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diff --git a/38688-0.txt b/38688-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2695f31 --- /dev/null +++ b/38688-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,16741 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Zoological Mythology (Volume II), 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 II) + or The Legends of Animals (Vol. II of II) + +Author: Angelo de Gubernatis + +Release Date: September 5, 2012 [EBook #38688] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY (VOLUME II) *** + + + + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Douglas L. Alley, III, Bill +Tozier and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://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. II. + + +LONDON + +TRÜBNER & CO., 60 PATERNOSTER ROW + +1872 + +[_All rights reserved_] + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + +Part First. + +THE ANIMALS OF THE EARTH. + +(_Continued._) + + CHAPTER V. + + THE HOG, THE WILD BOAR, AND THE HEDGEHOG, 1 + + CHAPTER VI. + + THE DOG, 17 + + CHAPTER VII. + + THE CAT, THE WEASEL, THE MOUSE, THE MOLE, THE SNAIL, + THE ICHNEUMON, THE SCORPION, THE ANT, THE LOCUST, AND + THE GRASSHOPPER, 41 + + CHAPTER VIII. + + THE HARE, THE RABBIT, THE ERMINE, AND THE BEAVER, 76 + + CHAPTER IX. + + THE ANTELOPE, THE STAG, THE DEER, AND THE GAZELLE, 83 + + CHAPTER X. + + THE ELEPHANT, 91 + + CHAPTER XI. + + THE MONKEY AND THE BEAR, 96 + + CHAPTER XII. + + THE FOX, THE JACKAL, AND THE WOLF, 121 + + CHAPTER XIII. + + THE LION, THE TIGER, THE LEOPARD, THE PANTHER, AND THE + CHAMELEON, 153 + + CHAPTER XIV. + + THE SPIDER, 162 + + +Part Second. + +THE ANIMALS OF THE AIR. + + CHAPTER I. + + BIRDS, 167 + + CHAPTER II. + + THE HAWK, THE EAGLE, THE VULTURE, THE PHŒNIX, THE + HARPY, THE STRIX, THE BAT, THE GRIFFON, AND THE SIREN, 180 + + CHAPTER III. + + THE WREN, THE BEETLE, AND THE FIREFLY, 207 + + CHAPTER IV. + + THE BEE, THE WASP, THE FLY, THE GNAT, THE MOSQUITO, THE + HORSEFLY, AND THE CICADA, 215 + + CHAPTER V. + + THE CUCKOO, THE HERON, THE HEATHCOCK, THE PARTRIDGE, + THE NIGHTINGALE, THE SWALLOW, THE SPARROW, AND THE HOOPOE, 225 + + CHAPTER VI. + + THE OWL, THE CROW, THE MAGPIE, AND THE STORK, 243 + + CHAPTER VII. + + THE WOODPECKER AND THE MARTIN, 264 + + CHAPTER VIII. + + THE LARK AND THE QUAIL, 273 + + CHAPTER IX. + + THE COCK AND THE HEN, 279 + + CHAPTER X. + + THE DOVE, THE DUCK, THE GOOSE, AND THE SWAN, 294 + + CHAPTER XI. + + THE PARROT, 320 + + CHAPTER XII. + + THE PEACOCK, 323 + + +Part Third. + +THE ANIMALS OF THE WATER. + + CHAPTER I. + + FISHES, AND PARTICULARLY THE PIKE, THE SACRED FISH OR + FISH OF ST PETER, THE CARP, THE MELWEL, THE HERRING, + THE EEL, THE LITTLE GOLDFISH, THE SEA-URCHIN, THE + LITTLE PERCH, THE BREAM, THE DOLPHIN, AND THE WHALE, 329 + + CHAPTER II. + + THE CRAB, 354 + + CHAPTER III. + + THE TORTOISE, 360 + + CHAPTER IV. + + THE FROG, THE LACERTA VIRIDIS, AND THE TOAD, 371 + + CHAPTER V. + + THE SERPENT AND THE AQUATIC MONSTER, 388 + + CONCLUSION, 421 + + + + +ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY; + +OR + +THE LEGENDS OF ANIMALS. + + + + +First Part. + +THE ANIMALS OF THE EARTH. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE HOG, THE WILD BOAR, AND THE HEDGEHOG. + + +SUMMARY. + + The hog as a hero disguise.--The disguises of the hero and of the + heroine.--Ghoshâ, the leprous maiden.--The moon in the well.--Apâlâ + cured by Indras.--Apâlâ has the dress of a hog.--Godhâ, the + persecuted maiden in a hog's dress.--The hogs eat the apples in the + maiden's stead.--The meretricious Circe and the hogs.--Porcus and + upodaras.--The wild boar god in India and in Persia.--Tydœus, the + wild boar.--The wild boar of Erymanthos.--The wild boar of + Meleagros.--The Vedic monster wild boar.--The dog and the + pig.--Puloman, the wild boar, burned.--The hog in the fire.--The hog + cheats the wolf.--The astute hedgehog.--The hedgehog, the wild boar, + and the hog are presages of water.--The porcupine and its quills; + the comb and the dense forest.--The ears and the heart of the wild + boar.--The wild boar and the hog at Christmas.--The devil a wild + boar.--The heroes killed by the wild boar.--The tusk of the wild + boar now life-giving, now deadly; the dead man's tooth.--The hero + asleep; the hero becomes a eunuch; the lettuce-eunuch eaten by + Adonis, prior to his being killed by the wild boar. + +The hog, as well as the wild boar, is another disguise of the solar +hero in the night--another of the forms very often assumed by the sun, +as a mythical hero, in the darkness or clouds. He adopts this form in +order sometimes to hide himself from his persecutors, sometimes to +exterminate them, and sometimes on account of a divine or demoniacal +malediction. This form is sometimes a dark and demoniacal guise +assumed by the hero; on which account the poem of _Hyndla_, in the +_Edda_ calls the hog a hero's animal. Often, however, it represents +the demon himself. When the solar hero enters the domain of evening, +the form he had of a handsome youth or splendid prince disappears; but +he himself, as a general rule, does not die along with it; he only +passes into another, an uglier, and a monstrous form. The black bull, +the black horse, the grey horse, the hump-backed horse, the ass, and +the goat, are all forms of the same disguise with which we are already +acquainted. The thousand-bellied Indras, who has lost his testicles; +Arǵunas, who disguises himself as a eunuch; Indras, Vishṇus, Zeus, +Achilleüs, Odin, Thor, Helgi, and many other mythical heroes, who +disguise themselves as women; and the numerous beautiful heroines who, +in mythology and tradition, disguise themselves as bearded men, are +all ancient forms under which was represented the passage of either +the sun or the aurora of evening into the darkness, cloud, ocean, +forest, grotto, or hell of night. The hero lamed, blinded, bound, +drowned, or buried in a wood, can be understood when referred +respectively to the sun which is thrown down the mountain-side, which +is lost in the darkness, which is held fast by the fetters of the +darkness, which plunges into the ocean of night, or which hides itself +from our sight in the nocturnal forest. The illumined and illuminating +sun, when it ceases to shine in the dark night, becomes devoid of +sight, devoid of intelligence, and stupid. The handsome solar hero +becomes ugly when, with the night, his splendour ceases; the strong, +red, healthy, solar hero, who pales and grows dark in the night, +becomes ill. We still say in Italy that the sun is ill when we see it +lose its brightness, and, as it were, grow pale. + +In the 117th hymn of the first book of the _Ṛigvedas_, the Açvinâu cure +the leprous daughter of Kakshîvant, Ghoshâ, who is growing old without a +husband in her father's house, and find her a husband; the Açvinâu +deliver the aurora from the darkness of night, and marry her.[1] + +In the eightieth hymn of the eighth book of the _Ṛigvedas_, the same +myth occurs again with relation to Indras, and in a more complete +form. We have already remarked, in the first book of the _Ṛigvedas_, +the maiden Apâlâ who descends from the mountain to draw water, and +draws up the somas (ambrosia, or else the moon, whence, as it seems to +me, the origin of the double Italian proverb, "Pescare, or mostrare la +luna nel pozzo," to fish up, or show the moon in the well, which was +afterwards corrupted to indicate one who says, or narrates, what is +untrue or impossible), and takes it to Indras, the well-known drinker +of ambrosia (here identified with the moon, or somas). Indras, +contented with the maiden, consents, as she is ugly and deformed, to +pass over the three heavenly stations, that is, to pass over his +father's head, her vast breast and her bosom.[2] In the last strophe +of the hymn quoted above, Indras makes a luminous robe, a skin of the +sun, for Apâlâ, who has been thrice purified, by the wheel, by the +chariot itself, and by the rudder of Indras's chariot.[3] And the same +myth occurs once more in a clearer and more complete form in a legend +of the _Bṛihaddevatâ_. Apâlâ beseeches Indras, loved by her, to make +for her a beautiful and perfect (faultless, unimpeachable) skin. +Indras, hearing her voice, passes over her with wheel, chariot, and +rudder; by three efforts, he takes off her ugly skin. Apâlâ then +appears in a beautiful one. In the skin thus stript off there was a +bristle (çalyakaḥ); above, it had a hirsute appearance; below, it +resembled the skin of a lizard.[4] The bristle or thorn upon the skin +of Apâlâ is naturally suggestive of the hedgehog, the porcupine, the +wild boar, and the bristly hog. The aurora, as the Vedic hymn sings, +shines only at the sight of her husband; thus Apâlâ, of the ugly or +the hog's skin, and Ghoshâ, the leprous maiden, become splendid and +healthy by the grace of their husband. Thus Cinderella, or she who has +a dress of the colour of ashes, or of a grey or dark colour, like the +sky of night (in Russian stories Cinderella is called Cernushka, which +means little black one, as well as little dirty one), appears +exceedingly beautiful only when she finds herself in the prince's +ball-room, or in church, in candlelight, and near the prince: the +aurora is beautiful only when the sun is near. + +In the twenty-eighth story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, the +maiden persecuted by her father and would-be seducer, who wishes to +marry her, because he thinks her as beautiful as her mother (the +evening aurora is as beautiful as the morning aurora), covers herself +with a hog's skin, which she takes off only when she marries a young +prince.[5] In another story of White Russia,[6] we have, instead, the +son of a king persecuted by his father, who is constrained to quit his +father's house with a cloak made of a pig's skin. In an unpublished +story of the Monferrato, the contents of which Dr Ferraro has +communicated to me, the girl persecuted by her step-mother is +condemned to eat in one night an interminable number of apples; by +means of two hog's bristles, she calls up a whole legion of pigs, who +eat the apples in her stead. + +As to the rudder of Indras's chariot in the lower bosom of Apâlâ, it +would seem to me to have a phallic signification. Indras may have +cured Apâlâ by marrying her, as the Açvinâu, by means of a husband, +cured the leprous Ghoshâ, who was growing old in her father's house. +In the tenth story of the _Pentamerone_, the king of Roccaforte +marries an old woman, believing he is espousing a young one. He throws +her out of the window, but she is arrested in her fall by a tree, to +which she clings; the fairies pass by, and make her young again, as +well as beautiful and rich, and tie up her hair with a golden ribbon. +The aged sister of the old woman who has grown young again (the night) +goes to the barber, thinking that the same result may be attained +simply by having her skin removed, and is flayed alive. For the myth +of the two sisters, night and aurora, the black maiden and she who +disguises herself in black, in grey, or the colour of ashes, consult +also the _Pentamerone_, ii. 2. According to the Italian belief, the +hog is dedicated to St Anthony, and a St Anthony is also celebrated as +the protector of weddings, like the Scandinavian Thor, to whom the hog +is sacred. The hog symbolises fat; and therefore, in the sixteenth +Esthonian story, the hog is eaten at weddings. + +The companions of Odysseus, transformed by the meretricious +enchantress Circe, with the help of poisonous herbs, into filthy hogs, +care only to gratify their bodily appetites, whence Horace, in the +second of the first book of the _Epistolæ_-- + + "Sirenum voces, et Circes pocula nosti, + Quæ si cum sociis stultus cupidusque bibisset + Sub domina meretrice fuisset turpis et excors + Vixisset canis immundus, vel amica luto Sus." + +The hog, as one of the most libidinous of animals, is sacred to Venus; +for this reason, according to the Pythagorian doctrines, lustful men are +transformed into hogs, and the expression "pig" is applied to a man +given over to every species of lust. In Varro[7] we read:--"Nuptiarum +initio, antiqui reges ac sublimes viri in Hetruria in conjuctione +nuptiali nova nupta et novus maritus primum porcum immolant; prisci +quoque Latini et etiam Græci in Italia idem fecisse videntur, nam et +nostræ mulieres, maximæ nutrices naturam, qua fœminæ sunt, in +virginibus appellant porcum, et græce choiron, significantes esse dignum +insigni nuptiarum." The rudder of Indras, which passes over the upodaras +(or lower bosom) of Apâlâ, is illustrated by this passage in Varro. + +As to the wild boar, its character is generally demoniacal; but the +reason why the Hindoo gods were invested with this form was in a great +degree due to equivocation in language. The word _vishṇus_ means he +who penetrates; on account of its sharp tusks, in a Vedic hymn,[8] the +wild boar is called vishṇus, or the penetrator. Hence, probably, by +the same analogy, in another hymn, Rudras, the father of the Marutas, +the winds, is invoked as a red, hirsute, horrid, celestial wild +boar,[9] and the Marutas are invoked when the thunderbolts are seen in +the form of wild boars running out from the iron teeth and golden +wheels;[10] that is, carried by the chariot of the Marutas, the winds, +who also are said to have tongues of fire, and eyes like the sun.[11] +Vishṇus himself, in the _Ṛigvedas_, at the instigation of Indras, +brings a hundred oxen, the milky gruel, and the destroying wild +boar.[12] Therefore Indras himself loves the shape of a wild boar, +which, in the _Avesta_, is his _alter ego_. Verethraghnas assumes the +same form. We know that the sun (sometimes the moon), in the form of a +ram or he-goat, thrusts and pushes against the cloud, or the darkness, +until he pierces it with his golden horns; and so Vishṇus, the +penetrator, with his sharp golden tusks (thunderbolts, lunar horns, +and solar rays), puts forth such great strength in the darkness and +the cloud that he bursts through both, and comes forth luminous and +victorious. According to the Pâuranic traditions, Vishṇus, in his +third incarnation, when killing the demon Hiraṇyâkshas (or him of the +golden eye), drew forth or delivered the earth from the waters (or +from the ocean of the damp and gloomy night of the winter).[13] +According to the _Râmâyaṇam_,[14] Indras took the form of a wild boar +immediately after his birth. + +The Arcadian wild boar of Mount Erymanthüs is familiar to the reader. +Hêraklês killed it in his third labour, in the same way as Vishṇus in +the third of his incarnations became a wild boar; Ovid describes him +very elegantly in the eighth book of the _Metamorphoses_-- + + "Sanguine et igne micant oculi, riget horrida cervix; + Et setæ densis similes hastilibus horrent. + Stantque velut vallum; velut alta hastilia setæ, + Fervida cum rauco latos stridore per armos + Spuma fluit, dentes æquantur dentibus Indis, + Fulmen ab ore venit frondes afflatibus ardent." + +The wild boar of Meleagros is a variety of this very monster; it is, +therefore, not without reason that when Hêraklês goes to the infernal +regions, all the shades flee before him, except those of Meleagros and +Medusa. Meleagros and Hêraklês resemble each other, are identified +with each other; as to Medusa, we must not forget that the head of the +Gorgon was represented upon the ægis of Zeus, that Gorgon is one of +the names given to Pallas, and that the Gorgons, and especially +Medusa, are connected with the garden of the Hesperîdes, where the +golden apples grow which Hêraklês loves. + +In the sixty-first hymn of the first book of the _Ṛigvedas_, the god, +after having eaten and drunk well, kills, with the weapon stolen from +the celestial blacksmith Tvashṭar, the monster wild boar, who steals +that which is destined for the gods.[15] In the ninety-ninth hymn of +the tenth book of the _Ṛigvedas_, Tritas (the third brother), by the +strength which he has received from Indras, kills the monster wild +boar.[16] In the _Tâittiriya Brâhmaṇam_, we find another very +interesting passage. The wild boar keeps guard over the treasure of +the demons, which is enclosed within seven mountains. Indras, with the +sacred herb, succeeds in opening the seven mountains, kills the wild +boar, and, in consequence, discovers the treasure.[17] In the +fifty-fifth hymn of the seventh book of the _Ṛigvedas_, the hog and +the dog lacerate and tear each other to pieces in turns;[18] the dog +and the pig are found in strife again in the Æsopian fable. + +In the _Mahâbhâratam_,[19] Puloman assumes the form of a wild boar to +carry off the wife of Bhṛigus; she prematurely gives birth to Ćyavanas, +who, to avenge his mother, burns the wild boar to ashes. The thunderbolt +tears through the cloud, the sun's ray (or the lunar horn) breaks +through the darkness. In the popular Tuscan story, the stupid Pimpi +kills the hog, by teasing and tormenting it with the tongs, which he has +made red-hot in the fire. In the ninth of the Sicilian stories collected +by Laura Gonzenbach, the girl Zafarana, throwing three hog's bristles +upon the burning embers, causes the old prince, her husband, to become +young and handsome again; it is ever the same lucid myth (a variety of +Apâlâ). Thus, in the first Esthonian story, the prince, by eating pork +(or in the night forest), acquires the faculty of understanding the +language of birds; the hero acquires malice, if he has it not already; +he becomes cunning, if he was previously stupid; we therefore also find +in a story of _Afanassieff_,[20] the wolf cheated, first by the dog, +then by the goat, and finally by the hog, who nearly drowns him. The +wolf wishes to eat the hog's little ones; the hog requests him to wait +under a bridge, where there is no water, whilst he goes, as he promises, +in the meantime to wash the young porkers; the wolf waits, and the hog +goes to let off the water, which, as it passes under the bridge, puts +the wolf's life in danger. Hence the belief noticed by Aristotle, that +the hog is a match for the wolf, and the corresponding Greek fables. +This prudence is found carried to the highest degree in the hedgehog. +The Arabs are accustomed to say that the champion of truth must have the +courage of the cock, the scrutiny of the hen, the heart of the lion, the +rush of the wild boar, the cunning of the fox, the prudence of the +hedgehog, the swiftness of the wolf, the resignation of the dog, and the +complexion of the naguir.[21] A verse attributed to Archilokos says:-- + + "Poll' oid' alôpêx, all' echinos en mega," + +which passed into the proverb: "One knavery of the hedgehog is worth +more than many of the fox." In the _Âitarey. Br._,[22] the hedgehog is +said to be born of the talon of the rapacious hawk. In the Æsopian +fables, the wolf comes upon a hedgehog, and congratulates himself upon +his good luck; but the hedgehog defends itself. The wolf flatters it +and beseeches it to lay down its arms, but it answers that it is +imprudent to do so while the danger of fighting remains. Hence the +common belief that the wolf is afraid of the hedgehog; hence the +proverb, "It is very easy to find the hedgehog, but very difficult to +hold it." In a fable of Abstemius, the hedgehog appears as an enemy, +not only of the wolf, but also of the serpent; it pricks the viper +which has taken refuge in its den. Then the viper begs it to go out, +but it answers, "Let him go out who cannot stay." The hedgehog has the +appearance of a little wild boar; and as an enemy of the wolf and of +the serpent, it appears to me to combine in one the dwarf Vishṇus and +the wild boar Vishṇus, the exterminator of monsters, who, as we know, +almost always assume, in Hindoo mythology, the form of a wolf or a +serpent. And inasmuch as Vishṇus, like Indras, is a thundering and +rain-giving god, in his character of sun in the cloud, or nightly and +autumnal moon, the hedgehog, too, is believed to presage wind and +rain. The wild boar, when dreamed of, is, according to Artemidoros, +quoted by Aldrovandi,[23] an omen of tempest and rain deluge. To this, +refers also the fable spoken of by Ælianos and Pliny concerning the +hogs carried off by the pirates, which make the ship sink. The +cloud-hogs are evidently represented by this myth. + +The porcupine seems to be an intermediate form between the hedgehog +and the wild boar. According to the popular belief, the ashes of a +dead porcupine are, when scattered on the head, an excellent remedy +against baldness, and a hair-restorative. And inasmuch as it is +difficult to make the porcupine's quills fall, I read in +Aldrovandi,[24] that women "Ad discriminandos capillos, ut illos +conservent illæsos, aculeis potius hystricum, quam acubus utuntur." +This information derived from Aldrovandi is interesting, as enabling +us to understand a not uncommon circumstance in Russian stories. The +hero and heroine who flee from the monster that pursues them have +received from a good magician or a good fairy the gift of a comb, of +such a nature that when thrown on the ground it makes a dense thicket +or impenetrable forest arise, which arrests the pursuer's +progress.[25] This is a reminiscence of the porcupine with the +thick-set quills, of the bristly wild boar, of the gloomy night or +cloud itself, of the horned moon, which hides the fugitive solar hero +and heroine from the sight of the pursuer. + +Notwithstanding this, the hog and the wild boar generally play in +Indo-European tradition a part resembling that of the scape-goat and of +the ass _souffre-douleur_. In the _Pańćatantram_, the ears and the heart +of the credulous ass, torn by the lion, are eaten. In Babrios, the +_rôle_ of the ass is sustained by the stag (which is often in myths a +variation of the foolish hero). In the _Gesta Romanorum_,[26] the wild +boar loses, by his silliness, first one ear, then the other, then his +tail; at last he is killed, and his heart eaten by the cook. In Germany, +it is the custom, as it formerly was in England, to serve up at dinner +on Christmas Day an ornamented boar's head, no doubt as a symbol of the +gloomy monster of lunar winter killed at the winter solstice, after +which the days grow always longer and brighter. For the same reason, the +common people in Germany often go to sleep on Christmas Day in the +pig-sty, hoping to dream there; this dream is a presage of good luck. +The new sun is born in the sty of the winter hog; even the Christian +Redeemer was born in a stable, but instead of the hog it was the ass, +its mythical equivalent, that occupied it. For this reason, too, the +devil often assumes in German superstition the form of a monstrous boar, +which the hero kills.[27] The wild boar is also described as an +_aversier_ (or demon) in the romance of _Gavin le Loherain_[28]-- + + "Voiés quel aversier, + Grant a le dent fors de la gueule un piet + Mult fu hardis qui a cop l'atendié." + +The author of _Loci Communes_ says that Ferquhar II., king of Scotland, +was killed by a wild boar; other writers tell us, on the contrary, that +his death was caused by a wolf; but we already know how, in the myth, +wolf and wild boar are sometimes equivalent the one to the other. + +In the same way as Vishṇus changed himself into a wild boar, and the +hog was sacred to the Scandinavian Mars, so was the wild boar sacred +to the Roman and Hellenic Mars; and even Mars himself assumed the +shape of a monstrous lunar wild boar in order to kill the young +Adonis, beloved of Venus. There is no god or saint so perfect but has +once in his life committed a fault, as there is not a demon so wicked +as not to have done good at least once. The adversaries exchange +parts. In Servius, it is with a wild boar's tusk that the bark is cut +off the tree in which Myrrha, pregnant with Adonis after her incest +with her father, shuts herself up (we have above seen, on the +contrary, Indras who opens with an herb the hiding-place of the wild +boar, in order to kill it). We here have again the incestuous father, +the girl in the wooden dress, the forest, the penetrating tusk of the +wild boar which bursts through the forest of night, and enables the +young hero to come forth, whom he kills in the evening out of +jealousy. In the ancient popular belief of Sweden, too, the wild boar +kills the sun whilst he is asleep in a cavern and his horses grazing. +Notice, moreover, the double character of the tusk of the nocturnal +lunar wild boar; in the morning it is a life-giving tusk, which +enables the solar hero to be born; in the evening it is a +death-dealing one; the wild boar is alive during the night, and the +darkness is split open by the white tooth of the living wild boar. The +lunar wild boar or hog is sacrificed,--it is killed at morn, in the +nuptials of the solar hero. The tooth of this dead wild boar, in the +evening, causes the death of the young hero or heroine, or else +transforms them into wild beasts. In popular fairy tales the witch, +feigning a wish to comb the head of the hero or the heroine, thrusts +into his or her head now a large pin, now a dead man's tooth, and thus +deprives them of life or human form. This is a reminiscence of the +tusk of the cloudy, nocturnal, or wintry wild boar who kills the sun, +or metamorphoses him, or puts him to sleep. + +To represent the evening sun asleep, a curious particular is offered +us in the myth of Adonis. It is well-known that doctors attribute to +the lettuce a soporific virtue, not dissimilar to that of the poppy. +Now, it is interesting to read in _Nikandros Kolophonios_, quoted by +Aldrovandi, that Adonis was struck by the wild boar after having eaten +a lettuce. Ibykos, a Pythagorean poet, calls the lettuce by the name +of eunuch, as it is that which puts to sleep, which renders stupid and +impotent; Adonis who has eaten the lettuce is therefore taken from +Venus by the lunar wild boar, being eunuch and incapable. The solar +hero falls asleep in the night, and becomes a eunuch, like the Hindoo +Arǵunas, when he is hidden; and otherwise, the sun becomes the moon. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Cfr. the chapter on the Duck, the Goose, the Swan, and the Dove. + +[2] Imâni trîṇi vishtapâ tânîndra vi rohaya çiras tatasyorvarâm âd +idam ma upodare. + +[3] Khe rathasya khe 'nasaḥ khe yugasya çatakrato apâlâm indra trish +pûtvy akṛinoḥ sûryatvaćam. + +[4] + + Sulomâm anavadyâñgîṁ kuru mâṁ çakra sutvaćâm + Tasyâs tad vaćanam çrutvâ prîtas tena purandaraḥ + Rathaćhidreṇa tâm indraḥ çakaṭasya yugasya ća + Prakshipya niçćakarsha tris tataḥ sâ sutvaćâ 'bhavat + Tasyâṁ tvaći vyapetâyâm sarvasyâṁ çalyako 'bhavat + Uttarâ tv abhavad godhâ krikalâças tvag uttamâ. + +_Godhâ_ seems to signify he who has the form of a hair (_go_, among +its other meanings, has that of hair). As an animal, the dictionaries +also recognise in the godhâ a lizard. But perhaps we may also +translate it by toad or frog; we could thus also understand the fable +of the frog which aspires to equal the ox. I observe, moreover, to +exemplify the ease with which we can pass from the ox to the frog, and +from the frog to the lizard, how in the Russian story of +_Afanassieff_, ii. 23, a beautiful princess is hidden in a frog; in +Tuscan and Piedmontese stories and in Sicilian superstitions, in a +toad. In the stories of the _Pentamerone_, the good fairy is a +_lacerta cornuta_ (a horned lizard). Ghoshâ, too, has for its +equivalent in Sanskṛit, karkaṭaçṛiñgî, which means a horned shrimp. In +other varieties the young prince is a he-goat or a dragon. + +[5] For the persecuted maiden in connection with the hog or hogs, cfr. +also the _Pentamerone_, iii. 10. + +[6] _Afanassieff_, v. 38. + +[7] _De Re Rustica_, ii. 4. + +[8] _Ṛigv._ i. 61, 7. + +[9] Divo varâham arusham kapardinaṁ tveshaṁ rûpaṁ namasâ ni hvayâmahe; +_Ṛigv._ i. 114, 5. + +[10] Paçyan hiraṇyaćakrân ayodaṅshṭrân vidhâvato varâhân; _Ṛigv._ i. +88, 5. + +[11] Agniǵiḥvâ manavaḥ sûraćakshasaḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 89, 7.--In the +_Edda_, the chariot of Frey is drawn by a hog. The head of the +mythical hog is luminous. In the twenty-eighth story of the second +book of _Afanassieff_, Ivan Durák obtains from the two young heroes, +who miraculously appear to him, three marvellous gifts, _i.e._, the +hog with golden bristles, the buck with golden horns and tail, and the +horse with mane and tail also of gold. + +[12] Viçvet tâ vishṇur âbharad urukramas tveshitaḥ çatam mahishân +kshîrapâkam odanaṁ varâham indra emusham; _Ṛigv._ viii. 66, 10.--In +the Thebaid of Statius (v. 487), Tydœus, too, is dressed in the +spoils of a wild boar-- + + "Terribiles contra setis, ac dente recurvo, + Tydea per latos humeros ambire laborant + Exuviæ, Calydonis honos." + +[13] According to other fables, the three persons of the Trinity at one +time disputed as to who had the pre-eminence. Brahmân, who, from the +summit of the lotus where he was seated, saw nothing in the universe, +believed himself the first of creatures. He descended into the stem of +the lotus, and finding at last Nârâyaṇas (Vishṇus) asleep, he asked him +who he was. "I am the first-born," replied Vishṇus; Brahmân disputed +this title and dared even to attack him. But during the struggle, +Mahâdeva (Çiva) threw himself between them, crying, "It is I who am the +first-born. Nevertheless I will recognise as my superior him who is able +to see the summit of my head or the sole of my feet." Vishṇus (as hidden +or infernal moon), transforming himself into a wild boar, pierced +through the ground and penetrated to the infernal regions, where he saw +the feet of Mahâdeva. The latter, on his return, saluted him as the +first-born of the gods; Bournouf, _L'Inde Française_. + +[14] ii. 119. + +[15] Asyed u mâtuḥ savaneshu sadyo mahah pitum papivâń ćarv annâ +mushâyad vishṇuḥ paćataṁ sahîyâm vidhyad varâhaṁ tiro adrim astâ; str. +7. + +[16] Asya trito nv oǵasâ vṛidhâno vipâ varâham ayoagrayâ han; str. 6. + +[17] Varahoyam vamamoshah saptanâm girîṇâm parastâd vittam vedyam +asurânâm vibharti, sa darbhapińǵûlam (pińǵalam?) uddhṛitya, sapta +girîn bhittvâ tam ahanniti, already quoted by Wilson, _Ṛigv. San._ i. +164.--Cfr. the chapter on the Woodpecker. + +[18] Tvam sûkarasya dardṛihi tava dardartu sûkarah; str. 4.--The dog in +relation with the hog occurs again in the two Latin proverbs: "Canis +peccatum sus dependit," and "Aliter catuli longe olent, aliter sues." + +[19] i. 893. + +[20] iv. 13. + +[21] Daumas, _La Vie Arabe_, xv. + +[22] iii. 3, 26. + +[23] Cfr. Aldrovandi, _De Quadrup. Digit. Viv._ ii. + +[24] _Ibid._ + +[25] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 28. + +[26] lxxxiii., quoted by Benfey in his Einleitung to the +_Pańćatantram_.--The fable is taken from the thirtieth of Avianus, +where the wild boar loses his two ears and is then eaten, but the cook +(who represents in tradition the cunning hero) has taken its heart to +eat it:-- + + "Sed cum consumpti dominus cor quæreret Apri + Impatiens, fertur (cor) rapuisse coquus." + +[27] In Du Cange, too, "_aper_ significat diabolum; Papias M. S. +Bitur. Ex illo Scripturæ: 'Singularis aper egressus est de +silva.'"--Cfr. also Uhland's _Schriften zur Geschichte der Dichtung +und Sage_, iii. 141, _et seq._ + +[28] ii. 220, _et seq._, quoted by Uhland. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE DOG. + + +SUMMARY. + + Why the myth of the dog is difficult of interpretation.--_Entre + chien et loup._--The dog and the moon.--The bitch Saramâ; her double + aspect in the Vedâs and in the _Râmâyaṇam_; messenger, consoler, and + infernal being.--The dog and the purple; the dog and the meat; the + dog and its shadow; the fearless hero and his shadow; the black + monster; the fear of Indras.--The two Vedic dogs; Sârameyas and + Hermês.--The favourite dog of Saramâ; the dog that steals during the + sacrifice; the form of a dog to expiate crimes committed in former + states of existence; relative Hindoo, Pythagorean and Christian + beliefs.--The dog Yamas.--The dog demon that barks, with the long + bitter tongue.--The red bitch towards morning a beautiful maiden + during the night.--The intestines of the dog eaten.--The hawk that + carries honey and the sterile woman.--Dog and woodpecker.--The dog + carries the bones of the witch's daughter.--The dog-messenger brings + news of the hero.--The nurse-bitch.--The dog and his collar; the dog + tied up; the hero becomes a dog.--The dog helps the hero.--The + branch of the apple-tree opens the door.--The dog tears the devil in + pieces.--The two sons of Ivan think themselves dog's sons.--The + intestines of the fish given to be eaten by the bitch.--Ivan the son + of the bitch, the very strong hero, goes to the infernal + regions.--Dioscuri, Kerberos, funereal purifying dogs of the + Persians; the penitent dog; the two dogs equivalent to the two + Açvinâu.--The luminous children transformed into puppies; relative + legends; the maiden whose hands have been cut off obtains golden + hands; branches of trees, hands, sons born of a tree; the myth + compared and explained in the Vedic hymns, with the example of + Hiraṇyahastas; the word _vadhrimatî_.--The demoniacal dog.--The + strength of the mythical dog.--Monstrous dogs.--The dog Sirius.--To + swear by the dog or by the wolf.--A dog is always born among + wolves.--The dog dreamed of.--Double appearance of the dog; the + stories of the king of the assassins and of the magician with seven + heads.--St Vitus invoked in Sicily whilst a dog is being tied + up.--The dog of the shepherd behaves like a wolf among the + sheep.--The dog as an instrument of chastisement; the expressions to + lead the dog and the ignominious punishment of carrying the + dog.--The dogs that tear in pieces; the death caused by the dog + prognosticated; the dogs Sirius and Kerberos igneous and + pestilential; the incendiary dog of St Dominic, the inventor of + pyres for burning heretics, and the dog of the infected San Rocco. + +The myth of the dog is one of those of which the interpretation is +more delicate. As the common dog stays upon the doorstep of the house, +so is the mythical dog generally found at the gate of the sky, morning +and evening, in connection with the two Açvinâu. It was a fugitive +phenomenon of but an instant's duration which determined the formation +of the principal myth of the dog. When this moment is past, the myth +changes its nature. I have already referred to the French expression, +"entre chien et loup," as used to denote the twilight;[29] the dog +precedes by one instant the evening twilight, and follows by one +instant that of morning: it is, in a word, the twilight at its most +luminous moment. Inasmuch as it watches at the gates of night, it is +usually a funereal, infernal, and formidable animal; inasmuch as it +guards the gates of day, it is generally represented as a propitious +one; and as we have seen that, of the two Açvinâu, one is in especial +relation with the moon, and the other with the sun, so, of the two +dogs of mythology, one is especially lunar, and the other especially +solar. Between these two dogs we find the bitch their mother, who, if +I am not mistaken, represents now the wandering moon of heaven, the +guiding moon that illumines the path of the hero and heroine, now the +thunderbolt that tears the cloud, and opens up the hiding-place of the +cows or waters. We have, therefore, thus far three mythical dogs. One; +menacing, is found by the solar hero in the evening at the western +gates of heaven; the second, the more active, helps him in the forest +of night, where he is hunting, guides him in danger, and shows him the +lurking-places of his enemies whilst he is in the cloud or darkness; +the third, in the morning, is quiet, and found by the hero when he +comes out of the gloomy region, towards the eastern sky. + +Let us now examine briefly these three forms in Hindoo mythology. I +have said that the mythical bitch appears to me sometimes to represent +the moon, and sometimes the thunderbolt. In India, this bitch is named +Saramâ, properly she who walks, who runs or flows. We are accustomed +to say of the dog that it barks at the moon, which the popular proverb +connects with robbers. The dog that barks at the moon,[30] is perhaps +the same dog that barks to show that robbers are near. In the 108th +hymn of the tenth book of the _Ṛigvedas_, we have a dramatic scene +between the misers or thieves (the Paṇayas) and the bitch Saramâ, the +messenger of Indras, who wishes for their treasures.[31] In order to +come to them, she traverses the waters of the Rasâ (a river of hell); +the treasure that is hidden in the mountain consists of cows, horses, +and various riches; the Paṇayas wish Saramâ to stay with them as their +sister, and to enjoy the cows along with them; Saramâ answers that she +does not recognise their brotherhood, inasmuch as she is already the +sister of Indras, and the terrible Añgirasas.[32] In the sixty-second +hymn of the first book, the bitch Saramâ discovers the cows hidden in +the rock, and receives in recompense from Indras and the Añgirasas +nourishment for her offspring; then men cry out, and the cows +bellow.[33] Going towards the sun, in the path of the sun, Saramâ +finds the cows.[34] When Indras splits the mountain open, Saramâ shows +him first the waters.[35] Having previously seen the fissure in the +mountain, she showed the way. The first she guided rapidly, the band +of the noisy ones having previously heard the noise.[36] This noise +may refer either to the waters, the sounding rivers (nadâs, nadîs), or +the lowing cows (gavas). Now, this bitch that discovers the +hiding-places, inasmuch as she breaks through the darkness of night, +seems to be the moon; inasmuch as she breaks through the cloud, she +seems to be the thunderbolt. The secret of this equivoque lies in the +root _sar_. In the _Ṛigvedas_, we have seen Saramâ disdaining to pass +for the sister of the thieves or the monsters; in the _Râmâyaṇam_,[37] +the wife of one of the monsters, of the very brother of Râvaṇas the +robber, is called Saramâ, and takes, instead of the monster's part, +that of Râmas and Sîtâ the ravished wife. We have already several +times seen the moon as a beneficent cow, as a good fairy, or as the +Madonna. Saramâ (of which Suramâ, another benignant rakshasî, is +probably only an incorrect form[38]), the consoler of Sîtâ, who +announces prophetically her approaching deliverance by her husband +Râmas, appears to me in the light of another impersonation of the +moon. It is on this account that Sîtâ[39] praises Saramâ as a +twin-sister of hers (sahodarâ), affectionate, and capable of +traversing the heavens, and penetrating into the watery infernal +regions (rasâtalam).[40] The benignant sister of Sîtâ can only be +another luminous being; she is the good sister whom the maiden of the +Russian story, persecuted by her incestuous father, in _Afanassieff_, +finds in the subterranean world, where she is consoled and assisted in +escaping from the power of the witch; she is the moon. The moon is the +luminous form of the gloomy sky of night, or of the funereal and +infernal region; whilst its two luminous barriers in that sky, in the +east and in the west, are morning and evening aurora; the luminous +forms of the cloudy sky are lightning and thunderbolts. And it is from +one of these luminous mythical forms that the Greeks, according to +Pollux, quoted by Aldrovandi, made of the dog the inventor of purple, +which the dog of Hêraklês was the first to bite. The dog of the +Æsopian fable,[41] with meat in its mouth, is a variation of this +myth. The red sky of evening appears purple in the morning, and in the +evening as the meat that the dog lets fall into the waters of the +ocean of night. In the _Pańćatantram_, we have instead the lion of +evening (the evening sun), who, seeing in the fountain (or in the +ocean of night) another lion (now the moon, now his own shadow, the +night, or the cloud), throws himself into the water to tear him to +pieces, and perishes in it. The hare (the moon) is the animal which +allures the famished lion of evening to perish in the waters. + +The two sons of the bitch Saramâ preserve several of their mother's +characteristics. Now they are spoken of together as Sârameyâu; now they +are mentioned together, but distinct from one another; now one alone of +them, the most legitimate, by the name of Sârameyas, whose identity with +the Greek Hermês or Hermeias has already been proved by Professor Kuhn. +Saramâ in connection with the Paṇayas, merchants or thieves, and Saramâ +as the divine messenger, gives us the key to the legend of Mercury, god +of thieves and merchants, and messenger of the gods. + +In a Vedic hymn we find described with great clearness the two dogs that +guard the gates of hell, the monsters' dwelling, or the kingdom of the +dead. It prays for one departed, "that he may be able to pass safely +beyond the two dogs, sons of Saramâ, having four eyes, spotted, who +occupy the right path, and to come to the benignant Manes" (for there +are also the malignant ones, or Durvidatrâḥ); these dogs are called "the +very fierce guardians, who watch the road, observing men, have vast +nostrils, are long-winded, and very strong, the messengers of Yamas;" +they are invoked "that they may cause to enjoy the sight of the sun, and +give a happy life."[42] But the _Ṛigvedas_ itself already shows us the +two sons of the bitch Saramâ, as the two who look in turns (one after +the other), whom Indras must put to sleep.[43] One, however, of the two +sons of Saramâ is especially invoked and feared, the Sârameyas _par +excellence_. The Vedic hymn speaks of him as he who returns +(punaḥsaras), and represents him as "luminous, with reddish teeth, that +shine like spears, in the well-rooted gums," and implores him to sleep, +or "to bark only at the robber, or at the thief, not at the singers of +hymns in honour of Indras."[44] The bitch Saramâ is passionately fond of +her son; in recompense for her discovery of the cows of Indras, she +demands nourishment for her son, which nourishment the commentator +explains to be the milk of the liberated cows; the first rays of the +morning sun and the last rays of the evening sun drink the milk of the +dawn or silvery twilight. In the _Mahâbhâratam_,[45] the bitch Saramâ +curses King Ǵanameǵayas, because his three brothers, when attending the +sacrifice, maltreated and flogged the dog Sârameyas, who had also gone +there, although he had neither touched with his tongue nor desired with +his eyes the oblations destined to the gods (as, on the contrary, the +white dog did, who, in the sacrifice of Dion, near Athens, stole part of +the victim, whence the name of Künosargês was given to that place). The +same legend occurs again, slightly modified, in the seventh book of the +_Râmâyaṇam_.[46] Râmas sends Lakshmaṇas, his brother, to see whether +there are any disputes to be settled in the kingdom; Lakshmaṇas returns, +saying that the whole kingdom is at peace. Râmas sends him again; he +sees a dog erect on the doorstep of the palace, barking. The name of +this dog is Sârameyas. Râmas enables him to enter the palace. The dog +complains that he has been beaten without just cause by a Brâhman. The +Brâhman is called, appears, confesses his fault, and awaits his +punishment. The dog Sârameyas proposes as his punishment that the +Brâhman should take a wife (the usual proverbial satire against wives), +and become head of a family in the very place where he himself had +supported the same dignity prior to assuming the shape of a dog. After +this the dog Sârameyas, who remembers his previous states of existence, +returns to do penitence at Benares, whence he had come. + +Therefore the dog and the Kerberos are also a form into which the +hero of the myth passes. The Hindoo and Pythagorean religious beliefs +both teach that metempsychosis is a means of expiation; the curse of +the offended deity is now a vengeance now a chastisement for an error +that the hero or some one of his relations has committed, and which +has provoked the deity's indignation.[47] + +Sometimes the deity himself assumes the form of a dog in order to put +the hero's virtue to the proof, as in the last book of the +_Mahâbhâratam_, where the god Yamas becomes a dog, and follows +Yudhishṭhiras (the son of Yamas), who regards him with such affection, +that when invited to mount into the chariot of the gods, he refuses to +do so, unless his faithful dog is allowed to accompany him. + +Sometimes, however, the shape of a dog or bitch (as it is easy to pass +from Yamas, the god of hell in the form of a dog, to the dog-fiend) is +a real and specific form of a demon. The _Ṛigvedas_ speaks of the +dog-demons bent upon tormenting Indras, who is requested to kill the +monster in the form of an owl, a bat, a dog, a wolf, a great bird, a +vulture;[48] it invokes the Açvinâu to destroy on every side the +barking dogs;[49] it solicits the friends to destroy the long-tongued +and avaricious dog (in the old Italian chronicle of Giov. Morelli, +misers are called Cani del danaro, dogs of money), as the Bhrigavas +have killed the monster Makhas.[50] And the skin of the red bitch is +another monstrous form in which is dressed every morning (as the +aurora in the morning sky), in the twenty-third Mongol story, the +beautiful maiden who is in the power of the prince of the dragons; she +(as moon) is a beautiful maiden only at night; towards day she becomes +a red bitch (the moon gives up her place to the aurora); the youth who +has married her wishes to burn this bitch's skin, but the maiden +disappears; the sun overtakes the aurora, and he disappears with the +moon. We have already seen this myth. + +In the eighteenth hymn of the fourth book of the _Ṛigvedas_, the +thirteenth strophe seems to me to contain an interesting particular. A +devotee complains as follows:--"In my misery I had the intestines of the +dog cooked; I found among the gods no consoler; I saw my wife sterile; +the hawk brought honey to me."[51] Here we find the dog in connection +with a bird.[52] In the twenty-fifth story of the fourth book of +_Afanassieff_, we find the woodpecker that brings food and drink to its +friend the dog, and avenges him after his death. In the forty-first +story of the fourth book, the dog is killed by the old witch, because he +carries in a sack the bones of her wicked daughter, who has been +devoured by the head of a mare. In the twentieth story of the fifth +book, we have the dog in the capacity of a messenger employed by the +beautiful girl whom the serpent has married; he carries to her father a +letter that she has written, and brings his answer back to her. In the +legend of St Peter, the dog serves as a messenger between Peter and +Simon the magician; in the legend of San Rocco, the dog of our Lord +takes bread to the saint, alone and ill under a tree. The name of +Cyrus's nurse, according to Textor, was Küna, whence Cyrus might have +been nourished, like Asklêpios, with the milk of a dog. I have already +said that the story of the dog is connected with the myth of the +Açvinâu, or, what is the same thing, with that of the horse; horse and +dog are considered in the light of coursers: the horse bears the hero, +and the dog usually takes news of the hero to his friends, as the bitch +Saramâ, the messenger of the gods, does in the _Ṛigvedas_.[53] The hero +who assumes the shape of a horse cautions his father, when he sells him +to the devil, not to give up the bridle to the buyer. In the +twenty-second story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the young man +transforms himself into a dog, and lets his father sell him to a great +lord, who is the devil in disguise, but tells him not to give up the +collar.[54] The gentleman buys the dog for two hundred roubles, but +insists upon having the collar too, calling the old man a thief upon the +latter refusing to consign it into his hands. The old man, in his +distraction, gives it up; the dog is thus in the power of the lord, that +is, of the devil. But on the road, a hare (the moon) passes by; the +gentleman lets the dog pursue it, and loses sight of it; the dog again +assumes the shape of a hero, and rejoins his father. In the same story, +the young man adopts, the second time, the form of a bird (we shall see +the Açvinâu as swans and doves in the chapter on the swan, the goose, +and the dove), and the third time that of a horse. In the twenty-eighth +story of the fifth book, a horse, a dog, and an apple-tree are born of +the dead bull who protects Ivan and Mary fleeing in the forest from the +bear. Riding on the horse, and accompanied by the dog, Ivan goes to the +chase. The first day he captures a wolf's whelp alive, and carries it +home; the second day he takes a young bear; the third day he returns to +the chase, and forgets the dog; then the six-headed serpent, in the +shape of a handsome youth, carries off his sister, and shuts the dog up +under lock and key, throwing the key into the lake. Ivan returns, and, +by the advice of a fairy, he breaks a twig off the apple-tree, and +strikes with it the bolt of the door which encloses the dog; the dog is +thus set at liberty, and Ivan lets dog, wolf, and bear loose upon the +serpent, who is torn in pieces by them, and recovers his sister. In the +fiftieth story of the fifth book, the dog of a warrior-hero tears the +devil, who presents himself first in the form of a bull, and then in +that of a bear, to prevent the wedding of the hero taking place. In the +fifty-second story of the sixth book, the dogs which Ivan Tzarević has +received from two fairies, together with a wolf's whelp, a bear's, and a +lion's cub, tear the monster serpent to pieces. The two dogs carry us +back to the myth of the Açvinâu. In the fifty-third story of the sixth +book, the monster cuts Ivan's head off. Ivan has two sons, who believe +themselves to be of canine descent; they ask their mother to be +permitted to go and resuscitate their father. An old man gives them a +root, which, when rubbed on Ivan's body, will bring him to life again; +they take it, and use it as directed. Ivan is resuscitated, and the +monster dies. Finally, in the fifty-fourth story of the fifth book of +_Afanassieff_, we learn how the sons of the dog are born, and their mode +of birth is analogous to that mentioned in the Vedic hymn. A king who +has no sons has a fish with golden fins; he orders it to be cooked, and +to be given to the queen to eat. The intestines of the fish (the +phallos) are thrown to the bitch, the bones are gnawed by the cook, and +the meat is eaten by the queen. To the bitch, the cook, and the queen a +son is born at the same time. The three sons are all called Ivan, and +are regarded as three brothers; but the strongest (he who accomplishes +the most difficult enterprises) is Ivan the son of the bitch, who goes +under ground into the kingdom of the monsters (as of the two Dioscuri, +one descends into hell, like the two funereal dogs, light-coloured and +white, of the Avesta, which are in perfect accordance with the Vedic +_Sârameyâu_[55]). In the same story, besides the three brother-heroes, +three heroic horses are brought forth by the three mares that have drunk +the water in which the fish was washed before being cooked; in other +European variations, and in the Russian stories themselves, therefore, +we sometimes have, instead of the bitch's son, the son of the mare (or +the cow). The two Açvinâu are now two horses, now two dogs, now a dog +and a horse (now a bull and a lion).[56] Ivan Tzarević, whom the horse +and the dog save from danger, is the same as the Vedic hero, the sun, +whom the Açvinâu save from many dangers. + +In the Russian stories, as well as in the Italian ones, the witch +substitutes for one, two, or three sons of the prince, who have stars on +their forehead, and were born of the princess in her husband's absence, +one, two, or three puppies. In these same stories, the hand of the +persecuted princess is cut off. In the thirteenth story of the third +book of _Afanassieff_,[57] the witch sister-in-law accuses her husband's +sister of imaginary crimes in his presence. The brother cuts her hands +off; she wanders into the forest; she comes out again only after the +lapse of several years; a young merchant becomes enamoured of her, and +marries her. During her husband's absence, she gives birth to a child +whose body is all of gold, effigies of stars, moon, and sun covering it. +His parents write to their son, telling him the news; but the witch +sister-in-law abstracts the letter (as in the myth of Bellerophôn), and +forges another, which announces, on the contrary, that a monster, half +dog and half bear, is born. The husband writes back, bidding them wait +until he returns to see with his own eyes his new-born son. The witch +intercepts this letter also, and changes it for another, in which he +orders his young wife to be sent away. The young woman, without hands, +wanders about with her boy. The boy falls into a fountain; she weeps; an +old man tells her to throw the stumps of her arms into the fountain; she +obeys, her hands return, and she recovers her boy again. She finds her +husband; and no sooner does she uncover the child in his sight, than all +the room shines with light (asviatilo). + +In a Servian story,[58] the father of the maiden whose hands had been +cut off by the witch, her mother-in-law, causes, by means of the ashes +of three burned hairs from the tail of the black stallion and that of +the white mare, golden hands to grow on the maiden's arms. The +apple-tree, with golden branches, which we have already mentioned, is +the same as this girl who comes out of the forest (or wooden chest) with +golden hands. From the branches it is easy to pass to the hands of gold, +to the fair-haired son who comes out of the trunk.[59] The idea of a +youth as the branch of a tree has been rendered poetical by Shakspeare, +who makes the Duchess of Gloster say of the seven sons of Edward-- + + "Edward's seven sons, whereof thyself art one, + Were as seven phials of his sacred blood, + Or seven fair branches springing from one root."[60] + +In Hindoo myths, the hand of Savitar having been cut off, one of gold is +given to him, whence the epithet he enjoys of Hiraṇyahastas, or he who +has a golden hand. But in the 116th and 117th hymns of the first book we +find a more interesting datum. The branch is the hand of the tree; the +branch is the son who detaches himself from the maternal trunk of the +tree; the golden son is the same as the golden branch, the golden hand +of the tree. The mother who obtains a golden hand is the same as the +mother who has Hiraṇyahastas--_i.e._, Golden-hand--for her son. The +Vedic hymn says that the Açvinâu gave Golden-hand as a son to the +Vadhrimatî.[61] The word _vadhrimatî_ is equivocal. The Petropolitan +Dictionary interprets it only as she who has a eunuch, or one who is +castrated, for her husband, but the proper sense of the word is she who +has something cut off, she who has, that is, the maimed arm, as in the +fairy tale, for which reason she is given a golden hand. As the wife of +a eunuch, the Vedic woman, therefore, receives from the Açvinâu a son +with a golden hand; as having an imperfect arm, she receives only a +golden hand, as in the 116th hymn of the first book, the same Açvinâu +give to Viçpalâ, who had lost his own in battle, an iron leg.[62] The +_Ṛigvedas_, therefore, already contains in its germ the very popular +subject of the man or woman without hands, in same way as we have +already found in it, in embryo, the legends of the lame man, the blind +man or woman, the ugly and the disguised woman. + +But to return to the dog. Besides his agility[63] in running, his +strength holds a prominent place in the myth. The Kerberos shows an +extraordinary strength in rending his enemies. In the Russian stories +the dog is the hero's strength, and is associated with the wolf, the +bear, and the lion. In popular stories, now terrible lions and now +dreadful dogs are found guarding the gate of the monster's dwelling. +The monk of San Gallo, in Du Cange, says that the "canes germanici" +are so agile and ferocious, that they suffice alone to hunt tigers and +lions; the same fable is repeated in Du Cange of the dogs of Albania, +which are so great and fierce, "ut tauros premant et leones perimant." +The enormous chained dog, painted on the left side of the entrance of +Roman houses, near the porter's room; the motto _cave canem_; the +expiations made in Greece and at Rome (whence the names "Canaria +Hospitia" and "Porta Catularia," where a dog was immolated to appease +the fury of the Canicula, and whence the verse of Ovid-- + + "Pro cane sidereo canis hic imponitur aræ,") + +at the time of the Canicula or of the Canis Sirius, to conjure away +the evils which he brings along with the summer heat, in connection +with the _sol leo_, and the corresponding festival of the killing of +the dog (künophontis), besides the barking dogs that appear in the +groin of Scylla,[64] are all records of the mythical dog of hell. The +dog, as a domestic animal, has been confounded with the savage brute +which generally represents the monster. The dog is scarcely +distinguishable from the wolf in the twilight. In Du Cange we read +that in the Middle Ages it was the custom to swear now by the dog now +by the wolf.[65] In the country round Arezzo, in Tuscany, it is +believed that when a she-wolf brings forth her young ones, a dog is +always found among them, which, if it were allowed to live, would +exterminate all the wolves. But the she-wolf, knowing this, no sooner +perceives the dog-wolf than she drowns it when she takes the wolves to +drink.[66] In the district of Florence, it is believed that the wolf, +as well as the dog, when it happens to be the subject of a dream, is +(as in Terence) a prognostic of sickness or death, especially if the +dog is dreamt of as running after or trying to bite one. In Horace +(_Ad Galatheam_) it is an evil omen to meet with a pregnant bitch-- + + "Impios parræ præcinentis omen + Ducat et prœgnans canis." + +In Sicily, St Vitus is prayed to that he may keep the dogs chained-- + + "Santu Vitu, Santu Vitu, + Io tri voti vi lu dicu: + Va', chiamativi a lu cani + Ca mi voli muzzicari." + +And when tying the dog up, they say-- + + "Santu Vitu, + Beddu e pulitu, + Anghi di cira + E di ferru filatu; + Pi lu nuomu di Maria + Ligu stu cani + Ch' aju avanti a mia." + +When the dog is tied up, they add-- + + "Fermati, cani + Ca t' aju ligatu."[67] + +In Italy and Russia, when the dog howls like a wolf, that is, plays +the wolf, it forebodes misfortune and death. It is also narrated,[68] +that after the alliance between Cæsar, Lepidus, and Antony, dogs +howled like wolves. + +When one is bitten by a dog[69] in Sicily, a tuft of hair is cut off +the dog and plunged into wine with a burning cinder; this wine is +given to be drunk by the man who has been bitten. In _Aldrovandi_,[70] +I read, on the other hand, that to cure the bite of a mad dog, it is +useful to cover the wound with wolf's skin. + +The dog is a medium of chastisement. Our Italian expressions, "Menare il +cane per l'aia" (to lead the dog about the barn-floor), and "Dare il +cane a menare" (to give the dog to be led about), are probably a +reminiscence of the ignominious mediæval punishment of Germany of +carrying the dog, inflicted upon a noble criminal, and which sometimes +preceded his final execution.[71] The punishment of laceration by dogs, +which has actually been carried out more than once by the order of +earthly tyrants, has its prototype in the well-known myth of Kerberos +and the avenging dogs of hell. Thus Pirithoos, who attempts to carry off +Persephônê from the infernal king of the Molossians, is torn to pieces +by the dog Trikerberos. Euripides, according to the popular tradition, +was lacerated in the forest by the avenging dogs of Archelaos. It is +told of Domitian, that when an astrologer on one occasion predicted his +approaching death, he asked him whether he knew in what way he himself +would die; the astrologer answered that he would be devoured by dogs +(death by dogs is also predicted in a story of the _Pentamerone_); +Domitian, to make the oracle false, ordered him to be killed and burned; +but the wind put the flames out, and the dogs approached and devoured +the corpse. Boleslaus II., king of Poland, in the legend of St +Stanislaus, is torn by his own dogs while wandering in the forest, for +having ordered the saint's death. The Vedic monster Çushnas, the +pestilential dog Sirius of the summer skies, and the dog Kerberos of the +nocturnal hell, vomit flames; they chastise the world, too, with +pestilential flames; and the pagan world tries all arts, praying and +conjuring, to rid itself of their baleful influences. But this dog is +immortal, or rather it generates children, and returns to fill men with +terror in a new, a more direct, and a more earthly form in the Christian +world. It is narrated, in fact, that before the birth of St Dominic, the +famous inventor of the tortures of the Holy Inquisition (a truly satanic +Lucifer), his mother, being pregnant of him, dreamed that she saw a dog +carrying a lighted brand about, setting the world on fire. St Dominic +truly realised his mother's dream; he was really this incendiary dog; +and, therefore, in the pictures that represent him, the dog is always +close to him with its lighted brand. Christ is the Prometheus enlarged, +purified, and idealised; and St Dominic, the monstrous Vulcan, +deteriorated, diminished, and fanaticised, of the Christian Olympus. The +dog, sacred in pagan antiquity to the infernal deities, was consecrated +to St Dominic the incendiary, and to Rocco, the saint who protects the +sick of the plague. The Roman feasts in honour of Vulcan (Volcanalia) +fell in the month of August; and the Roman Catholic Church fêtes in the +month of August the two saints of the dogs of the fire and the plague, +St Dominic and St Rocco. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[29] Leukophôs; a verse of Vilkelmus Brito defines it in a Latin +strophe given in Du Cange-- + + "Tempore quo neque nox neque lux sed utrumque videtur;" + +and further on-- + + "Interque _canem distare lupumque_." + +According to Pliny and Solinus, the shadow of the hyena makes the dog +dumb, _i.e._, the night disperses the twilight; the moon vanishes. + +[30] The dog was sacred to the huntress Diana, whom we know to be the +moon, hence the Latin proverb, "Delia nota canibus." + +[31] Indrasya dûtir ishitâ ćarâmi maha ićhantî paṇayo nidhîn vaḥ; str. +2. + +[32] Rasâyâ ataram payâṅsi; str. 2.--Ayaṁ nidhiḥ sarame adribudhno +gobhir açvebhir vasubhir nyṛishṭaḥ; str. 7.--Svasâraṁ tvâ kṛiṇavâi mâ +punar gâ apa te gavâṁ subhage bhaǵâma; str. 9.--Nâhaṁ veda bhrâtṛitvaṁ +no svasṛitvam indro vidur añgirasaç ćaghorâḥ; str. 10. + +[33] Indrasyâñgirasâm ćeshṭâu vidat saramâ tanayâya dhâsim bṛihaspatir +bhinad adrim vidad gâḥ sam usriyâbhir vâvaçanta naraḥ; str. 3. + +[34] Ṛitaṁ yatî saramâ gâ avindat.--Ṛitasya pathâ saramâ vidad gâh; +_Ṛigv._ v. 45, 7, 8. + +[35] Apo yad adrim puruhûta dardar âvir bhuvat saramâ pûrvyaṁ te; +_Ṛigv._ iv. 16, 8. + +[36] Vidad yadî saramâ rugṇam adrer mahi pâthaḥ pûrvyaṁ sadhryak kaḥ +agraṁ nayat supady aksharâṇâm aćhâ ravam prathamâ ǵânatî gât; _Ṛigv._ +iii. 31, 6. + +[37] vi. 9. + +[38] v. 62. + +[39] vi. 10. + +[40] Cfr. the Vedic text above quoted. + +[41] In the _Tuti-Name_, instead of the dog with the bone or piece of +meat, we have the fox. The dog who sees his shadow in the water; the +fearless hero who, in Tuscan stories, dies when he sees his own +shadow; the black monster (the shadow) who, in numerous stories, +presents himself instead of the real hero to espouse the beautiful +princess, carry our thoughts back to Indras, who, in the _Ṛigvedas_, +after having defeated the monster, flees away over the rivers, upon +seeing something which is probably the shadow of Vṛitras, killed by +him, or his own shadow. In the _Âitar. Brâhm._ iii. 2, 15, 16, 20, +this flight of Indras is also recorded, and it is added, that Indras +hides himself, and that the Pitaras (_i.e._, the souls of the +departed) find him again. Indras thinks that he has killed Vṛitras, +but really has not killed him; then the gods abandon him; the Marutas +alone (as dogs friendly to the bitch Saramâ) remain faithful to him. +The monster killed by Indras in the morning rises again at eve. +According to other Vedic accounts, Indras is obliged to flee, stung by +remorse, having committed a brâhmanicide. + +[42] Ati drava sârameyâu çvânâu ćatarakshâu çabalâu sâdhunâ pathâ athâ +pitṛînt suvidatrâṇ upehi--Yâu te çvânâu yama rakshitârâu ćaturakshâu +pathirakshî nṛićakshasâu--Urûṇasâv asutṛipâ udumbalâu yamasya dûtâu +ćarato ǵanâṅ anu--Tâv asmabhyaṁ dṛiçaye sûryâya punar dâtâm asum +adyeha bhadram; _Ṛigv._ x. 14, 10-12. + +[43] Ni shvâpaya mithûdṛiçâu; _Ṛigv._ i. 29, 3.--The Petropolitan +Dictionary explains the word _mith._ by "abwechselend sichtbar." + +[44] Yad arǵuna sarameya dataḥ piçañga yaćhase vîva bhrâǵanta ṛishṭaya +upa srakveshu bapsato ni shu svapa; stenaṁ râya sârameya taskaraṁ vâ +punaḥsara stotrîn indrasya râyasi kim asmân dućhunâyase ni shu svapa; +_Ṛigv._ vii. 55, 2, 3. + +[45] i. 657, 666. + +[46] Canto 62. + +[47] Thus Hecuba, the wife of Priam, after having suffered cruel +tribulation as a woman, in Ovid-- + + "Perdidit infelix hominis post omnia formam + Externasque novo latratu terruit auras." + +In the _Breviarium Romanum_, too, in the offices of the dead, God is +besought not to consign to the beasts (ne tradas bestiis, &c.) the +souls of His servants. + +[48] Eta u tye patayanti çvayâtava indram dipsanti dipsavo +'dâbhyam--Ulukayâtuṁ çuçulûkayâtuṁ ǵahi çvayâtum uta kokayâtum +suparṇayâtum gridhrayâtuṁ dṛishadeva pra mṛiṇa raksha indra; _Ṛigv._ +vii. 104, 20, 22. + +[49] Ǵambhayatam abhito râyataḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 182, 4. + +[50] Apa çvânaṁ çnathishṭana sakhâyo dîrghaǵihvyam--Apa çvânam +arâdhasam hatâ makhaṁ na bhṛigavaḥ; _Ṛigv._ ix. 101, 1, 13. + +[51] Avartyâ çuna ântrâṇi peće na deveshu vivide marḍitâram apaçyaṁ +ǵâyâm amaḥîyamânâm adhâ me çyeno madhv â ǵabhâra; _Ṛigv._ iv. 18, 13. +The bird who brings honey has evidently here a phallical meaning, as +also the intestine, the part that is inside of now the dog, now the +fish, and now the ass (all of which are phallical symbols), desired as +a delicacy by the women of fairy tales, must be equivalent to the +_madhu_ brought by the bird. + +[52] In the fifth story of the fourth book of the _Pentamerone_, the +bird does the same that a dog does in the third story of the third +book; the bird brings a knife, the dog brings a bone, and the +imprisoned princess, by means of this knife and bone, is enabled to +make a hole in the prison, and to free herself. + +[53] In the _Pentamerone_, i. 7, the enchanted bitch brings to the +princess news of the young hero. + +[54] In the seventh Esthonian story, the man with the black horse +binds three dogs tightly; if they get loose, no one will be able to +keep them back.--In the _Edda_, Thrymer, the prince of the giants, +keeps the grey dogs bound with golden chains. + +[55] Einen gelblichen Hund mit vier Augen oder einen weissen mit gelben +Ohren; _Vendidad_, viii. 41, _et seq._, Spiegel's version. And Anquetil, +describing the _Baraschnon no schabé_, represents the purifying dog as +follows:--"Le Mobed prend le bâton à neuf nœuds, entre dans les Keischs +et attache la cuillère de fer au neuvième nœud. L'impur entre aussi +dans les Keischs. On y amène un chien; et si c'est une femme que l'on +purifie, comme elle doit être nue, c'est aussi une femme qui tient le +chien. L'impur ayant la main droite sur sa tête et la gauche sur le +chien, passe successivement sur les six premières pierres et s'y lave +avec l'urine que lui donne le Mobed."--In the _Kâtyây. Sû._ the question +is seriously discussed whether a dog, who was seen to fast on the +fourteenth day of the month, did so on account of religious +penitence.--Cfr. Muir's _Sanskṛit Texts_, i. 365. + +[56] Dog and horse, with bites and kicks, kill the monster doe and +free the two brother-heroes in the _Pentamerone_, i. 9. + +[57] Cfr. also the sixth of the third book.--In the second story of +the third book of the _Pentamerone_, the sister herself cuts off her +own hands, of which her brother, who wishes to marry her, is +enamoured.--Cfr. the _Mediæval Legends of Santa Uliva_, annotated by +Professor Alessandro d'Ancona, Pisa, Nistri, 1863; and the _Figlia del +Re di Dacia_, illustrated by Professor Alessandro Wesselofski, Pisa, +Nistri, 1866, besides the thirty-first of the stories of the Brothers +Grimm. + +[58] The thirty-third of the collection of Karadzik, quoted by +Professor Wesselofsky in his introduction to the story of the _Figlia +del Re di Dacia_. + +[59] Cfr. my little essay on the _Albero di Natale_. + +[60] _King Richard II._, act. i. scene 2. + +[61] Çrutaṁ tać ćhâsur iva vadhrimat yâ hiraṇyahastam açvinâv adattam; +_Ṛigv._ i. 116, 13.--Hiraṇyahastam açvinâ rarâṇâ putraṁ narâ +vadhrimatyâ adattam; i. 117, 24.--The dog in connection with a man's +hand is mentioned in the Latin works of Petrarch, when speaking of +Vespasian, who considered as a good omen the incident of a dog +bringing a man's hand into the refectory. + +[62] Sadyo ǵañghâm âyasîm viçpalâyai dhane hite sartave praty +adhattam; str. 15. + +[63] It is perhaps for this reason that the Hungarians give to their +dogs names of rivers, as being runners; but it is also said that they +do so from their belief that a dog which bears the name of a river or +piece of water never goes mad, especially if he be a white dog, +inasmuch as the Hungarians consider the red dog and the black or +spotted one as diabolical shapes. In Tuscany, when a Christian's tooth +is taken out, it must be hidden carefully, that the dogs may not find +it and eat it; here dog and devil are assimilated. + +[64] Scylla laves her groin in a fountain, the waters of which the +enchantress Circe has corrupted, upon which monstrous dogs appear in +her body, whence Ovid-- + + "Scylla venit mediaque tenus descenderat alvo, + Cum sua fœdari latrantibus inguina monstris + Aspicit, ac primo non credens corporis illas + Esse sui partes, refugitque, abiitque timetque + Ora proterva canum." + +[65] Hæc lucem accipiunt ab Joinville in Hist. S. Ludovici, dum fœdera +inter Imp. Joannem Vatatzem et Comanorum Principem inita recenset, eaque +firmata ebibito alterius invicem sanguine, hacque adhibita ceremonia, +quam sic enarrat: "Et ancore firent-ils autre chose. Car ils firent +passer un chien entre nos gens et eux, et découpèrent tout le chien à +leurs espées, disans que ainsy fussent-ils découpez s'ils failloient +l'un à l'autre."--Cfr. in Du Cange the expression "cerebrare canem." + +[66] In a fable of Abstemius, a shepherd's dog eats one of the sheep +every day, instead of watching over the flock. The shepherd kills him, +saying, that he prefers the wolf, a declared enemy, to the dog, a +false friend. This uncertainty and confusion between the dog and the +wolf explains the double nature of the dog; to prove which I shall +refer to two unpublished Italian stories: the first, which I heard +from the mouth of a peasant-woman of Fucecchio, shows the bitch in the +capacity of the monster's spy; the second was narrated a few years ago +by a Piedmontese bandit to a peasant-woman who had shown hospitality +to him, at Capellanuova, near Cavour in Piedmont. The first story is +called _The King of the Assassins_, and is as follows:-- + +There was once a widow with three daughters who worked as seamstresses. +They sit upon a terrace; a handsome lord passes and marries the eldest; +he takes her to his castle in the middle of a wood, after having told +her that he is the chief of the assassins. He gives her a she-puppy and +says, "This will be your companion; if you treat her well, it is as if +you treated me well." Taking her into the palace, he shows her all the +rooms, and gives her all the keys; of four rooms, however, which he +indicates, there are two which she must not enter; if she does so, evil +will befall her. The chief of the assassins spends one day at home and +then three away. During his absence she maltreats the puppy, and gives +her scarcely anything to eat; then she lets herself be overcome by +curiosity, and goes to see what there is in the two rooms, followed by +the puppy. She sees in one room heads of dead people, and in the other +tongues, ears, &c., hung up. This sight fills her with terror. The chief +of the assassins returns and asks the bitch whether she has been well +treated; she makes signs to the contrary, and informs her master that +his wife has been in the forbidden rooms. He cuts off her head, and goes +to find the second sister, whom he induces to come to him by under +invitation to visit his wife; she undergoes the same miserable fate. +Then he goes to take the third sister, and tells her who he is; she +answers, "It is better thus, for I shall no longer be afraid of +thieves." She gives the bitch soup, caresses her, and makes herself +loved by her; the king of the assassins is contented, and the puppy +leads a happy life. After a month, while he is out and the puppy amusing +itself in the garden, she enters the two rooms, finds her two sisters, +and goes into the other rooms, where there are ointments to fasten on +limbs that have been cut off, and ointments to bring the dead to life. +Having resuscitated her sisters, and given them food, she hides them in +two great jars, furnished with breathing holes, and asks her husband to +take them as a present to her mother, warning him not to look into the +jars, as she will see him. He takes them, and when he tries to look in, +he hears, as he had been forewarned, not one voice, but two whispering +from within them, "My love, I see you." Terrified at this, he gives up +the two jars at once to the mother. Meanwhile his wife has killed the +bitch in boiling oil; she then brings all the dead men and women to +life, amongst whom there is Carlino, the son of a king of France, who +marries her. Upon the return of the king of the assassins he perceives +the treachery, and vows revenge; going to Paris, he has a golden pillar +constructed in which a man can be concealed without any aperture being +visible, and bribes an old woman of the palace to lay on the prince's +pillow a leaf of paper which will put him and all his servants to sleep +as soon as he reclines on it. Shutting himself up in the pillar, he has +it carried before the palace; the queen wishes to possess it, and +insists upon having it at the foot of her bed. Night comes; the prince +puts his head upon the leaf, and he and his servants are at once thrown +into a deep sleep. The assassin steps out of the pillar, threatens to +put the princess to death, and goes into the kitchen to fill a copper +with oil, in which to boil her. Meanwhile she calls her husband to help +her, but in vain; she rings the bell, but no one answers; the king of +the assassins returns and drags her out of bed; she catches hold of the +prince's head, and thus draws it off the paper; the prince and his +servants awake, and the enchanter is burnt alive. + +The second story is called _The Magician of the Seven Heads_, and was +narrated to me by the peasant-woman in the following terms:-- + +An old man and woman have two children, Giacomo and Carolina. Giacomo +looks after three sheep. A hunter passes and asks for them; Giacomo +gives them, and receives in reward three dogs, Throttle-iron, +Run-like-the-wind, and Pass-everywhere, besides a whistle. The father +refuses to keep Giacomo at home; he goes away with his three dogs, of +which the first carries bread, the second viands, and the third wine. +He comes to a magician's palace and is well received. Bringing his +sister, the magician falls in love with her and wishes to marry her; +but to this end the brother must be weakened by the abstraction of his +dogs. His sister feigns illness and asks for flour; the miller demands +a dog for the flour, and Giacomo yields it for love of his sister; in +a similar manner the other two dogs are wheedled away from him. The +magician tries to strangle Giacomo, but the latter blows his whistle, +and the dogs appear and kill the magician and the sister. Giacomo goes +away with the three dogs, and comes to a city which is in mourning +because the king's daughter is to be devoured by the seven-headed +magician. Giacomo, by means of the three dogs, kills the monster; the +grateful princess puts the hem of her robe round Throttle-iron's neck +and promises to marry Giacomo. The latter, who is in mourning for his +sister, asks for a year and a day; but before going he cuts the seven +tongues of the magician off and takes them with him. The maiden +returns to the palace. The chimney-sweeper forces her to recognise him +as her deliverer; the king, her father, consents to his marrying her; +the princess, however, stipulates to be allowed to wait for a year and +a day, which is accorded. At the expiration of the appointed time, +Giacomo returns, and hears that the princess is going to be married. +He sends Throttle-iron to strike the chimney-sweeper (the black man, +the Saracen, the Turk, the gipsy, the monster) with his tail, in order +that his collar may be remarked; he then presents himself as the real +deliverer of the princess, and demands that the magician's heads be +brought; as the tongues are wanting, the trick is discovered. The +young couple are married, and the chimney-sweeper is burnt. + +[67] Cfr. the _Biblioteca delle Tradizioni Popolari Siciliane_, edited +by Gius. Pitrè, ii. canto 811. + +[68] In Richardus Dinothus, quoted by Aldrovandi. + +[69] From a letter of my friend Pitrè. + +[70] _De Quadrup. Dig. Viv._ ii. + +[71] Cfr. Du Cange, _s. v._ "canem ferre." The ignominy connected with +this punishment has perhaps a phallic signification, the dog and the +phallos appear in connection with each other in an unpublished legend +maliciously narrated at Santo Stefano di Calcinaia, near Florence, and +which asserts that woman was not born of a man, but of a dog. Adam was +asleep; the dog carried off one of his ribs; Adam ran after the dog to +recover it, but brought back nothing save the dog's tail, which came +away in his hand. The tail of the ass, horse, or pig, which is left in +the peasant's hand in other burlesque traditions, besides serving as +an indication, as the most visible part, to find the lost or fallen +animal again, or to return into itself, may perhaps have a meaning +analogous to that of the tail of Adam's dog.--I hope the reader will +pardon me these frequent repugnant allusions to indecent images; but +being obliged to go back to an epoch in which idealism was still in +its cradle, while physical life was in all its plenitude of vigour, +images were taken in preference from the things of a more sensible +nature, and which made a deeper and more abiding impression. It is +well known that in the production of the Vedic fire by means of the +friction of two sticks, the male and the female are alluded to, so +that the grandiose and splendid poetical myth of Prometheus had its +origin in the lowest of similitudes. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE CAT, THE WEASEL, THE MOUSE, THE MOLE, THE SNAIL, THE ICHNEUMON, +THE SCORPION, THE ANT, THE LOCUST, AND THE GRASSHOPPER. + + +SUMMARY. + + Mârǵâras, mârgaras, mṛigas, mṛigâris, + mṛigarâǵas.--Nakulas.--Mûsh.--Vamras, vamrî, vaprî, valmîkam, + _formica_.--The serpent and the ants.--Indras as an ant; the serpent + eaten by the ants.--Vamras drinking, assisted by the Açvinâu.--The + grateful ant; the hermit-dwarfs.--Ants' milk.--Ants' legs.--The ant + dies when its wings grow; the ants and the treasure.--The ants + separate the grains.--The locust and the ant; çarabhas as the + moon.--Grasshopper and ant.--Avere il grillo, aver la luna; + indovinala, grillo.--Wedding between ant and grasshopper.--Locusts + destroyed by fire.--Hippomürmêkes.--The Indian locust that guards + honey again.--The scorpion, and its poison absorbed.--The ichneumon, + enemy of the serpent.--The weasel.--Galanthis.--The cat with ears of + butter.--The cat as a judge.--The lynx.--The penitent cat.--The + beneficent cat.--The cat with a golden tail.--Cat and dog as + friends; the dog carries the cat; they find the lost ring + again.--The new-born son changed for a cat.--The cat that sings and + tells tales.--The cat created by the moon; Diana as a cat.--The + sacred cat.--The funereal and diabolical cat.--Cat and fox.--The cat + hangman.--_Le chat botté_.--_Chatte blanche;_ the cat that spins and + weaves.--The cat becomes a girl.--The enchanted palace of the + cats.--The cats of February; the black cat; the cat dreamed-of.--The + cat becomes a witch at seven years of age.--The cat in the + sack.--The mewing of the cat.--The cats dispute for souls.--Battle + of cats.--The mice that bite their tails or that gnaw the threads of + the net.--The mouse in the honey.--The mouse that becomes a maiden; + the mouse and the mountain.--The mouse that becomes a tiger.--The + souls of the dead pass into mice; funereal and diabolical mice; + superstitions relating to this belief.--The mouse that releases the + lion and the elephant from the trap.--Ganeças crushes the mouse; + Apollo Smyntheus.--When the cat's away the mice can dance.--The + mouse plays blind-man's-buff with the bear.--The grateful + mouse.--The mouse that foresees the future.--Mouse and sparrow, + first friends and then enemies.--The batrachomyomachia.--The mouse, + the tooth, and the coin.--Hiraṇyakas; the squirrel.--The monster + mole; the mole as a gravedigger; the blind mole.--The snail in the + popular song; the snail and the serpent; the snail as a funereal + animal. + +I unite in one series several mythical nocturnal animals, which, +although really of very different natures, enter into only one order +of myths. + +They are thieving and hunting animals, and are therefore very aptly +placed in the darkness of night (_naktaćârin_ is an epithet applied in +Sanskṛit both to the cat and the thief), in the nocturnal forest, in +connection now with Diana the huntress, or the good fairy the moon, +and now with the ugly witch; now appearing as the helpers of the hero, +and now as his persecutors. + +The etymologies of several Hindoo words may be of some interest to the +reader, and may with propriety be adduced here. _Mârǵâras_, the cat, +means the cleanser (as the animal that, in fact, cleans itself). +Referring to the myth, we know already that one of the principal +exactions of the witch is that her step-daughter should comb her hair, +or else clean the corn, during the night; and that the good fairy, the +Madonna, while she too has her hair combed, scatters gems about, +spins, and cleans the corn for the good maiden. The witch of night +forces the maiden aurora to separate the luminous wheat of evening +from the dark tares of night; the moon with its silvery splendour +disperses the shades of night. The _mârǵâras_, or cleanser of the +night, the white cat, is the moon. _Araṇyamârǵâras_, or cat of the +forest, is the name given to the wild cat, with which the lynx, too, +is identified. As a white cat, as the moon, it protects innocent +animals; as a black cat, as the dark night, it persecutes them. The +cat is a skilful hunter; moreover, it is easy to confound the word +_mârǵâras_ (the cleanser) with the word _mârgaras_, the proper meaning +of which is hunter, investigator, he who follows the track, the +_mârgas_, or else the enemy of the _mṛigas_ (as mṛigâris); the road is +the clean part of the land, as the margin is the white or clean part +of a book. The hunter may be he that goes on the margin or on the +track, or else he that hunts and kills the mṛigas or forest animal. +The moon (the huntress Diana) is also called in Sanskṛit _mṛigarâǵas_, +or king of the forest animals; and, as kings are wont, it sometimes +defends its subjects and sometimes eats them. The cat-moon eats the +grey mice of the night. + +_Nakulas_ is the name given in Sanskṛit to the ichneumon, the enemy of +mice, scorpions, and snakes. The word seems to be derived from the +root _naç_, _nak = necare_, whence nakulas would appear to be the +destroyer (of nocturnal mice). + +The mouse, _mûsh_, _mûshas_, _mûshakas_, is the thief, the ravisher, +whence also its name rat (_a rapiendo_). + +The Hindoo names of the ant are _vamras_ and _vamrî_ (besides +_pipîlakas_). _Vamrî_ is connected with _vapâ_, _vapram_, _vaprî_, +ant-hole, and, by metathesis, _valmîkam_ (_i.e._, appertaining to +ants), which has the same meaning. The Latin _formica_ unites together +the two forms _vamrî_ and _valmîkam_. The roots are _vap_, in the +sense of to throw, and _vam_, to erupt or to throw out, as the ants do +when they erect little mounds of earth. + +In the _Mahâbhâratam_, the hole of a serpent is also called by the name +of _valmîkam_; from this we can explain the fable of the third book of +the _Pańćatantram_, where we have a serpent fighting against ants. He +kills many of them, but their number is so interminable that he is at +last forced to succumb. Thus, in the mythical Vedic heavens, it is in +the shape of a vamras or ant that Indras fights victoriously against the +old monster that invades the sky.[72] Nay, more, in the _Pańćatantram_, +the ants sting and bite the serpent and kill it; thus Indras (who, as we +have just said, is an ant in the cloud or the night) gives to the ants +the avaricious serpent, the son of Agrus, dragging it out of its +hiding-place.[73] Indras is therefore a variety of the Captain Formicola +of the Tuscan fairy tale. Finally, the _Ṛigvedas_ offers us yet another +curious particular. The two Açvinâu come to assist Vamras (or Indras in +his form of an ant, _i.e._, they come to assist the ant) whilst it is +drinking (vamraṁ vipipânam). The ant throws or lifts up little hillocks +of earth by biting the ground. The root _vap_, which means to throw, to +scatter, has also the sense of to cut, and perhaps to make a hole in. +The convex presupposes the concave; and _vam_ is related to _vap_ (as +_somnus_ is related to _hüpnos_, to _svapnas_, and to _sopor_). Indras, +as an ant, is the wounder, the biter of the serpent. He makes it come +out of its den, or vomits it forth (eructat); the two etymological +senses are found again in the myth. The weapons with which Indras wounds +the serpent are doubtless now the solar rays, and now the thunderbolts. +Indras, in the cloud, drinks the somas. The ant drinks, and the Açvinâu, +whilst it drinks, come to its help, for no doubt the ant when drinking +is in danger of being drowned. And this brings us to the story of the +grateful animals, in which the young hero finds an ant about to be +drowned. + +In the twenty-fourth of the Tuscan fairy tales published by me, when the +shepherd's son, by a good advice which he has received, determines to do +good to every one he meets, he sees on the path an ant-hill, which is +about to be destroyed by water; he then makes a bank round it, and thus +saves the ants;[74] in their turn the ants pay back the debt. The king +of the land demands of the young man, as a condition of receiving his +daughter in marriage, that he should separate and sort the different +kinds of grain in a granary; up marches Captain Formicola with his army, +and accomplishes the stipulated task. In other varieties of the same +story, instead of the embankment, we have the leaf that the hero puts +under the ant to float it out of the water contained in the footprint of +a horse, which again recalls the lotus-leaf on which the Hindoo deity +navigates the ocean. This water in which the ant is drowning was +afterwards changed into the proverbial ants' milk,[75] which is now used +to express an impossibility, but which, when referred to Indras, to the +mythical ant, represents the ambrosial and pluvial moisture. In the +sixth Sicilian story of Signora Gonzenbach, the boy Giuseppe, having +given crumbs of bread to the hungry ants, receives from the king of the +ants the present of an ant's leg, in order that he may use it when +required. When he wishes to become an ant, in order to penetrate into +the giant's palace, he has only to let the ant's leg fall to the ground, +with the words, "I am a Christian, and am becoming an ant," which +immediately comes to pass. In the same story Giuseppe procures sheep, in +order to attract the serpent by their smell, and induce it to come out +of its lurking-place. Here we evidently return to the Vedic subject of +the ant Indras, who tempts the serpent to come out in order to give it +to the ants. In the eighth story of the fourth book of the +_Pentamerone_, the ant shows the third part of the way to the girl +Cianna, who is going to search for the mother of time; on the door of +her dwelling Cianna will find a serpent biting its tail (the well-known +symbol of the cyclical day or year, and of time, in antiquity), and she +is to ask the mother of time, on the ant's part, advice as to how the +ants can live a hundred years. The mother of time answers to Cianna that +the ants will live a hundred years when they can dispense with flying, +inasmuch as "quanno la formica vo morire, mette l'ascelle" (_i.e._, the +wings). The ant, grateful for this good advice, shows Cianna and her +brothers the place underground where the thieves have deposited their +treasure. We also remember the story of the ants who bring grains of +barley into the mouth of the royal child Midas, to announce his future +wealth. In _Herodotus_ (iii.), and in the twelfth book of the stories of +_Tzetza_,[76] I find the curious information that there are in India +ants as large as foxes, that keep golden treasures in their holes; the +grains of wheat are this gold. The morning and evening heavens are +sometimes compared to granaries of gold; the ants separate the grain +during the night, carrying it from west to east, and purifying it of all +that is unclean, or cleansing the sky of the nocturnal shadows. The work +assigned every night by the witch to the maiden aurora of evening is +done in one night by the black ants of the sky of night. Sometimes the +girl meets on the way the good fairy (the moon), who comes to her help; +the maiden, assisted by the ants, meets the madonna-moon. But the moon +is called also the leaper or hopper, a nocturnal locust; the darkness, +the cloud and the dark-coloured earth (in lunar eclipses) are at the +same time ant-hills and black ants, that pass over or before the moon; +and, therefore, in the race between the ant and the locust, it is said +in the fable that the ant won the race. The locust, or _çarabhas_, or +_çalabhas_, is presented to us as an improvident animal in two sentences +of the first and fourth books of the _Pańćatantram_. The green +grasshopper or locust leaps; the fair-haired moon leaps. (I have already +noticed in the chapter on the ass how the words _haris_ and _harit_ mean +both green and fair, or yellow; in the second canto of the sixth book of +the _Râmâyaṇam_, the monkey Çarabhas is said to inhabit the mountain +Ćandras or Mount Moon; Çarabhas, therefore, appears as the moon.) Locust +and grasshopper jump (cfr. the Chap. on the hare); hence the ant is not +only in connection with the locust, but also with the grasshopper: the +Hindoo expression _çarabhas_ means both grasshopper (in Sanskṛit, also +named _varshakarî_) and locust. In one of the popular songs of the +Monferrato collected by Signor Ferraro, we have the wedding of the +grasshopper and the ant; the magpie, the mouse, the ortolan, the crow, +and the goldfinch bring to the wedding a little cut straw, a cushion, +bread, cheese, and wine. In the popular Tuscan songs published by +Giuseppe Tigri, I find the word _grilli_ (grasshoppers) used in the +sense of lovers. In Italian, _grillo_ also means caprice, and especially +amorous caprice; and _medico grillo_ is applied to a foolish doctor.[77] +And yet the grasshopper ought to be the diviner _par excellence_. In +Italy, when we propose a riddle, we are accustomed to end it with the +words "indovinala, grillo" (guess it, grasshopper); this expression +perhaps refers to the supposed fool of the popular story, who almost +always ends by showing himself wise. The sun enclosed in the cloud and +in the gloom of night is generally the fool, but he is at the same time +the fool who, in the kingdom of the dead, sees, hears, and learns +everything; and the moon, too, personified as a grasshopper or locust, +is the supposed fool who, on the contrary, knows, sees, understands, and +teaches everything; from the moon are taken prognostics; hence riddles +may be proposed to the capricious moon, or the celestial cricket. In +Italian, the expressions "aver la luna" (to have the moon), and "avere +il grillo" (to have the grasshopper), are equivalent, and mean to suffer +from a nervous attack, or the spleen. I also find the wedding between +ant and grasshopper in a very popular, but as yet unpublished Tuscan +song. The ant asks the grasshopper whether he desires her for his wife, +and recommends him, if he does not, to look after his own affairs, that +is, to leave her alone. And then the narrative begins. The grasshopper +goes into a field of linen; the ant begs for a thread to make herself +aprons and shirts for the wedding; then the grasshopper says he wishes +to marry her. The grasshopper goes into a field of vetches; the ant asks +for ten vetches, to cook four in a stew, and to put six upon the spit +for the wedding-dinner. After the wedding, the grasshopper follows the +trade of a greengrocer, then that of an innkeeper; but his affairs +succeed so badly, that he first puts his own trousers in pawn, and then +becomes bankrupt, and beats his wife the ant; at last he dies in misery. +Then the ant faints away, throws herself upon the bed, and beats her +breast for sorrow with her heel (as ants do when they die).[78] The +nuptials of the black ant, the gloom of night, with the moon, locust, +or grasshopper, take place in the evening; the grasshopper dies, the +moon pales, and the black ant, the night, also disappears. In the +_Pańćatantram_, the locusts are destroyed by fire. In the so-called +letter of Alexander the Great to Olympias,[79] I find the ants scared +away by means of fire, whilst they are endeavouring to keep horses and +heroes at a distance. These extraordinary ants recall to us the +hippomürmêkes of the Greeks, or ants of horses. The ants, the insects of +the forest of night, molest the hero and solar horse that traverse it; +the black ants of night are dispersed by the solar fire of the morning: +this we can understand all the better when Tzetza, quoted before, +speaking of the Indian ants, calls them as large as foxes; when Pliny, +in the eleventh book of his History, says they are of the colour of a +cat, and the size of Egyptian wolves; and when Solinus tells us that +they have the shape of a large dog, with lion's feet, with which they +dig gold up. Ælianos calls them guardians of gold (tôn chrüsôn +phülattontes). Evidently the ants have already taken here a monstrous +and demoniacal aspect. Several other ancient authors have written +concerning these Indian ants, including Herodotus, Strabo, Philostratos, +and Lucian. I shall only mention here, as bearing on our subject, that, +according to Lucian, it is by night that they dig up the gold, and that, +according to Pliny, the ants dig up gold in winter (night and winter are +often equivalent in mythology). "The Indians, moreover, steal it during +summer, whilst the ants stay hidden in their subterranean lurking-places +on account of the vapours; however, tempted forth by the smell, they run +out, and often cut the Indians in pieces, although they flee away on +very swift camels, they are so rapid, ferocious, and desirous of +gold."[80] This monster ant, with lion's claws, which Pliny also +describes as horned, approaches very closely to the mythical black +scorpion of the clouds and the night, the Vedic _Vṛiçćikas_, which, now +a very little bird (iyattikâ çakuntikâ), now a very small ichneumon +(kushumbhakas, properly the little golden one, perhaps the young morning +sun), destroys with its tooth (açmanâ, properly with the biter), +absorbing or taking away the poison, as jars take off the water, _i.e._, +the sun's rays dissipate the vapours of the sun enclosed in the cloud or +the gloom.[81] Here the ichneumon (viverra ichneumon) appears as the +benefactor of the scorpion rather than as its enemy; it takes its poison +away, that is, it frees the sun from the sign of Scorpio, from the +vapours which envelope it. The ichneumon is in Sanskṛit called +_nakulas_. In the twelfth story of the first book of the _Pańćatantram_, +we see it, on the contrary, as the declared enemy of the black serpent, +which it kills in its den. But inasmuch as the weasel-ichneumon bites +venomous animals, it is itself obliged to deliver itself from the venom +it has in consequence imbibed. Therefore, in the _Atharvavedas_, mention +is already made of the salutary herb with which the nakulas (which is +also the name of one of the two sons of the Açvinâu, in the +_Mahâbhâratam_) cures himself of the bite of venomous animals, that is, +of serpents, scorpions, and monstrous mice, his enemies. The weasel +(mustela), which differs but little from the ichneumon, is almost the +same in the myths. The weasel, too, as we learn from the ninth book of +Aristotle's _History of Animals_, fights against serpents, after having +eaten the famous herb called rue, the smell of which is said to be +insupportable to serpents. But, as its Latin name tells us, it is no +less skilful as a hunter of mice.[82] The reader is doubtless familiar +with the Æsopian fable of the weasel which petitions the man for its +liberty for the service which it has rendered him by freeing his house +from rats; and with that of Phædrus, of the old weasel which catches +mice in the flour-trough by rolling itself in the flour, so that the +mice approach, under the impression that it is a solid mass. Plautus's +parasite reckons upon a good dinner for himself from having met with a +weasel carrying away the whole of a mouse except its feet (auspicio +hodie optumo exivi foras; mustela murem abstulit præter pedes); but the +expected dinner never appearing, he declares that the presage is false, +and pronounces the weasel a prophet only of evil, inasmuch as in one and +the same day it changes its place ten times. According to the ninth book +of Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, the maid Galanthis was changed by the +goddess Lucina (the moon) into a weasel, for having told a lie, +announcing the birth of Hêraklês before it had taken place:-- + + "Strenuitas antiqua manet, nec terga colorem + Amisêre suum, forma est diversa priori; + Quæ, quia mendaci parientem juverat ore, + Ore parit." + +The popular superstition which makes the weasel bring forth its young +by its mouth, probably had its origin in this fable. From the mouth +intemperate words are brought forth. Simonides, in Stobeus, quoted +already by Aldrovandi,[83] compares wicked women to weasels. The moon +that changes the chattering Galanthis into a weasel appears to be the +same as the white moon itself transformed into a white weasel, the +moon that explores the nocturnal heaven and discovers all its secrets. + +Ants, mice, moles (like serpents), love, on the contrary, to stay +hidden, and to keep their secrets concealed. The ichneumon, the +weasel, and the cat generally come out of their hiding-places, and +chase away whoever is concealed, carrying away from the hiding-places +whatever they can. They are both themselves thieves, and hunt other +thieves. + +It is easy now to pass from the Latin _mustela_ to the Sanskṛit cat +_mûshakârâtis_, or _mûshikântakṛit_. + +In the _Pańćatantram_, the cat Butter-ears (dadhikarṇas), or he of the +white ears, who feigns to repent of his crimes, is called upon to act +as judge in a dispute pending between the sparrow, kapińǵalas and the +hare Quick-walker (sîghragas), who had taken up his quarters in the +dwelling of the absent sparrow. Butter-ears solves the question by +feigning deafness, and requesting the two disputants to come nearer, +to confide their arguments in his ears; the hare and the sparrow rely +on his good faith, and approach, when the cat clutches and devours +them both. In the _Hitopadeças_,[84] we have, instead of the sparrow, +the vulture ćaradgavas, which meets with its death in consequence of +having shown hospitality to the cat, "of which it knew neither the +disposition nor the strength" (aǵńâtakulaçîlasya). In the +_Tuti-Name_,[85] we have, instead of the cat, the lynx,[86] that +wishes to possess itself of the lion's house, which is guarded by the +monkey; it terrifies the lion, and drives it to flight. In the +_Anvari-Suhaili_,[87] instead of the cat or lynx, we find represented +the leopard. In the _Mahâbhâratam_,[88] we find again the fable of the +penitent cat. The cat, by the austerity which it practises on the +banks of the Ganges, inspires confidence in the birds, which gather +round it to do it honour. After some time, the mice imitate the +example of the birds, and put themselves under the cat's protection, +that it may defend them. The cat makes its meals upon them every day, +by inducing one or two to accompany it to the river, and fattens +exceedingly fast, whilst the mice diminish every day. Then a wise +mouse determines to follow the cat one day when it goes to the river; +the cat eats both the mouse that accompanies it and the spy. Upon this +the mice discover the trick, and evacuate altogether the post of +danger. The penitent cat is already proverbial in the _Code of +Manus_.[89] In the _Reineke Fuchs_ of Goethe,[90] the cat goes to +steal in the priest's house, by the wicked advice of the fox, when +every one falls upon him-- + + "Sprang er wüthend entschlossen + Zwischen die Schenkel des Pfaffen und biss und kratzte gefährlich." + +The _Roman du Renard_,[91] when the priest is mutilated by the cat, +makes his wife exclaim-- + + "C'en est fait de nos amours! + Je suis veuve sans recours!" + +In the same _Roman_, when the cat Tibert, the ambassador of King Lion, +arrives at Mantpertuis, where the fox reigns, we read-- + + "Tibert lui présenta la patte; + Il fait le saint, il fait la chatte! + Mais à bon chat, bon rat! Renard aussi le flatte! + Il s'entend à dorer ses paroles de miel! + Si l'un est saint, l'autre est hermite; + Si l'un est chatte, l'autre est mite." + +In the romance of the fox, the fox endeavours to destroy the cat by +inducing it to catch the mice that are in the priest's house. In an +unpublished Tuscan story,[92] we have, on the contrary, the fox that +invites the mouse to the shop of a butcher who has recently killed a +pig. The mouse promises to gnaw the wood till the hole is large enough +for the fox to pass through it; the fox eats till it is able to pass, +and then goes away; the mouse eats and fattens so much that it can no +longer pass; the cat then comes and eats it. + +In the thirty-fourth story of the second book of _Afanassieff_, the +cat occurs again, as in India, in connection with the sparrow, but not +to eat it; on the contrary, they are friends, and twice deliver the +young hero from the witch. This is a form of the Açvinâu. In the +sixty-seventh story of the sixth book, the two Açvinâu return in the +shape respectively of a dog and a cat (now enemies one of the other, +as the two mythical brothers often show themselves, and now friends +for life and death). A young man buys for a hundred roubles a dog with +hanging ears, and for another hundred roubles a cat with a golden +tail,[93] both of which he nourishes well. With a hundred roubles +more, he acquires the ring of a dead princess, from which thirty boys +and a hundred and seventy heroes, who perform every kind of marvel, +can come forth at the possessor's will. By means of these wonders, the +young man is enabled to wed the king's daughter; but as the latter +wishes to ruin him, she makes him drunk, steals his ring, and departs +into a far distant kingdom. The Tzar then shuts the youth up in +prison; the dog and the cat go to recover the lost ring. When they +pass the river, the dog swims and carries the cat upon his back (the +blind and the lame, St Christopher and Christ). They come to the place +where the princess lives, and enter into her dwelling. They then +engage themselves in the service of the cook and the housemaid; the +cat, following its natural instinct, gives chase to a mouse, upon +which the mouse begs for its life, promising to bring the ring to the +cat. The princess sleeps with the ring in her mouth; the mouse puts +its tail into her mouth; she spits, the ring comes out, and is taken +by the dog and the cat, who deliver the young man, and force the +fugitive Tzar's daughter to return to her first abode. + +In the following story of _Afanassieff_, when the youngest of the +three sisters bears three sons to Ivan Tzarević, her envious elder +sisters make the prince believe that she has brought forth a cat, a +dog, and a vulgar child. The three real sons are carried off; the +princess is blinded and enclosed with her supposed child in a cask, +which is thrown into the sea. The cask, however, comes to shore and +opens;[94] the supposititious son immediately bathes the princess's +eyes with hot water, and she recovers her sight, after which he finds +her three luminous sons again, who light up whatever is near them with +their splendour, and is again united to her husband. In a Russian +variation of the same story, the three sons are changed by the witch +into three doves; the princess, with her supposed son, is saved from +the sea, and takes refuge upon an island, where, perched upon a gold +pillar, a wise cat sings ballads and tells stories. The three doves +are transformed into handsome youths, whose legs are of silver up to +the knee, their chests of gold, their foreheads like the moon, and +their sides formed of stars, and recover their father and mother. + +Thus far we have seen the cat with white ears, who hunts the hare (or +moon), the morning twilight, and the penitent cat who eats mice at the +river's side, and which is mythically the same. We have observed that, +of the two Açvinâu, one represents especially the sun, and the other +the moon; the thieving cat, who is the friend of some thieves and the +enemy of others (whence the Hungarian and Tuscan superstition, to the +effect that for a good cat to be a skilful thief, it must itself have +been stolen; then it is sure to catch mice well), is now the morning +twilight, now the moon who gives chase to the mice of the night. +According to the Hellenic cosmogony, the sun and the moon created the +animals; the sun creating the lion, and the moon the cat. In the fifth +book of Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, when the gods fled from the giants, +Diana took the form of a cat.[95] In Sicily the cat is sacred to St +Martha, and is respected in order not to irritate her: he who kills a +cat will be unhappy for seven years. In the ancient German belief, the +goddess Freya was drawn by two cats. At present, the cat and the +mouse are sacred to the funereal St Gertrude. In the sixty-second +story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, we have the chattering cat, +which the hero Baldak must kill in the territory of the hostile Sultan +(that is, in the wintry night). In the eighth story of the fourth book +of the _Pentamerone_, we also find a she-cat that plays the part of +the ogre's spy; in the tenth story of the _Pentamerone_, and in the +first of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_, on the +contrary, the cat reveals the witch's treachery to the prince. In the +twenty-third story of the fourth book of _Afanassieff_, the cat +Katofiei appears as the husband of the fox, who passes him off as a +burgomaster. United together, they terrify the wolf and the bear,[96] +the cat climbing up a tree. In the Æsopian fables, on the contrary, +the cat and the fox dispute as to which is the superior animal; the +cat makes the dog catch the fox, whilst it itself climbs up a tree. In +the third story of the second book of _Afanassieff_, the cat +associates with the cock in the search for the bark of trees; it +delivers its comrade three times from the fox that had run off with +it; the third time, the cat not only liberates the cock, but also eats +the four young foxes. In the thirtieth story of the fourth book, the +cat Catonaiević, the son of Cato (this name is derived from the +equivoque between the words _catus_ and _caton_; in French, besides +_chat_, we have _chaton_, _chatonique_, &c.), delivers the cock twice +from the fox, but the third time the fox eats the poor bird. In a +Russian variety of this story, the cat kills the five little foxes and +then the fox, after having sung as follows:-- + + "The cat walks upon its feet + In red boots; + It wears a sword by its side, + And a stick by its thigh; + It wishes to kill the fox, + And to make its soul perish."[97] + +In another variety, the cat and the lamb go to deliver the cock from +the fox. The latter has seven daughters. The cat and the lamb allure +them by songs to come out, and they kill them one after the other, +wounding them in their foreheads; they then kill the fox itself, and +so deliver the cock. In the romance of the fox, the cat is the +hangman, and ties the fox to the gibbet. + +In the third story of the first book, the witch's cat, grateful to the +good girl who has given her some ham to eat, teaches her how to +escape, and gives her the usual towel which, when thrown on the +ground, makes a river appear, and the usual comb which, in like +manner, causes an impenetrable forest to arise before the witch who +runs after the girl to devour her. + +We have already seen the Vedic moon who sews the wedding-robe with a +thread that does not break. In the Russian story we have already +remarked how the little puppet, to oblige the good maiden, makes a shirt +destined for the Tzar, which is so fine that no one else can make the +like. In the celebrated tale of the witty Madame d'Aulnoy, _La Chatte +Blanche_, we have the white cat Blanchette, veiled in black, who +inhabits the enchanted palace, rides upon a monkey, speaks, and gives to +the young prince, who rides upon a wooden horse (the forest of night), +inside an acorn, the most beautiful little dog that ever existed in the +world, that he may take it to the king his father--a little dog, "plus +beau que la canicule" (evidently the sun itself, which comes out of the +golden egg or acorn), which can pass through a ring (the disc of the +sun), and then a marvellously painted cloth, which is so fine that it +can pass through the eye of a small needle, and is enclosed in a grain +of millet, although of the length of "quatre cents aunes" (the eye of +the needle, the acorn, the grain of millet, and the ring are equivalent +forms to represent the solar disc). This wonderful cat finally herself +becomes a beautiful maiden, "Parut comme le soleil qui a été quelque +temps enveloppé dans une nue; ses cheveux blonds étaient épars sur ses +épaules; ils tombaient par grosses boucles jusqu'à ses pieds. Sa tête +était ceinte de fleurs, sa robe, d'une légère gaze blanche, doublée de +taffetas couleur de rose." The white cat of night, the white moon, +resigns her place in the morning to the rosy aurora; the two phenomena +that succeed each other appear to be metamorphoses of the same being. +The white cat, with its attendant cats, before becoming a beautiful +maiden, invites the prince to assist in a battle which he engages in +with the mice. To this we can compare the Æsopian fable of the young man +who, in love with a cat, beseeches Venus to transform her into a woman. +Venus gratifies him; the youth marries her; but when the bride is in bed +(_i.e._, in the night, when the evening aurora again gives up its place +to the moon, or when it meets with the grey mice of night), a mouse +passes by, and the woman, who still retains her feline nature, runs +after it. + +When the sun enters into the night, it finds in the starry heavens an +enchanted palace, where either there is not a living soul to be found, +or where only the cat-moon moves about. Hence, in my opinion, the +origin of the expression that we make use of in Italy to indicate an +empty house--"Non vi era neanche un gatto" (there was not even a cat +there). The cat is considered the familiar genie of the house. The +enchanted palace is always situated either at the summit of a +mountain, or in a gloomy forest (like the moon). This palace is the +dwelling either of a good fairy, or a good magician, or of a witch, or +a serpent-demon, or at least cats. The visit to the house of the cats +is the subject of a story which I have heard told, with few +variations, in Piedmont and in Tuscany.[98] + +We have hitherto seen only the luminous or white cat, the cat-moon and +twilight, under a generally benignant aspect. But when the night is +without a moon, we have only the black cat in the dense gloom. This +black cat then assumes a demoniacal character. + +In the Monferrato it is believed that all the cats that wander about +the roofs in the month of February are not really cats, but witches, +which one must shoot. For this reason, black cats are kept away from +the cradles of children. The same superstition exists in Germany.[99] +In Tuscany, it is believed that when a man desires death, the devil +passes before his bed in the form of any animal except the lamb, but +especially in that of a he-goat, a cock, a hen, or a cat. In the +German superstition,[100] the black cat that places itself upon the +bed of a sick man announces his approaching death; if it is seen upon +a grave, it signifies that the departed is in the devil's power. If +one dreams of a black cat at Christmas, it is an omen of some alarming +illness during the following year. Aldrovandi, speaking of Stefano +Cardano, narrates that, being old and seriously ill, or rather dying, +a cat appeared unexpectedly before him, emitted a loud cry, and +disappeared. The same Aldrovandi tells us of a cat which scratched the +breast of a woman, who, recognising in it a supernatural being, died +after the lapse of a few days. In Hungary it is believed that the cat +generally becomes a witch from the age of seven years to that of +twelve, and that witches ride upon tom-cats, especially black ones; it +is, moreover, believed that to deliver the cat from the witch, it is +necessary to make upon its skin an incision in the form of a cross. +The cat in the bag of proverbs has probably a diabolical allusion. In +the tenth story of the _Pentamerone_, when the King of Roccaforte, +thinking that he is marrying a beautiful maiden, finds that, on the +contrary, he has espoused a hideous veiled old hag (the night), he +says, "Questo è peo nce vole a chi accatta la gatta dinto lo sacco." +In Sicily, when the Rosary is recited for navigators, the mewing of +the cat presages a tedious voyage.[101] When the witches in _Macbeth_ +prepare their evil enchantments against the king, the first witch +commences with the words-- + + "Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed." + +In a German belief noticed by Professor Rochholtz, two cats that fight +against each other are to a sick man an omen of approaching death. These +two cats are probably another form of the children's game in Piedmont +and Tuscany, called the game of souls, in which the devil and the angel +come to dispute for the soul. Of the two cats, one is probably benignant +and the other malignant; they represent perhaps night and twilight. An +Irish legend tells us of a combat between cats, in which all the +combatants perished, leaving only their tails upon the battlefield. (A +similar tradition also exists in Piedmont, but is there, if I am not +mistaken, referred to wolves.) Two cats that fight for a mouse, and +allow it to escape, are also mentioned in Hindoo tradition.[102] + +In the 105th hymn of the first book of the _Ṛigvedas_, and in the +thirty-third of the tenth book, a poet says to Indras, "The thought +rends me, thy praiser, as mice tear their tails by gnawing at +them."[103] But according to another interpretation, instead of +"tails," we should read "threads;" in this case, the mice that rend +the threads would refer to the fable of the mouse that delivers from +the net now the elephant, and now the lion (of which fable I shall +endeavour to prove the Vedic antiquity in the next chapter). + +The twelfth story of the third book of the _Pańćatantram_ is of great +mythological interest. From the beak of a hawk (in another Hindoo +legend, from two cats that are disputing for it) a mouse takes refuge +in the hands of a penitent, whilst he is bathing in the river. The +penitent transforms the mouse into a beautiful maiden, and wishes to +marry her to the sun; the maiden declines--he is too hot. The penitent +next wishes to marry her to the cloud which defeats the sun; the +maiden declares it is too dark and cold. He then proposes to give her +to the wind which defeats the cloud (in the white _Yaǵurvedas_, the +mouse is sacred to the god Rudras, the wind that howls and lightens in +the cloud); the maiden refuses--it is too changeful. The penitent now +proposes that she should wed the mountain, against which the wind +cannot prevail, but the girl says it is too hard; and finally the +penitent asks if she would be willing to part with her affections to +the mouse, who alone can make a hole in the mountain; the maiden is +satisfied with this last proposal, and is again transformed into a +female mouse, in order to be able to wed the male mouse. In this +beautiful myth (which is a variation of the other one which we have +already mentioned of the cat-maiden that, though transfigured, still +retains its instinct as a huntress of mice), the whole revolution of +the twenty-four hours of the day is described. The mouse of night +appears first; the twilight tries to make it its prey; the night +becomes the aurora; the sun presents itself for her husband; the sun +is covered by the cloud, and the cloud is scattered by the wind; +meanwhile the evening aurora, the girl, appears upon the mountain; the +mouse of night again appears, and with her the maiden is confounded. +The _Hîtopadeças_ contains an interesting variety of the same myth. +The mouse falls from the vulture's beak, and is received by a wise +man, who changes it into a cat, then, to save it from the dog, into a +dog, and finally into a tiger. When the mouse is become a tiger, it +thinks of killing the wise man, who, reading its thoughts, transforms +it again into a mouse. Here we find described the same circle of daily +celestial phenomena. The succession of these phenomena sometimes +causes transformations in the myths. + +The well-known proverb of the mountain that gives birth to the mouse, +refers to the myth contained in the story of the _Pańćatantram_. We +already know that the solar hero enters in the evening with the solar +horse into the mountain and becomes stone, and that all the heavens +assume the colour of this mountain. From the mountain come forth the +mice of night, the shadows of night, to which the cat-moon and the +cat-twilight give chase; the thieving propensities of the mice +display themselves in the night. In German superstition the souls of +the dead assume the forms of mice, and when the head of a house dies, +it is said that even the mice of the house abandon it.[104] In +general, every apparition of mice is considered a funereal presage; it +is on this account that the funereal St Gertrude was represented +surrounded by mice. The first witch in _Macbeth_, when she wishes to +persecute the merchant who is sailing towards Aleppo, and shipwreck +him, that she may avenge herself upon his wife, who had refused to +give her some chestnuts, threatens to become like a rat without a +tail. In the _Historia Sarmatiæ_, quoted by Aldrovandi, the uncles of +King Popelus II., whom, with his wife for accomplice, he murders in +secret, and throws into the lake, become mice, and gnaw the king and +queen to death. The same death is said to have been the doom of +Miçćislaus, the son of the Duke Conrad of Poland, for having +wrongfully appropriated the property of widows and orphans; and of +Otto, Archbishop of Mainz, for having burned the granary during a +famine. Mice are said to have presaged at Rome the first civil war, by +gnawing the gold in the temple; and it was, moreover, alleged that a +female mouse had given birth in a trap to five male mice, of which she +had devoured two. Other prodigies, in which mice were implicated, are +mentioned as having taken place at Rome, even in the times of Cato, +who was accustomed to make them the butt of his indignant scorn. To a +person who told him, for instance, how the mice had gnawed the boots, +he answered that this was no miracle; it would have been a miracle if +the boots (_caligæ_) had eaten the mice. + +The mouse in the fable is sometimes in connection with the elephant +and the lion, whom it sometimes insults and despises (as in the +_Tuti-Name_),[105] and sometimes comes to help and deliver from their +fetters. The meaning of the myth is evident: the elephant and the lion +represent here the sun in the darkness; in the evening the mouse of +night leaps upon the two heroic animals, which are then old or infirm; +in the morning the sun is delivered out of the fetters of the night, +and it is supposed that it was the mouse which gnawed the ropes and +set at liberty now the elephant, as in the _Pańćatantram_, now the +lion, as in the Æsopian fable. + +The Hindoo god Gaṇeças, the god of poets, eloquence, and wisdom, is +represented with an elephant's head, and his foot crushing a mouse. +Thus, among the Greeks, Apollo Smintheus, so called because he had +shot the mice that stole the yearly provisions from Krinos, the priest +of Apollo himself, was represented with a mouse under him. As the +Christian Virgin crushes the serpent of night under her foot, so does +the pagan sun-god crush under his feet the mouse of night. + +When the cat's away, the mice may play; the shadows of night dance +when the moon is absent. + +In the fifteenth story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the witch +step-mother desires her old husband to lead away his daughter to spin +in the forest[106] in a deserted hut. The girl finds a little mouse +there, and gives it something to eat. At night the bear comes, and +wishes to play with the girl at the game of blind-man's-buff (this +very popular game has evidently a mythical origin and meaning; every +evening in the sky the sun amuses itself by playing blind-man's-buff; +it blinds itself, and runs blind into the night, where it must find +again its predestined bride or lost wife, the aurora). The little +mouse approaches the maiden, and whispers in her ear, "Maiden, be not +afraid; say to him, 'Let us play;' then put out the fire and hide +under the stove; I will run and make the little bells ring." (Mice +seem to have an especial predilection for the sound of bells. It is +well-known how, in the Hellenic fable, the council of mice resolve, to +deliver themselves from the cat, to put a bell round its neck; no one, +however, undertakes to perform the arduous enterprise.) The bear +thinks he is running after the maiden, and runs, on the contrary, +after the mouse, which he cannot catch. The bear tires himself out, +and congratulating the maiden, says to her, "Thou art my mistress, +maiden, in playing at blind-man's-buff; to-morrow morning I will send +you a herd of horses and a chariot of goods." (The morning aurora +comes out of the forest, delivers herself from the clutches of the +bear, from the witch of the night, and appears drawn by horses upon a +chariot full of treasure. The myth is a lucid one.) + +In other numerous legends we have the grateful mouse that helps the +hero or heroine. In the thirteenth Calmuc story, the mouse, the +monkey, and the bear, grateful for having been delivered, from the +rogues that tormented them, by the son of the Brahman, come to his +help by gnawing and breaking open the chest in which the young man had +been enclosed by order of the king; afterwards, with the assistance of +the fishes, they help him to recover a lost talisman. + +In the fifty-eighth story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_,[107] the +mouse, the war-horse, and the fish silurus, out of gratitude assist +the honest workman who has fallen into a marsh, and cleanse him; upon +seeing which the princess, that has never laughed, laughs, and +thereafter marries the workman. (The young morning sun comes out of +the marsh or swamp of night; the aurora, who was at first a dark, +wicked, and ugly girl, marries the young sun whom the mouse has +delivered out of the mud, as it delivered the lion out of the toils.) + +In the fifty-seventh story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, it is +the mouse that warns Ivan Tzarević to flee from the serpent-witch (the +black night) his sister, who is sharpening her teeth to eat him. + +In the third story of the first book of _Afanassieff_, the mice help +the good maiden, who had given them something to eat, to do what the +witch, her step-mother, had commanded. + +In the twenty-third story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the +mouse and the sparrow appear at first as friends and associates. But +one day the sparrow, having found a poppy-seed, thinks it so small +that he eats it up without offering a share to his partner. The mouse +hears of it, and is indignant; he breaks the alliance, and declares +war against the sparrow. The latter assembles all the birds of the +air, and the mouse all the animals of the earth, and a sanguinary +battle commences. In a Russian variety of the same story, instead of +the sparrow, it is the mouse that breaks the compact. They collect +together the provisions against winter, but when, towards the end of +the season, they are all but finished, the mouse expels the sparrow, +and the sparrow goes to complain to the king of the birds. The king of +the birds visits the king of the beasts, and sets forth the complaint +of the sparrow; the king of the beasts then calls the mouse to +account, who defends himself with such humility and cunning, that he +ends by convincing his monarch that the sparrow is in the wrong. Then +the two kings declare war against each other, and engage in a +formidable struggle, attended with terrible bloodshed on both sides, +and which ends in the king of the birds being wounded. (The nocturnal +or wintry mouse expels the solar bird of evening or of autumn.) + +In the _Batrachomyomachia_, attributed to Homer, the royal mouse +Psicharpax (properly ravisher of crumbs), the third son of Troxartes +(eat-bread), boasts to Phüsignathos (he who inflates his cheeks), the +lord of the frogs, that he does not fear the man, the point of whose +finger (akron daktülôn) he has bitten while he was asleep; whilst, on +the other hand, he has for his enemies the falcon (which we have +already, in the Hindoo story, seen let the mouse fall from its beak) +and the cat. The frog, who wishes to entertain the mouse, invites it +to get upon his back, to be carried to his royal mansion; at first the +mouse is amused with its ride, but when the frog makes it feel the icy +water, the poor mouse's heart begins to fail; finally, at the sight +of a serpent, the frog forgets its rider and runs away, throwing the +mouse head-over-heels into the water to be the prey of the serpent. +Then, before expiring, remembering that the gods have an avenging eye, +it threatens the frogs with the vengeance of the army of the mice. War +is prepared. The mice make themselves good boots with the shells of +beans; they cover their cuirasses of bulrushes with the skin of a +flayed cat; their shield is the centre knob of the lamps (lüchnôn to +mesomphalon, _i.e._, if I am not mistaken, a fragment of a little lamp +of terra-cotta, and, properly speaking, the lower and central part); +for a lance they have a needle, and for a helmet a nutshell. The gods +are present at the battle as neutrals,--Pallas having declared her +unwillingness to help the mice, because they stole the oil from the +lamps burning in her honour, and because they had gnawed her peplum, +and being equally indifferent to the frogs, because they had once +wakened her when returning from war, and when, being tired and weary, +she wished to rest. The battle is fiercely fought, and is about to +have an unfavourable result for the frogs, when Zeus takes pity upon +them; he lightens and hurls his thunderbolts. At last, seeing that the +mice do not desist, the gods send a host of crabs, who, biting the +tails, the hands, and the feet of the mice, force them to flee. This +is undoubtedly the representation of a mythical battle. The frogs, as +we shall see, are the clouds; the night meets the cloud; the mouse +fights with the frog. Zeus, the thunder-god, to put an end to the +struggle, thunders and lightens; at last the retrograde crab makes its +appearance; the combatants, frogs and mice, naturally disappear. + +The mouse is never conceived otherwise than in connection with the +nocturnal darkness, and hence, by extending the myth, in connection +also with the darkness of winter, from which light and riches +subsequently come forth. In Sicily it is believed that when a child's +tooth is taken out, if it be hidden in a hole, the mouse will take it +away and bring a coin for the child in compensation. The mouse is +dark-coloured, but its teeth and fore-parts are white and luminous. +The mouse Hiraṇyakas, or the golden one, in the _Pańćatantram_, is the +black or grey mouse of night. It is the red squirrel that, in an +Æsopian fable, answers to the query of the fox why it sharpens its +teeth when it has nothing to eat, that it does so to be always +prepared against its enemies. In the _Edda_, the squirrel runs upon +the tree Yggdrasil, and sets the eagle and Nidhögg at discord. + +The mole and the snail are of the same nature as the grey mouse. The +Hindoo word _âkhus_, or the mole (already spoken of as a demon killed +by Indras, in the _Ṛigvedas_[108]), properly signifies the excavator. + +In the _Reineke Fuchs_ the mole appears as a gravedigger, as the +animal that heaves the earth up, and makes ditches underground; it is, +in fact, the most skilful of gravediggers, and its black colour and +supposed blindness are in perfect accordance with the funereal +character assigned to it by mythology. In an apologue of Laurentius, +the ass complains to the mole of having no horns, and the monkey of +having a short tail; the mole answers them-- + + "Quid potestis hanc meam + Miseram intuentes cœcitatem, hæc conqueri?" + +According to the Hellenic myth, Phineus became a mole because he had, +following the advice of his second wife, Idaia, allowed his two sons +by his first wife, Cleopatra, to be blinded, and also because he had +revealed the secret thoughts of Zeus.[109] + +In Du Cange I find that even in the Middle Ages it was the custom on +Christmas Eve for children to meet with poles, having straw wrapped +round the ends, which they set fire to, and to go round the gardens, +near the trees, shouting-- + + "Taupes et mulots + Sortez de nos clos + Sinon je vous brulerai la barbe et les os." + +We find a similar invocation in the seventh story of the second book +of the _Pentamerone_. The beautiful girl goes to find maruzze, and +threatens the snail to make her mother cut off its horns-- + + "Iesce, iesce, corna + Ca mammata te scorna, + Te scorna 'ncoppa l'astreco + Che fa lo figlio mascolo." + +In Piedmont, to induce the snail to put its horns out, children are +accustomed to sing to it-- + + "Lümassa, lümassora, + Tira fora i to corn, + Dass no,[110] i vad dal barbé + E it tje fass taié!" + +Sicilian children terrify the snail by informing it that their mother +is coming to burn its horns with a candle-- + + "Nesci li corna ch 'a mamma veni + E t' adduma lu cannileri." + +In Tuscany they threaten the white snail (la marinella), telling it to +thrust out its little horns to save itself from kicks and blows-- + + "Chióćciola marinella, + Tira fuori le tue cornella, + E se tu non le tirerai + Calci e pugni tu buscherai." + +In Tuscany it is believed, moreover, that in the month of April the +snail makes love with the serpents, and is therefore venomous; hence +they sing-- + + "Chi vuol presto morire + Mangi la chiocciola d' aprile."[111] + +The snail of popular superstition is demoniacal; hence it is also +invoked by children in Germany by the name of the funereal St +Gertrude-- + + "Kuckuck, kuckuck Gerderut + Stäk dîne vêr Horns herut."[112] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[72] Vṛiddhasya ćid vardhato dyâm inakshataḥ stavâno vamro vi ǵaghâna +saṁdihaḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 51, 9. + +[73] Vamrîbhiḥ putram agruvo adânaṁ niveçanâd dhariva â ǵabhartha; +_Ṛigv._ iv. 19, 9.--Another variation is the hedgehog, which, as we +have seen in Chapter V., forces the viper out of its den. + +[74] The dwarf-hermits, who transport a leaf upon a car, and are about +to be drowned in the water contained in the foot-print of a cow, and +who curse Indras, who passes smiling without assisting them, in the +legend of the _Mahâbhâratam_, are a variety of these same ants.--Cfr. +the chapters on the Elephant and on the Fishes, where we have Indras +who fears to be submerged. + +[75] Fa cunto ca no le mancava lo latto de la formica; _Pentamerone_, +i. 8. + +[76] _Biblion Istorikon_, xii. 404.--In the _Epist. Presb. Johannis_, +we find also:--"In quadam provincia nostra sunt formicæ in magnitudine +catulorum, habentes vii. pedes et alas iv. Istæ formicæ ab occasu +solis ad ortum morantur sub terra et fodiunt purissimum aurum tota +nocte--quærunt victum suum tota die. In nocte autem veniunt homines de +cunctis civitatibus ad colligendum ipsum aurum et imponunt +elephantibus. Quando formicæ sunt supra terram, nullus ibi audet +accedere propter crudelitatem et ferocitatem ipsarum."--Cfr. _infra._ + +[77] Of this expression a historical origin is given, referring it to +a Bolognese doctor of the twelfth century, named Grillo.--Cfr. +Fanfani, _Vocabolario dell 'uso Toscano, s. v._ "grillo." + +[78] Here are the words of the song of this curious wedding, which I +heard sung at Santo Stefano di Calcinaia, near Florence:-- + + "Grillo, mio grillo, + Se tu vuoi moglie, dillo; + Se tu n' la vuoi, + Abbada a' fatti tuoi. + Tinfillulilalera + Linfillulilalà. + + "Povero grillo, 'n un campo di lino, + La formicuccia gne ne chiese un filo. + D'un filo solo, cosa ne vuoi tu fare? + Grembi e camicie; mi vuo' maritare. + Disse lo grillo:--Ti piglierò io. + La formicuccia:--Son contenta anch' io. + Tinfillul., &c. + + "Povero grillo, 'n un campo di ceci; + La formicuccia gne ne chiese dieci + Di dieci soli, cosa ne vuoi tu fare? + Quattro di stufa, e sei li vuo' girare. + Tinfillul., &c. + + "Povero grillo facea l'ortolano + L'andava a spasso col ravanello in mano; + Povero grillo, andava a Pontedera, + Con le vilancie pesava la miseria. + Tinfillul., &c. + + "Povero grillo, l'andiede a Monteboni, + Dalla miseria l'impegnò i calzoni; + Povero grillo facea l'oste a Colle, + L'andò fallito e bastonò la moglie. + Tinfillul., &c. + + "La formicuccia andò alla festa a il Porto, + Ebbe la nova che il suo grillo era morto + La formicuccia, quando seppe la nova + La cascò in terra, stette svenuta un 'ora. + La formicuccia si buttò su il letto, + Con le calcagna si batteva il petto. + Tinfillul.," &c. + +[79] Cfr. Zacher, _Pseudo-Callisthenes_, Halle, 1867. + +[80] Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ xi. 31. + +[81] Iyattikâ çakuntikâ sakâ ǵaghâsa te visham; _Ṛigv._ i. 191, 11. + +[82] iv. 1. + +[83] _De Quad. Dig. Viv._ ii. + +[84] i. 49. + +[85] ii. 22. + +[86] The forgetfulness of the lynx, as well as of the cat, is +proverbial. St Jerome, in the Ep. ad Chrisog.--"Verum tu quod natura +lynces insitum habent, ne post tergum respicientes meminerint priorum, +et mens perdat quod oculi videre desierint, ita nostræ es +necessitudinis penitus oblitus." Thus of the lynx it is said by +Ælianos that it covers its urine with sand (like the cat), so that men +may not find it, for in seven days the precious stone lyncurion is +formed of this urine. The cat that sees by night, the lynx that sees +through opaque bodies, the fable of Lynkeus, who, according to Pliny, +saw in one day the first and the last moon in the sign of Aries, and +the lynx that, according to Apollonios, saw through the earth what was +going on in hell, recall to us the moon, the wise and all-seeing fairy +of the sky, and the infernal moon. + +[87] Quoted by Benfey in the Einleitung to the _Pańćatantram_. + +[88] v. 5421-5448. + +[89] "Let no man, apprised of this law, present even water to a priest +who acts like a cat;" iv. 192, version of Jones and Graves' _Chamney +Haughton_, edited by Percival, Madras, 1863.--In a Russian story +quoted by Afanassieff in his observations to the first volume of his +stories, the cat Eustachio feigns itself penitent or monk in order to +eat the mouse when it passes. It being observed that the cat is too +fat for a penitent, it answers that it eats from the duty of +preserving its health. + +[90] iii. 147, Stuttgart, Cotta, 1857. + +[91] Translation by Ch. Potvin, Paris and Brussels, 1861. + +[92] From the peasant-woman Uliva Selvi, who told it to me at +Antignano, near Leghorn. + +[93] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 32, where a cat is bought by a virtuous +workman for the price of a kapeika (a small coin), the only price that +he had consented to take as a reward for his work; the same cat is +bought by the king for three vessels. With another kapeika, earned by +other work, the workman delivers the king's daughter from the devil, +and subsequently marries her. + +[94] Cfr. analogous subjects in Chapter I., _e.g._, Emilius the lazy +and stupid youth, and the blind woman who recovers her sight. + +[95] + + Huc quoque terrigenam venisse Typhœa narrat, + Et se mentitis superos celasse figuris; + Duxque gregis, dixit, fit Jupiter; unde recurvis + Nunc quoque formatus Lybis est cum cornibus Ammon + Delius in corvo, proles Semeleia capro + Fele soror Phœbi, nivea Saturnia vacca, + Pisce Venus latuit, Cyllenius ibidis alis. + --v. 325-332. + +[96] In the eighteenth story of the third book of _Afanassieff_ it is +in company with the lamb (in the nineteenth, with the he-goat) that +the cat terrifies the wolf and the bear. + +[97] + + "Idiot kot na nagáh, + V krasnih sapagáh; + Nessiot sabliu na plessié; + A paloćku pri bedrié, + Hoćiet lissu parubít, + Ieià dushu zagubít." + +Puss-in-boots (le chat botté), helps the third brother in the tale of +Perrault. + +[98] In Tuscany the previously mentioned story-teller, Uliva Selvi, at +Antignano, near Leghorn, narrated it to me as follows:--A mother has a +number of children and no money; a fairy tells her to go to the summit +of the mountain, where she will find many enchanted cats in a +beautiful palace, who give alms. The woman goes, and a kitten lets her +in; she sweeps the rooms, lights the fire, washes the dishes, draws +water, makes the beds, and bakes bread for the cats; at last she comes +before the king of the cats, who is seated with a crown on his head, +and asks for alms. The great cat rings the golden bell with a golden +chain, and calls the cats. He learns that the woman has treated them +well, and orders them to fill her apron with gold coins (rusponi). The +wicked sister of the poor woman also goes to visit the cats, but she +maltreats them, and returns home all scratched, and more dead than +alive from pain and terror. + +[99] Cfr. Rochholtz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauche_, i. 161. + +[100] _Ib._--I find the same belief referred to in the twenty-first +Esthonian story of Kreutzwald. + +[101] It is almost universally believed that when the cat cleans +itself behind its ears with its wet paw, it presages rain. And yet the +Latin proverb says-- + + "Catus amat pisces, sed aquas intrare recusat;" + +and the Hungarian proverb, that the cat does not die in water. It is +for this reason, perhaps, that it is said, in a watery autumn the cat +is worth little--("The cat of autumn and the woman of spring are not +worth much;" _Hung. prov._) + +[102] Polier, _Mythologie des Indes_, ii. 571. + +[103] Mûsho na çiçnâ vy adanti mâdhyaḥ stotâraṁ te çatakrato; _Ṛigv._ +i. 105, 8.--The commentator now interprets _çiçnâ_ by _sutrâni_, +threads, and now calls the reader's attention to the legend of the +mice that lick their tails after plunging them into a vase full of +butter, or some other savoury substance; but here _vy adanti_ can only +mean, they lacerate by biting, as in the preceding strophe we have the +thought that tears by biting, as the wolf tears the thirsty wild beast +(mâ vyanti âdhyo na tṛishṇaǵam mṛigam).--The mouse in the jar of +provisions also occurs in the fable of the mouse and the two penitents +in the _Pańćatantram_, in the Hellenic fable of the son of Minos and +of Pasiphäe, who, pursuing a mouse, falls into a jar of honey, in +which he is suffocated, until recalled to life by a salutary herb. + +[104] Den Mäusen pfeifen, heisst den Seelen ein Zeichen geben, um von +ihnen abgeholt zu werden; ebenso wie der Rattenfänger zu Hameln die +Lockpfeife bläst, auf deren Ton alle Mäuse und Kinder der Stadt mit ihm +in den Berg hineinziehen, der sich hinter ihnen zuschliesst. Mäuse sind +Seelen. Die Seele des auf der Jagd entschlafenen Königs Guntram kommt +schlängleinartig aus seinem Munde hervor, um so in einen nächsten Berg +und wieder zurückzulaufen. Der goethe'sche Faust weigert sich dem Tanz +mit dem hübschen Hexenmädchen am Blocksberg fortzusetzen:-- + + "Den mitten im Gesange sprang + Ein rothes Mäuschen ihr aus dem Munde." + --Rochholtz, _Deut. Glaube u. Brauch_, i. 156, 157. + +[105] i. 268. + +[106] The mouse that passes over the yarn occurs again in German +tradition:--"Gertrudenbuchlein ab: Zwei Mäuschen nagen an einer +flachsumwundenen Spindel; eine Spinnerinn sitzt am St Gertrudentag, +noch in der Zeit der Zwölften, wo die Geister in Gestalt von Mäusen +erscheinen, darf gesponnen werden;" Rochholtz, _ut supra_, i. 158. + +[107] Cfr. _Pentamerone_, iii. 5.--In the story, iv. 1, the grateful +mice assist Mineć Aniello to find the lost ring by gnawing the finger +on which the magician wears it. + +[108] Alâyyasya paraçur nanâça tam â pavasya (pavasva according to +Aufrecht's text, and according to the commentator--cfr. Bollensen, Zur +Herstellung des Veda, in the _Orient und Occident_ of Benfey, ii. 484) +deva soma; âkhuṁ ćid eva deva soma; _Ṛigv._ ix. 67, 30. + +[109] Cfr. the _Antigonê_ of Sophocles, v. 973, _et seq._ + +[110] This _dass no_ of the Piedmontese means "if not," and is +evidently of Germanic origin. The Piedmontese dialect has also taken +from the Germanic languages the final negative.--In Germany, children +sing to the snails-- + + "Schneckhûs, peckhûs, + Stäk dîn vêr hörner rût, + Süst schmît ick dî in'n graven + Da frêten dî de raven." + --Cfr. Kuhn und Schwartz, _N. d. S. M. u. G._, p. 453. + +[111] In _Rabelais_, i. 38, when Gargantua has eaten five pilgrims in +his salad, another still remains hidden under a leaf of lettuce. His +father says to him--"Je crois que c'est là une corne de limasson, ne le +mangez point. Pourquoy? dist Gargantua, ilz sont bons tout se moys." + +[112] Simrock, _Handbuch der Deutschen Mythologie_, 2te Aufl., p. 516. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +HARE, RABBIT, ERMINE, AND BEAVER. + + +SUMMARY. + + The hare is the moon; _çaças_ and _çaçin_.--The hares at the lake + of the moon; the king of the hares in the moon.--The hare and the + elephant.--The hare and the lion.--The hare devours the western + monster; the hare devours his mother the mare.--_Mortuo leoni + lepores insultant_.--The hare and the eagle.--The hare that guards + the cavern of the beasts.--The hare comes out on the 15th of the + month and terrifies the wolf.--The hare transformed into the moon + by Indras.--Ermine and beaver.--Hare's-foot.--Hare and moon + fruitful.--Hare and moon that guide the hero.--_Somnus + leporinus_.--The hare and the bear.--The hare and the nuptial + procession.--The hare that contains a duck.--The girl riding upon + the hare. + +The mythical hare is undoubtedly the moon. In Sanskṛit, the _çaças_ +means properly the leaping one, as well as the hare, the rabbit, and the +spots on the moon (the _saltans_), which suggest the figure of a hare. +Hence the names of _çaçin_, or furnished with hares, and of +_çaçadharas_, _çaçabhṛit_, or he who carries the hare given to the moon. +In the first story of the third book of the _Pańćatantram_, the hares +dwell upon the shore of the Lake Ćandrasaras, or lake of the moon; and +their king, Viǵayadattas (the funereal god, the god of death), has for +his palace the lunar disc. When the hare speaks to the king of the +elephants who crushed the hares (in the same way as we have seen the cow +do in Chapter I.), he speaks in the moon's name. The hare makes the +elephant believe that the moon is in anger against the elephants because +they crush the hares under their feet; then the elephant demands to see +the moon, and the hare conducts him to the lake of the moon, where he +shows him the moon in the water. Wishing to approach the moon and ask +forgiveness, the elephant thrusts his proboscis into the water; the +water is agitated, and the reflection of the moon is disturbed, and +multiplied a thousand-fold. The hare makes the elephant believe that the +moon is still more angry because he has disturbed the water; then the +king of the elephants begs for pardon, and goes far away with his +subjects; from that day the hares live tranquilly on the shores of the +moon-lake, and are no longer crushed under the ponderous feet of their +huge companions. The moon rules the night (and the winter), the sun +rules the day (and the summer). The moon is cold, the sun is hot. The +solar elephant, lion, or bull, goes down at even to drink at the river, +at the lake of the nocturnal moon; the hare warns the elephant that if +he does not retire, if he continues to crush the hares on the shores of +the lake, the moon will take back her cold beams, and then the elephants +will die of thirst and excessive heat. The other story of the +_Pańćatantram_ is a variety of the myth, which we mentioned in the +chapter of the dog, of the hare who conducts to his ruin the hungry lion +who wishes to eat her, by making him throw himself into a fountain or +well. This myth, which is analogous to that of the mouse as the enemy of +now the elephant, now the lion, and now the hawk, is already very +clearly indicated in the Vedic hymns. In the twenty-eighth hymn of the +tenth book of the _Ṛigvedas_, in which the fox comes to visit the +western lion (the sick lion[113]), in which we have the lion who falls +into the trap[114] (and whom the mouse insults in the evening, and +delivers in the morning by gnawing at the ropes which bind it: in the +Hellenic proverb it is the hare that draws the lion into the golden +net--"elkei lagôs lionta chrüsinô brochô," in the same way as in the +_Pańćatantram_, it allures him into the well), and in which the hare +devours the western monster[115] (a variety of the Hellenic tradition of +the hare brought forth by a mare, and which immediately thereafter +devours its mother)--in this hymn we find the germ of several fables of +animals of the same cycle. The inferior animal vanquishes the superior +one, and upon this peculiarity the whole hymn turns; for this reason, +too, in the same hymn, the dog or jackal (canis aureus) assails the wild +boar,[116] and the calf defeats the bull.[117] The hare occurs again as +the proverbial enemy of the lion (whence the Latin proverb, "Mortuo +leoni lepores insultant," or _saltant_; the moon jumps up when the sun +dies), in the last book of the _Râmâyaṇam_, where the great king of the +monkeys, Bâlin, regards the king of the monsters, Râvaṇas, as a lion +does a hare, or as the bird Garuḍasa serpent.[118] + +In _Æsop_ we find the hare that laughs at its enemy, the dying eagle, +because the hunter killed it with an arrow furnished with eagle's +feathers. In another Æsopian fable, the rabbit avenges itself upon the +eagle which has eaten its young ones, by rooting up and throwing down +the tree upon which the eagle has its nest, so that the eaglets are +killed. + +In the seventeenth Mongol story, the hare is the guardian of the +cavern of the wild beasts (or the moon, the mrigarâǵas and guardian of +the forest of night); in the same story an old woman (the old fairy or +old Madonna) is substituted for the hare. In the twenty-first Mongol +story, the hare sets out on a journey with the lamb, on the fifteenth +day of the month, when the moon comes forth, and defends the lamb from +the wolf of night, terrifying the latter by telling it that it has +received a writing from the god Indras, in which the hare is ordered +to bring to Indras a thousand wolves' skins. + +In a Buddhist legend, the hare is transfigured by Indras into the +moon, because it had freely given him its flesh to eat, when, +disguised as a pilgrim, he came up begging for bread. The hare, having +nothing else to offer him, threw itself upon the fire, that Indras +might appease his hunger.[119] + +In the _Avesta_ we find the ermine as the king of the animals, and the +beaver as the sacred and inviolable animal, in whose skin the pure +Ardvîçûra is invested (white and silvery as the white dawn, rosy and +golden as the aurora; unless Ardvîçûra, whose diadem is made of a +hundred stars, should also be interpreted as denoting the moon, which +is now silvery, and now fair and golden). Moreover, for the beaver to +represent the moon (the chaste Diana) is in perfect accordance with +the reputation it has as a eunuch (castor _a castrando_) in popular +superstition; whence the words of Cicero concerning beavers,[120] and +the verses of Juvenal-- + + "Imitatus castora qui se + Eunuchum ipse facit cupiens evadere damnum + Testiculorum, adeo medicatum intelliget unguen."[121] + +In the twenty-first Esthonian story, a silly husband is called by the +name of Hare's-foot. In _Aldrovandi_, on the other hand, Philostratos +narrates the case of a woman who had miscarried seven times in the act +of child-birth, but who the eighth time brought forth a child, when +her husband unexpectedly drew a hare out of his bosom. Although the +moon is herself the timid and chaste goddess (or eunuch), she is, as +pluvial, the _fæcundatrix_, and famous as presiding over and +protecting child-birth; this is why, when the hare-moon, or Lucina, +assisted at parturition, it was sure to issue happily. The mythical +hare and the moon are constantly identified. It is on this account +that in _Pausanias_, the moon-goddess instructs the exiles who are +searching for a propitious place to found a city, to build it in a +myrtle-grove into which they should see a hare flee for refuge. The +moon is the watcher of the sky, that is to say, she sleeps with her +eyes open; so also does the hare, whence the _somnus leporinus_ became +a proverb. In the ninth Esthonian story, the thunder-god is compared +to the hare that sleeps with its eyes open; Indras, who transforms the +hare into the moon, has already been mentioned; Indras becomes a +eunuch in the form of sahasrâkshas, or of the thousand-eyed god (the +starry sky in the night, or the sun in this starry sky); the thousand +eyes become one, the _milloculus_ becomes _monoculus_, when the moon +shines in the evening sky; hence we say now the hundred eyes of Argos, +and now simply the eye of Argos--the eye of God. + +In a Slavonic tale,[122] the hare laughs at the bear's cubs, and spits +upon them; the bear runs after the hare, and in the hunt is decoyed +into an intricate jungle, where it is caught. As the lion is unknown +in Russia, the bear is substituted for it; the Russian hare allures +the bear into the trap, as the Hindoo and Greek one causes the lion to +fall into it. This hare which does harm to the solar hero or animal of +evening is the same as that which, in the fiftieth story of the fifth +book of _Afanassieff_, and in Russian popular tradition, meeting the +nuptial car, bodes evil to the wedding, and is of evil omen to the +bride and bridegroom. The hare-moon, the chaste protectress of +marriages and births, the benefactress of mankind, must not meet the +car; if she opposes the wedding (perhaps at evening and in the +autumn), or if the hare is crushed or overtaken by the car (as the +proverb says), it is a bad presage, not only for the wedded couple, +but for all mankind; solar as well as lunar eclipses were always +considered sinister omens in popular superstition. In the Russian +popular tales we frequently find mention of the hare under a tree, or +on a rock in the midst of the sea, where there is a duck, which +contains an egg; the yoke of this egg (the solar disc) is a precious +stone; when it falls into the hands of the young hero, the monster +dies, and he is able to espouse the young princess.[123] The girl of +seven years of age, who, to solve in action the riddle proposed by +the Tzar, who offers to marry her, rides upon a hare, is a variety of +this myth. By the help of the moon, the sun and evening aurora arrive +at the region of the morning, find each other, and are married; the +moon is the mediatrix of the mythical nuptials; the hare which +represents it must therefore not only not oppose them, but help them +materially; at evening the moon separates the sun from the aurora; at +morning she unites them again. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[113] Lopâçaḥ siṅham pratyańćam atsâḥ; _Ṛigv._ x. 28, 4. + +[114] Avaruddhaḥ paripadaṁ na sinhaḥ; x. 28, 10. + +[115] Çaçah kshuram pratyańćam ǵagâra; x. 28, 9. + +[116] Kroshṭâ varâhaṁ nir atakta kakshât; x. 28, 4. + +[117] Vatso vṛishabhaṁ çûçuvânaḥ; x. 28, 9. + +[118] Sinhaḥ çaçamivâlakshya garuḍo vâ bhuǵañgamam; _Râmây._ xxiii. + +[119] Cfr. _Mémoires sur les Contrées Occidentales_, traduits du +Sanscrit par Hiouen Thsang, et du Chinois par St Julien, i. 375. + +[120] Redimunt ea parte corporis, propter quam maxime expetuntur; _Pro +Æmilio Scauro_. It is said that when the beaver is pursued by hunters, +it tears off its testicles, as the most precious part for which +beavers are hunted, popular medical belief attributing marvellous +virtues to beavers' testicles. + +[121] xii. 35. + +[122] Cited by Afanassieff in the observations on the first volume of +the Russian stories. + +[123] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, i. 14, ii. 24, v. 42. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE ANTELOPE, THE STAG, THE DEER, AND THE GAZELLE. + + +SUMMARY. + + Luminous stag and black stag.--The Marutas drawn by antelopes, and + dressed in antelopes' skins.--The stag, the gazelle, and the + antelope as forms assumed or created by the demon to ruin several + heroes whilst they hunt.--Marîćas.--Indras kills the mṛigas.--The + solar hero or heroine transformed into a stag, a gazelle, or an + antelope.--Aktaion.--Artemis and the stag.--The stags of the + Yggdrasill.--The stag Eikthyrner.--The hind as a nurse.--The hind + and the old woman on the 1st of January.--The hind and the snow; + the white hind. + +The stag represents the luminous forms that appear in the cloudy or +the nocturnal forest; these, therefore, are now lightning and +thunderbolts, now the cloud itself from which the lightning and +thunderbolts are discharged, now the moon in the gloom of night. The +mythical stag is nearly always either entirely luminous or else +spotted; when it is black it is of a diabolical nature, and represents +the whole sky of night. Sometimes the luminous stag is a form assumed +by the demon of the forest to compass the ruin of the hero. + +The _Ṛigvedas_ represents to us the Marutas, or winds that lighten and +thunder in the clouds, as drawn by antelopes. The Marutas "are born +shining of themselves, with antelopes, with lances, amid +thunder-peals and flashes of lightning."[124] "They have yoked, with +a red yoke, the antelopes.[125] The young battalion of the Marutas +goes of itself, and has an antelope for its horse."[126] The horses of +the Marutas, which we already know to be antelopes, are called +winged,[127] and are said to have golden fore-feet.[128] The antelopes +of the Marutas are splendid.[129] Nor are the Marutas only carried by +antelopes; they also wear upon their shoulders antelopes' skins.[130] + +But the antelope, the gazelle, and the stag generally, instead of +helping the hero, involve him rather in perplexity and peril. This +mythical subject is amplified in numerous Hindoo legends. + +In the first scene of Kâlidâsas' _Çakuntalâ_, a black-spotted +(kṛishṇasâras) gazelle misleads King Dushyantas. + +In the _Mahâbhâratam_,[131] King Parîkshit pursues a gazelle and +wounds it (as the god Çivas one day wounded the gazelle of the +sacrifice); he then follows its track, but the gazelle flees at sight +of him, inasmuch as it has taken the path of heaven in its primitive +(_i.e._, celestial) form. The king loses the track of his prey, and in +trying to find it again, brings death upon his head. + +In the same _Mahâbhâratam_,[132] King Pandus dies at the moment when +he is uniting himself with his wife Mâdrî, because he had one day in +the chase transfixed a male gazelle at the instant when it was about +to have fruit of its union with a female gazelle. + +In the _Vishṇu P._,[133] King Bharatas, who has abandoned his throne +to give himself up entirely to penitence, loses the fruit of his +ascetic life, by becoming passionately enamoured of a fawn. + +In the _Râmâyaṇam_,[134] Marîćas, who is possessed by a demon, +becomes, by order of Râvaṇas, the king of the monsters, a golden stag +spotted with silver, having four golden horns adorned with pearls, and +a tongue as red as the sun, and tempts Râmas to pursue him in order to +procure his silver-spotted skin, for which Sîtâ has expressed a +desire, that she might lie down upon it and rest herself. In this way +the stag (here an equivalent of the hare) succeeds in separating Râmas +from Sîtâ. It then emits a lamentable cry, imitating the voice of +Râmas, so as to induce Lakshmaṇas, his brother, to come to his +assistance, and leave Sîtâ alone, that Râvaṇas may then be able to +carry her off with impunity. Lakshmaṇas leaves her unwillingly, +because, perceiving that the stag shines like the constellation of the +head of the stag (or gazelle, Mṛigaçiras), he suspects it to be an +apparition of Marîćas, who, as a stag, has already caused the ruin of +many other princes who have hunted him. The moon, in Sanskṛit, besides +the name of Çaçadharas, or who carries the hare, has also that of +Mṛigadharas, or who carries the gazelle (or stag). The solar hero +loses himself in the forest of night while pursuing the gazelle-moon. +A demoniacal gazelle seems to appear even in the _Ṛigvedas_, where +Indras fights and kills a monster called Mṛigas. In Germanic +tradition there are numerous legends in which the hero who hunts the +stag meets with his death or is dragged into hell.[135] + +As the moon is a stag or gazelle, and comes after the sun, so it was +also sometimes imagined that the solar hero or heroine was transformed +into a stag or hind. + +In the _Tuti-Name_,[136] a king goes to the chase, kills an antelope, +doffs the human form, and disguises himself as an antelope. This +mythical disguise can be understood in two ways. The evening sun +reflects its rays in the ocean of night, the sun-stag sees its horns +reflected in the fountain or lake of night, and admires them. At this +fountain sits a beautiful and bewitching siren, the moon; this fountain +is the dwelling of the moon; she allures the hero-stag that admires +itself in the fountain, and ruins it, or else the stag attracts the hero +to the fountain, where it causes him to meet with his death.[137] The +stag of the fable, after admiring itself in the fountain, is torn to +pieces by the dogs who overtake it in the forest because its horns +become entangled in the branches; the solar rays are enveloped in the +branches of the nocturnal forest. Aktaion, who, for having seen Artemis +(the moon) naked in the bath, is changed into a stag and torn by dogs, +is a variety of the same fable. In _Stesichoros_, quoted by Pausanias, +Artemis puts a stag's skin round Aktaion and incites the dogs to devour +him in order that he may not be able to wed the moon. Sun and moon are +brother and sister; the brother, wishing to seduce his sister, meets +with his death. A Lithuanian song describes the moon Menas (the Hindoo +Manu-s) as the unfaithful husband of the sun (who is a female), being +enamoured of Aushrine (the Vedic Usrâ, the morning aurora). The god +Perkuns, to avenge the sun, kills the moon. In a Servian song, the moon +reproaches his mistress or wife, the morning aurora, on account of her +absence. The aurora answers that she travels upon the heights of +Belgrade, that is, of the white or the luminous city, in the sky, upon +the lofty mountains. + +The king in the _Tuti-Name_ who assumes the guise of an antelope, +appears to be a variety of the solar hero at the moment of the +approach of night, or of the ass that invests itself in the lion's +skin. But inasmuch as the Indian moon is Mṛigarâǵas, or king of the +wild animals, no less than the lion, inasmuch as the moon succeeds the +sun, one mṛigas another, one lion another, or one stag another, when +the solar hero or heroine enters into the night, he or she appears in +the form of a luminous stag or hind, no longer as the sun, but as the +moon, which, although luminous, penetrates into hell, and is in +relation with demons and itself demoniacal. + +Artemis (the moon) is represented as a hunting goddess in the act of +wounding, with her left hand, an antelope between the horns. To this +goddess is also attributed the merit of having overtaken the stags +without the help of dogs, perhaps because, sometimes, she is herself a +dog, surprising the solar stag of evening. The four stags of Artemis +connect themselves in my mind with the four stags that stay round the +tree Yggdrasill in the _Edda_, and which come out of the river +Häeffing. The stag Eikthyrner which, eating the leaves of the tree +Lerad, causes all its waters to flow out, seems, on the other hand, to +refer to the sun as it merges and loses its rays in the cloud (the +solar stag is also referred to in the _Edda_). + +Artemis, who substitutes a hind for Iphigeneia, who was to have been +sacrificed, seems to point to the moon-hind as taking the place of the +evening aurora. We also recognise the moon in the hind which, according +to Ælianos and Diodoros, nourished Telephos, son of Hêraklês (Hêraklês +in his fourth labour overtakes the stag with golden horns), who had been +exposed in the forest by the order of his grandfather; as well as in +that which, according to Justinus, fed with its milk in the forest the +nephew of the king of the Tartessians, and afterwards, according to the +"Lives of the Saints," the blessed Ægidius, the hermit who lived in the +forest. There are numerous mediæval legends which reproduce this +circumstance of the young hero abandoned in the forest and nourished now +by a goat, now by a hind, the same which afterwards serves as a guide to +the royal father in recovering the prince his son, or to the +prince-husband in recovering the abandoned princess his bride. It was +probably by some such reminiscence of the mythical nourishing hind that, +as I read in Du Cange,[138] silver images of stags (cervi argentei) were +placed in ancient Christian baptistries. + +Among the customs of the primitive Christians condemned by St +Augustine, St Maximus of Turin, and other sacred writers, was that of +disguising one's self on the 1st of January as a hind or an old woman. +The old woman and the hind here evidently represent the witch or ugly +woman of winter; and inasmuch as the winter is, like the night, under +the moon's influence, the disguise of a hind was another way of +representing the moon. When the moon or the sun shines, the hind is +luminous and generally propitious, the wild goat is beneficent (the +wild goat, the deer, and the stag are the same in the myths; the same +word, _mṛigas_, serves in India to express the constellation of the +gazelle and that of the capricorn or wild goat), and hunts the wolves +away from the sleeping hero in the forest.[139] When the sky is dark, +the hind, from being luminous, has become black, and, as such, is the +most sinister of omens; sometimes, in the midst of the night or of the +winter, the beautiful luminous hind, or moon, or sun, disappears, and +the black monster of night or of winter remains alone. In the ninth +story of the _Pentamerone_, the Huorco (the rakshas or monster) +transforms himself into a beautiful hind to allure the young +Canneloro, who pursues it in the hope of securing it. But it decoys +him into the midst of the forest (of winter), where it causes so much +snow to fall, "che pareva che lo cielo cadesse" (the white hind into +which the witch transforms the beautiful maiden, in the story of +Madame d'Aulnoy, would seem to have the same meaning); then the hind +becomes a monster again in order to devour the hero. The period in +which the moon is hidden or on the wane, in which the night is dark, +was considered ill-omend by the ancient Hindoos, who held, on the +other hand, that the time of full moon, or at least of the crescent +moon, was propitious. Our country-people have preserved several +superstitions relative to a similar belief. In a Rutenian legend, +published by Novosielski, the evening star (Lithuanian, _vakerinne_; +Slavonic, _većernitza_, the evening aurora) prays its friend Lunus +(the moon is masculine in Slavonic as in Sanskṛit) to wait a little +before rising, that they may rise together, and adds, "We shall +illumine together sky and earth: the animals will be glad in the +fields, and the traveller will bless us on his way." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[124] Ye pṛishatîbhir ṛishtibhiḥ sâkaṁ vâçîbhir ańǵibhiḥ--aǵâyanta +svabhânavaḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 37, 2. + +[125] Upo ratheshu pṛishatîr ayugdhvam prashṭir vahati rohitaḥ; i. 39, +6. + +[126] Sa hi svasṛit pṛishadaçvo yuvâ gaṇaḥ: i. 87, 4. + +[127] Â vidyunmadbhir marutaḥ svarkâi rathebhir yâtha ṛishṭimadbhir +açvaparnâiḥ; i. 88, 1. + +[128] Açvâir hiraṇyapâṇibhiḥ; viii. 7, 27. + +[129] Çubhe sammiçlâḥ pṛishatîr ayukshata; iii. 26, 4. + +[130] Aṅseshu etâḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 166, 10.--Concerning the use of similar +skins for dress in India, cfr. the long and instructive note of +Professor Max Müller, _Ṛigveda-Sanhita Translated and Explained_, i. +221-223. + +[131] i. 1665. + +[132] i. 3811, _et seq._; i. 4585, _et seq._ + +[133] ii. 13, translated by Wilson. + +[134] iii. 40, 48, 49. + +[135] Cfr. Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 354. + +[136] ii. 258, Rosen's version. + +[137] Oft führt der Hirsch nur zu einer schönen Frau am Brunnen; sie +ist aber der Unterwelt verwandt und die Verbindung mit ihr an die +Bedingung geknüpft, dass die ungleiche Natur des Verbundenen nicht an +den Tag gezogen werde. + +[138] Du Cange adds: "Quoad baptismam, quomodo cervus ad fontes +aquarum, summo desiderium perveniendum esse monstraretur." + +[139] Cfr. Porchat, _Contes Merveilleux_, xiii. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE ELEPHANT. + + +SUMMARY. + + The myth of the elephant is entirely Indian.--The Marutas as + elephants; Indras as an elephant.--The elephant ridden by Indras + and Agnis.--The four elephants that support the world.--Âiravanas + and Âiravatas.--The elephant becomes diabolical.--Nâgas and nagas; + çṛiñgṁ.--The monkeys fight against the elephants.--The elephant in + the marsh.--The elephant and the tortoise; war between them.--The + eagle, the elephant, and the tortoise.--The bird, the fly, and the + frog lure the elephant to his death.--Hermit dwarfs.--Indras and + his elephant fall together. + +The whole mythical history of the elephant is confined to India. The +strength of his proboscis and tusks, his extraordinary size, the ease +with which he carries heavy burdens, his great fecundity in the season +of loves, all contributed to his mythical importance, and to his fame +as a great ravager of the celestial gloomy or cloudy forest, as an +Atlas, a supporter of worlds, and the steed of the pluvial god. + +The elephant has a place even in the Vedic heavens. + +The Marutas, drawn by antelopes, are compared to wild elephants that +level forests;[140] the horns of the antelopes, the tusks of the wild +boar, the trunk and tusks of the elephant, are of equivalent +significance, and are seen in the solar rays, in lightnings and +thunderbolts. The pluvial and thundering god Indras is compared to a +wild elephant that expends his strength[141]--to a wild elephant that, +in the season of loves, is, on all hands, in a constant state of +feverish agitation.[142] The god Agnis is invoked to come forth like a +formidable king upon an elephant.[143] + +The elephant generally represents the sun as it shuts itself up in the +cloud or the darkness, or comes out of it, shooting forth rays of +light or flashes of lightning (which were also supposed to be caused +by the friction on the axle of the wheel of the sun's chariot). The +sun, in the four seasons, visits the four quarters of the earth, east +and west, south and north; hence, perhaps, the Hindoo conception of +four elephants that support the four corners of the earth.[144] +Indras, the pluvial god, rides upon an enormous elephant, Âiravatas or +Âiravaṇas, the cloud or darkness itself, with its luminous eruptions; +âiravatam and âiravatî are also appellations of the lightning. The +elephant Âiravaṇas or Âiravatas is one of the first of the progeny of +the heavens, begotten of the agitation of the celestial ocean. + +It plays a prominent part in the battles of Indras against the monsters; +hence Râvaṇas, the monster king of Lañkâ, still bears the scars of the +wounds given him by the elephant Airavatas, in the war between the gods +and the demons,[145] although this same Râvaṇas boasts of having one day +defeated Indras, who rode upon the elephant Âiravaṇas.[146] + +But the mythical elephant did not always preserve the character of an +animal beloved of the gods; after other animals were admitted into +special favour, it too assumed, in time, a monstrous aspect. The sun +hides itself in the cloud, in the cloudy or nocturnal mountain, in the +ocean of night, in the autumn or the snowy winter. Hence we have the +white elephant (Dhavalas), the malignant killer of wise men (ṛishayas, +the solar rays); the wind, father of Hanumant, in the form of a +monkey, lacerates him with his claws, and tears out his tusks; the +elephant falls like a mountain[147] (the mountain of snow, or white +cloud, dissolve themselves; this white elephant and the white +mountain, or Dhavalagiris, are the same; the equivoque easily arose +between nâgas, elephant, and nagas, mountain and tree; the word +_cṛiñgin_, properly horned, means tree, mountain, and elephant; the +wind breaks through and disperses the cloud, and pushes forward the +avalanches of snow). Thus it is said that the monkey Sannâdanas was +one day victorious over the elephant Âiravatas.[148] (The northern +path of the moon is called âiravatapathâ.) + +We have already seen the elephant that crushes the hares under his +feet on the shores of the moon-lake, and disturbs with his trunk the +waters of this lake. In the _Râmâyaṇam_,[149] Bharatas considers it as +of a sinister omen his having dreamed of a great elephant fallen into +marshy ground. The sun plunges into the ocean of night, and of the +autumnal rains. + +The elephant near or in the waters is mythically equivalent to the +lunar and solar tortoise that dwells on the shores of the lake and +sea, or at the bottom of the sea. In the Hindoo cosmogony, it is now +the elephant and now the tortoise that supports the weight of the +world. For this reason there is rivalry between these two mythical +animals. . Therefore the eagle, or king of birds, or the bird +Garuḍas, the solar bird, is represented as a mortal enemy now of the +serpent, now of the elephant (the word _nâgas_ means equally serpent +and elephant; Âiravatas is also the name of a monstrous serpent), and +now of the tortoise. In the _Râmâyaṇam_,[150] the bird Garuḍas carries +into the air an elephant and a tortoise (the relative occidental +fables are evidently of Hindoo origin), in order to eat them. The same +legend is developed in the _Mahâbhâratam_,[151] where two brothers +dispute with each other about the division of their goods, each curses +the other, and they become, the one a colossal elephant, and the other +a colossal tortoise, and, as such, continue to fight fiercely against +each other in a lake, until the gigantic bird Garuḍas (the new sun), +takes them both and carries them to the summit of a mountain. + +In the fifteenth story of the first book of the _Pańćatantram_, we +find birds represented as enemies of the elephant, on account of the +ravages it commits, where the bird, the fly, and the frog work the +ruin of the elephant; the fly enters into one of the elephant's ears; +the bird pecks at its eyes, and blinds it; the frog croaks on the +banks of a deep pool; the elephant, impelled by thirst, comes to the +pool and is drowned. + +The Vedic elephant has a divine nature, being connected with the pluvial +Indras; but when Indras fell, to give place to Brahman, Vishṇus, and +Çivas, his elephant was also fated to become the prey of the bird of +Vishṇus, of the bird Garuḍas (or the sun). In the fable of the +_Pańćatantram_ quoted above, the elephant brings upon its head the +vengeance of the sparrow, because it had rooted up a tree upon which the +sparrow had made its nest and laid its eggs, which were broken in +consequence. The Vishṇuitic legend of the _Mahâbhâratam_ relating to the +bird Garuḍas, which carries the elephant into the air, offers several +other analogous and interesting particulars. The bird Garuḍas flies away +with the elephant and the tortoise; on the way, being tired, it rests +upon the huge bough of a tree; the bough breaks under the enormous +weight. From this bough are suspended, with their heads down, in +penitence, several dwarf hermits, born of the hairs of Brahman; then the +bird Garuḍas takes in its beak the whole bough, with the little hermits, +and carries them up in the air till they succeed in escaping. These +hermit dwarfs upon the branch (who remind us of the ants), had one day +cursed Indras. Kaçyapas Praǵâpatis, wishing one day to make a sacrifice +in order to obtain the favour of a son, orders the gods to provide him +with wood. Indras, like the four elephants who support the world, places +upon his shoulders a whole mountain of wood. Laden with this weight, he +meets on the way the hermit dwarfs, who were carrying a leaf in a car, +and were in danger of being drowned in a pool of water, the size of the +foot-print of a cow. Indras, instead of coming to their assistance, +smiles and passes by; the hermit dwarfs, in indignation, pray for the +birth of a new Indras; on this account the Indras of birds was born--the +bird of Garuḍas, the steed of Vishṇus, which naturally makes war against +the steed of Indras, the elephant. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[140] Mṛigâ iva hastinaḥ khâdathâ vanâ yad ârunîshu tavishîr +ayugdhvam; _Ṛigv._ i. 64, 7. + +[141] Mṛigo na hastî tavishîm ushâṇaḥ; _Ṛigv._ iv. 16, 14. + +[142] Dânâ mṛigo na vâraṇaḥ purutrâ ćarathaṁ dadhe; _Ṛigv._ viii. 33, 8. + +[143] Yâhi râǵevâmavân ibhena; _Ṛigv._ iv. 4, 1. + +[144] _Râmây._ i. 42. + +[145] iii. 36. + +[146] iii. 47. + +[147] _Râmây._ v. 3 + +[148] vi. 3. + +[149] ii. 71. + +[150] iii. 39. + +[151] i. 1353, _seq._ + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE MONKEY AND THE BEAR. + + +SUMMARY. + + Monkey and bear are already associated together in India; Ǵambavant + is a great monkey and the king of the bears.--Haris, kapis, kapilâ, + kapidhvaǵas; ṛikshas, arkas, ursus, arktos, rakshas; the Great Bear; + ṛishayas, harayas.--The Marutas as rivals of Indras; Vishṇus as + Indras' rival; the monkeys allied to Vishṇus; the Vedic monster + monkey killed by Indras; Haris or Vishṇus.--Harî mother of monkeys + and horses.--Bâlin, king of the monkeys, son of Indras, defeated by + his brother Sugrîvas, son of the sun.--Hanumant in opposition to + Indras; Hanumant son of the wind; Hanumant as the brother of + Sugrîvas; Hanumant is the strong brother or companion.--Hanumant + flies; he presses the mountain and makes the waters come out of it; + he draws the clouds after himself.--The epic monkeys and the + Marutas.--The monkey and the water.--The monkeys and the salutary + herbs.--The sea-monster draws to itself the shadow of Hanumant and + swallows him; Hanumant comes out of the monster's body safe and + sound; the mountain Hiraṇyanabhas.--Hanumant makes himself as small + as a cat in order to search for Sîtâ; Hanumant proves his power to + Sîtâ by making himself as large as a cloud or a mountain; he + massacres the monsters with a pillar; Dadhyańć, Hanumant, Samson; + Hanumant bound; he sets fire to Lañkâ with his tail.--The monkey + sacrificed to cure the burns of horses.--Sîtâ has a weakness for + Hanumant.--Dvividas a monster monkey.--The monkey destroys the + sparrow's nest.--The monkey draws a king into the jaws of an aquatic + monster.--The demoniacal monkey; monkey and fox.--The monkey + deceiver.--Sinister omens of the monkey.--The monkey envies the + fox's tail.--The stupid monkey.--The bear of the Marutas.--Triçañkus + with the skin of a bear; the seven ṛishayas.--Ṛiksharâǵas; the moon + as a reputed father.--Bears and monkeys in the forest of honey; + Balarâmas; medvjed; the bear and the honey; Italian proverbs; the + bear and the peasant; the deceived bear; the vengeance of the bear; + the bear in the sack; the demoniacal bear; the bear and the fox; the + monkey and the woodcutter; the bear and the trunk of a tree; the + peasant and the gentleman; the death of the athlete Milôn; the bear + entangled in the waggon that had fallen into the cistern.--The king + bear, monster of the fountain; sons sacrificed to the bear by their + father; the young men flee from the bear; the sleep of the + bear.--The bear's cub.--The bear and women.--The hero-bear; the + heroine she-bear.--The virgin she-bears.--Ursula, ṛikshikâ.--Ivanko + Medviedko.--Kalistos.--The bear as a musician.--The quartette of + animals.--Bear and monkey.--Bear and ass.--The monkey as a + messenger, an intermediate form. + +I here unite under one heading two animals of very diverse nature and +race, but which, from some gross resemblances, probably helped by an +equivoque in the language, are closely affiliated in the Hindoo myth. +I say Hindoo in particular, because the monkey, which is so common in +India, was long unknown to many of the Indo-European nations in their +scattered abodes, so that if they had some dim reminiscence of it as +connected with that part of Asia where the Âryan mythology took its +rise, they soon forgot it when they no longer had under their eyes the +animal itself which had suggested the primitive mythical form. But as +they held tenaciously by the substance of the myth, they by and by +substituted for the original mythical animal, called monkey, in the +south the ass, and in the north often the bear. Even in India, where +the pre-eminent quality of the monkey was cunning, we already find +monkeys and bears associated together. A reddish colour of the skin, +want of symmetry and ungainliness of form, strength in hugging with +the fore paws or arms, the faculty of climbing, shortness of tail, +sensuality, capacity for instruction in dancing and in music, are all +characteristics which more or less distinguish and meet in bears as +well as in monkeys. + +In the _Râmâyaṇam_, the wise Gâmbavant, the Odysseus of the expedition +of Lañkâ, is called now king of the bears (ṛikshapârthivaḥ),[152] now +great monkey (mahâkapiḥ).[153] + +The word _haris_ means fair, golden, reddish, sun, and monkey; the word +_kapis_ (probably, the changeful one) means monkey and sun. In Sanskṛit, +the _vidyut_ or thunderbolt, the reddish thunderbolt, of the colour of a +monkey, is also called _kapilâ_. Arǵunas, the son of Indras, has for +insignia the sun or a monkey, whence his name of Kapidhvaǵas. + +Professor Kuhn also supposes that the word _ṛikshas_, which means bear +and star, is derived from the root _arć_ in the sense of to shine +(_arkas_ is the sun), on account of the reddish colour of the bear's +skin.[154] But _ṛikshas_ (like ursus and arktos) may also be derived +from _rakshas_, the monster (perhaps as a keeper back, a constrictor, +arctor); so that the very word which names it supplies the point of +transition from the idea of the divine bear to that of the monster bear. + +In the _Ṛigvedas_, the Marutas are represented as the most powerful +assistants of Indras; but a Vedic hymn already shows them in the light +of Indras' rivals. The god Vishṇus in the _Ṛigvedas_ is usually a +sympathetic form of Indras; but in some hymns he already appears as his +antagonist. In the preceding chapter we spoke of the Vishṇuitic bird, of +the wind, father of Hanumant, and of a monkey, as enemies of Indras' +elephant. In Hindoo epic tradition, Vishṇus, personified in Râmas, has +the monkeys for his allies. The most luminous and effulgent form of the +god is very distinct from his occult and mysterious appearances. +Vishṇus, the sun, the solar rays, the moon and the winds that lighten, +are an army of golden monkeys to fight the monster. For the same reason +the monkey, on the contrary, has in the _Ṛigvedas_ a monstrous form; +that which was diabolical becomes divine in the lapse of time, and +similarly that which was divine, diabolical. In the eighty-sixth hymn of +the tenth book of the _Ṛigvedas_, Vishṇus, personified in Kapis +(monkey), or Vṛishâkapis (monkey that pours out, pluvial monkey), comes +to destroy the sacrificial offerings loved by Indras. Indras, being +superior to all, cuts off his head, as he wishes not to be indulgent to +an evil-doer.[155] This monkey is probably the pluvial, reddish +lightning cloud carried by the wind, which Indras pierces through with +his thunderbolt, although these same lightning and thundering clouds, +carried by the winds or Marutas (_i.e._, the Marutas themselves), are +usually represented in the _Ṛigvedas_ as assisting the supreme deity. A +difference having arisen between Vishṇus and Indras, and between the +Marutas and Indras, the Marutas took Vishṇus' part, and became monkeys +like Vishṇus,--the word _haris_, which is a favourite name of Vishṇus +(now moon, now sun), meaning also monkey. Vishṇus surrounds himself with +fair, reddish, or golden monkeys, or with harayas (solar rays or +lightning, thunder-striking and thundering clouds), in the same way as +the Vedic Indras was drawn by harayas. Râmas _kapirathas_ is simply an +incarnation of Vishṇus, who usurps the rights of Indras, which last, as +we have seen, had lent his harayas to Vishṇus, in order that he might +take his three famous steps. Evidently Vishṇus forgot to return the +fair-haired ones to his friend; hence from this time the strength of +Indras passes almost entirely into Vishṇus, who, in the form of Râmas, +helped by the harayas or red-haired ones, _i.e._, by the monkeys, moves +across the Dekhan (a region densely inhabited by monkeys) to the +conquest of the isle of Lañkâ. The _Mahâbhâratam_ informs us that +monkeys and horses had Harî for their mother.[156] The splendid Marutas +form the army of Indras, the red-haired monkeys and bears that of Râmas; +and the mythical and solar nature of the monkeys and bears of the +_Râmâyaṇam_ manifests itself several times. The king of the monkeys is a +sun-god. The ancient king was named Bâlin, and was the son of Indras +(Çakrasûnus). His young brother, Sugrîvas, he who changes his shape at +pleasure (kâmarûpas), who, helped by Râmas, usurped his throne, is said +to be own child of the sun (bhâskarasyâurasaḥ putraḥsûryanandanah).[157] +Here it is evident that the Vedic antagonism between Indras and Vishṇus +is reproduced in a zoological and entirely apish form. The old Zeus must +give way to the new, the moon to the sun, the evening to the morning +sun, the sun of winter to that of spring; the young sun betrays and +overthrows the old one. We have already seen that the legend of the two +brothers, Bâlin and Sugrîvas, is one of the forms which the myth of the +Açvinâu assumes. Râmas, who treacherously kills the old king of the +monkeys, Bâlin, is the equivalent of Vishṇus, who hurls his predecessor, +Indras, from his throne; and Sugrîvas, the new king of the monkeys, +resembles Indras when he promises to find the ravished Sîtâ, in the same +way as Vishṇus, in one of his incarnations, finds again the lost Vedâs. +And there are other indications in the _Râmâyaṇam_[158] of opposition +between Indras and the monkeys who assist Râmas. The great monkey +Hanumant, of the reddish colour of gold (hemapiñgalah), has his jaw +broken, Indras having struck him with his thunderbolt, and caused him to +fall upon a mountain, because, while yet a child, he threw himself off a +mountain into the air in order to arrest the course of the sun, whose +rays had no effect upon him.[159] (The cloud rises from the mountain and +hides the sun, which is unable of itself to disperse it; the tempest +comes, and brings flashes of lightning and thunderbolts, which tear the +cloud in pieces.) + +The whole legend of the monkey Hanumant represents the sun entering +into the cloud or darkness, and coming out of it. His father is said +to be now the wind, now the elephant of the monkeys[160] +(kapikuńǵaras), now keçarin, the long-haired sun, the sun with a mane, +the lion sun (whence his name of _keçariṇaḥ putraḥ_). From this point +of view, Hanumant would seem to be the brother of Sugrîvas, who is +also the offspring of the sun, the strong brother in the legend of the +two brothers connected with that of the three; that is to say, we +should have now Bâlin, Hanumant, and Sugrîvas brothers, now Râmas, +Hanumant, and Lakshamaṇas. The strong brother is between the other +two; the sun in the cloud, in the darkness or in the winter, is placed +between the evening sun and that of morning, or between the dying sun +of autumn and the new one of spring. + +Hanumant flies (like the ass); his powers of flight are seated in his +sides and his hips, which serve him for wings. Hanumant ascends to the +summit of Mount Mahendras, in order to throw himself into the air; +whilst he presses the mountain (a real vrishâkapis), he makes the +waters gush out of it; when he moves, the trees of the mountain-forest +are torn up by their roots, and follow him in the current made by him +as he cuts his way through the air (here we meet once more with the +mythical forest, the mythical tree that moves of itself like a cloud). +The wind in his armpits roars like a cloud (ǵîmûta iva garǵati), and +the shadow that he leaves behind him in the air resembles a line of +clouds (megharâǵîva vâyuputrânugâminî);[161] he draws the clouds after +him.[162] Thus all the epic monkeys of the _Râmâyaṇam_ are described +in the twentieth canto of the first book by expressions which very +closely resemble those applied in the Vedic hymns to the Marutas, as +swift as the tempestuous wind (vâyuvegasamâs), changing their shape at +pleasure (kâmarûpiṇas), making a noise like clouds, sounding like +thunder, battling, hurling mountain-peaks, shaking great uprooted +trees, armed with claws and teeth, shaking the mountains, uprooting +trees, stirring up the deep waters, crushing the earth with their +arms, lifting themselves into the air, making the clouds fall. Thus +Bâlin, the king of the monkeys, comes out of the cavern, as the sun +out of the cloud (toyadâdiva bhâskaraḥ).[163] + +In the same way as we have seen the harayas, or horses of Indras, the +gandharvâs, and the mythical ass in connection with the salutary waters, +with the herbs, and with the perfumes, so in the _Râmâyaṇam_ it is the +monkeys that carry the herbs and the salutary roots of the mountain, +that is, of the cloud-mountain or of the mountain of perfumes. + +The cloud in which the sun Hanumant travels through the air throws a +shadow upon the sea; a sea-monster perceives this shadow, and by it +attracts Hanumant to himself. (We have already seen the fearless hero +who is misled by his own shadow and lost.) Hanumant is kâmarûpas, like +Sugrîvas, and like all the other monkeys, his companions. When he sees +that the monster is about to swallow him, he distends and expands his +figure out of all measure; the ogress assumes the same gigantic +proportions; when she does so, Hanumant (repeating the miracle of his +type Haris, or the dwarf Vishṇus), becomes as small as a man's thumb, +enters into the vast body of the monster, and comes out on the other +side. Hanumant continues to fly across the ocean, in order to arrive +at the island of Lañkâ. The ocean takes pity upon him, and, to help +him, raises up Mount Hiraṇyanabhas, _i.e._, of the golden navel, the +mountain whence the sun comes out; indeed, Hanumant says[164] that he +struck the mountain with his tail, and broke its summit, that shone +like the sun, in order to rest upon it. Hanumant then recommences his +flight, and finds a new obstacle in the marine monster Siṅhikâ (the +mother of Râhus, the eclipse with a serpent's tail, which devours now +the sun, now the moon). She also draws to herself the shadow of +Hanumant; Hanumant, resorting once more to his former stratagem, +becomes small, and enters into her body; but he is no sooner inside +than he increases in bulk, swells out, tears her, kills her, and +escapes, a feat for which he receives the homage of the birds, who +will thenceforth be able to cross the ocean with impunity.[165] When +he arrives in Lañkâ, Hanumant, that he may search for and find Sîtâ by +moonlight, becomes as small as a cat (vṛishadaṅçapramâṇas); when he +finds her, and offers to carry her away from Lañkâ, she cannot believe +that so small an animal is able to accomplish so great an enterprise; +then Hanumant makes himself as tall as a black cloud, as a high +mountain; he breaks down the whole forest of açokâs, mounts upon a +temple that stands on a thousand columns, claps his hands, and fills +all Lañkâ with the din; he tears from the temple a pillar adorned with +gold, and, swinging it around, devotes the monsters to wholesale +slaughter.[166] The mythical monkey and the mythical ass resemble each +other; hence the analogy between the legend of Dadhyańć (quoted in the +second chapter), that of Samson, and that of Hanumant. But the legend +of the monkey Hanumant presents another curious resemblance to that +of Samson. Hanumant is bound with cords by Indraǵit, son of +Ravaṇas;[167] he could easily free himself, but does not wish to do +so. Ravaṇas, to put him to shame, orders his tail to be burned, +because the tail is the part most prized by monkeys (kapînâṁ kila +lâñgulam ishṭam, whence the fable of the monkey who complains of +having no tail). Hanumant's tail is greased and set on fire, and +himself thereafter marched in this plight ignominiously through the +streets of Lañkâ. But Sîtâ having invoked the favour of the god Agnis, +the fire, though it plays round the tail of Hanumant, does not burn +it, and Hanumant by this means is able to avenge himself for the +insult, by setting fire to and burning to ashes the city of +Lañka.[168] (The tail of Hanumant, which sets fire to the city of the +monsters, is probably a personification of the rays of the morning or +spring sun, which sets fire to the eastern heavens, and destroys the +abode of the nocturnal or winter monsters.) The enterprise of the +Marutas in the _Ṛigvedas_, and that of the monkey Hanumant in the +_Râmâyaṇam_, assume such dimensions that they obscure the fame of both +Indras and Râmas; the former without the Marutas, the latter without +Hanumant, would be unable to defeat the monsters. Sîtâ perceives this +so clearly, that, at the end of the poem, she makes Hanumant such a +present that Râmas might well become jealous. Hanumant, however, is an +honest and pious cavalier; it suffices him to have defended justice +in the service of his master, nor does he ask to be recompensed for +the hard achievement that he has accomplished. For the rest, a popular +Hindoo sentence says that monkeys are not accustomed to weep for +themselves;[169] they weep (rodanti) for others. The same is true of +the Rudrâs, or winds, that weep in the cloud; they do not lament for +themselves; their tears fall upon the ground in beneficent rain that +fertilises our fields and tempers the heat of our summers; +nevertheless, they themselves afterwards feel, as solar rays, the +benefit of weeping, that is, of rain. In the _Râmâyaṇam_, monkeys who +die in battle are resuscitated by rain; when the cloud dissolves +itself in rain, the fair-haired, the golden ones, the harayas, the +sunbeams or monkeys, show themselves again in all their vigour. + +We have seen thus far the cloud-monkey, from which the sun emerges, and +into which he re-enters. But we have already said more than once that +the sun often assumes a monstrous form, when enclosed in the cloud or +the darkness. It is thus we explain the divine hero Balarâmas, who, in +the _Vishṇu P._,[170] destroys the demon Dvividas, who had taken the +form of a monkey. In the eighteenth story of the first book of the +_Pańćatantram_, a monkey, whilst the wind blows and the rain falls, +shakes a tree upon which a sparrow has made its nest, and breaks the +eggs in pieces. In the tenth story of the fifth book, the king of the +monkeys, by means of a crown of pearls, attracts a king of men who had +killed monkeys to cure his horses (to which the fire had been +communicated by the wool of a ram which the cook had chased away from +the kitchen with a burning brand) to a fountain guarded by a monster +who devours the king and his suite. In the eleventh story of the same +book, a monkey upon a tree is the friend of one of the two crepuscular +monsters, and this monster invites it to eat the man; the man, however, +retaliates, and fiercely bites its long tail; the monkey then believes +this man to be stronger than the monster, and the latter believes the +man who holds the monkey by the tail with his teeth to be the monster of +the other twilight, _i.e._, the morning twilight. Here the monkey is +confounded with the fox, which is a mythical animal of a specially +crepuscular nature, and which also comes to ruin on account of its tail. +The reader has already observed how the incendiary monkey-tail of +Hanumant corresponds to the tails of the foxes in the legend of Samson. +The Hellenic and Latin proverbs generally regard the monkey as a very +cunning animal, so much so that Hercules and the monkey represented the +combination of strength and deceit. According to Cardano, a monkey seen +in dreams is a presage of deceit. According to Lucian, it was an augury +of an unlucky day to meet with a monkey in the early morning. The +Spartans considered it an omen of most sinister import that the monkey +of the king of the Molossians had upset their urn while they were going +to consult the oracle. According to Suetonius, when Nero thought he saw +his horse flee, having the shape of a monkey in his hind parts, he +believed it to prognosticate death. The monkey, accordingly, was usually +conceived of in Greece and at Rome as a cunning and demoniacal animal. +The hero in the cloud, in the dark, or in hell, on the other hand, +learns wisdom; and just as before this he is only a poor fool, so the +monkey, too, is also sometimes represented in the ancient fables of +Southern Europe as an animal full of simplicity. In Italy we have a +proverb which says that every monkey thinks her young ones beautiful; +this refers to the apologue of the monkey that believes her young ones +to be the most beautiful animals in the world, because Jove, seeing them +one day leaping about, could not refrain from laughing. The fox, in an +epigram, laughs at the monkey who craves from him the half of his tail, +on the plea that it would disencumber himself of just so much useless +appendage, and supply his suitor with the very covering required to +protect his all too naked buttocks:-- + + "Malo verrat humum quam sit tibi causa decoris, + Quam tegat immundas res bene munda nates." + +In India the analogy between the monkey and the ass, as a stupid +animal, is of still more frequent occurrence. In the _Pańćatantram_ we +have the monkeys who try to warm themselves by the light of the +glowworm; a monkey presuming to correct the handiwork of a carpenter, +meets with its death by putting its hands into the cleft of a tree +trunk, and heedlessly withdrawing the wedge that caused it. In the +_Tuti-Name_,[171] we find a variety of the story of the ass and the +lyre, _i.e._, the wise Sâz-Perdâz, who learns from the monkey, +assisted by the wind, the way to form musical instruments. (The +thundering cloud is the mythical musical instrument _par excellence_; +it is the wind that moves it, it is the wind that makes it sound: the +hero in the cloud, gandharvas, ass or monkey, is a musician.) + +The strong, powerful, and terrible bear of the Marutas,[172] or winds, +in the stormy, lightning and thundering cloud, is already mentioned in +the Vedic hymn. So the constellation of the she-bear[173] seems also +to be referred to in them. In the _Râmâyaṇam_,[174] we find in +connection with it the legend of King Triçañkus, who, cursed by the +sons of Vasishṭhas, becomes a ćandalas, covered with the skin of a +bear (ṛikshaćarmanivâsî). Viçvâmitras, the rival of Vasishṭhas, +promises to introduce it into heaven, under cover of his own body; but +Indras scorns to admit it, and indignantly spurns it, hurling it down +heels over head. Viçvâmitras arrests it in its descent as it falls +with its head downmost, within the constellation of the seven ṛishayas +or wise men, that is to say, in the constellation of the Great Bear. +And as the bear is in relation with the polar constellation, with the +north, the frigid regions, the winter and the stars, so the moon, who +rules particularly over the cold night in the icy season, is called in +Sanskṛit _ṛiksharâǵas_ and _ṛiksheças_, or king of the luminous ones, +king of the stars, king of the bears. The king of the bears also takes +part in the expedition to Lañka. The king of the bears (here in +relation to the moon) is the eunuch, the reputed, father, the St +Joseph, of the king of the monkeys, Sugrîvas, who was, on the +contrary, really generated in the bosom of the wife of the bear-king, +by the magnanimous sun.[175] Led on by the bear or monkey Gâmbavant, +the king of the bears (ṛikshapârthivas), the monkeys enter into the +forest of the honey (madhuvanam), guarded by the monkey Dadhimukhas +(mouth of butter, generated by Somas, the ambrosial god Lunus),[176] +and devastate and ransack the forest in order to suck its honey.[177] +In the _Vishṇu P._,[178] even Balarâmas, brother of the god Kṛishnas, +makes himself drunk with the spirituous liquor contained in the +fissure of a tree. + +The bear-eater of honey is an extremely popular subject of Russian +tradition; the very name of the bear, medv-jed, means in Russian, "he +who eats honey" (_miod_ is honey, and _iest_ to eat; but the form +_medv_ [medu] is more perfectly equivalent to the Hindoo _madhu_ = the +sweet honey ambrosia; the bear in the _madhuvanam_ corresponds +entirely to the medvjed or bear who eats honey of the Russians). In a +Slavonic story referred to by Afanassieff in the observations to the +first book of the Russian stories, the bear, deceived by the hare, is +left shut up in the trunk of a tree. A peasant passes by; the bear +begs him to deliver it from this trunk, promising to show him a +bee-hive, and beseeching him not to tell any one that a hare had +deceived it. The peasant frees the bear; the bear shows the bee-hive, +the peasant takes the honey and goes home.[179] The bear goes and +listens at the door to overhear the conversation. The peasant narrates +how he had procured the honey by means of a bear who, following a +hare, had been caught in a tree. The bear determines to have its +revenge. One day it finds the peasant in the field, and is about to +fall upon and rend him,[180] when the fox makes its appearance, shakes +its tail, and says to the peasant, "Man, thou hast ingenuity in thy +head, and a stick in thy hand." The peasant immediately understands +the stratagem. He begs the bear to let him perform his devotions +first; and offers, as a devotion, instead of doing penance, to carry +the bear, shut up in a sack, three times round the field, after which +the bear is to do with him whatever it likes. The bear, proud of +being carried by the man,[181] enters into the sack; the man binds it +strongly, and then beats it so with his stick that it dies. + +The bear, representing usually the luminous one in the darkness, has +frequently in Slavonic tradition a demoniacal character,[182] or else +that of a fool, like the ass. In the first of the Russian stories, the +fox terrifies the bear, and then delivers the peasant from it. (The +peasant in popular rustic narratives is almost always a heroic +personage, who becomes a wiseacre and a prince.) The peasant cheats +his companion, the bear, twice: when they sow turnips together, the +peasant reserves for himself whatever grows underground, and leaves to +the bear whatever comes out of the earth and appears above; when they +sow wheat, the bear, thinking to be very knowing, takes for his own +part what grows under, and gives to the peasant what grows above the +ground. The peasant is about to be devoured by the bear, when the fox +comes to the rescue.[183] In the first story of the fourth book of +_Afanassieff_, the fox goes to pass the winter in the bear's den, and +devours all the provision of hens that the bear had laid up. The bear +asks what it is eating, and the fox makes him believe that it is +taking meat from its own forehead. The bear asks whether it is good, +upon which the fox gives him some to taste; the bear then tries also +to take meat from his forehead, and dies; thus the fox has enough to +eat for a year. + +The romance of the fox also presents to us the fox in opposition to +the bear, whom he induces to put his paws into the cleft of the trunk +of a tree, as happened to the Hindoo monkey of the _Pańćatantram_. In +the Russian story,[184] instead of the fox, we have the peasant, and +instead of the monkey and the bear, we have the gentleman (who in the +poor man's eyes is often a personification of the demon) who is caught +by his hands in the fissure of a tree. The peasant revenges himself in +this way upon the gentleman who had, after having bought from others a +little canary for fifteen roubles, refused to buy from him a large +goose for a hundred roubles. The very strong athlete Milôn of Kroton, +who in one day used to eat an ox four years old, a legendary hero, is +torn to pieces by wild beasts, having been caught by the hands in the +crevice of a log which he was splitting. Animal and hero continually +alternate in myths. In the fourth story of the fifth book of +_Afanassieff_, the peasant meets with his death on account of the +funereal and demoniacal storks and the bear. The peasant binds himself +to his waggon in order not to fall off; the horse wishes to drink, +and drags the waggon into a well. The bear, being pursued, passes by, +falls unexpectedly into the well, becomes involved with the waggon, +and, in order to extricate himself, is constrained to drag out waggon, +peasant, and all. Soon afterwards the bear, in search of honey, climbs +up a tree; another peasant passes, sees the bear upon the tree, and +wishing to secure the animal, cuts down the tree; bear and waggon fall +down, and the peasant is killed, whilst the bear releases itself and +escapes. The bear which is looking for honey and the bear in the well +remind us of the _asinus in unguento_, and of the ass in the roses: +the ass who is the friend of the gardener or of the priest of Flora +and Pomona, in the fable of La Fontaine,[185] has the same +signification. In the twenty-eighth story of the fifth book of +_Afanassieff_, King Bear lies hidden in a fountain (we have already +seen the Hindoo monkey that draws a king into a fountain, into the +monster's jaws); a king goes to hunt; feeling thirsty, he wishes to +drink at this fountain; the bear clutches him by the beard, and only +releases him on condition that he will give up in his stead whatever +he has at home without knowing it (this is a variation of the story of +Hariçćandras). The king consents, and returning home, learns that +twins, named Ivan and Maria, are born to him. To save them from the +bear, their father has them lowered into a subterranean cavern, well +furnished and very deep, which he supplies with abundant provisions. +The twins grow up healthy and strong; the king and queen die, and the +bear comes to search for the twins. He finds in the royal palace a +pair of scissors, and asks them where the king's sons are; the +scissors answer, "Throw me upon the ground in the courtyard; where I +fall, there search." The scissors fall over the very place under which +Ivan and Maria are concealed. The bear opens the ground with his paws, +and is about to devour the young brother and sister; they beg for +their lives, and the bear spares them, at sight of the abundance of +hens and geese provided for them. The bear then resolves to take them +into his service; they twice attempt in vain to escape, the first time +with the help of a hawk, the second with that of an eagle: at last a +bull succeeds in releasing them. Pursued by the bear, they throw down +a comb, and an impenetrable forest springs up; the bear lacerates and +wounds himself all over in passing through. Ivan then spreads out a +towel which makes a lake of fire; at this sight the bear, who is +afraid of being burned, who does not like heat, but, on the contrary, +prefers cold, goes back. + +In the twenty-seventh story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, a +demoniacal bear with iron hairs, devastates a whole kingdom, devouring +all the inhabitants; Ivan Tzarević and Helena Prekrasnaia alone remain; +but the king has them placed with provisions upon a high pillar (a new +form of Mount Hiraṇyanabhas, whence the sun issues forth, which comes up +from the bottom of the sea, and upon which the great monkey Hanumant +places himself. The bear is also found in connection with a gem in the +_Vishnu P._[186]) In the _Tuti-Name_,[187] the carpenter teaches two +bears to take their food upon a statue which is a perfect image of his +companion the miserly goldsmith, who had defrauded him of some money. By +means of the bears, whom he represents as the two sons of the goldsmith +who had run away from him, he terrifies him. The goldsmith, perceiving +the carpenter's craftiness, gives him back his money. The famished +bear approaches the pillar. Ivan throws him down some food; the bear, +after having eaten, goes to sleep.[188] While he sleeps, Ivan and Helena +flee away upon a horse; the bear awakes, overtakes them, brings them +back to the pillar, and makes them throw him down some food, after which +he again goes to sleep. The young brother and sister then try to escape +upon the backs of geese; the bear again wakens, overtakes them, burns +the geese, and takes Ivan and Helena back to the pillar. Having a third +time supplied the bear with food, it is again overcome by sleep; this +time the deliverer comes in the shape of a bull, who blinds the bear +with his horns, and throws him into a stream, where he is drowned. In +the same story, the demon, wishing to expose Ivan to certain death, +sends him to search for the milk of a she-bear.[189] The demon appears +again in the form of a bear in the fiftieth story of the fifth book of +_Afanassieff_, where the dog of a soldier rends him to pieces. But +although the bear is demoniacal, the bear's cub, on the other hand, +helps the hero.[190] In the eleventh story of the sixth book of +_Afanassieff_, a woman who is gathering mushrooms loses herself and +enters into the bear's den--the bear takes her to himself. We have +already seen the bear that plays at blind-man's-buff with the mouse, +thinking that he is playing with the beautiful maiden. The wind Rudras +and Æolus, king of the winds, we have already seen, in the first chapter +of this book, to be passionately fond of beautiful nymphs. In a +Norwegian story (a variation of that of the White Cat), in _Asbiörnsen_, +the hero is disguised as a bear, and becomes a beautiful young man by +night. His wife, by her indiscreet curiosity, _i.e._, because she had +wished to see him by lamplight, loses him, and her place is taken by the +long-nosed princess, until, with the help of a golden apple and a horse, +she is able to find her husband again. In the sixth story of the second +book of the _Pentamerone_, it is, on the other hand, the girl Pretiosa +who, to escape the embraces of her father, goes into the forest +disguised as a she-bear. A young prince, the son of the king of the +water, becomes enamoured of her, and takes her to the palace. The prince +becomes ill for love of the she-bear; she assists him and cures him. +While he is kissing her, she becomes a beautiful girl ("la chiù bella +cosa de lo Munno"). We learn from two mediæval writings quoted by Du +Cange (_s. v. Ursus_), that it was already the custom in the Middle Ages +to lead the bear round to make him play indecent games ("Nec turpia joca +cum urso vel tornatricibus ante se facere permittat"), and that hairs of +a bear stained in some ointment used to be sold, "Tamquam philacteria, +ad depellendos morbos, atque, adeo oculorum fascinos amoliendos." The +Athenians called she-bears the virgins sacred to the chaste Artemis, the +friend of closed places; and to this, it would appear, must also be +referred the interesting Christian legend of the virgin St Ursula,[191] +whom Karl Simrock identifies with the demoniacal, funereal, somniferous, +death-bringing Holda. Were this identification accepted, Ursula would +be, moreover, in close ideal and etymological relation with the Vedic +monster Ṛikshikâ. + +But to return to the Russian story, the woman who enters into the bear's +den unites herself with him, and subsequently gives birth to a son, who +is a man down to the waist, and a bear from the waist downwards. His +mother, therefore, names him Ivanko-Medviedko (Little John, the son of +the bear). This half-man half-bear becomes a cunning animal, and cheats +the devil, making him fight with the bear, and persuading him to think +that the bear is his middle brother (that is, the strong brother). In a +Danish tradition we read of a girl violated by a bear, who gives birth +afterwards to a monster. According to the Hellenic myth, the nymph +Kalistos, daughter of King Lykaon, violated by Zeus, is changed by Juno +or by Artemis into a she-bear, gives birth to Arkas, and, being killed +with her son by shepherds, is converted into a star. + +The cunning bear appears again as a musician (like the ass) in the +seventeenth story of the third book of _Afanassieff_, where he sings +so well that he deceives the old shepherdess, and succeeds in carrying +off her sheep. In a note to the ninth Esthonian story of Kreutzwald, +Herr Löwe observes, that in the Northern languages, the god of thunder +and the bear are synonymous. The bear, the monkey, the ass, and the +bull (all of which are personifications of the cloud), form a musical +quartette in a fine fable of Kriloff. The bear is made to dance like +the monkey,[192] the ass, and the gandharvas, his mythical equivalent. +In the same way as the ass's skin chases away fear, the eye of a bear +dried and hung upon a child's neck preserves from fear.[193] In the +legends of the saints, especially of the hermits, to whom the bear, +inspired by God, often gives up his den in obedience to their +commands, we read of St Maximin that he transformed a bear into an ass +because he had eaten an ass that carried a load. + +In the nineteenth fable of the twelfth book of _La Fontaine_, the +monkey appears as a messenger of Jove, with the caduceus, to + + "Partager un brin d'herbe entre quelques fourmis;" + +while two enormous animals, the elephant and the rhinoceros, are +contending for the superiority. The monkey, as Mercury, as an +intermediate and mediating form between two heroic similar animals, +comes near to the knowing fox, the reddish colour of which (as well as +of the bear) it partakes of. It is no longer the pure fair sun of day, +and it is not yet the black monster of night; it is too black to be +red, and too red to be black; it has all the cunning of the devils, +and is acquainted with all the habits of the saints. The monkey, the +imitator of man (a Darwinist would say his progenitor), partakes, like +man, of the nature of the brutish demon and of the intelligent god. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[152] _Râmây._ iv. 63. + +[153] v. 55. + +[154] For the connection between the seven ṛikshas (ṛishayas, wise men, +stars, or bears) of the Hindoos and the septemtriones, the seven stars +of the she-bear (Arktos, Arkturus), and the Arctic regions, cfr. the +interesting discussion of Professor Max Müller, in the second series of +his Lectures.--The seven ṛishayas are the same as the seven Añgirasas, +the seven harayas, and the Marutas, who are seven (multiplied by three, +that is, twenty-one). In the Marutas, as harayas, we have the monkeys. +Even the wife of the king of the monkeys is named Târâ, or, properly, +the star. Thus there seems to exist between the monkey and the star the +same relation as between the bear and the star, a new argument to +vindicate the identity of the two animals in mythology. + +[155] Priyâ tashṭâni me kapir vyaktâ vy adûdushat çiro nv asya +râvishaṁ na sugaṁ dushkṛite bhuvaṁ viçvasmâd indra uttaraḥ; str. 5. + +[156] i. 2628. + +[157] iii. 75. + +[158] iv. 5. + +[159] v. 2, vii. 39. + +[160] v. 3. + +[161] _Râmây._ v. 4, v. 5. + +[162] v. 55. + +[163] _Râmây._ iv. 12, v. 6.--The monkey on the sea is also to be +found in a Greek apologue, but the subject is somewhat different. A +monkey, which during a tempest had been washed from a ship, and tossed +about upon the stormy waves under the promontory of Attica, is +mistaken by a dolphin for a man; the dolphin, having great affection +for the race to which he presumed he belonged, takes him up and +carries him towards the shore. But before letting him touch firm +ground, he asks him whether he is an Athenian; the monkey answers that +he is of illustrious birth; the dolphin asks if he knows the Piræus; +the monkey, thinking that it is a man's name, answers that he is a +great friend of his; upon which the dolphin, indignant at having been +deceived, lets the monkey fall again into the sea. + +[164] _Râmây._ v. 56. + +[165] v. 8. + +[166] v. 37. + +[167] _Râmây._ v. 56. + +[168] v. 50.--In the _Pańćatantram_, v. 10, it is said, on the +contrary, that monkeys possess the virtue of healing the wounds of +horses that have been scalded or burned, as the sun of morning chases +the darkness away. According to a variety of this story contained in +the _Tuti-Name_, i. 130, the bite of a monkey can be cured only by the +blood of the very monkey who had inflicted it. + +[169] Aǵńatakulaçîle 'pi prîtiṁ kurvanti vânarâḥ âtmârthe ća na +rodanti; Böhtlingk, _Indische Sprüche_, 107. + +[170] v. 36. + +[171] i. 266. + +[172] Ṛiksho na vo mârutaḥ çimîvâṅ amo dadhro gâuriva bhîmayuḥ _Ṛigv._ +v. 56, 3. + +[173] Amî ya ṛikshâ nihitâsa uććâ; _Ṛigv._ i. 24, 10. + +[174] _Râmây._ i. 60-62. + +[175] vi. 46. + +[176] vi. 6. + +[177] v. 59. + +[178] v. 25. + +[179] This story, with some variations, was already known in the +sixteenth century: "Demetrius Moschovitarum legatus Romam missus, teste +Paulo Jovio (quoted by Aldrovandi), narravit proximis annis viciniæ suæ +agricolam quærendi mellis causa in prægrandem et cavam arborem superne +desiliisse, eumque profundo mellis gurgite collo tenus fuisse immersum +et biduo vitam solo melle sustinuisse, cum in illâ solitudine vox +agricolæ opem implorantis ad viatorum aures non perveniret. Tandem hic, +desperata salute, ursæ beneficio extractus evasit, nam hujus feræ ad +mella edenda more humano in arboris civitatem se demittentis, pellem +tergoris manibus comprehendit et inde ab ursa subito timore exterrita et +retrocedente extractus fuit."--The bear is also celebrated in Kriloff's +fables as an eater of honey.--In an apologue of Abstemius, the bear, +when searching for honey, is stung by a bee; he avenges himself by +destroying the honeycombs, but the swarms of bees fly upon him, and +sting and torment him on every side; the bear then complains that by not +having known how to support a small evil he had drawn upon himself a +very grave one.--The pears of the Italian proverb in connection with the +bear also refer to hydromel or to honey. The Italian proverbs are as +follows: "Dar le pere in guardia all' orso" (to give the pears to be +guarded by the bear); "Chi divide la pera (or il miele) all' orso ne ha +sempre men che parte" (he who divides the pear (or the honey) with the +bear, always has less than a part, that is, the bear eats it all), and +"L'orso sogna pere" (the bear dreams of pears). To catch the bear is the +same as to be inebriated; the bear, in fact, is, in the legends, often +inebriated himself with honey, as the Vedic Indras with the ambrosia, +and as Balarâmas in the spirituous liquor contained in the fissure of a +tree (_Vishṇu-P._ v. 25). The sun in the cloud or in the rainy or wintry +season drinks more than necessary. Cfr. also Ralston, _Songs of the +Russian People_, p. 182. + +[180] In the fifteenth story of _Afanassieff_, the bear revenges +himself upon an old man who had cut off one of his paws with a +hatchet; the bear makes himself a paw from the wood of a linden-tree, +takes the old man and the old woman by surprise in their house and +devours them. In the nineteenth story of the fourth book, the bear +allies himself with the fox lamed by the peasant, and with the gadfly +that the peasant had placed behind the straw, in order to revenge +himself upon the peasant, who, promising to cover him with spots like +the horse, had struck him here and there on the body with a red-hot +axe, so that the bones were left bare. This fable is perhaps connected +with the Hindoo superstition that the burns of a horse are cured by +means of a monkey. As to the wooden paws, they are doubtless the +branches of the cloudy or nocturnal forest. In the _Edda_ of Sömund it +is said that the Alfes are accustomed to call the trees the beautiful +arms; we already know the meaning of the boy with the golden hand. + +[181] In the tenth story of the third book of _Afanassieff_, Nadzei, +the son of a virgin who is the daughter of a priest, makes himself +formidable by cutting down the forest and drawing, without assistance, +out of the forest the bear that destroyed the cats. + +[182] In a description of the last Sunday of the Roman carnival of the +thirteenth century, in Du Cange, _s. v. Carnelevarium_, we read: +"Occidunt ursum, occiditur diabolus, id est, temptator nostræ +carnis."--In Bohemia it is still the custom at the end of the carnival +to bring the bear,--that is, a man disguised as a bear, with straw, +who goes round to ask for beer (or hydromel, which takes the place of +the mythical honey or ambrosia). The women take the straws to put them +into the place where the hens lay their eggs, to make them lay better. +In Suabia the straw bear is accused of having killed a blind cat, and +therefore condemned, with all formality, to death, after having had, +before his death, two priests to console him; on Ash-Wednesday the +bear is solemnly buried.--Cfr. Reinsberg von Düringfeld, _Das +festliche Jahr_.--The poet Hans Sachs, quoted by Simrock, covers with +a bear's skin two old women who are to be presented to the devil. + +[183] Cfr., moreover, _Afanassieff_, ii. 33.--In a popular Norwegian +story, the fox makes the bear catch fish with his tail, which is +frozen in the water. + +[184] _Afanassieff_, v. 2. + +[185] viii. 10. + +[186] iv. 13. + +[187] i. 6. + +[188] Concerning the bear's sleep, it is interesting to read the +curious information furnished by Aldrovandi (_De Quadr. Dig. Viv._ +i.): "Devorant etiam ursi ineunte hyeme radices nomine nobis adhuc +ignotas, quibus per longum temporis spatium cibi cupiditas expletur et +somnus conciliatur. Nam in Alpibus Helveticis aiunt, referente +Gesnero, vaccarum pastorem eminus vidisse ursum, qui radicem quemdam +manibus propriis effossam edebat, et post ursi discessum, illuc se +transtulisse; radicemque illam degustasse, qui postmodum tanto somni +desiderio affectus est, ut se continere non potuerit, quin in viâ +stratus somno frueretur." The bear, as a nocturnal and wintry animal, +must of necessity conciliate sleep. + +[189] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, vi. 5.--According to Hellenic tradition, +Paris and Atalanta were nourished with the milk of a she-bear. + +[190] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 27, v. 28.--According to Cardano, to meet +with a bear's cub just born indicated a change of fortune for the +better. + +[191] Cfr. the work of Schade, _Die Sage von der Heiligen Ursula_. She +is also to be found among the _Leggende del Secolo Decimoquarto_, +published at Florence by Signor Del Lungo (Barbera, publisher). + +[192] + + "... il parle, on l'entend, il sait danser, baller + Faire des tours de toute sorte + Passer en des cerceaux." + --_La Fontaine, Fables_, ix. 3. + +In _La Fontaine_, the monkey is again identified with the ass, as a +judge on the tribunal between the wolf and the fox, and afterwards as +dressed in the skin of the dead lion. In the fourth fable of the +eleventh book, La Fontaine makes the monkey M.A. narrate the story of +the _asinus asinum fricat;_ in the second fable of the twelfth book +the monkey scatters the miser's treasure, as in Hindoo tradition it +spoils the sacrificial offerings. + +[193] Cfr. Aldrovandi, _De Quadr. Dig. Viv._ + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE FOX, THE JACKAL, AND THE WOLF. + + +SUMMARY. + + Lopâças, lopâçikâ.--The jackal takes in Hindoo tradition the place + of the fox.--What the fox represents in mythology, and why the + jackal is his mythical equivalent.--Double aspect of the mythical + fox, in connection with the cock and in connection with the wolf, + turned towards the day and towards the night, now friendly, now + hostile to the hero.--The fox deceives all the other animals, in + order to have all the prey to itself.--The fox is the monster's + enemy.--The blue jackal.--The inquisitive jackal.--The avenging + jackal.--The astute fox; the woman more cunning than the fox.--The + fox's skin.--The buttered tail of the jackal.--The fox eats the + honey, the butter, or the cake belonging to the wolf, and then + accuses him.--The fox sends the wolf to fish.--The fox eats the + woman whom he had promised to bring to life.--The fox as a + mourner.--The peasant ungrateful to the fox.--"Cauda de vulpe + testatur."--The fox eats the bear; the bird feeds the fox, and + afterwards draws it in among the dogs.--Former hospitality is to be + forgotten.--The fox as the cat's wife.--The round cheese of the myth + is the moon.--The fox steals the fishes.--The fox is of every + profession.--The grateful fox enriches the poor hero.--King Fire and + Queen Loszna.--The house of the fox and that of the hare.--The fox + deceives the cock; the cock deceives the fox.--The fox's tail in the + beaks of the chickens.--The fox's malice; the ideal of a prince + according to Macchiavelli; fox and serpent.--The fox cheats almost + all the animals; it does not, however, succeed in cheating the other + foxes, and sometimes not even the lion.--The Catholic Church + furnishes new types for the legend of the fox.--Union of the fox + with the wolf.--Diverse nature of the wolf.--The red wolf.--The + thieving wolf.--The wolf (or the devil) and the fishes; the fish in + shallow water.--The dog and the wolf.--The wolf as a + shepherd.--Wolf's belly.--The good wolf and the good maiden.--The + son of the wolf understands the language of birds.--The she-wolf as + a nurse; she-wolves and strumpets.--Disguises in a wolf's + skin.--Wolf-hunter.--The wolf's shadow.--Wolves that chastise in the + name of God; sanctified wolves.--The dead wolf; the wolf's + skin.--Diabolical wolves.--The white + wolf.--Wulfesheofod.--Ysengrin.--The wolf sings psalms.--The cunning + of the wolf.--The wolf's tail.--The dwarf in the wolf's body; the + dwarf in the wolf's sack.--The she-wolf at Rome.--Dante's she-wolf. + +The fox is scarcely spoken of once in the _Ṛigvedas_ by the name of +lopâças (alôpêx), as penetrating to the old Western lion; this word +(like _lopâkas_, which is interpreted in the Petropolitan Dictionary as +"a kind of jackal") seems to mean properly "the destroyer" (according to +Professor Weber, _Aasfresser_). The Sanskṛit language also gives us the +diminutive _lopâçikâ_, which is interpreted as the female of a jackal +and as the fox (vulpecula). The legendary fox, however, is generally +represented in Hindoo tradition by the jackal, or _canis aureus_ +(sṛigâlas, kroshṭar, gomâyus, as a shouter). The fox is the reddish +mediatrix between the luminous day and the gloomy night: the crepuscular +phenomenon of the heavens taking an animal form, no form seemed more +adapted to the purpose than that of the fox or the jackal, on account of +their colour and some of their cunning habits: the hour of twilight is +the time of uncertainties and of deceits. Professor Weber[194] supposes +that all the cunning actions attributed to the jackal in Hindoo fables +were taken on loan from the fox of Hellenic fables. We must certainly +assign no undue importance to the expressions _vańćakas_ and +_mṛigadhûrtakas_ (the cheater of animals), given in Hindoo lexicons to +the jackal, inasmuch as these lexicons are not of very remote antiquity; +but at the same time we must confess, that the cunning of the fox has +been exaggerated by popular superstition as much as the stupidity of the +ass, for a mythical reason, and from tradition, far more than by the +observation of exceptional habits in these animals, which could easily +be identified in mythology, in which, as I have already observed, some +few gross and accidental similarities are enough to cause the same +phenomena to be represented by animals of a very different genus. Thus +the hairy reddish bodies of the bear and the monkey, and certain +postures which they assume in common, are enough to make us understand +how they are sometimes substituted for each other in legends; for the +same reason, to the monkey and to the bear are attributed some of the +enterprises for which the legendary fox is celebrated. How much greater, +therefore, must have been the confusion which arose between the _canis +vulpes_ (the reddish fox) and the _canis aureus_ (or jackal), animals +which agree in showing themselves towards night, in feeding upon little +animals, in having skins of the same colour, who have very bright eyes, +and several other zoological characteristics in common? + +The legendary fox (or the jackal, which is its mythical equivalent) +has, like nearly all mythical figures, a double aspect. As it +represents the evening, and as the sun is represented as a bird (the +cock), the fox, the proverbial enemy of chickens, is, in the sky too, +the robber and devourer of the cock, and as such the natural enemy of +the man or hero, who ends by showing himself to be more cunning than +it is, and by effecting its ruin. The fox cheats the cock in the +evening, and is cheated by the cock in the morning. It is therefore an +animal of demoniacal nature, when considered as the devourer or +betrayer of the sun (cock, lion, or man), in the form of the red +western sky, or of the evening aurora, and as being killed or put to +flight by the sun itself (cock, lion, or man), in the form of the red +eastern sky, or the morning aurora.[195] We have already seen, in the +first chapter of this work, the aurora both as a wise girl and a +perverse one; in its animal metamorphosis, the fox reproduces this +aspect. But the aurora has not this mythical aspect alone. If, as she +is turned towards or against the sun, she is supposed to be the killer +of the luminous day in the evening, and to be chased away by the +luminous day in the morning, she also, when considered as turning +towards or against the night, assumes a heroic and sympathetic aspect, +and becomes the friend and assister of the solar hero or animal +against the wolf of the darkness of night. In these two mythical +aspects is contained and explained all the essential legendary story +of the fox, to narrate which, as far as it concerns Western tradition, +volumes have already been written. I shall limit myself to culling and +summarising from Oriental and Slavonic tradition their chief +characteristics, in order to compare them briefly with the most +generally known particulars of Western legendary lore; as it seems to +me that when I shall have shown the double nature of the fox in +mythology, as representing the two auroras, when I shall have proved +that the sun is personified now as a hero, now as a cock, and now as a +lion, and the night as a wolf, it will be easy to refer to this +interpretation the immense variety of legendary subjects to which, on +account of the smaller proportions to which I have been obliged to +reduce this work, I shall be unable to allude. + +In the _Mahâbhâratam_,[196] a learned jackal, who has finished his +studies, associates with the ichneumon, the mouse, the wolf, and the +tiger, but only in order to cheat them all. He makes the tiger kill a +gazelle, and then sends all the animals to bathe before eating it. +Then, when the tiger returns, he makes him run after the mouse, by +representing it as having boasted that it had killed the tiger; he +makes the mouse flee, persuading it that the ichneumon has bitten the +gazelle, and that its flesh is therefore poisonous; he makes the wolf +take to its heels, by informing it that the tiger is coming to devour +it; he makes the ichneumon glad to escape, by boasting that he has +vanquished the other three animals; then the jackal eats the whole +gazelle himself. In the _Pańćatantram_,[197] the jackal cheats, in a +similar manner, the lion and the wolf out of their part of a camel; we +have already seen how it cheated the lion out of the ass. In the +twentieth Mongol story, the fox stirs up discord between the two +brothers, bull and lion, who kill each other in consequence. + +In the _Râmâyaṇam_,[198] the jackal appears as the hero's friend, +inasmuch as by howling, and vomiting fire, he is of sinister omen to the +monster Kharas, who prepares to attack Râmas. In the _Khorda-Avesta_, a +hero devoured by Agra-Mainyu, the god of the monsters, is named +Takhmo-urupis, or Takhma-urupa, which means strong fox. + +One of the most interesting fables, in a mythological point of view, +is that of the jackal who, falling among pigments, comes out blue, or +of opaline lustre, and passes himself off as a peacock of the sky. The +animals make him their king, but he betrays himself by his voice: +hearing other jackals howling, he howls also; upon which the lion, the +real king of the beasts, tears him to pieces.[199] This is a variety +of the ass dressed in the lion's skin, but yet more so of the crow +that takes up and decks itself in the peacock's feathers; the black +night shines as an azure sky, as sahasrâkshas (an appellation of +Indras and of the peacock, as having a thousand eyes or stars). The +evening aurora, the fox, transforms itself into the azure sky of +night, until at morn, the deceit being exposed, the lion (_i.e._, the +sun) rends the fox, and disperses the night and the aurora. + +The _Pańćatantram_ contains two other narratives relating to the +legendary jackal--viz., the inquisitive and silly jackal, who, in an +attempt to break the skin of a drum to see what is inside, breaks one +of his teeth, and who, wishing to eat the string of a bow, has his +mouth lacerated and dies;[200] and the vile jackal who, brought up +among the lion's cubs, reveals his vulpine nature when he should have +thrown himself with the two lions, his adoptive brothers, upon the +elephant, but, instead of that, took to flight.[201] In the +_Tuti-Name_,[202] the jackal desires to revenge himself upon the +parrots, whom he judges indirectly implicated in the death of his +young ones; up comes the lynx, who is astounded that the jackal, +celebrated for its craftiness, is unable to devise a way of ruining +the parrots. At last the lynx advises him to pretend being lame, and +let himself be followed by a hunter as far as the abode of the +parrots, at which place he will be able to skulk away, and the hunter, +seeing the parrots, will set his nets and catch them. + +In the _Tuti-Name_ we also find several other particulars relating to +the jackal, which will pass into the Russian stories of the fox. + +The jackal makes the wolf come out of his den, which the latter had +taken possession of, by calling the shepherd.[203] In another place, the +cunning fox laughs at the stolid tiger, but the woman proves herself to +be more cunning than the fox.[204] It is also in the _Tuti-Name_[205] +that we read of a companion of the poor Abdul Meǵid, enamoured of the +king's daughter, who teaches him how to enrich himself, or rather to +appear rich, in order to wed her. In a much more scientific and +interesting variety of this legend, in the Russian stories, it is, on +the contrary, the fox who enriches the poor hero. The nineteenth Mongol +story, in which the false hero makes his fortune by means of the spoils +of a certain designated fox, is another intermediate form between the +two traditions, the Hindoo and the Russian. + +The name of a jackal in the _Pańćatantram_ is Dadhi-puććhas, which +means tail of butter, buttered tail (the aurora is ambrosial). + +In the first of the stories of _Afanassieff_, the fox eats the honey +belonging to the wolf (which reminds one of the sentence of Plautus, +"Sæpe condita luporum fiunt rapinæ vulpium"[206]), and then accuses +the wolf of having eaten it himself; the wolf proposes a sort of +judgment of God; they are to go together to the sun, and he who pours +out honey will be accounted guilty: they go and lie down; the wolf +falls asleep, and when the honey comes out of the fox, he pours it +upon the wolf, who, when he awakes, confesses his fault. In the first +story of the fourth book of _Afanassieff_, the cock and the hen bring +ears of corn to the old man and poppies to the old woman; the old +couple make a cake of them and put it out to dry.[207] Up come the fox +and the wolf and take the cake, but finding that it is not yet dry, +the fox proposes going to sleep whilst it is drying. While the wolf +sleeps, the fox eats the honey that is in the cake, and puts dung in +its place. The wolf awakens, and after him the fox too pretends to +waken, and accuses the wolf of having touched the cake; the wolf +protests his innocence, and the fox proposes, as a judgment of God, +that they shall go to sleep in the sunshine; the wax will come out of +him who has eaten the honey.[208] The wolf really goes to sleep, and +the fox goes meanwhile to a neighbouring beehive, eats the honey, and +throws the honeycombs upon the wolf, who, wakening from his slumbers, +confesses his fault, and promises in reparation to give his share of +the prey to the fox as soon as he procures any. In the continuation of +the story, the fox sends the wolf to fish with his tail (the same as +the bone of the dog) in the lake, and, after having made his tail +freeze, feigns to be himself ill, and makes the wolf carry him, +murmuring on the way the proverb, "He who is beaten carries him who is +not beaten." In a variety of the same story, the fox eats the wolf's +butter and flour; in another, the fox pretends to be called during the +night to act as the rabbit's midwife, and eats the wolf's butter, +accusing him afterwards of having eaten it himself; in order to +discover the guilty one, they resolve upon trying the judgment by +fire, before which the two animals are to go to sleep, and the one +from whose skin the butter shall come out, is to be accounted guilty; +whilst the wolf is asleep and snoring, the fox upsets the rest of the +butter over him. In the seventh story of the fourth book of +_Afanassieff_, the fox promises to an old man to bring his wife to +life again; he requests him to warm a bath, to bring flour and honey, +and then to stand at the door without ever turning round to look at +the bath; the old man does so, and the fox washes the old woman and +then eats her, leaving nothing but the bones; he then makes a cake of +the flour and honey, and eats that too, after which he cries out to +the old man to throw the door wide open, and escapes. In the first +story of the first book, the old man whose wife is dead goes to look +for mourners; he finds the bear, who offers to do the weeping, but the +old man thinks that he has not a sufficiently good voice; going on, he +meets the fox, who also offers to perform the same service, and gives +a good proof of his skill in singing (this particular would appear to +be more applicable to the crying jackal than to the fox). The old man +declares himself perfectly satisfied, and places the cunning beast at +the foot of the corpse to sing a lament, whilst he himself goes to +make the grave; during the old man's absence, the fox eats everything +he finds in the house, and the old woman too. In the ninth story of +the fourth book the fable ends otherwise; the fox does his duty as a +weeper, and the old man rewards him by the gift of some chickens; the +fox, however, demanding more, the old man puts into a sack two dogs +and a chicken, and gives it to the fox, who goes out and opens the +sack. The dogs run out and pursue him; he takes refuge in his den, but +neglects to draw in his tail, which betrays him. "Cauda de vulpe +testatur," said also the Latin proverb. In a variety of the first +story of the first book, it is as a reward for having released the +peasant from the bear that the fox receives a sack containing two hens +and a dog. The dog pursues the fox, who takes to his hole, and then +asks his feet what they have done; they answer that they ran away; he +then asks his eyes and ears, which answer that they saw and heard; +finally he asks his tail (here identified with the phallos), which, +confused, answers that it put itself between his legs to make him +fall. Then the fox, wishing to chastise his tail, puts it out of the +hole; the dog, by means of it, drags out the whole fox, and tears him +to pieces. In the fourth story of the third book, the fox delivers the +peasant from, not the bear, but the wolf; the peasant then cheats him +in the same way, by putting dogs into the sack; the fox escapes, and +to punish his tail for impeding his flight, leaves it in the dog's +mouth, and runs off; afterwards the fox is drowned by falling into a +barrel which is being filled with water (the deed of the phallos; cfr. +the chapter on the Fishes), and the peasant takes his skin. In another +Russian story, recorded by _Afanassieff_ in the observations to the +first book of his stories, the fox, having delivered the peasant from +the bear, asks for his nose in way of recompense, but the peasant +terrifies him and puts him to flight. In a Slavonic story referred to +in the same observations, the bird makes its nest, of which the fox +covets the eggs; the bird informs the dog, who pursues the fox; the +latter, betrayed by his tail, holds his usual monologue with his feet, +eyes, ears, and tail. In the twenty-second story of the third book, +the fox falls with the bear, the wolf, and the hare, into a ditch +where there is no water. The four animals are oppressed by hunger, and +the fox proposes that each should raise his voice in succession and +shout his utmost; he who shouts feeblest will be eaten by the others. +The hare's turn comes first, then that of the wolf; bear and fox alone +remain. The fox advises the bear to put his paws upon his sides; +attempting to sing thus, he dies, and the fox eats him. Being again +hungry, and seeing a bird feeding its young, he threatens to kill the +young birds unless the parent brings him some food; the bird brings +him a hen from the village. The fox afterwards renews his threats, +desiring the bird to bring him something to drink; the bird +immediately brings him water from the village. Again the fox threatens +to kill the young ones if the old bird does not deliver him out of the +ditch; the bird throws in billets of wood, and thus succeeds in +helping him out. Then the fox desires the bird to make him laugh; the +bird invites him to run after it; it then goes towards the village, +where it cries out, "Woman, woman, bring me a piece of tallow" (babka, +babka, priniessi mnié sala kussók); the dogs hear the cry, come out, +and rend the fox. In the twenty-fourth story of the third book, the +fox again delivers the peasant from the wolf, whom he had shut up in a +sack to save him from the persecution of the hunters. The wolf is no +sooner out of danger than he wishes to eat the peasant, saying that +"old hospitality is forgotten."[209] The peasant beseeches him to +await the judgment of the first passer-by; the first whom they meet is +an old mare who has been expelled from the stables on account of her +age, after having long served her masters; she finds that the wolf's +sentence is just. The peasant begs the wolf to wait for a second +passer-by; this is an old black dog who has been expelled from the +house after long services, because he can no longer bark; he also +approves the wolf's decision. The peasant again begs them to wait for +a third and decisive judgment; they meet the fox, who resorts to a +well-known stratagem; he affects to doubt that so large an animal as +the wolf could get into so small a sack. The wolf, mortified at so +unjust a suspicion, wishes to prove that he has told the truth, +re-enters into the sack, and is beaten by the peasant till he dies. +But the peasant himself then proves ungrateful to the fox, saying, +too, that old hospitality is to be forgotten (properly the hospitality +of bread and salt, _hlieb-sol_). In the eighth story of the fourth +book, the fox brings upon his back to her father and mother a girl +who, having lost herself in the forest, was weeping upon a tree. The +old man and woman, however, are not grateful to the fox; for on the +latter asking for a hen in reward, they put him into a sack with a +dog; the rest of the story is already known to the reader. In the +twenty-third story of the fourth book, the fox marries the cat and +puts the bear and the wolf to flight. We have already mentioned the +fox of the Russian story who sends the wolf to catch fish in the river +with his tail, by which means the tail is frozen off. In a popular +Norwegian story, instead of the wolf, it is the bear who is thus +cheated by the fox. In a Servian story, we hear of a fox who steals +three cheeses off a waggon, and afterwards meets the wolf, who asks +where he had found them. The fox answers, in the water (the sky of +night). The wolf wishing to fish for cheeses, the fox conducts him to +a fountain where the moon is reflected in the water, and points to it +as a cheese; he must lap up the water in order to get at it. The wolf +laps and laps till the water comes out of his mouth, nose, and ears +(probably because he was drowned in the fountain. The wolf, the black +monster of night, takes the place of the crow in connection with the +cheese (the moon) and the fox; the Servian story itself tells us what +the cheese represents[210]). In a Russian story, published in the year +1860, by the Podsniesznik, and quoted in the observations to the first +book of the stories of _Afanassieff_, the fox is killed by a peasant +whose fish he had stolen; the peasant takes his skin and goes off. Up +comes the wolf, and seeing his god-father without a skin, weeps over +him according to the prescribed ceremony, and then eats him. We have +already seen the fox as a mourner and as a midwife. In the twentieth +story of the third book of _Afanassieff_, the fox wishes to work as a +blacksmith. In other Russian stories we have the fox-confessor and the +fox-physician; finally, the fox as a god-mother is a very popular +subject of Russian stories. In a Russian story, published in the +fourth number of the Russian _Historical and Juridical Archives of +Kalassoff_, the fox appears as a go-between for the marriage of two +young men with two princesses. But, above all, the fox is famous for +having brought about the wedding of the poor Buhtan Buhtanović and of +his _alter ego_, Koszma Skorobagatoi (Cosimo the swiftly-enriched) +with the daughter of the Tzar. Buhtan had only five kapeika (twopence +in all). The fox has them changed, and asks the Tzar to lend him some +bushels to measure the money with. These bushels are each time found +too small, and larger ones are demanded, using which, the cunning fox +always takes care to leave some small coin at the bottom. The Tzar +marvels at the riches of Buhtan, and the fox then asks for Buhtan the +Tzar's daughter to wife. The Tzar wishes first to see the bridegroom. +How dress him? The fox then makes Buhtan fall into the mud near the +king's palace whilst they are passing over a little bridge. He then +goes to the Tzar, relates the misfortune, and begs him to lend him a +dress for Buhtan. Buhtan puts it on, and never ceases regarding his +changed appearance. The Tzar being astonished at this, the fox hastens +to say that Buhtan was never so badly dressed before, and takes the +first opportunity of warning him in private against conduct so +suspicious. Then, withdrawn from himself, he does nothing but stare at +the golden table, which again astonishes the Tzar; this is accounted +for by the fox, who explains that in Buhtan's palace similar tables +are to be found in the bath-room; meanwhile the fox hints to Buhtan to +look more about him. The wedding ceremony is performed and the bride +led away. The fox runs on before; but instead of leading them into +Buhtan's miserable hut, he takes them to an enchanted palace, after +having, by a trick, chased out of it the serpent, the crow, and the +cock that inhabited it.[211]--Poor Kuszinka has only one cock and five +hens remaining. He takes the fox by surprise whilst he is attempting +to eat his hens, but moved by the fox's prayers, releases him. Then +the grateful fox promises to transform him into Cosimo the +swiftly-enriched. The fox goes into the Tzar's park and meets the +wolf, who asks him how he is become so fat; he answers that he has +been banqueting at the Tzar's palace. The wolf expresses a desire to +go there too, and the fox advises him to invite forty times forty more +wolves (that is 1600 wolves). The wolf follows his advice, and brings +them all to the Tzar's palace, upon which the fox tells the Tzar that +Cosimo the swiftly-enriched sends them to him as a gift. The Tzar +marvels at the great riches of Cosimo; the fox uses the same stratagem +twice again with the bears and the martens. After this, he asks the +Tzar to lend him a silver bushel, pretending that all Cosimo's golden +bushels are full of money. The Tzar gives it, and when the fox sends +it back, he leaves a few small coins at the bottom, returning it with +the request that the Tzar would give his daughter to Cosimo in +marriage. The Tzar answers that he must first see the pretender to her +hand. The fox then makes Cosimo fall into the water, and arrays him in +robes lent by the Tzar, who receives him with every honour. After +some time, the Tzar signifies his desire of visiting Cosimo's +dwelling. The fox goes on before, and finds on the way flocks of +sheep, and herds of hogs, cows, horses, and camels. He asks of all the +shepherds to whom they belong, and is uniformly answered, "To the +serpent-uhlan." The fox orders them to say that they belong to Cosimo +the swiftly-enriched, or else they will see King Fire and Queen +Loszna,[212] who will burn everything to ashes. He comes to the palace +of white stone, where the king serpent-uhlan lives. He terrifies him +in the same way, and compels him to take refuge in the trunk of an +oak-tree, where he is burnt to death. Cosimo, the swiftly-enriched, +becomes Tzar of all the possessions of the uhlan-serpent and enjoys +them with his bride.[213] (I need not dwell upon the mythological +importance of this story; the serpent consumed by fire is found in the +most primitive myths; here the canis-vulpes, the red bitch, the fox +seems to play part of the _rôle_ of the Vedic messenger-bitch.) + +In the first story of _Afanassieff_, the fox chases the hare, instead +of the serpent, out of its home. The fox has a house of ice and the +hare one of wood. At the arrival of spring, the fox's house melts; +then the fox, under the pretext of warming itself, enters the hare's +house and sends its occupant away. The hare weeps, and the dogs come +to chase the fox away, but it cries out from its seat by the stove, +that when it leaps out, whoever is caught will be torn into a thousand +pieces; hearing which, the dogs run away in terror. The bear comes, +and then the bull, but the fox terrifies them too. At last the cock +comes up with a scythe, and loudly summons it to come out or be cut to +pieces. The terrified fox jumps out and the cock cuts it to pieces +with the scythe. In another story of Little Russia, mentioned by +_Afanassieff_ in the observations to the first book of his stories, +the fox, on the contrary, is the victim which the hairy goat wishes to +expel from its home. Several animals, wolf, lion, and bear, present +themselves to help it, but the cock alone succeeds in expelling the +intruder. Here the cock appears as the friend of the fox and the enemy +of the goat. In the twenty-third story of the third book of +_Afanassieff_, the fox defends the sheep against the wolf, who accuses +it of having dressed itself in his skin, and brings about the ruin of +the wolf by its craftiness. In the third story of the fourth book, the +cat and the lamb release the cock from the fox; these contradictions +are explained by the double mythical significance which we have +attributed above to the fox, and by its double appearance as aurora in +the evening and in the morning. In the evening, it generally cheats +the hero; in the morning it cheats the monster. In the second story of +the fourth book of _Afanassieff_, the fox requests the cock to come +down from a tree to confess itself to him. The cock does so, and is +about to be eaten by the fox, but it flatters him so much that he lets +it escape again. (The solar cock, supposed to be in the fox's power at +night, escapes from it and comes forth again in the morning.) The +third story of the fourth book gives us the interesting text of the +words sung by the fox to deceive the cock: + + "Little cock, little cock, + With the golden crest, + With the buttered head, + With the forehead of curdled milk! + Show yourself at the window; + I will give you some gruel + In a red spoon."[214] + +The cock, when caught by the fox, invokes the cat's assistance, +crying, "Me the fox has carried away; he carried away me, the cock, +into the gloomy forest, into distant lands, into foreign lands, into +the three times ninth (twenty-seventh) earth, into the thirtieth +kingdom; cat Catonaiević, deliver me!" + +The knavish actions of the fox, however, are far more celebrated in +the West than in the East. A proverb says that, to write all the +perfidious knaveries of the fox, all the cloth manufactured at Ghent, +turned into parchment, would not be sufficient. This proverb justifies +me in saying but little of it, as I am unable to say as much as I +should wish. Greeks and Latins are unanimous in celebrating the +sagacity and perfidy of the fox. The cynic Macchiavelli, in the +eighteenth chapter of the _Principe_, asserts that a good prince must +imitate two animals, the fox and the lion, (must, that is to say, have +deceit and strength), but especially the fox; and this answers to the +sentence attributed by Plutarch (in the _Memorable Sayings of the +Greeks_) to Lysander, "Where the lion's skin does not suffice, put on +that of the fox." Aristotle, in the ninth book of the _History of +Animals_, also considers the fox as the serpent's friend, probably +because of the analogy existing between them in respect of +perfidiousness, according to another Greek saying, viz., "He who hopes +to triumph, must arm himself with the strength of the lion and the +prudence of the serpent." A proverbial Latin verse says-- + + "Vulpes amat fraudem, lupus agnam, fæmina laudem." + +There is scarcely an animal which is not deceived by the fox in Greek +and Latin fable; the fox alone does not succeed in deceiving the fox. +In Æsop, the fox who has lost his tail in a trap endeavours to +persuade the other foxes of the uselessness of that appendage; but the +latter answer that he would not have given them such advice were he +not aware that a tail is a useful member. The fox deceives the ass, +giving it up as prey to the lion (as in the _Pańćatantram_); it +deceives the hare by offering it as a prey to the dog, who, pursuing +the hare, loses both hare and fox;[215] it deceives the goat, by +cozening it into the well that it may escape out of it, and then +leaving it there to its fate; it cheats in several ways now the cock, +now the wolf; and it imposes upon even the powerful king of beasts, +whom, however, he sometimes cannot deceive. A graceful apologue of +Thomas Morus shows us the counterpart of the Hellenic fable of the fox +and the sick lion, that is to say, the sick fox visited by the lion:-- + + "Dum jacet angusta vulpes ægrota caverna + Ante fores blando constitit ore leo. + Etquid, amica, vale. Cito, me lambente, valebis, + Nescis in lingua vis mihi quanta mea. + Lingua tibi medica est, vulpes ait, at nocet illud + Vicinos, quod habet, tam bona lingua, malos." + +But when we come down to the Middle Ages, the fable of the fox +develops into such manifoldness, that the study of all the phases in +which it unfolds itself ought to be the subject of a special +work.[216] Suffice it to notice here that, to popularise in Flanders, +and subsequently in France and Germany, the idea of the fox as the +type of every species of malice and imposture, it is the priest who, +for the most part, is the human impersonation of the masculine +Reinart. The _Procession du Renart_ is famous; it was a farce +conceived in 1313 by Philippe le Bel, on account of his quarrel with +Pope Boniface VIII., and acted by the scholars of Paris. The principal +personage was a man disguised in the skin of a fox, and wearing over +all a priest's surplice, whose chief industry it was to give chase to +chickens. This form of satire, however, directed against the Church, +is certainly much older than those times, and goes back to the epoch +of the first differences between the Church and the Empire in the +eleventh century, at which time two mediæval Latin poems appeared, +_Reinardus Vulpes_ and _Ysengrimus_; with the schism of England and +the Reformation of the sixteenth century, however, _Reinardus Vulpes_ +decisively became a Romish fox. The finesse and perfection of the +satirical poem which S. Naylor, its English translator, calls "the +unholy bible of the world," also increased the fox's popularity, and +made it yet more proverbial. The principal subjects of the poem +existed previously, not only in oral, but also in literary tradition; +they were grouped together and put in order, and a more human, more +malicious nature was given to the fox, a nature more hypocritical even +than before, and more priestly, whence it now more than ever-- + + "Urbibus et castris regnat et ecclesiis." + +Macchiavelli, St Ignazio di Loyola, and St Vincenzo de' Paoli took upon +themselves the charge of propagating its type over the whole world. + +The wolf is better, when he is a wolf, for then we know at least what he +wants; we know that he is our enemy, and are accordingly on our guard; +but he, too, sometimes disguises himself, by imposture or magic, as a +sheep, a shepherd, a monk, or a penitent, like Ysengrin; and from this +point of view resembles not a little his perfidious god-mother the fox; +it is well known that amongst the exploits of Reinart there is that of +his extra-matrimonial union with the she-wolf. + +In the _Ṛigvedas_ we already find several interesting mythical data +concerning the wolf; he is in it entirely demoniacal, as the exhausted +Vṛikas, to which, in a hymn, the Açvinâu give back its strength,[217] +seems, as it appears to me, not to be the wolf, but the messenger crow +which, during the night, must carry the solar hero. + +As in the Zendic _Vendidad_,[218] the souls of good men, when on the +way to heaven, are afraid of meeting the wolf, so in the _Ṛigvedas_, +the devotee says that once the reddish wolf (which seems to be +confounded here with the jackal or the fox) saw him coming on the way, +and fled in terror;[219] he invokes the (luminous) night to send the +wolf, the robber far away,[220] and the god Pûshan (the sun) to remove +the evil wolf, the malignant spirit, from the path of the devotees, +the wolf that besieges the roads, thieving, fraudulent, +double-dealing.[221] The poet, after having called the enemy Vṛikas, +prays, with imprecations, that he may lacerate his own body;[222] and +the wild beast, full of witchcraft,[223] which Indras kills, is +probably a wolf. But, besides this, I think I can find in the +_Ṛigvedas_ the _lupus piscator_ of Russian and Western tradition; +(according to Ælianos there were wolves friendly to fishermen near the +Palus Mœotis.) In the fifty-sixth hymn of the eighth book, Matsyas +(the fish) invokes the Âdityas (that is, the luminous gods) to free +him and his from the jaws of the wolf. So in another strophe of the +same hymn, we must in reason suppose that it is a fish that speaks +when she who has a terrible son (_i.e._, the mother of the sun) is +invoked as protectress from him who in the shallow waters endeavours +to kill him.[224] We also find a fish lying in shallow water +explicitly mentioned in another hymn;[225] which proves to us the +image of the fish without water, which was widely developed in later +Hindoo tradition, to have been in the Vedic age already a familiar +one. We find the dog as the enemy of the wolf in the Hindoo words +_vṛikâris vṛikârâtis_, and _vṛikadanças_. (In the thirteenth story of +the fourth book of _Afanassieff_, the wolf wishes to eat the dog; the +latter, who feels himself too weak to resist, begs the wolf to bring +him something to eat, in order that he may become larger, and be more +tender for the wolf's teeth; but when he is in good condition, he +acquires strength and makes the wolf run. The enmity of the dog and +the wolf was also made popular in the Æsopian fables.) + +In the _Râmâyaṇam_,[226] we already meet with the proverbial +expression of the sheep who do not increase when guarded by the wolf +or jackal (rakshayamâṇâ na vardhante meshâ gomâyunâ). + +In the _Mahâbhâratam_, the second of the three sons of Kuntî, the +strong, terrible, and voracious Bhîmas, is called Wolf's-belly +(Vṛikodaras, the solar hero enclosed in the nocturnal or winter +darkness). Here the wolf has a heroic and sympathetic form, as in the +_Tuti-Name_[227] he, although famished, shows compassion upon a maiden +who travels to fulfil a promise; as in the same _Tuti-Name_[228] he +helps the lion against the mice, and in the story of Ardschi Bordschi, +the boy, son of a wolf, understands the language of wolves, and +teaches it to the merchants with whom he lives; like the Russian +she-wolf that gives her milk to Ivan Karoliević, in order that he may +take it to the witch, his wife, who induced him to fetch it in the +hope that he would thereby meet with his death;[229] and like the +she-wolf of the fifteenth Esthonian story, who comes up on hearing the +cry of a child, and gives its milk to nourish it. The story tells us +that the shape of a wolf was assumed by the mother of the child +herself, and that when she was alone, she placed her wolf-disguise +upon a rock, and appeared as a naked woman to give milk to her child. +The husband, informed of this, orders that the rock be heated, so that +when the wolf's skin is again placed upon it, it may be burnt, and he +may thus be able to recognise and take back to himself his wife. The +she-wolf that gives her milk to the twin-brothers, Romulus and Remus, +in Latin epic tradition, was no less a woman than the nurse-wolf of +the Esthonian story.[230] The German hero Wolfdieterich, the wolves +who hunt for the hero in Russian stories, sacred to Mars and to Thor +as their hunting dogs, have the same benignant nature. (The evening +aurora disguises herself in the night with a wolf's skin, nourishes as +a she-wolf the new-born solar hero, and in the morning puts down her +wolf's skin upon the fiery rock of the East, and finds her husband +again.) What Solinus tells us of the Neuri, viz., that they +transformed themselves into wolves at stated periods; and what used to +be narrated of the Arcadians, to the effect that when they crossed a +certain marsh, they became wolves for eight years,--suggests us a new +idea of the zoological transformations of the solar hero.[231] In La +Fontaine,[232] the shadow of the wolf makes the sheep flee in the +evening. As a hero transformed, the wolf has a benignant aspect in +legends. According to Baronius, in the year 617, a number of wolves +presented themselves at a monastery, and tore in pieces several +friars who entertained heretical opinions. The wolves sent by God tore +the sacrilegious thieves of the army of Francesco Maria, Duke of +Urbino, who had come to sack the treasure of the holy house of Loreto. +A wolf guarded and defended from the wild beasts the head of St Edmund +the Martyr, King of England. St Oddo, Abbot of Cluny, assailed in a +pilgrimage by foxes, was delivered and escorted by a wolf; thus a wolf +showed the way to the beatified Adam, in the same way as, in +_Herodotos_, the wolves served as guides to the priests of Ceres. A +wolf, having devoured two mares which drew a cart, was forced by St +Eustorgius to draw the cart in their stead, and obeyed his orders. St +Norbert compelled a wolf, first to let a sheep go after having +clutched it, and then to guard the sheep all day without touching +them. We read of the youth of the ancient Syracusan hero Hielon that, +being at school, a wolf carried off his tablets in order to make him +pursue it; no sooner was Hielon out, than the wolf re-entered the +school, and massacred the master and the other scholars. + +And even after his death the wolf is useful. The ancients believed +that a wolf's hide, when put on by one who had been bitten by a mad +dog, was a charm against hydrophobia. According to Pliny, wolf's teeth +rubbed on the gums of children during teething relieves the pain +(which is quite credible, but any other sharp tooth would serve the +same purpose, by making the teeth cut sooner). In Sicily it is +believed that a wolf's head increases the courage of whoever puts it +on. In the province of Girgenti shoes are made of wolf's skin for +children whom their parents wish to grow up strong, brave, and +pugnacious. The animals themselves that are ridden by persons who wear +these shoes are cured of their pain. The animal _allupatu_ (that is, +which has once been bitten by a wolf) becomes invulnerable, and never +feels any other kind of pain. It is also believed in Sicily that when +a wolf's skin is exposed in the open air, it causes drums to break +when they are beaten. This superstition reminds us of the fable of the +fox that kills itself by breaking the drum or biting the string of a +bow; the mythical drum (that is, the cloud) is destroyed when the +wolf's skin is taken off. In Æsop's fable, the wolf's skin is +recommended by the fox as a cure for the sick lion. + +But the wolf of tradition usually has a perverse or diabolical +signification; and as the demon is represented now as a master of +every species of perfidy and wickedness, and now as a fool, so is the +wolf. In the Hellenic myth, Lycaon, King of Arcadia, became a wolf +because he had fed upon human flesh. According to Servius, the wolves +among the people, called for this reason Hirpini (the Sabine word +_hirpus_ meaning a wolf), carried off the entrails of the victim +sacrificed to Pluto, and therefore brought down a pestilence upon the +land. Wolves tore the hero Milôn to pieces in the forest. Wolves are +an omen of death; the loup garou of popular French tradition is a +diabolical form.[233] In the _Edda_, the two wolves Sköll and Hati +wish to take, one the sun and the other the moon; the wolf devours the +sun, father of the world, and gives birth to a daughter. He is then +killed by Vidarr. Hati precedes the luminous betrothed of the sky; the +wolf Fenris, son of the demoniacal Lokis, chained by the Ases, bites +off the hand that the hero Tyr, as an earnest of the good faith of the +Ases, had put into his mouth,[234] when chained to the western gate. +Nanna, of the _Pentamerone_, after having travelled over the world, is +disguised in the shape of a wolf, and changes in character and in +colour, becoming malicious; the three sons of the Finns go to inhabit +the Valley of the Wolf, near the Wolf's Lake, and find there three +women spinning, who can transform themselves into swans. On Christmas +Eve, the King Helgi meets a witch who rides upon a wolf, having eagles +for bridles.[235] Wolves eat each other; the wolf Sinfiölti becomes a +eunuch; the wolf who flees before the hero is an omen of victory, as +well as the wolf who howls under the branches of an ash-tree. (The +howling of the wolf, the braying of the ass, the hissing of the +serpent, announce the death of the demoniacal monster; this howling +must necessarily take place in the morning, or the spring, when the +hero has recovered his strength, as the _Edda_ says that "a hero must +never fight towards sunset)." If Gunnar (the solar hero) loses his +life, the wolf becomes the master of the treasure, and of the heritage +of Nifl; the heroes roast the wolf. All these legendary particulars +relating to the wolf in the _Edda_ concur in showing us the wolf as a +gloomy and diabolical monster. The night and the winter is the time of +the wolf spoken of in the _Voluspa_; the gods who enter, according to +the German tradition, into wolves' skins, represent the sun as hiding +himself in the night, or the snowy season of winter (whence the +demoniacal white wolf of a Russian story,[236] in the midst of seven +black wolves). Inasmuch as the solar hero becomes a wolf, he has a +divine nature; inasmuch, on the contrary, as the wolf is the proper +form of the devil, his nature is entirely malignant. The condemned +man, the proscribed criminal, the bandit, the _utlagatus_ or outlaw, +were said in the Middle Ages to wear a _caput lupinum_ (in England, +_wulfesheofod_; in France, _teste lœue_). The wolf Ysengrin, +descended partly from the Æsopian wolf, and partly from Scandinavian +myths, which were propagated in Germany, Flanders, and France, +possesses much of the diabolical craftiness of the fox; he usually +adopts against sheep the same stratagems which the fox makes use of to +entrap chickens. The French proverb makes the fox preach to the fowls; +the Italian proverb makes the wolf sing psalms when he wishes to +ensnare the sheep. As we have seen the jackal and the fox confounded +in the East, so Reinart and Ysengrin are sometimes identified by their +cunning in Western tradition. A recent French writer, who had observed +the habits of the wolf, says that he is "effrayant de sagacité et de +calcul."[237] In the second story of the second book of +_Afanassieff_, the same wizard-wolf who knew how to imitate the goat's +voice to deceive the kids, goes to the house of an old man and an old +woman, who have five sheep, a horse, and a calf. The wolf comes and +begins to sing. The old woman admires the song, and gives him one +sheep, then the others, then the horse, next the calf, and finally +herself. The old man, left alone, at last succeeds in hunting the wolf +away. In the preceding story, where the animals accuse each other, the +demoniacal wolf, when his turn comes, accuses God. We have already +spoken of the wolf who, by the order of St Eustorgius, draws the cart +instead of the mares which he had eaten. In the twenty-fifth story of +the third book of _Afanassieff_, the wolf comes up to the sleeping +workman, and smells him; the workman awakes, takes the wolf by the +tail,[238] and kills him. Another time the same workman, when he goes +with his father to the chase, after having enriched himself with money +which he had taken from three brigands who had hidden it in a deserted +mill, meets again with two wolves who eat the horses, but, entangling +themselves in the reins, they are compelled to draw the car home again +themselves; here, therefore, we have the miracle of St Eustorgius +reduced to its natural mythical proportions. Here, evidently, the wolf +begins to show himself as a stupid animal; the demon teaches his art +to the little solar hero in the evening, and is betrayed by the hero +himself in the morning; the fox cheats the solar cock in the evening, +and is deceived by it in the morning; the wolf succeeds by his +wickedness in the evening, and is ruined in the morning. We have +already mentioned the Norwegian story of the little Schmierbock, who, +put into a sack by the witch, twice makes a hole in the sack and +escapes, and the third time makes the witch eat her own daughter. +Schmierbock is the ram; the witch or night puts him into the sack. In +the Piedmontese story,[239] and in the Russian one, instead of +Schmierbock, we have Piccolino (the very little one), and the Small +Little Finger (malćik-s palćik, that is, the little finger, which is +the wise one, according to popular superstition). The Russian story is +as follows: An old woman, while baking a cake (the moon), cuts off her +little finger and throws it into the fire. From the little finger in +the fire, a dwarf, but very strong son, is born, who afterwards does +many wonderful things. One day he was eating the tripe of an ox in the +forest; the wolf passes by, and eats dwarf and tripe together. After +this, the wolf approaches a flock of sheep, but the dwarf cries out +from within the wolf, "Shepherd, shepherd, thou sleepest and the wolf +carries off a sheep." The shepherd then chases the wolf away, who +endeavours to get rid of his troublesome guest; the dwarf requests the +wolf to carry him home to his parents; no sooner have they arrived +there than the dwarf comes out behind and catches hold of the wolf's +tail, shouting, "Kill the wolf, kill the grey one." The old people +come out and kill it.[240] The mythical wolf dies now after only one +night, now after only one winter of life. To the mythical wolf, +however, bastard sons were born, who, changing only their skin, +succeeded in living for a long period among mortals in the midst of +civil society, preserving, nevertheless, their wolf-like habits. The +French proverb says, "Le loup alla à Rome; il y laissa de son poil et +rien de ses coutumes." The pagan she-wolf gave milk to the Roman +heroes; the Catholic wolf, thunderstruck by Dante,[241] on the +contrary, feeds upon them-- + + "Ed ha natura sì malvagia e ria, + Che mai non empie la bramosa voglia, + E dopo il pasto ha più fame che pria. + Molti son gli animali a cui s'ammoglia." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[194] Cfr. _Ueber den Zusammenhang indischer Fabeln mit griechischen_, +Berlin, Dümmler, 1855. + +[195] In a German tradition referred to by Schmidt, _Forschungen_, s. +105, we have the deity who presents himself as a fox to the hunter +voluntarily to be sacrificed; the hunter flays him, and the flies and +ants eat his flesh. In a Russian story of which I shall give an +abridgment, the wolf eats the fox when he sees it without its hairy +covering. + +[196] i. 5566, _et seq._ + +[197] i. 16, iv. 2; cfr. also iv. 10, and the chapter on the Hare.--In +the story, iii. 14, of the _Pańćatantram_, the jackal cheats the lion +who has occupied his cave, by making him roar; and thus assuring +himself that the lion is in the cave, he is able to escape. + +[198] iii. 29. + +[199] Cfr. _Pańćatantram_, i. 10; _Tuti-Name_, ii. 146. + +[200] i. 2, ii. 3.--In the nineteenth Mongol story, the young man who +passes himself off as a hero is ordered to bring to the queen the skin +of a certain fox which is indicated to him; on the way the youth loses +his bow; returning to look for it, he finds the fox dead close to the +bow, which it had tried to bite, and which had struck and killed it. + +[201] iv. 4. + +[202] i. 134, 135. + +[203] _Tuti-Name_, ii. 125.--In the stories of the same night (the +twenty-second) of the _Tuti-Name_, we have the lynx (lupus cervarius) +who wishes to take the house of the monkey who occupies the lion's +house, and the jackal who runs after the camel's testicles, as in the +_Pańćatantram_ he runs after those of the bull. In the story, ii. 7, +the fox lets his bone fall into the water in order to catch a fish (a +variety of the well-known fable of the dog and of the wolf or devil as +fisherman). + +[204] _Tuti-Name_, ii. 142, 143. + +[205] i. 168, _et seq._ + +[206] _Querolus_, i. 2. + +[207] In the eighteenth story of the fourth book of _Afanassieff_, an +extraordinary cake escapes from the house of an old man and woman, and +wanders about; it finds the hare, the wolf, and the bear, who all wish +to eat it; it sings its story to them all, and is allowed to go; it +sings it to the fox, too, but the latter praises the song, and eats +the cake, after having made it get upon his back. + +[208] In _Afanassieff_, i. 14, the hero, Theodore, finds some wolves +fighting among themselves for a bone, some bees fighting for the +honey, and some shrimps fighting for caviare; he makes a just +division, and the grateful wolves, bees, and shrimps help him in need. + +[209] Cfr. _Lou loup penjat_ in the _Contes de l'Armagnac_, collected +by Bladé, Paris, 1867, p. 9. + +[210] Cfr. the English expression applied to the moon, "made of green +cheese;" this is the connection between green and yellow previously +mentioned. + +[211] _Afanassieff_, iv. 10. + +[212] It is here, perhaps, to be remarked that in the Piedmontese +dialect lightning is called _loszna_. + +[213] _Afanassieff_, iv. 11. In the fourth story of the second book of +the _Pentamerone_, instead of a fox, it is the cat that enriches Pippo +Gagliufo and runs before him. In the same way as in the Russian stories +the man shows himself ungrateful towards the fox, so in the +_Pentamerone_ the cat ends by cursing the ungrateful Pippo Gagliufo whom +she had done good to. In the following story the fox offers herself as +companion to the young bride who is looking for her lost husband. + +[214] + + "Pietushók, pietushók, + Zalatói grebeshók, + Másliannaja galovka, + Smiatanij lobók! + Vighliani v oshko; + Dam tebie kashki, + Na krasnoi loszkie." + +In an unpublished Tuscan story which I heard related at Antignano near +Leghorn, a chicken wishes to go with its father (the cock) into the +Maremma to search for food. Its father advises it not to do so for +fear of the fox, but the chicken insists upon going; on the way it +meets the fox, who is about to eat it, when the chicken beseeches him +to let it go into the Maremma, where it will fatten, lay eggs, bring +up young chickens, and be able to provide the fox with a much more +substantial meal than it now could. The fox consents. The chicken +brings up a hundred young ones; when they are grown up, they set out +to return home; every fowl carries in its mouth an ear of millet, +except the youngest. On the way they meet the fox waiting for them; on +seeing all these animals each with a straw in its beak, the astonished +fox asks the mother-hen what it is they carry. "All fox's tails," she +answers, upon which the fox takes to its heels.--We find the fox's +tail in connection with ears of corn in the legend of Samson; the +incendiary fox is also found in Ovid's _Fasti_, iv. 705; (from the +malice with which the story-teller (a woman) relates the fable, it is +probable that the fox's tail has here also a phallic meaning).--In +_Sextus Empiricus_ we read that a fox's tail hung on the arm of a weak +husband is of great use to him. + +[215] Thus, in the myth of Kephalos, his dog cannot, by a decree of +fate, overtake the fox; but inasmuch as, on the other hand, no one +also, by decree of fate, can escape from the dog of Kephalos, dog and +fox are both, by the command of Zeus, changed into stone (the two +auroras, or dying sun and dying moon). + +[216] This work has, on the other hand, been already almost +accomplished, as regards the Franco-Germanic part, in the erudite and +interesting introduction (pp. 5-163) which Ch. Potvin has prefixed to +his translation into verse of the _Roman du Renard_, Paris, Bohné; +Bruxelles, Lacroix, 1861. I am told that Professor Schiefner read a +discourse two years since at St Petersburg upon the story of the fox, +but I do not know whether it has been published. + +[217] Vṛikâya ćiǵ ǵasamânâya çaktam; _Ṛigv._ vii. 68, 8.--The grateful +wolf and crow are found united to assist Ivan Tzarević in the +twenty-fourth story of the second book of _Afanassieff_. + +[218] xix. 108, 109. + +[219] Aruṇo mâ sakṛid vṛikaḥ pathâ yantam dadarça hi uǵ ǵihîte +nićâyya; _Ṛigv._ i. 105, 18. + +[220] Yâvayâ vṛikyaṁ vṛikaṁ yavaya stenam ûrmya; _Ṛigv._ x. 127, 6.--A +wolf seen in a dream, according to Cardano, announces a robber. + +[221] Yo naḥ pûshann agho vṛiko duḥçeva âdideçati apa sma tvam patho +ǵahi--Paripanthinam mashîvâṇaṁ huraçćitam--Dvayâvinaḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 42, +2-4. + +[222] Svayaṁ ripus tanvaṁ rîrishîshṭa; _Ṛigv._ vi. 51, 6, 7. + +[223] Mâyinam mṛigaṁ; _Ṛigv._ i. 80, 7. + +[224] Te na âsno vṛikâṇâm âdityâso mumoćata; _Ṛigv._ viii. 56, +14.--Parshi dîne gabhîra âṅ ugraputre ǵighâṅsataḥ; _Ṛigv._ viii. 56, 11. + +[225] Matsyaṁ na dîna udani kshiyantam; _Ṛigv._ x. 68, 8. + +[226] iii. 45.--In the twenty-second night of the _Tuti-Name_, the +wolf enters, on the contrary, into the house of the jackal; here wolf +and jackal are already distinguished in it from one another,--that is, +as red wolf and black wolf. + +[227] i. 253. + +[228] i. 271. + +[229] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, vi. 51, v. 27, and v. 28. + +[230] It is also said that the nurse of the Latin twins was a +strumpet, because _lupæ_ or _lupanæ fœminæ_ were names given to such +women, whence also the name of _lupanaria_ given to the houses to +which they resorted: "Abscondunt spurcas hæc monumenta lupas." Olaus +Magnus wrote, that wolves, attracted by smell, attack pregnant women, +whence the custom that no pregnant woman should go out unless +accompanied by an armed man. The ancients believed that the phallos of +the wolf roasted and eaten weakened the Venus. + +[231] In the _Legendes et Croyances Superstitieuses de la Creuse_, +collected by Bonnafoux, Guéret, 1867, p. 27, we read concerning the loup +garou, that the wolf thanks whoever wounds him. It is said that they who +are disguised in the skin of the loup garou are condemned souls: "Chaque +nuit, ils sont forcés d'aller chercher la maudite peau à un endroit +convenu et ils courent ainsi jusqu'à ce qu'ils rencontrent une âme +charitable et courageuse qui les délivre en les blessant." + +[232] + + "... devant qu'il fût nuit + Il arriva nouvel encombre; + Un loup parut, tout le troupeau s'enfuit + Ce n'était pas un loup, ce n'en était que l'ombre." + +The sheep were right, however, to flee. In the _Edda_, the fourth +swallow says, "When I see the wolf's ears, I think that the wolf is +not far off." The twilight is the shadow or ear of the wolf. + +[233] Lous loups-garous soun gens coumo nous autes; mès an heyt un +countrat dab lou diable, e cado sé soun fourçatz de se cambia en +bestios per ana au sabbat e courre touto la neyt. Y a per aco un +mouyén de lous goari. Lous can tira sang pendent qu' an perdut la +forme de l'home, e asta leu la reprengon per toutjour; Bladé, _Contes +et Proverbes Populaires recueillis en Armagnac_, Paris, 1867, p. 51. + +[234] We ought perhaps to add here the tradition cited by Cæsarius +Heisterbacensis of a wolf who, biting the arm of a girl, drags her to +a place where there is another wolf; the more she cries the more +fiercely the wolf bites her. The other wolf has a bone in his throat, +which the girl extracts; here the girl takes the place of the crane or +stork of the fable; the bone may be now the moon, now the sun. + +[235] In another passage in the _Edda_, the eagle sits upon the wolf. +According to the Latin legend of the foundation of Lavinium, the Trojans +saw a singular prodigy. A fire arises in the woods; the wolf brings dry +twigs in his mouth to make it burn better, and the eagle helps him by +fanning the flames with his wings. The fox, on the other hand, dips its +brush in the river to put out the fire with it, but does not succeed. + +[236] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, iii. 19. + +[237] Les loups, qui ont très peu d'amis en France, et qui sont +obligés d'apporter dans toutes leurs démarches une excessive prudence, +chassent presque toujours à la muette. J'ai été plusieurs fois en +position d'admirer la profondeur de leurs combinaisons stratégiques; +c'est effrayant de sagacité et de calcul; Toussenel, _L'Esprit des +Bêtes_, ch. i.--And Aldrovandi, _De Quadrup. Dig. Viv._ ii. "Lupi +omnem vim ingenii naturalem in ovibus insidiando exercent; noctu enim +ovili appropinquantes, pedes lambunt, ne strepitum in gradiendo edant, +et foliis obstrepentibus pedes quasi reos mordent." + +[238] In Piedmont it is also said in jest, that a man once met a wolf +and thrust his hand down its throat, so far down that it reached its +tail on the other side; he then pulled the tail inside the wolf's body +and out through its throat, so that the wolf, turned inside out, +expired. + +[239] In an unpublished, though very popular Piedmontese story, +Piccolino is upon a tree eating figs; the wolf passes by and asks him +for some, threatening him thus: "Piculin, dame ün fig, dass no, i t +mangiu." Piccolino throws him down two, which are crushed upon the +wolf's nose. Then the wolf threatens to eat him if he does not bring +him a fig down; Piccolino comes down, and the wolf puts him in a sack +and carries him towards his house, where the mother-wolf is waiting +for him. But on the way the wolf is pressed by a corporeal necessity, +and is obliged to go on the roadside; meanwhile, Piccolino makes a +hole in the sack, comes out and puts a stone in his place. The wolf +returns, shoulders the sack, but thinks that Piccolino has become much +heavier. He goes home and tells the she-wolf to be glad, and prepare +the cauldron full of hot water; he then empties the sack into the +cauldron; the stone makes the boiling water spurt out upon the wolf's +head, and he is scalded to death. + +[240] Cfr. the well-known English fairy-tales of _Tom Thumb_ and +_Hop-o'-my-Thumb_. + +[241] _Inferno_, c. i. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE LION, THE TIGER, THE LEOPARD, THE PANTHER, AND THE CHAMELEON. + + +SUMMARY. + + Lion and tiger symbols of royal majesty.--Tvashṭar as a lion.--The + hair of Tvashṭar in the fire.--Winds that roar like lions.--The + lion-seducer.--The lion and the honey; the lion and + riches.--Nobility of the lion.--The lion's part.--The monster + lioness.--The old and sick lion; the lion with a thorn in its + foot.--Monster and demoniacal lions.--The lion is afraid of the + cock.--Sterility of the lion.--The story of Atalanta.--The sun in + the sign Leo.--The virgin and the lion.--Çivas, Dionysos, and the + tiger.--A hair from the tiger's tail; the Mantikora.--The + chameleon; the god chameleon. + +The tiger and the lion have in India the same dignity, and are both +supreme symbols of royal strength and majesty.[242] The tiger of men +and the lion of men are two expressions equivalent to prince, as the +prince is supposed to be the best man. It is strength that gives +victory and superiority in natural relations; therefore the tiger and +the lion, called kings of beasts, represent the king in the civic +social relations among men. The narasinhas of India was called, in the +Middle Ages, the king _par excellence_; thus in Greece the king was +also called leôn. + +The myth of the lion and the tiger is essentially an Asiatic one; +notwithstanding this, a great part of it was developed in Greece, where +lion and tiger were at one time not unknown, and must have, as in India, +inspired something like that religious terror caused by oriental kings. + +We have already mentioned the Vedic monster lion of the West, in which +we recognise the expiring sun. The strong Indras, killer of the +monster, Vṛitras, is also represented as a lion. In the same way as +the Jewish Samson is found in connection with the lion, and this lion +with honey, and as the strength of the lion and that of Samson is said +to be centred in the hair (the sun, when he loses his rays or mane, +loses all his strength), so in the parallel myth of Indras we find +analogous circumstances. Tvasḥṭar, the Hindoo celestial blacksmith, +who makes weapons now for the gods and now for the demons (the reddish +sky of morning and of evening is likened to a burning forge; the solar +hero or the sun in this forge, is a blacksmith), is also represented +in a Vedic hymn[243] as a lion, turned towards which, towards the +west, heaven and earth rejoice, although (on account of the din made +by him when coming into the world) they are, before all, terrified. +The form of a lion is one of the favourite shapes created by the +mythical and legendary blacksmith. + +In the _Mârkaṇdeya-P._,[244] this same Tvashṭar (which the _Ṛigvedas_ +represents as a lion), wishing to avenge himself upon the god Indras, +who had (perhaps at morn) killed one of his sons, creates another, +son, Vṛitras (the coverer), by tearing a lock of hair off his head and +throwing it into the fire (the sun burns every evening in the western +forge, his rays or mane, and the gloomy monster of night is born). +Indras makes a truce with Vṛitras (in Russian stories, heroes and +monsters nearly always challenge each other to say before fighting +whether they will have peace or war), and subsequently violates the +treaty; for this perfidy he loses his strength, which passes into +Mârutas, the son of the wind (the Hanumant of the _Râmâyaṇam_. In a +Vedic hymn, the voice of the Mârutas is compared to the roar of +lions),[245] and into the three brothers Pâṇḍavas, sons of Kunti (the +passage of the legend from the Vedas to the two principal Hindoo epic +poems is thus indicated). Thus, in the same _Mârkaṇdeya-P._, Indras, +having violated Ahalyâ, the wife of Gâutamas, loses his beauty (in +other Puranic legends he becomes a eunuch or has a thousand wombs. +Indras is powerful as the sun; he is powerful, too, in the cloud, by +means of the thunderbolt; but when he hides himself in the serene and +starry sky, he is powerless), which passes to the two Açvinâu, who +afterwards renew themselves in the two Pâṇḍavâu sons of Mâdrî, as the +sons of the demons were personified in the sons of Dhṛitarâshṭras. + +Tvashṭar, the creator, now of divine, now of monstrous forms, Tvashṭar +the lion, must necessarily create leonine forms. In a Tuscan story, +the blacksmith makes a lion by means of which Argentofo penetrates by +night into the room of a young princess, with whom he unites himself. +In the third story of the fourth book of the _Pentamerone_, the three +prince brothers, when the fairy's curse is over, return home with +their brides, drawn by six lions. This lion-seducer reminds us of +Indras, who was also a lion and a seducer of women. A hymn tells us +that Indras fights like a terrible lion;[246] in another hymn, the +same lion is considered, as in the legend of Samson, in connection +with honey.[247] In the twenty-second night of the _Tuti-Name_, the +lion presents himself in connection with riches; flattered by a man +who calls him a king, he lets him collect the riches scattered on the +ground by a caravan which the lion had destroyed.[248] His royal +nature is also shown in the _Râmâyaṇam_,[249] in which King Daçarathas +says that his son Râmas, the lion of men, after his exile, will +disdain to occupy the kingdom previously enjoyed by Bharatas, in the +same way as the lion disdains to feed upon flesh which has been licked +by other animals. It is perhaps for this reason that, in the fable, +the lion's part means all the prey. The proud one becomes the violent +one, the tyrant, and hence the monster. In the _Âitareya Br._,[250] +the earth, full of gifts made by the right hand--that is, by the +eastern part--presented by the Âdityâs (or luminous gods) to the +Añgirasas (the seven solar rays, the seven wise men, and hence the +priests), attacks, in the evening, the nations with its mouth wide +open, having become a lioness (sinhîbhûtvâ). In the _Râmâyaṇam_,[251] +the car that carries the monster Indraǵit is impetuously drawn by four +lions. In the _Tuti-Name_,[252] we have the fable of the lion, instead +of the wolf, that accuses the lamb, and the lion who is afraid of the +ass, of the bull (as in the introduction to the _Pańćatantram_), and +of the lynx. The Western lion-sun is now monstrous, now aged, now ill, +now has a thorn in his foot,[253] is now blind, and now foolish. The +monstrous lion who guards the monster's dwelling, the infernal abode, +is found in a great number of popular stories. In Hellenic tradition +the monstrous lion occurs more than once; such is the lion that +ravages the country of the King of Megara, who promises his daughter +to wife to the hero that will kill it; such is the lioness who, with +her bloody jaws (the purple in the dog's mouth and the meat in the +dog's mouth of the myths are of equivalent import) makes Thysbe's veil +bloody, so that when Pyramos sees it he believes Thysbe to be dead, +and kills himself; when Thysbe sees this, she too kills herself in +despair (an ancient form of the death of Romeo and Juliet); such is +the Nemæan lion strangled by Hêraklês; such the lion of Mount Olympos +which the young Polydamos kills without weapons; such were the leonine +monsters with human faces which, according to Solinus, inhabited the +Caspian; such was the Chimæra, part lion, part goat, and part dragon, +and several other mythical figures of the passage of the evening sun +into the gloom of night. + +And it is under the conception of the lion as monstrous that the +ancients were unanimous in believing that he fears above all animals the +cock, and especially its fiery comb. The solar cock of morning entirely +destroys the monsters. In a fable of Achilles Statius, the lion +complains that Prometheus had allowed a cock to frighten him, but soon +after consoles himself, upon learning that the elephant is tormented by +the little mosquito that buzzes in its ears. Lucretius, too, in the +fourth book _De Rerum Naturâ_ represents the cock as throwing seeds:-- + + "Nimirum quia sunt Gallorum in corpore quædam + Semina, quæ cum sint oculis immissa Leonum + Pupillas interfodiunt acremque dolorem[254] + Præbent, ut nequeant contra durare feroces." + +Sometimes the hero or god passes into the form of a lion to vanquish the +monsters, like Dionysos, Apollon, Hêraklês, in Greece, and Indras and +Visḥnus in India. In the legend of St Marcellus, a lion having appeared +to the saint in a vision as killing a serpent, this appearance was +considered as a presage of good fortune to the enterprise of the Emperor +Leo in Africa. Sometimes, on the other hand, hero and heroine become +lion and lioness by the vengeance of deities or monsters. Atalanta +defies the pretenders to her hand to outstrip her in running, and kills +those who lose. Hippomenes, by the favour of the goddess of love, having +received three apples from the garden of the Hesperides, provokes +Atalanta to the race; on the way, he throws the apples down; Atalanta +cannot resist the impulse to gather them up, and Hippomenes overtakes +her, and unites himself with her in the wood sacred to the mother of the +gods; the offended goddess transforms the young couple into a lion and a +lioness. In the _Gesta Romanorum_, a girl, daughter of the Emperor +Vespasian, kills the claimant of her hand in a garden, in the form of a +ferocious lion. Empedokles, however, considered the transformation into +a lion as the best of all human metamorphoses. When the sun enters into +the sign of the lion, he arrives at his greatest height of power; and +the golden crown which the Florentines placed upon their lion in the +public square, on the day of St John, was a symbol of the approach of +the season which they call by one word alone, _sollione_. This lion is +enraged, and makes, as it is said, plants and animals rage. The pagan +legend says of Prometheus-- + + "Insani leonis + Vim stomacho apposuisse nostro."[255] + +But the mythical lion, the sun, does not inspire the man with rage +alone, but strength also.[256] + +The tiger, the panther, and the leopard possess several of the +mythical characteristics of the lion as a hidden sun, with which they +are, moreover, sometimes confounded in their character of omniform +animals. The leopard was sacred to the god Pan, whose nature we +already know, and the panther to Protheus and Dionysos, because it is +said to have a liking for wine (we have seen the Vedic lion Indras in +connection with honey, and Indras himself in connection with the +somas), and because the nurses of Dionysos were transformed into +panthers. Dionysos appears now surrounded by panthers, by means of +which he terrifies pirates and puts them to flight, and now drawn by +tigers. Dionysos is at the same time a phallical and an ambrosial god, +and hence the god of wine; thus in India, Çivas, the phallical god, +_par excellence_, and who is omniform like Tvashṭar and Yamas, his +almost equivalent forms, has the tiger for his ensign, and is covered +with a tiger's skin. It is a singular fact that in Hindoo tradition a +murderous strength is attributed to the tiger's tail. A Hindoo proverb +says that a hair of the tiger's tail may be the cause of losing one's +life,[257] which naturally suggests to our minds the tiger +Mantikora,[258] which has in its tail hairs which are darts thrown by +it to defend itself, and are spoken of by Ktesias, in _Pausanias_. + +Finally, having considered the tiger, the panther, and the leopard, +variegated and omniform animals, and compared them with the lion, +whose combat with the serpent we have also mentioned, it is natural to +add a few more words concerning the chameleon, of whose enmity to the +serpent and medicinal virtues Greek and Latin authors have written at +such length. The _kṛikalâças_ or _kṛikalâsas_, or chameleon, is +already spoken of in a Vedic _Brâhmaṇam_. In the fifty-fifth canto of +the last book of the _Râmâyaṇam_, we read that King Nṛigas was +condemned to remain invisible to all creatures in the form of a +chameleon during many hundreds and thousands of years, until the god +Vishṇus, humanised in the form of Vasudevas, will come to release him +from this curse, incurred for having delayed to judge a controversy +pending between two Brâhmans concerning the ownership of a cow and a +calf. In the stories of grateful animals, as is well-known, the hero +often earns their gratitude by intervening to divide their prey into +just portions, while they are disputing over it themselves. From the +last book of the _Râmâyaṇam_, we learn also that the form of the +chameleon is that assumed by Kuveras, the god of riches, when the gods +flee terrified from the sight of the monster Râvaṇas. As Yamas and +Çivas are almost equivalent forms, so between Yamas and Kuveras there +is the same relation as between Pluto and Plutus. To the tiger Çivas +corresponds the chameleon Kuveras; and the chameleon god of wealth, +enemy of the serpent, is closely connected in mythology with the lion +Indras, with the lion that kills the monster serpent, and with the +lion that covets the treasure. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[242] Hêraklês, Hektor, Achilles, among the Greek heroes; +Wolfdieterich, and several other heroes of Germanic tradition, have +these animals for their ensigns; the lion is the steed of the hero +Hildebrand. Cfr. _Die Deutsche Heldensage_ von Wilhelm Grimm, Berlin, +Dümmler, 1867.--When Agarista and Philip dreamed of a lion, it was +considered an augury, the one of the birth of Pericles, and the other +of that of Alexander the Great. + +[243] Ubhe tvashṭur bibhyatur ǵâyamânât pratîćî sinham prati +ǵoshayete; _Ṛigv._ i. 95, 5. + +[244] v. + +[245] Te svânino rudriyâ varshanirṇiǵah siṅhâ na heshakratavaḥ +sudânavaḥ; _Ṛigv._ iii. 26, 5.--In the Bohemian story of grandfather +_Vsievedas_, the young hero is sent by the prince who wishes to ruin +him to take the three golden hairs of this grandfather (the sun). + +[246] Siṅho na bhîma âyudhâni bibhrat; _Ṛigv._ iv. 16, 14. Cfr. i. +174, 3. + +[247] Siṅhaṁ nasanta madhvo ayâsaṁ harim aru haṁ divo asya patim; +_Ṛigv._ ix. 89, 3. + +[248] In the Greek apologue, Ptolemy, king of Egypt, wishes to send +some money to Alexander in homage to him; the mule, the horse, the +ass, and the camel offer themselves of their own accord to carry the +sacks. On the way, they meet the lion, who wishes to join the party, +saying that he too carries money; but not being accustomed to such +work, he modestly begs the other four to divide his load among +themselves. They consent; soon afterwards, passing through a country +rich in herds, the lion feels inclined to stay, and demands his +portion of the money, but as his money resembles that of the others, +not to mistake, he takes by force both his own and theirs. + +[249] ii. 62. + +[250] vi. 5, 35. + +[251] v. 43. + +[252] i. 229. + +[253] The anecdote of Androkles and the lion grateful for having a +thorn extracted from his foot, is also related in almost the same +words of Mentor the Syracusan, Helpis of Samos, the Abbot Gerasimos, +St Jerome and (as to the blinded lion whose sight is given back to +him) of Macharios, the confessor. The thorn in the lion's foot is a +zoological form of the hero who is vulnerable in his feet. In the +sixth of the Sicilian stories published by Signora Gonzenbach, the boy +Giuseppe takes a thorn out of a lion's foot; the grateful lion gives +him one of his hairs; by means of this hair, the young man can, in +case of necessity, become a terrible lion, and as such, he bites off +the head of the king of the dragons. + +[254] Thus, the ancients attributed to the lion a particular antipathy +to strong smells, such as garlic, and the pudenda of a woman. But this +superstition must be classed with that which ascribes sterility to the +lioness. The women of antiquity, when they met a lioness, considered +it as an omen of sterility. In the Æsopian fable, the foxes boast of +their fruitfulness before the lioness, whom they laugh at because she +gives birth to only one cub. "Yes," she answers, "but it is a lion;" +under the sign of the lion, the earth also becomes arid, and +consequently unfruitful. + +[255] Horace, _Carm._ i. 16. + +[256] Sculpebant Ethnici auro vel argento leonis imaginem, et ferentes +hujusmodi simulacra generosiores et audaciores evadere dicebantur; +idcirco non est mirum si Aristoteles (in lib. de Secr. Secr.) +scripserit annulum ex auro vel argento, in quo cœlata sit icon puellæ +equitantis leonem die et hora solis vagantis in domicilio leonis +gestantes, ab omnibus honorari; Aldrovandi, _De Quadrup. Dig. Viv._ +i.--In the signs of the Zodiac, Virgo comes after upon Leo; Christians +also celebrate the assumption of the Virgin into heaven towards the +middle of August, when the sun passes from the sign of the lion into +that of the virgin. + +[257] Cfr. Böhtlingk, _Indische Sprüche_, 2te Auflage, i. 1. + +[258] Ktesias explains this word as "devourer of men," but by means of +Sanskṛit it can only be explained by substituting to the initial _m_ +one of the words that signify man, such as _nara_, _ǵana_, _manava_, +_mânusha_, &c. _Antikora_ would seem to be derived from the Sanskṛit +_antakara_ = destroyer, who puts an end to, killer. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE SPIDER. + + +SUMMARY. + + Tuscan superstition relating to the spider; the red sky of + evening.--The night, the moon, and the aurora as + weavers.--Arachnê.--Âurṇavabhas.--Dhatâ and Vidhatâ.--Golden + cloths.--The spider and his prey.--The golden veil.--The lake of + fire and the witch burnt.--The eagle and the spider.--The sack + made of a spider's web. + +There is in Tuscany a very interesting superstition relating to the +spider: it is believed that if a spider be seen in the evening it must +not be burnt, as it is destined to bring good fortune; but when seen in +the morning, it must be burnt without being touched. The evening and +morning aurora are compared to the spider and the spider's web; the +evening aurora must prepare the morning aurora during the night. We have +quoted on a previous occasion the Piedmontese proverb, "Rosso di sera, +buon tempo si spera" (red at night, we hope for fine weather). If the +sun dies in the west without clouds, if the luminous spider shows itself +in the western sky, it augurs for the morrow a fine morning and a fine +day. In the _Ṛigvedas_ we have on this subject several interesting data; +the aurora weaved during the night (and is therefore called +vayantî;[259] sometimes she is helped by Râkâ, the full moon[260]) the +robe for her husband. But, in another hymn, she is entreated to shine +soon, and not to stretch out or weave her work too long, in order that +the sun with his rays may not fall upon it and burn it like a +thief.[261] In the legend of Odysseus, Penelopê undoes in the night the +work of the day; this is another aspect of the same myth: Penelopê, as +aurora, undoes her web at even, to weave it again at morn. The myth of +Arachnê (the name of the spider, and of the celebrated Lydian virgin +whom Athenê, the aurora, according to Professor Max Müller, taught to +spin, and whose father was Idmon, a colourer in purple), whom Athenê, +jealous of the skill she had acquired in weaving in purple colours, +strikes on the forehead and transforms into a spider, is a variety of +the same myth of the weaving aurora. When the spider becomes dark, and +when its web is gloomy, then the spider, or son of the spider, or +Âurṇavabhas, assumes a monstrous form. Âurṇavabhas (ûrṇavâbhis, +ûrṇanâbhis, ûrṇanabhas, as spider, are already spoken of in the Vedic +writings) is the name of the gloomy monster Vṛitras, killed by the god +Indras, the terrible monster which Indras, immediately after his birth, +is obliged to kill[262] at the instigation of his mother. In the +_Mahâbhâratam_[263] we find two women that spin and weave, Dhatâ and +Vidhatâ; they weave upon the loom of the year with black and white +threads, _i.e._, they spin the days and the nights. We, therefore, have +a beneficent spider and a malignant one. + +In the fourth story of the fifth book of the _Pentamerone_, the young +Parmetella marries a black slave, who gives her as servants swans, +"Vestute de tela d'oro, che, subeto 'ncignannola da capo a pede, la +mesero 'n forma de ragno, che pareva propio na Regina." (The black man +becomes a handsome youth during the night, perhaps as the moon; she +wishes to see his features, and he disappears; this is a variety of the +popular story of the wife's indiscretion.) In the fifth story of the +second book of _Afanassieff_, the spider sets its web to catch flies, +mosquitoes, and wasps; a wasp, being caught in the web, begs to be +released in consideration of the many children that she will leave +behind her (the same stratagem that is used by the hen against the fox +in the Tuscan story previously mentioned.) The credulous spider lets her +go; she then warns wasps, flies, and mosquitoes to keep hidden. The +spider then asks help from the grasshopper, the moth, and the bug +(nocturnal animals), who announce that the spider is dead, having given +up the ghost upon the gibbet, which gibbet was afterwards destroyed (the +evening aurora has disappeared into the night). The flies, mosquitoes, +and wasps again come out, and fell into the spider's web (into the +morning aurora). In the eighteenth story of the sixth book of +_Afanassieff_, the beautiful girl who flees from the house of the witch +that persecutes her, stretches out a veil, which, by the help of a +beautiful young maiden (the moon), she has embroidered with gold; +immediately a great sea of fire springs up, into which the old witch +falls and is burned; and here we come back to the popular Italian +superstition that the spider must be burned in the morning. + +The spider is an animal of the earth, but it weaves its web in the air; +and as such--as intermediary between the animals of the earth and those +of the air--supplies us with a bridge by which we may pass naturally +from the first to the second part of the present work.[264] I hope that +this bridge will prove as sufficient as the sack in which the young +Esthonian hero carries the treasure away from hell, a sack composed of +the threads of a spider, so strong that it is impossible to tear them. I +wish I had, in the first book, some of the skill of the spider, and that +I could weave with a few threads from the labyrinth of Âryan legendary +tradition concerning animals a web which, if it be not as luminous as +that of Arachnê, may be more durable than that of Penelopê. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[259] _Ṛigv._ ii. 38, 4.--In the fifty-fourth story of the fourth book +of _Afanassieff_, the king who has no children makes the maiden seven +years old manufacture a fisherman's net in the space of only one night. + +[260] In the German legend we have the spinner in the moon. "Die +Altmärkische Sage bei Temme 49, 'die Spinnerin im Monde,' wo ein +Mädchen von seiner Mutter verwünscht wird, im Monde zu sitzen und zu +spinnen, scheint entstellt, da jener Fluch sie nicht wegen Spinnens, +sondern Tanzens im Mondschein trifft;" Simrock, _Deutsche Mythologie_, +2te Aufl. p. 23.--Cfr. also the first chapter of this work, and that +on the bear, where we read of a girl dancing with the bear in the +night.--Perhaps there is also some correspondence between the Vedic +word _râkâ_ and _a-rachnê_. + +[261] Vy ućhâ duhitar divo mâ ćiraṁ tanutha apaḥ net tvâ stenaṁ yathâ +ripuṁ tapâti sûro arćishâ; _Ṛigv._ v. 79, 9. + +[262] Vritram avâbhinad dânum âurṇavâbham; _Ṛigv._ ii. 11, +18.--Ǵaǵńâno nu çatakratur vi pṛićhad iti mâtaram ka ugrâḥ ke ha +çṛiṇvire âd îm çavasy abravîd âurṇavâbham ahîçuvam te putra santu +nishṭuraḥ; _Ṛigv._ viii. 66, 1, 2. + +[263] i. 802, 825. + +[264] I observe, moreover, how in the Russian fables of Kriloff the +same part is attributed to the spider as in the West to the wren (the +regulus) and to the beetle. The eagle carries, without knowing it, a +spider in its tail upon a tree; the spider then makes its web over it. +Bird and spider therefore exchange places. + + + + +Second Part. + +THE ANIMALS OF THE AIR. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +BIRDS. + + +SUMMARY. + + The sky-atmosphere and the sky-tree.--The sun, the Açvinâu, Indras, + the Marutas, and Agnis as birds.--Indras cuts off the wings of the + mountains.--Indras and Somas as two birds hovering round the same + tree of honey.--The wisdom of birds.--The birds requested to + sacrifice themselves to fulfil the duties of hospitality, + refuse.--The dviǵas bird and brâhman.--Penitent birds.--Consolatory + birds.--Presages of birds in India.--Verethraghna as a bird.--The + bird's feather.--The red bird.--Grateful and prophetic birds.--The + hero that understands the language of birds.--The bird and the two + cypresses.--The hero becomes a bird by acquiring Solomon's + ring.--The blue bird.--The bird caught by putting salt upon its + tail.--The excrement of birds is propitious.--The demoniacal + bird.--The bird that feeds the heroes.--Birds and poets; singers and + prophets.--Auguries and auspices.--The auguries were laughed at in + Greece.--Flight to right and to left. + +The sky, especially by night, is conceived now as a road on which one +can walk, and where sometimes the traveller may be lost, or make +others lose their way; now as the air itself, in which one flies or is +carried in flight, with the risk sometimes of falling; now as a tree, +in which one speaks or builds nests, with the risk of the words being +sometimes sinister, or the nests falling; and now as a sea in which +one navigates in peril of shipwreck. + +The sky-atmosphere and the sky-tree are the world of the mythical +flying birds and insects. The god, the demon, the hero, and the +monster, when traversing this field, either take the forms of winged +animals, or make use of them to ascend to the celestial paths, or else +are conducted by them to their ruin. + +The sun and the moon, the sunbeams, the thunderbolts, flashes of +lightning, auroras, clouds that move and thunder, and the very shadows +that move, often take in myths the forms of flying animals. + +In the _Ṛigvedas_, the sun is called a bird (viḥ);[265] the Açvinâu +come with the wheels of the car like a bird with feathers;[266] Indras +is the well-winged red one;[267] the Marutas perch like birds upon the +culm of buttered grass;[268] Agnis accomplishes the wish of the +bird;[269] the well-winged ones of Agnis (_i.e._, the thunderbolts) +appear as destroyers when the black bull has bellowed (that is, when +the black cloud has thundered);[270] Savitar must not destroy the +woods of the birds;[271] from the house of the aurora the birds come +forth;[272] the goddesses and the brides of the heroes are requested +to come to the assistance of men with unclipt wings.[273] Finally, an +interesting Vedic hymn shows us the sun and the moon, Indras and +Somas, as two well-winged birds united in friendship, that continually +fly round the same tree (_i.e._, the sky); of these, one eats the +sweet pippalas, the other shines without eating. Both, well-winged, +sing as they safely guard the treasure of ambrosia. The honey of this +tree is called pippalas: of this tree all the birds eat the honey, and +on it they build their nests.[274] + +The wisdom of birds is much celebrated in popular Aryan tradition. On +this subject the _Mârkaṇdeya-P._[275] narrates a long and instructive +legend. + +The wise Gâiminis wishes some episodes of the great legend of the +_Mahâbhâratam_, which seem obscure, to be explained to him. He has +recourse to the learned Mârkaṇḍeyas; but the latter says he does not +know how to enlighten him, and advises him to interrogate the birds, the +best of the birds, sons of Droṇas, who know the essence of things, who +meditate upon the sacred treatises, the birds Piñgâkshas, Vibodhas, +Supattras, and Sumukhas, who will disperse his doubts. They live in a +cave in the middle of the Vindhyâs; let him go to them and ask them. +Gâiminis wonders how simple birds can possess so much wisdom. +Mârkaṇḍeyas then relates to him their genealogy. A nymph, who had +seduced by her song the penitent Durvâsas, was condemned to be born +again in the family of the bird Garuḍas, and to spend sixteen years in +the form of a bird, until, after giving birth to four sons, she should +be wounded by an arrow and regain once more her primitive form in +heaven. As a bird she is named Târkshî, and is married to the bird +Droṇas, who is wise and instructed in the Vedâs and Vedâñgâs. Târkshî is +present at the battle between the Kâuravâs and the Pâṇḍavâs; a dart +strikes her in the belly, from which four eggs that shine like the moon +fall to the ground. After the battle, the ascetic Çamîkas approaches the +place where the four eggs lie, and hears the young birds chirping +ćićíkućí. The wise man marvels at seeing that they have escaped such +carnage, concludes they must be Brâhmans, and thinks this a circumstance +of most favourable augury and a presage of great fortune +(mahâbhâgyapradarçinî). He carries the birds to his house, and places +them where they run no risk of being harmed by cats, mice, hawks, or +weasels. The birds are taken care of and nourished by the wise man, and +grow up strong and learned, listening to the lessons that the wise man +gives in school, and, being grateful to him as their deliverer, +expressing their gratitude by means of words which, by exercise, they +articulate clearly. Interrogated as to their previous existence, they +remember that there was once a sage named Vipulâçvan, father of two +children, Sukṛishas and Tumburus; these four were sons of Tumburus. +Whilst they lived in the woods with their father, Indras, the king of +the gods, comes to them in the form of a gigantic old bird, and demands +human flesh from the hospitable sage. The wise man wonders that a bird, +so old, that is, at an age in which every desire should be extinguished, +should be so cruel as to wish for human flesh. Nevertheless he requests +(like Viçvâmitras in the legend of Çunaḥcepas previously mentioned) his +own sons to sacrifice themselves in fulfilment of this duty. They do not +at first refuse this act of hospitality, but when they hear that they +are to be eaten by the bird, they decisively refuse, pleading, among +other arguments, the physiological, or rather, materialistic one, that +if they are virtuous, their virtue too will perish with their bodies, +whilst, on the other hand, in order to preserve their virtue long, they +think themselves bound to prolong their existence as much as possible +(we have already seen the cat adopting a similar argument to justify his +fatness). Their father, indignant at this refusal after giving their +promise, curses them, condemning them to be born again as animals, and +then magnanimously offers himself to the famished bird. Upon which +Indras reveals himself in his proper divine form, and then disappears +after blessing the sage. The sons beseech their father to release them +from the malediction; he takes pity upon them, but is unable to revoke +his words; it is only in his power to temper the severity of the +punishment. They are condemned to retain the animal form; but in that +form they are to be recompensed with the gift of insight into the +mysteries of being. It is for this reason that, when Çamîkas finds them, +he salutes them by the name of Brâhmans. For the rest, the equivoque is +easily comprehensible, when we reflect that the word _dviǵas_, or twice +born, means bird (that is, born first as an egg, and afterwards as an +animal), as well as Brâhman (who, by taking the sacred cord, the +prætexta, and the sacrament of the holy oil, is born again). Etymology +here assists our comprehension of the legend. In the same way as the +Brâhman is the wisest of men, so are the dviǵâs or birds the wisest of +animals. The birds, cursed by the hermit their father, go therefore to +Mount Vindhyas, which is watered by many blessed streams, where they +live as austere penitents. Gâiminis goes to consult them; when he +approaches their abode, he hears them speaking distinctly to each other. +He then comes up and sees them perched on the top of a rock. Gâiminis +addresses them with amiable words; the birds answer him that, since so +great a sage is come to visit them, their wish is accomplished and their +curse come to an end. Then follow the questions of Gâiminis relating to +Ǵanârdanas, Drâupadî, Baladevas, and the five sons of Drâupadî. The +birds, before answering, sing a kind of hymn to Vishṇus, and expound his +principal incarnations. In the _Mahâbhâratam_,[276] the ascetic Brâhmans +go in the forms of birds to console the ṛishis Mândavyas, impaled by +order of the king, for having given hospitality to the robbers of the +royal booty. + +Birds know everything, and hence presages are taken especially from +them, whence the name _auspicium_ or _augurium_, applied specifically +to a presage. In the last book of the _Râmâyaṇam_,[277] the monsters +are terrified by such omens as the following:--"Thousands of vultures +and ducks with mouths that throw flames, which form a circle like that +of the god of death upon the battalions of the monsters; the doves, +the red-feet, the sârikâs (turdus salicæ) were dispersed." + +In the _Avesta_, Verethraghna often appears as a bird, and as +understanding the language of birds. A bird's feather, in the +_Avesta_, assists Verethraghna, as in Firdusi, a feather of the bird +Simurg, burnt by Zal, calls up to his assistance the bird Simurg in +person.[278] According to a legend of the _Khorda-Avesta_, the +splendour of the old Yima, who had become proud and false-tongued +(thus, in India, the celestial Yamas and the happy Çivas become +infernal destroying deities), fled away in the form of a bird. +According to the popular superstition of White Russia, the little bird +diedka (the little one), is the guardian of treasures and has eyes of +fire and a fiery beard (this is doubtless a representation of the +demoniacal sun of evening, of Kuveras or of Plutos.[279]) In the +_Contes Merveilleux_ of Porchat, the red bird appears as a messenger. + +In the legend of Sal, in Firdusi, there is a riddle about two +cypresses, one withered and the other verdant, upon first the one and +then the other of which a bird regularly builds his nest. The hero +Sal, who solves the riddle, says that the two cypresses are the two +opposite seasons of the year or the two sides of the sky, and that +the bird is the sun.[280] + +In the eighteenth Esthonian story, two birds, speaking to each other, +signify where the famous enchanted ring of Solomon is to be found, +which the young hero is looking for. When the hero finds the ring, he +is able to transform himself at will into a bird; but the daughter of +hell, in the shape of an eagle, carries it off from him. In the fourth +Esthonian story, the girl of seven years of age becomes, by beneficent +magic, a bird, when she is obliged to travel far. In the thirty-fifth +of the stories of Santo Stefano di Calcinaia, the wife of the +bird-catcher terrifies the devil in the form of an enormous and +monstrous bird. In the fifth story of the fourth book of the +_Pentamerone_, a fairy in the form of a bird arrests the arm of the +king of Alta-Marina whilst he is about to kill his own wife Portiella. +The fairy was grateful to the young woman, because, when she was +asleep in a wood, Portiella had awakened her to deliver her from a +satyr who was attempting to violate her.[281] The king shuts Portiella +up in a tower without light; the bird makes a hole in it and brings +food to her, stealing the fowls from the kitchen during the cook's +absence. Portiella gives birth to a son, who is also nourished by the +bird. The _oiseau bleu_, _couleur du temps_, of the story of Madame +d'Aulnoy, who flies at night from the cypress to the window of the +beautiful imprisoned Florine, is a beautiful variety of this same +story. Several Russian stories end with the following refrain of an +azure bird (sinićka, little azure one): "little azure one flies and +says, Azure, but beautiful."[282] Inasmuch as the sun of morning, or +spring, comes out of the dark-blue bird of night, or of winter, we can +understand the popular Italian and German superstition, that when the +excrement of a bird falls upon a man it is an omen of good luck. The +excrement of the mythical bird of night, or of winter, is the sun. +Considered in connection with morning or spring, the dark-coloured +bird of night, or winter, is propitious; considered by itself, or in +relation to the evening sun or the dying summer, it is a funereal and +diabolical animal. Such is the bird Kâmek of the _Avesta_, which +stretches its wings over all mankind, which carries off and hides the +sun, creates darkness, keeps back the waters and devours all +creatures, until after seven years and seven nights, the hero +Kereçâçpa strikes it and makes it fall. + +Moreover, the bird that brings food is a subject which is very popular +in almost all the traditions of the Indo-European nations. Every one +has heard of the bird which nourished Semiramis, abandoned by her +mother in a desert and stony place, with curdled milk and cheese (the +moonlight), stolen from the neighbouring flocks of sheep, according to +the narrative of Diodorus Siculus; and the same Persian bird +nourishes, according to the legend, several other children, future +heroes of Iran, who had been similarly exposed; in the legend of +Romulus and Remus, the woodpecker assumes the same place and office as +the nurse she-wolf. In the watery night and the watery winter, the +solar child-hero, abandoned to himself, is nourished by birds. The +nightingale or singer of the night sends forth his melodious notes +from the nocturnal tree, predicting thus the renewal of daylight; in +the tree-cloud, the thunder rumbles, the oracle speaks, and the bird +prophesies. Theokritos calls poets the birds of the Muses (mousôn +ornithas). The kokilas is the bird of the Hindoo poets and teaches +them melody; to this bird corresponds the Hindoo Kyknos of the +_Tuti-Name_, of which it is said that it has innumerable holes in its +beak, from each of which a melodious sound comes forth. + +The Hindoo _kavis_, the Latin _vates_, and the Hellenic _mantis_ +represent at once both the singer and the sage; thus the singers of +the woods are at the same time omniscient prophets. They began with +prophecies about the weather, as the thunder announces the storm, and +finished by prophesying everything. The peasantry of Tuscany endeavour +to this day to guess what weather it will be on the morrow from the +songs of the birds.[283] The augures, the auguremens, the aucelli, and +the aruspices were preserved even in the Middle Ages, according to +the testimony of Du Cange.[284] As to the auguries and auspices of the +ancient Greeks and Romans, I refer the reader to the numerous erudite +works which treat of them in a particular manner. I must observe, +however, that whilst among the Latins augury was deemed such a solemn +thing that Publius Claudius and Lucius Junius were judged worthy of +death for having set out on a voyage against the will of the auguries, +and that whilst _ave_, that is to say, good augury, was still the +solemn formula of Roman salutation, the Greeks had already turned +auguries and auspices into derision. The reader remembers, no doubt, +how in the _Iliad_ the hero Hektor declares that he cares not whether +the birds go to the right, towards the aurora and the sun, or to the +left, towards the sunset. In Eusebius[285] we read that a bird was +presented to Alexander, the Macedonian, when on the point of setting +out for the Red Sea, in order that he might read the auguries by it +according to custom; Alexander, in answer, killed the bird with an +arrow; the bystanders being offended by this breach of the rules, the +Macedonian hero added, "What folly is this? In what way could this +bird, which could not foresee its death by this arrow, predict the +fortunes of our journey?" Auguries and auspices were also taken in +India. According to the _Râmâyaṇam_,[286] birds seen at a wedding to +go to the left, are a sinister omen;[287] birds that fly, crying, to +the left of Râmas, announce to him a serious disaster, viz., the +carrying off of Sîtâ.[288] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[265] _Ṛigv._ i. 72, 9. + +[266] Vir na parṇâiḥ; _Ib._ i. 183, 1. + +[267] Aruṇaḥ suparṇaḥ; _Ib._ x. 55, 6. + +[268] Vayo na sîdann adhi barhishi priye; _Ib._ i. 85, 7. + +[269] Manmasâdhano veḥ; _Ib._ i. 96, 6. + +[270] Â te suparṇâ aminantaṅ evâiḥ kṛishṇo nonâva vṛishabho yadîdam; +_Ib._ i. 79, 2. + +[271] Vanâni vibhyo nakir asya tâni vratâ devasya savitar minanti; +_Ib._ ii. 38, 7. + +[272] Ut te vayaçćid vasater apaptan; _Ib._ i. 124, 12.--In the +twenty-third story of the second book of _Afanassieff_, when the +beautiful girl Helen, another form of the aurora, is at the king's +ball, she throws bones with one hand, when birds spring up, and water +with the other, when gardens and fountains spring up. + +[273] Abhi no devîr avasâ mahaḥ çarmaṇâ nṛipatnîḥ aćhinnapatrâḥ +saćantâm; _Ṛigv._ i. 22, 11.--If the goddesses are here the same as +the nymphs, they may be the same as the clouds, and I should refer to +this passage, the legend of the _Râmâyaṇam_ (v. 56), according to +which the lofty mountains were once winged (the clouds) and wandered +about the earth at pleasure; Indras, with his thunderbolt, cut their +wings, and they fell down. + +[274] Dvâ suparṇâ sayuǵâ sakhâyâ samânaṁ vṛiksham pari shasvaǵâte +tayor anyaḥ pippalaṁ svâdv atty anaçnann anyo abhi ćâkaçîtî--Yatrâ +suparṇâ amṛitasya bhâgam animeshaṁ vidathâbhisvaranti; _Ṛigv._ i. 164, +20.--Perhaps we should compare to this legend the two birds Amru and +Ćamru of the _Khorda-Avesta_, of which one makes the seeds of the +three mythical trees fall, and the other scatters them about. + +[275] Calcutta, 1851. + +[276] i. 4305. + +[277] Sixth canto. + +[278] Professor Spiegel says in a note, _Khorda-Avesta_, p. 147: "Die +Beschwörung vormittelst einer Feder ist gewiss eine alteranische +Vorstellung."--In a story, hitherto unpublished, of the Monferrato, +communicated to me by Signor Ferraro, a woman, who had gone to eat +parsley in the garden of a sorceress, was obliged to give her daughter +up to her as a penalty for the offence. The girl was afterwards +subjected to three difficult trials; to sunder in one day a mountain of +wheat and millet into the grains composing it, to eat in one day a +mountain of apples, and to wash, dry, and iron in one hour all the linen +of a year. In the first trial, by means of two bird's feathers, she +calls up a thousand birds, who separate the grain from the millet.--In +the fourth story of the fifth book of the _Pentamerone_, the birds strip +themselves of their feathers to fill a mattress which the witch has +ordered the young Permetella to make. In a Tuscan story, for the +possession of a peacock's feather, the young brother is killed. + +[279] In _Afanassieff_, v. 38, a similar little bird ravages during +the night the field of a lord; the youngest of the three brothers, who +is believed to be foolish, catches it and sells it to the king, who +shuts it in a room under lock and key. The king's son releases the +little bird, which in gratitude gives him a horse that wins battles, +and a golden apple, by means of which he is able to wed a +princess.--In the story v. 22, the young man who has been instructed +by the devil transforms himself into a bird and tells his father to +sell him, but not to give up the cage. The devil buys the bird, but +does not obtain the cage; he puts the bird into a handkerchief to take +it to his daughter, but when he comes home the bird has +disappeared.--In the story v. 42, the king of birds releases Ivan from +the witch who wishes to eat him, and takes him to his betrothed. The +witch tears a few feathers off the king of birds, but does not succeed +in stopping him.--In the story v. 46, the devil teaches the language +of birds to the young hero.--In the story vi. 69, the wise maiden goes +to take into the kingdom of darkness the bird that speaks, the tree +that sings, and the water of life, with which she brings to life her +two brothers, born before her, whom a witch had thrown into a fountain +(the aurora delivers the Açvinâu).--In the fifth Sicilian story of +Signora Gonzenbach, brother and sister go into the witch's castle to +take the water that dances and the bird that speaks. The bird tells +the water, in the king's presence, the story of the two young +people.--In the fifth story of the second book of the _Pentamerone_, +the fox teaches the young Grannonia what birds say.--In the seventh +story of the fifth book of the _Pentamerone_, it is the youngest of +the five brothers that acquires the faculty of understanding the +language of birds.--In Pietro de Crescenzi (x. 1), we find a "rex +Daucus (Dacus?) qui divino intellectu novit naturam accipitrum et +falconum et eos domesticare ad prædam instruere, et ab ægritudinibus +liberare."--In the legend of St Francis of Assisi, the great saint was +able to make himself understood to birds, and to make the swallows be +silent; the same saint made a wolf mild and tame; the miracle of +Orpheus is repeated in numerous other legends.--In the sixteenth +Mongol story of Siddhikür, a wise dwarf, who understands the language +of birds, hears two birds, father and son, speak to each other on the +summit of a tree about the king's son, who had been assassinated by +the son of the minister.--In the _Edda_, Atli has a long dialogue with +a bird whose language he understands.--Finally, the whole of the +comedy of Aristophanes entitled _The Birds_ (Ornithes) shows the +wisdom and divining power of birds, and, as animals of presage, their +intimate relation with the thunderbolts of Zeus.--According to the +German belief, the fat of a serpent teaches how to understand the +language of birds. Cfr. Simrock, the work previously quoted, p. 457. + +[280] + + "Die zwei Cypressen sind die Himmelsseiten, + Die beiden, die uns Glück und Leid bereiten; + Der Vogel, der drin nistet, ist die Sonne, + Sie giebt beim Schneiden Schmerz, beim Kommen Wonne." + --Schack, _Heldensagen von Firdusi_, p. 122. + +[281] A variety of the myth of Priapos, mentioned in the chapter on +the Ass. + +[282] Sinićka letat i gavarít: Sin da charosh.--The dark-blue bird is a +symbol of the azure sky of night or winter, whilst, on the other hand, +the wooden bird, at which the maidens of Westphalia throw sticks on St +John's Day, seems to be a phallical symbol; she who hits the bird is +queen. The bird is a well-known phallical symbol; and a phallical origin +must be ascribed to the popular superstition that a bird may be rendered +helpless by putting salt upon its tail. The salacitas of an animal, when +given way to, takes every energy from it; the ûrdhvaretas alone is +strong. It was perhaps for a similar reason that in the Middle Ages, +when a city was destroyed to its foundations, it was the custom to throw +salt upon it, in order that it might never rise again. Salt thrown away +is like seed sown in the desert, where it is fruitless. + +[283] It is a mountaineer of the province of Siena that speaks: "I +perceived by the song of the birds that the weather was about to +change; their voice told me, it was so merry;" Giuliani, _Moralità e +Poesia del Vivente Linguaggio della Toscana_, p. 149. + +[284] Cfr. among others, the words _albanellus_ (haubereau) _avis +auguralis species_, and _aucellus_. + +[285] _De Prœparat. Evang._ lib. ix. + +[286] i. 76. + +[287] Amongst the Romans, on the contrary, the flight to the left was +an excellent omen; thus Plautus in the _Epidicus_: "Tacete, habete +animum bonum, liquido exeo foras auspicio, ave sinistra." (But this +change from right to left may depend upon the various positions taken +by the observer in placing himself.) In the mediæval legend of +Alexander, a bird with a human face (a harpy) meets Alexander and +advises him to turn to the right, when he will see marvellous +things.--Cfr. Zacher, _Pseudo-Callisthenes_, Halle, 1867, p. 142. + +[288] _Râmây._ iii. 64. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE HAWK, THE EAGLE, THE VULTURE, THE PHŒNIX, THE HARPY, THE STRIX, +THE BAT, THE GRIFFON, AND THE SIREN. + + +SUMMARY. + + The bird of prey the most heroic of birds.--Indras as a hawk.--The + hawk and the ambrosia; the ambrosia as sperm.--The bird of prey and + the serpent.--Agnis, the Açvinâu, and the Marutas as hawks.--The + place of sacrifice has the form of an eagle.--The two sons of + Vinaṭâ.--Garuḍas, the bird of Vishṇus; he fights against the + monsters.--Genealogy of the vultures.--Ǵâtâyus and Sampatis.--The + king or the young hero who offers himself up to be devoured by the + hawk or the eagle.--The grateful hawk or eagle.--Çyena and Çaena; + Simurg; the feather of the bird of prey.--The birds as clouds.--The + eagles as winds; Aquila and Aquilo.--The hawks as luminous birds; + the eagles as demoniacal ones.--Accipiter.--The hawk as an emblem of + nobility.--The hawk as the ensign of Attila.--The hawk in Hellenic + antiquity.--The kite among the stars; it discharges its body upon + the image of the god.--The beetle, the eagle, and Zeus.--The eagle + as the thunderbolt or sceptre of Zeus.--The eagle presages supreme + power and fertility; the eagle and the laurel.--The eagle carries + off the robes of Aphroditê.--The eagle takes away the slippers of + Rhodopê.--The eagle kills Æschilos.--Nisos and Scylla.--The vulture + in ancient classical authors.--The vultures in hell.--The learned + vulture.--Voracity of the vulture.--Imaginary birds.--The sun as a + phoenix.--The demoniacal harpies or Furiæ, canes Jovis.--Strix and + striges; they suck blood.--Proca and Crane.--Bats and vampires.--The + Stymphalian birds.--The birds of Seleucia.--The Gryphes and the + Arimaspi.--The griffons sacred to Nemesis; the hypogriff, gryphos, + logogriph, griffonage.--The Siren now as a bird, now as a + fish.--Circe; a lunar myth. + +The most heroic of birds is the bird of prey; the strength of its +beak, wings, and claws, its size and swiftness, caused it to be +regarded as a swift celestial messenger, carrier, and warrior. + +The hawk, the eagle, and the vulture, three powerful birds of prey, +generally play the same part in myths and legends; the creators of +myths having from the first observed their general resemblance, +without paying any regard to their specific differences. + +The bird of prey, in mythology, is the sun, which now shines in its +splendour, and now shows itself in the cloud or darkness by sending +forth flashes of lightning, thunderbolts, and sunbeams. The flash, the +thunderbolt, and the sunbeam are now the beak, now the claw of the +bird of prey, and now, the part being sometimes taken for the whole, +even the entire bird. + +In the _Ṛigvedas_, the god Indras often appears in the form of a hawk +or çyenas. Indras is like a hawk that flies swiftly over the other +hawks, and, being well-winged, carries to men the food tasted by the +gods.[289] He is enclosed in a hundred iron fortresses; nevertheless, +with swiftness, he succeeds in coming out of them;[290] while flying +away, he carries in his claw the beautiful, virgin, luminous ambrosia, +by means of which life is prolonged and the dead brought to life +again[291] (the rain, which is also confounded with the ambrosial +humour of the moon. In the first strophe of the same hymn, Indus is +also called ambrosia).[292] The hawk with iron claws kills the hostile +demons,[293] has great power of breathing, and draws from afar the +chariot with a hundred wheels.[294] However, while the hawk carries +the ambrosia through the air, he trembles for fear of the archer +Kṛiçânus,[295] who, in fact, shot off one of his claws (of which the +hedgehog was born, according to the _Âiṭareya Br._,[296] and according +to the Vedic hymn,[297] one of his feathers which, falling on the +earth, afterwards became a tree). After the victory gained over Ahis, +the serpent-demon, Indras flees like a terrified hawk.[298] This is +the first trace of the legendary and proverbial enmity between the +bird of prey and the serpent. In the third book of the _Râmâyaṇam_, +Râvaṇas says that he will carry off Sîtâ as the well-winged one +(carries off) the serpent (suparṇaḥ pannaǵamiva). + +Nor is Indras alone a hawk in the _Ṛigvedas_, but Agnis too. Mâtariçvân +and the hawk agitate, the one the heavenly fire, the other the ambrosia +of the mountain.[299] The chariot of the Açvinâu is also sometimes drawn +by hawks, as swift as heavenly vultures.[300] They are themselves +compared to two vultures that hover round the tree where the treasure +is[301] (we have seen in the preceding chapter that the tree is the +sky). The Marutas are also called Gṛidhrâs or vultures (falcons +according to Max Müller.[302]) In the _Ṛigvedas_, again, when the sun +goes to the sea, he looks with a vulture's eye.[303] On account of this +form of a bird of prey, often assumed by the solar god in the Vedic +myths, we read in the _Âitareya Br._, that the place destined for the +sacrifice had the same shape. In the _Râmâyaṇam_ we find, in the +sacrifice of a horse, that the place of sacrifice has the form of the +bird Garuḍas, the powerful mythical eagle of the Hindoos. In the 149th +hymn of the tenth book of the _Ṛigvedas_, the ancient well-winged son of +the sun Savitar is already named Garutman. The mythical bird is the +equivalent of the winged solar horse, or hippogriff; indeed, the 118th +hymn of the first book of the _Ṛigvedas_, soon after celebrating the +hawks that draw the chariot of the Açvinâu, calls them beautiful flying +horses (açvâ vapushaḥ pataṁgâḥ). We have observed that of the two twins, +or the two brothers, one prevails over the other. Thus of the two +mythical vultures, of the two sons of Vinatâ, in the legend of the +_Mahâbhâratam_,[304] their mother having broken the egg before the +proper time, one, Aruṇas, is born imperfect, and curses his mother, +condemning her to be the slave of her rival Kadrû for five thousand +years, until her other son, the luminous, perfect, and powerful solar +bird Garuḍas, comes to release her. Aruṇas becomes the charioteer of the +sun; Garuḍas is, instead, the steed of the god Vishṇus, the solar horse, +the sun itself, victorious in all its splendour. No sooner are the two +birds born, than the horse Uććâiḥçravas also appears, which again +signifies that solar bird and solar horse are identical. Like the hawk +Indras, or the hawk of Indras, Garuḍas, the bird of Vishṇus, or Vishṇus +himself, is thirsty, drinks many rivers,[305] carries off from the +serpents the ambrosia, protected (as in the _Ṛigvedas_) by a circle of +iron. Like Vishṇus, Garuḍas, from being very tall, makes himself very +little, penetrates among the serpents, covers them with dust and blinds +them; it is, indeed, on account of this feat that Vishṇus adopts him for +his celestial steed.[306] The god Vishṇus goes on the back of the +well-winged one to fight against the monsters;[307] indignant with them, +he throws them to the ground with the flapping of his wings; the +monsters aim their darts at him as another form of the hero, and he +fights on his own account and for the hero.[308] When the bird Garuḍas +appears, the fetters of the monsters, which compress like serpents the +two brothers Râmas and Lakshmaṇas, are loosed, and the two young heroes +rise more handsome and stronger than before.[309] The Nishâdâs come from +their damp abodes, enter into the gaping jaws of Garuḍas in thousands, +enveloped by the wind and the dust.[310] (The sun of morning and that of +spring devour the black monsters of night and of winter.) + +Hitherto we have seen the hawk, the eagle (as Garuḍas), and the +vulture exchanged for each other; even the Hindoo mythical genealogy +confirms this exchange. According to the _Râmâyaṇam_,[311] of Tâmrâ +(properly the reddish one; she also gave birth to Krâuńći, the mother +of the herons) was born Çyenî (that is, the female hawk); of Çyenî was +born Vinaṭâ. Vinaṭâ (properly the bent one) laid the egg whence Aruṇas +and Garuḍas came forth (the two Dioskuroi also came, as is well known, +out of the egg of Léda, united with the swan); Garuḍas was in his turn +father of two immense vultures, Gâtâyus and Sampatis. In this +genealogy the ascending movement of the sun appears to be described to +us, like the myth of the sun Vishṇus, who, from a dwarf, becomes a +giant. The vulture Gâtâyus knows everything that has happened in the +past, and everything that will come to pass in the future, inasmuch +as, like the Vedic sun, he is viçvavedas, all-seeing, omniscient, and +has traversed the whole earth. In the _Râmâyaṇam_ we read of the last +fierce battle of the aged vulture Gâtâyus with the terrible monster +Râvaṇas, who carries off the beautiful Sîtâ during the absence of her +husband Râmas. Gâtâyus, although old in years, rises into the air to +prevent the carrying off of Sîtâ by Râvaṇas in a chariot drawn by +asses; the vulture breaks with his strong claws the bow and arrow of +Râvaṇas, strikes and kills the asses, splits the chariot in two, +throws the charioteer down, forces Râvaṇas to leap to the ground, and +wounds him in a thousand ways; but at last the king of the monsters +succeeds with his sword in cutting off the wings, feet, and sides of +the faithful bird, who expires in pain and grief, whilst the demon +carries the ravished woman into Lañkâ. + +Thus far, therefore, we always find in the bird of prey a friend of the +hero and the god. Such is also, in the _Râmâyaṇam_,[312] the immense +vulture that comes to place itself, and to vomit blood upon the standard +of the monster Kharas, to predict his misfortunes to him; and such is +the elder brother of Gâtâyus, the vulture Sampatis, who, coming out of a +cavern, informs the great monkey Hanumant where Sîtâ may be found. +Sampatis, after having seen Hanumant, recovers his own wings, which had +been burnt by the sun's rays, once when he had wished to defend his +younger brother from them whilst they were flying together too high up +in the regions of the sun[313] (a variety of the Hellenic legend of +Dedalus and Icarus, of that of Hanumant who wished to fly after the sun +in order to catch it, and of that of the two Açvinâu). + +When, in the very popular Hindoo legend of the Buddhist king who +sacrifices himself instead of the dove that had looked for hospitality +from him, the hawk appears as the persecutor of the dove, this +apparent persecution is only a trial that Indras, the hawk, and Agnis, +the dove, wish to make of the king's virtue. No sooner does the hawk +see that the king offers himself up to be devoured by the hawk, who +complains that the king has taken his prey, the dove, from him, than +both hawk and dove reassume their divine form, and cover the holy king +with benedictions.[314] Indras and Agnis, united together, are also +themselves a form of the two Açvinâu, like the two faithful doves that +sacrifice themselves in the third book of _Pańćatantram_. + +The wise çaena of the _Avesta_ has a character nearly resembling the +Vedic bird çyenas. According to the _Bundehesh_, two çaenas stay at the +gates of hell, which correspond to the two crepuscular hawks or vultures +of the Vedâs. The bird with wings that strike, into which the hero +Thraetaona is transformed in the _Khorda Avesta_, whilst it reminds us +of the Hindoo warrior vulture, can serve as a link to join together the +Zendic çaena and the Persian Simurg. The bird Simurg has its marvellous +nest upon Mount Alburs, upon a peak that touches the sky, and which no +man has ever yet seen. The child Sal is exposed upon this mountain; he +is hungry and cold, and cries out; the bird Simurg passes by, hears his +cry, takes pity upon him, and carries the child to its solitary peak. A +mysterious voice blesses the glorious bird, who nourishes the boy, +instructs, protects, and strengthens him, and, when he lets him go, +gives him one of his own feathers, saying that when he is in danger he +must throw this feather into the fire, and he will come at once to +assist him,[315] and take him back into the kingdom. He only asks him +never to forget his faithful and loving preserver. He then carries the +young hero to his father's palace. The king praises the divine bird in +the following words:--"O king of birds! Heaven has given thee strength +and wisdom; thou art the assister of the needy, propitious to the good +and the consoler of the afflicted; may evil be dispersed before thee, +and may thy greatness last for ever." In the fifth adventure of +Isfendiar, in _Firdusi_, the gigantic bird Simurg appears, on the +contrary, as demoniacal as he that dims the sunbeams with his wings (in +the _Birds_ of Aristophanes, when a great number of birds appear, the +spectators cry out, "O Apollo, the clouds!") Isfendiar fights with him, +and cuts him to pieces. + +In Scandinavian and German mythology, while the hawk is generally a +luminous shape, preferred by the heroes, and by Freya, the eagle is a +gloomy form preferred by demons, or at least by the hero or god (like +Odin)[316] hidden in the gloomy night or in the windy cloud. The +_Edda_ tells us that the winds are produced by the shaking of the +wings of a giant, who sits in the form of an eagle at the extremity of +the sky; the aquila and the wind called aquilo by the Latins, as they +correspond etymologically, seem also to be mythically identical. I +have observed on a previous occasion that in the _Edda_ the witch +rides upon a wolf, using eagles as reins. In the _Nibelungen_, +Krimhilt sees in a dream his beloved hawk strangled by two eagles. + +On the other hand, the swallows sing to Sigurd in the _Edda_, +predicting to him his meeting with the beautiful warrior maiden who, +coming forth from the battles, rides upon an eagle. But this warlike +girl was, however, destined to cause the death of Sigurd. + +In the chapter on the elephant, we saw how the bird Garuḍas +transported into the air an elephant, a tortoise, a bough of a tree, +and hermits. In the Greek variety of the same myth, we have the eagle +instead of Garuḍas. In the _Edda_, three Ases (Odin, Loki, and Hönir) +are cooking an ox under a tree; but from the summit of the tree, an +eagle interrupts the cooking of the meat, because it wishes to have a +share. The Ases consent; the eagle carries off nearly every thing, +upon which Loki, indignant, wounds the eagle with a stake; but whilst +one end of the stake remains attached to the eagle, the other is +fastened to Loki's hand, and the eagle carries him up into the air. +Loki feels his arms break, and implores the eagle to have compassion +upon him; the gigantic bird lets him go, on condition of obtaining, +instead of him, Iduna and her apples.[317] In the twenty-third story +of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the eagle, after having been +benefited by a peasant, eats up his sheep. The name of eagles was +given during the Middle Ages to certain demons which were said to +appear in the form of an eagle, especially on account of their +rapacious expression, and aquiline nose.[318] + +The hawk, on the other hand, I repeat, usually appears as divine, in +opposition to all that is diabolical. In the twenty-second story of +the fifth and the forty-sixth of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, the +hero transforms himself into a hawk, in order to strangle the cock +into which the devil has metamorphosed himself (a Russian proverb, +however, says of the devil that he is more pleasing than the luminous +hawk).[319] When they wished, in popular Russian phraseology, to +express something that it is impossible to overtake, it was said, +"Like the hurricane in the field, and the luminous hawk in the sky." +We know that the Latin _accipiter_ and the Greek _ôküpteros_ mean the +swift-winged. In the seventh story of the first book of _Afanassieff_, +the hawk appears in opposition to the black crow. When the young girl, +disguised as a man, succeeds in deceiving the Tzar three times, she +says to him, "Ah! thou crow, crow; thou hast not known, O crow, how to +catch the hawk in a cage." + +The hawk was one of the distinctive badges of the mediæval cavalier; +even ladies kept them. Krimhilt brings up a wild hawk; Brunhilt, when +she throws herself upon the funeral pyre, that she may not survive +Sigurd, has two dogs and two hawks immolated along with her. On the +sepulchres of mediæval cavaliers and ladies, a hawk was not +unfrequently found, as an emblem of their nobility. According to a law +of the year 818, the sword and hawk belonging to the losing cavalier +were to be respected by his conqueror, and left unappropriated; the +hawk to hunt, and the sword to fight with. In _Du Cange_, we read that +in 1642 Monsieur De Sassay claimed as his feudal right, "ut nimirum +accipitrem suum ponere possit super altare majus ecclesiæ Ebraicensis +(of Evreux), dum sacra in eo peragit ocreatus, calcaribusque +instructus presbyter parochus d'Ezy, pulsantibus tympanis, organorum +loco." According to the law of the Burgundians, he who attempted to +steal another man's hawk was, before all, obliged to conciliate the +hawk itself by giving it to eat (sex uncias carnis acceptor ipse super +testones comedat); or if the hawk refused to eat, the robber had to +pay an indemnity to the proprietor, besides a fine (sex solidos illi +cujus acceptor est, cogatur exsolvere; mulctæ autem nomine solidos +duos). According to information supplied me by my learned friend Count +Geza Kuun, the hawk (turul) was the military ensign of Attila. +According to a tradition preserved in the chronicle of Keza and of +Buda, Emesu, mother of Attila, saw in a dream a hawk which predicted a +happy future to her, after which dream she became pregnant. + +Nor was the hawk less honoured in Hellenic antiquity; according to +Homer, it was the rapid messenger of Apollo; the spy of Apollo, sacred +to Zeus, according to Ælianos; having after death the faculty of +vaticination, according to Porphyrios (who even recommends the heart +of a hawk, a stag, or a mole to any one about to practise divination). +In the _Iliad_, Apollo coming down from Mount Ida, is compared to the +swift hawk, the killer of doves, the swiftest of all birds. Many are +the superstitious beliefs concerning the hawk collected by Ælianos; +such as, for instance, that it does not eat the hearts of animals; +that it weeps over a dead man; that it buries unburied bodies, or at +least puts earth upon their eyes, in which it thinks it sees the sun +again, upon which, as its most beloved star, it always fixes its gaze; +that it loves gold; that it lives for seven hundred years; not to +mention the extraordinary medical virtues which are always attributed +to every sacred animal, and which are particularly considered as +essential to the sacred hawk. Several of the qualities of the sacred +hawk passed also into other falcons of inferior quality, the kite +(milvius),[320] for instance, of which it is said that it was placed +among the stars for having carried to Zeus the entrails of the monster +bull-serpent, and, according to the third book of Ovid's _Fasti_, for +having brought back to Zeus the lost ring (an ancient form of the +mediæval ring of Solomon, _i.e._, the solar disc):-- + + "Jupiter alitibus rapere imperat, attulit illi, + Milvius, et meritis venit in astra suis." + +With regard to the kite, we find an apologue,[321] according to which +the kite, at the point of death, asks its mother to beg grace from the +neighbouring statue of the god, and especially forgiveness, for the +sacrilege which it had frequently committed, discharging its body upon +the image of the god (the sun upon the sky). + +A richer variety of this story is found in another apologue, which +illustrates a Greek proverb ("æton kantaros maieusomai"); but instead +of the hawk, we have the beetle, and instead of the statue, the god +himself, Zeus, with eagle's eggs in his lap. The beetle (the +hostess-moon), wishing to punish the eagle, which had violated the +laws of hospitality with regard to the hare (also the moon), attempts +to destroy its eggs; the eagle goes and places them in the lap of +Zeus; the beetle, who knows that Zeus hates everything that is +unclean, lets some dung fall upon him; Zeus forgets the eggs, shakes +himself, and breaks them. Here the eagle is identified with Zeus, as +in the Vedic hymns the hawk with Indras. In the first of Pindar's +Pythic odes, the poet speaks of the eagle as sleeping on the sceptre +of Zeus (as a thunderbolt, which is the real sceptre of Zeus). The +eagle of Zeus is also represented as holding the thunderbolt in its +claws, which is in accordance with the sentence, "Fulmina sub Jove +sunt." When Zeus is equipping himself to fight against the Titans, the +eagle brings his dart to him, for which reason Zeus adopted the eagle +as his ensign of war. In _Dion Cassius_, the eagles let the golden +thunderbolts drop out of their talons into the camp of the Pompeians, +and fly towards the camp of Cæsar to announce his victory. We find +very numerous examples in the ancient classics of eagles that presage +now victory, now supreme power to the heroes, that now nourish, now +save them, and now sacrifice themselves for them.[322] The eagle of +Zeus, the royal eagle, does not feed upon flesh, but upon herbs, +properly upon the moisture of these herbs, by means of which we can +comprehend the rape of Ganymede, the cup-bearer of Zeus, carried off +by the eagle in the same way as the hawk of Indras carries off the +somas in the _Ṛigvedas_. The Hellenic eagle is generally, like Zeus, a +bringer of light, fertility, and happiness. Pliny narrates of an +eagle, that immediately after the wedding of Augustus it let fall, as +an omen of fecundity in the family of Augustus, into the lap of Livia +Drusilla a white hen, having a branch of laurel in its beak; this +branch was planted, and grew into a dense laurel-grove; the hen had so +many descendants, that afterwards the villa where this happened was +called the Villa of the Hens. Suetonius adds that in the last year of +the life of Nero all the hens died, and all the laurel plants were +dried up. We also find the eagle in connection with the laurel in the +myth of Amphiaraos, whose spear, carried off by the eagle and plunged +into the ground, grew into a laurel plant. + +In the first chapter of the first book, when speaking of the myth of +the aurora, we mentioned the young hero who disrobes the beautiful +princess on the bank of the river and carries her apparel away. In the +Hellenic myth we find a zoological variety of this myth. Aphroditê +(here the evening aurora) bathes in the Acheloos (the river of night); +Hermês (the extreme western light, and perhaps even the moon) becomes +enamoured of her, and makes the eagle (the bird of night) carry off +her garments, to obtain which, Aphroditê satisfies the desire of +Hermês. In _Strabo_ we find a variation of the same story which +reminds us of the fairy-tale of Cinderella. Whilst Rhodopê is bathing, +the eagle snatches one of her slippers out of her maid's hands and +carries it off to the king of Memphis, who, seeing the slipper, falls +in love with the foot that wore it, gives orders to search everywhere +for the girl to whom the slipper belongs, and, when Rhodopê is found, +marries her. Ælianos says that this king was Psammetichos. But the +Hellenic eagle is divine as long as the god Zeus, whom it represents, +is propitious; when Zeus becomes the tyrant of heaven, and condemns +Prometheus to be bound upon a rock, the eagle goes to gnaw at his +heart. And because the poet Æschilos glorified Prometheus, making him +curse the tyranny of Zeus, hence, doubtless, arose the legend that +Æschilos was, when old and bald, killed by a tortoise, which the +eagle, mistaking the head of Æschilos for a white rock, had let fall +from the sky in order to break it and feed upon it. The eagle which, +according to Theophrastos, announced death to the cutters of black +hellebore, was also a funereal and demoniacal bird. In the eighth book +of Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, King Nisos, the golden-haired (the sun of +evening), is transformed into a marine eagle (the night or winter), +when his daughter Scylla (the night, or winter), in order to give him +up to his enemies, destroys his strength by cutting his hair (an +evident variation of the solar legend of Delilah and Samson). + +The vulture, too, is a sacred bird in the legends of ancient classical +authors; Herodotos says that it is very dear to Hêraklês (the killer of +the eagle that gnaws at the heart of Prometheus, who had made for the +hero the cup in which he had been enabled to cross the sea); it +announces sovereign dominion to Romulus, Cæsar, and Augustus. Pliny +writes that burnt vulture's feathers make serpents flee; the same +feathers, according to Pliny, have the property of facilitating +parturition, inasmuch as, as St Jerome writes (adversus Jovinianum ii.), +"Si medicorum volumina legeris, videbis tot curationes esse in vulture, +quot sunt membra."[323] Two vultures (a form of the Açvinâu) eat every +day, in hell, the liver that continually grows again (the _immortale +jecur_ of Virgil) of the giant Tityo, the offender of Latona (the moon), +dear to Jupiter. (The monster of night is killed every day and rises +again every night). The two youths Ægipios and Nephrôn are another form +of the Açvinâu, who, hating each other on account of the love which each +has for the other's mother, are changed by Zeus into two vultures, after +that Ægipios, by a stratagem of Nephrôn, united himself with his own +mother. Iphiklos consults the birds to have children, from the vulture +downwards, who alone knew how to assign the reason why Iphiklos had no +children and indicate the means of obtaining them. Philakos had tried to +kill Iphiklos; not having succeeded, he fastened his sword on a wild +pear-tree; around the sword a covering of bark grew, which hid it from +the sight of men. The vulture shows the place where this tree grows, and +advises Iphiklos to take the bark off, to clean the rust off the sword, +and after ten days to drink the rust in a toast; Iphiklos thus obtains +offspring. + +The vulture, therefore, generally preserves in Græco-Latin tradition +the heroic and divine character which it has in Indian tradition, +although its voracity became proverbial in ancient popular +phraseology. Lucian calls a great eater the greatest of all the +vultures. Moreover, the special faculty of distinguishing the smell of +a dead body, even before death, is attributed to him; whence Seneca, +in an epistle against the man who covets the inheritance of a living +person, says "Vultur es, cadaver expecta," and Plautus in the +_Truculentus_ says of certain parasitical servants: "Jam quasi +vulturii triduo prius prædivinabant, quo die esituri sient." + +Besides these royal birds of prey that become mythical, there are +several mythical birds of prey that never existed, still to be +noticed, such as the phœnix, the harpy, the griffon, the strix, the +Seleucide birds, the Stymphalian birds, and the sirens. Popular +imagination believed in their terrestrial existence for a long time, +but it can be said of them all as of the Arabian Phœnix:-- + + "All affirm that it exists; + Where it is no one can tell."[324] + +In point of fact, no man has ever seen them; a few deities or heroes +alone approached them; their seat is in the sky, where, according to +their several natures and the different places occupied by the sun or +the moon in the sky, they attract, ravish, seduce, enchant, or destroy. + +The phœnix is, beyond all doubt, the eastern and western sun; hence +Petrarch was able to say with reason, + + "Nè 'n ciel nè 'n terra è più d'una Fenice," + +as there is not more than one sun; and we, like the ancient Greeks, +say of a rare man or object, that he or it is a phœnix. Tacitus, who +narrates, in the fourteenth book, the fable of the phœnix, calls it +_animal sacrum soli_; Lactantius says that it alone knows the secrets +of the sun-- + + "Et sola arcanis conscia Phœbe tuis," + +and represents it as rendering funereal honours to its father in the +temple of the sun; Claudian calls it _solis avem_ and describes its +whole life in a beautiful little poem. + +It is born in the East, in the wood of the sun, and until it has +assumed its whole splendid shape it feeds upon dew and perfumes, +whence Lactantius-- + + "Ambrosios libat cœlesti nectare rores + Stellifero teneri qui cecidere polo. + Hos legit, his mediis alitur in odoribus ales, + Donec maturam proferat effigiem." + +It then feeds upon all that it sees. When it is about to die it thinks +only of its new birth-- + + "Componit bustumque sibi, partumque futurum" (_Claudian_); + +inasmuch as it is said to deposit a little worm, the colour of milk, +in its nest, which becomes a funeral pyre, + + "Fertur vermis lacteus esse color" (_Lactantius_). + +Before dying, it invokes the sun: + + "Hic sedet, et solem blando clangore salutat + Debilior, miscetque preces, et supplice cantu + Præstatura novas vires incendia poscit; + Quem procul abductis vidit cum Phœbus habenis, + Stat subito, dictisque pium solatur alumnum" (_Claudian_). + +The sun extinguishes the conflagration, which consumes the phœnix, +and out of which it has to arise once more. At last the phœnix is +born again with the dawn-- + + "Atque ubi sol pepulit fulgentis lumina portæ, + Et primi emicuit luminis aura levis, + Incipit illa sacri modulamina fundere cantus, + Et mira lucem voce ciere novam" (_Lactantius_). + +In my opinion, no more proofs are required to demonstrate the identity +of the phœnix with the sun of morning and of evening, and, by +extension, with that of autumn and of spring. That which was fabled +concerning it in antiquity, and by reflection, in the Middle Ages, +agrees perfectly with the twofold luminous phenomenon of the sun that +dies and is born again every day and every year out of its ashes, and of +the hero or heroine who traverses the flames of the burning pyre intact. + +The nature of the phœnix is the same as that of the burning bird +(szar-ptitza) of Russian fairy tales, which swallows the dwarf who +goes to steal its eggs (the evening aurora swallows the sun).[325] + +The solar bird of evening is a bird of prey; it draws to itself with +its damp claw; it draws into the darkness of night; it has night +behind it; its appearance is charming and its countenance alluring, +but the rest of its body is as horrid as its nature. + +Virgil and Dante ascribe women's faces to the Harpies-- + + "Ali hanno late e colli e visi umani + Piè con artigli e pennuto il gran ventre." + +Rutilius[326] says that their claws are glutinous-- + + "Quæ pede glutineo, quod tetigere trahunt." + +Others give them vultures' bodies, bears' ears, arms and feet of men, +and the white breasts of women. Servius, speaking of the name they bear +of _canes Jovis_, notes that this epithet was given them because they +are the Furies in person, "Unde etiam epulas apud Virgilium abripiunt, +quod Furiarum est." Ministers of the vengeance of Zeus, they contaminate +the harvests of the king-seer Phineus, inspired by Apollo, whom some +consider to be a form of Prometheus, the revealer of the secret of Zeus +to mankind, and others, the blinder of his own sons. + +The bird of prey, the evening solar bird, becomes a strix, or witch, +during the night. We have already noticed the popular belief that the +cat, at seven years of age, becomes a witch. An ancient superstition +given by Aldrovandi also recognises witches in cats, and adds that, in +this form, they suck the blood of children. The same is done by the +witches of popular stories,[327] and by the striges. During the night +they suck the blood of children; that is to say, the night takes away +the colour, the red, the blood of the sun. Ovid, in the sixth book of +the _Fasti_, represents the maleficent striges as follows: + + "Nocte volant, puerosque petunt nutricis egentes, + Et vitiant cunis corpora rapta suis. + Carpere dicuntur lactentia viscera rostris, + Et plenum poto sanguine guttur habent." + +Festus derives the word strix _à stringendo_, from the received opinion +that they strangle children. The striges, in the book of the _Fasti_, +previously quoted, attack the child Proca, who is only five days old-- + + "Pectoraque exhorbent avidis infantia linguis." + +The nurse invokes the help of Crane, the friend of Janus, who has the +faculty of hunting good and evil away from the doorsteps of houses. +Crane hunts the witches away with a magical rod, and cures the child +thus-- + + "Protinus arbutea postes ter in ordine tangit + Fronde ter arbutea limina fronde notat. + Spargit aquis aditus, et aquæ medicamen habebant, + Extaque de porca cruda bimestre tenet." + +The usual conjurings are added, and the incident ends thus-- + + "Post illud, nec aves cunas violasse feruntur, + Et rediit puero qui fuit ante color." + +Quintus Serenus, when the _strix atra_ presses the child, recommends +as an amulet, garlic, of which we have seen that the strong odour puts +the monstrous lion to flight. + +The same maleficent and demoniacal nature is shared in by the bats and +the vampires, which I recognise in the "two winged ones entreated not +to suck" of a Vedic hymn.[328] + +Of analogous nature were the Stymphalian birds, which obscure the +sun's rays with their wings, use their feathers as darts, devour men +and lions, and are formidable on account of their claws-- + + "Unguibus Arcadiæ volucres Stymphala colentes" (_Lucretius_); + +which Hêraklês, and afterwards the Argonauts, by the advice of the +wise Phineos, put to flight with the noise of a musical instrument, +and by striking their shields and spears against each other. The bird +of Seleucia which Galenus describes as "of an insatiable appetite, +malignant, astute, a devourer of locusts," also has the same +diabolical nature. If our identification of the locust with the moon +be accepted, to kill the locust, its shadow alone sufficed. But +inasmuch as the locusts are considered destroyers of corn, the birds +of Seleucia, which come to devour them, are held to be beneficent, and +the ministers of Zeus. + +The gryphes are represented as of double nature, now propitious, now +malignant. Solinus calls them, "Alites ferocissimæ et ultra rabiem +sævientes." Ktesias declares that India possesses gold in mountains +inhabited by griffins, quadrupeds, as large as wolves, which have the +legs and claws of a lion, red feathers on their breasts and in their +other parts, eyes of fire and golden nests. For the sake of the gold, +the Arimaspi, one-eyed men, fight with the griffins. As the latter +have long ears, they easily hear the robbers of the gold; and if they +capture them, they invariably kill them. In Hellenic antiquity, the +griffins were sacred to Nemesis, the goddess of vengeance, and were +represented in sepulchres in the act of pressing down a bull's head; +but they were far more celebrated as sacred to the golden sun, Apollo, +whose chariot they drew (the hippogriff, which, in mediæval +chevaleresque poems, carries the hero, is their exact equivalent). +And as Apollo is the prophetical and divining deity, whose oracle, +when consulted, delivers itself in enigmas, the word _griffin_, too, +meant enigma, logogriph being an enigmatical speech, and griffonnage +an entangled, confused, and embarrassing handwriting. + +Finally, the siren, or mermaid, who had a woman's face, and ended now +as a bird, now as a fish; and who, according to Greek grammarians, had +the form of a sparrow in its upper parts and of a woman in the lower, +seems to be a lunar rather than a solar animal. The sirens allure +navigators in particular, and fly after the ship of the cunning +Odysseus, who stuffs his ears; for which reason they throw themselves +in despair into the sea. The sirens are fairies like Circe; hence +Horace[329] names them together-- + + "Sirenum voces et Circes pocula nosti." + +Pliny, who believed that they existed in India, attributed to them the +faculty of lulling men to sleep by their songs, in order to tear them +to pieces afterwards; they calmed the winds of the sea by their +voices, they knew and could reveal every secret (like the fairy or +Madonna moon). Some say that the sirens were born of the blood of +Acheloos, defeated by Hêraklês; others, of Acheloos and one of the +Muses; others, again, narrate that they were once girls, and that +Aphroditê transformed them into sirens because they wished to remain +virgins. In the sixteenth Esthonian story, the beautiful maiden of +the waters, daughter of the mother of the waters, falls in love with a +young hero with whom she stays six days of the week; the seventh day, +Thursday, she leaves him, to go and plunge into the water, forbidding +the youth to come and see her: the young man is unable to repress his +curiosity, surprises the maiden when bathing, and discovers that she +is a woman in her upper and a fish in her lower parts-- + + "Desinit in piscem mulier formosa superne;" + +the maiden of the waters is conscious of being looked at, and +disappears sorrowfully from the young man's sight.[330] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[289] Pra çyenaḥ çyenebhya âçupâtvâ--Aćakrayâ yat svadhayâ suparṇo +havyam bharan manave devaǵushṭam; _Ṛigv._ iv. 26, 4.--The somaḥ +çyenâbhṛitaḥ is also mentioned in the _Ṛigv._ i. 80, 2, iv. 27, ix. +77, and other passages. + +[290] Çatam mâ pura âyasîr arakshann adha çyeno ǵavasâ nir adîyam; +_Ṛigv._ iv. 27, 1. + +[291] Yam te çyenaç ćârum avṛikaṁ padâbharad aruṇam mânam andhasaḥ--enâ +vayo vi târy âyur ǵivasa enâ ǵagâra bandhutâ; _Ṛigv._ x. 144, 5. + +[292] In the _Mahâbhâratam_ (i. 2383), the ambrosia takes the shape of +sperm. A king, far from his wife Girikâ, thinks of her; the sperm +comes from him and falls upon a leaf. A hawk carries the leaf away; +another hawk sees it and disputes with it for the possession of the +leaf; they fight with one another and the leaf falls into the waters +of the Yamunâ, where the nymph Adrikâ (equivalent to Girikâ), changed +by a curse into a fish, sees the leaf, feeds upon the sperm, becomes +fruitful, and is delivered; cfr. the chapter on the Fishes. + +[293] Çyeno 'yopâshṭir hanti dasyûn; _Ṛigv._ x. 99, 8.--In the Russian +stories the hawk and the dog are sometimes the most powerful helpers +of the hero. + +[294] Ghṛishuḥ çyenâya kṛitvana âsuḥ; _Ṛigv._ x. 144, 3.--Yam suparṇaḥ +parâvataḥ çyenasya putra âbharat çataćakram; _Ṛigv._ x. 144, 1. + +[295] Sa pûrvyaḥ pavate yaṁ divas pari çyeno mathâyad ishitas tiro +raǵaḥ sa madhva â yuvate yeviǵâna it kṛiçânor astur manasâha +bibhyushâ; _Ṛigv._ ix. 77, 2. + +[296] iii. 3, 26. + +[297] Antaḥ patat patatry asya parṇam; _Ṛigv._ iv. 27, 4.--Cfr. for +this mythical episode the texts given by Prof. Kuhn and the relative +discussions, _Die Herabkunft d. F. u. d. S._, pp. 138 _seq._ and 180 +_seq._ + +[298] Çyeno na bhîtaḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 32, 14. + +[299] Anyaṁ divo mâtariçvâ ǵabhârâmathnâd anyam pari çyeno adreḥ; +_Ṛigv._ i. 93, 6. + +[300] Â vâṁ çyenâso açvinâ vahantu--ye apturo divyâso na gṛidhrâh; +_Ṛigv._ i. 118, 4. + +[301] Gṛidhreva vṛikshaṁ nidhimantam aćha; _Ṛigv._ ii. 39, 1. + +[302] _Ṛigv._ i. 88, 4.--In fact, in the hymn i. 165, 2, the Marutas +are explicitly compared to hawks that fly through the air (çyenâṅ iva +dhraǵato antarikshe). + +[303] Drapsaḥ samudram abhi yaǵ ǵigâti paçyan gṛidhrasya ćakshasâ; +_Ṛigv._ x. 123, 8. + +[304] i. 1078, _seq._ + +[305] _Mbh._ i. 1495. + +[306] _Ib._ i. 1496, _seq._ + +[307] _Râmây._ vii. 6. + +[308] _Ib._ vii. 7. + +[309] _Ib._ vi. 26. + +[310] _Mbh._ i. 1337, _seq._ + +[311] iii. 20. + +[312] iii. 29. + +[313] _Râmây._ iv. 58, 59. + +[314] For the numerous Eastern varieties of this legend, cfr. the +Einleitung to the _Pańćatantram_, of Prof. Benfey, p. 388, _seq._--In +the fifth story of the first book of _Afanassieff_ (cfr. the sixth of +the same book), Little John is carried back from the bottom of the +earth into Russia upon the wings of an eagle. When the eagle is hungry +it turns its head, and Johnny gives it food; when the provisions come +to an end, Johnny feeds it with his own flesh.--In the twenty-seventh +story of the second book, the two young people are carried from the +world of darkness into that of light on the wings of the bird +Kolpalitza; when the provisions come to an end, it is the girl that +gives flesh, cut off her thigh, to the bird. But the youth, who has +with him the water of life, heals the amorous maiden; cfr. also +_Afanassieff_, v. 23, and v. 28, where, instead of the eagle, we find +the hawk.--The same sacrifice of himself is made in a Piedmontese +story, recorded by me in first number of the _Rivista Orientale_, by a +young prince, who wishes to cross the sea in order to see the princess +that he loves; the same is done by the young hero of the following +unpublished Tuscan story, which I heard from a certain Martino Nardini +of Prato:--"A three-headed dragon steals during the night the golden +apples in the garden of the king of Portugal; the three sons of the +king watch during the night: the first two fall asleep, but the third +discovers the thief and wounds him. The day after, the three brothers +follow the track caused by the robber's blood: they come to a +beautiful palace, in which there is a cistern, into which the third +brother is lowered down, taking a trumpet with him to sound when he +wishes to be taken up. Following a dark path he comes to a fine +meadow, where there are three splendid palaces, one of bronze, one of +silver, and one of gold; following the trace of blood, he goes to the +palace of bronze; a beautiful maiden opens the gate to him, and +wonders why he has come down to the world underground; the young +couple are pleased with each other, and promise to marry one another; +the maiden has a crown of brilliants, of which she gives him half as a +pledge. The dragon comes back home, and says:-- + + "Ucci, ucci + O che puzzo di Cristianucci, + O ce n' è, o ce n' è stati, + O ce n' è di rimpiattati." + +The maiden, who has concealed the young hero, caresses the dragon and +makes him fall asleep. When he is asleep, she brings the young man out +of his concealment, gives him a sword and tells him to cut the three +heads off at one blow. Helped by a second maiden, the young hero +prepares to accomplish a second undertaking in the silver palace of the +five-headed dragon. He must cut the five heads off at a blow, for if one +remains, it is as if he had cut none off. After having killed the +dragon, he promises to marry the second maiden too. Finally, he knocks +at the gate of the golden palace, which is opened by a third maiden; she +too asks, "What ever induced you to come to lose your life in the lower +world? The seven-headed dragon lives here." He promises to marry her; +the dragon does not wish to go to rest this night; but the maiden +persuades him to do so, upon which the youth cuts off the seven heads in +two strokes. The three girls, who were three princesses carried off by +the dragons, are released, and take all the riches that they can find in +order to carry them into the upper world. They come to the cistern, the +hero sounds the trumpet, and the two brothers draw up all the riches, +the three maidens, shutting up the entrance with a stone, and leaving +their young brother alone in the subterranean world. The two elder +brothers force the three princesses to declare that they had delivered +them; they then go to the King of Portugal and boast of this feat, +saying, that the third brother is lost. The three princesses are sad, at +which the King of Portugal wonders. The elder brothers wish to marry the +maiden who was in the bronze palace; but she declares that she will only +marry him who brings to her the other half of the crown of brilliants. +They send to all the goldsmiths and jewellers to find one who can make +it. Meanwhile, the third brother, abandoned underground, cries out for +aid; an eagle approaches the tomb, and promises to carry him into the +world above, if he will allay its hunger. The young hero, by the eagle's +advice, puts lizards and serpents into a sack, and calls the eagle after +having made a plentiful provision of food. He fastens the sack round his +neck in order to give an animal to the eagle each time that it asks for +food. When they are a few arms' length distant from the upper world, the +sack is empty; the youth cuts his flesh off with a knife and gives it to +the eagle, which carries him into the world, when the young man asks him +how he can return home. The bird directs him to follow the high road. A +charcoal-seller passes by; the young man proposes himself as his +assistant, on condition that he give him some food. The charcoal-seller +takes him with himself for some time, and then recommends him to an old +man, his friend, who is a silversmith. Meanwhile, the king's servants +have been six months wandering towards the sunset, searching for a +silversmith capable of making the other half of the crown, but in vain; +they then wander for six months towards the sunrise till they come to +the dwelling of the poor silversmith where the third brother serves as +an assistant. The old man says he is not able to make the half crown; +but the young man asks to see the other half, recognises it, and +promises to give it back entire in eight days. At the expiration of this +time, the king sends for the crown and the manufacturer, but the youth +sends his master instead of himself. The princess, however, insists upon +seeing the young assistant too; he is sent for and brought to the +palace; the king does not recognise him, and asks what reward he wants; +he answers that he wishes for what the crown cost to the princess. The +latter recognises him, after which his father does so too. The young +hero weds the princess to whom he had promised himself; and the two +brothers are covered with inflammable gums, and used as lamps to light +up the wedding. + +[315] In a hitherto unpublished story of the Monferrato, communicated to +me by Signor Ferraro, a king with three sons is blind; he would be cured +if he could bathe his eyes in oil with a feather of the griffon-bird, +which lives upon a high mountain. The third brother succeeds in catching +one, having been kind to an old woman; he brings the griffon-bird to his +father, who recovers his sight and his youth.--Cfr. the third story of +the fourth book of the _Pentamerone_, in which a hawk that is a princess +transformed, also gives to the brother of his wife one of his feathers, +which he is to throw to the ground in case of necessity; indeed, when +young Tittone requires it, a battalion of hawks appear in order to free +the imprisoned maiden loved by Tittone.--In the fifth story of the fifth +book of the _Pentamerone_, the hawk serves as a guide to a young king to +find a beautiful princess whom a witch has put to sleep, and who is +believed to be dead. This princess becomes the mother of two sons, who +are called Sun and Moon.--In the sixth Sicilian story of Signora +Gonzenbach, a young man releases an eagle that was entangled in the +branches of a tree; the grateful eagle gives him one of its feathers; +letting it fall to the ground, the youth can become an eagle at +pleasure. + +[316] In the ninth Esthonian story it is the eagle that takes the +message to the thunder-god to enable him to recover his weapon, which +the devil had carried off.--In the first Esthonian story, the eagle +also appears as the propitious messenger of the young prince. + +[317] In the story of Santo Stefano, _La Principessa che non ride_, +the eaglets have the same faculty of drawing after themselves +everything that they touch; and, as forms of the winds (or the +clouds), in which character they sometimes appear, we can understand +this property of theirs; the wind, too, draws after itself everything +that comes in its way, and especially the violent north wind +(aquilo).--In Russian stories we have, instead, now the funereal +storks, now the marvellous goose taking the place of the eagle that +drags things behind it. + +[318] In the tenth Sicilian story of Signora Gonzenbach, it is in the +shape of a silver eagle that the king of the assassins penetrates into +the room where the young wife of the king sleeps, upon whom he wishes +to avenge himself.--Stephanus Stephanius, the interpreter of _Saxo +Grammaticus_, writes, that among the English, the Danes, and other +Northern nations, it was the custom when an enemy was defeated, to +thrust a sword, as a greater mark of ignominy, into his back, in such +a manner as to separate the backbone on both sides by a longitudinal +wound; thence stripes of flesh having been cut off, they were fastened +to the sides, so as to represent eagle's wings. (In Russian popular +stories, when heroes and monsters fight, we find frequent reference to +a similar custom.) + +[319] Panravílas sataná lućshe yasnavo sakalá, _Afanassieff_, vi. +16.--The proverb, however, may have another sense, viz., better the +devil in person than a beautiful but diabolical shape. The devil +sometimes assumed the form of a hawk, as we learn from the legend of +Endo, an English man-at-arms, who became enamoured of one into which +the devil had transformed himself, in Guillelmus Neubrigensis, _Hist. +Angl._ i. 19. + +[320] In Plato's _Phædon_, rapacious men are transformed into wolves +and kites. + +[321] Cfr. Aldrovandi, _Ornith._ v.--And, moreover, in the same +Aldrovandi:--"Narrant qui res Africanas literis mandarunt Aquilam +marem aliquando cum Lupa coire ... producique ac edi Draconem, qui +rostro et alis avis speciem referat, cauda serpentem, pede Lupum, cute +esse versicolorem, nec supercilia posse attollere." + +[322] I recommend, to whoever wishes to find all these circumstances +united, the perusal of the first volume of the _Ornithologia_ of +Aldrovandi, who dedicated in it to birds of prey a long and detailed +study.--Cfr. also Bachofen. _Die Sage von Tanaquil_, Heidelberg, 1870. + +[323] Comparative popular medicine might be the subject of a special +work which could not fail to be instructive and interesting. + +[324] + + "Come l'Araba Fenice; + Che ci sia, ciascun lo dice; + Dove sia, nessun lo sa." + +[325] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 27. + +[326] _Itin._ i. + +[327] In the first chapter of the first book we saw how the witch +sucked the breasts of the beautiful maiden.--In _Du Cange_, s. v. +_Amma_, we read as follows: "Isidorus, lib. xii. cap. vii. bubo strix +nocturna: 'Hæc avis, inquit ille, vulgo Amma dicitur ab amando +parvulos, unde et lac præbere dicitur nascentibus.' Anilem hanc +fabulam non habet Papias MS. Ecclesiæ Bituricensis. Sic enim ille: +Amma avis nocturna ab amando dicta, hæc et strix dicitur a stridore." + +[328] Mâ mâm ime patatriṇî vi dugdhâm; _Ṛigv._ i. 158, 4.--In Sicily, +the bat called _taddarita_ is considered as a form of the demon; to +take and kill it, one sings to it-- + + "Taddarita, 'ncanna, 'ncanna, + Lu dimonio ti 'ncanna + E ti 'ncanna pri li peni + Taddarita, veni, veni." + +When it is caught, it is conjured, because, when it shrieks, it +blasphemes. Hence it is killed at the flame of a candle or at the +fire, or else is crucified. + +[329] According to a Sicilian story, as yet unpublished, communicated +to me by Dr Ferraro, a siren once carried off a girl, and bore her out +to sea with her; and, though she occasionally allowed her to come to +the shore, she secured her against running away by means of a chain +which was fastened to her own tail. The brother released his sister by +throwing bread and meat to the siren to satiate her hunger, employing +seven blacksmiths the while to cut the chain. + +[330] Cfr. the _Pentamerone_, iv. 7; and the legend of Lohengrin, in +the chapter on the Swan. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE WREN, THE BEETLE, AND THE FIREFLY. + + +SUMMARY. + + _Rex and regulus_.--Iyattikâ çakuntikâ.--The wren's + testament.--Vasiliskos; kunigli.--The wren and the eagle.--The wren + and the beetle.--The death of Cæsar predicted by a wren.--_Equus + lunæ._--Indragopas.--The red-mantled beetle.--The little cow of God + in Russia.--The chicken of St Michael in Piedmont.--The + cow-lady.--The Lucía and St Lucia.--The little pig of St Anthony; + the butterfly as a phallical symbol.--The cockchafer.--St + Nicholas.--Other popular names of the coccinella + septempunctata.--The ladycow tells children how many years they have + to live.--The firefly and the refulgent glowworm.--The firefly + flogged; it gives light to the wheat; the shepherd's candle. + +From the largest of birds we now pass to the smallest, from the _rex_ +to the _regulus_ (in Italian, _capo d'oro_, golden head), and to the +red, golden, and green beetles (yellow and green are confounded with +one another, as we showed on a previous occasion, in the equivocal +words, _haris_ and _harit_), which are equivalent to it, and which are +substituted for it in mythology. I recognise the wren in the very +little bird (iyattikâ çakuntikâ) of the _Ṛigvedas_, which devours the +poison of the sun.[331] In a popular German song, the wren bewails the +evils of winter, which, for the rest, it represents (in its character +of the moon, it absorbs the solar vapours). A popular song of Scotch +children celebrates the wren's testament-- + + "The wren, she lies in care's nest, + Wi' meikle dole and pyne." + +The wren (Greek, _basiliskos_; old German, _kunigli_), like the +beetle, appears as the rival of the eagle. It flies higher than the +latter. In a story of the Monferrato,[332] the wren and the eagle +challenge each other to a trial of their powers of flight. All the +birds are present. While the proud eagle rises in the air, despising +the wren, and flies so high that it is soon wearied, the wren has +placed itself under one of the eagle's wings, and when it sees the +latter exhausted, comes out, and, singing victory, rises higher still. +Pliny says that the eagle is the enemy of the wren: "Quoniam rex +appellatur avium." Aristotle, too, relates that the eagle and the wren +fight against each other. The fable of the challenge between the eagle +and the wren was already known in antiquity; the challenge was said to +have been given when the birds wished to procure for themselves a +king. The eagle, which had flown higher than all the other birds, was +about to be proclaimed king, when the wren, hidden under one of the +eagle's wings, flew upon the latter's head, and proclaimed itself +victorious. The wren and the beetle seem generally to represent the +moon, known to be the protectress of weddings; for this reason, +according to Aratos, weddings were not to take place whilst the wren +was hidden in the earth. We know how the full moon (a phallical +symbol) was considered the most propitious season for weddings). +According to Suetonius, the death of Cæsar was predicted to happen on +the Ides of March by a wren, which was torn in pieces by several other +birds in the Pompeian temple, as it was carrying a laurel branch away +(as the eagle does; out of the wintry darkness, ruled over by the moon +in particular, spring comes forth; the dark eagle represents sometimes +the darkness, as the wren the moon, which wanders in the darkness). + +We saw the beetle that flies upon the eagle in the preceding chapter. +Pliny says of the Persian Magi that they charmed away hail, locusts, +and every similar evil from the country, when "aquilæ scalperentur aut +scarabei," with an emerald. According to Telesius, the Calabrians, in +the Cosentino, call the gold-green beetle by the name of the horse of +the moon (equus lunæ). This is the sacred beetle, which is so often +represented in ancient cameos and obelisks, and in the Isiac peplums +of the mummies. But there is another beetle which is yet more familiar +to Indo-European tradition--viz., the little and nearly round one, +with a red mantle and black spots (ladybird or cow-lady). It was +already known in India, where the name of _indragopas_ (protected by +Indras) is given to a red beetle. In a Hindoo verse we read that the +mantled red beetle falls down because it has flown too high[333] (in +this myth the rising and setting both of the moon and of the sun are +represented; cfr. the legends of Icaros, Hanumant, and Sampatis). In +Germany the red beetle is advised to flee because its house is on +fire.[334] In Russia the same red beetle with black spots is called +the little cow of God (we have already seen the cow-moon), and +children say to it-- + + "Little cow of God, + Fly to the sky, + God will give you bread."[335] + +In Piedmont the same beetle is called the chicken of St Michael, and +children say to it-- + + "Chicken of St Michael, + Put on your wings and fly to heaven."[336] + +In Tuscany it is called lucía,[337] and children cry out to it-- + + "Lucía, lucía + Metti l'ali e vola via." + +(Put out your wings and fly away.) The red beetle with black spots is +also called St Nicholas (Santu Nicola), or even little dove +(palumedda). When one of their teeth falls, children expect a gift +from the beetle; they hide the tooth in a hole, and then invoke the +little animal;[338] returning to the place, they usually find a coin +there, deposited by their father or mother. The red beetle, the +ladycow of the English (coccinella septempunctata), has several names +in Germany, which have been collected by Mannhardt in his German +Mythology; among others, we find those of little bird of God, little +horse of God, little cock of Mary, little cock of gold, little animal +of heaven, little bird of the sun, little cock of the sun, little calf +of the sun, little sun, little cow of women (it is therefore also +invoked for milk and butter), and little cock of women. German +maidens, in fact, in Upland, send it to their lovers as a messenger of +love, with the following verses:-- + + "Jungfrau Marias, + Schlüsselmagd, + Flieg nach Osten, + Flieg nach Westen, + Flieg dahin wo mein Liebster wohnt."[339] + +The ladycow shows the Swedish maidens their bridal gloves; Swiss +children interrogate it (in the same way as the cuckoo is +interrogated) to know how many years they will live.[340] + +The worship which is given to the red beetle is analogous to that +reserved for the firefly (cicindela); the firefly, however, like the +German Feuerkäfer, which German children, in spring, strike in a hole +and carry home[341] the luminous glowworm that hides in hedges, like +the wren, called also in Italian _forasiepe_, pierce-hedge, round +which glowworm the stupid monkeys of the _Pańćatantram_ sit in winter +to warm themselves), is not treated so well. In Tuscany the poor +firefly, which appears in late spring (in Germany it appears somewhat +later, whence its name of Johanniswürmchen), is menaced with a +flogging, and children sing to it after catching it:-- + + "Lucciola, lucciola, vien da me, + Ti darò un pan del re,[342] + Con dell' ova affritellate, + Carne secca e bastonate." + +(Firefly, firefly, come to me; I will give you a king's loaf of bread, +with fried eggs, bacon, and a flogging.) It is said in Tuscany that +the firefly gives light to the wheat when the corn begins to grow in +the ear; when it has grown, the firefly disappears.[343] Children are +accustomed to catch the firefly and put it under a glass, hoping in +the morning they will find a coin instead of the firefly. In Sicily, +the firefly is called the little candle of the shepherd (_cannilicchia +di picuraru_; the shepherd, or celestial pastor, the sun; the moon +gives light to the sun and shows him the way to traverse from autumn +to spring, from evening to day), and is sought for and carried home to +secure good luck. And inasmuch as the firefly shines by night, it is +more probable that it represented the moon than the sun in popular +mythical beliefs. The firefly disappears as soon as the ears are ripe, +_i.e._, with the summer; we have already seen that the winter, or cold +season of the year (like the night or cold season of the day) is under +the especial influence of the moon. The red beetle must flee when +summer comes, in order not to be burnt; the firefly, the glowworm, or +worm of fire, is flogged, and the summer sun triumphs. + +I suppose that the same mythical nature belongs to the butterfly +(perhaps the black little butterfly with red spots), which is called in +Sicily the little bird of good news (occidduzzu bona nova), or little +pig of St Anthony (purcidduzzu di S. Antoni), and which is believed to +bring good luck when it enters a house. It is entreated to come into the +house, which is then immediately shut, so that the good luck may not go +out. When the insect is in the house, they sing to it:-- + + "In your mouth, milk and honey; + In my house, health and wealth."[344] + +The butterfly was in antiquity both a phallical symbol (and therefore +Eros held it in his hand) and a funereal one, with promises of +resurrection and transformation; the souls of the departed were +represented in the forms of butterflies carried towards Elysium by a +dolphin. The butterfly was also often represented upon the seven +strings of the lyre, and upon a burning torch. It dies to be born +again. The phases of the moon seem to correspond in the sky to the +zoological transformations of the butterfly. + +Other beetles--the green beetle and the cockchafer--have also +extraordinary virtues in fairy tales. In the fifth story of the third +book of the _Pentamerone_, the cockchafer (scarafone; in Toscana, it +is called also indovirello) can play on the guitar, saves the hero, +Nardiello, and makes the princess laugh that had never laughed before. +In the fifty-eighth story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, the +green beetle cleans the hero who had fallen into the marsh, and makes +the princess laugh who had never laughed before (the beetle, which +appears in spring, like the phallical cuckoo, releases the sun from +the marsh of winter). + +FOOTNOTES: + +[331] Ǵaghâsa te visham; _Ṛigv._ i. 191, 11. + +[332] Communicated to me by Dr Ferraro.--A similar story is still told +in Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Ireland, with the variation of the +stork as the eagle's rival in flying: when the stork falls down tired +out, the wren, which was hidden under one of its wings, comes forth to +measure itself with the eagle, and not being tired, is victorious.--In +a popular story of Hesse, the wren puts all the animals, guided by the +bear, to flight by means of a stratagem. + +[333] Atyunnatiṁ prâpya naraḥ prâvâraḥ kîtako yatha sa +vinaçyatyasaṁdeham; Böhtlingk, _Indische Sprüche_, 2te Aufl. Spr. 181. + +[334] The same superstition exists in some parts of England, where the +children address it thus:-- + + "Cow-lady, cow-lady, fly away home; + Your house is all burnt, and your children are gone." + +The English names for this beetle are ladybird, ladycow, ladybug, and +ladyfly (cfr. Webster's English Dictionary). The country-people also +call it golden knop or knob (Cfr. Trench _On the Study of Words_). + +[335] + + "Boszia Karóvka + Paletí na niebo. + Bog dat tibié hleba." + +[336] + + "La galiña d' San Michel + Büta j ale e vola al ciel." + +[337] Sacred, no doubt, to St Lucia. In the Tyrol, according to the +_Festliche Jahr_ of Baron Reinsberg, St Lucia gives presents to girls, +and St Nicholas to boys. The feast of St Lucia is celebrated on the +15th of September; that evening no one need stay up late, for whoever +works that night finds all the work undone in the morning. The night +of St Lucia is greatly feared (the saint loses her sight; the summer, +the warm sunny season, comes to an end; the Madonna moon disappears, +and then becomes queen of the sky, the guardian of light, as St +Lucia), and conjurings are made against nightmare, devils, and +witches. A cross is put into the bed that no witch may enter into it. +That night, those who are under the influence of fate see, after +eleven o'clock, upon the roofs of houses a light moving slowly and +assuming different aspects; prognostications of good or evil are taken +from this light, which is called _Luzieschein_. + +[338] + + "Santu Nicola, Santu Nicola + Facitimi asciari ossa e chiova." + (St Nicholas, St Nicholas, + Make me find bone and coin.) + +[339] Cfr. Menzel, _Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre_. + +[340] Cfr. Rochholtz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_. + +[341] Kuhn und Schwartz, _N. d. S. M. u. G._, p. 377. + +[342] In another Tuscan variety, the song begins-- + + "Lucciola, Lucciola, bassa, bassa, + Ti darò una materassa," &c. + +(Firefly, firefly, down so low, I will give you a mattrass.) + +[343] Pliny, too, wrote in the eighteenth book of his _Natural +History_: "Lucentes vespere cicindelas signum esse maturitatis panici +et milii." G. Telesius of the Cosentino wrote an elegant Latin poem +upon the firefly or cicindela, in the seventeenth century. + +[344] + + "'Ntr' à to vucca latti e meli, + 'Ntr' à mè casa saluti e beni." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE BEE, THE WASP, THE FLY, THE GNAT, THE MOSQUITO, THE HORSEFLY, AND +THE CICADA. + + +SUMMARY. + + The bees and the Açvinâu.--Madhumakshas.--Indras, Kṛishṇas, and + Vishṇus as Mâdhavas.--The bees and Madhuhan.--Beowulf.--The god of + thunder and the bees.--Vishṇus as a bee.--The _ocymum nigrum_.--The + bees as nurses.--Melissai.--Selênê as Melissa.--Souls as bees.--The + bees born in the bull's dead body.--The bee according to Finnish + mythology.--The bees descended from paradise as part of the mind of + God.--Bee's-wax causes light.--The Bienenstock.--The madhumati + kaçâ.--The bees as winds.--Apis and avis.--The mother of the + bees.--The young hero as a bee.--The fairy moon as a gnat.--The + fly's palace.--The flies bartered for good cattle.--Intelligence of + the bee.--The wasp as a judge.--The fly, the gnat, and the + mosquito.--The louse and the flea.--The ant and the fly.--The ant + and the cicada.--The cicadæ and the muses.--Tithon as a cicada.--The + sparrow and the cicada.--The cicada and the cuckoo. + +I find the bee in the Vedic mythology, where the Açvinâu "carry to the +bees the sweet honey,"[345] where the horses of the Açvinâu, compared to +"ambrosial swans, innocent, with golden wings, which waken with the +dawn, swim in the water, and enjoy themselves, cheerful," are invoked to +come, "like the fly of honey," _i.e._, the bee, "to the juices."[346] +The gods Indras, Kṛishṇas, and Vishṇus, on account of their name +Mâdhavas (that is, born of madhus, belonging to or in connection with +it), were also compared in India to bees; the bee, as making and +carrying honey (madhukaras), is especially the moon; as sucking it, it +is especially the sun. The name of bhramaras or wanderer given in India +to the bee, is as applicable to the sun as to the moon. In the +_Mahâbhâratam_[347] it is said that the bees kill the destroyer of honey +(madhuhan). In the chapter on the bear, we saw how the bear was killed +by the bees (cfr. the name Beowulf, explained as the wolf of bees), and +how in India it personified Vishṇus. Now it is not uninteresting to +learn how Madhuhan, originally the destroyer of the madhu, became a name +of Kṛishṇas or Vishṇus in the _Mahâbhâratam_ and in the _Bhâgavata P._; +of madhu (honey) was made a demon, killed by the god (sun and moon, sun +and cloud, are rivals; the solar bear destroys the beehive of the moon +and the clouds).[348] Vishṇus (as Haris, the sun and the moon) is +sometimes represented as a bee upon a lotus-leaf, and Kṛishṇas with an +azure bee on his forehead. When the Hindoos take honey out of a hive +with a rod, they always hold in one hand the plant toolsy (ocymum +nigrum), sacred to Kṛishṇas (properly the black one), because one of the +girls beloved of Kṛishṇas was transformed into it.[349] + +In the legend of Ibrâhîm Ibn Edhem, in the _Tuti-Name_[350] we read of +a bee that carries crumbs of bread away from the king's table to take +them to a blind sparrow. Melíai and Mélissai, or bees, were the names +of the nymphs who nursed Zeus; the priestesses of the nurse-goddess +Dêmêtêr were also called Mélissai. + +According to Porphyrios[351] the moon (Selênê) was also called a bee +(Melissa). Selênê was represented drawn by two white horses or two +cows; the horn of these cows seems to correspond to the sting of the +bee. The souls of the dead were supposed to come down from the moon +upon the earth in the forms of bees. Porphyrios adds that, as the moon +is the culminating point of the constellation of the bull (as a bull +herself), it is believed that bees are born in the bull's carcase. +Hence the name of _bougeneis_ given by the ancients to bees. Dionysos +(the moon), after having been torn to pieces in the form of a bull, +was born again, according to those who were initiated in the Dionysian +mysteries, in the form of a bee; hence the name of Bougenês also given +to Dionysos, according to Plutarch. Three hundred golden bees were +represented, in conjunction with a bull's head, in the tomb of +Childeric, the king of the Franks. Sometimes, instead of the lunar +bull we find the solar lion; and the lion in connection with bees +occurred in the mysteries of Mithras (and in the legend of Samson). + +According to the Finnish mythology of Tomasson, quoted by Menzel,[352] +the bee is implored to fly far away over the moon, over the sun, near +to the axis of the constellation of the waggon, into the dwelling of +the Creator god, and carry upon its wings and in its mouth health and +honey to the good, and wounds of fire and iron to the wicked. + +According to a popular belief (which is in accordance with the legend +of the Ćerkessians), the bees alone of all animals descended from +paradise.[353] Virgil, too, in the fourth book of the _Georgics_, +celebrates the divine nature of the bee, which is a part of the mind +of God, never dies, and alone among animals ascends alive into heaven +(in popular Hellenic, Latin, and German tradition, the bee personifies +the soul, and this being considered immortal, the bee, too, is +supposed to escape death):-- + + "Esse apibus partem divinæ mentis et haustus + Æthereos dixere: Deumque namque ire per omnes + Terrasque, tractusque maris cœlumque profundum. + Hinc pecudes, armenta, viros, genus omne ferarum, + Quemque sibi tenues nascentem arcessere vitas; + Scilicet huc reddi deinde ac resoluta referri + Omnia; nec morti esse locum; sed viva volare + Sideris in numerum atque alto succedere cœlo." + +The wax of bees, because it produces light, and is, moreover, used in +churches,[354] must also have had its part in increasing the divine +prestige of bees, and the belief in their immortality, as being those +that feed the fire. According to a writing of 1482, cited by Du Cange, +the sacred disease or _ignis sacer_ (pestilential erysipelas) was +cured by wax dissolved in water. + +In Germany the death of their master is announced to the bees in the +little stick round which the honey is made in the hive. The hive or the +Bienenstock, participates in the divine nature of the bees, and calls my +attention to the madhumatî kaçâ or madhoh kaçâ of the _Ṛigvedas_, and of +the _Atharvavedas_, attributed to the Açvinâu, and destined to soften +the sacrificial butter, which is of a nature similar to the _caduceus_ +of Mercury, and to the magical rod, born of all the various elements and +of none in particular, daughter of the wind, and sometimes perhaps +itself the wind; the _anima_, the soul (the bee), is a breath, a breeze, +a wind (anemos, anilas), which changes its place, but never dies; it +collects and scatters honey and perfumes, and passes away, changeful as +the American flybird that sucks honey, the continual beating of whose +wings resembles the buzzing of a bee; the _apis_ and _avis_ are +assimilated. In Du Cange,[355] I find an oration to the mother of the +bees, to call back the dispersed ones of her family, conceived +thus:--"Adjuro te, Mater aviorum per Deum regem cœlorum et per ilium +Redemptorem Filium Dei te adjuro, ut non te altum levare, nec longe +volare, sed quam plus cito potest ad arborem venire; ibi te allocas cum +omni tua genera, vel cum socia tua, ibi habeo bono vaso parato, ut vos +ibi, in Dei nomine, laboretis," &c. + +In the twenty-second story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, a bee +transforms itself into a young hero, in order to prove to the old man +that he is able to fetch back his son, who has remained three years +under the instruction of the devil (the moon enables the old sun to find +the young one; it helps the sun to cheat the devil of night). In the +same story it is in the form of a gnat that the guardian-fairy perches +herself upon the young hero, whom his father has to recognise amongst +twelve heroes that bear the greatest resemblance to one another. In the +forty-eighth story of the fifth book, the gnat distinguishes, among the +twelve maidens that resemble each other extremely, the one whom the +young hero loves, that is, the daughter of the priest, whom the devil +had taken possession of, because her father had once said to her, "The +devil take you." This indicatory gnat occurs in numerous fairy tales, +and discharges the office of the fairy moon; this is the guide and +messenger of the hero. We have already seen the moon as a hostess. In +the thirty-first story of the fourth book of _Afanassieff_, we have the +fly that entertains in its palace (according to the sixteenth story of +the third book, a horse's head) the louse, the flea, the mosquito, the +little mouse, the lizard, the fox, the hare, and the wolf, until the +bear comes up and crushes with one paw the whole palace of the fly, and +all the mythical nocturnal animals that it contains. We have also seen +the hero who barters his bull for a vegetable which brings him fortune, +and we have seen above the bee that is born of the dead bull. In the +seventh story of the third book of _Afanassieff_, the third brother, +supposed to be foolish, collects, on the contrary, flies and mosquitoes +in two sacks, which he suspends upon a lofty oak-tree, where he barters +them for good cattle (the moon is the pea of good fortune, the giver of +abundance). We know that the moon was represented as the judge of the +departed in the kingdom of the dead, and as an omniscient fairy. The +industrious bees have a singular reputation for superior +intelligence.[356] In the thirteenth fable of the third book of +_Phædrus_, proof of the same wisdom is given by the wasp, who sits in +the tribunal as a conscientious judge between the drones and the working +bees in regard to the honey which the bees had collected and stored up +on a lofty oak-tree, and to which the drones had pretensions. + +The fly, the gnat, and the mosquito, though small, annoy, and +sometimes cause the death of, the most terrible animals; the beetle +gets upon the eagle to escape the hare; the hare allures the elephant +and the lion into the water;[357] the moon allures the sun into the +night and the winter; the moon overcomes the sun, devoid of rays; the +sun is deprived of its rays, the hero loses his strength with his +hair; the fly alights upon the bald head of the old man, and annoys +him in every way; the old man, wishing to strike the fly, only slaps +himself. In _Phædrus_, again, we find the fly quarrelling with the +rustic ant; the fly boasts of partaking of the offerings given to the +gods, of dwelling amidst the altars, of flying through every temple, +of sitting upon the heads of kings, of the kisses of beautiful women, +and that without the necessity of submitting to any labour. The ant +answers the fly by referring to the certain approach of winter, during +which the ant, who had worked hard, has abundant provisions, and +lives, whilst the fly dies of cold and starvation. Moreover, the ant +says to it in one expressive verse-- + + "Æstate me lacessis; cum bruma est, siles." + +This same discussion is reported, with more semblance of truth, by +other fabulists, as having happened between the shrill and inert +cicada and the silent and laborious ant. + +In the preceding chapter we saw the musical beetle. We are tempted to +figure the bee as a musician, from the form of the bee being sometimes +attributed to the Hellenic Muses and Apollo, and the name "bee of +Delphi" being given to the Pythoness (as a cloud). But according to +Plato, the Muses transformed into cicadæ the men who amused themselves +by singing, and were so absorbed in that occupation they forgot to eat +and to drink. If this myth be not a satirical invention of Plato's +against poets, the bees as Muses, and those who became cicadæ on +account of the Muses, should enter into the same mythical family. +According to Isidorus, the cicadæ are born of the saliva of the +cuckoo; this belief figuratively expresses the passage from spring to +the summer season, to the season of the harvest, to the season of +abundance, in which, according to a Tuscan proverb among thieves, he +is a fool who cannot make his own fortune.[358] According to +Hesüchios, the ass was called at Cyprus by the name of a mature cicada +(tettix prôinos); the cicada (as the sun) dies, and the ass (as the +night or winter) appears. According to Philê,[359] the cicadæ feed +upon the eastern dew, perhaps in reminiscence of the Hellenic myth +which makes the sun Tithon the lover of the aurora. The sun feeds upon +the ambrosia, and is therefore immortal; but he has not the gift of +eternal youth; his members dry up; after having sung all through the +laborious noisy day, through the laborious noisy summer, he expires; +for this reason the Hellenic myth represented the aged Tithon as +transformed into a cicada.[360] The cicada is born again in spring of +the cuckoo's saliva, and in the morning of the dew of the aurora; the +two accounts correspond with one another. The cicada of summer +appears, and the cuckoo of spring disappears; hence the popular belief +that the cicadæ wage war to the death with the cuckoo, attacking it +under its wings; hence it is supposed that the cuckoo devours its own +nurse; the aurora devours the night, the spring devours the winter. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[345] Madhu priyam bharatho yat saradbhyaḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 112, 21. + +[346] Haṅsâso ye vâm madhumanto asridho hiraṇyaparṇâ uhuva +ushar-budhaḥ udapruto mandino mandinispṛiço madhvo na makshaḥ savanâni +gaćhathah; _Ṛigv._ iv. 45, 4. Here _makshas_, in conjunction with +_madhvas_, gives us the sense of _madhumakshas_ and _madhumakshika_, +which means bee, and not fly, as it was interpreted by other +translators, and by the Petropolitan Dictionary, whose learned editors +will be all the more induced to make this slight correction in the new +_Verbesserungen_, as in this hymn, as well as in the hymn i. 112, the +bees are considered in connection with the Açvinâu. + +[347] iii. 1333. + +[348] The god of thunder (or Indras), in opposition to the bees, is +also found in a legend of the Ćerkessians quoted by Menzel. The god +destroys them; but one of them hides under the shirt of the mother of +God, and of this one all the other bees are born.--According to the +popular superstition of Normandy, in _De Nore_, quoted by Menzel, the +bees (the same is said of the wasps and the horseflies) are revengeful +when maltreated, and carry happiness into a house when treated well. +In Russia it is considered sacrilege to kill a bee. + +[349] Cfr. Addison, _Indian Reminiscences_. + +[350] ii. 112. + +[351] Perì ton en Odüsseia tôn Nümphôn antron. + +[352] Die Bienen gebeten werden: "Biene, du Weltvöglein, flieg in die +Weite, über neun Seen, über den Mond, über die Sonne, hinter des +Himmelssterne, neben der Achse des Wagengestirns; flieg in den Keller +des Schöpfers, in des Allmächtigen Vorrathskammer, bring Arznei mit +deinen Flügeln, Honig in deinem Schnabel, für böse Eisenwunden und +Feuerwunden;" _Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre_. In this +work, to which I refer the reader, Menzel treats at length of the +worship of bees, and of honey. + +[353] In the Engadine in Switzerland, too, it is believed that the +souls of men emigrate from the world and return into it in the forms +of bees. The bees are there considered messengers of death; cfr. +Rochholtz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_, i. 147, 148.--When some one +dies, the bee is invoked as follows, almost as if requesting the soul +of the departed to watch for ever over the living:-- + + "Bienchen, unser Herr ist todt, + Verlass mich nicht in meiner Noth." + +In Germany, people are unwilling to buy the bees of a dead man, it +being believed that they will die or disappear immediately after +him:--"Stirbt der Hausherr, so muss sein Tod nicht bloss dem Vieh im +Stall und den Bienen im Stocke angesagt werden;" Simrock, the work +quoted before, p. 601.--In the East, as is well-known, it was the +custom to bury great men in a tomb sprinkled over with honey or +beeswax as a symbol of immortality. + +[354] Der Adel der Bienen ist vom Paradies entsprossen und wegen der +Sünde des Menschen kamen sie von da heraus und Gott schenkte ihnen +seinen Segen, und deshalb ist die Messe nicht zu singen ohne Wachs; +Leo, _Malberg. Glossæ_, 1842. + +[355] _Baluz. Capitulor._ tom. ii. p. 663, in oratione ad revocandum +examen apum dispersum ex Cod. MS. S. Gallï. + +[356] In _Du Cange_: "Apis significat formam virginitatis, sive +sapientiam, in malo, invasorem."--_Papias M. S. Bitur_; ex illo +forsitan officii Ecclesiast. in festo S. Ceciliæ: "Cecilia famula tua, +Domine, quasi Apis tibi argumentosa deservit," &c. + +[357] Cfr. the chapters on the Hare, the Lion, and the Elephant. The +louse and the flea have the same mythical nature as the mosquito and the +fly.--In the ninth Esthonian story, the son of the thunder, by means of +a louse, obliges the thunder-god to scratch his head for a moment, and +thus to let fall the weapon of thunder, which is instantly carried off +to hell. The lice that fall down from the head of the witch combed by +the good maiden, or from that of the Madonna combed by the wicked +maiden, have already been mentioned. The Madonna that combs the child +is, moreover, a subject of traditional Christian painting.--In the fifth +story of the first book of the _Pentamerone_, we read of a monstrous +louse. The king of Altamonte fattens a louse so much that it grows to +the size of a wether. He then has it flayed, orders the skin to be +dirtied, and promises to give his daughter to wife to whoever guesses +what skin this is. The ogre alone guesses, and carries the maiden off, +whom seven heroes afterwards go to deliver towards the aurora "subito +che l'Aucielle (the birds) gridaro: Viva lo Sole." + +[358] + + "Quando la cicala il c. batte + L'ha del m. chi non si fa la parte." + +[359] _Peri Zôôn idiotêtos_, xxiv., with the additions of Joachim +Camerarius. + +[360] Plutarch, in the _Life of Sylla_, cites among the prognostics of +the civil war between Marius and Sylla, the incident of a sparrow +lacerating a cicada, of which it left part in the temple of Bellona, +and carried part away. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE CUCKOO, THE HERON, THE HEATHCOCK, THE PARTRIDGE, THE NIGHTINGALE, +THE SWALLOW, THE SPARROW, AND THE HOOPOE. + + +SUMMARY. + + The kokilas, the nightingale of the Hindoo poets.--The + heron.--Kokas.--Kapińǵalas.--The partridges.--The Vedas instead of + the enchanted ring.--The partridge as a devil.--The heathcock.--The + partridge and the peasant.--The pigmies ride on partridges.--Talaus + becomes a partridge.--The kapińǵalas as a cuckoo; Indras as a + kapińǵalas; Indras as a cuckoo.--Rambhâ becomes a stone.--Zeus as a + cuckoo.--The laughing nightingale instead of the cuckoo.--The myth + of Tereus.--The whoop, or hoopoe, announces, it divines secrets; the + blind whoop and its young ones.--It buries its parents.--The cuckoo + and the hawk.--The cuckoo anyapushṭas.--The phallical cuckoo.--The + cuckoo as a good omen for matrimony.--The cuckoo is deceitful and a + derider.--The cuckoo as the messenger of spring, and as the bringer + of summer.--The death of the cuckoo.--_Cocu, coucoul, couquiol, + cucuault, kokküges._--The cuckoo announces rain; the cuckoo as a + funereal bird.--The years of the cuckoo.--The cuckoo, the + nightingale, and the ass.--The learned nightingales.--The + nightingales predict the future.--The monster as a nightingale.--The + wind as a whistler.--The nightingale as the messenger of + Zeus.--Paidoletôr.--The phallical nightingale.--The nightingale as + the singer of the night.--The nightingale as the messenger of + lovers; he now helps them, and now compels them to separate.--The + sun dries the nightingale up; a wedding custom.--The swallow; the + chicken of the Lord.--The seven swallows of the _Edda_.--The swallow + blinds the witch.--The birds of the Madonna; San Francesco and the + swallows.--It is a mortal sin to kill them.--The swallows as guests; + sacred birds.--The swallow beautiful only in spring.--The swans and + the swallows sing.--The swallows as babblers.--It is a bad omen to + dream of swallows.--Chelidôn, the _pudendum muliebre_.--The sparrow + as a phallical bird.--The swallow as a diabolical form. + +The kokilas or Indian cuckoo is for the Hindoo poets what the +nightingale is for ours. The choicest epithets are employed to describe +its singing, and the one most frequently applied to it in this reference +is that of ravisher of the heart (hṛidayagrahin). While I write, I have +not under my eyes, nor can I have, Schlegel's edition of the +_Râmâyaṇam_; but if my memory does not deceive me, in the introduction, +the poet Vâlmîkis makes the first çlokas, when he hears the lamentation +of a kokilas whose beloved companion has been killed. In the edition of +Gorresio, instead of the kokilas, we have the krâuńćas, which is the +heron according to Gorresio, and the bustard (Brachvogel) according to +the Petropolitan Dictionary. Kokas, a synonym of kokilas, is also +mentioned in a Vedic hymn.[361] The Hindoo commentator explains it as +ćakravâkas, which must be the equivalent of heron, although the +dictionaries interpret it particularly as the _anas casarca_. In the +forty-second and forty-third hymns of the _Ṛigvedas_, a bird occurs +which partakes of the nature of both the cuckoo and the heron, or +bustard. Here the bird "proclaims the future, predicts, launches its +voice as the boatman his boat:" it is invoked "that it be of good +augury," that "the hawk may not strike it," nor "the vulture," nor "the +archer armed with darts;" in order that, "having called towards the +funereal western region, it may speak propitiously with good-omened +words," that it may "shout to the eastern side of the houses, +propitious, with good-omened words."[362] In this prophetic bird, +explained by the _Bṛihaddevatâ_ as kapińǵalas, the Petropolitan +Dictionary recognises the heathcock (Haselhuhn), of which tittiris or +partridge is also a rendering. A Hindoo brahmanic tradition transforms +into partridges the scholars of Vâiçampayanas to peck at the Vedas of +Yâǵnavalkyas. The scholars of Vâiçampayanas are the compilers of the +_Tâittiriya-Veda_, or Veda of the partridges, or else black Veda. The +Vedas sometimes occupies in Eastern tradition the place of the enchanted +ring. In Western tradition, the devil, or black monster, becomes a cock +in order to peck at the pearl or ring of the young hero who has become +wise. In St Jerome's and St Augustine's writings, we also read that the +devil often assumes the form of a partridge.[363] The Indian tittiris +occurs again in the Russian tieteriev (the heathcock). In a story of the +second book of _Afanassieff_, the Tzar gives to a peasant a golden +heathcock for a dish of kissél, made of a grain of oats found in a +dunghill (a variety of the well-known fable of the chicken and the +pearl). The heathcock finds the grain. In another story of the fifth +book of _Afanassieff_, a heathcock sits upon the oak-tree that is to +carry the peasant-hero into heaven; it falls down, struck by the bullet +of a gun that goes off of itself, because a spark, coming out of the +tree, fell upon the powder of the gun and made the charge explode. The +partridge and the peasant often occur in connection with each other in +popular traditions. The shoes that the peasant took for partridges are +proverbial. Odoricus Forojuliensis speaks in his _Itinerarium_ of a man +at Trebizonde who conducted four thousand partridges; as he walked on +the ground, the partridges flew through the air; when he stopped to +sleep, the partridges also came down. According to the _Ornithologus_, +the pigmies, in the war against the cranes, rode upon partridges. An +extraordinary degree of intelligence and prophetic virtue is ascribed to +these birds. Aldrovandi asserts, in his Ornithology, that tame +partridges cry out loudly when poison is being prepared in the house. +The partridge was also called _dædala_ in antiquity, both because of its +intelligence, and because of the fable in which Talaus, the nephew of +Dædalus, the inventor of rhyme, thrown from the citadel of Athênê, by +the envoy of Dædalus, was changed into a partridge by the pitying gods. + +But to return to the point we started from, that is, to the Hindoo +kapińǵalas, we must notice that Professor Kuhn,[364] has recognised in +it the cuckoo rather than the heathcock. A legend of the _Bṛihaddevatâ_ +informs us that Indras, desirous of being sung to, and having become +kapińǵalas, placed himself at the right hand of the wise man that +desired (by the merit of his praises) to rise into heaven; then the wise +man having, with the eye of a sage, recognised the god in the bird, sang +for psalms those two Vedic hymns of which one begins with the word +_kanikradat_."[365] The god Indras is found again in the form of a +cuckoo (kokilas) in the _Râmâyaṇam_,[366] where Indras sends the nymph +Rambhâ to seduce the ascetic Viçvâmitras, and in order to increase her +attractions, he places himself near her in the form of a cuckoo that +sings sweetly. But Viçvâmitras, with the eye of asceticism, perceives +that this is a seduction of Indras, and curses the nymph, condemning her +to become a stone in the forest for ten thousand years. + +In the first chapter of the first book we already saw the cuckoo in +connection with the thundering Zeus, and as the indiscreet observer of +and agent in celestial loves. In the _Tuti-Name_,[367] instead of the +cuckoo, we have the nightingale. The nightingale holds the betrayed king +up to ridicule, laughing at him. The king wishes to know what this laugh +of the nightingale means, and Gûlfishân explains the enigma to him, not +so much because he is able, as is supposed, to understand the language +of birds, but because from the tower where he was imprisoned he had been +the spectator of the amours of the queen with her secret lover. + +In the Greek myth of Tereus we find united several of the birds +hitherto named, and the swallow besides; the pheasant takes the place +of the partridge, and the whoop or hoopoe that of the cuckoo. Itüs +eaten by his father Tereus, without the latter's knowledge, becomes a +pheasant; Tereus, who follows Prognê, becomes a whoop; Prognê, who +flees from him, is transformed into a swallow; Philomela, the sister +of Prognê, whose tongue had been cut out by Zeus to prevent her from +speaking, took the form of a nightingale, whence Martial-- + + "Flet Philomela nefas incesti Tereos, et quæ + Muta puella fuit, garrula fertur avis." + +With regard to the hoopoe, several beliefs are current analogous to +those known concerning the cuckoo and the swallow. In several parts of +Italy it is called (on account of its crest and appearance in these +months) the little cock of March or the little cock of May. It announces +the spring. By the ancients, its song before the vines ripened was +looked upon as a prediction of a plentiful vintage and good wine. It has +the virtue of divining secrets; when it cackles, it announces that foxes +are hidden in the grass; when it groans, it is a prognostication of +rain; by means of a certain herb, it opens secret places.[368] According +to Cardanus, if a man anoints his temples with the blood of a whoop he +sees marvellous things in his dreams. Albertus Magnus tells us that when +an old whoop becomes blind, its young ones anoint its eyes with the herb +that opens shut places, and they recover their sight. This is in perfect +conformity with a Hindoo story (a variation of the legend of Lear) +narrated by Ælianos, according to which a king of India had several +sons; the youngest was maltreated by his brothers, who ended by +maltreating and expelling their father. The youngest brother alone +remained faithful to his parents, and followed them; but while they were +travelling, they died of weariness; the son opened his own head with his +sword and buried his parents in it; the sun, moved to pity by this +sight, changed the youth into a beautiful bird with a crest. But this +crested bird, instead of the whoop, may also be the lark, concerning +which the Greeks had also a similar legend. + +The cuckoo is the bird of spring; when it appears, the first claps of +thunder are heard in the sky, announcing the season of heat. According +to Isidorus it is the kite that brings the lazy cuckoo from distant +regions. In the time of Pliny, the cuckoo was supposed to be born of +the sparrow-hawk, and Albertus Magnus, in the Middle Ages, asserted, +"Cuculus quidam componitur ex Columba et Niso sive Sparverio; alius, +ex Columba et Asture, mores etiam habet ex utroque compositos." There +is nothing falser, zoologically speaking; but inasmuch as the +lightning carries the thunder, the mythical hawk may well carry or +produce the mythical cuckoo. Moreover, the habits of the cuckoo are +very singular, and have not anything in common with those of the +falcon and the dove, or indeed any other animal. It is well-known +that, among the Hindoo names of the cuckoo we find anyapushṭas and +anyabhṛitas, which mean nourished by another (the crow is called +anyabhṛit, or nourisher of others, because it nurses the eggs of the +cuckoo, which, for the rest, deposits them even in the nests of much +smaller animals[369]). From this singular habit of the cuckoo, it was +natural to conclude that the male cuckoo united itself in adultery +with the strange female bird to which it afterwards confided the eggs, +which would thus be bastard eggs of the female itself that sits on +them. We have just seen Indras as a cuckoo and as a seducer of Rambhâ; +Indras as an adulterer is also very popular in the legend of Ahalyâ, +in which the cock (the morning sun) appears, instead, as the +indiscreet betrayer of the secret amours of Indras (the hidden sun). +In a popular song of Bretagne, the perfidious mother-in-law insinuates +to her son the suspicion that his young wife betrays him, saying, +"préservez votre nid du coucou."[370] + +The cuckoo is the sun or solar ray in the darkness, or still oftener the +thunderbolt hidden in the cloud. Dâtyuhas is one of the Indian names of +the cuckoo, and also of the cloud, out of which alone the cuckoo is said +to drink. As a hidden sun, the cuckoo is now an absent husband, a +travelling husband, a husband in the forests, and now an adulterer in +secret amorous intercourse with the wife of another. In any case, it is +often a phallical symbol, and therefore delights in mysteries. +Meanwhile, it sits on the sceptre of Hêrê, the protectress of marriages +and childbirths, whilst Zeus himself, the thunder-striker, the +thunderer, her adulterous brother, is called kokkük or cuckoo, because +he had hidden himself in Hêrê's lap in the shape of a cuckoo, in order +not to be recognised. Hence the song of the cuckoo was considered a good +omen to whoever intended to marry. In the popular song of the Monferrato +sung for the Easter eggs, the landlord is cunningly advised that it is +time to marry his daughters. In Swedish and Danish songs, the cuckoo +carries the wedding-nut to the nuptials. Nor was this because of its +reputation as an adulterer, but because it has a phallical meaning, +because it loves mysteries, and because it appears only in spring, in +the season of loves. For the rest, as an adulterer, it would have been a +bad omen for marriages; in the _Asinaria_ of Plautus, indeed, a woman +calls her husband cuculus, because he sleeps with other women. The +cuckoo is therefore, properly, the deceitful husband, the adulterer, the +hidden lover. The cuckoo is the derider; when children play at hide and +seek, they are accustomed in Germany and in Italy, as well as in +England, to cry out _cuckoo_ to him who is to seek them in vain, as is +hoped. The Latin word _cucu_, with which the pruners of vines who came +late were held up to derision, the corresponding Piedmontese motto and +gesture, mentioned in the first chapter of this work, and the Italian +expression _cuculiare_ for to ridicule, show the cuckoo as a cunning +animal. It is the first, as is said, of the migratory birds to appear, +and the first to disappear. In Germany it is believed that the grapes +ripen with difficulty if the cuckoo continues to sing after St John's +Day. It is the welcome messenger of spring[371] in the country, where it +calls the peasants to their work. Hesiod says that when the cuckoo sings +among the oak-trees, it is time to plough. + +But inasmuch as the cuckoo seldom shows itself, inasmuch as it +represents essentially the sun hidden in the clouds, and as we know that +the sun hidden in the clouds has several contradictory aspects, as a +wise hero that penetrates everything, as an intrepid hero that defies +every danger, as a betrayed hero, as a deceived husband, a traitor, a +monster or a demon, so the cuckoo also has an ungrateful and sinister +aspect. The adulterer who visits in secret the wife of another, becomes +the absent husband that is travelling, the husband in the forest, whilst +his wife entertains guests at home; or else the husband that sleeps +whilst his wife is only too watchful; whence the verse of Plautus-- + + "At etiam cubat cuculus, surge, Amator, i domum," + +and the French word _cocu_, and those registered by Du Cange,[372] +_coucoul_, _couquiol_, _cucuault_, to express the husband of an +adulterous woman. In Aristophanes, inept and inexperienced men are +called kokküges. According to Pliny, a cuckoo bound with a hare's skin +induces sleep (that is to say, the sun hides itself, the moon appears, +and the world falls asleep). When the cuckoo approaches a city, and +especially if it enters it, it bodes rain (that is, the sun hidden in +clouds brings rain). In _Plutarch_ (Life of Aratos), the cuckoo asks the +other birds why they flee from his sight, inasmuch as he is not +ferocious; the birds answer that they fear in him the future +sparrow-hawk. The cuckoo that placed itself upon the spear of Luitprand, +king of the Longobards, was considered by them as a sinister omen, as if +the cuckoo were a funereal bird. In Italy we say "the years of the +cuckoo," and in Piedmont "as old as a cuckoo," to indicate great age. A +mediæval eclogue ascribes to the cuckoo the years of the sun, "Phœbo +comes annus in ævum." As no one sees how the cuckoo disappears (the +belief that it is killed by the cicadæ not being generally received), it +is supposed that it never dies, that it is always the same cuckoo that +sings year after year in the same wood. And, inasmuch as it is immortal, +it must have seen everything and must know everything. The subalpine +people, the Germans and the Slaves, ask the cuckoo how many years they +still have to live. The asker judges how many years of life he may count +upon from the number of times that the cuckoo sings; in Sanskrit the +varsha or pluvial season determines the new year. + +We said at the commencement of this chapter that the kokilas is the +nightingale of Hindoo poets and its equivalent; and we have just noticed +that the cuckoo also represents the phallos. In the chapter on the ass, +we saw that the same rôle is sometimes taken by it. These three animals +are found in conjunction in the well-known apologue of the cuckoo that +disputes for superiority in singing with the nightingale; the ass, +supposed to be the best judge in music on account of his long ears, +being called to decide the question, declares for the cuckoo. (In the +wonderful fable of Kriloff, instead of the cuckoo, the bird preferred by +the ass is the cock; the nightingale is said in it to be the lover and +singer of the aurora.) Then the nightingale appeals from the unjust +sentence to man, singing melodiously.[373] + +A German song of the sixteenth century[374] places the nightingale in +opposition to the cuckoo: "it sings, it leaps, it is always gay when +the other little birds are silent." + +According to Pliny, the nightingales of the young Cæsars, sons of +Claudius, spoke Greek and Latin, and meditated every day to learn +something new. Thus, the _Ornithologus_ speaks of two nightingales +which, in 1546, at Ratisbon, disputed as to which spoke German best; +in one of these discussions of the nightingale, the war between +Charles V. and the Protestants was predicted. In the forty-sixth story +of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, a nightingale in a cage sings +dolorously; the old man who possesses it says to his son Basil, that +he would give half his substance to know what the nightingale is +predicting by this woful song. The boy, who understands the language +of the bird, announces to his parents a prophecy of the nightingale +that they will one day serve him. The father is indignant; one day +when the boy is asleep, he carries him to a boat and launches it on +the sea. The nightingale immediately leaves the house, and flying +away, perches upon the boy's shoulder. A shipmaster finds the boy and +the nightingale, and takes them; the nightingale predicts tempests and +the approach of pirates. At last they arrive in a city where the +royal palace is assailed by three crows, which no one who attempts it +succeeds in chasing away; the king promises half the kingdom and his +youngest daughter to whoever can expel them, threatening death to +whoever essays the enterprise in vain. The boy, advised by the +nightingale, presents himself, and tells the king that the crow, his +mate, and his young one are there to be judged by him (we have seen a +similar legend in the chapter on the dog); they wish to have it +determined whether the young crow belongs to his father or to his +mother. The king says, "To his father;" then the young crow flies away +with his father, while the female crow moves off in another direction. +The boy marries the princess, becomes a great lord, obtains half the +kingdom, travels, and is one night the guest, without their knowledge, +of his own parents, who bring him water to wash himself. Thus the +prediction of the nightingale is accomplished. In the popular Russian +legend of Ilia Muromietz (Elias of Murom), the monster brigand killed +by the hero's dart is called Nightingale (Salavéi). He has placed his +nest upon twelve oak-trees, and kills as many as come in his way by +simply whistling.[375] In the _Edda_ of Sömund, the dwarf Alwis says +of the wind, that it is called wind by men, vagabond by the gods, the +noisy one by the powerful, the weeper by the giants, the bellowing +traveller by the Alfes, and the whistler in the abode of Hel, that is, +in the infernal regions; the Russian demoniacal monster-nightingale +would therefore appear to be the wind in the darkness. + +The nightingale, like the cuckoo, is called by Sappho, in _Suidas_, by +the name of messenger of Zeus (now the moon, now the wind, now the +thunder which announces rain). It also assumes a sinister aspect, under +the name of killer of sons (paidoletôr), given it by Euripides. In a +popular song of Bretagne,[376] the nightingale laments that the month of +May has passed by with its flowers. In another song of Bretagne, the +nightingale seems to have the same phallical signification which it has +in the _Tuti-Name_. During the night, a wife is agitated on account of +the nightingale (the moon); her husband has it caught with a net, and +laughs when he has it.[377] The nightingale, as its name shows in the +Germanic tongues, is the singer of the night, and a nocturnal bird. +Hence Shakspeare, in _Romeo and Juliet_,[378] names it, in contrast to +the lark, the announcer of morning:-- + + "_Jul._ Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day; + It was the nightingale, and not the lark, + That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear; + Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree: + Believe me, love, it was the nightingale. + + _Rom_. It was the lark, the herald of the morn, + No nightingale." + +And it is as a nocturnal animal, and as a bird that sings concealed, +that the nightingale (as the moon does) pleases lovers, who make it +their mysterious and secret messenger in popular superstition and +popular songs in Germany, as in France. In the third story of the +fifth book of the _Pentamerone_, the girl Betta makes a cake which has +the form of a handsome youth with golden hair; by the grace of the +goddess of love, the cake-youth speaks and walks, and Betta marries +him; but a queen robs her of him. Betta goes to seek him; an old woman +gives to her three marvellous things, by means of which Betta obtains +from the queen the permission of sleeping during the night with her +youth, who has become the queen's husband; one of these three marvels +is a golden cage containing a bird made of precious stones and gold, +which sings like a nightingale. In popular German songs, lovers seek +to propitiate the nightingale by means of gold, but it answers that it +knows not what to do with it; the nightingale (like the cuckoo, which +is propitious to weddings, although an adulterer) now helps lovers, +and now compels them to separate. In a popular English song,[379] two +lovers go together into the shadowy forest, where the nightingale +sings; the maiden is terrified by the nightingale; but when she has +married her young lover, she no longer fears either the gloomy wood or +the nightingale's warbling. However much poetic imagination may have +adorned similar legends, their phallical origin can always be traced. +A popular German song says that the sun dries the nightingale up. +According to popular wedding customs, it is a great shame if the young +pair let themselves be surprised in bed by the sun after the first +night of their union; hence the practical joke often played upon the +husband by his friends, who shut the outer shutters of the windows, in +order that the rays of the morning sun may not enter the nuptial +chamber. But our subject presses; let us continue. + +The swallow has the same mythical meaning as the cuckoo; it is the +joyful herald of spring, emerging from the tenebrific winter. In the +winter season, the swallow is of sinister omen; in the spring-time, on +the contrary, it is propitious. + +In Piedmont, the swallow is called the chicken of the Lord. In the +_Edda_, the seven swallows, one after another, advise Sigurd, who is +still undecided, to kill the monster that guards the treasures. Sigurd +follows the advice of the swallows, finds and obtains the hidden gold, +and recovers his wife (the sun marries the spring, the flowery and +verdant earth, when the swallows arrive and begin to sing). In the +fifth story of the fourth book of the _Pentamerone_, the swallow +blinds the witch who had expelled it from its nest (the wintry season +obliges the swallows to depart; the hot and luminous season disperses +the wintry darkness). In Germany the swallows are called the birds of +the Madonna; San Francesco called the swallows his sisters; and in the +Oberinnthal it is believed that they helped the Lord God in building +the sky. In Germany, as well as in Italy, the swallows are considered +to be birds of the best augury; it is a mortal sin to kill them, or to +destroy their nests. In Germany and in Hungary, if a man destroys a +swallow's nest, his cow no longer gives milk, or else gives it mixed +with blood. Hence it is advisable always to have a window open, +because if a swallow enters the house it brings every kind of +happiness with it; in the same way, it is believed that guests bring +luck into a house, and this is a beautiful belief, which is honourable +to mankind, and one of the most signal evidences of man's sociable +nature. In the _Ornithes_ of Aristophanes, the swallows are intrusted +with the building of the city of the birds. Solinus writes that even +birds of prey dare not touch the swallow, which is a sacred bird. +According to Arrianos, a swallow which chirped round the head of +Alexander the Great, whilst he was asleep, wakened him to warn him of +the machinations in his family that were being plotted against him. In +an apologue the swallow warns the hen not to sit upon the eggs of the +serpent. Swallows were anciently used in time of war as messengers. +According to Pliny, again, the head of a swallow that fed in the +morning, was, when cut off at full moon, and tied in linen and hung +up, an excellent remedy for headache. + +But in an apologue where the swallow boasts to the crow of its beauty, +the crow answers that he is always equally beautiful, whilst the swallow +is only beautiful in spring. In another apologue, which is found in the +Epistle of St Gregory of Nazianzen to Prince Seleusius, the swallows +boast to the swans of their twittering for the benefit of the public, +whilst the swans sing only for themselves, and that little, and in +solitary places. The swans answer that it is better to sing little and +well to a chosen few than much and badly to all. The Greeks, in a +proverb, advise men not to keep swallows under their roofs, by which +they meant to put them on their guard against babblers. The swallow here +evidently begins to assume, as in the mythical tragedy of Tereus, a +sinister aspect, for which, reason Horace calls it-- + + "Infelix avis et Cecropiæ domus + Æternum opprobrium." + +The swallow, beautiful and propitious in spring, becomes ugly and almost +diabolical in the other seasons. Hence the ancients believed that it was +a bad omen to dream of swallows. According to Xenophon, the appearance +of the swallows preceded the expedition of Cyrus against the Scythians, +and announced it to be unlucky. The same presage is made by the swallows +to Darius when he moves against the Scythians, and to Antiochus, who is +at war with the Parthians. It is also said that Pythagoras would have no +swallows in his house, because they were insectivorous. In _Suidas_, the +_pudendum muliebre_ is called _chelidôn_; and it is perhaps as such that +the swallow is represented in opposition to the sparrow, which is a +well-known phallical symbol, sacred (like the doves) to Venus, whom it +accompanied, according to Apuleius,[380] and to Asklepios. The sparrow +destroys the swallow's nest, as it is said in a popular German song of +Michaelstein:-- + + "Als ich auszog, auszog, + Hatt' ich Kisten und Kasten voll, + Als ich wiederkam, wiederkam, + Hatt' der Sperling, + Der Dickkopf, der Dickkopf + Alles verzehrt." + +The swallow, moreover, is a diabolical, dark form which, by the witch's +enchantment, the beautiful maiden assumes when she finds herself near +the fountain (_i.e._, near the ocean of night, or of winter).[381] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[361] _Ṛigv._ vii. 104, 22. + +[362] Kanikradaǵ ǵanusham prabruvâṇa iyarti vâćam ariteva nâvam +sumañgalaç ća çakune bhavâsi mâ tvâ kâ ćid abhibhâ viçvyâvidat. Ma tvâ +çyena ud vadhîn ma suparṇo mâ tvâ vidad ishumân vîro astâ; pitryâmanu +pradiçaṁ kanikradat sumañgalo bhadrâvâdî vadeha. Ava kranda dakshiṇato +gṛihâṇâm sumañgalo bhadravâdî çakunte; _Ṛigv._ ii. 42. + +[363] St Anthony of Padua said of the partridge: "Avis est dolosa et +immunda et hypocritas habentes, ut dicit Petrus, oculos plenos +adulterii et incessabilis delicti signa."--Partridge's foot (perdikos +pous) meant, in the Greek proverb, a deceitful foot. + +[364] _Indische Studien_, i. 117, 118. + +[365] + + Stutiṁ tu punar evéćhanam indro bhûtvâ kapińǵalaḥ + Risher ǵigamishor âçâm vavâçe prati dakshiṇâm + Sa tam ârsheṇa saṁprekshya ćakshushâ pakshirûpiṇam + Parâbhyâm api tushṭâva sûktâbhyâṁ tu kanikradat. + +[366] i. 66. + +[367] ii. 79. + +[368] Cfr. the chapter on the Woodpecker. A whoop, kept by me for some +time with its young ones, had been taken with its nest from the trunk +of a tree which had been cut down, and which it had scooped out in its +higher part in order to build its nest in the lowest and deepest part +of the trunk. + +[369] I, for instance, kept for some time a young cuckoo which had +been found in the nest of a little granivorous singing bird, which is +very common in Tuscany, and is called scoperina or scopina. + +[370] Villemarqué, _Barzaz Breiz_, sixième éd. p. 493. + +[371] The old English popular song celebrates it as the bringer of +summer-- + + "Sumer is icumen in, lhude sing cuccu." + +The old Anglo-Saxon song of St Guthlak makes the cuckoo the announcer +of the year (geacas gear budon). The ancient song of May in Germany +welcomes it with the words-- + + "The cuckoo with its song makes every one gay." + +The popular Scotch song caresses it thus-- + + "The cuckoo's a fine bird, he sings as he flies; + He brings us good tidings, he tells us no lies. + He sucks little bird's eggs to make his voice clear, + And when he sings 'cuckoo,' the summer is near." + +In Shakspeare (_Love's Labour Lost_, v. 2), the owl represents winter, +and the cuckoo spring--"This side is Hiems, winter, this Ver, the +spring; the one maintained by the owl, the other by the cuckoo." + +In a mediæval Latin eclogue recorded in the third volume of Uhland's +_Schriften_ (Abhandlung über die deutschen Volkslieder), the death of +the cuckoo is wept over-- + + "Heu cuculus nobis fuerat cantare suetus, + Quæ te nunc rapuit hora nefanda tuis? + Omne genus hominum Cuculum complangat ubique! + Perditus est cuculus, heu perit ecce meus. + + Non pereat Cuculus, veniet sub tempore veris + Et nobis veniens carmina læta ciet. + Quis scit, si veniat? timeo est submersus in undis, + Vorticibus raptus atque necatus aquis." + +A popular German song shows us the cuckoo first wet, and then dried by +the sun-- + + "Der Kuckuck auf dem Zaune sass, + Kuckuck, kuckuck! + Es regnet sehr und ward nass. + Darnach da kam der Sonnenschein, + Kuckuck, kuckuck! + Der kuckuck der ward hübsch und fein." + +--Cfr. also the "Entstehung des Kukuks" in Hahn's _Albanesische +Märchen_, ii. 144, 316. + +[372] _s. v. cucullus._ + +[373] Cfr. the chapter on the Peacock. + +[374] Cfr. Uhland's _Schriften_, iii. 25. + +[375] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, i. 12. + +[376] Villemarqué, _Barzaz Breiz_, sixième éd. p. 392. + +[377] "Quand il le tint, se mit à rire de tout son cœur. E il +l'étouffa, et le jeta dans le blanc giron de la pauvre dame. Tenez, +tenez, ma jeune épouse, voici votre joli rossignol; c'est pour vous +que je l'ai attrapé; je suppose, ma belle, qu'il vous fera plaisir;" +Villemarqué, _Barzaz Breiz_, p. 154. + +[378] iii. 5. + +[379] Dixon, _Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of +England_; cfr. also on the traditions relating to the cuckoo and the +nightingale in Russia, Ralston, _The Songs of the Russian People_. + +[380] Currum Deæ prosequentes, gannitu constrepenti lasciviunt +Passeres; _De Asino Aureo_, vi. + +[381] A woman of Antignano, near Leghorn, once told me the story of a +beautiful princess who stayed upon a tree till her husband returned, +who had gone in quest of robes for her. Whilst she is waiting, up +comes a negress to wash clothes, and sees in the water the reflection +of the beautiful princess. She induces her to come down by offering to +comb her hair for her, and puts a pin into her head, so that she +becomes a swallow. The negress then takes the maiden's place by her +husband. The swallow, however, finds means of letting herself be +caught by her husband, who, stroking her head, finds the pin, and +draws it out; then the swallow becomes again a beautiful princess. The +same story is narrated more at length in Piedmont, in other parts of +Tuscany, in Calabria, and in other places; but instead of the swallow +we have the dove, as in the _Tuti-Name_. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE OWL, THE CROW, THE MAGPIE, AND THE STORK. + + +SUMMARY. + + The funereal owl.--The owl and the vulture.--The owl and the + crow.--The owls as friends of the swans and enemies of the + crows.--The wise owl.--The Eulenspiegel.--The owl as the daughter of + Nükteos.--The enemy of Nükteos.--An ill-omened bird.--Prophetic + virtue of the owl.--The horned owl.--The owl as a weaver.--The owl + and the coins.--The crow and the peacock.--The crow and the + nightingale.--The crow and the swan.--_Gracculus ad fides_.--The + prophetic crow.--The crow and the cheese.--The crow as the son of + Indras; the Athenians swore by the crow and by Zeus.--The crow and + Sîtâ.--The cunning crow.--The crow, the parrot, and the bird of + prey.--The crow as the shadow of a dead man.--Yamas as a crow.--The + white crow.--Go to the crows.--The rooks.--The crow as a devil.--It + helps an old man to pick grains of corn up.--The crow and the + cuckoo.--The crow and the waters.--The crow and the figs.--The crow + and the hydromel.--The crow and the water of life and death.--The + crow as the bird of light.--The crow on a mountain covered with + diamonds.--The crows as brothers and sisters of the heroine and of + the hero.--The crow as the messenger of St Oswald.--The crow, the + maiden, and the crab.--The _corvus pica_.--The blue magpie.--The two + magpies.--Huginn and Muninn.--The magpie as the bringer of the + balsam herb.--The magpie sacred to Bacchus.--The magpie and the + nightingale.--The daughters of Euippes as magpies.--The rook and the + magpie as friends of gold.--The magpie as an infernal bird.--The + malice of the magpie.--The white and black magpie.--The magpie and + the guests.--The stork.--The stork and the heron.--The stork as the + bringer of children.--Funereal presage of the stork.--The stork and + the old man.--Paternal and filial affection of the stork.--The + presents of the stork.--The stork brother of the woodcock.--The + inebriated storks.--The storks in the other world. + +The owl, the crow, the magpie, and the stork are in intimate mythical +relation with each other. To give an idea of the monster that wanders in +the night, the _Ṛigvedas_ compares him to a khargalâ[382], which is +probably an owl (also called naktaćaras); it also directs the devotee to +curse death and the god of the dead (to conjure them away), when the owl +emits her painful cry, and when the kapotas or dark dove touches the +fire[383] (thus we read in the fragments of Menander, "if the owl should +cry, we have reason to be afraid"); in the _Pańćatantram_,[384] the king +of the crows also compares the hostile owl that arrives towards night to +the god of the dead (the god Yamas). In Hungary the owl is called the +bird of death. In the _Mahâbhâratam_,[385] the mind of the wicked which +sees clearly, fishes in turbid waters, and is dexterous in foul actions, +is compared to the owl, who (probably as moon) distinguishes every shape +in the night. In the _Mahâbhâratam_, again,[386] the owl kills the crows +by night whilst they are sleeping. In the _Râmâyaṇam_,[387] the owl (as +the moon) contends with the vulture (the sun), who had usurped its nest; +the two disputants appeal to Râmas, who asks each how long the nest had +belonged to it; the vulture answers, "Since the earth was peopled with +men," and the owl, "Since the earth was covered with trees." Râmas, +with justice, decides in favour of the owl, observing that his claim is +the more ancient, since there were trees before there were men, and is +for punishing the vulture, but desists upon learning that the latter was +once King Brahmadattas, condemned to become a vulture by the wise +Gâutamas, because he had once offered meat and fish to that penitent to +eat. Râmas touches the vulture, which, the malediction having come to an +end, immediately resumes its human form. The third book of the +_Pańćatantram_ treats of the war between the owls and the crows. The +birds are weary of having a useless king like Garuḍas, who thinks of no +one but the god Vishṇus, and does not trouble himself to protect the +nests of the little birds his subjects; they meditate electing a king, +and are about to choose the owl,[388] when the crow (the dark night) +comes to give its veto, of which the _Pańćatantram_ says, that it is the +most cunning amongst birds, as the barber among men, the fox among +animals, and the mendicant friars among religious orders. The war +between the owl and the crow (the moon and the dark night) is popular in +Hindoo tradition; kâkâris, or enemy of the crow, is one of the Sanskṛit +names of the owl, and the kâkolûkikâ or owl-like crow, as has already +several times been observed by the learned men who have studied Hindoo +literary chronology, is already mentioned in the Grammar of Pâṇinis. + +In the thirtieth story of the fourth book of _Afanassieff_, the crow +eats the eggs of the geese and the swans. The owl, out of hatred to +the crow, accuses him to the eagle; the lying crow denies, but is +nevertheless condemned to be imprisoned. + +In the ninth book of Aristotle's _History of Animals_, I also find +that the crow fights with the owl, whose eggs it destroys at midday, +whilst the owl, on the other hand, eats the crow's eggs during the +night. In Italian, the expression "the owl amongst the crows," is used +to indicate a serious danger. In John Tzetza, we also find an +apologue, according to which the crow was about to be elected king of +the birds, having arrayed itself in the feathers that had fallen from +the other birds, when the owl comes up (in Babrios, instead of the +owl, it is the swallow that does the same), recognises one of its own +feathers, and plucks it out, setting thus an example to the other +birds, who in a short time despoil the crow entirely. (This is a +variety of the well-known fable of the crow in the peacock's feathers, +and of the same fable, in an opposite sense, contained in the +_Pańćatantram_, where the crow is the wise bird, and the owl the +simple one.) There are other instances of cunning ascribed to the owl +in fables; for instance, it predicted to the birds that an archer +would kill them with their own feathers, and advised them not to let +the oak-trees grow, because on them the mistletoe grows, and birds are +caught by means of it. The German Eulenspiegel, the legendary +malicious buffoon, who wears a great hat, is probably of the same +mythical family. The Greeks considered the owl to be a form of the +daughter of Nükteus of Lesbio (according to others, of the king of the +Ethiopians. Nükteus and the black Ethiopian, both being the night, +correspond to each other), who, having become enamoured of her father, +lay with him without his knowledge; her father wished to kill her, +but Athênê took pity upon her, and transformed her into an owl, which, +remembering its crime, always flees from the light (it is far from the +day, like the moon). The owl was sacred to Athênê, the goddess of +wisdom, inasmuch as she sees in darkness; the flight of the bird of +night was, therefore, for the Athenians a sign that the goddess who +protected their city was propitious; hence the owls of Athens passed +into a proverb. The owl, otherwise (according to the superstition of +the ancient Greeks, recorded by Pliny among the Latin writers), was +the enemy of Dionysos (who loves the mysteries, which the moon and the +aurora disperse); hence the prescription of ancient medicine, that the +eggs of the owl, drunk for three days in wine, make drunkards +abstemious. Philostratos, in the Life of Apollonius, goes so far as to +say that when one eats an owl's egg, one takes a dislike to wine +before having tasted it. But, even in antiquity, the owl was generally +looked upon as the ignoble and ill-omened bird that it really is. It +is said of Demosthenes, that before going into exile, he declared that +Athênê delighted in three fear-inspiring beasts--the owl, the dragon, +and the Athenian people. In _Ælianos_ and _Apuleius_, the owls are +spoken of as birds of ill omen. But the male owl was and is still +especially considered as a bird of the worst and most funereal +character in Italy, Russia, Germany, and Hungary.[389] In the fourth +book of Virgil's _Æneid_, the song of the male owl is fatal-- + + "Seraque culminibus ferali carmine Bubo + Visa queri et longas in fletum ducere voces." + +The Romans purified the city with water and sulphur when a male owl or +a wolf happened to enter into the temple of Jupiter, or into the +Capitol. According to Silius Italicus, the defeat of Cannes was also +prognosticated by the male owl-- + + "Obseditque frequens castrorum limina Bubo." + +And Ovid, in the tenth book of the _Metamorphoses_-- + + "Ignavus Bubo dirum mortalibus omen; + Nam diræ mortis nuntius esse solet." + +According to the fifth book of the same _Metamorphoses_, Ascalaphos +was transformed by Ceres into a male owl, and condemned to predict +evil, because he had accused her to Jove of having eaten a pomegranate +in secret, against the prohibition. + +The prophetic faculty of the owl, according to popular belief, is so +great, that Albertus Magnus could seriously write in his times--"Si +cor ejus cum dextro pede super dormientem ponatur, statim tibi dicit +quidquid fecerit, et quidquid ab eo interrogaveris. Et hoc a fratribus +nostris expertum est moderno tempore." When the witches in _Macbeth_ +make the horrid mixture in the great caldron, in order to obtain from +it the virtue of sinister presages, they put into it, amongst other +maleficent ingredients-- + + "Eye of newt, and toe of frog, + Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, + Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting, + Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing." + +In Sicily, the owl that moans, the crow that caws, and the dog that +howls by night near the house of a sick man, announce approaching death +to him; but among owls, the horned owl (the horned moon), jacobu, or +chiovu, or chiò, is especially feared. The horned owl sings near the +house of a sick man three days before his death; if there are no sick +people in the house, it announces to one at least of its inhabitants +that he or she will be struck with squinancy of the tonsil. The peasants +in Sicily, when in spring they hear the lamentation of the horned owl +for the first time, go to their master to give notice of their intention +of leaving his service; whence the Sicilian proverb-- + + "Quannu canta lu chiò + Cu 'avi patruni, tinta canciar lu pò." + +The Sicilian poet Giovani Meli, in the little poem, _Pianto di +Palemone_, refers to the sinister presage of the horned owl in the +following verses-- + + "Ah! miu patri lu predissi, + E trimava 'ntra li robbi, + Ch'eu nascivi 'ntra l'ecclissi + E chiancìanu li jacobbi." + +In the popular Sicilian legend, entitled _La Principessa di Carini_, +when the friar goes to act as a spy, the moon envelops itself in +clouds, the horned owl flies round, screeching-- + + "Lu jacobbu chiancennu svulazzau." + +In several German popular songs, the horned owl and the common owl +complain that they are alone and deserted in the forest. The owl (as +the moon) is also represented in German tradition as a nocturnal +weaver.[390] In the same tradition, the funereal owl is found +mentioned in connection with the funereal crow.[391] + +I have already mentioned, in the chapter on the Wolf, that _vṛikas_, +in the Vedic hymns, may mean both wolf and crow. The crow, like the +wolf, represents the dark night. The owl with yellow eyes (whence in +Athens certain coins bearing the effigies of an owl were called owls, +and in Italy golden coins are vulgarly called owls'-eyes) seems to +represent the crepuscular bird in particular (from which we can +understand why it was especially sacred to Athênê), and much oftener +still the night with the yellow eye of the moon. The crow, on the +other hand, seems to be the representative of the gloomy night or +cloud. The owl which destroys the crow's nest, and discovers the +deceit of the crow when disguised in the feathers of other birds, +seems to be the same as the moon that disperses the darkness, or the +sahasrâkshas (the heavenly peacock), that shuts the thousand eyes of +the starry sky, and makes the thousand stars of the heaven grow pale. +The owl, as the king of birds (we know also the Indras-moon as +Mṛigarâǵas, or king of beasts) seems generally to be the same as the +moon, the mistress of the night. Indras is often the peacock-god, the +azure starry sky of night; but blue and black, as we have said, are +two equivalent colours (the azure god Indras becomes the azure or dark +Kṛishṇas, and, on the contrary, the crow becomes a peacock), and are +expressed by one and the same word; hence the black bird and the blue +one are substituted for one another. According to Festus, the crow +was, before the peacock, sacred to Juno. The crow-peacock has already +become proverbial in the _Pańćatantram_,[392] where we read that the +hasty fool takes a crow for a peacock. The voice of the peacock is as +shrill as that of the crow; in the _Râmâyaṇam_,[393] the water-cock +(ǵalakukkubhas, the heron, the halcyon, the duck, the swan) laughs at +the peacock when striving to answer the cuckoo. Thus, the Greek +proverb laughs at the crows which are more honoured than the +nightingales (korakes aêdonôn aîdesimôteroi). Martial places them in +contrast with the swans-- + + "Inter Lædæos ridetur corvus Olores;" + +and the Greek proverb turns into ridicule the rook amongst the Muses +(koloios en tais mousais), and the Latin one, the "Gracculus ad +fides." In a variety of the forty-sixth story of the sixth book of +_Afanassieff_, the crow occupies the place of the prophetic +nightingale. The fox (the spring aurora) takes the cheese (the moon) +from the crow (the winter night), by making it sing. In the +_Mahâbhâratam_,[394] the monster Râhus disguises himself as a god, +that he may go and drink the ambrosia of the gods; the sun and the +moon denounce the imposture; Râhus is recognised, and Vishṇus cuts off +his head with his disc; this is an ancient variety of the fable of the +crow among the peacocks. This disguise of the crow, however, will +appear quite natural when we reflect that Indras is a peacock, and +that in the _Râmâyaṇam_[395] a certain learned crow (pâṇḍitas) is +called by Hanumant the son of Indras (putraḥ kila sa çakrasya; in the +_Ornithes_ of Aristophanes, I read that at Athens men swore by the +crow and by Zeus). I have observed, on a previous occasion, that the +Vedic Indras assumes in the Hindoo poems a sinister, and sometimes +even a diabolical aspect. In the _Râmâyaṇam_,[396] a crow attacks Sîtâ +with wings, beak, and claws; Râmas hurls an enchanted dart at it; the +bird, by divine grace, does not die, but as it flies rapidly, between +drop and drop, whilst it rains from the cloud, it sees nothing but +darts and shadows of darts in the air. Then it returns to Râmas to +beseech him to deliver it from this enchantment; Râmas says that the +enchantment must run its full course, but that he can make it take +effect in one part of the body alone; let the crow choose the part +that Râmas must aim at. The cunning bird, hoping that Râmas will miss +his aim, says one of its eyes; Râmas aims at it and strikes it, to the +great wonder of Sîtâ, against whom the crow had begun to make war, +after that Râmas had marked her forehead in red (probably after the +evening aurora; the legendary husband and wife exchange the ring of +recognition, now the sun and now the moon, in the evening or the +autumn, in order to find themselves together again, by its means, in +the morning or the spring). I have cited in the preceding chapter, +from the _Pańćatantram_, the popular Hindoo belief that the crow is +the most cunning of birds, as the fox is the most cunning of animals. +Aristotle says that the crow is the fox's friend; in the _Râmâyaṇam_, +the stratagem adopted by the fox in the Western fable to make the +cheese fall out of the crow's beak, obliging it to open its beak and +let the booty fall, is advised by the rook or crow (sârikâ or _gracula +religiosa_). A bird of prey holds a parrot in its claws, and a sârikâ +in its beak; the rook says, "Parrot, bite the foot of the enemy whilst +he is alone and in the air, and whilst his beak presses me; and as his +beak is occupied and cannot bite thee, bite thou him, in order that he +may let you go;" the rook thus hoped that, by opening its beak, which +it did with pain, the bird of prey would let it too go. In Plautus a +crafty servant is compared to a crow. The crow also personifies in +Hindoo tradition the shadow of a dead man; to give food to the crows +is for the Hindoos the same as to give food to the souls of the dead; +hence part of their meals was always, and is still, according to all +travellers in India, left for the crows. Even in the _Râmâyaṇam_,[397] +Râmas orders Sîtâ to preserve the rest of the food for the crows. In +the flight of the gods before the demons, described in the last book +of the _Râmâyaṇam_, the god Indras hides himself in the form of a +peacock, and Yamas, the god of the dead, in that of a crow (in +Hellenic mythology, during the war against the giants, it is Apollo +that transforms himself into a crow, but probably into a white one, +as white crows were, according to the Greek belief, dedicated to the +sun. It is said that the crow was once white, but that Apollo made it +black, indignant at that animal for bringing to him the unwelcome news +of having surprised in adultery his mistress, the Princess Korônis; +here the crow occupies the place of the mythical cuckoo. In another +Hellenic myth, the crow loses the favour of Pallas for having brought +the intelligence that Erichtonios, born to Pallas by the seed of the +celestial blacksmith, which had fallen upon the earth, had been found +by the three daughters of Kekrops. In reward for the services of the +crow, Yamas conceded to it the right of eating the funereal food, for +which reason the shades of the dead, when this food is given to the +crow, are enabled to pass into a better world. In the _Clouds_ of +Aristophanes, the Greek proverb, "Go to the crows" (ball' es korakas), +means "die." Hence in India as in Persia, in Russia as in Germany, in +Greece as in Italy, the crow is pre-eminently a funereal bird of +sinister omen. According to Ælianos, the Venetians of ancient Hadria +were accustomed to appease the rooks, in order that they should not +devastate the fields, by solemnly sending to meet them two +ambassadors, who presented to them a mixture of oil and flour. If the +rooks accepted the offering, it was a good sign. In Lambert of +Aschaffenburg, a pilgrim sees in a dream a horrid crow which caws and +flies round Cologne, and which is hunted away by a splendid horseman; +the pilgrim explains that the crow is the devil, and the horseman St +George. In the Chronicles of the Beatified Anthony, we find described +fetid and black pools "in regione Puteolorum in Apulia," whence the +souls arise in the forms of monstrous birds in the evening hours of +the Sabbath, which neither eat nor let themselves be caught, but +wander till in the morning an enormous crow compels them to submerge +themselves in the waters. In Germany, according to Rochholtz, when a +crow places itself upon the roof of a house where there is a dead +body, it means that the dead man's soul is damned. At Brusasco, in +Piedmont, children sing to the crow this funereal verse, +counterfeiting in the chorus the crow's cry-- + + "Curnaiáss, + Porta 'l sćiass (the colander); + Me mari l'è morta + Sut la porta. + Qué!" + +In a popular Swedish song, in the collection translated into German by +Warrens, I read this verse, where the crow assumes an entirely +monstrous form; men spit at it, as they do at the devil-- + + "Es flog ein Rabe über das Dach, + Hatt' Menschenfleisch in den Krallen, + Drei Tropfen Blutes träuften herab, + Ich spülte, wo sie gefallen." + +In the thirty-ninth story of the fourth book of _Afanassieff_, an old +man, having let some grain fall to the ground, says that if the sun +warmed him, the moon gave him light, and the crow helped him to pick +the corn up, he would give each one of his three daughters. Sun, moon, +and crow listen to him, and marry the three maidens. Some time after, +the old man goes to visit his son-in-law the crow, who makes him mount +a never-ending ladder, carrying him in his beak; but when they are +high up, the crow lets the old man drop, and he dies. + +Inasmuch as Indras, or Zeus, that is, the pluvial god, takes now the +shape of a cuckoo, now that of a crow, the crow, in the fifteenth +story of _Siddhikür_, announces the proximity of water to the thirsty +prince. Tommaso Badino of Piacenza[398] narrates an apologue which +reminds us of the biblical legend of the Deluge. Phœbos sends the +crow to find the lustral water for the sacrifice of Zeus;[399] but the +crow, when it arrives at the fountain, sees some figs near it; instead +of doing its errand, it waits till the (phallical) figs ripen. Hence +the crow passed into a proverb as a procrastinator (the legend of St +Athanasius, moreover, recognises the procrastinator in the crow, +because it says "cras" with its voice). Nor can we accept the biblical +derivation of the belief of the procrastinating crow, when we find it +explicitly mentioned and illustrated in Ovid by the story of the figs +and that of the corn, whose maturity the crow waits for before +carrying the water. The meaning of the myth appears to me evident; the +thundering and rainy clouds yield water towards the end of June, when +the first figs and the grain are ripe (in Plutarch's Life of Nicias, +instead of these we have the golden dates); the crow represents the +pluvial god; as the cuckoo brings the rains of spring, the crow brings +those of summer, and afterwards, when the later figs ripen, those of +autumn, which announce the winter, dear to the crows.[400] + + "Imbrium divina vis imminentum."[401] + +In a popular Swedish song, hydromel is offered to the messenger crow; +instead of this, it solicits small grains for its young. In the +fifty-second story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, the crow is +sent to seek for the water of life and death, and to make experiments +with it upon itself before bringing it. + +But out of darkness comes forth light, the sun; from the black night, +the clear day; from the black crow, the white one; hence, in the first +of the Esthonian stories, we find the crow represented as the bird of +light, in the same way as in the Hellenic myth it was sacred to +Apollo. In the sixth of the Sicilian stories of Signora Gonzenbach, +crows carry the boy Giuseppe, shut up in a sack made of a horse's skin +dried in the sun, to a mountain covered with diamonds, and the egg of +a crow thrown on the head of the monster giant kills him. In the ninth +story of the fourth book of the _Pentamerone_, a king sees the blood +of a crow, which had been killed, upon some white marble, and wishes +for a bride who shall be white like the marble and red like the blood, +and have hair as black as the crow's feathers. The foolish hero Ivan, +in _Afanassieff's_ story (vi. 9), calls the crows his little sisters, +and pours out for them the food contained in the small pipkins which +he was carrying to sell. In popular German and Scandinavian songs, +where the crow often appears as the succourer of the beautiful maiden +(the sun; _die Sonne_ is feminine in German, as is well known), it is +said to be the heroine's brother. The crow is the well-known messenger +of Saint Oswald, king in Engelland (the land of the Angles). The crow +often brings good luck to the heroes, even by sacrificing itself; the +death of night and of winter brings round again day and spring; hence +the two celebrated verses of Horace-- + + "Oscinem corvum prece suscitabo + Solis ab ortu."[402] + +Several of the mythical characteristics of the crow, indeed, the +principal ones, are also ascribed to the magpie (_corvus pica_). The +blue magpie seems to be spoken of as a bird of evil omen, even in a +Vedic hymn, in connection with the disease of consumption.[403] In the +forty-sixth story of _Afanassieff_, the magpies are in relation with the +mythical water; one magpie is sent for the water of life, and another +for the water of speech, to resuscitate the two sons of a prince and +princess, whom a witch had touched with the hand of death as they slept. +These two magpies seem to correspond to the two crows, Huginn and +Muninn, which the Scandinavian god Odin sent every day into the world to +learn all the news there current, which they afterwards brought back and +whispered in one of his ears. In a German legend given by Grimm, the +magpie appears as the bringer of the balsam herb (Springwurzel). The +Greeks and the Latins considered the magpie to be sacred to Bacchus, +because it is in connection with the ambrosial drink; and, as drunkards +are garrulous, so the magpie is famous for its garrulity. We have seen +the rook amongst the Muses; in Theocritus the magpie defies the +nightingale in singing; in Galenus it is proverbially emulous of the +Siren; the nine daughters of Euippes were changed into magpies, because +they had presumed to emulate the nine Muses in singing, whence Dante, +invoking Calliope, wishes to continue his song-- + + "Con quel suono + Di cui le Piche misere sentiro, + Lo colpo tal che disperâr perdono." + +The reader knows, no doubt, the fable of Arnê, as given in Ovid, who, +in her thirst for gold, betrayed her country to the enemy, and was +changed into a rook (monedula), the friend of gold. In the tenth book +of his History, Livy narrates the fable of a crow that ate the gold in +the Capitol. In a popular Danish ballad, gold is offered to the +messenger crow, who (like the cuckoo) answers that it knows not what +to do with it, and desires rather nourishment fit for crows. The +magpie, too, became proverbial as a robber of gold and silver, which +it goes to hide, not so much because it likes shining metals, as +because it hates too great light. The crow and the magpie hide the sun +and the golden ears of corn in the rainy and wintry season. In German +mythology, the magpie is an infernal bird, into which witches often +transform themselves, or which is ridden by them. Hence it is also +believed in Germany that the magpie must be killed during the twelve +days between Christmas and Epiphany (when the days begin to lengthen +again). But, inasmuch as every species of malice is learned in hell, +the malice of the magpie became even more proverbial than that of the +crow. The magpie makes use of this knowledge now to do evil, as a +malignant fairy, now to do good to men, as a benignant fairy: the +colour of the blue magpie appears now luminous, now tenebrific; the +colours of white and black in the magpie (as in the swallow) represent +its two mythical contradictory characters. In German superstition the +magpie tells of the approach of the wolf; hence it is still believed +that it is unlucky to kill a magpie. In the Russian popular song, the +magpie is the punisher of the lazy little finger which would not go to +the well to find water:-- + + "The magpie, the magpie, + Had cooked the gruel, + It leaped upon the threshold, + It invited the guests."[404] + +It invites all the guests, except the little finger, which is the +smallest of the fingers on account of its laziness;--we have already +mentioned the lazy little brother who refuses to go to take water, in +the first chapter of the first book. In Russia, it is believed that +when a magpie comes to perch upon the threshold of a house, it +announces the arrival of guests; this belief reminds me of the magpie +of Petronius: "Super limen autem cavea pendebat aurea, in quâ pica +varia intrantes salutabat."[405] + +As the crow and the magpie are thought of, in mythology, in connection +with the water, and with the funereal and infernal winter, so the +stork represents especially the rainy and wintry season. The heron, +already mentioned in the chapter on the Cuckoo, presents several of +the mythical characteristics of the stork. In the twenty-ninth story +of the fourth book of _Afanassieff_, the stork, tired of living alone, +goes to the heron and proposes marriage to her. The heron sends him +away in contempt. No sooner is the stork gone, than the heron repents, +and goes in her turn to propose to the stork, who refuses out of +sulkiness. He then repents of his refusal, and returns to the heron, +who, sulky in her turn, rejects him. The story ends by saying that the +heron and the stork continue to visit one another, but that they are +not married yet. This fable, although it has a satirical meaning, also +implies the intimate mythical relationship between the heron and the +stork. The heron and the stork are two birds which equally love the +water, and therefore serve to represent the cloudy, rainy, wintry, or +gloomy sky, which, as we have already said, is often represented as a +black sea. From the night, the cloud, or the winter, comes forth the +young sun, the new sun, the little child-hero who had been exposed in +the waters; hence the popular German belief of children that the +storks carry children from the fountain.[406] However, properly +speaking, as long as the stork holds the child-hero in its beak, the +latter is not considered born; it is only born at the moment in which, +opening its beak, it puts the child down in its mother's lap. The +stork personifies the funereal sky, the sky when the celestial hero, +the sun, is dead. Hence it is believed in Germany that when storks fly +round, or over a group of persons, some one of them is about to die; +the clouds and the shadows that collect together presage the +disappearance or death of the sun. + +In Russian stories we have a double aspect of the stork (besides the +fable, probably imported, of the stork and the fox as cousins, who +invite each other to supper). In the seventeenth story of the second +book of _Afanassieff_, an old man begs the stork to be as his son (the +reputation of the storks for their paternal and filial affection is of +ancient date[407]). The stork gives to the old man a sack out of which +come two young men, who cover the table with a silk tablecloth, +furnished with every good thing. A godmother who has three daughters +changes the old man's sack whilst he is returning home. The old man, +laughed at and beaten by his wife, returns to the stork, who gives him +another sack, out of which also come two young men, who flog people +vigorously. By means of this sack the old man recovers the former one, +and reduces his wife to obedience. In a variety of the same story, the +stork makes to the foolish hero three presents--a horse which, when it +is told to stop, is transformed into a heap of money, and, when it is +told to go on, resumes its former shape; a tablecloth which both +spreads itself and takes itself off; and a horn out of which come the +two young floggers. In the thirty-seventh story of the fourth book of +_Afanassieff_, the stork is said to be the brother of the woodcock, +and they cut hay together, but do nothing else. We mentioned, in the +chapter on the Bear, the storks that eat the harvests of a peasant who +threatens to cut off their feet. They upset a barrel of wine in order +to drink its contents; the indignant peasant takes and binds them to +his waggon, but the inebriated storks are so strong, that they carry +peasant, waggon, and horse up into the air. Here the stork assumes a +diabolical aspect, as the representative of the wintry season; the +chariot of the peasant is that of the sun. In the fifth story of the +sixth book of _Afanassieff_, the soldier-impostor tells an old woman +that he is going back to the other world, where he found her son +leading storks to the pasturage. Here the storks have the funereal and +infernal nature of the crows, which we have observed to be, in Âryan +beliefs, one of the forms assumed by the souls of the dead. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[382] Pra yâ ǵigâti khargaleva naktam apa druhâ tanvaṁ gûhamânâ; +_Ṛigv._ vii. 104, 17. + +[383] Yad ulûko vadati mogham etad yat kapotaḥ padam agnâu kṛiṇoti, +yasya dûtaḥ prahita esha etat tasmâi yamâya namo astu mṛityave; +_Ṛigv._ i. 165, 4. + +[384] iii. 73. + +[385] iii. 15, 128, and _Hitopadeças_, iv. 47. + +[386] iii. 308, x. 38. + +[387] vi. 64. + +[388] In the articles against Bernard Saget in the year 1300, recorded +by Du Cange, I read--"Aves elegerunt Regem quemdam avem vocatam Duc, et +est avis pulchrior et major inter omnes aves, et accidit semel quod Pica +conquesta fuerat de Accipitre dicto Domino Regi, et congregatis avibus, +dictus Rex nihil dixit nisi quod flavit (flevit?). Vel (veluti) idem de +rege nostro dicebat ipse Episcopus, qui ipse est pulchrior homo de +mundo, et tamen nihil scit facere, nisi respicere homines." + +[389] Among the Tartars, according to Aldrovandi, the feathers of the +male owl are worn as an amulet, probably to conjure the owl himself +away, in the same way as, in the Vedic hymns, Death is invoked in order +that it may remain far off. In the _Khorda Avesta_ (p. 147), translated +by Spiegel, the hero Verethraghna derives his strength from the owl's +feathers.--We are acquainted with the funereal moon in the form of +Proserpine; the Hindoos considered Manus in relation with the moon, with +which, moreover, it was also identified. Manus, as the first and the +father of men, is also the first of the dead. Manus gives the somas to +Indras. The dying sun is exchanged in the funereal kingdom for the moon; +but of the moon's kingdom the souls come down, and to the moon's kingdom +they return. With Manus the word _Menerva_ is joined, a Latin form, as a +goddess, of the Greek Athênê. The owl, the symbol of Minerva, may be +equivalent to Manus as the moon. The intimate connection which exists in +myths and legends between the maiden aurora and the maiden moon is +well-known; they reciprocally do services to each other. Athênê may very +well have represented equally the two wise maidens--the moon, who sees +everything in the dark night; the aurora, who, coming out of the gloomy +night, illumines everything. The head of Zeus, out of which Athênê +comes, appears to be a form of the eastern sky. + +[390] "Selbst in sternloser Nacht ist keine Verborgenheit, es lauert +eine grämliche Alte, die Eule; sie sitzt in ihrem finstern Kämmerlein, +spinnt mit silbernen Spindelchen und sieht übel dazu, was in der +Dunkelheit vorgeht. Der Holzschnitt des alten Flugblattes zeigt die +Eule auf einem Stühlchen am Spinnrocken sitzend." + +[391] + + "Wenn durch die dünne Luft ein schwarzer Rabe fleucht + Und krähet sein Geschrei, und wenn des Eulen Fraue + Ihr Wiggen-gwige heult: sind Losungen sehr rauhe." + --Rochholtz, the work quoted before, i. p. 155. + +[392] i. 175. + +[393] ii. 5. + +[394] i. 1152. + +[395] ii. 105, v. 3. + +[396] _Ib._ + +[397] ii. 105; cfr. also _Du Cange_, s. v. _corbitor_.--In the German +legend of the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa, the emperor, buried under a +mountain, wakens and asks, "Are the crows still flying round the +mountain?" he is answered that they are still flying. The emperor +sighs and lies down again, concluding that the hour of his +resurrection has not yet arrived. + +[398] In the _Ornithologia_ of Aldrovandi. The messenger crow is of +frequent occurrence in legends. + +[399] In Plutarch, two crows guide Alexander the Great, when he goes +to consult the oracle of Zeus Ammôn. + +[400] Hence the name of Avis S. Martini also given to the crow, +because it often comes about St Martin's day. In Du Cange and in the +_Roman du Renard_ we also find indicated the auspices to be taken from +the crow's flight; for the same custom in Germany, cfr. Simrock, the +work quoted before, p. 546. + +[401] Horace, _Carm._ iii. 27.--In _Afanassief_, again (iv. 36), the +rook is asked where it has flown to. It answers, "Into the meadows to +write letters and sigh after the maiden;" and the maiden is advised to +hurry towards the water. The maiden declares that she fears the crab. +In this maiden, that is afraid of the crab, I think I can recognise +the zodiacal sign of Virgo (attracted by the crab of the summer),--the +virgin who approaches the water, the autumn and the autumnal rains; +the virgin loved by the crow, who is the friend of the rains. + +[402] Horace, _Carm._ iii. 27. + +[403] Sâkaṁ yakshma pra pata ćâsheṇa kīkidîvinâ; _Ṛigv._ x. 97, 13. + +[404] + + Saróvka, saróvka, + Kasha varlla + Na parók skakála, + Gastiei saszivála. + +[405] The magpie is proverbial as a babbler; hence, from its Italian +name _gazza_, the name _gazzetta_ given to newspapers, as divulging +secrets.--In the _Dialogus Creaturarum_, dial. 80, it is written of +the magpie, called _Agazia_: "Pica est avis callidissima.... Hæc apud +quemdam venatorem et humane et latine loquebatur, propter quod venator +ipsam plenaria fulciebat. Pica autem non immemor beneficii, volens +remunerare eum, volavit ad Agazias, et cum eis familiariter sedebat et +humane sermocinabatur. Agaziæ quoque in hoc plurimum lætabantur +cupientes et ipsæ garrire humaneque loqui." + +[406] Hence the request made in the popular song to the stork, to +bring a little sister; cfr. the songs of the stork in Kuhn and +Schwarz, _N. S. M. u. G._ p. 452. As the bringer of children, the +stork is represented as the serpent's enemy; cfr. _Tzetza_, i. 945. + +[407] Cfr. _Phile_, vi. 2; and Aristophanes in the _Ornithes_-- + + "Deî tous neotous t' patéra palin trephein." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE WOODPECKER AND THE MARTIN. + + +SUMMARY. + + The _picus_ in the work of Professor Kuhn.--_Picus_, _corvus + pica_, and _picumnus_; the Vedic word _vṛikas_.--The she-wolf and + the woodpecker as the nurses of the Latin twin heroes.--_Picus_ as + the phallos; _picus_, _picumnus_, _pilumnus_, _pilum_, _pistor_; + _piciu_, _pinco_, _pincio_, _pinson_, _pincone_.--The sacred herb + of Indras which cleaves the mountains.--Jupiter as a _picus_; the + _picus_ presages rain; the herb of the woodpecker has the virtue + of opening every shut place.--The woodpecker and the + honey.--Beowulf and the woodpecker.--The woodpecker and the + gold.--The green woodpecker.--The woodpecker as the devil.--The + woodpecker in opposition to the fox.--The vengeance of the + woodpecker.--The halcyon.--The martin or bird of St + Martin.--_Martin piciu_.--The _yünx_ in love with Zeus; it + attracts lovers.--_Alküoneioi hêmerai_; the halcyon.--Robin + Redbreast and its "charitable bill."--The bird of St Gertrude; the + _incendiaria avis_; _Jean rouge-gorge_.--Sea-birds with white and + black plumage and a little spot of blood on their heads. + +The woodpecker has already had the honour of being studied with great +learning by Professor Adalbert Kuhn, in his excellent work upon the +celestial fire and water, to which I refer the cultivated reader for +the principal myths relating to the subject; that is to say, for the +comparison of the Vedic hawk and the Vedic fire-bhuraṇyus with the +Hellenic Phoroneus, the Latin _picus Feronius_, the _incendiaria +avis_, the _picus_ that carries thunder, and that which carries food +to the twins Romulus and Remus,[408] and which itself enjoys wine, +with King Picus, progenitor of a race, and with the corresponding +German traditions. I shall only observe here the mythological +relationship between _picus_ and the _corvus pica_ (_picumnus_ was +applied both to the woodpecker and the magpie), in order to return to +the equivocal Vedic word _vṛikas_, which means wolf and crow, whence +also arose and fostered itself the confusion between the she-wolf that +nurses the Latin twin heroes, and the woodpecker which, in the same +legend, offers itself as their nourisher. The woodpecker, the magpie, +and the wolf, personify equally the god in the darkness, the devil, +the cloud, the sky of night, the rainy season, the wintry season; from +the night, and from the winter, the new sun, fed by the she-wolf, or +by the funereal bird, arises; the penetrating beak of the woodpecker +in the cloud is the thunderbolt; in the night, and in the wintry +season, it is now the moon that disperses the darkness, now the +sunbeam that comes out of the darkness. The thunderbolt, the moon, and +the sun's ray, moreover, sometimes assume in myths the form of the +phallos; the woodpecker as a phallos and the King Picus, progenitor of +a race, seem to me to be the same. The Latin legend puts _picus_ in +connection with _picumnus_, _pilumnus_, the _pilum_, and the _pistor_, +in the same way as a Norwegian story puts in relation with flour the +cuckoo, which we already know to be a phallical symbol, properly the +presser down. In the Piedmontese dialect, the common name of the +phallos is _piciu_; in Italian, _pinco_ and _pincio_ have the same +meaning; _pincione_ is the chaffinch (in French _pinson_); and +_pincone_ means a fool, for the same reason that the ass, as a +phallical symbol, personified folly. We already know Indras as a +cuckoo, as a peacock, and as a hawk. To find Indras again in the +woodpecker, the _Tâittiriya-Brahmaṇam_ offers us a notable analogy. In +it Indras kills the wild boar, hidden in the seven mountains (the +shadows of the night, or the clouds), cleaving them by the touch of +the stem of a sacred luminous and golden herb (sa darbhapińǵûlam +uddhṛitya sapta girîn bhittvâ[409]), which may be the moon in the +night, or else the thunderbolt in the cloud; the thunderbolt is also +not seldom represented in Âryan traditions as a magic rod. It is with +a golden rod that, in the seventh book of the _Æneid_, the enchantress +Circe transforms the wise King Picus, son of Saturn (as +Jupiter-Indras; Suidas also speaks of a Pêkos Zeus, buried in Crete) +into a bird, into the _picus_, sacred to the god of warriors +(Mars-Indras), whence his name of _picus martius_, the woodpecker, +which is supposed to presage rain (like Zeus and Indras)-- + + "Picus equûm domitor, quem capta cupidine conjux, + Aurea percussum virga, versumque venenis, + Fecit avem Circe, sparsitque coloribus alas." + +Pliny relates that the woodpecker has the virtue of opening every shut +place, touching it with a certain herb, which increases and decreases +with the moon;[410] this herb may be the moon itself, which opens the +hiding-places of the night, or the thunderbolt which opens the +hiding-places of the cloud. It is well known that in the Vedic hymns, +Indras, who is generally the pluvial and thundering god, is frequently +associated with the soma (ambrosia and moon), and even identified with +it. Pliny adds, moreover, that whoever takes honey out of the hive +with the beak of a woodpecker is not liable to be stung by the bees; +this honey may be the rain in the cloud as well as the lunar ambrosia +or the dew of the morning aurora; hence the woodpecker's beak may be +the thunderbolt as well as the moonbeam, or the sunbeam. Beowulf (the +wolf of the bees) is spoken of in connection with the woodpecker as +well as with the bear: the _Bienenfresser_ of German legends, or the +_pica merops_, explains the Latin superstition and the Beowulf. Like +the crow, the woodpecker, too, stays in darkness, but brings water, +seeks for honey, and finds the light. In the _Aulularia_, Plautus +makes woodpeckers live upon golden mountains (picos, qui aureos monies +incolunt). Inasmuch as the woodpeckers announced the approach of +winter, or were seen on the left, according to the well-known verse of +Horace[411]-- + + "Teque nec lævus vetet ire picus, + +they were considered birds of evil omen. In the _Ornithologus_, it is +said that the green woodpecker (the moon, by the previously mentioned +equivocalness of _haris_) presages winter (the moon, as we have said, +rules over the winter). For this reason, St Ephiphanios could compare +the woodpecker with the devil. According to Pliny, the woodpecker that +perched upon the head of the prætor Lucius Tubero, whilst he was +administering justice, announced approaching ruin to the empire if it +were allowed to go free, and approaching death to the prætor if +killed; Lucius Tubero, moved by love of his country, seized the +woodpecker, killed it, and died soon afterwards. Hence Pliny could say +with reason that woodpeckers were "in auspiciis magni." + +In the twentieth story of the third book of _Afanassieff_, the +woodpecker, which usually appears as a very knowing bird, lets itself +be deceived by the fox, who eats its young ones, under the pretext of +teaching them an art. In the twenty-fifth story of the fourth book, on +the other hand, the woodpecker assumes a heroic and formidable aspect. +It makes friends with an old dog, which has been expelled from its +kennel, and offers its services as purveyor. A woman, is carrying some +dinner to her husband, who is working in the fields. The woodpecker +flies before her and feigns to let itself be taken; the woman, to run +after it, puts the dinner down, and the dog feeds upon it (in a +variety of the same story, the woodpecker also offers to the dog a +means of getting something to drink). Afterwards the dog meets the +fox; then, in order to please the woodpecker (who, perhaps, remembered +the treachery of the fox who ate its little ones), it runs upon the +fox and maltreats it. A peasant passes by and thrashes the poor dog, +who dies. Then the woodpecker becomes furious in its desire of +vengeance, and begins to peck now at the peasant, and now at his +horses; the peasant tries to flog the woodpecker, instead of which he +flogs the horses to death. Nor does the woodpecker's vengeance stop +here; it goes to the peasant's wife and pecks at her; she endeavours +to beat it, but instead of doing so, she beats her own sons (these are +two varieties of the story of the mother who beats her son, thinking +to beat the ass, which, as a phallical symbol, we have already said +corresponds to the woodpecker. The myth of Seilenos, which we saw in +connection with the ass, has also been quoted by Professor Kuhn in +relation with the woodpecker. In the third book of the _Pańćatantram_, +we have a bird that throws gold from behind, a characteristic of the +mythical ass in fairy tales). Here the woodpecker has the same office +which in another Russian story, already recorded, is attributed to the +wintry, funereal, and ill-omened stork, the sun hidden in the +darkness, or the cloud. + +The halcyon, which announces tempests, and the bird of St Martin, the +fisher martin, are of the same wintry and phallical nature as the +woodpecker. In Piedmont, a fool is insultingly called by the name of +Martin-Piciu (the podex and the phallos, and also the phallos martin, +which reminds us of the _picus pistor_, and the _picus martius_), and +the above-quoted Italian expression _pincone_ is equivalent to it. The +sun that hides itself in darkness or clouds loses its power. The +phallical symbol is evident. Here remark the Hellenic fable of the +bird Yünx tetraknamon, of the four rays, of the long tongue, always +changeful (the Trench call it _paille en cul_). Pan is said to have +been the father of a girl called Yünx, who, having attempted to seduce +Zeus, was changed by the vengeance of Hêrê into a bird of the same +name. In Pindar, Jason made use of this bird, the gift of Aphroditê, +to gain the favour of Medea. In Theocritos, this bird is invoked by +girls in love to attract their lovers into the house; women made use +of this bird in their mischief-working love-mysteries. + +According to the fifth book of Aristotle's _History of Animals_, the +halcyon sits on its eggs in the serene days of winter, called +therefore alküoneiai hêmerai; and the author cites a sentence of +Simonides concerning this bird: "When Zeus, in the wintry season, +creates twice seven warm days, mortals say, 'This tepid weather is +nourishing the variously-painted halcyons.'" Ovid relates that Alcyon +was transformed into the bird of this name while weeping for her +husband, who had been drowned in the sea, whence Ariosto wrote-- + + "E s'udîr le Alcione alla marina + Dell' antico infortunio lamentarse." + +This bird, the kingfisher, several kinds of woodpeckers, the wren, the +crow, and the redbreast, the Scotch Robin Redbreast, also called in +English ruddock and Robin-ruddock, which, "with charitable bill," +according to the expression of Shakspeare in _Cymbeline_,[412] throws +funereal flowers upon unburied bodies,[413] are all birds sacred to +St Martin, the holy gravedigger, the bringer of winter, who, +according to the Celtic and German traditions, divides his own cloak +with poor men, and covers them. German legends are full of incidents +relating to this funereal and wintry bird, with which now the funereal +Norwegian bird of St Gertrude, now the cuckoo, now the _incendiaria +avis_, are assimilated. Hence the same redbreast which in German +tradition is sacred to St Martin is called _Jean rouge-gorge_ in the +popular songs of Brittany, published by Villemarqué, and is sacred to +St John; but this John may be the St John of winter, whose festival is +celebrated on the 27th of December, that is, two days after the +Nativity of Christ, or in the days in which the sun, the Saviour, is +born again, and the light increases. Birds of the same funereal nature +as that of St Martin appear in the Breton song _Bran_ (or the prisoner +of war):--"At Kerloan, upon the battlefield, there is an oak-tree +which spreads its branches over the shore; there is an oak-tree at the +place where the Saxons took to flight before the face of Evan the +Great. On this oak, when the moon shines at night, birds come to meet +one another, sea-birds with white and black plumage, and a little spot +of blood on their heads; with them there comes an old grey crow, and +with it a young crow. Both are very weary, and their wings are wet; +they come from beyond the seas, they come from afar; and the birds +sing such a beautiful song that the great sea is hushed and listens; +this song they sing with one voice, except the old crow and the young +one; now the crow has said--'Sing, little birds; sing, sing, little +birds of the land; you do not die far away from Bretagne.'" The same +funereal birds which have pity for the dead, like the stork, also take +care of new-born infants, and bring the light forth. The cloudy +nocturnal or wintry monster discovers his treasures; the funereal bird +buries the dead, and brings them to life again; its beak pierces +through the mountain, finds the water and the fire, and tears the veil +of death; its luminous head disperses the gloomy shadows. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[408] + + "Lacte quis infantes nescit crevisse ferino? + Et picum expositis sæpe tulisse cibos?" + --Ovid, _Fasti_, iii. + +[409] Compare _pińǵûlas_ with _pińǵalas_ and _pińǵaras_.--In the hymn, +x. 28, 9, of the _Ṛigvedas_, we also have the mountain cleft from afar +by a clod of earth: Adriṁ logena vy abhedam ârât. This analogy is so +much the more remarkable, as in the same hymn, 4th strophe, the wild +boar is also spoken of. + +[410] The same virtue of opening the mountain by means of an herb I +find attributed to the little martin, in connection with Venus, in +Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 415: "Schon in einem Gedichte +Meister Altschwerts, ed. Holland, s. 70, wird der Zugang zu dem Berge +durch ein Kraut gefunden, das der Springwurzel oder blauen +Schlüsselblume unserer Ortssagen gleicht. Kaum hat es der Dichter +gebrochen, so kommt ein Martinsvögelchen geflogen, das guter +Vorbedeutung zu sein pflegt; diesem folgt er und begegnet einem +Zwerge, der ihn in den Berg zu Frau Venus führt." + +[411] _Carm._ iii. 27. + +[412] + + "Thou shalt not lack + The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose; nor + The azured hare-bell, like thy veins; no, nor + The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander, + Out-sweetened not thy breath; the ruddock would, + With charitable bill (O bill, sore-shaming + Those rich-left heirs, that let their fathers lie + Without a monument!), bring thee all this." + --iv. 2. + +[413] Cfr. what is said on the whoop, the stork, and the +lark.--Concerning the bird _gaulus_, I find in Du Cange as follows: +"Gaulus Merops avis apibus infensa, unde et Apiastra vocitatur. Papias: +'Meropes, Genus avium, idem et Gauli, qui parentes suos recondere, et +alere dicuntur, sunt autem virides et vocantur Apiastræ.'" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE LARK AND THE QUAIL. + + +SUMMARY. + + The lark the first of animals.--It existed before the earth.--It + buries its father in its own head.--The lark sings the praises of + God.--Praǵâpatis creates the stomas first.--The crested + sun.--Christos and crista; the crested lark and St + Christophoros.--Alauda the lauder.--The lark upon the father's + tomb.--The mother-lark.--The lark announces morning and + summer.--Bharadvâǵas, the bringer of food, the bringer of good + things and of sound.--Bharadvâǵas as a mythical singer or poet, + nourished by a lark; the son of Bṛihaspatis.--The old Bharadvâǵas + ascends into heaven in union with the sun.--The quail.--Vartikâ, + vartakas, wachtel, perepiolka.--The quail and the wolf in the + _Ṛigvedas_.--The wise girl upon a hare, with a quail tied to her + hand.--Jove as a quail.--The quail sacred to Hercules.--The moon + and the quail.--The quail becomes a stone.--The quail believed to + eat poisonous hellebore.--The quail as a sacred bird.--The game of + the quail.--The quail and the cock.--The quail as a prophetic + bird.--The quail puts a price upon corn. + +To the crested lark, in the _Ornithes_ of Aristophanes, the name of +king is given, and the same virtue of funereal charity is attributed +to it which we have already seen in the redbreast of winter, in the +stork, and in the crested whoop. According to Aristophanes the lark +was not only the first of animals, but it existed before the earth and +before the gods Zeus and Kronos and the Titans. Hence, when the +lark's father died, there was no earth to bury him in; then the lark +buried its father in its own head (or in its pyramidal crest). +Goropius explains the belief that the lark existed before the earth, +by observing that the lark sings seven times a day the praises of God +in the high air, and that prayer was the first thing which existed in +the world. In Hindoo cosmogony, when Praǵâpatis, the creator, wishes +to multiply himself, he begins by creating the stomas or hymn.[414] +The father of the lark is therefore the god himself. The crested lark +is the same as the crested sun, the sun with his rays. In the legend +of St Christopher, I see an equivoque between the word _Christos_ and +the word _crista_, and, either way, I see the sun personified. St +Christopher, in the legend, carries Christ, and is associated with the +lark. Goropius, when a child, on seeing a picture representing St +Christopher, marvelled that the lark did not flee from the tree-staff +of St Christopher, whilst the sparrows, instead, fled before him as +soon as he approached; he was answered that the lark is not afraid of +St Christopher, because it sees on the saint's shoulders its own +creator, God. Christ, the father of the lark, dies, and the lark +buries him in its crista. In the same way an equivoque in speech made +of the lark (alauda) the lauder (laudatrix) of God; thus it seems to +me that the equivoque between _crista_ and _Christos_ passed into the +legend of St Christopher. In the nineteenth Mongol story, the poor +young man makes his fortune when he hears a lark upon his father's +tomb, which has come and placed itself upon the loom. The lark is a +form of the young man himself, the young sun who from poor becomes +rich; the loom upon which the lark perches is the sky. The Greek name +of the crested lark (korüdalos) corresponds to the Latin _galerita_. +The lark with the crest or with the tuft explains the custom of the +Gauls, recorded by Suetonius in the Life of Julius Cæsar, of +representing a crested lark upon their helmets. The Æsopian fables of +the mother-lark with its young ones, and of the lark with the +birdcatcher, show us this bird full of cunning and wisdom. As the +larks sing the praises of God only when the sky is serene, and as they +announce the morning[415] and the summer, they represent the crested +sun which illumines all, which is all-luminous, all-seeing, (the Vedic +_viçvavedas_), the golden sun. In the thirteenth Esthonian story, the +maiden that sleeps will waken when she hears again the summer song of +the larks. (Here the maiden is the earth, which wakens in the spring.) + +The Hindoo name of the lark is no less interesting than the Latin +_alauda_. Bharadvâǵas, or the lark, may mean the bringer of food or of +goods (as the sun), as well as the bringer of sound (the singer of +hymns) and the sacrificer. In this triple interpretation which can be +given to the word _bharadvâǵas_, nearly all the myth of the lark seems +to be contained. Bharadvâǵas, afterwards, also becomes the name of a +celebrated poet, and of one of the seven mythical sages, who, according +to the legend, was nourished by a lark, and who is said to be the son of +Bṛihaspatis, the god of sacrifice, Fire, identified with Divodâsas, one +of the favourites of the god Indras, who destroys for him the strong +celestial cities of Çambaras. The _Tâittiriya-brâhmaṇam_ also shows us +the wise Bharadvâǵas in connection with Indras. Bharadvâǵas has become +old whilst travelling three degrees of the life of a studious penitent; +Indras approaches the aged sage, and asks him, how, if he still had many +years to live, he would employ his lifetime? The sage answers that he +would continue to live in penitence and in study. In the three first +degrees of his life, Bharadvâǵas has studied the three Vedâs (the +_Atharva-veda_ having come afterwards, or not being as yet recognised as +a sacred book). In the fourth period, Bharadvâǵas learns universal +science (çarvavidyâ), becomes immortal, and ascends into heaven in union +with the sun (âdityasya sâyuǵyam). + +The quail is also in intimate relation with the summer sun, but +especially with the moon. + +Vartikâ and vartakas are its Indian names, which may mean both she who +is turned towards, the animated one, the ready, the swift, the +watchful (cfr. the German _Wachtel_), and the pilgrim (cfr. the +Russian _perepiolka_). In the _Ṛigvedas_, the Açvinâu deliver the +quail from torments; they release the quail from the rage of the wolf; +they liberate it from the jaws of the wolf that is devouring it.[416] +In the forty-first story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, the wise +girl comes upon a hare with a quail tied to her hand, and presents +herself before the Tzar, whose riddle she must solve in order to marry +him. This quail is the symbol of the Tzar himself, or the sun; the +wise girl is the aurora (or the spring), who arrives near the sun upon +the hare, that is, upon the moon, traversing the shadows of night (or +winter). The Greeks and Latins, observing, perhaps, that the moon +takes sleep away from the quail, believed that the quail was sacred +to Latona, and relate that Jove became a quail to lie with Latona, of +which union Diana and Apollo (moon and sun) were born.[417] Others +also affirm that the quail was sacred to Hercules, who, by the scent +of a quail, recovered his life, which had been taken from him by +Tüphon. It is believed that when the moon rises, the quail cries out +and is excited to agitation against it, and that the quail's head +increases or diminishes according to the moon's influence. As the +quail seems to represent the sun, and loves heat, it fears the cold +moon. From these mythical relations of the quail was doubtless derived +the fear which the ancients had for the quail, which they believed to +eat poisonous hellebore during the night, and to be therefore +poisonous and subject to epilepsy. Plutarch, in the _Apophtegmata_, +relates that Augustus punished with death a president of Egypt who had +eaten a quail which had carried off the prize in the fight; for it was +long the custom to make quails fight with one another, in the same way +as at Athens the game of the quail was a favourite diversion, in which +several quails were placed in a circle, and he who hit one carried off +all the others. According to Artemidoros, quails announced to their +feeders the evils by which they would be visited from the side of the +sea. The quail which agitates itself against the moon (thus Ælianos +writes that the cock excites himself and exults when the moon +rises[418]) presages the bad season, the pluvial or wintry season, and +makes use of its own presage to migrate to warmer regions. The quail +watches, travels, and cries out during the night; from the number of +times that it cries out in succession in the fields, the peasants of +Tuscany infer the price of corn; as the quail generally renews its cry +three, four or more times, when it cries three times they say that +corn will be cheap, and that, when it cries out four or more times, it +will be dear; and so they say that the quail puts a price upon +corn.[419] The quail arrives with the sun in our fields in spring, and +goes away with the sun in September. In the _Mahâbhâratam_,[420] when +the hero Bhîmas is squeezed by an enormous serpent, a quail appears +near the sun, dark (pratyâdityamabhâsvarâ), with only one wing, one +eye, and one foot, horrible to the sight, vomiting blood (raktaṁ +vamantî). This quail may represent either the red sky of evening, in +the west, or the red heavens at the conclusion of summer. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[414] _Tâittiriya Yaǵurv._ vii. 1, 4. + +[415] Hence Gregory of Tours relates, in _Du Cange_: "In Ecclesia +Arverna, dum matutinæ celebrarentur Vigiliæ, in quadam civitate avis +Corydalus, quam Alaudam vocamus, ingressa est." + +[416] Vartikâṁ grasitâm amuńćatam; _Ṛigv._ i. 112, 8.--Amuńćataṁ +vartikâm aṅhasaḥ; i. 118, 8.--Âsno vṛikasya vartikâm abhîke yuvaṁ narâ +nâsatyâmumuktam; i. 116, 14.--Vṛikasya ćid vartikâm antar âsyâd yuvaṁ +çaçîbhir grasitâm amuńćatam; x. 39, 13. + +[417] The same fable is also related in a different way: Jove cohabits +with Latona, and subsequently forces her sister, Asterien, who is, in +pity, changed by the gods into a quail. Jove becomes an eagle to catch +her; the gods change the quail into a stone--(cfr. the stories of +Indras as a cuckoo and Rambhâ, of Indras as a cock and Ahalyâ. It is a +popular superstition that quails, like the crane, when they travel, +let little stones fall in order to recognise on their return the +places by which they passed the first time)--which lies for a long +time under water, till by the prayer of Latona it is taken out. + +[418] Ælianos says that the cock is in the moon's favour, either +because it assisted Latona in parturition, or because it is generally +believed (as a symbol of fecundation) to be the facilitator of +childbirth. As a watchful animal it was natural to consider it +especially dear to the moon, the nocturnal watcher.--The cock, as an +announcer of news, was sacred to Mercury; as the curer of many +diseases, to Æsculapius; as a warrior, to Mars, Hercules, and Pallas, +who, according to Pausanias, wore a hen upon her helmet; as an +increaser of the family, to the Lares, &c. Even Roman Catholic priests +will deign to receive with especial favour, ad majorem Dei gloriam, +the homage of cocks, capons, and chickens. + +[419] This year, my quails cried out six times; and the corn in Italy +is very dear, the spring having been a very rainy one. + +[420] iii. 12,437. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE COCK AND THE HEN. + + +SUMMARY. + + Alektrüon, a satellite of Mars, the lover of Venus, becomes a + cock.--Indras, the lover of Ahalyâ as a cock; Ahalyâ turned to + stone.--Indras as a eunuch or as a ram.--Praǵâpatis loves his + daughter the aurora, and becomes a goat.--Ahalyâ in the ashes, like + Cinderella.--The thunder and the eggs; the iron nail and the laurel + in the nest.--To be made of stucco, to be turned to stone by the + thunder which astonishes.--It is a sacrilege to kill cocks and + hens.--The cock Parodars in the _Avesta_.--The cock chases the + demons away.--The cock wakens the aurora and arouses + mankind.--Christus and the cock as _cristiger_, _cristatus_, + _cristeus_.--The cock sacred to St James, to St Christopher and + Donar.--St James as a cock.--The hen crows like a cock.--Men turned + to stone, and the cock who calls them to life again.--The cock as a + devil.--The enchanted hut stands upon a hen's little feet.--Cocks + killed as a form of witches.--The _lapillus alectorius_; the same + enclosed in a ring.--To dream of brood-hens with chickens.--The egg + is more cunning than the hen.--The golden cock on the rock; marvels + come out of the rock.--The egg which becomes a girl.--The cock on + the top of high buildings, to indicate the winds, and also the + hours.--The black cock and the red one.--The black hen.--The cock + sacrificed.--The cock, son of Mars.--Cockfights.--Auguries taken + from cocks and hens; these auguries held up to derision.--The hen's + egg; "Gallus in sterquilinio suo plurimum potest."--The pearl is an + egg; the hen's egg in the sky is the sun.--The white hen.--Easter + eggs.--The golden egg.--The cosmic egg.--It is an excellent augury + to begin with the egg; "Ab ovo ad malum."--To begin _ab ovo_. + +Alektrüon (the Greek name of the cock) was the companion and satellite +of Mars. When Mars wished to spend the night with Venus during the +absence of Vulcan, he placed Alektrüon to watch at the door. +Alektrüon, however, fell asleep; and Mars, surprised by the returning +husband, and full of indignation, transformed Alektrüon into a cock, +in order that it might learn to be watchful; whence Ausonius-- + + "Ter clara instantis Eoi + Signa canit serus, deprenso Marte, satelles." + +According to a Pâuranic legend, Indras, the Indian Mars, enamoured of +Ahalyâ, the wife of Gâutamas, and accompanied by Ćandras (the moon), +assumed the form of a kṛikavâkas (cock or peacock), and went to sing at +midnight near the dwelling of Ahalyâ, whilst her husband was absent. +Then, divesting himself of the form of a cock (or peacock), he left +Ćandras at the door to watch, and united himself with Ahalyâ (the hen). +Meanwhile Gâutamas returns; Ćandras not having warned the lovers of his +approach, the saint turns Ahalyâ to stone, and scatters over the body of +Indras a thousand wombs; which, being submerged in the waters, the +pitying gods subsequently changed into a thousand eyes (sahasrâkshas is +one of the Hindoo names of Indras and of the peacock). According to a +variety of this legend,--which is analogous to the fable of the Zeus as +a quail, the seducer of the sister of Latona, or of Latona herself, +changed into a stone and submerged in the waters,--Indras becomes a +eunuch, and obtains, as we have already seen, in compensation, two ram's +testicles. In the _Âitareya Br._, the god Brahman Praǵâpatis becomes a +goat or a roebuck (ṛiçyas), in order to lie with his own daughter +Aurora. In the thirty-second and thirty-third hymn of the eighth book of +the _Ṛigvedas_, the god Indras and the god Brahman change places. +Indras is at first beautiful (çiprin); he afterwards becomes a woman +(strî hi brahmâ babhûvitha). In the _Râmâyaṇam_,[421] Gâutamas condemns +Indras to become powerless, and Ahalyâ to remain hidden in the forest, +lying in the ashes (bhasmaçâyinî), until Ramas comes to deliver her. The +ashy sky, the stony sky, the watery sky, are identical; Ahalyâ (the +evening aurora) in the ashes is the germ of the story of Cinderella, and +of the daughter of the King of Dacia, persecuted by her lover, her +father himself. + +A popular Italian belief, which has been mentioned by Pliny and +Columella, says that when it thunders while the hen is sitting on her +eggs, they are spoiled. To remedy this evil, Pliny advises to put +under the fodder of the eggs an iron nail, or else some earth taken up +by a ploughshare. Columella says that many put little branches of +laurel and roots of garlic, with iron nails. These are all symbols of +the sulphureous thunderbolts (because of their strong smell), and of +the thunderbolt conceived of as an iron weapon; the remedy recommended +is according to the principle of _similia similibus_, for the same +reason as the devil is prayed to in order to keep him away. In Sicily, +when a hen is setting on her eggs, they put at the bottom of the nest +a nail, which has the property of attracting and absorbing every kind +of noise that may be noxious to the chickens. Now it seems interesting +to me to find an analogous belief in Vedic antiquity. A strophe, where +the word _aṇdâ_ may be rendered eggs as well as testicles, which +therefore leads us to think of oviparous birds and chickens no less +than men, invokes Indras, the thunder-god, as follows:--"Do not harm +us, Indras; do not destroy us; do not take from us our beloved +enjoyments; do not break, O great one, O strong one, our eggs (or +testicles); do not ruin the fruits of our bowels."[422] Indras can not +only become a eunuch himself, but he can make others become eunuchs; +thunder makes us astonished, and as we also say, by an analogous +expression, in Italy, makes us of stucco or turn to stone. + +The cock and the oviparous hen, as birds which are as egg-yielding +symbols of abundance, and which personify the sun, were and are sacred +in India and in Persia, where it is considered a sacrilege to kill +them. Cicero, in his _Oratio pro Murena_, writes that among the +ancients he who ultroneously killed a cock did not sin less than he +who suffocated his own father. In Du Cange we read that Geoffrey I., +Duke of Brittany, whilst he was on a journey to Rome, was slain with a +stone by a woman, one of whose hens had been killed by the Duke's +sparrowhawk. The same superstition about hens is still observed in +Italy by a great number of housewives. + +In the _Avesta_ the crow of the cock accompanies the flight of the +demons, wakens the aurora, and arouses mankind.[423] Even the +Christian poet Prudentius, who still sees a solar symbol in the +_Christus_, compares him to the cock, also called _cristiger_, +_cristatus_, _cristeus_,[424] prays to Christ to chase away sleep, to +break the fetters of night, to undo the old sin, and to bring the new +light, after having said of the cock-- + + "Ferunt vagantes dæmones, + Lætos tenebris noctium + Gallo canente exterritos + Sparsim timere et cedere. + ... omnes credimus + Illo quietis tempore + Quo gallus exsultans canit + Christum redisse ex inferis." + +We have seen in the preceding chapter, the crested lark in connection +with St Christopher. In Germany, on the 25th of July, sacred to St +James[425] (the saint who empties the bottle, as they say in Piedmont), +to St Christopher, and the ancient god of thunder, Donar, cocks were +made to dance, and then sacrificed. Donar carries Oerwandil on his +shoulders across rivers, as the giant Christopher carries Christ. + +There is a superstition which is widely diffused in Italy, Germany, and +Russia, according to which a hen that begins to crow like a cock is of +the worst omen; and it is the universal persuasion that it ought to be +killed immediately, in order not to die before it. As the same belief +exists in Persia, the discussion of Sadder with regard to it is +interesting, to prove that the hen which crows like a cock must not be +killed, because, if it become a cock, that means that it will be able to +kill the demon, (therefore at Persian tombs they were accustomed to set +a cock free). Having regard to the superstitious Eastern and European +beliefs, the worthy Professor Spiegel will now find, I hope, the +following passage, which appeared rather obscure to him, a little +clearer:--"Qui religione sinceri sunt ludificationes expertes, quando +percipiunt ex gallina vociferationem galli non debent illam gallinam +interficere ominis causa, quia eam interficiendi jus nullum habent.... +Nam in Persia si gallina fit gallus, ipsa infaustum diabolum franget. Si +autem alium gallum adhibueris in auxilium, ut cum gallina consortium +habeat, non erit incommodum ut tunc ille diabolus sit interfectus." +According to a Sicilian proverb, the hen that crows like a cock must +neither be sold nor given away, but eaten by its mistress.[426] + +In the forty-fifth story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the cocks +crow, and the devil's smoke disappears. In the fortieth story of the +same book, the cock crows, and the devil disappears from the kingdom in +which he made every man and every thing turn to stone. The son of a +peasant, staying to pray all through the night with lighted candles, +alone escapes from the devil's evil works; after three nights of similar +penitence, all the men who were turned to stone come to life again, and +the young and pious peasant espouses the king's beautiful daughter. + +In the thirtieth story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, when the +cock begins to crow, the old man becomes of a sudden at once rigid and +silent. Here, perhaps, there is an allusion to the old sun of evening, +and to the cock's crowing in the evening. The cock of night, +therefore, assumes sometimes a diabolical form. In the twenty-second +story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the devil becomes a cock in +order to eat the corn into which the young man who was first turned +into a gold ring, has been at length transformed. But this cock of +night, being demoniacal, although his crest (the sun) is always red, +is of a black colour. The cock is red in the morning and in the +evening; in the night it is black, with its red crest turned now to +the east, now to the west; it is upon the little feet of a hen,[427] +that the little movable enchanted Russian hut stands, which the young +heroes and young heroines on a journey meet with in the forest, and +cause to turn in the direction they came from. + +In the ninth story of the second book of the _Pentamerone_, a queen +gives orders to kill the cocks in the town, so that the crowing may +cease, because as long as the cocks crow, she will, by a witch's +enchantment, be unable to recognise and embrace her son. The witch +herself evidently assumes here the form of the diabolical cock that +crows in the night.[428] + +In the first story of the fourth book of the _Pentamerone_, the old +Minec' Aniello feeds a cock well, but being afterwards in want of +money, sells it to two magicians, who, when walking back, say to each +other that the cock is precious for the stone that it contains, which, +enclosed in a ring, will enable one to obtain all that he wishes (the +_lapillus alectorius_, which is said to be as large as a bean, to be +like crystal, to be good for pregnant women, and for inspiring +courage; it is alleged that the hero Milon owed all his strength to +it). Minec' Aniello hears this, steals the cock, kills it, takes the +stone, and by its means becomes young again, in a beautiful palace of +gold and silver. When the magicians defraud him of this stone, +enclosed in a ring, the young man becomes old again, and goes to seek +his lost ring in the kingdom of the deep hole (de Pertuso cupo) +inhabited by the rat; the rats gnaw the finger of the magician who has +the ring; Minec' Aniello recovers his ring, and changes the two +magicians into asses; he rides upon one ass, and then throws it down +the mountains; the other ass is loaded with lard, and sent in +gratitude to the rats. Here the cock appears as a nocturnal animal; +the stone which, when enclosed in a ring, performs miracles, is the +sun which comes out when invoked by the cock of night. According to +the Sicilian belief, when one dreams of brood-hens with chickens in +uninhabited and deserted houses, it is a sign that there are treasures +hidden in these houses, and one must go to dig them up. + +In the first of the Esthonian stories, the cock that crows is a spy +over the old woman.[429] In the third Esthonian story, a woman gives +her husband three eggs of a black hen to eat in order to obtain three +dwarf heroes. In the twenty-second Esthonian story, the shepherds that +watch over the son of the persecuted king, seeing the knowingness of +the boy, recognise the truth of the proverb that "the egg is more +cunning than the hen." In the ninth Esthonian story, a young man, +after having made a compact with the devil, cheats him, giving him the +blood of a cock instead of his own. In the fourth Esthonian story, +when three strokes are given with a golden rod upon a rock, a large +golden cock comes out and perches upon the top of it; it beats its +wings and crows; at each crowing a marvel comes out of the stone, a +tablecloth that spreads itself and a porringer that fills itself. In +the twenty-fourth Esthonian story, an old fairy gives to the queen a +little basket with a bird's egg inside; the queen must hatch it for +three months, like a pearl, in her bosom; first a little living doll +will be born, which, when warmed in a basket covered with wool, will +become a real girl; at the same time that the doll becomes a real +girl, the queen will give birth to a beautiful male child. Linda, the +wife of Kalew, in Finnish mythology, is also born of the egg of a +woodcock or a heathcock. + +In Hungry (where a dyed tin cock is placed upon the top of high +buildings to indicate the direction of the wind--this is the English +and Italian weathercock; we have all heard of the cock of the tower of +St Mark at Venice which makes the hours strike), it is believed that, +to appease the devil, one must sacrifice a black cock to him. The red +cock, on the contrary, signifies fire.[430] + +In the Monferrato it is believed that a black hen split open alive in +the middle, and placed where one feels the pain of the _mal di punta_, +will take away the disease and the pain, on condition that when this +strange plaster is taken off, the feathers be burned in the house. + +The cock or fowl which, in the festive customs of Essex and of Norfolk +(of which traces are preserved in the striking of the porringer by a man +blindfolded at the feast of Mid-Lent in several parts of France and in +Piedmont), a man blind-folded wins, if he succeeds in striking it upon +the shoulders of another man (or else sometimes shut up in a porringer +at the height of twelve or fourteen feet from the ground, at which +projectiles are thrown[431]) is a personification of the funereal cock +out of which, when struck, the daily fire is made to come. The sacrifice +of a cock was a custom in India, Greece, and Germany. + +In the same way as the ancients used to make quails fight against each +other, so they made cocks; hence the cock was called son of Mars +(Areôs neottos). We already know that the cock's crest terrifies the +maned lion; the crest and the mane are equivalent; and we have also +seen what heroic virtue was attributed to the _lapillus alectorius_. +Plutarch writes that the Lacedæmonians sacrificed the cock to Mars to +obtain victory in the battles which they fought in the open air. +Pallas wore the cock upon her helmet, Idomeneus upon his shield. +Plutarch says, moreover, that the inhabitants of Caria used to carry a +cock on the end of their lances, and refers the origin of this custom +to Artaxerxes; but it appears to be much more ancient, for the Carians +wore crested helmets as far back as the time of Herodotus, for which +reason the Persians gave the Carians the name of cocks. Cockfights, +which became so popular in England, are also common in India. Philon, +the Hebrew, relates of Miltiades, that before the battle of Marathon +he inflamed the ardour of his soldiers by exhibiting cockfights; the +same, according to Ælianos, was done by Themistocles. John Goropius +(who gives the extravagant etymologies of _danen_ and _alanen_ from +_de hahnen_ and _all hahnen_) relates that the Danes were accustomed +to carry two cocks to war, one to tell the hours and the other to +excite the soldiers to battle. Du Cange informs us that duels between +cocks were also the custom in France in the seventeenth century, and +gives some fragments of mediæval writings in which these are +prohibited as a superstitious custom and one which was objectionable. + +It is well known that the ancient Romans, before engaging in battle, +took auguries from cocks and fowls, although this custom sometimes +gave occasion to derision. Of Publius Claudius, for instance, it is +said that, being about to engage in a naval battle in the first Punic +war, he consulted the auguries in order not to offend against the +customs of his country; but that when the augurs announced that the +fowls would not eat, he ordered them to be taken and thrown into the +sea, saying, "If they will not eat, then let them drink." + +Part of the worship which was offered to the cock and to the hen was +also rendered to the egg: the Latin proverb, "Gallus in sterquilinio +suo plurimum potest," shows the great value of the egg. The pearl +which the fowl searches for in the dunghill is nought else but its own +egg; and the egg of the hen in the sky is the sun itself. During the +night the celestial hen is black, but it becomes white in the morning; +and being white, on account of the snow, it is the hen of winter. The +white hen is propitious on account of the golden chickens hatched by +it. In the Monferrato it is believed that the eggs of a white hen laid +on Ascension Day, in a new nest, are a good remedy for pains in the +stomach, head, and ears, and that, when taken into a cornfield, they +prevent the blight, or black evil, from entering amongst the crops, or +when taken into a vineyard, they save it from hail. The eggs which are +eaten at Easter and concerning which, accompanied sometimes by songs +and proverbs, so many popular customs, mythologically in accordance, +are current in the various countries of Europe, celebrate the +resurrection of the celestial egg, a symbol of abundance,[432] the sun +of spring. The hen of the fable and the fairy tales, which lays golden +eggs, is the mythical hen (the earth or the sky) which gives birth +every day to the sun. The golden egg is the beginning of life in +Orphic and Hindoo cosmogony; by the golden egg the world begins to +move, and movement is the principle of good. The golden egg brings +forth the luminous, laborious, and beneficent day. Hence it is an +excellent augury to begin with the egg, which represents the principle +of good, whence the equivocal Latin proverb, "Ab ovo ad malum," which +signified "from good to evil," but which properly meant, "from the egg +to the apple," the Latins being accustomed to begin their dinners with +hard-boiled eggs and to end them with apples (a custom which is still +preserved among numerous Italian families).[433] + +But to begin _ab ovo_ also means to begin at the beginning. Horace +says that he does not begin from the twin eggs the description of the +Trojan war-- + + "Nec gemino bellum Trojanum orditur _ab ovo_," + +alluding to the egg of Lêda, to which the Greek proverb, "Come out of +the egg" (ex ôou exêlthen), also alludes, said of a very handsome man, +and referring to fair Helen and her two luminous brothers the +Dioskuroi. But here the white cock has became a white swan, of which +we shall speak in the following chapter. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[421] i. 49. + +[422] Mâ no vadhîr indra mâ parâ dâ mâ naḥ priyâ bhoǵanâni pra moshîḥ +âṇḍâ mâ no maghavań ćhakra nir bhen mâ naḥ pâtrâ bhet sahaǵânushâṇi; +_Ṛigv._ i. 104, 8. + +[423] Der Vogel der den Namen Parodars führt, o heiliger Zarathustra, +den die übelredenden Menschen mit den Namen Kahrkatâç belegen, dieser +Vogel erhebt seine Stimme bei jeder göttlichen Morgenröthe: Stehet auf, +ihr Menschen, preiset die beste Reinheit, vertreibet die Dâeva; +_Vendidad_, xviii. 34-38, Spiegel's version.--The cock Parodars chases +away with his cry especially the demon Bûshyaṅçta, who oppresses men +with sleep, and he returns again in a fragment of the _Khorda-Avesta_ +(xxxix.): "'Da, vor dem Kommen der Morgenröthe, spricht dieser Vogel +Parodars, der Vogel der mit Messern verwundet, Worte gegen das Feuers +aus. Bei seinem Sprechen läuft Bushyaṅçta mit langen Händen herzu von +der nördlichen Gegend, von den nördlichen Gegenden, also sprechen, also +sagend: "Schlafet o Menschen, schlafet, sündlich Lebende, schlafet, die +ihr ein sündiges Leben führt." As in the song of Prudentius, the idea of +sleep and that of sin are associated together; the song of Prudentius +suggests the idea that it was written by some one who was initiated in +the solar mysteries of the worship of Mithras. + +[424] Cfr. Du Cange, _s. v._--And the same Du Cange, in the article +_gallina_, quotes an old mediæval glossary in which _gallina_ is said +to mean Christ, wisdom, and soul.--The cock of the Gospel announces, +reveals, betrays Christ three times, in the three watches of the +night, to which sometimes correspond the three sons of the legends. + +[425] According to a legend of St James, an old father and mother go +with their young son on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella in +Spain. On the way, in an inn at San Domingo de la Calzada, the +innkeeper's daughter offers her favours to the young man, who rejects +them; the girl avenges herself upon him by putting a silver plate in +his sack, for which he is arrested and impaled as a thief. The old +parents continue their journey to Santiago; St James has pity upon +them, and works a miracle which is only known to be his afterwards. +The old couple return to their country, passing by San Domingo; here +they find their son alive, whom they had seen impaled, for which they +there and then offer solemn thanks to St James. All are astonished. +The prefect of the place is at dinner when the news is brought to him; +he refuses to believe it, and says that the young man is no more alive +than the roasted fowl which is being set upon the table; no sooner has +he uttered the words, than the cock begins to crow, resumes its +feathers, jumps out of the plate and flies away. The innkeeper's +daughter is condemned; and in honour of the miracle, the cock is +revered as a sacred animal, and at San Domingo the houses are +ornamented with cock's feathers. A similar wonder is said, by Sigonio, +to have taken place in the eleventh century in the Bolognese; but +instead of St James, Christ and St Peter appear to perform +miracles.--Cfr. also the relationship of St Elias (and of the Russian +hero Ilya) feasted on the 21st of July, when the sun enters the sign +of the lion, with Helios, the hellenic sun. + +[426] + + La gallina cantatura + Nun si vinni, nè si duna, + Si la mancia la patruna. + +[427] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, i. 3, ii. 30; sometimes, instead of the +hen's feet we have the dog's paws; cfr. v. 28. + +[428] Concerning this subject I can add an unpublished story which +Signor S. M. Greco sends me from Cosenza in Calabria:--A poor girl is +alone in the fields; she plucks a rampion, sees a stair, goes down, +and comes to the palace of the fairies, who at sight of her are +smitten with love. She asks to be allowed to go back to her mother, +and obtains permission; she tells her mother that she hears a noise +every night, without seeing anything, and is advised to light a candle +and she will see. Next evening the girl does so, and sees a youth of +great beauty with a looking-glass on his breast. The third evening she +does the same, but a drop of wax falls upon the looking-glass and +wakens the youth, who cries out lamentably, "Thou shalt go hence." The +girl wishes to go away; the fairies give her a full clew of thread, +with the advice that she must go to the top of the highest mountain +and leave the clew to itself; where it goes, thither must she follow. +She obeys, and arrives at a town which is in mourning on account of +the absence of the prince; the queen sees the girl from the window and +makes her come in. After some time she gives birth to a handsome son, +and a shoemaker, who works by night, begins to sing-- + + "Sleep, sleep, my son; + If your mother knew some day + That you are my son, + In a golden cradle she would put you to sleep, + And in golden swaddling-clothes. + Sleep, sleep, my son." + +The queen then learns from the girl, that he who sings thus is the +prince, who is destined to stay far from the palace until the sun +rises without him perceiving it. Orders are then given to kill all the +fowls in the town, and to cover all the windows with a black veil +scattered over with diamonds, in order that the prince may believe it +is still night and may not perceive the rising of the sun. The prince +is deceived, and marries the maiden who is the fairies' favourite, and +they lived happy and contented, + + Whilst I, if you will believe me, + Found myself with a thorn in my foot. + +[429] Die schlaue Alte brachte bald heraus, was der Dorfhahn hinter +ihrem Rücken der jungsten Tochter ins Ohr gekräht hatte; Kreutzwald u. +Löwe, _Ehstnische Märchen_. + +[430] In the annals of the city of Debreczen, in the year 1564, we read +as follows: "Æterna et exitialis memoria de incendio trium ordinum in +anno præsenti: feria secunda proxima ante fest. nat. Mariæ gloriosæ +exorta est flamma et incendium periculosum in platea Burgondia; eadem +similiter ebdomade exortum est incendium altera vice, de platea Csapo de +domo inquilinari Stephani literati, multas domos ... in cinerem redegit, +et quod majus inter cætera est, nobilissimi quoque templi divi Andreæ et +turris tecturæ combustæ sunt, ex qua turri et ejus pinnaculo, gallus +etiam æreus, a multis annis insomniter dies ac noctes jejuno stomacho +stans et in omnes partes advigilans, flammam ignis sufferre non valens, +invitus devolare, descendere et illam suam solitam stationem deserere +coactus est, qui gallus tantæ cladis commiserescens ac nimio dolore +obmutescens de pinnaculo desiliendio, collo confracto in terram +coincidens et suæ vitæ propriæ quoque non parcens, fidele suum servitium +invitus derelinquendo, misere expiravit et vitam suam finivit sic." + +[431] Reinsberg von Düringsfeld observes (_Das festliche Jahr_), that +sometimes, for jest, in North Walsham, instead of the cock an owl is +put,--another funereal symbol with which we are already acquainted. + +[432] Not only the egg of the hen is a symbol of abundance, but even +the bones of fowls served in popular tradition to represent +matrimonial faith and coition. In Russia, when two (probably husband +and wife) eat a fowl together, they divide the bone of the neck, the +English merrythought, between them; then each of them takes and keeps +a part, promising to remember this rupture. When either of the two +subsequently presents something to the other, the one who receives +must immediately say, "I remember;" if not, the giver says to him, +"Take and remember." The forgetful one loses the game. A similar game, +called the verde or green, is played in Tuscany during Lent between +lovers with a little twig of the box-tree. + +[433] The sun is an egg at the beginning of day; he becomes, or finds, +an apple-tree in the evening, in the western garden of the Hesperides. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE DOVE, THE DUCK, THE GOOSE, AND THE SWAN. + + +SUMMARY. + + White, red, and dark-coloured doves, ducks, geese, and swans.--The + funereal dove; it is united with the owl; kapotas.--The doves flee + from unhappy persons.--The dove and the hawk.--Two doves sacrifice + themselves, one for the other; a form of the Açviṇâu.--The dove and + the ant.--Transformation of the hero and heroine into doves.--The + two prophetic doves upon the cross-trees of the mast.--Among + funereal games, that of shooting arrows at a dove which hangs from + the mast of a ship.--The doves of Dodona.--The dove and the + water.--St Radegonda as a dove preserves sailors from shipwreck.--A + dove guides the Argonauts.--The soul of Semiramis becomes a + dove.--It is sacrilege to eat a dove.--Hero and heroine become + doves, in order to escape.--The dove as the bringer of joy, of + light, of good; it is a symbol of the winter that ends, and of the + spring which is beginning.--The daughters of Anius become white + doves.--Two doves separate the barley for the girl.--The fireworks, + the stove, and the car of Indras, perform the same miracles, _i.e._, + they make beautiful the girl with the ugly skin.--Zezolla benefited + by the dove of the fairies.--The doves on the rosebush.--The nymph + Peristera helps Aphroditê to pluck flowers.--The phallical + dove.--The word _haṅsas_; the guç-lebedi of Russian tales.--Agnis as + a haṅsas.--The Marutas as haṅsâs.--The horses of the two Açvinâu as + haṅsâs.--The duck makes its nest upon the thief's head.--Bṛibus on + the thieves' head; Bṛibus as Indras, and as a bird.--Brahman upon + the haṅsâs.--The sun as a golden duck.--The betrothed wife as a + duck.--The arrows of Râmas as haṅsâs.--Kabandhas drawn by + haṅsâs.--The haṅsâs as love messengers.--The geese-swans and the + young hero in Russian tales.--The serpent-witch and the princess as + a white duck.--The golden and silver eggs of the duck.--The golden + egg of the duck causes the death of the horse.--The geese of the + Capitol.--The goose which, after having been cooked, rises again + alive.--Geese as discoverers of deceits.--The Valkiries as + swans.--Berta the Reine pédauque.--The wild goose on the bush.--The + goose eaten on St Michael's Day.--The hero and the swan.--The + kingdom of the San Graal.--The legend of Lohengrin; a variety of the + myth of the Açvinâu; Lohengrin and Elsa's brother, the sun and the + moon.--The legend of the Dioskuroi; Zeus as a swan; the Dioskuroi + deliver Helen, as Lohengrin delivers Elsa. + +Inasmuch as there is the white dove and the dove-coloured one,[434] +the white duck and goose, the duck and the dark-coloured or +fire-coloured goose, the white swan and the flamingo, the red swan and +the black, these birds, dove, goose, duck, and swan, from the +diversity of colour which they assume upon the earth, also assumed +mythical aspects which are sometimes contradictory when translated to +the sky to represent celestial phenomena. While the white ones served +for the more poetical images of mythology, the red and the dark ones +offered aspects now benignant, now malignant, alluring the hero now to +his ruin, and now, instead, to good fortune. The red hues, for +example, of the western sky appear as flames into which the witch +wishes to precipitate the young hero; the roseate tints of the eastern +heavens, on the contrary, are generally the pyre or furnace in which +the hero burns the ill-favoured witch who endeavours to ruin him; from +the dawn of morning, from the white sky, from the snow of winter, from +the white earth or white swan, the golden egg (the sun) comes forth; +now the beautiful maiden, now the young hero emerges from it--the +aurora and the sun, or else the spring and the sun. The evening sun +and aurora in the night, the sun and the verdant earth, which divests +itself of its varicoloured attire in autumn, veil, cover, and lose +themselves; their most vivid hues become obscure in the gloom of +night, or are covered by the snow of winter; the hero becomes a +dark-coloured dove, or a gloomy swan which crosses the waters. I have +noted more than once how the night of the year corresponds to those of +the day; the sun which hides itself in the night of evening, and the +sun which veils itself in the night of winter, are often represented +by the same mythical images. + +Let us now see under what mythical aspects the dove, the duck, and the +swan appear in the East, in order to compare them with Western +traditions. + +The _Ṛigvedas_ presents us with the funereal dove, the grey or +dark-coloured dove, the messenger of the nocturnal or wintry darkness. +Seeing it is joined in the Vedic hymn with the owl, it was supposed +that it represented some other bird than the dove, and interpreters +were fain to recognise in the Vedic kapotas the _turdus macrourus_ +rather than the dove; but this interpretation seems to me +inadmissible, since the Vedic kapotas appears as a domestic bird, and +one which approaches the dwellings of men, habits which thrushes have +not, and which doves have. In the 165th hymn of the tenth book of the +_Ṛigvedas_, the kapotas is exorcised as a messenger of the funereal +Nirṛitis, of death, and of Yamas the god of the dead, in order that it +may do no evil: "Be propitious to us," cries the poet, "be propitious +to us, rapid (or messenger) kapotas; inoffensive may the bird be unto +us, O gods, in the houses. When the owl emits that painful cry, when +the kapotas touches the fire, honour be to Mṛityus, to Yamas, whose +messenger it is."[435] As birds of evil omen also must the doves be +recognised, which flee from the unhappy in the _Pańćatantram_.[436] In +the dove pursued by the hawk (the hawk has also in Sanskṛit the name +of kapotâris, or enemy of doves) of the Buddhist legend concerning the +king who sacrifices himself to keep his word, which has been recorded +in the chapter on the hawk, the hawk is the form taken by Indras, and +the dove the form of Agnis, the fire. The same legend is found again +in the _Tuti-Name_, with this variation that the vulture takes the +place of the falcon, and Moses that of the Buddhist king. In order to +fulfil the duties of hospitality, he cuts off as much of his own flesh +as the dove weighs, to give it to the vulture, who takes in jest the +same part of the hero which the hatred of races and religious +fanaticism make the Jew of Venice, immortalised by the genius of +Shakspeare, demand with seriousness. In other Hindoo varieties of the +same legend of the hero who sacrifices himself, we find two doves (in +the _Pańćatantram_) which sacrifice themselves one for the other; two +doves that love one another (in the _Tuti-Name_,[437] they are two +turtle-doves). Here we have a form of the two Açvinâu, of the two +brothers of whom one sacrifices himself for the other; the well-known +fable of La Fontaine, _Les Deux Pigeons_, is a reminiscence of this +Eastern legend. In the same way, a variety of the legend of the two +brothers is contained in the fable of Æsop, and of La Fontaine, of the +dove that throws a blade of grass into the water to the ant that is +about to drown, and thus saves it, for which reason the grateful ant +soon after bites the foot of the hunter who has caught the dove, so +that he is compelled to let it go. In the chapter which treats of the +swallow, we saw the beautiful maiden upon the tree at the fountain +changed into a swallow by the witch's enchantment; numerous other +legends, instead of the transformation into a swallow, give us that +into a dove.[438] The stories of the maiden Filadoro and of the Island +of the Ogres, in the _Pentamerone_;[439] a Piedmontese story +communicated by me in 1866 to my friend Professor Alexander +Wesselofski, who published it in his essay upon the poet Pucci; the +thirteenth Sicilian story of Signora Gonzenbach (of which the twelfth +story is a variation); the forty-ninth story of the sixth book of +_Afanassieff_ (a variety of which occurs at the end of the fifth of +the stories of Santo Stefano di Calcinaia), and a great number of +analogous European stories, reproduce this subject of the maiden +transformed into a dove by the witch's enchantment: as the swallow is +white and black, so does the dove into which the beautiful maiden is +transformed appear now white and now black. No less numerous are the +stories in which, instead of the young princess, we read of young +princes transformed into doves; I publish here two unpublished Tuscan +stories which refer to this subject, and which (particularly the +second) are of great interest.[440] + +Hitherto the dove has appeared as a mournful and diabolical form +assumed by the hero or heroine, on compulsion of external magic. Of +funereal character, too, are the two doves which place themselves upon +the cross-trees of the ship in which Gennariello is carrying a hawk, a +horse, and a white and red bride with black hair to his brother +Milluccio (a variation of the legend of the Açvinâu, and of that of +the youth who sacrifices himself for his brother). The two doves +speak to each other; one says that Gennariello is taking to his +brother Milluccio a hawk which immediately after its arrival will tear +out his eyes, and that he who should warn Milluccio of it, or not take +the hawk to him, would turn to marble; then that Gennariello is taking +to his brother Milluccio a horse which, as soon as it is ridden, will +break his neck, and that he who should warn Milluccio of this, or not +take the horse to him, would turn, to marble; and finally, it says +that Gennariello is taking to his brother a wife on whose account a +dragon will devour the bride and bridegroom during the first night of +their union, and that he who should warn Milluccio of this, or not +take the bride to him, would turn to marble. The cunning Gennariello +takes hawk, horse, and bride to Milluccio; but before he takes the +hawk in his hand, Gennariello cuts off its head; before he rides the +horse, Gennariello cuts its legs off; and before the dragon comes up +to devour the bride and bridegroom, Gennariello shears off its head. +Milluccio, who has not seen the dragon, sees his brother with a knife +in his hand, and thinks that he has come to kill him; he has him bound +and condemned to death. In order not to escape this fate, Gennariello +reveals everything and turns to marble. Milluccio learns that by +anointing the marble with the blood of his two little sons, his +brother can be recalled to life; he slaughters his children; the +mother, in despair, goes to the window to kill herself by throwing +herself down, but she sees her father coming towards her, and +shouting, "Drinto na nugola." He resuscitates her children, saying +that it was to avenge himself, he had caused such bitter pain to all; +on Gennariello, because he had carried off his daughter; on Milluccio, +who was the cause of her being carried off; on his daughter, because +she had eloped from her home. The two doves that perched upon the +crosstrees of the mast were therefore messengers of death to the hero +and to the heroine, as sometimes, on the other hand, they are their +own funereal form. The reader will doubtless remember how, in the +funeral of Patroclus in the _Iliad_, amongst the funereal games, there +is that of shooting arrows at a dove hung upon the mast of a ship. +(He will also remember the two prophetic doves which gave responses +upon two oak-trees or beeches at Dodona, and which cried, "Zeus was, +Zeus is, Zeus will be, O Zeus, the greatest of the gods!") The dove +here appears in connection with funereal waters; the fable is well +known of the dove that meets with its death by beating its head +against a wall upon which water is painted.[441] In the legend of +Queen Radegonda, the holy queen, in the form of a dove, delivers +sailors from shipwreck. According to Apollonios, a dove was the guide +of the Argonauts. It is said that Semiramis was transformed into one +after her death. The dove also appears as a funereal symbol in +Christian monuments; hence, and from its use as the symbol of the St +Esprit, the superstition cherished by a great portion of the people in +Italy, Germany, Holland, and Russia, to the effect that it is a sin to +eat a dove. It is well-known what reverence was shown to it in +antiquity, particularly in Syria and in Palestine. + +Sometimes the form of a dove is voluntarily assumed by the two young +lovers, to flee from the persecution of the monster; as, for instance, +in the sixth of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano_. Sometimes the +funereal dove (like the funereal crow) is the bringer of joy and good +things to men and gods. The popular custom of the artificial dove, +commonly called the dove of the Pazzi (from the name of the noble +Florentine family which possessed the privilege), which, at Florence, +on Holy Saturday, that is to say, Easter Eve, starts from the altar of +the Cathedral, and flies at midday to light the fireworks upon the +little square between Santa Maria del Fiore and the Baptistery of St +John, to announce that Christ has risen to a crowd of peasants, who +have flocked in from the country to augur from the dove's flight +whether they will have a good harvest in the following year,--is a +symbol of the end of winter, and of the commencement of spring. In the +_Metamorphoses_ of Ovid, the daughters of Anius, by the grace of +Bacchus, change into corn, wine, and oil, whatever they touch, +according to the words of the same Anius-- + + "Tactu natarum cuncta mearum + In segetem, laticemque meri, baccamque Minervæ + Transformabantur." + +Agamemnon wishes to have them with him to provision the army; the +daughters of Anius refuse; Agamemnon then purposes compelling them by +main force; but Bacchus takes pity upon them, and transforms them into +white doves. In the thirtieth story of the sixth book of +_Afanassieff_, two doves (a form of the Açvinâu) come to separate the +barley for Masha or Little Mary, the black (ćornushka) or ugly or +dirty little girl, the persecuted Cinderella, and then making her +mount upon the stove, transform her into an exceedingly beautiful +maiden, renewing thus the miracle of Indras (and of the Açvinâu), who +restores to beauty the maiden of the ugly skin. The fireworks of the +popular Tuscan custom, the stove, and the car of Indras perform the +same miracle. In the sixth story of the first book of the +_Pentamerone_, the maiden Zezolla, called at home "a cat, a +cinder-girl," because she was always watching the fire, ill-treated at +home by her step-mother, is benefited by the dove of the fairies of +the island of Sardinia, which sends her a plant that yields golden +dates, a golden spade, a little golden bucket, and a silk tablecloth. +The girl must cultivate the plant, and simply remember, when she +wishes for some favour, to say-- + + "Dattolo mio 'naurato, + Co la zappatella d'oro t'haggio zappato, + Co lo secchietello d'oro t'haggio adacquato, + Co la tovaglia de seta t'haggio asciuttato; + Spoglia a te, e vieste a me." + +The date-tree yields some of its riches to adorn the maiden. Thus, +when the young king proclaims a festival, she goes disguised in regal +attire, and dances with an effect that outdazzles like a sun. When she +is followed by the prince the first time, she throws gold behind her; +the second time, pearls; the third, her slipper; and by means of it +she is recognised and espoused. In the twenty-second Esthonian story, +when the young prince-lover arrives, two doves perch upon the +rose-bush, in which the beautiful daughter of the gardener is enclosed +by enchantment; the beautiful maiden comes out of the rose-bush, and, +showing the half of her ring, weds the prince who has preserved the +other half. In the Hellenic myth, Aphroditê and Love play at seeing +who will pluck most flowers; winged Love is winning, but the nymph +Peristera helps Aphroditê; Love indignant, changes her into the +peristera or dove, which Aphroditê, to console her, takes under her +protection. The doves now draw the chariot of Venus, and now (like the +sparrows) accompany it. In the _Odyssey_ the doves bring the ambrosia +to Zeus,[442] and it is in the form of a dove that Zeus (well known +to be an _alter ego_ of Indras) visits the virgin Phthia. Catullus, +speaking of Cæsar's _salacitas_, makes mention of the _columbulum +albulum_, or little dove of Venus.[443] In this passage the dove +becomes a phallical symbol; and we are reminded of the well-known +mythical episode of the animal, bird, or fish which laughs, by the +equivocal Italian proverb, "The dove that laughs wants the bean" (said +of a woman when she smiles upon her lover[444]). It is narrated of +Aphroditê, that she cured Aspasia of a tumour by the help of a dove; +here the dove does to Aspasia the same service as the rudder of +Indras's chariot to Apalâ in the Vedic legend. + +But in mythical tradition the place of the doves is sometimes taken by +ducks, which are exchanged for swans. + +The Hindoo word _haṅsas_ means now swan, now duck (anas, anser), now +goose, now phænicopterus. No wonder then that the myths exchanged, +one for another, animals which were confounded together under one and +the same appellation. Russian stories call the birds goose-swans +(guçlebedi) which now carry off, and now save the young hero. + +In the Vedic hymns, the haṅsas (duck-swan or goose-swan) is +represented more than once. Agnis, the fire, when entreated to arouse +himself in houses with the aurora, is compared to a swan in the waters +(or to the light in the darkness, to white upon black, or the sun in +the azure sky[445]). The god Agnis is himself called haṅsas, the +companion (as a thunderbolt) of the movable (waves or clouds), going +in company with the celestial waters.[446] The song of the companions +of Bṛihaspatis, singing hymns to the cows or auroræ of the morn, +resembles the song of the haṅsâs.[447] The Marutas, with the splendid +bodies (the winds that lighten, howl, and thunder) are compared to +haṅsâs with black backs[448] (which reminds us of the swallows with +black backs and with white ones, of black crows and white crows, black +swans and white ones). The horses of the two Açvinâu are compared to +haṅsâs, ambrosial, innocent, with golden wings, which waken with the +aurora (being sunbeams), which swim in the waters, joyful and +merry.[449] In the Russian stories of _Afanassieff_,[450] a duck comes +to make its nest upon the head of the thief who has fallen into the +waters out of the sky. The duck lays a golden egg (the sun) in its +nest at morn, and a silver egg (the moon) at even. In the _Ṛigvedas_, +I read that upon the head of the thieves (Paṇayas), similar to the +vast forest of the Ganges, at its higher part, Bṛibuḥ went to place +himself, scattering thousands of gifts.[451] I think I can recognise +in Bṛibus a bird and a personification of Indras. Bṛibus is, in +Çâñkhâyanas, represented as a takshan, which is explained as a +constructor, an artificer, a carpenter; hence Bṛibus is supposed to be +the carpenter of the Paṇayas. But this seems improbable, besides being +in contradiction to the Vedic strophe. The proper primitive sense of +the word _takshan_ is the cutter, he who breaks in pieces; in Bṛibus, +therefore, I recognise not the carpenter of the Paṇayas, but their +destroyer. As we also find, in another Vedic hymn,[452] Bṛibus in +connection with two other birds, viz., the bharadvaǵas (the lark) and +the stokas (the cuckoo), I am induced to suppose that Bṛibus too is a +bird. Finally, as I find Bṛibus in connection with Indras, I see in +this bird that perches upon the head of the Paṇayas, a form of the god +Indras himself. The duck, in Russian stories, deposits its egg upon +the robber's head; thus Indras takes their treasures off the head of +the Paṇayas. We already know of the pearls which fall from the head of +the good fairy, combed by the virtuous maiden; we also know that the +mythical waters are in relation with the treasures. We must record +here the legend of the _Râmâyaṇam_ concerning the origin of the +Ganges, which, before pouring its waters upon the earth, let them +wander for a long time upon the hairy head of the god Çivas, who is a +more elevated form of Kuveras, the god of riches.[453] We know also +that the pearl and the egg are the same in the myths. + +The god Brahman is represented in Hindoo mythology riding upon a white +haṅsas. + +In the _Râmâyaṇam_, the sky is compared to a lake of which the +resplendent sun is the golden duck.[454] Râmas (a form of the sun +Vishṇus), whose speech has the accent of the haṅsas drunk with +love,[455] hurls with his divine bow an arrow which penetrates through +seven palm-trees, the mountain, and the earth, out of which it +afterwards comes, and returns to Râmas in the form of a haṅsas.[456] +Kabandhas, who, when traversing the fire, is released by his monstrous +form, is drawn by haṅsâs whilst ascending into heaven.[457] Finally, +the haṅsâs are well known which served as love-messengers between the +prince Nalas and the Princess Damayantî in the celebrated episode of +the _Mahâbhâratam_. + +In the fourth story of the first book of _Afanassieff_, little Johnny +(Ivasco) is upon an oak-tree, which the witch is gnawing, to possess +herself of him; three flights of geese-swans pass one after the other; +Johnny begs for their assistance; the first flight refuse; as also +the second; those of the third take Johnny upon their wings and carry +him home.[458] In the nineteenth story of the sixth book, the +geese-swans assume, on the contrary, a malignant aspect, carrying the +little brother on their wings away from his negligent sister. The +story says that these animals have had for a long time the evil +reputation of carrying little children off. The geese-swans carry the +boy into a fairy's house, where he plays with golden apples. The +sister follows upon his track; she inquires at a stove, an apple-tree, +and a brook of milk, where the goose-swans have carried the boy to, +but learns nothing; at last the malicious little iosz (the sea-urchin) +reveals to her the secret. The sister takes her brother and carries +him home, having been followed by the geese-swans and having had to +hide herself during her flight by the brook, by the apple-tree and +then by the stove. + +But if geese, ducks, and swans sometimes do evil, or are sometimes +diabolical forms assumed by the witch's deceit, they generally produce +good and conduct to good. In a variation of the forty-sixth story of +the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, the geese predict the future to Ivan +the merchant's son, who, having been to school under the devil, learns +there, amongst other things, the language of birds. In the sixtieth +story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, the swan, a beautiful +maiden, helps the unhappy Danilo, whom the prince has ordered to sew a +pelisse which must have golden lions for buttons and birds from beyond +the seas for button-holes; the same swan performs other miracles for +the youth whom she loves. In the forty-sixth story of the fourth book +of _Afanassieff_, the old serpent-witch makes the princess become a +white duck during the prince's absence. The duck lays three eggs, out +of which she has three sons, two handsome, and one ill-favoured, but +cunning. The witch kills, during their sleep, the two handsome sons +and turns them to ducks; the third escapes by means of his cunning; +the white duck, anxious about her sons, flies to the prince's palace +and begins to sing-- + + "Krià, krià, my little sons! + Krià, krià, little pigeons! + The old witch has extinguished you; + The old witch, the malignant serpent, + The deceitful malignant serpent! + Your own father has carried you off, + Your own father, my husband! + She drowned us in the rapid stream, + She transformed us into little white ducks, + And she herself lives in regal pomp!" + +The prince has the duck caught by the wings, and says, "White +birch-tree, put thyself behind; beautiful maiden, before." At this +magical formula, the tree rises behind him and he finds his beautiful +princess before him. He then compels the witch to bring the little +children to life again. + +The death of the duck sometimes makes the fortune of the hero or the +heroine, on account of the egg which it produces (the sun in the +morning and the moon in the evening). In the fifty-third story of the +fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the young hero, by the advice of an +unknown young man, goes to seek under the roots of a birch-tree a duck +which lays one day (in the morning) a golden egg, and next day (in the +evening) a silver one; upon its breast, the following words are +written in golden letters:--"He who eats its head will become king; he +who eats the heart will spit gold." He carries it to his mother when +his father is absent and his mother has an intrigue with another +gentleman. The gentleman reads the golden letters and advises the +woman to have the duck cooked; but the two sons are before him; and +whilst their mother is at mass, one eats the head and the other the +heart of the duck, and meet with the adventures which are related in +the chapter on the Horse.[459] The golden egg of the duck causes the +death of the witch and the monster in numerous Slavonic stories. In +the thirty-third story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, a +marvellous goose, of the same nature as those that in the Capitol +warned the Romans of the ambuscade of the Gauls, discovers the +traitors. The wife of a rich merchant asks her husband to procure for +her the marvel of marvels. Her husband buys, in the twenty-seventh +world and in the thirtieth kingdom (which is the kingdom of the other +night-world), from an old man,[460] a goose which, after having been +cooked and eaten, all except the bones, rises again alive. The goose +performs the same miracle in the merchant's house; on the morrow, when +the husband is absent, his wife invites a lover of hers into the house +and wishes to cook the goose to welcome him. She says to it, "Come +here;" the goose obeys; she commands it to get into the frying-pan, +but it refuses. The woman puts it in by force, but remains fastened to +the frying-pan;[461] the lover tries to release her, but sticks fast +also; the servants come to the rescue, and stick one to the other and +all to the frying-pan, until the husband appears, hears his wife's +confession, thrashes the lover and releases the woman from the goose. + +In the _Pentamerone_, too, geese appear as discoverers of deceits. +Marziella, when she combs her hair, scatters pearls and flower-buds +about her; when she walks, lilies and violets grow up under her +feet;[462] her brother Ciommo is to conduct her to the king as his +wife; but the old aunt changes the bride, putting her own ugly +daughter in the place of her beautiful niece. The indignant king sends +Ciommo to pasture the geese; he neglects them, but Marziella, who had +been carried off by a siren, comes from the bottom of the sea to feed +them, "de pasta riale," and to give them "rose-water" to drink. The +geese grow fat, and begin to sing near the king's palace-- + + "Pire, pire, pire; + Assai bello è lo sole co la luna; + Assai chiù bella è chi coverna a nuie." + +The king sends a servant after the geese, and thus discovers +everything; he wishes to marry the beautiful maiden, but the siren +keeps her tied with a golden chain; the king, with a noiseless file, +files with his own hands the chain which keeps the maiden's foot fast, +and thereafter marries her.[463] It is a gooseherd who, in the +twentieth Esthonian story, releases the beautiful girl from the +monster husband, the killer of his wives (a form of Barbebleu). + +In the Russian story, the fairy maidens (in German traditions, the +Virgin Mary too) sometimes take, in order to cross the waters, the +form of geese-swans; thus in the _Eddas_, three Valkyries spin on the +shores of the lake, with their swan forms close behind them. "The +maidens," sings the poem of Völund, "flew from the south across +Mörkved, in order that the young Allhvit might be able to accomplish +his destiny. The daughters of the South sat down upon the shore to +spin the precious cloth. One of them, the most beautiful maiden of the +world, was clasped to the white bosom of Egil; Svanhvit, the second, +wore swan's feathers; the third embraced the white neck of +Völund."[464] To the Bertha of popular German tradition, only the foot +of the white goose or of the swan of the Valkyries has remained; hence +her name of Foot-of-goose and of _Reine pédauque_, in the same way as +the swan's foot alone has remained to the goddess Freya. + +When the form of a duck, a goose, or a swan is destroyed, the young hero +or the young heroine alone remain. In a German tradition, quoted by +Simrock in his _German Mythology_, we find an enchanted hunter who +strikes a wild goose on the flight, and which falls into a bush; he +comes up to take it, and instead of it (in the same way as we saw above, +the rosebush on which the doves perch) a naked woman rises before him. +The custom of eating a goose in England on St Michael's Day, is referred +by tradition to the times of Queen Elizabeth, who, on St Michael's Day, +received the news of the defeat of the Invincible Armada, when she had +just eaten a goose. But inasmuch as, according to Baron von +Reinsberg-Düringsfield, the custom of eating a goose on St Michael's Day +dates from the times of Edward IV., we must admit that Queen Elizabeth +conformed to a popular custom which already existed in England.[465] St +Michael's goose announces the winter like the halcyon. It is eaten as an +augury of the termination of the rainy and wintry season, inasmuch as +when the aquatic bird, the halcyon, the goose, the duck, or the swan, +finds no more water, when the sea of night, or the snow of winter dries +up, when the aquatic bird is wounded, or is eaten, or dies, the golden +egg is found, the sun comes out, the aurora returns, the winter appears +again, the young hero and the beautiful maiden come forth. When the hero +or heroine becomes an aquatic bird,[466] when he becomes a swan, is +drawn by a swan, or rides upon it, it means that he is traversing the +sea of death, and that he is returning to the kingdom of the San Graal. +When he comes on the swan to meet the beautiful maiden, no one must ask +him whence he came. The swan awaits him and will draw him once more +under its magic power, and into its gloomy kingdom, as soon as this +kingdom is remembered by the living. The imagination of the Celtic and +Germanic nations has, in a cycle of numerous and fascinating legends, +invested with solemn mystery this myth, to which the inspired and +classical music of Richard Wagner has, in Lohengrin, imparted a new +attractive magic. Lohengrin, the _recens natus_, the hero born of +himself, arrives in a boat drawn by a swan, into which a sorceress has +transformed Elsa's young brother: he comes to deliver the Princess Elsa, +and is about to marry her, but he does not forget that as long as he +remains with her, so much the longer will the torment of her brother +endure, so much the longer will he suffer in the shape of a swan; woe to +him if any one asks who he is, whence he came, or what that swan is, for +he would then be obliged to remember that the swan waits for him to +deliver it. Lohengrin must either renounce his love for Elsa, or betray +his cavalier's faith to the swan, of whose mysterious nature he is +cognisant; he bids a funereal farewell to Elsa, reunites her with her +young brother, and mournfully disappears on the gloomy waters, over +whose moonlit depths he had come. This is the legend of the two +brothers, raised to its utmost poetic and ideal power by Northern +genius. The sun and the moon appear in turns before the dawn and the +spring. They are separated, and one delivers the other in the legends +inspired by the good genie of man, as in others inspired by his evil +genie, one persecutes and deceives the other. We have, even in the Vedic +hymns, the Açvinâu, the divine twins, identified now with the twilights, +now with the sun and the moon, drawn by swans; Lohengrin is the sun; +Elsa's brother is the moon. When the evening aurora, when the autumnal +earth, loses the sun, it finds the moon; when the morning aurora or the +vernal earth loses the moon, the sun takes its place; the lovers change +places. One swan causes the birth of the other, carries the other, dies +for the other, like one dove for the other, and as the Dioskuroi lay +down their lives for each other. And, in truth, the legend of the +Dioskuroi is, in some points, in marvellous accordance with the Northern +legends of the rider of the swan. Zeus becomes a swan and unites himself +with Leda, wife of Tyndareos, and generates by her the sun and the moon, +Polüdeukes and Helen; according to Homer Helen alone is Zeus's daughter, +and Polüdeukes and Kastor are sons of Tyndareos; according to Herodotos, +Helen, on the contrary, is the daughter of Tyndareos, and this is in +accordance with Euripides, who tells us that the Dioskuroi are sons of +Zeus. In the _Heroides_ of Ovid, where the primitive tradition has +already been altered, Leda, after having united herself to the swan +Zeus, gives birth to two eggs; Helen comes out of one, Kastor and +Polüdeukes out of the other. Evidently _tot capita tot sententiæ_; but +these contradictions, far from excluding the myth of the sun, the moon, +and the aurora (or of the spring) confirm it. It is always difficult to +determine the paternity of a child who is born in an irregular manner, +and the birth of Helen and her two brothers was certainly extraordinary. +What is important here is that we have the swan which generates sons in +Leda; these sons, who are partly of the nature of the bird, and partly +of that of the woman, must assume a double form, and now become swans +like their father, now shine in their mother's beauty; when, moreover, +we think that only one of the brothers was, with Helen, born of the +swan, it becomes natural to think of the other brother who may love +Helen without being guilty of incest.[467] Before becoming famous by the +varied fortunes of Troy, Helen, as a girl, had her adventures; Theseus +seduced her and carried her off. The Dioskuroi come to deliver her in +the same way as Lohengrin comes upon the swan to deliver Elsa, whilst +her seducer is about to effect her ruin. Finally, the adventures of the +two Dioskuroi, of whom one sacrifices himself for the other, correspond +to the legend of the Schwanritter, the brother, or brother-in-law, who, +on account of the swan offers up his own life. Thus India, Greece, and +Germany united, in various forms, the figure of the swan with the story +of the two brothers, or of the two companions; India created the myth, +Greece coloured it, Germany has imbued it with passionate energy and +pathos. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[434] The Indian word _kapotas_, which means a dove, also indicates +the grey colour of antimony, the colour of the commonest species of +doves, and of those which are fed on St Mark's Place at Venice. + +[435] Çivaḥ kapota ishito no astu anâgâ devâḥ çakuno gṛiheshu; str. +2.--For the fourth strophe, cfr. the chapter which treats of the Owl. + +[436] ii. 9. + +[437] ii. 239.--Cfr. the chapter on the Eagle. + +[438] It appears to me that the same confusion arose between _coluber_ +and _columba_ as between _chelüdros_, a kind of serpent, and +_chelidôn_, a swallow. The beautiful maiden upon a tree occurs even in +the _Tuti-Name_, i. 178, _seq._ + +[439] ii. 7, and v. 9 + +[440] They were related to me at Antignano near Leghorn by the peasant +woman Uliva Selvi:-- + +A gentleman had twelve sons and one daughter, who had, by enchantment, +been metamorphosed into an eagle, and was kept in a cage. The father +takes the twelve sons to mass every day; every day he meets an old +beggar-woman and gives alms to her; one day, however, he has no money +with him, and therefore gives her nothing; the old woman curses him, +wishing that he may never see his sons again. No sooner said than +done; the twelve sons become twelve doves and fly away. The despairing +father and mother begin to weep; in their despair they forget to feed +the eagle. Opposite the gentleman's house the king lived, who becomes +enamoured of the eagle as though of a beautiful maiden; he has her +stolen and replaced by another eagle. Not far thence there lived a +washerwoman who had such a beautiful daughter that she never let her +go out except at night. They wash at the fountain surrounded by +poplar-trees; at midnight, as they wash, they hear a noise among the +poplar-trees, and the maiden is afraid. One night they listen and hear +the doves speaking and telling one another the incidents of the day, +where they had been and what they had been doing. They then fly into a +beautiful garden; the girl follows them; they enter into a beautiful +palace, and the washerwoman relates what she has seen to the +gentleman, who rejoices, and promises a great reward to the +washerwoman if she will show him where his sons go to sleep. Both +father and mother go to see; the pigeons speak, and say, "Were our +mother to see us ..."; they then fly away. The gentleman then consults +an astrologer, who advises him to allure the old witch into his house +by the promise of alms, to shut her up in a room, and to compel her by +main force to indicate the means of turning the pigeons into youths +once more, or else to kill her. The old woman gives a powder which, +when scattered on the highest mountain, will make the pigeons return +home. The father goes to the mountain, scatters the powder and returns +home, where he finds his sons, who are inquiring after the eagle. They +go to see it and do not recognise it; they complain to their mother of +this. Meanwhile, the young king is always near his eagle as if making +love to it; and his mother is displeased at it. The twelve brothers +meet a fairy who, for some alms, tells who has their eagle, and that +it will soon return home a beautiful maiden. And the eagle becomes a +beautiful girl and is married by the king. + +There was once a king who had a handsome son, enamoured of a beautiful +princess. He is carried off with two servants by the magicians and +transformed into a pigeon; the servants undergo the same +metamorphosis; one becomes green, one red, and the other greyish +violet (pavonazzo). They take him into a beautiful palace where he +must stay for seven years. Each has a large basin,--one is of gold, +another of silver, and the third of bronze. When they plunge into +them, they become three handsome youths. The princess, meanwhile, is +dying to know where her lover is gone; she goes to have her hair +combed on a terrace; the three pigeons carry away her looking-glass, +then the ribbon of her hair, and then her comb. A great festival +occurs in this town, to which the girls of the land go by night; on +the way, one of them, near the break of day, turns aside for a few +minutes; she sees a golden gate, finds a little gold key on the earth, +opens the door and enters into a fine garden. At the end of the path +there is a beautiful palace, into which she goes; she finds the three +basins of gold, silver, and bronze, and sees the pigeons become young +men. Meanwhile the king's daughter falls ill of grief, and is to all +appearance dying; the king resolves to have her cured at any cost. The +girl who had been in the place relates to the king's daughter all that +she has seen; the latter is cured and goes with the girl to the +palace; they find it, enter, and see a table laid for three persons; +the two girls hide themselves. The prince and the princess meet with +one another; but the prince, upon seeing her, is full of despair, +saying that her impatience has prolonged the enchantment for seven +years more, whilst it had at the time only three more days to run. He +becomes a pigeon again; she must stay for seven years upon a tower +exposed to all the inclemency of the seasons. Seven years pass by; the +princess has become so ugly that she looks like a beast, with long +hair all over her burned skin. The enchantment comes to an end for him +after seven years; he goes to look for her; she says, "How much have I +suffered for you!" The prince does not recognise her, and leaves her; +she is left naked in a dense forest, and goes to seek her father. +Night comes on, and the princess and her servant-maid do not know +where to take refuge; they climb up a tree, whence they perceive a +light. They walk towards it and find a beautiful little palace; a +beautiful lady, a fairy, shows herself, and asks, "Is this you, +Caroline?" This was the princess's name. But the fairy can give no +news of the prince, and sends her on to another fairy, her sister, +with the same result; she then goes to a third fairy, walking a double +distance each time. The three fairies were three queens who had been +betrayed by the same young prince. The third fairy gives to the +princess a magical rod; she must go to the prince and do to him what +he did to her--spit in his face, to wit. She is brought in a boat +before the young king's palace, and there, following the fairy's +instructions, she raises, by means of the rod, a beautiful palace, a +palace more beautiful than that of the king, with a beautiful +fountain. The young king wishes to go and see it; he sees a beautiful +princess and kisses his hand to her, but she shuts the window in his +face. He then invites her to dinner, but she refuses. He sends her a +magnificent diamond, which she gives to her majordomo, saying that she +has many more beautiful. He then sends her a splendid dress, which can +be taken in the palm of the hand; she tears it into pieces and gives +it to the cook to be used for kitchen purposes. The young king becomes +passionately enamoured of her, and sends to her his best watch, which +she gives also to her majordomo. He falls ill of a dreadful fever and +wishes to marry her; he sends his mother. The princess laughs at the +prince and refuses to come, saying, "Why does he not come himself?" +His mother begs again that she will come. "Let him come," she answers; +and at last she consents to come if they will make from her palace to +that of the king a covered way so well and thickly made that not a ray +of light can enter, and which she may be able to pass through with her +equipage. Half way, the covering opens, and the sunbeams enter, upon +which she disappears. (Cfr. the Indian myth of Urvaçî). The king being +about to die, his mother returns to the princess, who demands that +they bring him to her as if dead, in a bier. The king confesses that +he has betrayed four maidens, and that it is on account of the fourth +that he is coming to such a miserable end. The princess laughs at him +and spits twice in his face; the third time he rises again, they are +reconciled and married. (The spitting of the princess, which makes the +dead prince rise again, is the dew of the ambrosia, or of spring, +which brings the sun to life again.)--Cfr. the stories ii. 5, iv. 8, +of the _Pentamerone_, and v. 22 of _Afanassieff_. + +[441] It is said of the widowed turtle-dove that it will never drink +again in any fountain of limpid water for fear of reviving the image +of its lost companion by seeing its own in the water. The Christians +pretend that the voice of the turtle-dove represents the cry, the +sighing, and afterwards, for the resurrection of Christ, the joy of +Mary Magdalen. Ælianos says that the turtle-dove is sacred not only to +the goddess of love, and to the goddess of harvests, but also to the +funereal Parcæ. + +[442] In the legend of St Remy it is a dove that carries to the saint +the flagon of water with which he must baptize King Clodoveus. + +[443] + + "Et ille nunc superbus et superfluens + Perambulabit omnium cubilia, + Ut albulus columbus, aut Adoneus? + Cinæde Romule, hæc videbis et feres?" + +The chastity and the proverbial conjugal fidelity attributed to doves is +here denied. Catullus had evidently closely observed the habits of these +animals, which are sometimes, on the contrary, of a shameless +infidelity. I have seen a white dove, who, in the presence of his wife, +intent upon hatching her eggs, violated the nuptial bed of a gray dove, +at a moment when the jealous husband was eating; the wife accepted the +caresses of the husband and of the lover in the same passive attitude. + +[444] We may also record here another Italian proverb, "To take two +doves with one bean." In Italian anatomy a part of the phallos is +called a bean (fava). The birds, and especially the thrushes and the +doves, according to the popular belief, not only have the faculty of +making other birds, but even plants fruitful. The words of Pliny, +_Hist. Nat._ xvi. 44, have already been quoted by Prof. Kuhn: "Omnino +autem satum nullo modo nascitur, nec nisi per alvum avium redditum, +maxime palumbis ac turdis." + +[445] Çvasity apsu haṅso na sîdan kratvâ ćetishṭho viçâm usharbhut; +_Ṛigv._ i. 65, 9. + +[446] Bîbhatsûnâṁ sayuǵam haṅsam âhur apâṁ divyânâṁ sakhye ćarantam; +x. 124, 9. + +[447] Haṅsâir iva sakhibhir vâvadadbhir açmanmayâni nahanâ vyasyan +bṛihaspatir abhi kanikradad gâ; x. 67, 3. + +[448] Sasvaç cid dhi tanvaḥ çumbhamânâ â haṅsâso nîlapṛishṭhâ apaptan; +vii. 59, 7. + +[449] Cfr. the chapter which treats of the Bee. + +[450] vi. 2. + +[451] Adhi bṛibuḥ paṇînâṁ varshishṭhe mûrdhann asthât uruḥ kaksho na +gâñgyaḥ; _Ṛigv._ vi. 45, 31.--Bṛibuṁ sahasradâtamaṁ sûriṁ +sahasrasâtamam; vi. 45, 33.--Cfr. also the 32d strophe. + +[452] _Ṛigv._ vi. 46. + +[453] The goose is found in connection with robbers in the +twenty-third story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_. Two servants +stole a precious pearl from the king; being about to be found out, +they give the pearl, by the advice of an old woman, to the grey goose +in a piece of bread; the goose is then accused of having stolen the +pearl. It is killed, the pearl is found, and the two robbers escape. + +[454] v. 55.--In the forty-ninth story of the fifth book of +_Afanassieff_, a riddle occurs where the betrothed wife is represented +as a duck. A father sends his son to find the wife who is predestined +for him, with the following enigmatical order: "Go to Moscow; there +there is a lake; in the lake there is a net; if the duck has fallen +into the net, take the duck; if not, withdraw the net." The son +returns home with the duck--that is to say, with his betrothed wife. + +[455] ii. 46. + +[456] iv. 11. + +[457] iii. 75. + +[458] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, vi. 17, and a variety of the vi. 19. + +[459] Cfr. an interesting variety of this story in the _Griechische +und Albanische Märchen_ of Hahn. + +[460] Thus, in a Norwegian story, the dirty cinder-girl carries silver +ducks away from the magicians.--In the eighth Esthonian story, the third +brother is sent to hell for the ducks and geese with golden feathers. + +[461] In a Scandinavian and Italian variety of this story, instead of +the goose we have the eagle and eaglets; the goose returns, in the first +story of the fifth book of the _Pentamerone_, to do the same duty as in +the Russian story, but with some more vulgar and less decent incidents. + +[462] The image of the legs which, when they move, make flowers grow +up, is very ancient; students of Hindoo literature will remember the +pushpiṇyâu ćarato ǵanghe of the _Âitareya Br._, in the story of +Çunaḥçepas. + +[463] The ninth of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_ is an +interesting variety of this; the beautiful maiden who feeds the geese +is disguised in an old woman's skin; the geese, who see her naked, cry +out: "Cocò, la bella padrona ch 'i' ho," until the prince, by means of +a noiseless file, makes the cook enter the room and carry the old +woman's skin away while she sleeps, and then weds her.--The following +unpublished story, communicated to me by Signor Greco from Cosenza in +Calabria, is a variation of that of the _Pentamerone_:-- + +Seven princes have a very beautiful sister. An emperor decides upon +marrying her, but upon the condition that if he does not find her to +his taste, he will decapitate her seven brothers. They set out +altogether, and the mother-in-law with her daughter follow them. On +the way, the sun is hot, and the elder brother cries out, "Solabella, +defend me from the heat, for you must please the king." The +step-mother advises her to take off her necklaces and to put them on +her half-sister. The second brother next complains of the heat, and +the step-mother advises her to take off her gold apparel and to put it +on her half-sister. By such means the step-mother at last succeeds in +making her naked; they come to the sea, and the step-mother pushes her +in; she is taken by a siren, who holds her by her foot with a golden +chain. The princes arrive with the ugly sister; the king weds the ugly +wife and cuts off the heads of the seven brothers. When the maiden is +wandering about in the sea, she asks the king's ducks for news of her +brothers; the ducks answer that they have been executed. She weeps; +the tears become pearls and the ducks feed upon them. This marvel +comes to the ears of the king, who follows the ducks and asks the girl +why she shuns the society of men; to which she answers: "Alas! how can +I, who am fastened by a golden chain?" and then relates everything. +Having recognised his bride, the king gives her this advice: she must +ask how, after the siren's death, she would be able to free herself; +and then he departs. Next day, Solabella tells the king that the siren +will not die, because she lives in a little bird, enclosed in a silver +cage which is shut up in a marble case, and seven iron ones, of which +she has the keys, and that if the siren died, a horseman, a white +horse, and a long sword would be necessary to cut the chain. The king +brings her a certain water, which he advises her to give the siren to +drink; she will then fall asleep, and the girl will be able to take +the keys and kill the little bird. When it is killed, the white horse +plunges into the sea, and the sword cuts the chain. Then the king +takes his beautiful bride to his palace, and the old step-mother is +burned in a shirt of pitch; the seven brothers are rubbed with an +ointment which brings them to life again, each exclaiming, "Oh! what a +beautiful dream I have had!" + +[464] The old ogress of the ninth story of the fifth book of the +_Pentamerone_, who keeps three beautiful maidens shut up in three +citron-trees, and who feeds the asses which kick the swans upon the +banks of the river, is a variety of the same myth. + +[465] Instead of geese, swans were also solemnly eaten; a popular +mediæval German song in Latin offers the lamentation of the roasted +swan; cfr. Uhland's _Schriften_, iii. 71, 158.--In the _Pańćatantram_, +we have the swan sacrificed by the owl. In order to allure the swan, +the funereal owl, who wishes to kill it, invites it into a grove of +lotus-flowers, only, however, to decoy it subsequently into a dark +cavern, where the swan is killed by some travelling merchants, who +believe it to be an owl. + +[466] In the _Eddas_, when the hero Sigurd expires, the geese bewail +his death. + +[467] Cfr. also, with regard to this subject, the twenty-fourth +Esthonian story of the princess born in the egg, of whom her brother, +born in a more normal manner of the queen, becomes enamoured. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE PARROT. + + +SUMMARY. + + Haris and harit; harayas and harî; green and yellow called by a + common name.--The moon as a green tree and as a green parrot; the + parrot and the tree assimilated.--The wise moon and the wise + parrot; the phallical moon and the phallical parrot, in numerous + love stories.--The god of love mounted on the parrot--The parrot + and the wolf pasture together. + +The myth of the parrot originated in the East, and developed itself +almost exclusively among the Oriental nations. + +I mentioned in the chapter on the Ass, that the words _haris_ and +_harit_ signify green no less than fair-haired, and hence gave rise to +the epic myth of the monsters with parrot's faces, or drawn by parrots. +The solar horses are called harayas; harî are the two horses of Indras; +Haris is a name of Indras himself, but especially of the god Vishṇus; +but there are more fair-haired figures in the sky then these; the golden +thunderbolt which shoots through the cloud, and the golden moon, the +traveller of the night, are such. Moreover, because green and yellow are +called by this common name, all these fair ones, and the moon in +particular, assumed the form, now of a green tree, now of a green +parrot. A very interesting Vedic strophe offers us an evident proof of +this. The solar horses (or the sun himself, Haris) say that they have +imparted the colour haris to the parrots, to the pheasants (or +peacocks.[468] Benfey and the Petropolitan Dictionary, however, explain +_ropaṇâkâ_ by drossel or thrush), and to the trees, which are therefore +called hârayas. As the trees are green, so are the parrots generally +green (sometimes also yellow and red, whence the appellation haris is +always applicable to them).[469] The moon, on account of its colour, is +now a tree (a green one), now an apple-tree with golden branches and +apples, now a parrot (golden or green, and luminous). The moon in the +night is the wise fairy who knows all, and can teach all. In the +introduction to the _Mahâbhâratam_, the name Çukas or parrot is given to +the son of Kṛishṇas, _i.e._, of the black one, who reads (as moon) the +_Mahâbhâratam_ to the monsters. In the chapter on the Ass, we saw the +ass and the monster of the _Râmâyaṇam_ with parrots' faces. But inasmuch +as the ass is a phallical symbol, the parrot is also ridden by the +Hindoo god Kâmas, or the god of love (hence also called Çukavâhas). The +moon (masculine in India) has already been mentioned, in the first +chapter of the first book, as a symbol of the phallos; in the same way +as the thunderbolt pierces the cloud, the moon pierces the gloom of the +night, penetrates and reveals the secrets of the night. Therefore, the +parrot being identified with the night in the _Çukasaptatî_, and in +other books of Hindoo stories, we see the parrot often appearing in +love-stories, and revealing amorous secrets. + +Some of the stories concerning the parrot passed into the West; no +doubt, by means of literary transmission, that is to say, of the +mediæval Arabic and Latin versions of the Hindoo stories.[470] + +Some of the Hindoo beliefs concerning the parrot had already passed into +ancient Greece, and Ælianos shows himself to be very well acquainted +with the sacred worship which the Brâhmans of India professed for it. +Oppianos, moreover, tells us of a superstition which confirms what we +have said concerning the essentially lunar character of the mythical +parrot; he says that the parrot and the wolf pasture together, because +the wolves love this green bird; this is the same as saying that the +gloomy night loves the moon. One of the Hindoo epithets applied to the +moon, moreover, is raǵanîkaras, or he who makes the night. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[468] The parrot is sung of by Statius in connection with the same +birds in the second book of the _Sylvæ_-- + + "Lux volucrum plagæ, regnator Eoæ + Quam non gemmata volucri Junonia cauda + Vinceret, aspectu gelidi non phasidis ales." + +[469] A pathetic elegy in Sanskṛit distiches, of a Buddhist character, +of which I do not now remember the source, presents us the çukas, or +parrot, who wishes to die when the tree açokas, which has always been +his refuge, is dried up. + +[470] Such as, for instance, the following unpublished story, +communicated to me by Dr Ferraro, which is related in the Monferrato, +and of which I have also heard, in my childhood, a variation at +Turin:--A king, going to the wars, and fearing that another king, who +is his rival, will profit by his absence to seduce his wife, places by +her side one of his friends transformed into a parrot; this friend +warns her to remain faithful every time that the rival king sends to +tempt the queen by means of a cunning old woman. The queen pays +attention to the parrot's advice, and remains faithful till the +husband's return. This is, in a few words, the contents of the seventy +Hindoo tales of the parrot, of which the _Tuti-Name_ is a Persian +version.--In the story which I heard at Turin, the wife is, on the +contrary, unfaithful and covers the parrot's cage that it may not see; +she then fries some fishes in the guest's honour; the parrot thinks +that it is raining. The fish and the rain remind us of the myth of the +phallical and pluvial cuckoo. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE PEACOCK. + + +SUMMARY. + + The starry sky and the rayed sun.--The peacock becomes a crow; the + crow becomes a peacock.--Peacock and swan; the dove and the + peacock.--The kokilas and the peacock.--Indras now a peacock, now + a cuckoo.--The peacock's feather.--Indras's horses have peacock's + feathers and peacock's tails.--Skandas rides upon the + peacock.--Argus becomes a peacock.--The peacock as the _avis + Junonia_; Jove is the bird of Juno. + +We end our mythical journey in the kingdom of winged animals with the +bird of all the colours. + +The serene and starry sky and the shining sun are peacocks. The calm, +azure heavens, bespangled with a thousand stars, a thousand brilliant +eyes, and the sun rich with the colours of the rainbow, offer the +appearance of a peacock in all the splendour of its eye-besprinkled +feathers. When the sky or the thousand-rayed sun (sahasrânçus) is +hidden in the clouds, or veiled by the autumnal waters, it again +resembles the peacock, which, in the dark part of the year, like a +great number of vividly-coloured birds, sheds its beautiful plumage, +and becomes dark and unadorned; the crow which had put the peacock's +feathers on then returns to caw amongst the funereal crows. In winter +the peacock-crow has nothing remaining to it except its disagreeable +and shrill cry, not dissimilar to that of the crows. It is commonly +said of the peacock that it has an angel's feathers, a devil's voice, +and a thief's walk. The crow-peacock is proverbial.[471] + +The peacock hides itself when it becomes ugly; so does the sky, and so +does the sun when the autumnal clouds cover it; but in the summer +clouds the thunder rumbles, and thunder made upon the primeval races +of men the impression of an irresistible, much-loved, and wished-for +music, resembling the song of the melodious kokilas (the cuckoo), or +of the watercock (the heron, the halcyon, the duck, or the swan).[472] +In the _Râmâyaṇam_, as we observed in the chapter on the Cuckoo, the +peacock and the kokilas appear as rivals in singing; although the +watercock laughs at the peacock for its pretentiousness, this rivalry +is no slender proof upon which to admit the mythical identity of two +rival birds.[473] The Hindoo myth, in fact, shows us the god Indras +(now sky, now sun) as a peacock and as a cuckoo (like Zeus). When the +sky is blue, serene, and starry, or when the sun shines with its +thousand rays, and in the colours of the rainbow, the sahasrâkshas, or +thousand-eyed Indras, is found as a peacock; when the sky or the sun +in the cloud thunders and lightens, Indras becomes a kokilas that +sings. In the twentieth of the stories of Santo Stefano di Calcinaia, +two brothers steal a peacock's feather from their younger brother, and +kill him (that is, they kill the peacock, in the same way as in the +Russian story the red little boots are stolen from the little brother, +and he is killed). Where the little brother of the peacock's feather +is killed and buried, a sapling grows up; a stick is made out of the +sapling, and out of the stick a pipe, which, when played upon, sings +the dirge of the little brother who was killed for a peacock's +feather. When the luminous sky or the sun is hidden in the clouds, +when the luminous feathers of the peacock are torn off,[474] when the +peacock is buried, the tree which is its tomb (the cloud) speaks, at +the return of spring, like the cornel-tree of Polidorus in _Virgil_, +and the trunk of Pier delle Vigne in Dante's _Inferno_; the tree +becomes a cane, a magic flute, a melodious kokilas. Indras-kokilas +remembers Indras-peacock, Indras whose horses, even in the Vedic +hymns, have "peacocks' feathers,"[475] and "tail (or phallos) of +peacocks."[476] We have already seen that the body of Indras was, +after intercourse (as sun) with Ahalyâ in adultery, covered with a +thousand wombs (waves or clouds; cfr. the equivoque _sahasradhâras_, +given to the solar disc, properly because it has a thousand darts that +wound), which were already a thousand eyes (stars or sunbeams), whence +his names of Sahasradṛiç, Sahasranayanas, Sahasranetras, and +Sahasrâkshas, which are equivalent. The long refulgent tail of the +peacock took a phallical form. According to the Petropolitan +Dictionary, mayûreçvaras (or Çivas-peacock), is the proper name of a +liñgam or phallos, the well-known emblem of Çivas, which also calls +our attention to Mayûrarathas, Mayûraketus, Cikhivâhanas, and +Çikidhvaǵas, names of Skandas, the god of war, who is also a phallical +god, like Mars, the lover of Venus, and like the Hindoo Kâmadevas, or +god of love, who rides upon the parrot, and which therefore brings us +back to the lunar phallical symbol.[477] The sky with the sun, as well +as with the moon, is superseded by the sterile sky with the stars of +the night or the clouds of autumn; the phallos falls; the impotent sky +remains--Indras the eunuch, Indras with a thousand wombs, Indras +plunged into the waves of the spotted clouds, Indras a ram, the +pluvial or autumnal Indras, Indras lost in the sea of winter, Indras +the fish, Indras without rays, without lightning, and without +thunder, Indras cursed, he who had been beautiful and resplendent like +a crested peacock (çikhin), Indras as the peacock enemy of the serpent +(ahidvish, ahiripus), into which form he returns by the pity of the +gods. According to the _Tuti-Name_, when a woman dreams of a peacock, +it presages the birth of a handsome son. + +The Greeks were also acquainted with the myth of the peacock, and +amplified it. In the first book of Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, Argus, with +the hundred eyes, who sees everything (Panoptês and son of Zeus), by +the order of the goddess Juno, the splendid and proud wife of Jove, to +whom the peacock is sacred (and therefore called _avis Junonia, ales +Junonia_; the peacock of Juno is Jove himself, as we have already seen +that Jove's cuckoo is himself; Argos the son of Zeus is Zeus himself), +whilst two eyes rest (perhaps the sun and the moon), watches with the +others (the stars) Io (the daughter of Argus himself, priestess of +Juno, identified with Isis the moon, loved by Jove). Mercury, by means +of music, puts Argus to sleep, and kills him as he slumbers. The eyes +of the dead Argus pass into the tail of the peacock (that is, the dead +peacock rises again). The peacock, which annually loses and renews its +various colours and splendours, and is fruitful in progeny, served, +like the phœnix, as a symbol of immortality, and a personification of +the fact that the sky is obscured and becomes serene again, that the +sun dies and is born again, that the moon rises, is obscured, goes +down, is concealed, and rises once more. It is said of Pythagoras that +he believed himself to have once been a peacock, that the peacock's +soul passed into Euphorbos, that of Euphorbos into Homer, and that of +Homer into him. It was also alleged that out of him the soul of the +ancient peacock passed into the poet Ennius, whence Persius-- + + "Postquam destituit esse + Mæonides quintus pavone ex Pythagoræo." + +If the peacock be Zeus, if Zeus be Dyâus, if Dyâus be the luminous and +splendid sky, the divine light, which of my readers would disclaim the +Pythagorean belief? The dream of being the sons of the divine light, and +destined to return to the heavenly fatherland, certainly is much more +consoling than the dreary conclusion of modern science, which reduces +us, in our origin and final lapse, into unconscious vegetables upon the +surface of the earth. The only drawback is, that this same heretical +mythology, which often, even in its grossest forms, such as the animal +ones, opens up to our incredulous reason a ray of hope in the +immortality of the soul, that this mythology which resuscitates and +transfigures into new living forms all its dead, does not permit us to +believe in an eternity of joy in heaven; heaven, like earth, is in +perpetual revolution, and the gods of Olympus are no more secure on +their divine throne than our royal automata that sit upon their earthly +ones. The metempsychosis does not end when the soul goes to heaven; on +the contrary, it is in heaven that it is fated to undergo the strangest +and most diverse transformations; from the heroic form we have seen it +pass into that of a quadruped and a biped. Nor is its curse yet come to +an end; the deity or the hero must humble himself yet more, and assume +in the zoological scale the most imperfect of organisms; the animal god +will lose his speech in the form of a stupid fish; he will creep like a +serpent or hop grotesquely like a filthy toad. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[471] Cfr. the chapter on the Crow. + +[472] "Wie wir den Hugschapler sogar auf den Pfauen schwören sehen, +legten sie die Angelsachsen auf den Schwan ab (R. A. 900), den wir wohl +nach den obigen Gesange Ngördhs, S. 343 als den ihm geheiligten Vogel +(ales gratissima nautis, Myth. 1074) zu fassen haben, &c." Simrock, the +work quoted before, p. 347.--A Hindoo proverb considers the dove in +connection with the peacock; it says, "Better a pigeon to-day than a +peacock to-morrow" (Varamadya kapoto na çvo mayûraḥ). According to the +_Ornithologia_ of Aldrovandi, the peacocks are the doves' friends, +because they keep serpents and all venomous animals at a distance. + +[473] The Russian fable of Kriloff presents to us the ass as a judge +between the nightingale (the kokilas of Western poets) and the cock in +a trial of singing; in Sanskṛit _çikhin_, or crested, means cock and +peacock; besides mayûras, peacock, we have mayûraćaṭakas, the domestic +cock. Mayûras is also the name of a Hindoo poet.--In the chapter on +the Cuckoo we saw the cuckoo and the nightingale as rivals in singing; +the kokilas and the peacock are the equivalents of the nightingale and +the cuckoo; we have also identified the cuckoo with the swallow, and +seen the swallows as rivals of the swans in singing; cfr. the chapter +on the Crow. + +[474] Hence Aldrovandi writes with reason, that the smoke of the burnt +feathers of a peacock (that is, of the celestial peacock), when taken +into the eyes, cures them of their redness. + +[475] Â mandrâir indra haribhir yâhi mayûraromabhiḥ; _Ṛigv._ iii. 45, +1. + +[476] Â tvâ rathe hiraṇyaye harî mayûraçepyâ; viii. 1, 25.--Klearchos +relates in Athênaios, that a peacock in Leucas loved a maiden so much, +that when she died it also immediately expired. + +[477] According to the _Pańćatantram_ (i. 175), in the very house of +Çivas (the phallical god), the animals make war against each other; +the serpent (the night) wishes to eat the mouse (which seems here to +be the grey twilight); the peacock (here, perhaps, the moon), wishes +to eat the serpent (cfr. the preceding notes; according to Ælianos, a +certain man who wished to steal from the King of Egypt a peacock, +supposed to be sacred, found an asp in its stead); the lion (the sun) +wishes to eat the peacock. (The Hindoo name of mayûrâris, or enemy of +the peacock, given to the chameleon, is remarkable; the animal which +changes its colour is the rival of the bird which is of every colour; +gods and demons are equally viçvarûpâs and kâmarûpas.) + + + + +Third Part. + +THE ANIMALS OF THE WATER. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +FISHES, AND PARTICULARLY THE PIKE, THE SACRED FISH OR FISH OF ST PETER, +THE CARP, THE MELWEL, THE HERRING, THE EEL, THE LITTLE GOLDFISH, THE +SEA-URCHIN, THE LITTLE PERCH, THE BREAM, THE DOLPHIN, AND THE WHALE. + + +SUMMARY. + + Why Indras, the fearless hero, flees after having defeated the + serpent; the fish causes the death of the fearless + hero.--Çakrâvatâras and the fisher.--The stone and the + fish.--Adrikâ, Girikâ, the mother of fishes.--The matsyâs as a + nation.--Çaradvat.--Pradyumnas.--Guhas.--The fishes laugh.--The + fish guards the white haoma.--The water of the fish drunk by the + cook.--The devil steals the fishes.--The dwarf Andvarri and the + pike as the guardian of gold and of a ring.--The goldfish and the + pike.--The dwarf Vishṇus as a little goldfish.--The legend of the + Deluge.--Vishṇus as a horned fish draws the ship of Manus; the + sea-urchin or hedgehog of the Ganges, the little destroyer.--The + dolphin with the horned bull draws the chariot or vessel of the + Açvinâu.--The little turbulent perch.--The thorns of the + sea-urchin compared to a hundred oars.--The whale as a bridge or + island; the whale devours a fleet.--The pike.--The bream.--The + phallical fishes; the phallos and the simpleton.--Why fishes are + eaten in Lent, that is, spring; and on Friday, the day of Freya or + Venus.--The _poisson d'avril_.--The herring.--The eel.--The bream + cleans the workman.--The phallical and demoniacal eel; _anguilla_ + and _anguis_.--The eel and the cane; _ikshus_ and + _Iskshvâkus_.--Diabolical fishes.--The red mullet.--The bream and + the ring.--Cimedia.--The whale vomits out the vessels; the whale + as an island.--The little perch finds the ring and draws the + casket by the help of the dolphins.--The war of the little perch + with the other fishes.--The eel pout.--The perch.--The + sturgeon.--The little perch is the fox of fishes.--The words + _matsyas_, _matto_, _mad_, _matt_, _mattas_, _madidus_.--The + drunken pike.--The three fishes.--Çakuntalâ, the pearl and the + fish.--The genera _cyprinus_ and _perca_; _lucius_, _lucioperca + sandra_; the lunar horn.--The dolphin.--The carp.--The fish _Zeus + Chalkeus_, the fish _faber_, the fish of St Peter; the fish of St + Christopher; the equivoque of _crista_ and _christus_ again in + conjunction with the legend of St Christopher. + +The god Indras, in the _Ṛigvedas_, after having killed the monster, +flees in terror across the ninety-nine navigable rivers; the pluvial +god, after having lightened, thunder-stricken and thundered, is +terrified by his own work; the Vedic poet asks him what he has seen, +but the god passes on and answers not; killing the monster, he has +unchained the waters; the pluvial god has wounded himself while +wounding his enemy; the monster's shadow or his own shadow pursues +him; the waters increase and threaten to drown him. The god Indras +fears the very waters he has caused to flow. The god Indras was +condemned to remain hidden in the waters (of night and winter) during +the period of his malediction, for defiling in adultery the nuptial +bed of Ahalyâ. The god shut up in the waters, the wet god, is his most +infamous and accursed form.[478] The celestial metamorphosis into a +fish is perhaps the vilest transmutations of animal, and therefore the +most feared; the fish lives especially in order to reproduce itself; +to represent, therefore, the decadence of the god after a phallical +crime of his, he is condemned to lie down in the waters. We know that +the fisher, in the _Çakuntalâ_, lives at Çakrâvatâras (that is, the +fall of Indras). We have seen the sister of Latona, and Rambhâ and +Ahalyâ, after having transgressed, the one with Jupiter and the others +with Indras, become stones in the waters. The fish, rendered powerless +and stupid, becomes inert and motionless like a stone (sun and moon +pass into sky or cloud). We already find the image of the stone with +the honey brought, in the _Ṛigvedas_,[479] into close affinity to that +of the fish which lies in shallow water, or of the fish made powerless +and deprived of its vital qualities. + +The legend of the nymph Adrikâ (from the word _adris_, which means a +stone, a rock, a mountain, or a cloud) presents the same analogy between +the stone-cloud, that is, the stone in the waters, and the fish. By a +divine malediction, Adrikâ is transformed into a fish, and lives in the +Yamunâ. Being in these waters, she picks up a leaf upon which had fallen +the sperm of King Uparićaras, enamoured of Girikâ (or of Adrikâ herself, +the two words _adrikâ_ and _girikâ_ being equivalent); this leaf had +been let fall into the waves of the Yamunâ by the bird çyenas, that is, +by the hawk. Having fed upon this sperm, the nymph fish is caught by +fishermen, and taken to King Uparićaras; the fish is opened, and the +nymph resumes her heavenly form; of her a son and a daughter are born, +Matsyas the male fish, and Matsyâ the female one.[480] The male +afterwards becomes king of the matsyâs or fishes, which some authorities +have, in vain, as I think, endeavoured to identify with a historical +nation; for it is not enough to find them named as a people in the +_Mahâbhâratam_, to prove their real historical existence, when we know +that the whole basis of the _Mahâbhâratam_ is mythological. Moreover, +when we find the Matsyâs in the Vedic hymns, it is one more argument +from which to infer the mythical nature of the peoples named in the +_Ṛigvedas_ in connection with the waters. In another legend of the +_Mahâbhâratam_, the semen of the penitent Çaradvat (properly the +autumnal or the pluvial one), provoked by the sight of a beautiful +nymph, falls upon the wood of an arrow; the wood of the arrow splits in +two, and two sons are born of it, who are given to the king; a variety +of this legend will be found further on in the Western traditions +connected with the story of the fish.[481] + +To the ninety-nine or hundred cities of Çambaras (the clouds) +destroyed by Indras, correspond the ninety-nine rivers which Indras +crosses. In the _Vishṇu P._,[482] a fish receives the hero Pradyumnas +(an appellation of the god of love), thrown into the sea by Çambaras, +and enables him to recover and wed Mâyâdevî. + +King Guhas (the hidden one? the dark one?) the king of the black +Nishâdâs, the king of Çriñgaveras (in which we have already recognised +the moon), who, during the night, receives Râmas on the banks of the +Ganges, hospitably entertains him, offering him beverages, meat, and +fishes.[483] + +In the _Çukasaptatî_, and in the _Tuti-Name_, the fishes laugh at the +prudery of an adulterous servant-girl; we have already shown, in the +first chapter of the first book, the phallical signification of the +fish that laughs. + +In the _Khorda Avesta_, we find a fish with acute eyesight +(Karo-maçyo, the posterior Khar-mâhî), which guards the white haoma, +that is, the ambrosia (with which sperm was also identified). + +In the _Pseudo-Callisthenes_, Alexander, having arrived at the +luminous fountain which scatters perfumes, asks his cook for something +to eat; the cook prepares to wash the fish in the refulgent water; the +fish returns to life, and disappears from his sight; but the cook +drinks some of the water of the fish, and gives some to Alexander's +daughter Une, who becomes, by the curse of Alexander himself, a nereïd +or marine nymph, whilst he fastens a stone to the cook's neck, and +orders him to be thrown to the bottom of the sea. It is unnecessary +for me to demonstrate the analogy between this legend and the myth of +Indras, or to insist upon the phallical meaning of the myth. + +We already know that phallical images and demoniacal ones sometimes +correspond; hence, in the ninth Esthonian story, the devil steals the +fishes from the fishermen; hence, in the _Eddas_, the brigand Loki now +assumes the form of a salmon, and now catches the pike, into which +the dwarf Andvarri has transformed himself. The pike is the guardian +of gold and of a ring which is taken from him; the fish enters into +the stone, and predicts that gold will be the cause of the death of +the two brothers. The ambrosial rain which comes out of the cloud, and +the ambrosial dew, are the water in which the fish is washed, and the +ambrosial dew is the water or seed of the fish; the fair-haired and +silvery moon in the ocean of night is the little gold fish, and the +little silver fish which announces the rainy season, the autumn, the +deluge. Out of the cloudy, nocturnal, or wintry ocean, comes forth the +sun, the pearl lost in the sea, which the gold or silver fish brings +out. + +The little goldfish of our aquariums, the _cyprinus chrysoparius_, the +_cyprinus auratus_, the _cyprinus sophore_ (the Hindoo _çapharas_, in +the feminine _çapharî_), and the luminous pike, like the moon, can +expand and contract. We are already acquainted with the sea-monster +which, in the _Râmâyaṇam_ (like the siren fish), allures from the sea +the shadow of Hanumant, and can make itself now small, now large; we +have seen the dwarf Andvarri of the _Eddas_, who hides himself in the +form of a pike; we are familiar with the god Vishṇus or Haris, who, +from being a dwarf, becomes a giant (Haris means fair-haired or +golden, and refers now to the sun, now to the moon); Vishṇus, in his +incarnation as a fish, first takes the form of the little golden fish, +the çapharî; and, in this form, the god Vishṇus is especially +identified with the moon, the ruler of the rainy season. As the moon +(which we have already seen as a little learned puppet) grows by +quarters, and from being exceedingly small, becomes large, so, in the +Hindoo legend of the Deluge, narrated in the Vedic commentaries, in +the _Mahâbhâratam_, and in the Pâuranic legends, the god Vishṇus or +Haris begins by being an exceedingly small fish, a çapharî, which +beseeches the penitent Manus to be taken out of the great river, the +Ganges, where it is afraid of being devoured by the aquatic monsters. +Manus receives the little fish in the vase of water in which he +performs his ablutions (a Hindoo proverb says that the çapharî is +agitated from petulance in water an inch deep, whilst the rohitas, a +kind of carp, does not become proud even in bottomless depths[484]); +in one night (evidently in its character as the moon) the fish grows +so much that it can no longer remain in the vase; Manus carries it +into a pool, afterwards into the Ganges; finally, the fish increases +so much in size that Manus, recognising Vishṇus in it, is obliged to +give it entire liberty in the sea. Then the grateful fish announces +that in seven days the waters will inundate the world, and all the +wicked will perish; he orders him (as the biblical God does Noah) to +build a ship: "Thou shalt enter into it," says Vishṇus to him, "with +seven sages, a couple of every kind of animal, and the seeds of every +plant. Thou shalt wait in it the end of the night of Brahman; and when +the vessel is agitated by the waves, thou shalt attach it by a long +serpent to the horn of an enormous fish, which will come near thee, +and will guide thee over the waves of the abyss." On the appointed +day, the waters of the sea came up over the surface of the earth; the +fish made its appearance to draw the ship in order to save Manus. The +ship stopped upon the horn, that is, upon the peak of a mountain. Now +this little goldfish, in which Vishṇus is incarnate, when it becomes +horned to draw the ship of Manus, assimilates itself to another +interesting sea animal, the sea-urchin or hedgehog of the Ganges, +(çiṅçumâras, which is also one of the names of the dwarf Vishṇus (we +have already seen Vishṇus as a wild-boar), and which means properly +the little destroyer. The eighteenth strophe of the precious 116th +hymn of the first book of the _Ṛigvedas_, shows us the çiṅçumâras or +sea-urchin, which, together with another horned animal, the bull (we +have already seen the moon as a horned bull) draws the chariot of the +Açvinâu, full of riches;[485] we know that the chariot of the Açvinâu +is often a vessel. Çiṅçumâras also means in Sanskṛit the dolphin;[486] +and the dolphins and the fish called jorsh (the little perch), with +its little horns, thorns, and thin shape, sharpened at one end like a +pole ending in a point, called in Russian stories the turbulent one +(kropaćishko), are in relation with each other, as they draw the +casket away; the jorsh takes the place of the "little destroyer," of +the çiṅçumâras, of the sea-urchin, concerning which there is a very +interesting Sicilian verse, which compares the stings of the +sea-urchin to a hundred oars, with which it must row, carrying its +little invokers; after having caught it, Sicilian children scatter a +little salt over it, and sing-- + + "Vócami, vócami, centu rimi, + Vócami, vócami, centu rimi." + +(Row for me, row for me, hundred oars). Then it moves, and the +children are delighted. In the Russian little poem, _Kaniok Garbunok_, +of Jershoff, already mentioned by us in the chapter on the Horse, Ivan +must seek, for the sultan, a ring shut up in a casket which has fallen +into the sea (the evening or the autumnal sun). Ivan upon his +crook-backed horse arrives in the middle of the sea, where there is a +whale which cannot move because it has swallowed a fleet, that is to +say, the solar vessel. The part played here by the whale is the same +as that of the sea-monster who swallows Hanumant in the _Râmâyaṇam_, +to vomit him out again, as in the case of the biblical Jonah (the +night devours the sun, or carries it into its body). Hanumant enters +into the fish by its mouth, and comes out at its tail; however, in the +narrative given of it in the fifty-sixth canto of the fifth book by +Hanumant himself, he says that the sea-monster having shut its mouth, +he came out of it by the right ear. When the night is with the moon, +instead of swallowing the hero, the bull-moon or fish-moon carries him +or serves as a bridge for him. In Russian fairy tales the brown pike +(which, on account of its colour, is called the chaste widow)[487] is +now a form assumed by the devil in order to eat the young hero, who +has become a little perch,[488] and now an enormous fish with great +teeth, which slaughters the little fishes.[489] Now, instead, it +serves as a bridge for Ivan Tzarević, who is seeking for the egg of +the duck which is inside the hare under the oak-tree in the midst of +the sea;[490] now it is caught in the fountain (as the moon, soma, in +the well) by the foolish and lazy Emilius, and because Emilius saves +its life, it makes him rich by performing several miracles for him, +such as that of the barrels full of water, of the trees of the forest, +of the waggons or the stoves which move off by themselves, and finally +that of the cask thrown into the sea, into which Emilius is shut with +the beautiful daughter of the Tzar, and which comes to shore and +breaks open.[491] Now the phallical pike with the golden fins[492] is +caught, washed, quartered, and roasted; the dirty water is thrown away +and drunk by the cow (in _Afanassieff_) or by the mare (in +_Erlenwein_); a portion of the fish is eaten by the black slave, +whilst she is carrying it to table, the rest by the queen; hence three +young heroes, considered as brothers, are born at the same time to the +cow (or mare), to the black maiden, and to the queen. Now the pike (as +in the satirical fable of Kriloff) draws the car in company with the +crab and the heron; and here, it would appear, these two animals are +rather stupid than intelligent, inasmuch as, whilst the pike draws the +car into the water, the crab draws it back on the earth and the heron +essays to mount with it into the air. Here we have the usual +correspondence between the phallical figure and that of the simpleton. +Thus, in the Piedmontese dialect, the phallos and the stupid man is +called _merlu_ (blackbird). From the word _merlo_ (Lat. _merula_) was +derived the name of the fish called _merluccio_ or _merluzzo_ (_gadus +merlucius_, the melwel or haddock), called _asellus_ by the Latins and +_onos_ by the Greeks. The ass is a well-known phallical symbol, and +Bacchus being also a phallical god, we read in Pliny, "Asellorum duo +genera, Callariæ minores, et Bacchi, qui non nisi in alto (in the +deep) capiuntur." The Italian name _baccalà_, given to the cod-fish, +seems to me to be derived from the union of the two names Bacchus and +Callaria. In the Piedmontese dialect, a stupid man is also called by +the name of _baccalà_. There is also a fish called _merula_, of which +the ancients describe the extraordinary salacity, by indulging which +it literally consumes itself away and perishes.[493] In Italy we find +the following phallical proverbs: "The blackbird has passed the Po," +and "The blackbird has passed the river;" to denote a woman or a man +exhausted, to impotence. The ancients wrote of the fish called +_chrüsofrüs_ by the Greeks, and _aurata_ by the Latins, that it would +let itself be taken in children's and women's hands, and (according to +Athenaios) it was sacred to Aphroditê. Aphroditê, Venus, goddess of +love, especially, represented in myths the aurora and the spring +(hence in Lent and on Friday, the day of Freya, _dies Veneris_, we eat +fishes); therefore the _gemini pisces_, the two fishes joined in one, +were sacred to her, and the joke of the _poisson d'Avril_, as I have +already mentioned in the first chapter of the first book, is a jest of +phallical origin, which should be abandoned.[494] Aphroditê and Eros, +pursued by Typhon, transformed themselves into fishes and plunged into +the Euphrates. The Hellenic Eros was also represented riding (instead +of the phallical butterfly) on a dolphin; according to other accounts, +he rides upon a swan with dolphins before him. In an epigram of the +_Anthologia Græca_, the dolphin, moreover, carries a weary +nightingale. In several parts of Alsace, on the evening of St Andrew's +Day, girls eat herrings to dream during the night of the husband who +is to quench their thirst.[495] The fish _julis_ of Pliny, or Julia, +is called _donzella_ (damsel) in Italian, and _menchia di re_ (king's +phallos) at Naples and in Venetia, and other fishes also take their +name from the organs of generation.[496] The phallos is called _u +pesce_ at Naples, and, in Italian, _nuovo pesce_ (a new fish) +signifies a stupid man. An essentially phallical character, moreover, +is possessed by the eel, which, according to Agatharchides, quoted by +Hippolitus Salvianus, the Bœotians crowned as a victim and sacrificed +solemnly to the gods, which, according to Herodotos, the Egyptians +venerated as a divine fish, and which Athenaios pompously calls the +Helen of dinners. The eel became proverbial; the Italian proverbial +expressions, "To take the eel," "To hold the eel by its tail," "When +the eel has taken the hook it must go where it is drawn," are all +equivocal. The Germans also have a proverb concerning the eel, which +reminds us of the story of the cook who steals the fish from +Alexander, and, together with Alexander's daughter, drinks its +water.[497] The phallos discovers secrets, and therefore, in a German +legend,[498] the faculty of seeing everything which is under the water +is ascribed to a woman who had eaten an eel (a variety of the story of +the fish that laughs, which, in the ninth story of the third book of +_Afanassieff_, enriches whoever possesses it, and the fish _silurus_ +(the bream), so called from the Greek words _sillô_ and _oura_, +because it shakes its tail, which, in the fifty-eighth story of the +sixth book of _Afanassieff_, cleans the workman who had fallen into +the mud, and makes the princess laugh who had never laughed before). +In the eighteenth story of Santo Stefano di Calcinaia, a fisherman +catches an eel with two tails and two heads, which is so large that he +has to be assisted in carrying it. The eel speaks, and commands that +its two tails be planted in the garden, that its intestines be given +to the bitch, and its two heads to the fisherman's wife. Two swords +are born of the tails in the garden (in the Hindoo legend we saw two +sons born of the wood of Çaradvat's arrow), two dogs are born of the +intestines to the bitch, and two beautiful young men of the heads to +the wife (the two Açvinâu, drawn, as we have seen in the Vedic hymn, +by the sea-urchin). In the chapter on the Dove, we saw the two young +lovers, when pursued, take the form of doves. In the fourteenth +Sicilian story of Signora Gonzenbach, the young man and the maiden +pursued by the witch transform themselves first into church and +sacristan, then into garden and gardener, then into rose and +rosebush, and finally into fountain and eel. In the first volume of +the _Cabinet des Fées_, the fairy Aiguillette is taken in the form of +an eel. In the fourth of the stories of Santo Stefano di Calcinaia, +the beautiful maiden is asked by the servant-maid of the priest (that +is, by the servant-maid of the black man, by the black woman or the +night), who went to wash clothes at the fountain, to come down from +the tree. The maiden descends, is thrown into the fountain and +devoured by an enormous eel. The fishermen catch the eel and take it +to the prince; the witch has it killed and thrown into a cane-brake. +The eel is then transformed into a large and beautiful cane, which is +also carried to the prince, who, cutting it gently with a penknife, +makes his beautiful girl come out (this legend is a variety of that of +the wooden girl).[499] This form of a diabolical eel has a close +relationship with the monster-serpent; the _anguilla_ reminds one of +the _anguis_; hence, in the ninth story of the first book of the +_Pentamerone_, instead of the eel as a fœcundator, as in the +eighteenth Tuscan story, we find the fish called _draco marinus_ (in +Italian, _trascina_), of which it is curious to read, what +Volaterranus writes, that--"Si manu dextra adripias eum contumacem +renitentemque experieris, si læva subsequentem,"--as if he meant to +imply that the left hand is the hand of the devil. Thus Oppianos +describes the wedding of the muraina eel (the _murana_) with the +serpent (the viper according to Ælianos and Pliny). Other fishes have +assumed an essentially diabolical character, such as the fish called +_alôpêx_ (Lat. _vulpes_, _vulpecula_), of which Ælianos relates that +it swallows the hook and then vomits it out with its own intestines; +the _rana piscatrix_, also called the marine devil; the _trügôn_ (Lat. +_pastinaca_, It. _bruco_), which, according to Oppianos, kills men +with its dart (fame reports that Ulysses was killed with the bone of a +_trügôn_) and dries up trees (although it is strange that to cure +one's self from such a fatal wound, as it was supposed by the ancients +to be venomous, Dioscoris only recommends a decoction of sage). The +sea-scorpion (whose wounds, according to the ancients, were cured by +means of the _trigla_, the red mullet--Lat. _mullus_--sacred according +to Athenaios and Apollodorus to Artemis, or to Diana Trivia, the moon; +Plutarch writes that it was sacred to Diana as a hunting fish, because +it kills the marine hare, noxious to man; but we have seen that the +mythical hare is the moon itself), the bream, or _silurus_, _glanis_, +or _piscis barbatus_, which, in Hungary, according to Mannhardt +(Manardus, quoted in the sixteenth century by Ippolito Salviano), had +the reputation of attacking men, so much so, that it is said that one +of these fishes, which are, in fact, very voracious, was once found +with a man's hand, covered with rings, in its intestines. But these +rings in the fish's body (like the gem called cimedia,[500] which, +according to the popular belief, is found in the brain of a great +number of fishes) recall us to the interrupted poem of Jershoff, to +the little perch, the dolphins, the whale, and the ring fallen into +the water and found again by the fish, which is perhaps the most +interesting subject of legends in the mythical cycle of the fishes, +and, if I may say so, their epic exploit. + +Ivan, therefore, has come with his hump-backed little horse into the +midst of the sea near the whale which has swallowed a fleet;[501] upon +the whale a forest has grown; women go to seek for mushrooms in its +moustaches. Ivan communicates his wish, and the whale calls all the +fishes together, but no one can give information except one little fish, +the little jorsh, or little perch, which, however, is at the time +engaged in chasing one of its adversaries. The whale sends ambassadors +to the jorsh, which unwillingly desists for an instant from the fight, +in order to search for the casket; it finds it, but is not strong enough +to lift it up. The numerous army of the herrings come and try, but in +vain; at last two dolphins come and raise the casket. Ivan receives the +wished-for ring; the whale's malediction comes to an end; it vomits the +fleet forth again, and is once more able to move about, whilst the +little perch returns to pursue its enemies. This war of the little perch +with its adversaries has had in popular Russian tradition its +Herodotuses and its Homers, who have celebrated its praises both in +prose and verse. Afanassieff gives in the third book of his stories, +from a manuscript of the last century, the description of the judgment +of the little perch (jorsh) before the tribunal of the fishes. The bream +(leçć) accuses the little jorsh, the wicked warrior (as the sea-urchin +is the little destroyer; the confounding of the sea-urchin with the +little perch is all the easier in Russian legends, inasmuch as the +former is called josz, and the latter jorsh), who has wounded all the +other fishes with its rough bristles, and compelled them to forsake the +Lake of Rastoff. The jorsh defends itself by saying that it is strong in +virtue of its inherent vigour; that it is not a brigand, but a good +subject, who is known everywhere, highly prized and cooked by great +lords, who eat it with satisfaction. The bream appeals to the testimony +of other fishes, who give witness against the little perch, who +thereupon complains that the other fishes, in their overweening +importance, wish, by means of the tribunals, to ruin him and his +companions, taking advantage of their smallness. The judges call the +perch, the eel-pout, and the herring to give witness. The perch sends +the eel-pout, and the eel-pout excuses itself for not appearing, +pleading that its belly is fat, and it cannot move; that its eyes are +small, and its vision imperfect; that its lips are thick, and it does +not know how to speak before persons of distinction. The herring gives +witness in favour of the bream, and against the little perch. Among the +witnesses against the jorsh, the sturgeon also appears; it maligns the +jorsh, alleging that when he attempts to eat it he must spit more out +than he can swallow, and complains that when it was one day going by the +Volga to Lake Rastoff, the little perch called him his brother and +deceived him, saying, in order to induce him to retire from the lake, +that he had once also been a fish of such size that his tail resembled +the sail of a ship, and that he had become so small after having entered +Lake Rastoff. The sturgeon goes on to say that he was afraid, but +remained in the river, where his sons and companions died of hunger, and +he himself was reduced to the last extremities. He adduces, moreover, +another grave accusation against the jorsh, who had made him go in +front, in order that he might fall into the fishermen's hands, cunningly +hinting that the elder brothers should go before the younger ones. The +sturgeon confesses that he gave way to this graceful flattery, and +entered into a weir made to catch fish, which he found to be similar to +the gates of great lords' houses--large when one goes in, and small when +one goes out; he fell into the net, in which the jorsh saw him, and +cried out, deriding him, "Suffer for the love of Christ." The deposition +of the sturgeon makes a great impression upon the minds of the judges, +who give orders to inflict the knout upon the little jorsh, to impale it +in the great heat, as a punishment for its cheating; the sentence is +sealed by the crayfish with one of his claws. But the jorsh, who has +heard the sentence, declares it to be unjust, spits in the eyes of the +judges, jumps into the briar brake, and disappears from the sight of the +fishes, who remain lost in shame and mortification. + +In the thirty-second story of the fourth book of _Afanassieff_, we +find two varieties of this zoological legend. + +The turbulent jorsh enters into Lake Rastoff, and possesses himself of +it. Called to judgment by the bream, it answers that from the day of +St Peter to that of St Elias, the whole lake was on fire; and cites in +proof of this assertion that the roach's eyes are still red from its +effects, that the perch's fins are also still red, that the pike +became dark coloured, and that the eel-pout is black in consequence. +These fishes, called to give witness, either do not appear, or else +deny the truth of these assertions. The jorsh is arrested and bound, +but it begins to rain, and the place of judgment becomes muddy; the +jorsh escapes, and, from one rivulet to another, arrives at the river +Kama, where the pike and the sturgeon find him, and take him back to +be executed. + +The jorsh, arrested and brought to judgment, demands permission to +take a walk for only one hour in Lake Rastoff; but after the +expiration of the appointed time, it neglects to come out of the lake, +and annoys the other fishes in every way, stinging and provoking them. +The fishes have recourse for justice to the sturgeon, who sends the +pike to look for the jorsh; the little perch is found amongst the +stones; it excuses itself by saying that it is Saturday, and that +there is a festival in his father's house, and advises him to take a +constitutional in the meanwhile, and enjoy himself; on the morrow, +although it be Sunday, he promises to present himself before the +judges (the analogy between the actions of the jorsh and those of +Reineke Fuchs is very remarkable). Meanwhile, the jorsh makes his +companion drunk. The Sanskṛit name of the fish, _matsyas_, from the +root _mad_, we know to mean drunk and joyous, properly damp (Lat., +_madidus_); in Italian, _briaco_ and _folle_ are sometimes equivalent; +in the Piedmontese dialect, _bagnà_ (wet) and _imbecil_ (idiot) are +expressions of the same meaning. Drunkenness is of two forms: there is +a drunkenness which makes impotent and stupid; it is a question of +quantity and of quality of beverages, as well as constitution. Thus, +there are two kinds of madness; that which makes a man infuriated, to +cope with whom the strait-waistcoat is necessary, and that which ends +by exhausting all a man's strength in prostration and debility. +Indras, when drunk, becomes a hero; the pike when drunk is a fool +(cfr. the Italian _matto_, English _mad_, which means insane, crazy, +with the German _matt_, which means cast down, exhausted[502]). When +the jorsh has made the pike drunk, it shuts it in a rick of straw, +where the inebriated fish is to die. Then the bream comes to take the +little perch from among the stones, and to bring him before the judge. +The jorsh demands a judgment of God. He tells his judges to put him in +a net; if he stays in the net, he is wrong; if he comes out, he is +right; the jorsh jerks about in the net so much that he gets out. The +judge acquits him, and gives him entire liberty in the lake; then the +jorsh begins his numerous revenges upon the little fishes, proving his +astuteness in continual efforts to ruin them. + +As the drunkard and the fool now intensify their strength and now lose +it, so they now double and now lose their intelligence. Hence, among +mythical fishes we find very wise ones and very stupid ones. The story +is very popular of the three fishes of different intelligence, of +which the lazy and improvident one allows himself to be caught by the +fishermen, whilst his two companions escape; it is found in the first +book of the _Pańćatantram_. In the fifth book of the _Pańćatantram_, a +variety occurs: we read of a fish which has the intelligence of a +hundred (Çatabuddhis), of one which has the intelligence of a thousand +(Sahasrabuddhis), and of the frog which has the intelligence of one +(Ekabuddhis); but that of the two fishes is not intelligence, but +presumption; the one intelligence of the frog is better than the +hundred and the thousand of the fishes. The frog escapes, but the two +fishes fall into the hands of the fishermen. + +The little sea-urchin (and the dwarf Vishṇus and the dolphin are +equivalent to it, the word _çiṅçumâras_ being equivocal in Sanskṛit) in +the _Ṛigvedas_ draws the chariot of riches; in the _Eddas_, a dwarf in +the form of a pike (in Greek _lükios_, in Latin _lucius_) watches over +gold, and guards the ring; in Russian legends, the little jorsh +(formidable, like the josz, by its sharp quills), united with the +dolphins, draws out of the sea the casket containing the sultan's ring. +The horn of the moon, which appears in the sea of night, belongs now to +the bull which carries the fugitive hero, now to the fish çapharî, +which, having become large, takes in tow the ship of Manus, and saves it +from the waters, that it may not be wrecked. Now it is the solar hero or +heroine that takes the form of a fish to save himself or herself; now +the fish helps the solar hero or heroine in their escape; now the little +golden or luminous fish plunges into the sea, or into the river, to seek +the pearl or ring for the hero or heroine who had let it fall, the ring +without which King Dushyantas cannot recognise his bride Çakuntalâ; now +it vomits out from its mouth or its tail that which it has +swallowed--the hero, the pearl, the ring (the solar disc). + +In the sixth act of _Çakuntalâ_, the fisherman finds in the stomach of a +fish (the _cyprinus dentatus_), the pearl enchased in the ring which +King Dushyantas had given to Çakuntalâ, in order to be able to recognise +her when they should come together again. The genera _cyprinus_ and +_perca_, as the thorny or wounding ones in the order of fishes, have +supplied the greatest number of heroes to mythology; the sea-urchin is +identified to them on account of its darts; the names _hecht_, +_brochet_, _pike_, given to the _lucius_ in Germany, France, and +England, express its faculty of stinging, or cleaving with its flat and +cutting mouth (the fish _lucioperca sandra_ is an intermediate form +between the perch and the pike). The lunar horn, the thunderbolt, the +sunbeam, have the same prerogative as these fishes; the dolphin, on +account of the two scythe-shaped fins which it has on its anterior +extremity, or of its fat and curved dorsal fin, as well as on account of +its black and silvery colour, might well serve to represent the two +lunar horns and the moon's phases. Thus the pike and the bream, dark or +bluish on their backs, are white underneath. The dolphin also has a flat +mouth and sharp teeth, like the pike.[503] The lunar horn announces +rain; thus the scythe-shaped fin of the dolphin, appearing on the waves +of the sea, announces a tempest to navigators, warns them, and saves +them from shipwreck; hence, as a çiṅçumaras, it may, like the +sea-urchin, have saved or drawn the chariot, that is, the vessel of the +Açvinâu, laden with riches. The dolphin which watches over Amphitritê, +by order of Poseidon, in the Hellenic myth, is the same as the dolphin, +the spy of the sea, or the moon, the spy of the nocturnal and wintry +sky. Inasmuch as the sky of night or winter was compared to the kingdom +of the dead, both the dolphin and the moon, according to the Hellenic +belief, carried the souls of the dead. + +The _cyprinus_, _par excellence_, the carp (Lat. _carpus_), is +celebrated, in connection with gold, in an elegant little Latin poem +of Hieronimus Fracastorus. Carpus was the name of a ferryman of the +Lake of Garda, who, seeing Saturn fleeing, took him for a robber who +was carrying gold away, and endeavoured to despoil him of this gold; +then Saturn cursed him and his companions in the following manner:-- + + "Gens inimica Deum dabitur quod poscitis aurum: + Hoc imo sub fonte aurum pascetis avari. + Dixerat: ast illis veniam poscentibus et vox + Deficit, et jam se cernunt mutescere et ora + In rictum late patulum producta dehiscunt, + In pinnas abiere manus; vestisque rigescit + In squamas, caudamque pedes sinuantur in imam; + Qui fuerat subita obductus formidine mansit + Pallidus ore color, quamquam livoris iniqui + Indicium suffusa nigris sunt corpora guttis; + Carpus aquas, primus numen qui læsit, in amplas + Se primus dedit et fundo se condidit imo." + +From the comparisons which we have made hitherto, it is impossible not +to admit that the enterprise of the fish who seeks the gold or the +pearl, who finds it, or who contains it in himself, is a very ancient +Âryan tradition. In the Vedic hymns we see now Indras, now the +Açvinâu, saving the heroes from shipwreck, and bringing riches to +mankind; we have also seen the çiṅçumâras (sea-urchin, dolphin, or +Vishṇus) draw the chariot of the Açvinâu, who are bringing riches. The +Greeks called a fish of a strange shape by the name now of Zeus, now +of chalkeüs (the name given to Hêphaistos, or Mulciber, or Vulcanus, +the worker in metals), or blacksmith, whence the name of _Zeus faber_, +by which it was known to the Latins. This fish is of a really +monstrous shape. Its back is brownish, with yellow stripes; the rest +of its body is of a silvery-grey colour; on its sides it has two spots +of the deepest black. Its dorsal fin opens like a fan, with rays +going out on all sides, and furnished with strong quills, which make +this prominence resemble a crest. We remember that the cock and the +lark were compared to Christ and to Christophoros, on account of their +crest; the same happened in the case of the Zeus faber.[504] The +Italian legend says that those two black spots (which make the fish's +body resemble a forge, whence its name of blacksmith) were caused by +the marks left upon it one day by St Christopher, while carrying +Christ upon his shoulders across the river. The fish which wears the +crest and Christopher are here identified with each other. But this is +not all; at Rome, at Genoa, and at Naples, this same fish is called +the fish of St Peter, because it is said to be the same fish which was +caught by St Peter in the Gospels, in the mouth of which (as a +blacksmith or chalkeüs, it must have known well how to coin money), by +a miracle of Christ's, St Peter found the coin which was to serve for +the tribute. Is it probable that the legend of the fish with gold in +its mouth, so common in Âryan legends, was current in Judea? I do not +think so; inasmuch as _petrus_ and the _petra_, upon which Christ +makes a bad Græco-Latin pun, in connection with the fish, is another +mythical incident which calls me back to the Âryan world, and tears me +away from the Semitic world, and from childish faith in the Judaic +authenticity of the evangelical story, though without prejudice to my +belief in the holiness of the doctrine. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[478] Indras, as a warlike god, does not know fear, or rather, he +kills fear (the hymn says, "Aher yâtâraṁ kam apaçya indra hṛidi yat te +ǵaghnuso bhîr agaććhat"; _Ṛigv._ i. 32, 14), and lets himself be +terrified by a trifle, which may be either a nightly shadow (the dark +man of fairy tales), or the terror caused to him by some fish (the +moon) which leaps upon him in the waters which he himself has set +free.--In the twenty-second of the Tuscan stories published by me, the +young hero who passed through all the dangers of hell without being +afraid, dies at the sight of his own shadow. (We have also referred to +this when treating of the dog and the lion who meet with their death, +allured by their own shadow.)--In the forty-sixth story of the fifth +book of _Afanassieff_, the merchant's son, who did not know fear, who +feared neither darkness nor brigands nor death, is terrified and dies +when he falls into the water, because the little perch entered into +his bosom whilst he was sleeping in his fishing-boat.--It is also easy +to pass from the idea of Indras, who inebriates himself in the _soma_ +to that of the fish, when we consider that the Hindoo word _matsyas_, +the fish, properly means the inebriated, from the root _mad_, to +inebriate and to make cheerful. + +[479] Açnâpinaddham madhu pary apaçyam matsyaṁ na dîna udani +kshiyantam; _Ṛigv._ x. 68, 8. + +[480] _Mbh._ 2371-2392. + +[481] _Mbh._ i. 5078-5086.--In another variety of the same myth, the +semen of the wise Bharadvâǵas comes out at the sight of a nymph; the +sage receives it in a cup, out of which comes Droṇas, the armourer and +archer _par excellence_; i. 5103-5106. + +[482] v. 27. + +[483] _Râmây._ ii. 92. + +[484] Cfr. Böhtlingk, _Indische Sprüche_, i. 59. + +[485] Revad uvâha saćano ratho vâṁ vṛishabhaç ça çiṅçumâraç ća yuktâ. + +[486] Our readers will not be astonished at seeing the dolphin, the +whale, and the sea-urchin classed here with fishes. We are not +treating of natural history according to the classifications of +science, but of the gross classifications made by impressionable +popular imaginations. Thus, amongst the animals of the water we shall +find the serpent described, although it be amphibious, because popular +belief makes the dragon watch over the waters. + +[487] The pike becomes in spring of an azure or bluish or +greenish-blue colour; hence the name of _golubbi_--_però_ (that is, of +the azure or bluish fins; in German, the bluish colour is called +_echt-grau_--that is, grey of pike; in the nineteenth of the Russian +stories of _Erlenwein_, golden fins are ascribed to the pike), which +is also given to it in Russia. _Golub_, or brown, violet and azure, is +a name given in Russia to the dove; so in Italy we say, that the dove +is _pavonazzo_ (properly the colour of the peacock, which is generally +blue and green). But in Sanskṛit, amongst the names of the peacock +there is that of _haris_, a word which represents both the moon and +the sun. By the same analogy, the bluish or greenish pike may +represent the moon. But another analogy, caused by a similar +conception, is found again in the word _çyâmas_, which means black, +azure, and also silvery; whence it serves to represent the +_convolvolus argenteus_ (we must remember that the Latin name of the +pike is _lucius_; the Greek, _lükios_--that is, the luminous one). The +pike takes the colour of the water in which it lives, and the waters +are dark, black, azure, greenish, silvery; as being azure, or +greenish, or silvery, the pike represents the moon; as being dark, the +tenebrific night, the cloud, the wintry season.--In the thirty-second +story of the fourth book of _Afanassieff_, the little perch relates +that the pike was once luminous (that is, in spring), and that it +became black after the conflagration which took place in the Lake of +Rastoff from the day of St Peter (June 29) to the day of St Elias +(July 20), or in the beginning of summer. As we learn in the +_Pseudo-Callisthenes_, near the black stone, which makes black whoever +touches it, there are fishes which are cooked in cold water, and not +at the fire, I recollect here also that the _Hecht-könig_, or king of +pikes, is described as yellow and black-spotted. + +[488] _Afanassieff_, v. 22. + +[489] _Afanassieff_, i. 2.--Cfr. the eleventh of the _Novelline di Santo +Stefano di Calcinaia_; a monstrous fish devours the princess; the fish +is said to be a shark (pesce cane); and v. 8 of the _Pentamerone_. + +[490] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, ii. 24. + +[491] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 55, vi. 32.--It is the same fish which, +saved by the girl who is persecuted by her step-mother, comes to her +assistance, separates the wheat from the barley for her (like the +Madonna, the purifying moon-fairy, the nightly cleanser of the sky), +and gives splendid robes to her, in vi. 29.--In the story v. 54, +instead of the pike as a fœcundator we find the bream, which is also +called "of the golden fins" (szlatopioravo), of which the colours are +the same as those of the pike. + +[492] In the nineteenth Russian story of _Erlenwein_, and in a variety +of the same in the last book of Afanassieff's stories.--In an +unpublished story of the Monferrato, communicated to me by Dr Ferraro, +a fisherman catches a large fish which says to him, "Let me go, and +you will always be fortunate." The wife of the fisherman opposes this, +roasts and eats the fish, from whose bones are born to the fisherman +three sons, three horses, and three dogs. Evidently the story has been +corrupted. + +[493] Cfr. Salvianus, _Aquatilium Animalium Historiæ_, Romæ, 1554. + +[494] At Berlin, children sing on the first of April-- + + "April! April! April! + Man kann den Narren schicken wohin man will." + +[495] Another custom concerning herrings is described by Baron von +Reinsberg, relating to Ash-Wednesday, when people return from church +in Limburg: "Begiebt man sich zuerst nach Hause, um nach gewohnter +Weise den Häring abzubeissen. Sobald man nämlich aus der Kirche kommt, +wird ein Häring, nun muss jeder mit geschlossenen Beinen, die Arme +fest an den Leib gedrückt, in die Höhe springen und dabei suchen, ein +Stück abzubeissen." And Karl Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 561, +writes: "In der Mark muss man zu Neujahr Hirse oder Häringe essen, im +Wittenbergischen Heringssalat, so hat man das ganze Jahr über Geld." + +[496] Cfr. Salvianus, _ut supra_. The habit certain fishes have of +ejecting froth from the mouth may have suggested a phallical image. + +[497] Bei Hans Sachs, Nürnberger, Ausgabe von 1560, ii. 14, 96, Eine +Frau und Magd essen den für den Herrn bestimmten Aal; eine Elster +schwatzt es aus; ran sich zu rächen, rupfen die Weiber ihr den Kopf +kahl. Daher man sprichwörtlich von einem kahlen Mönche sagt: der hat +gewiss vom Aale ausgeschwatzt; Menzel, _Die Vorchristliche +Unsterblichkeits-Lehre_. + +[498] In the same: "So erzählt Gilbert bei Leibnitz Script. rer. +Brunsw. i. 987. Ein Frauenzimmer, welches Aal gegessen, habe plötzlich +Alles sehen können was unter Wasser war." + +[499] It is well known that the word _ikshvâkus_ has been referred to +the word _ikshus_, the sugar-cane. In the fortieth canto of the first +book of the _Râmâyaṇam_, one of the two wives of Sagaras gives birth +to a son who continues his race; the other wife gives birth to an +ikshvâkus (gourd or cane) containing 60,000 sons. + +[500] Cfr, Du Cange, _s. v._, and Salvianus, the work quoted before. + +[501] In the thirteenth story of the first book of _Afanassieff_ (of +which the Bohemian story of _Grandfather Vsievedas_ is a well-known +variety), the whale complains that all the footmen and horsemen pass +over it and consume it to the bones. It begs the hero Basilius to ask +the serpent how long it has still to undergo this fate; the serpent +answers, when it has vomited forth the ten vessels of the rich +Mark.--In the eighth story of the fourth book of the _Pentamerone_, +the whale teaches Cianna the way to find the mother of time, requiring +her, in recompense, to be informed of the way in which the whale may +be able to swim freely to and fro in the sea without encountering +rocks and sandbanks. Cianna brings back for answer, that it must make +friends with the sea-mouse (_lo sorece marino_, perhaps the same as +the sea-urchin), which will serve as its guide.--In the eighth story +of the fifth book of the _Pentamerone_, the little girl is received in +the sea by a large enchanted fish, in whose belly she finds beautiful +companions, gardens, and a beautiful palace furnished with everything. +The fish carries the girl to the shore. + +[502] If I am not mistaken, the German words _Narr_, fool, and _nass_, +wet, are in connection with each other by the same analogy which gives +us the Sanskṛit _mattas_, drunk, and the Latin _madidus_, damp, from +the root _mad_. + +[503] A superstitious belief quoted by Pliny concerning the cramp-fish +merits being recorded here: "Mirum quod de Torpedine invenio, si capta +cum Luna in Libra fuerit, triduoque asservetur sub dio, faciles partus +facere postea quoties inferatur." + +[504] _s. v. citula_, Du Cange writes concerning the fish faber or +Zeus: "Idem forte piscis, quem Galli doream vocant ab aureo laterum +colore, nostri et Hispani Galli Baionenses jau, id est gallum, a dorsi +pinnis surrectis veluti gallorum gallinaceorum cristis." The fish Zeus +lives in solitude; hence it appears to me to be the same sacred fish, +called anthias, of which Aristotle, in the ninth book of the _History +of Animals_, says that it lives where no other animal is found. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE CRAB. + + +SUMMARY + + The riddle, how it is a fish, and not a fish.--The crab appears + and the sun goes back; the crab-moon draws the solar hero + back.--The crane and the crab.--The crab kills the serpent and + releases the solar hero.--The crab draws the + chariot.--Palinurus.--The crabs prick and waken the hero.--The + race between the crab and the fox.--The prince becomes a crab to + release his beloved from the waters.--The nightingale, the stag, + and the crab as awakeners.--The crab as an antidote for the venom + of the toad, and as a remedy for the stone. + +In the eighth Esthonian story, a husband beats his wife because she is +unable to solve the riddle which he proposes, to provide him a fish to +eat, which is not a fish, and which has eyes, but not in its head. The +third brother, the cunning one, recommends his mother to cook the +crab, which lives in the water like a fish, and which has eyes, but +not in its head. + +When the sun seems to enter, in the month of June, into the tropic +which bears the sign of the crab (Lat. _cancer_; Gr. _karkinos_; +Sanskṛit, _karkaṭas_, _karkas_, _karkaṭakas_; the Hindoo constellation +of the crab is called _karkin_, or furnished with the crab, in the +same way as the leaping moon, furnished with the hare, is called +_çaçin_), it is said to come back again; on the first day of summer +the days begin to shorten, as on the first of winter they begin to +lengthen; the sun in the month of June was therefore compared to a +crab, which retraces its steps, or was represented as drawn by a crab, +which, in this case, is particularly the moon. We all know the myth of +Hêraklês, who, when combatting the hydra of Lerne, was caught and +drawn back by the crab, which Hêra, therefore, transformed into the +celestial constellation of the crab. In the _Pseudo-Callisthenes_, +Alexander returns in terror from his journey to the fountain of +immortality, when he sees that the crabs draw his ships back into the +sea. In the same work, we find a crab caught which contains seven +precious pearls; Alexander has it shut up in a vase, which is enclosed +in a large cage, fastened by an iron chain; a fish draws the cage a +mile out to sea; Alexander, half dead with terror, thanks the gods for +the warning, and so saving his life, persuading himself that it is not +fit to attempt impossible undertakings. In the seventh story of the +first book of the _Pańćatantram_, the old crane, on the other hand, +terrifies the crab and the fishes by threatening them with a +visitation of the gods in the chariot of Rohinî, the red wife of the +Lunus, that is, in the constellation of the Wain or the Bulls (the +fourth lunation of the moon), in consequence of which the rain will +cease to fall, the pond will be dried up, and the crabs and fishes +will die; the fishes allow themselves to be deceived by the crane, who +eats them on the way; but the crab, on the contrary, when it has got +half way, perceives the deceit of the crane, kills it, and returns +back again. Professor Benfey has found a variation of this story in +the Buddhist sacred and historical books of Ceylon. In the Æsopian +fables, the crab kills the serpent. In the twentieth story of the +first book of the _Pańćatantram_, the crab causes, at the same time, +the death of the serpent and the crane, by means of the ichneumon; +the crab, which walks a little backwards and a little forwards, when +transported into the sky, causes now the death of the solar hero and +now that of the monster, now delivers the solar hero from the monster +and now drags it into the waters. In the fifteenth and last story of +the fifth book of the _Pańćatantram_, the young hero Brahmadattas +takes, for his companion in his journey, the crab, who, whilst he +sleeps in the shade of a tree, kills the serpent which comes to kill +him. This mythical crab, this red animal which kills the serpent, is +sometimes the sun, but, perhaps, oftener it may be compared to the +horned moon, which increases and diminishes, and releases the solar +hero, asleep in the shadow of the night and of the winter, from the +black serpent who endeavours to turn his sleep into death; +Brahmadattas, when he wakens, recognises the crab as his deliverer. +Thus we have already seen the moon considered more than once, in +several forms, as the saviour of the solar hero and heroine. When the +sun falls in the evening, in the west, it must necessarily go back +like the crab, to reappear in the morning on the same eastern side +from whence it came; when the sun goes back and the days grow shorter, +after the summer solstice, the crab, in the Zodiacal cycle, retraces +its steps. When the sun goes back, the moon either rules the darkness +of the frigid night, or in autumn brings on the autumnal rains; the +horns of the moon, and those of the crab, serve now to draw the hero +into the waters (in the evening, and after solstice of June), now to +draw him out of the waters (towards dawn and towards spring). The sun +is now represented as having transformed himself into the moon, and +now as having been deceived or saved by the moon. The sun which +retraces its steps is a crab; the moon which draws back, or draws out, +is also a crab, and, in this respect, seems to hold the same place as +the sea-urchin with the hundred oars, or of the dolphin with the +scythe-shaped fin, which draws the chariot of the solar hero, or the +solar hero himself. In the fable of Kriloff, the crab draws the +chariot with the pike and the heron (the latter taking the place here +of the crane, which we have seen above in connection with the crab, +and which is also called in Sanskṛit by the same name as the crab, +that is, karkaṭas). It is well known that the sea-crab, _Palinurus +vulgaris_, took its name from the pilot Palinurus, who fell into the +sea. In the fourteenth story of the first book of _Afanassieff_, the +crabs prick and waken the young hero Theodore (gift of God, an +equivalent of Brahmadattas, given by the god Brahman), put to sleep by +the witch; they are grateful to the hero, because he divided the +caviare into equal parts among the crabs who were disputing for it. + +We have seen the challenge to a race with the hare and the locust, the +hare and locust both seem to lose the race. Afterwards we saw the +challenge to a trial of flight of the beetle and the wren with the +eagle, in which the animal that symbolises the moon, on the other +hand, wins the race. Thus, in the same way, as to spring succeeds June +or the month of the crab, we find represented in the fifth story of +the fourth book of _Afanassieff_ a race between the fox (which, as it +symbolises the twilights of the day, represents also the equinoxes in +the year) and the crab (it is well known that the crab, _Palinurus +vulgaris_, was called by the Latins by the name of _locusta_). The +crab fastens itself to the fox's tail; the latter arrives at the +winning-post without knowing of the crab's presence; the fox then +turns round to see whether his opponent is far off, upon which the +crab, letting go the fox's brush and dropping quietly on the ground, +looks up and placidly remarks that it has been waiting for some time. + +In the first of the Esthonian stories, the young prince, in order to +release from the waters his beloved, who had become a water-rose, by +the eagle's advice takes off his clothes, covers himself with mud, and +holding his nose between his fingers, snivels out, "From a man, a +crab;" then he instantly becomes a crab, and goes to draw the +water-rose out of the water, to bring it to shore near a stone, at +which, when arrived, he says, "From the water-rose, the maiden; from +the crab, the man." (This myth appears to represent the amours of the +sun as a female, with the moon as a male.) I observe that among the +Sanskṛit meanings of the word _karkaṭas_, which means a crab, there is +that of a heap of water-roses, or a heap of lotuses. + +We have already seen the nightingale and the stag as images +representing the moon; here we also find a crab as a lunar figure. The +moon is the watcher of night; either it sleeps with its eyes open like +the hare, or it is watchful like the stag, or, as a nightingale, it +justifies the Greek proverb of the watchers who sleep less than the +nightingales (oud' hoson Aêdones üpnôousin), or, as crab, it wakens up +with its claws those who are asleep and menaced by any danger.[505] In +Pliny we find the nightingale, the stag, and the crab in concord; he +informs us that crab's eyes, with the nightingale's flesh, tied up in +a stag's skin, are useful to keep a man awake. The moon, in fact, not +only herself watches, but makes men watch, or prolong their vigils; we +know, moreover, of the excitement with which her presence agitates the +quail, which cannot sleep when the moon shines in the sky. Pliny also +recommends the river-crab, cut in pieces and drunk, as a remedy +against any poison, but especially against the venom projected by the +toad. In the _Heisterbac. Hist. Miracul._, we read of a man named +Theodoric, and surnamed Cancer, that the devil persecuted him in the +form of a toad; he kills the diabolical toad more than once, but it +always rises again; then Cancer, recognising the devil in this form, +forms a heroic resolution, uncovers one of his thighs, and lets +himself be bitten; the thigh inflames, but he is cured at last, and +from that day forward he is and continues a holy man. German +superstition, therefore, combines with Græco-Latin to consider the +crab as an enemy of the monster; but as in Græco-Latin beliefs, +besides the crab which awakens, there is also, as we have seen, the +crab which seeks to ruin the solar hero, so in Germanic mythical +tradition, the death of the solar and diurnal hero Baldur takes place, +when the sun enters the Zodiacal sign of Cancer. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[505] We know that lynx's eyes, or lynx-like eyes, mean very +sharp-sighted ones; ancient physicians recommended against the stone +or the disease of the gravel, now the lyncurium, the stone which was +supposed to be made of the urine of the lynxes, given by India to +Bacchus, according to Ovid's expression, and now crab's eyes. The moon +destroys with its light the stone-sky, the sky of night; hence crab's +eyes are recommended against the disease of the stone. When the moon +is not in the sky of night, the stone is there. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE TORTOISE. + + +SUMMARY. + + Equivoque between the words _kaććhapas_ and _kaçyapas_ (by the + intermediate form, _kaçapas_).--Explanation of the myth of the + production of the ambrosia, by means of the mandaras.--Mantharas + as a tortoise.--Kûrmas.--Kaććhapas the lord of the shores.--The + tortoise and the elephant.--Kaçyapas as Praǵâpatis.--Somas and + Savitar.--Kaçyapas and the thirteen daughters of Dakshas; + Dakshaǵâ.--The funereal tortoise and the frog.--The tortoise and + the lyre; the Schild-kröte; the shields of the Kureti; kaććhâs, + kaććhapî; kûrmas as a poet and as a wind.--The tortoise and the + warriors.--The shields fallen from the sky.--The demoniacal + tortoise.--The tortoise as an island.--The hare and the + tortoise.--The tortoise defeats the eagle. + +Of the three principal Hindoo names of the tortoise, _kûrmas_, +_kaććhapas_, and _kaçyapas_, the third alone, in connection with the +second, seems to have any importance in the history of myths. The +expression _kûrmas_ is the word usually employed to designate the real +tortoise, whilst the expression _kaçyapas_ gave rise to mythical +equivoques, which deserve to be observed. + +We know of the famous incarnation of Vishṇus as a tortoise, treated of +in the _Kûrma P._ The problem was to stir up the ocean of milk to make +ambrosia; the sea had no bottom, inasmuch as the earth had as yet no +existence; to stir up the waters of the ocean, something of colossal +size was needed; the gods had recourse to the mandaras, which was made +to serve for the purpose, as the king of the rods, _kaçapas_; the gods +and the demons shook the rod, and the ambrosia came forth; no sooner +was the ambrosia produced, than the world of animated beings began to +be created. The character of this cosmogony is preternaturally +phallical; the white froth of the sea (born of the genital organs of +Ouranos, castrated by his son Kronos), whence Aphroditê rises, and the +cosmic ambrosia, being nothing else than the genital sperm. At a later +period a mountain was seen in the mandaras, and the words _kaçapas_ +and _kaććhapas_ (subsequently changed into _kaçyapas_) being confused, +the king of the rods or phallos, _par excellence_, was converted into +a tortoise. The mandaras (from the root _mand-mad_, to inebriate, to +make joyful), however, might mean the agitator, that which makes +joyful; but as from _mad_ is derived the word _matsyas_, the fish now +drunken, now stupid, so the word _mandaras_ also has, for its proper +meanings, slow and large, and is closely connected with mandas, which, +besides slow, lazy, soft, also means drunken; with mandakas, foolish; +and with mandanas, merry; and, as such, we can understand how there +was in the celestial Paradise, in the mandanas or making joyful, the +tree mandaras, the inebriating. Finally, it is connected with +manthanas, the agitator, and identified with mantharas, which also +means the agitator, the slow, and the lazy. But there is also another +analogy which offers us the means of understanding how the equivoque +of kaçapas, confused with kaććhapas, and which afterwards became +kaçyapas or tortoise, became popular, just through the word _kûrmas_, +which, as we have said, means a tortoise. When the mandaras or +mantharas was conceived of as a producer of ambrosia, they soon +identified the mantharas itself (the slow, the late, the curved) with +the tortoise; in fact, _mantharas_ is the name given to a tortoise in +the _Hitopadeças_, and the name _mantharakas_ is applied to another in +_Somadevas_ and in the _Pańćatantram_. Considered simply as the slow +and the curved, the thought of the tortoise, which answers this +description, naturally arose in connection with the name; the +primitive myth became complicated, and the mandaras and the kaçapas, +which were originally one and same, were at length distinguished from +each other, the kaçapas, at first a kaçyapas or kaććhapas or tortoise, +and, _vice versa_, the mandaras or mantharas also; the words in course +of time lost their primitive meaning, the mandaras (as the slow one) +became a mountain (which does not move), and the kaçapas a tortoise, +supporting the mountain, at once vast, ponderous, and inert. As it +often happens in mythology that two distinct personalities spring out +of two names at first applied to the same mythical object or being, +and both being names which indicate something heavy, it was surmised +that the one heavy thing carried the other, and that the heavy +tortoise, into which the god Vishṇus transformed himself, sustained +the weight of the heavy mountain placed upon it by his _alter ego_ +Indras. The ideas of weighty and curved being united in both the +mandaras and the kaçapas, the tortoise, as kûrmas, serves well for +this office of a carrier, an assertion I venture to make, inasmuch as +in _kûr-mas_ I think I can recognise the same root which appears in +the Sanskṛit _gur-u-s_, fem. _gur-v-î_, superlat. _gar-ishṭh-a-s_ +(Lat. _gra-v-is_, from _garvis_), and in the Latin _curvus_.[506] + +As for the name of kaććhapas, to which the equivocal Hindoo epithet +of kaçyapas, applied to the tortoise, should be referred, it properly +means the lord, the guardian of the shores, he who occupies the +shores, and is a perfectly apt designation for the tortoise, and an +expression _à propos_ to what is related of it in the legend quoted by +us in the chapter on the elephant. Both animals (sun and moon) +frequent the banks of the same lake, and have conceived a mortal +dislike one for the other, continuing in their brutal forms the +quarrel which existed between them when they were not only two men but +two brothers. As the elephant and the tortoise both frequent the +shores of the same lake, they mutually annoy each other, renewing and +maintaining in mythical zoology the strife which subsists between the +two mythical brothers, who fight with each other for the kingdom of +heaven, either in the form of twilights, or of equinoxes, or of sun +and moon, or of twilight and sun, or of twilight and moon, in any of +the various interpretations which can, all with same basis of truth, +be given to the myth of the Açvinâu, according to their appearance +among celestial phenomena, which, although distinct, have nevertheless +a great resemblance. In this particular mythical struggle between the +tortoise and the elephant, terminated by the bird garuḍas, who carries +them both up into the air in order to devour them, the tortoise and +the elephant seem, however, especially to personify the two twilights +of the day and the two twilights of the year--that is, the equinoxes, +or the sun and the moon in the crepuscular hour, the sun and the moon +in the equinoctial day, upon the banks of the great heavenly lake. + +But, in the legend contained in the _Mahâbhâratam_[507] of the +tortoise and the elephant carried into the air by the Vishṇuitic +bird, there is still another interesting circumstance or variation, +which corroborates the cosmic interpretation of the myth of the +tortoise now proposed by me. The divine Kaçyapas is mentioned in it; +he desires to have a son, and therefore has himself served by the gods +(since it is the gods who make the mandaras, the producer of ambrosia, +turn round) in the sacrifice adapted to produce children. The +phallical Indras carries on his shoulders a mountain of wood, which +evidently corresponds to the mandaras or kaça-pas, and, on the way, +offends the dwarf hermits born of the hairs of the body of Brahman, +that is, the hairs themselves; to this Kaçyapas, the name of +Praǵâpatis or lord of generation is given. We here again meet with the +monstrous phallos which produces the ambrosia (or the Somas to which +corresponds Savitar, the generator and the lord of the creatures[508]) +and generates living beings in the world. Kaçyapas being considered as +the generator, he was therefore placed in relation with the movements +of the moon and the sun, who are also generators (as Somas and +Savitar); and it is in this respect that Kaçyapas also appears as the +fœcundator of the thirteen daughters of Dakshas, who correspond to +the thirteen months of the lunar year (Dakshaǵâ is the name of a lunar +asterism and of the wife of a phallical Çivas, and dakshaǵâpatis one +of the Hindoo names given to the moon; Dakshas is also identified with +Praǵâpatis; whence Kaçyapas must have united himself, probably as the +phallical moon, with his own daughters, or with his thirteen +lunations). Of the thirteen wives made fruitful by Kaçyapas, +everything that lives was born,--gods, demons, men, and beasts,--so +that in the cosmogony of the mandaras, of the Kaçapas, and hence of +the tortoise, the mandaras, when shaken, produced the phallical +ambrosia, of which all animated things were spontaneously generated. + +But the tortoise, taken in connection with the moon, sometimes also +had a funereal signification. The souls of the dead go into the world +of the moon, into the sky of night, and the souls of the living +descend from the world of the moon, that is, from the night; Çivas, +the god of Paradise, becomes the destroying god; Plutus and Pluto are +identified. Thus, in a note of Professor Haugh to the _Âitareya Br._, +I think I can recognise the tortoise, as representing in particular +the dying moon, the burnt-up moon, which has the fire of spring for +its tomb, round whose corpse the moon also moves in the here +equivalent form of a frog (being _haris_, which means both yellow and +green), and who is herself afterwards turned out. We know how Haris or +Vishṇus now represents the sun and now the moon (the sun and the moon, +as Indras and Somas, were called together rakshohanâu or +monster-killers), is identified now with the tortoise, now with the +bird garuḍas, the enemy of the tortoise. Here is, however, the note of +Professor Haugh: "At each Atirâtra of the Gavâm ayanam the so-called +Chayana ceremony takes place. This consists in the construction of the +Uttarâ Vedi (the northern altar) in the shape of an eagle. About 1440 +bricks are required for this structure, each being consecrated with a +separate Yaǵusmantra. This altar represents the universe. A tortoise +is buried alive in it, and a living frog carried round it and +afterwards turned out." According to Pliny, the blood of a tortoise is +an antidote to the venom of a toad (in the same way as the hare and a +stag's horn is also recommended as of similar efficacy on the old +principle of _similia_ _similibus_; the hare is the moon, the stag's +horn the moon's horn; the blood of the killed tortoise would appear to +represent the moon itself as in a manner chasing the gloom of night +away). The tortoise is also found in connection with frogs in a fable +of Abstemius; the tortoise envies the frogs, who can move rapidly, but +ceases to complain when it sees them become the prey of the eel. + +One of the ten stars of the constellation of the tortoise, situated in +the northern heavens--that is, in the cloudy and gloomy autumnal sky, +and therefore especially ruled by the moon--was called the lyre by the +Greeks, and it was fabled that the tortoise of which Hermês had made +the lyre, had been transfigured into it. I may remark here that the +German name for the tortoise is Schild-kröte (toad with shields), that +the Koribantes[509] produced their noisy music, and accompanied their +Pyrrhic dances with kettledrums and the sound of arms, and that the +Kureti, in order to conceal from Kronos the birth of Zeus, struck +their shields with their lances. It is interesting to observe, that in +Sanskṛit also, kaććhâs is the name given to the little shields of the +tortoise or kaććhapas; that kaććhapî is the term applied to the noise +of the thundering Sarasvatî, or the thunder; that several Vedic poets +are called Kaçyapas; that Kûrmas (another designation of the tortoise) +is also the name of the Vedic poet, the son of Gṛitsamadas, and also +an epithet applied to the _flatus ventris_, which is compared to a +clap of thunder (Cfr. the roots _kar_, _kur_, _gar_, _gur_). In the +chapter on the ass, we saw this _flatus_ compared to the noise of a +trumpet or a kettle-drum; here we have the thunderbolts that strike +upon the shields, the spots of the celestial tortoise, of the rainy +moon, upon the clouds, attracted by or formed from the moon's spots, +that is, which produce the thunder. According to the Hellenic myth, +the tortoise obtained from Zeus himself--that is, from the pluvial +god, from the god of the clouds, the god in connection with the +shield-clouds which concealed his birth, and we may add, from the god +tortoise,--the power of concealing itself under shields, and of +carrying its house along with it. The Romans were accustomed to bathe +new-born babes in the concavity of a tortoise, as if in a shield. It +was predicted that Clodius Albinus would one day attain to sovereign +power, because, when he was born, an enormous tortoise was brought to +his father by some fishermen. The tortoise protects Zeus, the new-born +warrior-god; the tortoise, on account of its shields, makes the +new-born child a warrior, and predicts dominion to him; my +well-informed readers will remember how a shield, fallen from the sky, +presaged to the Romans the glories they should achieve as a warlike +people, according to Ovid's verses-- + + "... Totum jam sol emerserat orbem: + Et gravis ætherio venit ab axe fragor. + Ter tonuit sine nube Deus, tria fulgura misit. + Credite dicenti: mira sed acta loquor. + A media cœlum regione dehiscere cœpit: + Submisere oculos cum duce turba suo. + Ecce levi scutum versatum leniter aura + Decidit: a populo clamor ad astra venit." + +Under this aspect the tortoise becomes the dark moon, in opposition to +the luminous one, the slow moon, in opposition to the jumping one. Being +slow or tardigrade, in the myths the tortoise is the moon, but the +winter one; and sometimes it becomes also now the cloud, now the earth, +now even the darkness (as such it appears demoniacal in a German legend, +where two devils who have assumed the forms of monstrous tortoises, +prevent the foundations of the cathedral church of Merseburg from being +laid; the tortoises are exorcised, and their bodies slain, in memory of +which circumstance it is said that the cups of these tortoises are +preserved, hung up in the church; in the fourteenth fargard of the +_Vendidad_, too, the tortoises are, as demoniacal, to be killed). We +have seen in the first chapter of the first book, the hare-moon passed +over and crushed by the cow's waggon, suggesting to us the cloud (as the +moon, now a bridge, now an island of the sky, as sea), which passes over +the moon, but he perhaps, again, of the eclipse of the moon by the means +of the earth, which is also called a cow in Sanskṛit. In Sanskṛit, the +earth, which comes out of waters--an island[510] (as the moon and the +cloud)--is also called by the name of kûrmas, _i.e._, a tortoise +(properly the curved, the humped, the eminent, the prominent; mantharas +is a name given to the tortoise, and Mantharâ is the name of the +humpbacked woman who causes the ruin of Râmas in the _Râmâyaṇam_). Hence +we also have in the West, besides the fables of the leaping hare (the +moon) and the cow, of the leaping locust (the moon) and the ant, the +apologue of the hare and the tortoise who run together; the hare, +relying on its swiftness, falls asleep and loses, while the tortoise by +steady perseverance wins the race. + +We have already seen the tortoise in the Hindoo legends as the rival +of the eagle or the Vishṇuitic bird Garuḍas. The two are now +identified and now fight against each other (we must remember that it +was by the advice of Kaçyapas that the bird Garuḍas ravished the +ambrosia from the serpents). In Greece, the proverb of the tortoise +which vanquishes the eagle, was already diffused; now it is the eagle +which carries the tortoise into the air, or rather makes it fly, now +it is, on the other hand, the tortoise which defies the eagle to +arrive first. It is interesting to compare with this the Siamese +apologue published by A. Bastian in the _Orient und Occident_, of +evidently Hindoo origin. The bird Khruth, no doubt a limited and +particular form of Garuḍas, wishes to eat a tortoise (here perhaps the +moon) which lies upon the shore of a lake. The tortoise consents to be +eaten, under the condition that the Khruth accepts a challenge to a +trial of speed, and arrives soonest on the other side of the lake, the +bird to go through the air, and the tortoise through the water. The +bird Khruth accepts the wager; then the tortoise calls together +millions and millions of tortoises, and places them all in such a way +that they surround the lake, each distant a few steps from the water. +Then it gives the signal to the bird to commence the race. The Khruth +rises into the air, and flees to the opposite bank; wherever he essays +to alight, he finds the tortoise has been there before him. (This myth +represents, perhaps, the relation of the sun to the lunations). + +FOOTNOTES: + +[506] Cfr. the Sanskṛit roots, _kar_, _kur_, _gur_, _gûr_. + +[507] i. 1353-1456. + +[508] Savitâ vâi prasavânâmiço.--_Âit. Br._ The story of Cunaḥçepas; +he appears evidently as a form of Praǵâpatis. + +[509] The Koribantes remind us of the Salii of the Latins, to whom +Numa gives the arms and the words, to be sung leaping. According to +Ovid's distich-- + + "Jam dederat Salii (a saltu nomina ducunt) + Armaque et ad certos verba canenda modos." + --_Fasti_, iii. 389. + +[510] It is interesting in this connection to find in the translation of +Lane a passage from the _Aǵáïb-el-Makhlooḳát_ (_Marvels of Creation_), a +work of the thirteenth century: "The tortoise is a sea and land animal. +As to the sea tortoise it is very enormous, so that the people of the +ship imagine it to be an island. One of the merchants relates as follows +regarding it: 'We found in the sea an island elevated above the water, +having upon it green plants, and we went forth to it, and dug [holes for +fire] to cook; whereupon the island moved, and the sailors said, "Come +ye to your place, for it is a tortoise, and the heat of the fire hath +hurt it, lest it carry you away." By reason of the enormity of its +body,' said he [_i.e._, the narrator above mentioned], 'it was as though +it were an island, and earth collected upon its back in the length of +time, so that it became like land, and produced plants.'" Evidently here +the tortoise occupies the same place as, in popular tradition, the lunar +whale recorded by us in the chapter on the Fishes. Cfr. Lane, _The +Thousand and One Nights_, London, 1841, vol. iii. chap. xx. n. 1 and 8, +p. 80 _seq._--Grein, _Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Poesie_, +Göttingen, 1857, 1, 235, the Celtic legend of St Brandan and the +_Pseudo-Callisthenes_. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE FROG, THE LACERTA VIRIDIS, AND THE TOAD. + + +SUMMARY. + + The mâṇḍukâs or frogs as clouds in the _Ṛigvedas_.--Bhekas.--The + frog announces the summer; the _canta-rana_ announces Christ.--The + serpent, the hero, and the frog.--The frog and the ox.--Dionysos + and the frogs.--Indras and the frogs.--The dumb frogs.--Proserpina + and the frog.--Rana cum gryllo.--The frog finds the sultan's + ring.--The frog and the rook.--The frog as the serpent's + daughter.--The demoniacal frog.--The yellow and the green + frog.--The beautiful maiden as a frog.--The demoniacal toad.--The + sacred toad.--The beautiful maiden as a toad.--The toad in + Tuscany, in Sicily, and in Germany.--The handsome youth as a + toad.--Women who gave birth to toads.--The venomous and the + alexipharmic toad.--Kröte and Schildkröte.--The toad swallows the + dew.--The stone of the frog.--The horned lizard.--Eidechse, + hagedisse.--Apollo as sauroktanos.--The lizard on St Agnes's + Day.--The little lizards must not be killed in Sicily, being + intercessors before the Lord.--The amphisbhæna.--The _lacerta + viridis_.--The _couleuvre_ as a good fairy. + +I am sorry to be unable to concur entirely in the opinion of the +illustrious Professor Max Müller, when, in translating a hymn of the +_Ṛigvedas_, in his _History of Ancient Sanskṛit Literature_, he remarks, +"The 103d hymn, in the seventh Maṇḍalam, which is called a panegyric of +the frogs, is clearly a satire on the priests." It is possible that at a +later period, in deriding a brâhmanic school similar to that of the +mâṇḍûkâs, a satirical sense would have been ascribed to this hymn, but +it does not seem to me that the intention of the author of the Vedic +hymn was such. Professor Max Müller has shown well in his History how +the Vedic hymns have suffered in the hands of the Brâhmans, by means of +their arbitrary interpretations; the interesting story of the +hypothetical god Kas is a very convincing proof of it; it is, therefore, +possible, and even probable, that attempts were made to use this Vedic +hymn as an arrow for satire; but if I am not mistaken, no trace of a +satirical meaning can be found in the hymn itself. Above all, I must +observe that the Anukramaṇikâ of the _Ṛigvedas_ properly calls the hymn +only parǵanyastutis, or hymn in honour of Parǵanyas, the hymn of the +tempest; secondly, it scarcely seems possible that a satirical hymn, +intended to caricature the priests, should be inserted in the seventh +book, which is attributed to Vasishṭas, the most religious of all the +legendary Brâhmans, and he who, for the glory of Brâhmanism and the +rights of the sacerdotal caste, maintained such a protracted and +disastrous war against Viçvâmitras, the champion of the warrior race; +hence, if a satirical hymn against priests had been found in the third +book of the _Ṛigvedas_, ascribed to the wise Viçvâmitras, I should not +have thought it so strange, whilst it would be misplaced in the hymns +said to be written by Vasishṭas. To me it seems rather that, when +speaking of frogs, the hymn does not allude to the frogs of the earth, +but to the clouds, the cloud-frogs, attracted by the pluvial moon, +whilst the tempest is at its height. We know that in the _Ṛigvedas_, the +wives of the gods weave hymns in honour of the lightning and thundering +god Indras, who has killed the monster serpent which kept back the +waters of the heavenly cloud; we have also, in the first chapter of the +first book, heard the cows lowing and exulting joyfully before their +deliverer Indras, who lets his seed drop in the midst of them as soon as +they are released from the cave where they were imprisoned. In the +seventh book, the hymns 101 and 102 are sung in honour of Indras as +Parǵanyas; the hymn 103 is also sung in his honour, but by the clouds of +the sky themselves, by the celestial frogs, inasmuch as the frog which +croaks, when transported into the sky, is nought else then the +thundering cloud; in fact, in Sanskṛit the word _bhekas_, which means +frog, has also the meaning of cloud. We have seen that the cuckoo who +sings in spring, and admonishes the tillers of the soil to begin their +work, personifies the thunder in the sky: the frog has the same office; +it, like the thunder, announces the approaching tempest. And because, +when the first claps of thunder are heard, it is the summer which +announces its coming, so the frog that croaks and the frog that sings +served specially to announce the summer. I remember that, a few years +ago, there still existed at Turin, among children, the custom of +sounding in the Holy Week (in order to greet the approaching festival of +the resurrection of Christ, who died amongst flashes of lightning and +peals of thunder) a wooden instrument, which emitted a sharp squeak +resembling the croaking of a frog, and which was therefore called +_canta-rana_ (the frog sings). It was also the custom on Easter Eve to +strike all the doors violently with sticks, as if to reproduce under +another form the sound of the _canta-rana_. According to Pliny, the +frogs die in winter, and are born again in spring; when the frogs ask +for a king, and obtain, in the Greek fable[511] a serpent, and in the +Russian fable of Kriloff a heron, the serpent and the heron symbolise +the autumnal and wintry seasons. Indras, Zeus, and Christ are born and +born again amid the noise of musical instruments, shields, arms, winds +and thunder, among the lowing of cows, the bleating of goats, the +braying of asses, and the croaking of frogs, called by Aristophanes +_philôdon genos_. In the 103d hymn of the seventh book of the +_Ṛigvedas_, one maṇḍûkas (frog or cloud) lows like a cow (gomâyus); +another like a goat (aǵamâyus); one is pṛiçnis, or variegated; another +haritas, or fair-haired, golden, red (the cloud born by the lightning +and the violence of the wind), and, as a frog, green or grey; the +maṇḍûkas or frog being transported into the sky, or identified, as a +ǵomâyus, with the cow, it is no wonder that, in the fable, the frog has +the presumption of thinking it can inflate itself to the size of an ox; +but when the little cloud has become a large one, it ends by bursting, +and so does the frog in his attempt to distend himself and become as +large as the ox. (In the eighteenth Esthonian story, we find a monster +who has a body like that of an ox, and feet like those of a frog.) When +Indras and Zeus have accomplished their work in the celestial cloud, +when the cloud has passed away and dispersed, when the frogs are drunk +with water, they cease their croaking; thus, in the _Frogs_ of +Aristophanes, when Dionüsos (nüseios Dios) has passed the Stygian marsh, +they stop croaking; whilst Zeus, on the other hand, floods the earth +with water, they (Dios pheugontes ombron) retire into the depths of the +waters to dance in chorus (as the ap-sarâs). On the other hand, before +the pluvial god satisfies their desires, before it rains, they croak +incessantly; the thunder always makes itself heard before the rain, and +at the outbreak of the tempest; hence, in the _Ṛigvedas_ itself, Indus +(the moon), as a bringer of rain (or the rain itself), is implored to +run and plead with Indras, the pluvial god, to satisfy the desire of the +frog.[512] Here, therefore, it is especially Indus who satisfies the +frogs' desire for rain. Indus, as the moon, brings or announces the +somas, or the rain; the frog, croaking, announces or brings the rain; +and at this point the frog, which we have seen identified at first with +the cloud, is also identified with the pluvial moon. Another +characteristic of the frog made this identification all the more +natural, and that was, its green colour (harit). By the word _harit_ +(which, as we, several times, have remarked, means yellow and green in +Sanskṛit) not only the moon, but the green parrot was designated, and +also the frog. The identification having been effected, the Greeks could +then relate fables concerning the frog of the Island of Seriphos +(batrachos ek Seriphou), which was dumb; so in the Lives of St Regulus +and St Benno, we read that when these two saints, as they preached the +Christian faith, were annoyed by the croaking of the frogs, they ordered +the frogs to be silent, and they became dumb for ever. In truth, the +frogs are silent (and even die, according to Pliny) in winter, which is +under the especial dominion of the silent moon; the frog and the moon +are exchanged one for the other. In _Ovid_, the metamorphosis of the +frog is made to enter into the lunar myth, that is, into the myth of +Proserpina; it was the form of the frog which certain peasants of Lycia +assumed who dirtied the water of which Ceres and Proserpina wished to +drink; their croaking (coax) is the punishment to which the goddesses +condemned them, because in those waters they had emitted a vile sound +from their mouths.[513] Another proof of the identity of the frog with +the moon is the Latin proverb, "Rana cum gryllo," which afterwards +served to represent two opposite things, but which, in fact, are the +same, on account of their shrill voice, their way of hopping, and their +common mythical connection with the leaping moon. We are reminded of the +moon and the cloud in the war waged between the frogs and the mice, who +are mutually destroying each other until the falcon comes with +impartiality to annihilate both. We are, moreover, reminded of the +little goldfish, the fair-haired moon, and the pike, in the frog which, +in the _Tuti-Name_, finds the sultan's ring, which had fallen into the +river, for the young hero, in gratitude to him for having saved it from +the serpent who was about to devour it; it is said that both the frog +and the serpent were two fairies who, freed from their curse, united +themselves to protect the young hero (the new sun). In the twenty-third +Mongol story, the golden frog (the moon) is dancing; the rook (the +night) carries it off to eat it; the frog recommends it to wash it in +water; the rook is taken in, and the frog, like the jorsh of Russian +stories, succeeds in escaping; this frog is said to be the daughter of +the prince of the dragons, who watches over the pearl. As the daughter +of a serpent, the golden frog (the moon), when it is darkened, itself +appears as a diabolical serpent or pythoness, and is more like a toad +than a frog; then it becomes, according to Sadder, a meritorious service +to kill the frogs: "Ranas si interfecerit aliquis quicunque fortis eorum +adversarius, ejus quidem merita propterea erunt mille et ducenta. Aquam +eximat eamque removeat et locum siccum faciat et tum eas necabit a +capite ad calcem. Hinc Diaboli damnum percipientes maximum flebunt et +ploratum edent copiosissimum." + +In the second Calmuc story of Siddhikür, two dragons who keep back the +river which irrigates the earth and makes it fruitful, and who eat a +man every year, assume the form of frogs (one yellow and the other +green), and speak to one another of the way in which they can be +killed. The king's son understands their language, and kills them, +helped by a poor friend of his, with whom he enriches himself, but +only to encounter (like the two mythical brothers) the most dangerous +adventures afterwards. + +But the diabolical form of a frog is sometimes assumed by the +beautiful maiden (or else by the handsome youth) as the effect of a +malediction or an enchantment. Thus it is in the interesting +twenty-third story of the second book of _Afanassieff_. There is a +Tzar who has three sons; each son must shoot an arrow; where the arrow +falls, each brother will find his predestined wife. The two eldest +brothers marry in this way two beautiful women; the arrow of the +youngest brother Ivan, however, is taken up by a frog, whom he is +obliged to marry. The Tzar wishes to see which of the three brides +makes the handsomest present to her husband. All three give their +husbands a shirt, but that of the frog is the most beautiful; for +whilst Ivan sleeps (that is, in the night), she casts her skin, +becomes the beautiful Helen (generally the aurora, but here, it would +seem, the same transformed into the good fairy moon), and orders her +attendants to prepare the finest shirt possible; she then again +becomes a frog. The Tzar (a truly patriarchal Tzar) then wishes to see +which of his three daughters-in-law bakes bread best; the first two +brides know not what to do, and send secretly to see what the frog +does; the frog, who sees all, understands the trick, and bakes the +bread badly on purpose; afterwards, when she is alone and Ivan asleep, +she again becomes the beautiful Helen, and orders her attendants to +bake a loaf such as those which her father ate only on feast-days. The +loaf of the frog is pronounced the best. Lastly, the Tzar wishes to +see which of his daughters-in-law dances best. Ivan is sorrowful, +thinking that his bride is a frog; but Helen consoles him, sending him +to the ball, where she will join him; Ivan rejoices to think that his +wife has the gift of speech, and goes to the ball; the frog takes her +robes off, becomes the beautiful Helen once more, dresses herself +splendidly, comes to the ball, and all exclaim as they pass by her (as +to the Homeric Helen), "How beautiful!" They first sit down to table +to eat; Helen takes bones in one hand, and water in the other; her +sisters-in-law do the same. Then the ball begins. Helen throws water +from one hand, and groves and fountains spring up; and bones (we +remember a similar virtue in the bones of the cow) from the other, +from which birds flutter upward (the same is narrated in a story I +heard in Piedmont when a child). Meanwhile, Ivan runs home to burn the +frog's skin. Helen returns home, can no longer become a frog, and is +sorrowful; she goes with Ivan to bed, and awakening at morn, says to +him, "Ivan Tzarević, thou hast not been patient enough; I would have +been thine; now, as God wills it, Farewell! Seek me in the +twenty-seventh earth, in the thirtieth kingdom" (_i.e._, in my +opinion, in hell, in the night into which the moon and the aurora +descend, and whence the moon comes out again and renews itself after +twenty-seven days; the Russian story is evidently a variety of the +fable of Cupid and Psyche).[514] She then disappears. Ivan goes to +seek his bride at the dwelling of the frog's mother, who is a witch; +he takes from her the spindle which spins gold, throws part of it +before him, and the rest behind. Helen appears once more, and the pair +flee away upon the carpet which flies by itself. Here the helped +aurora and the helping moon are assimilated. + +But in popular stories the hero and heroine assume by witchcraft, +instead of the form of a dark frog, that of a toad, and sometimes that +of a horned lizard,[515] whence the verse of Mehun-- + + "Boteraulx et couleuvres, visions de deables." + +Inasmuch as the toad is a form proper to the demon, it is feared and +hunted; inasmuch as, on the contrary, it is considered as a diabolical +form imposed by force upon a divine or princely being, it is respected +and venerated as a sacred animal. In Tuscany it is considered by the +peasants a sacrilege to kill a toad. A low Tuscan song heard by me at +Santo Stefano di Calcinaia records the transformation of the beautiful +maiden into a toad; the mother toad speaks to her daughter to console +her, inspiring her with the hope of being soon married to the king's +son-- + + "Botta, gragna,[516] + Il figlio del re che poco ti ama + Se non t'ama, t'amerà, + Quando per isposa lui t'avrà." + +(Wretched toad! the king's son, who little loves thee, if he love thee +not, will love thee when he has thee for his wife.) The prince weds +the toad, which is immediately transformed into a beautiful maiden. +With regard to the superstitions concerning the toad current in +Sicily, it is interesting to note what my friend Giuseppe Pitrè writes +to me--"The toad brings fortune; he who is not fortunate must provide +himself with a toad and feed it in his house[517] upon bread and wine, +a consecrated nourishment, inasmuch as it is alleged toads are either +'lords' or 'women from without,' or 'uncomprehended genii,' or +'powerful fairies,' who have fallen under some malediction. Hence they +are not killed, nor even molested, lest when offended they should come +at night to spit water upon the offender's eyes which never heal, not +even if he recommend himself to the regard of Santa Lucia." Hence the +poet Meli, in his _Fata Galanti_, writes that he prevented a peasant +from killing a toad-- + + "Jeu ch'avia 'ntisu da li miei maggiuri + Che li buffi 'un si divinu ammazzari, + Fici in modu chi l'ira e lu rancuri + A ddu viddanu cci fici passari." + +As a recompense for having saved its life, the toad soon afterwards +appears to him in the shape of a very beautiful woman, and promises to +assist him all the days of his life-- + + "Oh picciotti furtunatu! + Eu ti prutiggirò d'ora nn' avanti, + Jeu su' dda buffa, chi tu, gratu e umanu + Sarvasti antura da l'impiu viddanu." + +In Piedmont, I have heard a popular story[518] related in which the +toad is, on the other hand, the diabolical form assumed by a handsome +youth; in Aldrovandi, several things are narrated of women who gave +birth to toads.[519] + +From the double and contradictory aspect in which the toad was +regarded, popular medicine, although believing that the humour which +the toad, when provoked, ejects from behind, is fatal, and that the +toad not only poisoned men, but even all the plants over which it +passed, still recommends the wearing of dried toads under the armpits +as amulets against plague and poison. The same alexipharmic virtue was +also ascribed to the stone called and believed to be toad's-stone (or +bufonite), which was said to change colour when its wearer was +poisoned. The bufonite was supposed to be taken out of a toad's head, +but science has demonstrated that the bufonite, sold by quacks is made +of the tooth of a fossil fish.[520] Out of the toad, the dark animal +of the night, the gloom or winter, the solar pearl comes; thus popular +German stories regard the _Schild-kröte_ (or toad with the shield) as +sacred, on account of the pearl supposed to be contained in its head. +In Hungary it is said that the toad swallows the dew in the dry +season; it is believed, moreover, that the frog, like the serpent, +vomits forth, in spring, a precious stone called the stone of the +serpent or the stone of the frog. According to what Count Geza Kuun +writes to me, in the testament of a citizen of Kaisa three golden +rings are mentioned, one of which contained a "frog's stone." + +I have observed above that the toad's place is sometimes taken in +popular tales by the horned lizard; the lizard also represents the +demoniacal shape, the shape of a witch. On this subject there was an +interesting discussion by Karl Simrock upon the word _Eidechse_ (the +lizard in German), derived from the ancient form _Hagedisse_ which is +the same as _Hexe_ or witch. It is as a witch that the lizard is killed, +in the Greek myth, by Apollines, whence its name of _sauroktanos_.[521] +But, inasmuch as the lizards appear in spring and announce the fine +season, they are considered (according to Porphyrios) sacred to the sun, +and therefore of good augury. A Bolognese proverb says, "Sant' Agnes, la +luserta cor pr' al paes," to indicate that the season is beginning to +improve, inasmuch as with the appearance of the lizards on the Day of St +Agnes, which is in the beginning of March, spring begins to make itself +felt. In Sicily it is believed that the little lizards called San +Giuvanni must not be killed, because they are in the presence of the +Lord in heaven, and light the little lamp to the Lord (as we have +already seen the firefly give light to the grain). And when they are +killed, in order that they may not curse one, one must say to the tail +which is shaking, that it was not the real killer, but the dog of St +Matthew who committed the crime, + + "Nun fu' ieu, nun fu' ieu: + Fu lu cani di San Matteu." + +They are believed to be powerful intercessors before the Lord, for +which reason Sicilian children warm them in their bosoms, and feed +them on crumbs of bread soaked in water. + +But an especially sacred character is ascribed to the _lacerta +viridis_ (It. _ramarro_; Sicilian, _vanuzzu_, a diminutive of +Giovanni) and to the _amphisbhœna_, of which the ancients believed +that it had two heads (like the Hindoo ahîraṇis), its tail being taken +for one. The _amphisbhœna_ is still held sacred and revered in +India.[522] The green lizard of popular superstition is partly solar +and partly lunar; the firefly and the quail, as summer animals, are +sacred to the sun; as watchers by night, to the moon. Thus the green +lizard, as a summer animal which hunts away the serpent of winter, +appears particularly in relation with the sun; but inasmuch as there +is also the serpent of night, the green lizard or green _ramarro_ +takes the place of the crab-moon, that is, it wakens the young solar +hero who sleeps in the night, and wakens the sleeping man lest the +serpent should bite him. The moon of winter wakens the sun of spring, +the moon of night wakens the sun of day; the moon-lizard, like the +moon crab, hunts the serpent or black monster away. In Piedmont, +Tuscany, and Sicily, the green lizard is believed to be the friend of +mankind; indeed, it is called _guarda omu_ in Sicily, where it is +believed to cure from incantations, perhaps on account of the yellow +cross which the people think they can see upon its head. At Santo +Stefano of Calcinaia it is said that the green lizard hisses in the +ears of Christians like a Christian when the serpent approaches a man; +they even relate several cases of shepherds or peasants who, being +asleep, were saved by the green lizard passing over them (Aldrovandi +speaks of a similar superstition). It is, moreover, believed that the +green lizard, if caught and put in a vase full of oil, will produce +the oil of a _ramarro_, which is said to be good against wounds and +poisons. In the _Contes Merveilleux de Porchat_, a fairy protects the +poor Laric and brings fortune to him in the shape of a grateful +_couleuvre_, which he, in winter, found frozen and warmed in his +bosom. The _couleuvre_ makes radiant coins fall to Laric from the +beaks of certain partridges, enables him to find whatever he is in +need of, and puts a golden chain round the neck of his wife. Thus the +myths of the golden (or green) fish, the golden (or green) frog and +the golden (or green) lizard, correspond to each other in the +beautiful myth of the good moon-fairy, who protects the solar hero or +heroine in the nights both of the day and the year. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[511] Cfr. the first story of the fourth book of the _Pańćatantram_, +where the king of the frogs invokes the help of a black serpent to +avenge himself upon certain frogs who are his enemies, and, instead of +this, draws down death upon all the frogs and upon his own son. + +[512] Vâr in maṇḍûka ićhatîndrayendo pari srava; _Ṛigv._ ix. 112. + +[513] A similar tradition was current concerning the tarantula +(stellio). Ceres, being thirsty, wished to drink; the boy Stelles +prevented her, and the goddess transformed him into a _stellio_. +According to Ulpianus, from the _stellio_ was derived the _crimen +stellionatus_. + +[514] Cfr. also _Afanassieff_, vi. 55; Masha (Mary), the wife of Ivan, +at first appears as a goose, afterwards as a frog, a lizard, and a +spindle. + +[515] In the eighth story of the first book of the _Pentamerone_ it is +a lacerta cornuta (horned lizard, the moon) which watches over the +destiny of the girl Renzolle (the aurora). + +[516] It was thus that I heard it recited, but it should, as it +appears to me, be corrected both in rhyme and sense, and _gragna_ +changed into _grama_, unless _gragna_ is a verb and stands for +_grandina_ (hail); in Italy, there is a superstitious belief that the +toads are generated of the first large drops of rain which fall into +the dust at the beginning of a tempest. + +[517] A similar superstition is current in Germany, as I find in +Rochholtz, the work quoted before, i. 147: "Auch die Hauskröte, Unke, +Muhme genannt, wohnt im Hauskeller und hält durch ihren Einfluss die +hier verwahrten Lebensmittel in einem gedeihlichen Zustand. Dadurch +kommt Wohlstand ins Haus, und das Thier heisst daher Schatzkröte. In +Verwechslung mit dem braunschwarzen Kellermolch wird sie auch Gmöhl +genannt und soll eben so oft ihre Farbe verändern, als der Familie +eine Veränderung bevorsteht."--The various popular superstitions +concerning the salamander are well known,--viz., that it resists the +power of fire, that it lives in fire, that it becomes like fire: "immo +ad ignem usque elementarem orbi lunari finitimum ascendere" (according +to Aldrovandi), and that, devoid of hairs itself, it causes the hairs +of others to fall out by means of its saliva, whence Martial, cursing +the baldness of a woman's head-- + + "Hoc salamandra caput, aut sæva novacula nudet." + +Pliny therefore recommends against the poisonous venom which is +ascribed to the salamander, the seeds of the hairy and stinging +nettle, with broth of a tortoise (which it resembles by its yellow +spots). The salamander of popular superstition seems to me to +represent the moon which lights itself, which lives by its own fire, +which has no rays or hairs of its own, and which makes the rays or +hairs of the sun fall. + +[518] It was narrated to me by a peasant woman who heard it at Cavour +in Piedmont:-- + +A man who is paralytic has three daughters, Catherine, Clorinda, and +Margaret; he sets out on a journey to consult a great doctor, and asks +his daughters what they wish him to bring them when he returns; Margaret +will be content if he bring her a flower. He arrives at his destination, +a castle; everything is prepared to receive him, but the doctor is not +to be found; he sets out to return home, but on the way he recollects +the flower, which he had forgotten; he goes back to the garden of the +castle and is about to pluck a daisy (margherita), when a toad warns him +that he will die in three days if he does not give it one of his +daughters to wife. The father informs his daughters of this, upon which +the two eldest refuse; but the youngest, in order to save her father's +life, consents. Her father is cured, and the wedding takes place; during +the night the toad becomes a beautiful youth, but warns his bride never +to tell any one, for if she does, he will always remain a toad, and he +gives her a ring by means of which she will obtain whatever she wishes +for. The sisters have an inkling of some mystery, and make her confess; +the toad falls ill and disappears; she calls him with the ring, but in +vain; seeing this, she throws the ring, as useless, into a pond, upon +which the beautiful youth steps out, and never becomes a toad again; +their happiness together thereafter is unbroken. + +In an unpublished Tuscan story, related to me by Uliva Selvi at +Antignano near Leghorn, instead of the toad we have a magician of +frightful aspect. The father of the three daughters is a sailor; he +promises to fetch a shawl to the first, a hat to the second, and a +rose to the third. When the voyage is over, he is about to return, +but, having forgotten the rose, the ship refuses to move; he is +compelled to go back to look for the rose in a garden; a magician +hands the rose with a little box to the father to give it to one of +his daughters, whom the magician is to marry. At midnight, the father, +having returned home, relates to his third daughter all that happened. +The little box is opened; it carries off the third daughter to the +magician, who happens to be king of Pietraverde, and is now a handsome +young man. He shows her, in the palace, three rooms, of which one is +red, one white, and another black. They live together happily. +Meanwhile, the eldest sister is to be married; the magician conducts +his wife into the red room; she wishes to go to the wedding, and the +magician consents, but warns her not to say either who he is, or aught +she knows of him, if she does not wish to lose him, as to recover him +again she would have to wait till she should wear out as many shoes as +there are in the world. He gives her a dress which, as she goes, is +heard rustling a long way off; and he tells her, if her pin should +drop, to let the bride pick it up and keep it; warning her, moreover, +not to drink or to eat of anything they may offer her. All this she +observes to the letter. The second sister is about to be married; the +magician leads his wife into the white room and repeats the same +instructions, only, instead of the pin, she is to let her ring of +brilliants drop. The father dies; the magician then takes his wife +into the black room, the chamber of melancholy. She wishes to go to +the funeral, and is permitted, after the usual warnings; the magician, +moreover, gives her a ring; if it become black, she will lose him; she +forgets the warning and loses him. She wanders about for seven years, +and no one can give her any news of the king of Pietraverde; she then +disguises herself as a man, and arrives at a city where the king's +hostler takes her into his service; no sooner does she touch the +carriages than they become clean. The queen passes by and wonders at +the personal appearance of the youth; she engages him to work in her +kitchen, then to serve at table, and finally to be her _valet de +chambre_. The queen falls in love with him, and wishes to have him at +any cost; in vain; she then accuses him of designing to take her life. +The king, although unwillingly, has him put in prison; soon he has +pity upon him and lets him free. The fictitious youth continues to +wander about; he arrives at the city, and asks for news of the king of +Pietraverde; they tell her that he has long been dead, and point her +to a room where his bier is supported by columns of wax, or candles; +he will not awake until the candles are consumed. She goes up and +weeps; the king takes three hairs from his beard and recommends her to +preserve them carefully. She continues her wanderings, still dressed +as a man, and is engaged by other hostlers of a king as assistant. The +news of her bravery reach the king, who takes her into his kitchen. +The queen sees him and falls in love with him; in vain; she accuses +him to the king, who puts her in prison; she is condemned to death, +and the guillotine is prepared. While going to execution, she +remembers the three hairs, and burns one; an army of warriors appear, +sent by the king of Pietraverde; they terrify all the king's people, +whom they compel to postpone the execution till next day. The next day +she does the same with the same result. The third day she brings out +the third hair; the cavalry appear again, commanded this time by the +king of Pietraverde in person, dressed so that he shone like a +brilliant, that he appeared like a sun; he releases the youth from the +execution; the king of Pietraverde has the young girl dressed as a +princess; she is tried in a court of justice; her innocence is +established; the queen's head is cut off. + +[519] "Suessanus tradit, quod bufonem quempiam obviam fieri +felicissimum augurium fuisse antiquitas existimavit.--Anno 1553, in +villa quadam Thuringia ad Unstrum, a muliere bufo caudatus natus est, +quemadmodum in libro de prodigiis et ostentis habetur. Nec mirum, quia +Cœlius Aurelianus et Platearius scribunt mulieres aliquando cum fœto +humano bufones et alia animalia hujus generis eniti. Sed hujus +monstrosæ conceptionis causam non assignant. Tradit quidem Platearius +illa præsidia, quæ ad provocandos menses commendantur, ducere; etiam +bufonem fratrem Salernitanorum quemadmodum aliqui lacertum fratrem +Longobardorum nominant. Quoniam mulieres Salernitanæ potissimum in +principio conceptionis succum apii et porrorum potant, ut hoc animal +interimant, antequam fœtus viviscat. Insuper mulier quædam ex +Gesnero, recens nupta cum omnium opinione prægnans diceretur, quatuor +animalia bufonibus similia peperit et optime valuit."--Aldrovandi also +reads: "apud Heisterbacensem in historia miraculorum," that some monks +found a living toad inside a hen in place of intestines. In the same +author, a priest finds an immense toad at the bottom of a jar of wine; +whilst he is wondering how such a large toad should have been able to +enter by such a small orifice, the toad disappears. + +[520] Cfr. Targioni Tozzetti, _Lezioni di Materia Medica_, Florence, +1821. + +[521] Some extraordinary lizards of which Aldrovandi speaks are of a +half sacred and half monstrous nature: "Præter illud memorabile, quod +Mizaldus recitat accidisse anno Domini 1551, mense Julii in Hungaria +prope pagum Zichsum juxta Theisum fluvium nimirum in multorum hominum +alvo lacertas naturalibus similes ortas fuisse. Interdum contingit, ut +animadvertit Schenchius, lacertam viridem in cæti magnitudinem +excrescere, qualis aliquando Lutetiæ visa est. Sæpe etiam lacertæ +duobus et tribus caudis refertæ nascuntur, quas vulgus ludentibus +favorabiles esse nugatur." + +[522] In the _Mahâbhâratam_, i. 981-1003, it is said that the serpents +amphisbhænæ (duṇḍubhâs, duṇḍavas, nâgabhṛitas, the same, I think, as +the mannuni of Malabar,) being good, must not be killed; an +amphisbhæna relates that it had once been the wise Sahasrapâd +(properly of the hundred feet; the amphisbhæna appears to be a lizard +without feet, and with a tail the same size as its head, for which +reason the belief arose that it had two heads; it seems to be another +personification of the circular year, like the serpent), and that it +became a serpent by a curse, because it had once frightened a Brâhman +with a fictitious serpent made of grass; at the sight of the wise +Kurus, the amphisbhæna is released from its malediction. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE SERPENT AND THE AQUATIC MONSTER. + + +SUMMARY. + + The feet and the tail; the serpent is the favourite form of the + demon; the devil is betrayed by his tail.--The serpent and the + waters; the dragon as the keeper back of the waters, and as the + guardian of the treasures; the devil evoked from the waters.--The + otter.--The chief enterprise of Indras is the killing of the + serpent.--The names of the Vedic serpent; _arbuda_ and + _reptilis_.--Description of the Vedic serpent.--The wives of the + demons and the wives of the gods; Indras wounds the wife of the + demon in the _yonis_, and the demon himself in the eggs; the + serpent's death consists in the broken egg; broken eggs, skins, + vases, boxes, and testicles.--The god as a serpent; the + python.--Gods and demons, birds and serpents dispute the possession + of the ambrosia.--The phallical Anantas of cosmogony; the two + _phalloi_.--Nâgalatâ; the game of the serpents, nâgas, nâgapadas, + nâgapaças.--The caduceus.--Kaçyapas Praǵâpatis, father of the birds + and of the serpents.--Kumbhakarnas.--The hero dies as soon as he + touches the serpent.--The funereal rope of Yamas is a serpent; the + collar of Hêphaistos.--The serpents carry Sîtâ on their heads.--The + city of Bhogavatî.--The hero becomes an aquatic monster in + consequence of a curse.--The serpent released from the fire.--The + wisdom of the serpent passes into the hero.--The three-headed + serpent.--The serpent sacred in India and in Germany.--The stone of + the serpent.--The serpent and the tree.--The tree and the + phallos.--The cypress.--The tree, the maiden, and the serpent at the + fountain.--The tree of the cross.--The serpent is wholly diabolical + in Persian tradition.--The serpent is a mythical animal, both + physically and morally amphibious.--The hero, the frog, and the + serpent.--The grateful serpent.--Dialogue between two little + serpents in a variety of the legend of Lear.--The serpent + burnt.--Serpents and worms.--The serpent as the beautiful maiden's + husband.--The heads of the serpent.--The serpent of the Black + Sea.--The serpent-fairy gives eyes back to the blind woman.--The + avenging serpent.--When the serpent is asleep.--The serpent in the + garden of the Hesperides.--The serpent-wizard.--The serpent's + kiss.--The serpent that whistles.--The wings of the serpent wet; the + Vedic myth once more. + +The mythical animal with which I conclude the study of traditional +zoology is perhaps the most popular of the whole series. The omniform +demon makes the god or hero who falls under his power assume the most +diverse zoological forms, the power of transforming into which he +holds in possession, of which he holds the secret; but he almost +always reserves for himself as his most favourite and privileged form +that of the serpent. The devil, says the popular proverb, is known by +his tail; and to show that women know more than the devil, it adds +that they also know where the devil secretes his tail, or where he +keeps his poison, for his poison and power to harm are in his tail. A +devil without a tail would not be a real devil; it is his tail which +betrays him; and this tail is the serpent's tail.[523] In the +forty-fifth story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the +devil-serpent comes every night to visit the young widow in the form +of her deceased husband, eats with her and sleeps with her till +morning; she grows thinner every night, like a candle before the fire; +but her mother counsels her to let a spoon drop when she is sitting at +table, that, in lifting it, she may scrutinise the guest's feet; +instead of his feet, she only sees his tail. Then the widow goes to +the church to be purified.[524] In the _Eddas_, too, the serpent +Lokis, who has taken the form of a horse, betrays himself by his feet. + +The serpent-devil appears in special connection with the infernal +waters (darkness of night and of winter, and cloudy sky), which +conceal treasures, the pearl, the solar hero or heroine with the +waters of youth and life. The serpent-devil draws to himself every +beautiful thing, now to swallow them, now to preserve and guard them +like a miser. The dragon became the symbol of the keeper back of the +waters, of the guardian of the treasures, who devours or attracts to +himself everything that shines. In Du Cange, the name of _dracus_ is +given to "species dæmonum qui circa Rhodanum fluvium in Provincia +visuntur forma hominis, et in cavernis mansionem habent." In ancient +Latin manuscript comments given by the same Du Cange, the devil is +called by the name of _hydros_ or aquatic serpent. Hincmarus Remensis +believes that the devil is evoked from the waters,[525] and according +to St Augustine, it was from the waters and from the illusions created +in the water by demons that Numa derived his inspirations.[526] Hence +the custom, so frequent in German and Slavonic countries,[527] of +blessing the water to chase the monsters away from it; hence, also, +the custom which I have observed in several parts of Russia, where the +children, before they bathe in the rivers, and as soon as they put +their feet in the water, make profound inclinations and the sign of +the cross; hence, according to Du Cange, the god of the waters, +Neptunus, in the Middle Ages, becomes under the name of _Aquatiquus_, +a personification of the devil;[528] hence, also, the otter (enüdris) +assumes a diabolical character in the _Edda_, where the Ases take its +skin off and fill it with the gold taken from the dwarf-pike Andvarri, +and in the sixth story of the first book of _Afanassieff_, where it +destroys the beasts of the menagerie of a Tzar, and finally drags the +third son of the Tzar Ivan under an enormous white stone (the snowy +winter) in the lower world, where there are palaces of gold and silver +and three beautiful girls, sisters of the monster otter, who sleeps in +the sea, and snores so that he pushes the waves to a distance of seven +versts, until Ivan, after having drunk the water of strength, cuts the +monster's head off at a blow, after which it falls into the sea. + +But to proceed in the order which we have hitherto generally followed, +let us examine before all the tradition of the aquatic monster, the +dragon or serpent, in Hindoo mythology. + +The most important of the heroic undertakings accomplished by the +Vedic god Indras is, as already remarked, that of killing the monster; +and the enterprise of Indras against the monster is the theme of all +the great popular Indo-Persian, Græco-Latin, Turko-Slavonic, +Franco-Germanic, and Franco-Celtic epic poems, as also of the greatest +number of the popular stories which are the real epic material of the +new epopees. Indras, Vishṇus, Ahura-Mazda, Feridun, Apollo, Hêraklês, +Kadmos, Jason, Odin, Sigurd, and several other gods and heroes, are +celebrated for the undertaking of killing the serpent. Now, in the +Vedic hymns the black monster (kṛishṇas), the growing monster +(râuhin),[529] the full-grown monster (piprus), the monster coverer +(vṛitras), the monster that dries up (çushṇas), the monster that keeps +back (namućis), generally appears with the name and shape of a +serpent, or if it has not always the form of a serpent, it is +assimilated to it, and certainly inclines to become so from its office +of a constrictor, its black colour, and other characteristics which it +possesses in common with the serpent (Ahis).[530] + +The monster killed by Indras, the monster with the horrid voice which +Indras strikes upon the head with a thunderbolt, is, like the serpent, +deprived of feet, deprived both of hands and shoulders.[531] But the +serpent is also often explicitly named in the _Ṛigvedas_ as a monster +which keeps back the waters, and which is killed by Indras. The +serpent, the first-born of the serpents, was lying in the +mountain;[532] he was lying under his mother,[533] he was keeping the +waters, his wives, shut up, as a miser his treasure, or a robber the +stolen cows;[534] a miser or rich robber[535] resembling a magician, +he staid enclosed in a cavern, and kept the waters in it;[536] he lay +down and perhaps slept;[537] he lay near the seven torrents;[538] +Indras arouses him;[539] in another hymn, however, the serpent, making +a loud noise, provokes Indras, and comes against him.[540] When Indras +kills the serpent with the thunderbolt, or else crushes it under his +foot, or burns it, he opens the torrent of the waters and causes it to +flow out towards the sea; he makes the sun be born, and finds the +cows;[541] he destroys the machinations of the sorcerer, generates the +sun, the day, and the dawn, removes every enemy to a distance,[542] +makes the serpent's trunk fall to the earth, like a tree cut down by +axes, or torn up by the roots,[543] and (as in Russian stories the +hero, after having cut the monster's head off, throws his trunk into +the sea) over the killed monster, now fallen, the waters which make +joyful pass;[544] the gods, who have given Indras three hundred oxen +to eat (according to another hymn, only one hundred), and three lakes +of ambrosia to drink, that he might be able to vanquish Ahis, are +joyful at the victory gained by Indras over the serpent, with their +wives and with the birds; not only this, but the women, the wives of +the gods, compose on this occasion a hymn to Indras.[545] + +We have already seen several times in the course of this work how, by +killing his monstrous form, the hero or heroine enclosed in this is set +at liberty; the waters, or rainy clouds, which are the monster wives of +the demons, as long as the monster keeps them in the darkness, become +the radiant wives of the gods when they are released; the same may be +said of the aurora, kept in ward by the gloomy or watery monster of +night, or of the spring detained in the dreary realm of winter; as long +as they are in the power of the black demon, they are black and +monstrous, and live with him in the infernal kingdom; when delivered +from this kingdom, however, they become beautiful maidens, or princesses +of dazzling splendour. When the monster fights with the god or solar +hero of the thunderbolt, he arms his women too, and makes use of them as +powerful helpers;[546] hence Indras also aims at them and lacerates the +black-wombed witches,[547] being afterwards himself condemned to become +Sahasrayonis. In popular Âryan tradition, however, it is often the +daughter, wife, or sister of the monster that reveals to the hero the +way of killing the monster. In Russian stories, one of the ways oftenest +recommended to ensure the death of the monster, is to take the egg +contained in the duck which is under the tree in the midst of the sea, +and crush it upon the monster's forehead, who immediately dies; with the +monster's death the two young lovers,--the daughter, wife, or sister of +the monster, and the young hero,--marry each other. We have just seen +that when Indras has killed the monster serpent, the waters pour out, +and the sun appears. In another Vedic hymn we also find the interesting +accompaniment of the egg, which reminds us, on the one hand, of the +subject of Russian popular stories, and on the other of the belief +described by us in the chapter on the Hen, to the effect that the +thunderbolt breaks its eggs: Indras, with his strength, breaks the eggs +of the monster that dries up the waters, and wins the luminous +waters;[548] crushing the eggs, or wounding the testicles of the gloomy +monster, he makes the sun come out of them, and thereupon the monster +dies.[549] The symbolical representation of the solar year in the form +of a serpent biting his tail is equivalent to the myth of the +monster-serpent who dies when his eggs are broken, that is, when the +light comes out of its tenebrous envelope. + +Inasmuch, moreover, as from the monster serpent, the cloud and the +darkness, come forth flashes of lightning, thunder-bolts, sunbeams, +tongues of fire, even serpents sometimes assume a divine nature in the +Vedic hymns. The Vedic god of fire, Agnis, the born of the waters +(napâtam apâm), called Ahir-budhnyas, has already been compared to the +Greek _püthôn ophis_, the python. Agnis is also compared to a serpent +with a golden mane,[550] which reminds us of the horned monster that +dries up, spoken of in another hymn as killed by Indras.[551] Indras +himself is called he who has the strength of the serpent.[552] The +Marutas have the serpent's anger;[553] and as the Marutas are +resplendent with golden attire and ornaments, so the monsters appear +adorned with gold and pearls.[554] In the _Âitareya Br._,[555] the +serpent Arbudas has even become a ṛishis, a wise poet, as the python +becomes the oracle of wisdom in Greece; and the serpents oppose a Vedas +of their own (the Sarpavedas) to the Vedâs of the gods. In the same +_Âitareya Br._,[556] we have the description of a struggle between the +gods and a venomous serpent, whose greedy eye gazes at the somas, of +which he desires to be possessed. The gods bandage his eyes; the serpent +sings a verse in praise of the somas; the gods, as an antidote, sing +several verses, and counteract the effect of the serpent's verse. And +the witch (âsurî) of the long tongue (Dîrghaǵihvî) is no doubt a +serpent, who in the _Âitareya Br._,[557] again, licks the morning +libation of the gods, and makes it inebriating. In the _Râmâyaṇam_ it is +recorded that the long-tongued witch (Dîrghaǵihvâ), the devourer, is +killed by Indras. The struggle between the gods and the serpents for the +possession of the ambrosia is the subject of a long episode of the first +book of the _Mahâbhâratam_.[558] The serpent loves dampness, water, +ambrosia, and rain. When Bhîmas, the son of the wind, is thrown into the +waters of the Ganges, he falls into the kingdom of the serpents, who +give him the water of strength to drink.[559] In the _Mahâbhâratam_, the +mother of the serpents, who have been burned by the sun, invokes the +rain to bring them to life again; Indras, to please her, veils the sky +with clouds.[560] In the _Râmâyaṇam_, instead of the serpents, the +monkeys are resuscitated by means of the rain. The rains of spring also +waken the earth, which is in the _Âitareya Br._[561] called by the name +of Sarparaǵnî, and was at first, like the serpents, bald, that is, +devoid of vegetation; invoking the heavenly cow, it became covered with +trees. In the Hindoo cosmogony, which we described in the chapter on the +Tortoise, a very interesting account is given of the way the great stick +or phallos, the generator of the world, is made to turn round. The +serpent Anantas (the infinite) or Vasukis,[562] who makes the mountain +revolve, is twined round it; the mountain and the serpent are +synonymous;[563] they are two phalloi, which rub each other, and produce +the seed (nâgalatâ or climbing serpent, serpent-creeper, is one of the +Hindoo names of the phallos; in Piedmont it is said of a man in the +venereal act, that he "climbs upon the woman;" and in Sanskṛit nâgas, +nâgapadas, nâgapaças, nâgapâçakas, denotes union in the manner of +serpents, who apply their bodies to each other in their entire +length,[564] in the same way as fire is produced by the friction of two +pieces of wood--the araṇî. Anantas, or Vâsukis, and Mandaras, or +Kaçapas, and hence Kaçyapas, are identified with one another;) and this +is all the more probable as Kaçyapas is also called by the name of +Vasukas, and as Kaçyapas himself, in another cosmogonic legend of the +_Mahâbhâratam_, appears as having made fruitful two wives, Kadrû, +properly the dark one, and Vinatâ,[565] properly the concave, the curved +or swollen one (two appellatives by which the _yonis_ appears to be +equally represented), from one of which is produced the egg from which +serpents are hatched, and especially the nâgâs serpents, with human +faces, like the devils, and from the other, that which generates Aruṇas +and Garuḍas (a form of the Açvinâu). Whilst, in the _Mahâbhâratam_, the +serpent Vasukis rubs itself against the Mandaras and makes it turn +round, it keeps blowing wind, smoke, and flames out of its mouth, which +form clouds, with the water of which the creator gods are afterwards +refreshed. Although this last particular shows the serpents intent upon +the welfare of the gods, they hold in Hindoo tradition the same place as +Anhṛomainyu, or Ahrimanes, in Persian; whilst one phallos gives birth to +luminous phenomena and good beings, the other produces gloomy phenomena +and wicked beings. + +Among the productions of the phallical and serpentine genie of darkness +are the clouds. In the _Râmâyaṇam_,[566] the monster Kumbhakarṇas sleeps +for sixth months; no number of drums, trumpets, nor any noise is able to +awaken him; he is struck with hammers, but feels nothing; elephants pass +over him, but he does not move: at last the tinkling of the golden +ornaments of beautiful women suffice to rouse him. He rises; his arms +resemble two great serpents, and his mouth the mouth of hell. He yawns, +and that yawn alone sends forth a wind which resembles a rushing wind +that shall usher in the end of the world. The aspect of Kumbhakarṇas +when he rises is like that of an immense cloud swelled out with rain +towards the end of summer; he is horned like a mountain, and bellows +like a thunder-cloud. No sooner is he born, than, inasmuch as by the +curse of Brahman he can waken but one day in the year (that is in the +autumn), he asks for food, and devours buffaloes, wild boars, men and +women; he once swallowed even the ten nymphs, or Apsarasas (the clouds +that blow over the waters), of the god Indras; he finds that the world +is not provided with animals enough to satiate his hunger. When +Kumbhakarṇas moves to battle against the monkeys of Râmas, he draws his +enemies to himself to devour them, he draws and receives the shock of +whole mountains, but is not shaken. Râmas cuts one of his arms off, and +the arm cut off (or the serpent, or the cloud cut off, like the stick of +fairy tales which beats of itself) continues to massacre the monkeys. +Râmas cuts Kumbhakarṇas's other arm off, which supports with its hand +the whole trunk of a robust shorea; but arm and trunk continue to +slaughter the enemies on their own account.[567] At last Râmas shoots +him in the mouth and heart; the monster falls, and crushes as he falls +two thousand monkeys under his immense body. Here, therefore, we again +see the monster and the serpent in relation with the clouds and waters. +To touch the serpent, that is, the rainy season or the night, is for the +solar hero or heroine the same as to die. In the _Mahâbhâratam_[568] the +girl Pramadvarâ falls dead to the ground, having inadvertently pressed a +serpent with her foot on the way; Rurus brings her to life again by +renouncing half of his own life. In this legend the year or the day +personifies life; summer sacrifices itself to winter, winter to summer, +day to night, night to day, the sun to the moon, and the moon to the +sun. In the beautiful legend of Savitrî, the wife sacrifices herself and +offers herself to Yamas, the god of the dead, in order to be faithful to +her husband. In the same _Mahâbhâratam_,[569] the King Parîkshit falls +into the power of Takshakas, the king of the serpents, a form of Yamas +the god of the dead (also called Anantas), because he had thrown a dead +serpent on the shoulders of a Brâhman. In the _Râmâyaṇam_,[570] it is +said that a man who has, when asleep, fallen into the hands of the god +of the dead, Yamas, is bitten by a venomous serpent. The very rope with +which Yamas the god of the dead binds men is a serpent. To the +rope-serpent of Yamas we must refer the fatal collar with seven serpents +and seven pearls (a symbol of the year, half luminous, half gloomy) +which Hephaistos gave to Harmonia and Kadmos on the occasion of their +wedding. Kadmos and Harmonia become serpents, and are taken into heaven +by the gods. The daughters of Kadmos all come to an unhappy end. The +collar is afterwards possessed by Erüphilê, for which reason evils +befalls Amphiaraos, and subsequently also Alkmeôn. When Sîtâ,[571] in +order to escape from the unjust suspicions of her husband and the +perverse evil-speakings of the vulgar, wishes to disappear from the +sight of men and to descend under ground, the serpents (pannagâs, who go +not with feet) carry her upon their heads (as in Christian tradition the +Virgin crushes the head of the serpent-seducer), and from the depths of +the earth a voice is heard saying: "Difficult to be acquired is the +sight of this woman, who resides in the three worlds; staying down here, +she is honoured by the serpents (pûǵyate nâgâiḥ), and, in the world of +the mortals, by mankind; nectar of the higher blessed ones, she is the +satiator of the immortals." The kingdom of the nâgâs, or the city of +Bhogavatî (an equivocal word, which means both furnished with serpents +and furnished with riches), is full of treasures, like the hell of +Western tradition. This infernal world went definitively under ground +when the gods, having fallen, took humbler forms upon the earth and upon +the waters of the earth; the lower world became the kingdom of the +serpents and of the devils of the Vedic cloudy and gloomy heavens +(devils and serpents, which Jewish tradition therefore represents with +great justice as fallen angels). The riches of heaven, concealed by the +cloudy or gloomy monster of night or winter, passed into the earth; the +observation of heavenly phenomena helped this conception. The true +mythical treasures are the sun and the moon in their splendour; when +they go down they seem to hide themselves underground; the solar hero +goes underground, he goes to hell, after having lost all his treasures +and all his riches; he undertakes in poverty his infernal journey; when +the sun rises from the mountain, it seems to come out from underground; +the solar hero returns from his journey through hell, he returns +resplendent and wealthy; the infernal demon gives back to him part of +the treasures which he possesses, having carried them off from him, or +else the young hero recovers them by his valour. But this hell was once +the watery, wintry, nocturnal heaven itself, from which now the sun, now +the moon emerges; the hero or the god was obscured or eclipsed, and +assumed a gloomy form in the sky itself, and, as we have already +said,[572] he who destroys, lacerates, or kills this form, does a +service to the poor and cursed wandering Jew who wears it. We are +reminded of the aquatic monster, in the _Râmâyaṇam_,[573] by the +gandharvas[574] Tumburus, who assumed, under a curse, the form of the +monster Virâdhas who carries Sîtâ off from Râmas, with the sole design +that Râmas may kill him and deliver him from the malediction, so that he +may be able to reascend in happiness to heaven. In a similar manner, +Hanumant delivers from her curse the ogress of the lake, the seizer +(grâhî) and devourer, who was once a nymph.[575] The body of the old +ṛishis Çarabhañgas also gives us the idea of a serpent's body. +Çarabhañgas desires to deliver himself from it, as a serpent casts off +its old skin. He then enters the fire; the fire burns him; Çarabhañgas, +arising from the conflagration, comes forth young, splendid, and as +brilliant as fire.[576] In the celebrated episode of Nalas in the +_Mahâbhâratam_,[577] the serpent Karkoṭakas, surrounded by the flames, +asks Nalas, on the other hand, to deliver him from the flames; the +serpent makes himself small in order that Nalas may be able to carry him +away; Nalas does so, and the serpent bites him; he then loses his +shape, which passes into that of the serpent. In this new diabolical +form Nalas becomes invulnerable and invisible. The diverse action taken +by fire in legends can be comprehended by reference to the solar hero, +now in the morning, now in the evening, now in spring, now in autumn: in +the morning and in the spring the serpent of night enters the flames and +becomes a handsome youth again; in the evening and in the autumn the +serpent comes out of the flames of the evening aurora, or of the summer, +and becomes the moon, after having made the sun disappear, or rendered +it invisible or invulnerable. In the forty-seventh story of the sixth +book _Afanassieff_, a hunter (the hunting solar hero) is about to heat +the stove; a serpent is lying in it, and promises, if he will draw it +out of the fire, to render him happy, and teach him the language of all +animals. He tells the hunter to put the end of his stick into the fire, +by which means it will be enabled to make its escape; the hunter +complies, but is warned that he will die himself should he reveal that +secret to any one. + +The serpent, therefore, is not only monstrous and maleficent in Hindoo +tradition, but also at once the learned one, and he who imparts +learning; it sacrifices itself to let the hero carry away the water of +life, the water of strength, the health-giving herb or the treasure; +it not only often spares, but it favours the predestined hero; it +destroys individuals, but preserves the species; it devours nations, +but preserves the regenerative kings; it poisons plants, and throws +men into deep sleep, but it gives new strength in its occult domain to +the sun, who gives new life to the world every morning and every +spring. In the Vedic heavens the serpent is a magician expert in every +kind of magic; in the kingdom of the serpents the young lost hero +recovers his splendour, wisdom, and victorious power. Hence the +worship in India of the serpent, who is revered as a symbol of every +species of learning. We have, on a previous occasion, found the horned +or crested serpent who personifies, in the _Ṛigvedas_, fire or the god +Agnis, and by this we must understand the crest or mane of the sun, +which comes out of the darkness; thus the god Haris or Vishṇus lies +upon a crested serpent or a many-headed serpent. Three-headed serpents +or dragons, such as are famous in fairy tales, occur in the +_Harivaṅças_,[578] and correspond to the Vedic monster Triçiras, that +is, three-headed. The crest of the serpent is the god Vishṇus himself, +as a solar deity who comes out of the serpent's body. Hence the +hooded-serpent, called Nalla Pâmba in the Malabar,[579] is especially +revered in India. "The sudden appearance of one of these serpents," +wrote Lazzaro Papi from India, "is considered to presage some future +good or evil. It is the divinity himself in this form, or at least his +messenger, and the bringer of rewards or chastisement. Although it is +exceedingly venomous, it is neither killed, molested, nor crushed in +the house which it enters, but respected, and even caressed and adored +by the more superstitious. They give it milk to drink, and the +accommodation to which it is accustomed; they construct little huts +for it, and prepare receptacles and nests for it under large trees. +This reminds me of the ancient inhabitants of Prussia, who nourished +several serpents with milk in honour of Patriumpho or Patrimpos, their +deity. The family in which one of these serpents takes up its abode +esteems itself fortunate and secure from poverty and other +misfortunes; and if some one, as it not seldom happens, is bitten by +them and dies, the victim of his own credulity, it is, they say, a +punishment of God that has overtaken him for some crime." It is nearly +the same belief as that which we found in the preceding chapter +concerning the toad and the amphisbhæna. In Hungary, as Count Geza +Kunn informs me, some fairies are said to be born with a serpent's +skin, and to resume their form after this serpent's skin has been +shed. It is said that a precious stone can be found under a serpent's +tongue. When the serpents warm themselves in the sun of spring, they +blow out the stone (or the sun itself), and subsequently conceal it +under the tongue of a still larger serpent, the king of the serpents. + +The serpent is supposed to protect and preserve the lost riches, and to +guard the soul of the dead hero; hence serpents, like crows amongst +birds, are revered in India as embodied souls of the dead. In +Germany,[580] the white serpent (that is, the snowy winter), according +to the popular legend, gives to whoever eats of it (or who is licked by +it in the ears) the gift of understanding the language of birds, and of +universal knowledge (it is in the night of Christmas, that is, in the +midst of the snow, that those who are predestined to see marvels can +comprehend, in the stables, the language of the cattle, and, in the +woods, the language of the birds; according to the legend, Charles le +Gros, in the night of Christmas, saw heaven and hell open, and was able +to recognise his forefathers). Thus in Greece, Melampos, Cassandra, and +Tiresias became seers by their contact with the serpent, symbolised at +a later period in the python and the pythoness, as the depositaries of +all the oracles of wisdom. In Scandinavian mythology, Odin also assumes +the form of a serpent (ormr), and the name of Ofnir, in the same way as +Zeus becomes a serpent in Greek mythology when he wishes to create +Zagreus, the bull-headed, another Zeus or another Dionüsos. In Rochholtz +and Simrock, we find indications of the same worship as that given to +the serpent in India, where it is regarded as a good domestic genie. +Milk is given to certain domestic little snakes to drink; they are put +to watch over little children in their cradles, with whom they divide +their food; they bring good luck to the children near which they stay; +it is therefore considered a fatal sacrilege to kill them. It is fabled, +moreover, that a serpent is sometimes born with a child entwined round +its neck, and that it and the child are thenceforth inseparable (an +image of the year and of the day, half luminous and half tenebrous, +inseparable the one from the other). It guards the cattle in the +stables, and procures for good and beautiful maidens husbands worthy of +them. According to a popular legend, two serpents are found in every +house (a male and a female), which only appear when they announce the +death of the master and mistress of the house; when these die, the +snakes also cease to live. To kill one of these serpents is to kill the +head of the family. Under this aspect, as a protector of children, as a +giver of husbands to girls, and identified with the head or progenitor +of the family, the serpent is again a phallical form. From the gloomy +serpent of night, the tenebrous serpent of winter, even the nocturnal +and wintry heavens illumined by the moon, and from the white moon, +emerges the diurnal sun, the sun of spring, the day and the warm and +luminous season. The ogre, dragon, or serpent keeps back the waters in +the cloud and the waters in the rivers, occupies the fountains, lies at +the roots of the tree which yields honey, of the ambrosial tree, of the +tree in the midst of the lake of milk; the tree and the phallos are +again identified. The Phrygian Attis, loved by Cybele, is deprived of +his phallos, and expires; Cybele transforms him into a pine tree (which +is cone-bearing and evergreen, which resists, like the moon, even the +rigours of winter), in which the funereal and regeneratory phallos is +personified; the cypress (cone-bearing and evergreen), which the three +brothers of the fairy tales must watch during the night, and which only +the youngest brother succeeds in delivering from the dragon or serpent +which carries it away, is also represented in Persian tradition as in +the middle of a lake of ambrosia. The serpent steals this tree, as in +the Hindoo myth it steals the ambrosia from the gods; it knows well that +in it consists the regeneratory strength of the hero, whom the serpent +has bitten; sometimes it steals the tree from him, and sometimes guards +over it. Out of the golden apple, or out of the orange of the tree +guarded by the dragon, in popular tales, the beautiful maiden comes; the +dragon keeps her back a second time on the way, making her mount upon a +tree, or throwing her into the fountain, near which the beautiful maiden +becomes a dark fish or a dark bird (a swallow or a dove), in order to +come out again from the fish or the bird in the form of a beautiful +girl. The love of the young princess for the young hero, in Russian +stories, comes out of the duck's egg taken under the tree, and the death +of the serpent-dragon is caused by it. Here the gloomy monster of the +night and winter, the monster serpent, appears, in guardianship of the +moon, the protectress of marriages, as an ambrosial and evergreen tree, +and, like the cypress, a funereal tree, which is at the same time +symbolical of immortality. From the moon of winter and of night, the +solar hero of spring and the day, the maiden spring and the maiden +aurora come forth. The serpent, like the toad, the frog, the fish, and +the bird, now desires the moon of winter and of night for itself, and +now presents it to the young hero, whom it protects. The moon appears +when the diurnal sun goes down in the west; hence the garden of the +Hesperides, as the word denotes, was supposed to be situated in the +west; the moon rules the northern heavenly region, the cold season of +the year; for this reason Apollodorus placed this same garden of the +Hesperides in the north, amongst the Hyperboreans, where the tree of +oblivion also grew according to Ælianos. In India, the ambrosial tree, +the tree of immortality, the tree of Brahman's paradise, like the moon +and Çivas (the god of paradise and of hell, the phallical and destroying +god), was also placed in the north, on Mount Merus, the phallical and +primeval mountain, near the sea of oblivion, guarded by a dragon; but +because the dragon or serpent represents evil oftener than good, because +Çivas, the moon, and the cypress, have a double aspect, phallical and +funereal, paradisiacal and infernal, because Kaçyapas, the great +primitive phallos, created opposite things in the form of a bird and in +that of a serpent, two trees are also represented upon Mount Merus, one +of good and one of evil, one of life and one of death, which reminds us +of the Jewish and Mahometan traditions. The legends concerning the tree +of the golden apples or figs, which yields honey or ambrosia, guarded by +dragons, in which the life, the fortune, the glory, the strength, and +the riches of the hero have their beginning, are numerous among every +people of Âryan origin; in India and in Persia, in Russia and in +Poland, in Sweden and in Germany, in Greece and in Italy, popular +myths, poems, songs, and fairy tales amplify with a great variety of +incidents, partly unconscious of their primitive signification, this +strange subject of phallical cosmogony.[581] + +The Persian cosmogony is of a less material character than the +Hindoo, but its principle is the same. Ahuramazda and Anhromainyu, who +occupy the first place as the creators of the world, are also two +males in opposition to one another. From Ahuramazda descends Thrætaona +or Feridun, the killer of the serpent (azhi) Dahâka, or Dahak, or +Zohak, the three-headed dragon which Anhromainyu created to destroy +the beautiful in the world, as the strongest of monsters.[582] In +Hindoo tradition we find the bird Garuḍas on the side of the gods, and +the Nâgas or serpent on that of the demons; so, in Persian tradition, +the bird Simurg is on the side of the gods, and the serpent or +sea-monster on that of the demons. It is in the midst of the waters +that the hero Kereçâçpa finds the great serpent Çruvara, who devours +men and horses, and who ejects a venom as large as a man's thumb. +Taking him probably for an island,[583] he has food cooked upon it; +the serpent feels the heat, and begins to move; it then throws +Kereçâçpa, the courageous Kereçâçpa, over backwards. There seems to be +some analogy between this myth of the Yaçna of the _Avesta_ and the +story of the fearless hero of the Russian story, who, being asleep in +a boat, falls into the river when terrified by the little fish which +had jumped upon him. (The serpent appears also as the enemy of fire in +the _Khorda-Avesta_.)[584] The serpent causes the diseases which +Thrætaona is requested to cure; it poisons whatever it sees and +touches; and, according to the _Khorda-Avesta_,[585] the wicked are +condemned to feed upon poison after death. In the _Shah-Name_ the sun +disappears, devoured by a sea-monster or crocodile. In the third +adventure of Isfendiar, the hero is almost inebriated by the venomous +smoke and the pestilential breath of the dragon which he has +victoriously combated; and, after having won, he falls to the ground +as if dead; thus Indras, after having defeated the monstrous serpent, +flees in terror over the rivers, like a madman attacked by +hydrophobia, terrified by the shadow, the smoke, or the water of the +dead serpent, because this shadow, which is perhaps his own, and not +his enemy's, menaces to submerge him in those poisoned waves, and to +transform him into a sea-monster, assimilating him thus to his enemy; +inasmuch as the god sends to make man like himself, so also does the +demon. In Persia, therefore, the serpent is generally considered as a +demoniacal and monstrous animal, the personification of evil. If it is +prayed to, it is to conjure it away, to induce it to go far distant, +as the Arabs and the Tatars particularly do to expel the devil. The +Persian genius has not the mobility, the plasticity, and elasticity +of the Hindoo; its mythical images are more severe and less multiform; +hence the serpent remained in Persian tradition the demoniacal animal +_par excellence_. In the _Tuti-Name_, on the contrary, which is of +Hindoo origin, the serpent has a double aspect. The serpent wishes to +eat the frog. (In the fifteenth story of the third book of the +_Pańćatantram_, the frogs ride upon the serpent, and leap upon it in +delight, like Phædrus's frogs upon King Log, which was sent to them in +derision by Jove; the serpent and the rod are assimilated.) The hero +saves the frog, upon which the serpent reproves him, because he thus +takes its food from it; the hero then cuts off some of his own flesh +to give it to the serpent;[586] the serpent protects the hero ever +afterwards, and cures with an ointment the king's daughter, who had +been bitten by another serpent; the king gives his daughter, on her +recovery, to the hero who had satisfied the serpent's hunger. In the +tenth story of the third book of the _Pańćatantram_, two little +serpents, who talk to each other, both work their own ruin and make +the fortune of the hero and of the heroine. A king's son has a serpent +in his body without knowing it, and becomes ill; he abandons in +despair his father's palace, and goes begging; he is given, in +contempt, the second daughter of another king to wife, who had never +said amiable things to her father, like her eldest sister (a variation +of the legend of Cordelia and Lear); whilst one day the young prince +has fallen asleep with his head upon an ant-hill, the little serpent +which is in his body puts out its head to breathe a little fresh air, +and sees another serpent coming out of the ant-hill;[587] the two +little serpents begin to dispute and call each other names; one +accuses the other of tormenting the young prince by inhabiting his +body, and the accused responds by charging it with hiding two jars +full of gold under the ant-hill.[588] Continuing their quarrel, one +says how easy it would be to kill the other; a little mustard would +suffice to settle the first, and a little hot oil the second (the +serpent is killed by being burned; the rich uhlan-serpent of the +Russian story is burned in the trunk of an oak-tree, in which it had +taken refuge out of fear for the fire and the lightning); the hidden +wife listens to everything, delivers her husband from the little +serpent in his body, and kills the other serpent to take out the +treasure which it keeps hidden.[589] In the fourteenth of the stories +of Santo Stefano di Calcinaia, the third of the young daughters, in +order to save her father from certain death, consents to marry the +serpent, who carries her upon his tail to his palace, where he becomes +a handsome man called Sor Fiorante, of the red and white stockings. +But she must reveal the secret to no one. The maiden (as in the fable +of Cupid and Psyche) does not resist the temptation of speaking of it +to her sisters, on which her husband disappears; she finds him again +after having filled seven flasks with her tears; breaking first a +walnut, then a hazel-nut, and finally an almond, of which each +contains a magnificent robe, she recovers her husband, and is +recognised by him.[590] In a variety of the same story in my little +collection, a good serpent fairy advises the blind princess, and gives +her the hazel-nut, the almond, and the walnut; each of the three gifts +contains a marvel; by means of the first marvel the young princess +regains one eye from the false wife; by means of the second marvel, +the other eye, which the serpent puts in its place;[591] and by means +of the third, which is a golden hen with forty-four golden chickens +(perhaps forty-four stands for forty times four, or a hundred and +sixty, which might represent the luminous and warm days of the year, +from the first of April to the end of August), she finds her lost +husband again. In an unpublished Sicilian story communicated to me by +Dr Ferraro, a serpent presses the neck of King Moharta to avenge a +beautiful girl whom the king had forsaken, after having violated her; +in order to release himself from the serpent, the king is compelled to +marry the beautiful girl whom he had betrayed. In the sixteenth of the +Tuscan stories published by me, the three sons of the king go to get +the water which jumps and dances, and which is guarded by a dragon who +devours as many as approach it; the dragon sleeps from twelve to two +o'clock, and sleeps with its eyes open, which signifies, if we +interpret twelve o'clock as twelve o'clock of the day, that the dragon +is asleep when the sun watches, and if, on the contrary, as twelve +o'clock at night, that it sleeps when the moon, compared to the hare +which sleeps with its eyes open, shines in the sky.[592] In an ancient +Neapolitan vase explained by Gerhard and Panofka, we find a tree and +a fountain, a serpent (the same as that which gnaws at the roots of +the tree Yggdrasill in the _Eddas_), three Hesperides, and Hêraklês. +One Hesperis is giving the wounded serpent some beverage in a cup, the +second is plucking an apple, the third is about to pluck one, and +Hêraklês has also an apple in his hand. The myth and the story of the +ogre and the three oranges correspond perfectly to one another.[593] +The maiden was at first identified with the serpent, as the daughter +of the dragon, and as a female serpent; she lays aside her disguise on +the approach of the young hero, and recovers all her splendour. In an +unpublished story of the Monferrato, communicated to me by Dr Ferraro, +a beautiful girl, when plucking up a cabbage (a lunar image), sees +under its roots a large room, goes down into it, and finds a serpent +there, who promises to make her fortune if she will kiss him and sleep +with him; the girl consents. After three months, the serpent begins to +assume the legs of a man, then a man's body, and finally the face of a +handsome youth, the son of a king, and marries his young deliverer. In +popular tradition, we also have the contrary form of the same myth, +that is, the beautiful maiden who becomes a serpent again. In a German +legend,[594] the young hero hopes to deliver the beautiful maiden by +three kisses:[595] the first time he kisses her as a beautiful girl; +the second time as a monster, half woman half serpent; the third time +he refuses to kiss her, because she has become entirely a serpent. + +When the day or the summer dies, the mythical serpent shows himself +(in absolute contradiction to what we are taught by Natural History, +one would almost say that when the serpent ceases to creep along the +ground and to devour the animals of the earth, it goes to creep and to +devour the animals of the sky); then the north winds begin to +whistle,--and the serpent, particularly the mythical serpent, is a +famous whistler. Isidorus[596] even identifies the basilisk and the +serpent, called a _regulus_ with the whistle itself: "Sibilus idem est +qui et Regulus: sibilo enim occidit antequam mordeat vel exurat." In +the twenty-fifth story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the gipsy +and the serpent challenge one another to see who will whistle loudest. +When the serpent whistles or hisses (that is, in autumn) all the trees +lose their leaves. The gipsy defeats the serpent by a cheat; he makes +it believe that it will be unable to resist the effects of his whistle +if it does not cover its head, and then beats it without pity, so that +the serpent is convinced of the gipsy's superiority, and says that it +reveres him as its elder brother.[597] I cited in the first chapter of +the first book the Russian story of Alexin the son of the priest, or +the divine Alexin, who fights against Tugarin, the son of the serpent, +or the demon-serpent, and begs the Virgin to bathe the monster's wings +with the rain of the black cloud: the monster's wings being heavy with +water, force it to fall to the ground. Here we return again to the +simple yet grandiose Vedic myth, the most remote of all, from which we +started; we return to lyrical poetry, inspired, spontaneous, +ingenuous, full of agreeable or fearful surprises, of naïve +enthusiasms, of creative impulses, the unconscious originator of a new +civilisation and a new faith, as yet undefiled with phallical +cosmogonies, as yet unruptured and unimpoverished by the sterile +dreams of eunuch-like metaphysics. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[523] St Augustine, _Hom._ 36, says of the devil: "Leo et draco est; +Leo propter impetum, Draco propter insidias;" in Albania, the devil is +called _dreikj_, and in Romania, _dracu_. + +[524] A proverb of the _Râmâyaṇam_ says, that "only a female serpent +can distinguish the feet of a male serpent" (v. 38): Ahireva hyaheḥ +pâdâu viǵâniyânna saṁçayaḥ). The feet of the serpent, like those of +the devil, which is the tail (or the phallos of the male) can be +perceived by a female alone; women know where the devil has his tail. + +[525] Tom. i., "Sunt qui in aquæ inspectione umbras dæmonum evocant, +et imagiones vel ludificationes ibi videre et ab iis aliqua audire se +perhibent." + +[526] In the seventh book _De Civitate Dei_, the saint writes: "Ipse +Numas ad quem nullus Dei propheta, nullus Sanctus Angelus mittebatur, +Hydromantiam facere compulsus est, ut in aqua videret imagines deorum +vel potius ludificationes dæmonum, a quibus audiret, quid in sacris +constituere atque observare deberet quod genus divinationis idem Varro +a Persis dicit allatum." + +[527] It also exists in Roumania, where the new solar year is +celebrated by the benediction of the waters, as if to exorcise the +demons that inhabit them. + +[528] _Codex Reg._, 5600 ann. circ. 800, fol. 101, in Du Cange: "Sunt +aliqui rustici homines, qui credunt aliquas mulieres, quod vulgum +dicitur strias, esse debeant, et ad infantes vel pecora nocere +possint, vel dusiolus, vel Aquatiquus, vel geniscus esse debeat." +Neptunus, vel aliquis genius, quia quis præest designari videtur. + +[529] The monsters which mount into heaven by magical deceits, killed +by Indras, are said to creep like serpents: Mâyâbhir utsisṛipsata +indra dyâm; _Ṛigv._ viii. 14, 14. + +[530] The name of _Arbudas_, given to the monster which Indras, the +ram (meshas), crushes (for _ni-kram_ seems to me to have this meaning) +under his foot while it is lying, is nothing else than a serpent; +moreover, he, whose people is the _sarpâs_ or serpents, is the king of +the serpents. To _arbud-as_ I would refer the Latin words _rep-ere_, +_rept-are_, _reptil-is_. + +[531] Apâd ahasto apṛitanyad indram âsya vaǵram adhi sânâu ǵaghana; +_Ṛigv._ i. 32, 7.--Yo vyaṅsaṁ ǵahṛishâṇena manyunâ yaḥ çambaraṁ yo +ahan piprum avratam; i. 101, 2.--Apâdam atram mahatâ vadhena ni +duryoṇa âvṛiṇañ mṛidhravâćam; v. 32, 8. + +[532] Ahann ahim parvate çiçṛiyâṅam; i. 32, 2.--Ahann enam prathamaǵâm +ahînâm; i. 32, 3. + +[533] Nîćâvayâ abhavad vṛitraputrendro asyâ ava vadhar ǵabhâra--uttarâ +sûr adharaḥ putra âsîd dânuḥ çaye sahavatsâ na dhenuḥ; i. 32, 9. +Properly speaking, the verse speaks here of Vṛitras, and not of Ahis; +but the coverer and the constrictor being equivalent, it seems to me +that there are not here two beings distinguished, in the same hymn, by +two analogous appellations. + +[534] Dâsapatnîr ahigopâ atishṭhan niruddhâ âpaḥ paṇineva gâvaḥ; i. +32, 11.--The reader will remember the discussion concerning the +proverb of shutting the stable after the oxen are stolen, in the first +chapter of the first book. + +[535] Avâdaho diva â dasyum uććâ; i. 33, 7. + +[536] Guhâhitam guhyaṁ gûḷham apsu apîvṛitam mâyinaṁ kshiyantam uto +apo dyâm tastabhvâṅsam ahann ahiṁ çura vîryeṇa; ii. 11, 5. + +[537] Âçayânam ahim vaǵreṇa maghavan vi vṛiçćaḥ; iv. 17, 7. + +[538] Sapta prati pravata âçayânam ahiṁ vaǵreṇa vi rîṇâ aparvan; iv. +19, 3. + +[539] Sasantaṁ vaǵreṇâbodhayo 'him; i. 103, 7. + +[540] Navantam ahiṁ saṁ piṇag ṛiǵîshin; vi. 17, 10. + +[541] Sa mâhina indro arṇo apâm prâirayad ahihâćhâ samudram aǵanayat +sûryaṁ vidad gâh; ii. 19, 3.--Sṛiǵaḥ sindhûṅr ahinâ ǵagrasânân; +_Ṛigv._ iv. 17, 1.--Ahann ahim anv apas tatarda pra vakshaṇâ abhinat +parvatânâm; i. 32, 2. + +[542] Yad indrâhan prathamaǵâm ahînâm ân mâyinâm aminâh prota mâyâḥ--ât +sûryaṁ ǵanayan dyâm ushâsaṁ tâdîtnâ çatruṁ na kilâ vivitse; i. 32, 4. + +[543] Ahan vṛitraṁ vṛitrataraṁ vyaṅsam indro vaǵrena mahatâ vadhena +skandḥaṇsîva kuliçenâ vivṛiknâhiḥ çayata upapṛik pṛithivyâḥ; i. 32, +5.--Ud vṛiha rakshaḥ sahamûlam indra vriçća madhyam praty agraṁ +çṛinîhi; iii. 30, 17. + +[544] Çayânam mano ruhânâ ati yanty âpaḥ; i. 32, 8. + +[545] Anu tvâ patnîr hṛishitaṁ vayaç ća viçve devâso amadann anu tvâ; +i. 103, 7.--Asmâ id u gnâç ćid devapatnîr indrâyârkam ahihatya ûvuḥ; +i. 61, 8. + +[546] Striyo hi dâsa âyudhâni ćakre; _Ṛigv._ v. 30, 9. + +[547] Sa vṛitrahendraḥ kṛishṇayonîḥ puraṃdaro dâsîr âirayad vi; ii. +20, 7.--Vṛitras the killer of Piprus, Indras _puraṁ-daras_, properly, +who wounds the full one, who cleaves the full or the swollen one, and +hence who wounds, the city, and Indras the lacerator of the witches +with the black wombs are equivalent; cfr. what was said concerning the +thunderbolt as a phallos, in the first chapter of the first book, +where the cuckoo is spoken of, and in the chapter on the Cuckoo in the +second book.--In the hymn, i. 32, 9, Indras also wounds underneath the +mother of the monster: Indro asyâ ava vadhar ǵabhâra. + +[548] Uto nu ćid ya oǵasâ çushṇasyâṇḍâni bhedati ǵeshat svarvatîr +apaḥ; _Ṛigv._ viii. 40, 10.--In the hymn i. 54, 10, it is said that +the cloud-mountain is found amongst the intestines of the coverer; one +might say that the serpent binds the cloud in the form of bowels. The +reader will recollect what we observed concerning the intestines, the +heart, and the liver, of the sacrificed victim in the first chapter of +the first book. + +[549] In the twentieth story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_ we +find a singular variety, which is of some importance in the history of +mythology and language. A princess asks the serpent, her husband, by +what his death can be caused. The serpent answers that his death can +be brought about by the hero Nikita Kaszemiaka, who, in fact, comes up +and kills the serpent by submerging him in the sea. Nikita is called, +it is said, Kaszemiaka, because his occupation was that of tearing +skins. The torn skins (cfr. here also the _Jupiter Aegiocus_) take +here the place of the duck's egg broken upon the serpent, and of the +eggs of the monster broken by Indras. In Italian, _coccio_, means a +piece of a broken vase, and also, in botany, the skin of a seed; +_incocciarsi_ signifies to be angry. In Piedmont, it is said of one +who annoys people, that he breaks the boxes, and, more vulgarly, that +he breaks the testicles. + +[550] Hiraṇyakeço 'hiḥ; _Ṛigv._ i. 79, 1. + +[551] Vi çṛiñgiṇam abhinać ćhushṇam indraḥ; i. 33, 12. + +[552] Ahiçushmasattvâ; v. 33, 5. + +[553] Ahimanyavaḥ; i. 64, 9. + +[554] Ćakrâṇâsaḥ parîṇaham pṛithivyâ hiraṇyena maṇinâ çumbhamânâḥ; i. +33, 8. + +[555] vi. 1, 1. + +[556] The passage cited before. + +[557] i. 3, 22.--In Russian stories, we frequently find the incident +of a serpent, or witch, who endeavours to file, or pierce through, +with her tongue the iron doors which enclose the forge in which the +pursued hero has taken refuge; he, from within, helped by divine +blacksmiths, draws the witch's tongue in with red-hot pincers and +causes her death; he then opens the gates of the forge, which +represents now the red sky of evening, now the red sky of morning. + +[558] i. 792, _et seq._--Cfr. also the second Esthonian tale, where +the young hero, in the kingdom of the serpents, drinks milk in the cup +of the king of the serpents himself. + +[559] _Mbh._ i. 5008, _et seq._ + +[560] i. 1283-1295. + +[561] v. 4, 23. + +[562] Cfr. _Râmâyaṇam_, i. 46, and _Mahâbhâratam_, i. 1053, 1150.--In +the _Râmâyaṇam_ (vi. 26), the arrows of the monsters are said to bind +like serpents; the bird Garuḍas appears and the serpents untie +themselves, the fetters are loosed; Râmas and Lakshmaṇas, supposed to +be dead, rise again stronger than before. + +[563] As we have seen that _mandaras_ is equivalent to _mantharas_, a +name of the tortoise which, according to the cosmogonic legend, +sustains the weight of the mountain, or enormous stick which produces +the mountain, so Anantas, in another Hindoo legend (cfr. _Mbh._ i. +1587-1588) sustains the weight of the world.--The rod of pearls which +when placed in fat enables the young prince to obtain whatever he +wishes for, seems to have the same originally phallical meaning as the +mandaras; it is the king of the serpents who presents it to the young +prince. The fat may, in the mythical sky, be the milk of the morning +dawn, or the rain of the cloud, or the snee, or the dew; as soon as +the thunderbolt touches the fat of the clouds, or of the snee, or as +soon as the sunbeam touches the milk of the dawn, the sun, riches, and +fortune come forth. + +[564] The _coitus_ is also called a game of serpents in the +_Tuti-Name_. Preller and Kuhn have already proved the phallical +signification of the caduceus (_tripetêlon_) of Hermês, represented +now with two wings, now with two serpents. The phallical serpent is +the cause of the fall of the first man. + +[565] _Vinatâ_ is also the name of a disease of women; and, as far as +we can judge from the passage of the _Mahâbhâratam_ (iii. 14,480), +which refers to it, it is the malignant genius who destroys the fœtus +in the womb of the pregnant mother. He is defined as _çakunigrâhî_, +properly the seizer of the bird. Kaçyapas, the universal phallos, the +Praǵâpatis, certainly unites himself to Vinatâ in the form of a +phallos-bird, as to Kadrû in that of a phallos-serpent. + +[566] vi. 37-38, 46. + +[567] Cfr. for this subject the first and second chapters of the first +book. + +[568] i. 949, 974. + +[569] i. 1671, 1980, _et seq._ + +[570] iv. 16. + +[571] _Râmây._ vii. 104, 105. + +[572] Cfr. concerning this subject in particular, the first chapter of +the first book, the chapter on the Wolf and that on the Frog. + +[573] iii. 8. + +[574] Cfr. the discussion concerning the gandharvâs in the chapter on +the Ass. + +[575] _Râmây._ vi. 82.--This nymph becomes grâhî, because she had once +struck a holy Brâhman with her chariot. The same reason is assigned for +the malediction which falls upon King Nahushas, who became an enormous +serpent; this serpent squeezed the hero Bhîmas in its mortal coils; his +brother, Yudhishṭhiras, runs up, and answers in a highly satisfactory +manner to the abstruse philosophical questions addressed to him by the +serpent, which then releases Bhîmas, casts off its skin, and ascends in +the form of Nahushas to heaven; _Mbh._ iii. 12, 356, _et seq._ + +[576] _Râmây._ iii. 8. + +[577] iii. 2609, _et seq._ + +[578] Triçîrshâ iva nâgapotâs; 12, 744. + +[579] Cfr. Papi, _Lettere sulle Indie Orientali_, Lucca, 1829; it is +the _cobra de capello_ of the Portuguese. + +[580] Cfr. Simrock _Deutsche Mythologie_, pp. 478, 513, 514, and +Rochholtz _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_, i. 146. + +[581] Cfr. again the legend of Adam and Eve, of the tree and the +serpent, and the original sin. In the mediæval comedy _La Sibila del +Oriente_, Adam when dying says to his son, "Mira en cima de mi +sepulcro, que un arbol nace." In Russian stories the young hero will +be fortunate, now because he watched at his father's tomb, now because +he defended the paternal cypress from the demon who wished to carry it +off. In the legend of the wood of the cross, according to a sermon of +Hermann von Fristlar (cfr. Mussafia, _Sulla Leggenda del legno della +Croce_), the tree upon the wood of which, made into a cross, Christ +died, is said to have been a cypress. The same mediæval legend +describes the terrestrial paradise whence Adam was expelled, and where +Seth repairs to obtain for Adam the oil of pity. The tree rises up to +heaven, and its root goes down to hell, where Seth sees the soul of +his brother Abel. On the summit there is a child, the Son of God, the +promised oil. The angel gives to Seth three grains which he is to put +into Adam's mouth; three sprouts spring up which remain an +arm's-length in height till the time of Moses, who converts them into +miraculous rods, and replants them before his death; David finds them +again, and performs miracles with them. The three sprouts become one +plant which grows proudly into a tree. Solomon wishes to build the +temple with this wood; the workmen cannot make use of it; he then has +it carried into the temple; a sybil tries to sit upon it, and her +clothes take fire; she cries out, "Jesus, God and my Lord," and +prophesies that the Son of God will be hanged upon that wood. She is +condemned to death, and the wood thrown into a fish-pond, which +acquires thaumaturgic virtue; the wood comes out and they wish to make +a bridge of it; the Queen of the East, Saba, refuses to pass over it, +having a presentiment that Jesus will die upon that wood. Abia has the +wood buried, and a fish-pond appears over it.--Now, this is what an +author, unsuspected of heresy, writes concerning the symbol of the +serpent (Martigny, _Dictionnaire des Antiquités Chrétiennes_): "Les +ophites, suivant en cela les nicolaites et les premiers gnostiques, +rendirent au serpent lui-même un culte direct d'adoration, et les +manichéens le mirent aussi à la place de Jésus Christ (S. Augustin. +_De Hœres._ cap. xvii. et xlvi.) Et nous devons regarder comme +extrêmement probable que les talismans et les amulettes avec la figure +du serpent qui sont arrivés jusqu' à nous, proviennent des hérétiques +de la race de Basilide, et non pas des païens, comme on le suppose +communément." To the continuers of the admirable studies of Strauss +and Renan will be reserved the office of seeking the sense hidden in +this myth, made poetical by the evangelical morals. When we shall be +able to bring into Semitic studies the same liberty of scientific +criticism which is conceded to Âryan studies, we shall have a Semitic +mythology; for the present, faith, a natural sense of repugnance to +abandon the beloved superstitions of our credulous childhood, and more +than all, a less honourable sentiment of terror for the opinion of the +world, have restrained men of study from examining Jewish history and +tradition with entire impartiality and severity of judgment. We do not +wish to appear Voltairians, and we prefer to shut our eyes not to see, +and our ears not to hear what history, studied critically and +positively, presents to us less agreeable to our pride as men, and to +our vanity as Christians. + +[582] Cfr. _Yaçna_, ix. 25-27; cfr. also Prof. Spiegel's introduction +to the _Khorda Avesta_, pp. 59, 60. + +[583] Cfr. the chapter concerning the Fishes and that on the Tortoise. + +[584] Cfr. Prof. Spiegel's introduction to the _Khorda-Avesta_, p. 60. + +[585] xxxviii. 36. + +[586] A variety of the Hindoo legend of the hawk (Indras), of the dove +(Agnis), and of King Çivis, who, to save the dove from the hawk, his +guest, gives some of his own flesh to the hawk to eat. Here the +serpent is identified with the hawk or eagle; in the Mongol story, +however, the dragon is grateful to the man who delivered him from the +bird Garuḍas; the king of the dragons keeps guard over the white +pearls, arrives upon a white horse, dressed in white (probably the +snow of winter, or the moon); the king of the dragons rewards the hero +by giving him a red bitch, some fat, and a string of pearls.--In the +sixth story of the _Pańćatantram_, we have the serpent and the crow, +one at the foot of a tree, the other on the summit; the serpent eats +the crow's eggs, and the crow avenges itself by stealing a golden +necklace from the queen and throwing it into the snake's hole; the men +go to seek the necklace, find the serpent and kill it. + +[587] We have seen in the chapter on the Ant how the ants make +serpents come out of their holes; in Bavaria, according to Baron +Reinsberg von Düringsfeld, the work quoted before, p. 259, an asp +(_natter_) taken in August must be shut well up in a vase in order +that it may die of heat and of hunger; then it is placed upon an ants' +nest, that the ants may eat all its flesh; of what remains, a sort of +paternoster is made, which is supposed to be very useful against all +kinds of eruptions upon the head. + +[588] Cfr. the interminable riches of the uhlan-serpent in the story +vi. 11, of _Afanassieff_. + +[589] Here we have a serpent which expels and ruins another. In a +similar manner, before the times of San Carlo Borromeo, a bronze +serpent, which had been carried from Constantinople by the Archbishop +Arnolfo in the year 1001, was revered in the basilica of St Ambrose at +Milan; some said that it was the serpent of Æsculapius, others that of +Moses, others that it was an image of Christ; for us it is enough to +remark here that it was a mythical serpent, before which Milanese +mothers brought their children when they suffered from worms, in order +to relieve them, as we learn from the depositions of the visit of San +Carlo to this basilica: "Est quædam superstitio de ibi mulierum pro +infantibus morbo verminum laborantibus." San Carlo put down this +superstition. + +[590] These marvels are always three, as the apples are three, the +beautiful girls three, the enchanted palaces in the kingdom of the +serpents which they inhabit three (cfr. _Afanassieff_, i. 5). The +heads of the dragon are in this story and generally three, but +sometimes also five, six (cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 28), seven (cfr. +_Pentamerone_, i. 7, and _Afanassieff_, ii. 27; the serpent of the +seven heads emits foul exhalations), nine (iii. 2, v. 24), or twelve +(cfr. _Afanassieff_, ii. 30).--In the twenty-first story of the second +book of _Afanassieff_, first the serpent with three heads appears, +then that with six, then that with nine heads which throw out water +and threaten to inundate the kingdom. Ivan Tzarević exterminates them. +In the twenty-second story of the same book the serpent of the Black +Sea, with wings of fire, flies into the Tzar's garden and carries off +the three daughters; the first is obtained and shut up by the +five-headed serpent, the second by the seven-headed one, and the third +by the serpent with twelve heads; the young hero Frolka Sidien kills +the three serpents and liberates the three daughters. + +[591] Cfr. also, for the legend of the blind woman, the first chapter +of the first book. + +[592] When the mythical serpent refers to the year, the hours +correspond to the months, and the months during which the mythical +serpent sleeps seem to be those of summer, in contradiction to what is +observed in nature. + +[593] In the fifth story of the second book of the _Pentamerone_, a +serpent has itself adopted, as their son, by a man and woman who have +no children, and then asks for the king's daughter to wife; the king, +who thinks to turn the serpent into ridicule, answers that he will +consent when the serpent has made all the fruit-trees of the royal +garden become golden, the soil of the same garden turn into precious +stones, and his whole palace into a pile of gold. The serpent sows +kernels of fruits and egg-shells in the garden; from the first, the +required trees spring up; from the second, the pavement of precious +stones; he then anoints the palace with a certain herb, and it turns +to gold. The serpent comes to take his wife in a golden chariot, drawn +by four golden elephants, lays aside his serpent's disguise, and +becomes a handsome youth. + +[594] Cfr. Mone, _Anzeig._ iii. 88. + +[595] Cfr. on this subject the stories recorded in the first and +second chapters of the first book. + +[596] _Origines_, xiv. 4. + +[597] Cfr. the same, _Afanassieff_, vi. 10, where the cunning workman, +in reward for having vanquished the little devil in whistling, and for +having made it believe that he could throw a stick upon the clouds, +obtains the money which can remain in a hat which never fills. + + + + +CONCLUSION. + + "E come quei che con lena affannata + Uscito fuor del pelago a la riva + Si volge all 'onda perigliosa e guata, + Cosi l'animo mio che ancor fuggiva + Si volse indietro a rimirar ..." + +and the shadows of the mythological monsters rise again before me, and +occupy my fearful thoughts. During these months of my solitary sojourn +on Olympus, have I only been the victim of a horrible nightmare, or have +I apprehended aright the reality of the changeful figures of the sky in +their animal forms? The ancient mythology, which used to be taught to us +at school, was filled with the incests of Jove, of Mars, and of Venus; +but they were classical myths, and the adulterers were called gods; and +our good fathers, in the vain search for symbolical meanings, tortured +their ingenious brains to extract from each scandal of Olympus a moral +lesson for the instruction of youth. Hence it was permitted to art to +represent Jove as a bull, an eagle, a swan, a seducer in an animal form, +without offending decency or violating the sanctity of the schools; and +the young scholars were encouraged to write their rhetorical exercises +in Italian or Latin verse upon the favourite themes of classical +mythology, inasmuch as with symbols and moral allegories the vile matter +could all be made divine. Platonic or metaphysical love not requiring +the vehicles of sense to communicate itself, the animal forms of the god +were for our old masters nothing else than symbols and allegories, +conceived and intended to veil an elevated educational wisdom. But we +have rocked ourselves long enough in the cradle of this infantile +fantasy, and must now discard from this and kindred themes all such idle +dreams. It is at last necessary to summon up the courage to front the +problems of history with the same frankness and ardour with which +naturalists approach the mysteries of Nature, and pierce the veil; nor +is this attempt so hazardous, since, in order to demonstrate entirely +our historical theses, we have certain and positive data provided for us +in speech and in legend by comparative oral and written tradition. We do +not invent; we simply accumulate, and then put in order the facts +relating to the common history of popular thought and sentiment in our +privileged race. The difficulty consists only in classifying the facts; +the facts themselves are many and evident. It is very possible to be +deceived in their arrangement, and hence also in their minute +interpretation; and I am, for my part, not without apprehension that I +may have here and there made an unlucky venture in interpreting some +particular myths; but if this may, in some degree, reflect discredit on +my intelligence, which is perhaps imperfectly armed, and without +sufficient penetration, this can in nowise prejudice the fundamental +truths which permit comparative mythology to constitute and install +itself as a positive science, that may henceforth, like every science, +instruct and edify with profit. The principal error into which the +students of the new science are apt to fall, and into which I may myself +have sometimes been betrayed in the course of this work, is that of +confining their observations to one special favourite mythical point or +moment, and referring almost every myth to it, and not taking sufficient +account of their mobility and their separate history, that is, of the +various periods of their manifestation. One sees in the myth only the +sun, another only the moon in its several revolutions, and their amours +with the verdant and resplendent earth; one sees the darkness of night +in opposition to the light of day, another the same light in opposition +to the gloomy cloud; one the loves of the sun with the moon, another +those of the sun with the aurora. These diverse, special, and too +exclusive points of view, from which the myths have hitherto been +generally studied by learned men, have afforded ill-disposed adversaries +an opportunity of ridiculing the science of Comparative Mythology as a +science which is little serious, and which changes its nature according +to the student who occupies himself with it. But this opposition is +disarmed by its own weapons. For what does the concord of all learned +men and scholars in this department prove? It proves, in my opinion, but +one thing, and that is, the reproduction and confirmation of the same +natural myths under multiplex forms, the representation by analogous +myths of analogous phenomena, and that the variations met with in fairy +tales are also found in myths. The sun chases away the darkness in the +day, the moon the darkness in the night; both are called haris, or +fairhaired, golden, luminous. Indras is haris; as haris, he is now in +relation with the sun that thunders in the cloud (Jupiter Tonans), now +with the ambrosial moon which attracts rain (Jupiter Pluvius); Zeus +gives up the field to his son Dionüsos, and, be it as the sun, be it as +the moon, he is always Zeus the refulgent one, Diespiter or the father +of light; in the first case, he pierces through the cloud, and in the +second through the darkness. Even when the moon or the sun is hidden, +when Zeus or Dionüsos lives in his august mystery, they prepare new +luminous phenomena. Thus Vishṇus is haris, and as haris he is identified +now with the sun, now with the moon; or, to speak with more precision, +the sun haris and the moon haris are confounded in one sole mythical +personage, in one god, who represents them both in various moments, that +is to say, in Vishṇus. It is desirable that the entirety of the myths +should be studied with full comprehension of the whole field which the +myth may have enriched, and of the whole period in which the myth may +have been developed; but this does not prevent, in special studies, a +learned man from addressing himself (as Professors Kuhn, Müller, and +Bréal have done) to one special point to prove one special mythological +thesis. To this point he applies his lever; he might, perhaps, use it +somewhere else; but this causes no prejudice to the essential truth, by +bringing his demonstrations to the highest degree of clearness in one +point alone. The excess of demonstration can easily be corrected, and +meanwhile from these special studies, in which investigation becomes +every day more profound, the myths come out in brighter colours. It +would be an exaggeration to ascribe to all the myths one unvaried manner +of formation, as also to think absolutely that all myths began by a +simple confusion of words. Equivocalness, no doubt, played a principal +part in the formation of myths; but this same equivocalness would not +always have been possible without the pre-existence, so to speak, of +pictorial analogies. The child who even now, gazing on the sky, takes a +white cloud for a mountain of snow, certainly does not yet know that +_parvatas_ meant both cloud and mountain in the Vedic language; he +continues, however, to elaborate his elementary myth by means of simple +analogies of images. The equivoque of words usually succeeded to the +analogy of external figures as they appeared to primitive man. He had +not yet named the cloud as a mountain, and yet he already saw it. When +the confusion of images took place, that of words became almost +inevitable, and only served to determine it, to give it in the external +sound a more consistent form, to manifest it more artistically, and to +constitute it into a sort of trunk upon which, with the help of new +particular observations, of new images, and of new equivoques, an entire +tree of mythical genealogies was to sprout out. + +It has fallen to me to study the least elevated department of +mythology. In the primitive man, who created the myths, the same +twofold tendency shows itself which we observe in ourselves--the +instinct by which we are allied to the brutes, and the instinct which +lifts us to the comprehension and sentiment of the divine or the +ideal. The ideal was the portion of few; material instinct that of +many: the ideal was the promise of human progress; material instinct +represented that inert resisting matter which still acts in opposition +to progress. Hence images full of elevated poesy by the side of +others, vulgar and gross, which remind us of the relation of man to +that petulant and lascivious brute from which it is supposed that he +descends. The god who becomes a brute cannot preserve always intact +his divinity; the animal form is that of his _avatâras_ or of his +decadence, of his fall; it is usually the form assumed by the god or +the hero in consequence of a curse or a crime. The Hindoo and the +Pythagorean beliefs considered the disguise of the animal as the +purgatory of a guilty man. And the god-beast, the hero-beast, the +man-beast cannot restrain themselves from brutish acts. The proud and +ferocious King Viçvâmitras, the Indian Nebuchadnezzar, when he +wanders through the forest in the form of a monster, takes the nature +of the forest-rakshasas, the devourer; the beautiful celestial nymphs +become sea-monsters, devour the heroes who approach their fountain. +Only when the animal form is killed, when the matter is shaken off, +does the god or hero assume his divine goodness, beauty, and +excellence. Here mythology is not in contradiction to physiology; the +character of the mythical personages is the result of their corporeal +forms, of their organism, until the natural destiny changes, and a new +physical transformation taking place in the species, even its moral +characteristics are modified; light is good, darkness is evil, or good +only inasmuch as it is supposed to enclose light in its body. From the +dark wood rubbed and shaken, from the dark stone struck and dilated, +comes forth the spark which causes conflagrations; from the body when +exercised and made agile comes forth the splendour of look, of speech, +of affection, of thought; the god breaks forth. Substance is dark, but +when it is agitated it produces light; as long as it is inert, it is +evil, and it is still evil as long as it attracts to itself, as if to +a centre of gravity, everything that lives. In as far as the monster +swallows beautiful things, it is evil; in as far as it lets them +radiate and go forth, it is good. Disperse the cloud, disperse the +darkness, dilate and expand the matter which tends to grow narrow and +to become inert, to absorb life, and the divine light will come out of +it, the splendid intelligent life will appear; the fallen hero, the +hero turned to stone, who has become inert substance, will ascend +again, agile and refulgent, into the divine heavens. + +Certainly, I am far from believing that this was the intention of the +myth. Morals have often been an appendix of fables, but they never enter +into the primitive fable itself. The elementary myth is a spontaneous +production of imagination, and not of reflection. When the myth exists, +art and religion may make use of it as an allegory for their æsthetic +and moral ends; but the myth itself is devoid of moral conscience; the +myth shows, as I have said, only more or less elevated instincts. And if +I have sought to compare several physiological laws with the myths, it +is not because I attribute to the myth a wisdom greater than that which +it contains in reality, but only to indicate that, much better than +metaphysics, the science of nature, with the criteria of positive +philosophy, can help us to study the original production of myths and +their successive development in tradition. I have had to prove in +mythology its most humble aspect, that is to say, the god enclosed in +the animal; and inasmuch as amongst the various mythical animals which I +have endeavoured to describe, several preserve the propitious character +and resplendent form of the god, they are generally considered as the +form which the deity assumes either to feed secretly upon the forbidden +fruit or to fulfil a term of punishment for some former fault of his; in +any case, these forms never serve to give us a superlative idea of the +divine excellence and perfection. Instead of ascribing to the god all +the attributes of beauty, goodness, and strength at once, instead of +associating in one all the gods, or all the sympathic forces and figures +of Nature, a new divine form was created for each attribute. And because +the primitive man was not so much inclined to make abstractions as +comparisons (to represent strength, for instance, he had recourse to the +image of the bull, the lion, or the tiger; to represent goodness, he +figured it in the lamb, the dog, or the dove; to represent beauty, he +chose the gazelle, the stag, the peacock, and so on), in the primitive +speech of mankind no conjunctions existed by means of which to unite the +two terms of a comparison: hence a strong king became the lion, a +faithful friend the dog, an agile girl the gazelle, and so on. We +sometimes hear our women, in their moments of tenderness for a distant +person, or in their impatience to go where their heart calls them, or in +their curiosity to know what is going on at such a moment in such a +place, say, "I wish I could become a bird to go there." In reality they +envy only the bird's wings, in order to fly, to arrive there sooner, and +for this desire alone they would renounce all the precious privileges +which distinguish them as women. The same sacrifice of their own +luminous forms to obtain some determinate end happens in the mythical +sky. The god humbles himself in order to make use of some quality which +he needs to manifest especially. Thus Indras, to put the generosity of +King Çivis to the proof, finds it necessary to follow, in the shape of a +hawk, the god Agnis, who had become a dove, and taken refuge with the +king. Primitive man does not ascribe to the god any other form than +those which he sees round him, and which he knows: the god cannot have +wings of his own, divine wings; he must become a bird in order to be +winged. Thus, to draw a chariot, or to carry a hero through the air, he +must become a hippogriff, that is, horse and bird; and when he falls +into the sea, he must enter a fish's body to escape drowning. + +The god can therefore exercise his divine power only on the condition +of entering into the forms of those animals which are supposed to have +the privilege of the qualities which the god is in need of in a +special mythical occurrence. But in this animal form in which the god +displays in a transcendent manner some particular quality, he dims at +the same time a great part of his divine splendour. Having, therefore, +surprised the deity in this strange and unlucky moment, the reader +will not, I hope, impute to me the poor figure which the deity has had +to make in many pages of this work; nor will he think evil of me if I +have deprived him, perchance, of some illusion in compensation for +some imperfect, but perhaps not useless revelation. + + + + +INDEX. + +(_This Index is compiled at the instance of the Publisher, and is not +by the Author._) + + + Absalom and his hair, i. 334. + + Achilleus, horses of, i. 351. + + Acheloos, horn of, i. 266. + + Açvinâu, the, i. 18, 19; + friendship for Tritas, 25; + awakening of, 27; + and the aurora, 30; + eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, 32, 36; + and Kabandhas, 63; + the sons of, 78; + as the two ears of Vishnus, 81, 285-287, 300-302, 304, 306-308, + 310, 315, 319, 321, 327, 370; + ass of, 371. + + Adam and Eve, legend of, ii. 411. + + Aditis and the cow, in Vedic literature, i. 5, 6, 23, 70, 74. + + Adonis, ii. 14-16. + + Adrikâ, the nymph-fish, ii. 331; + son and daughter of, 332. + + Æschylos, fabled death of, ii. 197. + + Æsculapius, i. 353. + + Afrasiab, i. 114, 116, 117. + + Agas and synonyms, i. 402. + + Agnis, as the fire-god, i. 10; + adjutant to Indras, 13, 299, 301. + + Agnus Dei, sacrifice of the, i. 423. + + Ahalyâ, legend of, i. 414. + + Ahura Mazda, i. 97, 109. + + Aiêtas, bulls of, i. 267. + + Ai-Kan, story of, i. 146. + + Alexander the Great, i. 119; + and augury, ii. 178; + and the fish, 333; + and the crab, 355. + + Allwis, the dwarf, i. 207, 225, 260, 261. + + Amalthea, i. 430. + + Amazons, the, i. 211, 212. + + Ambrosia, i. 5; + giver of, 18; + the milk which forms, 52, 54; + contest for, 53; + the demons and, 53; + Gandharvas, guardians of, 53, 81; + of the cow, 275, 276; + the origin of, ii. 361; + the phallical reference of, 361, 365. + + Ampelos, i. 267. + + Amphisbhæna, the, ii. 386. + + Anantas, the serpent, ii. 398, 399. + + Angadas, i. 337. + + Animals, gradation of, for sacrifice, i. 44; + substitutes for, in sacrifice, 44; + battles of tame and savage, 186; + inviolability of the mysteries of, 246; + mythical identification of, ii. 123; + colours of, in mythology, 295, 296. + + Ansumant, i. 332. + + Antony, St, the Vedic, i. 47; + and the hog, ii. 6. + + Antelopes and the Marutas, ii. 83, 84; + king disguised as an, 86. + + Ants, the, and the serpent, ii. 44; + and the shepherd's son, 45; + and the grain, 47; + and the horses, 50; + Indian, 50, 51; + that dig up gold, 51; + the monster, 51. + + Apâlâ, Indras, and the somas, ii. 3; + and her ugly skin, 5. + + Aphroditê, i. 394; + and Hermes, ii. 197. + + Apollo, and Laomedon, i. 279; + Smintheus, ii. 68; + and the crow, 254. + + Apple-tree, the legend of, i. 251; + the mythical, 405; + and the goat, 405. + + Aquila and Aquilo, ii. 191, 192. + + Arabs, the, saying of, ii. 11. + + Arachnê, ii. 163. + + Arcadia, i. 387, 390. + + Ardshi-Bordshi Khan, the history of, i. 120; + stories from, 134, 139. + + Ardvî Çûra Anâhita, the Persian, i. 99, 100. + + Argos panoptes, i. 418. + + Argus, ii. 327. + + Arǵunas, i. 79, 104. + + Ariadne, i. 212. + + Arkas, ii. 118. + + Arnê, ii. 259. + + Artemis and Aktaion, ii. 86; + the huntress, 87; + and hind, 88. + + Arunas, i. 292. + + Ases, the three, and the eagle, ii. 191. + + Ashis Vaguhi, i. 108, 109. + + Ass, the, among the Greeks and Romans, i. 259, 260; + in the East, 360; + in the West, 360; + mistakes about, 361; + Christianity powerless to redeem, 361, 362; + hymn in honour of, 361, 362; + treatment of, by the Church, 363; + downtrodden condition of, 363; + in the Rigvedas, 364; + names of, 364, 365; + of Apuleius, 366; + which carries mysteries, 367; + and flight into Egypt, 367; + of the Açvinâu, 371; + of Indras, 371; + phallic nature of, 372, 373; + chastisement of, for phallic offences, 372, 373; + fall of, in the Rigvedas, 372, 374; + the demoniacal, 374, 376; + slowness, 374; + the golden, 375, 376; + the Hindoo, 377; + and the jackal, 377, 378; + -lion, 378, 379; + -musician, 378, 379; + three-legged, braying, 379; + and lion, 380; + braying of, and the merchants, 380; + and Vesta, 384; + and the Trojans, 386; + ears of, 386; + skin of, 388; + that throws gold from its tail, 388; + and the waters of Styx, 390; + horned, of India, 390, 391; + horn of the Scythian, 390, 391; + and Silenos, 391, 392, 394; + and Bacchus, 392; + and the talisman, 393; + skin of, 394; + proverbs about, 394; + the combed, 395; + shadow and nose, 395; + golden, of Apuleius, 395; + uncontainedness, 396; + that brays, 397, 398; + in hell, 398; + knowledge of, 398. + + Assassins, story of the king of the, ii. 35. + + Atavism in mythology, i. 199. + + Atli, i. 226. + + Attis, the Phrygian, ii. 409. + + Audhumla, the cow, i. 224. + + Aulad, the warrior, i. 112, 113. + + Aurora, the cow, process of re-creating, i. 20; + cow of abundance, 26; + relations to Indras, 27; + the milk of, 27; + and her cows, 25, 29; + the girl, the swift one without feet, 30, 31; + the evening, perfidy of, 32; + as a sorceress, 33; + persecutions of, 34; + the saviour, 35; + once blind, now seeing and sight-giving, 36; + and the night, 36-38; + the sisters, 38; + the younger, 38, 39; + nuptials of, and its conditions, 39; + fruit of the nuptials of, 39, 40; + and Rakâ, 50; + characteristic form of, 50; + as a cow, 51; + mother of the sun, 51; + rich in pearls, 56; + and the moon, 56, 65; + the Persian, 100-102, 121-125, 146; + awakener of, 163, 170; + amours of, 324; + the two, and the fox, ii. 124. + + Avesta, the, i. 109, 110. + + + Bacchus and the asses, i. 392. + + Bâlin and Sugrîvas, i. 312, 313; ii. 100, 101. + + Barrel, the mythical, i. 197. + + Basiliça, story of, i. 298, 299. + + Batrachomyomachia, the, ii. 71. + + Battos the shepherd, i. 279. + + Bear, at blind-man's-buff with the maiden, ii. 69; + and Vicvâmitras, 109; + king of the bears, 109; + in the forest of honey, 109; + eater of honey, 110; + and peasant, 110-112; + duped by the peasant, 112; + and the fox, 113; + king and the twins, 114, 115; + the demoniacal, and the two children, 115, 116; + disguises of, 117; + woman in the den of, 117, 118; + half bear half man, 118; + as musician, 118, 119. + + Beaver, the, ii. 79, 80. + + Bees and the Açvinâu, ii. 215; + Vedic gods as, 216; + as moon, 217; + from the bull's carcase, 217; + in Finnish mythology, 218; + spiritual and immortal, 218-220; + wax of, 219; + and young hero, 220; + as musician, 223. + + Beetle, the, and eagle, ii. 209; + the sacred, 209; + red, 209, 210; + names of the red, 210, 211; + and first teeth of children, 211; + worship of the red, 211, 212; + green, 214. + + Bellerophontes, i. 305, 338. + + Berta, i. 85; + the Russian Queen, 218; + Queen, legend of, 251-257; + large-footed, 253. + + Betta and the cake-youth, ii. 238, 239. + + Bharatas, King, ii. 85. + + Bharadvâǵas, ii. 275, 276. + + Bhîmas the terrible, i. 77-79, 104. + + Bhogavatî, city of, ii. 403. + + Bhrigus and Cyavanas, ii. 10. + + Binding, vanquishing by, i. 106, 107. + + Birds, language of, i. 151, 152; + the mythical impersonations of, ii. 168, 169; + the wise, story of, 169-172; + virtue of feathers of, 172; + the language of, 174; + story of, and the queen, 175; + excrement of, 176; + the blue, 176; + Semiramis and, 176; + as diviners, 177; + auguries from, 178; + the, of Bretagne, 271, 272. + + Bitch, the mythical, ii. 19-25; + as spy, 35. + + Blind lame one, the, i. 31, 32. + + Blue Beard, the Esthonian, i. 168. + + Boar, the, of Erymanthus, ii. 9; + of Meleagros, 9; + the monster wild, in the Rigvedas, 9, 10; + Indo-European tradition of, 13; + tusks of, 15. + + Brahmadattas and the crab, ii. 356. + + Brahmanâs, the, i. 414. + + Bréal, M., i. 263. + + Bribus, ii. 308. + + Bridge, the mythical, i. 228. + + Brian, the Celtic hero, i. 239, 240. + + Brother, the third, i. 79, 83; + the Turanian, and his dream, 139-142; + the riddle-solving eldest Turanian, 142; + the third, in quest of the lost cow, 155, 156; + journey to hell, 157; + as counsellor, 156, 159; + royal, as peasant, 162; + awakener of the princess of the seven years' slumber, 162, 163; + who mounts to heaven, 176; + and the tree-purchaser, 176; + endeavour of, to milk the bull, 177; + who snaps his fingers, 184; + ascent into and descent from heaven of, 189, 190; + who steals from the other two, 194; + and the flying-ship, 205; + in bronze, silver, and gold, 291. + + Brothers, the three, i. 77, 80, 82, 104; + the Persian, 105; + the two, 107, 108, 120; + the three, 109, 111, 125, 128; + the four, and the pearls, 127; + the six, Calmuc story of, 128, 129; + the two, Calmuc story of, 130; + the two Calmuc, rich and poor, 131, 132; + the two (lion and bull), and the fox, 134; + the three, 148, 153, 156, 161; + the three dwarf, story of, 161, 162; + the two rich and poor, and magic stone, 177; + the three, of the purse, whistle, and mantle, 288, 289; + the two, who go one to the right and the other to the left, 317, + 319, 327. + + Brünhilt, i. 212. + + Brutus, the first, i. 199. + + Bufonite, ii. 384. + + Buhtan and the fox, ii. 134, 135. + + Bull, the sun a, i. 4; + the, fecundator of the cow, 5; + the great bellowing, 7-10; + the horns of, 9; + a symbol of royalty, 44; + of the Persians, 95; + the excrement of, 80, 95; + disembodied soul of, 97; + ambrosial, 99; + capacity of, for drinking, 175; + in the council of animals, 185; + which comes out of the sea, 222, 223; + which carries the maiden, 223; + about to be sacrificed, 270; + without entrails, 270, 271. + + Buri, i. 224. + + Butterfly, the mythical, ii. 213, 214. + + Butter-ears, the cat, ii. 53, 54. + + Bucephalus, i. 338. + + + Cabala, i. 73. + + Cacus, i. 280, 281. + + Caduceus of Mercury, ii. 219, 220. + + Çakuntalâ, i. 219. + + Calf, the, as marriage-priest, i. 257. + + Çambaras, cities of, i. 13. + + Çantanus, myth of, i. 67, 68. + + Canicula, the, ii. 33. + + Çaoka, i. 98. + + Çaradvat, ii. 332. + + Çarmishthâ, the witch, i. 83, 84. + + Carp, the, ii. 351, 352. + + Carpus, ii. 352. + + Cat, the white, ii. 42; + penitent, 54; + fox, and fattened mouse, 56; + and sparrow, 56; + dog, and ring, 56, 57; + and dog and supposititious child, 57; + and moon, 58; + and Diana, 58; + and St Martha, 58; + and Freya, 59; + and St Gertrude, 59; + the chattering, 59; + and fox, 59; + and cock, 59; + and lamb, 60; + the grateful, 60; + the white, Blanchette, 61; + and the house, 62. + + Cats, the enchanted, ii. 62; + the black, 62, 63; + ill-omened apparitions of, 63; + and witches, 63, 64; + the two, 64. + + Çavarî, i. 64, 66, 69. + + Cerberi, the, i. 49. + + Cerire, i. 117. + + Chameleon, the, ii. 161. + + Charlemagne, tradition of, i. 161; + and Orlando, 256. + + Children, king of, story of, i. 135, 136. + + Chimæra, the, ii. 158. + + Chinese, the, and Little Tom, i. 336. + + Christ and Prometheus, ii. 40. + + Christopher, St, and Christ, ii. 57; + and lark, 274; + and the cocks, 284. + + Chrysaor, i. 305. + + Cianna and the grateful ant, ii. 46. + + Cicada, the, ii. 223, 224. + + Cienzo and Meo, story of, i. 329, 330. + + Cinderella, origin of the legend of, i. 31, 101, 126, 161; + the Russian, 196, 197; ii. 5, 197, 281, 304. + + Circe and the ass's head, i. 366; + and the companions of Odysseus, ii. 6. + + Çivas, the _deus phallicus_, i. 44, 59; ii. 160. + + Claudius, Publius, and the auguries, ii. 291. + + Clodoveus and St Martin, i. 356. + + Clouds, the, i. 6-9; + mythical conceptions of, 11, 12; + sky with, as a forest, 14; + as mountains, 61; + battles in, 62; + as barrels, 63. + + Cock, the mythical functions of, ii. 278; + and Mars, 280; + Indras, the paramour of Ahalyâ, as a, 280; + and hen in India and Persia, and sacredness of the, 282, 284; + crowing of, 282, 285, 286; + Christus invoked as a, 283; + in the Gospels, 283; + the miraculous, 284; + of night, 285; + and Minec' Aniello, 287; + Esthonian legends of, 288; + hitting the, 289; + as a symbol, 290; + -fights, 290; + the Danes and, 290; + auguries from, 291. + + Coition, mythical, i. 348. + + Cornucopia, Scandinavian, i. 225. + + Cosmogony, the Persian, ii. 412. + + Cosimo and the fox, ii. 135, 136. + + Cow and the Bull, the, origin and meaning of the myth, i. 3, 4; + respect paid to, in the family, 46. + + Cow, the infinite, celestial, i. 5, 6; + son of the, 5; + -child, the spotted, 6, 14; + as monster, 15; + -moon, 19; + -aurora, 19, 20; + of abundance, 26, 95; + hide of, as symbol of fecundity, 46, 47; + sour milk of, as favourable to generation, 47; + milk-yielding, of night, 48; + invocation of the spotted, 50; + the sacred, of the Persians, 97; + purification by the excrement, 99; + pearl excrement of, 129; + the black, 167; + and the weather, 174; + Vedic, double aspect, 175; + filled with straw and sparrows, 187; + of abundance, Scandinavian, 224; + red, 228; + German proverbs relating to, 229; + and dwarf Allwis, 260; + testicles of, and the jackal, 233; + the, that spins, 250; + the Sabine, 268; + the sacrificed, 269; + the ashes of, 276. + + Cow-cloud, the, i. 14, 15, 74. + + Cow-moon, the, i. 274, 275. + + Cows, the, of night, i. 17; + the two, 27; + that do not cover themselves with dust, 28, 31; + seen in dreams, 47, 48; + coming forth of, 50. + + Cowherd, the hero disguised as, i. 168, 169. + + Cox, Mr, i. 262, 263. + + Crab, the, in the riddle, ii. 354; + celestial, in June, 354; + in the myth of Herakles, 355; + and Alexander, 355; + and the deceiving crane, 355; + and the serpent, 356; + sun and moon as, 356; + and fox, 357; + "from a man, a," 358; + as a charm, 359; + Cancer, the, 359. + + Crescentia, the Persian, i. 121. + + Cross, the, ii. 411; + of paradise, 411. + + Crow, the, in borrowed feathers, ii. 246; + mythical significance, 250, 251; + and cheese, 251; + disguised, 251, 252; + the enchanted, and Râmas, 252; + cunning of, 253; + Râmas and Apollo as, 253; + and Pallas and Yamas, 254; + of evil omen, 254; + the giant, 255; + and the dead, 255; + and the old man, 255; + the procrastinating, and Phœbus, 256; + as messenger, 257; + the egg, 257; + brood, 257. + + Cuckoo, the, and Zeus, i. 248; + its mythical congeners, ii. 226; + Indras as a, 228, 229, 231; + birth of the, 231; + a phallical symbol, 232; + and Hêra and Zeus, 232; + and marriage, 232; + as mocker, 233; + harbinger of spring, 233; + sinister aspect of, 234; + as cuckold, 234; + as a bird of omen, 234, 235; + immortal and omniscient, 235; + and nightingale, 235. + + Çunahçepas, i. 35; + story of, 69-72, 74. + + Cupid and Psyche, i. 368, 369; ii. 378. + + Cypresses, riddle of the two, ii. 174. + + Cyrus, legend of, i. 110, 118 + + Cyzicene, the, i. 275. + + + Dædalus and Icarus, ii. 186. + + Dadhyanć, the head of, i. 303, 304. + + Dadhikrâ, the solar horse, i. 337. + + Dakshas, ii. 364. + + Danaidæ, the, i. 265. + + Daphnê, i. 170, 273. + + Darius Hystaspes, myth of, i. 346. + + Daughter, the third, and the toad, i. 381; + and the magician, 382, 383. + + Dawns, the two, i. 27. + + Dejanira, i. 212. + + Delilah, counter-types of, i. 212. + + Deluge, the Vedic, ii. 335. + + Demons, mountain of, i. 96. + + Demosthenes on Athênê, ii. 247. + + Devayânî, the nymph, i. 83, 84. + + Devil, the, as a bull, i. 184; + and the waters, ii. 390, 391. + + Dhâumyas, three disciples of, i. 79. + + Diana (Hindoo), ii. 43. + + Dead, the, good luck brought by, i. 198. + + Dionysos, ii. 217; + and the panther, 160. + + Dioskuroi, i. 304, 305; + the legend of, 318. + + Dîrghatamas, i. 84, 85. + + Dog, the, and cat, ii. 56, 57. + + Dolphin, the, ii. 351. + + Dominic, St, and the dog, ii. 40. + + Domitian and the astrologer, ii. 39. + + Dove, in the Rigvedas, ii. 297; + Agnis as, 297; + Moses and the flesh of, 297; + self-sacrificing, 297; + and the ant, 298; + stories of the maiden (and prince) transformed into, 298; + story of the twelve sons changed into, 298, 299; + of the prince and servants changed into, 299-301; + the two, and Gennariello, 300-302; + the funereal, 303; + as announcer of the resurrection, 304; + the daughters of Anius changed into, 304; + the two, and Little Mary, 304; + and Zezolla, 305; + doves and the rosebush-maiden, 305; + Peristera changed into, 305; + and Venus, 305; + the laughing, 306; + and Aspasia, 306; + infidelity of, 306. + + Drinking, trial of, i. 206. + + Drusilla, Livia, and the white hen, ii. 196. + + Duck, swan, or goose, the, Agnis as, ii. 307; + the Marutas, and the horses of the Açvinâu as, 307; + and golden egg, 308; + the sun as, 309; + in the lake, 309; + the white, and her three sons, 311; + death of, 311; + that lays a golden and a silver egg, 311, 312. + + Drunkenness, and madness, ii. 348, 349. + + Dundus, i. 75, 76. + + Dundubhis, the cloud-monster, i. 75. + + + Eagle, the, and Zeus, ii. 195-197; + and the classic heroes, 196; + the Hellenic, 196; + and Aphroditê, 197. + + Earrings, theft and recovery of the, of Karnas, i. 80, 81. + + Eel, the, as phallical, sacrificial, and divine, ii. 341; + proverbs about, 341; + eating, 342; + with two heads and two tails, 342; + transformation into a fountain and an, 343; + the maiden changed into an, 343; + and monster-serpent, 343; + diabolical, 344; + the epic exploit, 344. + + Eggs, hatching of, and thunder, ii. 281; + worship of, 291; + the golden, 292; + beginning with, 292, 293. + + Elephant and the hare, ii. 77; + mythical qualities of, 91; + general mythical significance, 92; + Airavanas, 92; + the white, overcome by the monkey, 93; + in the lake, 93; + that supports the world, 92, 93, 95; + and the tortoise, 93-95; + the Vedic, 94. + + Emilius, the lazy, and the grateful pike, i. 195-198. + + Empusa, i. 367. + + Endymion, i. 429. + + Epics, the, killing of the serpent the theme of all, ii. 392. + + Eros as a fish, ii. 340. + + Esmeralda and Quasimodo, loves of, i. 421. + + Eulenspiegel, ii. 246. + + Eurôpê, i. 264, 265, 272. + + Exchanges, tales of unfortunate, i. 176. + + + Farquhar II., death of, ii. 14. + + Fecundity, symbols of, i. 49. + + Feridun, episode of old age of, i. 111. + + Finger, the knowing little, i. 166; + Small Little, story of, ii. 151, 152. + + Finns, the, the epopee of, i. 150. + + Firefly, the, ii. 212, 213. + + Firud, i. 117. + + Fish, the laughing, i. 249; + symbolic meaning of, 249; + the April, 250; + and the man's seed, 250; + celestial metamorphosis into, ii. 331; + become a stone, 331; + laughing, 333; + Alexander and the, 333; + the little gold, 334; + Vishnus as a, 334, 335; + and Aphroditê, 340; + phallical, 341; + wise and stupid, 349; + and the ring, 350; + the heroic, 350, 351; + and pearl, 352; + sacred, 353. + + Fly, the, and bear, ii. 221; + and ant, 222. + + Flies, ii. 221. + + Fleece, the golden, i. 146, 429. + + Flute, the magic, i. 161, 195. + + Fool, the fortunate, i. 195; + the would-be, fortune-making, i. 240. + + Fox, the, and the bear, ii. 113; + mythical significance, 122; + and jackal, 123; + double aspect of legendary, 123, 124; + the wolf and honey, 128, 129; + and the old man whose wife is dead, 129, 130; + as weeper, 130; + and tail, 131; + and four hungry animals, 131; + the hungry, and bird, 131; + and wolf, 132, 133; + and lost girl, 133; + and the cheese, 133; + as go-between, 134; + and Buhtan, 134, 135; + and Cosimo, 135; + and hare, 136, 137; + and cock, 137, 138; + knaveries and cunning, 139; + and other animals, 139, 140; + the sick, and lion, 140; + human antitype, 140; + Lycaon, 147. + + Formicola, Captain, and the shepherd's son, ii. 45. + + Freya, i. 212; + the foot of, 253. + + Frog, the, and mouse, ii. 71, 72. + + Frogs, the, in the sky, ii. 373; + imitating the sounds of, 373; + and the serpent or heron, 374; + in the 103d hymn of the Rigvedas, 374; + and Indras and Zeus, 374; + and the moon, 375-377; + the dumb, 375; + and Proserpina, 375; + and serpent, 376; + and rook, 376; + the diabolical, 376, 377; + two dragons in the form of, 377; + the maiden changed into, 377-379. + + + Gahs, the, i. 98. + + Galanthis, ii. 53. + + Galathea, i. 421, 422. + + Gandhamâdanas mountains, i. 52, 55. + + Gandharvas, the, i. 52, 53, 149, 160, 311; + appetites of, 365, 367, 369, 370, 379. + + Ganeças, ii. 68. + + Gangâ, the nymph, i. 68. + + Ganges, the, ii. 308. + + Ganymede, rape of, ii. 196. + + Garatkarus, the wise, i. 68, 69. + + Gardabhas, i. 365, 369. + + Gargantua, at birth, i. 259. + + Garudas, the bird, and elephant, ii. 94, 95; + and the monsters, 184; + and the birds, 245, 363. + + Gâtâyus, the omniscient vulture, ii. 185. + + Gazelle, the misleading, ii. 84. + + Gefion, voyage of, i. 222. + + Gemshid, legend of, i. 95. + + Geneviève, the Persian, i. 121, 219. + + Gennariello and Milluccio, ii. 300-302. + + Geusurva, the, i. 98, 99. + + Gerion, the oxen of, i. 273, 277. + + Ghoshâ, the leprous, ii. 3, 5. + + Giant-monster, the, and dwarf, i. 148, 149. + + Giovannino, the fearless, i. 202, 388. + + Girl, the, persecuted, i. 121; + affianced to three, 123; + in the chest, Calmuc story of, 131; + seven years old, Esthonian story of, 153; + wise, of the wood, 154; + the poor, and the lady of the waters (Esth.), 154; + the beautiful, and the witch, 218. + + Giuseppe, the boy, and the ant's leg, ii. 45, 46. + + Gnat, the, ii. 221. + + Goat, the, triple aspect of, i. 401; + the cloud as, 402; + the he-, 402, 403; + Açvinâu as, 403; + and apple-tree, 405; + and walnut-tree, 405; + kids of, and wolf, 406, 407; + revenge of the goat, 406, 407; + mythical meaning, 407; + he-, and merchant's daughter, 410; + the sacrificed he-, 415, 416; + as all-seeing, 418; + with seven eyes, 419; + with twelve eyes, 419; + constellation of the, 421; + as rain-bringing, 421; + milk of the, 421, 424; + blood of the he-, 422; + stones, 422; + sacrifice of he-, 423; + cunning of the she-, 424; + the witch and the boy goatherds, 425; + and the peasants of Sicily, 426; + and the goatherd of Val di Formazza, 426; + and the god Thor, 426; + in the Scandinavian mythology, 427; + the horned, 427, 428; + lust of, 427, 428; + in Greek mythology, 428. + + Gods, the cheating of, i. 44, 45. + + Gold, hand of, ii. 32. + + Goose, the, and pearl, ii. 309; + the miraculous, 312; + foot of, 315; + the disenchanted, 315; + eating of, on St Michael's Day, 316. + + Gorgons, the, ii. 9. + + Godiva, the Mongol, i. 138. + + Grasshopper, the, the wedding of, with the ant, ii. 48, 49; + as diviner, 48; + song of the wedding, 49. + + Griffins, the, ii. 204, 205. + + Gudrun, i. 226. + + Guhas, i. 58. + + Guhas, King, ii. 333. + + + Halcyon, the, phallical nature of, ii. 269; + the Greek, 270. + + Hansas, the, ii. 306, 307, 309. + + Hanumant in quest of the herb of health, i. 52, 57-59, 61, 64, 78, 89; + the monkey, ii. 101, 106. + + Haoma, the ambrosial god, i. 97, 104. + + Harayas and Haritas, i. 376. + + Hare, the mythical, ii. 76; + habitat and king, 76; + and the elephant, 77; + and hungry lion, 77; + and the lion, 78; + and dying eagle, 78; + and cave of the wild beasts, 79; + and lamb, 79; + transfigured by Indras, 79; + and parturition, 80; + that sleeps with eyes open, 80; + and bear, 81; + and a wedding procession, 81; + and the girl that rides on it, 82. + + Hariçcandras, i. 69-72. + + Haris and hari, meanings of, i. 376; ii. 99, 320. + + Harpies, the, ii. 201, 202. + + Hawk, mythical meaning of, ii. 192, 193; + as a badge of knighthood, 193; + sacredness of, 193; + and Attila, 194; + and the Greek gods, 194; + superstitious beliefs about, 194. + + Heads, exchange of, i. 303, 304. + + Health, herb of, i. 52-54; + Gandharvas, guardians of, 53. + + Heaven, cup of, i. 8; + battle in, 10, 11. + + Hedgehog and wolf, ii. 11, 12. + + Helen, the Argive, i. 170, 212; ii. 318. + + Hen, the crowing, ii. 284, 285; + dreaming of the brood of the, 288. + + Herakles and Augeias, i. 143; + and Cacus, 232, 235, 266, 267; + and the golden cup, 273; + and the oxen of Gerion, 277; + competes with the he-goat, 428; + and the boar, ii. 9. + + Hermes and Admetos, i. 279; + and Sârameyas, ii. 22. + + Hermits, the dwarf, ii. 364. + + Hero, the solar, riddle of, as a wonderful cowherd, i. 29; + maiden helper, 209; + concealed, 237; + in the night, 326; + saved by a tree, 334, 335. + + Heroes, the, hunger and thirst of, i. 8; + chief arena of, 15; + weapons of, 62; + mountain of, 97; + biblical, 118; + disguise of, ii. 2; + noises at the birth of, 373. + + Heroines, perverted, i. 211, 212. + + Hesperides, garden of the, i. 274; ii. 410, 418. + + Hippolytos, the legend of, i. 345. + + Hippomenes and Atalanta, ii. 159. + + Hog, as guise of the hero, ii. 2; + the skin of, 5; + bristles of, 5; + dedicated to St Anthony, 6; + lust of, 6; + as Vishnus, 7, 8; + and wolf, 11. + + Holda, the dark, i. 251, 252. + + Hoopoe, the, ii. 230. + + Horse, the, of the sun, i. 290, 291; + black, 291, 292, 295; + the three, 291, 296; + tail and mane, 295; + and the cat, 317; + the myth of, 330, 331; + fat of, 332; + the strength of Indras, 336; + the symbolic meaning of head of, 339; + the hero's, 340; + binding of, 341; + the neighing of, 346, 347; + tears of, 349, 350; + mythical, 349; + the foam of, 352; + the hoofs of, 353, 354; + and the gods, 355. + + Husband, the wicked, i. 124. + + Husbands, exchange of, i. 317. + + + Idol, the wooden, Æsop's fable of, i. 177. + + Ichneumon, the, ii. 51-53. + + Iliad, the, most solemn moment of, i. 16. + + Ilvalas and Vâtâpis, legend of, i. 414. + + Indras, the rôle of, i. 7, 15; + appetite and food, 8; + horns of the bull, 9; + as the fire-god Agnis, 10; + his fields of battle, 12, 15; + great exploits of, 12; + threefold victory, 13, 14; + weapons of, 14; + companion of Somas, 18, 19; + the triple, 20; + moments of, 20, 23; + special function, 27; + relations to the aurora, 27; + and the blind lame one, 32; + destroyer of the witch Aurora, 33; + lover of the aurora, 35; + personified in Râmas, 59-61; + slays Viçvarûpas, 76; + fall of, 76; + protector of Utankas, 80, 81; + transformation, 89; + quarrel of, with the Marutas, 106; + horses of, 351; + as a ram, 403; + with the thousand eyes, 418; + the rudder of, ii. 7; + as a wild boar, 8; + and the dwarf hermits, 95; + and Vishnus, 99, 100; + and the monkeys, 101; + and Vritras, 154, 155; + deprived of strength and beauty, 155; + as a hawk, 181; + and Ahalyâ, 280, 281, 330; + impotent, 326; + unchaining the waters, 330; + drunk, 349; + and the monster, 393, 394; + killing the monster, 394, 395. + + Indus, i. 18. + + Io, i. 264, 265, 271, 272. + + Iphiklos, ii. 198, 199. + + Isfendiar, seven adventures of, i. 118. + + Iskander, legend of, i. 119. + + Ivan, three essays of, i. 301, 302; + (and Mary), with horse, dog, and apple-tree, ii. 28; + resuscitated, 29; + the three, sons respectively of the bitch, the cook, and the queen, 29; + and the ring, 345; + and his frog-bride, story of, 377-379. + + Ivan Tzarević and the serpent, i. 177; + and Helen and the bear, 178; + and Princess Mary, 179-182; + and the demoniacal cow, 181; + and the magic apples, 182; + and the witch in the balance, 183; + and the hero Nikanore, 184; + and the theft of the black bull, 186; + son of the black girl, 188; + and his brothers, killing the serpents, 191; + and the rescue of the three sisters, 194; + of the dog, 194; + the drinker, 194; + and the dead body of his mother, 198, 199; + courage of, 201; + variations of, 202-204; + horse of, 340. + + Ivan Durak and the humpbacked horse, i. 293, 294; + and the fire-breathing grey horse, 296; + who, mounted, three times kisses the princess through twelve + glasses, 297. + + Ivanushka and little Helen, i. 409. + + + Jack and the beanstalk, i. 244. + + Jackal and the ass, i. 378; + the perfidious, ii. 125; + friend of the hero, 125; + in borrowed feathers, 126; + the, inquisitive and vile, 126; + and the parrots, 127. + + Joan lou Pec, i. 397. + + John, little, and his red shoes, i. 195, 196. + + Johnny and the goose-swans, ii. 309, 310. + + Jonah (the Hindoo), ii. 337. + + Jorsh, the, ii. 336-345; + trial by the fishes of, 346-349; + and Reinecke Fuchs, 348. + + Julius Cæsar, horse of, i. 338, 350. + + Jupiter Ammon, i. 429. + + + Kabandhas, the monster, i. 62-64. + + Kaçapas, the, ii. 362. + + Kaçyapas, the fecundator, ii. 364. + + Kadmos, i. 265, 272. + + Kai Khosru, the hero, i. 117, 118. + + Kan Pudai, Altaic story of, i. 144, 145. + + Kapilas, ravisher of the sacrificial horse, i. 331. + + Kapis, ii. 98, 99. + + Katoma and the hero's horse, i. 340, 341. + + Kâuçalyâ, i. 332. + + Kawus, King, i. 112, 113, 115, 116. + + Kentaurs, the, i. 367-369. + + Ker Iupta and the third brother, i. 290. + + Kereçâçpa, the Persian hero, i. 106, 108; + myth of, 313, 314, 335. + + King's son, the, and the peasant girl, i. 163-166. + + Kishmar, cypress of, i. 96. + + Krimhilt, i. 212. + + Krishnas, celebration of birth of, i. 51; + father of, 75. + + Kruth, the bird, and tortoise, ii. 369, 370. + + Kuhn, A., i. 263. + + Kumbhakarnas, the monster, ii. 400, 401. + + + Lakshmanas, i. 55; + and Râmas, 62, 63, 66, 77; ii. 85. + + Lame, the, and the blind, i. 217. + + Lapillus Alectorius, ii. 287. + + Lanka, three brothers of, i. 77. + + Lark, the, in cosmogony, ii. 273, 274; + and St Christopher, 274; + the crested, 275; + Bharadvâǵas, 275. + + Leaf, the magic, i. 155, 156. + + Lear, King, in embryo, i. 85; ii. 230. + + Lêda, ii. 185. + + Lion, the, and the bull, i. 278; + (and tiger) symbol of strength and majesty, ii. 153; + Indras as a, 154; + virtue of hair of, 155; + lion's share, 156; + -sun, the western, 157; + sign of, 159; + Androcles and, 157; + the Nemæan, 158; + afraid of the cock, 159. + + Lizard, the, as witch, ii. 385; + as omen, 385; + the little, 385; + the green, 386, 387; + and poor Laric, 387. + + Locust, the nocturnal, ii. 47. + + Lohengrin and Elsa, the legend of, ii. 317-319. + + Loki, i. 226, 227; + and the pike, ii. 333, 334. + + Louse, the, stories of, ii. 222. + + Lucìa, St, the Vedic, i. 36, 254; + feast of, ii. 210. + + Lucius, of Apuleius, i. 366. + + Lunus, i. 58; + the god, 139, 324. + + Lynx, the, ii. 54. + + + Madonna the old, and the maiden who combs her head, i. 180. + + Magician, the, of the seven heads, ii. 36. + + Magpie, the, in mythology, ii. 258, 259; + as a robber, 259; + knowledge and malice of, 259; + bird of omen, 260. + + Mahâbhâratam, the, most solemn moments of, i. 16. + + Mahrusa, i. 125. + + Maiden, the enchanted, and her hair, i. 146; + Esthonian story of the prince and persecuted, 151-153; + and the golden slipper, 208; + that by a puppet weaves a shirt for a prince, 208; + the, and the apple-tree, 251; + the fairies' favourite, and the enchanted prince, ii. 286, 287. + + Man and woman, the old, with the nine cows, i. 132, 133; + the old, who essays heaven in vain with his wife, 190; + and the cabbage, beanstalk, &c., 190, 191; + the old, and the beanstalk, 243. + + Man-bull, Calmuc tale of, i. 129. + + Mandaras, the, ii. 361, 362. + + Manus, ii. 248; + and Vishnus as a fish, 335. + + Mansûr, i. 315. + + Marcellus, St, the legend of, ii. 159. + + Mare's head and the two girls, i. 298. + + Mârǵâras, ii. 42, 43. + + Marîças, the stag, i. 64; ii. 85. + + Mars and the wild boar, ii. 14. + + Martin, St, and birds of, ii. 270. + + Marutas, or winds, i. 5-7, 10, 12; + kindred of, 17, 59; ii. 7; + horses of, 83, 84; + as monkeys, 99. + + Marziella and the geese, ii. 313. + + Mary and the cow's ear, and the step-mother with three daughters, i. + 179-182; + little, and the slipper, 196, 197. + + Matsyâs, the, ii. 332. + + Mâyâvin, the monster, i. 313. + + Max Müller, i. 262, 263; + and the panegyric of the frogs, ii. 371, 372. + + Medea, of the Vedas, i. 33, 35. + + Medea, i. 212. + + Medusa, i. 305. + + Menas, ii. 87. + + Merchant, synonymous with miser, i. 184; + son of the, who transforms himself into a horse, 342; + the, and his three daughters, 410. + + Mercury, i. 335; + legend of, ii. 23. + + Merdi Gânbâz, the faithful, i. 120. + + Merhuma, the story of, i. 120, 121, 315. + + Merula, the fish, ii. 340. + + Metempsychosis, ii. 328. + + Mice and the dead, ii. 67; + apparitions of, 67; + men transformed into, 67; + presages from, 67, 68; + and lion and elephant, 68; + war of, with the frogs, 72. + + Michael, St, i. 183. + + Midas, myth of (the Mongolian), i. 381; + (the Phrygian), 382, 383; + as musical critic, 385; + ears of, 386; + as a miser, 389; + the progenitor and judge, 390. + + Milky-sea, the, i. 52; + -way, the, 228. + + Millstone, the devil under the, i. 114. + + Milôn of Kroton, ii. 113, 147. + + Minotaurus, the Calmuc, i. 129, 265. + + Minućehr, the hero, i. 112. + + Mithra, the solar god, i. 95, 102, 103; + bow of, 107. + + Mitras, the sun, a witch at a riddle, i. 30, 31, 52. + + Mole, the, ii. 73, 74. + + Monkey, original home of myth of, ii. 97; + equivalents, 97, 98; + and Vishnus, 99; + mythical significations, 99; + king of, 100, 101; + Hanumant, 101-106; + mistaken for a man, 103; + tail of, 107; + divination from, 107; + and Jove, 108; + as stupid, 108; + musician, 119. + + Monster, the celestial, i. 10, 12; + subdued by Indras, 12-14; + that keeps back the waters, ii. 393; + killing of, 394, 395; + and the egg of the duck, 395; + the eggs of, 396; + the aquatic, 404. + + Moon, the mythical nature and office of, i. 18; + as a pearl, 54; + as a good fairy, 56, 57; + as a bull, 58; + Indian, ii. 87. + + Mother of gold and her three dwarf sons, i. 153; + story of the, who recovers her hands and son by throwing her arms + into a fountain, ii. 31; + and the hands of gold, 31. + + Mouse, transformed by the penitent into a beautiful maiden, ii. 65, 66; + and the mountain, 66; + and maiden, 69; + the grateful, 70; + and sparrow, 70, 71; + the, Psicharpax, 71. + + Muses, the, and the bee, ii. 223. + + Mûsh (mûshas, &c.), ii. 43. + + Music in the heavens, sorrow-inspired, i. 149. + + Mythology, the Greek, i. 262; + mobile nature of the objects of, 319, 320; + allegorical treatment of, 421; + a Semitic, ii. 412; + the science of, 422; + principal error in the scientific study of, 422, 423; + concord of the learned in, 423; + way to study, 424; + animal, 425; + product of imagination, 427. + + Myths, the central interest and most splendid moments of, i. 15, 16; + development of objects in the, into personalities with + relationships, 320, 321; + the negative as a factor in the formation of, 322; + the uncertain subjective in, 323; + entrance of variety into, 324; + interpretation of, 323-326. + + + Nakulas, i. 311; ii. 43, 51, 52. + + Nalas, ii. 404. + + Neptune, i. 430. + + Netherworld, the, ii. 403. + + Nibelungen, the, most solemn moments of, i. 16, 257. + + Night and the aurora, i. 36, 37. + + Nightingale, as prognosticator, ii. 236; + whistling of, 237; + propitious to lovers, 239. + + Nisos and Scylla, ii. 197. + + Noah, the Vedic, ii. 335. + + Nose, the bleeding, Calmuc story of, i. 131. + + Nükteus, ii. 246, 247. + + Numbers, sacred, i. 6, 76, 77; ii. 416. + + + Odin, i. 224, 226, 227. + + Odysseus, i. 266. + + Oidin-oidon, i. 398, 399. + + Okeanos, the bull-headed, i. 267. + + Onokentaurs, i. 367-369. + + Orpheus, i. 149, 160. + + Otter, the monster, ii. 391. + + Owl, the, as the bird of death, ii. 244; + as an evil genius, 244; + and vulture, 244, 245; + and the crows, 245, 246; + cunning, 246; + and Athênê, 247; + eggs of, 247; + the male, 247, 248; + prophetic faculty of, 249; + horned, 249, 250. + + Ox, the speaking, i. 247; + and Zeus, 248; + as priest, 258. + + + Pallas and the war of the frogs and mice, ii. 72; + and the crow, 254. + + Pan and Midas, i. 385; + and the ass, 387, 391; + god of shepherds, 387; + at Marathon, 389, 428, 429. + + Panayas, the, ii. 19, 20. + + Pândavas, the five brothers, i. 77-79. + + Pandora, i. 34. + + Pandus, ii. 84. + + Paravriǵ, the blind-lame, i. 32. + + Parîkshit, King, ii. 84. + + Parrot, the, myth of, ii. 320; + and the colour haris, 321; + as çukas, 321; + lunar character of, 322; + as counsellor, 322. + + Partridge, the devil as, ii. 227; + Talaus changed into, 228; + and peasant, 228. + + Pasiphaë, myth of, i. 237, 266. + + Peacock, the mythical equivalents of, ii. 323; + the hiding of, 324; + as rival of the cuckoo, 324; + and dove, 324; + Indras as, 325, 326; + feather of, and the younger brother, 325; + tail of, 326, 327; + as a symbol of immortality, 327. + + Pearl, the ambrosial, i. 54. + + Peasant, riddle-solving, i. 142. + + Pêgasos, and Hippocrene, i. 176, 291, 305, 338. + + Penelope, i. 428; + and he-goat, ii. 163. + + Pepin, the times of, i. 252; + King, 255, 256. + + Peirithoos and Trikerberos, ii. 39. + + Perrault, story of, i. 367. + + Perrette, the Calmuc, i. 134, 135. + + Peter, St, and the dog, ii. 27. + + Phaethôn, i. 277; + the bull, 277, 343, 344. + + Phalaris, the bull, i. 239. + + Phineus, ii. 74. + + Phrixos and Helle, the Russian, i. 409, 429. + + Phœnix, the, mythical significance of, ii. 200, 201; + death of, 200. + + Piçâcâs, the ass, i. 375, 376. + + Piccolino, ii. 151. + + Picus, King, ii. 265, 266. + + Pike, the luminous, ii. 334; + the brown, 337, 338; + and Emilius, 338; + the phallical, 339; + and crab and heron, 339; + drunk, 349. + + Pimpi, the stupid, and the hog, ii. 10. + + Pipetta and the sackful of souls, i. 388. + + Pipkin, the miraculous, i. 126; + the stories of, 243-245. + + Piran and Pilsem, i. 314. + + Poem, an epic, i. 141. + + Polyphêmos, i. 266. + + Porcupine, the, ashes and quills of, ii. 12, 13. + + Pork, virtues of, ii. 10, 11. + + Porringer, the enchanted, i. 126. + + Portugal, third son of the King of, and the dragons, ii. 187-189. + + Poseidôn, i. 266. + + Praǵâpatis, i. 47. + + Pretiosa, disguised as a bear, ii. 117. + + Priapos, i. 394, 396; + and Silenos, 384. + + Priçnayas, the, i. 6, 16, 17. + + Prince, the, and princess of the bird's egg, i. 170; + who three times wins the race, 291; + and enchanted mantle, 411. + + Princess, three-breasted, i. 86, 122; + in the chest, Celtic story of, 241; + and the pups, 412. + + Proserpina, the Teutonic, i. 252, 260. + + Proverb, the, of shutting the stable after the cow is stolen, i. 231; + of shutting Peppergate, 231; + recovering the cow's tail, 232; + of the cow's tail wagging but never falling, 234; + of the egg-hatching cow, 238; + of the cow and the hare, of the cow and the moon, 241, 242; + of hunting by blowing a horn, 242; + of the blind cow finding the pea, 243; + of the laughing cow, 245; + of the spinning cow, 250, 251; + of the cow-maid that spins, 250. + + Proverbs, German, relating to the cow, i. 229; + mythical, 230, 231. + + Puppets, the three, i. 207. + + Purse, the enchanted, i. 126. + + Purûravas, myth of, i. 67. + + Pûrus, i. 84. + + Pûshan, i. 409. + + Pyramos and Thysbe, ii. 157. + + Pythagoras once a peacock, ii. 327; + the belief of, 328. + + + Quail, the, in Rigvedas, ii. 276; + as symbol of the Tzar, 276; + and Hercules and Latona, 277; + and moon, 277; + the game of, 277; + as a bird of omen, 277, 278. + + Queen, the blinded, and her servant, i. 218, 219. + + Queen-mother, the, and her wicked sister, i. 412. + + + Rahus, ii. 252. + + Râkâ, i. 50, 56. + + Ram, the rain-cloud as a, i. 402; + Indras, 403; + Indras and testicles of, 414; + devourer of, 415. + + Râmas, the sun, i. 55, 57-59; + _alter ego_ of Indras, 59-62; + and Lakshmanas, 63, 77, 311, 312, 315; + ii. 24, 85; + and Kabandhas, i. 64-66, 81, 86; + and Bharatas, 374. + + Râmâyanam, the, most solemn moments of, i. 16. + + Râvanas, the monster, i. 76, 77; + asses of, 375. + + Rebhas, i. 299. + + Reinardus Vulpes, ii. 141. + + Renart, Procession du, ii. 140, 141. + + Resurrection, offerings symbolic, of, i. 48, 49; + faith in, 339. + + Rhodopê and her slipper, ii. 197. + + Ribhavas, the brothers, work and workmanship of, i. 20, 21, 46; + names and relationships, 21, 22; + identification with Indras as Agohyas, 22; + the third of, 20-26; + in Hindoo tradition, 25; + protectors of the cow, 27; + and the evening aurora, 33; + the three, in search of the earrings, 79, 81, 125. + + Riddles, propounding, i. 82, 102, 112; + solving of, 143; + identification by solving, 206, 207. + + Riǵrâçvas, the red horse, i. 415, 417. + + Rigvedas, the, i. 4, 40; + 28th hymn of 10th book, ii. 77, 78; + the 103d hymn of, 371-373. + + Rikshas, ii. 98. + + Ring of recognition, i. 55; + of Dushyantas, ii. 350. + + Rocco, San, and dog, ii. 27. + + Rohitas, i. 69-72. + + Romeo and Juliet, i. 125. + + Romulus, i. 118; and Remus, ii. 177. + + Round table, the, poems of, i. 257. + + Rudras, i. 5, 47, 89; ii. 7. + + Rustem, the myth of, i. 112-116; + and the ass, 379; + horse of, and the lion, 380. + + + Sack, the, the hero in, i. 237, 239, 240; + the dwarf in, 238; + and the hero cut in pieces, 295. + + Sailors, the, saved in the buffalo's hide, i. 239. + + Saints, i. 355, 356. + + Sal, the hero, i. 112. + + Salamander, the, ii. 380. + + Sampo, the Finnish cup of abundance, i. 150. + + Samson, i. 236; + the Hindoo, ii. 104-107; + and the lion, 154-156. + + Samvaranas, i. 86, 87. + + Saramâ, i. 57, 58, 97; + and the Panayas, ii. 19-22; + and the cows in the rock, 19; + impersonation of the moon, 21; + sons of, 22; + and Sarameyas, 24. + + Sarameyas, ii. 22-24. + + Savitar, i. 54, 65. + + Saranyû, i. 347. + + Schmierbock, the cunning, i. 413, 416; + ii. 151. + + Schwanritter, the, ii. 319. + + Scylla, ii. 34. + + Sea-urchin, the, ii. 336, 350. + + Sefid, the demon, i. 113. + + Selênê, ii. 217. + + Serpent, as the privileged demoniac form, ii. 389; + tail of, as betraying the devil, 389; + the devil, and the young widow, 389; + -devil, and the waters, 390; + the killing of, the theme of all epics, 392; + in the Rigvedas, 393-396; + that bites its tail, 396; + Agnis as, 397; + Indras, the Marutas, 397; + the wisdom of, 397; + and the Somas, 397, 398; + the phallical, 399; + Anantas, 399; + Vasukis, 400; + and the cloud-monster, 400, 401; + the funereal, 401, 402; + -rope, of Yamas, 402; + collar of, 402; + and Sîtâ, 402; + and riches, 403; + and the lower world, 403; + Karkotakas, and Nalas, 405; + and hunter, 405; + as a wise magician, 405; + the crested, 406; + three-headed, 406; + skin and tongue of, 407; + and lost riches and the dead, 407; + the white, 407; + worship of, 408; + and children, 408; + and the heads of the family, 408; + and the tree, 409; + and moon, 410; + tree guarded by a, 410; + symbol of, 411; + the, in the Persian mythology, 412, 417; + the Çruvara, 412, 413; + the breath of, 413; + and frog, 414; + the two talking, 415, 416; + the three headed, 416; + fairy, and three gifts, 417; + and king who has betrayed the maiden, 417; + the sleeping, with eyes open, 417; + and the king's daughter, 418; + as whistler, 419. + + Sheep, the, triple aspect of, i. 401. + + Shepherd's son, ii. 45; + and Giuseppe, 45. + + Shepherdess, the, who proves herself a queen, i. 209-211. + + Siddhi-Kûr, stories of, i. 120; + Mongol and Calmuc stories of, 128-135. + + Sîfrit, i. 213, 214; + and Brünhilt, 329, 330; + horse of, 339. + + Sijavush, i. 116. + + Simurg, the bird, and the child Sal, ii. 188, 189. + + Sirens, the, i. 149, 205, 206. + + Sister, triple, i. 85. + + Sisters, the three, i. 105; + Calmuc story of, 130. + + Sîtâ, the dawn, i. 26, 55-60, 62, 65, 66; + fire sacrifice of, 67, 69; + and Saramâ, ii. 21; + and the serpents, 403. + + Sky, the glowing, a fire, i. 69; + stone of, 96; + by night, ii. 167; + winged animals of, 168. + + Slipper, the lost, i. 31; + enchanted, 126; + origin of throwing the, 196. + + Snail, the, ii. 74, 75. + + Sohrab, son of Rustem, i. 114, 115. + + Solabella and her seven brothers, ii. 314. + + Solomon, ring of, and the hero, i. 167; + story of the ring of, ii. 175. + + Somas, the, i. 8, 18; + as a bull, and a stallion, 19, 104. + + Son, the, who sacrifices his mother, i. 124. + + Sons, three, rape and restoration of the, ii. 57; + transformation of, into doves, 57. + + Sperm as ambrosia, ii. 181. + + Spider, the, and its web, ii. 161, 163, 165; + and the wasp, 164. + + Squirrel, the, and fox, ii. 73; + in the Edda, 73. + + St James's Way, i. 422; + Day, 422, 423, 430. + + Stag, the mythical, ii. 83; + the golden, 85; + the hero, 86; + at the fountain, 86; + Eikthyrner, 87; + and Telephos, 88; + as nourisher of heroes, 88; + silver images of, in churches, 88; + disguise of, 88, 89. + + Stone, mountain of, i. 314; + the man turned to, ii. 285. + + Stork, the, and heron, ii. 261; + and children, 261; + mythical meaning of, 261; + and the old man, 262; + and the peasant, 262. + + Strix, the, ii. 202, 203. + + Stymphalian, the, birds, ii. 204. + + Styx, the, i. 390. + + Sudabe, i. 116. + + Sudeshnâ, Queen, i. 85. + + Sugrîvas, ii. 109. + + Sun, the, as a god, i. 7; + as a bull, 8; + relations of, to aurora, 27; + as a cowherd, 29; + child of night and aurora, 37; + the, in relation to the aurora, 27; + as a lame hero, 31, 32; + persecuted by, and persecutor of, the aurora, 33; + as born of aurora, 51; + the pearl, 54; + and the aurora, 56, 65; + and moon, 65; + light of the, and Ssaran, intrigue of, 138; + firing at, 344; + the, in the cloud, 394. + + Sundas and Upasundas, the inseparable, i. 310. + + Sunlight and Moonlight, i. 315, 316. + + Superlatif, i. 259. + + Suramâ, i. 57, 58. + + Sûryâ, i. 65; + husband of, 307. + + Svaçvas, i. 343. + + Svetazor and his brothers, i. 192-194. + + Swallows as birds of omen, ii. 240; + the seven, and Sigurd, 240; + and the Lord, 240; + of good augury, 240; + and the crow, 241; + and swan, 241; + as babblers, 241; + dreaming of, 241. + + Swan, the, and the prince, ii, 311; + hero as or on, 316. + + Swineherd, the, and the hogs' tails, i. 234. + + Sword, the enchanted, i. 126. + + + Tail, the, value of recovering, i. 235, 237; + the fox's, 236. + + Takshakas, king of serpents, i. 80, 81. + + Tapatî, legend of the loves of, i. 86, 87. + + Tâtos, the Hungarian horse, i. 288, 296. + + Tehmime and Rustem, i. 114. + + Telephos and the stag, ii. 88. + + Tereus, the myth of, ii. 229. + + Theodore, the hero, i. 296. + + Thief and the pigs, i. 200, 201; + the, in the myths, 333. + + Thomas, little, and the priest's horse, i. 234; + the ass, 362. + + Thor, and the serpent of Midgard, i. 225; + his appetite, 226; + and the goat, 426; + the vessel of, 426; + ii. 6. + + Thraetaona, i. 101, 103-106. + + Three, the number, ii. 416. + + Thrita, i. 103-105. + + Thunder, son of, thunder-god and devil, story of, i. 159, 160. + + Thunderbolt, the, i. 9, 14; + symbolic meaning, 250. + + Tiger, tail of, ii. 160. + + Tistar, i. 98. + + Toad, the, as demon and as a diabolic form, ii. 379; + the maiden changed into, 379, 380; + fortune-bringing, 380; + sacredness of, 381; + and the third daughter, 381; + -births, 383; + the dried, as an amulet, 384; + the -stone, 384. + + Tom, little, blind of an eye, and his brothers, i. 335, 336. + + Tortoise and the elephant, ii. 93-95; + the incarnation of Vishnus as a, 360-362; + originally, 361; + names of, 361, 362; + and mountain, 362; + and elephant, 363-364; + the funereal, 365; + buried, 365; + blood of, 365; + and frogs, 366; + changed into the lyre, 366; + the shields of, 366; + and Zeus, 366, 367; + and new-born children, 367; + mythical meaning, 368; + German legend of, 368; + the island, 368; + and the hare, 369; + and the eagle, 369; + and the bird Kruth, 369, 370. + + Tree, the ambrosial, guarded by a dragon, ii. 410, 411. + + Triçankus, i. 72-74. + + Triçiras, i. 76, 77. + + Trigatâ, i. 57. + + Trinity, Indian, dispute for pre-eminence, ii. 8. + + Tritas, i. 8; + horse of, 23; + character and relationships, 23; + why called stupid, 23; + in the well, 24, 25; + and his brothers, 25. + + Turn-little-Pea and his brothers, story of, i. 191, 192. + + Tuti-Name, the, i. 119. + + Tvashtar, i. 21, 34; + the Hindoo Vulcan, ii. 154, 155. + + Twilights, the two, i. 18, 27. + + Tyrant, the, and the bleating lamb, i. 416, 417. + + Tzarevic, Ivan, and his Medea sister Helen, i. 212-214; + and his penitent sister, 214-216; + and his perfidious mother, 216; + and his perfidious wife, 216, 217; + and his wife Anna, 217. + + + Uccaihçravas, the horse, i. 288, 289. + + Uddâlakas, i. 80. + + Ukko, the Finnic thunder-god, i. 147. + + Upamanyus, i. 79. + + Ursula, St, ii. 118. + + Urvaçi, the myth of, i. 39, 67, 84, 170, 273, 365, 369. + + Ushâ, i. 26. + + Utankas, myth of, i. 80, 81, 95, 331, 333. + + + Vadhrimatî, ii. 32. + + Väinämöinen, dwarf-god, i. 147, 148; + harp of, 149. + + Valkyries, the, and their swan forms, ii. 315. + + Valmîkam, ii. 43. + + Vamrî, ii. 43. + + Vamras, ii. 44. + + Varunas, i. 52, 69-72, 107. + + Vasavas, the, i. 68. + + Vasishtas, cow of, i. 72-74, 87, 88; + vain attempt at self-destruction, 88, 99. + + Valas, the grotto of, i. 13; + as a cow, 15. + + Vâyus, i. 5-7. + + Vedas, i. 80. + + Vegetables, as symbols of generation, i. 164. + + Veretraghna, the bull, i. 103, 104. + + Vespasian and the horse's dung, i. 389. + + Vesta, i. 384. + + Viçvamitras, myth of, i. 72-74, 88. + + Viçvarûpas, with the three heads, i. 76. + + Vikramâdityas, the history of, i. 136, 137. + + Vishnus, i. 20, 24, 26, 54, 57; + personified in Ramâs, 59; + three steps of, 301, 302, 334; + as a wild boar, ii. 8, 9; + and Hiranyakshas, 8; + and the monkeys, 99, 100; + as haris, 424. + + Vivasvant, i. 34. + + Vouru-Kasha, sea of, i. 96. + + Vulcan, the Vedic, i. 21; + the Christian, ii. 40. + + Vulnerability of the hero or monster, i. 82. + + Vulture, the, in the classics, ii. 198; + feathers of, 198; + and the immortal liver, 198; + voracity, 199. + + Vultures, the twin, ii. 184. + + + Walchelm, the priest, i. 293. + + Walnut-tree, and goat, i. 405. + + Wasp, wisdom of, ii. 221. + + Way, the Milky, i. 421; + and she-goat, 422. + + Weasel, the, ii. 52, 53. + + Wedding-ring, the, i. 169. + + Whale, the mythical, ii. 337; + and the fleet, 345. + + Wife, the, and the bewitching voice, i. 137. + + Willimar and his vow, i. 356. + + Wind, Persian god of, i. 105. + + Winds, the, as bulls, i. 7, 12. + + Wise men, the seven (Angirasas), i. 17, 28. + + Wolf, the, and goat's kids, i. 406, 407; + mythical meaning of, 408; + the monster, 408; + the, and the devotee, ii. 142; + impersonations of, 142; + and dog, 143; + heroic forms of, 144; + the she-wolf, 144; + transformation into, 145; + sent by God as instrument of vengeance, 146; + hide and teeth of, 146, 147; + the demoniacal, 147; + as omen of death, 147; + Sköll and Hati, 147; + disguises of, 147-149. + + Woman, made of wood, story of, i. 137; + the old, and her older sister, ii. 6. + + Women, knowledge of, i. 246, 247. + + Woodman and painter, the, Calmuc story of, i. 130. + + Woodpecker, the mythical meaning of, ii. 265; + and King Picus, 265; + beak of, 267; + and Beowulf, 267; + of evil omen, 267, 268; + and dog, 268, 269. + + Wren, the, in mythology, ii. 207; + and the eagle, 208; + and beetle, 208; + and death of Cæsar, 209. + + + Yamas, i. 23, 71, ii. 25; + kingdom of, 48, 49; + son of, 78, 95, 107. + + Yayâtis and the girl in the well, i. 83, 84. + + Yggdrasil and the four stags, ii. 87. + + Ysengrin, the wolf, ii. 141, 149. + + Yudhishthiras, i. 77-79, 82. + + Yünx, the bird, ii. 269. + + + Zafarana, ii. 10. + + Zeus and Hera, i. 247, 248; + the beetle, and the eagle's eggs, ii. 195; + eagle of, 195, 196; + and Latona, 277, 280; + and Lêda, 318; + and Io, 327; + Faber, 352, 353. + + Zezolla, the maiden, and the dove, ii. 304, 305. + +THE END. + +PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY EDINBURGH AND LONDON + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + +Fixed spelling and punctuation errors throughout + +Non-Latin characters have been changed to their Unicode equivalents +(i.e. [h.] to ḥ) + +There are several words with the same letters but diacritical marks in +different locations, these appear to all be valid, so were left per +the text + +Shakespeare is spelled Shakspeare throughout, this is a spelling of +his name used in the 19th century, so was left per the text + +Goose-swans and geese-swans appear to be used interchangeably, left to +match the text + +There are several words that are spelled both with and without a hyphen +(i.e. crosstrees and cross-trees), they have been left to match the text + +The name Wesselofsky is also spelled Wesselofski, it appears the name +is spelled both ways. + +Page 102: Lakshamaṇas left per the text also spelled Lakshmaṇas +elsewhere in the text, both appear correct + +Page 209: Extra closing parenthesis ("... for weddings). According +to ...") + +Page 212: Extra closing parenthesis ("... warm themselves), is +not ...") + +Page 228: there is an extra quote. (... word _kanikradat_."[2] The +god ...) + +Page 254: Extra opening parenthesis ("... a crow (in Hellenic ...") + +Page 290: Added the word "to" in the following (... same, according +to Ælianos, was ...) + +Page 336: Extra opening parenthesis ("... the Ganges, (çiṅçumâras, +which ...") + +Page 421: Left the poetry to match the text. However, this is from +Dante's Inferno Canto 1.22-26, accepted wording of the 3rd and 4th +line should be + + "Si volge a l'acqua perigliosa e guata, + Così l'animo mio, ch'ancor fuggiva," + +Footnote 314: There is an extra quote. (... Prato:--"A +three-headed ...) + +Footnote 368: Removed the extra word "it" from the following (... and +which it had scooped ...) + +Footnote 423: There is an extra quote. (... (xxxix.): "'Da, vor ...) + +Footnote 440: Added the word "a" in the following (... there is a +beautiful palace ...) + +Footnote 478: Inserted closing quote. (... bhîr agaććhat"; _Ṛigv._ +i. ...) + +Footnote 524: Extra closing parenthesis ("... viǵâniyânna saṁçayaḥ). +The feet ...") + +Footnote 525: Inserted closing quote. (... male serpent" (v. 38): +Ahireva ...) + +In the Index "Brothers" has 3 different entries for "the three", left +them as is to match the text instead of combining + +In the Index many diacriticals are left out of the names, these were +left out to match the text + +In the Index, added the volume number to the entry for "Agnis". + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Zoological Mythology (Volume II), by +Angelo de Gubernatis + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY (VOLUME II) *** + +***** This file should be named 38688-0.txt or 38688-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/6/8/38688/ + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Douglas L. 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