erant. + Ovidius, _De Arte Amandi_. + +[491] In _Diodoros_, Hammon loves the virgin Amalthea, who has a horn +resembling that of an ox. The goat and the cow in the lunar and cloudy +myth are the same; and on this account we find them both in connection +with the apple-tree, a vegetable form, and with the cornucopia, since +both are seers, and spies, and guides. The golden doe is a variation +of the same lunar myth. + +[492] _Argonantikn_, iii. 410, 1277. + +[493] Nonnos, _Dionysiakn_, xi. 113 and following. + +[494] _Orests_, 1380. + +[495] _Ergazomnous Bas._--In the twelfth book of his _History of +Animals_, lianos writes: "Among the Phrygians, if any one kills a +working ox, he atones for it with his life." And Varro, _De Re Rustic_: +"Bos socius hominum in rustico opere et Cereris minister. Ab hoc antiqui +ita manus abstineri voluerunt ut capite sanxerint si quis occidisset." + +[496] _Scriptores Histori August_, Lampridius, in the life of +Heliogabalus. + +[497] vii. 3. + +[498] _Fasti_, iii. 800. + +[499] Cfr. the chapter on the Hare. + +[500] Plutarch, in the Life of Marcellus, Arrianos and Appianos among +the Greeks, Livy, Cicero (De Divinatione), Pliny the elder, Julius +Capitolinus, Julius Obsequens among the Latins. + +[501] _ba kai turos an hlan_, xiv. 43. In Theokritos, the proverb +is used to intimate that he is gone to other and perfidious loves; he, +too, is a traitor. + +[502] _Rerum gestarum_, xxii.--Cfr. the episode of the ox which lets +itself fall into the marsh or swamp, in the various versions of the +first book of the _Pancatantram_.--The astrologers placed the brain +under the protection of the moon, and the heart under that of the sun; +Celoria, _La Luna_, Milano, 1871. + +[503] Kadmein Basilas egeinato; _Phoinissai_, 835. + +[504] _Boiotia._ + +[505] _Metam._, iii. 10.--Cfr. Nonnos, _Dionys._, iv. 290, and +following. + +[506] Or, on the path of the sun in the sky. + +[507] In an unpublished Piedmontese story, which is very widely spread, +the girl carried off by robbers escapes from their hands, and hides in +the trunk of a tree. + +[508] _De Quadrupedibus Bisulcis_, i. + +[509] _De Vocabulis_, i., quoted by Aldrovandi. + +[510] _Fasti_, iv. 721. + +[511] Cfr. Ott. Targioni Tozzetti, _Lezioni di Materia Medica_, +Firenze, 1821. + +[512] In an sopian fable taken from Syntipa, which corresponds to the +first of Lokman, two bulls combine against the lion, and resist him; +the lion excites them against each other, and tears them to pieces. In +the sixth fable of Aphtonios, the bulls are three; in the eighteenth +of Avianus, they are four. The lion already knew the motto of kings: +"Divide et impera." + +[513] Durandus, _Rational._ i. 3, quoted by Du Cange. + +[514] Ovidius, _Metam._, ii. 706. + +[515] Per tria partitos qui dabat ora sonos; _Ecl._ iv. + +[516] _Fasti_, i. 550. + +[517] Phil, _Stichoi peri zn idiottos_, lix. + +[518] In Italian, _attonito_ (or, properly speaking, struck by +thunder) is the same as "who is much surprised"). + +[519] _Dionys._ xix 58. + +[520] Cfr. Martigny, _Dictionnaire des Antiquits Chrtiennes_, s. v. +_veau._ + +[521] In _Phdrus_, as we have already observed, the ox and the ass +are yoked together. + +[522] _Ippolitos_, _s fon Dis_, 1200-1229. + +[523] Cfr. the chapter relating to the Ass. + +[524] Ovidius, _Fasti_, v. 615. + +[525] _Ib._ v. 620. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE HORSE. + + +SUMMARY. + + The horse, favourite animal of the solar hero.--Attributes of the + Vedic solar hero.--Animals which draw the Vedic gods.--The Avinu + sons of a mare.--The mule, the ass, and the horse in relation to + each other.--The hero's horse, prior to being noble and handsome, is + vile and ill-favoured; proofs.--The teeth of the horse.--The figs + that make tails grow.--The excrement of the horse.--Three colours of + the heroic horse.--Pluto's horses abhor the light.--Pgasos an + imperfect horse.--The black horse generally demoniacal.--The + hippomanes.--The monster that makes horses perspire and grow lean; + the fire in stables.--To dream of black horses.--The horse of the + third brother is small, humpbacked, and lame.--The hero transforms + himself into a horse.--The grey horse differs from the black + one.--The red horse frees the hero.--The three steps, the three + races, the three leaps, the three castles, the three days, the three + brothers, and the three horses correspond to each other.--Two + horsemen change the hero's bad horse into a heroic steed.--The + horse's ears; the hero in the horse's ears.--The horse's head + blesses the good maiden, and devours the wicked one.--The black + horseman, the white horseman, and the red one.--The horse-monster + that devastates the field surprised by the hero, and destroyed by + fire, in the _Rigvedas_.--The Dioscuri washing the sweat off their + horses.--Salt on the horse's back.--The hero-horse covered by the + waters.--The Avinu and Agnis give a good horse to the hero who has + a bad one.--The three steps of Vishnus are made by the horses of + Indras.--Vishnus as horse.--Indras and the Avinu find the bride on + horseback.--Rmas as horse.--Dadhyanc and his ambrosial horse's + head, which discomfits the hostile monsters.--The bones of the + horse.--The exchange of heads.--The two brother horses Pgasos and + Chrsaor in opposition to one another.--Castor and + Pollux.--Discussion upon the nature of the Avinu.--The two + brothers at discord; Sundas and Upasundas.--Nakulas and + Vasudevas.--Rmas and Lakshmanas.--The brothers who resemble each + other; Blin and Sugrvas; the brother betrays his brother and + steals his wife.--Kerepa and Urvksha.--Piran and Pilsem.--The + sky a mountain of stone; heroes, heroines, and horses of stone.--The + brother seducer in the _Tuti-Name_.--Sunlight and moonlight, two + brothers.--The minister's son and the king's son.--Horse and + cat.--The two brothers on a journey; one becomes a king, the other + spits gold; the candle of one of the two brothers lights of its own + accord, and he therefore obtains the kingdom; the other brother's + treasure.--Digression concerning the interpretation of the + myth.--Agamds and Trophonios; Piedmontese story of the skilful + thief.--The two brothers who resemble each other; mistaken one for + the other by the wife of one of them; the brother sleeps with his + sister-in-law without touching her; the legend of the pilgrim who + comes from Rome; the head fastened on again.--The horse led away out + of hell.--The solar horse destined for sacrifice carried off by + Kapilas; that is, the solar horse escapes, like the solar bull, from + the sacrifice.--The stallion destined for the sacrifice touched, and + the horse's fat smelted by Kualy as an augury of + fruitfulness.--The horse's head as the mouth of hell.--The robber of + the horse and of the treasure.--The horns of the stag, the horns or + mane of the horse, and the hair of the hero, which catch and fasten + themselves to the trees of the forest.--The thief now protects + thieves, and now protects men from thieves.--The Miles gloriosus; + hero, horse, and tree, united together, discomfit the enemies.--The + heroic horse.--The tail of Indras's horse, and the Hindoo + war-horse.--The war-horses of Rustem, of Alexander, of Bellerophon, + and of Csar; the winged horse.--The horse goes through water and + fire.--The horse and the apple.--The chains of the heroic horse, and + the difficulty of riding him.--The horse that speaks; the + horse-spy.--The chariot that speaks.--The solar horse bound that it + may not come back again.--The hero who flees in the shape of a + horse, and the horse sold with the bridle; transformations of the + horse.--The sun without a horse and without a bridle.--The horses of + the sun, arrested or wounded, precipitate the solar hero into the + waters.--The eternal hunter.--Etaas, Phaethn, Hippolytos.--The + horse that delivers the hero.--The neighing of Indras's horse; the + horse of Darius which neighs at the sight of the sun on account of + the smell of a mare.--Number of the solar horses.--The hero born of + a mare.--The mare's egg.--The hare born of a mare devours the + mare.--Spanish mares made pregnant by the wind.--Horses sons of the + wind.--The hero Avatthman neighs immediately after birth.--The + horses that weep; mythical signification of these tears.--Vedic + riddle and play of words upon the letter _r_, and the root _varsh_ + relative to the horse.--The foam from the horse's mouth destroys + enemies and cures the cough.--The Avinu, the Dioscuri, Asklpios + and his two sons as physicians.--Caballus.--Ambrosia from the hoof + of the Vedic horse.--Hippokrn; the horse's hoof in relation with + water.--Exchanges between moon and sun and between bull and + horse.--Horses sacred to the gods and to saints.--Holy horsemen who + help the heroes _mercede pacta_. + +The myth of the horse is perhaps not so rich in legends as that of the +bull and the cow, but certainly no less interesting. As the horseman +is the finest type of the hero, so the horse which carries him is in +mythology the noblest of animals. + +We have already observed that the best of the three brothers, the third, +the victorious one, the morning sun, is, in tradition, distinguished +from the other brothers by his swiftness; and that the morning dawn or +aurora, which is the third sister, the good one, the best of the three +sisters, is she who wins the race. It is, therefore, natural that the +favourite animal of the hero should be his horse. The two Hindoo +Dioscuri, that is, the Avinu, the two horsemen, derive their name from +the avas or horse, as being the swift one;[526] and they are very +probably identical with the two fair-haired, amiable, splendid, and +ardent coursers of Indras, of Savitar (the sun), and proper and worthy +to bear heroes,[527] who yoke themselves at a word,[528] are maned, +adapted to make fruitful, full of life,[529] having eyes like the +sun,[530] made by the Ribhavas,[531] who, as they made the cow out of a +cow, also made a horse out of the horse,[532] black, with white feet, +drawing the chariot with the golden yoke, revealing the beings;[533] the +two rapid ones; the two most rapid ones;[534] plunging into the +inebriating drink before Indras yokes them;[535] beautiful, by means of +which the chariot of the Avinu is as swift as thought;[536] who carry +Indras, as every day they carry the sun;[537] are the two rays of the +sun;[538] who neigh, dropping ambrosia;[539] the very pure horses of the +bull Indras, inebriated, who illumine the sky,[540] with manes the +colour of a peacock,[541] bridled sixty times (properly six times twice +five);[542] beneficent, winged, indefatigable, resolute destroyers (of +the enemies).[543] The _itareya Brhmanam_, when giving the +characteristics of the race of each god, whilst it tells us that Agnis, +at the marriage of Somas and Sry, is drawn by mules, and the aurora +by red cows (or bulls), teaches us that Indras is drawn by horses, and +the Avinu by asses; the Avinu carried off the prize.[544] In the +_Mahbhratam_,[545] we find another important circumstance, _i.e._, the +Avinu represented as sons of a mare, or of Tvashtr, wife of the sun +Savitar, who took the form of a mare. Therefore we have here the sons of +the mare, who may be horses or mules, according as the mare united +herself with a horse or with an ass. Here, then, we have already an +evident proof of the identification of the heroes Avinu with the +animals, horses or asses, which draw them. The _Rigvedas_ does not as +yet know the word _avatara_, or mule, but in representing the Avinu +drawn now by horses and now by asses, it shows us the intermediate +character of the real animal that draws the Avinu, a grey beast, +dark-coloured, and white only in its fore parts. Night is the mule that +carries the Avinu or twilights, in the same way as, in the +above-quoted _itareya_, it carries or awakens Agnis, fire or light. In +the _Iliad_,[546] mules are sung of as being better adapted than oxen to +draw the plough. + +The hero's horse, like the hero himself, begins by being ugly, +deformed, and inept, and ends by becoming beautiful, luminous, heroic, +and victorious. + +The mythical horse of the Hungarians, the horse Ttos, or Ttos lo, +when born, is of an ugly aspect, defective and lean; it is therefore +said in Hungarian, that "the Ttos comes out of a defective horse." It +is, however, always born with teeth,[547] although its chin is +sometimes wanting; its bursts out of a black pentagonal egg on an Ash +Wednesday, after the hero has carried it for seven summers and seven +winters under his arm. In the _Mahbhratam_,[548] the first created +horse Uccihravas, the king of the horses (and therefore the horse of +Indras), which is as swift as thought, follows the path of the sun, +and is luminous and white, has, however, a black tail, made so by the +magic of the serpents, who have covered it with black hairs. This is +probably the black ass's or horse's tail which remains upon the ugly +or wicked sister's forehead, in the popular European story of the two +sisters.[549] It must also be remarked that, as the word +_Uccihravas_ means, properly, him of the high ears, it indicates +the ass better than the horse. + +In the same way, therefore, as the hero of popular tales before +becoming a wise man is generally an ass, the animal ridden by the +solar hero, prior to being a real and noble horse, is usually a +worthless jade, or a dark-coloured ass. The sun, in the beginning of +the night, rides a black horse, and afterwards a grey one, or else an +ass or a mule, but in the morning, on the contrary, a white and +luminous horse, which has a black tail; or else the dark horse of +night has a white head, or white legs, or anterior parts of the body, +with golden ears, and the nape of the neck formed of pearls.[550] The +monstrous Trojan horse too, of Epeios, a figure which represents the +horse of mythology, in Tryphiodros the Egyptian,[551] has a golden +mane, red eyes, and silver teeth. + +In the Turkish stories of Siberia,[552] it is upon an iron-coloured +horse that the third brother, hated by his father and his two elder +brothers, advances against the demon Ker Iutpa. The hero becomes the +excrement of a horse, and the horse a crow; the former glues the +monster's lower lip to the earth, the latter suspends his upper lip to +the sky. In order better to understand this strange myth, we must +remember that the name of one of the Valkiries is "Mist," a word which +means excrement and fog. The fog, or frost, or rain, or dew, falls to +the ground; the solar horse, or the sun, rises in the sky; the +monster of night or of clouds is dispersed. + +In the thirteenth Esthonian story of _Kreutzwald_, the third brother +comes three times to deliver the princess from the mountain of glass +(or ice), where she sleeps. The first time he is dressed the colour of +bronze, upon a bronze-coloured horse; the second time dressed in +silver, upon a horse the colour of silver; and the third time upon a +gold-coloured horse, dressed in gold. + +In an unpublished Piedmontese story, the young prince, whose beloved +princess has been ravished beyond seas, is borne over the waves by an +eagle, which he feeds with his own flesh. Arrived beyond the sea, he +hears that the princess is destined to be the wife of the hero who wins +the race three times; the first time he appears dressed in black, upon a +black horse; the second time dressed in white, upon a white horse; and +the third time dressed in red, upon a red horse. Each time he wins the +race, and thereafter receives the beautiful princess in marriage. + +Thus we see the first horse of the hero is always dark-coloured, like +the devil's horse, like the horses of Pluto, which, accustomed to +darkness, are terrified by light;[553] it then becomes the grey horse +of the giantess, the grey horse which smells the dead hero Sigurd in +the _Edda_. Pgasos himself, the _hieros hippos_ of Aratos, is born +semi-perfect (mitels),[554] an expression which reminds me of the +_equus dimidius_ of an Alsatian paper of 1336, in Du Cange, by which +the mule is meant. The Hindoo Arunas, charioteer of the sun (or even +the brother of the sun himself, inasmuch as he is the brother of +Garudas, the solar bird), is said to be born with an imperfect +body;[555] he can be luminous and divine only in part. The black +horse, on the contrary, has generally an evil and demoniacal nature; +the black horse corresponds to the black devil; the colour black +itself is, according to popular superstition, the product of bad +humours.[556] Every horse, when born, has, according to Maestro +Agostino, a piece of black flesh upon its lips, called hippomanes by +the Greeks: "La quale carne dici lo vulgo essere molto sospettosa a li +maleficii." Maestro Agostino adds, moreover, that the mother refuses +to give suck to the colt as long as it carries this piece of flesh +upon its lips, and some say that the mother herself eats it. In an +idyll of Theokritos, we read that the Hippomanes is born among the +Arcadians, and maddens colts and swift mares.[557] In the first +chapter we mentioned the Russian _damavoi_, the demon who, during the +night, rides upon cows, oxen, and horses, and makes them perspire. +This superstition was already combated in Italy in the sixteenth +century by Maestro Agostino;[558] and to it can probably be traced the +custom, still observed by many grooms, of leaving a lamp lighted in +the stable during the night. The devil, as is well known, is afraid of +the light (Agnis is called rakshohan, or monster-killer), and his +black horse likewise. It is therefore a sinister omen, according to +two verses in _Suidas_,[559] to dream of black horses, whilst, on the +contrary, it is a good omen to dream of white ones. In the Norman +legend of the priest Walchelm, a black horse presents itself to him in +the first days of January of the year 1091, and tempts him to mount +upon its back; scarcely has Walchelm done so, than the black horse +sets off for hell.[560] The dead, too, according to the popular +belief, often ride upon black or demoniacal horses.[561] + +A well-known Russian story in verse, the _Kaniok Garbunok_, or _Little +Hump-backed Horse_, of Jershoff, commences thus:--An old man has three +sons, the youngest of which is the usual Ivan Durk, or Ivan the fool. +The old man finds his corn-field devastated every morning; he wishes +to find out who the devastator is, and sends his first-born son to +watch the first night. The first-born has drunk too much, and falls +asleep, and so does the second son, and from the same cause, on the +second night. On the third night it is Ivan's turn to watch; he does +not fall asleep. At midnight he sees a mare which breathes flames +coming. Ivan ties her by a rope, leaps upon her, seizes her by the +mane, torments and subdues her, until the mare, to be let free, +promises to give Ivan one of her young ones, and carries him to the +stable where her three young ones are. She gives Ivan a little +hump-backed horse with long ears (the Hindoo Uccihsravas), that +flies. By means of this little hump-backed horse, Ivan will make his +fortune; when he leads it away, the mare and the two other colts +follow it. Ivan's two brothers steal the mare and two colts, and go to +sell them to the Sultan. Ivan rejoins them, and the three brothers +stay in the Sultan's service as grooms; sometime afterwards, Ivan +saves himself from drowning by means of his horse. + +In the third of _Erlenwein's_ Russian stories, a stallion is born to +the Tzar's mare, that had drunk the water in which a certain fish (a +pike, in the nineteenth story) had been washed, at the same time as +the Tzar's daughter and her maid give birth to two heroes, Ivan +Tzarevic and Ivan Dievic--_i.e._, John of the Tzar and John of the +girl, a form representing the Avinu. Ivan Tzarevic rides upon the +stallion. In the nineteenth story, the son of the mare is called +Demetrius of the Tzar (Dmitri Tzarevic); hero and horse being +identified. In the fifth story of _Erlenwein_, a Cossack goes into the +forest, where he is betrayed into the enemy's hands, who gives orders +that he be cut in pieces, put into a sack, and attached to his horse. +The horse starts, and carries him to the house of silver and gold, +where he is resuscitated. During the following night, an old man and +woman, whose guest the Cossack is, drag him, in order to waken him, by +the cross which hangs on his neck, and he is thus transformed into a +horse of gold and silver. Towards evening, the horse, by the Tzar's +order, is killed, and (like the bull and the cow) becomes an +apple-tree of silver and gold. The apple-tree is cut down, and becomes +a golden duck. The golden duck is the same as the golden horse, or as +the hero resuscitated, _i.e._, the morning sun. The sack and the horse +which carry the hero cut in pieces represent the voyage of the sun in +the gloom of night, or the voyage of the grey horse, the imperfect +horse, the bastard mule, or the ass. + +In the Russian tales, moreover, a distinction is made between the grey +and the black horse; the grey horse helps the hero in the night very +effectively, and the black one, on the contrary, is the herald of death. +When, in the ninth story of _Erlenwein_, the horse of Ivan the +merchant's son goes to search for the horses of the princess from beyond +the sea, Ivan waits for him upon the shore. If he sees grey horses come +forth, it is to be a sign that his own steed is alive; but if, on the +other hand, black horses appear, he is to conclude that his own horse is +dead. Grey is the colour of sadness, black is the colour of death. + +In _Afanassieff_, we find new interesting data. Ivan the fool watches +during the night to surprise the horse which devastates his father's +crops, and succeeds in binding it with rods from a linden-tree, after +it has smelt the odour of tobacco. Then, by the help of the sister of +the hero Nikanore, it acquires the faculty, when running after cows +and horses, of turning their tails into gold, as well as their horns +or manes, and their flanks into stars. What better image could there +be of the starry sky of night, the golden tail of which is the red +evening, and the front parts, also of gold, the morning aurora?[562] + +In another story,[563] we have Ivan the son of the bitch occupying the +place and playing the part of Ivan the son of the mare. Ivan of the +bitch, after having delivered the three princesses from the deep +cistern, is himself thrown into it. The black horse comes to deliver +him, and cannot; the grey horse comes, and cannot either; the red horse +comes, and succeeds in dragging the hero out. The black horse represents +the dark night, the grey horse the night beginning to clear, and the red +horse the roseate morning, which delivers the sun or solar hero. + +The third brother Ivan, mounted on a marvellous horse, comes first to +the bronze castle, then to the silver one, and lastly to that of +gold.[564] This is a variety of the same myth, and represents +similarly the solar voyage from evening to morning. The next mythical +legend, however, probably alludes rather to the three days of the +winter solstice, which the sun takes to return. The hero, Theodore, +finds a horse that has been just brought forth, which the wolves have +driven towards him; he makes it pasture upon the dew for three dawns +(like the Hungarian Ttos, who feeds upon the golden oats in a silver +field, that is to say, who, during the silvery night, or else during +the white dawn, or the snowy winter, absorbs the dewy humours of the +spring, or the morning aurora). The first day, the young horse becomes +as high as half a tree; the second, higher than the tree; the third +day it is as high as the heavens, and bears the hero Theodore and his +wife Anastasia on its back. + +Ivan Durk watches three nights at his father's tomb.[565] His father +tells him that if at any time of need he calls with a hero's whistle, +a wonderful grey horse will appear to help him, whose eyes shoot +flames, and from whose nostrils issues smoke. Ivan does so, and is +answered; he gets into his right ear, and comes out of the left. By +means of this horse, Ivan succeeds in taking down the portrait of the +Tzar's daughter three times, though hung high up on the wall of the +palace, and thus obtains the beautiful princess to wife. + +According to another variety of this story,[566] Ivan, the third and +foolish brother, goes with the most worthless jade in the stable into +the open air, and calls up the grey horse with a loud shout; he enters +into him by one ear, and comes out at the other. Two young horsemen (the +Avinu) appear to him, and make a horse with golden mane and tail come +forth; upon this horse Ivan succeeds in three times kissing, through +twelve glasses (the glass mountain of the Esthonian story), the daughter +of the Tzar, who therefore becomes his wife. Here, therefore, we find +the ugly horse which is made beautiful by the two horsemen, represented +by the two ears of the grey horse out of which they come. These two +horsemen give the hero a better steed. Be it understood that their own +heroic steed (that is, the sun's horse), from being ugly or asinine +during the night, became beautiful and noble; in the Kllaros of the +Dioscuri, too, we ought probably to recognise a courser that has been +transformed from an ass to a heroic horse. + +Sometimes, instead of the horse, we have only its head. The +step-mother persecutes the old man's daughter;[567] the persecuted +maiden finds a mare's head, which beseeches her to relieve and cover +it; at last it invites her to enter the right ear and come out of the +left one. The persecuted girl comes out in the form of an exceedingly +beautiful maiden. The step-mother sends her own daughter to try the +same means of becoming beautiful; but she maltreats the mare's head, +and the mare's head devours her. + +There is also a singularly clear allusion to the Avinu in the +forty-fourth story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, which seems to +me to be a full confirmation of these interpretations. When Basilia, +the girl persecuted by her step-mother, approaches the house of the +old witch (the baba-jeg), she sees galloping towards the great door +of it a black horseman, dressed all in black, upon a black horse, who +disappears underground, upon which night begins.[568] When the day +begins to appear, Basilia sees before her a white horseman, dressed +all in white, upon a white horse, caparisoned in white. The maiden +goes on; when the sun begins to rise, she sees a red horseman, dressed +in red, upon a red horse.[569] The myth does not require comment; but +it happens to be given to us in the story itself by the witch, who, to +appease the curiosity of the girl Basilia, reveals to her that the +black horseman represents the dark night (noc timnaja), the white +horseman the clear day (dien jasnoi), and the red horseman the little +red sun (solnishko krasnoje). + +Returning from Slavonic to Asiatic tradition, we meet with the same +myths. + +Let us begin with the demoniacal horse, or demon of horses. The +_Rigvedas_ already knows it; the ytudhanas, or monster, feeds now +upon human flesh (like the Bucephalus of the legend of Alexander), now +upon horse flesh, and now milk from cows. We have said it seems +probable that the custom of keeping a lamp lighted in the stables is a +form of exorcism against the demon; the _Rigvedas_, indeed, tells us +that Agnis (that is, Fire, with his flame) cuts off the heads of such +monsters.[570] But this is not enough; the _Rigvedas_ offers us in the +same hymn the proof of another identification. We have seen in the +last chapter how Rebhas, the invoker, is the third brother, whom his +envious and perfidious brothers threw into the well; and we have seen +above how Ivan, who is also the third brother, invokes with a sonorous +voice the grey horse which is to help him, and how the same Ivan is +the one that discovers the monstrous horse which ravages the seed or +the crops in his father's field. In the same Vedic hymn where the +flame of Agnis beats down the heads of the monster that torments +horses, Agnis (that is, fire) is invoked in order that the hero Rebhas +may see the monster which devastates with its claws.[571] Rebhas and +Bhugyus are two names of the hero who falls into the cistern in the +_Rigvedas_. We have seen, not long ago, in the Russian story, that +Ivan, the third brother, who is thrown down into the cistern, is +delivered by the red horse. The Avinu, in the _Rigvedas_, deliver +Bhugyus out of the sea by means of red-winged horses.[572] Here the +grey and imperfect horse of night is become a red horse. In the same +Vedic hymn, Rebhas, overwhelmed in the waters, is identified with his +own horse (Ivan is son of the bitch, or the cow, or the mare), he +being compared to a horse hidden by wicked ones.[573] + +We saw above, in the Russian story, how the two horsemen who come out +of the grey horse's ear give to the foolish Ivan, who has an ugly and +worthless horse, a handsome hero's palfrey, by means of which he +accomplishes the arduous undertakings which entitle him to the hand of +the king's daughter. It is remarkable how completely the Vedic myth +agrees with this European legend. The Avinu have given, for his +eternal happiness, a luminous horse to him who has a bad one.[574] In +another hymn, the god Agnis gives to his worshipper a pious, truthful, +invincible, and very glorious son, who vanquishes heroes, and a swift, +victorious, and unconquered horse.[575] + +We have seen, moreover, how Ivan, the most popular type of the Russian +hero, has always to make three essays before he accomplishes his +undertaking upon the wonderful horse which he has obtained from the +two horsemen. The _Rigvedas_, which celebrates the famous mythical +enterprise of the three steps of Vishnus, of the great body +(brihaccharrah),[576] of the very vast step (urukramishtah),[577] +who, in three steps, measured or traversed the whole span of the +heavens,[578] betrays in another hymn the secret of Vishnus's success +in this divine enterprise, since it says that when, with the strength +of Indras, he made his three steps, he was drawn by the two +fair-haired horses of Indras[579] (that is, the two Avinu lent him +the swift and strong horse which was to bear him on to victory). The +three steps of Vishnus correspond, therefore, to the three stations of +Ivan, to the three races of the young hero to win the beautiful +princess. Vishnus also appears in the _Rmyanam_,[580] in the midst +of the sea of liquified butter, attractive to all beings, in the form +of a horse's head. Hero and the solar or lunar horse are identified. + +Indras is requested to yoke his right and his left (horses), to +approach, inebriated, his dear wife.[581] By means of the horse +obtained from the two horsemen, the Russian Ivan acquires his wife; in +the _Rigvedas_, the two Avinu themselves, by means of their rapid +chariot, became husbands of the daughter of the sun.[582] The horses +of the sun are so fully identified with the chariot drawn by them, +that they are said to be dependent on it, united with it, and almost +born of it.[583] The Avinu, therefore, by means of the horse now +enable the wife to be found by the solar hero, by the old Cyavanas +made young again (Tithn),[584] now by the sun, and now find her +themselves (perhaps drawing the chariot like horses). Rmas, too, who +is represented in the _Rmyanam_[585] as the deliverer of St, is +compared to the solar horse, to the sun born upon the mountain. + +We have seen in the Russian stories how the horse's head possesses the +same magic power as the marvellous horse which the two horsemen give to +the hero Ivan. Thus, in the Vedic myth, and in the corresponding +brhmanic tradition, the horse's head Dadhyanc stands in direct relation +with the myth of the Avinu. The wise Dadhyanc shows himself pious +towards the Avinu, to whom, although he knows that he will pay with +his head for the revelation he makes, he communicates what he knows +concerning the ambrosia or the Madhuvidy. For this, accordingly, +Dadhyanc forfeits his head; but the Avinu present him with a horse's +head (his own), which heroically achieves wonders. With the bones of +Dadhyanc, or with the head of the horse Dadhyanc (he who walks in butter +or ambrosia), fished up in the ambrosial lake aryanvat (the head of +the horse Vishnus in the sea of butter),[586] Indras discomfits the +ninety-nine hostile monsters (as Samson the Philistines with the jawbone +of an ass).[587] This exchange of heads seems to be common to the +traditions which are founded upon the myth of the Avinu, that is, to +the legends of the two brother or companion heroes. In the +_Tuti-Name_,[588] the heads of the prince and of the Brhman, who are +exceedingly like each other, are cut off and then fastened on again; +but, by some mistake, the head of the one is attached to the body of the +other, so that the prince's wife is embarrassed between them. This +exchange of the husband (which corresponds to the exchange of the wife +in the legend of Berta, referred to in the first chapter) is very +frequent in the legend of the two brothers, and often ends in the +rupture of the perfect concord reigning between them. The two brothers +or companions who dispute about the wife, is a variety of the legend of +the three brothers who, having delivered the beautiful princess, wish to +divide her between them. + +The _Rigvedas_ does not seem as yet explicitly to exhibit the two +Avinu at discord--they generally are united in doing good; but as we +already know the Vedic blind man and lame man who are cured by the +grace of Indras, or of the Avinu themselves; as we know that the +Avinu, in the _Rigvedas_, make Dadhyanc, who has a horse's head, +conduct them to the ambrosia, or indicate where it is, probably in +order that they may procure health and strength for themselves; as in +the ninth strophe of the 117th hymn of the first book of the +_Rigvedas_, the marvellous horse of the Avinu, which kills the +monster-serpent (ahihan), is but one; as we know that the Avinu run +to gain the bride for themselves; and as we cannot ignore the fact +that in the story of the blind and lame man, when a woman comes upon +the scene, they endeavour to do harm to each other; as we know that of +the two Hellenic brothers, the Dioscuri, one alone had from the gods +the gift of immortality; as, finally, it is known to us that of the +two brothers, he alone is the true hero who, by means of his horse, +gains the victory over the monster,--it is clear that if we have not +as yet in the _Rigvedas_ the myth of the two brothers at discord, we +have, at least, in the ambrosia, and in the bride won by them the +origin of the myth already indicated; and from the idea of the +privileged brother that of the envious one would naturally arise. + +In Hesiod's _Theogony_ we have the two brothers Chrysor and Pgasos, +that come out of the Medusa (the evening aurora), who is made pregnant +by Poseidn, after Perseus has cut off her head. Pgasos, the younger +brother, becomes the heroic horse. In Hesiod himself, and in the +_Metamorphoses_ of Ovid, he carries the thunder and the thunderbolts +for Zeus. The hero Bellerophontes rides him, and vanquishes, by his +help, the Chimaira and the Amazons; he becomes the horse of the +aurora, the horse of the Muses, the ambrosial steed. The monstrous +Chimaira appears, in the _Theogony_ of Hesiod, as the daughter of +Typhaon and the Echidna, the monstrous daughter of Chrysor. Therefore +in the conflict which Bellerophontes maintains against the Chimaira, +we have a form of the battle which goes on between the twin horses +Pgasos and Chrysor, the one divine, the other demoniacal. + +In the analogous myth of the Hellenic Dioscuri (the sons of the +luminous one, _i.e._, of Zeus, just as the Vedic Avinu are the sons +of the luminous sky;[589] Zeus is united with the Dioscuri, as Indras +is with the Avinu), we again find the twins who fight to recover a +woman who had been carried off from them, _i.e._, their own sister +Helen. One of the two brothers is mortal, and the other immortal; he +who is immortal passes the night in hell with his mortal brother. The +double aspect of the sun, which at evening enters and loses itself in +the night, now black, now illumined by the moon, and which, in the +morning, comes forth in a luminous form, has enriched the story of +the two brothers of mythology. One of the two brothers, the red +horseman, is in especial relation with the morning sun; the other, in +intimate connection with the silvery moon, the white horseman, and +when the latter is amissing, with the infernal gloom. + +Several mythologists have interpreted the Avinu as only the two +twilights; but it seems more exact, inasmuch as they are often found +together, whilst the two twilights are always apart, to recognise in +them two crepuscular lights, the lunar of evening and autumn, and the +solar of morning and spring.[590] Of the twin-brothers, one is always +imperfect; the lunar crepuscular light offers us a similar +imperfection, with respect to the sun. Inasmuch as the Avinu are +affiliated both to the sun and the moon, when they come out of the two +ears of the horse of night, we should understand, it would appear, +that on one side the moon goes down, while on the other the sun is +born, or that the solar horse arises, upon which the young hero lost +in the night mounts and wins the princess aurora. In the Russian +stories referred to in the preceding chapter, we have seen how the +maiden abandons her hero-husband, or brother, to give herself into the +monster's hands; the evening aurora forsakes the sun to throw herself +into the night, and the evening twilight stays for a long time with +the evening aurora (the reddish sky of evening), when the sun is +already gone. In the morning the two lovers, the twilight, or sun and +moon, and the aurora, meet once more; when the sun, or solar hero, +arrives, he surprises them _in flagrante delicto_, and punishes them. +Sometimes, on the contrary, the twilight and the aurora stay together, +preserving their chastity; in this case the brother twilight figures +as the good and honest guardian of the rights of his brother the sun. +This appears to me to have been the most ancient, as it is the most +subtle, interpretation of the myth; afterwards, it is possible, and +even probable, that in the two Avinu only the two gods of morning +and of evening were seen, with their respective twilights, considered +as two brothers, so like that they were easily mistaken for each +other. But from the data of the Russian story, which gives us the +lunar twilight as a white horseman and the rising sun as a red one, +the aurora being found exactly between the white and the red horsemen, +between the moon or the white dawn (alba) and the sunrise, and seeing +that the _Rigvedas_, which makes the aurora mount upon the chariot of +the Avinu, considers them in the celebrated nuptial hymn as the +_paranymphoi_ of Sry, the daughter of the sun or of the aurora +herself, I venture to insist upon my interpretation as the most +obvious, and perhaps the most logical one. The two brothers may very +naturally be conceived of as contending for the possession of the +bride when they have her between them, since the Avinu, considered +as lunar light and sun, really take the aurora between them. The Vedic +hymn cited above shows us how both the Avinu, arriving on the +swift-running chariot, became the husbands of Sry, the daughter of +the sun. But this very Sry, in the Vedic nuptial hymn, must be +satisfied with one husband, who is called Somas, so that the Avinu +can only occupy the place of paranymphs. The Avinu, therefore, would +appear to be excluded from the wedding of Sry as principal +personages; they would seem to be nothing more than assistants, and, +in fact, they often assume this part in the Vedic hymns, by enabling +now the bride to find a husband, now the husband to recover his bride. +We know already that by means of them Cyavanas, the old sun (a Vedic +Tithn), became young again, and was able to espouse the aurora. We +know that they gave sight to Vandanas (properly, the Face), that they +made the blind see,[591] the lame walk, and performed sundry other +works of charity, which would, however, have been much more glorious +if these acts did not, in fact, always issue in benefit to themselves, +as blind, lame, or drowned. It is hence very probable that when they +give a bride to the hero, they, being now lunar, now solar heroes, do +only appropriate her to themselves. When, therefore, we read that the +Avinu assist as paranymphs at the nuptials of Sry and Somas, we +are much inclined to think that under Somas in this case one of the +Avinu is hidden. In Indras and Somas, often sung of together in the +_Rigvedas_, it seems to me that we have just another form of the +Avinu, the more so because I also find them both, like the Avinu, +personified in one and the same horse, whose back is covered with +honey, and who is terrible and swift,[592] and because they are +invoked together against the ytudhnas, which, by the grace of the +Avinu, the hero Rebhas succeeds in discovering and then chasing +away.[593] The _Tittiriya_ _Brhmanam_[594] represents to us the +daughter of the sun (Svitr) by the name of St, as enamoured of +Somas, who, on the contrary, loves another woman, the raddh (_i.e._, +Faith), almost as if the daughter of the sun, the aurora, were, for +him at least, a symbol of infidelity. Probably this embryo of a myth +refers to the passage of the aurora, in the morning, from her amours +with the white horseman (the white twilight), which, as we have said, +was supposed to be in particular relation with the moon (Somas), to +her amours with the red horseman (the sun), or, _vice versa_, to the +aurora who, in the evening, abandons the red horseman, the sun (now +her father, now her husband), to throw herself into the arms of the +white horseman, the white twilight, the king Somas, or silver god +Lunus. Moreover, Yskas, in the _Niruktam_,[595] already notices that +the Avinu were identified now with the day and the night,[596] now +with the sun and the moon. + +When, therefore, we read that the Avinu obtained for their wife the +daughter of the sun, and when we learn that she chose both for +husbands,[597] we must interpret the passage with discrimination, and +conclude that one of them was sometimes preferred, inasmuch as the +Vedic nuptial hymn speaks of only one husband of Sry, with the name +of Somas, with whom, as we have said, Yskas identifies one of the +Avinu. We read in _Pausanias_ that, among the Greek usages, when the +bride was conducted to the bridegroom's house, she was accustomed to +mount a chariot and sit down in the middle, having the bridegroom on +one side, and on the other her nearest relation as paranymphos. The +preference given to one of the two brothers over the other is +naturally suggestive of a contention between them; however, as I say, +the _Rigvedas_, which offers us already the myth of the third brother +abandoned in the well by his relations, does not record any example of +an open strife between the two brothers (_i.e._, the Avinu, the +lunar and the solar light). + +An evidently Hindoo variation of this myth is contained in the +well-known episode of the _Mahbhratam_, which relates the adventures +of Sundas and Upasundas, two inseparable brothers, who lived together +in love and concord, each being ruled by the will of the other, and +who had never all their lives either said or done anything to +displease each other. The gods become envious of their virtue, and +wish to prove it, and send to seduce them a nymph of enchanting +beauty. The two brothers, on seeing her, desire each the exclusive +possession of the divine maiden, and strive between themselves to +carry her off. They fight so long and so desperately that they both +die (the moon and the sun see the aurora in the morning, and dispute +for her; they see her again in the evening, and fight so long that +they both perish miserably, and die in the night). The gods who are +envious of the virtue of the two brothers Sundas and Upasundas, are +the same as those who, envying the good which the Avinu do to +mankind, treat them as celestial udrs, under the pretext that they +pollute themselves by their contact with men, and refuse to admit +them, being impure, to the sacrifices.[598] + +In the twin brothers, Nakulas and Saladevas, sons of the Avinu, the +Avinu themselves revive again, are made better, according to the +expression of the first book of the _Mahbhratam_. The first-born, +Nakulas, too, is perhaps the real Avin who kills the monster. Nakulas +is the name given to the _viverra ichneumon_, the mortal enemy of the +serpents, which refers us back to the horse Ahihan (or killer of the +serpent), as the horse of the Avinu, or perhaps rather of one of the +Avinu, is called, in the _Rigvedas_. Of the two Dioscuri, moreover, +one alone is especially the horseman; the other is the valiant in +combat.[599] The mortal brother, he who has to remain in hell, and who +has to fight the monsters of night, is Castor the horseman. Pollux, +the strong-armed, is, on the contrary, the immortal one, the daily +sun, he who profits from the victory obtained by his brother who has +fought in the night, during which the Gandharvs (the horses in the +perfumes, they who walk in perfume) also ride upon war-horses, heroic, +invulnerable, divine, exceedingly swift, who change colour at +will--the Gandharvs, whose strength increases during the night, as +one of them informs Argunas in the _Mahbhratam_, when communicating +to him Gandharvic knowledge.[600] + +In the _Rmyanam_, the two brothers Rmas and Lakshmanas are +compared to the Avinu, to the sun and moon, as similar the one to +the other; and their reciprocal love reminds us of that of the +Avinu.[601] Rmas and Lakshmanas are always at peace with each +other; there is, however, a passage which may serve as a link to +connect the myth of the two friendly brothers and that of the two +hostile ones. When Rmas combats alone in the forest thousands of +monsters, Lakshmanas stays with St, hidden in a cavern. + +But the _Rmyanam_ itself shows us the two brothers in open strife in +the legend of the two brothers Blin and Sugrvas, children of the sun, +beauteous as the two Avinu, so perfectly like one another that it is +impossible to distinguish one from the other; and so that when Rmas, to +please Sugrvas, wishes to kill Blin, he does not know which to strike, +until Sugrvas puts a garland on his head as a sign of recognition.[602] +Once Blin and Sugrvas were intimate friends, but, on account of a +woman, they became mortal enemies. Sugrvas complains that Blin, his +elder brother, has deprived him of his wife Rum;[603] but it is not +certain that Sugrvas did not rather steal Blin's wife. Blin seems +especially to represent the evening sun; the _Rmyanam_[604] says of +him that, while the sun is not risen (_i.e._, in the night), he is +unweariedly passing from the western to the eastern ocean; by this is +described the supposed voyage of the sun in the ocean of night, in the +grotto or the darkness. When Blin is in the grotto, he is betrayed by +his brother Sugrvas. The two brothers, Blin and Sugrvas, while still +friends, set out together to follow the monster Myvin (the brother of +Dundubhis, who, in the _Rmyanam_ itself,[605] fights in the shape of +a demoniacal buffalo against Blin, near the entrance of the cave). The +moon rises to show them the way. The monster escapes into the cavern, +upon which Blin enters and follows him, whilst Sugrvas remains +without, awaiting his return. After waiting a long time, Sugrvas sees +blood flow out of the cave (in analogous legends, instead of blood, it +is a treasure, or else a princess or a beautiful maiden comes out in +shining garments). This is the blood of the monster, killed by Blin; +but Sugrvas believes it to be that of his brother Blin. He returns +home, and showing his sorrow in public, declares that Blin is dead, and +allows himself to be consecrated king in his stead (probably also +enjoying with the crown the wife of his brother). Meanwhile Blin, after +having killed the monster Myvin, endeavours to come out of the cavern, +but he finds the entrance closed. Attributing at once this wicked action +to the brother Sugrvas, he succeeds, after great efforts, in effecting +an opening; he comes out, returns to the palace, and expels Sugrvas +from it, whom he persecutes ever after.[606] Even Agadas, Blin's son, +irritated one day with Sugrvas, accuses him of having once shut up his +brother Blin in the cave, in order to possess himself of the latter's +wife. + +In the _Avesta_, the name and the myth of Kerepa seems to me to be +of special interest. To the Zend word _kerepa_ corresponds the +Sanskrit _krivas_ (the name of a warlike rishis and hero), that is, +he of the lean horse. The hero Kerepa has, in the _Avesta_, a +brother called Urvksha (a word which is perhaps the same as +_urvpa_, and, if this equivalence is admitted, _urvksha_ would mean +him of the fat or great horse, of the heroic horse.[607] We have +already noticed that the Vedic and Slavonic hero begins his fortune +with an ugly and bad horse; the hero Kerepa, too, of the two +brothers of the Zend myth, is the good, the heroic, and truly glorious +one. His brother, Urvksha, according to a Parsee tradition,[608] was +banished to hell because he had struck the fire which did not obey his +commands (the evening sun which descends into the infernal night); +Kerepa avenges him. This is evidently a Persian form of the myth of +the Dioscuri, who, as it seems to me, reappear once more in the two +Zend brothers, Gustp and Apyaodha (he who fights with the horse). + +In the epic poem of Firdusi, the two brothers Piran and Pilsem, who +fight together against the Turanians, and of whom the former and elder +delivers the latter and younger from the dangers that he is exposed to +among the enemies, seem to me re-embodiments of the same myth. + +We find the cloudy or tenebrous sky of night represented in the +_Rigvedas_ and in the _Avesta_ as aman, or mountain of stone. When +the evening sun falls upon the mountain, it turns to stone, and the +whole sky assumes the colour of this mountain. When the hero of the +popular story follows the monster, the latter hides under a rock; the +hero lifts up the rock and descends into the grotto, that is, hides +himself in the mountain of stone, or is turned to stone, and if he has +a horse, it undergoes the same transformation. + +In the story of Merhuma, who is stoned (the aurora lost in the mountain +of stone), in the _Tuti-Name_,[609] we have the brother possessed by a +demon, who seduces the wife of his brother, who is travelling abroad. In +that of Mansr, in the same _Tuti-Name_,[610] the monstrous Fari assumes +the very shape of the absent husband, and succeeds in seducing his wife. +In another story in the _Tuti-Name_,[611] two brothers, finding +themselves deceived in their expectations, set out together, each, for +love of the other, wandering about the world in search of a better fate. +These are three forms of the myth of the Avinu. With them is connected +the story of the maiden who comes out of the wood, of whom as many men, +when she appears, become enamoured.[612] + +The fifth Calmuck story (of Hindoo origin) is unmistakably a +reproduction of the myth of the Avinu, even to the very mythical names +themselves. The king, Kun-snang (he who illumines all, like the Vedic +Vivavedas and the Slavonic Vsievedas, the all-seer), has by two +different mothers two sons--Sunlight (born in the year of the tiger; +perhaps in the sol-leo, in July, in summer, under the solar influence) +and Moonlight. The second wife does not love her step-son Sunlight, and +persecutes him, but the two brothers are devoted to each other, and when +Sunlight goes into exile (like Rmas), Moonlight follows him (as +Lakshmanas follows Rmas, as the white lunar twilight follows the sun in +the forest of night). On the way, Moonlight is thirsty; Sunlight goes to +find water for him, but in the meantime Moonlight dies.[613] Sunlight +returns, and is in despair at the sight of his dead brother; however, a +hermit has pity upon him, and, having resuscitated Moonlight, adopts the +two brothers as his own sons. Near his abode there is a kingdom where +the dragons keep back the waters, unless they are given a young man born +in the year of the tiger. It oozes out that Sunlight is such a young +man, and he is led away to the king of that country. The daughter of the +king falls in love with him, and begs Sunlight not to be given to the +dragons. The king is furious against his daughter, and has her thrown +with Sunlight into the swamp where the dragons are.[614] The young +couple break out into such piteous lamentations, that the dragons are +touched, and let Sunlight and the young princess go free. When free, +they find Moonlight, who also becomes the husband of the beautiful +princess, the two brothers being inseparable, like the Vedic Avinu. +The three personages (white twilight, or white moonlight, aurora, and +sun) return together into the kingdom of their birth, where, upon seeing +them arrive, Sunlight's step-mother (Night) dies of terror. Here the +legend has all its mythical splendour. + +In the sixteenth Mongol story, on the contrary, the friendship of the +two companions cannot last, because of the perfidy of one of them; +while they are travelling in the forest, the minister's son kills the +king's son. + +In the history of _Ardshi-Bordshi_, the two men born in the palace +are so like each other in everything, in shape, complexion, dress, and +horses, that they cannot be distinguished one from the other; hence +they dispute between themselves for the possession of everything, of +wife and sons. One is made like the other by witchcraft; he is the son +of a demon; and it is the marvellous king of the children who +discovers the secret.[615] + +This exchange of husbands, or heroes, by means of demoniacal craft, +often occurs in European fairy-tales, like the exchange of wives. The +demon is now a water-carrier, now a washerman, now a woodcutter, now a +charcoal-burner, now a gipsy, now a Saracen, and now the devil _in +propria persona_. + +The Russian fairy-tales show us the two forms of the two brothers or +companions, _i.e._, the two that remain friends _usque ad mortem_, and +the friend betrayed by his perfidious companion. + +We find a zoological form of the legend of the two friends in one of +Afanassieff's stories. The horse delivers the child of one of his +masters from the bear, upon which his grateful masters feed him +better, whereas before they had almost let him die of starvation. The +horse (the sun) remembers in prosperity his companion in misfortune, +the cat (the moon), who is also allowed to starve, and gives it a part +of what he receives from his masters. The latter perceive this, and +again ill-treat the horse, who then forms the resolution of killing +himself, in order that the cat may eat him; but the cat refuses to eat +his friend the horse,[616] and is also determined to die. + +The two brothers who, because they have eaten one the head and the +other the heart of a duck, are predestined, in _Afanassieff_,[617] +one to be king and the other to spit gold, flee from their perfidious +mother (probably step-mother), who persecutes them in their father's +absence. They meet with a cowherd taking his cows to the pasturage, +and are hospitably entertained by him. Then, continuing their journey, +they come to a place where two roads meet, where, upon a pillar, this +is written, "He who goes to the right (to the east) will become a +king; he who goes to the left (to the west, into the kingdom of +Kuveras, the western sun, the god of riches; when the sun rises in the +east the moon goes down in the west) will become rich." One goes to +the right; when it is morning, he rises, washes, and dresses himself. +He learns that the old king is dead (the old sun), and that funeral +honours are being paid to him in church. A decree says that he whose +candle lights of itself will be the new Tzar.[618] The Vedic god also +has the distinctive attribute of this wonderful candle, that of being +lighted by himself, of shining of himself, _i.e._, he is svabhnus. +The candle, therefore, of our youth predestined to be king lights of +its own accord, and he is immediately proclaimed the new king. The +daughter of the old king (the aurora) marries him, recognising in him +her predestined husband, and makes with her golden ring (the solar +disc) a mark upon his forehead (as Rmas does with St). The young +man (the sun), after having remained some time with his bride (the +aurora), wishes to go towards the part where his brother went (that +is, to the left, to the west). He traverses for a long time different +countries (_i.e._, the sun describes the whole arc of heaven which +arches over the earth), and finds at last (in the western sky, +towards the setting sun) his brother, who lives in great wealth. In +his rooms whole mountains of gold arise; when he spits, all is gold; +there is no place to put it,[619] (the evening sky is one mass of +gold). The two brothers then set out together to find their poor old +father (the sun during the night). The younger brother goes to find +for himself a bride (probably the silvery moon), and the wicked mother +(the step-mother, night) is forsaken. Here, too, the legend is +entirely of a mythical character. In the two brothers we see now +twilight and sun, now the two twilights, now the spring and autumnal +lights, now the sun and the moon, but always the Avinu, always two +deities, two heavenly beings closely connected with the phenomena of +the lunar and solar light. + +And here allow me to say that I deem it enough for me to collect in +one body legends which betray a common origin; as to explaining all +mythology in the legends, this is beyond my power, and therefore +outside my pretensions. I only point out, as I proceed, +interpretations which I think come near the truth; but the objects +embodied in mythology are so mobile and multiform, that, if grasped +too tightly, they easily evaporate and disappear. Their richness +consists in their very mobility and uncertainty. If the sun and moon +were always seen in the same place, there would be no myths. The myths +which originated the greatest number of legends are those which are +founded upon the most fleeting phenomena of the sky.[620] The myth of +the Avinu cannot be solved by mathematical demonstrations, +precisely on account of the uncertainty presented by the crepuscular +light which probably gave rise to it. This continuous succession of +shadows, penumbr, chiaroscuri, and shades of light, from the black +darkness to the silver moon, from the silver moon to the grey twilight +of morning, which gradually melts into, and confounds itself with the +dawn, from the dawn to the aurora, from the aurora to the sun; the +same variations recurring, but inversely, in the evening, from the +dying sun to the reddish and blood-coloured sky or evening aurora, +from the evening aurora to the grey twilight, from the grey twilight +to the silver moon, from the silver moon to the gloomy night,--this +continual change of colours, which meet, unite with, and pass into +each other, originated the idea of celestial companions, friends, or +relations, who are now in unison and now separate, who now approach to +love each other, to move together and affectionately follow each +other, now rush upon each other to fight, despoil, betray, and destroy +each other turn by turn, who now attract and are now attracted, are +now seduced and now seducers, now cheated and now deceivers, now +victims, now sacrificers. Where there is a family, there is love, +hence come exemplary brothers, husbands, wives, sons, daughters, +fathers, and mothers, full of tenderness; that is the obverse of the +medal: where there are relations, there are disputes, hence +contentions between brothers, out of jealousy in love, or envy of +riches; perverse mothers-in-law, step-mothers, and sisters-in-law, +tyrannous fathers, perfidious wives; that is the reverse. This +contradiction of feelings is difficult to explain psychologically even +in man; how much more, therefore, is it so when it has to be analysed +in a mythical image, which assumes an animal form in one rapid flash +of imagination, and then disappears? On this account, in the case of +some myths, we must content ourselves with a general demonstration, at +least until new and positive data appear, on which it may be possible +to base, in a solid foundation, the real nature of the details of +mythology. In the absence of these data, we can only offer +probabilities, and not rules to the reader. As to the Vedic Avinu, +this much is certain: they are found in unison with their wife, the +aurora, after having passed through the dangers of night, or after +having enabled the heroes protected by them--that is to say, their own +heroic forms--to pass through them; they are two splendid +brother-horsemen; and they are especially invoked in the first hours +of morning. The myth in this Vedic form would not appear to be of +dubious interpretation. The white moon and the sun take the aurora +between them, that is, marry her; or else they present her in marriage +to Somas (with whom one of the Avinu, the white light or twilight, +is in particular relation), in the quality of paranymphs. The aurora, +in the morning, as well as in the evening, taken between the sun and +the moon, disappears. One would think that the twilight and the sun +present her together at the same time to the king or god Somas, or +Lunus, for whom the daughter of the sun has affection. One would also +think that she was especially united with the twilight, which is in +especial relation with Somas, observing how in the morning the aurora +immediately succeeds the twilight, and disappears when the sun shows +himself, that is, rejoins the twilight and forsakes the sun; and how +in the evening, when the sun hides himself, or when her husband is +absent, she again unites herself with the twilight, with whom she +again flees and disappears, to reappear once more with him in the +morning. To continue; the absence of the sun during the night +tormented the popular phantasy in several ways. As much as the aspect +of the sky was negative with regard to the mythical hero--that is to +say, as much as the hero or god hides himself from the view--just so +much the more does popular imagination invest him with positive +qualities and exalt his greatness. The greatest of all deities is that +which is seen the least;--would that Roman Catholic priests understood +this mythological truth! Indras and Zeus are great when within the +thundering and lightning cloud. The sun becomes a hero when he loses +himself in the darkness of night and in the cloud. But it is just at +this very point that the demonstration of mythical particulars becomes +more difficult, because the myths are now founded, not merely upon an +external appearance or image, but often upon a simple subjective +hypothesis; and while the ancient image, possessing an objectivity +irrespective of the subject, can always be reconciled with the +observation of the new celestial phenomena which reproduce it, the +subjective hypothesis, being an individual phantasy, is lost. The +demonstration is therefore possible only in the essential parts. When +the sun was seen to disappear in the nocturnal sky, this sky appeared +in the various aspects of an ocean, a mountain, a forest, a cavern, or +a voracious monster which devoured the hero. But has the sun lost +himself by accident, or has he been precipitated into the night by the +aurora and her crepuscular lover, perfidiously united together, in +order that they may have more freedom in their loves? This is a +dilemma of which the two solutions originate a double series of +legends,--the brother betrayed by the brother, and the hero who goes +to succour his unfortunate brother fallen into the power of the +monsters. The hour of day which the French indicate by the expressive +phrase _entre chien et loup_, is the great epical hour of the fox, +which partakes of the nature of the domestic dog and the savage wolf. +It is the hour of betrayals, of perfidies, of doubts, and mythical +uncertainties. Who can tell whether the aurora is a widow by an +accident which happens to her husband the sun, or whether she herself +has betrayed him?--whether she has been a chaste and faithful +Genevive, or a perfidious and luxurious Helen? It is these very +mythical doubts which have made the fortune and the charm of +tradition, as they are the despair of mythologists. When, moreover, +the sun is within the night, what can he do? According to the +different aspect assumed by the night, the acts of the solar hero lost +in it are modified, and these modifications can be explained without +too great an effort of imagination; but, sometimes, the relations +between the hero and his companions or brothers in the world of the +dead, can only be conceived by means of poetical dreams. When the sun +is seen to enter the obscure night in the evening, and to come out of +it safe and sound in the morning, after having dispersed the darkness, +it is natural to think that throughout the night he is singly intent +upon killing the monster. The action of the principal hero is well +defined, and therefore evident; and the reference is equally clear +when the aurora is represented as experiencing the same fate as the +sun, her husband or brother. They descend together into the night, +which makes them invisible, and together emerge from it happily. + +The myth becomes richer when the aurora throws herself into the arms of +a rival of her husband, because the character of this rival is various. +Now he is a handsome youth who resembles the legitimate husband, either +as the twilight or as Lunus; now he is a real demoniacal monster, the +demon himself, the black night. In proportion to the variety of aspects +and relations which the hero's rival assumes, does the myth become more +complicated, and its interpretation more difficult; hence the +story-tellers are often in the habit of interrupting their narrative by +saying, "Now, let us leave this or that hero, and return to such or such +another." These interruptions of the stories have their mythological +reason. We can understand, for instance, how the aurora, or daughter of +the sun, should be conceived of as, in a moment of feminine weakness, +falling in love with the moon, which she sees on the other side of the +heavens, and desirous of being conducted to him as his bride. We can +understand how Lunus, reciprocating the love-glance of the aurora at the +other extremity of the sky, should appear to be drawing her to himself, +and wishing to seduce her. We can also understand how now the moon, now +the sun, appears to seduce the aurora and carry her off from her +legitimate husband. In these cases the infidelity of the hero or the +heroine is evident; but woe to him who attempts to carry the +demonstration or the proof of this interpretation too far, for when the +seducer and seduced, be the seducer male or female, are thought of as +enjoying together the fruits of their perfidy, the myth must come to an +end, as no one can conceive the possibility of the moon and the aurora +living or doing anything together; no one can tell what the aurora and +the twilight, phenomena appertaining exclusively to the morning and +evening, and which only appear when the sun rises from the mountain, do +together in the night. The phenomenon ceases, the mythical personages +vanish too, and the story-teller breaks off his narrative, because he +possesses no data upon which to continue it. And so with all the myths; +they can only be explained on the condition that we do not insist upon +explaining too much. We must therefore be contented to see the girl +aurora carried off in the evening and the hero sun recover her in the +morning, or to conceive of the aurora and the sun fleeing away together +into the night, but we must not be too inquisitive as to the manner in +which they do so. The moon, or good fairy, sometimes teaches them the +way; but their nocturnal actions are but little seen into; those which +are spoken of as performed by them at night refer either to the moment +in which night begins, or to that in which it comes to an end. During +the night they wander about until they see a light (the guiding moon or +delivering light of day); they remain in the chest or cask thrown into +the water until it is carried to the other shore beyond the sea, or on +the eastern coast. In their nocturnal journey the moon plays the part +now of the good old man, or the good fairy; now of the good cow, or the +bull; now of the grey horse, the steed of night, who, in three stations, +bears them to their goal; now of the bird who, nourished upon their +flesh, carries them to their destination; and now we have, on the +contrary, the monster itself, or the step-mother who threatens, +tortures, and persecutes them. The hero shows his greatest strength +when hidden, but it is used now to send out the cows, now to recover the +ravished bride, now to unchain the rivers kept back by the dragons, now +to make the water of health gush forth, and now to destroy the monster +and deliver himself. The hero displays his greatest powers when +contending with the monster; but it is in order to his own deliverance. +In the earliest epochs of the legend he is foolish, ill, drunken, +unhappy, and stony; one can only speak of him by what is seen of him +externally. The cloud-barrel moves; it is the barrel full of water which +moves of its own accord in order to please the hero: the cloud-barrel +drops rain upon the earth; it is the foolish one who lets the wine run +out of the cask: the cloud-forest moves; it is the trunk of a tree which +attaches itself to the horse ridden by the hero, and massacres his +enemies--_i.e._, the cloud or darkness disappears, and the hero comes +out victorious. The part performed by the solar hero in the night or in +the cloud seems to me, therefore, almost always of a nearly certain +interpretation, but only so long as he is alone, or with but one +companion; when the one hero is transformed into three, or five, or six, +who accompany each other, or when he meets other mythical personages of +a nature akin to his own, and when he speaks and acts in unison with +them, the legend confuses the myth, in order to explain which, we are +often obliged to stretch the sense of the adverb _together_ to the +signification, now of a whole night, and now of an entire year. When we +find, for instance, in tradition, the twelve months of the year +associated with twelve old men round the fire, we know that the fire is +the sun, round which the twelve months turn in the sky in the space of a +year. Here _together_ is amplified to denote, therefore, the period of a +year and the entire width of the sky. + +I have been led into this long, but, I trust, not idle digression, in +order to explain the Russian story of the two brothers, of whom it is +said that they go together, one to the right and the other to the +left. In whatever way the Avinu are to be understood, whether as +twilight and sun, as spring and autumn, or as sun and moon, it is +impossible to comprehend how they can travel in the same direction; +the ways they take must therefore be separate. The sun and the evening +twilight do not advance in opposite directions; the morning sun and +that of evening occupy opposite positions, but not at the same time; +the sun and moon advance at the same time in the sky, but not +conjointly and upon the same path, like two travelling companions. It +is therefore necessary to suppose that the journey of the two brothers +either happens at different periods, although it may be in the same +night or the same day, or else takes its start from different places, +although always in the sky; in the evening the moon is seen advancing +from east to west, whilst the hidden sun travels from west to east; +when the sun has arrived in the east, the moon goes down in the west. +The eastern sun is bent, in the daytime, upon following and finding +his brother who has gone to the west; and when he arrives there he +sees, besides his brother, his brother's immense treasures also. With +this is connected the other version of the myth of the Avinu, the +poor brother and the rich one. This is probably the weary, thirsty, +and hungry sun, who, having during the day given all his wealth away, +demands hospitality from, and offers his services to, his rich +brother; the latter drives him away, and the poor brother wanders +alone, poorer and sadder than before, into the forest, where he makes +his fortune by digging up a treasure which enriches him, whilst his +rich brother in the west becomes poor. The story of the treasure, in +connection with the two brothers and the skilful thief, was familiar +to the Greeks in the vicissitudes of Agamds and Trophonios (in +_Pausanias_[621]), who stole King Hrieus's treasure, on which account +one of the two brothers was to lose his head. + +Were I to follow the story of the two brothers in its Western +versions, I could compose an entire volume on the subject, which is +indeed of such interest that a student, by connecting it with that of +the three brothers, might profitably address himself to the work. But +to resume the account of the horse. I must here limit myself to +recording only one other interesting variety of this legend, offered +us in the seventh story of Basile's _Pentamerone_.[622] + +There were once two brothers, named respectively Cienzo and Meo +(Vincenzo and Meo). When they were born two enchanted horses and two +enchanted dogs also came into the world. Cienzo goes about the world +in search of fortune; he comes to a place where there is a dragon with +seven heads, from whom a beautiful princess must be delivered. As long +as he does not cut all the heads off, the dragon goes and rubs itself +against a herb which possesses the virtue of fastening on to the body +again the head which had been cut off. Cienzo cuts off all the +dragon's heads, "pe gratia de lo sole Lione" (by the grace of the Lion +sun, _i.e._, when the sun is in the sign of Leo, which corresponds to +the tiger of the Indo-Turanian story recorded above, or when the solar +hero possesses all his strength; the lion and the tiger are equivalent +in Hindoo symbolism as heroic types, and are therefore all the same in +the zodiac). Cienzo marries the beautiful princess delivered by him; +but a beautiful fairy who lives in the opposite house fascinates him +by her beauty, attracts him, and binds him with her hair. Meanwhile +Meo, who by signs settled upon beforehand learns that his brother +Cienzo is in danger, comes to the house where the latter's wife lives, +accompanied by his enchanted horse and dog. The wife believes him to +be Cienzo (the story of the Menechmi, of the two brothers who resemble +each other in everything, was no doubt taken by the Greek poet, and +afterwards by Plautus, from popular tradition), ftes him on his +arrival, and receives him into her bed; but the faithful brother, in +order not to touch her, divides the sheets between them so that they +have one each, and refuses to touch his sister-in-law. Thus Sifrt, as +well as his Scandinavian _alter ego_ Sigurd, places a sword between +himself and Brnhilt, the destined bride of the king, in order not to +touch her when she lies beside him; and when Brnhilt throws herself +upon the funeral pyre, she also places a sword between herself and +Sigurd's corpse.[623] In the royal or heroic weddings by proxy of the +Middle Ages a similar custom was observed. In the popular Piedmontese, +Bergamasc, and Venetian song[624] of the pilgrim who comes from Rome, +the pilgrim is separated from the woman only by a wisp of straw. +Towards morning Meo also sees the beautiful fairy in the house over +the way; he guesses that Cienzo has been drawn into her snare, and +goes to deliver him. He makes his enchanted dog devour her, and frees +his brother, awakening him out of his sleep. Cienzo learning that Meo +had slept with his wife, cuts off his head; but when he learns from +his wife how Meo had divided the sheets when he lay beside her, he +bewails his rashness, has recourse to the herb with which the dragon +rubbed itself when one of its heads had been cut off, and by this +means fastens Meo's head on to his body again. + +The principal auxiliary, however, to one in particular of the two +brothers, as of the third in the legend of the three brothers, is his +horse. + +When the hero devotes himself to the trade of thieving, his most +glorious achievement is robbing the king's horse. + +When the young hero has been educated by the devil, it is in the shape +of a horse that he succeeds in escaping from him. + +When the solar hero fights, his greatest strength is in his horse. + +When the hero dies, his horse, too, is sacrificed. + +Let us now illustrate, by some examples, these four circumstances +relative to the myth of the horse. + +In the _Mahbhratam_,[625] the god Indras appears in the form now of +a horseman, now of a horse. It is, moreover, upon such a heroic horse +that the young Utakas flees from the king of the serpents, after +having recovered from him the queen's earrings, which the king of the +serpents had stolen. In this legend reference is made to several +myths; to that of the hero in the infernal regions, to that of the +hero-thief, and to the legend of the horse which saves the fugitive +hero, the same as the hero who leads away the horse. + +In the _Vishnu P._,[626] we have Kapilas, a form of Vishnus, or of the +solar hero (inasmuch as he is of a reddish colour, or else of the +evening sun), who carries off the horse destined for the avamedhas, +that is to be sacrificed. (In other words, the solar horse, the horse +which was meant for the sacrifice, escapes from it, in the same way as, +in the preceding chapter, we have seen the bull escape into the +forests.) In the _Rmyanam_,[627] the horse destined for the sacrifice +is, on the contrary, carried off by a serpent (_i.e._, the monster of +night ravishes the evening sun, whilst, in the western sky, the fire is +being prepared for his immolation). The sons of Sagaras (the clouds of +the heavenly ocean, the word _sagaras_ meaning sea), make a noise like +thunder, searching for the horse that had been carried off from them. +They find it near the god Vishnus or Kapilas (here the sun himself, the +solar horse itself, carried off into the cloudy ocean of night); +believing him to be the ravisher, they assail him; Kapilas (or the solar +horse), full of indignation, burns them to ashes. Their nephew, +Ansumant (he who is furnished with rays, the radiant sun of morning), on +the contrary, delivers the horse out of the forest. In the evening he is +reconducted back to the place of sacrifice, on the golden pavement, +after having made the journey round the world.[628] In the same way as +we have seen, in the preceding chapter, that the bull or the cow is +touched or struck as an augury of fruitfulness and abundance, in the +_Rmyanam_,[629] Kualy touches the horse (a stallion) in order to be +fruitful, as he desires to have sons (_putrakmyay_), and the king and +queen smell the odour of the burnt marrow or fat of the horse, as a +talisman which may work for them the gratification of a like wish.[630] +Of course we must always refer the legend to the myth of the solar +horse, which, even when sacrificed, makes itself fruitful, so that it +may rise again in the morning in a new and young form. And we can easily +prove that the horse of the avamedhas was a mythical horse, since the +avamedhas was originally a celestial ceremony, seeing we read in the +_Rigvedas_ how the swift heroic horse destined to be sacrificed was born +of the gods, and how the Vasavas had adorned it with the colours of the +sun.[631] We saw a short time ago how in the _Rigvedas_ itself it is +now the Avinu, and now Agnis who give the heroic steed to the +predestined youth. Agnis, moreover, who gives a horse to the hero, is +himself now a handsome red horse, and now an excellent ghridhnus,[632] a +word which means the ravisher, as well as the vulture (as a bird of +prey). The thief plays a principal part, even in the Vedic myths. In the +war between the demons and the gods, described at length in the first +book of the _Mahbhratam_, there is a continual strife between the two +sides as to who will show himself the most skilful in stealing the cup +which contains the ambrosia. And the horse's head which, according to +Hindoo cosmogony, is born in the very production of the ambrosia with +the mythical gem, the horse's heads of Dadhyanc and of Vishnus, which +are found in the ambrosia [through the mouth of which (Vadavamukhas) it +is necessary to pass in order to enter hell, where one hears the cries +and howls of the tormented, who inhabit the water[633]], shows us how +already in the myth the legend of the theft of the earrings (the +Avinu), or of the queen's gem (the sun), or of the treasure, must be +united with the theft of the horse (the sun itself), as it seems to be +united in the legend of Utakas, before quoted, in which Utakas flees +upon the divine horse as he carries away from hell the earrings of the +queen, which another skilful thief, the king of the serpents, had, in +his turn, stolen from him. (Herodotos already knew the story of the +skilful thief who robs the king's treasure and obtains the king's +daughter to wife; he applies it to the king of Egypt, Rampsinitos.) + +When the stag, in the fable, flees in the forest, his high horns betray +him; when the bull flees, he fears that his horns may betray the +fugitives; even the mane of the solar hero takes the name of horns. The +Vedic hymn describing the horse destined for the sacrifice, represents +it as having golden horns, and feet as rapid as thought (like the stag), +whose horns (or whose mane, like the hair of the biblical Absalom, who +revives again in the legendary tradition of Medival Europe under an +analogous form), stretching here and there, are caught in the trees of +the forest.[634] Here, therefore, we have the swift-footed animal, whose +mane and horns are entangled to the trees. Another Vedic hymn presents +to us the hero Tugras lost in the sea, who embraces a tree, and is saved +by means of it.[635] In popular stories, the hero is often saved upon a +tree, either because the thieves or the bear cannot see him, or because +he is thus able to see the horizon; the tree brings good luck to him, +now because by letting something drop or making a noise, he terrifies +the thieves, now because he cheats the cowherds, whose cattle he wishes +to possess himself of, by appearing now upon one tree, and now upon +another; whereupon the cowherds begin to dispute about his identity, one +affirming that it is the same person, another that it cannot be; they +therefore hastily go back to inspect the first tree, and leave the +cattle unguarded, upon which the hero-thief descends from the tree, and +drives them away before him (this occurs in _Afanassieff_; the enemy of +robbers is generally himself an exceedingly skilful thief; Kerepa was +no less a cunning thief than Mercury, the god of robbers, who discovers +the deceit of others, because he is himself so expert a deceiver). In +the nineteenth Mongol story, which is of Hindoo origin, the young hero, +after having discharged his pious filial duties at the tomb of his +father, mounts a fiery horse, while he seizes the branch of a tree. The +tree is uprooted, and with it the horse and the hero massacre the army +of the king, whose daughter the hero wishes to marry. In the Russian +story[636] which narrates the adventures of Little Thomas Berennikoff, +blind of an eye, the _miles gloriosus_, Little Tom, after killing an +army of flies, begins to boast of the heroism he had shown in +overthrowing, by himself, a whole army of light cavalry. He meets with +two real heroes, Elias of Murom and Alexin Papovic (son of the priest), +who, on hearing him narrate his achievements, immediately own and honour +him as their elder brother. The valour of the three is soon put to the +proof; Elias and Alexin show themselves to be true heroes; at last it +comes to Little Tom's turn to make proof of his valour; he kills a +hostile hero whilst his eyes are shut, and then endeavours to ride his +horse, but cannot. It is a hero's horse, and can be ridden only by a +hero. At length he fastens the horse to an oak-tree, and climbs up the +tree in order to leap from it upon the horse's back. The horse feels +the man on his back, and plunges so much that he roots up the whole +tree, and drags it after him, carrying Tom away into the heart of the +Chinese army. The Chinese are struck down by the oak-tree and trodden +under foot by the furious charger, and those who are not killed are put +to flight. (The mythical wooden horse which proved so fatal to the +Trojans appears to be a mythical variety of this horse with the tree so +fatal to the Chinese.) The Emperor of China declares that he will never +make war again with a hero of Little Tom's strength. Then the King of +Prussia, an enemy of the Chinese, gives, in gratitude to Tom, and as a +reward for his valour, his own daughter to wife. It is remarkable that, +in the course of the story, Alexin once observes to Elias that the horse +which Little Tom had brought from his house showed none of the +characteristic qualities of a hero's horse. Alexin, as the priest's son, +is the wise hero; Elias, the strong one, who had conceived a high +opinion of his new colleague, Little Tom, seriously answers that a +hero's strength consists in himself, and not in his horse. However, the +development of the story shows that Alexin was right; without the fiery +horse of the dead hero, Tom would not have dispersed the Chinese. + +Thus, in a Vedic hymn,[637] we read that Indras, when he removes himself +from his two horses, becomes like to a weak and wearied mortal; when he +yokes them, he becomes strong. The enemies in the battles cannot resist +the charge of the two fair-coloured horses of the god Indras;[638] and +not only this, but one part alone of the divine horse is sometimes +sufficient to give assurance of victory to the hero-god. Another +hymn[639] sings, "A horse's tail wert thou then, O Indras;" that is, +when Indras vanquished the monster serpent. It is with the head of the +horse Dadhyanc that Indras discomfits his enemies.[640] The horse of the +Avinu, which kills the monster serpent, has already been referred to +in these pages. The solar horse Dadhikr, the same as Dadhyanc, in +another hymn of the _Rigvedas_,[641] is celebrated as a swift falcon, +luminous, impetuous, who destroys his enemies like a hero-prince, who +runs like the wind. His enemies tremble, terrified by him, as by the +thundering sky; he fights against a thousand enemies--invincible, +formidable, and resplendent. Finally, the horses of the god Agnis are +said to vanquish the enemies with their fore-feet.[642] + +When Agadas wishes to fight with the monster Narntakas, in the +_Rmyanam_,[643] he strikes with his fist the head of his great and +swift-footed horse, and then with another blow he smites the monster +in the chest, and kills him. + +In the seven adventures of Rustem, related by Firdusi, the hero's horse +fights against the monster, and drives him away, while the hero sleeps. + +It is said of Bucephalus, the horse which Alexander the Great alone +was able to tame--so called because he had, it would seem, on his head +protuberances similar to the horns of a bull (we saw not long since +how the mane of the solar horse is spoken of as horns in the Vedic +hymns)--that he several times saved Alexander in battle, and that, +though mortally wounded, in an engagement in India, in the flank and +head, he still summoned up strength enough to flee away with +extraordinary swiftness and save his master, and then died. Pliny, +quoting Philarcus, says that when Antiochus was slain, the warrior who +had killed him endeavoured to ride his horse, but that the latter +threw him on the ground, and he expired. + +Of Pgasos, the winged horse which bore the hero Bellerophon over the +waters, and by means of whom that hero won his glorious victories, we +know that the warrior-goddess Pallas wore the effigy upon her helmet. + +Suetonius writes of the horse of Julius Csar that it had almost human +feet, with toes ("pedibus prope humanis, et in modum digitorum ungulis +fissis"), from which the aruspices prognosticated to Csar the empire +of the world; this horse, like Bucephalus, and every heroic courser, +would bear no other rider than its master--the great conqueror. + +The horse Baiardo, in _Ariosto_, fights the enemies with its feet. The +hippogriff of Ariosto has, moreover, the privilege of being winged +like Pgasos, and of walking on air, like the Tatos of the Hungarians. +The name of Falke, given to the horse of the Germanic and Scandinavian +hero Dietrich or Thidrek (Theodoricus), induces us to believe that it +too had the same winged nature. + +In the _Edda_, Skirner receives from Frey a horse which carried its +rider through fogs (waters) and flames, and the sword which strikes of +itself when the wearer of it happens to be a hero. The horse of Sigurd +or Sfrit exhibits the same bravery in bearing the hero intact through +the flames. This happens in the morning, when the sun emerges safe and +sound from the flames of the aurora; in the evening, on the contrary, +when the sun loses itself in the flames of the aurora, or when the +solar hero dies, his horse, too, like the horse of Balder in the +_Edda_, is burned upon the pyre or sacrificed; the resurrection of the +dead horse and that of the dead hero happen at the same time. The +horse's head which protrudes out of the window, represented in ancient +Hellenic tombs, and preserved in Germanic customs,[644] is, for man, a +symbol of resurrection. The head of Vishnus, that of Uccihravas, and +that of Dadhyanc, in Hindoo tradition, have the same meaning. He who +enters into this head finds death and hell; he who comes out of it +rises again to new life. The pious Christian belief in the +resurrection that is to come, and the numerous medival legends of +Europe concerning dead heroes or maidens who are resuscitated, had +their origin and ground in the contemplation of the annual and daily +resurrection of the sun. + +In the thirty-eighth story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the +young prince receives from an enchanted bird the present of a +war-charger, and of an apple the colour of the sun. (The youth gives +the golden apple to a beautiful princess for the pleasure of passing +the night with her; remark here, again, the relation of the horse and +the apple, and probably of the horse and the bull, the sun and moon). +In other Russian stories, the horse of the hero, Ivan Tzarevic, is at +first bound underground by twelve iron chains; when Ivan rides him, he +breaks them all.[645] The horse which Ivan the thief is told to carry +off from his master[646] is shut up within three gates made fast by +six bolts; if he steals it, he is to receive a reward of 200 roubles; +and if he does not, 200 bastinadoes will be his punishment. Ivan takes +his master's clothes, disguises himself as a gentleman, and, imitating +his voice, orders the grooms to bring him his favourite horse. The +grooms are deceived, and obey, and thus Ivan carries the horse off. +Finally, in a third Russian story,[647] Ivan Tzarevic must ride a +hero's horse on the occasion of his nuptials with the beautiful but +wicked Anna. He has recourse to his preceptor Katoma, surnamed Hat of +Oak (here we find again the hero in relation with the tree and the +horse), who orders the blacksmith to prepare a hero's horse; twelve +young blacksmiths (the twelve hours of the night, or else the twelve +months of the year) draw twelve bolts, open twelve doors, and lead out +an enchanted horse, bound with twelve iron chains. Scarcely has the +preceptor mounted on its back when it flies higher than the forest +which stays still, and lower than the cloud which moves.[648] The +preceptor subdues it by taking hold of its mane with one hand, and +striking it with the other between the ears with four pieces, one +after another, of an enchanted iron pillar. The horse then begs, with +a man's voice, for its life, the power of speech being a distinctive +attribute of the hero's horse (a power of which it often makes use, as +Rustem's horse does, for instance, to warn the hero of the dangers +which surround him, and to give him good advice; sometimes, on the +contrary, when it is in the monster's power, it plays the part of a +spy upon the hero's actions, and reports them to the monster);[649] it +promises also to do the will of the preceptor. Katoma, calling the +horse dog's flesh, orders it to stay still the next day, which is the +day fixed for the wedding, and, when the bridegroom Ivan is to ride +it, to seem as though it were oppressed by a great weight. + +In the seventh Esthonian story, the young hero steals the horse from the +master (the devil, or the black monster of night) in whose service he +had engaged himself. When he comes to the place where the sun sets, he +bethinks himself of binding the horse with iron chains (the rope of +Yamas, or Varunas, the nocturnal coverer or binder, which binds the +Vedic hero unahepas, the sun, he of the golden rod), in order that it +may not escape and go back again. This particular is very interesting, +as rendering the meaning of the myth more manifest. Seeing that the sun, +in the evening, does not return, it was supposed that the solar horse +had been bound by the hero himself, who had stolen it. + +In the European popular tales we sometimes have, instead of the hero +who carries off his master's horse, the hero himself, who escapes from +his master in the form of a horse, helped in his flight by the +daughter of his master, by the magician's or demon's daughter or black +maiden (who afterwards becomes beautiful and luminous). In the +Hungarian belief, the youngest of the witch's daughters (the aurora) +often assumes the form of the heroic horse of the Tatos. She becomes +Tatos when the hero, meeting her, strikes her on the forehead with the +bridle; then she carries him, in the shape of a horse, into the air. +In the Russian story,[650] the son of a merchant goes to be instructed +by a wise magician, who teaches him every kind of knowledge, and, +among the rest, what sheep say when they bleat, birds when they sing, +and horses when they neigh. At last the young man, having learned +every species of mischief, returns home and transforms himself into a +horse, in order that his father may sell him at the market and make +money; but he warns his father not to give up the bridle, that he may +not fall again into the hands of the magician. The father forgets, and +sells horse and bridle together. The magician attaches the horse by a +ring to an oak-tree; the black maiden (dievki cernavke), the sister of +the devil, gives the horse millet and hydromel; the horse thus gains +strength enough to break the chain which binds him to the tree, and +escapes. The devil follows him; the horse becomes a fish, and from a +fish a ring; the king's daughter buys the ring and puts it on her +finger; during the day it is a ring (the solar disc), and during the +night a handsome youth, who lies in the bed of the queen's daughter +(the hidden sun, or the moon, in the darkness of night). One day the +princess lets the ring fall on the ground, and it breaks into a +thousand pieces (the evening sun which falls upon the mountain); then +the devil becomes a cock, to pick up the pieces of the broken ring; +but a little piece falls under the princess's foot; this piece is +transformed into a falcon, which strangles and devours the cock. + +In the bridle which binds this hero who becomes a horse, I think I can +recognise the lasso with which Varunas keeps unahepas bound in the +_itareya Br._ In the _Rigvedas_,[651] we have Sryas, the sun, as +Suvavyas, or son of Svavyas, that is, of him who has fine horses; +but as, besides Svavyas, we find Svavas, he who has a fine horse, +the sun itself would seem to be this horse. The legend narrates that +Svavas, having no children, requested the sun to give him some, and +that the sun, to please him, was himself born of him. Svavas, he who +has a fine horse and has no sons, is perhaps the same as the old man +who has lost his son by selling the horse; when the sun returns his +son also comes back again. In the Vedic expressions, _without a horse, +born without a bridle, the sun_ (as a courser[652]), the hero would +seem to be indicated who has not as yet that horse or that bridle, +without which he is powerless; for the idea of the hero is rarely +unaccompanied by that of the horseman. + +For the horseman hero his horse is his all, and sometimes it even takes +the bit in its mouth, then the hero punishes it. We have already noticed +the well-known Hellenic myth of Phaethn, who is, with both the chariot +and the horses, precipitated into the waters, because the horses +threatened to set the earth on fire. This happens every day towards +evening, when the sun sets; the whole sky goes down, then the sun is +thrown down into the ocean of night; the course of the solar steeds is +interrupted, and the wheels of the chariot no longer turn. A similar +catastrophe is repeated on St John's Day, at the summer solstice, in +which the sun stops and begins to retire, for which reason the light of +day, from this time to Christmas, grows less and less. + +It is a custom on St John's Day, in Germany,[653] for hunters to fire +at the sun, believing that they will thereby become infallible +hunters. According to another popular German belief, he who, on St +John's Day, fires towards the sun is condemned ever after to hunt for +ever, like Odin, the eternal hunter; and both superstitions have their +reason. In the night, as well as in the period during which the +splendour of the sun diminishes, and especially in autumn, the gloomy +forest of heaven is filled with every kind of ferocious animal; the +sun enters this forest, becomes moon, and hunts the wild beasts in it +during the whole of the night, or of the year that is, until he is +born again. In the _Rigvedas_, where we have seven sister-mares yoked +to the sun-chariot,[654] Indras, to please his favourite, Etaas, +after having drunk the ambrosia, pushes the clouds that had fallen +behind before the flying steeds of the sun,[655] that is to say, he +prevents the solar hero, drawn by horses, either by the cloud in a +tempest, or by the darkness of night, from going on; and he even +strikes the wheels themselves of the solar chariot to arrest its +incendiary course. From these Vedic data it is easy to pass to the +Hellenic Phaethn, who is precipitated into the waters on account of +the horses. The hero killed on account of his horses is a frequent +subject of mythology, and the Greek name Hippolytos refers to this +kind of death. Hippolytos, the son of Theseus, fleeing from his +father, who supposes him guilty of incest with his step-mother Phedra, +is thrown from the chariot broken to pieces, when the horses that draw +it approach the sea and are terrified by marine monsters. This is a +variation of the legend of the young hero, persecuted by his +step-mother, who is thrown into the sea, with the novel and remarkable +accompaniment that it is his horses themselves which are the cause of +his death. The Christian legend of St Hippolytos has appropriated this +particular trait, representing the holy martyr, who was prefect under +the emperors Decius and Valerian, as dying, having been condemned to +be torn in pieces by horses. The poet Prudentius comments upon the +story in these two curious distichs, on the occasion of the Roman +judge pronouncing capital punishment against St Hippolytos-- + + "Ille supinata residens cervice, quis inquit + Dicitur? affirmant dicier Hippolytum. + Ergo sit Hippolytus; quatiat turbetque jugales + Intereatque feris dilaceratus equis." + +But the horses which draw the hero into the water are the same as +those that save him by carrying him over the deep, drawing the chariot +or ship on the sea towards the shore. The Avinu do the same in the +_Rigvedas_, where they save from the waves both themselves and other +heroes upon their chariot, which is compared to a ship.[656] Hero and +horse always have the same fate. + +When the hero approaches, or when some fortunate incident is about to +happen to the hero, his horse neighs for joy. + +In the _Rigvedas_,[657] on the arrival of the god Indras, the horse +neighs, the cow lows, like a messenger between heaven and earth. The +neighing of this horse, and the lowing of this cow, are the thundering +of the sun in the cloud. By this neighing or lowing, man is informed +that the hero-god Indras is beginning his battles in heaven. Another +hymn, which calls the two horses of Indras two rays of the sun +(sryasya ket), celebrates them as neighing and pouring out +ambrosia,[658] _i.e._, the sun makes rain fall from the clouds; when +he shows himself in the east at morn, his horse neighs and drops the +dew on the ground. + +Herodotus, and, after him, Oppianos and Valerius Maximus, relate the +mythical story of Darius Hystaspes, who unexpectedly succeeded to the +empire from having persuaded his colleagues to decree that he should +obtain the crown whose horse happened first to neigh at the sight of +the sun. It is narrated that when he came to the place, Darius, in +order to assure himself of success, made his horse smell the odour of +a mare.[659] Neighing is the laughter of the horse. We have seen, in +the preceding chapter, how the bull speaks and the fish laughs at +sight of coition; and so we have here, in the story of Darius, the +horse who neighs on account of the mare.--To return to the horse of +mythology; the solar horse neighs within the thundering-cloud which, +as a cow, the bull makes pregnant, and as a mare, the stallion, and +neighs at the approach of the aurora, who appears now as the driver of +a hundred chariots[660] (a round number, like the hundred thousand +horses which, in another hymn,[661] the god Indras drives; a favourite +number, like seven, which is applied to the same solar horses, solar +rays and Agirasas[662])--on which account it can be compared with the +Hellenic Aphrodit Hippodameia--now even as a real mare. The sun is +now a driver of horses, and now himself a horse; in the same way, the +aurora is now an Amazon horsewoman, now a driver of chariots, now +avvat, and now a mare. When the sun approaches the aurora, or when +the horse approaches the mare, the horse neighs. We know how the +Avinu considered themselves sons of the wife of the sun, Sarany, +daughter of Tvashtar, who united herself to the sun in the form of a +mare. Whether this Sarany be the cloud or the aurora, we have in her, +anyhow, a mare with which the sun, solar hero, or solar horse, unites +himself to produce the twin heroes, who are, for this reason, also +called the two sons of the mare.[663] We have already seen, in the +preceding chapter, a hero and a heroine who are hatched from eggs; of +the Dioscuri, we know that they were born of the egg of Leda; and the +mare's egg is the subject of a story in the _Ukermark_.[664] Greek +writers have handed down several cases of coition between men and +mares, and between horses and women, with corresponding births of +monstrous conformation. Now, unnatural as such births must appear to +us, they are, in mythology, in strict accordance with nature. In the +preceding chapter we saw the cow which leaps over the hare, and +explained this phenomenon by the cloud or darkness covering the moon, +and also by the earth covering the moon in eclipses. In Herodotus and +Valerius Maximus, a mare, in the time of Xerxes, gives birth to a +hare; and we must here understand the hare to be the moon, coming out +of the darkness or clouds; and when we read that the hare suffocated +the mare, we must understand it to mean the moon as dispersing the +darkness or clouds (perhaps also the sun or evening aurora). We must +have recourse in this way to the myth to comprehend the examples of +parturition without coition found in some Hindoo legends, and applied +to heroes, as well as the curious discussions and information which we +find in the ancients, from Aristotle, Varro, Pliny, Columella, +Solinus, and St Augustin, to Albertus Magnus and Aldrovandi, +concerning mares, and especially Spanish and Portuguese mares, made +pregnant by the wind (called by Oppianos[665] of the windy feet), and +which are also spoken of in the _Pentamerone_,[666] with less +decency, in reference to the myth of the maiden born of the tree. + +The horse of Ariosto, too, has a similar nature-- + + "Questo il destrier che fu dell' Argalia + Che di fiamma e di vento era concetto + E senza fieno e biada si nutria + De l'aria pura e Rabican fu detto." + +The horse of Ciolle, in a Tuscan proverb, also feeds upon wind alone. + +The horse of Dardanos, son of Zeus, was also said to be born of the +wind, which brings us back to the Vedic Marutas, whose chariots have +horses for wings, and to the _volucer currus_ of the Diespiter of +Horace.[667] In the Sanskrit tongue, the expression _vtvas_, or +wind-horse, is very common, to indicate a very swift-footed horse. + +No sooner is the horse Uccihravas born than he neighs; and like him, +in the _Mahbhratam_, the hero Avatthman laughs, the son of Dronas, +properly he who has strength in his horse, which is the same as the +hero-horse. + +Moreover, as the horse exults by neighing over the good fortune of the +hero who rides him, so he not only becomes sad, but sheds real tears +when his rider is about to meet with misfortune. + +When Rvanas, in the _Rmyanam_, comes forth in his chariot, to join +in final combat with Rmas, his coursers shed tears,[668] as a +sinister omen, Rvanas is the monster of darkness and clouds; when the +cloud begins to disperse, drops of rain fall, that is, the horses of +the monster weep. The treacherous sister who is confederate with the +monster against her brother, in Russian stories, is condemned by her +brother, who kills the monster, to fill a whole basin with her +tears.[669] These tears are also a legendary symbol of the rain which +falls when the solar hero has torn the cloud in two. + +Suetonius, in the Life of Csar, writes that the horses consecrated by +Csar to Mars, and then set at liberty after the passage of the +Rubicon, refused to eat, and wept abundantly.[670] Note that this +legend of the horses that weep is connected with the passage of water, +of the Rubicon (a river which no geographer has been able to identify +with certainty, probably because the legend of Csar relating to it is +a fable of mythical origin. We know how mythical beliefs incline to +assume a human form, and are especially prone to group themselves +round the great personages of history--Cyrus, Alexander, Romulus, +Csar, Augustus, Vespasian, Attila, Theodoric, and Charlemagne are +proofs of this; and perhaps a day will come in which Napoleon I. or +Garibaldi will offer a new _mannequin_ to some popular tradition, +which is now uncertain and wandering). Thus it is said that Csar's +horse itself shed tears for three days before the hero's death. In the +_Iliad_,[671] the horses of Achilleus weep for the death of +Patroklos, whom Hektor has thrown from his chariot into the dust; in +the _Paraleipomenoi_ of Quintus Smyrneus,[672] the horses of Achilleus +weep bitterly for the death of their hero. This is a variety of the +legend of the horses which throw the solar hero down into the waters, +the ocean of night or the clouds, and of that of the horses of +Poseidn. The mists which after sunset in the evening impregnate the +air, and the diurnal or nocturnal rains, as well as the autumnal ones, +cause tears to fall upon the ground, or weep over the (apparent) death +of the solar hero. + +The dew of the morning, on the contrary, which comes from the mouth of +the solar horse like foam, or from its hoof as ambrosia and salutary +water, is fraught with every species of healthful influence. + +The horse and the bull of mythology are pourers out _par excellence_. In +a Vedic strophe--which seems in my eyes to be one of those riddles which +are recited in order to loosen the thread of the tongue--relative to the +two outpouring or fertilising horses of Indras, there is a continual +play kept up upon the root _varsh_ or _vrish_, which means at once to +pour out and to make fruitful,[673] and upon the letter _r_ which enters +into almost every word of the verse. Not only do the horses of Indras +pour out and make fruitful; the same virtue is attributed to the chariot +which they draw.[674] We have seen already that the horse of the +Avinu is the killer of the monster serpent, and that the horse's head +Dadhyanc, he who goes in the milk or in the liquefied butter, and who is +found in a sea of milk, discomfits the enemies of Indras. A Vedic hymn +sings that, with the foam of the waters, Indras beats down the head of +the monster serpent.[675] In Tuscany, the whooping-cough is called the +horse-cough or asinine-cough,[676] and it is thought that the cough is +cured by giving the children to drink the foam from the horse's mouth, +or causing them to drink in the water where a horse has been drinking. +This is a remedy founded upon the principle _similia similibus_, the +foam being used against the convulsive cough, which, like all +convulsions in general, brings much saliva or foam to the mouth. The +credit, however, of this marvellous medicine is slightly compromised +when we read that the same foam is also very efficacious for ear-ache. +Pliny, Sextus Empiricus, and Marcellus, quoted by Aldrovandi,[677] also +recommend the saliva of a horse as a cure for cough, particularly in the +case of consumptive patients, adding that the sick person is cured in +three days, but that the horse dies; a superstition which must have had +its origin in the mythical horse who feeds on ambrosia, and who loses +his strength, and expires when his saliva, foam, ambrosia, or dew is +taken from him. It is well known that the Avinu, besides being +luminous horsemen, were, as friends of men, also exceedingly skilful +physicians; nor could they be otherwise, having in their power the head +of Dadhyanc which is in the ambrosia, that is, whose foam is ambrosia. +The Dioscuri also frequently appear, in European legends, as unexpected +and miraculous deliverers. With this mythical belief of the horse that +produces ambrosia, is also connected the transformation, described by +Ovid in the second book of the _Metamorphoses_, of Ocyroe into a mare, +because she had predicted that sculapius would save men from death by +the medical art. It is a well-known fact that sculapius was revered +near fountains whose waters were supposed to have salutary effects, and +that he was protected by the sun-god Apollo; and the two physicians, +sons of Asklpios or sculapius, seem to be nothing more than a specific +form of the Dioscuri. + +But the solar horse does not produce ambrosia with his mouth alone. + +He has great strength in his hoofs (whence Isidorus and other medival +etymologists derived the name _caballus_, thus, "Quod ungula terram +cavet"[678]), and makes use of them in the myth, and in the legend, +not only to combat the enemies, but also to break open the earth, and +cause ambrosial fountains to spring out of it. Sometimes ambrosia +pours out of the hoof of the horse itself. In the _Rigvedas_,[679] the +horses of Agnis are said to have hands (_i.e._, hoofs of the +fore-feet) that pour out; and the horse given by the Avinu to the +hero protected by them (that is, to the solar horse, to the morning +sun), with his strong hoof fills a hundred jars with inebriating +liquor.[680] It is not necessary for me to instance here the famous +fountain of the horse, or Hippokrn, which Bellerophon's horse +Pgasos caused to spring out of the earth by breaking the soil with +his hoof (called also for this reason _Pgasa krn_). In Latin +tradition, the horse's hoof was worshipped on a spot near Lake +Regillus, where it is said that the Dioscuri had appeared.[681] In a +Russian story,[682] when Johnny (Ivanushka) sees a horse's hoof, he is +sorely tempted to drink out of it, but is dissuaded by his sister. He +experiences the same temptation upon seeing a bull's hoof, and +afterwards that of a kid. At last he gives way, drinks from the kid's +hoof, and is himself transformed into a kid. In the footprint of a +horse's hoof, in other stories, the ant is in danger of being drowned; +saved by a man, it is ever afterwards grateful to him.[683] + +Several myths which we have already noticed in the preceding chapter +as applied to the bull, occur again in connection with the horse; as, +for instance, the birds which come out of the horse; the hero who +takes the horse's skin off, seizing it by the tail in order to make a +sack of it; the swift horse of Adrastus, which runs after the tortoise +(a Greek proverb);[684] the lunar horse, and the solar one. These +exchanges between moon and sun, and between bull and horse, are +happily indicated by the Latin poet, Fulgentius:-- + + "Jam Phoebus disjungit equos, jam Cynthia jungit, + Quasque soror liquit, frater pede temperat undas: + Tum nox stellato coelum circumlita peplo + Coerula rorigenis pigrescere jusserat alis + Astrigeroque nitens diademate luna bicornis + Bullarum bijugis conscenderat quora tauris." + +The gods had often a liking to transform themselves into horses; so much +so, that the sacrifice of the god, that is, the god's death, is +represented by the death of the horse. Every one knows that gods and +heroes delighted in showing themselves good horsemen, or, at least, good +charioteers. On this account, it would be difficult to say to which god +in particular the horse is sacred. The Vedic Avinu, the Vedic aurora, +who wins the race in her chariot, Agnis, Savitar, Indras, victorious and +splendid by means of their steeds, the hippios Poseidn, the hippeia +Athn, the hippodameia Aphrodit, the horsemen Dioscuri, Mars, Apollo, +Zeus, Pluto, and the German Wuotan (like his _alter ego_, St Zacchus), +never show themselves otherwise than on horseback; hence the horse was +naturally sacred to all of them. In the Christian faith, the innumerable +gods of the ancients having become innumerable saints (when they were +not so unfortunate as to degenerate into devils), the horse is now +recommended in its stable to the protection of several saints, from the +obscure Sicilian St Aloi to the no less modest Russians St Froh and St +Laver, who take the horse, as well as the mule and the ass, under their +especial protection, not to speak of the glorious horsemen St George, St +Michael, St James, St Maurice, St Stephen, St Vladimir, and St Martin, +especially revered by warriors, and in whose honour the principal orders +of knighthood in Europe were founded. But religions being, from one +point of view, the caricature of mythologies, there is now some +difference between the mythical old deities and the legendary new ones, +inasmuch as the former would at times ingenuously accept the homage of +the animal in effigy, as we have observed in the preceding chapter; +while the latter, and they who purvey to them upon earth, not being +quite so simple, never leave their devotee in peace until they have +received, at sight and without discount, the full value of their +favours. In the Life of San Gallo, we read that, in the times of King +Pepin (we already know what these times mean), a certain Willimar, being +ill, promised, if cured, to offer a horse to the Church of San Gallo. +Having recovered his health, he forgot his promise; but passing one day +before the church of the saint, his horse stopped before the gate, and +by no possibility could it be induced to-move on, until Willimar had at +last declared his intention of fulfilling his vow. In the Life of St +Martin, there is a rather gayer variation of the same anecdote. King +Clodoveus, after having become a Christian, when fighting against the +Visigoths, promises his own horse to St Martin, if he grants the victory +to him. Having obtained it, Clodoveus regrets being obliged to deprive +himself of his good charger, and beseeches St Martin to be kind enough +to take money instead, offering him a hundred pieces of gold. St Martin +thinks the sum insufficient, and asks for double, which Clodoveus gives; +but, inasmuch as a little heretic blood still runs in his veins, he +cannot refrain from aiming a pointed witticism at him: "Martinus, +quantum video, auxiliator est facilis, sed mercator difficilis!"[685] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[526] The word _atyas_ has the same meaning. + +[527] Yungantv asya kmy har vipakshas rathe on dhrishn +nrivhas; _Rigv._ i. 6, 2. + +[528] Vacoyugu; _Rigv._ i. 7, 2. + +[529] Yukshv hi kein har vrishan kakshyapr; _Rigv._ i. 10, 3. + +[530] Sracakshasah; _Rigv._ i. 16, 1. + +[531] Indrya vacoyug tatakshur manas har; _Rigv._ i. 20, 2. + +[532] Saudhanvan avd avam atakshata; _Rigv._ i. 161, 7. + +[533] Vi gann chyvah itipdo akhyan ratham hiranyaprugam vahantah; +_Rigv._ i. 33, 5. + +[534] Indro vak vakutardhi tishthati; _Rigv._ i. 5, 11. + +[535] Yukshv madacyut har; _Rigv._ i. 81, 3. + +[536] Vm avin manaso gaviyn rathah svavah; _Rigv._ i. 117, 2. + +[537] tv yachantu harito na sryam ah viveva sryam; _Rigv._ i. +130, 2. + +[538] Har sryasya ket; _Rigv._ ii. 11, 6. + +[539] Ghritacutam svram asvrshtm; _Rigv._ ii. 11, 7. + +[540] Pra ye dvit diva ringanty th susammrishtso vrishabhasya +mrah; _Rigv._ iii. 43, 6. + +[541] Indra haribhir yhi mayraromabhih; _Rigv._ iii. 45. 1. + +[542] Sholh yukth panca-panc vahanti; _Rigv._ iii. 55, 18. + +[543] Patatribhir aramir avyatibhir dansanbhih; _Rigv._ vii. 69, 7. +The Avinu also are called dravatpn (swift-hoofed); _Rigv._ i. 3, 1. + +[544] Avatar--rathengnir gimadhvattsm prgamno +yonimaklayattsmtt na vigyante. Gobhirarunirush +gimadhvattasmdushasyagatymarunamivaeva +prabhtyushasorpamavarathenendra gimadhvattasmtsa uccirghosha +upabdimnkshatrasya rpamindro hi sa gadarbharathenvin +udagayatmavinvnuvtm; _Ait. Br._ iv. 2, 9. + +[545] Tvshtr tu savitur bhry vadavrupadhrin asyata mahbhg +s 'ntarkshe 'vinvubhu; _Mbh._ i. 2599. + +[546] _Il._ x. 352. + +[547] In the Monferrato, according to the information kindly given me, +concerning the beliefs relative to animals current in this country, by +Dr Giuseppe Ferraro, the young collector of the popular songs and +stories of the Monferrato, it is believed that the horse's teeth hung +upon the necks of infants at the breast cause them to cut their teeth, +and that the two incisors of the horse, when worn, are a spell to +charm away every evil. + +[548] _Mbh._ i. 1093-1237. + +[549] Cfr. the first of the Tuscan stories of _Santo Stefano di +Calcinaia_.--In the preceding chapter, we have seen how the apples of a +certain apple-tree cause horns to grow on whoever eats them. In an +unpublished Italian story, instead of the apple-tree, we have the +fig-tree, and instead of horns, the tail. It is narrated by an old man +of Osimo, in the Marches:--Three poor brothers, having but little +inclination for work, go in search of fortune round the world. Overtaken +in the country by night, they fall asleep in the open air. A fairy, +under the aspect of a hideous old woman, comes up and wakens them, +offering herself as their wife. The three brothers excuse themselves, +and declare that they wish for nothing except a little money with which +to make merry. The fairy answers, "Tell me what you wish for, and you +shall have it." The first asks for a purse, which shall always be full +of money; the second for a whistle, by blowing into which a whole army +of brave combatants would be summoned to his side; the third a mantle, +which would make its wearer invisible. The fairy satisfies them, and +then disappears in flames, like the devil. The eldest brother, Stephen, +goes with his purse into Portugal, where he plays and loses, but still +remains rich. This comes to the queen-dowager's ears, who wishes to see +the stranger, hoping to possess herself of his secret; she feigns to +love him, and the wedding-day is fixed; but before it comes she has +already gained his confidence, and taking the purse from him, she orders +him to be flogged. Stephen returns to his brothers, relates his +grievance, and proposing to revenge himself upon the queen, induces them +to lend him the whistle, which calls armies into existence. The queen +softens towards him, protesting that she expected to the last that he +would have appeared on the day appointed for the wedding, and that he +had been flogged without her knowledge. Stephen gives way, and the +whistle passes out of his hands into those of the queen. He is flogged +again, but twice as severely as before. Again he has recourse to his +brothers; he implores, supplicates, and promises to get everything back +by the miraculous mantle; but having obtained it, he allows himself to +be deceived once more by the queen. Deprived of everything, he wanders +about in despair, reduced to beggary. In the middle of January, he sees +a tree covered with beautiful figs; desirous of them, he eats with +avidity; but for every fig that he swallows, a span of tail as thick as +a boa grows on to him. He goes on his way, still more desperate, till he +finds more figs, of a smaller size; he eats them, and the tail +disappears. Contented with this discovery, he fills a basket with the +first figs, and disguised as a countryman, comes to the palace of the +Queen of Portugal. Every one marvels on seeing such fine figs in +January. The queen buys the basket, and every one eats; but tails +immediately grow on their backs. Stephen then dresses himself as a +doctor, and with the little figs, cures many persons. The queen has him +called; he obliges her to confess to him first, and in the confession +makes her say where the three marvellous gifts of the fairy are kept. +Having recovered them, he leaves the queen with ten spans of tail, and +returns rich and happy to his brothers. In this story there must be some +parts wanting; it is probable that the fairy warned the brothers not to +discover their secret to any one. The last enterprise, moreover, is more +likely to have been undertaken by the third brother, who always assumes +in fairy tales the part of the cunning one, than by the first-born, who +in this story represents the part of the fool.--Polydorus speaks of the +horse's tail as a chastisement for an insult to Thomas Archbishop of +Canterbury, in the thirteenth book of his _Hist. Angl._:--"Irridentes +Archiepiscopum, caudam equi cui insidebat, amputarunt. At postea nutu +Dei ita accidit, ut omnes ex eo hominum genere qui id facinus fecissent, +nati sunt instar brutorum caudati." + +[550] Hiranyakarnam manigrvam arnas; _Rigv._ i. 122, 14. + +[551] _Ilou Halsis_, 65-72. + +[552] In the before-quoted collection of Radloff, _Tktbi Mrgn_. + +[553] + + Longa solitos caligine pasci + Terruit orbis equos; pressis hsere lupatis + Attoniti meliore polo; rursusque verendum + In chaos obliquo pugnant temone reverti. + Claudianus, _De Raptu Proserpin_, ii. 193. + +[554] _Phainomena_, 215. + +[555] _Mbh._ i. 1470, 1471. + +[556] Quelli cavalli che sono de pilo morello se fanno de humore +colerico impero che e pi caldo humore et sicco che non e lo sangue et +per questo produce ad nigredine el pelo. _I tre Libri della Natura Dei +Cavalli et del Modo di medicar le Loro Infermit_, composti da Maestro +Agostino Columbre; _Prologo._ 6, Vinegia, 1547. + +[557] + + Hippomanes phton esti par Arkasi ti d'epi pasai + Kai ploi mainontai an rea, kai thoai hippoi; ii. 48. + +[558] Devennosi corrigere et emendare quelli li quali se posseno dire +heretici, impero che voleno dire che quelle tal bestie che portano li +crini advolte et atrezate; et con loro poco cognoscimento dicono che +sono le streghe che li cavalcano et chiamanli cavalli stregari;" +_Prologo._ 10, the work quoted before.--Cfr. on the Damavoi, Ralston, +_The Songs of the Russian People_, p. 120, 139. + +[559] + + Hippous melanas ou kalon pants blepein + Hippn de leukn opsis, aggeln phasis. + +In Tuscany, flying horses, when seen in dreams, announce news; no +doubt, this flying horse seen in dreams can only refer to the +nocturnal voyage of the solar horse. + +[560] Cfr. Menzel, _Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre_, +Leipzig, 1870. + +[561] The Hungarians call the bier of the dead St Michael's horse; +Neo-Greek popular songs represent the ferryman of the dead, Charon, on +horseback; in Switzerland, the sight of a horse is a harbinger of +approaching death for a person seriously ill.--Cfr. Rochholtz, +_Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_, i. 163, 164. + +[562] _Afanassieff_, v. 37. + +[563] _Ib._ v. 54. + +[564] _Afanassieff_, i. 6. + +[565] _Ib._ ii. 25.--Cfr. iii. 5, iv. 27. + +[566] _Afanassieff_, ii. 28. + +[567] _Ib._ iv. 41.--In the twenty-first story of _Erlenwein_, the +poor brother obtains wealth by means of a mare's head, while the rich +brother, on the other hand, becomes poor.--In _Af._ v. 21, the +dwarf-boy, who possesses great strength, enters into the ear of one of +the two horses when in the act of ploughing; upon which they plough of +their own accord, and the old father of the dwarf is at liberty to +rest.--In the sixth Calmuck story, the head of the dead horse, when +fallen from the tree, brings riches and good luck to him who lets it +fall, who finds under it a golden cup: this is a form of the ambrosia +which comes out of the horse's head, which we shall find farther on. + +[568] The Russian text seems to me of too much importance, in the +history of myths, not to deserve to be recorded here: "Iediet apit +vsadnik: sam cornoi, adiet va vsiem cornom; na cornom kani; padskakl +k vartam babijagh i is-cesz, kak skvosz szemlin pravallsia; nastla +noc." + +[569] Idit an i draszt. Vdrg skacet mimo iej vsadnik sam bieloi, +adiet v bielom, kon pod nim bieloi, i sbruja na kani bilaja; na dvari +stalo raszviett. Idit an dalshe, kak skacet drugoi vsadnik; sam +krasnoi, adit v krasnom i na krasnom kanie; stalo vshdit solntze. + +[570] Yah purusheyena kravish samakte yo avyena paun ytudhnah +yo aghnyy bharati kshram agne teshin rshni haraspi vrica; +_Rigv._ x. 87, 16.--Cfr. the dragon that torments the horses in the +_Tuti-Name_ of Rosen, ii. 300. + +[571] Tad agne cakshuh prati dhehi rebhe aphrugam yena payasi +ytudhnam; _Rigv._ x. 87, 12.--The demon Hayagrvas killed by Vishnus, +which is the same as horse's neck, and Hayairas, or horse's head, +another monster giant in the _Rmyanam_, iv. 43, 44, always refer to +the Vedic ava-ytudhnas. We are already acquainted with the demon who, +during the night, makes the horses sweat and grow lean, _i.e._, who +makes them ugly. In the Latin tradition, after having assisted the +Romans in the battle of the Lake Regillus, Castor and Pollux were seen, +near the ambrosial lacus Iuturn (Ovidius, _Fasti_, i.), to wash the +sweat off their horses with the water of this lake, which was near the +temple of Vesta. To this Macaulay alludes in his verses-- + + "And washed their horses in the well + That springs by Vesta's fane." + --_Battle of the Lake Regillus_, xxxix. + +The salutary water of the Dioscuri, or sons of the luminous one, would +here occupy the place of the fire lighted by night in stables, and of +the Vedic Agnis who kills the monster of horses. My friend Giuseppe +Pitr writes me, that in Sicily, when an ass, a mule, or a horse is to +enter a new stable, salt is put upon its back (a form of Christian +baptism), in order that the fairies may not lame it.--The Kllaros, +the heroic horse of the Dioscuri, is perhaps not unrelated to the word +_kllos_, which means lame and bent; the solar horse, before being +heroic, is hump-backed, lame, lean, and ugly; the lame hero, the lame +horse (ass or mule), the lame devil, seem to me to be three _penumbr_ +of the solar hero, or of the sun in the darkness. + +[572] Vibhir hathur rigrebhir avih; _Rigv._ i. 117, 14.--Cfr. vii. +69, 7. + +[573] Avain na glham avin durevir rishim nar vrishan rebham +apsu; _Rigv._ i. 117, 4.--The Avinu pass the sea upon a chariot, +which resembles a ship; this chariot is said to have the sun for a +covering--rathena sryatvac; _Rigv._ i. 47, 9. + +[574] Yam avin dadathuh vetam avam aghvya avad it svasti; +_Rigv._ i. 116, 6. + +[575] Agnis tuviravastamain tuvibrahmnam uttamam atrtam rvayatpatim +putram dadti dushe--Agnir dadti satpatim ssha yo yudh nribhih +agnir atyam raghushyadam getram apargitam; _Rigv._ v. 25, 5, 6. + +[576] _Rigv._ i. 155, 6. + +[577] i. 154, 4. + +[578] Vishnor nu kam vryani pra vocam yah prthivni vimame ragnsi +yo askabhyad uttaram sadhastham vicakramnas tredhorugyah; _Rigv._ +i. 154, 1. + +[579] Yad te vishnur ogas trni pad vicakram d it te haryat har +vavakshatuh; _Rigv._ viii. 12, 27. + +[580] _Rmy._ iv. 40. + +[581] Yuktas te astu dakshina uta savyah atakrato tena gym upa +priym mandno yhy andhaso yog; _Rigv._ i. 82, 5. + +[582] Tad shu vm agiram ceti ynain yena pat bhavathah sryyh; +_Rigv._ iv. 43, 6.--In the following hymn, strophe 1st, the aurora is +called now daughter of the sun, now cow: Tam vm ratham vayam ady +huvema prithugrayam avin samgatim goh--Tah srym vahati. + +[583] Rathasya naptyah; _Rigv._ i. 50. 9. + +[584] _Rigv._ i. 116, 10. + +[585] vi. 9. + +[586] The lake of Brhman, visited by Hanumant in the _Rmyanam_, vi. +53, has the form of a horse's snout (haynanam). + +[587] Indro dadhco asthabhir vritrny apratishkutah gaghna navatr +nava; _Rigv._ i. 84, 13, 14, i. 117, 22, and the corresponding +commentary of Syanas.--The bones of the heroic horse possess strength +equal to that of the horse itself; thus in the last chapter we have +seen how, when the bones of the sacrificed bull or cow are kept, it +springs up again with renewed strength.--Cfr. concerning this subject +the interesting and copious details relating to European beliefs to be +found in Rochholtz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_, i. 219-253. + +[588] ii. 24. + +[589] Divo napt; _Rigv._ i. 182, 1. + +[590] As to the Vedic passage, v. 76, 3, where it would seem that the +Avinu are invoked in the morning, at midday, and in the evening, +there seems to me to be room for discussion. The text says: Ut ytam +sagave prtar ahno (that is, in the early dawn, when the cows are +gathered together), madhyandine (which, in my mind, is the middle term +which separates the gloomy hours from the luminous ones), udit +sryasya (which, meaning the rising of the sun, cannot express +evening, but precisely the rising of the morning sun). We too would +have thus expressed the three moments in the morning in which it was +opportune to invoke the Avinu. + +[591] Sushupvnsam na nirriter upasthe sryam na dasr tamasi +kshiyantam ubhe rukmam na daratam nikhtam ud pathur avin +vandanya; _Rigv._ i. 117, 5. + +[592] Madhuprishtham ghoram aysam avam; _Rigv._ ix. 89, 4. + +[593] _Rigv._ viii. 104, 15-25. + +[594] Quoted in Muir's _Sanskrit Texts_, v. 264.--Somas united with +Agnis in the _Rigvedas_, Somas united with Rudras, seem, in my opinion, +to be the same as Somas united with Indras.--Cfr. Muir, v. 269, 270. + +[595] xii. 1, quoted by Muir in his _Sanskrit Texts_, v. 224. + +[596] In the _Edda_ we find the Avinu under the forms of night and +day. Odin took Natt and Dag her son, gave them two horses and two +drays, and placed them in the heavens to go round the earth in +twenty-four hours. Natt was the first to advance with Hrimfaxe, her +horse; he scatters every morning the foam from his bit upon the earth; +it is the dew. The horse of Dag is named Skenfaxe; the air and the +earth are illumined by his mane. + +[597] vm patitvam sakhyya gagmush yoshvrinta geny yuvm pat; +_Rigv._ i. 119, 5. + +[598] Cfr. the legends relating to Cyavanas cured by the Avinu in +the _atapatha Brhmanam_ and in the _Mahbhratam_, referred to by +Muir in the above-quoted fifth volume of the _Sanskrit Texts_, p. 250, +and those following. + +[599] In the _Rigv._ i. 8, 2, also, the invokers of Indras desire to +fight the enemies, the monsters Mushtihatyay and Arvat, by fist and +by horses. + +[600] _Mbh._ i. 6484-6504. + +[601] _Rmy._ i. 49, ii. 7. + +[602] iv. 12. + +[603] iv. 7, 17. + +[604] iv. 8. + +[605] iv. 10. + +[606] _Rmy._ iv. 8. + +[607] The Persian hero often takes his name from his horse or his +horses; hence Kerepa, Vstpa, Argp, Gustp, Yapp, +Prushpa, Apyaodha, &c. + +[608] Cfr. Spiegel's _Avesta_, ii. 72.--In the Servian stories of +Wuck, one of two brothers sleeps, transformed into stone with all his +people, until the other comes to free and resuscitate him. + +[609] i. 91, and following, Rosen's version. + +[610] ii. 20, and following. + +[611] ii. 157. + +[612] _Tuti-Name_, i. 151. + +[613] Cfr. a zoological variety of this myth in the chapter on the +Cock and the Hen. + +[614] This is a variety of the legend of the Tzar's daughter enamoured +of Emilius, the foolish and idle, though fortunate, youth, whom the +indignant Tzar orders to be shut up in a cask and thrown with her +lover into the sea, as we have seen in the first chapter. + +[615] iv. 24. + +[616] We shall shortly find the hare (the moon) who devours the mare. + +[617] i. 53. + +[618] U kav preszde sviec sama saboi zagaritsia, tot tzar budiet. + +[619] Tzelij kuci zolot v anbarah nasipani; cto ni pluniet on, to +vsi zlotom; dievat niekud! + +[620] It will, I hope, be deemed not inappropriate to quote here the +words with which Professor Roth begins his essay upon the legend of +unahepas in the first volume of the _Indische Studien_: "Die Deutung +der indischen Sagengeschichte sucht noch die Regeln, nach welchen die +das berlieferte verworrene Material behanden soll. Eine und dieselbe +Sage wird vielleicht in zehn verschiedenen Bchern in zehnfacher Form +erzhlt. Glaubt man einen festen Punkt gefunden zu haben, auf welchen +nach einem Berichte die Spitze der Erzhlung zusammenluft, so streben +andere Berichte wieder nach ganz anderem Ziele und treiben denjenigen, +der einen festen Kern der Sage fassen will, rathlos im Kreise herum. Die +Widersprche, mit welchen ein Sammler und Ordner griechischer +Heldensagen zu kmpfen hat, sind lauter Einklang und Klarheit im +Vergleiche zu dem wirren Knuel, in welchen die Willkhr indischer +Poeten die reichen Ueberlieferungen ihrer Vorzeit zusammengeballt hat." + +[621] ix. 37, 3.--I observe that the same craft as that used by the +two brothers to steal the treasure, in an as yet unpublished fairy +tale of the Canavese in Piedmont, was employed by the inexperienced +robber, who becomes at length very skilful to rob the loaves from the +baker's oven. The Piedmontese thief makes an opening from without, and +thus carries the bread off. The same thief then steals the king's +horse. At first, he learns his profession from the chief of the +robbers. The chief sends him the first time to waylay some travellers, +and bids him leap upon them; the young thief obeys these directions to +the letter; he makes the travellers lie down and then jumps upon them, +but does not rob them. The second time the chief tells him to take the +travellers' quattrini (the name of a very small coin, by which money +in general is also expressed). The young thief takes the quattrini +alone, and lets the travellers keep their dollars and napoleons. At +last, however, he becomes an accomplished thief. + +[622] Cfr. in the same _Pentamerone_, the ninth story of the first +book; the eighteenth of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_; +the thirty-ninth of the Sicilian stories of the _Gonzenbach_; the +sixtieth and the eighty-fifth story of Grimm's collection, _Kinder und +Hausmrchen_; the tenth of Kuhn and Schwartz's _Mrchen_; the +twenty-second of the Greek stories of Hahn, _Griechische und +Albanesische Mrchen_; the fourth of Campbell's in _Orient und +Occident_; the first book of the _Pancatantram_, and the twelfth story +of the fifth book of the same; and Cox, the work quoted before, i. +141, 142, 161, 281, 393, &c. + +[623] In the _Pentamerone_, i. 9, the queen's son does the same with +the wife of his twin-brother; "Mese la spata arrancata comme staccione +'miego ad isso ed a Fenizia." + +[624] In the corresponding collections of Ferraro, Bolza, and +Wolf.--Cfr. the end of the twenty-eighth of the _Novelline di Santo +Stefano di Calcinaia_. + +[625] i. 807 and following. + +[626] iv. 4. + +[627] i. 41-43. + +[628] _Rmy._ i. 13. + +[629] i. 13. + +[630] In the Western stories, instead of the horse's fat or marrow, it +is generally the fish eaten by the queen and her servant-maid which +gives life to the two brothers, who become three when the water in +which the fish was washed is given to be drunk by the mare or the +bitch, whence the son of the mare or bitch is born. I have already +attempted to prove the identity of the fish with the phallos; the fish +eaten by the queen, the maid, the mare, or the bitch, which renders +them pregnant, seems to me a symbol of coition. The horse's fat or +marrow smelled by the queen seems to have the same meaning. + +[631] Vgino devagtasya sapteh pravakshymo vidathe vryni; _Rigv._ +i. 162, 1.--Srd avam vasavo nir atashta; _Rigv._ i. 163, 2. + +[632] Sdhur na gridhnuh; _Rigv._ i. 70, 11. + +[633] Vikroatm ndo bhtnm salilukasm ryate bhrimrttnm +viatm vadavmukham; _Rmy._ iv. 40.--Aurvas, who, in the shape of a +horse's head, swallows the water of the sea and vomits flames, is a +variety of the same solar myth; _Mbh._ i. 6802, and following verses. + +[634] Hiranyarigo yo asya pd manogav; _Rigv._ i. 163, 9.--Tava +rigni vishthit purutr ranyeshu garbhurn caranti. 11.--We find +the stag in relation with the horse, as his stronger rival until man +mounts upon the horse's back, in the well-known apologue of Horace, +_Epist._ i. 10. + + "Cervus equum pugna melior communibus herbis + Pellebat, donec minor in certamine longo + Imploravit opes hominis, frenumque recepit; + Sed postquam victor discessit ab hoste, + Non equitem dorso, non frenum depulit ore." + +[635] Vriksho nishthito madhye arnaso yam tugryo ndhitah +paryashasvagat; _Rigv._ i. 182, 7. + +[636] _Afanassieff_, v. 11. + +[637] Apa yor indrah ppaga marto na aramno bibhvn ubhe yad +yuyuge tavishvn; _Rigv._ x. 105, 3. + +[638] Iasya samsthe na vrinvate har samatsu atravah; _Rigv._ i. 5, 4. + +[639] Avyo vro abhavas tad indra; _Rigv._ i. 32, 12; and the Hindoo +commentator notes that Indras chased the enemy as the tail of a horse +shakes off the insects that place themselves upon it, which it is much +more natural to believe of the tail of Indras's horse, which is +covered with milk, butter, honey, and ambrosia. + +[640] _Rigv._, the hymn quoted before, i. 84, 13, 14; Agnis, too, is +honoured as a tailed horse (vravantam avam), _Rigv._ i. 27, 1. + +[641] Rigipyam yenam prushitapsum um carkrityam aryo nripatim na +ram--vtam iva dhragantam--uta smsya tanyator iva dyor righyato +abhiyugo bhayante yad sahasram abhi shm ayodhd durvartuh sm +bhavati bhma ringan; _Rigv._ iv. 38, 2, 3, 8. + +[642] Avakrmantah prapadir amitrn; _Rigv._ vi. 75, 7. + +[643] vi. 49. + +[644] Cfr. Simrock, _Handbuch der Deutschen Mythologie_, p. 375, and +Rochholtz, the work quoted before. + +[645] _Afanassieff_, ii. 24. + +[646] _Ib._ v. 6. + +[647] _Ib._ v. 35. + +[648] Povshe liess stajcavo, ponsze ablak hadicavo. + +[649] For instance, in the _Pentamerone_, iii. 7, where the king of +Scotland sends Corvetto to steal the horse of the ogre who lives ten +miles distant from Scotland: "Haveva st' Huorco no bellissimo cavallo, +che pareva fatto co lo penniello, e tra le autre bellizze no le +mancava manco la parola." When Corvetto carries off the horse, it +cries out, "A l'erta ca Corvetto me ne porta."--Cfr. also the +_Pentamerone_, iii. 1.--Not only has the horse the gift of speech, but +the chariot too: in the seventh book of the _Rmyanam_, 44, the +chariot Pushpakam speaks to Rmas, and says to him that he alone is +worthy of driving it. + +[650] _Afanassieff_, vi. 46.--Cfr. also v. 22, and the 26th of the +_Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_. + +[651] i. 61, 15. + +[652] Anavo gto anabhur arv; _Rigv._ i. 152, 5. + +[653] Cfr. Menzel, _Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre_. + +[654] Sapta svasrah suvitya sryam vahanti harito rathe; _Rigv._ +vii. 66, 15. + +[655] Adha kratv maghavan tubhyam dev anu vive adaduh somapeyam yat +sryasya haritah patanth purah satr upar etae kah; _Rigv._ v. 29, 5. + +[656] no nv matnm ytam parya gantave, yungthm avin ratham; +_Rigv._ i. 46, 7. + +[657] Krandad avo nayamno ruvad gur antar dto na rodas carad vk; +_Rigv._ i. 173, 3. + +[658] Ghritacutam svram asvrshtm; _Rigv._ ii. 11, 7. + +[659] ... in equ genitalem partem demissam manum, cum ad eum locum +ventum esset, naribus equi admovit, quo odore irritatus ante omnes +hinnitum edidit, auditoque eo sex reliqui summ potestatis continuo +equis dilapsi candidati, ut mos est Persarum, humi prostratis +corporibus Darium regem salutarunt; Valerius Maximus, _Mem._ vii.; +_Herodotus_, iii. 87. Herodotus also refers to another variation of +the same anecdote, where he adds, that at the first dawn of day it +lightninged and thundered. + +[660] Dev gr rathnm; _Rigv._ i. 48, 3.--atam rathebhih +subhagosh iyam vi yty abhi mnushn; i. 48, 7. + +[661] Upa tmani dadhno dhury nt sahasrni atni vagrabhuh; +_Rigv._ iv. 29, 4. + +[662] Cfr. _Rigv._ iv. 3, 11; iv. 13, 3. + +[663] Cfr. Bhtling u. Roth, _Sanskrit Wrterbuch_, s. v. _avin_. + +[664] Kuhn u. Schwartz, p. 330.--The English proverbial expression, "a +mare's nest," now used to denote an impossibility, probably originally +referred to a real myth. + +[665] _Kngetikn_, i. 284. + +[666] ii. 3.--"Allecordatose d'haver 'ntiso na vota da certe +stodiante, che le cavalle de Spagna se'mpreano co lo viento;" and the +story goes on to speak of the ogre's surprise, who, seeing a beautiful +maiden in his garden, "penzaie che lo shiavro de lo pideto, havesse +'ngravedato quarche arvolo, e ne fosse sciuta sta penta criatura; +perzo abbracciatala co gran'ammore, decette, figlia mia, parte de sto +cuorpo, shiato de lo spireto mio, e chi me l' havesse ditto mai, che +co na ventosetate, havesse dato forma a ssa bella facce?" Varro +seriously wrote: "In ftura res incredibilis est in Hispania, sed est +vera, quod in Lusitania ad Oceanum in ea regione, ubi est oppidum +Olyssipo monte Tagro, qudam e vento concipiunt equ, ut hic gallin +solent, quarum ova hypanemia appellant, sed ex his equis qui nati +pulli, non plus triennium vivunt." + +[667] Rathebhir avaparnih; _Rigv._ i. 88, 1.--In Horace, _Carm._ i. +14-- + + "Namque Diespiter, + Igni corusco nubila dividens, + Plerumque per purum tonantes + Egit equos, volucremque currum." + +[668] Arni csya mumucurvginah; _Rmy._ vi. 75. + +[669] In the corresponding Italian stories, the hero or heroine, +punished for some indiscretion, must, before being pardoned, wear out +seven pairs of iron shoes, and fill seven flasks with their tears. + +[670] Proximus diebus equorum greges, quos in trajiciendo Rubicon +Marti consacraverat, ac sine custodibus vagos dimiserat, comperit +pabulo pertinacissime abstinere, ubertimque flere. + +[671] xvii. 426. + +[672] iii. 740. + +[673] Vrish tv vrishanam vardhatu dyur vrish vrishabhym vahase +haribhym sa no vrisha vrisharathah suipra vrishakrato vrish vagrin +bhare dhh; _Rigv._ v. 36, 5.--In Piedmont there exists a game of +conversation, consisting in the description of the presents which one +intends making to one's bride, in which description the letter _r_ +must never enter; he who introduces it loses the game. + +[674] Vrishyam indra te ratha uto te vrishan har; _Rigv._ viii. 13, +31. + +[675] Apm phenena namuceh ira indrod avartayah; _Rigv._ viii. 14, 13. + +[676] It is also called the canine cough, and it is believed on this +account that it is cured when the children are made to drink where a +dog has been drinking. + +[677] _De Quadrupedibus_ i. + +[678] Du Cange, _Gloss. Medi et Infim Latinitatis_, s. v. _caballus_. + +[679] Vrshapnayo 'vh; _Rigv._ vi. 75, 7. + +[680] Krotarc chaphd avasya vrishnah atam kumbhn asincatam +suryah; _Rigv._ i. 116, 7. + +[681] "One spot on the margin of Lake Regillus was for many ages +regarded with superstitious awe. A mark, resembling in shape a horse's +hoof, was discernible in the volcanic rock; and this mark was believed +to have been made by one of the celestial chargers."--Macaulay, +Preface to the _Battle of the Lake Regillus_. + +[682] _Afanassieff_, iv. 45. + +[683] The milk of white mares, which, according to Olaus Magnus (i. +24) was poured into the ground by the king of the Goths every year, on +the 28th of August, in honour of the gods, who received it with great +avidity, would seem to be an announcement of the imminent rains of +autumn; the horse loses his ambrosial humour, and his end is at hand. + +[684] The Grco-Latin proverb, "Equus me portat, alit rex," would seem +also to have a mythical origin, and to refer to the mythical legend of +the betrayed blind man, who carries the cunning hunchback or lame man; +who sometimes only feigns lameness, in order to play off his practical +jokes upon his companion. + +[685] The fable in _Phdrus_, iv. 24, of the poet Simonides saved by the +Dioscuri, is well known; but the gods punish the miser who refuses to +give the reward that he had promised, not on their own account, but on +account of the wrong done to the poet, whom they love. It is remarkable +that, as the Latin legend shows us the horses of the Dioscuri +perspiring, so Phdrus represents the Dioscuri themselves as-- + + "Sparsi pulvere + Sudore multo diffluentes corpore." + +This sweat must be the crepuscular mists, in the same way as the poet +Simonides, who alone escapes, being delivered by the Dioscuri, the +ceiling of whose banqueting-hall he had ruined, seems to conceal an +image of the sun saved from the night. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE ASS. + + +SUMMARY. + + Glory has been pernicious to the ass.--The purely stupid ass not an + ancient belief in India.--Eastern and Western asses; the ass of an + inferior quality pays the penalty of the reputation acquired in the + East by his superior congener.--Christianity, instead of improving + the condition of the ass, has aggravated it.--The medival hymn in + honour of the ass is a satire.--The ass in the sacred ceremonies of + the Church.--Physical and moral decadence of the ass.--Indian names + of the ass; equivoques in language form myths.--Gardabhas and + gandharbas.--Identification of the mythical ass with the gandharvas; + both are in connection with salutary waters, with perfumes or + unguents, and with women.--The ass which carries mysteries.--The + flight into Egypt; the ass laden; the old man, the boy, and the + ass.--Peau d'ne.--The onokentauros.--Urva and Purravas in + connection with the gandharvas; Cupid and Psyche in connection with + the ass.--The mythical ass and the kentauros correspond, as well as + the ass and the gandharvas.--The Hindoo onocentaur and satyr; monkey + and gandharvas as warriors.--Kentauros, gandharvas, and ass in the + capacity of musicians and dancers.--Krivas + dancing-master.--Krinus and Kereni.--Hybrid nature of the + mythical ass and of the gandharvas.--The Avinu ride asses, and + give youth to Cyavanas; the youthfulness of the ass.--The Vedic ass + as a warrior.--The Vedic ass flies.--The decadence of the ass dates + as far back as the Veds; its explanation.--The phallic ass and the + punishment of the ass for adulterers.--The braying of the ass in + heaven; Indras kills the ass.--The funereal and demoniacal ass of + the Hindoos; the ass picas; the faces of parrots; equivoque + originated by the words _haris_ and _harit_.--The golden ass.--The + ass in love.--The ass in the tiger's skin.--The ass who betrays + himself by singing.--The Zend lame ass who brays in the + water.--Rustem, devourer of asses.--The ass's kick.--The fool and + the ass, the trumpet and the drum, the trumpet of Malacoda.--The + king Midas in the Mongol story; the hero forced to speak, in order + not to burst.--The ass among the monkeys.--Midas, king of Phrygia, + in connection with the ass, with Silenos, Dionysos, the roses, gold, + blades of corn, and waters.--The centaurs among the flowers.--The + ass awakens Vesta whilst she is being seduced.--Priapos and the ass + of Silenos.--The ass as a musical umpire between the cuckoo and the + nightingale.--Midas judges between Pan and Apollo.--The ears of King + Midas; his secret revealed by the young man who combs his hair.--The + Phrygian ass held up to derision by the Greeks.--The Greek spirit of + nationality still more pernicious to the ass.--The ass of Vicenza + impaled.--Pan and the ass.--Gandharvs and satyrs.--Pan and the + nymphs.--Syrinx and the reed or cane; the leaf of the cane, and the + ass.--Pan chases away fear; the ass's skin gives courage.--The ass + in hell; golden excrements.--The heroic ass and Pan.--Perseus who + eats asses.--The ass and the water of the Styx; the horned ass.--The + cornucopia.--Ass and goat.--The asses save the hero out of the + water.--The asses in heaven.--The ass carries the water of + youth.--Ass's milk has a cosmetic virtue.--Youth and beauty of the + ass.--The deaths of the ass.--The ass carries wine and drinks + water.--The ass wet by the rain, the ass's ears predict rainy + weather.--The shadow of the ass; the ass's wool; lana caprina; to + shear the ass; the gold on the ass's head.--Asini prospectus.--The + ass and the gardener.--The ass chases the winds away.--The third + braying or flatus of the ass kills the fool.--The prophetic ass; the + kick of the ass kills the lion; the ass a good listener, who hears + everything; the hero Oidin Oidon; the ears of Lucifer. + +The ass, in Europe at least, has had the misfortune to have been born +under an evil star, a circumstance which must be reckoned to the +account of the Greeks and Romans, whose humour it was to treat it as a +sort of Don Quixote of animals. Its liability to be flogged has always +increased with its celebrity, which, no one can deny, is great and +indefeasible. The poor ass has paid very dear, and continues to pay +still dearer, upon earth for the flight which the fantasy of primeval +men made it take in the mythical heavens. May this chapter--if it +produce no other effect--have at least that of sparing the poor +calumniated animal some few of the many blows which, given in fun, it +is accustomed to receive, as if to afford a vent for the satirical +humour of our race, and _ad exhilarandam caveam_. + +The germ of the reputation the ass has of being both a stupid and a +petulant animal, acquired in Greece and in Italy, spreading thence +into all the other parts of Europe, may already be found in the +ancient myths of the Hindoos. Professor Weber,[686] however, has +proved, in answer to Herr Wagener, that the idea of a stupid and +presumptuous ass, such as we always find it represented in the fables +of the _Pancatantram_, was diffused in India by the Greeks, and is not +indigenous to Hindoo faith and literature. + +In India, the ass was not a particular object of ridicule; and this +was perhaps for the simple reason that the Eastern varieties of the +asinine family are far handsomer and nobler than the Western ones. The +ass in the East is generally ardent, lively, and swift-footed, as in +the West it is generally slow and lazy, having no real energy except +of a sensual nature. For if even the West (and especially the south of +Europe) possesses a distinct species of ass, which reminds us of the +_multinummus_ ass of Varro (in the same way as the East also, though +exceptionally, has inferior varieties), the asinine multitude in +Europe is composed of animals of a low type and a down-trodden +appearance, and it is against them that our jests and our floggings +are especially directed. This is the proverbial ass's kick against the +fallen; the poor outcast of the West dearly pays the penalty of the +honours conceded to his illustrious mythical ancestors of the East. We +think that the ass of which we hear heroic achievements related is the +same as that which now humbly carries the pack; and since we no longer +regard him as capable of a magnanimous action, we suppose that he +(unfortunate animal!) appropriates to himself all these ancient +glories out of vain presumption, for which reason there is no affront +which we do not feel entitled to offer to him. Nor did Christianity +succeed in delivering him from persecution,--Christianity, which, as +it represents the Sun of nations, the Redeemer of the world, as born +between the two musical animals, the ox and the ass (who were to +prevent His cries from being heard), and introduces the ass as the +saviour of the Divine Child persecuted during the night, and as the +animal ridden by Christ, in his last entry into Jerusalem, invested +him with more than one sacred title which ought from its devotees to +have procured for him a little more regard. Unfortunately, the same +famous medival ecclesiastical hymn which was sung in France on the +14th of January in honour of the ass, richly caparisoned near the +altar, to celebrate the flight into Egypt, was turned into a satire. +It must have been not without some gay levity that priest and people +exclaimed "Hinham!" three times after the conclusion of the mass, on +the day of the festival of the ass.[687] Nor did the inhabitants of +Empoli show him more reverence, when, on the eighth day after the +festival of the _Corpus Domini_--that is, near the summer +solstice--they made him fly in the air, amid the jeers of the crowd; +nor the Germans, who, in Westphalia, made the ass a symbol of the dull +St Thomas, who was the last of the apostles to believe in the +resurrection. The Westphalians were accustomed to call by the name of +"the ass Thomas" (as in Holland he is called "luilak") the boy who on +St Thomas's Day was the last to enter school.[688] On Christmas Day, +in the Carnival, on Palm-Sunday, and in the processions which follow +the festival of _Corpus Domini_,[689] the Church often introduced the +ass into her ceremonies, but more in order to exhilarate the minds of +her devotees than to edify them by any suggestion of the virtues it +represents in the Gospels; so that, notwithstanding the great services +rendered by the ass to the Founder of the new religion, he not only +received no benefit in return from Christianity, but became instead +the unfortunate object of new attentions, which rather depressed than +heightened his already sufficiently degraded social condition. + +And so the Greeks and Romans first, and the Catholic priests afterwards, +combined, by their treatment of him, to make the ass more indifferent +than he would otherwise have been to the passion and spirited struggle +for life shown in all the other animals. He was perhaps intended for a +higher fate, if man had not come upon earth, and interfered too +persistently to thwart his vocation. And probably his race gradually +deteriorated, just because, having become ridiculous, few cared to +preserve or increase his nobleness. As the proverb said that it was +useless to wash the ass's head, so it seemed useless for man to +endeavour to ameliorate or civilise his form: the physical decadence of +the ass was contemporary and parallel with his decline morally. + +But although it was in Greece and Rome that the poor ass was thrown +completely down from his rank in the animal kingdom, the first decree of +his fall was pronounced in his ancient Asiatic abode. Let us prove this. + +In the _Rigvedas_, the ass already appears under two different +aspects--one divine and the other demoniacal--to which may perhaps be +added a third intermediate or gandharvic aspect. + +In the _Rigvedas_, the ass has the names of _gardabhas_ and +_rsabhas_; in Sanskrit, also those of _kharas, cakrvant, ciramehin_, +and _bleyas_. + +It is important to notice how each of these designations tends to +lapse into ambiguity; and ambiguity in words plays a considerable part +in the formation of myths and popular beliefs. + +Let us begin with the most modern designations. + +_Bleyas_ may mean the childish one (from _blas_ = child, and +stupid[690]), as well as the demoniacal (from _balis_; and indeed, +besides being a name given to the ass, _bleyas_ is also a name for a +demon). + +_Ciramehin_ is the ass as _longe mingens_ (a quality which can apply +to the ass, but still more so to the rainy cloud). + +_Cakrvant_ means he who is furnished with wheels, with round objects or +testicles (an epithet equally applicable to the ass and his phallos). + +_Kharas_ signifies he who cries out, as well as the ardent one (and +_kharus_, which ought to have the same meaning, signifies, according +to the Petropolitan Dictionary, foolish, and horse; perhaps ass too). + +_Rsabhas_ is derived from the double root _ras_, whence _rasa_ = +humour, juice, water, savour, sperm, and _rsa_ = din, tumultuous noise. + +_Gardabhas_ comes from the root _gard_,[691] to resound, to bellow; but +I think I can recognise in the word _gardabhas_ the same meaning as +_gandharbas_ or _gandharvas_, and _vice versa_. The _gardabhas_ explains +to me how the _gandharvas_ was conceived to be a musician; and the +_gandharvas_ (a word which, I repeat, seems to me composed of _gandha_ + +_arvas_, developed out of a hypothetic _rivas_,[692] that is, he who +walks in the unguent, or he who goes in the perfume) helps me to +understand the proverb, "Asinus in unguento," and the corresponding +legends. The equivocal word _rsabhas_, in its two meanings, seems to +unite together the sonorous _gardabhas_ with the _gandharbas_ who likes +perfumes, or the _gandharvo apsu_ (_gandharvas_ in the waters) of the +_Rigvedas_,[693] the guardian of the ambrosial plant.[694] The mythical +ass and the Vedic _gandharvas_ have the same qualities and the same +instincts. The gandharvs, for instance, are represented in the +_itareya Br._ as lovers of women,[695] so much so that for a woman's +sake they allow themselves to be deprived of the ambrosia (or somas); +and it is also known from the story of Urva how jealous they are of +their nymphs, the _apsars_, or them who flow by on the waters (the +clouds), and from the story of Hanumant, in the _Rmyanam_, how greedy +they are of their salutary herbs and waters.[696] The mythical and +legendary ass also has a foible for beautiful maidens; it is unnecessary +to give the reason of this belief.[697] When Circe wishes to give, by +means of an unguent, an ass's head to Odysseus, we find an allusion to +the loves of the ass and the beautiful woman. When the Lucius of +Apuleius, while endeavouring to change himself into a bird (another of +the names by which the phallos is indicated), becomes instead, by means +of the woman's unguent, an ass, the ass is another name for the +phallical bird. And as the Vedic ass delights in the _rasas_, or humour, +water or sperm (the two words _rsas_ and _rasas_, derived from a common +root, being easily interchangeable); as the mythical ass, when it finds +the ambrosia of the roseate morning aurora, once more becomes the +splendid young sun; so the ass of Apuleius, too, becomes Lucius again, +or the luminous and handsome youth that he was before, as soon as he has +an opportunity of feeding upon roses: he becomes an ass for love of a +woman, and regains his splendour in the rosy aurora. During the night, +being subject to the enchantment of a beautiful fairy, the hero remains +an ass; and in the form of an ass, and under an ass's skin, he carries +the priapoean mysteries, whence the expression of Aristophanes in the +_Frogs_, "The ass which carries mysteries" (onos agn mstria), the +same mysteries as the Phallagia or Perifallia of Rome. In the Christian +myth, this mystery is the flight of the new-born Divine Child into +Egypt;[698] in the story of Perrault, it is the beautiful maiden, the +evening aurora, the girl persecuted by her father and would-be seducer, +who disguises herself during the night with an ass's skin;[699] the +beautiful girl evidently transfers her erotic sympathies to the ass that +loves her. Of loves such as these,--of an ass with a maiden, or of the +young hero and an ass,--are born the monstrous onokentaurs and Empusa, +now a beautiful maiden, and now the terrifier of children, who is +represented with ass's feet, because her mother was an ass, and her +father, Aristoxenes, enamoured of an ass. It is now the evening aurora, +now the dying sun, and now both, who, under the cloud of night, or in +winter, are represented as covered with an ass's skin. Professor Kuhn +has already proved the close affinity, amounting to identity, between +the gandharvs and the Hellenic kentauroi, both of which come before us +in connection with the inebriating drink; but the kentauros is +essentially a hippokentauros, or, still better, an onokentauros,[700] +or centaur ass. The fable of Cupid and Psyche in Apuleius, in its +relation with the story of the ass, perfectly agrees with the analogous +Hindoo fable of the loves of Purravas and Urva, united with the story +of the Gandharvs. Peau d'ne, Psyche, and Urva are therefore mythical +sisters. + +Professor Kuhn's proof of the identity of the gandharvas and the +kentauros being admitted, the identity of the gardabhas with the +gandharbas, and of the ass with the gandharvas, seems to follow as a +natural consequence. The myth of the kentauros, either hippokentauros or +onokentauros, no less than the myth of the gandharvas, corresponds +entirely with that of the ass. The kentauros loves wine and women; he +plays the lyre upon the car of Dionysos in conjunction with satyrs, +nymphs, and bacchantes; he teaches on Mount Pelion music,[701] the +science of health, and the prophetic art to the Dioscuri, which are all +subjects that occur again with slight modifications in the Hindoo +legends concerning the gandharvs, and in the fable of the ass, as we +shall prove hereafter.--But to return to the Hindoo myth; in the same +way as the gandharvs has a hybrid nature, and shows himself at one time +in the aspect of a demi-god, at another in that of a semi-demon, so the +mythical ass of India has now a divine nature, and now a human. The +gandharvas is the guardian of riches and waters: inasmuch as he defends +them from the demoniacal robbers, preserves them from mortals, and +distributes them among the pious, he appears under a beneficent and +divine aspect; inasmuch, on the other hand, as he carries them off and +keeps them shut up like a miser, he resembles the monster that is fabled +to guard fountains and treasures, the demon who keeps the waters shut +up, the thieves who gather treasures together, and the devil, the master +of all riches. For the same reason we already find in Hindoo tradition +the beneficent ass and his evil-doing congener. The sun (sometimes the +moon also) in the cloud and the darkness of night is the same as the +treasure in the cavern, the treasure in hell, and the hero or heroine in +the gloomy forest; and this cavern and hell sometimes assume the form of +an ass's skin, or of an ass simply. That which comes out of the cloud, +and of the gloom, also comes out of the ass; the soul of the ass is the +sun, or the hero or heroine, or the riches which he conceals. The +Avinu are often found in connection with the worthless horse, which +afterwards becomes handsome by means of the ambrosia itself that the +horse produces; the gandharvs, a more nocturnal and cloudy form, if I +may use the expression, of the solar or lunar hero, are in near relation +with the ass, their _alter ego_, who enjoys the blessing of eternal +youth. The Avinu themselves, the two horsemen who have given youth to +the old Cyavanas, rode upon asses before they rode upon horses. The myth +of the gandharvs and that of the Avinu, the myth of the horse and +that of the ass, are intimately connected: from the gandharvs the avin +comes forth; from the mythical ass the horse comes out. This is +unnatural in zoology, but it is very natural in mythology: the sun +comes, now out of the grey shades of night, and now out of the grey +cloud. + +The Vedic hymns already present us with several interesting myths +concerning the ass. + +The ass of the Avinu is swift; the devotees ask the Avinu when they +are to yoke it, that they may be carried by it to the sacrifice.[702] In +another hymn, as the Avinu are two, so are their asses two (rsabhv +avinoh). Finally, the second strophe of the 116th hymn offers us a +twofold significant particularity, viz., the ass, that vanquishes a +thousand in the rich battlefield of Yamas (or in the nocturnal battle, +in the struggle in hell, in which the ass appears as a real warrior, +joined with riches, and fighting for riches), and is helped by strong +and rapid wings (in which it shows us the ass that flies).[703] + +The _Rigvedas_ also represents the ass of Indras as swift-footed.[704] +But in the same hymn we already see the reverse of the medal, that is +to say, the swift ones who deride him who is not swift, the horses +that are urged before the ass.[705] The solar hero, towards morning, +substitutes the horse for the ass, or appears with horses, leaving the +ass or asses behind. We have learned in the preceding chapter how, in +the heavenly race of the Vedic gods, the asses gained the palm of +victory; but it was an effort superior to their powers. The _itareya +Br._ informs us that by this effort they lost their swiftness and +became draught animals, deprived of honey, but yet preserving great +vigour in their sperm, so that the male ass can generate offspring in +two ways, that is, mules by union with a mare, and asses by union with +an ass.[706] Here, therefore, the ass is already considered an animal +of an essentially phallical nature, which notion is confirmed by the +precept of Ktyyanas, recorded by Professor Weber,[707] which enjoins +the sacrificing of an ass to expiate violated chastity. To chastise +the ass, to sacrifice the ass, must mean the same as to chastise and +to mortify the body,[708] and especially the phallos; and the Eastern +and Western punishment of leading adulterers about upon an ass has the +same meaning; the real martyr, however, in this punishment being the +ass, who is exposed to every kind of derision and ill-treatment. In +the same way, the henpecked husband who allowed himself to be beaten +by his wife, used, in several villages of Piedmont, only a few years +ago, to be led about ignominiously upon an ass: a husband who lets his +wife impose upon him, and cannot subdue her, deserves to be chastised +by means of an ass; he is not a man, and his ass, the emblem of his +manly strength, must on this account suffer the punishment, because +he has not shown himself able to assert his marital rights. The +adulterer upon the ass, and the silly husband upon the ass, are +punishments for phallic offences in, and in connection with, the +person of that which represents the phallos: one is chastised for +having wished, in this regard, to do too much, and the other for not +having been able to do enough. On this account the condemned person +was forced, in similar cases, to ride upon an ass with his face turned +towards the animal's tail, another image which is yet more manifestly +phallical; whence the very name of the punishment, "asini caudam in +manu tenere."[709] As to the other proverb which says, "He to whom the +ass belongs, holds him by the tail," it is explained by the narrative +of a peasant who drew his ass out of a swamp, taking it by the tail; +but this story too seems to have a phallic signification. + +The ass, therefore, is already deposed from his noble place as a +swift-footed courser in the _Rigvedas_ itself. And in the _Rigvedas_, +too, where we have observed the ass described as a warrior who fights +for the gods, we find him in the demoniacal form of a disagreeable +singer who terrifies the worshippers of the god Indras; the latter is +therefore requested by the poet to kill the ass who sings with a +horrible voice.[710] Here the ass already appears as a real monster, +worthy even of the steel of the prince of the celestial heroes +himself, who prepares to combat him. The ass, therefore, is already +sacred to the monsters in the white Yagurvedas.[711] + +In the _Rmyanam_,[712] the slowness of the ass has already become +proverbial. The modest Bharatas excuses himself from not being able to +equal his brother Rmas in the science of government, just as the ass, +he says, cannot run like the horse, or other birds cannot fly like the +vulture. The mythical ass, moreover, appears in this epic poem[713] in a +demoniacal and infernal aspect: Bharatas, in fact, dreams of seeing his +dead father Daarathas, in blood-coloured clothes, borne to the southern +funereal region on a car drawn by asses; and we are told that when a man +is seen upon a car drawn by asses, it is a sign of his departure for the +abode of Yamas. Kharas, a word which, as we already know, means ass, is +also the name of a younger brother of the great monster Rvanas. Rvanas +himself is drawn by asses upon a chariot adorned with gold and gems. +These asses have the faces of the monster Pics,[714] that is, faces +of parrots, as Hanumant afterwards informs us when he speaks of the +monsters which he has seen in Lak, which he also says are as swift as +thought.[715] We know that the coursers of Rvanas were asses, and +therefore the asses with the faces of the Pics, and the horses of the +monsters with the faces of parrots, are the same. The monster Pics, +therefore, has the face of a parrot. How is it that the parrot is reared +in India as a sacred bird? It appears to me that equivocation in +language had something to do with the formation of this singular +mythological image. The word _picas_ is derived, like _piagas_, +which means golden and red, from the root _pi_, to adorn; whence also +the Vedic feminine _pi_, ornament, and the Vedic neuter, _peas_, +coloured tissue. The ass picas, who draw the chariot full of gold, are +therefore themselves, at least in their face, in their foremost part, +golden asses, or red like the colour of gold, red like the colour of the +sun; in fact, we find kharas (the ardent) as the proper name of an +attendant on the sun, and kharnus or khararamih, he of the burning +ray, as Sanskrit names of the sun. Kharaketus, he who has a burning ray, +is also the name of one of the monsters in the _Rmyanam_.[716] We +therefore already see here the golden ass and the infernal monster +identified with the sun; and hence we are very near the monster with the +parrot's face. In the preceding chapter we observed how the solar horse +appears in the morning luminous at first in its foremost parts,--now in +its legs, now in its face, now in its mane, which is called golden; it +is only the head of the horse which is found in the butter; of Dadhyanc +we perceive only his head in connection with the ambrosia. Thus of the +nocturnal ass, of the demoniacal ass, of the demon himself, the picas +(the pics are called carnivorous[717]), only the face is seen, in the +same way as of the pics, and of the horses belonging to the monsters, +only the head is that of a parrot. But what connection can there be +between the gold colour of the ass picas and the green colour of the +parrot? The equivoque lies probably in the words _hari_ and _harit_, +both of which, in the Hindoo tongue mean yellow, as well as green. Haris +and hari signify the sun, and the moon, as being yellow; harayas and +haritas are the horses of the sun; har are the two horses of Indras and +of the Avinu, of whom we also know that they more usually rode upon +asses. We thus arrive at the light-coloured asses, at the asses that are +golden, at least in their foremost parts, that is, in the morning +twilight, when after his nocturnal course, the solar horseman is on the +point of arriving at his golden eastern destination, whence the head of +the ass which carries the divine horseman is illumined by him. But +_haris_, besides signifying the solar hero as being yellow, also +signifies the parrot as green; on this account the ass or demon with a +golden head was exchanged with the ass or monster with the green head, +or with the parrot's head. We shall see in the chapters concerning +birds how the bird was often substituted for the horse in the office of +carrying the deity or the hero. + +To conclude the subject of the Hindoo mythical ass, it is certain that +it existed in the heavens; it is certain that it flies in the sky, +that it fights in the sky like a valiant warrior, that it terrifies +its enemies in the sky with its terrible voice; that, in a word, it +was a real and legitimate heroic animal. It is certain, moreover, +that, considered under another aspect, it not only throws down the +heroes, but carries them to hell, serves the infernal monsters, and is +found in connection with the treasures of hell. Moreover, admitting, +as I hope the reader will, my identification of the mythical ass with +the gandharvas, we have the ass as dancer, the ass as musician, the +ass who loves women, and the ass in the odorous ointment and in the +inebriating drink, the somas which occupies the place of the wine of +the Dionysian mysteries, in which the Hellenic ass took a solemn part. + +In the fables of the _Pancatantram_, the ass is partly modelled on the +Hellenic type and partly preserves its primitive character. The fourth +book shows us the ass twice attracted towards the lion by the jackal, +who induces him to believe that a beautiful female ass is awaiting +him. The ass is distrustful and shows his fear, but the argument of +the female ass, upon which the artful jackal insists, overcomes his +timidity. He is, however, cunning enough to send the jackal before +him; and at the sight of the lion he perceives the jackal's treachery +and turns, fleeing away with such rapidity that the lion cannot +overtake him. The jackal returns to the assault, and convinces the ass +that he did wrong to abandon the beautiful female ass when he was on +the point of receiving her favours; and thus touching the tender +chord of his heart, he goes on to assure him that the female ass will +throw herself into the fire or the water if she does not see him +return. "Omnia vincit amor;" the ass returns, and this time the lion +surprises and tears him to pieces; upon which the lion, before +partaking of his meal, goes to perform his ablutions and devotions. +Meanwhile the jackal eats the ass's heart and ears, and makes the +lion, on his return, believe that the stupid animal had neither the +one nor the other, because if he had had them, he would not have +returned to the dangerous spot after having once escaped. The lion +declares himself to be perfectly satisfied with this explanation. Here +we have a mixture in the ass of swift-footedness, lust, and stupidity, +his stupidity being caused by his lustfulness. Now, it is possible +that his acquaintance with the Hellenic ass may have induced the +author of the _Pancatantram_ to embody in the ass a quality which is +generally attributed in fables of Hindoo origin to the monkey; but +this is not absolutely necessary in order to explain the narrative of +which we have now given the epitome. + +On the other hand, in the fourth book of the _Pancatantram_, the fable +of the ass in the tiger's skin--an insignificant variety of the ass in +the lion's skin--was, as Professor Weber has already proved, taken +from the sopian fable. Another fable, in the fifth book, which tells +us of the ass who, being passionately fond of music,[718] insisted +upon singing, and was thus discovered and made a slave of, also seems +to be of Hellenic origin. But, although the editing of these two +Hindoo fables in a literary form had its origin in the knowledge of +Hellenic literature, the original myth of the ass-lion (haris, which +is the horse of Indras, also means the lion), and that of the +ass-musician (as gandharvas and gardabhas), can be traced as far back +as the Vedic scriptures. + +In the Zendic _Yana_,[719] I find a new proof, which appears to me a +very satisfactory one, of the identification which I have proposed of +the ass with the gandharvas. I have already mentioned the gandharvas +who guards over the somas in the midst of the waters, and I observed +how the gandharvas krinus of the Veds, and the Zend kereni who +guards over the _hom_ in the _Vuru-Kasha_, have been identified. But +the same office is fulfilled in the _Yana_ by a three-legged ass, +that is, a lame ass (or the solar horse who has become lame during the +night, in the same way as the solar hero becomes lame, or a lame +devil), who, by braying, terrifies the monsters and prevents them from +contaminating the water. + +In the first of the seven adventures of Rustem, in the _Shah-Name_ of +Firdusi, the starving Rustem goes with his brave heroic horse to chase +wild asses. The asses flee, but the hero's horse is swifter than they, +and overtakes them; Rustem takes one by means of a lasso, and has it +cooked, throwing away the bones. He then goes to sleep (_then_ +sometimes expresses in the myths the interval of a whole day or of a +whole year.--The hero does almost the same in his second adventure and +in the book of _Sohrab_). While Rustem sleeps, a monstrous lion makes +its appearance to surprise the hero; Rustem's heroic horse throws the +lion down and tears it to pieces with its hoofs and teeth. This +battle between the horse of the sleeping hero and the monster lion is +an epic form of the fable which represents the animals as being +terrified in the forest by the braying of the ass, and of that of the +lion itself killed by the ass's kick. Probably the bones of the dead +ass, when preserved, gave heroic strength to Rustem's horse. + +In the Mongol stories, of which we have on a previous occasion +indicated the Hindoo origin, we find two other legends relating to the +ass. In the eighteenth Mongol story, a foolish man goes with his ass +to hang up some rice; he hides his ass in a cave; some merchants pass +by with their goods, and the fool sends forth, by means of a trumpet, +such a sonorous shout, that the merchants, thinking brigands are +hidden in the cavern, escape, leaving their goods in the ass's +possession. Here the fool and the ass are already identified. The +trumpet and the blowing made by the fool correspond to the braying of +the ass, of whom we shall soon see other miracles related. The sense +of the myth is this: the solar hero in the night or in the cloud grows +stupid; he becomes an ass during the night or in the cloud; the cloud +thunders, and the thunder of the cloud gives rise to the idea now of +the braying and now of the flatus of the ass (or the fool), now of a +trumpet,[720] and now of a drum. We must not forget that the word +_dundubhis_ which properly means kettledrum or drum, is also the name +of a monster, and that Dundubh is the proper name of the wife of a +gandharvas, or of a gandharv. The skin of the drum being made of an +ass's hide is one more reason why the thundering cloud, being very +naturally likened to a drum, the thunder should be also considered now +as a _flatus oris_, now as a _flatus ventris_ of the celestial ass, or +of the foolish hero who accompanies him. + +In the twenty-second Mongol story we have a variety, though partly a +less complete and partly a richer one, of the fable of the Phrygian king +Midas. A king who has golden ass ears, has his head combed every night +with golden combs by young men, who are immediately after put to death +(to comb the ass's head is about the same as to wash it; but however +much it is combed, the ears can never be abolished). One day a young man +predestined to the highest honours, before going to comb the king's +head, receives from his mother a cake made of her own milk and flour. +The young man offers the cake to the king, who likes it, and spares the +youth's life on condition that he tells no one, not even his mother, the +great secret, _viz._, that the king has golden ears. The youth promises +to preserve silence, and makes a very great effort indeed to keep his +promise, but this effort makes him seriously ill, so much so that he +feels he will burst if he does not tell the secret. His mother then +advises him to go and relieve his mind by whispering it into a fissure +of the earth or of a tree. The young man does so; he goes into the open +country, finds a squirrel's hole, and breathes gently down it, "Our king +has ass's ears;" but animals have understanding and can speak, and there +are men who understand their language. The secret is conveyed from one +to another, till the king hears that the young man has divulged it. He +threatens to take his life; but relents when he hears from him how it +happened, and not only pardons him, but makes him his prime minister. +The fortunate youth's first act is to invent a cap of the shape of the +ears of an ass, in order that the king may be able to conceal the +deformity; and when the people see the king with a cap of this shape, it +pleases them so much that they all adopt it; and so the king, by means +of his young minister, is no longer obliged to live secluded, and in the +constant tormenting dread of discovery, but lives at his ease and +happily ever afterwards. + +Having thus examined under its principal aspects the most popular +Asiatic tradition relative to the ass, let us now go on to epitomise +the European tradition, and, if possible, more briefly; all the more +that the reader, having, as I hope, now the key of the myth, will be +of himself able to refer to it many analogous particulars of +Grco-Latin tradition. I say Grco-Latin alone, because the myth of +the ass among Slavonic and Germanic nations, where the ass is little, +if at all, known, had no especial and independent development. In +Slavonic countries, the part of the ass is generally sustained by Ivan +the fool or Emilius the lazy one, as also by the bear or wolf, as in +India it is often sustained by the monkey;[721] ass, bear, wolf, and +monkey, as mythical animals, represent almost identical phenomena. + +Let us take the story of Midas again at its commencement. + +Midas appears in _Herodotus_, not only as a king of Phrygia, but as a +progenitor of the Phrygians. In the Tusculans of Cicero, the drunken +satyr Silenos (originally another form of the same Midas, the satyrs +having ass's ears), the master of Dionysos, loses himself in the +rose-garden belonging to Midas, before whom he is conducted, and by +whom he is benevolently received and entertained, and then sent back +with honour to the god, who, in gratitude, concedes to Midas the gift +of turning to gold everything that he touches, to such an extent as to +affect the food that he wishes to eat and the water in which he +bathes. This myth is probably of a complex nature. Midas ought, like +the ass, to turn to gold what he has eaten, that is, to turn his food +and drink into excrements of gold, to fructify the golden ears of +corn, _i.e._, in heaven, the solar rays. Cicero himself leads us to +suppose that the myth of Midas is in relation with the ears of corn, +when, in his first book _De Divinatione_, he says that the ants +carried grains of wheat into the mouth of Midas when a child; these +being symbols of abundance and of fecundity which are quite applicable +to the mythical ass. For although the common ass is not a privileged +foecundator, the mythical ass, in its capacity of a rain-giving cloud +or ciramehin, is the best fertiliser of the fields. The sun, or gold, +or treasure, comes out of the ass-darkness or ass-cloud. The ass +Lucius, after having eaten the roses of morning or the east, again +becomes Lucius the luminous one (the sun). On this account the ass +Midas, too, who also delights in roses, turns to gold whatever he +eats, as well as the dew or ambrosial fountain in which he bathes; the +rosy becomes the golden; the sun comes out of the contact of the ass +of night with the aurora. + +Servius, in his commentary on the sixth book of the _neid_, also +tells us the centauri "in floribus stabulant," as the Hindoo +gandharvas in the perfumes. These perfumes are rain and dew. The ass +crowned with loaves of bread[722] and flowers, in the Latin worship +of Vesta, who remembered the service rendered to her one day by the +braying of the ass, which aroused her from her sleep when some one was +attempting to violate her, is another variety of the myth of the +aurora who awakes out of the night, golden, that is, rich in golden +oats and in golden wheat. The ass itself is sacrificed, because, +perhaps, it was the ass itself that had made an attempt to deprive +Vesta of her chastity; but having betrayed itself, as it often happens +in fables, by its braying, it arouses Vesta, who punishes it by +offering it in sacrifice. In a variation of the same story in the +first book of Ovid's _Fasti_, where instead of Vesta we have the nymph +Lothis asleep, the red Priapos, who wishes to violate her, also loses +his opportunity, because the ass of Silenos-- + + "Intempestivos edidit ore sonos," + +on which account it is killed by Priapos: + + "Morte dedit poenas auctor clamoris, et hc est + Hellespontiaco victima sacra Deo." + +The apologue is well known of the long-eared ass, who, when called +upon to judge between the nightingale and the cuckoo as to who has the +sweetest voice, decides in favour of the cuckoo. The nightingale then +appeals to man with the sweet song that we are all acquainted +with.[723] In the myth of Midas, the Phrygian hero is given ass's +ears as a chastisement by Apollo, because, having been called upon to +judge between the cithern or lyre of Apollo (whence the proverb +"Asinus ad lyram") and the pastoral pipe (calamus agrestis) of Pan +(who is represented as a horned and bearded satyr, with a tail and +long ears), he pronounced that the pan-pipes were the most harmonious +instrument. Midas hides his ears in a red cap, but his comber lets out +the secret, as in the Mongol story, and in a manner almost identical-- + + "Ille quidem celat, turpique onerata pudore + Tempora purpureis tentat velare tiaris: + Sed, solitus longos ferro resecare capillos, + Viderat hoc famulus: qui, cum nec prodere visum + Dedecus auderet, cupiens efferre sub auras, + Nec posset reticere tamen, secedit; humumque + Effodit, et domini quales aspexerit aures, + Voce refert parva: terrque immurmurat haust. + Indiciumque su vocis tellure regesta + Obruit, et scrobibus tacitus discedit opertis. + Creber arundinibus tremulis ibi surgere lucus + Coepit; et, ut primum pleno maturuit anno, + Prodidit agricolam: leni jam motus ab Austro + Obruta verba refert; dominique coarguit aures."[724] + +The same Greeks who held the ass up to derision, made the Phrygian +king Midas, of the ass's ears, the object of their satire. This is a +particular form of the mythico-heroic struggle between Greeks and +Phrygians or Trojans. Apollo is the enemy of the Trojans, as he is the +enemy of the Phrygian king Midas. The Trojans and Troy are +represented by the ass, and the Greeks, who vanquish and take by +assault the Trojan fortress, by the horse; the sun disperses the +night; the hero kills the centaur; the horse defeats the ass, the +Greek the Trojan; and every one can see how the fact that the Greeks +personified in the ass their enemies in Asia Minor, must have damaged +the reputation of the poor long-eared animal. The most bitter and +cutting satire is always that which is directed towards one's own +enemies; and the ass, unfortunately, had at one time the honour of +representing the Phrygian, the traditional enemy of the Greek. The ass +bore the load of this heroic war, in the same way as in the Middle +Ages he was publicly impaled by the Paduans for having had the +misfortune of being the sacred animal on the arms of the city of +Vicenza, with which the Paduans lived in rivalry.[725] + +In the same eleventh book of Ovid where the transformation of the +human ears of Midas into ass's ears is described, it is very +remarkable that the new ears are called whitish, as in the Mongol +story they are said to be golden. This confirms still more the +interpretation of the myth, to the effect that the ass is the solar +steed during the night. The head and the tail of the night, conceived +as an animal, are now the two whitish or grey twilights, and now the +two golden auroras of morning and evening. + + "Nec Delius aures + Humanam stolidas patitur retinere figuram, + Sed trahit in spatium villisque albentibus implet + Instabilesque illas facit et dat posse moveri." + +The changeableness of the twilights must have served very well to +express the mobility of the ears of an ass. + +In the story of the ass, Midas, the musical critic, the predestined ass, +pronounces in favour of Pan; and he does so not only on account of the +consanguinity between himself and the god, but also from a patriotic +feeling. Pan was born in a forest of Arcadia, of Zeus and the nymph +Kallisto; and it is well known that antiquity celebrated the asses of +Arcadia above those of every other country. The ass as a musician, the +ass as a musical critic, Pan the musician, and Pan preferred by the ass, +are the same person. Arcadia, the country of pastoral music, of +whistling shepherds, which made the Italy of the seventeenth and +eighteenth centuries bleat out so many useless verses, the country of +Pan the satyr, _par excellence_, is the country of the ass. Arcadia is +the most mountainous and wooded part of Greece,[726] and therefore, when +the Olympians came down from heaven, celestial nymphs and satyrs came to +people the forests and fountains of Arcadia. The divine guardian of the +ambrosia in the heavenly cloud takes, in the Arcadian forest, the form +of Pan, god of shepherds, who keeps guard over the honey. The +gandharvs, who danced and sung in the Hindoo Olympus with the +apsarasas, has descended into Arcadia in the shape of Pan, to dance and +sing with the nymphs.[727] Pan who goes alone into the gloomy forest, +Pan who chases fear away, connected as he is with the story of the ass, +reminds us on the one hand of the superstition recorded by Pliny, to the +effect that an ass's skin put upon children chases fear from them[728] +(in the same way as in the province of Girgenti, in Sicily, it is +believed that shoes made of a wolf's skin, put on children's feet, make +them daring and lucky in battle), and, on the other hand, of the +unpublished Piedmontese story of the fearless Giovannino, who, in reward +for his courage in going alone to hell, brings away with him an ass +which throws gold from its tail.[729] In Tzetzas[730] I find again the +curious notion that Midas sold his own _stercus_ out of avarice, that +is, that he changed it into gold, as Vespasian used to do by selling the +excrement of his horse. + +The sopian ass, when he goes to battle, terrifies by his braying all +the animals of the forest; so Pan defeats his enemies by means of his +terrible voice; and according to Herodotus,[731] in the heroic battle +of Marathon, the Athenians were helped by the powerful voice of the +god Pan. Finally, as we have seen Apollo to be the rival of Pan and +the enemy of the Phrygian Midas, the predestined ass, as well as of +the Trojans, so, in the eleventh of the Pythic odes of Pindar, we find +the hero Perseus, among the Hyperboreans,[732] eating asses.[733] The +morning sun devours the ass of night, as we have seen the solar hero +Rustem do in the _Shah-Name_, where he eats the wild asses. + +But we must look for more mythical personages in connection with the +ass Midas in Arcadia, as the region of Pan and of asses. The ass Midas +is considered as a rich progenitor of races, and is supposed to have +been the first Phrygian. Windischmann has already observed (with the +examples of Yamas, Yima, Manus, Minos, and Radamanths) the connection +between the rich progenitor of races and the rich king or judge of +hell. To Midas the progenitor and to Midas the judge, corresponds the +ass whose excrements are of gold, the ass judge and prophet, the +Arcadian and prophetic Pan. The Arcadians considered themselves not +only autocthonoi, but proselnoi, or anterior to the moon. But they +are also considered in the light of inhabitants of an infernal region. +In Arcadia was situated the lake Stmphalos, the demoniacal birds of +which were slain by Hrakls in Arcadia; in a chasm formed of wild +rocks was the source of the Styx, the principal infernal river, that +by which the Hellenic infernal beings were accustomed to swear. Greek +and Latin writers used to narrate of the ass (and the mule) that it +had an especial aversion to the water of the Styx, as being poisonous. +This superstition, when referred to the myth, appears to mean that, +when the solar hero drinks this water--the water of the dark or cloudy +ocean--he becomes a dark ass. (We find in Russian stories the hero who +is transformed into a bull, a horse, or a he-goat, when he drinks +water of which a demoniacal bull, horse, or he-goat has previously +drunk.) lianos, in his tenth book relative to animals, speaking of +the horned asses of Scythia, writes that they held in their horns the +water of the Styx. A similar narrative is given by Philostratos in the +third book of his romantic Life of Apollonios, concerning the fabulous +horned ass of India. "It is said," he writes, "that in the marshy +ground near the Indian river Hyphasis many wild asses are to be found; +and that these wild beasts have on their heads a horn with which they +fight bravely like bulls" (this seems to be a reminiscence of the +Indian rhinoceros); "and that the Indians form out of these horns +drinking-cups, affirming that those who drink out of these cups are +delivered from every illness for all that day; when wounded they feel +no pain, they pass safely through flames, nor, when they have drunk +out of it, can they be hurt by any poison. They say that these cups +belong to kings alone, nor is it permitted to any other than a king to +hunt the animal. It is narrated that Apollonios (the hero of the +romance) had seen this animal and observed its nature with wonder. +Moreover, to Damis, who asked him whether he had faith in what was +commonly said concerning the virtue of this cup, he answered 'I will +believe it when I shall have learned that in this country the king is +immortal.'" And no doubt Apollonios would have believed had it been +impossible for him to divine that the king who makes use of this +marvellous cup is the immortal sun, to whom alone it is reserved to +kill the ass of the nocturnal forest, the ass whose hairy ears are +like horns,[734] whose ears are of gold. + +The horn of the Scythian ass full of Stygian water, the horn of the +ass which, when used as a cup, gives health and happiness to him who +drinks out of it, remind us (not to speak of Samson's jaw-bone of an +ass, which makes water flow) especially of the myth of the cornucopia +and that of the goat, with which the satyrs and fauns, having goat's +feet, stand in particular connection. It is also for this reason that +the ass is found in relation with Pan; wherefore it is too that +Silenos rides upon an ass, and appears, as we have already seen, in +the story of Midas, in his garden of roses; indeed the mythical +centaurs or onocentaurs, satyr, faun, ass, and goat are equivalent +expressions. We have seen, a few pages back, the Zendic three-legged +ass; in the following chapter we shall find the lame goat. + +As the ass was ridden by Silenos,[735] so was he the animal dedicated to +Bacchus and to Priapos, whose mysteries were celebrated in the Dionysian +feasts. It is said that when Bacchus had to traverse a marsh, he met +with two young asses, and was conveyed by one of them, who was endowed +with human speech, to the other side without touching the water. (The +116th hymn of the first book of the _Rigvedas_ merits being especially +compared with this. In it, immediately after having represented the +Avinu as drawn by winged asses, the poet celebrates the Avinu as +delivering the hero Bhugyus out of the waters upon a vessel that moved +of itself in the air.)[736] On this account it is said that Bacchus, in +gratitude, placed the two young asses among the stars.[737] This is +another confirmation of the fact that the mythical ass really had the +virtue of flying; and the proverb "Asinus si volat habet alas"[738] +alludes to this myth. The fable of the ass who wishes to fly, and the +flight of the ass, are derisive allusions, applied to the earthly ass. +The celestial myth lingers in the memory, but is no longer understood. + +In the myth of Prometheus, in _lianos_ (vi. 5), we have the ass who +carries the talisman which makes young again, which Zeus intended for +him who should discover the robber of the divine fire (Prometheus). The +ass, being thirsty, approaches a fountain, and is about to drink, when a +snake who guards the fountain prevents him from doing so. The ass offers +the snake the charm which he is carrying, upon which the serpent strips +off its old age, and the ass, drinking at the fountain, acquires the +power of becoming young again. The ass of night, when he drinks the dew +of the dawn, grows young and handsome again every day. It is on this +account, I repeat, that youth is celebrated as a peculiar virtue of the +ass; it is on this account that the Romans attributed a great cosmetic +virtue to ass's milk[739] (the white dawn, or moon). + +The mythical ass seems to die every day, whereas, on the contrary it +is born anew every day, and becomes young again; whence the Greek +proverb does not celebrate the death in the singular, but the deaths +of the ass ("Onou thanatous"). + +The Italian proverb of the ass that carries wine and drinks water, +probably alludes to the ass that carries the water of youth, and then, +being thirsty, drinks at the fountain in the legend of Prometheus. The +wine of the Hellenic and Latin myth corresponds to the inebriating +drink or somas in which Indras delights so much in the _Rigvedas_. The +ass bears the drunken Silenos on its back. + +The sun, who in the cloud is covered with the skin of an ass, carries +the rain; whence the Greek proverb the ass is wetted by the rain +("Onos hetai"), and the popular belief that when the ears of the ass +or of a satyr (that is to say, of the ass itself) move, it is an +indication of rainy weather (or dew). When the sun comes out of the +shadows of night, he drinks the milk or white humour of the early +morning sky, the same white foaming humour which caused the birth of +Aphrodit, the same humour out of which, by the loves of Dionysos (or +of Pan, of a satyr, or of the ass itself) and Aphrodit, the satyr was +procreated--Priapos, whose phallic loves are discovered by the ass. +The satyr serves as a link between the myth of the ass and that of the +goat. On this account (that is, on account of the close relation +between the mythical ass and the mythical goat) two ancient Greek and +Latin proverbs--_i.e._, to dispute about the shadow of the ass ("Peri +onou skias") and to dispute, "De lana caprina"--have the same meaning, +a dispute concerning a bagatelle (but which is no trifle in the myth, +where the skin of the goat or of the ass is sometimes changed into a +golden fleece), which seems so much the more probable, as the Greeks +have also handed down to us another proverb in which the man who +expects to reap where he has not sown is laughed at as one who looks +for the wool of the ass ("Onou pokas zteis"), or who shears the ass +("Ton onon keireis"). We have seen, in the myth of Midas, the king, +whose ears, when combed, betray his asinine nature. The Piedmontese +story of the maiden on whose forehead a horn or an ass's tail grows, +because she has badly combed the good fairy's head, is connected with +this story of the combing of the long-eared Midas. The combed ass and +the sheared ass correspond with one another; the combed ass has golden +ears, in the same way as gold and gems fall from the head of the good +fairy combed by the good girl in the fairy tale. To this mythical +belief, I think, may be traced the origin of the medival custom in +the Roman Church, which lasted till the time of Gregory VII., in which +public ovations were offered to the Pope, and an ass bearing money +upon its head was brought before him.[740] + +The shadow of the ass[741] betrays him, no less than his ears, his +nose, and his braying. The shadow of the ass and his nose are found in +connection with each other in the legend of the Golden Ass of +Apuleius, which, after narrating how the ass, by putting his head out +of the window, had betrayed his master the greengrocer or gardener +(the friend of perfumes, "Gandharvas, asinus, in unguento, onos en +mro"), concludes thus: "The miserable gardener having been found +again, and taken before the magistrates to pay the fine, they lead him +to a public prison, and with great laughter cease not, says the ass +Lucius, to "make merry with my face;" whence also was derived the +popular proverb concerning the face and shadow of the ass ('De +prospectu et umbra asini')." The ass who betrays his master the +greengrocer or gardener by his face is a variety of the ass who, +dressed in the forest in the lion's skin[742] (like Hrakls who goes +into hell dressed in a lion's skin), betrays himself by his braying, +and of the ass who discovers by his braying Priapos, who delights in +gardens (the vulva), Priapos the gardener, like the ogre[743] of the +_Pentamerone_, who finds before him in his garden a beautiful maiden. + +The ass can restrain neither his voice nor his flatus; we have already +seen something similar in the story of Midas, where the comber of the +ass feels he will burst if he is not permitted to relieve himself of +the secret of the ass. Diogens of Laertes narrates that the fields of +Agrigentum being devastated by malignant winds which destroyed the +crops, the philosopher Empedocles instructed them to take asses' +skins, and having made sacks of them, carry them to the summits of the +hills and mountains, to chase the winds away. lianos, confounding one +noise with another, suggests, to prevent the ass from braying, the +advantage of appending a stone to its tail. This ancient Greek fable +is to this day very popular in Italy, and the narrator is accustomed +to furbish it up with a character of actuality, as if it had happened +yesterday, and among his acquaintances. + +In the Italian stories,[744] when the ass brays upon the mountain, a +tail grows on the forehead of the step-mother's ugly daughter; the third +crowing of the cock is the signal for the monster's death; the third +braying or flatus of the ass announces the death of the fool. With the +end of the night the ass disappears, and the fool also disappears or +dies. The braying of the ass cannot mount up into heaven; after the ass +has brayed, after the cloud has thundered, the ass comes down upon the +earth, is dissolved into rain, is dispersed and dies; the dark ass +cannot remain in the luminous sky, it can only inhabit the cloudy, +watery, or gloomy sky of hell. The way in which the fool of the story +tries to elude death resembles that which was used, according to +lianos, to prevent the ass from braying. In a story of Armagnac,[745] +Joan lou Pc runs after a man whom he believes to be a sage, and asks +him when he will die; the man answers, "Joan lou Pc, mouriras au +troisimo pet de toun ase." The ass does so twice; the fool endeavours +to prevent the third: "Cop sec s'en-angonc cerca un pau (a stake) bien +pounchut et l'enfouncc das un martet dens lou cu de l'ase. Mes l'ase +s'enflec tant, e hasconc tant gran effort, que lou pau sourtisconc coumo +no balo e tuc lou praube Joan lou Pc." + +In _Herodotus_, the Scythians are defeated when the asses bray, and +the dogs bark among Darius's tents. The braying of the ass, the +thunder of the cloud, is an oracle; the ass that brays is a judge and +a prophet. In hell everything is known; the devil knows every art, +every species of malice, every secret; the ass in hell participates in +this knowledge. The ass Nicon, in _Plutarch_, in the Life of Antony, +predicts to Augustus his victory at the battle of Actium; on the +contrary, in the Life of Alexander, by the same author, an ass who +kills with a kick a great lion belonging to the Macedonian, appears to +the great conqueror in the light of an evil omen. The dying sun of +evening, the old lion, is killed in the evening by the ass of night; +in the morning, on the contrary, the ass of night announces his +fortune to the solar hero, who again becomes luminous and wise. The +ass can predict all things, because it knows all things; it knows +everything, because it hears everything, and it hears everything by +means of its exceedingly long ears; the ass of Apuleius says of +itself: "Recreabar quod auribus prditus cuncta longule etiam dissita +sentiebam." And this ass which listens from a distance reminds us +again of the third brother, now a fool, and now only supposed to be a +fool; to the Andalusian Oidin-Oidon, hijo del buen oidor (a relation +of the already cited Vedic Indras rutkarnas), of the second cuento +of Caballero,[746] who hears everything that is done in the deepest +parts of hell, where Lucifer sits, horned and large-eared. The hero +who combats with Lucifer only thinks of cutting off his ear; the ass +without ears is no longer an ass; the ears of the mythical ass are its +vital and characteristic organs. Instead of ears, give horns to the +mythical ass, and we have the mythical goat; take the horns away and +we have now the mythical abject sheep, now the hog; this is what we +shall see in the two next chapters. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[686] _Ueber den Zusammenhang indischer Fabeln mit griechischen_, eine +kritische Abhandlung von A. Weber, Berlin, 1855. + +[687] Here is the hymn as given by Du Cange in his _Gloss. M. et I. +L._:-- + + "Orentis partibus + Adventavit Asinus, + Pulcher et fortissimus, + Sarcinis aptissimus. + Hez, Sire Asnes, car chantez, + Belle bouche rechignez, + Vous aurez du fom assez + Et de l'avoine plantez. + + "Lentus erat pedibus + Nisi foret baculus + Et eum in clunibus + Pungeret aculeus. + Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. + + "Hic in collibus Sichem, + Jam nutritus sub Ruben, + Transiit per Jordanem, + Saliit in Bethleem. + Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. + + "Ecce magnis auribus + Subjugalis filius + Asinus egregius + Asinorum dominus. + Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. + + "Saltu vincit hinnulos, + Damas et capreolos, + Super dromedarios + Velox Madianeos. + Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. + + "Auram de Arabia, + Thus et myrrhum de Saba + Tulit in ecclesia + Virtus Asinaria. + Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. + + "Dum trahit vehicula + Multa cum sarcinula, + Illius mandibula, + Dura terit pabula, + Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. + + "Cum aristis hordeum + Comedit et carduum; + Triticum a palea + Segregat in area. + Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. + + "Amen, dicas, Asine, + (_Hic genuflectabatur._) + Jam satur de gramine: + Amen, amen itera + Aspernare vetera. + Hez va! hez va! hez va! hez! + Bialz! Sire Asne, car allez; + Belle bouche car chantez." + +[688] Cfr. Reinsberg von Dringsfeld, _Das festliche Jahr_. + +[689] Sometimes the place of the ass is taken by the mule. At Turin, for +instance, it is narrated that the church dedicated to the _Corpus +Domini_ was erected several centuries ago on account of the miracle of a +mule which carried some sacred goods stolen by an impious thief. Having +arrived in the little square where the Church of the _Corpus Domini_ now +stands, the mule refused to go any farther; and out of a cup, which was +among the sacred objects stolen, a wafer containing the body of our +Saviour rose into the air. Nor would it come down again until the bishop +came forth, and, holding the cup high in the air, besought the wafer to +come back into it; which having been miraculously accomplished, the +Church of the _Corpus Domini_ was erected on the spot, from which starts +and to which returns the solemn procession which takes place annually at +Turin on the festival of _Corpus Domini_, and in which, about twenty +years ago, the princes and great dignitaries of the state, with the +professors of the university, used to take part in all the pomp of +medival ceremony and costume.--In Persia the festival of asses is +celebrated at the approach of spring; the ass personifying here the end +of the winter season. + +[690] The same analogy presents itself in the Sanskrit word +_arbhakas_, which means little and foolish. + +[691] Cfr. the root _gad_, from which we might perhaps deduce an +imaginary intermediate form, gadarbhas, besides the known gardabhas +and gandharbas or gandharvas. + +[692] Cfr. _arvan_ with the roots _arv, arb, arp, riph, riph, riv, +rinv_. + +[693] x. 10, 5. + +[694] Gandharva itth padam asya rakshati.; _Rigv._ ix. 83, 4. + +[695] Strkmh vi gandharvh; i. 27. + +[696] Professor Kuhn (_Die Herabkunft_, d. f. &c.) has already compared +to this the Zend Gandhrawa, who, in the Lake Vuru-Kasha, keeps guard +over the tree _hom_ (the Vedic Somas). Kuhn and Weber, moreover, have +identified the Vedic gandharvas, Krinus, who wounds the ravisher of +the Somas, with the Zend Kereni, who endeavours to destroy riches; +here the gandharvas would appear to be a monstrous and demoniacal being. + +[697] ... ut omittam eos, quos libidinis ac foed voluptatis causa, +coluisse nomen illud atque imposuisse suis, a scriptoribus notatur, +qualis olim Onos ille Commodi; qualis exsecrandus Marci Verotrasinus, +qualis et alterius Onobelos, quales, quos matronis in deliciis fuisse +scimus. Unde illud atque alium bipedem sibi qurit asellum, ejus nempe +membri causa, quod, in asino, clava, a Nicandro dicitur; _Laus Asini_, +Lugd. Batavorum, ex officina Elzeviriana, p. 194. + +[698] To this flight into Egypt upon the ass can be referred the +Piedmontese custom among children in the middle of Lent--that is, near +the festival of St Joseph--of attaching to their companions now a saw, +now a devil's head, now an ass's head, pronouncing the words, "L'asu +cari che gnn lu sa" (the ass burdened, and no one knows it). +Moreover, it seems to me that to the Christian tradition of Joseph, +and of the child Jesus carried upon the ass, can be referred the +well-known European fable of the old man, the boy, and the ass, of +which numerous varieties may be read in the article upon the _asinus +vulgi_ in the _Orient und Occident_ of Benfey. + +[699] Professor Benfey, in his learned Einleitung to the +_Pancatantram_, p. 268, says that the disguise by means of the skin of +an ass is found in a Latin poem of the fifteenth century. + +[700] "Addo ex Conrado Lycosthene in libro de ostentis et prodigiis +hanc iconem quam hippokentauri esse credebam, ipse vero (nescio ex +quo) Apothami vocat, Apothami (inquit) in aqua morantes, qui una parte +hominem, alia vero caballum sive equum referunt. Sic etiam memori +tradiderunt mulieres esse capite plano sine crinibus, promissas autem +barbas habentes. Atqui ea descriptio plane ad Onocentauros pertinere +videtur, quos Aelianus et Philes sic fere delineant. Qu vero de +Onocentauro fama accepi, hc sunt: Eum homini ore et promissa barba +similem esse, simul et collum et pectus, humanam speciem gerere; +mammas distantes tamquam mulieris ex pectore pendere; humeros, +brachia, digitos, humanam figuram habere; dorsum, ventrem, latera, +posteriores pedes, asino persimiles et quemadmodum asinum sic cinereo +colore esse; imum ventrem leviter exalbescere: duplicem usum ei manus +prstare; nam celeritate ubi sit opus e manus prcurrunt ante +posteriores pedes; ex quo fit, ut non cterorum quadrupedum cursu +superetur. Ac ubi rursus habet necesse vel cibum capere vel aliud +quidpiam tollere, qui ante pedes erant manus efficiuntur, tumque non +graditur, sed in sessione quiescit: Animal est gravi animi acerbitate; +nam si capiatur, non ferens servitutem, libertatis desiderio ab omni +cibo abhorret, et fame sibi mortem consciscit, licet pullus adhuc +fuerit. Hc de Onocentauro Pythagoram narrare testatur Crates, ex +Mysio Pergamo profectus;" Aldrovandi, _De Quadrupedibus_, i.--In the +Indian satyrs described by Pliny, in the seventh book of his _Natural +History_, we find represented an analogous animal: "Sunt et satyri +subsolanis Indorum montibus (Cartadulonum dicitur regio) pernicissimum +animal, turn quadrupes, turn recte currens, humana effigie, propter +velocitatem nisi senes aut gri, aut capiuntur." Evidently this refers +to some kind of monkey (probably the orang-outang); but as the myth of +the monkey does not differ much from that of the ass, as we shall see, +even the Hindoo gandharvas is represented as a monkey.--"In _A. V._ +iv. 37, 11, the gandharvas, a class of gods, who are described as +hairy, like dogs and monkeys, but as assuming a handsome appearance to +seduce the affections of earthly females, are implored to desist from +this unbecoming practice, and not to interfere with mortals, as they +had wives of their own, the Apsarases;" Muir's _Sanskrit Texts_, v. +309.--We have the monkey-gandharvas and the warrior-gandharvas in the +Vedic hymns, the warrior-monkey in the _Rmyanam_, and the +warrior-kentauros and warrior-ass in Hellenic myths. + +[701] We also read of the ass that dances, which reminds us of the +gandharvas in their capacity of heavenly musicians and dancers, who +teach the gods how to dance. Nor is it perhaps without reason that the +author of precepts for dancers and mimics is named _Krivas_: +krivas means, as we already know, he who possesses a lean horse, or +simply the lean horse. Between the lean horse, the mule, and the ass, +the distance is short; nor can we overlook the fact that in the +gandharvas Krinus is recognised as he who causes to become lean, +which calls us back to the monster who makes horses grow lean, to the +monster of horses, the ugly horse, the horse-monster, who destroys the +golden ears of the fields, making them dry up, like the monster +ushnas, or the destroyer of riches, like the Zend Kereni.--In the +before-quoted book, _Laus Asini_, the author says in jest, "Fortassis +Pegasum fuisse asinum;" and in this jest a great truth is contained. + +[702] Kad yogo vgino rsabhasya yena yagnam nsatyopaythah; _Rigv._ +i. 34, 9. + +[703] Vilupatmabhir uhemabhir v devnm v gtibhih adn tad +rsabho nsaty sahasram g yamasya pradhane gigya. + +[704] Yatr rathasya brihato nidhnam vimocanam vgino rsabhasya; +_Rigv._ iii. 53, 5. + +[705] Nvginam vgin hsayanti na gardabham puro avn nayanti; +_Rigv._ iii. 53, 23. + +[706] Gardabharathenvin udagayatmavinvnuvtm yadavin +udagayatmavinvnuvtm tasmtsasritagavo dugdhadohah +sarveshmetarhi vhannmanishto retasastvasya vryam nharatm +tasmtsa dviret vg; _it. Br._ iv. 2, 9. + +[707] _Ueber den Zusammenhang indischer Fabeln mit griechischen_, +Berlin, 1855. + +[708] St Jerome, in the Life of Saint Hilarion: "Ego, inquit, Aselle, +faciam ut non calcitres necte hordeo alam, sed paleis; fame te +conficiam et sitis gravi onerabo pondere; per stus indagabo et +frigore, ut cibum potius quam lasciviam cogites."--St Paulinus wrote, +"Sit fortis anima mortificans asinum suum."--In Italian, too, there is +a low term by which we say, _il mio asino_, instead of _il mio corpo_. + +[709] A. c. i. m. t.,--poena seu mulcta, qu reis irrogari solebat, ut +colligitur ex decreto Nepesini populi ann. 1134.--Iis et maxime +maritis, qui a suis vapulabant mulieribus; quod eo usque insani +deventum erat, ut si maritus aufugisset, proximior vicinus eam ipse +poenam luere teneretur; quem morem non omnino periisse audivi. Du +Cange, whose words these are, gives several examples of a similar +chastisement.--In the _Tuti-Name_, ii. 20, a certain man complains to +a sage that he has lost his ass, and begs the wise man to find it +again for him; the latter points out a man who grew old without having +known love; he who does not love is a fool.--It is a remarkable fact +that the ass, generally considered a very lustful animal, is sometimes +despised as unadapted to make fruitful, and the reason of this is +given by Aldrovandi (_De Quadrupedibus_, i.)--Quamvis modo libidine +maxime pruriat, ob verendi tamen enormitatem, qua supra modum prditus +est, ad generandum admodum segnem esse compertum est, sicuti et +homines qui simili genitalis productione conspicui sunt, quod in +emissione per eam longitudinem semen transmeans hebetetur et frigidius +fiat. Testaturque lianus inter causas cur gyptii asinos odere, et +hanc quoque accedere putari, quod eum populi prdicti omnes foecundos +animantes colant, asinus minime foecundans nullus in honore sit. + +[710] Sam, indra, gardabham mrina nuvantam ppaymuy; _Rigv._ i. 29, 5. + +[711] Quoted by Weber, _Ueber den Zusammenhang indischer Fabeln mit +griechischen_, where the braying ass would also appear to be born of the +omniform monster: "Entsteht, nach . xii. 7, 1, 5, nebst Ross und +Maulthier, aus dem Ruhm (yaas, which, however, may perhaps here also +simply mean splendour), welcher dem Ohr des getdteten Vivarpa +Tvshtra entfloss, worin der Bezug auf sein lautes Geschrei wohl nicht +zu verkennen ist."--We have already seen, in the Russian stories quoted +in the preceding chapter, how the two horsemen who protect the hero come +out of the ears of the grey horse, and how the hero himself, entering by +one ear, and coming out of the other, finds a heroic horse. Here we can, +perhaps, detect an allusion to the long-eared ass, in the same way as in +the appellation of rutkarnas, or the ear which listens, given to +Indras (_Rigv._ i. 10, 9), the long-eared Indras may possibly be a form +representing the long-eared Midas, or the ass with long ears. + +[712] Gatim khara ivvasya suparnasyeva pakshinah angantum na akto +'smi rgyam tava mahpate. + +[713] _Rmy._ ii. 71. + +[714] _Rmy._ iii. 38, 48. + +[715] _Ib._ v. 12. + +[716] vi. 74. + +[717] Kravydah pich, in the _Atharvavedas_, viii. 2, 12. + +[718] Cfr. also the _Tuti-Name_ of Rosen, ii. 218, for the musical +ass; and the same, ii. 149, for the ass in a lion's skin. + +[719] xli. 28.--Cfr. the _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's _Einleitung_, p. +54: "Dort ist der dreibeinige Esel der in der Mitte des Sees steht und +mit seinem Geschrei die bsen Wesen vertreibt und alles Wasser, das +mit unreinen Wesen und Dingen in Berhrung kommt, sogleich reinigt." + +[720] Readers of Dante are acquainted with the trumpet of the devil +Malacoda, which is used in the same way as the fool uses his in the +Mongol story. + +[721] In Menander, quoted by Aulus Gellius, a husband complains of the +injuries done him by his wife, using the proverb, "The ass amongst the +monkeys." Monkeys are well known for their impudent lasciviousness; +the ass, who represents the phallos, among this lascivious fraternity +finds himself often in the condition of an impotent and weak husband. + +[722] + + Lampsacus huic soli solita est mactare Priapo. + Apta asini flammis indicis exta damus. + Quem tu diva memor de pane monilibus ornas; + Cessat opus; vacu conticuere mol. + --Ovidius, _Fasti_, vi. + +[723] From the myth of the ass, as a musician and judge of music, is +derived the Tuscan game of the ass, which is thus described by Signor +Fanfani in his _Vocabolario dell' Uso Tuscano_, Firenze, 1863:--"Each +member of the party chooses an animal whose voice or song he must +imitate. The head player represents the ass, and is the king of the +other animals. When the head player, sitting in the middle, calls one +of the animals who encircle him, the dog, for instance, this animal +must bark; when he calls the cock, it must cry chicchiric; when he +calls the ox, he who represents it must bellow, and so on. When the +ass brays, then all the animals emit their respective cries. Whoever +laughs, or omits to give forth the voice or song of the animal which +he represents, pays a forfeit." + +[724] Ovidius, _Metam._ xi. 180. + +[725] According to the _Annals of Padova_, cited by Berrardino +Scardeone, in Aldrovandi. _De Quadrupedibus_, i. + +[726] The German proverb, "Wald hat Ohren, Feld hat Gesicht," is well +known. Cfr. the varieties of this proverb upon the ears of the forest, +in the third vol. pp. 120 and 173, of Uhland's _Schriften zur +Geschichte der Dichtung und Sage_, Stttgart, 1866. + +[727] The reader is acquainted with the myth of the nymph Syrinx, +beloved of Pan, who was changed into a cane or reed, from which Pan made +a flute. We find the leaf of the cane in connection with the ass in +Hungarian tradition. A singular indentation can be observed upon the +leaves of the cane, which has a great resemblance to the mark of three +teeth. To explain this strange mark the Hungarian people narrate, that +the ass of the Redeemer once bit the leaf of a cane, but as Christ was +in a hurry, the ass was unable to eat the leaf, and so it happened that +its three teeth only left the mark of the bite upon the cane. From that +time forward every leaf of a cane bears record to this. The two lines +which stretch down the two flanks of the ass are said in Hungary to be +caused by the blood of our Redeemer. The popular belief in Ireland is +that these lines remain as a memorial of Christ having once struck the +ass.--Cfr. the chapter on the Peacock and that on the Eel, where we +shall find the hero and the heroine again transformed into canes. + +[728] The loss of heart or courage is expressed in Italian by the low +term "Qu mi casca l'asino" (here my ass falls). This expression, +however, may perhaps be of Hellenic origin; the equivoque between the +two equisonant expressions, "ap' onou" and "apo nou" is well-known; +whence to fall off the ass and to fall from one's mind became +synonymous. + +[729] There is an unpublished story which I heard narrated at Antignano, +near Leghorn, of a mother who has a silly son named Pipetta. The latter +asks his mother for a quattrino (a small coin) to buy a vetch, and +afterwards a bean, because it grows higher; he sows it, and it attains a +marvellous height. Climbing up the bean-stalk he comes to the gates of +paradise, which are opened to him, but St Peter sends him back; he then +finds the entrance to hell, which he wishes to visit. The devil shows +him all the sights; the two then play at cards, and Pipetta wins a +sackful of souls. The devil fears that Pipetta will empty hell, so he +allows him to depart with the sack, and an ass which throws gold from +its tail; he mounts up to heaven, and consigns the sack of souls to St +Peter. The story ends with the usual exchange of asses at the inn where +Pipetta sleeps upon his descent from the beanstalk. + +[730] _Biblion Istorikon_, i. 116.--It is added, that when Titus +remonstrated with his father on his avarice, Vespasian made him smell +the gold for which the horse's dung had been sold, asking him whether +it smelt bad.--In the Mongol story we saw the fool who goes out with +his ass and hides it in a cavern afterwards despoiling a merchant's +caravan.--_Tzetzas_, i. 128, records the existence in Phrygia of a +village called "Ass's-ears" ( klsis onou ta), inhabited by robbers, +and belonging to Midas; he thinks, moreover, that Midas was surnamed +the large-eared on account of this village of his. + +[731] vi. 105. + +[732] Kleitas onn hekatombas, xi. 51. + +[733] In _Anton. Liberalis_ we find a long narrative from which we +gather that Apollo would only suffer the ass to be sacrificed to him +among the Hyperboreans. + +[734] I read on this subject in the curious volume _Laus Asini_, +printed at Leyden by Elzevir, the following notice: "Si quis graviter +a scorpione ictus, id in aurem insusurret asino, ex tempore curetur." + +[735] + + "Te senior turpi sequitur Silenus asello + Turgida pampineis redimitus tempora sertis + Condita lascivi deducunt orgya myst." + --Seneca, _Oedipus_. + +[736] Tam hathur nubhir tmanvatbhir antarikshaprudbhir +apodakbhih; strophe 3.--Cfr. strophe 4th and 5th of the same hymn. + +[737] Another reason is also assigned for the honour given to the ass +in heaven: the ass and Priapos contend together as to who is superior; +Priapos defeats the ass, and Dionysos takes pity upon the vanquished, +and places it in heaven among the stars. + +[738] _Laus Asini_, Ludg. Batavorum, ex officina Elzeviriana. + +[739] "Conferre aliquid et candori in mulierum cute existimatur. +Poppaea certe Domitii Neronis conjux quingentas secum per omnia +trahens ftas balnearum etiam solio totum corpus illo lacte macerabat, +extendi quoque cutem credens;" _Aldrov._ To which custom Juvenal +alludes in his 6th satire: + + "Atque illo lacte fovetur + Propter quod secum comites educit asellas + Exul hyperboreum si dimittetur ad axim." + +[740] "Finitis laudibus, surgit quidam archipresbyter, retro se +ascendit asinum preparatum a curia; quidam cubicularius tenet in +capite asini bacilem cum xx. solidis denariorum," &c.; in Du Cange, +the work quoted before, _s. v. cornomannia_.--We also find in Du Cange +that a soldier was called in the middle ages "caput asini, pro +magnitudine capitis et congerie capillorum." + +[741] In the _Pentamerone_, iii. 8, the night is called "l'aseno de +l'ombre." + +[742] In the _Pentamerone_, ii. I, we have a variation of the other +sopian fable of the lion who is afraid of the ass. The old witch, in +order to deliver herself from the lion which Petrosinella has caused to +rise, flays an ass and dresses herself in its skin; the lion, believing +it to be really an ass, runs off.--In the thirteenth of the Sicilian +stories collected by Signora Laura Gonzenbach, and published at Leipzig +by Brockhaus, the ass and the lion dispute the spoil; the young hero +divides it, giving to the ass the hay that the lion has in its mouth, +and to the lion the bones in the ass's mouth. But probably the lion here +represents the dog, according to the Greek proverb, "Kni dids achra, +oni ta ostea," to express a thing done the wrong way. + +[743] In the _Pentamerone_ again, in the island of the ogres, an old +ogress feeds a number of asses, who afterwards jump on to the bank of +a river and kick the swans; here the ass is demoniacal, as it is in +the _Rmyanam_; the swans, as we shall see, are a form of the +luminous Avinu.--In obscene literature, the _mentula_ as a gardener, +and the _vulva_ as a garden, are two frequent images; cfr., among +others, the Italian poem, _La Menta_. + +[744] Cfr. the first of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_, +in which we also find the third brother, believed to be stupid, who +makes his ass throw gold from its tail; the foolish Pimpi, who kills his +ass whilst cutting wood; the son of the poor man, who amuses himself by +sending the ass before him tied to a string, and then making it return; +the peasant who drags up the ass which had fallen into the marsh, and +who then marries the daughter of the king of Russia (the wintry, the +gloomy, the nocturnal one), who never laughed and whom he causes to +laugh; and the ass who dies after eating a poisoned loaf. + +[745] _Contes et Proverbes Populaires recueillis en Armagnac_, par J. +F. Blad, Paris, Franck. + +[746] _Cuentos y Poesias Populares Andaluces_, collecionados por +Fernan Caballero, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1866. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE SHEEP, THE RAM, AND THE GOAT. + + +SUMMARY. + + The sun-shepherd, and the sun-lamb, ram, or goat.--The dark-coloured + he-goat.--The goat-moon.--Agas; explanation given by Professor + Bral; the Finnic aija.--Meshas; she-goat, ram, skin, sack.--The ram + Indras.--The goats Avinu.--The he-goat Veretraghna.--The lamb and + the goat in the forest opposed to the wolf.--The apple-tree and the + she-goat; the cloud and the apple-tree.--The goat, the nut-tree and + the hazel-nuts.--The wolf assumes the goat's voice; the wolf in the + fire.--The witch takes the voice of the little hero's mother; the + child born of a tree.--The hero among the sheep, or in the spoils of + the sheep, escapes from the witch.--Pshan agvas and his + sister.--The brother who becomes a kid while drinking; the sister in + the sea.--The husband-goat; the goat's skin burned; the monster + appears once more a handsome youth; the funereal mantle of the young + hero; when it is burned, the hero lives again handsome and + splendid.--The children changed into kids.--The cunning Schmier-bock + in the sack.--Agamukh--Ilvalas and Wtpis.--Indras meshndas, + sahasradhras and sahasradras.--The rams of the wolf eaten.--The + goat of expiation, the goat and the stupidity of the hero disappear + at the same time.--The devil-ram; the putrid sheep that throws gold + behind it.--The goat which deprives men of sight.--The young prince, + riding on the goat, solves the riddle.--The spy of heaven; the eye + of God.--The constellation of the she-goat and two kids.--The lame + goat.--The heroine and the goat her guide and nurse.--The milky way + and the she-goat.--The goat's blood, manus Dei; the stone + bezoar.--The cunning goat.--The goat deceives the wolf; the goat + eats the leaf.--The she-goat possessed of a devil.--The + ram-vessel.--Ram and he-goat foecundators.--The he-goat and the + horned husband.--Zeus he-goat and the satyr Pan; Hrakls the rival + of a goat; the old powerless man called a he-goat.--Hellenic forms + of the myth of the goat.--Phrixos and Helle; Jupiter Ammon; the + altar of Apollo; the fleece of the Iberians; the golden ram of + Atreus; Aigsthos; Diana and the white sheep; Neptune a ram; satyrs + and fauns; Herms krioforos; the sheep of Epimenis; lambs, rams, and + he-goats sacrificed; aixourania and the cornucopia.--The mythical + goat; its threefold form; black, white, and light-coloured + lambs.--Pecus and pecunia. + +When the girl aurora leads out of the stable in the morning her +radiant flock, among them there are found to be white lambs, white +kids, and luminous sheep; in the evening the same aurora leads the +lambs, the kids, and the sheep back to the fold. In the early dawn all +this flock is white, by and by their fleeces are golden fleeces; the +white, and afterwards the golden heavens of the east (or the west) +constituting this white and golden flock, and the sun's rays their +fleeces. Then the sun himself, who steps forth from this flock, is now +its young shepherd-king, and now the lamb, the ram, or he-goat. When +the sun enters into the region of night, the he-goat or lamb goes back +to the fold and becomes dark-coloured; the sun veiled by the night or +the cloud is a dark-coloured ram, he-goat, or she-goat. In the night, +says the proverb, all cows are black; and the same might be said of +goats, except in the case of the goat, luminous and all-seeing, coming +out of the nocturnal darkness in the form of the moon. We must, +therefore, consider the sheep or goat under a triple aspect; the +principal and most interesting aspect being that of the sun veiled by +the gloom, or by the cloud, which wears often a demoniacal form, such +as that of the ass or of the hero in hell; the second being that of +the grey-white, and afterwards golden sky of morning, or of the golden +and thereafter grey-white sky of evening which, as a luminous, is +therefore generally a divine form of the goat; and the third aspect +being that of the moon. + +The richest myths refer to the sun enclosed in the cloud or the shades +of night, or to the cloud or darkness of night closing round the sun. +The shifting shadow and the moving cloud on the one side, the damp +night and the rainy cloud on the other, easily came to be represented +as a goat and as a ram. In the Indian tongue, or even the Vedic, +_agas_ is a word which means, properly speaking, pushing, drawing, +moving (agens), and afterwards he-goat; the he-goat butts with its +horns; the sun in the cloud butts with its rays until it opens the +stable and its horns come out.[747] The ram is called _meshas_, or +_mehas_, that is, the pourer or spreader, mingens (like the ass +ciramehin), which corresponds with the _meghas_, or cloud mingens. +Moreover, as in Greek from _aix_,[748] a goat, we have _aigis_, a skin +(gis), so in Sanskrit from _agas_, a goat, we have _aginas_, a skin; +and from _meshas_, a ram, _meshas_, a fleece, a skin, and that which +is formed from it; whence the Petropolitan Dictionary compares with it +the Russian _mieh_ (Lithuanian, _maiszas_) skin and sack. + +Let us now first of all see how these simple images developed +themselves in the Hindoo myth. + +Indras, the pluvial and thundering god, is represented in the first +strophe of a Vedic hymn as a very celebrated heroic ram;[749] in the +second strophe, as the one who pours out ambrosial honey (madacyutam); +in the third strophe, as opening the stable or precinct of the cows to +the Agirasas;[750] in the fourth strophe, as killing the serpent that +covers or keeps back; in the fifth strophe, as expelling the +enchanters with enchantments, and breaking the strong cities of the +monster Piprus;[751] and in the sixth strophe, as crushing under his +foot the giant-like monster Arbudas[752] or monster serpent. Thus far +we have two aspects of the myth, the ram which pours out ambrosial +honey, and the ram which opens the gate and crushes with its foot. In +another hymn the Avinu are compared to two he-goats (ageva), to two +horns (rigeva), and to two swift dogs.[753] A third hymn informs us +that Indras by means of a ram killed a leonine monster.[754] + +Here we evidently have a heroic he-goat or ram. + +Let us compare it with other traditions. In the _Khorda Avesta_[755] +we find Veretraghna (the Zend form of Indras, as Vritrahan) "with the +body of a warrior he-goat, handsome, and with sharpened horns." + +In the Russian tale given by _Afanassieff_,[756] the lamb, companion of +the bull in the wood, kills the wolf by butting against its sides, while +the bull also wounds the ferocious beast with its horns. In another +variation of the same story,[757] the cat is confederate with the lamb +against the wolf; the lamb butts hard at the wolf, while the cat +scratches it till blood flows. In yet another version, besides the lamb, +the he-goat also appears; the cat twists some of the bark of the +birch-tree round the horns of the he-goat, and bids the lamb rub against +it to produce fire; sparks come from it, the cat fetches hay, and the +three companions warm themselves. The wolves come up, and the cat makes +them run, presenting them the goat as a scarecrow, and frightening them +further by ominous hints as to the strength contained in its beard. +Finally, we have in the Russian stories two singular variations of the +fable of the goat, the kids, and the wolf.[758] The goat is about to +give birth to her young ones under an apple-tree. (We have seen in +Chapter I. the apple-tree, the fruit of which, when eaten, causes horns +to sprout. It is well-known that in Greek, _mlon_ means a goat and an +apple-tree, as the Hindoo masculine noun _petvas_, which means a ram, is +in the neuter _petvam_ = ambrosia. The mythical apple-tree is ambrosial, +like the cornucopia of the goat of mythology; and it seems to me that +here, too, I can find an analogy in the Slavonic field itself between +the Russian words _blaka_, clouds, in the plural _ablak_, the clouds, +and _iablony_, apple-tree, plural _jblogna_, the apple-trees, _jablok_, +the apple.) The apple-tree advises the goat to betake itself to some +other place, as the apples might fall upon its new-born kids and kill +them. The goat then goes to give birth to her young ones under an +equally shady walnut-tree; the walnut-tree also advises her to go away, +as the nuts might fall and do serious harm to her little ones;[759] upon +which the goat goes to a deserted tent in the forest, another form of +the cloud of night. When the kids are brought forth, the goat issues +forth out of the tent to procure food, and cautions her children not to +open to any one (the fable is well known in the West, but the Slavonic +variations are particularly interesting). The wolf comes and pronounces +the same password as the goat to induce the kids to open, but they +perceive by the rough voice of the wolf that it is not their mother, and +refuse to admit him. The wolf then goes to the blacksmith, and has a +voice made for him resembling that of the goat; the deceived kids open, +and the wolf devours them all except the smallest, who hides under the +stove (the favourite place where the little Slavonic hero, the third +brother, the ill-favoured fool, who afterwards becomes handsome and +wise, is accustomed to squat). The goat returns, and learns from the kid +which has escaped the massacre of its brothers. She thinks how to avenge +herself, and invites her friend and gossip the fox with the wolf to +dinner; the unsuspecting wolf arrives along with the fox. After dinner, +the goat, to divert her guests, invites them to amuse themselves by +leaping over an opening made in the floor; the goat leaps first, then +the fox leaps, and then the wolf, but falls down on the burning ashes +and is burnt to death, like the witch in some other stories, as the +night is burned by the morning aurora; and the goat chaunts a marvellous +_Te Deum_ (cudesnoi pamin) in the wolf's honour. The other Russian +version adds some new and curious details. The goat goes to find food, +and leaves the kids alone; they shut the door after her. She returns +and says, "Open, my sons, my little fathers; your mother is come; she +has brought some milk, half a side full of milk, half a horn full of +fresh cheese, half a little horn full of clear water (the +cornucopia)."[760] The kids open immediately. The second day the goat +goes out again; the wolf, who had heard the song, tries to sing it to +the kids; but the latter perceive that it is not their mother's voice, +and do not open. Next day the wolf again imitates the mother's voice; +the kids open the door, and are all devoured except one which hides +itself in the stove, and afterwards narrates to the mother-goat all that +has happened. The goat avenges herself as follows: She goes into the +forest with the wolf, and comes to a ditch where some workmen had cooked +some gruel, and left the fire still burning. The goat challenges the +wolf to leap the ditch; the wolf tries and falls into it, where the fire +makes his belly split open, from which the kids, still alive, skip out +and run to their mother. + +Another story, however,[761] affords us still more aid in the +interpretation of the myth; that is, in leading us to see in the goat +and her kids the sun horned or furnished with rays, as it issues radiant +out of the cloud, or darkness, or ocean of night, and in the wolf, or in +the wolf's skin, split open or burned, out of which the kids come, the +dark, cloudy, watery nocturnal sky. Instead of the wolf we have a witch, +instead of the goat a woman, and instead of the kids the young Vaniushka +(Little John); the witch has a voice made by the blacksmith like that of +Vaniushka's or Tereshicko's mother, and thus attracts him to her. +Tereshicha says that he was originally the stump of a tree, which his +father and mother, being childless, had picked up in the forest, and +wrapped up and rocked in a cradle till he was born. + +The monster wolf, or the witch, having the faculty of simulating the +voice of the goat,[762] and an especial predilection for both sheep +and goats,--so much so that the witch Liho (properly Evil) keeps some +in her house, and those which come out (of the dark sky) in the +morning, and which re-enter (the dark sky) in the evening, are +considered her peculiar property,[763]--often transforms the hero (the +evening sun) into a kid (into the darkness or cloud of night). Of +course, as the dark and cloudy monster is often represented as a wolf, +it is easy to understand his wish that everything should be +transformed into a lamb in order to eat it. But the mythical lamb or +kid, the young solar hero, generally escapes out of the jaws of the +wolf, out of the hands of the witch, or out of the darkness, the +waters, or the cloud of night. + +A Vedic hymn celebrates the strong Pshan, who has a he-goat for his +horse (or who is a goat-horse), and is called the lover of his sister. +Perhaps these words contain the germ of the Russian story of Little +John, brother of Little Helen, who is changed by witchcraft into a +kid. I have already observed in Chapter I. how Helen, who at the +commencement of the story shows affection for her brother John, ends +by betraying him. The Vedic hymn would appear to contain the notion of +the brother Pshan transformed into a he-goat (the sun which enters +into the cloud or darkness of night), because he has loved his sister. +In another Vedic hymn we have the sister Yam, who seduces her brother +Yamas. In European fairy tales, the sister loves her brother, who is +metamorphosed by the art of a witch, now into a young hog, and now +into a kid. In the forty-fifth story of the fourth book of +_Afanassieff_, Ivanushka (Little John) becomes a kid after drinking +out of a goat's hoof. In the twenty-ninth story of the second book of +_Afanassieff_, Ivanushka and Little Helen, the children of a Tzar, +wander alone about the world. Ivanushka wishes to drink where cows, +horses, sheep, and hogs feed and drink; his sister Little Helen +advises him not to do so, lest he should turn into a calf, a colt, a +lamb, or a young pig; but at last John is overcome by thirst, and, +against the advice of his sister, he drinks where goats drink, and +becomes a kid. A young Tzar marries the sister, and gives every honour +to the kid, but a witch throws the young queen into the sea (Phrixos +and Helle; in other European stories, into a cistern), and usurps her +place, inducing the people to believe that she is Helen, and +commanding the kid to be put to death. The kid runs to the shore and +invokes his sister, who answers from the bottom of the sea that she +can do nothing. The young Tzar, to whom the affair is referred, +hastens to deliver Helen out of the sea; the kid can again skip about +in safety, and everything is green again, and flourishes as much as it +withered before; the witch is burnt alive.[764] + +According to the fiftieth story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, a +merchant has three daughters. He builds a new house, and sends his +three daughters by turns to pass the night there, in order to see what +they dream about. (The belief that the man dreamed of by a maiden +during the night of St John's Day, Christmas Day, or the Epiphany, is +her predestined husband, still exists in the popular superstitions of +Europe.) The eldest daughter dreams that she marries a merchant's son, +the second a noble, and the third a he-goat. The father commands his +youngest daughter never to go out of the house; she disobeys; a +he-goat appears and carries her off upon his horns towards a rocky +place. Saliva and mucous matter fall from the goat's mouth and +nostrils; the good maiden is not disgusted, but patiently wipes the +goat's mouth. This pleases the animal, who tells her that if she had +shown horror towards him, she would have had the same fate as his +former wives, whose heads were impaled on a stake. The geese bring to +the girl news of her father and sisters; they announce that the eldest +sister is about to be married; she wishes to be present at the +wedding, and is permitted by the goat to go, who orders for her use +three horses as black as a crow, who arrive at their destination in +three leaps (the three steps of Vishnus), whilst he himself sits upon +a flying carpet, and is transported to the wedding in the form of a +handsome and young stranger. The same happens on the occasion of the +second sister's marriage, when the third sister guesses that this +handsome youth is her own husband. She departs before the rest, comes +home, finds the skin of the goat and burns it; then her husband always +preserves the form of a handsome youth, inasmuch as the enchantment of +the witch has come to an end.[765] + +The lamb, the he-goat, and the sheep are favourite forms of the +witch. In the European story, when the beautiful princess, in the +absence of the prince, her husband, gives birth to two beautiful sons, +the witch induces the absent prince to believe that, instead of real +sons, his young wife has given birth to pups. In the seventh story of +the third book of _Afanassieff_, the young queen gives birth, during +the king's absence, to two sons, of whom one has the moon on his +forehead, and the other a star on the nape of his neck (the Avinu). +The wicked sister of the young queen buries the children. Where they +were buried a golden sprout and a silver one spring up. A sheep feeds +upon these plants, and gives birth to two lambs, having, the one the +moon on its head, the other a star on its neck. The wicked sister, who +has meanwhile been married to the king, orders them to be torn in +pieces, and their intestines to be thrown out into the road. The good +lawful queen has them cooked, eats them, and again gives birth to her +two sons, who grow up hardy and strong, and who, when interrogated by +the king, narrate to him the story of their origin; their mother is +recognised, and becomes once more the king's wife; the wicked sister +is put to death.[766] + +The witch is sometimes herself (as a wolf-cloud or wolf-darkness) a +devourer of young luminous kids or lambs, such as the Schmierbock in +the Norwegian story. The witch carries Schmierbock three times away in +a sack; the first and second time Schmierbock escapes by making a hole +in the sack; but the third time the witch succeeds in carrying him to +her house, where she prepares to eat him. The cunning Schmierbock, +however, smuggles the witch's own daughter into his place, and, +climbing up, conceals himself in the chimney (a variation of the +stove, the place where the young Russian hero usually hides himself, +in the same way as in the Tuscan story the foolish Pimpi conceals +himself in the oven). From this post of security he laughs at the +witch, who endeavours to recapture him; he throws a stone down the +chimney and kills her, upon which he descends, rifles her +treasure-stores, and carries off all her gold. Here the young hero is +called a he-goat; in the chapter on the wolf, we shall find the witch +of the Norwegian story actually bears the name of wolf. These two data +complete the myth; the wolf which wishes to devour the little hero, +and the witch who endeavours to eat the little lamb, are completed by +the fable which represents the wolf as, at the rivulet, eating the +lamb, which, in the mythical heavens, means the cloudy and gloomy +monster which devours the sun. + +We have seen above the witch who imitates the voice of the mother of +the little hero, in order to be able to eat him, and the wolf who +mimics the voice of the goat and eats the kids; but the wolf does more +than assume the goat's voice; he sometimes even takes her form. + +In the _Rmyanam_,[767] Agamukh, or goat's face, is called a witch, +who wishes St to be torn to pieces. In the legend of Ilvalas and +Vtpis,[768] the two wizard brothers who conspire to harm the +Brhmans, Vtpis transforms himself into a wether, and lets himself +be sacrificed in the funeral rites by the Brhmans. The unsuspecting +Brhmans eat its flesh; then Ilvalas cries out to his brother, "Come +forth, O Vtpis!" and his brother, Vtpis, comes out of the bodies +of the Brhmans, lacerating them, until the rishis Agastyas eats of +himself the whole of Vtpis, and burns Ilvalas to ashes. The +_Rmyanam_ itself explains to us why, in these sacrifices, a wether, +and not a ram, is spoken of,[769] when it narrates the legend of +Ahaly. It is said in this passage that the god Indras was one day +condemned to lose his testicles by the malediction of the rishis +Gutamas, with whose wife, Ahaly, he had committed adultery. The +gods, moved to pity, took the testicles of a ram and gave them to +Indras, who was therefore called Meshndas; on this account, says the +_Rmyanam_, the Pitaras feed on wethers, and not on rams, in funeral +oblations. This legend is evidently of brhmanic origin. The +Brhmans, being interested in discrediting the god of the warriors, +Indras, and finding him called in the Veds by the name of Meshas or +ram, invented the story of the ram's testicles, in the same way as, +finding Indras in the Veds called by the name of Sahasrkshas +(_i.e._, he of the thousand eyes), they malignantly connected this +appellation with the same scandalous story of the seduction of Ahaly, +and degraded the honourable epithet into an infamous one, he of the +thousand wombs, probably by the confusion arising out of the equivoque +between the words _sahasradhras_, the sun (as carrying, now a +thousand stars, now a thousand rays), or _sahasrnus_, and +_sahasradras_, which has a very different meaning. + +In the important 116th hymn of the first book of the _Rigvedas_, +Rigrvas (_i.e._, the red horse, or the hero of the red horse) eats a +hundred rams belonging to the she-wolf (in the following hymn, a +hundred and one); his father blinds him on this account; the two +marvellous physicians, the Avinu, give him back his two eyes.[770] +Evidently the father of the solar hero is here the gloomy monster of +night himself; the sun, at evening, becomes the devourer of the rams +who come out of the she-wolf, or who belong to the she-wolf; it is for +this reason that the monster wolf blinds him when evening comes. The +red horse Rigrvas, or the hero of the red horse, who eats the rams +of the she-wolf, affords a further key to enable us to understand the +expiatory goat, which in the _Rigvedas_ itself is sacrificed instead +of the horse. We are told in a hymn, that in the sacrifice of the +horse the omniform he-goat (ago vivarpah) has preceded the +horse;[771] and the _itareya Br._, commenting on this exchange of +animals, also speaks of the he-goat as the last animal destined for +the sacrifice. In the Russian stories, too, the goat has to pay the +price of the follies or rogueries done by the man, and is +sacrificed.[772] This sacrificed he-goat appears to be the same as the +ass which undergoes punishment for all the animals in the celebrated +fable of Lafontaine (which becomes a bull in the hands of the Russian +fabulist Kriloff, who could not introduce the ass, an animal almost +unknown in Russia); and we already know that the ass represents the +sun in the cloud or the sun in the darkness; and we have also said +that the ass and the fool die together in the legend. The she-goat +dies in the Russian story to deliver the fool, who, after her death, +is a fool no longer, his folly having died with her.[773] The popular +story offers us another proof of the identity of the mythical ass and +the mythical goat. We have also seen above, in the Norwegian story, +how the witch possesses a treasure which is carried off by the +Schmierbock, who kills her; the magician, or the devil, is always +rich. The ass which the devil gives to Little Johnny throws gold from +its tail; the ass personifies the devil. But the devil, as we have +observed, also has a predilection to embody himself in a ram, a lamb, +or a he-goat. I remember the puppets who every day improvised popular +representations in the little wooden theatre on the Piazza Castello, +at Turin, when I was a boy; the final doom of the personage who +represented the tyrant was generally to die under the bastinadoes of +Arlecchino, or to be carried to hell by the devil in the form of a +bleating lamb, which came upon the scene expressly to carry him away +with him, this disappearance being accompanied by much throbbing of +the spectators' hearts, to whom the manager preached a salutary +sermon.[774] In the twenty-first of the Tuscan stories published by +me, it is not the devil, but the little old man, Ges, who gives to +the third brother, instead of the usual ass, a putrid sheep, which, +however, has the virtue of throwing louis-d'or behind it. This putrid, +or wet, or damp sheep represents still better the damp night. + +Rigrvas, as we have said, eats the ram and becomes blind, his father +having blinded him to avenge the she-wolf to whom the rams belonged; but +the mother of the rams being the sheep, it is probable that the she-wolf +who possessed the rams had assumed the form of a putrid sheep, in the +same way as we have seen her above transformed into a she-goat; the +father of Rigrvas, who avenges the she-wolf on account of the hundred +rams, may perhaps himself have been a horned wolf transformed into a +he-goat, and have blinded Rigrvas with his horns. In the popular +story, the she-goat, when she is in the forest, takes a special pleasure +in wounding people's eyes with her horns; hence is probably derived the +name of the reptile agakvas, conjured with in the _Rigvedas_,[775] as +durdriikas, or making to see badly, damaging the eyesight, and the name +of agak, given to an illness in the eyes by the Hindoo physician +Surutas. However, we must not forget the connection between the idea of +skin and that of goat, by which the agak might mean simply the thin +membrane that sometimes harms the pupil of the eye, and produces +blindness. This thin membrane, stretched over the eye of the solar hero, +blinds him. We shall see in the chapter on the frog and the toad, which +very often represent, in the myths, the cloud and the damp night, that +the toad[776] causes blindness only by means of the venom which it is +fabled to exude, like the reptile agakvas. + +But, as the hero in hell learns and sees everything, the goat, which +deprives others of sight, has itself the property of seeing +everything; this is the case, because the goat, being the sun enclosed +in the cloud or gloomy night, sees the secrets of hell, and also +because, being the horned moon or starry sky, it is the spy of the +heavens. We have already observed in the first chapter how the +marvellous girl of seven years of age, to answer the acted riddle +proposed by the Tzar, arrives upon a hare, which, in mythology, +represents the moon. In a variation of the same story given by +_Afanassieff_,[777] instead of riding upon a hare, the royal boy comes +upon a goat, and is recognised by his father; the goat, in its +capacity of steed of the lost hero, seems here to represent the moon, +as the hare does. + +We have already spoken of Indras sahasrkshas, _i.e._, of the thousand +eyes; Hindoo painters represent him with these thousand eyes, that is, +as an azure sky bespangled with stars. Indras as the nocturnal sun hides +himself, transformed, in the starry heavens; the stars are his eyes. The +hundred-eyed or all-seeing (panopts) Argos placed as a spy over the +actions of the cow beloved of Zeus, is the Hellenic equivalent of this +form of Indras. In Chapter I. we also saw the witch's daughter of the +Russian fairy tale who has three eyes, and with her third eye plays the +spy over the cow, which protects the good maiden. In the second story of +the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, when the peasant ascends into heaven +upon the pea-plant, and enters into a room where geese, hogs, and pastry +are being cooked, he sees a goat on guard; he only discovers six eyes, +as the goat has its seventh eye in its back; the peasant puts the six +eyes to sleep, but the goat, by means of its seventh eye, sees that the +peasant eats and drinks as much as he likes, and informs the lord of the +sky of the fact. In another variation of the story, given by +_Afanassieff_,[778] the old man finds in heaven a little house guarded +in turns by twelve goats, of which one has one eye, another two, a third +three, and so on up to twelve. The old man says to one after the other, +"One eye, two eyes, three eyes, &c., sleep." On the twelfth day, instead +of saying "twelve eyes," he makes a mistake and says "eleven;" the goat +with twelve eyes then sees and secures him. The eye of God which sees +everything, in the popular faith, is a variation of Argos Panopts, the +Vedic Vivavedas, and the Slavonic Vsievedas, the eye of the goat which +sees what is being done in heaven. When the moon shines in the sky, the +stars grow pale, the eyes of the witch of heaven fall asleep, but some +few eyes still stay open, some few stars continue to shine to observe +the movements of the cow-moon, the fairy-moon, the Madonna-moon, who +protects the young hero and the beautiful solar maiden lost in the +darkness of night. + +This spying goat's eye is perhaps connected with the constellation of +the goat and two kids. Columella writes that the kids appear in the +sky towards the end of September, when the west, and sometimes the +south, wind blows and brings rain. According to Servius, the goat +united with the two kids in the constellation of Aquarius is the same +goat which was the nurse of Zeus; he says that it appears in October, +with the sign of Scorpio. Ovid, in _De Arte Amandi_, and in the first +book _Tristium_, and Virgil in the ninth book of the _neid_,[779] +also celebrate the goat and the kids of heaven as bringers of rain. +Horace, in the seventh ode, elegantly calls the goat's stars insane:-- + + "Ille nothis actus ad Oricum + Post insana capr sidera, frigidas + Noctes non sine multis + Insomnis lachrymis agit." + +We have already seen Indras as a ram or pluvial cloud; and the goat +with only one foot (ekapd agah), or he who has but one goat's foot, +who supports the heavens, who lightens and thunders,[780] is a form of +the same pluvial Indras who supports the heavens in the rainy season. +We have seen the Avinu compared to two goats, two horns, two hoofs; +each, therefore, would seem to have but one horn, but one goat's foot +(which might perhaps explain the ekapd agah); hence on one side the +cornucopia, and on the other the lame goat.[781] The nymph Galathea +(the milky one), who loves a faun (or one who has goat's feet), seems +to be a Hellenic form of the loves of Esmeralda and the goat with +Quasimodo. The goat loves him who has goat's feet; the solar hero (or +heroine) in the night has goat's feet; he is a satyr, a faun, a +he-goat, an ass; he is deformed and foolish, but he interests the good +fairy, who, in the form of a she-goat (as the moon and as the milky +way), guides him in the night, and, as the dawn (white aurora) in the +morning, saves him and makes him happy. In the German legend, the poor +princess who, with her son, is persecuted in the forest, is assisted +now by a she-goat, now by a doe, which gives milk to the child; by +means of this animal, which serves as his guide, the prince finds his +lost bride. This guiding she-goat, or doe, the nurse of the +child-hero, which Servius recognised in the constellation of the goat +(with respect to Zeus, who is essentially pluvial, as the Vedic Indras +has the clouds himself for his nurses), must have generally +represented the moon. But even the milky way of the sky (the bridge of +souls) is the milk spilt by the she-goat of heaven; the white morning +sky is also the milk of this same she-goat. The horned moon,[782] the +milky way, and the white dawn are represented in the form of a +beneficent she-goat which assists the hero and the heroine in the +forest, in the darkness; whilst, on the contrary, the sun enclosed in +the cloud, the darkness, or the starry sky of night (with the insana +capr sidera), is now a good and wise he-goat or ram, full of good +advice, like the ram who advises the king of India in the +_Tuti-Name_,[783] and now a malignant monster, a demoniacal being. +Inasmuch as the goat gives light and milk, it is divine; inasmuch as +it conceals the beauty of the young hero or heroine and opposes them, +it may be considered demoniacal. + +The connection between the she-goat and the milky way can also be +proved from the name St James's Way, given by the common people to the +galaxy, or galathea, or way of milk;[784] and it is interesting to +learn from Baron Reinsberg,[785] how, in several parts of Bohemia, it +is the custom on St James's Day to throw a he-goat out of the window, +and to preserve its blood, which is said to be of potent avail against +several diseases, such, for instance, as the spitting of blood. In the +_Lezioni di Materia Medica_ of Professor Targioni-Tozzetti,[786] we +also read that the he-goat's blood was known by no less a name than +_manus Dei_, and believed to be especially useful against contusions +of the back, pleurisy, and the stone. But the disease of the stone was +supposed to be cured by the stone called _capra_ (goat), which was +said to be found in the bodies of some Indian goats. Targioni-Tozzetti +himself seriously describes the goat-stones as follows:--"These stones +are usually clear on their surface, and dark-coloured; they have an +odour of musk when rubbed and heated by the hands. In them (the stone +Bezoar[787]) analeptic and alexipharmic virtues were supposed to +exist, which were able to resist the evil effects of poison and +contagious diseases, the plague not excepted, and to save the patient +by causing an abundant and healthy perspiration to break out on his +skin. For this reason these stones were sold very dear. The same +virtues are attributed to those found in the West, but in a much less +degree." When the heavenly goat dissolves in rain or in dew, when +moisture comes from the goat-cloud, the mountain-cloud, or the +stone-cloud, these humours are salutary. When St James, who is joined +with the goat and the rain, pours out his bottle, as the Piedmontese +people say, the vapour which falls from the sky on these days is +considered by the peasants, as in fact it is for the country, and +especially for the vines, a real blessing. In the fable of _Babrios_, +the vine, whose leaves are eaten by the he-goat, threatens it, saying +that it will nevertheless produce wine, and that when the wine is made +(_i.e._, at the Dionysian mysteries), the goat will be sacrificed to +the gods. In the spring, on the other hand, or on the Easter of the +resurrection, it was the custom to sacrifice in effigy the _Agnus +Dei_, in the belief that it would serve to defend the fields and +vineyards against demoniacal wiles, thunderbolts and thunder, +facilitate parturition, and deliver from shipwreck, fire, and sudden +death.[788] In the Witches' Sabbath in Germany, it was said that the +witches burned a he-goat, and divided its ashes among themselves.[789] + +The cunning she-goat is an intermediate form between the good wise +fairy and the witch who is an expert in every kind of malice. In the +same way as the hero, at first foolish, learns malice from the devil, +to use it afterwards against the devil himself, it may be presumed +that the hero, in his form of a goat, has learned from the monsters +all that cunning by which he afterwards distinguishes himself. The +Vedic ram, Indras, also uses magic against the monster magicians. + +In the second of the Esthonian stories, we read that the king of the +serpents has a golden cup containing the milk of a heavenly goat; if +bread is dipped into this milk, and put into the mouth, one can +discover every secret thing that has happened in the night, without +any one perceiving how. + +In the French medival poem of _Ysengrin_,[790] the she-goat deceives +the wolf in a way similar to that in which, in the first number of +_Afanassieff's_ stories, the peasant cheats the bear, and in the +Italian stories the same peasant defrauds the devil. The she-goat +shows a fox-like cunning, keeping for itself the leaf of the corn, and +leaving the root for the wolf. Hence, in my eyes, the origin of the +Piedmontese proverbial expression, "La crava a l' mangi la fja" +(the goat ate the leaf), and even the simple one of "Mang la fja" +(to eat the leaf), meaning to understand cunning.[791] I heard from a +certain Uliva Selvi, at Antignano (near Leghorn), the narrative of a +witch who sent a boy every day to take the she-goat to the pasturage, +ordering him to pay attention that it should eat well, but leave the +corn alone. When the goat returned, the witch asked it-- + + "Capra, mia capra Mergolla, + Come se' ben satolla?" + (Goat, my goat Mergolla, + Are you quite satiated?) + +To which the goat answered-- + + "Son satolla e cavalcata, + Tutto il giorno digiunata." + (I am satiated, and have been ridden; + I have fasted all day.) + +Then the boy was put to death by the witch. It happened thus to twelve +boys, until the thirteenth, more cunning, caressed the goat and gave +it the corn to eat; then the goat answered to the witch's question-- + + "Son ben satolla e governata, + Tutto il giorno m' ha pasturata." + (I am quite satiated, and have been well kept; + He has given me to eat all day.) + +And the boy, too, was well treated. + +The devil's pupil always outwits his master; the she-goat beguiles the +wolf to its destruction. We have seen this in the Russian story, and +it is confirmed in the legend of _Ysengrin_. The peasants of Piedmont +and of Sicily have, for this reason, so much respect for the goat, +that they consider it brings a blessing to the house near which it is +maintained; and if, by chance, they show a perverse nature, this +perversity is attributed to the devil himself, who, they believe, has +maliciously taken possession of them. A few years ago, a goatherd of +the Val di Formazza, in the Ossola in Piedmont, had two goats which he +believed to be possessed by some evil spirit, for which reason they +always wandered about, in order, as he thought, that the demon might +at last be able to throw them down some abyss. One day the two goats +were lost; the goatherd searched for them for a short time, but +finding his search bootless, he resolved to go and make a vow to the +Madonna of Einsiedlen. Chance so arranged it, that at the very moment +in which he was returning from his pious pilgrimage, his two goats +also approached the door of his house; therefore, of course, this was +declared to be a miracle in Formazza, and as such it is still believed +in that district.[792] + +In the preceding chapter we saw the ass represented in two aspects, as +regards its generative capabilities; that is, it is now represented as +an ardent, insatiable, and competent foecundator, and now as a +ridiculous imbecile, and powerless to generate. We also saw the ass +closely connected with the satyrs with goat's or he-goat's feet. The +he-goats and rams, too, have a double and self-contradictory reputation. +We know, for instance, that the god Thor, the god of the Scandinavians, +who thunders in the cloud, is drawn by he-goats (the vessel of Thor and +Hymir, the cloud, is called in the _Edda_ a navigating ram or he-goat, +in the same way as the Vedic Indras is represented as a god-ram); he +is, moreover, the protector of marriages. Scandinavian mythology, +therefore, appears to regard the goat as essentially the one that makes +fruitful, as a pluvial cloud. In the Hindoo mythology of the brhmanic +period, the god Indras loses, on the contrary, his divine power, becomes +stupid and obscure, and is lost in his form of a ram. In one of his +_Passeggiate nel Canavese_, Signor A. Bertolotti recently observed, at +Muraglio, a curious custom which is observed by the young men of the +country when a projected wedding falls through; they run up to the +bride's house and obstreperously demand her to give her sheep up to +them, upon which they go to the bridegroom's house and cry out, "Vente a +sarrar quist motogn" (come and shut up these rams). Here the ram +represents the husband, and the sheep the wife. In Du Cange the name of +goat (caper) is given to the "in pueris insuavis odor cum ad virilitatem +accedunt."[793] In _Apuleius_, unmeasured lasciviousness is called +"cohircinatio." According to lianos, the he-goat, at the age of seven +days (of seven months according to Columella), already yearns for +coition. + +But in the same way as the ass is the stupid patient animal, the ram +is the stupid quiet one. The he-goat is said to be an indifferent +husband, who allows his she-goats to be covered by other goats without +showing a sign of jealousy; hence our expressions, "horned goat," and +simply "horned," to indicate the husband of an unfaithful woman, that +is, of a woman who makes him wear horns, like the goat, and the +Italian proverb, "E meglio esser geloso che becco" (it is better to be +jealous than a he-goat). This reputation, however, as assigned to the +he-goat, is contrary to all that has been said and written, and that +is known concerning the lust of the he-goat. On the contrary, +Aristotle says explicitly that two he-goats, which have always lived +together in concord at the pasturage, fall out and fight with violence +in the time of coition. Moreover, the verse of Pindaros is well known, +in which he makes he-goats unite even with women. It is also said that +Herms, or Zeus, assuming the form of a he-goat, united himself with +Penelope, whence was born the great goat-footed satyr, Pan; that +Hrakls (as an ass, in his lion's skin) competed with a he-goat in +phallical powers (in Athenaios he joins himself with fifty virgins in +the space of seven nights); that, in lianos, a jealous he-goat +punished with death the goatherd Crathis, who had incestuously joined +himself with one of his she-goats. Nevertheless, the Greeks already +called by the name of _aix_, as we Italians by that of _capra_, a +woman of an immoral life, or an adulteress. Columella gives us the key +of the enigma, observing that the he-goat, by abuse of the Venus, +which he uses too soon (like the ass), becomes powerless before the +age of six years, so that it is not out of indifference that he is +simply a spectator of his she-goat's infidelity, but only because he +cannot do otherwise. Hence the application of _hircosus_, which +Plautus gives to an old man. + +It is the Hellenic tradition which, more than any other, developed to +a greater extent the myth of the goat and the sheep, under all their +aspects--demoniacal, divine, and hybrid. + +The golden fleece, or the fleece of the sheep or ram which had been +transported into Colchis by Phrixos, the son of Nephl (the cloud) +and of Helle;[794] Jupiter Ammon (in the fifth book of Ovid's +_Metamorphoses_), who, afraid of the giants (as, in the last book of +the _Rmyanam_, the gods, terrified by the monsters, transform +themselves into different animals), hides himself in Lybia in the +shape of a horned ram; the altar of Apollo in the isle of Delos, +constructed with innumerable horns; the woolly skins in which, +according to Strabo,[795] the Iberians gathered up gold, whence the +Greek geographer believed the fable of the golden fleece to have +arisen; the golden lamb kept by Atreus, which was to bring Thyestes to +the throne, and the name of Aigsthos, born of the incestuous loves of +Thyestes with his own daughter; Pan (with goat's feet, the son of the +he-goat Zeus or Hermes), who, in the fifth book of the _Saturnalians_ +of Macrobius, loves the moon and obtains its favours by means of sheep +with white but rough and coarse wool; Endymion, who, according to the +commentator Servius, induces the moon to love him by means of +exceedingly white sheep; Neptune, who, in the form of a ram, in the +sixth book of the _Metamorphoses_ of Ovid, seduces the beautiful +virgin Bisaltis; the satyrs, the fauns with goat's feet, into which +the gods transform themselves in order to seduce nymphs or maidens of +the earth, as, for instance, Jove again, in the same book of Ovid-- + + "Satyri celatus imagine pulchram + Jupiter implevit gemino Nycteida foetu;" + +Herms, called Krioforos, or carrier of a ram (that is, of a ram which +delivers the land from the plague, a form of St James); the two +predestined sheep which Epimenides sacrifices to make the Athenian +plague cease, in the twenty-seventh Olympiad, in Diogenes Laerts; the +bleating goats that King Priam (in the fragments of Ennius) sacrifices +to dissipate the evil threatened by sinister dreams; the black sheep +sacrificed to Pluto, Proserpine, the Furies, and all the infernal +deities; the lamb, the ram, and the he-goat sacrificed to the genital +Fates in the Sybilline verses translated by Angelo Poliziano-- + + "Cum nox atra premit terram, tectusque latet Sol;" + +the white lamb sacrificed to Hercules, to Mars, to Jove, to Neptune, +to Bacchus, to Pan (the goat being sacrificed to Diana), to Apollo +(_i.e._, when the sun shines), to Ceres (the goddess of the +light-coloured ears of corn), to Venus, to the gods and goddesses; to +his divine forms (similia similibus); and several other mythical +notions (not to speak of the very popular legend relating to the goat +Amalthea, who nourished Zeus with her milk, and was by Zeus translated +for this service to the stars, under the name of Aixourania, or +heavenly goat, after he had taken off one of its horns, to give, in +gratitude to the two nymphs who had protected him, the faculty of +pouring out everything that was wished for);[796] all these account, +in an eloquent manner, for the wide-spread worship that the goat and +the sheep received, even in Grco-Latin antiquity, enriching with many +episodes the mythical and legendary traditions of these nations, now +as the type of a god, now of a demon, and now of an intermediate +being, such as the satyr, for instance. + +In the same way as the mythical horse has, from evening to morning, +three conspicuous moments of action--black, grey, and white or +red--and as the mythical ass throws gold from behind and has golden +ears, so the mythical goat and sheep, which are dark-coloured in the +night or in the cloud, throw gold from behind and have golden horns +which pour out ambrosia, or else have even the cornucopia itself. It +is always the same myth of the cloudy and aqueous, of the nocturnal +and tenebrous sky, with its two glowing twilights or auroras, or else +of the luminous heavenly hero who traverses the night or the cloud (or +the wintry season), disguised in the shapes of various animals, now by +his own will, now by a divine malediction or by diabolical witchcraft. + +In the third book of Aristotle's _History of Animals_, we read of the +river Psikros in Thrace, that white sheep, when they drink of its +waters, bring forth black lambs; that in Antandria there are two +rivers, of which one makes the sheep black, and the other white, and +that the river Xanthos or Skamandros makes the sheep fair (or golden). +This belief involves in itself the three transformations of the +celestial hero into the three he-goats or rams of different natures, +of which we have spoken. The last transformation calls our attention +to the sheep with golden wool, the golden lamb, and the _Agnus Dei_, +the symbol of happiness, power and riches. Wealth in sheep, even more +than wealth in cows, became the symbol of universal riches. The horn +poured out every kind of treasure upon the earth, and upon the earth +itself the _pecus_ became _pecunia_. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[747] The Petropolitan Dictionary sees in the he-goat agas, the movable +one (agilis). To illustrate the same analogies in the case of the Greek +myth, it will be useful to repeat the words of Professor Bral: "Le +verbe grec _ass_, qui signifie s'lancer, a fait d'une part le +substantif _aix_, chvre ( cause de la nature bondissante de l'animal), +et de l'autre les mots _katax, kataigis, tempte_ (as it seems to me, +that which shakes, which causes to move or tremble, inasmuch as I +maintain that _agas_ does not mean the movable, or him that rushes, so +much as him that pushes, that butts, or causes to move). De l une +nouvelle srie d'images et de fables o la chvre joue le rle +principal. L'gide, avant d'tre un bouclier fait en peau de chvre, +tait le ciel au moment de l'orage; Jupiter aigiochos tait le dieu qui +envoie la tempte; plus tard, on traduisit le dieu qui porte l'gide. +Homre semble se souvenir de la premire signification, quand il nous +montre, au seul mouvement du bouclier le tonnerre qui clate, l'Ida qui +se couvre de nuages et les hommes frapps de terreur." Mr Ralston +compares very well the Russian _ablakagragonniki_ (cloud-compellers) to +the Zeus _nephelgeretes_. In the _Rigv._ i. 10, 8, it is said similarly +to Indras: geshah svarvatr apah sam g asmabhyam dhnuhi. + +[748] Let Finnish philologists observe whether it is not possible to +refer to this their Aija, an equivalent of Ukko, their Indras, called +hattarojen hallitsia, the master of the cloud-lambs.--Cfr. Castren's +_Kleinere Schriften_, St Petersburg, 1862, p. 230. + +[749] Mesham puruhtam; _Rigv._ i. 51, 1.--Tad indro artham cetati +ythena vrishnir egati; _Rigv._ i. 10, 2. + +[750] Tvam gotram aigirobhyo 'vrinor; _Rigv._ i. 51, 3. + +[751] Tvam mybhir apa myino 'dhamah--tvam pipror nrimanah prrugah +purah; _Rigv._ i. 51, 5. + +[752] Mahantam cid arbudam ni kramh pad; _Rigv._ i. 51, 6.--Arbudas +is also in Sanskrit the proper name of a mountain and of a hell; the +cloud-mountain and the hell in the cloudy and nocturnal sky have +already been noticed in this volume. + +[753] aphv iva garbhurn tarobhih; _Rigv._ ii. 39, 3. + +[754] Sinhyam cit petven gaghna; _Rigv._ vii. 18, 17.--In Firdusi we +find, in the adventures of Isfendiar, two horned wolves that catch +lions; these seem to be demoniacal forms of the ram of Indras which +kills the lion. + +[755] xxx. 9.--Here the horns are the sun's rays or the thunderbolts, +which come again in the Italian superstition on the _iettatura_; the +horns of the goat, it is said, and the red coral horns excel the devil +and his magic. + +[756] iv. 21. + +[757] iii. 18.--In the story, i. 20, we are told that the lamb fled +away into the forest with the he-goat, because its master took the +skin off one of its sides (that is, the wool). The lambs appear in the +morning and in the evening with luminous wool; they are sheared during +the night. + +[758] _Afanassieff_, ii. 4; iv. 17. + +[759] The walnut-tree is also found in relation with the goat in a fable +of _Afanassieff_, ii. 1, that of the accused who exculpate themselves by +inculpating others. The cock and the hen gather nuts together; the cock +throws one which strikes the hen on the ear; the hen weeps; a boiard +asks the reason; the hen accuses the cock, the cock accuses the +walnut-tree, the walnut-tree accuses the goat, the goat accuses the +shepherd, the shepherd accuses the housewife, the housewife accuses the +hog, the hog accuses the wolf, the wolf accuses God, but beyond God it +is impossible to go.--In another jest in verse, intended to exercise the +memory and loosen the tongue, and given by _Afanassieff_, iv. 16, we +find the goat in connection with hazel-nuts. The he-goat begins to +complain that the she-goat does not come back with the hazel-nuts (net +kaszi s ariehami); the song goes on to say, that the he-goat will send +the wolf to find the she-goat, the bear after the wolf, the men after +the bear, the oak-tree after the men, the axe after the oak-tree, the +grindstone after the axe, the fire after the grindstone, the water after +the fire, and the hurricane after the water; then the hurricane sends +the water, the water the fire, the fire burns the grindstone, the stone +grinds the axe, the axe cuts down the oak-tree, the oak-tree made into a +stick (as we have already seen in Chapters I. and II.) beats the men, +the men shoot against the bear, the bear fights with the wolves, the +wolves hunt the she-goat, and here the she-goat comes back with the +hazel-nuts (vot kasza s ariehami). + +[760] + + Ah vi, dietuski, + Moi batiuski + Ataprtessia + Atamkntessia; + Vasha mat prishl + Malak priniesl + Polni bak malak, + Polni rag tvarag + Polni kopitzi vaditzi. + +[761] _Afanassieff_, vi. 17. + +[762] In the story, ii. 32 of _Afanassieff_, a similar voice has the +same effect as that of the ass; it terrifies all the other animals. +However, here, a goat that has been shorn is alone spoken of,--that +is, the goat which has lost its hair or luminous wool, the thundering +goat-cloud.--In the twenty-fifth story of the first book of the +_Narodnija iusznoruskija Skazki_ (_Popular Stories of South Russia_), +edited by Rudcenko, Kiev, 1869, the goat terrifies by its voice the +first fox and then the wolf, until she herself is terrified by the +voice of the cock. (The morning sun, personified in the cock, destroys +the she-goat of night.) + +[763] _Afanassieff_, iii. 15.--She sends them to the pasturage; a young +blacksmith, who is in her power, adopts the follow mode of deliverance: +He puts his pelisse on outside-in, feigns himself a sheep, and passes +out with the other sheep, escaping thus from the witch: the young sun +comes out at morn like a shepherd-hero among the sheep. Thus Odysseus +delivers himself from the grotto of Polyphemos with his companions, by +hiding himself among the flock which comes out of it. + +[764] Cfr. the eleventh of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano di +Calcinaia_, where we have the lamb instead of the kid. + +[765] A very interesting variation of this is contained in another +unpublished story which I heard from a certain Marianna Nesti of +Fucecchio in Tuscany. + +There was once a queen that had a son, who, at the age of seven years, +was enchanted, so that he lay constantly in bed like one deprived of +life. Only at midnight he went out of the house, returning at one +o'clock, covered with blood, and throwing himself as if dead into the +bed. A woman had to remain regularly on the watch for the purpose of +opening the door for him at midnight and at one o'clock; but no girl +had, from very fright, been able to continue in the service more than +one night. Near the city lived an old woman with three daughters; the +two eldest tried to discharge the prescribed duty, but were overcome +with fear; the youngest, more courageous, remained. The first night, +at twelve o'clock, the dead man lifts up one arm; she runs to him and +lifts the other; he tries to raise himself; she helps him to get out +of bed. At one o'clock he returns covered with blood, and the girl +asks him who has reduced him to this condition, but he answers +nothing, and throws himself on the bed as if a corpse. The second +night she follows him, and sees him enter a subterranean cavern; he +comes to the foot of a flight of stairs, puts down his mantle and +remains as naked as when he was born, a handsome youth of eighteen +years of age. At the summit of the stairs two great witches cry, "Here +he is! come, pretty one!" He ascends and is beaten by the witches for +an hour till blood flows, he crying out the while for mercy. At one +o'clock he is allowed to go, comes back to the foot of the stairs, +takes his mantle and returns home dead. The third night his attendant +again follows him, and when he puts down his mantle at the foot of the +stairs and goes up, she takes the mantle and presses it tightly; the +witches scream. The young man comes to the summit; but when they try +to beat him they cannot lift the stick. Perceiving this, the girl +presses and bites the mantle; when she does so, the witches feel +themselves bitten; then the girl runs to the palace, orders a great +fire to be lighted, and throws the mantle into it; upon its being +burnt, the two witches expire, their enchantment is destroyed, and the +prince marries his deliverer. + +[766] In the eighth story of the first book of the _Pentamerone_, the +ungrateful young woman, Renzolla, is condemned by her own protecting +fairy to have the face of a horned goat until she shows her repentance. + +[767] v. 25. + +[768] iii. 16. + +[769] i. 50; vii. 38. + +[770] atam meshn vrikye cakshadnam rigrvam tam pitndham cakra +tasma aksh nsaty vicaksha dhattam dasr bhishagv anarvan; _Rigv._ +i. 116, 16.--Cfr. 117, 18. + +[771] Esha chgah puro avena vgin; _Rigv._ i. 162, 3. + +[772] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 7, where the rogue passes the she-goat +off as his sister, and lets her be killed, in order to oblige the +murderer, by threats of exposure, to give him a large sum of money in +compensation; and v. 52, where the head of a goat is cut off to +conceal the murder of a sacristan, committed by the foolish third +brother.--Cfr. _Erlenwein_, 17. + +[773] The she-goat is also sacrificed, in the eighth of the Sicilian +stories collected by Laura Gonzenbach, to test the virtue of a +truthful peasant. The wife of a minister who is jealous of the peasant +Verit (Truth), who has the custody of a goat, a lamb, a ram, and a +wether belonging to the king, persuades him to believe that her life +is forfeit, and can be ransomed only by the sacrifice of the wether. +The peasant, overcome partly by love and partly by compassion, gives +way and consents to the sacrifice. The minister hopes that the peasant +will conceal his fault, but is disappointed in his expectation, +inasmuch as, on the contrary, he ingenuously confesses everything; and +he becomes, in consequence, yet dearer to the king. + +[774] The devil also presents himself to do his evil deeds in the +_Blier de Rochefort_, in Bonnafoux, _Lgendes et Croyances +Superstitieuses Conserves dans le Dpartment de la Creuse_, Gueret, +1867, p. 17.--In a legend of Baden, too, recorded by Simrock (work +quoted before, p. 260; cfr., in the same work, p. 501), the devil +appears with the feet of a he-goat. + +[775] vii. 50, 1.--In the _Classical Dictionary of Natural History of +Audouin, Bourdon_, &c., first Italian translation, Venice, Tasso, 1831, +we read: "Goat, species of ophidian reptiles, indigenous in Congo, and +also in Bengal; as yet unclassified by zoologists, and which, it is +said, throw from afar a kind of saliva causing blindness." + +[776] Cfr. the lacerta cornuta of the _Pentamerone_. + +[777] vi. 42. + +[778] iv. 7. + +[779] + + Differ opus, tunc tristis hiems, tunc pleiades instant + Tunc et in quorea mergitur hdus aqua. + Spe ego nimbosis dubius jactabar ab hdis. + Nascitur Olene signum pluviale capell. + --_Ovid._ + + Quantus ab occasu veniens pluvialibus hdis + Verberat imber humum. + --_Virgil._ + +[780] Pvrav tanyatur ekapd ago divo dhart; _Rigv._ x. 65, 13.--Cfr. +the aga ekapd invoked after Ahirbudhnya and before Tritas, in the +_Rigv._ ii. 31, 6, and the agikapd, a name given to Vishnus, in the +_Hariv_; the reader remembers also the _goat-footed races_ of Herodotus. + +[781] We also find the lame goat, or he-goat, in the legend of Thor. +The god kills his he-goats, takes off their skins, and keeps their +bones, to be able to resuscitate them at pleasure. His son, Thialfi, +steals the thigh-bone of one of the goats, in order to go and sell it; +then one of the he-goats of Thor, being resuscitated, is lame.--Cfr. +for the analogous traditions the notices given by Simrock, work quoted +before, p. 260. + +[782] In a Russian song we read: "Moon! moon! golden horns!" + +[783] ii. 240. + +[784] Cfr. Du Cange, _s. v._ galaxia. + +[785] _Das festliche Jahr_, zweite Ausg., p. 216. + +[786] Florence, Piatti, 1821. + +[787] Concerning this stone, cfr. a whole chapter in Aldrovandi, _De +Quadrupedibus Bisulcis_, i. + +[788] Cfr. Du Cange, _s. v. Agnus Dei_, where we even find the verses +with which Urban V. accompanied the gift of an _Agnus Dei_ to John +Paleologus.--In the month of October, the Thuringians celebrate the +festival of the race after the ram, which, when overtaken, is led to a +large rock and there killed. For the race after the ram, cfr. also +Villemarqu, _Chants Populaires de la Bretagne_.--In a popular song, +in which _England_ is transformed into _Engelland_ (or country of the +angels), Mary, the nurse of God, appears with the white lamb:-- + + "Die Himmelsthr wird aufgehen; + Maria Gottes Amme + Kommt mit dem weissen Lamme." + +[789] Menzel, the work quoted before. + +[790] Professor Emilio Teza has published a medival Italian version +of this poem with notes. + +[791] Cfr. the before-quoted fable of _Babrios_, in which the vine +complains of the he-goat which eats its leaves.--In the Italian +proverb, "Salvar la capra e i cavoli," the she-goat is again indicated +as an eater of leaves.--The leaves of the sorb-apple, according to the +Norwegian belief, cure sick goats, by which the god Thor is +drawn.--Cfr. Kuhn, _Die H. d. F. u. d. G._ + +[792] From a narrative made to me by my friend Valentino Carrera, an +intrepid Alp-climber and popular dramatist. + +[793] Referred to by Martial's epigram:-- + + "Tam male Thais olet, quam non fullonis avari + Tecta vetus media, sed modo fracta via. + Non ab amore recens hircus," &c. + +[794] With this myth of the brother Phrixos and of the sister Helle, +who pass the sea or fly through the air with the sheep, is connected +the Russian story recorded above of Ivan and Helena; Ivan is changed +into a little kid or lamb. In the Italian variety of the same story, +the sister is thrown into the sea by the witch. Whilst the brother and +sister pass the Hellespont upon the golden ram, Helle falls into the +sea. We learn from Apllonios, in the second book of the _Argon._, +that the fleece of the sheep became gold only when, on its arrival in +Colchis, it was sacrificed and suspended upon an oak-tree. The +cloud-ram becomes golden only in the morning and evening sky.--The +luminous fleece can perhaps be recognised in the bride of the +_Rigvedas_, who, leaning towards the relations of Kakshvant, says: +"Every day I shall be (properly speaking, I am) like the little woolly +sheep of the gandhri (sarvham asmi roma gandhrnm ivvik);" +_Rigv._ i. 126. As there is an etymological analogy, so there may be a +mythical analogy between the gandhri and the gandharvs. + +[795] Book x. + +[796] Ovid calls the goat "hdorum mater formosa duorum," and sings +that the goat herself broke one of her horns against a tree, which +horn the nymph Amalthea wrapped-- + + "decentibus herbis + Et plenum pomis ad Jovis ora tulit;" + +and Jupiter, when lord of heaven, in reward-- + + "Sidera nutricem, nutricis fertile cornu + Fecit, quod domin nunc quoque nomen habet." + +END OF VOL. I. + +PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY +EDINBURGH AND LONDON + +Transcriber's Notes: + + Page 1 - Added a missing -- separator (... for cows.--Cavern where + ...) + + Page 24 - Removed the second "the" (... it is the third sun ...) + + Page 178 - Added missing period. (... him from danger. These were + ...) + + Page 196 - There is an unmatched round bracket starting on this + page (... carried off. (This is the ...) + + Page 211 - There is an unmatched round bracket starting on this + page (... perfidious persecutor. (The evening ...) + + Page 313 - There is an unmatched round bracket starting on this + page (... called Urvksha (a word ...) + + Page 335 - Removed an extra "the" (... seizes the branch of ...) + + Corrected misspellings throughout the text + + There are multiple spellings of many names throughout, all of which + appear valid, left per the text. + + There are many words that are both hyphenated and unhyphenated in + the text (i.e. cowmaid and cow-maid). Words were left to match the + text. + + Replaced non-standard characters with the closest standard + character. (i.e. "[h.]" replaced with "h") + + Footnotes 59 and 433 have no anchor in the text + + Added closing quotes to the end of Footnotes 395 and 436 + + Footnote 167 - Superscript changed for plain text (... erster Theil; + 2^te Aufl. S. ...) + + Footnote 518 - There is an unmatched round bracket in this footnote + (... _attonito_ (or, properly ...) + + Footnote 558 - There is an unmatched quote in this footnote (... + cavalli stregari;" _Prologo._ 10 ...) + + Footnote 579 - Replaced the final comma with a period. + + Footnote 612 - Replaced comma with period after "i" (_Tuti-Name_, i. + 151.) + + Footnote 659 - Changed "lightned" to "lightninged" (... day it + lightninged and thundered.) + + Footnote 715 - Added second period after "v" (... _Ib._ v. 12. ...) + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Zoological Mythology, Volume I (of 2), by +Angelo de Gubernatis + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY, VOL I *** + +***** This file should be named 38687-8.txt or 38687-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/6/8/38687/ + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Douglas L. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Zoological Mythology, Volume I (of 2) + or The Legends of Animals + +Author: Angelo de Gubernatis + +Release Date: March 4, 2012 [EBook #38687] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY, VOL I *** + + + + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Douglas L. Alley, III, Bill +Tozier and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1>ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY</h1> + +<p class="caption2">OR</p> + +<h2>THE LEGENDS OF ANIMALS</h2> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h4>ANGELO DE GUBERNATIS</h4> + +<p class="caption2">PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE IN THE ISTITUTO DI STUDII</p> +<p class="caption2">SUPERIORI E DI PERFEZIONAMENTO, AT FLORENCE</p> +<p class="caption2">FOREIGN MEMBER OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF PHILOLOGY AND ETHNOGRAPHY</p> +<p class="caption2">OF THE DUTCH INDIES</p> + +<h4><i>IN TWO VOLUMES</i></h4> + +<h4>VOL. I.</h4> + +<h4>LONDON</h4> + +<h4>TRBNER & CO., 60 PATERNOSTER ROW</h4> + +<p class="caption2">1872</p> + +<p class="caption2">[<i>All rights reserved</i>] +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="caption2">PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY +EDINBURGH AND LONDON +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + +<p class="caption2">TO</p> + +<h2>MICHELE AMARI AND MICHELE COPPINO</h2> + +<h2 class="oldenglish">This Work</h2> + +<p class="caption2">IS DEDICATED</p> + +<p class="caption2">AS A TRIBUTE OF LIVELY GRATITUDE AND</p> + +<p class="caption2">PROFOUND ESTEEM</p> + +<p class="caption2">BY</p> + +<h3>THE AUTHOR.</h3> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="ZOOLOGICAL_MYTHOLOGY" id="ZOOLOGICAL_MYTHOLOGY"></a>ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY;</h2> + +<p class="center">OR</p> + +<h3>THE LEGENDS OF ANIMALS.</h3> + +<hr /> + +<h3 class="oldenglish">First Part.</h3> + +<h3>THE ANIMALS OF THE EARTH.</h3> + + +<hr /> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h3> + +<h4>THE COW AND THE BULL.</h4> + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Section I.—The Cow and the Bull in the Vedic Hymns.</span></p> + +<p class="center">SUMMARY.</p> + +<blockquote style="text-indent:-2em"><p>Prelude.—The vault of Heaven as a luminous cow.—The gods and +goddesses, sons and daughters of this cow.—The vault of Heaven +as a spotted cow.—The sons and daughters of this cow, <i>i.e.</i> the +winds, Marutas, and the clouds, Pṛinayas.—The wind-bulls subdue +the cloud-cows.—Indras, the rain-sending, thundering, lightening, +radiant sun, who makes the rain fall and the light return, called +the bull of bulls.—The bull Indras drinks the water of strength.—Hunger +and thirst of the heroes of mythology.—The cloud-barrel.—The +horns of the bull and of the cow are sharpened.—The +thunderbolt-horns.—The cloud as a cow, and even as a stable or +hiding-place for cows.—Cavern where the cows are shut up, of +which cavern the bull Indras and the bulls Marutas remove the +stone, and force the entrance, to reconquer the cows, delivering them +from the monster; the male Indras finds himself again with his +wife.—The cloud-fortress, which Indras destroys and Agnis sets +on fire.—The cloud-forest, which the gods destroy.—The cloud-cow; +the cow-bow; the bird-thunderbolts; the birds come out of +the cow.—The monstrous cloud-cow, the wife of the monster.—Some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> +phenomena of the cloudy sky are analogous to those of the +gloomy sky of night and of winter.—The moment most fit for an +epic poem is the meeting of such phenomena in a nocturnal tempest.—The +stars, cows put to flight by the sun.—The moon, a milk-yielding +cow.—The ambrosial moon fished up in the fountain, gives +nourishment to Indras.—The moon as a male, or bull, discomfits, +with the bull Indras, the monster.—The two bulls, or the two +stallions, the two horsemen, the twins.—The bull chases the wolf +from the waters.—The cow tied.—The aurora, or ambrosial cow, +formed out of the skin of another cow by the Ṛibhavas.—The +Ṛibhavas, bulls and wise birds.—The three Ṛibhavas reproduce +the triple Indras and the triple Vishṇus; their three relationships; +the three brothers, eldest, middle, youngest; the three brother +workmen; the youngest brother is the most intelligent, although +at first thought stupid; the reason why.—The three brothers +guests of a king.—The third of the Ṛibhavas, the third and +youngest son becomes Tritas the third, in the heroic form of +Indras, who kills the monster; Tritas, the third brother, after +having accomplished the great heroic undertaking, is abandoned +by his envious brothers in the well; the second brother is the +son of the cow.—Indras a cowherd, parent of the sun and the +aurora, the cow of abundance, milk-yielding and luminous.—The +cow St.—Relationship of the sun to the aurora.—The aurora as +cow-nurse of the sun, mother of the cows; the aurora cowherd; +the sun hostler and cowherd.—The riddle of the wonderful cowherd; +the sun solves the riddle proposed by the aurora.—The aurora +wins the race, being the first to arrive at the barrier, without +making use of her feet.—The chariot of the aurora.—She who +has no feet, who leaves no footsteps; she who is without footsteps +of the measure of the feet; she who has no slipper (which +is the measure of the foot).—The sun who never puts his foot +down, the sun without feet, the sun lame, who, during the night, +becomes blind; the blind and the lame who help each other, whom +Indra helps, whom the ambrosia of the aurora enables to walk and +to see.—The aurora of evening, witch who blinds the sun; the sun +Indras, in the morning, chases the aurora away; Indras subdues +and destroys the witch aurora.—The brother sun follows, as a +seducer, the aurora his sister, and wishes to burn her.—The sun +follows his daughter the aurora.—The aurora, a beautiful young +girl, deliverer of the sun, rich in treasure, awakener of the sleepers, +saviour of mankind, foreseeing; from small becomes large, from +dark becomes brilliant, from infirm, whole, from blind, seeing and +protectress of sight.—Night and aurora, now mother and daughter,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> +now sisters.—The luminous night a good sister; the gloomy +night gives place to the aurora, her elder or better sister, working, +purifying, cleansing.—The aurora shines only when near the sun +her husband, before whom she dances splendidly dressed; the +aurora Urva.—The wife of the sun followed by the monster.—The +husband of the aurora subject to the same persecution.</p></blockquote> + +<p>We are on the vast table-land of Central Asia; gigantic +mountains send forth on every side their thousand rivers; +immense pasture-lands and forests cover it; migratory +tribes of pastoral nations traverse it; the <i>gopatis</i>, the +shepherd or lord of the cows, is the king; the gopatis +who has most herds is the most powerful. The story +begins with a graceful pastoral idyll.</p> + +<p>To increase the number of the cows, to render them +fruitful in milk and prolific in calves, to have them +well looked after, is the dream, the ideal of the ancient +Aryan. The bull, the <i>fœcundator</i>, is the type of every +male perfection, and the symbol of regal strength.</p> + +<p>Hence, it is only natural that the two most prominent +animal figures in the mythical heaven should be the cow +and the bull.</p> + +<p>The cow is the ready, loving, faithful, fruitful Providence +of the shepherd.</p> + +<p>The worst enemy of the Aryan, therefore, is he who +carries off the cow; the best, the most illustrious, of his +friends, he who is able to recover it from the hands of +the robber.</p> + +<p>The same idea is hence transferred to heaven; in +heaven there is a beneficent, fruitful power, which is +called the cow, and a beneficent <i>fœcundator</i> of this +same power, which is called the bull.</p> + +<p>The dewy moon, the dewy aurora, the watery cloud, +the entire vault of heaven, that giver of the quickening +and benignant rain, that benefactress of mankind,—are +each, with special predilection, represented as the beneficent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> +cow of abundance. The lord of this multiform +cow of heaven, he who makes it pregnant and fruitful +and milk-yielding, the spring or morning sun, the rain-giving +sun (or moon) is often represented as a bull.</p> + +<p>Now, to apprehend all this clearly, we ought to go +back, as nearly as possible, to that epoch in which +such conceptions would arise spontaneously; but as the +imagination so indulged is apt to betray us into mere +fantastical conceits, into an <i> priori</i> system, we shall begin +by excluding it entirely from these preliminary researches, +as being hazardous and misleading, and content ourselves +with the humbler office of collecting the testimonies of +the poets themselves who assisted in the creation of the +mythology in question.</p> + +<p>I do not mean to say anything of the Vedic myths +that is not taken from one or other of the hymns contained +in the greatest of the Vedas, but only to arrange +and connect together the links of the chain as they +certainly existed in the imagination of the ancient +Aryan people, and which the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, the work of +a hundred poets and of several centuries, presents to +us as a whole, continuous and artistic. I shall indeed +suppose myself in the valley of Kamra, or on the banks +of the Sindhus, under that sky, at the foot of these +mountains, among these rivers; but I shall search in +the sky for that which I find in the hymns, and not in +the hymns for that which I may imagine I see in the +sky. I shall begin my voyage with a trusty chart, and +shall consult it with all the diligence in my power, in +order not to lose any of the advantages that a voyage so +full of surprises has to offer. Hence the notes will all, +or nearly all, consist of quotations from my guide, in +order that the learned reader may be able to verify for +himself every separate assertion. And as to the frequent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> +stoppages we shall have to make by the way, let me ask +the reader not to ascribe these to anything arbitrary on +my part, but rather to the necessities of a voyage, made, +as it is, step by step, in a region but little known, and by +the help of a guide, where nearly everything indeed is to +be found, but where, as in a rich inventory, it is easier to +lose one's way than to find it again.</p> + +<p>The immense vault of heaven which over-arches the +earth, as the eternal storehouse of light and rain, as +the power which causes the grass to grow, and therefore +the animals which pasture upon it, assumes in the Vedic +literature the name of Aditis, or the infinite, the inexhaustible, +the fountain of ambrosia (<i>amṛitasya nabhis</i>). +Thus far, however, we have no personification, as yet we +have no myth. The <i>amṛitas</i> is simply the immortal, and +only poetically represents the rain, the dew, the luminous +wave. But the inexhaustible soon comes to mean that +which can be milked without end—and hence also, a celestial +cow, an inoffensive cow, which we must not offend, +which must remain intact.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> The whole heavens being thus +represented as an infinite cow, it was natural that the +principal and most visible phenomena of the sky should +become, in their turn, children of the cow, or themselves +cows or bulls, and that the <i>fœcundator</i> of the great mother +should also be called a bull. Hence we read that the wind +(<i>Vyus</i> or <i>Rudrs</i>) gave birth, from the womb of the celestial +cow, to the winds that howl in the tempest (<i>Marutas</i> +and <i>Rudrs</i>), called for this reason children of the cow.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> +But, since this great celestial cow produces the tempestuous, +noisy winds, she represents not only the serene, tranquil +vault of the shining sky, but also the cloudy and tenebrous +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>mother of storms. This great cow, this immense +cloud, that occupies all the vault of heaven and unchains +the winds, is a brown, dark, spotted (<i>pṛinis</i>) cow; and +so the winds, or Marutas, her sons, are called the children +of the spotted one.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> The singular has thus become a +plural; the male sons of the cloud, the winds, are 21; +the daughters, the clouds themselves, called the spotted +ones (<i>pṛinayas</i>) are also three times seven, or 21: 3 and +7 are sacred numbers in the Aryan faith; and the number +21 is only a multiple of these two great legendary numbers, +by which either the strength of a god or that of a monster +is often symbolised. If <i>pṛinis</i>, or the variegated cow, +therefore, is the mother of the Marutas, the winds, and of the +variegated ones (<i>pṛinayas</i>), the clouds, we may say that +the clouds are the sisters of the winds. We often have +three or seven sisters, three or seven brothers in the legends. +Now, that 21, in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i> itself, involves a reference +to 3, is evident, if we only observe how one hymn speaks +of the 3 times 7 spotted cows who bring to the god +the divine drink, while another speaks of the spotted +ones (the number not being specified) who give him three +lakes to drink.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> Evidently here the 3, or 7, or 21 sister +cows that yield to the god of the eastern heavens their +own nutritious milk, and amidst whose milky humours +the winds, now become invulnerable, increase,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> fulfil the +pious duties of benevolent guardian fates. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>But if the winds are sons of a cow, and the cows are +their nurses, the winds, or Marutas, must, as masculine, +be necessarily represented as bulls. In reality the Wind +(<i>Vyus</i>), their father, is borne by bulls—that is, by the +winds themselves, who hurry, who grow, are movable as +the rays of the sun, very strong, and indomitable;<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> the +strength of the wind is compared to that of the bull or the +bear;<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> the winds, as lusty as bulls, overcome and subdue +the dark ones.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> Here, therefore, the clouds are no longer +represented as the cows that nurse, but with the gloomy +aspect of a monster. The Marutas, the winds that howl +in the tempest, are as swift as lightning, and surround +themselves with lightning. Hence they are celebrated +for their luminous vestments; and hence it is said that +the reddish winds are resplendent with gems, as some +bulls with stars.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> As such—that is, as subduers of the +clouds, and as they who run impetuously through them—these +winds, these bulls, are the best friends, the most +powerful helpers, of the great bellowing bull; of the god +of thunder and rain; of the sun, the dispeller of clouds +and darkness; of the supreme Vedic god, Indras, the +friend of light and ambrosia—of Indras, who brings with +him daylight and fine weather, who sends us the beneficent +dew and the fertilising rain. Like the winds his +companions, the sun Indras—the sun (and the luminous +sky) hidden in the dark, who strives to dissipate the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>shadows, the sun hidden in the cloud that thunders and +lightens, to dissolve it in rain—is represented as a powerful +bull, as the bull of bulls, invincible son of the cow, +that bellows like the Marutas.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + +<p>But in order to become a bull, in order to grow, to +develop the strength necessary to kill the serpent, +Indras must drink; and he drinks the water of strength, +the <i>somas</i>.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> "Drink and grow,"<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> one of the poets says +to him, while offering the symbolical libation of the cup +of sacrifice, which is a type of the cup of heaven, now +the heavenly vault, now the cloud, now the sun, and now +the moon. From the sweet food of the celestial cow, +Indras acquires a swiftness which resembles that of the +horse;<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> and he eats and drinks at one time enough to +enable him to attain maturity at once. The gods give +him three hundred oxen to eat, and three lakes of ambrosial +liquor<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> to drink, in order that he may be able to +kill the monster serpent. The hunger and thirst of the +heroes is always proportioned to the miracle they are +called upon to perform; and for this reason the hymns +of the <i>Ṛigvedas</i> and of the <i>Atharvavedas</i> often represent +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>the cloud as an immense great-bellied barrel (<i>Kabandhas</i>), +which is carried by the divine <i>bull</i>.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> + +<p>But when and how does the hero-bull display his extraordinary +strength? The terrible bull bellows, and +shows his strength, as he sharpens his horns:<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> the splendid +bull, with sharpened horns, who is able of himself to +overthrow all peoples.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> But what are the horns of the +bull Indras, the god of thunder? Evidently the thunderbolts; +Indras is, in fact, said to sharpen the thunderbolts +as a bull sharpens his horns;<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> the thunderbolt of Indras +is said to be thousand-pointed;<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> the bull Indras is called +the bull with the thousand horns, who rises from the sea<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> +(or from the cloudy ocean as a thunder-dealing sun, from +the gloomy ocean as a radiant sun—the thunderbolt being +supposed to be rays from the solar disc). Sometimes the +thunderbolt of Indras is itself called a bull,<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> and is +sharpened by its beloved refulgent cows,<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> being used, now +to withdraw the cows from the darkness, now to deliver +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>them from the monster of darkness that envelops them,<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> +and now to destroy the monster of clouds and darkness +itself. Besides the name of Indras, this exceedingly +powerful horned bull, who sharpens his horns to plunge +them into the monster, assumes also, as the fire which +sends forth lightning, as that which sends forth rays of +light from the clouds and the darkness, the name of +Agnis; and, as such, has two heads, four horns, three +feet, seven hands, teeth of fire, and wings; he is borne +on the wind, and blows.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p> + +<p>Thus far, then, we have heavenly cows which nurture +heavenly bulls, and heavenly bulls and cows which use +their horns for a battle that is fought in heaven.</p> + +<p>Let us now suppose ourselves on the field of battle, and +let us visit both the hostile camps. In one we find the sun +(and sometimes the moon), the bull of bulls Indras, with +the winds, Marutas, the radiant and bellowing bulls; in +the other, a multiform monster, in the shape of wolves, +serpents, wild boars, owls, mice, and such like. The bull +Indras has cows with him, who help him; the monster +has also cows, either such as he has carried off from Indras, +and which he imprisons and secretes in gloomy caverns, +towers, or fortresses, or those which he caresses as his +own wives. In the one case, the cows consider the bull +Indras as their friend and liberating hero; in the other, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>those with the monster are themselves monsters and +enemies of Indras, who fights against them. The clouds, +in a word, are regarded at one time as the friends of the +rain-giving sun, who delivers them from the monster +that keeps back the rain, and at another as attacked by +the sun, as they who wickedly envelop him, and endeavour +to destroy him. Let us now go on to search, in +the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, the proofs of this double battle.</p> + +<p>To begin with the first phase of the conflict, where +in the sky does Indras fight the most celebrated of all +his battles?</p> + +<p>The clouds generally assume the aspect of mountains; +the words <i>adris</i> and <i>parvatas</i>, in the Vedic language, +expressing the several ideas of stone, mountain, and +cloud.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> The cloud being compared to a stone, a rock, +or a mountain, it was natural,—1st, To imagine in the +rock or mountain dens or caverns, which, as they imprisoned +cows, might be likened to stables;<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> 2d, To +pass from the idea of a rock to that of citadel, fortress, +fortified city, tower; 3d, To pass from the idea of a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>mountain, which is immovable, to that of a tree which, +though it cannot move from its place, yet rears itself +and expands in the air; and from the idea of the tree +of the forest to the shadowy and awe-inspiring grove. +Hence the bull, or hero, or god Indras, or the sun of +thunder, lightning, and rain, now does battle within a +cavern, now carries a fortified town by assault, and +now draws forth the cow from the forest, or unbinds it +from the tree, destroying the <i>rakshas</i>, or monster, that +enchained it.</p> + +<p>The Vedic poetry celebrates, in particular, the exploit +of Indras against the cavern, enclosure, or mountain in +which the monster (called by different names and especially +by those of Valas, Vṛitras, Cushṇas, of enemy, black +one, thief, serpent, wolf, or wild boar) conceals the herds +of the celestial heroes, or slaughters them.</p> + +<p>The black bull bellows; the thunderbolt bellows, that +is, the thunder follows the lightning, as the cow follows +its calf;<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> the Marutas bulls ascend the rock—now, by +their own efforts, moving and making the sonorous stone, +the rock mountain, fall;<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> now, with the iron edge of their +rolling chariots violently splitting the mountain;<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> the +valiant hero, beloved by the gods, moves the stone;<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> +Indras hears the cows: by the aid of the wind-bulls he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>finds the cows hidden in the cavern; he himself, furnished +with an arm of stone, opens the grotto of Valas, who keeps +the cows; or, opens the cavern to the cows; he vanquishes, +kills, and pursues the thieves in battle; the bulls +bellow; the cows move forward to meet them; the bull, +Indras, bellows and leaves his seed in the herd; the +thunder-dealing male, Indras, and his spouse are glad +and rejoice.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p> + +<p>In this fabled enterprise, three moments must be +noted: 1st, The effort to raise the stone; 2d, The +struggle with the monster who carried off the cows; +3d, The liberation of the prisoners. It is an entire epic +poem.</p> + +<p>The second form of the enterprise of Indras in the +cloudy heavens is that which has for its object the +destruction of the celestial fortresses, of the ninety, or +ninety-nine, or hundred cities of ambaras, of the cities +which were the wives of the demons; and from this +undertaking Indras acquired the surname of <i>puramdaras</i> +(explained as destroyer of cities); although he had +in it a most valuable companion-in-arms, Agnis, that is, +Fire, which naturally suggests to our thoughts the notion +of destruction by fire.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p> + +<p>In a hymn to Indras, the gods arrive at last, bring their +axes, and with their edges destroy the woods, and burn +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>the monsters who restrain the milk in the breasts of the +cows.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> The clouded sky here figures in the imagination +as a great forest inhabited by <i>rakshasas</i>, or monsters, +which render it unfruitful—that is, which prevent the +great celestial cow from giving her milk. The cow that +gives the honey, the ambrosial cow of the Veds, is thus +replaced by a forest which hides the honey, the ambrosia +beloved by the gods. And although the Vedic hymns +do not dwell much upon this conception of the cloudy-sky, +preferring as they do to represent the darkness of night +as a gloomy forest, the above passage from the Veds is +worthy of notice as indicating the existence at least +during the Vedic period of a myth which was afterwards +largely amplified in zoological legend.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p> + +<p>In this threefold battle of Indras, we must, moreover, +remark a curious feature. The thunder-dealing Indras +overpowers his enemies with arrows and darts; the same +cloud which thunders, bellows, and therefore is called a +cow, becomes, as throwing darts, a bow: hence we +have the cow-bow, from which Indras hurls the iron +stone, the thunderbolt; and the cord itself of that +bellowing bow is called a cow; from the bow-cow, from +the cord-cow, come forth the winged darts, the thunderbolts, +called birds, that eat men; and when they come +forth, all the world trembles.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> We shall come upon the +same idea again further on.</p> + +<p>Thus far we have considered the cow-cloud as a victim +of the monster (that Indras comes to subdue). But it is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>not uncommon to see the cloud itself or the darkness, +that is, the cow, the fortress, or the forest represented as +a monster. Thus, a Vedic hymn informs us that the +monster Valas had the shape of a cow;<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> another hymn +represents the cloud as the cow that forms the waters, +and that has now one foot, now four, now eight, now +nine, and fills the highest heaven with sounds;<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> still +another hymn sings that the sun hurls his golden disc +in the variegated cow;<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> they who have been carried off, +who are guarded by the monster serpent, the waters, the +cows, are become the wives of the demons;<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> and they +must be malignant, since a poet can use as a curse the +wish that the malign spirits, the demons, may drink the +poison of those cows.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> We have already seen that the +fortresses are wives of demons, and that the demons possessed +the forests.<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p> + +<p>It is in the beclouded and thundering heavens that +the warrior hero displays his greatest strength; but it +cannot be denied that the great majority of the myths, +and the most poetical, exemplify or represent the relation +between the nocturnal sky (now dark, tenebrous, +watery, horrid, wild, now lit up by the ambrosial moon-beams, +and now bespangled with stars) and the two +glowing skies—the two resplendent ambrosial twilights of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>morning and evening (of autumn and spring). We have +here the same general phenomenon of light and darkness +engaged in strife; here, again, the sun Indras is hidden, +as though in a cloud, to prepare the light, to recover from +the monster of darkness the waters of youth and light, +the riches, the cows, which he keeps concealed; but this +conquest is only made by the hero after long wandering +amidst many dangers, and is finally accomplished by +battles, in which the principal credit is often due to a +heroine; except in those cases, not frequent but well +worthy of remark, in which the clouds, hurricanes, +tempests of lightning and thunderbolts, coincide with +the end of the night (or of winter), and the sun Indras, +by tearing the clouds, at the same time disperses +the darkness of night and brings dawn (or spring) +back to the sky. In such coincidences, the sun Indras, +besides being the greatest of the gods, reveals himself to +be also the most epic of the heroes; the two skies, the +dark and the clouded, with their relative monsters, and +the two suns, the thundering and the radiant, with +their relative companions, are confounded, and the myth +then assumes all its poetical splendour. And the most +solemn moments of the great national Aryan epic poems, +the <i>Rmyaṇam</i> and the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, the <i>Book +of Kings</i>, as well as those of the <i>Iliad</i>, the <i>Song of +Roland</i> and the <i>Nibelungen</i>, are founded upon this very +coincidence of the two solar actions—the cloudy and +shadowy monster thunderstruck, and the dawn (or spring) +delivered and resuscitated. In truth, the <i>Ṛigvedas</i> itself, +in a passage already quoted,<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> tells us that the clouds—the +three times seven spotted cows—cause their milk +to drop to a god (whom, from another similar passage,<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>we know to be Indras, the sun) in the eastern sky (<i>prve +vyomani</i>), that is, towards the morning, and sometimes +towards the spring, many of the phenomena of which +correspond to those of the aurora. The <i>Pṛinayas</i>, or +spotted ones, are beyond doubt the clouds, as the Marutas, +sons of Pṛinis, or the spotted one, are the winds that +howl and lighten in the storm cloud. It is therefore +necessary to carry back the cloudy sky towards the +morning, to understand the Pṛinayas feeding the sun +Indras in the eastern heavens and the seven <i>Agirasas</i>, +the seven sunbeams, the seven wise men, who also sing +hymns in the morning;—it seems to me that the hymn +of these fabled wise men can be nothing else than the crash +of the thunderbolts, which, as we have already seen, are +supposed to be detached from the solar rays. Allusions +to Indras thundering in the morning are so frequent in the +Vedic hymns, that I hope to be excused for this short +digression, from which I must at once return, because my +sole object here is to treat in detail of the mythical animals, +and because the road we have to take will be a long one.</p> + +<p>Even the luminous night has its cows; the stars, which +the sun puts to flight with his rays,<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> are cows: the cows +themselves, whose dwellings the dwellings of the sun's +cows must adjoin, are called the many-horned ones.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> +These dwellings seem to me worthy of passing remark, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>they are the celestial houses that move, the enchanted +huts and palaces that appear, disappear, and are transformed +so often in the popular stories of the Aryans.</p> + +<p>The moon is generally a male, for its most popular +names, <i>Ćandras</i>, <i>Indus</i>, and <i>Somas</i> are masculine; but +as Somas signifies ambrosia, the moon, as giver of +ambrosia, soon came to be considered a milk-giving cow; +in fact, moon is one among the various meanings given in +Sanskrit to the word <i>gus</i> (cow). The moon, Somas, who +illumines the nocturnal sky, and the pluvial sun, Indras, +who during the night, or the winter, prepares the light of +morn, or spring, are represented as companions; a young +girl, the evening, or autumnal, twilight, who goes to draw +water towards night, or winter, finds in the well, and takes +to Indras, the ambrosial moon, that is, the Somas whom +he loves. Here are the very words of the Vedic hymn:—"The +young girl, descending towards the water, found the +moon in the fountain, and said: 'I will take you to Indras, +I will take you to akras; flow, O moon, and envelop +Indras.'"<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> The moon and ambrosia in the word indus, as +well as somas, are confounded with one another; hence, +Indras, the drinker <i>par excellence</i> of <i>somas</i> (somaptamas), +is also the best friend and companion of the ambrosial or +pluvial moon, and so the sun and moon (as also Indras +and Vishṇus) together come to suggest to us the idea of +two friends, two brothers (Indus and Indras), two twins, +the two Avinu; often the two twilights, properly +speaking, the morning and the evening, the spring and +the autumn, twilights, the former, however, being especially +associated with the red sun which appears in the +morning (or in the spring), and the latter with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +pale moon which appears in the evening (or in the +autumn, as a particular regent of the cold season). Indras +and Somas (<i>Indrsomu</i>) are more frequently represented +as two bulls who together discomfit the monster (<i>rakshohaṇu</i>), +who destroy by fire the monsters that live in +darkness.<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> The word <i>vṛishaṇu</i> properly means the two +who pour out, or fertilise. Here it means the two bulls; +but as the word <i>vṛishan</i> signifies stallion as well as bull, +the two stallions, the vṛishaṇu Indras and Somas, are, by +a natural transition, soon transformed into two horses or +horsemen, the two Avinu. Hence, in popular tales, we +find near the young princess the hero, who now leads out +the cows to pasture, and now, as hostler or groom, takes +excellent care of the horses. But we must not anticipate +comparisons which we shall have to make further on. +Having noticed that, in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, we find the moon +represented either as a bull or a cow (the masculine, <i>Indus</i>, +<i>somas</i>, <i>ćandras</i>, is always a bull; while the feminine, <i>rk</i>, +suggests more naturally the idea of a cow), let us now +consider the bull Indras in relation to the cow Aurora +(or spring).</p> + +<p>Five bulls stand in the midst of the heavens, and chase +out of the way the wolf who crosses the waters;<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> the +luminous Vasavas unbind the cow that is tied by its foot.<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a></p> + +<p>How now is this cow brought forth?</p> + +<p>This ambrosial cow is created by the artists of the +gods, by the three brothers <i>Ṛibhavas</i>, who draw it out +of the skin of a cow; that is, they make a cow, and, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>to give it life, cover it with the skin of a dead cow.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> It +being understood that the cow Aurora (or Spring) dies +at even (or in the autumn), the Ṛibhavas, the threefold sun +Indras, <i>i.e.</i>, the sun in the three watches of the night, prepares +the skin of this cow, one Ṛibhus taking off the skin +from the dead cow, another Ṛibhus preparing it during +the night (or winter), and the third Ṛibhus, in the early +morning (or at the end of winter) dressing the new cow, +the aurora (or the spring) with it. Thus it is that Indras, +in three distinct moments, takes the skin from off the girl +that he loves, who had become ugly during the night, +and restores her beauty in the morning.<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> And the three +Ṛibhavas may, it seems to me, be the more easily identified +with the triple Indras, with Indra-Vishṇus, who +measures the world in three paces, since, as Indras is +called a bull, they also are called bulls;<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> as Indras is +often a falcon, they also are named birds;<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> and their +miracles are sometimes also those of Indras. This identification +of the bulls Ṛibhavas, whom we speak of here as +producers of the cow Aurora (the same sterile cow of the +sleeping hero ayus, that which the Avinu, the two +horsemen of the twilight, restored to youth by the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>Ṛibhavas, rendered fruitful again),<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> with the bull, or +hero Indras, appears to me to be of the greatest importance, +inasmuch as it affords us the key to much that is +most vital to the Aryan legends.</p> + +<p>The Ṛibhavas, then, are three brothers. They prepare +themselves to procure the cups which are to serve for +the gods to drink out of. Each has a cup in his hand; +the eldest brother defies the others to make two cups +out of one; the second defies them to make three out of +one; the youngest brother comes forward and defies them +to make four. The victory is his, and the greatest workman +of heaven, the Vedic Vulcan, <i>Tvashtar</i>, praises their +wonderful work.<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> The youngest of the three brothers is +therefore the most skilful. We find in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i> the +name of <i>Sukarmas</i>, or maker of fine works, good workman, +given to each of the three brothers; and though +only one of them, who is properly called Ṛibhus, or <i>Ṛbhuksh</i>, +is said to serve the god Indras in the quality of +a workman (whence Indras himself sometimes received +the name of Ṛibhuksh, Ṛibhvan, or Ṛibhvas), yet the +other two brothers, <i>Vǵas</i> and <i>Vibhvan</i>, are in the +service, one of all the gods, the other of Varuṇas, the +god of night.<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> It would seem natural to recognise in +Ṛibhus, the protg of Indras, the most skilful of the +three brothers, who, as we have seen above, was the +youngest; yet, as we cannot infer anything from the +order in which the hymns name the three brothers—as, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>in one, Vǵas is first named, then Ṛibhuksh, and finally +Vibhvan; in another, Vǵas first, Vibhvan second, and +Ṛibhus third;<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> in another, again, Ṛibhus is invoked +first, then Vibhvan, and lastly Vǵas; and as we also +find all the Ṛibhavas saluted under the common epithet +of Vǵas, and Vǵas himself by the name of Indras, +or rather Indras saluted in his triple form of Ṛibhus, +Vibhvan, and Vǵas,<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> it remains uncertain which of these +was the proper name of the third brother of the Ṛibhavas. +But what seems to be sufficiently clear is, that Indras is +identified with the Ṛibhavas (<i>Indravantas</i>), that the +third brother is the most skilful, and that the three +brothers serve the lords of heaven as workmen. And +here we meet with an interesting element. In two +hymns of the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, the host of the Ṛibhavas appears +as one only, Indras himself, or the sun (Savitar), under +the name of <i>Agohyas</i> (<i>i.e.</i>, who cannot be hidden). +During the twelve days (the twelve hours of the night, +or the twelve months of the year) in which they are the +guests of Agohyas, they bring as they sleep every species +of prosperity to the land, by making the fields fertile, +causing the rivers to flow, and refreshing the grass of the +field. In this, however, let us not forget that they are the +beneficent sons of <i>Sudhanvan</i>, the good archer, and archers +themselves, representatives of the great celestial archer, +of the thunder-dealing and rain-giving Indras; and that +therefore their sleep is only a figure of speech to express +their latent existence in darkness and the clouds of night. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>But the <i>Ṛigvedas</i> introduces the three brothers under +other names, and especially in one, and that an important +aspect. The third brother is called <i>Tritas</i>, or +the third, and as such, is also identified with Indras. +Thus, for instance, the moments of Indras in the sky are +three—evening, night, and towards morning; and the +horse of Tritas (the horse that Tritas has received from +<i>Yamas</i>) is now mysteriously Yama himself, now the son +of ditis (whom we have already seen to be the cow, or +the son of the cow), now Tritas himself, whom Tritas +alone can yoke, and Indras alone ride upon, a horse bedewed +with ambrosia, which has three relationships in +heaven, three in the waters, three in the ocean;<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> that is to +say, one relation is Yamas, the elder brother; the second is +the son of the cow, or the second brother; the last is Tritas +himself, or the youngest brother. This Tritas is called +intelligent; he therefore corresponds to the third brother, +who makes four cups out of one. How then does he +appear sometimes stupid? The language itself supplies +the explanation. In Sanskrit, <i>blas</i> means both child and +stolid; and the third brother is supposed to be stolid, because, +at his first appearance especially, he is a child,—and +we constantly see him as a child do wonderful things, and +give proofs of superhuman wisdom. With this key, the +meaning of the myth is obvious. The eldest brother, +Yamas, the dying sun, with all his wisdom and experience, +is unable of himself to recover the ravished or +missing princess; the son of the cow ditis, that is, +dityas, the sun in the middle of the night, gives often<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +proof of strength great enough to disperse the darkness +and the clouds, and break the incantation; but, generally +it is the third sun, the morning sun, Indras in his third +moment, Vishṇus taking his third step,<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> the third brother, +Tritas, who seems to obtain the victory, and deliver the +young aurora from the monster of night. All this seems +to me to be very evident.</p> + +<p>Tritas, like Indras, drinks the water of strength, and +thereupon tears the monster in pieces;<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> the victory of the +young hero must be achieved in the same way in which +it is accomplished by Indras, his more splendid and +grandiose impersonation. But Tritas, or <i>Tritanas</i>, after +having killed the monster of the waters, is afraid that the +waters themselves may devour him; after cutting off the +head of the monster, some enemies have lowered him +down into the waters.<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> The sun has vanquished the +monster that kept the fountain of waters shut—he has +unchained the waters, but he himself has not been able +to break through the cloud; he has delivered from the +dark and cloudy monster the princess, the dawn that was +to have been its prey, but he himself does not yet come +forth—is still invisible. Now, who are the enemies here +that have placed the young hero in the cistern, down into +the well, in the sea? We have already seen that Tritas has +two brothers; and it is these two brothers who, in a fit +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>of jealousy, on account of his wife, the aurora, and the +riches she brings with her from the realm of darkness, the +cistern or well, detain their brother in the well,—all +which is told us in a single but eloquent verse of the +Vedas. The intelligent Tritas in the well calls out (<i>rebhati</i>) +on account of his brothers;<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> and the two horsemen of the +twilight, the Avinu, come to deliver the invoker (<i>rebhas</i>) +covered and enveloped by the waters.<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> In another hymn, +the deliverer appears to be Bṛihaspatis, the lord of prayer, +who having heard how Tritas, thrust down into the well, +was invoking the gods, made the large from the small;<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> +that is to say, opened for the young hero a way to escape +from the well and show himself in his glory.</p> + +<p>Having seen how in the Vedic hymns Tritas, the third +brother, and the ablest as well as best, is persecuted by his +brothers, it is interesting to note the form of the myth +in popular Hindoo tradition:—"Three brothers, <i>Ekatas</i> +(<i>i.e.</i>, the first), <i>Dvitas</i> (<i>i.e.</i>, the second), and <i>Tritas</i> (<i>i.e.</i>, the +third), were travelling in a desert, and distressed with +thirst, came to a well, from which the youngest, Tritas, +drew water and gave it to his seniors. In requital, they +threw him into the well, in order to appropriate his property, +and having covered the top with a cart-wheel, left +him within it. In this extremity he prayed to the gods to +extricate him, and by their favour he made his escape."<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a></p> + +<p>Thus have we brought the three brothers, of whom +Tritas is the youngest, into close affinity with the three +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>Ṛibhavas, and both the former and the latter into an +equally close connection with the three moments of Indras. +We have already said that the Ṛibhavas created the cow; +in the same way <i>Uan Kvys</i>, the desiring wise one +protected by Indras, another name for the sun-hero of the +morning, sends the cows together before him;<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> and Indras +himself is the only lord of the cows, the only real celestial +shepherd;<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> or, rather, it is he that begets the sun and +the aurora,<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> or, as another hymn says, who gives the +horses and the sun and the cow of abundance.<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a></p> + +<p>Here, therefore, the aurora is explicitly the cow of +abundance; she is still also the milk-giving and luminous +cow, in which is found all sweetness;<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> and finally, <i>usr</i> +or <i>ush</i> are two words, two appellations, which indiscriminately +express aurora and cow as the red or brilliant +one. The identification of the aurora with the cow, in +the mythical sky of the Vedas, is therefore a certainty.</p> + +<p>Another of the names which the milk-yielding cow +assumes in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, besides the ordinary one of +<i>Ush</i>, is <i>St</i>, whom Indras also causes to descend from +heaven, like the aurora, and who must be milked by the +sun-god <i>Pshan</i>,<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> the nourisher, the <i>fœcundator</i>, compared +in one hymn to a pugnacious buffalo.<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> This Indras, protector +and friend of St, prepares therefore Vishṇus, the +protector, in the form of Rmas, of his wife St. And +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>even the Ṛibhavas are the protectors of the cow, as well +as the producers.<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a></p> + +<p>But Indras, whose special function it is to lighten, to +thunder, to fight the monster of darkness, and to prepare +the light, generally figures in the popular imagination, at +dawn (aurora), as the sun, under his three names of +<i>Sryas</i>, of <i>Ṛitas</i>, and of <i>Savitar</i>.</p> + +<p>The sun, with respect to the aurora, is now the father, +now the husband, now the son, and now the brother. +As begotten of Indras simultaneously with the aurora, he +is the brother; as following and embracing the aurora, +he is the husband; as simply coming after the aurora, he +is the son; and as sending the cow or the aurora before +him, he is the father. These four relationships of the sun +to the aurora or dawn are all mentioned in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>.</p> + +<p>In one of the hymns, the pure effulgence with which +the aurora chases away the shadows of night is said to +resemble the milk of a cow;<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> that is, the whitish light of +the daybreak precedes in the eastern heavens the rosy +light of aurora. The aurora is the cow-nurse, and the +oriental mother of the old sun; at the sound of the +hymn in praise of the dawn, the two horsemen of twilight, +the Avinu, awaken.<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> Two cows—[<i>i.e.</i>, the two twilights, +that of the evening and that of the morning, related to +the two horsemen, the evening one and the morning one, +whom we also find together in the morning, the one +white and the other red, the one in company with daybreak +and the other with the aurora, and who may +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>therefore be sometimes identified with the two morning +dawns, the white dawn (alba) or daybreak, and the red +dawn (aurora), and, from another point of view, the lunar +dawn and the solar one]—drop milk towards the sun, in +the heaven.<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> The aurora is the mother of the cows.<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a></p> + +<p>As the sun approaches, the heavenly cows, who walk +without covering themselves with dust, celebrate him<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> +with songs. The red rays of the high sun fly and +join themselves to the sun's cows.<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> The seven wise +<i>Agirasas</i> (the seven solar rays, or else the Angiras, +the seven-rayed or seven-faced sun, as another hymn<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> +represents him) celebrate in their songs the herds of cows +which belong to the aurora, who appears upon the mountain.<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> +Let us notice more particularly what is said of +the aurora that appears with the cows upon the mountain. +It is the sun that enables the Agirasas to split the +mountain, to bellow along with the cows, and to surround +themselves with the splendour of the aurora.<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> The +aurora, the daughter of the sky, the splendid one, appears; +at the same time, the sun draws up the cows.<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> +The aurora is carried by red luminous cows, whilst the +. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>sun, the hero-archer, kills the enemies.<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> The aurora +breaks open the prison of the cows; the cows exult towards +the aurora;<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a> the aurora comes out of the darkness +as cows come out of their stable.<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> As the solar hero, +Indras, is the guardian or shepherd of horses and of cows,<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a> +so the auroras are often celebrated in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i> as +<i>avvats</i> and <i>gomats</i>, that is, as provided with and +attended by horses and cows. The aurora keeps together +the herd of red cows, and always accompanies them.<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a></p> + +<p>Thus have we passed from the pastor-hero to the +pastoral heroine upon the mountain. The pastoral +aurora, unveiling her body in the east, follows the path of +the sun;<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a> and the sun is represented to us in the following +riddle as a wonderful cowherd:—"I have seen a +shepherd who never set down his foot, and yet went and +disappeared on the roads; and who, taking the same and +yet different roads, goes round and round amidst the +worlds."<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> The sun goes round in the ether, and never +puts down a foot, for he has none; and he takes the same, +yet different, roads in the sky, <i>i.e.</i>, luminous by day, and +gloomy by night. The puzzle of the riddle lies in its +self-contradiction; and the beautiful girl is the prize appointed +for him who, by his actions, resolves it. A similar +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>riddle is, in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i> itself, proposed to <i>Mitras</i>, the +sun, and to <i>Varuṇas</i>, the night. The riddle is as follows:—"The +first of them who walk afoot (<i>padvatnam</i>) comes +without feet (<i>apd</i>);" and the two divine heroes are +asked, "Which of you two has guessed it?"<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a> He who +solves this enigma we may be sure is Mitras, the sun, who +recognises the aurora, the girl who comes making use of +feet, although she seem to have none, for she comes +borne in a chariot, of which the wheels appear to be feet, +which is the same luminous chariot that rolls well,<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a> given +by the Ṛibhavas to the two horsemen Avinu (represented +sometimes as two old men made young again by the Ṛibhavas, +and sometimes simply as two handsome youths), +into which chariot she mounts by the help of the Avinu; +and the daughter of the sun is, in the race, the first to +come to the winning-post, amid the enthusiastic plaudits +of the gods.<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> Then the hymns to the aurora sometimes +represent that vast chariot as belonging to the eastern +aurora, who guides a hundred chariots, and who, in turn, +helps the immortal gods to ascend into the chariot beside +her.<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> The aurora, as the first of those who appear every +day in the eastern sky, as the first to know the break of +day,<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a> is naturally represented as one of the swiftest +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>among those who are the guests of the sun-prince during +the night; and like her cows, which do not cover themselves +with dust (this being an attribute which, in the +Indian faith, distinguishes the gods from mortals, for +the former walk in the heavens, and the latter upon +earth), she, in her onward flight, leaves no footsteps +behind her. The word <i>apd</i> (<i>pad</i> and <i>pada</i>, being +synonymous) may, indeed, mean not only she who has no +feet, but also she who has no footsteps (that is, what is the +measure of the foot), or, again, she who has no slippers, +the aurora having, as appears, lost them; for the prince +Mitras, while following the beautiful young girl, finds a +slipper which shows her footstep, the measure of her foot, +a foot so small, that no other woman has a foot like it, +an almost unfindable, almost imperceptible foot, which +brings us back again to the idea of her who has no feet. +The legend of the lost slipper, and of the prince who tries +to find the foot predestined to wear it, the central interest +in the popular story of Cinderella, seems to me to repose +entirely upon the double meaning of the word <i>apd</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, +who has no feet, or what is the measure of the foot, +which may be either the footstep or the slipper; often, +moreover, in the story of Cinderella, the prince cannot +overtake the fugitive, because a chariot bears her +away.</p> + +<p>The word <i>apd</i>, which we have heretofore seen applied +to the heroine, was applied, moreover, to the hero, giving +rise to another popular legend, of which the <i>Ṛigvedas</i> +offers us the mythical elements. We have already seen +the sun as <i>anipadyamanas</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, the sun who never puts +his foot down; but this sun who never puts down his +foot easily, came to be conceived of and represented as +a sun without feet, or as a lame hero, who, during the +night, by the perfidy of the witch, the dusk of evening,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +became also blind. In one hymn, the blind and the lame +are not one, but two, whom propitious Indras guides;<a name="FNanchor_98_98" id="FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a> +in another, the blind-lame is one person, with the +name of <i>Pravṛig</i>, whom the two horsemen Avinu, +the two friends of the dawn, enable to walk and to see.<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a> +The lame one who sees, shows the way to the blind who +is able to walk, or the lame carries the blind; Indras, the +hidden sun, guides the blind and the lame; or, the blind +and the lame, lost in the forest, help each other; in the +morning, the Avinu, the two horsemen, friends of the +aurora, with the water of sight and of strength (that is, +Pravṛig, the blind-lame having discovered the hidden +fountain of the young girls of the dawn,<a name="FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a> with the +ambrosia of the aurora, with the aurora itself), make the +blind see, and him who has no feet, the lame, walk; that +is, they burst forth into the upper air again, transfigured +now into the luminous sun who sets out on his heavenly +voyage. I have said above that the hero becomes blind +and lame through the perfidy and magic of the evening +aurora: nor was the assertion unfounded; for the Vedic +hymn in which Indras guides the blind and the lame, +<i>i.e.</i>, himself or the sun, in the gloomy tardy night, is the +very same hymn in which is celebrated his heroic and +manly enterprise of the destruction of the daughter of +the sky. The sun Indras revenges himself in the morning +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>upon the aurora of the morning, for the wrong done +him by the aurora of the evening, beautiful, but faithless.</p> + +<p>For the aurora counts among her other talents that of +magic; when the Ṛibhavas created the aurora cow of +morning, investing her with the skin of the aurora cow +of evening, they endowed her with Protean qualities +(<i>Vivarpm</i>), and on this account the aurora herself is +also called witch or enchantress (<i>Mjin</i>).<a name="FNanchor_101_101" id="FNanchor_101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a> This aurora, +this virago, this Amazon, this Vedic Medea, who, +treacherously plunging her husband, or brother, the solar +hero, into a fiery furnace, blinds and lames him, is +punished in the morning for her crime of the evening. +The hero vanquishes her, overcomes her incantations, and +annihilates her. The Vedic hymn sings—"A manly +and heroic undertaking thou hast accomplished, O Indras, +for an evil-doing woman, the daughter of the heavens, +thou hast smitten; the growing daughter of the heaven, +the aurora, O Indras, thou hast destroyed; from the +chariot, broken in pieces, fell the aurora, trembling, because +the bull had struck her."<a name="FNanchor_102_102" id="FNanchor_102_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a> Here the mythical +animal reappears on the same stage with the heroes, and +for the image of the hero and the heroine there is substituted +that of the cow and the bull.<a name="FNanchor_103_103" id="FNanchor_103_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a></p> + +<p>The sun and the aurora, therefore, do not always seek +each other from promptings of affection only, nor is the +hateful part always played by the aurora. The sun, +also appears as a perverse persecutor in his turn. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>One Vedic hymn advises the aurora not to stretch +out the web she works at too far, lest the sun, like a +robber, with hostile intention, set fire to and burn +her.<a name="FNanchor_104_104" id="FNanchor_104_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_104_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a> Another hymn tells us that the handsome one +follows the beautiful one, the brother the sister, like a +lover,<a name="FNanchor_105_105" id="FNanchor_105_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a>—the aurora fleeing from the sun, her brother, out +of shame, and her brother following her, actuated by a +brutal instinct. Finally, a third hymn shows us the +Vedic Vulcan, the blacksmith of the gods, the sun Tvashṭar, +called also the omniform sun (<i>Svit Vivarpah</i>), as +father of Saraṇy, another name for the aurora, omniform +herself, like her father (and, like the cow, undergoing the +triple transmutation at the hands of Tvashṭar, <i>i.e.</i>, the +three brothers, the Ṛibhavas), creating another form of +himself, that is, the sun <i>Vivasvant</i>, to be able to espouse +the aurora. Saraṇy, perceiving perhaps that Vivasvant +is her father under another shape, creates another woman +like herself, and flees away on the chariot that flies of +itself, and that was before given her by her father; and +thereupon Vivasvant, in order to overtake her, transforms +himself into a horse.<a name="FNanchor_106_106" id="FNanchor_106_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a></p> + +<p>But sometimes the alienation the sun and the aurora, +the young husband and wife, is not due to evil propensities +in themselves, but the decree of fate working through the +machinations of monsters. The two beautiful ones are at +bottom united by love and reciprocal gratitude; for now +it is the sun who delivers the aurora, and now the aurora +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>who liberates the sun; and we have already seen the +aurora making the ambrosial milk drop for the sun from +her cows, and the sun drawing up and delivering the cows +of the aurora. There is a hymn in which the divine +girl, the aurora, comes up in the east, with a lascivious +air, smiling, fresh, uncovering her bosom, resplendent, +towards the god who sacrifices himself,<a name="FNanchor_107_107" id="FNanchor_107_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_107_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a> that is to say, +towards the sun, towards <i>unahepas</i> (the sun), who, +in three verses of another hymn,<a name="FNanchor_108_108" id="FNanchor_108_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_108_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a> invokes her, the well-known +legend of which, narrated in the <i>itareya-Brhmaṇam</i>, +I shall briefly relate. The aurora has also +the merit of having, with her pure and purifying light, +opened the gates of the gloomy cavern, discomfited the +enemies, the shades of night, and exposed to view the +treasures hidden by the darkness (and here we have Medea +again, but this time in a benignant form); she awakens +to activity the sleepers and everything with life (and +therefore, among the living sleepers, the sun, her son, +whom one of the hymns represents as sleeping profoundly +in the bosom of the darkness of night); she is the saviour +of mortals,<a name="FNanchor_109_109" id="FNanchor_109_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_109_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> that is to say, she protects mortals from +death, and resuscitates them; she sees and foresees everything.<a name="FNanchor_110_110" id="FNanchor_110_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_110_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a> +The awakener is also the awakened; the illuminator +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>is also the illumined, or the wise; and the illumined +or luminous one is also the beautiful one. From +being small, she is become large<a name="FNanchor_111_111" id="FNanchor_111_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_111_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a> (the heroes and heroines +of mythology are only small at birth, and pass at once +into fulness of stature); from being infirm and sombre-visaged, +by the grace of Indras and of the Avinu, she +is cured and restored to strength and clearness.<a name="FNanchor_112_112" id="FNanchor_112_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_112_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a> But why +was she dark at first? Because her mother, the night, is +the black one; she, the white one, is born of the black +one.<a name="FNanchor_113_113" id="FNanchor_113_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_113_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a></p> + +<p>During the night, the young girl was blind, and she +recovers her sight by the grace of a wise one, one who, +protected by Indras, another shape of Indras, has become +enamoured of her. We have seen above that it is the +Avinu who, with the aurora, give back to the sun his +sight; here it is the sun who makes the aurora see, it is +the sun who gives her light; and she who, having been +blind, recovers her sight, becomes the protectress of the +blind and preserver of vision,<a name="FNanchor_114_114" id="FNanchor_114_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_114_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a> like St Lucia, virgin and +martyr, in the Christian Mythology. Physical truth and +the mythical narration are in perfect accordance.</p> + +<p>The night is now the mother, now the sister of the +aurora; but the gloomy night is sometimes her step-mother, +sometimes her half-sister. There is a riddle +which celebrates the luminous night and the aurora, as +two diversely beautiful ones who go together, but of whom +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>one goes while the other comes.<a name="FNanchor_115_115" id="FNanchor_115_115"></a><a href="#Footnote_115_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a> Another hymn sings +of them thus: "The brilliantly-decked one approaches, +the white aurora comes; the black one prepares for her +her rooms. The one immortal having joined the other, the +two appear alternately in the heavens. One and eternal +is the path of the two sisters; they follow it, one after +the other, guided by the gods; they do not meet, and +they never stand still—the two good nurses, night and +aurora, one in soul yet different in form."<a name="FNanchor_116_116" id="FNanchor_116_116"></a><a href="#Footnote_116_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a> The two +good nurses, night and aurora, whose hues alternate +eternally, nourish between them one and the same child +(the sun).<a name="FNanchor_117_117" id="FNanchor_117_117"></a><a href="#Footnote_117_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a> But the <i>Ṛigvedas</i> itself tells us that the +night is not always the legitimate sister of the aurora; +the latter "abandons now the one that is, now the one +that is not, properly its sister."<a name="FNanchor_118_118" id="FNanchor_118_118"></a><a href="#Footnote_118_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a> Here probably we must +understand by the proper sister of the aurora the +luminous or moonlight night, and by the half-sister, the +gloomy night, the night without a moon. This is the +sister whom, in a hymn, the aurora removes, sends far +away from her, while she shines to be seen of her husband;<a name="FNanchor_119_119" id="FNanchor_119_119"></a><a href="#Footnote_119_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a> +and her half-sister, the night, is obliged to +resign her place to her elder or better sister,<a name="FNanchor_120_120" id="FNanchor_120_120"></a><a href="#Footnote_120_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a> the +word <i>ǵyeshṭhas</i> meaning not only the eldest, but the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>best. We have already seen that the aurora is the first +to appear; as such, and as she who in the evening precedes +the night (the evening aurora), she is the first-born, +the eldest, the most experienced, the best; while, from +another point of view, she is represented to us as the +little one who becomes great, and, in this case, as younger +sister of the night (the morning dawn). The dawns, +or auroras, are saluted with the epithet of workwomen,<a name="FNanchor_121_121" id="FNanchor_121_121"></a><a href="#Footnote_121_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a> +just as the good sister, with respect to the bad one, is +always she who works, doing wonderful work, that is, +spinning or weaving the rosy cloth. But the auroras are +not only the workers, they are also the pure purifying +and cleansing ones;<a name="FNanchor_122_122" id="FNanchor_122_122"></a><a href="#Footnote_122_122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a> hence one can understand how one +of the tasks imposed upon the youngest sister was that of +purifying, purging, or separating the grain during the +night, taking from it all that is impure, in which task +she is assisted sometimes by a good fairy, sometimes by +the Virgin Mary, who, according to all probability, is the +moon.</p> + +<p>One of the singular qualities of the younger sister is +that she displays her beauty only before the eyes of her +husband. The wife aurora manifests herself in the +sight of her husband;<a name="FNanchor_123_123" id="FNanchor_123_123"></a><a href="#Footnote_123_123" class="fnanchor">[123]</a> united, in her splendour, with the +rays of the sun,<a name="FNanchor_124_124" id="FNanchor_124_124"></a><a href="#Footnote_124_124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a> like a wife she prepares the dwelling +of the sun.<a name="FNanchor_125_125" id="FNanchor_125_125"></a><a href="#Footnote_125_125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a> Very brilliant, like a wife cleansed by her +mother, she uncovers her body;<a name="FNanchor_126_126" id="FNanchor_126_126"></a><a href="#Footnote_126_126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a> like a bather who shows +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>herself, the shining one unveils her body;<a name="FNanchor_127_127" id="FNanchor_127_127"></a><a href="#Footnote_127_127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a> she adorns +herself like a dancer, uncovering, like a cow, her breast;<a name="FNanchor_128_128" id="FNanchor_128_128"></a><a href="#Footnote_128_128" class="fnanchor">[128]</a> +she displays her luminous garments;<a name="FNanchor_129_129" id="FNanchor_129_129"></a><a href="#Footnote_129_129" class="fnanchor">[129]</a> all-radiant, with +beautiful face, she laughs;<a name="FNanchor_130_130" id="FNanchor_130_130"></a><a href="#Footnote_130_130" class="fnanchor">[130]</a> and he who has made the +aurora laugh, her, the beautiful princess, who, at first, that +is, during the night, did not laugh, espouses her; the sun +espouses the aurora.</p> + +<p>The celestial nuptials take place, and the ceremony is +minutely described in the 85th hymn of the 10th book +of the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>. But the marriage of the two celestials +is never consummated except under conditions; these +conditions are always accepted and afterwards forgotten, +and it is now the husband who, by forsaking his wife, +now the wife who, by abandoning her husband, violates +the promise given. One of these estrangements, these +temporary alienations of husband and wife, is described +in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i> by the poetical myth of the dawn <i>Urva</i> +and her husband <i>Purravas</i>, one of the names given to +the sun. Urva says of herself, "I have arrived like the +first of the auroras;"<a name="FNanchor_131_131" id="FNanchor_131_131"></a><a href="#Footnote_131_131" class="fnanchor">[131]</a> thereupon Urva suddenly abandons +her husband Purravas, because he breaks an agreement +made between them. We shall see further on in +this chapter what this agreement was. Besides, having +given him a son before her departure, she consoles him +by permitting him to come and find her again in heaven, +that is, by endowing the sun with the immortality she +possesses herself. In the morning the aurora precedes +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>the sun; he follows her too closely, and she disappears, +but leaves a son, <i>i.e.</i>, the new sun. In the evening the +aurora precedes the sun; he follows her again, and she +loses herself, now in a forest, now in the sea. The same +phenomenon, a divorce of husband from wife, or a separation +of brother and sister, or the flight of a sister from +her brother, or again, that of a daughter from her father, +presents itself twice every day (and every year) in the sky. +Sometimes, on the other hand, it is a witch, or the +monster of nocturnal darkness, who takes the place of the +radiant bride, or the aurora, near the sun; and in that +case the aurora, the beauteous bride, is spirited away into +a wood to be killed or thrown into the sea, from both of +which predicaments, however, she always escapes. Sometimes +the witch of night throws the brother and sister, +the mother and son, the sun and the aurora, together +into the waves of the sea, whence they both escape again, +to reappear in the morning.</p> + +<p>All these alternative variations of a mythical representation +become each in turn a legend by itself, as we shall +see again more in detail, when the study of the different +animals that take part in them shall furnish us with +opportunities of doing so. In the meantime, we have +here finished our enumeration of all that in the hymns of +the <i>Ṛigvedas</i> refers in any way to the bull and the cow,—to +the wind, moon, and sun bulls, to the cow-cloud, moon, +spring and aurora,—leaving it, however, to be understood +how natural it is to pass from the bull to the handsome +hero-prince, and from the cow to the beautiful girl, the +rich princess, the valiant heroine, or the wise fairy. For +though in the mythical hymns of the <i>Ṛigvedas</i> we have +little more than hints or foreshadows of the many popular +legends which we have thus referred to, often without +naming them, these are so many and so precise that it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +seems to me to be almost impossible not to recognise +them. To demonstrate this, however, it will be necessary +for me to show further what form the mythological ideas +and figures relating to the animals dispersed in the Vedic +hymns afterwards assumed in the Hindoo traditions.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center">SECTION II.</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Worship of the Bull and of the Cow in India, and the +Brhmanic Legends relating to it.</span></p> + +<p class="center">SUMMARY.</p> + +<blockquote style="text-indent:-2em"><p>The princes called bulls.—The bull the symbol of the god ivas.—The +cow was not to be killed.—Exchange of the bull and the cow +for other animals; the bull and the cow, considered as the greatest +reward desired by the legislating priests of India.—The cow's hide +in nuptial usages a symbol of abundance; its elasticity and power +of extension; the cow and its hide during the pregnancy of women +an augury of happy birth, and in funeral ceremonies an augury +of resurrection.—Cows sent to pasture with auguries.—Cows seen +by night in a dream are a sinister omen; meaning of this Hindoo +superstition.—The black cow which produces white milk in the +Vedic hymns.—The reins of the cow or black goat sacrificed in +funerals given as a viaticum or provision to the dead man, that +they may contribute to his resurrection.—The variegated cow +comes again in a brhmaṇam, and is interpreted as a cloud.—The +coming out of the cow-dawns feasted.—The cornucopia.—The +milk of the cows is the serpent's poison.—The salutary herb.—The +enchanted gem, the ring of recognition.—The moon, as a female, +a good fairy who works for the aurora, and who entertains and +guides the hero.—The moon, as a male, a white bull.—The city +of the moon.—Indras consoles and nourishes the unhappy St.—Rmas +assimilated to Indras.—The coadjutors of Rmas are those +of Indras.—The bull Rmas.—The names of the monsters and the +names of the heroes in the Rmyaṇam.—Rmas, the Hindoo +Xerxes, chastises the sea.—The celestial ocean; the cloud-mountains +carried by the heroes; the bridge across the sea made of +these mountains; while the bridge is being made, it rains.—The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +battle of Rmas is a winter and a nocturnal one, in a cloudy +sky.—The monster barrel again; the monster trunk with a cavity; +Kabandhas.—The dying monster thanks the hero, who delivers +him from an ancient malediction, and becomes again a handsome +luminous youth.—The dawn St sacrificed in the fire.—St +daughter of the sun.—The Buddhist legend of Rmas and St.—St +predestined as the reward of valour.—An indiscretion of the +husband Rmas causes him to lose his wife St.—The story of +Urva again, the first of the auroras; the wife flees because her +husband has revealed her secret, because her husband has looked +at another woman, because he has let himself be seen naked; the +fugitive wife hides herself in a plant.—The wife stays with her +husband as long as he says nothing displeasing to her.—The wife +kills her sons; the husband complains and the wife flees.—The +contrary.—The story of unaḥepas again.—The god Varuṇas, +who binds; the son sacrificed to the monster against his will by +his father.—The hero-hunter.—The middle son sold, the son of +the cow.—The cow herself, Aditi, or abal, or Kmadhuk, wife +of Vasishṭas, sacrificed instead of the son of Vivmitras.—Indras +delivers the bound hero, <i>i.e.</i>, he delivers himself. The aurora, or +the daughter of the black one, liberates unaḥepas, bound by the +black one, that is, she delivers the sun her husband.—The fetters +of Varuṇas and of Aǵigartas are equivalent to the bridle of the +horse and to the collar of the dog sold to the demon in European +fairy tales.—The golden palace of Varuṇas on the western mountain.—Monstrous +fathers.—Identification of Harićandras, Aǵigartas, +and Vivmitras.—The contention of Vivmitras and Vasishṭas +for the possession of the cow abal.—Demoniacal character of +Vivmitras.—The sister of the monster-lover or seducer of the +hero.—The cloud drum.—The cloudy monster Dundubhis, in the +form of a buffalo with sharpened horns, destroyed by the son of +Indras.—The buffalo a monster, the bull a hero.—Kṛishṇas the +monster becomes a god.—The god Indras fallen for having killed a +brhman monster.—The three heads of the monster cut off at a blow.—The +three brothers in the palace of Lak; the eldest brother has +the royal dignity; the second, the strong one, sleeps, and only +wakens to eat and prove his strength; the third is good and is +victorious.—The three brothers Pṇdavas, sons of Yamas, Vyus +and Indras in the Mahbhratam; the first is wise, the second is +strong, the third is handsome and victorious; he is the best.—Again +the three working brothers entertained by a king.—The three disciples +of Dhumyas.—The blind one who falls into the well.—The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +voyage of Utakas to hell.—He meets a bull.—The excrement of +the bull, ambrosia.—The stone uplifted with the help of the lever, +of the thunderbolt of Indras.—The earrings of the queen carried +off; their mythical meaning.—Indras and Kṛishṇas also search +for the earrings.—The three Buddhist brothers.—The eldest +brother frees the younger ones by his knowledge in questions and +riddles.—The hero and the monster ill or vulnerable in their +feet.—The two rival sisters.—The good sister thrown into the +well by the wicked one.—The prince comes to deliver her.—The +wicked sister takes the place of the good one.—The three brothers +again.—The sons make their father and mother recognise each +other.—The third brother, Prus, the only good one, assists his +aged father Yaytis, by taking his old age upon himself.—The +old blind man, Drghatamas, thrown into the water by his sons.—Yaytis +and Drghatamas, Hindoo King Lears.—The queen +Sudeshn makes her maid or foster-sister take her place; a Hindoo +form of Queen Berta.—The blind and the crooked or lame, or +hunchbacked, again with the three-breasted princess.—They cure +each other.—The bride disputed by the brothers.—The aurora and +the sun flee from each other.—The beautiful girl, the daughter of +the sun, flees after having seen the prince upon the mountain.—The +prince cannot overtake her; the third time, at last, the prince +marries the daughter of the sun.—The marvellous cow of Vasishṭhas.—The +hero Vasishṭhas wishes to kill himself, but cannot; he +is immortal; he throws himself down from the mountain and does +not hurt himself; he goes through fire and is not burnt; he throws +himself into the water and does not drown; mythical signification +of these prodigies.—The wind runs after women.—Conclusion of +the study of the myth and of the legends which refer to the bull +and the cow of India.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Just as the importance of the cattle to primitive and +pastoral Aryan life explains the propensity of the Aryan +mind to conceive of the mobile phenomena of the heavens, +at first considered living beings, as bulls and cows, so the +consecration of these animals, associated and identified +with the celestial phenomena and the gods, naturally gave +rise to the superstitious worship of the bull and the cow, +common to all the Aryan nations, but particularly, through +the intervention of the brhmanic priests, to the Hindoos.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is a remarkable fact that the words <i>vṛishas</i>, <i>vṛishabhas</i>, +and <i>ṛishabhas</i>, which mean the bull as the one who +pours out, the <i>fœcundator</i>, is often used in Sanscrit to +denote the best, the first, the prince; and hence the bull, +that is to say, the best <i>fœcundator</i>, is in India the most +sacred symbol of royalty. For this reason the phallic +and destroying god, the royal <i>ivas</i>, who inhabits <i>Gokarṇas</i> +(a word which properly means cow's ear), has both +for his steed and his emblem a brhmanic bull, <i>i.e.</i>, a bull +with a hunch on its back; the <i>nandin</i>, or joyful attribute, +being given to ivas himself, inasmuch as, being the <i>Deus +phallicus</i>, he is the god of joyfulness and beatitude.<a name="FNanchor_132_132" id="FNanchor_132_132"></a><a href="#Footnote_132_132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a></p> + +<p>Still more honour is paid to the cow (like the Vedic +dawn <i>anavady</i>, innocent or inculpable<a name="FNanchor_133_133" id="FNanchor_133_133"></a><a href="#Footnote_133_133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a>), which therefore +it was a crime to kill.<a name="FNanchor_134_134" id="FNanchor_134_134"></a><a href="#Footnote_134_134" class="fnanchor">[134]</a> An interesting chapter of the +<i>itareya-brhmaṇam</i>,<a name="FNanchor_135_135" id="FNanchor_135_135"></a><a href="#Footnote_135_135" class="fnanchor">[135]</a> on the sacrifice of animals, shows +us how, next to man, the horse was the supreme sacrifice +offered to the gods; how the cow afterwards took the place +of the horse; the sheep, of the cow; the goat, of the +sheep; and, at last, vegetable products were substituted +for animals;—a substitution or cheating of the gods in +the sacrifice, which, perhaps, serves to explain even more +the fraud of which, in popular stories, the simpleton is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>always the victim; the simpleton here being the god himself, +and the cheater man, who changes, under a sacred +pretext, the noblest and most valued animals for common +and less valuable ones, and finally for vegetables apparently +of no value whatever. In the Hindoo codes of law we +have the same fraudulent substitution of animals under a +legal pretext. "The killer of a cow," says the code attributed +to <i>Yǵńavalkyas</i>,<a name="FNanchor_136_136" id="FNanchor_136_136"></a><a href="#Footnote_136_136" class="fnanchor">[136]</a> "must stay a month in penitence, +drinking the <i>pańćagavyam</i> (<i>i.e.</i>, the five good +productions of the cow, which, according to Manus,<a name="FNanchor_137_137" id="FNanchor_137_137"></a><a href="#Footnote_137_137" class="fnanchor">[137]</a> are +milk, curds, butter, urine, and dung), sleeping in a stable +and following the cows; and he must purify himself by +the gift of another cow." Thus, according to <i>Yǵńavalkya</i>,<a name="FNanchor_138_138" id="FNanchor_138_138"></a><a href="#Footnote_138_138" class="fnanchor">[138]</a> +the killer of a parrot is purified by giving a two-year-old +calf; the killer of a crane by giving a calf three +years old; the killer of an ass, a goat, or a sheep, by the +gift of a bull; the killer of an elephant by the gift of five +black bulls (<i>nlavṛishp</i>). And one need not be astonished +to find these contracts (which remind one of that +between Jacob and Laban) in the Hindoo codes of law, +when, in the Vedic hymns themselves, a poet offers to +sell to whoever will buy it, an Indras of his, that is to +say, a bull, for ten cows.<a name="FNanchor_139_139" id="FNanchor_139_139"></a><a href="#Footnote_139_139" class="fnanchor">[139]</a> Another interesting verse of +<i>Yǵńavalkyas</i><a name="FNanchor_140_140" id="FNanchor_140_140"></a><a href="#Footnote_140_140" class="fnanchor">[140]</a> tells us they die pure who are killed by +lightning or in battle for the sake of the cows or the +brhmans. The cow was often the object heroes fought +for in heaven; the Brhman wished to be the object +heroes should fight for upon earth. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>We learn from the domestic ceremonies referred to +by <i>Gṛihyastrni</i> with how much respect the bull and +the cow were treated as the symbols of abundance in a +family. In <i>valyanas</i>,<a name="FNanchor_141_141" id="FNanchor_141_141"></a><a href="#Footnote_141_141" class="fnanchor">[141]</a> we find the bull's hide +stretched out near the nuptial hearth, the wife seated +upon it, and the husband, touching his wife, saying, +"May the lord of all creatures allow us to have children;"—words +taken from the Vedic nuptial hymn.<a name="FNanchor_142_142" id="FNanchor_142_142"></a><a href="#Footnote_142_142" class="fnanchor">[142]</a> We have +seen above how the Ṛibhavas, from the hide of a dead +cow, formed a new and beautiful one, or, in other words, +how, from the dusk of evening, by stretching it in the +night, they formed the dawn of morning. This cow's hide +plays also an important <i>rle</i> in the popular faith; an +extraordinary elasticity is attributed to it, a power of +endless expansibility, and for this reason it is adopted +as a symbol of fecundity, upon which the wife must +place herself in order to become a mother of children. +The cow's hide (<i>goćarman</i>), in the <i>Mahbhratam</i>,<a name="FNanchor_143_143" id="FNanchor_143_143"></a><a href="#Footnote_143_143" class="fnanchor">[143]</a> is +the garment of the god Vishṇus; and the goćarman +divided into thongs, and afterwards fastened to each +other, served formerly in India to measure the circumference +of a piece of ground;<a name="FNanchor_144_144" id="FNanchor_144_144"></a><a href="#Footnote_144_144" class="fnanchor">[144]</a> hence the cow's hide suggested +the idea of a species of infinity. Further on we shall +find it put to extraordinary uses in western legend; we +find it even in the hymns of the Vedic age used to cover +the body of a dead man, the fire being invoked not to +consume it, almost as if the cow's hide had the virtue of +resuscitating the dead.<a name="FNanchor_145_145" id="FNanchor_145_145"></a><a href="#Footnote_145_145" class="fnanchor">[145]</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>The cow, being the symbol of fruitfulness, was also the +companion of the wife during pregnancy. <i>valyaṇas</i><a name="FNanchor_146_146" id="FNanchor_146_146"></a><a href="#Footnote_146_146" class="fnanchor">[146]</a> +tells us how, in the third month, the husband was to give +his wife to drink of the sour milk of a cow that has a +calf like itself, and in it two beans and a grain of barley; +the husband was then to ask his wife three times, "What +drinkest thou?" and she was to answer three times: +"The generation of males." In the fourth month, the +wife, according to <i>valyaṇas</i>, was to put herself again +upon the bull's hide, near the fire of sacrifice, when they +again invoked the god <i>Praǵpatis</i>, lord of all creatures, +or of procreation; the moon, like a celestial bull and +cow, was invited to be present at the generation of men;<a name="FNanchor_147_147" id="FNanchor_147_147"></a><a href="#Footnote_147_147" class="fnanchor">[147]</a> +and a bull, during the Vedic period, was the gift which +sufficed for the priest. In the Vedic antiquity, neither +bulls nor cows were allowed to go to pasture without +some special augury, which, in the domestic ceremonials +of <i>valyaṇas</i>,<a name="FNanchor_148_148" id="FNanchor_148_148"></a><a href="#Footnote_148_148" class="fnanchor">[148]</a> has been also handed down to us; the +cows were to give milk and honey, for the strength and +increase of whoever possessed them. Here we have again +the cows not only as the beneficent, but as the strong +ones, they who help the hero or the heroine who takes +them to pasture.</p> + +<p>But although beautiful cows, when seen by day, are a +sign of good luck, seen in dreams they are of evil omen; +for in that case they are of course the black cows, the +shadows of night, or the gloomy waters of the nocturnal +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>ocean. Already in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, the dawn, or the +luminous cow, comes to deliver the fore-mentioned solar +hero, Tritas Aptyas, from the evil sleep which he sleeps +amidst the cows<a name="FNanchor_149_149" id="FNanchor_149_149"></a><a href="#Footnote_149_149" class="fnanchor">[149]</a> of night. <i>valyaṇas</i>, in his turn, +recommends us when we have an evil dream, to invoke +the sun, to hasten the approach of the morning, or, better +still, to recite the hymn of five verses to the dawn which +we have already referred to, and which begins with the +words, "And like an evil dream amidst the cows." Here +the belief is not yet an entirely superstitious one; and +we understand what is meant by the cows who envelop +us in the sleep of night, when we are told to invoke the +sun and the dawn to come and deliver us from them.</p> + +<p>A cow (probably a black one), often a black goat, +was sometimes also sacrificed in the funeral ceremonies of +the Hindoos, as if to augur that, just as the black cow, +night, produces the milky humours of the aurora, or is +fruitful, so will he who has passed through the kingdom +of darkness rise again in the world of light. We have +already seen the black night as the mother of the white +and luminous aurora; I quote below yet another Vedic +sentence, in which a poet ingenuously wonders why the +cows of Indras, the black ones as well as the light-coloured +(the black clouds, as well as the white and red +ones), should both yield white milk.<a name="FNanchor_150_150" id="FNanchor_150_150"></a><a href="#Footnote_150_150" class="fnanchor">[150]</a> And even the +gloomy nocturnal kingdom of Yamas, the god of the +dead, has its cows of black appearance, which are nevertheless +milk-yielding; and thus the black cow of the +funeral sacrifices comes to forebode resurrection. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>In the same way the viaticum, or provision of food for +his journey, given to the dead man is a symbol of his +resurrection. The journey being considered as a short +one, the provision of food which is to sustain the traveller +to the kingdom of the dead is limited, and each dead hero +carries it with him, generally not so much for himself, as +to ensure a passage into the kingdom of the dead. For +this reason we read, even in the domestic ceremonials +of <i>valyaṇas</i>, that it is recommended to put into the +hands of the dead man,<a name="FNanchor_151_151" id="FNanchor_151_151"></a><a href="#Footnote_151_151" class="fnanchor">[151]</a> what is the greatest symbol of +strength, the reins of the animal killed in the funeral +sacrifice (or, in default of an animal victim, at least two +cakes of rice or of flour), in order that the dead man may +throw them down the throats of the two Cerberi, the two +sons of the bitch <i>Saram</i>, so that they may let the +deceased enter scatheless into the death-kingdom, the +mysterious kingdom of Yamas; and here we find the +monster of the popular tales, into whose house the hero, +having passed through many dangers, enters, by the +advice of a good fairy or of a good old man, giving +something to appease the hunger of the two dogs who +guard its gate.</p> + +<p>They who return from the funeral must touch the +stone of Priapus, a fire, the excrement of a cow,<a name="FNanchor_152_152" id="FNanchor_152_152"></a><a href="#Footnote_152_152" class="fnanchor">[152]</a> a grain +of barley, a grain of sesame and water,—all symbols of +that fecundity which the contact with a corpse might +have destroyed.</p> + +<p>The Vedic hymns have shown us the principal mythical +aspects and functions of the cow and the bull; we have +also seen how the brhmanic codes confirmed, by the +sanction of law, the worship of these animals, and how +jealously the domestic tradition of the Hindoos has +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>guarded it. Let us now see from the <i>itareya-brhmaṇam</i>, +how the Brhmans themselves, those of the +era immediately following that of the Veds, interpreted +the myth of the cow.</p> + +<p>We have recognised in the Vedic heavens, as reflected +in the hymns of the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, three cows—the cow-cloud, +the cow-moon, and the cow-aurora. These three cows, +and especially the first and the third, are also quite distinct +from one another in the <i>itareya-brhmaṇam</i>.</p> + +<p>It tells us how the <i>guh pṛinih</i>, the variegated cow, +or spotted cow, of the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, must be celebrated to +make the earth fruitful<a name="FNanchor_153_153" id="FNanchor_153_153"></a><a href="#Footnote_153_153" class="fnanchor">[153]</a> (or that one must sing to the +cloud that it may fertilise the pastures and fields with +rain), and how one must sacrifice a bull to <i>Vivakarman</i> +(or the one that does all), who is transformed into the +god Indras when killing the demon Vṛitras,<a name="FNanchor_154_154" id="FNanchor_154_154"></a><a href="#Footnote_154_154" class="fnanchor">[154]</a> or the monster +who keeps the rain in the cloud.</p> + +<p>It shows us the full moon, <i>Rk</i>, joined to the aurora, +as a source of abundance,<a name="FNanchor_155_155" id="FNanchor_155_155"></a><a href="#Footnote_155_155" class="fnanchor">[155]</a> and the aurora with the +cow.<a name="FNanchor_156_156" id="FNanchor_156_156"></a><a href="#Footnote_156_156" class="fnanchor">[156]</a> It tells us explicitly that the characteristic form +of the aurora is the red cow, because she moves with +the red cows.<a name="FNanchor_157_157" id="FNanchor_157_157"></a><a href="#Footnote_157_157" class="fnanchor">[157]</a> The gods, after having discovered +the cows in the cavern, open the cavern with the third +libation of the morning;<a name="FNanchor_158_158" id="FNanchor_158_158"></a><a href="#Footnote_158_158" class="fnanchor">[158]</a> when the cows come out, the +gods, the <i>ditys</i>, also come out; hence the coming +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>forth of the gods (<i>ditynm ayanam</i>) is equivalent to +the coming forth of the cows (<i>gavm ayanam</i>). The +cows come out when they have their horns, and adorn +themselves.<a name="FNanchor_159_159" id="FNanchor_159_159"></a><a href="#Footnote_159_159" class="fnanchor">[159]</a></p> + +<p>The aurora is a cow; this cow has horns; her horns +are radiant and golden. When the cow aurora comes +forth, all that falls from her horns brings good luck; +hence in the <i>Mahbhratam</i>,<a name="FNanchor_160_160" id="FNanchor_160_160"></a><a href="#Footnote_160_160" class="fnanchor">[160]</a> the benefits received from +a holy hermit, called Matagas, are compared to those of +a <i>gavm ayanam</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, a coming out of cows. To understand +this simile, besides a reference to the Vedic texts, +it is necessary to compare it with the modern usages of +India, in which, in celebration of the new solar year, or +the birth of the pastoral god Kṛishṇas (the god who is +black during the night, but who becomes luminous in the +morning among the cows of the dawning, or among the +female cowherds), it is customary, towards the end of +December, to give cows to the Brhmans, exchange presents +of cows and calves, besprinkle one another with +milk, to adorn a beautiful milch cow, crown her with +flowers, gild her horns, or paint them various colours, to +deck her to overloading with flowers, fruit, and little +cakes, and then hunt her from the village to the sound of +drums and trumpets, in order that, full of terror, she +may flee away with distraction and impetuosity. The +cow loses her ornaments in her flight, and these, being +estimated as propitious treasures, are eagerly picked up +by the faithful, and preserved as sacred relics.<a name="FNanchor_161_161" id="FNanchor_161_161"></a><a href="#Footnote_161_161" class="fnanchor">[161]</a></p> + +<p>In the <i>itareya-brhmaṇam</i>,<a name="FNanchor_162_162" id="FNanchor_162_162"></a><a href="#Footnote_162_162" class="fnanchor">[162]</a> the sun is born of the +cows (<i>goǵ</i>), is the son of the cow aurora; as the sun's +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>mother she naturally nourishes him with her milk; hence +the same <i>itareya</i><a name="FNanchor_163_163" id="FNanchor_163_163"></a><a href="#Footnote_163_163" class="fnanchor">[163]</a> tells us that the gods Mitras and +Varuṇas, by means of the curdled milk, took from the +drink of the gods the inebriating poison which the long-tongued +witch (<i>Drghaǵihv</i>) had poured into it. This +curdled milk is the same milky sea, with health-giving +herbs scattered in it, and which the gods agitate to form +ambrosia, in the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>, the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, and +the Puranic legends; a sea and herbs which we find +already spoken of together in a Vedic hymn.<a name="FNanchor_164_164" id="FNanchor_164_164"></a><a href="#Footnote_164_164" class="fnanchor">[164]</a> But in +the sky, where the ambrosial milk and the health-giving +herbs are produced, there are gods and demons; and the +milk, which is at one time the rain, at another ambrosia, +is now in the cloud, now in the moon (called also +<i>Oshadhipatis</i>, or lord of herbs), now round the dawn. +Hanumant, who, in the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>, goes in quest of +the health-giving grass to restore their souls to the half-dead +heroes, looks for it now between the mountain bull +(<i>ṛishabhas</i>) and the heavenly mountain <i>Kilasas</i>, now +between the Mount Lunus (<i>andras</i>) and the mountain +cup (<i>Droṇas</i>); and the mountain which possesses the +herb for which Hanumant is searching is itself called +herb (<i>oshadhis</i>), or the one that causes to rejoice with +perfumes (<i>Gandhamdanas</i><a name="FNanchor_165_165" id="FNanchor_165_165"></a><a href="#Footnote_165_165" class="fnanchor">[165]</a>), which two words are used +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>synonymously. Here the milky, ambrosial, and healthful +humour is supposed to be produced, not by a cow, but +by an herb. And the gods and demons contend in heaven +for the possession of this herb, as well as for the ambrosia; +the only difference being that the gods enjoy both one and +the other without corrupting them, whilst the demons +poison them as they drink them; that is to say, they +spread darkness over the light, they move about in the +darkness, in the gloomy waters, in the black humour +which comes out of the herb itself, which, in contact with +them, becomes poisonous, so that they in turn suck the +poison. On the other hand, the <i>Gandharvs</i>,<a name="FNanchor_166_166" id="FNanchor_166_166"></a><a href="#Footnote_166_166" class="fnanchor">[166]</a> an amphibious +race, in whom at one time the nature of the gods +predominates, at another that of the demons, and who +consequently take now the side of the gods, now that of +the demons, are simply guards who, as against theft, keep +watch and ward over the perfumes and healthful herbs, +which are their own property, and the healthful or +ambrosial waters, the ambrosia which belongs to their +wives, the nymphs; they are, in a word, the earliest +representatives of the enjoying and jealous proprietor. +We have already heard, in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, the demoniacal +monsters call on each other to suck the poison of the +celestial cows; and we have seen that the <i>itareya-brhmaṇam</i> +accuses a witch of being the poisoner of the +divine ambrosia; we have, moreover, noticed that a Vedic +hymn already associates together the ambrosial milk +and the healthful herb, and that, in the brhmanic cosmogony, +the milk and the herb which produces it are +manifested together, which herb or grass is beneficent +or the reverse according as the gods or the demons enjoy +it; from all which it will be easy to understand this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +interesting Hindoo proverb, "The grass gives the milk +to the cows, and the milk gives the poison to the +serpents."<a name="FNanchor_167_167" id="FNanchor_167_167"></a><a href="#Footnote_167_167" class="fnanchor">[167]</a> It is indeed the milk of the cow of the +dawn and of the cow of the moon which destroys +the serpents of darkness, the demoniacal shadows of +night.</p> + +<p>But the idea of the healthful herb is incorporated in +another image, very familiar to the popular Indo-European +legends, and which is contained even in the Vedic hymns. +The cow produces the sun and the moon; the circular +shape, the disc of sun and moon, suggests variously the +idea of a ring, a gem, and a pearl; and the sun, <i>Savitar</i>, +he who gives the juice, and the generator, is introduced in a +Vedic hymn, as the one who has immortal juice, who gives +the pearl.<a name="FNanchor_168_168" id="FNanchor_168_168"></a><a href="#Footnote_168_168" class="fnanchor">[168]</a> The humours of the cow have passed to the +herb, and from the herb to the pearl; and the naturalness +of this figure recommends itself to our modern conception, +for when we would describe a diamond or other gem as of +the purest quality, we say it is a diamond or gem of the +first water. Even the pearl-moon and the pearl-sun, from +their ambrosial humours, have a fine water. In the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>,<a name="FNanchor_169_169" id="FNanchor_169_169"></a><a href="#Footnote_169_169" class="fnanchor">[169]</a> +at the moment of production of ambrosia from +the stirring up of the milky sea, we see, near the healthful +herb, the gem <i>Kustubhas</i>, the same which we afterwards +find on the breast of the sun-god Vishṇus, and which is +sometimes his navel; whence Vishṇus, in the <i>Mahbhratam</i>,<a name="FNanchor_170_170" id="FNanchor_170_170"></a><a href="#Footnote_170_170" class="fnanchor">[170]</a> +is saluted by the name of <i>ratnanbhas</i>—that is +to say, he who has a pearl for his navel; as the sun is in +like manner saluted by the name of <i>Maṇịṛigas</i>—<i>i.e.</i>, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>who has horns of pearls.<a name="FNanchor_171_171" id="FNanchor_171_171"></a><a href="#Footnote_171_171" class="fnanchor">[171]</a> In the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>,<a name="FNanchor_172_172" id="FNanchor_172_172"></a><a href="#Footnote_172_172" class="fnanchor">[172]</a> the +bright-shining grass and the solar disc appear together +on the summit of the mountain Gandhamdanas; no +sooner does he smell its odour than the solar hero +<i>Lakshmaṇas</i>, delivered from the iron that oppressed him, +lifts himself up from the ground; <i>i.e.</i>, scarcely has the +sun formed his disc, and begun to shine like a celestial +gem, than the sun-hero, whom the monsters had vanquished +during the night, rises in victory. And it is +on the summit of the mountain that, with a mountain +metal of a colour similar to that of the young sun,<a name="FNanchor_173_173" id="FNanchor_173_173"></a><a href="#Footnote_173_173" class="fnanchor">[173]</a> the +sun <i>Rmas</i> imprints a dazzling mark on the forehead of +the dawn St, as if to be able to recognise her—that is +to say, he places himself upon the forehead of the aurora +or dawn. When the sun Rmas is separated from the +dawn St, he sends her in recognition, as a symbol of his +disc, his own ring, which appears again in the famous +ring given by King <i>Dushmantas</i> to the beautiful <i>akuntal</i>, +the daughter of the nymph, and by means of which +alone the lost bride can be recognised by the young and +forgetful king; and St sends back to Rmas, by the +hands of Hanumant, as a sign of recognition, the dazzling +ornament which Rmas had one day placed upon her +forehead in an idyllic scene among the mountains known +to them alone. This ring of recognition, this magic +pearl, often turns up in the Hindoo legends. It is enough +for me to indicate here the two most famous examples.</p> + +<p>The aurora who possesses the pearl becomes she who +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>is rich in pearls, and herself a source of pearls; but the +pearl, as we have already seen, is not only the sun, it is +also the moon. The moon is the friend of the aurora; +she comforts her in the evening under her persecutions; +she loads her with presents during the night, accompanies +and guides her, and helps her to find her husband.</p> + +<p>In the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>, I frequently find the moon as a +beneficent fairy, who succours the dawn St; for the +moon, as <i>rgankaras</i> (she who gives light to the night), +assumes a benignant aspect. We have already said that +the moon is generally a male in India; but as full moon +and new moon it assumes, even in the Vedic texts, a +feminine name. In a Vedic hymn, <i>Rk</i>, the full moon +is exhorted to sew the work with a needle that cannot be +broken.<a name="FNanchor_174_174" id="FNanchor_174_174"></a><a href="#Footnote_174_174" class="fnanchor">[174]</a> Here we have the moon personified as a marvellous +workwoman, a fairy with golden fingers, a good +fairy; and in this character we find her again in the +<i>Rmyaṇam</i>, under the form of the old <i>Anasy</i>, who +anoints the darkened St (for St, like the Vedic girl, is +dark and ugly during the night, or winter, when she is +hidden) in the wood, with a divine unguent; gives her a +garland, various ornaments, and two beauteous garments, +which are always pure (as, <i>i.e.</i>, they do not touch the +earth, like the cows of the Vedic dawn, who do not cover +themselves with dust), and similar in colour to the young +sun;<a name="FNanchor_175_175" id="FNanchor_175_175"></a><a href="#Footnote_175_175" class="fnanchor">[175]</a> in all which the fairy moon appears as working +during the night for the aurora, preparing her luminous +garments—the two garments, of which the one is for the +evening and the other for the morning, one lunar and of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>silver, the other solar and of gold—in order that she may +please her husband Rmas, or the sun Vishṇus, who is +glad when he sees her thus adorned. In the <i>Svayamprabh</i>, +too, we meet with the moon as a good fairy, who, +from the golden palace which she reserves for her friend +Hem (the golden one), is during a month the guide, in +the vast cavern, of Hanumant and his companions, who +have lost their way in the search of the dawn St. To +come out of this cavern, it is necessary to shut the eyes, +in order not to see its entrance; all Hanumant's companions +are come out, but Taras, who shines like the +moon,<a name="FNanchor_176_176" id="FNanchor_176_176"></a><a href="#Footnote_176_176" class="fnanchor">[176]</a> would wish to return. The same moon can be +recognised in the benignant fairies <i>Triǵt</i>, <i>Suram</i>, +and <i>Saram</i>, who announce to St that her husband +will soon arrive, and that she will soon see him. The +first, while the arrival of Rmas is imminent, dreams +that the monsters, dressed in yellow, are playing in a +lake of cow's milk;<a name="FNanchor_177_177" id="FNanchor_177_177"></a><a href="#Footnote_177_177" class="fnanchor">[177]</a> at the time when Suram announces +to St the approach of Rmas, St shines by her own +beauty, like the opening dawn;<a name="FNanchor_178_178" id="FNanchor_178_178"></a><a href="#Footnote_178_178" class="fnanchor">[178]</a> finally, Saram (who +seems to be the same as Suram), whom St calls her +twin-sister (<i>sahodar</i>), penetrating underground, like +the moon Proserpine, also announces to St her approaching +deliverance at the hands of Rmas.<a name="FNanchor_179_179" id="FNanchor_179_179"></a><a href="#Footnote_179_179" class="fnanchor">[179]</a> As to +Triǵaṭ, it is not difficult to recognise in her the moon, +when we remember that Trǵiaṭas is a name which is +frequently given to the evening sun, or rising moon, <i>ivas</i>, +who is represented with the moon for a diadem, whence his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>other name of <i>andraćḍas</i> (having the moon for his diadem). +Suram I believe to be, not a mythical, but only an +orthographical variation, and more incorrect one, of Saram, +whose relation to the moon we shall see in detail when +we come to the chapter which treats of the mythical dog.</p> + +<p>Thus far we have a moon fairy; but we find the moon +designated at other times in the <i>Rmyaṇam</i> by its common +masculine name. The guardian of the forest of +honey, <i>Dadhimukhas</i>, in which forest, with its honey, the +heroes who accompany St enjoy themselves, is said to +be generated by the god Lunus.<a name="FNanchor_180_180" id="FNanchor_180_180"></a><a href="#Footnote_180_180" class="fnanchor">[180]</a> And the moon, who +assists Hanumant in his search of St, is said to shine +like a white bull with a sharpened horn, with a full horn;<a name="FNanchor_181_181" id="FNanchor_181_181"></a><a href="#Footnote_181_181" class="fnanchor">[181]</a> +in which we come back to the moon as a horned animal, +and to the cornucopia. Moreover, we find the same lunar +horn again in the city of <i>ṛigaveram</i>, where first the +solar hero Rmas, and afterwards his brother Bharatas, +are hospitably received when the sun is darkened,<a name="FNanchor_182_182" id="FNanchor_182_182"></a><a href="#Footnote_182_182" class="fnanchor">[182]</a> by +<i>Guhas</i>, king of the black <i>Wishds</i>, who also is of the +colour of a black cloud;<a name="FNanchor_183_183" id="FNanchor_183_183"></a><a href="#Footnote_183_183" class="fnanchor">[183]</a> and Rmas and Bharatas take +their departure in the morning from Guhas, who is said +to wander always in the forests.<a name="FNanchor_184_184" id="FNanchor_184_184"></a><a href="#Footnote_184_184" class="fnanchor">[184]</a> Now, this Guhas, who, +though always hidden, yet wishes to entertain the solar +hero during the night with presents of the town of +ṛigaveram, appears to me to be just another form of +the solar hero himself, who enters and hides himself in the +night, hospitably received in the lunar habitation, another +form of the god Indras, whom we have seen in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>united during the night to Indus or Somas—that is, to +the moon—and who, in the <i>Rmyaṇam</i><a name="FNanchor_185_185" id="FNanchor_185_185"></a><a href="#Footnote_185_185" class="fnanchor">[185]</a>, when St is +in the power of the monster, comes down during the +night to console her, lulls her keepers to sleep, and +nourishes her with the ambrosial milk (with Soma, the +moon, the same moon which, in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, the dawn, +the girl beloved of Indras, and whom therefore he does +good to, brings him as a present), encouraging her with +the prospect of the near advent of Rmas, the deliverer.</p> + +<p>But it remains to us to adduce clearer evidence to show +that in the <i>Rmyaṇam</i> Rmas is the sun, and St the +dawn, or aurora.</p> + +<p>Without taking into account that Rmas is the most +popular personification of Vishṇus, and that Vishṇus is +often the solar hero (although he is not seldom identified +with the moon), let us see how Rmas manifests himself, +and what he does in the <i>Rmyaṇam</i> to vindicate especially +his solar nature.</p> + +<p>It is my opinion that the best way to prove this is to +show how Rmas performs the very same miracles that Indras +does. Rmas, like Indras, gives, while still young, +extraordinary proofs of his strength; Rmas, like Indras, +achieves his greatest enterprises while he is himself +hidden; Rmas, like Indras, vanquishes the monster, +reconquers St, and enjoys of right the company of his +wife. Till Rmas goes into the forests, as Indras into +the clouds and shadows, his great epopee does not begin. +Indras has for assistants the winds (the Marutas); Rmas +has for his greatest help Hanumant, the son of the wind +(<i>Mruttmagah</i>);<a name="FNanchor_186_186" id="FNanchor_186_186"></a><a href="#Footnote_186_186" class="fnanchor">[186]</a> Hanumant amuses himself with the +monsters, as the wind with the archer-clouds of the +thousand-eyed Indras;<a name="FNanchor_187_187" id="FNanchor_187_187"></a><a href="#Footnote_187_187" class="fnanchor">[187]</a> and it is said that Rmas gets on +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>Hanumant's back, as Indras does on the elephant <i>iravatas</i>. +The elephant with a proboscis is not unfrequently +substituted, in the brhmanic tradition, for the horned +bull of the Veds.<a name="FNanchor_188_188" id="FNanchor_188_188"></a><a href="#Footnote_188_188" class="fnanchor">[188]</a> But the bull Indras is reproduced in +the bull Rmas, and the monkeys who assist Rmas have +kept at least the tail of the Vedic cows, the helpers of +Indras, whence their generic name of <i>golguls</i> (who +have cows' tails).<a name="FNanchor_189_189" id="FNanchor_189_189"></a><a href="#Footnote_189_189" class="fnanchor">[189]</a> The bow with which Rmas shoots the +monsters is made of a horn, whence his name of <i>rngadhanvant</i> +(he who shoots with the horn);<a name="FNanchor_190_190" id="FNanchor_190_190"></a><a href="#Footnote_190_190" class="fnanchor">[190]</a> Rmas receives +the shower of hostile darts, as a bull upon its horns +the abundant rains of autumn.<a name="FNanchor_191_191" id="FNanchor_191_191"></a><a href="#Footnote_191_191" class="fnanchor">[191]</a> St herself calls both +her Rmas and his brother Lakshmaṇas by the name of +<i>siṇharshabhu</i>,<a name="FNanchor_192_192" id="FNanchor_192_192"></a><a href="#Footnote_192_192" class="fnanchor">[192]</a> or the lion and the bull, which are conjoined +so frequently in the mythology, on account of +equal strength; hence the terror of the lion when he hears +the bull bellow in the first book of the <i>Pańćatantram</i>, +and in all the numerous Eastern and Western variations +of that book. Indras has his conflicts in the cloudy, +rainy, and gloomy sky; these are also the battle-fields of +Rmas. The names of the monsters of the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>, +as, for instance, <i>Vidyuǵǵivas</i> (he who lives upon thunderbolts), +<i>Vaǵrodar</i> (she who has thunderbolts in her +stomach), <i>Indraǵit</i> (who vanquishes Indras with magical +arts), <i>Meghandas</i> (thundering cloud),<a name="FNanchor_193_193" id="FNanchor_193_193"></a><a href="#Footnote_193_193" class="fnanchor">[193]</a> and others, show +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>us the nature of the battle. In the battle-field of Rmas, +instead, the assisting hero is now a bull (<i>ṛishabhas</i>), now +an ox's eye (<i>gavkshas</i>), now <i>gavayas</i> (<i>bos gavœus</i>), and +beings of similar appellations, which remind us of the +Vedic deities. Indras strikes with lightning the celestial +ocean; Rmas, an Indian Xerxes, chastises the sea with +burning arrows.<a name="FNanchor_194_194" id="FNanchor_194_194"></a><a href="#Footnote_194_194" class="fnanchor">[194]</a> Indras, in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, crosses the +sea and passes ninety-nine rivers; Rmas crosses the +ocean upon a bridge of mountains, in carrying which +Hanumant, the son of the wind, shows himself peculiarly +skilful; the winds carry the clouds, which we have seen, +in the language of the Veds, represented as mountains. +And that clouds, and not real mountains, are here spoken +of, we deduce from observing, as we read, that while the +animal army of Rmas carries the bridge on to the ocean, +or the winds carry the clouds into the sky, the sun cannot +burn the weary monkey-workers, because that clouds +arise and cover it, rain falls, and the wind expires.<a name="FNanchor_195_195" id="FNanchor_195_195"></a><a href="#Footnote_195_195" class="fnanchor">[195]</a> The +field of this epic battle is evidently the same as that of +the mythical battle of Indras. And in the <i>Rmyaṇam</i> +we find at every step the similarity of the combatants to +the dark clouds, the bellowing clouds, the clouds carried +by the wind. The forest which Rmas goes through is +compared to a group of clouds.<a name="FNanchor_196_196" id="FNanchor_196_196"></a><a href="#Footnote_196_196" class="fnanchor">[196]</a> The name of wanderer +by night (<i>raǵanćaras</i>), afterwards given frequently in +the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>, to the monster whom Rmas combats, +implies, of course, that the battle is fought by night. +The fact that, as we read, the witch <i>rpaṇakh</i> comes +in winter to seduce Rmas whilst he is in the forest,<a name="FNanchor_197_197" id="FNanchor_197_197"></a><a href="#Footnote_197_197" class="fnanchor">[197]</a> and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>the monster <i>Kumbhakarṇas</i> awakens after six months' +sleep, like a rainy cloud which increases towards the end +of summer (<i>tapnte</i>),<a name="FNanchor_198_198" id="FNanchor_198_198"></a><a href="#Footnote_198_198" class="fnanchor">[198]</a> shows us that the epic poem of +Rmas embraces, besides the nightly battle of the sun +over darkness, also the great annual battle of the sun in +winter to recover and rejoin the spring. Anyhow, it is +always a battle of the sun against the monster of darkness. +Rmas, in the very beginning of the great poem, +says to his brother Lakshmaṇas:—"See, O Lakshmaṇas, +Mrićas is come here with his followers, making a noise +like thunder, and with him the wanderer by night +Subhus; thou wilt see them to-day, like a mass of +dark clouds, dispersed by me in a moment, like clouds +by the wind."<a name="FNanchor_199_199" id="FNanchor_199_199"></a><a href="#Footnote_199_199" class="fnanchor">[199]</a> Here we find almost the whole battle of +Indras.</p> + +<p>And similar battles in the clouds are found in several +other episodes of the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>. The dart of Rmas +falls upon the monster <i>Kharas</i> (the monster ass), as upon +a great tree falls the thunderbolt hurled by Indras.<a name="FNanchor_200_200" id="FNanchor_200_200"></a><a href="#Footnote_200_200" class="fnanchor">[200]</a> +Heroes and monsters combat with stones and rocks from +the great mountain, and fall, overthrown on the earth, +like mountains. The monster Rvaṇas carries off St +with the magic of the wind and the tempest.<a name="FNanchor_201_201" id="FNanchor_201_201"></a><a href="#Footnote_201_201" class="fnanchor">[201]</a> Heroes +and monsters fight with trunks of trees from the great +forest; moreover, the trunks themselves, having become +monsters, join the fray, stretch out their strange arms, +and devour the hero in their cavities. And here we come +upon the interesting legend of <i>Kabandhas</i>, in which we +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>find again the forests and trees combating, and the barrel +of the Veds carried by the divine bull. The <i>Dnavs</i> +or demons also appear, in the <i>Mahbhratam</i>,<a name="FNanchor_202_202" id="FNanchor_202_202"></a><a href="#Footnote_202_202" class="fnanchor">[202]</a> in the +forms of sounding barrels. In the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>, the +highest of the demons (<i>dnavottamah</i>) is called by the +name of <i>Kabandhas</i> (barrel and trunk), compared to a +black thundering cloud, and represented as an enormous +trunk, having one large yellowish eye, and an enormous +devouring mouth in his chest.<a name="FNanchor_203_203" id="FNanchor_203_203"></a><a href="#Footnote_203_203" class="fnanchor">[203]</a> In Tuscany, we say of +water that gushes copiously out of a reservoir, that it +pours as from a barrel's mouth. The monster Kabandhas +draws towards himself, with his long arms, the two brothers +Rmas and Lakshmaṇas (compared several times in the +<i>Rmyaṇam</i><a name="FNanchor_204_204" id="FNanchor_204_204"></a><a href="#Footnote_204_204" class="fnanchor">[204]</a> to the two Avinu, who resemble each +other in everything). Rmas and Lakshmaṇas, <i>i.e.</i>, the +two Avinu, the morning and evening, the spring and +autumn suns, the two twilights, who, in a passage of the +<i>Rmyaṇam</i>, are called the two ears of Rmas, cut off the +two extremities, the two long arms, of the monster <i>Kabandhas</i>; +upon which the trunk, able no longer to support +itself, falls to the ground. The fallen monster then relates +to the two brothers that he was once a beautiful demon; +but that, by a malediction, Indras one day made his head +and legs enter his body; his arms having been lacerated +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>by the two brothers, the monster is disenchanted from this +malediction, and having resumed his form of a splendid +demon, he ascends to heaven in a luminous form. Here +we have the all-radiant sun shut up in the cloud, he being +the yellow eye, the burning mouth, of Kabandhas, and, in +union with the cloud, forming a hideous monster; the +hero comes to destroy his monstrous form, and the monster +thanks him, for thus he becomes the glorious god, +the splendid being, the handsome prince he was before. +Rmas who delivers Kabandhas from his monstrous +form by cutting off his two arms, is the sun Rmas +coming forth from the gloomy forest, and uncovering the +sky in the east and in the west. Rmas delivering +Kabandhas is simply the sun delivering himself from +the monster of gloom and cloud that envelops him. And, +indeed, the greater part of the myths have their origin in +the plurality of appellations given to the same phenomenon. +Each appellation grows into a distinct personality, +and the various personalities fight with each other. +Hence the hero who delivers himself becomes the deliverer +of the hero, viewed as a different person from the hero; +the monstrous form which envelops the hero is often +his own malediction; the hero who comes to kill this +monstrous form is his benefactor.<a name="FNanchor_205_205" id="FNanchor_205_205"></a><a href="#Footnote_205_205" class="fnanchor">[205]</a></p> + +<p>This theory of the monster who thanks the hero that +kills him, agrees with what we find on several other +occasions in the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>, as in the case of the stag +<i>Marćas</i>,<a name="FNanchor_206_206" id="FNanchor_206_206"></a><a href="#Footnote_206_206" class="fnanchor">[206]</a> which, after being killed by Rmas, re-ascends +to heaven in a luminous form; of the sea-monster, which +Hanumant destroys, and restores to its primitive form, +that of a celestial nymph; of the old avar, who, after +having seen Rmas, sacrifices herself in the fire, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>re-ascends young and beautiful to heaven (the usual Vedic +young girl, the dawn whom, ugly during the night, +Indras, by taking off her ugly skin, restores to beauty in +the morning); an episodical variation of what afterwards +happens to St herself, who, having been ugly when in +the power of the monster Rvaṇas, recovers her beauty +by the sacrifice of fire, in order to prove her innocence to +her husband Rmas, and shines again a young girl, like +the young sun, adorned with burning gold, and wearing a +red dress;<a name="FNanchor_207_207" id="FNanchor_207_207"></a><a href="#Footnote_207_207" class="fnanchor">[207]</a> and when Rmas comes near (like the young +dawn, when she sees her husband), she resembles the +first light (Prabh), the wife of the sun.<a name="FNanchor_208_208" id="FNanchor_208_208"></a><a href="#Footnote_208_208" class="fnanchor">[208]</a> This St, +daughter of Ǵanakas (the generator), whom the <i>Tittiriya +Brhmaṇam</i> calls Savitar<a name="FNanchor_209_209" id="FNanchor_209_209"></a><a href="#Footnote_209_209" class="fnanchor">[209]</a> or the sun, seems to me to +be no other than the dawn, the daughter of light, the +daughter of Indras, the god of the Vedic texts. These, +indeed, sometimes represent Sry, the daughter of the +sun, as the lover of the moon (who is then masculine); +but we find more frequently the loves of the dawn and +the sun, of the beautiful heroine and the splendid solar +hero, while the moon is generally the brother, or the pitying +sister of the hero and the heroine, the beneficent old +man, the foreseeing fairy, the good hostess, who aids +them in their enterprises; although we also find the dawn +as a sister of the sun and his succourer. In fact, the +Buddhist tradition of the legend of Rmas, illustrated by +Weber,<a name="FNanchor_210_210" id="FNanchor_210_210"></a><a href="#Footnote_210_210" class="fnanchor">[210]</a> represents St to us as the sister of the two +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>brothers Rmas and Lakshmaṇas, who go into banishment +for twelve years to escape the persecutions of +their cruel step-mother (of whom the <i>Kikey</i> of the +<i>Rmyaṇam</i> offers a confused image), in the same way +as the Vedic dawn is united to the twin Avinu; and +the same tradition makes Rmas, at the termination of +his exile, end with marrying his own sister St, as the sun +marries the dawn. And the fact of St being not born +from the womb, but produced from the ground, a girl of +heavenly beauty, destined to be the reward of valour,<a name="FNanchor_211_211" id="FNanchor_211_211"></a><a href="#Footnote_211_211" class="fnanchor">[211]</a> +not only does not exclude her relationship with the dawn, +but confirms it; for we have seen the dawn rise from the +mountain, as the daughter of light and the sun, whom +the young sun wins for his bride, as a reward for his +wonderful skill as an archer against the monsters of darkness; +and we have seen that the dawn marries only her +predestined husband, and her predestined husband is he +who performs the greatest miracles, restores her lost +gaiety, and most resembles her. We have just seen the +old avar and the ugly St, at the sight of the sun +Rmas, deliver themselves in the fire from every mortal +danger, and become beautiful and happy once more.</p> + +<p>But the concord between the mythical husband and +wife is not more steadfast than that of mortal couples. +Rmas is very apt to be suspicious. Having returned to +his kingdom of Ayodhy, he allows himself to brood upon +what his subjects may say of him for having taken back +his wife, after she had been in the hands of the monster +(they were not present at the first fire-sacrifice of St); +Rmas reveals his suspicions to St, and blames the evil-speaking +of the citizens for originating them; she submits<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +a second time to the trial by fire, but, offended by +his continual suspicions, she flees from her husband, and +on a car of light, drawn by serpents (<i>Pannags</i>), goes +down again underground (which appears to mean simply +this—the dawn, or spring, marries the sun in the morning, +or she stays all day, or all summer, in his kingdom, +and in the evening, or in the autumn, goes down into +the shades of night, or of winter).<a name="FNanchor_212_212" id="FNanchor_212_212"></a><a href="#Footnote_212_212" class="fnanchor">[212]</a> It is an indiscretion +of the husband which causes his wife to abandon him.</p> + +<p>Thus, in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, we have seen <i>Urva</i>, the first +of the dawns, flee from the sun <i>Purravas</i>. In <i>Somadevas</i>,<a name="FNanchor_213_213" id="FNanchor_213_213"></a><a href="#Footnote_213_213" class="fnanchor">[213]</a> +the king Purravas loses his wife Urva, because +he has let it be known in heaven that she was with him; +in Klidsas's drama of <i>Vikramorva</i>, the king Purravas, +having helped Indras in the fight, receives from +him Urva to wife, with whom he engages to stay till a +child is born to them; the king, shortly after having +espoused Urva, looks at another nymph, Udakavat (the +watery). Urva, offended, flees; she enters a wood to +hide herself, and is transformed into a creeper. In the +brhmanic tradition of the <i>Yaġurvedas</i>, referred to at +length by Professor Max Mller, in his "Oxford Essays," +Purravas loses sight of Urva, because he has let himself +be seen by her without his regal dress, or even +naked.</p> + +<p>We find yet another similar legend in the <i>Mahbhratam</i>.<a name="FNanchor_214_214" id="FNanchor_214_214"></a><a href="#Footnote_214_214" class="fnanchor">[214]</a> +The wise and splendid ntanus goes to the chase +on the banks of the Gag, and there finds a beautiful +nymph whom he becomes enamoured of. The nymph +responds to his suit, and consents to remain with him, +on condition that he will never say anything displeasing +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>to her, whatever she may do or meditate; and the +enamoured king assents to the grave condition. They +live together happily, for the king yields to the nymph +in everything; but in the course of time, eight sons are +born to them; the nymph has already thrown seven into +the river, and the king, although inwardly full of grief, +dares not say anything to her; but when she is about to +throw the last one in, the king implores her not to do it, +and challenges her to say who she is. The nymph then +confesses to him that she is the Gag itself personified, +and that the eight sons born to their loves are human +personifications of the eight divine Vasavas, who, by +being thrown into the Gag, are liberated from the +curse of the human form: the only Vasus who is pleased +to remain among men is Dyus (the sky), in the form of +the eunuch Bhshmas, whom ntanus would not allow +to be thrown into the waters. The same curse falls upon +the Vasavas for having ravished the cow of abundance +from the penitent Apavas. We shall find a legendary +subject analogous to this one of ntanus in several of +the popular tales of Europe, with this difference that, in +European tradition, it is generally the husband who +abandons his indiscreet partner. The Hindoo tradition, +however, also offers us an example of the husband who +abandons his wife, in the wise Ǵaratkarus, who marries +the sister of the king of the serpents, on condition that +she never does anything to displease him.<a name="FNanchor_215_215" id="FNanchor_215_215"></a><a href="#Footnote_215_215" class="fnanchor">[215]</a> One day the +wise man sleeps; evening comes on; he ought to be +awakened in order to say his evening prayers; if he does +not say them, he does not do his duty, and she would do +wrong did she not warn him. If she awaken him, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +will be enraged. What is to be done? She takes the +latter course. The wise man awakes, becomes enraged, and +abandons her, after she had given him a son.<a name="FNanchor_216_216" id="FNanchor_216_216"></a><a href="#Footnote_216_216" class="fnanchor">[216]</a></p> + +<p>The glowing aspect of the sky, morning and evening, +suggested the idea, now of a splendid nuptial feast, now of +a fire. In this fire, sometimes the witch who persecutes +the hero and heroine is burnt, and sometimes the hero +and heroine themselves are immolated. The sacrifice of +avar and of St, who are delivered by the sun Rmas, +is only a variation of that of unaḥepas, liberated by the +dawn in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>. The story of unaḥepas has +already been made known by Professor Rodolph Roth,<a name="FNanchor_217_217" id="FNanchor_217_217"></a><a href="#Footnote_217_217" class="fnanchor">[217]</a> +and by Professor Max Mller,<a name="FNanchor_218_218" id="FNanchor_218_218"></a><a href="#Footnote_218_218" class="fnanchor">[218]</a> who translated it from the +<i>itareya-brhmaṇam</i>; and I refer the reader to these +translations, as well as to the English version which Professor +Martin Haugh has given us of all the <i>itareya</i>. I +shall, therefore, here give but a short account of it, with +a few observations apropos to the subject in hand.</p> + +<p>The king Harićandras has no sons; the god Varuṇas +the coverer, the gloomy, the watery, the king of the +waters,<a name="FNanchor_219_219" id="FNanchor_219_219"></a><a href="#Footnote_219_219" class="fnanchor">[219]</a> obliges him to promise that he will sacrifice +to him whatever is born to him. The king promises; a +child is born, who is named the red (Rohitas). Varuṇas +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>claims him; the father begs him to wait till the child has +cut his teeth, then till his first teeth are cast, then till he +is able to bear armour. It is evident that the father wishes +to wait till his son be strong enough to defend himself +against his persecutor, Varuṇas. Varuṇas thereupon +claims him in a more resolute manner, and Harićandras +informs the son himself that he must be given up +in sacrifice. Rohitas takes his bow and flees into the +woods, where he lives by the chase. This first part of +the legend corresponds with those numerous European +popular tales, in which, now the devil, now the aquatic +monster, now the serpent, demands from a father the son +who has just been born to him without his knowledge. +The second part of the story of unaḥepas shows us the +hero in the forest; he has taken his bow with him, and +hence, like Rmas in the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>, who has scarcely +entered the forest than he begins to hunt, Rohitas turns +hunter, and hunts for the six years during which he +remains in the forest. But his chase is unsuccessful; he +wanders about in quest of some one to take his place as +the victim of Varuṇas; at last he finds the brhmaṇas +Aġigartas, who consents to give his own second son, +unaḥepas, for a hundred cows. The first-born being +particularly dear to the father, and the third being especially +beloved by the mother, cannot be sacrificed; the +second son, therefore, is ceded to Varuṇas, the gloomy +god of night, who, like Yamas, binds all creatures with +his cords. We have already observed how the middle +son is the son of the celestial cow Aditis, the hidden sun, +the sun during and covered by the darkness of night, or, +in other words, bound by the fetters of Varuṇas—and +it is his own father who binds him with those fetters. +His sacrifice begins in the evening. During the night he +appeals to all the gods. At last Indras, flattered by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +praise heaped upon him, concedes to him a golden chariot, +upon which, with praises to the Avinu, and help from +the dawn, unaḥepas, unbound from the fetters of +Varuṇas, is delivered. These fetters of Varuṇas, which +imprison the victim, bound and sacrificed by his own +father, help us to understand the second part of the +European popular tale of the son sacrificed against his +will to the demon by his father; for unaḥepas, towards +the end of the European story, takes the form of a horse, +Varuṇas that of a demon, and the fetters of Varuṇas are +the bridle of the horse, which the imprudent father sells +to the demon, together with his son in the shape of a +horse;<a name="FNanchor_220_220" id="FNanchor_220_220"></a><a href="#Footnote_220_220" class="fnanchor">[220]</a> the beautiful daughter of the demon (the white +one, who, as usual, comes out of the black monster) +delivers the young man transformed into a horse; as in +the Vedic story of unaḥepas, it is explicitly the dawn +who is the young girl that delivers.<a name="FNanchor_221_221" id="FNanchor_221_221"></a><a href="#Footnote_221_221" class="fnanchor">[221]</a> Varuṇas is called +in the <i>Rmyaṇam</i> the god who has in his hand a rope +(<i>pahastas</i>); his dwelling is on Mount Astas, where the +sun goes down, and which it is impossible to touch, because +it burns, in an immense palace, the work of +Vivakarman, which has a hundred rooms, lakes with +nymphs, and trees of gold.<a name="FNanchor_222_222" id="FNanchor_222_222"></a><a href="#Footnote_222_222" class="fnanchor">[222]</a> Evidently, Varuṇas is here, +not a different form, but a different name of the god +Yamas, the pin, or furnished with rope, the constrictor +<i>par excellence</i>; for we are to suppose the magic display +of golden splendour in the evening heavens not so +much the work of the sun itself, as produced by the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>gloomy god who sits on the mountain, who invests and surprises +the solar hero, and drags him into his kingdom. As +to Harićandras and Aġigartas, Rohitas and unaḥepas, +they appear, in my opinion, to be themselves different +names for not only the same celestial phenomenon, but +the same mythical personage. Harićandras is celebrated +in the legends as a solar king; Rohitas, his son, the red +one, is his <i>alter ego</i>, as well as his successor unaḥepas. +Harićandras, moreover, who promises to sacrifice his son +to Varuṇas, seems to differ little, if at all, from Aġigartas, +who sells his own son for the sacrifice. The <i>Rmyaṇam</i>,<a name="FNanchor_223_223" id="FNanchor_223_223"></a><a href="#Footnote_223_223" class="fnanchor">[223]</a> +has given us a third name for the same unnatural father,<a name="FNanchor_224_224" id="FNanchor_224_224"></a><a href="#Footnote_224_224" class="fnanchor">[224]</a> +in Vivmitras, who asks his own sons to sacrifice themselves, +instead of unaḥepas, who is under his protection, +and as they refuse to obey, he curses them.</p> + +<p>The variation of the same legend which we find in the +<i>Harivanas</i><a name="FNanchor_225_225" id="FNanchor_225_225"></a><a href="#Footnote_225_225" class="fnanchor">[225]</a> proves these identities, and adds a new and +notable particular. The wife of Vivmitras designs, on +account of her poverty, to barter her middle son for a +hundred cows, and with that view already keeps him +tied with a rope like a slave. The grandfather of Rohitas, +Harićandras's father, Triakus, wanders through the +woods, and delivers this son of Vivmitras, whose family +he thenceforth protects and maintains. The deeds of +Triakus, who begs of Vasishṭas to be allowed to ascend +to heaven bodily, and who, by grace of Vivmitras, +obtains instead the favour of remaining suspended in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>air like a constellation, are also attributed to his son +Harićandras; whence we may affirm, without much risk +of contradiction, that as Triakus is another name for +his son Harićandras, so Harićandras is another name for +his son Rohitas, and that, therefore, the Triakus of the +<i>Harivaṅas</i> is the same as the Rohitas of the <i>itareya</i>, +with this difference, that Triakus buys the son destined +to the sacrifice in order to free him, while Rohitas buys +him to free himself. But the first hundred cows given +by Triakus to Vivmitras do not suffice for him, and +the fruits of his hunting in the forest are not enough to +maintain the family, a circumstance which weighs upon +him almost as much as if the family were his own; upon +which, in order to save Vivmitras, in order to save +Vivmitras's son, and, we can perhaps add, to save himself, +he resolves to sacrifice, to kill the beautiful and +dearly-prized wife of Vasishṭas (the very luminous). I +have said the wife of Vasishṭas, but the <i>Harivaṅas</i> +says, speaking strictly, it was the cow of Vasishṭas who +was killed. But we know from the <i>Rmyaṇam</i><a name="FNanchor_226_226" id="FNanchor_226_226"></a><a href="#Footnote_226_226" class="fnanchor">[226]</a> that +this cow of Vasishṭas, this kmadhuk or kmadhenus, +which yields at pleasure all that is wished for, this cow +of abundance, is kept by Vasishṭas, under the name of +abl, as his own wife. Vivmitras is covetous of her; +he demands her from Vasishṭas, and offers a hundred +cows for her, the exact price which, in the <i>Harivaṅas</i>, +he receives from Triakus for his own son. Vasishṭas +answers that he will not give her for a hundred, nor for +a thousand, nor even for a hundred thousand cows, for +abl is his gem, his riches, his all, his life.<a name="FNanchor_227_227" id="FNanchor_227_227"></a><a href="#Footnote_227_227" class="fnanchor">[227]</a> Vivmitras +carries her off; she returns to the feet of Vasishṭas, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>and bellows; her bellowing calls forth armies, who come +out of her own body; the hundred sons of Vivmitras are +burned to ashes by them. These armies which come out +of the body of Vasishṭas's cow remind us again of the +Vedic cow, from which come forth winged darts, or birds, +by which the enemies are filled with terror. Vasishṭas is +a form of Indras; his cow is here the rain-cloud. Vivmitras, +who wishes to ravish the cow from Vasishṭas, +often assumes monstrous forms in the Hindoo legends, +and is almost always malignant, perverse, and revengeful. +His hundred sons burned to cinders by Vasishṭas remind +us, from one point of view, of the hundred cities of ambaras +destroyed by Indras, and the hundred perverse +Dhṛitarshtrides of the <i>Mahbhratam</i>; whence his +name, Vivmitras, which may also mean the enemy +of all (<i>viva-amitras</i>), would agree well with his almost +demoniacal character.</p> + +<p>This story of the cow of Vasishṭas, whose relationship +with the legend of unaḥepas cannot be doubted, brings +us back to the animal forms of heroes and heroines from +which we started. In the story of Vasishṭas, the cow-cloud, +the cow abl, or the spotted-cow, plays in the +epic poem the part of the cow Aditis, the cow pṛinis +(spotted, variegated), with which we are already familiar +in the Vedic hymns. This cow is benignant towards the +god, or the hero, or the wise Vasishṭas, as the pṛinis is to +the god Indras. But we have seen in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i> +itself the cloud as the enemy of the god, and represented +as a female form of the monster, as his sister. This +sister generally tries to seduce the god, promising to +deliver into his hands the monster her brother, and she +sometimes succeeds, as the witch Hidimb of the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, +who gives up her brother, the monster +Hidimbas, into the hands of the hero Bhmas, who thereupon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> +espouses her. On the other hand, rpaṇakh, the +sister of the monster Rvaṇas, does not succeed in her +intent; making herself beautiful, she endeavours to win +the affection of the hero Rmas; but being ridiculed by +him and by Lakshmaṇas, she becomes deformed, and +sends forth cries like a cloud in the rainy season,<a name="FNanchor_228_228" id="FNanchor_228_228"></a><a href="#Footnote_228_228" class="fnanchor">[228]</a> exciting +her brothers to annihilate Rmas.</p> + +<p>The same cloud-monster is found again in the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>, +under the name of Dundubhis, in the form of a +terrible buffalo with sharpened horns.<a name="FNanchor_229_229" id="FNanchor_229_229"></a><a href="#Footnote_229_229" class="fnanchor">[229]</a> The buffalo, as a +wild animal, is often chosen to represent the principle of +evil, in the same way as the bull, increaser of the bovine +herds, is selected as the image of good. This bellowing +buffalo, whence his name of Dundubhis (drum), strikes +and knocks with his two horns at the door of the cavern<a name="FNanchor_230_230" id="FNanchor_230_230"></a><a href="#Footnote_230_230" class="fnanchor">[230]</a> +of the son of Indras (Blin), the king of the monkeys. +But Blin takes Dundubhis by the horns, throws him on +the ground, and destroys him.</p> + +<p>Dundus is also a name given to the father of Kṛishṇas, +or the black one, who in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i> is still a demon, +and only later becomes the god of cows and cowherds, a +govindas, or pastor <i>par excellence</i>.<a name="FNanchor_231_231" id="FNanchor_231_231"></a><a href="#Footnote_231_231" class="fnanchor">[231]</a> Indras, his enemy in +the Vedas, having fallen from heaven, he became one of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>the most popular gods, and even sometimes the most +popular form of the deity. In the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, for +instance, he is almost the <i>deus ex machina</i> of the battles +between the Pṇḍavas and the Dhrtarshṭrs, and presents +many analogies to the Zeus of the Iliad; whereas +Indras plays only a part in the episodes, the rain-giver and +thunderer being often forgotten for the black one who prepares +and hurls the light. But the fall of Indras begins in +the Veds themselves. In the <i>Yaǵurvedas</i>, Vivarpas, the +son of Tvashṭar, whom Indras kills, appears as no less than +the purohitas or high-priest of the gods, and son of a +daughter of the Asurs; he has three heads, of which one +drinks the ambrosia, another the spirituous drink, while +the third eats food. Indras cuts off Vivarpas's three +heads, in revenge of the one which drinks his ambrosia; +he is therefore charged with having killed a Brhman, +and decried as a brhmanicide.<a name="FNanchor_232_232" id="FNanchor_232_232"></a><a href="#Footnote_232_232" class="fnanchor">[232]</a> In the <i>itareya-brhmaṇam</i>,<a name="FNanchor_233_233" id="FNanchor_233_233"></a><a href="#Footnote_233_233" class="fnanchor">[233]</a> +the criminality of Indras in this regard is +confirmed, to which the <i>Kushtaki-Upanishad</i> also +refers. In the seventh book of the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>, even +the multiform monster Rvaṇas is represented as a great +penitent, whom Brhman fills with supreme grace; in +the sixth book, the son of the wind, Hanumant, cuts off +the three heads of the Rvanide monster Triiras (having +three heads), as one day Indras cut off the three heads +of the monster Vṛitras, son of Tvashṭar;<a name="FNanchor_234_234" id="FNanchor_234_234"></a><a href="#Footnote_234_234" class="fnanchor">[234]</a> and he cuts all +the three heads off together (<i>samas</i>), as the hero of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>European popular tales must cut off, at a blow, the three +heads of the serpent, the wizard, otherwise he is powerless, +and able to do nothing. The monster, like the hero, seems +to have a special affinity for the number three: hence +the three heads of Triiras, as also the three brothers of +Lak—Rvaṇas, the eldest brother, who reigns; Kumbhakarṇas, +the middle brother, who sleeps; Vibhishaṇas, the +third brother, whom the two others do not care about, but +who alone is just and good, and who alone obtains the gift +of immortality.<a name="FNanchor_235_235" id="FNanchor_235_235"></a><a href="#Footnote_235_235" class="fnanchor">[235]</a> We have evidently here again the three +Vedic brothers; the two eldest in demoniacal form, the +youngest a friend of the divine hero, and who, by the victory +of Rmas over the monster Rvaṇas, obtains the kingdom +of Lak. As to the brothers Rmas and Lakshmaṇas, +and the brothers Blin and Sugrvas, their natural place is +in the story of the two twins, which will be referred to in +the next chapter, although Hanumant, the son of the wind, +figures second to them in the character of strong brother.</p> + +<p>The three interesting heroic brothers come out more +prominently in the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, where of the five +Pṇdavas brothers, three stay on one side, and are +Yudhishṭhiras, son of the god Yamas, the wise brother; +Bhmas (the terrible), or Vṛikodras (wolf's belly), son of +Vyus (the wind), the strong brother (another form of +Hanumant, in company with whom he is also found in +the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, on Mount Gandhamdanas); and +Argunas (the splendid), the son of Indras, the genial, +dexterous, fortunate, victorious brother, he who wins the +bride. The first brother gives the best advice; the +second shows proof of greatest strength; the third +brother wins, conquers the bride. They are precisely +the three Vedic brothers Ṛibhavas, Ekatas, Dvtas, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +Tritas, in the same relationships to one another and with +the same natures; only the legend is amplified.<a name="FNanchor_236_236" id="FNanchor_236_236"></a><a href="#Footnote_236_236" class="fnanchor">[236]</a> As to +their other brothers, twins, born of another mother, +Nakulas and Sahadevas, they are the sons of the two +Avinu, and feebly repeat in the <i>Mahbhratam</i> the +exploits of the two celestial twins. Bhmas or Vṛikodras, +the second brother, is considered the strongest, (balavatṁ +reshthaḥ), because immediately after birth, <i>i.e.</i>, scarcely +has he come forth out of his mother (like the Vedic +Marutas), than he breaks the rock upon which he falls, +because he breaks his fetters as soon as he is bound +with them (like Hanumant when he becomes the prisoner +of Rvaṇas), because he carries his brothers during the +night (as Hanumant carries Rmas), as he flees from the +burning house prepared by the impious Duryodhanas +(<i>i.e.</i>, from the burning sky of evening), and because in +the kingdom of serpents, where Duryodhanas threw him +down (that is, the night), he drinks the water of strength. +A serpent, wishing to benefit Bhmas, says to Vasukis, +king of the serpents—"Let there be given to him as +much strength as he can drink from that cistern in which +is placed the strength of a thousand serpents."<a name="FNanchor_237_237" id="FNanchor_237_237"></a><a href="#Footnote_237_237" class="fnanchor">[237]</a> Bhmas, +at one draught, drinks the whole cisternful; and with +similar expedition, he drains consecutively eight cisterns.<a name="FNanchor_238_238" id="FNanchor_238_238"></a><a href="#Footnote_238_238" class="fnanchor">[238]</a> +The first-born of the Pnḍavas is dear to his +father Yamas, the god of justice, Dharmarǵas,—and is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>himself indeed called Dharmarǵas; and when he prepares +himself to ascend into heaven, the god Yamas +follows him in the form of a dog: by his skill in solving +enigmas, he saves his brother Bhmas from the king of +the serpents. The third brother, Arǵunas, son of Indras, +is the Benjamin of the Vedic supreme God. Indras welcomes +him with festivals in heaven, whither Arǵunas had +gone to find him. Arǵunas is an infallible archer, like +Indras; like Indras, he several times regains the cows +from the robbers or from the enemies; and, like Indras, +he wins and conquers his bride; he is born by the assistance +of all the celestials; he is invincible (<i>aġayas</i>); he is +the best son (<i>varaḥ putras</i>);<a name="FNanchor_239_239" id="FNanchor_239_239"></a><a href="#Footnote_239_239" class="fnanchor">[239]</a> he alone of the three +brothers has compassion on his master Droṇas and delivers +him from an aquatic monster.<a name="FNanchor_240_240" id="FNanchor_240_240"></a><a href="#Footnote_240_240" class="fnanchor">[240]</a></p> + +<p>But there is yet another particular which shows the +resemblance between the three brothers Pṇḍavas and the +three brothers of the Vedas; it is their dwelling, hidden +in the palace of the king Virṭa, in the fourth book of the +<i>Mahbhratam</i>. They are exiled from the kingdom, like +Rmas; they flee from the persecution of their enemies, +now into the woods, now, as the Ṛibhavas, disguised as +workmen in the palace of Virṭas, to whom their presence +brings every kind of happiness.</p> + +<p>We meet with these three brothers again, episodically, +in the three disciples of Dhumyas, in the first book of the +<i>Mahbhratam</i>.<a name="FNanchor_241_241" id="FNanchor_241_241"></a><a href="#Footnote_241_241" class="fnanchor">[241]</a> The first disciple, Upamanyus, takes +his master's cows out to pasture, and, out of sensitive regard +for his master's interest, refuses to drink not only +their milk, but even the foam from their mouths, and fasts +till, like to perish of hunger, he bites a leaf of arkapatr +(properly, leaf of the sun, the <i>aristolochia indica</i>), +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>when he instantly becomes blind. He wanders about and +falls into a well; he there sings a hymn to the Avinu, +and they come immediately to deliver him. The second +brother, Uddlakas, places his body, as a dike, to arrest +the course of the waters. The third brother is Vedas, he +who sees, he who knows, whose disciple Utakas is himself +in the form of a hero. Utakas, like the Vedic +Tritas, and the Pṇḍavas Arǵuṇas, is protected by +Indras. He is sent by the wife of his master to abstract +the earrings of the wife of King Pushyas. He sets out; +on his way he meets a gigantic bull, and a horseman, +who bids him, if he would succeed, eat the excrement of +the bull; he does so, rinsing his mouth afterwards. He +then presents himself to King Pushyas and informs him +of his message; the king consigns the earrings to him, +but cautions him to beware of Takshakas, the king of the +serpents. Utakas says that he is not afraid of him, and +sets out with the earrings; but as he puts down the earrings +upon the shore, in order to bathe, Takshakas presents +himself in the shape of a naked mendicant, whips +them up, and flees away with them. Utakas follows +him, but Takshakas resumes his serpent form, penetrates +the ground, and descends under it; Utakas +attempts to follow the serpent, but does not succeed in +cleaving the entrance, which corresponds to the Vedic rock +under which the monster keeps his prey. Indras sees +him tiring himself in vain, and sends his weapon, in order +that it may be for a help to Utakas; that weapon, or +club, penetrating, opened the cavern.<a name="FNanchor_242_242" id="FNanchor_242_242"></a><a href="#Footnote_242_242" class="fnanchor">[242]</a> This club, this +weapon of Indras is evidently the thunderbolt.<a name="FNanchor_243_243" id="FNanchor_243_243"></a><a href="#Footnote_243_243" class="fnanchor">[243]</a> Utakas +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>descends into the kingdom of the serpents, full of infinite +wonders. Indras reappears at his side in the shape of a +horse,<a name="FNanchor_244_244" id="FNanchor_244_244"></a><a href="#Footnote_244_244" class="fnanchor">[244]</a> and obliges the king, Takshakas, to give back the +earrings; having taken which, Utakas mounts the +horse, that he may be carried more swiftly to the wife of +his master, from whom he learns that the horseman seen +by him on the way was none other than Indras himself; +his horse, Agnis, the god of fire; the bull, the steed of +Indras, or the elephant iravatas; the excrement of the +bull, the ambrosia, which made him immortal in the +kingdom of the serpents. In another episode of the +same (the first) book of the <i>Mahbhratam</i>,<a name="FNanchor_245_245" id="FNanchor_245_245"></a><a href="#Footnote_245_245" class="fnanchor">[245]</a> we again +find Indras busied in the search of the earrings, that is +to say, of the excessively fleshy part hanging from the +ears of Karṇas, the child of the sun, who, as soon as +born, had been abandoned upon the waters. We have +seen above how the two Avinu are also represented in +the <i>Rmyaṇam</i> as the two ears of Vishṇus Rmas (as +the sun and moon are said to be his eyes); hence it +seems to me that these mythical earrings, coveted by +Indras, and protected by him, are nothing else than the +two Avinu, the two luminous twilights (in connection +with the sun and the moon), in which Indras, and, still +more than he, the aurora, his wife, take such delight.<a name="FNanchor_246_246" id="FNanchor_246_246"></a><a href="#Footnote_246_246" class="fnanchor">[246]</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>In the commentary of <i>Buddhagoshas</i> on the Buddhist +Dhammapadam, we have the three brothers again; the two +eldest are represented as fleeing from the persecution of +their cruel step-mother; the third brother, Suriyas (Sryas, +the sun), goes to overtake them. The eldest counsels or +commands, the second lends his aid, and the youngest +fights. The second and third brothers fall into a fountain, +under the power of a monster; the first-born saves them by +his knowledge, as, in the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, Yudhishṭhiras, +by his skill in solving riddles, delivers the second brother +from the fetters of the forest of the monster serpent.</p> + +<p>This mode of delivering the hero, by propounding a +question or a riddle, is very common in the Hindoo +legends. Even in the <i>Pańćatantram</i>,<a name="FNanchor_247_247" id="FNanchor_247_247"></a><a href="#Footnote_247_247" class="fnanchor">[247]</a> a Brhman who +falls under the power of a forest monster who leaps on +his shoulders, frees himself by asking why his feet are so +soft. The monster confesses that it is because, on account +of a vow, he cannot touch the earth with his feet. The +Brhman then betakes himself to a sacred pond; the +monster wishes to take a bath, and the Brhman throws +him in; the monster orders him to stay there till he has +bathed and said his orisons. The Brhman profits by +this opportunity to make his escape, knowing that the +monster will not be able to overtake him, as he cannot +put his feet to the ground. It is the usual vulnerability, +weakness, or imperfection of the hero, or the monster, in +the feet, and, if an animal is spoken of, in the tail.<a name="FNanchor_248_248" id="FNanchor_248_248"></a><a href="#Footnote_248_248" class="fnanchor">[248]</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>The <i>Mahbhratam</i> has shown us the three Vedic +brothers, of whom the youngest has fallen into the well; +it also presents to us, in the witch (<i>asur</i>) armishṭh, +daughter of Vṛishaparvan, king of the demons, and in +the nymph Devayn, daughter of ukras, who credits +herself with the virtue of Indras as the rain-giver,<a name="FNanchor_249_249" id="FNanchor_249_249"></a><a href="#Footnote_249_249" class="fnanchor">[249]</a> the +two rival sisters of the Vedas, the good and the evil. In +the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>,<a name="FNanchor_250_250" id="FNanchor_250_250"></a><a href="#Footnote_250_250" class="fnanchor">[250]</a> the witch rpanakh, who seduces +Rmas, in order to take the place of St at his side, is +compared to armishṭh, who seduced Nhushas. In the +<i>Mahbhratam</i>, armishṭh assumes the guise of Devayn, +whom she throws into a well. Yaytis, son of +King Nhushas, goes to the chase; feeling thirsty, he +stops near the well; from the bottom of the well a young +girl looks up, like a flame of fire.<a name="FNanchor_251_251" id="FNanchor_251_251"></a><a href="#Footnote_251_251" class="fnanchor">[251]</a> The prince takes her +by the right hand and draws her up; and because in the +marriage ceremony, the bride is taken by the right hand,<a name="FNanchor_252_252" id="FNanchor_252_252"></a><a href="#Footnote_252_252" class="fnanchor">[252]</a> +the prince Yaytis is said to marry Devayn. But even +after she is a wife, armishṭh continues to seduce her +husband, to whom she unites herself. Two sons are born +of Devayn, Yadus and Turvasas, similar to Indras and +Vishṇus (a new form of the twins, of the Avinu); three +are born of armishṭh, Duhyus, Anus, and Prus; and +here also the third brother is the most glorious and +valiant. And in this way the episode is connected with +the essential legend of the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, and one and +the same general myth is multiplied into an infinity of +particular legends. As the genealogy of the gods and +heroes is infinite, so is there an infinite number of +forms assumed by the same myth and of the names +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>assumed by the same hero. Each day gave birth in the +heavens to a new hero and a new monster, who exterminate +each other, and afterwards revive in an aspect +more or less glorious, according as their names were more +or less fortunate.</p> + +<p>It is for the same reason that the sons always recognise +their fathers without having once seen them or even +heard them spoken of; they recognise themselves in +their fathers. Thus akuntal and Urvac enable their +mother to find again the husband that she has lost, and +their father to recover his lost wife. Thus in the episode +of Devayn and armishṭh, when the former wishes to +know who is the father of the three sons of armishṭh, +so similar to the sons of immortals, she turns to them, +and they tell her at once.</p> + +<p>For this fault, Yaytis, from being young, is fated to +become old. He then beseeches the two eldest of the +three sons that he had by armishṭh to take on themselves +the old age of their father; they refuse, but the +third son, Prus, out of reverence for his father, consents +to become old in his stead, to give up his youth to his +father. After a thousand years, the king Yaytis, satiated +with life, restores to his son Prus his youth, and although +he is the youngest, along with his youth, the kingdom, +because he found him the only one of the three who +respected the paternal will; and he expels the two eldest +brothers.<a name="FNanchor_253_253" id="FNanchor_253_253"></a><a href="#Footnote_253_253" class="fnanchor">[253]</a></p> + +<p>Sometimes, however, the blind old father is entirely +abandoned by his sons. Thus the old Drghatamas (of the +vast darkness), blind from birth, is deprived of food, and +thrown into the water by his wife and sons,<a name="FNanchor_254_254" id="FNanchor_254_254"></a><a href="#Footnote_254_254" class="fnanchor">[254]</a> but a heroic +king saves him, in order, by his wife, to beget sons for +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>him. We have in Drghatamas and Yaytis, King Lear +in embryo.</p> + +<p>In the same legend of Drghatamas, we find an +exchange of wives. Queen Sudeshn, instead of going +herself, sends her servant-maid, her foster-sister, to be +embraced by Drghatamas.<a name="FNanchor_255_255" id="FNanchor_255_255"></a><a href="#Footnote_255_255" class="fnanchor">[255]</a> In the cunning Sudeshn +we have an ancient variation of Queen Berta.</p> + +<p>Other blind men occur frequently in the Hindoo +legends. I shall here cite only Andhakas (the blind one) +and Vṛishṇis (the sheep, as the lame one),<a name="FNanchor_256_256" id="FNanchor_256_256"></a><a href="#Footnote_256_256" class="fnanchor">[256]</a> who appear +in the <i>Harivanas</i><a name="FNanchor_257_257" id="FNanchor_257_257"></a><a href="#Footnote_257_257" class="fnanchor">[257]</a> as the two sons of Mdr. But we +know from the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, that the two sons of +Mdr are a human incarnation of the celestial twins, the +Avinu; and here we come again upon the blind-lame +one of the Vedas, the solar hero in his twin forms, the +two Avinu protected by Indras, and companions of the +dawn.</p> + +<p>The <i>Pańćatantram</i><a name="FNanchor_258_258" id="FNanchor_258_258"></a><a href="#Footnote_258_258" class="fnanchor">[258]</a> represents the blind and the +crooked, or hunchbacked,<a name="FNanchor_259_259" id="FNanchor_259_259"></a><a href="#Footnote_259_259" class="fnanchor">[259]</a> in union with the three-breasted +princess (<i>i.e.</i>, the triple sister, the aurora in the evening, +the aurora in the night, the aurora in the morning; the +breast of the night nourishing the defective, the monstrous, +which the morning sweeps away). The crooked guides +the blind with a stick; they both marry the three-breasted +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>princess. The blind recovers sight by the steam of the +poison of a black serpent, cooked in milk (the darkness +of night, or of winter, mixed with the clearness of day, +or of the snow); he then, being a strongly-built man, +takes the hunchback by the legs, and beats his hunch +against the third and superfluous breast of the princess. +The anterior prominence of the latter, and the posterior +one of the former, enter into their respective bodies;<a name="FNanchor_260_260" id="FNanchor_260_260"></a><a href="#Footnote_260_260" class="fnanchor">[260]</a> +thus the blind, the crooked, and the three-breasted +princess help and cure each other; the two Avinu and +the aurora (or the spring) reappear together in beauty. +The Avinu and the aurora also come forth together +from the monstrous shades of night; the Avinu contend +for the aurora; as we shall see soon, and in the next +chapter, the delivered bride disputed for by the brothers.</p> + +<p>The sun and the aurora flee from each other; this +spectacle has been represented in different ways by the +popular imagination; and one of the most familiar is certainly +that of a beautiful young girl who, running more +quickly than the prince, escapes from him. This incident, +which is already described in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, occurs +again in the <i>Mahbhratam</i>,<a name="FNanchor_261_261" id="FNanchor_261_261"></a><a href="#Footnote_261_261" class="fnanchor">[261]</a> in the legend of the loves +of the virgin Tapat, daughter of the sun (the luminous +and burning aurora, and also the summer season, ardent +as Dahan), with the king Saṁvaraṇas, son of the bear +(<i>ṛikshaputras</i>, a kind of Indras). The king Saṁvaraṇas +arrives on horseback with his retinue at the mountain, in +order to hunt; he ties his horse up and begins the chase, +when he sees on the mountain the beautiful girl, the +daughter of the sun, who, covered with ornaments, shines +like the sun; he declares his love and wishes to make her +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>his own; she answers not a word, but flees and disappears +like the lightning in the clouds;<a name="FNanchor_262_262" id="FNanchor_262_262"></a><a href="#Footnote_262_262" class="fnanchor">[262]</a> the king cannot overtake +her, because his horse, while he was hunting, has +died of hunger and thirst; he searches in vain through +the forest, but not seeing her, he throws himself almost +breathless to the ground. As he lies there the beautiful +girl appears again, approaches and wakens him; he again +speaks to her of love, and she answers that he must ask her +father the sun, and then, still quite innocent, she disappears +swiftly on high (<i>rdhvam</i>). The king again faints; his +minister sprinkles him with the water of health, and makes +him revive, but he refuses to leave the mountain, and +having dismissed his hunting company, he awaits the +arrival of the great purohitas Vasishṭhas, by whose mediation +he demands from the sun his daughter Tapat to +wife; the sun consents, and Vasishṭhas reconducts to +Saṁvaraṇas, for the third time, the beautiful girl as his +legitimate wife. The husband and wife live together happily +on the mountain of their loves; but as long as King +Saṁvaraṇas remains with Tapat upon this mountain, no +rain falls upon the earth; wherefore the king, out of love +for his subjects, returns to his palace, upon which Indras +pours down the rain, and begins again to fructify the earth.<a name="FNanchor_263_263" id="FNanchor_263_263"></a><a href="#Footnote_263_263" class="fnanchor">[263]</a></p> + +<p>We said a little ago that Vasishṭhas himself caused it +to rain (<i>abhyavarshata</i>); and the mention of Vasishṭhas +reminds us of the particularly rain-giving, cloudy, and +lunar function of his cow Kdmadhenus, whose wonderful +productions are again described in the <i>Mahbhratam</i>.<a name="FNanchor_264_264" id="FNanchor_264_264"></a><a href="#Footnote_264_264" class="fnanchor">[264]</a> +Besides milk and ambrosia, she yields herbs and gems, +which we have already referred to, as analogous products +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>in mythology. The cow of Vasishṭhas is, besides her +tail, celebrated for her breasts, her horns, and even her +ears ending in a point; whence her name of <i>akukarṇ</i> +(the masculine form of which is generally applied to the +ass). And in the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, also, the wise Vivmitras +is covetous of this wonderful cow; the cow bellows and +drops fire from her tail, and radiates from every part of +her body armies which disperse those of the son of Gadhis. +Vivmitras then avenges himself in other ways +upon the sons of Vasishṭhas; having, <i>e.g.</i>, become a +cannibal, he eats them.</p> + +<p>Vasishṭhas cannot endure the pain this causes him: +he tries to throw himself down from the summit of Mount +Merus, but he falls without hurting himself; he throws +himself into the fire, but does not burn himself; and, +finally, he leaps into the sea, but is not drowned. These +three miracles are accomplished every day by the solar +hero, who throws himself down from the mountain into +the gloomy ocean of night, after having passed through +the burning sky of evening.</p> + +<p>Vasishṭhas ends by freeing, with the help of charmed +water, the monster Vivmitras from his curse; and the +latter is no sooner delivered from the demon who possessed +him, than he begins again to illumine the forest with his +splendour, as the sun illumines a twilight cloud. The friendships, +enmities, and rivalries of Vasishṭhas and Vivmitras +seem to be another version of those of the two Avinu, +whom we shall particularly describe in the next chapter.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, it is high time, as the reader will think, to +conclude this part of our study, which treats of the +mythical cow of India. We might easily, indeed, have +made it much larger, had our design been to chain +together, link by link, all the traditions and legends in +which the cow plays a primary or subordinate part. But<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +it is better to stop short, lest, by expatiating further, we +should lose sight of the essential aim of our work, and be +tempted into digressions from the legends relating to +beasts to those relating to men; besides, we think that +we have sufficiently proved the thesis of this chapter, +and shown how the principal mythical subjects of the +Vedic hymns are not only preserved, but developed, in the +posterior Hindoo traditions. It is not entirely our fault +if, from cows, we pass so often to princesses, and from +bulls to princes; the myth itself involves and indicates +these transformations. Hence we find the bull Indras, +the winner of the cows, become a winner and a seducer of +women; we see the bull Wind, who aids Indras in the +conquest of the cows, become the violator of a hundred +damsels;<a name="FNanchor_265_265" id="FNanchor_265_265"></a><a href="#Footnote_265_265" class="fnanchor">[265]</a> we read of the bull and god Rudras, as +husband of Um, given up to sensual indulgence for a +hundred years without a pause; that the son of the bull, +or of the wind, Hanumant, does prodigies of valour and +strength for the sake of a beautiful woman, and receives, +as a reward for his zeal, from the king Bharatas, a +hundred thousand cows, sixteen wives, and a hundred +servant-maids.<a name="FNanchor_266_266" id="FNanchor_266_266"></a><a href="#Footnote_266_266" class="fnanchor">[266]</a> What could Hanumant have done with +so many wives and maids, if he were simply a bull? or +what could he have done with so many cows, if he had +been an ape? It is these inconsistencies which have +caused mythology to be condemned by the crowd of old +but prolific pedants, as a vain science; whereas, on the +contrary, it is precisely these inconsistencies which +raise it, in our esteem, to the rank of a valid science. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>He who handed down to us the feats of Hanumant, took +care also to tell us how he had the faculty of changing +his form at will; and this faculty, attributed to this impersonation +of a celestial phenomenon, is the fruit of one +of the most <i>nave</i> but just observations of virgin and +grandiose nature.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center">SECTION III.</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Bull and the Cow in Iranian and Turanian Tradition.</span></p> + +<p class="center">SUMMARY.</p> + +<blockquote style="text-indent:-2em"><p>The bull the first created in Persian tradition.—The bull of Mithra.—Mithra +and Yamas.—The excrements of the celestial cow and +bull.—Exorcisms for chasing the evil one away from the beasts of +the stable.—The salutary herb, rue.—The heavenly cypress and +the mythical forest.—The mountain and the gem.—The mountain +of the heroes.—The defenceless soul of the bull recommends itself +to the mercy of the gods.—The moon, as a cow or bitch, guides +the hero over the funereal bridge.—The many-eyed god.—The +golden-hoofed bull.—The spinners of the sky.—Friendship between +sun and moon.—The Geusurva is the full moon.—The +purifying moon.—Ardhv-ra-Anhita, the Persian aurora, has +all the characteristics of the Vedic aurora, elevated, luminous, +discomfiter of the demons, deliverer of the hero Thraetaona from +the water, having golden shoes, swift, the first to arrive with her +chariot, guesser of riddles, revered at the break of day.—The aurora +sung to by her own name, the cow-aurora.—Mithra, the shepherd-god,—Mithra, +the hero who fights to recover his cows.—The +bull Veretraghna.—Thrita and Thraetaona.—The three brothers in +the Avesta.—The two brothers.—The three sisters.—The strength +of the solar hero consists in the wind.—The winds have golden +shoes and an especial foible for women, as the women have for +them.—Indras envious of the Marutas.—Kerepa envious of the +wind.—The wind, with its whistling and wailing, makes everything +tremble; the hero presses him tightly and forces him to be +silent.—The bound hero.—The bow-cow, and the birds coming +out of the cow in the Avesta.—The darts, horns of the cow.—The +rich brother and the poor one.—The poor one, who has a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +lean ox and a lean horse, makes his fortune.—Ashis Vag̃uhi, +another equivalent of the aurora who also frees the hero Thraetaona.—Other +names of the three Persian brothers.—Importance +of the Avesta on account of its mythical contents.—The hero +exposed on the mountain.—The hero-shepherd, the wonderful child, +Cyrus.—Feridun.—The three brothers, sons of Feridun; the +third brother is the best, and is murdered by the two elder ones.—Sal, +with white hair, the hero exposed and nourished by a bird, +solves riddles, and receives in reward the daughter of the king.—The +hero Rustem, with the mace of a bull's head, with the strong +horse that vanquishes the lion, the strong hero, the Persian +Orlando, kills and binds demons, monsters, and giants, who fight +with rocks.—From black comes white.—The prince Kawus recovers +his sight after the death of the monster.—The demon in +the mountain, who keeps back the waters, is the same as the +demon in the mill.—The hero Rustem unites himself with the +daughter of the demoniacal and hostile king.—Sohrab is born of +this union, with a demoniacal nature.—Gurdaferid, the Persian +amazon princess, assailed in her white castle by the hero-demon +Sohrab.—Rustem fights, wins, and kills his son Sohrab; he then +retires from warfare.—Explanation of this myth.—The end of +Rustem in an ambuscade.—Sijavush persecuted by his stepmother, +whose love he had disdained; the young prince submits to the +trial by fire, and comes out safely: the cruel stepmother was to +have undergone the same trial, but Sijavush intercedes for her; +she continues to persecute him; Sijavush dies in the country of +his demoniacal father-in-law, and is avenged by Rustem, who kills +the cruel stepmother.—The child-hero Kai Khosru consigned to the +care of shepherds; during his childhood he performs prodigies of +valour, and passes a river with dry feet.—The strength of the hair +of the hero Firud.—The two hero-brothers again; one brother +avenges the other.—The old hero becomes a penitent, and disappears +in a tempest upon a mountain.—The seven heroic undertakings +of Isfendiar.—The legend of Iskander.—The Tuti-Name.—The +hero who wishes to kill himself for the king's sake; the +deity prevents the sacrifice.—The story of the poor man and +the rich one again.—The beautiful woman persecuted by her +brother-in-law the seducer; the oriental Crescentia or Genevive.—The +sea, invited to the wedding, brings pearls and gold.—The +maiden who discovers the thief by means of a riddle.—The girl +who gives his eyesight back to the blind man against her will.—The +lovers flee upon the bull's back.—The lover forsakes his mistress<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> +on the shore after having despoiled her.—The three brothers +deliver the beautiful maiden and dispute for her; the maiden +takes refuge in a convent.—The wise child who distinguishes +false from true, honest from dishonest.—The money of the dead +man.—The adulterer condemned to death who bites off the +nose of his companion in guilt and dissoluteness.—The wife +despoiled of her riches by her husband and thrown into the water.—Romeo +and Juliet in the East.—The three brothers: the seer; +the strong carrier, or Christophoros; the victorious one.—The +disputed bride again.—The little pipkin of abundance; Perrette +in the East.—The small porringer of abundance, which the +two brothers contend for.—The shoes which take one in an +instant wherever one wishes to go.—The little purse which is +filled as fast as it is emptied.—The sword which makes a city +rise.—The animals which contend for the division of the prey, +and the third comer who profits between two disputers.—The +four mines of the four brothers.—Why old men have white hair.—Calmuc +and Mongol tradition.—The six companions are the +same as three.—The bride torn in pieces.—A man unites himself +with a cow, which brings forth a Minotaur of a good nature, +who fights against the demons in favour of the gods.—The gem in +the cow's litter.—The bull lost.—The three sisters; the third sister +marries the monster bird; she loses him, because she has burned +the aviary.—The painter and the woodman in Paradise; the +painter is burned.—The two brothers, the rich one and the poor +one; the rich brother ends badly.—The husband who despoils +his wife and hides her in a chest in the sand of the desert.—The +gem of the prince falls to the ground; his nose bleeds and he +dies; explanation of this myth.—The wonderful hammer, which, +when used, brings one whatever is wished for.—The rich and +poor brothers; the poor one becomes rich.—The lengthened nose +and the corresponding Italian proverb.—The wife kills her husband +with the hammer, wishing to knock a protuberance off his nose.—The +old man who eats his last cow; his wife continues, even +after its death, to nourish and protect him until the wild beasts +in the cavern devour him.—The woman disguised as a solar hero.—The +lion and the bull friends, or foster-brothers; their friendship +is put an end to by the fox.—The projects of Perrette +again.—The horns of the dead buffalo.—The grateful animals.—The +laughing princess.—The wise herd-children.—The wise puppets.—The +prince born of a cake.—The boy learns in the forest +every art, even devilish ones.—The son of the wolves who understands<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +their language.—Heroes and demons cut in pieces multiply +themselves.—The hero has good luck, because he has performed +funeral services to the dead.—Four young shepherds, a new form of +the Ṛibhavas, make a beautiful maiden of wood, and then dispute +for her.—The wife throws her husband into the fountain out +of jealousy, having heard another voice, perhaps the echo of her +own.—The princess Light of the sun, who must be seen by no +one, and who is visited by the minister Moon.—Turanian tradition +in Siberia.—The three brothers dream upon the mountain; the +third brother is persecuted on account of his dream; he finds the +blind woman and lame man, and induces them to adopt him; he +hunts, fights against the devil, and vanquishes him; from the +body of the demon come forth animals, men, and treasures; he +fishes up in the sea of milk the casket which contains the eyes of +the blind woman; receives extraordinary gifts, and above all the +faculty of transforming himself; wins his predestined bride, and +kills his own cruel father.—The hero who solves enigmas.—Ancient +and modern riddles.—The cow devours the wolf, and the wolf +devours the cow.—The bow of horn.—The wolves fastened to the +calf's tail.—The soul of the black bull in the rainbow, the bridge +of souls, wounded by the young hero, who then espouses the +daughter of the sky, after attaining the third heaven, and accomplishing +heroic undertakings to merit her.—The sleeper in the cup, +the gem in the fish.—The Argonauts and Medea in Turan.—The +Finnish Diana.—The Finnish thundering God, Kave Ukko.—The +little sun, the Finnish dwarf-hero.—The second of the three +brothers.—The strong bear.—The monster giant darkness or cloud.—The +Orpheus and the lyre of the Finns; grief the inspirer of +song.—Finnish and Aryan myths.—The Sampo.—Esthonian +tradition.—The three sisters; the third is the most beautiful, and +is persecuted by her stepmother, and delivered by the prince.—The +bird of light.—The maiden transformed into a pond-rose, +and delivered by her husband in the shape of a shrimp.—The witch +is burned in the form of a cat.—The gold of the witch.—Explanation +of several myths.—The third brother is the swiftest.—The +wise maiden.—The golden fairy.—The puppet.—The magical rod +makes the cock come out of the mountain.—The fairy is good +towards the good, and punishes the wicked.—The cow lost.—The +old hospitable dwarf.—The leaf which carries the hero across the +waters.—Heroic undertakings against the serpent and the tortoise.—The +third brother, expelled from home, travels and solves riddles +on the way.—The rod which makes a bridge.—In heaven and in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +hell time passes quickly.—The hero under-cook.—The golden birds +and the voyages to hell.—The brothers punished, and the bride +won by the magical sword.—The son of thunder.—The weapon +carried off from the god of thunder.—The weapon recovered.—The +fisherman-god.—The marvellous musical instrument; the +magical flute.—The three dwarfs.—The hat that makes its owner +invisible, made of men's nails; the shoes which carry one where-ever +one wishes, and the stick which fights of itself.—The proverb +of the third who profits between two disputers again.—The third +brother is the son of a king, exposed when a child; he awakens +the princess who sleeps in the glass mountain; <i>non est mortua +puella, sed dormit</i>.—Passage from the dawn of the day to the dawn +of the year.—The child sold by his father without the latter's +knowledge.—The boy exchanged.—The boy sets out to deliver the +maiden from the demon.—The pea, the kidney-bean, the cabbage, +and the pumpkin of funerals accompany the solar hero in his +nocturnal voyage.—The symbol of abundance, of generation, of +stupidity.—The nuptial beans.—Meaning of the myth concerning +vegetables.—The region of silence.—The region of noise.—The wise +girl helps the hero.—The cow milked and the calf bound.—The +luminous ball comes out of the calf.—The antithesis of white and +of black.—Hungarian proverbs.—The luminous ball comes out of +the stone.—The luminous ball and the ring.—The fearless hero +frees the castle from spirits.—The Esthonian story of Blue Beard.—The +charivari in the nuptials of widowers.—The widow who +burns herself.—The hero exposed, and then brought up among +cowherds, feels himself predestined to reign, and learns the art +by guiding herds.—The German (or Western) witch endeavours +to take the red strawberries from the Esthonian hero.—The boy +avenges this injury by causing her to be devoured by wolves, who +will not touch her heart.—The gardener's daughter.—The broken +ring; the two parts of the ring unite again; the husband and +wife find each other once more.—The maiden born of the egg in +the shape of a puppet.—The casket which brings good luck disappears +when the young couple are married.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Moving now from India westwards, we find on one side +the Iranian, and on the other the Turanian traditions. We +cannot pass into Europe without at least indicating the +general character of each.</p> + +<p>In the Persian cosmogony, the bull (<i>gus aevo dto</i>) is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +one of the first of created existences, being as old as the +elements. It is, moreover, well known how much importance +was ascribed to the bull among the Persians in +the mysteries of the solar god Mithra, who is represented +as a beautiful youth, holding the horns of a bull in his +left hand, and having the knife of sacrifice in his right. +Mithra sacrificing the bull is just the solar hero sacrificing +himself in the evening. Indeed, in the Persian tradition, +Mithra, like the Hindoo Yamas, holds the office of god of +the dead, and as such, like Yamas, is of a monstrous +aspect, and is found in the <i>Yana</i> represented with a +thousand ears and ten thousand eyes.</p> + +<p>As in India, so in Persia, the urine of the cow is used +in ceremonies of purification, during which it is drunk.<a name="FNanchor_267_267" id="FNanchor_267_267"></a><a href="#Footnote_267_267" class="fnanchor">[267]</a> +We have already seen in the story of Utakas how the +excrement of the bull, upon which Utakas fed, was +ambrosia itself; and, indeed, all is beneficial which is +given by the cow of abundance (the moon, the cloud, and +the aurora), and by the divine bull (the moon and the +sun). The mythical belief was natural, however disgusting +when we insist on literal interpretation.</p> + +<p>And even in the Persian tradition itself, a distinction +already exists between common bulls or oxen and sacred +or privileged ones. This distinction appears in the legend +of Gemshid, whose bulls were all devoured by the devil, +as long as they were protected by no magical rites; whilst, +when he was given a red ox (or bull) cooked in old, that +is strong, vinegar, to which was added garlic and rue +(famous for its potency in exorcism), he disappeared +and was never seen again.<a name="FNanchor_268_268" id="FNanchor_268_268"></a><a href="#Footnote_268_268" class="fnanchor">[268]</a> The rue is probably the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>fabulous plant which the Zend tradition surmises to have +sprung from the sea <i>Vuru-Kasha</i>, whence Ahura Mazda +draws the clouds, from which all healthful water is +derived, and which corresponds to the sea of milk of +Hindoo tradition, in which the ambrosia is agitated.</p> + +<p>Thus the funereal cypress of Kishmar (planted by Zarathustra, +with a branch from the tree of Paradise), under +which more than two thousand cows and sheep could +pasture, and the innumerable birds of which darkened +the air, obscuring the light of the sun, reminds us of the +celestial forest of the Veds, in which the shepherd-hero +and the hunter-hero wander and are lost.</p> + +<p>The idea of the funereal tree recalls to us that of the +Persian mountain Arezra or Demvend, where the demons +met together to plot evil, and where was the gate of hell.<a name="FNanchor_269_269" id="FNanchor_269_269"></a><a href="#Footnote_269_269" class="fnanchor">[269]</a></p> + +<p>The Zend word <i>ama</i>, which signifies stone and heaven, +yields us, in its double meaning, the key to the interpretation +of the myth. This stone, inasmuch as it is dark, is +of evil omen; inasmuch as it shines, it is a gem, or gives +the gem (the moon or the sun); whence, according to the +<i>Minokhired</i>, the sky is the progeny of a precious stone.<a name="FNanchor_270_270" id="FNanchor_270_270"></a><a href="#Footnote_270_270" class="fnanchor">[270]</a></p> + +<p>Thus to the mountain of the demons (where the sun +goes down), is opposed in Persian tradition the glorious +mountain, out of which are born the heroes and the kings +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>(or from which the sun rises and the moon); because +Haoma is born there (the Hindoo Somas), the ambrosial, +golden, and health-bringing god, who gives them the +divine nourishment, and because the sacred bird, which +stays on that mountain, feeds them with ambrosia, +whence the <i>Yana</i><a name="FNanchor_271_271" id="FNanchor_271_271"></a><a href="#Footnote_271_271" class="fnanchor">[271]</a> invites Haoma to grow on the road +of the birds.</p> + +<p>In a rather obscure passage of the <i>Gth Ahunavaiti</i>, +confirmed by the <i>Bundehesh</i>, the soul of the bull (or of +the cow, as the case may be), despoiled of his body by +the evil one, complains to the Supreme Creator that he is +without defence against the assaults of his enemies, and +that he has no invincible protector. Ahura Mazda seems +to wish only to give him spiritual help, but the bull continues +to declare himself unsatisfied, until Zarathustra, the +defender, accords it, and he receives the gift of efficacious +favours which Ahura Mazda alone possesses.<a name="FNanchor_272_272" id="FNanchor_272_272"></a><a href="#Footnote_272_272" class="fnanchor">[272]</a> Zarathustra +is himself also born upon a mountain;<a name="FNanchor_273_273" id="FNanchor_273_273"></a><a href="#Footnote_273_273" class="fnanchor">[273]</a> while his son +aoshyań, the deliverer, comes out of the waters.</p> + +<p>A sacred cow, or at least a bitch which guards the +cows (<i>pauvaiti</i>), seems, besides a good fairy, to be, in +the <i>Vendiad</i> itself,<a name="FNanchor_274_274" id="FNanchor_274_274"></a><a href="#Footnote_274_274" class="fnanchor">[274]</a> the conductor of the souls across the +bridge Ćinvat, created by Ahura Mazda, to the kingdom +of the blessed. The cow, as the guide of the souls<a name="FNanchor_275_275" id="FNanchor_275_275"></a><a href="#Footnote_275_275" class="fnanchor">[275]</a> lost +in the kingdom of the dead, and placed upon the bridge, +is probably the moon; the bitch (also the moon) reminds +us of the Hindoo Saram, the bitch which aids the heroes +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>who have lost themselves in the nocturnal forest, grotto, +or darkness. In the same chapter, after accounts of the +bridge, we read the praise of the good aoka, who has +many eyes (like the brhmanic Indras, disguised as a +woman, having a thousand eyes, and, after the adventure +of Ahaly, a thousand wombs—the god hidden in +the night, who looks at the world through a thousand +stars); after aoka, of the splendid Veretraghna (who corresponds +to Vṛitrahan, properly the discomfiter of the all-covering +darkness); and after him, of the luminous star +Tistar, which seems a bull with golden hoofs,<a name="FNanchor_276_276" id="FNanchor_276_276"></a><a href="#Footnote_276_276" class="fnanchor">[276]</a> which +again must refer to the moon; as the Ghs, who, according +to Anquetil, "sont occupes filer des robes pour les +justes dans le ciel," like the cows and Madonnas in our +popular tales, cannot be very different from the fairy, or at +least from the stars which form her crown. The <i>Khorda +Avesta</i>, in its hymns in praise of Mithra, celebrates the +perfect friendship which reigns between the sun and the +moon, and sings of the moon immediately after singing +of the sun Mithra, and the splendid Tistar immediately +after the moon, whose light is said to come from the +constellation Tistrya.</p> + +<p>We can thus divine the meaning of Geusurva (the soul +of the bull or the cow), of which, besides the soul, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +body also is invoked in the <i>Yana</i>.<a name="FNanchor_277_277" id="FNanchor_277_277"></a><a href="#Footnote_277_277" class="fnanchor">[277]</a> The Geusurva +appears in the <i>Yana</i> itself<a name="FNanchor_278_278" id="FNanchor_278_278"></a><a href="#Footnote_278_278" class="fnanchor">[278]</a> as the protectress of the +fourteenth day of the month, or of the full-moon, viewed +as a full cow. And when it is said in the <i>Khorda +Avesta</i><a name="FNanchor_279_279" id="FNanchor_279_279"></a><a href="#Footnote_279_279" class="fnanchor">[279]</a> that one must not sacrifice to the Geusurva at the +time when the Daevas, or demons, are practising their evil-doings, +it seems to me to indicate clearly enough that the +sacrifice was to take place while the moon was increasing, +and not while it was diminishing. Thus Asha Vahista, +who reminds us of the Hindoo Vasishṭhas and his marvellous +cow, has the power of conjuring away illness, +north winds—in a word, evil of every kind—only when +Ag̃ro-maiṇyus appears without help.<a name="FNanchor_280_280" id="FNanchor_280_280"></a><a href="#Footnote_280_280" class="fnanchor">[280]</a></p> + +<p>We have seen in the legend of Utañkas how, as the +youth is on his way to take the queen's earrings, he +meets a bull, upon the excrement of which he feeds, as +upon ambrosia; that this ambrosial bull stays near Indras, +as Indras and Somas are invoked together; and we +noticed that from this mythical belief was derived the +superstitious Hindoo custom of purifying one's self by +means of the excrement of a cow. The same custom +passed into Persia; and the <i>Khorda Avesta</i><a name="FNanchor_281_281" id="FNanchor_281_281"></a><a href="#Footnote_281_281" class="fnanchor">[281]</a> has preserved +the formula to be recited by the devotee, whilst he +holds in his hands the urine of an ox or cow, preparatory +to washing his face with it:—"Destroyed, destroyed be +the demon Ahriman, whose actions and works are cursed. +His actions and works do not come to us. May the +thirty-three Amshaspands (the immortal saints, who correspond +to the thirty-three Vedic devs), and Ormazd, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>be victorious and pure!" It is said this remedial formula +was used for the first time by Yima, when, from having +touched Ahriman, in order to extricate from his body, by +fraud, Takh mo Urupa, whom the demon had devoured, +he had an eruption on his hand. Finally, it is interesting +to learn that one of the Zend names of the moon is +<i>gaoćithra</i>, which means he that contains the seed of the +bull, since, according to the <i>Bundehesh</i>, the seed of the +primitive bull passed into the moon, who, having purified +it, used it to procreate other cattle (<i>puru aredho</i>).</p> + +<p>As to the aurora, there seems to be no doubt but that +she was represented in ancient Persia by Ardv ra +Anhita, the elevated, the strong, the innocent or pure, +according to the interpretation of Professor Spiegel; she +also drives a chariot drawn by four white horses, which +she guides herself; she has a veil, a diadem, and bracelets +of gold, beautiful earrings (the Vedic Avinu), a +dress of beavers' skin, and prominent breasts; she is +beautiful, and she is a good young girl who protects men +and women. She is often invoked in the <i>Khorda Avesta</i>, +like the Vedic aurora, to exorcise the demons, and to help +the heroes who combat them; she herself has the strength +of a thousand men, and is a marvellous heroine, like the +Vedic amazon whom Indras fought with; her body is +girt round with a girdle. The probability of this comparison +seems to pass into certainty after reading a hymn +of the <i>Khorda Avesta</i>,<a name="FNanchor_282_282" id="FNanchor_282_282"></a><a href="#Footnote_282_282" class="fnanchor">[282]</a> even in the version of Professor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +Spiegel, who perhaps would have introduced some little +variation if he had recognised the aurora in Ardv ra +Anhita. In this hymn, the victorious and mighty +Thraetaona, in the form of a bird, flies for three days and +three nights, which reminds us of the fugitive Indras of +the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, who wades across the rivers after his +victory; at the end of the third night he arrives near the +aurora, and beseeches Ardv ra Anhita (that is, as it +seems to us, the aurora herself, elevated, mighty, and +innocent) to come and help him, that he may pass the +waters and touch the ground at her habitation. Then +Ardv ra Anhita appears in the shape of a beautiful, +strong, and splendid girl, having a golden diadem and +wearing shoes of gold (cfr. the <i>Yast</i>, xxi. 19) on her feet +(this is perhaps another feeble foreshadow of Cinderella's +slippers); the beautiful girl takes him by one arm (the +bird has, it seems, become a hero), and gives him back +health and strength. But the certainty increases still +more when, as the Vedic aurora is the first of those who +arrive, winning the race in her chariot, the so-called +Ardhv ra Anhita appears in the <i>Khorda Avesta</i> as +"the first who guides the chariot;"<a name="FNanchor_283_283" id="FNanchor_283_283"></a><a href="#Footnote_283_283" class="fnanchor">[283]</a> and we are recommended +to offer up sacrifices to her at break of day, before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +the sun rises.<a name="FNanchor_284_284" id="FNanchor_284_284"></a><a href="#Footnote_284_284" class="fnanchor">[284]</a> We have seen the Vedic aurora and +the sun propose and solve riddles; we have seen the +Hindoo solar hero free himself from the monster by proposing +or solving insoluble enigmas; in the same way, +in the <i>Avesta</i>, the hero Yato Fryanananm asks Ardv +ra Anhita to help him to solve ninety-nine enigmas, +in order that he may free himself from the monster +Akhtya.</p> + +<p>Add to this that Ardv ra Anhita, like the Vedic +aurora, is a giver of cows and horses, and that these +animals are offered to her by her devotees. The aurora +herself, in the invocation made to her in the sixth prayer +of the <i>Khorda Avesta</i>, is also called "elevated," and furnished +with swift and splendid horses.<a name="FNanchor_285_285" id="FNanchor_285_285"></a><a href="#Footnote_285_285" class="fnanchor">[285]</a> The fact of +finding the Anhita drawn by four white horses, like +the sun Mithra, enhances the evidence of this identity. +And if the aurora is not explicitly represented in +the <i>Avesta</i> as a cow, we infer that it was so conceived +of, from the worship of Mithra, who was adored from the +first streak of daylight till midday. Mithra often receives +the epithet of "he who possesses vast pasture-lands;" +the morning sun is therefore a pastoral god; and if so, we +are constrained to think of the Persian aurora too as, if +not a cow, at least a female cowherd. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>But Mithra is not a god of mere idyllic exploits, he +is also a hero; the <i>Vendidad</i><a name="FNanchor_286_286" id="FNanchor_286_286"></a><a href="#Footnote_286_286" class="fnanchor">[286]</a> salutes him as "the most +victorious of the victors." The booty of his victory +[essentially due to his immediate predecessors Veretraghna +(Vṛitrahan) and raosha]<a name="FNanchor_287_287" id="FNanchor_287_287"></a><a href="#Footnote_287_287" class="fnanchor">[287]</a> must have been +the cows of the aurora, without which his immense +pasture-lands would have been of no use to him. Indeed +it is said that Mithra enables owners of herds to +recover their lost oxen.<a name="FNanchor_288_288" id="FNanchor_288_288"></a><a href="#Footnote_288_288" class="fnanchor">[288]</a></p> + +<p>But Mithra is not the only prominent hero of the +<i>Avesta</i>. Besides him, the above-cited Veretraghna, with +all his secondary and tertiary reflections, plays an important +part in it. Now, this Veretraghna, who offers +numerous analogies to the Vedic Indras, killer of Vṛitras, +is, like Indras, now a hero, now a horse, now a bird, now +a sheep, now a wild boar, and now a bull.<a name="FNanchor_289_289" id="FNanchor_289_289"></a><a href="#Footnote_289_289" class="fnanchor">[289]</a> As the bull +Indras assists Tritas, Tritanas, and Kavya Ućanas<a name="FNanchor_290_290" id="FNanchor_290_290"></a><a href="#Footnote_290_290" class="fnanchor">[290]</a> in +the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, so the bull Veretraghna in the <i>Avesta</i>, partaking +of the nature of one Thrita<a name="FNanchor_291_291" id="FNanchor_291_291"></a><a href="#Footnote_291_291" class="fnanchor">[291]</a> who is rich, splendid, +and strong, and who, like Indras, cures maladies by the +help of the guardian of the metals (the usual co-relation +between the hero and the magic pearl), assists Thraetaona, +the killer of the serpent Duhka (Azhi Dahka) +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>and the hero Kava Ua, of which Kava Haorava is +another name rather than another form. The Thrita and +Thraetaona of the <i>Zend</i> are peculiarly interesting, because +they remind us, though vaguely, of the Vedic myth of +the three brothers. Only the <i>Avesta</i> names Thrita and +Thraetaona as two distinct divine heroes; it attributes +to Thraetaona the second place among the three brothers; +and as in the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, it is the second brother, +the strong Bhmas, who falls into the waters, whilst the +third brother, Arǵunas, delivers others from the marine +monster by his valour, so in the <i>Avesta</i> it is Thraetaona +who comes out of the waters, or who is the son of Athvya +(-ptya). But every one can see the point of contact, +connection, or identification between the two hero-brothers. +It is Bhmas who comes out of the waters, and +Arǵunas who extricates him, that is, who extricates his +own strength, expressed in Bhmas (the subject, and his +virtue, become the object, being inclosed in one person). +They are confounded together, inasmuch as Thraetaona, +son of him who stays in the waters, or of the watery one, +or he who comes out of the waters, and kills the demon, +must be the same as Thrita, the third one, who has the +virtue of curing demoniacal diseases. Thraetaona, the +killer of the serpent, and Thrita, who destroys the evil-doing +ones, are found again, with a different splendour, +in the same heroic adventure. Scarcely an instant transpires +between the time when the hero was a victim and +that in which Veretraghna, or Thraetaona, or Thrita, the +hero, triumphs in his own liberation.</p> + +<p>In the <i>Yana</i>,<a name="FNanchor_292_292" id="FNanchor_292_292"></a><a href="#Footnote_292_292" class="fnanchor">[292]</a> we find three men who, by their piety, +win the favour of the god Haoma (Soma, the lunar god, +the moon, the good magician, the good fairy). The first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> +is Vivagho, the second thvya, and the third Thrita; +from which we are led to conclude that Vivagho is the +eldest brother, thvya the second, and Thrita the youngest. +On account of their piety, they obtain sons; the son of +Vivagho is Yima (the Vedic Yamas), the wise, the +happy, the heavenly; the son of thvya is Thraetaona, +the warrior who discomfits the monster; the third, Thrita, +called the most useful, has two sons, Urvksha and +Kerepa, who remind us of the Avinu. thvya's +son and Thrita being confounded in one person, Thraetaona, +or Thrita, forms a new triumvirate with Urvksha +and Kerepa, as the Vedic Indras with the two Avinu. +The story of the three brothers and that of the two brothers +seem to be interwoven even in the myth, as they certainly +are afterwards in the legend. To the three brothers, +moreover, correspond, in the <i>Avesta</i>, the three sisters, the +three daughters of Zarathustra and of Hvvi: Freni, +Thriti, and Pourućista.<a name="FNanchor_293_293" id="FNanchor_293_293"></a><a href="#Footnote_293_293" class="fnanchor">[293]</a> The first seems to correspond to +Yamas, the second to ptya and his son Thraetaona (or +Thrita), the third, the luminous, the beautiful (as being +the aurora), to the two handsome brother horsemen, +Urvksha and Kerepa (the Avinu).</p> + +<p>The solar hero comes out of his difficulties, and triumphs +over his enemies, not only by force of arms, but by his innate +strength and prowess. This extraordinary strength, +by which he moves and is borne along, and which renders +him irresistible, is the wind, invoked by the heroes in the +<i>Avesta</i> under the name of Rman. The wind, according +to the <i>Avesta</i>, is not only the swiftest of the swift, but +the strongest of the strong (like the Marutas, Hanumant, +or Bhmas, Hindoo winds, or sons of the wind). Even in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> +the <i>Avesta</i>, he fights and assures the heroes of victory, +and is dear to woman and girls. (In the same way, +St has a leaning for Hanumant, and Hidimb, of all +the Pṇḍavas, gives the preference to Bhmas.) Moreover, +in the <i>Avesta</i>, girls invoke the wind in order to +obtain a husband.<a name="FNanchor_294_294" id="FNanchor_294_294"></a><a href="#Footnote_294_294" class="fnanchor">[294]</a></p> + +<p>A hymn of the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, however, celebrates a kind +of quarrel between the winds Marutas and the god Indras, +prompted by rivalry; a quarrel which ends in Indras +having the advantage. It is interesting to find in the +Persian tradition<a name="FNanchor_295_295" id="FNanchor_295_295"></a><a href="#Footnote_295_295" class="fnanchor">[295]</a> the same rivalry between the wind +(vta) and the son of Thrita, the hero Kerepa. An +evil genie informs the wind that Kerepa boasts of +being superior to him in strength. Thereupon the wind +begins to howl and rage in such a terrifying manner that +nothing can resist him, and the very trees are cleft in +two or torn up, till Kerepa comes and squeezes him +so tightly in his arms that he is obliged to cease. This +interesting mythical incident is a prefigurement of the +loud whistle of the heroes and the monsters in fairy +tales, which is brought to an end in a summary fashion, +similar to that of the Persian legend; which also leads +us to suppose that Thraetaona vanquished the serpent +Dahka, merely by tying him to the demoniacal mountain +Demvend.<a name="FNanchor_296_296" id="FNanchor_296_296"></a><a href="#Footnote_296_296" class="fnanchor">[296]</a> This style of vanquishing the enemy +by binding him occurs often enough in the Persian +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>legends and in the <i>Avesta</i> itself;<a name="FNanchor_297_297" id="FNanchor_297_297"></a><a href="#Footnote_297_297" class="fnanchor">[297]</a> and is also mentioned +in the Hindoo traditions. The arrows of the monsters +hurled against the heroes of the <i>Rmyaṇam</i> bind them; +the god Yamas and the god Varuṇas bind their victims; +the first draws tight, tightens the reins (<i>i.e.</i>, the evening +sun shortens his rays); the second envelops, covers and +binds with the darkness that which Yamas reined in. +The solar ray which shortens itself, the shadow which +advances, are images of the ensnarer of heroes; whereas +the solar ray which lengthens itself, the thunderbolt +which traverses all the heavens, surrounded by clouds +and darkness, represents the hero who grasps around, +presses tightly, and strangles the monster.</p> + +<p>The bow of Mithra is formed of a thousand bows, prepared +from the tough hide of a cow; these bows, in the +<i>Avesta</i>, also hurl a thousand darts, which fly with winged +vultures' feathers.<a name="FNanchor_298_298" id="FNanchor_298_298"></a><a href="#Footnote_298_298" class="fnanchor">[298]</a> This carries us back again to the +Vedic myth of the birds which come out of the cow.</p> + +<p>The bow being considered a cow, this cow sharpens its +horns; whence the <i>Khorda Avesta</i> celebrates the horned +darts of the bow of Mithra, <i>i.e.</i>, the horns of the cow, +which have become weapons<a name="FNanchor_299_299" id="FNanchor_299_299"></a><a href="#Footnote_299_299" class="fnanchor">[299]</a> or the thunderbolts.</p> + +<p>The legend of the two brothers is connected more with +the myth of the horse than with that of the cow or the +ox. But inasmuch as it presents the two brothers to +us as the one poor and the other rich, the riches are +symbolised by the ox. However, if I am not mistaken, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>there are two heroes, celebrated in the <i>Avesta</i> one after +the other (and whom I therefore suppose to be brothers), +who derive their origin from this legend; one is called +rraokhsan (or who has a fine ox), the other Kereaokhsan +(or who has a lean ox). As the <i>Avesta</i> does not go +on to develop this subject more in detail, I dare not +insist upon it; nevertheless it is gratifying to me to remark +that, of the two brothers, Kereaokhsan was the +most valiant, as of the two brothers Urvksha (a word +which may perhaps signify the one who has the fat horse, +and which is perhaps synonymous with Urvpa<a name="FNanchor_300_300" id="FNanchor_300_300"></a><a href="#Footnote_300_300" class="fnanchor">[300]</a>) and +Kerepa (he of the lean horse), it is the second who is +the glorious hero; as in the Russian popular tales, we +shall find the third brother, though thought to be an +idiot, despised by the others, and riding the worst +jade of the stable, yet becoming afterwards the most fortunate +hero. Kerepa avenges his brother Urvksha +against Hitpa, whom Professor Spiegel<a name="FNanchor_301_301" id="FNanchor_301_301"></a><a href="#Footnote_301_301" class="fnanchor">[301]</a> interprets to +mean the bound horse, but which can also be rendered +he who keeps the horse bound, which would bring us +back again to the story of the bridle and of the hero-horse, +whom the demon keeps bound to himself, which +we have already noticed above in the story of the sacrifice +of unaḥepas, delivered by the aurora.</p> + +<p>It is uncertain whether we must recognise the aurora +or the moon, in the <i>Avesta</i>, in the so-called Ashis Vag̃uhi, +the elevated (like Ardv ra Anhita), who appears upon +the high mountain, rich, beautiful, splendid, golden-eyed, +beneficent, giver of cattle, posterity, and abundance, who +discomfits the demons, guides chariots, and is invoked by +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>the son of the watery one, Thraetaona, in the <i>Ashi Yast</i>,<a name="FNanchor_302_302" id="FNanchor_302_302"></a><a href="#Footnote_302_302" class="fnanchor">[302]</a> +in order that she may help him to vanquish the three-headed +monster-serpent Dahka. Now, Thraetaona, the +victorious and rich in oxen,<a name="FNanchor_303_303" id="FNanchor_303_303"></a><a href="#Footnote_303_303" class="fnanchor">[303]</a> being a well-known form of +the solar hero Mithra, it is interesting to learn how the +heroine, the so-called Ashis Vag̃uhi (the aurora, or the +moon, as the three words Ardv ra Anhita are simple +names of the aurora), having the same supreme god for her +father, has three brothers, of whom the first is raosha, +the pious; the second, Rashnus, the strong; and the +third, Mithra, the victorious.</p> + +<p>She is, moreover, herself represented as being pursued +by enemies on horseback; and it is now a bull, now a +sheep, now a child, anon a virgin who hides her from her +pursuers. Not knowing where to go, whether to ascend +into heaven, or creep along the earth, she applies to +Ahura Mazda, who answers that she must neither ascend +into heaven nor creep along the earth, but betake herself +to the middle of a beautiful king's habitation.<a name="FNanchor_304_304" id="FNanchor_304_304"></a><a href="#Footnote_304_304" class="fnanchor">[304]</a> How is +it possible not to recognise in her the moon, or the +aurora, who follows the path of the sun her husband, +the moon, or the aurora, who appears on the summit of +the high mountains?</p> + +<p>Other facts not devoid of mythological interest might +perhaps be found in the <i>Avesta</i>, which, on account of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>uncertainty attending the translation of the original texts, +has hitherto been, it seems to me, utterly neglected by +mythologists. And yet, though Anquetil, Burnouf, +Benfey, Spiegel, Haugh, Kossowicz, and all who have +turned their talents and science to the interpretation of +the Zendic texts, disagree in the more abstruse passages, +there are many of which the interpretation is certain, in +which the learned translators agree, which offer interesting +mythological data, and permit us, in any case, to extract +from the <i>Avesta</i> an embryo of mythology, in the same +way as an embryo of grammar has already been extracted +from it. The brief references which I have now made to +the myth of the cow and the bull in the <i>Avesta</i>, anyhow +appear to me sufficient to warrant the conclusion I draw, +that the cow and the bull presented the same aspects, +and generated the same myths and the same beliefs in +Persia as in India, albeit in a form far more feeble and +indeterminate.</p> + +<p>The solar hero of Persia occurs again in the costume +of historical legend in the Cyrus (Κυρος) of Herodotus +and Ktesias, the first of which represents to us the child +exposed by his parents, saved and educated during his +infancy (like the Hindoo Karṇas, child of the sun, and +Kṛishṇas) among the shepherds, where for some time he +gives extraordinary proofs of his valour; the second +shows us the young hero who wins his own bride, +Amytis, daughter of Astyages.</p> + +<p>Finally, the same hero appears in several splendid and +glorious forms in the <i>Shahname</i>.</p> + +<p>As in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, Tritas or Tritanas, and in the +<i>Avesta</i>, Thraetaona (of whom Thritas is a corresponding +form), accomplish the great exploit of killing the monster, +and more especially the serpent, so Feridun, the Persian +synonym (by means of the intermediate form Phreduna)<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> +for the Zendic Thraetaona is, in subsequent Persian +tradition, the most distinguished hero in the struggle +against the monster. I shall not insist upon the deeds of +Feridun and his mythical valour, after the learned paper +written upon the subject by Professor R. Roth, which +appears in the Transactions of the Oriental Society of +Leipzig, and the able and highly-valued essay by Professor +Michael Bral on the myth of Hercules and +Cacus. I shall therefore content myself with quoting +from the legend of Feridun the episode of his old +age, which reminds us of the Vedic myth of the three +brothers.</p> + +<p>The great king Feridun has three sons, Selm, Tr, +and Ireǵ (Selm, Tr, and Er are also the sons of +Thraetaona); he divides the world into three parts and +gives the west to the first-born, and the north to the +second, whilst he keeps Iran for the youngest. The two +eldest are jealous, and announce to their father their intention +of declaring war against him, unless he expels +their younger brother Ireǵ from the palace. Feridun +replies to their impious threat with haughty reproofs, +and meanwhile warns the young Ireǵ of the danger he +is in. The youth proposes to go in person to his brothers, +and induce them to make peace; his father is unwilling +to let him go, but finally consents, and gives him a letter +for the two brothers, in which he commends him as +his best-loved son to their care. Ireǵ arrives at his +brothers' dwelling; their soldiers see him, and cannot +take their eyes off him, as though they already recognised +him for their lord. Then Selm, the eldest, advises Tr, +the second, the strong one, to kill Ireǵ; Tr thereupon +assaults the defenceless Ireǵ, and transfixes his breast +with a dagger. Ireǵ is afterwards avenged by the son +of his daughter (born after his death of a maid whom he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> +had left pregnant), the hero Minućehr, who kills Selm +and Tr.</p> + +<p>The hero who succeeds Minućehr is Sal, the son of +Sam, whom, because born with white hair, his father had +exposed upon Mount Alburs, where the bird Simurg +nourished and saved him. Sal proves his wisdom before +Minućehr by solving six astronomical riddles which +King Minućehr proposes to him. The king, satisfied, +orders him to be dressed in festive clothes; he then, to +prove his strength, challenges him to run a tilt with the +horsemen; Sal is victorious, and obtains another robe of +honour and innumerable royal gifts; after which he +espouses Rudabe, daughter of King Mihrab.</p> + +<p>Sal distinguishes himself, like Minućehr, in his wars +against the perverse Turanians, the dragons and the +monsters, in which he takes along with him as his chief +helper the mighty hero Rustem, whose weapon is a club +surmounted with the head of a bull<a name="FNanchor_305_305" id="FNanchor_305_305"></a><a href="#Footnote_305_305" class="fnanchor">[305]</a> or a horned mace +(the hero is the bull, the thunderbolts are his horns), and +whose horse is so powerful as by itself to fight and +vanquish a lion while Rustem is asleep. The hero himself +kills a dragon, and a witch transformed into a +beautiful woman, but who resumes her monstrous shape +as soon as the hero pronounces the name of a god. He +thunders like a cloud, is dark, and describes himself as a +thunder-cloud which hurls the thunderbolt.<a name="FNanchor_306_306" id="FNanchor_306_306"></a><a href="#Footnote_306_306" class="fnanchor">[306]</a> He binds +the warrior Aulad, and obliges him to reveal where the +demons detain in prison King Kawus, who is become +blind in their kingdom of darkness. Kawus then informs +Rustem that to recover his sight his eyes must be anointed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>with three drops of blood from the slain demon Sefid; +upon which Rustem sets out to kill the demon. The +demons can be vanquished only by day; when it is +light, they sleep, and then they can be conquered, says +Aulad to Rustem; for this reason, Rustem does not +begin the enterprise till the sun is in mid-heaven;<a name="FNanchor_307_307" id="FNanchor_307_307"></a><a href="#Footnote_307_307" class="fnanchor">[307]</a> then +he thunders and lightens at the demons. Like a sun, he +sets out towards the mountain (no doubt, towards sunset), +where the demon Sefid sits, and arrives at the mouth +of a deep and gloomy cavern, from which Sefid sallies +forth in the form of a black giant just awakened from +his sleep. The giant himself, like an enormous mountain +assaulting the earth, hurls a rock like a millstone at +Rustem; Rustem strikes the monster on the feet, and +lops away one of them; the lame giant continuing the +fight, Rustem at last wrestles with him, lifts him into +the air, then beats him several times furiously against +the ground, and so takes his life. He throws the body of +Sefid into the mountain cavern, whilst his blood saturates +the earth, and gives back to the prince Kawus his eyesight +and his splendour. The myth is a beautiful and an +expressive one. As from the black venomous serpent +comes white healthy milk, so from the black monster, at +his death, comes blood, which gives back his eyesight to +the blinded prince; the red aurora is here represented as +the blood of the nocturnal monster, discomfited by the +solar hero.</p> + +<p>Let me ask the reader to notice the Persian comparison +of the rock thrown by the demon to a millstone, as it is +important to explain a superstition still extant in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +West, to the effect that the devil goes under the millstone +to carry out his evil designs. The stone or mountain +fractured by the waters was naturally compared to +a millstone moved by the waters; the demons inhabit +the cavernous mountain to guard the waters; thus the +devil, the evil one, the hobgoblins, prefer mills as their +dwellings.</p> + +<p>Rustem fights, in the <i>Shahname</i>, many other victoriously +successful battles against Afrasiab the Turanian, and +other demoniacal beings, in the service of sundry heroic +kings, with epic incidents to boot, which are nearly all +uniform. His struggle against his son Sohrab, however, +is of an entirely different character.</p> + +<p>Rustem goes to the chase. In the forest, Turkish bandits +rob him of his invaluable horse while he sleeps; he +then sets out, alone and sad, towards the city of Semengam, +following the track left by his horse. When he appears, +emerging from the wood, the king of Semengam and his +courtiers note the phenomenon as though it were the +sun coming out of the clouds of morning.<a name="FNanchor_308_308" id="FNanchor_308_308"></a><a href="#Footnote_308_308" class="fnanchor">[308]</a> The king +receives Rustem with great hospitality, and, as if to fill +to the full the measure of his courtesy, he sends at night +to the room where he sleeps his exceedingly beautiful +daughter Tehmime. The hero and the beauty separate in +the morning; but Rustem, before parting from Tehmime, +leaves her a pearl of recognition. If a daughter is born +to their loves, she is to wear it as an amulet in her hair; +if a son, he is to wear it on his arm, and he will become +an invincible hero. After nine months, Tehmime gives +birth to Sohrab; at the age of one month he seems a +year old, at three years of age he amuses himself with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> +arms, at five he gives proof of a lion's courage, and at +ten he vanquishes all his companions, and asks his mother +to inform him of his father, threatening to kill her if she +does not tell him. Scarcely does Sohrab learn that he is +the son of Rustem, than he conceives the desire of becoming +king of Iran and supplanting Kawus; he then +commences his persecution of the Iranian heroes by +assaulting the white castle (the white morning sky, the +alba), defended by a beautiful warrior princess, Gurdaferid, +dear to the Iranian warriors. Sohrab conquers +and destroys the white castle, but in the moment of +triumph, the warrior maiden disappears. The old hero +Rustem then moves against his own son Sohrab; the +latter throws him down, but Rustem, in his turn, mortally +wounds Sohrab. In the old Rustem thrown down on +the mountain it is not difficult to recognise the setting +sun; in Sohrab mortally wounded by Rustem, the sun +itself, which dies; and in fact, the dying sun has a different +appearance from the new sun which rises and +triumphs in the heavens: these two appearances might +give rise to the idea of a struggle between the old and +the young sun, in which both are sacrificed. Indeed, +Rustem feels, when he mortally wounds Sohrab, that he +is wounding himself; he curses his work and immediately +sends for a healing balsam; but in the meantime Sohrab +dies. The only one who could destroy the young sun +was the old sun; the sun grows old and dies; Rustem +alone could kill Sohrab. With the death of Sohrab the +glory of Rustem is also eclipsed; he retires unto solitude, +and the most grandiose period of his epic life comes to an +end. After this he only reappears in episodic battles or +enterprises; as, for instance, in his setting fire to Turan, +in which he resembles Hanumant, burner of Lak; in +the liberation of the young hero Bishen, who had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> +taken prisoner and incarcerated by the Turanians; in the +killing of the powerful and perverse Turanian Afrasiab; +and in his own death in an ambuscade set by young +rivals of the old lion, who dies taking vengeance on his +enemies.</p> + +<p>In the very palace of Kawus (he who was protected +by Rustem), a notable legendary drama takes place. +Sijavush, son of King Kawus, is seduced by the queen-mother +Sudabe, who burns with love for him. The +youth spurns this love, upon which she accuses him to +King Kawus as her seducer. The father, after hearing +his son's defence in proof of his innocence, cannot believe +the queen; and thereupon she devises another method +for destroying the young Sijavush. She concerts with a +slave she has, who is a sorceress, and persuades her to +create two little venomous monsters, which she straightway +proclaims aloud are the children of Sijavush. Then +Sijavush, to prove his innocence, submits willingly to the +trial by fire; he enters the flames upon his black horse, +after having embraced his trembling father; both horse +and horseman come out of the immense fire, amid the +plaudits of all the spectators. Then the king gives orders +to strangle the unnatural queen; but his son Sijavush +intercedes in her favour, and Sudabe is allowed to live +by grace of the young prince, whom, however, she continues +to persecute, till, on the death of Sijavush, Rustem, +who bewailed him as his own son, or as his other self, +avenges him first by killing Sudabe, on account of +whom Sijavush had been obliged to repair to Turan, +and afterwards by carrying the war into Turan, where, +after a very agitated life, Sijavush had fallen into the +power of his father-in-law, Afrasiab, and been put to +death.</p> + +<p>The wife of Sijavush, Ferengis by name, being pregnant,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> +is hospitably entertained by Piran, and gives birth +to the hero Kai Khosru; and no sooner is he born than +he is consigned to the shepherds of the mountain. As +early as seven years of age, his favourite amusement is +that of drawing the bow; at ten, he confronts wild boars, +bears, lions, and tigers with only his shepherd's staff. +When Afrasiab sees the young shepherd, he inquires at +him about his sheep and the peaceful pursuits of shepherds; +the boy replies with stories of lions having sharp +teeth, and of other wild animals, of which he is not afraid. +As soon as he comes to manhood, he flees from Turan, +followed by the Turanians; he arrives at the banks of a +river, where the ferryman asks impossible conditions to +take him over; upon which, like Feriḍun, he crosses the +river safely, but without a boat, and on dry feet (it is the +sun traversing the cloudy and gloomy ocean without +wetting himself);<a name="FNanchor_309_309" id="FNanchor_309_309"></a><a href="#Footnote_309_309" class="fnanchor">[309]</a> arrived at length in Iran, he is feasted +and fted as the future king. His reign begins; he then +assigns different tasks to different heroes, among whom +is his brother Firud, born of another mother, of whom it +is said that a single hair of his head has more strength in +it than many warriors (one ray of the sun is enough to +break the darkness). One evening, however, at sunset, +Firud is killed in his castle upon the mountain, being +surrounded by a crowd of enemies, after having lost his +horse, and after his mother Cerire had dreamt that a fire +had consumed both mountain and castle. His mother +Cerire (the evening aurora) throws herself among the +flames with her maids, and dies also. Kai Khosru bewails +the loss of his brother Firud all the night through,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> +till the cock crows; when morning comes he thinks of +avenging him.</p> + +<p>After this, the life of Kai Khosru is consumed in +battles fought by his heroes against the Turanians. +Only towards the end of his days does he become a +penitent king; he will no longer allow his subjects to +fight, and his only occupation is prayer; he takes leave +of his people and his daughters in peace, ascends a +mountain, and disappears in a tempest, leaving no trace +of himself. In a similar manner the heroes Yudhishṭhiras, +Cyrus, and Romulus disappear (not to speak of the +biblical Moses, still less of Christ, as we do not wish to +complicate a comparison of which the materials are +already so extensive, by mixing up the Aryan elements +with those of Semitic origin; although the legends of +the serpent, of Noah, of Abraham and his regained wife, +of Abraham and his son Isaac, of Joseph and his brethren, +of Joshua, of Job, and other and more recent biblical +heroes, by their mythical or astronomical import, present +numerous analogies with the Indo-European legends); in +a similar manner, the old sun, weary of reigning in the +heavens and fighting for his life, becomes invisible every +evening on the mountain-peaks.</p> + +<p>The <i>Shahname</i> contains numerous other legends besides +those which we have thus far briefly described; and one +of the most notable is, beyond a doubt, that of Isfendiar, +who goes with his brother Bishutem to deliver his two +sisters, imprisoned in a fortress by the Turanian king +Ardshasp. The seven adventures of Isfendiar, <i>i.e.</i>, his +meeting with the wolf, the lion, the dragon, the witch +(who makes herself beautiful, but who is no sooner bound +with the enchanted necklace of Isfendiar [the solar disc] +than she becomes old and ugly again), the gigantic bird, +the tempest and the river, all of which dangers he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> +victoriously overcomes, are reproductions, in an analogous +form too, of the seven adventures of Rustem.</p> + +<p>Finally, the legend of Iskander or Iskender (the name +of Alexander of Macedon), full of extraordinary adventures, +became exceedingly popular in Persia, and thence, +no doubt, passed with all its charms into Europe. The +audacity and good fortune, the glory and the power of the +great conqueror were the reasons why there grouped +round his name so many extraordinary stories, which +wandered dispersedly through the world without epic +unity. To make up one glorious and never-to-be-forgotten +hero, were combined together the achievements +of many anonymous or nearly forgotten ones. The +Persian <i>Iskendername</i> of Nishmi, is, as its name denotes, +entirely taken up with the celebration of the deeds +of the Macedonian hero, of which the most illustrious are +the liberation of the princess Nushbe (taken prisoner by +the Russians), and the voyage in search of the fountain +of life and immortality, which, however, Iskander cannot +find. From Persia the same legend afterwards passed, +with new disguises, into Egypt, Armenia, and Greece, +whence it was diffused during the middle ages over +almost the whole of Western Europe.<a name="FNanchor_310_310" id="FNanchor_310_310"></a><a href="#Footnote_310_310" class="fnanchor">[310]</a></p> + +<p>As a bridge of transition between the Hindoo and +Persian, and the Turk or Tartar traditions, we shall make +use of three works: the Turkish version<a name="FNanchor_311_311" id="FNanchor_311_311"></a><a href="#Footnote_311_311" class="fnanchor">[311]</a> of the Persian +<i>Tuti-Name</i>, itself a translation and in part a paraphrase +of the Hindoo <i>uka-Saptat</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, the seventy (stories) of +the parrot; the Mongol stories of <i>Siddhi-kr</i>, and the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>Mongol history of <i>Ardshi-Bordshi Khn</i>,<a name="FNanchor_312_312" id="FNanchor_312_312"></a><a href="#Footnote_312_312" class="fnanchor">[312]</a> the first being +a paraphrase of the Hindoo <i>Vetla-Pańćavinat</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, the +twenty-five of the Vetla (a kind of demon), and the +second of the Hindoo <i>Vikrama-ćaritram</i> (the heroic +action).</p> + +<p>We have seen in the <i>itareya Brahmnam</i> the father +who prepares to offer up his son, and in the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, +the son who forfeits youth that his father may +live. In the <i>Tuti-Name</i>,<a name="FNanchor_313_313" id="FNanchor_313_313"></a><a href="#Footnote_313_313" class="fnanchor">[313]</a> the faithful Merdi Gnbz +prepares to sacrifice his wife and sons, and afterwards +himself, to prolong the life of the king; but his devotion +and fidelity being proved, he is arrested by God before +he can accomplish the cruel sacrifice, and receives numberless +benefits from the king.</p> + +<p>In the story of the goldsmith and the woodcutter, the +<i>Tuti-Name</i><a name="FNanchor_314_314" id="FNanchor_314_314"></a><a href="#Footnote_314_314" class="fnanchor">[314]</a> reproduces the two brothers or friends, of +whom one is wicked, rich, and avaricious, while the +other is defrauded of the money due to him, because, +though, in reality intelligent, he is supposed to be an +idiot. The woodcutter avenges himself upon the goldsmith +by a plan which we shall find described in the +legend of the bear, and recovers, thanks to his craftiness, +the gold which his brother or friend had kept from him.</p> + +<p>In the interesting story of Merhuma,<a name="FNanchor_315_315" id="FNanchor_315_315"></a><a href="#Footnote_315_315" class="fnanchor">[315]</a> we read of the +wife who is persecuted by the seducer her brother-in-law. +To avenge her refusal, he causes her to be stoned during +the absence of his brother; being innocent, she rises +again from under the stones; being sheltered by a +Bedouin, a monster of a slave seduces her; being repulsed, +he accuses her of the death of the Bedouin's +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>little son, whom he had himself killed; the beautiful +girl flees away; she frees a youth who was condemned +to death, and who in his turn seduces her. She then +embarks in a ship; while she is at sea all the sailors become +enamoured of her and wish to possess her; she +invokes the god who caused Pharaoh to be drowned and +who saved Noah from the waters. The waves begin to +move; a thunderbolt descends and burns to ashes all who +are in the ship, with the exception of the beautiful girl, +who lands safe and sound upon the shore (it is the aurora +coming out of the gloomy ocean of night, and the monsters +who persecute her are burned to ashes by the +thunderbolts and the sun's rays); she thence escapes +into a convent, in which she ministers to the unfortunate, +cures the lame, and gives eyesight to the blind. +Among the latter is her persecutor, the brother of her +husband; she pardons him and gives him back his eyesight; +in the same way she cures all her other persecutors. +It is scarcely necessary for me to remind the +reader how this oriental tale, which developed itself +from the myth of the persecuted and delivering +aurora which we have seen in the Vedic hymns, reappears +in numerous very popular western legends, of +which Crescentia and Genevive are the most brilliant +types.</p> + +<p>The aurora comes out of the gloomy ocean and is +espoused by the sun; these heavenly nuptials in proximity +to the sea gave rise to the popular tale<a name="FNanchor_316_316" id="FNanchor_316_316"></a><a href="#Footnote_316_316" class="fnanchor">[316]</a> of the king who +wishes the sea with its pearls to be present at his nuptials; +the pearls of the bride-aurora are supposed to come +out of the sea of night. The sea sends as gifts to the +king a casket of pearls, a chest of precious dresses, a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> +horse that goes like the morning wind, and a chest full +of gold.</p> + +<p>The wise aurora figures again in the story of the ingenious +princess<a name="FNanchor_317_317" id="FNanchor_317_317"></a><a href="#Footnote_317_317" class="fnanchor">[317]</a> who discovers, by means of a story-riddle, +the robbers who, during the night, stole the +precious gem destined for the king.</p> + +<p>The aurora imparts splendour and eyesight to the +blinded sun. The story of the three-breasted princess +who, while she meditates poisoning the blind man, in +order that she may enjoy unrestrained the affections of +her young and handsome lover, relents and gives him +back his sight, reappears in a rather incomplete form in +the <i>Tuti-Name</i>.<a name="FNanchor_318_318" id="FNanchor_318_318"></a><a href="#Footnote_318_318" class="fnanchor">[318]</a></p> + +<p>The girl who has been married to a monster, whom +she flees from to follow a handsome young lover, who, +arriving at the banks of a river, despoils her of her riches, +leaves her naked and passes over to the other side, after +which she resigns herself to her fate and resolves to return +to her husband the monster,<a name="FNanchor_319_319" id="FNanchor_319_319"></a><a href="#Footnote_319_319" class="fnanchor">[319]</a> represents the evening +aurora, who flees before the monster of night to follow her +lover the sun, who, in the morning, after adorning himself +with her splendour, leaves her on the shore of the gloomy +ocean and runs away, the aurora being thereupon obliged +in the evening to re-unite herself to her husband the +monster. It is interesting, moreover, as bearing upon our +subject, to note the expression of which the youth who +flees with the beautiful woman makes use to express his +fear of discovery. He says that the monster-husband +will follow them, and that should he sit upon the horns +of the bull (the moon) he would be sure to recognise him. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>The story of two young people fleeing upon a bull, and +followed by the monster, occurs again in the Russian +popular tales. By the horns of the bull, the youth means +the most prominent and visible situation; and he knows, +moreover, that if the monster overtakes them, he will be +sure to demonstrate the truth of the brave proverb which +advises us in arduous undertakings to take the bull by +the horns.</p> + +<p>It is also the aurora who is represented by the beautiful +maiden<a name="FNanchor_320_320" id="FNanchor_320_320"></a><a href="#Footnote_320_320" class="fnanchor">[320]</a> whom her father, mother, and brother have, +without each other's knowledge, severally affianced to +three youths of different professions. The three young +men contend for her person, but while the quarrel is undecided, +the girl dies. The three then go to visit her +tomb; one discovers her body, the second finds that there +is still some life in her, and the third strikes her and +raises her up alive, upon which the quarrel is resumed. +She flees from them, and withdraws into another living +tomb, a convent. In the most popular form of this +legend the three companions, or three brothers, fighting +for the bride, divide her; the aurora is torn into pieces +as soon as the sun, her true lover and rightful suitor, +appears.</p> + +<p>From darkness comes forth light; from the old, the +young; from death, life; from the dust of a dead man's +skull, tasted by a virgin, is born a wonderful child, who +knows how to distinguish false pearls from real, dishonest +women from honest ones<a name="FNanchor_321_321" id="FNanchor_321_321"></a><a href="#Footnote_321_321" class="fnanchor">[321]</a> (the morning sun can distinguish +between light and darkness); the wise boy (the +young sun) is the brother of the wise girl (the young +aurora). The flesh of a killed Brhman is turned into +gold in another story of the <i>Tuti-Name</i>.<a name="FNanchor_322_322" id="FNanchor_322_322"></a><a href="#Footnote_322_322" class="fnanchor">[322]</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>We have seen that the aurora and the sun are mother +and son, brother and sister, or lover and mistress. The +sun in the evening dies ignominiously, is sacrificed and +hanged upon a gibbet, and with himself sacrifices his +mother or his mistress. The legend is popular and +ancient which speaks of the robber son, when about to +end his life upon a gibbet,<a name="FNanchor_323_323" id="FNanchor_323_323"></a><a href="#Footnote_323_323" class="fnanchor">[323]</a> biting the nose off his mother, +who gave birth to him and brought him up badly. In +the <i>Tuti-Name</i>,<a name="FNanchor_324_324" id="FNanchor_324_324"></a><a href="#Footnote_324_324" class="fnanchor">[324]</a> it is the young adulterer (and robber +too) who, condemned to death for his adultery, asks to see +his mistress once more before his death and kiss her, and +who, as she does so, gratifies his revenge by inflicting +upon her a like indignity. It is remarkable how, even +in the Hindoo popular tale, the story of the adulterer is +confounded with that of a thief; the adulterer ends by +being thrown into the water (the sun and the aurora +fall into the gloomy ocean of night).</p> + +<p>In the next story it is the wicked husband who, travelling +with his rich wife for change of dwelling-place, +despoils her of her clothes, and then throws her into a +well in order to ensure possession of her jewels and wardrobe. +These riches, however, do not last long; he becomes +poor and goes begging alms, dressed as a mendicant, +until he finds his wife again, who had been saved by +divine intervention from the well, and provided anew with +clothes and jewels of equal gorgeousness. The husband +passes some time with his wife, and then sets out again +on a voyage with her; he arrives at the same well, and +throws her in as before to enjoy alone her stripped-off +garnitures and riches. (The meaning of the myth is evident; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>it is the sun throwing the splendid aurora into the +gloomy waters of the night.)</p> + +<p>A king becomes enamoured of the beauteous Mahrusa;<a name="FNanchor_325_325" id="FNanchor_325_325"></a><a href="#Footnote_325_325" class="fnanchor">[325]</a> +his councillors tear him from his love, upon which he +pines away in solitude and dies. The beautiful girl +unites herself to him in the grave (Romeo and Juliet, +the evening aurora and the sun die together).</p> + +<p>The story of the three brothers, the Ṛibhavas, occurs +again in the <i>Tuti-Name</i>,<a name="FNanchor_326_326" id="FNanchor_326_326"></a><a href="#Footnote_326_326" class="fnanchor">[326]</a> with other particulars which +we already know. The first brother is the wise one; the +second is a maker of talismans (amongst other things he +can make a horse which will run in one day over a space +of ground that would take other horses thirty); the third +and youngest brother is the victorious archer. They set +out to search for the beautiful maiden who has fled by +night from the house of her father. The first brother discovers, +by his wisdom, that the maiden was carried off by +the fairies into an island-mountain which men cannot +reach. The second creates a wonderful animal upon +which to traverse the intervening waters (Christophoros +or Bhmas). Having arrived at the island-mountain, the +third and youngest brother fights the demon, the lord of +the fairies, vanquishes him, and frees the beautiful girl, +who thereupon is conducted back to her father. Then +there arises the usual quarrel between the three brothers +as to who is to possess the bride.</p> + +<p>In the Veds, we have the sky and the moon represented +as a cup. From the little cup of abundance +(the moon) it is easy to pass to the miraculous little +pipkin (the moon), in which the kind-hearted but poor +housekeeper of the Pṇḍavas, in the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, still +finds abundance of vegetables, after her powers of hospitality +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>had been exhausted on the god Kṛishṇas disguised +as a beggar—to the pipkin from which can be taken +whatever is wished for. In the <i>Tuti-Name</i>,<a name="FNanchor_327_327" id="FNanchor_327_327"></a><a href="#Footnote_327_327" class="fnanchor">[327]</a> a woodcutter +finds ten magicians round a pipkin, and eating out +of it as much and whatever they want; they are pleased +with the woodcutter, and, at his request, give him the +pipkin. He invites his acquaintances to a banquet at +his house, but not able to contain himself for joy, he +places the pipkin upon his head, and begins to dance. +The pipkin falls to the ground and is broken to +pieces, and with it his fortune vanishes (the story of +Perrette).</p> + +<p>A variation of the small cup is the wooden porringer +(the moon), which two brothers (the Avinu) dispute for, +in the history of the king of China,<a name="FNanchor_328_328" id="FNanchor_328_328"></a><a href="#Footnote_328_328" class="fnanchor">[328]</a> and from which can +be taken whatever drink and food is wished for; as, in +the same story, we find the enchanted shoes which carry +us in an instant wherever we wish to go;—which brings +us back to the fugitive Vedic aurora, the swiftest in the +race, and to the popular tales relating to Cinderella, who +is overtaken and found again by the prince only when +she has lost her enchanted slipper. With the porringer +and the enchanted shoes we find, in the popular tales, the +little purse full of money which fills again as fast as it is +emptied (another form of the cup of abundance), and a +sword which, when unsheathed, causes a fine, rich, and +great city to arise in a desert, which city disappears +when the sword is put back into the sheath (the solar +ray is the drawn sword, which makes the luminous city +of the rich aurora arise; scarcely does the sun's ray +vanish, or scarcely is the sword sheathed, than the marvellous +city vanishes). The rest of the story is also +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>interesting, because it applies to three men a double and +well-known fable of the animals which contend for the +prey (as the three brothers contend for the beautiful +maiden whom they have found again). The animals +cannot divide it equally; they refer to the judgment of +a man passing by; he divides it so well that the animals +are ever after grateful to him, and help him in every +danger. The story of the <i>Tuti-Name</i> touches upon this +form of the myth, but soon abandons it for another +equally zoological, and a more familiar one, that of the +third who comes in between two that quarrel, and enjoys +the prey. The young adventurer undertakes to put an end +to the dispute of the two brothers as to the division of +the purse, the porringer, the sword and the wonderful +shoes; he does so by putting the shoes on his feet and +fleeing away with the other three articles contended for +(the two brothers Avinu, the two twilights, contend for +the moon and also for the aurora, as we shall see better +in the next chapter; the sun puts an end to their quarrel +by espousing her himself).</p> + +<p>We are already familiar with the Vedic Ṛibhavas +who out of one cup make four. Probably upon this legend +depends that of the four brothers of the <i>Tuti-Name</i>,<a name="FNanchor_329_329" id="FNanchor_329_329"></a><a href="#Footnote_329_329" class="fnanchor">[329]</a> +who, as they let each a pearl fall from their forehead +upon the ground, see four mines open, one of copper, the +second of silver, the third of gold (the third brother is +here again the favourite), the fourth only of iron. The +gem appears to be the sun itself. The four mines seem to +me to represent respectively the coppery sky in the evening, +the silver sky in the moonlight night, the sky in +the morning, golden with the dawn, and the iron sky, the +grey or azure, of the day. The word <i>nlas</i> in Sanskrit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> +means azure, as well as black, and between azure and +black is grey, the colour of iron.</p> + +<p>Of the three brothers, the most learned, he who solves +the enigmas, is often the eldest; and in the story of the +<i>Tuti-Name</i>,<a name="FNanchor_330_330" id="FNanchor_330_330"></a><a href="#Footnote_330_330" class="fnanchor">[330]</a> the eldest of the three brothers explains why +old men have white hair, saying that this whiteness is a +symbol of the clearness of their thoughts.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Let us now pass to the Calmuc and Mongol stories of +<i>Siddhi-kr</i>, which, as we have said above, are also of +Hindoo origin.</p> + +<p>In the first story, the three companions, forming at +first three groups of two, have resolved into six. The +night-time is divided into three, into six, into seven (six, +<i>plus</i> an extraordinary one, born afterwards), into nine +(three groups of three), into twelve (three groups of +four). Hence, near the monster with three, six, seven, +nine, or twelve heads, we find sometimes three, sometimes +six, seven, nine, twelve brother-heroes. The +last head (or the last two, three, or four heads) of the +monster, the decisive one, is the most difficult, and even +dangerous, to cut off; the last of the brothers is he who, +by cutting it off, is victorious. In the first Calmuc story +of <i>Siddhi-kr</i>, six brothers or companions separate where +six rivers take their rise, and go in search of fortune. +The first-born perishes; the second, by means of his +wisdom (he partakes of the wisdom of the first-born, with +whom he is grouped), discovers the place where the dead +one is buried; the third, the strong one, breaks the rock +under which the eldest is hidden; the fourth resuscitates +him by means of a health-bringing drink, as Bhmas, the +strong hero of the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, arises again when he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> +drinks the water of health and strength; the fifth brother +creates a bird, which the sixth colours; this bird flies to +the bride of the eldest brother, and brings her among +his companions, who, finding her exceedingly beautiful, +become, one and all, enamoured of her; they fight for +her, and, that each may have a part, end by cutting +her to pieces. We already know the mythical meaning +of this legend.</p> + +<p>The third and fourth Calmuc tales introduce explicitly +the bull and the cow. In the third, a man who possesses +but one cow unites himself to her, in order to make her +fruitful. Of this union a tailed monster is born, having +a man's body and a bull's head. The man-bull (Minotauros) +goes into the forest, where he finds three companions—one +black, one green, and one white—who +accompany him. The man-bull overcomes the enchantments +of a dwarf witch; his three companions lower him +into a well and leave him there, but he escapes. He +meets a beautiful maiden drawing water, at whose every +footstep a flower arises; he follows her, and finally finds +himself in heaven; he fights against the demons, in +favour of the gods, and dies in this enterprise. This +story, of Hindoo origin, where the bull and the cow take +the place of the hero and the maiden, appears to me to +justify the amplitude of the comparisons.</p> + +<p>We have already seen the beneficial qualities of the +excrement of the cow. In the fourth story, it is under +the excrement of a cow that the enchanted gem, lost by +the daughter of the king, is found. It is of the cow that +the pearl is the secretion. The moon-cow and the aurora-cow +are rich in pearls; they are pearls themselves, like +the sun; the sun comes out of the aurora, the pearl comes +out of the cow.</p> + +<p>The subject of the seventh tale is the three sisters who,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> +taking the cattle to pasture, lose a buffalo, or black bull. +In their search for it, they came across an enchanted castle, +tenanted by a white bird, who offers to marry them. The +third sister consents, and marries him. The bird turns out +then to be a handsome cavalier (a form of Lohengrin). +But having, by the advice of a witch, burned the aviary, +she loses him, and cannot recover him till the aviary is +restored. We shall see the sun as a bird in the Vedic +hymns; the aurora is the aviary, made of flames, of this +divine bird. When the aviary is burned at morn, the +aurora and the sun separate; they meet again in the +evening, when the aviary is reconstructed.</p> + +<p>Another beautiful myth of analogous import occurs +again in the eighth story. A woodman and a painter +envy each other; the painter makes the king believe that +the woodman's father, who is in heaven, has written +ordering his son to repair to paradise, in order to build +him a temple, and to take the route that the painter shall +indicate. The king orders the woodman to set out for +paradise. The painter prepares a funeral pyre, by way +of exit; from this the woodman succeeds in escaping, +and, going back to the king, he tells him that he has +been to paradise, and presents a letter which his father +has given him, ordering the painter to come by the same +road, and paint the temple. The king requires the summons +to be obeyed, and the perfidious painter perishes +in the flames. The morning sun emerges safe and sound +from the flames of the morning aurora; the evening sun +passes through those flames, and dies.</p> + +<p>The tenth Calmuc tale gives us the myth of the two +brothers; the rich one avaricious and wicked, and the poor +one virtuous. The story ends in a manner analogous to +that of the dying adulterer, who, as we have seen in the +<i>Tuti-Name</i>, bites off his mistress's nose.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p> + +<p>The eleventh story is a variation of that of the lover, +or husband, who abandons or kills his wife, after having +despoiled her of her riches; but instead of the waters of +the sea, we have here the sea of sand, the sandy desert, +in a cavity of which is deposited the young girl, shut up +in a chest, the same chest which in other popular tales +drifts about on the surface of the water.<a name="FNanchor_331_331" id="FNanchor_331_331"></a><a href="#Footnote_331_331" class="fnanchor">[331]</a> But into the +place where it was laid, the chest having been taken away +by a young prince, a tiger enters; the unworthy husband +turns up himself to abstract the chest, and is torn to +pieces by the tiger. The sterile night is a vast desert, a +sea of waters, a sea of sand; the sun-prince frees the +aurora from the waters, out of the well, or the cavern of +the desert; the tiger kills the monster-husband.</p> + +<p>In the twelfth tale, a thief steals the enchanted gem +from the prince; he throws the gem to the ground, the +consequence of which is that the prince's nose bleeds so +excessively that he dies. The nose is the most prominent +part of the face, the most conspicuous and splendid part; +it is the gem of the sun-prince. The sun falls at night +upon the mountain; the gem falls to the ground; the +prince's nose bleeds; he has struck his nose against the +ground, and it bleeds. The sun-prince dies, and the +evening sky is tinged red, blood-colour; the sun, who +loses his blood in the evening, dies.</p> + +<p>The thirteen Calmuc stories are followed by ten Mongol +tales; in all, twenty-three, of which the sixteenth, however, +is lost.</p> + +<p>The fourteenth tells us of the rich and avaricious man +whose poor brother goes in despair into the forest to die +upon a rock; but his presence not being known to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> +spirits, he has the good luck to come upon a hammer and +a sack, of which the former, when struck against an +object, produces whatever is desired by the owner, the +latter being used to carry away the objects thus obtained, +this hammer and this sack having been left there by the +hobgoblins. Thus the poor brother becomes rich, and is +envied by the other, who goes to the same place, in hopes +of experiencing the same good fortune; but as he does +not hide himself, the hobgoblins see him, and believing +him to be the man who stole the hammer and the sack, +avenge themselves upon him by lengthening his nose, +and covering it with protuberances. To this myth may +perhaps be referred the origin of the Italian expression, +"Restare con uno o due palmi di naso," to remain with +one or two spans of the nose; that is to say, to be laughed +at, and with the gesture by which derision is accompanied, +and which is addressed to the man who is laughed +at, by applying one or sometimes both hands to the +end of one's nose. The poor brother, now rich, visits +the miserly brother, who has a long nose covered with +protuberances, and knocks them off with his hammer. +He had already knocked off eight, and only one remained, +when, at his wife's request, he desisted and left the last +one on. The rich man's wife, seeing how the protuberances +had been taken off by striking them, tries +herself to remove the last one, and strikes it with a +hammer; but not calculating her aim accurately, she +splits her husband's head open, and he dies.</p> + +<p>In the seventeenth Mongol story, an old man and an +old woman have nine cows. The old man is fond of +meat, and eats all the calves; the old woman, on the +other hand, has a great liking for milk and butter, with +which she satiates herself. When the old man has eaten +all the calves, he thinks that one cow more or less will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> +not affect his wealth; reasoning thus, he eats all the cows +except one, which he spares out of respect for the whim +of his old wife. But one day that the old woman is +out, the old man cannot resist the temptation, and kills +the last cow. His wife returns, is angry, and abandons +him, upon which he throws after her one of the cow's +breasts. The woman, in grateful memory of the milk and +butter she liked so much, takes it up and goes up the +mountain, where she strikes the cow's breast against the +summit of the rock, and thereupon there flow out milk +and butter in rivers. She satisfies her appetite, and then +remembers that her husband is perhaps dying of hunger, +feeding, as he does, upon ashes; she therefore, but secretly, +throws butter into the house down the chimney, and then +disappears. In this attention the old man recognises the +love of his wife, and resolves upon the plan of following +her footsteps during the night upon the snow. He comes +to the mountain, sees the breast, and cannot resist the +temptation it offers; he eats it, and takes the butter +away with him. The old woman wanders about till she +comes upon a herd of deer, who pasture freely, and who, +instead of fleeing, let themselves be milked. Again, she +thinks of her husband, and she throws deer's butter down +the chimney. The old man follows her over the snow, +finds her near the deer, and kills them in his inordinate +passion for meat. The old woman continues to wander +about, and stumbles this time upon a cavern of the wild +beasts, guarded by a hare. The hare defends her from +the wild beasts; but she then conceives the idea of giving +her husband a stick, and throws it down the chimney +whilst he is taking the ashes up with a spoon. He follows +her, and comes to the cave of the wild animals, who, seeing +them arrive together, tear them to pieces. Here again we +have the myth of the sun and the aurora (or the fine season);<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> +the hare who guards the cavern and tames the wild +beasts is, as we shall see in the chapter which treats of it, +the moon, the cows and the deer being the same. The +ferocious animals of the cavern of night rend both sun and +aurora (or fine season), both old man and old woman.</p> + +<p>The eighteenth Mongol story is too indecent for me to +relate, or for the reader to peruse; suffice it to say, that +we have in it a comic variation of the Amazon heroine, +and that this heroine calls herself Srya (the sun) Bagatur +(to which corresponds the bagatr; or hero, of the +Russians).</p> + +<p>In the twentieth tale we have a calf and a lion's whelp +brought up together by a lioness upon the same milk.<a name="FNanchor_332_332" id="FNanchor_332_332"></a><a href="#Footnote_332_332" class="fnanchor">[332]</a> +When grown, the lion goes and inhabits the forest, or the +desert, and the bull, the mountain illumined by the sun, +meeting as good friends and brothers to drink the same +water. This good understanding is, however, put an end +to by their perfidious uncle the fox, who persuades the +lion to believe that the bull designs to kill him, and adds +that when the bull in the morning strikes the ground +with his horns, and bellows loudly, will be the sign that +he is going to carry his purpose into effect; he then tells +the bull that the lion has a similar design against him. +In the morning, when the two brothers, bull and lion, go +to drink the same water, they approach each other with +suspicion, engage in battle and kill each other, the fox, or +wolf, being the only one to benefit by the quarrel. This +is a form of the story of the two twilights (the Avinu), +which we shall illustrate in the following chapter.</p> + +<p>The beginning of the twenty-first Mongol story offers +a new analogy with the apologue of Perrette.<a name="FNanchor_333_333" id="FNanchor_333_333"></a><a href="#Footnote_333_333" class="fnanchor">[333]</a> A poor +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>father and mother find a little lamb's-wool; they consult +together, and resolve with the wool to make cloth, and +with the cloth to buy an ass. Upon this ass they will +place their little child, and go a-begging; by begging they +will become yet richer, and buy another ass. Of the two, a +young ass will be born. The youngster immediately exclaims +that if a young donkey is born he will ride upon it; +whereupon his mother answers, "You would break its +back," when, accompanying these words with the movement +of a stick, she strikes the youngster's head with it, +and kills him; with him the fine projects of the poor +parents also vanish.</p> + +<p>In the last of the stories of <i>Siddhi-kr</i>, which is joined +to the three legends of the grateful animals, the disguises, +and the laughing princess, a man uses the horns of his +dead buffalo to grub up the roots upon which he lives in +exile.</p> + +<p>The history of <i>Ardshi-Bordshi</i> also contains several +interesting stories.</p> + +<p>It begins with a challenge among the children who +keep the king's cows to run a race from the summit of a +mountain. The first who comes to the winning-post is +honoured as a king by his companions for that day, and +acts and judges on the spot where the race takes place +as a real king; indeed, he judges and decides as a court +of final appeal on cases which have not been well +examined by the great king of the country. He unmasks +and convicts robbers and false witnesses acquitted +by the king as innocent, and sends a missive to the king, +recommending him to be more cautious in future in his +judgments, or else to resign his royal dignity. The great +king wonders at the extraordinary wisdom of the king of +the children, and ascribes his preternatural sagacity to +the magical influence of the mountain where the children<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +who guard the cows play their games. On another +occasion, the king of the children, by his craftiness, +detects a demon in one whom the king had thought to +be the legitimate son of his minister. The discovery is +made by means of a challenge to the minister's real son +and his demoniacal counterfeit to get into a small jug at +hand. The real son cannot; but the supposititious makes +himself small and enters the jug, in which the king of +the children shuts him up with a diamond, and administers +thereupon fresh reproof to the great king for his +carelessness. The great king then visits the mountain of +the children, and sees a golden throne with thirty-two +steps emerge from the ground; upon each step there is a +wooden puppet (the moon). The great king has the +throne carried into his palace, and endeavours to ascend +it; the puppets arrest him, and one of them tells him +that this was once the throne of the god Indras, and +afterwards of King Vikramdityas. The great king +inclines himself in reverence, and one of the puppets +begins to narrate the history of Vikramdityas.</p> + +<p>The history of Vikramdityas, narrated by the puppets, +refers to a wise child, born of the wife of the king, +after she had eaten a cake made of earth mixed with oil, +and dissolved in water in a porcelain vase (of which cake +the servant-maid eats the remainder). The young Vikramdityas +passes his infancy in the forests, where he learns +all the arts, not excluding the art of thieving, taught him +by the most experienced robbers, as well as every kind of +mercantile fraud; by cheating, he becomes possessed of +an enchanted gem which was in the hip of a dead man, +and of a child who has the faculty of understanding the +language of the wolves, and who calls himself son of the +wolves, but was, in fact, born by the roadside of the maid +who had eaten the rest of the cake; this child is nursed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> +by his mother, and although at first ill-favoured, becomes +in the long run very handsome. Vikramdityas afterwards +kills the king of the demons in battle, in which it +is remarkable that as many new demons arise to combat +him as there are pieces into which the hero cuts the +demon, until the hero multiplies himself in his turn, and +to every demon opposes a lion sprung from his own body. +Vikramdityas mounts upon a throne where those who +had sat before him had all perished, each after a reign +of twenty-four hours, because they had omitted to offer +up funeral sacrifices to the dead during the night; +Vikramdityas, with his companion, the son of the wolf, +fulfils the sacred duty, and escapes death.</p> + +<p>In the same story, which reminds us of the <i>Ṛibhavas</i> +and the four cups and the cow, four young shepherds, one +after another, work at the same piece of wood; one gives +it the general shape of a woman, the second colours it, +the third imparts the features peculiar to the feminine +form, and the fourth gives it life; they then dispute for +her person. The case is referred to the king; a wise +man pronounces that the two first who worked the wood +are the father and mother, the third is the priest, the +fourth, who gave it life, is the legitimate husband. Thus +the four become three, by making a group of the first +two.</p> + +<p>Next comes the legend of the wife who, taking her +husband by the feet, makes him fall into a fountain, +because she hears a melodious voice, perhaps an echo of +her own, which charms her; she sees a monster instead, +and bewails her lost husband. In zoological mythology, +the fable of the dog who, at the sight of his own shadow, +lets the meat drop into the river, is analogous to this +legend, which, however, we introduce here, only because +of its relation to the similar stories of the wife who kills<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +her husband, and of the husband who kills his wife by +throwing her into the water, already vaguely hinted at +in the Vedic hymns.</p> + +<p>The last of the tales contained in the history of <i>Ardshi +Bordshi</i> shows us, on the other hand, a far too complaisant +wife. A king has a daughter, named Light of +the sun, who is to be seen by no one. The daughter +asks to be allowed to go out into the city to walk on the +15th of the month (at full moon); this granted, the king +orders every one to stay that day in his house, and all +the doors and windows to be shut; and capital punishment +is the penalty of disobeying the king's command. +(The like occurs again in the British legend of Godiva, +the Countess of Mercia, in the eleventh century.) A +minister, Ssaran by name (moon), cannot repress his +curiosity, and observes her from a balcony; the girl +makes signs to him, inviting him to join her; the wife +of the inquisitive minister interprets the signs to him, +and urges him to overtake the beautiful girl, giving him, +at parting, a pearl of recognition. Light of the sun and +Light of the moon meet at the foot of a tree, and spend the +night until sunrise in amorous dalliance. One of the persons +employed to guard the princess discovers this intrigue, +and denounces it before the king; the wife of the minister +Ssaran ascertains, by means of the pearl, that her husband +is in danger; she rejoins him, disguises and disfigures +him, suggesting a formula of oath by which Light of the +sun swears that it was the monster, and the monster only +she embraced; which seeming impossible to the king +and courtiers, the minister Ssaran and Light of the sun +are acquitted. (The aurora, or the sun, hides during the +night, and no one sees, no one is allowed to see her; +the god Lunus shows himself; he remains during the +night with the sun, or with the solar aurora, whom no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> +one can see during the night; the god Lunus then +transforms and disfigures himself, so that he becomes +unrecognisable, invisible; the guilty one glides away, +and escapes; it then seems impossible that the god +Lunus, who is no longer seen, can have been with the +light of the sun; their loves having come to an end, +the adulterers being separated, their guilt is no longer +believed, their innocence is recognised, and the morality +of the myth is left to take care of itself as best it can.)</p> + +<p>But the Calmuc and Mongol stories <i>Siddhi-kr</i>, and +the history of <i>Ardshi Bordshi</i>, being, as they are, only +paraphrases of Hindoo tales, would not alone suffice to +prove the derivation from the zoological legends of Aryan +mythology of the oral Turco-Finnic tradition, properly +speaking. We must, therefore, search for the proofs of +their influence in other quarters as well.</p> + +<p>A Turanian story of the south of Siberia<a name="FNanchor_334_334" id="FNanchor_334_334"></a><a href="#Footnote_334_334" class="fnanchor">[334]</a> combines +together several of the mythical subjects which we are +already acquainted with.</p> + +<p>A poor old man and woman have three sons; the +three sons go upon the mountain to dream; the two +eldest dream of riches, and the third dreams that his +father and mother are lean camels, his brothers two +hungry wolves running towards the mountains, while he +himself, between the sun and the moon, wears the morning +star upon his forehead. The father orders the brothers +to kill him; they dare not do so; they only expel him +from the house, and kill the dog instead, the blood of +which they take to their father, who, thinking it is his +son's, says they have done well. The young man wanders +about till he comes to a hut where a lame old man and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> +a blind old woman are eating out of a golden cup, which +of itself fills with meat as they empty it (the moon). +The hungry youth helps himself to some of this meat, +but the old man finds, as he continues to eat the food, +that some one has put his teeth into it; with a hook, +which he whirls around him, he clutches hold of the young +man, who begs for his life, pledging himself to be the +eye of her who has no eyes, and the foot of him who has +no feet. This proposal pleases the old couple, and they +adopt him as their son; he makes himself a bow and a +wooden arrow, and goes to hunt wildfowl for their support. +The old man lends him his iron-grey horse, one +day old, but advises him to ride him only by day; the +young man, thinking that by night he conceals treasures, +cattle, and people, disobeys, and rides by night. What +the horse then does we shall see in the next chapter. The +youth fights and vanquishes the demon, by fastening one +of his lips to the heavens, and the other to the earth; +the defeated demon advises him to rub himself with the +fat of his stomach; inside his stomach he will find a +casket of silver, inside that a casket of gold, and inside +that another casket of silver; he is to take it and throw +it into the sea of milk. From the monster's stomach, +cut open, come forth innumerable animals, men, treasures, +and other objects. Some of the men say, "What noble +man has delivered us from the black night? what noble +man has shown us the clear day?" The youth finds in +the caskets money and a white handkerchief, which he +puts into his pocket; from the last casket come forth +more men, animals, and valuables of every kind; he +drives the white cattle before him and returns home, +where the old couple are asleep. He opens the handkerchief, +and finds in it the old woman's eyes; whilst he is +smoking near the fire, the old people waken, see him, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> +embrace him. The old man then endows him with the +power of transforming himself into a fox, a wolf, a lion, +a vulture, and other shapes, at will. He goes, to find for +himself a wife, to the residence of the prince Ai-Kan; the +latter promises to give his daughter to whoever will bring +him the necessary amount of gold. It is in the shape of +a vulture<a name="FNanchor_335_335" id="FNanchor_335_335"></a><a href="#Footnote_335_335" class="fnanchor">[335]</a> that the young man sets out to search for it; +he then wins the young maiden who has the gold, and +she, who is herself the daughter of Ai-Kan, says to him, +"Thou art my husband." After various other transformations, +in one of which the two lean camels reappear, +<i>i.e.</i>, his two parents, of whom he had dreamt, whom he +loads with a sack, he ends by taking to himself another +wife, the daughter of Kn-Kan, and he lives now with one, +now with the other, to whom he gives the flesh of his own +infanticide father to eat. Let us recapitulate the moments +of this significant legend:—1st, We have the presage, the +dream of the mountain-peak; 2d, The three brothers, the +third of whom, predestined to good fortune, the others +wish to sacrifice; 3d, The lame and the blind in the +forest; 4th, The hero's hunt; 5th, The struggle with +the monster of night; 6th, The treasures, spiritual and +material, which come out of the monster; 7th, The cattle +in conjunction with the sea of milk; 8th, The passage of +the hero from the milky sea to the fireside, from the +alba to the aurora, from the whitish sky to the reddish +one; 9th, The awakening of the sleepers, and restoration +of sight to the blind, whilst he sits by the fire, whilst the +sun is united to the aurora; 10th, The transformation of +the hero himself; 11th, Winning his bride, by procuring +the necessary amount of gold; 12th, His marriage of two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> +wives; 13th, His revenge on his persecuting father. The +legend is in itself an epic poem, and we can only regret +that the Altaic story-tellers did not give it a more artistic +form than that in which it appears in the excellent collection +of Radloff.</p> + +<p>Another interesting Turanian story, in the same collection, +which preserves several traces of the primitive myth, +is another version of the story of the hero who solves the +riddle proposed by his father-in-law, and thus wins his +wife. A father has three sons; the first-born dreams +that their cow has devoured a wolf; he goes to see, and +finds it is true (the aurora destroys the night). We have +already seen that, as the third brother is the wise child, +so the first-born of the three is often the one who possesses +the secret of solving riddles. The father of the three brothers +wishes to obtain a wife for his first-born son, and the +bride's father, to give her up, demands that the bridegroom's +father should come to take her, arriving, the +first time, with a fur-coat and without one (in the morning +the old man, by the advice of the eldest son, departs +wearing a coat of fur which seems to be one, but is not, +being in reality a coat of mail), and coming, the second +time, without touching the road, yet not off the road, +on horseback, yet without horses (the old man, by the +advice again of his first-born son, arrives at the father-in-law's +abode, going on the side of the road, and riding on +a stick; thus he obtains permission to take the bride +away for his son).</p> + +<p>Professor Schiefner gives a Finnic variation of the +same story. A king orders the son of a peasant to come +neither by day nor by night, neither by the road nor by +the road-side, neither on horseback nor on foot, neither +dressed nor naked, neither inside nor outside. The intelligent +boy makes a robe of goat's skin, goes to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> +city lying in the bottom of a coffin, during the morning +twilight, having a sieve fastened to one foot, and a brush +to the other, and stops on the doorstep of the antechamber, +with one leg out and the other in.</p> + +<p>Such was the humour, and such the wisdom of our +fathers; ingenuity was measured by skill in solving +astronomical riddles. Now the riddles have taken another +form; they are strokes of diplomacy, amorous +hieroglyphs, ethical ambiguities, metaphysical nebulosities, +which we, the men of progress, must solve; but not +wishing to acknowledge our inferiority in acuteness to the +children of the legends, we are fain to persuade ourselves +that the new riddles are more obscure than the ancient.</p> + +<p>In the Vedic riddles proposed to one another by the +aurora and the sun, we have seen how they were solved in +the morning by the nuptials of the guesser and the guessee. +Thus in the two riddles which we have just described, +the son of the old man and the child solve the riddle in +the morning. As to the sieve, the brush, and the coffin, +they are mythical furniture of great interest and obvious +import. The nocturnal sky is the great coffin; to sweep +the sky of night, we must have a brush; to sunder the +good grain from the bad during the night, as the cruel +mother-in-law commands, we must have a sieve; the +child-sun arrives, in the twilight, in the bottom of the +coffin, at the doorstep of the royal palace, and presents +to the maiden aurora (the Vedic cleaner or purifier) the +brush and the sieve. The sun, at twilight, is neither in +nor out. In the second Scottish story of Mr J. F. +Campbell, the giant commands the hero, among other +things, to cleanse, in one day, the stables which had not +been cleansed for seven years (Herakls and Augeias).</p> + +<p>But let us continue our subject, for the path is a long one.</p> + +<p>A Mongol tradition, contained in the <i>Mongol Crestomathy</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> +of Papoff,<a name="FNanchor_336_336" id="FNanchor_336_336"></a><a href="#Footnote_336_336" class="fnanchor">[336]</a> speaks of the boy who comes riding +upon a black ox, instead of in a coffin.</p> + +<p>We have seen above the cow who eats the wolf; in +another Altaic legend we find an old woman who gives +up her seven azure (dark-coloured) cows to be eaten by +the seven wolves, in order that the latter may spare the +child Kan Pdai, whom she had found at the foot of a +tree; meanwhile the child, who has fed upon two hundred +hares,<a name="FNanchor_337_337" id="FNanchor_337_337"></a><a href="#Footnote_337_337" class="fnanchor">[337]</a> has become strong, and breaks his iron cradle (the +iron sky of night is the cradle of the young sun); from +the horns of six roebucks he makes himself a bow; from +the skin of a colossal marine animal (the cloud, the +gloomy one), he makes a string for the bow (the string +of the Hindoo bow is also called <i>go</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, cow, as a +cloud in the sky, and as being formed from the hide +of a cow); he rides upon the azure calf (the dark +calf, which recalls our attention to the black ox, and +leads us to conclude the colossal animal to have been +a cow), and subdues and tames it; he then comes to +a field of snow, upon which he breathes a black and +numbing wind, and where he finds the seven wolves; he +ties them to the tail of his calf, and drags them along +the ground till they die. The boy continues his wild +beast hunt; he kills the black and fat ones, and leaves +the yellow and lean ones alone. He goes into a black +sea, and erects there a black castle, into which he receives +both the old woman who had sustained him, and his +azure (<i>i.e.</i>, dark-coloured) calf. Thereafter the young +Kan Pdai, applying himself to warfare, forsakes or +exchanges his calf for a horse. We shall see in the next +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>chapter what he does with his horse;—suffice it to notice +here, that, in the end, he meets the black bull, who will +one day be the king of the Alta. The soul of the black +bull takes refuge in a red thread in the middle of the +rainbow (in the popular belief of the East the rainbow +was supposed to be a bridge, a road traversed by the souls +of mortals); the young Kan Pdai transfixes it with his +arrows. He wins the white cattle, kills the monstrous +Kara Kula, and, taking the latter's wife and daughter +with him, returns home; and for seven days there is eating, +drinking, and festivity in the house of Kan Pdai. +But up to this point it is not said that he has espoused +the daughter and the wife of Kara Kula. Kan Pdai is, +on the contrary, passionately enamoured of Tmn k, +the daughter of the sky (duhitar divas, or daughter of the +sky, is the name usually given to the aurora in the Vedic +hymns), and ascends, in order to secure her and make her +his wife, to the third heaven (it is the third step of +Vishṇus; it is the third brother, the sun of the third +night-watch, who carries off the palm against the gloomy +monster). In order to become worthy of the daughter of +the sky, Kan Pdai has to kill two monsters; to scatter +ashes on the field of victory, and lead away from it the +white cattle; to catch the three bears; to take the three +black bulls and make them swallow three hills; to take +the tiger and give it the grass of the three mountains to +eat; to kill the whale in the azure sea (all different forms +of one and the same mythical and heroic battle); and, +finally, to play upon the mountain-peak with the golden-haired +monster Andalma. He then obtains his bride, and +returns with her to his own country, where he hunts, and +makes war, and vanquishes all his enemies, until he grows +old; he then renounces all except his old companion (the +old sun and the old aurora meet again in the evening).</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p> + +<p>Here evidently the mythology is really zoological.</p> + +<p>In the complicated legend of Ai-Kan, we have in the +brother Altyn Ayak, who sleeps in the form of a golden +cup, and who awakens to help Ai-Kan, a figure which, +though not the same as, is similar to, that of the sleeping +brother Kumbhakarṇas (conch-ear) in the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>, +who awakens to help Rvaṇas. We have the inebriating +liquor which gives strength to the hero, who is resuscitated +three times from death, after having been the food +of dogs; the wolves who devour Sary-Kan, or the fair-haired +prince; the hero (the sun) who beats the wife +(the aurora) given him by the two brothers (the Avinu); +the friendly dog and cat; the golden cup in which the +brother of Ai-Kan is shut up asleep, and which falls +into the sea; the grateful animals which search for +the cup; the gem found in the stomach of a fish (from +the whale of the nocturnal ocean the gem comes forth); +and the consequent awakening of the sleeping Altyn +Ayak.</p> + +<p>The following is from an Altaic saga, in the collection +of Radloff:—Beyond the sea, on a rock surrounded with +treasures, a dwarf girl is brought up, against whom +aggressive warriors can prevail nothing. She sends all +enemies away, after loading them with gold and silver, +and placing on their heads part of the hair of her forehead, +which proves to be sufficient to cover seven men. +In this marvellous hair, in this enchanted maiden, and in +the warriors who come by sea, who does not recognise +the veil of the maiden aurora of the Veds, who uncovers +her bosom before the sun her husband, and the sea which +the warrior-sun crosses, and from which he emerges to +come to the aurora?—who does not recognise the golden +fleece, Jason, Medea, the Argonauts of Hellenic tradition?</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the Finnic mythology of the <i>Kalevala</i><a name="FNanchor_338_338" id="FNanchor_338_338"></a><a href="#Footnote_338_338" class="fnanchor">[338]</a> also, we +have upon the mountain a good and pure hostess, a +generous giver, from the golden windows of whose house +are observed the women who give the wildfowl; but in +this Finnic representation, it is not the heroic girl-aurora, +it seems to me, we recognise, but the moon, Diana the +huntress (the German <i>Helljger</i>), who also appears on the +mountain-peak, surrounded by the stars of the nocturnal +forest, where the wildfowl is found, which she can therefore +lavish upon the hero.</p> + +<p>The Finns worship a thundering god, united with the +clouds, who has the thunderbolt for his sword, and who +is called Ukko,<a name="FNanchor_339_339" id="FNanchor_339_339"></a><a href="#Footnote_339_339" class="fnanchor">[339]</a> father of Vinminen, the valorous and +wise hero, who speaks in the womb of his mother, who +performs prodigies when yet a child, and who produces +the sun and the moon.</p> + +<p>This child-hero occurs again in their dwarf-god (<i>pikku +mies</i>), who, although, like the Hindoo Vishṇus, he is but +a span long, wields in his hand an axe the length of a +man, with which he cuts down an oak-tree that no one +had yet been able to bring to the ground. The sun-hero +is little; but his ray, his thunderbolt, his weapon, +his hand, lengthen themselves, extend themselves as far +as the dwarf-hero can desire, in order to destroy the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>enemy, who wears here the well-known aspect of the +trunk of a tree, or of a dark forest. The woodcutter is +therefore a favourite figure in popular tradition. And +the fact that Vinminen, having grown old and truthful +in speech, cuts down in the <i>Kalevala</i>,<a name="FNanchor_340_340" id="FNanchor_340_340"></a><a href="#Footnote_340_340" class="fnanchor">[340]</a> by the help of +the little god, the prodigious oak, shows us that this little +god is a new and junior form, a younger and victorious +brother, or self-reproduction of the erewhile child-hero +Vinminen, who has lived his life of a day. The +valiant child-sun of morning has become the experienced +old sun of evening; but as this old sun is not strong +enough to cut down the oak-tree, under whose shadow +he loses himself, he is obliged to become a child again to +develope the requisite amount of strength; he needs a +younger brother, a hero or dwarf-god, to free him from +the evil shades of the forest of night. To this end he +also invokes the sun and the moon to illumine the forest, +and also the bear (the middle brother)—(in the <i>Kalevala</i>, +of the three heroes it is the bear Ilmarinen who shows +the greatest strength, and who wins the virgin for his +bride)—in order that by his strength he may root up the +tree. But to root up the tree is all that bears can do, while +Vinminen wishes it to be cut down; and so this victorious +enterprise is intrusted to the dwarf-god. Thus, +without explicit mention of their names, we find the +three brothers described in the entirely mythical epopee +of the Finns.</p> + +<p>Alongside of the dwarf, by force of antithesis, there +arises, even in the Finnic mythology, the idea of a giant, +a Titan who amuses himself with uplifting and hurling +rocks and mountains. The cloud, the monster of darkness,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> +being represented as a mountain, the monster +inhabiting this country must fight by means of the +mountain itself. The cloudy mountain moves; it is a +giant monster that moves it; it is the second brother, the +strong brother, the son of the cow, the bear, who amuses +himself with it, who shakes, carries, and throws it like a +weapon. And such mythical battles must have seemed +so much the more natural in the age in which the greater +number of the myths were conceived and produced, as we +know it to have been the age which archologists call +the age of stone. The sun, as a dwarf, destroys the vast +cloud, the vast darkness, viewed as a giant.</p> + +<p>But battles are not always going on in the heavens; +even the wild animals of the gloomy forest become tame +and rest themselves; music fills the soul with calm sentiments. +Therefore even the warrior Gandharvs of the +Hindoo Olympus are transformed into expert musicians, +who entrance the very gods with wonder. The song of +the Sirens attracts and seduces the traveller; the lyre of +Orpheus draws after it mountains, trees, and animals; +the harp of Vinminen, in the <i>Kalevala</i>, makes the wolf +forget his ferocity, the bear his wildness, the fish his coldness. +And it is grief which is the first inspirer of song; +the first stanza of the poet Vlmkis had its origin in +the sorrow he felt upon seeing a bird bereft of its companion. +Orpheus (the Thracian sun) sings and plays for +grief, when the serpent (the shade of night) has bitten +and thrown into the gloomy regions his sweet bride +Eurydice (the aurora), and moves the demons to pity; +the harp of Vinminen is also born of sorrow.<a name="FNanchor_341_341" id="FNanchor_341_341"></a><a href="#Footnote_341_341" class="fnanchor">[341]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> +The epopee of the Finns contains, moreover, several +other myths cognate with those of Aryan mythical tradition;—such +as the resuscitated hero; the winning of the +maiden by display of heroism; the bride heroically won +and afterwards cut in pieces; the cup of abundance, or +the cornucopia (the Sampo); the golden cradle; the +marvellous vessel in which the hero crosses the sea; the +three sisters, of whom one gives black milk, one white, +and one red (night, the alba or moon, and aurora); the +invulnerable shirt; the magician who makes children of +gold and silver; and others of secondary importance,<a name="FNanchor_342_342" id="FNanchor_342_342"></a><a href="#Footnote_342_342" class="fnanchor">[342]</a> +but all tending to prove that formerly the Turanian and +Aryan races, in their neighbouring abodes, were originally +much more similar to each other than they now appear, +on account of partly diversity of language, and partly +their different degrees of civilisation.</p> + +<p>I have just named the Finnish Sampo as a cup of +abundance or cornucopia; it does, in fact, yield marvellous +abundance to whoever possesses it, and wherever it +falls. It is made of the feather of a swan, or of a duck +(the swan and the duck are, as we shall see, confounded +together in tradition, and the duck, like the hen, is a +symbol of abundance), of a tuft of wool, of a grain of +corn, and of chips from a spindle, all evident symbols of +abundance; and it becomes so large that it has to be +carried by a hundred-horned ox (reminding us of the +horns of the cow which spin). The ox bears abundance +upon its horns, it yields abundance from its horns. The +cornucopia is, in my mind, unmistakably implied in these +mythical data.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> +The same mythical correspondence which we have +found to exist between the Finnic epos and the various +legendary Aryan traditions is observable between the +latter and the Esthonian popular tales. In the collection +of Frederic Kreuzwald<a name="FNanchor_343_343" id="FNanchor_343_343"></a><a href="#Footnote_343_343" class="fnanchor">[343]</a> we find numerous proofs of this +correspondence.</p> + +<p>In the first story we have, in a hut in the forest, three +sisters, of whom the youngest is the most beautiful. The +old witch, her step-mother, persecutes her, and always +gives her filaments of gold to spin, hiding from time to +time the gold she has spun in a secret room. During the +summer the old woman goes out of the house, no one +knows where, after having apportioned their respective +tasks to the three sisters. While the old woman is out, +a young prince, having lost himself in the forest, finds +his way to the hut, and becomes enamoured of the +youngest of the three sisters. The young couple speak +to each other of love in the light of the moon and of the +stars; while the old king, impatient at the absence of +his son, falls into grief, and sends everywhere to look for +him. After three days he is found; before going back +to the palace, he secretly promises to the youngest sister +that he will return. Meanwhile the old woman comes +back, finds the work badly done, curses, threatens, and +maltreats the girl. Early in the morning, while the old +woman and the two elder sisters are slumbering, the +maiden slips out, and leaves the house. During her +childhood she had learned the language of birds; accordingly, +when she meets a crow, she salutes him by the +name of "bird of light," and sends him as a messenger +to the young prince, to warn him not to come back to see<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> +her, on account of the fury of the old woman. The +prince then names her another trysting-place, and the +young couple meet under a tree, between the second and +third crowing of the cock; and when the sun rises, they +flee away together. The old witch causes them to be followed +by a ball made of nine evil herbs, and carried by +malignant winds. The fugitives are overtaken on the +banks of a river, where the ball strikes the prince's horse; +it rears up on its hind legs, and the girl falls off into the +river, into the hands of a marine monster; upon which +the prince is struck by a disease which no one can cure. +By eating the flesh of a hog, the prince acquires a knowledge +of the language of birds; he sends the swallows as +messengers to the magician of Finland, that he may teach +him the way to free a girl who has been transformed into +a pond-rose (lotus-flower). The answer, instead of being +brought by the swallows, is brought by an eagle. The +prince must become a shrimp, in order to enter the water +without being drowned; he must detach the lotus by its +root, draw it along the surface of the water to the bank, +near a stone, and pronounce these words, "From the +pond-rose, a maiden—from the shrimp, a man." The +crow confirms the eagle's words. The prince hears a +song issue from the rose; he then determines to deliver +the girl. The two young people emerge together from +the water. The maiden is ashamed of being naked, and +the prince goes to procure nuptial robes for her; after +which he conducts her to the palace in a beautiful chariot, +where a joyous and gorgeous wedding-festival is celebrated. +Soon afterwards the old witch dies, to appear +again in the form of a cat, which is taken by the tail and +flung into the fire. In the witch's house are found mountains +of spun gold, which serve for the dowry of the +three sisters. We have already said that the three sisters<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> +correspond to the three brothers, and the youngest sister +to the youngest brother. The epithet of <i>young</i> is often +given to the Vedic aurora, whom the sun marries. Here +the prince marries the youngest of the three sisters; the +morning aurora is united to the sun. Towards night she +falls into the water; it is the witch (night) who throws +her in; the hog which the prince (the sun) eats we shall +see to be a figurative representation of the nocturnal +monster, or the moon. Eating the hog, staying in the +forest of night, the prince learns the language of birds. +The prince frees the maiden from the waters; the sun +delivers the aurora from the gloomy ocean of night, and +robes her in his splendour, causing the witch of night to +be burned in the flames of the aurora, and taking from +the witch's abode the spun gold or golden fleece.</p> + +<p>In the third Esthonian story, a woman, called mother-of-gold, +bears, by the favour of a dwarf, three dwarf-sons +at the same time, who become three heroes. The first is +the seer (the wise brother), the second has a ready arm +(the strong brother), the third runs swiftly in the race +(a quality distinctive of the third brother, Arǵunas, in +the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, and which is applicable to the victorious +sun of morning, who wins the race, together with +the aurora).</p> + +<p>A variation of the story relating to the youngest sister +and the dwarf is that of the girl seven years old, the wise +girl (the aurora), in the fourth Esthonian tale, who, being +persecuted by her step-mother, retires into the forest (the +night). While there, it seems to her that she is in +heaven, where, in a house of crystal and pearls, she is +received by a well-dressed woman of gold (the fair-haired +moon). The girl asks the golden woman to be allowed +to take care of the cattle, like the cowmaid aurora. In +the history of <i>Ardshi Bordshi</i> we have seen the wise<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> +puppet. This form of the wise girl, the dressed girl of +wood, occurs again in the Esthonian story; in which +she is made of wood from the forest, of three anchovies, +of bread, of a black serpent, and of the blood of the girl +herself, to whom the image has a great likeness, and +which may be beaten by the old step-mother without being +hurt. From the forest-tree, wood, or wooden box of the +night, with the juice of the black serpent of night and +the blood of the girl aurora of evening, comes forth the +maiden aurora of morning, the wise, the speaking puppet, +the puppet who guesses the riddles. The girl who comes +out of wood is represented as a wooden puppet; more +frequently the puppet is the moon, the wise fairy who +comes out of the forest. In the same story we have the +magic rod which produces a cock upon the mountain, +beside which a tablecloth spreads itself out, while the +chairs range themselves in their places, and the dishes +are filled of their own accord. The story ends with the +usual marriage between the beautiful maiden, and a king's +son returning from the chase (or the son who comes out +of the forest of night, viewed as infested by ferocious +animals).</p> + +<p>In the sixth Esthonian tale, the poor girl finds a +woman in a white robe (the moon), adorned with gold, +upon a rock near a fountain, who announces her approaching +marriage with a youth as poor as herself; +but the good fairy godmother—for in the legends the +godmother is represented as good, as the stepmother is +wicked—promises to make them both rich and happy. +She calls herself the lady of the waters, secret wife +of the wind, and she judges the criminals who present +themselves at her tribunal (Proserpina or Persephon).</p> + +<p>In the seventh tale, a boy nine years of age, the third<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> +son of two poor people, goes out to be a cowherd; his +master treats him well, but his mistress gives him more +floggings than bread. One day the young cowherd is +unfortunate enough to lose a cow; he searches for it all +through the forest, but in vain. He re-enters the house +with the cattle, after the sun has set some time. The +observant eye of his mistress perceives at once that there +is a cow missing; she beats the boy without pity, and +sends him out to look for it, threatening to kill him if he +returns without it. He wanders through the forest; but +when the sun arises from out the bosom of the dawn, he +resolves to stay out of the house, and not to return to his +persecutor (the young morning sun flees from the old +and perverse night). In the evening, the boy finds an +old dwarf, who is his host during the night (the moon), +and who says to him, "When the sun rises to-morrow, +carefully observe the spot in which he rises. Thou must +go in that direction, so that every morning thou may'st +have the sun before thee, and every evening the sun +behind thee. Thus thy strength will increase more and +more every day." How can one indicate better the +apparent course of the solar hero, or of the sun in the +night? The hero, in order to go towards the morning +sun, must necessarily have the sun of evening behind +him. The old dwarf also gives him a sack and a little +barrel, in which he will always find the food and drink +he requires; but he recommends him never to eat or +drink more than is necessary, that he may have to give +to a hungry bird or a thirsty wild beast. He also leaves +him a rolled-up leaf of burdock, upon which, by rolling +it out, he will always be able to cross water (a new form +of the cup). We know how the Hindoos represented +their god as floating upon a lotus-leaf in the midst of the +waters, and how Padmaǵas (born of the lotus-flower,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> +or the rose of the waters, which shuts during the night) +was one of the names of Brhman; here we have the god +or hero shutting himself up in the flower, from which he +afterwards comes out. In the chapters on the Serpent +and the Frog we shall again see how the god sometimes +shuts himself up in a monstrous form in this flower, the +rose, on account of a curse from which he is to be freed +by a beautiful maiden. We have seen how the Esthonian +girl, who was by the curse of the old woman thrown into +the water, was transformed into a water-rose or lotus-flower, +and delivered by the young prince. The Esthonian +boy finds himself before a small lake; he throws +the leaf in, and it becomes a magical boat, which carries +him over. Meanwhile he has become strong. Upon +the mountain he sees a serpent, a tortoise, and an +eagle, all three of enormous dimensions, approaching to +attack him, with a man upon a black horse, which has +wings on its feet, in the rear of them. He kills the +serpent and the tortoise, but the eagle flies away. The +man with the black horse takes the boy into his house, +and appoints him to look after the dogs, that they may +not get loose from their chains, a danger against which +the man provides by making twelve colossal oxen fetch +rocks upon rocks, to repair the damage done by the dogs. +The rocks, touched by a magical rod, arrange themselves +upon the car drawn by the oxen. At last, by +the advice of the eagle, he steals his master's horse, +and departs to sojourn among mankind, taking a wife +with him.</p> + +<p>In the eighth Esthonian story too, the third brother is +the cunning one. His two elder brothers, after the death +of their father, despoil him of his share of the inheritance, +and he is reduced to wander alone and impoverished +about the world in quest of good fortune. He falls in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> +with a woman who complains to him that her husband +regularly beats her when she is unable to procure for him +the things he wants, which he asks for in the form of a +riddle. The third brother solves the enigma for the +woman (the moon), who, in gratitude, gives him provisions +for his travels. He then comes to a palace, where +the king is engaged in celebrating a summer festival, and +he undertakes to provide and prepare the feast. A +magician presents himself at the festival in the shape of +an old man, and asks to taste the food. The young man +suspects him, but, seeing a ring upon his finger, he consents +to allow him if he gives him a pledge. The magician +vows that he has nothing to give. The youth asks +for his ring, and the old man in his gluttony at once +gives it up; upon which the youth, who, along with the +ring, has taken all the magician's strength away, first +binds and derides him, and then has him beaten by seven +strong men. The old man breaks the ropes and disappears; +however, the young man, having the ring in his +hands, possesses the means of tracking his footsteps and +making him his. (This is the usual disc, lasso, or bridle +which is now in the hands of the hero, now in those of +the monster.) The youth follows the magician underground. +The latter, it appears, is served by three maidens, +who, when they perceive that the sorcerer has lost his +ring, and that they have a young man for companion, +enjoy themselves with him while the magician is asleep. +The youth learns from them that the old wizard also +possesses a sword which can destroy armies, and a +magical rod which can create a bridge to span the sea; +these, therefore, he steals, and departs, returning by a +wonderful bridge thrown over the sea to the palace +whence he had started. It seems to him as if his journey +had lasted only two nights, instead of which a year has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +passed.<a name="FNanchor_344_344" id="FNanchor_344_344"></a><a href="#Footnote_344_344" class="fnanchor">[344]</a> He finds on his arrival his two brothers in the +king's service, one as coachman and the other as a valet, +both enriched because they have received the pay due to +their younger brother for having prepared the great feast. +The young man now engages himself in another capacity, +in a species of service especially dear to the young hero, +next to those of stable-boy and cowherd; that is to say, he +becomes under-cook of the king. (In the <i>Vrṭa-Parvam</i> +of the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, it is the second of the brothers +who disguises himself as a cook, in order to prepare good +sauces and substantial food for the king whose guest he +is; the elder brother is disguised as a Brhmanas, a wise +adviser; the third brother, Arǵunas, the agile, the swift +one, pretends to be a eunuch, is given in exchange for a +woman, and teaches dancing, music, and singing in the +gynecium. Of the two sons of the Avinu, one becomes +a groom, the other a cowherd.) His brothers continue to +dislike him, and because he boasts to them that he had +seen in hell golden birds, they induce the king to send +him to hell in order to procure them. He accomplishes +this undertaking with great difficulty, and brings the +birds in a sack made of spiders' webs, which is so strong +that the birds enclosed in it cannot extricate themselves. +In the same sack, during another expedition, the young +man brings from hell many precious objects of gold and +silver. In compensation, he only asks of the king to +send the princess, his daughter, to listen for one evening +to the conversation of his two brothers the coachman and +the valet. Both boast of having enjoyed to satiety the +favours of the princess. The latter, indignant and full +of shame, runs to tell the king everything, upon which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> +he arraigns them before him and has them judged. The +third brother is named Counsellor; with his enchanted +sword he destroys an entire army of enemies, and obtains +in reward for his services and his valour the king's +daughter to wife.</p> + +<p>The ninth Esthonian story presents to us the son of +the thunder, who sells his soul to the devil, on condition +that the latter serves him for seven years. The time +agreed upon is nearly come to an end, and the son of the +thunder wishes to escape from him, and profits by an +opportunity which has chanced. The devil sees a black +cloud, which is a sign of an approaching tempest; he is +afraid, hides himself under a stone, and asks the son of +the thunder to keep him company. The latter consents; +but seeing that the devil is afraid, at each thunderclap +he presses his ears and eyes in such a manner as to make +him perspire and shiver all over. The devil, believing +this to be the effect of the thunder, promises the son of +the thunder that he will not only leave him his soul, but +give him three other souls, if he will deliver him from +the evils which he suffers on account of the thunder, by +taking from the thundering god, the father of the clouds, +his weapon (which is also a musical instrument). This +weapon, having been ravished from the god, is taken by +the devil into hell, into a chamber of iron, shut up +within seven castles. A great drought coming upon the +earth, the son of the thunder repents of having rendered +such a service to the devil; he finds means, however, of +informing the thunder-god where his weapon is concealed. +The thunder-god then becomes a child, and +engages himself in the service of a fisherman, near a lake +which the devil is accustomed to visit to steal the fishes. +He surprises him in the act of robbery, and by the help +of a magician takes him prisoner, and has him beaten<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> +without pity, until he promises to pay a heavy ransom +in money to be let free, the fisherman and his child to +accompany him to hell itself to receive the sum of +money. Arrived in hell, the devil entertains them like a +gentleman. The child tells the fisherman to ask the +devil to show them the musical instrument which he +keeps enclosed in the iron room. The devil kindly consents, +but cannot draw from the instrument anything +more musical than the mewing of a cat or the grunting +of a pig. The fisherman then laughs at the devil, and +says that his boy can play better. The devil does not +believe it, and laughingly gives the instrument, which +he calls bagpipes, to the boy. The latter blows into +them and makes such a noise that all hell resounds with +it, and the devils fall to the earth as if dead. The child +then becomes the god of thunder again, and returns to +heaven, where by the noise of his instrument he opens +the celestial reservoirs and lets out the beneficent rain. +The description of the tempest which occurs in many +Vedic hymns is the germ of this interesting myth. The +drum or kettledrum thunder is a familiar image in +Hindoo poetry, and the Gandharvs, the musician-warriors +of the Hindoo Olympus, have no other instrument +than the thunder. The conch of the warrior +Pṇḍavs in the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, and the famous horn of +Orlando (which comes from the golden horn of Odin), +are epical reminiscences of thunder. Orpheus, who in +hell plays on his lyre and tames the animals, is a more +lucid and more perfect form of this Esthonian thunder-god +who plays the bagpipes in hell. It is also remarkable +how, in harmony with the pastoral bagpipes, in the +tenth Esthonian story, which is a variation of the preceding +one, the god transformed into a powerful boy is +called a little shepherd or cowherd—another interesting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> +fact, which completes his identification with Orpheus.<a name="FNanchor_345_345" id="FNanchor_345_345"></a><a href="#Footnote_345_345" class="fnanchor">[345]</a> +The magic flute is a variation of the same celestial +musical instrument. The magic flute, the bagpipes or +wonderful pipe, occurs again in the twenty-third +Esthonian story, in which the good Tiidu, by means of +it and of his virtue, obtains riches. The magical harp +of Gunnar in the Edda has the same marvellous effects.</p> + +<p>Evidently the monster-dwarf is a favourite subject of +Esthonian tradition, and it often occurs in the Hindoo +and in the German traditions, as well as in the Franco-Latin +tradition of Charlemagne. The eleventh story +introduces us to three dwarf-brothers who contend for +the inheritance left by their father, consisting of a +miraculous hat, which enables its wearer to see everything, +whilst he can himself be visible or invisible at +pleasure (this hat is made of pieces of men's nails cut +up);<a name="FNanchor_346_346" id="FNanchor_346_346"></a><a href="#Footnote_346_346" class="fnanchor">[346]</a> of a pair of slippers which transport the owner in +an instant wherever he wishes (we must not forget that +Cinderella, when she loses the slipper, is overtaken by +the prince bridegroom); and of a stick which strikes of +itself, and destroys everything, even stronger than the +thunderbolt (the thunderbolt itself). The three brothers +maintain that these three articles, to be really useful, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>must be the property of one; but who is to enjoy this +privilege? A man comes up to put an end to the dispute, +and feigns disbelief in the virtue of these three +things, unless he proves it himself. The three simpletons +give them to him that he may prove them. The man +takes them off, and the three dwarfs are left to meditate +upon the truth of the above-quoted proverb, "Between +two disputers the third profits," or at least that variation +of it which their own case suggests "Between three +that dispute, the fourth profits."</p> + +<p>In the thirteenth Esthonian story, the privileged +character of the third brother is explained, as we are +told that he is the son of a king, but was exchanged by +a witch during his infancy for the child of a peasant. +The latter died in the palace, whilst the king's son grew +in the hut, showing in every action his royal pedigree. +Here we have the story of the hero who is exposed on +the mountains intimately connected with that of the +third brother. To this third brother, who alone shows +himself to be devoted to his father, and who alone makes +a vow to watch by his grave, is also attributed the merit +of having delivered, upon a high mountain of crystal, +from a seven years' sleep, a princess, who then becomes +his wife. We have seen the aurora-awakener in the +Vedic hymns—the sun and the aurora arouse each other: +the sun sends forth the aurora; the aurora draws out +the sun. The myth reproduces itself every day, and +expresses in its entirety a daily phenomenon of light in +the heavens. In Northern countries, where the contrast +is great between winter and spring, and therefore the +impression is striking which is caused by the cessation +of vegetation in autumn, the earth also assumed the +aspect of a dead young princess; but an omniscient +magician having said, <i>Non est mortua puella, sed dormit</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> +the third brother, predestined to the enterprise, lays +down his poor robes, and dresses himself, on the first occasion, +in the colour of bronze; on the second, the colour of +silver; on the third, the colour of gold, and ascends the +mountain of crystal, or ice, whence he brings forth the +beautiful spring. The sky, grey in autumn, snowy in +winter, and golden in spring, corresponds to the grey +sky of evening, the silver one of night, and the golden +one of morning. Spring is the dawn of the year; the +primitive myth is but amplified; the last hour of the +day awakens the aurora; the last month of the solar +year awakens the spring. The application of the myth +of the day to the year is one of the greatest simplicity.</p> + +<p>In the fourteenth story, the king of the golden country +loses himself in the forest full of ferocious animals, and +cannot find his way out. A stranger (no doubt the +devil) conducts him out, on condition that he will give +him whatever first comes to meet him. The king promises. +The first thing he sees on his return is his royal +child, who, carried by his nurse, stretches out his arms to +his father. The king exchanges him for a peasant's girl, +whom he gives up to the stranger, allowing his own son +to be brought up among the peasant's herds. The king's +son, having grown to manhood, determines to go and deliver +the poor girl. He disguises himself as a poor man, +puts a sack of peas on his shoulders, and goes into the +forest where his father was lost eighteen years before. +He also loses himself, and meets the stranger, who promises +to direct him if he will give him the peas which +are in the sack, as they will serve, he alleges, to recompense +the assistants at the funeral of his aunt, who died +in poverty during the night.—This pulse in funeral +ceremonies refers to a very ancient custom. The Vedic +ceremonials already mention them in connection with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> +funerals; and in the Greek belief, the dead carried +vegetables with them to hell, either for the right of +passage or as provisions for travelling. In Piedmont, it +is still the custom on the second of November (All Soul's +Day) to make a great distribution of kidney-beans to the +poor, who pray for the souls of the dead. Vegetables, +peas, vetches, and kidney-beans are symbols of abundance, +and to this belief may be traced the numerous Indo-European +stories in which mention is made of beans +which multiply themselves in the pipkin, or of peas which +grow up to the sky, and up the stalk of which the hero +climbs to heaven. The vegetables necessary for being introduced +into the kingdom of the dead, and the pea by +means of which the hero enters heaven, are variations of +the same mythical subject. In Hindoo tradition, besides +the pea or kidney-bean, we have the pumpkin as a +symbol of abundance, which is multiplied infinitely, or +which mounts up to heaven. The wife of the hero +Sagaras gives birth to a pumpkin, from which afterwards +come forth sixty thousand sons. The kidney-bean, the +pea, the vetch, the common bean, and the pumpkin are +also symbols of generation, not only on account of the +facility with which they multiply, but also on account of +their form. We have seen in the Vedic ceremonials what +organs are represented by the two kidney-beans; we shall +also see, in the chapter on the Ass, how the names given +to the organs of generation are also used to designate +fools. Now, it is worthy of notice that the Sanskrit word +<i>mshas</i> (or kidney-bean) also signified the foolish, the +stolid one, in the same way as in Piedmont a <i>bonus vir</i> +is called a kidney-bean. Thus, too, the pumpkin, which +expresses fecundity, also means, in Italian, idiocy or +stupidity. As to beans, I have already remarked, in my +work upon "Nuptial Usages," upon their symbolical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> +meaning, and cited the Russian and Piedmontese custom +of putting a black and a white bean into the cake eaten +at Epiphany, one of which represents the male and the +other the female, one the king and the other the queen. +The two who find the beans kiss each other with joyful +auguries. As all these vegetables personify the moon, +which we know to be considered as a giver of abundance, +and which, by its form of a turning ball, can well be represented +by the turning pea, in this personification we +must search for the solution of the principal myths relating +to vegetables.—The young prince of the Esthonian +story, having obtained the stranger's favour in the gloomy +forest by means of the peas, engages himself in his +service, with intent to deliver the girl who had freed him +by taking his place with the stranger during eighteen +years. He therefore follows him; but on the way he +lets a pea fall to the ground from time to time, in order +to know the way back. He is conducted by a strange +and wild subterranean passage, where silence as of the +tomb reigns—it is, in fact, the kingdom of the dead—where +birds have the appearance of wishing to sing, dogs +to bark, and oxen to low, but cannot, and where the +water flows without a murmur. The young prince feels +in his heart a kind of anguish; the universal stillness in +the midst of animated beings oppresses him. Having +passed the region of silence, they come to that of deafening +noise. The young prince thinks he hears the excruciating +din of twenty-four saws at work; but the old +stranger tells him that it is only his grandmother who +has fallen asleep, and is snoring. At last they come to +the stranger's dwelling, where the prince finds the beautiful +maiden, but the old stranger will not let him speak. +He sees in the stable a white horse and a black cow, +with a white or luminous-headed calf. This cow the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> +young prince is ordered to milk until there is not a drop +of milk in its breast; instead of milking it with his +fingers, he, by the advice of the girl, uses for that purpose +red-hot pincers. Another time the youth is told to +lead away the enchanted calf with the white or luminous +head. In order that it may not escape, the girl gives +him a magic thread, of which one end is to be tied to the +left leg of the calf, and the other to the little toe of the +prince's left foot.—The little finger, although the smallest, +is the most privileged of the five. It is the one that +knows everything; and in Piedmont, when the mothers +wish to make their children believe that they are in communication +with a mysterious spy, who sees everything +that they do, they are accustomed to awe them by the +words, "My little finger tells me everything."—At last +the two young people resolve to flee. Before starting, +the prince splits open the forehead of the white-headed +calf; from its skull comes forth an enchanted little red +ball, which shines like a small sun. He wraps it up, +leaving part of it uncovered to light the way, and flees +away with the girl. Being followed by malignant spirits, +who are sent by the old man to follow them, the two +fugitives, by means of the enchanted little ball (or pearl), +turned round three times, become, first the one a pond +and the other a fish, then the one a rose-bush and the other +a rose, then again the one a breeze and the other a gnat, +until the stone which covers the entrance to the subterranean +world having been lifted up, they arrive again +safe and happy upon the earth; and by means of the little +red ball, they show themselves to mankind in splendid +and princely robes. I scarcely think it necessary to explain +to the reader the sense of this lucid mythical story. +The black cow which produces the calf with the white or +luminous head is a Vedic antithesis which we have already<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> +seen;<a name="FNanchor_347_347" id="FNanchor_347_347"></a><a href="#Footnote_347_347" class="fnanchor">[347]</a> the cow (night) produces the calf (the moon). +The prince takes the little red ball out of the calf; by +means of this ball, the girl is delivered from the regions +of gloom. The little ball moves the stone; the sun and +the aurora come out together from the mountain, after +having travelled together in the kingdom of shadows; +the sun delivers the aurora. This story unites together +and puts in order several myths of an analogous character, +but born separately.</p> + +<p>The three next stories describe other voyages made by +the solar hero to heaven, or in hell, and end by meaning +the same thing. In the eighteenth story we again +find the enchanted ring, called Solomon's ring, which the +young hero goes to search for; when he finds it, by +taking it from the daughter of hell, and puts it on his +finger, he is of a sudden endowed with such strength +that he can split a rock with one blow of his fist. The +little red ball of the story just described, which lifts up +the rock, and this ring which splits the stone, represent +the same mythical object, <i>i.e.</i>, the sun, the sun's ball or +disc.</p> + +<p>The twenty-first story shows us the fearless hero who +frees a castle from the presence of the demons, and who +thus gains a treasure; riches are the reward of valour.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> +The twentieth Esthonian story is a variation of the +exceedingly popular tale of Blue Beard, the killer of his +wives. The Esthonian monster-husband has already +killed eleven, and is about to murder the twelfth, by way +of punishing her for having, against his express prohibition, +visited the secret room opened by the golden key +(perhaps the moon), when a youth who takes care of the +goslings, the friend of her childhood, comes to deliver +her. From the subject itself, and the expressions used +in this story, we can discover the origin of the terrible +charivari in the nuptials of widowers or widows. This +savage custom is intended not only to deride the lust +of the old man or woman who marries again, but to +warn the girl who marries the one, or the youth who +marries the other, of the possibility of a fate similar to +the first wife or husband. When, therefore, the wife +<i>apatighn</i> (who does not kill her husband) is praised to +the Vedic husband, we must understand that the <i>patighn</i> +(or killer of her husband) is a widow, whom no one must +marry, as being suspected of murder. Hence, to free +herself from this suspicion, an honest Hindoo wife (like +Gudrun in the Edda) was to throw herself into the fire +after the death of her husband; the evening aurora, after +the death of the sun, dies too.</p> + +<p>In the twenty-second story we have once more the +myth of the young pastoral hero; he is the son of a king. +By the order of his step-mother, a witch, who carries off +shepherds, steals him from the palace during his infancy, +and abandons him in a solitary place, where he is brought +up by cowherds, and becomes himself an excellent cowherd. +An old man finds him and says, looking at him +and at the cattle, "Thou dost not seem to me born to +remain a cowherd." The boy answers that he knows he +was born to command, and adds, "Here I learn the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> +duties of a commander by anticipation. If things go +well with the quadrupeds, I shall also prosper with +bipeds." The shepherd is therefore a little king; a good +shepherd will become a good king. The boy goes through +several adventures, in which he displays his valour. A +wicked German lady wishes to take from him the +strawberries which he has plucked. He defends himself +bravely; his mistress persecutes him; and he takes twelve +wolves, shuts them up in a cavern, and each day gives +them a lamb to eat, in order to avenge himself upon his +wicked mistress, to whom he simply says that the wolves +have devoured them. At last he causes her to be devoured +herself by the wolves, who eat her all up, leaving only +the heart (the sun) and the tongue, which are too full of +venom for the wolves of the night, because they burn +their mouths. At the age of eighteen, the youth has +several other adventures. He becomes enamoured of a +gardener's daughter, and is found again by the king his +father, who, before allowing him to marry the beautiful +gardener's daughter, wishes to prove that they are predestined +to each other. He cuts a ring in two with his +sword, and gives one part to the young prince and the +other to the maiden; the two halves must be preserved +by both, and one day they will meet of themselves and +form again the whole ring, in such a manner that it will +be impossible to find the place where it was broken.—In +a Tuscan story, the beautiful maiden gives half her necklace +to the third brother. The young couple lose each +other; their meeting again and mutual recognition take +place when the two parts of the necklace join each other. +The use of the wedding-ring has a mythical origin. The +solar (and sometimes the lunar disc) is the ring which +unites the heavenly husband and wife.—When, after +other adventures, the two young people of the Esthonian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> +story join together the two halves of their ring, their +misfortunes come to an end; they marry and live together +happily, whilst the cruel step-mother, who meanwhile +has become a widow, is expelled from the kingdom.</p> + +<p>The last Esthonian story tells of the extraordinary +births, in the same day, of a handsome prince and a +beautiful princess. The princess is born in a bird's egg, +laid like a pearl in the bosom of the queen; she has at +first the form of a living puppet, and afterwards, when +warmed in wool, she becomes a real girl. Whilst she +undergoes this transformation, the queen also gives birth +to a beautiful boy. The two children are considered as +twins, and baptized together. To the baptism of the +girl there comes as godmother, in a splendid chariot +drawn by six horses, a young woman dressed in rose-coloured +and golden robes, who shines like the sun, and +who, as she lets her veil drop, like the beautiful Argive +Helen, fills the bystanders with admiration. [The aurora, +who, before appearing in the form of a beautiful girl, is +enclosed in the wood of the forest, is a wooden puppet, +and becomes a wooden puppet once more when, fleeing +from the sun, she hides herself in a creeping-plant, like +the Hindoo Urva (the first of the dawns), or in a laurel-plant, +like the Hellenic Daphne (the Vedic Dahan-aurora). +The aurora is born together with the sun; the +beautiful doll-maiden is born with the little prince. The +mother and the beneficent godmother seem to be the +moon, or a more ancient aurora.] The mother, dying, +leaves her daughter, putting it upon her breast, a gem +which is to bring her happiness; that is, the little basket +which contained the bird's egg, with the eggshell itself. +By means of the magical little basket, and by pronouncing +some magic words, the maiden can find all that she +searches or wishes for. The young man and woman end<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> +by marrying each other, having discovered that, although +both born of a king, they are children of different fathers; +they marry, and the little basket of happiness mysteriously +disappears.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center">SECTION IV.</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Bull and the Cow in Slavonic Tradition.</span></p> + +<p class="center">SUMMARY.</p> + +<blockquote style="text-indent:-2em"><p>The red cow and the black cow; what they prognosticate.—The red +hue of evening.—The bull that drinks.—The bull corrupts the +water.—The bull's hoofs.—The cow in the bartering of animals.—The +hero ascends into heaven.—The bull sold to the tree; the +tree, split open, yields gold.—The fool sells the bull.—Two bulls +conduct the poor brother to riches.—The bull carries the fugitive +home.—The bull is split in two, and is useful even after death.—Ivan +and Helen, followed by the bear, flee upon the bull with +their faces turned to the part whence the bear is likely to come.—The +dwarf comes out of the bull's bones; the dwarf dies amid the +flames.—The beasts of prey help the hero.—John and Mary, sun +and aurora of the Christians.—The saviour-bull again.—From the +dead bull an apple-tree springs up.—Ivan delivers Mary.—Mary, +the step-daughter, and persecuted.—The cow that spins, the +good fairy, the Madonna, the moon.—The maiden who combs the +hair is the same as the purifier.—The demoniacal cow obliges +men to kiss her under her tail.—The witch who sucks the beautiful +girl's breast whilst the latter combs her hair.—The hide of the +demoniacal cow taken off.—The eye which does not sleep and +plays the spy.—From the cow, the apple-tree; from the apple-tree, +the branches which wound the wicked sisters, and let the good +one pluck their fruit; from the apple, the husband.—The maiden +bows to the right foot of the beneficent cow; a tree springs up +again from the killed cow.—The red apples which cause horns to +grow, and the white ones which give beauty and youth.—Ivan, +the sun, persecuted by the witch his sister, is saved by the sister +of the sun, the aurora.—The mythical scales; the scales of St +Michael.—The cows with golden horns and tails.—The black +demoniacal bull strikes the ground with his horns, in order to +prevent a wedding from taking place.—The hare and the crow +put obstacles in the way of nuptials.—The demon blinded whilst +drinking.—The third son of the peasant throws down the bull.—The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> +avaricious merchant.—The epidemic among the animals, and +the bull killed because he has stolen some hay from a priest.—The +bull in the forest.—The robber of cows and of oxen.—The +black bull led away by Ivan, by means of a cock.—The hero +comes out of the cow.—The intestines of the calf eaten by the fox.—Out +of the calf come birds.—The son of the cow, the strongest +brother.—The three brothers reduced to one with the qualities +of the three.—The third brother mounts into heaven by means +of the cow's hide.—He who ascends does not come down again.—Dreams.—The +wife of the old man, carried to heaven in a sack, +is let fall to the ground and dies.—The ascent into heaven by +means of vegetables.—Turn-little-Pea, the third brother, the killer +of monsters; Turn-little-Pea and Ivan identified.—Ivan followed +by the serpent-witches.—The female serpent tries to file the iron +gate with her tongue, which is caught by the pincers and burned.—The +three brothers, the evening one, the midnight one, and the +clearly-seeing one; the third is the victorious hero; he delivers +three princesses out of three castles of copper, of silver, and of +gold, and receives from them three eggs of copper, of silver, and of +gold, new forms corresponding to those of the three brothers; +the third brother, abandoned by his elders, after various vicissitudes, +finds his bride again; explanation of this beautiful myth.—Ivan +identified with Svetazr.—The mother of the birds, in gratitude, +delivers the hero.—The third brother, the cunning one, +despoils his two elder brothers of their precious objects.—Ivan +of the dog is equivalent to Svetazr; the story of the goldsmith.—Ivan +the great drinker.—Ivan the prince, Ivan the fool; Ivan and +Emilius, foolish and lazy, are one and the same person.—The red +shoes in the legend.—The sister kills her little brother to take +his red shoes; a magical flute discovers the crime.—The slippers +attract the bridegroom; corresponding nuptial usages.—The +slipper tried on; the toe cut off.—The change of wives.—The +ugly one becomes beautiful.—The grateful pike.—The barrel +full of water, which walks of its own accord.—The forest which +is cut down and walks of itself, the chariot which goes on by +itself, the stove that moves and carries Emilius where he wishes, +the cask in which the hero and heroine are shut up and thrown +into the sea, all forms of the cloud and of the gloom of night; +the ugly becomes beautiful; the poor, rich and pleasing.—The +wine allowed to run out of the barrel, <i>i.e.</i>, the cloud which dissolves +itself in rain.—Ivan, thought to be stupid, makes his fortune +out of having watched by his father's grave.—Ivan, thought to be +stupid, speculates upon his dead mother; his brothers try to do the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> +same by their wives, and are punished.—The law of atavism in +tradition.—The foolish mother and the cunning son.—The funereal +storks.—The thief cheats the gentleman in several ways, and finally +places him to guard his hat.—Ivan without fear; a little fish terrifies +him.—Various heroical forms of Ivan in Russian tradition: +Alessino, the son of the priest, invokes the rain against the monster-serpent; +Baldak spits in the Sultan's face—the star under his +heel; Basil and Plavaćek, who demand a gift from the monster; +the fortunate fictitious hero; the cunning little Thomas; the +third brother, who does not allow himself to be put to sleep; the +thief Klimka, who terrifies the other thieves in order to rob them; +the Cossack who delivers the maiden from the flames, and receives +precious gifts; Ilia Muromietz and his companions; the merchant's +son educated by the devil; the boy who understands the language +of birds; the virtuous workman, who prefers good advice to a +large reward.—The flying ship; the protector of the unfortunate +rewarded; eating and drinking.—The girl who solves the riddle +of the prince, who comes with the hare and the quail, and obtains +her husband.—The dwarf Allwis obtains the bride by answering the +questions of his father-in-law.—The wonderful puppet (the moon), +that sews for the priest's daughter (the aurora) the shirt destined +for the prince.—The girl-heroine, protectress of her brother, helper +of the young hero in dangers and trials of heroism.—The cow-herd's +daughter, who never says anything displeasing to her +husband the king, whatever the latter does.—By contact with the +monster, the heroine is perverted, and also becomes a persecutor +of the hero, her brother or husband; analogous types of the +perfidious woman.—Dangerous trials imposed on the hero.—The +sister bound to the tree.—The wife subdued, and the magical +belt.—The tooth of a dead man thrust into Ivan's head; the +animals deliver him; the fox knows better than the rest how to +manage it.—The towel which causes a bridge to spring up across +the water; the hero's sister steals the towel, and unites herself to +the monster-serpent; she demands from her brother Ivan wild +beasts' milk, and the flour or powder of gold which is under a +mill guarded by twelve gates.—The monster burned, and the +hero's sister condemned to weep and to eat hay.—The exchange +of the hero.—The crow brings the water of death and of life.—The +stepmother who persecutes Ivan.—Ivan resuscitated by his +two sons.—Ivan chaunts his death-song; the liberating animals +appear to help him.—Ivan and his preceptor persecuted by his +wife Anna.—The blind man, the lame man, and the beautiful girl +whose breast is sucked by the witch.—The witch is forced to find<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> +the fountain of life and of health; the blind man sees, the lame +walks, and the girl recovers her good health.—The maiden +blinded; the wife changed; the dew which gives eyesight; the +girl finds her husband; a Russian variety of the legend of Berta.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Having drawn so far the general outline of the Turanian +boundaries of Slavonian tradition, it is now time to begin +to study the tradition of the Slaves itself, as far as it concerns +the myth and the legend of the bull and the cow.</p> + +<p>The Russian peasants and shepherds are accustomed to +remark that the weather will be fine when a red cow +places herself at the head of the herd, and that it will +rain or be bad weather when, on the contrary, the first +of the cows to re-enter the stable at evening is a black +one. We already know what the black and the red cow +signify in the language of the Veds. The aurora of +morning and evening, that is, the red cows promise fine +weather; the cloud (or black cow) announces wet weather. +In Piedmont, when a beautiful evening aurora is observed, +it is the custom to say—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i3">"Rosso di sera,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Buon tempo si spera."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Red at eve, we hope for fine weather.)<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Let us now follow the Russian tradition relating to the +cow and the bull in two of the many invaluable collections +of popular stories already printed in Russia, as well as +in the celebrated fables of Kriloff.<a name="FNanchor_348_348" id="FNanchor_348_348"></a><a href="#Footnote_348_348" class="fnanchor">[348]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> +We shall begin with those stories and fables in which +the cow or the bull is explicitly mentioned. They show +us the bull who protects the hero and the heroine, the +bull who enriches the hero, the bull that is sold, the +grateful bull, the bull who sacrifices himself, the persecuted +bull, the demoniacal bull; the cow who spins, the +beneficent cow, the son of the cow, the birds that come +out from the cow, the cow's hide which becomes a rope +to mount up to heaven, the cow exchanged, the demoniacal +cow, the cow's horns. Here, again, therefore, +we have the double aspect of the Vedic cow; the dark-coloured +one (cloud and darkness), generally monstrous, +the luminous one (moon and aurora), usually divine and +beneficent.</p> + +<p>One of the special characteristics of the bull and of the +cow is their capacity of drinking. We have already +seen how much the bull Indras (the sun in the cloud) +drank. In the third story of the first book of <i>Afanassieff</i>, +when the good maiden, persecuted by the witch, stretches +out a towel, and thus causes a river to arise, in order +that the witch may not overtake her, the latter leads +forward the bull to drink up the river (a form of the +Hindoo Agastyas, who, in the <i>Mahbhratam</i>,<a name="FNanchor_349_349" id="FNanchor_349_349"></a><a href="#Footnote_349_349" class="fnanchor">[349]</a> absorbs +the sea). But the bull, who could dry up the river, +refuses to do so on account of a debt of gratitude he +owes to the good maiden. The water where this bull, +or cow, belonging to the witch, drinks, has the property +of transforming into a calf the man who drinks of it;<a name="FNanchor_350_350" id="FNanchor_350_350"></a><a href="#Footnote_350_350" class="fnanchor">[350]</a> +nay, to drink out of the hoof of the bull itself is enough +to turn him into a calf.<a name="FNanchor_351_351" id="FNanchor_351_351"></a><a href="#Footnote_351_351" class="fnanchor">[351]</a> The water which comes out of +the hoof of the demoniacal bull is the opposite of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>water of Hippokrene, which flows from the hoofs of the +divine horse of the Hellenes, the Pgasos.</p> + +<p>In the second book of <i>Afanassieff</i>, there is a story +which speaks of the exchange of animals in the very same +order as in the <i>itareya-brhmaṇam</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, the gold for a +horse, the horse for a cow, the cow for a goat or sheep. +The Russian peasant goes on with his unfortunate +exchanges; he barters the sheep for a young pig, the +young pig for a goose, the goose for a duck, the duck for +a little stick with which he sees some children playing; +he takes the stick home to his wife, and she beats him +with it. In the twelfth story of the fifth book of +<i>Afanassieff</i>, an old man also begins to barter the golden +stockings and silver garters received in heaven from God +for a horse, the horse for a bull, the bull for a lamb; his +last exchange is for a little needle, which he loses. In +the second story of the sixth book, the same foolish +liberality is attributed to the third brother, the stupid +one (who, in another Russian variation of the same +story, is the cunning one), who, having learned that in +heaven cows are cheap, gives his cow for a fly, his ox for +a horse-fly, and mounts up to heaven.</p> + +<p>But, generally speaking, the bull and the cow are the +beginning of good luck for the heroes of popular +tales.</p> + +<p>In the fifty-second story of the fifth book of <i>Afanassieff</i>, +the third brother, the truthful and fortunate fool, has, for +his inheritance from his father, one bull alone; he goes +to sell it, and passes a dry old tree, which rattles; thinking +that the tree wishes to buy his bull, he gives it, +promising to come back for the money. On his return +the bull is gone; he asks the tree for the money, and, +receiving no answer, proceeds to cut it down with his +hatchet, when from the tree there drops out a treasure<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> +which some robbers had hidden in it;<a name="FNanchor_352_352" id="FNanchor_352_352"></a><a href="#Footnote_352_352" class="fnanchor">[352]</a> the young man +then takes it up and carries it home. In a variation of +the same story, in the collection of <i>Erlenwein</i>,<a name="FNanchor_353_353" id="FNanchor_353_353"></a><a href="#Footnote_353_353" class="fnanchor">[353]</a> the third +son of the miller, before going to sell his bull, or ox, seeing +the second son milking the cow, endeavours to milk +the bull too; finding that his efforts are in vain, he +resolves upon selling an animal which appears to him +to be so utterly useless.</p> + +<p>In the thirty-fourth story of the fifth book of <i>Afanassieff</i>, +we meet again the two brothers, one rich and miserly, the +other poor; the poor one borrows from a neighbour two +bulls, and is conducted by Misery (gory) to a stone, under +which he finds a cavity full of gold. The poor man fills +his waggon, and, on coming out, tells Misery that there +is plenty more inside. Misery turns in to see; the ex-pauper +thereupon closes up the entrance with the stone, +and returns home.<a name="FNanchor_354_354" id="FNanchor_354_354"></a><a href="#Footnote_354_354" class="fnanchor">[354]</a></p> + +<p>But the bull and the cow do not only provide the hero +with riches, they help him in danger. In the eleventh +story of <i>Erlenwein</i>,<a name="FNanchor_355_355" id="FNanchor_355_355"></a><a href="#Footnote_355_355" class="fnanchor">[355]</a> Ivan Tzarević, or the Prince John,—the +name of the favourite hero of Slavonian popular tradition +(he is the third brother, the strongest, the most fortunate, +the victorious, the most intelligent, after having +been the most foolish)—wishes to flee from the serpent, +and, not knowing how, sits down on the trunk of a tree +and weeps. The hare comes to carry him away, but is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>killed by the serpent; the wolf comes, but is killed too. +At last the ox or bull comes, and carries him off. Ivan +having arrived at his dwelling, the ox has himself divided +in two; one part must be placed under the sacred images, +which ornament a corner of every room in Russian houses, +the other part under the window; Ivan must then look +out sharp till two dogs and two bears appear, who will +serve him in the chase, and be his strength.</p> + +<p>In the twenty-seventh story of the fifth book of <i>Afanassieff</i>, +Ivan Tzarević and the beautiful Helen are pursued +by a monstrous bear with iron bristles; they escape upon +a bull (the moon), and Ivan, by the bull's advice, rides +him with his face turned towards the place whence the +pursuing bear is likely to come, in order that he may not +take them by surprise. When Ivan sees that the bear is +coming, the bull turns round and tears his eyes out; the +blind bear follows them still, but the fugitives pass a river +on the bull's back, in which the bear is drowned. Ivan +and Helen feel hungry; the bull tells them to cut him to +pieces and eat him, but to preserve his bones, and to +strike them together; from the bones of the bull, when +struck, a dwarf, the height of a finger-nail, but with a +beard a cubit long, comes out; he assists Ivan in finding +the milk of a wolf, a she-bear, and a lioness, until he is +swallowed by the burning bird, whose eggs he wished to +steal. (The bear is the night; the bull is the sun's steed +in the night, the moon; the bull-moon is sacrificed; then +comes forth a little sun with long rays, the dwarf with a +long beard, an <i>alter ego</i> of Ivan, who ends his life in the +burning furnace of the phœnix, or of the evening aurora.) +Ivan is threatened with death when the dwarf dies, but +he is at that moment helped by the wild beasts he had +tamed and fed, who save him from danger. These were, +as we have seen before, given to him after the death of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> +the bull, his deliverer, being born of the bull himself, cut +in pieces (the wild animals of the forest of night are born +as soon as the evening sun is sacrificed).</p> + +<p>The same subject occurs again, with some variations, +in the twenty-eighth story, which follows; only instead +of John and Helen, we have John and Mary, the sun and +the aurora of the Christians. Near the abode of Ivan +and Mary a funeral pile arises, on which the bull sacrifices +himself. The bull's bones are sown in three furrows; +from the first furrow a horse comes forth, from the second +a dog, and in the third an apple-tree grows up. Ivan +mounts upon the horse, followed by the dog, and hunts +wolves' whelps and young bears, which he afterwards +tames and uses to kill the serpent, who has shut up his +dog in a cavern, and carried off his sister; he forces the +entrance of the place where the dog is hidden, by striking +the bolt of the door with three small branches of the apple-tree; +the bolt breaks into pieces, the door bursts open, +and the dog is delivered; dog, wolf, and young bear then +worry the serpent, and Ivan liberates the Princess Mary.</p> + +<p>In the sixth book of <i>Afanassieff</i>,<a name="FNanchor_356_356" id="FNanchor_356_356"></a><a href="#Footnote_356_356" class="fnanchor">[356]</a> the young Mary, +being persecuted, is miraculously assisted by a cow. An +old woman has three daughters of her own (of whom +one has one eye, another two, and the third three), and a +step-daughter called Mary; her own three do nothing, +and eat much; the step-daughter must work hard and +eat little. Her step-mother gives her for one night alone, +while she takes the cow to pasture, to spin, make into +skeins, weave, and bleach, the weight of five pounds. +The maiden goes to the pasture-ground, embraces her +variegated cow, leans on her neck and bewails her fate. +The cow says to her, "Beautiful girl, enter one of my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> +ears, and come out by the other, and all will be done."—In +the Italian variety of this story,<a name="FNanchor_357_357" id="FNanchor_357_357"></a><a href="#Footnote_357_357" class="fnanchor">[357]</a> the cow spins with +her horns for the good maiden, whilst she combs the head +of the old woman or the Madonna. I think I have already +said that I recognise in this good old woman, fairy, or +Madonna, the moon. The moon, like the sun, is considered +as in relation with the aurora, and especially the evening +aurora, which she accompanies; she is the hostess, the +guide, and the protectress of the hero and heroine of +evening, lost and pursued in the night; after the evening +aurora, the white moon comes out, in the same way as +after the morning aurora the sun comes out in effulgence. +We have seen that the name of purifier, cleanser, is given +to the Vedic aurora; from this expression to the image +of comber or cleanser of the head of the old Madonna the +transition is easy;<a name="FNanchor_358_358" id="FNanchor_358_358"></a><a href="#Footnote_358_358" class="fnanchor">[358]</a> from, <i>i.e.</i>, after, the aurora, the moon +comes out shining and clean, in a beautiful and serene +sky; and on this account pearls fall from the Madonna's +head; but when, on the other hand, the beautiful maiden, +the aurora, does not come, when the step-mother sends to +the pasture-ground, near the old woman, one of her own +daughters, foul lice fall from the head of the old fairy or +Madonna, inasmuch as the moon cannot show herself in +her splendour amid the shadows of the cloudy and black +night. The Russian story shows us how the beneficent +cow of the good maiden, who caresses her and serves her +well, and the Madonna or good old woman grateful for +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>the careful combing of her hair of Italian tradition, are +one and the same thing. In the thirty-fifth story of the +fifth book of <i>Afanassieff</i>, on the contrary, where the cow +appears in a demoniacal aspect, whom the hero Ivan, +condemned from a prince to become a cowherd, must +kiss under her tail, which she lifts with this intent, we +meet with an old witch who sucks the white breasts of +the beautiful girl, while the latter is obliged to hunt the +vermin in her head; in the witch, as well as in the cow +who insolently lifts up her tail, we can recognise the +gloomy night, an explanation which is justified by the +fact that the hero-shepherd Katoma, the adorned one, +the agile-footed, ends by flaying the shameless cow (the +morning sun, shepherd of the luminous cows, takes off +the skin of the dark-coloured cow of the gloomy night). +But, to return to the fifty-fourth story.—When the stepmother +sees that the girl has done all the work assigned +her, she begins to suspect that there is some one who +helps her, and so sends next night her first daughter, who +has but one eye, to watch the daughter-in-law, who goes +to the pasture-ground. The young Mary then says to +her, "Eye, sleep;" and immediately her step-sister +falls asleep, thus allowing the cow to assist her without +any one perceiving it. The second night, the second +daughter, who has two eyes, is sent; Mary says twice to +her, "Eye, sleep," and obtains, without being seen, the +same favours from the cow. The third night, the third +sister, who has three eyes, is sent; Mary does not +remember the third eye, and only says twice, "Eye, +sleep:" and so the third sister sees with her remaining +eye<a name="FNanchor_359_359" id="FNanchor_359_359"></a><a href="#Footnote_359_359" class="fnanchor">[359]</a> what the cow does with Mary, and in the morning +tells everything to her mother, who gives orders that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> +cow be killed. Mary warns the cow; and the cow +recommends her to eat none of her flesh, to keep the +bones, sow them in the garden, and water them. The +maiden does so; every day, however hungry she may be, +she eats none of the meat, only collects the bones together. +From the bones sown in the garden arises a marvellous +apple-tree, with leaves of gold, and branches of silver, +which prick and wound the three daughters of the stepmother, +whilst, on the other hand, they offer apples to +the beautiful maiden, in order that she may present one +to the young and rich lord who is to make her his wife. +In the following story, the fifty-fifth, which is a variation +of the preceding one, the girl is named Mary, and her +husband Ivan Tzarević; when she goes to the pasture, +and when she returns, she is accustomed to make +obeisance to the right foot of the cow. When the cow, +being killed, revives again in the shape of a tree, it swarms +with birds, which sing songs for kings and peasants alike, +and make the sweet fruits fall upon Mary's plate.</p> + +<p>The apples that cause horns to grow, and those which +beautify and make young, mentioned in the thirty-sixth +story of the fifth book, and again in the last book of the +collection of <i>Afanassieff</i>, as well as in other European +variations of the same subject, are connected, in my +opinion, with the myth of the evening sky, and of the +lunar night, in the shape of an apple-tree. In the +fifteenth story of the collection of <i>Erlenwein</i>, the third +brother, the usual Ivan, comes to an apple-tree which +has red apples, and eats four of them, upon which +four horns grow on his head, to such a height that +he cannot enter the forest; he goes to an apple-tree that +bears white fruit, eats four apples, and the four horns disappear. +(The solar hero at evening approaches the tree +with the red apples, the evening aurora, and immediately<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> +becomes deformed; horns grow on his head; he loses +himself in the shades of night; in the moonlight and the +alba, he approaches the tree with the white apples, loses +his horns, and becomes young and beautiful again.)</p> + +<p>In the fifty-seventh story of the sixth book of <i>Afanassieff's</i> +collection, Ivan Tzarević is presented with the +apples which restore youth to him who eats them, by the +sister of the sun, to whose abode he is lifted in the following +manner: Ivan (the sun) has for his sister (no doubt +half-sister) a serpent-witch (night), who has already +devoured his father and mother (the sun and the aurora +of evening, which create the night, and are destroyed by +it); the witch persecutes her little brother Ivan, and endeavours +to eat him; he flees, and she overtakes him in the +vicinity of the dwelling of the sister of the sun (the aurora, +the true sister of Ivan). The witch makes a proposal +to Ivan, that they be weighed together in the scales. +Ivan accepts this proposal, upon which the one enters the +one scale, and the other the other; no sooner does the +witch put her foot on the scale than, as she weighs so much +more than Ivan, he is lifted up to heaven, the dwelling +of the sister of the sun, where he is welcomed and admitted. +(A beautiful myth, of which the meaning is evident. +Ivan is the sun, the aurora is his sister; at morning, near +the abode of the aurora, that is, in the east, the shades of +night go underground, and the sun arises to the heavens; +this is the mythical pair of scales. Thus, in the Christian +belief, St Michael weighs human souls: those who weigh +much sink down into hell, and those who are light arise +to the heavenly paradise.)</p> + +<p>By means of the sister of the sun, Ivan saves himself +from the witch. In another story in <i>Afanassieff</i>,<a name="FNanchor_360_360" id="FNanchor_360_360"></a><a href="#Footnote_360_360" class="fnanchor">[360]</a> by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> +means of the sister of the hero Nikanore, the same Ivan, +running after the cows, causes them to have golden horns +and tails, with sides formed of stars; and afterwards, with +the assistance of the hero Nikanore in person (of the sun, +that is, of himself), he kills the serpent.</p> + +<p>We have already seen the cloudy and the gloomy sky +represented in the Vedic poems, now as a black cow, now +as a stable which encloses the bulls and cows. The black +bull or cow of night is considered to be demoniacal. +In a story given in <i>Afanassieff</i>,<a name="FNanchor_361_361" id="FNanchor_361_361"></a><a href="#Footnote_361_361" class="fnanchor">[361]</a> we find the devil in the +shape of a bull, which bellows, and throws up the earth +with its horns, arresting a nuptial procession. From a +bull he turns into a bear, then a hare, and then a crow, +to put obstacles in the way of the marriage, until, having +presented himself in the form of a devil, a soldier-hero +blinds him while he is drinking. A variation of this +soldier is the third son of the peasant,<a name="FNanchor_362_362" id="FNanchor_362_362"></a><a href="#Footnote_362_362" class="fnanchor">[362]</a> who is so strong +that with a snap of his fingers he makes the bull and the +bear fall dead, and then by a single pinch strips off their +skins. The same hero hires himself to a merchant, whom +he engages to serve for two years, on condition of receiving +as his reward, at the end of them, the permission +to give him a snap with the fingers and a pinch. The +merchant thinks he is getting the man's service for +nothing, but pays for it with his life. The merchant +seldom plays a good part in popular stories. He and +the miser are synonymous,—the miser is the monster +which keeps treasures hidden; and on this account, as we +have already seen in the Vedic hymns themselves, the +enemies of the gods, the monsters that ravish and conceal +the treasures, are represented as paṇayas or merchants, +cheats, robbers, or misers. The currency of this epithet +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>as a term of infamy must have been owing in part to +the dislike with which the priestly sacrificers of the last +Vedic period regarded the merchants, in whom they saw +only a pack of misers, because, on account of their +wandering life, they had neither cows nor bulls to give +them for sacrifice, but carried with them all their fortune, +and did not require the fertilising rain of the god Indras +to multiply their gold and their silver.</p> + +<p>The celestial bull comes out of the night or the nocturnal +stables either, as we have seen, to help the hero, +to be sacrificed, to flee from persecution, or because he +has been stolen by a skilful thief.</p> + +<p>In one of Kriloff's fables, God sends a terrible plague +among the animals, of which they perish in great numbers. +They are so terrified by it that they forsake their +habits, and begin to wander aimlessly hither and thither. +The wolf no longer eats the sheep; the fox leaves the hens +unmolested; the turtle-doves no longer make love to each +other. Then the lion holds a council of the animals, and +exhorts them all to confess their faults. The cunning fox +essays to quiet the lion-judge by assuring him that though +he stole some sheep, he did not thereby commit a fault; +and so he justifies his own ravages; as also do the bear, +the tiger, the wolf, and all the most wicked of the +animals. Then the simple bull comes forward, and, in +his turn, confesses that he stole a little hay from the +priest. This crime appears so heinous that the council +of animals sentences the bull to be offered in sacrifice.<a name="FNanchor_363_363" id="FNanchor_363_363"></a><a href="#Footnote_363_363" class="fnanchor">[363]</a></p> + +<p>Sometimes, on the contrary, the bull, either because +he cannot bear the bad treatment that he receives from +his masters, or in order to avoid the danger of being +killed or sold by the stupid son, who is in need of money<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> +that he may marry a wife, a danger of which he has a +presentiment, abandons the stable with other animals, +constructs a hut or isb and shuts himself up in it.<a name="FNanchor_364_364" id="FNanchor_364_364"></a><a href="#Footnote_364_364" class="fnanchor">[364]</a> +He has with him the lamb, the goose, the cock, or else +some other tame animals. The fox passes by, hears the +crowing of the cock, and goes to call his friends the bear +and the wolf to help him. The bear opens the door, the +fox enters, and the bull by goring him with his horns, +the lamb by butting against his sides, and the cock by +pecking his eyes out, put an end to the unwelcome intruder. +The wolf, who goes in, curious to see what is +going on, has the same fate, and the bear, who comes +last, only succeeds with great difficulty, and after having +been severely maltreated, in effecting his escape. In +another variation of the same story, the bear dies of fear, +and the stupid son takes his skin, sells it and makes +money; then, the danger of being sold having passed by, +the bull and his company return home. The battle +between the tame and the savage animals, won by the +former, is an expression in zoological form of the victory +of the heroes (the sun and the moon) over the monsters +of darkness.</p> + +<p>The story of the hero-thief is generally connected with +the carrying off of his master's horse; but not unfrequently +the hero, like the monster, becomes a robber of cows and +oxen.</p> + +<p>The thief Ivan<a name="FNanchor_365_365" id="FNanchor_365_365"></a><a href="#Footnote_365_365" class="fnanchor">[365]</a> is required to steal from his master a +black bull or ox tied to the plough; if he succeeds, he is +to have a hundred roubles for his reward; but if he does +not, he is to receive instead a hundred bastinadoes. In +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>order to steal it, Ivan adopts the following device: he +takes a cock, plucks it, and puts it alive under a clod +of earth. The ploughmen come with the oxen; while +they are ploughing, the cock starts up; they leave the +plough to run after it, upon which Ivan, who was hidden +behind a bush, comes out. He cuts off one ox's tail and +puts it in another ox's mouth, and then leads away the +black ox. The ploughmen, not having been able to +overtake the cock, come back, and when they see only +two animals instead of three, conclude that one ox has +eaten the black ox and is beginning to eat the tail of the +other, the variegated ox. In the twenty-first story of the +fifth book of <i>Afanassieff</i>, the boy-dwarf steals an ox +from the priest and eats its tripe.<a name="FNanchor_366_366" id="FNanchor_366_366"></a><a href="#Footnote_366_366" class="fnanchor">[366]</a></p> + +<p>From the cow the hero is born; under a putrid cow +thrown into a ditch lies Ivan Tzarević; a bird takes the +water off and Ivan Tzarević comes forth.<a name="FNanchor_367_367" id="FNanchor_367_367"></a><a href="#Footnote_367_367" class="fnanchor">[367]</a> In another +story of <i>Afanassieff</i>, the fox-heroine, companion of the +wolf, whilst the wolf is absent, eats the intestines of the +calf, their common property (which they had received +from cowherds in exchange for a certain cake contaminated +by their excrement, the usual excrement +which is the beginning of riches); she then fills the +calf or cow with straw and sparrows, and departs. The +wolf returns, is astonished that the calf should have +eaten so much straw that it comes out, and draws out the +straw. The birds fly away, the calf falls, and the wolf +flees away terrified.<a name="FNanchor_368_368" id="FNanchor_368_368"></a><a href="#Footnote_368_368" class="fnanchor">[368]</a> With these two myths are connected +two more, that of the son of the cow and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>that of the ascent into heaven by means of the cow's +hide.</p> + +<p>The king has no sons; he catches a pike, which the +cook washes, giving thereafter the dirty water to the cow +to drink; the fish they give to the black girl to carry to +the queen; the black girl eats a piece of it on the way, +and the queen eats what remains. At the expiration of +nine months, the cow, the maid, and the queen, give +each birth to a son. The three sons resemble each +other completely; but the son of the cow, the hero-tempest, +is the strongest of the three brothers, and +accomplishes the most difficult enterprises. In another +variation of the same story, in <i>Afanassieff</i>,<a name="FNanchor_369_369" id="FNanchor_369_369"></a><a href="#Footnote_369_369" class="fnanchor">[369]</a> instead of the +cow we have the bitch giving birth to the strongest of +the three brothers.<a name="FNanchor_370_370" id="FNanchor_370_370"></a><a href="#Footnote_370_370" class="fnanchor">[370]</a> In the nineteenth story of <i>Erlenwein</i>, +instead of the cow and the bitch, we have the mare; the +strongest brother is here the son of the black girl, Burghraver +or the hero-tempest (Burya-Bagatr). In the third +story of <i>Erlenwein</i>, Ivan Tzarević appears as the son of +the black girl. As in numerous other Russian stories, Ivan +Tzarević, usually the third brother, appears not only (as) +the most skilful, but the strongest of the brothers, we +are driven to recognise in the three brothers, the son of the +black girl, the son of the cow, and the queen's son, who +alternately accomplish the same heroic undertakings, the +same solar personage, whose mother, Night, is represented +now as a queen, now as a cow (we have just seen Ivan +Tzarević come out of the putrid cow), now as a black +slave (the negro washerwoman, the Saracen woman of +Italian stories [Holda]; the cleaned fish which is carried +by the black girl may perhaps be a link connecting the +imagery of Russian tradition with that of Italian legend). +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>In the second story of the fifth book of <i>Afanassieff</i>, +the third brother, the cunning one, by means of the hides +of his cows and oxen converted into thongs, ascends into +heaven; thus, in a variation of the same story, the third +brother thinks to let himself down by the cow's hide, cut +into pieces and made into thongs, being fastened to the +confines of heaven; but he perceives on the way that the +thong is not long enough. Some peasants are threshing +corn, and the chaff rises into the air; he tries to make a +rope with this chaff, but the rope breaks and he falls to +the ground. This successful ascent into heaven, followed +by an unlucky descent, is often referred to, with curious +details, in Russian popular legend; to which a play of +words in the language must have not a little contributed. +It is as follows, "He who mounts does not descend,"<a name="FNanchor_371_371" id="FNanchor_371_371"></a><a href="#Footnote_371_371" class="fnanchor">[371]</a> <i>i.e.</i>, +when one is doing one thing he cannot be doing the contrary. +This elementary truth was afterwards altered by +changing the tenses. "He who has been able to ascend +will not be able to come down again;" which is only +partly true, and means that while in dreams we require +only a thin thread to mount up high, when we wish to +come down from the world of dreams to that of reality, +the fall is heavy; we come down with leaden wings, +with that difficulty in breathing which oppresses us in +dreams when we seem to fall from a height with painful +slowness. And as at the end of the dream, after the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> +painful fall from the sky, we awaken alive, so the story +does not say of the hero who fell from heaven that he is +dead, only that his dreams are dead. He is only unlucky +when, the second time, he attempts the descent with a +greater weight.</p> + +<p>While reasonings such as these may have helped to +diffuse the myths, I believe that the myths, at their formation, +pleased more as images of nature than of reason, +and as the images of mythology are almost all celestial, +so in the third brother, or old man of other varieties of +the story, who mounts up to heaven and comes down +again by means of the cow's hide, I always recognise the +sun. The old man who ascends into heaven, after the +cow is dead, does so also by means of a vegetable of +funereal omen which grows up in a marvellous manner.</p> + +<p>An old man and an old woman have one daughter; +she eats some beans and lets one fall to the ground; a +plant (the moon) grows up till it reaches the sky. The +old man mounts up and then comes back again. He +tries to take his wife up in a sack, but unable to bear +the weight, he lets her fall to the ground, when she dies.<a name="FNanchor_372_372" id="FNanchor_372_372"></a><a href="#Footnote_372_372" class="fnanchor">[372]</a></p> + +<p>A cabbage grows up near an old man's dwelling, till +in like manner it rises up to the sky. The old man +climbs up, makes a hole in the sky, and eats and drinks +to satiety. He then returns and narrates everything to +his wife. She wishes to go up too; when they are half +way, the old man lets the sack drop, the old woman +dies, and her husband prepares her funeral, calling in the +fox<a name="FNanchor_373_373" id="FNanchor_373_373"></a><a href="#Footnote_373_373" class="fnanchor">[373]</a> as a mourner.</p> + +<p>Other variations of the same story offer us, instead of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>the cow's hide, the cabbage, and the beanstalk, the pea-plant, +and even the oak-tree, which grows up to heaven.<a name="FNanchor_374_374" id="FNanchor_374_374"></a><a href="#Footnote_374_374" class="fnanchor">[374]</a></p> + +<p>From the vegetable or funereal plant,—a symbol, as we +have already remarked, at once of abundance and resurrection,—by +which the hero ascends to heaven, where he +finds riches and abundance of food, the transition was +very natural to the pea which turns round, of which the +hero Turn-little-Pea (the son of the king of the peas) is +born.</p> + +<p>In the second story of the third book of <i>Afanassieff</i>,<a name="FNanchor_375_375" id="FNanchor_375_375"></a><a href="#Footnote_375_375" class="fnanchor">[375]</a> +Turn-little-Pea appears as the third of the brothers, as +the youngest brother, who delivers his sister and his two +brothers from the monster. But the ungrateful brothers +(perhaps covetous of the maiden, here called a sister, but, +who is virtually the same, the bride delivered and disputed +for by the three brothers in numerous Indo-European +legends), tie him to an oak-tree and go home alone. +Turn-little-Pea unroots the whole oak and goes off. He +afterwards kills three more monster-serpents, and the +she-serpents their wives.</p> + +<p>In the thirtieth story of the second book of <i>Afanassieff</i>, +this enterprise against the serpents, male and female, is +attributed to the usual Ivan. He goes with his brothers +against the serpent with twelve heads, and with his iron +stick alone kills nine of them, and the three remaining ones +by the help of his two brothers. Then the she-serpent +and her three daughters persecute the three brothers, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>Ivan in particular. She causes them to find a beautiful +cushion upon the ground; Ivan, who is suspicious of +some trick, first beats the cushion, upon which blood +gushes out of it (in the story of <i>Turn-little-Pea</i>, the +young hero averts the danger by making the sign of the +cross with his sword, when blood comes out). The +serpent then tempts them by an apple-tree with gold +and silver apples. The brothers wish to pluck some; +Ivan, however, first strikes the tree, and blood flows +from it. They then come to a beautiful fountain, where +the brothers would like to drink; Ivan strikes the +fountain, and again blood comes from it. The cushion, +the apple-tree, and the fountain were the three daughters +of the serpent. Then the serpent, having failed to deceive +them, rushes upon Ivan; the latter escapes with his +brothers into a forge shut by twelve iron gates; the +serpent licks the doors with her tongue to force a passage, +and her tongue is caught with red-hot pincers.</p> + +<p>In the fourth story of <i>Erlenwein</i>, the three brothers +occur again with interesting mythical names. A woman +bears three sons; one at evening, who is on this account +called Većernik, or the evening one; the second at +midnight, whence he is named Polunoćnik, or the midnight +one; the third at the aurora, who is named +Svetazr, or the clearly-seeing. The three brothers +become adults in a few hours. The most valiant of the +three is Svetazr, the last one. To prove his strength, +he goes to the blacksmith and orders an iron club that +weighs twelve puds (480 pounds); he throws it into the +air and catches it on the palm of his hand, the club +breaks. He orders one of twenty puds (800 pounds), +throws it up, catches it on his knee, and it breaks. +Finally he orders one of thirty puds (1200 pounds), +throws it up, and catches it on his forehead; it bends but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> +does not break. Svetazr has it straightened and takes +it with him, as he goes with his two brothers to deliver +the three daughters of the Tzar, carried off by three +magicians into the three castles of copper, silver, and gold. +Svetazr, after having drunk the water of strength, and +received from the first princess an egg of copper, from +the second one of silver, and from the third a golden +one, delivers the three princesses and brings them out. +The two brothers, seeing that the third princess is more +beautiful than the others, think that the youngest brother +is reserving her for himself, and throw him into the water. +Svetazr wanders about the subterranean world, and +delivers the daughter of another Tzar by killing a +monster and burying him under a rock. A soldier +boasts before the Tzar of having accomplished this heroic +act. Svetazr invites the soldier to prove his strength, +and so the truth of his boast, by lifting the rock up. He +does not succeed, and Svetazr wins the trial of strength, +upon which the soldier is executed by order of the Tzar. +After this, Svetazr, for having once spared the life of a +crow, is carried by it into the world of the living, on +condition that he gives it something to eat by the way. +Svetazr has at length to feed the crow with his own +flesh, yet is in the end set down again safe and sound, +with all his flesh, in the world above, where, with the +eggs of copper, silver, and gold, he causes the castles +formed of these metals to arise, in which are found +the ring, the slipper, and the robe demanded from their +bridegrooms by the three princesses, who hoped by this +expedient to see again their lost Svetazr. Then Svetazr +begins to sweep out the terrace of the golden castle. +The third princess expresses her intention to take +him for her husband. The nuptials are celebrated, +Svetazr pardoning his two elder brothers and giving<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> +them the two elder sisters of his bride. (The princess of +the copper is the evening aurora, the princess of the +silver is the silvery moon, and that of the gold is the +morning aurora, to whom Svetazr, the clearly-seeing, +the illumined, the sun, is married.)</p> + +<p>In the sixth story of the first book of <i>Afanassieff</i>, the +same undertaking is accomplished by the third brother, +Ivan. The monster which carries off the three sisters is +an aquatic one, an otter. Abandoned by his brothers in +the nether world, Ivan is overtaken by a great tempest; +he takes pity upon some young birds that are bathing, +and saves them under his dress, upon which the grateful +mother of the birds brings him back to the upper world. +In the fifteenth story of <i>Erlenwein</i>, the third brother is +the cunning one, who, by a stratagem, and by means of +his purse, which is self-replenishing, steals from his two +brothers the snuff-box out of which issue as many armies +as are wished for, and the cloth which makes the wearer +invisible (both figures to represent the cloud from which +come forth riches, solar rays, thunderbolts, and weapons, +and which hides the hero, that is, renders him invisible). +In the fifty-fourth story of the fifth book of <i>Afanassieff</i>, +Ivan of the dog, the hero sacrificed by his brothers, is the +strong one, he who delivers the three princesses, who +possesses the three rings, and gives them to the goldsmith +from whom they were ordered, and who is not +able to make them, by which means he is recognised.</p> + +<p>Ivan Tzarević, inasmuch as he was born of a cow, as we +have also seen above, was necessarily represented as a +bull; the bull displays part of his strength by drinking; +Ivan Tzarević drinks, at a gulp, whole barrels of wine +of marvellous strength. In this capacity he resembles +Indras, the great drinker of somas, and the drinker +Bhmas, the second brother of the Pṇḍavas.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span></p> + +<p>The third brother is now Prince Ivan (Ivan Tzarević, +Ivan Karoliević, Ivan Kraliević), now the stupid Ivan +(Ivan durak), Ivan the little fool (Ivan Duraćiok). But, as +I have already remarked, the fool generally makes his fortune, +either because the kingdom of heaven is for the poor +in spirit, or because the stupidity of Ivan is feigned, or else +because the fool becomes wise. In a story given in <i>Afanassieff</i>,<a name="FNanchor_376_376" id="FNanchor_376_376"></a><a href="#Footnote_376_376" class="fnanchor">[376]</a> +the fool is also lazy, and takes the name of Emilius.</p> + +<p>Emilius is sent with a barrel to draw water; he only +goes on account of the promise made him by his sister, +that he will receive as a reward a pair of red boots.—This +desire of the boy-hero, and of the girl-heroine, is spoken +of in many popular songs, and among others, in a Piedmontese +one, as yet unpublished. In the seventeenth story +of the fifth book of <i>Afanassieff</i>,<a name="FNanchor_377_377" id="FNanchor_377_377"></a><a href="#Footnote_377_377" class="fnanchor">[377]</a> the sister kills her +brother, Little John, to possess herself of his red strawberries +(as in the Esthonian tale), and his red little shoes. +Upon his grave a fine cane grows; a shepherd makes a +flute of it, and the flute, pressed to the lips, begins to +emit the following lamentation:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Gently, gently, little shepherd, play;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Do not wound my heart!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My little sister, the traitress,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For the red little strawberries, for the red little shoes!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>When the flute is pressed to the sister's lips, instead of the +word "little shepherd," it says, "Little sister, thou hast +betrayed me,"<a name="FNanchor_378_378" id="FNanchor_378_378"></a><a href="#Footnote_378_378" class="fnanchor">[378]</a> and her crime is thus discovered. These +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>little red shoes are simply a variation of the slippers which +are lost by the fugitive aurora, and found again by the +sun, and which both wish to wear. (I refer to this myth +the origin of the nuptial custom in Europe of maidens, +towards the new year, throwing the slipper to know whether, +during the next year, they will be married, and who +is to be their husband.)<a name="FNanchor_379_379" id="FNanchor_379_379"></a><a href="#Footnote_379_379" class="fnanchor">[379]</a> The slipper lost by the maiden, +Little Mary (Masha, the Marion of Piedmontese and +French legends), and found by the prince, also occurs in +the Russian tales. In the thirtieth of the sixth book of +<i>Afanassieff</i>, Little Mary's elder sister begins by trying +on the slipper; but it is too small; the foot will not go +in. Seeing this, Little Mary's step-mother advises her +daughter to cut off her great toe, which would not enter; +then the foot goes in, and the messengers of the prince +lead the eldest sister away; but two doves fly after them +and cry out, "Blood on her foot, blood on her foot." The +deceit is discovered, and the eldest sister sent back; the +prince causes his true and predestined bride, Little Mary, +to be carried off. (This is the usual exchange of wives, +upon which I have remarked in my "Essay on the Comparative +History of Nuptial Usages," and of which the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> +legend of Queen Berta is one of the most popular +examples. The Russian Little Mary, like Cinderella, is +at first of ugly aspect, and then beautiful. In the Russian +story, the maiden becomes beautiful by mounting upon +the stove. St comes forth, beautiful in her innocence, +passing through the fire; the morning aurora only seems +beautiful when it passes through the flames of the Eastern +sky. The stove brings us back to the interrupted story +of the foolish and lazy Emilius (or Ivan).—On account, +therefore, of the promise made to him of the red boots, +he goes to the fountain with the barrel to draw water. +In the fountain he catches a pike, who beseeches him to +set him at liberty, and promises in return to make him +fortunate. Being lazy, the greatest favour that he wishes +for at this moment is that he may be helped to carry the +barrel; the grateful pike performs the miracle of the +barrel full of water which walks of its own accord. (I +have already endeavoured to explain this myth: the +cloud is represented as a barrel in the Vedic hymns; it +moves on of its own accord; the barrel does the same; the +hero, as long as he is shut up in the cloud, remains +foolish; the barrel of the fool walks of itself.) Emilius +is then sent to cut wood; by favour of the grateful pike, +it is enough for him to send his hatchet, which cuts the +wood of itself; the wood piles itself upon the waggon, +and the waggon, without being drawn by any one, +advances, passing or crushing whatever it meets; they +endeavour to arrest its progress, when the trunk of an +oak-tree detaches itself from the waggon, and, like a stick, +beating on every side, sweeps the road (these are all +curious variations of the walking forest or cloud). The +Tzar then sends to invite him to court, and knowing his +weak penchant for things of a red colour, he promises +him a red robe, a red hat, and red boots. When the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> +Tzar's envoys arrive, Emilius, like his <i>alter ego</i> Ivan +Durak (Ivan the fool), is warming himself at the stove; +grudging all trouble, he obtains from the pike the favour +of being carried by the stove itself to the Tzar at court. +The Tzar's daughter falls in love with him; the Tzar +shuts the young couple up in a cask (the usual cloud-barrel, +which occurs in the form of a little chest in other +stories, a variation of the wooden dress), and has them +thrown into the sea. Emilius, who was drunk in the +cask, sleeps; the princess wakens him, and beseeches +him to save her; by means of the pike, the cask comes +to a beautiful island, where it breaks open; Emilius +becomes handsome, rich, and happy in a beautiful palace +with the young princess. (The aurora and the sun of +evening are thrown together into the ocean of night, until +they land on the happy isle of the east, where they reappear +again together in all their splendour.) One of the +most popular stupidities of the fool is that of letting the +wine contained in the barrel flow out upon the ground, +when he is left alone at home; in the Russian story, too, +Ivan the fool leaves the beer that is fermenting in the +barrel open (Indras with his lightning makes a hole in +the cloud-barrel, and the rain comes out).<a name="FNanchor_380_380" id="FNanchor_380_380"></a><a href="#Footnote_380_380" class="fnanchor">[380]</a></p> + +<p>The fool Ivan takes his good luck from the living, but +he also does so from the dead. On account of having +watched three nights by the tomb of his father, his luck +begins,<a name="FNanchor_381_381" id="FNanchor_381_381"></a><a href="#Footnote_381_381" class="fnanchor">[381]</a> the shade of his father having blessed him; but, +as the dead bring good luck (a belief which, at any rate, +has always been entertained by the heirs of rich men +deceased), the third brother speculates on the body of his +own mother. We do not know whether he does so out +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>of pure simplicity, or with some hidden and far-seeing +design, presumable from the ease with which he exchanges +the character of a fool for that of a cunning schemer (the +first Brutus of popular tradition). In the seventeenth +story of <i>Erlenwein</i>, after he has carried a treasure home, +by selling his ox to the tree, and then cutting down the +tree, which contains money, he always guards his money, +and sleeps upon it. His brothers know this, and resolve +to go and kill him. But that very night, the third, the +foolish brother, leaves his mother in charge of the treasure; +the brothers come and kill his mother by mistake, +instead of him. He turns up, and threatens to give +them up to justice; they bribe him with a hundred +roubles to keep silence. Then the third brother takes +his mother's body and carries it into the middle of the +road, in order that a merchant's waggon may crush it; +when this happens, he accuses the merchant of murder, +until the latter gives him a hundred more roubles to say +nothing about it. He then comes to a village by night +with his mother's corpse; he places it against a peasant's +door, and knocks at the window; the peasant opens the +door, the body falls, and the peasant treads upon it, upon +which the so-called stupid son cries out that he has killed +his mother, and receives another hundred roubles, on +promise of silence. Then the two elder brothers, finding +that it is possible to speculate upon corpses, and make +one's fortune, kill their wives, and go to town with their +bodies; they are immediately arrested and put into prison.</p> + +<p>The law of atavism evolves itself in the generation of +the heroes of mythical legends, no less than in that of +simple mortals upon earth. Of a stupid father is born a +wise son, and then the wise son in turn has a foolish one. +I do not as yet know how to explain this singular fact of +natural history; its appearance in mythology, however,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> +is not difficult to understand. To the luminous day succeeds +the gloomy night, and then again to the dark night +the luminous day; to summer succeeds winter, and to +winter summer; to white black, and to black white; to +heat cold, and to cold heat.</p> + +<p>On this account, in legends, when the mother is intelligent, +the son, generally speaking, is silly; whereas, when +the mother is silly,<a name="FNanchor_382_382" id="FNanchor_382_382"></a><a href="#Footnote_382_382" class="fnanchor">[382]</a> the son is usually intelligent.</p> + +<p>In the fifth story of the sixth book of <i>Afanassieff</i>, a +soldier enters the house of a woman, while her son is +travelling, and induces her to believe that he has just +returned from hell, where he had seen her son employed +in taking the storks to pasture, and greatly in want of +money; the soldier says that he is about to return to +hell, and will be happy to take with him whatever the +woman wishes to send to her son. The credulous woman +gives him some money, directing him to take it immediately +to hell, and give it to her poor child. The soldier +disappears, and shortly afterwards the woman's son returns +home; his mother is greatly astonished at his appearance, +and tells him how she has been deceived; he gets angry +and leaves the house again, swearing never to return till +he finds some one more foolish than his mother. He is a +skilful thief; he steals from a lady, whilst her husband is +absent, a hog with its little pigs, and puts them in safe +concealment; the husband returns, hears what has taken +place, and follows the thief with a carriage and horses. +The robber hears him coming; squats down on the +ground, takes off his hat, and pretends to be covering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> +with it a bird or a falcon, which wishes to escape. The +husband comes and asks him if he has seen the robber; +the latter answers that he has seen him, but that he is a +long way off, and that the roads by which he can be +overtaken are many and winding. The husband, who, +perhaps, does not know the proverb which says, "Who +wishes, let him go; who wishes not, let him send," asks +the robber to overtake the fugitive; the thief demurs, +saying that he has under his hat a falcon, which cost his +master three hundred roubles, and that it may escape. +The gentleman promises to take care of it, and if the +falcon escapes, to pay the three hundred roubles. The +thief does not believe his promise, and desires the three +hundred roubles in pledge of his good faith; the gentleman +gives them, and the thief goes off with the carriage, +the horses, and the three hundred roubles. The gentleman +stays till evening looking at the hat, waiting for his +friend to return; at last he loses patience, wants to see +what there is under the hat, and finds nothing—but a +proof of his own stupidity.<a name="FNanchor_383_383" id="FNanchor_383_383"></a><a href="#Footnote_383_383" class="fnanchor">[383]</a></p> + +<p>Ivan (John), and oftener still Vaniusha (Little John, +the Giovannino of Italian legends), distinguishes himself, +not only by his thieving accomplishments, but also by his +courage. In order to play the part of a thief, as Little +John does in all the Indo-Europeans legends, not only +industry, but courage must be called into requisition; +hence he acquires, like the Chevalier Bayard, the good +reputation of a hero without fear and without reproach. +The hero Ivan is now the son of a king, now of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> +merchant, and now of a peasant; the merchants wished, +no less than the peasants, to appropriate to themselves the +most popular hero of tradition. In the forty-sixth story +of the fifth book of <i>Afanassieff</i>, neither the shades of +night, nor brigands, nor death, can make the hero afraid; +but he is terrified and dies, falling into the water, when +the little <i>iersh</i> (the perch) leaps upon his stomach, whilst +he is asleep in his fishing-boat. In the Tuscan story,<a name="FNanchor_384_384" id="FNanchor_384_384"></a><a href="#Footnote_384_384" class="fnanchor">[384]</a> the +fearless hero Giovannino, after having confronted every +kind of danger, dies from the terror the sight of his +own shadow inspires him with. In the same way, in the +<i>Ṛigvedas</i>, the god Indras, terrified at his own shadow, +or, probably, that of his dead enemy, takes to flight after +the killing of the serpent Ahis.<a name="FNanchor_385_385" id="FNanchor_385_385"></a><a href="#Footnote_385_385" class="fnanchor">[385]</a></p> + +<p>The following heroes are also variations of Prince +Ivan, Ivan the son of the cow, Ivan the peasant's son, +Ivan the merchant's son, and the cunning Ivan:—1st, +Alessino Papović, the son of the priest (it is well known +that the Russian priests are not bound to celibacy), who +kills Tugarin, the son of the serpent, by prayer, that is, +by praying to the Holy Mother of God, to order the black +cloud to cause drops of rain to fall on the monster's +wings, upon which the son of the serpent, like the Vedic +Ahis, when Indras opens a way for the rivers to come +out, instantly falls to the ground;<a name="FNanchor_386_386" id="FNanchor_386_386"></a><a href="#Footnote_386_386" class="fnanchor">[386]</a> 2d, Baldak, son of +Boris, the boy seven years old, who succeeds in spitting +in the Sultan's face—(I have already remarked, in the +preface to this work, that the king of the Turks is, in +the Slavonic tradition, as well as in that of Persia, the +representative of the devil; the demon, when the hero +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>approaches, smells the odour of human flesh in India, of +Christian flesh in Western stories,<a name="FNanchor_387_387" id="FNanchor_387_387"></a><a href="#Footnote_387_387" class="fnanchor">[387]</a> and of Russian flesh in +Russian fairy tales)—but who afterwards becomes the +Sultan's prisoner, because he appears to the third daughter +of the latter with a star under his heel, or shows his heel +(which is the vulnerable part of both hero and monster); +3d, Basil Bes-ćiastnoi, who goes, by his father-in-law's +order, into the kingdom of the serpent, in order to receive +a gift from him, with adventures similar to those of the +young Plavaćek in Bohemian stories, when he goes to +seek the three golden hairs of the old Vsieveda (the all-seeing, +the Vedic sun Vivavedas);<a name="FNanchor_388_388" id="FNanchor_388_388"></a><a href="#Footnote_388_388" class="fnanchor">[388]</a> 4th, The third brother +who exchanges two sacks of flies and gnats he has caught +for good cattle.<a name="FNanchor_389_389" id="FNanchor_389_389"></a><a href="#Footnote_389_389" class="fnanchor">[389]</a> The same hero takes the name of Little +Thomas Berennikoff; being blind of one eye, he kills an +army of flies, and boasts of having killed an army of +heroes; he thus dishonestly gains the reputation of being +a hero, and is fortunate in having an opportunity offered +him of proving his bravery by killing a monster-serpent, +who, out of foolhardiness, shuts both eyes when he sees +that Thomas has but one; he afterwards destroys an +army of Chinese with the trunk of a tree, rooted up by +his indomitable horse, which a real hero had bound to the +tree;<a name="FNanchor_390_390" id="FNanchor_390_390"></a><a href="#Footnote_390_390" class="fnanchor">[390]</a> 5th, The cunning rogue, Little Thomas (Thomka; +the quacks in Piedmont are accustomed to give the name +of Tommasino to the little devil which they conjure out +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>of a phial), who, by means of disguises, cheats and robs +the priest;<a name="FNanchor_391_391" id="FNanchor_391_391"></a><a href="#Footnote_391_391" class="fnanchor">[391]</a> 6th, The third brother who does not suffer +himself to be put to sleep by the witch (as we have seen +above the third sister who keeps one of her three eyes +open);<a name="FNanchor_392_392" id="FNanchor_392_392"></a><a href="#Footnote_392_392" class="fnanchor">[392]</a> 7th, The famous robber, Klimka,<a name="FNanchor_393_393" id="FNanchor_393_393"></a><a href="#Footnote_393_393" class="fnanchor">[393]</a> who, by means +of a drum (in Indian tales a trumpet), terrifies his accomplices, +the robbers, and takes their money, and then steals +from a gentleman his horse, his casket of jewels, and even +his wife; 8th, The Cossack who delivers the maiden +from the flames, and carries her to his golden house, +where there are two other maidens (be it understood, the +one in the silver house, and the other in that of copper); +from which three maidens the Cossack receives a shirt +which renders him invulnerable, a sword which produces +the most marvellous effects in slaughtering men, and a +purse which, when shaken, drops money;<a name="FNanchor_394_394" id="FNanchor_394_394"></a><a href="#Footnote_394_394" class="fnanchor">[394]</a> 9th, The +celebrated Ilia Muromietz (Elias of Murom), round +whom, as also around Svetazr and Svyatogor (holy +mount), Dobrynia Nikitić, and the heroes of Vladimir, is +grouped an entire heroic Russian epic poem.<a name="FNanchor_395_395" id="FNanchor_395_395"></a><a href="#Footnote_395_395" class="fnanchor">[395]</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>Other variations of the same hero are the son of the +merchant given up to be educated by the devil, who +teaches him every kind of craft; the boy Basil, who +understands the language of birds, and who makes his +parents serve him;<a name="FNanchor_396_396" id="FNanchor_396_396"></a><a href="#Footnote_396_396" class="fnanchor">[396]</a> the merchant or son of a peasant,<a name="FNanchor_397_397" id="FNanchor_397_397"></a><a href="#Footnote_397_397" class="fnanchor">[397]</a> +who, because he prefers good advice to money, acquires +a fortune; the virtuous workman, who receives by +way of pay for his labour only three kapeika, which, +spent in good works, enables him at last to marry the +king's daughter, or the princess who did not laugh.<a name="FNanchor_398_398" id="FNanchor_398_398"></a><a href="#Footnote_398_398" class="fnanchor">[398]</a></p> + +<p>The legend of the hero Ivan has yet other interesting +forms, reflective of the beautiful Vedic myth of the Avinu, +who into their flying chariot-vessel also take up the unhappy. +In <i>Afanassieff</i>,<a name="FNanchor_399_399" id="FNanchor_399_399"></a><a href="#Footnote_399_399" class="fnanchor">[399]</a> the third brother, thought to +be foolish, is ill-treated by his parents, who dress and +feed him badly. The king issues a proclamation, that +whoever can make a flying vessel will obtain his daughter +to wife. The mother sends forth her three sons in quest +of the necessary enchantment; to her third son she gives +a little brown bread and water, whilst the two eldest go +provided with good white loaves and some brandy. The +fool meets on the way a poor old man, salutes him, and +begins to share with him his scanty store of food; the +old man transmutes his brown bread into white, and his +water into brandy, and then advises him to enter the +forest, to make the sign of the cross upon the first tree +he finds, and to strike it with his axe; then to throw +himself on the ground and stay there until he wakens; +he will see a vessel ready before him: "Sit down in +it," added the old man, "and fly whither your behest +requires you; and by the way take up beside you as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>many as you meet."<a name="FNanchor_400_400" id="FNanchor_400_400"></a><a href="#Footnote_400_400" class="fnanchor">[400]</a> This chariot is freighted with +abundance, both to eat and to drink; the young man +overtakes several needy beggars, and invites them up +into the chariot; he receives only poor people, not a +single rich man.<a name="FNanchor_401_401" id="FNanchor_401_401"></a><a href="#Footnote_401_401" class="fnanchor">[401]</a> But these poor men afterwards show +their gratitude to the hero, and help him in other adventures +imposed upon him by the Tzar, who hopes by this +means to get rid of a son-in-law of such vulgar origin. +One of the new tasks imposed requires him to eat +twelve oxen, and to drink at one gulp forty barrels of +wine; in this he is helped by Eating (Abidalo) and by +Drinking (Apivlo), whom he had entertained in his +chariot-ship, and who eat and drink instead of him.<a name="FNanchor_402_402" id="FNanchor_402_402"></a><a href="#Footnote_402_402" class="fnanchor">[402]</a> +At last he comes to claim and marry the young princess. +(The hero-sun, taken up into the chariot of the Avinu, +by the grace of the Avinu, invoked by him in danger, +is delivered, and espouses the aurora.)</p> + +<p>In a variation of this legend, a prince, fifteen years of age, +who has been lost by his parents, is found again by means +of a riddle which they propose, and which he alone +can solve.<a name="FNanchor_403_403" id="FNanchor_403_403"></a><a href="#Footnote_403_403" class="fnanchor">[403]</a> In the Vedic hymns it is now the aurora, the +beautiful maiden, who delivers the hero-sun, and now the +hero-sun who delivers the beautiful maiden, the aurora. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>In the forty-first story of the sixth book of <i>Afanassieff</i>, +a little girl, seven years old (semilietk), presents herself +to the Tzar, who must marry her, inasmuch as she solves +the riddle proposed by him, by arriving riding on a hare +(an animal which represents the moon), with a quail (an +animal which seems to represent the sun) tied to her +hand.<a name="FNanchor_404_404" id="FNanchor_404_404"></a><a href="#Footnote_404_404" class="fnanchor">[404]</a> She too, like the aurora, knows all; she too +protects the poor against the rich, and the innocent +against the guilty. The dwarf Allwis is a form of +this child. Allwis is the omniscient man of the Edda, +who solves all the questions put to him by the god +Thor, in order to obtain his daughter; when he is +done with answering these questions, day breaks, and +the sun shines.</p> + +<p>The wondrous girl of seven years of age (the aurora), +brings us back to the marvellous puppet (generally, the +moon). It is three puppets (the wooden chest of Marion +d'bosch, or wooden little Mary of the Piedmontese story, +the dark forest of night, the tree that hides the splendid +treasures of the evening aurora; another variety of the +same myth in relation to the sun) that hide the three +splendid dresses of the stars, the moon and the sun, +which belong to the beautiful maiden, the daughter of +the priest (a variation of the Vedic aurora, duhitar divas, +or daughter of the sky). It is the three puppets which +enable the beautiful girl to descend through the ground, +and so escape from the persecutions of her father and +seducer (in other versions, of her brother), and which go +down with her, dressed as old women, and enter a +forest, where, near an oak-tree, there is the house of a +princess, who has a young and handsome son.<a name="FNanchor_405_405" id="FNanchor_405_405"></a><a href="#Footnote_405_405" class="fnanchor">[405]</a> In a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>variation of this story,<a name="FNanchor_406_406" id="FNanchor_406_406"></a><a href="#Footnote_406_406" class="fnanchor">[406]</a> the girl is persecuted, not by her +father, but the well-known cruel stepmother, for whom +she divides the wheat from the barley, and draws water +at the fountain (like the Vedic maiden Apal); she goes +three times splendidly dressed to church (which takes +the place of the ball-room of other stories), where she is +seen three times by a handsome prince; she is twice +followed, and twice disappears; the third time the prince +has gum (pitch, in other variations) put on the ground; +the fugitive loses her golden slipper in consequence, +which the prince picks up, and tries on all the maidens +till he finds his bride. In another story,<a name="FNanchor_407_407" id="FNanchor_407_407"></a><a href="#Footnote_407_407" class="fnanchor">[407]</a> where the +relation of the aurora with the two Avinu comes out +in wonderful distinctness,<a name="FNanchor_408_408" id="FNanchor_408_408"></a><a href="#Footnote_408_408" class="fnanchor">[408]</a> it is by means of her marvellous +speaking puppet (<i>i.e.</i>, the moon, the Vedic Rak, +very small, but very intelligent, enclosed in the wooden +dress, in the forest of night) that the girl, persecuted by +her step-mother, weaves a cloth so fine that it can pass +like a thread through the eye of a needle (just as the +girl's feet are very small, so also are the puppet's hands). +The marvellous cloth is brought to the Tzar, but no one +is found who is able to sew it into a shirt for the Tzar.<a name="FNanchor_409_409" id="FNanchor_409_409"></a><a href="#Footnote_409_409" class="fnanchor">[409]</a> +The maiden alone, by the help of her puppet, succeeds; +the Tzar wishes to see the girl who prepared his extraordinary +shirt, and goes to find her; he is astonished at +her beauty, and marries her. In the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, the +aurora weaves a robe for her husband the sun. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>The same girl (the aurora) whom we have here only as +a good, beautiful, intelligent, and skilful maiden, appears +in other stories given in <i>Afanassieff</i> as a heroic damsel. +In the seventh story of the first book she disguises herself +as a man, and mocks the Tzar three times. In the +fourteenth story of the first book, the same girl, under +the name of Anastasia the beautiful, vanquishes and +binds the serpent, and discovers the secret of how he can +be killed. Under the name of Helen, or Little Helen, +she is the protectress of her little brother, Ivanusca +(Little John),<a name="FNanchor_410_410" id="FNanchor_410_410"></a><a href="#Footnote_410_410" class="fnanchor">[410]</a> and his guide through the world; and +when the boy, by the incantation of a witch, is transformed +into a lamb or kid (in a story of the Canavese, in +Piedmont, the seven monks, brothers of the courageous +girl, are transformed into seven hogs), she recommends +him to the care of the prince, her husband, in order that +he may destroy the evil work of the witch. The same +maiden is found again as the very wise Basilia (Vasilisa +Premudraia), who succours the young hero, because, +after stealing her dress while she was bathing in the sea, +he restores it to her, agreeably to her prayer. For this +favour she gratefully accomplishes for him the labours +imposed upon him by the king of the waters, and ends, +after many vicissitudes, by marrying him.<a name="FNanchor_411_411" id="FNanchor_411_411"></a><a href="#Footnote_411_411" class="fnanchor">[411]</a> She appears +once more as the royal maiden (Tzar-dievitza), who comes +three times with her ships by sea to lead away the young +Ivan, beloved by her;<a name="FNanchor_412_412" id="FNanchor_412_412"></a><a href="#Footnote_412_412" class="fnanchor">[412]</a> and I also place among the girl-heroines +the daughter of the shepherd in the twenty-ninth +story of the fifth book of <i>Afanassieff</i>, of which this is an +abridgment. There was once a king who could not find +a maiden beautiful enough to suit his taste. One day, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>returning from the chase (the solar hero always meets the +aurora, his bride, when returning from the hunt in the +forest of night), he meets a shepherd's daughter, who is +leading out the flock to pasture, so beautiful that her +like would be sought for in vain over the world. He +becomes enamoured of her, and promises to make her his +wife, but only on condition that she will never say anything +displeasing to him, whatever he may do; the poor +enamoured maiden consents, the nuptials are celebrated, +and the couple live together happily for a year. A boy +is born to them; then the king says roughly to his wife +that the boy must be killed, that it may never be said the +heir to the throne is the son of a shepherdess. The poor +woman resigns herself to her fate, remarking, "The will +of the king must be done." Another year passes, and a +daughter is born. The king informs his wife that she too +must be killed, as she can never become a princess, but +will always remain a peasant girl. The unhappy mother +once more bows her head to the will of the king, who, +however, consigns his son and daughter, not to an executioner, +but to his sister, that they may receive all the +attentions due to their royal pedigree and standing. +Years pass away; the little prince and princess grow up +beautiful, healthy, good, and happy, and pass adolescence. +Then the king puts his wife to the last proof. He sends +her back to her house in the dress of a shepherdess, +signifying at the same time that she has lived with him +long enough. Then he orders her to return, to put the +rooms in order, and to wait upon the new bride whom he +intends to take her place; the shepherd's daughter obeys +again without a murmur. The new bride arrives, and +is set down at the table; they eat, drink, and are merry; +the shepherd's daughter is obliged to see and hear all, +and to serve in silence; at last the king asks her, "Well,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> +is not my bride beautiful?" To which the unhappy +woman responds with a heroic effort, "If she seem +beautiful to thee, still more does she seem so to me." +Then the king, at the summit of his felicity, exclaims, +"Dress thyself again in thy royal robes, and place thyself +by my side; thou hast been, and shalt always be, my +wife, my only wife; this, my supposed bride, is thy +daughter, and this handsome youth is thy son." The +poor heroine had undergone the last proof of her virtue, +and triumphed.</p> + +<p>But the virtue of the legendary heroine is not always +so sound. Often the good wife, sister, maiden, or woman +is corrupted by contact with the wicked. We have +already seen how the beautiful aurora, the pitying and +beneficent maiden, becomes, in the Vedic hymns themselves, +the evil-doer, whom the god Indras overthrows +and destroys. The Hellenic Amazons, the beautiful and +proud warrior-women, were also pursued, fought with, +and vanquished by the Hellenic heroes. Thus the Scandinavian +warrior, Walkiries, has a double aspect, a good +and a bad. The Russian stories also supply numerous +instances of the ease with which the good degenerates into +the demon, the hero into the monster, and the beautiful +heroine into the powerful and mischief-working witch.</p> + +<p>This good sister Helen or Little Helen, so careful a +guardian of her brother John, ends, when she conceives a +passion for the monster, with becoming his perfidious +persecutor. (The evening aurora is represented as a +friend of the monster of night, who conspires with him +against her brother the sun; and whoever observes the +sinister aspect often assumed by the reddish sky of +evening, will find this fiction a very natural one. I have +said above that a Piedmontese proverb predicts bad +weather for the morrow from a red evening; but in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> +Piedmont the belief is also widely diffused that the red +of evening signifies blood, and that this bloody redness +signifies war. It certainly does mean war, but a +mythical war—the war in which the hero, fighting against +the monster, succumbs and sheds blood. It is a woman +that is the hero's destruction. A counter-type of the +biblical Delilah is found in all the popular Indo-European +traditions; the Vedic aurora, the sister of Rvaṇas in the +<i>Rmyaṇam</i>, the sister of Hidimbas in the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, +the Hellenic Dejanira, Ariadne, Medea, the Amazons, +Helen, the Slavonic Helen, and Anna the Sabine woman, +the Scandinavian Walkiries, Freya, Idun, Brnhilt, +Gudrun, the Germanic Krmhilt, are all forms of one and +the same heroine, conceived now in the light of a saint, +and now in that of a witch.</p> + +<p>In the Russian story,<a name="FNanchor_413_413" id="FNanchor_413_413"></a><a href="#Footnote_413_413" class="fnanchor">[413]</a> after the bull has saved from the +bear the fugitive brother and sister, Ivan Tzarević and +Helen the exceedingly beautiful (Prekrana), they enter +a brigand's house. Their bull, having become a dwarf, +kills all the brigands, and shuts their bodies up in a room, +which he forbids Helen to enter; the latter, not attending +to the prohibition, enters, and seeing the head of the +brigand chief, falls in love with him, resuscitates him by +means of the water of life, and then conspires with him +to destroy her brother Ivan, by requiring him to accomplish +enterprises in which death seemed inevitable, or else +by ordering him to bring her, first, the milk of a wolf, +then that of a she-bear, and then that of a lioness. Ivan, +by the help of his dwarf (or the sun grown small during +the night, and perhaps also the moon), accomplishes all +these undertakings. We have already seen how white +comes from black; the milk of the wolf, the bear, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> +the lioness is the <i>alba luna</i>, or the white morning sky +brought back by the solar hero. Ivan is then sent to +fetch the eggs of the burning bird (Szar-ptitza). Ivan +goes with his dwarf (that is to say, the moon, or he +makes himself a dwarf, in other words, renders himself +invisible); the bird is enraged, and swallows the dwarf +(<i>i.e.</i>, the red sky of evening, the burning bird, or phœnix, +absorbs the moon or the sun in its flames.<a name="FNanchor_414_414" id="FNanchor_414_414"></a><a href="#Footnote_414_414" class="fnanchor">[414]</a>) Ivan goes +back to his sister without the eggs, upon which she +threatens to burn him in the bath. Ivan, with the help +of the wolf's, the bear's, and the lion's whelps, or Ivan, +with the young wolf, bear, or lion (the moon), or Ivan +the son of the wolf, Ivan the son of the bear, Ivan the son +of the lion (Ivan born of the she-wolf Night, the she-bear +Night, or the lioness Night), tears the brigand to pieces, +and binds his sister (as the Vedic cow) to a tree (the aurora +almost always loses herself in a tree or the water). Then +Ivan wishes to marry a heroine. [Two myths are here +united in the story, originating in one and the same phenomenon, +which seems twofold, because observed at different, +almost literally succeeding, instants. The morning sun +comes and puts to flight his sister the aurora, driving her +back into the forest of night, and binding her to the tree; +the morning sun passes safe and sound through the flames +(like Sfrit in the <i>Nibelungen</i>), vanquishes and subdues the +aurora, makes her his, and espouses her.] He fights with +her first, and succeeds in throwing her with his lance from +her horse, and subduing her. The first night—that is, +when evening comes, she embraces and presses him so +tightly, and with such strength, that he cannot succeed +in extricating himself (the evening aurora envelops and +surrounds the sun; it is the famous nuptial belt, the belt<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> +of strength of the god Thor, the shirt of Nessus). At last, +however, towards morning, Ivan vanquishes, subdues, and +throws down (like Sfrit in the <i>Nibelungen</i>) the girl-heroine +(the morning sun, as Indras, throws down the aurora). He +then thinks of liberating his sister Helen, who is bound +to the tree, in order to take her with him; but she, under +the pretext of combing his hair, thrusts a dead man's +tooth into his head. Ivan is about to die. Here the +primary myth of the sun and aurora, as brother and sister, +reappears, and the secondary one of the husband and wife +is forgotten. The lion's whelp comes forward and extracts +the tooth; the lion is on the point of dying, when +the young bear runs up and extracts it again. He is also +about to die; the fox then comes up, who assumes +towards the end of the story the part played in the +middle by the young wolf (in the same way as in Indian +tales the jackal is substituted for the fox), and, with more +cunning, throws the dead man's tooth into the fire, and +thus saves himself—<i>i.e.</i>, the solar hero, passing through +the flames, comes out of the shadows which enveloped +him during the night. Helen is attached to the tail of a +horse (of Ivan's solar horse itself), and is thus made to +perish (when the sun comes forth in the morning the +aurora loses herself behind him).</p> + +<p>The same story of Ivan's perfidious sister, of which the +mythical sense appears to me more than usually evident, +occurs again in other forms in Russian tales.</p> + +<p>Whilst Ivan is travelling with his sister towards the +kingdom where all the people die<a name="FNanchor_415_415" id="FNanchor_415_415"></a><a href="#Footnote_415_415" class="fnanchor">[415]</a> (that is, towards the +night), a fairy gives him a towel, by shaking which a +bridge may be thrown across a river—(is this bridge the +milky way, the bridge or road to be taken by the souls<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> +in the Persian and Porphyrian belief, as well as in the +German?)—but advises him never to let his sister see +him shake it. Ivan arrives with his sister in the kingdom +of the dead; they come upon a river on the further bank +of which there is a serpent, who has the power of transforming +himself into a handsome youth; Ivan's sister +becomes enamoured of him, and he induces her to steal +the towel from her brother and shake it. The sister, +under the pretext of washing the dirty linen, takes off the +fairy's towel and shakes it; a bridge rises, upon which +the serpent crosses the river, and then conspires with the +girl with intent to work Ivan's ruin. They demand the +usual milk, which Ivan brings; then the flour which is +shut up within twelve doors. Ivan goes thither with his +beasts of prey, takes the flour and brings it away, but his +beasts remain shut up inside; then his strength diminishes, +and the serpent, boasting that he fears him no longer, +prepares to devour him. Ivan, by the advice of a crow, +prays for time, and procrastinates till his beasts of prey, +gnawing the twelve doors through, come to his help, and +tear the serpent in pieces. The serpent's bones are +burned in the fire, its ashes are dispersed to the four +winds, and the sister is bound to a stone pillar (to the +rock or mountain upon which the aurora arises, fading +away afterwards when the sun appears). Ivan places +near her some hay and a vessel full of water, that she +may have whereof to eat and drink, and another empty +vessel, which she is to fill with her tears: when she has +eaten the hay, drunk the water, and filled the vessel with +her tears, it will be a sign that God has forgiven her; when +Ivan too will forgive her. Meanwhile, Ivan goes into a +kingdom where there is nothing but mourning, because a +twelve-headed serpent is massacring all the people (the +usual nocturnal sky, where it is now the hero-sun, now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> +the heroine aurora that sacrifices itself), and the king's +daughter is the next victim. Ivan, by the help of his +hunting animals, cuts the serpent to pieces, and then goes +to sleep on the knees of the king's daughter. While he +sleeps, a water-carrier passes towards morning, cuts off +his head, and presents himself to the king as the deliverer +of the princess, whom he demands for his wife. The +beasts of prey come up, descry the crow upon Ivan's +corpse, and prepare to eat it, when the crow begs for its +life; they consent, and in return require it to search for +the water of life and death, by means of which Ivan is +resuscitated; the water-carrier's deceit is found out, and +Ivan marries the princess whom he had delivered from +the monster. Then he goes to look for his sister, and +finds she has eaten the hay, drunk the water, and filled +half the vessel with tears; upon this he pardons her, and +takes her away with him.</p> + +<p>In another story,<a name="FNanchor_416_416" id="FNanchor_416_416"></a><a href="#Footnote_416_416" class="fnanchor">[416]</a> instead of the perfidious sister, we +have the perfidious mother (probably step-mother), who, +to please her demon lover, feigns illness, and demands +from Ivan the heart, first of the three-headed, then of +the six-headed, and finally of the twelve-headed monster. +Ivan accomplishes these undertakings. He is then sent +to a hot bath, to weaken his strength. Ivan goes, and +his head is cut off by the monster. But Ivan's two sons +resuscitate him by rubbing a root upon his body; the +demon lover of Ivan's mother dies as soon as the hero +revives again. In the two sons of Ivan we recognise again +the myth of the Avinu, the celestial physicians who resuscitate +the solar hero.</p> + +<p>In another story, Ivan Karoliević (king's son) is threatened +with death by his own wife,<a name="FNanchor_417_417" id="FNanchor_417_417"></a><a href="#Footnote_417_417" class="fnanchor">[417]</a> who, feigning illness, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>demands the usual milk of a she-wolf, a she-bear, and a +lioness, and then the enchanted powder (powder of gold +or flour), which is under the devils mill, barred behind +twelve doors. Ivan comes out, but his beasts remain +inside. He returns and finds his wife with the serpent, +the son of the serpent; he chaunts the song of death—he +sings it three times;<a name="FNanchor_418_418" id="FNanchor_418_418"></a><a href="#Footnote_418_418" class="fnanchor">[418]</a> on hearing which the serpent is +thrown down, and the beasts, regaining strength to deliver +themselves, come out and tear the serpent, and with him +the perfidious wife is put to death.</p> + +<p>Ivan's perfidious wife occurs again in the thirty-fifth +story of the fifth book of <i>Afanassieff</i>, under the name of +Anna the very beautiful (Prekranaia). She has married +Ivan Tzarević against her will, because she could not solve +a riddle which he proposed to her; she does not love him, +and endeavours to destroy him by requiring an extraordinary +proof of his valour,<a name="FNanchor_419_419" id="FNanchor_419_419"></a><a href="#Footnote_419_419" class="fnanchor">[419]</a> in which, by the help of his +tutor, Katoma, Ivan is victorious, so that Anna falls into +his hands. But, understanding that Ivan's strength is not +in himself, but his tutor, she induces Ivan to send him +away, after depriving him of his feet. Anna then sends +Ivan to take the cows to pasture. The lame Katoma +finds in the forest a blind man, also made so by Anna;<a name="FNanchor_420_420" id="FNanchor_420_420"></a><a href="#Footnote_420_420" class="fnanchor">[420]</a> +they become friends and consociate together, and carry off +a beautiful maiden to be their sister; but a witch comes +and makes the maiden comb her hair, whilst she sucks her +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>breast (we must remember that in the Indian story the +girl has three breasts, or is defective in her breast, in the +same way as the witch makes the Russian girl so by +sucking her breast). The poor girl grows thin and ugly, +until the old witch is surprised in her evil doings by the +two heroes, fallen upon by them like a mountain of stone, +and pressed so tightly that she cries for mercy. Then +they demand to be shown where the fountain of life and +healing can be found. The old woman conducts them +into a dense forest, and shows them a fountain. They +first throw a dry twig in, which immediately takes fire; +they threaten to kill the old witch, and force her to lead +them to another fountain, into which they throw another +dry twig; it becomes green again. Then one rubs his +eyes, and the other his feet, with the water, and both +become healthy and strong again. They throw the witch +into the fountain of fire. Katoma, in a shepherd's dress, +goes to deliver the hero Ivan from the demon cow, which +lifts up its tail and gives him back his strength and +splendour. This is again the Vedic myth of the Avinu +united to the aurora, who cure the blind and the lame, +<i>i.e.</i>, themselves, and save the multiform solar hero.</p> + +<p>Finally, such as we have found the blind girl in the +Vedic hymns, so we meet her again in Russian tradition.<a name="FNanchor_421_421" id="FNanchor_421_421"></a><a href="#Footnote_421_421" class="fnanchor">[421]</a> +A servant-maid takes out the eyes of the +maiden her mistress, after having put her to sleep by +means of a herb, and marries the king in her stead. +The girl awakens, hears but does not see; an old +shepherd receives her into his house; during the night +she, although blind, sews a crown for the Tzar and sends +the old man to court to sell it for an eye (this is a +variation of Queen Berta in the forest). The servant-maid,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> +now become queen, tempted by the beauty of this +crown, takes one of the girls eyes out of her pocket and +gives it to the old man. The maiden arises at the +aurora, washes her eye in her own saliva (<i>i.e.</i>, the dew. +In Tuscany, the peasants believe that whoever washes +his face in the dew before the sun rises on St John's +Day, will have no illness all the year following), puts it +in the socket and sees. She then sews another crown, +and, in the same manner, recovers her other eye at the +next aurora. Then the servant-queen learns that she is +alive, and makes hired murderers cut her to pieces. +Where the maiden is buried, a garden arises and a boy +shows himself. The boy goes to the palace and runs +after the queen, making such a din that she is obliged, +in order to silence him, to give him the girl's heart, +which she had kept hidden. The boy then runs off +contented; the king follows him, and finds himself +before the resuscitated maiden. He marries her, and +the servant-girl is blinded, and then torn to pieces by +being fastened to the tails of horses. Like the German +Genevive and the Hindoo akuntal, the Russian wife +is recognised by her husband by means of a boy. This +is the young sun, who enables the old one to be born +again, to arise again and be young once more; this is the +son who, in the Hindoo legend, gives his father his eyesight +back, and by doing so, naturally imparts to him the means +of recognising his wife, whom he had forgotten, or rejected, +or lost, according to the various forms assumed by the +celestial myth of the separation of husband and wife.</p> + +<p>I might now carry on this comparison by entering the +mythical field of the more Western Slavonic nations;<a name="FNanchor_422_422" id="FNanchor_422_422"></a><a href="#Footnote_422_422" class="fnanchor">[422]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> +but it is not my intention to convert this modest volume +into an entire library of legends; neither is it necessary +for my purpose, as by so doing I should not add much +more evidence to that which I have thus far attempted +to collect, in order to prove how zoological mythology is +the same in existing Slavonic tradition as it was in +Hindoo antiquity. I have, moreover, gone rather minutely +into the contents of Russian tradition in particular, +because, on account of our ignorance of the language, +which is beautiful and worthy of study, it is little +known, and because it is of especial importance in our +present inquiry. I believe, if I do not deceive myself, +that I have, up to this point, given an account of all the +more essential legends developed in the Eastern Aryan +world relating to the myth of the cow and the bull; and +now, in moving towards the West, I think I may venture +to proceed with greater expedition, because we shall find +ourselves in a region already familiar to us. It seemed +to me that it was especially necessary, for a just comparison, +to determine and fix the character of Oriental +tradition, in order that it may be easy for the student to +classify the interminable stories and traditions which +have already been collected in Western Europe, and +which are published in languages which are, certainly, +different from each other, but all, comparatively speaking, +readily accessible. If I have succeeded in imparting to the +reader an understanding of the more authentic sources of +legendary traditions and their most probable meanings, I +shall go on with more courage and a greater confidence +to the investigations that follow.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center">SECTION V.</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Bull and the Cow in the Germanico-Scandinavian and +Franco-Celtic Traditions.</span></p> + +<p class="center">SUMMARY.</p> + +<blockquote style="text-indent:-2em"><p>The four bulls, sons of the virgin Gefion.—The bull which comes out +of the sea.—The bull progenitor of royal races.—The bull who +carries the maiden.—The cow of abundance, Audhumla, nurse +and mother of heroes.—The three brothers of Scandinavian and +German mythology.—The warrior-cow.—The sacred cow of +gwaldr burned upon the hero's tomb.—The rod-phallos used to +strike the cow, as an augury of abundance and fecundity.—The +head of the ox used as a hook to catch the sea-serpent.—The +Scandinavian cornucopia made of the horns of oxen.—The horn +full of honey.—The horn-trumpet.—The daughter that milks.—The +hero who eats oxen.—Atli eats the hearts of his sons, believing +them to be the hearts of calves.—Hornboge.—To a wicked cow +God gives short horns; to cut off the cow's horns; to take the +bull or cow by the horns, three Germanic proverbs.—To dream of +eagles announces the vicinity of cows; Scandinavian corresponding +legend.—A red cow on a certain bridge announces a battle.—The +Germanico-Scandinavian mythical bridge.—The red cow and the +black cow yield white milk.—Digression upon mythical proverbs, +and the explanation which seems to be the most likely.—To shut +the stable after the cow has been stolen.—When the daughter is +stolen, shut Peppergate.—He who has lost a cow and gets its tail +back again has not much, but he has more than nothing.—To take +by the horns.—Even if the cow's tail moves it does not fall.—The +tails in the mud.—The virtues of the tail.—The ascent to heaven +by means of the tails.—The hero in the sack made of a cow's +hide thrown into the sea.—The punishment of the bull.—When the +cow places herself upon the eggs, do not expect fowls.—The black +cow has crushed him.—The sack of the wolf or of the black beast +is his body itself.—The trial between hero and monster to take off +their skins; the hero gives cows' skins, but the monster is +obliged to give his own.—The cow's hide, when sold, is the +beginning of good luck.—The daughter flees from her father, who +wishes to seduce her; the story of the slipper again.—The cow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> +can pass before the hare.—The cow jumped over the moon.—Tarde +sed tute.—To take the hare with the chariot.—All those +who blow the horn do not hunt hares.—As a blind cow finds a +pea.—Marvellous pipkins and amphor.—The cow that laughs.—The +princess who laughs.—The cow that speaks.—The language +of animals.—Phallical mysteries.—What the king said in the +queen's ear.—Because they have spoken, the husband and wife +are separated.—Bulls that speak at Rome.—Women know everything, +even how Zeus married Hra.—The mythical laugh is in +the sun's ray and in the lightning.—The fishes that laugh; +Phallic meaning of the myth.—If the cow-maid must spin, there +will be little yarn.—The cows that spin.—The spinning Berta.—Berchta +and Holda.—The time is passed when Berta spun.—The +times of King Pipino.—Berta with the large foot.—Berta with the +goose's foot.—St Lucia and St Luke.—Virgins after parturition.—The +old husband Pepin, a form of St Joseph.—The wife Berta +changed.—The Italian proverbs dare la Berta and dare la Madre +d'Orlando.—Continuation of the story of Berta persecuted in +the forest.—Orlando and Charlemagne.—The bull-priest and the +priest-bull.—The bull in funerals, in pregnancy, and as the food +of the hero.—The dwarf and the giant.—A French dwarf explains +a myth to us; a Scandinavian explains other myths to us.</p></blockquote> + +<p>I shall here combine under one category the Germanico-Scandinavian +and Franco-Celtic traditions, as traditions +which, in the Middle Ages especially, had a close and +continual correlation of correspondence with each other.</p> + +<p>The <i>Edda</i> of Snorri begins with the voyage of Gefion, +with the four oxen, her sons (although she is a virgin), +yoked to a plough. The king Gylfi concedes to her the +right of occupying and possessing as much ground as she +can plough in twenty-four hours. When they come to +the western sea-board, the four oxen rush forward and +drag Gefion with them into the sea, until they arrive at +the land of Seelund (Seeland).<a name="FNanchor_423_423" id="FNanchor_423_423"></a><a href="#Footnote_423_423" class="fnanchor">[423]</a> In which, it is obvious +we have again the Vedic bull with a thousand horns<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> +which comes out of the sea, and the bull which carries +off the maiden. The bull which comes out of the sea is +also found in Irish legends, and in German ones. +According to a German legend, of which several variations +exist, a shepherd received a dinner every day and +a clean shirt every Sunday from a variegated bull that +came out of the sea.<a name="FNanchor_424_424" id="FNanchor_424_424"></a><a href="#Footnote_424_424" class="fnanchor">[424]</a> A bull on the seaside begets, by +the sleeping queen, the king Meroveus, the first of the +Merovingians; perhaps it is on this account that we find +a golden bull's head represented on the tomb of King +Childeric. Charles Simrock<a name="FNanchor_425_425" id="FNanchor_425_425"></a><a href="#Footnote_425_425" class="fnanchor">[425]</a> found a similar legend also +in Spain. The bull which carries the girl, which we +have already met with in the Russian stories, occurs +again in the Norse tale<a name="FNanchor_426_426" id="FNanchor_426_426"></a><a href="#Footnote_426_426" class="fnanchor">[426]</a> of "<i>Katee Wooden Cloak</i> +(Dasent), endowed with the powers of wish. In its left +ear is a cloth (which reminds us of that spun on the +cow's horns), which, when spread out, is covered with +dainties of all kinds for the dawn-maiden, who has been +thrust out of her father's house; but when the step-mother +informs her that she cannot rest until she has +eaten the dun bull's flesh, the animal, hearing her, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>engages to deliver her, and offers, if she so wills, to carry +her away."</p> + +<p>In the voyage of Gylfi in the <i>Edda</i> of Snorri, we find +that the cow Audhumla, the cow of abundance, was the +parent of the supreme Scandinavian god Odin, as it was +of the supreme Vedic god Indras. The cow Audhumla +nourishes with her milk Ymir, the first of the giants. +She licks the salt mountain of ice (the Esthonian ice-mountain, +the twelve glasses of the Russian princess, +through which the young hero Ivan penetrates to kiss +her). From the ice which the cow has licked, comes +forth, first the hair, then the head, then the whole body, +of the hero Buri. (The sun arises little by little from the +mountain of the east, warmed, attracted by the cow-aurora, +and shows, first a few rays, then his disc, and +then himself in all his splendour and strength; and that +which the sun does every day he repeats on a larger +scale once a year, rising again from the ice of winter +through the tepidity of spring.) Of Buri, who is at +birth strong, is born Br, who has, by Bestla, the +daughter of the giant Blthorn, three sons, Odin, Wili, +and We (the usual three brothers of the legends), who +correspond to the three sons of Mannus in German +tradition, that is, Inguis, Istio, and Irminius. The +Swedish king Eistein had a great veneration for the cow +Sibilia, and used to take her with him to battle, that she +might terrify the enemy by her lowing. (The lowing of +cows plays an important part in the battles of the Vedic +hero Indras. In the <i>Pańćatantram</i>, as we have noticed, +the bellowing of the bull fills the lion with terror.) The +Scandinavian king, gwaldr, was accompanied everywhere +by a sacred cow, of which he drank the milk, and +with which he desired to be buried. In the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, +as we have seen, the hero Indras makes the cow fruitful;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> +and the thunderbolt of the god, penetrating the cloud, +takes the form of a phallos. Afterwards, as a symbol of +the rod-phallos, the branch or rod of the tree palas was +adopted, with which the cow was struck to make it +fruitful; such a magic rod is used in Germany to this +day, where it is in many parts the custom to strike the +cow, in the belief that it will render her fruitful.<a name="FNanchor_427_427" id="FNanchor_427_427"></a><a href="#Footnote_427_427" class="fnanchor">[427]</a></p> + +<p>It is with the head of the most beautiful of the giant +Hymir's oxen fastened to his hook that, in Snorri's <i>Edda</i>, +the god Thor goes to fish up the immense serpent of +Midgard from the bottom of the sea, and destroys it upon +the sea-shore. (This myth, if I am not mistaken, has the +following meaning:—The head of the solar, or lunar, +bull is devoured by the monster of night; this same +head, tossed about, draws up, towards morning as sun, +and towards evening as moon, upon the shore of the sea +of night, that is to say, on the eastern mountain, the +monster-serpent: thus Hanumant, in the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>, +passes over to the opposite shore of the sea, crossing the +body of the marine monster, which he causes to burst; +thus Indras kills Ahis the serpent upon the mountain).</p> + +<p>Nor is there the cow of abundance only. Scandinavian +tradition, in the short poem on the dwarf Allwis, offers +us the cornucopia in the cup formed of the defence of +oxen (<i>i.e.</i>, with their horns), in which the god Thor +drinks hydromel. Thus Sigurd offers to Brnhilt a horn<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> +full of mead to drink. And this horn, moreover, besides +serving as a cornucopia, becomes as a golden horn the +war-trumpet of Odin (the Giallarhorn).</p> + +<p>The Scandinavian hero then, it appears also, has his +relationship with cows, though his life has far more of a +warlike character than a pastoral one; he therefore +accuses Loki, and in so doing fills him with shame, with +having passed eight winters underground occupied in +milking the cows like a woman. (It is known that the +Hindoo word <i>duhitar</i>, whence Tochter, means she who +milks). The Scandinavian hero, instead of milking cows, +eats bulls. We find more than once in the <i>Eddas</i> the +heroes occupied in roasting oxen. Atli, the husband of +Gudrun, boasts of having killed some oxen and having +eaten them with her. Gudrun, the Scandinavian Medea, +gives Atli the hearts of his two sons to eat, assuring +him that they are calves' hearts. The god Thor, disguised +as the goddess Freya, drinks three barrels of mead, +and eats a whole bull, when he sets out on the enterprise +of recovering his marvellous hammer. The bull's or +cow's horn, moreover, not only supplies mead to the +hero, nor is it only used to call his friends to his aid +and to throw down the enemy; it also forms the hero's +bow, which therefore, in the <i>Vilkina Saga</i>,<a name="FNanchor_428_428" id="FNanchor_428_428"></a><a href="#Footnote_428_428" class="fnanchor">[428]</a> also takes +the name of Hornboge, and, as such, assists the greatest +hero, Thidrek or Dtrich, and is the parent of the celebrated +hero Sigurd (Sfrit, or Siegfried). And, in conclusion, +the horns are considered such an important +weapon of the cow and bull, that a proverb, which is at +once Slavonic, German, and Italian, says, "To a wicked +cow, God gives short horns" (that it may do no harm,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> +or rather, because it wears them away by use); to cut +off the cow's horns means, in a German proverb, to surmount +a difficulty; and to take the bull or cow by the +horns, is to disarm them.<a name="FNanchor_429_429" id="FNanchor_429_429"></a><a href="#Footnote_429_429" class="fnanchor">[429]</a></p> + +<p>In the Greenland poem on Atli, in the <i>Edda</i> of +Smund, Hgni says, that when many cattle are killed +much blood is seen, and that when one dreams of eagles, +oxen are not far distant. In the <i>Edda</i> of Snorri, whilst +Odin, Loki, and Hnir are cooking an ox under a tree, +an eagle on its summit prevents the meat from being +cooked, till the heroes consent to give him part of it. +The heroes consent, but the eagle carries off no less than +the two thighs and the two shoulders of the ox. The +eagle has in the <i>Edda</i> the same demoniacal and infernal +character that is in other traditions ascribed to the crow, +the funereal stork, and the vulture: it searches for oxen; +and therefore to dream of eagles is an intimation that +an ox is near, in the same way as they say the presence +of a vulture is a sign of the proximity of a corpse.</p> + +<p>A German legend, cited by Kuhn and Schwartz,<a name="FNanchor_430_430" id="FNanchor_430_430"></a><a href="#Footnote_430_430" class="fnanchor">[430]</a> +makes a battle begin "as soon as a red cow is led over a +certain bridge." We remember the Russian story of the +girl who, by means of the magical towel of her brother, +makes a bridge arise over the river, over which the +monster-serpent, in the form of a handsome young man, +crosses to take her; how the brother is sacrificed in the +battle which he is obliged to fight against the monster, +who disarms him by fraud; and how the battle between +the hero and the monster begins when the maiden, passing +the bridge, abandons the hero, her brother, who falls +and sheds his blood in the unequal struggle. I have +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>already remarked that in the popular belief the bloody +sun of evening forebodes war, and the red cow of +German tradition represents no other than this sky. As +to the bridge, an interesting note of Kuhn and Schwartz<a name="FNanchor_431_431" id="FNanchor_431_431"></a><a href="#Footnote_431_431" class="fnanchor">[431]</a> +seems to confirm the hypothesis which I have already +hinted at in connection with the Slavonic story, <i>i.e.</i>, that +it represents the milky way; from this note, too, in which +a resemblance is noticed between the bridge of the red +cow, which determines the beginning of a battle, and +the Scandinavian celestial Bfrst (as perhaps there is +between it and even the Persian bridge Ćinvant itself), +I gather that in Frisia the milky way is called Kau-pat +(or Kuh-pfad, cow's-path). That is to say, it is supposed +that the red cow of evening passes during the +night along the milky way, scattering her milk over it; +whence perhaps is derived the German proverb, "Even +red cows yield white milk,"<a name="FNanchor_432_432" id="FNanchor_432_432"></a><a href="#Footnote_432_432" class="fnanchor">[432]</a>—like that other which we +have already seen current in India, and met with again +in Turanian tradition, and which exists as a German, +Slavonic, and Italian proverb, "Even the black cow +yields white milk"—(the black night which produces the +alba or white dawn of morning, and we might add, the +silver moon and the milky way).</p> + +<p>Since it seems to me, therefore, as I trust it also +does to the reader, that the maiden who crosses the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>bridge in the Slavonic stories is, without doubt, the same +as the red cow which does the like in German legend, +and if I have not been mistaken in identifying the +maiden who travels with her brother to the kingdom of +the dead with the evening aurora and the dying sun, I +shall here adduce a few other German proverbs, which +may also be said to be universal in European tradition, +relating to the cow, all pointing to a similar conclusion. +They are as follows:—"Shutting the stable after the cow +has been stolen." "He who has lost a cow, and recovers +her tail, has not much, but he has more than nothing." +"A cow's tail might reach heaven, if it were only a long +one."<a name="FNanchor_434_434" id="FNanchor_434_434"></a><a href="#Footnote_434_434" class="fnanchor">[434]</a> "A cow does not know what her tail is worth +till she loses it." "To take the cow by her tail." "The +black cow has crushed him, or has got upon him." "A +cow cannot overtake a hare." "The cow has outrun the +hare." "Not all who sound the horn hunt the hare." +"When the cows laugh." "As a blind cow can find a +pea." "He must be carried about in an old cow's hide." +"If the cow-maid spins, there will be little yarn." "The +cow will learn to spin first."<a name="FNanchor_435_435" id="FNanchor_435_435"></a><a href="#Footnote_435_435" class="fnanchor">[435]</a></p> + +<p>Meditating upon all these German proverbs, it is, it +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>appears to me, not difficult to recognise in them a reminiscence +of ancient myths with which we are already +acquainted. When we reflect that almost every proverb +has passed into contradictory forms and varieties, and as +in these varieties we may trace the elements of the +history of a great number of strange proverbs, it does not +seem rash to affirm that the said history generally had, +in like manner, its origin in a myth. Not to wander +from the subject in hand, that the same proverb is +attributed to different animals, not only by different +nations, but in the oral traditions of the same people, I +must refer the reader to what I have remarked in the preface +to this volume concerning the contradiction which +exists between certain superstitious beliefs. The contradiction +between many proverbs, as also between many +superstitions, compared with each other, can only be +reconciled by referring both back to the battle-field of +mythology, where an inconceivable number of myths +arise, and can only arise, out of contradictions; that is, +out of contrasted aspects which celestial phenomena +present, even to the same observer, still more so to +different observers. The comparative history of mythical +proverbs is yet to be written, and perhaps it is not yet +possible to write it according to rigorous scientific method +in all its completeness. A preliminary study of the +details is necessary to understand a proverb as well as a +popular custom, a superstitious belief, a legend, or a +myth; and this study will demand some labour; for one +proverb, completely illustrated, may involve the development +of an entire epical history. I shall not presume +here to solve the enigma of the above-quoted German +proverbs, but only to indicate what seems to me to be +the way of arriving at their most probable solution. In +the study of a proverb, it is necessary to lay great stress<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> +upon its intonation. Upon the different tones in which +an ancient proverb was originally pronounced, and afterwards +repeated, passing from tongue to tongue, and from +people to people, depends a great part of the alteration +in the meaning even of the most interesting of the +proverbs, which are a patrimony we owe in common to +Aryan tradition. A proverb, for instance, began by +being a simple affirmation, the simple expression of a +natural mythical image; with the lapse of time the +expression remained, and the myth was forgotten; the +expression then appeared to refer to a strange thing, and +was accompanied, when pronounced, with a doubtful +mark of interrogation; it was now adopted in the denial +of an impossible thing, and became an instrument for +satire. Thus many proverbs which have become satirical, +must have been originally nothing more than mythical +affirmative phrases.</p> + +<p>"To shut the stable after the cow has been stolen." +In England, instead of the cow, we have in the proverb +a girl: "When your daughter is stolen, shut Peppergate" +(the name of a little gate of the city of Chester, which +it is said the mayor ordered to be shut when his +daughter had been carried off). The proverb is now +used to stir up a laugh at the expense of those who are +at pains to guard their property after it has been robbed; +but it perhaps had not always the same meaning. We +are already familiar in Hindoo tradition with the hero +who delivers the beautiful maiden out of the enclosure, +and have seen how she is scarcely free, when she is led +away by iniquitous brothers or companions, after shutting +up the legitimate proprietor of the cow or maiden in the +cave whence the cow or girl came forth; how the +ravishing brothers shut the door of the stable or cavern, +after having carried off the maiden. The hero imprisoned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> +in the stable, the hero shut up in the darkness +of night, often assumed in mythology the form of a fool. +Hence from the idea of shutting the gate of the stable +upon the hero, by the ravishers of his cow, the transition +seems natural, in my opinion, to the hero lost in the +cavern, to the hero become foolish, to the peasant who +shuts the door of the stable when the cow has been +robbed, or to the mayor of Chester, who, being shut up +in the town, shuts the Peppergate, through which the +girl who had been carried off passed.</p> + +<p>"He who has lost a cow and recovers its tail +has not much, but he has more than nothing." This +proverb also appears to me to have a mythical meaning. +I have already remarked that the tail, the heel, the feet, +that is to say, the lower or hinder extremities, betray the +mythical animal; which we shall see more convincingly +when we come to examine the legends which refer to the +wolf, the fox, and the serpent. It is the footprint which, +in all the European traditions, betrays the beautiful +maiden in her flight; and when the brigand Cacus +carried off the oxen of Hercules, the hero, to recover +them, searches for their footprints. But in order that +these may not be recognised, the cunning brigand, instead +of leading the oxen by their heads, takes them by +their tails,<a name="FNanchor_436_436" id="FNanchor_436_436"></a><a href="#Footnote_436_436" class="fnanchor">[436]</a> and makes them walk backwards. Hence, to +take by the tail, means to take hold of the wrong way, +and it is applied to the ass as well as the cow. It is +said in Germany that a cow once fell into a ditch from +which none of the bystanders dared to extricate it. +The peasant to whom the cow belonged came up, and,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> +according to some, took it fearlessly by the horns, while, +according to others, he dragged it out by its tail, whence +can be explained the double proverb to take by the horns, +<i>i.e.</i>, to take by the right side, and to take by the tail, +or, as we have said, to take by the wrong. But the +peasant could only take his cow out by the horns, or by +the tail, according to the way in which it had fallen in; +that is, if it had fallen down head foremost, it could +only be dragged out by the tail, and if, on the contrary, +it had fallen in tail foremost, he could only extricate it +by laying hold of its horns. The cow-aurora is taken +by surprise and devoured by the wolf, bear, wild-boar, +or serpent of night, who takes her by the shoulders (it +is on this account that, in the Russian story, we have seen +the bull recommend the fugitive hero, accompanied by +his sister, to keep his face turned in the direction whence +the pursuing monster might be expected to come up). +The monster (the shadow, or the cloud) clutches the cow +by her tail and devours her, or drags her into his cave. +The hero, in order to deliver his cow out of the cave, can +take her by the horns only on condition that he penetrates +into the cavern by the same way by which the cow +entered, that is, by the monster's mouth; but, as the +monster endeavours to surprise the hero from behind, so +the hero often wounds the monster from behind, catches +hold of him by the tail, and in this way drags him out of +the cavern, ditch, or mud—his fallen cow. In a Hindoo +fable in the second book of the <i>Pańćatantram</i>, we have the +story of a jackal, who, to satisfy a desire of his wife, follows +the bull for whole years together, in the hope that his +two hanging testicles might fall some day or another. +In a joke of Poggius, and in Lessing,<a name="FNanchor_437_437" id="FNanchor_437_437"></a><a href="#Footnote_437_437" class="fnanchor">[437]</a> we find the same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> +subject spoken of, of which a variation is given in a German +proverb, "Though the cow's tail moves, it does not +fall."<a name="FNanchor_438_438" id="FNanchor_438_438"></a><a href="#Footnote_438_438" class="fnanchor">[438]</a> In the hope of this it is that the wolf, or the fox, +runs after the tail of the cow or bull. There is a Piedmontese +story which I heard in my infancy, one comic feature +of which lingers vividly in the memory: a boy who took +the hogs to pasture, cut off their tails and stuck them in +the mud, and then made off with the animals. The +owner of the hogs, seeing their tails, is under the impression +that they have sunk into the mud. He tugs at +them, brings away their tails, but cannot fish up their +bodies. In a Russian story given by <i>Afanassieff</i>,<a name="FNanchor_439_439" id="FNanchor_439_439"></a><a href="#Footnote_439_439" class="fnanchor">[439]</a> we +read that the cunning Little Thomas (Thomka, Fomka) +cheats the priest of his horse (in some versions his ass) by +cutting off its tail and planting it in the mud of a +marsh. He makes the priest believe that his horse has +fallen into the marsh; the priest, thinking to pull it out, +gives one stiff tug, and falls down on his back with the +tail in his hand; upon which Tom persuades him to +believe that he has broken it off himself, and to be +content with the recovery of so much of the lost animal. +In the fifty-seventh Gaelic story of Campbell,<a name="FNanchor_440_440" id="FNanchor_440_440"></a><a href="#Footnote_440_440" class="fnanchor">[440]</a> a priest +endeavours to pull out of the water a drowning sheep, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>but the tail comes away, and the story-teller adds, "If +the tail had not come off, the story would have been +longer." And so the owner of the cow, the robber of +which has left the tail behind as a consolation, has in +reality but little, but yet this little is something; for, +just as the slipper left behind her by the fugitive girl, +although it is of little value, enables the hero to identify +her, so in the tail of his cow the owner has something in +hand to set out on its search with, and to recover his +lost property; either because the tail of an animal is like +its shadow and serves to trace it, as the slipper does the +maiden by showing the footstep; or else, because tailless +cows are evidently stolen ones. (In the myth of Cacus, +in which Hercules traces the stolen oxen by the footprints, +and Cacus drags them by their tails, the mythical +figure of the slipper and that of the lost tail are perhaps +united. It is possible that the tails of the oxen came off +in the hands of Cacus when dragging them into the +cavern, and that, thrown away by the brigand, and +found by Hercules, they may have served him as a guide +to recover his oxen. It is also possible that Cacus, +pursued by Hercules, had not time to drive the oxen in +entirely, but that their tails still protruded and betrayed +their whereabouts. Relative to the Latin legend of +Cacus, these are simply hypotheses, and I have therefore +enclosed them in a parenthesis; but inasmuch as in the +above-quoted Russian story, we find the horse's tail cut +off by the robber, and as in the chapter on the fox, we +shall see the fox who betrays himself by not drawing in +his tail, whence the proverb, "Cauda de vulpe testatur," +the two hypotheses advanced above are, after all, not so +visionary.) In <i>Pausanias</i><a name="FNanchor_441_441" id="FNanchor_441_441"></a><a href="#Footnote_441_441" class="fnanchor">[441]</a> the hero Aristomenes, who +has been thrown into a deep cistern, liberates himself in a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> +marvellous manner by means of an eagle, after a fox had +opened a passage. The fox's tail has such a bewitching +power of attraction, that according to popular tradition, +when it is moved the cock falls down unable to resist the +charm. According to popular belief, the tail (as well as the +nose and mouth) is the most splendid part of the body of an +animal. The great monkey Hanumant, with his tail on +fire, burns Lanka (in the same way as the burning tails +of the foxes of the biblical Samson burn the ripe harvests +of the Philistines). The grey, or black, horse of +mythology (having devoured the solar white, or red +horse) emits fire from his mouth or tail. This black +horse being the night, the horse's jaws and tail, which +emit fire, represent the luminous heavens of evening and +of morning; when, therefore, the tail of his horse (stolen +by the robber in the same way as the bull and the cow<a name="FNanchor_442_442" id="FNanchor_442_442"></a><a href="#Footnote_442_442" class="fnanchor">[442]</a>) +remains in the mythical hero's hand, this light-streaming +tail is enough to enable him to find the whole animal, +<i>i.e.</i>, the solar hero comes out of his hiding-place +(Hanumant comes out of the hinder parts of the marine +monster, the dwarf comes out of the wolf's back<a name="FNanchor_443_443" id="FNanchor_443_443"></a><a href="#Footnote_443_443" class="fnanchor">[443]</a>), the +bull-sun finds his cow the aurora again; the prince sun, +the princess aurora; the peasant recovers his ass or his +cow; Hercules, his oxen; the white horse comes out of +the tail of the black horse, who had eaten him, and then, +by means of the tail, ascends to heaven;<a name="FNanchor_444_444" id="FNanchor_444_444"></a><a href="#Footnote_444_444" class="fnanchor">[444]</a> the white +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>bull comes out of the black one; the white, or the red, +cow comes out of the black cow; the tail comes out of +the body; the hero comes out of the sack, or hide, in +which he had been enclosed or sewed up. The sack plays +a great part in the tradition of the hidden or persecuted +hero; this sack is the night or the cloud, or the winter; +the hero shut up in the sack, and thrown into the sea, is +the sun. The hero enclosed in the sack and thrown into +the sea, and the heroine shut up in a chest (covered, +moreover, with a cow's hide, in the myth of Pasiphe) or +barrel, and abandoned to the water,<a name="FNanchor_445_445" id="FNanchor_445_445"></a><a href="#Footnote_445_445" class="fnanchor">[445]</a> are equivalent to +each other, and so are the heroes shut up in the well, in the +cavern, in the stables, and even in the cow. Inasmuch +as the sack in which, according to the proverb quoted +above, the delinquent hero is to be sewed, is an old cow's-hide, +or else the hide of an old cow, or a dark one (of the +night), when this black cow sits on the eggs of the bird +of evening, to hatch them, the eggs come to evil; whence +I derive the German proverb, "When the cow sits upon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> +eggs, do not expect fowls."<a name="FNanchor_446_446" id="FNanchor_446_446"></a><a href="#Footnote_446_446" class="fnanchor">[446]</a> And when the night was +observed to overwhelm the sun and withdraw him from +human sight, this other proverb took its origin, "The +black cow has crushed him." The black cow does not only +crush the hero, but, as the wolf does, shuts him up in +her own hide,<a name="FNanchor_447_447" id="FNanchor_447_447"></a><a href="#Footnote_447_447" class="fnanchor">[447]</a> in her own sack, <i>i.e.</i>, devours him—to fill +the sack is the same as to fill the body, and to empty +the sack as to empty the body. In the Piedmontese +story of the dwarf child (the Norwegian Schmierbock), +whom the wolf<a name="FNanchor_448_448" id="FNanchor_448_448"></a><a href="#Footnote_448_448" class="fnanchor">[448]</a> encloses in the sack, the dwarf comes +out of the sack while the wolf is emptying his body. +Of two Russian stories given by <i>Afanassieff</i>, which we +shall examine in the chapter on the wolf, one shows us +the wolf who puts the peasant in a sack, and the other +the wolf who puts the dwarf-hero in his body; and +both peasant and dwarf save themselves. The two +variations took their origin in the comparison drawn +between the body and a sack, which, in mythical speech, +are therefore the same thing. The hide of the black +bull, black ox, black or grey horse, or black or grey +wolf, and the sack which wraps up the hero or the devil, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>play a great part in popular Indo-European tradition.<a name="FNanchor_449_449" id="FNanchor_449_449"></a><a href="#Footnote_449_449" class="fnanchor">[449]</a> +From the sack of the funeral stork (the night), in a +Russian story,<a name="FNanchor_450_450" id="FNanchor_450_450"></a><a href="#Footnote_450_450" class="fnanchor">[450]</a> come forth two young heroes (the +Avinu), defeaters of their enemies, who spread out the +tablecloth of abundance (the aurora), and a horse which +drops gold (the sun). The hero shut up in the sack, or +the cow's hide, and thrown into the water, escapes from +shipwreck in the same way as those navigators of the +Chinese sea described in his voyages by Benjamin of +Tudela, who, he says, when shipwrecked, escaped being +swallowed up by the waves by covering themselves with +the whole hide of a cow or an ox; for the eagles, mistaking +them for real, flew to the spot and pouncing upon +them, drew them ashore. The ship with the buffalo's +hide is found again in popular stories. This is evidently +a reminiscence of mythical derivation (from which was, +perhaps, afterwards derived the idea of torture, as in the +famous bull of Phalaris, in which many see a symbol of +the god of the waters, the bull's hide in which the tetrarch +Acarnides, vanquished by Memnon, was sewed up,<a name="FNanchor_451_451" id="FNanchor_451_451"></a><a href="#Footnote_451_451" class="fnanchor">[451]</a> in +antiquity, and, in the Middle Ages, the ox's hide in +which, according to the chronicles, the horrid Duke +of Spalato Euroia orders Paulus Chuporus, prefect of +the Emperor Sigismond, to be sewed, to revenge himself +upon him, because he had, out of contempt, saluted +him by bellowing like an ox). Thus with the Celtic +hero Brian,<a name="FNanchor_452_452" id="FNanchor_452_452"></a><a href="#Footnote_452_452" class="fnanchor">[452]</a> the pretended fool, who speculates upon +the stupidity of those who are reputed wise. When one +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>of these so-called sages, deceived by him, proposes to throw +him into the sea shut up in a sack, he makes another +man take his place by means of a witty invention, as +Goldoni's liar would say, whilst he himself comes back +to the shore with a whole herd of cattle. In the other +Celtic, Slavonic, German, and Italian variations of this +story, the would-be fool begins his fortune-making, in +one version, by putting a few coins into his dead cow's +hide, and then selling it at a very high price as a purse +which will give out money whenever shaken; and in +another, by palming off his ass or horse, persuading the +purchaser, by means of an easy deceit, to believe that it +yields gold and silver, and thus obtaining a high price for +it. With the cow are also connected the two horns, by +blowing into which he causes his wife, who feigns death, +to rise to life again, which horns he thus prevails on his +brothers or companions to buy at a great ransom, who, +thinking themselves cunning, and wishing by means +of the horns to speculate upon corpses,<a name="FNanchor_453_453" id="FNanchor_453_453"></a><a href="#Footnote_453_453" class="fnanchor">[453]</a> begin by killing +people, and are ruined. I have said above, that the sack +in which the hero is generally enclosed is the same as the +chest in which the heroine is usually shut up on account of +her beauty, that is to say, in which the beautiful heroine +hides her splendour, or in which the red cow, the +evening aurora with the sun, loses herself. The fourteenth +Scottish story of Mr J. F. Campbell's contains the following +narrative:—A king, whose first wife (the morning +aurora) is dead, engages to marry the woman whom +the dead queen's dresses will fit, and finds no one who +can wear them except his own daughter (the evening +aurora). She makes her father give her gold and silver +dresses and shoes (that is, she takes from her father, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> +sun, the splendour of the morning aurora); she shuts +herself up with them in a chest, and lets herself be +thrown into the sea. The chest drifts about on the +waves, and comes at last to the shore; the beautiful +maiden enters the service of a young king; she shows +herself in church with her splendid robes; the young +king, who does not recognise his servant-maid in this +beautiful princess, becomes enamoured of her, and +hastens to overtake her; she flees and loses her golden +slipper; the king finds it, and to discover her, has it +measured on every foot; many maidens cut off their +toes to make the slipper go on, but a bird divulges the +deceit; the young king marries the beautiful maiden who +came out of the wooden chest. Here we have again, +not only the heroine who escapes, but the walking +heroine; this heroine is the aurora, and the aurora is +often a cow. Another swift cow passes in the proverb +before the hare (the leaping moon), in the fable of the +ant and the grasshopper, of which the former represents +the cloud or the night, or Indras or the aurora in the +cloud of night, or the earth,<a name="FNanchor_454_454" id="FNanchor_454_454"></a><a href="#Footnote_454_454" class="fnanchor">[454]</a> and the latter, the leaping one, +the moon; the ant passes the grasshopper in the race, not +because it walks faster, but because the two runners +must necessarily meet, and therefore the one must pass the +other. The English infantile rhyme, "Hey! diddle, +diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the +moon," refers to the myth of the cow which jumps over +the hare. The observation of celestial phenomena being +afterwards neglected, and it being forgotten that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> +running ant or cow meant the cloud, or the sun, or the +aurora, or the earth, and the jumping hare or grasshopper +the moon, only a regular and parallel race, on the terrestrial +soil, between cow and hare, or ant and grasshopper, was +seen; and from the myth of the two animals which meet +and pass each other in the sky, was derived, according to the +different characters of nations or eras, a double proverb—one +deriding the slow and rash animal which presumes +to try and overtake the swift one in the race, the other +serving as an example to prove the truth of the sentence, +"Tarde sed tute," which, in Italian, is "Chi va piano va +sano e va lontano" (he who goes slowly, goes well and +far). The first proverb has for its parent the Greek one, +"to hunt the hare with an ox," which, in Italian, is +"pigliar la lepre col carro" (to take the hare with a +car);<a name="FNanchor_455_455" id="FNanchor_455_455"></a><a href="#Footnote_455_455" class="fnanchor">[455]</a> referring to cases where means disproportionate +to the end are made use of. When the hare and the cow +meet, if the cow is obliged to stop the hare, she crushes +it, as we have seen above that she crushes the bird's +eggs instead of hatching them. The idea, moreover, of +the ox hunting the hare arose naturally out of the idea +of the ox or cow overtaking and passing beyond the hare. +To these proverbs can perhaps be joined the next German +one:—"All who blow the horn do not hunt hares," +which is now directed against those who think by an +easy method, such as blowing a horn, to accomplish a +difficult enterprise, such as hunting a hare; in the same +way as in Germany it is said, that all thunder-clouds do +not give rain, and the cow must do more than low in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> +order to have much milk, or the cow that lows most is +not the one that yields most milk.<a name="FNanchor_456_456" id="FNanchor_456_456"></a><a href="#Footnote_456_456" class="fnanchor">[456]</a> In fact, a cow +which lows much is unwell, neither while it is lowing +can it eat and make milk; so he who fatigues himself +with blowing the horn is not able, at the same time, to +run after the hare; as in the Italian proverb, "Il can +che abbaia non morde" (the dog that barks does not +bite), for the simple reason that whilst he opens his +mouth to bark, he cannot shut it to bite. The hen that +clucks, on the other hand, is the one that lays the egg, +because the act of clucking with the mouth does not +interfere with the operation of egg-laying; there is no +incompatibility of offices.</p> + +<p>The German proverb, "As a blind cow finds a pea," is +now used to indicate an impossibility; and yet in the +myth the blind cow (or the night) really finds the pea, +kidney-bean, or bean (the moon), which are the same +thing to all intents and purposes. The night is sacred +to the dead; for the dead are as eaten vegetables—kidney-beans, +vetches, peas, and cabbages—lunar symbols of +resurrection and abundance. In the ninth story of the +fourth book of <i>Afanassieff</i>, the daughter of the old man +and woman eats beans; a bean falls upon the ground, and +grows up to the sky; upon this bean the old man (the sun) +climbs up to heaven and sees everything. In the numerous +stories in which the young hero sells a cow or cow's hide, +we almost always find a pipkin full of kidney-beans, +which he induces people to think can cook themselves, +the hero having first cooked them, and then placed them +upon the fire covered with ashes (the darkness); the +pipkin is also the moon. The stories of the pipkin +belonging to the house-mother in the <i>Mahbhratam</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> +which the god Kṛishṇas, having been hospitably entertained +by her, refills with beans, and of the lord who, +in an unpublished Piedmontese legend, disguised as a +poor old man, throws pebbles into the kettle of the pious +widow, which, as soon as thrown in, become kidney-beans, +involve the same myth. In the same way I think +the kidney-bean is evidently intended by the fruit of +fruits, which, according to the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, the +merciful man receives in exchange for the little black +cow (<i>kṛishṇadhenuk</i>) given to the priest.<a name="FNanchor_457_457" id="FNanchor_457_457"></a><a href="#Footnote_457_457" class="fnanchor">[457]</a> In the +English fairy tale of "Jack and the Bean-stalk," Jack +barters his cow for some beans; his mother (the blind +cow) scatters the beans; one of them takes root, and +grows up to the sky.<a name="FNanchor_458_458" id="FNanchor_458_458"></a><a href="#Footnote_458_458" class="fnanchor">[458]</a> By means of the black cow, of +the funereal or blind cow, of the cow-aurora, which +becomes black or blind during the night, the hero finds +the bean or the pea of abundance (the moon), by means +of which he sees again in the morning and becomes rich.</p> + +<p>We have seen a sack, instead of the hide of a black +cow, used to signify the night; in like manner, after or +instead of this same cow's hide (which the hero goes to +sell), as well as the pea or bean, we have the pipkin—the +poor hero finds the moon. The Slavonic story of the +potter who becomes rich, and that of the brother believed +to be stupid, who sells at a high price his pipkin, which +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>makes the beans boil without a fire, are varieties of the +same subject. In a Russian story in <i>Afanassieff</i>,<a name="FNanchor_459_459" id="FNanchor_459_459"></a><a href="#Footnote_459_459" class="fnanchor">[459]</a> the +amphora takes the place of the pipkin that makes +its owner rich. The poor brother draws it out of the +water; from the broken amphora comes a duck, which +lays one day golden eggs, and the next silver ones—the +sun and the moon (at morning the aurora hatches the +golden day, at evening the silver night).</p> + +<p>We have still to explain the proverbs of the cow that +laughs and the cow that spins. The laughing aurora +(after having, during the night, acted the princess that +never laughs) and the spinning aurora (in relation with the +cow, the moon, that spins by means of its horns) are +already known to us. The aurora laughs at morn in the +sky, at the sight of her husband; thus the princess that +never laughs, in a numerous series of Slavonic, German, +and Italian stories, laughs when she sees her predestined +husband.<a name="FNanchor_460_460" id="FNanchor_460_460"></a><a href="#Footnote_460_460" class="fnanchor">[460]</a> The proverb of the cow that laughs is connected +with that of the cow that speaks; it is perhaps +on this account that bulls and cows (and other animals) +which speak, and say and do complimentary things +among themselves, in an entire cycle of Indo-European +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>stories, which have been learnedly illustrated by Professor +Benfey, in <i>Orient und Occident</i>, under the title of +"Ein Mrchen von der Thiersprachen," always make the +man who understands, and indiscreetly listens to their +language, laugh. But if the man reveals what the bulls +or cows (or other animals) have said to each other, he +prepares his own ruin: the language and the inner life +of animals must not be divulged to all; if published +abroad, the augury is a sinister one. That which makes +the princess of the Russian tale laugh, is seeing the +courtesy which the animals, like men, show to the man +taken out of the mud; that which makes the man who +understands the language of animals laugh, is seeing +them speak and act to each other exactly as men do in +similar private relations. To betray this mystery is to +wish for one's death. No one must know what the bull +said in secret to the cow, the sun to his mistress, what +the king said in the queen's ear. The violator of the +mysteries of Venus is guilty of sacrilege, and merits the +punishment of death, or at least brings evil down upon +his head. Woe to the heroine if the hero hidden in the +skin of an animal, on account of some indiscretion, or because +she has spoken to her sisters, shows himself naked +in his human form; she loses him, and their separation +is inevitable.</p> + +<p>We are already acquainted with the cloud-cow and the +cloud-bull; the cloud thunders, the bull bellows and +speaks. The clouds, the Vedic <i>gn devapatns</i>, <i>gn devs</i>,<a name="FNanchor_461_461" id="FNanchor_461_461"></a><a href="#Footnote_461_461" class="fnanchor">[461]</a> +that is, the goddesses, or divine and knowing wives, the +fairy goddesses (women with their presentiments, the +women that know more than the devil), are also prophetic +cows; these cows, in their character of fairies, speak with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> +a human voice, and so do the cloud-bulls. Hence the +Romans could take their auguries from an ox that spoke +with a human voice. It has been said that this omen was +a sinister one, but it is a mistake. According to Livy, +under the consulate of Cn. Domitius and L. Quintius, an +ox threw Rome into terror by the words, <i>Cave tibi, Roma</i>. +These words seem to have a sinister meaning, but they +are in reality nothing more than a friendly counsel or +admonition, as much as to say, Look to your field occupations, +O Rome; the thunder has been heard which announces +the summer. Thus, when we read in the fifth +book of Pliny's <i>Natural History</i> that whenever an ox was +known to have spoken with a man's voice, the Roman +Senate was accustomed to meet in the open air—<i>sub dio</i>, I +only see in this allusion, and in ascribing this practice to +the Senate, one way of saying that when thunder is heard +(that is to say, when the ox speaks) it is a sign of summer, +and we may go out into the country and sleep in the open +air. And so, finally, when, according to Eusebius, an ox +said, that for the death of Csar (which, as every one knows, +took place on the Ides of March, that is to say, at the beginning +of spring) there would be more blades of corn than +men, I see a most evident announcement of the approach +of summer, in which men or reapers are in fact never too +many, and even rare when the harvest is a large one. +The ox that with a man's voice heralds the near advent of +summer corresponds to the cuckoo, the legend of which +we shall reserve for a special chapter. Meanwhile, to +confirm still more our identification, we shall cite here +the almost proverbial verse of Theocritos: Women know +everything, even how Zeus married Hra (or that which +the king said in the queen's ear). Zeus, transformed into +a cuckoo, flew to the mountain, and alighted on the knees +of Hra, who, to protect him from the cold, covered him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> +over with her robes. The cuckoo, or Zeus, disappears +soon after having spoken, that is, announced the summer +loves of the sun. After St John's Day the cuckoo, who +appears in March, is no longer seen; so the ox, soon +after it has spoken and betrayed the loves of Zeus, or soon +after the cloud has thundered, revealing the secret loves +of the sun within the sky covered with clouds, or the +confidential speeches and secret caresses of the animals, +pays for this indiscretion by his own death. As the +aurora is represented in the Vedic hymns by a maiden +who does not laugh, and smiles only when she sees her +husband,<a name="FNanchor_462_462" id="FNanchor_462_462"></a><a href="#Footnote_462_462" class="fnanchor">[462]</a> so the lightning that tears the cloud and comes +before the thunder is compared to the laughing of an ox +or a cow, or else of the man who has seen their loves. +As long as the sky only lightens, or merely smiles,<a name="FNanchor_463_463" id="FNanchor_463_463"></a><a href="#Footnote_463_463" class="fnanchor">[463]</a> there +is little harm done. No one can know as yet why the ox +or the cow, the hero or heroine, or the third person who +is looking on, smiles before the spectator; but when the +hero or the heroine speaks, betraying the thought or +singular surprise which makes him or her smile, the +penalty of the indiscretion is death; the thundering cloud +is soon dissolved into rain. Nor will my identification +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>of the cloud that lightens (making a distinction between +the lightning and the thunderbolt) with the smiling cow, or +ox, or man who, understanding the language of animals, +as they speak in low tones, and seeing their most familiar +habits, smiles, seem forced when we reflect that our +language has preserved the figures of a ray of joy, of a +flash of joy, to indicate a smile, of which we say that it +shines, illumines, or lightens. Lightning is the cloud's +smile. In the ninth story of the third book of <i>Afanassieff</i>, +we meet with a fish which laughs in the face of the +onlooker (the cloud that lightens, and also the moon that +comes out of the ocean of night), and for which, on account +of this singular property, the poor man (the sun in +the cloud or in the night) obtains an extraordinary sum +from a rich lord, even all his riches—<i>i.e.</i>, the poor man +takes the place of the lord; the splendid sun takes the +place of the sun hidden in the cloud or in the darkness. +In a Hindoo story of <i>Somadevas</i> (i. 5), a fish laughs upon +seeing men disguised as women in the king's apartment. +In the <i>Tuti-Name</i> (ii. 21), the fishes laugh when they see +the prudery of an adulteress. With this is connected the +fable of Lafontane, "Le Rieur et les Poissons" (viii. 8). +In the legend of Merlin, the magician also laughs because +the wife of Julius Csar lives with twelve heroes disguised +as women, and because he himself allowed himself +to be taken by Grisandole, a princess disguised as a +cavalier.<a name="FNanchor_464_464" id="FNanchor_464_464"></a><a href="#Footnote_464_464" class="fnanchor">[464]</a></p> + +<p>The fish is a phallic symbol (in the Neapolitan dialect, +<i>pesce</i>, fish, is the phallos itself). The fish that laughs because +it has been the spectator of adultery is the phallos +itself <i>in gaudio Veneris</i>. The thunderbolt of Indras is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> +his phallos that breaks the cloud. In Ovid,<a name="FNanchor_465_465" id="FNanchor_465_465"></a><a href="#Footnote_465_465" class="fnanchor">[465]</a> we have +Jupiter, who, by means of riddles, teaches Numa the way +of forming the thunderbolt.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Cœde caput, dixit, cui Rex, Parebimus, inquit;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Cœdenda est hortis eruta cepa meis.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Addidit hic, Hominis: Summos, ait ille, capillos.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Postulat hic animam: cui Numa, Piscis, ait.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Risit; et His, inquit, facito mea tela procures,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O vir colloquio non abigende meo."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The joke of the April fish (le poisson d'Avril), with +which so many of our ladies ingenuously amuse themselves, +has a scandalously phallical signification.<a name="FNanchor_466_466" id="FNanchor_466_466"></a><a href="#Footnote_466_466" class="fnanchor">[466]</a> The +fishes of the Zodiac are twins, a male and a female bound +together, born of Ers (Amor) and Aphrodit (Venus). +In the Adiparvam of the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, we read of a +fish which devours a man's seed, and a girl who, having +eaten it, brings forth a child. The same myth occurs +again in the Western popular tales.</p> + +<p>The cow that spins still remains to be explained. We +have already seen that the cow spins with her horns for +the maiden; this cow is, generally, the moon, which +spins gold and silver during the night. The aurora is +ordered by her step-mother, the night, both to pasture +the cow (the moon) and spin. If the cow-maid is to take +care of her cow and guard her well, she will be able to +spin but little; whence the German proverb is right +when it says that if the cow-maid must spin there will +be little yarn. The good cow-maid prefers to keep her cow +well, and pays every regard to it, in order that it may +find good pasturage; then the grateful cow (the moon) +puts gold and silver upon its horns to spin for the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>maiden.<a name="FNanchor_467_467" id="FNanchor_467_467"></a><a href="#Footnote_467_467" class="fnanchor">[467]</a> In the morning the girl appears upon the +mountain with the gold and silver yarn, with the gold +and silver robes given her by the good fairy or by the +good cow.<a name="FNanchor_468_468" id="FNanchor_468_468"></a><a href="#Footnote_468_468" class="fnanchor">[468]</a> And when the old woman kills the cow, +the girl who keeps its bones and sows them in the +garden sees, instead of the cow, an apple-tree with gold +and silver apples grow up, by offering one of which to +a young prince the maiden obtains a husband, whilst +perverse women are beaten by the apple-tree or find +themselves opposed by horns. This apple-legend is a +variation of the star which falls upon the good maiden's +forehead on the mountain, and of the horns, or donkey's +tail, which grow out of the forehead of the bad +sister who has maltreated the cow or badly combed the +Madonna's head. The story of the good maiden and the +wicked one, of the beautiful and the ugly one, finishes +with the attempt made by the ugly and wicked girl to +take the place of the beautiful and good one in her +husband's bed, in the same way as, in other stories, a +black washerwoman tries to take the place of the +beautiful princess; and this conclusion brings us to the +interesting story of the spinning Berta, or Queen Bertha, +as she is called.</p> + +<p>In German mythology we have the luminous Berchta, +who spins, in contrast with the dark and wild Holda at the +fountain (the washerwoman of fairy tales). The former +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>seems to be (besides the moon as a white woman, in her +period of light, the silvery night) the aurora, the spring, +or the luminous aspect of the heavens; the latter (besides +the moon in her period of darkness, Proserpina or Persephon +in hell), the dark night, winter, the old witch.<a name="FNanchor_469_469" id="FNanchor_469_469"></a><a href="#Footnote_469_469" class="fnanchor">[469]</a> +The same name is given to the various phenomena of the +gloomy sky, in the same way as a contrary name is given +to the various phenomena of the luminous heavens. On +this account lunar and solar myths, daily and annual +myths, enter into the story of Berta or Berchta.</p> + +<p>Berta, like the cow of the fairy tales, spins silver and +gold. Therefore, when we say in Italy that the time +when Berta spun is past,<a name="FNanchor_470_470" id="FNanchor_470_470"></a><a href="#Footnote_470_470" class="fnanchor">[470]</a> this expression means, that +the golden age, the age in which gold abounded is past. +And instead of this expression we also use another in +Italy to denote an incident which took place in a very +ancient era, at a time very remote from the memory of +men; we say, in the times of King Pipino (Pepin). +Queen Berta having been the wife of Pepin, it was +natural that the times of the husband should correspond +to the fabled era of his wife, who was, tradition alleges, +mother of Charlemagne, the hero so-named of the +legends, of whom it is said, in Turpin's Chronicle, that +he had long feet, and his <i>alter ego</i> Orlando (a new and +splendid medival form of the twin heroes), rather than +of the King Charlemagne of history.</p> + +<p>Berta has a large foot, like the goddess Freya, the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>German Venus, who has swan's feet. It is this large +foot that distinguishes her from other women, and +enables her husband to recognise her, in the same way +as it is the foot, or footprint (the sun follows the path +taken by the aurora), that betrays and discovers the +fugitive maiden, who, we have said, is the aurora with the +vast chariot (the vast chariot which, if it pass over the +hare, may crush it. Frau Stempe, and Frau Trempe, and +the large-footed Bertha, are the same person)—vast, +because she occupies a large extent of the heavens when +she appears. When standing on the chariot, she seems to +have no feet, or a very small, an imperceptible foot; but +the chariot on which she stands and which represents +her foot is so much the larger; therefore when we leave +the chariot out of account, and suppose, on the contrary, +that she goes on foot, inasmuch as, when walking, she +takes up much room, the swan's, or goose's, or duck's +foot given to her in the myth of Freya and the legend of +Berta is quite suited to her. And seeing, as we have +said, that the foot (the myths almost always speak of +one foot alone; even the devil is lame, or has only one +foot) and the tail of an animal are often substituted for +each other in mythology, we can understand how, in a +Russian story,<a name="FNanchor_471_471" id="FNanchor_471_471"></a><a href="#Footnote_471_471" class="fnanchor">[471]</a> the hero who has fallen into a marsh was +able to deliver himself by clutching hold of the tail of a +duck. This duck being the aurora, and having a wide +spreading tail as well as a large foot, the solar hero, or +the sun, can easily, by holding on to her, raise himself +out of the swamp of night. There is a German story<a name="FNanchor_472_472" id="FNanchor_472_472"></a><a href="#Footnote_472_472" class="fnanchor">[472]</a> in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>which the white woman, or the Berta, is transformed +into a duck. In another German legend,<a name="FNanchor_473_473" id="FNanchor_473_473"></a><a href="#Footnote_473_473" class="fnanchor">[473]</a> instead of the +swan-footed Berta, we have the Virgin Mary (who, as a +maiden, represents the virgin aurora, always pure, even +after having given birth to the sun; like the Kunt of the +<i>Mahbhratam</i>, who gives birth to Karṇas, the child of +the sun, and yet is still a virgin. On the other hand, +when a good old woman, good woman or Madonna, she +generally personifies, in the legends, the moon) who, in +the shape of a swan, comes to deliver from the prison of +the infidels (the Saracens or Turks, here the black +demons, or the darkness of night), and carry off by land +and by sea, the young hero whom she protects (the +aurora delivers the sun from the night).<a name="FNanchor_474_474" id="FNanchor_474_474"></a><a href="#Footnote_474_474" class="fnanchor">[474]</a> The same +luminous Berta also assumes, in popular German tradition, +the form of St Lucia, that is, the saint who, after +having been made blind, became the protectress of eyesight. +Of the blind or black cow of night is born the +luminous cow of morning, the aurora that sees everything +herself and makes us see everything. For the +same reason that the cow or duck, Berta, is consecrated +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>to St Lucia, whose appearance she assumes, the bull (the +sun) is sacred to St Luke, the festival of whom is on +this account celebrated at Charlton, near London, with a +horn-fair or exhibition of horns, generally ornamented +and perfumed.</p> + +<p>In the above-quoted Hindoo legend of the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, +the queen will not sleep with the old blind man, +but sends instead her servant-maid. In the <i>Reali di +Francia</i>, King Pepin is advised by his barons to take a +wife, when he is already "far advanced in years" (he is +a form of St Joseph). The barons look for a wife, and +find, in Hungary, Berta, the daughter of King Philip, +"the most beautiful and skilful horsewoman," or Berta +with the large foot upon a beautiful and stately horse, +which goes along the road bounding, whilst she is always +laughing. Berta has a maid called Elizabeth, who resembles +her in every respect except her feet. King +Pepin is married by proxy to Berta, sends for her, and +comes to meet her. Berta when she sees that King +Pepin is so ill-favoured, grieves "although forewarned of +his old age." When evening comes she takes off her +royal robes and gives them to Elizabeth, that she may +take her place and sleep with the king.<a name="FNanchor_475_475" id="FNanchor_475_475"></a><a href="#Footnote_475_475" class="fnanchor">[475]</a> Hence the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> +Italian proverbs, "Dar la Berta" (to give the Berta), +and "Pigliar la Berta" (to take the Berta), meaning to +deride and to be derided. But instead of to give the +Berta, in Italy we also say, "Dar la madre d'Orlando" +(to give the mother of Orlando). The <i>Reali di Francia</i> +informs us that King Pepin had, by Elizabeth, two perverse +bastards, Lanfroi and Olderigi, and by Berta, +Charlemagne and another Berta, mother of Orlando; but +the Italian proverb is perhaps nearer the mythical truth +when it recognises the mother of Orlando as herself +Pepin's wife, so that Charlemagne and Orlando are +brothers; and, in fact, they accomplish several of the +undertakings mentioned in the legend of the two +brothers. In the so-called Chronicle of Turpin<a name="FNanchor_476_476" id="FNanchor_476_476"></a><a href="#Footnote_476_476" class="fnanchor">[476]</a> when +Orlando dies, Charlemagne says that Orlando was his +right arm, and he has no longer anything to do in life +without him; but he lives long enough to avenge the +death of Orlando; and after this vengeance, the heroic life +of Charlemagne comes at once to an end. In the <i>Chanson +de Roland</i>, too, after the death of his hero, whom he +avenges, Charlemagne feels the burden of life, weeps, +tears his beard, unable to support this solitude; but in +the <i>Chanson</i>, as well as in the <i>Reali di Francia</i>, Orlando +explicitly appears as the nephew of Charlemagne, that is, +as the son of his sister Berta. (As the Vedic aurora was +now the mother, now the sister of the sun and of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> +Avinu, thus Berta may, mythically, be mother or +sister of Charlemagne, and yet be always the mother of +Orlando).</p> + +<p>It would be a never-ending work to collect together +all the Germanic, Scandinavian, and Celtic legends which, +in one way or another, are connected with the myth of +the cow and of the bull. The literature relating to this +subject is composed not of one or a hundred, but of +thousands of volumes, of which some (such, for instance, +as the poem of the <i>Nibelungen</i>, and the poems of the +<i>Round Table</i>) individually contain, in the germ, almost +the whole diverse world of fairy tales. I must therefore +limit myself to the indication of the more general +features, leaving to more diligent investigators the +minuter comparisons; and esteeming myself, I repeat, +too happy if my brief notices should be found clear +enough to spare others the labour of preparing the warp +upon which to weave comparisons.</p> + +<p>From what we have said thus far, it seems to me that +two essential particulars have been made clear:—1st, +That the worship of the bull and the cow was wide-spread, +even in northern nations; 2d, That the mythical +bull and cow were easily transformed into a hero and +heroine.</p> + +<p>The sacred character ascribed to the cow and the bull +is further evidenced by a Scandinavian song, in which, +on the occasion of the nuptials of the animals (the crow +and the crane), the calf (perhaps the bull) appears as a +priest, and reads a beautiful text.<a name="FNanchor_477_477" id="FNanchor_477_477"></a><a href="#Footnote_477_477" class="fnanchor">[477]</a> As a symbol of +generation, the bull is the best adapted to propitiate the +married couple; so the priest in the <i>Atharvavedas</i> teaches +the inexperienced husband and wife, by formulas <i>ad hoc</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> +the mysteries of Venus. Thus the <i>jus prim noctis</i> was +conceded to the Brahman in medival India; and so in +the ritual of medival France, we still find indications +of the priest <i>pronubus</i>. The beautiful text that the calf, +or bull, recites in the Scandinavian song must be the +same which, according to the ceremonial recorded by +Villemarqu, the priest recited, whilst sprinkling them +with incense, to the married couple <i>sedentes vel jacentes +in lectulo suo</i>.<a name="FNanchor_478_478" id="FNanchor_478_478"></a><a href="#Footnote_478_478" class="fnanchor">[478]</a> Thus, when the wolf dies (in a German +writing of the twelfth century), it is the ox that reads +the gospel.<a name="FNanchor_479_479" id="FNanchor_479_479"></a><a href="#Footnote_479_479" class="fnanchor">[479]</a> Besides marriages and funerals, the bull or +ox also appears, finally, as in the Hindoo ceremonial, in +pregnancy. Gargamelle, while she has Gargantua in her +womb, eats an excessive quantity<a name="FNanchor_480_480" id="FNanchor_480_480"></a><a href="#Footnote_480_480" class="fnanchor">[480]</a> of tripe of fattened +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>oxen. When she feels the pains of child-birth, her +husband comforts her with an agricultural proverb of +Poitou, "Laissez faire aux quatre beufz de devant;" +and she then gives birth to Gargantua, who comes out +of her left ear, in the same way as in the Slavonic stories +we find the heroes come out of the ears of the horse (or +of the ass of night; the luminous solar hero comes out +of the ears of the ass, or of the grey or black horse; the +twin horsemen come out of the two ears). Rabelais, to +explain this extraordinary birth, asks "Minerve ne naquit-elle +pas du cerveau par l'aureille de Iupiter?" No +sooner is Gargantua born, than he asks with loud cries +for something to drink; to give him milk, 17,913 cows +are brought, his mother's breasts not being enough, +although each time she is milked she yields "quatorze +cens deux pipes neuf potes de laict." This is the giant +of popular tradition, whom the gigantic phantasy of +Rabelais has coloured in order to make him the butt of +an immense satire. It is an amplified and humorous +rendering in a literary form of the popular Superlatif,<a name="FNanchor_481_481" id="FNanchor_481_481"></a><a href="#Footnote_481_481" class="fnanchor">[481]</a> +whose mythical character is revealed in the curse hurled +against him by the old dwarf-fairy, whom he maltreated: +"One sun, to accomplish his work, eats eleven entire +moons; but this time every moon will eat the work of a +sun." The ascending and descending life of the solar +hero is thus indicated. Superlatif will become continually +smaller, until it seems as though he were about +to disappear altogether; but at that very instant the +curse comes to an end, and from a dwarf, he grows into +a giant again in the arms of his bride.<a name="FNanchor_482_482" id="FNanchor_482_482"></a><a href="#Footnote_482_482" class="fnanchor">[482]</a> Thus the days +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>become continually shorter and shorter, till the winter +solstice, till Christmas. At Christmas the sun is born +again, the days lengthen, the dwarf grows tall; the sun, +by a double but analogous conception of ideas, passes +once each day and once each year from giant to dwarf, +and from dwarf to giant.</p> + +<p>And the dwarfs of tradition know and reveal the +mythical how and why of their transformations, since, +though they are dwarfs and hidden, they see all and +learn all. It is from the knowing dwarf Allwis, his +diminutive <i>alter ego</i>, that the mighty Thor, in the <i>Edda</i>, +learns the names of the moon, the sun, the clouds, and +the winds. The moon, according to Allwis, when it is +in the kingdom of hell (in the kingdom of death, in the +infernal world, when it is Proserpina), is called a wheel +that is hurrying on; it then shines among the dwarfs +(<i>i.e.</i>, in the luminous night, in which the sun hides itself; +it becomes an invisible dwarf). The sun among the +dwarfs (<i>i.e.</i>, when it is a dwarf) plays with Dwalin (the +mythical stag, probably the horned moon); among the +giants (<i>i.e.</i>, when in the aurora, it becomes a giant +again), it is a burning brand; among the gods (the Ases), +it is the light of the world. The cloud, the dwarf Allwis +goes on to inform us, is the ship of the winds, the strength +of the winds, the helmet (or hat, or hood) which makes +its wearer invisible. The wind, again, is the wanderer, +the noisy one, the weeper, the bellower, the whistler<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> +(no one can resist the cries or the whistling of the hero +of fairy tales; the bellowing of the bull makes the lion +tremble in his cave). In this learned lesson on +Germanico-Scandinavian mythology, given us by the +dwarf Allwis, we have a further justification of the +transition which we here assume to have been made +from the natural celestial phenomenon to its personification +in an animal, and to the personification of the +animal in a man: Allwis, who knew all things, has +explained the mystery to us.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center">SECTION VI.</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Bull and the Cow in Greek and Latin Tradition.</span></p> + +<p class="center">SUMMARY.</p> + +<blockquote style="text-indent:-2em"><p>Preparatory works.—Bos quoque formosa est.—Zeus as a bull.—I +and Eurp as cows.—The cow sacred to Minerva, the calf to +Mercury, and the bull to Zeus.—Demoniacal bulls.—Taurus +draconem genuit et taurum draco.—White bulls sacrificed to +Zeus, and black ones to Poseidn.—Poseidn as a bull.—The +horn of abundance broken off the bull Acheloos.—The bulls of +Aitas.—The bull who kills Ampelos.—Dionysos a bull.—The bull +that comes out of the sea.—The eaters of bulls.—The sacrifice of the +bull.—The intestines of the bull.—From the cow, the lamb.—The +bull's entrails are wanting when the hero is about to die, that is, +when the hero has no heart.—Even the bull goes into the forest.—The +bull that flees is a good omen when taken and sacrificed.—The +bull and the cow guide the lost hero.—Analogy between solar +and lunar phenomena.—Hrakls passes the sea now on the cow's +neck, now in a golden cup.—Hrakls shoots at the sun.—The +moon, the bull of Hrakls, becomes an apple-tree; anecdote relating +to this.—The moon as a golden apple.—The moon as a cake.—The +funeral cake.—Instead of a cow of flesh, a cow made of +paste, in Plutarch and sop.—Ashes and excrement of the cow.—L'eau +de millefleurs.—The bulls of the sun.—Hrakls stable-boy +and cleaner of the herds.—The bull Phaethn.—The myth of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> +the bull and the lion.—The bull's horns.—The god a witty thief; +the demon an infamous one.—The myth of Cacus again.—The +worm or serpent that eats bulls.—The bellowing or thundering bull, +celestial musician.—The bull and the lyre.—The voice of Zeus—Bull-god +and cow-goddess.</p></blockquote> + +<p>In descending now from the North upon the Hellenic +and Latin soils, to search for the mythical and legendary +forms assumed there by the bull and the cow, the mass +of available material in point which offers, instead of +diminishing, has increased prodigiously. Not to speak +of the rich literary traditions of medival Italy and +Spain (as to those of France, they are often but an echo +of the Celtic and Germanic), nor the significant traditions +of the Latin historians and poets themselves, nor +the beliefs, superstitious customs, and legends still existing +on the half-Catholic, half-Pagan soil of Italy, all of +which are notably fraught with the earliest mythical +ideas, we here find ourselves face to face with the colossal +and splendid edifice of Greek poetry or mythology +itself; for that which constitutes the greatness and real +originality of Greek poetry is its mythology, by means of +which it is that a divinity breathes in every artistic work +of Hellenic genius. The poet and the artist are almost +always in direct correspondence with the deities, and +therefore it is that they so often assume such a divine and +inspired expression. It would, therefore, be a bold presumption +on my part if I were to essay to extract and +present, in a few pages, the soul, the contents of this +endless mythology. I have, moreover, the good fortune +of being able to plead relief from the obligation to venture +on any such attempt, by referring the reader to the learned +preparatory works published in England, in the same interest, +by Max Mller and George Cox, upon the Hellenic +myths in relation to the other mythologies. It is certainly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> +possible to take exception to interpretations of +particular myths proposed by these two eminent scholars, +as, no doubt, might be the fate of many of mine, were I +to enter into minute explanations, and were my lucubrations +fortunate enough to obtain any measure of consideration. +But as I flatter myself with the hope that, +notwithstanding occasional diversions, in which I may +have gone aside and lost myself for a few minutes, I +am taking the royal road which alone leads to the solution +of the great questions of comparative mythology, +I recognise with gratitude the labours of Max Mller and +Cox upon Greek mythology, the writings of Michael +Bral upon Roman mythology, the immortal work of +Adalbert Kuhn upon the Indo-European myth of fire +and water, and a few other helpful beacon-towers which +send their light-shafts clear and steady athwart the +waste, and serve as useful guides to the studious navigator +of the <i>mare magnum</i> of the myths. And because +that which there is yet to do is immense in proportion to +the little that has been done well, I shall take for granted +what has already been demonstrated by my learned +predecessors (to one and all of whom I confidently and +respectfully refer my readers), and go on with my own +researches, restricting myself, however, entirely to the +zoological field, in order not to increase, out of all proportion, +the dimensions of this opening chapter, which +already threatens to straiten the space I must leave for +the rest of my undertaking.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Bos quoque formosa est,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>says Ovid, in the first book of the <i>Metamorphoses</i>, when +the daughter of Inachos is transformed into a luminous +cow by Jupiter. The bull Zeus of Nonnos is also +beautiful, as he swims on the sea, carrying the beautiful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> +maiden Eurp. Her brothers wonder why oxen wish to +marry women; but we shall not wonder when we remark +that I and Eurp are duplicates of one and the same +animal, or, at least, that I and Eurp both took the +shape of a cow—one as the moon especially,<a name="FNanchor_483_483" id="FNanchor_483_483"></a><a href="#Footnote_483_483" class="fnanchor">[483]</a> the other, +the far-observing daughter of Telephaessa, the far-shining,<a name="FNanchor_484_484" id="FNanchor_484_484"></a><a href="#Footnote_484_484" class="fnanchor">[484]</a> +as the moon also, or the aurora. In the first +case it is the heroine that becomes a cow; in the second, +it is the hero who shows himself in the shape of a bull.<a name="FNanchor_485_485" id="FNanchor_485_485"></a><a href="#Footnote_485_485" class="fnanchor">[485]</a> +These forms are, however, only provisional and unnatural, +in the same way as in the Vedic hymns the representation +of the aurora, the moon, and the sun as cow and +bull is only a passing one. The cow and the bull send +their calf before them; the sun, the moon, and the aurora +are preceded or followed by the twilight. Jupiter and +Minerva have for their messenger the winged Mercurius; +and hence also Ovid<a name="FNanchor_486_486" id="FNanchor_486_486"></a><a href="#Footnote_486_486" class="fnanchor">[486]</a> was able to sing:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">"Mactatur vacca Minerv,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alipedi vitulus, taurus tibi, summe Deorum."<a name="FNanchor_487_487" id="FNanchor_487_487"></a><a href="#Footnote_487_487" class="fnanchor">[487]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>The fruit of the nuptials of I and of Eurp with +Zeus is of a monstrous nature, such as the evil-doing +daughters of Danaos, who, on account of their crimes, are +condemned in hell to fill the famous barrel (the cloud) +that is ever emptying (the counterpart of the cup which, +in the Scandinavian myth, is never emptied); such too +as Mins, he who ordered the labyrinth to be made, the +infernal judge, the feeder of the Mintauros (of which +the monstrous bull of Marathon, first subdued by +Hrakls and afterwards killed by Theseus, is a later +form), the son of his wife and the gloomy and watery +black bull Poseidn. Even Kadmos, the brother of +Eurp, ends his life badly. He descends into the kingdom +of the dead in the form of a serpent. Of good, evil +is born, and of evil, good; of the beautiful, the hideous, +and of the hideous, the beautiful; of light, darkness, and +of darkness, light; of day, night, and of night, day; of +heat, cold, and of cold, heat. Each day and each year +the monotonous antithesis is renewed; the serpent's head +always finds and bites its tail again. A Tarentine verse +of Arnobius expresses very happily these celestial vicissitudes:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Taurus draconem genuit et taurum draco."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Thus, in the romance of Heliodoros (<i>Aithiopika</i>) we read +that the queen of Ethiopia, being black, gave birth to a +white son; that is to say, the black night gives birth to +the white moon and to the white dawn of morning. To +Zeus (Dyus, the luminous,) are sacrificed white bulls; +to his brother Poseidn, black ones; indeed, entirely +black<a name="FNanchor_488_488" id="FNanchor_488_488"></a><a href="#Footnote_488_488" class="fnanchor">[488]</a> ones, according to the Homeric expression.</p> + +<p>Poseidn, in Hesiod (<i>Theog.</i> 453), is the eldest brother;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> +in Homer (<i>Il.</i> xv. 187), he is, on the contrary, the +youngest; and both are right; it is the question of the +egg and the hen; which is born first, darkness or light? +The son of Poseidn, Polyphmos the Cyclop, is blinded +by Odysseus. Poseidn, representing the watery, cloudy, +or nocturnal sky, his one-eyed son seems to be that sky +itself, with the solar star, the eye of the heavens, in the +midst of the darkness or of the clouds (the mouth of the +barrel). When Odysseus blinds his son, Poseidn avenges +him by condemning Odysseus to wander on the waters +(that is, lost in the ocean or the clouds of night). +Inasmuch, moreover, as Zeus, properly the luminous one, +is often called and represented by Homer as black as the +clouds and pluvial,<a name="FNanchor_489_489" id="FNanchor_489_489"></a><a href="#Footnote_489_489" class="fnanchor">[489]</a> he is assimilated to Poseidn, the +<i>presbtatos</i> or oldest; in fact, in the oldest Hellenic +myths, Poseidn is essentially the pluvial form of Zeus. +When Poseidn, in the form of a bull, seduces Pasipha, +the daughter of the sun and wife of Mins, he appears, +indeed, of a white colour, but has between his horns a +black spot.<a name="FNanchor_490_490" id="FNanchor_490_490"></a><a href="#Footnote_490_490" class="fnanchor">[490]</a> This spot, however small, is enough to +betray his tenebrous nature. Thus Acheloos, vanquished +by Hrakls in the shape of a serpent, rises again in that +of a pugnacious bull, one of whose horns Hrakls +breaks,<a name="FNanchor_491_491" id="FNanchor_491_491"></a><a href="#Footnote_491_491" class="fnanchor">[491]</a> which he gives to the tolians, who receive +abundance from it (the waters of the Acheloos fertilise +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span>the country traversed by them; the dragon of the cloud +kept back the waters; Hrakls discomfits the dragon, +<i>i.e.</i>, the darkness, and it then reappears in the form of a +bull; when its horns are broken, abundance is the consequence). +This monster reappears in the two perverse +and terrible bulls of King Aitas, with copper feet (<i>taur +chalkpode</i>), which breathe dark-red flames and smoke, +and advance against the hero Isn in the cavern; in +the same way as the king of the monkeys in the +<i>Rmyaṇam</i> vanquishes the demoniacal bull that fights +with its horns, by taking hold of the horns themselves, +and throwing it down; so Isn does in Apollnios.<a name="FNanchor_492_492" id="FNanchor_492_492"></a><a href="#Footnote_492_492" class="fnanchor">[492]</a> +The same bull is repeated in that ridden by the youth +Ampelos, dear to Dinysos (who has also the nature of a +bull, <i>taurophss</i>, but of a luminous one). Ampelos, persuaded +by the death-bringing At (<i>thanatphros At</i>), +mounts on this bull, and is thrown by it upon a rock +where his skull is broken, because he was full of pride +against the horned moon, her who agitates the oxen, who, +offended, sends a gadfly to the bull and maddens it. +The bull Dinysos wishes to avenge the young Ampelos, +by fixing his horns in the belly of the perverse and +homicidal bull.<a name="FNanchor_493_493" id="FNanchor_493_493"></a><a href="#Footnote_493_493" class="fnanchor">[493]</a> In this myth, the black bull of night +and the bull-moon are confounded together in one +sinister action.</p> + +<p>From the ocean of night comes forth the head of the +solar and lunar bull, and on this account, in Euripides<a name="FNanchor_494_494" id="FNanchor_494_494"></a><a href="#Footnote_494_494" class="fnanchor">[494]</a> +Okeanos is called the bull-headed (<i>taurkranos</i>); or else +the head of the solar bull enters the nocturnal forest, or +that of the lunar bull comes out of it. This phenomenon +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>gave rise to several poetical images. The bull is devoured +by the monsters of night; hence in the <i>Seven at Thebes</i> +(xlii.) of schylos, the messenger accuses of impiety the +seven eaters of bulls, who touch with their hands the +blood of bulls; hence in the forty-third fable of sop, +the dogs flee, horrified, from the peasant who, being of a +gluttonous nature (like the old man of the Russian story +who eats all his cows), after having devoured sheep and +goats, prepares to eat the working oxen themselves.<a name="FNanchor_495_495" id="FNanchor_495_495"></a><a href="#Footnote_495_495" class="fnanchor">[495]</a> +The bulls head, or even the bull itself, or the milch-cow, +which must not be eaten, can, however, be sacrificed; +nay, he is lucky who offers them up (except when the +deity is named Heliogabalus, who receives the <i>taurobolium</i> +as a homage due to him, without giving anything in +exchange to the devoted sacrificers).<a name="FNanchor_496_496" id="FNanchor_496_496"></a><a href="#Footnote_496_496" class="fnanchor">[496]</a> According to +Valerius Maximus,<a name="FNanchor_497_497" id="FNanchor_497_497"></a><a href="#Footnote_497_497" class="fnanchor">[497]</a> the empire of the world would, by +an oracle of the time of Servius Tullius, belong to the +nation who should sacrifice to the Diana of the Aventine +a certain wonderful cow belonging to a Sabine (the aurora +or the moon, from the sacrifice of which the sun comes out +at morning). The Sabine prepares to sacrifice it, but a +Roman priest takes it from him by fraud, whilst the +Sabine is sent to purify himself in the water near at +hand. This is a zoological form of the epico-mythic rape +of the Sabines, of the exchange of the wife or of the precious +object, of the exchange effected in the sack. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>In Ovid,<a name="FNanchor_498_498" id="FNanchor_498_498"></a><a href="#Footnote_498_498" class="fnanchor">[498]</a> the same myth occurs again with a variation:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Matre satus Terra, monstrum mirabile, taurus<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Parte sui serpens posteriore fuit.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hunc triplici muro lucis incluserat atris<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Parcarum monitu Styx violenta trium.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Viscera qui tauri flammis adolenda dedisset,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sors erat, ternos vincere posse Deos.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Immolat hunc Briareus factu ex adamante securi;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Et jam jam flammis exta daturus erat.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Jupiter alitibus rapere imperat. Attulit illi<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Milvus; et meritis venit in astra suis."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>We shall return to this myth in the following chapters. +The monster is killed only when his heart, which he +keeps shut up, is taken away. Sometimes he does not +keep it shut up in his own body, but in a duck (the +aurora), which comes out of a hare (the moon sacrificed +in the morning).<a name="FNanchor_499_499" id="FNanchor_499_499"></a><a href="#Footnote_499_499" class="fnanchor">[499]</a> When this duck is opened, a golden +egg (the sun) is found. When the egg is thrown on the +ground, or at the monster's head, the monster dies. The +golden duck, whence the monster's heart, the sun, comes +forth, is the same as the cow which gives birth to the +lamb (the night gives birth to the aurora, and the aurora +to the solar lamb). The historian Flavius cites, among the +prodigies which preceded the destruction of the temple +of Jerusalem, a miracle of this kind, which took place in +the middle of the temple itself, in the case of a cow led +thither to be sacrificed. It occurs still every morning in +the mythical heavens, and was a phenomenon familiar +to human observation in the remotest antiquity, when it +became a proverb; but, as often happened, the proverb +which affirmed an evident myth, when its sense was lost, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>was adopted to indicate an impossibility; wherefore we +read in the second satire (cxxii.) of Juvenal:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Scilicet horreres maioraque monstra putares,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Si mulier vitulum, vel si bos ederet agnum?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In Greek and Latin authors<a name="FNanchor_500_500" id="FNanchor_500_500"></a><a href="#Footnote_500_500" class="fnanchor">[500]</a> we find frequent examples +of the sacrifice of a bull a short time before the death +of the hero by whom it was ordered, in which it was +noticed as a very sinister omen that the entrails were +missing, and particularly the heart or the liver. Having +observed that the monster's heart is the solar hero, or the +sun itself, we can easily understand how, in the sacrifice +of a bull, this heart must be wanting when the hero +approaches his end. In the mythical bull sacrificed at +evening, the hero's heart is not to be found; the +monster has eaten his intestines, of which, according +to the legend, he is particularly greedy.</p> + +<p>But the bull does not always let himself be sacrificed +patiently; he often flees in order not to be killed. We +have seen in the Russian stories how the bull, which his +owner intends to sacrifice, flees into the forest, with the +lamb (the bull and the lamb are two equivalent forms of +the morning and evening solar hero) and the other +domestic animals. The proverb of Theokritos, "Even +the bull goes into the forest,"<a name="FNanchor_501_501" id="FNanchor_501_501"></a><a href="#Footnote_501_501" class="fnanchor">[501]</a> can have no other origin +than in the two analogous myths of the moon which +wanders through the forest of night, and of the sun who +hides himself in the same forest, when he sees the preparations +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>made for the sacrifice; the sun in the night +becomes the moon.</p> + +<p>I have said that the bull, when sacrificed, often, on +account of his being devoid of intestines, forebodes +unlucky occurrences to the hero; the solar bull of the +evening is without strength, he has no heroic entrails. +But after he has been to pasture freely in the forest, after +having exercised his powers in battle with the wolves of +night, after having, by his bellowing (in the darkness, +in the thundering cloud), filled all the animals with +terror, the bull is found again and led towards his +dwelling of the morning, full of light, like a sacrificed +hero; heroic entrails are found in him; from the black +bull who is sacrificed towards morning, from the +forest, from the bull of night, come forth the heart, the +liver, the life and strength, the sun, the hero-sun; and +the human hero, observing his sacrifice, considers it a +good omen. We can thus understand the narrative of +Ammianus Marcellinus: "Decimus (taurus) diffractis +vinculis, lapsus gre reductus est, et mactatus ominosa +signa monstravit."<a name="FNanchor_502_502" id="FNanchor_502_502"></a><a href="#Footnote_502_502" class="fnanchor">[502]</a> Whilst he is hidden in the forest, +the solar bull is black, but often (<i>i.e.</i>, in all the nights +illumined by the moon), giving up his place to the moon, +he appears in the form of a white bull or cow, who +guides the hero lost in the darkness. Thoas is called the +king of the Tauroi (or bulls) in the <i>Iphigenia in Tauris</i> +of Euripides, because he has wings on his feet. The +cow I flees without stopping in the <i>Prometheus</i> of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> +schylos. Euripides<a name="FNanchor_503_503" id="FNanchor_503_503"></a><a href="#Footnote_503_503" class="fnanchor">[503]</a> says that she gave birth to the +king of the Kadmœans. Here, therefore, we find once +more the intimate relation between I and Eurp, the +sister of Kadmos, which I noticed above. Kadmos, the +brother of Eurp, unites himself with I. But I is a +cow, and we find a cow, a travelling cow, marked with a +white spot in the shape of a full moon (the moon itself, +or I), in the legend of Kadmos in Bœotia, according to +Pausanias,<a name="FNanchor_504_504" id="FNanchor_504_504"></a><a href="#Footnote_504_504" class="fnanchor">[504]</a> and to Ovid,<a name="FNanchor_505_505" id="FNanchor_505_505"></a><a href="#Footnote_505_505" class="fnanchor">[505]</a> who sings—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Bos tibi, Phœbus ait, solis occurret in arvis,<a name="FNanchor_506_506" id="FNanchor_506_506"></a><a href="#Footnote_506_506" class="fnanchor">[506]</a><br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nullum passa jugum, curvique immunis aratri.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Hac duce carpe vias, et, qua requieverit herba,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Mœnia fac condas: Bœotia ilia vocato.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Vix bene Castalio Cadmus descenderat antro:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Incustoditam lente videt ire juvencam,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nullum servitii signum cervice gerentem.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Subsequitur, pressoque legit vestigia gressu;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Auctoremque vi Phœbum taciturnus adorat.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Jam vada Cephisi, Panopesque evaserat arva;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Bos stetit; et, tollens spatiosam cornibus altis<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ad cœlum frontem, mugitibus impulit auras.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Atque ita, respiciens comites sua terga sequentes,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Procubuit, teneraque latus submisit in herba."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>This is the good fairy, or good old man, who shows the +way to the heroes in popular tales; it is the cow which +succours the maiden persecuted by her step-mother, the +puppet which spins, sews, and weaves for the maiden +aurora. For just as we have seen that the wooden girl +is the aurora herself, which at morn comes out of, and at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>even re-enters, the forest of night,<a name="FNanchor_507_507" id="FNanchor_507_507"></a><a href="#Footnote_507_507" class="fnanchor">[507]</a> as is clearly shown +by the myths of Urva and of Daphne, so in like manner +the moon comes out of and re-enters the nocturnal +forest, transforming herself from a tree to a cow, and +from a cow to a tree, wooden girl, or puppet. Some +myths relating to the aurora are also applicable to the +moon, on account of the resemblance of the phenomena +(the lunar and solar bulls also are interchangeable), as +they both come out of the nocturnal gloom, both drop +dewy humours, and both run after the sun, of which the +aurora is the deliverer in the morning, and the moon the +protectress, guide, hostess, and good advising fairy, who +teaches him the secret by which to avoid the ambuscades +of the monster. Hrakls passes the sea upon the neck +of the cow-moon; but instead of the cow, we also find +in the mythical sky of Hrakls the golden cup, which +is the same thing. From the cow-moon comes forth +the horn of abundance; from the cornucopia to the cup +the passage is easy. It is said that Hrakls, approaching +the oxen of Geryon, the West, felt himself burned by +the sun's rays, and shot arrows at him (in the same way +as Indras in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i> breaks a wheel of the car of +Sryas, the sun). The sun admires the courage and +strength of the hero, and lends him his golden cup, +upon which Hrakls passes the sea. This being accomplished, +Hrakls restores the cup to the sun, and finds +the oxen.</p> + +<p>The bull which carries the hero and heroine, in the +Russian story, arises again in another form, if its essential +part (now the intestines, now the bones, now the ashes)<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> +is preserved. The cow which helps the maiden becomes, +as we have already seen, an apple-tree, and helps her +again in this form. We find the same myth transformed +in Greece. In <i>Cœlius</i>, quoted by Aldrovandi,<a name="FNanchor_508_508" id="FNanchor_508_508"></a><a href="#Footnote_508_508" class="fnanchor">[508]</a> we read, +"Cum rustici quidam Herculi Alexicaco bovem essent +immolaturi, isque rupto fune profugisset (the bull destined +to the sacrifice repairs to the forest of night), nec esset +quod sacrificaretur, malum arreptum suppositis quatuor +ramis crurum vice, deinde additis alteris duobus ceu +cornuum loco, bovem utcumque fuisse imitatos, idque +ridiculum simulacrum pro victima sacrificasse Herculi." +This account is confirmed by the facts recorded by Julius +Pollux,<a name="FNanchor_509_509" id="FNanchor_509_509"></a><a href="#Footnote_509_509" class="fnanchor">[509]</a> that the apple-tree was sacrificed to Hrakls. +The moon, on account of its circular form, assumed, +besides the figure of a pea, a pumpkin and a cabbage, +also that of a golden apple. As it contains honey, the +sweet apple represents well the ambrosial moon. Moreover, +in the same way as we have seen the pea which fell +on the ground become a tree, and rise to heaven, so the +apple became an apple-tree, the tree of golden apples +found in the Western garden of the Hesperides.</p> + +<p>The moon, besides the form of a horned cow, also +assumed, in the popular ryan belief, that of a tart, of a +cake, either on account of its circular shape, or of the +ambrosial honey supposed to be contained by the moon, +because of the dew or rain which it spreads on the ground. +The cake has in Slavonic tradition the same importance +as the pea, kidney-bean, or cabbage. The bull or cow of +the fool, bartered for a pea, is perhaps the same as the +sun or aurora of evening, bartered during the night for +the moon, or else meeting the moon. The funereal pea +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>or kidney-bean, the vegetable which serves as provision +for the journey in the kingdom of the dead, and which +brings the hero riches, is perhaps only the moon, which +the solar hero finds on the way during the night, and +which he receives in exchange for his cow's hide. When +the hero possesses this pea, he is assured of every kind +of good fortune, and can enter or ascend into the luminous +sky, as well as come out of the gloomy hell, into +which the monster has drawn him. A similar virtue is +attributed to the cake, which we find in Indo-European +funeral customs instead of the vegetable of the dead.</p> + +<p>After this we can understand what Plutarch tells us in +the Life of Lucullus concerning the Cyziceni, of whom +he writes, that, pressed by siege, they offered up to Proserpine +(the moon in hell) a cow of black paste, not +being able to offer up one of flesh; and he adds, that the +sacrifice was agreeable to the goddess. Thus, in the +thirty-sixth fable of sop, we read of an invalid who +promises to the gods that he will sacrifice a hundred +oxen to them in the event of a cure; when cured, as he +does not possess a hundred oxen of flesh, he makes a +hundred of paste, and burns them upon the hearth. But, +according to sop, the gods were not satisfied, and +endeavoured to play off a joke upon him; an attempt, +which, however, did not succeed, inasmuch as the +cunning man used it to his own profit; for the solar hero +in the night, not being really a fool, merely feigns to +be one.</p> + +<p>But, to return to the cow-moon: we must complete the +explanation of another myth, that of the excrement of +the cow considered as purifying. The moon, as the +aurora, yields ambrosia; it is considered to be a cow; the +urine of this cow is ambrosia or holy water; he who +drinks this water purifies himself, as the ambrosia which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> +rains from the lunar ray and the aurora cleans the paths of +the sky, purifies and makes clear (<i>drghaya ćakshase</i>) the +paths of the sky which the shadows of night darken and +contaminate. The same virtue is attributed, moreover, to +cow's dung, a conception also derived from the cow, and +given to the moon as well as to the morning aurora. +These two cows are conceived as making the earth fruitful +by means of their ambrosial excrements; these excrements, +being also luminous, both those of the moon and +those of the aurora are considered as purifiers. The +ashes of these cows (which their friend the heroine preserves) +are not only ashes, but golden powder or golden +flour (the golden cake occurs again in that flour or +powder of gold which the witch demands from the hero +in Russian stories), which, mixed with excrement, brings +good fortune to the cunning and robber hero. The ashes +of the sacrificed pregnant cow (<i>i.e.</i>, the cow which dies +after having given birth to a calf) were religiously preserved +by the Romans in the temple of Vesta, with +bean-stalks (which are used to fatten the earth sown with +corn), as a means of expiation. Ovid<a name="FNanchor_510_510" id="FNanchor_510_510"></a><a href="#Footnote_510_510" class="fnanchor">[510]</a> mentions this +rite:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Nox abiit, oriturque Aurora. Palilia poscor,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Non poscor frustra, si favet alma Pales.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alma Pales, faveas pastoria sacra canenti;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Prosequor officio si tua festa pio.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Certe ego de vitulo cinerem, stipulasque fabales,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Spe tuli plena februa casta, manu."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The ashes of a cow are preserved both as a symbol of +resurrection and as a means of purification. As to the +excrements of the cow, they are still used to form the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> +so-called <i>eau de millefleurs</i>, recommended by several +pharmacopœias as a remedy for cachexy.<a name="FNanchor_511_511" id="FNanchor_511_511"></a><a href="#Footnote_511_511" class="fnanchor">[511]</a></p> + +<p>I have noticed above the myth of Hrakls, in which, +having passed the sea upon the golden cup, he finds the +oxen upon the shore. These oxen are thus described by +Theokritos, in the myth of King Augeias, as the child +of the sun. The sun, says Theokritos, granted to his +son the honour of being richer than all other men in +herds. All these herds are healthy, and multiply without +limit, always becoming better. Among the bulls, three +hundred have white legs (like the alba of morning), two +hundred are red (like the sun's rays), with curved horns. +These bulls are to be used for purposes of reproduction; +besides them there are twelve sacred to the sun, which +shine like swans. One of them is superior to all the rest +in size, and is called a star, or Phaethn (the luminous, +an epithet given to Hlios, the sun, in the <i>Odyssey</i>, the +guider of the chariot of the sun, who, after finishing his +diurnal course, is unable to rein in the horses, and is precipitated +with the chariot into the water, in order that +the burning horses may not set fire to the world. Instead +of solar oxen, which draw the chariot, and fall, at evening, +into the nocturnal marsh, we find in this myth the +chariot drawn by horses overturned into the waves; but +the Phaethn, the very luminous and excellent ox, as +represented by Theokritos, justifies our identification of +the two mythical episodes of the ox and of the horse +which falls into the water). The bull Phaethn of +Theokritos sees Hrakls, and, taking him for a lion, +rushes upon him and endeavours to wound him with his +horns. The sun, as a golden-haired hero, is a very strong<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> +lion (Hrakls, Samson); as a golden-horned hero, he +is a very strong bull; enclosed in the cloud, they roar +and bellow. The two images of the sun-lion and of the +sun-bull are now in harmony and now in discordance, +and fight with one another. In the <i>Rmyaṇam</i> we +found the two brother-heroes Rmas and Lakshmaṇas, +an epic form of the two Avinu, represented respectively +as a bull and a lion. In the Hellenic fables we frequently +find the lion and the bull together, and afterwards +in discordance, as happens in the legend of the two +brother-heroes. In sop and in Avianus, the bull (perhaps +the moon) fleeing from the lion (<i>i.e.</i>, from the sun in its +monstrous evening or autumnal form of a lion), enters the +hiding-place of the goat (the moon in the grotto of night), +and is insulted and provoked by it. In another sopian +fable, on the contrary, it is the lion who fears the horns +of the bull, and induces him to part with them, in order +that the bull may become his prey.<a name="FNanchor_512_512" id="FNanchor_512_512"></a><a href="#Footnote_512_512" class="fnanchor">[512]</a> In yet another +sopian fable taken from Syntipa, the bull kills the lion, +while asleep, with his horns. In Phdrus, the wild boar +with his tusks, the bull with his horns, and the ass with +kicks, put an end to the old and infirm lion. In +Phdrus's fable of the ox and the ass drawing together, +the ox falls inert upon the ground when he loses his +horns. Aristoteles, in the third book on the Parts of +Animals, censures the Momos of sop, who laughs at +the bull because he has his horns on his forehead instead +of on his arms, showing that if the bull had his horns on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> +any other part of his body, they would be a useless +weight, and would impede his other functions without +aiding him in anything. The ox and the lion were also +painted together in Christian churches.<a name="FNanchor_513_513" id="FNanchor_513_513"></a><a href="#Footnote_513_513" class="fnanchor">[513]</a></p> + +<p>To continue the legend of the solar hero and the oxen, +we find again in Hrakls, as employed among the herds +in the service of King Augeias, the sun, the usual hostler-hero; +he is not only to guard the herds well, but in one +day to cleanse them thoroughly, and make them shine. +Defrauded of the price by Augeias, he kills him, and +ravages all his country. In the same way, in Homer, +Apollo guards, for a stipulated price, the herds of King +Laomedon upon Mount Ida, and is cheated of his reward. +In the same way, Hermes takes the herds of King +Admetos to pasture; he leads them to browse near the +herds of Apollo, from whom he steals a hundred bulls +and twelve cows, preventing the dogs from barking (as +Hrakls does when he leads away Geryon's oxen). This +Hermes, this god Mercury, god of merchants, this +merchant and robber, is the same as the skilful and +cunning thief of the stories who carries off horses, draught +oxen, caskets, and ear-rings from the king; he is the +hero-thief; but a shade distinguishes him from the +monster brigand or Vedic demoniacal Paṇis; the hero +who hides himself and the monster that hides things +both do a furtive action. When Hermes leads away the +herds stolen from the solar god, the sun, he also takes +care to fasten branches of trees to their tails, which, by +sweeping the road, shall destroy the track of the bulls +and cows that have been led away. The shepherd Battos +plays the spy, although, as the price of his silence, Hermes +has promised him a white cow (the moon, and perhaps<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> +Battos himself, the spy, is the moon). Hermes tests him, +by disguising himself and promising him a bull and a +cow if he speaks. Battos speaks, and Hermes punishes +him by transforming him into a stone:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i14">"Vertit<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In durum silicem, qui nunc quoque dicitur index."<a name="FNanchor_514_514" id="FNanchor_514_514"></a><a href="#Footnote_514_514" class="fnanchor">[514]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>This god Mercury, who steals the bulls from Apollo +(as Hrakls leads away the oxen of Geryon), is the +divine form of the thief. His demoniacal form, is—Cacus, +the son of Vulcan (as the Vedic Vṛitras is the son of +Tvashṭar), who vomits fire; a giant who envelops himself +in darkness, in Virgil; three-headed (like the Vedic +monster), in Propertius;<a name="FNanchor_515_515" id="FNanchor_515_515"></a><a href="#Footnote_515_515" class="fnanchor">[515]</a> who inhabits in the Aventine +forest a cavern full of human bones (like the monster of +fairy tales); who thunders (flammas ore sonante vomit), +who fights with rocks and trunks of trees, in Ovid<a name="FNanchor_516_516" id="FNanchor_516_516"></a><a href="#Footnote_516_516" class="fnanchor">[516]</a> (like +the heroes in the Hindoo, Slavonic, German, and Homeric +tradition); who steals the cows from Hrakls, and hides +their footprints by dragging them backwards into the +cavern, in Livy; who also tells us that the cows in the +cavern low, wishing for the bulls from whom they are +separated (as in the Vedic hymns). The hero, hearing +them, finds the cavern, overturns with a great noise the +rock which five pair of oxen yoked together could +scarcely have moved (like the Marutas who break the +rock, like Indras who splits the crag open), and with the +three-knotted club (trinodis) kills the monster and frees +the cows. The solar hero who at evening leads away +oxen or cows, or who at morning steals them from the +stable, is a skilful robber who has acted meritoriously, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span>and marries, in reward, the princess aurora; the cloudy +or gloomy monster who steals the solar cows to shut them +up in the cavern, whence he then throws out smoke and +flames, is an infamous criminal. The divine thief steals +almost out of playfulness, either to show his craftiness or +to prove his valour; the demoniacal thief steals because +of his malevolent character, and instinct to devour what +he steals, as does the fabled worm of the river Indus (the +Vedic Sindhus, or heavenly ocean), who draws into the +abyss and devours the thirsty oxen who go to drink.<a name="FNanchor_517_517" id="FNanchor_517_517"></a><a href="#Footnote_517_517" class="fnanchor">[517]</a></p> + +<p>The monster of the clouds who whistles and thunders +only terrifies; the god who whistles and thunders in the +cloud, on the other hand, is <i>par excellence</i> a celestial +musician; his musical instrument, the thunder, astonishes +us by its marvels,<a name="FNanchor_518_518" id="FNanchor_518_518"></a><a href="#Footnote_518_518" class="fnanchor">[518]</a> and makes stones and plants tremble, +that is, makes stones and plants move, especially celestial +ones (<i>i.e.</i>, cloud-mountains and cloud-trees); it draws +after it the wild animals (of the heavenly forest), tames +and subdues them. The bellowing bull terrifies the lion +himself. We, therefore, also read in Nonnos,<a name="FNanchor_519_519" id="FNanchor_519_519"></a><a href="#Footnote_519_519" class="fnanchor">[519]</a> that +Dionysos gives a bull in reward to agros, who has +won in the competition of song and of the lyre, whilst +he reserves a hirsute he-goat for him who loses; on this +account we find on the capitals of columns in old +Milanese churches, calves and bulls represented as playing +on the lyre.<a name="FNanchor_520_520" id="FNanchor_520_520"></a><a href="#Footnote_520_520" class="fnanchor">[520]</a> It is a variation of the myth of the +ass and the lyre, which has the same meaning. The bull +and the ass, for the same reason, are found represented +together, because they bellow and bray (like Christian +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>Corybantes) near the cradle of the new-born god, in order +to hide, by their noise, his birth from the old king or +deity who is to be dethroned.<a name="FNanchor_521_521" id="FNanchor_521_521"></a><a href="#Footnote_521_521" class="fnanchor">[521]</a> The conch of Bhmas, the +elephant-horn of Orlando, the Greek war-bugle tauraia, +by means of which armies were moved, derived their +character and their name from the mythical bull, the +thundering god. The voice of the bull is compared in +Euripides to the voice of Zeus;<a name="FNanchor_522_522" id="FNanchor_522_522"></a><a href="#Footnote_522_522" class="fnanchor">[522]</a> the music which pleases +the heroes is certainly not the air of the <i>Casta diva</i>; it is +the braying of the ass,<a name="FNanchor_523_523" id="FNanchor_523_523"></a><a href="#Footnote_523_523" class="fnanchor">[523]</a> the roar of the lion, the bellowing +of the bull, who occupies the first place in the heavens, +and has occupied us so long, because the supreme god +took his form, after having carried off Eurp. Zeus +left on the earth his divine form, and the more generally +preferred heroic form of a bull took him up to heaven:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Litoribus tactis stabat sine cornibus ullis<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Juppiter, inque deum de bove versus erat.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Taurus init cœlum."<a name="FNanchor_524_524" id="FNanchor_524_524"></a><a href="#Footnote_524_524" class="fnanchor">[524]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>We thus, after a long pilgrimage in the fields of tradition, +return to the Vedic bull Indras, from whom we +started, and to his female form, which, having a human +nature, became a cow, and being a cow, assumed a divine +shape:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Qu bos ex homine, ex bove facta Dea."<a name="FNanchor_525_525" id="FNanchor_525_525"></a><a href="#Footnote_525_525" class="fnanchor">[525]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span></p> + +<hr /> + +<h3>CHAPTER II.</h3> + +<h4>THE HORSE.</h4> + +<p class="center">SUMMARY.</p> + +<blockquote style="text-indent:-2em"><p>The horse, favourite animal of the solar hero.—Attributes of the Vedic +solar hero.—Animals which draw the Vedic gods.—The Avinu +sons of a mare.—The mule, the ass, and the horse in relation to +each other.—The hero's horse, prior to being noble and handsome, +is vile and ill-favoured; proofs.—The teeth of the horse.—The +figs that make tails grow.—The excrement of the horse.—Three +colours of the heroic horse.—Pluto's horses abhor the light.—Pgasos +an imperfect horse.—The black horse generally demoniacal.—The +hippomanes.—The monster that makes horses perspire +and grow lean; the fire in stables.—To dream of black +horses.—The horse of the third brother is small, humpbacked, +and lame.—The hero transforms himself into a horse.—The grey +horse differs from the black one.—The red horse frees the hero.—The +three steps, the three races, the three leaps, the three castles, +the three days, the three brothers, and the three horses correspond +to each other.—Two horsemen change the hero's bad horse into a +heroic steed.—The horse's ears; the hero in the horse's ears.—The +horse's head blesses the good maiden, and devours the wicked +one.—The black horseman, the white horseman, and the red one.—The +horse-monster that devastates the field surprised by the hero, +and destroyed by fire, in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>.—The Dioscuri washing +the sweat off their horses.—Salt on the horse's back.—The hero-horse +covered by the waters.—The Avinu and Agnis give a +good horse to the hero who has a bad one.—The three steps of +Vishṇus are made by the horses of Indras.—Vishṇus as horse.—Indras +and the Avinu find the bride on horseback.—Rmas as +horse.—Dadhyańć and his ambrosial horse's head, which discomfits +the hostile monsters.—The bones of the horse.—The exchange<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> +of heads.—The two brother horses Pgasos and Chrsaor in +opposition to one another.—Castor and Pollux.—Discussion upon +the nature of the Avinu.—The two brothers at discord; Sundas +and Upasundas.—Nakulas and Vasudevas.—Rmas and Lakshmaṇas.—The +brothers who resemble each other; Blin and +Sugrvas; the brother betrays his brother and steals his wife.—Kerepa +and Urvksha.—Piran and Pilsem.—The sky a mountain +of stone; heroes, heroines, and horses of stone.—The brother +seducer in the <i>Tuti-Name</i>.—Sunlight and moonlight, two brothers.—The +minister's son and the king's son.—Horse and cat.—The +two brothers on a journey; one becomes a king, the other spits +gold; the candle of one of the two brothers lights of its own +accord, and he therefore obtains the kingdom; the other brother's +treasure.—Digression concerning the interpretation of the myth.—Agamds +and Trophonios; Piedmontese story of the skilful +thief.—The two brothers who resemble each other; mistaken one +for the other by the wife of one of them; the brother sleeps with +his sister-in-law without touching her; the legend of the pilgrim +who comes from Rome; the head fastened on again.—The horse +led away out of hell.—The solar horse destined for sacrifice carried +off by Kapilas; that is, the solar horse escapes, like the solar bull, +from the sacrifice.—The stallion destined for the sacrifice touched, +and the horse's fat smelted by Kualy as an augury of fruitfulness.—The +horse's head as the mouth of hell.—The robber of the +horse and of the treasure.—The horns of the stag, the horns or +mane of the horse, and the hair of the hero, which catch and fasten +themselves to the trees of the forest.—The thief now protects +thieves, and now protects men from thieves.—The Miles gloriosus; +hero, horse, and tree, united together, discomfit the enemies.—The +heroic horse.—The tail of Indras's horse, and the Hindoo war-horse.—The +war-horses of Rustem, of Alexander, of Bellerophon, and +of Csar; the winged horse.—The horse goes through water and +fire.—The horse and the apple.—The chains of the heroic horse, +and the difficulty of riding him.—The horse that speaks; the +horse-spy.—The chariot that speaks.—The solar horse bound that +it may not come back again.—The hero who flees in the shape of +a horse, and the horse sold with the bridle; transformations of the +horse.—The sun without a horse and without a bridle.—The +horses of the sun, arrested or wounded, precipitate the solar hero +into the waters.—The eternal hunter.—Etaas, Phaethn, Hippolytos.—The +horse that delivers the hero.—The neighing of +Indras's horse; the horse of Darius which neighs at the sight of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> +the sun on account of the smell of a mare.—Number of the solar +horses.—The hero born of a mare.—The mare's egg.—The hare +born of a mare devours the mare.—Spanish mares made pregnant +by the wind.—Horses sons of the wind.—The hero Avatthman +neighs immediately after birth.—The horses that weep; mythical +signification of these tears.—Vedic riddle and play of words upon +the letter <i>r</i>, and the root <i>varsh</i> relative to the horse.—The foam +from the horse's mouth destroys enemies and cures the cough.—The +Avinu, the Dioscuri, Asklpios and his two sons as +physicians.—Caballus.—Ambrosia from the hoof of the Vedic +horse.—Hippokrn; the horse's hoof in relation with water.—Exchanges +between moon and sun and between bull and horse.—Horses +sacred to the gods and to saints.—Holy horsemen who +help the heroes <i>mercede pacta</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>The myth of the horse is perhaps not so rich in legends +as that of the bull and the cow, but certainly no less +interesting. As the horseman is the finest type of the +hero, so the horse which carries him is in mythology the +noblest of animals.</p> + +<p>We have already observed that the best of the three +brothers, the third, the victorious one, the morning sun, +is, in tradition, distinguished from the other brothers by +his swiftness; and that the morning dawn or aurora, +which is the third sister, the good one, the best of the +three sisters, is she who wins the race. It is, therefore, +natural that the favourite animal of the hero should be +his horse. The two Hindoo Dioscuri, that is, the Avinu, +the two horsemen, derive their name from the avas or +horse, as being the swift one;<a name="FNanchor_526_526" id="FNanchor_526_526"></a><a href="#Footnote_526_526" class="fnanchor">[526]</a> and they are very probably +identical with the two fair-haired, amiable, splendid, +and ardent coursers of Indras, of Savitar (the sun), +and proper and worthy to bear heroes,<a name="FNanchor_527_527" id="FNanchor_527_527"></a><a href="#Footnote_527_527" class="fnanchor">[527]</a> who yoke themselves +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>at a word,<a name="FNanchor_528_528" id="FNanchor_528_528"></a><a href="#Footnote_528_528" class="fnanchor">[528]</a> are maned, adapted to make fruitful, +full of life,<a name="FNanchor_529_529" id="FNanchor_529_529"></a><a href="#Footnote_529_529" class="fnanchor">[529]</a> having eyes like the sun,<a name="FNanchor_530_530" id="FNanchor_530_530"></a><a href="#Footnote_530_530" class="fnanchor">[530]</a> made by the +Ṛibhavas,<a name="FNanchor_531_531" id="FNanchor_531_531"></a><a href="#Footnote_531_531" class="fnanchor">[531]</a> who, as they made the cow out of a cow, also +made a horse out of the horse,<a name="FNanchor_532_532" id="FNanchor_532_532"></a><a href="#Footnote_532_532" class="fnanchor">[532]</a> black, with white feet, +drawing the chariot with the golden yoke, revealing the +beings;<a name="FNanchor_533_533" id="FNanchor_533_533"></a><a href="#Footnote_533_533" class="fnanchor">[533]</a> the two rapid ones; the two most rapid ones;<a name="FNanchor_534_534" id="FNanchor_534_534"></a><a href="#Footnote_534_534" class="fnanchor">[534]</a> +plunging into the inebriating drink before Indras yokes +them;<a name="FNanchor_535_535" id="FNanchor_535_535"></a><a href="#Footnote_535_535" class="fnanchor">[535]</a> beautiful, by means of which the chariot of the +Avinu is as swift as thought;<a name="FNanchor_536_536" id="FNanchor_536_536"></a><a href="#Footnote_536_536" class="fnanchor">[536]</a> who carry Indras, as +every day they carry the sun;<a name="FNanchor_537_537" id="FNanchor_537_537"></a><a href="#Footnote_537_537" class="fnanchor">[537]</a> are the two rays of the +sun;<a name="FNanchor_538_538" id="FNanchor_538_538"></a><a href="#Footnote_538_538" class="fnanchor">[538]</a> who neigh, dropping ambrosia;<a name="FNanchor_539_539" id="FNanchor_539_539"></a><a href="#Footnote_539_539" class="fnanchor">[539]</a> the very pure +horses of the bull Indras, inebriated, who illumine the +sky,<a name="FNanchor_540_540" id="FNanchor_540_540"></a><a href="#Footnote_540_540" class="fnanchor">[540]</a> with manes the colour of a peacock,<a name="FNanchor_541_541" id="FNanchor_541_541"></a><a href="#Footnote_541_541" class="fnanchor">[541]</a> bridled sixty +times (properly six times twice five);<a name="FNanchor_542_542" id="FNanchor_542_542"></a><a href="#Footnote_542_542" class="fnanchor">[542]</a> beneficent, winged, +indefatigable, resolute destroyers (of the enemies).<a name="FNanchor_543_543" id="FNanchor_543_543"></a><a href="#Footnote_543_543" class="fnanchor">[543]</a> The +<i>itareya Brhmanam</i>, when giving the characteristics of +the race of each god, whilst it tells us that Agnis, at the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>marriage of Somas and Sry, is drawn by mules, and +the aurora by red cows (or bulls), teaches us that Indras +is drawn by horses, and the Avinu by asses; the +Avinu carried off the prize.<a name="FNanchor_544_544" id="FNanchor_544_544"></a><a href="#Footnote_544_544" class="fnanchor">[544]</a> In the <i>Mahbhratam</i>,<a name="FNanchor_545_545" id="FNanchor_545_545"></a><a href="#Footnote_545_545" class="fnanchor">[545]</a> +we find another important circumstance, <i>i.e.</i>, the Avinu +represented as sons of a mare, or of Tvashtr, wife of the +sun Savitar, who took the form of a mare. Therefore we +have here the sons of the mare, who may be horses or +mules, according as the mare united herself with a horse +or with an ass. Here, then, we have already an evident +proof of the identification of the heroes Avinu with the +animals, horses or asses, which draw them. The <i>Ṛigvedas</i> +does not as yet know the word <i>avatara</i>, or mule, but in +representing the Avinu drawn now by horses and now +by asses, it shows us the intermediate character of the +real animal that draws the Avinu, a grey beast, dark-coloured, +and white only in its fore parts. Night is the +mule that carries the Avinu or twilights, in the same +way as, in the above-quoted <i>itareya</i>, it carries or +awakens Agnis, fire or light. In the <i>Iliad</i>,<a name="FNanchor_546_546" id="FNanchor_546_546"></a><a href="#Footnote_546_546" class="fnanchor">[546]</a> mules are +sung of as being better adapted than oxen to draw the +plough.</p> + +<p>The hero's horse, like the hero himself, begins by +being ugly, deformed, and inept, and ends by becoming +beautiful, luminous, heroic, and victorious. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>The mythical horse of the Hungarians, the horse Ttos, +or Ttos lo, when born, is of an ugly aspect, defective +and lean; it is therefore said in Hungarian, that "the +Ttos comes out of a defective horse." It is, however, +always born with teeth,<a name="FNanchor_547_547" id="FNanchor_547_547"></a><a href="#Footnote_547_547" class="fnanchor">[547]</a> although its chin is sometimes +wanting; its bursts out of a black pentagonal egg on an +Ash Wednesday, after the hero has carried it for seven +summers and seven winters under his arm. In the +<i>Mahbhratam</i>,<a name="FNanchor_548_548" id="FNanchor_548_548"></a><a href="#Footnote_548_548" class="fnanchor">[548]</a> the first created horse Uććiḥravas, +the king of the horses (and therefore the horse of Indras), +which is as swift as thought, follows the path of the sun, +and is luminous and white, has, however, a black tail, +made so by the magic of the serpents, who have covered +it with black hairs. This is probably the black ass's or +horse's tail which remains upon the ugly or wicked +sister's forehead, in the popular European story of the +two sisters.<a name="FNanchor_549_549" id="FNanchor_549_549"></a><a href="#Footnote_549_549" class="fnanchor">[549]</a> It must also be remarked that, as the word +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span><i>Uććiḥravas</i> means, properly, him of the high ears, it +indicates the ass better than the horse.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the same way, therefore, as the hero of popular +tales before becoming a wise man is generally an ass, the +animal ridden by the solar hero, prior to being a real and +noble horse, is usually a worthless jade, or a dark-coloured +ass. The sun, in the beginning of the night, rides a +black horse, and afterwards a grey one, or else an ass or a +mule, but in the morning, on the contrary, a white and +luminous horse, which has a black tail; or else the dark +horse of night has a white head, or white legs, or anterior +parts of the body, with golden ears, and the nape of the +neck formed of pearls.<a name="FNanchor_550_550" id="FNanchor_550_550"></a><a href="#Footnote_550_550" class="fnanchor">[550]</a> The monstrous Trojan horse +too, of Epeios, a figure which represents the horse of +mythology, in Tryphiodros the Egyptian,<a name="FNanchor_551_551" id="FNanchor_551_551"></a><a href="#Footnote_551_551" class="fnanchor">[551]</a> has a golden +mane, red eyes, and silver teeth.</p> + +<p>In the Turkish stories of Siberia,<a name="FNanchor_552_552" id="FNanchor_552_552"></a><a href="#Footnote_552_552" class="fnanchor">[552]</a> it is upon an iron-coloured +horse that the third brother, hated by his father +and his two elder brothers, advances against the demon +Ker Iutpa. The hero becomes the excrement of a horse, +and the horse a crow; the former glues the monster's +lower lip to the earth, the latter suspends his upper lip +to the sky. In order better to understand this strange +myth, we must remember that the name of one of the +Valkiries is "Mist," a word which means excrement and +fog. The fog, or frost, or rain, or dew, falls to the ground; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>the solar horse, or the sun, rises in the sky; the monster +of night or of clouds is dispersed.</p> + +<p>In the thirteenth Esthonian story of <i>Kreutzwald</i>, the +third brother comes three times to deliver the princess +from the mountain of glass (or ice), where she sleeps. +The first time he is dressed the colour of bronze, upon a +bronze-coloured horse; the second time dressed in silver, +upon a horse the colour of silver; and the third time +upon a gold-coloured horse, dressed in gold.</p> + +<p>In an unpublished Piedmontese story, the young prince, +whose beloved princess has been ravished beyond seas, +is borne over the waves by an eagle, which he feeds with +his own flesh. Arrived beyond the sea, he hears that the +princess is destined to be the wife of the hero who wins +the race three times; the first time he appears dressed +in black, upon a black horse; the second time dressed +in white, upon a white horse; and the third time dressed +in red, upon a red horse. Each time he wins the race, +and thereafter receives the beautiful princess in marriage.</p> + +<p>Thus we see the first horse of the hero is always dark-coloured, +like the devil's horse, like the horses of Pluto, +which, accustomed to darkness, are terrified by light;<a name="FNanchor_553_553" id="FNanchor_553_553"></a><a href="#Footnote_553_553" class="fnanchor">[553]</a> it +then becomes the grey horse of the giantess, the grey +horse which smells the dead hero Sigurd in the <i>Edda</i>. +Pgasos himself, the <i>hieros hippos</i> of Aratos, is born +semi-perfect (mitels),<a name="FNanchor_554_554" id="FNanchor_554_554"></a><a href="#Footnote_554_554" class="fnanchor">[554]</a> an expression which reminds me +of the <i>equus dimidius</i> of an Alsatian paper of 1336, in +Du Cange, by which the mule is meant. The Hindoo +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span>Aruṇas, charioteer of the sun (or even the brother of the +sun himself, inasmuch as he is the brother of Garuḍas, +the solar bird), is said to be born with an imperfect body;<a name="FNanchor_555_555" id="FNanchor_555_555"></a><a href="#Footnote_555_555" class="fnanchor">[555]</a> +he can be luminous and divine only in part. The black +horse, on the contrary, has generally an evil and demoniacal +nature; the black horse corresponds to the black +devil; the colour black itself is, according to popular +superstition, the product of bad humours.<a name="FNanchor_556_556" id="FNanchor_556_556"></a><a href="#Footnote_556_556" class="fnanchor">[556]</a> Every horse, +when born, has, according to Maestro Agostino, a piece +of black flesh upon its lips, called hippomanes by the +Greeks: "La quale carne dici lo vulgo essere molto +sospettosa a li maleficii." Maestro Agostino adds, moreover, +that the mother refuses to give suck to the colt as +long as it carries this piece of flesh upon its lips, and +some say that the mother herself eats it. In an idyll of +Theokritos, we read that the Hippomanes is born among +the Arcadians, and maddens colts and swift mares.<a name="FNanchor_557_557" id="FNanchor_557_557"></a><a href="#Footnote_557_557" class="fnanchor">[557]</a> In +the first chapter we mentioned the Russian <i>damavoi</i>, the +demon who, during the night, rides upon cows, oxen, +and horses, and makes them perspire. This superstition +was already combated in Italy in the sixteenth century by +Maestro Agostino;<a name="FNanchor_558_558" id="FNanchor_558_558"></a><a href="#Footnote_558_558" class="fnanchor">[558]</a> and to it can probably be traced the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>custom, still observed by many grooms, of leaving a lamp +lighted in the stable during the night. The devil, as is +well known, is afraid of the light (Agnis is called rakshohan, +or monster-killer), and his black horse likewise. It +is therefore a sinister omen, according to two verses in +<i>Suidas</i>,<a name="FNanchor_559_559" id="FNanchor_559_559"></a><a href="#Footnote_559_559" class="fnanchor">[559]</a> to dream of black horses, whilst, on the contrary, +it is a good omen to dream of white ones. In the Norman +legend of the priest Walchelm, a black horse presents +itself to him in the first days of January of the year 1091, +and tempts him to mount upon its back; scarcely has +Walchelm done so, than the black horse sets off for +hell.<a name="FNanchor_560_560" id="FNanchor_560_560"></a><a href="#Footnote_560_560" class="fnanchor">[560]</a> The dead, too, according to the popular belief, +often ride upon black or demoniacal horses.<a name="FNanchor_561_561" id="FNanchor_561_561"></a><a href="#Footnote_561_561" class="fnanchor">[561]</a></p> + +<p>A well-known Russian story in verse, the <i>Kaniok +Garbunok</i>, or <i>Little Hump-backed Horse</i>, of Jershoff, +commences thus:—An old man has three sons, the +youngest of which is the usual Ivan Durk, or Ivan the +fool. The old man finds his corn-field devastated every +morning; he wishes to find out who the devastator is, +and sends his first-born son to watch the first night. +The first-born has drunk too much, and falls asleep, and +so does the second son, and from the same cause, on the +second night. On the third night it is Ivan's turn to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span>watch; he does not fall asleep. At midnight he sees a +mare which breathes flames coming. Ivan ties her by a +rope, leaps upon her, seizes her by the mane, torments +and subdues her, until the mare, to be let free, promises +to give Ivan one of her young ones, and carries him to +the stable where her three young ones are. She gives +Ivan a little hump-backed horse with long ears (the +Hindoo Uććiḥsravas), that flies. By means of this little +hump-backed horse, Ivan will make his fortune; when +he leads it away, the mare and the two other colts follow +it. Ivan's two brothers steal the mare and two colts, +and go to sell them to the Sultan. Ivan rejoins them, +and the three brothers stay in the Sultan's service as +grooms; sometime afterwards, Ivan saves himself from +drowning by means of his horse.</p> + +<p>In the third of <i>Erlenwein's</i> Russian stories, a stallion +is born to the Tzar's mare, that had drunk the water in +which a certain fish (a pike, in the nineteenth story) had +been washed, at the same time as the Tzar's daughter and +her maid give birth to two heroes, Ivan Tzarević and +Ivan Diević—<i>i.e.</i>, John of the Tzar and John of the girl, +a form representing the Avinu. Ivan Tzarević rides +upon the stallion. In the nineteenth story, the son of +the mare is called Demetrius of the Tzar (Dmitri Tzarević); +hero and horse being identified. In the fifth story of +<i>Erlenwein</i>, a Cossack goes into the forest, where he is betrayed +into the enemy's hands, who gives orders that he be +cut in pieces, put into a sack, and attached to his horse. +The horse starts, and carries him to the house of silver +and gold, where he is resuscitated. During the following +night, an old man and woman, whose guest the Cossack +is, drag him, in order to waken him, by the cross which +hangs on his neck, and he is thus transformed into a horse +of gold and silver. Towards evening, the horse, by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> +Tzar's order, is killed, and (like the bull and the cow) +becomes an apple-tree of silver and gold. The apple-tree +is cut down, and becomes a golden duck. The golden +duck is the same as the golden horse, or as the hero resuscitated, +<i>i.e.</i>, the morning sun. The sack and the horse +which carry the hero cut in pieces represent the voyage +of the sun in the gloom of night, or the voyage of the +grey horse, the imperfect horse, the bastard mule, or the +ass.</p> + +<p>In the Russian tales, moreover, a distinction is made between +the grey and the black horse; the grey horse helps +the hero in the night very effectively, and the black one, +on the contrary, is the herald of death. When, in the +ninth story of <i>Erlenwein</i>, the horse of Ivan the merchant's +son goes to search for the horses of the princess from +beyond the sea, Ivan waits for him upon the shore. If +he sees grey horses come forth, it is to be a sign that his +own steed is alive; but if, on the other hand, black horses +appear, he is to conclude that his own horse is dead. +Grey is the colour of sadness, black is the colour of death.</p> + +<p>In <i>Afanassieff</i>, we find new interesting data. Ivan +the fool watches during the night to surprise the horse +which devastates his father's crops, and succeeds in binding +it with rods from a linden-tree, after it has smelt the +odour of tobacco. Then, by the help of the sister of the +hero Nikanore, it acquires the faculty, when running +after cows and horses, of turning their tails into gold, as +well as their horns or manes, and their flanks into stars. +What better image could there be of the starry sky of +night, the golden tail of which is the red evening, and +the front parts, also of gold, the morning aurora?<a name="FNanchor_562_562" id="FNanchor_562_562"></a><a href="#Footnote_562_562" class="fnanchor">[562]</a></p> + +<p>In another story,<a name="FNanchor_563_563" id="FNanchor_563_563"></a><a href="#Footnote_563_563" class="fnanchor">[563]</a> we have Ivan the son of the bitch +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>occupying the place and playing the part of Ivan the son +of the mare. Ivan of the bitch, after having delivered +the three princesses from the deep cistern, is himself +thrown into it. The black horse comes to deliver him, +and cannot; the grey horse comes, and cannot either; +the red horse comes, and succeeds in dragging the hero +out. The black horse represents the dark night, the grey +horse the night beginning to clear, and the red horse the +roseate morning, which delivers the sun or solar hero.</p> + +<p>The third brother Ivan, mounted on a marvellous +horse, comes first to the bronze castle, then to the silver +one, and lastly to that of gold.<a name="FNanchor_564_564" id="FNanchor_564_564"></a><a href="#Footnote_564_564" class="fnanchor">[564]</a> This is a variety of the +same myth, and represents similarly the solar voyage from +evening to morning. The next mythical legend, however, +probably alludes rather to the three days of the winter +solstice, which the sun takes to return. The hero, Theodore, +finds a horse that has been just brought forth, which the +wolves have driven towards him; he makes it pasture +upon the dew for three dawns (like the Hungarian Ttos, +who feeds upon the golden oats in a silver field, that is +to say, who, during the silvery night, or else during the +white dawn, or the snowy winter, absorbs the dewy +humours of the spring, or the morning aurora). The +first day, the young horse becomes as high as half a tree; +the second, higher than the tree; the third day it is as high +as the heavens, and bears the hero Theodore and his +wife Anastasia on its back.</p> + +<p>Ivan Durk watches three nights at his father's tomb.<a name="FNanchor_565_565" id="FNanchor_565_565"></a><a href="#Footnote_565_565" class="fnanchor">[565]</a> +His father tells him that if at any time of need he calls +with a hero's whistle, a wonderful grey horse will appear +to help him, whose eyes shoot flames, and from whose +nostrils issues smoke. Ivan does so, and is answered; he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span>gets into his right ear, and comes out of the left. By +means of this horse, Ivan succeeds in taking down the +portrait of the Tzar's daughter three times, though hung +high up on the wall of the palace, and thus obtains the +beautiful princess to wife.</p> + +<p>According to another variety of this story,<a name="FNanchor_566_566" id="FNanchor_566_566"></a><a href="#Footnote_566_566" class="fnanchor">[566]</a> Ivan, the +third and foolish brother, goes with the most worthless +jade in the stable into the open air, and calls up the grey +horse with a loud shout; he enters into him by one ear, +and comes out at the other. Two young horsemen (the +Avinu) appear to him, and make a horse with golden +mane and tail come forth; upon this horse Ivan succeeds +in three times kissing, through twelve glasses (the glass +mountain of the Esthonian story), the daughter of the +Tzar, who therefore becomes his wife. Here, therefore, +we find the ugly horse which is made beautiful by the +two horsemen, represented by the two ears of the grey +horse out of which they come. These two horsemen give +the hero a better steed. Be it understood that their own +heroic steed (that is, the sun's horse), from being ugly or +asinine during the night, became beautiful and noble; in +the Kllaros of the Dioscuri, too, we ought probably to +recognise a courser that has been transformed from an ass +to a heroic horse.</p> + +<p>Sometimes, instead of the horse, we have only its head. +The step-mother persecutes the old man's daughter;<a name="FNanchor_567_567" id="FNanchor_567_567"></a><a href="#Footnote_567_567" class="fnanchor">[567]</a> the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>persecuted maiden finds a mare's head, which beseeches +her to relieve and cover it; at last it invites her to enter +the right ear and come out of the left one. The persecuted +girl comes out in the form of an exceedingly beautiful +maiden. The step-mother sends her own daughter to try +the same means of becoming beautiful; but she maltreats +the mare's head, and the mare's head devours her.</p> + +<p>There is also a singularly clear allusion to the Avinu +in the forty-fourth story of the fifth book of <i>Afanassieff</i>, +which seems to me to be a full confirmation of these interpretations. +When Basilia, the girl persecuted by +her step-mother, approaches the house of the old witch +(the baba-jeg), she sees galloping towards the great door +of it a black horseman, dressed all in black, upon a black +horse, who disappears underground, upon which night +begins.<a name="FNanchor_568_568" id="FNanchor_568_568"></a><a href="#Footnote_568_568" class="fnanchor">[568]</a> When the day begins to appear, Basilia sees +before her a white horseman, dressed all in white, upon a +white horse, caparisoned in white. The maiden goes on; +when the sun begins to rise, she sees a red horseman, +dressed in red, upon a red horse.<a name="FNanchor_569_569" id="FNanchor_569_569"></a><a href="#Footnote_569_569" class="fnanchor">[569]</a> The myth does not +require comment; but it happens to be given to us in +the story itself by the witch, who, to appease the curiosity +of the girl Basilia, reveals to her that the black +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span>horseman represents the dark night (noć timnaja), the +white horseman the clear day (dien jasnoi), and the red +horseman the little red sun (solnishko krasnoje).</p> + +<p>Returning from Slavonic to Asiatic tradition, we meet +with the same myths.</p> + +<p>Let us begin with the demoniacal horse, or demon of +horses. The <i>Ṛigvedas</i> already knows it; the ytudhanas, +or monster, feeds now upon human flesh (like the Bucephalus +of the legend of Alexander), now upon horse +flesh, and now milk from cows. We have said it seems +probable that the custom of keeping a lamp lighted in +the stables is a form of exorcism against the demon; the +<i>Ṛigvedas</i>, indeed, tells us that Agnis (that is, Fire, with +his flame) cuts off the heads of such monsters.<a name="FNanchor_570_570" id="FNanchor_570_570"></a><a href="#Footnote_570_570" class="fnanchor">[570]</a> But +this is not enough; the <i>Ṛigvedas</i> offers us in the same +hymn the proof of another identification. We have seen +in the last chapter how Rebhas, the invoker, is the third +brother, whom his envious and perfidious brothers threw +into the well; and we have seen above how Ivan, who +is also the third brother, invokes with a sonorous voice +the grey horse which is to help him, and how the same +Ivan is the one that discovers the monstrous horse which +ravages the seed or the crops in his father's field. In +the same Vedic hymn where the flame of Agnis beats +down the heads of the monster that torments horses, +Agnis (that is, fire) is invoked in order that the hero +Rebhas may see the monster which devastates with its +claws.<a name="FNanchor_571_571" id="FNanchor_571_571"></a><a href="#Footnote_571_571" class="fnanchor">[571]</a> Rebhas and Bhuǵyus are two names of the hero +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span>who falls into the cistern in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>. We have +seen, not long ago, in the Russian story, that Ivan, the +third brother, who is thrown down into the cistern, is +delivered by the red horse. The Avinu, in the +<i>Ṛigvedas</i>, deliver Bhuǵyus out of the sea by means of +red-winged horses.<a name="FNanchor_572_572" id="FNanchor_572_572"></a><a href="#Footnote_572_572" class="fnanchor">[572]</a> Here the grey and imperfect horse +of night is become a red horse. In the same Vedic hymn, +Rebhas, overwhelmed in the waters, is identified with his +own horse (Ivan is son of the bitch, or the cow, or the +mare), he being compared to a horse hidden by wicked ones.<a name="FNanchor_573_573" id="FNanchor_573_573"></a><a href="#Footnote_573_573" class="fnanchor">[573]</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>We saw above, in the Russian story, how the two +horsemen who come out of the grey horse's ear give to +the foolish Ivan, who has an ugly and worthless horse, a +handsome hero's palfrey, by means of which he accomplishes +the arduous undertakings which entitle him to +the hand of the king's daughter. It is remarkable how +completely the Vedic myth agrees with this European +legend. The Avinu have given, for his eternal happiness, +a luminous horse to him who has a bad one.<a name="FNanchor_574_574" id="FNanchor_574_574"></a><a href="#Footnote_574_574" class="fnanchor">[574]</a> In +another hymn, the god Agnis gives to his worshipper +a pious, truthful, invincible, and very glorious son, who +vanquishes heroes, and a swift, victorious, and unconquered +horse.<a name="FNanchor_575_575" id="FNanchor_575_575"></a><a href="#Footnote_575_575" class="fnanchor">[575]</a></p> + +<p>We have seen, moreover, how Ivan, the most popular +type of the Russian hero, has always to make three essays +before he accomplishes his undertaking upon the wonderful +horse which he has obtained from the two horsemen. +The <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, which celebrates the famous mythical enterprise +of the three steps of Vishṇus, of the great body +(bṛihaććharraḥ),<a name="FNanchor_576_576" id="FNanchor_576_576"></a><a href="#Footnote_576_576" class="fnanchor">[576]</a> of the very vast step (urukramishṭaḥ),<a name="FNanchor_577_577" id="FNanchor_577_577"></a><a href="#Footnote_577_577" class="fnanchor">[577]</a> +who, in three steps, measured or traversed the whole +span of the heavens,<a name="FNanchor_578_578" id="FNanchor_578_578"></a><a href="#Footnote_578_578" class="fnanchor">[578]</a> betrays in another hymn the secret +of Vishṇus's success in this divine enterprise, since it +says that when, with the strength of Indras, he made his +three steps, he was drawn by the two fair-haired horses +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>of Indras<a name="FNanchor_579_579" id="FNanchor_579_579"></a><a href="#Footnote_579_579" class="fnanchor">[579]</a> (that is, the two Avinu lent him the swift +and strong horse which was to bear him on to victory). +The three steps of Vishṇus correspond, therefore, to the +three stations of Ivan, to the three races of the young +hero to win the beautiful princess. Vishṇus also appears +in the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>,<a name="FNanchor_580_580" id="FNanchor_580_580"></a><a href="#Footnote_580_580" class="fnanchor">[580]</a> in the midst of the sea of liquified +butter, attractive to all beings, in the form of a horse's +head. Hero and the solar or lunar horse are identified.</p> + +<p>Indras is requested to yoke his right and his left +(horses), to approach, inebriated, his dear wife.<a name="FNanchor_581_581" id="FNanchor_581_581"></a><a href="#Footnote_581_581" class="fnanchor">[581]</a> By +means of the horse obtained from the two horsemen, the +Russian Ivan acquires his wife; in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, the +two Avinu themselves, by means of their rapid chariot, +became husbands of the daughter of the sun.<a name="FNanchor_582_582" id="FNanchor_582_582"></a><a href="#Footnote_582_582" class="fnanchor">[582]</a> The +horses of the sun are so fully identified with the chariot +drawn by them, that they are said to be dependent on +it, united with it, and almost born of it.<a name="FNanchor_583_583" id="FNanchor_583_583"></a><a href="#Footnote_583_583" class="fnanchor">[583]</a> The Avinu, +therefore, by means of the horse now enable the wife to +be found by the solar hero, by the old Ćyavanas made +young again (Tithn),<a name="FNanchor_584_584" id="FNanchor_584_584"></a><a href="#Footnote_584_584" class="fnanchor">[584]</a> now by the sun, and now find her +themselves (perhaps drawing the chariot like horses). +Rmas, too, who is represented in the <i>Rmyaṇam</i><a name="FNanchor_585_585" id="FNanchor_585_585"></a><a href="#Footnote_585_585" class="fnanchor">[585]</a> as +the deliverer of St, is compared to the solar horse, to +the sun born upon the mountain. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>We have seen in the Russian stories how the horse's +head possesses the same magic power as the marvellous +horse which the two horsemen give to the hero Ivan. +Thus, in the Vedic myth, and in the corresponding +brhmanic tradition, the horse's head Dadhyańć stands +in direct relation with the myth of the Avinu. The +wise Dadhyańć shows himself pious towards the Avinu, +to whom, although he knows that he will pay with +his head for the revelation he makes, he communicates +what he knows concerning the ambrosia or the Madhuvidy. +For this, accordingly, Dadhyańć forfeits his +head; but the Avinu present him with a horse's head +(his own), which heroically achieves wonders. With the +bones of Dadhyańć, or with the head of the horse +Dadhyańć (he who walks in butter or ambrosia), fished +up in the ambrosial lake aryaṇvat (the head of the +horse Vishṇus in the sea of butter),<a name="FNanchor_586_586" id="FNanchor_586_586"></a><a href="#Footnote_586_586" class="fnanchor">[586]</a> Indras discomfits +the ninety-nine hostile monsters (as Samson the Philistines +with the jawbone of an ass).<a name="FNanchor_587_587" id="FNanchor_587_587"></a><a href="#Footnote_587_587" class="fnanchor">[587]</a> This exchange of heads +seems to be common to the traditions which are founded +upon the myth of the Avinu, that is, to the legends of the +two brother or companion heroes. In the <i>Tuti-Name</i>,<a name="FNanchor_588_588" id="FNanchor_588_588"></a><a href="#Footnote_588_588" class="fnanchor">[588]</a> the +heads of the prince and of the Brhman, who are exceedingly +like each other, are cut off and then fastened on +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>again; but, by some mistake, the head of the one is +attached to the body of the other, so that the prince's +wife is embarrassed between them. This exchange of the +husband (which corresponds to the exchange of the wife +in the legend of Berta, referred to in the first chapter) is +very frequent in the legend of the two brothers, and often +ends in the rupture of the perfect concord reigning between +them. The two brothers or companions who dispute +about the wife, is a variety of the legend of the three +brothers who, having delivered the beautiful princess, +wish to divide her between them.</p> + +<p>The <i>Ṛigvedas</i> does not seem as yet explicitly to exhibit +the two Avinu at discord—they generally are united +in doing good; but as we already know the Vedic blind +man and lame man who are cured by the grace of Indras, +or of the Avinu themselves; as we know that the +Avinu, in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, make Dadhyańć, who has a +horse's head, conduct them to the ambrosia, or indicate +where it is, probably in order that they may procure +health and strength for themselves; as in the ninth +strophe of the 117th hymn of the first book of the +<i>Ṛigvedas</i>, the marvellous horse of the Avinu, which +kills the monster-serpent (ahihan), is but one; as we know +that the Avinu run to gain the bride for themselves; +and as we cannot ignore the fact that in the story of the +blind and lame man, when a woman comes upon the +scene, they endeavour to do harm to each other; as +we know that of the two Hellenic brothers, the Dioscuri, +one alone had from the gods the gift of immortality; as, +finally, it is known to us that of the two brothers, he +alone is the true hero who, by means of his horse, gains +the victory over the monster,—it is clear that if we have +not as yet in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i> the myth of the two brothers +at discord, we have, at least, in the ambrosia, and in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> +bride won by them the origin of the myth already indicated; +and from the idea of the privileged brother that +of the envious one would naturally arise.</p> + +<p>In Hesiod's <i>Theogony</i> we have the two brothers +Chrysor and Pgasos, that come out of the Medusa +(the evening aurora), who is made pregnant by Poseidn, +after Perseus has cut off her head. Pgasos, the younger +brother, becomes the heroic horse. In Hesiod himself, +and in the <i>Metamorphoses</i> of Ovid, he carries the thunder +and the thunderbolts for Zeus. The hero Bellerophontes +rides him, and vanquishes, by his help, the Chimaira and +the Amazons; he becomes the horse of the aurora, the +horse of the Muses, the ambrosial steed. The monstrous +Chimaira appears, in the <i>Theogony</i> of Hesiod, as the +daughter of Typhaon and the Echidna, the monstrous +daughter of Chrysor. Therefore in the conflict which +Bellerophontes maintains against the Chimaira, we have +a form of the battle which goes on between the twin +horses Pgasos and Chrysor, the one divine, the other +demoniacal.</p> + +<p>In the analogous myth of the Hellenic Dioscuri (the +sons of the luminous one, <i>i.e.</i>, of Zeus, just as the Vedic +Avinu are the sons of the luminous sky;<a name="FNanchor_589_589" id="FNanchor_589_589"></a><a href="#Footnote_589_589" class="fnanchor">[589]</a> Zeus is +united with the Dioscuri, as Indras is with the Avinu), +we again find the twins who fight to recover a woman +who had been carried off from them, <i>i.e.</i>, their own sister +Helen. One of the two brothers is mortal, and the other +immortal; he who is immortal passes the night in hell +with his mortal brother. The double aspect of the sun, +which at evening enters and loses itself in the night, now +black, now illumined by the moon, and which, in the +morning, comes forth in a luminous form, has enriched<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> +the story of the two brothers of mythology. One of +the two brothers, the red horseman, is in especial relation +with the morning sun; the other, in intimate connection +with the silvery moon, the white horseman, and +when the latter is amissing, with the infernal gloom.</p> + +<p>Several mythologists have interpreted the Avinu as +only the two twilights; but it seems more exact, inasmuch +as they are often found together, whilst the two +twilights are always apart, to recognise in them two +crepuscular lights, the lunar of evening and autumn, and +the solar of morning and spring.<a name="FNanchor_590_590" id="FNanchor_590_590"></a><a href="#Footnote_590_590" class="fnanchor">[590]</a> Of the twin-brothers, +one is always imperfect; the lunar crepuscular light offers +us a similar imperfection, with respect to the sun. Inasmuch +as the Avinu are affiliated both to the sun and +the moon, when they come out of the two ears of the +horse of night, we should understand, it would appear, +that on one side the moon goes down, while on the +other the sun is born, or that the solar horse arises, upon +which the young hero lost in the night mounts and wins +the princess aurora. In the Russian stories referred to +in the preceding chapter, we have seen how the maiden +abandons her hero-husband, or brother, to give herself +into the monster's hands; the evening aurora forsakes +the sun to throw herself into the night, and the evening +twilight stays for a long time with the evening aurora<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> +(the reddish sky of evening), when the sun is already +gone. In the morning the two lovers, the twilight, or +sun and moon, and the aurora, meet once more; when +the sun, or solar hero, arrives, he surprises them <i>in flagrante +delicto</i>, and punishes them. Sometimes, on the +contrary, the twilight and the aurora stay together, preserving +their chastity; in this case the brother twilight +figures as the good and honest guardian of the rights of +his brother the sun. This appears to me to have been +the most ancient, as it is the most subtle, interpretation +of the myth; afterwards, it is possible, and even probable, +that in the two Avinu only the two gods of morning +and of evening were seen, with their respective twilights, +considered as two brothers, so like that they were easily +mistaken for each other. But from the data of the +Russian story, which gives us the lunar twilight as a +white horseman and the rising sun as a red one, the +aurora being found exactly between the white and the +red horsemen, between the moon or the white dawn (alba) +and the sunrise, and seeing that the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, which makes +the aurora mount upon the chariot of the Avinu, considers +them in the celebrated nuptial hymn as the <i>paranymphoi</i> +of Sry, the daughter of the sun or of the +aurora herself, I venture to insist upon my interpretation +as the most obvious, and perhaps the most logical +one. The two brothers may very naturally be conceived +of as contending for the possession of the bride when +they have her between them, since the Avinu, considered +as lunar light and sun, really take the aurora between +them. The Vedic hymn cited above shows us how both the +Avinu, arriving on the swift-running chariot, became +the husbands of Sry, the daughter of the sun. But +this very Sry, in the Vedic nuptial hymn, must be +satisfied with one husband, who is called Somas, so that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> +the Avinu can only occupy the place of paranymphs. +The Avinu, therefore, would appear to be excluded +from the wedding of Sry as principal personages; they +would seem to be nothing more than assistants, and, in +fact, they often assume this part in the Vedic hymns, by +enabling now the bride to find a husband, now the +husband to recover his bride. We know already that by +means of them Ćyavanas, the old sun (a Vedic Tithn), +became young again, and was able to espouse the aurora. +We know that they gave sight to Vandanas (properly, +the Face), that they made the blind see,<a name="FNanchor_591_591" id="FNanchor_591_591"></a><a href="#Footnote_591_591" class="fnanchor">[591]</a> the lame walk, +and performed sundry other works of charity, which +would, however, have been much more glorious if these +acts did not, in fact, always issue in benefit to themselves, +as blind, lame, or drowned. It is hence very probable +that when they give a bride to the hero, they, being now +lunar, now solar heroes, do only appropriate her to themselves. +When, therefore, we read that the Avinu assist +as paranymphs at the nuptials of Sry and Somas, we are +much inclined to think that under Somas in this case one +of the Avinu is hidden. In Indras and Somas, often +sung of together in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, it seems to me that we +have just another form of the Avinu, the more so +because I also find them both, like the Avinu, personified +in one and the same horse, whose back is covered +with honey, and who is terrible and swift,<a name="FNanchor_592_592" id="FNanchor_592_592"></a><a href="#Footnote_592_592" class="fnanchor">[592]</a> and because +they are invoked together against the ytudhnas, which, +by the grace of the Avinu, the hero Rebhas succeeds +in discovering and then chasing away.<a name="FNanchor_593_593" id="FNanchor_593_593"></a><a href="#Footnote_593_593" class="fnanchor">[593]</a> The <i>Tittiriya</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span><i>Brhmaṇam</i><a name="FNanchor_594_594" id="FNanchor_594_594"></a><a href="#Footnote_594_594" class="fnanchor">[594]</a> represents to us the daughter of the sun +(Svitr) by the name of St, as enamoured of Somas, +who, on the contrary, loves another woman, the raddh +(<i>i.e.</i>, Faith), almost as if the daughter of the sun, the +aurora, were, for him at least, a symbol of infidelity. +Probably this embryo of a myth refers to the passage of +the aurora, in the morning, from her amours with the +white horseman (the white twilight), which, as we have +said, was supposed to be in particular relation with the +moon (Somas), to her amours with the red horseman (the +sun), or, <i>vice versa</i>, to the aurora who, in the evening, +abandons the red horseman, the sun (now her father, now +her husband), to throw herself into the arms of the white +horseman, the white twilight, the king Somas, or silver +god Lunus. Moreover, Yskas, in the <i>Niruktam</i>,<a name="FNanchor_595_595" id="FNanchor_595_595"></a><a href="#Footnote_595_595" class="fnanchor">[595]</a> already +notices that the Avinu were identified now with the +day and the night,<a name="FNanchor_596_596" id="FNanchor_596_596"></a><a href="#Footnote_596_596" class="fnanchor">[596]</a> now with the sun and the moon.</p> + +<p>When, therefore, we read that the Avinu obtained +for their wife the daughter of the sun, and when we learn +that she chose both for husbands,<a name="FNanchor_597_597" id="FNanchor_597_597"></a><a href="#Footnote_597_597" class="fnanchor">[597]</a> we must interpret the +passage with discrimination, and conclude that one of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span>them was sometimes preferred, inasmuch as the Vedic +nuptial hymn speaks of only one husband of Sry, with +the name of Somas, with whom, as we have said, Yskas +identifies one of the Avinu. We read in <i>Pausanias</i> +that, among the Greek usages, when the bride was conducted +to the bridegroom's house, she was accustomed to +mount a chariot and sit down in the middle, having the +bridegroom on one side, and on the other her nearest +relation as paranymphos. The preference given to one +of the two brothers over the other is naturally suggestive +of a contention between them; however, as I say, the +<i>Ṛigvedas</i>, which offers us already the myth of the third +brother abandoned in the well by his relations, does not +record any example of an open strife between the two +brothers (<i>i.e.</i>, the Avinu, the lunar and the solar +light).</p> + +<p>An evidently Hindoo variation of this myth is contained +in the well-known episode of the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, +which relates the adventures of Sundas and Upasundas, two +inseparable brothers, who lived together in love and concord, +each being ruled by the will of the other, and who had +never all their lives either said or done anything to displease +each other. The gods become envious of their virtue, +and wish to prove it, and send to seduce them a nymph +of enchanting beauty. The two brothers, on seeing her, +desire each the exclusive possession of the divine maiden, +and strive between themselves to carry her off. They +fight so long and so desperately that they both die (the +moon and the sun see the aurora in the morning, and +dispute for her; they see her again in the evening, and +fight so long that they both perish miserably, and die in +the night). The gods who are envious of the virtue of +the two brothers Sundas and Upasundas, are the same +as those who, envying the good which the Avinu do to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> +mankind, treat them as celestial udrs, under the pretext +that they pollute themselves by their contact with men, and +refuse to admit them, being impure, to the sacrifices.<a name="FNanchor_598_598" id="FNanchor_598_598"></a><a href="#Footnote_598_598" class="fnanchor">[598]</a></p> + +<p>In the twin brothers, Nakulas and Saladevas, sons of +the Avinu, the Avinu themselves revive again, are +made better, according to the expression of the first book +of the <i>Mahbhratam</i>. The first-born, Nakulas, too, is +perhaps the real Avin who kills the monster. Nakulas +is the name given to the <i>viverra ichneumon</i>, the mortal +enemy of the serpents, which refers us back to the horse +Ahihan (or killer of the serpent), as the horse of the +Avinu, or perhaps rather of one of the Avinu, is +called, in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>. Of the two Dioscuri, moreover, +one alone is especially the horseman; the other is the +valiant in combat.<a name="FNanchor_599_599" id="FNanchor_599_599"></a><a href="#Footnote_599_599" class="fnanchor">[599]</a> The mortal brother, he who has to +remain in hell, and who has to fight the monsters of +night, is Castor the horseman. Pollux, the strong-armed, +is, on the contrary, the immortal one, the daily sun, he +who profits from the victory obtained by his brother who +has fought in the night, during which the Gandharvs +(the horses in the perfumes, they who walk in perfume) +also ride upon war-horses, heroic, invulnerable, divine, +exceedingly swift, who change colour at will—the Gandharvs, +whose strength increases during the night, as one +of them informs Arǵunas in the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, when +communicating to him Gandharvic knowledge.<a name="FNanchor_600_600" id="FNanchor_600_600"></a><a href="#Footnote_600_600" class="fnanchor">[600]</a></p> + +<p>In the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>, the two brothers Rmas and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>Lakshmaṇas are compared to the Avinu, to the sun +and moon, as similar the one to the other; and their reciprocal +love reminds us of that of the Avinu.<a name="FNanchor_601_601" id="FNanchor_601_601"></a><a href="#Footnote_601_601" class="fnanchor">[601]</a> Rmas +and Lakshmaṇas are always at peace with each other; +there is, however, a passage which may serve as a link +to connect the myth of the two friendly brothers and +that of the two hostile ones. When Rmas combats +alone in the forest thousands of monsters, Lakshmaṇas +stays with St, hidden in a cavern.</p> + +<p>But the <i>Rmyaṇam</i> itself shows us the two brothers +in open strife in the legend of the two brothers Blin +and Sugrvas, children of the sun, beauteous as the two +Avinu, so perfectly like one another that it is impossible +to distinguish one from the other; and so that when Rmas, +to please Sugrvas, wishes to kill Blin, he does not know +which to strike, until Sugrvas puts a garland on his head +as a sign of recognition.<a name="FNanchor_602_602" id="FNanchor_602_602"></a><a href="#Footnote_602_602" class="fnanchor">[602]</a> Once Blin and Sugrvas were +intimate friends, but, on account of a woman, they became +mortal enemies. Sugrvas complains that Blin, +his elder brother, has deprived him of his wife Rum;<a name="FNanchor_603_603" id="FNanchor_603_603"></a><a href="#Footnote_603_603" class="fnanchor">[603]</a> +but it is not certain that Sugrvas did not rather steal +Blin's wife. Blin seems especially to represent the +evening sun; the <i>Rmyaṇam</i><a name="FNanchor_604_604" id="FNanchor_604_604"></a><a href="#Footnote_604_604" class="fnanchor">[604]</a> says of him that, while +the sun is not risen (<i>i.e.</i>, in the night), he is unweariedly +passing from the western to the eastern ocean; by this is +described the supposed voyage of the sun in the ocean of +night, in the grotto or the darkness. When Blin is in +the grotto, he is betrayed by his brother Sugrvas. The +two brothers, Blin and Sugrvas, while still friends, set +out together to follow the monster Myvin (the brother +of Dundubhis, who, in the <i>Rmyaṇam</i> itself,<a name="FNanchor_605_605" id="FNanchor_605_605"></a><a href="#Footnote_605_605" class="fnanchor">[605]</a> fights in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span>the shape of a demoniacal buffalo against Blin, near the +entrance of the cave). The moon rises to show them the +way. The monster escapes into the cavern, upon which +Blin enters and follows him, whilst Sugrvas remains +without, awaiting his return. After waiting a long +time, Sugrvas sees blood flow out of the cave (in analogous +legends, instead of blood, it is a treasure, or else a +princess or a beautiful maiden comes out in shining +garments). This is the blood of the monster, killed by +Blin; but Sugrvas believes it to be that of his brother +Blin. He returns home, and showing his sorrow in +public, declares that Blin is dead, and allows himself to +be consecrated king in his stead (probably also enjoying +with the crown the wife of his brother). Meanwhile +Blin, after having killed the monster Myvin, endeavours +to come out of the cavern, but he finds the +entrance closed. Attributing at once this wicked action +to the brother Sugrvas, he succeeds, after great efforts, +in effecting an opening; he comes out, returns to the +palace, and expels Sugrvas from it, whom he persecutes +ever after.<a name="FNanchor_606_606" id="FNanchor_606_606"></a><a href="#Footnote_606_606" class="fnanchor">[606]</a> Even Agadas, Blin's son, irritated one day +with Sugrvas, accuses him of having once shut up his +brother Blin in the cave, in order to possess himself of +the latter's wife.</p> + +<p>In the <i>Avesta</i>, the name and the myth of Kerepa +seems to me to be of special interest. To the Zend word +<i>kerepa</i> corresponds the Sanskṛit <i>kṛivas</i> (the name +of a warlike ṛishis and hero), that is, he of the lean +horse. The hero Kerepa has, in the <i>Avesta</i>, a brother +called Urvksha (a word which is perhaps the same as +<i>urvpa</i>, and, if this equivalence is admitted, <i>urvksha</i> +would mean him of the fat or great horse, of the heroic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> +horse.<a name="FNanchor_607_607" id="FNanchor_607_607"></a><a href="#Footnote_607_607" class="fnanchor">[607]</a> We have already noticed that the Vedic and +Slavonic hero begins his fortune with an ugly and bad +horse; the hero Kerepa, too, of the two brothers of +the Zend myth, is the good, the heroic, and truly glorious +one. His brother, Urvksha, according to a Parsee +tradition,<a name="FNanchor_608_608" id="FNanchor_608_608"></a><a href="#Footnote_608_608" class="fnanchor">[608]</a> was banished to hell because he had struck the +fire which did not obey his commands (the evening sun +which descends into the infernal night); Kerepa +avenges him. This is evidently a Persian form of the +myth of the Dioscuri, who, as it seems to me, reappear +once more in the two Zend brothers, Gustp and +Apyaodha (he who fights with the horse).</p> + +<p>In the epic poem of Firdusi, the two brothers Piran +and Pilsem, who fight together against the Turanians, +and of whom the former and elder delivers the latter and +younger from the dangers that he is exposed to among +the enemies, seem to me re-embodiments of the same +myth.</p> + +<p>We find the cloudy or tenebrous sky of night represented +in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i> and in the <i>Avesta</i> as aman, or +mountain of stone. When the evening sun falls upon +the mountain, it turns to stone, and the whole sky +assumes the colour of this mountain. When the hero of +the popular story follows the monster, the latter hides +under a rock; the hero lifts up the rock and descends +into the grotto, that is, hides himself in the mountain of +stone, or is turned to stone, and if he has a horse, it +undergoes the same transformation. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span>In the story of Merhuma, who is stoned (the aurora +lost in the mountain of stone), in the <i>Tuti-Name</i>,<a name="FNanchor_609_609" id="FNanchor_609_609"></a><a href="#Footnote_609_609" class="fnanchor">[609]</a> we +have the brother possessed by a demon, who seduces the +wife of his brother, who is travelling abroad. In that of +Mansr, in the same <i>Tuti-Name</i>,<a name="FNanchor_610_610" id="FNanchor_610_610"></a><a href="#Footnote_610_610" class="fnanchor">[610]</a> the monstrous Fari +assumes the very shape of the absent husband, and +succeeds in seducing his wife. In another story in +the <i>Tuti-Name</i>,<a name="FNanchor_611_611" id="FNanchor_611_611"></a><a href="#Footnote_611_611" class="fnanchor">[611]</a> two brothers, finding themselves +deceived in their expectations, set out together, each, +for love of the other, wandering about the world +in search of a better fate. These are three forms of +the myth of the Avinu. With them is connected +the story of the maiden who comes out of the wood, +of whom as many men, when she appears, become +enamoured.<a name="FNanchor_612_612" id="FNanchor_612_612"></a><a href="#Footnote_612_612" class="fnanchor">[612]</a></p> + +<p>The fifth Calmuck story (of Hindoo origin) is unmistakably +a reproduction of the myth of the Avinu, +even to the very mythical names themselves. The +king, Kun-snang (he who illumines all, like the Vedic +Vivavedas and the Slavonic Vsievedas, the all-seer), has +by two different mothers two sons—Sunlight (born in the +year of the tiger; perhaps in the sol-leo, in July, in +summer, under the solar influence) and Moonlight. The +second wife does not love her step-son Sunlight, and +persecutes him, but the two brothers are devoted to each +other, and when Sunlight goes into exile (like Rmas), +Moonlight follows him (as Lakshmaṇas follows Rmas, +as the white lunar twilight follows the sun in the forest +of night). On the way, Moonlight is thirsty; Sunlight +goes to find water for him, but in the meantime Moonlight +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>dies.<a name="FNanchor_613_613" id="FNanchor_613_613"></a><a href="#Footnote_613_613" class="fnanchor">[613]</a> Sunlight returns, and is in despair at the +sight of his dead brother; however, a hermit has pity +upon him, and, having resuscitated Moonlight, adopts +the two brothers as his own sons. Near his abode there +is a kingdom where the dragons keep back the waters, +unless they are given a young man born in the year of +the tiger. It oozes out that Sunlight is such a young +man, and he is led away to the king of that country. +The daughter of the king falls in love with him, and +begs Sunlight not to be given to the dragons. The +king is furious against his daughter, and has her thrown +with Sunlight into the swamp where the dragons are.<a name="FNanchor_614_614" id="FNanchor_614_614"></a><a href="#Footnote_614_614" class="fnanchor">[614]</a> +The young couple break out into such piteous lamentations, +that the dragons are touched, and let Sunlight and +the young princess go free. When free, they find Moonlight, +who also becomes the husband of the beautiful +princess, the two brothers being inseparable, like the +Vedic Avinu. The three personages (white twilight, +or white moonlight, aurora, and sun) return together +into the kingdom of their birth, where, upon seeing them +arrive, Sunlight's step-mother (Night) dies of terror. +Here the legend has all its mythical splendour.</p> + +<p>In the sixteenth Mongol story, on the contrary, the +friendship of the two companions cannot last, because of +the perfidy of one of them; while they are travelling +in the forest, the minister's son kills the king's +son.</p> + +<p>In the history of <i>Ardshi-Bordshi</i>, the two men born +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>in the palace are so like each other in everything, in +shape, complexion, dress, and horses, that they cannot +be distinguished one from the other; hence they dispute +between themselves for the possession of everything, of +wife and sons. One is made like the other by witchcraft; +he is the son of a demon; and it is the marvellous king +of the children who discovers the secret.<a name="FNanchor_615_615" id="FNanchor_615_615"></a><a href="#Footnote_615_615" class="fnanchor">[615]</a></p> + +<p>This exchange of husbands, or heroes, by means of +demoniacal craft, often occurs in European fairy-tales, +like the exchange of wives. The demon is now a water-carrier, +now a washerman, now a woodcutter, now a +charcoal-burner, now a gipsy, now a Saracen, and now +the devil <i>in propria persona</i>.</p> + +<p>The Russian fairy-tales show us the two forms of the +two brothers or companions, <i>i.e.</i>, the two that remain +friends <i>usque ad mortem</i>, and the friend betrayed by his +perfidious companion.</p> + +<p>We find a zoological form of the legend of the two +friends in one of Afanassieff's stories. The horse delivers +the child of one of his masters from the bear, upon which +his grateful masters feed him better, whereas before they +had almost let him die of starvation. The horse (the sun) +remembers in prosperity his companion in misfortune, the +cat (the moon), who is also allowed to starve, and gives +it a part of what he receives from his masters. The latter +perceive this, and again ill-treat the horse, who then forms +the resolution of killing himself, in order that the cat +may eat him; but the cat refuses to eat his friend the +horse,<a name="FNanchor_616_616" id="FNanchor_616_616"></a><a href="#Footnote_616_616" class="fnanchor">[616]</a> and is also determined to die.</p> + +<p>The two brothers who, because they have eaten one +the head and the other the heart of a duck, are predestined, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span>in <i>Afanassieff</i>,<a name="FNanchor_617_617" id="FNanchor_617_617"></a><a href="#Footnote_617_617" class="fnanchor">[617]</a> one to be king and the other to +spit gold, flee from their perfidious mother (probably +step-mother), who persecutes them in their father's +absence. They meet with a cowherd taking his cows to +the pasturage, and are hospitably entertained by him. +Then, continuing their journey, they come to a place +where two roads meet, where, upon a pillar, this is +written, "He who goes to the right (to the east) will +become a king; he who goes to the left (to the west, +into the kingdom of Kuveras, the western sun, the god +of riches; when the sun rises in the east the moon goes +down in the west) will become rich." One goes to the +right; when it is morning, he rises, washes, and dresses +himself. He learns that the old king is dead (the old +sun), and that funeral honours are being paid to him in +church. A decree says that he whose candle lights of +itself will be the new Tzar.<a name="FNanchor_618_618" id="FNanchor_618_618"></a><a href="#Footnote_618_618" class="fnanchor">[618]</a> The Vedic god also has +the distinctive attribute of this wonderful candle, that +of being lighted by himself, of shining of himself, <i>i.e.</i>, he +is svabhnus. The candle, therefore, of our youth predestined +to be king lights of its own accord, and he is immediately +proclaimed the new king. The daughter of the +old king (the aurora) marries him, recognising in him her +predestined husband, and makes with her golden ring (the +solar disc) a mark upon his forehead (as Rmas does with +St). The young man (the sun), after having remained +some time with his bride (the aurora), wishes to go towards +the part where his brother went (that is, to the left, to the +west). He traverses for a long time different countries +(<i>i.e.</i>, the sun describes the whole arc of heaven which +arches over the earth), and finds at last (in the western +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span>sky, towards the setting sun) his brother, who lives in +great wealth. In his rooms whole mountains of gold +arise; when he spits, all is gold; there is no place to put +it,<a name="FNanchor_619_619" id="FNanchor_619_619"></a><a href="#Footnote_619_619" class="fnanchor">[619]</a> (the evening sky is one mass of gold). The two +brothers then set out together to find their poor old +father (the sun during the night). The younger brother +goes to find for himself a bride (probably the silvery +moon), and the wicked mother (the step-mother, night) +is forsaken. Here, too, the legend is entirely of a +mythical character. In the two brothers we see now +twilight and sun, now the two twilights, now the +spring and autumnal lights, now the sun and the moon, +but always the Avinu, always two deities, two heavenly +beings closely connected with the phenomena of the +lunar and solar light.</p> + +<p>And here allow me to say that I deem it enough for +me to collect in one body legends which betray a +common origin; as to explaining all mythology in the +legends, this is beyond my power, and therefore outside +my pretensions. I only point out, as I proceed, interpretations +which I think come near the truth; but the +objects embodied in mythology are so mobile and +multiform, that, if grasped too tightly, they easily +evaporate and disappear. Their richness consists in +their very mobility and uncertainty. If the sun and +moon were always seen in the same place, there would be +no myths. The myths which originated the greatest +number of legends are those which are founded upon +the most fleeting phenomena of the sky.<a name="FNanchor_620_620" id="FNanchor_620_620"></a><a href="#Footnote_620_620" class="fnanchor">[620]</a> The myth of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>Avinu cannot be solved by mathematical demonstrations, +precisely on account of the uncertainty presented +by the crepuscular light which probably gave rise to it. +This continuous succession of shadows, penumbr, +chiaroscuri, and shades of light, from the black darkness +to the silver moon, from the silver moon to the grey +twilight of morning, which gradually melts into, and +confounds itself with the dawn, from the dawn to the +aurora, from the aurora to the sun; the same variations +recurring, but inversely, in the evening, from the dying +sun to the reddish and blood-coloured sky or evening +aurora, from the evening aurora to the grey twilight, +from the grey twilight to the silver moon, from the +silver moon to the gloomy night,—this continual change +of colours, which meet, unite with, and pass into each +other, originated the idea of celestial companions, friends, +or relations, who are now in unison and now separate, +who now approach to love each other, to move together +and affectionately follow each other, now rush upon each +other to fight, despoil, betray, and destroy each other +turn by turn, who now attract and are now attracted, +are now seduced and now seducers, now cheated and +now deceivers, now victims, now sacrificers. Where there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> +is a family, there is love, hence come exemplary brothers, +husbands, wives, sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers, +full of tenderness; that is the obverse of the medal: where +there are relations, there are disputes, hence contentions +between brothers, out of jealousy in love, or envy of +riches; perverse mothers-in-law, step-mothers, and sisters-in-law, +tyrannous fathers, perfidious wives; that is the +reverse. This contradiction of feelings is difficult to explain +psychologically even in man; how much more, +therefore, is it so when it has to be analysed in a +mythical image, which assumes an animal form in one +rapid flash of imagination, and then disappears? On +this account, in the case of some myths, we must content +ourselves with a general demonstration, at least until +new and positive data appear, on which it may be +possible to base, in a solid foundation, the real nature of +the details of mythology. In the absence of these data, +we can only offer probabilities, and not rules to the +reader. As to the Vedic Avinu, this much is certain: +they are found in unison with their wife, the aurora, after +having passed through the dangers of night, or after +having enabled the heroes protected by them—that is to +say, their own heroic forms—to pass through them; they +are two splendid brother-horsemen; and they are +especially invoked in the first hours of morning. The +myth in this Vedic form would not appear to be of +dubious interpretation. The white moon and the sun +take the aurora between them, that is, marry her; or +else they present her in marriage to Somas (with whom +one of the Avinu, the white light or twilight, is in +particular relation), in the quality of paranymphs. The +aurora, in the morning, as well as in the evening, taken +between the sun and the moon, disappears. One would +think that the twilight and the sun present her together at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> +the same time to the king or god Somas, or Lunus, for +whom the daughter of the sun has affection. One would +also think that she was especially united with the twilight, +which is in especial relation with Somas, observing +how in the morning the aurora immediately succeeds the +twilight, and disappears when the sun shows himself, +that is, rejoins the twilight and forsakes the sun; and +how in the evening, when the sun hides himself, or when +her husband is absent, she again unites herself with the +twilight, with whom she again flees and disappears, to +reappear once more with him in the morning. To continue; +the absence of the sun during the night tormented +the popular phantasy in several ways. As much as the +aspect of the sky was negative with regard to the +mythical hero—that is to say, as much as the hero or +god hides himself from the view—just so much the +more does popular imagination invest him with positive +qualities and exalt his greatness. The greatest of all +deities is that which is seen the least;—would that +Roman Catholic priests understood this mythological +truth! Indras and Zeus are great when within the +thundering and lightning cloud. The sun becomes a +hero when he loses himself in the darkness of night and +in the cloud. But it is just at this very point that the +demonstration of mythical particulars becomes more +difficult, because the myths are now founded, not merely +upon an external appearance or image, but often upon a +simple subjective hypothesis; and while the ancient +image, possessing an objectivity irrespective of the +subject, can always be reconciled with the observation +of the new celestial phenomena which reproduce it, the +subjective hypothesis, being an individual phantasy, is +lost. The demonstration is therefore possible only in +the essential parts. When the sun was seen to disappear<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> +in the nocturnal sky, this sky appeared in the various +aspects of an ocean, a mountain, a forest, a cavern, or a +voracious monster which devoured the hero. But has the +sun lost himself by accident, or has he been precipitated +into the night by the aurora and her crepuscular lover, +perfidiously united together, in order that they may +have more freedom in their loves? This is a dilemma of +which the two solutions originate a double series of +legends,—the brother betrayed by the brother, and the +hero who goes to succour his unfortunate brother fallen +into the power of the monsters. The hour of day which +the French indicate by the expressive phrase <i>entre chien +et loup</i>, is the great epical hour of the fox, which partakes +of the nature of the domestic dog and the savage +wolf. It is the hour of betrayals, of perfidies, of doubts, +and mythical uncertainties. Who can tell whether the +aurora is a widow by an accident which happens to her +husband the sun, or whether she herself has betrayed +him?—whether she has been a chaste and faithful +Genevive, or a perfidious and luxurious Helen? It is +these very mythical doubts which have made the fortune +and the charm of tradition, as they are the despair of +mythologists. When, moreover, the sun is within the +night, what can he do? According to the different +aspect assumed by the night, the acts of the solar hero +lost in it are modified, and these modifications can be +explained without too great an effort of imagination; +but, sometimes, the relations between the hero and his +companions or brothers in the world of the dead, can +only be conceived by means of poetical dreams. When +the sun is seen to enter the obscure night in the evening, +and to come out of it safe and sound in the morning, +after having dispersed the darkness, it is natural to think +that throughout the night he is singly intent upon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> +killing the monster. The action of the principal hero +is well defined, and therefore evident; and the reference is +equally clear when the aurora is represented as experiencing +the same fate as the sun, her husband or brother. +They descend together into the night, which makes them +invisible, and together emerge from it happily.</p> + +<p>The myth becomes richer when the aurora throws herself +into the arms of a rival of her husband, because the +character of this rival is various. Now he is a handsome +youth who resembles the legitimate husband, either as +the twilight or as Lunus; now he is a real demoniacal +monster, the demon himself, the black night. In proportion +to the variety of aspects and relations which the +hero's rival assumes, does the myth become more complicated, +and its interpretation more difficult; hence the +story-tellers are often in the habit of interrupting their +narrative by saying, "Now, let us leave this or that +hero, and return to such or such another." These interruptions +of the stories have their mythological reason. +We can understand, for instance, how the aurora, or +daughter of the sun, should be conceived of as, in a +moment of feminine weakness, falling in love with the +moon, which she sees on the other side of the heavens, +and desirous of being conducted to him as his bride. +We can understand how Lunus, reciprocating the love-glance +of the aurora at the other extremity of the sky, +should appear to be drawing her to himself, and wishing +to seduce her. We can also understand how now the +moon, now the sun, appears to seduce the aurora and carry +her off from her legitimate husband. In these cases +the infidelity of the hero or the heroine is evident; but +woe to him who attempts to carry the demonstration or +the proof of this interpretation too far, for when the +seducer and seduced, be the seducer male or female,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> +are thought of as enjoying together the fruits of their +perfidy, the myth must come to an end, as no one can +conceive the possibility of the moon and the aurora +living or doing anything together; no one can tell what +the aurora and the twilight, phenomena appertaining exclusively +to the morning and evening, and which only +appear when the sun rises from the mountain, do together +in the night. The phenomenon ceases, the mythical +personages vanish too, and the story-teller breaks off his +narrative, because he possesses no data upon which to continue +it. And so with all the myths; they can only +be explained on the condition that we do not insist upon +explaining too much. We must therefore be contented +to see the girl aurora carried off in the evening and the +hero sun recover her in the morning, or to conceive of the +aurora and the sun fleeing away together into the night, +but we must not be too inquisitive as to the manner in +which they do so. The moon, or good fairy, sometimes +teaches them the way; but their nocturnal actions are but +little seen into; those which are spoken of as performed +by them at night refer either to the moment in which +night begins, or to that in which it comes to an end. +During the night they wander about until they see a +light (the guiding moon or delivering light of day); they +remain in the chest or cask thrown into the water until +it is carried to the other shore beyond the sea, or on the +eastern coast. In their nocturnal journey the moon plays +the part now of the good old man, or the good fairy; now +of the good cow, or the bull; now of the grey horse, the +steed of night, who, in three stations, bears them to their +goal; now of the bird who, nourished upon their flesh, +carries them to their destination; and now we have, on +the contrary, the monster itself, or the step-mother who +threatens, tortures, and persecutes them. The hero shows<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> +his greatest strength when hidden, but it is used now to +send out the cows, now to recover the ravished bride, now +to unchain the rivers kept back by the dragons, now to +make the water of health gush forth, and now to destroy +the monster and deliver himself. The hero displays his +greatest powers when contending with the monster; but it +is in order to his own deliverance. In the earliest epochs +of the legend he is foolish, ill, drunken, unhappy, and +stony; one can only speak of him by what is seen of him +externally. The cloud-barrel moves; it is the barrel full of +water which moves of its own accord in order to please +the hero: the cloud-barrel drops rain upon the earth; it is +the foolish one who lets the wine run out of the cask: +the cloud-forest moves; it is the trunk of a tree which +attaches itself to the horse ridden by the hero, and massacres +his enemies—<i>i.e.</i>, the cloud or darkness disappears, +and the hero comes out victorious. The part performed +by the solar hero in the night or in the cloud seems to +me, therefore, almost always of a nearly certain interpretation, +but only so long as he is alone, or with but one +companion; when the one hero is transformed into three, +or five, or six, who accompany each other, or when he +meets other mythical personages of a nature akin to +his own, and when he speaks and acts in unison with +them, the legend confuses the myth, in order to explain +which, we are often obliged to stretch the sense of the +adverb <i>together</i> to the signification, now of a whole +night, and now of an entire year. When we find, for +instance, in tradition, the twelve months of the year +associated with twelve old men round the fire, we know +that the fire is the sun, round which the twelve months +turn in the sky in the space of a year. Here <i>together</i> is +amplified to denote, therefore, the period of a year and +the entire width of the sky.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span></p> + +<p>I have been led into this long, but, I trust, not idle +digression, in order to explain the Russian story of the +two brothers, of whom it is said that they go together, +one to the right and the other to the left. In whatever +way the Avinu are to be understood, whether as twilight +and sun, as spring and autumn, or as sun and +moon, it is impossible to comprehend how they can +travel in the same direction; the ways they take must +therefore be separate. The sun and the evening twilight +do not advance in opposite directions; the morning sun +and that of evening occupy opposite positions, but +not at the same time; the sun and moon advance at +the same time in the sky, but not conjointly and upon +the same path, like two travelling companions. It is +therefore necessary to suppose that the journey of the +two brothers either happens at different periods, although +it may be in the same night or the same day, or else takes +its start from different places, although always in the +sky; in the evening the moon is seen advancing from +east to west, whilst the hidden sun travels from west to +east; when the sun has arrived in the east, the moon goes +down in the west. The eastern sun is bent, in the daytime, +upon following and finding his brother who has +gone to the west; and when he arrives there he sees, +besides his brother, his brother's immense treasures also. +With this is connected the other version of the myth of +the Avinu, the poor brother and the rich one. This is +probably the weary, thirsty, and hungry sun, who, having +during the day given all his wealth away, demands +hospitality from, and offers his services to, his rich +brother; the latter drives him away, and the poor +brother wanders alone, poorer and sadder than before, +into the forest, where he makes his fortune by digging +up a treasure which enriches him, whilst his rich brother<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> +in the west becomes poor. The story of the treasure, in +connection with the two brothers and the skilful thief, +was familiar to the Greeks in the vicissitudes of Agamds +and Trophonios (in <i>Pausanias</i><a name="FNanchor_621_621" id="FNanchor_621_621"></a><a href="#Footnote_621_621" class="fnanchor">[621]</a>), who stole King Hrieus's +treasure, on which account one of the two brothers was +to lose his head.</p> + +<p>Were I to follow the story of the two brothers in its +Western versions, I could compose an entire volume on +the subject, which is indeed of such interest that a student, +by connecting it with that of the three brothers, might +profitably address himself to the work. But to resume +the account of the horse. I must here limit myself to recording +only one other interesting variety of this legend, +offered us in the seventh story of Basile's <i>Pentamerone</i>.<a name="FNanchor_622_622" id="FNanchor_622_622"></a><a href="#Footnote_622_622" class="fnanchor">[622]</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span>There were once two brothers, named respectively +Cienzo and Meo (Vincenzo and Meo). When they were +born two enchanted horses and two enchanted dogs also +came into the world. Cienzo goes about the world in +search of fortune; he comes to a place where there is +a dragon with seven heads, from whom a beautiful +princess must be delivered. As long as he does not +cut all the heads off, the dragon goes and rubs itself +against a herb which possesses the virtue of fastening +on to the body again the head which had been cut off. +Cienzo cuts off all the dragon's heads, "pe gratia de lo +sole Lione" (by the grace of the Lion sun, <i>i.e.</i>, when the +sun is in the sign of Leo, which corresponds to the tiger +of the Indo-Turanian story recorded above, or when the +solar hero possesses all his strength; the lion and the tiger +are equivalent in Hindoo symbolism as heroic types, and +are therefore all the same in the zodiac). Cienzo marries +the beautiful princess delivered by him; but a beautiful +fairy who lives in the opposite house fascinates him by her +beauty, attracts him, and binds him with her hair. Meanwhile +Meo, who by signs settled upon beforehand learns +that his brother Cienzo is in danger, comes to the house +where the latter's wife lives, accompanied by his enchanted +horse and dog. The wife believes him to be Cienzo (the +story of the Menechmi, of the two brothers who resemble +each other in everything, was no doubt taken by the Greek +poet, and afterwards by Plautus, from popular tradition), +ftes him on his arrival, and receives him into her bed; +but the faithful brother, in order not to touch her, divides +the sheets between them so that they have one each, and +refuses to touch his sister-in-law. Thus Sifrt, as well as +his Scandinavian <i>alter ego</i> Sigurd, places a sword between +himself and Brnhilt, the destined bride of the +king, in order not to touch her when she lies beside him;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> +and when Brnhilt throws herself upon the funeral pyre, +she also places a sword between herself and Sigurd's +corpse.<a name="FNanchor_623_623" id="FNanchor_623_623"></a><a href="#Footnote_623_623" class="fnanchor">[623]</a> In the royal or heroic weddings by proxy of +the Middle Ages a similar custom was observed. In the +popular Piedmontese, Bergamasc, and Venetian song<a name="FNanchor_624_624" id="FNanchor_624_624"></a><a href="#Footnote_624_624" class="fnanchor">[624]</a> +of the pilgrim who comes from Rome, the pilgrim is +separated from the woman only by a wisp of straw. +Towards morning Meo also sees the beautiful fairy in the +house over the way; he guesses that Cienzo has been +drawn into her snare, and goes to deliver him. He +makes his enchanted dog devour her, and frees his +brother, awakening him out of his sleep. Cienzo learning +that Meo had slept with his wife, cuts off his head; +but when he learns from his wife how Meo had divided +the sheets when he lay beside her, he bewails his rashness, +has recourse to the herb with which the dragon rubbed +itself when one of its heads had been cut off, and by this +means fastens Meo's head on to his body again.</p> + +<p>The principal auxiliary, however, to one in particular +of the two brothers, as of the third in the legend of the +three brothers, is his horse.</p> + +<p>When the hero devotes himself to the trade of thieving, +his most glorious achievement is robbing the king's horse.</p> + +<p>When the young hero has been educated by the devil, +it is in the shape of a horse that he succeeds in escaping +from him.</p> + +<p>When the solar hero fights, his greatest strength is in +his horse. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span>When the hero dies, his horse, too, is sacrificed.</p> + +<p>Let us now illustrate, by some examples, these four +circumstances relative to the myth of the horse.</p> + +<p>In the <i>Mahbhratam</i>,<a name="FNanchor_625_625" id="FNanchor_625_625"></a><a href="#Footnote_625_625" class="fnanchor">[625]</a> the god Indras appears in the +form now of a horseman, now of a horse. It is, moreover, +upon such a heroic horse that the young Utakas +flees from the king of the serpents, after having recovered +from him the queen's earrings, which the king of the +serpents had stolen. In this legend reference is made to +several myths; to that of the hero in the infernal regions, +to that of the hero-thief, and to the legend of the horse +which saves the fugitive hero, the same as the hero who +leads away the horse.</p> + +<p>In the <i>Vishṇu P.</i>,<a name="FNanchor_626_626" id="FNanchor_626_626"></a><a href="#Footnote_626_626" class="fnanchor">[626]</a> we have Kapilas, a form of Vishṇus, +or of the solar hero (inasmuch as he is of a reddish +colour, or else of the evening sun), who carries off the +horse destined for the avamedhas, that is to be sacrificed. +(In other words, the solar horse, the horse which +was meant for the sacrifice, escapes from it, in the same +way as, in the preceding chapter, we have seen the bull +escape into the forests.) In the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>,<a name="FNanchor_627_627" id="FNanchor_627_627"></a><a href="#Footnote_627_627" class="fnanchor">[627]</a> the horse +destined for the sacrifice is, on the contrary, carried off +by a serpent (<i>i.e.</i>, the monster of night ravishes the evening +sun, whilst, in the western sky, the fire is being +prepared for his immolation). The sons of Sagaras (the +clouds of the heavenly ocean, the word <i>sagaras</i> meaning +sea), make a noise like thunder, searching for the horse +that had been carried off from them. They find it near +the god Vishṇus or Kapilas (here the sun himself, the solar +horse itself, carried off into the cloudy ocean of night); +believing him to be the ravisher, they assail him; Kapilas +(or the solar horse), full of indignation, burns them to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span>ashes. Their nephew, Aṅsumant (he who is furnished +with rays, the radiant sun of morning), on the contrary, +delivers the horse out of the forest. In the evening +he is reconducted back to the place of sacrifice, on the +golden pavement, after having made the journey round +the world.<a name="FNanchor_628_628" id="FNanchor_628_628"></a><a href="#Footnote_628_628" class="fnanchor">[628]</a> In the same way as we have seen, in the +preceding chapter, that the bull or the cow is touched or +struck as an augury of fruitfulness and abundance, in +the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>,<a name="FNanchor_629_629" id="FNanchor_629_629"></a><a href="#Footnote_629_629" class="fnanchor">[629]</a> Kualy touches the horse (a +stallion) in order to be fruitful, as he desires to have +sons (<i>putrakmyay</i>), and the king and queen smell the +odour of the burnt marrow or fat of the horse, as a talisman +which may work for them the gratification of a +like wish.<a name="FNanchor_630_630" id="FNanchor_630_630"></a><a href="#Footnote_630_630" class="fnanchor">[630]</a> Of course we must always refer the legend +to the myth of the solar horse, which, even when sacrificed, +makes itself fruitful, so that it may rise again in +the morning in a new and young form. And we can +easily prove that the horse of the avamedhas was a +mythical horse, since the avamedhas was originally a +celestial ceremony, seeing we read in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i> +how the swift heroic horse destined to be sacrificed was +born of the gods, and how the Vasavas had adorned it +with the colours of the sun.<a name="FNanchor_631_631" id="FNanchor_631_631"></a><a href="#Footnote_631_631" class="fnanchor">[631]</a> We saw a short time ago +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span>how in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i> itself it is now the Avinu, and +now Agnis who give the heroic steed to the predestined +youth. Agnis, moreover, who gives a horse to the hero, +is himself now a handsome red horse, and now an excellent +ghṛidhnus,<a name="FNanchor_632_632" id="FNanchor_632_632"></a><a href="#Footnote_632_632" class="fnanchor">[632]</a> a word which means the ravisher, as +well as the vulture (as a bird of prey). The thief plays +a principal part, even in the Vedic myths. In the war +between the demons and the gods, described at length in +the first book of the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, there is a continual +strife between the two sides as to who will show himself +the most skilful in stealing the cup which contains the +ambrosia. And the horse's head which, according to +Hindoo cosmogony, is born in the very production of +the ambrosia with the mythical gem, the horse's heads +of Dadhyańć and of Vishṇus, which are found in the +ambrosia [through the mouth of which (Vaḍavamukhas) +it is necessary to pass in order to enter hell, where one +hears the cries and howls of the tormented, who inhabit +the water<a name="FNanchor_633_633" id="FNanchor_633_633"></a><a href="#Footnote_633_633" class="fnanchor">[633]</a>], shows us how already in the myth the legend +of the theft of the earrings (the Avinu), or of the +queen's gem (the sun), or of the treasure, must be united +with the theft of the horse (the sun itself), as it seems to +be united in the legend of Utakas, before quoted, in +which Utakas flees upon the divine horse as he carries +away from hell the earrings of the queen, which another +skilful thief, the king of the serpents, had, in his turn, +stolen from him. (Herodotos already knew the story of +the skilful thief who robs the king's treasure and obtains +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span>the king's daughter to wife; he applies it to the king of +Egypt, Rampsinitos.)</p> + +<p>When the stag, in the fable, flees in the forest, his +high horns betray him; when the bull flees, he fears +that his horns may betray the fugitives; even the mane +of the solar hero takes the name of horns. The Vedic hymn +describing the horse destined for the sacrifice, represents +it as having golden horns, and feet as rapid as thought +(like the stag), whose horns (or whose mane, like the +hair of the biblical Absalom, who revives again in the +legendary tradition of Medival Europe under an analogous +form), stretching here and there, are caught in the +trees of the forest.<a name="FNanchor_634_634" id="FNanchor_634_634"></a><a href="#Footnote_634_634" class="fnanchor">[634]</a> Here, therefore, we have the swift-footed +animal, whose mane and horns are entangled to +the trees. Another Vedic hymn presents to us the hero +Tugras lost in the sea, who embraces a tree, and is saved +by means of it.<a name="FNanchor_635_635" id="FNanchor_635_635"></a><a href="#Footnote_635_635" class="fnanchor">[635]</a> In popular stories, the hero is often +saved upon a tree, either because the thieves or the bear +cannot see him, or because he is thus able to see the +horizon; the tree brings good luck to him, now because +by letting something drop or making a noise, he terrifies +the thieves, now because he cheats the cowherds, whose +cattle he wishes to possess himself of, by appearing now +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span>upon one tree, and now upon another; whereupon the +cowherds begin to dispute about his identity, one affirming +that it is the same person, another that it cannot be; +they therefore hastily go back to inspect the first tree, +and leave the cattle unguarded, upon which the hero-thief +descends from the tree, and drives them away before +him (this occurs in <i>Afanassieff</i>; the enemy of robbers is +generally himself an exceedingly skilful thief; Kerepa +was no less a cunning thief than Mercury, the god of +robbers, who discovers the deceit of others, because he is +himself so expert a deceiver). In the nineteenth Mongol +story, which is of Hindoo origin, the young hero, after +having discharged his pious filial duties at the tomb of +his father, mounts a fiery horse, while he seizes the +branch of a tree. The tree is uprooted, and with it +the horse and the hero massacre the army of the king, +whose daughter the hero wishes to marry. In the +Russian story<a name="FNanchor_636_636" id="FNanchor_636_636"></a><a href="#Footnote_636_636" class="fnanchor">[636]</a> which narrates the adventures of Little +Thomas Berennikoff, blind of an eye, the <i>miles gloriosus</i>, +Little Tom, after killing an army of flies, begins to boast +of the heroism he had shown in overthrowing, by himself, +a whole army of light cavalry. He meets with two real +heroes, Elias of Murom and Alexin Papović (son of the +priest), who, on hearing him narrate his achievements, +immediately own and honour him as their elder brother. +The valour of the three is soon put to the proof; Elias +and Alexin show themselves to be true heroes; at last it +comes to Little Tom's turn to make proof of his valour; +he kills a hostile hero whilst his eyes are shut, and then +endeavours to ride his horse, but cannot. It is a hero's +horse, and can be ridden only by a hero. At length he +fastens the horse to an oak-tree, and climbs up the tree<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> +in order to leap from it upon the horse's back. The +horse feels the man on his back, and plunges so much +that he roots up the whole tree, and drags it after him, +carrying Tom away into the heart of the Chinese army. +The Chinese are struck down by the oak-tree and +trodden under foot by the furious charger, and those who +are not killed are put to flight. (The mythical wooden +horse which proved so fatal to the Trojans appears to be +a mythical variety of this horse with the tree so fatal +to the Chinese.) The Emperor of China declares that +he will never make war again with a hero of Little Tom's +strength. Then the King of Prussia, an enemy of the +Chinese, gives, in gratitude to Tom, and as a reward for +his valour, his own daughter to wife. It is remarkable +that, in the course of the story, Alexin once observes to +Elias that the horse which Little Tom had brought from +his house showed none of the characteristic qualities of a +hero's horse. Alexin, as the priest's son, is the wise +hero; Elias, the strong one, who had conceived a high +opinion of his new colleague, Little Tom, seriously answers +that a hero's strength consists in himself, and not in his +horse. However, the development of the story shows +that Alexin was right; without the fiery horse of the +dead hero, Tom would not have dispersed the Chinese.</p> + +<p>Thus, in a Vedic hymn,<a name="FNanchor_637_637" id="FNanchor_637_637"></a><a href="#Footnote_637_637" class="fnanchor">[637]</a> we read that Indras, when he +removes himself from his two horses, becomes like to a +weak and wearied mortal; when he yokes them, he becomes +strong. The enemies in the battles cannot resist +the charge of the two fair-coloured horses of the god +Indras;<a name="FNanchor_638_638" id="FNanchor_638_638"></a><a href="#Footnote_638_638" class="fnanchor">[638]</a> and not only this, but one part alone of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span>divine horse is sometimes sufficient to give assurance of +victory to the hero-god. Another hymn<a name="FNanchor_639_639" id="FNanchor_639_639"></a><a href="#Footnote_639_639" class="fnanchor">[639]</a> sings, "A +horse's tail wert thou then, O Indras;" that is, when +Indras vanquished the monster serpent. It is with the +head of the horse Dadhyańć that Indras discomfits his +enemies.<a name="FNanchor_640_640" id="FNanchor_640_640"></a><a href="#Footnote_640_640" class="fnanchor">[640]</a> The horse of the Avinu, which kills the +monster serpent, has already been referred to in these +pages. The solar horse Dadhikr, the same as Dadhyańć, +in another hymn of the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>,<a name="FNanchor_641_641" id="FNanchor_641_641"></a><a href="#Footnote_641_641" class="fnanchor">[641]</a> is celebrated as a +swift falcon, luminous, impetuous, who destroys his +enemies like a hero-prince, who runs like the wind. His +enemies tremble, terrified by him, as by the thundering +sky; he fights against a thousand enemies—invincible, +formidable, and resplendent. Finally, the horses of the +god Agnis are said to vanquish the enemies with their +fore-feet.<a name="FNanchor_642_642" id="FNanchor_642_642"></a><a href="#Footnote_642_642" class="fnanchor">[642]</a></p> + +<p>When Agadas wishes to fight with the monster +Narntakas, in the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>,<a name="FNanchor_643_643" id="FNanchor_643_643"></a><a href="#Footnote_643_643" class="fnanchor">[643]</a> he strikes with his fist +the head of his great and swift-footed horse, and then +with another blow he smites the monster in the chest, and +kills him.</p> + +<p>In the seven adventures of Rustem, related by Firdusi, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span>the hero's horse fights against the monster, and drives +him away, while the hero sleeps.</p> + +<p>It is said of Bucephalus, the horse which Alexander the +Great alone was able to tame—so called because he had, +it would seem, on his head protuberances similar to the +horns of a bull (we saw not long since how the mane +of the solar horse is spoken of as horns in the Vedic +hymns)—that he several times saved Alexander in battle, +and that, though mortally wounded, in an engagement +in India, in the flank and head, he still summoned up +strength enough to flee away with extraordinary swiftness +and save his master, and then died. Pliny, quoting +Philarcus, says that when Antiochus was slain, the +warrior who had killed him endeavoured to ride his horse, +but that the latter threw him on the ground, and he +expired.</p> + +<p>Of Pgasos, the winged horse which bore the hero +Bellerophon over the waters, and by means of whom that +hero won his glorious victories, we know that the warrior-goddess +Pallas wore the effigy upon her helmet.</p> + +<p>Suetonius writes of the horse of Julius Csar that it +had almost human feet, with toes ("pedibus prope +humanis, et in modum digitorum ungulis fissis"), from +which the aruspices prognosticated to Csar the empire +of the world; this horse, like Bucephalus, and every +heroic courser, would bear no other rider than its master—the +great conqueror.</p> + +<p>The horse Baiardo, in <i>Ariosto</i>, fights the enemies with +its feet. The hippogriff of Ariosto has, moreover, the +privilege of being winged like Pgasos, and of walking +on air, like the Tatos of the Hungarians. The name of +Falke, given to the horse of the Germanic and Scandinavian +hero Dietrich or Thidrek (Theodoricus), induces +us to believe that it too had the same winged nature.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the <i>Edda</i>, Skirner receives from Frey a horse +which carried its rider through fogs (waters) and flames, +and the sword which strikes of itself when the wearer of +it happens to be a hero. The horse of Sigurd or Sfrit +exhibits the same bravery in bearing the hero intact +through the flames. This happens in the morning, when +the sun emerges safe and sound from the flames of the +aurora; in the evening, on the contrary, when the sun +loses itself in the flames of the aurora, or when the solar +hero dies, his horse, too, like the horse of Balder in the +<i>Edda</i>, is burned upon the pyre or sacrificed; the resurrection +of the dead horse and that of the dead hero +happen at the same time. The horse's head which protrudes +out of the window, represented in ancient Hellenic +tombs, and preserved in Germanic customs,<a name="FNanchor_644_644" id="FNanchor_644_644"></a><a href="#Footnote_644_644" class="fnanchor">[644]</a> is, for man, +a symbol of resurrection. The head of Vishṇus, that of +Uććiḥravas, and that of Dadhyańć, in Hindoo tradition, +have the same meaning. He who enters into this head +finds death and hell; he who comes out of it rises again +to new life. The pious Christian belief in the resurrection +that is to come, and the numerous medival legends +of Europe concerning dead heroes or maidens who are +resuscitated, had their origin and ground in the contemplation +of the annual and daily resurrection of the sun.</p> + +<p>In the thirty-eighth story of the fifth book of <i>Afanassieff</i>, +the young prince receives from an enchanted bird +the present of a war-charger, and of an apple the colour of +the sun. (The youth gives the golden apple to a beautiful +princess for the pleasure of passing the night with her; +remark here, again, the relation of the horse and the apple, +and probably of the horse and the bull, the sun and moon).<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> +In other Russian stories, the horse of the hero, Ivan Tzarević, +is at first bound underground by twelve iron chains; when +Ivan rides him, he breaks them all.<a name="FNanchor_645_645" id="FNanchor_645_645"></a><a href="#Footnote_645_645" class="fnanchor">[645]</a> The horse which Ivan +the thief is told to carry off from his master<a name="FNanchor_646_646" id="FNanchor_646_646"></a><a href="#Footnote_646_646" class="fnanchor">[646]</a> is shut up +within three gates made fast by six bolts; if he steals it, +he is to receive a reward of 200 roubles; and if he does +not, 200 bastinadoes will be his punishment. Ivan takes +his master's clothes, disguises himself as a gentleman, +and, imitating his voice, orders the grooms to bring him +his favourite horse. The grooms are deceived, and obey, +and thus Ivan carries the horse off. Finally, in a third +Russian story,<a name="FNanchor_647_647" id="FNanchor_647_647"></a><a href="#Footnote_647_647" class="fnanchor">[647]</a> Ivan Tzarević must ride a hero's horse on +the occasion of his nuptials with the beautiful but wicked +Anna. He has recourse to his preceptor Katoma, surnamed +Hat of Oak (here we find again the hero in +relation with the tree and the horse), who orders the +blacksmith to prepare a hero's horse; twelve young +blacksmiths (the twelve hours of the night, or else the +twelve months of the year) draw twelve bolts, open +twelve doors, and lead out an enchanted horse, bound +with twelve iron chains. Scarcely has the preceptor +mounted on its back when it flies higher than the forest +which stays still, and lower than the cloud which moves.<a name="FNanchor_648_648" id="FNanchor_648_648"></a><a href="#Footnote_648_648" class="fnanchor">[648]</a> +The preceptor subdues it by taking hold of its mane with +one hand, and striking it with the other between the +ears with four pieces, one after another, of an enchanted +iron pillar. The horse then begs, with a man's voice, for +its life, the power of speech being a distinctive attribute +of the hero's horse (a power of which it often makes use, +as Rustem's horse does, for instance, to warn the hero of +the dangers which surround him, and to give him good +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span>advice; sometimes, on the contrary, when it is in the +monster's power, it plays the part of a spy upon the hero's +actions, and reports them to the monster);<a name="FNanchor_649_649" id="FNanchor_649_649"></a><a href="#Footnote_649_649" class="fnanchor">[649]</a> it promises +also to do the will of the preceptor. Katoma, calling the +horse dog's flesh, orders it to stay still the next day, +which is the day fixed for the wedding, and, when the +bridegroom Ivan is to ride it, to seem as though it were +oppressed by a great weight.</p> + +<p>In the seventh Esthonian story, the young hero steals +the horse from the master (the devil, or the black monster +of night) in whose service he had engaged himself. When +he comes to the place where the sun sets, he bethinks +himself of binding the horse with iron chains (the rope +of Yamas, or Varuṇas, the nocturnal coverer or binder, +which binds the Vedic hero unaḥepas, the sun, he of +the golden rod), in order that it may not escape and go +back again. This particular is very interesting, as rendering +the meaning of the myth more manifest. Seeing +that the sun, in the evening, does not return, it was supposed +that the solar horse had been bound by the hero +himself, who had stolen it.</p> + +<p>In the European popular tales we sometimes have, +instead of the hero who carries off his master's horse, the +hero himself, who escapes from his master in the form of +a horse, helped in his flight by the daughter of his master, +by the magician's or demon's daughter or black maiden<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> +(who afterwards becomes beautiful and luminous). In +the Hungarian belief, the youngest of the witch's daughters +(the aurora) often assumes the form of the heroic +horse of the Tatos. She becomes Tatos when the hero, +meeting her, strikes her on the forehead with the bridle; +then she carries him, in the shape of a horse, into the air. +In the Russian story,<a name="FNanchor_650_650" id="FNanchor_650_650"></a><a href="#Footnote_650_650" class="fnanchor">[650]</a> the son of a merchant goes to be +instructed by a wise magician, who teaches him every +kind of knowledge, and, among the rest, what sheep say +when they bleat, birds when they sing, and horses when +they neigh. At last the young man, having learned +every species of mischief, returns home and transforms +himself into a horse, in order that his father may sell him +at the market and make money; but he warns his father +not to give up the bridle, that he may not fall again into +the hands of the magician. The father forgets, and sells +horse and bridle together. The magician attaches the +horse by a ring to an oak-tree; the black maiden +(dievki ćernavke), the sister of the devil, gives the horse +millet and hydromel; the horse thus gains strength +enough to break the chain which binds him to the tree, +and escapes. The devil follows him; the horse becomes +a fish, and from a fish a ring; the king's daughter buys +the ring and puts it on her finger; during the day it is a +ring (the solar disc), and during the night a handsome +youth, who lies in the bed of the queen's daughter (the +hidden sun, or the moon, in the darkness of night). One +day the princess lets the ring fall on the ground, and it +breaks into a thousand pieces (the evening sun which falls +upon the mountain); then the devil becomes a cock, to +pick up the pieces of the broken ring; but a little piece falls<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> +under the princess's foot; this piece is transformed into +a falcon, which strangles and devours the cock.</p> + +<p>In the bridle which binds this hero who becomes a +horse, I think I can recognise the lasso with which Varuṇas +keeps unaḥepas bound in the <i>itareya Br.</i> In the +<i>Ṛigvedas</i>,<a name="FNanchor_651_651" id="FNanchor_651_651"></a><a href="#Footnote_651_651" class="fnanchor">[651]</a> we have Sryas, the sun, as Suvavyas, or +son of Svavyas, that is, of him who has fine horses; but +as, besides Svavyas, we find Svavas, he who has a fine +horse, the sun itself would seem to be this horse. The +legend narrates that Svavas, having no children, requested +the sun to give him some, and that the sun, to +please him, was himself born of him. Svavas, he who +has a fine horse and has no sons, is perhaps the same as +the old man who has lost his son by selling the horse; +when the sun returns his son also comes back again. In +the Vedic expressions, <i>without a horse, born without a +bridle, the sun</i> (as a courser<a name="FNanchor_652_652" id="FNanchor_652_652"></a><a href="#Footnote_652_652" class="fnanchor">[652]</a>), the hero would seem to be +indicated who has not as yet that horse or that bridle, +without which he is powerless; for the idea of the hero +is rarely unaccompanied by that of the horseman.</p> + +<p>For the horseman hero his horse is his all, and sometimes +it even takes the bit in its mouth, then the hero +punishes it. We have already noticed the well-known +Hellenic myth of Phaethn, who is, with both the chariot +and the horses, precipitated into the waters, because the +horses threatened to set the earth on fire. This happens +every day towards evening, when the sun sets; the whole +sky goes down, then the sun is thrown down into the +ocean of night; the course of the solar steeds is interrupted, +and the wheels of the chariot no longer turn. A +similar catastrophe is repeated on St John's Day, at the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span>summer solstice, in which the sun stops and begins to +retire, for which reason the light of day, from this time +to Christmas, grows less and less.</p> + +<p>It is a custom on St John's Day, in Germany,<a name="FNanchor_653_653" id="FNanchor_653_653"></a><a href="#Footnote_653_653" class="fnanchor">[653]</a> for +hunters to fire at the sun, believing that they will thereby +become infallible hunters. According to another +popular German belief, he who, on St John's Day, fires +towards the sun is condemned ever after to hunt for ever, +like Odin, the eternal hunter; and both superstitions +have their reason. In the night, as well as in the period +during which the splendour of the sun diminishes, and +especially in autumn, the gloomy forest of heaven is +filled with every kind of ferocious animal; the sun enters +this forest, becomes moon, and hunts the wild beasts in it +during the whole of the night, or of the year that is, until +he is born again. In the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, where we have seven +sister-mares yoked to the sun-chariot,<a name="FNanchor_654_654" id="FNanchor_654_654"></a><a href="#Footnote_654_654" class="fnanchor">[654]</a> Indras, to please +his favourite, Etaas, after having drunk the ambrosia, +pushes the clouds that had fallen behind before the flying +steeds of the sun,<a name="FNanchor_655_655" id="FNanchor_655_655"></a><a href="#Footnote_655_655" class="fnanchor">[655]</a> that is to say, he prevents the solar +hero, drawn by horses, either by the cloud in a tempest, +or by the darkness of night, from going on; and he even +strikes the wheels themselves of the solar chariot to arrest +its incendiary course. From these Vedic data it is easy +to pass to the Hellenic Phaethn, who is precipitated +into the waters on account of the horses. The hero +killed on account of his horses is a frequent subject of +mythology, and the Greek name Hippolytos refers to this +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span>kind of death. Hippolytos, the son of Theseus, fleeing +from his father, who supposes him guilty of incest with +his step-mother Phedra, is thrown from the chariot broken +to pieces, when the horses that draw it approach the sea +and are terrified by marine monsters. This is a variation +of the legend of the young hero, persecuted by his step-mother, +who is thrown into the sea, with the novel and +remarkable accompaniment that it is his horses themselves +which are the cause of his death. The Christian +legend of St Hippolytos has appropriated this particular +trait, representing the holy martyr, who was prefect under +the emperors Decius and Valerian, as dying, having been +condemned to be torn in pieces by horses. The poet +Prudentius comments upon the story in these two curious +distichs, on the occasion of the Roman judge pronouncing +capital punishment against St Hippolytos—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Ille supinata residens cervice, quis inquit<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Dicitur? affirmant dicier Hippolytum.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ergo sit Hippolytus; quatiat turbetque jugales<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Intereatque feris dilaceratus equis."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But the horses which draw the hero into the water are +the same as those that save him by carrying him over +the deep, drawing the chariot or ship on the sea towards +the shore. The Avinu do the same in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, +where they save from the waves both themselves and +other heroes upon their chariot, which is compared to a +ship.<a name="FNanchor_656_656" id="FNanchor_656_656"></a><a href="#Footnote_656_656" class="fnanchor">[656]</a> Hero and horse always have the same fate.</p> + +<p>When the hero approaches, or when some fortunate +incident is about to happen to the hero, his horse neighs +for joy.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> +In the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>,<a name="FNanchor_657_657" id="FNanchor_657_657"></a><a href="#Footnote_657_657" class="fnanchor">[657]</a> on the arrival of the god Indras, the +horse neighs, the cow lows, like a messenger between +heaven and earth. The neighing of this horse, and the +lowing of this cow, are the thundering of the sun in the +cloud. By this neighing or lowing, man is informed that +the hero-god Indras is beginning his battles in heaven. +Another hymn, which calls the two horses of Indras +two rays of the sun (sryasya ket), celebrates them as +neighing and pouring out ambrosia,<a name="FNanchor_658_658" id="FNanchor_658_658"></a><a href="#Footnote_658_658" class="fnanchor">[658]</a> <i>i.e.</i>, the sun makes +rain fall from the clouds; when he shows himself in the east +at morn, his horse neighs and drops the dew on the ground.</p> + +<p>Herodotus, and, after him, Oppianos and Valerius +Maximus, relate the mythical story of Darius Hystaspes, +who unexpectedly succeeded to the empire from having +persuaded his colleagues to decree that he should obtain +the crown whose horse happened first to neigh at the +sight of the sun. It is narrated that when he came to +the place, Darius, in order to assure himself of success, +made his horse smell the odour of a mare.<a name="FNanchor_659_659" id="FNanchor_659_659"></a><a href="#Footnote_659_659" class="fnanchor">[659]</a> Neighing is +the laughter of the horse. We have seen, in the preceding +chapter, how the bull speaks and the fish laughs at +sight of coition; and so we have here, in the story of +Darius, the horse who neighs on account of the mare.—To +return to the horse of mythology; the solar horse neighs +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span>within the thundering-cloud which, as a cow, the bull +makes pregnant, and as a mare, the stallion, and neighs +at the approach of the aurora, who appears now as the +driver of a hundred chariots<a name="FNanchor_660_660" id="FNanchor_660_660"></a><a href="#Footnote_660_660" class="fnanchor">[660]</a> (a round number, like the +hundred thousand horses which, in another hymn,<a name="FNanchor_661_661" id="FNanchor_661_661"></a><a href="#Footnote_661_661" class="fnanchor">[661]</a> the +god Indras drives; a favourite number, like seven, which +is applied to the same solar horses, solar rays and +Agirasas<a name="FNanchor_662_662" id="FNanchor_662_662"></a><a href="#Footnote_662_662" class="fnanchor">[662]</a>)—on which account it can be compared with +the Hellenic Aphrodit Hippodameia—now even as a real +mare. The sun is now a driver of horses, and now himself +a horse; in the same way, the aurora is now an Amazon +horsewoman, now a driver of chariots, now avvat, +and now a mare. When the sun approaches the aurora, +or when the horse approaches the mare, the horse neighs. +We know how the Avinu considered themselves sons +of the wife of the sun, Saraṇy, daughter of Tvashṭar, +who united herself to the sun in the form of a mare. +Whether this Saraṇy be the cloud or the aurora, we +have in her, anyhow, a mare with which the sun, solar +hero, or solar horse, unites himself to produce the twin +heroes, who are, for this reason, also called the two sons +of the mare.<a name="FNanchor_663_663" id="FNanchor_663_663"></a><a href="#Footnote_663_663" class="fnanchor">[663]</a> We have already seen, in the preceding +chapter, a hero and a heroine who are hatched from eggs; +of the Dioscuri, we know that they were born of the egg +of Leda; and the mare's egg is the subject of a story in +the <i>Ukermark</i>.<a name="FNanchor_664_664" id="FNanchor_664_664"></a><a href="#Footnote_664_664" class="fnanchor">[664]</a> Greek writers have handed down several +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span>cases of coition between men and mares, and between +horses and women, with corresponding births of monstrous +conformation. Now, unnatural as such births must +appear to us, they are, in mythology, in strict accordance +with nature. In the preceding chapter we saw the cow +which leaps over the hare, and explained this phenomenon +by the cloud or darkness covering the moon, and also by +the earth covering the moon in eclipses. In Herodotus +and Valerius Maximus, a mare, in the time of Xerxes, +gives birth to a hare; and we must here understand the +hare to be the moon, coming out of the darkness or clouds; +and when we read that the hare suffocated the mare, +we must understand it to mean the moon as dispersing +the darkness or clouds (perhaps also the sun or evening +aurora). We must have recourse in this way to the +myth to comprehend the examples of parturition without +coition found in some Hindoo legends, and applied +to heroes, as well as the curious discussions and information +which we find in the ancients, from Aristotle, Varro, +Pliny, Columella, Solinus, and St Augustin, to Albertus +Magnus and Aldrovandi, concerning mares, and especially +Spanish and Portuguese mares, made pregnant by +the wind (called by Oppianos<a name="FNanchor_665_665" id="FNanchor_665_665"></a><a href="#Footnote_665_665" class="fnanchor">[665]</a> of the windy feet), and +which are also spoken of in the <i>Pentamerone</i>,<a name="FNanchor_666_666" id="FNanchor_666_666"></a><a href="#Footnote_666_666" class="fnanchor">[666]</a> with less +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span>decency, in reference to the myth of the maiden born of +the tree.</p> + +<p>The horse of Ariosto, too, has a similar nature—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Questo il destrier che fu dell' Argalia<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Che di fiamma e di vento era concetto<br /></span> +<span class="i1">E senza fieno e biada si nutria<br /></span> +<span class="i1">De l'aria pura e Rabican fu detto."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The horse of Ciolle, in a Tuscan proverb, also feeds +upon wind alone.</p> + +<p>The horse of Dardanos, son of Zeus, was also said to +be born of the wind, which brings us back to the Vedic +Marutas, whose chariots have horses for wings, and to +the <i>volucer currus</i> of the Diespiter of Horace.<a name="FNanchor_667_667" id="FNanchor_667_667"></a><a href="#Footnote_667_667" class="fnanchor">[667]</a> In the +Sanskṛit tongue, the expression <i>vtvas</i>, or wind-horse, +is very common, to indicate a very swift-footed horse.</p> + +<p>No sooner is the horse Uććiḥravas born than he +neighs; and like him, in the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, the hero +Avatthman laughs, the son of Droṇas, properly he who +has strength in his horse, which is the same as the hero-horse.</p> + +<p>Moreover, as the horse exults by neighing over the +good fortune of the hero who rides him, so he not only +becomes sad, but sheds real tears when his rider is about +to meet with misfortune.</p> + +<p>When Rvaṇas, in the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>, comes forth in +his chariot, to join in final combat with Rmas, his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span> +coursers shed tears,<a name="FNanchor_668_668" id="FNanchor_668_668"></a><a href="#Footnote_668_668" class="fnanchor">[668]</a> as a sinister omen, Rvanas is the +monster of darkness and clouds; when the cloud begins +to disperse, drops of rain fall, that is, the horses of the +monster weep. The treacherous sister who is confederate +with the monster against her brother, in Russian stories, +is condemned by her brother, who kills the monster, to +fill a whole basin with her tears.<a name="FNanchor_669_669" id="FNanchor_669_669"></a><a href="#Footnote_669_669" class="fnanchor">[669]</a> These tears are also a +legendary symbol of the rain which falls when the solar +hero has torn the cloud in two.</p> + +<p>Suetonius, in the Life of Csar, writes that the horses +consecrated by Csar to Mars, and then set at liberty +after the passage of the Rubicon, refused to eat, and +wept abundantly.<a name="FNanchor_670_670" id="FNanchor_670_670"></a><a href="#Footnote_670_670" class="fnanchor">[670]</a> Note that this legend of the horses +that weep is connected with the passage of water, of the +Rubicon (a river which no geographer has been able to +identify with certainty, probably because the legend of +Csar relating to it is a fable of mythical origin. We +know how mythical beliefs incline to assume a human +form, and are especially prone to group themselves round +the great personages of history—Cyrus, Alexander, +Romulus, Csar, Augustus, Vespasian, Attila, Theodoric, +and Charlemagne are proofs of this; and perhaps a day +will come in which Napoleon I. or Garibaldi will offer +a new <i>mannequin</i> to some popular tradition, which +is now uncertain and wandering). Thus it is said that +Csar's horse itself shed tears for three days before the +hero's death. In the <i>Iliad</i>,<a name="FNanchor_671_671" id="FNanchor_671_671"></a><a href="#Footnote_671_671" class="fnanchor">[671]</a> the horses of Achilleus +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span>weep for the death of Patroklos, whom Hektor has +thrown from his chariot into the dust; in the <i>Paraleipomenoi</i> +of Quintus Smyrneus,<a name="FNanchor_672_672" id="FNanchor_672_672"></a><a href="#Footnote_672_672" class="fnanchor">[672]</a> the horses of Achilleus +weep bitterly for the death of their hero. This is a +variety of the legend of the horses which throw the solar +hero down into the waters, the ocean of night or the +clouds, and of that of the horses of Poseidn. The mists +which after sunset in the evening impregnate the air, and +the diurnal or nocturnal rains, as well as the autumnal +ones, cause tears to fall upon the ground, or weep over +the (apparent) death of the solar hero.</p> + +<p>The dew of the morning, on the contrary, which +comes from the mouth of the solar horse like foam, or +from its hoof as ambrosia and salutary water, is fraught +with every species of healthful influence.</p> + +<p>The horse and the bull of mythology are pourers out +<i>par excellence</i>. In a Vedic strophe—which seems in my +eyes to be one of those riddles which are recited in order +to loosen the thread of the tongue—relative to the two +outpouring or fertilising horses of Indras, there is a continual +play kept up upon the root <i>varsh</i> or <i>vṛish</i>, which +means at once to pour out and to make fruitful,<a name="FNanchor_673_673" id="FNanchor_673_673"></a><a href="#Footnote_673_673" class="fnanchor">[673]</a> and upon +the letter <i>r</i> which enters into almost every word of the +verse. Not only do the horses of Indras pour out and +make fruitful; the same virtue is attributed to the +chariot which they draw.<a name="FNanchor_674_674" id="FNanchor_674_674"></a><a href="#Footnote_674_674" class="fnanchor">[674]</a> We have seen already that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span>the horse of the Avinu is the killer of the monster +serpent, and that the horse's head Dadhyańć, he who +goes in the milk or in the liquefied butter, and who is +found in a sea of milk, discomfits the enemies of Indras. +A Vedic hymn sings that, with the foam of the waters, +Indras beats down the head of the monster serpent.<a name="FNanchor_675_675" id="FNanchor_675_675"></a><a href="#Footnote_675_675" class="fnanchor">[675]</a> +In Tuscany, the whooping-cough is called the horse-cough +or asinine-cough,<a name="FNanchor_676_676" id="FNanchor_676_676"></a><a href="#Footnote_676_676" class="fnanchor">[676]</a> and it is thought that the +cough is cured by giving the children to drink the foam +from the horse's mouth, or causing them to drink in the +water where a horse has been drinking. This is a +remedy founded upon the principle <i>similia similibus</i>, the +foam being used against the convulsive cough, which, +like all convulsions in general, brings much saliva or +foam to the mouth. The credit, however, of this marvellous +medicine is slightly compromised when we read +that the same foam is also very efficacious for ear-ache. +Pliny, Sextus Empiricus, and Marcellus, quoted by +Aldrovandi,<a name="FNanchor_677_677" id="FNanchor_677_677"></a><a href="#Footnote_677_677" class="fnanchor">[677]</a> also recommend the saliva of a horse as a +cure for cough, particularly in the case of consumptive +patients, adding that the sick person is cured in three +days, but that the horse dies; a superstition which must +have had its origin in the mythical horse who feeds on +ambrosia, and who loses his strength, and expires when +his saliva, foam, ambrosia, or dew is taken from him. +It is well known that the Avinu, besides being +luminous horsemen, were, as friends of men, also exceedingly +skilful physicians; nor could they be otherwise, +having in their power the head of Dadhyańć which is in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span>the ambrosia, that is, whose foam is ambrosia. The +Dioscuri also frequently appear, in European legends, +as unexpected and miraculous deliverers. With this +mythical belief of the horse that produces ambrosia, is +also connected the transformation, described by Ovid in +the second book of the <i>Metamorphoses</i>, of Ocyroe into a +mare, because she had predicted that sculapius would +save men from death by the medical art. It is a well-known +fact that sculapius was revered near fountains +whose waters were supposed to have salutary effects, +and that he was protected by the sun-god Apollo; and +the two physicians, sons of Asklpios or sculapius, +seem to be nothing more than a specific form of the +Dioscuri.</p> + +<p>But the solar horse does not produce ambrosia with +his mouth alone.</p> + +<p>He has great strength in his hoofs (whence Isidorus +and other medival etymologists derived the name +<i>caballus</i>, thus, "Quod ungula terram cavet"<a name="FNanchor_678_678" id="FNanchor_678_678"></a><a href="#Footnote_678_678" class="fnanchor">[678]</a>), and +makes use of them in the myth, and in the legend, not +only to combat the enemies, but also to break open the +earth, and cause ambrosial fountains to spring out of it. +Sometimes ambrosia pours out of the hoof of the horse +itself. In the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>,<a name="FNanchor_679_679" id="FNanchor_679_679"></a><a href="#Footnote_679_679" class="fnanchor">[679]</a> the horses of Agnis are said to +have hands (<i>i.e.</i>, hoofs of the fore-feet) that pour out; +and the horse given by the Avinu to the hero protected +by them (that is, to the solar horse, to the +morning sun), with his strong hoof fills a hundred jars +with inebriating liquor.<a name="FNanchor_680_680" id="FNanchor_680_680"></a><a href="#Footnote_680_680" class="fnanchor">[680]</a> It is not necessary for me to +instance here the famous fountain of the horse, or +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span>Hippokrn, which Bellerophon's horse Pgasos caused +to spring out of the earth by breaking the soil with his +hoof (called also for this reason <i>Pgasa krn</i>). In +Latin tradition, the horse's hoof was worshipped on a +spot near Lake Regillus, where it is said that the +Dioscuri had appeared.<a name="FNanchor_681_681" id="FNanchor_681_681"></a><a href="#Footnote_681_681" class="fnanchor">[681]</a> In a Russian story,<a name="FNanchor_682_682" id="FNanchor_682_682"></a><a href="#Footnote_682_682" class="fnanchor">[682]</a> when +Johnny (Ivanushka) sees a horse's hoof, he is sorely +tempted to drink out of it, but is dissuaded by his +sister. He experiences the same temptation upon seeing +a bull's hoof, and afterwards that of a kid. At last he +gives way, drinks from the kid's hoof, and is himself +transformed into a kid. In the footprint of a horse's +hoof, in other stories, the ant is in danger of being +drowned; saved by a man, it is ever afterwards grateful +to him.<a name="FNanchor_683_683" id="FNanchor_683_683"></a><a href="#Footnote_683_683" class="fnanchor">[683]</a></p> + +<p>Several myths which we have already noticed in the +preceding chapter as applied to the bull, occur again in +connection with the horse; as, for instance, the birds +which come out of the horse; the hero who takes the +horse's skin off, seizing it by the tail in order to make a +sack of it; the swift horse of Adrastus, which runs after +the tortoise (a Greek proverb);<a name="FNanchor_684_684" id="FNanchor_684_684"></a><a href="#Footnote_684_684" class="fnanchor">[684]</a> the lunar horse, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span>the solar one. These exchanges between moon and sun, +and between bull and horse, are happily indicated by +the Latin poet, Fulgentius:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Jam Phœbus disjungit equos, jam Cynthia jungit,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Quasque soror liquit, frater pede temperat undas:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Tum nox stellato cœlum circumlita peplo<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Cœrula rorigenis pigrescere jusserat alis<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Astrigeroque nitens diademate luna bicornis<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Bullarum bijugis conscenderat quora tauris."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The gods had often a liking to transform themselves +into horses; so much so, that the sacrifice of the god, +that is, the god's death, is represented by the death of +the horse. Every one knows that gods and heroes +delighted in showing themselves good horsemen, or, at +least, good charioteers. On this account, it would be +difficult to say to which god in particular the horse is +sacred. The Vedic Avinu, the Vedic aurora, who +wins the race in her chariot, Agnis, Savitar, Indras, +victorious and splendid by means of their steeds, the +hippios Poseidn, the hippeia Athn, the hippodameia +Aphrodit, the horsemen Dioscuri, Mars, Apollo, Zeus, +Pluto, and the German Wuotan (like his <i>alter ego</i>, St +Zacchus), never show themselves otherwise than on +horseback; hence the horse was naturally sacred to all +of them. In the Christian faith, the innumerable gods +of the ancients having become innumerable saints (when +they were not so unfortunate as to degenerate into +devils), the horse is now recommended in its stable to +the protection of several saints, from the obscure Sicilian +St Aloi to the no less modest Russians St Froh and St<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> +Laver, who take the horse, as well as the mule and the +ass, under their especial protection, not to speak of the +glorious horsemen St George, St Michael, St James, St +Maurice, St Stephen, St Vladimir, and St Martin, +especially revered by warriors, and in whose honour the +principal orders of knighthood in Europe were founded. +But religions being, from one point of view, the caricature +of mythologies, there is now some difference between +the mythical old deities and the legendary new ones, inasmuch +as the former would at times ingenuously accept +the homage of the animal in effigy, as we have observed +in the preceding chapter; while the latter, and they who +purvey to them upon earth, not being quite so simple, +never leave their devotee in peace until they have +received, at sight and without discount, the full value of +their favours. In the Life of San Gallo, we read that, in +the times of King Pepin (we already know what these +times mean), a certain Willimar, being ill, promised, if +cured, to offer a horse to the Church of San Gallo. +Having recovered his health, he forgot his promise; but +passing one day before the church of the saint, his horse +stopped before the gate, and by no possibility could it be +induced to-move on, until Willimar had at last declared +his intention of fulfilling his vow. In the Life of St +Martin, there is a rather gayer variation of the same +anecdote. King Clodoveus, after having become a Christian, +when fighting against the Visigoths, promises his +own horse to St Martin, if he grants the victory to him. +Having obtained it, Clodoveus regrets being obliged to +deprive himself of his good charger, and beseeches St +Martin to be kind enough to take money instead, +offering him a hundred pieces of gold. St Martin +thinks the sum insufficient, and asks for double, which +Clodoveus gives; but, inasmuch as a little heretic blood<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> +still runs in his veins, he cannot refrain from aiming a +pointed witticism at him: "Martinus, quantum video, +auxiliator est facilis, sed mercator difficilis!"<a name="FNanchor_685_685" id="FNanchor_685_685"></a><a href="#Footnote_685_685" class="fnanchor">[685]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span></p> + +<hr /> + +<h3>CHAPTER III.</h3> + +<h4>THE ASS.</h4> + +<p class="center">SUMMARY.</p> + +<blockquote style="text-indent:-2em"><p>Glory has been pernicious to the ass.—The purely stupid ass not an +ancient belief in India.—Eastern and Western asses; the ass of +an inferior quality pays the penalty of the reputation acquired +in the East by his superior congener.—Christianity, instead of +improving the condition of the ass, has aggravated it.—The +medival hymn in honour of the ass is a satire.—The ass in the +sacred ceremonies of the Church.—Physical and moral decadence +of the ass.—Indian names of the ass; equivoques in language +form myths.—Gardabhas and gandharbas.—Identification of the +mythical ass with the gandharvas; both are in connection with +salutary waters, with perfumes or unguents, and with women.—The +ass which carries mysteries.—The flight into Egypt; the ass +laden; the old man, the boy, and the ass.—Peau d'ne.—The +onokentauros.—Urva and Purravas in connection with the +gandharvas; Cupid and Psyche in connection with the ass.—The +mythical ass and the kentauros correspond, as well as the ass and +the gandharvas.—The Hindoo onocentaur and satyr; monkey +and gandharvas as warriors.—Kentauros, gandharvas, and ass in +the capacity of musicians and dancers.—Kṛivas dancing-master.—Kṛinus +and Kereni.—Hybrid nature of the mythical +ass and of the gandharvas.—The Avinu ride asses, and give +youth to Ćyavanas; the youthfulness of the ass.—The Vedic ass +as a warrior.—The Vedic ass flies.—The decadence of the ass +dates as far back as the Veds; its explanation.—The phallic +ass and the punishment of the ass for adulterers.—The braying of +the ass in heaven; Indras kills the ass.—The funereal and +demoniacal ass of the Hindoos; the ass pićas; the faces of +parrots; equivoque originated by the words <i>haris</i> and <i>harit</i>.—The +golden ass.—The ass in love.—The ass in the tiger's skin.—The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> +ass who betrays himself by singing.—The Zend lame ass who +brays in the water.—Rustem, devourer of asses.—The ass's kick.—The +fool and the ass, the trumpet and the drum, the trumpet of +Malacoda.—The king Midas in the Mongol story; the hero forced +to speak, in order not to burst.—The ass among the monkeys.—Midas, +king of Phrygia, in connection with the ass, with Silenos, +Dionysos, the roses, gold, blades of corn, and waters.—The +centaurs among the flowers.—The ass awakens Vesta whilst she +is being seduced.—Priapos and the ass of Silenos.—The ass as a +musical umpire between the cuckoo and the nightingale.—Midas +judges between Pan and Apollo.—The ears of King Midas; his +secret revealed by the young man who combs his hair.—The +Phrygian ass held up to derision by the Greeks.—The Greek +spirit of nationality still more pernicious to the ass.—The ass of +Vicenza impaled.—Pan and the ass.—Gandharvs and satyrs.—Pan +and the nymphs.—Syrinx and the reed or cane; the leaf of +the cane, and the ass.—Pan chases away fear; the ass's skin gives +courage.—The ass in hell; golden excrements.—The heroic ass +and Pan.—Perseus who eats asses.—The ass and the water of the +Styx; the horned ass.—The cornucopia.—Ass and goat.—The +asses save the hero out of the water.—The asses in heaven.—The +ass carries the water of youth.—Ass's milk has a cosmetic +virtue.—Youth and beauty of the ass.—The deaths of the ass.—The +ass carries wine and drinks water.—The ass wet by the rain, +the ass's ears predict rainy weather.—The shadow of the ass; the +ass's wool; lana caprina; to shear the ass; the gold on the ass's +head.—Asini prospectus.—The ass and the gardener.—The ass +chases the winds away.—The third braying or flatus of the ass +kills the fool.—The prophetic ass; the kick of the ass kills the +lion; the ass a good listener, who hears everything; the hero +Oidin Oidon; the ears of Lucifer.</p></blockquote> + +<p>The ass, in Europe at least, has had the misfortune to +have been born under an evil star, a circumstance which +must be reckoned to the account of the Greeks and +Romans, whose humour it was to treat it as a sort of +Don Quixote of animals. Its liability to be flogged has +always increased with its celebrity, which, no one can +deny, is great and indefeasible. The poor ass has paid +very dear, and continues to pay still dearer, upon earth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> +for the flight which the fantasy of primeval men made +it take in the mythical heavens. May this chapter—if it +produce no other effect—have at least that of sparing the +poor calumniated animal some few of the many blows +which, given in fun, it is accustomed to receive, as if to +afford a vent for the satirical humour of our race, and <i>ad +exhilarandam caveam</i>.</p> + +<p>The germ of the reputation the ass has of being both a +stupid and a petulant animal, acquired in Greece and in +Italy, spreading thence into all the other parts of Europe, +may already be found in the ancient myths of the +Hindoos. Professor Weber,<a name="FNanchor_686_686" id="FNanchor_686_686"></a><a href="#Footnote_686_686" class="fnanchor">[686]</a> however, has proved, in +answer to Herr Wagener, that the idea of a stupid and +presumptuous ass, such as we always find it represented in +the fables of the <i>Pańćatantram</i>, was diffused in India by the +Greeks, and is not indigenous to Hindoo faith and literature.</p> + +<p>In India, the ass was not a particular object of ridicule; +and this was perhaps for the simple reason that the +Eastern varieties of the asinine family are far handsomer +and nobler than the Western ones. The ass in the East +is generally ardent, lively, and swift-footed, as in the +West it is generally slow and lazy, having no real energy +except of a sensual nature. For if even the West (and +especially the south of Europe) possesses a distinct species +of ass, which reminds us of the <i>multinummus</i> ass of Varro +(in the same way as the East also, though exceptionally, +has inferior varieties), the asinine multitude in Europe +is composed of animals of a low type and a down-trodden +appearance, and it is against them that our jests and our +floggings are especially directed. This is the proverbial +ass's kick against the fallen; the poor outcast of the West<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> +dearly pays the penalty of the honours conceded to his +illustrious mythical ancestors of the East. We think +that the ass of which we hear heroic achievements related +is the same as that which now humbly carries the +pack; and since we no longer regard him as capable of a +magnanimous action, we suppose that he (unfortunate +animal!) appropriates to himself all these ancient glories +out of vain presumption, for which reason there is no +affront which we do not feel entitled to offer to him. +Nor did Christianity succeed in delivering him from +persecution,—Christianity, which, as it represents the Sun +of nations, the Redeemer of the world, as born between +the two musical animals, the ox and the ass (who were +to prevent His cries from being heard), and introduces +the ass as the saviour of the Divine Child persecuted +during the night, and as the animal ridden by Christ, in +his last entry into Jerusalem, invested him with more than +one sacred title which ought from its devotees to have +procured for him a little more regard. Unfortunately, the +same famous medival ecclesiastical hymn which was sung +in France on the 14th of January in honour of the ass, +richly caparisoned near the altar, to celebrate the flight +into Egypt, was turned into a satire. It must have been +not without some gay levity that priest and people exclaimed +"Hinham!" three times after the conclusion of +the mass, on the day of the festival of the ass.<a name="FNanchor_687_687" id="FNanchor_687_687"></a><a href="#Footnote_687_687" class="fnanchor">[687]</a> Nor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> +did the inhabitants of Empoli show him more reverence, +when, on the eighth day after the festival of the <i>Corpus +Domini</i>—that is, near the summer solstice—they made +him fly in the air, amid the jeers of the crowd; nor the +Germans, who, in Westphalia, made the ass a symbol of +the dull St Thomas, who was the last of the apostles to +believe in the resurrection. The Westphalians were +accustomed to call by the name of "the ass Thomas" (as +in Holland he is called "luilak") the boy who on St +Thomas's Day was the last to enter school.<a name="FNanchor_688_688" id="FNanchor_688_688"></a><a href="#Footnote_688_688" class="fnanchor">[688]</a> On Christmas +Day, in the Carnival, on Palm-Sunday, and in the +processions which follow the festival of <i>Corpus Domini</i>,<a name="FNanchor_689_689" id="FNanchor_689_689"></a><a href="#Footnote_689_689" class="fnanchor">[689]</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span>the Church often introduced the ass into her ceremonies, +but more in order to exhilarate the minds of her devotees +than to edify them by any suggestion of the virtues it +represents in the Gospels; so that, notwithstanding the +great services rendered by the ass to the Founder of the +new religion, he not only received no benefit in return +from Christianity, but became instead the unfortunate +object of new attentions, which rather depressed than +heightened his already sufficiently degraded social condition.</p> + +<p>And so the Greeks and Romans first, and the Catholic +priests afterwards, combined, by their treatment of him, to +make the ass more indifferent than he would otherwise +have been to the passion and spirited struggle for life +shown in all the other animals. He was perhaps intended +for a higher fate, if man had not come upon earth, and +interfered too persistently to thwart his vocation. And +probably his race gradually deteriorated, just because, +having become ridiculous, few cared to preserve or increase +his nobleness. As the proverb said that it was useless +to wash the ass's head, so it seemed useless for man to +endeavour to ameliorate or civilise his form: the physical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> +decadence of the ass was contemporary and parallel with +his decline morally.</p> + +<p>But although it was in Greece and Rome that the +poor ass was thrown completely down from his rank in the +animal kingdom, the first decree of his fall was pronounced +in his ancient Asiatic abode. Let us prove this.</p> + +<p>In the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, the ass already appears under two +different aspects—one divine and the other demoniacal—to +which may perhaps be added a third intermediate or +gandharvic aspect.</p> + +<p>In the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, the ass has the names of <i>gardabhas</i> +and <i>rsabhas</i>; in Sanskṛit, also those of <i>kharas, ćakrvant, +ćiramehin</i>, and <i>bleyas</i>.</p> + +<p>It is important to notice how each of these designations +tends to lapse into ambiguity; and ambiguity in +words plays a considerable part in the formation of myths +and popular beliefs.</p> + +<p>Let us begin with the most modern designations.</p> + +<p><i>Bleyas</i> may mean the childish one (from <i>blas</i> = child, +and stupid<a name="FNanchor_690_690" id="FNanchor_690_690"></a><a href="#Footnote_690_690" class="fnanchor">[690]</a>), as well as the demoniacal (from +<i>balis</i>; and indeed, besides being a name given to the +ass, <i>bleyas</i> is also a name for a demon).</p> + +<p><i>Ćiramehin</i> is the ass as <i>longe mingens</i> (a quality which +can apply to the ass, but still more so to the rainy cloud).</p> + +<p><i>Ćakrvant</i> means he who is furnished with wheels, +with round objects or testicles (an epithet equally applicable +to the ass and his phallos).</p> + +<p><i>Kharas</i> signifies he who cries out, as well as the ardent +one (and <i>kharus</i>, which ought to have the same meaning, +signifies, according to the Petropolitan Dictionary, foolish, +and horse; perhaps ass too).<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span> +<i>Rsabhas</i> is derived from the double root <i>ras</i>, whence +<i>rasa</i> = humour, juice, water, savour, sperm, and <i>rsa</i> = din, +tumultuous noise.</p> + +<p><i>Gardabhas</i> comes from the root <i>gard</i>,<a name="FNanchor_691_691" id="FNanchor_691_691"></a><a href="#Footnote_691_691" class="fnanchor">[691]</a> to resound, to +bellow; but I think I can recognise in the word <i>gardabhas</i> +the same meaning as <i>gandharbas</i> or <i>gandharvas</i>, and +<i>vice versa</i>. The <i>gardabhas</i> explains to me how the +<i>gandharvas</i> was conceived to be a musician; and the +<i>gandharvas</i> (a word which, I repeat, seems to me composed +of <i>gandha</i> + <i>arvas</i>, developed out of a hypothetic +<i>ṛivas</i>,<a name="FNanchor_692_692" id="FNanchor_692_692"></a><a href="#Footnote_692_692" class="fnanchor">[692]</a> that is, he who walks in the unguent, or he who +goes in the perfume) helps me to understand the proverb, +"Asinus in unguento," and the corresponding legends. +The equivocal word <i>rsabhas</i>, in its two meanings, seems +to unite together the sonorous <i>gardabhas</i> with the <i>gandharbas</i> +who likes perfumes, or the <i>gandharvo apsu</i> (<i>gandharvas</i> +in the waters) of the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>,<a name="FNanchor_693_693" id="FNanchor_693_693"></a><a href="#Footnote_693_693" class="fnanchor">[693]</a> the guardian of +the ambrosial plant.<a name="FNanchor_694_694" id="FNanchor_694_694"></a><a href="#Footnote_694_694" class="fnanchor">[694]</a> The mythical ass and the Vedic +<i>gandharvas</i> have the same qualities and the same instincts. +The gandharvs, for instance, are represented +in the <i>itareya Br.</i> as lovers of women,<a name="FNanchor_695_695" id="FNanchor_695_695"></a><a href="#Footnote_695_695" class="fnanchor">[695]</a> so much so +that for a woman's sake they allow themselves to be +deprived of the ambrosia (or somas); and it is also known +from the story of Urva how jealous they are of their +nymphs, the <i>apsars</i>, or them who flow by on the waters +(the clouds), and from the story of Hanumant, in the +<i>Rmyaṇam</i>, how greedy they are of their salutary herbs +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span>and waters.<a name="FNanchor_696_696" id="FNanchor_696_696"></a><a href="#Footnote_696_696" class="fnanchor">[696]</a> The mythical and legendary ass also has a +foible for beautiful maidens; it is unnecessary to give the +reason of this belief.<a name="FNanchor_697_697" id="FNanchor_697_697"></a><a href="#Footnote_697_697" class="fnanchor">[697]</a> When Circe wishes to give, by means +of an unguent, an ass's head to Odysseus, we find an +allusion to the loves of the ass and the beautiful woman. +When the Lucius of Apuleius, while endeavouring to +change himself into a bird (another of the names by +which the phallos is indicated), becomes instead, by +means of the woman's unguent, an ass, the ass is another +name for the phallical bird. And as the Vedic ass +delights in the <i>rasas</i>, or humour, water or sperm (the +two words <i>rsas</i> and <i>rasas</i>, derived from a common root, +being easily interchangeable); as the mythical ass, when +it finds the ambrosia of the roseate morning aurora, once +more becomes the splendid young sun; so the ass of +Apuleius, too, becomes Lucius again, or the luminous +and handsome youth that he was before, as soon as he +has an opportunity of feeding upon roses: he becomes an +ass for love of a woman, and regains his splendour in the +rosy aurora. During the night, being subject to the +enchantment of a beautiful fairy, the hero remains an +ass; and in the form of an ass, and under an ass's skin, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span>he carries the priapœan mysteries, whence the expression +of Aristophanes in the <i>Frogs</i>, "The ass which carries +mysteries" (onos agn mstria), the same mysteries as +the Phallagia or Perifallia of Rome. In the Christian +myth, this mystery is the flight of the new-born Divine +Child into Egypt;<a name="FNanchor_698_698" id="FNanchor_698_698"></a><a href="#Footnote_698_698" class="fnanchor">[698]</a> in the story of Perrault, it is the +beautiful maiden, the evening aurora, the girl persecuted +by her father and would-be seducer, who disguises herself +during the night with an ass's skin;<a name="FNanchor_699_699" id="FNanchor_699_699"></a><a href="#Footnote_699_699" class="fnanchor">[699]</a> the beautiful +girl evidently transfers her erotic sympathies to the ass +that loves her. Of loves such as these,—of an ass with a +maiden, or of the young hero and an ass,—are born the +monstrous onokentaurs and Empusa, now a beautiful +maiden, and now the terrifier of children, who is represented +with ass's feet, because her mother was an ass, and +her father, Aristoxenes, enamoured of an ass. It is now the +evening aurora, now the dying sun, and now both, who, +under the cloud of night, or in winter, are represented as +covered with an ass's skin. Professor Kuhn has already +proved the close affinity, amounting to identity, between +the gandharvs and the Hellenic kentauroi, both of +which come before us in connection with the inebriating +drink; but the kentauros is essentially a hippokentauros, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span>or, still better, an onokentauros,<a name="FNanchor_700_700" id="FNanchor_700_700"></a><a href="#Footnote_700_700" class="fnanchor">[700]</a> or centaur ass. The +fable of Cupid and Psyche in Apuleius, in its relation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> +with the story of the ass, perfectly agrees with the analogous +Hindoo fable of the loves of Purravas and +Urva, united with the story of the Gandharvs. Peau +d'ne, Psyche, and Urva are therefore mythical sisters.</p> + +<p>Professor Kuhn's proof of the identity of the gandharvas +and the kentauros being admitted, the identity +of the gardabhas with the gandharbas, and of the ass +with the gandharvas, seems to follow as a natural consequence. +The myth of the kentauros, either hippokentauros +or onokentauros, no less than the myth of the +gandharvas, corresponds entirely with that of the ass. +The kentauros loves wine and women; he plays the lyre +upon the car of Dionysos in conjunction with satyrs, +nymphs, and bacchantes; he teaches on Mount Pelion +music,<a name="FNanchor_701_701" id="FNanchor_701_701"></a><a href="#Footnote_701_701" class="fnanchor">[701]</a> the science of health, and the prophetic art to the +Dioscuri, which are all subjects that occur again with +slight modifications in the Hindoo legends concerning +the gandharvs, and in the fable of the ass, as we shall +prove hereafter.—But to return to the Hindoo myth; in +the same way as the gandharvs has a hybrid nature, and +shows himself at one time in the aspect of a demi-god, at +another in that of a semi-demon, so the mythical ass of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> +India has now a divine nature, and now a human. The +gandharvas is the guardian of riches and waters: inasmuch +as he defends them from the demoniacal robbers, +preserves them from mortals, and distributes them among +the pious, he appears under a beneficent and divine +aspect; inasmuch, on the other hand, as he carries them +off and keeps them shut up like a miser, he resembles +the monster that is fabled to guard fountains and treasures, +the demon who keeps the waters shut up, the thieves +who gather treasures together, and the devil, the master +of all riches. For the same reason we already find in +Hindoo tradition the beneficent ass and his evil-doing congener. +The sun (sometimes the moon also) in the cloud +and the darkness of night is the same as the treasure in +the cavern, the treasure in hell, and the hero or heroine +in the gloomy forest; and this cavern and hell sometimes +assume the form of an ass's skin, or of an ass simply. +That which comes out of the cloud, and of the gloom, +also comes out of the ass; the soul of the ass is the sun, +or the hero or heroine, or the riches which he conceals. +The Avinu are often found in connection with the +worthless horse, which afterwards becomes handsome by +means of the ambrosia itself that the horse produces; the +gandharvs, a more nocturnal and cloudy form, if I may +use the expression, of the solar or lunar hero, are in near +relation with the ass, their <i>alter ego</i>, who enjoys the blessing +of eternal youth. The Avinu themselves, the two +horsemen who have given youth to the old Ćyavanas, +rode upon asses before they rode upon horses. The myth +of the gandharvs and that of the Avinu, the myth of +the horse and that of the ass, are intimately connected: +from the gandharvs the avin comes forth; from the +mythical ass the horse comes out. This is unnatural in +zoology, but it is very natural in mythology: the sun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span> +comes, now out of the grey shades of night, and now out +of the grey cloud.</p> + +<p>The Vedic hymns already present us with several interesting +myths concerning the ass.</p> + +<p>The ass of the Avinu is swift; the devotees ask the +Avinu when they are to yoke it, that they may be +carried by it to the sacrifice.<a name="FNanchor_702_702" id="FNanchor_702_702"></a><a href="#Footnote_702_702" class="fnanchor">[702]</a> In another hymn, as the +Avinu are two, so are their asses two (rsabhv avinoḥ). +Finally, the second strophe of the 116th hymn offers +us a twofold significant particularity, viz., the ass, that +vanquishes a thousand in the rich battlefield of Yamas +(or in the nocturnal battle, in the struggle in hell, in +which the ass appears as a real warrior, joined with +riches, and fighting for riches), and is helped by strong +and rapid wings (in which it shows us the ass that +flies).<a name="FNanchor_703_703" id="FNanchor_703_703"></a><a href="#Footnote_703_703" class="fnanchor">[703]</a></p> + +<p>The <i>Ṛigvedas</i> also represents the ass of Indras as +swift-footed.<a name="FNanchor_704_704" id="FNanchor_704_704"></a><a href="#Footnote_704_704" class="fnanchor">[704]</a> But in the same hymn we already see +the reverse of the medal, that is to say, the swift ones +who deride him who is not swift, the horses that are +urged before the ass.<a name="FNanchor_705_705" id="FNanchor_705_705"></a><a href="#Footnote_705_705" class="fnanchor">[705]</a> The solar hero, towards morning, +substitutes the horse for the ass, or appears with horses, +leaving the ass or asses behind. We have learned in the +preceding chapter how, in the heavenly race of the Vedic +gods, the asses gained the palm of victory; but it was +an effort superior to their powers. The <i>itareya Br.</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span>informs us that by this effort they lost their swiftness +and became draught animals, deprived of honey, but yet +preserving great vigour in their sperm, so that the male +ass can generate offspring in two ways, that is, mules by +union with a mare, and asses by union with an ass.<a name="FNanchor_706_706" id="FNanchor_706_706"></a><a href="#Footnote_706_706" class="fnanchor">[706]</a> +Here, therefore, the ass is already considered an animal +of an essentially phallical nature, which notion is confirmed +by the precept of Ktyyanas, recorded by Professor +Weber,<a name="FNanchor_707_707" id="FNanchor_707_707"></a><a href="#Footnote_707_707" class="fnanchor">[707]</a> which enjoins the sacrificing of an ass to +expiate violated chastity. To chastise the ass, to sacrifice +the ass, must mean the same as to chastise and to mortify +the body,<a name="FNanchor_708_708" id="FNanchor_708_708"></a><a href="#Footnote_708_708" class="fnanchor">[708]</a> and especially the phallos; and the Eastern +and Western punishment of leading adulterers about upon +an ass has the same meaning; the real martyr, however, +in this punishment being the ass, who is exposed to every +kind of derision and ill-treatment. In the same way, the +henpecked husband who allowed himself to be beaten +by his wife, used, in several villages of Piedmont, only a +few years ago, to be led about ignominiously upon an +ass: a husband who lets his wife impose upon him, and +cannot subdue her, deserves to be chastised by means of +an ass; he is not a man, and his ass, the emblem of his +manly strength, must on this account suffer the punishment, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span>because he has not shown himself able to assert his +marital rights. The adulterer upon the ass, and the silly +husband upon the ass, are punishments for phallic offences +in, and in connection with, the person of that which +represents the phallos: one is chastised for having +wished, in this regard, to do too much, and the other for +not having been able to do enough. On this account the +condemned person was forced, in similar cases, to ride +upon an ass with his face turned towards the animal's +tail, another image which is yet more manifestly phallical; +whence the very name of the punishment, "asini caudam +in manu tenere."<a name="FNanchor_709_709" id="FNanchor_709_709"></a><a href="#Footnote_709_709" class="fnanchor">[709]</a> As to the other proverb which says, +"He to whom the ass belongs, holds him by the tail," +it is explained by the narrative of a peasant who drew +his ass out of a swamp, taking it by the tail; but this +story too seems to have a phallic signification.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span> +The ass, therefore, is already deposed from his noble +place as a swift-footed courser in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i> itself. +And in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, too, where we have observed the +ass described as a warrior who fights for the gods, we +find him in the demoniacal form of a disagreeable singer +who terrifies the worshippers of the god Indras; the +latter is therefore requested by the poet to kill the ass +who sings with a horrible voice.<a name="FNanchor_710_710" id="FNanchor_710_710"></a><a href="#Footnote_710_710" class="fnanchor">[710]</a> Here the ass already +appears as a real monster, worthy even of the steel of the +prince of the celestial heroes himself, who prepares to +combat him. The ass, therefore, is already sacred to the +monsters in the white Yaǵurvedas.<a name="FNanchor_711_711" id="FNanchor_711_711"></a><a href="#Footnote_711_711" class="fnanchor">[711]</a></p> + +<p>In the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>,<a name="FNanchor_712_712" id="FNanchor_712_712"></a><a href="#Footnote_712_712" class="fnanchor">[712]</a> the slowness of the ass has +already become proverbial. The modest Bharatas excuses +himself from not being able to equal his brother Rmas +in the science of government, just as the ass, he says, +cannot run like the horse, or other birds cannot fly like +the vulture. The mythical ass, moreover, appears in +this epic poem<a name="FNanchor_713_713" id="FNanchor_713_713"></a><a href="#Footnote_713_713" class="fnanchor">[713]</a> in a demoniacal and infernal aspect: +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span>Bharatas, in fact, dreams of seeing his dead father +Daarathas, in blood-coloured clothes, borne to the +southern funereal region on a car drawn by asses; and +we are told that when a man is seen upon a car drawn +by asses, it is a sign of his departure for the abode of +Yamas. Kharas, a word which, as we already know, +means ass, is also the name of a younger brother of the +great monster Rvaṇas. Rvaṇas himself is drawn by +asses upon a chariot adorned with gold and gems. These +asses have the faces of the monster Pićs,<a name="FNanchor_714_714" id="FNanchor_714_714"></a><a href="#Footnote_714_714" class="fnanchor">[714]</a> that is, faces +of parrots, as Hanumant afterwards informs us when he +speaks of the monsters which he has seen in Lak, +which he also says are as swift as thought.<a name="FNanchor_715_715" id="FNanchor_715_715"></a><a href="#Footnote_715_715" class="fnanchor">[715]</a> We know +that the coursers of Rvaṇas were asses, and therefore +the asses with the faces of the Pićs, and the horses of +the monsters with the faces of parrots, are the same. The +monster Pićs, therefore, has the face of a parrot. How +is it that the parrot is reared in India as a sacred bird? +It appears to me that equivocation in language had something +to do with the formation of this singular mythological +image. The word <i>pićas</i> is derived, like <i>piagas</i>, which +means golden and red, from the root <i>pi</i>, to adorn; whence +also the Vedic feminine <i>pi</i>, ornament, and the Vedic +neuter, <i>peas</i>, coloured tissue. The ass pićas, who draw +the chariot full of gold, are therefore themselves, at least in +their face, in their foremost part, golden asses, or red like +the colour of gold, red like the colour of the sun; in fact, +we find kharas (the ardent) as the proper name of an +attendant on the sun, and kharṇus or khararamiḥ, +he of the burning ray, as Sanskṛit names of the sun. +Kharaketus, he who has a burning ray, is also the name +of one of the monsters in the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>.<a name="FNanchor_716_716" id="FNanchor_716_716"></a><a href="#Footnote_716_716" class="fnanchor">[716]</a> We therefore +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span>already see here the golden ass and the infernal +monster identified with the sun; and hence we are very +near the monster with the parrot's face. In the preceding +chapter we observed how the solar horse appears in +the morning luminous at first in its foremost parts,—now +in its legs, now in its face, now in its mane, which is +called golden; it is only the head of the horse which is +found in the butter; of Dadhyańć we perceive only his +head in connection with the ambrosia. Thus of the +nocturnal ass, of the demoniacal ass, of the demon himself, +the pićas (the pićs are called carnivorous<a name="FNanchor_717_717" id="FNanchor_717_717"></a><a href="#Footnote_717_717" class="fnanchor">[717]</a>), only +the face is seen, in the same way as of the pićs, and +of the horses belonging to the monsters, only the head is +that of a parrot. But what connection can there be +between the gold colour of the ass pićas and the green +colour of the parrot? The equivoque lies probably in +the words <i>hari</i> and <i>harit</i>, both of which, in the Hindoo +tongue mean yellow, as well as green. Haris and hari +signify the sun, and the moon, as being yellow; harayas +and haritas are the horses of the sun; har are the two +horses of Indras and of the Avinu, of whom we also know +that they more usually rode upon asses. We thus arrive +at the light-coloured asses, at the asses that are golden, at +least in their foremost parts, that is, in the morning twilight, +when after his nocturnal course, the solar horseman +is on the point of arriving at his golden eastern destination, +whence the head of the ass which carries the divine +horseman is illumined by him. But <i>haris</i>, besides signifying +the solar hero as being yellow, also signifies the +parrot as green; on this account the ass or demon with +a golden head was exchanged with the ass or monster +with the green head, or with the parrot's head. We<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span> +shall see in the chapters concerning birds how the bird +was often substituted for the horse in the office of carrying +the deity or the hero.</p> + +<p>To conclude the subject of the Hindoo mythical ass, it +is certain that it existed in the heavens; it is certain +that it flies in the sky, that it fights in the sky like a +valiant warrior, that it terrifies its enemies in the sky +with its terrible voice; that, in a word, it was a real +and legitimate heroic animal. It is certain, moreover, +that, considered under another aspect, it not only throws +down the heroes, but carries them to hell, serves the +infernal monsters, and is found in connection with the +treasures of hell. Moreover, admitting, as I hope the +reader will, my identification of the mythical ass with +the gandharvas, we have the ass as dancer, the ass as +musician, the ass who loves women, and the ass in the +odorous ointment and in the inebriating drink, the somas +which occupies the place of the wine of the Dionysian +mysteries, in which the Hellenic ass took a solemn part.</p> + +<p>In the fables of the <i>Pańćatantram</i>, the ass is partly +modelled on the Hellenic type and partly preserves its +primitive character. The fourth book shows us the ass +twice attracted towards the lion by the jackal, who +induces him to believe that a beautiful female ass is +awaiting him. The ass is distrustful and shows his fear, +but the argument of the female ass, upon which the +artful jackal insists, overcomes his timidity. He is, +however, cunning enough to send the jackal before him; +and at the sight of the lion he perceives the jackal's +treachery and turns, fleeing away with such rapidity +that the lion cannot overtake him. The jackal returns +to the assault, and convinces the ass that he did wrong +to abandon the beautiful female ass when he was on the +point of receiving her favours; and thus touching the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span> +tender chord of his heart, he goes on to assure him that +the female ass will throw herself into the fire or the +water if she does not see him return. "Omnia vincit +amor;" the ass returns, and this time the lion surprises +and tears him to pieces; upon which the lion, before +partaking of his meal, goes to perform his ablutions and +devotions. Meanwhile the jackal eats the ass's heart +and ears, and makes the lion, on his return, believe that +the stupid animal had neither the one nor the other, +because if he had had them, he would not have returned +to the dangerous spot after having once escaped. The +lion declares himself to be perfectly satisfied with this +explanation. Here we have a mixture in the ass of +swift-footedness, lust, and stupidity, his stupidity being +caused by his lustfulness. Now, it is possible that +his acquaintance with the Hellenic ass may have +induced the author of the <i>Pańćatantram</i> to embody +in the ass a quality which is generally attributed in +fables of Hindoo origin to the monkey; but this is not +absolutely necessary in order to explain the narrative +of which we have now given the epitome.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, in the fourth book of the <i>Pańćatantram</i>, +the fable of the ass in the tiger's skin—an +insignificant variety of the ass in the lion's skin—was, +as Professor Weber has already proved, taken from the +sopian fable. Another fable, in the fifth book, which +tells us of the ass who, being passionately fond of music,<a name="FNanchor_718_718" id="FNanchor_718_718"></a><a href="#Footnote_718_718" class="fnanchor">[718]</a> +insisted upon singing, and was thus discovered and made +a slave of, also seems to be of Hellenic origin. But, +although the editing of these two Hindoo fables in a +literary form had its origin in the knowledge of Hellenic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span> +literature, the original myth of the ass-lion (haris, which +is the horse of Indras, also means the lion), and that of +the ass-musician (as gandharvas and gardabhas), can be +traced as far back as the Vedic scriptures.</p> + +<p>In the Zendic <i>Yana</i>,<a name="FNanchor_719_719" id="FNanchor_719_719"></a><a href="#Footnote_719_719" class="fnanchor">[719]</a> I find a new proof, which +appears to me a very satisfactory one, of the identification +which I have proposed of the ass with the gandharvas. +I have already mentioned the gandharvas who +guards over the somas in the midst of the waters, and +I observed how the gandharvas kṛinus of the Veds, +and the Zend kereni who guards over the <i>hom</i> in the +<i>Vuru-Kasha</i>, have been identified. But the same +office is fulfilled in the <i>Yana</i> by a three-legged ass, +that is, a lame ass (or the solar horse who has become +lame during the night, in the same way as the solar +hero becomes lame, or a lame devil), who, by braying, +terrifies the monsters and prevents them from contaminating +the water.</p> + +<p>In the first of the seven adventures of Rustem, in the +<i>Shah-Name</i> of Firdusi, the starving Rustem goes with +his brave heroic horse to chase wild asses. The asses +flee, but the hero's horse is swifter than they, and overtakes +them; Rustem takes one by means of a lasso, and +has it cooked, throwing away the bones. He then goes +to sleep (<i>then</i> sometimes expresses in the myths the +interval of a whole day or of a whole year.—The hero +does almost the same in his second adventure and in the +book of <i>Sohrab</i>). While Rustem sleeps, a monstrous +lion makes its appearance to surprise the hero; Rustem's +heroic horse throws the lion down and tears it to pieces<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span> +with its hoofs and teeth. This battle between the horse +of the sleeping hero and the monster lion is an epic +form of the fable which represents the animals as being +terrified in the forest by the braying of the ass, and of +that of the lion itself killed by the ass's kick. Probably +the bones of the dead ass, when preserved, gave heroic +strength to Rustem's horse.</p> + +<p>In the Mongol stories, of which we have on a previous +occasion indicated the Hindoo origin, we find two other +legends relating to the ass. In the eighteenth Mongol +story, a foolish man goes with his ass to hang up some +rice; he hides his ass in a cave; some merchants pass +by with their goods, and the fool sends forth, by means +of a trumpet, such a sonorous shout, that the merchants, +thinking brigands are hidden in the cavern, escape, +leaving their goods in the ass's possession. Here the +fool and the ass are already identified. The trumpet +and the blowing made by the fool correspond to the +braying of the ass, of whom we shall soon see other +miracles related. The sense of the myth is this: the +solar hero in the night or in the cloud grows stupid; +he becomes an ass during the night or in the cloud; the +cloud thunders, and the thunder of the cloud gives rise +to the idea now of the braying and now of the flatus of +the ass (or the fool), now of a trumpet,<a name="FNanchor_720_720" id="FNanchor_720_720"></a><a href="#Footnote_720_720" class="fnanchor">[720]</a> and now of a +drum. We must not forget that the word <i>dundubhis</i> +which properly means kettledrum or drum, is also the +name of a monster, and that Dundubh is the proper +name of the wife of a gandharvas, or of a gandharv. +The skin of the drum being made of an ass's hide is one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span> +more reason why the thundering cloud, being very +naturally likened to a drum, the thunder should be also +considered now as a <i>flatus oris</i>, now as a <i>flatus ventris</i> of +the celestial ass, or of the foolish hero who accompanies +him.</p> + +<p>In the twenty-second Mongol story we have a variety, +though partly a less complete and partly a richer one, of +the fable of the Phrygian king Midas. A king who has +golden ass ears, has his head combed every night with +golden combs by young men, who are immediately after +put to death (to comb the ass's head is about the same as +to wash it; but however much it is combed, the ears can +never be abolished). One day a young man predestined +to the highest honours, before going to comb the king's +head, receives from his mother a cake made of her own +milk and flour. The young man offers the cake to the +king, who likes it, and spares the youth's life on condition +that he tells no one, not even his mother, the +great secret, <i>viz.</i>, that the king has golden ears. The +youth promises to preserve silence, and makes a very +great effort indeed to keep his promise, but this effort +makes him seriously ill, so much so that he feels he will +burst if he does not tell the secret. His mother then +advises him to go and relieve his mind by whispering it +into a fissure of the earth or of a tree. The young man +does so; he goes into the open country, finds a squirrel's +hole, and breathes gently down it, "Our king has ass's +ears;" but animals have understanding and can speak, +and there are men who understand their language. The +secret is conveyed from one to another, till the king +hears that the young man has divulged it. He threatens +to take his life; but relents when he hears from him +how it happened, and not only pardons him, but makes +him his prime minister. The fortunate youth's first act<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span> +is to invent a cap of the shape of the ears of an ass, in +order that the king may be able to conceal the deformity; +and when the people see the king with a cap of this +shape, it pleases them so much that they all adopt it; +and so the king, by means of his young minister, is no +longer obliged to live secluded, and in the constant tormenting +dread of discovery, but lives at his ease and +happily ever afterwards.</p> + +<p>Having thus examined under its principal aspects the +most popular Asiatic tradition relative to the ass, let us +now go on to epitomise the European tradition, and, if +possible, more briefly; all the more that the reader, +having, as I hope, now the key of the myth, will be of +himself able to refer to it many analogous particulars of +Grco-Latin tradition. I say Grco-Latin alone, because +the myth of the ass among Slavonic and Germanic +nations, where the ass is little, if at all, known, had +no especial and independent development. In Slavonic +countries, the part of the ass is generally sustained by +Ivan the fool or Emilius the lazy one, as also by the +bear or wolf, as in India it is often sustained by the +monkey;<a name="FNanchor_721_721" id="FNanchor_721_721"></a><a href="#Footnote_721_721" class="fnanchor">[721]</a> ass, bear, wolf, and monkey, as mythical +animals, represent almost identical phenomena.</p> + +<p>Let us take the story of Midas again at its commencement.</p> + +<p>Midas appears in <i>Herodotus</i>, not only as a king of +Phrygia, but as a progenitor of the Phrygians. In the +Tusculans of Cicero, the drunken satyr Silenos (originally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span> +another form of the same Midas, the satyrs having ass's +ears), the master of Dionysos, loses himself in the rose-garden +belonging to Midas, before whom he is conducted, +and by whom he is benevolently received and entertained, +and then sent back with honour to the god, who, +in gratitude, concedes to Midas the gift of turning to +gold everything that he touches, to such an extent as to +affect the food that he wishes to eat and the water in +which he bathes. This myth is probably of a complex +nature. Midas ought, like the ass, to turn to gold what +he has eaten, that is, to turn his food and drink into +excrements of gold, to fructify the golden ears of corn, +<i>i.e.</i>, in heaven, the solar rays. Cicero himself leads us +to suppose that the myth of Midas is in relation with +the ears of corn, when, in his first book <i>De Divinatione</i>, +he says that the ants carried grains of wheat into the +mouth of Midas when a child; these being symbols of +abundance and of fecundity which are quite applicable to +the mythical ass. For although the common ass is not +a privileged fœcundator, the mythical ass, in its capacity +of a rain-giving cloud or ćiramehin, is the best fertiliser +of the fields. The sun, or gold, or treasure, comes out of +the ass-darkness or ass-cloud. The ass Lucius, after +having eaten the roses of morning or the east, again +becomes Lucius the luminous one (the sun). On this +account the ass Midas, too, who also delights in roses, +turns to gold whatever he eats, as well as the dew or +ambrosial fountain in which he bathes; the rosy becomes +the golden; the sun comes out of the contact of the ass +of night with the aurora.</p> + +<p>Servius, in his commentary on the sixth book of the +<i>neid</i>, also tells us the centauri "in floribus stabulant," +as the Hindoo gandharvas in the perfumes. These perfumes +are rain and dew. The ass crowned with loaves<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span> +of bread<a name="FNanchor_722_722" id="FNanchor_722_722"></a><a href="#Footnote_722_722" class="fnanchor">[722]</a> and flowers, in the Latin worship of Vesta, +who remembered the service rendered to her one day by +the braying of the ass, which aroused her from her sleep +when some one was attempting to violate her, is another +variety of the myth of the aurora who awakes out of the +night, golden, that is, rich in golden oats and in golden +wheat. The ass itself is sacrificed, because, perhaps, it +was the ass itself that had made an attempt to deprive +Vesta of her chastity; but having betrayed itself, as it +often happens in fables, by its braying, it arouses Vesta, +who punishes it by offering it in sacrifice. In a variation +of the same story in the first book of Ovid's <i>Fasti</i>, +where instead of Vesta we have the nymph Lothis +asleep, the red Priapos, who wishes to violate her, also +loses his opportunity, because the ass of Silenos—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Intempestivos edidit ore sonos,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>on which account it is killed by Priapos:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Morte dedit pœnas auctor clamoris, et hc est<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Hellespontiaco victima sacra Deo."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The apologue is well known of the long-eared ass, +who, when called upon to judge between the nightingale +and the cuckoo as to who has the sweetest voice, decides +in favour of the cuckoo. The nightingale then appeals +to man with the sweet song that we are all acquainted +with.<a name="FNanchor_723_723" id="FNanchor_723_723"></a><a href="#Footnote_723_723" class="fnanchor">[723]</a> In the myth of Midas, the Phrygian hero is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span>given ass's ears as a chastisement by Apollo, because, +having been called upon to judge between the cithern or +lyre of Apollo (whence the proverb "Asinus ad lyram") +and the pastoral pipe (calamus agrestis) of Pan (who +is represented as a horned and bearded satyr, with a tail +and long ears), he pronounced that the pan-pipes were +the most harmonious instrument. Midas hides his ears +in a red cap, but his comber lets out the secret, as in +the Mongol story, and in a manner almost identical—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Ille quidem celat, turpique onerata pudore<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Tempora purpureis tentat velare tiaris:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sed, solitus longos ferro resecare capillos,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Viderat hoc famulus: qui, cum nec prodere visum<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Dedecus auderet, cupiens efferre sub auras,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nec posset reticere tamen, secedit; humumque<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Effodit, et domini quales aspexerit aures,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Voce refert parva: terrque immurmurat haust.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Indiciumque su vocis tellure regesta<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Obruit, et scrobibus tacitus discedit opertis.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Creber arundinibus tremulis ibi surgere lucus<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Cœpit; et, ut primum pleno maturuit anno,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Prodidit agricolam: leni jam motus ab Austro<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Obruta verba refert; dominique coarguit aures."<a name="FNanchor_724_724" id="FNanchor_724_724"></a><a href="#Footnote_724_724" class="fnanchor">[724]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The same Greeks who held the ass up to derision, +made the Phrygian king Midas, of the ass's ears, the +object of their satire. This is a particular form of the +mythico-heroic struggle between Greeks and Phrygians +or Trojans. Apollo is the enemy of the Trojans, as he is +the enemy of the Phrygian king Midas. The Trojans<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span> +and Troy are represented by the ass, and the Greeks, who +vanquish and take by assault the Trojan fortress, by the +horse; the sun disperses the night; the hero kills the +centaur; the horse defeats the ass, the Greek the Trojan; +and every one can see how the fact that the Greeks +personified in the ass their enemies in Asia Minor, must +have damaged the reputation of the poor long-eared +animal. The most bitter and cutting satire is always +that which is directed towards one's own enemies; and +the ass, unfortunately, had at one time the honour of +representing the Phrygian, the traditional enemy of the +Greek. The ass bore the load of this heroic war, in the +same way as in the Middle Ages he was publicly impaled +by the Paduans for having had the misfortune of being +the sacred animal on the arms of the city of Vicenza, +with which the Paduans lived in rivalry.<a name="FNanchor_725_725" id="FNanchor_725_725"></a><a href="#Footnote_725_725" class="fnanchor">[725]</a></p> + +<p>In the same eleventh book of Ovid where the transformation +of the human ears of Midas into ass's ears is +described, it is very remarkable that the new ears are +called whitish, as in the Mongol story they are said to +be golden. This confirms still more the interpretation of +the myth, to the effect that the ass is the solar steed +during the night. The head and the tail of the night, +conceived as an animal, are now the two whitish or grey +twilights, and now the two golden auroras of morning +and evening.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">"Nec Delius aures<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Humanam stolidas patitur retinere figuram,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sed trahit in spatium villisque albentibus implet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Instabilesque illas facit et dat posse moveri."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The changeableness of the twilights must have served +very well to express the mobility of the ears of an ass.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span> +In the story of the ass, Midas, the musical critic, the +predestined ass, pronounces in favour of Pan; and he +does so not only on account of the consanguinity between +himself and the god, but also from a patriotic feeling. +Pan was born in a forest of Arcadia, of Zeus and the +nymph Kallisto; and it is well known that antiquity +celebrated the asses of Arcadia above those of every +other country. The ass as a musician, the ass as a +musical critic, Pan the musician, and Pan preferred by +the ass, are the same person. Arcadia, the country of +pastoral music, of whistling shepherds, which made the +Italy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries bleat +out so many useless verses, the country of Pan the satyr, +<i>par excellence</i>, is the country of the ass. Arcadia is the +most mountainous and wooded part of Greece,<a name="FNanchor_726_726" id="FNanchor_726_726"></a><a href="#Footnote_726_726" class="fnanchor">[726]</a> and +therefore, when the Olympians came down from heaven, +celestial nymphs and satyrs came to people the forests +and fountains of Arcadia. The divine guardian of the +ambrosia in the heavenly cloud takes, in the Arcadian +forest, the form of Pan, god of shepherds, who keeps guard +over the honey. The gandharvs, who danced and sung +in the Hindoo Olympus with the apsarasas, has descended +into Arcadia in the shape of Pan, to dance and sing with +the nymphs.<a name="FNanchor_727_727" id="FNanchor_727_727"></a><a href="#Footnote_727_727" class="fnanchor">[727]</a> Pan who goes alone into the gloomy +forest, Pan who chases fear away, connected as he is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span>with the story of the ass, reminds us on the one hand of +the superstition recorded by Pliny, to the effect that an +ass's skin put upon children chases fear from them<a name="FNanchor_728_728" id="FNanchor_728_728"></a><a href="#Footnote_728_728" class="fnanchor">[728]</a> +(in the same way as in the province of Girgenti, in +Sicily, it is believed that shoes made of a wolf's skin, put +on children's feet, make them daring and lucky in battle), +and, on the other hand, of the unpublished Piedmontese +story of the fearless Giovannino, who, in reward for +his courage in going alone to hell, brings away with +him an ass which throws gold from its tail.<a name="FNanchor_729_729" id="FNanchor_729_729"></a><a href="#Footnote_729_729" class="fnanchor">[729]</a> In +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span>Tzetzas<a name="FNanchor_730_730" id="FNanchor_730_730"></a><a href="#Footnote_730_730" class="fnanchor">[730]</a> I find again the curious notion that Midas sold +his own <i>stercus</i> out of avarice, that is, that he changed +it into gold, as Vespasian used to do by selling the +excrement of his horse.</p> + +<p>The sopian ass, when he goes to battle, terrifies by +his braying all the animals of the forest; so Pan defeats +his enemies by means of his terrible voice; and according +to Herodotus,<a name="FNanchor_731_731" id="FNanchor_731_731"></a><a href="#Footnote_731_731" class="fnanchor">[731]</a> in the heroic battle of Marathon, +the Athenians were helped by the powerful voice of the +god Pan. Finally, as we have seen Apollo to be the +rival of Pan and the enemy of the Phrygian Midas, the +predestined ass, as well as of the Trojans, so, in the +eleventh of the Pythic odes of Pindar, we find the hero +Perseus, among the Hyperboreans,<a name="FNanchor_732_732" id="FNanchor_732_732"></a><a href="#Footnote_732_732" class="fnanchor">[732]</a> eating asses.<a name="FNanchor_733_733" id="FNanchor_733_733"></a><a href="#Footnote_733_733" class="fnanchor">[733]</a> The +morning sun devours the ass of night, as we have seen +the solar hero Rustem do in the <i>Shah-Name</i>, where he +eats the wild asses.</p> + +<p>But we must look for more mythical personages in +connection with the ass Midas in Arcadia, as the region +of Pan and of asses. The ass Midas is considered as a +rich progenitor of races, and is supposed to have been +the first Phrygian. Windischmann has already observed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span>(with the examples of Yamas, Yima, Manus, Minos, and +Radamanths) the connection between the rich progenitor +of races and the rich king or judge of hell. To +Midas the progenitor and to Midas the judge, corresponds +the ass whose excrements are of gold, the ass +judge and prophet, the Arcadian and prophetic Pan. +The Arcadians considered themselves not only autocthonoi, +but proselnoi, or anterior to the moon. But +they are also considered in the light of inhabitants of +an infernal region. In Arcadia was situated the lake +Stmphalos, the demoniacal birds of which were slain by +Hrakls in Arcadia; in a chasm formed of wild rocks +was the source of the Styx, the principal infernal river, +that by which the Hellenic infernal beings were accustomed +to swear. Greek and Latin writers used to narrate of +the ass (and the mule) that it had an especial aversion to +the water of the Styx, as being poisonous. This superstition, +when referred to the myth, appears to mean that, +when the solar hero drinks this water—the water of the +dark or cloudy ocean—he becomes a dark ass. (We find +in Russian stories the hero who is transformed into a bull, +a horse, or a he-goat, when he drinks water of which a +demoniacal bull, horse, or he-goat has previously drunk.) +lianos, in his tenth book relative to animals, speaking +of the horned asses of Scythia, writes that they held in +their horns the water of the Styx. A similar narrative +is given by Philostratos in the third book of his romantic +Life of Apollonios, concerning the fabulous horned ass of +India. "It is said," he writes, "that in the marshy +ground near the Indian river Hyphasis many wild asses +are to be found; and that these wild beasts have on +their heads a horn with which they fight bravely like +bulls" (this seems to be a reminiscence of the Indian +rhinoceros); "and that the Indians form out of these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span> +horns drinking-cups, affirming that those who drink out +of these cups are delivered from every illness for all that +day; when wounded they feel no pain, they pass safely +through flames, nor, when they have drunk out of it, +can they be hurt by any poison. They say that these +cups belong to kings alone, nor is it permitted to any +other than a king to hunt the animal. It is narrated +that Apollonios (the hero of the romance) had seen this +animal and observed its nature with wonder. Moreover, +to Damis, who asked him whether he had faith in what +was commonly said concerning the virtue of this cup, he +answered 'I will believe it when I shall have learned +that in this country the king is immortal.'" And no +doubt Apollonios would have believed had it been impossible +for him to divine that the king who makes use +of this marvellous cup is the immortal sun, to whom +alone it is reserved to kill the ass of the nocturnal forest, +the ass whose hairy ears are like horns,<a name="FNanchor_734_734" id="FNanchor_734_734"></a><a href="#Footnote_734_734" class="fnanchor">[734]</a> whose ears are +of gold.</p> + +<p>The horn of the Scythian ass full of Stygian water, +the horn of the ass which, when used as a cup, gives +health and happiness to him who drinks out of it, remind +us (not to speak of Samson's jaw-bone of an ass, +which makes water flow) especially of the myth of the +cornucopia and that of the goat, with which the satyrs +and fauns, having goat's feet, stand in particular connection. +It is also for this reason that the ass is found in +relation with Pan; wherefore it is too that Silenos rides +upon an ass, and appears, as we have already seen, in +the story of Midas, in his garden of roses; indeed the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span> +mythical centaurs or onocentaurs, satyr, faun, ass, and +goat are equivalent expressions. We have seen, a few +pages back, the Zendic three-legged ass; in the following +chapter we shall find the lame goat.</p> + +<p>As the ass was ridden by Silenos,<a name="FNanchor_735_735" id="FNanchor_735_735"></a><a href="#Footnote_735_735" class="fnanchor">[735]</a> so was he the +animal dedicated to Bacchus and to Priapos, whose +mysteries were celebrated in the Dionysian feasts. It is +said that when Bacchus had to traverse a marsh, he met +with two young asses, and was conveyed by one of them, +who was endowed with human speech, to the other side +without touching the water. (The 116th hymn of the +first book of the <i>Ṛigvedas</i> merits being especially compared +with this. In it, immediately after having represented +the Avinu as drawn by winged asses, the poet +celebrates the Avinu as delivering the hero Bhugyus +out of the waters upon a vessel that moved of itself in +the air.)<a name="FNanchor_736_736" id="FNanchor_736_736"></a><a href="#Footnote_736_736" class="fnanchor">[736]</a> On this account it is said that Bacchus, in +gratitude, placed the two young asses among the stars.<a name="FNanchor_737_737" id="FNanchor_737_737"></a><a href="#Footnote_737_737" class="fnanchor">[737]</a> +This is another confirmation of the fact that the mythical +ass really had the virtue of flying; and the proverb +"Asinus si volat habet alas"<a name="FNanchor_738_738" id="FNanchor_738_738"></a><a href="#Footnote_738_738" class="fnanchor">[738]</a> alludes to this myth. The +fable of the ass who wishes to fly, and the flight of the +ass, are derisive allusions, applied to the earthly ass. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span>The celestial myth lingers in the memory, but is no longer +understood.</p> + +<p>In the myth of Prometheus, in <i>lianos</i> (vi. 5), we +have the ass who carries the talisman which makes +young again, which Zeus intended for him who should +discover the robber of the divine fire (Prometheus). The +ass, being thirsty, approaches a fountain, and is about to +drink, when a snake who guards the fountain prevents +him from doing so. The ass offers the snake the charm +which he is carrying, upon which the serpent strips off +its old age, and the ass, drinking at the fountain, acquires +the power of becoming young again. The ass of night, +when he drinks the dew of the dawn, grows young and +handsome again every day. It is on this account, I repeat, +that youth is celebrated as a peculiar virtue of the ass; +it is on this account that the Romans attributed a great +cosmetic virtue to ass's milk<a name="FNanchor_739_739" id="FNanchor_739_739"></a><a href="#Footnote_739_739" class="fnanchor">[739]</a> (the white dawn, or moon).</p> + +<p>The mythical ass seems to die every day, whereas, on +the contrary it is born anew every day, and becomes +young again; whence the Greek proverb does not celebrate +the death in the singular, but the deaths of the +ass ("Onou thanatous").</p> + +<p>The Italian proverb of the ass that carries wine and +drinks water, probably alludes to the ass that carries the +water of youth, and then, being thirsty, drinks at the +fountain in the legend of Prometheus. The wine of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span> +Hellenic and Latin myth corresponds to the inebriating +drink or somas in which Indras delights so much in the +<i>Ṛigvedas</i>. The ass bears the drunken Silenos on its back.</p> + +<p>The sun, who in the cloud is covered with the skin of +an ass, carries the rain; whence the Greek proverb the +ass is wetted by the rain ("Onos hetai"), and the +popular belief that when the ears of the ass or of a satyr +(that is to say, of the ass itself) move, it is an indication +of rainy weather (or dew). When the sun comes out of the +shadows of night, he drinks the milk or white humour +of the early morning sky, the same white foaming +humour which caused the birth of Aphrodit, the same +humour out of which, by the loves of Dionysos (or of +Pan, of a satyr, or of the ass itself) and Aphrodit, the +satyr was procreated—Priapos, whose phallic loves are +discovered by the ass. The satyr serves as a link between +the myth of the ass and that of the goat. On this +account (that is, on account of the close relation between +the mythical ass and the mythical goat) two ancient +Greek and Latin proverbs—<i>i.e.</i>, to dispute about the +shadow of the ass ("Peri onou skias") and to dispute, +"De lana caprina"—have the same meaning, a dispute +concerning a bagatelle (but which is no trifle in the +myth, where the skin of the goat or of the ass is sometimes +changed into a golden fleece), which seems so +much the more probable, as the Greeks have also handed +down to us another proverb in which the man who +expects to reap where he has not sown is laughed at as +one who looks for the wool of the ass ("Onou pokas +zteis"), or who shears the ass ("Ton onon keireis"). +We have seen, in the myth of Midas, the king, whose ears, +when combed, betray his asinine nature. The Piedmontese +story of the maiden on whose forehead a horn or an +ass's tail grows, because she has badly combed the good<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span> +fairy's head, is connected with this story of the combing +of the long-eared Midas. The combed ass and the +sheared ass correspond with one another; the combed +ass has golden ears, in the same way as gold and gems +fall from the head of the good fairy combed by the good +girl in the fairy tale. To this mythical belief, I think, +may be traced the origin of the medival custom in the +Roman Church, which lasted till the time of Gregory +VII., in which public ovations were offered to the Pope, +and an ass bearing money upon its head was brought +before him.<a name="FNanchor_740_740" id="FNanchor_740_740"></a><a href="#Footnote_740_740" class="fnanchor">[740]</a></p> + +<p>The shadow of the ass<a name="FNanchor_741_741" id="FNanchor_741_741"></a><a href="#Footnote_741_741" class="fnanchor">[741]</a> betrays him, no less than his +ears, his nose, and his braying. The shadow of the ass +and his nose are found in connection with each other +in the legend of the Golden Ass of Apuleius, which, after +narrating how the ass, by putting his head out of the +window, had betrayed his master the greengrocer or +gardener (the friend of perfumes, "Gandharvas, asinus, +in unguento, onos en mro"), concludes thus: "The +miserable gardener having been found again, and taken +before the magistrates to pay the fine, they lead him to +a public prison, and with great laughter cease not, says the +ass Lucius, to "make merry with my face;" whence also +was derived the popular proverb concerning the face and +shadow of the ass ('De prospectu et umbra asini')." The +ass who betrays his master the greengrocer or gardener +by his face is a variety of the ass who, dressed in the forest +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span>in the lion's skin<a name="FNanchor_742_742" id="FNanchor_742_742"></a><a href="#Footnote_742_742" class="fnanchor">[742]</a> (like Hrakls who goes into hell dressed +in a lion's skin), betrays himself by his braying, and of +the ass who discovers by his braying Priapos, who +delights in gardens (the vulva), Priapos the gardener, +like the ogre<a name="FNanchor_743_743" id="FNanchor_743_743"></a><a href="#Footnote_743_743" class="fnanchor">[743]</a> of the <i>Pentamerone</i>, who finds before him +in his garden a beautiful maiden.</p> + +<p>The ass can restrain neither his voice nor his flatus; +we have already seen something similar in the story of +Midas, where the comber of the ass feels he will burst if +he is not permitted to relieve himself of the secret of the +ass. Diogens of Laertes narrates that the fields of +Agrigentum being devastated by malignant winds which +destroyed the crops, the philosopher Empedocles instructed +them to take asses' skins, and having made +sacks of them, carry them to the summits of the hills +and mountains, to chase the winds away. lianos, confounding +one noise with another, suggests, to prevent +the ass from braying, the advantage of appending a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span>stone to its tail. This ancient Greek fable is to this +day very popular in Italy, and the narrator is accustomed +to furbish it up with a character of actuality, as if it +had happened yesterday, and among his acquaintances.</p> + +<p>In the Italian stories,<a name="FNanchor_744_744" id="FNanchor_744_744"></a><a href="#Footnote_744_744" class="fnanchor">[744]</a> when the ass brays upon the +mountain, a tail grows on the forehead of the step-mother's +ugly daughter; the third crowing of the cock +is the signal for the monster's death; the third braying +or flatus of the ass announces the death of the fool. +With the end of the night the ass disappears, and the +fool also disappears or dies. The braying of the ass +cannot mount up into heaven; after the ass has brayed, +after the cloud has thundered, the ass comes down +upon the earth, is dissolved into rain, is dispersed +and dies; the dark ass cannot remain in the luminous +sky, it can only inhabit the cloudy, watery, or gloomy +sky of hell. The way in which the fool of the story tries +to elude death resembles that which was used, according +to lianos, to prevent the ass from braying. In a story +of Armagnac,<a name="FNanchor_745_745" id="FNanchor_745_745"></a><a href="#Footnote_745_745" class="fnanchor">[745]</a> Joan lou Pc runs after a man whom he +believes to be a sage, and asks him when he will die; +the man answers, "Joan lou Pc, mouriras au troisimo +pet de toun ase." The ass does so twice; the fool +endeavours to prevent the third: "Cop sec s'en-angonc +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span>cerca un pau (a stake) bien pounchut et l'enfouncc das +un martet dens lou cu de l'ase. Mes l'ase s'enflec tant, e +hasconc tant gran effort, que lou pau sourtisconc coumo +no balo e tuc lou praube Joan lou Pc."</p> + +<p>In <i>Herodotus</i>, the Scythians are defeated when the +asses bray, and the dogs bark among Darius's tents. The +braying of the ass, the thunder of the cloud, is an oracle; +the ass that brays is a judge and a prophet. In hell +everything is known; the devil knows every art, every +species of malice, every secret; the ass in hell participates +in this knowledge. The ass Nicon, in <i>Plutarch</i>, +in the Life of Antony, predicts to Augustus his victory +at the battle of Actium; on the contrary, in the Life of +Alexander, by the same author, an ass who kills with a +kick a great lion belonging to the Macedonian, appears +to the great conqueror in the light of an evil omen. The +dying sun of evening, the old lion, is killed in the evening +by the ass of night; in the morning, on the contrary, +the ass of night announces his fortune to the solar hero, +who again becomes luminous and wise. The ass can +predict all things, because it knows all things; it knows +everything, because it hears everything, and it hears +everything by means of its exceedingly long ears; the +ass of Apuleius says of itself: "Recreabar quod auribus +prditus cuncta longule etiam dissita sentiebam." And +this ass which listens from a distance reminds us again +of the third brother, now a fool, and now only supposed +to be a fool; to the Andalusian Oidin-Oidon, hijo del +buen oidor (a relation of the already cited Vedic Indras +rutkarṇas), of the second cuento of Caballero,<a name="FNanchor_746_746" id="FNanchor_746_746"></a><a href="#Footnote_746_746" class="fnanchor">[746]</a> who +hears everything that is done in the deepest parts of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span> +hell, where Lucifer sits, horned and large-eared. The +hero who combats with Lucifer only thinks of cutting +off his ear; the ass without ears is no longer an ass; the +ears of the mythical ass are its vital and characteristic +organs. Instead of ears, give horns to the mythical ass, +and we have the mythical goat; take the horns away +and we have now the mythical abject sheep, now the +hog; this is what we shall see in the two next chapters.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Sheep, the Ram, and the Goat.</span></h4> + +<p class="center">SUMMARY.</p> + +<blockquote style="text-indent:-2em"><p>The sun-shepherd, and the sun-lamb, ram, or goat.—The dark-coloured +he-goat.—The goat-moon.—Aǵas; explanation given by Professor +Bral; the Finnic aija.—Meshas; she-goat, ram, skin, sack.—The +ram Indras.—The goats Avinu.—The he-goat Veretraghna.—The +lamb and the goat in the forest opposed to the wolf.—The +apple-tree and the she-goat; the cloud and the apple-tree.—The +goat, the nut-tree and the hazel-nuts.—The wolf assumes the goat's +voice; the wolf in the fire.—The witch takes the voice of the little +hero's mother; the child born of a tree.—The hero among the +sheep, or in the spoils of the sheep, escapes from the witch.—Pshan +aǵvas and his sister.—The brother who becomes a kid +while drinking; the sister in the sea.—The husband-goat; the +goat's skin burned; the monster appears once more a handsome +youth; the funereal mantle of the young hero; when it is burned, +the hero lives again handsome and splendid.—The children changed +into kids.—The cunning Schmier-bock in the sack.—Aǵamukh—Ilvalas +and Wtpis.—Indras meshṇḍas, sahasradhras and +sahasradras.—The rams of the wolf eaten.—The goat of expiation, +the goat and the stupidity of the hero disappear at the same +time.—The devil-ram; the putrid sheep that throws gold behind +it.—The goat which deprives men of sight.—The young prince, +riding on the goat, solves the riddle.—The spy of heaven; the +eye of God.—The constellation of the she-goat and two kids.—The +lame goat.—The heroine and the goat her guide and nurse.—The +milky way and the she-goat.—The goat's blood, manus Dei; +the stone bezoar.—The cunning goat.—The goat deceives the +wolf; the goat eats the leaf.—The she-goat possessed of a devil.—The +ram-vessel.—Ram and he-goat fœcundators.—The he-goat +and the horned husband.—Zeus he-goat and the satyr Pan;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span> +Hrakls the rival of a goat; the old powerless man called a he-goat.—Hellenic +forms of the myth of the goat.—Phrixos and +Helle; Jupiter Ammon; the altar of Apollo; the fleece of the +Iberians; the golden ram of Atreus; Aigsthos; Diana and the +white sheep; Neptune a ram; satyrs and fauns; Herms +krioforos; the sheep of Epimenis; lambs, rams, and he-goats +sacrificed; aixourania and the cornucopia.—The mythical goat; +its threefold form; black, white, and light-coloured lambs.—Pecus +and pecunia.</p></blockquote> + +<p>When the girl aurora leads out of the stable in the +morning her radiant flock, among them there are found +to be white lambs, white kids, and luminous sheep; in +the evening the same aurora leads the lambs, the kids, +and the sheep back to the fold. In the early dawn +all this flock is white, by and by their fleeces are +golden fleeces; the white, and afterwards the golden +heavens of the east (or the west) constituting this white +and golden flock, and the sun's rays their fleeces. Then +the sun himself, who steps forth from this flock, is now +its young shepherd-king, and now the lamb, the ram, +or he-goat. When the sun enters into the region of +night, the he-goat or lamb goes back to the fold and +becomes dark-coloured; the sun veiled by the night or +the cloud is a dark-coloured ram, he-goat, or she-goat. +In the night, says the proverb, all cows are black; and +the same might be said of goats, except in the case +of the goat, luminous and all-seeing, coming out of the +nocturnal darkness in the form of the moon. We must, +therefore, consider the sheep or goat under a triple +aspect; the principal and most interesting aspect being +that of the sun veiled by the gloom, or by the cloud, +which wears often a demoniacal form, such as that of the +ass or of the hero in hell; the second being that of the +grey-white, and afterwards golden sky of morning, or +of the golden and thereafter grey-white sky of evening<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span> +which, as a luminous, is therefore generally a divine form +of the goat; and the third aspect being that of the moon.</p> + +<p>The richest myths refer to the sun enclosed in the +cloud or the shades of night, or to the cloud or darkness +of night closing round the sun. The shifting shadow +and the moving cloud on the one side, the damp night +and the rainy cloud on the other, easily came to be +represented as a goat and as a ram. In the Indian +tongue, or even the Vedic, <i>aǵas</i> is a word which means, +properly speaking, pushing, drawing, moving (agens), +and afterwards he-goat; the he-goat butts with its +horns; the sun in the cloud butts with its rays until it +opens the stable and its horns come out.<a name="FNanchor_747_747" id="FNanchor_747_747"></a><a href="#Footnote_747_747" class="fnanchor">[747]</a> The ram is +called <i>meshas</i>, or <i>mehas</i>, that is, the pourer or spreader, +mingens (like the ass ćiramehin), which corresponds with +the <i>meghas</i>, or cloud mingens. Moreover, as in Greek +from <i>aix</i>,<a name="FNanchor_748_748" id="FNanchor_748_748"></a><a href="#Footnote_748_748" class="fnanchor">[748]</a> a goat, we have <i>aigis</i>, a skin (gis), so in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span>Sanskṛit from <i>aǵas</i>, a goat, we have <i>aǵinas</i>, a skin; and +from <i>meshas</i>, a ram, <i>meshas</i>, a fleece, a skin, and that +which is formed from it; whence the Petropolitan +Dictionary compares with it the Russian <i>mieh</i> (Lithuanian, +<i>maiszas</i>) skin and sack.</p> + +<p>Let us now first of all see how these simple images +developed themselves in the Hindoo myth.</p> + +<p>Indras, the pluvial and thundering god, is represented +in the first strophe of a Vedic hymn as a very celebrated +heroic ram;<a name="FNanchor_749_749" id="FNanchor_749_749"></a><a href="#Footnote_749_749" class="fnanchor">[749]</a> in the second strophe, as the one who pours +out ambrosial honey (madaćyutam); in the third strophe, +as opening the stable or precinct of the cows to the +Agirasas;<a name="FNanchor_750_750" id="FNanchor_750_750"></a><a href="#Footnote_750_750" class="fnanchor">[750]</a> in the fourth strophe, as killing the serpent +that covers or keeps back; in the fifth strophe, as expelling +the enchanters with enchantments, and breaking the +strong cities of the monster Piprus;<a name="FNanchor_751_751" id="FNanchor_751_751"></a><a href="#Footnote_751_751" class="fnanchor">[751]</a> and in the sixth +strophe, as crushing under his foot the giant-like monster +Arbudas<a name="FNanchor_752_752" id="FNanchor_752_752"></a><a href="#Footnote_752_752" class="fnanchor">[752]</a> or monster serpent. Thus far we have two +aspects of the myth, the ram which pours out ambrosial +honey, and the ram which opens the gate and crushes +with its foot. In another hymn the Avinu are compared +to two he-goats (aǵeva), to two horns (ṛigeva), +and to two swift dogs.<a name="FNanchor_753_753" id="FNanchor_753_753"></a><a href="#Footnote_753_753" class="fnanchor">[753]</a> A third hymn informs us +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span>that Indras by means of a ram killed a leonine +monster.<a name="FNanchor_754_754" id="FNanchor_754_754"></a><a href="#Footnote_754_754" class="fnanchor">[754]</a></p> + +<p>Here we evidently have a heroic he-goat or ram.</p> + +<p>Let us compare it with other traditions. In the +<i>Khorda Avesta</i><a name="FNanchor_755_755" id="FNanchor_755_755"></a><a href="#Footnote_755_755" class="fnanchor">[755]</a> we find Veretraghna (the Zend form of +Indras, as Vṛitrahan) "with the body of a warrior he-goat, +handsome, and with sharpened horns."</p> + +<p>In the Russian tale given by <i>Afanassieff</i>,<a name="FNanchor_756_756" id="FNanchor_756_756"></a><a href="#Footnote_756_756" class="fnanchor">[756]</a> the lamb, +companion of the bull in the wood, kills the wolf by +butting against its sides, while the bull also wounds the +ferocious beast with its horns. In another variation of +the same story,<a name="FNanchor_757_757" id="FNanchor_757_757"></a><a href="#Footnote_757_757" class="fnanchor">[757]</a> the cat is confederate with the lamb +against the wolf; the lamb butts hard at the wolf, while +the cat scratches it till blood flows. In yet another +version, besides the lamb, the he-goat also appears; the +cat twists some of the bark of the birch-tree round the +horns of the he-goat, and bids the lamb rub against it +to produce fire; sparks come from it, the cat fetches hay, +and the three companions warm themselves. The wolves +come up, and the cat makes them run, presenting them +the goat as a scarecrow, and frightening them further by +ominous hints as to the strength contained in its beard. +Finally, we have in the Russian stories two singular variations +of the fable of the goat, the kids, and the wolf.<a name="FNanchor_758_758" id="FNanchor_758_758"></a><a href="#Footnote_758_758" class="fnanchor">[758]</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span>The goat is about to give birth to her young ones under an +apple-tree. (We have seen in Chapter I. the apple-tree, the +fruit of which, when eaten, causes horns to sprout. It is +well-known that in Greek, <i>mlon</i> means a goat and an +apple-tree, as the Hindoo masculine noun <i>petvas</i>, which +means a ram, is in the neuter <i>petvam</i> = ambrosia. The +mythical apple-tree is ambrosial, like the cornucopia of +the goat of mythology; and it seems to me that here, too, +I can find an analogy in the Slavonic field itself between +the Russian words <i>blaka</i>, clouds, in the plural <i>ablak</i>, the +clouds, and <i>iablony</i>, apple-tree, plural <i>jblogna</i>, the apple-trees, +<i>jablok</i>, the apple.) The apple-tree advises the goat +to betake itself to some other place, as the apples might +fall upon its new-born kids and kill them. The goat +then goes to give birth to her young ones under an +equally shady walnut-tree; the walnut-tree also advises +her to go away, as the nuts might fall and do serious +harm to her little ones;<a name="FNanchor_759_759" id="FNanchor_759_759"></a><a href="#Footnote_759_759" class="fnanchor">[759]</a> upon which the goat goes to a +deserted tent in the forest, another form of the cloud of +night. When the kids are brought forth, the goat issues<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span> +forth out of the tent to procure food, and cautions her +children not to open to any one (the fable is well known +in the West, but the Slavonic variations are particularly +interesting). The wolf comes and pronounces the same +password as the goat to induce the kids to open, but +they perceive by the rough voice of the wolf that it is +not their mother, and refuse to admit him. The wolf +then goes to the blacksmith, and has a voice made for +him resembling that of the goat; the deceived kids open, +and the wolf devours them all except the smallest, who +hides under the stove (the favourite place where the little +Slavonic hero, the third brother, the ill-favoured fool, +who afterwards becomes handsome and wise, is accustomed +to squat). The goat returns, and learns from the +kid which has escaped the massacre of its brothers. She +thinks how to avenge herself, and invites her friend and +gossip the fox with the wolf to dinner; the unsuspecting +wolf arrives along with the fox. After dinner, the goat, +to divert her guests, invites them to amuse themselves +by leaping over an opening made in the floor; the goat +leaps first, then the fox leaps, and then the wolf, but +falls down on the burning ashes and is burnt to death, +like the witch in some other stories, as the night is +burned by the morning aurora; and the goat chaunts a +marvellous <i>Te Deum</i> (ćudesnoi pamin) in the wolf's +honour. The other Russian version adds some new and +curious details. The goat goes to find food, and leaves<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span> +the kids alone; they shut the door after her. She +returns and says, "Open, my sons, my little fathers; +your mother is come; she has brought some milk, half +a side full of milk, half a horn full of fresh cheese, half +a little horn full of clear water (the cornucopia)."<a name="FNanchor_760_760" id="FNanchor_760_760"></a><a href="#Footnote_760_760" class="fnanchor">[760]</a> The +kids open immediately. The second day the goat goes +out again; the wolf, who had heard the song, tries to +sing it to the kids; but the latter perceive that it is not +their mother's voice, and do not open. Next day the +wolf again imitates the mother's voice; the kids open +the door, and are all devoured except one which hides +itself in the stove, and afterwards narrates to the mother-goat +all that has happened. The goat avenges herself +as follows: She goes into the forest with the wolf, and +comes to a ditch where some workmen had cooked some +gruel, and left the fire still burning. The goat challenges +the wolf to leap the ditch; the wolf tries and falls into +it, where the fire makes his belly split open, from which +the kids, still alive, skip out and run to their mother.</p> + +<p>Another story, however,<a name="FNanchor_761_761" id="FNanchor_761_761"></a><a href="#Footnote_761_761" class="fnanchor">[761]</a> affords us still more aid in +the interpretation of the myth; that is, in leading us to +see in the goat and her kids the sun horned or furnished +with rays, as it issues radiant out of the cloud, or darkness, +or ocean of night, and in the wolf, or in the wolf's +skin, split open or burned, out of which the kids come, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span>the dark, cloudy, watery nocturnal sky. Instead of the +wolf we have a witch, instead of the goat a woman, and +instead of the kids the young Vaniushka (Little John); +the witch has a voice made by the blacksmith like that +of Vaniushka's or Tereshićko's mother, and thus attracts +him to her. Tereshićha says that he was originally the +stump of a tree, which his father and mother, being +childless, had picked up in the forest, and wrapped up +and rocked in a cradle till he was born.</p> + +<p>The monster wolf, or the witch, having the faculty of +simulating the voice of the goat,<a name="FNanchor_762_762" id="FNanchor_762_762"></a><a href="#Footnote_762_762" class="fnanchor">[762]</a> and an especial predilection +for both sheep and goats,—so much so that the +witch Liho (properly Evil) keeps some in her house, and +those which come out (of the dark sky) in the morning, +and which re-enter (the dark sky) in the evening, +are considered her peculiar property,<a name="FNanchor_763_763" id="FNanchor_763_763"></a><a href="#Footnote_763_763" class="fnanchor">[763]</a>—often transforms +the hero (the evening sun) into a kid (into the darkness or +cloud of night). Of course, as the dark and cloudy +monster is often represented as a wolf, it is easy to +understand his wish that everything should be transformed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span>into a lamb in order to eat it. But the mythical +lamb or kid, the young solar hero, generally escapes out +of the jaws of the wolf, out of the hands of the witch, or +out of the darkness, the waters, or the cloud of night.</p> + +<p>A Vedic hymn celebrates the strong Pshan, who has +a he-goat for his horse (or who is a goat-horse), and is +called the lover of his sister. Perhaps these words contain +the germ of the Russian story of Little John, brother +of Little Helen, who is changed by witchcraft into a kid. +I have already observed in Chapter I. how Helen, who +at the commencement of the story shows affection for +her brother John, ends by betraying him. The Vedic +hymn would appear to contain the notion of the brother +Pshan transformed into a he-goat (the sun which enters +into the cloud or darkness of night), because he has loved +his sister. In another Vedic hymn we have the sister +Yam, who seduces her brother Yamas. In European +fairy tales, the sister loves her brother, who is metamorphosed +by the art of a witch, now into a young hog, +and now into a kid. In the forty-fifth story of the +fourth book of <i>Afanassieff</i>, Ivanushka (Little John) +becomes a kid after drinking out of a goat's hoof. In +the twenty-ninth story of the second book of <i>Afanassieff</i>, +Ivanushka and Little Helen, the children of a Tzar, +wander alone about the world. Ivanushka wishes to +drink where cows, horses, sheep, and hogs feed and +drink; his sister Little Helen advises him not to do so, +lest he should turn into a calf, a colt, a lamb, or a young +pig; but at last John is overcome by thirst, and, against +the advice of his sister, he drinks where goats drink, and +becomes a kid. A young Tzar marries the sister, and +gives every honour to the kid, but a witch throws the +young queen into the sea (Phrixos and Helle; in other +European stories, into a cistern), and usurps her place,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span> +inducing the people to believe that she is Helen, and +commanding the kid to be put to death. The kid runs +to the shore and invokes his sister, who answers from +the bottom of the sea that she can do nothing. The +young Tzar, to whom the affair is referred, hastens to +deliver Helen out of the sea; the kid can again skip +about in safety, and everything is green again, and +flourishes as much as it withered before; the witch is +burnt alive.<a name="FNanchor_764_764" id="FNanchor_764_764"></a><a href="#Footnote_764_764" class="fnanchor">[764]</a></p> + +<p>According to the fiftieth story of the sixth book of +<i>Afanassieff</i>, a merchant has three daughters. He builds +a new house, and sends his three daughters by turns to +pass the night there, in order to see what they dream +about. (The belief that the man dreamed of by a maiden +during the night of St John's Day, Christmas Day, or +the Epiphany, is her predestined husband, still exists in +the popular superstitions of Europe.) The eldest daughter +dreams that she marries a merchant's son, the second a +noble, and the third a he-goat. The father commands +his youngest daughter never to go out of the house; she +disobeys; a he-goat appears and carries her off upon his +horns towards a rocky place. Saliva and mucous matter +fall from the goat's mouth and nostrils; the good maiden +is not disgusted, but patiently wipes the goat's mouth. +This pleases the animal, who tells her that if she had +shown horror towards him, she would have had the same +fate as his former wives, whose heads were impaled on a +stake. The geese bring to the girl news of her father +and sisters; they announce that the eldest sister is about +to be married; she wishes to be present at the wedding, +and is permitted by the goat to go, who orders for her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span> +use three horses as black as a crow, who arrive at their +destination in three leaps (the three steps of Vishṇus), +whilst he himself sits upon a flying carpet, and is transported +to the wedding in the form of a handsome and +young stranger. The same happens on the occasion of +the second sister's marriage, when the third sister guesses +that this handsome youth is her own husband. She +departs before the rest, comes home, finds the skin of the +goat and burns it; then her husband always preserves +the form of a handsome youth, inasmuch as the enchantment +of the witch has come to an end.<a name="FNanchor_765_765" id="FNanchor_765_765"></a><a href="#Footnote_765_765" class="fnanchor">[765]</a></p> + +<p>The lamb, the he-goat, and the sheep are favourite<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span> +forms of the witch. In the European story, when the +beautiful princess, in the absence of the prince, her +husband, gives birth to two beautiful sons, the witch +induces the absent prince to believe that, instead of real +sons, his young wife has given birth to pups. In the +seventh story of the third book of <i>Afanassieff</i>, the young +queen gives birth, during the king's absence, to two sons, +of whom one has the moon on his forehead, and the other +a star on the nape of his neck (the Avinu). The +wicked sister of the young queen buries the children. +Where they were buried a golden sprout and a silver one +spring up. A sheep feeds upon these plants, and gives +birth to two lambs, having, the one the moon on its head, +the other a star on its neck. The wicked sister, who has +meanwhile been married to the king, orders them to be +torn in pieces, and their intestines to be thrown out into +the road. The good lawful queen has them cooked, eats +them, and again gives birth to her two sons, who grow +up hardy and strong, and who, when interrogated by the +king, narrate to him the story of their origin; their +mother is recognised, and becomes once more the king's +wife; the wicked sister is put to death.<a name="FNanchor_766_766" id="FNanchor_766_766"></a><a href="#Footnote_766_766" class="fnanchor">[766]</a></p> + +<p>The witch is sometimes herself (as a wolf-cloud or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span> +wolf-darkness) a devourer of young luminous kids or +lambs, such as the Schmierbock in the Norwegian story. +The witch carries Schmierbock three times away in a +sack; the first and second time Schmierbock escapes by +making a hole in the sack; but the third time the witch +succeeds in carrying him to her house, where she prepares +to eat him. The cunning Schmierbock, however, +smuggles the witch's own daughter into his place, and, +climbing up, conceals himself in the chimney (a variation +of the stove, the place where the young Russian hero +usually hides himself, in the same way as in the Tuscan +story the foolish Pimpi conceals himself in the oven). +From this post of security he laughs at the witch, who +endeavours to recapture him; he throws a stone down the +chimney and kills her, upon which he descends, rifles her +treasure-stores, and carries off all her gold. Here the +young hero is called a he-goat; in the chapter on the +wolf, we shall find the witch of the Norwegian story +actually bears the name of wolf. These two data complete +the myth; the wolf which wishes to devour the +little hero, and the witch who endeavours to eat the little +lamb, are completed by the fable which represents the +wolf as, at the rivulet, eating the lamb, which, in the +mythical heavens, means the cloudy and gloomy monster +which devours the sun.</p> + +<p>We have seen above the witch who imitates the voice +of the mother of the little hero, in order to be able to eat +him, and the wolf who mimics the voice of the goat and +eats the kids; but the wolf does more than assume the +goat's voice; he sometimes even takes her form.</p> + +<p>In the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>,<a name="FNanchor_767_767" id="FNanchor_767_767"></a><a href="#Footnote_767_767" class="fnanchor">[767]</a> Aǵamukh, or goat's face, is +called a witch, who wishes St to be torn to pieces. In<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span> +the legend of Ilvalas and Vtpis,<a name="FNanchor_768_768" id="FNanchor_768_768"></a><a href="#Footnote_768_768" class="fnanchor">[768]</a> the two wizard +brothers who conspire to harm the Brhmaṇs, Vtpis +transforms himself into a wether, and lets himself be +sacrificed in the funeral rites by the Brhmaṇs. The +unsuspecting Brhmaṇs eat its flesh; then Ilvalas cries +out to his brother, "Come forth, O Vtpis!" and his +brother, Vtpis, comes out of the bodies of the Brhmaṇs, +lacerating them, until the ṛishis Agastyas eats of +himself the whole of Vtpis, and burns Ilvalas to ashes. +The <i>Rmyaṇam</i> itself explains to us why, in these +sacrifices, a wether, and not a ram, is spoken of,<a name="FNanchor_769_769" id="FNanchor_769_769"></a><a href="#Footnote_769_769" class="fnanchor">[769]</a> when +it narrates the legend of Ahaly. It is said in this passage +that the god Indras was one day condemned to lose his +testicles by the malediction of the ṛishis Gutamas, with +whose wife, Ahaly, he had committed adultery. The +gods, moved to pity, took the testicles of a ram and gave +them to Indras, who was therefore called Meshṇḍas; +on this account, says the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>, the Pitaras feed +on wethers, and not on rams, in funeral oblations. This +legend is evidently of brhmanic origin. The Brhmaṇs, +being interested in discrediting the god of the warriors, +Indras, and finding him called in the Veds by the name +of Meshas or ram, invented the story of the ram's testicles, +in the same way as, finding Indras in the Veds called +by the name of Sahasrkshas (<i>i.e.</i>, he of the thousand +eyes), they malignantly connected this appellation with +the same scandalous story of the seduction of Ahaly, +and degraded the honourable epithet into an infamous +one, he of the thousand wombs, probably by the +confusion arising out of the equivoque between the +words <i>sahasradhras</i>, the sun (as carrying, now a +thousand stars, now a thousand rays), or <i>sahasrnus</i>, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span>and <i>sahasradras</i>, which has a very different +meaning.</p> + +<p>In the important 116th hymn of the first book of the +<i>Ṛigvedas</i>, Ṛiǵrvas (<i>i.e.</i>, the red horse, or the hero of +the red horse) eats a hundred rams belonging to the she-wolf +(in the following hymn, a hundred and one); his +father blinds him on this account; the two marvellous +physicians, the Avinu, give him back his two eyes.<a name="FNanchor_770_770" id="FNanchor_770_770"></a><a href="#Footnote_770_770" class="fnanchor">[770]</a> +Evidently the father of the solar hero is here the +gloomy monster of night himself; the sun, at evening, +becomes the devourer of the rams who come out of the +she-wolf, or who belong to the she-wolf; it is for this +reason that the monster wolf blinds him when evening +comes. The red horse Ṛiǵrvas, or the hero of the red +horse, who eats the rams of the she-wolf, affords a +further key to enable us to understand the expiatory +goat, which in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i> itself is sacrificed instead of +the horse. We are told in a hymn, that in the sacrifice +of the horse the omniform he-goat (aǵo vivarpaḥ) has +preceded the horse;<a name="FNanchor_771_771" id="FNanchor_771_771"></a><a href="#Footnote_771_771" class="fnanchor">[771]</a> and the <i>itareya Br.</i>, commenting +on this exchange of animals, also speaks of the he-goat +as the last animal destined for the sacrifice. In the +Russian stories, too, the goat has to pay the price of the +follies or rogueries done by the man, and is sacrificed.<a name="FNanchor_772_772" id="FNanchor_772_772"></a><a href="#Footnote_772_772" class="fnanchor">[772]</a> +This sacrificed he-goat appears to be the same as the ass +which undergoes punishment for all the animals in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</a></span>celebrated fable of Lafontaine (which becomes a bull in +the hands of the Russian fabulist Kriloff, who could not +introduce the ass, an animal almost unknown in Russia); +and we already know that the ass represents the sun in +the cloud or the sun in the darkness; and we have also +said that the ass and the fool die together in the legend. +The she-goat dies in the Russian story to deliver the +fool, who, after her death, is a fool no longer, his folly +having died with her.<a name="FNanchor_773_773" id="FNanchor_773_773"></a><a href="#Footnote_773_773" class="fnanchor">[773]</a> The popular story offers us another +proof of the identity of the mythical ass and the +mythical goat. We have also seen above, in the Norwegian +story, how the witch possesses a treasure which is +carried off by the Schmierbock, who kills her; the +magician, or the devil, is always rich. The ass which the +devil gives to Little Johnny throws gold from its tail; +the ass personifies the devil. But the devil, as we have +observed, also has a predilection to embody himself in a +ram, a lamb, or a he-goat. I remember the puppets +who every day improvised popular representations in the +little wooden theatre on the Piazza Castello, at Turin, +when I was a boy; the final doom of the personage +who represented the tyrant was generally to die under +the bastinadoes of Arlecchino, or to be carried to hell by +the devil in the form of a bleating lamb, which came<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[Pg 417]</a></span> +upon the scene expressly to carry him away with him, +this disappearance being accompanied by much throbbing +of the spectators' hearts, to whom the manager preached +a salutary sermon.<a name="FNanchor_774_774" id="FNanchor_774_774"></a><a href="#Footnote_774_774" class="fnanchor">[774]</a> In the twenty-first of the Tuscan +stories published by me, it is not the devil, but the little +old man, Ges, who gives to the third brother, instead of +the usual ass, a putrid sheep, which, however, has the +virtue of throwing louis-d'or behind it. This putrid, or +wet, or damp sheep represents still better the damp night.</p> + +<p>Ṛiǵrvas, as we have said, eats the ram and becomes +blind, his father having blinded him to avenge the she-wolf +to whom the rams belonged; but the mother of +the rams being the sheep, it is probable that the she-wolf +who possessed the rams had assumed the form of a +putrid sheep, in the same way as we have seen her above +transformed into a she-goat; the father of Ṛiǵrvas, who +avenges the she-wolf on account of the hundred rams, +may perhaps himself have been a horned wolf transformed +into a he-goat, and have blinded Ṛiǵrvas with his +horns. In the popular story, the she-goat, when she is +in the forest, takes a special pleasure in wounding people's +eyes with her horns; hence is probably derived the name +of the reptile aǵakvas, conjured with in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>,<a name="FNanchor_775_775" id="FNanchor_775_775"></a><a href="#Footnote_775_775" class="fnanchor">[775]</a> +as durdṛiikas, or making to see badly, damaging the +eyesight, and the name of aǵak, given to an illness in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[Pg 418]</a></span>the eyes by the Hindoo physician Surutas. However, +we must not forget the connection between the idea of +skin and that of goat, by which the aǵak might mean +simply the thin membrane that sometimes harms the +pupil of the eye, and produces blindness. This thin +membrane, stretched over the eye of the solar hero, +blinds him. We shall see in the chapter on the frog +and the toad, which very often represent, in the myths, +the cloud and the damp night, that the toad<a name="FNanchor_776_776" id="FNanchor_776_776"></a><a href="#Footnote_776_776" class="fnanchor">[776]</a> causes +blindness only by means of the venom which it is fabled +to exude, like the reptile aǵakvas.</p> + +<p>But, as the hero in hell learns and sees everything, +the goat, which deprives others of sight, has itself the +property of seeing everything; this is the case, because +the goat, being the sun enclosed in the cloud or gloomy +night, sees the secrets of hell, and also because, being the +horned moon or starry sky, it is the spy of the heavens. +We have already observed in the first chapter how the +marvellous girl of seven years of age, to answer the acted +riddle proposed by the Tzar, arrives upon a hare, which, +in mythology, represents the moon. In a variation of the +same story given by <i>Afanassieff</i>,<a name="FNanchor_777_777" id="FNanchor_777_777"></a><a href="#Footnote_777_777" class="fnanchor">[777]</a> instead of riding upon +a hare, the royal boy comes upon a goat, and is recognised +by his father; the goat, in its capacity of steed of the lost +hero, seems here to represent the moon, as the hare does.</p> + +<p>We have already spoken of Indras sahasrkshas, <i>i.e.</i>, +of the thousand eyes; Hindoo painters represent him +with these thousand eyes, that is, as an azure sky bespangled +with stars. Indras as the nocturnal sun hides +himself, transformed, in the starry heavens; the stars are +his eyes. The hundred-eyed or all-seeing (panopts) +Argos placed as a spy over the actions of the cow beloved +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</a></span>of Zeus, is the Hellenic equivalent of this form of Indras. +In Chapter I. we also saw the witch's daughter of the +Russian fairy tale who has three eyes, and with her third +eye plays the spy over the cow, which protects the good +maiden. In the second story of the sixth book of +<i>Afanassieff</i>, when the peasant ascends into heaven upon +the pea-plant, and enters into a room where geese, hogs, +and pastry are being cooked, he sees a goat on guard; +he only discovers six eyes, as the goat has its seventh +eye in its back; the peasant puts the six eyes to sleep, +but the goat, by means of its seventh eye, sees that the +peasant eats and drinks as much as he likes, and informs +the lord of the sky of the fact. In another variation of +the story, given by <i>Afanassieff</i>,<a name="FNanchor_778_778" id="FNanchor_778_778"></a><a href="#Footnote_778_778" class="fnanchor">[778]</a> the old man finds in +heaven a little house guarded in turns by twelve goats, +of which one has one eye, another two, a third three, +and so on up to twelve. The old man says to one after +the other, "One eye, two eyes, three eyes, &c., sleep." +On the twelfth day, instead of saying "twelve eyes," he +makes a mistake and says "eleven;" the goat with +twelve eyes then sees and secures him. The eye of God +which sees everything, in the popular faith, is a variation +of Argos Panopts, the Vedic Vivavedas, and the +Slavonic Vsievedas, the eye of the goat which sees what +is being done in heaven. When the moon shines in the +sky, the stars grow pale, the eyes of the witch of heaven +fall asleep, but some few eyes still stay open, some few +stars continue to shine to observe the movements of the +cow-moon, the fairy-moon, the Madonna-moon, who protects +the young hero and the beautiful solar maiden lost +in the darkness of night.</p> + +<p>This spying goat's eye is perhaps connected with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[Pg 420]</a></span> +constellation of the goat and two kids. Columella writes +that the kids appear in the sky towards the end of +September, when the west, and sometimes the south, +wind blows and brings rain. According to Servius, the +goat united with the two kids in the constellation of +Aquarius is the same goat which was the nurse of Zeus; +he says that it appears in October, with the sign of +Scorpio. Ovid, in <i>De Arte Amandi</i>, and in the first +book <i>Tristium</i>, and Virgil in the ninth book of the +<i>neid</i>,<a name="FNanchor_779_779" id="FNanchor_779_779"></a><a href="#Footnote_779_779" class="fnanchor">[779]</a> also celebrate the goat and the kids of heaven +as bringers of rain. Horace, in the seventh ode, elegantly +calls the goat's stars insane:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i45">"Ille nothis actus ad Oricum<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Post insana capr sidera, frigidas<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Noctes non sine multis<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Insomnis lachrymis agit."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>We have already seen Indras as a ram or pluvial cloud; +and the goat with only one foot (ekapd aǵaḥ), or he +who has but one goat's foot, who supports the heavens, +who lightens and thunders,<a name="FNanchor_780_780" id="FNanchor_780_780"></a><a href="#Footnote_780_780" class="fnanchor">[780]</a> is a form of the same pluvial +Indras who supports the heavens in the rainy season. +We have seen the Avinu compared to two goats, two +horns, two hoofs; each, therefore, would seem to have +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[Pg 421]</a></span>but one horn, but one goat's foot (which might perhaps +explain the ekapd aǵaḥ); hence on one side the cornucopia, +and on the other the lame goat.<a name="FNanchor_781_781" id="FNanchor_781_781"></a><a href="#Footnote_781_781" class="fnanchor">[781]</a> The nymph +Galathea (the milky one), who loves a faun (or one who +has goat's feet), seems to be a Hellenic form of the loves +of Esmeralda and the goat with Quasimodo. The goat +loves him who has goat's feet; the solar hero (or heroine) +in the night has goat's feet; he is a satyr, a faun, a he-goat, +an ass; he is deformed and foolish, but he interests +the good fairy, who, in the form of a she-goat (as the +moon and as the milky way), guides him in the night, +and, as the dawn (white aurora) in the morning, saves +him and makes him happy. In the German legend, the +poor princess who, with her son, is persecuted in the +forest, is assisted now by a she-goat, now by a doe, +which gives milk to the child; by means of this animal, +which serves as his guide, the prince finds his lost bride. +This guiding she-goat, or doe, the nurse of the child-hero, +which Servius recognised in the constellation of the goat +(with respect to Zeus, who is essentially pluvial, as the +Vedic Indras has the clouds himself for his nurses), must +have generally represented the moon. But even the +milky way of the sky (the bridge of souls) is the milk +spilt by the she-goat of heaven; the white morning sky +is also the milk of this same she-goat. The horned moon,<a name="FNanchor_782_782" id="FNanchor_782_782"></a><a href="#Footnote_782_782" class="fnanchor">[782]</a> +the milky way, and the white dawn are represented in the +form of a beneficent she-goat which assists the hero and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[Pg 422]</a></span>the heroine in the forest, in the darkness; whilst, on the +contrary, the sun enclosed in the cloud, the darkness, or +the starry sky of night (with the insana capr sidera), is +now a good and wise he-goat or ram, full of good advice, +like the ram who advises the king of India in the <i>Tuti-Name</i>,<a name="FNanchor_783_783" id="FNanchor_783_783"></a><a href="#Footnote_783_783" class="fnanchor">[783]</a> +and now a malignant monster, a demoniacal +being. Inasmuch as the goat gives light and milk, +it is divine; inasmuch as it conceals the beauty of +the young hero or heroine and opposes them, it may +be considered demoniacal.</p> + +<p>The connection between the she-goat and the milky +way can also be proved from the name St James's Way, +given by the common people to the galaxy, or galathea, +or way of milk;<a name="FNanchor_784_784" id="FNanchor_784_784"></a><a href="#Footnote_784_784" class="fnanchor">[784]</a> and it is interesting to learn from +Baron Reinsberg,<a name="FNanchor_785_785" id="FNanchor_785_785"></a><a href="#Footnote_785_785" class="fnanchor">[785]</a> how, in several parts of Bohemia, it is +the custom on St James's Day to throw a he-goat out of +the window, and to preserve its blood, which is said to +be of potent avail against several diseases, such, for +instance, as the spitting of blood. In the <i>Lezioni di +Materia Medica</i> of Professor Targioni-Tozzetti,<a name="FNanchor_786_786" id="FNanchor_786_786"></a><a href="#Footnote_786_786" class="fnanchor">[786]</a> we also +read that the he-goat's blood was known by no less a +name than <i>manus Dei</i>, and believed to be especially +useful against contusions of the back, pleurisy, and the +stone. But the disease of the stone was supposed to be +cured by the stone called <i>capra</i> (goat), which was said to +be found in the bodies of some Indian goats. Targioni-Tozzetti +himself seriously describes the goat-stones as +follows:—"These stones are usually clear on their surface, +and dark-coloured; they have an odour of musk +when rubbed and heated by the hands. In them (the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[Pg 423]</a></span>stone Bezoar<a name="FNanchor_787_787" id="FNanchor_787_787"></a><a href="#Footnote_787_787" class="fnanchor">[787]</a>) analeptic and alexipharmic virtues were +supposed to exist, which were able to resist the evil +effects of poison and contagious diseases, the plague not +excepted, and to save the patient by causing an abundant +and healthy perspiration to break out on his skin. For +this reason these stones were sold very dear. The same +virtues are attributed to those found in the West, but +in a much less degree." When the heavenly goat dissolves +in rain or in dew, when moisture comes from the +goat-cloud, the mountain-cloud, or the stone-cloud, these +humours are salutary. When St James, who is joined +with the goat and the rain, pours out his bottle, as the +Piedmontese people say, the vapour which falls from the +sky on these days is considered by the peasants, as in fact +it is for the country, and especially for the vines, a real +blessing. In the fable of <i>Babrios</i>, the vine, whose leaves +are eaten by the he-goat, threatens it, saying that it will +nevertheless produce wine, and that when the wine is +made (<i>i.e.</i>, at the Dionysian mysteries), the goat will be +sacrificed to the gods. In the spring, on the other hand, +or on the Easter of the resurrection, it was the custom to +sacrifice in effigy the <i>Agnus Dei</i>, in the belief that it +would serve to defend the fields and vineyards against +demoniacal wiles, thunderbolts and thunder, facilitate +parturition, and deliver from shipwreck, fire, and sudden +death.<a name="FNanchor_788_788" id="FNanchor_788_788"></a><a href="#Footnote_788_788" class="fnanchor">[788]</a> In the Witches' Sabbath in Germany, it was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[Pg 424]</a></span>said that the witches burned a he-goat, and divided its +ashes among themselves.<a name="FNanchor_789_789" id="FNanchor_789_789"></a><a href="#Footnote_789_789" class="fnanchor">[789]</a></p> + +<p>The cunning she-goat is an intermediate form between +the good wise fairy and the witch who is an expert in +every kind of malice. In the same way as the hero, at +first foolish, learns malice from the devil, to use it afterwards +against the devil himself, it may be presumed that +the hero, in his form of a goat, has learned from the +monsters all that cunning by which he afterwards distinguishes +himself. The Vedic ram, Indras, also uses +magic against the monster magicians.</p> + +<p>In the second of the Esthonian stories, we read that +the king of the serpents has a golden cup containing the +milk of a heavenly goat; if bread is dipped into this +milk, and put into the mouth, one can discover every +secret thing that has happened in the night, without any +one perceiving how.</p> + +<p>In the French medival poem of <i>Ysengrin</i>,<a name="FNanchor_790_790" id="FNanchor_790_790"></a><a href="#Footnote_790_790" class="fnanchor">[790]</a> the she-goat +deceives the wolf in a way similar to that in which, +in the first number of <i>Afanassieff's</i> stories, the peasant +cheats the bear, and in the Italian stories the same +peasant defrauds the devil. The she-goat shows a fox-like +cunning, keeping for itself the leaf of the corn, and +leaving the root for the wolf. Hence, in my eyes, the +origin of the Piedmontese proverbial expression, "La +crava a l' mangi la fja" (the goat ate the leaf), and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[Pg 425]</a></span>even the simple one of "Mang la fja" (to eat the leaf), +meaning to understand cunning.<a name="FNanchor_791_791" id="FNanchor_791_791"></a><a href="#Footnote_791_791" class="fnanchor">[791]</a> I heard from a certain +Uliva Selvi, at Antignano (near Leghorn), the narrative +of a witch who sent a boy every day to take the she-goat +to the pasturage, ordering him to pay attention that +it should eat well, but leave the corn alone. When the +goat returned, the witch asked it—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Capra, mia capra Mergolla,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Come se' ben satolla?"<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(Goat, my goat Mergolla,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Are you quite satiated?)<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>To which the goat answered—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i3">"Son satolla e cavalcata,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Tutto il giorno digiunata."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(I am satiated, and have been ridden;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have fasted all day.)<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Then the boy was put to death by the witch. It happened +thus to twelve boys, until the thirteenth, more cunning, +caressed the goat and gave it the corn to eat; then the +goat answered to the witch's question—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i3">"Son ben satolla e governata,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Tutto il giorno m' ha pasturata."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(I am quite satiated, and have been well kept;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He has given me to eat all day.)<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And the boy, too, was well treated.</p> + +<p>The devil's pupil always outwits his master; the she-goat +beguiles the wolf to its destruction. We have seen +this in the Russian story, and it is confirmed in the +legend of <i>Ysengrin</i>. The peasants of Piedmont and of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[Pg 426]</a></span> +Sicily have, for this reason, so much respect for the goat, +that they consider it brings a blessing to the house near +which it is maintained; and if, by chance, they show a +perverse nature, this perversity is attributed to the devil +himself, who, they believe, has maliciously taken possession +of them. A few years ago, a goatherd of the Val +di Formazza, in the Ossola in Piedmont, had two goats +which he believed to be possessed by some evil spirit, for +which reason they always wandered about, in order, as he +thought, that the demon might at last be able to throw +them down some abyss. One day the two goats were +lost; the goatherd searched for them for a short time, +but finding his search bootless, he resolved to go and +make a vow to the Madonna of Einsiedlen. Chance so +arranged it, that at the very moment in which he was +returning from his pious pilgrimage, his two goats also +approached the door of his house; therefore, of course, +this was declared to be a miracle in Formazza, and as +such it is still believed in that district.<a name="FNanchor_792_792" id="FNanchor_792_792"></a><a href="#Footnote_792_792" class="fnanchor">[792]</a></p> + +<p>In the preceding chapter we saw the ass represented +in two aspects, as regards its generative capabilities; +that is, it is now represented as an ardent, insatiable, +and competent fœcundator, and now as a ridiculous imbecile, +and powerless to generate. We also saw the +ass closely connected with the satyrs with goat's or he-goat's +feet. The he-goats and rams, too, have a double +and self-contradictory reputation. We know, for instance, +that the god Thor, the god of the Scandinavians, +who thunders in the cloud, is drawn by he-goats (the +vessel of Thor and Hymir, the cloud, is called in the +<i>Edda</i> a navigating ram or he-goat, in the same way as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[Pg 427]</a></span> +the Vedic Indras is represented as a god-ram); he is, +moreover, the protector of marriages. Scandinavian +mythology, therefore, appears to regard the goat as essentially +the one that makes fruitful, as a pluvial cloud. +In the Hindoo mythology of the brhmanic period, the +god Indras loses, on the contrary, his divine power, +becomes stupid and obscure, and is lost in his form of a +ram. In one of his <i>Passeggiate nel Canavese</i>, Signor +A. Bertolotti recently observed, at Muraglio, a curious +custom which is observed by the young men of the +country when a projected wedding falls through; they +run up to the bride's house and obstreperously demand +her to give her sheep up to them, upon which they go to +the bridegroom's house and cry out, "Vente a sarrar quist +motogn" (come and shut up these rams). Here the ram +represents the husband, and the sheep the wife. In Du +Cange the name of goat (caper) is given to the "in pueris +insuavis odor cum ad virilitatem accedunt."<a name="FNanchor_793_793" id="FNanchor_793_793"></a><a href="#Footnote_793_793" class="fnanchor">[793]</a> In <i>Apuleius</i>, +unmeasured lasciviousness is called "cohircinatio." +According to lianos, the he-goat, at the age of seven +days (of seven months according to Columella), already +yearns for coition.</p> + +<p>But in the same way as the ass is the stupid patient +animal, the ram is the stupid quiet one. The he-goat is +said to be an indifferent husband, who allows his she-goats +to be covered by other goats without showing a +sign of jealousy; hence our expressions, "horned goat," +and simply "horned," to indicate the husband of an unfaithful +woman, that is, of a woman who makes him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[Pg 428]</a></span> +wear horns, like the goat, and the Italian proverb, "E +meglio esser geloso che becco" (it is better to be jealous +than a he-goat). This reputation, however, as assigned +to the he-goat, is contrary to all that has been said and +written, and that is known concerning the lust of the he-goat. +On the contrary, Aristotle says explicitly that two +he-goats, which have always lived together in concord at +the pasturage, fall out and fight with violence in the +time of coition. Moreover, the verse of Pindaros is well +known, in which he makes he-goats unite even with +women. It is also said that Herms, or Zeus, assuming +the form of a he-goat, united himself with Penelope, +whence was born the great goat-footed satyr, Pan; that +Hrakls (as an ass, in his lion's skin) competed with a +he-goat in phallical powers (in Athenaios he joins himself +with fifty virgins in the space of seven nights); that, in +lianos, a jealous he-goat punished with death the goatherd +Crathis, who had incestuously joined himself with +one of his she-goats. Nevertheless, the Greeks already +called by the name of <i>aix</i>, as we Italians by that of +<i>capra</i>, a woman of an immoral life, or an adulteress. +Columella gives us the key of the enigma, observing that +the he-goat, by abuse of the Venus, which he uses too +soon (like the ass), becomes powerless before the age of +six years, so that it is not out of indifference that he is +simply a spectator of his she-goat's infidelity, but only +because he cannot do otherwise. Hence the application +of <i>hircosus</i>, which Plautus gives to an old man.</p> + +<p>It is the Hellenic tradition which, more than any +other, developed to a greater extent the myth of the +goat and the sheep, under all their aspects—demoniacal, +divine, and hybrid.</p> + +<p>The golden fleece, or the fleece of the sheep or ram +which had been transported into Colchis by Phrixos,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[Pg 429]</a></span> +the son of Nephl (the cloud) and of Helle;<a name="FNanchor_794_794" id="FNanchor_794_794"></a><a href="#Footnote_794_794" class="fnanchor">[794]</a> Jupiter +Ammon (in the fifth book of Ovid's <i>Metamorphoses</i>), +who, afraid of the giants (as, in the last book of the +<i>Rmyaṇam</i>, the gods, terrified by the monsters, transform +themselves into different animals), hides himself in +Lybia in the shape of a horned ram; the altar of Apollo +in the isle of Delos, constructed with innumerable horns; +the woolly skins in which, according to Strabo,<a name="FNanchor_795_795" id="FNanchor_795_795"></a><a href="#Footnote_795_795" class="fnanchor">[795]</a> the +Iberians gathered up gold, whence the Greek geographer +believed the fable of the golden fleece to have arisen; +the golden lamb kept by Atreus, which was to bring +Thyestes to the throne, and the name of Aigsthos, born +of the incestuous loves of Thyestes with his own daughter; +Pan (with goat's feet, the son of the he-goat Zeus or +Hermes), who, in the fifth book of the <i>Saturnalians</i> of +Macrobius, loves the moon and obtains its favours by +means of sheep with white but rough and coarse wool; +Endymion, who, according to the commentator Servius, +induces the moon to love him by means of exceedingly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[Pg 430]</a></span>white sheep; Neptune, who, in the form of a ram, in +the sixth book of the <i>Metamorphoses</i> of Ovid, seduces +the beautiful virgin Bisaltis; the satyrs, the fauns with +goat's feet, into which the gods transform themselves in +order to seduce nymphs or maidens of the earth, as, for +instance, Jove again, in the same book of Ovid—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i45">"Satyri celatus imagine pulchram<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Jupiter implevit gemino Nycteida fœtu;"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Herms, called Krioforos, or carrier of a ram (that is, of a +ram which delivers the land from the plague, a form of +St James); the two predestined sheep which Epimenides +sacrifices to make the Athenian plague cease, in the +twenty-seventh Olympiad, in Diogenes Laerts; the +bleating goats that King Priam (in the fragments of +Ennius) sacrifices to dissipate the evil threatened by +sinister dreams; the black sheep sacrificed to Pluto, +Proserpine, the Furies, and all the infernal deities; the +lamb, the ram, and the he-goat sacrificed to the genital +Fates in the Sybilline verses translated by Angelo +Poliziano—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Cum nox atra premit terram, tectusque latet Sol;"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>the white lamb sacrificed to Hercules, to Mars, to Jove, +to Neptune, to Bacchus, to Pan (the goat being sacrificed +to Diana), to Apollo (<i>i.e.</i>, when the sun shines), to +Ceres (the goddess of the light-coloured ears of corn), to +Venus, to the gods and goddesses; to his divine forms +(similia similibus); and several other mythical notions +(not to speak of the very popular legend relating +to the goat Amalthea, who nourished Zeus with her +milk, and was by Zeus translated for this service to +the stars, under the name of Aixourania, or heavenly +goat, after he had taken off one of its horns, to give, +in gratitude to the two nymphs who had protected him,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[Pg 431]</a></span> +the faculty of pouring out everything that was wished +for);<a name="FNanchor_796_796" id="FNanchor_796_796"></a><a href="#Footnote_796_796" class="fnanchor">[796]</a> all these account, in an eloquent manner, for +the wide-spread worship that the goat and the sheep +received, even in Grco-Latin antiquity, enriching with +many episodes the mythical and legendary traditions +of these nations, now as the type of a god, now of +a demon, and now of an intermediate being, such as +the satyr, for instance.</p> + +<p>In the same way as the mythical horse has, from +evening to morning, three conspicuous moments of +action—black, grey, and white or red—and as the +mythical ass throws gold from behind and has golden +ears, so the mythical goat and sheep, which are dark-coloured +in the night or in the cloud, throw gold from +behind and have golden horns which pour out ambrosia, +or else have even the cornucopia itself. It is always the +same myth of the cloudy and aqueous, of the nocturnal +and tenebrous sky, with its two glowing twilights or +auroras, or else of the luminous heavenly hero who +traverses the night or the cloud (or the wintry season), +disguised in the shapes of various animals, now by his +own will, now by a divine malediction or by diabolical +witchcraft.</p> + +<p>In the third book of Aristotle's <i>History of Animals</i>, +we read of the river Psikros in Thrace, that white sheep, +when they drink of its waters, bring forth black lambs;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[Pg 432]</a></span> +that in Antandria there are two rivers, of which one +makes the sheep black, and the other white, and that the +river Xanthos or Skamandros makes the sheep fair (or +golden). This belief involves in itself the three transformations +of the celestial hero into the three he-goats or +rams of different natures, of which we have spoken. +The last transformation calls our attention to the sheep +with golden wool, the golden lamb, and the <i>Agnus Dei</i>, +the symbol of happiness, power and riches. Wealth in +sheep, even more than wealth in cows, became the +symbol of universal riches. The horn poured out every +kind of treasure upon the earth, and upon the earth +itself the <i>pecus</i> became <i>pecunia</i>.</p> + + +<p class="caption2">END OF VOL. I.</p> + +<p class="caption2">PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY</p> +<p class="caption2">EDINBURGH AND LONDON</p> + +<hr /> +<div class="fn"> +<h4>Footnotes</h4> +<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> M gm angm aditiṁ vadhishṭa; <i>Ṛigv.</i> viii. 90, 15.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Gomtaraḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 8, 1, 3.—Aditis, called "mt rudrṇm;" +<i>Ṛigv.</i> viii. 90, 15.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Tubhyaṁ (to Vyus, to the wind), dhenuḥ sabardugh viv +vasni dohate aǵanayo maruto vakshaṇbhyaḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 134, 4.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Ims ta indra pṛinayo ghṛitaṁ duhata iram; <i>Ṛigv.</i> viii. 6, 19.—Trir +asmi sapta dhenavo duduhre satym iram prvye vyomani; <i>Ṛigv.</i> +ix. 70, 1.—Trṇi sarṅsi pṛinayo duduhre vaǵriṇe madhu; <i>Ṛigv.</i> viii. +7, 10.—In the <i>Rmyaṇan</i>, i. 48, the Marutas also appear in the +number of 7.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Pra aṅs goshv aghnyaṁ krḷaṁ yać ćhardho mrutam ǵambhe +rasasya vvṛidhe; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 37, 5.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Ime ye te su vyo bhvoǵaso 'ntar nad te patayanty ukshaṇo +mahi vrdhanta ukshaṇaḥ dhanvań ćid ye anavo ǵir, ćid aǵirukasaḥ +sryasyeva ramayo durniyantavo hastayor durniyantavaḥ; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 135, 9.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Ṛiksho na vo marutaḥ imvṇ amo dudhro gur iva bhmayuḥ; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> v. 56, 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Te syandrso nokshaṇo 'ṭi shkandanti arvarḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> v. 52, 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Tvam vtir aruṇir ysi; <i>Tittiriya Yaǵurvedas</i>, i. 3, 14.—Ańǵibhir +vy naǵre ke cid usr iva stṛibhiḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 87, 1.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Vṛish vṛishabhih; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 100, 4.—Gṛishṭiḥ sasva sthaviraṃ +tavgm andhṛishyaṃ vṛishabhaṁ tumram indram; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 18, +10.—Sa mtar na dadṛina usriyo nnadad eti marutm iva svanaḥ; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> ix. 70, 6.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Vṛishyamṇo vṛiṇita somam; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 32, 3.—Pituṁ nu stosham +maho dharmṇam tavishm yasya trito (Tritas, as we shall see, is an +<i>alter ego</i> of the god Indras) vy oǵas vṛitram viparvam ardayat; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 187, 1.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Pib vardhasva; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iii. 36, 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Indro madhu sambhṛitam usriyym padvad viveda aphavan +name goḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iii. 39, 6.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Tr yać ćhat mahishṇm agho ms tr sarṇsi maghav somypḥ +kraṁ na vive ahvanta dev bharam indrya yad ahim ǵaghna; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> v. 29, 8.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Vasoḥ kabandhamṛishabho bibharti; <i>Atharvavedas</i>, ix. 4, 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Sruvati bhmo vṛisḥabhas tavishyay ṛige ino hariṇ vićakshaṇaḥ; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> ix. 70, 7.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Yas tigmaṛigo vṛishabho na bhma ekaḥ kṛishṭ ćyvayati pra +vivḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> vii. 19, 1.—Idaṁ namo vṛishabhya svarǵe satyaushmya +tavase 'vći; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 51, 15.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> ite vaǵraṁ teǵase na vaṅsagaḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 55, 1.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Abhy enaṁ vaǵra yasaḥ sahasrabhṛishṭir yatrćano; <i>Ṛigv.</i> +i. 80, 12.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Sahasraṛigo vṛishabho yaḥ samudrd udćarat; <i>Ṛigv.</i> vii. +55, 7.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Vi tigmena vṛishabheṇa puro 'bhet; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 33, 13.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Priy indrasya dhenavo vagraṁ hinvanti syakaṁ vasvḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> +i. 84, 10, 11, 12. The root, <span class="smcap">hi</span>, properly signifies to <i>distend, draw +out</i>; here, to <i>draw out</i> the arm of Indras seems to me to mean to +elongate it, to render it as fine as a thread—to sharpen it (in Italian, +<i>affilare</i>); the cows that sharpen (It. <i>affilanti</i>), are a variety of the +cows that <i>spin</i> (It. <i>filanti</i>).</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Yuǵaṁ vaǵraṁ vṛishabha ćakra indro nir ǵyotish tamaso g +adukshat; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 33, 10.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> ite ṛige rakshase vinikshe; <i>Ṛigv.</i> v. 2, 9.—Ćatvri ṛig +trayo asya pd dve rshe sapta hastso asya; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 58, 3.—Tapurǵambho +vana vtaćodito ythe na shvn ava vti vaṅsagaḥ abhi +vraǵann akshitam pǵas raǵaḥ sthtu ćaratham bhayate patatriṇaḥ; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 58, 5. In this stanza, however, <i>Vaṅsagaḥ</i> may probably +signify rather <i>the stallion</i> than <i>the bull</i>, as we find in the second +stanza this same Agnis already compared to a radiant horse (atyo na +pṛishṭham prushitasya roćate).</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> <i>Adris</i> and <i>parvatas</i> properly mean mountain, but, in the Veds, +often cloud; and among their many meanings there is also that of +tree; <i>agas</i> (properly that which does not move) expresses equally +tree and mountain. Hence perhaps the Italian proverb: <i>Le montagne +stanno ferme, ma gli uomini s'incontrano</i>, Mountains stand still, but +men meet; hence the cry of Rmas in the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>, ii. 122, that +the Himlayas would move before he should become a traitor; hence +the assurance with which Macbeth, after the celebrated prophecy of +the witches, can say: "That will never be; who can impress the +forest; bid the tree unfix his earth-bound root?" <i>Shakespeare</i> (<i>Macbeth</i>, +iv. 1.) Nevertheless the forest moved, as it not unfrequently does in +the myths, where the tree-clouds walk, and fill all with terror wherever +they go, where heroes and monsters often fight, by unrooting the trees +of a whole forest. Cfr. <i>Rmyaṇam</i>, iii. 3, 5, and the chapters of this +work which treat of the Horse, the Bear, and the Monkey.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Vraǵam gaćha gosthnam; <i>Tittir. Yaǵr.</i> i. 1, 9; cfr. <i>atapathabrhmaṇam</i>, +i. 2, 3, 4.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Kṛishṇo nonva vṛishabhaḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 79, 2.—Vreva vidyun +mimti vatsaṁ na mt sishakti; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 38, 8.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Amnaṁ ćit svaryam parvataṁ girim pra ćyvayanti ymabhiḥ; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> v. 96, 4.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Pavy rathnm adrim bhindanty oǵas; <i>Ṛigv.</i> v. 52, 9. <i>Pavis</i>, +in general, is the iron part, the iron end (of a dart, or a lance); here it +would appear to be the iron tire of the chariot's wheels, which, driving +furiously over the mountain, break it,—thunder, in fact, often suggests +the idea of a noisy chariot making ruin in heaven.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Vraḥ karmaṇyaḥ sudaksho yuktagrv ǵyate devakmaḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> +iii. 4, 9.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Ayaṁ ṛiṇve adha ǵayann uta ghnann ayam uta pra kṛiṇute +yudh gḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 17, 10.—Viḷu ćid ruǵatnubhir guh ćid indra +vahnibhiḥ avinda usriy anu; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 6, 5.—Tvaṁ valasya gomato +'pavar adrivo bilam; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 11, 5.—Vi gobhir adrim irayat; <i>Ṛigv.</i> +i. 7, 3.—Uksh mimti prati yanti dhenavaḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> ix. 69, 4.—Yad +anysu vṛishabho roravti so anyasmin ythe ni dadhti retaḥ; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> iii. 55, 17.—Pshaṅvn vaǵrint sam u patnymadaḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. +82, 6.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Indrgn navatim puro dsapatnr adhnutam skam ekena karmaṇ; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> iii. 12, 6; <i>Titt. Yaǵurv.</i> i. 1, 14. Cfr. chap. on Serpent.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Devsa yan paraṅr abibhran van vṛićanto abhi viḍbhir +yan ni sudrvaṁ dadhato vakshaṇsu yatr kṛipṭam anu tad dahanti; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> x. 28, 8.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Cfr. the chapter on the Bear and the Monkey.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Vṛikshe-vṛikshe niyat mmayad gus tato vayaḥ pra patn prushdaḥ +vivam bhuvanam bhayte; <i>Ṛigv.</i> x. 27, 22.—Tvam yasam +prati vartayo gor divo amnam; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 121, 9.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Brihaspatir govapusho valasya nir maǵǵnaṁ na parvaṇo ǵabhra; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> x. 68, 9.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> Gurr mimya salilni takshaty ekapad dvipad s ćatushpad—ashṭpad +navapad babhvush sahasrkshar parame vyoman; <i>Ṛigv.</i> +i. 164, 41.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Utdaḥ parushe gavi sra ćakraṁ hiraṇyayam; <i>Ṛigv.</i> vi. 56, 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Dsapatnr ahigop atishṭhan niruddh pah paṇineva gvaḥ; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 32, 11.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Vishaṁ gavṁ ytudhnaḥ pibantu; <i>Ṛigv.</i> x. 87, 18. The same +passage can, however, be also translated: "The demons of the cows +may drink the poison."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> <i>Ṛigv.</i> iii. 12, 6; x. 27, 22.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> <i>Ṛigv.</i> ix. 70, 1.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> viii. 6, 19. Cfr. the chapters on the Horse and the Cuckoo.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> Vi ramibhiḥ sasṛiǵe sryo gḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> vii. 36, 1.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> Ta vm (the gods Vishṇus and Indras) vstny umasi gama-dhyi +yatra gvo bhriṛig aysaḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 154, 6. Here all the +stars or cows together form <i>many horns</i>; but perhaps each star or +cow in itself was supposed to have but <i>one horn</i>; for the stars, like +the moon, shed but one ray of light, but one light. This, it appears +to me, may be inferred from the name of <i>Ekaṛigs</i> or <i>unicorns</i>, +given, in the later mythology of the Indians, to an entire order of +Mani, of whom the stars are represented as the supreme habitations, +and even purest forms.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Kany vr avyat somam api srutvidat astam bharanty abravd +indrya sunavi tv akrya sunavi tv.—Indryendo pari srava; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> viii. 80, 1, 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> Indrsom tapataṁ raksha ubǵataṁ ny arpayataṁ vṛishaṇ tamovṛidhaḥ; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> vii, 104, 1.—The following stanzas reproduce and develop +the same argument.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> Pańćokshaṇo madhye tasthur maho divaḥ—Te sedhanti patho +vṛikaṁ tarantaṁ yahvatr apaḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 105, 10, 11.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> Vasavo guryaṁ ćit padi shitm amuńćat yaǵtrh; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. +12, 6.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> Takshan dhenuṁ sabardugham; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 20, 3.—Ni ćarmaṇo +gm ariṇta dhtibhiḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 161, 7, e, iv. 36, 4.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> This interesting particular is more fully developed in the chapters +which treat of the Wolf, the Pig and the Wild Boar, <i>q. v.</i>—To avoid +useless and troublesome repetitions, I must observe here that the myths +of morning and evening are often applied to spring and autumn, and +the myths of night to winter.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> Rayim ṛibhavaḥ sarvavram takshata vṛishaṇo mandasnḥ; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 35, 6.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> Rayim ṛibhavas takshat vayaḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 36, 8.—Here again we +have the cow in relation to the birds, since the riches given by the +Ṛibhavas consist above all in cows. (Ye gomantaṁ vǵavantaṁ +suvraṁ rayiṁ dhattha vasumantam purukshuṁ te agrep ṛibhavo +mandasn asme dhatta ye ća rṭiṁ gṛiṇanti; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 34, 10.)</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> ayave ćin nsty aćibhir ǵasuraye staryam pipyathur gm; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 116. 22.—Y ǵarant yuva tkṛiṇotana; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 161, 7.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> Ǵyeshṭha ha ćamas dv kareti kanyn trn kriṇavmety ha +kanishṭha ha ćaturas kareti tvashṭa ṛibhavas tat panayad vaćo vaḥ; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 33, 5.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> Vǵo devnm abhavat sukarmendrasya ṛibhuksh varuṇasya +vibhv; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 33, 9.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> Te vǵo vibhvn ṛibhur indravantaḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 33, 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> Ṛibhur vibhv vǵa indro no aćhemaṁ yaǵńaṁ ratnadheyopa +yta; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 34, 1.—Pibata vǵ ṛibhavo; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 34, 4.</p> + +<p><a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor"></a><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> Dvdaa dyn yad agohyasytithye raṇann ṛibhavaḥ sasantaḥ +sukshetrkṛiṇvann anayanta sindhn dhanvtishṭhann oshadhr nimnam +paḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 33, 7.—Cfr. <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 161, 11-13.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> Yamena dattaṁ trita enam yunag indra eṇam prathamo adhy +atishṭhat; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 163, 2.—Asi yamo asy dityo arvann asi trito +guhyena vratena asi somena samay vipṛikta hus te trṇi divi bandhanni +trṇi ta hur divi bandhanni trṇy apsu trṇy antaḥ samudre; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 163, 3, 4.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> Vishṇus the three-faced is already spoken of in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i> and +in the <i>Yaǵurvedas</i>. The third step of Vishṇus is taken among the cows +with the great or many horns: Gamadhye gvo yatra bhri-ṛig +aysaḥ atr 'ha tad urugyasya vishṇoḥ paramam padam ava bhti +bhreḥ; <i>Tittiriya Yaǵurv.</i> i. 3, 6.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 187, 1, the passage already cited, when speaking of the +water of strength.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> Na m garan nadyo mtṛitam ds yad m susamubdham avdhuḥ +iro yaḍ asya tritano vitakshat; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 158, 5. We shall have occasion +to return more than once to an analogous myth referring to Indras.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> Tritas tad vedptyaḥ sa ǵmitvya rebhati; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 105, 9.—<i>Gmitv</i> +is properly the relation of brotherhood, and also relationship +in general. <i>Rebhas</i>, or the invoker, represented as a hero, is no other +than our <i>Trita ptyas</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> Rebham nivṛitaṁ sitam adbhyaḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 112, 5.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> Tritaḥ kpe 'vahito devn havata taye tać ćhurva bṛihaspatiḥ +kṛiṇvann aṅhraṇd uru; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 105, 17.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> <i>Ntimańǵar</i>, quoted by Wilson, <i>Ṛigvedas-Saṁhit</i>, vol. i.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> g ǵad uan kvyaḥ sać; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 83, 5.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> Patir gavm abhavad eka indraḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iii. 31, 4.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> Ǵaǵna sryam ushsam; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iii. 32, 8.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> Sasntyṅ uta sryaṁ sasnendraḥ sasna purubhoǵasam gm; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> iii. 34, 9.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> Mahi ǵyotir nihitaṁ vakshaṇsu m pakvaṁ ćarati bibhrat +guḥ vivaṁ svdma sambhṛitam usriyym; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iii. 30, 14.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> Indraḥ stm ni gṛihṇtu tm pshnu yaćhatu s naḥ payasvat +duhm uttarm-uttarṁ samm; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 57, 7.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> Mṛidha ushṭro na; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 138, 2.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> Yat saṁvatsam ṛibhavo gm arakshan yat saṁvatsam ṛibhavo m +apiṅan; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 33, 4.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> Ush n rmr aruṇir aporṇute maho ǵyotish ućat goarṇas; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> ii. 34, 12.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> Dhenuḥ pratnasya kmyaṁ duhnntaḥ putra ćarati dakshiṇyḥ +dyotaniṁ vahati ubhraymoshasaḥ stomo avinv aǵigaḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iii. +58, 1.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> Ṛitya dhen parame duhte; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 23, 10.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> Gavm mt; <i>Ṛigv.</i> v. 45, 2.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> Areṇvas tuǵa sadman dhenavaḥ svaranti t uparatti sryam; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 151, 5.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> Ud apaptann aruṇ bhnavo vṛith svyuǵo arushr g ayukshata; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 92, 2</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> Yen navagve agire daagve saptsye revat revad sha; <i>Ṛigv.</i> +iv. 51, 4.—The sun is also said to be drawn by seven fair horses; <i>Ṛigv.</i> +i. 50, 9.—Cfr. the following chapter.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> Ta usho adrisno gotr gavm agiraso gṛiṇanti; <i>Ṛigv.</i> vi. 65, 5.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> Ṛiteṇdriṁ vy asan bhidantaḥ sam agiraso navanta gobhiḥ +naṁ naraḥ pari shadann ushsam; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 3, 11.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> Praty u adary yaty ućhant duhit divaḥ—Ud usriyḥ sṛiǵate +sryaḥ sać; <i>Ṛigv.</i> vii. 81, 1, 2.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> Vahanti sm aruṇso ruanto gvaḥ subhagm urviy prathnm +apeǵate ro asteva atrn bdhate; <i>Ṛigv.</i> vi. 64, 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> Ruǵad dṛiḷhni dadad usriyṇm prati gva ushasaṁ vvaanta; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> vii. 75, 7.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> Gvo na vraǵaṁ vy ush avar tamaḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 92, 4.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> Yo avnṁ yo gavṁ gopatiḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 101, 4.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> Yukte gavm aruṇnm ankam; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 124, 11.—Esha gobhir +aruṇebhir yuǵn; <i>Ṛigv.</i> v. 80, 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> Avishk Kṛinvn tanvam purastat ṛitasya panthm anv eti; <i>Ṛigv.</i> v. +80, 4.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> Apayam gopm anipadyamnam ća par ća pathibhi ćarantaṁ +sa sadhrćḥ sa vishćir vasna varvarti bhuvaneshv antaḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> x. +177, 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> Apd eti pratham padvatnṁ kas tad vm ćiketa; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. +152, 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> Ratham ye ćakruḥ suvṛitam; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 33, 8.—Takshan nsatybhym +pariǵmnaṁ sukhaṁ ratham; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 20, 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> Yuvo rathaṁ duhit sryasya saha riy nsatyvṛiṇta; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. +117, 13.— vm rathaṁ duhit sryasya krshmevtishṭhad arvat +ǵayant vive dev anv amanyanta hṛidbhih; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 116, 17.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> Yuktv ratham upa devn aytana; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 161, 7.—Pṛith +ratho dakshiny ayogy enam devso amṛitso asthuḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 123, +1.—Dev ǵir rathnm; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 48, 3.—ataṁ rathebhiḥ subhagosh +iyaṁ vi yty abhi mnushn; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 48, 7.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> Ǵnaty ahnaḥ prathamasya; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 123, 9.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> Anu dv ǵahit nayo 'ndhaṁ roṇaṁ ća vṛitrahan; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 30, 19.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> Sakhbhd avinor ushḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 52, 2.—Parvṛiǵam prandhaṁ +roṇaṁ ćakshasa etave kṛithaḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 112, 8.—I here explicitly +abandon the hypothesis I advanced six years ago in the "Life and +Miracles of the God Indras in the Ṛigvedas," pp. 22 and 24, to the +effect that the hero Pravṛiǵ is the lightning flashing from the dark +cloud; whereas the blind-lame seems now to me the sun in the darkness +of night or winter.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> Sa vidvṅ apagohaṁ kannm vir bhavann udatishṭhat parvṛik +prati ronaḥ sthd vy anag aćashṭa; <i>Ṛigv.</i> ii. 15, 7.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_101_101" id="Footnote_101_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_101_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> <i>Ṛigv.</i> v. 48, 1.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_102_102" id="Footnote_102_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> Etad ghed uta vryam indra ćakartha puṅsyam striyaṁ yad +durhaṇ yuvaṁ vadhr duhitaram divaḥ diva ćid gh duhitaram +mahn mahyamnm ushsam indra sam piṇak aposh anasaḥ sarat +sampishṭd aha bibhyush ni yat sm inathad vṛish; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 30, +8-11.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_103_103" id="Footnote_103_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> The two arms of Indras are said to vanquish the cow (or the +cows); Goǵit bah; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 102, 6.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_104_104" id="Footnote_104_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_104_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> Vy ućh duhitar divo m ćiraṁ tanuth apaḥ net tv stenaṁ yath +ripuṁ tapti sro arćish; <i>Ṛigv.</i> v. 79, 9.—Cfr. the chapter which +treats of the Spider.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_105_105" id="Footnote_105_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor_105_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> Bhadro bhadray saćamna gt svasraṁ ǵro abhy eti paćat; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> x. 3, 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_106_106" id="Footnote_106_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor_106_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> Cfr. <i>Ṛigv.</i> x. 17, and Max Mller's "Lectures on the Science of +Language," second series, 481-486.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_107_107" id="Footnote_107_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor_107_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> Kanyeva tanv adnṅ (arepas tanv adn; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 124, 6), +eshi devi devam iyakshamṇam saṁsmayamn yuvatiḥ purastd vir +vakshṅsi kṛiṇushe vibht; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 123, 10.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_108_108" id="Footnote_108_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 30, 20-22.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_109_109" id="Footnote_109_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor_109_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> Vy vraǵasya tamaso dvroćhantr avran ćhućayaḥ pvakḥ; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 51, 2.—Apa dvesho bdhamn tamṅsy ush divo duhit +ǵyotishgt; <i>Ṛigv.</i> v. 80, 5.—Sprh vasni tamaspagḷh vish, +kṛiṇvanty ushaso vibhtḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 123, 6.—Sasato bodhayant; <i>Ṛigv.</i> +i. 124, 4.—Vivaṁ ǵivaṁ ćarase bodhayant; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 92, 9.—Martyatr; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 123, 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_110_110" id="Footnote_110_110"></a><a href="#FNanchor_110_110"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> Vivni dev bhuvanbhićakshy; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 92, 6.—Praǵnat; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 124, 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_111_111" id="Footnote_111_111"></a><a href="#FNanchor_111_111"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> Arbhd shate na maho vibht; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 124, 6.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_112_112" id="Footnote_112_112"></a><a href="#FNanchor_112_112"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> As to Ghosh, cured by the Avinu (<i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 117, 7), and Apal, +cured by Indras (<i>Ṛigv.</i> viii. 80), see the same subject discussed more in +detail in the chapter which treats of the Hog.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_113_113" id="Footnote_113_113"></a><a href="#FNanchor_113_113"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> ukr kṛishṇd aǵanishṭa vitć; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 123, 9.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_114_114" id="Footnote_114_114"></a><a href="#FNanchor_114_114"><span class="label">[114]</span></a> Yasynaksh duhit ǵtvsa kas tṁ vidvṅ abhi manyte andhm +kataro menim prati tam mućte ya m vahte ya m v vareyt; <i>Ṛigv.</i> +x. 27, 11.—Vṛitrasya kannik 'si ćakshushp asi; <i>Tittir. Yagurv.</i> i. 2, 1.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_115_115" id="Footnote_115_115"></a><a href="#FNanchor_115_115"><span class="label">[115]</span></a> Apnyad ety abhy anyad eti vishurpe ahan saṁ ćarete; <i>Ṛigv.</i> +i. 123, 7.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_116_116" id="Footnote_116_116"></a><a href="#FNanchor_116_116"><span class="label">[116]</span></a> Ruadvats ruat vetygd rig u kṛishṇ sadanny asyḥ +samnabandh amṛite anć dyv varṇaṁ ćarata minne samno +adhv svasror anantas tam anyny ćarato devaishṭe na methete na +tasthatuḥ sumeke naktoshsa samanas virpe; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 113, 2, 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_117_117" id="Footnote_117_117"></a><a href="#FNanchor_117_117"><span class="label">[117]</span></a> Naktoshs varṇam memyne dhpayete ium ekaṁ samć; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 96, 5.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_118_118" id="Footnote_118_118"></a><a href="#FNanchor_118_118"><span class="label">[118]</span></a> Nǵmiṁ na pari vṛiṇakti ǵmim; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 124, 6.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_119_119" id="Footnote_119_119"></a><a href="#FNanchor_119_119"><span class="label">[119]</span></a> Vyrṇvat divo antn abodhy apa svasraṁ sanutar yuyoti praminat +manushy yugni yosh ǵarasya ćakshas vi bhti; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 92, 11.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_120_120" id="Footnote_120_120"></a><a href="#FNanchor_120_120"><span class="label">[120]</span></a> Svas svasre ǵyyasyi yonim rik; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 124, 8.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_121_121" id="Footnote_121_121"></a><a href="#FNanchor_121_121"><span class="label">[121]</span></a> Nrr apasaḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 92, 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_122_122" id="Footnote_122_122"></a><a href="#FNanchor_122_122"><span class="label">[122]</span></a> ućayaḥ pvakh; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 51, 2.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_123_123" id="Footnote_123_123"></a><a href="#FNanchor_123_123"><span class="label">[123]</span></a> Yosh ǵrasya ćakshas vibhti; <i>Ṛigv.</i> quoted above, i. 92, 11.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_124_124" id="Footnote_124_124"></a><a href="#FNanchor_124_124"><span class="label">[124]</span></a> Yatamn ramibhiḥ sryasya; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 123, 12.—Vyućhant +ramibhiḥ sryasya; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 124, 8.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_125_125" id="Footnote_125_125"></a><a href="#FNanchor_125_125"><span class="label">[125]</span></a> Ritasya yosh na minti dhma; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 123, 9.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_126_126" id="Footnote_126_126"></a><a href="#FNanchor_126_126"><span class="label">[126]</span></a> Susaṁk mtṛimṛishṭeva yoshvis tanvaṁ kriṇushe dṛie kam; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 123, 11.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_127_127" id="Footnote_127_127"></a><a href="#FNanchor_127_127"><span class="label">[127]</span></a> Esh ubhr na tanvo vidnordhveva snt dṛiaye no astht; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> v. 80, 5.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_128_128" id="Footnote_128_128"></a><a href="#FNanchor_128_128"><span class="label">[128]</span></a> Adhi peṅsi vapate nṛitr ivporṇute vaksha usreva barǵaham; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 92, 4.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_129_129" id="Footnote_129_129"></a><a href="#FNanchor_129_129"><span class="label">[129]</span></a> Bhadr vastr tanvate; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 134, 4.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_130_130" id="Footnote_130_130"></a><a href="#FNanchor_130_130"><span class="label">[130]</span></a> Smayate vibht supratk; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 92, 6.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_131_131" id="Footnote_131_131"></a><a href="#FNanchor_131_131"><span class="label">[131]</span></a> Prkramisham ushasm agriyeva; <i>Ṛigv.</i> x. 95, 2.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_132_132" id="Footnote_132_132"></a><a href="#FNanchor_132_132"><span class="label">[132]</span></a> I must, however, observe that competent authorities, such as Professor +Weber, consider the phallical worship of ivas to have originated +in the beliefs of the indigenous tribes of Dravidian race.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_133_133" id="Footnote_133_133"></a><a href="#FNanchor_133_133"><span class="label">[133]</span></a> <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 123, 8.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_134_134" id="Footnote_134_134"></a><a href="#FNanchor_134_134"><span class="label">[134]</span></a> Vidique saepe, sed cumprimis anno 1785 in Malabaria ad flumen +templo celebri Ambalapushe proximum, extra oppidum Callureta in +silvula, sententia regis Travancoridis Rma Varmer, quinque viros +arbori appensos et morti traditos, quod, contra regni leges et religionis +prscripta, voluntarie unicam vaccam occiderint; <i>Systema Brahmanicum</i>, +illustr. Fr. Paullinus a S. Bartholomo, Rom, 179.—Cfr. <i>Mnava-Dharmastram</i>, +xi. 60, and <i>Ygńavalkya-Dharmastram</i>, iii. 234.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_135_135" id="Footnote_135_135"></a><a href="#FNanchor_135_135"><span class="label">[135]</span></a> ii. 1, 8.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_136_136" id="Footnote_136_136"></a><a href="#FNanchor_136_136"><span class="label">[136]</span></a> Pańćagavyaṁ piban goghno msam sta saṁyataḥ goshṭreayo go +'nugm gopradnena udhyati; <i>Dharm.</i> iii. 263.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_137_137" id="Footnote_137_137"></a><a href="#FNanchor_137_137"><span class="label">[137]</span></a> <i>Dharm.</i> xi. 166.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_138_138" id="Footnote_138_138"></a><a href="#FNanchor_138_138"><span class="label">[138]</span></a> Ibid. iii. 271.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_139_139" id="Footnote_139_139"></a><a href="#FNanchor_139_139"><span class="label">[139]</span></a> Ka imaṁ daabhir mamendraṁ krṇti dhenubhiḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. +24, 10.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_140_140" id="Footnote_140_140"></a><a href="#FNanchor_140_140"><span class="label">[140]</span></a> <i>Dharm.</i> iii. 27.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_141_141" id="Footnote_141_141"></a><a href="#FNanchor_141_141"><span class="label">[141]</span></a> <i>Gṛihyastrṇi</i>, i. 8, 9.—It was, moreover, on the occasion of a +marriage, the custom to give cows to the Brhmans; in the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>, +i. 74, the King Daarathas, at the nuptials of his four sons, +gives 400,000 cows.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_142_142" id="Footnote_142_142"></a><a href="#FNanchor_142_142"><span class="label">[142]</span></a> naḥ praǵṁ ǵanayatu praǵpatiḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> x. 85, 43.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_143_143" id="Footnote_143_143"></a><a href="#FNanchor_143_143"><span class="label">[143]</span></a> Goćarmavasano hariḥ; xiii. 1228.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_144_144" id="Footnote_144_144"></a><a href="#FNanchor_144_144"><span class="label">[144]</span></a> Cfr. Bhtlingk u. Roth's, <i>Sanskrit Wrterbuch</i> s. v. <i>goćarman</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_145_145" id="Footnote_145_145"></a><a href="#FNanchor_145_145"><span class="label">[145]</span></a> valy. <i>Gṛihyas.</i> iv. 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_146_146" id="Footnote_146_146"></a><a href="#FNanchor_146_146"><span class="label">[146]</span></a> <i>Gṛihyas.</i> i. 13.—The commentator <i>Nryaṇas</i>, quoted by Professor +Stenzler, in his version of <i>valyanas</i>, explains how the two +beans and grain of barley express by their form the male organs of +generation.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_147_147" id="Footnote_147_147"></a><a href="#FNanchor_147_147"><span class="label">[147]</span></a> <i>Gṛihyas.</i> i. 14.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_148_148" id="Footnote_148_148"></a><a href="#FNanchor_148_148"><span class="label">[148]</span></a> <i>Gṛihyas.</i> ii. 10.—The St Antony, protector of animals, of the +Vedic faith was the god Rudras, the wind, to whom, when the cattle +were afflicted by a disease, it was necessary to sacrifice in the midst of +an enclosure of cows.—Cfr. the same, <i>valy.</i> iv. 8.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_149_149" id="Footnote_149_149"></a><a href="#FNanchor_149_149"><span class="label">[149]</span></a> Yać ća goshu dushvapnyaṁ yać ćsme duhitar divaḥ tritya tad +vibhvary ptyya par vahnehaso va tayaḥ sutayo va tayaḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> +viii. 47, 14.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_150_150" id="Footnote_150_150"></a><a href="#FNanchor_150_150"><span class="label">[150]</span></a> Payaḥ kṛishṇsu ruad rohiṇshu; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 62, 9.—Cfr. <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. +123, 9.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_151_151" id="Footnote_151_151"></a><a href="#FNanchor_151_151"><span class="label">[151]</span></a> <i>Gṛihyas.</i> iv. 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_152_152" id="Footnote_152_152"></a><a href="#FNanchor_152_152"><span class="label">[152]</span></a> valy; <i>Gṛihyas.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_153_153" id="Footnote_153_153"></a><a href="#FNanchor_153_153"><span class="label">[153]</span></a> v. 4, 23.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_154_154" id="Footnote_154_154"></a><a href="#FNanchor_154_154"><span class="label">[154]</span></a> Indro vi vṛitraṁ hatv vivakarmbhavat; iv. 3, 22.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_155_155" id="Footnote_155_155"></a><a href="#FNanchor_155_155"><span class="label">[155]</span></a> iii. 2, 37.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_156_156" id="Footnote_156_156"></a><a href="#FNanchor_156_156"><span class="label">[156]</span></a> Ushase ćaṛuṁ yoshḥ s rk so eva trishṭup gave ćarum ya guḥ +s sinvl (the new moon) so eva ǵagati; iii. 2, 48.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_157_157" id="Footnote_157_157"></a><a href="#FNanchor_157_157"><span class="label">[157]</span></a> Abhd ush ruatpaur ityushaso rpam; i. 2, 18.—Gobhiraruṇir +ush ǵimadhvat tasmd ushasyagatym aruṇam ivaeva pra-bhtyusḥasorpam; +iv. 2, 9.—Abhd ush ruatpaur ityushaso +rpam; i. 2, 18.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_158_158" id="Footnote_158_158"></a><a href="#FNanchor_158_158"><span class="label">[158]</span></a> <i>it.-brhm.</i> vi. 4, 24.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_159_159" id="Footnote_159_159"></a><a href="#FNanchor_159_159"><span class="label">[159]</span></a> <i>it.-brhm.</i> iv. 3, 17.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_160_160" id="Footnote_160_160"></a><a href="#FNanchor_160_160"><span class="label">[160]</span></a> iii. 8080.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_161_161" id="Footnote_161_161"></a><a href="#FNanchor_161_161"><span class="label">[161]</span></a> Cfr. Weber's <i>ber die Kṛishṇaǵamshtam</i>, Berlin, 1868; <i>L'Inde +Franaise</i>, par Eugne Burnouf, Paris, 1828; <i>The Hindoos</i>, London, +1834, vol. i.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_162_162" id="Footnote_162_162"></a><a href="#FNanchor_162_162"><span class="label">[162]</span></a> iv. 3, 20.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_163_163" id="Footnote_163_163"></a><a href="#FNanchor_163_163"><span class="label">[163]</span></a> i. 3. 22.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_164_164" id="Footnote_164_164"></a><a href="#FNanchor_164_164"><span class="label">[164]</span></a> Mahnm payo 'sy oshadhnṁ rasaḥ; <i>Taittir. Yagurv.</i> i. 1, 10.—Kshrodaṁ +sgaraṁ sarve mathnmaḥ sahit vayaṁ nuushadhḥ +samhṛitya prakshipya ća tatastataḥ; <i>Rmy.</i> i. 46.—Cfr. Kuhn's +<i>Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Gttertranks</i>, Berlin, 1859.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_165_165" id="Footnote_165_165"></a><a href="#FNanchor_165_165"><span class="label">[165]</span></a> The <i>Gandhamdanas</i> is especially defended by the <i>Gandharvs</i>, a +word which seems to be composed of <i>gandha</i>, perfume, and <i>arvas</i>, the +one who goes on (and afterwards the horse), from the root <i>arv</i>, expansion +of <i>ṛiv</i>; according to this, they would therefore be those who +go in the perfumes, as the nymphs beloved and guarded by them are +they who go in the waters (ap-sarasas). Cfr. the chapter on the Ass.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_166_166" id="Footnote_166_166"></a><a href="#FNanchor_166_166"><span class="label">[166]</span></a> Cfr. <i>Rmy.</i> vi. 82, 83.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_167_167" id="Footnote_167_167"></a><a href="#FNanchor_167_167"><span class="label">[167]</span></a> Bhtlingk's <i>Indische Sprche</i>, 122, erster Theil; 2<sup>te</sup> Aufl. S. Petersburg, +1870.—Cfr. <i>Mahbhratam</i>, i. 1143-1145.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_168_168" id="Footnote_168_168"></a><a href="#FNanchor_168_168"><span class="label">[168]</span></a> Abhi tyaṁ devaṁ savitram ṇyoḥ kavikratum arćmi satyasavasam +ratnadhm abhi priyam matiṃ; <i>Tittir. Yagurv.</i> i. 2, 6.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_169_169" id="Footnote_169_169"></a><a href="#FNanchor_169_169"><span class="label">[169]</span></a> i. 46.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_170_170" id="Footnote_170_170"></a><a href="#FNanchor_170_170"><span class="label">[170]</span></a> xiii. 7034.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_171_171" id="Footnote_171_171"></a><a href="#FNanchor_171_171"><span class="label">[171]</span></a> Hariv., 12,367.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_172_172" id="Footnote_172_172"></a><a href="#FNanchor_172_172"><span class="label">[172]</span></a> ruhya tasya ikhare so 'payat paramushadṁ dṛishṭv ćotptaymsa +vialyakaraṇṁ ubhm.—Vialyo niruǵaḥ ghramudatishṭhanmahtalt; +vi. 83.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_173_173" id="Footnote_173_173"></a><a href="#FNanchor_173_173"><span class="label">[173]</span></a> Sa nighṛishgulim rmo dhute manaḥilgiru ćakara tilakaṁ +patny lalṭe rućiraṁ tad blrkasamavarṇena tena s giridhtun +lalṭe vinivishṭhe na sasaṁdheva nibhavat; <i>Rmy.</i> ii. 105.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_174_174" id="Footnote_174_174"></a><a href="#FNanchor_174_174"><span class="label">[174]</span></a> Svyatu apaḥ sćyćhidyamnay dadtu vraṁ atadyam ukthyam; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> ii. 32, 4.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_175_175" id="Footnote_175_175"></a><a href="#FNanchor_175_175"><span class="label">[175]</span></a> Tataḥ ubhaṁ s taruṇrkasaṁnibhaṁ gataklam vasrayugaṁ sad +malaṁ sraǵo 'gargaṁ ća vibhshaṇni ća prasannaćet ǵagṛihe tu +mithil; <i>Rmy.</i> iii. 5.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_176_176" id="Footnote_176_176"></a><a href="#FNanchor_176_176"><span class="label">[176]</span></a> <i>Rmy.</i> iv. 50-53.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_177_177" id="Footnote_177_177"></a><a href="#FNanchor_177_177"><span class="label">[177]</span></a> Ptirnivsit vastriḥ krdanto gomaye hrade; <i>Rmy.</i> v. 27.—Cfr. +vi. 23.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_178_178" id="Footnote_178_178"></a><a href="#FNanchor_178_178"><span class="label">[178]</span></a> Stmuvća ha dpyamnm svay lakshmy saṅdhymutptikmiva; +<i>Rmy.</i> v. 52.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_179_179" id="Footnote_179_179"></a><a href="#FNanchor_179_179"><span class="label">[179]</span></a> Samarth gatanaṁ gantumapiv tvaṁ rastalam—Aćirammokshyase +ste; <i>Rmy.</i> vi. 9, 10.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_180_180" id="Footnote_180_180"></a><a href="#FNanchor_180_180"><span class="label">[180]</span></a> Sumyaḥ somtmagḥ; <i>Rmy.</i> vi. 6.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_181_181" id="Footnote_181_181"></a><a href="#FNanchor_181_181"><span class="label">[181]</span></a> Sitaḥ kakudvniva tkshṇaṛigo rarǵa ćandraḥ pariprṇaṛigaḥ; +<i>Rmy.</i> v. 11.—Cfr. v. 20.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_182_182" id="Footnote_182_182"></a><a href="#FNanchor_182_182"><span class="label">[182]</span></a> Babhu nashṭaprabhaḥ sryo raǵan ćbhyavartata; <i>Rmy.</i> ii. 92.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_183_183" id="Footnote_183_183"></a><a href="#FNanchor_183_183"><span class="label">[183]</span></a> Nishdarǵo guhaḥ sanlmbudatulyavarṇaḥ; <i>Rmy.</i> ii. 48.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_184_184" id="Footnote_184_184"></a><a href="#FNanchor_184_184"><span class="label">[184]</span></a> Sad vanagoćaraḥ; <i>Rmy.</i> ii. 98.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_185_185" id="Footnote_185_185"></a><a href="#FNanchor_185_185"><span class="label">[185]</span></a> iii. 63.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_186_186" id="Footnote_186_186"></a><a href="#FNanchor_186_186"><span class="label">[186]</span></a> <i>Rmy.</i> iv. 1.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_187_187" id="Footnote_187_187"></a><a href="#FNanchor_187_187"><span class="label">[187]</span></a> Sahasrkshadhanushmadbhis toyadiriva mrutaḥ; <i>Rmy.</i> v. 40.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_188_188" id="Footnote_188_188"></a><a href="#FNanchor_188_188"><span class="label">[188]</span></a> <i>Rmy.</i> v. 73.—In the <i>Rmyaṇam</i> itself, Rmas, overpowered +with grief, is compared now to a bull (v. 34), now to an elephant tormented +by a lion (v. 37).</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_189_189" id="Footnote_189_189"></a><a href="#FNanchor_189_189"><span class="label">[189]</span></a> <i>Rmy.</i> vi. 105.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_190_190" id="Footnote_190_190"></a><a href="#FNanchor_190_190"><span class="label">[190]</span></a> <i>Rmy.</i> vi. 102.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_191_191" id="Footnote_191_191"></a><a href="#FNanchor_191_191"><span class="label">[191]</span></a> radaṁ sthlapṛishataṁ ṛigbhym govṛisho yath; <i>Rmy.</i> +iii. 32.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_192_192" id="Footnote_192_192"></a><a href="#FNanchor_192_192"><span class="label">[192]</span></a> <i>Rmy.</i> v. 28.—The monster Kabandhas salutes them both with +the name of <i>Vṛishabhaskandhu</i>, or they who have bulls' shoulders; +<i>Rmy.</i> iii. 74.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_193_193" id="Footnote_193_193"></a><a href="#FNanchor_193_193"><span class="label">[193]</span></a> <i>Rmy.</i> vii. 36-38.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_194_194" id="Footnote_194_194"></a><a href="#FNanchor_194_194"><span class="label">[194]</span></a> <i>Rmy.</i> v. 93.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_195_195" id="Footnote_195_195"></a><a href="#FNanchor_195_195"><span class="label">[195]</span></a> rantṅstu na tapet sryaḥ kathańćidvnarnapi abhrṇi ǵaǵnire +digbhyas ćhdayitv raveḥ prabhṁ pravavarsha ća parǵanyo mrutaća +ivo vavu; <i>Rmy.</i> v. 95.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_196_196" id="Footnote_196_196"></a><a href="#FNanchor_196_196"><span class="label">[196]</span></a> <i>Rmy.</i> iii. 77.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_197_197" id="Footnote_197_197"></a><a href="#FNanchor_197_197"><span class="label">[197]</span></a> <i>Rmy.</i> iii. 23.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_198_198" id="Footnote_198_198"></a><a href="#FNanchor_198_198"><span class="label">[198]</span></a> <i>Rmy.</i> vi. 37.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_199_199" id="Footnote_199_199"></a><a href="#FNanchor_199_199"><span class="label">[199]</span></a> Paya lakshmaṇa mrćaṁ mahanisamasvanam sapadnugamyntaṁ +subhuṁ ća nićaraṁ etvadya may paya nlńćanaćayopamu +asmin kshaṇe samdhtvanilenmbudviva; <i>Rmy.</i> i. 33.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_200_200" id="Footnote_200_200"></a><a href="#FNanchor_200_200"><span class="label">[200]</span></a> akreṇeva vinirmukto vaǵrastaruvaropari; <i>Rmy.</i> iii. 35.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_201_201" id="Footnote_201_201"></a><a href="#FNanchor_201_201"><span class="label">[201]</span></a> Mymritya vipulṁ vtadurdinasaṁkulm; <i>Rmy.</i> iii. 73.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_202_202" id="Footnote_202_202"></a><a href="#FNanchor_202_202"><span class="label">[202]</span></a> Te nikṛittabhuǵaskandhs kavandhkṛiti ekadaranḥ nadanto +bhiravnndnnpatanti sma dnavs; <i>Mbh.</i> iii. 806.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_203_203" id="Footnote_203_203"></a><a href="#FNanchor_203_203"><span class="label">[203]</span></a> Atha tatra mahghoraṁ vikṛitaṁ tam mahoććhrayaṁ vivṛiddhamairogrvaṁ +kabandhamudare mukham romabhirnićitaṁ tikshṇirmahgirimivoććhritam +nlameghanibhaṁ ghoraṁ meghastanitanisvanam +mahat ćtipigena vipulenyatenaća ekenorasi drgheṇa nayanentidarin; +<i>Rmy.</i> iii. 74.—The one yellowish eye of Kabandhas +reminds us of Viravaṇas with only one yellowish eye (<i>ekapinghekshaṇas</i>), +his other eye having been burnt out by the goddess Parvat; +<i>Rmy.</i> vii. 13.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_204_204" id="Footnote_204_204"></a><a href="#FNanchor_204_204"><span class="label">[204]</span></a> i. 49; ii. 7, <i>et passim</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_205_205" id="Footnote_205_205"></a><a href="#FNanchor_205_205"><span class="label">[205]</span></a> Cfr. the chapter on the Wolf.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_206_206" id="Footnote_206_206"></a><a href="#FNanchor_206_206"><span class="label">[206]</span></a> iii. 40, <i>et seq.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_207_207" id="Footnote_207_207"></a><a href="#FNanchor_207_207"><span class="label">[207]</span></a> Taruṇdityasaṁkm taptakńćanabhshitṁ raktmbaradharm +blm; <i>Rmy.</i> vi. 103.—Of the dress of St we read in another +place that it shines "like the light of the sun upon the summit of a +mountain" (Sryaprabheva ilgre tasyḥ kusheyamuttamaṁ; iv. +58).</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_208_208" id="Footnote_208_208"></a><a href="#FNanchor_208_208"><span class="label">[208]</span></a> <i>Rmy.</i> vi. 99.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_209_209" id="Footnote_209_209"></a><a href="#FNanchor_209_209"><span class="label">[209]</span></a> Cfr. Weber's <i>Ueber das Rmyaṇa</i>, Berlin, 1870, p. 9.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_210_210" id="Footnote_210_210"></a><a href="#FNanchor_210_210"><span class="label">[210]</span></a> Ibid. p. 1.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_211_211" id="Footnote_211_211"></a><a href="#FNanchor_211_211"><span class="label">[211]</span></a> Vryaulk ća me kany divyarp guṇnvit bhtaldutthit +prvaṁ nmn stetyayoniǵ; <i>Rmy.</i> i. 68.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_212_212" id="Footnote_212_212"></a><a href="#FNanchor_212_212"><span class="label">[212]</span></a> <i>Rmy.</i> vii. 104, 105.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_213_213" id="Footnote_213_213"></a><a href="#FNanchor_213_213"><span class="label">[213]</span></a> <i>Kath sarit sgaras</i>, iii. 17.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_214_214" id="Footnote_214_214"></a><a href="#FNanchor_214_214"><span class="label">[214]</span></a> i. 3888-3965.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_215_215" id="Footnote_215_215"></a><a href="#FNanchor_215_215"><span class="label">[215]</span></a> "Apriyańća na kartavyaṁ kṛite ćinm tyaǵmyaham," says +Ǵaratkarus; <i>Mbh.</i> i. 1871.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_216_216" id="Footnote_216_216"></a><a href="#FNanchor_216_216"><span class="label">[216]</span></a> <i>Mbh.</i> i. 1870-1911.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_217_217" id="Footnote_217_217"></a><a href="#FNanchor_217_217"><span class="label">[217]</span></a> <i>Indische Studien</i>, vol. i. pp. 457-464, vol. ii. pp. 111-128.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_218_218" id="Footnote_218_218"></a><a href="#FNanchor_218_218"><span class="label">[218]</span></a> <i>History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_219_219" id="Footnote_219_219"></a><a href="#FNanchor_219_219"><span class="label">[219]</span></a> Varuṇas, the god of night, has, like the night, a double aspect; +now he is the gloomy ocean, now the luminous milky ocean without a +moon. He is represented under the latter aspect in the 7th book of +the <i>Rmyaṇam</i> (canto 27), in which the solar hero, having entered +the celestial city of Varuṇas, finds the cow which always yields milk +(payaḥ ksharantm satataṁ tatra gṁ ća dadara saḥ), whence the +white-rayed moon emerges, whence also the ambrosia and the nectar +(yataćandraḥ prabhavati taramiḥ—yasmdamṛitaṃutpannaṁ sudh +ćpi).</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_220_220" id="Footnote_220_220"></a><a href="#FNanchor_220_220"><span class="label">[220]</span></a> Cfr. the chapter on the Horse.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_221_221" id="Footnote_221_221"></a><a href="#FNanchor_221_221"><span class="label">[221]</span></a> In the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>, i. 63, the deliverer is Indras, who, even in +the <i>itareya</i>, does much for unaḥepas.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_222_222" id="Footnote_222_222"></a><a href="#FNanchor_222_222"><span class="label">[222]</span></a> Teǵas gharmadah sad—Prsdaatasambdhaṁ nirmitaṁ vivakarman +obhitaṁ padminbhića kńćanića mahdrumiḥ nilayaḥ +pahastasya varuṇasya mahtmanaḥ; <i>Rmy.</i> iv. 43.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_223_223" id="Footnote_223_223"></a><a href="#FNanchor_223_223"><span class="label">[223]</span></a> i. 64.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_224_224" id="Footnote_224_224"></a><a href="#FNanchor_224_224"><span class="label">[224]</span></a> The Puranic-legend gives an instance of such another father in +Hiraṇyakaipus, who, persecuting his own son Prahldas, tries to +destroy him in several ways, and finally throws him into the sea; +Prahldas praises Vishṇus, and is delivered.—Cfr. <i>The Vishṇu Purṇa</i>, +translated by H. Wilson, i. 17-20. London: Trbner, 1864.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_225_225" id="Footnote_225_225"></a><a href="#FNanchor_225_225"><span class="label">[225]</span></a> Chap. xii. 13.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_226_226" id="Footnote_226_226"></a><a href="#FNanchor_226_226"><span class="label">[226]</span></a> i. 54-56.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_227_227" id="Footnote_227_227"></a><a href="#FNanchor_227_227"><span class="label">[227]</span></a> Etadeva hi me ratnametadeva hi me dhanam etadva hi sarvasvam +etadeva hi ǵivitam; <i>Rmy.</i> 1. c.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_228_228" id="Footnote_228_228"></a><a href="#FNanchor_228_228"><span class="label">[228]</span></a> Nanda vividhn ndn yath prvṛishi toyadaḥ; <i>Rmy.</i> iii. 24.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_229_229" id="Footnote_229_229"></a><a href="#FNanchor_229_229"><span class="label">[229]</span></a> Dhrayan mhishaṁ rupaṁ tkshṇarigo bhayvahaḥ; <i>Rmy.</i> iv. +9.—Further on, instead (iv. 46), the buffalo is said to be the brother +of Dundubhis, and to have the strength of a thousand serpents (balaṁ +ngasahasrasya dhrayan) or elephants, for the word <i>ngas</i> is equivocal.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_230_230" id="Footnote_230_230"></a><a href="#FNanchor_230_230"><span class="label">[230]</span></a> ṛigbhymlikhan darpat taddvram; <i>Rmy</i>, iv. 9.—Cfr. the +two chapters which treat of the Horse and the Monkey.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_231_231" id="Footnote_231_231"></a><a href="#FNanchor_231_231"><span class="label">[231]</span></a> I do not insist upon this brhmanic god, because his legend is +now popular.—Cfr., for the rest, for the relationship of Kṛishṇas with +the cows, the cowherds, and the cow-maiden, the whole 5th book of +the <i>Vishṇu Purna</i>, translated by H. Wilson, and the <i>Gtagoviṅdas</i> +of Gayadevas, edidit Lassen, Bonn, 1836.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_232_232" id="Footnote_232_232"></a><a href="#FNanchor_232_232"><span class="label">[232]</span></a> Vivarpo vi tvshṭraḥ purohito devnm st svasriyo 'surṇm +tasya trṇi irshny asant—Indras tasya vaǵram dya rshny aćhinad +yat somapnam—Brahma-hatyam up 'griḥṇat—Tam bhtny abhy +akroan brahmahann iti; <i>Tittirya Saṁhit</i>, ed. Weber. ii. 5, 1-6.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_233_233" id="Footnote_233_233"></a><a href="#FNanchor_233_233"><span class="label">[233]</span></a> vii. 5, 28.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_234_234" id="Footnote_234_234"></a><a href="#FNanchor_234_234"><span class="label">[234]</span></a> Sa tasya khagena mahirṅsi kapiḥ samas tṁ sukuṇḍalṁ +kruddhaḥ praćiććheda tad hanmns ṭvshṭrtmaǵasyeva irnsi akrah; +<i>Rmy.</i> vii. 50.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_235_235" id="Footnote_235_235"></a><a href="#FNanchor_235_235"><span class="label">[235]</span></a> <i>Rmy.</i> vii. 10.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_236_236" id="Footnote_236_236"></a><a href="#FNanchor_236_236"><span class="label">[236]</span></a> <i>Mbh.</i> i. 4990.—Cfr. also the three phallical and solar brothers of +the story of unaḥepas (him with the luminous tail or phallus).</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_237_237" id="Footnote_237_237"></a><a href="#FNanchor_237_237"><span class="label">[237]</span></a> i. 4775.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_238_238" id="Footnote_238_238"></a><a href="#FNanchor_238_238"><span class="label">[238]</span></a> Balaṁ ngasahasrasya yasmin kuṇḍe pratishṭhitaṁ yvatpivati blo +'yaṁ tvad asmi pradyataṁ—ekoććhvsttataḥ kuṇḍaṁ danaḥ; <i>Mbh.</i> +i. 5030, 5032.—A similar legend is found again in the third book of +the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, under the form of an impenetrable forest, in which +the king of the serpents envelops Bhmas.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_239_239" id="Footnote_239_239"></a><a href="#FNanchor_239_239"><span class="label">[239]</span></a> <i>Mbh.</i> i. 4777.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_240_240" id="Footnote_240_240"></a><a href="#FNanchor_240_240"><span class="label">[240]</span></a> i. 5300-5304.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_241_241" id="Footnote_241_241"></a><a href="#FNanchor_241_241"><span class="label">[241]</span></a> i. 680-828.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_242_242" id="Footnote_242_242"></a><a href="#FNanchor_242_242"><span class="label">[242]</span></a> Tam kliyamnamindro 'payatsa vaǵraṁ presḥaymsa—gaććhsya +brhmaṇasya shyyaṁ kurusveti—atha vaǵram daṇḍakshṭhamanupraviya +tadvilamadrayat; <i>Mbh.</i> i. 794-795.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_243_243" id="Footnote_243_243"></a><a href="#FNanchor_243_243"><span class="label">[243]</span></a> In a legend of the Tibetan Buddhists, referred to by Professor Schiefner in his interesting work, <i>Ueber Indra's Donnerkeil</i> (St +Petersburg), 1848, we find two valiant heroes who, upon Mount +Gṛidhrakṭa (the vulture's peak), strive, in presence of their master, to +lift the vaǵram (that is, the arm in the form of a wedge, the lever-rod, +the thunderbolt of Indras), but in vain; Vaǵrapṇis alone succeeds in +lifting the vaǵram with his right hand. Rmas makes a similar trial +of strength in the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>, when he lifts and breaks in pieces a +bow, which no one had before been able even to move.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_244_244" id="Footnote_244_244"></a><a href="#FNanchor_244_244"><span class="label">[244]</span></a> Cfr. the following chapter.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_245_245" id="Footnote_245_245"></a><a href="#FNanchor_245_245"><span class="label">[245]</span></a> i. 2772-2783.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_246_246" id="Footnote_246_246"></a><a href="#FNanchor_246_246"><span class="label">[246]</span></a> To the myth of the ravished earrings is almost always joined, even +in the popular tales, the story of the horse, which is always especially referred to the Avinu, as that of the bull to Indras. In the Puranic +legends, Kṛishṇas receives from the earth the earrings of Aditis (whom +we already know to be a cow), whilst he frees the princesses from the infernal +Narakas.—Cfr. the <i>Vishṇu Purṇa</i>, v. 29.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_247_247" id="Footnote_247_247"></a><a href="#FNanchor_247_247"><span class="label">[247]</span></a> v. 17.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_248_248" id="Footnote_248_248"></a><a href="#FNanchor_248_248"><span class="label">[248]</span></a> Cfr. the chapters which treat of the Wolf, the Fox, and the +Serpent; and also the foregoing discussion on the Vedic riddles, where +the sun is called <i>anipadyamnas</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_249_249" id="Footnote_249_249"></a><a href="#FNanchor_249_249"><span class="label">[249]</span></a> Ahaṁ ǵalaṁ kimuńćmi praǵnm hitakmyay; <i>Mbh.</i> i. 3317.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_250_250" id="Footnote_250_250"></a><a href="#FNanchor_250_250"><span class="label">[250]</span></a> iii. 23, 24.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_251_251" id="Footnote_251_251"></a><a href="#FNanchor_251_251"><span class="label">[251]</span></a> Dadara rǵ tm tatra kanymagniikhmiva; <i>Mbh.</i> i. 3294.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_252_252" id="Footnote_252_252"></a><a href="#FNanchor_252_252"><span class="label">[252]</span></a> <i>Mbh.</i> i. 3379-3394</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_253_253" id="Footnote_253_253"></a><a href="#FNanchor_253_253"><span class="label">[253]</span></a> <i>Mbh.</i> i. 3435-3545.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_254_254" id="Footnote_254_254"></a><a href="#FNanchor_254_254"><span class="label">[254]</span></a> <i>Mbh.</i> i. 4193-4211.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_255_255" id="Footnote_255_255"></a><a href="#FNanchor_255_255"><span class="label">[255]</span></a> <i>Mbh.</i> i. 4211-4216.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_256_256" id="Footnote_256_256"></a><a href="#FNanchor_256_256"><span class="label">[256]</span></a> We shall find the lame goat in the chapter which treats of the +Lamb and the Goat.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_257_257" id="Footnote_257_257"></a><a href="#FNanchor_257_257"><span class="label">[257]</span></a> 1908.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_258_258" id="Footnote_258_258"></a><a href="#FNanchor_258_258"><span class="label">[258]</span></a> v. 12.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_259_259" id="Footnote_259_259"></a><a href="#FNanchor_259_259"><span class="label">[259]</span></a> The word <i>badhiras</i> means here the crooked, the crippled one, and +not the deaf (from the root <i>badh</i> or <i>vadh</i>, to wound, to cut); the more +so that here the name of the blind man's companion is Mantharakas, +a word which properly means the slow one. The curved line and the +slow line correspond; and the curved one, who cannot stand upright, +may be the hunchback just as well as the cripple, the crooked, the +lame.—Cfr. The chapter on the Tortoise.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_260_260" id="Footnote_260_260"></a><a href="#FNanchor_260_260"><span class="label">[260]</span></a> For the incident of the hunchback who betrays the blind man, in +the same popular tale, cfr. next chapter.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_261_261" id="Footnote_261_261"></a><a href="#FNanchor_261_261"><span class="label">[261]</span></a> i. 6527.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_262_262" id="Footnote_262_262"></a><a href="#FNanchor_262_262"><span class="label">[262]</span></a> Sudminva ćbhreshu tatrevntaradhyata; <i>Mbh.</i> i. 6557.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_263_263" id="Footnote_263_263"></a><a href="#FNanchor_263_263"><span class="label">[263]</span></a> Tasminnṛipatirdle pravishṭe nagaraṁ punaḥ pravavarsha sahasrkshaḥ +asyni ǵanayanprabhuḥ; <i>Mbh.</i> 6629, 6630.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_264_264" id="Footnote_264_264"></a><a href="#FNanchor_264_264"><span class="label">[264]</span></a> i. 6651-6772.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_265_265" id="Footnote_265_265"></a><a href="#FNanchor_265_265"><span class="label">[265]</span></a> The hundred daughters of King Kuanabhas, and of the nymph +Ghṛitći, who walks in curdled milk, recalling to us the mythical cow.—Cfr. +<i>Rmy.</i> i. 35.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_266_266" id="Footnote_266_266"></a><a href="#FNanchor_266_266"><span class="label">[266]</span></a> Cfr. Virgil, <i>nid</i>, I. 65-75, where Juno gives the nymph Deiopea +to olus.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_267_267" id="Footnote_267_267"></a><a href="#FNanchor_267_267"><span class="label">[267]</span></a> <i>Anquetil du Perron, Zendavesta</i>, ii. p. 545.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_268_268" id="Footnote_268_268"></a><a href="#FNanchor_268_268"><span class="label">[268]</span></a> Misit itaque Deus justissimus citissime Angelum Behman quasi +esset fumus (jubendo): Ito et bovem rubrum accipiens mactato in +nomine Dei qui prudentiam dat; eumque coquito in aceto veteri, et cave accurate facias, allio ac rut, superadditis; et in nomine Dei ex +olla effundito: deinde coram eo adpone ut comedat. Cumque portiunculam +panis in llud friasset, Diabolus ille maledictus inde aufugit, +abiit, evanuit et disparuit, nec deinde, illum aliquis postea vidit; +<i>Sadder</i>, p. 94.—The Russian peasants still believe that a household +devil, the damavoi, enters into the stable, who, during the night, +mounts on horses and oxen and makes them sweat and grow lean.—Cfr. +also, on the <i>Damavoi</i>, Ralston's <i>Songs of the Russian people</i>, +London, 1872, pp. 119-139.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_269_269" id="Footnote_269_269"></a><a href="#FNanchor_269_269"><span class="label">[269]</span></a> Cfr. Spiegel's <i>Avesta</i>, vol. ii.; <i>Einleitung</i>, vii.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_270_270" id="Footnote_270_270"></a><a href="#FNanchor_270_270"><span class="label">[270]</span></a> Cfr. Spiegel's <i>Avesta</i>, vol. ii. 21.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_271_271" id="Footnote_271_271"></a><a href="#FNanchor_271_271"><span class="label">[271]</span></a> x. 11.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_272_272" id="Footnote_272_272"></a><a href="#FNanchor_272_272"><span class="label">[272]</span></a> xxix.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_273_273" id="Footnote_273_273"></a><a href="#FNanchor_273_273"><span class="label">[273]</span></a> Cfr. Spiegel's <i>Avesta</i>, vol. ii. p. 8.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_274_274" id="Footnote_274_274"></a><a href="#FNanchor_274_274"><span class="label">[274]</span></a> xix. 99-101. Professor Spiegel translates "Mit dem Hunde, mit +Entscheidung, mit Vieh, mit Strke, mit Tugend, diese bringt die +Seelen der Reinen ber den Harabezaiti hinweg: ber die Brcke +Chinvat bringt sie das Heer der himmlischen Yazatas."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_275_275" id="Footnote_275_275"></a><a href="#FNanchor_275_275"><span class="label">[275]</span></a> Cows and calves, as a funeral gift, are spoken of in the <i>Khorda +Avesta</i>, li. 15, Spiegel's version.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_276_276" id="Footnote_276_276"></a><a href="#FNanchor_276_276"><span class="label">[276]</span></a> Cfr. also the Tistrya with a whole eye of the <i>Khorda Avesta</i> of +Spiegel, p. 9, and all the <i>Tistar Yast</i> in the <i>Khorda Avesta</i>, xxiv. If +Tistar is the moon, Tistrya would appear to perform the same duties +as the good fairy—that is, of showing, by means of her good eyes, her +good eyesight, and her splendour, the way to the lost heroes. The +Hindoo cow of Vasishṭhas, which yields every good thing, and which +then fights in the clouds against Vivmitras, would sometimes appear +to be the moon veiled by the rainy cloud; thus we can explain the rain-giving +character of the star Tistrya, which, according to the <i>Bundehesh</i>, +by raining ten days and ten nights, destroyed the monsters of dryness +created by the demon Ag̃ro-maiṇyus.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_277_277" id="Footnote_277_277"></a><a href="#FNanchor_277_277"><span class="label">[277]</span></a> xxxix. 1.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_278_278" id="Footnote_278_278"></a><a href="#FNanchor_278_278"><span class="label">[278]</span></a> xvii. 25.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_279_279" id="Footnote_279_279"></a><a href="#FNanchor_279_279"><span class="label">[279]</span></a> Spiegel's version, p. 149.—Cfr. the three litanies for the body and +soul of the cow, in the fragments of the same vol. p. 254.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_280_280" id="Footnote_280_280"></a><a href="#FNanchor_280_280"><span class="label">[280]</span></a> <i>Khorda Avesta</i>, Spiegel's version, <i>Einl.</i> x.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_281_281" id="Footnote_281_281"></a><a href="#FNanchor_281_281"><span class="label">[281]</span></a> Spiegel's version, p. 4.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_282_282" id="Footnote_282_282"></a><a href="#FNanchor_282_282"><span class="label">[282]</span></a> These are the exact terms used by Spiegel:—"Dieser opferte der +frhere Vifra-navza, als ihn aufrief der siegreiche, starke Thraetaona, in +der Gestalt eines Vogels, eines Kahrka. Dieser flog dort whrend dreier +Tage und dreier Nchte hin zu seiner eigenen Wohnung, nicht abwrts, +nicht abwrts gelangte er genhrt. Er ging hervor gegen die Morgenrthe +der dritten Nacht, der starken, beim Zerfliessen der Morgenrthe +und betete zur Ardv ra, der fleckenlosen; Ardv ra, fleckenlose! eile mir schnell zu Hlfe, bringe nun mir Beistand, ich will dir tausend +Opfer mit Haoma und Fleisch versehene, gereinigte, wohl ausgesuchte, +bringen hin zu dem Wasser Ragha, wenn ich lebend hinkomme zu der +von Ahura geschaffenen Erde, hin zu meiner Wohnung. Es lief herbei +Ardv ra, die fleckenlose, in Gestalt eines schnen Mdchens, eines +sehr krftigen, wohlgewachsenen, aufgeschrzten, reinen, mit glnzendem +Gesichte, edlen, unten am Fusse mit Schuhen bekleidet, mit +goldnem Diadem auf dem Scheitel. Diese ergriff ihm am Arme, bald +war das, nicht lange dauerte es, dass er hinstrebte krftig zu von Ahura +geschaffenen Erde, gesund, so unverletzt als wie vorher, zu seiner +eignen Wohnung;" <i>Khorda Avesta</i>, pp. 51, 52.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_283_283" id="Footnote_283_283"></a><a href="#FNanchor_283_283"><span class="label">[283]</span></a> Welche zuerst den Wagen fhrt; <i>Khorda Avesta</i>, Spiegel's version, +p. 45.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_284_284" id="Footnote_284_284"></a><a href="#FNanchor_284_284"><span class="label">[284]</span></a> Professor Spiegel says, however, "Vom Aufgang der Sonne bis +Tagesanbruch," which in a note he explains, "Vom Sonnenaufgang +bis Mitternacht," which it appears to us cannot stand scrutiny, any +more than the conclusion inferred from this, that the sacrifice was to +be made "den ganzen Tag hindurch." Zarathustra would not have +been obliged to ask the precise time at which to sacrifice to the goddess, +if she was to answer him in such a general way. What occasion +is there to pray in midday, in full daylight, that the darkness may be +dispersed?—If there be any equivoque, it can only be, in my opinion, +in the rather frequent exchange of the maiden Aurora and the fairy +Moon.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_285_285" id="Footnote_285_285"></a><a href="#FNanchor_285_285"><span class="label">[285]</span></a> Cfr. <i>Khorda Avesta</i>, Spiegel's version, pp. 7, 27.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_286_286" id="Footnote_286_286"></a><a href="#FNanchor_286_286"><span class="label">[286]</span></a> xix. 52.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_287_287" id="Footnote_287_287"></a><a href="#FNanchor_287_287"><span class="label">[287]</span></a> Cfr. the chapter which treats of the Cock.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_288_288" id="Footnote_288_288"></a><a href="#FNanchor_288_288"><span class="label">[288]</span></a> Cfr. <i>Khorda Avesta</i>, Spiegel's version, <i>Einl.</i> xxv., and all the important +<i>Mirh Yast</i>, or collection of hymns in honour of Mithra, in the +<i>Khorda Avesta</i>, xxvi.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_289_289" id="Footnote_289_289"></a><a href="#FNanchor_289_289"><span class="label">[289]</span></a> Cfr. <i>Khorda Avesta</i>, Spiegel's version, <i>Einl.</i> xxxiii., and the +<i>Bahrm Yast</i> in the <i>Khorda Avesta</i>, xxx. 7, Spiegel's version. It is +then that he says of himself, "As to strength, I am the strongest." +Further on it is said that strength belongs to the bull (or the cow).</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_290_290" id="Footnote_290_290"></a><a href="#FNanchor_290_290"><span class="label">[290]</span></a> In a hymn, Indras even calls himself Uan, with the added +denomination of kavis; Ahaṁ kaviruan: <i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 26, 1.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_291_291" id="Footnote_291_291"></a><a href="#FNanchor_291_291"><span class="label">[291]</span></a> <i>Vendidad</i>, xxii. 11.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_292_292" id="Footnote_292_292"></a><a href="#FNanchor_292_292"><span class="label">[292]</span></a> Chap. ix.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_293_293" id="Footnote_293_293"></a><a href="#FNanchor_293_293"><span class="label">[293]</span></a> Cfr. <i>Farvardin Yast</i> in the <i>Khorda Avesta</i>, xxix. 30, Spiegel's +version.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_294_294" id="Footnote_294_294"></a><a href="#FNanchor_294_294"><span class="label">[294]</span></a> Cfr. <i>Khorda Avesta</i>, Spiegel's version, <i>Einleit.</i> xxxiv., and the +<i>Rm Yast</i> in the <i>Khorda Avesta</i>, xxxi. 40.—The 57th strophe appears +to be a real Vedic hymn to the Marutas; the wind is celebrated as the +strongest of the strong, the swiftest of the swift, having arms and +ornaments of gold, a golden wheel and a golden chariot; his golden +shoes and his girdle of gold besides show his sympathy and relation +with the Ardv ra Anhita, who, in the form of aurora, is referred +to in the 55th strophe.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_295_295" id="Footnote_295_295"></a><a href="#FNanchor_295_295"><span class="label">[295]</span></a> Cfr. <i>Khorda Avesta</i>, p. lxix.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_296_296" id="Footnote_296_296"></a><a href="#FNanchor_296_296"><span class="label">[296]</span></a> Cfr. ibid. p. lxi.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_297_297" id="Footnote_297_297"></a><a href="#FNanchor_297_297"><span class="label">[297]</span></a> Denn Verethraghna, der von Ahura geschaffene, hlt die Hnde +zurck der furchtbaren Kampfesreihen, der verbndeten Lnder und +der mithratrgenden Menschen, er umhllt ihr Gesicht, verhllt ihre +Ohren, nicht lsst er ihre Fsse ausschreiten, nicht sind sie mchtig; +<i>Khorda Avesta.</i> xxx. 63, Spiegel's version.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_298_298" id="Footnote_298_298"></a><a href="#FNanchor_298_298"><span class="label">[298]</span></a> Cfr. the <i>Mihr Yast</i> in the <i>Khorda Avesta</i>, xxvi. 128, 129.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_299_299" id="Footnote_299_299"></a><a href="#FNanchor_299_299"><span class="label">[299]</span></a> Cfr. ibid.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_300_300" id="Footnote_300_300"></a><a href="#FNanchor_300_300"><span class="label">[300]</span></a> Urvksha is also called the accumulator; <i>Khorda Avesta</i>, xl. 3, +Spiegel's version.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_301_301" id="Footnote_301_301"></a><a href="#FNanchor_301_301"><span class="label">[301]</span></a> <i>Khorda Avesta</i>, p. 155.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_302_302" id="Footnote_302_302"></a><a href="#FNanchor_302_302"><span class="label">[302]</span></a> <i>Khorda Avesta</i>, xxxiii., Spiegel's version.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_303_303" id="Footnote_303_303"></a><a href="#FNanchor_303_303"><span class="label">[303]</span></a> Mgest du reich an Rindern sein wie (der Sohn) de Athvynischen +(clanes); <i>Khorda Avesta</i>, xl. 4, Spiegel's version.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_304_304" id="Footnote_304_304"></a><a href="#FNanchor_304_304"><span class="label">[304]</span></a> Soll ich zum Himmel aufsteigen, soll ich in die Erde kriechen? +Darauf entgegnete Ahura Mazda: Schne Ashi, vom Schpfer geschaffene! +steige nicht zum Himmel auf, krieche nicht in die Erde; +gehe du hieher in die Mitte der Wohnung eines schnen Knigs; +<i>Khorda Avesta</i>, xxxiii. 59, 60, Spiegel's version.—Cfr. xxxiv. 3, and +following, where are celebrated the handsome husband of the beautiful +Ashis and his rich kingdom.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_305_305" id="Footnote_305_305"></a><a href="#FNanchor_305_305"><span class="label">[305]</span></a> Die Stierkopfkeule in der Rechten schwingend; Schack, <i>Heldensagen +von Firdusi</i>, iv. 2.—Cfr. viii. 9.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_306_306" id="Footnote_306_306"></a><a href="#FNanchor_306_306"><span class="label">[306]</span></a> Die Donnerwolke bin ich, die Blitzeskeule schleudert; Schack, +<i>Heldensagen von Firdusi</i>, v. 5.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_307_307" id="Footnote_307_307"></a><a href="#FNanchor_307_307"><span class="label">[307]</span></a> Die Diwe (the demons) pflegen um Mittagszeit zur Ruhe sich zu +legen; das ist die Stunde sie zu besiegen. Nicht eher schreitet Rustem +zu der That, bis sich die Sonne hoch erhoben hat; <i>Schack, Heldensagen +von Firdusi</i>, v. 5.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_308_308" id="Footnote_308_308"></a><a href="#FNanchor_308_308"><span class="label">[308]</span></a> Ist's Rustem? ist es nicht die Sonne, die durch Morgenwolken +bricht? <i>Schack, Heldensagen von Firdusi</i>, vii. 2.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_309_309" id="Footnote_309_309"></a><a href="#FNanchor_309_309"><span class="label">[309]</span></a> Indeed, this undertaking seems to the ferryman himself so supernatural, +that he says these cannot be called men: "In Wahrheit, +Menschen kann man sie nicht heissen." <i>Schack, Heldensagen von +Firdusi</i>, x. 27.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_310_310" id="Footnote_310_310"></a><a href="#FNanchor_310_310"><span class="label">[310]</span></a> Cfr. Spiegel's <i>Die Alexandersage bei den Orientale</i>, Leipzig, 1851; +and Zacher's <i>Pseudocallisthenes, Forschungen zur Kritik und Geschichte +der ltesten Aufzeichnung der Alexandersage</i>, Halle, 1867.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_311_311" id="Footnote_311_311"></a><a href="#FNanchor_311_311"><span class="label">[311]</span></a> Georg Rosen's version, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1858, 2 vols.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_312_312" id="Footnote_312_312"></a><a href="#FNanchor_312_312"><span class="label">[312]</span></a> Bernhard Jlg's version, Innsbruck, 1867-1868.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_313_313" id="Footnote_313_313"></a><a href="#FNanchor_313_313"><span class="label">[313]</span></a> i. 5.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_314_314" id="Footnote_314_314"></a><a href="#FNanchor_314_314"><span class="label">[314]</span></a> i. 6.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_315_315" id="Footnote_315_315"></a><a href="#FNanchor_315_315"><span class="label">[315]</span></a> <i>Tuti-Name</i>, i. 7.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_316_316" id="Footnote_316_316"></a><a href="#FNanchor_316_316"><span class="label">[316]</span></a> <i>Tuti-Name</i>, i. 13.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_317_317" id="Footnote_317_317"></a><a href="#FNanchor_317_317"><span class="label">[317]</span></a> <i>Tuti-Name</i>, i. 14.—Cfr. Afanassieff, <i>Narodnija ruskija skaski</i>, +vi. 23.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_318_318" id="Footnote_318_318"></a><a href="#FNanchor_318_318"><span class="label">[318]</span></a> iii. 27.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_319_319" id="Footnote_319_319"></a><a href="#FNanchor_319_319"><span class="label">[319]</span></a> ii. 17.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_320_320" id="Footnote_320_320"></a><a href="#FNanchor_320_320"><span class="label">[320]</span></a> <i>Tuti-Name</i>, ii. 19.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_321_321" id="Footnote_321_321"></a><a href="#FNanchor_321_321"><span class="label">[321]</span></a> ii. 21.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_322_322" id="Footnote_322_322"></a><a href="#FNanchor_322_322"><span class="label">[322]</span></a> ii. 28.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_323_323" id="Footnote_323_323"></a><a href="#FNanchor_323_323"><span class="label">[323]</span></a> This story was current in Italy as early as the fifteenth century, +having been related to her son by the mother of the philosopher and +man of letters Pontano, as I find from his biography, published last +year by Professor Tallarigo (Sanseverino-Marche).</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_324_324" id="Footnote_324_324"></a><a href="#FNanchor_324_324"><span class="label">[324]</span></a> ii. 21.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_325_325" id="Footnote_325_325"></a><a href="#FNanchor_325_325"><span class="label">[325]</span></a> <i>Tuti-Name</i>, ii. 25.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_326_326" id="Footnote_326_326"></a><a href="#FNanchor_326_326"><span class="label">[326]</span></a> ii. 24.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_327_327" id="Footnote_327_327"></a><a href="#FNanchor_327_327"><span class="label">[327]</span></a> ii. 26.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_328_328" id="Footnote_328_328"></a><a href="#FNanchor_328_328"><span class="label">[328]</span></a> ii. 28.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_329_329" id="Footnote_329_329"></a><a href="#FNanchor_329_329"><span class="label">[329]</span></a> ii. 29.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_330_330" id="Footnote_330_330"></a><a href="#FNanchor_330_330"><span class="label">[330]</span></a> ii. 29.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_331_331" id="Footnote_331_331"></a><a href="#FNanchor_331_331"><span class="label">[331]</span></a> Cfr. also the chapter on the Hog, where we shall expound the +myths and legends relating to disguises.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_332_332" id="Footnote_332_332"></a><a href="#FNanchor_332_332"><span class="label">[332]</span></a> Cfr. also the chapters on the Lion and the Fox.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_333_333" id="Footnote_333_333"></a><a href="#FNanchor_333_333"><span class="label">[333]</span></a> Cfr. on the story of Perrette, an interesting essay of Professor Max +Mller in the <i>Contemporary Review</i>, 1870.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_334_334" id="Footnote_334_334"></a><a href="#FNanchor_334_334"><span class="label">[334]</span></a> Radloff, <i>Proben der Volkslitteratur der Trkischen Stmme sd-Sibiriens</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_335_335" id="Footnote_335_335"></a><a href="#FNanchor_335_335"><span class="label">[335]</span></a> Professor Schiefner has already compared with this passage a story +published by Ahlquist in his <i>Versuch einer Mokscha-Mordwinischen +Grammatik</i>, p. 97.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_336_336" id="Footnote_336_336"></a><a href="#FNanchor_336_336"><span class="label">[336]</span></a> Kasan, 1836, quoted by Professor Schiefner in the introduction to +the <i>Proben</i>, &c., of Radloff.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_337_337" id="Footnote_337_337"></a><a href="#FNanchor_337_337"><span class="label">[337]</span></a> Cfr., for the meaning of this myth, the chapter which treats of the +Hare.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_338_338" id="Footnote_338_338"></a><a href="#FNanchor_338_338"><span class="label">[338]</span></a> <i>Rune</i>, 7.—Cfr. Castren's <i>Kleinere Schriften</i>, Petersburg, 1862, and +the French translation of the <i>Kalevala</i>, published in 1867 by Leouzon +le Duc.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_339_339" id="Footnote_339_339"></a><a href="#FNanchor_339_339"><span class="label">[339]</span></a> I find combined in the <i>Kleinere Schriften</i> of Castren (p. 25) the +same <i>Ukko</i> with the word <i>Kave</i> (<i>Kave Ukko</i>). I would with diffidence +ask the learned Finnish philologists, whether, as <i>Ukko</i> is a Finnish +form of the deity whom the Hindoos called Indras, and as the hero +protected by Indras, the hero in whom Indras is reproduced, is called +in the Vedic (and Iranian) tradition <i>Kvya Uan</i>, or even <i>Uan +Kavis</i>, the words <i>Kave Ukko</i> may not have some relation to the name +given to the Vedic and Iranian hero?</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_340_340" id="Footnote_340_340"></a><a href="#FNanchor_340_340"><span class="label">[340]</span></a> Vinminen, alt und wahrhaft, konnt durch ihn die Eiche fllen; +<i>Kal.</i> 24, in Castren's <i>Kleinere Schriften</i>, p. 233.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_341_341" id="Footnote_341_341"></a><a href="#FNanchor_341_341"><span class="label">[341]</span></a> Nur aus Trauer ward die Harfe, nur aus Kummer sie geschaffen; +harten Tagen ist die Wlbung, ist das Stammholz zu verdanken, nur +Verdruss spannt ihre Saiten, andre Mhsal macht die Wirbel; <i>Kanteletar</i>, +i., quoted by Castren in the <i>Kleinere Schriften</i>, p. 277.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_342_342" id="Footnote_342_342"></a><a href="#FNanchor_342_342"><span class="label">[342]</span></a> The origin of the bad and poor mythical iron, described in the <i>Kalevala</i>, +is one of these: the mythical iron is the cloudy or tenebrous sky. The +description is original, but the myths to which it refers are known to +Indo-Europeans; as, for instance, the honey which becomes poison.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_343_343" id="Footnote_343_343"></a><a href="#FNanchor_343_343"><span class="label">[343]</span></a> <i>Ehsthnische Mrchen</i> aufgezeichnet von Fried. Kreuzwald, aus +dem Ehsthnischen, bersetzt von F. Lwe, with notes by A. Schiefner +and R. Khler, Halle, 1869.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_344_344" id="Footnote_344_344"></a><a href="#FNanchor_344_344"><span class="label">[344]</span></a> This is the phenomenon which occurs in the winter solstice on +Christmas Eve and that of New Year's Day, in which we pass from +one year to another; in one night we become older by a year.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_345_345" id="Footnote_345_345"></a><a href="#FNanchor_345_345"><span class="label">[345]</span></a> In a popular Swedish song, the maiden Gundela, who plays marvellously +upon the harp, and, in order to play it, demands the king to +marry her, is also a shepherdess.—Cfr. <i>Schwedische Volkslieder der +Vorzeit</i>, bertragen von Warrens, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1857.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_346_346" id="Footnote_346_346"></a><a href="#FNanchor_346_346"><span class="label">[346]</span></a> Cfr. the note of F. Lwe, illustrating this passage, in his version +of the collection of Kreuzwald, pp. 144 and 145.—[This is also a +myth of easy interpretation, if I am not mistaken: at evening, the +sun loses his rays; the lion, the hero, loses his nails; these nails are +picked up by the demoniacal monster, who forms out of them a hat +(the gloom of night, or the clouds), by which the wearer has the +gift of seeing without being seen. The magician who sees with his +eyes shut is an interesting variation of this subject.]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_347_347" id="Footnote_347_347"></a><a href="#FNanchor_347_347"><span class="label">[347]</span></a> A similar antithesis is found in a Hungarian proverb, communicated +to me by my learned friend Count Geza Kunn, together with +other notices of Hungarian beliefs relating to animals. This proverb +is as follows: "Even the black cow's milk is white." The black cow +is spoken of in two other Hungarian proverbs; one says, "The black +cow has not trodden upon his heel," meaning that no misfortune has +happened to him; it is the usual vulnerable heel, the heel of Achilles, +the posterior part, for which is substituted sometimes, as we shall see +in the chapter on the Fox and the Serpent, the tail or extreme hind +part. Another proverb is, "In the dark all cows are black;" but it +does not seem to have any mythical importance.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_348_348" id="Footnote_348_348"></a><a href="#FNanchor_348_348"><span class="label">[348]</span></a> These last have already been translated into English, and illustrated, +by W. R. S. Ralston, M.A. The <i>Narodnija Skaski</i> sabrannija +selskimi ućiteliami, isdanie A. A. Erlenwein (Moskva 1863), and the +more voluminous N. Aphanasieva, <i>Narodnija ruskija skaski</i>, Isd. 2 +(Moskva 1860, 1861), have not thus far been translated into other +European languages. I have therefore thought fit to make copious +quotations from them as well for the use of Western readers, as on +account of the real importance of their mythical contents, whilst +awaiting the publication of the competent work which Mr Ralston is +expressly preparing upon Russian songs.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_349_349" id="Footnote_349_349"></a><a href="#FNanchor_349_349"><span class="label">[349]</span></a> iii. 8805, and following.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_350_350" id="Footnote_350_350"></a><a href="#FNanchor_350_350"><span class="label">[350]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, ii. 29.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_351_351" id="Footnote_351_351"></a><a href="#FNanchor_351_351"><span class="label">[351]</span></a> iv. 45.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_352_352" id="Footnote_352_352"></a><a href="#FNanchor_352_352"><span class="label">[352]</span></a> This subject is already given in <i>sop's Fables</i>, in the twenty-first +fable (ed. Del Furia, Florence, 1809): the man prays to a wooden +idol (xlinon theon) that it may make him rich; the statue does not +answer; he breaks it to pieces, and gold comes out of it.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_353_353" id="Footnote_353_353"></a><a href="#FNanchor_353_353"><span class="label">[353]</span></a> Seventeenth story.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_354_354" id="Footnote_354_354"></a><a href="#FNanchor_354_354"><span class="label">[354]</span></a> Cfr. also in <i>Afanassieff</i>, the story, v. 19.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_355_355" id="Footnote_355_355"></a><a href="#FNanchor_355_355"><span class="label">[355]</span></a> Cfr. also, for the variations, the twenty-second of <i>Erlenwein</i>, and +iii. 24, of <i>Afanassieff</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_356_356" id="Footnote_356_356"></a><a href="#FNanchor_356_356"><span class="label">[356]</span></a> Story 54.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_357_357" id="Footnote_357_357"></a><a href="#FNanchor_357_357"><span class="label">[357]</span></a> Cfr. the first story of my collection of the <i>Novelline di Santo +Stefano di Calcinaia</i>, Torino, A. F. Negro, 1869. I am also acquainted +with a Piedmontese variation, differing but little from this Tuscan +story.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_358_358" id="Footnote_358_358"></a><a href="#FNanchor_358_358"><span class="label">[358]</span></a> In the story, ii. 27, of the collection of <i>Afanassieff</i>, the beautiful +princess, near the sea, combs the youngest son of the Tzar, who goes to +sleep.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_359_359" id="Footnote_359_359"></a><a href="#FNanchor_359_359"><span class="label">[359]</span></a> Cfr. the chapter on the Goat.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_360_360" id="Footnote_360_360"></a><a href="#FNanchor_360_360"><span class="label">[360]</span></a> v. 37.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_361_361" id="Footnote_361_361"></a><a href="#FNanchor_361_361"><span class="label">[361]</span></a> v. 50.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_362_362" id="Footnote_362_362"></a><a href="#FNanchor_362_362"><span class="label">[362]</span></a> v. 9.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_363_363" id="Footnote_363_363"></a><a href="#FNanchor_363_363"><span class="label">[363]</span></a> In Lafontaine, <i>Fables</i>, vii. 1, the animal sacrificed is the ass.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_364_364" id="Footnote_364_364"></a><a href="#FNanchor_364_364"><span class="label">[364]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, iv. 20-22.—In a Lithuanian song, which describes +the nuptials of animals, the bull appears as a woodcutter or woodman.—Cfr. +Uhland's <i>Schriften zur Geschichte der Dichtung und Sage</i>, iii. 75.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_365_365" id="Footnote_365_365"></a><a href="#FNanchor_365_365"><span class="label">[365]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, v. 6.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_366_366" id="Footnote_366_366"></a><a href="#FNanchor_366_366"><span class="label">[366]</span></a> Cfr. the chapter which treats of the Wolf.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_367_367" id="Footnote_367_367"></a><a href="#FNanchor_367_367"><span class="label">[367]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, v. 41.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_368_368" id="Footnote_368_368"></a><a href="#FNanchor_368_368"><span class="label">[368]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, iv. 1.—In another variation of the same myth, which +we have already referred to in the Vedic hymns, the birds come, on +the contrary, out of a horse.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_369_369" id="Footnote_369_369"></a><a href="#FNanchor_369_369"><span class="label">[369]</span></a> v. 54.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_370_370" id="Footnote_370_370"></a><a href="#FNanchor_370_370"><span class="label">[370]</span></a> Cfr. <i>Afanassieff</i>, v. 54, and the chapters on the Fish and the Eel.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_371_371" id="Footnote_371_371"></a><a href="#FNanchor_371_371"><span class="label">[371]</span></a> I read in the travels of Olearius in Persia during the year 1638, +French translation: "Les Persans disent que la montagne de Kilissim +a une telle proprit que tous ceux qui y montent n'en descendent +point; que le schach Abas obligea un jour un de ses chasseurs, en lui +promettant une grosse somme d'argent, monter sur cette montagne, +et qu'il y monta effectivement, l'ayant fait connotre par le feu qu'il +alluma; mais qu'il n'en descendit point, et que l'on ne sait point ce +qu'il devint avec son chien, qu'il menait avec lui."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_372_372" id="Footnote_372_372"></a><a href="#FNanchor_372_372"><span class="label">[372]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, iv. 9.—In the well-known English story of <i>Jack and +the Bean-stalk</i>, it is the giant who is killed by the fall from heaven, +when Jack cuts the bean-stalk close to the ground.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_373_373" id="Footnote_373_373"></a><a href="#FNanchor_373_373"><span class="label">[373]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, iv. 7.—Cfr. the chapter on the Fox.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_374_374" id="Footnote_374_374"></a><a href="#FNanchor_374_374"><span class="label">[374]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, v. 12, and vi. 2.—Cfr. the chapters on the Goat, the +Fox, the Wolf, and the Duck, where other episodes of this legend are +found again.—In the twelfth story of the fifth book of <i>Afanassieff</i>, +the old man goes up to heaven to call God to account for the peas +that He has taken from the top of the pea-plant; God gives him in +exchange stockings of gold and garters of silver.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_375_375" id="Footnote_375_375"></a><a href="#FNanchor_375_375"><span class="label">[375]</span></a> Cfr. also v. 24.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_376_376" id="Footnote_376_376"></a><a href="#FNanchor_376_376"><span class="label">[376]</span></a> v. 55.—Cfr. also vi. 22.—Cfr. the <i>Contes et Proverbes Populaires +recueillis en Armagnac</i>, par Blad (Paris, 1867), where the foolish and +lazy one occurs again under the name of Joan Lou Pigre.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_377_377" id="Footnote_377_377"></a><a href="#FNanchor_377_377"><span class="label">[377]</span></a> Cfr. also the two variations in <i>Afanassieff</i>, vi. 25.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_378_378" id="Footnote_378_378"></a><a href="#FNanchor_378_378"><span class="label">[378]</span></a> +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Po malu, malu, sestritze, grai<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nie vraszi ti mav serdienk vkrai!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ti-sz mini szradila<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sza krasni yagodki, sza ćorvonni ćobotki!<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +Also cfr. the chapter on the Peacock.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_379_379" id="Footnote_379_379"></a><a href="#FNanchor_379_379"><span class="label">[379]</span></a> In the Festival of the Epiphany, which is also a festival of the +husband and wife, the good fairy is accustomed to bring to the child, +husband, and wife, a boot or a stocking full of presents. This nuptial +boot occurs again in the English custom of throwing a slipper after a +newly-married couple. Another meaning was also given to the slippers +which are thrown away in the popular belief. Instead of being the +heroine's shoes which, having been abandoned, serve to attract and +guide the predestined husband, they are also considered as the old +shoes which the devil leaves behind him when he flees (his tail, which +betrays itself). The Germanic wild huntress Gueroryssa, another form +of the Frau Holle—the phantom of winter expelled at Epiphany—is +represented with a serpent's tail. Hence in the German carnival the +use of the <i>Schuh-teufel laufen</i>, or running in the devil's slippers.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_380_380" id="Footnote_380_380"></a><a href="#FNanchor_380_380"><span class="label">[380]</span></a> Cfr. <i>Afanassieff</i>, v. 4, and the chapter on the Stork.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_381_381" id="Footnote_381_381"></a><a href="#FNanchor_381_381"><span class="label">[381]</span></a> Cfr. <i>Afanassieff</i>, ii. 25, ii. 28, iv. 47, v. 37.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_382_382" id="Footnote_382_382"></a><a href="#FNanchor_382_382"><span class="label">[382]</span></a> The <i>mre sotte</i> has become proverbial in France, where, in the +sixteenth century, Pierre Gringore wrote a satirical comedy with the +title of <i>Le Jeu de Mre Sotte</i>, in which the Mre Sotte is the Catholic +Church.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_383_383" id="Footnote_383_383"></a><a href="#FNanchor_383_383"><span class="label">[383]</span></a> A similar story, which, on account of its indecent details, I was +not able to publish in my collection of the <i>Novelline di Santo Stefano +di Calcinaia</i>, is narrated upon the hills of Signa, near Florence. It is +also told, with some variations, in Piedmont.—Cfr. a Russian variety +of the same story in the chapter on the Hen.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_384_384" id="Footnote_384_384"></a><a href="#FNanchor_384_384"><span class="label">[384]</span></a> <i>Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia</i>, 22.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_385_385" id="Footnote_385_385"></a><a href="#FNanchor_385_385"><span class="label">[385]</span></a> Cfr. the chapter on the Fishes.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_386_386" id="Footnote_386_386"></a><a href="#FNanchor_386_386"><span class="label">[386]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, vi. 59.—But in the tale v. 11, he knows how to +fight well.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_387_387" id="Footnote_387_387"></a><a href="#FNanchor_387_387"><span class="label">[387]</span></a> In England the monster smells the blood of an Englishman, as in +the familiar lines in <i>Jack the Giant-Killer</i>— +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Fe fo fum,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I smell the blood of an Englishman;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Be he alive or be he dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I'll grind his bones to make my bread."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="Footnote_388_388" id="Footnote_388_388"></a><a href="#FNanchor_388_388"><span class="label">[388]</span></a> Cfr. Teza, <i>The Three Golden Hairs of the Grandfather Know-all</i>, +a Bohemian tale (<i>I tre Capelli d'oro del Nonno Satutto</i>, Bologna, 1866).</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_389_389" id="Footnote_389_389"></a><a href="#FNanchor_389_389"><span class="label">[389]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, ii. 7.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_390_390" id="Footnote_390_390"></a><a href="#FNanchor_390_390"><span class="label">[390]</span></a> v. 11.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_391_391" id="Footnote_391_391"></a><a href="#FNanchor_391_391"><span class="label">[391]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, v. 7, 8.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_392_392" id="Footnote_392_392"></a><a href="#FNanchor_392_392"><span class="label">[392]</span></a> iv. 46.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_393_393" id="Footnote_393_393"></a><a href="#FNanchor_393_393"><span class="label">[393]</span></a> v. 6; <i>Erlenwein</i>, 7.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_394_394" id="Footnote_394_394"></a><a href="#FNanchor_394_394"><span class="label">[394]</span></a> <i>Erlenwein</i>, 5.—In the first story of <i>Erlenwein</i>, the last-born, +Vaniusha (Little John), takes from disputing peasants, by a stratagem, +first a marvellous arrow, then a hat which makes the wearer invisible, +and, finally, a mantle which flies of itself. He promises to divide +them equitably, and for this service makes them pay him beforehand, +each of the three times, a hundred roubles; he then throws the +objects far away and says, that he who is able to find them will have +them; all search, but he alone finds them. (Thus Arǵunas, in the +<i>Mahbhratam</i>, hides his wonderful arms in the trunk of a tree, in +which he alone can find them.)</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_395_395" id="Footnote_395_395"></a><a href="#FNanchor_395_395"><span class="label">[395]</span></a> Cfr. Schiefner, <i>Zur Russischen Heldensage</i>, Petersburg, 1861. +This is how the hero Svyatogor is described in a Russian popular epic +song cited by Ralston (<i>The Songs of the Russian people</i>): "There comes +a hero taller than the standing woods, whose head reaches to the fleeting +clouds, bearing on his shoulders a crystal coffer."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_396_396" id="Footnote_396_396"></a><a href="#FNanchor_396_396"><span class="label">[396]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, vi. 41.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_397_397" id="Footnote_397_397"></a><a href="#FNanchor_397_397"><span class="label">[397]</span></a> v. 31, and <i>Erlenwein</i>, 16.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_398_398" id="Footnote_398_398"></a><a href="#FNanchor_398_398"><span class="label">[398]</span></a> v. 32.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_399_399" id="Footnote_399_399"></a><a href="#FNanchor_399_399"><span class="label">[399]</span></a> vi. 27.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_400_400" id="Footnote_400_400"></a><a href="#FNanchor_400_400"><span class="label">[400]</span></a> adis v niev, i leti kuda nadobno; da po daroghie zabiri k sebi +vsikavo vstriećnavo.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_401_401" id="Footnote_401_401"></a><a href="#FNanchor_401_401"><span class="label">[401]</span></a> Na karabli niet ni adnav pna, a vsi crnie ludi.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_402_402" id="Footnote_402_402"></a><a href="#FNanchor_402_402"><span class="label">[402]</span></a> Cfr. <i>Afanassieff</i>, v. 23.—Ice, in the form of an old man, comes to +try the boiling bath into which the king of the sea wishes to throw the +young hero; when Ice has tried the bath, the youth enters it without +suffering any harm.—The trial of drinking occurs again in a grandiose +form in the combat between Loki and Thor to empty the cup in the +Edda of Snorri, a different form of the Hindoo legend of Agastyas, +who dries up the sea.—Odin, too, as Indras and as Bhmas, at three +gulps dries up three lakes of mead.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_403_403" id="Footnote_403_403"></a><a href="#FNanchor_403_403"><span class="label">[403]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, v. 42.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_404_404" id="Footnote_404_404"></a><a href="#FNanchor_404_404"><span class="label">[404]</span></a> Cfr. the chapters on the Hare and the Quail.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_405_405" id="Footnote_405_405"></a><a href="#FNanchor_405_405"><span class="label">[405]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, vi. 28, and ii. 31.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_406_406" id="Footnote_406_406"></a><a href="#FNanchor_406_406"><span class="label">[406]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, vi. 20.—Cfr. i. 3, and ii. 31, where we have the +same particular of the prince who strikes three times the disguised girl +who serves him, as in the Tuscan story of the Wooden Top (the +puppet), the third in my collection of the <i>Novelline di Santo Stefano +di Calcinaia</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_407_407" id="Footnote_407_407"></a><a href="#FNanchor_407_407"><span class="label">[407]</span></a> iv. 44.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_408_408" id="Footnote_408_408"></a><a href="#FNanchor_408_408"><span class="label">[408]</span></a> Cfr. next chapter.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_409_409" id="Footnote_409_409"></a><a href="#FNanchor_409_409"><span class="label">[409]</span></a> Cfr. the chapter on the Spider.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_410_410" id="Footnote_410_410"></a><a href="#FNanchor_410_410"><span class="label">[410]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, ii. 29, and iv. 45.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_411_411" id="Footnote_411_411"></a><a href="#FNanchor_411_411"><span class="label">[411]</span></a> v. 23.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_412_412" id="Footnote_412_412"></a><a href="#FNanchor_412_412"><span class="label">[412]</span></a> v. 42.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_413_413" id="Footnote_413_413"></a><a href="#FNanchor_413_413"><span class="label">[413]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, v. 27.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_414_414" id="Footnote_414_414"></a><a href="#FNanchor_414_414"><span class="label">[414]</span></a> Cfr. the chapter which treats of the Eagle, the Vulture, and the +Falcon.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_415_415" id="Footnote_415_415"></a><a href="#FNanchor_415_415"><span class="label">[415]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, vi. 52.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_416_416" id="Footnote_416_416"></a><a href="#FNanchor_416_416"><span class="label">[416]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, vi. 63.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_417_417" id="Footnote_417_417"></a><a href="#FNanchor_417_417"><span class="label">[417]</span></a> vi. 51.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_418_418" id="Footnote_418_418"></a><a href="#FNanchor_418_418"><span class="label">[418]</span></a> In the story, vi. 52, Ivan, by playing in a marvellous manner on +a flute, is recognised by the princess whom he had delivered from the +monster.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_419_419" id="Footnote_419_419"></a><a href="#FNanchor_419_419"><span class="label">[419]</span></a> Cf. next chapter.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_420_420" id="Footnote_420_420"></a><a href="#FNanchor_420_420"><span class="label">[420]</span></a> We find the blind-lame man again in an epigram by Ausonius of +Bordeaux, a writer of the fourth century:— +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Insidens cco graditur pede claudus utroque,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Quo caret alteruter, sumit ab alterutro.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ccus namque pedes claudo gressumque ministrat,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">At claudus cco lumina, pro pedibus."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="Footnote_421_421" id="Footnote_421_421"></a><a href="#FNanchor_421_421"><span class="label">[421]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, v. 39.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_422_422" id="Footnote_422_422"></a><a href="#FNanchor_422_422"><span class="label">[422]</span></a> The student who wishes to extend his researches in Slavonic tradition +may consult with profit, among others, the following works:—Schwenck, +<i>Mythologie der Slaven</i>; Hanusch, <i>Slavische Mythologie</i>; Woycicki, <i>Polnische Mrchen</i>; Schleicher, <i>Littauische Mrchen</i>; Wenzig, +<i>Westslavischer Mrchenschatz</i>; Kapper, <i>Die Gesnge der Serben</i>; Chodzko, +<i>Contes des Paysans et des Ptres Slaves</i>; Teza, <i>Itre Capelli d'oro del +Nonno Satutto</i>, a Bohemian story; Mikiević, <i>Canti Popolari Illirici</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_423_423" id="Footnote_423_423"></a><a href="#FNanchor_423_423"><span class="label">[423]</span></a> <i>Les Eddas</i>, traduites de l'ancien idiome Scandinave par Mdlle. du +Puget, 2me dition, p. 16.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_424_424" id="Footnote_424_424"></a><a href="#FNanchor_424_424"><span class="label">[424]</span></a> Kuhn und Schwartz, <i>Norddeutsche Sagen, Mrchen und Gebruche</i>, +p. 501.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_425_425" id="Footnote_425_425"></a><a href="#FNanchor_425_425"><span class="label">[425]</span></a> <i>Handbuch der Deutschen Mythologie</i>, mit Einschluss der nordischen, +2te. aufl. p. 437.—We find also in Eginhardus (<i>Vita Caroli +Magni</i>): "Quocumque eundum erat, carpento ibat, quod bubus junctis +et bubulco rustico more agente, trahebatur."—The bull is a symbol of +generation; the man who fears the bull is a stupid and ridiculous +eunuch. We find in Du Cange, Lit. Remiss, ann. 1397, "Le suppliant, +lui dist, Eudet, vous avz un toreau qui purte les gens et ne +osent aler aux champs pour luy; lequel Eudet luy respondis: as tu +nom Jehannot?" Faire Johan dicitur mulier, qu marito fidem non +servat (a variety of the Mongol Srya Bagatur).</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_426_426" id="Footnote_426_426"></a><a href="#FNanchor_426_426"><span class="label">[426]</span></a> Recorded by Cox, <i>Mythology of the Aryan Nations</i>, vol. i. p. 438, +when speaking of the Hellenic myth of Zeus and Eurp.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_427_427" id="Footnote_427_427"></a><a href="#FNanchor_427_427"><span class="label">[427]</span></a> Cfr. Kuhn, <i>Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Gttertranks</i>, p. +181 and following.—In Du Cange, <i>Glossarium Medi et Infim +Latinitatis</i>, s. v. Acannizare, we read an extract of a paper of Jacob, i. +<i>Regis Arag.</i> fol. 16: "Quicunque Acannizaverit vaccam vel bovem, si +bos vel vacca fecerit damnum casu fortuito, dum Acannizatur, cujus +est amittat ipsum bovem vel vaccam, nisi Acannizetur causa nuptiarum;" +and in Du Cange also: "Ut in anserem ludendo baculos +torquere in usu fuit, ita et in bovem."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_428_428" id="Footnote_428_428"></a><a href="#FNanchor_428_428"><span class="label">[428]</span></a> <i>Die Deutsche Heldensage</i>, von Wilhelm Grimm, 2te Aus., No +102, 182.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_429_429" id="Footnote_429_429"></a><a href="#FNanchor_429_429"><span class="label">[429]</span></a> Cfr. the chapter on the Goat and He-goat for more information +on mythical horns.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_430_430" id="Footnote_430_430"></a><a href="#FNanchor_430_430"><span class="label">[430]</span></a> <i>Vide</i> p. 497.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_431_431" id="Footnote_431_431"></a><a href="#FNanchor_431_431"><span class="label">[431]</span></a> Diese Brcke wird keine andere sein, als die himmlische Bfrst, +deren er htet, eine Vermuthung, die noch an Wahrscheinlichkeit +gewinnt, wenn man den friesischen Namen der Milchstrasse Kaupat, +der Kuhpfad, hinzunimmt; denn Milchstrasse und Regenbogen berhren +einander sehr nahe. Dieser ist die Tagesbrcke zwischen Gttern +und Menschen, jene die nchtliche.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_432_432" id="Footnote_432_432"></a><a href="#FNanchor_432_432"><span class="label">[432]</span></a> Rothe Khe geben auch weisse Milch; Wander, <i>Deutsches Sprichwrter +Lexicon</i>, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1870.</p> + +<p><a name="FNanchor_433_433" id="FNanchor_433_433"></a><a href="#Footnote_433_433" class="fnanchor"></a><a name="Footnote_433_433" id="Footnote_433_433"></a><a href="#FNanchor_433_433"><span class="label">[433]</span></a> Auch eine schwarze Kuh gibt weisse Milch; Wander, <i>ibid.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_434_434" id="Footnote_434_434"></a><a href="#FNanchor_434_434"><span class="label">[434]</span></a> This reminds us of the familiar English riddle, "How many cows' +tails would it take to reach the moon? One, if it were long enough."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_435_435" id="Footnote_435_435"></a><a href="#FNanchor_435_435"><span class="label">[435]</span></a> Wenn die Kuh gestohlen ist, verwahrt man den Stall.—Wer eine +Kuh verloren und den Schwanz zurck erhlt, hat nicht viel, aber +mehr als nichts.—Die Kuh knnte mit dem Schwanze bis an den +Himmel reichen, wenn er nur lang genug wre.—Une vache ne sceit +que lui vault sa queue jusques elle l'a perdue.—Die Kuh beim +Schwanz fassen.—Die schwarze Kuh hat ihn gedrckt.—Eine Kuh +kann keinen Hasen erlaufen.—Die Kuh berluft einen Hasen.—Nicht +alle, die Hrner blasen, jagen Hasen.—Wenn die Khe lachen.—Wie +eine blinde Kuh eine Erbse findet.—Den sollt man in einer alten +Kuhhaut herumfahren.—Soll die Kuhmagd spinnen, wird man wenig +Garn gewinnen.—Man wrde eher einer Kuh spinnen lehren; Wander's +<i>Lexicon of German Proverbs</i>, ii. 1666-1695.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_436_436" id="Footnote_436_436"></a><a href="#FNanchor_436_436"><span class="label">[436]</span></a> Livius i.: "Quia si, agendo, armentum in speluncam compulisset, +ipsa vestigia qurentem dominum eo deductura erant, aversos boves +eximium quemque pulchritudine caudis in speluncam traxit."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_437_437" id="Footnote_437_437"></a><a href="#FNanchor_437_437"><span class="label">[437]</span></a> <i>Faceti</i>, Krakau, 1592, quoted by Benfey in his introduction to the <i>Pańćatantram</i>, Leipzig, Brockhaus, p. 323: "Quia testiculi mei +quadraginta annos pependerunt casuro similes et nunquam ceciderant."—And +in Lessing, xi. 250, we read of Lachmann-Maltzahn: "De +vulpe quadam asini testiculos manducandi cupido."—In Aldrovandi, +<i>De Quadrupedibus Bisulcis</i>, i. Bologna, 1642, we read, "Membrum +tauri in aceto maceratum et illitum, splendidam, teste secto, facit +faciem; Rasis ait, genitale tauri rubri aridum tritum, et aurei pondere +propinatum mulieri, fastidium coitus afferre; e contrario quidam recentiores, +ut in viris Venerem excitent, tauri membrum cteris hujus +facultatibus admiscent."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_438_438" id="Footnote_438_438"></a><a href="#FNanchor_438_438"><span class="label">[438]</span></a> Wenn auch der Kuhschwanz wackelt, so fllt er doch nicht ab; +in Wander, <i>Deutsches Sprichwrter Lexicon</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_439_439" id="Footnote_439_439"></a><a href="#FNanchor_439_439"><span class="label">[439]</span></a> v. 8.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_440_440" id="Footnote_440_440"></a><a href="#FNanchor_440_440"><span class="label">[440]</span></a> Referred to by Khler in <i>Orient und Occident</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_441_441" id="Footnote_441_441"></a><a href="#FNanchor_441_441"><span class="label">[441]</span></a> iv. 15.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_442_442" id="Footnote_442_442"></a><a href="#FNanchor_442_442"><span class="label">[442]</span></a> Whence the proverb quoted above, relating to the stable that is +shut when the cow is stolen, is also quoted as follows: "Shutting the +stable when the horse has been stolen."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_443_443" id="Footnote_443_443"></a><a href="#FNanchor_443_443"><span class="label">[443]</span></a> Cfr. the chapter on the Wolf, where the dwarf enters the wolf by +his mouth and comes out by his tail.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_444_444" id="Footnote_444_444"></a><a href="#FNanchor_444_444"><span class="label">[444]</span></a> In a Russian story, in <i>Afanassieff</i>, vi. 2, when the old peasant +(the old sun) falls from the sky into a marsh (the sea of night), a duck +(the moon or the aurora) comes to make its nest and lay an egg upon +his head; the peasant clutches hold of its tail; the duck struggles and draws the peasant out of the marsh (the sun out of the night), +and the peasant with the duck and its egg flies and returns to his +house (the sky whence he had fallen).—In a variation of the same story +in <i>Afanassieff</i> (the two stories together refer to that of Aristomenes) +the old man falls from heaven into the mud. A fox places seven +young foxes on his head. A wolf comes to eat the young foxes; the +peasant catches hold of his tail; the wolf, by one pull, draws him out; +by another, leaves his tail in the peasant's hand. The tail of the wolf +of night is the morning aurora.—In the story of <i>Turn-Little-Pea</i>, +<i>Afanassieff</i>, iii. 2, the young hero enters into the horse after having +taken off his (black) hide, and after having taken him by the tail, <i>i.e.</i>, +he becomes the luminous horse of the sun.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_445_445" id="Footnote_445_445"></a><a href="#FNanchor_445_445"><span class="label">[445]</span></a> In the Russian story of lazy and stupid Emilius, who makes his +fortune, the hero is shut up in a barrel with the heroine, and thrown +into the sea: the sun and the aurora, made prisoners, and shut up +together, cross together the sea of night.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_446_446" id="Footnote_446_446"></a><a href="#FNanchor_446_446"><span class="label">[446]</span></a> Wenn sich eine Kuh auf die Eier legt, so erwarte keine Hhner; +Wander, the work quoted before.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_447_447" id="Footnote_447_447"></a><a href="#FNanchor_447_447"><span class="label">[447]</span></a> In the Russian story of <i>Afanassieff</i>, v. 36, the hero-workman +kills the monster-serpent by gambling with him for the price of his +own skin. Thinking that he may lose, he has provided himself beforehand +with seven ox hides and with iron claws. He loses seven times; +each time the monster thinks he has him in his power, but the workman +as often imposes upon him with an ox's hide, inducing him to +believe that it is his own. At last the serpent loses, and the workman, +with his iron claws, really takes off his skin, upon which the +serpent dies. To take the sack or hide from the monster, to burn the +skin of the monster-serpent, goat, hog, frog, &c., to burn the enchanted +mantle or hood in which the hero is wrapped up, is the same as to kill +the monster.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_448_448" id="Footnote_448_448"></a><a href="#FNanchor_448_448"><span class="label">[448]</span></a> See the chapter on the Wolf.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_449_449" id="Footnote_449_449"></a><a href="#FNanchor_449_449"><span class="label">[449]</span></a> For the German one, cfr. Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 199.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_450_450" id="Footnote_450_450"></a><a href="#FNanchor_450_450"><span class="label">[450]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, ii. 17.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_451_451" id="Footnote_451_451"></a><a href="#FNanchor_451_451"><span class="label">[451]</span></a> Acarnides insutus pelle juvenci; Ovidius, <i>In Ibin</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_452_452" id="Footnote_452_452"></a><a href="#FNanchor_452_452"><span class="label">[452]</span></a> Khler, <i>Ueber T. F. Campbell's Sammlung glischer Mrchen</i>, in +<i>Orient und Occident</i>.—Cfr. the 30th of the <i>Novelline di Santo Stefano +di Calcinaia</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_453_453" id="Footnote_453_453"></a><a href="#FNanchor_453_453"><span class="label">[453]</span></a> Khler, the work quoted above.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_454_454" id="Footnote_454_454"></a><a href="#FNanchor_454_454"><span class="label">[454]</span></a> To this myth of the cow which goes over the moon, the observation +of a lunar eclipse might have contributed materially, in which +the cow earth (in Sanskṛit, <i>go</i> means earth as well as cow) really +passes over the moon or hare. Or else, the cloud and the night, as a +black cow, very frequently goes over the hare or moon.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_455_455" id="Footnote_455_455"></a><a href="#FNanchor_455_455"><span class="label">[455]</span></a> In the Russian superstition, when a hare passes between the +wheels of the vehicle which carries a newly-married couple, it bodes +misfortune; nor is this without reason: the hare is the moon; the +moon is the protectress of marriages; if she throws obstacles in the +way, the marriage cannot be happy; consequently, marriages in India +were celebrated at full moon.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_456_456" id="Footnote_456_456"></a><a href="#FNanchor_456_456"><span class="label">[456]</span></a> Die Kuh, die viel brllt, gibt nicht die meiste Milch.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_457_457" id="Footnote_457_457"></a><a href="#FNanchor_457_457"><span class="label">[457]</span></a> Phalnm phalam anoti tad dattv; <i>Mahbhratam</i>, iii. 13, 423.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_458_458" id="Footnote_458_458"></a><a href="#FNanchor_458_458"><span class="label">[458]</span></a> In the German legend of King Volmar, in Simrock, the work +quoted before, p. 451, we find the peas in the ashes. In the seventh +of the <i>Contes Merveilleux</i> of Porchat, we have the pot in which the +cabbages are boiled, from which come forth money and partridges. In +the sixth of the same <i>Contes Merveilleux</i>, the young curioso sees a nest +upon an elm-tree, and wishes to climb up; the ascent never comes to +an end; the tree takes him up near to heaven. On the summit of +the elm-tree there is a nest, from which comes forth a beautiful fair-haired +maiden (the moon).</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_459_459" id="Footnote_459_459"></a><a href="#FNanchor_459_459"><span class="label">[459]</span></a> i. 53.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_460_460" id="Footnote_460_460"></a><a href="#FNanchor_460_460"><span class="label">[460]</span></a> In the story, vi. 58, of <i>Afanassieff</i>, the honest workman, when he +wishes to fix his eyes upon the princess who never laughs, falls into a +marsh; the fish, the beetle, and the mouse, in gratitude, clean him +again; then the princess laughs for the first time, and marries the +honest workman. In the 25th of the <i>Novelline di Santo Stefano</i>, an +analogous detail is found, but this is not enough to make the princess +laugh; it is the eagles which draw after themselves everything they +touch that accomplish the miracle of making the queen's daughter +laugh. In the third story of the <i>Pentameron</i>, the princess laughs +upon seeing Pervonto carried by the faggot of wood, instead of carrying +it. The Russian stories of the ducks which save the hero, in +<i>Afanassieff</i>, vi. 17-19, and the faithless wife and her lover bound +together, are variations of the eagles of the Tuscan story.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_461_461" id="Footnote_461_461"></a><a href="#FNanchor_461_461"><span class="label">[461]</span></a> <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, v. 46, 8; v. 43, 6; i. 61, 8.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_462_462" id="Footnote_462_462"></a><a href="#FNanchor_462_462"><span class="label">[462]</span></a> In the <i>Nibelungen</i>, Krmhilt, who has never saluted any one, +(diu nie gruozte reeken), salutes for the first time the young Sfrit, the +victorious and predestined hero, and, whilst she is saluting him, turns +the colour of flame (do erzunde sich sn varwe).</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_463_463" id="Footnote_463_463"></a><a href="#FNanchor_463_463"><span class="label">[463]</span></a> In a medival paper in Du Cange, s. v. <i>Abocellus</i>, we read: "De +quodam cco vaccarum custode," who, "quod colores et staturam +vaccarum singularium specialiter discerneret," was believed to be +demoniacal; hence the sacrament of confirmation was given him to +deliver him from this diabolical faculty, and the paper narrates that +he was immediately deprived of it. The blind hero who sees, who +distinguishes his cows from each other, is the sun in the cloud. No +sooner does he receive confirmation (which is a second baptism), than +he ceases to see his cows, for the simple reason that the clouds are +dissolved in rain, or that himself has recovered his vision.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_464_464" id="Footnote_464_464"></a><a href="#FNanchor_464_464"><span class="label">[464]</span></a> Cfr. the papers relative to Merlin by Liebrecht and Benfey in +<i>Orient und Occident</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_465_465" id="Footnote_465_465"></a><a href="#FNanchor_465_465"><span class="label">[465]</span></a> <i>Fasti</i>, iii. 339.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_466_466" id="Footnote_466_466"></a><a href="#FNanchor_466_466"><span class="label">[466]</span></a> Cfr. the chapter on the Fishes; where the custom of eating fish on +Friday is also explained.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_467_467" id="Footnote_467_467"></a><a href="#FNanchor_467_467"><span class="label">[467]</span></a> In the first of the stories of <i>Santo Stefano di Calcinaia</i>, the cow-maid +says to her cow, "Cow, my cow, spin with your mouth and wind +with your horns; I will make you a faggot of green boughs."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_468_468" id="Footnote_468_468"></a><a href="#FNanchor_468_468"><span class="label">[468]</span></a> The maiden spins for her step-mother; the fairy gives luminous +robes to the maiden; the maiden weaves dresses for her husband; +these are all details which confound themselves in one. In the +<i>Nibelungen</i>, the virgins prepared dresses of gold and pearls for the +young hero Sfrit.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_469_469" id="Footnote_469_469"></a><a href="#FNanchor_469_469"><span class="label">[469]</span></a> Holda, or Frau Holle, is burnt every year in Thuringia on the day +of Epiphany, on which day (or, perhaps, better still, on the Berchtennacht, +the preceding night, or Berta's night) the good fairy expels the +wicked one. In England, too, the witch is burned on the day of +Epiphany.—Cfr. Reinsberg von Dringsfeld, <i>Das festliche Jahr</i>, p. 19.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_470_470" id="Footnote_470_470"></a><a href="#FNanchor_470_470"><span class="label">[470]</span></a> In the <i>Pentameron</i> of Basil, i. 9, we read: "Passaie lo tiempo +che Berta filava; mo hanno apierto l'huocchie li gattille."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_471_471" id="Footnote_471_471"></a><a href="#FNanchor_471_471"><span class="label">[471]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, vi. 2.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_472_472" id="Footnote_472_472"></a><a href="#FNanchor_472_472"><span class="label">[472]</span></a> Cfr. Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 409, and the ninth of +the <i>Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia</i>, in which the luminous +maiden disguised as an old woman is uncovered by the geese, when +she puts down the dress of an old woman.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_473_473" id="Footnote_473_473"></a><a href="#FNanchor_473_473"><span class="label">[473]</span></a> Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 410.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_474_474" id="Footnote_474_474"></a><a href="#FNanchor_474_474"><span class="label">[474]</span></a> Wuotan also saves him whom he protects upon a mantle;—this is +the flying carpet or mantle, hood, or hat, which renders the wearer +invisible, and for which the three brothers disputed, which is also +represented as a tablecloth that lays itself. Thus the poor man +who goes to sell his cow's hide finds the pot of abundance and riches. +The dispute for the tablecloth is the same as the dispute for riches, +for the beautiful princess who is afterwards divided, or else carried off +by a third or fourth person who takes the lion's share. We must not +forget the fable of the animals who wish to divide the stag among +themselves, of which the lion takes all, because he is named lion. In +the <i>Nibelungen</i>, Schilbung and Nibelung dispute with each other for +the division of a treasure; they beg Sfrit to divide it; Sfrit solves +the question by killing them both and taking to himself the treasure, +and the hood that makes its wearer invisible (Tarnkappe).</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_475_475" id="Footnote_475_475"></a><a href="#FNanchor_475_475"><span class="label">[475]</span></a> The romance of Berta continues in the <i>Reali di Francia</i> in +harmony with the popular stories of an analogous character; the false +wife really causes King Pepin to marry her, and sends Berta into the +forest to be killed; the hired murderers pity her, and grant her her +life. Berta, whilst in the forest bound to a tree (like the Vedic cow), +is found by a hunter; out of gratitude she works (she, no doubt, spins +and weaves), in order that the hunter may sell her work at Paris for a +high price. Meanwhile her father and mother dream that she is beset +by bears and wolves who threaten to devour her, that thereupon, +throwing herself into the water, a fisherman saves her (in the dream, +the water has taken the place of the forest, and the fisherman that of +the hunter). King Pepin goes into the forest, finds her, recognises and marries her, whilst Elizabeth is burnt alive. The change of wives +also occurs in a graceful form (with a variation of the episode of the +beauty thrown into the fountain) in the twelfth of the <i>Contes Merveilleux</i> +of Porchat, Paris, 1863.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_476_476" id="Footnote_476_476"></a><a href="#FNanchor_476_476"><span class="label">[476]</span></a> <i>Histoire de la Vie de Charlemagne et de Roland</i>, par Jean Turpin, +traduction de Alex. de Saint-Albin, Paris, 1865, preceded by the +Chanson de Roland, pome de Throulde.—Cfr. the <i>Histoire Potique +de Charlemagne</i>, par Gaston Paris.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_477_477" id="Footnote_477_477"></a><a href="#FNanchor_477_477"><span class="label">[477]</span></a> Uhland's <i>Schriften zur Geschichte der Dichtung und Sage</i>, iii. 77.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_478_478" id="Footnote_478_478"></a><a href="#FNanchor_478_478"><span class="label">[478]</span></a> "Seigneur, bnissez ce lit et ceux qui s'y trouvent; bnissez ces +chers enfants, comme vous avez bni Tobie et Sara; daignez les bnir +ainsi, Seigneur, afin qu'en votre nom ils vivent et vieillissent et multiplient, +par le Christ notre Seigneur.—Ainsi soit-il." Villemarqu, +<i>Barzaz Breiz, Chants Populaires de la Bretagne</i>, sixime dition, Paris, +1867, p. 423.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_479_479" id="Footnote_479_479"></a><a href="#FNanchor_479_479"><span class="label">[479]</span></a> Uhland, the work quoted above, p. 81.—In the French romance +of <i>Renard</i>, on occasion of the apparent death of the fox, the gospel is +read, on the contrary, by the horse. In the German customs the bull +also appears as a funeral animal, and is fastened to the hearse. If, +while he is drawing the hearse, he turns his head back, it is considered +a sinister omen. According to a popular belief, the bulls and other +stalled animals speak to each other on Christmas night. A tradition +narrates, that a peasant wished on that night to hide himself and hear +what the bulls were saying; he heard them say that they would soon +have to draw him to the grave, and died of terror. This is the usual +indiscretion and its punishment.—Cfr. Rochholz, <i>Deutscher Glaube und +Brauch</i>, Berlin, 1867, i. 164, and Menzel, <i>Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre</i>, +Leipzig, 1870.—We have the speaking oxen again in +Phdrus's fable of the stag who takes refuge in the stable, ii. 8, +where the master is called "ille qui oculos centum habet."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_480_480" id="Footnote_480_480"></a><a href="#FNanchor_480_480"><span class="label">[480]</span></a> Elle en mangea seze muiz, deux bussars et six tupins; Rabelais, +<i>Gargantua</i>, i. 4.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_481_481" id="Footnote_481_481"></a><a href="#FNanchor_481_481"><span class="label">[481]</span></a> Cfr. Porchat, <i>Contes Merveilleux</i>, Paris, 1863.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_482_482" id="Footnote_482_482"></a><a href="#FNanchor_482_482"><span class="label">[482]</span></a> In <i>Porchat</i>, Superlatif, while he is a dwarf, is shut up in a clothes-press; +he is a male form of the wooden girl, of the wise puppet, of +the sun hidden in the trunk of a tree, in the tree of night, in the nocturnal (or cloudy, or wintry) night, full of mysteries, which the +little solar hero surprises from his hiding-place. The hero in hell, or +who, educated by the devil, learns every kind of evil, is a variation of +this multiform idea. The dwarf of <i>Porchat</i>, who comes out of the +clothes-press, is in perfect accord with the popular belief which makes +the man be born in the wood, on the stump of a tree, of which the +Christmas-tree is a lively reminiscence.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_483_483" id="Footnote_483_483"></a><a href="#FNanchor_483_483"><span class="label">[483]</span></a> According to Eustatius, "I gar h seln kat tn tn Argetn +dialekton."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_484_484" id="Footnote_484_484"></a><a href="#FNanchor_484_484"><span class="label">[484]</span></a> Cfr. Pott, <i>Studien zur griechischen Mythologie</i>, Leipzig, Teubner, +1859; and Cox, the work quoted before.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_485_485" id="Footnote_485_485"></a><a href="#FNanchor_485_485"><span class="label">[485]</span></a> <i>Dionysiakn</i>, i. 45, and following; iii. 306, and following.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_486_486" id="Footnote_486_486"></a><a href="#FNanchor_486_486"><span class="label">[486]</span></a> <i>Metamorphosen</i>, iv. 754.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_487_487" id="Footnote_487_487"></a><a href="#FNanchor_487_487"><span class="label">[487]</span></a> In England, as I have already noticed, the bull or ox is sacred to +St Luke; in Russia, to the saints Froh and Laver. In Sicily, the protector +of oxen is San Cataldo, who was bishop of Taranto. (For the +notices relating to Sicilian beliefs concerning animals, I am indebted +to my good friend Giuseppe Pitr.) In Tuscany, and in other parts of +Italy, oxen and horses are recommended to the care of St Antony, the +great protector of domestic animals. In the rural parts of Tuscany, +it was the custom, on the 17th of February, to lead oxen and horses to +the church-door, that they might be blessed. Now, to save trouble, +only a basket of hay is carried to be blessed; which done, it is taken +to the animals that they may eat it and be preserved from evil. On +Palm Sunday, to drive away every evil, juniper is put into the stables +in Tuscany.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_488_488" id="Footnote_488_488"></a><a href="#FNanchor_488_488"><span class="label">[488]</span></a> Tarous pammlanai, in the <i>Odyssey</i>; the commentator explains +that the bulls are black because they resemble the colour of water.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_489_489" id="Footnote_489_489"></a><a href="#FNanchor_489_489"><span class="label">[489]</span></a> Kelainefs-nefelgerta Zes; <i>Odyssey</i>, xiii. 147 and 153.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_490_490" id="Footnote_490_490"></a><a href="#FNanchor_490_490"><span class="label">[490]</span></a> +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Signatus tenui media inter cornua nigro<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Una fuit labes; cœtera lactis erant.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Ovidius, <i>De Arte Amandi</i>.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p><a name="Footnote_491_491" id="Footnote_491_491"></a><a href="#FNanchor_491_491"><span class="label">[491]</span></a> In <i>Diodoros</i>, Hammon loves the virgin Amalthea, who has a horn +resembling that of an ox. The goat and the cow in the lunar and +cloudy myth are the same; and on this account we find them both in +connection with the apple-tree, a vegetable form, and with the cornucopia, +since both are seers, and spies, and guides. The golden doe is a +variation of the same lunar myth.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_492_492" id="Footnote_492_492"></a><a href="#FNanchor_492_492"><span class="label">[492]</span></a> <i>Argonantikn</i>, iii. 410, 1277.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_493_493" id="Footnote_493_493"></a><a href="#FNanchor_493_493"><span class="label">[493]</span></a> Nonnos, <i>Dionysiakn</i>, xi. 113 and following.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_494_494" id="Footnote_494_494"></a><a href="#FNanchor_494_494"><span class="label">[494]</span></a> <i>Orests</i>, 1380.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_495_495" id="Footnote_495_495"></a><a href="#FNanchor_495_495"><span class="label">[495]</span></a> <i>Ergazomnous Bas.</i>—In the twelfth book of his <i>History of +Animals</i>, lianos writes: "Among the Phrygians, if any one kills a +working ox, he atones for it with his life." And Varro, <i>De Re Rustic</i>: +"Bos socius hominum in rustico opere et Cereris minister. Ab hoc +antiqui ita manus abstineri voluerunt ut capite sanxerint si quis +occidisset."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_496_496" id="Footnote_496_496"></a><a href="#FNanchor_496_496"><span class="label">[496]</span></a> <i>Scriptores Histori August</i>, Lampridius, in the life of Heliogabalus.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_497_497" id="Footnote_497_497"></a><a href="#FNanchor_497_497"><span class="label">[497]</span></a> vii. 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_498_498" id="Footnote_498_498"></a><a href="#FNanchor_498_498"><span class="label">[498]</span></a> <i>Fasti</i>, iii. 800.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_499_499" id="Footnote_499_499"></a><a href="#FNanchor_499_499"><span class="label">[499]</span></a> Cfr. the chapter on the Hare.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_500_500" id="Footnote_500_500"></a><a href="#FNanchor_500_500"><span class="label">[500]</span></a> Plutarch, in the Life of Marcellus, Arrianos and Appianos among +the Greeks, Livy, Cicero (De Divinatione), Pliny the elder, Julius +Capitolinus, Julius Obsequens among the Latins.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_501_501" id="Footnote_501_501"></a><a href="#FNanchor_501_501"><span class="label">[501]</span></a> <i>ba kai turos an hlan</i>, xiv. 43. In Theokritos, the proverb is +used to intimate that he is gone to other and perfidious loves; he, too, +is a traitor.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_502_502" id="Footnote_502_502"></a><a href="#FNanchor_502_502"><span class="label">[502]</span></a> <i>Rerum gestarum</i>, xxii.—Cfr. the episode of the ox which lets itself +fall into the marsh or swamp, in the various versions of the first book +of the <i>Pańćatantram</i>.—The astrologers placed the brain under the +protection of the moon, and the heart under that of the sun; Celoria, +<i>La Luna</i>, Milano, 1871.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_503_503" id="Footnote_503_503"></a><a href="#FNanchor_503_503"><span class="label">[503]</span></a> Kadmein Basilas egeinato; <i>Phoinissai</i>, 835.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_504_504" id="Footnote_504_504"></a><a href="#FNanchor_504_504"><span class="label">[504]</span></a> <i>Boiotia.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_505_505" id="Footnote_505_505"></a><a href="#FNanchor_505_505"><span class="label">[505]</span></a> <i>Metam.</i>, iii. 10.—Cfr. Nonnos, <i>Dionys.</i>, iv. 290, and following.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_506_506" id="Footnote_506_506"></a><a href="#FNanchor_506_506"><span class="label">[506]</span></a> Or, on the path of the sun in the sky.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_507_507" id="Footnote_507_507"></a><a href="#FNanchor_507_507"><span class="label">[507]</span></a> In an unpublished Piedmontese story, which is very widely spread, +the girl carried off by robbers escapes from their hands, and hides in +the trunk of a tree.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_508_508" id="Footnote_508_508"></a><a href="#FNanchor_508_508"><span class="label">[508]</span></a> <i>De Quadrupedibus Bisulcis</i>, i.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_509_509" id="Footnote_509_509"></a><a href="#FNanchor_509_509"><span class="label">[509]</span></a> <i>De Vocabulis</i>, i., quoted by Aldrovandi.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_510_510" id="Footnote_510_510"></a><a href="#FNanchor_510_510"><span class="label">[510]</span></a> <i>Fasti</i>, iv. 721.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_511_511" id="Footnote_511_511"></a><a href="#FNanchor_511_511"><span class="label">[511]</span></a> Cfr. Ott. Targioni Tozzetti, <i>Lezioni di Materia Medica</i>, Firenze, +1821.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_512_512" id="Footnote_512_512"></a><a href="#FNanchor_512_512"><span class="label">[512]</span></a> In an sopian fable taken from Syntipa, which corresponds to the +first of Lokman, two bulls combine against the lion, and resist him; the +lion excites them against each other, and tears them to pieces. In the +sixth fable of Aphtonios, the bulls are three; in the eighteenth of +Avianus, they are four. The lion already knew the motto of kings: +"Divide et impera."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_513_513" id="Footnote_513_513"></a><a href="#FNanchor_513_513"><span class="label">[513]</span></a> Durandus, <i>Rational.</i> i. 3, quoted by Du Cange.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_514_514" id="Footnote_514_514"></a><a href="#FNanchor_514_514"><span class="label">[514]</span></a> Ovidius, <i>Metam.</i>, ii. 706.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_515_515" id="Footnote_515_515"></a><a href="#FNanchor_515_515"><span class="label">[515]</span></a> Per tria partitos qui dabat ora sonos; <i>Ecl.</i> iv.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_516_516" id="Footnote_516_516"></a><a href="#FNanchor_516_516"><span class="label">[516]</span></a> <i>Fasti</i>, i. 550.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_517_517" id="Footnote_517_517"></a><a href="#FNanchor_517_517"><span class="label">[517]</span></a> Phil, <i>Stichoi peri zn idiottos</i>, lix.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_518_518" id="Footnote_518_518"></a><a href="#FNanchor_518_518"><span class="label">[518]</span></a> In Italian, <i>attonito</i> (or, properly speaking, struck by thunder) is +the same as "who is much surprised").</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_519_519" id="Footnote_519_519"></a><a href="#FNanchor_519_519"><span class="label">[519]</span></a> <i>Dionys.</i> xix 58.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_520_520" id="Footnote_520_520"></a><a href="#FNanchor_520_520"><span class="label">[520]</span></a> Cfr. Martigny, <i>Dictionnaire des Antiquits Chrtiennes</i>, s. v. <i>veau.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_521_521" id="Footnote_521_521"></a><a href="#FNanchor_521_521"><span class="label">[521]</span></a> In <i>Phdrus</i>, as we have already observed, the ox and the ass are +yoked together.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_522_522" id="Footnote_522_522"></a><a href="#FNanchor_522_522"><span class="label">[522]</span></a> <i>Ippolitos</i>, <i>s fon Dis</i>, 1200-1229.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_523_523" id="Footnote_523_523"></a><a href="#FNanchor_523_523"><span class="label">[523]</span></a> Cfr. the chapter relating to the Ass.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_524_524" id="Footnote_524_524"></a><a href="#FNanchor_524_524"><span class="label">[524]</span></a> Ovidius, <i>Fasti</i>, v. 615.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_525_525" id="Footnote_525_525"></a><a href="#FNanchor_525_525"><span class="label">[525]</span></a> <i>Ib.</i> v. 620.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_526_526" id="Footnote_526_526"></a><a href="#FNanchor_526_526"><span class="label">[526]</span></a> The word <i>atyas</i> has the same meaning.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_527_527" id="Footnote_527_527"></a><a href="#FNanchor_527_527"><span class="label">[527]</span></a> Yunǵantv asya kmy har vipakshas rathe on dhṛishṇ +ṇṛivhas; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 6, 2.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_528_528" id="Footnote_528_528"></a><a href="#FNanchor_528_528"><span class="label">[528]</span></a> Vaćoyuǵu; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 7, 2.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_529_529" id="Footnote_529_529"></a><a href="#FNanchor_529_529"><span class="label">[529]</span></a> Yukshv hi kein har vṛishaṇ kakshyapr; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 10, 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_530_530" id="Footnote_530_530"></a><a href="#FNanchor_530_530"><span class="label">[530]</span></a> Sraćakshasaḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 16, 1.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_531_531" id="Footnote_531_531"></a><a href="#FNanchor_531_531"><span class="label">[531]</span></a> Indrya vaćoyuǵ tatakshur manas har; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 20, 2.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_532_532" id="Footnote_532_532"></a><a href="#FNanchor_532_532"><span class="label">[532]</span></a> Saudhanvan avd avam atakshata; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 161, 7.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_533_533" id="Footnote_533_533"></a><a href="#FNanchor_533_533"><span class="label">[533]</span></a> Vi ǵanń ćhyvaḥ itipdo akhyan rathaṁ hiraṇyaprugaṁ +vahantaḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 33, 5.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_534_534" id="Footnote_534_534"></a><a href="#FNanchor_534_534"><span class="label">[534]</span></a> Indro vak vakutardhi tishṭhati; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 5, 11.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_535_535" id="Footnote_535_535"></a><a href="#FNanchor_535_535"><span class="label">[535]</span></a> Yukshv madaćyut har; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 81, 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_536_536" id="Footnote_536_536"></a><a href="#FNanchor_536_536"><span class="label">[536]</span></a> Vm avin manaso ǵaviyn rathaḥ svavah; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 117, 2.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_537_537" id="Footnote_537_537"></a><a href="#FNanchor_537_537"><span class="label">[537]</span></a> tv yaćhantu harito na sryam ah viveva sryam; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. +130, 2.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_538_538" id="Footnote_538_538"></a><a href="#FNanchor_538_538"><span class="label">[538]</span></a> Har sryasya ket; <i>Ṛigv.</i> ii. 11, 6.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_539_539" id="Footnote_539_539"></a><a href="#FNanchor_539_539"><span class="label">[539]</span></a> Ghṛitaćutaṁ svram asvrshṭm; <i>Ṛigv.</i> ii. 11, 7.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_540_540" id="Footnote_540_540"></a><a href="#FNanchor_540_540"><span class="label">[540]</span></a> Pra ye dvit diva ṛińǵanty tḥ susammṛishṭso vṛishabhasya +mraḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iii. 43, 6.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_541_541" id="Footnote_541_541"></a><a href="#FNanchor_541_541"><span class="label">[541]</span></a> Indra haribhir yhi mayraromabhiḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iii. 45. 1.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_542_542" id="Footnote_542_542"></a><a href="#FNanchor_542_542"><span class="label">[542]</span></a> Shoḷh yukth pańća-pańć vahanti; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iii. 55, 18.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_543_543" id="Footnote_543_543"></a><a href="#FNanchor_543_543"><span class="label">[543]</span></a> Patatribhir aramir avyatibhir daṅsanbhiḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> vii. 69, 7. +The Avinu also are called dravatpn (swift-hoofed); <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 3, 1.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_544_544" id="Footnote_544_544"></a><a href="#FNanchor_544_544"><span class="label">[544]</span></a> Avatar—rathengnir ǵimadhvattsṁ prǵamno yonimaklayattsmtt +na viǵyaṅte. Gobhiraruṇirush ǵimadhvattasmdushasyagatymaruṇamivaeva +prabhtyushasorpamavarathenendra +ǵimadhvattasmtsa uććirghosha upabdimnkshatrasya rpamindro +hi sa gadarbharathenvin udaǵayatmavinvnuvtm; <i>Ait. Br.</i> +iv. 2, 9.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_545_545" id="Footnote_545_545"></a><a href="#FNanchor_545_545"><span class="label">[545]</span></a> Tvshtr tu savitur bhry vadavrupadhriṇ asyata mahbhg +s 'ntarkshe 'vinvubhu; <i>Mbh.</i> i. 2599.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_546_546" id="Footnote_546_546"></a><a href="#FNanchor_546_546"><span class="label">[546]</span></a> <i>Il.</i> x. 352.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_547_547" id="Footnote_547_547"></a><a href="#FNanchor_547_547"><span class="label">[547]</span></a> In the Monferrato, according to the information kindly given me, +concerning the beliefs relative to animals current in this country, by +Dr Giuseppe Ferraro, the young collector of the popular songs and +stories of the Monferrato, it is believed that the horse's teeth hung +upon the necks of infants at the breast cause them to cut their teeth, +and that the two incisors of the horse, when worn, are a spell to charm +away every evil.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_548_548" id="Footnote_548_548"></a><a href="#FNanchor_548_548"><span class="label">[548]</span></a> <i>Mbh.</i> i. 1093-1237.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_549_549" id="Footnote_549_549"></a><a href="#FNanchor_549_549"><span class="label">[549]</span></a> Cfr. the first of the Tuscan stories of <i>Santo Stefano di Calcinaia</i>.—In +the preceding chapter, we have seen how the apples of a certain +apple-tree cause horns to grow on whoever eats them. In an unpublished +Italian story, instead of the apple-tree, we have the fig-tree, +and instead of horns, the tail. It is narrated by an old man of +Osimo, in the Marches:—Three poor brothers, having but little inclination +for work, go in search of fortune round the world. Overtaken +in the country by night, they fall asleep in the open air. A +fairy, under the aspect of a hideous old woman, comes up and wakens +them, offering herself as their wife. The three brothers excuse themselves, +and declare that they wish for nothing except a little money +with which to make merry. The fairy answers, "Tell me what you wish for, and you shall have it." The first asks for a purse, which shall +always be full of money; the second for a whistle, by blowing into +which a whole army of brave combatants would be summoned to his +side; the third a mantle, which would make its wearer invisible. The +fairy satisfies them, and then disappears in flames, like the devil. The +eldest brother, Stephen, goes with his purse into Portugal, where he +plays and loses, but still remains rich. This comes to the queen-dowager's +ears, who wishes to see the stranger, hoping to possess herself +of his secret; she feigns to love him, and the wedding-day is fixed; +but before it comes she has already gained his confidence, and taking +the purse from him, she orders him to be flogged. Stephen returns to +his brothers, relates his grievance, and proposing to revenge himself +upon the queen, induces them to lend him the whistle, which calls +armies into existence. The queen softens towards him, protesting +that she expected to the last that he would have appeared on the day +appointed for the wedding, and that he had been flogged without her +knowledge. Stephen gives way, and the whistle passes out of his +hands into those of the queen. He is flogged again, but twice as +severely as before. Again he has recourse to his brothers; he implores, +supplicates, and promises to get everything back by the miraculous +mantle; but having obtained it, he allows himself to be deceived once +more by the queen. Deprived of everything, he wanders about in +despair, reduced to beggary. In the middle of January, he sees a tree +covered with beautiful figs; desirous of them, he eats with avidity; +but for every fig that he swallows, a span of tail as thick as a boa grows +on to him. He goes on his way, still more desperate, till he finds +more figs, of a smaller size; he eats them, and the tail disappears. +Contented with this discovery, he fills a basket with the first figs, and +disguised as a countryman, comes to the palace of the Queen of +Portugal. Every one marvels on seeing such fine figs in January. +The queen buys the basket, and every one eats; but tails immediately +grow on their backs. Stephen then dresses himself as a doctor, and +with the little figs, cures many persons. The queen has him called; +he obliges her to confess to him first, and in the confession makes her +say where the three marvellous gifts of the fairy are kept. Having +recovered them, he leaves the queen with ten spans of tail, and returns +rich and happy to his brothers. In this story there must be some +parts wanting; it is probable that the fairy warned the brothers not to discover their secret to any one. The last enterprise, moreover, is +more likely to have been undertaken by the third brother, who always +assumes in fairy tales the part of the cunning one, than by the first-born, +who in this story represents the part of the fool.—Polydorus +speaks of the horse's tail as a chastisement for an insult to Thomas Archbishop +of Canterbury, in the thirteenth book of his <i>Hist. Angl.</i>:—"Irridentes +Archiepiscopum, caudam equi cui insidebat, amputarunt. +At postea nutu Dei ita accidit, ut omnes ex eo hominum genere qui +id facinus fecissent, nati sunt instar brutorum caudati."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_550_550" id="Footnote_550_550"></a><a href="#FNanchor_550_550"><span class="label">[550]</span></a> Hiraṇyakarṇam maṇigrvam arṇas; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 122, 14.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_551_551" id="Footnote_551_551"></a><a href="#FNanchor_551_551"><span class="label">[551]</span></a> <i>Ilou Halsis</i>, 65-72.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_552_552" id="Footnote_552_552"></a><a href="#FNanchor_552_552"><span class="label">[552]</span></a> In the before-quoted collection of Radloff, <i>Tktbi Mrgn</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_553_553" id="Footnote_553_553"></a><a href="#FNanchor_553_553"><span class="label">[553]</span></a> +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">Longa solitos caligine pasci<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Terruit orbis equos; pressis hsere lupatis<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Attoniti meliore polo; rursusque verendum<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In chaos obliquo pugnant temone reverti.<br /></span> +<span class="i45">Claudianus, <i>De Raptu Proserpin</i>, ii. 193.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="Footnote_554_554" id="Footnote_554_554"></a><a href="#FNanchor_554_554"><span class="label">[554]</span></a> <i>Phainomena</i>, 215.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_555_555" id="Footnote_555_555"></a><a href="#FNanchor_555_555"><span class="label">[555]</span></a> <i>Mbh.</i> i. 1470, 1471.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_556_556" id="Footnote_556_556"></a><a href="#FNanchor_556_556"><span class="label">[556]</span></a> Quelli cavalli che sono de pilo morello se fanno de humore colerico +impero che e pi caldo humore et sicco che non e lo sangue et per +questo produce ad nigredine el pelo. <i>I tre Libri della Natura Dei +Cavalli et del Modo di medicar le Loro Infermit</i>, composti da Maestro +Agostino Columbre; <i>Prologo.</i> 6, Vinegia, 1547.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_557_557" id="Footnote_557_557"></a><a href="#FNanchor_557_557"><span class="label">[557]</span></a> +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Hippomanes phton esti par Arkasi ti d'epi pasai<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Kai ploi mainontai an rea, kai thoai hippoi; ii. 48.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="Footnote_558_558" id="Footnote_558_558"></a><a href="#FNanchor_558_558"><span class="label">[558]</span></a> Devennosi corrigere et emendare quelli li quali se posseno dire +heretici, impero che voleno dire che quelle tal bestie che portano li +crini advolte et atrezate; et con loro poco cognoscimento dicono che +sono le streghe che li cavalcano et chiamanli cavalli stregari;" <i>Prologo.</i> +10, the work quoted before.—Cfr. on the Damavoi, Ralston, <i>The +Songs of the Russian People</i>, p. 120, 139.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_559_559" id="Footnote_559_559"></a><a href="#FNanchor_559_559"><span class="label">[559]</span></a> +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Hippous melanas ou kalon pants blepein<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hippn de leukn opsis, aggeln phasis.<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +In Tuscany, flying horses, when seen in dreams, announce news; no +doubt, this flying horse seen in dreams can only refer to the nocturnal +voyage of the solar horse.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_560_560" id="Footnote_560_560"></a><a href="#FNanchor_560_560"><span class="label">[560]</span></a> Cfr. Menzel, <i>Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre</i>, Leipzig, +1870.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_561_561" id="Footnote_561_561"></a><a href="#FNanchor_561_561"><span class="label">[561]</span></a> The Hungarians call the bier of the dead St Michael's horse; +Neo-Greek popular songs represent the ferryman of the dead, Charon, +on horseback; in Switzerland, the sight of a horse is a harbinger of +approaching death for a person seriously ill.—Cfr. Rochholtz, <i>Deutscher +Glaube und Brauch</i>, i. 163, 164.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_562_562" id="Footnote_562_562"></a><a href="#FNanchor_562_562"><span class="label">[562]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, v. 37.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_563_563" id="Footnote_563_563"></a><a href="#FNanchor_563_563"><span class="label">[563]</span></a> <i>Ib.</i> v. 54.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_564_564" id="Footnote_564_564"></a><a href="#FNanchor_564_564"><span class="label">[564]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, i. 6.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_565_565" id="Footnote_565_565"></a><a href="#FNanchor_565_565"><span class="label">[565]</span></a> <i>Ib.</i> ii. 25.—Cfr. iii. 5, iv. 27.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_566_566" id="Footnote_566_566"></a><a href="#FNanchor_566_566"><span class="label">[566]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, ii. 28.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_567_567" id="Footnote_567_567"></a><a href="#FNanchor_567_567"><span class="label">[567]</span></a> <i>Ib.</i> iv. 41.—In the twenty-first story of <i>Erlenwein</i>, the poor +brother obtains wealth by means of a mare's head, while the rich +brother, on the other hand, becomes poor.—In <i>Af.</i> v. 21, the dwarf-boy, +who possesses great strength, enters into the ear of one of the +two horses when in the act of ploughing; upon which they plough +of their own accord, and the old father of the dwarf is at liberty to +rest.—In the sixth Calmuck story, the head of the dead horse, when fallen from the tree, brings riches and good luck to him who lets it +fall, who finds under it a golden cup: this is a form of the ambrosia +which comes out of the horse's head, which we shall find farther on.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_568_568" id="Footnote_568_568"></a><a href="#FNanchor_568_568"><span class="label">[568]</span></a> The Russian text seems to me of too much importance, in the +history of myths, not to deserve to be recorded here: "Iediet apit +vsadnik: sam ćornoi, adiet va vsiem ćornom; na ćornom kani; +padskakl k vartam babijagh i is-ćesz, kak skvosz szemliń pravallsia; +nastla noć."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_569_569" id="Footnote_569_569"></a><a href="#FNanchor_569_569"><span class="label">[569]</span></a> Idit an i draszt. Vdrg skaćet mimo iej vsadnik sam bieloi, +adiet v bielom, kon pod nim bieloi, i sbruja na kani bilaja; na dvari +stalo raszviett. Idit an dalshe, kak skaćet drugoi vsadnik; sam +krasnoi, adit v krasnom i na krasnom kanie; stalo vshdit solntze.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_570_570" id="Footnote_570_570"></a><a href="#FNanchor_570_570"><span class="label">[570]</span></a> Yaḥ purusheyeṇa kravish samakte yo avyena paun ytudhnaḥ +yo aghnyy bharati kshram agne teshin rshṇi haraspi +vṛića; <i>Ṛigv.</i> x. 87, 16.—Cfr. the dragon that torments the horses in +the <i>Tuti-Name</i> of Rosen, ii. 300.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_571_571" id="Footnote_571_571"></a><a href="#FNanchor_571_571"><span class="label">[571]</span></a> Tad agne ćakshuḥ prati dhehi rebhe aphruǵam yena payasi +ytudhnam; <i>Ṛigv.</i> x. 87, 12.—The demon Hayagrvas killed by Vishṇus, which is the same as horse's neck, and Hayairas, or horse's +head, another monster giant in the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>, iv. 43, 44, always +refer to the Vedic ava-ytudhnas. We are already acquainted with +the demon who, during the night, makes the horses sweat and grow +lean, <i>i.e.</i>, who makes them ugly. In the Latin tradition, after having +assisted the Romans in the battle of the Lake Regillus, Castor and +Pollux were seen, near the ambrosial lacus Iuturn (Ovidius, <i>Fasti</i>, i.), +to wash the sweat off their horses with the water of this lake, which +was near the temple of Vesta. To this Macaulay alludes in his +verses—</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And washed their horses in the well<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That springs by Vesta's fane."<br /></span> +<span class="i4">—<i>Battle of the Lake Regillus</i>, xxxix.<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +The salutary water of the Dioscuri, or sons of the luminous one, would +here occupy the place of the fire lighted by night in stables, and of +the Vedic Agnis who kills the monster of horses. My friend Giuseppe +Pitr writes me, that in Sicily, when an ass, a mule, or a horse is to +enter a new stable, salt is put upon its back (a form of Christian +baptism), in order that the fairies may not lame it.—The Kllaros, +the heroic horse of the Dioscuri, is perhaps not unrelated to the word +<i>kllos</i>, which means lame and bent; the solar horse, before being +heroic, is hump-backed, lame, lean, and ugly; the lame hero, the lame +horse (ass or mule), the lame devil, seem to me to be three <i>penumbr</i> +of the solar hero, or of the sun in the darkness.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_572_572" id="Footnote_572_572"></a><a href="#FNanchor_572_572"><span class="label">[572]</span></a> Vibhir hathur ṛigrebhir aviḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 117, 14.—Cfr. vii. 69, 7.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_573_573" id="Footnote_573_573"></a><a href="#FNanchor_573_573"><span class="label">[573]</span></a> Avain na gḷham avin durevir ṛishiṁ nar vṛisḥaṇ rebham +apsu; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 117, 4.—The Avinu pass the sea upon a chariot, +which resembles a ship; this chariot is said to have the sun for a +covering—rathena sryatvać; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 47, 9.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_574_574" id="Footnote_574_574"></a><a href="#FNanchor_574_574"><span class="label">[574]</span></a> Yam avin dadathuḥ vetam avam aghvya avad it svasti; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 116, 6.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_575_575" id="Footnote_575_575"></a><a href="#FNanchor_575_575"><span class="label">[575]</span></a> Agnis tuviravastamain tuvibrahmṇam uttamam atrtaṁ rvayatpatim +putram dadti dushe—Agnir dadti satpatiṁ ssha yo yudh +nṛibhiḥ agnir atyaṁ raghushyadaṁ ǵetram aparǵitam; <i>Ṛigv.</i> v. 25, +5, 6.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_576_576" id="Footnote_576_576"></a><a href="#FNanchor_576_576"><span class="label">[576]</span></a> <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 155, 6.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_577_577" id="Footnote_577_577"></a><a href="#FNanchor_577_577"><span class="label">[577]</span></a> i. 154, 4.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_578_578" id="Footnote_578_578"></a><a href="#FNanchor_578_578"><span class="label">[578]</span></a> Vishṇor nu kaṁ vryaṇi pra voćam yaḥ prthivni vimame raǵṅsi +yo askabhyad uttaraṁ sadhasthaṁ vićakramṇas tredhorugyah; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 154, 1.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_579_579" id="Footnote_579_579"></a><a href="#FNanchor_579_579"><span class="label">[579]</span></a> Yad te vishṇur oǵas trṇi pad vićakram d it te haryat har +vavakshatuḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> viii. 12, 27.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_580_580" id="Footnote_580_580"></a><a href="#FNanchor_580_580"><span class="label">[580]</span></a> <i>Rmy.</i> iv. 40.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_581_581" id="Footnote_581_581"></a><a href="#FNanchor_581_581"><span class="label">[581]</span></a> Yuktas te astu dakshiṇa uta savyaḥ atakrato tena ǵym upa +priym mandno yhy andhaso yoǵ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 82, 5.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_582_582" id="Footnote_582_582"></a><a href="#FNanchor_582_582"><span class="label">[582]</span></a> Tad shu vm aǵiraṁ ćeti ynain yena pat bhavathaḥ sryyh; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 43, 6.—In the following hymn, strophe 1st, the aurora is +called now daughter of the sun, now cow: Tam vṁ rathaṁ vayam +ady huvema pṛithuǵrayam avin saṁgatiṁ goḥ—Taḥ sryṁ vahati.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_583_583" id="Footnote_583_583"></a><a href="#FNanchor_583_583"><span class="label">[583]</span></a> Rathasya naptyaḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 50. 9.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_584_584" id="Footnote_584_584"></a><a href="#FNanchor_584_584"><span class="label">[584]</span></a> <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 116, 10.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_585_585" id="Footnote_585_585"></a><a href="#FNanchor_585_585"><span class="label">[585]</span></a> vi. 9.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_586_586" id="Footnote_586_586"></a><a href="#FNanchor_586_586"><span class="label">[586]</span></a> The lake of Brhman, visited by Hanumant in the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>, +vi. 53, has the form of a horse's snout (haynanam).</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_587_587" id="Footnote_587_587"></a><a href="#FNanchor_587_587"><span class="label">[587]</span></a> Indro dadhćo asthabhir vṛitrṇy apratishkutaḥ ǵaghna navatr +nava; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 84, 13, 14, i. 117, 22, and the corresponding commentary +of Syaṇas.—The bones of the heroic horse possess strength +equal to that of the horse itself; thus in the last chapter we have seen +how, when the bones of the sacrificed bull or cow are kept, it springs +up again with renewed strength.—Cfr. concerning this subject the +interesting and copious details relating to European beliefs to be found +in Rochholtz, <i>Deutscher Glaube und Brauch</i>, i. 219-253.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_588_588" id="Footnote_588_588"></a><a href="#FNanchor_588_588"><span class="label">[588]</span></a> ii. 24.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_589_589" id="Footnote_589_589"></a><a href="#FNanchor_589_589"><span class="label">[589]</span></a> Divo napt; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 182, 1.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_590_590" id="Footnote_590_590"></a><a href="#FNanchor_590_590"><span class="label">[590]</span></a> As to the Vedic passage, v. 76, 3, where it would seem that the +Avinu are invoked in the morning, at midday, and in the evening, +there seems to me to be room for discussion. The text says: Ut +ytam sagave prtar ahno (that is, in the early dawn, when the cows +are gathered together), madhyandine (which, in my mind, is the middle +term which separates the gloomy hours from the luminous ones), +udit sryasya (which, meaning the rising of the sun, cannot express +evening, but precisely the rising of the morning sun). We too would +have thus expressed the three moments in the morning in which it +was opportune to invoke the Avinu.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_591_591" id="Footnote_591_591"></a><a href="#FNanchor_591_591"><span class="label">[591]</span></a> Sushupvṅsaṁ na nirṛiter upasthe sryaṁ na dasr tamasi kshiyantam +ubhe rukmaṁ na darataṁ nikhtam ud pathur avin vandanya; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 117, 5.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_592_592" id="Footnote_592_592"></a><a href="#FNanchor_592_592"><span class="label">[592]</span></a> Madhupṛishṭhaṁ ghoram aysam avam; <i>Ṛigv.</i> ix. 89, 4.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_593_593" id="Footnote_593_593"></a><a href="#FNanchor_593_593"><span class="label">[593]</span></a> <i>Ṛigv.</i> viii. 104, 15-25.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_594_594" id="Footnote_594_594"></a><a href="#FNanchor_594_594"><span class="label">[594]</span></a> Quoted in Muir's <i>Sanskṛit Texts</i>, v. 264.—Somas united with +Agnis in the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, Somas united with Rudras, seem, in my +opinion, to be the same as Somas united with Indras.—Cfr. Muir, v. +269, 270.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_595_595" id="Footnote_595_595"></a><a href="#FNanchor_595_595"><span class="label">[595]</span></a> xii. 1, quoted by Muir in his <i>Sanskṛit Texts</i>, v. 224.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_596_596" id="Footnote_596_596"></a><a href="#FNanchor_596_596"><span class="label">[596]</span></a> In the <i>Edda</i> we find the Avinu under the forms of night and +day. Odin took Natt and Dag her son, gave them two horses and +two drays, and placed them in the heavens to go round the earth in +twenty-four hours. Natt was the first to advance with Hrimfaxe, her +horse; he scatters every morning the foam from his bit upon the +earth; it is the dew. The horse of Dag is named Skenfaxe; the air +and the earth are illumined by his mane.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_597_597" id="Footnote_597_597"></a><a href="#FNanchor_597_597"><span class="label">[597]</span></a> vm patitvaṁ sakhyya ǵagmush yoshvṛiṇta ǵeny yuvm +pat; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 119, 5.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_598_598" id="Footnote_598_598"></a><a href="#FNanchor_598_598"><span class="label">[598]</span></a> Cfr. the legends relating to Ćyavanas cured by the Avinu in +the <i>atapatha Brhmaṇam</i> and in the <i>Mahbhratam</i>, referred to by +Muir in the above-quoted fifth volume of the <i>Sanskṛit Texts</i>, p. 250, +and those following.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_599_599" id="Footnote_599_599"></a><a href="#FNanchor_599_599"><span class="label">[599]</span></a> In the <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 8, 2, also, the invokers of Indras desire to fight +the enemies, the monsters Mushṭihatyay and Arvat, by fist and by +horses.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_600_600" id="Footnote_600_600"></a><a href="#FNanchor_600_600"><span class="label">[600]</span></a> <i>Mbh.</i> i. 6484-6504.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_601_601" id="Footnote_601_601"></a><a href="#FNanchor_601_601"><span class="label">[601]</span></a> <i>Rmy.</i> i. 49, ii. 7.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_602_602" id="Footnote_602_602"></a><a href="#FNanchor_602_602"><span class="label">[602]</span></a> iv. 12.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_603_603" id="Footnote_603_603"></a><a href="#FNanchor_603_603"><span class="label">[603]</span></a> iv. 7, 17.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_604_604" id="Footnote_604_604"></a><a href="#FNanchor_604_604"><span class="label">[604]</span></a> iv. 8.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_605_605" id="Footnote_605_605"></a><a href="#FNanchor_605_605"><span class="label">[605]</span></a> iv. 10.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_606_606" id="Footnote_606_606"></a><a href="#FNanchor_606_606"><span class="label">[606]</span></a> <i>Rmy.</i> iv. 8.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_607_607" id="Footnote_607_607"></a><a href="#FNanchor_607_607"><span class="label">[607]</span></a> The Persian hero often takes his name from his horse or his +horses; hence Kerepa, Vstpa, Arǵp, Gustp, Yapp, Prushpa, +Apyaodha, &c.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_608_608" id="Footnote_608_608"></a><a href="#FNanchor_608_608"><span class="label">[608]</span></a> Cfr. Spiegel's <i>Avesta</i>, ii. 72.—In the Servian stories of Wuck, one +of two brothers sleeps, transformed into stone with all his people, until +the other comes to free and resuscitate him.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_609_609" id="Footnote_609_609"></a><a href="#FNanchor_609_609"><span class="label">[609]</span></a> i. 91, and following, Rosen's version.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_610_610" id="Footnote_610_610"></a><a href="#FNanchor_610_610"><span class="label">[610]</span></a> ii. 20, and following.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_611_611" id="Footnote_611_611"></a><a href="#FNanchor_611_611"><span class="label">[611]</span></a> ii. 157.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_612_612" id="Footnote_612_612"></a><a href="#FNanchor_612_612"><span class="label">[612]</span></a> <i>Tuti-Name</i>, i. 151.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_613_613" id="Footnote_613_613"></a><a href="#FNanchor_613_613"><span class="label">[613]</span></a> Cfr. a zoological variety of this myth in the chapter on the Cock +and the Hen.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_614_614" id="Footnote_614_614"></a><a href="#FNanchor_614_614"><span class="label">[614]</span></a> This is a variety of the legend of the Tzar's daughter enamoured +of Emilius, the foolish and idle, though fortunate, youth, whom the +indignant Tzar orders to be shut up in a cask and thrown with her +lover into the sea, as we have seen in the first chapter.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_615_615" id="Footnote_615_615"></a><a href="#FNanchor_615_615"><span class="label">[615]</span></a> iv. 24.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_616_616" id="Footnote_616_616"></a><a href="#FNanchor_616_616"><span class="label">[616]</span></a> We shall shortly find the hare (the moon) who devours the mare.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_617_617" id="Footnote_617_617"></a><a href="#FNanchor_617_617"><span class="label">[617]</span></a> i. 53.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_618_618" id="Footnote_618_618"></a><a href="#FNanchor_618_618"><span class="label">[618]</span></a> U kav preszde svieć sama saboi zagaritsia, tot tzar budiet.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_619_619" id="Footnote_619_619"></a><a href="#FNanchor_619_619"><span class="label">[619]</span></a> Tzelij kući zolot v anbarah nasipani; ćto ni pluniet on, to vsi +zlotom; dievat niekud!</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_620_620" id="Footnote_620_620"></a><a href="#FNanchor_620_620"><span class="label">[620]</span></a> It will, I hope, be deemed not inappropriate to quote here the +words with which Professor Roth begins his essay upon the legend of +unaḥepas in the first volume of the <i>Indische Studien</i>: "Die Deutung der indischen Sagengeschichte sucht noch die Regeln, nach welchen +die das berlieferte verworrene Material behanden soll. Eine und +dieselbe Sage wird vielleicht in zehn verschiedenen Bchern in zehnfacher +Form erzhlt. Glaubt man einen festen Punkt gefunden zu +haben, auf welchen nach einem Berichte die Spitze der Erzhlung +zusammenluft, so streben andere Berichte wieder nach ganz anderem +Ziele und treiben denjenigen, der einen festen Kern der Sage fassen +will, rathlos im Kreise herum. Die Widersprche, mit welchen ein +Sammler und Ordner griechischer Heldensagen zu kmpfen hat, sind +lauter Einklang und Klarheit im Vergleiche zu dem wirren Knuel, in +welchen die Willkhr indischer Poeten die reichen Ueberlieferungen +ihrer Vorzeit zusammengeballt hat."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_621_621" id="Footnote_621_621"></a><a href="#FNanchor_621_621"><span class="label">[621]</span></a> ix. 37, 3.—I observe that the same craft as that used by the two +brothers to steal the treasure, in an as yet unpublished fairy tale of +the Canavese in Piedmont, was employed by the inexperienced robber, +who becomes at length very skilful to rob the loaves from the baker's +oven. The Piedmontese thief makes an opening from without, and +thus carries the bread off. The same thief then steals the king's +horse. At first, he learns his profession from the chief of the robbers. +The chief sends him the first time to waylay some travellers, and bids +him leap upon them; the young thief obeys these directions to the +letter; he makes the travellers lie down and then jumps upon them, +but does not rob them. The second time the chief tells him to take +the travellers' quattrini (the name of a very small coin, by which +money in general is also expressed). The young thief takes the +quattrini alone, and lets the travellers keep their dollars and napoleons. +At last, however, he becomes an accomplished thief.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_622_622" id="Footnote_622_622"></a><a href="#FNanchor_622_622"><span class="label">[622]</span></a> Cfr. in the same <i>Pentamerone</i>, the ninth story of the first book; the +eighteenth of the <i>Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia</i>; the thirty-ninth +of the Sicilian stories of the <i>Gonzenbach</i>; the sixtieth and the +eighty-fifth story of Grimm's collection, <i>Kinder und Hausmrchen</i>; +the tenth of Kuhn and Schwartz's <i>Mrchen</i>; the twenty-second of the +Greek stories of Hahn, <i>Griechische und Albanesische Mrchen</i>; the +fourth of Campbell's in <i>Orient und Occident</i>; the first book of the +<i>Pańćatantram</i>, and the twelfth story of the fifth book of the same; +and Cox, the work quoted before, i. 141, 142, 161, 281, 393, &c.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_623_623" id="Footnote_623_623"></a><a href="#FNanchor_623_623"><span class="label">[623]</span></a> In the <i>Pentamerone</i>, i. 9, the queen's son does the same with the +wife of his twin-brother; "Mese la spata arrancata comme staccione +'miego ad isso ed a Fenizia."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_624_624" id="Footnote_624_624"></a><a href="#FNanchor_624_624"><span class="label">[624]</span></a> In the corresponding collections of Ferraro, Bolza, and Wolf.—Cfr. +the end of the twenty-eighth of the <i>Novelline di Santo Stefano di +Calcinaia</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_625_625" id="Footnote_625_625"></a><a href="#FNanchor_625_625"><span class="label">[625]</span></a> i. 807 and following.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_626_626" id="Footnote_626_626"></a><a href="#FNanchor_626_626"><span class="label">[626]</span></a> iv. 4.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_627_627" id="Footnote_627_627"></a><a href="#FNanchor_627_627"><span class="label">[627]</span></a> i. 41-43.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_628_628" id="Footnote_628_628"></a><a href="#FNanchor_628_628"><span class="label">[628]</span></a> <i>Rmy.</i> i. 13.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_629_629" id="Footnote_629_629"></a><a href="#FNanchor_629_629"><span class="label">[629]</span></a> i. 13.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_630_630" id="Footnote_630_630"></a><a href="#FNanchor_630_630"><span class="label">[630]</span></a> In the Western stories, instead of the horse's fat or marrow, it is +generally the fish eaten by the queen and her servant-maid which +gives life to the two brothers, who become three when the water in +which the fish was washed is given to be drunk by the mare or the +bitch, whence the son of the mare or bitch is born. I have already +attempted to prove the identity of the fish with the phallos; the fish +eaten by the queen, the maid, the mare, or the bitch, which renders +them pregnant, seems to me a symbol of coition. The horse's fat or +marrow smelled by the queen seems to have the same meaning.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_631_631" id="Footnote_631_631"></a><a href="#FNanchor_631_631"><span class="label">[631]</span></a> Vǵino devaǵtasya sapteḥ pravakshymo vidathe vryṇi; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. +162, 1.—Srd avaṁ vasavo nir atashṭa; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 163, 2.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_632_632" id="Footnote_632_632"></a><a href="#FNanchor_632_632"><span class="label">[632]</span></a> Sdhur na gṛidhnuḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 70, 11.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_633_633" id="Footnote_633_633"></a><a href="#FNanchor_633_633"><span class="label">[633]</span></a> Vikroatm ndo bhtnm salilukasm ryate bhṛimrttnṁ +viatm vaḍavmukham; <i>Rmy.</i> iv. 40.—Aurvas, who, in the shape +of a horse's head, swallows the water of the sea and vomits flames, +is a variety of the same solar myth; <i>Mbh.</i> i. 6802, and following +verses.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_634_634" id="Footnote_634_634"></a><a href="#FNanchor_634_634"><span class="label">[634]</span></a> Hiraṇyaṛigo yo asya pd manoǵav; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 163, 9.—Tava +ṛigṇi vishṭhit purutr raṇyeshu ǵarbhurṇ ćaranti. 11.—We +find the stag in relation with the horse, as his stronger rival until +man mounts upon the horse's back, in the well-known apologue of +Horace, <i>Epist.</i> i. 10. +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Cervus equum pugna melior communibus herbis<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Pellebat, donec minor in certamine longo<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Imploravit opes hominis, frenumque recepit;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sed postquam victor discessit ab hoste,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Non equitem dorso, non frenum depulit ore."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="Footnote_635_635" id="Footnote_635_635"></a><a href="#FNanchor_635_635"><span class="label">[635]</span></a> Vṛiksho nishṭhito madhye arṇaso yaṁ tugryo ndhitaḥ paryashasvaǵat; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 182, 7.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_636_636" id="Footnote_636_636"></a><a href="#FNanchor_636_636"><span class="label">[636]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, v. 11.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_637_637" id="Footnote_637_637"></a><a href="#FNanchor_637_637"><span class="label">[637]</span></a> Apa yor indraḥ ppaǵa marto na aramṇo bibhvn ubhe yad +yuyuǵe tavishvn; <i>Ṛigv.</i> x. 105, 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_638_638" id="Footnote_638_638"></a><a href="#FNanchor_638_638"><span class="label">[638]</span></a> Iasya saṁsthe na vṛiṇvate har samatsu atravaḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 5, 4.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_639_639" id="Footnote_639_639"></a><a href="#FNanchor_639_639"><span class="label">[639]</span></a> Avyo vro abhavas tad indra; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 32, 12; and the Hindoo +commentator notes that Indras chased the enemy as the tail of a horse +shakes off the insects that place themselves upon it, which it is much +more natural to believe of the tail of Indras's horse, which is covered +with milk, butter, honey, and ambrosia.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_640_640" id="Footnote_640_640"></a><a href="#FNanchor_640_640"><span class="label">[640]</span></a> <i>Ṛigv.</i>, the hymn quoted before, i. 84, 13, 14; Agnis, too, is +honoured as a tailed horse (vravantam avam), <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 27, 1.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_641_641" id="Footnote_641_641"></a><a href="#FNanchor_641_641"><span class="label">[641]</span></a> Ṛiǵipyaṁ yenam prushitapsum um ćarkṛityam aryo nṛipatiṁ +na ram—vtam iva dhraǵantam—uta smsya tanyator iva dyor +ṛighyato abhiyuǵo bhayante yad sahasram abhi shm ayodhd durvartuḥ +sm bhavati bhma ṛińǵan; <i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 38, 2, 3, 8.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_642_642" id="Footnote_642_642"></a><a href="#FNanchor_642_642"><span class="label">[642]</span></a> Avakrmantaḥ prapadir amitrn; <i>Ṛigv.</i> vi. 75, 7.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_643_643" id="Footnote_643_643"></a><a href="#FNanchor_643_643"><span class="label">[643]</span></a> vi. 49.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_644_644" id="Footnote_644_644"></a><a href="#FNanchor_644_644"><span class="label">[644]</span></a> Cfr. Simrock, <i>Handbuch der Deutschen Mythologie</i>, p. 375, and +Rochholtz, the work quoted before.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_645_645" id="Footnote_645_645"></a><a href="#FNanchor_645_645"><span class="label">[645]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, ii. 24.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_646_646" id="Footnote_646_646"></a><a href="#FNanchor_646_646"><span class="label">[646]</span></a> <i>Ib.</i> v. 6.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_647_647" id="Footnote_647_647"></a><a href="#FNanchor_647_647"><span class="label">[647]</span></a> <i>Ib.</i> v. 35.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_648_648" id="Footnote_648_648"></a><a href="#FNanchor_648_648"><span class="label">[648]</span></a> Povshe liess stajćavo, ponsze ablak hadićavo.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_649_649" id="Footnote_649_649"></a><a href="#FNanchor_649_649"><span class="label">[649]</span></a> For instance, in the <i>Pentamerone</i>, iii. 7, where the king of Scotland +sends Corvetto to steal the horse of the ogre who lives ten miles +distant from Scotland: "Haveva st' Huorco no bellissimo cavallo, +che pareva fatto co lo penniello, e tra le autre bellizze no le mancava +manco la parola." When Corvetto carries off the horse, it cries out, +"A l'erta ca Corvetto me ne porta."—Cfr. also the <i>Pentamerone</i>, iii. 1.—Not +only has the horse the gift of speech, but the chariot too: in +the seventh book of the <i>Rmyaṇam</i>, 44, the chariot Pushpakam +speaks to Rmas, and says to him that he alone is worthy of driving it.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_650_650" id="Footnote_650_650"></a><a href="#FNanchor_650_650"><span class="label">[650]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, vi. 46.—Cfr. also v. 22, and the 26th of the <i>Novelline +di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_651_651" id="Footnote_651_651"></a><a href="#FNanchor_651_651"><span class="label">[651]</span></a> i. 61, 15.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_652_652" id="Footnote_652_652"></a><a href="#FNanchor_652_652"><span class="label">[652]</span></a> Anavo ǵto anabhur arv; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 152, 5.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_653_653" id="Footnote_653_653"></a><a href="#FNanchor_653_653"><span class="label">[653]</span></a> Cfr. Menzel, <i>Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_654_654" id="Footnote_654_654"></a><a href="#FNanchor_654_654"><span class="label">[654]</span></a> Sapta svasraḥ suvitya sryaṁ vahanti harito rathe; <i>Ṛigv.</i> vii. +66, 15.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_655_655" id="Footnote_655_655"></a><a href="#FNanchor_655_655"><span class="label">[655]</span></a> Adha kratv maghavan tubhyaṁ dev anu vive adaduḥ somapeyam +yat sryasya haritaḥ patantḥ purah satr upar etae kaḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> +v. 29, 5.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_656_656" id="Footnote_656_656"></a><a href="#FNanchor_656_656"><span class="label">[656]</span></a> no nv matnṁ ytam parya gantave, yuńǵthm avin +ratham; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 46, 7.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_657_657" id="Footnote_657_657"></a><a href="#FNanchor_657_657"><span class="label">[657]</span></a> Krandad avo nayamno ruvad gur antar dto na rodas ćarad +vk; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 173, 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_658_658" id="Footnote_658_658"></a><a href="#FNanchor_658_658"><span class="label">[658]</span></a> Ghṛitaćutaṁ svram asvrshṭm; <i>Ṛigv.</i> ii. 11, 7.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_659_659" id="Footnote_659_659"></a><a href="#FNanchor_659_659"><span class="label">[659]</span></a> ... in equ genitalem partem demissam manum, cum ad eum +locum ventum esset, naribus equi admovit, quo odore irritatus ante +omnes hinnitum edidit, auditoque eo sex reliqui summ potestatis +continuo equis dilapsi candidati, ut mos est Persarum, humi prostratis +corporibus Darium regem salutarunt; Valerius Maximus, <i>Mem.</i> vii.; +<i>Herodotus</i>, iii. 87. Herodotus also refers to another variation of the +same anecdote, where he adds, that at the first dawn of day it lightninged +and thundered.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_660_660" id="Footnote_660_660"></a><a href="#FNanchor_660_660"><span class="label">[660]</span></a> Dev ǵr rathnm; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 48, 3.—ataṁ rathebhiḥ subhagosh +iyaṁ vi yty abhi mnushn; i. 48, 7.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_661_661" id="Footnote_661_661"></a><a href="#FNanchor_661_661"><span class="label">[661]</span></a> Upa tmani dadhno dhury nt sahasrṇi atni vaǵrabhuḥ; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 29, 4.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_662_662" id="Footnote_662_662"></a><a href="#FNanchor_662_662"><span class="label">[662]</span></a> Cfr. <i>Ṛigv.</i> iv. 3, 11; iv. 13, 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_663_663" id="Footnote_663_663"></a><a href="#FNanchor_663_663"><span class="label">[663]</span></a> Cfr. Bhtling u. Roth, <i>Sanskṛit Wrterbuch</i>, s. v. <i>avin</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_664_664" id="Footnote_664_664"></a><a href="#FNanchor_664_664"><span class="label">[664]</span></a> Kuhn u. Schwartz, p. 330.—The English proverbial expression, +"a mare's nest," now used to denote an impossibility, probably originally +referred to a real myth.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_665_665" id="Footnote_665_665"></a><a href="#FNanchor_665_665"><span class="label">[665]</span></a> <i>Kngetikn</i>, i. 284.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_666_666" id="Footnote_666_666"></a><a href="#FNanchor_666_666"><span class="label">[666]</span></a> ii. 3.—"Allecordatose d'haver 'ntiso na vota da certe stodiante, +che le cavalle de Spagna se'mpreano co lo viento;" and the story goes +on to speak of the ogre's surprise, who, seeing a beautiful maiden in +his garden, "penzaie che lo shiavro de lo pideto, havesse 'ngravedato +quarche arvolo, e ne fosse sciuta sta penta criatura; perzo abbracciatala +co gran'ammore, decette, figlia mia, parte de sto cuorpo, shiato de lo +spireto mio, e chi me l' havesse ditto mai, che co na ventosetate, havesse +dato forma a ssa bella facce?" Varro seriously wrote: "In ftura +res incredibilis est in Hispania, sed est vera, quod in Lusitania ad +Oceanum in ea regione, ubi est oppidum Olyssipo monte Tagro, qudam e vento concipiunt equ, ut hic gallin solent, quarum ova +hypanemia appellant, sed ex his equis qui nati pulli, non plus triennium +vivunt."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_667_667" id="Footnote_667_667"></a><a href="#FNanchor_667_667"><span class="label">[667]</span></a> Rathebhir avaparṇiḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 88, 1.—In Horace, <i>Carm.</i> i. 14— +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">"Namque Diespiter,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Igni corusco nubila dividens,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Plerumque per purum tonantes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Egit equos, volucremque currum."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="Footnote_668_668" id="Footnote_668_668"></a><a href="#FNanchor_668_668"><span class="label">[668]</span></a> Arṇi ćsya mumucurvǵinaḥ; <i>Rmy.</i> vi. 75.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_669_669" id="Footnote_669_669"></a><a href="#FNanchor_669_669"><span class="label">[669]</span></a> In the corresponding Italian stories, the hero or heroine, punished +for some indiscretion, must, before being pardoned, wear out seven pairs +of iron shoes, and fill seven flasks with their tears.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_670_670" id="Footnote_670_670"></a><a href="#FNanchor_670_670"><span class="label">[670]</span></a> Proximus diebus equorum greges, quos in trajiciendo Rubicon +Marti consacraverat, ac sine custodibus vagos dimiserat, comperit +pabulo pertinacissime abstinere, ubertimque flere.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_671_671" id="Footnote_671_671"></a><a href="#FNanchor_671_671"><span class="label">[671]</span></a> xvii. 426.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_672_672" id="Footnote_672_672"></a><a href="#FNanchor_672_672"><span class="label">[672]</span></a> iii. 740.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_673_673" id="Footnote_673_673"></a><a href="#FNanchor_673_673"><span class="label">[673]</span></a> Vṛish tv vṛishaṇaṁ vardhatu dyur vṛish vṛishabhym vahase +haribhym sa no vṛisha vṛisharathaḥ suipra vṛishakrato vṛish vaǵrin +bhare dhh; <i>Ṛigv.</i> v. 36, 5.—In Piedmont there exists a game of conversation, +consisting in the description of the presents which one intends +making to one's bride, in which description the letter <i>r</i> must never +enter; he who introduces it loses the game.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_674_674" id="Footnote_674_674"></a><a href="#FNanchor_674_674"><span class="label">[674]</span></a> Vṛishyam indra te ratha uto te vṛishaṇ har; <i>Ṛigv.</i> viii. 13, 31.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_675_675" id="Footnote_675_675"></a><a href="#FNanchor_675_675"><span class="label">[675]</span></a> Apm phenena namućeḥ ira indrod avartayaḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> viii. 14, 13.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_676_676" id="Footnote_676_676"></a><a href="#FNanchor_676_676"><span class="label">[676]</span></a> It is also called the canine cough, and it is believed on this account +that it is cured when the children are made to drink where a dog has +been drinking.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_677_677" id="Footnote_677_677"></a><a href="#FNanchor_677_677"><span class="label">[677]</span></a> <i>De Quadrupedibus</i> i.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_678_678" id="Footnote_678_678"></a><a href="#FNanchor_678_678"><span class="label">[678]</span></a> Du Cange, <i>Gloss. Medi et Infim Latinitatis</i>, s. v. <i>caballus</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_679_679" id="Footnote_679_679"></a><a href="#FNanchor_679_679"><span class="label">[679]</span></a> Vṛshapṇayo 'vḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> vi. 75, 7.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_680_680" id="Footnote_680_680"></a><a href="#FNanchor_680_680"><span class="label">[680]</span></a> Krotarć ćhaphd avasya vṛishṇaḥ ataṁ kumbhṅ asińćataṁ +suryaḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 116, 7.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_681_681" id="Footnote_681_681"></a><a href="#FNanchor_681_681"><span class="label">[681]</span></a> "One spot on the margin of Lake Regillus was for many ages +regarded with superstitious awe. A mark, resembling in shape a horse's +hoof, was discernible in the volcanic rock; and this mark was believed +to have been made by one of the celestial chargers."—Macaulay, Preface +to the <i>Battle of the Lake Regillus</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_682_682" id="Footnote_682_682"></a><a href="#FNanchor_682_682"><span class="label">[682]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, iv. 45.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_683_683" id="Footnote_683_683"></a><a href="#FNanchor_683_683"><span class="label">[683]</span></a> The milk of white mares, which, according to Olaus Magnus (i. 24) +was poured into the ground by the king of the Goths every year, on the +28th of August, in honour of the gods, who received it with great +avidity, would seem to be an announcement of the imminent rains of +autumn; the horse loses his ambrosial humour, and his end is at +hand.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_684_684" id="Footnote_684_684"></a><a href="#FNanchor_684_684"><span class="label">[684]</span></a> The Grco-Latin proverb, "Equus me portat, alit rex," would +seem also to have a mythical origin, and to refer to the mythical legend of the betrayed blind man, who carries the cunning hunchback or lame +man; who sometimes only feigns lameness, in order to play off his +practical jokes upon his companion.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_685_685" id="Footnote_685_685"></a><a href="#FNanchor_685_685"><span class="label">[685]</span></a> The fable in <i>Phdrus</i>, iv. 24, of the poet Simonides saved by the +Dioscuri, is well known; but the gods punish the miser who refuses to +give the reward that he had promised, not on their own account, but +on account of the wrong done to the poet, whom they love. It is +remarkable that, as the Latin legend shows us the horses of the Dioscuri +perspiring, so Phdrus represents the Dioscuri themselves as— +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i7">"Sparsi pulvere<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sudore multo diffluentes corpore."<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +This sweat must be the crepuscular mists, in the same way as the poet +Simonides, who alone escapes, being delivered by the Dioscuri, the +ceiling of whose banqueting-hall he had ruined, seems to conceal an +image of the sun saved from the night.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_686_686" id="Footnote_686_686"></a><a href="#FNanchor_686_686"><span class="label">[686]</span></a> <i>Ueber den Zusammenhang indischer Fabeln mit griechischen</i>, eine +kritische Abhandlung von A. Weber, Berlin, 1855.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_687_687" id="Footnote_687_687"></a><a href="#FNanchor_687_687"><span class="label">[687]</span></a> Here is the hymn as given by Du Cange in his <i>Gloss. M. et I. L.</i>:— +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"><p> +<span class="i0">"Orentis partibus<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Adventavit Asinus,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Pulcher et fortissimus,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sarcinis aptissimus.<br /></span> +<span class="i25">Hez, Sire Asnes, car chantez,<br /></span> +<span class="i25">Belle bouche rechignez,<br /></span> +<span class="i25">Vous aurez du fom assez<br /></span> +<span class="i25">Et de l'avoine plantez.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><br /></span></p><p> +<span class="i0">"Lentus erat pedibus<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nisi foret baculus<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Et eum in clunibus<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Pungeret aculeus.<br /></span> +<span class="i25">Hez, Sire Asnes, &c.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><br /></span></p><p> +<span class="i0">"Hic in collibus Sichem,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Jam nutritus sub Ruben,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Transiit per Jordanem,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Saliit in Bethleem.<br /></span> +<span class="i25">Hez, Sire Asnes, &c.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><br /></span></p><p> +<span class="i0">"Ecce magnis auribus<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Subjugalis filius<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Asinus egregius<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Asinorum dominus.<br /></span> +<span class="i25">Hez, Sire Asnes, &c.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><br /></span></p><p> +<span class="i0">"Saltu vincit hinnulos,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Damas et capreolos,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Super dromedarios<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Velox Madianeos.<br /></span> +<span class="i25">Hez, Sire Asnes, &c.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><br /></span></p><p> +<span class="i0">"Auram de Arabia,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thus et myrrhum de Saba<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Tulit in ecclesia<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Virtus Asinaria.<br /></span> +<span class="i25">Hez, Sire Asnes, &c.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><br /></span></p><p> +<span class="i0">"Dum trahit vehicula<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Multa cum sarcinula,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Illius mandibula,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Dura terit pabula,<br /></span> +<span class="i25">Hez, Sire Asnes, &c.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><br /></span></p><p> +<span class="i0">"Cum aristis hordeum<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Comedit et carduum;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Triticum a palea<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Segregat in area.<br /></span> +<span class="i25">Hez, Sire Asnes, &c.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><br /></span></p><p> +<span class="i0">"Amen, dicas, Asine,<br /></span> +<span class="i5">(<i>Hic genuflectabatur.</i>)<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Jam satur de gramine:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Amen, amen itera<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Aspernare vetera.<br /></span> +<span class="i25">Hez va! hez va! hez va! hez!<br /></span> +<span class="i25">Bialz! Sire Asne, car allez;<br /></span> +<span class="i25">Belle bouche car chantez."<br /></span></p> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="Footnote_688_688" id="Footnote_688_688"></a><a href="#FNanchor_688_688"><span class="label">[688]</span></a> Cfr. Reinsberg von Dringsfeld, <i>Das festliche Jahr</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_689_689" id="Footnote_689_689"></a><a href="#FNanchor_689_689"><span class="label">[689]</span></a> Sometimes the place of the ass is taken by the mule. At Turin, +for instance, it is narrated that the church dedicated to the <i>Corpus +Domini</i> was erected several centuries ago on account of the miracle of +a mule which carried some sacred goods stolen by an impious thief. +Having arrived in the little square where the Church of the <i>Corpus Domini</i> now stands, the mule refused to go any farther; and out of a +cup, which was among the sacred objects stolen, a wafer containing the +body of our Saviour rose into the air. Nor would it come down again +until the bishop came forth, and, holding the cup high in the air, +besought the wafer to come back into it; which having been +miraculously accomplished, the Church of the <i>Corpus Domini</i> was +erected on the spot, from which starts and to which returns the +solemn procession which takes place annually at Turin on the festival +of <i>Corpus Domini</i>, and in which, about twenty years ago, the princes +and great dignitaries of the state, with the professors of the university, +used to take part in all the pomp of medival ceremony and costume.—In +Persia the festival of asses is celebrated at the approach +of spring; the ass personifying here the end of the winter season.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_690_690" id="Footnote_690_690"></a><a href="#FNanchor_690_690"><span class="label">[690]</span></a> The same analogy presents itself in the Sanskṛit word <i>arbhakas</i>, +which means little and foolish.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_691_691" id="Footnote_691_691"></a><a href="#FNanchor_691_691"><span class="label">[691]</span></a> Cfr. the root <i>gad</i>, from which we might perhaps deduce an imaginary +intermediate form, gadarbhas, besides the known gardabhas and +gandharbas or gandharvas.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_692_692" id="Footnote_692_692"></a><a href="#FNanchor_692_692"><span class="label">[692]</span></a> Cfr. <i>arvan</i> with the roots <i>arv, arb, arp, ṛiph, riph, riv, ṛinv</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_693_693" id="Footnote_693_693"></a><a href="#FNanchor_693_693"><span class="label">[693]</span></a> x. 10, 5.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_694_694" id="Footnote_694_694"></a><a href="#FNanchor_694_694"><span class="label">[694]</span></a> Gandharva itth padam asya rakshati.; <i>Ṛigv.</i> ix. 83, 4.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_695_695" id="Footnote_695_695"></a><a href="#FNanchor_695_695"><span class="label">[695]</span></a> Strkmḥ vi gandharvḥ; i. 27.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_696_696" id="Footnote_696_696"></a><a href="#FNanchor_696_696"><span class="label">[696]</span></a> Professor Kuhn (<i>Die Herabkunft</i>, d. f. &c.) has already compared to +this the Zend Gandhrawa, who, in the Lake Vuru-Kasha, keeps guard +over the tree <i>hom</i> (the Vedic Somas). Kuhn and Weber, moreover, +have identified the Vedic gandharvas, Kṛinus, who wounds the +ravisher of the Somas, with the Zend Kereni, who endeavours to +destroy riches; here the gandharvas would appear to be a monstrous +and demoniacal being.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_697_697" id="Footnote_697_697"></a><a href="#FNanchor_697_697"><span class="label">[697]</span></a> ... ut omittam eos, quos libidinis ac fœd voluptatis causa, +coluisse nomen illud atque imposuisse suis, a scriptoribus notatur, +qualis olim Onos ille Commodi; qualis exsecrandus Marci Verotrasinus, +qualis et alterius Onobelos, quales, quos matronis in deliciis +fuisse scimus. Unde illud atque alium bipedem sibi qurit asellum, +ejus nempe membri causa, quod, in asino, clava, a Nicandro dicitur; +<i>Laus Asini</i>, Lugd. Batavorum, ex officina Elzeviriana, p. 194.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_698_698" id="Footnote_698_698"></a><a href="#FNanchor_698_698"><span class="label">[698]</span></a> To this flight into Egypt upon the ass can be referred the Piedmontese +custom among children in the middle of Lent—that is, near the +festival of St Joseph—of attaching to their companions now a saw, now +a devil's head, now an ass's head, pronouncing the words, "L'asu +cari che gnn lu sa" (the ass burdened, and no one knows it). Moreover, +it seems to me that to the Christian tradition of Joseph, and of +the child Jesus carried upon the ass, can be referred the well-known +European fable of the old man, the boy, and the ass, of which +numerous varieties may be read in the article upon the <i>asinus vulgi</i> in +the <i>Orient und Occident</i> of Benfey.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_699_699" id="Footnote_699_699"></a><a href="#FNanchor_699_699"><span class="label">[699]</span></a> Professor Benfey, in his learned Einleitung to the <i>Pańćatantram</i>, +p. 268, says that the disguise by means of the skin of an ass is found +in a Latin poem of the fifteenth century.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_700_700" id="Footnote_700_700"></a><a href="#FNanchor_700_700"><span class="label">[700]</span></a> "Addo ex Conrado Lycosthene in libro de ostentis et prodigiis +hanc iconem quam hippokentauri esse credebam, ipse vero (nescio ex +quo) Apothami vocat, Apothami (inquit) in aqua morantes, qui una +parte hominem, alia vero caballum sive equum referunt. Sic etiam +memori tradiderunt mulieres esse capite plano sine crinibus, promissas +autem barbas habentes. Atqui ea descriptio plane ad Onocentauros +pertinere videtur, quos Aelianus et Philes sic fere delineant. Qu +vero de Onocentauro fama accepi, hc sunt: Eum homini ore et +promissa barba similem esse, simul et collum et pectus, humanam +speciem gerere; mammas distantes tamquam mulieris ex pectore +pendere; humeros, brachia, digitos, humanam figuram habere; dorsum, +ventrem, latera, posteriores pedes, asino persimiles et quemadmodum +asinum sic cinereo colore esse; imum ventrem leviter exalbescere: +duplicem usum ei manus prstare; nam celeritate ubi sit opus e +manus prcurrunt ante posteriores pedes; ex quo fit, ut non cterorum +quadrupedum cursu superetur. Ac ubi rursus habet necesse vel cibum +capere vel aliud quidpiam tollere, qui ante pedes erant manus efficiuntur, +tumque non graditur, sed in sessione quiescit: Animal est gravi +animi acerbitate; nam si capiatur, non ferens servitutem, libertatis +desiderio ab omni cibo abhorret, et fame sibi mortem consciscit, licet +pullus adhuc fuerit. Hc de Onocentauro Pythagoram narrare testatur +Crates, ex Mysio Pergamo profectus;" Aldrovandi, <i>De Quadrupedibus</i>, +i.—In the Indian satyrs described by Pliny, in the seventh book of +his <i>Natural History</i>, we find represented an analogous animal: "Sunt +et satyri subsolanis Indorum montibus (Cartadulonum dicitur regio) +pernicissimum animal, turn quadrupes, turn recte currens, humana +effigie, propter velocitatem nisi senes aut gri, aut capiuntur." Evidently +this refers to some kind of monkey (probably the orang-outang); +but as the myth of the monkey does not differ much from that of the +ass, as we shall see, even the Hindoo gandharvas is represented as a +monkey.—"In <i>A. V.</i> iv. 37, 11, the gandharvas, a class of gods, who +are described as hairy, like dogs and monkeys, but as assuming a +handsome appearance to seduce the affections of earthly females, are +implored to desist from this unbecoming practice, and not to interfere +with mortals, as they had wives of their own, the Apsarases;" +Muir's <i>Sanskṛit Texts</i>, v. 309.—We have the monkey-gandharvas and +the warrior-gandharvas in the Vedic hymns, the warrior-monkey in the +<i>Rmyaṇam</i>, and the warrior-kentauros and warrior-ass in Hellenic +myths.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_701_701" id="Footnote_701_701"></a><a href="#FNanchor_701_701"><span class="label">[701]</span></a> We also read of the ass that dances, which reminds us of the gandharvas +in their capacity of heavenly musicians and dancers, who teach +the gods how to dance. Nor is it perhaps without reason that the +author of precepts for dancers and mimics is named <i>Kṛivas</i>: kṛivas +means, as we already know, he who possesses a lean horse, or simply +the lean horse. Between the lean horse, the mule, and the ass, the +distance is short; nor can we overlook the fact that in the gandharvas +Kṛinus is recognised as he who causes to become lean, which calls us +back to the monster who makes horses grow lean, to the monster of +horses, the ugly horse, the horse-monster, who destroys the golden ears +of the fields, making them dry up, like the monster ushṇas, or the destroyer +of riches, like the Zend Kereni.—In the before-quoted book, +<i>Laus Asini</i>, the author says in jest, "Fortassis Pegasum fuisse asinum;" +and in this jest a great truth is contained.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_702_702" id="Footnote_702_702"></a><a href="#FNanchor_702_702"><span class="label">[702]</span></a> Kad yogo vǵino rsabhasya yena yaǵńaṁ nsatyopaythaḥ; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 34, 9.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_703_703" id="Footnote_703_703"></a><a href="#FNanchor_703_703"><span class="label">[703]</span></a> Viḷupatmabhir uhemabhir v devnṁ v ǵtibhiḥ adn tad +rsabho nsaty sahasram ǵ yamasya pradhane ǵigya.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_704_704" id="Footnote_704_704"></a><a href="#FNanchor_704_704"><span class="label">[704]</span></a> Yatr rathasya bṛihato nidhnaṁ vimoćanaṁ vǵino rsabhasya; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> iii. 53, 5.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_705_705" id="Footnote_705_705"></a><a href="#FNanchor_705_705"><span class="label">[705]</span></a> Nvǵinaṁ vǵin hsayanti na gardabham puro avn nayanti; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> iii. 53, 23.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_706_706" id="Footnote_706_706"></a><a href="#FNanchor_706_706"><span class="label">[706]</span></a> Gardabharathenvin udaǵayatmavinvnuvtṁ yadavin +udaǵayatmavinvnuvtṁ tasmtsasṛitaǵavo dugdhadohaḥ sarveshmetarhi +vhannmanishṭo retasastvasya vryaṁ nharatm tasmtsa +dviret vǵ; <i>it. Br.</i> iv. 2, 9.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_707_707" id="Footnote_707_707"></a><a href="#FNanchor_707_707"><span class="label">[707]</span></a> <i>Ueber den Zusammenhang indischer Fabeln mit griechischen</i>, +Berlin, 1855.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_708_708" id="Footnote_708_708"></a><a href="#FNanchor_708_708"><span class="label">[708]</span></a> St Jerome, in the Life of Saint Hilarion: "Ego, inquit, Aselle, +faciam ut non calcitres necte hordeo alam, sed paleis; fame te conficiam +et sitis gravi onerabo pondere; per stus indagabo et frigore, ut cibum +potius quam lasciviam cogites."—St Paulinus wrote, "Sit fortis anima +mortificans asinum suum."—In Italian, too, there is a low term by +which we say, <i>il mio asino</i>, instead of <i>il mio corpo</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_709_709" id="Footnote_709_709"></a><a href="#FNanchor_709_709"><span class="label">[709]</span></a> A. c. i. m. t.,—pœna seu mulcta, qu reis irrogari solebat, ut colligitur +ex decreto Nepesini populi ann. 1134.—Iis et maxime maritis, +qui a suis vapulabant mulieribus; quod eo usque insani deventum +erat, ut si maritus aufugisset, proximior vicinus eam ipse pœnam luere +teneretur; quem morem non omnino periisse audivi. Du Cange, +whose words these are, gives several examples of a similar chastisement.—In +the <i>Tuti-Name</i>, ii. 20, a certain man complains to a sage +that he has lost his ass, and begs the wise man to find it again for +him; the latter points out a man who grew old without having known +love; he who does not love is a fool.—It is a remarkable fact that the +ass, generally considered a very lustful animal, is sometimes despised +as unadapted to make fruitful, and the reason of this is given by +Aldrovandi (<i>De Quadrupedibus</i>, i.)—Quamvis modo libidine maxime +pruriat, ob verendi tamen enormitatem, qua supra modum prditus +est, ad generandum admodum segnem esse compertum est, sicuti et +homines qui simili genitalis productione conspicui sunt, quod in emissione +per eam longitudinem semen transmeans hebetetur et frigidius +fiat. Testaturque lianus inter causas cur gyptii asinos odere, et +hanc quoque accedere putari, quod eum populi prdicti omnes +fœcundos animantes colant, asinus minime fœcundans nullus in +honore sit.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_710_710" id="Footnote_710_710"></a><a href="#FNanchor_710_710"><span class="label">[710]</span></a> Sam, indra, gardabham mṛiṇa nuvantam ppaymuy; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 29, 5.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_711_711" id="Footnote_711_711"></a><a href="#FNanchor_711_711"><span class="label">[711]</span></a> Quoted by Weber, <i>Ueber den Zusammenhang indischer Fabeln mit +griechischen</i>, where the braying ass would also appear to be born of +the omniform monster: "Entsteht, nach . xii. 7, 1, 5, nebst Ross und +Maulthier, aus dem Ruhm (yaas, which, however, may perhaps here +also simply mean splendour), welcher dem Ohr des getdteten Vivarpa +Tvshṭra entfloss, worin der Bezug auf sein lautes Geschrei wohl nicht +zu verkennen ist."—We have already seen, in the Russian stories quoted +in the preceding chapter, how the two horsemen who protect the hero +come out of the ears of the grey horse, and how the hero himself, entering +by one ear, and coming out of the other, finds a heroic horse. +Here we can, perhaps, detect an allusion to the long-eared ass, in the +same way as in the appellation of rutkarṇas, or the ear which listens, +given to Indras (<i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 10, 9), the long-eared Indras may possibly +be a form representing the long-eared Midas, or the ass with long ears.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_712_712" id="Footnote_712_712"></a><a href="#FNanchor_712_712"><span class="label">[712]</span></a> Gatiṁ khara ivvasya suparṇasyeva pakshiṇaḥ angantuṁ na +akto 'smi rǵyam tava mahpate.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_713_713" id="Footnote_713_713"></a><a href="#FNanchor_713_713"><span class="label">[713]</span></a> <i>Rmy.</i> ii. 71.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_714_714" id="Footnote_714_714"></a><a href="#FNanchor_714_714"><span class="label">[714]</span></a> <i>Rmy.</i> iii. 38, 48.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_715_715" id="Footnote_715_715"></a><a href="#FNanchor_715_715"><span class="label">[715]</span></a> <i>Ib.</i> v. 12.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_716_716" id="Footnote_716_716"></a><a href="#FNanchor_716_716"><span class="label">[716]</span></a> vi. 74.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_717_717" id="Footnote_717_717"></a><a href="#FNanchor_717_717"><span class="label">[717]</span></a> Kravydaḥ pićḥ, in the <i>Atharvavedas</i>, viii. 2, 12.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_718_718" id="Footnote_718_718"></a><a href="#FNanchor_718_718"><span class="label">[718]</span></a> Cfr. also the <i>Tuti-Name</i> of Rosen, ii. 218, for the musical ass; +and the same, ii. 149, for the ass in a lion's skin.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_719_719" id="Footnote_719_719"></a><a href="#FNanchor_719_719"><span class="label">[719]</span></a> xli. 28.—Cfr. the <i>Khorda Avesta</i>, Spiegel's <i>Einleitung</i>, p. 54: +"Dort ist der dreibeinige Esel der in der Mitte des Sees steht und mit +seinem Geschrei die bsen Wesen vertreibt und alles Wasser, das mit +unreinen Wesen und Dingen in Berhrung kommt, sogleich reinigt."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_720_720" id="Footnote_720_720"></a><a href="#FNanchor_720_720"><span class="label">[720]</span></a> Readers of Dante are acquainted with the trumpet of the devil +Malacoda, which is used in the same way as the fool uses his in the +Mongol story.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_721_721" id="Footnote_721_721"></a><a href="#FNanchor_721_721"><span class="label">[721]</span></a> In Menander, quoted by Aulus Gellius, a husband complains of +the injuries done him by his wife, using the proverb, "The ass amongst +the monkeys." Monkeys are well known for their impudent lasciviousness; +the ass, who represents the phallos, among this lascivious +fraternity finds himself often in the condition of an impotent and +weak husband.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_722_722" id="Footnote_722_722"></a><a href="#FNanchor_722_722"><span class="label">[722]</span></a> +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lampsacus huic soli solita est mactare Priapo.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Apta asini flammis indicis exta damus.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Quem tu diva memor de pane monilibus ornas;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Cessat opus; vacu conticuere mol.<br /></span> +<span class="i10">—Ovidius, <i>Fasti</i>, vi.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="Footnote_723_723" id="Footnote_723_723"></a><a href="#FNanchor_723_723"><span class="label">[723]</span></a> From the myth of the ass, as a musician and judge of music, is +derived the Tuscan game of the ass, which is thus described by Signor +Fanfani in his <i>Vocabolario dell' Uso Tuscano</i>, Firenze, 1863:—"Each +member of the party chooses an animal whose voice or song he must imitate. The head player represents the ass, and is the king of the +other animals. When the head player, sitting in the middle, calls one +of the animals who encircle him, the dog, for instance, this animal +must bark; when he calls the cock, it must cry chicchiric; when he +calls the ox, he who represents it must bellow, and so on. When the +ass brays, then all the animals emit their respective cries. Whoever +laughs, or omits to give forth the voice or song of the animal which he +represents, pays a forfeit."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_724_724" id="Footnote_724_724"></a><a href="#FNanchor_724_724"><span class="label">[724]</span></a> Ovidius, <i>Metam.</i> xi. 180.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_725_725" id="Footnote_725_725"></a><a href="#FNanchor_725_725"><span class="label">[725]</span></a> According to the <i>Annals of Padova</i>, cited by Berrardino Scardeone, +in Aldrovandi. <i>De Quadrupedibus</i>, i.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_726_726" id="Footnote_726_726"></a><a href="#FNanchor_726_726"><span class="label">[726]</span></a> The German proverb, "Wald hat Ohren, Feld hat Gesicht," is +well known. Cfr. the varieties of this proverb upon the ears of the +forest, in the third vol. pp. 120 and 173, of Uhland's <i>Schriften zur +Geschichte der Dichtung und Sage</i>, Stttgart, 1866.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_727_727" id="Footnote_727_727"></a><a href="#FNanchor_727_727"><span class="label">[727]</span></a> The reader is acquainted with the myth of the nymph Syrinx, +beloved of Pan, who was changed into a cane or reed, from which Pan +made a flute. We find the leaf of the cane in connection with the ass +in Hungarian tradition. A singular indentation can be observed upon +the leaves of the cane, which has a great resemblance to the mark of +three teeth. To explain this strange mark the Hungarian people narrate, that the ass of the Redeemer once bit the leaf of a cane, but +as Christ was in a hurry, the ass was unable to eat the leaf, and so it +happened that its three teeth only left the mark of the bite upon the +cane. From that time forward every leaf of a cane bears record to +this. The two lines which stretch down the two flanks of the ass are +said in Hungary to be caused by the blood of our Redeemer. The +popular belief in Ireland is that these lines remain as a memorial of +Christ having once struck the ass.—Cfr. the chapter on the Peacock +and that on the Eel, where we shall find the hero and the heroine +again transformed into canes.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_728_728" id="Footnote_728_728"></a><a href="#FNanchor_728_728"><span class="label">[728]</span></a> The loss of heart or courage is expressed in Italian by the low term +"Qu mi casca l'asino" (here my ass falls). This expression, however, +may perhaps be of Hellenic origin; the equivoque between the two equisonant +expressions, "ap' onou" and "apo nou" is well-known; whence +to fall off the ass and to fall from one's mind became synonymous.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_729_729" id="Footnote_729_729"></a><a href="#FNanchor_729_729"><span class="label">[729]</span></a> There is an unpublished story which I heard narrated at Antignano, +near Leghorn, of a mother who has a silly son named Pipetta. +The latter asks his mother for a quattrino (a small coin) to buy a +vetch, and afterwards a bean, because it grows higher; he sows it, and +it attains a marvellous height. Climbing up the bean-stalk he comes +to the gates of paradise, which are opened to him, but St Peter sends +him back; he then finds the entrance to hell, which he wishes to +visit. The devil shows him all the sights; the two then play at cards, +and Pipetta wins a sackful of souls. The devil fears that Pipetta +will empty hell, so he allows him to depart with the sack, and an ass +which throws gold from its tail; he mounts up to heaven, and consigns +the sack of souls to St Peter. The story ends with the usual +exchange of asses at the inn where Pipetta sleeps upon his descent +from the beanstalk.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_730_730" id="Footnote_730_730"></a><a href="#FNanchor_730_730"><span class="label">[730]</span></a> <i>Biblion Istorikon</i>, i. 116.—It is added, that when Titus remonstrated +with his father on his avarice, Vespasian made him smell +the gold for which the horse's dung had been sold, asking him +whether it smelt bad.—In the Mongol story we saw the fool who goes +out with his ass and hides it in a cavern afterwards despoiling a +merchant's caravan.—<i>Tzetzas</i>, i. 128, records the existence in Phrygia +of a village called "Ass's-ears" ( klsis onou ta), inhabited by +robbers, and belonging to Midas; he thinks, moreover, that Midas was +surnamed the large-eared on account of this village of his.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_731_731" id="Footnote_731_731"></a><a href="#FNanchor_731_731"><span class="label">[731]</span></a> vi. 105.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_732_732" id="Footnote_732_732"></a><a href="#FNanchor_732_732"><span class="label">[732]</span></a> Kleitas onn hekatombas, xi. 51.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_733_733" id="Footnote_733_733"></a><a href="#FNanchor_733_733"><span class="label">[733]</span></a> In <i>Anton. Liberalis</i> we find a long narrative from which we +gather that Apollo would only suffer the ass to be sacrificed to him +among the Hyperboreans.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_734_734" id="Footnote_734_734"></a><a href="#FNanchor_734_734"><span class="label">[734]</span></a> I read on this subject in the curious volume <i>Laus Asini</i>, printed +at Leyden by Elzevir, the following notice: "Si quis graviter a +scorpione ictus, id in aurem insusurret asino, ex tempore curetur."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_735_735" id="Footnote_735_735"></a><a href="#FNanchor_735_735"><span class="label">[735]</span></a> +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Te senior turpi sequitur Silenus asello<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Turgida pampineis redimitus tempora sertis<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Condita lascivi deducunt orgya myst."<br /></span> +<span class="i10">—Seneca, <i>Œdipus</i>.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="Footnote_736_736" id="Footnote_736_736"></a><a href="#FNanchor_736_736"><span class="label">[736]</span></a> Tam hathur nubhir tmanvatbhir antarikshaprudbhir apodakbhiḥ; +strophe 3.—Cfr. strophe 4th and 5th of the same hymn.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_737_737" id="Footnote_737_737"></a><a href="#FNanchor_737_737"><span class="label">[737]</span></a> Another reason is also assigned for the honour given to the ass in +heaven: the ass and Priapos contend together as to who is superior; +Priapos defeats the ass, and Dionysos takes pity upon the vanquished, +and places it in heaven among the stars.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_738_738" id="Footnote_738_738"></a><a href="#FNanchor_738_738"><span class="label">[738]</span></a> <i>Laus Asini</i>, Ludg. Batavorum, ex officina Elzeviriana.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_739_739" id="Footnote_739_739"></a><a href="#FNanchor_739_739"><span class="label">[739]</span></a> "Conferre aliquid et candori in mulierum cute existimatur. Poppaea +certe Domitii Neronis conjux quingentas secum per omnia trahens +ftas balnearum etiam solio totum corpus illo lacte macerabat, extendi +quoque cutem credens;" <i>Aldrov.</i> To which custom Juvenal alludes +in his 6th satire: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">"Atque illo lacte fovetur<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Propter quod secum comites educit asellas<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Exul hyperboreum si dimittetur ad axim."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="Footnote_740_740" id="Footnote_740_740"></a><a href="#FNanchor_740_740"><span class="label">[740]</span></a> "Finitis laudibus, surgit quidam archipresbyter, retro se ascendit +asinum preparatum a curia; quidam cubicularius tenet in capite asini +bacilem cum xx. solidis denariorum," &c.; in Du Cange, the work +quoted before, <i>s. v. cornomannia</i>.—We also find in Du Cange that a +soldier was called in the middle ages "caput asini, pro magnitudine +capitis et congerie capillorum."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_741_741" id="Footnote_741_741"></a><a href="#FNanchor_741_741"><span class="label">[741]</span></a> In the <i>Pentamerone</i>, iii. 8, the night is called "l'aseno de l'ombre."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_742_742" id="Footnote_742_742"></a><a href="#FNanchor_742_742"><span class="label">[742]</span></a> In the <i>Pentamerone</i>, ii. I, we have a variation of the other +sopian fable of the lion who is afraid of the ass. The old witch, in +order to deliver herself from the lion which Petrosinella has caused to +rise, flays an ass and dresses herself in its skin; the lion, believing it +to be really an ass, runs off.—In the thirteenth of the Sicilian stories +collected by Signora Laura Gonzenbach, and published at Leipzig by +Brockhaus, the ass and the lion dispute the spoil; the young hero +divides it, giving to the ass the hay that the lion has in its mouth, +and to the lion the bones in the ass's mouth. But probably the lion +here represents the dog, according to the Greek proverb, "Kni dids +achra, oni ta ostea," to express a thing done the wrong way.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_743_743" id="Footnote_743_743"></a><a href="#FNanchor_743_743"><span class="label">[743]</span></a> In the <i>Pentamerone</i> again, in the island of the ogres, an old ogress +feeds a number of asses, who afterwards jump on to the bank of a +river and kick the swans; here the ass is demoniacal, as it is in the +<i>Rmyaṇam</i>; the swans, as we shall see, are a form of the luminous +Avinu.—In obscene literature, the <i>mentula</i> as a gardener, and the +<i>vulva</i> as a garden, are two frequent images; cfr., among others, the +Italian poem, <i>La Menta</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_744_744" id="Footnote_744_744"></a><a href="#FNanchor_744_744"><span class="label">[744]</span></a> Cfr. the first of the <i>Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia</i>, in +which we also find the third brother, believed to be stupid, who makes +his ass throw gold from its tail; the foolish Pimpi, who kills his ass +whilst cutting wood; the son of the poor man, who amuses himself by +sending the ass before him tied to a string, and then making it return; +the peasant who drags up the ass which had fallen into the marsh, and +who then marries the daughter of the king of Russia (the wintry, the +gloomy, the nocturnal one), who never laughed and whom he causes to +laugh; and the ass who dies after eating a poisoned loaf.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_745_745" id="Footnote_745_745"></a><a href="#FNanchor_745_745"><span class="label">[745]</span></a> <i>Contes et Proverbes Populaires recueillis en Armagnac</i>, par J. F. +Blad, Paris, Franck.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_746_746" id="Footnote_746_746"></a><a href="#FNanchor_746_746"><span class="label">[746]</span></a> <i>Cuentos y Poesias Populares Andaluces</i>, collecionados por Fernan +Caballero, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1866.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_747_747" id="Footnote_747_747"></a><a href="#FNanchor_747_747"><span class="label">[747]</span></a> The Petropolitan Dictionary sees in the he-goat aǵas, the movable +one (agilis). To illustrate the same analogies in the case of the Greek +myth, it will be useful to repeat the words of Professor Bral: "Le +verbe grec <i>ass</i>, qui signifie s'lancer, a fait d'une part le substantif +<i>aix</i>, chvre ( cause de la nature bondissante de l'animal), et de l'autre +les mots <i>katax, kataigis, tempte</i> (as it seems to me, that which +shakes, which causes to move or tremble, inasmuch as I maintain that +<i>aǵas</i> does not mean the movable, or him that rushes, so much as him +that pushes, that butts, or causes to move). De l une nouvelle srie +d'images et de fables o la chvre joue le rle principal. L'gide, +avant d'tre un bouclier fait en peau de chvre, tait le ciel au moment +de l'orage; Jupiter aigiochos tait le dieu qui envoie la tempte; plus +tard, on traduisit le dieu qui porte l'gide. Homre semble se souvenir +de la premire signification, quand il nous montre, au seul mouvement +du bouclier le tonnerre qui clate, l'Ida qui se couvre de nuages et les +hommes frapps de terreur." Mr Ralston compares very well the +Russian <i>ablakagragonniki</i> (cloud-compellers) to the Zeus <i>nephelgeretes</i>. +In the <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 10, 8, it is said similarly to Indras: ǵeshaḥ svarvatr +apaḥ saṁ g asmabhyaṁ dhnuhi.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_748_748" id="Footnote_748_748"></a><a href="#FNanchor_748_748"><span class="label">[748]</span></a> Let Finnish philologists observe whether it is not possible to refer to this their Aija, an equivalent of Ukko, their Indras, called hattarojen +hallitsia, the master of the cloud-lambs.—Cfr. Castren's <i>Kleinere +Schriften</i>, St Petersburg, 1862, p. 230.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_749_749" id="Footnote_749_749"></a><a href="#FNanchor_749_749"><span class="label">[749]</span></a> Mesham puruhtam; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 51, 1.—Tad indro arthaṁ ćetati +ythena vṛishṇir eǵati; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 10, 2.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_750_750" id="Footnote_750_750"></a><a href="#FNanchor_750_750"><span class="label">[750]</span></a> Tvaṁ gotram aigirobhyo 'vṛiṇor; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 51, 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_751_751" id="Footnote_751_751"></a><a href="#FNanchor_751_751"><span class="label">[751]</span></a> Tvaṁ mybhir apa myino 'dhamaḥ—tvam pipror nṛimaṇaḥ +prruǵaḥ puraḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 51, 5.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_752_752" id="Footnote_752_752"></a><a href="#FNanchor_752_752"><span class="label">[752]</span></a> Mahantaṁ ćid arbudaṁ ni kramḥ pad; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 51, 6.—Arbudas +is also in Sanskṛit the proper name of a mountain and of a hell; the +cloud-mountain and the hell in the cloudy and nocturnal sky have +already been noticed in this volume.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_753_753" id="Footnote_753_753"></a><a href="#FNanchor_753_753"><span class="label">[753]</span></a> aphv iva ǵarbhurṇ tarobhiḥ; <i>Ṛigv.</i> ii. 39, 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_754_754" id="Footnote_754_754"></a><a href="#FNanchor_754_754"><span class="label">[754]</span></a> Siṅhyaṁ ćit petven ǵaghna; <i>Ṛigv.</i> vii. 18, 17.—In Firdusi we find, +in the adventures of Isfendiar, two horned wolves that catch lions; these +seem to be demoniacal forms of the ram of Indras which kills the lion.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_755_755" id="Footnote_755_755"></a><a href="#FNanchor_755_755"><span class="label">[755]</span></a> xxx. 9.—Here the horns are the sun's rays or the thunderbolts, +which come again in the Italian superstition on the <i>iettatura</i>; the horns +of the goat, it is said, and the red coral horns excel the devil and his +magic.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_756_756" id="Footnote_756_756"></a><a href="#FNanchor_756_756"><span class="label">[756]</span></a> iv. 21.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_757_757" id="Footnote_757_757"></a><a href="#FNanchor_757_757"><span class="label">[757]</span></a> iii. 18.—In the story, i. 20, we are told that the lamb fled away +into the forest with the he-goat, because its master took the skin off +one of its sides (that is, the wool). The lambs appear in the morning +and in the evening with luminous wool; they are sheared during the +night.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_758_758" id="Footnote_758_758"></a><a href="#FNanchor_758_758"><span class="label">[758]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, ii. 4; iv. 17.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_759_759" id="Footnote_759_759"></a><a href="#FNanchor_759_759"><span class="label">[759]</span></a> The walnut-tree is also found in relation with the goat in a fable +of <i>Afanassieff</i>, ii. 1, that of the accused who exculpate themselves by +inculpating others. The cock and the hen gather nuts together; the +cock throws one which strikes the hen on the ear; the hen weeps; a +boiard asks the reason; the hen accuses the cock, the cock accuses the +walnut-tree, the walnut-tree accuses the goat, the goat accuses the +shepherd, the shepherd accuses the housewife, the housewife accuses +the hog, the hog accuses the wolf, the wolf accuses God, but beyond +God it is impossible to go.—In another jest in verse, intended to +exercise the memory and loosen the tongue, and given by <i>Afanassieff</i>, +iv. 16, we find the goat in connection with hazel-nuts. The he-goat +begins to complain that the she-goat does not come back with the +hazel-nuts (net kaszi s ariehami); the song goes on to say, that the +he-goat will send the wolf to find the she-goat, the bear after the wolf, +the men after the bear, the oak-tree after the men, the axe after the +oak-tree, the grindstone after the axe, the fire after the grindstone, the water after the fire, and the hurricane after the water; then the +hurricane sends the water, the water the fire, the fire burns the grindstone, +the stone grinds the axe, the axe cuts down the oak-tree, the +oak-tree made into a stick (as we have already seen in Chapters I. and +II.) beats the men, the men shoot against the bear, the bear fights +with the wolves, the wolves hunt the she-goat, and here the she-goat +comes back with the hazel-nuts (vot kasza s ariehami).</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_760_760" id="Footnote_760_760"></a><a href="#FNanchor_760_760"><span class="label">[760]</span></a> +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah vi, dietuski,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Moi batiuski<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ataprtessia<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Atamkntessia;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Vasha mat prishl<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Malak priniesl<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Polni bak malak,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Polni rag tvarag<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Polni kopitzi vaditzi.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="Footnote_761_761" id="Footnote_761_761"></a><a href="#FNanchor_761_761"><span class="label">[761]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, vi. 17.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_762_762" id="Footnote_762_762"></a><a href="#FNanchor_762_762"><span class="label">[762]</span></a> In the story, ii. 32 of <i>Afanassieff</i>, a similar voice has the same +effect as that of the ass; it terrifies all the other animals. However, +here, a goat that has been shorn is alone spoken of,—that is, the goat +which has lost its hair or luminous wool, the thundering goat-cloud.—In +the twenty-fifth story of the first book of the <i>Narodnija iusznoruskija +Skazki</i> (<i>Popular Stories of South Russia</i>), edited by Rudcenko, Kiev, +1869, the goat terrifies by its voice the first fox and then the wolf, until +she herself is terrified by the voice of the cock. (The morning sun, +personified in the cock, destroys the she-goat of night.)</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_763_763" id="Footnote_763_763"></a><a href="#FNanchor_763_763"><span class="label">[763]</span></a> <i>Afanassieff</i>, iii. 15.—She sends them to the pasturage; a young +blacksmith, who is in her power, adopts the follow mode of deliverance: +He puts his pelisse on outside-in, feigns himself a sheep, and passes +out with the other sheep, escaping thus from the witch: the young sun +comes out at morn like a shepherd-hero among the sheep. Thus +Odysseus delivers himself from the grotto of Polyphemos with his +companions, by hiding himself among the flock which comes out of it.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_764_764" id="Footnote_764_764"></a><a href="#FNanchor_764_764"><span class="label">[764]</span></a> Cfr. the eleventh of the <i>Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia</i>, +where we have the lamb instead of the kid.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_765_765" id="Footnote_765_765"></a><a href="#FNanchor_765_765"><span class="label">[765]</span></a> A very interesting variation of this is contained in another unpublished +story which I heard from a certain Marianna Nesti of +Fucecchio in Tuscany. +</p><p> +There was once a queen that had a son, who, at the age of seven +years, was enchanted, so that he lay constantly in bed like one deprived +of life. Only at midnight he went out of the house, returning +at one o'clock, covered with blood, and throwing himself as if +dead into the bed. A woman had to remain regularly on the watch +for the purpose of opening the door for him at midnight and at one +o'clock; but no girl had, from very fright, been able to continue in the +service more than one night. Near the city lived an old woman with +three daughters; the two eldest tried to discharge the prescribed +duty, but were overcome with fear; the youngest, more courageous, +remained. The first night, at twelve o'clock, the dead man lifts up +one arm; she runs to him and lifts the other; he tries to raise himself; +she helps him to get out of bed. At one o'clock he returns +covered with blood, and the girl asks him who has reduced him to this +condition, but he answers nothing, and throws himself on the bed as if +a corpse. The second night she follows him, and sees him enter a +subterranean cavern; he comes to the foot of a flight of stairs, puts +down his mantle and remains as naked as when he was born, a handsome +youth of eighteen years of age. At the summit of the stairs two +great witches cry, "Here he is! come, pretty one!" He ascends and +is beaten by the witches for an hour till blood flows, he crying out the +while for mercy. At one o'clock he is allowed to go, comes back to the +foot of the stairs, takes his mantle and returns home dead. The third night his attendant again follows him, and when he puts down +his mantle at the foot of the stairs and goes up, she takes the mantle +and presses it tightly; the witches scream. The young man comes to +the summit; but when they try to beat him they cannot lift the stick. +Perceiving this, the girl presses and bites the mantle; when she does +so, the witches feel themselves bitten; then the girl runs to the +palace, orders a great fire to be lighted, and throws the mantle into it; +upon its being burnt, the two witches expire, their enchantment is +destroyed, and the prince marries his deliverer.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_766_766" id="Footnote_766_766"></a><a href="#FNanchor_766_766"><span class="label">[766]</span></a> In the eighth story of the first book of the <i>Pentamerone</i>, the ungrateful +young woman, Renzolla, is condemned by her own protecting +fairy to have the face of a horned goat until she shows her repentance.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_767_767" id="Footnote_767_767"></a><a href="#FNanchor_767_767"><span class="label">[767]</span></a> v. 25.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_768_768" id="Footnote_768_768"></a><a href="#FNanchor_768_768"><span class="label">[768]</span></a> iii. 16.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_769_769" id="Footnote_769_769"></a><a href="#FNanchor_769_769"><span class="label">[769]</span></a> i. 50; vii. 38.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_770_770" id="Footnote_770_770"></a><a href="#FNanchor_770_770"><span class="label">[770]</span></a> atam meshn vṛikye ćakshadnam ṛiǵrvam tam pitndhaṁ +ćakra tasma aksh nsaty vićaksha dhattam dasr bhishaǵv anarvan; +<i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 116, 16.—Cfr. 117, 18.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_771_771" id="Footnote_771_771"></a><a href="#FNanchor_771_771"><span class="label">[771]</span></a> Esha ćhgaḥ puro avena vǵin; <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. 162, 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_772_772" id="Footnote_772_772"></a><a href="#FNanchor_772_772"><span class="label">[772]</span></a> Cfr. <i>Afanassieff</i>, v. 7, where the rogue passes the she-goat off as his +sister, and lets her be killed, in order to oblige the murderer, by threats +of exposure, to give him a large sum of money in compensation; and +v. 52, where the head of a goat is cut off to conceal the murder of a +sacristan, committed by the foolish third brother.—Cfr. <i>Erlenwein</i>, 17.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_773_773" id="Footnote_773_773"></a><a href="#FNanchor_773_773"><span class="label">[773]</span></a> The she-goat is also sacrificed, in the eighth of the Sicilian stories +collected by Laura Gonzenbach, to test the virtue of a truthful +peasant. The wife of a minister who is jealous of the peasant Verit +(Truth), who has the custody of a goat, a lamb, a ram, and a wether +belonging to the king, persuades him to believe that her life is forfeit, +and can be ransomed only by the sacrifice of the wether. The peasant, +overcome partly by love and partly by compassion, gives way and +consents to the sacrifice. The minister hopes that the peasant will +conceal his fault, but is disappointed in his expectation, inasmuch as, +on the contrary, he ingenuously confesses everything; and he becomes, +in consequence, yet dearer to the king.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_774_774" id="Footnote_774_774"></a><a href="#FNanchor_774_774"><span class="label">[774]</span></a> The devil also presents himself to do his evil deeds in the <i>Blier de +Rochefort</i>, in Bonnafoux, <i>Lgendes et Croyances Superstitieuses Conserves +dans le Dpartment de la Creuse</i>, Gueret, 1867, p. 17.—In a legend of +Baden, too, recorded by Simrock (work quoted before, p. 260; cfr., in +the same work, p. 501), the devil appears with the feet of a he-goat.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_775_775" id="Footnote_775_775"></a><a href="#FNanchor_775_775"><span class="label">[775]</span></a> vii. 50, 1.—In the <i>Classical Dictionary of Natural History of +Audouin, Bourdon</i>, &c., first Italian translation, Venice, Tasso, 1831, +we read: "Goat, species of ophidian reptiles, indigenous in Congo, +and also in Bengal; as yet unclassified by zoologists, and which, it is +said, throw from afar a kind of saliva causing blindness."</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_776_776" id="Footnote_776_776"></a><a href="#FNanchor_776_776"><span class="label">[776]</span></a> Cfr. the lacerta cornuta of the <i>Pentamerone</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_777_777" id="Footnote_777_777"></a><a href="#FNanchor_777_777"><span class="label">[777]</span></a> vi. 42.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_778_778" id="Footnote_778_778"></a><a href="#FNanchor_778_778"><span class="label">[778]</span></a> iv. 7.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_779_779" id="Footnote_779_779"></a><a href="#FNanchor_779_779"><span class="label">[779]</span></a> +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Differ opus, tunc tristis hiems, tunc pleiades instant<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tunc et in quorea mergitur hdus aqua.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spe ego nimbosis dubius jactabar ab hdis.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nascitur Olene signum pluviale capell.<br /></span> +<span class="i14">—<i>Ovid.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Quantus ab occasu veniens pluvialibus hdis<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Verberat imber humum.<br /></span> +<span class="i10">—<i>Virgil.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="Footnote_780_780" id="Footnote_780_780"></a><a href="#FNanchor_780_780"><span class="label">[780]</span></a> Pvrav tanyatur ekapd aǵo divo dhart; <i>Ṛigv.</i> x. 65, 13.—Cfr. +the aǵa ekapd invoked after Ahirbudhnya and before Tritas, in the +<i>Ṛigv.</i> ii. 31, 6, and the aǵikapd, a name given to Vishṇus, in the +<i>Hariv</i>; the reader remembers also the <i>goat-footed races</i> of Herodotus.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_781_781" id="Footnote_781_781"></a><a href="#FNanchor_781_781"><span class="label">[781]</span></a> We also find the lame goat, or he-goat, in the legend of Thor. The +god kills his he-goats, takes off their skins, and keeps their bones, to +be able to resuscitate them at pleasure. His son, Thialfi, steals the +thigh-bone of one of the goats, in order to go and sell it; then one +of the he-goats of Thor, being resuscitated, is lame.—Cfr. for the +analogous traditions the notices given by Simrock, work quoted before, +p. 260.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_782_782" id="Footnote_782_782"></a><a href="#FNanchor_782_782"><span class="label">[782]</span></a> In a Russian song we read: "Moon! moon! golden horns!"</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_783_783" id="Footnote_783_783"></a><a href="#FNanchor_783_783"><span class="label">[783]</span></a> ii. 240.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_784_784" id="Footnote_784_784"></a><a href="#FNanchor_784_784"><span class="label">[784]</span></a> Cfr. Du Cange, <i>s. v.</i> galaxia.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_785_785" id="Footnote_785_785"></a><a href="#FNanchor_785_785"><span class="label">[785]</span></a> <i>Das festliche Jahr</i>, zweite Ausg., p. 216.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_786_786" id="Footnote_786_786"></a><a href="#FNanchor_786_786"><span class="label">[786]</span></a> Florence, Piatti, 1821.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_787_787" id="Footnote_787_787"></a><a href="#FNanchor_787_787"><span class="label">[787]</span></a> Concerning this stone, cfr. a whole chapter in Aldrovandi, <i>De +Quadrupedibus Bisulcis</i>, i.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_788_788" id="Footnote_788_788"></a><a href="#FNanchor_788_788"><span class="label">[788]</span></a> Cfr. Du Cange, <i>s. v. Agnus Dei</i>, where we even find the verses +with which Urban V. accompanied the gift of an <i>Agnus Dei</i> to John +Paleologus.—In the month of October, the Thuringians celebrate the +festival of the race after the ram, which, when overtaken, is led to a +large rock and there killed. For the race after the ram, cfr. also +Villemarqu, <i>Chants Populaires de la Bretagne</i>.—In a popular song, in which <i>England</i> is transformed into <i>Engelland</i> (or country of the +angels), Mary, the nurse of God, appears with the white lamb:— +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Die Himmelsthr wird aufgehen;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Maria Gottes Amme<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Kommt mit dem weissen Lamme."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="Footnote_789_789" id="Footnote_789_789"></a><a href="#FNanchor_789_789"><span class="label">[789]</span></a> Menzel, the work quoted before.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_790_790" id="Footnote_790_790"></a><a href="#FNanchor_790_790"><span class="label">[790]</span></a> Professor Emilio Teza has published a medival Italian version of +this poem with notes.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_791_791" id="Footnote_791_791"></a><a href="#FNanchor_791_791"><span class="label">[791]</span></a> Cfr. the before-quoted fable of <i>Babrios</i>, in which the vine complains +of the he-goat which eats its leaves.—In the Italian proverb, +"Salvar la capra e i cavoli," the she-goat is again indicated as an eater +of leaves.—The leaves of the sorb-apple, according to the Norwegian +belief, cure sick goats, by which the god Thor is drawn.—Cfr. Kuhn, +<i>Die H. d. F. u. d. G.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_792_792" id="Footnote_792_792"></a><a href="#FNanchor_792_792"><span class="label">[792]</span></a> From a narrative made to me by my friend Valentino Carrera, an +intrepid Alp-climber and popular dramatist.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_793_793" id="Footnote_793_793"></a><a href="#FNanchor_793_793"><span class="label">[793]</span></a> Referred to by Martial's epigram:— +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Tam male Thais olet, quam non fullonis avari<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Tecta vetus media, sed modo fracta via.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Non ab amore recens hircus," &c.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="Footnote_794_794" id="Footnote_794_794"></a><a href="#FNanchor_794_794"><span class="label">[794]</span></a> With this myth of the brother Phrixos and of the sister Helle, +who pass the sea or fly through the air with the sheep, is connected +the Russian story recorded above of Ivan and Helena; Ivan is changed +into a little kid or lamb. In the Italian variety of the same story, +the sister is thrown into the sea by the witch. Whilst the brother and +sister pass the Hellespont upon the golden ram, Helle falls into the +sea. We learn from Apllonios, in the second book of the <i>Argon.</i>, +that the fleece of the sheep became gold only when, on its arrival in +Colchis, it was sacrificed and suspended upon an oak-tree. The cloud-ram +becomes golden only in the morning and evening sky.—The +luminous fleece can perhaps be recognised in the bride of the <i>Ṛigvedas</i>, +who, leaning towards the relations of Kakshvant, says: "Every day +I shall be (properly speaking, I am) like the little woolly sheep of +the gandhri (sarvham asmi roma gandhrṇm ivvik);" <i>Ṛigv.</i> i. +126. As there is an etymological analogy, so there may be a mythical +analogy between the gandhri and the gandharvs.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_795_795" id="Footnote_795_795"></a><a href="#FNanchor_795_795"><span class="label">[795]</span></a> Book x.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_796_796" id="Footnote_796_796"></a><a href="#FNanchor_796_796"><span class="label">[796]</span></a> Ovid calls the goat "hdorum mater formosa duorum," and sings +that the goat herself broke one of her horns against a tree, which horn +the nymph Amalthea wrapped— +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">"decentibus herbis<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Et plenum pomis ad Jovis ora tulit;"<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +and Jupiter, when lord of heaven, in reward— +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Sidera nutricem, nutricis fertile cornu<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fecit, quod domin nunc quoque nomen habet."<br /></span> +</div></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + + +<div class="tn"> +<h4><a name="Transcribers_Notes" id="Transcribers_Notes">Transcriber's Notes</a></h4> +<ul class="corrections"> +<li>Corrected misspellings throughout the text.</li> +<li>There are multiple spellings of many names throughout, all of which appear valid, left per the text.</li> +<li>There are many words that are both hyphenated and unhyphenated in the text (i.e. cowmaid and cow-maid). Words were left to match the text.</li> +<li>Pg <a href="#Page_1">1</a>: Added a missing — separator (... for cows.—Cavern where ...)</li> +<li>Pg <a href="#Page_24">24</a>: Removed the second "the" (... it is the third sun ...)</li> +<li>Pg <a href="#Page_178">178</a>: Added missing period. (... him from danger. These were ...)</li> +<li>Pg <a href="#Page_196">196</a>: There is an unmatched round bracket starting on this page (... carried off. (This is the ...)</li> +<li>Pg <a href="#Page_211">211</a>: There is an unmatched round bracket starting on this page (... perfidious persecutor. (The evening ...)</li> +<li>Pg <a href="#Page_313">313</a>: There is an unmatched round bracket starting on this page (... called Urvksha (a word ...)</li> +<li>Pg <a href="#Page_335">335</a>: Removed an extra "the" (... seizes the branch of ...)</li> +<li>Footnotes <a href="#Footnote_59_59">59</a> and <a href="#Footnote_433_433">433</a>: Have no anchor in the text.</li> +<li>Footnotes <a href="#Footnote_395_395">395</a> and <a href="#Footnote_436_436">436</a>: Added closing quotes to the end of the footnote.</li> +<li>Footnote <a href="#Footnote_518_518">518</a>: There is an unmatched round bracket in this footnote (... <i>attonito</i> (or, properly ...)</li> +<li>Footnote <a href="#Footnote_558_558">558</a>: There is an unmatched quote in this footnote (... cavalli stregari;" <i>Prologo.</i> 10 ...)</li> +<li>Footnote <a href="#Footnote_579_579">579</a>: Replaced the final comma with a period.</li> +<li>Footnote <a href="#Footnote_612_612">612</a>: Replaced comma with period after "i" (<i>Tuti-Name</i>, i. 151.)</li> +<li>Footnote <a href="#Footnote_659_659">659</a>: Changed "lightned" to "lightninged" (... day it lightninged and thundered.)</li> +<li>Footnote <a href="#Footnote_715_715">715</a>: Added second period after "v" (... <i>Ib.</i> v. 12. ...)</li> +</ul> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Zoological Mythology, Volume I (of 2), by +Angelo de Gubernatis + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY, VOL I *** + +***** This file should be named 38687-h.htm or 38687-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/6/8/38687/ + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Douglas L. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Zoological Mythology, Volume I (of 2) + or The Legends of Animals + +Author: Angelo de Gubernatis + +Release Date: March 4, 2012 [EBook #38687] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY, VOL I *** + + + + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Douglas L. Alley, III, Bill +Tozier and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + +ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY + +OR + +THE LEGENDS OF ANIMALS + +BY + +ANGELO DE GUBERNATIS + +PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE IN THE ISTITUTO DI STUDII +SUPERIORI E DI PERFEZIONAMENTO, AT FLORENCE +FOREIGN MEMBER OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF PHILOLOGY AND ETHNOGRAPHY +OF THE DUTCH INDIES + +_IN TWO VOLUMES_ + +VOL. I. + +LONDON + +TRUeBNER & CO., 60 PATERNOSTER ROW + +1872 + +[_All rights reserved_] + + + + +PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY +EDINBURGH AND LONDON + + + + + TO + + MICHELE AMARI AND MICHELE COPPINO + + This Work + + IS DEDICATED + + AS A TRIBUTE OF LIVELY GRATITUDE AND + + PROFOUND ESTEEM + + BY + + THE AUTHOR. + + + + +ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY; + +OR + +THE LEGENDS OF ANIMALS. + +First Part. + +THE ANIMALS OF THE EARTH. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE COW AND THE BULL. + + +SECTION I.--THE COW AND THE BULL IN THE VEDIC HYMNS. + +SUMMARY. + + Prelude.--The vault of Heaven as a luminous cow.--The gods and + goddesses, sons and daughters of this cow.--The vault of Heaven as a + spotted cow.--The sons and daughters of this cow, _i.e._ the winds, + Marutas, and the clouds, Pricnayas.--The wind-bulls subdue the + cloud-cows.--Indras, the rain-sending, thundering, lightening, + radiant sun, who makes the rain fall and the light return, called + the bull of bulls.--The bull Indras drinks the water of + strength.--Hunger and thirst of the heroes of mythology.--The + cloud-barrel.--The horns of the bull and of the cow are + sharpened.--The thunderbolt-horns.--The cloud as a cow, and even as + a stable or hiding-place for cows.--Cavern where the cows are shut + up, of which cavern the bull Indras and the bulls Marutas remove the + stone, and force the entrance, to reconquer the cows, delivering + them from the monster; the male Indras finds himself again with his + wife.--The cloud-fortress, which Indras destroys and Agnis sets on + fire.--The cloud-forest, which the gods destroy.--The cloud-cow; the + cow-bow; the bird-thunderbolts; the birds come out of the cow.--The + monstrous cloud-cow, the wife of the monster.--Some phenomena of + the cloudy sky are analogous to those of the gloomy sky of night and + of winter.--The moment most fit for an epic poem is the meeting of + such phenomena in a nocturnal tempest.--The stars, cows put to + flight by the sun.--The moon, a milk-yielding cow.--The ambrosial + moon fished up in the fountain, gives nourishment to Indras.--The + moon as a male, or bull, discomfits, with the bull Indras, the + monster.--The two bulls, or the two stallions, the two horsemen, the + twins.--The bull chases the wolf from the waters.--The cow + tied.--The aurora, or ambrosial cow, formed out of the skin of + another cow by the Ribhavas.--The Ribhavas, bulls and wise + birds.--The three Ribhavas reproduce the triple Indras and the + triple Vishnus; their three relationships; the three brothers, + eldest, middle, youngest; the three brother workmen; the youngest + brother is the most intelligent, although at first thought stupid; + the reason why.--The three brothers guests of a king.--The third of + the Ribhavas, the third and youngest son becomes Tritas the third, + in the heroic form of Indras, who kills the monster; Tritas, the + third brother, after having accomplished the great heroic + undertaking, is abandoned by his envious brothers in the well; the + second brother is the son of the cow.--Indras a cowherd, parent of + the sun and the aurora, the cow of abundance, milk-yielding and + luminous.--The cow Sita.--Relationship of the sun to the + aurora.--The aurora as cow-nurse of the sun, mother of the cows; the + aurora cowherd; the sun hostler and cowherd.--The riddle of the + wonderful cowherd; the sun solves the riddle proposed by the + aurora.--The aurora wins the race, being the first to arrive at the + barrier, without making use of her feet.--The chariot of the + aurora.--She who has no feet, who leaves no footsteps; she who is + without footsteps of the measure of the feet; she who has no slipper + (which is the measure of the foot).--The sun who never puts his foot + down, the sun without feet, the sun lame, who, during the night, + becomes blind; the blind and the lame who help each other, whom + Indra helps, whom the ambrosia of the aurora enables to walk and to + see.--The aurora of evening, witch who blinds the sun; the sun + Indras, in the morning, chases the aurora away; Indras subdues and + destroys the witch aurora.--The brother sun follows, as a seducer, + the aurora his sister, and wishes to burn her.--The sun follows his + daughter the aurora.--The aurora, a beautiful young girl, deliverer + of the sun, rich in treasure, awakener of the sleepers, saviour of + mankind, foreseeing; from small becomes large, from dark becomes + brilliant, from infirm, whole, from blind, seeing and protectress of + sight.--Night and aurora, now mother and daughter, now + sisters.--The luminous night a good sister; the gloomy night gives + place to the aurora, her elder or better sister, working, purifying, + cleansing.--The aurora shines only when near the sun her husband, + before whom she dances splendidly dressed; the aurora Urvaci.--The + wife of the sun followed by the monster.--The husband of the aurora + subject to the same persecution. + +We are on the vast table-land of Central Asia; gigantic mountains send +forth on every side their thousand rivers; immense pasture-lands and +forests cover it; migratory tribes of pastoral nations traverse it; +the _gopatis_, the shepherd or lord of the cows, is the king; the +gopatis who has most herds is the most powerful. The story begins with +a graceful pastoral idyll. + +To increase the number of the cows, to render them fruitful in milk +and prolific in calves, to have them well looked after, is the dream, +the ideal of the ancient Aryan. The bull, the _foecundator_, is the +type of every male perfection, and the symbol of regal strength. + +Hence, it is only natural that the two most prominent animal figures +in the mythical heaven should be the cow and the bull. + +The cow is the ready, loving, faithful, fruitful Providence of the +shepherd. + +The worst enemy of the Aryan, therefore, is he who carries off the +cow; the best, the most illustrious, of his friends, he who is able to +recover it from the hands of the robber. + +The same idea is hence transferred to heaven; in heaven there is a +beneficent, fruitful power, which is called the cow, and a beneficent +_foecundator_ of this same power, which is called the bull. + +The dewy moon, the dewy aurora, the watery cloud, the entire vault of +heaven, that giver of the quickening and benignant rain, that +benefactress of mankind,--are each, with special predilection, +represented as the beneficent cow of abundance. The lord of this +multiform cow of heaven, he who makes it pregnant and fruitful and +milk-yielding, the spring or morning sun, the rain-giving sun (or +moon) is often represented as a bull. + +Now, to apprehend all this clearly, we ought to go back, as nearly as +possible, to that epoch in which such conceptions would arise +spontaneously; but as the imagination so indulged is apt to betray us +into mere fantastical conceits, into an _a priori_ system, we shall +begin by excluding it entirely from these preliminary researches, as +being hazardous and misleading, and content ourselves with the humbler +office of collecting the testimonies of the poets themselves who +assisted in the creation of the mythology in question. + +I do not mean to say anything of the Vedic myths that is not taken +from one or other of the hymns contained in the greatest of the Vedas, +but only to arrange and connect together the links of the chain as +they certainly existed in the imagination of the ancient Aryan people, +and which the _Rigvedas_, the work of a hundred poets and of several +centuries, presents to us as a whole, continuous and artistic. I shall +indeed suppose myself in the valley of Kacmira, or on the banks of the +Sindhus, under that sky, at the foot of these mountains, among these +rivers; but I shall search in the sky for that which I find in the +hymns, and not in the hymns for that which I may imagine I see in the +sky. I shall begin my voyage with a trusty chart, and shall consult it +with all the diligence in my power, in order not to lose any of the +advantages that a voyage so full of surprises has to offer. Hence the +notes will all, or nearly all, consist of quotations from my guide, in +order that the learned reader may be able to verify for himself every +separate assertion. And as to the frequent stoppages we shall have to +make by the way, let me ask the reader not to ascribe these to +anything arbitrary on my part, but rather to the necessities of a +voyage, made, as it is, step by step, in a region but little known, +and by the help of a guide, where nearly everything indeed is to be +found, but where, as in a rich inventory, it is easier to lose one's +way than to find it again. + +The immense vault of heaven which over-arches the earth, as the eternal +storehouse of light and rain, as the power which causes the grass to +grow, and therefore the animals which pasture upon it, assumes in the +Vedic literature the name of Aditis, or the infinite, the inexhaustible, +the fountain of ambrosia (_amritasya nabhis_). Thus far, however, we +have no personification, as yet we have no myth. The _amritas_ is simply +the immortal, and only poetically represents the rain, the dew, the +luminous wave. But the inexhaustible soon comes to mean that which can +be milked without end--and hence also, a celestial cow, an inoffensive +cow, which we must not offend, which must remain intact.[1] The whole +heavens being thus represented as an infinite cow, it was natural that +the principal and most visible phenomena of the sky should become, in +their turn, children of the cow, or themselves cows or bulls, and that +the _foecundator_ of the great mother should also be called a bull. +Hence we read that the wind (_Vayus_ or _Rudras_) gave birth, from the +womb of the celestial cow, to the winds that howl in the tempest +(_Marutas_ and _Rudras_), called for this reason children of the cow.[2] +But, since this great celestial cow produces the tempestuous, noisy +winds, she represents not only the serene, tranquil vault of the shining +sky, but also the cloudy and tenebrous mother of storms. This great +cow, this immense cloud, that occupies all the vault of heaven and +unchains the winds, is a brown, dark, spotted (_pricnis_) cow; and so +the winds, or Marutas, her sons, are called the children of the spotted +one.[3] The singular has thus become a plural; the male sons of the +cloud, the winds, are 21; the daughters, the clouds themselves, called +the spotted ones (_pricnayas_) are also three times seven, or 21: 3 and +7 are sacred numbers in the Aryan faith; and the number 21 is only a +multiple of these two great legendary numbers, by which either the +strength of a god or that of a monster is often symbolised. If +_pricnis_, or the variegated cow, therefore, is the mother of the +Marutas, the winds, and of the variegated ones (_pricnayas_), the +clouds, we may say that the clouds are the sisters of the winds. We +often have three or seven sisters, three or seven brothers in the +legends. Now, that 21, in the _Rigvedas_ itself, involves a reference to +3, is evident, if we only observe how one hymn speaks of the 3 times 7 +spotted cows who bring to the god the divine drink, while another speaks +of the spotted ones (the number not being specified) who give him three +lakes to drink.[4] Evidently here the 3, or 7, or 21 sister cows that +yield to the god of the eastern heavens their own nutritious milk, and +amidst whose milky humours the winds, now become invulnerable, +increase,[5] fulfil the pious duties of benevolent guardian fates. + +But if the winds are sons of a cow, and the cows are their nurses, +the winds, or Marutas, must, as masculine, be necessarily represented +as bulls. In reality the Wind (_Vayus_), their father, is borne by +bulls--that is, by the winds themselves, who hurry, who grow, are +movable as the rays of the sun, very strong, and indomitable;[6] the +strength of the wind is compared to that of the bull or the bear;[7] +the winds, as lusty as bulls, overcome and subdue the dark ones.[8] +Here, therefore, the clouds are no longer represented as the cows that +nurse, but with the gloomy aspect of a monster. The Marutas, the winds +that howl in the tempest, are as swift as lightning, and surround +themselves with lightning. Hence they are celebrated for their +luminous vestments; and hence it is said that the reddish winds are +resplendent with gems, as some bulls with stars.[9] As such--that is, +as subduers of the clouds, and as they who run impetuously through +them--these winds, these bulls, are the best friends, the most +powerful helpers, of the great bellowing bull; of the god of thunder +and rain; of the sun, the dispeller of clouds and darkness; of the +supreme Vedic god, Indras, the friend of light and ambrosia--of +Indras, who brings with him daylight and fine weather, who sends us +the beneficent dew and the fertilising rain. Like the winds his +companions, the sun Indras--the sun (and the luminous sky) hidden in +the dark, who strives to dissipate the shadows, the sun hidden in the +cloud that thunders and lightens, to dissolve it in rain--is +represented as a powerful bull, as the bull of bulls, invincible son +of the cow, that bellows like the Marutas.[10] + +But in order to become a bull, in order to grow, to develop the strength +necessary to kill the serpent, Indras must drink; and he drinks the +water of strength, the _somas_.[11] "Drink and grow,"[12] one of the +poets says to him, while offering the symbolical libation of the cup of +sacrifice, which is a type of the cup of heaven, now the heavenly vault, +now the cloud, now the sun, and now the moon. From the sweet food of the +celestial cow, Indras acquires a swiftness which resembles that of the +horse;[13] and he eats and drinks at one time enough to enable him to +attain maturity at once. The gods give him three hundred oxen to eat, +and three lakes of ambrosial liquor[14] to drink, in order that he may +be able to kill the monster serpent. The hunger and thirst of the heroes +is always proportioned to the miracle they are called upon to perform; +and for this reason the hymns of the _Rigvedas_ and of the +_Atharvavedas_ often represent the cloud as an immense great-bellied +barrel (_Kabandhas_), which is carried by the divine _bull_.[15] + +But when and how does the hero-bull display his extraordinary +strength? The terrible bull bellows, and shows his strength, as he +sharpens his horns:[16] the splendid bull, with sharpened horns, who +is able of himself to overthrow all peoples.[17] But what are the +horns of the bull Indras, the god of thunder? Evidently the +thunderbolts; Indras is, in fact, said to sharpen the thunderbolts as +a bull sharpens his horns;[18] the thunderbolt of Indras is said to be +thousand-pointed;[19] the bull Indras is called the bull with the +thousand horns, who rises from the sea[20] (or from the cloudy ocean +as a thunder-dealing sun, from the gloomy ocean as a radiant sun--the +thunderbolt being supposed to be rays from the solar disc). Sometimes +the thunderbolt of Indras is itself called a bull,[21] and is +sharpened by its beloved refulgent cows,[22] being used, now to +withdraw the cows from the darkness, now to deliver them from the +monster of darkness that envelops them,[23] and now to destroy the +monster of clouds and darkness itself. Besides the name of Indras, +this exceedingly powerful horned bull, who sharpens his horns to +plunge them into the monster, assumes also, as the fire which sends +forth lightning, as that which sends forth rays of light from the +clouds and the darkness, the name of Agnis; and, as such, has two +heads, four horns, three feet, seven hands, teeth of fire, and wings; +he is borne on the wind, and blows.[24] + +Thus far, then, we have heavenly cows which nurture heavenly bulls, +and heavenly bulls and cows which use their horns for a battle that is +fought in heaven. + +Let us now suppose ourselves on the field of battle, and let us visit +both the hostile camps. In one we find the sun (and sometimes the moon), +the bull of bulls Indras, with the winds, Marutas, the radiant and +bellowing bulls; in the other, a multiform monster, in the shape of +wolves, serpents, wild boars, owls, mice, and such like. The bull Indras +has cows with him, who help him; the monster has also cows, either such +as he has carried off from Indras, and which he imprisons and secretes +in gloomy caverns, towers, or fortresses, or those which he caresses as +his own wives. In the one case, the cows consider the bull Indras as +their friend and liberating hero; in the other, those with the monster +are themselves monsters and enemies of Indras, who fights against them. +The clouds, in a word, are regarded at one time as the friends of the +rain-giving sun, who delivers them from the monster that keeps back the +rain, and at another as attacked by the sun, as they who wickedly +envelop him, and endeavour to destroy him. Let us now go on to search, +in the _Rigvedas_, the proofs of this double battle. + +To begin with the first phase of the conflict, where in the sky does +Indras fight the most celebrated of all his battles? + +The clouds generally assume the aspect of mountains; the words _adris_ +and _parvatas_, in the Vedic language, expressing the several ideas of +stone, mountain, and cloud.[25] The cloud being compared to a stone, a +rock, or a mountain, it was natural,--1st, To imagine in the rock or +mountain dens or caverns, which, as they imprisoned cows, might be +likened to stables;[26] 2d, To pass from the idea of a rock to that of +citadel, fortress, fortified city, tower; 3d, To pass from the idea of +a mountain, which is immovable, to that of a tree which, though it +cannot move from its place, yet rears itself and expands in the air; +and from the idea of the tree of the forest to the shadowy and +awe-inspiring grove. Hence the bull, or hero, or god Indras, or the +sun of thunder, lightning, and rain, now does battle within a cavern, +now carries a fortified town by assault, and now draws forth the cow +from the forest, or unbinds it from the tree, destroying the +_rakshas_, or monster, that enchained it. + +The Vedic poetry celebrates, in particular, the exploit of Indras +against the cavern, enclosure, or mountain in which the monster +(called by different names and especially by those of Valas, Vritras, +Cushnas, of enemy, black one, thief, serpent, wolf, or wild boar) +conceals the herds of the celestial heroes, or slaughters them. + +The black bull bellows; the thunderbolt bellows, that is, the thunder +follows the lightning, as the cow follows its calf;[27] the Marutas +bulls ascend the rock--now, by their own efforts, moving and making +the sonorous stone, the rock mountain, fall;[28] now, with the iron +edge of their rolling chariots violently splitting the mountain;[29] +the valiant hero, beloved by the gods, moves the stone;[30] Indras +hears the cows: by the aid of the wind-bulls he finds the cows hidden +in the cavern; he himself, furnished with an arm of stone, opens the +grotto of Valas, who keeps the cows; or, opens the cavern to the cows; +he vanquishes, kills, and pursues the thieves in battle; the bulls +bellow; the cows move forward to meet them; the bull, Indras, bellows +and leaves his seed in the herd; the thunder-dealing male, Indras, and +his spouse are glad and rejoice.[31] + +In this fabled enterprise, three moments must be noted: 1st, The +effort to raise the stone; 2d, The struggle with the monster who +carried off the cows; 3d, The liberation of the prisoners. It is an +entire epic poem. + +The second form of the enterprise of Indras in the cloudy heavens is +that which has for its object the destruction of the celestial +fortresses, of the ninety, or ninety-nine, or hundred cities of +Cambaras, of the cities which were the wives of the demons; and from +this undertaking Indras acquired the surname of _puramdaras_ +(explained as destroyer of cities); although he had in it a most +valuable companion-in-arms, Agnis, that is, Fire, which naturally +suggests to our thoughts the notion of destruction by fire.[32] + +In a hymn to Indras, the gods arrive at last, bring their axes, and with +their edges destroy the woods, and burn the monsters who restrain the +milk in the breasts of the cows.[33] The clouded sky here figures in the +imagination as a great forest inhabited by _rakshasas_, or monsters, +which render it unfruitful--that is, which prevent the great celestial +cow from giving her milk. The cow that gives the honey, the ambrosial +cow of the Vedas, is thus replaced by a forest which hides the honey, +the ambrosia beloved by the gods. And although the Vedic hymns do not +dwell much upon this conception of the cloudy-sky, preferring as they do +to represent the darkness of night as a gloomy forest, the above passage +from the Vedas is worthy of notice as indicating the existence at least +during the Vedic period of a myth which was afterwards largely amplified +in zoological legend.[34] + +In this threefold battle of Indras, we must, moreover, remark a curious +feature. The thunder-dealing Indras overpowers his enemies with arrows +and darts; the same cloud which thunders, bellows, and therefore is +called a cow, becomes, as throwing darts, a bow: hence we have the +cow-bow, from which Indras hurls the iron stone, the thunderbolt; and +the cord itself of that bellowing bow is called a cow; from the bow-cow, +from the cord-cow, come forth the winged darts, the thunderbolts, called +birds, that eat men; and when they come forth, all the world +trembles.[35] We shall come upon the same idea again further on. + +Thus far we have considered the cow-cloud as a victim of the monster +(that Indras comes to subdue). But it is not uncommon to see the cloud +itself or the darkness, that is, the cow, the fortress, or the forest +represented as a monster. Thus, a Vedic hymn informs us that the monster +Valas had the shape of a cow;[36] another hymn represents the cloud as +the cow that forms the waters, and that has now one foot, now four, now +eight, now nine, and fills the highest heaven with sounds;[37] still +another hymn sings that the sun hurls his golden disc in the variegated +cow;[38] they who have been carried off, who are guarded by the monster +serpent, the waters, the cows, are become the wives of the demons;[39] +and they must be malignant, since a poet can use as a curse the wish +that the malign spirits, the demons, may drink the poison of those +cows.[40] We have already seen that the fortresses are wives of demons, +and that the demons possessed the forests.[41] + +It is in the beclouded and thundering heavens that the warrior hero +displays his greatest strength; but it cannot be denied that the great +majority of the myths, and the most poetical, exemplify or represent the +relation between the nocturnal sky (now dark, tenebrous, watery, horrid, +wild, now lit up by the ambrosial moon-beams, and now bespangled with +stars) and the two glowing skies--the two resplendent ambrosial +twilights of morning and evening (of autumn and spring). We have here +the same general phenomenon of light and darkness engaged in strife; +here, again, the sun Indras is hidden, as though in a cloud, to prepare +the light, to recover from the monster of darkness the waters of youth +and light, the riches, the cows, which he keeps concealed; but this +conquest is only made by the hero after long wandering amidst many +dangers, and is finally accomplished by battles, in which the principal +credit is often due to a heroine; except in those cases, not frequent +but well worthy of remark, in which the clouds, hurricanes, tempests of +lightning and thunderbolts, coincide with the end of the night (or of +winter), and the sun Indras, by tearing the clouds, at the same time +disperses the darkness of night and brings dawn (or spring) back to the +sky. In such coincidences, the sun Indras, besides being the greatest of +the gods, reveals himself to be also the most epic of the heroes; the +two skies, the dark and the clouded, with their relative monsters, and +the two suns, the thundering and the radiant, with their relative +companions, are confounded, and the myth then assumes all its poetical +splendour. And the most solemn moments of the great national Aryan epic +poems, the _Ramayanam_ and the _Mahabharatam_, the _Book of Kings_, as +well as those of the _Iliad_, the _Song of Roland_ and the _Nibelungen_, +are founded upon this very coincidence of the two solar actions--the +cloudy and shadowy monster thunderstruck, and the dawn (or spring) +delivered and resuscitated. In truth, the _Rigvedas_ itself, in a +passage already quoted,[42] tells us that the clouds--the three times +seven spotted cows--cause their milk to drop to a god (whom, from +another similar passage,[43] we know to be Indras, the sun) in the +eastern sky (_purve vyomani_), that is, towards the morning, and +sometimes towards the spring, many of the phenomena of which correspond +to those of the aurora. The _Pricnayas_, or spotted ones, are beyond +doubt the clouds, as the Marutas, sons of Pricnis, or the spotted one, +are the winds that howl and lighten in the storm cloud. It is therefore +necessary to carry back the cloudy sky towards the morning, to +understand the Pricnayas feeding the sun Indras in the eastern heavens +and the seven _Angirasas_, the seven sunbeams, the seven wise men, who +also sing hymns in the morning;--it seems to me that the hymn of these +fabled wise men can be nothing else than the crash of the thunderbolts, +which, as we have already seen, are supposed to be detached from the +solar rays. Allusions to Indras thundering in the morning are so +frequent in the Vedic hymns, that I hope to be excused for this short +digression, from which I must at once return, because my sole object +here is to treat in detail of the mythical animals, and because the road +we have to take will be a long one. + +Even the luminous night has its cows; the stars, which the sun puts to +flight with his rays,[44] are cows: the cows themselves, whose +dwellings the dwellings of the sun's cows must adjoin, are called the +many-horned ones.[45] These dwellings seem to me worthy of passing +remark, they are the celestial houses that move, the enchanted huts +and palaces that appear, disappear, and are transformed so often in +the popular stories of the Aryans. + +The moon is generally a male, for its most popular names, _Candras_, +_Indus_, and _Somas_ are masculine; but as Somas signifies ambrosia, +the moon, as giver of ambrosia, soon came to be considered a +milk-giving cow; in fact, moon is one among the various meanings given +in Sanskrit to the word _gaus_ (cow). The moon, Somas, who illumines +the nocturnal sky, and the pluvial sun, Indras, who during the night, +or the winter, prepares the light of morn, or spring, are represented +as companions; a young girl, the evening, or autumnal, twilight, who +goes to draw water towards night, or winter, finds in the well, and +takes to Indras, the ambrosial moon, that is, the Somas whom he loves. +Here are the very words of the Vedic hymn:--"The young girl, +descending towards the water, found the moon in the fountain, and +said: 'I will take you to Indras, I will take you to Cakras; flow, O +moon, and envelop Indras.'"[46] The moon and ambrosia in the word +indus, as well as somas, are confounded with one another; hence, +Indras, the drinker _par excellence_ of _somas_ (somapatamas), is also +the best friend and companion of the ambrosial or pluvial moon, and so +the sun and moon (as also Indras and Vishnus) together come to suggest +to us the idea of two friends, two brothers (Indus and Indras), two +twins, the two Acvinau; often the two twilights, properly speaking, +the morning and the evening, the spring and the autumn, twilights, the +former, however, being especially associated with the red sun which +appears in the morning (or in the spring), and the latter with the +pale moon which appears in the evening (or in the autumn, as a +particular regent of the cold season). Indras and Somas (_Indrasomau_) +are more frequently represented as two bulls who together discomfit +the monster (_rakshohanau_), who destroy by fire the monsters that +live in darkness.[47] The word _vrishanau_ properly means the two who +pour out, or fertilise. Here it means the two bulls; but as the word +_vrishan_ signifies stallion as well as bull, the two stallions, the +vrishanau Indras and Somas, are, by a natural transition, soon +transformed into two horses or horsemen, the two Acvinau. Hence, in +popular tales, we find near the young princess the hero, who now leads +out the cows to pasture, and now, as hostler or groom, takes excellent +care of the horses. But we must not anticipate comparisons which we +shall have to make further on. Having noticed that, in the _Rigvedas_, +we find the moon represented either as a bull or a cow (the masculine, +_Indus_, _somas_, _candras_, is always a bull; while the feminine, +_raka_, suggests more naturally the idea of a cow), let us now +consider the bull Indras in relation to the cow Aurora (or spring). + +Five bulls stand in the midst of the heavens, and chase out of the way +the wolf who crosses the waters;[48] the luminous Vasavas unbind the +cow that is tied by its foot.[49] + +How now is this cow brought forth? + +This ambrosial cow is created by the artists of the gods, by the three +brothers _Ribhavas_, who draw it out of the skin of a cow; that is, +they make a cow, and, to give it life, cover it with the skin of a +dead cow.[50] It being understood that the cow Aurora (or Spring) dies +at even (or in the autumn), the Ribhavas, the threefold sun Indras, +_i.e._, the sun in the three watches of the night, prepares the skin +of this cow, one Ribhus taking off the skin from the dead cow, another +Ribhus preparing it during the night (or winter), and the third +Ribhus, in the early morning (or at the end of winter) dressing the +new cow, the aurora (or the spring) with it. Thus it is that Indras, +in three distinct moments, takes the skin from off the girl that he +loves, who had become ugly during the night, and restores her beauty +in the morning.[51] And the three Ribhavas may, it seems to me, be the +more easily identified with the triple Indras, with Indra-Vishnus, who +measures the world in three paces, since, as Indras is called a bull, +they also are called bulls;[52] as Indras is often a falcon, they also +are named birds;[53] and their miracles are sometimes also those of +Indras. This identification of the bulls Ribhavas, whom we speak of +here as producers of the cow Aurora (the same sterile cow of the +sleeping hero Cayus, that which the Acvinau, the two horsemen of the +twilight, restored to youth by the Ribhavas, rendered fruitful +again),[54] with the bull, or hero Indras, appears to me to be of the +greatest importance, inasmuch as it affords us the key to much that is +most vital to the Aryan legends. + +The Ribhavas, then, are three brothers. They prepare themselves to +procure the cups which are to serve for the gods to drink out of. Each +has a cup in his hand; the eldest brother defies the others to make +two cups out of one; the second defies them to make three out of one; +the youngest brother comes forward and defies them to make four. The +victory is his, and the greatest workman of heaven, the Vedic Vulcan, +_Tvashtar_, praises their wonderful work.[55] The youngest of the +three brothers is therefore the most skilful. We find in the +_Rigvedas_ the name of _Sukarmas_, or maker of fine works, good +workman, given to each of the three brothers; and though only one of +them, who is properly called Ribhus, or _Ribhuksha_, is said to serve +the god Indras in the quality of a workman (whence Indras himself +sometimes received the name of Ribhuksha, Ribhvan, or Ribhvas), yet +the other two brothers, _Vagas_ and _Vibhvan_, are in the service, one +of all the gods, the other of Varunas, the god of night.[56] It would +seem natural to recognise in Ribhus, the protege of Indras, the most +skilful of the three brothers, who, as we have seen above, was the +youngest; yet, as we cannot infer anything from the order in which the +hymns name the three brothers--as, in one, Vagas is first named, then +Ribhuksha, and finally Vibhvan; in another, Vagas first, Vibhvan +second, and Ribhus third;[57] in another, again, Ribhus is invoked +first, then Vibhvan, and lastly Vagas; and as we also find all the +Ribhavas saluted under the common epithet of Vagas, and Vagas himself +by the name of Indras, or rather Indras saluted in his triple form of +Ribhus, Vibhvan, and Vagas,[58] it remains uncertain which of these +was the proper name of the third brother of the Ribhavas. But what +seems to be sufficiently clear is, that Indras is identified with the +Ribhavas (_Indravantas_), that the third brother is the most skilful, +and that the three brothers serve the lords of heaven as workmen. And +here we meet with an interesting element. In two hymns of the +_Rigvedas_, the host of the Ribhavas appears as one only, Indras +himself, or the sun (Savitar), under the name of _Agohyas_ (_i.e._, +who cannot be hidden). During the twelve days (the twelve hours of the +night, or the twelve months of the year) in which they are the guests +of Agohyas, they bring as they sleep every species of prosperity to +the land, by making the fields fertile, causing the rivers to flow, +and refreshing the grass of the field. In this, however, let us not +forget that they are the beneficent sons of _Sudhanvan_, the good +archer, and archers themselves, representatives of the great celestial +archer, of the thunder-dealing and rain-giving Indras; and that +therefore their sleep is only a figure of speech to express their +latent existence in darkness and the clouds of night. + +But the _Rigvedas_ introduces the three brothers under other names, +and especially in one, and that an important aspect. The third brother +is called _Tritas_, or the third, and as such, is also identified with +Indras. Thus, for instance, the moments of Indras in the sky are +three--evening, night, and towards morning; and the horse of Tritas +(the horse that Tritas has received from _Yamas_) is now mysteriously +Yama himself, now the son of Aditis (whom we have already seen to be +the cow, or the son of the cow), now Tritas himself, whom Tritas alone +can yoke, and Indras alone ride upon, a horse bedewed with ambrosia, +which has three relationships in heaven, three in the waters, three in +the ocean;[60] that is to say, one relation is Yamas, the elder +brother; the second is the son of the cow, or the second brother; the +last is Tritas himself, or the youngest brother. This Tritas is called +intelligent; he therefore corresponds to the third brother, who makes +four cups out of one. How then does he appear sometimes stupid? The +language itself supplies the explanation. In Sanskrit, _balas_ means +both child and stolid; and the third brother is supposed to be stolid, +because, at his first appearance especially, he is a child,--and we +constantly see him as a child do wonderful things, and give proofs of +superhuman wisdom. With this key, the meaning of the myth is obvious. +The eldest brother, Yamas, the dying sun, with all his wisdom and +experience, is unable of himself to recover the ravished or missing +princess; the son of the cow Aditis, that is, Adityas, the sun in the +middle of the night, gives often proof of strength great enough to +disperse the darkness and the clouds, and break the incantation; but, +generally it is the third sun, the morning sun, Indras in his third +moment, Vishnus taking his third step,[61] the third brother, Tritas, +who seems to obtain the victory, and deliver the young aurora from the +monster of night. All this seems to me to be very evident. + +Tritas, like Indras, drinks the water of strength, and thereupon tears +the monster in pieces;[62] the victory of the young hero must be +achieved in the same way in which it is accomplished by Indras, his +more splendid and grandiose impersonation. But Tritas, or _Traitanas_, +after having killed the monster of the waters, is afraid that the +waters themselves may devour him; after cutting off the head of the +monster, some enemies have lowered him down into the waters.[63] The +sun has vanquished the monster that kept the fountain of waters +shut--he has unchained the waters, but he himself has not been able to +break through the cloud; he has delivered from the dark and cloudy +monster the princess, the dawn that was to have been its prey, but he +himself does not yet come forth--is still invisible. Now, who are the +enemies here that have placed the young hero in the cistern, down into +the well, in the sea? We have already seen that Tritas has two +brothers; and it is these two brothers who, in a fit of jealousy, on +account of his wife, the aurora, and the riches she brings with her +from the realm of darkness, the cistern or well, detain their brother +in the well,--all which is told us in a single but eloquent verse of +the Vedas. The intelligent Tritas in the well calls out (_rebhati_) on +account of his brothers;[64] and the two horsemen of the twilight, the +Acvinau, come to deliver the invoker (_rebhas_) covered and enveloped +by the waters.[65] In another hymn, the deliverer appears to be +Brihaspatis, the lord of prayer, who having heard how Tritas, thrust +down into the well, was invoking the gods, made the large from the +small;[66] that is to say, opened for the young hero a way to escape +from the well and show himself in his glory. + +Having seen how in the Vedic hymns Tritas, the third brother, and the +ablest as well as best, is persecuted by his brothers, it is +interesting to note the form of the myth in popular Hindoo +tradition:--"Three brothers, _Ekatas_ (_i.e._, the first), _Dvitas_ +(_i.e._, the second), and _Tritas_ (_i.e._, the third), were +travelling in a desert, and distressed with thirst, came to a well, +from which the youngest, Tritas, drew water and gave it to his +seniors. In requital, they threw him into the well, in order to +appropriate his property, and having covered the top with a +cart-wheel, left him within it. In this extremity he prayed to the +gods to extricate him, and by their favour he made his escape."[67] + +Thus have we brought the three brothers, of whom Tritas is the +youngest, into close affinity with the three Ribhavas, and both the +former and the latter into an equally close connection with the three +moments of Indras. We have already said that the Ribhavas created the +cow; in the same way _Ucana Kavyas_, the desiring wise one protected +by Indras, another name for the sun-hero of the morning, sends the +cows together before him;[68] and Indras himself is the only lord of +the cows, the only real celestial shepherd;[69] or, rather, it is he +that begets the sun and the aurora,[70] or, as another hymn says, who +gives the horses and the sun and the cow of abundance.[71] + +Here, therefore, the aurora is explicitly the cow of abundance; she is +still also the milk-giving and luminous cow, in which is found all +sweetness;[72] and finally, _usra_ or _usha_ are two words, two +appellations, which indiscriminately express aurora and cow as the red +or brilliant one. The identification of the aurora with the cow, in +the mythical sky of the Vedas, is therefore a certainty. + +Another of the names which the milk-yielding cow assumes in the +_Rigvedas_, besides the ordinary one of _Usha_, is _Sita_, whom Indras +also causes to descend from heaven, like the aurora, and who must be +milked by the sun-god _Pushan_,[73] the nourisher, the _foecundator_, +compared in one hymn to a pugnacious buffalo.[74] This Indras, +protector and friend of Sita, prepares therefore Vishnus, the +protector, in the form of Ramas, of his wife Sita. And even the +Ribhavas are the protectors of the cow, as well as the producers.[75] + +But Indras, whose special function it is to lighten, to thunder, to +fight the monster of darkness, and to prepare the light, generally +figures in the popular imagination, at dawn (aurora), as the sun, +under his three names of _Suryas_, of _Ritas_, and of _Savitar_. + +The sun, with respect to the aurora, is now the father, now the +husband, now the son, and now the brother. As begotten of Indras +simultaneously with the aurora, he is the brother; as following and +embracing the aurora, he is the husband; as simply coming after the +aurora, he is the son; and as sending the cow or the aurora before +him, he is the father. These four relationships of the sun to the +aurora or dawn are all mentioned in the _Rigvedas_. + +In one of the hymns, the pure effulgence with which the aurora chases +away the shadows of night is said to resemble the milk of a cow;[76] +that is, the whitish light of the daybreak precedes in the eastern +heavens the rosy light of aurora. The aurora is the cow-nurse, and the +oriental mother of the old sun; at the sound of the hymn in praise of +the dawn, the two horsemen of twilight, the Acvinau, awaken.[77] Two +cows--[_i.e._, the two twilights, that of the evening and that of the +morning, related to the two horsemen, the evening one and the morning +one, whom we also find together in the morning, the one white and the +other red, the one in company with daybreak and the other with the +aurora, and who may therefore be sometimes identified with the two +morning dawns, the white dawn (alba) or daybreak, and the red dawn +(aurora), and, from another point of view, the lunar dawn and the +solar one]--drop milk towards the sun, in the heaven.[78] The aurora +is the mother of the cows.[79] + +As the sun approaches, the heavenly cows, who walk without covering +themselves with dust, celebrate him[80] with songs. The red rays of the +high sun fly and join themselves to the sun's cows.[81] The seven wise +_Angirasas_ (the seven solar rays, or else the Angiras, the seven-rayed +or seven-faced sun, as another hymn[82] represents him) celebrate in +their songs the herds of cows which belong to the aurora, who appears +upon the mountain.[83] Let us notice more particularly what is said of +the aurora that appears with the cows upon the mountain. It is the sun +that enables the Angirasas to split the mountain, to bellow along with +the cows, and to surround themselves with the splendour of the +aurora.[84] The aurora, the daughter of the sky, the splendid one, +appears; at the same time, the sun draws up the cows.[85] The aurora is +carried by red luminous cows, whilst the sun, the hero-archer, kills +the enemies.[86] The aurora breaks open the prison of the cows; the cows +exult towards the aurora;[87] the aurora comes out of the darkness as +cows come out of their stable.[88] As the solar hero, Indras, is the +guardian or shepherd of horses and of cows,[89] so the auroras are often +celebrated in the _Rigvedas_ as _acvavatis_ and _gomatis_, that is, as +provided with and attended by horses and cows. The aurora keeps together +the herd of red cows, and always accompanies them.[90] + +Thus have we passed from the pastor-hero to the pastoral heroine upon +the mountain. The pastoral aurora, unveiling her body in the east, +follows the path of the sun;[91] and the sun is represented to us in +the following riddle as a wonderful cowherd:--"I have seen a shepherd +who never set down his foot, and yet went and disappeared on the +roads; and who, taking the same and yet different roads, goes round +and round amidst the worlds."[92] The sun goes round in the ether, and +never puts down a foot, for he has none; and he takes the same, yet +different, roads in the sky, _i.e._, luminous by day, and gloomy by +night. The puzzle of the riddle lies in its self-contradiction; and +the beautiful girl is the prize appointed for him who, by his actions, +resolves it. A similar riddle is, in the _Rigvedas_ itself, proposed +to _Mitras_, the sun, and to _Varunas_, the night. The riddle is as +follows:--"The first of them who walk afoot (_padvatinam_) comes +without feet (_apad_);" and the two divine heroes are asked, "Which of +you two has guessed it?"[93] He who solves this enigma we may be sure +is Mitras, the sun, who recognises the aurora, the girl who comes +making use of feet, although she seem to have none, for she comes +borne in a chariot, of which the wheels appear to be feet, which is +the same luminous chariot that rolls well,[94] given by the Ribhavas +to the two horsemen Acvinau (represented sometimes as two old men made +young again by the Ribhavas, and sometimes simply as two handsome +youths), into which chariot she mounts by the help of the Acvinau; and +the daughter of the sun is, in the race, the first to come to the +winning-post, amid the enthusiastic plaudits of the gods.[95] Then the +hymns to the aurora sometimes represent that vast chariot as belonging +to the eastern aurora, who guides a hundred chariots, and who, in +turn, helps the immortal gods to ascend into the chariot beside +her.[96] The aurora, as the first of those who appear every day in the +eastern sky, as the first to know the break of day,[97] is naturally +represented as one of the swiftest among those who are the guests of +the sun-prince during the night; and like her cows, which do not cover +themselves with dust (this being an attribute which, in the Indian +faith, distinguishes the gods from mortals, for the former walk in the +heavens, and the latter upon earth), she, in her onward flight, leaves +no footsteps behind her. The word _apad_ (_pad_ and _pada_, being +synonymous) may, indeed, mean not only she who has no feet, but also +she who has no footsteps (that is, what is the measure of the foot), +or, again, she who has no slippers, the aurora having, as appears, +lost them; for the prince Mitras, while following the beautiful young +girl, finds a slipper which shows her footstep, the measure of her +foot, a foot so small, that no other woman has a foot like it, an +almost unfindable, almost imperceptible foot, which brings us back +again to the idea of her who has no feet. The legend of the lost +slipper, and of the prince who tries to find the foot predestined to +wear it, the central interest in the popular story of Cinderella, +seems to me to repose entirely upon the double meaning of the word +_apad_, _i.e._, who has no feet, or what is the measure of the foot, +which may be either the footstep or the slipper; often, moreover, in +the story of Cinderella, the prince cannot overtake the fugitive, +because a chariot bears her away. + +The word _apad_, which we have heretofore seen applied to the heroine, +was applied, moreover, to the hero, giving rise to another popular +legend, of which the _Rigvedas_ offers us the mythical elements. We have +already seen the sun as _anipadyamanas_, _i.e._, the sun who never puts +his foot down; but this sun who never puts down his foot easily, came to +be conceived of and represented as a sun without feet, or as a lame +hero, who, during the night, by the perfidy of the witch, the dusk of +evening, became also blind. In one hymn, the blind and the lame are not +one, but two, whom propitious Indras guides;[98] in another, the +blind-lame is one person, with the name of _Paravrig_, whom the two +horsemen Acvinau, the two friends of the dawn, enable to walk and to +see.[99] The lame one who sees, shows the way to the blind who is able +to walk, or the lame carries the blind; Indras, the hidden sun, guides +the blind and the lame; or, the blind and the lame, lost in the forest, +help each other; in the morning, the Acvinau, the two horsemen, friends +of the aurora, with the water of sight and of strength (that is, +Paravrig, the blind-lame having discovered the hidden fountain of the +young girls of the dawn,[100] with the ambrosia of the aurora, with the +aurora itself), make the blind see, and him who has no feet, the lame, +walk; that is, they burst forth into the upper air again, transfigured +now into the luminous sun who sets out on his heavenly voyage. I have +said above that the hero becomes blind and lame through the perfidy and +magic of the evening aurora: nor was the assertion unfounded; for the +Vedic hymn in which Indras guides the blind and the lame, _i.e._, +himself or the sun, in the gloomy tardy night, is the very same hymn in +which is celebrated his heroic and manly enterprise of the destruction +of the daughter of the sky. The sun Indras revenges himself in the +morning upon the aurora of the morning, for the wrong done him by the +aurora of the evening, beautiful, but faithless. + +For the aurora counts among her other talents that of magic; when the +Ribhavas created the aurora cow of morning, investing her with the +skin of the aurora cow of evening, they endowed her with Protean +qualities (_Vicvarupam_), and on this account the aurora herself is +also called witch or enchantress (_Majini_).[101] This aurora, this +virago, this Amazon, this Vedic Medea, who, treacherously plunging her +husband, or brother, the solar hero, into a fiery furnace, blinds and +lames him, is punished in the morning for her crime of the evening. +The hero vanquishes her, overcomes her incantations, and annihilates +her. The Vedic hymn sings--"A manly and heroic undertaking thou hast +accomplished, O Indras, for an evil-doing woman, the daughter of the +heavens, thou hast smitten; the growing daughter of the heaven, the +aurora, O Indras, thou hast destroyed; from the chariot, broken in +pieces, fell the aurora, trembling, because the bull had struck +her."[102] Here the mythical animal reappears on the same stage with +the heroes, and for the image of the hero and the heroine there is +substituted that of the cow and the bull.[103] + +The sun and the aurora, therefore, do not always seek each other from +promptings of affection only, nor is the hateful part always played by +the aurora. The sun, also appears as a perverse persecutor in his +turn. One Vedic hymn advises the aurora not to stretch out the web +she works at too far, lest the sun, like a robber, with hostile +intention, set fire to and burn her.[104] Another hymn tells us that +the handsome one follows the beautiful one, the brother the sister, +like a lover,[105]--the aurora fleeing from the sun, her brother, out +of shame, and her brother following her, actuated by a brutal +instinct. Finally, a third hymn shows us the Vedic Vulcan, the +blacksmith of the gods, the sun Tvashtar, called also the omniform sun +(_Savita Vicvarupah_), as father of Saranyu, another name for the +aurora, omniform herself, like her father (and, like the cow, +undergoing the triple transmutation at the hands of Tvashtar, _i.e._, +the three brothers, the Ribhavas), creating another form of himself, +that is, the sun _Vivasvant_, to be able to espouse the aurora. +Saranyu, perceiving perhaps that Vivasvant is her father under another +shape, creates another woman like herself, and flees away on the +chariot that flies of itself, and that was before given her by her +father; and thereupon Vivasvant, in order to overtake her, transforms +himself into a horse.[106] + +But sometimes the alienation the sun and the aurora, the young husband +and wife, is not due to evil propensities in themselves, but the +decree of fate working through the machinations of monsters. The two +beautiful ones are at bottom united by love and reciprocal gratitude; +for now it is the sun who delivers the aurora, and now the aurora who +liberates the sun; and we have already seen the aurora making the +ambrosial milk drop for the sun from her cows, and the sun drawing up +and delivering the cows of the aurora. There is a hymn in which the +divine girl, the aurora, comes up in the east, with a lascivious air, +smiling, fresh, uncovering her bosom, resplendent, towards the god who +sacrifices himself,[107] that is to say, towards the sun, towards +_Cunahcepas_ (the sun), who, in three verses of another hymn,[108] +invokes her, the well-known legend of which, narrated in the +_Aitareya-Brahmanam_, I shall briefly relate. The aurora has also the +merit of having, with her pure and purifying light, opened the gates +of the gloomy cavern, discomfited the enemies, the shades of night, +and exposed to view the treasures hidden by the darkness (and here we +have Medea again, but this time in a benignant form); she awakens to +activity the sleepers and everything with life (and therefore, among +the living sleepers, the sun, her son, whom one of the hymns +represents as sleeping profoundly in the bosom of the darkness of +night); she is the saviour of mortals,[109] that is to say, she +protects mortals from death, and resuscitates them; she sees and +foresees everything.[110] The awakener is also the awakened; the +illuminator is also the illumined, or the wise; and the illumined or +luminous one is also the beautiful one. From being small, she is +become large[111] (the heroes and heroines of mythology are only small +at birth, and pass at once into fulness of stature); from being infirm +and sombre-visaged, by the grace of Indras and of the Acvinau, she is +cured and restored to strength and clearness.[112] But why was she +dark at first? Because her mother, the night, is the black one; she, +the white one, is born of the black one.[113] + +During the night, the young girl was blind, and she recovers her sight +by the grace of a wise one, one who, protected by Indras, another +shape of Indras, has become enamoured of her. We have seen above that +it is the Acvinau who, with the aurora, give back to the sun his +sight; here it is the sun who makes the aurora see, it is the sun who +gives her light; and she who, having been blind, recovers her sight, +becomes the protectress of the blind and preserver of vision,[114] +like St Lucia, virgin and martyr, in the Christian Mythology. Physical +truth and the mythical narration are in perfect accordance. + +The night is now the mother, now the sister of the aurora; but the +gloomy night is sometimes her step-mother, sometimes her half-sister. +There is a riddle which celebrates the luminous night and the aurora, +as two diversely beautiful ones who go together, but of whom one goes +while the other comes.[115] Another hymn sings of them thus: "The +brilliantly-decked one approaches, the white aurora comes; the black +one prepares for her her rooms. The one immortal having joined the +other, the two appear alternately in the heavens. One and eternal is +the path of the two sisters; they follow it, one after the other, +guided by the gods; they do not meet, and they never stand still--the +two good nurses, night and aurora, one in soul yet different in +form."[116] The two good nurses, night and aurora, whose hues +alternate eternally, nourish between them one and the same child (the +sun).[117] But the _Rigvedas_ itself tells us that the night is not +always the legitimate sister of the aurora; the latter "abandons now +the one that is, now the one that is not, properly its sister."[118] +Here probably we must understand by the proper sister of the aurora +the luminous or moonlight night, and by the half-sister, the gloomy +night, the night without a moon. This is the sister whom, in a hymn, +the aurora removes, sends far away from her, while she shines to be +seen of her husband;[119] and her half-sister, the night, is obliged +to resign her place to her elder or better sister,[120] the word +_gyeshthas_ meaning not only the eldest, but the best. We have +already seen that the aurora is the first to appear; as such, and as +she who in the evening precedes the night (the evening aurora), she is +the first-born, the eldest, the most experienced, the best; while, +from another point of view, she is represented to us as the little one +who becomes great, and, in this case, as younger sister of the night +(the morning dawn). The dawns, or auroras, are saluted with the +epithet of workwomen,[121] just as the good sister, with respect to +the bad one, is always she who works, doing wonderful work, that is, +spinning or weaving the rosy cloth. But the auroras are not only the +workers, they are also the pure purifying and cleansing ones;[122] +hence one can understand how one of the tasks imposed upon the +youngest sister was that of purifying, purging, or separating the +grain during the night, taking from it all that is impure, in which +task she is assisted sometimes by a good fairy, sometimes by the +Virgin Mary, who, according to all probability, is the moon. + +One of the singular qualities of the younger sister is that she +displays her beauty only before the eyes of her husband. The wife +aurora manifests herself in the sight of her husband;[123] united, in +her splendour, with the rays of the sun,[124] like a wife she prepares +the dwelling of the sun.[125] Very brilliant, like a wife cleansed by +her mother, she uncovers her body;[126] like a bather who shows +herself, the shining one unveils her body;[127] she adorns herself +like a dancer, uncovering, like a cow, her breast;[128] she displays +her luminous garments;[129] all-radiant, with beautiful face, she +laughs;[130] and he who has made the aurora laugh, her, the beautiful +princess, who, at first, that is, during the night, did not laugh, +espouses her; the sun espouses the aurora. + +The celestial nuptials take place, and the ceremony is minutely +described in the 85th hymn of the 10th book of the _Rigvedas_. But the +marriage of the two celestials is never consummated except under +conditions; these conditions are always accepted and afterwards +forgotten, and it is now the husband who, by forsaking his wife, now +the wife who, by abandoning her husband, violates the promise given. +One of these estrangements, these temporary alienations of husband and +wife, is described in the _Rigvedas_ by the poetical myth of the dawn +_Urvaci_ and her husband _Pururavas_, one of the names given to the +sun. Urvaci says of herself, "I have arrived like the first of the +auroras;"[131] thereupon Urvaci suddenly abandons her husband +Pururavas, because he breaks an agreement made between them. We shall +see further on in this chapter what this agreement was. Besides, +having given him a son before her departure, she consoles him by +permitting him to come and find her again in heaven, that is, by +endowing the sun with the immortality she possesses herself. In the +morning the aurora precedes the sun; he follows her too closely, and +she disappears, but leaves a son, _i.e._, the new sun. In the evening +the aurora precedes the sun; he follows her again, and she loses +herself, now in a forest, now in the sea. The same phenomenon, a +divorce of husband from wife, or a separation of brother and sister, +or the flight of a sister from her brother, or again, that of a +daughter from her father, presents itself twice every day (and every +year) in the sky. Sometimes, on the other hand, it is a witch, or the +monster of nocturnal darkness, who takes the place of the radiant +bride, or the aurora, near the sun; and in that case the aurora, the +beauteous bride, is spirited away into a wood to be killed or thrown +into the sea, from both of which predicaments, however, she always +escapes. Sometimes the witch of night throws the brother and sister, +the mother and son, the sun and the aurora, together into the waves of +the sea, whence they both escape again, to reappear in the morning. + +All these alternative variations of a mythical representation become +each in turn a legend by itself, as we shall see again more in detail, +when the study of the different animals that take part in them shall +furnish us with opportunities of doing so. In the meantime, we have +here finished our enumeration of all that in the hymns of the +_Rigvedas_ refers in any way to the bull and the cow,--to the wind, +moon, and sun bulls, to the cow-cloud, moon, spring and +aurora,--leaving it, however, to be understood how natural it is to +pass from the bull to the handsome hero-prince, and from the cow to +the beautiful girl, the rich princess, the valiant heroine, or the +wise fairy. For though in the mythical hymns of the _Rigvedas_ we have +little more than hints or foreshadows of the many popular legends +which we have thus referred to, often without naming them, these are +so many and so precise that it seems to me to be almost impossible +not to recognise them. To demonstrate this, however, it will be +necessary for me to show further what form the mythological ideas and +figures relating to the animals dispersed in the Vedic hymns +afterwards assumed in the Hindoo traditions. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Ma gam anagam aditim vadhishta; _Rigv._ viii. 90, 15. + +[2] Gomatarah; _Rigv._ i. 8, 1, 3.--Aditis, called "mata rudranam;" +_Rigv._ viii. 90, 15. + +[3] Tubhyam (to Vayus, to the wind), dhenuh sabardugha vicva vasuni +dohate aganayo maruto vakshanabhyah; _Rigv._ i. 134, 4. + +[4] Imas ta indra pricnayo ghritam duhata aciram; _Rigv._ viii. 6, +19.--Trir asmai sapta dhenavo duduhre satyam aciram purvye vyomani; +_Rigv._ ix. 70, 1.--Trini saransi pricnayo duduhre vagrine madhu; +_Rigv._ viii. 7, 10.--In the _Ramayanan_, i. 48, the Marutas also +appear in the number of 7. + +[5] Pra cansa goshv aghnyam krilam yac chardho marutam gambhe rasasya +vavridhe; _Rigv._ i. 37, 5. + +[6] Ime ye te su vayo bahvogaso 'ntar nadi te patayanty ukshano mahi +vradhanta ukshanah dhanvan cid ye anacavo girac, cid agiraukasah +suryasyeva racmayo durniyantavo hastayor durniyantavah; _Rigv._ i. +135, 9. + +[7] Riksho na vo marutah cimivan amo dudhro gaur iva bhimayuh; _Rigv._ +v. 56, 3. + +[8] Te syandraso nokshano 'ti shkandanti carvarih; _Rigv._ v. 52, 3. + +[9] Tvam vatair arunair yasi; _Taittiriya Yagurvedas_, i. 3, +14.--Angibhir vy anagre ke cid usra iva stribhih; _Rigv._ i. 87, 1. + +[10] Vrisha vrishabhih; _Rigv._ i. 100, 4.--Grishtih sasuva sthaviram +tavagam anadhrishyam vrishabham tumram indram; _Rigv._ iv. 18, +10.--Sa matara na dadricana usriyo nanadad eti marutam iva svanah; +_Rigv._ ix. 70, 6. + +[11] Vrishayamano vrinita somam; _Rigv._ i. 32, 3.--Pitum nu stosham +maho dharmanam tavishim yasya trito (Tritas, as we shall see, is an +_alter ego_ of the god Indras) vy ogasa vritram viparvam ardayat; +_Rigv._ i. 187, 1. + +[12] Piba vardhasva; _Rigv._ iii. 36, 3. + +[13] Indro madhu sambhritam usriyayam padvad viveda caphavan name goh; +_Rigv._ iii. 39, 6. + +[14] Tri yac chata mahishanam agho mas tri saransi maghava somyapah +karam na vicve ahvanta deva bharam indraya yad ahim gaghana; _Rigv._ +v. 29, 8. + +[15] Vasoh kabandhamrishabho bibharti; _Atharvavedas_, ix. 4, 3. + +[16] Sruvati bhimo vrishabhas tavishyaya cringe cicano harini +vicakshanah; _Rigv._ ix. 70, 7. + +[17] Yas tigmacringo vrishabho na bhima ekah krishtic cyavayati pra +vicvah; _Rigv._ vii. 19, 1.--Idam namo vrishabhaya svarage +satyacushmaya tavase 'vaci; _Rigv._ i. 51, 15. + +[18] Cicite vagram tegase na vansagah; _Rigv._ i. 55, 1. + +[19] Abhy enam vagra ayasah sahasrabhrishtir ayatarcano; _Rigv._ i. +80, 12. + +[20] Sahasracringo vrishabho yah samudrad udacarat; _Rigv._ vii. 55, 7. + +[21] Vi tigmena vrishabhena puro 'bhet; _Rigv._ i. 33, 13. + +[22] Priya indrasya dhenavo vagram hinvanti sayakam vasvih; _Rigv._ i. +84, 10, 11, 12. The root, HI, properly signifies to _distend, draw +out_; here, to _draw out_ the arm of Indras seems to me to mean to +elongate it, to render it as fine as a thread--to sharpen it (in +Italian, _affilare_); the cows that sharpen (It. _affilanti_), are a +variety of the cows that _spin_ (It. _filanti_). + +[23] Yugam vagram vrishabhac cakra indro nir gyotisha tamaso ga +adukshat; _Rigv._ i. 33, 10. + +[24] Cicite cringe rakshase vinikshe; _Rigv._ v. 2, 9.--Catvari cringa +trayo asya pada dve cirshe sapta hastaso asya; _Rigv._ iv. 58, +3.--Tapurgambho vana a vatacodito yuthe na sahvan ava vati vansagah +abhi vragann akshitam pagasa ragah sthatuc caratham bhayate +patatrinah; _Rigv._ i. 58, 5. In this stanza, however, _Vansagah_ may +probably signify rather _the stallion_ than _the bull_, as we find in +the second stanza this same Agnis already compared to a radiant horse +(atyo na prishtham prushitasya rocate). + +[25] _Adris_ and _parvatas_ properly mean mountain, but, in the Vedas, +often cloud; and among their many meanings there is also that of tree; +_agas_ (properly that which does not move) expresses equally tree and +mountain. Hence perhaps the Italian proverb: _Le montagne stanno +ferme, ma gli uomini s'incontrano_, Mountains stand still, but men +meet; hence the cry of Ramas in the _Ramayanam_, ii. 122, that the +Himalayas would move before he should become a traitor; hence the +assurance with which Macbeth, after the celebrated prophecy of the +witches, can say: "That will never be; who can impress the forest; bid +the tree unfix his earth-bound root?" _Shakespeare_ (_Macbeth_, iv. +1.) Nevertheless the forest moved, as it not unfrequently does in the +myths, where the tree-clouds walk, and fill all with terror wherever +they go, where heroes and monsters often fight, by unrooting the trees +of a whole forest. Cfr. _Ramayanam_, iii. 3, 5, and the chapters of +this work which treat of the Horse, the Bear, and the Monkey. + +[26] Vragam gacha gosthanam; _Taittir. Yagur._ i. 1, 9; cfr. +_Catapathabrahmanam_, i. 2, 3, 4. + +[27] Krishno nonava vrishabhah; _Rigv._ i. 79, 2.--Vacreva vidyun +mimati vatsam na mata sishakti; _Rigv._ i. 38, 8. + +[28] Acmanam cit svaryam parvatam girim pra cyavayanti yamabhih; +_Rigv._ v. 96, 4. + +[29] Pavya rathanam adrim bhindanty ogasa; _Rigv._ v. 52, 9. _Pavis_, in +general, is the iron part, the iron end (of a dart, or a lance); here it +would appear to be the iron tire of the chariot's wheels, which, driving +furiously over the mountain, break it,--thunder, in fact, often suggests +the idea of a noisy chariot making ruin in heaven. + +[30] Virah karmanyah sudaksho yuktagrava gayate devakamah; _Rigv._ +iii. 4, 9. + +[31] Ayam crinve adha gayann uta ghnann ayam uta pra krinute yudha gah; +_Rigv._ iv. 17, 10.--Vilu cid arugatnubhir guha cid indra vahnibhih +avinda usriya anu; _Rigv._ i. 6, 5.--Tvam valasya gomato 'pavar adrivo +bilam; _Rigv._ i. 11, 5.--Vi gobhir adrim airayat; _Rigv._ i. 7, +3.--Uksha mimati prati yanti dhenavah; _Rigv._ ix. 69, 4.--Yad anyasu +vrishabho roraviti so anyasmin yuthe ni dadhati retah; _Rigv._ iii. 55, +17.--Pushanvan vagrint sam u patnyamadah; _Rigv._ i. 82, 6. + +[32] Indragni navatim puro dasapatnir adhunutam sakam ekena karmana; +_Rigv._ iii. 12, 6; _Taitt. Yagurv._ i. 1, 14. Cfr. chap. on Serpent. + +[33] Devasa ayan paracunr abibhran vana vriccanto abhi vidbhir ayan ni +sudrvam dadhato vakshanasu yatra kripitam anu tad dahanti; _Rigv._ x. +28, 8. + +[34] Cfr. the chapter on the Bear and the Monkey. + +[35] Vrikshe-vrikshe niyata mimayad gaus tato vayah pra patan +purushadah vicvam bhuvanam bhayate; _Rigv._ x. 27, 22.--Tvam ayasam +prati vartayo gor divo acmanam; _Rigv._ i. 121, 9. + +[36] Brihaspatir govapusho valasya nir magganam na parvano gabhara; +_Rigv._ x. 68, 9. + +[37] Gaurir mimaya salilani takshaty ekapadi dvipadi sa +catushpadi--ashtapadi navapadi babhuvushi sahasrakshara parame vyoman; +_Rigv._ i. 164, 41. + +[38] Utadah parushe gavi surac cakram hiranyayam; _Rigv._ vi. 56, 3. + +[39] Dasapatnir ahigopa atishthan niruddha apah panineva gavah; +_Rigv._ i. 32, 11. + +[40] Visham gavam yatudhanah pibantu; _Rigv._ x. 87, 18. The same +passage can, however, be also translated: "The demons of the cows may +drink the poison." + +[41] _Rigv._ iii. 12, 6; x. 27, 22. + +[42] _Rigv._ ix. 70, 1. + +[43] viii. 6, 19. Cfr. the chapters on the Horse and the Cuckoo. + +[44] Vi racmibhih sasrige suryo gah; _Rigv._ vii. 36, 1. + +[45] Ta vam (the gods Vishnus and Indras) vastuny ucmasi gama-dhyai +yatra gavo bhuricringa ayasah; _Rigv._ i. 154, 6. Here all the stars +or cows together form _many horns_; but perhaps each star or cow in +itself was supposed to have but _one horn_; for the stars, like the +moon, shed but one ray of light, but one light. This, it appears to +me, may be inferred from the name of _Ekacringas_ or _unicorns_, +given, in the later mythology of the Indians, to an entire order of +Mani, of whom the stars are represented as the supreme habitations, +and even purest forms. + +[46] Kanya var avayati somam api srutavidat astam bharanty abravid +indraya sunavai tva cakraya sunavai tva.--Indrayendo pari srava; +_Rigv._ viii. 80, 1, 3. + +[47] Indrasoma tapatam raksha ubgatam ny arpayatam vrishana +tamovridhah; _Rigv._ vii, 104, 1.--The following stanzas reproduce and +develop the same argument. + +[48] Pancokshano madhye tasthur maho divah--Te sedhanti patho vrikam +tarantam yahvatir apah; _Rigv._ i. 105, 10, 11. + +[49] Vasavo gauryam cit padi shitam amuncata yagtrah; _Rigv._ iv. 12, 6. + +[50] Takshan dhenum sabardugham; _Rigv._ i. 20, 3.--Nic carmano gam +arinita dhitibhih; _Rigv._ i. 161, 7, e, iv. 36, 4. + +[51] This interesting particular is more fully developed in the +chapters which treat of the Wolf, the Pig and the Wild Boar, _q. +v._--To avoid useless and troublesome repetitions, I must observe here +that the myths of morning and evening are often applied to spring and +autumn, and the myths of night to winter. + +[52] Rayim ribhavah sarvaviram a takshata vrishano mandasanah; _Rigv._ +iv. 35, 6. + +[53] Rayim ribhavas takshata vayah; _Rigv._ iv. 36, 8.--Here again we +have the cow in relation to the birds, since the riches given by the +Ribhavas consist above all in cows. (Ye gomantam vagavantam suviram +rayim dhattha vasumantam purukshum te agrepa ribhavo mandasana asme +dhatta ye ca ratim grinanti; _Rigv._ iv. 34, 10.) + +[54] Cayave cin nasatya cacibhir gasuraye staryam pipyathur gam; +_Rigv._ i. 116. 22.--Ya garanta yuvaca takrinotana; _Rigv._ i. 161, 7. + +[55] Gyeshtha aha camasa dva kareti kaniyan trin krinavamety aha +kanishtha aha caturas kareti tvashta ribhavas tat panayad vaco vah; +_Rigv._ iv. 33, 5. + +[56] Vago devanam abhavat sukarmendrasya ribhuksha varunasya vibhva; +_Rigv._ iv. 33, 9. + +[57] Te vago vibhvan ribhur indravantah; _Rigv._ iv. 33, 3. + +[58] Ribhur vibhva vaga indro no achemam yagnam ratnadheyopa yata; +_Rigv._ iv. 34, 1.--Pibata vaga ribhavo; _Rigv._ iv. 34, 4. + +[59] Dvadaca dyun yad agohyasyatithye ranann ribhavah sasantah +sukshetrakrinvann anayanta sindhun dhanvatishthann oshadhir nimnam +apah; _Rigv._ iv. 33, 7.--Cfr. _Rigv._ i. 161, 11-13. + +[60] Yamena dattam trita enam ayunag indra enam prathamo adhy +atishthat; _Rigv._ i. 163, 2.--Asi yamo asy adityo arvann asi trito +guhyena vratena asi somena samaya viprikta ahus te trini divi +bandhanani trini ta ahur divi bandhanani triny apsu triny antah +samudre; _Rigv._ i. 163, 3, 4. + +[61] Vishnus the three-faced is already spoken of in the _Rigvedas_ +and in the _Yagurvedas_. The third step of Vishnus is taken among the +cows with the great or many horns: Gamadhye gavo yatra bhuri-cringa +ayasah atra 'ha tad urugayasya vishnoh paramam padam ava bhati bhureh; +_Taittiriya Yagurv._ i. 3, 6. + +[62] _Rigv._ i. 187, 1, the passage already cited, when speaking of +the water of strength. + +[63] Na ma garan nadyo matritama dasa yad im susamubdham avadhuh ciro +yad asya traitano vitakshat; _Rigv._ i. 158, 5. We shall have occasion +to return more than once to an analogous myth referring to Indras. + +[64] Tritas tad vedaptyah sa gamitvaya rebhati; _Rigv._ i. 105, +9.--_Gamitva_ is properly the relation of brotherhood, and also +relationship in general. _Rebhas_, or the invoker, represented as a +hero, is no other than our _Trita aptyas_. + +[65] Rebham nivritam sitam adbhyah; _Rigv._ i. 112, 5. + +[66] Tritah kupe 'vahito devan havata utaye tac chucrava brihaspatih +krinvann anhuranad uru; _Rigv._ i. 105, 17. + +[67] _Nitimangari_, quoted by Wilson, _Rigvedas-Samhita_, vol. i. + +[68] A ga agad ucana kavyah saca; _Rigv._ i. 83, 5. + +[69] Patir gavam abhavad eka indrah; _Rigv._ iii. 31, 4. + +[70] Gagana suryam ushasam; _Rigv._ iii. 32, 8. + +[71] Sasanatyan uta suryam sasanendrah sasana purubhogasam gam; +_Rigv._ iii. 34, 9. + +[72] Mahi gyotir nihitam vakshanasu ama pakvam carati bibhrati gauh +vicvam svadma sambhritam usriyayam; _Rigv._ iii. 30, 14. + +[73] Indrah sitam ni grihnatu tam pushanu yachatu sa nah payasvati +duham uttaram-uttaram samam; _Rigv._ iv. 57, 7. + +[74] Mridha ushtro na; _Rigv._ i. 138, 2. + +[75] Yat samvatsam ribhavo gam arakshan yat samvatsam ribhavo ma +apincan; _Rigv._ iv. 33, 4. + +[76] Usha na ramir arunair apornute maho gyotisha cucata goarnasa; +_Rigv._ ii. 34, 12. + +[77] Dhenuh pratnasya kamyam duhanantah putrac carati dakshinayaha +dyotanim vahati cubhrayamoshasah stomo acvinav agigah; _Rigv._ iii. +58, 1. + +[78] Ritaya dhenu parame duhate; _Rigv._ iv. 23, 10. + +[79] Gavam mata; _Rigv._ v. 45, 2. + +[80] Arenavas tuga a sadman dhenavah svaranti ta uparatati suryam; +_Rigv._ i. 151, 5. + +[81] Ud apaptann aruna bhanavo vritha svayugo arushir ga ayukshata; +_Rigv._ i. 92, 2 + +[82] Yena navagve angire dacagve saptasye revati revad usha; _Rigv._ +iv. 51, 4.--The sun is also said to be drawn by seven fair horses; +_Rigv._ i. 50, 9.--Cfr. the following chapter. + +[83] Ta usho adrisano gotra gavam angiraso grinanti; _Rigv._ vi. 65, 5. + +[84] Ritenadrim vy asan bhidantah sam angiraso navanta gobhih cunam +narah pari shadann ushasam; _Rigv._ iv. 3, 11. + +[85] Praty u adarcy ayaty uchanti duhita divah--Ud usriyah srigate +suryah saca; _Rigv._ vii. 81, 1, 2. + +[86] Vahanti sim arunaso rucanto gavah subhagam urviya prathanam +apegate curo asteva catrun badhate; _Rigv._ vi. 64, 3. + +[87] Rugad drilhani dadad usriyanam prati gava ushasam vavacanta; +_Rigv._ vii. 75, 7. + +[88] Gavo na vragam vy usha avar tamah; _Rigv._ i. 92, 4. + +[89] Yo acvanam yo gavam gopatih; _Rigv._ i. 101, 4. + +[90] Yunkte gavam arunanam anikam; _Rigv._ i. 124, 11.--Esha gobhir +arunebhir yugana; _Rigv._ v. 80, 3. + +[91] Avishk Krinvana tanvam purastat ritasya pantham anv eti; _Rigv._ +v. 80, 4. + +[92] Apacyam gopam anipadyamanam a ca para ca pathibhic carantam sa +sadhricih sa vishucir vasana a varivarti bhuvaneshv antah; _Rigv._ x. +177, 3. + +[93] Apad eti prathama padvatinam kas tad vam ciketa; _Rigv._ i. 152, 3. + +[94] Ratham ye cakruh suvritam; _Rigv._ iv. 33, 8.--Takshan +nasatyabhyam parigmanam sukham ratham; _Rigv._ i. 20, 3. + +[95] Yuvo ratham duhita suryasya saha criya nasatyavrinita; _Rigv._ i. +117, 13.--A vam ratham duhita suryasya karshmevatishthad arvata +gayanti vicve deva anv amanyanta hridbhih; _Rigv._ i. 116, 17. + +[96] Yuktva ratham upa devan ayatana; _Rigv._ i. 161, 7.--Prithu ratho +dakshinaya ayogy aenam devaso amritaso asthuh; _Rigv._ i. 123, +1.--Devi gira rathanam; _Rigv._ i. 48, 3.--Catam rathebhih subhagosha +iyam vi yaty abhi manushan; _Rigv._ i. 48, 7. + +[97] Ganaty ahnah prathamasya; _Rigv._ i. 123, 9. + +[98] Anu dva gahita nayo 'ndham cronam ca vritrahan; _Rigv._ iv. 30, 19. + +[99] Sakhabhud acvinor ushah; _Rigv._ iv. 52, 2.--Paravrigam prandham +cronam cakshasa etave krithah; _Rigv._ i. 112, 8.--I here explicitly +abandon the hypothesis I advanced six years ago in the "Life and +Miracles of the God Indras in the Rigvedas," pp. 22 and 24, to the +effect that the hero Paravrig is the lightning flashing from the dark +cloud; whereas the blind-lame seems now to me the sun in the darkness +of night or winter. + +[100] Sa vidvan apagoham kaninam avir bhavann udatishthat paravrik +prati cronah sthad vy anag acashta; _Rigv._ ii. 15, 7. + +[101] _Rigv._ v. 48, 1. + +[102] Etad ghed uta viryam indra cakartha paunsyam striyam yad durhana +yuvam vadhir duhitaram divah divac cid gha duhitaram mahan mahiyamanam +ushasam indra sam pinak aposha anasah sarat sampishtad aha bibhyushi +ni yat sim cicnathad vrisha; _Rigv._ iv. 30, 8-11. + +[103] The two arms of Indras are said to vanquish the cow (or the +cows); Gogita bahu; _Rigv._ i. 102, 6. + +[104] Vy ucha duhitar divo ma ciram tanutha apah net tva stenam yatha +ripum tapati suro arcisha; _Rigv._ v. 79, 9.--Cfr. the chapter which +treats of the Spider. + +[105] Bhadro bhadraya sacamana agat svasaram garo abhy eti paccat; +_Rigv._ x. 3, 3. + +[106] Cfr. _Rigv._ x. 17, and Max Mueller's "Lectures on the Science of +Language," second series, 481-486. + +[107] Kanyeva tanva cacadanan (arepasa tanva cacadana; _Rigv._ i. 124, +6), eshi devi devam iyakshamanam samsmayamana yuvatih purastad avir +vakshansi krinushe vibhati; _Rigv._ i. 123, 10. + +[108] _Rigv._ i. 30, 20-22. + +[109] Vy u vragasya tamaso dvarochantir avran chucayah pavakah; +_Rigv._ iv. 51, 2.--Apa dvesho badhamana tamansy usha divo duhita +gyotishagat; _Rigv._ v. 80, 5.--Sparha vasuni tamasapagulha avish, +krinvanty ushaso vibhatih; _Rigv._ i. 123, 6.--Sasato bodhayanti; +_Rigv._ i. 124, 4.--Vicvam givam carase bodhayanti; _Rigv._ i. 92, +9.--Martyatra; _Rigv._ i. 123, 3. + +[110] Vicvani devi bhuvanabhicakshya; _Rigv._ i. 92, 6.--Praganati; +_Rigv._ i. 124, 3. + +[111] Arbhad ishate na maho vibhati; _Rigv._ i. 124, 6. + +[112] As to Ghosha, cured by the Acvinau (_Rigv._ i. 117, 7), and +Apala, cured by Indras (_Rigv._ viii. 80), see the same subject +discussed more in detail in the chapter which treats of the Hog. + +[113] Cukra krishnad aganishta cvitici; _Rigv._ i. 123, 9. + +[114] Yasyanaksha duhita gatvasa kas tam vidvan abhi manyate andham +kataro menim prati tam mucate ya im vahate ya im va vareyat; _Rigv._ +x. 27, 11.--Vritrasya kaninika 'si cakshushpa asi; _Taittir. Yagurv._ +i. 2, 1. + +[115] Apanyad ety abhy anyad eti vishurupe ahani sam carete; _Rigv._ +i. 123, 7. + +[116] Rucadvatsa rucati cvetyagad araig u krishna sadanany asyah +samanabandhu amrite anuci dyava varnam carata aminane samano adhva +svasror anantas tam anyanya carato devacishte na methete na tasthatuh +sumeke naktoshasa samanasa virupe; _Rigv._ i. 113, 2, 3. + +[117] Naktoshasa varnam amemyane dhapayete cicum ekam samici; _Rigv._ +i. 96, 5. + +[118] Nagamim na pari vrinakti gamim; _Rigv._ i. 124, 6. + +[119] Vyurnvati divo antan abodhy apa svasaram sanutar yuyoti praminati +manushya yugani yosha garasya cakshasa vi bhati; _Rigv._ i. 92, 11. + +[120] Svasa svasre gyayasyai yonim araik; _Rigv._ i. 124, 8. + +[121] Narir apasah; _Rigv._ i. 92, 3. + +[122] Cucayah pavakah; _Rigv._ iv. 51, 2. + +[123] Yosha garasya cakshasa vibhati; _Rigv._ quoted above, i. 92, 11. + +[124] Yatamana racmibhih suryasya; _Rigv._ i. 123, 12.--Vyuchanti +racmibhih suryasya; _Rigv._ i. 124, 8. + +[125] Ritasya yosha na minati dhama; _Rigv._ i. 123, 9. + +[126] Susamkaca matrimrishteva yoshavis tanvam krinushe drice kam; +_Rigv._ i. 123, 11. + +[127] Esha cubhra na tanvo vidanordhveva snati dricaye no asthat; +_Rigv._ v. 80, 5. + +[128] Adhi pecansi vapate nritur ivapornute vaksha usreva bargaham; +_Rigv._ i. 92, 4. + +[129] Bhadra vastra tanvate; _Rigv._ i. 134, 4. + +[130] Smayate vibhati supratika; _Rigv._ i. 92, 6. + +[131] Prakramisham ushasam agriyeva; _Rigv._ x. 95, 2. + + +SECTION II. + +THE WORSHIP OF THE BULL AND OF THE COW IN INDIA, AND THE BRAHMANIC +LEGENDS RELATING TO IT. + +SUMMARY. + + The princes called bulls.--The bull the symbol of the god + Civas.--The cow was not to be killed.--Exchange of the bull and the + cow for other animals; the bull and the cow, considered as the + greatest reward desired by the legislating priests of India.--The + cow's hide in nuptial usages a symbol of abundance; its elasticity + and power of extension; the cow and its hide during the pregnancy of + women an augury of happy birth, and in funeral ceremonies an augury + of resurrection.--Cows sent to pasture with auguries.--Cows seen by + night in a dream are a sinister omen; meaning of this Hindoo + superstition.--The black cow which produces white milk in the Vedic + hymns.--The reins of the cow or black goat sacrificed in funerals + given as a viaticum or provision to the dead man, that they may + contribute to his resurrection.--The variegated cow comes again in a + brahmanam, and is interpreted as a cloud.--The coming out of the + cow-dawns feasted.--The cornucopia.--The milk of the cows is the + serpent's poison.--The salutary herb.--The enchanted gem, the ring + of recognition.--The moon, as a female, a good fairy who works for + the aurora, and who entertains and guides the hero.--The moon, as a + male, a white bull.--The city of the moon.--Indras consoles and + nourishes the unhappy Sita.--Ramas assimilated to Indras.--The + coadjutors of Ramas are those of Indras.--The bull Ramas.--The names + of the monsters and the names of the heroes in the + Ramayanam.--Ramas, the Hindoo Xerxes, chastises the sea.--The + celestial ocean; the cloud-mountains carried by the heroes; the + bridge across the sea made of these mountains; while the bridge is + being made, it rains.--The battle of Ramas is a winter and a + nocturnal one, in a cloudy sky.--The monster barrel again; the + monster trunk with a cavity; Kabandhas.--The dying monster thanks + the hero, who delivers him from an ancient malediction, and becomes + again a handsome luminous youth.--The dawn Sita sacrificed in the + fire.--Sita daughter of the sun.--The Buddhist legend of Ramas and + Sita.--Sita predestined as the reward of valour.--An indiscretion of + the husband Ramas causes him to lose his wife Sita.--The story of + Urvaci again, the first of the auroras; the wife flees because her + husband has revealed her secret, because her husband has looked at + another woman, because he has let himself be seen naked; the + fugitive wife hides herself in a plant.--The wife stays with her + husband as long as he says nothing displeasing to her.--The wife + kills her sons; the husband complains and the wife flees.--The + contrary.--The story of Cunahcepas again.--The god Varunas, who + binds; the son sacrificed to the monster against his will by his + father.--The hero-hunter.--The middle son sold, the son of the + cow.--The cow herself, Aditi, or Cabala, or Kamadhuk, wife of + Vasishtas, sacrificed instead of the son of Vicvamitras.--Indras + delivers the bound hero, _i.e._, he delivers himself. The aurora, or + the daughter of the black one, liberates Cunahcepas, bound by the + black one, that is, she delivers the sun her husband.--The fetters + of Varunas and of Agigartas are equivalent to the bridle of the + horse and to the collar of the dog sold to the demon in European + fairy tales.--The golden palace of Varunas on the western + mountain.--Monstrous fathers.--Identification of Hariccandras, + Agigartas, and Vicvamitras.--The contention of Vicvamitras and + Vasishtas for the possession of the cow Cabala.--Demoniacal + character of Vicvamitras.--The sister of the monster-lover or + seducer of the hero.--The cloud drum.--The cloudy monster Dundubhis, + in the form of a buffalo with sharpened horns, destroyed by the son + of Indras.--The buffalo a monster, the bull a hero.--Krishnas the + monster becomes a god.--The god Indras fallen for having killed a + brahman monster.--The three heads of the monster cut off at a + blow.--The three brothers in the palace of Lanka; the eldest brother + has the royal dignity; the second, the strong one, sleeps, and only + wakens to eat and prove his strength; the third is good and is + victorious.--The three brothers Pandavas, sons of Yamas, Vayus and + Indras in the Mahabharatam; the first is wise, the second is strong, + the third is handsome and victorious; he is the best.--Again the + three working brothers entertained by a king.--The three disciples + of Dhaumyas.--The blind one who falls into the well.--The voyage of + Utankas to hell.--He meets a bull.--The excrement of the bull, + ambrosia.--The stone uplifted with the help of the lever, of the + thunderbolt of Indras.--The earrings of the queen carried off; their + mythical meaning.--Indras and Krishnas also search for the + earrings.--The three Buddhist brothers.--The eldest brother frees + the younger ones by his knowledge in questions and riddles.--The + hero and the monster ill or vulnerable in their feet.--The two rival + sisters.--The good sister thrown into the well by the wicked + one.--The prince comes to deliver her.--The wicked sister takes the + place of the good one.--The three brothers again.--The sons make + their father and mother recognise each other.--The third brother, + Purus, the only good one, assists his aged father Yayatis, by taking + his old age upon himself.--The old blind man, Dirghatamas, thrown + into the water by his sons.--Yayatis and Dirghatamas, Hindoo King + Lears.--The queen Sudeshna makes her maid or foster-sister take her + place; a Hindoo form of Queen Berta.--The blind and the crooked or + lame, or hunchbacked, again with the three-breasted princess.--They + cure each other.--The bride disputed by the brothers.--The aurora + and the sun flee from each other.--The beautiful girl, the daughter + of the sun, flees after having seen the prince upon the + mountain.--The prince cannot overtake her; the third time, at last, + the prince marries the daughter of the sun.--The marvellous cow of + Vasishthas.--The hero Vasishthas wishes to kill himself, but cannot; + he is immortal; he throws himself down from the mountain and does + not hurt himself; he goes through fire and is not burnt; he throws + himself into the water and does not drown; mythical signification of + these prodigies.--The wind runs after women.--Conclusion of the + study of the myth and of the legends which refer to the bull and the + cow of India. + +Just as the importance of the cattle to primitive and pastoral Aryan +life explains the propensity of the Aryan mind to conceive of the +mobile phenomena of the heavens, at first considered living beings, as +bulls and cows, so the consecration of these animals, associated and +identified with the celestial phenomena and the gods, naturally gave +rise to the superstitious worship of the bull and the cow, common to +all the Aryan nations, but particularly, through the intervention of +the brahmanic priests, to the Hindoos. + +It is a remarkable fact that the words _vrishas_, _vrishabhas_, and +_rishabhas_, which mean the bull as the one who pours out, the +_foecundator_, is often used in Sanscrit to denote the best, the +first, the prince; and hence the bull, that is to say, the best +_foecundator_, is in India the most sacred symbol of royalty. For this +reason the phallic and destroying god, the royal _Civas_, who inhabits +_Gokarnas_ (a word which properly means cow's ear), has both for his +steed and his emblem a brahmanic bull, _i.e._, a bull with a hunch on +its back; the _nandin_, or joyful attribute, being given to Civas +himself, inasmuch as, being the _Deus phallicus_, he is the god of +joyfulness and beatitude.[132] + +Still more honour is paid to the cow (like the Vedic dawn _anavadya_, +innocent or inculpable[133]), which therefore it was a crime to +kill.[134] An interesting chapter of the _Aitareya-brahmanam_,[135] on +the sacrifice of animals, shows us how, next to man, the horse was the +supreme sacrifice offered to the gods; how the cow afterwards took the +place of the horse; the sheep, of the cow; the goat, of the sheep; +and, at last, vegetable products were substituted for animals;--a +substitution or cheating of the gods in the sacrifice, which, perhaps, +serves to explain even more the fraud of which, in popular stories, +the simpleton is always the victim; the simpleton here being the god +himself, and the cheater man, who changes, under a sacred pretext, the +noblest and most valued animals for common and less valuable ones, and +finally for vegetables apparently of no value whatever. In the Hindoo +codes of law we have the same fraudulent substitution of animals under +a legal pretext. "The killer of a cow," says the code attributed to +_Yagnavalkyas_,[136] "must stay a month in penitence, drinking the +_pancagavyam_ (_i.e._, the five good productions of the cow, which, +according to Manus,[137] are milk, curds, butter, urine, and dung), +sleeping in a stable and following the cows; and he must purify +himself by the gift of another cow." Thus, according to +_Yagnavalkya_,[138] the killer of a parrot is purified by giving a +two-year-old calf; the killer of a crane by giving a calf three years +old; the killer of an ass, a goat, or a sheep, by the gift of a bull; +the killer of an elephant by the gift of five black bulls +(_nilavrishap_). And one need not be astonished to find these +contracts (which remind one of that between Jacob and Laban) in the +Hindoo codes of law, when, in the Vedic hymns themselves, a poet +offers to sell to whoever will buy it, an Indras of his, that is to +say, a bull, for ten cows.[139] Another interesting verse of +_Yagnavalkyas_[140] tells us they die pure who are killed by lightning +or in battle for the sake of the cows or the brahmans. The cow was +often the object heroes fought for in heaven; the Brahman wished to be +the object heroes should fight for upon earth. + +We learn from the domestic ceremonies referred to by _Grihyasutrani_ +with how much respect the bull and the cow were treated as the symbols +of abundance in a family. In _Acvalayanas_,[141] we find the bull's +hide stretched out near the nuptial hearth, the wife seated upon it, +and the husband, touching his wife, saying, "May the lord of all +creatures allow us to have children;"--words taken from the Vedic +nuptial hymn.[142] We have seen above how the Ribhavas, from the hide +of a dead cow, formed a new and beautiful one, or, in other words, +how, from the dusk of evening, by stretching it in the night, they +formed the dawn of morning. This cow's hide plays also an important +_role_ in the popular faith; an extraordinary elasticity is attributed +to it, a power of endless expansibility, and for this reason it is +adopted as a symbol of fecundity, upon which the wife must place +herself in order to become a mother of children. The cow's hide +(_gocarman_), in the _Mahabharatam_,[143] is the garment of the god +Vishnus; and the gocarman divided into thongs, and afterwards fastened +to each other, served formerly in India to measure the circumference +of a piece of ground;[144] hence the cow's hide suggested the idea of +a species of infinity. Further on we shall find it put to +extraordinary uses in western legend; we find it even in the hymns of +the Vedic age used to cover the body of a dead man, the fire being +invoked not to consume it, almost as if the cow's hide had the virtue +of resuscitating the dead.[145] + +The cow, being the symbol of fruitfulness, was also the companion of +the wife during pregnancy. _Acvalayanas_[146] tells us how, in the +third month, the husband was to give his wife to drink of the sour +milk of a cow that has a calf like itself, and in it two beans and a +grain of barley; the husband was then to ask his wife three times, +"What drinkest thou?" and she was to answer three times: "The +generation of males." In the fourth month, the wife, according to +_Acvalayanas_, was to put herself again upon the bull's hide, near the +fire of sacrifice, when they again invoked the god _Pragapatis_, lord +of all creatures, or of procreation; the moon, like a celestial bull +and cow, was invited to be present at the generation of men;[147] and +a bull, during the Vedic period, was the gift which sufficed for the +priest. In the Vedic antiquity, neither bulls nor cows were allowed to +go to pasture without some special augury, which, in the domestic +ceremonials of _Acvalayanas_,[148] has been also handed down to us; +the cows were to give milk and honey, for the strength and increase of +whoever possessed them. Here we have again the cows not only as the +beneficent, but as the strong ones, they who help the hero or the +heroine who takes them to pasture. + +But although beautiful cows, when seen by day, are a sign of good +luck, seen in dreams they are of evil omen; for in that case they are +of course the black cows, the shadows of night, or the gloomy waters +of the nocturnal ocean. Already in the _Rigvedas_, the dawn, or the +luminous cow, comes to deliver the fore-mentioned solar hero, Tritas +Aptyas, from the evil sleep which he sleeps amidst the cows[149] of +night. _Acvalayanas_, in his turn, recommends us when we have an evil +dream, to invoke the sun, to hasten the approach of the morning, or, +better still, to recite the hymn of five verses to the dawn which we +have already referred to, and which begins with the words, "And like +an evil dream amidst the cows." Here the belief is not yet an entirely +superstitious one; and we understand what is meant by the cows who +envelop us in the sleep of night, when we are told to invoke the sun +and the dawn to come and deliver us from them. + +A cow (probably a black one), often a black goat, was sometimes also +sacrificed in the funeral ceremonies of the Hindoos, as if to augur +that, just as the black cow, night, produces the milky humours of the +aurora, or is fruitful, so will he who has passed through the kingdom +of darkness rise again in the world of light. We have already seen the +black night as the mother of the white and luminous aurora; I quote +below yet another Vedic sentence, in which a poet ingenuously wonders +why the cows of Indras, the black ones as well as the light-coloured +(the black clouds, as well as the white and red ones), should both +yield white milk.[150] And even the gloomy nocturnal kingdom of Yamas, +the god of the dead, has its cows of black appearance, which are +nevertheless milk-yielding; and thus the black cow of the funeral +sacrifices comes to forebode resurrection. + +In the same way the viaticum, or provision of food for his journey, +given to the dead man is a symbol of his resurrection. The journey +being considered as a short one, the provision of food which is to +sustain the traveller to the kingdom of the dead is limited, and each +dead hero carries it with him, generally not so much for himself, as +to ensure a passage into the kingdom of the dead. For this reason we +read, even in the domestic ceremonials of _Acvalayanas_, that it is +recommended to put into the hands of the dead man,[151] what is the +greatest symbol of strength, the reins of the animal killed in the +funeral sacrifice (or, in default of an animal victim, at least two +cakes of rice or of flour), in order that the dead man may throw them +down the throats of the two Cerberi, the two sons of the bitch +_Sarama_, so that they may let the deceased enter scatheless into the +death-kingdom, the mysterious kingdom of Yamas; and here we find the +monster of the popular tales, into whose house the hero, having passed +through many dangers, enters, by the advice of a good fairy or of a +good old man, giving something to appease the hunger of the two dogs +who guard its gate. + +They who return from the funeral must touch the stone of Priapus, a +fire, the excrement of a cow,[152] a grain of barley, a grain of +sesame and water,--all symbols of that fecundity which the contact +with a corpse might have destroyed. + +The Vedic hymns have shown us the principal mythical aspects and +functions of the cow and the bull; we have also seen how the brahmanic +codes confirmed, by the sanction of law, the worship of these animals, +and how jealously the domestic tradition of the Hindoos has guarded +it. Let us now see from the _Aitareya-brahmanam_, how the Brahmans +themselves, those of the era immediately following that of the Vedas, +interpreted the myth of the cow. + +We have recognised in the Vedic heavens, as reflected in the hymns of +the _Rigvedas_, three cows--the cow-cloud, the cow-moon, and the +cow-aurora. These three cows, and especially the first and the third, +are also quite distinct from one another in the _Aitareya-brahmanam_. + +It tells us how the _gauh pricnih_, the variegated cow, or spotted +cow, of the _Rigvedas_, must be celebrated to make the earth +fruitful[153] (or that one must sing to the cloud that it may +fertilise the pastures and fields with rain), and how one must +sacrifice a bull to _Vicvakarman_ (or the one that does all), who is +transformed into the god Indras when killing the demon Vritras,[154] +or the monster who keeps the rain in the cloud. + +It shows us the full moon, _Raka_, joined to the aurora, as a source of +abundance,[155] and the aurora with the cow.[156] It tells us explicitly +that the characteristic form of the aurora is the red cow, because she +moves with the red cows.[157] The gods, after having discovered the cows +in the cavern, open the cavern with the third libation of the +morning;[158] when the cows come out, the gods, the _Adityas_, also come +out; hence the coming forth of the gods (_Adityanam ayanam_) is +equivalent to the coming forth of the cows (_gavam ayanam_). The cows +come out when they have their horns, and adorn themselves.[159] + +The aurora is a cow; this cow has horns; her horns are radiant and +golden. When the cow aurora comes forth, all that falls from her horns +brings good luck; hence in the _Mahabharatam_,[160] the benefits +received from a holy hermit, called Matangas, are compared to those of +a _gavam ayanam_, _i.e._, a coming out of cows. To understand this +simile, besides a reference to the Vedic texts, it is necessary to +compare it with the modern usages of India, in which, in celebration +of the new solar year, or the birth of the pastoral god Krishnas (the +god who is black during the night, but who becomes luminous in the +morning among the cows of the dawning, or among the female cowherds), +it is customary, towards the end of December, to give cows to the +Brahmans, exchange presents of cows and calves, besprinkle one another +with milk, to adorn a beautiful milch cow, crown her with flowers, +gild her horns, or paint them various colours, to deck her to +overloading with flowers, fruit, and little cakes, and then hunt her +from the village to the sound of drums and trumpets, in order that, +full of terror, she may flee away with distraction and impetuosity. +The cow loses her ornaments in her flight, and these, being estimated +as propitious treasures, are eagerly picked up by the faithful, and +preserved as sacred relics.[161] + +In the _Aitareya-brahmanam_,[162] the sun is born of the cows (_goga_), +is the son of the cow aurora; as the sun's mother she naturally +nourishes him with her milk; hence the same _Aitareya_[163] tells us +that the gods Mitras and Varunas, by means of the curdled milk, took +from the drink of the gods the inebriating poison which the long-tongued +witch (_Dirghagihvi_) had poured into it. This curdled milk is the same +milky sea, with health-giving herbs scattered in it, and which the gods +agitate to form ambrosia, in the _Ramayanam_, the _Mahabharatam_, and +the Puranic legends; a sea and herbs which we find already spoken of +together in a Vedic hymn.[164] But in the sky, where the ambrosial milk +and the health-giving herbs are produced, there are gods and demons; and +the milk, which is at one time the rain, at another ambrosia, is now in +the cloud, now in the moon (called also _Oshadhipatis_, or lord of +herbs), now round the dawn. Hanumant, who, in the _Ramayanam_, goes in +quest of the health-giving grass to restore their souls to the half-dead +heroes, looks for it now between the mountain bull (_rishabhas_) and the +heavenly mountain _Kailasas_, now between the Mount Lunus (_Candras_) +and the mountain cup (_Dronas_); and the mountain which possesses the +herb for which Hanumant is searching is itself called herb (_oshadhis_), +or the one that causes to rejoice with perfumes (_Gandhamadanas_[165]), +which two words are used synonymously. Here the milky, ambrosial, and +healthful humour is supposed to be produced, not by a cow, but by an +herb. And the gods and demons contend in heaven for the possession of +this herb, as well as for the ambrosia; the only difference being that +the gods enjoy both one and the other without corrupting them, whilst +the demons poison them as they drink them; that is to say, they spread +darkness over the light, they move about in the darkness, in the gloomy +waters, in the black humour which comes out of the herb itself, which, +in contact with them, becomes poisonous, so that they in turn suck the +poison. On the other hand, the _Gandharvas_,[166] an amphibious race, in +whom at one time the nature of the gods predominates, at another that of +the demons, and who consequently take now the side of the gods, now that +of the demons, are simply guards who, as against theft, keep watch and +ward over the perfumes and healthful herbs, which are their own +property, and the healthful or ambrosial waters, the ambrosia which +belongs to their wives, the nymphs; they are, in a word, the earliest +representatives of the enjoying and jealous proprietor. We have already +heard, in the _Rigvedas_, the demoniacal monsters call on each other to +suck the poison of the celestial cows; and we have seen that the +_Aitareya-brahmanam_ accuses a witch of being the poisoner of the divine +ambrosia; we have, moreover, noticed that a Vedic hymn already +associates together the ambrosial milk and the healthful herb, and that, +in the brahmanic cosmogony, the milk and the herb which produces it are +manifested together, which herb or grass is beneficent or the reverse +according as the gods or the demons enjoy it; from all which it will be +easy to understand this interesting Hindoo proverb, "The grass gives +the milk to the cows, and the milk gives the poison to the +serpents."[167] It is indeed the milk of the cow of the dawn and of the +cow of the moon which destroys the serpents of darkness, the demoniacal +shadows of night. + +But the idea of the healthful herb is incorporated in another image, +very familiar to the popular Indo-European legends, and which is +contained even in the Vedic hymns. The cow produces the sun and the +moon; the circular shape, the disc of sun and moon, suggests variously +the idea of a ring, a gem, and a pearl; and the sun, _Savitar_, he who +gives the juice, and the generator, is introduced in a Vedic hymn, as +the one who has immortal juice, who gives the pearl.[168] The humours of +the cow have passed to the herb, and from the herb to the pearl; and the +naturalness of this figure recommends itself to our modern conception, +for when we would describe a diamond or other gem as of the purest +quality, we say it is a diamond or gem of the first water. Even the +pearl-moon and the pearl-sun, from their ambrosial humours, have a fine +water. In the _Ramayanam_,[169] at the moment of production of ambrosia +from the stirring up of the milky sea, we see, near the healthful +herb, the gem _Kaustubhas_, the same which we afterwards find on the +breast of the sun-god Vishnus, and which is sometimes his navel; +whence Vishnus, in the _Mahabharatam_,[170] is saluted by the name of +_ratnanabhas_--that is to say, he who has a pearl for his navel; as the +sun is in like manner saluted by the name of _Manicringas_--_i.e._, who +has horns of pearls.[171] In the _Ramayanam_,[172] the bright-shining +grass and the solar disc appear together on the summit of the mountain +Gandhamadanas; no sooner does he smell its odour than the solar hero +_Lakshmanas_, delivered from the iron that oppressed him, lifts himself +up from the ground; _i.e._, scarcely has the sun formed his disc, and +begun to shine like a celestial gem, than the sun-hero, whom the +monsters had vanquished during the night, rises in victory. And it is on +the summit of the mountain that, with a mountain metal of a colour +similar to that of the young sun,[173] the sun _Ramas_ imprints a +dazzling mark on the forehead of the dawn Sita, as if to be able to +recognise her--that is to say, he places himself upon the forehead of +the aurora or dawn. When the sun Ramas is separated from the dawn Sita, +he sends her in recognition, as a symbol of his disc, his own ring, +which appears again in the famous ring given by King _Dushmantas_ to the +beautiful _Cakuntala_, the daughter of the nymph, and by means of which +alone the lost bride can be recognised by the young and forgetful king; +and Sita sends back to Ramas, by the hands of Hanumant, as a sign of +recognition, the dazzling ornament which Ramas had one day placed upon +her forehead in an idyllic scene among the mountains known to them +alone. This ring of recognition, this magic pearl, often turns up in the +Hindoo legends. It is enough for me to indicate here the two most famous +examples. + +The aurora who possesses the pearl becomes she who is rich in pearls, +and herself a source of pearls; but the pearl, as we have already +seen, is not only the sun, it is also the moon. The moon is the friend +of the aurora; she comforts her in the evening under her persecutions; +she loads her with presents during the night, accompanies and guides +her, and helps her to find her husband. + +In the _Ramayanam_, I frequently find the moon as a beneficent fairy, +who succours the dawn Sita; for the moon, as _raganikaras_ (she who +gives light to the night), assumes a benignant aspect. We have already +said that the moon is generally a male in India; but as full moon and +new moon it assumes, even in the Vedic texts, a feminine name. In a +Vedic hymn, _Raka_, the full moon is exhorted to sew the work with a +needle that cannot be broken.[174] Here we have the moon personified +as a marvellous workwoman, a fairy with golden fingers, a good fairy; +and in this character we find her again in the _Ramayanam_, under the +form of the old _Anasuya_, who anoints the darkened Sita (for Sita, +like the Vedic girl, is dark and ugly during the night, or winter, +when she is hidden) in the wood, with a divine unguent; gives her a +garland, various ornaments, and two beauteous garments, which are +always pure (as, _i.e._, they do not touch the earth, like the cows of +the Vedic dawn, who do not cover themselves with dust), and similar in +colour to the young sun;[175] in all which the fairy moon appears as +working during the night for the aurora, preparing her luminous +garments--the two garments, of which the one is for the evening and +the other for the morning, one lunar and of silver, the other solar +and of gold--in order that she may please her husband Ramas, or the +sun Vishnus, who is glad when he sees her thus adorned. In the +_Svayamprabha_, too, we meet with the moon as a good fairy, who, from +the golden palace which she reserves for her friend Hema (the golden +one), is during a month the guide, in the vast cavern, of Hanumant and +his companions, who have lost their way in the search of the dawn +Sita. To come out of this cavern, it is necessary to shut the eyes, in +order not to see its entrance; all Hanumant's companions are come out, +but Taras, who shines like the moon,[176] would wish to return. The +same moon can be recognised in the benignant fairies _Trigata_, +_Surama_, and _Sarama_, who announce to Sita that her husband will +soon arrive, and that she will soon see him. The first, while the +arrival of Ramas is imminent, dreams that the monsters, dressed in +yellow, are playing in a lake of cow's milk;[177] at the time when +Surama announces to Sita the approach of Ramas, Sita shines by her own +beauty, like the opening dawn;[178] finally, Sarama (who seems to be +the same as Surama), whom Sita calls her twin-sister (_sahodara_), +penetrating underground, like the moon Proserpine, also announces to +Sita her approaching deliverance at the hands of Ramas.[179] As to +Trigata, it is not difficult to recognise in her the moon, when we +remember that Trgiatas is a name which is frequently given to the +evening sun, or rising moon, _Civas_, who is represented with the moon +for a diadem, whence his other name of _Candracudas_ (having the moon +for his diadem). Surama I believe to be, not a mythical, but only an +orthographical variation, and more incorrect one, of Sarama, whose +relation to the moon we shall see in detail when we come to the +chapter which treats of the mythical dog. + +Thus far we have a moon fairy; but we find the moon designated at other +times in the _Ramayanam_ by its common masculine name. The guardian of +the forest of honey, _Dadhimukhas_, in which forest, with its honey, the +heroes who accompany Sita enjoy themselves, is said to be generated by +the god Lunus.[180] And the moon, who assists Hanumant in his search of +Sita, is said to shine like a white bull with a sharpened horn, with a +full horn;[181] in which we come back to the moon as a horned animal, +and to the cornucopia. Moreover, we find the same lunar horn again in +the city of _Cringaveram_, where first the solar hero Ramas, and +afterwards his brother Bharatas, are hospitably received when the sun is +darkened,[182] by _Guhas_, king of the black _Wishadas_, who also is of +the colour of a black cloud;[183] and Ramas and Bharatas take their +departure in the morning from Guhas, who is said to wander always in the +forests.[184] Now, this Guhas, who, though always hidden, yet wishes to +entertain the solar hero during the night with presents of the town of +Cringaveram, appears to me to be just another form of the solar hero +himself, who enters and hides himself in the night, hospitably received +in the lunar habitation, another form of the god Indras, whom we have +seen in the _Rigvedas_ united during the night to Indus or Somas--that +is, to the moon--and who, in the _Ramayanam_[185], when Sita is in the +power of the monster, comes down during the night to console her, lulls +her keepers to sleep, and nourishes her with the ambrosial milk (with +Soma, the moon, the same moon which, in the _Rigvedas_, the dawn, the +girl beloved of Indras, and whom therefore he does good to, brings him +as a present), encouraging her with the prospect of the near advent of +Ramas, the deliverer. + +But it remains to us to adduce clearer evidence to show that in the +_Ramayanam_ Ramas is the sun, and Sita the dawn, or aurora. + +Without taking into account that Ramas is the most popular +personification of Vishnus, and that Vishnus is often the solar hero +(although he is not seldom identified with the moon), let us see how +Ramas manifests himself, and what he does in the _Ramayanam_ to +vindicate especially his solar nature. + +It is my opinion that the best way to prove this is to show how Ramas +performs the very same miracles that Indras does. Ramas, like Indras, +gives, while still young, extraordinary proofs of his strength; Ramas, +like Indras, achieves his greatest enterprises while he is himself +hidden; Ramas, like Indras, vanquishes the monster, reconquers Sita, and +enjoys of right the company of his wife. Till Ramas goes into the +forests, as Indras into the clouds and shadows, his great epopee +does not begin. Indras has for assistants the winds (the Marutas); +Ramas has for his greatest help Hanumant, the son of the wind +(_Marutatmagah_);[186] Hanumant amuses himself with the monsters, as the +wind with the archer-clouds of the thousand-eyed Indras;[187] and it is +said that Ramas gets on Hanumant's back, as Indras does on the elephant +_Airavatas_. The elephant with a proboscis is not unfrequently +substituted, in the brahmanic tradition, for the horned bull of the +Vedas.[188] But the bull Indras is reproduced in the bull Ramas, and the +monkeys who assist Ramas have kept at least the tail of the Vedic cows, +the helpers of Indras, whence their generic name of _golangulas_ (who +have cows' tails).[189] The bow with which Ramas shoots the monsters is +made of a horn, whence his name of _Carngadhanvant_ (he who shoots with +the horn);[190] Ramas receives the shower of hostile darts, as a bull +upon its horns the abundant rains of autumn.[191] Sita herself calls +both her Ramas and his brother Lakshmanas by the name of +_sinharshabhau_,[192] or the lion and the bull, which are conjoined so +frequently in the mythology, on account of equal strength; hence the +terror of the lion when he hears the bull bellow in the first book of +the _Pancatantram_, and in all the numerous Eastern and Western +variations of that book. Indras has his conflicts in the cloudy, rainy, +and gloomy sky; these are also the battle-fields of Ramas. The names of +the monsters of the _Ramayanam_, as, for instance, _Vidyuggivas_ (he who +lives upon thunderbolts), _Vagrodari_ (she who has thunderbolts in her +stomach), _Indragit_ (who vanquishes Indras with magical arts), +_Meghanadas_ (thundering cloud),[193] and others, show us the nature of +the battle. In the battle-field of Ramas, instead, the assisting hero is +now a bull (_rishabhas_), now an ox's eye (_gavakshas_), now _gavayas_ +(_bos gavoeus_), and beings of similar appellations, which remind us of +the Vedic deities. Indras strikes with lightning the celestial ocean; +Ramas, an Indian Xerxes, chastises the sea with burning arrows.[194] +Indras, in the _Rigvedas_, crosses the sea and passes ninety-nine +rivers; Ramas crosses the ocean upon a bridge of mountains, in carrying +which Hanumant, the son of the wind, shows himself peculiarly skilful; +the winds carry the clouds, which we have seen, in the language of the +Vedas, represented as mountains. And that clouds, and not real +mountains, are here spoken of, we deduce from observing, as we read, +that while the animal army of Ramas carries the bridge on to the ocean, +or the winds carry the clouds into the sky, the sun cannot burn the +weary monkey-workers, because that clouds arise and cover it, rain +falls, and the wind expires.[195] The field of this epic battle is +evidently the same as that of the mythical battle of Indras. And in the +_Ramayanam_ we find at every step the similarity of the combatants to +the dark clouds, the bellowing clouds, the clouds carried by the wind. +The forest which Ramas goes through is compared to a group of +clouds.[196] The name of wanderer by night (_raganicaras_), afterwards +given frequently in the _Ramayanam_, to the monster whom Ramas combats, +implies, of course, that the battle is fought by night. The fact that, +as we read, the witch _Curpanakha_ comes in winter to seduce Ramas +whilst he is in the forest,[197] and the monster _Kumbhakarnas_ awakens +after six months' sleep, like a rainy cloud which increases towards the +end of summer (_tapante_),[198] shows us that the epic poem of Ramas +embraces, besides the nightly battle of the sun over darkness, also the +great annual battle of the sun in winter to recover and rejoin the +spring. Anyhow, it is always a battle of the sun against the monster of +darkness. Ramas, in the very beginning of the great poem, says to his +brother Lakshmanas:--"See, O Lakshmanas, Maricas is come here with his +followers, making a noise like thunder, and with him the wanderer by +night Subahus; thou wilt see them to-day, like a mass of dark clouds, +dispersed by me in a moment, like clouds by the wind."[199] Here we find +almost the whole battle of Indras. + +And similar battles in the clouds are found in several other episodes of +the _Ramayanam_. The dart of Ramas falls upon the monster _Kharas_ (the +monster ass), as upon a great tree falls the thunderbolt hurled by +Indras.[200] Heroes and monsters combat with stones and rocks from the +great mountain, and fall, overthrown on the earth, like mountains. The +monster Ravanas carries off Sita with the magic of the wind and the +tempest.[201] Heroes and monsters fight with trunks of trees from the +great forest; moreover, the trunks themselves, having become monsters, +join the fray, stretch out their strange arms, and devour the hero in +their cavities. And here we come upon the interesting legend of +_Kabandhas_, in which we find again the forests and trees combating, +and the barrel of the Vedas carried by the divine bull. The _Danavas_ or +demons also appear, in the _Mahabharatam_,[202] in the forms of sounding +barrels. In the _Ramayanam_, the highest of the demons (_danavottamah_) +is called by the name of _Kabandhas_ (barrel and trunk), compared to a +black thundering cloud, and represented as an enormous trunk, having one +large yellowish eye, and an enormous devouring mouth in his chest.[203] +In Tuscany, we say of water that gushes copiously out of a reservoir, +that it pours as from a barrel's mouth. The monster Kabandhas draws +towards himself, with his long arms, the two brothers Ramas and +Lakshmanas (compared several times in the _Ramayanam_[204] to the two +Acvinau, who resemble each other in everything). Ramas and Lakshmanas, +_i.e._, the two Acvinau, the morning and evening, the spring and autumn +suns, the two twilights, who, in a passage of the _Ramayanam_, are +called the two ears of Ramas, cut off the two extremities, the two long +arms, of the monster _Kabandhas_; upon which the trunk, able no longer +to support itself, falls to the ground. The fallen monster then relates +to the two brothers that he was once a beautiful demon; but that, by a +malediction, Indras one day made his head and legs enter his body; his +arms having been lacerated by the two brothers, the monster is +disenchanted from this malediction, and having resumed his form of a +splendid demon, he ascends to heaven in a luminous form. Here we have +the all-radiant sun shut up in the cloud, he being the yellow eye, the +burning mouth, of Kabandhas, and, in union with the cloud, forming a +hideous monster; the hero comes to destroy his monstrous form, and the +monster thanks him, for thus he becomes the glorious god, the splendid +being, the handsome prince he was before. Ramas who delivers Kabandhas +from his monstrous form by cutting off his two arms, is the sun Ramas +coming forth from the gloomy forest, and uncovering the sky in the east +and in the west. Ramas delivering Kabandhas is simply the sun delivering +himself from the monster of gloom and cloud that envelops him. And, +indeed, the greater part of the myths have their origin in the plurality +of appellations given to the same phenomenon. Each appellation grows +into a distinct personality, and the various personalities fight with +each other. Hence the hero who delivers himself becomes the deliverer of +the hero, viewed as a different person from the hero; the monstrous form +which envelops the hero is often his own malediction; the hero who comes +to kill this monstrous form is his benefactor.[205] + +This theory of the monster who thanks the hero that kills him, agrees +with what we find on several other occasions in the _Ramayanam_, as in +the case of the stag _Maricas_,[206] which, after being killed by +Ramas, re-ascends to heaven in a luminous form; of the sea-monster, +which Hanumant destroys, and restores to its primitive form, that of a +celestial nymph; of the old Cavari, who, after having seen Ramas, +sacrifices herself in the fire, and re-ascends young and beautiful to +heaven (the usual Vedic young girl, the dawn whom, ugly during the +night, Indras, by taking off her ugly skin, restores to beauty in the +morning); an episodical variation of what afterwards happens to Sita +herself, who, having been ugly when in the power of the monster +Ravanas, recovers her beauty by the sacrifice of fire, in order to +prove her innocence to her husband Ramas, and shines again a young +girl, like the young sun, adorned with burning gold, and wearing a red +dress;[207] and when Ramas comes near (like the young dawn, when she +sees her husband), she resembles the first light (Prabha), the wife of +the sun.[208] This Sita, daughter of Ganakas (the generator), whom the +_Taittiriya Brahmanam_ calls Savitar[209] or the sun, seems to me to +be no other than the dawn, the daughter of light, the daughter of +Indras, the god of the Vedic texts. These, indeed, sometimes represent +Surya, the daughter of the sun, as the lover of the moon (who is then +masculine); but we find more frequently the loves of the dawn and the +sun, of the beautiful heroine and the splendid solar hero, while the +moon is generally the brother, or the pitying sister of the hero and +the heroine, the beneficent old man, the foreseeing fairy, the good +hostess, who aids them in their enterprises; although we also find the +dawn as a sister of the sun and his succourer. In fact, the Buddhist +tradition of the legend of Ramas, illustrated by Weber,[210] +represents Sita to us as the sister of the two brothers Ramas and +Lakshmanas, who go into banishment for twelve years to escape the +persecutions of their cruel step-mother (of whom the _Kaikeyi_ of the +_Ramayanam_ offers a confused image), in the same way as the Vedic +dawn is united to the twin Acvinau; and the same tradition makes +Ramas, at the termination of his exile, end with marrying his own +sister Sita, as the sun marries the dawn. And the fact of Sita being +not born from the womb, but produced from the ground, a girl of +heavenly beauty, destined to be the reward of valour,[211] not only +does not exclude her relationship with the dawn, but confirms it; for +we have seen the dawn rise from the mountain, as the daughter of light +and the sun, whom the young sun wins for his bride, as a reward for +his wonderful skill as an archer against the monsters of darkness; and +we have seen that the dawn marries only her predestined husband, and +her predestined husband is he who performs the greatest miracles, +restores her lost gaiety, and most resembles her. We have just seen +the old Cavari and the ugly Sita, at the sight of the sun Ramas, +deliver themselves in the fire from every mortal danger, and become +beautiful and happy once more. + +But the concord between the mythical husband and wife is not more +steadfast than that of mortal couples. Ramas is very apt to be +suspicious. Having returned to his kingdom of Ayodhya, he allows +himself to brood upon what his subjects may say of him for having +taken back his wife, after she had been in the hands of the monster +(they were not present at the first fire-sacrifice of Sita); Ramas +reveals his suspicions to Sita, and blames the evil-speaking of the +citizens for originating them; she submits a second time to the trial +by fire, but, offended by his continual suspicions, she flees from her +husband, and on a car of light, drawn by serpents (_Pannagas_), goes +down again underground (which appears to mean simply this--the dawn, +or spring, marries the sun in the morning, or she stays all day, or +all summer, in his kingdom, and in the evening, or in the autumn, goes +down into the shades of night, or of winter).[212] It is an +indiscretion of the husband which causes his wife to abandon him. + +Thus, in the _Rigvedas_, we have seen _Urvaci_, the first of the +dawns, flee from the sun _Pururavas_. In _Somadevas_,[213] the king +Pururavas loses his wife Urvaci, because he has let it be known in +heaven that she was with him; in Kalidasas's drama of _Vikramorvaci_, +the king Pururavas, having helped Indras in the fight, receives from +him Urvaci to wife, with whom he engages to stay till a child is born +to them; the king, shortly after having espoused Urvaci, looks at +another nymph, Udakavati (the watery). Urvaci, offended, flees; she +enters a wood to hide herself, and is transformed into a creeper. In +the brahmanic tradition of the _Yagurvedas_, referred to at length by +Professor Max Mueller, in his "Oxford Essays," Pururavas loses sight of +Urvaci, because he has let himself be seen by her without his regal +dress, or even naked. + +We find yet another similar legend in the _Mahabharatam_.[214] The +wise and splendid Cantanus goes to the chase on the banks of the +Ganga, and there finds a beautiful nymph whom he becomes enamoured of. +The nymph responds to his suit, and consents to remain with him, on +condition that he will never say anything displeasing to her, +whatever she may do or meditate; and the enamoured king assents to the +grave condition. They live together happily, for the king yields to +the nymph in everything; but in the course of time, eight sons are +born to them; the nymph has already thrown seven into the river, and +the king, although inwardly full of grief, dares not say anything to +her; but when she is about to throw the last one in, the king implores +her not to do it, and challenges her to say who she is. The nymph then +confesses to him that she is the Ganga itself personified, and that +the eight sons born to their loves are human personifications of the +eight divine Vasavas, who, by being thrown into the Ganga, are +liberated from the curse of the human form: the only Vasus who is +pleased to remain among men is Dyaus (the sky), in the form of the +eunuch Bhishmas, whom Cantanus would not allow to be thrown into the +waters. The same curse falls upon the Vasavas for having ravished the +cow of abundance from the penitent Apavas. We shall find a legendary +subject analogous to this one of Cantanus in several of the popular +tales of Europe, with this difference that, in European tradition, it +is generally the husband who abandons his indiscreet partner. The +Hindoo tradition, however, also offers us an example of the husband +who abandons his wife, in the wise Garatkarus, who marries the sister +of the king of the serpents, on condition that she never does anything +to displease him.[215] One day the wise man sleeps; evening comes on; +he ought to be awakened in order to say his evening prayers; if he +does not say them, he does not do his duty, and she would do wrong did +she not warn him. If she awaken him, he will be enraged. What is to +be done? She takes the latter course. The wise man awakes, becomes +enraged, and abandons her, after she had given him a son.[216] + +The glowing aspect of the sky, morning and evening, suggested the +idea, now of a splendid nuptial feast, now of a fire. In this fire, +sometimes the witch who persecutes the hero and heroine is burnt, and +sometimes the hero and heroine themselves are immolated. The sacrifice +of Cavari and of Sita, who are delivered by the sun Ramas, is only a +variation of that of Cunahcepas, liberated by the dawn in the +_Rigvedas_. The story of Cunahcepas has already been made known by +Professor Rodolph Roth,[217] and by Professor Max Mueller,[218] who +translated it from the _Aitareya-brahmanam_; and I refer the reader to +these translations, as well as to the English version which Professor +Martin Haugh has given us of all the _Aitareya_. I shall, therefore, +here give but a short account of it, with a few observations apropos +to the subject in hand. + +The king Hariccandras has no sons; the god Varunas the coverer, the +gloomy, the watery, the king of the waters,[219] obliges him to +promise that he will sacrifice to him whatever is born to him. The +king promises; a child is born, who is named the red (Rohitas). +Varunas claims him; the father begs him to wait till the child has +cut his teeth, then till his first teeth are cast, then till he is +able to bear armour. It is evident that the father wishes to wait till +his son be strong enough to defend himself against his persecutor, +Varunas. Varunas thereupon claims him in a more resolute manner, and +Hariccandras informs the son himself that he must be given up in +sacrifice. Rohitas takes his bow and flees into the woods, where he +lives by the chase. This first part of the legend corresponds with +those numerous European popular tales, in which, now the devil, now +the aquatic monster, now the serpent, demands from a father the son +who has just been born to him without his knowledge. The second part +of the story of Cunahcepas shows us the hero in the forest; he has +taken his bow with him, and hence, like Ramas in the _Ramayanam_, who +has scarcely entered the forest than he begins to hunt, Rohitas turns +hunter, and hunts for the six years during which he remains in the +forest. But his chase is unsuccessful; he wanders about in quest of +some one to take his place as the victim of Varunas; at last he finds +the brahmanas Agigartas, who consents to give his own second son, +Cunahcepas, for a hundred cows. The first-born being particularly dear +to the father, and the third being especially beloved by the mother, +cannot be sacrificed; the second son, therefore, is ceded to Varunas, +the gloomy god of night, who, like Yamas, binds all creatures with his +cords. We have already observed how the middle son is the son of the +celestial cow Aditis, the hidden sun, the sun during and covered by +the darkness of night, or, in other words, bound by the fetters of +Varunas--and it is his own father who binds him with those fetters. +His sacrifice begins in the evening. During the night he appeals to +all the gods. At last Indras, flattered by the praise heaped upon +him, concedes to him a golden chariot, upon which, with praises to the +Acvinau, and help from the dawn, Cunahcepas, unbound from the fetters +of Varunas, is delivered. These fetters of Varunas, which imprison the +victim, bound and sacrificed by his own father, help us to understand +the second part of the European popular tale of the son sacrificed +against his will to the demon by his father; for Cunahcepas, towards +the end of the European story, takes the form of a horse, Varunas that +of a demon, and the fetters of Varunas are the bridle of the horse, +which the imprudent father sells to the demon, together with his son +in the shape of a horse;[220] the beautiful daughter of the demon (the +white one, who, as usual, comes out of the black monster) delivers the +young man transformed into a horse; as in the Vedic story of +Cunahcepas, it is explicitly the dawn who is the young girl that +delivers.[221] Varunas is called in the _Ramayanam_ the god who has in +his hand a rope (_pacahastas_); his dwelling is on Mount Astas, where +the sun goes down, and which it is impossible to touch, because it +burns, in an immense palace, the work of Vicvakarman, which has a +hundred rooms, lakes with nymphs, and trees of gold.[222] Evidently, +Varunas is here, not a different form, but a different name of the god +Yamas, the pacin, or furnished with rope, the constrictor _par +excellence_; for we are to suppose the magic display of golden +splendour in the evening heavens not so much the work of the sun +itself, as produced by the gloomy god who sits on the mountain, who +invests and surprises the solar hero, and drags him into his kingdom. +As to Hariccandras and Agigartas, Rohitas and Cunahcepas, they appear, +in my opinion, to be themselves different names for not only the same +celestial phenomenon, but the same mythical personage. Hariccandras is +celebrated in the legends as a solar king; Rohitas, his son, the red +one, is his _alter ego_, as well as his successor Cunahcepas. +Hariccandras, moreover, who promises to sacrifice his son to Varunas, +seems to differ little, if at all, from Agigartas, who sells his own +son for the sacrifice. The _Ramayanam_,[223] has given us a third name +for the same unnatural father,[224] in Vicvamitras, who asks his own +sons to sacrifice themselves, instead of Cunahcepas, who is under his +protection, and as they refuse to obey, he curses them. + +The variation of the same legend which we find in the +_Harivancas_[225] proves these identities, and adds a new and notable +particular. The wife of Vicvamitras designs, on account of her +poverty, to barter her middle son for a hundred cows, and with that +view already keeps him tied with a rope like a slave. The grandfather +of Rohitas, Hariccandras's father, Tricankus, wanders through the +woods, and delivers this son of Vicvamitras, whose family he +thenceforth protects and maintains. The deeds of Tricankus, who begs +of Vasishtas to be allowed to ascend to heaven bodily, and who, by +grace of Vicvamitras, obtains instead the favour of remaining +suspended in the air like a constellation, are also attributed to his +son Hariccandras; whence we may affirm, without much risk of +contradiction, that as Tricankus is another name for his son +Hariccandras, so Hariccandras is another name for his son Rohitas, and +that, therefore, the Tricankus of the _Harivancas_ is the same as the +Rohitas of the _Aitareya_, with this difference, that Tricankus buys +the son destined to the sacrifice in order to free him, while Rohitas +buys him to free himself. But the first hundred cows given by +Tricankus to Vicvamitras do not suffice for him, and the fruits of his +hunting in the forest are not enough to maintain the family, a +circumstance which weighs upon him almost as much as if the family +were his own; upon which, in order to save Vicvamitras, in order to +save Vicvamitras's son, and, we can perhaps add, to save himself, he +resolves to sacrifice, to kill the beautiful and dearly-prized wife of +Vasishtas (the very luminous). I have said the wife of Vasishtas, but +the _Harivancas_ says, speaking strictly, it was the cow of Vasishtas +who was killed. But we know from the _Ramayanam_[226] that this cow of +Vasishtas, this kamadhuk or kamadhenus, which yields at pleasure all +that is wished for, this cow of abundance, is kept by Vasishtas, under +the name of Cabala, as his own wife. Vicvamitras is covetous of her; +he demands her from Vasishtas, and offers a hundred cows for her, the +exact price which, in the _Harivancas_, he receives from Tricankus for +his own son. Vasishtas answers that he will not give her for a +hundred, nor for a thousand, nor even for a hundred thousand cows, for +Cabala is his gem, his riches, his all, his life.[227] Vicvamitras +carries her off; she returns to the feet of Vasishtas, and bellows; +her bellowing calls forth armies, who come out of her own body; the +hundred sons of Vicvamitras are burned to ashes by them. These armies +which come out of the body of Vasishtas's cow remind us again of the +Vedic cow, from which come forth winged darts, or birds, by which the +enemies are filled with terror. Vasishtas is a form of Indras; his cow +is here the rain-cloud. Vicvamitras, who wishes to ravish the cow from +Vasishtas, often assumes monstrous forms in the Hindoo legends, and is +almost always malignant, perverse, and revengeful. His hundred sons +burned to cinders by Vasishtas remind us, from one point of view, of +the hundred cities of Cambaras destroyed by Indras, and the hundred +perverse Dhritarashtrides of the _Mahabharatam_; whence his name, +Vicvamitras, which may also mean the enemy of all (_vicva-amitras_), +would agree well with his almost demoniacal character. + +This story of the cow of Vasishtas, whose relationship with the legend +of Cunahcepas cannot be doubted, brings us back to the animal forms of +heroes and heroines from which we started. In the story of Vasishtas, +the cow-cloud, the cow cabala, or the spotted-cow, plays in the epic +poem the part of the cow Aditis, the cow pricnis (spotted, variegated), +with which we are already familiar in the Vedic hymns. This cow is +benignant towards the god, or the hero, or the wise Vasishtas, as the +pricnis is to the god Indras. But we have seen in the _Rigvedas_ itself +the cloud as the enemy of the god, and represented as a female form of +the monster, as his sister. This sister generally tries to seduce the +god, promising to deliver into his hands the monster her brother, and +she sometimes succeeds, as the witch Hidimba of the _Mahabharatam_, who +gives up her brother, the monster Hidimbas, into the hands of the hero +Bhimas, who thereupon espouses her. On the other hand, Curpanakha, the +sister of the monster Ravanas, does not succeed in her intent; making +herself beautiful, she endeavours to win the affection of the hero +Ramas; but being ridiculed by him and by Lakshmanas, she becomes +deformed, and sends forth cries like a cloud in the rainy season,[228] +exciting her brothers to annihilate Ramas. + +The same cloud-monster is found again in the _Ramayanam_, under the +name of Dundubhis, in the form of a terrible buffalo with sharpened +horns.[229] The buffalo, as a wild animal, is often chosen to +represent the principle of evil, in the same way as the bull, +increaser of the bovine herds, is selected as the image of good. This +bellowing buffalo, whence his name of Dundubhis (drum), strikes and +knocks with his two horns at the door of the cavern[230] of the son of +Indras (Balin), the king of the monkeys. But Balin takes Dundubhis by +the horns, throws him on the ground, and destroys him. + +Dundus is also a name given to the father of Krishnas, or the black one, +who in the _Rigvedas_ is still a demon, and only later becomes the god +of cows and cowherds, a govindas, or pastor _par excellence_.[231] +Indras, his enemy in the Vedas, having fallen from heaven, he became one +of the most popular gods, and even sometimes the most popular form of +the deity. In the _Mahabharatam_, for instance, he is almost the _deus +ex machina_ of the battles between the Pandavas and the Dhartarashtras, +and presents many analogies to the Zeus of the Iliad; whereas Indras +plays only a part in the episodes, the rain-giver and thunderer being +often forgotten for the black one who prepares and hurls the light. But +the fall of Indras begins in the Vedas themselves. In the _Yagurvedas_, +Vicvarupas, the son of Tvashtar, whom Indras kills, appears as no less +than the purohitas or high-priest of the gods, and son of a daughter of +the Asuras; he has three heads, of which one drinks the ambrosia, +another the spirituous drink, while the third eats food. Indras cuts off +Vicvarupas's three heads, in revenge of the one which drinks his +ambrosia; he is therefore charged with having killed a Brahman, and +decried as a brahmanicide.[232] In the _Aitareya-brahmanam_,[233] the +criminality of Indras in this regard is confirmed, to which the +_Kaushitaki-Upanishad_ also refers. In the seventh book of the +_Ramayanam_, even the multiform monster Ravanas is represented as a +great penitent, whom Brahman fills with supreme grace; in the sixth +book, the son of the wind, Hanumant, cuts off the three heads of the +Ravanide monster Triciras (having three heads), as one day Indras cut +off the three heads of the monster Vritras, son of Tvashtar;[234] and he +cuts all the three heads off together (_samas_), as the hero of the +European popular tales must cut off, at a blow, the three heads of the +serpent, the wizard, otherwise he is powerless, and able to do nothing. +The monster, like the hero, seems to have a special affinity for the +number three: hence the three heads of Triciras, as also the three +brothers of Lanka--Ravanas, the eldest brother, who reigns; +Kumbhakarnas, the middle brother, who sleeps; Vibhishanas, the third +brother, whom the two others do not care about, but who alone is just +and good, and who alone obtains the gift of immortality.[235] We have +evidently here again the three Vedic brothers; the two eldest in +demoniacal form, the youngest a friend of the divine hero, and who, by +the victory of Ramas over the monster Ravanas, obtains the kingdom of +Lanka. As to the brothers Ramas and Lakshmanas, and the brothers Balin +and Sugrivas, their natural place is in the story of the two twins, +which will be referred to in the next chapter, although Hanumant, the +son of the wind, figures second to them in the character of strong +brother. + +The three interesting heroic brothers come out more prominently in the +_Mahabharatam_, where of the five Pandavas brothers, three stay on one +side, and are Yudhishthiras, son of the god Yamas, the wise brother; +Bhimas (the terrible), or Vrikodaras (wolf's belly), son of Vayus (the +wind), the strong brother (another form of Hanumant, in company with +whom he is also found in the _Mahabharatam_, on Mount Gandhamadanas); +and Argunas (the splendid), the son of Indras, the genial, dexterous, +fortunate, victorious brother, he who wins the bride. The first +brother gives the best advice; the second shows proof of greatest +strength; the third brother wins, conquers the bride. They are +precisely the three Vedic brothers Ribhavas, Ekatas, Dvitas, and +Tritas, in the same relationships to one another and with the same +natures; only the legend is amplified.[236] As to their other +brothers, twins, born of another mother, Nakulas and Sahadevas, they +are the sons of the two Acvinau, and feebly repeat in the +_Mahabharatam_ the exploits of the two celestial twins. Bhimas or +Vrikodaras, the second brother, is considered the strongest, +(balavatam creshthah), because immediately after birth, _i.e._, +scarcely has he come forth out of his mother (like the Vedic Marutas), +than he breaks the rock upon which he falls, because he breaks his +fetters as soon as he is bound with them (like Hanumant when he +becomes the prisoner of Ravanas), because he carries his brothers +during the night (as Hanumant carries Ramas), as he flees from the +burning house prepared by the impious Duryodhanas (_i.e._, from the +burning sky of evening), and because in the kingdom of serpents, where +Duryodhanas threw him down (that is, the night), he drinks the water +of strength. A serpent, wishing to benefit Bhimas, says to Vasukis, +king of the serpents--"Let there be given to him as much strength as +he can drink from that cistern in which is placed the strength of a +thousand serpents."[237] Bhimas, at one draught, drinks the whole +cisternful; and with similar expedition, he drains consecutively eight +cisterns.[238] The first-born of the Pandavas is dear to his father +Yamas, the god of justice, Dharmaragas,--and is himself indeed called +Dharmaragas; and when he prepares himself to ascend into heaven, the +god Yamas follows him in the form of a dog: by his skill in solving +enigmas, he saves his brother Bhimas from the king of the serpents. +The third brother, Argunas, son of Indras, is the Benjamin of the +Vedic supreme God. Indras welcomes him with festivals in heaven, +whither Argunas had gone to find him. Argunas is an infallible archer, +like Indras; like Indras, he several times regains the cows from the +robbers or from the enemies; and, like Indras, he wins and conquers +his bride; he is born by the assistance of all the celestials; he is +invincible (_agayas_); he is the best son (_varah putras_);[239] he +alone of the three brothers has compassion on his master Dronas and +delivers him from an aquatic monster.[240] + +But there is yet another particular which shows the resemblance between +the three brothers Pandavas and the three brothers of the Vedas; it is +their dwelling, hidden in the palace of the king Virata, in the fourth +book of the _Mahabharatam_. They are exiled from the kingdom, like +Ramas; they flee from the persecution of their enemies, now into the +woods, now, as the Ribhavas, disguised as workmen in the palace of +Viratas, to whom their presence brings every kind of happiness. + +We meet with these three brothers again, episodically, in the three +disciples of Dhaumyas, in the first book of the _Mahabharatam_.[241] The +first disciple, Upamanyus, takes his master's cows out to pasture, and, +out of sensitive regard for his master's interest, refuses to drink not +only their milk, but even the foam from their mouths, and fasts till, +like to perish of hunger, he bites a leaf of arkapatra (properly, leaf +of the sun, the _aristolochia indica_), when he instantly becomes +blind. He wanders about and falls into a well; he there sings a hymn to +the Acvinau, and they come immediately to deliver him. The second +brother, Uddalakas, places his body, as a dike, to arrest the course of +the waters. The third brother is Vedas, he who sees, he who knows, whose +disciple Utankas is himself in the form of a hero. Utankas, like the +Vedic Tritas, and the Pandavas Argunas, is protected by Indras. He is +sent by the wife of his master to abstract the earrings of the wife of +King Paushyas. He sets out; on his way he meets a gigantic bull, and a +horseman, who bids him, if he would succeed, eat the excrement of the +bull; he does so, rinsing his mouth afterwards. He then presents himself +to King Paushyas and informs him of his message; the king consigns the +earrings to him, but cautions him to beware of Takshakas, the king of +the serpents. Utankas says that he is not afraid of him, and sets out +with the earrings; but as he puts down the earrings upon the shore, in +order to bathe, Takshakas presents himself in the shape of a naked +mendicant, whips them up, and flees away with them. Utankas follows him, +but Takshakas resumes his serpent form, penetrates the ground, and +descends under it; Utankas attempts to follow the serpent, but does not +succeed in cleaving the entrance, which corresponds to the Vedic rock +under which the monster keeps his prey. Indras sees him tiring himself +in vain, and sends his weapon, in order that it may be for a help to +Utankas; that weapon, or club, penetrating, opened the cavern.[242] This +club, this weapon of Indras is evidently the thunderbolt.[243] Utankas +descends into the kingdom of the serpents, full of infinite wonders. +Indras reappears at his side in the shape of a horse,[244] and obliges +the king, Takshakas, to give back the earrings; having taken which, +Utankas mounts the horse, that he may be carried more swiftly to the +wife of his master, from whom he learns that the horseman seen by him on +the way was none other than Indras himself; his horse, Agnis, the god of +fire; the bull, the steed of Indras, or the elephant Airavatas; the +excrement of the bull, the ambrosia, which made him immortal in the +kingdom of the serpents. In another episode of the same (the first) book +of the _Mahabharatam_,[245] we again find Indras busied in the search of +the earrings, that is to say, of the excessively fleshy part hanging +from the ears of Karnas, the child of the sun, who, as soon as born, had +been abandoned upon the waters. We have seen above how the two Acvinau +are also represented in the _Ramayanam_ as the two ears of Vishnus Ramas +(as the sun and moon are said to be his eyes); hence it seems to me that +these mythical earrings, coveted by Indras, and protected by him, are +nothing else than the two Acvinau, the two luminous twilights (in +connection with the sun and the moon), in which Indras, and, still more +than he, the aurora, his wife, take such delight.[246] + +In the commentary of _Buddhagoshas_ on the Buddhist Dhammapadam, we +have the three brothers again; the two eldest are represented as fleeing +from the persecution of their cruel step-mother; the third brother, +Suriyas (Suryas, the sun), goes to overtake them. The eldest counsels or +commands, the second lends his aid, and the youngest fights. The second +and third brothers fall into a fountain, under the power of a monster; +the first-born saves them by his knowledge, as, in the _Mahabharatam_, +Yudhishthiras, by his skill in solving riddles, delivers the second +brother from the fetters of the forest of the monster serpent. + +This mode of delivering the hero, by propounding a question or a riddle, +is very common in the Hindoo legends. Even in the _Pancatantram_,[247] a +Brahman who falls under the power of a forest monster who leaps on his +shoulders, frees himself by asking why his feet are so soft. The monster +confesses that it is because, on account of a vow, he cannot touch the +earth with his feet. The Brahman then betakes himself to a sacred pond; +the monster wishes to take a bath, and the Brahman throws him in; the +monster orders him to stay there till he has bathed and said his +orisons. The Brahman profits by this opportunity to make his escape, +knowing that the monster will not be able to overtake him, as he cannot +put his feet to the ground. It is the usual vulnerability, weakness, or +imperfection of the hero, or the monster, in the feet, and, if an animal +is spoken of, in the tail.[248] + +The _Mahabharatam_ has shown us the three Vedic brothers, of whom the +youngest has fallen into the well; it also presents to us, in the +witch (_asuri_) Carmishtha, daughter of Vrishaparvan, king of the +demons, and in the nymph Devayani, daughter of Cukras, who credits +herself with the virtue of Indras as the rain-giver,[249] the two +rival sisters of the Vedas, the good and the evil. In the +_Ramayanam_,[250] the witch Curpanakha, who seduces Ramas, in order to +take the place of Sita at his side, is compared to Carmishtha, who +seduced Nahushas. In the _Mahabharatam_, Carmishtha assumes the guise +of Devayani, whom she throws into a well. Yayatis, son of King +Nahushas, goes to the chase; feeling thirsty, he stops near the well; +from the bottom of the well a young girl looks up, like a flame of +fire.[251] The prince takes her by the right hand and draws her up; +and because in the marriage ceremony, the bride is taken by the right +hand,[252] the prince Yayatis is said to marry Devayani. But even +after she is a wife, Carmishtha continues to seduce her husband, to +whom she unites herself. Two sons are born of Devayani, Yadus and +Turvasas, similar to Indras and Vishnus (a new form of the twins, of +the Acvinau); three are born of Carmishtha, Duhyus, Anus, and Purus; +and here also the third brother is the most glorious and valiant. And +in this way the episode is connected with the essential legend of the +_Mahabharatam_, and one and the same general myth is multiplied into +an infinity of particular legends. As the genealogy of the gods and +heroes is infinite, so is there an infinite number of forms assumed by +the same myth and of the names assumed by the same hero. Each day +gave birth in the heavens to a new hero and a new monster, who +exterminate each other, and afterwards revive in an aspect more or +less glorious, according as their names were more or less fortunate. + +It is for the same reason that the sons always recognise their fathers +without having once seen them or even heard them spoken of; they +recognise themselves in their fathers. Thus Cakuntala and Urvaci +enable their mother to find again the husband that she has lost, and +their father to recover his lost wife. Thus in the episode of Devayani +and Carmishtha, when the former wishes to know who is the father of +the three sons of Carmishtha, so similar to the sons of immortals, she +turns to them, and they tell her at once. + +For this fault, Yayatis, from being young, is fated to become old. He +then beseeches the two eldest of the three sons that he had by +Carmishtha to take on themselves the old age of their father; they +refuse, but the third son, Purus, out of reverence for his father, +consents to become old in his stead, to give up his youth to his +father. After a thousand years, the king Yayatis, satiated with life, +restores to his son Purus his youth, and although he is the youngest, +along with his youth, the kingdom, because he found him the only one +of the three who respected the paternal will; and he expels the two +eldest brothers.[253] + +Sometimes, however, the blind old father is entirely abandoned by his +sons. Thus the old Dirghatamas (of the vast darkness), blind from birth, +is deprived of food, and thrown into the water by his wife and +sons,[254] but a heroic king saves him, in order, by his wife, to beget +sons for him. We have in Dirghatamas and Yayatis, King Lear in embryo. + +In the same legend of Dirghatamas, we find an exchange of wives. Queen +Sudeshna, instead of going herself, sends her servant-maid, her +foster-sister, to be embraced by Dirghatamas.[255] In the cunning +Sudeshna we have an ancient variation of Queen Berta. + +Other blind men occur frequently in the Hindoo legends. I shall here +cite only Andhakas (the blind one) and Vrishnis (the sheep, as the lame +one),[256] who appear in the _Harivancas_[257] as the two sons of Madri. +But we know from the _Mahabharatam_, that the two sons of Madri are a +human incarnation of the celestial twins, the Acvinau; and here we come +again upon the blind-lame one of the Vedas, the solar hero in his twin +forms, the two Acvinau protected by Indras, and companions of the dawn. + +The _Pancatantram_[258] represents the blind and the crooked, or +hunchbacked,[259] in union with the three-breasted princess (_i.e._, the +triple sister, the aurora in the evening, the aurora in the night, the +aurora in the morning; the breast of the night nourishing the defective, +the monstrous, which the morning sweeps away). The crooked guides the +blind with a stick; they both marry the three-breasted princess. The +blind recovers sight by the steam of the poison of a black serpent, +cooked in milk (the darkness of night, or of winter, mixed with the +clearness of day, or of the snow); he then, being a strongly-built man, +takes the hunchback by the legs, and beats his hunch against the third +and superfluous breast of the princess. The anterior prominence of the +latter, and the posterior one of the former, enter into their respective +bodies;[260] thus the blind, the crooked, and the three-breasted +princess help and cure each other; the two Acvinau and the aurora (or +the spring) reappear together in beauty. The Acvinau and the aurora also +come forth together from the monstrous shades of night; the Acvinau +contend for the aurora; as we shall see soon, and in the next chapter, +the delivered bride disputed for by the brothers. + +The sun and the aurora flee from each other; this spectacle has been +represented in different ways by the popular imagination; and one of the +most familiar is certainly that of a beautiful young girl who, running +more quickly than the prince, escapes from him. This incident, which is +already described in the _Rigvedas_, occurs again in the +_Mahabharatam_,[261] in the legend of the loves of the virgin Tapati, +daughter of the sun (the luminous and burning aurora, and also the +summer season, ardent as Dahana), with the king Samvaranas, son of the +bear (_rikshaputras_, a kind of Indras). The king Samvaranas arrives on +horseback with his retinue at the mountain, in order to hunt; he ties +his horse up and begins the chase, when he sees on the mountain the +beautiful girl, the daughter of the sun, who, covered with ornaments, +shines like the sun; he declares his love and wishes to make her his +own; she answers not a word, but flees and disappears like the lightning +in the clouds;[262] the king cannot overtake her, because his horse, +while he was hunting, has died of hunger and thirst; he searches in vain +through the forest, but not seeing her, he throws himself almost +breathless to the ground. As he lies there the beautiful girl appears +again, approaches and wakens him; he again speaks to her of love, and +she answers that he must ask her father the sun, and then, still quite +innocent, she disappears swiftly on high (_urdhvam_). The king again +faints; his minister sprinkles him with the water of health, and makes +him revive, but he refuses to leave the mountain, and having dismissed +his hunting company, he awaits the arrival of the great purohitas +Vasishthas, by whose mediation he demands from the sun his daughter +Tapati to wife; the sun consents, and Vasishthas reconducts to +Samvaranas, for the third time, the beautiful girl as his legitimate +wife. The husband and wife live together happily on the mountain of +their loves; but as long as King Samvaranas remains with Tapati upon +this mountain, no rain falls upon the earth; wherefore the king, out of +love for his subjects, returns to his palace, upon which Indras pours +down the rain, and begins again to fructify the earth.[263] + +We said a little ago that Vasishthas himself caused it to rain +(_abhyavarshata_); and the mention of Vasishthas reminds us of the +particularly rain-giving, cloudy, and lunar function of his cow +Kadmadhenus, whose wonderful productions are again described in the +_Mahabharatam_.[264] Besides milk and ambrosia, she yields herbs and +gems, which we have already referred to, as analogous products in +mythology. The cow of Vasishthas is, besides her tail, celebrated for +her breasts, her horns, and even her ears ending in a point; whence +her name of _cankukarna_ (the masculine form of which is generally +applied to the ass). And in the _Mahabharatam_, also, the wise +Vicvamitras is covetous of this wonderful cow; the cow bellows and +drops fire from her tail, and radiates from every part of her body +armies which disperse those of the son of Gadhis. Vicvamitras then +avenges himself in other ways upon the sons of Vasishthas; having, +_e.g._, become a cannibal, he eats them. + +Vasishthas cannot endure the pain this causes him: he tries to throw +himself down from the summit of Mount Merus, but he falls without +hurting himself; he throws himself into the fire, but does not burn +himself; and, finally, he leaps into the sea, but is not drowned. +These three miracles are accomplished every day by the solar hero, who +throws himself down from the mountain into the gloomy ocean of night, +after having passed through the burning sky of evening. + +Vasishthas ends by freeing, with the help of charmed water, the +monster Vicvamitras from his curse; and the latter is no sooner +delivered from the demon who possessed him, than he begins again to +illumine the forest with his splendour, as the sun illumines a +twilight cloud. The friendships, enmities, and rivalries of Vasishthas +and Vicvamitras seem to be another version of those of the two +Acvinau, whom we shall particularly describe in the next chapter. + +Meanwhile, it is high time, as the reader will think, to conclude this +part of our study, which treats of the mythical cow of India. We might +easily, indeed, have made it much larger, had our design been to chain +together, link by link, all the traditions and legends in which the cow +plays a primary or subordinate part. But it is better to stop short, +lest, by expatiating further, we should lose sight of the essential aim +of our work, and be tempted into digressions from the legends relating +to beasts to those relating to men; besides, we think that we have +sufficiently proved the thesis of this chapter, and shown how the +principal mythical subjects of the Vedic hymns are not only preserved, +but developed, in the posterior Hindoo traditions. It is not entirely +our fault if, from cows, we pass so often to princesses, and from bulls +to princes; the myth itself involves and indicates these +transformations. Hence we find the bull Indras, the winner of the cows, +become a winner and a seducer of women; we see the bull Wind, who aids +Indras in the conquest of the cows, become the violator of a hundred +damsels;[265] we read of the bull and god Rudras, as husband of Uma, +given up to sensual indulgence for a hundred years without a pause; that +the son of the bull, or of the wind, Hanumant, does prodigies of valour +and strength for the sake of a beautiful woman, and receives, as a +reward for his zeal, from the king Bharatas, a hundred thousand cows, +sixteen wives, and a hundred servant-maids.[266] What could Hanumant +have done with so many wives and maids, if he were simply a bull? or +what could he have done with so many cows, if he had been an ape? It is +these inconsistencies which have caused mythology to be condemned by the +crowd of old but prolific pedants, as a vain science; whereas, on the +contrary, it is precisely these inconsistencies which raise it, in our +esteem, to the rank of a valid science. He who handed down to us the +feats of Hanumant, took care also to tell us how he had the faculty of +changing his form at will; and this faculty, attributed to this +impersonation of a celestial phenomenon, is the fruit of one of the most +_naive_ but just observations of virgin and grandiose nature. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[132] I must, however, observe that competent authorities, such as +Professor Weber, consider the phallical worship of Civas to have +originated in the beliefs of the indigenous tribes of Dravidian race. + +[133] _Rigv._ i. 123, 8. + +[134] Vidique saepe, sed cumprimis anno 1785 in Malabaria ad flumen +templo celebri Ambalapushe proximum, extra oppidum Callureata in +silvula, sententia regis Travancoridis Rama Varmer, quinque viros arbori +appensos et morti traditos, quod, contra regni leges et religionis +praescripta, voluntarie unicam vaccam occiderint; _Systema Brahmanicum_, +illustr. Fr. Paullinus a S. Bartholomaeo, Romae, 179.--Cfr. +_Manava-Dharmacastram_, xi. 60, and _Yagnavalkya-Dharmacastram_, iii. +234. + +[135] ii. 1, 8. + +[136] Pancagavyam piban goghno masam asita samyatah goshtrecayo go +'nugami gopradanena cudhyati; _Dharm._ iii. 263. + +[137] _Dharm._ xi. 166. + +[138] Ibid. iii. 271. + +[139] Ka imam dacabhir mamendram krinati dhenubhih; _Rigv._ iv. 24, 10. + +[140] _Dharm._ iii. 27. + +[141] _Grihyasutrani_, i. 8, 9.--It was, moreover, on the occasion of +a marriage, the custom to give cows to the Brahmans; in the +_Ramayanam_, i. 74, the King Dacarathas, at the nuptials of his four +sons, gives 400,000 cows. + +[142] A nah pragam ganayatu pragapatih; _Rigv._ x. 85, 43. + +[143] Gocarmavasano harih; xiii. 1228. + +[144] Cfr. Boehtlingk u. Roth's, _Sanskrit Woerterbuch_ s. v. _gocarman_. + +[145] Acvalay. _Grihyasu._ iv. 3. + +[146] _Grihyasu._ i. 13.--The commentator _Narayanas_, quoted by +Professor Stenzler, in his version of _Acvalayanas_, explains how the +two beans and grain of barley express by their form the male organs of +generation. + +[147] _Grihyasu._ i. 14. + +[148] _Grihyasu._ ii. 10.--The St Antony, protector of animals, of the +Vedic faith was the god Rudras, the wind, to whom, when the cattle +were afflicted by a disease, it was necessary to sacrifice in the +midst of an enclosure of cows.--Cfr. the same, _Acvalay._ iv. 8. + +[149] Yac ca goshu dushvapnyam yac casme duhitar divah tritaya tad +vibhavary aptyaya para vahanehaso va utayah suutayo va utayah; _Rigv._ +viii. 47, 14. + +[150] Payah krishnasu rucad rohinishu; _Rigv._ i. 62, 9.--Cfr. _Rigv._ +i. 123, 9. + +[151] _Grihyasu._ iv. 3. + +[152] Acvalay; _Grihyasu._ + +[153] v. 4, 23. + +[154] Indro vai vritram hatva vicvakarmabhavat; iv. 3, 22. + +[155] iii. 2, 37. + +[156] Ushase carum yoshah sa raka so eva trishtup gave carum ya gauh +sa sinivali (the new moon) so eva gagati; iii. 2, 48. + +[157] Abhud usha rucatpacur ityushaso rupam; i. 2, 18.--Gobhirarunair +usha agimadhavat tasmad ushasyagatayam arunam ivaeva +pra-bhatyushasorupam; iv. 2, 9.--Abhud usha rucatpacur ityushaso +rupam; i. 2, 18. + +[158] _Ait.-brahm._ vi. 4, 24. + +[159] _Ait.-brahm._ iv. 3, 17. + +[160] iii. 8080. + +[161] Cfr. Weber's _Ueber die Krishnagamashtami_, Berlin, 1868; _L'Inde +Francaise_, par Eugene Burnouf, Paris, 1828; _The Hindoos_, London, +1834, vol. i. + +[162] iv. 3, 20. + +[163] i. 3. 22. + +[164] Mahinam payo 'sy oshadhinam rasah; _Taittir. Yagurv._ i. 1, +10.--Kshirodam sagaram sarve mathnimah sahita vayam nauaushadhih +samahritya prakshipya ca tatastatah; _Ramay._ i. 46.--Cfr. Kuhn's _Die +Herabkunft des Feuers und des Goettertranks_, Berlin, 1859. + +[165] The _Gandhamadanas_ is especially defended by the _Gandharvas_, +a word which seems to be composed of _gandha_, perfume, and _arvas_, +the one who goes on (and afterwards the horse), from the root _arv_, +expansion of _riv_; according to this, they would therefore be those +who go in the perfumes, as the nymphs beloved and guarded by them are +they who go in the waters (ap-sarasas). Cfr. the chapter on the Ass. + +[166] Cfr. _Ramay._ vi. 82, 83. + +[167] Boehtlingk's _Indische Sprueche_, 122, erster Theil; 2^te Aufl. S. +Petersburg, 1870.--Cfr. _Mahabharatam_, i. 1143-1145. + +[168] Abhi tyam devam savitaram unyoh kavikratum arcami satyasavasam +ratnadham abhi priyam matim; _Taittir. Yagurv._ i. 2, 6. + +[169] i. 46. + +[170] xiii. 7034. + +[171] Hariv., 12,367. + +[172] Aruhya tasya cikhare so 'pacyat paramaushadim drishtva +cotpatayamasa vicalyakaranim cubham.--Vicalyo nirugah +cighramudatishthanmahitalat; vi. 83. + +[173] Sa nighrishangulim ramo dhaute manahcilagirau cakara tilakam +patnya lalate ruciram tada balarkasamavarnena tena sa giridhatuna +lalate vinivishthe na sasamdheva nicabhavat; _Ramay._ ii. 105. + +[174] Sivyatu apah sucyachidyamanaya dadatu viram catadayam ukthyam; +_Rigv._ ii. 32, 4. + +[175] Tatah cubham sa tarunarkasamnibham gataklama vasrayugam sada +malam srago 'ngaragam ca vibhushanani ca prasannaceta gagrihe tu +maithili; _Ramay._ iii. 5. + +[176] _Ramay._ iv. 50-53. + +[177] Pitairnivasita vastraih kridanto gomaye hrade; _Ramay._ v. +27.--Cfr. vi. 23. + +[178] Sitamuvaca ha dipyamanam svaya lakshmya sandhyamautpatikimiva; +_Ramay._ v. 52. + +[179] Samartha gatanam gantumapiva tvam rasatalam--Acirammokshyase +site; _Ramay._ vi. 9, 10. + +[180] Saumyah somatmagah; _Ramay._ vi. 6. + +[181] Sitah kakudvaniva tikshnacringo raraga candrah paripurnacringah; +_Ramay._ v. 11.--Cfr. v. 20. + +[182] Babhau nashtaprabhah suryo ragani cabhyavartata; _Ramay._ ii. 92. + +[183] Nishadarago guhah sanilambudatulyavarnah; _Ramay._ ii. 48. + +[184] Sada vanagocarah; _Ramay._ ii. 98. + +[185] iii. 63. + +[186] _Ramay._ iv. 1. + +[187] Sahasrakshadhanushmadbhis toyadairiva marutah; _Ramay._ v. 40. + +[188] _Ramay._ v. 73.--In the _Ramayanam_ itself, Ramas, overpowered +with grief, is compared now to a bull (v. 34), now to an elephant +tormented by a lion (v. 37). + +[189] _Ramay._ vi. 105. + +[190] _Ramay._ vi. 102. + +[191] Caradam sthulaprishatam cringabhyam govrisho yatha; _Ramay._ +iii. 32. + +[192] _Ramay._ v. 28.--The monster Kabandhas salutes them both with +the name of _Vrishabhaskandhau_, or they who have bulls' shoulders; +_Ramay._ iii. 74. + +[193] _Ramay._ vii. 36-38. + +[194] _Ramay._ v. 93. + +[195] Crantanstu na tapet suryah kathancidvanaranapi abhrani gagnire +digbhyas chadayitva raveh prabham pravavarsha ca parganyo marutacca +civo vavau; _Ramay._ v. 95. + +[196] _Ramay._ iii. 77. + +[197] _Ramay._ iii. 23. + +[198] _Ramay._ vi. 37. + +[199] Pacya lakshmana maricam mahacanisamasvanam sapadanugamayantam +subahum ca nicacaram etavadya maya pacya nilancanacayopamau asmin +kshane samadhutavanilenambudaviva; _Ramay._ i. 33. + +[200] Cakreneva vinirmukto vagrastaruvaropari; _Ramay._ iii. 35. + +[201] Mayamacritya vipulam vatadurdinasamkulam; _Ramay._ iii. 73. + +[202] Te nikrittabhugaskandhas kavandhakriti ekadarcanah nadanto +bhairavannadannapatanti sma danavas; _Mbh._ iii. 806. + +[203] Atha tatra mahaghoram vikritam tam mahocchrayam +vivriddhamacirogrivam kabandhamudare mukham romabhirnicitam +tikshnairmahagirimivocchritam nilameghanibham ghoram +meghastanitanisvanam mahata catipingena vipulenayatenaca ekenorasi +dirghena nayanenatidarcina; _Ramay._ iii. 74.--The one yellowish eye +of Kabandhas reminds us of Vaicravanas with only one yellowish eye +(_ekapinghekshanas_), his other eye having been burnt out by the +goddess Parvati; _Ramay._ vii. 13. + +[204] i. 49; ii. 7, _et passim_. + +[205] Cfr. the chapter on the Wolf. + +[206] iii. 40, _et seq._ + +[207] Tarunadityasamkacam taptakancanabhushitam raktambaradharam +balam; _Ramay._ vi. 103.--Of the dress of Sita we read in another +place that it shines "like the light of the sun upon the summit of a +mountain" (Suryaprabheva cailagre tasyah kausheyamuttamam; iv. 58). + +[208] _Ramay._ vi. 99. + +[209] Cfr. Weber's _Ueber das Ramayana_, Berlin, 1870, p. 9. + +[210] Ibid. p. 1. + +[211] Viryaculka ca me kanya divyarupa gunanvita bhutaladutthita +purvam namna sitetyayoniga; _Ramay._ i. 68. + +[212] _Ramay._ vii. 104, 105. + +[213] _Katha sarit sagaras_, iii. 17. + +[214] i. 3888-3965. + +[215] "Apriyanca na kartavyam krite cainam tyagamyaham," says +Garatkarus; _Mbh._ i. 1871. + +[216] _Mbh._ i. 1870-1911. + +[217] _Indische Studien_, vol. i. pp. 457-464, vol. ii. pp. 111-128. + +[218] _History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature._ + +[219] Varunas, the god of night, has, like the night, a double aspect; +now he is the gloomy ocean, now the luminous milky ocean without a moon. +He is represented under the latter aspect in the 7th book of the +_Ramayanam_ (canto 27), in which the solar hero, having entered the +celestial city of Varunas, finds the cow which always yields milk (payah +ksharantam satatam tatra gam ca dadarca sah), whence the white-rayed +moon emerges, whence also the ambrosia and the nectar (yataccandrah +prabhavati citaracmih--yasmadamritamutpannam sudha capi). + +[220] Cfr. the chapter on the Horse. + +[221] In the _Ramayanam_, i. 63, the deliverer is Indras, who, even in +the _Aitareya_, does much for Cunahcepas. + +[222] Tegasa gharmadah sada--Prasadacatasambadham nirmitam +vicvakarmana cobhitam padminibhicca kancanaicca mahadrumaih nilayah +pacahastasya varunasya mahatmanah; _Ramay._ iv. 43. + +[223] i. 64. + +[224] The Puranic-legend gives an instance of such another father in +Hiranyakacipus, who, persecuting his own son Prahladas, tries to +destroy him in several ways, and finally throws him into the sea; +Prahladas praises Vishnus, and is delivered.--Cfr. _The Vishnu +Purana_, translated by H. Wilson, i. 17-20. London: Truebner, 1864. + +[225] Chap. xii. 13. + +[226] i. 54-56. + +[227] Etadeva hi me ratnametadeva hi me dhanam etadva hi sarvasvam +etadeva hi givitam; _Ramay._ 1. c. + +[228] Nanada vividhan nadan yatha pravrishi toyadah; _Ramay._ iii. 24. + +[229] Dharayan mahisham rupam tikshnacringo bhayavahah; _Ramay._ iv. +9.--Further on, instead (iv. 46), the buffalo is said to be the +brother of Dundubhis, and to have the strength of a thousand serpents +(balam nagasahasrasya dharayan) or elephants, for the word _nagas_ is +equivocal. + +[230] Cringabhyamalikhan darpat taddvaram; _Ramay_, iv. 9.--Cfr. the +two chapters which treat of the Horse and the Monkey. + +[231] I do not insist upon this brahmanic god, because his legend is +now popular.--Cfr., for the rest, for the relationship of Krishnas +with the cows, the cowherds, and the cow-maiden, the whole 5th book of +the _Vishnu Purana_, translated by H. Wilson, and the _Gitagovindas_ +of Gayadevas, edidit Lassen, Bonn, 1836. + +[232] Vicvarupo vai tvashtrah purohito devanam asit svasriyo 'suranam +tasya trini cirshany asant--Indras tasya vagram adaya cirshany achinad +yat somapanam--Brahma-hatyam upa 'grihnat--Tam bhutany abhy akrocan +brahmahann iti; _Taittiriya Samhita_, ed. Weber. ii. 5, 1-6. + +[233] vii. 5, 28. + +[234] Sa tasya khangena mahaciransi kapih samas tam sukundalam +kruddhah praciccheda tada hanumans tvashtratmagasyeva ciransi cakrah; +_Ramay._ vii. 50. + +[235] _Ramay._ vii. 10. + +[236] _Mbh._ i. 4990.--Cfr. also the three phallical and solar brothers +of the story of Cunahcepas (him with the luminous tail or phallus). + +[237] i. 4775. + +[238] Balam nagasahasrasya yasmin kunde pratishthitam yavatpivati balo +'yam tavad asmai pradiyatam--ekocchvasattatah kundam danah; _Mbh._ i. +5030, 5032.--A similar legend is found again in the third book of the +_Mahabharatam_, under the form of an impenetrable forest, in which the +king of the serpents envelops Bhimas. + +[239] _Mbh._ i. 4777. + +[240] i. 5300-5304. + +[241] i. 680-828. + +[242] Tam klicyamanamindro 'pacyatsa vagram preshayamasa--gacchasya +brahmanasya sahayyam kurusveti--atha vagram dandakashthamanupravicya +tadvilamadarayat; _Mbh._ i. 794-795. + +[243] In a legend of the Tibetan Buddhists, referred to by Professor +Schiefner in his interesting work, _Ueber Indra's Donnerkeil_ (St +Petersburg), 1848, we find two valiant heroes who, upon Mount +Gridhrakuta (the vulture's peak), strive, in presence of their master, +to lift the vagram (that is, the arm in the form of a wedge, the +lever-rod, the thunderbolt of Indras), but in vain; Vagrapanis alone +succeeds in lifting the vagram with his right hand. Ramas makes a +similar trial of strength in the _Ramayanam_, when he lifts and breaks +in pieces a bow, which no one had before been able even to move. + +[244] Cfr. the following chapter. + +[245] i. 2772-2783. + +[246] To the myth of the ravished earrings is almost always joined, even +in the popular tales, the story of the horse, which is always especially +referred to the Acvinau, as that of the bull to Indras. In the Puranic +legends, Krishnas receives from the earth the earrings of Aditis (whom +we already know to be a cow), whilst he frees the princesses from the +infernal Narakas.--Cfr. the _Vishnu Purana_, v. 29. + +[247] v. 17. + +[248] Cfr. the chapters which treat of the Wolf, the Fox, and the +Serpent; and also the foregoing discussion on the Vedic riddles, where +the sun is called _anipadyamanas_. + +[249] Aham galam kimuncami praganam hitakamyaya; _Mbh._ i. 3317. + +[250] iii. 23, 24. + +[251] Dadarca raga tam tatra kanyamagnicikhamiva; _Mbh._ i. 3294. + +[252] _Mbh._ i. 3379-3394 + +[253] _Mbh._ i. 3435-3545. + +[254] _Mbh._ i. 4193-4211. + +[255] _Mbh._ i. 4211-4216. + +[256] We shall find the lame goat in the chapter which treats of the +Lamb and the Goat. + +[257] 1908. + +[258] v. 12. + +[259] The word _badhiras_ means here the crooked, the crippled one, +and not the deaf (from the root _badh_ or _vadh_, to wound, to cut); +the more so that here the name of the blind man's companion is +Mantharakas, a word which properly means the slow one. The curved line +and the slow line correspond; and the curved one, who cannot stand +upright, may be the hunchback just as well as the cripple, the +crooked, the lame.--Cfr. The chapter on the Tortoise. + +[260] For the incident of the hunchback who betrays the blind man, in +the same popular tale, cfr. next chapter. + +[261] i. 6527. + +[262] Saudaminiva cabhreshu tatraevantaradhiyata; _Mbh._ i. 6557. + +[263] Tasminnripaticardule pravishte nagaram punah pravavarsha +sahasrakshah casyani ganayanprabhuh; _Mbh._ 6629, 6630. + +[264] i. 6651-6772. + +[265] The hundred daughters of King Kucanabhas, and of the nymph +Ghritaci, who walks in curdled milk, recalling to us the mythical +cow.--Cfr. _Ramay._ i. 35. + +[266] Cfr. Virgil, _AEneid_, I. 65-75, where Juno gives the nymph +Deiopea to AEolus. + + +SECTION III. + +THE BULL AND THE COW IN IRANIAN AND TURANIAN TRADITION. + +SUMMARY. + + The bull the first created in Persian tradition.--The bull of + Mithra.--Mithra and Yamas.--The excrements of the celestial cow and + bull.--Exorcisms for chasing the evil one away from the beasts of + the stable.--The salutary herb, rue.--The heavenly cypress and the + mythical forest.--The mountain and the gem.--The mountain of the + heroes.--The defenceless soul of the bull recommends itself to the + mercy of the gods.--The moon, as a cow or bitch, guides the hero + over the funereal bridge.--The many-eyed god.--The golden-hoofed + bull.--The spinners of the sky.--Friendship between sun and + moon.--The Geusurva is the full moon.--The purifying + moon.--Ardhvi-Cura-Anahita, the Persian aurora, has all the + characteristics of the Vedic aurora, elevated, luminous, discomfiter + of the demons, deliverer of the hero Thraetaona from the water, + having golden shoes, swift, the first to arrive with her chariot, + guesser of riddles, revered at the break of day.--The aurora sung to + by her own name, the cow-aurora.--Mithra, the shepherd-god,--Mithra, + the hero who fights to recover his cows.--The bull + Veretraghna.--Thrita and Thraetaona.--The three brothers in the + Avesta.--The two brothers.--The three sisters.--The strength of the + solar hero consists in the wind.--The winds have golden shoes and an + especial foible for women, as the women have for them.--Indras + envious of the Marutas.--Kerecacpa envious of the wind.--The wind, + with its whistling and wailing, makes everything tremble; the hero + presses him tightly and forces him to be silent.--The bound + hero.--The bow-cow, and the birds coming out of the cow in the + Avesta.--The darts, horns of the cow.--The rich brother and the poor + one.--The poor one, who has a lean ox and a lean horse, makes his + fortune.--Ashis Vaguhi, another equivalent of the aurora who also + frees the hero Thraetaona.--Other names of the three Persian + brothers.--Importance of the Avesta on account of its mythical + contents.--The hero exposed on the mountain.--The hero-shepherd, the + wonderful child, Cyrus.--Feridun.--The three brothers, sons of + Feridun; the third brother is the best, and is murdered by the two + elder ones.--Sal, with white hair, the hero exposed and nourished by + a bird, solves riddles, and receives in reward the daughter of the + king.--The hero Rustem, with the mace of a bull's head, with the + strong horse that vanquishes the lion, the strong hero, the Persian + Orlando, kills and binds demons, monsters, and giants, who fight + with rocks.--From black comes white.--The prince Kawus recovers his + sight after the death of the monster.--The demon in the mountain, + who keeps back the waters, is the same as the demon in the + mill.--The hero Rustem unites himself with the daughter of the + demoniacal and hostile king.--Sohrab is born of this union, with a + demoniacal nature.--Gurdaferid, the Persian amazon princess, + assailed in her white castle by the hero-demon Sohrab.--Rustem + fights, wins, and kills his son Sohrab; he then retires from + warfare.--Explanation of this myth.--The end of Rustem in an + ambuscade.--Sijavush persecuted by his stepmother, whose love he had + disdained; the young prince submits to the trial by fire, and comes + out safely: the cruel stepmother was to have undergone the same + trial, but Sijavush intercedes for her; she continues to persecute + him; Sijavush dies in the country of his demoniacal father-in-law, + and is avenged by Rustem, who kills the cruel stepmother.--The + child-hero Kai Khosru consigned to the care of shepherds; during his + childhood he performs prodigies of valour, and passes a river with + dry feet.--The strength of the hair of the hero Firud.--The two + hero-brothers again; one brother avenges the other.--The old hero + becomes a penitent, and disappears in a tempest upon a + mountain.--The seven heroic undertakings of Isfendiar.--The legend + of Iskander.--The Tuti-Name.--The hero who wishes to kill himself + for the king's sake; the deity prevents the sacrifice.--The story of + the poor man and the rich one again.--The beautiful woman persecuted + by her brother-in-law the seducer; the oriental Crescentia or + Genevieve.--The sea, invited to the wedding, brings pearls and + gold.--The maiden who discovers the thief by means of a riddle.--The + girl who gives his eyesight back to the blind man against her + will.--The lovers flee upon the bull's back.--The lover forsakes his + mistress on the shore after having despoiled her.--The three + brothers deliver the beautiful maiden and dispute for her; the + maiden takes refuge in a convent.--The wise child who distinguishes + false from true, honest from dishonest.--The money of the dead + man.--The adulterer condemned to death who bites off the nose of his + companion in guilt and dissoluteness.--The wife despoiled of her + riches by her husband and thrown into the water.--Romeo and Juliet + in the East.--The three brothers: the seer; the strong carrier, or + Christophoros; the victorious one.--The disputed bride again.--The + little pipkin of abundance; Perrette in the East.--The small + porringer of abundance, which the two brothers contend for.--The + shoes which take one in an instant wherever one wishes to go.--The + little purse which is filled as fast as it is emptied.--The sword + which makes a city rise.--The animals which contend for the division + of the prey, and the third comer who profits between two + disputers.--The four mines of the four brothers.--Why old men have + white hair.--Calmuc and Mongol tradition.--The six companions are + the same as three.--The bride torn in pieces.--A man unites himself + with a cow, which brings forth a Minotaur of a good nature, who + fights against the demons in favour of the gods.--The gem in the + cow's litter.--The bull lost.--The three sisters; the third sister + marries the monster bird; she loses him, because she has burned the + aviary.--The painter and the woodman in Paradise; the painter is + burned.--The two brothers, the rich one and the poor one; the rich + brother ends badly.--The husband who despoils his wife and hides her + in a chest in the sand of the desert.--The gem of the prince falls + to the ground; his nose bleeds and he dies; explanation of this + myth.--The wonderful hammer, which, when used, brings one whatever + is wished for.--The rich and poor brothers; the poor one becomes + rich.--The lengthened nose and the corresponding Italian + proverb.--The wife kills her husband with the hammer, wishing to + knock a protuberance off his nose.--The old man who eats his last + cow; his wife continues, even after its death, to nourish and + protect him until the wild beasts in the cavern devour him.--The + woman disguised as a solar hero.--The lion and the bull friends, or + foster-brothers; their friendship is put an end to by the fox.--The + projects of Perrette again.--The horns of the dead buffalo.--The + grateful animals.--The laughing princess.--The wise + herd-children.--The wise puppets.--The prince born of a cake.--The + boy learns in the forest every art, even devilish ones.--The son of + the wolves who understands their language.--Heroes and demons cut + in pieces multiply themselves.--The hero has good luck, because he + has performed funeral services to the dead.--Four young shepherds, a + new form of the Ribhavas, make a beautiful maiden of wood, and then + dispute for her.--The wife throws her husband into the fountain out + of jealousy, having heard another voice, perhaps the echo of her + own.--The princess Light of the sun, who must be seen by no one, and + who is visited by the minister Moon.--Turanian tradition in + Siberia.--The three brothers dream upon the mountain; the third + brother is persecuted on account of his dream; he finds the blind + woman and lame man, and induces them to adopt him; he hunts, fights + against the devil, and vanquishes him; from the body of the demon + come forth animals, men, and treasures; he fishes up in the sea of + milk the casket which contains the eyes of the blind woman; receives + extraordinary gifts, and above all the faculty of transforming + himself; wins his predestined bride, and kills his own cruel + father.--The hero who solves enigmas.--Ancient and modern + riddles.--The cow devours the wolf, and the wolf devours the + cow.--The bow of horn.--The wolves fastened to the calf's tail.--The + soul of the black bull in the rainbow, the bridge of souls, wounded + by the young hero, who then espouses the daughter of the sky, after + attaining the third heaven, and accomplishing heroic undertakings to + merit her.--The sleeper in the cup, the gem in the fish.--The + Argonauts and Medea in Turan.--The Finnish Diana.--The Finnish + thundering God, Kave Ukko.--The little sun, the Finnish + dwarf-hero.--The second of the three brothers.--The strong + bear.--The monster giant darkness or cloud.--The Orpheus and the + lyre of the Finns; grief the inspirer of song.--Finnish and Aryan + myths.--The Sampo.--Esthonian tradition.--The three sisters; the + third is the most beautiful, and is persecuted by her stepmother, + and delivered by the prince.--The bird of light.--The maiden + transformed into a pond-rose, and delivered by her husband in the + shape of a shrimp.--The witch is burned in the form of a cat.--The + gold of the witch.--Explanation of several myths.--The third brother + is the swiftest.--The wise maiden.--The golden fairy.--The + puppet.--The magical rod makes the cock come out of the + mountain.--The fairy is good towards the good, and punishes the + wicked.--The cow lost.--The old hospitable dwarf.--The leaf which + carries the hero across the waters.--Heroic undertakings against the + serpent and the tortoise.--The third brother, expelled from home, + travels and solves riddles on the way.--The rod which makes a + bridge.--In heaven and in hell time passes quickly.--The hero + under-cook.--The golden birds and the voyages to hell.--The brothers + punished, and the bride won by the magical sword.--The son of + thunder.--The weapon carried off from the god of thunder.--The + weapon recovered.--The fisherman-god.--The marvellous musical + instrument; the magical flute.--The three dwarfs.--The hat that + makes its owner invisible, made of men's nails; the shoes which + carry one where-ever one wishes, and the stick which fights of + itself.--The proverb of the third who profits between two disputers + again.--The third brother is the son of a king, exposed when a + child; he awakens the princess who sleeps in the glass mountain; + _non est mortua puella, sed dormit_.--Passage from the dawn of the + day to the dawn of the year.--The child sold by his father without + the latter's knowledge.--The boy exchanged.--The boy sets out to + deliver the maiden from the demon.--The pea, the kidney-bean, the + cabbage, and the pumpkin of funerals accompany the solar hero in his + nocturnal voyage.--The symbol of abundance, of generation, of + stupidity.--The nuptial beans.--Meaning of the myth concerning + vegetables.--The region of silence.--The region of noise.--The wise + girl helps the hero.--The cow milked and the calf bound.--The + luminous ball comes out of the calf.--The antithesis of white and of + black.--Hungarian proverbs.--The luminous ball comes out of the + stone.--The luminous ball and the ring.--The fearless hero frees the + castle from spirits.--The Esthonian story of Blue Beard.--The + charivari in the nuptials of widowers.--The widow who burns + herself.--The hero exposed, and then brought up among cowherds, + feels himself predestined to reign, and learns the art by guiding + herds.--The German (or Western) witch endeavours to take the red + strawberries from the Esthonian hero.--The boy avenges this injury + by causing her to be devoured by wolves, who will not touch her + heart.--The gardener's daughter.--The broken ring; the two parts of + the ring unite again; the husband and wife find each other once + more.--The maiden born of the egg in the shape of a puppet.--The + casket which brings good luck disappears when the young couple are + married. + +Moving now from India westwards, we find on one side the Iranian, and +on the other the Turanian traditions. We cannot pass into Europe +without at least indicating the general character of each. + +In the Persian cosmogony, the bull (_gaus aevo dato_) is one of the +first of created existences, being as old as the elements. It is, +moreover, well known how much importance was ascribed to the bull +among the Persians in the mysteries of the solar god Mithra, who is +represented as a beautiful youth, holding the horns of a bull in his +left hand, and having the knife of sacrifice in his right. Mithra +sacrificing the bull is just the solar hero sacrificing himself in the +evening. Indeed, in the Persian tradition, Mithra, like the Hindoo +Yamas, holds the office of god of the dead, and as such, like Yamas, +is of a monstrous aspect, and is found in the _Yacna_ represented with +a thousand ears and ten thousand eyes. + +As in India, so in Persia, the urine of the cow is used in ceremonies of +purification, during which it is drunk.[267] We have already seen in the +story of Utankas how the excrement of the bull, upon which Utankas fed, +was ambrosia itself; and, indeed, all is beneficial which is given by +the cow of abundance (the moon, the cloud, and the aurora), and by the +divine bull (the moon and the sun). The mythical belief was natural, +however disgusting when we insist on literal interpretation. + +And even in the Persian tradition itself, a distinction already exists +between common bulls or oxen and sacred or privileged ones. This +distinction appears in the legend of Gemshid, whose bulls were all +devoured by the devil, as long as they were protected by no magical +rites; whilst, when he was given a red ox (or bull) cooked in old, +that is strong, vinegar, to which was added garlic and rue (famous for +its potency in exorcism), he disappeared and was never seen +again.[268] The rue is probably the fabulous plant which the Zend +tradition surmises to have sprung from the sea _Vouru-Kasha_, whence +Ahura Mazda draws the clouds, from which all healthful water is +derived, and which corresponds to the sea of milk of Hindoo tradition, +in which the ambrosia is agitated. + +Thus the funereal cypress of Kishmar (planted by Zarathustra, with a +branch from the tree of Paradise), under which more than two thousand +cows and sheep could pasture, and the innumerable birds of which +darkened the air, obscuring the light of the sun, reminds us of the +celestial forest of the Vedas, in which the shepherd-hero and the +hunter-hero wander and are lost. + +The idea of the funereal tree recalls to us that of the Persian +mountain Arezura or Demavend, where the demons met together to plot +evil, and where was the gate of hell.[269] + +The Zend word _acma_, which signifies stone and heaven, yields us, in +its double meaning, the key to the interpretation of the myth. This +stone, inasmuch as it is dark, is of evil omen; inasmuch as it shines, +it is a gem, or gives the gem (the moon or the sun); whence, according +to the _Minokhired_, the sky is the progeny of a precious stone.[270] + +Thus to the mountain of the demons (where the sun goes down), is +opposed in Persian tradition the glorious mountain, out of which are +born the heroes and the kings (or from which the sun rises and the +moon); because Haoma is born there (the Hindoo Somas), the ambrosial, +golden, and health-bringing god, who gives them the divine +nourishment, and because the sacred bird, which stays on that +mountain, feeds them with ambrosia, whence the _Yacna_[271] invites +Haoma to grow on the road of the birds. + +In a rather obscure passage of the _Gatha Ahunavaiti_, confirmed by the +_Bundehesh_, the soul of the bull (or of the cow, as the case may be), +despoiled of his body by the evil one, complains to the Supreme Creator +that he is without defence against the assaults of his enemies, and that +he has no invincible protector. Ahura Mazda seems to wish only to give +him spiritual help, but the bull continues to declare himself +unsatisfied, until Zarathustra, the defender, accords it, and he +receives the gift of efficacious favours which Ahura Mazda alone +possesses.[272] Zarathustra is himself also born upon a mountain;[273] +while his son Caoshyanc, the deliverer, comes out of the waters. + +A sacred cow, or at least a bitch which guards the cows (_pacuvaiti_), +seems, besides a good fairy, to be, in the _Vendiad_ itself,[274] the +conductor of the souls across the bridge Cinvat, created by Ahura Mazda, +to the kingdom of the blessed. The cow, as the guide of the souls[275] +lost in the kingdom of the dead, and placed upon the bridge, is probably +the moon; the bitch (also the moon) reminds us of the Hindoo Sarama, the +bitch which aids the heroes who have lost themselves in the nocturnal +forest, grotto, or darkness. In the same chapter, after accounts of the +bridge, we read the praise of the good Caoka, who has many eyes (like +the brahmanic Indras, disguised as a woman, having a thousand eyes, and, +after the adventure of Ahalya, a thousand wombs--the god hidden in the +night, who looks at the world through a thousand stars); after Caoka, of +the splendid Veretraghna (who corresponds to Vritrahan, properly the +discomfiter of the all-covering darkness); and after him, of the +luminous star Tistar, which seems a bull with golden hoofs,[276] which +again must refer to the moon; as the Gahs, who, according to Anquetil, +"sont occupees a filer des robes pour les justes dans le ciel," like the +cows and Madonnas in our popular tales, cannot be very different from +the fairy, or at least from the stars which form her crown. The _Khorda +Avesta_, in its hymns in praise of Mithra, celebrates the perfect +friendship which reigns between the sun and the moon, and sings of the +moon immediately after singing of the sun Mithra, and the splendid +Tistar immediately after the moon, whose light is said to come from the +constellation Tistrya. + +We can thus divine the meaning of Geusurva (the soul of the bull or +the cow), of which, besides the soul, the body also is invoked in the +_Yacna_.[277] The Geusurva appears in the _Yacna_ itself[278] as the +protectress of the fourteenth day of the month, or of the full-moon, +viewed as a full cow. And when it is said in the _Khorda Avesta_[279] +that one must not sacrifice to the Geusurva at the time when the +Daevas, or demons, are practising their evil-doings, it seems to me to +indicate clearly enough that the sacrifice was to take place while the +moon was increasing, and not while it was diminishing. Thus Asha +Vahista, who reminds us of the Hindoo Vasishthas and his marvellous +cow, has the power of conjuring away illness, north winds--in a word, +evil of every kind--only when Agro-mainyus appears without help.[280] + +We have seen in the legend of Utankas how, as the youth is on his way +to take the queen's earrings, he meets a bull, upon the excrement of +which he feeds, as upon ambrosia; that this ambrosial bull stays near +Indras, as Indras and Somas are invoked together; and we noticed that +from this mythical belief was derived the superstitious Hindoo custom +of purifying one's self by means of the excrement of a cow. The same +custom passed into Persia; and the _Khorda Avesta_[281] has preserved +the formula to be recited by the devotee, whilst he holds in his hands +the urine of an ox or cow, preparatory to washing his face with +it:--"Destroyed, destroyed be the demon Ahriman, whose actions and +works are cursed. His actions and works do not come to us. May the +thirty-three Amshaspands (the immortal saints, who correspond to the +thirty-three Vedic devas), and Ormazd, be victorious and pure!" It is +said this remedial formula was used for the first time by Yima, when, +from having touched Ahriman, in order to extricate from his body, by +fraud, Takh mo Urupa, whom the demon had devoured, he had an eruption +on his hand. Finally, it is interesting to learn that one of the Zend +names of the moon is _gaocithra_, which means he that contains the +seed of the bull, since, according to the _Bundehesh_, the seed of the +primitive bull passed into the moon, who, having purified it, used it +to procreate other cattle (_pouru caredho_). + +As to the aurora, there seems to be no doubt but that she was +represented in ancient Persia by Ardvi Cura Anahita, the elevated, the +strong, the innocent or pure, according to the interpretation of +Professor Spiegel; she also drives a chariot drawn by four white +horses, which she guides herself; she has a veil, a diadem, and +bracelets of gold, beautiful earrings (the Vedic Acvinau), a dress of +beavers' skin, and prominent breasts; she is beautiful, and she is a +good young girl who protects men and women. She is often invoked in +the _Khorda Avesta_, like the Vedic aurora, to exorcise the demons, +and to help the heroes who combat them; she herself has the strength +of a thousand men, and is a marvellous heroine, like the Vedic amazon +whom Indras fought with; her body is girt round with a girdle. The +probability of this comparison seems to pass into certainty after +reading a hymn of the _Khorda Avesta_,[282] even in the version of +Professor Spiegel, who perhaps would have introduced some little +variation if he had recognised the aurora in Ardvi Cura Anahita. In +this hymn, the victorious and mighty Thraetaona, in the form of a +bird, flies for three days and three nights, which reminds us of the +fugitive Indras of the _Rigvedas_, who wades across the rivers after +his victory; at the end of the third night he arrives near the aurora, +and beseeches Ardvi Cura Anahita (that is, as it seems to us, the +aurora herself, elevated, mighty, and innocent) to come and help him, +that he may pass the waters and touch the ground at her habitation. +Then Ardvi Cura Anahita appears in the shape of a beautiful, strong, +and splendid girl, having a golden diadem and wearing shoes of gold +(cfr. the _Yast_, xxi. 19) on her feet (this is perhaps another feeble +foreshadow of Cinderella's slippers); the beautiful girl takes him by +one arm (the bird has, it seems, become a hero), and gives him back +health and strength. But the certainty increases still more when, as +the Vedic aurora is the first of those who arrive, winning the race in +her chariot, the so-called Ardhvi Cura Anahita appears in the _Khorda +Avesta_ as "the first who guides the chariot;"[283] and we are +recommended to offer up sacrifices to her at break of day, before the +sun rises.[284] We have seen the Vedic aurora and the sun propose and +solve riddles; we have seen the Hindoo solar hero free himself from +the monster by proposing or solving insoluble enigmas; in the same +way, in the _Avesta_, the hero Yacto Fryanananm asks Ardvi Cura +Anahita to help him to solve ninety-nine enigmas, in order that he may +free himself from the monster Akhtya. + +Add to this that Ardvi Cura Anahita, like the Vedic aurora, is a giver +of cows and horses, and that these animals are offered to her by her +devotees. The aurora herself, in the invocation made to her in the +sixth prayer of the _Khorda Avesta_, is also called "elevated," and +furnished with swift and splendid horses.[285] The fact of finding the +Anahita drawn by four white horses, like the sun Mithra, enhances the +evidence of this identity. And if the aurora is not explicitly +represented in the _Avesta_ as a cow, we infer that it was so +conceived of, from the worship of Mithra, who was adored from the +first streak of daylight till midday. Mithra often receives the +epithet of "he who possesses vast pasture-lands;" the morning sun is +therefore a pastoral god; and if so, we are constrained to think of +the Persian aurora too as, if not a cow, at least a female cowherd. + +But Mithra is not a god of mere idyllic exploits, he is also a hero; +the _Vendidad_[286] salutes him as "the most victorious of the +victors." The booty of his victory [essentially due to his immediate +predecessors Veretraghna (Vritrahan) and Craosha][287] must have been +the cows of the aurora, without which his immense pasture-lands would +have been of no use to him. Indeed it is said that Mithra enables +owners of herds to recover their lost oxen.[288] + +But Mithra is not the only prominent hero of the _Avesta_. Besides him, +the above-cited Veretraghna, with all his secondary and tertiary +reflections, plays an important part in it. Now, this Veretraghna, who +offers numerous analogies to the Vedic Indras, killer of Vritras, is, +like Indras, now a hero, now a horse, now a bird, now a sheep, now a +wild boar, and now a bull.[289] As the bull Indras assists Tritas, +Traitanas, and Kavya Ucanas[290] in the _Rigvedas_, so the bull +Veretraghna in the _Avesta_, partaking of the nature of one Thrita[291] +who is rich, splendid, and strong, and who, like Indras, cures maladies +by the help of the guardian of the metals (the usual co-relation between +the hero and the magic pearl), assists Thraetaona, the killer of the +serpent Duhaka (Azhi Dahaka) and the hero Kava Uca, of which Kava +Haocrava is another name rather than another form. The Thrita and +Thraetaona of the _Zend_ are peculiarly interesting, because they remind +us, though vaguely, of the Vedic myth of the three brothers. Only the +_Avesta_ names Thrita and Thraetaona as two distinct divine heroes; it +attributes to Thraetaona the second place among the three brothers; and +as in the _Mahabharatam_, it is the second brother, the strong Bhimas, +who falls into the waters, whilst the third brother, Argunas, delivers +others from the marine monster by his valour, so in the _Avesta_ it is +Thraetaona who comes out of the waters, or who is the son of Athvya +(-Aptya). But every one can see the point of contact, connection, or +identification between the two hero-brothers. It is Bhimas who comes out +of the waters, and Argunas who extricates him, that is, who extricates +his own strength, expressed in Bhimas (the subject, and his virtue, +become the object, being inclosed in one person). They are confounded +together, inasmuch as Thraetaona, son of him who stays in the waters, or +of the watery one, or he who comes out of the waters, and kills the +demon, must be the same as Thrita, the third one, who has the virtue of +curing demoniacal diseases. Thraetaona, the killer of the serpent, and +Thrita, who destroys the evil-doing ones, are found again, with a +different splendour, in the same heroic adventure. Scarcely an instant +transpires between the time when the hero was a victim and that in which +Veretraghna, or Thraetaona, or Thrita, the hero, triumphs in his own +liberation. + +In the _Yacna_,[292] we find three men who, by their piety, win the +favour of the god Haoma (Soma, the lunar god, the moon, the good +magician, the good fairy). The first is Vivaghao, the second Athvya, +and the third Thrita; from which we are led to conclude that Vivaghao is +the eldest brother, Athvya the second, and Thrita the youngest. On +account of their piety, they obtain sons; the son of Vivaghao is Yima +(the Vedic Yamas), the wise, the happy, the heavenly; the son of Athvya +is Thraetaona, the warrior who discomfits the monster; the third, +Thrita, called the most useful, has two sons, Urvaksha and Kerecacpa, +who remind us of the Acvinau. Athvya's son and Thrita being confounded +in one person, Thraetaona, or Thrita, forms a new triumvirate with +Urvaksha and Kerecacpa, as the Vedic Indras with the two Acvinau. The +story of the three brothers and that of the two brothers seem to be +interwoven even in the myth, as they certainly are afterwards in the +legend. To the three brothers, moreover, correspond, in the _Avesta_, +the three sisters, the three daughters of Zarathustra and of Hvovi: +Freni, Thriti, and Pourucicsta.[293] The first seems to correspond to +Yamas, the second to Aptya and his son Thraetaona (or Thrita), the +third, the luminous, the beautiful (as being the aurora), to the two +handsome brother horsemen, Urvaksha and Kerecacpa (the Acvinau). + +The solar hero comes out of his difficulties, and triumphs over his +enemies, not only by force of arms, but by his innate strength and +prowess. This extraordinary strength, by which he moves and is borne +along, and which renders him irresistible, is the wind, invoked by the +heroes in the _Avesta_ under the name of Raman. The wind, according to +the _Avesta_, is not only the swiftest of the swift, but the strongest +of the strong (like the Marutas, Hanumant, or Bhimas, Hindoo winds, or +sons of the wind). Even in the _Avesta_, he fights and assures the +heroes of victory, and is dear to woman and girls. (In the same way, +Sita has a leaning for Hanumant, and Hidimba, of all the Pandavas, +gives the preference to Bhimas.) Moreover, in the _Avesta_, girls +invoke the wind in order to obtain a husband.[294] + +A hymn of the _Rigvedas_, however, celebrates a kind of quarrel +between the winds Marutas and the god Indras, prompted by rivalry; a +quarrel which ends in Indras having the advantage. It is interesting +to find in the Persian tradition[295] the same rivalry between the +wind (vata) and the son of Thrita, the hero Kerecacpa. An evil genie +informs the wind that Kerecacpa boasts of being superior to him in +strength. Thereupon the wind begins to howl and rage in such a +terrifying manner that nothing can resist him, and the very trees are +cleft in two or torn up, till Kerecacpa comes and squeezes him so +tightly in his arms that he is obliged to cease. This interesting +mythical incident is a prefigurement of the loud whistle of the heroes +and the monsters in fairy tales, which is brought to an end in a +summary fashion, similar to that of the Persian legend; which also +leads us to suppose that Thraetaona vanquished the serpent Dahaka, +merely by tying him to the demoniacal mountain Demavend.[296] This +style of vanquishing the enemy by binding him occurs often enough in +the Persian legends and in the _Avesta_ itself;[297] and is also +mentioned in the Hindoo traditions. The arrows of the monsters hurled +against the heroes of the _Ramayanam_ bind them; the god Yamas and the +god Varunas bind their victims; the first draws tight, tightens the +reins (_i.e._, the evening sun shortens his rays); the second +envelops, covers and binds with the darkness that which Yamas reined +in. The solar ray which shortens itself, the shadow which advances, +are images of the ensnarer of heroes; whereas the solar ray which +lengthens itself, the thunderbolt which traverses all the heavens, +surrounded by clouds and darkness, represents the hero who grasps +around, presses tightly, and strangles the monster. + +The bow of Mithra is formed of a thousand bows, prepared from the +tough hide of a cow; these bows, in the _Avesta_, also hurl a thousand +darts, which fly with winged vultures' feathers.[298] This carries us +back again to the Vedic myth of the birds which come out of the cow. + +The bow being considered a cow, this cow sharpens its horns; whence +the _Khorda Avesta_ celebrates the horned darts of the bow of Mithra, +_i.e._, the horns of the cow, which have become weapons[299] or the +thunderbolts. + +The legend of the two brothers is connected more with the myth of the +horse than with that of the cow or the ox. But inasmuch as it presents +the two brothers to us as the one poor and the other rich, the riches +are symbolised by the ox. However, if I am not mistaken, there are +two heroes, celebrated in the _Avesta_ one after the other (and whom I +therefore suppose to be brothers), who derive their origin from this +legend; one is called Criraokhsan (or who has a fine ox), the other +Kerecaokhsan (or who has a lean ox). As the _Avesta_ does not go on to +develop this subject more in detail, I dare not insist upon it; +nevertheless it is gratifying to me to remark that, of the two +brothers, Kerecaokhsan was the most valiant, as of the two brothers +Urvaksha (a word which may perhaps signify the one who has the fat +horse, and which is perhaps synonymous with Urvacpa[300]) and +Kerecacpa (he of the lean horse), it is the second who is the glorious +hero; as in the Russian popular tales, we shall find the third +brother, though thought to be an idiot, despised by the others, and +riding the worst jade of the stable, yet becoming afterwards the most +fortunate hero. Kerecacpa avenges his brother Urvaksha against +Hitacpa, whom Professor Spiegel[301] interprets to mean the bound +horse, but which can also be rendered he who keeps the horse bound, +which would bring us back again to the story of the bridle and of the +hero-horse, whom the demon keeps bound to himself, which we have +already noticed above in the story of the sacrifice of Cunahcepas, +delivered by the aurora. + +It is uncertain whether we must recognise the aurora or the moon, in +the _Avesta_, in the so-called Ashis Vaguhi, the elevated (like Ardvi +Cura Anahita), who appears upon the high mountain, rich, beautiful, +splendid, golden-eyed, beneficent, giver of cattle, posterity, and +abundance, who discomfits the demons, guides chariots, and is invoked +by the son of the watery one, Thraetaona, in the _Ashi Yast_,[302] in +order that she may help him to vanquish the three-headed +monster-serpent Dahaka. Now, Thraetaona, the victorious and rich in +oxen,[303] being a well-known form of the solar hero Mithra, it is +interesting to learn how the heroine, the so-called Ashis Vaguhi (the +aurora, or the moon, as the three words Ardvi Cura Anahita are simple +names of the aurora), having the same supreme god for her father, has +three brothers, of whom the first is Craosha, the pious; the second, +Rashnus, the strong; and the third, Mithra, the victorious. + +She is, moreover, herself represented as being pursued by enemies on +horseback; and it is now a bull, now a sheep, now a child, anon a virgin +who hides her from her pursuers. Not knowing where to go, whether to +ascend into heaven, or creep along the earth, she applies to Ahura +Mazda, who answers that she must neither ascend into heaven nor creep +along the earth, but betake herself to the middle of a beautiful king's +habitation.[304] How is it possible not to recognise in her the moon, or +the aurora, who follows the path of the sun her husband, the moon, or +the aurora, who appears on the summit of the high mountains? + +Other facts not devoid of mythological interest might perhaps be found +in the _Avesta_, which, on account of the uncertainty attending the +translation of the original texts, has hitherto been, it seems to me, +utterly neglected by mythologists. And yet, though Anquetil, Burnouf, +Benfey, Spiegel, Haugh, Kossowicz, and all who have turned their +talents and science to the interpretation of the Zendic texts, +disagree in the more abstruse passages, there are many of which the +interpretation is certain, in which the learned translators agree, +which offer interesting mythological data, and permit us, in any case, +to extract from the _Avesta_ an embryo of mythology, in the same way +as an embryo of grammar has already been extracted from it. The brief +references which I have now made to the myth of the cow and the bull +in the _Avesta_, anyhow appear to me sufficient to warrant the +conclusion I draw, that the cow and the bull presented the same +aspects, and generated the same myths and the same beliefs in Persia +as in India, albeit in a form far more feeble and indeterminate. + +The solar hero of Persia occurs again in the costume of historical +legend in the Cyrus ([Greek: Kyros]) of Herodotus and Ktesias, the +first of which represents to us the child exposed by his parents, +saved and educated during his infancy (like the Hindoo Karnas, child +of the sun, and Krishnas) among the shepherds, where for some time he +gives extraordinary proofs of his valour; the second shows us the +young hero who wins his own bride, Amytis, daughter of Astyages. + +Finally, the same hero appears in several splendid and glorious forms +in the _Shahname_. + +As in the _Rigvedas_, Tritas or Traitanas, and in the _Avesta_, +Thraetaona (of whom Thritas is a corresponding form), accomplish the +great exploit of killing the monster, and more especially the serpent, +so Feridun, the Persian synonym (by means of the intermediate form +Phreduna) for the Zendic Thraetaona is, in subsequent Persian +tradition, the most distinguished hero in the struggle against the +monster. I shall not insist upon the deeds of Feridun and his mythical +valour, after the learned paper written upon the subject by Professor +R. Roth, which appears in the Transactions of the Oriental Society of +Leipzig, and the able and highly-valued essay by Professor Michael +Breal on the myth of Hercules and Cacus. I shall therefore content +myself with quoting from the legend of Feridun the episode of his old +age, which reminds us of the Vedic myth of the three brothers. + +The great king Feridun has three sons, Selm, Tur, and Ireg (Selm, Tur, +and Er are also the sons of Thraetaona); he divides the world into +three parts and gives the west to the first-born, and the north to the +second, whilst he keeps Iran for the youngest. The two eldest are +jealous, and announce to their father their intention of declaring war +against him, unless he expels their younger brother Ireg from the +palace. Feridun replies to their impious threat with haughty reproofs, +and meanwhile warns the young Ireg of the danger he is in. The youth +proposes to go in person to his brothers, and induce them to make +peace; his father is unwilling to let him go, but finally consents, +and gives him a letter for the two brothers, in which he commends him +as his best-loved son to their care. Ireg arrives at his brothers' +dwelling; their soldiers see him, and cannot take their eyes off him, +as though they already recognised him for their lord. Then Selm, the +eldest, advises Tur, the second, the strong one, to kill Ireg; Tur +thereupon assaults the defenceless Ireg, and transfixes his breast +with a dagger. Ireg is afterwards avenged by the son of his daughter +(born after his death of a maid whom he had left pregnant), the hero +Minucehr, who kills Selm and Tur. + +The hero who succeeds Minucehr is Sal, the son of Sam, whom, because +born with white hair, his father had exposed upon Mount Alburs, where +the bird Simurg nourished and saved him. Sal proves his wisdom before +Minucehr by solving six astronomical riddles which King Minucehr +proposes to him. The king, satisfied, orders him to be dressed in +festive clothes; he then, to prove his strength, challenges him to run +a tilt with the horsemen; Sal is victorious, and obtains another robe +of honour and innumerable royal gifts; after which he espouses Rudabe, +daughter of King Mihrab. + +Sal distinguishes himself, like Minucehr, in his wars against the +perverse Turanians, the dragons and the monsters, in which he takes +along with him as his chief helper the mighty hero Rustem, whose +weapon is a club surmounted with the head of a bull[305] or a horned +mace (the hero is the bull, the thunderbolts are his horns), and whose +horse is so powerful as by itself to fight and vanquish a lion while +Rustem is asleep. The hero himself kills a dragon, and a witch +transformed into a beautiful woman, but who resumes her monstrous +shape as soon as the hero pronounces the name of a god. He thunders +like a cloud, is dark, and describes himself as a thunder-cloud which +hurls the thunderbolt.[306] He binds the warrior Aulad, and obliges +him to reveal where the demons detain in prison King Kawus, who is +become blind in their kingdom of darkness. Kawus then informs Rustem +that to recover his sight his eyes must be anointed with three drops +of blood from the slain demon Sefid; upon which Rustem sets out to +kill the demon. The demons can be vanquished only by day; when it is +light, they sleep, and then they can be conquered, says Aulad to +Rustem; for this reason, Rustem does not begin the enterprise till the +sun is in mid-heaven;[307] then he thunders and lightens at the +demons. Like a sun, he sets out towards the mountain (no doubt, +towards sunset), where the demon Sefid sits, and arrives at the mouth +of a deep and gloomy cavern, from which Sefid sallies forth in the +form of a black giant just awakened from his sleep. The giant himself, +like an enormous mountain assaulting the earth, hurls a rock like a +millstone at Rustem; Rustem strikes the monster on the feet, and lops +away one of them; the lame giant continuing the fight, Rustem at last +wrestles with him, lifts him into the air, then beats him several +times furiously against the ground, and so takes his life. He throws +the body of Sefid into the mountain cavern, whilst his blood saturates +the earth, and gives back to the prince Kawus his eyesight and his +splendour. The myth is a beautiful and an expressive one. As from the +black venomous serpent comes white healthy milk, so from the black +monster, at his death, comes blood, which gives back his eyesight to +the blinded prince; the red aurora is here represented as the blood of +the nocturnal monster, discomfited by the solar hero. + +Let me ask the reader to notice the Persian comparison of the rock +thrown by the demon to a millstone, as it is important to explain a +superstition still extant in the West, to the effect that the devil +goes under the millstone to carry out his evil designs. The stone or +mountain fractured by the waters was naturally compared to a millstone +moved by the waters; the demons inhabit the cavernous mountain to +guard the waters; thus the devil, the evil one, the hobgoblins, prefer +mills as their dwellings. + +Rustem fights, in the _Shahname_, many other victoriously successful +battles against Afrasiab the Turanian, and other demoniacal beings, in +the service of sundry heroic kings, with epic incidents to boot, which +are nearly all uniform. His struggle against his son Sohrab, however, +is of an entirely different character. + +Rustem goes to the chase. In the forest, Turkish bandits rob him of his +invaluable horse while he sleeps; he then sets out, alone and sad, +towards the city of Semengam, following the track left by his horse. +When he appears, emerging from the wood, the king of Semengam and his +courtiers note the phenomenon as though it were the sun coming out of +the clouds of morning.[308] The king receives Rustem with great +hospitality, and, as if to fill to the full the measure of his courtesy, +he sends at night to the room where he sleeps his exceedingly beautiful +daughter Tehmime. The hero and the beauty separate in the morning; but +Rustem, before parting from Tehmime, leaves her a pearl of recognition. +If a daughter is born to their loves, she is to wear it as an amulet in +her hair; if a son, he is to wear it on his arm, and he will become an +invincible hero. After nine months, Tehmime gives birth to Sohrab; at +the age of one month he seems a year old, at three years of age he +amuses himself with arms, at five he gives proof of a lion's courage, +and at ten he vanquishes all his companions, and asks his mother to +inform him of his father, threatening to kill her if she does not tell +him. Scarcely does Sohrab learn that he is the son of Rustem, than he +conceives the desire of becoming king of Iran and supplanting Kawus; he +then commences his persecution of the Iranian heroes by assaulting the +white castle (the white morning sky, the alba), defended by a beautiful +warrior princess, Gurdaferid, dear to the Iranian warriors. Sohrab +conquers and destroys the white castle, but in the moment of triumph, +the warrior maiden disappears. The old hero Rustem then moves against +his own son Sohrab; the latter throws him down, but Rustem, in his turn, +mortally wounds Sohrab. In the old Rustem thrown down on the mountain it +is not difficult to recognise the setting sun; in Sohrab mortally +wounded by Rustem, the sun itself, which dies; and in fact, the dying +sun has a different appearance from the new sun which rises and triumphs +in the heavens: these two appearances might give rise to the idea of a +struggle between the old and the young sun, in which both are +sacrificed. Indeed, Rustem feels, when he mortally wounds Sohrab, that +he is wounding himself; he curses his work and immediately sends for a +healing balsam; but in the meantime Sohrab dies. The only one who could +destroy the young sun was the old sun; the sun grows old and dies; +Rustem alone could kill Sohrab. With the death of Sohrab the glory of +Rustem is also eclipsed; he retires unto solitude, and the most +grandiose period of his epic life comes to an end. After this he only +reappears in episodic battles or enterprises; as, for instance, in his +setting fire to Turan, in which he resembles Hanumant, burner of Lanka; +in the liberation of the young hero Bishen, who had been taken prisoner +and incarcerated by the Turanians; in the killing of the powerful and +perverse Turanian Afrasiab; and in his own death in an ambuscade set by +young rivals of the old lion, who dies taking vengeance on his enemies. + +In the very palace of Kawus (he who was protected by Rustem), a +notable legendary drama takes place. Sijavush, son of King Kawus, is +seduced by the queen-mother Sudabe, who burns with love for him. The +youth spurns this love, upon which she accuses him to King Kawus as +her seducer. The father, after hearing his son's defence in proof of +his innocence, cannot believe the queen; and thereupon she devises +another method for destroying the young Sijavush. She concerts with a +slave she has, who is a sorceress, and persuades her to create two +little venomous monsters, which she straightway proclaims aloud are +the children of Sijavush. Then Sijavush, to prove his innocence, +submits willingly to the trial by fire; he enters the flames upon his +black horse, after having embraced his trembling father; both horse +and horseman come out of the immense fire, amid the plaudits of all +the spectators. Then the king gives orders to strangle the unnatural +queen; but his son Sijavush intercedes in her favour, and Sudabe is +allowed to live by grace of the young prince, whom, however, she +continues to persecute, till, on the death of Sijavush, Rustem, who +bewailed him as his own son, or as his other self, avenges him first +by killing Sudabe, on account of whom Sijavush had been obliged to +repair to Turan, and afterwards by carrying the war into Turan, where, +after a very agitated life, Sijavush had fallen into the power of his +father-in-law, Afrasiab, and been put to death. + +The wife of Sijavush, Ferengis by name, being pregnant, is hospitably +entertained by Piran, and gives birth to the hero Kai Khosru; and no +sooner is he born than he is consigned to the shepherds of the +mountain. As early as seven years of age, his favourite amusement is +that of drawing the bow; at ten, he confronts wild boars, bears, +lions, and tigers with only his shepherd's staff. When Afrasiab sees +the young shepherd, he inquires at him about his sheep and the +peaceful pursuits of shepherds; the boy replies with stories of lions +having sharp teeth, and of other wild animals, of which he is not +afraid. As soon as he comes to manhood, he flees from Turan, followed +by the Turanians; he arrives at the banks of a river, where the +ferryman asks impossible conditions to take him over; upon which, like +Feridun, he crosses the river safely, but without a boat, and on dry +feet (it is the sun traversing the cloudy and gloomy ocean without +wetting himself);[309] arrived at length in Iran, he is feasted and +feted as the future king. His reign begins; he then assigns different +tasks to different heroes, among whom is his brother Firud, born of +another mother, of whom it is said that a single hair of his head has +more strength in it than many warriors (one ray of the sun is enough +to break the darkness). One evening, however, at sunset, Firud is +killed in his castle upon the mountain, being surrounded by a crowd of +enemies, after having lost his horse, and after his mother Cerire had +dreamt that a fire had consumed both mountain and castle. His mother +Cerire (the evening aurora) throws herself among the flames with her +maids, and dies also. Kai Khosru bewails the loss of his brother Firud +all the night through, till the cock crows; when morning comes he +thinks of avenging him. + +After this, the life of Kai Khosru is consumed in battles fought by +his heroes against the Turanians. Only towards the end of his days +does he become a penitent king; he will no longer allow his subjects +to fight, and his only occupation is prayer; he takes leave of his +people and his daughters in peace, ascends a mountain, and disappears +in a tempest, leaving no trace of himself. In a similar manner the +heroes Yudhishthiras, Cyrus, and Romulus disappear (not to speak of +the biblical Moses, still less of Christ, as we do not wish to +complicate a comparison of which the materials are already so +extensive, by mixing up the Aryan elements with those of Semitic +origin; although the legends of the serpent, of Noah, of Abraham and +his regained wife, of Abraham and his son Isaac, of Joseph and his +brethren, of Joshua, of Job, and other and more recent biblical +heroes, by their mythical or astronomical import, present numerous +analogies with the Indo-European legends); in a similar manner, the +old sun, weary of reigning in the heavens and fighting for his life, +becomes invisible every evening on the mountain-peaks. + +The _Shahname_ contains numerous other legends besides those which we +have thus far briefly described; and one of the most notable is, +beyond a doubt, that of Isfendiar, who goes with his brother Bishutem +to deliver his two sisters, imprisoned in a fortress by the Turanian +king Ardshasp. The seven adventures of Isfendiar, _i.e._, his meeting +with the wolf, the lion, the dragon, the witch (who makes herself +beautiful, but who is no sooner bound with the enchanted necklace of +Isfendiar [the solar disc] than she becomes old and ugly again), the +gigantic bird, the tempest and the river, all of which dangers he +victoriously overcomes, are reproductions, in an analogous form too, +of the seven adventures of Rustem. + +Finally, the legend of Iskander or Iskender (the name of Alexander of +Macedon), full of extraordinary adventures, became exceedingly popular +in Persia, and thence, no doubt, passed with all its charms into Europe. +The audacity and good fortune, the glory and the power of the great +conqueror were the reasons why there grouped round his name so many +extraordinary stories, which wandered dispersedly through the world +without epic unity. To make up one glorious and never-to-be-forgotten +hero, were combined together the achievements of many anonymous or +nearly forgotten ones. The Persian _Iskendername_ of Nishami, is, as its +name denotes, entirely taken up with the celebration of the deeds of the +Macedonian hero, of which the most illustrious are the liberation of the +princess Nushabe (taken prisoner by the Russians), and the voyage in +search of the fountain of life and immortality, which, however, Iskander +cannot find. From Persia the same legend afterwards passed, with new +disguises, into Egypt, Armenia, and Greece, whence it was diffused +during the middle ages over almost the whole of Western Europe.[310] + +As a bridge of transition between the Hindoo and Persian, and the Turk +or Tartar traditions, we shall make use of three works: the Turkish +version[311] of the Persian _Tuti-Name_, itself a translation and in +part a paraphrase of the Hindoo _Cuka-Saptati_, _i.e._, the seventy +(stories) of the parrot; the Mongol stories of _Siddhi-kur_, and the +Mongol history of _Ardshi-Bordshi Khan_,[312] the first being a +paraphrase of the Hindoo _Vetala-Pancavincati_, _i.e._, the +twenty-five of the Vetala (a kind of demon), and the second of the +Hindoo _Vikrama-caritram_ (the heroic action). + +We have seen in the _Aitareya Brahmanam_ the father who prepares to +offer up his son, and in the _Mahabharatam_, the son who forfeits +youth that his father may live. In the _Tuti-Name_,[313] the faithful +Merdi Ganbaz prepares to sacrifice his wife and sons, and afterwards +himself, to prolong the life of the king; but his devotion and +fidelity being proved, he is arrested by God before he can accomplish +the cruel sacrifice, and receives numberless benefits from the king. + +In the story of the goldsmith and the woodcutter, the _Tuti-Name_[314] +reproduces the two brothers or friends, of whom one is wicked, rich, and +avaricious, while the other is defrauded of the money due to him, +because, though, in reality intelligent, he is supposed to be an idiot. +The woodcutter avenges himself upon the goldsmith by a plan which we +shall find described in the legend of the bear, and recovers, thanks to +his craftiness, the gold which his brother or friend had kept from him. + +In the interesting story of Merhuma,[315] we read of the wife who is +persecuted by the seducer her brother-in-law. To avenge her refusal, he +causes her to be stoned during the absence of his brother; being +innocent, she rises again from under the stones; being sheltered by a +Bedouin, a monster of a slave seduces her; being repulsed, he accuses +her of the death of the Bedouin's little son, whom he had himself +killed; the beautiful girl flees away; she frees a youth who was +condemned to death, and who in his turn seduces her. She then embarks in +a ship; while she is at sea all the sailors become enamoured of her and +wish to possess her; she invokes the god who caused Pharaoh to be +drowned and who saved Noah from the waters. The waves begin to move; a +thunderbolt descends and burns to ashes all who are in the ship, with +the exception of the beautiful girl, who lands safe and sound upon the +shore (it is the aurora coming out of the gloomy ocean of night, and the +monsters who persecute her are burned to ashes by the thunderbolts and +the sun's rays); she thence escapes into a convent, in which she +ministers to the unfortunate, cures the lame, and gives eyesight to the +blind. Among the latter is her persecutor, the brother of her husband; +she pardons him and gives him back his eyesight; in the same way she +cures all her other persecutors. It is scarcely necessary for me to +remind the reader how this oriental tale, which developed itself from +the myth of the persecuted and delivering aurora which we have seen in +the Vedic hymns, reappears in numerous very popular western legends, of +which Crescentia and Genevieve are the most brilliant types. + +The aurora comes out of the gloomy ocean and is espoused by the sun; +these heavenly nuptials in proximity to the sea gave rise to the +popular tale[316] of the king who wishes the sea with its pearls to be +present at his nuptials; the pearls of the bride-aurora are supposed +to come out of the sea of night. The sea sends as gifts to the king a +casket of pearls, a chest of precious dresses, a horse that goes like +the morning wind, and a chest full of gold. + +The wise aurora figures again in the story of the ingenious +princess[317] who discovers, by means of a story-riddle, the robbers +who, during the night, stole the precious gem destined for the king. + +The aurora imparts splendour and eyesight to the blinded sun. The story +of the three-breasted princess who, while she meditates poisoning the +blind man, in order that she may enjoy unrestrained the affections of +her young and handsome lover, relents and gives him back his sight, +reappears in a rather incomplete form in the _Tuti-Name_.[318] + +The girl who has been married to a monster, whom she flees from to +follow a handsome young lover, who, arriving at the banks of a river, +despoils her of her riches, leaves her naked and passes over to the +other side, after which she resigns herself to her fate and resolves to +return to her husband the monster,[319] represents the evening aurora, +who flees before the monster of night to follow her lover the sun, who, +in the morning, after adorning himself with her splendour, leaves her on +the shore of the gloomy ocean and runs away, the aurora being thereupon +obliged in the evening to re-unite herself to her husband the monster. +It is interesting, moreover, as bearing upon our subject, to note the +expression of which the youth who flees with the beautiful woman makes +use to express his fear of discovery. He says that the monster-husband +will follow them, and that should he sit upon the horns of the bull (the +moon) he would be sure to recognise him. The story of two young people +fleeing upon a bull, and followed by the monster, occurs again in the +Russian popular tales. By the horns of the bull, the youth means the +most prominent and visible situation; and he knows, moreover, that if +the monster overtakes them, he will be sure to demonstrate the truth of +the brave proverb which advises us in arduous undertakings to take the +bull by the horns. + +It is also the aurora who is represented by the beautiful maiden[320] +whom her father, mother, and brother have, without each other's +knowledge, severally affianced to three youths of different +professions. The three young men contend for her person, but while the +quarrel is undecided, the girl dies. The three then go to visit her +tomb; one discovers her body, the second finds that there is still +some life in her, and the third strikes her and raises her up alive, +upon which the quarrel is resumed. She flees from them, and withdraws +into another living tomb, a convent. In the most popular form of this +legend the three companions, or three brothers, fighting for the +bride, divide her; the aurora is torn into pieces as soon as the sun, +her true lover and rightful suitor, appears. + +From darkness comes forth light; from the old, the young; from death, +life; from the dust of a dead man's skull, tasted by a virgin, is born a +wonderful child, who knows how to distinguish false pearls from real, +dishonest women from honest ones[321] (the morning sun can distinguish +between light and darkness); the wise boy (the young sun) is the brother +of the wise girl (the young aurora). The flesh of a killed Brahman is +turned into gold in another story of the _Tuti-Name_.[322] + +We have seen that the aurora and the sun are mother and son, brother +and sister, or lover and mistress. The sun in the evening dies +ignominiously, is sacrificed and hanged upon a gibbet, and with +himself sacrifices his mother or his mistress. The legend is popular +and ancient which speaks of the robber son, when about to end his life +upon a gibbet,[323] biting the nose off his mother, who gave birth to +him and brought him up badly. In the _Tuti-Name_,[324] it is the young +adulterer (and robber too) who, condemned to death for his adultery, +asks to see his mistress once more before his death and kiss her, and +who, as she does so, gratifies his revenge by inflicting upon her a +like indignity. It is remarkable how, even in the Hindoo popular tale, +the story of the adulterer is confounded with that of a thief; the +adulterer ends by being thrown into the water (the sun and the aurora +fall into the gloomy ocean of night). + +In the next story it is the wicked husband who, travelling with his +rich wife for change of dwelling-place, despoils her of her clothes, +and then throws her into a well in order to ensure possession of her +jewels and wardrobe. These riches, however, do not last long; he +becomes poor and goes begging alms, dressed as a mendicant, until he +finds his wife again, who had been saved by divine intervention from +the well, and provided anew with clothes and jewels of equal +gorgeousness. The husband passes some time with his wife, and then +sets out again on a voyage with her; he arrives at the same well, and +throws her in as before to enjoy alone her stripped-off garnitures and +riches. (The meaning of the myth is evident; it is the sun throwing +the splendid aurora into the gloomy waters of the night.) + +A king becomes enamoured of the beauteous Mahrusa;[325] his +councillors tear him from his love, upon which he pines away in +solitude and dies. The beautiful girl unites herself to him in the +grave (Romeo and Juliet, the evening aurora and the sun die together). + +The story of the three brothers, the Ribhavas, occurs again in the +_Tuti-Name_,[326] with other particulars which we already know. The +first brother is the wise one; the second is a maker of talismans +(amongst other things he can make a horse which will run in one day +over a space of ground that would take other horses thirty); the third +and youngest brother is the victorious archer. They set out to search +for the beautiful maiden who has fled by night from the house of her +father. The first brother discovers, by his wisdom, that the maiden +was carried off by the fairies into an island-mountain which men +cannot reach. The second creates a wonderful animal upon which to +traverse the intervening waters (Christophoros or Bhimas). Having +arrived at the island-mountain, the third and youngest brother fights +the demon, the lord of the fairies, vanquishes him, and frees the +beautiful girl, who thereupon is conducted back to her father. Then +there arises the usual quarrel between the three brothers as to who is +to possess the bride. + +In the Vedas, we have the sky and the moon represented as a cup. From +the little cup of abundance (the moon) it is easy to pass to the +miraculous little pipkin (the moon), in which the kind-hearted but poor +housekeeper of the Pandavas, in the _Mahabharatam_, still finds +abundance of vegetables, after her powers of hospitality had been +exhausted on the god Krishnas disguised as a beggar--to the pipkin from +which can be taken whatever is wished for. In the _Tuti-Name_,[327] a +woodcutter finds ten magicians round a pipkin, and eating out of it as +much and whatever they want; they are pleased with the woodcutter, and, +at his request, give him the pipkin. He invites his acquaintances to a +banquet at his house, but not able to contain himself for joy, he places +the pipkin upon his head, and begins to dance. The pipkin falls to the +ground and is broken to pieces, and with it his fortune vanishes (the +story of Perrette). + +A variation of the small cup is the wooden porringer (the moon), which +two brothers (the Acvinau) dispute for, in the history of the king of +China,[328] and from which can be taken whatever drink and food is +wished for; as, in the same story, we find the enchanted shoes which +carry us in an instant wherever we wish to go;--which brings us back +to the fugitive Vedic aurora, the swiftest in the race, and to the +popular tales relating to Cinderella, who is overtaken and found again +by the prince only when she has lost her enchanted slipper. With the +porringer and the enchanted shoes we find, in the popular tales, the +little purse full of money which fills again as fast as it is emptied +(another form of the cup of abundance), and a sword which, when +unsheathed, causes a fine, rich, and great city to arise in a desert, +which city disappears when the sword is put back into the sheath (the +solar ray is the drawn sword, which makes the luminous city of the +rich aurora arise; scarcely does the sun's ray vanish, or scarcely is +the sword sheathed, than the marvellous city vanishes). The rest of +the story is also interesting, because it applies to three men a +double and well-known fable of the animals which contend for the prey +(as the three brothers contend for the beautiful maiden whom they have +found again). The animals cannot divide it equally; they refer to the +judgment of a man passing by; he divides it so well that the animals +are ever after grateful to him, and help him in every danger. The +story of the _Tuti-Name_ touches upon this form of the myth, but soon +abandons it for another equally zoological, and a more familiar one, +that of the third who comes in between two that quarrel, and enjoys +the prey. The young adventurer undertakes to put an end to the dispute +of the two brothers as to the division of the purse, the porringer, +the sword and the wonderful shoes; he does so by putting the shoes on +his feet and fleeing away with the other three articles contended for +(the two brothers Acvinau, the two twilights, contend for the moon and +also for the aurora, as we shall see better in the next chapter; the +sun puts an end to their quarrel by espousing her himself). + +We are already familiar with the Vedic Ribhavas who out of one cup make +four. Probably upon this legend depends that of the four brothers of the +_Tuti-Name_,[329] who, as they let each a pearl fall from their forehead +upon the ground, see four mines open, one of copper, the second of +silver, the third of gold (the third brother is here again the +favourite), the fourth only of iron. The gem appears to be the sun +itself. The four mines seem to me to represent respectively the coppery +sky in the evening, the silver sky in the moonlight night, the sky in +the morning, golden with the dawn, and the iron sky, the grey or azure, +of the day. The word _nilas_ in Sanskrit means azure, as well as black, +and between azure and black is grey, the colour of iron. + +Of the three brothers, the most learned, he who solves the enigmas, is +often the eldest; and in the story of the _Tuti-Name_,[330] the eldest +of the three brothers explains why old men have white hair, saying +that this whiteness is a symbol of the clearness of their thoughts. + + * * * * * + +Let us now pass to the Calmuc and Mongol stories of _Siddhi-kur_, +which, as we have said above, are also of Hindoo origin. + +In the first story, the three companions, forming at first three +groups of two, have resolved into six. The night-time is divided into +three, into six, into seven (six, _plus_ an extraordinary one, born +afterwards), into nine (three groups of three), into twelve (three +groups of four). Hence, near the monster with three, six, seven, nine, +or twelve heads, we find sometimes three, sometimes six, seven, nine, +twelve brother-heroes. The last head (or the last two, three, or four +heads) of the monster, the decisive one, is the most difficult, and +even dangerous, to cut off; the last of the brothers is he who, by +cutting it off, is victorious. In the first Calmuc story of +_Siddhi-kur_, six brothers or companions separate where six rivers +take their rise, and go in search of fortune. The first-born perishes; +the second, by means of his wisdom (he partakes of the wisdom of the +first-born, with whom he is grouped), discovers the place where the +dead one is buried; the third, the strong one, breaks the rock under +which the eldest is hidden; the fourth resuscitates him by means of a +health-bringing drink, as Bhimas, the strong hero of the +_Mahabharatam_, arises again when he drinks the water of health and +strength; the fifth brother creates a bird, which the sixth colours; +this bird flies to the bride of the eldest brother, and brings her +among his companions, who, finding her exceedingly beautiful, become, +one and all, enamoured of her; they fight for her, and, that each may +have a part, end by cutting her to pieces. We already know the +mythical meaning of this legend. + +The third and fourth Calmuc tales introduce explicitly the bull and +the cow. In the third, a man who possesses but one cow unites himself +to her, in order to make her fruitful. Of this union a tailed monster +is born, having a man's body and a bull's head. The man-bull +(Minotauros) goes into the forest, where he finds three +companions--one black, one green, and one white--who accompany him. +The man-bull overcomes the enchantments of a dwarf witch; his three +companions lower him into a well and leave him there, but he escapes. +He meets a beautiful maiden drawing water, at whose every footstep a +flower arises; he follows her, and finally finds himself in heaven; he +fights against the demons, in favour of the gods, and dies in this +enterprise. This story, of Hindoo origin, where the bull and the cow +take the place of the hero and the maiden, appears to me to justify +the amplitude of the comparisons. + +We have already seen the beneficial qualities of the excrement of the +cow. In the fourth story, it is under the excrement of a cow that the +enchanted gem, lost by the daughter of the king, is found. It is of +the cow that the pearl is the secretion. The moon-cow and the +aurora-cow are rich in pearls; they are pearls themselves, like the +sun; the sun comes out of the aurora, the pearl comes out of the cow. + +The subject of the seventh tale is the three sisters who, taking the +cattle to pasture, lose a buffalo, or black bull. In their search for +it, they came across an enchanted castle, tenanted by a white bird, +who offers to marry them. The third sister consents, and marries him. +The bird turns out then to be a handsome cavalier (a form of +Lohengrin). But having, by the advice of a witch, burned the aviary, +she loses him, and cannot recover him till the aviary is restored. We +shall see the sun as a bird in the Vedic hymns; the aurora is the +aviary, made of flames, of this divine bird. When the aviary is burned +at morn, the aurora and the sun separate; they meet again in the +evening, when the aviary is reconstructed. + +Another beautiful myth of analogous import occurs again in the eighth +story. A woodman and a painter envy each other; the painter makes the +king believe that the woodman's father, who is in heaven, has written +ordering his son to repair to paradise, in order to build him a temple, +and to take the route that the painter shall indicate. The king orders +the woodman to set out for paradise. The painter prepares a funeral +pyre, by way of exit; from this the woodman succeeds in escaping, and, +going back to the king, he tells him that he has been to paradise, and +presents a letter which his father has given him, ordering the painter +to come by the same road, and paint the temple. The king requires the +summons to be obeyed, and the perfidious painter perishes in the flames. +The morning sun emerges safe and sound from the flames of the morning +aurora; the evening sun passes through those flames, and dies. + +The tenth Calmuc tale gives us the myth of the two brothers; the rich +one avaricious and wicked, and the poor one virtuous. The story ends +in a manner analogous to that of the dying adulterer, who, as we have +seen in the _Tuti-Name_, bites off his mistress's nose. + +The eleventh story is a variation of that of the lover, or husband, +who abandons or kills his wife, after having despoiled her of her +riches; but instead of the waters of the sea, we have here the sea of +sand, the sandy desert, in a cavity of which is deposited the young +girl, shut up in a chest, the same chest which in other popular tales +drifts about on the surface of the water.[331] But into the place +where it was laid, the chest having been taken away by a young prince, +a tiger enters; the unworthy husband turns up himself to abstract the +chest, and is torn to pieces by the tiger. The sterile night is a vast +desert, a sea of waters, a sea of sand; the sun-prince frees the +aurora from the waters, out of the well, or the cavern of the desert; +the tiger kills the monster-husband. + +In the twelfth tale, a thief steals the enchanted gem from the prince; +he throws the gem to the ground, the consequence of which is that the +prince's nose bleeds so excessively that he dies. The nose is the most +prominent part of the face, the most conspicuous and splendid part; it +is the gem of the sun-prince. The sun falls at night upon the +mountain; the gem falls to the ground; the prince's nose bleeds; he +has struck his nose against the ground, and it bleeds. The sun-prince +dies, and the evening sky is tinged red, blood-colour; the sun, who +loses his blood in the evening, dies. + +The thirteen Calmuc stories are followed by ten Mongol tales; in all, +twenty-three, of which the sixteenth, however, is lost. + +The fourteenth tells us of the rich and avaricious man whose poor +brother goes in despair into the forest to die upon a rock; but his +presence not being known to the spirits, he has the good luck to come +upon a hammer and a sack, of which the former, when struck against an +object, produces whatever is desired by the owner, the latter being +used to carry away the objects thus obtained, this hammer and this +sack having been left there by the hobgoblins. Thus the poor brother +becomes rich, and is envied by the other, who goes to the same place, +in hopes of experiencing the same good fortune; but as he does not +hide himself, the hobgoblins see him, and believing him to be the man +who stole the hammer and the sack, avenge themselves upon him by +lengthening his nose, and covering it with protuberances. To this myth +may perhaps be referred the origin of the Italian expression, "Restare +con uno o due palmi di naso," to remain with one or two spans of the +nose; that is to say, to be laughed at, and with the gesture by which +derision is accompanied, and which is addressed to the man who is +laughed at, by applying one or sometimes both hands to the end of +one's nose. The poor brother, now rich, visits the miserly brother, +who has a long nose covered with protuberances, and knocks them off +with his hammer. He had already knocked off eight, and only one +remained, when, at his wife's request, he desisted and left the last +one on. The rich man's wife, seeing how the protuberances had been +taken off by striking them, tries herself to remove the last one, and +strikes it with a hammer; but not calculating her aim accurately, she +splits her husband's head open, and he dies. + +In the seventeenth Mongol story, an old man and an old woman have nine +cows. The old man is fond of meat, and eats all the calves; the old +woman, on the other hand, has a great liking for milk and butter, with +which she satiates herself. When the old man has eaten all the calves, +he thinks that one cow more or less will not affect his wealth; +reasoning thus, he eats all the cows except one, which he spares out +of respect for the whim of his old wife. But one day that the old +woman is out, the old man cannot resist the temptation, and kills the +last cow. His wife returns, is angry, and abandons him, upon which he +throws after her one of the cow's breasts. The woman, in grateful +memory of the milk and butter she liked so much, takes it up and goes +up the mountain, where she strikes the cow's breast against the summit +of the rock, and thereupon there flow out milk and butter in rivers. +She satisfies her appetite, and then remembers that her husband is +perhaps dying of hunger, feeding, as he does, upon ashes; she +therefore, but secretly, throws butter into the house down the +chimney, and then disappears. In this attention the old man recognises +the love of his wife, and resolves upon the plan of following her +footsteps during the night upon the snow. He comes to the mountain, +sees the breast, and cannot resist the temptation it offers; he eats +it, and takes the butter away with him. The old woman wanders about +till she comes upon a herd of deer, who pasture freely, and who, +instead of fleeing, let themselves be milked. Again, she thinks of her +husband, and she throws deer's butter down the chimney. The old man +follows her over the snow, finds her near the deer, and kills them in +his inordinate passion for meat. The old woman continues to wander +about, and stumbles this time upon a cavern of the wild beasts, +guarded by a hare. The hare defends her from the wild beasts; but she +then conceives the idea of giving her husband a stick, and throws it +down the chimney whilst he is taking the ashes up with a spoon. He +follows her, and comes to the cave of the wild animals, who, seeing +them arrive together, tear them to pieces. Here again we have the myth +of the sun and the aurora (or the fine season); the hare who guards +the cavern and tames the wild beasts is, as we shall see in the +chapter which treats of it, the moon, the cows and the deer being the +same. The ferocious animals of the cavern of night rend both sun and +aurora (or fine season), both old man and old woman. + +The eighteenth Mongol story is too indecent for me to relate, or for +the reader to peruse; suffice it to say, that we have in it a comic +variation of the Amazon heroine, and that this heroine calls herself +Surya (the sun) Bagatur (to which corresponds the bagatir; or hero, of +the Russians). + +In the twentieth tale we have a calf and a lion's whelp brought up +together by a lioness upon the same milk.[332] When grown, the lion +goes and inhabits the forest, or the desert, and the bull, the +mountain illumined by the sun, meeting as good friends and brothers to +drink the same water. This good understanding is, however, put an end +to by their perfidious uncle the fox, who persuades the lion to +believe that the bull designs to kill him, and adds that when the bull +in the morning strikes the ground with his horns, and bellows loudly, +will be the sign that he is going to carry his purpose into effect; he +then tells the bull that the lion has a similar design against him. In +the morning, when the two brothers, bull and lion, go to drink the +same water, they approach each other with suspicion, engage in battle +and kill each other, the fox, or wolf, being the only one to benefit +by the quarrel. This is a form of the story of the two twilights (the +Acvinau), which we shall illustrate in the following chapter. + +The beginning of the twenty-first Mongol story offers a new analogy with +the apologue of Perrette.[333] A poor father and mother find a little +lamb's-wool; they consult together, and resolve with the wool to make +cloth, and with the cloth to buy an ass. Upon this ass they will place +their little child, and go a-begging; by begging they will become yet +richer, and buy another ass. Of the two, a young ass will be born. The +youngster immediately exclaims that if a young donkey is born he will +ride upon it; whereupon his mother answers, "You would break its back," +when, accompanying these words with the movement of a stick, she strikes +the youngster's head with it, and kills him; with him the fine projects +of the poor parents also vanish. + +In the last of the stories of _Siddhi-kur_, which is joined to the +three legends of the grateful animals, the disguises, and the laughing +princess, a man uses the horns of his dead buffalo to grub up the +roots upon which he lives in exile. + +The history of _Ardshi-Bordshi_ also contains several interesting +stories. + +It begins with a challenge among the children who keep the king's cows +to run a race from the summit of a mountain. The first who comes to +the winning-post is honoured as a king by his companions for that day, +and acts and judges on the spot where the race takes place as a real +king; indeed, he judges and decides as a court of final appeal on +cases which have not been well examined by the great king of the +country. He unmasks and convicts robbers and false witnesses acquitted +by the king as innocent, and sends a missive to the king, recommending +him to be more cautious in future in his judgments, or else to resign +his royal dignity. The great king wonders at the extraordinary wisdom +of the king of the children, and ascribes his preternatural sagacity +to the magical influence of the mountain where the children who guard +the cows play their games. On another occasion, the king of the +children, by his craftiness, detects a demon in one whom the king had +thought to be the legitimate son of his minister. The discovery is +made by means of a challenge to the minister's real son and his +demoniacal counterfeit to get into a small jug at hand. The real son +cannot; but the supposititious makes himself small and enters the jug, +in which the king of the children shuts him up with a diamond, and +administers thereupon fresh reproof to the great king for his +carelessness. The great king then visits the mountain of the children, +and sees a golden throne with thirty-two steps emerge from the ground; +upon each step there is a wooden puppet (the moon). The great king has +the throne carried into his palace, and endeavours to ascend it; the +puppets arrest him, and one of them tells him that this was once the +throne of the god Indras, and afterwards of King Vikramadityas. The +great king inclines himself in reverence, and one of the puppets +begins to narrate the history of Vikramadityas. + +The history of Vikramadityas, narrated by the puppets, refers to a wise +child, born of the wife of the king, after she had eaten a cake made of +earth mixed with oil, and dissolved in water in a porcelain vase (of +which cake the servant-maid eats the remainder). The young Vikramadityas +passes his infancy in the forests, where he learns all the arts, not +excluding the art of thieving, taught him by the most experienced +robbers, as well as every kind of mercantile fraud; by cheating, he +becomes possessed of an enchanted gem which was in the hip of a dead +man, and of a child who has the faculty of understanding the language of +the wolves, and who calls himself son of the wolves, but was, in fact, +born by the roadside of the maid who had eaten the rest of the cake; +this child is nursed by his mother, and although at first ill-favoured, +becomes in the long run very handsome. Vikramadityas afterwards kills +the king of the demons in battle, in which it is remarkable that as many +new demons arise to combat him as there are pieces into which the hero +cuts the demon, until the hero multiplies himself in his turn, and to +every demon opposes a lion sprung from his own body. Vikramadityas +mounts upon a throne where those who had sat before him had all +perished, each after a reign of twenty-four hours, because they had +omitted to offer up funeral sacrifices to the dead during the night; +Vikramadityas, with his companion, the son of the wolf, fulfils the +sacred duty, and escapes death. + +In the same story, which reminds us of the _Ribhavas_ and the four cups +and the cow, four young shepherds, one after another, work at the same +piece of wood; one gives it the general shape of a woman, the second +colours it, the third imparts the features peculiar to the feminine +form, and the fourth gives it life; they then dispute for her person. +The case is referred to the king; a wise man pronounces that the two +first who worked the wood are the father and mother, the third is the +priest, the fourth, who gave it life, is the legitimate husband. Thus +the four become three, by making a group of the first two. + +Next comes the legend of the wife who, taking her husband by the feet, +makes him fall into a fountain, because she hears a melodious voice, +perhaps an echo of her own, which charms her; she sees a monster +instead, and bewails her lost husband. In zoological mythology, the +fable of the dog who, at the sight of his own shadow, lets the meat +drop into the river, is analogous to this legend, which, however, we +introduce here, only because of its relation to the similar stories of +the wife who kills her husband, and of the husband who kills his wife +by throwing her into the water, already vaguely hinted at in the Vedic +hymns. + +The last of the tales contained in the history of _Ardshi Bordshi_ +shows us, on the other hand, a far too complaisant wife. A king has a +daughter, named Light of the sun, who is to be seen by no one. The +daughter asks to be allowed to go out into the city to walk on the +15th of the month (at full moon); this granted, the king orders every +one to stay that day in his house, and all the doors and windows to be +shut; and capital punishment is the penalty of disobeying the king's +command. (The like occurs again in the British legend of Godiva, the +Countess of Mercia, in the eleventh century.) A minister, Ssaran by +name (moon), cannot repress his curiosity, and observes her from a +balcony; the girl makes signs to him, inviting him to join her; the +wife of the inquisitive minister interprets the signs to him, and +urges him to overtake the beautiful girl, giving him, at parting, a +pearl of recognition. Light of the sun and Light of the moon meet at +the foot of a tree, and spend the night until sunrise in amorous +dalliance. One of the persons employed to guard the princess discovers +this intrigue, and denounces it before the king; the wife of the +minister Ssaran ascertains, by means of the pearl, that her husband is +in danger; she rejoins him, disguises and disfigures him, suggesting a +formula of oath by which Light of the sun swears that it was the +monster, and the monster only she embraced; which seeming impossible +to the king and courtiers, the minister Ssaran and Light of the sun +are acquitted. (The aurora, or the sun, hides during the night, and no +one sees, no one is allowed to see her; the god Lunus shows himself; +he remains during the night with the sun, or with the solar aurora, +whom no one can see during the night; the god Lunus then transforms +and disfigures himself, so that he becomes unrecognisable, invisible; +the guilty one glides away, and escapes; it then seems impossible that +the god Lunus, who is no longer seen, can have been with the light of +the sun; their loves having come to an end, the adulterers being +separated, their guilt is no longer believed, their innocence is +recognised, and the morality of the myth is left to take care of +itself as best it can.) + +But the Calmuc and Mongol stories _Siddhi-kur_, and the history of +_Ardshi Bordshi_, being, as they are, only paraphrases of Hindoo +tales, would not alone suffice to prove the derivation from the +zoological legends of Aryan mythology of the oral Turco-Finnic +tradition, properly speaking. We must, therefore, search for the +proofs of their influence in other quarters as well. + +A Turanian story of the south of Siberia[334] combines together +several of the mythical subjects which we are already acquainted with. + +A poor old man and woman have three sons; the three sons go upon the +mountain to dream; the two eldest dream of riches, and the third dreams +that his father and mother are lean camels, his brothers two hungry +wolves running towards the mountains, while he himself, between the sun +and the moon, wears the morning star upon his forehead. The father +orders the brothers to kill him; they dare not do so; they only expel +him from the house, and kill the dog instead, the blood of which they +take to their father, who, thinking it is his son's, says they have done +well. The young man wanders about till he comes to a hut where a lame +old man and a blind old woman are eating out of a golden cup, which of +itself fills with meat as they empty it (the moon). The hungry youth +helps himself to some of this meat, but the old man finds, as he +continues to eat the food, that some one has put his teeth into it; with +a hook, which he whirls around him, he clutches hold of the young man, +who begs for his life, pledging himself to be the eye of her who has no +eyes, and the foot of him who has no feet. This proposal pleases the old +couple, and they adopt him as their son; he makes himself a bow and a +wooden arrow, and goes to hunt wildfowl for their support. The old man +lends him his iron-grey horse, one day old, but advises him to ride him +only by day; the young man, thinking that by night he conceals +treasures, cattle, and people, disobeys, and rides by night. What the +horse then does we shall see in the next chapter. The youth fights and +vanquishes the demon, by fastening one of his lips to the heavens, and +the other to the earth; the defeated demon advises him to rub himself +with the fat of his stomach; inside his stomach he will find a casket of +silver, inside that a casket of gold, and inside that another casket of +silver; he is to take it and throw it into the sea of milk. From the +monster's stomach, cut open, come forth innumerable animals, men, +treasures, and other objects. Some of the men say, "What noble man has +delivered us from the black night? what noble man has shown us the clear +day?" The youth finds in the caskets money and a white handkerchief, +which he puts into his pocket; from the last casket come forth more men, +animals, and valuables of every kind; he drives the white cattle before +him and returns home, where the old couple are asleep. He opens the +handkerchief, and finds in it the old woman's eyes; whilst he is smoking +near the fire, the old people waken, see him, and embrace him. The old +man then endows him with the power of transforming himself into a fox, a +wolf, a lion, a vulture, and other shapes, at will. He goes, to find for +himself a wife, to the residence of the prince Ai-Kan; the latter +promises to give his daughter to whoever will bring him the necessary +amount of gold. It is in the shape of a vulture[335] that the young man +sets out to search for it; he then wins the young maiden who has the +gold, and she, who is herself the daughter of Ai-Kan, says to him, "Thou +art my husband." After various other transformations, in one of which +the two lean camels reappear, _i.e._, his two parents, of whom he had +dreamt, whom he loads with a sack, he ends by taking to himself another +wife, the daughter of Kuen-Kan, and he lives now with one, now with the +other, to whom he gives the flesh of his own infanticide father to eat. +Let us recapitulate the moments of this significant legend:--1st, We +have the presage, the dream of the mountain-peak; 2d, The three +brothers, the third of whom, predestined to good fortune, the others +wish to sacrifice; 3d, The lame and the blind in the forest; 4th, The +hero's hunt; 5th, The struggle with the monster of night; 6th, The +treasures, spiritual and material, which come out of the monster; 7th, +The cattle in conjunction with the sea of milk; 8th, The passage of the +hero from the milky sea to the fireside, from the alba to the aurora, +from the whitish sky to the reddish one; 9th, The awakening of the +sleepers, and restoration of sight to the blind, whilst he sits by the +fire, whilst the sun is united to the aurora; 10th, The transformation +of the hero himself; 11th, Winning his bride, by procuring the necessary +amount of gold; 12th, His marriage of two wives; 13th, His revenge on +his persecuting father. The legend is in itself an epic poem, and we can +only regret that the Altaic story-tellers did not give it a more +artistic form than that in which it appears in the excellent collection +of Radloff. + +Another interesting Turanian story, in the same collection, which +preserves several traces of the primitive myth, is another version of +the story of the hero who solves the riddle proposed by his +father-in-law, and thus wins his wife. A father has three sons; the +first-born dreams that their cow has devoured a wolf; he goes to see, +and finds it is true (the aurora destroys the night). We have already +seen that, as the third brother is the wise child, so the first-born +of the three is often the one who possesses the secret of solving +riddles. The father of the three brothers wishes to obtain a wife for +his first-born son, and the bride's father, to give her up, demands +that the bridegroom's father should come to take her, arriving, the +first time, with a fur-coat and without one (in the morning the old +man, by the advice of the eldest son, departs wearing a coat of fur +which seems to be one, but is not, being in reality a coat of mail), +and coming, the second time, without touching the road, yet not off +the road, on horseback, yet without horses (the old man, by the advice +again of his first-born son, arrives at the father-in-law's abode, +going on the side of the road, and riding on a stick; thus he obtains +permission to take the bride away for his son). + +Professor Schiefner gives a Finnic variation of the same story. A king +orders the son of a peasant to come neither by day nor by night, +neither by the road nor by the road-side, neither on horseback nor on +foot, neither dressed nor naked, neither inside nor outside. The +intelligent boy makes a robe of goat's skin, goes to the city lying +in the bottom of a coffin, during the morning twilight, having a sieve +fastened to one foot, and a brush to the other, and stops on the +doorstep of the antechamber, with one leg out and the other in. + +Such was the humour, and such the wisdom of our fathers; ingenuity was +measured by skill in solving astronomical riddles. Now the riddles have +taken another form; they are strokes of diplomacy, amorous hieroglyphs, +ethical ambiguities, metaphysical nebulosities, which we, the men of +progress, must solve; but not wishing to acknowledge our inferiority in +acuteness to the children of the legends, we are fain to persuade +ourselves that the new riddles are more obscure than the ancient. + +In the Vedic riddles proposed to one another by the aurora and the sun, +we have seen how they were solved in the morning by the nuptials of the +guesser and the guessee. Thus in the two riddles which we have just +described, the son of the old man and the child solve the riddle in the +morning. As to the sieve, the brush, and the coffin, they are mythical +furniture of great interest and obvious import. The nocturnal sky is the +great coffin; to sweep the sky of night, we must have a brush; to sunder +the good grain from the bad during the night, as the cruel mother-in-law +commands, we must have a sieve; the child-sun arrives, in the twilight, +in the bottom of the coffin, at the doorstep of the royal palace, and +presents to the maiden aurora (the Vedic cleaner or purifier) the brush +and the sieve. The sun, at twilight, is neither in nor out. In the +second Scottish story of Mr J. F. Campbell, the giant commands the hero, +among other things, to cleanse, in one day, the stables which had not +been cleansed for seven years (Herakles and Augeias). + +But let us continue our subject, for the path is a long one. + +A Mongol tradition, contained in the _Mongol Crestomathy_ of +Papoff,[336] speaks of the boy who comes riding upon a black ox, +instead of in a coffin. + +We have seen above the cow who eats the wolf; in another Altaic legend +we find an old woman who gives up her seven azure (dark-coloured) cows +to be eaten by the seven wolves, in order that the latter may spare the +child Kan Puedai, whom she had found at the foot of a tree; meanwhile the +child, who has fed upon two hundred hares,[337] has become strong, and +breaks his iron cradle (the iron sky of night is the cradle of the young +sun); from the horns of six roebucks he makes himself a bow; from the +skin of a colossal marine animal (the cloud, the gloomy one), he makes a +string for the bow (the string of the Hindoo bow is also called _go_, +_i.e._, cow, as a cloud in the sky, and as being formed from the hide of +a cow); he rides upon the azure calf (the dark calf, which recalls our +attention to the black ox, and leads us to conclude the colossal animal +to have been a cow), and subdues and tames it; he then comes to a field +of snow, upon which he breathes a black and numbing wind, and where he +finds the seven wolves; he ties them to the tail of his calf, and drags +them along the ground till they die. The boy continues his wild beast +hunt; he kills the black and fat ones, and leaves the yellow and lean +ones alone. He goes into a black sea, and erects there a black castle, +into which he receives both the old woman who had sustained him, and his +azure (_i.e._, dark-coloured) calf. Thereafter the young Kan Puedai, +applying himself to warfare, forsakes or exchanges his calf for a horse. +We shall see in the next chapter what he does with his horse;--suffice +it to notice here, that, in the end, he meets the black bull, who will +one day be the king of the Altai. The soul of the black bull takes +refuge in a red thread in the middle of the rainbow (in the popular +belief of the East the rainbow was supposed to be a bridge, a road +traversed by the souls of mortals); the young Kan Puedai transfixes it +with his arrows. He wins the white cattle, kills the monstrous Kara +Kula, and, taking the latter's wife and daughter with him, returns home; +and for seven days there is eating, drinking, and festivity in the house +of Kan Puedai. But up to this point it is not said that he has espoused +the daughter and the wife of Kara Kula. Kan Puedai is, on the contrary, +passionately enamoured of Taemaen Oekoe, the daughter of the sky (duhitar +divas, or daughter of the sky, is the name usually given to the aurora +in the Vedic hymns), and ascends, in order to secure her and make her +his wife, to the third heaven (it is the third step of Vishnus; it is +the third brother, the sun of the third night-watch, who carries off the +palm against the gloomy monster). In order to become worthy of the +daughter of the sky, Kan Puedai has to kill two monsters; to scatter +ashes on the field of victory, and lead away from it the white cattle; +to catch the three bears; to take the three black bulls and make them +swallow three hills; to take the tiger and give it the grass of the +three mountains to eat; to kill the whale in the azure sea (all +different forms of one and the same mythical and heroic battle); and, +finally, to play upon the mountain-peak with the golden-haired monster +Andalma. He then obtains his bride, and returns with her to his own +country, where he hunts, and makes war, and vanquishes all his enemies, +until he grows old; he then renounces all except his old companion (the +old sun and the old aurora meet again in the evening). + +Here evidently the mythology is really zoological. + +In the complicated legend of Ai-Kan, we have in the brother Altyn +Ayak, who sleeps in the form of a golden cup, and who awakens to help +Ai-Kan, a figure which, though not the same as, is similar to, that of +the sleeping brother Kumbhakarnas (conch-ear) in the _Ramayanam_, who +awakens to help Ravanas. We have the inebriating liquor which gives +strength to the hero, who is resuscitated three times from death, +after having been the food of dogs; the wolves who devour Sary-Kan, or +the fair-haired prince; the hero (the sun) who beats the wife (the +aurora) given him by the two brothers (the Acvinau); the friendly dog +and cat; the golden cup in which the brother of Ai-Kan is shut up +asleep, and which falls into the sea; the grateful animals which +search for the cup; the gem found in the stomach of a fish (from the +whale of the nocturnal ocean the gem comes forth); and the consequent +awakening of the sleeping Altyn Ayak. + +The following is from an Altaic saga, in the collection of +Radloff:--Beyond the sea, on a rock surrounded with treasures, a dwarf +girl is brought up, against whom aggressive warriors can prevail +nothing. She sends all enemies away, after loading them with gold and +silver, and placing on their heads part of the hair of her forehead, +which proves to be sufficient to cover seven men. In this marvellous +hair, in this enchanted maiden, and in the warriors who come by sea, +who does not recognise the veil of the maiden aurora of the Vedas, who +uncovers her bosom before the sun her husband, and the sea which the +warrior-sun crosses, and from which he emerges to come to the +aurora?--who does not recognise the golden fleece, Jason, Medea, the +Argonauts of Hellenic tradition? + +In the Finnic mythology of the _Kalevala_[338] also, we have upon the +mountain a good and pure hostess, a generous giver, from the golden +windows of whose house are observed the women who give the wildfowl; +but in this Finnic representation, it is not the heroic girl-aurora, +it seems to me, we recognise, but the moon, Diana the huntress (the +German _Helljaeger_), who also appears on the mountain-peak, surrounded +by the stars of the nocturnal forest, where the wildfowl is found, +which she can therefore lavish upon the hero. + +The Finns worship a thundering god, united with the clouds, who has +the thunderbolt for his sword, and who is called Ukko,[339] father of +Vaeinaemoeinen, the valorous and wise hero, who speaks in the womb of his +mother, who performs prodigies when yet a child, and who produces the +sun and the moon. + +This child-hero occurs again in their dwarf-god (_pikku mies_), who, +although, like the Hindoo Vishnus, he is but a span long, wields in his +hand an axe the length of a man, with which he cuts down an oak-tree +that no one had yet been able to bring to the ground. The sun-hero is +little; but his ray, his thunderbolt, his weapon, his hand, lengthen +themselves, extend themselves as far as the dwarf-hero can desire, in +order to destroy the enemy, who wears here the well-known aspect of the +trunk of a tree, or of a dark forest. The woodcutter is therefore a +favourite figure in popular tradition. And the fact that Vaeinaemoeinen, +having grown old and truthful in speech, cuts down in the +_Kalevala_,[340] by the help of the little god, the prodigious oak, +shows us that this little god is a new and junior form, a younger and +victorious brother, or self-reproduction of the erewhile child-hero +Vaeinaemoeinen, who has lived his life of a day. The valiant child-sun of +morning has become the experienced old sun of evening; but as this old +sun is not strong enough to cut down the oak-tree, under whose shadow he +loses himself, he is obliged to become a child again to develope the +requisite amount of strength; he needs a younger brother, a hero or +dwarf-god, to free him from the evil shades of the forest of night. To +this end he also invokes the sun and the moon to illumine the forest, +and also the bear (the middle brother)--(in the _Kalevala_, of the three +heroes it is the bear Ilmarinen who shows the greatest strength, and who +wins the virgin for his bride)--in order that by his strength he may +root up the tree. But to root up the tree is all that bears can do, +while Vaeinaemoeinen wishes it to be cut down; and so this victorious +enterprise is intrusted to the dwarf-god. Thus, without explicit mention +of their names, we find the three brothers described in the entirely +mythical epopee of the Finns. + +Alongside of the dwarf, by force of antithesis, there arises, even in +the Finnic mythology, the idea of a giant, a Titan who amuses himself +with uplifting and hurling rocks and mountains. The cloud, the monster +of darkness, being represented as a mountain, the monster inhabiting +this country must fight by means of the mountain itself. The cloudy +mountain moves; it is a giant monster that moves it; it is the second +brother, the strong brother, the son of the cow, the bear, who amuses +himself with it, who shakes, carries, and throws it like a weapon. And +such mythical battles must have seemed so much the more natural in the +age in which the greater number of the myths were conceived and +produced, as we know it to have been the age which archaeologists call +the age of stone. The sun, as a dwarf, destroys the vast cloud, the +vast darkness, viewed as a giant. + +But battles are not always going on in the heavens; even the wild +animals of the gloomy forest become tame and rest themselves; music +fills the soul with calm sentiments. Therefore even the warrior +Gandharvas of the Hindoo Olympus are transformed into expert +musicians, who entrance the very gods with wonder. The song of the +Sirens attracts and seduces the traveller; the lyre of Orpheus draws +after it mountains, trees, and animals; the harp of Vaeinaemoeinen, in +the _Kalevala_, makes the wolf forget his ferocity, the bear his +wildness, the fish his coldness. And it is grief which is the first +inspirer of song; the first stanza of the poet Valmikis had its origin +in the sorrow he felt upon seeing a bird bereft of its companion. +Orpheus (the Thracian sun) sings and plays for grief, when the serpent +(the shade of night) has bitten and thrown into the gloomy regions his +sweet bride Eurydice (the aurora), and moves the demons to pity; the +harp of Vaeinaemoeinen is also born of sorrow.[341] + +The epopee of the Finns contains, moreover, several other myths cognate +with those of Aryan mythical tradition;--such as the resuscitated hero; +the winning of the maiden by display of heroism; the bride heroically +won and afterwards cut in pieces; the cup of abundance, or the +cornucopia (the Sampo); the golden cradle; the marvellous vessel in +which the hero crosses the sea; the three sisters, of whom one gives +black milk, one white, and one red (night, the alba or moon, and +aurora); the invulnerable shirt; the magician who makes children of gold +and silver; and others of secondary importance,[342] but all tending to +prove that formerly the Turanian and Aryan races, in their neighbouring +abodes, were originally much more similar to each other than they now +appear, on account of partly diversity of language, and partly their +different degrees of civilisation. + +I have just named the Finnish Sampo as a cup of abundance or +cornucopia; it does, in fact, yield marvellous abundance to whoever +possesses it, and wherever it falls. It is made of the feather of a +swan, or of a duck (the swan and the duck are, as we shall see, +confounded together in tradition, and the duck, like the hen, is a +symbol of abundance), of a tuft of wool, of a grain of corn, and of +chips from a spindle, all evident symbols of abundance; and it becomes +so large that it has to be carried by a hundred-horned ox (reminding +us of the horns of the cow which spin). The ox bears abundance upon +its horns, it yields abundance from its horns. The cornucopia is, in +my mind, unmistakably implied in these mythical data. + +The same mythical correspondence which we have found to exist between +the Finnic epos and the various legendary Aryan traditions is observable +between the latter and the Esthonian popular tales. In the collection of +Frederic Kreuzwald[343] we find numerous proofs of this correspondence. + +In the first story we have, in a hut in the forest, three sisters, of +whom the youngest is the most beautiful. The old witch, her +step-mother, persecutes her, and always gives her filaments of gold to +spin, hiding from time to time the gold she has spun in a secret room. +During the summer the old woman goes out of the house, no one knows +where, after having apportioned their respective tasks to the three +sisters. While the old woman is out, a young prince, having lost +himself in the forest, finds his way to the hut, and becomes enamoured +of the youngest of the three sisters. The young couple speak to each +other of love in the light of the moon and of the stars; while the old +king, impatient at the absence of his son, falls into grief, and sends +everywhere to look for him. After three days he is found; before going +back to the palace, he secretly promises to the youngest sister that +he will return. Meanwhile the old woman comes back, finds the work +badly done, curses, threatens, and maltreats the girl. Early in the +morning, while the old woman and the two elder sisters are slumbering, +the maiden slips out, and leaves the house. During her childhood she +had learned the language of birds; accordingly, when she meets a crow, +she salutes him by the name of "bird of light," and sends him as a +messenger to the young prince, to warn him not to come back to see +her, on account of the fury of the old woman. The prince then names +her another trysting-place, and the young couple meet under a tree, +between the second and third crowing of the cock; and when the sun +rises, they flee away together. The old witch causes them to be +followed by a ball made of nine evil herbs, and carried by malignant +winds. The fugitives are overtaken on the banks of a river, where the +ball strikes the prince's horse; it rears up on its hind legs, and the +girl falls off into the river, into the hands of a marine monster; +upon which the prince is struck by a disease which no one can cure. By +eating the flesh of a hog, the prince acquires a knowledge of the +language of birds; he sends the swallows as messengers to the magician +of Finland, that he may teach him the way to free a girl who has been +transformed into a pond-rose (lotus-flower). The answer, instead of +being brought by the swallows, is brought by an eagle. The prince must +become a shrimp, in order to enter the water without being drowned; he +must detach the lotus by its root, draw it along the surface of the +water to the bank, near a stone, and pronounce these words, "From the +pond-rose, a maiden--from the shrimp, a man." The crow confirms the +eagle's words. The prince hears a song issue from the rose; he then +determines to deliver the girl. The two young people emerge together +from the water. The maiden is ashamed of being naked, and the prince +goes to procure nuptial robes for her; after which he conducts her to +the palace in a beautiful chariot, where a joyous and gorgeous +wedding-festival is celebrated. Soon afterwards the old witch dies, to +appear again in the form of a cat, which is taken by the tail and +flung into the fire. In the witch's house are found mountains of spun +gold, which serve for the dowry of the three sisters. We have already +said that the three sisters correspond to the three brothers, and the +youngest sister to the youngest brother. The epithet of _young_ is +often given to the Vedic aurora, whom the sun marries. Here the prince +marries the youngest of the three sisters; the morning aurora is +united to the sun. Towards night she falls into the water; it is the +witch (night) who throws her in; the hog which the prince (the sun) +eats we shall see to be a figurative representation of the nocturnal +monster, or the moon. Eating the hog, staying in the forest of night, +the prince learns the language of birds. The prince frees the maiden +from the waters; the sun delivers the aurora from the gloomy ocean of +night, and robes her in his splendour, causing the witch of night to +be burned in the flames of the aurora, and taking from the witch's +abode the spun gold or golden fleece. + +In the third Esthonian story, a woman, called mother-of-gold, bears, +by the favour of a dwarf, three dwarf-sons at the same time, who +become three heroes. The first is the seer (the wise brother), the +second has a ready arm (the strong brother), the third runs swiftly in +the race (a quality distinctive of the third brother, Argunas, in the +_Mahabharatam_, and which is applicable to the victorious sun of +morning, who wins the race, together with the aurora). + +A variation of the story relating to the youngest sister and the dwarf +is that of the girl seven years old, the wise girl (the aurora), in the +fourth Esthonian tale, who, being persecuted by her step-mother, retires +into the forest (the night). While there, it seems to her that she is in +heaven, where, in a house of crystal and pearls, she is received by a +well-dressed woman of gold (the fair-haired moon). The girl asks the +golden woman to be allowed to take care of the cattle, like the cowmaid +aurora. In the history of _Ardshi Bordshi_ we have seen the wise +puppet. This form of the wise girl, the dressed girl of wood, occurs +again in the Esthonian story; in which she is made of wood from the +forest, of three anchovies, of bread, of a black serpent, and of the +blood of the girl herself, to whom the image has a great likeness, and +which may be beaten by the old step-mother without being hurt. From the +forest-tree, wood, or wooden box of the night, with the juice of the +black serpent of night and the blood of the girl aurora of evening, +comes forth the maiden aurora of morning, the wise, the speaking puppet, +the puppet who guesses the riddles. The girl who comes out of wood is +represented as a wooden puppet; more frequently the puppet is the moon, +the wise fairy who comes out of the forest. In the same story we have +the magic rod which produces a cock upon the mountain, beside which a +tablecloth spreads itself out, while the chairs range themselves in +their places, and the dishes are filled of their own accord. The story +ends with the usual marriage between the beautiful maiden, and a king's +son returning from the chase (or the son who comes out of the forest of +night, viewed as infested by ferocious animals). + +In the sixth Esthonian tale, the poor girl finds a woman in a white +robe (the moon), adorned with gold, upon a rock near a fountain, who +announces her approaching marriage with a youth as poor as herself; +but the good fairy godmother--for in the legends the godmother is +represented as good, as the stepmother is wicked--promises to make +them both rich and happy. She calls herself the lady of the waters, +secret wife of the wind, and she judges the criminals who present +themselves at her tribunal (Proserpina or Persephone). + +In the seventh tale, a boy nine years of age, the third son of two +poor people, goes out to be a cowherd; his master treats him well, but +his mistress gives him more floggings than bread. One day the young +cowherd is unfortunate enough to lose a cow; he searches for it all +through the forest, but in vain. He re-enters the house with the +cattle, after the sun has set some time. The observant eye of his +mistress perceives at once that there is a cow missing; she beats the +boy without pity, and sends him out to look for it, threatening to +kill him if he returns without it. He wanders through the forest; but +when the sun arises from out the bosom of the dawn, he resolves to +stay out of the house, and not to return to his persecutor (the young +morning sun flees from the old and perverse night). In the evening, +the boy finds an old dwarf, who is his host during the night (the +moon), and who says to him, "When the sun rises to-morrow, carefully +observe the spot in which he rises. Thou must go in that direction, so +that every morning thou may'st have the sun before thee, and every +evening the sun behind thee. Thus thy strength will increase more and +more every day." How can one indicate better the apparent course of +the solar hero, or of the sun in the night? The hero, in order to go +towards the morning sun, must necessarily have the sun of evening +behind him. The old dwarf also gives him a sack and a little barrel, +in which he will always find the food and drink he requires; but he +recommends him never to eat or drink more than is necessary, that he +may have to give to a hungry bird or a thirsty wild beast. He also +leaves him a rolled-up leaf of burdock, upon which, by rolling it out, +he will always be able to cross water (a new form of the cup). We know +how the Hindoos represented their god as floating upon a lotus-leaf in +the midst of the waters, and how Padmagas (born of the lotus-flower, +or the rose of the waters, which shuts during the night) was one of +the names of Brahman; here we have the god or hero shutting himself up +in the flower, from which he afterwards comes out. In the chapters on +the Serpent and the Frog we shall again see how the god sometimes +shuts himself up in a monstrous form in this flower, the rose, on +account of a curse from which he is to be freed by a beautiful maiden. +We have seen how the Esthonian girl, who was by the curse of the old +woman thrown into the water, was transformed into a water-rose or +lotus-flower, and delivered by the young prince. The Esthonian boy +finds himself before a small lake; he throws the leaf in, and it +becomes a magical boat, which carries him over. Meanwhile he has +become strong. Upon the mountain he sees a serpent, a tortoise, and an +eagle, all three of enormous dimensions, approaching to attack him, +with a man upon a black horse, which has wings on its feet, in the +rear of them. He kills the serpent and the tortoise, but the eagle +flies away. The man with the black horse takes the boy into his house, +and appoints him to look after the dogs, that they may not get loose +from their chains, a danger against which the man provides by making +twelve colossal oxen fetch rocks upon rocks, to repair the damage done +by the dogs. The rocks, touched by a magical rod, arrange themselves +upon the car drawn by the oxen. At last, by the advice of the eagle, +he steals his master's horse, and departs to sojourn among mankind, +taking a wife with him. + +In the eighth Esthonian story too, the third brother is the cunning one. +His two elder brothers, after the death of their father, despoil him of +his share of the inheritance, and he is reduced to wander alone and +impoverished about the world in quest of good fortune. He falls in with +a woman who complains to him that her husband regularly beats her when +she is unable to procure for him the things he wants, which he asks for +in the form of a riddle. The third brother solves the enigma for the +woman (the moon), who, in gratitude, gives him provisions for his +travels. He then comes to a palace, where the king is engaged in +celebrating a summer festival, and he undertakes to provide and prepare +the feast. A magician presents himself at the festival in the shape of +an old man, and asks to taste the food. The young man suspects him, but, +seeing a ring upon his finger, he consents to allow him if he gives him +a pledge. The magician vows that he has nothing to give. The youth asks +for his ring, and the old man in his gluttony at once gives it up; upon +which the youth, who, along with the ring, has taken all the magician's +strength away, first binds and derides him, and then has him beaten by +seven strong men. The old man breaks the ropes and disappears; however, +the young man, having the ring in his hands, possesses the means of +tracking his footsteps and making him his. (This is the usual disc, +lasso, or bridle which is now in the hands of the hero, now in those of +the monster.) The youth follows the magician underground. The latter, it +appears, is served by three maidens, who, when they perceive that the +sorcerer has lost his ring, and that they have a young man for +companion, enjoy themselves with him while the magician is asleep. The +youth learns from them that the old wizard also possesses a sword which +can destroy armies, and a magical rod which can create a bridge to span +the sea; these, therefore, he steals, and departs, returning by a +wonderful bridge thrown over the sea to the palace whence he had +started. It seems to him as if his journey had lasted only two nights, +instead of which a year has passed.[344] He finds on his arrival his +two brothers in the king's service, one as coachman and the other as a +valet, both enriched because they have received the pay due to their +younger brother for having prepared the great feast. The young man now +engages himself in another capacity, in a species of service especially +dear to the young hero, next to those of stable-boy and cowherd; that is +to say, he becomes under-cook of the king. (In the _Virata-Parvam_ of +the _Mahabharatam_, it is the second of the brothers who disguises +himself as a cook, in order to prepare good sauces and substantial food +for the king whose guest he is; the elder brother is disguised as a +Brahmanas, a wise adviser; the third brother, Argunas, the agile, the +swift one, pretends to be a eunuch, is given in exchange for a woman, +and teaches dancing, music, and singing in the gynecium. Of the two sons +of the Acvinau, one becomes a groom, the other a cowherd.) His brothers +continue to dislike him, and because he boasts to them that he had seen +in hell golden birds, they induce the king to send him to hell in order +to procure them. He accomplishes this undertaking with great difficulty, +and brings the birds in a sack made of spiders' webs, which is so strong +that the birds enclosed in it cannot extricate themselves. In the same +sack, during another expedition, the young man brings from hell many +precious objects of gold and silver. In compensation, he only asks of +the king to send the princess, his daughter, to listen for one evening +to the conversation of his two brothers the coachman and the valet. Both +boast of having enjoyed to satiety the favours of the princess. The +latter, indignant and full of shame, runs to tell the king everything, +upon which he arraigns them before him and has them judged. The third +brother is named Counsellor; with his enchanted sword he destroys an +entire army of enemies, and obtains in reward for his services and his +valour the king's daughter to wife. + +The ninth Esthonian story presents to us the son of the thunder, who +sells his soul to the devil, on condition that the latter serves him +for seven years. The time agreed upon is nearly come to an end, and +the son of the thunder wishes to escape from him, and profits by an +opportunity which has chanced. The devil sees a black cloud, which is +a sign of an approaching tempest; he is afraid, hides himself under a +stone, and asks the son of the thunder to keep him company. The latter +consents; but seeing that the devil is afraid, at each thunderclap he +presses his ears and eyes in such a manner as to make him perspire and +shiver all over. The devil, believing this to be the effect of the +thunder, promises the son of the thunder that he will not only leave +him his soul, but give him three other souls, if he will deliver him +from the evils which he suffers on account of the thunder, by taking +from the thundering god, the father of the clouds, his weapon (which +is also a musical instrument). This weapon, having been ravished from +the god, is taken by the devil into hell, into a chamber of iron, shut +up within seven castles. A great drought coming upon the earth, the +son of the thunder repents of having rendered such a service to the +devil; he finds means, however, of informing the thunder-god where his +weapon is concealed. The thunder-god then becomes a child, and engages +himself in the service of a fisherman, near a lake which the devil is +accustomed to visit to steal the fishes. He surprises him in the act +of robbery, and by the help of a magician takes him prisoner, and has +him beaten without pity, until he promises to pay a heavy ransom in +money to be let free, the fisherman and his child to accompany him to +hell itself to receive the sum of money. Arrived in hell, the devil +entertains them like a gentleman. The child tells the fisherman to ask +the devil to show them the musical instrument which he keeps enclosed +in the iron room. The devil kindly consents, but cannot draw from the +instrument anything more musical than the mewing of a cat or the +grunting of a pig. The fisherman then laughs at the devil, and says +that his boy can play better. The devil does not believe it, and +laughingly gives the instrument, which he calls bagpipes, to the boy. +The latter blows into them and makes such a noise that all hell +resounds with it, and the devils fall to the earth as if dead. The +child then becomes the god of thunder again, and returns to heaven, +where by the noise of his instrument he opens the celestial reservoirs +and lets out the beneficent rain. The description of the tempest which +occurs in many Vedic hymns is the germ of this interesting myth. The +drum or kettledrum thunder is a familiar image in Hindoo poetry, and +the Gandharvas, the musician-warriors of the Hindoo Olympus, have no +other instrument than the thunder. The conch of the warrior Pandavas +in the _Mahabharatam_, and the famous horn of Orlando (which comes +from the golden horn of Odin), are epical reminiscences of thunder. +Orpheus, who in hell plays on his lyre and tames the animals, is a +more lucid and more perfect form of this Esthonian thunder-god who +plays the bagpipes in hell. It is also remarkable how, in harmony with +the pastoral bagpipes, in the tenth Esthonian story, which is a +variation of the preceding one, the god transformed into a powerful +boy is called a little shepherd or cowherd--another interesting fact, +which completes his identification with Orpheus.[345] The magic flute +is a variation of the same celestial musical instrument. The magic +flute, the bagpipes or wonderful pipe, occurs again in the +twenty-third Esthonian story, in which the good Tiidu, by means of it +and of his virtue, obtains riches. The magical harp of Gunnar in the +Edda has the same marvellous effects. + +Evidently the monster-dwarf is a favourite subject of Esthonian +tradition, and it often occurs in the Hindoo and in the German +traditions, as well as in the Franco-Latin tradition of Charlemagne. +The eleventh story introduces us to three dwarf-brothers who contend +for the inheritance left by their father, consisting of a miraculous +hat, which enables its wearer to see everything, whilst he can himself +be visible or invisible at pleasure (this hat is made of pieces of +men's nails cut up);[346] of a pair of slippers which transport the +owner in an instant wherever he wishes (we must not forget that +Cinderella, when she loses the slipper, is overtaken by the prince +bridegroom); and of a stick which strikes of itself, and destroys +everything, even stronger than the thunderbolt (the thunderbolt +itself). The three brothers maintain that these three articles, to be +really useful, must be the property of one; but who is to enjoy this +privilege? A man comes up to put an end to the dispute, and feigns +disbelief in the virtue of these three things, unless he proves it +himself. The three simpletons give them to him that he may prove them. +The man takes them off, and the three dwarfs are left to meditate upon +the truth of the above-quoted proverb, "Between two disputers the +third profits," or at least that variation of it which their own case +suggests "Between three that dispute, the fourth profits." + +In the thirteenth Esthonian story, the privileged character of the +third brother is explained, as we are told that he is the son of a +king, but was exchanged by a witch during his infancy for the child of +a peasant. The latter died in the palace, whilst the king's son grew +in the hut, showing in every action his royal pedigree. Here we have +the story of the hero who is exposed on the mountains intimately +connected with that of the third brother. To this third brother, who +alone shows himself to be devoted to his father, and who alone makes a +vow to watch by his grave, is also attributed the merit of having +delivered, upon a high mountain of crystal, from a seven years' sleep, +a princess, who then becomes his wife. We have seen the +aurora-awakener in the Vedic hymns--the sun and the aurora arouse each +other: the sun sends forth the aurora; the aurora draws out the sun. +The myth reproduces itself every day, and expresses in its entirety a +daily phenomenon of light in the heavens. In Northern countries, where +the contrast is great between winter and spring, and therefore the +impression is striking which is caused by the cessation of vegetation +in autumn, the earth also assumed the aspect of a dead young princess; +but an omniscient magician having said, _Non est mortua puella, sed +dormit_, the third brother, predestined to the enterprise, lays down +his poor robes, and dresses himself, on the first occasion, in the +colour of bronze; on the second, the colour of silver; on the third, +the colour of gold, and ascends the mountain of crystal, or ice, +whence he brings forth the beautiful spring. The sky, grey in autumn, +snowy in winter, and golden in spring, corresponds to the grey sky of +evening, the silver one of night, and the golden one of morning. +Spring is the dawn of the year; the primitive myth is but amplified; +the last hour of the day awakens the aurora; the last month of the +solar year awakens the spring. The application of the myth of the day +to the year is one of the greatest simplicity. + +In the fourteenth story, the king of the golden country loses himself in +the forest full of ferocious animals, and cannot find his way out. A +stranger (no doubt the devil) conducts him out, on condition that he +will give him whatever first comes to meet him. The king promises. The +first thing he sees on his return is his royal child, who, carried by +his nurse, stretches out his arms to his father. The king exchanges him +for a peasant's girl, whom he gives up to the stranger, allowing his own +son to be brought up among the peasant's herds. The king's son, having +grown to manhood, determines to go and deliver the poor girl. He +disguises himself as a poor man, puts a sack of peas on his shoulders, +and goes into the forest where his father was lost eighteen years +before. He also loses himself, and meets the stranger, who promises to +direct him if he will give him the peas which are in the sack, as they +will serve, he alleges, to recompense the assistants at the funeral of +his aunt, who died in poverty during the night.--This pulse in funeral +ceremonies refers to a very ancient custom. The Vedic ceremonials +already mention them in connection with funerals; and in the Greek +belief, the dead carried vegetables with them to hell, either for the +right of passage or as provisions for travelling. In Piedmont, it is +still the custom on the second of November (All Soul's Day) to make a +great distribution of kidney-beans to the poor, who pray for the souls +of the dead. Vegetables, peas, vetches, and kidney-beans are symbols of +abundance, and to this belief may be traced the numerous Indo-European +stories in which mention is made of beans which multiply themselves in +the pipkin, or of peas which grow up to the sky, and up the stalk of +which the hero climbs to heaven. The vegetables necessary for being +introduced into the kingdom of the dead, and the pea by means of which +the hero enters heaven, are variations of the same mythical subject. In +Hindoo tradition, besides the pea or kidney-bean, we have the pumpkin as +a symbol of abundance, which is multiplied infinitely, or which mounts +up to heaven. The wife of the hero Sagaras gives birth to a pumpkin, +from which afterwards come forth sixty thousand sons. The kidney-bean, +the pea, the vetch, the common bean, and the pumpkin are also symbols of +generation, not only on account of the facility with which they +multiply, but also on account of their form. We have seen in the Vedic +ceremonials what organs are represented by the two kidney-beans; we +shall also see, in the chapter on the Ass, how the names given to the +organs of generation are also used to designate fools. Now, it is worthy +of notice that the Sanskrit word _mashas_ (or kidney-bean) also +signified the foolish, the stolid one, in the same way as in Piedmont a +_bonus vir_ is called a kidney-bean. Thus, too, the pumpkin, which +expresses fecundity, also means, in Italian, idiocy or stupidity. As to +beans, I have already remarked, in my work upon "Nuptial Usages," upon +their symbolical meaning, and cited the Russian and Piedmontese custom +of putting a black and a white bean into the cake eaten at Epiphany, one +of which represents the male and the other the female, one the king and +the other the queen. The two who find the beans kiss each other with +joyful auguries. As all these vegetables personify the moon, which we +know to be considered as a giver of abundance, and which, by its form of +a turning ball, can well be represented by the turning pea, in this +personification we must search for the solution of the principal myths +relating to vegetables.--The young prince of the Esthonian story, having +obtained the stranger's favour in the gloomy forest by means of the +peas, engages himself in his service, with intent to deliver the girl +who had freed him by taking his place with the stranger during eighteen +years. He therefore follows him; but on the way he lets a pea fall to +the ground from time to time, in order to know the way back. He is +conducted by a strange and wild subterranean passage, where silence as +of the tomb reigns--it is, in fact, the kingdom of the dead--where birds +have the appearance of wishing to sing, dogs to bark, and oxen to low, +but cannot, and where the water flows without a murmur. The young prince +feels in his heart a kind of anguish; the universal stillness in the +midst of animated beings oppresses him. Having passed the region of +silence, they come to that of deafening noise. The young prince thinks +he hears the excruciating din of twenty-four saws at work; but the old +stranger tells him that it is only his grandmother who has fallen +asleep, and is snoring. At last they come to the stranger's dwelling, +where the prince finds the beautiful maiden, but the old stranger will +not let him speak. He sees in the stable a white horse and a black cow, +with a white or luminous-headed calf. This cow the young prince is +ordered to milk until there is not a drop of milk in its breast; instead +of milking it with his fingers, he, by the advice of the girl, uses for +that purpose red-hot pincers. Another time the youth is told to lead +away the enchanted calf with the white or luminous head. In order that +it may not escape, the girl gives him a magic thread, of which one end +is to be tied to the left leg of the calf, and the other to the little +toe of the prince's left foot.--The little finger, although the +smallest, is the most privileged of the five. It is the one that knows +everything; and in Piedmont, when the mothers wish to make their +children believe that they are in communication with a mysterious spy, +who sees everything that they do, they are accustomed to awe them by the +words, "My little finger tells me everything."--At last the two young +people resolve to flee. Before starting, the prince splits open the +forehead of the white-headed calf; from its skull comes forth an +enchanted little red ball, which shines like a small sun. He wraps it +up, leaving part of it uncovered to light the way, and flees away with +the girl. Being followed by malignant spirits, who are sent by the old +man to follow them, the two fugitives, by means of the enchanted little +ball (or pearl), turned round three times, become, first the one a pond +and the other a fish, then the one a rose-bush and the other a rose, +then again the one a breeze and the other a gnat, until the stone which +covers the entrance to the subterranean world having been lifted up, +they arrive again safe and happy upon the earth; and by means of the +little red ball, they show themselves to mankind in splendid and +princely robes. I scarcely think it necessary to explain to the reader +the sense of this lucid mythical story. The black cow which produces the +calf with the white or luminous head is a Vedic antithesis which we have +already seen;[347] the cow (night) produces the calf (the moon). The +prince takes the little red ball out of the calf; by means of this ball, +the girl is delivered from the regions of gloom. The little ball moves +the stone; the sun and the aurora come out together from the mountain, +after having travelled together in the kingdom of shadows; the sun +delivers the aurora. This story unites together and puts in order +several myths of an analogous character, but born separately. + +The three next stories describe other voyages made by the solar hero to +heaven, or in hell, and end by meaning the same thing. In the eighteenth +story we again find the enchanted ring, called Solomon's ring, which the +young hero goes to search for; when he finds it, by taking it from the +daughter of hell, and puts it on his finger, he is of a sudden endowed +with such strength that he can split a rock with one blow of his fist. +The little red ball of the story just described, which lifts up the +rock, and this ring which splits the stone, represent the same mythical +object, _i.e._, the sun, the sun's ball or disc. + +The twenty-first story shows us the fearless hero who frees a castle +from the presence of the demons, and who thus gains a treasure; riches +are the reward of valour. + +The twentieth Esthonian story is a variation of the exceedingly +popular tale of Blue Beard, the killer of his wives. The Esthonian +monster-husband has already killed eleven, and is about to murder the +twelfth, by way of punishing her for having, against his express +prohibition, visited the secret room opened by the golden key (perhaps +the moon), when a youth who takes care of the goslings, the friend of +her childhood, comes to deliver her. From the subject itself, and the +expressions used in this story, we can discover the origin of the +terrible charivari in the nuptials of widowers or widows. This savage +custom is intended not only to deride the lust of the old man or woman +who marries again, but to warn the girl who marries the one, or the +youth who marries the other, of the possibility of a fate similar to +the first wife or husband. When, therefore, the wife _apatighni_ (who +does not kill her husband) is praised to the Vedic husband, we must +understand that the _patighni_ (or killer of her husband) is a widow, +whom no one must marry, as being suspected of murder. Hence, to free +herself from this suspicion, an honest Hindoo wife (like Gudrun in the +Edda) was to throw herself into the fire after the death of her +husband; the evening aurora, after the death of the sun, dies too. + +In the twenty-second story we have once more the myth of the young +pastoral hero; he is the son of a king. By the order of his +step-mother, a witch, who carries off shepherds, steals him from the +palace during his infancy, and abandons him in a solitary place, where +he is brought up by cowherds, and becomes himself an excellent +cowherd. An old man finds him and says, looking at him and at the +cattle, "Thou dost not seem to me born to remain a cowherd." The boy +answers that he knows he was born to command, and adds, "Here I learn +the duties of a commander by anticipation. If things go well with the +quadrupeds, I shall also prosper with bipeds." The shepherd is +therefore a little king; a good shepherd will become a good king. The +boy goes through several adventures, in which he displays his valour. +A wicked German lady wishes to take from him the strawberries which he +has plucked. He defends himself bravely; his mistress persecutes him; +and he takes twelve wolves, shuts them up in a cavern, and each day +gives them a lamb to eat, in order to avenge himself upon his wicked +mistress, to whom he simply says that the wolves have devoured them. +At last he causes her to be devoured herself by the wolves, who eat +her all up, leaving only the heart (the sun) and the tongue, which are +too full of venom for the wolves of the night, because they burn their +mouths. At the age of eighteen, the youth has several other +adventures. He becomes enamoured of a gardener's daughter, and is +found again by the king his father, who, before allowing him to marry +the beautiful gardener's daughter, wishes to prove that they are +predestined to each other. He cuts a ring in two with his sword, and +gives one part to the young prince and the other to the maiden; the +two halves must be preserved by both, and one day they will meet of +themselves and form again the whole ring, in such a manner that it +will be impossible to find the place where it was broken.--In a Tuscan +story, the beautiful maiden gives half her necklace to the third +brother. The young couple lose each other; their meeting again and +mutual recognition take place when the two parts of the necklace join +each other. The use of the wedding-ring has a mythical origin. The +solar (and sometimes the lunar disc) is the ring which unites the +heavenly husband and wife.--When, after other adventures, the two +young people of the Esthonian story join together the two halves of +their ring, their misfortunes come to an end; they marry and live +together happily, whilst the cruel step-mother, who meanwhile has +become a widow, is expelled from the kingdom. + +The last Esthonian story tells of the extraordinary births, in the same +day, of a handsome prince and a beautiful princess. The princess is born +in a bird's egg, laid like a pearl in the bosom of the queen; she has at +first the form of a living puppet, and afterwards, when warmed in wool, +she becomes a real girl. Whilst she undergoes this transformation, the +queen also gives birth to a beautiful boy. The two children are +considered as twins, and baptized together. To the baptism of the girl +there comes as godmother, in a splendid chariot drawn by six horses, a +young woman dressed in rose-coloured and golden robes, who shines like +the sun, and who, as she lets her veil drop, like the beautiful Argive +Helen, fills the bystanders with admiration. [The aurora, who, before +appearing in the form of a beautiful girl, is enclosed in the wood of +the forest, is a wooden puppet, and becomes a wooden puppet once more +when, fleeing from the sun, she hides herself in a creeping-plant, like +the Hindoo Urvaci (the first of the dawns), or in a laurel-plant, like +the Hellenic Daphne (the Vedic Dahana-aurora). The aurora is born +together with the sun; the beautiful doll-maiden is born with the little +prince. The mother and the beneficent godmother seem to be the moon, or +a more ancient aurora.] The mother, dying, leaves her daughter, putting +it upon her breast, a gem which is to bring her happiness; that is, the +little basket which contained the bird's egg, with the eggshell itself. +By means of the magical little basket, and by pronouncing some magic +words, the maiden can find all that she searches or wishes for. The +young man and woman end by marrying each other, having discovered that, +although both born of a king, they are children of different fathers; +they marry, and the little basket of happiness mysteriously disappears. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[267] _Anquetil du Perron, Zendavesta_, ii. p. 545. + +[268] Misit itaque Deus justissimus citissime Angelum Behman quasi +esset fumus (jubendo): Ito et bovem rubrum accipiens mactato in nomine +Dei qui prudentiam dat; eumque coquito in aceto veteri, et cave +accurate facias, allio ac ruta, superadditis; et in nomine Dei ex olla +effundito: deinde coram eo adpone ut comedat. Cumque portiunculam +panis in illud friasset, Diabolus ille maledictus inde aufugit, abiit, +evanuit et disparuit, nec deinde, illum aliquis postea vidit; +_Sadder_, p. 94.--The Russian peasants still believe that a household +devil, the damavoi, enters into the stable, who, during the night, +mounts on horses and oxen and makes them sweat and grow lean.--Cfr. +also, on the _Damavoi_, Ralston's _Songs of the Russian people_, +London, 1872, pp. 119-139. + +[269] Cfr. Spiegel's _Avesta_, vol. ii.; _Einleitung_, vii. + +[270] Cfr. Spiegel's _Avesta_, vol. ii. 21. + +[271] x. 11. + +[272] xxix. + +[273] Cfr. Spiegel's _Avesta_, vol. ii. p. 8. + +[274] xix. 99-101. Professor Spiegel translates "Mit dem Hunde, mit +Entscheidung, mit Vieh, mit Staerke, mit Tugend, diese bringt die +Seelen der Reinen ueber den Harabezaiti hinweg: ueber die Bruecke Chinvat +bringt sie das Heer der himmlischen Yazatas." + +[275] Cows and calves, as a funeral gift, are spoken of in the _Khorda +Avesta_, li. 15, Spiegel's version. + +[276] Cfr. also the Tistrya with a whole eye of the _Khorda Avesta_ of +Spiegel, p. 9, and all the _Tistar Yast_ in the _Khorda Avesta_, xxiv. +If Tistar is the moon, Tistrya would appear to perform the same duties +as the good fairy--that is, of showing, by means of her good eyes, her +good eyesight, and her splendour, the way to the lost heroes. The +Hindoo cow of Vasishthas, which yields every good thing, and which +then fights in the clouds against Vicvamitras, would sometimes appear +to be the moon veiled by the rainy cloud; thus we can explain the +rain-giving character of the star Tistrya, which, according to the +_Bundehesh_, by raining ten days and ten nights, destroyed the +monsters of dryness created by the demon Agro-mainyus. + +[277] xxxix. 1. + +[278] xvii. 25. + +[279] Spiegel's version, p. 149.--Cfr. the three litanies for the body +and soul of the cow, in the fragments of the same vol. p. 254. + +[280] _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's version, _Einl._ x. + +[281] Spiegel's version, p. 4. + +[282] These are the exact terms used by Spiegel:--"Dieser opferte der +fruehere Vifra-navaza, als ihn aufrief der siegreiche, starke +Thraetaona, in der Gestalt eines Vogels, eines Kahrkaca. Dieser flog +dort waehrend dreier Tage und dreier Naechte hin zu seiner eigenen +Wohnung, nicht abwaerts, nicht abwaerts gelangte er genaehrt. Er ging +hervor gegen die Morgenroethe der dritten Nacht, der starken, beim +Zerfliessen der Morgenroethe und betete zur Ardvi Cura, der +fleckenlosen; Ardvi Cura, fleckenlose! eile mir schnell zu Huelfe, +bringe nun mir Beistand, ich will dir tausend Opfer mit Haoma und +Fleisch versehene, gereinigte, wohl ausgesuchte, bringen hin zu dem +Wasser Ragha, wenn ich lebend hinkomme zu der von Ahura geschaffenen +Erde, hin zu meiner Wohnung. Es lief herbei Ardvi Cura, die +fleckenlose, in Gestalt eines schoenen Maedchens, eines sehr kraeftigen, +wohlgewachsenen, aufgeschuerzten, reinen, mit glaenzendem Gesichte, +edlen, unten am Fusse mit Schuhen bekleidet, mit goldnem Diadem auf +dem Scheitel. Diese ergriff ihm am Arme, bald war das, nicht lange +dauerte es, dass er hinstrebte kraeftig zu von Ahura geschaffenen Erde, +gesund, so unverletzt als wie vorher, zu seiner eignen Wohnung;" +_Khorda Avesta_, pp. 51, 52. + +[283] Welche zuerst den Wagen faehrt; _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's +version, p. 45. + +[284] Professor Spiegel says, however, "Vom Aufgang der Sonne bis +Tagesanbruch," which in a note he explains, "Vom Sonnenaufgang bis +Mitternacht," which it appears to us cannot stand scrutiny, any more +than the conclusion inferred from this, that the sacrifice was to be +made "den ganzen Tag hindurch." Zarathustra would not have been obliged +to ask the precise time at which to sacrifice to the goddess, if she was +to answer him in such a general way. What occasion is there to pray in +midday, in full daylight, that the darkness may be dispersed?--If there +be any equivoque, it can only be, in my opinion, in the rather frequent +exchange of the maiden Aurora and the fairy Moon. + +[285] Cfr. _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's version, pp. 7, 27. + +[286] xix. 52. + +[287] Cfr. the chapter which treats of the Cock. + +[288] Cfr. _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's version, _Einl._ xxv., and all +the important _Mirh Yast_, or collection of hymns in honour of Mithra, +in the _Khorda Avesta_, xxvi. + +[289] Cfr. _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's version, _Einl._ xxxiii., and the +_Bahram Yast_ in the _Khorda Avesta_, xxx. 7, Spiegel's version. It is +then that he says of himself, "As to strength, I am the strongest." +Further on it is said that strength belongs to the bull (or the cow). + +[290] In a hymn, Indras even calls himself Ucana, with the added +denomination of kavis; Aham kavirucana: _Rigv._ iv. 26, 1. + +[291] _Vendidad_, xxii. 11. + +[292] Chap. ix. + +[293] Cfr. _Farvardin Yast_ in the _Khorda Avesta_, xxix. 30, +Spiegel's version. + +[294] Cfr. _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's version, _Einleit._ xxxiv., and +the _Ram Yast_ in the _Khorda Avesta_, xxxi. 40.--The 57th strophe +appears to be a real Vedic hymn to the Marutas; the wind is celebrated +as the strongest of the strong, the swiftest of the swift, having arms +and ornaments of gold, a golden wheel and a golden chariot; his golden +shoes and his girdle of gold besides show his sympathy and relation +with the Ardvi Cura Anahita, who, in the form of aurora, is referred +to in the 55th strophe. + +[295] Cfr. _Khorda Avesta_, p. lxix. + +[296] Cfr. ibid. p. lxi. + +[297] Denn Verethraghna, der von Ahura geschaffene, haelt die Haende +zurueck der furchtbaren Kampfesreihen, der verbuendeten Laender und der +mithratruegenden Menschen, er umhuellt ihr Gesicht, verhuellt ihre Ohren, +nicht laesst er ihre Fuesse ausschreiten, nicht sind sie maechtig; +_Khorda Avesta._ xxx. 63, Spiegel's version. + +[298] Cfr. the _Mihr Yast_ in the _Khorda Avesta_, xxvi. 128, 129. + +[299] Cfr. ibid. + +[300] Urvaksha is also called the accumulator; _Khorda Avesta_, xl. 3, +Spiegel's version. + +[301] _Khorda Avesta_, p. 155. + +[302] _Khorda Avesta_, xxxiii., Spiegel's version. + +[303] Moegest du reich an Rindern sein wie (der Sohn) de Athvyanischen +(clanes); _Khorda Avesta_, xl. 4, Spiegel's version. + +[304] Soll ich zum Himmel aufsteigen, soll ich in die Erde kriechen? +Darauf entgegnete Ahura Mazda: Schoene Ashi, vom Schoepfer geschaffene! +steige nicht zum Himmel auf, krieche nicht in die Erde; gehe du hieher +in die Mitte der Wohnung eines schoenen Koenigs; _Khorda Avesta_, +xxxiii. 59, 60, Spiegel's version.--Cfr. xxxiv. 3, and following, +where are celebrated the handsome husband of the beautiful Ashis and +his rich kingdom. + +[305] Die Stierkopfkeule in der Rechten schwingend; Schack, +_Heldensagen von Firdusi_, iv. 2.--Cfr. viii. 9. + +[306] Die Donnerwolke bin ich, die Blitzeskeule schleudert; Schack, +_Heldensagen von Firdusi_, v. 5. + +[307] Die Diwe (the demons) pflegen um Mittagszeit zur Ruhe sich zu +legen; das ist die Stunde sie zu besiegen. Nicht eher schreitet Rustem +zu der That, bis sich die Sonne hoch erhoben hat; _Schack, Heldensagen +von Firdusi_, v. 5. + +[308] Ist's Rustem? ist es nicht die Sonne, die durch Morgenwolken +bricht? _Schack, Heldensagen von Firdusi_, vii. 2. + +[309] Indeed, this undertaking seems to the ferryman himself so +supernatural, that he says these cannot be called men: "In Wahrheit, +Menschen kann man sie nicht heissen." _Schack, Heldensagen von +Firdusi_, x. 27. + +[310] Cfr. Spiegel's _Die Alexandersage bei den Orientale_, Leipzig, +1851; and Zacher's _Pseudocallisthenes, Forschungen zur Kritik und +Geschichte der aeltesten Aufzeichnung der Alexandersage_, Halle, 1867. + +[311] Georg Rosen's version, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1858, 2 vols. + +[312] Bernhard Juelg's version, Innsbruck, 1867-1868. + +[313] i. 5. + +[314] i. 6. + +[315] _Tuti-Name_, i. 7. + +[316] _Tuti-Name_, i. 13. + +[317] _Tuti-Name_, i. 14.--Cfr. Afanassieff, _Narodnija ruskija +skaski_, vi. 23. + +[318] iii. 27. + +[319] ii. 17. + +[320] _Tuti-Name_, ii. 19. + +[321] ii. 21. + +[322] ii. 28. + +[323] This story was current in Italy as early as the fifteenth +century, having been related to her son by the mother of the +philosopher and man of letters Pontano, as I find from his biography, +published last year by Professor Tallarigo (Sanseverino-Marche). + +[324] ii. 21. + +[325] _Tuti-Name_, ii. 25. + +[326] ii. 24. + +[327] ii. 26. + +[328] ii. 28. + +[329] ii. 29. + +[330] ii. 29. + +[331] Cfr. also the chapter on the Hog, where we shall expound the +myths and legends relating to disguises. + +[332] Cfr. also the chapters on the Lion and the Fox. + +[333] Cfr. on the story of Perrette, an interesting essay of Professor +Max Mueller in the _Contemporary Review_, 1870. + +[334] Radloff, _Proben der Volkslitteratur der Tuerkischen Staemme +sued-Sibiriens_. + +[335] Professor Schiefner has already compared with this passage a story +published by Ahlquist in his _Versuch einer Mokscha-Mordwinischen +Grammatik_, p. 97. + +[336] Kasan, 1836, quoted by Professor Schiefner in the introduction +to the _Proben_, &c., of Radloff. + +[337] Cfr., for the meaning of this myth, the chapter which treats of +the Hare. + +[338] _Rune_, 7.--Cfr. Castren's _Kleinere Schriften_, Petersburg, +1862, and the French translation of the _Kalevala_, published in 1867 +by Leouzon le Duc. + +[339] I find combined in the _Kleinere Schriften_ of Castren (p. 25) +the same _Ukko_ with the word _Kave_ (_Kave Ukko_). I would with +diffidence ask the learned Finnish philologists, whether, as _Ukko_ is +a Finnish form of the deity whom the Hindoos called Indras, and as the +hero protected by Indras, the hero in whom Indras is reproduced, is +called in the Vedic (and Iranian) tradition _Kavya Ucana_, or even +_Ucana Kavis_, the words _Kave Ukko_ may not have some relation to the +name given to the Vedic and Iranian hero? + +[340] Vaeinaemoeinen, alt und wahrhaft, konnt durch ihn die Eiche faellen; +_Kal._ 24, in Castren's _Kleinere Schriften_, p. 233. + +[341] Nur aus Trauer ward die Harfe, nur aus Kummer sie geschaffen; +harten Tagen ist die Woelbung, ist das Stammholz zu verdanken, nur +Verdruss spannt ihre Saiten, andre Muehsal macht die Wirbel; +_Kanteletar_, i., quoted by Castren in the _Kleinere Schriften_, p. 277. + +[342] The origin of the bad and poor mythical iron, described in the +_Kalevala_, is one of these: the mythical iron is the cloudy or +tenebrous sky. The description is original, but the myths to which it +refers are known to Indo-Europeans; as, for instance, the honey which +becomes poison. + +[343] _Ehsthnische Maerchen_ aufgezeichnet von Fried. Kreuzwald, aus +dem Ehsthnischen, uebersetzt von F. Loewe, with notes by A. Schiefner +and R. Koehler, Halle, 1869. + +[344] This is the phenomenon which occurs in the winter solstice on +Christmas Eve and that of New Year's Day, in which we pass from one +year to another; in one night we become older by a year. + +[345] In a popular Swedish song, the maiden Gundela, who plays +marvellously upon the harp, and, in order to play it, demands the king +to marry her, is also a shepherdess.--Cfr. _Schwedische Volkslieder +der Vorzeit_, uebertragen von Warrens, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1857. + +[346] Cfr. the note of F. Loewe, illustrating this passage, in his +version of the collection of Kreuzwald, pp. 144 and 145.--[This is +also a myth of easy interpretation, if I am not mistaken: at evening, +the sun loses his rays; the lion, the hero, loses his nails; these +nails are picked up by the demoniacal monster, who forms out of them a +hat (the gloom of night, or the clouds), by which the wearer has the +gift of seeing without being seen. The magician who sees with his eyes +shut is an interesting variation of this subject.] + +[347] A similar antithesis is found in a Hungarian proverb, +communicated to me by my learned friend Count Geza Kunn, together with +other notices of Hungarian beliefs relating to animals. This proverb +is as follows: "Even the black cow's milk is white." The black cow is +spoken of in two other Hungarian proverbs; one says, "The black cow +has not trodden upon his heel," meaning that no misfortune has +happened to him; it is the usual vulnerable heel, the heel of +Achilles, the posterior part, for which is substituted sometimes, as +we shall see in the chapter on the Fox and the Serpent, the tail or +extreme hind part. Another proverb is, "In the dark all cows are +black;" but it does not seem to have any mythical importance. + + +SECTION IV. + +THE BULL AND THE COW IN SLAVONIC TRADITION. + +SUMMARY. + + The red cow and the black cow; what they prognosticate.--The red hue + of evening.--The bull that drinks.--The bull corrupts the + water.--The bull's hoofs.--The cow in the bartering of animals.--The + hero ascends into heaven.--The bull sold to the tree; the tree, + split open, yields gold.--The fool sells the bull.--Two bulls + conduct the poor brother to riches.--The bull carries the fugitive + home.--The bull is split in two, and is useful even after + death.--Ivan and Helen, followed by the bear, flee upon the bull + with their faces turned to the part whence the bear is likely to + come.--The dwarf comes out of the bull's bones; the dwarf dies amid + the flames.--The beasts of prey help the hero.--John and Mary, sun + and aurora of the Christians.--The saviour-bull again.--From the + dead bull an apple-tree springs up.--Ivan delivers Mary.--Mary, the + step-daughter, and persecuted.--The cow that spins, the good fairy, + the Madonna, the moon.--The maiden who combs the hair is the same as + the purifier.--The demoniacal cow obliges men to kiss her under her + tail.--The witch who sucks the beautiful girl's breast whilst the + latter combs her hair.--The hide of the demoniacal cow taken + off.--The eye which does not sleep and plays the spy.--From the cow, + the apple-tree; from the apple-tree, the branches which wound the + wicked sisters, and let the good one pluck their fruit; from the + apple, the husband.--The maiden bows to the right foot of the + beneficent cow; a tree springs up again from the killed cow.--The + red apples which cause horns to grow, and the white ones which give + beauty and youth.--Ivan, the sun, persecuted by the witch his + sister, is saved by the sister of the sun, the aurora.--The mythical + scales; the scales of St Michael.--The cows with golden horns and + tails.--The black demoniacal bull strikes the ground with his horns, + in order to prevent a wedding from taking place.--The hare and the + crow put obstacles in the way of nuptials.--The demon blinded whilst + drinking.--The third son of the peasant throws down the bull.--The + avaricious merchant.--The epidemic among the animals, and the bull + killed because he has stolen some hay from a priest.--The bull in + the forest.--The robber of cows and of oxen.--The black bull led + away by Ivan, by means of a cock.--The hero comes out of the + cow.--The intestines of the calf eaten by the fox.--Out of the calf + come birds.--The son of the cow, the strongest brother.--The three + brothers reduced to one with the qualities of the three.--The third + brother mounts into heaven by means of the cow's hide.--He who + ascends does not come down again.--Dreams.--The wife of the old man, + carried to heaven in a sack, is let fall to the ground and + dies.--The ascent into heaven by means of + vegetables.--Turn-little-Pea, the third brother, the killer of + monsters; Turn-little-Pea and Ivan identified.--Ivan followed by the + serpent-witches.--The female serpent tries to file the iron gate + with her tongue, which is caught by the pincers and burned.--The + three brothers, the evening one, the midnight one, and the + clearly-seeing one; the third is the victorious hero; he delivers + three princesses out of three castles of copper, of silver, and of + gold, and receives from them three eggs of copper, of silver, and of + gold, new forms corresponding to those of the three brothers; the + third brother, abandoned by his elders, after various vicissitudes, + finds his bride again; explanation of this beautiful myth.--Ivan + identified with Svetazor.--The mother of the birds, in gratitude, + delivers the hero.--The third brother, the cunning one, despoils his + two elder brothers of their precious objects.--Ivan of the dog is + equivalent to Svetazor; the story of the goldsmith.--Ivan the great + drinker.--Ivan the prince, Ivan the fool; Ivan and Emilius, foolish + and lazy, are one and the same person.--The red shoes in the + legend.--The sister kills her little brother to take his red shoes; + a magical flute discovers the crime.--The slippers attract the + bridegroom; corresponding nuptial usages.--The slipper tried on; the + toe cut off.--The change of wives.--The ugly one becomes + beautiful.--The grateful pike.--The barrel full of water, which + walks of its own accord.--The forest which is cut down and walks of + itself, the chariot which goes on by itself, the stove that moves + and carries Emilius where he wishes, the cask in which the hero and + heroine are shut up and thrown into the sea, all forms of the cloud + and of the gloom of night; the ugly becomes beautiful; the poor, + rich and pleasing.--The wine allowed to run out of the barrel, + _i.e._, the cloud which dissolves itself in rain.--Ivan, thought to + be stupid, makes his fortune out of having watched by his father's + grave.--Ivan, thought to be stupid, speculates upon his dead mother; + his brothers try to do the same by their wives, and are + punished.--The law of atavism in tradition.--The foolish mother and + the cunning son.--The funereal storks.--The thief cheats the + gentleman in several ways, and finally places him to guard his + hat.--Ivan without fear; a little fish terrifies him.--Various + heroical forms of Ivan in Russian tradition: Alessino, the son of + the priest, invokes the rain against the monster-serpent; Baldak + spits in the Sultan's face--the star under his heel; Basil and + Plavacek, who demand a gift from the monster; the fortunate + fictitious hero; the cunning little Thomas; the third brother, who + does not allow himself to be put to sleep; the thief Klimka, who + terrifies the other thieves in order to rob them; the Cossack who + delivers the maiden from the flames, and receives precious gifts; + Ilia Muromietz and his companions; the merchant's son educated by + the devil; the boy who understands the language of birds; the + virtuous workman, who prefers good advice to a large reward.--The + flying ship; the protector of the unfortunate rewarded; eating and + drinking.--The girl who solves the riddle of the prince, who comes + with the hare and the quail, and obtains her husband.--The dwarf + Allwis obtains the bride by answering the questions of his + father-in-law.--The wonderful puppet (the moon), that sews for the + priest's daughter (the aurora) the shirt destined for the + prince.--The girl-heroine, protectress of her brother, helper of the + young hero in dangers and trials of heroism.--The cow-herd's + daughter, who never says anything displeasing to her husband the + king, whatever the latter does.--By contact with the monster, the + heroine is perverted, and also becomes a persecutor of the hero, her + brother or husband; analogous types of the perfidious + woman.--Dangerous trials imposed on the hero.--The sister bound to + the tree.--The wife subdued, and the magical belt.--The tooth of a + dead man thrust into Ivan's head; the animals deliver him; the fox + knows better than the rest how to manage it.--The towel which causes + a bridge to spring up across the water; the hero's sister steals the + towel, and unites herself to the monster-serpent; she demands from + her brother Ivan wild beasts' milk, and the flour or powder of gold + which is under a mill guarded by twelve gates.--The monster burned, + and the hero's sister condemned to weep and to eat hay.--The + exchange of the hero.--The crow brings the water of death and of + life.--The stepmother who persecutes Ivan.--Ivan resuscitated by his + two sons.--Ivan chaunts his death-song; the liberating animals + appear to help him.--Ivan and his preceptor persecuted by his wife + Anna.--The blind man, the lame man, and the beautiful girl whose + breast is sucked by the witch.--The witch is forced to find the + fountain of life and of health; the blind man sees, the lame walks, + and the girl recovers her good health.--The maiden blinded; the wife + changed; the dew which gives eyesight; the girl finds her husband; a + Russian variety of the legend of Berta. + +Having drawn so far the general outline of the Turanian boundaries of +Slavonian tradition, it is now time to begin to study the tradition of +the Slaves itself, as far as it concerns the myth and the legend of +the bull and the cow. + +The Russian peasants and shepherds are accustomed to remark that the +weather will be fine when a red cow places herself at the head of the +herd, and that it will rain or be bad weather when, on the contrary, +the first of the cows to re-enter the stable at evening is a black +one. We already know what the black and the red cow signify in the +language of the Vedas. The aurora of morning and evening, that is, the +red cows promise fine weather; the cloud (or black cow) announces wet +weather. In Piedmont, when a beautiful evening aurora is observed, it +is the custom to say-- + + "Rosso di sera, + Buon tempo si spera." + (Red at eve, we hope for fine weather.) + +Let us now follow the Russian tradition relating to the cow and the bull +in two of the many invaluable collections of popular stories already +printed in Russia, as well as in the celebrated fables of Kriloff.[348] + +We shall begin with those stories and fables in which the cow or the +bull is explicitly mentioned. They show us the bull who protects the +hero and the heroine, the bull who enriches the hero, the bull that is +sold, the grateful bull, the bull who sacrifices himself, the +persecuted bull, the demoniacal bull; the cow who spins, the +beneficent cow, the son of the cow, the birds that come out from the +cow, the cow's hide which becomes a rope to mount up to heaven, the +cow exchanged, the demoniacal cow, the cow's horns. Here, again, +therefore, we have the double aspect of the Vedic cow; the +dark-coloured one (cloud and darkness), generally monstrous, the +luminous one (moon and aurora), usually divine and beneficent. + +One of the special characteristics of the bull and of the cow is their +capacity of drinking. We have already seen how much the bull Indras (the +sun in the cloud) drank. In the third story of the first book of +_Afanassieff_, when the good maiden, persecuted by the witch, stretches +out a towel, and thus causes a river to arise, in order that the witch +may not overtake her, the latter leads forward the bull to drink up the +river (a form of the Hindoo Agastyas, who, in the _Mahabharatam_,[349] +absorbs the sea). But the bull, who could dry up the river, refuses to +do so on account of a debt of gratitude he owes to the good maiden. The +water where this bull, or cow, belonging to the witch, drinks, has the +property of transforming into a calf the man who drinks of it;[350] nay, +to drink out of the hoof of the bull itself is enough to turn him into a +calf.[351] The water which comes out of the hoof of the demoniacal bull +is the opposite of the water of Hippokrene, which flows from the hoofs +of the divine horse of the Hellenes, the Pegasos. + +In the second book of _Afanassieff_, there is a story which speaks of +the exchange of animals in the very same order as in the +_Aitareya-brahmanam_, _i.e._, the gold for a horse, the horse for a cow, +the cow for a goat or sheep. The Russian peasant goes on with his +unfortunate exchanges; he barters the sheep for a young pig, the young +pig for a goose, the goose for a duck, the duck for a little stick with +which he sees some children playing; he takes the stick home to his +wife, and she beats him with it. In the twelfth story of the fifth book +of _Afanassieff_, an old man also begins to barter the golden stockings +and silver garters received in heaven from God for a horse, the horse +for a bull, the bull for a lamb; his last exchange is for a little +needle, which he loses. In the second story of the sixth book, the same +foolish liberality is attributed to the third brother, the stupid one +(who, in another Russian variation of the same story, is the cunning +one), who, having learned that in heaven cows are cheap, gives his cow +for a fly, his ox for a horse-fly, and mounts up to heaven. + +But, generally speaking, the bull and the cow are the beginning of +good luck for the heroes of popular tales. + +In the fifty-second story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the third +brother, the truthful and fortunate fool, has, for his inheritance from +his father, one bull alone; he goes to sell it, and passes a dry old +tree, which rattles; thinking that the tree wishes to buy his bull, he +gives it, promising to come back for the money. On his return the bull +is gone; he asks the tree for the money, and, receiving no answer, +proceeds to cut it down with his hatchet, when from the tree there drops +out a treasure which some robbers had hidden in it;[352] the young man +then takes it up and carries it home. In a variation of the same story, +in the collection of _Erlenwein_,[353] the third son of the miller, +before going to sell his bull, or ox, seeing the second son milking the +cow, endeavours to milk the bull too; finding that his efforts are in +vain, he resolves upon selling an animal which appears to him to be so +utterly useless. + +In the thirty-fourth story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, we meet +again the two brothers, one rich and miserly, the other poor; the poor +one borrows from a neighbour two bulls, and is conducted by Misery +(gory) to a stone, under which he finds a cavity full of gold. The +poor man fills his waggon, and, on coming out, tells Misery that there +is plenty more inside. Misery turns in to see; the ex-pauper thereupon +closes up the entrance with the stone, and returns home.[354] + +But the bull and the cow do not only provide the hero with riches, +they help him in danger. In the eleventh story of _Erlenwein_,[355] +Ivan Tzarevic, or the Prince John,--the name of the favourite hero of +Slavonian popular tradition (he is the third brother, the strongest, +the most fortunate, the victorious, the most intelligent, after having +been the most foolish)--wishes to flee from the serpent, and, not +knowing how, sits down on the trunk of a tree and weeps. The hare +comes to carry him away, but is killed by the serpent; the wolf +comes, but is killed too. At last the ox or bull comes, and carries +him off. Ivan having arrived at his dwelling, the ox has himself +divided in two; one part must be placed under the sacred images, which +ornament a corner of every room in Russian houses, the other part +under the window; Ivan must then look out sharp till two dogs and two +bears appear, who will serve him in the chase, and be his strength. + +In the twenty-seventh story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, Ivan +Tzarevic and the beautiful Helen are pursued by a monstrous bear with +iron bristles; they escape upon a bull (the moon), and Ivan, by the +bull's advice, rides him with his face turned towards the place whence +the pursuing bear is likely to come, in order that he may not take +them by surprise. When Ivan sees that the bear is coming, the bull +turns round and tears his eyes out; the blind bear follows them still, +but the fugitives pass a river on the bull's back, in which the bear +is drowned. Ivan and Helen feel hungry; the bull tells them to cut him +to pieces and eat him, but to preserve his bones, and to strike them +together; from the bones of the bull, when struck, a dwarf, the height +of a finger-nail, but with a beard a cubit long, comes out; he assists +Ivan in finding the milk of a wolf, a she-bear, and a lioness, until +he is swallowed by the burning bird, whose eggs he wished to steal. +(The bear is the night; the bull is the sun's steed in the night, the +moon; the bull-moon is sacrificed; then comes forth a little sun with +long rays, the dwarf with a long beard, an _alter ego_ of Ivan, who +ends his life in the burning furnace of the phoenix, or of the evening +aurora.) Ivan is threatened with death when the dwarf dies, but he is +at that moment helped by the wild beasts he had tamed and fed, who +save him from danger. These were, as we have seen before, given to him +after the death of the bull, his deliverer, being born of the bull +himself, cut in pieces (the wild animals of the forest of night are +born as soon as the evening sun is sacrificed). + +The same subject occurs again, with some variations, in the +twenty-eighth story, which follows; only instead of John and Helen, we +have John and Mary, the sun and the aurora of the Christians. Near the +abode of Ivan and Mary a funeral pile arises, on which the bull +sacrifices himself. The bull's bones are sown in three furrows; from +the first furrow a horse comes forth, from the second a dog, and in +the third an apple-tree grows up. Ivan mounts upon the horse, followed +by the dog, and hunts wolves' whelps and young bears, which he +afterwards tames and uses to kill the serpent, who has shut up his dog +in a cavern, and carried off his sister; he forces the entrance of the +place where the dog is hidden, by striking the bolt of the door with +three small branches of the apple-tree; the bolt breaks into pieces, +the door bursts open, and the dog is delivered; dog, wolf, and young +bear then worry the serpent, and Ivan liberates the Princess Mary. + +In the sixth book of _Afanassieff_,[356] the young Mary, being +persecuted, is miraculously assisted by a cow. An old woman has three +daughters of her own (of whom one has one eye, another two, and the +third three), and a step-daughter called Mary; her own three do +nothing, and eat much; the step-daughter must work hard and eat +little. Her step-mother gives her for one night alone, while she takes +the cow to pasture, to spin, make into skeins, weave, and bleach, the +weight of five pounds. The maiden goes to the pasture-ground, embraces +her variegated cow, leans on her neck and bewails her fate. The cow +says to her, "Beautiful girl, enter one of my ears, and come out by +the other, and all will be done."--In the Italian variety of this +story,[357] the cow spins with her horns for the good maiden, whilst +she combs the head of the old woman or the Madonna. I think I have +already said that I recognise in this good old woman, fairy, or +Madonna, the moon. The moon, like the sun, is considered as in +relation with the aurora, and especially the evening aurora, which she +accompanies; she is the hostess, the guide, and the protectress of the +hero and heroine of evening, lost and pursued in the night; after the +evening aurora, the white moon comes out, in the same way as after the +morning aurora the sun comes out in effulgence. We have seen that the +name of purifier, cleanser, is given to the Vedic aurora; from this +expression to the image of comber or cleanser of the head of the old +Madonna the transition is easy;[358] from, _i.e._, after, the aurora, +the moon comes out shining and clean, in a beautiful and serene sky; +and on this account pearls fall from the Madonna's head; but when, on +the other hand, the beautiful maiden, the aurora, does not come, when +the step-mother sends to the pasture-ground, near the old woman, one +of her own daughters, foul lice fall from the head of the old fairy or +Madonna, inasmuch as the moon cannot show herself in her splendour +amid the shadows of the cloudy and black night. The Russian story +shows us how the beneficent cow of the good maiden, who caresses her +and serves her well, and the Madonna or good old woman grateful for +the careful combing of her hair of Italian tradition, are one and the +same thing. In the thirty-fifth story of the fifth book of +_Afanassieff_, on the contrary, where the cow appears in a demoniacal +aspect, whom the hero Ivan, condemned from a prince to become a +cowherd, must kiss under her tail, which she lifts with this intent, +we meet with an old witch who sucks the white breasts of the beautiful +girl, while the latter is obliged to hunt the vermin in her head; in +the witch, as well as in the cow who insolently lifts up her tail, we +can recognise the gloomy night, an explanation which is justified by +the fact that the hero-shepherd Katoma, the adorned one, the +agile-footed, ends by flaying the shameless cow (the morning sun, +shepherd of the luminous cows, takes off the skin of the dark-coloured +cow of the gloomy night). But, to return to the fifty-fourth +story.--When the stepmother sees that the girl has done all the work +assigned her, she begins to suspect that there is some one who helps +her, and so sends next night her first daughter, who has but one eye, +to watch the daughter-in-law, who goes to the pasture-ground. The +young Mary then says to her, "Eye, sleep;" and immediately her +step-sister falls asleep, thus allowing the cow to assist her without +any one perceiving it. The second night, the second daughter, who has +two eyes, is sent; Mary says twice to her, "Eye, sleep," and obtains, +without being seen, the same favours from the cow. The third night, +the third sister, who has three eyes, is sent; Mary does not remember +the third eye, and only says twice, "Eye, sleep:" and so the third +sister sees with her remaining eye[359] what the cow does with Mary, +and in the morning tells everything to her mother, who gives orders +that the cow be killed. Mary warns the cow; and the cow recommends +her to eat none of her flesh, to keep the bones, sow them in the +garden, and water them. The maiden does so; every day, however hungry +she may be, she eats none of the meat, only collects the bones +together. From the bones sown in the garden arises a marvellous +apple-tree, with leaves of gold, and branches of silver, which prick +and wound the three daughters of the stepmother, whilst, on the other +hand, they offer apples to the beautiful maiden, in order that she may +present one to the young and rich lord who is to make her his wife. In +the following story, the fifty-fifth, which is a variation of the +preceding one, the girl is named Mary, and her husband Ivan Tzarevic; +when she goes to the pasture, and when she returns, she is accustomed +to make obeisance to the right foot of the cow. When the cow, being +killed, revives again in the shape of a tree, it swarms with birds, +which sing songs for kings and peasants alike, and make the sweet +fruits fall upon Mary's plate. + +The apples that cause horns to grow, and those which beautify and make +young, mentioned in the thirty-sixth story of the fifth book, and +again in the last book of the collection of _Afanassieff_, as well as +in other European variations of the same subject, are connected, in my +opinion, with the myth of the evening sky, and of the lunar night, in +the shape of an apple-tree. In the fifteenth story of the collection +of _Erlenwein_, the third brother, the usual Ivan, comes to an +apple-tree which has red apples, and eats four of them, upon which +four horns grow on his head, to such a height that he cannot enter the +forest; he goes to an apple-tree that bears white fruit, eats four +apples, and the four horns disappear. (The solar hero at evening +approaches the tree with the red apples, the evening aurora, and +immediately becomes deformed; horns grow on his head; he loses +himself in the shades of night; in the moonlight and the alba, he +approaches the tree with the white apples, loses his horns, and +becomes young and beautiful again.) + +In the fifty-seventh story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff's_ +collection, Ivan Tzarevic is presented with the apples which restore +youth to him who eats them, by the sister of the sun, to whose abode he +is lifted in the following manner: Ivan (the sun) has for his sister (no +doubt half-sister) a serpent-witch (night), who has already devoured his +father and mother (the sun and the aurora of evening, which create the +night, and are destroyed by it); the witch persecutes her little brother +Ivan, and endeavours to eat him; he flees, and she overtakes him in the +vicinity of the dwelling of the sister of the sun (the aurora, the true +sister of Ivan). The witch makes a proposal to Ivan, that they be +weighed together in the scales. Ivan accepts this proposal, upon which +the one enters the one scale, and the other the other; no sooner does +the witch put her foot on the scale than, as she weighs so much more +than Ivan, he is lifted up to heaven, the dwelling of the sister of the +sun, where he is welcomed and admitted. (A beautiful myth, of which the +meaning is evident. Ivan is the sun, the aurora is his sister; at +morning, near the abode of the aurora, that is, in the east, the shades +of night go underground, and the sun arises to the heavens; this is the +mythical pair of scales. Thus, in the Christian belief, St Michael +weighs human souls: those who weigh much sink down into hell, and those +who are light arise to the heavenly paradise.) + +By means of the sister of the sun, Ivan saves himself from the witch. +In another story in _Afanassieff_,[360] by means of the sister of the +hero Nikanore, the same Ivan, running after the cows, causes them to +have golden horns and tails, with sides formed of stars; and +afterwards, with the assistance of the hero Nikanore in person (of the +sun, that is, of himself), he kills the serpent. + +We have already seen the cloudy and the gloomy sky represented in the +Vedic poems, now as a black cow, now as a stable which encloses the +bulls and cows. The black bull or cow of night is considered to be +demoniacal. In a story given in _Afanassieff_,[361] we find the devil +in the shape of a bull, which bellows, and throws up the earth with +its horns, arresting a nuptial procession. From a bull he turns into a +bear, then a hare, and then a crow, to put obstacles in the way of the +marriage, until, having presented himself in the form of a devil, a +soldier-hero blinds him while he is drinking. A variation of this +soldier is the third son of the peasant,[362] who is so strong that +with a snap of his fingers he makes the bull and the bear fall dead, +and then by a single pinch strips off their skins. The same hero hires +himself to a merchant, whom he engages to serve for two years, on +condition of receiving as his reward, at the end of them, the +permission to give him a snap with the fingers and a pinch. The +merchant thinks he is getting the man's service for nothing, but pays +for it with his life. The merchant seldom plays a good part in popular +stories. He and the miser are synonymous,--the miser is the monster +which keeps treasures hidden; and on this account, as we have already +seen in the Vedic hymns themselves, the enemies of the gods, the +monsters that ravish and conceal the treasures, are represented as +panayas or merchants, cheats, robbers, or misers. The currency of this +epithet as a term of infamy must have been owing in part to the +dislike with which the priestly sacrificers of the last Vedic period +regarded the merchants, in whom they saw only a pack of misers, +because, on account of their wandering life, they had neither cows nor +bulls to give them for sacrifice, but carried with them all their +fortune, and did not require the fertilising rain of the god Indras to +multiply their gold and their silver. + +The celestial bull comes out of the night or the nocturnal stables +either, as we have seen, to help the hero, to be sacrificed, to flee +from persecution, or because he has been stolen by a skilful thief. + +In one of Kriloff's fables, God sends a terrible plague among the +animals, of which they perish in great numbers. They are so terrified +by it that they forsake their habits, and begin to wander aimlessly +hither and thither. The wolf no longer eats the sheep; the fox leaves +the hens unmolested; the turtle-doves no longer make love to each +other. Then the lion holds a council of the animals, and exhorts them +all to confess their faults. The cunning fox essays to quiet the +lion-judge by assuring him that though he stole some sheep, he did not +thereby commit a fault; and so he justifies his own ravages; as also +do the bear, the tiger, the wolf, and all the most wicked of the +animals. Then the simple bull comes forward, and, in his turn, +confesses that he stole a little hay from the priest. This crime +appears so heinous that the council of animals sentences the bull to +be offered in sacrifice.[363] + +Sometimes, on the contrary, the bull, either because he cannot bear the +bad treatment that he receives from his masters, or in order to avoid +the danger of being killed or sold by the stupid son, who is in need of +money that he may marry a wife, a danger of which he has a +presentiment, abandons the stable with other animals, constructs a hut +or isba and shuts himself up in it.[364] He has with him the lamb, the +goose, the cock, or else some other tame animals. The fox passes by, +hears the crowing of the cock, and goes to call his friends the bear and +the wolf to help him. The bear opens the door, the fox enters, and the +bull by goring him with his horns, the lamb by butting against his +sides, and the cock by pecking his eyes out, put an end to the unwelcome +intruder. The wolf, who goes in, curious to see what is going on, has +the same fate, and the bear, who comes last, only succeeds with great +difficulty, and after having been severely maltreated, in effecting his +escape. In another variation of the same story, the bear dies of fear, +and the stupid son takes his skin, sells it and makes money; then, the +danger of being sold having passed by, the bull and his company return +home. The battle between the tame and the savage animals, won by the +former, is an expression in zoological form of the victory of the heroes +(the sun and the moon) over the monsters of darkness. + +The story of the hero-thief is generally connected with the carrying +off of his master's horse; but not unfrequently the hero, like the +monster, becomes a robber of cows and oxen. + +The thief Ivan[365] is required to steal from his master a black bull or +ox tied to the plough; if he succeeds, he is to have a hundred roubles +for his reward; but if he does not, he is to receive instead a hundred +bastinadoes. In order to steal it, Ivan adopts the following device: he +takes a cock, plucks it, and puts it alive under a clod of earth. The +ploughmen come with the oxen; while they are ploughing, the cock starts +up; they leave the plough to run after it, upon which Ivan, who was +hidden behind a bush, comes out. He cuts off one ox's tail and puts it +in another ox's mouth, and then leads away the black ox. The ploughmen, +not having been able to overtake the cock, come back, and when they see +only two animals instead of three, conclude that one ox has eaten the +black ox and is beginning to eat the tail of the other, the variegated +ox. In the twenty-first story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the +boy-dwarf steals an ox from the priest and eats its tripe.[366] + +From the cow the hero is born; under a putrid cow thrown into a ditch +lies Ivan Tzarevic; a bird takes the water off and Ivan Tzarevic comes +forth.[367] In another story of _Afanassieff_, the fox-heroine, +companion of the wolf, whilst the wolf is absent, eats the intestines +of the calf, their common property (which they had received from +cowherds in exchange for a certain cake contaminated by their +excrement, the usual excrement which is the beginning of riches); she +then fills the calf or cow with straw and sparrows, and departs. The +wolf returns, is astonished that the calf should have eaten so much +straw that it comes out, and draws out the straw. The birds fly away, +the calf falls, and the wolf flees away terrified.[368] With these two +myths are connected two more, that of the son of the cow and that of +the ascent into heaven by means of the cow's hide. + +The king has no sons; he catches a pike, which the cook washes, giving +thereafter the dirty water to the cow to drink; the fish they give to +the black girl to carry to the queen; the black girl eats a piece of +it on the way, and the queen eats what remains. At the expiration of +nine months, the cow, the maid, and the queen, give each birth to a +son. The three sons resemble each other completely; but the son of the +cow, the hero-tempest, is the strongest of the three brothers, and +accomplishes the most difficult enterprises. In another variation of +the same story, in _Afanassieff_,[369] instead of the cow we have the +bitch giving birth to the strongest of the three brothers.[370] In the +nineteenth story of _Erlenwein_, instead of the cow and the bitch, we +have the mare; the strongest brother is here the son of the black +girl, Burghraver or the hero-tempest (Burya-Bagatir). In the third +story of _Erlenwein_, Ivan Tzarevic appears as the son of the black +girl. As in numerous other Russian stories, Ivan Tzarevic, usually the +third brother, appears not only (as) the most skilful, but the +strongest of the brothers, we are driven to recognise in the three +brothers, the son of the black girl, the son of the cow, and the +queen's son, who alternately accomplish the same heroic undertakings, +the same solar personage, whose mother, Night, is represented now as a +queen, now as a cow (we have just seen Ivan Tzarevic come out of the +putrid cow), now as a black slave (the negro washerwoman, the Saracen +woman of Italian stories [Holda]; the cleaned fish which is carried by +the black girl may perhaps be a link connecting the imagery of Russian +tradition with that of Italian legend). + +In the second story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the third +brother, the cunning one, by means of the hides of his cows and oxen +converted into thongs, ascends into heaven; thus, in a variation of +the same story, the third brother thinks to let himself down by the +cow's hide, cut into pieces and made into thongs, being fastened to +the confines of heaven; but he perceives on the way that the thong is +not long enough. Some peasants are threshing corn, and the chaff rises +into the air; he tries to make a rope with this chaff, but the rope +breaks and he falls to the ground. This successful ascent into heaven, +followed by an unlucky descent, is often referred to, with curious +details, in Russian popular legend; to which a play of words in the +language must have not a little contributed. It is as follows, "He who +mounts does not descend,"[371] _i.e._, when one is doing one thing he +cannot be doing the contrary. This elementary truth was afterwards +altered by changing the tenses. "He who has been able to ascend will +not be able to come down again;" which is only partly true, and means +that while in dreams we require only a thin thread to mount up high, +when we wish to come down from the world of dreams to that of reality, +the fall is heavy; we come down with leaden wings, with that +difficulty in breathing which oppresses us in dreams when we seem to +fall from a height with painful slowness. And as at the end of the +dream, after the painful fall from the sky, we awaken alive, so the +story does not say of the hero who fell from heaven that he is dead, +only that his dreams are dead. He is only unlucky when, the second +time, he attempts the descent with a greater weight. + +While reasonings such as these may have helped to diffuse the myths, I +believe that the myths, at their formation, pleased more as images of +nature than of reason, and as the images of mythology are almost all +celestial, so in the third brother, or old man of other varieties of +the story, who mounts up to heaven and comes down again by means of +the cow's hide, I always recognise the sun. The old man who ascends +into heaven, after the cow is dead, does so also by means of a +vegetable of funereal omen which grows up in a marvellous manner. + +An old man and an old woman have one daughter; she eats some beans and +lets one fall to the ground; a plant (the moon) grows up till it +reaches the sky. The old man mounts up and then comes back again. He +tries to take his wife up in a sack, but unable to bear the weight, he +lets her fall to the ground, when she dies.[372] + +A cabbage grows up near an old man's dwelling, till in like manner it +rises up to the sky. The old man climbs up, makes a hole in the sky, +and eats and drinks to satiety. He then returns and narrates +everything to his wife. She wishes to go up too; when they are half +way, the old man lets the sack drop, the old woman dies, and her +husband prepares her funeral, calling in the fox[373] as a mourner. + +Other variations of the same story offer us, instead of the cow's +hide, the cabbage, and the beanstalk, the pea-plant, and even the +oak-tree, which grows up to heaven.[374] + +From the vegetable or funereal plant,--a symbol, as we have already +remarked, at once of abundance and resurrection,--by which the hero +ascends to heaven, where he finds riches and abundance of food, the +transition was very natural to the pea which turns round, of which the +hero Turn-little-Pea (the son of the king of the peas) is born. + +In the second story of the third book of _Afanassieff_,[375] +Turn-little-Pea appears as the third of the brothers, as the youngest +brother, who delivers his sister and his two brothers from the +monster. But the ungrateful brothers (perhaps covetous of the maiden, +here called a sister, but, who is virtually the same, the bride +delivered and disputed for by the three brothers in numerous +Indo-European legends), tie him to an oak-tree and go home alone. +Turn-little-Pea unroots the whole oak and goes off. He afterwards +kills three more monster-serpents, and the she-serpents their wives. + +In the thirtieth story of the second book of _Afanassieff_, this +enterprise against the serpents, male and female, is attributed to the +usual Ivan. He goes with his brothers against the serpent with twelve +heads, and with his iron stick alone kills nine of them, and the three +remaining ones by the help of his two brothers. Then the she-serpent and +her three daughters persecute the three brothers, and Ivan in +particular. She causes them to find a beautiful cushion upon the ground; +Ivan, who is suspicious of some trick, first beats the cushion, upon +which blood gushes out of it (in the story of _Turn-little-Pea_, the +young hero averts the danger by making the sign of the cross with his +sword, when blood comes out). The serpent then tempts them by an +apple-tree with gold and silver apples. The brothers wish to pluck some; +Ivan, however, first strikes the tree, and blood flows from it. They +then come to a beautiful fountain, where the brothers would like to +drink; Ivan strikes the fountain, and again blood comes from it. The +cushion, the apple-tree, and the fountain were the three daughters of +the serpent. Then the serpent, having failed to deceive them, rushes +upon Ivan; the latter escapes with his brothers into a forge shut by +twelve iron gates; the serpent licks the doors with her tongue to force +a passage, and her tongue is caught with red-hot pincers. + +In the fourth story of _Erlenwein_, the three brothers occur again with +interesting mythical names. A woman bears three sons; one at evening, +who is on this account called Vecernik, or the evening one; the second +at midnight, whence he is named Polunocnik, or the midnight one; the +third at the aurora, who is named Svetazor, or the clearly-seeing. The +three brothers become adults in a few hours. The most valiant of the +three is Svetazor, the last one. To prove his strength, he goes to the +blacksmith and orders an iron club that weighs twelve puds (480 pounds); +he throws it into the air and catches it on the palm of his hand, the +club breaks. He orders one of twenty puds (800 pounds), throws it up, +catches it on his knee, and it breaks. Finally he orders one of thirty +puds (1200 pounds), throws it up, and catches it on his forehead; it +bends but does not break. Svetazor has it straightened and takes it +with him, as he goes with his two brothers to deliver the three +daughters of the Tzar, carried off by three magicians into the three +castles of copper, silver, and gold. Svetazor, after having drunk the +water of strength, and received from the first princess an egg of +copper, from the second one of silver, and from the third a golden one, +delivers the three princesses and brings them out. The two brothers, +seeing that the third princess is more beautiful than the others, think +that the youngest brother is reserving her for himself, and throw him +into the water. Svetazor wanders about the subterranean world, and +delivers the daughter of another Tzar by killing a monster and burying +him under a rock. A soldier boasts before the Tzar of having +accomplished this heroic act. Svetazor invites the soldier to prove his +strength, and so the truth of his boast, by lifting the rock up. He does +not succeed, and Svetazor wins the trial of strength, upon which the +soldier is executed by order of the Tzar. After this, Svetazor, for +having once spared the life of a crow, is carried by it into the world +of the living, on condition that he gives it something to eat by the +way. Svetazor has at length to feed the crow with his own flesh, yet is +in the end set down again safe and sound, with all his flesh, in the +world above, where, with the eggs of copper, silver, and gold, he causes +the castles formed of these metals to arise, in which are found the +ring, the slipper, and the robe demanded from their bridegrooms by the +three princesses, who hoped by this expedient to see again their lost +Svetazor. Then Svetazor begins to sweep out the terrace of the golden +castle. The third princess expresses her intention to take him for her +husband. The nuptials are celebrated, Svetazor pardoning his two elder +brothers and giving them the two elder sisters of his bride. (The +princess of the copper is the evening aurora, the princess of the silver +is the silvery moon, and that of the gold is the morning aurora, to whom +Svetazor, the clearly-seeing, the illumined, the sun, is married.) + +In the sixth story of the first book of _Afanassieff_, the same +undertaking is accomplished by the third brother, Ivan. The monster +which carries off the three sisters is an aquatic one, an otter. +Abandoned by his brothers in the nether world, Ivan is overtaken by a +great tempest; he takes pity upon some young birds that are bathing, +and saves them under his dress, upon which the grateful mother of the +birds brings him back to the upper world. In the fifteenth story of +_Erlenwein_, the third brother is the cunning one, who, by a +stratagem, and by means of his purse, which is self-replenishing, +steals from his two brothers the snuff-box out of which issue as many +armies as are wished for, and the cloth which makes the wearer +invisible (both figures to represent the cloud from which come forth +riches, solar rays, thunderbolts, and weapons, and which hides the +hero, that is, renders him invisible). In the fifty-fourth story of +the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, Ivan of the dog, the hero sacrificed +by his brothers, is the strong one, he who delivers the three +princesses, who possesses the three rings, and gives them to the +goldsmith from whom they were ordered, and who is not able to make +them, by which means he is recognised. + +Ivan Tzarevic, inasmuch as he was born of a cow, as we have also seen +above, was necessarily represented as a bull; the bull displays part +of his strength by drinking; Ivan Tzarevic drinks, at a gulp, whole +barrels of wine of marvellous strength. In this capacity he resembles +Indras, the great drinker of somas, and the drinker Bhimas, the second +brother of the Pandavas. + +The third brother is now Prince Ivan (Ivan Tzarevic, Ivan Karolievic, +Ivan Kralievic), now the stupid Ivan (Ivan durak), Ivan the little fool +(Ivan Duraciok). But, as I have already remarked, the fool generally +makes his fortune, either because the kingdom of heaven is for the poor +in spirit, or because the stupidity of Ivan is feigned, or else because +the fool becomes wise. In a story given in _Afanassieff_,[376] the fool +is also lazy, and takes the name of Emilius. + +Emilius is sent with a barrel to draw water; he only goes on account +of the promise made him by his sister, that he will receive as a +reward a pair of red boots.--This desire of the boy-hero, and of the +girl-heroine, is spoken of in many popular songs, and among others, in +a Piedmontese one, as yet unpublished. In the seventeenth story of the +fifth book of _Afanassieff_,[377] the sister kills her brother, Little +John, to possess herself of his red strawberries (as in the Esthonian +tale), and his red little shoes. Upon his grave a fine cane grows; a +shepherd makes a flute of it, and the flute, pressed to the lips, +begins to emit the following lamentation:-- + + "Gently, gently, little shepherd, play; + Do not wound my heart! + My little sister, the traitress, + For the red little strawberries, for the red little shoes!" + +When the flute is pressed to the sister's lips, instead of the word +"little shepherd," it says, "Little sister, thou hast betrayed +me,"[378] and her crime is thus discovered. These little red shoes +are simply a variation of the slippers which are lost by the fugitive +aurora, and found again by the sun, and which both wish to wear. (I +refer to this myth the origin of the nuptial custom in Europe of +maidens, towards the new year, throwing the slipper to know whether, +during the next year, they will be married, and who is to be their +husband.)[379] The slipper lost by the maiden, Little Mary (Masha, the +Marion of Piedmontese and French legends), and found by the prince, +also occurs in the Russian tales. In the thirtieth of the sixth book +of _Afanassieff_, Little Mary's elder sister begins by trying on the +slipper; but it is too small; the foot will not go in. Seeing this, +Little Mary's step-mother advises her daughter to cut off her great +toe, which would not enter; then the foot goes in, and the messengers +of the prince lead the eldest sister away; but two doves fly after +them and cry out, "Blood on her foot, blood on her foot." The deceit +is discovered, and the eldest sister sent back; the prince causes his +true and predestined bride, Little Mary, to be carried off. (This is +the usual exchange of wives, upon which I have remarked in my "Essay +on the Comparative History of Nuptial Usages," and of which the +legend of Queen Berta is one of the most popular examples. The +Russian Little Mary, like Cinderella, is at first of ugly aspect, and +then beautiful. In the Russian story, the maiden becomes beautiful by +mounting upon the stove. Sita comes forth, beautiful in her innocence, +passing through the fire; the morning aurora only seems beautiful when +it passes through the flames of the Eastern sky. The stove brings us +back to the interrupted story of the foolish and lazy Emilius (or +Ivan).--On account, therefore, of the promise made to him of the red +boots, he goes to the fountain with the barrel to draw water. In the +fountain he catches a pike, who beseeches him to set him at liberty, +and promises in return to make him fortunate. Being lazy, the greatest +favour that he wishes for at this moment is that he may be helped to +carry the barrel; the grateful pike performs the miracle of the barrel +full of water which walks of its own accord. (I have already +endeavoured to explain this myth: the cloud is represented as a barrel +in the Vedic hymns; it moves on of its own accord; the barrel does the +same; the hero, as long as he is shut up in the cloud, remains +foolish; the barrel of the fool walks of itself.) Emilius is then sent +to cut wood; by favour of the grateful pike, it is enough for him to +send his hatchet, which cuts the wood of itself; the wood piles itself +upon the waggon, and the waggon, without being drawn by any one, +advances, passing or crushing whatever it meets; they endeavour to +arrest its progress, when the trunk of an oak-tree detaches itself +from the waggon, and, like a stick, beating on every side, sweeps the +road (these are all curious variations of the walking forest or +cloud). The Tzar then sends to invite him to court, and knowing his +weak penchant for things of a red colour, he promises him a red robe, +a red hat, and red boots. When the Tzar's envoys arrive, Emilius, +like his _alter ego_ Ivan Durak (Ivan the fool), is warming himself at +the stove; grudging all trouble, he obtains from the pike the favour +of being carried by the stove itself to the Tzar at court. The Tzar's +daughter falls in love with him; the Tzar shuts the young couple up in +a cask (the usual cloud-barrel, which occurs in the form of a little +chest in other stories, a variation of the wooden dress), and has them +thrown into the sea. Emilius, who was drunk in the cask, sleeps; the +princess wakens him, and beseeches him to save her; by means of the +pike, the cask comes to a beautiful island, where it breaks open; +Emilius becomes handsome, rich, and happy in a beautiful palace with +the young princess. (The aurora and the sun of evening are thrown +together into the ocean of night, until they land on the happy isle of +the east, where they reappear again together in all their splendour.) +One of the most popular stupidities of the fool is that of letting the +wine contained in the barrel flow out upon the ground, when he is left +alone at home; in the Russian story, too, Ivan the fool leaves the +beer that is fermenting in the barrel open (Indras with his lightning +makes a hole in the cloud-barrel, and the rain comes out).[380] + +The fool Ivan takes his good luck from the living, but he also does so +from the dead. On account of having watched three nights by the tomb +of his father, his luck begins,[381] the shade of his father having +blessed him; but, as the dead bring good luck (a belief which, at any +rate, has always been entertained by the heirs of rich men deceased), +the third brother speculates on the body of his own mother. We do not +know whether he does so out of pure simplicity, or with some hidden +and far-seeing design, presumable from the ease with which he +exchanges the character of a fool for that of a cunning schemer (the +first Brutus of popular tradition). In the seventeenth story of +_Erlenwein_, after he has carried a treasure home, by selling his ox +to the tree, and then cutting down the tree, which contains money, he +always guards his money, and sleeps upon it. His brothers know this, +and resolve to go and kill him. But that very night, the third, the +foolish brother, leaves his mother in charge of the treasure; the +brothers come and kill his mother by mistake, instead of him. He turns +up, and threatens to give them up to justice; they bribe him with a +hundred roubles to keep silence. Then the third brother takes his +mother's body and carries it into the middle of the road, in order +that a merchant's waggon may crush it; when this happens, he accuses +the merchant of murder, until the latter gives him a hundred more +roubles to say nothing about it. He then comes to a village by night +with his mother's corpse; he places it against a peasant's door, and +knocks at the window; the peasant opens the door, the body falls, and +the peasant treads upon it, upon which the so-called stupid son cries +out that he has killed his mother, and receives another hundred +roubles, on promise of silence. Then the two elder brothers, finding +that it is possible to speculate upon corpses, and make one's fortune, +kill their wives, and go to town with their bodies; they are +immediately arrested and put into prison. + +The law of atavism evolves itself in the generation of the heroes of +mythical legends, no less than in that of simple mortals upon earth. +Of a stupid father is born a wise son, and then the wise son in turn +has a foolish one. I do not as yet know how to explain this singular +fact of natural history; its appearance in mythology, however, is not +difficult to understand. To the luminous day succeeds the gloomy +night, and then again to the dark night the luminous day; to summer +succeeds winter, and to winter summer; to white black, and to black +white; to heat cold, and to cold heat. + +On this account, in legends, when the mother is intelligent, the son, +generally speaking, is silly; whereas, when the mother is silly,[382] +the son is usually intelligent. + +In the fifth story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, a soldier enters +the house of a woman, while her son is travelling, and induces her to +believe that he has just returned from hell, where he had seen her son +employed in taking the storks to pasture, and greatly in want of money; +the soldier says that he is about to return to hell, and will be happy +to take with him whatever the woman wishes to send to her son. The +credulous woman gives him some money, directing him to take it +immediately to hell, and give it to her poor child. The soldier +disappears, and shortly afterwards the woman's son returns home; his +mother is greatly astonished at his appearance, and tells him how she +has been deceived; he gets angry and leaves the house again, swearing +never to return till he finds some one more foolish than his mother. He +is a skilful thief; he steals from a lady, whilst her husband is absent, +a hog with its little pigs, and puts them in safe concealment; the +husband returns, hears what has taken place, and follows the thief with +a carriage and horses. The robber hears him coming; squats down on the +ground, takes off his hat, and pretends to be covering with it a bird +or a falcon, which wishes to escape. The husband comes and asks him if +he has seen the robber; the latter answers that he has seen him, but +that he is a long way off, and that the roads by which he can be +overtaken are many and winding. The husband, who, perhaps, does not know +the proverb which says, "Who wishes, let him go; who wishes not, let him +send," asks the robber to overtake the fugitive; the thief demurs, +saying that he has under his hat a falcon, which cost his master three +hundred roubles, and that it may escape. The gentleman promises to take +care of it, and if the falcon escapes, to pay the three hundred roubles. +The thief does not believe his promise, and desires the three hundred +roubles in pledge of his good faith; the gentleman gives them, and the +thief goes off with the carriage, the horses, and the three hundred +roubles. The gentleman stays till evening looking at the hat, waiting +for his friend to return; at last he loses patience, wants to see what +there is under the hat, and finds nothing--but a proof of his own +stupidity.[383] + +Ivan (John), and oftener still Vaniusha (Little John, the Giovannino +of Italian legends), distinguishes himself, not only by his thieving +accomplishments, but also by his courage. In order to play the part of +a thief, as Little John does in all the Indo-Europeans legends, not +only industry, but courage must be called into requisition; hence he +acquires, like the Chevalier Bayard, the good reputation of a hero +without fear and without reproach. The hero Ivan is now the son of a +king, now of a merchant, and now of a peasant; the merchants wished, +no less than the peasants, to appropriate to themselves the most +popular hero of tradition. In the forty-sixth story of the fifth book +of _Afanassieff_, neither the shades of night, nor brigands, nor +death, can make the hero afraid; but he is terrified and dies, falling +into the water, when the little _iersh_ (the perch) leaps upon his +stomach, whilst he is asleep in his fishing-boat. In the Tuscan +story,[384] the fearless hero Giovannino, after having confronted +every kind of danger, dies from the terror the sight of his own shadow +inspires him with. In the same way, in the _Rigvedas_, the god Indras, +terrified at his own shadow, or, probably, that of his dead enemy, +takes to flight after the killing of the serpent Ahis.[385] + +The following heroes are also variations of Prince Ivan, Ivan the son +of the cow, Ivan the peasant's son, Ivan the merchant's son, and the +cunning Ivan:--1st, Alessino Papovic, the son of the priest (it is +well known that the Russian priests are not bound to celibacy), who +kills Tugarin, the son of the serpent, by prayer, that is, by praying +to the Holy Mother of God, to order the black cloud to cause drops of +rain to fall on the monster's wings, upon which the son of the +serpent, like the Vedic Ahis, when Indras opens a way for the rivers +to come out, instantly falls to the ground;[386] 2d, Baldak, son of +Boris, the boy seven years old, who succeeds in spitting in the +Sultan's face--(I have already remarked, in the preface to this work, +that the king of the Turks is, in the Slavonic tradition, as well as +in that of Persia, the representative of the devil; the demon, when +the hero approaches, smells the odour of human flesh in India, of +Christian flesh in Western stories,[387] and of Russian flesh in +Russian fairy tales)--but who afterwards becomes the Sultan's +prisoner, because he appears to the third daughter of the latter with +a star under his heel, or shows his heel (which is the vulnerable part +of both hero and monster); 3d, Basil Bes-ciastnoi, who goes, by his +father-in-law's order, into the kingdom of the serpent, in order to +receive a gift from him, with adventures similar to those of the young +Plavacek in Bohemian stories, when he goes to seek the three golden +hairs of the old Vsieveda (the all-seeing, the Vedic sun +Vicvavedas);[388] 4th, The third brother who exchanges two sacks of +flies and gnats he has caught for good cattle.[389] The same hero +takes the name of Little Thomas Berennikoff; being blind of one eye, +he kills an army of flies, and boasts of having killed an army of +heroes; he thus dishonestly gains the reputation of being a hero, and +is fortunate in having an opportunity offered him of proving his +bravery by killing a monster-serpent, who, out of foolhardiness, shuts +both eyes when he sees that Thomas has but one; he afterwards destroys +an army of Chinese with the trunk of a tree, rooted up by his +indomitable horse, which a real hero had bound to the tree;[390] 5th, +The cunning rogue, Little Thomas (Thomka; the quacks in Piedmont are +accustomed to give the name of Tommasino to the little devil which +they conjure out of a phial), who, by means of disguises, cheats and +robs the priest;[391] 6th, The third brother who does not suffer +himself to be put to sleep by the witch (as we have seen above the +third sister who keeps one of her three eyes open);[392] 7th, The +famous robber, Klimka,[393] who, by means of a drum (in Indian tales a +trumpet), terrifies his accomplices, the robbers, and takes their +money, and then steals from a gentleman his horse, his casket of +jewels, and even his wife; 8th, The Cossack who delivers the maiden +from the flames, and carries her to his golden house, where there are +two other maidens (be it understood, the one in the silver house, and +the other in that of copper); from which three maidens the Cossack +receives a shirt which renders him invulnerable, a sword which +produces the most marvellous effects in slaughtering men, and a purse +which, when shaken, drops money;[394] 9th, The celebrated Ilia +Muromietz (Elias of Murom), round whom, as also around Svetazor and +Svyatogor (holy mount), Dobrynia Nikitic, and the heroes of Vladimir, +is grouped an entire heroic Russian epic poem.[395] + +Other variations of the same hero are the son of the merchant given +up to be educated by the devil, who teaches him every kind of craft; +the boy Basil, who understands the language of birds, and who makes +his parents serve him;[396] the merchant or son of a peasant,[397] +who, because he prefers good advice to money, acquires a fortune; the +virtuous workman, who receives by way of pay for his labour only three +kapeika, which, spent in good works, enables him at last to marry the +king's daughter, or the princess who did not laugh.[398] + +The legend of the hero Ivan has yet other interesting forms, +reflective of the beautiful Vedic myth of the Acvinau, who into their +flying chariot-vessel also take up the unhappy. In _Afanassieff_,[399] +the third brother, thought to be foolish, is ill-treated by his +parents, who dress and feed him badly. The king issues a proclamation, +that whoever can make a flying vessel will obtain his daughter to +wife. The mother sends forth her three sons in quest of the necessary +enchantment; to her third son she gives a little brown bread and +water, whilst the two eldest go provided with good white loaves and +some brandy. The fool meets on the way a poor old man, salutes him, +and begins to share with him his scanty store of food; the old man +transmutes his brown bread into white, and his water into brandy, and +then advises him to enter the forest, to make the sign of the cross +upon the first tree he finds, and to strike it with his axe; then to +throw himself on the ground and stay there until he wakens; he will +see a vessel ready before him: "Sit down in it," added the old man, +"and fly whither your behest requires you; and by the way take up +beside you as many as you meet."[400] This chariot is freighted with +abundance, both to eat and to drink; the young man overtakes several +needy beggars, and invites them up into the chariot; he receives only +poor people, not a single rich man.[401] But these poor men afterwards +show their gratitude to the hero, and help him in other adventures +imposed upon him by the Tzar, who hopes by this means to get rid of a +son-in-law of such vulgar origin. One of the new tasks imposed +requires him to eat twelve oxen, and to drink at one gulp forty +barrels of wine; in this he is helped by Eating (Abiedalo) and by +Drinking (Apivalo), whom he had entertained in his chariot-ship, and +who eat and drink instead of him.[402] At last he comes to claim and +marry the young princess. (The hero-sun, taken up into the chariot of +the Acvinau, by the grace of the Acvinau, invoked by him in danger, is +delivered, and espouses the aurora.) + +In a variation of this legend, a prince, fifteen years of age, who has +been lost by his parents, is found again by means of a riddle which +they propose, and which he alone can solve.[403] In the Vedic hymns it +is now the aurora, the beautiful maiden, who delivers the hero-sun, +and now the hero-sun who delivers the beautiful maiden, the aurora. +In the forty-first story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, a little +girl, seven years old (semilietka), presents herself to the Tzar, who +must marry her, inasmuch as she solves the riddle proposed by him, by +arriving riding on a hare (an animal which represents the moon), with +a quail (an animal which seems to represent the sun) tied to her +hand.[404] She too, like the aurora, knows all; she too protects the +poor against the rich, and the innocent against the guilty. The dwarf +Allwis is a form of this child. Allwis is the omniscient man of the +Edda, who solves all the questions put to him by the god Thor, in +order to obtain his daughter; when he is done with answering these +questions, day breaks, and the sun shines. + +The wondrous girl of seven years of age (the aurora), brings us back +to the marvellous puppet (generally, the moon). It is three puppets +(the wooden chest of Marion d'bosch, or wooden little Mary of the +Piedmontese story, the dark forest of night, the tree that hides the +splendid treasures of the evening aurora; another variety of the same +myth in relation to the sun) that hide the three splendid dresses of +the stars, the moon and the sun, which belong to the beautiful maiden, +the daughter of the priest (a variation of the Vedic aurora, duhitar +divas, or daughter of the sky). It is the three puppets which enable +the beautiful girl to descend through the ground, and so escape from +the persecutions of her father and seducer (in other versions, of her +brother), and which go down with her, dressed as old women, and enter +a forest, where, near an oak-tree, there is the house of a princess, +who has a young and handsome son.[405] In a variation of this +story,[406] the girl is persecuted, not by her father, but the +well-known cruel stepmother, for whom she divides the wheat from the +barley, and draws water at the fountain (like the Vedic maiden Apala); +she goes three times splendidly dressed to church (which takes the +place of the ball-room of other stories), where she is seen three +times by a handsome prince; she is twice followed, and twice +disappears; the third time the prince has gum (pitch, in other +variations) put on the ground; the fugitive loses her golden slipper +in consequence, which the prince picks up, and tries on all the +maidens till he finds his bride. In another story,[407] where the +relation of the aurora with the two Acvinau comes out in wonderful +distinctness,[408] it is by means of her marvellous speaking puppet +(_i.e._, the moon, the Vedic Raka, very small, but very intelligent, +enclosed in the wooden dress, in the forest of night) that the girl, +persecuted by her step-mother, weaves a cloth so fine that it can pass +like a thread through the eye of a needle (just as the girl's feet are +very small, so also are the puppet's hands). The marvellous cloth is +brought to the Tzar, but no one is found who is able to sew it into a +shirt for the Tzar.[409] The maiden alone, by the help of her puppet, +succeeds; the Tzar wishes to see the girl who prepared his +extraordinary shirt, and goes to find her; he is astonished at her +beauty, and marries her. In the _Rigvedas_, the aurora weaves a robe +for her husband the sun. + +The same girl (the aurora) whom we have here only as a good, +beautiful, intelligent, and skilful maiden, appears in other stories +given in _Afanassieff_ as a heroic damsel. In the seventh story of the +first book she disguises herself as a man, and mocks the Tzar three +times. In the fourteenth story of the first book, the same girl, under +the name of Anastasia the beautiful, vanquishes and binds the serpent, +and discovers the secret of how he can be killed. Under the name of +Helen, or Little Helen, she is the protectress of her little brother, +Ivanusca (Little John),[410] and his guide through the world; and when +the boy, by the incantation of a witch, is transformed into a lamb or +kid (in a story of the Canavese, in Piedmont, the seven monks, +brothers of the courageous girl, are transformed into seven hogs), she +recommends him to the care of the prince, her husband, in order that +he may destroy the evil work of the witch. The same maiden is found +again as the very wise Basilia (Vasilisa Premudraia), who succours the +young hero, because, after stealing her dress while she was bathing in +the sea, he restores it to her, agreeably to her prayer. For this +favour she gratefully accomplishes for him the labours imposed upon +him by the king of the waters, and ends, after many vicissitudes, by +marrying him.[411] She appears once more as the royal maiden +(Tzar-dievitza), who comes three times with her ships by sea to lead +away the young Ivan, beloved by her;[412] and I also place among the +girl-heroines the daughter of the shepherd in the twenty-ninth story +of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, of which this is an abridgment. +There was once a king who could not find a maiden beautiful enough to +suit his taste. One day, returning from the chase (the solar hero +always meets the aurora, his bride, when returning from the hunt in +the forest of night), he meets a shepherd's daughter, who is leading +out the flock to pasture, so beautiful that her like would be sought +for in vain over the world. He becomes enamoured of her, and promises +to make her his wife, but only on condition that she will never say +anything displeasing to him, whatever he may do; the poor enamoured +maiden consents, the nuptials are celebrated, and the couple live +together happily for a year. A boy is born to them; then the king says +roughly to his wife that the boy must be killed, that it may never be +said the heir to the throne is the son of a shepherdess. The poor +woman resigns herself to her fate, remarking, "The will of the king +must be done." Another year passes, and a daughter is born. The king +informs his wife that she too must be killed, as she can never become +a princess, but will always remain a peasant girl. The unhappy mother +once more bows her head to the will of the king, who, however, +consigns his son and daughter, not to an executioner, but to his +sister, that they may receive all the attentions due to their royal +pedigree and standing. Years pass away; the little prince and princess +grow up beautiful, healthy, good, and happy, and pass adolescence. +Then the king puts his wife to the last proof. He sends her back to +her house in the dress of a shepherdess, signifying at the same time +that she has lived with him long enough. Then he orders her to return, +to put the rooms in order, and to wait upon the new bride whom he +intends to take her place; the shepherd's daughter obeys again without +a murmur. The new bride arrives, and is set down at the table; they +eat, drink, and are merry; the shepherd's daughter is obliged to see +and hear all, and to serve in silence; at last the king asks her, +"Well, is not my bride beautiful?" To which the unhappy woman +responds with a heroic effort, "If she seem beautiful to thee, still +more does she seem so to me." Then the king, at the summit of his +felicity, exclaims, "Dress thyself again in thy royal robes, and place +thyself by my side; thou hast been, and shalt always be, my wife, my +only wife; this, my supposed bride, is thy daughter, and this handsome +youth is thy son." The poor heroine had undergone the last proof of +her virtue, and triumphed. + +But the virtue of the legendary heroine is not always so sound. Often +the good wife, sister, maiden, or woman is corrupted by contact with the +wicked. We have already seen how the beautiful aurora, the pitying and +beneficent maiden, becomes, in the Vedic hymns themselves, the +evil-doer, whom the god Indras overthrows and destroys. The Hellenic +Amazons, the beautiful and proud warrior-women, were also pursued, +fought with, and vanquished by the Hellenic heroes. Thus the +Scandinavian warrior, Walkiries, has a double aspect, a good and a bad. +The Russian stories also supply numerous instances of the ease with +which the good degenerates into the demon, the hero into the monster, +and the beautiful heroine into the powerful and mischief-working witch. + +This good sister Helen or Little Helen, so careful a guardian of her +brother John, ends, when she conceives a passion for the monster, with +becoming his perfidious persecutor. (The evening aurora is represented +as a friend of the monster of night, who conspires with him against +her brother the sun; and whoever observes the sinister aspect often +assumed by the reddish sky of evening, will find this fiction a very +natural one. I have said above that a Piedmontese proverb predicts bad +weather for the morrow from a red evening; but in Piedmont the belief +is also widely diffused that the red of evening signifies blood, and +that this bloody redness signifies war. It certainly does mean war, +but a mythical war--the war in which the hero, fighting against the +monster, succumbs and sheds blood. It is a woman that is the hero's +destruction. A counter-type of the biblical Delilah is found in all +the popular Indo-European traditions; the Vedic aurora, the sister of +Ravanas in the _Ramayanam_, the sister of Hidimbas in the +_Mahabharatam_, the Hellenic Dejanira, Ariadne, Medea, the Amazons, +Helen, the Slavonic Helen, and Anna the Sabine woman, the Scandinavian +Walkiries, Freya, Idun, Bruenhilt, Gudrun, the Germanic Krimhilt, are +all forms of one and the same heroine, conceived now in the light of a +saint, and now in that of a witch. + +In the Russian story,[413] after the bull has saved from the bear the +fugitive brother and sister, Ivan Tzarevic and Helen the exceedingly +beautiful (Prekracna), they enter a brigand's house. Their bull, +having become a dwarf, kills all the brigands, and shuts their bodies +up in a room, which he forbids Helen to enter; the latter, not +attending to the prohibition, enters, and seeing the head of the +brigand chief, falls in love with him, resuscitates him by means of +the water of life, and then conspires with him to destroy her brother +Ivan, by requiring him to accomplish enterprises in which death seemed +inevitable, or else by ordering him to bring her, first, the milk of a +wolf, then that of a she-bear, and then that of a lioness. Ivan, by +the help of his dwarf (or the sun grown small during the night, and +perhaps also the moon), accomplishes all these undertakings. We have +already seen how white comes from black; the milk of the wolf, the +bear, and the lioness is the _alba luna_, or the white morning sky +brought back by the solar hero. Ivan is then sent to fetch the eggs of +the burning bird (Szar-ptitza). Ivan goes with his dwarf (that is to +say, the moon, or he makes himself a dwarf, in other words, renders +himself invisible); the bird is enraged, and swallows the dwarf +(_i.e._, the red sky of evening, the burning bird, or phoenix, absorbs +the moon or the sun in its flames.[414]) Ivan goes back to his sister +without the eggs, upon which she threatens to burn him in the bath. +Ivan, with the help of the wolf's, the bear's, and the lion's whelps, +or Ivan, with the young wolf, bear, or lion (the moon), or Ivan the +son of the wolf, Ivan the son of the bear, Ivan the son of the lion +(Ivan born of the she-wolf Night, the she-bear Night, or the lioness +Night), tears the brigand to pieces, and binds his sister (as the +Vedic cow) to a tree (the aurora almost always loses herself in a tree +or the water). Then Ivan wishes to marry a heroine. [Two myths are +here united in the story, originating in one and the same phenomenon, +which seems twofold, because observed at different, almost literally +succeeding, instants. The morning sun comes and puts to flight his +sister the aurora, driving her back into the forest of night, and +binding her to the tree; the morning sun passes safe and sound through +the flames (like Sifrit in the _Nibelungen_), vanquishes and subdues +the aurora, makes her his, and espouses her.] He fights with her +first, and succeeds in throwing her with his lance from her horse, and +subduing her. The first night--that is, when evening comes, she +embraces and presses him so tightly, and with such strength, that he +cannot succeed in extricating himself (the evening aurora envelops and +surrounds the sun; it is the famous nuptial belt, the belt of +strength of the god Thor, the shirt of Nessus). At last, however, +towards morning, Ivan vanquishes, subdues, and throws down (like +Sifrit in the _Nibelungen_) the girl-heroine (the morning sun, as +Indras, throws down the aurora). He then thinks of liberating his +sister Helen, who is bound to the tree, in order to take her with him; +but she, under the pretext of combing his hair, thrusts a dead man's +tooth into his head. Ivan is about to die. Here the primary myth of +the sun and aurora, as brother and sister, reappears, and the +secondary one of the husband and wife is forgotten. The lion's whelp +comes forward and extracts the tooth; the lion is on the point of +dying, when the young bear runs up and extracts it again. He is also +about to die; the fox then comes up, who assumes towards the end of +the story the part played in the middle by the young wolf (in the same +way as in Indian tales the jackal is substituted for the fox), and, +with more cunning, throws the dead man's tooth into the fire, and thus +saves himself--_i.e._, the solar hero, passing through the flames, +comes out of the shadows which enveloped him during the night. Helen +is attached to the tail of a horse (of Ivan's solar horse itself), and +is thus made to perish (when the sun comes forth in the morning the +aurora loses herself behind him). + +The same story of Ivan's perfidious sister, of which the mythical +sense appears to me more than usually evident, occurs again in other +forms in Russian tales. + +Whilst Ivan is travelling with his sister towards the kingdom where +all the people die[415] (that is, towards the night), a fairy gives +him a towel, by shaking which a bridge may be thrown across a +river--(is this bridge the milky way, the bridge or road to be taken +by the souls in the Persian and Porphyrian belief, as well as in the +German?)--but advises him never to let his sister see him shake it. +Ivan arrives with his sister in the kingdom of the dead; they come +upon a river on the further bank of which there is a serpent, who has +the power of transforming himself into a handsome youth; Ivan's sister +becomes enamoured of him, and he induces her to steal the towel from +her brother and shake it. The sister, under the pretext of washing the +dirty linen, takes off the fairy's towel and shakes it; a bridge +rises, upon which the serpent crosses the river, and then conspires +with the girl with intent to work Ivan's ruin. They demand the usual +milk, which Ivan brings; then the flour which is shut up within twelve +doors. Ivan goes thither with his beasts of prey, takes the flour and +brings it away, but his beasts remain shut up inside; then his +strength diminishes, and the serpent, boasting that he fears him no +longer, prepares to devour him. Ivan, by the advice of a crow, prays +for time, and procrastinates till his beasts of prey, gnawing the +twelve doors through, come to his help, and tear the serpent in +pieces. The serpent's bones are burned in the fire, its ashes are +dispersed to the four winds, and the sister is bound to a stone pillar +(to the rock or mountain upon which the aurora arises, fading away +afterwards when the sun appears). Ivan places near her some hay and a +vessel full of water, that she may have whereof to eat and drink, and +another empty vessel, which she is to fill with her tears: when she +has eaten the hay, drunk the water, and filled the vessel with her +tears, it will be a sign that God has forgiven her; when Ivan too will +forgive her. Meanwhile, Ivan goes into a kingdom where there is +nothing but mourning, because a twelve-headed serpent is massacring +all the people (the usual nocturnal sky, where it is now the hero-sun, +now the heroine aurora that sacrifices itself), and the king's +daughter is the next victim. Ivan, by the help of his hunting animals, +cuts the serpent to pieces, and then goes to sleep on the knees of the +king's daughter. While he sleeps, a water-carrier passes towards +morning, cuts off his head, and presents himself to the king as the +deliverer of the princess, whom he demands for his wife. The beasts of +prey come up, descry the crow upon Ivan's corpse, and prepare to eat +it, when the crow begs for its life; they consent, and in return +require it to search for the water of life and death, by means of +which Ivan is resuscitated; the water-carrier's deceit is found out, +and Ivan marries the princess whom he had delivered from the monster. +Then he goes to look for his sister, and finds she has eaten the hay, +drunk the water, and filled half the vessel with tears; upon this he +pardons her, and takes her away with him. + +In another story,[416] instead of the perfidious sister, we have the +perfidious mother (probably step-mother), who, to please her demon +lover, feigns illness, and demands from Ivan the heart, first of the +three-headed, then of the six-headed, and finally of the twelve-headed +monster. Ivan accomplishes these undertakings. He is then sent to a hot +bath, to weaken his strength. Ivan goes, and his head is cut off by the +monster. But Ivan's two sons resuscitate him by rubbing a root upon his +body; the demon lover of Ivan's mother dies as soon as the hero revives +again. In the two sons of Ivan we recognise again the myth of the +Acvinau, the celestial physicians who resuscitate the solar hero. + +In another story, Ivan Karolievic (king's son) is threatened with +death by his own wife,[417] who, feigning illness, demands the usual +milk of a she-wolf, a she-bear, and a lioness, and then the enchanted +powder (powder of gold or flour), which is under the devils mill, +barred behind twelve doors. Ivan comes out, but his beasts remain +inside. He returns and finds his wife with the serpent, the son of the +serpent; he chaunts the song of death--he sings it three times;[418] +on hearing which the serpent is thrown down, and the beasts, regaining +strength to deliver themselves, come out and tear the serpent, and +with him the perfidious wife is put to death. + +Ivan's perfidious wife occurs again in the thirty-fifth story of the +fifth book of _Afanassieff_, under the name of Anna the very beautiful +(Prekracnaia). She has married Ivan Tzarevic against her will, because +she could not solve a riddle which he proposed to her; she does not love +him, and endeavours to destroy him by requiring an extraordinary proof +of his valour,[419] in which, by the help of his tutor, Katoma, Ivan is +victorious, so that Anna falls into his hands. But, understanding that +Ivan's strength is not in himself, but his tutor, she induces Ivan to +send him away, after depriving him of his feet. Anna then sends Ivan to +take the cows to pasture. The lame Katoma finds in the forest a blind +man, also made so by Anna;[420] they become friends and consociate +together, and carry off a beautiful maiden to be their sister; but a +witch comes and makes the maiden comb her hair, whilst she sucks her +breast (we must remember that in the Indian story the girl has three +breasts, or is defective in her breast, in the same way as the witch +makes the Russian girl so by sucking her breast). The poor girl grows +thin and ugly, until the old witch is surprised in her evil doings by +the two heroes, fallen upon by them like a mountain of stone, and +pressed so tightly that she cries for mercy. Then they demand to be +shown where the fountain of life and healing can be found. The old woman +conducts them into a dense forest, and shows them a fountain. They first +throw a dry twig in, which immediately takes fire; they threaten to kill +the old witch, and force her to lead them to another fountain, into +which they throw another dry twig; it becomes green again. Then one rubs +his eyes, and the other his feet, with the water, and both become +healthy and strong again. They throw the witch into the fountain of +fire. Katoma, in a shepherd's dress, goes to deliver the hero Ivan from +the demon cow, which lifts up its tail and gives him back his strength +and splendour. This is again the Vedic myth of the Acvinau united to the +aurora, who cure the blind and the lame, _i.e._, themselves, and save +the multiform solar hero. + +Finally, such as we have found the blind girl in the Vedic hymns, so +we meet her again in Russian tradition.[421] A servant-maid takes out +the eyes of the maiden her mistress, after having put her to sleep by +means of a herb, and marries the king in her stead. The girl awakens, +hears but does not see; an old shepherd receives her into his house; +during the night she, although blind, sews a crown for the Tzar and +sends the old man to court to sell it for an eye (this is a variation +of Queen Berta in the forest). The servant-maid, now become queen, +tempted by the beauty of this crown, takes one of the girls eyes out +of her pocket and gives it to the old man. The maiden arises at the +aurora, washes her eye in her own saliva (_i.e._, the dew. In Tuscany, +the peasants believe that whoever washes his face in the dew before +the sun rises on St John's Day, will have no illness all the year +following), puts it in the socket and sees. She then sews another +crown, and, in the same manner, recovers her other eye at the next +aurora. Then the servant-queen learns that she is alive, and makes +hired murderers cut her to pieces. Where the maiden is buried, a +garden arises and a boy shows himself. The boy goes to the palace and +runs after the queen, making such a din that she is obliged, in order +to silence him, to give him the girl's heart, which she had kept +hidden. The boy then runs off contented; the king follows him, and +finds himself before the resuscitated maiden. He marries her, and the +servant-girl is blinded, and then torn to pieces by being fastened to +the tails of horses. Like the German Genevieve and the Hindoo +Cakuntala, the Russian wife is recognised by her husband by means of a +boy. This is the young sun, who enables the old one to be born again, +to arise again and be young once more; this is the son who, in the +Hindoo legend, gives his father his eyesight back, and by doing so, +naturally imparts to him the means of recognising his wife, whom he +had forgotten, or rejected, or lost, according to the various forms +assumed by the celestial myth of the separation of husband and wife. + +I might now carry on this comparison by entering the mythical field of +the more Western Slavonic nations;[422] but it is not my intention to +convert this modest volume into an entire library of legends; neither is +it necessary for my purpose, as by so doing I should not add much more +evidence to that which I have thus far attempted to collect, in order to +prove how zoological mythology is the same in existing Slavonic +tradition as it was in Hindoo antiquity. I have, moreover, gone rather +minutely into the contents of Russian tradition in particular, because, +on account of our ignorance of the language, which is beautiful and +worthy of study, it is little known, and because it is of especial +importance in our present inquiry. I believe, if I do not deceive +myself, that I have, up to this point, given an account of all the more +essential legends developed in the Eastern Aryan world relating to the +myth of the cow and the bull; and now, in moving towards the West, I +think I may venture to proceed with greater expedition, because we shall +find ourselves in a region already familiar to us. It seemed to me that +it was especially necessary, for a just comparison, to determine and fix +the character of Oriental tradition, in order that it may be easy for +the student to classify the interminable stories and traditions which +have already been collected in Western Europe, and which are published +in languages which are, certainly, different from each other, but all, +comparatively speaking, readily accessible. If I have succeeded in +imparting to the reader an understanding of the more authentic sources +of legendary traditions and their most probable meanings, I shall go on +with more courage and a greater confidence to the investigations that +follow. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[348] These last have already been translated into English, and +illustrated, by W. R. S. Ralston, M.A. The _Narodnija Skaski_ +sabrannija selskimi uciteliami, isdanie A. A. Erlenwein (Moskva 1863), +and the more voluminous N. Aphanasieva, _Narodnija ruskija skaski_, +Isd. 2 (Moskva 1860, 1861), have not thus far been translated into +other European languages. I have therefore thought fit to make copious +quotations from them as well for the use of Western readers, as on +account of the real importance of their mythical contents, whilst +awaiting the publication of the competent work which Mr Ralston is +expressly preparing upon Russian songs. + +[349] iii. 8805, and following. + +[350] _Afanassieff_, ii. 29. + +[351] iv. 45. + +[352] This subject is already given in _AEsop's Fables_, in the +twenty-first fable (ed. Del Furia, Florence, 1809): the man prays to a +wooden idol (xuelinon theon) that it may make him rich; the statue does +not answer; he breaks it to pieces, and gold comes out of it. + +[353] Seventeenth story. + +[354] Cfr. also in _Afanassieff_, the story, v. 19. + +[355] Cfr. also, for the variations, the twenty-second of _Erlenwein_, +and iii. 24, of _Afanassieff_. + +[356] Story 54. + +[357] Cfr. the first story of my collection of the _Novelline di Santo +Stefano di Calcinaia_, Torino, A. F. Negro, 1869. I am also acquainted +with a Piedmontese variation, differing but little from this Tuscan +story. + +[358] In the story, ii. 27, of the collection of _Afanassieff_, the +beautiful princess, near the sea, combs the youngest son of the Tzar, +who goes to sleep. + +[359] Cfr. the chapter on the Goat. + +[360] v. 37. + +[361] v. 50. + +[362] v. 9. + +[363] In Lafontaine, _Fables_, vii. 1, the animal sacrificed is the ass. + +[364] _Afanassieff_, iv. 20-22.--In a Lithuanian song, which describes +the nuptials of animals, the bull appears as a woodcutter or +woodman.--Cfr. Uhland's _Schriften zur Geschichte der Dichtung und +Sage_, iii. 75. + +[365] _Afanassieff_, v. 6. + +[366] Cfr. the chapter which treats of the Wolf. + +[367] _Afanassieff_, v. 41. + +[368] _Afanassieff_, iv. 1.--In another variation of the same myth, +which we have already referred to in the Vedic hymns, the birds come, +on the contrary, out of a horse. + +[369] v. 54. + +[370] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 54, and the chapters on the Fish and the +Eel. + +[371] I read in the travels of Olearius in Persia during the year +1638, French translation: "Les Persans disent que la montagne de +Kilissim a une telle propriete que tous ceux qui y montent n'en +descendent point; que le schach Abas obligea un jour un de ses +chasseurs, en lui promettant une grosse somme d'argent, a monter sur +cette montagne, et qu'il y monta effectivement, l'ayant fait connoitre +par le feu qu'il alluma; mais qu'il n'en descendit point, et que l'on +ne scait point ce qu'il devint avec son chien, qu'il menait avec lui." + +[372] _Afanassieff_, iv. 9.--In the well-known English story of _Jack +and the Bean-stalk_, it is the giant who is killed by the fall from +heaven, when Jack cuts the bean-stalk close to the ground. + +[373] _Afanassieff_, iv. 7.--Cfr. the chapter on the Fox. + +[374] _Afanassieff_, v. 12, and vi. 2.--Cfr. the chapters on the Goat, +the Fox, the Wolf, and the Duck, where other episodes of this legend +are found again.--In the twelfth story of the fifth book of +_Afanassieff_, the old man goes up to heaven to call God to account +for the peas that He has taken from the top of the pea-plant; God +gives him in exchange stockings of gold and garters of silver. + +[375] Cfr. also v. 24. + +[376] v. 55.--Cfr. also vi. 22.--Cfr. the _Contes et Proverbes +Populaires recueillis en Armagnac_, par Blade (Paris, 1867), where the +foolish and lazy one occurs again under the name of Joan Lou Pigre. + +[377] Cfr. also the two variations in _Afanassieff_, vi. 25. + +[378] + + Po malu, malu, sestritze, grai + Nie vraszi ti mavo serdienka vkrai! + Ti-sz mini szradila + Sza krasni yagodki, sza corvonni cobotki! + +Also cfr. the chapter on the Peacock. + +[379] In the Festival of the Epiphany, which is also a festival of the +husband and wife, the good fairy is accustomed to bring to the child, +husband, and wife, a boot or a stocking full of presents. This nuptial +boot occurs again in the English custom of throwing a slipper after a +newly-married couple. Another meaning was also given to the slippers +which are thrown away in the popular belief. Instead of being the +heroine's shoes which, having been abandoned, serve to attract and +guide the predestined husband, they are also considered as the old +shoes which the devil leaves behind him when he flees (his tail, which +betrays itself). The Germanic wild huntress Gueroryssa, another form +of the Frau Holle--the phantom of winter expelled at Epiphany--is +represented with a serpent's tail. Hence in the German carnival the +use of the _Schuh-teufel laufen_, or running in the devil's slippers. + +[380] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 4, and the chapter on the Stork. + +[381] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, ii. 25, ii. 28, iv. 47, v. 37. + +[382] The _mere sotte_ has become proverbial in France, where, in the +sixteenth century, Pierre Gringore wrote a satirical comedy with the +title of _Le Jeu de Mere Sotte_, in which the Mere Sotte is the +Catholic Church. + +[383] A similar story, which, on account of its indecent details, I +was not able to publish in my collection of the _Novelline di Santo +Stefano di Calcinaia_, is narrated upon the hills of Signa, near +Florence. It is also told, with some variations, in Piedmont.--Cfr. a +Russian variety of the same story in the chapter on the Hen. + +[384] _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_, 22. + +[385] Cfr. the chapter on the Fishes. + +[386] _Afanassieff_, vi. 59.--But in the tale v. 11, he knows how to +fight well. + +[387] In England the monster smells the blood of an Englishman, as in +the familiar lines in _Jack the Giant-Killer_-- + + "Fe fo fum, + I smell the blood of an Englishman; + Be he alive or be he dead, + I'll grind his bones to make my bread." + +[388] Cfr. Teza, _The Three Golden Hairs of the Grandfather Know-all_, a +Bohemian tale (_I tre Capelli d'oro del Nonno Satutto_, Bologna, 1866). + +[389] _Afanassieff_, ii. 7. + +[390] v. 11. + +[391] _Afanassieff_, v. 7, 8. + +[392] iv. 46. + +[393] v. 6; _Erlenwein_, 7. + +[394] _Erlenwein_, 5.--In the first story of _Erlenwein_, the +last-born, Vaniusha (Little John), takes from disputing peasants, by a +stratagem, first a marvellous arrow, then a hat which makes the wearer +invisible, and, finally, a mantle which flies of itself. He promises +to divide them equitably, and for this service makes them pay him +beforehand, each of the three times, a hundred roubles; he then throws +the objects far away and says, that he who is able to find them will +have them; all search, but he alone finds them. (Thus Argunas, in the +_Mahabharatam_, hides his wonderful arms in the trunk of a tree, in +which he alone can find them.) + +[395] Cfr. Schiefner, _Zur Russischen Heldensage_, Petersburg, 1861. +This is how the hero Svyatogor is described in a Russian popular epic +song cited by Ralston (_The Songs of the Russian people_): "There +comes a hero taller than the standing woods, whose head reaches to the +fleeting clouds, bearing on his shoulders a crystal coffer." + +[396] _Afanassieff_, vi. 41. + +[397] v. 31, and _Erlenwein_, 16. + +[398] v. 32. + +[399] vi. 27. + +[400] Cadis v nievo, i leti kuda nadobno; da po daroghie zabirai k +sebie vsiakavo vstriecnavo. + +[401] Na karablie niet ni adnavo pana, a vsio cornie ludi. + +[402] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 23.--Ice, in the form of an old man, +comes to try the boiling bath into which the king of the sea wishes to +throw the young hero; when Ice has tried the bath, the youth enters it +without suffering any harm.--The trial of drinking occurs again in a +grandiose form in the combat between Loki and Thor to empty the cup in +the Edda of Snorri, a different form of the Hindoo legend of Agastyas, +who dries up the sea.--Odin, too, as Indras and as Bhimas, at three +gulps dries up three lakes of mead. + +[403] _Afanassieff_, v. 42. + +[404] Cfr. the chapters on the Hare and the Quail. + +[405] _Afanassieff_, vi. 28, and ii. 31. + +[406] _Afanassieff_, vi. 20.--Cfr. i. 3, and ii. 31, where we have the +same particular of the prince who strikes three times the disguised +girl who serves him, as in the Tuscan story of the Wooden Top (the +puppet), the third in my collection of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano +di Calcinaia_. + +[407] iv. 44. + +[408] Cfr. next chapter. + +[409] Cfr. the chapter on the Spider. + +[410] _Afanassieff_, ii. 29, and iv. 45. + +[411] v. 23. + +[412] v. 42. + +[413] _Afanassieff_, v. 27. + +[414] Cfr. the chapter which treats of the Eagle, the Vulture, and the +Falcon. + +[415] _Afanassieff_, vi. 52. + +[416] _Afanassieff_, vi. 63. + +[417] vi. 51. + +[418] In the story, vi. 52, Ivan, by playing in a marvellous manner on +a flute, is recognised by the princess whom he had delivered from the +monster. + +[419] Cf. next chapter. + +[420] We find the blind-lame man again in an epigram by Ausonius of +Bordeaux, a writer of the fourth century:-- + + "Insidens caeco graditur pede claudus utroque, + Quo caret alteruter, sumit ab alterutro. + Caecus namque pedes claudo gressumque ministrat, + At claudus caeco lumina, pro pedibus." + +[421] _Afanassieff_, v. 39. + +[422] The student who wishes to extend his researches in Slavonic +tradition may consult with profit, among others, the following +works:--Schwenck, _Mythologie der Slaven_; Hanusch, _Slavische +Mythologie_; Woycicki, _Polnische Maerchen_; Schleicher, _Littauische +Maerchen_; Wenzig, _Westslavischer Maerchenschatz_; Kapper, _Die Gesaenge +der Serben_; Chodzko, _Contes des Paysans et des Patres Slaves_; Teza, +_Itre Capelli d'oro del Nonno Satutto_, a Bohemian story; Mickievic, +_Canti Popolari Illirici_. + + +SECTION V. + +THE BULL AND THE COW IN THE GERMANICO-SCANDINAVIAN AND FRANCO-CELTIC +TRADITIONS. + +SUMMARY. + + The four bulls, sons of the virgin Gefion.--The bull which comes out + of the sea.--The bull progenitor of royal races.--The bull who + carries the maiden.--The cow of abundance, Audhumla, nurse and + mother of heroes.--The three brothers of Scandinavian and German + mythology.--The warrior-cow.--The sacred cow of Oegwaldr burned upon + the hero's tomb.--The rod-phallos used to strike the cow, as an + augury of abundance and fecundity.--The head of the ox used as a + hook to catch the sea-serpent.--The Scandinavian cornucopia made of + the horns of oxen.--The horn full of honey.--The horn-trumpet.--The + daughter that milks.--The hero who eats oxen.--Atli eats the hearts + of his sons, believing them to be the hearts of + calves.--Hornboge.--To a wicked cow God gives short horns; to cut + off the cow's horns; to take the bull or cow by the horns, three + Germanic proverbs.--To dream of eagles announces the vicinity of + cows; Scandinavian corresponding legend.--A red cow on a certain + bridge announces a battle.--The Germanico-Scandinavian mythical + bridge.--The red cow and the black cow yield white milk.--Digression + upon mythical proverbs, and the explanation which seems to be the + most likely.--To shut the stable after the cow has been + stolen.--When the daughter is stolen, shut Peppergate.--He who has + lost a cow and gets its tail back again has not much, but he has + more than nothing.--To take by the horns.--Even if the cow's tail + moves it does not fall.--The tails in the mud.--The virtues of the + tail.--The ascent to heaven by means of the tails.--The hero in the + sack made of a cow's hide thrown into the sea.--The punishment of + the bull.--When the cow places herself upon the eggs, do not expect + fowls.--The black cow has crushed him.--The sack of the wolf or of + the black beast is his body itself.--The trial between hero and + monster to take off their skins; the hero gives cows' skins, but the + monster is obliged to give his own.--The cow's hide, when sold, is + the beginning of good luck.--The daughter flees from her father, who + wishes to seduce her; the story of the slipper again.--The cow can + pass before the hare.--The cow jumped over the moon.--Tarde sed + tute.--To take the hare with the chariot.--All those who blow the + horn do not hunt hares.--As a blind cow finds a pea.--Marvellous + pipkins and amphorae.--The cow that laughs.--The princess who + laughs.--The cow that speaks.--The language of animals.--Phallical + mysteries.--What the king said in the queen's ear.--Because they + have spoken, the husband and wife are separated.--Bulls that speak + at Rome.--Women know everything, even how Zeus married Hera.--The + mythical laugh is in the sun's ray and in the lightning.--The fishes + that laugh; Phallic meaning of the myth.--If the cow-maid must spin, + there will be little yarn.--The cows that spin.--The spinning + Berta.--Berchta and Holda.--The time is passed when Berta spun.--The + times of King Pipino.--Berta with the large foot.--Berta with the + goose's foot.--St Lucia and St Luke.--Virgins after + parturition.--The old husband Pepin, a form of St Joseph.--The wife + Berta changed.--The Italian proverbs dare la Berta and dare la Madre + d'Orlando.--Continuation of the story of Berta persecuted in the + forest.--Orlando and Charlemagne.--The bull-priest and the + priest-bull.--The bull in funerals, in pregnancy, and as the food of + the hero.--The dwarf and the giant.--A French dwarf explains a myth + to us; a Scandinavian explains other myths to us. + +I shall here combine under one category the Germanico-Scandinavian and +Franco-Celtic traditions, as traditions which, in the Middle Ages +especially, had a close and continual correlation of correspondence +with each other. + +The _Edda_ of Snorri begins with the voyage of Gefion, with the four +oxen, her sons (although she is a virgin), yoked to a plough. The king +Gylfi concedes to her the right of occupying and possessing as much +ground as she can plough in twenty-four hours. When they come to the +western sea-board, the four oxen rush forward and drag Gefion with them +into the sea, until they arrive at the land of Seelund (Seeland).[423] +In which, it is obvious we have again the Vedic bull with a thousand +horns which comes out of the sea, and the bull which carries off the +maiden. The bull which comes out of the sea is also found in Irish +legends, and in German ones. According to a German legend, of which +several variations exist, a shepherd received a dinner every day and a +clean shirt every Sunday from a variegated bull that came out of the +sea.[424] A bull on the seaside begets, by the sleeping queen, the king +Meroveus, the first of the Merovingians; perhaps it is on this account +that we find a golden bull's head represented on the tomb of King +Childeric. Charles Simrock[425] found a similar legend also in Spain. +The bull which carries the girl, which we have already met with in the +Russian stories, occurs again in the Norse tale[426] of "_Katee Wooden +Cloak_ (Dasent), endowed with the powers of wish. In its left ear is a +cloth (which reminds us of that spun on the cow's horns), which, when +spread out, is covered with dainties of all kinds for the dawn-maiden, +who has been thrust out of her father's house; but when the step-mother +informs her that she cannot rest until she has eaten the dun bull's +flesh, the animal, hearing her, engages to deliver her, and offers, if +she so wills, to carry her away." + +In the voyage of Gylfi in the _Edda_ of Snorri, we find that the cow +Audhumla, the cow of abundance, was the parent of the supreme +Scandinavian god Odin, as it was of the supreme Vedic god Indras. The +cow Audhumla nourishes with her milk Ymir, the first of the giants. She +licks the salt mountain of ice (the Esthonian ice-mountain, the twelve +glasses of the Russian princess, through which the young hero Ivan +penetrates to kiss her). From the ice which the cow has licked, comes +forth, first the hair, then the head, then the whole body, of the hero +Buri. (The sun arises little by little from the mountain of the east, +warmed, attracted by the cow-aurora, and shows, first a few rays, then +his disc, and then himself in all his splendour and strength; and that +which the sun does every day he repeats on a larger scale once a year, +rising again from the ice of winter through the tepidity of spring.) Of +Buri, who is at birth strong, is born Boer, who has, by Bestla, the +daughter of the giant Boelthorn, three sons, Odin, Wili, and We (the +usual three brothers of the legends), who correspond to the three sons +of Mannus in German tradition, that is, Inguis, Istio, and Irminius. The +Swedish king Eistein had a great veneration for the cow Sibilia, and +used to take her with him to battle, that she might terrify the enemy by +her lowing. (The lowing of cows plays an important part in the battles +of the Vedic hero Indras. In the _Pancatantram_, as we have noticed, the +bellowing of the bull fills the lion with terror.) The Scandinavian +king, Oegwaldr, was accompanied everywhere by a sacred cow, of which he +drank the milk, and with which he desired to be buried. In the +_Rigvedas_, as we have seen, the hero Indras makes the cow fruitful; +and the thunderbolt of the god, penetrating the cloud, takes the form of +a phallos. Afterwards, as a symbol of the rod-phallos, the branch or rod +of the tree palacas was adopted, with which the cow was struck to make +it fruitful; such a magic rod is used in Germany to this day, where it +is in many parts the custom to strike the cow, in the belief that it +will render her fruitful.[427] + +It is with the head of the most beautiful of the giant Hymir's oxen +fastened to his hook that, in Snorri's _Edda_, the god Thor goes to +fish up the immense serpent of Midgard from the bottom of the sea, and +destroys it upon the sea-shore. (This myth, if I am not mistaken, has +the following meaning:--The head of the solar, or lunar, bull is +devoured by the monster of night; this same head, tossed about, draws +up, towards morning as sun, and towards evening as moon, upon the +shore of the sea of night, that is to say, on the eastern mountain, +the monster-serpent: thus Hanumant, in the _Ramayanam_, passes over to +the opposite shore of the sea, crossing the body of the marine +monster, which he causes to burst; thus Indras kills Ahis the serpent +upon the mountain). + +Nor is there the cow of abundance only. Scandinavian tradition, in the +short poem on the dwarf Allwis, offers us the cornucopia in the cup +formed of the defence of oxen (_i.e._, with their horns), in which the +god Thor drinks hydromel. Thus Sigurd offers to Bruenhilt a horn full of +mead to drink. And this horn, moreover, besides serving as a cornucopia, +becomes as a golden horn the war-trumpet of Odin (the Giallarhorn). + +The Scandinavian hero then, it appears also, has his relationship with +cows, though his life has far more of a warlike character than a +pastoral one; he therefore accuses Loki, and in so doing fills him with +shame, with having passed eight winters underground occupied in milking +the cows like a woman. (It is known that the Hindoo word _duhitar_, +whence Tochter, means she who milks). The Scandinavian hero, instead of +milking cows, eats bulls. We find more than once in the _Eddas_ the +heroes occupied in roasting oxen. Atli, the husband of Gudrun, boasts of +having killed some oxen and having eaten them with her. Gudrun, the +Scandinavian Medea, gives Atli the hearts of his two sons to eat, +assuring him that they are calves' hearts. The god Thor, disguised as +the goddess Freya, drinks three barrels of mead, and eats a whole bull, +when he sets out on the enterprise of recovering his marvellous hammer. +The bull's or cow's horn, moreover, not only supplies mead to the hero, +nor is it only used to call his friends to his aid and to throw down the +enemy; it also forms the hero's bow, which therefore, in the _Vilkina +Saga_,[428] also takes the name of Hornboge, and, as such, assists the +greatest hero, Thidrek or Ditrich, and is the parent of the celebrated +hero Sigurd (Sifrit, or Siegfried). And, in conclusion, the horns are +considered such an important weapon of the cow and bull, that a proverb, +which is at once Slavonic, German, and Italian, says, "To a wicked cow, +God gives short horns" (that it may do no harm, or rather, because it +wears them away by use); to cut off the cow's horns means, in a German +proverb, to surmount a difficulty; and to take the bull or cow by the +horns, is to disarm them.[429] + +In the Greenland poem on Atli, in the _Edda_ of Soemund, Hoegni says, that +when many cattle are killed much blood is seen, and that when one dreams +of eagles, oxen are not far distant. In the _Edda_ of Snorri, whilst +Odin, Loki, and Hoenir are cooking an ox under a tree, an eagle on its +summit prevents the meat from being cooked, till the heroes consent to +give him part of it. The heroes consent, but the eagle carries off no +less than the two thighs and the two shoulders of the ox. The eagle has +in the _Edda_ the same demoniacal and infernal character that is in +other traditions ascribed to the crow, the funereal stork, and the +vulture: it searches for oxen; and therefore to dream of eagles is an +intimation that an ox is near, in the same way as they say the presence +of a vulture is a sign of the proximity of a corpse. + +A German legend, cited by Kuhn and Schwartz,[430] makes a battle begin +"as soon as a red cow is led over a certain bridge." We remember the +Russian story of the girl who, by means of the magical towel of her +brother, makes a bridge arise over the river, over which the +monster-serpent, in the form of a handsome young man, crosses to take +her; how the brother is sacrificed in the battle which he is obliged to +fight against the monster, who disarms him by fraud; and how the battle +between the hero and the monster begins when the maiden, passing the +bridge, abandons the hero, her brother, who falls and sheds his blood in +the unequal struggle. I have already remarked that in the popular +belief the bloody sun of evening forebodes war, and the red cow of +German tradition represents no other than this sky. As to the bridge, an +interesting note of Kuhn and Schwartz[431] seems to confirm the +hypothesis which I have already hinted at in connection with the +Slavonic story, _i.e._, that it represents the milky way; from this +note, too, in which a resemblance is noticed between the bridge of the +red cow, which determines the beginning of a battle, and the +Scandinavian celestial Bifroest (as perhaps there is between it and even +the Persian bridge Cinvant itself), I gather that in Frisia the milky +way is called Kau-pat (or Kuh-pfad, cow's-path). That is to say, it is +supposed that the red cow of evening passes during the night along the +milky way, scattering her milk over it; whence perhaps is derived the +German proverb, "Even red cows yield white milk,"[432]--like that other +which we have already seen current in India, and met with again in +Turanian tradition, and which exists as a German, Slavonic, and Italian +proverb, "Even the black cow yields white milk"--(the black night which +produces the alba or white dawn of morning, and we might add, the silver +moon and the milky way). + +Since it seems to me, therefore, as I trust it also does to the +reader, that the maiden who crosses the bridge in the Slavonic +stories is, without doubt, the same as the red cow which does the like +in German legend, and if I have not been mistaken in identifying the +maiden who travels with her brother to the kingdom of the dead with +the evening aurora and the dying sun, I shall here adduce a few other +German proverbs, which may also be said to be universal in European +tradition, relating to the cow, all pointing to a similar conclusion. +They are as follows:--"Shutting the stable after the cow has been +stolen." "He who has lost a cow, and recovers her tail, has not much, +but he has more than nothing." "A cow's tail might reach heaven, if it +were only a long one."[434] "A cow does not know what her tail is +worth till she loses it." "To take the cow by her tail." "The black +cow has crushed him, or has got upon him." "A cow cannot overtake a +hare." "The cow has outrun the hare." "Not all who sound the horn hunt +the hare." "When the cows laugh." "As a blind cow can find a pea." "He +must be carried about in an old cow's hide." "If the cow-maid spins, +there will be little yarn." "The cow will learn to spin first."[435] + +Meditating upon all these German proverbs, it is, it appears to me, +not difficult to recognise in them a reminiscence of ancient myths +with which we are already acquainted. When we reflect that almost +every proverb has passed into contradictory forms and varieties, and +as in these varieties we may trace the elements of the history of a +great number of strange proverbs, it does not seem rash to affirm that +the said history generally had, in like manner, its origin in a myth. +Not to wander from the subject in hand, that the same proverb is +attributed to different animals, not only by different nations, but in +the oral traditions of the same people, I must refer the reader to +what I have remarked in the preface to this volume concerning the +contradiction which exists between certain superstitious beliefs. The +contradiction between many proverbs, as also between many +superstitions, compared with each other, can only be reconciled by +referring both back to the battle-field of mythology, where an +inconceivable number of myths arise, and can only arise, out of +contradictions; that is, out of contrasted aspects which celestial +phenomena present, even to the same observer, still more so to +different observers. The comparative history of mythical proverbs is +yet to be written, and perhaps it is not yet possible to write it +according to rigorous scientific method in all its completeness. A +preliminary study of the details is necessary to understand a proverb +as well as a popular custom, a superstitious belief, a legend, or a +myth; and this study will demand some labour; for one proverb, +completely illustrated, may involve the development of an entire +epical history. I shall not presume here to solve the enigma of the +above-quoted German proverbs, but only to indicate what seems to me to +be the way of arriving at their most probable solution. In the study +of a proverb, it is necessary to lay great stress upon its +intonation. Upon the different tones in which an ancient proverb was +originally pronounced, and afterwards repeated, passing from tongue to +tongue, and from people to people, depends a great part of the +alteration in the meaning even of the most interesting of the +proverbs, which are a patrimony we owe in common to Aryan tradition. A +proverb, for instance, began by being a simple affirmation, the simple +expression of a natural mythical image; with the lapse of time the +expression remained, and the myth was forgotten; the expression then +appeared to refer to a strange thing, and was accompanied, when +pronounced, with a doubtful mark of interrogation; it was now adopted +in the denial of an impossible thing, and became an instrument for +satire. Thus many proverbs which have become satirical, must have been +originally nothing more than mythical affirmative phrases. + +"To shut the stable after the cow has been stolen." In England, instead +of the cow, we have in the proverb a girl: "When your daughter is +stolen, shut Peppergate" (the name of a little gate of the city of +Chester, which it is said the mayor ordered to be shut when his daughter +had been carried off). The proverb is now used to stir up a laugh at the +expense of those who are at pains to guard their property after it has +been robbed; but it perhaps had not always the same meaning. We are +already familiar in Hindoo tradition with the hero who delivers the +beautiful maiden out of the enclosure, and have seen how she is scarcely +free, when she is led away by iniquitous brothers or companions, after +shutting up the legitimate proprietor of the cow or maiden in the cave +whence the cow or girl came forth; how the ravishing brothers shut the +door of the stable or cavern, after having carried off the maiden. The +hero imprisoned in the stable, the hero shut up in the darkness of +night, often assumed in mythology the form of a fool. Hence from the +idea of shutting the gate of the stable upon the hero, by the ravishers +of his cow, the transition seems natural, in my opinion, to the hero +lost in the cavern, to the hero become foolish, to the peasant who shuts +the door of the stable when the cow has been robbed, or to the mayor of +Chester, who, being shut up in the town, shuts the Peppergate, through +which the girl who had been carried off passed. + +"He who has lost a cow and recovers its tail has not much, but he has +more than nothing." This proverb also appears to me to have a mythical +meaning. I have already remarked that the tail, the heel, the feet, +that is to say, the lower or hinder extremities, betray the mythical +animal; which we shall see more convincingly when we come to examine +the legends which refer to the wolf, the fox, and the serpent. It is +the footprint which, in all the European traditions, betrays the +beautiful maiden in her flight; and when the brigand Cacus carried off +the oxen of Hercules, the hero, to recover them, searches for their +footprints. But in order that these may not be recognised, the cunning +brigand, instead of leading the oxen by their heads, takes them by +their tails,[436] and makes them walk backwards. Hence, to take by the +tail, means to take hold of the wrong way, and it is applied to the +ass as well as the cow. It is said in Germany that a cow once fell +into a ditch from which none of the bystanders dared to extricate it. +The peasant to whom the cow belonged came up, and, according to some, +took it fearlessly by the horns, while, according to others, he +dragged it out by its tail, whence can be explained the double proverb +to take by the horns, _i.e._, to take by the right side, and to take +by the tail, or, as we have said, to take by the wrong. But the +peasant could only take his cow out by the horns, or by the tail, +according to the way in which it had fallen in; that is, if it had +fallen down head foremost, it could only be dragged out by the tail, +and if, on the contrary, it had fallen in tail foremost, he could only +extricate it by laying hold of its horns. The cow-aurora is taken by +surprise and devoured by the wolf, bear, wild-boar, or serpent of +night, who takes her by the shoulders (it is on this account that, in +the Russian story, we have seen the bull recommend the fugitive hero, +accompanied by his sister, to keep his face turned in the direction +whence the pursuing monster might be expected to come up). The monster +(the shadow, or the cloud) clutches the cow by her tail and devours +her, or drags her into his cave. The hero, in order to deliver his cow +out of the cave, can take her by the horns only on condition that he +penetrates into the cavern by the same way by which the cow entered, +that is, by the monster's mouth; but, as the monster endeavours to +surprise the hero from behind, so the hero often wounds the monster +from behind, catches hold of him by the tail, and in this way drags +him out of the cavern, ditch, or mud--his fallen cow. In a Hindoo +fable in the second book of the _Pancatantram_, we have the story of a +jackal, who, to satisfy a desire of his wife, follows the bull for +whole years together, in the hope that his two hanging testicles might +fall some day or another. In a joke of Poggius, and in Lessing,[437] +we find the same subject spoken of, of which a variation is given in +a German proverb, "Though the cow's tail moves, it does not +fall."[438] In the hope of this it is that the wolf, or the fox, runs +after the tail of the cow or bull. There is a Piedmontese story which +I heard in my infancy, one comic feature of which lingers vividly in +the memory: a boy who took the hogs to pasture, cut off their tails +and stuck them in the mud, and then made off with the animals. The +owner of the hogs, seeing their tails, is under the impression that +they have sunk into the mud. He tugs at them, brings away their tails, +but cannot fish up their bodies. In a Russian story given by +_Afanassieff_,[439] we read that the cunning Little Thomas (Thomka, +Fomka) cheats the priest of his horse (in some versions his ass) by +cutting off its tail and planting it in the mud of a marsh. He makes +the priest believe that his horse has fallen into the marsh; the +priest, thinking to pull it out, gives one stiff tug, and falls down +on his back with the tail in his hand; upon which Tom persuades him to +believe that he has broken it off himself, and to be content with the +recovery of so much of the lost animal. In the fifty-seventh Gaelic +story of Campbell,[440] a priest endeavours to pull out of the water a +drowning sheep, but the tail comes away, and the story-teller adds, +"If the tail had not come off, the story would have been longer." And +so the owner of the cow, the robber of which has left the tail behind +as a consolation, has in reality but little, but yet this little is +something; for, just as the slipper left behind her by the fugitive +girl, although it is of little value, enables the hero to identify +her, so in the tail of his cow the owner has something in hand to set +out on its search with, and to recover his lost property; either +because the tail of an animal is like its shadow and serves to trace +it, as the slipper does the maiden by showing the footstep; or else, +because tailless cows are evidently stolen ones. (In the myth of +Cacus, in which Hercules traces the stolen oxen by the footprints, and +Cacus drags them by their tails, the mythical figure of the slipper +and that of the lost tail are perhaps united. It is possible that the +tails of the oxen came off in the hands of Cacus when dragging them +into the cavern, and that, thrown away by the brigand, and found by +Hercules, they may have served him as a guide to recover his oxen. It +is also possible that Cacus, pursued by Hercules, had not time to +drive the oxen in entirely, but that their tails still protruded and +betrayed their whereabouts. Relative to the Latin legend of Cacus, +these are simply hypotheses, and I have therefore enclosed them in a +parenthesis; but inasmuch as in the above-quoted Russian story, we +find the horse's tail cut off by the robber, and as in the chapter on +the fox, we shall see the fox who betrays himself by not drawing in +his tail, whence the proverb, "Cauda de vulpe testatur," the two +hypotheses advanced above are, after all, not so visionary.) In +_Pausanias_[441] the hero Aristomenes, who has been thrown into a deep +cistern, liberates himself in a marvellous manner by means of an +eagle, after a fox had opened a passage. The fox's tail has such a +bewitching power of attraction, that according to popular tradition, +when it is moved the cock falls down unable to resist the charm. +According to popular belief, the tail (as well as the nose and mouth) +is the most splendid part of the body of an animal. The great monkey +Hanumant, with his tail on fire, burns Lanka (in the same way as the +burning tails of the foxes of the biblical Samson burn the ripe +harvests of the Philistines). The grey, or black, horse of mythology +(having devoured the solar white, or red horse) emits fire from his +mouth or tail. This black horse being the night, the horse's jaws and +tail, which emit fire, represent the luminous heavens of evening and +of morning; when, therefore, the tail of his horse (stolen by the +robber in the same way as the bull and the cow[442]) remains in the +mythical hero's hand, this light-streaming tail is enough to enable +him to find the whole animal, _i.e._, the solar hero comes out of his +hiding-place (Hanumant comes out of the hinder parts of the marine +monster, the dwarf comes out of the wolf's back[443]), the bull-sun +finds his cow the aurora again; the prince sun, the princess aurora; +the peasant recovers his ass or his cow; Hercules, his oxen; the white +horse comes out of the tail of the black horse, who had eaten him, and +then, by means of the tail, ascends to heaven;[444] the white bull +comes out of the black one; the white, or the red, cow comes out of +the black cow; the tail comes out of the body; the hero comes out of +the sack, or hide, in which he had been enclosed or sewed up. The sack +plays a great part in the tradition of the hidden or persecuted hero; +this sack is the night or the cloud, or the winter; the hero shut up +in the sack, and thrown into the sea, is the sun. The hero enclosed in +the sack and thrown into the sea, and the heroine shut up in a chest +(covered, moreover, with a cow's hide, in the myth of Pasiphaee) or +barrel, and abandoned to the water,[445] are equivalent to each other, +and so are the heroes shut up in the well, in the cavern, in the +stables, and even in the cow. Inasmuch as the sack in which, according +to the proverb quoted above, the delinquent hero is to be sewed, is an +old cow's-hide, or else the hide of an old cow, or a dark one (of the +night), when this black cow sits on the eggs of the bird of evening, +to hatch them, the eggs come to evil; whence I derive the German +proverb, "When the cow sits upon the eggs, do not expect fowls."[446] +And when the night was observed to overwhelm the sun and withdraw him +from human sight, this other proverb took its origin, "The black cow +has crushed him." The black cow does not only crush the hero, but, as +the wolf does, shuts him up in her own hide,[447] in her own sack, +_i.e._, devours him--to fill the sack is the same as to fill the body, +and to empty the sack as to empty the body. In the Piedmontese story +of the dwarf child (the Norwegian Schmierbock), whom the wolf[448] +encloses in the sack, the dwarf comes out of the sack while the wolf +is emptying his body. Of two Russian stories given by _Afanassieff_, +which we shall examine in the chapter on the wolf, one shows us the +wolf who puts the peasant in a sack, and the other the wolf who puts +the dwarf-hero in his body; and both peasant and dwarf save +themselves. The two variations took their origin in the comparison +drawn between the body and a sack, which, in mythical speech, are +therefore the same thing. The hide of the black bull, black ox, black +or grey horse, or black or grey wolf, and the sack which wraps up the +hero or the devil, play a great part in popular Indo-European +tradition.[449] From the sack of the funeral stork (the night), in a +Russian story,[450] come forth two young heroes (the Acvinau), +defeaters of their enemies, who spread out the tablecloth of abundance +(the aurora), and a horse which drops gold (the sun). The hero shut up +in the sack, or the cow's hide, and thrown into the water, escapes +from shipwreck in the same way as those navigators of the Chinese sea +described in his voyages by Benjamin of Tudela, who, he says, when +shipwrecked, escaped being swallowed up by the waves by covering +themselves with the whole hide of a cow or an ox; for the eagles, +mistaking them for real, flew to the spot and pouncing upon them, drew +them ashore. The ship with the buffalo's hide is found again in +popular stories. This is evidently a reminiscence of mythical +derivation (from which was, perhaps, afterwards derived the idea of +torture, as in the famous bull of Phalaris, in which many see a symbol +of the god of the waters, the bull's hide in which the tetrarch +Acarnides, vanquished by Memnon, was sewed up,[451] in antiquity, and, +in the Middle Ages, the ox's hide in which, according to the +chronicles, the horrid Duke of Spalato Euroia orders Paulus Chuporus, +prefect of the Emperor Sigismond, to be sewed, to revenge himself upon +him, because he had, out of contempt, saluted him by bellowing like an +ox). Thus with the Celtic hero Brian,[452] the pretended fool, who +speculates upon the stupidity of those who are reputed wise. When one +of these so-called sages, deceived by him, proposes to throw him into +the sea shut up in a sack, he makes another man take his place by +means of a witty invention, as Goldoni's liar would say, whilst he +himself comes back to the shore with a whole herd of cattle. In the +other Celtic, Slavonic, German, and Italian variations of this story, +the would-be fool begins his fortune-making, in one version, by +putting a few coins into his dead cow's hide, and then selling it at a +very high price as a purse which will give out money whenever shaken; +and in another, by palming off his ass or horse, persuading the +purchaser, by means of an easy deceit, to believe that it yields gold +and silver, and thus obtaining a high price for it. With the cow are +also connected the two horns, by blowing into which he causes his +wife, who feigns death, to rise to life again, which horns he thus +prevails on his brothers or companions to buy at a great ransom, who, +thinking themselves cunning, and wishing by means of the horns to +speculate upon corpses,[453] begin by killing people, and are ruined. +I have said above, that the sack in which the hero is generally +enclosed is the same as the chest in which the heroine is usually shut +up on account of her beauty, that is to say, in which the beautiful +heroine hides her splendour, or in which the red cow, the evening +aurora with the sun, loses herself. The fourteenth Scottish story of +Mr J. F. Campbell's contains the following narrative:--A king, whose +first wife (the morning aurora) is dead, engages to marry the woman +whom the dead queen's dresses will fit, and finds no one who can wear +them except his own daughter (the evening aurora). She makes her +father give her gold and silver dresses and shoes (that is, she takes +from her father, the sun, the splendour of the morning aurora); she +shuts herself up with them in a chest, and lets herself be thrown into +the sea. The chest drifts about on the waves, and comes at last to the +shore; the beautiful maiden enters the service of a young king; she +shows herself in church with her splendid robes; the young king, who +does not recognise his servant-maid in this beautiful princess, +becomes enamoured of her, and hastens to overtake her; she flees and +loses her golden slipper; the king finds it, and to discover her, has +it measured on every foot; many maidens cut off their toes to make the +slipper go on, but a bird divulges the deceit; the young king marries +the beautiful maiden who came out of the wooden chest. Here we have +again, not only the heroine who escapes, but the walking heroine; this +heroine is the aurora, and the aurora is often a cow. Another swift +cow passes in the proverb before the hare (the leaping moon), in the +fable of the ant and the grasshopper, of which the former represents +the cloud or the night, or Indras or the aurora in the cloud of night, +or the earth,[454] and the latter, the leaping one, the moon; the ant +passes the grasshopper in the race, not because it walks faster, but +because the two runners must necessarily meet, and therefore the one +must pass the other. The English infantile rhyme, "Hey! diddle, +diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon," refers +to the myth of the cow which jumps over the hare. The observation of +celestial phenomena being afterwards neglected, and it being forgotten +that the running ant or cow meant the cloud, or the sun, or the +aurora, or the earth, and the jumping hare or grasshopper the moon, +only a regular and parallel race, on the terrestrial soil, between cow +and hare, or ant and grasshopper, was seen; and from the myth of the +two animals which meet and pass each other in the sky, was derived, +according to the different characters of nations or eras, a double +proverb--one deriding the slow and rash animal which presumes to try +and overtake the swift one in the race, the other serving as an +example to prove the truth of the sentence, "Tarde sed tute," which, +in Italian, is "Chi va piano va sano e va lontano" (he who goes +slowly, goes well and far). The first proverb has for its parent the +Greek one, "to hunt the hare with an ox," which, in Italian, is +"pigliar la lepre col carro" (to take the hare with a car);[455] +referring to cases where means disproportionate to the end are made +use of. When the hare and the cow meet, if the cow is obliged to stop +the hare, she crushes it, as we have seen above that she crushes the +bird's eggs instead of hatching them. The idea, moreover, of the ox +hunting the hare arose naturally out of the idea of the ox or cow +overtaking and passing beyond the hare. To these proverbs can perhaps +be joined the next German one:--"All who blow the horn do not hunt +hares," which is now directed against those who think by an easy +method, such as blowing a horn, to accomplish a difficult enterprise, +such as hunting a hare; in the same way as in Germany it is said, that +all thunder-clouds do not give rain, and the cow must do more than low +in order to have much milk, or the cow that lows most is not the one +that yields most milk.[456] In fact, a cow which lows much is unwell, +neither while it is lowing can it eat and make milk; so he who +fatigues himself with blowing the horn is not able, at the same time, +to run after the hare; as in the Italian proverb, "Il can che abbaia +non morde" (the dog that barks does not bite), for the simple reason +that whilst he opens his mouth to bark, he cannot shut it to bite. The +hen that clucks, on the other hand, is the one that lays the egg, +because the act of clucking with the mouth does not interfere with the +operation of egg-laying; there is no incompatibility of offices. + +The German proverb, "As a blind cow finds a pea," is now used to +indicate an impossibility; and yet in the myth the blind cow (or the +night) really finds the pea, kidney-bean, or bean (the moon), which +are the same thing to all intents and purposes. The night is sacred to +the dead; for the dead are as eaten vegetables--kidney-beans, vetches, +peas, and cabbages--lunar symbols of resurrection and abundance. In +the ninth story of the fourth book of _Afanassieff_, the daughter of +the old man and woman eats beans; a bean falls upon the ground, and +grows up to the sky; upon this bean the old man (the sun) climbs up to +heaven and sees everything. In the numerous stories in which the young +hero sells a cow or cow's hide, we almost always find a pipkin full of +kidney-beans, which he induces people to think can cook themselves, +the hero having first cooked them, and then placed them upon the fire +covered with ashes (the darkness); the pipkin is also the moon. The +stories of the pipkin belonging to the house-mother in the +_Mahabharatam_, which the god Krishnas, having been hospitably +entertained by her, refills with beans, and of the lord who, in an +unpublished Piedmontese legend, disguised as a poor old man, throws +pebbles into the kettle of the pious widow, which, as soon as thrown +in, become kidney-beans, involve the same myth. In the same way I +think the kidney-bean is evidently intended by the fruit of fruits, +which, according to the _Mahabharatam_, the merciful man receives in +exchange for the little black cow (_krishnadhenuka_) given to the +priest.[457] In the English fairy tale of "Jack and the Bean-stalk," +Jack barters his cow for some beans; his mother (the blind cow) +scatters the beans; one of them takes root, and grows up to the +sky.[458] By means of the black cow, of the funereal or blind cow, of +the cow-aurora, which becomes black or blind during the night, the +hero finds the bean or the pea of abundance (the moon), by means of +which he sees again in the morning and becomes rich. + +We have seen a sack, instead of the hide of a black cow, used to +signify the night; in like manner, after or instead of this same cow's +hide (which the hero goes to sell), as well as the pea or bean, we +have the pipkin--the poor hero finds the moon. The Slavonic story of +the potter who becomes rich, and that of the brother believed to be +stupid, who sells at a high price his pipkin, which makes the beans +boil without a fire, are varieties of the same subject. In a Russian +story in _Afanassieff_,[459] the amphora takes the place of the pipkin +that makes its owner rich. The poor brother draws it out of the water; +from the broken amphora comes a duck, which lays one day golden eggs, +and the next silver ones--the sun and the moon (at morning the aurora +hatches the golden day, at evening the silver night). + +We have still to explain the proverbs of the cow that laughs and the +cow that spins. The laughing aurora (after having, during the night, +acted the princess that never laughs) and the spinning aurora (in +relation with the cow, the moon, that spins by means of its horns) are +already known to us. The aurora laughs at morn in the sky, at the +sight of her husband; thus the princess that never laughs, in a +numerous series of Slavonic, German, and Italian stories, laughs when +she sees her predestined husband.[460] The proverb of the cow that +laughs is connected with that of the cow that speaks; it is perhaps on +this account that bulls and cows (and other animals) which speak, and +say and do complimentary things among themselves, in an entire cycle +of Indo-European stories, which have been learnedly illustrated by +Professor Benfey, in _Orient und Occident_, under the title of "Ein +Maerchen von der Thiersprachen," always make the man who understands, +and indiscreetly listens to their language, laugh. But if the man +reveals what the bulls or cows (or other animals) have said to each +other, he prepares his own ruin: the language and the inner life of +animals must not be divulged to all; if published abroad, the augury +is a sinister one. That which makes the princess of the Russian tale +laugh, is seeing the courtesy which the animals, like men, show to the +man taken out of the mud; that which makes the man who understands the +language of animals laugh, is seeing them speak and act to each other +exactly as men do in similar private relations. To betray this mystery +is to wish for one's death. No one must know what the bull said in +secret to the cow, the sun to his mistress, what the king said in the +queen's ear. The violator of the mysteries of Venus is guilty of +sacrilege, and merits the punishment of death, or at least brings evil +down upon his head. Woe to the heroine if the hero hidden in the skin +of an animal, on account of some indiscretion, or because she has +spoken to her sisters, shows himself naked in his human form; she +loses him, and their separation is inevitable. + +We are already acquainted with the cloud-cow and the cloud-bull; the +cloud thunders, the bull bellows and speaks. The clouds, the Vedic +_gna devapatnis_, _gna devis_,[461] that is, the goddesses, or divine +and knowing wives, the fairy goddesses (women with their +presentiments, the women that know more than the devil), are also +prophetic cows; these cows, in their character of fairies, speak with +a human voice, and so do the cloud-bulls. Hence the Romans could take +their auguries from an ox that spoke with a human voice. It has been +said that this omen was a sinister one, but it is a mistake. According +to Livy, under the consulate of Cn. Domitius and L. Quintius, an ox +threw Rome into terror by the words, _Cave tibi, Roma_. These words +seem to have a sinister meaning, but they are in reality nothing more +than a friendly counsel or admonition, as much as to say, Look to your +field occupations, O Rome; the thunder has been heard which announces +the summer. Thus, when we read in the fifth book of Pliny's _Natural +History_ that whenever an ox was known to have spoken with a man's +voice, the Roman Senate was accustomed to meet in the open air--_sub +dio_, I only see in this allusion, and in ascribing this practice to +the Senate, one way of saying that when thunder is heard (that is to +say, when the ox speaks) it is a sign of summer, and we may go out +into the country and sleep in the open air. And so, finally, when, +according to Eusebius, an ox said, that for the death of Caesar (which, +as every one knows, took place on the Ides of March, that is to say, +at the beginning of spring) there would be more blades of corn than +men, I see a most evident announcement of the approach of summer, in +which men or reapers are in fact never too many, and even rare when +the harvest is a large one. The ox that with a man's voice heralds the +near advent of summer corresponds to the cuckoo, the legend of which +we shall reserve for a special chapter. Meanwhile, to confirm still +more our identification, we shall cite here the almost proverbial +verse of Theocritos: Women know everything, even how Zeus married Hera +(or that which the king said in the queen's ear). Zeus, transformed +into a cuckoo, flew to the mountain, and alighted on the knees of +Hera, who, to protect him from the cold, covered him over with her +robes. The cuckoo, or Zeus, disappears soon after having spoken, that +is, announced the summer loves of the sun. After St John's Day the +cuckoo, who appears in March, is no longer seen; so the ox, soon after +it has spoken and betrayed the loves of Zeus, or soon after the cloud +has thundered, revealing the secret loves of the sun within the sky +covered with clouds, or the confidential speeches and secret caresses +of the animals, pays for this indiscretion by his own death. As the +aurora is represented in the Vedic hymns by a maiden who does not +laugh, and smiles only when she sees her husband,[462] so the +lightning that tears the cloud and comes before the thunder is +compared to the laughing of an ox or a cow, or else of the man who has +seen their loves. As long as the sky only lightens, or merely +smiles,[463] there is little harm done. No one can know as yet why the +ox or the cow, the hero or heroine, or the third person who is looking +on, smiles before the spectator; but when the hero or the heroine +speaks, betraying the thought or singular surprise which makes him or +her smile, the penalty of the indiscretion is death; the thundering +cloud is soon dissolved into rain. Nor will my identification of the +cloud that lightens (making a distinction between the lightning and +the thunderbolt) with the smiling cow, or ox, or man who, +understanding the language of animals, as they speak in low tones, and +seeing their most familiar habits, smiles, seem forced when we reflect +that our language has preserved the figures of a ray of joy, of a +flash of joy, to indicate a smile, of which we say that it shines, +illumines, or lightens. Lightning is the cloud's smile. In the ninth +story of the third book of _Afanassieff_, we meet with a fish which +laughs in the face of the onlooker (the cloud that lightens, and also +the moon that comes out of the ocean of night), and for which, on +account of this singular property, the poor man (the sun in the cloud +or in the night) obtains an extraordinary sum from a rich lord, even +all his riches--_i.e._, the poor man takes the place of the lord; the +splendid sun takes the place of the sun hidden in the cloud or in the +darkness. In a Hindoo story of _Somadevas_ (i. 5), a fish laughs upon +seeing men disguised as women in the king's apartment. In the +_Tuti-Name_ (ii. 21), the fishes laugh when they see the prudery of an +adulteress. With this is connected the fable of Lafontane, "Le Rieur +et les Poissons" (viii. 8). In the legend of Merlin, the magician also +laughs because the wife of Julius Caesar lives with twelve heroes +disguised as women, and because he himself allowed himself to be taken +by Grisandole, a princess disguised as a cavalier.[464] + +The fish is a phallic symbol (in the Neapolitan dialect, _pesce_, +fish, is the phallos itself). The fish that laughs because it has been +the spectator of adultery is the phallos itself _in gaudio Veneris_. +The thunderbolt of Indras is his phallos that breaks the cloud. In +Ovid,[465] we have Jupiter, who, by means of riddles, teaches Numa the +way of forming the thunderbolt. + + "Coede caput, dixit, cui Rex, Parebimus, inquit; + Coedenda est hortis eruta cepa meis. + Addidit hic, Hominis: Summos, ait ille, capillos. + Postulat hic animam: cui Numa, Piscis, ait. + Risit; et His, inquit, facito mea tela procures, + O vir colloquio non abigende meo." + +The joke of the April fish (le poisson d'Avril), with which so many of +our ladies ingenuously amuse themselves, has a scandalously phallical +signification.[466] The fishes of the Zodiac are twins, a male and a +female bound together, born of Eros (Amor) and Aphrodite (Venus). In +the Adiparvam of the _Mahabharatam_, we read of a fish which devours a +man's seed, and a girl who, having eaten it, brings forth a child. The +same myth occurs again in the Western popular tales. + +The cow that spins still remains to be explained. We have already seen +that the cow spins with her horns for the maiden; this cow is, +generally, the moon, which spins gold and silver during the night. The +aurora is ordered by her step-mother, the night, both to pasture the +cow (the moon) and spin. If the cow-maid is to take care of her cow +and guard her well, she will be able to spin but little; whence the +German proverb is right when it says that if the cow-maid must spin +there will be little yarn. The good cow-maid prefers to keep her cow +well, and pays every regard to it, in order that it may find good +pasturage; then the grateful cow (the moon) puts gold and silver upon +its horns to spin for the maiden.[467] In the morning the girl +appears upon the mountain with the gold and silver yarn, with the gold +and silver robes given her by the good fairy or by the good cow.[468] +And when the old woman kills the cow, the girl who keeps its bones and +sows them in the garden sees, instead of the cow, an apple-tree with +gold and silver apples grow up, by offering one of which to a young +prince the maiden obtains a husband, whilst perverse women are beaten +by the apple-tree or find themselves opposed by horns. This +apple-legend is a variation of the star which falls upon the good +maiden's forehead on the mountain, and of the horns, or donkey's tail, +which grow out of the forehead of the bad sister who has maltreated +the cow or badly combed the Madonna's head. The story of the good +maiden and the wicked one, of the beautiful and the ugly one, finishes +with the attempt made by the ugly and wicked girl to take the place of +the beautiful and good one in her husband's bed, in the same way as, +in other stories, a black washerwoman tries to take the place of the +beautiful princess; and this conclusion brings us to the interesting +story of the spinning Berta, or Queen Bertha, as she is called. + +In German mythology we have the luminous Berchta, who spins, in +contrast with the dark and wild Holda at the fountain (the washerwoman +of fairy tales). The former seems to be (besides the moon as a white +woman, in her period of light, the silvery night) the aurora, the +spring, or the luminous aspect of the heavens; the latter (besides the +moon in her period of darkness, Proserpina or Persephone in hell), the +dark night, winter, the old witch.[469] The same name is given to the +various phenomena of the gloomy sky, in the same way as a contrary +name is given to the various phenomena of the luminous heavens. On +this account lunar and solar myths, daily and annual myths, enter into +the story of Berta or Berchta. + +Berta, like the cow of the fairy tales, spins silver and gold. +Therefore, when we say in Italy that the time when Berta spun is +past,[470] this expression means, that the golden age, the age in +which gold abounded is past. And instead of this expression we also +use another in Italy to denote an incident which took place in a very +ancient era, at a time very remote from the memory of men; we say, in +the times of King Pipino (Pepin). Queen Berta having been the wife of +Pepin, it was natural that the times of the husband should correspond +to the fabled era of his wife, who was, tradition alleges, mother of +Charlemagne, the hero so-named of the legends, of whom it is said, in +Turpin's Chronicle, that he had long feet, and his _alter ego_ Orlando +(a new and splendid mediaeval form of the twin heroes), rather than of +the King Charlemagne of history. + +Berta has a large foot, like the goddess Freya, the German Venus, who +has swan's feet. It is this large foot that distinguishes her from other +women, and enables her husband to recognise her, in the same way as it +is the foot, or footprint (the sun follows the path taken by the +aurora), that betrays and discovers the fugitive maiden, who, we have +said, is the aurora with the vast chariot (the vast chariot which, if it +pass over the hare, may crush it. Frau Stempe, and Frau Trempe, and the +large-footed Bertha, are the same person)--vast, because she occupies a +large extent of the heavens when she appears. When standing on the +chariot, she seems to have no feet, or a very small, an imperceptible +foot; but the chariot on which she stands and which represents her foot +is so much the larger; therefore when we leave the chariot out of +account, and suppose, on the contrary, that she goes on foot, inasmuch +as, when walking, she takes up much room, the swan's, or goose's, or +duck's foot given to her in the myth of Freya and the legend of Berta is +quite suited to her. And seeing, as we have said, that the foot (the +myths almost always speak of one foot alone; even the devil is lame, or +has only one foot) and the tail of an animal are often substituted for +each other in mythology, we can understand how, in a Russian story,[471] +the hero who has fallen into a marsh was able to deliver himself by +clutching hold of the tail of a duck. This duck being the aurora, and +having a wide spreading tail as well as a large foot, the solar hero, or +the sun, can easily, by holding on to her, raise himself out of the +swamp of night. There is a German story[472] in which the white woman, +or the Berta, is transformed into a duck. In another German legend,[473] +instead of the swan-footed Berta, we have the Virgin Mary (who, as a +maiden, represents the virgin aurora, always pure, even after having +given birth to the sun; like the Kunti of the _Mahabharatam_, who gives +birth to Karnas, the child of the sun, and yet is still a virgin. On the +other hand, when a good old woman, good woman or Madonna, she generally +personifies, in the legends, the moon) who, in the shape of a swan, +comes to deliver from the prison of the infidels (the Saracens or Turks, +here the black demons, or the darkness of night), and carry off by land +and by sea, the young hero whom she protects (the aurora delivers the +sun from the night).[474] The same luminous Berta also assumes, in +popular German tradition, the form of St Lucia, that is, the saint who, +after having been made blind, became the protectress of eyesight. Of the +blind or black cow of night is born the luminous cow of morning, the +aurora that sees everything herself and makes us see everything. For the +same reason that the cow or duck, Berta, is consecrated to St Lucia, +whose appearance she assumes, the bull (the sun) is sacred to St Luke, +the festival of whom is on this account celebrated at Charlton, near +London, with a horn-fair or exhibition of horns, generally ornamented +and perfumed. + +In the above-quoted Hindoo legend of the _Mahabharatam_, the queen +will not sleep with the old blind man, but sends instead her +servant-maid. In the _Reali di Francia_, King Pepin is advised by his +barons to take a wife, when he is already "far advanced in years" (he +is a form of St Joseph). The barons look for a wife, and find, in +Hungary, Berta, the daughter of King Philip, "the most beautiful and +skilful horsewoman," or Berta with the large foot upon a beautiful and +stately horse, which goes along the road bounding, whilst she is +always laughing. Berta has a maid called Elizabeth, who resembles her +in every respect except her feet. King Pepin is married by proxy to +Berta, sends for her, and comes to meet her. Berta when she sees that +King Pepin is so ill-favoured, grieves "although forewarned of his old +age." When evening comes she takes off her royal robes and gives them +to Elizabeth, that she may take her place and sleep with the +king.[475] Hence the Italian proverbs, "Dar la Berta" (to give the +Berta), and "Pigliar la Berta" (to take the Berta), meaning to deride +and to be derided. But instead of to give the Berta, in Italy we also +say, "Dar la madre d'Orlando" (to give the mother of Orlando). The +_Reali di Francia_ informs us that King Pepin had, by Elizabeth, two +perverse bastards, Lanfroi and Olderigi, and by Berta, Charlemagne and +another Berta, mother of Orlando; but the Italian proverb is perhaps +nearer the mythical truth when it recognises the mother of Orlando as +herself Pepin's wife, so that Charlemagne and Orlando are brothers; +and, in fact, they accomplish several of the undertakings mentioned in +the legend of the two brothers. In the so-called Chronicle of +Turpin[476] when Orlando dies, Charlemagne says that Orlando was his +right arm, and he has no longer anything to do in life without him; +but he lives long enough to avenge the death of Orlando; and after +this vengeance, the heroic life of Charlemagne comes at once to an +end. In the _Chanson de Roland_, too, after the death of his hero, +whom he avenges, Charlemagne feels the burden of life, weeps, tears +his beard, unable to support this solitude; but in the _Chanson_, as +well as in the _Reali di Francia_, Orlando explicitly appears as the +nephew of Charlemagne, that is, as the son of his sister Berta. (As +the Vedic aurora was now the mother, now the sister of the sun and of +the Acvinau, thus Berta may, mythically, be mother or sister of +Charlemagne, and yet be always the mother of Orlando). + +It would be a never-ending work to collect together all the Germanic, +Scandinavian, and Celtic legends which, in one way or another, are +connected with the myth of the cow and of the bull. The literature +relating to this subject is composed not of one or a hundred, but of +thousands of volumes, of which some (such, for instance, as the poem +of the _Nibelungen_, and the poems of the _Round Table_) individually +contain, in the germ, almost the whole diverse world of fairy tales. I +must therefore limit myself to the indication of the more general +features, leaving to more diligent investigators the minuter +comparisons; and esteeming myself, I repeat, too happy if my brief +notices should be found clear enough to spare others the labour of +preparing the warp upon which to weave comparisons. + +From what we have said thus far, it seems to me that two essential +particulars have been made clear:--1st, That the worship of the bull +and the cow was wide-spread, even in northern nations; 2d, That the +mythical bull and cow were easily transformed into a hero and heroine. + +The sacred character ascribed to the cow and the bull is further +evidenced by a Scandinavian song, in which, on the occasion of the +nuptials of the animals (the crow and the crane), the calf (perhaps +the bull) appears as a priest, and reads a beautiful text.[477] As a +symbol of generation, the bull is the best adapted to propitiate the +married couple; so the priest in the _Atharvavedas_ teaches the +inexperienced husband and wife, by formulas _ad hoc_, the mysteries +of Venus. Thus the _jus primae noctis_ was conceded to the Brahman in +mediaeval India; and so in the ritual of mediaeval France, we still find +indications of the priest _pronubus_. The beautiful text that the +calf, or bull, recites in the Scandinavian song must be the same +which, according to the ceremonial recorded by Villemarque, the priest +recited, whilst sprinkling them with incense, to the married couple +_sedentes vel jacentes in lectulo suo_.[478] Thus, when the wolf dies +(in a German writing of the twelfth century), it is the ox that reads +the gospel.[479] Besides marriages and funerals, the bull or ox also +appears, finally, as in the Hindoo ceremonial, in pregnancy. +Gargamelle, while she has Gargantua in her womb, eats an excessive +quantity[480] of tripe of fattened oxen. When she feels the pains of +child-birth, her husband comforts her with an agricultural proverb of +Poitou, "Laissez faire aux quatre beufz de devant;" and she then gives +birth to Gargantua, who comes out of her left ear, in the same way as +in the Slavonic stories we find the heroes come out of the ears of the +horse (or of the ass of night; the luminous solar hero comes out of +the ears of the ass, or of the grey or black horse; the twin horsemen +come out of the two ears). Rabelais, to explain this extraordinary +birth, asks "Minerve ne naquit-elle pas du cerveau par l'aureille de +Iupiter?" No sooner is Gargantua born, than he asks with loud cries +for something to drink; to give him milk, 17,913 cows are brought, his +mother's breasts not being enough, although each time she is milked +she yields "quatorze cens deux pipes neuf potees de laict." This is +the giant of popular tradition, whom the gigantic phantasy of Rabelais +has coloured in order to make him the butt of an immense satire. It is +an amplified and humorous rendering in a literary form of the popular +Superlatif,[481] whose mythical character is revealed in the curse +hurled against him by the old dwarf-fairy, whom he maltreated: "One +sun, to accomplish his work, eats eleven entire moons; but this time +every moon will eat the work of a sun." The ascending and descending +life of the solar hero is thus indicated. Superlatif will become +continually smaller, until it seems as though he were about to +disappear altogether; but at that very instant the curse comes to an +end, and from a dwarf, he grows into a giant again in the arms of his +bride.[482] Thus the days become continually shorter and shorter, +till the winter solstice, till Christmas. At Christmas the sun is born +again, the days lengthen, the dwarf grows tall; the sun, by a double +but analogous conception of ideas, passes once each day and once each +year from giant to dwarf, and from dwarf to giant. + +And the dwarfs of tradition know and reveal the mythical how and why +of their transformations, since, though they are dwarfs and hidden, +they see all and learn all. It is from the knowing dwarf Allwis, his +diminutive _alter ego_, that the mighty Thor, in the _Edda_, learns +the names of the moon, the sun, the clouds, and the winds. The moon, +according to Allwis, when it is in the kingdom of hell (in the kingdom +of death, in the infernal world, when it is Proserpina), is called a +wheel that is hurrying on; it then shines among the dwarfs (_i.e._, in +the luminous night, in which the sun hides itself; it becomes an +invisible dwarf). The sun among the dwarfs (_i.e._, when it is a +dwarf) plays with Dwalin (the mythical stag, probably the horned +moon); among the giants (_i.e._, when in the aurora, it becomes a +giant again), it is a burning brand; among the gods (the Ases), it is +the light of the world. The cloud, the dwarf Allwis goes on to inform +us, is the ship of the winds, the strength of the winds, the helmet +(or hat, or hood) which makes its wearer invisible. The wind, again, +is the wanderer, the noisy one, the weeper, the bellower, the +whistler (no one can resist the cries or the whistling of the hero of +fairy tales; the bellowing of the bull makes the lion tremble in his +cave). In this learned lesson on Germanico-Scandinavian mythology, +given us by the dwarf Allwis, we have a further justification of the +transition which we here assume to have been made from the natural +celestial phenomenon to its personification in an animal, and to the +personification of the animal in a man: Allwis, who knew all things, +has explained the mystery to us. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[423] _Les Eddas_, traduites de l'ancien idiome Scandinave par Mdlle. +du Puget, 2eme edition, p. 16. + +[424] Kuhn und Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Maerchen und Gebraeuche_, +p. 501. + +[425] _Handbuch der Deutschen Mythologie_, mit Einschluss der +nordischen, 2te. aufl. p. 437.--We find also in Eginhardus (_Vita +Caroli Magni_): "Quocumque eundum erat, carpento ibat, quod bubus +junctis et bubulco rustico more agente, trahebatur."--The bull is a +symbol of generation; the man who fears the bull is a stupid and +ridiculous eunuch. We find in Du Cange, Lit. Remiss, ann. 1397, "Le +suppliant, lui dist, Eudet, vous avez un toreau qui purte les gens et +ne osent aler aux champs pour luy; lequel Eudet luy respondis: as tu +nom Jehannot?" Faire Johan dicitur mulier, quae marito fidem non servat +(a variety of the Mongol Surya Bagatur). + +[426] Recorded by Cox, _Mythology of the Aryan Nations_, vol. i. p. +438, when speaking of the Hellenic myth of Zeus and Europa. + +[427] Cfr. Kuhn, _Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Goettertranks_, p. +181 and following.--In Du Cange, _Glossarium Mediae et Infimae +Latinitatis_, s. v. Acannizare, we read an extract of a paper of +Jacob, i. _Regis Arag._ fol. 16: "Quicunque Acannizaverit vaccam vel +bovem, si bos vel vacca fecerit damnum casu fortuito, dum Acannizatur, +cujus est amittat ipsum bovem vel vaccam, nisi Acannizetur causa +nuptiarum;" and in Du Cange also: "Ut in anserem ludendo baculos +torquere in usu fuit, ita et in bovem." + +[428] _Die Deutsche Heldensage_, von Wilhelm Grimm, 2te Aus., No 102, +182. + +[429] Cfr. the chapter on the Goat and He-goat for more information on +mythical horns. + +[430] _Vide_ p. 497. + +[431] Diese Bruecke wird keine andere sein, als die himmlische Bifroest, +deren er huetet, eine Vermuthung, die noch an Wahrscheinlichkeit +gewinnt, wenn man den friesischen Namen der Milchstrasse Kaupat, der +Kuhpfad, hinzunimmt; denn Milchstrasse und Regenbogen beruehren +einander sehr nahe. Dieser ist die Tagesbruecke zwischen Goettern und +Menschen, jene die naechtliche. + +[432] Rothe Kuehe geben auch weisse Milch; Wander, _Deutsches +Sprichwoerter Lexicon_, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1870. + +[433] Auch eine schwarze Kuh gibt weisse Milch; Wander, _ibid._ + +[434] This reminds us of the familiar English riddle, "How many cows' +tails would it take to reach the moon? One, if it were long enough." + +[435] Wenn die Kuh gestohlen ist, verwahrt man den Stall.--Wer eine +Kuh verloren und den Schwanz zurueck erhaelt, hat nicht viel, aber mehr +als nichts.--Die Kuh koennte mit dem Schwanze bis an den Himmel +reichen, wenn er nur lang genug waere.--Une vache ne sceit que lui +vault sa queue jusques elle l'a perdue.--Die Kuh beim Schwanz +fassen.--Die schwarze Kuh hat ihn gedrueckt.--Eine Kuh kann keinen +Hasen erlaufen.--Die Kuh ueberlaeuft einen Hasen.--Nicht alle, die +Hoerner blasen, jagen Hasen.--Wenn die Kuehe lachen.--Wie eine blinde +Kuh eine Erbse findet.--Den sollt man in einer alten Kuhhaut +herumfahren.--Soll die Kuhmagd spinnen, wird man wenig Garn +gewinnen.--Man wuerde eher einer Kuh spinnen lehren; Wander's _Lexicon +of German Proverbs_, ii. 1666-1695. + +[436] Livius i.: "Quia si, agendo, armentum in speluncam compulisset, +ipsa vestigia quaerentem dominum eo deductura erant, aversos boves +eximium quemque pulchritudine caudis in speluncam traxit." + +[437] _Facetiae_, Krakau, 1592, quoted by Benfey in his introduction to +the _Pancatantram_, Leipzig, Brockhaus, p. 323: "Quia testiculi mei +quadraginta annos pependerunt casuro similes et nunquam +ceciderant."--And in Lessing, xi. 250, we read of Lachmann-Maltzahn: +"De vulpe quadam asini testiculos manducandi cupido."--In Aldrovandi, +_De Quadrupedibus Bisulcis_, i. Bologna, 1642, we read, "Membrum tauri +in aceto maceratum et illitum, splendidam, teste secto, facit faciem; +Rasis ait, genitale tauri rubri aridum tritum, et aurei pondere +propinatum mulieri, fastidium coitus afferre; e contrario quidam +recentiores, ut in viris Venerem excitent, tauri membrum caeteris hujus +facultatibus admiscent." + +[438] Wenn auch der Kuhschwanz wackelt, so faellt er doch nicht ab; in +Wander, _Deutsches Sprichwoerter Lexicon_. + +[439] v. 8. + +[440] Referred to by Koehler in _Orient und Occident_. + +[441] iv. 15. + +[442] Whence the proverb quoted above, relating to the stable that is +shut when the cow is stolen, is also quoted as follows: "Shutting the +stable when the horse has been stolen." + +[443] Cfr. the chapter on the Wolf, where the dwarf enters the wolf by +his mouth and comes out by his tail. + +[444] In a Russian story, in _Afanassieff_, vi. 2, when the old peasant +(the old sun) falls from the sky into a marsh (the sea of night), a duck +(the moon or the aurora) comes to make its nest and lay an egg upon his +head; the peasant clutches hold of its tail; the duck struggles and +draws the peasant out of the marsh (the sun out of the night), and the +peasant with the duck and its egg flies and returns to his house (the +sky whence he had fallen).--In a variation of the same story in +_Afanassieff_ (the two stories together refer to that of Aristomenes) +the old man falls from heaven into the mud. A fox places seven young +foxes on his head. A wolf comes to eat the young foxes; the peasant +catches hold of his tail; the wolf, by one pull, draws him out; by +another, leaves his tail in the peasant's hand. The tail of the wolf of +night is the morning aurora.--In the story of _Turn-Little-Pea_, +_Afanassieff_, iii. 2, the young hero enters into the horse after having +taken off his (black) hide, and after having taken him by the tail, +_i.e._, he becomes the luminous horse of the sun. + +[445] In the Russian story of lazy and stupid Emilius, who makes his +fortune, the hero is shut up in a barrel with the heroine, and thrown +into the sea: the sun and the aurora, made prisoners, and shut up +together, cross together the sea of night. + +[446] Wenn sich eine Kuh auf die Eier legt, so erwarte keine Huehner; +Wander, the work quoted before. + +[447] In the Russian story of _Afanassieff_, v. 36, the hero-workman +kills the monster-serpent by gambling with him for the price of his +own skin. Thinking that he may lose, he has provided himself +beforehand with seven ox hides and with iron claws. He loses seven +times; each time the monster thinks he has him in his power, but the +workman as often imposes upon him with an ox's hide, inducing him to +believe that it is his own. At last the serpent loses, and the +workman, with his iron claws, really takes off his skin, upon which +the serpent dies. To take the sack or hide from the monster, to burn +the skin of the monster-serpent, goat, hog, frog, &c., to burn the +enchanted mantle or hood in which the hero is wrapped up, is the same +as to kill the monster. + +[448] See the chapter on the Wolf. + +[449] For the German one, cfr. Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 199. + +[450] _Afanassieff_, ii. 17. + +[451] Acarnides insutus pelle juvenci; Ovidius, _In Ibin_. + +[452] Koehler, _Ueber T. F. Campbell's Sammlung gaelischer Maerchen_, in +_Orient und Occident_.--Cfr. the 30th of the _Novelline di Santo +Stefano di Calcinaia_. + +[453] Koehler, the work quoted above. + +[454] To this myth of the cow which goes over the moon, the +observation of a lunar eclipse might have contributed materially, in +which the cow earth (in Sanskrit, _go_ means earth as well as cow) +really passes over the moon or hare. Or else, the cloud and the night, +as a black cow, very frequently goes over the hare or moon. + +[455] In the Russian superstition, when a hare passes between the +wheels of the vehicle which carries a newly-married couple, it bodes +misfortune; nor is this without reason: the hare is the moon; the moon +is the protectress of marriages; if she throws obstacles in the way, +the marriage cannot be happy; consequently, marriages in India were +celebrated at full moon. + +[456] Die Kuh, die viel bruellt, gibt nicht die meiste Milch. + +[457] Phalanam phalam acnoti tada dattva; _Mahabharatam_, iii. 13, 423. + +[458] In the German legend of King Volmar, in Simrock, the work quoted +before, p. 451, we find the peas in the ashes. In the seventh of the +_Contes Merveilleux_ of Porchat, we have the pot in which the cabbages +are boiled, from which come forth money and partridges. In the sixth +of the same _Contes Merveilleux_, the young curioso sees a nest upon +an elm-tree, and wishes to climb up; the ascent never comes to an end; +the tree takes him up near to heaven. On the summit of the elm-tree +there is a nest, from which comes forth a beautiful fair-haired maiden +(the moon). + +[459] i. 53. + +[460] In the story, vi. 58, of _Afanassieff_, the honest workman, when +he wishes to fix his eyes upon the princess who never laughs, falls into +a marsh; the fish, the beetle, and the mouse, in gratitude, clean him +again; then the princess laughs for the first time, and marries the +honest workman. In the 25th of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano_, an +analogous detail is found, but this is not enough to make the princess +laugh; it is the eagles which draw after themselves everything they +touch that accomplish the miracle of making the queen's daughter laugh. +In the third story of the _Pentameron_, the princess laughs upon seeing +Pervonto carried by the faggot of wood, instead of carrying it. The +Russian stories of the ducks which save the hero, in _Afanassieff_, vi. +17-19, and the faithless wife and her lover bound together, are +variations of the eagles of the Tuscan story. + +[461] _Rigvedas_, v. 46, 8; v. 43, 6; i. 61, 8. + +[462] In the _Nibelungen_, Krimhilt, who has never saluted any one, +(diu nie gruozte reeken), salutes for the first time the young Sifrit, +the victorious and predestined hero, and, whilst she is saluting him, +turns the colour of flame (do erzunde sich sin varwe). + +[463] In a mediaeval paper in Du Cange, s. v. _Abocellus_, we read: "De +quodam caeco vaccarum custode," who, "quod colores et staturam vaccarum +singularium specialiter discerneret," was believed to be demoniacal; +hence the sacrament of confirmation was given him to deliver him from +this diabolical faculty, and the paper narrates that he was +immediately deprived of it. The blind hero who sees, who distinguishes +his cows from each other, is the sun in the cloud. No sooner does he +receive confirmation (which is a second baptism), than he ceases to +see his cows, for the simple reason that the clouds are dissolved in +rain, or that himself has recovered his vision. + +[464] Cfr. the papers relative to Merlin by Liebrecht and Benfey in +_Orient und Occident_. + +[465] _Fasti_, iii. 339. + +[466] Cfr. the chapter on the Fishes; where the custom of eating fish +on Friday is also explained. + +[467] In the first of the stories of _Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_, the +cow-maid says to her cow, "Cow, my cow, spin with your mouth and wind +with your horns; I will make you a faggot of green boughs." + +[468] The maiden spins for her step-mother; the fairy gives luminous +robes to the maiden; the maiden weaves dresses for her husband; these +are all details which confound themselves in one. In the _Nibelungen_, +the virgins prepared dresses of gold and pearls for the young hero +Sifrit. + +[469] Holda, or Frau Holle, is burnt every year in Thuringia on the +day of Epiphany, on which day (or, perhaps, better still, on the +Berchtennacht, the preceding night, or Berta's night) the good fairy +expels the wicked one. In England, too, the witch is burned on the day +of Epiphany.--Cfr. Reinsberg von Dueringsfeld, _Das festliche Jahr_, p. +19. + +[470] In the _Pentameron_ of Basil, i. 9, we read: "Passaie lo tiempo +che Berta filava; mo hanno apierto l'huocchie li gattille." + +[471] _Afanassieff_, vi. 2. + +[472] Cfr. Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 409, and the ninth of +the _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_, in which the luminous +maiden disguised as an old woman is uncovered by the geese, when she +puts down the dress of an old woman. + +[473] Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 410. + +[474] Wuotan also saves him whom he protects upon a mantle;--this is +the flying carpet or mantle, hood, or hat, which renders the wearer +invisible, and for which the three brothers disputed, which is also +represented as a tablecloth that lays itself. Thus the poor man who +goes to sell his cow's hide finds the pot of abundance and riches. The +dispute for the tablecloth is the same as the dispute for riches, for +the beautiful princess who is afterwards divided, or else carried off +by a third or fourth person who takes the lion's share. We must not +forget the fable of the animals who wish to divide the stag among +themselves, of which the lion takes all, because he is named lion. In +the _Nibelungen_, Schilbung and Nibelung dispute with each other for +the division of a treasure; they beg Sifrit to divide it; Sifrit +solves the question by killing them both and taking to himself the +treasure, and the hood that makes its wearer invisible (Tarnkappe). + +[475] The romance of Berta continues in the _Reali di Francia_ in +harmony with the popular stories of an analogous character; the false +wife really causes King Pepin to marry her, and sends Berta into the +forest to be killed; the hired murderers pity her, and grant her her +life. Berta, whilst in the forest bound to a tree (like the Vedic +cow), is found by a hunter; out of gratitude she works (she, no doubt, +spins and weaves), in order that the hunter may sell her work at Paris +for a high price. Meanwhile her father and mother dream that she is +beset by bears and wolves who threaten to devour her, that thereupon, +throwing herself into the water, a fisherman saves her (in the dream, +the water has taken the place of the forest, and the fisherman that of +the hunter). King Pepin goes into the forest, finds her, recognises +and marries her, whilst Elizabeth is burnt alive. The change of wives +also occurs in a graceful form (with a variation of the episode of the +beauty thrown into the fountain) in the twelfth of the _Contes +Merveilleux_ of Porchat, Paris, 1863. + +[476] _Histoire de la Vie de Charlemagne et de Roland_, par Jean +Turpin, traduction de Alex. de Saint-Albin, Paris, 1865, preceded by +the Chanson de Roland, poeme de Theroulde.--Cfr. the _Histoire +Poetique de Charlemagne_, par Gaston Paris. + +[477] Uhland's _Schriften zur Geschichte der Dichtung und Sage_, iii. +77. + +[478] "Seigneur, benissez ce lit et ceux qui s'y trouvent; benissez +ces chers enfants, comme vous avez beni Tobie et Sara; daignez les +benir ainsi, Seigneur, afin qu'en votre nom ils vivent et vieillissent +et multiplient, par le Christ notre Seigneur.--Ainsi soit-il." +Villemarque, _Barzaz Breiz, Chants Populaires de la Bretagne_, sixieme +edition, Paris, 1867, p. 423. + +[479] Uhland, the work quoted above, p. 81.--In the French romance of +_Renard_, on occasion of the apparent death of the fox, the gospel is +read, on the contrary, by the horse. In the German customs the bull also +appears as a funeral animal, and is fastened to the hearse. If, while he +is drawing the hearse, he turns his head back, it is considered a +sinister omen. According to a popular belief, the bulls and other +stalled animals speak to each other on Christmas night. A tradition +narrates, that a peasant wished on that night to hide himself and hear +what the bulls were saying; he heard them say that they would soon have +to draw him to the grave, and died of terror. This is the usual +indiscretion and its punishment.--Cfr. Rochholz, _Deutscher Glaube und +Brauch_, Berlin, 1867, i. 164, and Menzel, _Die Vorchristliche +Unsterblichkeits-Lehre_, Leipzig, 1870.--We have the speaking oxen again +in Phaedrus's fable of the stag who takes refuge in the stable, ii. 8, +where the master is called "ille qui oculos centum habet." + +[480] Elle en mangea seze muiz, deux bussars et six tupins; Rabelais, +_Gargantua_, i. 4. + +[481] Cfr. Porchat, _Contes Merveilleux_, Paris, 1863. + +[482] In _Porchat_, Superlatif, while he is a dwarf, is shut up in a +clothes-press; he is a male form of the wooden girl, of the wise puppet, +of the sun hidden in the trunk of a tree, in the tree of night, in the +nocturnal (or cloudy, or wintry) night, full of mysteries, which the +little solar hero surprises from his hiding-place. The hero in hell, or +who, educated by the devil, learns every kind of evil, is a variation of +this multiform idea. The dwarf of _Porchat_, who comes out of the +clothes-press, is in perfect accord with the popular belief which makes +the man be born in the wood, on the stump of a tree, of which the +Christmas-tree is a lively reminiscence. + + +SECTION VI. + +THE BULL AND THE COW IN GREEK AND LATIN TRADITION. + +SUMMARY. + + Preparatory works.--Bos quoque formosa est.--Zeus as a bull.--Io and + Europe as cows.--The cow sacred to Minerva, the calf to Mercury, and + the bull to Zeus.--Demoniacal bulls.--Taurus draconem genuit et + taurum draco.--White bulls sacrificed to Zeus, and black ones to + Poseidon.--Poseidon as a bull.--The horn of abundance broken off the + bull Acheloos.--The bulls of Aietas.--The bull who kills + Ampelos.--Dionysos a bull.--The bull that comes out of the sea.--The + eaters of bulls.--The sacrifice of the bull.--The intestines of the + bull.--From the cow, the lamb.--The bull's entrails are wanting when + the hero is about to die, that is, when the hero has no heart.--Even + the bull goes into the forest.--The bull that flees is a good omen + when taken and sacrificed.--The bull and the cow guide the lost + hero.--Analogy between solar and lunar phenomena.--Herakles passes + the sea now on the cow's neck, now in a golden cup.--Herakles shoots + at the sun.--The moon, the bull of Herakles, becomes an apple-tree; + anecdote relating to this.--The moon as a golden apple.--The moon as + a cake.--The funeral cake.--Instead of a cow of flesh, a cow made of + paste, in Plutarch and AEsop.--Ashes and excrement of the cow.--L'eau + de millefleurs.--The bulls of the sun.--Herakles stable-boy and + cleaner of the herds.--The bull Phaethon.--The myth of the bull and + the lion.--The bull's horns.--The god a witty thief; the demon an + infamous one.--The myth of Cacus again.--The worm or serpent that + eats bulls.--The bellowing or thundering bull, celestial + musician.--The bull and the lyre.--The voice of Zeus--Bull-god and + cow-goddess. + +In descending now from the North upon the Hellenic and Latin soils, to +search for the mythical and legendary forms assumed there by the bull +and the cow, the mass of available material in point which offers, +instead of diminishing, has increased prodigiously. Not to speak of the +rich literary traditions of mediaeval Italy and Spain (as to those of +France, they are often but an echo of the Celtic and Germanic), nor the +significant traditions of the Latin historians and poets themselves, nor +the beliefs, superstitious customs, and legends still existing on the +half-Catholic, half-Pagan soil of Italy, all of which are notably +fraught with the earliest mythical ideas, we here find ourselves face to +face with the colossal and splendid edifice of Greek poetry or mythology +itself; for that which constitutes the greatness and real originality of +Greek poetry is its mythology, by means of which it is that a divinity +breathes in every artistic work of Hellenic genius. The poet and the +artist are almost always in direct correspondence with the deities, and +therefore it is that they so often assume such a divine and inspired +expression. It would, therefore, be a bold presumption on my part if I +were to essay to extract and present, in a few pages, the soul, the +contents of this endless mythology. I have, moreover, the good fortune +of being able to plead relief from the obligation to venture on any such +attempt, by referring the reader to the learned preparatory works +published in England, in the same interest, by Max Mueller and George +Cox, upon the Hellenic myths in relation to the other mythologies. It is +certainly possible to take exception to interpretations of particular +myths proposed by these two eminent scholars, as, no doubt, might be the +fate of many of mine, were I to enter into minute explanations, and were +my lucubrations fortunate enough to obtain any measure of consideration. +But as I flatter myself with the hope that, notwithstanding occasional +diversions, in which I may have gone aside and lost myself for a few +minutes, I am taking the royal road which alone leads to the solution of +the great questions of comparative mythology, I recognise with gratitude +the labours of Max Mueller and Cox upon Greek mythology, the writings of +Michael Breal upon Roman mythology, the immortal work of Adalbert Kuhn +upon the Indo-European myth of fire and water, and a few other helpful +beacon-towers which send their light-shafts clear and steady athwart the +waste, and serve as useful guides to the studious navigator of the _mare +magnum_ of the myths. And because that which there is yet to do is +immense in proportion to the little that has been done well, I shall +take for granted what has already been demonstrated by my learned +predecessors (to one and all of whom I confidently and respectfully +refer my readers), and go on with my own researches, restricting myself, +however, entirely to the zoological field, in order not to increase, out +of all proportion, the dimensions of this opening chapter, which already +threatens to straiten the space I must leave for the rest of my +undertaking. + + "Bos quoque formosa est," + +says Ovid, in the first book of the _Metamorphoses_, when the daughter +of Inachos is transformed into a luminous cow by Jupiter. The bull +Zeus of Nonnos is also beautiful, as he swims on the sea, carrying the +beautiful maiden Europe. Her brothers wonder why oxen wish to marry +women; but we shall not wonder when we remark that Io and Europe are +duplicates of one and the same animal, or, at least, that Io and +Europe both took the shape of a cow--one as the moon especially,[483] +the other, the far-observing daughter of Telephaessa, the +far-shining,[484] as the moon also, or the aurora. In the first case +it is the heroine that becomes a cow; in the second, it is the hero +who shows himself in the shape of a bull.[485] These forms are, +however, only provisional and unnatural, in the same way as in the +Vedic hymns the representation of the aurora, the moon, and the sun as +cow and bull is only a passing one. The cow and the bull send their +calf before them; the sun, the moon, and the aurora are preceded or +followed by the twilight. Jupiter and Minerva have for their messenger +the winged Mercurius; and hence also Ovid[486] was able to sing:-- + + "Mactatur vacca Minervae, + Alipedi vitulus, taurus tibi, summe Deorum."[487] + +The fruit of the nuptials of Io and of Europe with Zeus is of a +monstrous nature, such as the evil-doing daughters of Danaos, who, on +account of their crimes, are condemned in hell to fill the famous barrel +(the cloud) that is ever emptying (the counterpart of the cup which, in +the Scandinavian myth, is never emptied); such too as Minos, he who +ordered the labyrinth to be made, the infernal judge, the feeder of the +Minotauros (of which the monstrous bull of Marathon, first subdued by +Herakles and afterwards killed by Theseus, is a later form), the son of +his wife and the gloomy and watery black bull Poseidon. Even Kadmos, the +brother of Europe, ends his life badly. He descends into the kingdom of +the dead in the form of a serpent. Of good, evil is born, and of evil, +good; of the beautiful, the hideous, and of the hideous, the beautiful; +of light, darkness, and of darkness, light; of day, night, and of night, +day; of heat, cold, and of cold, heat. Each day and each year the +monotonous antithesis is renewed; the serpent's head always finds and +bites its tail again. A Tarentine verse of Arnobius expresses very +happily these celestial vicissitudes: + + "Taurus draconem genuit et taurum draco." + +Thus, in the romance of Heliodoros (_Aithiopika_) we read that the +queen of Ethiopia, being black, gave birth to a white son; that is to +say, the black night gives birth to the white moon and to the white +dawn of morning. To Zeus (Dyaus, the luminous,) are sacrificed white +bulls; to his brother Poseidon, black ones; indeed, entirely +black[488] ones, according to the Homeric expression. + +Poseidon, in Hesiod (_Theog._ 453), is the eldest brother; in Homer +(_Il._ xv. 187), he is, on the contrary, the youngest; and both are +right; it is the question of the egg and the hen; which is born first, +darkness or light? The son of Poseidon, Polyphemos the Cyclop, is +blinded by Odysseus. Poseidon, representing the watery, cloudy, or +nocturnal sky, his one-eyed son seems to be that sky itself, with the +solar star, the eye of the heavens, in the midst of the darkness or of +the clouds (the mouth of the barrel). When Odysseus blinds his son, +Poseidon avenges him by condemning Odysseus to wander on the waters +(that is, lost in the ocean or the clouds of night). Inasmuch, moreover, +as Zeus, properly the luminous one, is often called and represented by +Homer as black as the clouds and pluvial,[489] he is assimilated to +Poseidon, the _presbytatos_ or oldest; in fact, in the oldest Hellenic +myths, Poseidon is essentially the pluvial form of Zeus. When Poseidon, +in the form of a bull, seduces Pasiphae, the daughter of the sun and +wife of Minos, he appears, indeed, of a white colour, but has between +his horns a black spot.[490] This spot, however small, is enough to +betray his tenebrous nature. Thus Acheloos, vanquished by Herakles in +the shape of a serpent, rises again in that of a pugnacious bull, one of +whose horns Herakles breaks,[491] which he gives to the AEtolians, who +receive abundance from it (the waters of the Acheloos fertilise the +country traversed by them; the dragon of the cloud kept back the waters; +Herakles discomfits the dragon, _i.e._, the darkness, and it then +reappears in the form of a bull; when its horns are broken, abundance is +the consequence). This monster reappears in the two perverse and +terrible bulls of King Aietas, with copper feet (_tauro chalkopode_), +which breathe dark-red flames and smoke, and advance against the hero +Ieson in the cavern; in the same way as the king of the monkeys in the +_Ramayanam_ vanquishes the demoniacal bull that fights with its horns, +by taking hold of the horns themselves, and throwing it down; so Ieson +does in Apollonios.[492] The same bull is repeated in that ridden by the +youth Ampelos, dear to Dionysos (who has also the nature of a bull, +_taurophueses_, but of a luminous one). Ampelos, persuaded by the +death-bringing Ate (_thanatephoros Ate_), mounts on this bull, and is +thrown by it upon a rock where his skull is broken, because he was full +of pride against the horned moon, her who agitates the oxen, who, +offended, sends a gadfly to the bull and maddens it. The bull Dionysos +wishes to avenge the young Ampelos, by fixing his horns in the belly of +the perverse and homicidal bull.[493] In this myth, the black bull of +night and the bull-moon are confounded together in one sinister action. + +From the ocean of night comes forth the head of the solar and lunar +bull, and on this account, in Euripides[494] Okeanos is called the +bull-headed (_taurokranos_); or else the head of the solar bull enters +the nocturnal forest, or that of the lunar bull comes out of it. This +phenomenon gave rise to several poetical images. The bull is devoured +by the monsters of night; hence in the _Seven at Thebes_ (xlii.) of +AEschylos, the messenger accuses of impiety the seven eaters of bulls, +who touch with their hands the blood of bulls; hence in the +forty-third fable of AEsop, the dogs flee, horrified, from the peasant +who, being of a gluttonous nature (like the old man of the Russian +story who eats all his cows), after having devoured sheep and goats, +prepares to eat the working oxen themselves.[495] The bulls head, or +even the bull itself, or the milch-cow, which must not be eaten, can, +however, be sacrificed; nay, he is lucky who offers them up (except +when the deity is named Heliogabalus, who receives the _taurobolium_ +as a homage due to him, without giving anything in exchange to the +devoted sacrificers).[496] According to Valerius Maximus,[497] the +empire of the world would, by an oracle of the time of Servius +Tullius, belong to the nation who should sacrifice to the Diana of the +Aventine a certain wonderful cow belonging to a Sabine (the aurora or +the moon, from the sacrifice of which the sun comes out at morning). +The Sabine prepares to sacrifice it, but a Roman priest takes it from +him by fraud, whilst the Sabine is sent to purify himself in the water +near at hand. This is a zoological form of the epico-mythic rape of +the Sabines, of the exchange of the wife or of the precious object, of +the exchange effected in the sack. + +In Ovid,[498] the same myth occurs again with a variation: + + "Matre satus Terra, monstrum mirabile, taurus + Parte sui serpens posteriore fuit. + Hunc triplici muro lucis incluserat atris + Parcarum monitu Styx violenta trium. + Viscera qui tauri flammis adolenda dedisset, + Sors erat, aeternos vincere posse Deos. + Immolat hunc Briareus factu ex adamante securi; + Et jam jam flammis exta daturus erat. + Jupiter alitibus rapere imperat. Attulit illi + Milvus; et meritis venit in astra suis." + +We shall return to this myth in the following chapters. The monster is +killed only when his heart, which he keeps shut up, is taken away. +Sometimes he does not keep it shut up in his own body, but in a duck +(the aurora), which comes out of a hare (the moon sacrificed in the +morning).[499] When this duck is opened, a golden egg (the sun) is +found. When the egg is thrown on the ground, or at the monster's head, +the monster dies. The golden duck, whence the monster's heart, the +sun, comes forth, is the same as the cow which gives birth to the lamb +(the night gives birth to the aurora, and the aurora to the solar +lamb). The historian Flavius cites, among the prodigies which preceded +the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem, a miracle of this kind, +which took place in the middle of the temple itself, in the case of a +cow led thither to be sacrificed. It occurs still every morning in the +mythical heavens, and was a phenomenon familiar to human observation +in the remotest antiquity, when it became a proverb; but, as often +happened, the proverb which affirmed an evident myth, when its sense +was lost, was adopted to indicate an impossibility; wherefore we read +in the second satire (cxxii.) of Juvenal:-- + + "Scilicet horreres maioraque monstra putares, + Si mulier vitulum, vel si bos ederet agnum?" + +In Greek and Latin authors[500] we find frequent examples of the +sacrifice of a bull a short time before the death of the hero by whom +it was ordered, in which it was noticed as a very sinister omen that +the entrails were missing, and particularly the heart or the liver. +Having observed that the monster's heart is the solar hero, or the sun +itself, we can easily understand how, in the sacrifice of a bull, this +heart must be wanting when the hero approaches his end. In the +mythical bull sacrificed at evening, the hero's heart is not to be +found; the monster has eaten his intestines, of which, according to +the legend, he is particularly greedy. + +But the bull does not always let himself be sacrificed patiently; he +often flees in order not to be killed. We have seen in the Russian +stories how the bull, which his owner intends to sacrifice, flees into +the forest, with the lamb (the bull and the lamb are two equivalent +forms of the morning and evening solar hero) and the other domestic +animals. The proverb of Theokritos, "Even the bull goes into the +forest,"[501] can have no other origin than in the two analogous myths +of the moon which wanders through the forest of night, and of the sun +who hides himself in the same forest, when he sees the preparations +made for the sacrifice; the sun in the night becomes the moon. + +I have said that the bull, when sacrificed, often, on account of his +being devoid of intestines, forebodes unlucky occurrences to the hero; +the solar bull of the evening is without strength, he has no heroic +entrails. But after he has been to pasture freely in the forest, after +having exercised his powers in battle with the wolves of night, after +having, by his bellowing (in the darkness, in the thundering cloud), +filled all the animals with terror, the bull is found again and led +towards his dwelling of the morning, full of light, like a sacrificed +hero; heroic entrails are found in him; from the black bull who is +sacrificed towards morning, from the forest, from the bull of night, +come forth the heart, the liver, the life and strength, the sun, the +hero-sun; and the human hero, observing his sacrifice, considers it a +good omen. We can thus understand the narrative of Ammianus Marcellinus: +"Decimus (taurus) diffractis vinculis, lapsus aegre reductus est, et +mactatus ominosa signa monstravit."[502] Whilst he is hidden in the +forest, the solar bull is black, but often (_i.e._, in all the nights +illumined by the moon), giving up his place to the moon, he appears in +the form of a white bull or cow, who guides the hero lost in the +darkness. Thoas is called the king of the Tauroi (or bulls) in the +_Iphigenia in Tauris_ of Euripides, because he has wings on his feet. +The cow Io flees without stopping in the _Prometheus_ of AEschylos. +Euripides[503] says that she gave birth to the king of the Kadmoeans. +Here, therefore, we find once more the intimate relation between Io and +Europe, the sister of Kadmos, which I noticed above. Kadmos, the brother +of Europe, unites himself with Io. But Io is a cow, and we find a cow, a +travelling cow, marked with a white spot in the shape of a full moon +(the moon itself, or Io), in the legend of Kadmos in Boeotia, according +to Pausanias,[504] and to Ovid,[505] who sings-- + + "Bos tibi, Phoebus ait, solis occurret in arvis,[506] + Nullum passa jugum, curvique immunis aratri. + Hac duce carpe vias, et, qua requieverit herba, + Moenia fac condas: Boeotia ilia vocato. + Vix bene Castalio Cadmus descenderat antro: + Incustoditam lente videt ire juvencam, + Nullum servitii signum cervice gerentem. + Subsequitur, pressoque legit vestigia gressu; + Auctoremque viae Phoebum taciturnus adorat. + Jam vada Cephisi, Panopesque evaserat arva; + Bos stetit; et, tollens spatiosam cornibus altis + Ad coelum frontem, mugitibus impulit auras. + Atque ita, respiciens comites sua terga sequentes, + Procubuit, teneraque latus submisit in herba." + +This is the good fairy, or good old man, who shows the way to the +heroes in popular tales; it is the cow which succours the maiden +persecuted by her step-mother, the puppet which spins, sews, and +weaves for the maiden aurora. For just as we have seen that the wooden +girl is the aurora herself, which at morn comes out of, and at even +re-enters, the forest of night,[507] as is clearly shown by the myths +of Urvaci and of Daphne, so in like manner the moon comes out of and +re-enters the nocturnal forest, transforming herself from a tree to a +cow, and from a cow to a tree, wooden girl, or puppet. Some myths +relating to the aurora are also applicable to the moon, on account of +the resemblance of the phenomena (the lunar and solar bulls also are +interchangeable), as they both come out of the nocturnal gloom, both +drop dewy humours, and both run after the sun, of which the aurora is +the deliverer in the morning, and the moon the protectress, guide, +hostess, and good advising fairy, who teaches him the secret by which +to avoid the ambuscades of the monster. Herakles passes the sea upon +the neck of the cow-moon; but instead of the cow, we also find in the +mythical sky of Herakles the golden cup, which is the same thing. From +the cow-moon comes forth the horn of abundance; from the cornucopia to +the cup the passage is easy. It is said that Herakles, approaching the +oxen of Geryon, the West, felt himself burned by the sun's rays, and +shot arrows at him (in the same way as Indras in the _Rigvedas_ breaks +a wheel of the car of Suryas, the sun). The sun admires the courage +and strength of the hero, and lends him his golden cup, upon which +Herakles passes the sea. This being accomplished, Herakles restores +the cup to the sun, and finds the oxen. + +The bull which carries the hero and heroine, in the Russian story, +arises again in another form, if its essential part (now the +intestines, now the bones, now the ashes) is preserved. The cow +which helps the maiden becomes, as we have already seen, an +apple-tree, and helps her again in this form. We find the same myth +transformed in Greece. In _Coelius_, quoted by Aldrovandi,[508] we +read, "Cum rustici quidam Herculi Alexicaco bovem essent immolaturi, +isque rupto fune profugisset (the bull destined to the sacrifice +repairs to the forest of night), nec esset quod sacrificaretur, malum +arreptum suppositis quatuor ramis crurum vice, deinde additis alteris +duobus ceu cornuum loco, bovem utcumque fuisse imitatos, idque +ridiculum simulacrum pro victima sacrificasse Herculi." This account +is confirmed by the facts recorded by Julius Pollux,[509] that the +apple-tree was sacrificed to Herakles. The moon, on account of its +circular form, assumed, besides the figure of a pea, a pumpkin and a +cabbage, also that of a golden apple. As it contains honey, the sweet +apple represents well the ambrosial moon. Moreover, in the same way as +we have seen the pea which fell on the ground become a tree, and rise +to heaven, so the apple became an apple-tree, the tree of golden +apples found in the Western garden of the Hesperides. + +The moon, besides the form of a horned cow, also assumed, in the +popular Aryan belief, that of a tart, of a cake, either on account of +its circular shape, or of the ambrosial honey supposed to be contained +by the moon, because of the dew or rain which it spreads on the +ground. The cake has in Slavonic tradition the same importance as the +pea, kidney-bean, or cabbage. The bull or cow of the fool, bartered +for a pea, is perhaps the same as the sun or aurora of evening, +bartered during the night for the moon, or else meeting the moon. The +funereal pea or kidney-bean, the vegetable which serves as provision +for the journey in the kingdom of the dead, and which brings the hero +riches, is perhaps only the moon, which the solar hero finds on the +way during the night, and which he receives in exchange for his cow's +hide. When the hero possesses this pea, he is assured of every kind of +good fortune, and can enter or ascend into the luminous sky, as well +as come out of the gloomy hell, into which the monster has drawn him. +A similar virtue is attributed to the cake, which we find in +Indo-European funeral customs instead of the vegetable of the dead. + +After this we can understand what Plutarch tells us in the Life of +Lucullus concerning the Cyziceni, of whom he writes, that, pressed by +siege, they offered up to Proserpine (the moon in hell) a cow of black +paste, not being able to offer up one of flesh; and he adds, that the +sacrifice was agreeable to the goddess. Thus, in the thirty-sixth +fable of AEsop, we read of an invalid who promises to the gods that he +will sacrifice a hundred oxen to them in the event of a cure; when +cured, as he does not possess a hundred oxen of flesh, he makes a +hundred of paste, and burns them upon the hearth. But, according to +AEsop, the gods were not satisfied, and endeavoured to play off a joke +upon him; an attempt, which, however, did not succeed, inasmuch as the +cunning man used it to his own profit; for the solar hero in the +night, not being really a fool, merely feigns to be one. + +But, to return to the cow-moon: we must complete the explanation of +another myth, that of the excrement of the cow considered as purifying. +The moon, as the aurora, yields ambrosia; it is considered to be a cow; +the urine of this cow is ambrosia or holy water; he who drinks this +water purifies himself, as the ambrosia which rains from the lunar ray +and the aurora cleans the paths of the sky, purifies and makes clear +(_dirghaya cakshase_) the paths of the sky which the shadows of night +darken and contaminate. The same virtue is attributed, moreover, to +cow's dung, a conception also derived from the cow, and given to the +moon as well as to the morning aurora. These two cows are conceived as +making the earth fruitful by means of their ambrosial excrements; these +excrements, being also luminous, both those of the moon and those of the +aurora are considered as purifiers. The ashes of these cows (which their +friend the heroine preserves) are not only ashes, but golden powder or +golden flour (the golden cake occurs again in that flour or powder of +gold which the witch demands from the hero in Russian stories), which, +mixed with excrement, brings good fortune to the cunning and robber +hero. The ashes of the sacrificed pregnant cow (_i.e._, the cow which +dies after having given birth to a calf) were religiously preserved by +the Romans in the temple of Vesta, with bean-stalks (which are used to +fatten the earth sown with corn), as a means of expiation. Ovid[510] +mentions this rite:-- + + "Nox abiit, oriturque Aurora. Palilia poscor, + Non poscor frustra, si favet alma Pales. + Alma Pales, faveas pastoria sacra canenti; + Prosequor officio si tua festa pio. + Certe ego de vitulo cinerem, stipulasque fabales, + Saepe tuli plena februa casta, manu." + +The ashes of a cow are preserved both as a symbol of resurrection and +as a means of purification. As to the excrements of the cow, they are +still used to form the so-called _eau de millefleurs_, recommended by +several pharmacopoeias as a remedy for cachexy.[511] + +I have noticed above the myth of Herakles, in which, having passed the +sea upon the golden cup, he finds the oxen upon the shore. These oxen +are thus described by Theokritos, in the myth of King Augeias, as the +child of the sun. The sun, says Theokritos, granted to his son the +honour of being richer than all other men in herds. All these herds are +healthy, and multiply without limit, always becoming better. Among the +bulls, three hundred have white legs (like the alba of morning), two +hundred are red (like the sun's rays), with curved horns. These bulls +are to be used for purposes of reproduction; besides them there are +twelve sacred to the sun, which shine like swans. One of them is +superior to all the rest in size, and is called a star, or Phaethon (the +luminous, an epithet given to Helios, the sun, in the _Odyssey_, the +guider of the chariot of the sun, who, after finishing his diurnal +course, is unable to rein in the horses, and is precipitated with the +chariot into the water, in order that the burning horses may not set +fire to the world. Instead of solar oxen, which draw the chariot, and +fall, at evening, into the nocturnal marsh, we find in this myth the +chariot drawn by horses overturned into the waves; but the Phaethon, the +very luminous and excellent ox, as represented by Theokritos, justifies +our identification of the two mythical episodes of the ox and of the +horse which falls into the water). The bull Phaethon of Theokritos sees +Herakles, and, taking him for a lion, rushes upon him and endeavours to +wound him with his horns. The sun, as a golden-haired hero, is a very +strong lion (Herakles, Samson); as a golden-horned hero, he is a very +strong bull; enclosed in the cloud, they roar and bellow. The two images +of the sun-lion and of the sun-bull are now in harmony and now in +discordance, and fight with one another. In the _Ramayanam_ we found the +two brother-heroes Ramas and Lakshmanas, an epic form of the two +Acvinau, represented respectively as a bull and a lion. In the Hellenic +fables we frequently find the lion and the bull together, and afterwards +in discordance, as happens in the legend of the two brother-heroes. In +AEsop and in Avianus, the bull (perhaps the moon) fleeing from the lion +(_i.e._, from the sun in its monstrous evening or autumnal form of a +lion), enters the hiding-place of the goat (the moon in the grotto of +night), and is insulted and provoked by it. In another AEsopian fable, on +the contrary, it is the lion who fears the horns of the bull, and +induces him to part with them, in order that the bull may become his +prey.[512] In yet another AEsopian fable taken from Syntipa, the bull +kills the lion, while asleep, with his horns. In Phaedrus, the wild boar +with his tusks, the bull with his horns, and the ass with kicks, put an +end to the old and infirm lion. In Phaedrus's fable of the ox and the ass +drawing together, the ox falls inert upon the ground when he loses his +horns. Aristoteles, in the third book on the Parts of Animals, censures +the Momos of AEsop, who laughs at the bull because he has his horns on +his forehead instead of on his arms, showing that if the bull had his +horns on any other part of his body, they would be a useless weight, +and would impede his other functions without aiding him in anything. The +ox and the lion were also painted together in Christian churches.[513] + +To continue the legend of the solar hero and the oxen, we find again in +Herakles, as employed among the herds in the service of King Augeias, +the sun, the usual hostler-hero; he is not only to guard the herds well, +but in one day to cleanse them thoroughly, and make them shine. +Defrauded of the price by Augeias, he kills him, and ravages all his +country. In the same way, in Homer, Apollo guards, for a stipulated +price, the herds of King Laomedon upon Mount Ida, and is cheated of his +reward. In the same way, Hermes takes the herds of King Admetos to +pasture; he leads them to browse near the herds of Apollo, from whom he +steals a hundred bulls and twelve cows, preventing the dogs from barking +(as Herakles does when he leads away Geryon's oxen). This Hermes, this +god Mercury, god of merchants, this merchant and robber, is the same as +the skilful and cunning thief of the stories who carries off horses, +draught oxen, caskets, and ear-rings from the king; he is the +hero-thief; but a shade distinguishes him from the monster brigand or +Vedic demoniacal Panis; the hero who hides himself and the monster that +hides things both do a furtive action. When Hermes leads away the herds +stolen from the solar god, the sun, he also takes care to fasten +branches of trees to their tails, which, by sweeping the road, shall +destroy the track of the bulls and cows that have been led away. The +shepherd Battos plays the spy, although, as the price of his silence, +Hermes has promised him a white cow (the moon, and perhaps Battos +himself, the spy, is the moon). Hermes tests him, by disguising himself +and promising him a bull and a cow if he speaks. Battos speaks, and +Hermes punishes him by transforming him into a stone:-- + + "Vertit + In durum silicem, qui nunc quoque dicitur index."[514] + +This god Mercury, who steals the bulls from Apollo (as Herakles leads +away the oxen of Geryon), is the divine form of the thief. His +demoniacal form, is--Cacus, the son of Vulcan (as the Vedic Vritras is +the son of Tvashtar), who vomits fire; a giant who envelops himself in +darkness, in Virgil; three-headed (like the Vedic monster), in +Propertius;[515] who inhabits in the Aventine forest a cavern full of +human bones (like the monster of fairy tales); who thunders (flammas +ore sonante vomit), who fights with rocks and trunks of trees, in +Ovid[516] (like the heroes in the Hindoo, Slavonic, German, and +Homeric tradition); who steals the cows from Herakles, and hides their +footprints by dragging them backwards into the cavern, in Livy; who +also tells us that the cows in the cavern low, wishing for the bulls +from whom they are separated (as in the Vedic hymns). The hero, +hearing them, finds the cavern, overturns with a great noise the rock +which five pair of oxen yoked together could scarcely have moved (like +the Marutas who break the rock, like Indras who splits the crag open), +and with the three-knotted club (trinodis) kills the monster and frees +the cows. The solar hero who at evening leads away oxen or cows, or +who at morning steals them from the stable, is a skilful robber who +has acted meritoriously, and marries, in reward, the princess aurora; +the cloudy or gloomy monster who steals the solar cows to shut them up +in the cavern, whence he then throws out smoke and flames, is an +infamous criminal. The divine thief steals almost out of playfulness, +either to show his craftiness or to prove his valour; the demoniacal +thief steals because of his malevolent character, and instinct to +devour what he steals, as does the fabled worm of the river Indus (the +Vedic Sindhus, or heavenly ocean), who draws into the abyss and +devours the thirsty oxen who go to drink.[517] + +The monster of the clouds who whistles and thunders only terrifies; the +god who whistles and thunders in the cloud, on the other hand, is _par +excellence_ a celestial musician; his musical instrument, the thunder, +astonishes us by its marvels,[518] and makes stones and plants tremble, +that is, makes stones and plants move, especially celestial ones +(_i.e._, cloud-mountains and cloud-trees); it draws after it the wild +animals (of the heavenly forest), tames and subdues them. The bellowing +bull terrifies the lion himself. We, therefore, also read in +Nonnos,[519] that Dionysos gives a bull in reward to AEagros, who has won +in the competition of song and of the lyre, whilst he reserves a hirsute +he-goat for him who loses; on this account we find on the capitals of +columns in old Milanese churches, calves and bulls represented as +playing on the lyre.[520] It is a variation of the myth of the ass and +the lyre, which has the same meaning. The bull and the ass, for the same +reason, are found represented together, because they bellow and bray +(like Christian Corybantes) near the cradle of the new-born god, in +order to hide, by their noise, his birth from the old king or deity who +is to be dethroned.[521] The conch of Bhimas, the elephant-horn of +Orlando, the Greek war-bugle tauraia, by means of which armies were +moved, derived their character and their name from the mythical bull, +the thundering god. The voice of the bull is compared in Euripides to +the voice of Zeus;[522] the music which pleases the heroes is certainly +not the air of the _Casta diva_; it is the braying of the ass,[523] the +roar of the lion, the bellowing of the bull, who occupies the first +place in the heavens, and has occupied us so long, because the supreme +god took his form, after having carried off Europe. Zeus left on the +earth his divine form, and the more generally preferred heroic form of a +bull took him up to heaven:-- + + "Litoribus tactis stabat sine cornibus ullis + Juppiter, inque deum de bove versus erat. + Taurus init coelum."[524] + +We thus, after a long pilgrimage in the fields of tradition, return to +the Vedic bull Indras, from whom we started, and to his female form, +which, having a human nature, became a cow, and being a cow, assumed a +divine shape:-- + + "Quae bos ex homine, ex bove facta Dea."[525] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[483] According to Eustatius, "Io gar he selene kata ten ton Argeton +dialekton." + +[484] Cfr. Pott, _Studien zur griechischen Mythologie_, Leipzig, +Teubner, 1859; and Cox, the work quoted before. + +[485] _Dionysiakon_, i. 45, and following; iii. 306, and following. + +[486] _Metamorphoseon_, iv. 754. + +[487] In England, as I have already noticed, the bull or ox is sacred to +St Luke; in Russia, to the saints Froh and Laver. In Sicily, the +protector of oxen is San Cataldo, who was bishop of Taranto. (For the +notices relating to Sicilian beliefs concerning animals, I am indebted +to my good friend Giuseppe Pitre.) In Tuscany, and in other parts of +Italy, oxen and horses are recommended to the care of St Antony, the +great protector of domestic animals. In the rural parts of Tuscany, it +was the custom, on the 17th of February, to lead oxen and horses to the +church-door, that they might be blessed. Now, to save trouble, only a +basket of hay is carried to be blessed; which done, it is taken to the +animals that they may eat it and be preserved from evil. On Palm Sunday, +to drive away every evil, juniper is put into the stables in Tuscany. + +[488] Taurous pammelanai, in the _Odyssey_; the commentator explains +that the bulls are black because they resemble the colour of water. + +[489] Kelainefes-nefelegereta Zeus; _Odyssey_, xiii. 147 and 153. + +[490] + + Signatus tenui media inter cornua nigro + Una fuit labes; coetera lactis erant. + Ovidius, _De Arte Amandi_. + +[491] In _Diodoros_, Hammon loves the virgin Amalthea, who has a horn +resembling that of an ox. The goat and the cow in the lunar and cloudy +myth are the same; and on this account we find them both in connection +with the apple-tree, a vegetable form, and with the cornucopia, since +both are seers, and spies, and guides. The golden doe is a variation +of the same lunar myth. + +[492] _Argonantikon_, iii. 410, 1277. + +[493] Nonnos, _Dionysiakon_, xi. 113 and following. + +[494] _Orestes_, 1380. + +[495] _Ergazomenous Boas._--In the twelfth book of his _History of +Animals_, AElianos writes: "Among the Phrygians, if any one kills a +working ox, he atones for it with his life." And Varro, _De Re Rustica_: +"Bos socius hominum in rustico opere et Cereris minister. Ab hoc antiqui +ita manus abstineri voluerunt ut capite sanxerint si quis occidisset." + +[496] _Scriptores Historiae Augustae_, Lampridius, in the life of +Heliogabalus. + +[497] vii. 3. + +[498] _Fasti_, iii. 800. + +[499] Cfr. the chapter on the Hare. + +[500] Plutarch, in the Life of Marcellus, Arrianos and Appianos among +the Greeks, Livy, Cicero (De Divinatione), Pliny the elder, Julius +Capitolinus, Julius Obsequens among the Latins. + +[501] _Eba kai tauros an huelan_, xiv. 43. In Theokritos, the proverb +is used to intimate that he is gone to other and perfidious loves; he, +too, is a traitor. + +[502] _Rerum gestarum_, xxii.--Cfr. the episode of the ox which lets +itself fall into the marsh or swamp, in the various versions of the +first book of the _Pancatantram_.--The astrologers placed the brain +under the protection of the moon, and the heart under that of the sun; +Celoria, _La Luna_, Milano, 1871. + +[503] Kadmeion Basileas egeinato; _Phoinissai_, 835. + +[504] _Boiotia._ + +[505] _Metam._, iii. 10.--Cfr. Nonnos, _Dionys._, iv. 290, and +following. + +[506] Or, on the path of the sun in the sky. + +[507] In an unpublished Piedmontese story, which is very widely spread, +the girl carried off by robbers escapes from their hands, and hides in +the trunk of a tree. + +[508] _De Quadrupedibus Bisulcis_, i. + +[509] _De Vocabulis_, i., quoted by Aldrovandi. + +[510] _Fasti_, iv. 721. + +[511] Cfr. Ott. Targioni Tozzetti, _Lezioni di Materia Medica_, +Firenze, 1821. + +[512] In an AEsopian fable taken from Syntipa, which corresponds to the +first of Lokman, two bulls combine against the lion, and resist him; +the lion excites them against each other, and tears them to pieces. In +the sixth fable of Aphtonios, the bulls are three; in the eighteenth +of Avianus, they are four. The lion already knew the motto of kings: +"Divide et impera." + +[513] Durandus, _Rational._ i. 3, quoted by Du Cange. + +[514] Ovidius, _Metam._, ii. 706. + +[515] Per tria partitos qui dabat ora sonos; _Ecl._ iv. + +[516] _Fasti_, i. 550. + +[517] Phile, _Stichoi peri zoon idiotetos_, lix. + +[518] In Italian, _attonito_ (or, properly speaking, struck by +thunder) is the same as "who is much surprised"). + +[519] _Dionys._ xix 58. + +[520] Cfr. Martigny, _Dictionnaire des Antiquites Chretiennes_, s. v. +_veau._ + +[521] In _Phaedrus_, as we have already observed, the ox and the ass +are yoked together. + +[522] _Ippolitos_, _Os fone Dios_, 1200-1229. + +[523] Cfr. the chapter relating to the Ass. + +[524] Ovidius, _Fasti_, v. 615. + +[525] _Ib._ v. 620. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE HORSE. + + +SUMMARY. + + The horse, favourite animal of the solar hero.--Attributes of the + Vedic solar hero.--Animals which draw the Vedic gods.--The Acvinau + sons of a mare.--The mule, the ass, and the horse in relation to + each other.--The hero's horse, prior to being noble and handsome, is + vile and ill-favoured; proofs.--The teeth of the horse.--The figs + that make tails grow.--The excrement of the horse.--Three colours of + the heroic horse.--Pluto's horses abhor the light.--Pegasos an + imperfect horse.--The black horse generally demoniacal.--The + hippomanes.--The monster that makes horses perspire and grow lean; + the fire in stables.--To dream of black horses.--The horse of the + third brother is small, humpbacked, and lame.--The hero transforms + himself into a horse.--The grey horse differs from the black + one.--The red horse frees the hero.--The three steps, the three + races, the three leaps, the three castles, the three days, the three + brothers, and the three horses correspond to each other.--Two + horsemen change the hero's bad horse into a heroic steed.--The + horse's ears; the hero in the horse's ears.--The horse's head + blesses the good maiden, and devours the wicked one.--The black + horseman, the white horseman, and the red one.--The horse-monster + that devastates the field surprised by the hero, and destroyed by + fire, in the _Rigvedas_.--The Dioscuri washing the sweat off their + horses.--Salt on the horse's back.--The hero-horse covered by the + waters.--The Acvinau and Agnis give a good horse to the hero who has + a bad one.--The three steps of Vishnus are made by the horses of + Indras.--Vishnus as horse.--Indras and the Acvinau find the bride on + horseback.--Ramas as horse.--Dadhyanc and his ambrosial horse's + head, which discomfits the hostile monsters.--The bones of the + horse.--The exchange of heads.--The two brother horses Pegasos and + Chruesaor in opposition to one another.--Castor and + Pollux.--Discussion upon the nature of the Acvinau.--The two + brothers at discord; Sundas and Upasundas.--Nakulas and + Vasudevas.--Ramas and Lakshmanas.--The brothers who resemble each + other; Balin and Sugrivas; the brother betrays his brother and + steals his wife.--Kerecacpa and Urvaksha.--Piran and Pilsem.--The + sky a mountain of stone; heroes, heroines, and horses of stone.--The + brother seducer in the _Tuti-Name_.--Sunlight and moonlight, two + brothers.--The minister's son and the king's son.--Horse and + cat.--The two brothers on a journey; one becomes a king, the other + spits gold; the candle of one of the two brothers lights of its own + accord, and he therefore obtains the kingdom; the other brother's + treasure.--Digression concerning the interpretation of the + myth.--Agamedes and Trophonios; Piedmontese story of the skilful + thief.--The two brothers who resemble each other; mistaken one for + the other by the wife of one of them; the brother sleeps with his + sister-in-law without touching her; the legend of the pilgrim who + comes from Rome; the head fastened on again.--The horse led away out + of hell.--The solar horse destined for sacrifice carried off by + Kapilas; that is, the solar horse escapes, like the solar bull, from + the sacrifice.--The stallion destined for the sacrifice touched, and + the horse's fat smelted by Kaucalya as an augury of + fruitfulness.--The horse's head as the mouth of hell.--The robber of + the horse and of the treasure.--The horns of the stag, the horns or + mane of the horse, and the hair of the hero, which catch and fasten + themselves to the trees of the forest.--The thief now protects + thieves, and now protects men from thieves.--The Miles gloriosus; + hero, horse, and tree, united together, discomfit the enemies.--The + heroic horse.--The tail of Indras's horse, and the Hindoo + war-horse.--The war-horses of Rustem, of Alexander, of Bellerophon, + and of Caesar; the winged horse.--The horse goes through water and + fire.--The horse and the apple.--The chains of the heroic horse, and + the difficulty of riding him.--The horse that speaks; the + horse-spy.--The chariot that speaks.--The solar horse bound that it + may not come back again.--The hero who flees in the shape of a + horse, and the horse sold with the bridle; transformations of the + horse.--The sun without a horse and without a bridle.--The horses of + the sun, arrested or wounded, precipitate the solar hero into the + waters.--The eternal hunter.--Etacas, Phaethon, Hippolytos.--The + horse that delivers the hero.--The neighing of Indras's horse; the + horse of Darius which neighs at the sight of the sun on account of + the smell of a mare.--Number of the solar horses.--The hero born of + a mare.--The mare's egg.--The hare born of a mare devours the + mare.--Spanish mares made pregnant by the wind.--Horses sons of the + wind.--The hero Acvatthaman neighs immediately after birth.--The + horses that weep; mythical signification of these tears.--Vedic + riddle and play of words upon the letter _r_, and the root _varsh_ + relative to the horse.--The foam from the horse's mouth destroys + enemies and cures the cough.--The Acvinau, the Dioscuri, Asklepios + and his two sons as physicians.--Caballus.--Ambrosia from the hoof + of the Vedic horse.--Hippokrene; the horse's hoof in relation with + water.--Exchanges between moon and sun and between bull and + horse.--Horses sacred to the gods and to saints.--Holy horsemen who + help the heroes _mercede pacta_. + +The myth of the horse is perhaps not so rich in legends as that of the +bull and the cow, but certainly no less interesting. As the horseman +is the finest type of the hero, so the horse which carries him is in +mythology the noblest of animals. + +We have already observed that the best of the three brothers, the third, +the victorious one, the morning sun, is, in tradition, distinguished +from the other brothers by his swiftness; and that the morning dawn or +aurora, which is the third sister, the good one, the best of the three +sisters, is she who wins the race. It is, therefore, natural that the +favourite animal of the hero should be his horse. The two Hindoo +Dioscuri, that is, the Acvinau, the two horsemen, derive their name from +the acvas or horse, as being the swift one;[526] and they are very +probably identical with the two fair-haired, amiable, splendid, and +ardent coursers of Indras, of Savitar (the sun), and proper and worthy +to bear heroes,[527] who yoke themselves at a word,[528] are maned, +adapted to make fruitful, full of life,[529] having eyes like the +sun,[530] made by the Ribhavas,[531] who, as they made the cow out of a +cow, also made a horse out of the horse,[532] black, with white feet, +drawing the chariot with the golden yoke, revealing the beings;[533] the +two rapid ones; the two most rapid ones;[534] plunging into the +inebriating drink before Indras yokes them;[535] beautiful, by means of +which the chariot of the Acvinau is as swift as thought;[536] who carry +Indras, as every day they carry the sun;[537] are the two rays of the +sun;[538] who neigh, dropping ambrosia;[539] the very pure horses of the +bull Indras, inebriated, who illumine the sky,[540] with manes the +colour of a peacock,[541] bridled sixty times (properly six times twice +five);[542] beneficent, winged, indefatigable, resolute destroyers (of +the enemies).[543] The _Aitareya Brahmanam_, when giving the +characteristics of the race of each god, whilst it tells us that Agnis, +at the marriage of Somas and Surya, is drawn by mules, and the aurora +by red cows (or bulls), teaches us that Indras is drawn by horses, and +the Acvinau by asses; the Acvinau carried off the prize.[544] In the +_Mahabharatam_,[545] we find another important circumstance, _i.e._, the +Acvinau represented as sons of a mare, or of Tvashtri, wife of the sun +Savitar, who took the form of a mare. Therefore we have here the sons of +the mare, who may be horses or mules, according as the mare united +herself with a horse or with an ass. Here, then, we have already an +evident proof of the identification of the heroes Acvinau with the +animals, horses or asses, which draw them. The _Rigvedas_ does not as +yet know the word _acvatara_, or mule, but in representing the Acvinau +drawn now by horses and now by asses, it shows us the intermediate +character of the real animal that draws the Acvinau, a grey beast, +dark-coloured, and white only in its fore parts. Night is the mule that +carries the Acvinau or twilights, in the same way as, in the +above-quoted _Aitareya_, it carries or awakens Agnis, fire or light. In +the _Iliad_,[546] mules are sung of as being better adapted than oxen to +draw the plough. + +The hero's horse, like the hero himself, begins by being ugly, +deformed, and inept, and ends by becoming beautiful, luminous, heroic, +and victorious. + +The mythical horse of the Hungarians, the horse Tatos, or Tatos lo, +when born, is of an ugly aspect, defective and lean; it is therefore +said in Hungarian, that "the Tatos comes out of a defective horse." It +is, however, always born with teeth,[547] although its chin is +sometimes wanting; its bursts out of a black pentagonal egg on an Ash +Wednesday, after the hero has carried it for seven summers and seven +winters under his arm. In the _Mahabharatam_,[548] the first created +horse Uccaihcravas, the king of the horses (and therefore the horse of +Indras), which is as swift as thought, follows the path of the sun, +and is luminous and white, has, however, a black tail, made so by the +magic of the serpents, who have covered it with black hairs. This is +probably the black ass's or horse's tail which remains upon the ugly +or wicked sister's forehead, in the popular European story of the two +sisters.[549] It must also be remarked that, as the word +_Uccaihcravas_ means, properly, him of the high ears, it indicates +the ass better than the horse. + +In the same way, therefore, as the hero of popular tales before +becoming a wise man is generally an ass, the animal ridden by the +solar hero, prior to being a real and noble horse, is usually a +worthless jade, or a dark-coloured ass. The sun, in the beginning of +the night, rides a black horse, and afterwards a grey one, or else an +ass or a mule, but in the morning, on the contrary, a white and +luminous horse, which has a black tail; or else the dark horse of +night has a white head, or white legs, or anterior parts of the body, +with golden ears, and the nape of the neck formed of pearls.[550] The +monstrous Trojan horse too, of Epeios, a figure which represents the +horse of mythology, in Tryphiodoros the Egyptian,[551] has a golden +mane, red eyes, and silver teeth. + +In the Turkish stories of Siberia,[552] it is upon an iron-coloured +horse that the third brother, hated by his father and his two elder +brothers, advances against the demon Ker Iutpa. The hero becomes the +excrement of a horse, and the horse a crow; the former glues the +monster's lower lip to the earth, the latter suspends his upper lip to +the sky. In order better to understand this strange myth, we must +remember that the name of one of the Valkiries is "Mist," a word which +means excrement and fog. The fog, or frost, or rain, or dew, falls to +the ground; the solar horse, or the sun, rises in the sky; the +monster of night or of clouds is dispersed. + +In the thirteenth Esthonian story of _Kreutzwald_, the third brother +comes three times to deliver the princess from the mountain of glass +(or ice), where she sleeps. The first time he is dressed the colour of +bronze, upon a bronze-coloured horse; the second time dressed in +silver, upon a horse the colour of silver; and the third time upon a +gold-coloured horse, dressed in gold. + +In an unpublished Piedmontese story, the young prince, whose beloved +princess has been ravished beyond seas, is borne over the waves by an +eagle, which he feeds with his own flesh. Arrived beyond the sea, he +hears that the princess is destined to be the wife of the hero who wins +the race three times; the first time he appears dressed in black, upon a +black horse; the second time dressed in white, upon a white horse; and +the third time dressed in red, upon a red horse. Each time he wins the +race, and thereafter receives the beautiful princess in marriage. + +Thus we see the first horse of the hero is always dark-coloured, like +the devil's horse, like the horses of Pluto, which, accustomed to +darkness, are terrified by light;[553] it then becomes the grey horse +of the giantess, the grey horse which smells the dead hero Sigurd in +the _Edda_. Pegasos himself, the _hieros hippos_ of Aratos, is born +semi-perfect (emiteles),[554] an expression which reminds me of the +_equus dimidius_ of an Alsatian paper of 1336, in Du Cange, by which +the mule is meant. The Hindoo Arunas, charioteer of the sun (or even +the brother of the sun himself, inasmuch as he is the brother of +Garudas, the solar bird), is said to be born with an imperfect +body;[555] he can be luminous and divine only in part. The black +horse, on the contrary, has generally an evil and demoniacal nature; +the black horse corresponds to the black devil; the colour black +itself is, according to popular superstition, the product of bad +humours.[556] Every horse, when born, has, according to Maestro +Agostino, a piece of black flesh upon its lips, called hippomanes by +the Greeks: "La quale carne dici lo vulgo essere molto sospettosa a li +maleficii." Maestro Agostino adds, moreover, that the mother refuses +to give suck to the colt as long as it carries this piece of flesh +upon its lips, and some say that the mother herself eats it. In an +idyll of Theokritos, we read that the Hippomanes is born among the +Arcadians, and maddens colts and swift mares.[557] In the first +chapter we mentioned the Russian _damavoi_, the demon who, during the +night, rides upon cows, oxen, and horses, and makes them perspire. +This superstition was already combated in Italy in the sixteenth +century by Maestro Agostino;[558] and to it can probably be traced the +custom, still observed by many grooms, of leaving a lamp lighted in +the stable during the night. The devil, as is well known, is afraid of +the light (Agnis is called rakshohan, or monster-killer), and his +black horse likewise. It is therefore a sinister omen, according to +two verses in _Suidas_,[559] to dream of black horses, whilst, on the +contrary, it is a good omen to dream of white ones. In the Norman +legend of the priest Walchelm, a black horse presents itself to him in +the first days of January of the year 1091, and tempts him to mount +upon its back; scarcely has Walchelm done so, than the black horse +sets off for hell.[560] The dead, too, according to the popular +belief, often ride upon black or demoniacal horses.[561] + +A well-known Russian story in verse, the _Kaniok Garbunok_, or _Little +Hump-backed Horse_, of Jershoff, commences thus:--An old man has three +sons, the youngest of which is the usual Ivan Durak, or Ivan the fool. +The old man finds his corn-field devastated every morning; he wishes +to find out who the devastator is, and sends his first-born son to +watch the first night. The first-born has drunk too much, and falls +asleep, and so does the second son, and from the same cause, on the +second night. On the third night it is Ivan's turn to watch; he does +not fall asleep. At midnight he sees a mare which breathes flames +coming. Ivan ties her by a rope, leaps upon her, seizes her by the +mane, torments and subdues her, until the mare, to be let free, +promises to give Ivan one of her young ones, and carries him to the +stable where her three young ones are. She gives Ivan a little +hump-backed horse with long ears (the Hindoo Uccaihsravas), that +flies. By means of this little hump-backed horse, Ivan will make his +fortune; when he leads it away, the mare and the two other colts +follow it. Ivan's two brothers steal the mare and two colts, and go to +sell them to the Sultan. Ivan rejoins them, and the three brothers +stay in the Sultan's service as grooms; sometime afterwards, Ivan +saves himself from drowning by means of his horse. + +In the third of _Erlenwein's_ Russian stories, a stallion is born to +the Tzar's mare, that had drunk the water in which a certain fish (a +pike, in the nineteenth story) had been washed, at the same time as +the Tzar's daughter and her maid give birth to two heroes, Ivan +Tzarevic and Ivan Dievic--_i.e._, John of the Tzar and John of the +girl, a form representing the Acvinau. Ivan Tzarevic rides upon the +stallion. In the nineteenth story, the son of the mare is called +Demetrius of the Tzar (Dmitri Tzarevic); hero and horse being +identified. In the fifth story of _Erlenwein_, a Cossack goes into the +forest, where he is betrayed into the enemy's hands, who gives orders +that he be cut in pieces, put into a sack, and attached to his horse. +The horse starts, and carries him to the house of silver and gold, +where he is resuscitated. During the following night, an old man and +woman, whose guest the Cossack is, drag him, in order to waken him, by +the cross which hangs on his neck, and he is thus transformed into a +horse of gold and silver. Towards evening, the horse, by the Tzar's +order, is killed, and (like the bull and the cow) becomes an +apple-tree of silver and gold. The apple-tree is cut down, and becomes +a golden duck. The golden duck is the same as the golden horse, or as +the hero resuscitated, _i.e._, the morning sun. The sack and the horse +which carry the hero cut in pieces represent the voyage of the sun in +the gloom of night, or the voyage of the grey horse, the imperfect +horse, the bastard mule, or the ass. + +In the Russian tales, moreover, a distinction is made between the grey +and the black horse; the grey horse helps the hero in the night very +effectively, and the black one, on the contrary, is the herald of death. +When, in the ninth story of _Erlenwein_, the horse of Ivan the +merchant's son goes to search for the horses of the princess from beyond +the sea, Ivan waits for him upon the shore. If he sees grey horses come +forth, it is to be a sign that his own steed is alive; but if, on the +other hand, black horses appear, he is to conclude that his own horse is +dead. Grey is the colour of sadness, black is the colour of death. + +In _Afanassieff_, we find new interesting data. Ivan the fool watches +during the night to surprise the horse which devastates his father's +crops, and succeeds in binding it with rods from a linden-tree, after +it has smelt the odour of tobacco. Then, by the help of the sister of +the hero Nikanore, it acquires the faculty, when running after cows +and horses, of turning their tails into gold, as well as their horns +or manes, and their flanks into stars. What better image could there +be of the starry sky of night, the golden tail of which is the red +evening, and the front parts, also of gold, the morning aurora?[562] + +In another story,[563] we have Ivan the son of the bitch occupying the +place and playing the part of Ivan the son of the mare. Ivan of the +bitch, after having delivered the three princesses from the deep +cistern, is himself thrown into it. The black horse comes to deliver +him, and cannot; the grey horse comes, and cannot either; the red horse +comes, and succeeds in dragging the hero out. The black horse represents +the dark night, the grey horse the night beginning to clear, and the red +horse the roseate morning, which delivers the sun or solar hero. + +The third brother Ivan, mounted on a marvellous horse, comes first to +the bronze castle, then to the silver one, and lastly to that of +gold.[564] This is a variety of the same myth, and represents +similarly the solar voyage from evening to morning. The next mythical +legend, however, probably alludes rather to the three days of the +winter solstice, which the sun takes to return. The hero, Theodore, +finds a horse that has been just brought forth, which the wolves have +driven towards him; he makes it pasture upon the dew for three dawns +(like the Hungarian Tatos, who feeds upon the golden oats in a silver +field, that is to say, who, during the silvery night, or else during +the white dawn, or the snowy winter, absorbs the dewy humours of the +spring, or the morning aurora). The first day, the young horse becomes +as high as half a tree; the second, higher than the tree; the third +day it is as high as the heavens, and bears the hero Theodore and his +wife Anastasia on its back. + +Ivan Durak watches three nights at his father's tomb.[565] His father +tells him that if at any time of need he calls with a hero's whistle, +a wonderful grey horse will appear to help him, whose eyes shoot +flames, and from whose nostrils issues smoke. Ivan does so, and is +answered; he gets into his right ear, and comes out of the left. By +means of this horse, Ivan succeeds in taking down the portrait of the +Tzar's daughter three times, though hung high up on the wall of the +palace, and thus obtains the beautiful princess to wife. + +According to another variety of this story,[566] Ivan, the third and +foolish brother, goes with the most worthless jade in the stable into +the open air, and calls up the grey horse with a loud shout; he enters +into him by one ear, and comes out at the other. Two young horsemen (the +Acvinau) appear to him, and make a horse with golden mane and tail come +forth; upon this horse Ivan succeeds in three times kissing, through +twelve glasses (the glass mountain of the Esthonian story), the daughter +of the Tzar, who therefore becomes his wife. Here, therefore, we find +the ugly horse which is made beautiful by the two horsemen, represented +by the two ears of the grey horse out of which they come. These two +horsemen give the hero a better steed. Be it understood that their own +heroic steed (that is, the sun's horse), from being ugly or asinine +during the night, became beautiful and noble; in the Kuellaros of the +Dioscuri, too, we ought probably to recognise a courser that has been +transformed from an ass to a heroic horse. + +Sometimes, instead of the horse, we have only its head. The +step-mother persecutes the old man's daughter;[567] the persecuted +maiden finds a mare's head, which beseeches her to relieve and cover +it; at last it invites her to enter the right ear and come out of the +left one. The persecuted girl comes out in the form of an exceedingly +beautiful maiden. The step-mother sends her own daughter to try the +same means of becoming beautiful; but she maltreats the mare's head, +and the mare's head devours her. + +There is also a singularly clear allusion to the Acvinau in the +forty-fourth story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, which seems to +me to be a full confirmation of these interpretations. When Basilica, +the girl persecuted by her step-mother, approaches the house of the +old witch (the baba-jega), she sees galloping towards the great door +of it a black horseman, dressed all in black, upon a black horse, who +disappears underground, upon which night begins.[568] When the day +begins to appear, Basilica sees before her a white horseman, dressed +all in white, upon a white horse, caparisoned in white. The maiden +goes on; when the sun begins to rise, she sees a red horseman, dressed +in red, upon a red horse.[569] The myth does not require comment; but +it happens to be given to us in the story itself by the witch, who, to +appease the curiosity of the girl Basilica, reveals to her that the +black horseman represents the dark night (noc tiomnaja), the white +horseman the clear day (dien jasnoi), and the red horseman the little +red sun (solnishko krasnoje). + +Returning from Slavonic to Asiatic tradition, we meet with the same +myths. + +Let us begin with the demoniacal horse, or demon of horses. The +_Rigvedas_ already knows it; the yatudhanas, or monster, feeds now +upon human flesh (like the Bucephalus of the legend of Alexander), now +upon horse flesh, and now milk from cows. We have said it seems +probable that the custom of keeping a lamp lighted in the stables is a +form of exorcism against the demon; the _Rigvedas_, indeed, tells us +that Agnis (that is, Fire, with his flame) cuts off the heads of such +monsters.[570] But this is not enough; the _Rigvedas_ offers us in the +same hymn the proof of another identification. We have seen in the +last chapter how Rebhas, the invoker, is the third brother, whom his +envious and perfidious brothers threw into the well; and we have seen +above how Ivan, who is also the third brother, invokes with a sonorous +voice the grey horse which is to help him, and how the same Ivan is +the one that discovers the monstrous horse which ravages the seed or +the crops in his father's field. In the same Vedic hymn where the +flame of Agnis beats down the heads of the monster that torments +horses, Agnis (that is, fire) is invoked in order that the hero Rebhas +may see the monster which devastates with its claws.[571] Rebhas and +Bhugyus are two names of the hero who falls into the cistern in the +_Rigvedas_. We have seen, not long ago, in the Russian story, that +Ivan, the third brother, who is thrown down into the cistern, is +delivered by the red horse. The Acvinau, in the _Rigvedas_, deliver +Bhugyus out of the sea by means of red-winged horses.[572] Here the +grey and imperfect horse of night is become a red horse. In the same +Vedic hymn, Rebhas, overwhelmed in the waters, is identified with his +own horse (Ivan is son of the bitch, or the cow, or the mare), he +being compared to a horse hidden by wicked ones.[573] + +We saw above, in the Russian story, how the two horsemen who come out +of the grey horse's ear give to the foolish Ivan, who has an ugly and +worthless horse, a handsome hero's palfrey, by means of which he +accomplishes the arduous undertakings which entitle him to the hand of +the king's daughter. It is remarkable how completely the Vedic myth +agrees with this European legend. The Acvinau have given, for his +eternal happiness, a luminous horse to him who has a bad one.[574] In +another hymn, the god Agnis gives to his worshipper a pious, truthful, +invincible, and very glorious son, who vanquishes heroes, and a swift, +victorious, and unconquered horse.[575] + +We have seen, moreover, how Ivan, the most popular type of the Russian +hero, has always to make three essays before he accomplishes his +undertaking upon the wonderful horse which he has obtained from the +two horsemen. The _Rigvedas_, which celebrates the famous mythical +enterprise of the three steps of Vishnus, of the great body +(brihaccharirah),[576] of the very vast step (urukramishtah),[577] +who, in three steps, measured or traversed the whole span of the +heavens,[578] betrays in another hymn the secret of Vishnus's success +in this divine enterprise, since it says that when, with the strength +of Indras, he made his three steps, he was drawn by the two +fair-haired horses of Indras[579] (that is, the two Acvinau lent him +the swift and strong horse which was to bear him on to victory). The +three steps of Vishnus correspond, therefore, to the three stations of +Ivan, to the three races of the young hero to win the beautiful +princess. Vishnus also appears in the _Ramayanam_,[580] in the midst +of the sea of liquified butter, attractive to all beings, in the form +of a horse's head. Hero and the solar or lunar horse are identified. + +Indras is requested to yoke his right and his left (horses), to +approach, inebriated, his dear wife.[581] By means of the horse +obtained from the two horsemen, the Russian Ivan acquires his wife; in +the _Rigvedas_, the two Acvinau themselves, by means of their rapid +chariot, became husbands of the daughter of the sun.[582] The horses +of the sun are so fully identified with the chariot drawn by them, +that they are said to be dependent on it, united with it, and almost +born of it.[583] The Acvinau, therefore, by means of the horse now +enable the wife to be found by the solar hero, by the old Cyavanas +made young again (Tithon),[584] now by the sun, and now find her +themselves (perhaps drawing the chariot like horses). Ramas, too, who +is represented in the _Ramayanam_[585] as the deliverer of Sita, is +compared to the solar horse, to the sun born upon the mountain. + +We have seen in the Russian stories how the horse's head possesses the +same magic power as the marvellous horse which the two horsemen give to +the hero Ivan. Thus, in the Vedic myth, and in the corresponding +brahmanic tradition, the horse's head Dadhyanc stands in direct relation +with the myth of the Acvinau. The wise Dadhyanc shows himself pious +towards the Acvinau, to whom, although he knows that he will pay with +his head for the revelation he makes, he communicates what he knows +concerning the ambrosia or the Madhuvidya. For this, accordingly, +Dadhyanc forfeits his head; but the Acvinau present him with a horse's +head (his own), which heroically achieves wonders. With the bones of +Dadhyanc, or with the head of the horse Dadhyanc (he who walks in butter +or ambrosia), fished up in the ambrosial lake Caryanavat (the head of +the horse Vishnus in the sea of butter),[586] Indras discomfits the +ninety-nine hostile monsters (as Samson the Philistines with the jawbone +of an ass).[587] This exchange of heads seems to be common to the +traditions which are founded upon the myth of the Acvinau, that is, to +the legends of the two brother or companion heroes. In the +_Tuti-Name_,[588] the heads of the prince and of the Brahman, who are +exceedingly like each other, are cut off and then fastened on again; +but, by some mistake, the head of the one is attached to the body of the +other, so that the prince's wife is embarrassed between them. This +exchange of the husband (which corresponds to the exchange of the wife +in the legend of Berta, referred to in the first chapter) is very +frequent in the legend of the two brothers, and often ends in the +rupture of the perfect concord reigning between them. The two brothers +or companions who dispute about the wife, is a variety of the legend of +the three brothers who, having delivered the beautiful princess, wish to +divide her between them. + +The _Rigvedas_ does not seem as yet explicitly to exhibit the two +Acvinau at discord--they generally are united in doing good; but as we +already know the Vedic blind man and lame man who are cured by the +grace of Indras, or of the Acvinau themselves; as we know that the +Acvinau, in the _Rigvedas_, make Dadhyanc, who has a horse's head, +conduct them to the ambrosia, or indicate where it is, probably in +order that they may procure health and strength for themselves; as in +the ninth strophe of the 117th hymn of the first book of the +_Rigvedas_, the marvellous horse of the Acvinau, which kills the +monster-serpent (ahihan), is but one; as we know that the Acvinau run +to gain the bride for themselves; and as we cannot ignore the fact +that in the story of the blind and lame man, when a woman comes upon +the scene, they endeavour to do harm to each other; as we know that of +the two Hellenic brothers, the Dioscuri, one alone had from the gods +the gift of immortality; as, finally, it is known to us that of the +two brothers, he alone is the true hero who, by means of his horse, +gains the victory over the monster,--it is clear that if we have not +as yet in the _Rigvedas_ the myth of the two brothers at discord, we +have, at least, in the ambrosia, and in the bride won by them the +origin of the myth already indicated; and from the idea of the +privileged brother that of the envious one would naturally arise. + +In Hesiod's _Theogony_ we have the two brothers Chrysaeor and Pegasos, +that come out of the Medusa (the evening aurora), who is made pregnant +by Poseidon, after Perseus has cut off her head. Pegasos, the younger +brother, becomes the heroic horse. In Hesiod himself, and in the +_Metamorphoses_ of Ovid, he carries the thunder and the thunderbolts +for Zeus. The hero Bellerophontes rides him, and vanquishes, by his +help, the Chimaira and the Amazons; he becomes the horse of the +aurora, the horse of the Muses, the ambrosial steed. The monstrous +Chimaira appears, in the _Theogony_ of Hesiod, as the daughter of +Typhaon and the Echidna, the monstrous daughter of Chrysaeor. Therefore +in the conflict which Bellerophontes maintains against the Chimaira, +we have a form of the battle which goes on between the twin horses +Pegasos and Chrysaeor, the one divine, the other demoniacal. + +In the analogous myth of the Hellenic Dioscuri (the sons of the +luminous one, _i.e._, of Zeus, just as the Vedic Acvinau are the sons +of the luminous sky;[589] Zeus is united with the Dioscuri, as Indras +is with the Acvinau), we again find the twins who fight to recover a +woman who had been carried off from them, _i.e._, their own sister +Helen. One of the two brothers is mortal, and the other immortal; he +who is immortal passes the night in hell with his mortal brother. The +double aspect of the sun, which at evening enters and loses itself in +the night, now black, now illumined by the moon, and which, in the +morning, comes forth in a luminous form, has enriched the story of +the two brothers of mythology. One of the two brothers, the red +horseman, is in especial relation with the morning sun; the other, in +intimate connection with the silvery moon, the white horseman, and +when the latter is amissing, with the infernal gloom. + +Several mythologists have interpreted the Acvinau as only the two +twilights; but it seems more exact, inasmuch as they are often found +together, whilst the two twilights are always apart, to recognise in +them two crepuscular lights, the lunar of evening and autumn, and the +solar of morning and spring.[590] Of the twin-brothers, one is always +imperfect; the lunar crepuscular light offers us a similar +imperfection, with respect to the sun. Inasmuch as the Acvinau are +affiliated both to the sun and the moon, when they come out of the two +ears of the horse of night, we should understand, it would appear, +that on one side the moon goes down, while on the other the sun is +born, or that the solar horse arises, upon which the young hero lost +in the night mounts and wins the princess aurora. In the Russian +stories referred to in the preceding chapter, we have seen how the +maiden abandons her hero-husband, or brother, to give herself into the +monster's hands; the evening aurora forsakes the sun to throw herself +into the night, and the evening twilight stays for a long time with +the evening aurora (the reddish sky of evening), when the sun is +already gone. In the morning the two lovers, the twilight, or sun and +moon, and the aurora, meet once more; when the sun, or solar hero, +arrives, he surprises them _in flagrante delicto_, and punishes them. +Sometimes, on the contrary, the twilight and the aurora stay together, +preserving their chastity; in this case the brother twilight figures +as the good and honest guardian of the rights of his brother the sun. +This appears to me to have been the most ancient, as it is the most +subtle, interpretation of the myth; afterwards, it is possible, and +even probable, that in the two Acvinau only the two gods of morning +and of evening were seen, with their respective twilights, considered +as two brothers, so like that they were easily mistaken for each +other. But from the data of the Russian story, which gives us the +lunar twilight as a white horseman and the rising sun as a red one, +the aurora being found exactly between the white and the red horsemen, +between the moon or the white dawn (alba) and the sunrise, and seeing +that the _Rigvedas_, which makes the aurora mount upon the chariot of +the Acvinau, considers them in the celebrated nuptial hymn as the +_paranymphoi_ of Surya, the daughter of the sun or of the aurora +herself, I venture to insist upon my interpretation as the most +obvious, and perhaps the most logical one. The two brothers may very +naturally be conceived of as contending for the possession of the +bride when they have her between them, since the Acvinau, considered +as lunar light and sun, really take the aurora between them. The Vedic +hymn cited above shows us how both the Acvinau, arriving on the +swift-running chariot, became the husbands of Surya, the daughter of +the sun. But this very Surya, in the Vedic nuptial hymn, must be +satisfied with one husband, who is called Somas, so that the Acvinau +can only occupy the place of paranymphs. The Acvinau, therefore, would +appear to be excluded from the wedding of Surya as principal +personages; they would seem to be nothing more than assistants, and, +in fact, they often assume this part in the Vedic hymns, by enabling +now the bride to find a husband, now the husband to recover his bride. +We know already that by means of them Cyavanas, the old sun (a Vedic +Tithon), became young again, and was able to espouse the aurora. We +know that they gave sight to Vandanas (properly, the Face), that they +made the blind see,[591] the lame walk, and performed sundry other +works of charity, which would, however, have been much more glorious +if these acts did not, in fact, always issue in benefit to themselves, +as blind, lame, or drowned. It is hence very probable that when they +give a bride to the hero, they, being now lunar, now solar heroes, do +only appropriate her to themselves. When, therefore, we read that the +Acvinau assist as paranymphs at the nuptials of Surya and Somas, we +are much inclined to think that under Somas in this case one of the +Acvinau is hidden. In Indras and Somas, often sung of together in the +_Rigvedas_, it seems to me that we have just another form of the +Acvinau, the more so because I also find them both, like the Acvinau, +personified in one and the same horse, whose back is covered with +honey, and who is terrible and swift,[592] and because they are +invoked together against the yatudhanas, which, by the grace of the +Acvinau, the hero Rebhas succeeds in discovering and then chasing +away.[593] The _Taittiriya_ _Brahmanam_[594] represents to us the +daughter of the sun (Savitri) by the name of Sita, as enamoured of +Somas, who, on the contrary, loves another woman, the Craddha (_i.e._, +Faith), almost as if the daughter of the sun, the aurora, were, for +him at least, a symbol of infidelity. Probably this embryo of a myth +refers to the passage of the aurora, in the morning, from her amours +with the white horseman (the white twilight), which, as we have said, +was supposed to be in particular relation with the moon (Somas), to +her amours with the red horseman (the sun), or, _vice versa_, to the +aurora who, in the evening, abandons the red horseman, the sun (now +her father, now her husband), to throw herself into the arms of the +white horseman, the white twilight, the king Somas, or silver god +Lunus. Moreover, Yaskas, in the _Niruktam_,[595] already notices that +the Acvinau were identified now with the day and the night,[596] now +with the sun and the moon. + +When, therefore, we read that the Acvinau obtained for their wife the +daughter of the sun, and when we learn that she chose both for +husbands,[597] we must interpret the passage with discrimination, and +conclude that one of them was sometimes preferred, inasmuch as the +Vedic nuptial hymn speaks of only one husband of Surya, with the name +of Somas, with whom, as we have said, Yaskas identifies one of the +Acvinau. We read in _Pausanias_ that, among the Greek usages, when the +bride was conducted to the bridegroom's house, she was accustomed to +mount a chariot and sit down in the middle, having the bridegroom on +one side, and on the other her nearest relation as paranymphos. The +preference given to one of the two brothers over the other is +naturally suggestive of a contention between them; however, as I say, +the _Rigvedas_, which offers us already the myth of the third brother +abandoned in the well by his relations, does not record any example of +an open strife between the two brothers (_i.e._, the Acvinau, the +lunar and the solar light). + +An evidently Hindoo variation of this myth is contained in the +well-known episode of the _Mahabharatam_, which relates the adventures +of Sundas and Upasundas, two inseparable brothers, who lived together +in love and concord, each being ruled by the will of the other, and +who had never all their lives either said or done anything to +displease each other. The gods become envious of their virtue, and +wish to prove it, and send to seduce them a nymph of enchanting +beauty. The two brothers, on seeing her, desire each the exclusive +possession of the divine maiden, and strive between themselves to +carry her off. They fight so long and so desperately that they both +die (the moon and the sun see the aurora in the morning, and dispute +for her; they see her again in the evening, and fight so long that +they both perish miserably, and die in the night). The gods who are +envious of the virtue of the two brothers Sundas and Upasundas, are +the same as those who, envying the good which the Acvinau do to +mankind, treat them as celestial Cudras, under the pretext that they +pollute themselves by their contact with men, and refuse to admit +them, being impure, to the sacrifices.[598] + +In the twin brothers, Nakulas and Saladevas, sons of the Acvinau, the +Acvinau themselves revive again, are made better, according to the +expression of the first book of the _Mahabharatam_. The first-born, +Nakulas, too, is perhaps the real Acvin who kills the monster. Nakulas +is the name given to the _viverra ichneumon_, the mortal enemy of the +serpents, which refers us back to the horse Ahihan (or killer of the +serpent), as the horse of the Acvinau, or perhaps rather of one of the +Acvinau, is called, in the _Rigvedas_. Of the two Dioscuri, moreover, +one alone is especially the horseman; the other is the valiant in +combat.[599] The mortal brother, he who has to remain in hell, and who +has to fight the monsters of night, is Castor the horseman. Pollux, +the strong-armed, is, on the contrary, the immortal one, the daily +sun, he who profits from the victory obtained by his brother who has +fought in the night, during which the Gandharvas (the horses in the +perfumes, they who walk in perfume) also ride upon war-horses, heroic, +invulnerable, divine, exceedingly swift, who change colour at +will--the Gandharvas, whose strength increases during the night, as +one of them informs Argunas in the _Mahabharatam_, when communicating +to him Gandharvic knowledge.[600] + +In the _Ramayanam_, the two brothers Ramas and Lakshmanas are +compared to the Acvinau, to the sun and moon, as similar the one to +the other; and their reciprocal love reminds us of that of the +Acvinau.[601] Ramas and Lakshmanas are always at peace with each +other; there is, however, a passage which may serve as a link to +connect the myth of the two friendly brothers and that of the two +hostile ones. When Ramas combats alone in the forest thousands of +monsters, Lakshmanas stays with Sita, hidden in a cavern. + +But the _Ramayanam_ itself shows us the two brothers in open strife in +the legend of the two brothers Balin and Sugrivas, children of the sun, +beauteous as the two Acvinau, so perfectly like one another that it is +impossible to distinguish one from the other; and so that when Ramas, to +please Sugrivas, wishes to kill Balin, he does not know which to strike, +until Sugrivas puts a garland on his head as a sign of recognition.[602] +Once Balin and Sugrivas were intimate friends, but, on account of a +woman, they became mortal enemies. Sugrivas complains that Balin, his +elder brother, has deprived him of his wife Ruma;[603] but it is not +certain that Sugrivas did not rather steal Balin's wife. Balin seems +especially to represent the evening sun; the _Ramayanam_[604] says of +him that, while the sun is not risen (_i.e._, in the night), he is +unweariedly passing from the western to the eastern ocean; by this is +described the supposed voyage of the sun in the ocean of night, in the +grotto or the darkness. When Balin is in the grotto, he is betrayed by +his brother Sugrivas. The two brothers, Balin and Sugrivas, while still +friends, set out together to follow the monster Mayavin (the brother of +Dundubhis, who, in the _Ramayanam_ itself,[605] fights in the shape of +a demoniacal buffalo against Balin, near the entrance of the cave). The +moon rises to show them the way. The monster escapes into the cavern, +upon which Balin enters and follows him, whilst Sugrivas remains +without, awaiting his return. After waiting a long time, Sugrivas sees +blood flow out of the cave (in analogous legends, instead of blood, it +is a treasure, or else a princess or a beautiful maiden comes out in +shining garments). This is the blood of the monster, killed by Balin; +but Sugrivas believes it to be that of his brother Balin. He returns +home, and showing his sorrow in public, declares that Balin is dead, and +allows himself to be consecrated king in his stead (probably also +enjoying with the crown the wife of his brother). Meanwhile Balin, after +having killed the monster Mayavin, endeavours to come out of the cavern, +but he finds the entrance closed. Attributing at once this wicked action +to the brother Sugrivas, he succeeds, after great efforts, in effecting +an opening; he comes out, returns to the palace, and expels Sugrivas +from it, whom he persecutes ever after.[606] Even Angadas, Balin's son, +irritated one day with Sugrivas, accuses him of having once shut up his +brother Balin in the cave, in order to possess himself of the latter's +wife. + +In the _Avesta_, the name and the myth of Kerecacpa seems to me to be +of special interest. To the Zend word _kerecacpa_ corresponds the +Sanskrit _kricacvas_ (the name of a warlike rishis and hero), that is, +he of the lean horse. The hero Kerecacpa has, in the _Avesta_, a +brother called Urvaksha (a word which is perhaps the same as +_urvacpa_, and, if this equivalence is admitted, _urvaksha_ would mean +him of the fat or great horse, of the heroic horse.[607] We have +already noticed that the Vedic and Slavonic hero begins his fortune +with an ugly and bad horse; the hero Kerecacpa, too, of the two +brothers of the Zend myth, is the good, the heroic, and truly glorious +one. His brother, Urvaksha, according to a Parsee tradition,[608] was +banished to hell because he had struck the fire which did not obey his +commands (the evening sun which descends into the infernal night); +Kerecacpa avenges him. This is evidently a Persian form of the myth of +the Dioscuri, who, as it seems to me, reappear once more in the two +Zend brothers, Gustacp and Acpayaodha (he who fights with the horse). + +In the epic poem of Firdusi, the two brothers Piran and Pilsem, who +fight together against the Turanians, and of whom the former and elder +delivers the latter and younger from the dangers that he is exposed to +among the enemies, seem to me re-embodiments of the same myth. + +We find the cloudy or tenebrous sky of night represented in the +_Rigvedas_ and in the _Avesta_ as acman, or mountain of stone. When +the evening sun falls upon the mountain, it turns to stone, and the +whole sky assumes the colour of this mountain. When the hero of the +popular story follows the monster, the latter hides under a rock; the +hero lifts up the rock and descends into the grotto, that is, hides +himself in the mountain of stone, or is turned to stone, and if he has +a horse, it undergoes the same transformation. + +In the story of Merhuma, who is stoned (the aurora lost in the mountain +of stone), in the _Tuti-Name_,[609] we have the brother possessed by a +demon, who seduces the wife of his brother, who is travelling abroad. In +that of Mansur, in the same _Tuti-Name_,[610] the monstrous Fari assumes +the very shape of the absent husband, and succeeds in seducing his wife. +In another story in the _Tuti-Name_,[611] two brothers, finding +themselves deceived in their expectations, set out together, each, for +love of the other, wandering about the world in search of a better fate. +These are three forms of the myth of the Acvinau. With them is connected +the story of the maiden who comes out of the wood, of whom as many men, +when she appears, become enamoured.[612] + +The fifth Calmuck story (of Hindoo origin) is unmistakably a +reproduction of the myth of the Acvinau, even to the very mythical names +themselves. The king, Kun-snang (he who illumines all, like the Vedic +Vicvavedas and the Slavonic Vsievedas, the all-seer), has by two +different mothers two sons--Sunlight (born in the year of the tiger; +perhaps in the sol-leo, in July, in summer, under the solar influence) +and Moonlight. The second wife does not love her step-son Sunlight, and +persecutes him, but the two brothers are devoted to each other, and when +Sunlight goes into exile (like Ramas), Moonlight follows him (as +Lakshmanas follows Ramas, as the white lunar twilight follows the sun in +the forest of night). On the way, Moonlight is thirsty; Sunlight goes to +find water for him, but in the meantime Moonlight dies.[613] Sunlight +returns, and is in despair at the sight of his dead brother; however, a +hermit has pity upon him, and, having resuscitated Moonlight, adopts the +two brothers as his own sons. Near his abode there is a kingdom where +the dragons keep back the waters, unless they are given a young man born +in the year of the tiger. It oozes out that Sunlight is such a young +man, and he is led away to the king of that country. The daughter of the +king falls in love with him, and begs Sunlight not to be given to the +dragons. The king is furious against his daughter, and has her thrown +with Sunlight into the swamp where the dragons are.[614] The young +couple break out into such piteous lamentations, that the dragons are +touched, and let Sunlight and the young princess go free. When free, +they find Moonlight, who also becomes the husband of the beautiful +princess, the two brothers being inseparable, like the Vedic Acvinau. +The three personages (white twilight, or white moonlight, aurora, and +sun) return together into the kingdom of their birth, where, upon seeing +them arrive, Sunlight's step-mother (Night) dies of terror. Here the +legend has all its mythical splendour. + +In the sixteenth Mongol story, on the contrary, the friendship of the +two companions cannot last, because of the perfidy of one of them; +while they are travelling in the forest, the minister's son kills the +king's son. + +In the history of _Ardshi-Bordshi_, the two men born in the palace +are so like each other in everything, in shape, complexion, dress, and +horses, that they cannot be distinguished one from the other; hence +they dispute between themselves for the possession of everything, of +wife and sons. One is made like the other by witchcraft; he is the son +of a demon; and it is the marvellous king of the children who +discovers the secret.[615] + +This exchange of husbands, or heroes, by means of demoniacal craft, +often occurs in European fairy-tales, like the exchange of wives. The +demon is now a water-carrier, now a washerman, now a woodcutter, now a +charcoal-burner, now a gipsy, now a Saracen, and now the devil _in +propria persona_. + +The Russian fairy-tales show us the two forms of the two brothers or +companions, _i.e._, the two that remain friends _usque ad mortem_, and +the friend betrayed by his perfidious companion. + +We find a zoological form of the legend of the two friends in one of +Afanassieff's stories. The horse delivers the child of one of his +masters from the bear, upon which his grateful masters feed him +better, whereas before they had almost let him die of starvation. The +horse (the sun) remembers in prosperity his companion in misfortune, +the cat (the moon), who is also allowed to starve, and gives it a part +of what he receives from his masters. The latter perceive this, and +again ill-treat the horse, who then forms the resolution of killing +himself, in order that the cat may eat him; but the cat refuses to eat +his friend the horse,[616] and is also determined to die. + +The two brothers who, because they have eaten one the head and the +other the heart of a duck, are predestined, in _Afanassieff_,[617] +one to be king and the other to spit gold, flee from their perfidious +mother (probably step-mother), who persecutes them in their father's +absence. They meet with a cowherd taking his cows to the pasturage, +and are hospitably entertained by him. Then, continuing their journey, +they come to a place where two roads meet, where, upon a pillar, this +is written, "He who goes to the right (to the east) will become a +king; he who goes to the left (to the west, into the kingdom of +Kuveras, the western sun, the god of riches; when the sun rises in the +east the moon goes down in the west) will become rich." One goes to +the right; when it is morning, he rises, washes, and dresses himself. +He learns that the old king is dead (the old sun), and that funeral +honours are being paid to him in church. A decree says that he whose +candle lights of itself will be the new Tzar.[618] The Vedic god also +has the distinctive attribute of this wonderful candle, that of being +lighted by himself, of shining of himself, _i.e._, he is svabhanus. +The candle, therefore, of our youth predestined to be king lights of +its own accord, and he is immediately proclaimed the new king. The +daughter of the old king (the aurora) marries him, recognising in him +her predestined husband, and makes with her golden ring (the solar +disc) a mark upon his forehead (as Ramas does with Sita). The young +man (the sun), after having remained some time with his bride (the +aurora), wishes to go towards the part where his brother went (that +is, to the left, to the west). He traverses for a long time different +countries (_i.e._, the sun describes the whole arc of heaven which +arches over the earth), and finds at last (in the western sky, +towards the setting sun) his brother, who lives in great wealth. In +his rooms whole mountains of gold arise; when he spits, all is gold; +there is no place to put it,[619] (the evening sky is one mass of +gold). The two brothers then set out together to find their poor old +father (the sun during the night). The younger brother goes to find +for himself a bride (probably the silvery moon), and the wicked mother +(the step-mother, night) is forsaken. Here, too, the legend is +entirely of a mythical character. In the two brothers we see now +twilight and sun, now the two twilights, now the spring and autumnal +lights, now the sun and the moon, but always the Acvinau, always two +deities, two heavenly beings closely connected with the phenomena of +the lunar and solar light. + +And here allow me to say that I deem it enough for me to collect in +one body legends which betray a common origin; as to explaining all +mythology in the legends, this is beyond my power, and therefore +outside my pretensions. I only point out, as I proceed, +interpretations which I think come near the truth; but the objects +embodied in mythology are so mobile and multiform, that, if grasped +too tightly, they easily evaporate and disappear. Their richness +consists in their very mobility and uncertainty. If the sun and moon +were always seen in the same place, there would be no myths. The myths +which originated the greatest number of legends are those which are +founded upon the most fleeting phenomena of the sky.[620] The myth of +the Acvinau cannot be solved by mathematical demonstrations, +precisely on account of the uncertainty presented by the crepuscular +light which probably gave rise to it. This continuous succession of +shadows, penumbrae, chiaroscuri, and shades of light, from the black +darkness to the silver moon, from the silver moon to the grey twilight +of morning, which gradually melts into, and confounds itself with the +dawn, from the dawn to the aurora, from the aurora to the sun; the +same variations recurring, but inversely, in the evening, from the +dying sun to the reddish and blood-coloured sky or evening aurora, +from the evening aurora to the grey twilight, from the grey twilight +to the silver moon, from the silver moon to the gloomy night,--this +continual change of colours, which meet, unite with, and pass into +each other, originated the idea of celestial companions, friends, or +relations, who are now in unison and now separate, who now approach to +love each other, to move together and affectionately follow each +other, now rush upon each other to fight, despoil, betray, and destroy +each other turn by turn, who now attract and are now attracted, are +now seduced and now seducers, now cheated and now deceivers, now +victims, now sacrificers. Where there is a family, there is love, +hence come exemplary brothers, husbands, wives, sons, daughters, +fathers, and mothers, full of tenderness; that is the obverse of the +medal: where there are relations, there are disputes, hence +contentions between brothers, out of jealousy in love, or envy of +riches; perverse mothers-in-law, step-mothers, and sisters-in-law, +tyrannous fathers, perfidious wives; that is the reverse. This +contradiction of feelings is difficult to explain psychologically even +in man; how much more, therefore, is it so when it has to be analysed +in a mythical image, which assumes an animal form in one rapid flash +of imagination, and then disappears? On this account, in the case of +some myths, we must content ourselves with a general demonstration, at +least until new and positive data appear, on which it may be possible +to base, in a solid foundation, the real nature of the details of +mythology. In the absence of these data, we can only offer +probabilities, and not rules to the reader. As to the Vedic Acvinau, +this much is certain: they are found in unison with their wife, the +aurora, after having passed through the dangers of night, or after +having enabled the heroes protected by them--that is to say, their own +heroic forms--to pass through them; they are two splendid +brother-horsemen; and they are especially invoked in the first hours +of morning. The myth in this Vedic form would not appear to be of +dubious interpretation. The white moon and the sun take the aurora +between them, that is, marry her; or else they present her in marriage +to Somas (with whom one of the Acvinau, the white light or twilight, +is in particular relation), in the quality of paranymphs. The aurora, +in the morning, as well as in the evening, taken between the sun and +the moon, disappears. One would think that the twilight and the sun +present her together at the same time to the king or god Somas, or +Lunus, for whom the daughter of the sun has affection. One would also +think that she was especially united with the twilight, which is in +especial relation with Somas, observing how in the morning the aurora +immediately succeeds the twilight, and disappears when the sun shows +himself, that is, rejoins the twilight and forsakes the sun; and how +in the evening, when the sun hides himself, or when her husband is +absent, she again unites herself with the twilight, with whom she +again flees and disappears, to reappear once more with him in the +morning. To continue; the absence of the sun during the night +tormented the popular phantasy in several ways. As much as the aspect +of the sky was negative with regard to the mythical hero--that is to +say, as much as the hero or god hides himself from the view--just so +much the more does popular imagination invest him with positive +qualities and exalt his greatness. The greatest of all deities is that +which is seen the least;--would that Roman Catholic priests understood +this mythological truth! Indras and Zeus are great when within the +thundering and lightning cloud. The sun becomes a hero when he loses +himself in the darkness of night and in the cloud. But it is just at +this very point that the demonstration of mythical particulars becomes +more difficult, because the myths are now founded, not merely upon an +external appearance or image, but often upon a simple subjective +hypothesis; and while the ancient image, possessing an objectivity +irrespective of the subject, can always be reconciled with the +observation of the new celestial phenomena which reproduce it, the +subjective hypothesis, being an individual phantasy, is lost. The +demonstration is therefore possible only in the essential parts. When +the sun was seen to disappear in the nocturnal sky, this sky appeared +in the various aspects of an ocean, a mountain, a forest, a cavern, or +a voracious monster which devoured the hero. But has the sun lost +himself by accident, or has he been precipitated into the night by the +aurora and her crepuscular lover, perfidiously united together, in +order that they may have more freedom in their loves? This is a +dilemma of which the two solutions originate a double series of +legends,--the brother betrayed by the brother, and the hero who goes +to succour his unfortunate brother fallen into the power of the +monsters. The hour of day which the French indicate by the expressive +phrase _entre chien et loup_, is the great epical hour of the fox, +which partakes of the nature of the domestic dog and the savage wolf. +It is the hour of betrayals, of perfidies, of doubts, and mythical +uncertainties. Who can tell whether the aurora is a widow by an +accident which happens to her husband the sun, or whether she herself +has betrayed him?--whether she has been a chaste and faithful +Genevieve, or a perfidious and luxurious Helen? It is these very +mythical doubts which have made the fortune and the charm of +tradition, as they are the despair of mythologists. When, moreover, +the sun is within the night, what can he do? According to the +different aspect assumed by the night, the acts of the solar hero lost +in it are modified, and these modifications can be explained without +too great an effort of imagination; but, sometimes, the relations +between the hero and his companions or brothers in the world of the +dead, can only be conceived by means of poetical dreams. When the sun +is seen to enter the obscure night in the evening, and to come out of +it safe and sound in the morning, after having dispersed the darkness, +it is natural to think that throughout the night he is singly intent +upon killing the monster. The action of the principal hero is well +defined, and therefore evident; and the reference is equally clear +when the aurora is represented as experiencing the same fate as the +sun, her husband or brother. They descend together into the night, +which makes them invisible, and together emerge from it happily. + +The myth becomes richer when the aurora throws herself into the arms of +a rival of her husband, because the character of this rival is various. +Now he is a handsome youth who resembles the legitimate husband, either +as the twilight or as Lunus; now he is a real demoniacal monster, the +demon himself, the black night. In proportion to the variety of aspects +and relations which the hero's rival assumes, does the myth become more +complicated, and its interpretation more difficult; hence the +story-tellers are often in the habit of interrupting their narrative by +saying, "Now, let us leave this or that hero, and return to such or such +another." These interruptions of the stories have their mythological +reason. We can understand, for instance, how the aurora, or daughter of +the sun, should be conceived of as, in a moment of feminine weakness, +falling in love with the moon, which she sees on the other side of the +heavens, and desirous of being conducted to him as his bride. We can +understand how Lunus, reciprocating the love-glance of the aurora at the +other extremity of the sky, should appear to be drawing her to himself, +and wishing to seduce her. We can also understand how now the moon, now +the sun, appears to seduce the aurora and carry her off from her +legitimate husband. In these cases the infidelity of the hero or the +heroine is evident; but woe to him who attempts to carry the +demonstration or the proof of this interpretation too far, for when the +seducer and seduced, be the seducer male or female, are thought of as +enjoying together the fruits of their perfidy, the myth must come to an +end, as no one can conceive the possibility of the moon and the aurora +living or doing anything together; no one can tell what the aurora and +the twilight, phenomena appertaining exclusively to the morning and +evening, and which only appear when the sun rises from the mountain, do +together in the night. The phenomenon ceases, the mythical personages +vanish too, and the story-teller breaks off his narrative, because he +possesses no data upon which to continue it. And so with all the myths; +they can only be explained on the condition that we do not insist upon +explaining too much. We must therefore be contented to see the girl +aurora carried off in the evening and the hero sun recover her in the +morning, or to conceive of the aurora and the sun fleeing away together +into the night, but we must not be too inquisitive as to the manner in +which they do so. The moon, or good fairy, sometimes teaches them the +way; but their nocturnal actions are but little seen into; those which +are spoken of as performed by them at night refer either to the moment +in which night begins, or to that in which it comes to an end. During +the night they wander about until they see a light (the guiding moon or +delivering light of day); they remain in the chest or cask thrown into +the water until it is carried to the other shore beyond the sea, or on +the eastern coast. In their nocturnal journey the moon plays the part +now of the good old man, or the good fairy; now of the good cow, or the +bull; now of the grey horse, the steed of night, who, in three stations, +bears them to their goal; now of the bird who, nourished upon their +flesh, carries them to their destination; and now we have, on the +contrary, the monster itself, or the step-mother who threatens, +tortures, and persecutes them. The hero shows his greatest strength +when hidden, but it is used now to send out the cows, now to recover the +ravished bride, now to unchain the rivers kept back by the dragons, now +to make the water of health gush forth, and now to destroy the monster +and deliver himself. The hero displays his greatest powers when +contending with the monster; but it is in order to his own deliverance. +In the earliest epochs of the legend he is foolish, ill, drunken, +unhappy, and stony; one can only speak of him by what is seen of him +externally. The cloud-barrel moves; it is the barrel full of water which +moves of its own accord in order to please the hero: the cloud-barrel +drops rain upon the earth; it is the foolish one who lets the wine run +out of the cask: the cloud-forest moves; it is the trunk of a tree which +attaches itself to the horse ridden by the hero, and massacres his +enemies--_i.e._, the cloud or darkness disappears, and the hero comes +out victorious. The part performed by the solar hero in the night or in +the cloud seems to me, therefore, almost always of a nearly certain +interpretation, but only so long as he is alone, or with but one +companion; when the one hero is transformed into three, or five, or six, +who accompany each other, or when he meets other mythical personages of +a nature akin to his own, and when he speaks and acts in unison with +them, the legend confuses the myth, in order to explain which, we are +often obliged to stretch the sense of the adverb _together_ to the +signification, now of a whole night, and now of an entire year. When we +find, for instance, in tradition, the twelve months of the year +associated with twelve old men round the fire, we know that the fire is +the sun, round which the twelve months turn in the sky in the space of a +year. Here _together_ is amplified to denote, therefore, the period of a +year and the entire width of the sky. + +I have been led into this long, but, I trust, not idle digression, in +order to explain the Russian story of the two brothers, of whom it is +said that they go together, one to the right and the other to the +left. In whatever way the Acvinau are to be understood, whether as +twilight and sun, as spring and autumn, or as sun and moon, it is +impossible to comprehend how they can travel in the same direction; +the ways they take must therefore be separate. The sun and the evening +twilight do not advance in opposite directions; the morning sun and +that of evening occupy opposite positions, but not at the same time; +the sun and moon advance at the same time in the sky, but not +conjointly and upon the same path, like two travelling companions. It +is therefore necessary to suppose that the journey of the two brothers +either happens at different periods, although it may be in the same +night or the same day, or else takes its start from different places, +although always in the sky; in the evening the moon is seen advancing +from east to west, whilst the hidden sun travels from west to east; +when the sun has arrived in the east, the moon goes down in the west. +The eastern sun is bent, in the daytime, upon following and finding +his brother who has gone to the west; and when he arrives there he +sees, besides his brother, his brother's immense treasures also. With +this is connected the other version of the myth of the Acvinau, the +poor brother and the rich one. This is probably the weary, thirsty, +and hungry sun, who, having during the day given all his wealth away, +demands hospitality from, and offers his services to, his rich +brother; the latter drives him away, and the poor brother wanders +alone, poorer and sadder than before, into the forest, where he makes +his fortune by digging up a treasure which enriches him, whilst his +rich brother in the west becomes poor. The story of the treasure, in +connection with the two brothers and the skilful thief, was familiar +to the Greeks in the vicissitudes of Agamedes and Trophonios (in +_Pausanias_[621]), who stole King Huerieus's treasure, on which account +one of the two brothers was to lose his head. + +Were I to follow the story of the two brothers in its Western +versions, I could compose an entire volume on the subject, which is +indeed of such interest that a student, by connecting it with that of +the three brothers, might profitably address himself to the work. But +to resume the account of the horse. I must here limit myself to +recording only one other interesting variety of this legend, offered +us in the seventh story of Basile's _Pentamerone_.[622] + +There were once two brothers, named respectively Cienzo and Meo +(Vincenzo and Meo). When they were born two enchanted horses and two +enchanted dogs also came into the world. Cienzo goes about the world +in search of fortune; he comes to a place where there is a dragon with +seven heads, from whom a beautiful princess must be delivered. As long +as he does not cut all the heads off, the dragon goes and rubs itself +against a herb which possesses the virtue of fastening on to the body +again the head which had been cut off. Cienzo cuts off all the +dragon's heads, "pe gratia de lo sole Lione" (by the grace of the Lion +sun, _i.e._, when the sun is in the sign of Leo, which corresponds to +the tiger of the Indo-Turanian story recorded above, or when the solar +hero possesses all his strength; the lion and the tiger are equivalent +in Hindoo symbolism as heroic types, and are therefore all the same in +the zodiac). Cienzo marries the beautiful princess delivered by him; +but a beautiful fairy who lives in the opposite house fascinates him +by her beauty, attracts him, and binds him with her hair. Meanwhile +Meo, who by signs settled upon beforehand learns that his brother +Cienzo is in danger, comes to the house where the latter's wife lives, +accompanied by his enchanted horse and dog. The wife believes him to +be Cienzo (the story of the Menechmi, of the two brothers who resemble +each other in everything, was no doubt taken by the Greek poet, and +afterwards by Plautus, from popular tradition), fetes him on his +arrival, and receives him into her bed; but the faithful brother, in +order not to touch her, divides the sheets between them so that they +have one each, and refuses to touch his sister-in-law. Thus Sifrit, as +well as his Scandinavian _alter ego_ Sigurd, places a sword between +himself and Bruenhilt, the destined bride of the king, in order not to +touch her when she lies beside him; and when Bruenhilt throws herself +upon the funeral pyre, she also places a sword between herself and +Sigurd's corpse.[623] In the royal or heroic weddings by proxy of the +Middle Ages a similar custom was observed. In the popular Piedmontese, +Bergamasc, and Venetian song[624] of the pilgrim who comes from Rome, +the pilgrim is separated from the woman only by a wisp of straw. +Towards morning Meo also sees the beautiful fairy in the house over +the way; he guesses that Cienzo has been drawn into her snare, and +goes to deliver him. He makes his enchanted dog devour her, and frees +his brother, awakening him out of his sleep. Cienzo learning that Meo +had slept with his wife, cuts off his head; but when he learns from +his wife how Meo had divided the sheets when he lay beside her, he +bewails his rashness, has recourse to the herb with which the dragon +rubbed itself when one of its heads had been cut off, and by this +means fastens Meo's head on to his body again. + +The principal auxiliary, however, to one in particular of the two +brothers, as of the third in the legend of the three brothers, is his +horse. + +When the hero devotes himself to the trade of thieving, his most +glorious achievement is robbing the king's horse. + +When the young hero has been educated by the devil, it is in the shape +of a horse that he succeeds in escaping from him. + +When the solar hero fights, his greatest strength is in his horse. + +When the hero dies, his horse, too, is sacrificed. + +Let us now illustrate, by some examples, these four circumstances +relative to the myth of the horse. + +In the _Mahabharatam_,[625] the god Indras appears in the form now of +a horseman, now of a horse. It is, moreover, upon such a heroic horse +that the young Utankas flees from the king of the serpents, after +having recovered from him the queen's earrings, which the king of the +serpents had stolen. In this legend reference is made to several +myths; to that of the hero in the infernal regions, to that of the +hero-thief, and to the legend of the horse which saves the fugitive +hero, the same as the hero who leads away the horse. + +In the _Vishnu P._,[626] we have Kapilas, a form of Vishnus, or of the +solar hero (inasmuch as he is of a reddish colour, or else of the +evening sun), who carries off the horse destined for the acvamedhas, +that is to be sacrificed. (In other words, the solar horse, the horse +which was meant for the sacrifice, escapes from it, in the same way as, +in the preceding chapter, we have seen the bull escape into the +forests.) In the _Ramayanam_,[627] the horse destined for the sacrifice +is, on the contrary, carried off by a serpent (_i.e._, the monster of +night ravishes the evening sun, whilst, in the western sky, the fire is +being prepared for his immolation). The sons of Sagaras (the clouds of +the heavenly ocean, the word _sagaras_ meaning sea), make a noise like +thunder, searching for the horse that had been carried off from them. +They find it near the god Vishnus or Kapilas (here the sun himself, the +solar horse itself, carried off into the cloudy ocean of night); +believing him to be the ravisher, they assail him; Kapilas (or the solar +horse), full of indignation, burns them to ashes. Their nephew, +Ansumant (he who is furnished with rays, the radiant sun of morning), on +the contrary, delivers the horse out of the forest. In the evening he is +reconducted back to the place of sacrifice, on the golden pavement, +after having made the journey round the world.[628] In the same way as +we have seen, in the preceding chapter, that the bull or the cow is +touched or struck as an augury of fruitfulness and abundance, in the +_Ramayanam_,[629] Kaucalya touches the horse (a stallion) in order to be +fruitful, as he desires to have sons (_putrakamyaya_), and the king and +queen smell the odour of the burnt marrow or fat of the horse, as a +talisman which may work for them the gratification of a like wish.[630] +Of course we must always refer the legend to the myth of the solar +horse, which, even when sacrificed, makes itself fruitful, so that it +may rise again in the morning in a new and young form. And we can easily +prove that the horse of the acvamedhas was a mythical horse, since the +acvamedhas was originally a celestial ceremony, seeing we read in the +_Rigvedas_ how the swift heroic horse destined to be sacrificed was born +of the gods, and how the Vasavas had adorned it with the colours of the +sun.[631] We saw a short time ago how in the _Rigvedas_ itself it is +now the Acvinau, and now Agnis who give the heroic steed to the +predestined youth. Agnis, moreover, who gives a horse to the hero, is +himself now a handsome red horse, and now an excellent ghridhnus,[632] a +word which means the ravisher, as well as the vulture (as a bird of +prey). The thief plays a principal part, even in the Vedic myths. In the +war between the demons and the gods, described at length in the first +book of the _Mahabharatam_, there is a continual strife between the two +sides as to who will show himself the most skilful in stealing the cup +which contains the ambrosia. And the horse's head which, according to +Hindoo cosmogony, is born in the very production of the ambrosia with +the mythical gem, the horse's heads of Dadhyanc and of Vishnus, which +are found in the ambrosia [through the mouth of which (Vadavamukhas) it +is necessary to pass in order to enter hell, where one hears the cries +and howls of the tormented, who inhabit the water[633]], shows us how +already in the myth the legend of the theft of the earrings (the +Acvinau), or of the queen's gem (the sun), or of the treasure, must be +united with the theft of the horse (the sun itself), as it seems to be +united in the legend of Utankas, before quoted, in which Utankas flees +upon the divine horse as he carries away from hell the earrings of the +queen, which another skilful thief, the king of the serpents, had, in +his turn, stolen from him. (Herodotos already knew the story of the +skilful thief who robs the king's treasure and obtains the king's +daughter to wife; he applies it to the king of Egypt, Rampsinitos.) + +When the stag, in the fable, flees in the forest, his high horns betray +him; when the bull flees, he fears that his horns may betray the +fugitives; even the mane of the solar hero takes the name of horns. The +Vedic hymn describing the horse destined for the sacrifice, represents +it as having golden horns, and feet as rapid as thought (like the stag), +whose horns (or whose mane, like the hair of the biblical Absalom, who +revives again in the legendary tradition of Mediaeval Europe under an +analogous form), stretching here and there, are caught in the trees of +the forest.[634] Here, therefore, we have the swift-footed animal, whose +mane and horns are entangled to the trees. Another Vedic hymn presents +to us the hero Tugras lost in the sea, who embraces a tree, and is saved +by means of it.[635] In popular stories, the hero is often saved upon a +tree, either because the thieves or the bear cannot see him, or because +he is thus able to see the horizon; the tree brings good luck to him, +now because by letting something drop or making a noise, he terrifies +the thieves, now because he cheats the cowherds, whose cattle he wishes +to possess himself of, by appearing now upon one tree, and now upon +another; whereupon the cowherds begin to dispute about his identity, one +affirming that it is the same person, another that it cannot be; they +therefore hastily go back to inspect the first tree, and leave the +cattle unguarded, upon which the hero-thief descends from the tree, and +drives them away before him (this occurs in _Afanassieff_; the enemy of +robbers is generally himself an exceedingly skilful thief; Kerecacpa was +no less a cunning thief than Mercury, the god of robbers, who discovers +the deceit of others, because he is himself so expert a deceiver). In +the nineteenth Mongol story, which is of Hindoo origin, the young hero, +after having discharged his pious filial duties at the tomb of his +father, mounts a fiery horse, while he seizes the branch of a tree. The +tree is uprooted, and with it the horse and the hero massacre the army +of the king, whose daughter the hero wishes to marry. In the Russian +story[636] which narrates the adventures of Little Thomas Berennikoff, +blind of an eye, the _miles gloriosus_, Little Tom, after killing an +army of flies, begins to boast of the heroism he had shown in +overthrowing, by himself, a whole army of light cavalry. He meets with +two real heroes, Elias of Murom and Alexin Papovic (son of the priest), +who, on hearing him narrate his achievements, immediately own and honour +him as their elder brother. The valour of the three is soon put to the +proof; Elias and Alexin show themselves to be true heroes; at last it +comes to Little Tom's turn to make proof of his valour; he kills a +hostile hero whilst his eyes are shut, and then endeavours to ride his +horse, but cannot. It is a hero's horse, and can be ridden only by a +hero. At length he fastens the horse to an oak-tree, and climbs up the +tree in order to leap from it upon the horse's back. The horse feels +the man on his back, and plunges so much that he roots up the whole +tree, and drags it after him, carrying Tom away into the heart of the +Chinese army. The Chinese are struck down by the oak-tree and trodden +under foot by the furious charger, and those who are not killed are put +to flight. (The mythical wooden horse which proved so fatal to the +Trojans appears to be a mythical variety of this horse with the tree so +fatal to the Chinese.) The Emperor of China declares that he will never +make war again with a hero of Little Tom's strength. Then the King of +Prussia, an enemy of the Chinese, gives, in gratitude to Tom, and as a +reward for his valour, his own daughter to wife. It is remarkable that, +in the course of the story, Alexin once observes to Elias that the horse +which Little Tom had brought from his house showed none of the +characteristic qualities of a hero's horse. Alexin, as the priest's son, +is the wise hero; Elias, the strong one, who had conceived a high +opinion of his new colleague, Little Tom, seriously answers that a +hero's strength consists in himself, and not in his horse. However, the +development of the story shows that Alexin was right; without the fiery +horse of the dead hero, Tom would not have dispersed the Chinese. + +Thus, in a Vedic hymn,[637] we read that Indras, when he removes himself +from his two horses, becomes like to a weak and wearied mortal; when he +yokes them, he becomes strong. The enemies in the battles cannot resist +the charge of the two fair-coloured horses of the god Indras;[638] and +not only this, but one part alone of the divine horse is sometimes +sufficient to give assurance of victory to the hero-god. Another +hymn[639] sings, "A horse's tail wert thou then, O Indras;" that is, +when Indras vanquished the monster serpent. It is with the head of the +horse Dadhyanc that Indras discomfits his enemies.[640] The horse of the +Acvinau, which kills the monster serpent, has already been referred to +in these pages. The solar horse Dadhikra, the same as Dadhyanc, in +another hymn of the _Rigvedas_,[641] is celebrated as a swift falcon, +luminous, impetuous, who destroys his enemies like a hero-prince, who +runs like the wind. His enemies tremble, terrified by him, as by the +thundering sky; he fights against a thousand enemies--invincible, +formidable, and resplendent. Finally, the horses of the god Agnis are +said to vanquish the enemies with their fore-feet.[642] + +When Angadas wishes to fight with the monster Narantakas, in the +_Ramayanam_,[643] he strikes with his fist the head of his great and +swift-footed horse, and then with another blow he smites the monster +in the chest, and kills him. + +In the seven adventures of Rustem, related by Firdusi, the hero's horse +fights against the monster, and drives him away, while the hero sleeps. + +It is said of Bucephalus, the horse which Alexander the Great alone +was able to tame--so called because he had, it would seem, on his head +protuberances similar to the horns of a bull (we saw not long since +how the mane of the solar horse is spoken of as horns in the Vedic +hymns)--that he several times saved Alexander in battle, and that, +though mortally wounded, in an engagement in India, in the flank and +head, he still summoned up strength enough to flee away with +extraordinary swiftness and save his master, and then died. Pliny, +quoting Philarcus, says that when Antiochus was slain, the warrior who +had killed him endeavoured to ride his horse, but that the latter +threw him on the ground, and he expired. + +Of Pegasos, the winged horse which bore the hero Bellerophon over the +waters, and by means of whom that hero won his glorious victories, we +know that the warrior-goddess Pallas wore the effigy upon her helmet. + +Suetonius writes of the horse of Julius Caesar that it had almost human +feet, with toes ("pedibus prope humanis, et in modum digitorum ungulis +fissis"), from which the aruspices prognosticated to Caesar the empire +of the world; this horse, like Bucephalus, and every heroic courser, +would bear no other rider than its master--the great conqueror. + +The horse Baiardo, in _Ariosto_, fights the enemies with its feet. The +hippogriff of Ariosto has, moreover, the privilege of being winged +like Pegasos, and of walking on air, like the Tatos of the Hungarians. +The name of Falke, given to the horse of the Germanic and Scandinavian +hero Dietrich or Thidrek (Theodoricus), induces us to believe that it +too had the same winged nature. + +In the _Edda_, Skirner receives from Frey a horse which carried its +rider through fogs (waters) and flames, and the sword which strikes of +itself when the wearer of it happens to be a hero. The horse of Sigurd +or Sifrit exhibits the same bravery in bearing the hero intact through +the flames. This happens in the morning, when the sun emerges safe and +sound from the flames of the aurora; in the evening, on the contrary, +when the sun loses itself in the flames of the aurora, or when the +solar hero dies, his horse, too, like the horse of Balder in the +_Edda_, is burned upon the pyre or sacrificed; the resurrection of the +dead horse and that of the dead hero happen at the same time. The +horse's head which protrudes out of the window, represented in ancient +Hellenic tombs, and preserved in Germanic customs,[644] is, for man, a +symbol of resurrection. The head of Vishnus, that of Uccaihcravas, and +that of Dadhyanc, in Hindoo tradition, have the same meaning. He who +enters into this head finds death and hell; he who comes out of it +rises again to new life. The pious Christian belief in the +resurrection that is to come, and the numerous mediaeval legends of +Europe concerning dead heroes or maidens who are resuscitated, had +their origin and ground in the contemplation of the annual and daily +resurrection of the sun. + +In the thirty-eighth story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the +young prince receives from an enchanted bird the present of a +war-charger, and of an apple the colour of the sun. (The youth gives +the golden apple to a beautiful princess for the pleasure of passing +the night with her; remark here, again, the relation of the horse and +the apple, and probably of the horse and the bull, the sun and moon). +In other Russian stories, the horse of the hero, Ivan Tzarevic, is at +first bound underground by twelve iron chains; when Ivan rides him, he +breaks them all.[645] The horse which Ivan the thief is told to carry +off from his master[646] is shut up within three gates made fast by +six bolts; if he steals it, he is to receive a reward of 200 roubles; +and if he does not, 200 bastinadoes will be his punishment. Ivan takes +his master's clothes, disguises himself as a gentleman, and, imitating +his voice, orders the grooms to bring him his favourite horse. The +grooms are deceived, and obey, and thus Ivan carries the horse off. +Finally, in a third Russian story,[647] Ivan Tzarevic must ride a +hero's horse on the occasion of his nuptials with the beautiful but +wicked Anna. He has recourse to his preceptor Katoma, surnamed Hat of +Oak (here we find again the hero in relation with the tree and the +horse), who orders the blacksmith to prepare a hero's horse; twelve +young blacksmiths (the twelve hours of the night, or else the twelve +months of the year) draw twelve bolts, open twelve doors, and lead out +an enchanted horse, bound with twelve iron chains. Scarcely has the +preceptor mounted on its back when it flies higher than the forest +which stays still, and lower than the cloud which moves.[648] The +preceptor subdues it by taking hold of its mane with one hand, and +striking it with the other between the ears with four pieces, one +after another, of an enchanted iron pillar. The horse then begs, with +a man's voice, for its life, the power of speech being a distinctive +attribute of the hero's horse (a power of which it often makes use, as +Rustem's horse does, for instance, to warn the hero of the dangers +which surround him, and to give him good advice; sometimes, on the +contrary, when it is in the monster's power, it plays the part of a +spy upon the hero's actions, and reports them to the monster);[649] it +promises also to do the will of the preceptor. Katoma, calling the +horse dog's flesh, orders it to stay still the next day, which is the +day fixed for the wedding, and, when the bridegroom Ivan is to ride +it, to seem as though it were oppressed by a great weight. + +In the seventh Esthonian story, the young hero steals the horse from the +master (the devil, or the black monster of night) in whose service he +had engaged himself. When he comes to the place where the sun sets, he +bethinks himself of binding the horse with iron chains (the rope of +Yamas, or Varunas, the nocturnal coverer or binder, which binds the +Vedic hero Cunahcepas, the sun, he of the golden rod), in order that it +may not escape and go back again. This particular is very interesting, +as rendering the meaning of the myth more manifest. Seeing that the sun, +in the evening, does not return, it was supposed that the solar horse +had been bound by the hero himself, who had stolen it. + +In the European popular tales we sometimes have, instead of the hero +who carries off his master's horse, the hero himself, who escapes from +his master in the form of a horse, helped in his flight by the +daughter of his master, by the magician's or demon's daughter or black +maiden (who afterwards becomes beautiful and luminous). In the +Hungarian belief, the youngest of the witch's daughters (the aurora) +often assumes the form of the heroic horse of the Tatos. She becomes +Tatos when the hero, meeting her, strikes her on the forehead with the +bridle; then she carries him, in the shape of a horse, into the air. +In the Russian story,[650] the son of a merchant goes to be instructed +by a wise magician, who teaches him every kind of knowledge, and, +among the rest, what sheep say when they bleat, birds when they sing, +and horses when they neigh. At last the young man, having learned +every species of mischief, returns home and transforms himself into a +horse, in order that his father may sell him at the market and make +money; but he warns his father not to give up the bridle, that he may +not fall again into the hands of the magician. The father forgets, and +sells horse and bridle together. The magician attaches the horse by a +ring to an oak-tree; the black maiden (dievki cernavke), the sister of +the devil, gives the horse millet and hydromel; the horse thus gains +strength enough to break the chain which binds him to the tree, and +escapes. The devil follows him; the horse becomes a fish, and from a +fish a ring; the king's daughter buys the ring and puts it on her +finger; during the day it is a ring (the solar disc), and during the +night a handsome youth, who lies in the bed of the queen's daughter +(the hidden sun, or the moon, in the darkness of night). One day the +princess lets the ring fall on the ground, and it breaks into a +thousand pieces (the evening sun which falls upon the mountain); then +the devil becomes a cock, to pick up the pieces of the broken ring; +but a little piece falls under the princess's foot; this piece is +transformed into a falcon, which strangles and devours the cock. + +In the bridle which binds this hero who becomes a horse, I think I can +recognise the lasso with which Varunas keeps Cunahcepas bound in the +_Aitareya Br._ In the _Rigvedas_,[651] we have Suryas, the sun, as +Sauvacvyas, or son of Svacvyas, that is, of him who has fine horses; +but as, besides Svacvyas, we find Svacvas, he who has a fine horse, +the sun itself would seem to be this horse. The legend narrates that +Svacvas, having no children, requested the sun to give him some, and +that the sun, to please him, was himself born of him. Svacvas, he who +has a fine horse and has no sons, is perhaps the same as the old man +who has lost his son by selling the horse; when the sun returns his +son also comes back again. In the Vedic expressions, _without a horse, +born without a bridle, the sun_ (as a courser[652]), the hero would +seem to be indicated who has not as yet that horse or that bridle, +without which he is powerless; for the idea of the hero is rarely +unaccompanied by that of the horseman. + +For the horseman hero his horse is his all, and sometimes it even takes +the bit in its mouth, then the hero punishes it. We have already noticed +the well-known Hellenic myth of Phaethon, who is, with both the chariot +and the horses, precipitated into the waters, because the horses +threatened to set the earth on fire. This happens every day towards +evening, when the sun sets; the whole sky goes down, then the sun is +thrown down into the ocean of night; the course of the solar steeds is +interrupted, and the wheels of the chariot no longer turn. A similar +catastrophe is repeated on St John's Day, at the summer solstice, in +which the sun stops and begins to retire, for which reason the light of +day, from this time to Christmas, grows less and less. + +It is a custom on St John's Day, in Germany,[653] for hunters to fire +at the sun, believing that they will thereby become infallible +hunters. According to another popular German belief, he who, on St +John's Day, fires towards the sun is condemned ever after to hunt for +ever, like Odin, the eternal hunter; and both superstitions have their +reason. In the night, as well as in the period during which the +splendour of the sun diminishes, and especially in autumn, the gloomy +forest of heaven is filled with every kind of ferocious animal; the +sun enters this forest, becomes moon, and hunts the wild beasts in it +during the whole of the night, or of the year that is, until he is +born again. In the _Rigvedas_, where we have seven sister-mares yoked +to the sun-chariot,[654] Indras, to please his favourite, Etacas, +after having drunk the ambrosia, pushes the clouds that had fallen +behind before the flying steeds of the sun,[655] that is to say, he +prevents the solar hero, drawn by horses, either by the cloud in a +tempest, or by the darkness of night, from going on; and he even +strikes the wheels themselves of the solar chariot to arrest its +incendiary course. From these Vedic data it is easy to pass to the +Hellenic Phaethon, who is precipitated into the waters on account of +the horses. The hero killed on account of his horses is a frequent +subject of mythology, and the Greek name Hippolytos refers to this +kind of death. Hippolytos, the son of Theseus, fleeing from his +father, who supposes him guilty of incest with his step-mother Phedra, +is thrown from the chariot broken to pieces, when the horses that draw +it approach the sea and are terrified by marine monsters. This is a +variation of the legend of the young hero, persecuted by his +step-mother, who is thrown into the sea, with the novel and remarkable +accompaniment that it is his horses themselves which are the cause of +his death. The Christian legend of St Hippolytos has appropriated this +particular trait, representing the holy martyr, who was prefect under +the emperors Decius and Valerian, as dying, having been condemned to +be torn in pieces by horses. The poet Prudentius comments upon the +story in these two curious distichs, on the occasion of the Roman +judge pronouncing capital punishment against St Hippolytos-- + + "Ille supinata residens cervice, quis inquit + Dicitur? affirmant dicier Hippolytum. + Ergo sit Hippolytus; quatiat turbetque jugales + Intereatque feris dilaceratus equis." + +But the horses which draw the hero into the water are the same as +those that save him by carrying him over the deep, drawing the chariot +or ship on the sea towards the shore. The Acvinau do the same in the +_Rigvedas_, where they save from the waves both themselves and other +heroes upon their chariot, which is compared to a ship.[656] Hero and +horse always have the same fate. + +When the hero approaches, or when some fortunate incident is about to +happen to the hero, his horse neighs for joy. + +In the _Rigvedas_,[657] on the arrival of the god Indras, the horse +neighs, the cow lows, like a messenger between heaven and earth. The +neighing of this horse, and the lowing of this cow, are the thundering +of the sun in the cloud. By this neighing or lowing, man is informed +that the hero-god Indras is beginning his battles in heaven. Another +hymn, which calls the two horses of Indras two rays of the sun +(suryasya ketu), celebrates them as neighing and pouring out +ambrosia,[658] _i.e._, the sun makes rain fall from the clouds; when +he shows himself in the east at morn, his horse neighs and drops the +dew on the ground. + +Herodotus, and, after him, Oppianos and Valerius Maximus, relate the +mythical story of Darius Hystaspes, who unexpectedly succeeded to the +empire from having persuaded his colleagues to decree that he should +obtain the crown whose horse happened first to neigh at the sight of +the sun. It is narrated that when he came to the place, Darius, in +order to assure himself of success, made his horse smell the odour of +a mare.[659] Neighing is the laughter of the horse. We have seen, in +the preceding chapter, how the bull speaks and the fish laughs at +sight of coition; and so we have here, in the story of Darius, the +horse who neighs on account of the mare.--To return to the horse of +mythology; the solar horse neighs within the thundering-cloud which, +as a cow, the bull makes pregnant, and as a mare, the stallion, and +neighs at the approach of the aurora, who appears now as the driver of +a hundred chariots[660] (a round number, like the hundred thousand +horses which, in another hymn,[661] the god Indras drives; a favourite +number, like seven, which is applied to the same solar horses, solar +rays and Angirasas[662])--on which account it can be compared with the +Hellenic Aphrodite Hippodameia--now even as a real mare. The sun is +now a driver of horses, and now himself a horse; in the same way, the +aurora is now an Amazon horsewoman, now a driver of chariots, now +acvavati, and now a mare. When the sun approaches the aurora, or when +the horse approaches the mare, the horse neighs. We know how the +Acvinau considered themselves sons of the wife of the sun, Saranyu, +daughter of Tvashtar, who united herself to the sun in the form of a +mare. Whether this Saranyu be the cloud or the aurora, we have in her, +anyhow, a mare with which the sun, solar hero, or solar horse, unites +himself to produce the twin heroes, who are, for this reason, also +called the two sons of the mare.[663] We have already seen, in the +preceding chapter, a hero and a heroine who are hatched from eggs; of +the Dioscuri, we know that they were born of the egg of Leda; and the +mare's egg is the subject of a story in the _Ukermark_.[664] Greek +writers have handed down several cases of coition between men and +mares, and between horses and women, with corresponding births of +monstrous conformation. Now, unnatural as such births must appear to +us, they are, in mythology, in strict accordance with nature. In the +preceding chapter we saw the cow which leaps over the hare, and +explained this phenomenon by the cloud or darkness covering the moon, +and also by the earth covering the moon in eclipses. In Herodotus and +Valerius Maximus, a mare, in the time of Xerxes, gives birth to a +hare; and we must here understand the hare to be the moon, coming out +of the darkness or clouds; and when we read that the hare suffocated +the mare, we must understand it to mean the moon as dispersing the +darkness or clouds (perhaps also the sun or evening aurora). We must +have recourse in this way to the myth to comprehend the examples of +parturition without coition found in some Hindoo legends, and applied +to heroes, as well as the curious discussions and information which we +find in the ancients, from Aristotle, Varro, Pliny, Columella, +Solinus, and St Augustin, to Albertus Magnus and Aldrovandi, +concerning mares, and especially Spanish and Portuguese mares, made +pregnant by the wind (called by Oppianos[665] of the windy feet), and +which are also spoken of in the _Pentamerone_,[666] with less +decency, in reference to the myth of the maiden born of the tree. + +The horse of Ariosto, too, has a similar nature-- + + "Questo e il destrier che fu dell' Argalia + Che di fiamma e di vento era concetto + E senza fieno e biada si nutria + De l'aria pura e Rabican fu detto." + +The horse of Ciolle, in a Tuscan proverb, also feeds upon wind alone. + +The horse of Dardanos, son of Zeus, was also said to be born of the +wind, which brings us back to the Vedic Marutas, whose chariots have +horses for wings, and to the _volucer currus_ of the Diespiter of +Horace.[667] In the Sanskrit tongue, the expression _vatacvas_, or +wind-horse, is very common, to indicate a very swift-footed horse. + +No sooner is the horse Uccaihcravas born than he neighs; and like him, +in the _Mahabharatam_, the hero Acvatthaman laughs, the son of Dronas, +properly he who has strength in his horse, which is the same as the +hero-horse. + +Moreover, as the horse exults by neighing over the good fortune of the +hero who rides him, so he not only becomes sad, but sheds real tears +when his rider is about to meet with misfortune. + +When Ravanas, in the _Ramayanam_, comes forth in his chariot, to join +in final combat with Ramas, his coursers shed tears,[668] as a +sinister omen, Ravanas is the monster of darkness and clouds; when the +cloud begins to disperse, drops of rain fall, that is, the horses of +the monster weep. The treacherous sister who is confederate with the +monster against her brother, in Russian stories, is condemned by her +brother, who kills the monster, to fill a whole basin with her +tears.[669] These tears are also a legendary symbol of the rain which +falls when the solar hero has torn the cloud in two. + +Suetonius, in the Life of Caesar, writes that the horses consecrated by +Caesar to Mars, and then set at liberty after the passage of the +Rubicon, refused to eat, and wept abundantly.[670] Note that this +legend of the horses that weep is connected with the passage of water, +of the Rubicon (a river which no geographer has been able to identify +with certainty, probably because the legend of Caesar relating to it is +a fable of mythical origin. We know how mythical beliefs incline to +assume a human form, and are especially prone to group themselves +round the great personages of history--Cyrus, Alexander, Romulus, +Caesar, Augustus, Vespasian, Attila, Theodoric, and Charlemagne are +proofs of this; and perhaps a day will come in which Napoleon I. or +Garibaldi will offer a new _mannequin_ to some popular tradition, +which is now uncertain and wandering). Thus it is said that Caesar's +horse itself shed tears for three days before the hero's death. In the +_Iliad_,[671] the horses of Achilleus weep for the death of +Patroklos, whom Hektor has thrown from his chariot into the dust; in +the _Paraleipomenoi_ of Quintus Smyrneus,[672] the horses of Achilleus +weep bitterly for the death of their hero. This is a variety of the +legend of the horses which throw the solar hero down into the waters, +the ocean of night or the clouds, and of that of the horses of +Poseidon. The mists which after sunset in the evening impregnate the +air, and the diurnal or nocturnal rains, as well as the autumnal ones, +cause tears to fall upon the ground, or weep over the (apparent) death +of the solar hero. + +The dew of the morning, on the contrary, which comes from the mouth of +the solar horse like foam, or from its hoof as ambrosia and salutary +water, is fraught with every species of healthful influence. + +The horse and the bull of mythology are pourers out _par excellence_. In +a Vedic strophe--which seems in my eyes to be one of those riddles which +are recited in order to loosen the thread of the tongue--relative to the +two outpouring or fertilising horses of Indras, there is a continual +play kept up upon the root _varsh_ or _vrish_, which means at once to +pour out and to make fruitful,[673] and upon the letter _r_ which enters +into almost every word of the verse. Not only do the horses of Indras +pour out and make fruitful; the same virtue is attributed to the chariot +which they draw.[674] We have seen already that the horse of the +Acvinau is the killer of the monster serpent, and that the horse's head +Dadhyanc, he who goes in the milk or in the liquefied butter, and who is +found in a sea of milk, discomfits the enemies of Indras. A Vedic hymn +sings that, with the foam of the waters, Indras beats down the head of +the monster serpent.[675] In Tuscany, the whooping-cough is called the +horse-cough or asinine-cough,[676] and it is thought that the cough is +cured by giving the children to drink the foam from the horse's mouth, +or causing them to drink in the water where a horse has been drinking. +This is a remedy founded upon the principle _similia similibus_, the +foam being used against the convulsive cough, which, like all +convulsions in general, brings much saliva or foam to the mouth. The +credit, however, of this marvellous medicine is slightly compromised +when we read that the same foam is also very efficacious for ear-ache. +Pliny, Sextus Empiricus, and Marcellus, quoted by Aldrovandi,[677] also +recommend the saliva of a horse as a cure for cough, particularly in the +case of consumptive patients, adding that the sick person is cured in +three days, but that the horse dies; a superstition which must have had +its origin in the mythical horse who feeds on ambrosia, and who loses +his strength, and expires when his saliva, foam, ambrosia, or dew is +taken from him. It is well known that the Acvinau, besides being +luminous horsemen, were, as friends of men, also exceedingly skilful +physicians; nor could they be otherwise, having in their power the head +of Dadhyanc which is in the ambrosia, that is, whose foam is ambrosia. +The Dioscuri also frequently appear, in European legends, as unexpected +and miraculous deliverers. With this mythical belief of the horse that +produces ambrosia, is also connected the transformation, described by +Ovid in the second book of the _Metamorphoses_, of Ocyroe into a mare, +because she had predicted that AEsculapius would save men from death by +the medical art. It is a well-known fact that AEsculapius was revered +near fountains whose waters were supposed to have salutary effects, and +that he was protected by the sun-god Apollo; and the two physicians, +sons of Asklepios or AEsculapius, seem to be nothing more than a specific +form of the Dioscuri. + +But the solar horse does not produce ambrosia with his mouth alone. + +He has great strength in his hoofs (whence Isidorus and other mediaeval +etymologists derived the name _caballus_, thus, "Quod ungula terram +cavet"[678]), and makes use of them in the myth, and in the legend, +not only to combat the enemies, but also to break open the earth, and +cause ambrosial fountains to spring out of it. Sometimes ambrosia +pours out of the hoof of the horse itself. In the _Rigvedas_,[679] the +horses of Agnis are said to have hands (_i.e._, hoofs of the +fore-feet) that pour out; and the horse given by the Acvinau to the +hero protected by them (that is, to the solar horse, to the morning +sun), with his strong hoof fills a hundred jars with inebriating +liquor.[680] It is not necessary for me to instance here the famous +fountain of the horse, or Hippokrene, which Bellerophon's horse +Pegasos caused to spring out of the earth by breaking the soil with +his hoof (called also for this reason _Pegasia krene_). In Latin +tradition, the horse's hoof was worshipped on a spot near Lake +Regillus, where it is said that the Dioscuri had appeared.[681] In a +Russian story,[682] when Johnny (Ivanushka) sees a horse's hoof, he is +sorely tempted to drink out of it, but is dissuaded by his sister. He +experiences the same temptation upon seeing a bull's hoof, and +afterwards that of a kid. At last he gives way, drinks from the kid's +hoof, and is himself transformed into a kid. In the footprint of a +horse's hoof, in other stories, the ant is in danger of being drowned; +saved by a man, it is ever afterwards grateful to him.[683] + +Several myths which we have already noticed in the preceding chapter +as applied to the bull, occur again in connection with the horse; as, +for instance, the birds which come out of the horse; the hero who +takes the horse's skin off, seizing it by the tail in order to make a +sack of it; the swift horse of Adrastus, which runs after the tortoise +(a Greek proverb);[684] the lunar horse, and the solar one. These +exchanges between moon and sun, and between bull and horse, are +happily indicated by the Latin poet, Fulgentius:-- + + "Jam Phoebus disjungit equos, jam Cynthia jungit, + Quasque soror liquit, frater pede temperat undas: + Tum nox stellato coelum circumlita peplo + Coerula rorigenis pigrescere jusserat alis + Astrigeroque nitens diademate luna bicornis + Bullarum bijugis conscenderat aequora tauris." + +The gods had often a liking to transform themselves into horses; so much +so, that the sacrifice of the god, that is, the god's death, is +represented by the death of the horse. Every one knows that gods and +heroes delighted in showing themselves good horsemen, or, at least, good +charioteers. On this account, it would be difficult to say to which god +in particular the horse is sacred. The Vedic Acvinau, the Vedic aurora, +who wins the race in her chariot, Agnis, Savitar, Indras, victorious and +splendid by means of their steeds, the hippios Poseidon, the hippeia +Athene, the hippodameia Aphrodite, the horsemen Dioscuri, Mars, Apollo, +Zeus, Pluto, and the German Wuotan (like his _alter ego_, St Zacchaeus), +never show themselves otherwise than on horseback; hence the horse was +naturally sacred to all of them. In the Christian faith, the innumerable +gods of the ancients having become innumerable saints (when they were +not so unfortunate as to degenerate into devils), the horse is now +recommended in its stable to the protection of several saints, from the +obscure Sicilian St Aloi to the no less modest Russians St Froh and St +Laver, who take the horse, as well as the mule and the ass, under their +especial protection, not to speak of the glorious horsemen St George, St +Michael, St James, St Maurice, St Stephen, St Vladimir, and St Martin, +especially revered by warriors, and in whose honour the principal orders +of knighthood in Europe were founded. But religions being, from one +point of view, the caricature of mythologies, there is now some +difference between the mythical old deities and the legendary new ones, +inasmuch as the former would at times ingenuously accept the homage of +the animal in effigy, as we have observed in the preceding chapter; +while the latter, and they who purvey to them upon earth, not being +quite so simple, never leave their devotee in peace until they have +received, at sight and without discount, the full value of their +favours. In the Life of San Gallo, we read that, in the times of King +Pepin (we already know what these times mean), a certain Willimar, being +ill, promised, if cured, to offer a horse to the Church of San Gallo. +Having recovered his health, he forgot his promise; but passing one day +before the church of the saint, his horse stopped before the gate, and +by no possibility could it be induced to-move on, until Willimar had at +last declared his intention of fulfilling his vow. In the Life of St +Martin, there is a rather gayer variation of the same anecdote. King +Clodoveus, after having become a Christian, when fighting against the +Visigoths, promises his own horse to St Martin, if he grants the victory +to him. Having obtained it, Clodoveus regrets being obliged to deprive +himself of his good charger, and beseeches St Martin to be kind enough +to take money instead, offering him a hundred pieces of gold. St Martin +thinks the sum insufficient, and asks for double, which Clodoveus gives; +but, inasmuch as a little heretic blood still runs in his veins, he +cannot refrain from aiming a pointed witticism at him: "Martinus, +quantum video, auxiliator est facilis, sed mercator difficilis!"[685] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[526] The word _atyas_ has the same meaning. + +[527] Yungantv asya kamya hari vipakshasa rathe cona dhrishnu +nrivahasa; _Rigv._ i. 6, 2. + +[528] Vacoyugau; _Rigv._ i. 7, 2. + +[529] Yukshva hi kecina hari vrishana kakshyapra; _Rigv._ i. 10, 3. + +[530] Suracakshasah; _Rigv._ i. 16, 1. + +[531] Indraya vacoyuga tatakshur manasa hari; _Rigv._ i. 20, 2. + +[532] Saudhanvana acvad acvam atakshata; _Rigv._ i. 161, 7. + +[533] Vi ganan chyavah citipado akhyan ratham hiranyapraugam vahantah; +_Rigv._ i. 33, 5. + +[534] Indro vanku vankutaradhi tishthati; _Rigv._ i. 5, 11. + +[535] Yukshva madacyuta hari; _Rigv._ i. 81, 3. + +[536] Vam acvina manaso gaviyan rathah svacvah; _Rigv._ i. 117, 2. + +[537] A tva yachantu harito na suryam aha vicveva suryam; _Rigv._ i. +130, 2. + +[538] Hari suryasya ketu; _Rigv._ ii. 11, 6. + +[539] Ghritaccutam svaram asvarshtam; _Rigv._ ii. 11, 7. + +[540] Pra ye dvita diva ringanty atah susammrishtaso vrishabhasya +murah; _Rigv._ iii. 43, 6. + +[541] Indra haribhir yahi mayuraromabhih; _Rigv._ iii. 45. 1. + +[542] Sholha yuktah panca-panca vahanti; _Rigv._ iii. 55, 18. + +[543] Patatribhir acramair avyatibhir dansanabhih; _Rigv._ vii. 69, 7. +The Acvinau also are called dravatpani (swift-hoofed); _Rigv._ i. 3, 1. + +[544] Acvatari--rathenagnir agimadhavattasam pragamano +yonimakulayattasmatta na vigayante. Gobhirarunairusha +agimadhavattasmadushasyagatayamarunamivaeva +prabhatyushasorupamacvarathenendra agimadhavattasmatsa uccairghosha +upabdimankshatrasya rupamaindro hi sa gadarbharathenacvina +udagayatamacvinavacnuvatam; _Ait. Br._ iv. 2, 9. + +[545] Tvashtri tu savitur bharya vadavarupadharini asuyata mahabhaga +sa 'ntarikshe 'cvinavubhau; _Mbh._ i. 2599. + +[546] _Il._ x. 352. + +[547] In the Monferrato, according to the information kindly given me, +concerning the beliefs relative to animals current in this country, by +Dr Giuseppe Ferraro, the young collector of the popular songs and +stories of the Monferrato, it is believed that the horse's teeth hung +upon the necks of infants at the breast cause them to cut their teeth, +and that the two incisors of the horse, when worn, are a spell to +charm away every evil. + +[548] _Mbh._ i. 1093-1237. + +[549] Cfr. the first of the Tuscan stories of _Santo Stefano di +Calcinaia_.--In the preceding chapter, we have seen how the apples of a +certain apple-tree cause horns to grow on whoever eats them. In an +unpublished Italian story, instead of the apple-tree, we have the +fig-tree, and instead of horns, the tail. It is narrated by an old man +of Osimo, in the Marches:--Three poor brothers, having but little +inclination for work, go in search of fortune round the world. Overtaken +in the country by night, they fall asleep in the open air. A fairy, +under the aspect of a hideous old woman, comes up and wakens them, +offering herself as their wife. The three brothers excuse themselves, +and declare that they wish for nothing except a little money with which +to make merry. The fairy answers, "Tell me what you wish for, and you +shall have it." The first asks for a purse, which shall always be full +of money; the second for a whistle, by blowing into which a whole army +of brave combatants would be summoned to his side; the third a mantle, +which would make its wearer invisible. The fairy satisfies them, and +then disappears in flames, like the devil. The eldest brother, Stephen, +goes with his purse into Portugal, where he plays and loses, but still +remains rich. This comes to the queen-dowager's ears, who wishes to see +the stranger, hoping to possess herself of his secret; she feigns to +love him, and the wedding-day is fixed; but before it comes she has +already gained his confidence, and taking the purse from him, she orders +him to be flogged. Stephen returns to his brothers, relates his +grievance, and proposing to revenge himself upon the queen, induces them +to lend him the whistle, which calls armies into existence. The queen +softens towards him, protesting that she expected to the last that he +would have appeared on the day appointed for the wedding, and that he +had been flogged without her knowledge. Stephen gives way, and the +whistle passes out of his hands into those of the queen. He is flogged +again, but twice as severely as before. Again he has recourse to his +brothers; he implores, supplicates, and promises to get everything back +by the miraculous mantle; but having obtained it, he allows himself to +be deceived once more by the queen. Deprived of everything, he wanders +about in despair, reduced to beggary. In the middle of January, he sees +a tree covered with beautiful figs; desirous of them, he eats with +avidity; but for every fig that he swallows, a span of tail as thick as +a boa grows on to him. He goes on his way, still more desperate, till he +finds more figs, of a smaller size; he eats them, and the tail +disappears. Contented with this discovery, he fills a basket with the +first figs, and disguised as a countryman, comes to the palace of the +Queen of Portugal. Every one marvels on seeing such fine figs in +January. The queen buys the basket, and every one eats; but tails +immediately grow on their backs. Stephen then dresses himself as a +doctor, and with the little figs, cures many persons. The queen has him +called; he obliges her to confess to him first, and in the confession +makes her say where the three marvellous gifts of the fairy are kept. +Having recovered them, he leaves the queen with ten spans of tail, and +returns rich and happy to his brothers. In this story there must be some +parts wanting; it is probable that the fairy warned the brothers not to +discover their secret to any one. The last enterprise, moreover, is more +likely to have been undertaken by the third brother, who always assumes +in fairy tales the part of the cunning one, than by the first-born, who +in this story represents the part of the fool.--Polydorus speaks of the +horse's tail as a chastisement for an insult to Thomas Archbishop of +Canterbury, in the thirteenth book of his _Hist. Angl._:--"Irridentes +Archiepiscopum, caudam equi cui insidebat, amputarunt. At postea nutu +Dei ita accidit, ut omnes ex eo hominum genere qui id facinus fecissent, +nati sunt instar brutorum caudati." + +[550] Hiranyakarnam manigrivam arnas; _Rigv._ i. 122, 14. + +[551] _Iliou Halosis_, 65-72. + +[552] In the before-quoted collection of Radloff, _Taektaebaei Maergaen_. + +[553] + + Longa solitos caligine pasci + Terruit orbis equos; pressis haesere lupatis + Attoniti meliore polo; rursusque verendum + In chaos obliquo pugnant temone reverti. + Claudianus, _De Raptu Proserpinae_, ii. 193. + +[554] _Phainomena_, 215. + +[555] _Mbh._ i. 1470, 1471. + +[556] Quelli cavalli che sono de pilo morello se fanno de humore +colerico impero che e piu caldo humore et sicco che non e lo sangue et +per questo produce ad nigredine el pelo. _I tre Libri della Natura Dei +Cavalli et del Modo di medicar le Loro Infermita_, composti da Maestro +Agostino Columbre; _Prologo._ 6, Vinegia, 1547. + +[557] + + Hippomanes phueton esti par Arkasi toi d'epi pasai + Kai poloi mainontai an orea, kai thoai hippoi; ii. 48. + +[558] Devennosi corrigere et emendare quelli li quali se posseno dire +heretici, impero che voleno dire che quelle tal bestie che portano li +crini advolte et atrezate; et con loro poco cognoscimento dicono che +sono le streghe che li cavalcano et chiamanli cavalli stregari;" +_Prologo._ 10, the work quoted before.--Cfr. on the Damavoi, Ralston, +_The Songs of the Russian People_, p. 120, 139. + +[559] + + Hippous melainas ou kalon pantos blepein + Hippon de leukon opsis, aggelon phasis. + +In Tuscany, flying horses, when seen in dreams, announce news; no +doubt, this flying horse seen in dreams can only refer to the +nocturnal voyage of the solar horse. + +[560] Cfr. Menzel, _Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre_, +Leipzig, 1870. + +[561] The Hungarians call the bier of the dead St Michael's horse; +Neo-Greek popular songs represent the ferryman of the dead, Charon, on +horseback; in Switzerland, the sight of a horse is a harbinger of +approaching death for a person seriously ill.--Cfr. Rochholtz, +_Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_, i. 163, 164. + +[562] _Afanassieff_, v. 37. + +[563] _Ib._ v. 54. + +[564] _Afanassieff_, i. 6. + +[565] _Ib._ ii. 25.--Cfr. iii. 5, iv. 27. + +[566] _Afanassieff_, ii. 28. + +[567] _Ib._ iv. 41.--In the twenty-first story of _Erlenwein_, the +poor brother obtains wealth by means of a mare's head, while the rich +brother, on the other hand, becomes poor.--In _Af._ v. 21, the +dwarf-boy, who possesses great strength, enters into the ear of one of +the two horses when in the act of ploughing; upon which they plough of +their own accord, and the old father of the dwarf is at liberty to +rest.--In the sixth Calmuck story, the head of the dead horse, when +fallen from the tree, brings riches and good luck to him who lets it +fall, who finds under it a golden cup: this is a form of the ambrosia +which comes out of the horse's head, which we shall find farther on. + +[568] The Russian text seems to me of too much importance, in the +history of myths, not to deserve to be recorded here: "Iediet apiat +vsadnik: sam cornoi, adiet va vsiem cornom; na cornom kanie; padskakal +k varotam babijaghi i is-cesz, kak skvosz szemlin pravalilsia; nastala +noc." + +[569] Idiot ana i draszit. Vdrug skacet mimo ieja vsadnik sam bieloi, +adiet v bielom, kon pod nim bieloi, i sbruja na kanie bielaja; na dvarie +stalo raszvietat. Idiot ana dalshe, kak skacet drugoi vsadnik; sam +krasnoi, adiet v krasnom i na krasnom kanie; stalo vshodit solntze. + +[570] Yah paurusheyena kravisha samankte yo acvyena pacuna yatudhanah +yo aghnyaya bharati kshiram agne teshain cirshani harasapi vricca; +_Rigv._ x. 87, 16.--Cfr. the dragon that torments the horses in the +_Tuti-Name_ of Rosen, ii. 300. + +[571] Tad agne cakshuh prati dhehi rebhe capharugam yena pacyasi +yatudhanam; _Rigv._ x. 87, 12.--The demon Hayagrivas killed by Vishnus, +which is the same as horse's neck, and Hayaciras, or horse's head, +another monster giant in the _Ramayanam_, iv. 43, 44, always refer to +the Vedic acva-yatudhanas. We are already acquainted with the demon who, +during the night, makes the horses sweat and grow lean, _i.e._, who +makes them ugly. In the Latin tradition, after having assisted the +Romans in the battle of the Lake Regillus, Castor and Pollux were seen, +near the ambrosial lacus Iuturnae (Ovidius, _Fasti_, i.), to wash the +sweat off their horses with the water of this lake, which was near the +temple of Vesta. To this Macaulay alludes in his verses-- + + "And washed their horses in the well + That springs by Vesta's fane." + --_Battle of the Lake Regillus_, xxxix. + +The salutary water of the Dioscuri, or sons of the luminous one, would +here occupy the place of the fire lighted by night in stables, and of +the Vedic Agnis who kills the monster of horses. My friend Giuseppe +Pitre writes me, that in Sicily, when an ass, a mule, or a horse is to +enter a new stable, salt is put upon its back (a form of Christian +baptism), in order that the fairies may not lame it.--The Kuellaros, +the heroic horse of the Dioscuri, is perhaps not unrelated to the word +_kuellos_, which means lame and bent; the solar horse, before being +heroic, is hump-backed, lame, lean, and ugly; the lame hero, the lame +horse (ass or mule), the lame devil, seem to me to be three _penumbrae_ +of the solar hero, or of the sun in the darkness. + +[572] Vibhir uhathur rigrebhir acvaih; _Rigv._ i. 117, 14.--Cfr. vii. +69, 7. + +[573] Acvain na gulham acvina durevair rishim nara vrishana rebham +apsu; _Rigv._ i. 117, 4.--The Acvinau pass the sea upon a chariot, +which resembles a ship; this chariot is said to have the sun for a +covering--rathena suryatvaca; _Rigv._ i. 47, 9. + +[574] Yam acvina dadathuh cvetam acvam aghacvaya cacvad it svasti; +_Rigv._ i. 116, 6. + +[575] Agnis tuvicravastamain tuvibrahmanam uttamam aturtam cravayatpatim +putram dadati dacushe--Agnir dadati satpatim sasaha yo yudha nribhih +agnir atyam raghushyadam getaram aparagitam; _Rigv._ v. 25, 5, 6. + +[576] _Rigv._ i. 155, 6. + +[577] i. 154, 4. + +[578] Vishnor nu kam viryani pra vocam yah parthivani vimame ragansi +yo askabhayad uttaram sadhastham vicakramanas tredhorugayah; _Rigv._ +i. 154, 1. + +[579] Yada te vishnur ogasa trini pada vicakram ad it te haryata hari +vavakshatuh; _Rigv._ viii. 12, 27. + +[580] _Ramay._ iv. 40. + +[581] Yuktas te astu dakshina uta savyah catakrato tena gayam upa +priyam mandano yahy andhaso yoga; _Rigv._ i. 82, 5. + +[582] Tad u shu vam agiram ceti yanain yena pati bhavathah suryayah; +_Rigv._ iv. 43, 6.--In the following hymn, strophe 1st, the aurora is +called now daughter of the sun, now cow: Tam vam ratham vayam adya +huvema prithugrayam acvina samgatim goh--Tah suryam vahati. + +[583] Rathasya naptyah; _Rigv._ i. 50. 9. + +[584] _Rigv._ i. 116, 10. + +[585] vi. 9. + +[586] The lake of Brahman, visited by Hanumant in the _Ramayanam_, vi. +53, has the form of a horse's snout (hayananam). + +[587] Indro dadhico asthabhir vritrany apratishkutah gaghana navatir +nava; _Rigv._ i. 84, 13, 14, i. 117, 22, and the corresponding +commentary of Sayanas.--The bones of the heroic horse possess strength +equal to that of the horse itself; thus in the last chapter we have +seen how, when the bones of the sacrificed bull or cow are kept, it +springs up again with renewed strength.--Cfr. concerning this subject +the interesting and copious details relating to European beliefs to be +found in Rochholtz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_, i. 219-253. + +[588] ii. 24. + +[589] Divo napata; _Rigv._ i. 182, 1. + +[590] As to the Vedic passage, v. 76, 3, where it would seem that the +Acvinau are invoked in the morning, at midday, and in the evening, +there seems to me to be room for discussion. The text says: Uta yatam +sangave pratar ahno (that is, in the early dawn, when the cows are +gathered together), madhyandine (which, in my mind, is the middle term +which separates the gloomy hours from the luminous ones), udita +suryasya (which, meaning the rising of the sun, cannot express +evening, but precisely the rising of the morning sun). We too would +have thus expressed the three moments in the morning in which it was +opportune to invoke the Acvinau. + +[591] Sushupvansam na nirriter upasthe suryam na dasra tamasi +kshiyantam cubhe rukmam na darcatam nikhatam ud upathur acvina +vandanaya; _Rigv._ i. 117, 5. + +[592] Madhuprishtham ghoram ayasam acvam; _Rigv._ ix. 89, 4. + +[593] _Rigv._ viii. 104, 15-25. + +[594] Quoted in Muir's _Sanskrit Texts_, v. 264.--Somas united with +Agnis in the _Rigvedas_, Somas united with Rudras, seem, in my opinion, +to be the same as Somas united with Indras.--Cfr. Muir, v. 269, 270. + +[595] xii. 1, quoted by Muir in his _Sanskrit Texts_, v. 224. + +[596] In the _Edda_ we find the Acvinau under the forms of night and +day. Odin took Natt and Dag her son, gave them two horses and two +drays, and placed them in the heavens to go round the earth in +twenty-four hours. Natt was the first to advance with Hrimfaxe, her +horse; he scatters every morning the foam from his bit upon the earth; +it is the dew. The horse of Dag is named Skenfaxe; the air and the +earth are illumined by his mane. + +[597] A vam patitvam sakhyaya gagmushi yoshavrinita genya yuvam pati; +_Rigv._ i. 119, 5. + +[598] Cfr. the legends relating to Cyavanas cured by the Acvinau in +the _Catapatha Brahmanam_ and in the _Mahabharatam_, referred to by +Muir in the above-quoted fifth volume of the _Sanskrit Texts_, p. 250, +and those following. + +[599] In the _Rigv._ i. 8, 2, also, the invokers of Indras desire to +fight the enemies, the monsters Mushtihatyaya and Arvata, by fist and +by horses. + +[600] _Mbh._ i. 6484-6504. + +[601] _Ramay._ i. 49, ii. 7. + +[602] iv. 12. + +[603] iv. 7, 17. + +[604] iv. 8. + +[605] iv. 10. + +[606] _Ramay._ iv. 8. + +[607] The Persian hero often takes his name from his horse or his +horses; hence Kerecacpa, Vistacpa, Argacp, Gustacp, Yapacp, +Purushacpa, Acpayaodha, &c. + +[608] Cfr. Spiegel's _Avesta_, ii. 72.--In the Servian stories of +Wuck, one of two brothers sleeps, transformed into stone with all his +people, until the other comes to free and resuscitate him. + +[609] i. 91, and following, Rosen's version. + +[610] ii. 20, and following. + +[611] ii. 157. + +[612] _Tuti-Name_, i. 151. + +[613] Cfr. a zoological variety of this myth in the chapter on the +Cock and the Hen. + +[614] This is a variety of the legend of the Tzar's daughter enamoured +of Emilius, the foolish and idle, though fortunate, youth, whom the +indignant Tzar orders to be shut up in a cask and thrown with her +lover into the sea, as we have seen in the first chapter. + +[615] iv. 24. + +[616] We shall shortly find the hare (the moon) who devours the mare. + +[617] i. 53. + +[618] U kavo preszde svieca sama saboi zagaritsia, tot tzar budiet. + +[619] Tzelija kuci zolota v anbarah nasipani; cto ni pluniet on, to +vsie zolotom; dievat niekuda! + +[620] It will, I hope, be deemed not inappropriate to quote here the +words with which Professor Roth begins his essay upon the legend of +Cunahcepas in the first volume of the _Indische Studien_: "Die Deutung +der indischen Sagengeschichte sucht noch die Regeln, nach welchen die +das ueberlieferte verworrene Material behanden soll. Eine und dieselbe +Sage wird vielleicht in zehn verschiedenen Buechern in zehnfacher Form +erzaehlt. Glaubt man einen festen Punkt gefunden zu haben, auf welchen +nach einem Berichte die Spitze der Erzaehlung zusammenlaeuft, so streben +andere Berichte wieder nach ganz anderem Ziele und treiben denjenigen, +der einen festen Kern der Sage fassen will, rathlos im Kreise herum. Die +Widersprueche, mit welchen ein Sammler und Ordner griechischer +Heldensagen zu kaempfen hat, sind lauter Einklang und Klarheit im +Vergleiche zu dem wirren Knaeuel, in welchen die Willkuehr indischer +Poeten die reichen Ueberlieferungen ihrer Vorzeit zusammengeballt hat." + +[621] ix. 37, 3.--I observe that the same craft as that used by the +two brothers to steal the treasure, in an as yet unpublished fairy +tale of the Canavese in Piedmont, was employed by the inexperienced +robber, who becomes at length very skilful to rob the loaves from the +baker's oven. The Piedmontese thief makes an opening from without, and +thus carries the bread off. The same thief then steals the king's +horse. At first, he learns his profession from the chief of the +robbers. The chief sends him the first time to waylay some travellers, +and bids him leap upon them; the young thief obeys these directions to +the letter; he makes the travellers lie down and then jumps upon them, +but does not rob them. The second time the chief tells him to take the +travellers' quattrini (the name of a very small coin, by which money +in general is also expressed). The young thief takes the quattrini +alone, and lets the travellers keep their dollars and napoleons. At +last, however, he becomes an accomplished thief. + +[622] Cfr. in the same _Pentamerone_, the ninth story of the first +book; the eighteenth of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_; +the thirty-ninth of the Sicilian stories of the _Gonzenbach_; the +sixtieth and the eighty-fifth story of Grimm's collection, _Kinder und +Hausmaerchen_; the tenth of Kuhn and Schwartz's _Maerchen_; the +twenty-second of the Greek stories of Hahn, _Griechische und +Albanesische Maerchen_; the fourth of Campbell's in _Orient und +Occident_; the first book of the _Pancatantram_, and the twelfth story +of the fifth book of the same; and Cox, the work quoted before, i. +141, 142, 161, 281, 393, &c. + +[623] In the _Pentamerone_, i. 9, the queen's son does the same with +the wife of his twin-brother; "Mese la spata arrancata comme staccione +'miego ad isso ed a Fenizia." + +[624] In the corresponding collections of Ferraro, Bolza, and +Wolf.--Cfr. the end of the twenty-eighth of the _Novelline di Santo +Stefano di Calcinaia_. + +[625] i. 807 and following. + +[626] iv. 4. + +[627] i. 41-43. + +[628] _Ramay._ i. 13. + +[629] i. 13. + +[630] In the Western stories, instead of the horse's fat or marrow, it +is generally the fish eaten by the queen and her servant-maid which +gives life to the two brothers, who become three when the water in +which the fish was washed is given to be drunk by the mare or the +bitch, whence the son of the mare or bitch is born. I have already +attempted to prove the identity of the fish with the phallos; the fish +eaten by the queen, the maid, the mare, or the bitch, which renders +them pregnant, seems to me a symbol of coition. The horse's fat or +marrow smelled by the queen seems to have the same meaning. + +[631] Vagino devagatasya sapteh pravakshyamo vidathe viryani; _Rigv._ +i. 162, 1.--Surad acvam vasavo nir atashta; _Rigv._ i. 163, 2. + +[632] Sadhur na gridhnuh; _Rigv._ i. 70, 11. + +[633] Vikrocatam nado bhutanam salilaukasam cruyate bhricamarttanam +vicatam vadavamukham; _Ramay._ iv. 40.--Aurvas, who, in the shape of a +horse's head, swallows the water of the sea and vomits flames, is a +variety of the same solar myth; _Mbh._ i. 6802, and following verses. + +[634] Hiranyacringo yo asya pada manogava; _Rigv._ i. 163, 9.--Tava +cringani vishthita purutr aranyeshu garbhurana caranti. 11.--We find +the stag in relation with the horse, as his stronger rival until man +mounts upon the horse's back, in the well-known apologue of Horace, +_Epist._ i. 10. + + "Cervus equum pugna melior communibus herbis + Pellebat, donec minor in certamine longo + Imploravit opes hominis, frenumque recepit; + Sed postquam victor discessit ab hoste, + Non equitem dorso, non frenum depulit ore." + +[635] Vriksho nishthito madhye arnaso yam taugryo nadhitah +paryashasvagat; _Rigv._ i. 182, 7. + +[636] _Afanassieff_, v. 11. + +[637] Apa yor indrah papaga a marto na cacramano bibhivan cubhe yad +yuyuge tavishivan; _Rigv._ x. 105, 3. + +[638] Iasya samsthe na vrinvate hari samatsu catravah; _Rigv._ i. 5, 4. + +[639] Acvyo varo abhavas tad indra; _Rigv._ i. 32, 12; and the Hindoo +commentator notes that Indras chased the enemy as the tail of a horse +shakes off the insects that place themselves upon it, which it is much +more natural to believe of the tail of Indras's horse, which is +covered with milk, butter, honey, and ambrosia. + +[640] _Rigv._, the hymn quoted before, i. 84, 13, 14; Agnis, too, is +honoured as a tailed horse (varavantam acvam), _Rigv._ i. 27, 1. + +[641] Rigipyam cyenam prushitapsum acum carkrityam aryo nripatim na +curam--vatam iva dhragantam--uta smasya tanyator iva dyor righayato +abhiyugo bhayante yada sahasram abhi shim ayodhid durvartuh sma +bhavati bhima ringan; _Rigv._ iv. 38, 2, 3, 8. + +[642] Avakramantah prapadair amitran; _Rigv._ vi. 75, 7. + +[643] vi. 49. + +[644] Cfr. Simrock, _Handbuch der Deutschen Mythologie_, p. 375, and +Rochholtz, the work quoted before. + +[645] _Afanassieff_, ii. 24. + +[646] _Ib._ v. 6. + +[647] _Ib._ v. 35. + +[648] Povishe liessu stajacavo, ponisze ablaka hadiacavo. + +[649] For instance, in the _Pentamerone_, iii. 7, where the king of +Scotland sends Corvetto to steal the horse of the ogre who lives ten +miles distant from Scotland: "Haveva st' Huorco no bellissimo cavallo, +che pareva fatto co lo penniello, e tra le autre bellizze no le +mancava manco la parola." When Corvetto carries off the horse, it +cries out, "A l'erta ca Corvetto me ne porta."--Cfr. also the +_Pentamerone_, iii. 1.--Not only has the horse the gift of speech, but +the chariot too: in the seventh book of the _Ramayanam_, 44, the +chariot Pushpakam speaks to Ramas, and says to him that he alone is +worthy of driving it. + +[650] _Afanassieff_, vi. 46.--Cfr. also v. 22, and the 26th of the +_Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_. + +[651] i. 61, 15. + +[652] Anacvo gato anabhicur arva; _Rigv._ i. 152, 5. + +[653] Cfr. Menzel, _Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre_. + +[654] Sapta svasarah suvitaya suryam vahanti harito rathe; _Rigv._ +vii. 66, 15. + +[655] Adha kratva maghavan tubhyam deva anu vicve adaduh somapeyam yat +suryasya haritah patantih purah satir upara etace kah; _Rigv._ v. 29, 5. + +[656] A no nava matinam yatam paraya gantave, yungatham acvina ratham; +_Rigv._ i. 46, 7. + +[657] Krandad acvo nayamano ruvad gaur antar duto na rodasi carad vak; +_Rigv._ i. 173, 3. + +[658] Ghritaccutam svaram asvarshtam; _Rigv._ ii. 11, 7. + +[659] ... in equae genitalem partem demissam manum, cum ad eum locum +ventum esset, naribus equi admovit, quo odore irritatus ante omnes +hinnitum edidit, auditoque eo sex reliqui summae potestatis continuo +equis dilapsi candidati, ut mos est Persarum, humi prostratis +corporibus Darium regem salutarunt; Valerius Maximus, _Mem._ vii.; +_Herodotus_, iii. 87. Herodotus also refers to another variation of +the same anecdote, where he adds, that at the first dawn of day it +lightninged and thundered. + +[660] Devi gira rathanam; _Rigv._ i. 48, 3.--Catam rathebhih +subhagosha iyam vi yaty abhi manushan; i. 48, 7. + +[661] Upa tmani dadhano dhury acunt sahasrani catani vagrabahuh; +_Rigv._ iv. 29, 4. + +[662] Cfr. _Rigv._ iv. 3, 11; iv. 13, 3. + +[663] Cfr. Boehtling u. Roth, _Sanskrit Woerterbuch_, s. v. _acvin_. + +[664] Kuhn u. Schwartz, p. 330.--The English proverbial expression, "a +mare's nest," now used to denote an impossibility, probably originally +referred to a real myth. + +[665] _Kuenegetikon_, i. 284. + +[666] ii. 3.--"Allecordatose d'haver 'ntiso na vota da certe +stodiante, che le cavalle de Spagna se'mprenano co lo viento;" and the +story goes on to speak of the ogre's surprise, who, seeing a beautiful +maiden in his garden, "penzaie che lo shiavro de lo pideto, havesse +'ngravedato quarche arvolo, e ne fosse sciuta sta penta criatura; +perzo abbracciatala co gran'ammore, decette, figlia mia, parte de sto +cuorpo, shiato de lo spireto mio, e chi me l' havesse ditto mai, che +co na ventosetate, havesse dato forma a ssa bella facce?" Varro +seriously wrote: "In faetura res incredibilis est in Hispania, sed est +vera, quod in Lusitania ad Oceanum in ea regione, ubi est oppidum +Olyssipo monte Tagro, quaedam e vento concipiunt equae, ut hic gallinae +solent, quarum ova hypanemia appellant, sed ex his equis qui nati +pulli, non plus triennium vivunt." + +[667] Rathebhir acvaparnaih; _Rigv._ i. 88, 1.--In Horace, _Carm._ i. +14-- + + "Namque Diespiter, + Igni corusco nubila dividens, + Plerumque per purum tonantes + Egit equos, volucremque currum." + +[668] Acruni casya mumucurvaginah; _Ramay._ vi. 75. + +[669] In the corresponding Italian stories, the hero or heroine, +punished for some indiscretion, must, before being pardoned, wear out +seven pairs of iron shoes, and fill seven flasks with their tears. + +[670] Proximus diebus equorum greges, quos in trajiciendo Rubicon +Marti consacraverat, ac sine custodibus vagos dimiserat, comperit +pabulo pertinacissime abstinere, ubertimque flere. + +[671] xvii. 426. + +[672] iii. 740. + +[673] Vrisha tva vrishanam vardhatu dyaur vrisha vrishabhyam vahase +haribhyam sa no vrisha vrisharathah sucipra vrishakrato vrisha vagrin +bhare dhah; _Rigv._ v. 36, 5.--In Piedmont there exists a game of +conversation, consisting in the description of the presents which one +intends making to one's bride, in which description the letter _r_ +must never enter; he who introduces it loses the game. + +[674] Vrishayam indra te ratha uto te vrishana hari; _Rigv._ viii. 13, +31. + +[675] Apam phenena namuceh cira indrod avartayah; _Rigv._ viii. 14, 13. + +[676] It is also called the canine cough, and it is believed on this +account that it is cured when the children are made to drink where a +dog has been drinking. + +[677] _De Quadrupedibus_ i. + +[678] Du Cange, _Gloss. Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis_, s. v. _caballus_. + +[679] Vrshapanayo 'cvah; _Rigv._ vi. 75, 7. + +[680] Karotarac chaphad acvasya vrishnah catam kumbhan asincatam +surayah; _Rigv._ i. 116, 7. + +[681] "One spot on the margin of Lake Regillus was for many ages +regarded with superstitious awe. A mark, resembling in shape a horse's +hoof, was discernible in the volcanic rock; and this mark was believed +to have been made by one of the celestial chargers."--Macaulay, +Preface to the _Battle of the Lake Regillus_. + +[682] _Afanassieff_, iv. 45. + +[683] The milk of white mares, which, according to Olaus Magnus (i. +24) was poured into the ground by the king of the Goths every year, on +the 28th of August, in honour of the gods, who received it with great +avidity, would seem to be an announcement of the imminent rains of +autumn; the horse loses his ambrosial humour, and his end is at hand. + +[684] The Graeco-Latin proverb, "Equus me portat, alit rex," would seem +also to have a mythical origin, and to refer to the mythical legend of +the betrayed blind man, who carries the cunning hunchback or lame man; +who sometimes only feigns lameness, in order to play off his practical +jokes upon his companion. + +[685] The fable in _Phaedrus_, iv. 24, of the poet Simonides saved by the +Dioscuri, is well known; but the gods punish the miser who refuses to +give the reward that he had promised, not on their own account, but on +account of the wrong done to the poet, whom they love. It is remarkable +that, as the Latin legend shows us the horses of the Dioscuri +perspiring, so Phaedrus represents the Dioscuri themselves as-- + + "Sparsi pulvere + Sudore multo diffluentes corpore." + +This sweat must be the crepuscular mists, in the same way as the poet +Simonides, who alone escapes, being delivered by the Dioscuri, the +ceiling of whose banqueting-hall he had ruined, seems to conceal an +image of the sun saved from the night. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE ASS. + + +SUMMARY. + + Glory has been pernicious to the ass.--The purely stupid ass not an + ancient belief in India.--Eastern and Western asses; the ass of an + inferior quality pays the penalty of the reputation acquired in the + East by his superior congener.--Christianity, instead of improving + the condition of the ass, has aggravated it.--The mediaeval hymn in + honour of the ass is a satire.--The ass in the sacred ceremonies of + the Church.--Physical and moral decadence of the ass.--Indian names + of the ass; equivoques in language form myths.--Gardabhas and + gandharbas.--Identification of the mythical ass with the gandharvas; + both are in connection with salutary waters, with perfumes or + unguents, and with women.--The ass which carries mysteries.--The + flight into Egypt; the ass laden; the old man, the boy, and the + ass.--Peau d'ane.--The onokentauros.--Urvaci and Pururavas in + connection with the gandharvas; Cupid and Psyche in connection with + the ass.--The mythical ass and the kentauros correspond, as well as + the ass and the gandharvas.--The Hindoo onocentaur and satyr; monkey + and gandharvas as warriors.--Kentauros, gandharvas, and ass in the + capacity of musicians and dancers.--Kricacvas + dancing-master.--Kricanus and Kerecani.--Hybrid nature of the + mythical ass and of the gandharvas.--The Acvinau ride asses, and + give youth to Cyavanas; the youthfulness of the ass.--The Vedic ass + as a warrior.--The Vedic ass flies.--The decadence of the ass dates + as far back as the Vedas; its explanation.--The phallic ass and the + punishment of the ass for adulterers.--The braying of the ass in + heaven; Indras kills the ass.--The funereal and demoniacal ass of + the Hindoos; the ass picacas; the faces of parrots; equivoque + originated by the words _haris_ and _harit_.--The golden ass.--The + ass in love.--The ass in the tiger's skin.--The ass who betrays + himself by singing.--The Zend lame ass who brays in the + water.--Rustem, devourer of asses.--The ass's kick.--The fool and + the ass, the trumpet and the drum, the trumpet of Malacoda.--The + king Midas in the Mongol story; the hero forced to speak, in order + not to burst.--The ass among the monkeys.--Midas, king of Phrygia, + in connection with the ass, with Silenos, Dionysos, the roses, gold, + blades of corn, and waters.--The centaurs among the flowers.--The + ass awakens Vesta whilst she is being seduced.--Priapos and the ass + of Silenos.--The ass as a musical umpire between the cuckoo and the + nightingale.--Midas judges between Pan and Apollo.--The ears of King + Midas; his secret revealed by the young man who combs his hair.--The + Phrygian ass held up to derision by the Greeks.--The Greek spirit of + nationality still more pernicious to the ass.--The ass of Vicenza + impaled.--Pan and the ass.--Gandharvas and satyrs.--Pan and the + nymphs.--Syrinx and the reed or cane; the leaf of the cane, and the + ass.--Pan chases away fear; the ass's skin gives courage.--The ass + in hell; golden excrements.--The heroic ass and Pan.--Perseus who + eats asses.--The ass and the water of the Styx; the horned ass.--The + cornucopia.--Ass and goat.--The asses save the hero out of the + water.--The asses in heaven.--The ass carries the water of + youth.--Ass's milk has a cosmetic virtue.--Youth and beauty of the + ass.--The deaths of the ass.--The ass carries wine and drinks + water.--The ass wet by the rain, the ass's ears predict rainy + weather.--The shadow of the ass; the ass's wool; lana caprina; to + shear the ass; the gold on the ass's head.--Asini prospectus.--The + ass and the gardener.--The ass chases the winds away.--The third + braying or flatus of the ass kills the fool.--The prophetic ass; the + kick of the ass kills the lion; the ass a good listener, who hears + everything; the hero Oidin Oidon; the ears of Lucifer. + +The ass, in Europe at least, has had the misfortune to have been born +under an evil star, a circumstance which must be reckoned to the +account of the Greeks and Romans, whose humour it was to treat it as a +sort of Don Quixote of animals. Its liability to be flogged has always +increased with its celebrity, which, no one can deny, is great and +indefeasible. The poor ass has paid very dear, and continues to pay +still dearer, upon earth for the flight which the fantasy of primeval +men made it take in the mythical heavens. May this chapter--if it +produce no other effect--have at least that of sparing the poor +calumniated animal some few of the many blows which, given in fun, it +is accustomed to receive, as if to afford a vent for the satirical +humour of our race, and _ad exhilarandam caveam_. + +The germ of the reputation the ass has of being both a stupid and a +petulant animal, acquired in Greece and in Italy, spreading thence +into all the other parts of Europe, may already be found in the +ancient myths of the Hindoos. Professor Weber,[686] however, has +proved, in answer to Herr Wagener, that the idea of a stupid and +presumptuous ass, such as we always find it represented in the fables +of the _Pancatantram_, was diffused in India by the Greeks, and is not +indigenous to Hindoo faith and literature. + +In India, the ass was not a particular object of ridicule; and this +was perhaps for the simple reason that the Eastern varieties of the +asinine family are far handsomer and nobler than the Western ones. The +ass in the East is generally ardent, lively, and swift-footed, as in +the West it is generally slow and lazy, having no real energy except +of a sensual nature. For if even the West (and especially the south of +Europe) possesses a distinct species of ass, which reminds us of the +_multinummus_ ass of Varro (in the same way as the East also, though +exceptionally, has inferior varieties), the asinine multitude in +Europe is composed of animals of a low type and a down-trodden +appearance, and it is against them that our jests and our floggings +are especially directed. This is the proverbial ass's kick against the +fallen; the poor outcast of the West dearly pays the penalty of the +honours conceded to his illustrious mythical ancestors of the East. We +think that the ass of which we hear heroic achievements related is the +same as that which now humbly carries the pack; and since we no longer +regard him as capable of a magnanimous action, we suppose that he +(unfortunate animal!) appropriates to himself all these ancient +glories out of vain presumption, for which reason there is no affront +which we do not feel entitled to offer to him. Nor did Christianity +succeed in delivering him from persecution,--Christianity, which, as +it represents the Sun of nations, the Redeemer of the world, as born +between the two musical animals, the ox and the ass (who were to +prevent His cries from being heard), and introduces the ass as the +saviour of the Divine Child persecuted during the night, and as the +animal ridden by Christ, in his last entry into Jerusalem, invested +him with more than one sacred title which ought from its devotees to +have procured for him a little more regard. Unfortunately, the same +famous mediaeval ecclesiastical hymn which was sung in France on the +14th of January in honour of the ass, richly caparisoned near the +altar, to celebrate the flight into Egypt, was turned into a satire. +It must have been not without some gay levity that priest and people +exclaimed "Hinham!" three times after the conclusion of the mass, on +the day of the festival of the ass.[687] Nor did the inhabitants of +Empoli show him more reverence, when, on the eighth day after the +festival of the _Corpus Domini_--that is, near the summer +solstice--they made him fly in the air, amid the jeers of the crowd; +nor the Germans, who, in Westphalia, made the ass a symbol of the dull +St Thomas, who was the last of the apostles to believe in the +resurrection. The Westphalians were accustomed to call by the name of +"the ass Thomas" (as in Holland he is called "luilak") the boy who on +St Thomas's Day was the last to enter school.[688] On Christmas Day, +in the Carnival, on Palm-Sunday, and in the processions which follow +the festival of _Corpus Domini_,[689] the Church often introduced the +ass into her ceremonies, but more in order to exhilarate the minds of +her devotees than to edify them by any suggestion of the virtues it +represents in the Gospels; so that, notwithstanding the great services +rendered by the ass to the Founder of the new religion, he not only +received no benefit in return from Christianity, but became instead +the unfortunate object of new attentions, which rather depressed than +heightened his already sufficiently degraded social condition. + +And so the Greeks and Romans first, and the Catholic priests afterwards, +combined, by their treatment of him, to make the ass more indifferent +than he would otherwise have been to the passion and spirited struggle +for life shown in all the other animals. He was perhaps intended for a +higher fate, if man had not come upon earth, and interfered too +persistently to thwart his vocation. And probably his race gradually +deteriorated, just because, having become ridiculous, few cared to +preserve or increase his nobleness. As the proverb said that it was +useless to wash the ass's head, so it seemed useless for man to +endeavour to ameliorate or civilise his form: the physical decadence of +the ass was contemporary and parallel with his decline morally. + +But although it was in Greece and Rome that the poor ass was thrown +completely down from his rank in the animal kingdom, the first decree of +his fall was pronounced in his ancient Asiatic abode. Let us prove this. + +In the _Rigvedas_, the ass already appears under two different +aspects--one divine and the other demoniacal--to which may perhaps be +added a third intermediate or gandharvic aspect. + +In the _Rigvedas_, the ass has the names of _gardabhas_ and +_rasabhas_; in Sanskrit, also those of _kharas, cakrivant, ciramehin_, +and _baleyas_. + +It is important to notice how each of these designations tends to +lapse into ambiguity; and ambiguity in words plays a considerable part +in the formation of myths and popular beliefs. + +Let us begin with the most modern designations. + +_Baleyas_ may mean the childish one (from _balas_ = child, and +stupid[690]), as well as the demoniacal (from _balis_; and indeed, +besides being a name given to the ass, _baleyas_ is also a name for a +demon). + +_Ciramehin_ is the ass as _longe mingens_ (a quality which can apply +to the ass, but still more so to the rainy cloud). + +_Cakrivant_ means he who is furnished with wheels, with round objects or +testicles (an epithet equally applicable to the ass and his phallos). + +_Kharas_ signifies he who cries out, as well as the ardent one (and +_kharus_, which ought to have the same meaning, signifies, according +to the Petropolitan Dictionary, foolish, and horse; perhaps ass too). + +_Rasabhas_ is derived from the double root _ras_, whence _rasa_ = +humour, juice, water, savour, sperm, and _rasa_ = din, tumultuous noise. + +_Gardabhas_ comes from the root _gard_,[691] to resound, to bellow; but +I think I can recognise in the word _gardabhas_ the same meaning as +_gandharbas_ or _gandharvas_, and _vice versa_. The _gardabhas_ explains +to me how the _gandharvas_ was conceived to be a musician; and the +_gandharvas_ (a word which, I repeat, seems to me composed of _gandha_ + +_arvas_, developed out of a hypothetic _rivas_,[692] that is, he who +walks in the unguent, or he who goes in the perfume) helps me to +understand the proverb, "Asinus in unguento," and the corresponding +legends. The equivocal word _rasabhas_, in its two meanings, seems to +unite together the sonorous _gardabhas_ with the _gandharbas_ who likes +perfumes, or the _gandharvo apsu_ (_gandharvas_ in the waters) of the +_Rigvedas_,[693] the guardian of the ambrosial plant.[694] The mythical +ass and the Vedic _gandharvas_ have the same qualities and the same +instincts. The gandharvas, for instance, are represented in the +_Aitareya Br._ as lovers of women,[695] so much so that for a woman's +sake they allow themselves to be deprived of the ambrosia (or somas); +and it is also known from the story of Urvaci how jealous they are of +their nymphs, the _apsaras_, or them who flow by on the waters (the +clouds), and from the story of Hanumant, in the _Ramayanam_, how greedy +they are of their salutary herbs and waters.[696] The mythical and +legendary ass also has a foible for beautiful maidens; it is unnecessary +to give the reason of this belief.[697] When Circe wishes to give, by +means of an unguent, an ass's head to Odysseus, we find an allusion to +the loves of the ass and the beautiful woman. When the Lucius of +Apuleius, while endeavouring to change himself into a bird (another of +the names by which the phallos is indicated), becomes instead, by means +of the woman's unguent, an ass, the ass is another name for the +phallical bird. And as the Vedic ass delights in the _rasas_, or humour, +water or sperm (the two words _rasas_ and _rasas_, derived from a common +root, being easily interchangeable); as the mythical ass, when it finds +the ambrosia of the roseate morning aurora, once more becomes the +splendid young sun; so the ass of Apuleius, too, becomes Lucius again, +or the luminous and handsome youth that he was before, as soon as he has +an opportunity of feeding upon roses: he becomes an ass for love of a +woman, and regains his splendour in the rosy aurora. During the night, +being subject to the enchantment of a beautiful fairy, the hero remains +an ass; and in the form of an ass, and under an ass's skin, he carries +the priapoean mysteries, whence the expression of Aristophanes in the +_Frogs_, "The ass which carries mysteries" (onos agon muesteria), the +same mysteries as the Phallagia or Perifallia of Rome. In the Christian +myth, this mystery is the flight of the new-born Divine Child into +Egypt;[698] in the story of Perrault, it is the beautiful maiden, the +evening aurora, the girl persecuted by her father and would-be seducer, +who disguises herself during the night with an ass's skin;[699] the +beautiful girl evidently transfers her erotic sympathies to the ass that +loves her. Of loves such as these,--of an ass with a maiden, or of the +young hero and an ass,--are born the monstrous onokentaurs and Empusa, +now a beautiful maiden, and now the terrifier of children, who is +represented with ass's feet, because her mother was an ass, and her +father, Aristoxenes, enamoured of an ass. It is now the evening aurora, +now the dying sun, and now both, who, under the cloud of night, or in +winter, are represented as covered with an ass's skin. Professor Kuhn +has already proved the close affinity, amounting to identity, between +the gandharvas and the Hellenic kentauroi, both of which come before us +in connection with the inebriating drink; but the kentauros is +essentially a hippokentauros, or, still better, an onokentauros,[700] +or centaur ass. The fable of Cupid and Psyche in Apuleius, in its +relation with the story of the ass, perfectly agrees with the analogous +Hindoo fable of the loves of Pururavas and Urvaci, united with the story +of the Gandharvas. Peau d'ane, Psyche, and Urvaci are therefore mythical +sisters. + +Professor Kuhn's proof of the identity of the gandharvas and the +kentauros being admitted, the identity of the gardabhas with the +gandharbas, and of the ass with the gandharvas, seems to follow as a +natural consequence. The myth of the kentauros, either hippokentauros or +onokentauros, no less than the myth of the gandharvas, corresponds +entirely with that of the ass. The kentauros loves wine and women; he +plays the lyre upon the car of Dionysos in conjunction with satyrs, +nymphs, and bacchantes; he teaches on Mount Pelion music,[701] the +science of health, and the prophetic art to the Dioscuri, which are all +subjects that occur again with slight modifications in the Hindoo +legends concerning the gandharvas, and in the fable of the ass, as we +shall prove hereafter.--But to return to the Hindoo myth; in the same +way as the gandharvas has a hybrid nature, and shows himself at one time +in the aspect of a demi-god, at another in that of a semi-demon, so the +mythical ass of India has now a divine nature, and now a human. The +gandharvas is the guardian of riches and waters: inasmuch as he defends +them from the demoniacal robbers, preserves them from mortals, and +distributes them among the pious, he appears under a beneficent and +divine aspect; inasmuch, on the other hand, as he carries them off and +keeps them shut up like a miser, he resembles the monster that is fabled +to guard fountains and treasures, the demon who keeps the waters shut +up, the thieves who gather treasures together, and the devil, the master +of all riches. For the same reason we already find in Hindoo tradition +the beneficent ass and his evil-doing congener. The sun (sometimes the +moon also) in the cloud and the darkness of night is the same as the +treasure in the cavern, the treasure in hell, and the hero or heroine in +the gloomy forest; and this cavern and hell sometimes assume the form of +an ass's skin, or of an ass simply. That which comes out of the cloud, +and of the gloom, also comes out of the ass; the soul of the ass is the +sun, or the hero or heroine, or the riches which he conceals. The +Acvinau are often found in connection with the worthless horse, which +afterwards becomes handsome by means of the ambrosia itself that the +horse produces; the gandharvas, a more nocturnal and cloudy form, if I +may use the expression, of the solar or lunar hero, are in near relation +with the ass, their _alter ego_, who enjoys the blessing of eternal +youth. The Acvinau themselves, the two horsemen who have given youth to +the old Cyavanas, rode upon asses before they rode upon horses. The myth +of the gandharvas and that of the Acvinau, the myth of the horse and +that of the ass, are intimately connected: from the gandharvas the acvin +comes forth; from the mythical ass the horse comes out. This is +unnatural in zoology, but it is very natural in mythology: the sun +comes, now out of the grey shades of night, and now out of the grey +cloud. + +The Vedic hymns already present us with several interesting myths +concerning the ass. + +The ass of the Acvinau is swift; the devotees ask the Acvinau when they +are to yoke it, that they may be carried by it to the sacrifice.[702] In +another hymn, as the Acvinau are two, so are their asses two (rasabhav +acvinoh). Finally, the second strophe of the 116th hymn offers us a +twofold significant particularity, viz., the ass, that vanquishes a +thousand in the rich battlefield of Yamas (or in the nocturnal battle, +in the struggle in hell, in which the ass appears as a real warrior, +joined with riches, and fighting for riches), and is helped by strong +and rapid wings (in which it shows us the ass that flies).[703] + +The _Rigvedas_ also represents the ass of Indras as swift-footed.[704] +But in the same hymn we already see the reverse of the medal, that is +to say, the swift ones who deride him who is not swift, the horses +that are urged before the ass.[705] The solar hero, towards morning, +substitutes the horse for the ass, or appears with horses, leaving the +ass or asses behind. We have learned in the preceding chapter how, in +the heavenly race of the Vedic gods, the asses gained the palm of +victory; but it was an effort superior to their powers. The _Aitareya +Br._ informs us that by this effort they lost their swiftness and +became draught animals, deprived of honey, but yet preserving great +vigour in their sperm, so that the male ass can generate offspring in +two ways, that is, mules by union with a mare, and asses by union with +an ass.[706] Here, therefore, the ass is already considered an animal +of an essentially phallical nature, which notion is confirmed by the +precept of Katyayanas, recorded by Professor Weber,[707] which enjoins +the sacrificing of an ass to expiate violated chastity. To chastise +the ass, to sacrifice the ass, must mean the same as to chastise and +to mortify the body,[708] and especially the phallos; and the Eastern +and Western punishment of leading adulterers about upon an ass has the +same meaning; the real martyr, however, in this punishment being the +ass, who is exposed to every kind of derision and ill-treatment. In +the same way, the henpecked husband who allowed himself to be beaten +by his wife, used, in several villages of Piedmont, only a few years +ago, to be led about ignominiously upon an ass: a husband who lets his +wife impose upon him, and cannot subdue her, deserves to be chastised +by means of an ass; he is not a man, and his ass, the emblem of his +manly strength, must on this account suffer the punishment, because +he has not shown himself able to assert his marital rights. The +adulterer upon the ass, and the silly husband upon the ass, are +punishments for phallic offences in, and in connection with, the +person of that which represents the phallos: one is chastised for +having wished, in this regard, to do too much, and the other for not +having been able to do enough. On this account the condemned person +was forced, in similar cases, to ride upon an ass with his face turned +towards the animal's tail, another image which is yet more manifestly +phallical; whence the very name of the punishment, "asini caudam in +manu tenere."[709] As to the other proverb which says, "He to whom the +ass belongs, holds him by the tail," it is explained by the narrative +of a peasant who drew his ass out of a swamp, taking it by the tail; +but this story too seems to have a phallic signification. + +The ass, therefore, is already deposed from his noble place as a +swift-footed courser in the _Rigvedas_ itself. And in the _Rigvedas_, +too, where we have observed the ass described as a warrior who fights +for the gods, we find him in the demoniacal form of a disagreeable +singer who terrifies the worshippers of the god Indras; the latter is +therefore requested by the poet to kill the ass who sings with a +horrible voice.[710] Here the ass already appears as a real monster, +worthy even of the steel of the prince of the celestial heroes +himself, who prepares to combat him. The ass, therefore, is already +sacred to the monsters in the white Yagurvedas.[711] + +In the _Ramayanam_,[712] the slowness of the ass has already become +proverbial. The modest Bharatas excuses himself from not being able to +equal his brother Ramas in the science of government, just as the ass, +he says, cannot run like the horse, or other birds cannot fly like the +vulture. The mythical ass, moreover, appears in this epic poem[713] in a +demoniacal and infernal aspect: Bharatas, in fact, dreams of seeing his +dead father Dacarathas, in blood-coloured clothes, borne to the southern +funereal region on a car drawn by asses; and we are told that when a man +is seen upon a car drawn by asses, it is a sign of his departure for the +abode of Yamas. Kharas, a word which, as we already know, means ass, is +also the name of a younger brother of the great monster Ravanas. Ravanas +himself is drawn by asses upon a chariot adorned with gold and gems. +These asses have the faces of the monster Picacas,[714] that is, faces +of parrots, as Hanumant afterwards informs us when he speaks of the +monsters which he has seen in Lanka, which he also says are as swift as +thought.[715] We know that the coursers of Ravanas were asses, and +therefore the asses with the faces of the Picacas, and the horses of the +monsters with the faces of parrots, are the same. The monster Picacas, +therefore, has the face of a parrot. How is it that the parrot is reared +in India as a sacred bird? It appears to me that equivocation in +language had something to do with the formation of this singular +mythological image. The word _picacas_ is derived, like _picangas_, +which means golden and red, from the root _pic_, to adorn; whence also +the Vedic feminine _pic_, ornament, and the Vedic neuter, _pecas_, +coloured tissue. The ass picacas, who draw the chariot full of gold, are +therefore themselves, at least in their face, in their foremost part, +golden asses, or red like the colour of gold, red like the colour of the +sun; in fact, we find kharas (the ardent) as the proper name of an +attendant on the sun, and kharancus or khararacmih, he of the burning +ray, as Sanskrit names of the sun. Kharaketus, he who has a burning ray, +is also the name of one of the monsters in the _Ramayanam_.[716] We +therefore already see here the golden ass and the infernal monster +identified with the sun; and hence we are very near the monster with the +parrot's face. In the preceding chapter we observed how the solar horse +appears in the morning luminous at first in its foremost parts,--now in +its legs, now in its face, now in its mane, which is called golden; it +is only the head of the horse which is found in the butter; of Dadhyanc +we perceive only his head in connection with the ambrosia. Thus of the +nocturnal ass, of the demoniacal ass, of the demon himself, the picacas +(the picacas are called carnivorous[717]), only the face is seen, in the +same way as of the picacas, and of the horses belonging to the monsters, +only the head is that of a parrot. But what connection can there be +between the gold colour of the ass picacas and the green colour of the +parrot? The equivoque lies probably in the words _hari_ and _harit_, +both of which, in the Hindoo tongue mean yellow, as well as green. Haris +and hari signify the sun, and the moon, as being yellow; harayas and +haritas are the horses of the sun; hari are the two horses of Indras and +of the Acvinau, of whom we also know that they more usually rode upon +asses. We thus arrive at the light-coloured asses, at the asses that are +golden, at least in their foremost parts, that is, in the morning +twilight, when after his nocturnal course, the solar horseman is on the +point of arriving at his golden eastern destination, whence the head of +the ass which carries the divine horseman is illumined by him. But +_haris_, besides signifying the solar hero as being yellow, also +signifies the parrot as green; on this account the ass or demon with a +golden head was exchanged with the ass or monster with the green head, +or with the parrot's head. We shall see in the chapters concerning +birds how the bird was often substituted for the horse in the office of +carrying the deity or the hero. + +To conclude the subject of the Hindoo mythical ass, it is certain that +it existed in the heavens; it is certain that it flies in the sky, +that it fights in the sky like a valiant warrior, that it terrifies +its enemies in the sky with its terrible voice; that, in a word, it +was a real and legitimate heroic animal. It is certain, moreover, +that, considered under another aspect, it not only throws down the +heroes, but carries them to hell, serves the infernal monsters, and is +found in connection with the treasures of hell. Moreover, admitting, +as I hope the reader will, my identification of the mythical ass with +the gandharvas, we have the ass as dancer, the ass as musician, the +ass who loves women, and the ass in the odorous ointment and in the +inebriating drink, the somas which occupies the place of the wine of +the Dionysian mysteries, in which the Hellenic ass took a solemn part. + +In the fables of the _Pancatantram_, the ass is partly modelled on the +Hellenic type and partly preserves its primitive character. The fourth +book shows us the ass twice attracted towards the lion by the jackal, +who induces him to believe that a beautiful female ass is awaiting +him. The ass is distrustful and shows his fear, but the argument of +the female ass, upon which the artful jackal insists, overcomes his +timidity. He is, however, cunning enough to send the jackal before +him; and at the sight of the lion he perceives the jackal's treachery +and turns, fleeing away with such rapidity that the lion cannot +overtake him. The jackal returns to the assault, and convinces the ass +that he did wrong to abandon the beautiful female ass when he was on +the point of receiving her favours; and thus touching the tender +chord of his heart, he goes on to assure him that the female ass will +throw herself into the fire or the water if she does not see him +return. "Omnia vincit amor;" the ass returns, and this time the lion +surprises and tears him to pieces; upon which the lion, before +partaking of his meal, goes to perform his ablutions and devotions. +Meanwhile the jackal eats the ass's heart and ears, and makes the +lion, on his return, believe that the stupid animal had neither the +one nor the other, because if he had had them, he would not have +returned to the dangerous spot after having once escaped. The lion +declares himself to be perfectly satisfied with this explanation. Here +we have a mixture in the ass of swift-footedness, lust, and stupidity, +his stupidity being caused by his lustfulness. Now, it is possible +that his acquaintance with the Hellenic ass may have induced the +author of the _Pancatantram_ to embody in the ass a quality which is +generally attributed in fables of Hindoo origin to the monkey; but +this is not absolutely necessary in order to explain the narrative of +which we have now given the epitome. + +On the other hand, in the fourth book of the _Pancatantram_, the fable +of the ass in the tiger's skin--an insignificant variety of the ass in +the lion's skin--was, as Professor Weber has already proved, taken +from the AEsopian fable. Another fable, in the fifth book, which tells +us of the ass who, being passionately fond of music,[718] insisted +upon singing, and was thus discovered and made a slave of, also seems +to be of Hellenic origin. But, although the editing of these two +Hindoo fables in a literary form had its origin in the knowledge of +Hellenic literature, the original myth of the ass-lion (haris, which +is the horse of Indras, also means the lion), and that of the +ass-musician (as gandharvas and gardabhas), can be traced as far back +as the Vedic scriptures. + +In the Zendic _Yacna_,[719] I find a new proof, which appears to me a +very satisfactory one, of the identification which I have proposed of +the ass with the gandharvas. I have already mentioned the gandharvas +who guards over the somas in the midst of the waters, and I observed +how the gandharvas kricanus of the Vedas, and the Zend kerecani who +guards over the _hom_ in the _Vouru-Kasha_, have been identified. But +the same office is fulfilled in the _Yacna_ by a three-legged ass, +that is, a lame ass (or the solar horse who has become lame during the +night, in the same way as the solar hero becomes lame, or a lame +devil), who, by braying, terrifies the monsters and prevents them from +contaminating the water. + +In the first of the seven adventures of Rustem, in the _Shah-Name_ of +Firdusi, the starving Rustem goes with his brave heroic horse to chase +wild asses. The asses flee, but the hero's horse is swifter than they, +and overtakes them; Rustem takes one by means of a lasso, and has it +cooked, throwing away the bones. He then goes to sleep (_then_ +sometimes expresses in the myths the interval of a whole day or of a +whole year.--The hero does almost the same in his second adventure and +in the book of _Sohrab_). While Rustem sleeps, a monstrous lion makes +its appearance to surprise the hero; Rustem's heroic horse throws the +lion down and tears it to pieces with its hoofs and teeth. This +battle between the horse of the sleeping hero and the monster lion is +an epic form of the fable which represents the animals as being +terrified in the forest by the braying of the ass, and of that of the +lion itself killed by the ass's kick. Probably the bones of the dead +ass, when preserved, gave heroic strength to Rustem's horse. + +In the Mongol stories, of which we have on a previous occasion +indicated the Hindoo origin, we find two other legends relating to the +ass. In the eighteenth Mongol story, a foolish man goes with his ass +to hang up some rice; he hides his ass in a cave; some merchants pass +by with their goods, and the fool sends forth, by means of a trumpet, +such a sonorous shout, that the merchants, thinking brigands are +hidden in the cavern, escape, leaving their goods in the ass's +possession. Here the fool and the ass are already identified. The +trumpet and the blowing made by the fool correspond to the braying of +the ass, of whom we shall soon see other miracles related. The sense +of the myth is this: the solar hero in the night or in the cloud grows +stupid; he becomes an ass during the night or in the cloud; the cloud +thunders, and the thunder of the cloud gives rise to the idea now of +the braying and now of the flatus of the ass (or the fool), now of a +trumpet,[720] and now of a drum. We must not forget that the word +_dundubhis_ which properly means kettledrum or drum, is also the name +of a monster, and that Dundubhi is the proper name of the wife of a +gandharvas, or of a gandharvi. The skin of the drum being made of an +ass's hide is one more reason why the thundering cloud, being very +naturally likened to a drum, the thunder should be also considered now +as a _flatus oris_, now as a _flatus ventris_ of the celestial ass, or +of the foolish hero who accompanies him. + +In the twenty-second Mongol story we have a variety, though partly a +less complete and partly a richer one, of the fable of the Phrygian king +Midas. A king who has golden ass ears, has his head combed every night +with golden combs by young men, who are immediately after put to death +(to comb the ass's head is about the same as to wash it; but however +much it is combed, the ears can never be abolished). One day a young man +predestined to the highest honours, before going to comb the king's +head, receives from his mother a cake made of her own milk and flour. +The young man offers the cake to the king, who likes it, and spares the +youth's life on condition that he tells no one, not even his mother, the +great secret, _viz._, that the king has golden ears. The youth promises +to preserve silence, and makes a very great effort indeed to keep his +promise, but this effort makes him seriously ill, so much so that he +feels he will burst if he does not tell the secret. His mother then +advises him to go and relieve his mind by whispering it into a fissure +of the earth or of a tree. The young man does so; he goes into the open +country, finds a squirrel's hole, and breathes gently down it, "Our king +has ass's ears;" but animals have understanding and can speak, and there +are men who understand their language. The secret is conveyed from one +to another, till the king hears that the young man has divulged it. He +threatens to take his life; but relents when he hears from him how it +happened, and not only pardons him, but makes him his prime minister. +The fortunate youth's first act is to invent a cap of the shape of the +ears of an ass, in order that the king may be able to conceal the +deformity; and when the people see the king with a cap of this shape, it +pleases them so much that they all adopt it; and so the king, by means +of his young minister, is no longer obliged to live secluded, and in the +constant tormenting dread of discovery, but lives at his ease and +happily ever afterwards. + +Having thus examined under its principal aspects the most popular +Asiatic tradition relative to the ass, let us now go on to epitomise +the European tradition, and, if possible, more briefly; all the more +that the reader, having, as I hope, now the key of the myth, will be +of himself able to refer to it many analogous particulars of +Graeco-Latin tradition. I say Graeco-Latin alone, because the myth of +the ass among Slavonic and Germanic nations, where the ass is little, +if at all, known, had no especial and independent development. In +Slavonic countries, the part of the ass is generally sustained by Ivan +the fool or Emilius the lazy one, as also by the bear or wolf, as in +India it is often sustained by the monkey;[721] ass, bear, wolf, and +monkey, as mythical animals, represent almost identical phenomena. + +Let us take the story of Midas again at its commencement. + +Midas appears in _Herodotus_, not only as a king of Phrygia, but as a +progenitor of the Phrygians. In the Tusculans of Cicero, the drunken +satyr Silenos (originally another form of the same Midas, the satyrs +having ass's ears), the master of Dionysos, loses himself in the +rose-garden belonging to Midas, before whom he is conducted, and by +whom he is benevolently received and entertained, and then sent back +with honour to the god, who, in gratitude, concedes to Midas the gift +of turning to gold everything that he touches, to such an extent as to +affect the food that he wishes to eat and the water in which he +bathes. This myth is probably of a complex nature. Midas ought, like +the ass, to turn to gold what he has eaten, that is, to turn his food +and drink into excrements of gold, to fructify the golden ears of +corn, _i.e._, in heaven, the solar rays. Cicero himself leads us to +suppose that the myth of Midas is in relation with the ears of corn, +when, in his first book _De Divinatione_, he says that the ants +carried grains of wheat into the mouth of Midas when a child; these +being symbols of abundance and of fecundity which are quite applicable +to the mythical ass. For although the common ass is not a privileged +foecundator, the mythical ass, in its capacity of a rain-giving cloud +or ciramehin, is the best fertiliser of the fields. The sun, or gold, +or treasure, comes out of the ass-darkness or ass-cloud. The ass +Lucius, after having eaten the roses of morning or the east, again +becomes Lucius the luminous one (the sun). On this account the ass +Midas, too, who also delights in roses, turns to gold whatever he +eats, as well as the dew or ambrosial fountain in which he bathes; the +rosy becomes the golden; the sun comes out of the contact of the ass +of night with the aurora. + +Servius, in his commentary on the sixth book of the _AEneid_, also +tells us the centauri "in floribus stabulant," as the Hindoo +gandharvas in the perfumes. These perfumes are rain and dew. The ass +crowned with loaves of bread[722] and flowers, in the Latin worship +of Vesta, who remembered the service rendered to her one day by the +braying of the ass, which aroused her from her sleep when some one was +attempting to violate her, is another variety of the myth of the +aurora who awakes out of the night, golden, that is, rich in golden +oats and in golden wheat. The ass itself is sacrificed, because, +perhaps, it was the ass itself that had made an attempt to deprive +Vesta of her chastity; but having betrayed itself, as it often happens +in fables, by its braying, it arouses Vesta, who punishes it by +offering it in sacrifice. In a variation of the same story in the +first book of Ovid's _Fasti_, where instead of Vesta we have the nymph +Lothis asleep, the red Priapos, who wishes to violate her, also loses +his opportunity, because the ass of Silenos-- + + "Intempestivos edidit ore sonos," + +on which account it is killed by Priapos: + + "Morte dedit poenas auctor clamoris, et haec est + Hellespontiaco victima sacra Deo." + +The apologue is well known of the long-eared ass, who, when called +upon to judge between the nightingale and the cuckoo as to who has the +sweetest voice, decides in favour of the cuckoo. The nightingale then +appeals to man with the sweet song that we are all acquainted +with.[723] In the myth of Midas, the Phrygian hero is given ass's +ears as a chastisement by Apollo, because, having been called upon to +judge between the cithern or lyre of Apollo (whence the proverb +"Asinus ad lyram") and the pastoral pipe (calamus agrestis) of Pan +(who is represented as a horned and bearded satyr, with a tail and +long ears), he pronounced that the pan-pipes were the most harmonious +instrument. Midas hides his ears in a red cap, but his comber lets out +the secret, as in the Mongol story, and in a manner almost identical-- + + "Ille quidem celat, turpique onerata pudore + Tempora purpureis tentat velare tiaris: + Sed, solitus longos ferro resecare capillos, + Viderat hoc famulus: qui, cum nec prodere visum + Dedecus auderet, cupiens efferre sub auras, + Nec posset reticere tamen, secedit; humumque + Effodit, et domini quales aspexerit aures, + Voce refert parva: terraeque immurmurat haustae. + Indiciumque suae vocis tellure regesta + Obruit, et scrobibus tacitus discedit opertis. + Creber arundinibus tremulis ibi surgere lucus + Coepit; et, ut primum pleno maturuit anno, + Prodidit agricolam: leni jam motus ab Austro + Obruta verba refert; dominique coarguit aures."[724] + +The same Greeks who held the ass up to derision, made the Phrygian +king Midas, of the ass's ears, the object of their satire. This is a +particular form of the mythico-heroic struggle between Greeks and +Phrygians or Trojans. Apollo is the enemy of the Trojans, as he is the +enemy of the Phrygian king Midas. The Trojans and Troy are +represented by the ass, and the Greeks, who vanquish and take by +assault the Trojan fortress, by the horse; the sun disperses the +night; the hero kills the centaur; the horse defeats the ass, the +Greek the Trojan; and every one can see how the fact that the Greeks +personified in the ass their enemies in Asia Minor, must have damaged +the reputation of the poor long-eared animal. The most bitter and +cutting satire is always that which is directed towards one's own +enemies; and the ass, unfortunately, had at one time the honour of +representing the Phrygian, the traditional enemy of the Greek. The ass +bore the load of this heroic war, in the same way as in the Middle +Ages he was publicly impaled by the Paduans for having had the +misfortune of being the sacred animal on the arms of the city of +Vicenza, with which the Paduans lived in rivalry.[725] + +In the same eleventh book of Ovid where the transformation of the +human ears of Midas into ass's ears is described, it is very +remarkable that the new ears are called whitish, as in the Mongol +story they are said to be golden. This confirms still more the +interpretation of the myth, to the effect that the ass is the solar +steed during the night. The head and the tail of the night, conceived +as an animal, are now the two whitish or grey twilights, and now the +two golden auroras of morning and evening. + + "Nec Delius aures + Humanam stolidas patitur retinere figuram, + Sed trahit in spatium villisque albentibus implet + Instabilesque illas facit et dat posse moveri." + +The changeableness of the twilights must have served very well to +express the mobility of the ears of an ass. + +In the story of the ass, Midas, the musical critic, the predestined ass, +pronounces in favour of Pan; and he does so not only on account of the +consanguinity between himself and the god, but also from a patriotic +feeling. Pan was born in a forest of Arcadia, of Zeus and the nymph +Kallisto; and it is well known that antiquity celebrated the asses of +Arcadia above those of every other country. The ass as a musician, the +ass as a musical critic, Pan the musician, and Pan preferred by the ass, +are the same person. Arcadia, the country of pastoral music, of +whistling shepherds, which made the Italy of the seventeenth and +eighteenth centuries bleat out so many useless verses, the country of +Pan the satyr, _par excellence_, is the country of the ass. Arcadia is +the most mountainous and wooded part of Greece,[726] and therefore, when +the Olympians came down from heaven, celestial nymphs and satyrs came to +people the forests and fountains of Arcadia. The divine guardian of the +ambrosia in the heavenly cloud takes, in the Arcadian forest, the form +of Pan, god of shepherds, who keeps guard over the honey. The +gandharvas, who danced and sung in the Hindoo Olympus with the +apsarasas, has descended into Arcadia in the shape of Pan, to dance and +sing with the nymphs.[727] Pan who goes alone into the gloomy forest, +Pan who chases fear away, connected as he is with the story of the ass, +reminds us on the one hand of the superstition recorded by Pliny, to the +effect that an ass's skin put upon children chases fear from them[728] +(in the same way as in the province of Girgenti, in Sicily, it is +believed that shoes made of a wolf's skin, put on children's feet, make +them daring and lucky in battle), and, on the other hand, of the +unpublished Piedmontese story of the fearless Giovannino, who, in reward +for his courage in going alone to hell, brings away with him an ass +which throws gold from its tail.[729] In Tzetzas[730] I find again the +curious notion that Midas sold his own _stercus_ out of avarice, that +is, that he changed it into gold, as Vespasian used to do by selling the +excrement of his horse. + +The AEsopian ass, when he goes to battle, terrifies by his braying all +the animals of the forest; so Pan defeats his enemies by means of his +terrible voice; and according to Herodotus,[731] in the heroic battle +of Marathon, the Athenians were helped by the powerful voice of the +god Pan. Finally, as we have seen Apollo to be the rival of Pan and +the enemy of the Phrygian Midas, the predestined ass, as well as of +the Trojans, so, in the eleventh of the Pythic odes of Pindar, we find +the hero Perseus, among the Hyperboreans,[732] eating asses.[733] The +morning sun devours the ass of night, as we have seen the solar hero +Rustem do in the _Shah-Name_, where he eats the wild asses. + +But we must look for more mythical personages in connection with the +ass Midas in Arcadia, as the region of Pan and of asses. The ass Midas +is considered as a rich progenitor of races, and is supposed to have +been the first Phrygian. Windischmann has already observed (with the +examples of Yamas, Yima, Manus, Minos, and Radamanthues) the connection +between the rich progenitor of races and the rich king or judge of +hell. To Midas the progenitor and to Midas the judge, corresponds the +ass whose excrements are of gold, the ass judge and prophet, the +Arcadian and prophetic Pan. The Arcadians considered themselves not +only autocthonoi, but proselenoi, or anterior to the moon. But they +are also considered in the light of inhabitants of an infernal region. +In Arcadia was situated the lake Stuemphalos, the demoniacal birds of +which were slain by Herakles in Arcadia; in a chasm formed of wild +rocks was the source of the Styx, the principal infernal river, that +by which the Hellenic infernal beings were accustomed to swear. Greek +and Latin writers used to narrate of the ass (and the mule) that it +had an especial aversion to the water of the Styx, as being poisonous. +This superstition, when referred to the myth, appears to mean that, +when the solar hero drinks this water--the water of the dark or cloudy +ocean--he becomes a dark ass. (We find in Russian stories the hero who +is transformed into a bull, a horse, or a he-goat, when he drinks +water of which a demoniacal bull, horse, or he-goat has previously +drunk.) AElianos, in his tenth book relative to animals, speaking of +the horned asses of Scythia, writes that they held in their horns the +water of the Styx. A similar narrative is given by Philostratos in the +third book of his romantic Life of Apollonios, concerning the fabulous +horned ass of India. "It is said," he writes, "that in the marshy +ground near the Indian river Hyphasis many wild asses are to be found; +and that these wild beasts have on their heads a horn with which they +fight bravely like bulls" (this seems to be a reminiscence of the +Indian rhinoceros); "and that the Indians form out of these horns +drinking-cups, affirming that those who drink out of these cups are +delivered from every illness for all that day; when wounded they feel +no pain, they pass safely through flames, nor, when they have drunk +out of it, can they be hurt by any poison. They say that these cups +belong to kings alone, nor is it permitted to any other than a king to +hunt the animal. It is narrated that Apollonios (the hero of the +romance) had seen this animal and observed its nature with wonder. +Moreover, to Damis, who asked him whether he had faith in what was +commonly said concerning the virtue of this cup, he answered 'I will +believe it when I shall have learned that in this country the king is +immortal.'" And no doubt Apollonios would have believed had it been +impossible for him to divine that the king who makes use of this +marvellous cup is the immortal sun, to whom alone it is reserved to +kill the ass of the nocturnal forest, the ass whose hairy ears are +like horns,[734] whose ears are of gold. + +The horn of the Scythian ass full of Stygian water, the horn of the +ass which, when used as a cup, gives health and happiness to him who +drinks out of it, remind us (not to speak of Samson's jaw-bone of an +ass, which makes water flow) especially of the myth of the cornucopia +and that of the goat, with which the satyrs and fauns, having goat's +feet, stand in particular connection. It is also for this reason that +the ass is found in relation with Pan; wherefore it is too that +Silenos rides upon an ass, and appears, as we have already seen, in +the story of Midas, in his garden of roses; indeed the mythical +centaurs or onocentaurs, satyr, faun, ass, and goat are equivalent +expressions. We have seen, a few pages back, the Zendic three-legged +ass; in the following chapter we shall find the lame goat. + +As the ass was ridden by Silenos,[735] so was he the animal dedicated to +Bacchus and to Priapos, whose mysteries were celebrated in the Dionysian +feasts. It is said that when Bacchus had to traverse a marsh, he met +with two young asses, and was conveyed by one of them, who was endowed +with human speech, to the other side without touching the water. (The +116th hymn of the first book of the _Rigvedas_ merits being especially +compared with this. In it, immediately after having represented the +Acvinau as drawn by winged asses, the poet celebrates the Acvinau as +delivering the hero Bhugyus out of the waters upon a vessel that moved +of itself in the air.)[736] On this account it is said that Bacchus, in +gratitude, placed the two young asses among the stars.[737] This is +another confirmation of the fact that the mythical ass really had the +virtue of flying; and the proverb "Asinus si volat habet alas"[738] +alludes to this myth. The fable of the ass who wishes to fly, and the +flight of the ass, are derisive allusions, applied to the earthly ass. +The celestial myth lingers in the memory, but is no longer understood. + +In the myth of Prometheus, in _AElianos_ (vi. 5), we have the ass who +carries the talisman which makes young again, which Zeus intended for +him who should discover the robber of the divine fire (Prometheus). The +ass, being thirsty, approaches a fountain, and is about to drink, when a +snake who guards the fountain prevents him from doing so. The ass offers +the snake the charm which he is carrying, upon which the serpent strips +off its old age, and the ass, drinking at the fountain, acquires the +power of becoming young again. The ass of night, when he drinks the dew +of the dawn, grows young and handsome again every day. It is on this +account, I repeat, that youth is celebrated as a peculiar virtue of the +ass; it is on this account that the Romans attributed a great cosmetic +virtue to ass's milk[739] (the white dawn, or moon). + +The mythical ass seems to die every day, whereas, on the contrary it +is born anew every day, and becomes young again; whence the Greek +proverb does not celebrate the death in the singular, but the deaths +of the ass ("Onou thanatous"). + +The Italian proverb of the ass that carries wine and drinks water, +probably alludes to the ass that carries the water of youth, and then, +being thirsty, drinks at the fountain in the legend of Prometheus. The +wine of the Hellenic and Latin myth corresponds to the inebriating +drink or somas in which Indras delights so much in the _Rigvedas_. The +ass bears the drunken Silenos on its back. + +The sun, who in the cloud is covered with the skin of an ass, carries +the rain; whence the Greek proverb the ass is wetted by the rain +("Onos hueetai"), and the popular belief that when the ears of the ass +or of a satyr (that is to say, of the ass itself) move, it is an +indication of rainy weather (or dew). When the sun comes out of the +shadows of night, he drinks the milk or white humour of the early +morning sky, the same white foaming humour which caused the birth of +Aphrodite, the same humour out of which, by the loves of Dionysos (or +of Pan, of a satyr, or of the ass itself) and Aphrodite, the satyr was +procreated--Priapos, whose phallic loves are discovered by the ass. +The satyr serves as a link between the myth of the ass and that of the +goat. On this account (that is, on account of the close relation +between the mythical ass and the mythical goat) two ancient Greek and +Latin proverbs--_i.e._, to dispute about the shadow of the ass ("Peri +onou skias") and to dispute, "De lana caprina"--have the same meaning, +a dispute concerning a bagatelle (but which is no trifle in the myth, +where the skin of the goat or of the ass is sometimes changed into a +golden fleece), which seems so much the more probable, as the Greeks +have also handed down to us another proverb in which the man who +expects to reap where he has not sown is laughed at as one who looks +for the wool of the ass ("Onou pokas zeteis"), or who shears the ass +("Ton onon keireis"). We have seen, in the myth of Midas, the king, +whose ears, when combed, betray his asinine nature. The Piedmontese +story of the maiden on whose forehead a horn or an ass's tail grows, +because she has badly combed the good fairy's head, is connected with +this story of the combing of the long-eared Midas. The combed ass and +the sheared ass correspond with one another; the combed ass has golden +ears, in the same way as gold and gems fall from the head of the good +fairy combed by the good girl in the fairy tale. To this mythical +belief, I think, may be traced the origin of the mediaeval custom in +the Roman Church, which lasted till the time of Gregory VII., in which +public ovations were offered to the Pope, and an ass bearing money +upon its head was brought before him.[740] + +The shadow of the ass[741] betrays him, no less than his ears, his +nose, and his braying. The shadow of the ass and his nose are found in +connection with each other in the legend of the Golden Ass of +Apuleius, which, after narrating how the ass, by putting his head out +of the window, had betrayed his master the greengrocer or gardener +(the friend of perfumes, "Gandharvas, asinus, in unguento, onos en +muero"), concludes thus: "The miserable gardener having been found +again, and taken before the magistrates to pay the fine, they lead him +to a public prison, and with great laughter cease not, says the ass +Lucius, to "make merry with my face;" whence also was derived the +popular proverb concerning the face and shadow of the ass ('De +prospectu et umbra asini')." The ass who betrays his master the +greengrocer or gardener by his face is a variety of the ass who, +dressed in the forest in the lion's skin[742] (like Herakles who goes +into hell dressed in a lion's skin), betrays himself by his braying, +and of the ass who discovers by his braying Priapos, who delights in +gardens (the vulva), Priapos the gardener, like the ogre[743] of the +_Pentamerone_, who finds before him in his garden a beautiful maiden. + +The ass can restrain neither his voice nor his flatus; we have already +seen something similar in the story of Midas, where the comber of the +ass feels he will burst if he is not permitted to relieve himself of +the secret of the ass. Diogenes of Laertes narrates that the fields of +Agrigentum being devastated by malignant winds which destroyed the +crops, the philosopher Empedocles instructed them to take asses' +skins, and having made sacks of them, carry them to the summits of the +hills and mountains, to chase the winds away. AElianos, confounding one +noise with another, suggests, to prevent the ass from braying, the +advantage of appending a stone to its tail. This ancient Greek fable +is to this day very popular in Italy, and the narrator is accustomed +to furbish it up with a character of actuality, as if it had happened +yesterday, and among his acquaintances. + +In the Italian stories,[744] when the ass brays upon the mountain, a +tail grows on the forehead of the step-mother's ugly daughter; the third +crowing of the cock is the signal for the monster's death; the third +braying or flatus of the ass announces the death of the fool. With the +end of the night the ass disappears, and the fool also disappears or +dies. The braying of the ass cannot mount up into heaven; after the ass +has brayed, after the cloud has thundered, the ass comes down upon the +earth, is dissolved into rain, is dispersed and dies; the dark ass +cannot remain in the luminous sky, it can only inhabit the cloudy, +watery, or gloomy sky of hell. The way in which the fool of the story +tries to elude death resembles that which was used, according to +AElianos, to prevent the ass from braying. In a story of Armagnac,[745] +Joan lou Pec runs after a man whom he believes to be a sage, and asks +him when he will die; the man answers, "Joan lou Pec, mouriras au +troisiemo pet de toun ase." The ass does so twice; the fool endeavours +to prevent the third: "Cop sec s'en-angonc cerca un pau (a stake) bien +pounchut et l'enfouncec das un martet dens lou cu de l'ase. Mes l'ase +s'enflec tant, e hasconc tant gran effort, que lou pau sourtisconc coumo +no balo e tuec lou praube Joan lou Pec." + +In _Herodotus_, the Scythians are defeated when the asses bray, and +the dogs bark among Darius's tents. The braying of the ass, the +thunder of the cloud, is an oracle; the ass that brays is a judge and +a prophet. In hell everything is known; the devil knows every art, +every species of malice, every secret; the ass in hell participates in +this knowledge. The ass Nicon, in _Plutarch_, in the Life of Antony, +predicts to Augustus his victory at the battle of Actium; on the +contrary, in the Life of Alexander, by the same author, an ass who +kills with a kick a great lion belonging to the Macedonian, appears to +the great conqueror in the light of an evil omen. The dying sun of +evening, the old lion, is killed in the evening by the ass of night; +in the morning, on the contrary, the ass of night announces his +fortune to the solar hero, who again becomes luminous and wise. The +ass can predict all things, because it knows all things; it knows +everything, because it hears everything, and it hears everything by +means of its exceedingly long ears; the ass of Apuleius says of +itself: "Recreabar quod auribus praeditus cuncta longule etiam dissita +sentiebam." And this ass which listens from a distance reminds us +again of the third brother, now a fool, and now only supposed to be a +fool; to the Andalusian Oidin-Oidon, hijo del buen oidor (a relation +of the already cited Vedic Indras acrutkarnas), of the second cuento +of Caballero,[746] who hears everything that is done in the deepest +parts of hell, where Lucifer sits, horned and large-eared. The hero +who combats with Lucifer only thinks of cutting off his ear; the ass +without ears is no longer an ass; the ears of the mythical ass are its +vital and characteristic organs. Instead of ears, give horns to the +mythical ass, and we have the mythical goat; take the horns away and +we have now the mythical abject sheep, now the hog; this is what we +shall see in the two next chapters. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[686] _Ueber den Zusammenhang indischer Fabeln mit griechischen_, eine +kritische Abhandlung von A. Weber, Berlin, 1855. + +[687] Here is the hymn as given by Du Cange in his _Gloss. M. et I. +L._:-- + + "Orentis partibus + Adventavit Asinus, + Pulcher et fortissimus, + Sarcinis aptissimus. + Hez, Sire Asnes, car chantez, + Belle bouche rechignez, + Vous aurez du fom assez + Et de l'avoine a plantez. + + "Lentus erat pedibus + Nisi foret baculus + Et eum in clunibus + Pungeret aculeus. + Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. + + "Hic in collibus Sichem, + Jam nutritus sub Ruben, + Transiit per Jordanem, + Saliit in Bethleem. + Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. + + "Ecce magnis auribus + Subjugalis filius + Asinus egregius + Asinorum dominus. + Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. + + "Saltu vincit hinnulos, + Damas et capreolos, + Super dromedarios + Velox Madianeos. + Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. + + "Auram de Arabia, + Thus et myrrhum de Saba + Tulit in ecclesia + Virtus Asinaria. + Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. + + "Dum trahit vehicula + Multa cum sarcinula, + Illius mandibula, + Dura terit pabula, + Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. + + "Cum aristis hordeum + Comedit et carduum; + Triticum a palea + Segregat in area. + Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. + + "Amen, dicas, Asine, + (_Hic genuflectabatur._) + Jam satur de gramine: + Amen, amen itera + Aspernare vetera. + Hez va! hez va! hez va! hez! + Bialz! Sire Asne, car allez; + Belle bouche car chantez." + +[688] Cfr. Reinsberg von Dueringsfeld, _Das festliche Jahr_. + +[689] Sometimes the place of the ass is taken by the mule. At Turin, for +instance, it is narrated that the church dedicated to the _Corpus +Domini_ was erected several centuries ago on account of the miracle of a +mule which carried some sacred goods stolen by an impious thief. Having +arrived in the little square where the Church of the _Corpus Domini_ now +stands, the mule refused to go any farther; and out of a cup, which was +among the sacred objects stolen, a wafer containing the body of our +Saviour rose into the air. Nor would it come down again until the bishop +came forth, and, holding the cup high in the air, besought the wafer to +come back into it; which having been miraculously accomplished, the +Church of the _Corpus Domini_ was erected on the spot, from which starts +and to which returns the solemn procession which takes place annually at +Turin on the festival of _Corpus Domini_, and in which, about twenty +years ago, the princes and great dignitaries of the state, with the +professors of the university, used to take part in all the pomp of +mediaeval ceremony and costume.--In Persia the festival of asses is +celebrated at the approach of spring; the ass personifying here the end +of the winter season. + +[690] The same analogy presents itself in the Sanskrit word +_arbhakas_, which means little and foolish. + +[691] Cfr. the root _gad_, from which we might perhaps deduce an +imaginary intermediate form, gadarbhas, besides the known gardabhas +and gandharbas or gandharvas. + +[692] Cfr. _arvan_ with the roots _arv, arb, arp, riph, riph, riv, +rinv_. + +[693] x. 10, 5. + +[694] Gandharva ittha padam asya rakshati.; _Rigv._ ix. 83, 4. + +[695] Strikamah vai gandharvah; i. 27. + +[696] Professor Kuhn (_Die Herabkunft_, d. f. &c.) has already compared +to this the Zend Gandhrawa, who, in the Lake Vouru-Kasha, keeps guard +over the tree _hom_ (the Vedic Somas). Kuhn and Weber, moreover, have +identified the Vedic gandharvas, Kricanus, who wounds the ravisher of +the Somas, with the Zend Kerecani, who endeavours to destroy riches; +here the gandharvas would appear to be a monstrous and demoniacal being. + +[697] ... ut omittam eos, quos libidinis ac foedae voluptatis causa, +coluisse nomen illud atque imposuisse suis, a scriptoribus notatur, +qualis olim Onos ille Commodi; qualis exsecrandus Marci Verotrasinus, +qualis et alterius Onobelos, quales, quos matronis in deliciis fuisse +scimus. Unde illud atque alium bipedem sibi quaerit asellum, ejus nempe +membri causa, quod, in asino, clava, a Nicandro dicitur; _Laus Asini_, +Lugd. Batavorum, ex officina Elzeviriana, p. 194. + +[698] To this flight into Egypt upon the ass can be referred the +Piedmontese custom among children in the middle of Lent--that is, near +the festival of St Joseph--of attaching to their companions now a saw, +now a devil's head, now an ass's head, pronouncing the words, "L'asu +caria che gnuen lu sa" (the ass burdened, and no one knows it). +Moreover, it seems to me that to the Christian tradition of Joseph, +and of the child Jesus carried upon the ass, can be referred the +well-known European fable of the old man, the boy, and the ass, of +which numerous varieties may be read in the article upon the _asinus +vulgi_ in the _Orient und Occident_ of Benfey. + +[699] Professor Benfey, in his learned Einleitung to the +_Pancatantram_, p. 268, says that the disguise by means of the skin of +an ass is found in a Latin poem of the fifteenth century. + +[700] "Addo ex Conrado Lycosthene in libro de ostentis et prodigiis +hanc iconem quam hippokentauri esse credebam, ipse vero (nescio ex +quo) Apothami vocat, Apothami (inquit) in aqua morantes, qui una parte +hominem, alia vero caballum sive equum referunt. Sic etiam memoriae +tradiderunt mulieres esse capite plano sine crinibus, promissas autem +barbas habentes. Atqui ea descriptio plane ad Onocentauros pertinere +videtur, quos Aelianus et Philes sic fere delineant. Quae vero de +Onocentauro fama accepi, haec sunt: Eum homini ore et promissa barba +similem esse, simul et collum et pectus, humanam speciem gerere; +mammas distantes tamquam mulieris ex pectore pendere; humeros, +brachia, digitos, humanam figuram habere; dorsum, ventrem, latera, +posteriores pedes, asino persimiles et quemadmodum asinum sic cinereo +colore esse; imum ventrem leviter exalbescere: duplicem usum ei manus +praestare; nam celeritate ubi sit opus eae manus praecurrunt ante +posteriores pedes; ex quo fit, ut non caeterorum quadrupedum cursu +superetur. Ac ubi rursus habet necesse vel cibum capere vel aliud +quidpiam tollere, qui ante pedes erant manus efficiuntur, tumque non +graditur, sed in sessione quiescit: Animal est gravi animi acerbitate; +nam si capiatur, non ferens servitutem, libertatis desiderio ab omni +cibo abhorret, et fame sibi mortem consciscit, licet pullus adhuc +fuerit. Haec de Onocentauro Pythagoram narrare testatur Crates, ex +Mysio Pergamo profectus;" Aldrovandi, _De Quadrupedibus_, i.--In the +Indian satyrs described by Pliny, in the seventh book of his _Natural +History_, we find represented an analogous animal: "Sunt et satyri +subsolanis Indorum montibus (Cartadulonum dicitur regio) pernicissimum +animal, turn quadrupes, turn recte currens, humana effigie, propter +velocitatem nisi senes aut aegri, aut capiuntur." Evidently this refers +to some kind of monkey (probably the orang-outang); but as the myth of +the monkey does not differ much from that of the ass, as we shall see, +even the Hindoo gandharvas is represented as a monkey.--"In _A. V._ +iv. 37, 11, the gandharvas, a class of gods, who are described as +hairy, like dogs and monkeys, but as assuming a handsome appearance to +seduce the affections of earthly females, are implored to desist from +this unbecoming practice, and not to interfere with mortals, as they +had wives of their own, the Apsarases;" Muir's _Sanskrit Texts_, v. +309.--We have the monkey-gandharvas and the warrior-gandharvas in the +Vedic hymns, the warrior-monkey in the _Ramayanam_, and the +warrior-kentauros and warrior-ass in Hellenic myths. + +[701] We also read of the ass that dances, which reminds us of the +gandharvas in their capacity of heavenly musicians and dancers, who +teach the gods how to dance. Nor is it perhaps without reason that the +author of precepts for dancers and mimics is named _Kricacvas_: +kricacvas means, as we already know, he who possesses a lean horse, or +simply the lean horse. Between the lean horse, the mule, and the ass, +the distance is short; nor can we overlook the fact that in the +gandharvas Kricanus is recognised as he who causes to become lean, +which calls us back to the monster who makes horses grow lean, to the +monster of horses, the ugly horse, the horse-monster, who destroys the +golden ears of the fields, making them dry up, like the monster +Cushnas, or the destroyer of riches, like the Zend Kerecani.--In the +before-quoted book, _Laus Asini_, the author says in jest, "Fortassis +Pegasum fuisse asinum;" and in this jest a great truth is contained. + +[702] Kada yogo vagino rasabhasya yena yagnam nasatyopayathah; _Rigv._ +i. 34, 9. + +[703] Vilupatmabhir acuhemabhir va devanam va gutibhih cacadana tad +rasabho nasatya sahasram aga yamasya pradhane gigaya. + +[704] Yatra rathasya brihato nidhanam vimocanam vagino rasabhasya; +_Rigv._ iii. 53, 5. + +[705] Navaginam vagina hasayanti na gardabham puro acvan nayanti; +_Rigv._ iii. 53, 23. + +[706] Gardabharathenacvina udagayatamacvinavacnuvatam yadacvina +udagayatamacvinavacnuvatam tasmatsasritagavo dugdhadohah +sarveshametarhi vahananamanacishto retasastvasya viryam naharatam +tasmatsa dvireta vagi; _Ait. Br._ iv. 2, 9. + +[707] _Ueber den Zusammenhang indischer Fabeln mit griechischen_, +Berlin, 1855. + +[708] St Jerome, in the Life of Saint Hilarion: "Ego, inquit, Aselle, +faciam ut non calcitres necte hordeo alam, sed paleis; fame te +conficiam et sitis gravi onerabo pondere; per aestus indagabo et +frigore, ut cibum potius quam lasciviam cogites."--St Paulinus wrote, +"Sit fortis anima mortificans asinum suum."--In Italian, too, there is +a low term by which we say, _il mio asino_, instead of _il mio corpo_. + +[709] A. c. i. m. t.,--poena seu mulcta, quae reis irrogari solebat, ut +colligitur ex decreto Nepesini populi ann. 1134.--Iis et maxime +maritis, qui a suis vapulabant mulieribus; quod eo usque insaniae +deventum erat, ut si maritus aufugisset, proximior vicinus eam ipse +poenam luere teneretur; quem morem non omnino periisse audivi. Du +Cange, whose words these are, gives several examples of a similar +chastisement.--In the _Tuti-Name_, ii. 20, a certain man complains to +a sage that he has lost his ass, and begs the wise man to find it +again for him; the latter points out a man who grew old without having +known love; he who does not love is a fool.--It is a remarkable fact +that the ass, generally considered a very lustful animal, is sometimes +despised as unadapted to make fruitful, and the reason of this is +given by Aldrovandi (_De Quadrupedibus_, i.)--Quamvis modo libidine +maxime pruriat, ob verendi tamen enormitatem, qua supra modum praeditus +est, ad generandum admodum segnem esse compertum est, sicuti et +homines qui simili genitalis productione conspicui sunt, quod in +emissione per eam longitudinem semen transmeans hebetetur et frigidius +fiat. Testaturque AElianus inter causas cur AEgyptii asinos odere, et +hanc quoque accedere putari, quod eum populi praedicti omnes foecundos +animantes colant, asinus minime foecundans nullus in honore sit. + +[710] Sam, indra, gardabham mrina nuvantam papayamuya; _Rigv._ i. 29, 5. + +[711] Quoted by Weber, _Ueber den Zusammenhang indischer Fabeln mit +griechischen_, where the braying ass would also appear to be born of the +omniform monster: "Entsteht, nach C. xii. 7, 1, 5, nebst Ross und +Maulthier, aus dem Ruhm (yacas, which, however, may perhaps here also +simply mean splendour), welcher dem Ohr des getoedteten Vicvarupa +Tvashtra entfloss, worin der Bezug auf sein lautes Geschrei wohl nicht +zu verkennen ist."--We have already seen, in the Russian stories quoted +in the preceding chapter, how the two horsemen who protect the hero come +out of the ears of the grey horse, and how the hero himself, entering by +one ear, and coming out of the other, finds a heroic horse. Here we can, +perhaps, detect an allusion to the long-eared ass, in the same way as in +the appellation of acrutkarnas, or the ear which listens, given to +Indras (_Rigv._ i. 10, 9), the long-eared Indras may possibly be a form +representing the long-eared Midas, or the ass with long ears. + +[712] Gatim khara ivacvasya suparnasyeva pakshinah anagantum na cakto +'smi ragyam tava mahipate. + +[713] _Ramay._ ii. 71. + +[714] _Ramay._ iii. 38, 48. + +[715] _Ib._ v. 12. + +[716] vi. 74. + +[717] Kravyadah picacah, in the _Atharvavedas_, viii. 2, 12. + +[718] Cfr. also the _Tuti-Name_ of Rosen, ii. 218, for the musical +ass; and the same, ii. 149, for the ass in a lion's skin. + +[719] xli. 28.--Cfr. the _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's _Einleitung_, p. +54: "Dort ist der dreibeinige Esel der in der Mitte des Sees steht und +mit seinem Geschrei die boesen Wesen vertreibt und alles Wasser, das +mit unreinen Wesen und Dingen in Beruehrung kommt, sogleich reinigt." + +[720] Readers of Dante are acquainted with the trumpet of the devil +Malacoda, which is used in the same way as the fool uses his in the +Mongol story. + +[721] In Menander, quoted by Aulus Gellius, a husband complains of the +injuries done him by his wife, using the proverb, "The ass amongst the +monkeys." Monkeys are well known for their impudent lasciviousness; +the ass, who represents the phallos, among this lascivious fraternity +finds himself often in the condition of an impotent and weak husband. + +[722] + + Lampsacus huic soli solita est mactare Priapo. + Apta asini flammis indicis exta damus. + Quem tu diva memor de pane monilibus ornas; + Cessat opus; vacuae conticuere molae. + --Ovidius, _Fasti_, vi. + +[723] From the myth of the ass, as a musician and judge of music, is +derived the Tuscan game of the ass, which is thus described by Signor +Fanfani in his _Vocabolario dell' Uso Tuscano_, Firenze, 1863:--"Each +member of the party chooses an animal whose voice or song he must +imitate. The head player represents the ass, and is the king of the +other animals. When the head player, sitting in the middle, calls one +of the animals who encircle him, the dog, for instance, this animal +must bark; when he calls the cock, it must cry chicchiricu; when he +calls the ox, he who represents it must bellow, and so on. When the +ass brays, then all the animals emit their respective cries. Whoever +laughs, or omits to give forth the voice or song of the animal which +he represents, pays a forfeit." + +[724] Ovidius, _Metam._ xi. 180. + +[725] According to the _Annals of Padova_, cited by Berrardino +Scardeone, in Aldrovandi. _De Quadrupedibus_, i. + +[726] The German proverb, "Wald hat Ohren, Feld hat Gesicht," is well +known. Cfr. the varieties of this proverb upon the ears of the forest, +in the third vol. pp. 120 and 173, of Uhland's _Schriften zur +Geschichte der Dichtung und Sage_, Stuettgart, 1866. + +[727] The reader is acquainted with the myth of the nymph Syrinx, +beloved of Pan, who was changed into a cane or reed, from which Pan made +a flute. We find the leaf of the cane in connection with the ass in +Hungarian tradition. A singular indentation can be observed upon the +leaves of the cane, which has a great resemblance to the mark of three +teeth. To explain this strange mark the Hungarian people narrate, that +the ass of the Redeemer once bit the leaf of a cane, but as Christ was +in a hurry, the ass was unable to eat the leaf, and so it happened that +its three teeth only left the mark of the bite upon the cane. From that +time forward every leaf of a cane bears record to this. The two lines +which stretch down the two flanks of the ass are said in Hungary to be +caused by the blood of our Redeemer. The popular belief in Ireland is +that these lines remain as a memorial of Christ having once struck the +ass.--Cfr. the chapter on the Peacock and that on the Eel, where we +shall find the hero and the heroine again transformed into canes. + +[728] The loss of heart or courage is expressed in Italian by the low +term "Qui mi casca l'asino" (here my ass falls). This expression, +however, may perhaps be of Hellenic origin; the equivoque between the +two equisonant expressions, "ap' onou" and "apo nou" is well-known; +whence to fall off the ass and to fall from one's mind became +synonymous. + +[729] There is an unpublished story which I heard narrated at Antignano, +near Leghorn, of a mother who has a silly son named Pipetta. The latter +asks his mother for a quattrino (a small coin) to buy a vetch, and +afterwards a bean, because it grows higher; he sows it, and it attains a +marvellous height. Climbing up the bean-stalk he comes to the gates of +paradise, which are opened to him, but St Peter sends him back; he then +finds the entrance to hell, which he wishes to visit. The devil shows +him all the sights; the two then play at cards, and Pipetta wins a +sackful of souls. The devil fears that Pipetta will empty hell, so he +allows him to depart with the sack, and an ass which throws gold from +its tail; he mounts up to heaven, and consigns the sack of souls to St +Peter. The story ends with the usual exchange of asses at the inn where +Pipetta sleeps upon his descent from the beanstalk. + +[730] _Biblion Istorikon_, i. 116.--It is added, that when Titus +remonstrated with his father on his avarice, Vespasian made him smell +the gold for which the horse's dung had been sold, asking him whether +it smelt bad.--In the Mongol story we saw the fool who goes out with +his ass and hides it in a cavern afterwards despoiling a merchant's +caravan.--_Tzetzas_, i. 128, records the existence in Phrygia of a +village called "Ass's-ears" (e klesis onou ota), inhabited by robbers, +and belonging to Midas; he thinks, moreover, that Midas was surnamed +the large-eared on account of this village of his. + +[731] vi. 105. + +[732] Kleitas onon hekatombas, xi. 51. + +[733] In _Anton. Liberalis_ we find a long narrative from which we +gather that Apollo would only suffer the ass to be sacrificed to him +among the Hyperboreans. + +[734] I read on this subject in the curious volume _Laus Asini_, +printed at Leyden by Elzevir, the following notice: "Si quis graviter +a scorpione ictus, id in aurem insusurret asino, ex tempore curetur." + +[735] + + "Te senior turpi sequitur Silenus asello + Turgida pampineis redimitus tempora sertis + Condita lascivi deducunt orgya mystae." + --Seneca, _Oedipus_. + +[736] Tam uhathur naubhir atmanvatibhir antarikshaprudbhir +apodakabhih; strophe 3.--Cfr. strophe 4th and 5th of the same hymn. + +[737] Another reason is also assigned for the honour given to the ass +in heaven: the ass and Priapos contend together as to who is superior; +Priapos defeats the ass, and Dionysos takes pity upon the vanquished, +and places it in heaven among the stars. + +[738] _Laus Asini_, Ludg. Batavorum, ex officina Elzeviriana. + +[739] "Conferre aliquid et candori in mulierum cute existimatur. +Poppaea certe Domitii Neronis conjux quingentas secum per omnia +trahens faetas balnearum etiam solio totum corpus illo lacte macerabat, +extendi quoque cutem credens;" _Aldrov._ To which custom Juvenal +alludes in his 6th satire: + + "Atque illo lacte fovetur + Propter quod secum comites educit asellas + Exul hyperboreum si dimittetur ad axim." + +[740] "Finitis laudibus, surgit quidam archipresbyter, retro se +ascendit asinum preparatum a curia; quidam cubicularius tenet in +capite asini bacilem cum xx. solidis denariorum," &c.; in Du Cange, +the work quoted before, _s. v. cornomannia_.--We also find in Du Cange +that a soldier was called in the middle ages "caput asini, pro +magnitudine capitis et congerie capillorum." + +[741] In the _Pentamerone_, iii. 8, the night is called "l'aseno de +l'ombre." + +[742] In the _Pentamerone_, ii. I, we have a variation of the other +AEsopian fable of the lion who is afraid of the ass. The old witch, in +order to deliver herself from the lion which Petrosinella has caused to +rise, flays an ass and dresses herself in its skin; the lion, believing +it to be really an ass, runs off.--In the thirteenth of the Sicilian +stories collected by Signora Laura Gonzenbach, and published at Leipzig +by Brockhaus, the ass and the lion dispute the spoil; the young hero +divides it, giving to the ass the hay that the lion has in its mouth, +and to the lion the bones in the ass's mouth. But probably the lion here +represents the dog, according to the Greek proverb, "Kueni didos achuera, +onoi ta ostea," to express a thing done the wrong way. + +[743] In the _Pentamerone_ again, in the island of the ogres, an old +ogress feeds a number of asses, who afterwards jump on to the bank of +a river and kick the swans; here the ass is demoniacal, as it is in +the _Ramayanam_; the swans, as we shall see, are a form of the +luminous Acvinau.--In obscene literature, the _mentula_ as a gardener, +and the _vulva_ as a garden, are two frequent images; cfr., among +others, the Italian poem, _La Menta_. + +[744] Cfr. the first of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_, +in which we also find the third brother, believed to be stupid, who +makes his ass throw gold from its tail; the foolish Pimpi, who kills his +ass whilst cutting wood; the son of the poor man, who amuses himself by +sending the ass before him tied to a string, and then making it return; +the peasant who drags up the ass which had fallen into the marsh, and +who then marries the daughter of the king of Russia (the wintry, the +gloomy, the nocturnal one), who never laughed and whom he causes to +laugh; and the ass who dies after eating a poisoned loaf. + +[745] _Contes et Proverbes Populaires recueillis en Armagnac_, par J. +F. Blade, Paris, Franck. + +[746] _Cuentos y Poesias Populares Andaluces_, collecionados por +Fernan Caballero, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1866. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE SHEEP, THE RAM, AND THE GOAT. + + +SUMMARY. + + The sun-shepherd, and the sun-lamb, ram, or goat.--The dark-coloured + he-goat.--The goat-moon.--Agas; explanation given by Professor + Breal; the Finnic aija.--Meshas; she-goat, ram, skin, sack.--The ram + Indras.--The goats Acvinau.--The he-goat Veretraghna.--The lamb and + the goat in the forest opposed to the wolf.--The apple-tree and the + she-goat; the cloud and the apple-tree.--The goat, the nut-tree and + the hazel-nuts.--The wolf assumes the goat's voice; the wolf in the + fire.--The witch takes the voice of the little hero's mother; the + child born of a tree.--The hero among the sheep, or in the spoils of + the sheep, escapes from the witch.--Pushan agacvas and his + sister.--The brother who becomes a kid while drinking; the sister in + the sea.--The husband-goat; the goat's skin burned; the monster + appears once more a handsome youth; the funereal mantle of the young + hero; when it is burned, the hero lives again handsome and + splendid.--The children changed into kids.--The cunning Schmier-bock + in the sack.--Agamukhi--Ilvalas and Watapis.--Indras meshandas, + sahasradharas and sahasradaras.--The rams of the wolf eaten.--The + goat of expiation, the goat and the stupidity of the hero disappear + at the same time.--The devil-ram; the putrid sheep that throws gold + behind it.--The goat which deprives men of sight.--The young prince, + riding on the goat, solves the riddle.--The spy of heaven; the eye + of God.--The constellation of the she-goat and two kids.--The lame + goat.--The heroine and the goat her guide and nurse.--The milky way + and the she-goat.--The goat's blood, manus Dei; the stone + bezoar.--The cunning goat.--The goat deceives the wolf; the goat + eats the leaf.--The she-goat possessed of a devil.--The + ram-vessel.--Ram and he-goat foecundators.--The he-goat and the + horned husband.--Zeus he-goat and the satyr Pan; Herakles the rival + of a goat; the old powerless man called a he-goat.--Hellenic forms + of the myth of the goat.--Phrixos and Helle; Jupiter Ammon; the + altar of Apollo; the fleece of the Iberians; the golden ram of + Atreus; Aiguesthos; Diana and the white sheep; Neptune a ram; satyrs + and fauns; Hermes krioforos; the sheep of Epimenis; lambs, rams, and + he-goats sacrificed; aixourania and the cornucopia.--The mythical + goat; its threefold form; black, white, and light-coloured + lambs.--Pecus and pecunia. + +When the girl aurora leads out of the stable in the morning her +radiant flock, among them there are found to be white lambs, white +kids, and luminous sheep; in the evening the same aurora leads the +lambs, the kids, and the sheep back to the fold. In the early dawn all +this flock is white, by and by their fleeces are golden fleeces; the +white, and afterwards the golden heavens of the east (or the west) +constituting this white and golden flock, and the sun's rays their +fleeces. Then the sun himself, who steps forth from this flock, is now +its young shepherd-king, and now the lamb, the ram, or he-goat. When +the sun enters into the region of night, the he-goat or lamb goes back +to the fold and becomes dark-coloured; the sun veiled by the night or +the cloud is a dark-coloured ram, he-goat, or she-goat. In the night, +says the proverb, all cows are black; and the same might be said of +goats, except in the case of the goat, luminous and all-seeing, coming +out of the nocturnal darkness in the form of the moon. We must, +therefore, consider the sheep or goat under a triple aspect; the +principal and most interesting aspect being that of the sun veiled by +the gloom, or by the cloud, which wears often a demoniacal form, such +as that of the ass or of the hero in hell; the second being that of +the grey-white, and afterwards golden sky of morning, or of the golden +and thereafter grey-white sky of evening which, as a luminous, is +therefore generally a divine form of the goat; and the third aspect +being that of the moon. + +The richest myths refer to the sun enclosed in the cloud or the shades +of night, or to the cloud or darkness of night closing round the sun. +The shifting shadow and the moving cloud on the one side, the damp +night and the rainy cloud on the other, easily came to be represented +as a goat and as a ram. In the Indian tongue, or even the Vedic, +_agas_ is a word which means, properly speaking, pushing, drawing, +moving (agens), and afterwards he-goat; the he-goat butts with its +horns; the sun in the cloud butts with its rays until it opens the +stable and its horns come out.[747] The ram is called _meshas_, or +_mehas_, that is, the pourer or spreader, mingens (like the ass +ciramehin), which corresponds with the _meghas_, or cloud mingens. +Moreover, as in Greek from _aix_,[748] a goat, we have _aigis_, a skin +(AEgis), so in Sanskrit from _agas_, a goat, we have _aginas_, a skin; +and from _meshas_, a ram, _meshas_, a fleece, a skin, and that which +is formed from it; whence the Petropolitan Dictionary compares with it +the Russian _mieh_ (Lithuanian, _maiszas_) skin and sack. + +Let us now first of all see how these simple images developed +themselves in the Hindoo myth. + +Indras, the pluvial and thundering god, is represented in the first +strophe of a Vedic hymn as a very celebrated heroic ram;[749] in the +second strophe, as the one who pours out ambrosial honey (madacyutam); +in the third strophe, as opening the stable or precinct of the cows to +the Angirasas;[750] in the fourth strophe, as killing the serpent that +covers or keeps back; in the fifth strophe, as expelling the +enchanters with enchantments, and breaking the strong cities of the +monster Piprus;[751] and in the sixth strophe, as crushing under his +foot the giant-like monster Arbudas[752] or monster serpent. Thus far +we have two aspects of the myth, the ram which pours out ambrosial +honey, and the ram which opens the gate and crushes with its foot. In +another hymn the Acvinau are compared to two he-goats (ageva), to two +horns (cringeva), and to two swift dogs.[753] A third hymn informs us +that Indras by means of a ram killed a leonine monster.[754] + +Here we evidently have a heroic he-goat or ram. + +Let us compare it with other traditions. In the _Khorda Avesta_[755] +we find Veretraghna (the Zend form of Indras, as Vritrahan) "with the +body of a warrior he-goat, handsome, and with sharpened horns." + +In the Russian tale given by _Afanassieff_,[756] the lamb, companion of +the bull in the wood, kills the wolf by butting against its sides, while +the bull also wounds the ferocious beast with its horns. In another +variation of the same story,[757] the cat is confederate with the lamb +against the wolf; the lamb butts hard at the wolf, while the cat +scratches it till blood flows. In yet another version, besides the lamb, +the he-goat also appears; the cat twists some of the bark of the +birch-tree round the horns of the he-goat, and bids the lamb rub against +it to produce fire; sparks come from it, the cat fetches hay, and the +three companions warm themselves. The wolves come up, and the cat makes +them run, presenting them the goat as a scarecrow, and frightening them +further by ominous hints as to the strength contained in its beard. +Finally, we have in the Russian stories two singular variations of the +fable of the goat, the kids, and the wolf.[758] The goat is about to +give birth to her young ones under an apple-tree. (We have seen in +Chapter I. the apple-tree, the fruit of which, when eaten, causes horns +to sprout. It is well-known that in Greek, _melon_ means a goat and an +apple-tree, as the Hindoo masculine noun _petvas_, which means a ram, is +in the neuter _petvam_ = ambrosia. The mythical apple-tree is ambrosial, +like the cornucopia of the goat of mythology; and it seems to me that +here, too, I can find an analogy in the Slavonic field itself between +the Russian words _oblaka_, clouds, in the plural _ablaka_, the clouds, +and _iablony_, apple-tree, plural _jablogna_, the apple-trees, _jablok_, +the apple.) The apple-tree advises the goat to betake itself to some +other place, as the apples might fall upon its new-born kids and kill +them. The goat then goes to give birth to her young ones under an +equally shady walnut-tree; the walnut-tree also advises her to go away, +as the nuts might fall and do serious harm to her little ones;[759] upon +which the goat goes to a deserted tent in the forest, another form of +the cloud of night. When the kids are brought forth, the goat issues +forth out of the tent to procure food, and cautions her children not to +open to any one (the fable is well known in the West, but the Slavonic +variations are particularly interesting). The wolf comes and pronounces +the same password as the goat to induce the kids to open, but they +perceive by the rough voice of the wolf that it is not their mother, and +refuse to admit him. The wolf then goes to the blacksmith, and has a +voice made for him resembling that of the goat; the deceived kids open, +and the wolf devours them all except the smallest, who hides under the +stove (the favourite place where the little Slavonic hero, the third +brother, the ill-favoured fool, who afterwards becomes handsome and +wise, is accustomed to squat). The goat returns, and learns from the kid +which has escaped the massacre of its brothers. She thinks how to avenge +herself, and invites her friend and gossip the fox with the wolf to +dinner; the unsuspecting wolf arrives along with the fox. After dinner, +the goat, to divert her guests, invites them to amuse themselves by +leaping over an opening made in the floor; the goat leaps first, then +the fox leaps, and then the wolf, but falls down on the burning ashes +and is burnt to death, like the witch in some other stories, as the +night is burned by the morning aurora; and the goat chaunts a marvellous +_Te Deum_ (cudesnoi pamin) in the wolf's honour. The other Russian +version adds some new and curious details. The goat goes to find food, +and leaves the kids alone; they shut the door after her. She returns +and says, "Open, my sons, my little fathers; your mother is come; she +has brought some milk, half a side full of milk, half a horn full of +fresh cheese, half a little horn full of clear water (the +cornucopia)."[760] The kids open immediately. The second day the goat +goes out again; the wolf, who had heard the song, tries to sing it to +the kids; but the latter perceive that it is not their mother's voice, +and do not open. Next day the wolf again imitates the mother's voice; +the kids open the door, and are all devoured except one which hides +itself in the stove, and afterwards narrates to the mother-goat all that +has happened. The goat avenges herself as follows: She goes into the +forest with the wolf, and comes to a ditch where some workmen had cooked +some gruel, and left the fire still burning. The goat challenges the +wolf to leap the ditch; the wolf tries and falls into it, where the fire +makes his belly split open, from which the kids, still alive, skip out +and run to their mother. + +Another story, however,[761] affords us still more aid in the +interpretation of the myth; that is, in leading us to see in the goat +and her kids the sun horned or furnished with rays, as it issues radiant +out of the cloud, or darkness, or ocean of night, and in the wolf, or in +the wolf's skin, split open or burned, out of which the kids come, the +dark, cloudy, watery nocturnal sky. Instead of the wolf we have a witch, +instead of the goat a woman, and instead of the kids the young Vaniushka +(Little John); the witch has a voice made by the blacksmith like that of +Vaniushka's or Tereshicko's mother, and thus attracts him to her. +Tereshicha says that he was originally the stump of a tree, which his +father and mother, being childless, had picked up in the forest, and +wrapped up and rocked in a cradle till he was born. + +The monster wolf, or the witch, having the faculty of simulating the +voice of the goat,[762] and an especial predilection for both sheep +and goats,--so much so that the witch Liho (properly Evil) keeps some +in her house, and those which come out (of the dark sky) in the +morning, and which re-enter (the dark sky) in the evening, are +considered her peculiar property,[763]--often transforms the hero (the +evening sun) into a kid (into the darkness or cloud of night). Of +course, as the dark and cloudy monster is often represented as a wolf, +it is easy to understand his wish that everything should be +transformed into a lamb in order to eat it. But the mythical lamb or +kid, the young solar hero, generally escapes out of the jaws of the +wolf, out of the hands of the witch, or out of the darkness, the +waters, or the cloud of night. + +A Vedic hymn celebrates the strong Pushan, who has a he-goat for his +horse (or who is a goat-horse), and is called the lover of his sister. +Perhaps these words contain the germ of the Russian story of Little +John, brother of Little Helen, who is changed by witchcraft into a +kid. I have already observed in Chapter I. how Helen, who at the +commencement of the story shows affection for her brother John, ends +by betraying him. The Vedic hymn would appear to contain the notion of +the brother Pushan transformed into a he-goat (the sun which enters +into the cloud or darkness of night), because he has loved his sister. +In another Vedic hymn we have the sister Yami, who seduces her brother +Yamas. In European fairy tales, the sister loves her brother, who is +metamorphosed by the art of a witch, now into a young hog, and now +into a kid. In the forty-fifth story of the fourth book of +_Afanassieff_, Ivanushka (Little John) becomes a kid after drinking +out of a goat's hoof. In the twenty-ninth story of the second book of +_Afanassieff_, Ivanushka and Little Helen, the children of a Tzar, +wander alone about the world. Ivanushka wishes to drink where cows, +horses, sheep, and hogs feed and drink; his sister Little Helen +advises him not to do so, lest he should turn into a calf, a colt, a +lamb, or a young pig; but at last John is overcome by thirst, and, +against the advice of his sister, he drinks where goats drink, and +becomes a kid. A young Tzar marries the sister, and gives every honour +to the kid, but a witch throws the young queen into the sea (Phrixos +and Helle; in other European stories, into a cistern), and usurps her +place, inducing the people to believe that she is Helen, and +commanding the kid to be put to death. The kid runs to the shore and +invokes his sister, who answers from the bottom of the sea that she +can do nothing. The young Tzar, to whom the affair is referred, +hastens to deliver Helen out of the sea; the kid can again skip about +in safety, and everything is green again, and flourishes as much as it +withered before; the witch is burnt alive.[764] + +According to the fiftieth story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, a +merchant has three daughters. He builds a new house, and sends his +three daughters by turns to pass the night there, in order to see what +they dream about. (The belief that the man dreamed of by a maiden +during the night of St John's Day, Christmas Day, or the Epiphany, is +her predestined husband, still exists in the popular superstitions of +Europe.) The eldest daughter dreams that she marries a merchant's son, +the second a noble, and the third a he-goat. The father commands his +youngest daughter never to go out of the house; she disobeys; a +he-goat appears and carries her off upon his horns towards a rocky +place. Saliva and mucous matter fall from the goat's mouth and +nostrils; the good maiden is not disgusted, but patiently wipes the +goat's mouth. This pleases the animal, who tells her that if she had +shown horror towards him, she would have had the same fate as his +former wives, whose heads were impaled on a stake. The geese bring to +the girl news of her father and sisters; they announce that the eldest +sister is about to be married; she wishes to be present at the +wedding, and is permitted by the goat to go, who orders for her use +three horses as black as a crow, who arrive at their destination in +three leaps (the three steps of Vishnus), whilst he himself sits upon +a flying carpet, and is transported to the wedding in the form of a +handsome and young stranger. The same happens on the occasion of the +second sister's marriage, when the third sister guesses that this +handsome youth is her own husband. She departs before the rest, comes +home, finds the skin of the goat and burns it; then her husband always +preserves the form of a handsome youth, inasmuch as the enchantment of +the witch has come to an end.[765] + +The lamb, the he-goat, and the sheep are favourite forms of the +witch. In the European story, when the beautiful princess, in the +absence of the prince, her husband, gives birth to two beautiful sons, +the witch induces the absent prince to believe that, instead of real +sons, his young wife has given birth to pups. In the seventh story of +the third book of _Afanassieff_, the young queen gives birth, during +the king's absence, to two sons, of whom one has the moon on his +forehead, and the other a star on the nape of his neck (the Acvinau). +The wicked sister of the young queen buries the children. Where they +were buried a golden sprout and a silver one spring up. A sheep feeds +upon these plants, and gives birth to two lambs, having, the one the +moon on its head, the other a star on its neck. The wicked sister, who +has meanwhile been married to the king, orders them to be torn in +pieces, and their intestines to be thrown out into the road. The good +lawful queen has them cooked, eats them, and again gives birth to her +two sons, who grow up hardy and strong, and who, when interrogated by +the king, narrate to him the story of their origin; their mother is +recognised, and becomes once more the king's wife; the wicked sister +is put to death.[766] + +The witch is sometimes herself (as a wolf-cloud or wolf-darkness) a +devourer of young luminous kids or lambs, such as the Schmierbock in +the Norwegian story. The witch carries Schmierbock three times away in +a sack; the first and second time Schmierbock escapes by making a hole +in the sack; but the third time the witch succeeds in carrying him to +her house, where she prepares to eat him. The cunning Schmierbock, +however, smuggles the witch's own daughter into his place, and, +climbing up, conceals himself in the chimney (a variation of the +stove, the place where the young Russian hero usually hides himself, +in the same way as in the Tuscan story the foolish Pimpi conceals +himself in the oven). From this post of security he laughs at the +witch, who endeavours to recapture him; he throws a stone down the +chimney and kills her, upon which he descends, rifles her +treasure-stores, and carries off all her gold. Here the young hero is +called a he-goat; in the chapter on the wolf, we shall find the witch +of the Norwegian story actually bears the name of wolf. These two data +complete the myth; the wolf which wishes to devour the little hero, +and the witch who endeavours to eat the little lamb, are completed by +the fable which represents the wolf as, at the rivulet, eating the +lamb, which, in the mythical heavens, means the cloudy and gloomy +monster which devours the sun. + +We have seen above the witch who imitates the voice of the mother of +the little hero, in order to be able to eat him, and the wolf who +mimics the voice of the goat and eats the kids; but the wolf does more +than assume the goat's voice; he sometimes even takes her form. + +In the _Ramayanam_,[767] Agamukhi, or goat's face, is called a witch, +who wishes Sita to be torn to pieces. In the legend of Ilvalas and +Vatapis,[768] the two wizard brothers who conspire to harm the +Brahmanas, Vatapis transforms himself into a wether, and lets himself +be sacrificed in the funeral rites by the Brahmanas. The unsuspecting +Brahmanas eat its flesh; then Ilvalas cries out to his brother, "Come +forth, O Vatapis!" and his brother, Vatapis, comes out of the bodies +of the Brahmanas, lacerating them, until the rishis Agastyas eats of +himself the whole of Vatapis, and burns Ilvalas to ashes. The +_Ramayanam_ itself explains to us why, in these sacrifices, a wether, +and not a ram, is spoken of,[769] when it narrates the legend of +Ahalya. It is said in this passage that the god Indras was one day +condemned to lose his testicles by the malediction of the rishis +Gautamas, with whose wife, Ahalya, he had committed adultery. The +gods, moved to pity, took the testicles of a ram and gave them to +Indras, who was therefore called Meshandas; on this account, says the +_Ramayanam_, the Pitaras feed on wethers, and not on rams, in funeral +oblations. This legend is evidently of brahmanic origin. The +Brahmanas, being interested in discrediting the god of the warriors, +Indras, and finding him called in the Vedas by the name of Meshas or +ram, invented the story of the ram's testicles, in the same way as, +finding Indras in the Vedas called by the name of Sahasrakshas +(_i.e._, he of the thousand eyes), they malignantly connected this +appellation with the same scandalous story of the seduction of Ahalya, +and degraded the honourable epithet into an infamous one, he of the +thousand wombs, probably by the confusion arising out of the equivoque +between the words _sahasradharas_, the sun (as carrying, now a +thousand stars, now a thousand rays), or _sahasrancus_, and +_sahasradaras_, which has a very different meaning. + +In the important 116th hymn of the first book of the _Rigvedas_, +Rigracvas (_i.e._, the red horse, or the hero of the red horse) eats a +hundred rams belonging to the she-wolf (in the following hymn, a +hundred and one); his father blinds him on this account; the two +marvellous physicians, the Acvinau, give him back his two eyes.[770] +Evidently the father of the solar hero is here the gloomy monster of +night himself; the sun, at evening, becomes the devourer of the rams +who come out of the she-wolf, or who belong to the she-wolf; it is for +this reason that the monster wolf blinds him when evening comes. The +red horse Rigracvas, or the hero of the red horse, who eats the rams +of the she-wolf, affords a further key to enable us to understand the +expiatory goat, which in the _Rigvedas_ itself is sacrificed instead +of the horse. We are told in a hymn, that in the sacrifice of the +horse the omniform he-goat (ago vicvarupah) has preceded the +horse;[771] and the _Aitareya Br._, commenting on this exchange of +animals, also speaks of the he-goat as the last animal destined for +the sacrifice. In the Russian stories, too, the goat has to pay the +price of the follies or rogueries done by the man, and is +sacrificed.[772] This sacrificed he-goat appears to be the same as the +ass which undergoes punishment for all the animals in the celebrated +fable of Lafontaine (which becomes a bull in the hands of the Russian +fabulist Kriloff, who could not introduce the ass, an animal almost +unknown in Russia); and we already know that the ass represents the +sun in the cloud or the sun in the darkness; and we have also said +that the ass and the fool die together in the legend. The she-goat +dies in the Russian story to deliver the fool, who, after her death, +is a fool no longer, his folly having died with her.[773] The popular +story offers us another proof of the identity of the mythical ass and +the mythical goat. We have also seen above, in the Norwegian story, +how the witch possesses a treasure which is carried off by the +Schmierbock, who kills her; the magician, or the devil, is always +rich. The ass which the devil gives to Little Johnny throws gold from +its tail; the ass personifies the devil. But the devil, as we have +observed, also has a predilection to embody himself in a ram, a lamb, +or a he-goat. I remember the puppets who every day improvised popular +representations in the little wooden theatre on the Piazza Castello, +at Turin, when I was a boy; the final doom of the personage who +represented the tyrant was generally to die under the bastinadoes of +Arlecchino, or to be carried to hell by the devil in the form of a +bleating lamb, which came upon the scene expressly to carry him away +with him, this disappearance being accompanied by much throbbing of +the spectators' hearts, to whom the manager preached a salutary +sermon.[774] In the twenty-first of the Tuscan stories published by +me, it is not the devil, but the little old man, Gesu, who gives to +the third brother, instead of the usual ass, a putrid sheep, which, +however, has the virtue of throwing louis-d'or behind it. This putrid, +or wet, or damp sheep represents still better the damp night. + +Rigracvas, as we have said, eats the ram and becomes blind, his father +having blinded him to avenge the she-wolf to whom the rams belonged; but +the mother of the rams being the sheep, it is probable that the she-wolf +who possessed the rams had assumed the form of a putrid sheep, in the +same way as we have seen her above transformed into a she-goat; the +father of Rigracvas, who avenges the she-wolf on account of the hundred +rams, may perhaps himself have been a horned wolf transformed into a +he-goat, and have blinded Rigracvas with his horns. In the popular +story, the she-goat, when she is in the forest, takes a special pleasure +in wounding people's eyes with her horns; hence is probably derived the +name of the reptile agakavas, conjured with in the _Rigvedas_,[775] as +durdricikas, or making to see badly, damaging the eyesight, and the name +of agaka, given to an illness in the eyes by the Hindoo physician +Sucrutas. However, we must not forget the connection between the idea of +skin and that of goat, by which the agaka might mean simply the thin +membrane that sometimes harms the pupil of the eye, and produces +blindness. This thin membrane, stretched over the eye of the solar hero, +blinds him. We shall see in the chapter on the frog and the toad, which +very often represent, in the myths, the cloud and the damp night, that +the toad[776] causes blindness only by means of the venom which it is +fabled to exude, like the reptile agakavas. + +But, as the hero in hell learns and sees everything, the goat, which +deprives others of sight, has itself the property of seeing +everything; this is the case, because the goat, being the sun enclosed +in the cloud or gloomy night, sees the secrets of hell, and also +because, being the horned moon or starry sky, it is the spy of the +heavens. We have already observed in the first chapter how the +marvellous girl of seven years of age, to answer the acted riddle +proposed by the Tzar, arrives upon a hare, which, in mythology, +represents the moon. In a variation of the same story given by +_Afanassieff_,[777] instead of riding upon a hare, the royal boy comes +upon a goat, and is recognised by his father; the goat, in its +capacity of steed of the lost hero, seems here to represent the moon, +as the hare does. + +We have already spoken of Indras sahasrakshas, _i.e._, of the thousand +eyes; Hindoo painters represent him with these thousand eyes, that is, +as an azure sky bespangled with stars. Indras as the nocturnal sun hides +himself, transformed, in the starry heavens; the stars are his eyes. The +hundred-eyed or all-seeing (panoptes) Argos placed as a spy over the +actions of the cow beloved of Zeus, is the Hellenic equivalent of this +form of Indras. In Chapter I. we also saw the witch's daughter of the +Russian fairy tale who has three eyes, and with her third eye plays the +spy over the cow, which protects the good maiden. In the second story of +the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, when the peasant ascends into heaven +upon the pea-plant, and enters into a room where geese, hogs, and pastry +are being cooked, he sees a goat on guard; he only discovers six eyes, +as the goat has its seventh eye in its back; the peasant puts the six +eyes to sleep, but the goat, by means of its seventh eye, sees that the +peasant eats and drinks as much as he likes, and informs the lord of the +sky of the fact. In another variation of the story, given by +_Afanassieff_,[778] the old man finds in heaven a little house guarded +in turns by twelve goats, of which one has one eye, another two, a third +three, and so on up to twelve. The old man says to one after the other, +"One eye, two eyes, three eyes, &c., sleep." On the twelfth day, instead +of saying "twelve eyes," he makes a mistake and says "eleven;" the goat +with twelve eyes then sees and secures him. The eye of God which sees +everything, in the popular faith, is a variation of Argos Panoptes, the +Vedic Vicvavedas, and the Slavonic Vsievedas, the eye of the goat which +sees what is being done in heaven. When the moon shines in the sky, the +stars grow pale, the eyes of the witch of heaven fall asleep, but some +few eyes still stay open, some few stars continue to shine to observe +the movements of the cow-moon, the fairy-moon, the Madonna-moon, who +protects the young hero and the beautiful solar maiden lost in the +darkness of night. + +This spying goat's eye is perhaps connected with the constellation of +the goat and two kids. Columella writes that the kids appear in the +sky towards the end of September, when the west, and sometimes the +south, wind blows and brings rain. According to Servius, the goat +united with the two kids in the constellation of Aquarius is the same +goat which was the nurse of Zeus; he says that it appears in October, +with the sign of Scorpio. Ovid, in _De Arte Amandi_, and in the first +book _Tristium_, and Virgil in the ninth book of the _AEneid_,[779] +also celebrate the goat and the kids of heaven as bringers of rain. +Horace, in the seventh ode, elegantly calls the goat's stars insane:-- + + "Ille nothis actus ad Oricum + Post insana caprae sidera, frigidas + Noctes non sine multis + Insomnis lachrymis agit." + +We have already seen Indras as a ram or pluvial cloud; and the goat +with only one foot (ekapad agah), or he who has but one goat's foot, +who supports the heavens, who lightens and thunders,[780] is a form of +the same pluvial Indras who supports the heavens in the rainy season. +We have seen the Acvinau compared to two goats, two horns, two hoofs; +each, therefore, would seem to have but one horn, but one goat's foot +(which might perhaps explain the ekapad agah); hence on one side the +cornucopia, and on the other the lame goat.[781] The nymph Galathea +(the milky one), who loves a faun (or one who has goat's feet), seems +to be a Hellenic form of the loves of Esmeralda and the goat with +Quasimodo. The goat loves him who has goat's feet; the solar hero (or +heroine) in the night has goat's feet; he is a satyr, a faun, a +he-goat, an ass; he is deformed and foolish, but he interests the good +fairy, who, in the form of a she-goat (as the moon and as the milky +way), guides him in the night, and, as the dawn (white aurora) in the +morning, saves him and makes him happy. In the German legend, the poor +princess who, with her son, is persecuted in the forest, is assisted +now by a she-goat, now by a doe, which gives milk to the child; by +means of this animal, which serves as his guide, the prince finds his +lost bride. This guiding she-goat, or doe, the nurse of the +child-hero, which Servius recognised in the constellation of the goat +(with respect to Zeus, who is essentially pluvial, as the Vedic Indras +has the clouds himself for his nurses), must have generally +represented the moon. But even the milky way of the sky (the bridge of +souls) is the milk spilt by the she-goat of heaven; the white morning +sky is also the milk of this same she-goat. The horned moon,[782] the +milky way, and the white dawn are represented in the form of a +beneficent she-goat which assists the hero and the heroine in the +forest, in the darkness; whilst, on the contrary, the sun enclosed in +the cloud, the darkness, or the starry sky of night (with the insana +caprae sidera), is now a good and wise he-goat or ram, full of good +advice, like the ram who advises the king of India in the +_Tuti-Name_,[783] and now a malignant monster, a demoniacal being. +Inasmuch as the goat gives light and milk, it is divine; inasmuch as +it conceals the beauty of the young hero or heroine and opposes them, +it may be considered demoniacal. + +The connection between the she-goat and the milky way can also be +proved from the name St James's Way, given by the common people to the +galaxy, or galathea, or way of milk;[784] and it is interesting to +learn from Baron Reinsberg,[785] how, in several parts of Bohemia, it +is the custom on St James's Day to throw a he-goat out of the window, +and to preserve its blood, which is said to be of potent avail against +several diseases, such, for instance, as the spitting of blood. In the +_Lezioni di Materia Medica_ of Professor Targioni-Tozzetti,[786] we +also read that the he-goat's blood was known by no less a name than +_manus Dei_, and believed to be especially useful against contusions +of the back, pleurisy, and the stone. But the disease of the stone was +supposed to be cured by the stone called _capra_ (goat), which was +said to be found in the bodies of some Indian goats. Targioni-Tozzetti +himself seriously describes the goat-stones as follows:--"These stones +are usually clear on their surface, and dark-coloured; they have an +odour of musk when rubbed and heated by the hands. In them (the stone +Bezoar[787]) analeptic and alexipharmic virtues were supposed to +exist, which were able to resist the evil effects of poison and +contagious diseases, the plague not excepted, and to save the patient +by causing an abundant and healthy perspiration to break out on his +skin. For this reason these stones were sold very dear. The same +virtues are attributed to those found in the West, but in a much less +degree." When the heavenly goat dissolves in rain or in dew, when +moisture comes from the goat-cloud, the mountain-cloud, or the +stone-cloud, these humours are salutary. When St James, who is joined +with the goat and the rain, pours out his bottle, as the Piedmontese +people say, the vapour which falls from the sky on these days is +considered by the peasants, as in fact it is for the country, and +especially for the vines, a real blessing. In the fable of _Babrios_, +the vine, whose leaves are eaten by the he-goat, threatens it, saying +that it will nevertheless produce wine, and that when the wine is made +(_i.e._, at the Dionysian mysteries), the goat will be sacrificed to +the gods. In the spring, on the other hand, or on the Easter of the +resurrection, it was the custom to sacrifice in effigy the _Agnus +Dei_, in the belief that it would serve to defend the fields and +vineyards against demoniacal wiles, thunderbolts and thunder, +facilitate parturition, and deliver from shipwreck, fire, and sudden +death.[788] In the Witches' Sabbath in Germany, it was said that the +witches burned a he-goat, and divided its ashes among themselves.[789] + +The cunning she-goat is an intermediate form between the good wise +fairy and the witch who is an expert in every kind of malice. In the +same way as the hero, at first foolish, learns malice from the devil, +to use it afterwards against the devil himself, it may be presumed +that the hero, in his form of a goat, has learned from the monsters +all that cunning by which he afterwards distinguishes himself. The +Vedic ram, Indras, also uses magic against the monster magicians. + +In the second of the Esthonian stories, we read that the king of the +serpents has a golden cup containing the milk of a heavenly goat; if +bread is dipped into this milk, and put into the mouth, one can +discover every secret thing that has happened in the night, without +any one perceiving how. + +In the French mediaeval poem of _Ysengrin_,[790] the she-goat deceives +the wolf in a way similar to that in which, in the first number of +_Afanassieff's_ stories, the peasant cheats the bear, and in the +Italian stories the same peasant defrauds the devil. The she-goat +shows a fox-like cunning, keeping for itself the leaf of the corn, and +leaving the root for the wolf. Hence, in my eyes, the origin of the +Piedmontese proverbial expression, "La crava a l'a mangia la foeja" +(the goat ate the leaf), and even the simple one of "Mange la foeja" +(to eat the leaf), meaning to understand cunning.[791] I heard from a +certain Uliva Selvi, at Antignano (near Leghorn), the narrative of a +witch who sent a boy every day to take the she-goat to the pasturage, +ordering him to pay attention that it should eat well, but leave the +corn alone. When the goat returned, the witch asked it-- + + "Capra, mia capra Mergolla, + Come se' ben satolla?" + (Goat, my goat Mergolla, + Are you quite satiated?) + +To which the goat answered-- + + "Son satolla e cavalcata, + Tutto il giorno digiunata." + (I am satiated, and have been ridden; + I have fasted all day.) + +Then the boy was put to death by the witch. It happened thus to twelve +boys, until the thirteenth, more cunning, caressed the goat and gave +it the corn to eat; then the goat answered to the witch's question-- + + "Son ben satolla e governata, + Tutto il giorno m' ha pasturata." + (I am quite satiated, and have been well kept; + He has given me to eat all day.) + +And the boy, too, was well treated. + +The devil's pupil always outwits his master; the she-goat beguiles the +wolf to its destruction. We have seen this in the Russian story, and +it is confirmed in the legend of _Ysengrin_. The peasants of Piedmont +and of Sicily have, for this reason, so much respect for the goat, +that they consider it brings a blessing to the house near which it is +maintained; and if, by chance, they show a perverse nature, this +perversity is attributed to the devil himself, who, they believe, has +maliciously taken possession of them. A few years ago, a goatherd of +the Val di Formazza, in the Ossola in Piedmont, had two goats which he +believed to be possessed by some evil spirit, for which reason they +always wandered about, in order, as he thought, that the demon might +at last be able to throw them down some abyss. One day the two goats +were lost; the goatherd searched for them for a short time, but +finding his search bootless, he resolved to go and make a vow to the +Madonna of Einsiedlen. Chance so arranged it, that at the very moment +in which he was returning from his pious pilgrimage, his two goats +also approached the door of his house; therefore, of course, this was +declared to be a miracle in Formazza, and as such it is still believed +in that district.[792] + +In the preceding chapter we saw the ass represented in two aspects, as +regards its generative capabilities; that is, it is now represented as +an ardent, insatiable, and competent foecundator, and now as a +ridiculous imbecile, and powerless to generate. We also saw the ass +closely connected with the satyrs with goat's or he-goat's feet. The +he-goats and rams, too, have a double and self-contradictory reputation. +We know, for instance, that the god Thor, the god of the Scandinavians, +who thunders in the cloud, is drawn by he-goats (the vessel of Thor and +Hymir, the cloud, is called in the _Edda_ a navigating ram or he-goat, +in the same way as the Vedic Indras is represented as a god-ram); he +is, moreover, the protector of marriages. Scandinavian mythology, +therefore, appears to regard the goat as essentially the one that makes +fruitful, as a pluvial cloud. In the Hindoo mythology of the brahmanic +period, the god Indras loses, on the contrary, his divine power, becomes +stupid and obscure, and is lost in his form of a ram. In one of his +_Passeggiate nel Canavese_, Signor A. Bertolotti recently observed, at +Muraglio, a curious custom which is observed by the young men of the +country when a projected wedding falls through; they run up to the +bride's house and obstreperously demand her to give her sheep up to +them, upon which they go to the bridegroom's house and cry out, "Vente a +sarrar quist motogn" (come and shut up these rams). Here the ram +represents the husband, and the sheep the wife. In Du Cange the name of +goat (caper) is given to the "in pueris insuavis odor cum ad virilitatem +accedunt."[793] In _Apuleius_, unmeasured lasciviousness is called +"cohircinatio." According to AElianos, the he-goat, at the age of seven +days (of seven months according to Columella), already yearns for +coition. + +But in the same way as the ass is the stupid patient animal, the ram +is the stupid quiet one. The he-goat is said to be an indifferent +husband, who allows his she-goats to be covered by other goats without +showing a sign of jealousy; hence our expressions, "horned goat," and +simply "horned," to indicate the husband of an unfaithful woman, that +is, of a woman who makes him wear horns, like the goat, and the +Italian proverb, "E meglio esser geloso che becco" (it is better to be +jealous than a he-goat). This reputation, however, as assigned to the +he-goat, is contrary to all that has been said and written, and that +is known concerning the lust of the he-goat. On the contrary, +Aristotle says explicitly that two he-goats, which have always lived +together in concord at the pasturage, fall out and fight with violence +in the time of coition. Moreover, the verse of Pindaros is well known, +in which he makes he-goats unite even with women. It is also said that +Hermes, or Zeus, assuming the form of a he-goat, united himself with +Penelope, whence was born the great goat-footed satyr, Pan; that +Herakles (as an ass, in his lion's skin) competed with a he-goat in +phallical powers (in Athenaios he joins himself with fifty virgins in +the space of seven nights); that, in AElianos, a jealous he-goat +punished with death the goatherd Crathis, who had incestuously joined +himself with one of his she-goats. Nevertheless, the Greeks already +called by the name of _aix_, as we Italians by that of _capra_, a +woman of an immoral life, or an adulteress. Columella gives us the key +of the enigma, observing that the he-goat, by abuse of the Venus, +which he uses too soon (like the ass), becomes powerless before the +age of six years, so that it is not out of indifference that he is +simply a spectator of his she-goat's infidelity, but only because he +cannot do otherwise. Hence the application of _hircosus_, which +Plautus gives to an old man. + +It is the Hellenic tradition which, more than any other, developed to +a greater extent the myth of the goat and the sheep, under all their +aspects--demoniacal, divine, and hybrid. + +The golden fleece, or the fleece of the sheep or ram which had been +transported into Colchis by Phrixos, the son of Nephele (the cloud) +and of Helle;[794] Jupiter Ammon (in the fifth book of Ovid's +_Metamorphoses_), who, afraid of the giants (as, in the last book of +the _Ramayanam_, the gods, terrified by the monsters, transform +themselves into different animals), hides himself in Lybia in the +shape of a horned ram; the altar of Apollo in the isle of Delos, +constructed with innumerable horns; the woolly skins in which, +according to Strabo,[795] the Iberians gathered up gold, whence the +Greek geographer believed the fable of the golden fleece to have +arisen; the golden lamb kept by Atreus, which was to bring Thyestes to +the throne, and the name of Aiguesthos, born of the incestuous loves of +Thyestes with his own daughter; Pan (with goat's feet, the son of the +he-goat Zeus or Hermes), who, in the fifth book of the _Saturnalians_ +of Macrobius, loves the moon and obtains its favours by means of sheep +with white but rough and coarse wool; Endymion, who, according to the +commentator Servius, induces the moon to love him by means of +exceedingly white sheep; Neptune, who, in the form of a ram, in the +sixth book of the _Metamorphoses_ of Ovid, seduces the beautiful +virgin Bisaltis; the satyrs, the fauns with goat's feet, into which +the gods transform themselves in order to seduce nymphs or maidens of +the earth, as, for instance, Jove again, in the same book of Ovid-- + + "Satyri celatus imagine pulchram + Jupiter implevit gemino Nycteida foetu;" + +Hermes, called Krioforos, or carrier of a ram (that is, of a ram which +delivers the land from the plague, a form of St James); the two +predestined sheep which Epimenides sacrifices to make the Athenian +plague cease, in the twenty-seventh Olympiad, in Diogenes Laertes; the +bleating goats that King Priam (in the fragments of Ennius) sacrifices +to dissipate the evil threatened by sinister dreams; the black sheep +sacrificed to Pluto, Proserpine, the Furies, and all the infernal +deities; the lamb, the ram, and the he-goat sacrificed to the genital +Fates in the Sybilline verses translated by Angelo Poliziano-- + + "Cum nox atra premit terram, tectusque latet Sol;" + +the white lamb sacrificed to Hercules, to Mars, to Jove, to Neptune, +to Bacchus, to Pan (the goat being sacrificed to Diana), to Apollo +(_i.e._, when the sun shines), to Ceres (the goddess of the +light-coloured ears of corn), to Venus, to the gods and goddesses; to +his divine forms (similia similibus); and several other mythical +notions (not to speak of the very popular legend relating to the goat +Amalthea, who nourished Zeus with her milk, and was by Zeus translated +for this service to the stars, under the name of Aixourania, or +heavenly goat, after he had taken off one of its horns, to give, in +gratitude to the two nymphs who had protected him, the faculty of +pouring out everything that was wished for);[796] all these account, +in an eloquent manner, for the wide-spread worship that the goat and +the sheep received, even in Graeco-Latin antiquity, enriching with many +episodes the mythical and legendary traditions of these nations, now +as the type of a god, now of a demon, and now of an intermediate +being, such as the satyr, for instance. + +In the same way as the mythical horse has, from evening to morning, +three conspicuous moments of action--black, grey, and white or +red--and as the mythical ass throws gold from behind and has golden +ears, so the mythical goat and sheep, which are dark-coloured in the +night or in the cloud, throw gold from behind and have golden horns +which pour out ambrosia, or else have even the cornucopia itself. It +is always the same myth of the cloudy and aqueous, of the nocturnal +and tenebrous sky, with its two glowing twilights or auroras, or else +of the luminous heavenly hero who traverses the night or the cloud (or +the wintry season), disguised in the shapes of various animals, now by +his own will, now by a divine malediction or by diabolical witchcraft. + +In the third book of Aristotle's _History of Animals_, we read of the +river Psikros in Thrace, that white sheep, when they drink of its +waters, bring forth black lambs; that in Antandria there are two +rivers, of which one makes the sheep black, and the other white, and +that the river Xanthos or Skamandros makes the sheep fair (or golden). +This belief involves in itself the three transformations of the +celestial hero into the three he-goats or rams of different natures, +of which we have spoken. The last transformation calls our attention +to the sheep with golden wool, the golden lamb, and the _Agnus Dei_, +the symbol of happiness, power and riches. Wealth in sheep, even more +than wealth in cows, became the symbol of universal riches. The horn +poured out every kind of treasure upon the earth, and upon the earth +itself the _pecus_ became _pecunia_. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[747] The Petropolitan Dictionary sees in the he-goat agas, the movable +one (agilis). To illustrate the same analogies in the case of the Greek +myth, it will be useful to repeat the words of Professor Breal: "Le +verbe grec _aisso_, qui signifie s'elancer, a fait d'une part le +substantif _aix_, chevre (a cause de la nature bondissante de l'animal), +et de l'autre les mots _kataix, kataigis, tempete_ (as it seems to me, +that which shakes, which causes to move or tremble, inasmuch as I +maintain that _agas_ does not mean the movable, or him that rushes, so +much as him that pushes, that butts, or causes to move). De la une +nouvelle serie d'images et de fables ou la chevre joue le role +principal. L'egide, avant d'etre un bouclier fait en peau de chevre, +etait le ciel au moment de l'orage; Jupiter aigiochos etait le dieu qui +envoie la tempete; plus tard, on traduisit le dieu qui porte l'egide. +Homere semble se souvenir de la premiere signification, quand il nous +montre, au seul mouvement du bouclier le tonnerre qui eclate, l'Ida qui +se couvre de nuages et les hommes frappes de terreur." Mr Ralston +compares very well the Russian _ablakagragonniki_ (cloud-compellers) to +the Zeus _nephelegeretes_. In the _Rigv._ i. 10, 8, it is said similarly +to Indras: geshah svarvatir apah sam ga asmabhyam dhunuhi. + +[748] Let Finnish philologists observe whether it is not possible to +refer to this their Aija, an equivalent of Ukko, their Indras, called +hattarojen hallitsia, the master of the cloud-lambs.--Cfr. Castren's +_Kleinere Schriften_, St Petersburg, 1862, p. 230. + +[749] Mesham puruhutam; _Rigv._ i. 51, 1.--Tad indro artham cetati +yuthena vrishnir egati; _Rigv._ i. 10, 2. + +[750] Tvam gotram anigirobhyo 'vrinor; _Rigv._ i. 51, 3. + +[751] Tvam mayabhir apa mayino 'dhamah--tvam pipror nrimanah prarugah +purah; _Rigv._ i. 51, 5. + +[752] Mahantam cid arbudam ni kramih pada; _Rigv._ i. 51, 6.--Arbudas +is also in Sanskrit the proper name of a mountain and of a hell; the +cloud-mountain and the hell in the cloudy and nocturnal sky have +already been noticed in this volume. + +[753] Caphav iva garbhurana tarobhih; _Rigv._ ii. 39, 3. + +[754] Sinhyam cit petvena gaghana; _Rigv._ vii. 18, 17.--In Firdusi we +find, in the adventures of Isfendiar, two horned wolves that catch +lions; these seem to be demoniacal forms of the ram of Indras which +kills the lion. + +[755] xxx. 9.--Here the horns are the sun's rays or the thunderbolts, +which come again in the Italian superstition on the _iettatura_; the +horns of the goat, it is said, and the red coral horns excel the devil +and his magic. + +[756] iv. 21. + +[757] iii. 18.--In the story, i. 20, we are told that the lamb fled +away into the forest with the he-goat, because its master took the +skin off one of its sides (that is, the wool). The lambs appear in the +morning and in the evening with luminous wool; they are sheared during +the night. + +[758] _Afanassieff_, ii. 4; iv. 17. + +[759] The walnut-tree is also found in relation with the goat in a fable +of _Afanassieff_, ii. 1, that of the accused who exculpate themselves by +inculpating others. The cock and the hen gather nuts together; the cock +throws one which strikes the hen on the ear; the hen weeps; a boiard +asks the reason; the hen accuses the cock, the cock accuses the +walnut-tree, the walnut-tree accuses the goat, the goat accuses the +shepherd, the shepherd accuses the housewife, the housewife accuses the +hog, the hog accuses the wolf, the wolf accuses God, but beyond God it +is impossible to go.--In another jest in verse, intended to exercise the +memory and loosen the tongue, and given by _Afanassieff_, iv. 16, we +find the goat in connection with hazel-nuts. The he-goat begins to +complain that the she-goat does not come back with the hazel-nuts (niet +kaszi s ariehami); the song goes on to say, that the he-goat will send +the wolf to find the she-goat, the bear after the wolf, the men after +the bear, the oak-tree after the men, the axe after the oak-tree, the +grindstone after the axe, the fire after the grindstone, the water after +the fire, and the hurricane after the water; then the hurricane sends +the water, the water the fire, the fire burns the grindstone, the stone +grinds the axe, the axe cuts down the oak-tree, the oak-tree made into a +stick (as we have already seen in Chapters I. and II.) beats the men, +the men shoot against the bear, the bear fights with the wolves, the +wolves hunt the she-goat, and here the she-goat comes back with the +hazel-nuts (vot kasza s ariehami). + +[760] + + Ah vi, dietuski, + Moi batiuski + Atapritessia + Atamknitessia; + Vasha mat prishla + Malaka priniesla + Polni baka malaka, + Polni raga tvaraga + Polni kopitzi vaditzi. + +[761] _Afanassieff_, vi. 17. + +[762] In the story, ii. 32 of _Afanassieff_, a similar voice has the +same effect as that of the ass; it terrifies all the other animals. +However, here, a goat that has been shorn is alone spoken of,--that +is, the goat which has lost its hair or luminous wool, the thundering +goat-cloud.--In the twenty-fifth story of the first book of the +_Narodnija iusznoruskija Skazki_ (_Popular Stories of South Russia_), +edited by Rudcenko, Kiev, 1869, the goat terrifies by its voice the +first fox and then the wolf, until she herself is terrified by the +voice of the cock. (The morning sun, personified in the cock, destroys +the she-goat of night.) + +[763] _Afanassieff_, iii. 15.--She sends them to the pasturage; a young +blacksmith, who is in her power, adopts the follow mode of deliverance: +He puts his pelisse on outside-in, feigns himself a sheep, and passes +out with the other sheep, escaping thus from the witch: the young sun +comes out at morn like a shepherd-hero among the sheep. Thus Odysseus +delivers himself from the grotto of Polyphemos with his companions, by +hiding himself among the flock which comes out of it. + +[764] Cfr. the eleventh of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano di +Calcinaia_, where we have the lamb instead of the kid. + +[765] A very interesting variation of this is contained in another +unpublished story which I heard from a certain Marianna Nesti of +Fucecchio in Tuscany. + +There was once a queen that had a son, who, at the age of seven years, +was enchanted, so that he lay constantly in bed like one deprived of +life. Only at midnight he went out of the house, returning at one +o'clock, covered with blood, and throwing himself as if dead into the +bed. A woman had to remain regularly on the watch for the purpose of +opening the door for him at midnight and at one o'clock; but no girl +had, from very fright, been able to continue in the service more than +one night. Near the city lived an old woman with three daughters; the +two eldest tried to discharge the prescribed duty, but were overcome +with fear; the youngest, more courageous, remained. The first night, +at twelve o'clock, the dead man lifts up one arm; she runs to him and +lifts the other; he tries to raise himself; she helps him to get out +of bed. At one o'clock he returns covered with blood, and the girl +asks him who has reduced him to this condition, but he answers +nothing, and throws himself on the bed as if a corpse. The second +night she follows him, and sees him enter a subterranean cavern; he +comes to the foot of a flight of stairs, puts down his mantle and +remains as naked as when he was born, a handsome youth of eighteen +years of age. At the summit of the stairs two great witches cry, "Here +he is! come, pretty one!" He ascends and is beaten by the witches for +an hour till blood flows, he crying out the while for mercy. At one +o'clock he is allowed to go, comes back to the foot of the stairs, +takes his mantle and returns home dead. The third night his attendant +again follows him, and when he puts down his mantle at the foot of the +stairs and goes up, she takes the mantle and presses it tightly; the +witches scream. The young man comes to the summit; but when they try +to beat him they cannot lift the stick. Perceiving this, the girl +presses and bites the mantle; when she does so, the witches feel +themselves bitten; then the girl runs to the palace, orders a great +fire to be lighted, and throws the mantle into it; upon its being +burnt, the two witches expire, their enchantment is destroyed, and the +prince marries his deliverer. + +[766] In the eighth story of the first book of the _Pentamerone_, the +ungrateful young woman, Renzolla, is condemned by her own protecting +fairy to have the face of a horned goat until she shows her repentance. + +[767] v. 25. + +[768] iii. 16. + +[769] i. 50; vii. 38. + +[770] Catam meshan vrikye cakshadanam rigracvam tam pitandham cakara +tasma akshi nasatya vicaksha adhattam dasra bhishagav anarvan; _Rigv._ +i. 116, 16.--Cfr. 117, 18. + +[771] Esha chagah puro acvena vagina; _Rigv._ i. 162, 3. + +[772] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 7, where the rogue passes the she-goat +off as his sister, and lets her be killed, in order to oblige the +murderer, by threats of exposure, to give him a large sum of money in +compensation; and v. 52, where the head of a goat is cut off to +conceal the murder of a sacristan, committed by the foolish third +brother.--Cfr. _Erlenwein_, 17. + +[773] The she-goat is also sacrificed, in the eighth of the Sicilian +stories collected by Laura Gonzenbach, to test the virtue of a +truthful peasant. The wife of a minister who is jealous of the peasant +Verita (Truth), who has the custody of a goat, a lamb, a ram, and a +wether belonging to the king, persuades him to believe that her life +is forfeit, and can be ransomed only by the sacrifice of the wether. +The peasant, overcome partly by love and partly by compassion, gives +way and consents to the sacrifice. The minister hopes that the peasant +will conceal his fault, but is disappointed in his expectation, +inasmuch as, on the contrary, he ingenuously confesses everything; and +he becomes, in consequence, yet dearer to the king. + +[774] The devil also presents himself to do his evil deeds in the +_Belier de Rochefort_, in Bonnafoux, _Legendes et Croyances +Superstitieuses Conservees dans le Department de la Creuse_, Gueret, +1867, p. 17.--In a legend of Baden, too, recorded by Simrock (work +quoted before, p. 260; cfr., in the same work, p. 501), the devil +appears with the feet of a he-goat. + +[775] vii. 50, 1.--In the _Classical Dictionary of Natural History of +Audouin, Bourdon_, &c., first Italian translation, Venice, Tasso, 1831, +we read: "Goat, species of ophidian reptiles, indigenous in Congo, and +also in Bengal; as yet unclassified by zoologists, and which, it is +said, throw from afar a kind of saliva causing blindness." + +[776] Cfr. the lacerta cornuta of the _Pentamerone_. + +[777] vi. 42. + +[778] iv. 7. + +[779] + + Differ opus, tunc tristis hiems, tunc pleiades instant + Tunc et in aequorea mergitur haedus aqua. + Saepe ego nimbosis dubius jactabar ab haedis. + Nascitur Oleneae signum pluviale capellae. + --_Ovid._ + + Quantus ab occasu veniens pluvialibus haedis + Verberat imber humum. + --_Virgil._ + +[780] Paviravi tanyatur ekapad ago divo dharta; _Rigv._ x. 65, 13.--Cfr. +the aga ekapad invoked after Ahirbudhnya and before Tritas, in the +_Rigv._ ii. 31, 6, and the agaikapad, a name given to Vishnus, in the +_Hariv_; the reader remembers also the _goat-footed races_ of Herodotus. + +[781] We also find the lame goat, or he-goat, in the legend of Thor. +The god kills his he-goats, takes off their skins, and keeps their +bones, to be able to resuscitate them at pleasure. His son, Thialfi, +steals the thigh-bone of one of the goats, in order to go and sell it; +then one of the he-goats of Thor, being resuscitated, is lame.--Cfr. +for the analogous traditions the notices given by Simrock, work quoted +before, p. 260. + +[782] In a Russian song we read: "Moon! moon! golden horns!" + +[783] ii. 240. + +[784] Cfr. Du Cange, _s. v._ galaxia. + +[785] _Das festliche Jahr_, zweite Ausg., p. 216. + +[786] Florence, Piatti, 1821. + +[787] Concerning this stone, cfr. a whole chapter in Aldrovandi, _De +Quadrupedibus Bisulcis_, i. + +[788] Cfr. Du Cange, _s. v. Agnus Dei_, where we even find the verses +with which Urban V. accompanied the gift of an _Agnus Dei_ to John +Paleologus.--In the month of October, the Thuringians celebrate the +festival of the race after the ram, which, when overtaken, is led to a +large rock and there killed. For the race after the ram, cfr. also +Villemarque, _Chants Populaires de la Bretagne_.--In a popular song, +in which _England_ is transformed into _Engelland_ (or country of the +angels), Mary, the nurse of God, appears with the white lamb:-- + + "Die Himmelsthuer wird aufgehen; + Maria Gottes Amme + Kommt mit dem weissen Lamme." + +[789] Menzel, the work quoted before. + +[790] Professor Emilio Teza has published a mediaeval Italian version +of this poem with notes. + +[791] Cfr. the before-quoted fable of _Babrios_, in which the vine +complains of the he-goat which eats its leaves.--In the Italian +proverb, "Salvar la capra e i cavoli," the she-goat is again indicated +as an eater of leaves.--The leaves of the sorb-apple, according to the +Norwegian belief, cure sick goats, by which the god Thor is +drawn.--Cfr. Kuhn, _Die H. d. F. u. d. G._ + +[792] From a narrative made to me by my friend Valentino Carrera, an +intrepid Alp-climber and popular dramatist. + +[793] Referred to by Martial's epigram:-- + + "Tam male Thais olet, quam non fullonis avari + Tecta vetus media, sed modo fracta via. + Non ab amore recens hircus," &c. + +[794] With this myth of the brother Phrixos and of the sister Helle, +who pass the sea or fly through the air with the sheep, is connected +the Russian story recorded above of Ivan and Helena; Ivan is changed +into a little kid or lamb. In the Italian variety of the same story, +the sister is thrown into the sea by the witch. Whilst the brother and +sister pass the Hellespont upon the golden ram, Helle falls into the +sea. We learn from Apollonios, in the second book of the _Argon._, +that the fleece of the sheep became gold only when, on its arrival in +Colchis, it was sacrificed and suspended upon an oak-tree. The +cloud-ram becomes golden only in the morning and evening sky.--The +luminous fleece can perhaps be recognised in the bride of the +_Rigvedas_, who, leaning towards the relations of Kakshivant, says: +"Every day I shall be (properly speaking, I am) like the little woolly +sheep of the gandhari (sarvaham asmi romaca gandharinam ivavika);" +_Rigv._ i. 126. As there is an etymological analogy, so there may be a +mythical analogy between the gandhari and the gandharvas. + +[795] Book x. + +[796] Ovid calls the goat "haedorum mater formosa duorum," and sings +that the goat herself broke one of her horns against a tree, which +horn the nymph Amalthea wrapped-- + + "decentibus herbis + Et plenum pomis ad Jovis ora tulit;" + +and Jupiter, when lord of heaven, in reward-- + + "Sidera nutricem, nutricis fertile cornu + Fecit, quod dominae nunc quoque nomen habet." + +END OF VOL. I. + +PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY +EDINBURGH AND LONDON + +Transcriber's Notes: + + Page 1 - Added a missing -- separator (... for cows.--Cavern where + ...) + + Page 24 - Removed the second "the" (... it is the third sun ...) + + Page 178 - Added missing period. (... him from danger. These were + ...) + + Page 196 - There is an unmatched round bracket starting on this + page (... carried off. (This is the ...) + + Page 211 - There is an unmatched round bracket starting on this + page (... perfidious persecutor. (The evening ...) + + Page 313 - There is an unmatched round bracket starting on this + page (... called Urvaksha (a word ...) + + Page 335 - Removed an extra "the" (... seizes the branch of ...) + + Corrected misspellings throughout the text + + There are multiple spellings of many names throughout, all of which + appear valid, left per the text. + + There are many words that are both hyphenated and unhyphenated in + the text (i.e. cowmaid and cow-maid). Words were left to match the + text. + + Replaced non-standard characters with the closest standard + character. (i.e. "[h.]" replaced with "h") + + Footnotes 59 and 433 have no anchor in the text + + Added closing quotes to the end of Footnotes 395 and 436 + + Footnote 167 - Superscript changed for plain text (... erster Theil; + 2^te Aufl. S. ...) + + Footnote 518 - There is an unmatched round bracket in this footnote + (... _attonito_ (or, properly ...) + + Footnote 558 - There is an unmatched quote in this footnote (... + cavalli stregari;" _Prologo._ 10 ...) + + Footnote 579 - Replaced the final comma with a period. + + Footnote 612 - Replaced comma with period after "i" (_Tuti-Name_, i. + 151.) + + Footnote 659 - Changed "lightned" to "lightninged" (... day it + lightninged and thundered.) + + Footnote 715 - Added second period after "v" (... _Ib._ v. 12. ...) + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Zoological Mythology, Volume I (of 2), by +Angelo de Gubernatis + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY, VOL I *** + +***** This file should be named 38687.txt or 38687.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/6/8/38687/ + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Douglas L. 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