diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 4 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52030-0.txt | 12697 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52030-0.zip | bin | 264441 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52030-h.zip | bin | 331593 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52030-h/52030-h.htm | 13011 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52030-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 45775 -> 0 bytes |
8 files changed, 17 insertions, 25708 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..31cba75 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #52030 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/52030) diff --git a/old/52030-0.txt b/old/52030-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 2f62556..0000000 --- a/old/52030-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,12697 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dawn of History, by C. F. Keary - -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/license - - -Title: The Dawn of History - An Introduction to Pre-Historic Study - -Author: C. F. Keary - -Release Date: May 9, 2016 [EBook #52030] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAWN OF HISTORY *** - - - - -Produced by Sonya Schermann, Chuck Greif and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - BY THE SAME AUTHOR. - - THE DAWN OF HISTORY. An Introduction - to Pre-historic Study. 12mo =$1.25= - - OUTLINES OF PRIMITIVE BELIEF - among the Indo-European Races. Crown - 8vo. =2.50= - - - - - THE - - DAWN OF HISTORY: - - _AN INTRODUCTION TO_ - - PRE-HISTORIC STUDY. - - EDITED BY - - C. F. KEARY, M.A., F.S.A. - - NEW EDITION. - - NEW YORK: - CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS. - 1902 - - THE CAXTON PRESS - NEW YORK. - - - - -PREFACE. - - -The present edition of the _Dawn of History_ is a considerable -enlargement upon the former one, as may be judged from the fact that the -former, including the Appendix, contained only 231 pages, whereas the -present edition contains 357. These enlargements have chiefly affected -the first four chapters with the ninth and tenth, and, generally -speaking, the chapters for which the editor is wholly responsible. He -felt himself quite incapable of improving chapters eight, eleven, and -thirteen, which can hardly fail to be recognized as the best in the -volume; and, unhappily, the hand which wrote them--that of Annie -Keary--is no longer able to revise or alter. Some slight corrections -therefore have been made, in accordance with the advance of these -branches of study during recent years, but nothing more. No more were -needed, for (in the case of the chapters on writing, for example) -further research has only tended to establish more firmly the -conclusions here accepted. The chapters on early social life (vi., -vii.), again, did not seem to the editor to require more than slight -corrections. - -In the chapters dealing with religion and mythology, it was not to be -expected that the writers could avoid treading upon controversial -ground; but as almost every proposition upon these matters is disputed -by some one, it was not possible to adopt the plan of putting forward -only those facts and theories which may be considered as established. -Some disputed points are discussed in the Appendix. Even on the subject -of language the views of one (small) school of philologists had to be -relegated in like manner to the Appendix. - -So far for the character of the alterations upon the first edition. The -new matter introduced, whenever it has not been of the nature of a -correction of the old, has been aimed in the direction of making more -clear the _processes_ through which the human mind has gone in the -acquisition of each fresh capacity--more clear the extent to which each -successive phase of pre-historic life has been built upon the preceding -phase--more clear the process by which mankind seems to have gone -through the stages of language-formation, and so forth. This has been -the direction in which the editor has sought to improve upon the earlier -edition: rather than in loading his pages by a greater accumulation of -facts, to make the relationship of the various facts to one another -plainer and more easy to remember; in one word, to appeal to the reason -much more than to the memory. - -This is by no means the principle on which a great majority of -_introductions_ and _manuals_ seem to have been written, but upon a -principle almost the reverse of this. - -Finally, it has never been lost sight of, that the present volume is -meant to leave the reader, so to say, at the door of history. It is not -designed to be an _anthropology_, or a history of the growth of faculty -among mankind at large, but only a _pre-historic study_, an account of -the ascertainable doings and thoughts on the part of the people who have -gone to make up the historic races of the world. Even the stone-age -civilization is treated, not as a phase of culture in the abstract, but -as an element of the growth in culture of the historic nations of our -planet. - -C. F. KEARY. - -200, CROMWELL ROAD, S.W. - - - - -PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. - - -The advance of pre-historic study has been during the last ten years -exceptionally rapid; and, considering upon how many subsidiary interests -it touches, questions of politics, of social life, of religion almost, -the science of pre-historic archæology might claim to stand in rivalry -with geology as the favourite child of this century; as much a favourite -of its declining years as geology was of its prime. But as yet, it will -be confessed, we have little popular literature upon the subject, and -that for want of it the general reader is left a good deal in arrear of -the course of discovery. His ideas of nationalities and kindredship -among peoples is, it may be guessed, still hazy. We still hear the -Russians described as Tartars: and the notion that we English are -descendants of the lost Israelitish tribes finds innumerable supporters. -I am told that a society has been formed in London for collecting proofs -of this more than Ovidian metamorphosis. The reason of this public -indifference is very plain. Pre-historic science has not yet passed out -of that early stage when workers are too busy in the various branches -of the subject to spare much time for a comparison of the results of -their labours; when, one may say, fresh contributions are pouring in too -fast to be placed upon their proper shelves in the storehouse of our -knowledge. In such a state of things the reader who is not a specialist -is under peculiar disadvantages for a discovery of what has been done. -He stands bewildered, like the sleeping partner in a firm, to whom no -one--though he is after all the true beneficiary--explains the work -which is passing before his eyes. - -It will not be thought a misplaced object to attempt some such -explanation, and that is the object of the following chapters. And as at -some great triumph of mechanism and science--a manufactory, an -observatory, an ironclad,--a junior clerk or a young engineer is told -off to accompany the intelligent visitor and explain the workings of the -machinery; or as, if the simile serve better, in those cities which are -sought for their treasures of art and antiquity, the lower class of the -population become self-constituted into guides to beauties which they -certainly neither helped to create nor keep alive; so this book offers -itself to the interested student as a guide over some parts of the -ground covered by pre-historic inquiry, without advancing pretensions to -stand beside the works of specialists in that field. The peculiar -objects kept in view have been, to put the reader in possession of (1) -the general results up to this time attained, the chief additions which -pre-historic science has made to the sum of our knowledge, even if this -knowledge can be given only in rough outline; (2) the method or -mechanism of the science, the way in which it pieces together its -acquisitions, and argues upon the facts it has ascertained; and (3) to -put this information in a form which might be attractive and suitable to -the general reader. - -The various labours of a crowd of specialists are needed to give -completeness to our knowledge of primitive man, and it is scarcely -necessary to say that there are a hundred questions which in such a -short book as this have been left untouched. The intention has been to -present those features which can best be combined to form a continuous -panorama, and also to avoid, as far as possible, the subjects most under -controversy. No apology surely is needed for the _conjoint_ character of -the work: as in every chapter the conclusions of many different and -sometimes contradictory writers had to be examined and compared, and as -these chapters, few as they are, spread over various special fields of -inquiry. - -It is to be hoped that some readers to whom pre-historic study is a new -thing may be sufficiently interested in it to desire to continue their -researches. For the assistance of such, lists are given, at the end, of -the chief authorities consulted on the subject of each chapter, with -some notes upon questions of peculiar interest. - -The vast extent of the field, the treasures of knowledge which have been -already gathered, and the harvest which is still in the ear, impress -the student more and more the deeper he advances into the study. -Surely, if from some higher sphere, beings of a purely spiritual -nature--nourished, that is, not by material meats and drinks, but by -_ideas_--look down upon the lot of man, they must be before everything -amazed at the complaints of poverty which rise up from every side. When -every stone on which we tread can yield a history, to follow up which is -almost the work of a lifetime; when every word we use is a thread -leading back the mind through centuries of man’s life on earth; it must -be confessed that, for riches of any but a material sort, for a wealth -of ideas, the mind’s nourishment, there ought to be no lack. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - -CHAPTER I. - - PAGE - -THE EARLIEST TRACES OF MAN (EDITOR) 1 - -CHAPTER II. - -THE SECOND STONE AGE (EDITOR) 28 - -CHAPTER III. - -THE GROWTH OF LANGUAGE (EDITOR) 55 - -CHAPTER IV. - -FAMILIES OF LANGUAGE (EDITOR) 83 - -CHAPTER V. - -THE NATIONS OF THE OLD WORLD (EDITOR) 113 - -CHAPTER VI. - -EARLY SOCIAL LIFE (H. M. KEARY) 135 - -CHAPTER VII. - -THE VILLAGE COMMUNITY (H. M. KEARY) 156 - -CHAPTER VIII. - -RELIGION (A. KEARY) 171 - -CHAPTER IX. - -ARYAN RELIGIONS (EDITOR) 197 - -CHAPTER X. - -THE OTHER WORLD (EDITOR) 236 - -CHAPTER XI. - -MYTHOLOGIES AND FOLK-TALES (EDITOR) 254 - -CHAPTER XII. - -PICTURE-WRITING (A. KEARY) 280 - -CHAPTER XIII. - -PHONETIC WRITING (A. KEARY) 297 - -CHAPTER XIV. - -CONCLUSION (EDITOR) 313 - -APPENDIX--_Notes and Authorities_ 329 - - - - -THE DAWN OF HISTORY. - - - - -CHAPTER I. - -THE EARLIEST TRACES OF MAN. - - -[Sidenote: The dawn of history.] - -When St. Paulinus came to preach Christianity to the people of -Northumbria, King Eadwine (so runs the legend) being minded to hear him, -and wishing that his people should do so too, called together a council -of his chief men and asked them whether they would attend to hear what -the saint had to tell; and one of the king’s thanes stood up and said, -‘Let us certainly hear what this man knows, for it seems to me that the -life of man is like the flight of a sparrow through a large room, where -you, King, are sitting at supper in winter, while storms of rain and -snow rage abroad. The sparrow, I say, flying in at one door and -straightway out again at another is, while within, safe from the storm; -but soon it vanishes out of sight into the darkness whence it came. So -the life of man appears for a short space; but of what went before, or -what is to follow, we are all ways ignorant.’[1] This wise and true -saying of the Saxon thane holds good too for the human race as far as -its progress is revealed to us by history. We can watch this progress -through a brief interval--for the period over which real, continuous -authentic history extends; and beyond that is a twilight space, wherein, -amid many fantastic shapes of mere tradition or mythology, here and -there an object or an event stands out more clearly, lit up by a gleam -from the sources of more certain knowledge which we possess. - -To draw with as much accuracy as may be the outline of these shapes out -of the past is the business of the prehistoric student; and to assist -him in his task, what has he? First, he has the Bible narrative, wherein -some of the chief events of the world’s history are displayed, but at -uncertain distances apart. Then we have the traditions preserved in -other writings, in books, or on old temple stones--in these the truth -has generally to be cleared from a mist of allegory, or at least of -mythology. And, lastly, besides these conscious records of times gone -by, we have other dumb memorials, old buildings--cities or -temples--whose makers are long since forgotten, old tools or weapons, -buried for thousands of years, to come to light in our days; and again, -old words, old beliefs, old customs, old arts, old forms of civilization -which have been unwittingly handed down to us, can all, if we know the -art to interpret their language, be made to tell us histories of the -antique world. It is, then, no uninteresting study by which we learn how -to make these silent records speak. ‘Of man’s activity and attainment,’ -Carlyle finely says, ‘the chief results are aeriform, mystic, and -preserved in tradition only: such are his Forms of Government, with the -Authority they rest on; his Customs or Fashions both of Cloth-habits and -Soul-habits; much more his collective stock of Handicrafts, the whole -Faculty he has acquired of manipulating nature--all these things, as -indispensable and priceless as they are, cannot in any way be fixed -under lock and key, but must flit, spirit-like, on impalpable vehicles -from Father to Son; if you demand sight of them they are nowhere to be -met with. Visible Ploughmen and Hammermen there have been, even from -Cain and Tubalcain downwards; but where does your accumulated -Agricultural, Metallurgic and other Manufacturing SKILL lie warehoused? -It transmits itself on the atmospheric air, on the sun’s rays (by -Hearing and by Vision); it is a thing aeriform, impalpable, of quite -spiritual sort.’ - -How many of these intangible spiritual possessions must man have -acquired before he has learned the art of writing history, and so of -keeping a record of what had gone before: how much do we know that any -individual race of men has learned before it brings itself forward with -distinctness in this way! For as a first condition of all man must have -learned to write; and writing, as we shall hereafter see, is a slowly -developing art, which man acquired by ages of gradual experiment. His -language, too, must ere this have reached a state of considerable -cultivation; and it will be our object in the course of these pages to -show through what a long history of its own the language of any nation -must go before it becomes fit for the purposes of literature--through -how many changes it passes, and what a story it reveals to us by every -change. And then, again, before a nation can have a history it must _be_ -a nation, must have a national life to record; that is to say, the -people who compose it must have left the simple condition of society -which belongs to a primitive age, the state of a mere hunter or fisher, -even the state of being a mere shepherd, the pastoral and nomadic life -which precedes the knowledge of agriculture. He must have drawn closer -the loose bonds which held men together under the conditions of -patriarchal life, and have constituted a more permanent system of -society. Whether under pressure from without, the pressure of hostile -nationalities, or only from the growth of a higher conception of social -life, the nation has had to rise from out of a mere collection of -tribes, until the head of the family has become the king--the rude tents -of early days have grown into houses and temples, and the pens of their -sheepfolds grown into walled cities, such as Corinth or Athens or Rome. -Such changes as these must be completed before history comes to be -written; and with such changes as these, and with a thousand others, -changes and growths in Art, in Poetry, in Manufactures, in Commerce, and -in Laws, the pre-historical student has to deal. On all these subjects -we shall have something to say. - -Before, however, we enter upon any one of these it is right that we -remind the reader--and remind him once for all--that our knowledge upon -all these points is but partial and uncertain, and never of such a -character as will allow us to speak with dogmatic assurance. Our -information can necessarily never be direct; it can only be built upon -inferences of a higher or lower degree of probability. It is, however, a -necessity of our minds that from whatever information we possess we must -form an unbroken panorama--imagination has no place for unfilled blanks; -and we may form our picture freely and without danger of harm, so long -as we are ready to modify or enlarge it when more knowledge is -forthcoming. As the eye can in a moment supply the deficiencies of some -incompleted picture, a landscape of which it gets only a partial glance, -or a statue which has lost a feature, so the mind selects from its -knowledge those facts which form a continuous story, and loses those -which are known only as isolated fragments. - -Set a practised and an unpractised draughtsman to draw a circle, and we -may witness how differently they go to work. The second never takes his -pencil off the paper, and produces his effect by one continuous line, -which the eye has no choice but at once to condemn as incomplete. The -wiser artist proceeds by a number of short consecutive strokes, -splitting up, as it were, his divergence over the whole length of the -figure he is drawing, and so allows the eye, or perhaps one should -rather say the mind, by that faculty it has, to select the complete -figure which it can conceive more easily than express. No one of the -artist’s strokes is the true fraction of a circle, but the result is -infinitely more satisfactory than if he had tried to make his pencil -follow unswervingly the curve he wished to trace. Or again, notice how a -skilful draughtsman will patch up by a number of small strokes any -imperfect portion of a curve he is drawing, and we have another like -instance of this selective faculty of the eye or of the mind. Just in -the same way is it with memory. Our ideas must be carried on -continuously, we cannot afford to remember _lacunæ_, mere blank spaces. - -In the Bible narrative, for example, wherein, as has before been said, -certain events of the world’s history are related with distinctness, but -where as a rule nothing is said of the times which intervened between -them, we are wont to make very insufficient allowance for these -unmentioned periods, and form for ourselves a rather arbitrary picture -of the real course of things, fitting two events on to one another which -were really separated by long ages. To correct this view, to enlarge the -series of known facts concerning the early history of the human race, -comes in pre-historic inquiry; and again, to correct the picture we now -form, doubtless fresh information will continue to pour in. All this is -no reason why we should pronounce our present picture to be untrue; it -is only incomplete. We must be always ready to enlarge it, and to fill -in the outlines, but still we can only remember the facts which we have -already acquired, if we look at them, not as fragments only, but as a -complete whole. - -In representing, therefore, throughout the following chapters, the -advance of the human race in the discovery of all those arts and -faculties which go to make up civilization in the light of a continuous -progress, it will not be necessary to pause and remind the reader in -every case that these steps of progress which seem to spread themselves -out so clearly before us have been made in an uncertain manner, -sometimes rapidly, sometimes very slowly and painfully, sometimes by -immense strides, sometimes by continual haltings and goings backwards -and forwards. It will be enough to say here, once for all, that our -history must be thought of as a history of events rather than a strictly -chronological one; just as the geological periods are not measured by -days and years, but by the mutations through which our solid-seeming -earth has passed. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: The earliest traces of man.] - -First we turn to what must needs be our earliest inquiry--the search -after the oldest traces of man which have been found upon the earth. It -has been said that one of the first fruits of knowledge is to show us -our own ignorance; and certainly in the early history of the world and -of man there is nothing which science points out so clearly as the vast -silent periods whereof until recently we had no idea. It is difficult -for us of the present age to remember how short a time it is since all -our certain knowledge, touching the earth on which we live, lay around -that brief period of its existence during which it had come under the -notice and the care of man. - -When all we knew of Europe, and especially of our own islands, belonged -to the comparatively short time during which they have been known to -history, we had in truth much to wonder at in the political changes -these countries were seen to have undergone; and our imaginations could -be busy with the contrast between the unchanged features of our lands -and seas and the ever-varying character of those who dwelt upon or -passed over them. It is interesting to think that on such a river bank -or on such a shore Cæsar or Charlemagne have actually stood, and that -perhaps the grass or flowers or shells under their feet looked just the -same as they do now, that the waves beat upon the strand in the same -cadence, or the water flowed by with the same trickling sound. But when -we open the pages of geology, we have unrolled before us a history of -the earth itself, extending over periods compared with which the longest -epoch of what is commonly called history seems scarcely more than a day, -and of mutations in the face of nature so grand and awful that as we -reflect upon them, forgetting for an instant the enormous periods -required to bring these changes about, they sound like the fantastic -visions of some seer, telling in allegorical language the history of the -creation and destruction of the world. - -Of such changes, not the greatest, but the most interesting to the -question we have at present in hand, were those vicissitudes of climate -which followed upon the time when the formation of the crust of the -earth had been practically completed. We learn of a time when, instead -of the temperate climate which now favours our country, these islands, -with the whole of the north of Europe, were wrapped in one impenetrable -sheet of ice. The tops of our mountains, as well as of those of -Scandinavia and the north of continental Europe, bear marks of the -scraping of this enormous glacier, which must have risen to a height of -two or three thousand feet. Not a single green thing, therefore, might -be seen between our latitudes and the pole, while the ice-sheet, passing -along the floor of the North Sea, united these islands with Scandinavia -and spread far out into the deep waters of the Atlantic. For thousands -of years such a state of things endured, but at last it slowly passed -away. As century followed century the glacier began to decrease in size. -From being colder than that of any explored portion of our hemisphere, -the climate of northern Europe began to amend, until at last a little -land became visible, which was covered first with lichens, then with -thicker moss, and then with grass; then shrubs began to grow, and they -expanded into trees and the trees into forests, while still the -ice-sheet went on decreasing, until now the glaciers remained only in -the hills. Animals returned from warmer climates to visit our shores. -The birds and beasts and fishes of the land and sea were not much -different from those which now inhabit there; the species were -different, but the genera were for the most part the same. Everything -seemed to have been preparing for the coming of man, and it is about -this time that we find the earliest traces of his presence upon -earth.[2] - -We may try and imagine what was the appearance of the world, and -especially of Europe--for it is in Europe that most of these earliest -traces of our race have as yet been found, though all tradition and -likelihood point out man’s first home to have been in Asia--when we -suppose that man first appeared upon these western shores. At this time -the continent of Europe stood at a higher level than it does now. The -whole of the North Sea, even between Scotland and Denmark, is not more -than fifty fathoms, or three hundred feet deep, while the Irish Sea is -not more than sixty fathoms; and at this period undoubtedly the British -Isles, besides being all joined together, formed part of the mainland, -not by being united to France only, but by the presence of dry land all -the way from Scotland to Denmark, over all that area now called the -German Ocean. Our Thames and our other eastern rivers were then but -tributaries of one large stream, which bore through this continent, and -up into the northern seas, their waters united with those of the Rhine, -and perhaps of the Weser and the Elbe. The same upheaval turned into -land a portion of the Atlantic Ocean, all that bed probably which now -extends from Spain and Africa as far as the Azores and the Canaries. The -north of Africa was joined on to this continent and to Spain, for the -narrow Straits of Gibraltar had not yet been formed; but a great sea -stood where we now have the Great Sahara, and united the Mediterranean -and the Red Sea, while a great Mediterranean Sea stood in Central Asia, -and has left no more than traces in the Caspian Sea and the Sea of Aral. - -We have to look at a map to see the effect of these changes in the -appearance of Europe; and there were no doubt other internal changes in -the appearances of the countries themselves. The climate still was much -more extreme than it is now. The glaciers were not yet quite gone. And -the melting of these and of the winter snows gave rise to enormous -rivers which flowed from every hill. Our little river the Ouse, for -instance, which flows out through Norfolk into the Wash, was, when -swollen by these means, probably many miles broad. Vast forests grew -upon the banks of the rivers, and have left their traces in our peat -formations; and in these forests roamed animals unknown to us. Of these -the most notable was the mammoth (_Elephas primigenius_, in the -language of the naturalists), a huge, maned elephant, whose skeleton and -gigantic tusks are conspicuous in some of our museums, and who has given -his name to this the earliest age of man’s existence: it is called the -Mammoth Age of man. With the mammoth, too, lived other species of -animals, which are either now extinct, or have since been driven from -our latitudes; the woolly rhinoceros, the cave lion, the cave bear, the -Lithuanian bison, the urus, the reindeer, and the musk-ox. It is with -the remains of these animals, near the ancient banks of these great -rivers, that we find the earliest tools and weapons manufactured by -human hands. - -[Sidenote: Implements of the river drift.] - -The earliest of all the known remains of human-kind are the implements -which are found deposited in the ancient beds of rivers. Now flooded by -melting snow into huge lakes and now again drained off by the sudden -bursting of a bound, it was natural that these great streams should -often change their course, and often dig out huge areas of soil from the -land upon their banks. In doing so they sometimes dug out the implements -which earlier generations of men had left behind them on the surface of -the soil, and which a few years would be enough to cover with mould and -hide from sight. Then carrying along these implements of flint, they -have deposited them in great beds of sand and gravel, somewhere in their -ancient course. - -We have no means of measuring the time which may have elapsed since -these stone weapons and tools were made. And we need not speak here of -the geological changes which must have passed over the surface of the -earth since they were deposited upon it. All we know is that, after the -great streams flowing through wide valleys have dug these implements -from under the earth which time had heaped over them, carried them -along and deposited them once more amid sand and pebbles in a bed upon -some point of its course, the river must through long subsequent years -have cut so much deeper into the valley through which it flowed, and at -the same time probably so shrunk in its bed, that these river drifts, as -they are called, stand in many cases fifty, eighty, a hundred feet above -the level of the present stream. It is because they are found in the -beds made by the ancient rivers, that the implements of this period are -called _drift implements_. - -The river Ouse, of which we spoke just now, which, though to-day a small -river, drains a large and level country as it runs through the counties -of Bedford, Huntingdon, and Cambridge, has been one of the most prolific -in this class of pre-historic remains. Another river which still better -deserves to be remembered in this respect is the Somme in the north of -France. For it was in the beds of this stream, by Abbeville and Amiens, -that the drift implements were first discovered, or first recognized for -what they really are, the earliest traces of human labour; and it was -here that the foundation was laid for this branch of pre-historic study -by M. Boucher de Perthes. This was forty-one years ago, in 1847. - -These _drift implements_, then, form a class apart--apart even from all -other stone implements made by man, and probably earlier than any other -class. Very simple and rude are these drift implements. It would require -a skilled eye to detect any difference between most of them and a flint -which had only been chipped by natural means. But the first thing to -remember is, that the makers of these implements had nothing but other -still ruder materials to help them in this manufacture of theirs. Metals -of all kinds were as yet utterly unknown to man. - -We who are so habituated to the employment of metal, either in the -manufacture or the composition of every article which meets our eye, can -scarcely realize that man lived long ages on the earth before the metals -and minerals, its hidden treasures, were revealed to him. This pen I -write with is of metal, or, were it a quill, it would still have been -shaped by the use of steel; the rags of which this paper is made up have -been first cut by metal knives, then bleached by a mineral (chlorine), -then torn on a metal cylinder, then thrown into a vat which was either -itself of metal or had been shaped by metal tools, then drawn on a -_wire_-cloth, etc. And so it is with everything which is made nowadays. -We can scarcely think of any single manufacture in which is not -traceable the paramount influence of man’s discoveries beneath the -surface of the ground. But primitive man could profit by no such -inherited knowledge, and had only begun to acquire some powers which he -could transmit to his own descendants. For his tools he must look to the -surface of the earth only; and the hardest substances he could find were -stones. Not only during the period of which we are now speaking, but for -hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years lasted man’s ignorance of the -metals, ignorance therefore of all that the metals could produce for -him. The long age of this state of ignorance is distinguished in -pre-history by the name of the Stone Age, because the hardest things -then known to mankind were stones, and the most important of his -implements and utensils had therefore to be made of stones. - -There can be no harm if we so far anticipate our second chapter as to -say that this Stone Age is distinguished by pre-historic students into -two main periods: (1) the age in which all the stone implements were -made exclusively by chipping, (2) the age in which grinding or polishing -was brought in to supplement the use of chipping. Wherefore the first -age is also called the Unpolished Stone Age, the second is called the -Polished Stone Age. Not that by any means all the implements in the -later age were made of polished stone; far from it. Only that, -contemporaneously with the stone implements still made by chipping -merely, others of polished stone were used. But of this more hereafter. -Lastly, the two epochs are also distinguished more simply as the Old -Stone Age and the New Stone Age--or, turned into Greek, the Palæolithic -Era and the Neolithic Era. - -Now we go back to speak of the Palæolithic Era only. And in this we have -as yet got no further than the implements of the river drifts. It is not -to be supposed that at any time of his history man used implements of -stone and no others; for wood and bone must have been always as ready to -his hand as stone was, and for many purposes bone and wooden utensils -would serve better than stone ones. But the stone implements would -always deserve to be accounted the most important; because by means of -them the others of softer material must have been shaped. As regards the -drift deposits, here the remains of man’s work _are_ exclusively stone -implements, but probably only because all that were made of some softer -substance have perished, or remain as yet undiscovered. And most -primitive these stone tools or weapons are. By the rudeness and -uniformity of their shapes as contrasted even with other classes of -stone implements, they testify to the simplicity of those who -manufactured them. They have for the most part only two or three -distinctive types: they are either of a long, pear-shaped make, narrowed -almost to a point at the thin end, and adapted, we may suppose, for -boring holes, while the broad end of the pear was pressed against the -palm of the hand; and secondly, of a sort of oval form, chipped all -round the edge, capable of being fitted into a wooden haft, a cleft -stick or whatever it might be, to form an implement which might be used -for all sorts of cutting or scraping. A variety of this last implement, -of rather a tongue-like shape, was called by the French workmen who -worked under M. Boucher de Perthes, _langue-de-chat_. These might serve -the purpose of spear-heads. Some have supposed that stones of this last -form were used, as similar ones are used by the Esquimaux to this day, -in cutting holes in the ice for the purpose of fishing: we must not -forget that during at any rate a great part of the early stone age the -conditions of life were those of arctic countries at the present time. A -third variety of stone implements is made of thinner flakes, and capable -of being used as a knife.[3] - -We cannot determine all the uses to which primitive man must have put -his rude and ineffective weapons; we can only wonder that with such he -was able to maintain his existence among the savage beasts by which he -was surrounded; and we long to form to ourselves some picture of the way -in which he got the better of their huge strength, as well as of his -dwelling-place, his habits, and his appearance. Rude as his weapons are, -and showing no trace of improvement, it seems as though man of the drift -period must have lived through long ages of the world’s history. These -implements are found associated with the remains of the mammoth and the -woolly rhinoceros, animals naturally belonging to the arctic or -semi-arctic climate which succeeded the glacial era; but like implements -are found, associated with the remains of the bones of the lion, the -tiger, and the hippopotamus, all of which, and the last especially, are -rarely found outside the torrid zone. This would imply that the drift -implements lasted through the change from a rigid to a torrid climate, -and probably back again to a cold temperate one. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Implements of the caves.] - -Contemporary very likely with some portion of the drift period are -another series of deposits which contain still more interesting traces -of early man. These are what are called the _cave_ deposits--a -remarkable series of discoveries made in caves in various parts of -Europe which appear to carry us down farther in the history of human -development. - -These caves are natural caverns, generally formed in the limestone -rocks, and at present the most remarkable ‘finds’ have been obtained -from the caves of Devonshire, of the Department of the Dordogne in -France, from various caves in Belgium, and from a very remarkable cavern -in the Neanderthal, near Düsseldorf, in Germany. But there is scarcely -any country in Europe where some caves containing human bones and -weapons have not been opened. The rudest drift implements seem older -than almost any of those found in caves; and, on the whole, the -cave-remains seem to give us a picture of man in a more civilized -condition than the man of the drift. - -Let us pause for one moment before these cave remains. For, simple as -they are, they open a little bit the veil which hides from us the lives -of the earliest of men. We call the things which we have found -_implements_. For we cannot really tell whether they should be called -tools or weapons. Nay, and this is a thing worth remembering, in the -most primitive conditions of society man’s tools are his weapons and his -weapons are almost his only tools. Man’s first condition of life is the -_venatory_ condition. He is at first a mere hunter (or _trapper_) and -fisherman. He begins without the use of any domestic animal. He has not -even the dog, at first, to help him in his hunting; much less has he -cattle or sheep to vary his occupation in life. With the rest of the -animal creation he is constantly at war. He preys upon other animals, -and other animals, if they can, prey upon him. Wherefore, as I have -said, his earliest tools are likewise his weapons, his weapons are his -tools; and the arts of peace and war are undistinguishable. - -The next distinct stage of life is the pastoral stage. Man has now his -domesticated animals; he has cattle and sheep and horses maybe. Tending -his flocks and herds is now his chief occupation. But this tending -implies _protecting_ them and himself. And still, though some of his -implements are for peaceful use--his crooks, his goads, his lassoes, his -bridles, his hurdles and sheep-pens, or, again, his needles for sewing -together the hides which form his clothes--still _most_ are for war. -Yet, if any distinction is possible, his weapons should now be those of -defence rather than those of offence. - -The third great stage is the agricultural--a stage of life at which all -civilized nations and many which can hardly be called civilized have -arrived; when man ploughs and sows, and reaps, plants vines and -orchards. Then most of the implements used in these industries, the -implements on which therefore his nourishment depends, are wholly -distinct from the weapons of war, and the peaceful existence has become -(as the phrase is) _differentiated_ from the warlike. This is the token -of a higher civilization. - -At present we are far from such a stage of progress in the history of -man. The cave-dwellers were, we may be sure, in the hunting and fishing -stage of civilization; and we cannot really tell, among a large -proportion of their weapons, which were designed to serve against -animals for the purposes of the chase, and which against their -fellow-men. We can hardly distinguish among some of their weapons -whether they were to be used in hunting or fishing. They had stone axes -and spear-heads, and they also had what we may call harpoons. But -harpoons are merely lances attached to a thong, and may be used with -equal success against animals or against the larger fish, salmons or -whales. These harpoons are barbed. They are made of wood and of bone. A -curious and close inquiry has discovered that the bones of animals found -among the human remains in the caves have been scored in such a way as -to suggest that the sinews were cut from them--to be used, no doubt, as -thongs to the harpoons, as lines for fishing, as threads for sewing -garments, etc. The cave men had also barbed hooks--fishing-hooks we may -call them; though they too may sometimes have been employed against -animals or even _birds_. It is most probable that these primitive men -did _not_ know the use of the bow and arrow, and that the name -arrow-heads sometimes given to certain of their weapons is a misnomer; -that they should be called javelin-heads. Bone awls have been found, no -doubt for the sake (chiefly) of piercing the scraped skins of animals, -which might afterwards be sewn together into garments: bone knives, -pins, and _needles_ have also been found--the last a most important form -of implement--in considerable numbers. - -What is still more interesting than all these discoveries, we here find -the rudiments of art. Some of the bone implements, as well as some -stones, are engraved, or even rudely sculptured, generally with the -representation of an animal. These drawings are singularly faithful, and -really give us a picture of the animals which were man’s contemporaries -upon the earth; so that we have the most positive proof that man lived -the contemporary of animals long since extinct. The cave of La -Madeleine, in the Dordogne, for instance, contained a piece of a -mammoth’s tusk engraved with an outline of that animal; and as the -mammoth was probably not contemporaneous with man during the latter part -even of the old-stone age, this gives an immense antiquity to the first -dawnings of art. How little could the scratcher of this rough -sketch--for it is not equal in skill to drawings which have been found -in other caves--dream of the interest which his performance would excite -thousands of years after his death! Not the greatest painter of -subsequent times, and scarcely the greatest sculptor, can hope for so -near an approach to immortality for their works. Had man’s bones been -only found in juxtaposition with those of the mammoth and his -contemporary animals, this might possibly have been attributed to chance -disturbances of the soil, to the accumulation of river deposits, or to -many other accidental occurrences; or had the mammoth’s bone only been -found worked by man, there was nothing positive to show that the animal -had not been long since extinct, and this a chance bone which had come -into the hands of a later inhabitant of the earth, just as it has since -come into our hands; but the actual drawing of this old-world, and as it -sometimes seems to us almost fabulous, animal, by one who actually saw -him in real life, gives a strange picture of the antiquity of our race, -and withal a strange feeling of fellowship with this stone-age man who -drew so much in the same way as a clever child among us might have drawn -to-day.[4] - -It is worth while to look well at these cave-drawings. They are of -various degrees of merit, for some are so skilful as to excite the -admiration of artists and the astonishment of archæologists. And it is a -curious fact that during ages which succeeded those of the -cave-dwellers, all through the polished stone period and the age of -bronze--of which we shall have to speak anon--no such ambitious -imitative works of art seem to have been attempted. So far as we can -tell, these after generations of men aimed at no such thing as a drawing -of an animal or even of a plant. They confined themselves to ornamental -_patterns_, to certain arrangements of points and lines. The love of -imitation is doubtless one of the rudimentary feelings in the human -mind; as we may see by watching children. But, rudimentary as it is, it -springs from the same root as the highest promptings of the -intellect--that is to say, from the wish to _create_--to fashion -something actually ourselves. This is sufficient to explain the origin -of these carvings; yet we need not suppose that when the art of making -them was once known they were used merely for amusement. Long afterwards -we find such drawings and representations looked upon as having some -qualities of the things they represent; as, for instance, where in an -ancient grave at Mæshow, in the Orkney islands, we find the drawing of a -dragon, which had been supposed to watch over the treasures concealed -therein. Savages in the present day often think that part of them is -actually taken away when a drawing of them is made, and exactly a -similar feeling gave rise to the superstition so prevalent in the Middle -Ages, that witches and magicians could make a figure in wax to imitate -the one on whom they wished to wreak their vengeance, and that all the -pains inflicted upon this waxen antitype were reproduced in the body of -the victim. On such confusion of ideas do all idolatries rest. So may we -not, without too bold a flight, imagine that some superstitious notions, -touching the efficacy of these drawings, was a spur to the industry of -our first forerunners on the earth, and contributed to their wonderfully -acquired skill in their art? May they not have thought that their -representations gave them some power over the animals they represented: -that the lance-head carved with a mammoth would be efficient against the -mammoth’s hide; that the harpoon containing the representation of a deer -or a fish was the weapon best adapted for transfixing either?[5] - -However this may be, we cannot close our eyes to the interest which -attaches to the first dawnings of art in the world. Nor is this interest -confined altogether to its æsthetic side--the mere beauty and value of -art itself--great though this be. Not only does drawing share that -mysterious power of imparting intense pleasure which belongs to every -form of art, but it was likewise, after human speech, the first -discovered means of conveying an idea from one man to another. As we -shall come to see in a later chapter, the invention of drawing bore with -it the seeds of the invention of writing, the greatest step forward, in -material things at any rate, that man has ever made. - -There is one other fact to be mentioned, and then the information which -our cave discoveries can give us concerning the life of man in those -days is pretty nearly exhausted. Traces of fires have been found in -several caves, so that there can be no doubt that man had made this -important discovery, the discovery of fire, also. It seems to us -impossible to imagine a time when men could have lived upon the earth -without this all-useful element, when they must have devoured their food -uncooked, and only sheltered themselves from the cold by the thickness -of their clothing, or at night by huddling together in close underground -houses. We have certainly no proof that man’s existence was ever of such -a sort as this; but yet it is clear that the art of making fires is one -not discoverable at first sight. How long man took to find out that -method of ignition by friction of two sticks--the method employed in -different forms by all the less cultivated nations spread over the -globe, and one which we may therefore fairly take to be the most -primitive and natural--we shall never know. We have only the negative -evidence that he had discovered it at that primæval time when he began -to leave his remains within the caves. - -Thus have we completed the catalogue of facts upon which we may build up -for ourselves some representation of the life of man in the earliest -ages of his existence upon earth. It must be confessed that they are -meagre enough. We should like some further facts which would help us to -picture the man himself, his size, his appearance, what race he most -resembled of any of those which now inhabit our globe. Unfortunately we -have little that can assist us here. Human remains have been found--on -one or two occasions a skeleton in tolerably complete preservation--but -not yet in sufficient numbers to allow us to draw any certain -conclusions from them, or even to hazard any very probable conjecture. - -[Sidenote: Human remains.] - -Among these discoveries of human skeletons, none excited more interest -at the time it was made than the Neanderthal skeleton, so-called from -the place in which it was found. The discovery was made in 1857 by Dr. -Fuhlrott of Elberfeld; and when the skull and other parts of the -skeleton were exhibited at a scientific meeting at Bonn, in the same -year, doubts were expressed as to the human character of the remains. -These doubts, which were soon dissipated, arose from the very low type -of the head, which was pronounced by many to be the most ape-like skull -that they had ever seen. The bones themselves indicated a person of much -the same stature as a European of the present day, but with such an -unusual thickness in some of them as betokened a being of very -extraordinary strength. This discovery, had it been supported by others, -might have seemed to indicate a race of men of a type inferior even to -the most savage races of our present globe. But it has not been so -supported. On the contrary, another skull found at Engis, near Liége, -not more than seventy miles from the cave of the Neanderthal, was proved -after careful measurements not to differ materially from the skulls of -individuals of the European race--a fact which prevents us from making -any assertions respecting the primitive character in race or physical -conformation of these cave-dwellers. Indeed, in a very careful and -elaborate paper upon the Engis and Neanderthal skulls, Professor Huxley -places an average skull of a modern native of Australia about half-way -between those of the Neanderthal and Engis caves; but he also says that -after going through a large collection of Australian skulls, he ‘found -it possible to select from among these crania two (connected by all -sorts of intermediate gradations), the one of which should very nearly -resemble the Engis skull, while the other should somewhat less closely -approximate to the Neanderthal skull in form, size, and proportions.’ -And yet as regards blood, customs, or language, the natives of Southern -and Western Australia are as pure and homogeneous as almost any race of -savages in existence. This shows us how difficult would have been any -reasoning founded upon the insufficient data we possess. In fact, it -would no doubt be possible to find in Europe among persons of abnormal -under-development, such as idiots, skulls of a formation which would -match that of the Neanderthal. - -This class of evidence is therefore merely negative. We certainly cannot -pronounce that man of the old stone age was of a lower type than low -types of savages of the present day; we cannot even say that he was as -undeveloped as are the Lapps of modern Europe; but in this negative -evidence there is a certain amount of satisfaction. We might be not -unwilling to place on the level of the Eskimo or the Lapp the fashioners -of the rudest of the stone implements, but the _artists_ of the caves we -may well imagine to have attained a higher development. And there is -nothing at all unreasonable or opposed to our experience of Nature in -supposing a race of human beings to have flourished in Europe in these -old times, to have been possessed of a certain amount of civilization, -but not to have advanced from that towards any very great improvement -before they were at last extinguished by some other race with a greater -faculty for progress. As we shall come to see later on, there is some -reason for connecting man of the later stone age as regards race with -the Eskimo or Lapp of to-day. Yet even if this be admitted, we must look -upon the latter rather as the dregs of the races they represent. It is -not always the highest types of any particular race, whether of men, of -animals, or of plants, which live the longest. Species which were once -flourishing are often only represented by stunted and inferior -descendants; just as the animals of the lizard class once upon a time, -and long before the coming of man upon the earth, had their age of -greatest development and reached proportions which are unknown in these -days. - -So we may imagine man spreading out at various times and in many -different streams from his first home in Asia. The earlier races to -leave this nursing-place did not, we may suppose, contain sufficient -force to carry them beyond a low level of culture; very likely they sank -in civilization and in the end got pushed on one side by more energetic -people who came like a second wave from the common source. When, in the -history of the world, we come to speak of races of whom we know more, we -shall see strong reasons to believe that this was the rule followed; -nay, it is even followed at the present day, where European races are -spreading over all the world, and gradually absorbing or extinguishing -inferior members of the human family. We must, therefore, in our present -state of ignorance, be content to look upon palæolithic man merely as we -find him, and not to advance vague surmises whether he gradually -advanced to the use of better stone weapons, and at last to metals, or -whether he was extinguished by subsequent races who did thus advance. - -[Sidenote: The life of palæolithic man.] - -Taking, then, this race as we find it, without speculating upon its -immediate origin or future, we may endeavour to gather some notion of -man’s way of life in these primitive times. It was of the simplest. We -may well suppose, for some proofs to the contrary would otherwise most -likely have been discovered, that his life was that of the hunter, which -is, it has been said, generally the earliest phase of human society, and -that he had not yet learned to till the ground, or to keep domestic -animals for his use. No bones of animals like the sheep or dog are found -among palæolithic remains, and therefore it seems probable that -palæolithic man had not yet entered upon the next and higher phase, the -pastoral life. He had probably no fixed home, no idea of nationality, -scarcely any of obligations beyond the circle of his own family, in -that larger sense in which the word ‘family’ is generally understood by -savages. Some sort of family or tribe no doubt held together, were it -only for the sake of protecting themselves against the attacks of their -neighbours. For the rest, their time was spent, as the time of other -savages is spent, out of doors in fighting and hunting, within doors in -preserving their food and their skins, in elaborately manufacturing -their implements of stone and bone. In the inclement seasons they were -crowded together in their caves, perhaps for months together, as the -Eskimo are in winter, almost without moving. As appears from the remains -in the caves, they were in the habit at such times of throwing the old -bones and the offal of their food into any corner (the Eskimo do so to -this day), without taking the smallest trouble to obviate the unpleasant -effects produced by the decay of all this animal matter in an atmosphere -naturally close. Through the long winter nights they found time to -perfect their skill in those wonderful bone carvings, and to lay up a -store of weapons which they afterwards--anticipating the rise of -commerce--exchanged with the inhabitants of some other cave for _their_ -peculiar manufacture; for in one of the caves of the Dordogne we find -the remains of what must have been a regular manufactory of one sort of -flint-knife or lance-head, almost to the exclusion of any other of the -ordinary weapons, while another cave seems to have been devoted as -exclusively to the production of implements of bone. - -Man had no doubt a hard life, not only to obtain the food he needed, but -to defend himself against the attacks of many wild animals by whom he -was surrounded, animals whose particular species have in many cases -become extinct, and whose classes have long ceased to inhabit Europe. -Such are the cave lion, cave bear, cave hyæna, brown bear, grizzly bear, -mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, urus, bison, and such rarities (with us) as -the reindeer, the Irish elk, and the beaver. - -Some people have thought that they discovered in the traces of fires -which had been sometimes lighted before caves in which were found human -skeletons, the indication of sepulchral rites, and that these caves were -used as burial-places. But these suppositions are too vague and -uncertain to be relied upon. It may, however, be said that we have -evidence pointing to the fact that even in the drift period men buried -their dead, and it is hardly possible to believe that they did so -without paying some obsequies to the remains. On this interesting -subject of sepulchral rites we must forbear to say anything until we -come to speak of the second stone age. Our knowledge of the early -stone-people must close with the slight picture we have been able to -form of their life; of their death, of their rites of the dead, and the -ideas concerning a future state which these might indicate, we cannot -speak. - -This, then, is all we know of man of the first stone age, and it is not -probable that our knowledge will ever be greatly increased. New finds of -these stone implements are being made almost every day, not in Europe -only, though at present chiefly there, but in many other parts of the -globe. But the new discoveries closely resemble the old, the same sort -of implements recur again and again, and we only learn by them over how -great a part of the globe this stage in our civilization extended. -Further information of this kind may change some of our theories -concerning the duration or the origin of this civilization, but it will -not add much to our knowledge of its nature. Yet it cannot be denied -that the thought of man’s existence only, though we know little more -than this, a contemporary of the mammoth at the time which immediately -succeeded the glacial period, or perhaps before the glacial period had -quite come to an end, is full of the deepest interest for us. The long -silent time which intervenes between the creation of our first parents -and those biblical events whereof the narration is to a certain extent -continuous and consecutive, till the dawn of history in the Bible -narrative in fact, is to some small extent filled in. We shall see in -the next chapter how the second stone age serves to carry the same -picture further. In rudest outline the life of man is placed before us, -and if we have no more than this, we have at any rate _something_ which -may occupy our imaginations, and prevent them, as they otherwise would -do, as, of old, men’s minds did, from leaping almost at a bound from the -Creation to the Flood, and from the Flood to the time of Abraham. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -THE SECOND STONE AGE. - - -[Sidenote: The age of polished stone.] - -Between the earlier and the later stone age, between man of the drift -period and man of the neolithic era, occurs a vast blank which we cannot -fill in. We bid adieu to the primitive inhabitants of our earth while -they are still the contemporaries of the mammoth and woolly rhinoceros, -or of the cave lion and the cave bear, and while the very surface of the -earth wears a different aspect from what it now wears. With a changed -condition of things, with a race of animals which differed not -essentially from those known to us, and with a settled conformation of -our lands and seas not again to be departed from, comes before us the -second race of man--man of the polished stone age. We cannot account for -the sudden break; or, what is in truth the same thing, many different -suggestions to account for it have been made. Some have supposed that -the palæolithic men lived at a time anterior to the last glacial era, -for there were many glacial periods in Europe, and were either -exterminated altogether or driven thence to more southern countries by -the change in climate. Others have imagined that a new and more -cultivated race migrated into these countries, and at once introduced -the improved weapons of the later stone age; and lastly, others have -looked upon the first stone age as having existed before the Deluge, and -hold that the second race of man, the descendants of Noah, began at once -with a higher sort of civilization. Two of these four theories, it will -be seen, must suppose that man somewhere went through the stages of -improvement necessary to the introduction of the newer sort of weapons, -and they therefore take it for granted that the graduated series of -stone implements, indicating a gradual progress from the old time to the -newer, though they have not yet been found, are to be discovered -somewhere. The first and last theories would seem to be more independent -of this supposition, and therefore, as far as our knowledge yet goes, to -be more in accordance with the facts which we possess. It is, however, -by no means safe to affirm that the graduated series of implements -required to support the other suppositions will never be found. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: The kitchen-middens.] - -Be this as it may, with the second era begins something like a -continuous history of our race. However scanty the marks of his tracks, -we may feel sure that from this time forward man passed on one unbroken -journey of development and change through the forgotten eras of the -world’s life down to the dawn of history. We take the rudest condition -in which we find man to be the most primitive, and we start with him in -this new stone age as still a fisher or a hunter only. He first appears -before us as depending for his nourishment chiefly upon the shell-fish -on certain coasts of northern Europe. In the north of Europe--that is to -say, upon the shores of the Baltic--are found numbers of mounds, some -five or ten feet high, and in length as much, sometimes, as a thousand -feet, by one or two hundred feet in breadth. The mounds consist for the -most part of myriads of cast-away shells of oysters, mussels, cockles, -and other shell-fish; mixed up with these are not a few bones of birds -and quadrupeds, showing that these also served for food to the primitive -dwellers by the shell mounds. The mounds are called in the present day -kjökken-möddings, kitchen-middens. They have been chiefly found in -Denmark. They are, in truth, the refuse heaps of the earliest kitchens -which have smoked in these northern regions;[6] for they are the remains -of some of the earliest among the polished-stone age inhabitants of -Europe. So primitive are the weapons of the Danish kitchen-middens, that -they have sometimes been classed with the old stone age implements. But -I believe some traces of grinding if not of polishing have been found on -them. And at any rate the mammalia contemporary with the kitchen-midden -men are very different from those of the drift or of the caves. - -The raisers of these refuse mounds were, we may judge, pre-eminently -fishers; and not generally fishers of that adventurous kind who seek -their treasure in the depths of the ocean. They lived chiefly upon those -smaller fish and shell-fish which could be caught without much -difficulty or danger. Yet not only on these; for the bones of some -deep-sea fish have also been discovered, whence we know that these -mound-raisers were possessed of the art of navigation, though doubtless -in a most primitive form. Among remains believed to be contemporary with -the shell mounds are found canoes not built of planks, as our boats and -as most canoes are nowadays, but merely hollowed out of the trunks of -trees; sometimes these canoes are quite straight fore and aft, just as -the trunk was when it was cut, sometimes a little bevelled from below, -like a punt of the present day; but we believe they are never found -rounded or pointed at the prow. Here, then, we see another discovery -which has been of the greatest use to mankind, whereof the first traces -come to us from these northern shell mounds. That ‘heart with oak and -bronze thrice bound,’ the man who first ventured to sea in the first -vessel, had lived before this time. Whoever he was, we cannot, if we -think of it, refuse to endorse the praise bestowed upon him by the poet; -it required no mean courage to venture out to sea on such a strange -make-shift as was the first canoe. Perhaps the earliest experiment was -an involuntary one, made by some one who was washed away upon a large -log or felled tree. We can fancy how thence would arise the notion of -venturing again a little way, then of hollowing a seat in the middle of -the trunk, until the primitive canoes, such as we find, came into -existence. - -In these imperfect vessels men gradually ventured further and further -into the ocean; and, judging of the extent of their voyages by the -deep-sea remains, we may be certain that their bravery was fatal to -many. This is in all probability the history of the discovery or -re-discovery of the art of navigation among savage people generally; in -all cases does the canoe precede the regular boat. I say ‘re-discovery’ -because a nation which has settled long inland might very easily lose -the art even if their ancestors had possessed it. For it is a fact that -people rarely begin attempts at ship-building before they come to live -near the sea. As long as they can range freely on land, their rivers do -not tempt them to any dangerous experiments. But the vast plain of the -sea is too important, and makes too great an impression on their -imagination for its charm to be long withstood. Sooner or later, with -much risk of life, men are sure to try and explore its solitudes, and -navigation takes its rise. This art of seafaring, then, is amongst the -most noticeable of the belongings of the fishermen of the shell mounds. -Considering that they had none but rude stone implements, the felling -and hollowing of trees must have been an affair of no small labour, and -very likely occupied a great deal of their time when they were not -actually seeking their food, even though the agency of fire supplemented -the ineffectual blows of their stone weapons. They probably used nets -for their sea-fishing, made most likely of twisted bark or grass. And -they were hunters as well as fishers, for it has been said that the -remains of various animals have been discovered on the shell mounds. -From these remains we see that the age of the post-glacial animals has -by this time quite passed away; no mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, or cave -lion or bear is found; even the reindeer, which in palæolithic days must -have ranged over France and Switzerland, has retired to the north. - -The fact is, the climate is now much more temperate and uniform than in -the first stone age. Then the reindeer and the chamois, animals which -belong naturally to regions of ice and snow, freely traversed, in winter -at least, the valleys or the plains far towards the south of Europe.[7] -But as the climate changed, the first was driven to the extreme north of -Europe, and the second to the higher mountain peaks. The only extinct -species belonging to the shell mounds is the wild bull (_bos -primigenius_), which however survived in Europe until quite historical -times. His remains appear in great numbers, as do those of the seal, now -very rare, and the beaver, which is extinct in Denmark. No remains of -any domesticated animal are found; but the existence of tame dogs is -guessed at from the fact that the bones bear traces of the gnawing of -canine teeth, and from the absence of bones of young birds and of the -softer bones of animals generally. For it has been shown experimentally -that just such portions are absent from these skeletons as will be -devoured when birds or animals of the same species are given to dogs at -this day. Dogs, therefore, we may feel pretty sure, were domesticated by -the stone-age men; so here again we can see the beginning of a step in -civilization which has been of incalculable benefit to man, the taming -of animals for his use. The ox, the sheep, the goat, were as yet -unknown; man was still in the hunter’s condition, and had not advanced -to the shepherd state, only training for his use the dog, to assist him -in pursuit of the wild animals who supplied part of his food. He was, -too, utterly devoid of all agricultural knowledge. Probably the -domestication of the dog marks a sort of transition state between the -hunter and the shepherd. When that experiment has been tried, the notion -must sooner or later spring up of training other animals, and keeping -them for use or food. With regard to the dogs themselves, it is a -curious fact that those of the stone age are smaller than those of the -bronze period, while the dogs of the bronze age are again smaller than -those of the age of iron. This is an illustration of the well-known fact -that domestication increases the size and improves the character of -animals, as gardening does that of plants. - -There is one other negative fact which we gather from the bones of these -refuse-heaps--no human bones are mingled with them; so we may conclude -that these men were not cannibals. In fact, cannibalism is an -extraordinary perversion of human nature, arising it is difficult to say -exactly how, and only showing itself among particular people and under -peculiar conditions. There is no doubt that, among a very large -proportion of the savage nations which at present inhabit our globe, -cannibalism is practised, and of this fact many explanations have been -offered; but they are generally far-fetched and unsatisfactory; and it -is certainly not within our scope to discuss them here. How little -natural cannibalism is even to the most savage men is proved by the fact -that man is scarcely ever, except under urgent necessity, found to feed -upon the flesh of carnivorous or flesh-eating animals, and this alone, -besides every instinct of our nature, would be sufficient to prevent him -from eating his fellow-men. - -We have many proofs of the great antiquity of the shell mounds. Their -position gives one. Whilst most of them are confined to the immediate -neighbourhood of the seashore, some few are found at a distance of -several miles inland. These exceptions may always be referred to the -presence of a stream which has gradually deposited its mud at the place -where it emptied itself into the sea, or to some other sufficient cause -of the protrusion of the coast-line; so that these miles of new coast -have come into existence after the shell mounds were raised. On the -other hand, there are no mounds upon those parts of the coast which -border on the Western Ocean. But it is just here that, owing to a -gradual depression of the land at the rate of two or three inches in a -century[8] the waves are slowly eating away the shore. This is what -happens on every sea-coast. Almost all over the world there is a small -but constant movement of the solid crust of the earth, which is, in -fact, only a crust over the molten mass within. Sometimes, and in some -places, the imprisoned mass makes itself felt, in violent upheavals, in -sudden cracks of the inclosing surface, which we call earthquakes and -volcanoes; but oftener its effect is slight and almost unnoticed. This -interchange of state between the kingdoms of the land and of the ocean -helps to show us the time which has passed between the making of the -kitchen-middens and our own days. There seems little doubt that all -along the Danish coast of the North Sea, as well as on that of the -Baltic, these mounds once stood; but by the gradual undermining of the -cliffs the former series have all been swept away, while the latter -have, as it appears, been moved a little inland; and we have seen that -when there was another cause present to form land between the -kitchen-middens and the sea, the distance has often been increased to -several miles. - -Here is another and a still stronger proof of the antiquity of the shell -mounds. If we examine the shells themselves, we find that they all -belong to still living species, and they are all exactly similar to such -as might be found in the ocean at the present day. But it happens that -this is not now the case with the shells of the same fish belonging to -the Baltic Sea. For the waters of this sea are now brackish, and not -salt; and since they became so the shell-fish in it have gradually grown -smaller, and do not now attain half their natural size. The oyster, -moreover, will not now live at all in the Baltic, except near its -entrance, where, whenever the wind blows from the north-west, a strong -current of salt ocean water is poured in. Yet oyster shells are -especially abundant in the kitchen-middens. From all this we gather -that, at the time of the making of these mounds, there must have been -free communication between the ocean and the Baltic Sea. In all -probability, in fact, there were a number of such passages through the -peninsula of Jutland, which was consequently at that time an -archipelago. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: The tumuli or barrows.] - -As ages passed on the descendants of these isolated fishermen spread -themselves over Europe, and, improving in their way of life and mastery -over mechanical arts, found themselves no longer constrained to trust -for their livelihood to the spoils of the sea-shallows. They made lances -and axes (headed with stone), and perfected the use of the bow and arrow -until they became masters of the game of the forest. And then, after a -while, man grew out of this hunter stage and domesticated other animals -besides the dog: oxen, pigs, and geese. No longer occupied solely by the -search for his daily food, he raised mighty tombs--huge mounds of earth -enclosing a narrow grave--to the departed great men of his race; and he -reared up those enormous masses of stone called cromlechs or -dolmens--such as we see at Stonehenge--as altars to his gods.[9] - -The great tombs of earth--which have their fellows not in Europe only, -but over the greater part of the world--are the special and -characteristic features of the stone age. The raisers of the -kitchen-middens probably preceded the men who built the tombs; for their -mode of life was, as we should say, the most primitive; but they were -confined to a corner of Europe. The tomb-builders formed one of a mighty -brotherhood of men linked together by the characteristics of a common -civilization. These stone-age sepulchres, called in England tumuli, -barrows, or hows, are hills of earth from one to as much as four hundred -feet long, by a breadth and height of from thirty to fifty feet. They -are either chambered or unchambered; that is, they are either raised -over a small vault made of stone (with perhaps a sort of vestibule or -entrance chamber), or else a mere hollow has been excavated within the -mound. In these recesses repose the bodies of the dead, some great -chieftain or hero--the father of his people, who came to be regarded -after his death with almost the veneration of a god. Beside the dead -were placed various implements and utensils, left there to do him honour -or service, to assist him upon the journey to that undiscovered country -whither he was bound; the best of sharpened knives or spear-heads, some -jars of their rude pottery, once filled with food and drink, porridge, -rough cakes and beer.[10] And maybe a wife or two, and some captives of -the last battle were sacrificed to his shade, that he might not go quite -unattended into that ‘other world.’ The last ceremony, the slaughter of -human victims to the manes of the dead, was not always, but it must have -been often, enacted. Out of thirty-two stone-age barrows excavated in -Wiltshire, seventeen contained only one skeleton, and the rest various -numbers, from two to an indefinite number; and, in one case at least, -all the skulls _save one_ were found cleft as by a stone hatchet. - -At the doors of the mounds or in an entrance chamber many bones have -been discovered, the traces of a funeral feast, the wake or watch kept -on the evening of the burial. Likely enough, if the chief were almost -deified after death, the funeral feast would become periodical. It -would be considered canny and of good omen that the elders of the tribe -should meet there at times in solemn conclave, on the eve of a warlike -expedition or whenever the watchful care of the dead hero might avail -his descendants. From the remains of these feasts, and from the relics -of the tombs, we have the means of forming some idea of man’s -acquirements at this time. His implements are improvements upon those of -the stone age: in all respects, that is, save in this one, that he had -now no barbed weapons; whereas we remember that in the caves barbed -harpoons are frequently met with. Nor, again, had he the artistic talent -of the cave-dwellers: no traces of New Stone-age drawings have come to -light. For the rest, his implements and weapons may be divided into a -few distinctive classes:-- - -1. Hammers, hatchets, tomahawks, or chisels; an instrument made of a -heavy piece of stone brought to a sharp cutting edge at one end, and at -the other rounded or flat, so as to serve the double purpose of a hammer -and an axe. When these are of an elongated form they are called celts or -chisels. As subspecies to the hammers and celts we have picks and -gouges. 2. Arrow and spear heads, which differ in size but not much in -form, both being long and narrow in shape, often closely resembling the -leaf of the laurel or the bay, sometimes of a diamond shape, but more -often having the lateral corners nearest to the end which fitted into -the shaft. Viewed edgeways, they also appear to taper towards either -end, for while one point was designed to pierce the victim, the other -was fitted into a cleft handle, and bound into it with cord or sinew. -Implements have been discovered still fitted into their handles. 3. The -stone knives, which have generally two cutting edges, and when this is -the case do not greatly differ from the spear-heads, though they are -commonly less pointed than the latter. And to these three important -forms we may add, as less important types, a rounded form of implement, -generally called a scraper, and similar to the scrapers of the -palæolithic era; stones designed for slinging, net-weights, and perhaps -corn-grinders or nut-crushers. A few bone implements have been found in -the tumuli, a pin, a chisel, and a knife or so; but they are very rare, -they are never carved, and have not one quarter of the interest which -belongs to the bone implements of the caves. Finally, we must not omit -to say that in Anhalt, in Germany, a large stone has been found which -seems to have served the purpose of a plough. For there can be little -doubt that if some of the tumuli belong to a time before the use of -domesticated animals--save the dog--they last down to a time when man -not only had tame oxen, pigs, goats, and geese,[11] but also sowed and -planted, and lived the life of an agricultural race; nor will it be said -that such an advance was extraordinary when we say that the minimum -duration of the age of polished stone in central Europe was probably two -thousand years. - -Other relics from the mounds, not less interesting than the weapons, are -their vessels of pottery; for here we see the earliest traces of another -art. This pottery is of a black colour, curiously mixed with powdered -shells, perhaps to strengthen the clay, perhaps for ornament. Its -pottery belongs to the latter portion of this age of stone, a period -distinguished not only by the use of domestic animals, but also by the -growth of cereals. We have said that bones of cattle, swine, and in one -case of a goose, have been found among the refuse of the funeral feasts. -But man was still a hunter, as he is to this day, though he had found -other means of support besides the wild game; so we also find the bones -of the red deer and the wild bull, both of which supplied him with food. -Wolves’ teeth, too, have been found pierced, so as to be strung into a -necklace; for personal adornment formed, in those days as now, part of -the interest of life. Jet beads have been discovered in large numbers, -and even some of amber, which seems to have been brought from the Baltic -to these countries and as far south as Switzerland; and it is known that -during the last portion of what is, nevertheless, still the stone -period, the most precious metal of all, gold, was used for ornament. -Gold is the one metal which is frequently found on the surface of the -ground, and therefore it was naturally the first to come under the eye -of man. - -The religion of the mound-builders probably consisted in part of the -worship of the dead, so that the very tombs themselves, and not the -cromlechs only, were a sort of temples. And yet they had the deepest -dread of the reappearance of the departed upon earth--of his ghost. To -prevent his ‘walking’ they adopted a strange practical form of exorcism. -They strewed the ground at the grave’s mouth with sharp stones or broken -pieces of pottery, as though a ghost could have his feet cut, and by -fear of that be kept from returning to his old haunts. For ages and ages -after the days of the mound-builders the same custom lived on of which -we here see the rise. The same ceremony--turned now to an unmeaning -rite--was used for the graves of those, such as murderers or suicides, -who might be expected to sleep uneasily in their narrow house. This is -the custom which is referred to in the speech of the priest to -Laertes.[12] Ophelia had died under such suspicion of suicide, that it -was a stretch of their rule, he says, to grant her Christian burial. - - ‘And but the great command o’ersways our order, - She should in ground unsanctified have lodged - To the last trumpet: for charitable prayers, - Shards, flints and pebbles, should be thrown on her.’ - - * * * * * - -The body of him for whom the mound was built was not buried in the -centre, but at one end, and that commonly the east, for in most cases -the barrows lie east and west. It is never stretched out flat, but lies -or sits in a crouched attitude, the head brought down upon the breast, -and the knees raised up to meet the chin. So that the dead man was -generally left facing toward the west--the going down of the sun. There -cannot but be some significance in this. The daily death of the sun has, -in all ages and to all people, spoken of man’s own death, his western -course has seemed to tell of that last journey upon which all are bent. -So that the resting-place of the soul is nearly always imagined to lie -westward in the home of the setting sun. For the rest, there seems -little doubt that the barrows represent nothing else--though upon a -large scale--than the dwelling-home of the time, and we may believe that -the greater part of the funeral rights connected with the mounds were -very literal and unsymbolical.[13] The Eskimo and Lapps of our day -dwell in huts no more commodious than the small chambers of the barrows, -and exceedingly like them in shape; only they keep them warm by heaping -up over them not earth but snow. In these hovels they sit squatting, in -an attitude not unlike that of the skeleton of the tumuli. Of the human -remains the skulls are small and round, and have a prominent ridge over -the sockets of the eyes, showing that the ancient race was of small -stature with round heads--what is called _brachycephalus_, or -short-headed, and had over-hanging eyebrows; in short, their skeletons -bare a considerable resemblance to those of the modern Laplanders. - -We are still, however, left in darkness about that part of the stone-age -thought which has left the grandest traces, and of which we should so -much have wished to be informed; I mean the religion. Besides the tumuli -we have those enormous piles of stone called cromlechs, or dolmens, and -sometimes _miscalled_ Druid circles--such as the well-known Stonehenge; -these cromlechs were, we may believe, temples or sacred places. Each -arrangement of the stones is generally like a simple portico, made by -placing one enormous block upon two others; and these porticoes are -sometimes arranged in circles, as at Stonehenge, sometimes in long -colonnades, as at Carnac in Brittany. Lesser dolmens have been found in -most European countries. There can be little doubt that these huge -monuments possessed a religious character. And here is one proof of the -fact. As a rule, the grave-mounds--the tumuli--are built upon elevations -commanding a considerable prospect, and it is rare to find two within -sight. Yet over Salisbury Plain, and the part about Stonehenge, they are -much more numerous, as many as a hundred and fifty having been -discovered in this neighbourhood, as though all the ground about this -great cromlech were a hallowed region, and it were a desired privilege -to be buried within such sacred precincts. Of the worship which these -stone altars commemorate we know absolutely nothing. There seems to be -no reasonable doubt that they belong to the period we are describing. -The name Druid Circles, which has been sometimes given them, is an -absurd anachronism, for, as we shall have occasion to see later on, the -ancestors of the Kelts (or Celts), to whom the Druidical religion -belonged, were probably at this time still living on the banks of the -Oxus in Central Asia; at any rate they had not yet migrated to Brittany -or to Great Britain. Thus, though we must continue to wonder how these -people could ever have raised such enormous stones as altars of their -religion, the nature of that religion itself is hidden from us. - -The tumuli and the relics which they contain are the truest -representatives of the second stone age which have come down to us. The -barrows raise their summits in every land, and the characteristic -features of the remains found in them are the same for each. We must -judge that they, that the most genuine stone-age tumuli, arose during -the greatest extension of the stone-age races, before any new peoples -had come to dispute their territory. What the kitchen-middens show in -the germ, they show in its perfection--all the perfection attainable by -it. - -We have already enumerated the most important forms of weapons and -implements found in these _tumuli_; and there would be no use in -entering upon a lengthy verbal description of what would be so much -better illustrated by drawings. The books enumerated in the Appendix -give abundant illustrations of the stone-age remains. One caution, -however, we need to give the reader. This second stone age is called, we -know, the age of polished stone. But, as has been already said, that by -no means implies that all the implements made in these days were -polished. On the contrary, certain stone manufactures, notably -arrow-heads, were never polished. They went on being made by chipping, -not only during the whole of the second stone age, but far into the -first metal age, when bronze had been introduced and was used for the -manufacture of numerous weapons and implements. The grinding of the -edges of certain sharp weapons is a more important characteristic than -the polishing of the whole or a portion of their surface. But this -grinding was not universally employed, but used generally only for the -larger implements. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: The lake villages.] - -And now, having dealt with the remains from the _tumuli_, the flower, as -we may call them, of the second stone period, we pass on to a third -series of remains, which must be in part contemporary with the -stone-using men, and have continued on and been absorbed into the metal -age, which next supervened. These remains came from what are called the -lake-dwellings, and though traces of such dwellings have been found in -many countries in Europe, in our isles among others, still the chief -_provenance_ of the lake-dwellings, so far as our discoveries yet go, is -in Switzerland and the north of Italy. But let it not be supposed that -these lake-dwellings extended over a short period. A variety of separate -pieces of evidence enforce upon us the conclusion that the stone age in -Europe endured for at least two thousand years. Even the latter portion -of that epoch will allow a cycle vast enough for the lives of the -lake-dwellers; for the dwellings did not come to an end at the end of -the age of stone, they only began in it. They were seen by Roman eyes -almost as late as the beginning of our own era. - -For at least two thousand years, then, we may say, the men who lived in -the country of the Swiss lakes, and those of Northern Italy, adopted for -the sake of security the custom of making their dwellings, not upon the -solid ground, but upon platforms constructed with infinite trouble above -the waters of the lake. And the way they set about it was in this wise: -Having chosen their spot--if attainable, a sunny shore protected as much -as possible from storms, and having a lake-bottom of a soft and sandy -nature--they proceeded to drive in piles, composed of tree-stems taken -from the neighbouring forests, from four to eight inches in diameter. -These piles had to be felled, and afterwards sharpened, either by fire -or a stone axe, then driven in from a raft by the use of ponderous stone -mallets; and when we have said that in one instance the number of piles -of a lake village has been estimated at from 40,000 to 50,000, the -enormous labour of the process will be apparent. This task finished, the -piles were levelled at a certain height above the water, and a platform -of boards was fastened on with pegs. On the platform were erected huts, -probably square or oblong in shape, not more than twenty feet or so in -length, adapted however for the use of a single family, and generally -furnished, it would appear, with a hearthstone and a corn-crusher -apiece. The huts were made of wattle-work, coated on both sides with -clay. Stalls were provided for the cattle, and a bridge of from only ten -or twelve to as much as a hundred yards in length led back to the -mainland. Over this the cattle must have been driven every day, at least -in summer, to pasture on the bank; and no doubt the village community -separated each morning for the various occupations of fishing, for -hunting, for agriculture, and for tending the cattle. As may be -imagined, these wooden villages were in peculiar danger from fire, and a -very large number have suffered destruction in this way; a circumstance -fortunate for modern science, for many things which had been partially -burnt before falling into the lake have, by the coating of charcoal -formed round them, been made impervious to the corroding influence of -the water. Thus we have preserved their very grain itself, and their -loaves or cakes of crushed but not ground meal. The grains are of -various kinds of wheat and barley, oats, and millet.[14] - -It is natural to ask for what object the enormous trouble of erecting -these lake-dwellings could have been undertaken; and the only answer -which can be given is, that it was to protect their inhabitants from -their enemies. Whether each village formed a separate tribe and made war -upon its neighbours, or whether the lake-dwellers were a peaceful race -fleeing from more savage people of the mainland, is uncertain. There is -nothing which leads us to suppose they were a race of a warlike -character, and as far as the arts of peace go they had advanced -considerably upon the men of the tumuli. More especially do the _woven -cloths_, sometimes worked with simple but not inartistic patterns, -excite our admiration. They had their trade too. Ornaments of amber are -frequent, and amber must have been brought from the Baltic; while in one -settlement, believed to be of the stone age, the presence of a glass -bead would seem to imply indirect commerce with Egypt, the only country -in which the traces of glass manufacture at this remote period have been -found.[15] It is believed by good authorities, that the stone age in -Europe came to an end about two thousand years before Christ, or at a -date which is generally considered to be about that of Abraham; and its -shortest duration, as we saw, must also be considered to be two thousand -years. - -These men of the lakes stand in no degree behind the mound-builders for -the material elements of civilization. Nay, they are in some respects -before them. Their life seems to have been more confined and simple than -that which was going on in other parts of Europe. Its very peacefulness -and simplicity gave men the opportunity for perfecting some of their -arts. Thus their agriculture was more careful and more extended than -that of the men of the tumuli. Their cattle would appear to have been -numerous; all were stall-fed upon the island home; if in the morning -driven out to pasture over the long bridge to the mainland, they were -brought home again at night. To agriculture these lake-dwellers had -added the special art of gardening, for they cultivated fruit-trees; and -they span hemp and flax, and even constructed--it is believed--some sort -of loom for weaving cloth. Yet for all that, if in these respects they -were superior to the men of the tumuli, their life was probably more -petty and narrow than the others’. There must have been some grandeur in -the ideas of men who could have built those enormous tombs and raised -those wondrous piles of altar-stones. If the first were made in honour -of their chiefs, the existence of such chiefs implies a power in the -stone-age men of expanding into a wide social life; so too the immense -labour which the raising of the cromlechs demanded argues strong if not -the most elevated religious ideas. And it has been often and truly -remarked that these two elements of progress, social and religious life, -are always intimately associated. It is in a common worship more than in -common language that we find the beginning of nationalities. It was so -in Greece. The city life grew up around the temple of a particular -tutelary deity, and the associations of cities arose from their -association in the worship at some common shrine. The common nationality -of the Hellenes was kept alive more than anything in the quadrennial -games in honour of the Olympian Zeus, just as the special citizenship of -Athens found expression in the peculiar worship of the virgin goddess -Athênê. So we may well argue from the great stone remains, that man had -even then made _some_ progress in political life. They show us the -extended conditions of tribal government. But the lake-dwellers only -give us a picture of the simplest and narrowest form of the village -community. It is with them a complete condition of social equality; -there is no appearance of any grade of rank; no hut on these islands is -found larger or better supplied or more cared for than the rest. A -condition of things not unlike that which we find in Switzerland at the -present day; one favourable to happiness and contentment, to improvement -in the simpler arts, but not to wide views of life, or to any great or -general progress. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: The civilization of the stone ages.] - -And now let us, before we bid adieu to the men of the stone age, recount -our gains, and see what picture the researches of pre-historic science -allow us to draw of the progress of mankind from its earliest condition -to that in which we now find it. We will forget for a moment the great -gap which intervenes between the two stone ages, the age of unpolished -stone and the age of polished stone, and simply following step by step -the changes in human implements much as if we were walking round the -cases of some well-arranged museum, we will note, as we pass it, each -marked improvement or new acquisition in the arts of life. - - * * * * * - -1. To begin, then, with the men of the river drift--so far as we can -judge, the rudest and most uncultured of all. It is not certain that -these men had so much as wooden handles to their implements of stone, -but it is probable that they had them. As we have said, they had only -two or three marked varieties in these weapons. How little advance there -seems from the state of simply using or hurling the stones in the state -in which they are found! At the same time, it must be said that the -implements of wood or horn, pointed stakes or even javelins, which these -early men _may_ have had would almost certainly have perished. - -Nor, again, is there any evidence that the men of the drift period were -cognizant of the use of fire, though here it is more likely that they -were than that they were not. - - * * * * * - -2. When we come to the cave-dwellers we see marked signs of a higher -civilization. The first and most important of these signs undoubtedly is -the _evidence_ of knowledge how to procure fire. We see a much greater -variety in the implements used by the cave-dwellers. This, no doubt, is -due _in part_ to the disappearance of a portion of the implements of the -drift age; but still we must take things as we find them. And putting -side by side the specimens of the drift-implements and the -cave-implements, we are at once struck by the superiority of the latter -in make and in variety of form. - -Thirdly, as has already been pointed out, we have here the earliest -traces of art. On that subject it is not necessary again to dwell. - - * * * * * - -3. And now pass on to the second stone age, and see what progress man -has made in the interval which separates the two periods. We begin with -the society represented by the kitchen-middens. We do not possess any -certainly polished-stone implements from these refuse-heaps. But I do -not lay any great stress upon the invention of the art of polishing or -even of grinding the stone; though that was not without importance, for -it enabled the men of the second stone age to make use of much harder -and more durable sorts of stone for their cutting implements. The -earliest stone-age men made their implements of all sorts almost -exclusively of flints, because the flint was a stone not difficult to -chip into shape and to give an edge to by chipping. But when it comes to -polishing or grinding instead of chipping an edge upon stones, there are -a variety of other kinds of stone which are much more durable and much -more serviceable than flints are, for the very reason that they are not -liable to chip, and these stones (jade, granite, greenstone, obsidian, -or one or other of the marbles, for example) we find a good deal -employed during the latter stone age. - -What, however, is more significant than would be the use of -polished-stone implements by the kitchen-midden men is the evidence of -their use of canoes, and therefore the evidence that they understood the -art of navigation. - -Next after that we must place the use of the bow, which also was -probably known to the earliest men of the polished-stone age, but not to -those of the preceding era. - -Finally, we have the beginning of domestication of animals in the -domestication of the dog. But we have as yet no beginning of -agriculture. - - * * * * * - -4. Pass on to the men who raised the tumuli and we find still further -signs of progress. Of these the tumuli themselves are the most -significant. For in them we see the beginning of the art of building. I -do not say that houses were unknown to the kitchen-midden men; only that -we have no proof that they lived in houses; and we are here taking the -evidences of advancing civilization as we come across them. In the case -of the still earlier cave-dwellers we may take it for granted that the -art of house-building was unknown to them, and quite as much so to the -men of the river drift.[16] - -True, the tumuli are not houses; they are tombs. But the men who could -raise these tombs could raise houses likewise, and there can be little -doubt that the architecture of the tombs, here and throughout the -history of mankind, was modelled upon the architecture of the houses. -Wherefore we may assume that these last were low and narrow chambers, a -sort of constructed caves, so to speak, which is just what we should -expect the earliest houses to be. We should expect that the first -advance from cave-dwelling or burrowing in the ground would be to raise -an artificial mountain and burrow within that. But soon the insecurity -of this house would become apparent, and the next advance--no mean one, -however,--would be the propping of stones upon others to make a chamber -before the earth was heaped up in the tumulus, and when that step had -been reached the art of house-building had begun. - -We might call the next step forward the acquisition of a religion, of -which the first signs are apparent in the cromlechs of this age. In this -case, again, we only follow the testimony of the remains that have been -discovered in the order in which they have come to light. It would be -far too much to say that the earlier stone-age men were without -religious observances. All we can say is, that the first certain -remains of these belong to the time of the tumuli and the cromlechs. The -reasons which lead us to believe that these last, the cromlechs, had a -religious character have been already given. - -Commerce was not unknown even to the cave-dwellers, but the first proofs -of anything like a distant commerce come to us from the date of the -grave-mounds. - -The domestic animals of the tumuli begin to be numerous--oxen, pigs, -goats, and geese,--though these remains are not found in the earliest -mounds. And there is likewise among them some trace of agriculture. - -Finally, traces of the art of pottery-making appear for the first time -in these graves. - - * * * * * - -5. The village communities show an advance to the most undoubted use of -agriculture, to the planting of fruit-trees, to the weaving of cloths, -and a much more extended practice of domestication than obtained among -the men of the grave-mounds. - -Thus we see that as long ago as the stone age, before man had yet -discovered any metal except, maybe, gold, he had advanced so far as to -have discovered the most necessary arts of life, hunting, fishing, -navigation (in some form), the domestication of animals, agriculture, -planting, weaving, the making of garments--not of skin only, but also of -linen or cloth--and the making of pottery. - -And now let us note one other thing--the point where the stone age seems -to approach most nearly to the borders of actual history. History begins -in Egypt. For no continuous Biblical history exists for the days prior -to Abraham. But in Egypt, for many centuries before Abraham, we have a -continuous history, or at least continuous chronicles and dynastic -lists, whose authenticity is admitted, and the remains of no mean -civilization in the buildings contemporary with these earliest -chronicles. - -Egyptian history may be said to begin with the builders of the pyramids. -But the pyramids themselves are nothing else than the children of the -tumuli of the second stone age. We may call them a sort of crystallized -tumuli--barrows of stone instead of earth. But, in truth, the earliest -pyramids were probably not built of stone. It is generally believed that -the stone pyramids which we see to-day at Gîza and Sakkara were preceded -by pyramids of unbaked brick. And what are such buildings of unbaked -brick save carefully raised mounds of earth? Here, then, we get the -nearest meeting-point between the stone age and the age of history. - -Again, the principle upon which were constructed the Egyptian tombs--of -which the pyramids were only the most conspicuous forms--were precisely -the same as the principles which governed the construction of the more -elaborate barrows. These last had not only a chamber for the dead. This -chamber was in many cases approached by a passage also made of stones -covered with earth; and there can be no question that the mouth of the -tomb was used as a sort of ante-room in which the relatives of the dead -might hold their wake, or funeral feast. Here have been found the traces -of fires, the remains of animals, fragments of vessels of pottery, etc., -used or consumed in the feasts. We may believe that the ceremony was -repeated at stated intervals. The very same principle governed the -construction of the Egyptian tombs. These likewise (in their earliest -known forms) consisted of an inner tomb and of an outer chamber; -generally between the one and the other there was a passage. The outer -chamber is that to which archæologists have given the name of _mastaba_. -In it the relatives of the dead continued year after year to keep a -funeral feast in his memory. Or we may say more than in memory of the -dead--_with_ the dead, we may say. For the essence of the feast, the -fumes of the baked meats, was thought to penetrate along the passage and -reach the mummy himself in his dark chamber. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Ages of bronze and iron.] - -Thus we come to the end of the stone age or ages. The next great -discovery which man made was that of the metals. Not iron at first; -before iron was discovered there supervened the age known as the Bronze -Age, when copper and tin were known but not iron, and all the most -important implements were made of that mixture of copper and -tin--bronze, the hardest substance then obtainable. In some countries -the discovery of the metals was natural, and one age followed upon the -other in gradual sequence. But in Europe it was not so. The men of the -bronze age were a new race, sallying out of the East to dispossess the -older inhabitants, and if in some places the bronze men and the stone -men seem to have gone on for a time side by side, the general character -of the change is that of a sudden break. - -Therefore we do not now proceed to speak of the characteristic -civilization of the bronze age. As will be seen hereafter, the bringers -of the new weapons belonged to a race concerning whom we have much -ampler means of information than is possessed for the first inhabitants -of these lands; and we are spared the necessity of drawing all our -knowledge from a scrutiny of their arms or tombs. But before we can -satisfactorily show who were the successors of the stone-age men in -Europe, and whence they came, we must turn aside towards another -inquiry, viz. into the origin of language. - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -THE GROWTH OF LANGUAGE. - - -[Sidenote: The growth of language.] - -We have looked upon man fashioning the first implements and weapons and -houses which were ever made; we now turn aside and ask what were the -first of those immaterial instruments, those ‘aëriform, mystic’ legacies -which were handed down and gradually improved from the time of the -earliest inhabitants of our globe? Foremost among these, long anterior -to the ‘metallurgic and other manufacturing _skill_,’ comes language. -With us, in whose minds thought and speech are so bound together as to -be almost inseparable, the idea that language is an instrument which -through long ages has been slowly improved to its present perfection, -seems difficult of credit. We think of early man having the same ideas -and expressing them as readily as we do now; but this he could not -really have done. Not, indeed, that we have any reason to believe that -there was a time when man had no language at all; but it seems certain -that long ages were necessary before this instrument could be wrought to -the fineness in which we find it, and to which, in all the languages -with which we are likely to become acquainted, we are accustomed. A rude -iron knife or spear-head seems a simple and natural thing to make. But -we know that before it could be made iron had to be discovered, and the -art of extracting iron from the ore; and, as a matter of fact, we know -that thousands of years passed before the iron spear-head was a -possibility; thousands of years spent in slowly improving the weapons of -stone, and passing on from them to the weapons of bronze. So, too, with -language; simple as it seems at first sight to fit the word on to the -idea, and early as we ourselves learn this art, a little thought about -what language is will show us how much we owe to the ages which have -gone before. - -[Sidenote: The two main classes of words ‘significant’ and -‘insignificant.’] - -To understand fully the department of study called the science of -language considerable linguistic knowledge is necessary. But to grasp -many of the general principles of this science, and many of the most -important facts which it teaches, we do not need any such wide -knowledge. In fact, a little thoughtful examination of any single tongue -(his own, whichever it may be) would teach a person many things which -without thought he would be inclined to pass over as matters of course -or matters of no consequence. In truth, in this science of language what -we need, even before we need a very wide array of facts, is what is -called the scientific method in dealing with the facts which we possess. -But, again, this which we call the scientific method is really -represented by two qualities which have less pretentious -names--_observation_ and _common sense_. - -Let us begin then by, so to say, challenging our own language, our -English as we find it to-day, and see what hints we can gain from it of -the formation of language as a whole and of its origin. An ounce of -information gained in this wise, by examination and the use of our own -common sense, is worth a much greater bulk of knowledge gained -second-hand from books, and merely remembered as facts divorced from -their causes. - -Take any sentence, and place that, so to say, under a microscope, or -under the dissecting-knife--take the opening sentence of this chapter, -for example. - -“We have looked upon man fashioning the first implements and weapons and -houses that were ever made.” - -Let us look at these few words alone. - -The first thing we have to notice about this sentence, and any other -sentence almost that we could anywhere find, is that the words which -compose it fall into two distinct classes, the classes of what I will -call _meaning_ and _meaningless_, or significant and _in_-significant -words. In the first class fall the words _we_, _looked_, _man_, -_fashioning_, _implements_, _weapons_, _houses_, _made_. These I call -‘meaning’ or ‘significant’ words, because, if we isolate each one and -utter it alone, it will call up some image to the mind--_we_, _weapons_, -_fashioning_, _houses_, _made_, and so forth: the image may be pretty -clear or it may be (in the case of the verbs it is) somewhat hazy. But -in every case some image or some idea does rise before the mind when any -of these words is pronounced. _Have_ and _were_ I exclude for the moment -from either class. The words of the second class, then, from the -sentence chosen are--_upon_, _the_, _and_, _ever_. Of the first three, -at any rate, there can be no difficulty as to why they are classed as -the meaningless or insignificant words of the sentence. Isolated from -the words of the first class, _upon_, _the_, or _and_ can by no means -possibly call up any image or suggest any idea to the mind. - -Now, if you take any implement whose manufacture the world has ever -seen, unless it be of the most primitive description imaginable, you -will find it really devisable into two parts, upon much the same -principle that we have here resolved our typical sentence into two -primary divisions; it will consist of the _essential_ part, the part -which _by itself_ would be useful, and the unessential adjunct which is -designed to assist the usefulness of the other portion, but which is -useless by itself--or if not useless by itself, it is useless for the -purposes for which the implement we are concerned with is made. All -handles meant to assist in the use of an implement, be it a stone axe or -a most elaborate modern weapon, form such an adjunct to the essential -part. Such useful and by comparison useless parts are the blade and the -handle of a knife, the barrel and the stock of a gun, the carrying -portion of the wheelbarrow and the wheel, the _share_--the shearing or -cutting portion of a plough--and the wooden framework; and so forth. -There is no need to multiply examples. Nor, I think, is there any need -to insist further how strictly analogous the two classes of words here -distinguished are to the two parts of any other implement invented by -man. It goes almost of course that the essential portion of any -implement is the portion which was invented first, that knife-blades -were invented before knife-handles, barrows before barrow-wheels, etc. -Wherefore it seems to follow of course that, of the two classes of words -whereof language consists--whereof all languages consist--the meaning -and the meaningless words, the first were the earliest invented or -discovered. This is the same as saying that language once consisted -altogether of words which had a definite meaning attaching to them even -when uttered by themselves, and consequently that the words of the -second class grew, so to say, out of the words of the first class. - -These are the conclusions which a mere examination of a single language, -our own, under the guidance of observation and common sense, would force -upon us; always supposing our language to be a representative one. And -these conclusions are strengthened when we come to look a little into -the history of words, so far as we can trace it. - -So far back, therefore, we may go in the history of language to a time -when all the words which men used were words which by themselves evoked -distinct ideas. Relegating these words, as far as we can, into the -classes which grammarians have invented for the different parts of -speech, we see that the significant words are all, as a rule, either -nouns (or _pro_-nouns), adjectives, or verbs; that the insignificant -words are, as a rule, adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions--what, in -fact, are called _particles_, fragments of speech. I say, _as a rule_, -for both divisions. The pronouns and the auxiliary verbs, for example, -are very difficult to classify; and it depends rather on their use in -each individual sentence, to which division they are to be relegated. - -[Sidenote: Origin of speech undiscoverable.] - -But though we have now learnt to distinguish the words which by -themselves convey definite ideas, and those others whose meaning depends -upon the first class, we are as far as ever from understanding how -words, whether of one kind or the other, come to have the significance -which they have for us. _Book_--no sooner have we pronounced the word -than an _idea_ more or less distinct comes into our mind. The thought -and the sound seem inseparable, and we cannot remember the time when -they were not so. Yet the connection between the thought and the sound -is not necessary. In fact, a sound which generally comes connected with -one idea may--if we are engaged at the time upon a language not our -own--enter our minds, bringing with it an idea quite unconnected with -the first. _Share_ and _chère_, _plea_ and _plie_, _feel_ and _viel_ -(German), are examples in point; and the same thing is shown by the -numerous sounds in our language which have two or more quite distinct -meanings, as for example--_ware_ and _were_, and (with most people) -_where_ too. _Rite_ and _right_ and _wright_ are pronounced precisely -alike; therefore there can be no reason why one sound should convey one -idea more than another. In other words, the idea and the sound have an -arbitrary, not a natural connection. We have been _taught_ to make the -sound ‘book’ for the idea book, but had we been brought up by French -parents the sound ‘livre’ would have seemed the natural one to make. - -So that this wondrous faculty of speech has, like those other faculties -of which Carlyle speaks, been handed down on impalpable vehicles of -sound through the ages. Never, perhaps, since the time of our first -parents has one person from among the countless millions who have been -born had to invent for himself a way of expressing his thoughts in -words. This is alone a strange thing enough. Impossible as it is to -imagine ourselves without speech, we may ask the question--What should -we do if we were ever left in such a predicament? Should we have _any_ -guide in fitting the sound on to the idea? _Share_ and _chère_, _feel_ -and _viel_--among these unconnected notions is there _any_ reason why we -should wed our speech to one rather than another? Clearly there is no -reason. Yet in the case which we imagined of a number of rational beings -who had to invent a language for the first time, if they are ever to -come to an understanding at all there must be some common impulse which -makes more than one choose the same sound for a particular idea. How, -for instance, we may ask, was it with our first parents? They have -passed on to all their descendants for ever the idea of conveying -thought by sound, and all the great changes which have since come into -the languages of the world have been gradual and, so to say, natural. -But this first invention of the idea of speech is of quite another -character. - -Here we are brought to the threshold of that impenetrable mystery ‘the -beginning of things,’ and here we must pause. We recognize this faculty -of speech as a thing mysterious, unaccountable, belonging to that -supernatural being, man. There must, one would think, have been and must -be in us a something which causes our mouth to echo the thought of the -heart; and originally this echo must have been spontaneous and natural, -the same for all alike. Now it is a mere matter of tradition and -instruction, the sound we use for the idea; but at first the two must -have had some subtle necessary connection, or how could one of our first -parents have known or guessed what the other wished to say? Just as -every metal has its peculiar ring, it is as though each impression on -the mind rang out its peculiar word from the tongue.[17] Or was it like -the faint tremulous sound which glasses give when music is played near? -The outward object or the inward thought called out a sort of mimicry, a -distant echo--not like, but yet born of the other--on the lips. These -earliest sounds may perhaps still sometimes be detected. In the sound -_flo_ or _flu_, which in an immense number of languages stands connected -with the idea of flowing and of rivers, do we not recognize some attempt -to catch the smooth yet rushing sound of water? And again, in the sound -_gra_ or _gri_, which is largely associated with the notion of grinding, -cutting, or scraping,[18] there is surely something of this in the -guttural harshness of the letters, which make the tongue grate, as it -were, against the roof of the mouth. - -It does not, however, seem probable that the earliest words were mere -_imitations_ of the sounds produced by the objects they designed to -express, such as are some of the words of child-language whereby dogs -are called _bow-wows_ and lambs are called _baas_. Nor need we wonder at -this, when we note the principles upon which other sorts of -_language_--expressive actions, for instance--are conceived and used. If -we intend to express the idea of motion by an expressive gesture, we do -not make any copy of the mode of that motion. We say ‘Go,’ and we dart -out our hand, half to show that the person we are addressing is to go in -the direction which we point out, or that he is to keep away from us; -half, again, to give the idea of his movement by the rapidity of our -own. But if we wanted to convey this last idea by mere imitation we -should move our legs rapidly and not our arms. - -It might be thought that the study of the gesture-language which has -been used by men, especially the gesture-language of deaf-mutes, who -have no other, would give us the best insight into the origin of -language among mankind. But in reality the results of such a study are -not very satisfactory; and for this reason, that the deaf-mute has in -every case been in contact with one or more persons who possessed -speech, and whose ideas were therefore entirely formed by the possession -and the inheritance of language. This inherited language they translate -into signs for the benefit of the deaf-mute, while the latter is still a -baby and incapable of inventing language; wherefore it, in its turn, -_inherits_ a language almost as much as its parent has done, though it -is a language of gesture and not of spoken words.[19] It is a fact, -however, that deaf-mutes who cannot hear the sounds they make, do -nevertheless articulate certain _sounds_ which they constantly associate -with the same ideas. These seem to bring us very near the -language-making faculty of man. Lists of these sounds have been made, -but they are not such that we can draw any conclusions touching the -natural or universal association of sound and sense. - -[Sidenote: Growth of the ‘insignificant’ words out of the -‘significant.’] - -The origin of human speech and the mode of its first operation are -therefore undiscoverable. We can place no measure to the rapidity with -which the first created man may have obtained his stock of words of our -first class; as Adam is described naming each one of the animals among -whom he lived. All these beginnings lie beyond the ken of linguistic -science. But even when he was furnished as fully as we choose to suppose -with a class of words which had a meaning of their own, there was still -the second class whose invention must have followed upon the invention -of the first. The adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, particles,--the -words which meant _to_, _and_, _at_, _but_, _when_,--these we have -already seen must as a whole have come into use later than the other -class of words. - -This, then, we may fairly call the second stage in the growth of -language, the making of these auxiliary words to enforce the meaning of -the first class of words. And at the first moment it might seem -impossible to imagine how these words could ever have come into -existence. Given a certain word-making faculty, we can understand how -mankind got sounds to express such ideas as _man_, _head_, _hard_, -_red_. But how he could ever have acquired sounds to express such vague -notions as _at_, _by_, _and_, it is much less easy to conceive. A closer -observation, however, even of our own language, and a wider knowledge of -languages generally, lead to the conclusion that all the words of the -second class, the auxiliary words, sprang from words of the first class; -that every insignificant word has grown out of a word which had its own -significance; that, for instance, _with_, _by_, _and_, have descended -from roots (now lost) which, if placed alone, would have conveyed as -much idea to the mind as _pen_, _ink_, or _paper_ does to us. - -This, I say, we should guess even from an examination of our own -language alone. For the process is still going on. Take the word _even_, -as used in the sentence which we have just written: ‘Even from an -examination.’ Here _even_ is an adverb, quite meaningless when used -alone, at least as an adverb; but if we see it alone it becomes another -word, an adjective, a meaning word, bringing before us the idea of two -things hanging level. ‘Even from’ is nonsense as an _idea_ with nothing -to follow it, but ‘even weights’ is a perfectly clear and definite -notion, and each of the separate words _even_ and _weights_ give us -clear and definite notions too. It is the same with _just_, which is -both adverb and adjective. ‘Just as’ brings no thought into the mind, -but ‘just man’ and _just_ and _man_, separately or together, do. _While_ -or _whilst_ are meaningless; but, ‘a while,’ or ‘to while’--to -loiter--are full of meaning. In each case the meaningless word came from -the meaning word, and was first used as a sort of metaphor, and then the -metaphorical part was lost sight of. _Ago_ is a meaningless word by -itself, but it is really only a changed form of the obsolete word -_agone_, which was an old past participle of the verb ‘to go.’ - -And we might find many instances of words in the same process of -transformation in other languages. The English word _not_ is -meaningless, and just as much so are the French _pas_ and _point_ in the -sense of _not_; but in the sense of _footstep_, or _point_, they have -meaning enough. Originally _Il ne veut pas_ meant, metaphorically, ‘He -does not wish a step of your wishes,’ ‘He does not go a footstep with -you in your wish;’ _Il ne veut point_, ‘He does not go a point with you -in your wish.’ Nowadays all this metaphorical meaning is gone, except to -the eye of the grammarian. People recognize that _Il ne veut point_ is -rather stronger than _Il ne veut pas_, but it never occurs to them to -ask why. - -There are so many of these curious examples that one is tempted to go on -choosing instances; but we confine ourselves to one more. Our word _yes_ -is a word which by itself is quite incapable of calling up a picture in -our minds, but the word _is_ or ‘it is,’ though the idea it conveys is -very abstract, and, so to say, intangible--as compared, for instance, -with such verbs as _move_, _beat_--nevertheless belongs to the -‘significant’ class. Now, it happens that the Latin language used the -word _est_ ‘it is’ where we should now use the word ‘yes;’ and it still -further happens that our _yes_[20] is probably the same as the German -_es_, and was used in the same sense of _it is_ as well. Instead of the -meaningless word ‘yes’ the Romans used the word _est_ ‘it is,’ and our -own ancestors expressed the same idea by saying ‘it.’ Still more. It is -well known that French is in the main a descendant from the Latin, not -the Latin of Rome, but the corrupter Latin which was spoken in Gaul. Now -these Latin-speaking Gauls did not, for some reason, say _est_, ‘it is,’ -for _yes_, as the Romans did; but they used a pronoun, either _ille_, -‘he,’ or _hoc_, ‘this.’ When, therefore, a Gaul desired to say ‘yes,’ he -nodded, and said _he_ or else _this_, meaning ‘He is so,’ or ‘This is -so.’ As it happens the Gauls of the north said _ille_, and those of the -south said _hoc_, and these words gradually got corrupted into two -meaningless words, _oui_ and _oc_. It is well known that the people in -the south of France were especially distinguished by using the word _oc_ -instead of _oui_ for ‘yes,’ so that their ‘dialect’ got to be called the -_langue d’oc_, and this word Languedoc gave the name to a province of -France. Long before that time, however, we may be sure, both the people -of the _langue d’oil_, or _langue d’oui_, and those of the _langue d’oc_ -had forgotten that their words for ‘yes’ had originally meant ‘he’ and -‘this.’ - -We can, from the instances above given, form a pretty good guess at the -way in which the auxiliary or meaningless class of sounds came into use -in any language. Each of these must once have had a distinct -significance by itself, then (getting meanwhile a little changed in form -probably) it gradually lost the separate meaning and became only a -particle of speech, only an adjunct to other words. In another way, we -may say that before man spoke of ‘on the rock’ or ‘under the rock’ he -must have used some expression like ‘head of rock,’ or more literally -‘head rock’ and ‘foot rock;’ and that as time went on, new words coming -into use for _head_ and _foot_, these earlier ones dropped down to be -mere adjuncts, and men forgot that they had ever been anything else. -Just so no ordinary Frenchman knows that his _oui_ and _il_ are both -sprung from the same Latin _ille_; nor does the ordinary Englishman -recognize that _ago_ is a past participle of ‘go;’ nor again, to take a -new instance, does, perhaps, the ordinary German recognize that his -_gewiss_, ‘certainly,’ is merely an abbreviation of the past participle -_gewissen_, ‘known.’ - - * * * * * - -We have now followed the growth of language through - -[Sidenote: Root-sounds.] - -two of its stages, first, the coining of the principal or essential -parts of speech, the nouns, adjectives, and verbs; and secondly, the -coining at a later date of the auxiliary parts of speech, the -prepositions, adverbs, and conjunctions, and (where they exist) the -enclitics _the_ and _a_; these last, however, (_as separate words_,[21]) -are wanting from a large number of languages. A third stage is the -variation of certain words to form out of them other words which are -nearly related in character to the first. We may speak of this process -as a process of ringing the changes upon certain _root-sounds_ to form a -series of words allied in sound and allied in sense also. We have -several instances of such groups of allied words in our own language. -_Fly_, _flee_, _flew_, _fled_, are words allied in sound and in sense. -In these cases the sound of the letters f-l constitutes what we may call -the root-sound. And it may be said at once that those languages are said -to be related in each of which a certain number of words can be traced -back to root-sounds which are common to the two or more tongues. - -In the case of the vast majority of words, before we can begin by -comparing one word with another, or trying to discover the root-words of -several different languages, we have first to trace the history of these -words backwards, each in its own language, and find their most primitive -forms. But in tongues which are pretty nearly related we have often no -difficulty in seeing the similarity of corresponding words just as they -stand to-day. We have no difficulty, for instance, in seeing the -connection of the German _Knecht_ and our _knight_,[22] the German -_Nacht_ and our _night_, the German _Raum_ and our _room_; or, again, -the connection between the Italian _padre_ and the French _père_, the -Italian _tavola_ and the French (and English) _table_, etc. - -But where the connection between languages is more distant, we have more -and more to go back to much simpler roots, in order to show the -relationship between them; and by a vast majority the primitive -root-sounds in any large family of languages are single syllables, -whereof the most constant parts are (as a rule) the consonants. So far -as our knowledge goes, we might think of man as beginning human speech -with a certain number of these simple root-sounds, and then proceeding -to ring the changes upon these root-sounds to express varieties in the -root-idea. Sometimes it is easy enough to trace the connection of ideas -between different words which have been formed out of the same -root-word. But sometimes this is not at all easy. Nor can we say why -this special sound has been adopted for any one notion more than for a -number of others to which it would have applied equally well. From a -root, which in Sanskrit appears in its most ancient form, as _mâ_, ‘to -measure,’ we get words in Greek and Latin which mean ‘to think;’ and -from the same root comes our ‘man,’ the person who measures, who -compares, _i.e._, who thinks, also our _moon_, which means ‘the -measurer,’ because the moon helps to measure out the time, the _months_. -But how arbitrary seems this connection between _man_ and _moon_! So, -too, our _crab_ is from the word _creep_, and means the animal that -creeps. But why this name should have been given to crab rather than to -ant and beetle it is impossible to say. So that there appears as little -trace of a reason governing the formation of words out of root-sounds as -there appeared in the adoption of root-sounds to express certain -fundamental ideas. - -Thus equipped with his fixed root and the various words formed out of -it, man had the rough _material_ out of which to build up all the -elaborate languages which the world has known. And he continued his work -something in this fashion. As generation followed generation the -pronunciation of words was changed, as is constantly being done at the -present day. Our grandmothers pronounced ‘Rome,’ ‘Room,’ and ‘brooch,’ -as it was spelt, and not as we pronounce it--‘broach.’ And let it be -remembered, before writing was invented, there was nothing but the -pronunciation to fix the word, and a new pronunciation was really a new -word. When there was no written form to petrify a word, these changes of -pronunciation were very rapid and frequent, so that not only would each -generation have a different set of words from their fathers, but -probably each tribe would be partly unintelligible to its neighbouring -tribes, just as a Somersetshire man is to a great extent unintelligible -to a man from Yorkshire. The first result of these changes would be the -springing up of that class of ‘meaningless’ words of which we spoke -above. Out of some significant words, such as ‘head’ and ‘foot,’ would -arise insignificant words similar to ‘over’ and ‘under.’ Such a change -could only begin when of two names each for ‘head’ and ‘foot’ one became -obsolete as a noun, and was only used adverbially. Then what had -originally meant, metaphorically, ‘head of rock’ and ‘foot of rock’[23] -might come to be used for ‘over’ and ‘under the rock,’ in exactly the -same way that the word _ago_, having changed its form from _agone_, has -become a ‘meaningless’ word to the Englishman of to-day. - -And with the acquisition of the insignificant words a new and very -important process began. To understand - -[Sidenote: Growth of inflexions.] - -what it was we will, as we did before, begin by examining the formation -of some of the languages with which we are, probably, more or less -familiar. Let us note how very many more variations on the same root are -to be found in some languages than in others. On the root _dic_, which -in Latin expresses the notion of speaking, we have the variations -_dico_, _dixi_, _dicere_, _dictum_, _dictio_, _dicto_, _dicor_, -_dictor_, _dictator_, _dictatrix_, etc.; and yet this does not nearly -exhaust the list, for we have all the changes in the different tenses of -_dico_, _dicto_, _dicor_, etc., in the different cases of _dictio_, -_dictator_. dictatrix, etc. The languages which contain these numerous -variations upon one root are what are called the _inflected_ languages, -and the greater number of the changes which they make come under the -head of what grammarians call inflexions. These inflexions are of no -meaning in themselves, they have no existence even in themselves as -words. And yet what is curious is that they are the same for a great -number of different words; and they express the same _relative_ meaning -in the places where they stand whatever the word may be. If the _-nis_ -of _dictionis_ expresses a certain idea relative to _dictio_, so does -the _-nis_ of _lectionis_ express the same idea relative to _lectio_, -the _-nis_ of _actionis_ the same idea relative to _actio_, and so -forth. - -Or, to take an example from a modern inflected language, if the _-es_ of -_Mannes_, expresses a certain idea relative to _Mann_, so does the same -inflexion (_-es_ or _-s_) in _Hauses_, _Baums_, etc., relative to _Haus_ -and _Baum_. - -Now, how are we to explain this fact? Our grammars, it is true, take it -for granted, and give it us as a thing which requires no -explanation--the genitive inflexion is _-nis_ or _-es_, or whatever it -may be. That is all they tell us. But we cannot be content to take -anything of course. An explanation, however, is not difficult, and -follows, _almost_ of course, on the exercise of a little common sense. -If the _-es_ of Mannes, Hauses, Baumes (Baums) expresses the idea ‘of,’ -then, at one time or another, _es_, or some root from which it is -derived, must have _meant_ ‘of.’ This explains easily and naturally -enough the inflexions in any inflected language. They have no meaning -now, but at one time they (or their original forms--their ancestors, so -to speak) had no doubt just as much meaning by themselves as our ‘of.’ -And therefore the only difference between our use in England to-day, and -the ancestral use in a primitive language, was that we say ‘of [the] -man,’ and the ancestral language would have said ‘man-of,’ ‘house-of,’ -etc. This accounts for the same genitive forms being used for so many -different words. - -And that the same genitive forms are not used _throughout_ any language -is no real objection to this theory. If we say _dictionis_, _lectionis_, -but _musæ_, _rosæ_; if we say _Mannes_, _Hauses_, but _Blume_, _Rose_, -the only reason of these varieties is that the languages from which -these inflexions are derived possessed more than one word meaning ‘of,’ -and that one of these words was attached to a certain series of nouns, -another word to another series. - -This is the explanation which mere common sense would give of the origin -of inflexions in language, and further research, had we time to examine -the history of language more elaborately, would show that it was -_fundamentally_ the right explanation. The only correction which we -should have to make on this first and crude theory is explained a little -further on. Thus we see in this third stage of language a process very -closely analogous to the second. The second stage gave us the auxiliary -words, which have decayed so to say, out of the class of significant -words. The third stage gives us the auxiliary words joined on to the -significant ones, and in their turn decaying to become mere inflexions. - -I have called this growth of inflexions the _third_ stage. It is the -_third great_ stage in the formation of language, and is the only other -stage distinguishable when we are examining what is called an inflected -language. And all the languages the general reader is likely to know -belong to this class. But when we turn to a wider study of the various -tongues in use among mankind we find that this process of forming -inflexions is a very slow one, that it, in its turn, has gone through -many stages. And it is, in fact, the different stages through which a -language has passed on its road to the formation of inflexions which -settles the class in which it is to be placed among the various tongues -spoken by mankind. - -We shall soon understand what are these further stages in -language-formation. As far as we have been able to see at present, the -inflexion presents itself as something added on to the significant word -to give it a varied meaning. It is evidently therefore part of a new -process through which language has to go after it has completed its -original stock of sounds, namely, the formation of fresh words by -joining together two others which already exist. This is a process -which, no doubt, in some shape or other, began in the very earliest -ages, and which is to this day going on continually. The simpler form of -it is the joining together two words which are significant when they -stand alone to form a third word expressing a new idea; just as we have -joined ‘ant’ to ‘hill’ and formed _ant-hill_, which is a different idea -than either _ant_ or _hill_ taken alone. In the words _playful_, -_joyful_, again, we have the same process carried rather further. The -words mean simply play-full, ‘full of play,’ joy-full, ‘full of joy.’ -But we do not in reality quite think of this meaning when we use them. -The termination _ful_ has become half-meaningless by itself, and in -doing so we observe it has slightly changed its original form. - -But far more important in the history of language is the joining of the -meaningless or auxiliary words on to other words of the first, the -significant class, whereby in the course of time the inflexions of -language have been formed. Although _we_ always put the meaningless -qualifying word before the chief word, and say ‘on the rock,’ or ‘under -the rock,’ it is more natural to man, as is shown by all languages, to -put the principal idea first, and say ‘rock on,’ ‘rock under,’ the idea -_rock_ being of course the chief idea, the part of the rock, or position -in relation to the rock, coming after. So the first step towards forming -grammar was the getting a number of meaningless words, and joining them -on to the substantive, ‘rock,’ ‘rock-by,’ ‘rock-in,’ ‘rock-to,’ etc. So -with the verb. The essential idea in the verb is the action itself, the -next idea is the time or person in which the action takes place; and the -natural thing for man to do is to make the words follow that order. The -joining process would give us from _love_, the idea of loving, ‘love-I,’ -‘love-thou,’ ‘love-he,’ etc.; and for the imperfect ‘love-was-I,’ -‘love-was-thou,’ ‘love-was-he,’ ‘love-was-we,’ ‘love-was-ye,’ -‘love-was-they;’ for perfect ‘love-have-I,’ ‘love-have-thou,’ -‘love-have-he,’ etc. Of course, these are merely illustrations, but they -make the mode of this early joining process clearer than if we had -chosen a language where that process is actually found in its purity, -and then translated the forms into their English equivalents. - -We have now arrived at a stage in the formation of language where both -_meaning_ and _meaningless_ words have been introduced, and where words -have been made up out of combinations of the two. We see at once that -with regard to meaningless words the use of them would naturally be -fixed very much by tradition and custom; and whereas there might be a -great many words standing for _ant_ and _hill_, and therefore a great -many ways of saying ant-hill, for the meaningless words, such as _under_ -and _on_, there would probably be only a few words. The reason of this -is very plain. While all the separate synonyms for _hill_ expressed -different ways in which it struck the mind, either as being high, or -large, or steep, or what not, for _under_ and _on_, being meaningless -words not producing any _picture_ in the mind, only one word apiece or -one or two words could very well be in use. So long as _under_ and _on_ -were significant words, meaning, perhaps, as we imagined, _head of_, or -_foot of_, there would be plenty of synonyms for them; but only one or -two out of all these would be handed down in their meaningless forms. -And it is this very fact which, as we have seen, accounts for all the -grammars of all languages, every one of those grammatical terminations -which we know so well in Latin and Greek, and German, having been -originally nothing else than meaningless words added on to modify the -words which still retained their meaning. We saw before that it was much -more natural for people to say ‘rock-on’ or ‘hand-in’ than ‘on the rock’ -or ‘in the hand’--because rock and hand were the most important ideas -and came first into the mind, while _on_, _in_, etc., were only -subsidiary ideas depending upon the important ones. If we stop at rock -or hand without adding _on_ and _in_, we have still got something -definite upon which our thoughts can rest, but we could not possibly -stop at _on_ and _in_ alone, and have any idea in our minds at all. It -is plain enough therefore that, though we say ‘on the rock,’ we must -have the _idea_ of all the three words in our mind before we begin the -phrase, and therefore that our words do not follow the natural order of -our ideas; whereas rock-on, hand-in, show the ideas just in the way they -come into the mind. - -It is a fact, then, that all case-endings arose from adding on -meaningless words to the end of the word, the noun or pronoun--_Mann_, -_des mann-es_, _dem Mann-e_; _hom-o_, _hom-inis_, _hom-ini_: the -addition to the root in every case was once a distinct word of the -auxiliary kind, or derived from such a word. The meanings of -case-endings such as these cannot, it is true, be discovered now, for -they came into existence long before such languages as German or Latin -were spoken, and their meanings were lost sight of in ages which passed -before history. But that time when the terminations which are -meaningless now had a meaning, and the period of transition between this -state and the state of a language which is full of grammatical changes -inexplicable to those who use them, form distinct epochs in the history -of every language. And it is just the same with verb-endings as with the -case endings--_ich bin_, _du bist_, really express the ‘I’ and ‘thou’ -twice over, as the pronouns exist though hidden and lost sight of in the -_-n_ and _-st_ of the verb. In the case of verbs, indeed, we may without -going far give some idea of how these endings can be detected. We may -say at once that Sanskrit, Persian, Armenian, Greek, Latin, French, -Italian, Spanish, German, English, Norse, Gaelic, Welsh, Lithuanian, -Russian, and other Slavonic languages are all connected together in -various degrees of relationship, all descended from one common ancestor, -some being close cousins, and some very distant. Now in Sanskrit ‘I am’ -is thus declined:-- - - _as-mi_ I am. - _a-si_ thou art. - _as-ti_ he is. - _’-smas_ we are. - _’s-tha_ ye are. - _’s-anti_ they are. - -By separating the root from the ending in this way we may the more -easily detect the additions to the root, and their meanings. _As_ is the -root expressing the idea of being, existing; _mi_ is from a root meaning -_I_ (preserved in _me_, Greek and Lat. _me_, _mi_, _m[ich]_, etc.); so -we get _as-mi_, am-I, or I am. Then we may trace this form of word -through a number of languages connected with the Sanskrit. The most -important part of _as-mi_, the consonants, are preserved in the Latin -_sum_, I am, from which, by some further changes come the French _suis_, -the Italian _sono_: the same word appears in our _a-m_, and in the Greek -_eimi_ (Doric _esmi_), I am. Next, coming to the second word, we see one -of the _s’s_ cut out, and we get _a-si_, in which the _a_ is the root, -and the _si_ the addition signifying _thou_. To this addition correspond -the final _s’s_ in the Latin _es_, French _es_--_tu es_, and the Greek -_eis_ (Doric _essi_). So, again, in _as-ti_, the _ti_ expresses he, and -this corresponds to the Latin _est_, French _est_, the Greek _esti_, the -German _ist_; in the English the expressive _t_ has been lost. We will -not continue the comparison of each word; it will be sufficient if we -place side by side the same tense in Sanskrit and in Latin,[24] and give -those who do not know Latin an opportunity of recognizing for themselves -the tense in its changed form in French or Italian:-- - - ENGLISH. SANSKRIT. LATIN. - I am _as-mi_ _sum_. - thou art _a-si_ _es_. - he is _as-ti_ _est_. - we are _’s-mas_ _sumus_. - ye are _’s-tha_ _estis_. - they are _’s-anti_ _sunt_. - -The plural of the added portion we see contains the letters _m-s_, and -if we split these up again we get the separate roots _mi_ and _si_, so -that _mas_ means most literally ‘I,’ and ‘thou,’ and hence ‘we.’ In the -second person the Latin has preserved an older form than the Sanskrit, -_s-t_ the proper root-consonants for the addition part of the second -person plural, combining the ideas thou and he, from which, ye. The -third person plural cannot be so easily explained. - -It will be seen that in the English almost all likeness to the Sanskrit -terminations has been lost. Our verb ‘to be’ is very irregular, being, -in fact, a mixture of several distinct verbs. The Anglo-Saxon had the -verb _beó_ contracted from _beom_ (here we have at least the _m-_ ending -for I), I am, _byst_, thou art, _bydh_, he is, and the same appear in -the German _bin_, _bist_. It is, of course, very difficult to trace the -remains of the meaningless additions in such advanced languages as ours, -or even in such as Sanskrit, Latin, and Greek. Nevertheless, the reader -may find it not uninteresting to trace in the Latin through most of the -tenses of verbs these endings--_m_, for I, the first person; _s_, for -thou, the second person; _t_, for he, the third person; _m-s_, for I and -thou, we; _st_, for ye, thou and he, ye; _nt_, for they. And the same -reader must be content to take on trust the fact that other additions -corresponding to different tenses can also be shown or reasonably -guessed to have been words expressive by themselves of the idea which -belongs to the particular tense; so that where we have such a tense as-- - - _amabam_ I was loving, - _amabas_ thou wast loving, - _amabat_, _etc._ he was loving, - -we may recognize the meaning of the component parts thus:-- - - _ama-ba-m_ love-was-I. - _ama-ba-s_ love-was-thou. - _ama-ba-t_ love-was-he. - -Of course, really to show the way in which these meaningless additions -have been made and come to be amalgamated with the root, we should have -to take examples from a great number of languages in different stages of -development. But we have thought it easier, for mere explanation, to -take only such languages as were likely to be familiar to the reader, -and even to supplement these examples with imaginary ones--like -‘rock-on,’ ‘love-was-I,’ etc.--in English. For our object has been at -first merely to give an intelligible account of how language has been -formed, of the different stages it has passed through, and to leave to a -future time the question as to which languages of the globe have passed -through all these stages, and which have gone part of their way in the -formation of a perfect language. Between the state of a language in -which the meaning of all the separate parts of a word are recognized and -that state where they are entirely lost, there is an immense gap, that -indeed which separates the most from the least advanced languages of the -world. - -[Sidenote: Monosyllabic Language.] - -Every language that is now spoken on the globe has gone through the -stage of forming meaningless words, and is therefore possessed of words -of both classes. They no longer say ‘head-of-rock’ or ‘foot-of-rock,’ -but ‘rock-on’ and ‘rock-under.’ But there are still known languages in -which almost every syllable is a word, and where grammar properly -speaking is scarcely needed. For grammar, if we come to consider it -exactly, is the explanation of the meaning of those added syllables or -letters which have lost all natural meaning of their own. If each part -of the word were as clear and as intelligible as ‘rock-on’ we should -have no need of a grammar at all. A language of this sort is called a -monosyllabic or a radical language, not because the people only speak -in monosyllables, but because each word, however compound, can be split -up into monosyllables or _roots_, which have a distinctly recognizable -meaning. ‘Ant-hill-on’ or ‘love-was-I,’ are like the words of such a -language. - -[Sidenote: Agglutinative language.] - -The next stage of growth is where the meaning of the added parts has -been lost sight of, except when it is connected with the word which it -modifies; but where the essential word has a distinct idea by itself, -and without the help of any addition. Suppose, for instance, through -ages of change the ‘was I’ in our imaginary example got corrupted into -‘wasi,’ where _wasi_ had no meaning by itself, but was used to express -the first person of the past tense. The first person past of love would -be ‘love-wasi,’ of move ‘move-wasi,’ and so on, ‘wasi’ no longer having -a meaning by itself, but ‘love’ and ‘move’ by themselves being perfectly -understandable. Or, to take an actual declension from a Turanian -language,-- - - _bakar-im_ I regard, - _bakar-sin_ thou regardest, - _bakar_ he regards, - _bakar-iz_ we regard, - _bakar-siniz_ you regard, - _bakar-lar_ they regard, - -where, as we see, the root remains entirely unaffected by the addition -of the personal pronoun. - -A language in this stage is said to be in the agglutinative stage,[25] -because certain grammatical endings (like ‘wasi’) are merely as it were -glued on to a root to change its meaning, while the root itself remains -quite unaffected, and means neither less nor more than it did before. - -[Sidenote: Inflected language.] - -But, as ages pass on, the root and the addition get so closely combined -that neither of them alone has, as a rule, a distinct meaning, and the -language arrives at its third stage of grammar-formation. It is not -difficult to find examples of a language in this condition, for such is -the case with all the languages by which we are surrounded. All the -tongues which the majority of us are likely to study, almost all those -which have any literature at all, have arrived at this last stage, which -is called the inflexional. For instance, though we might divide -_actionis_ into two parts _actio_ and _nis_, and say that the former -contains the essential idea, and the addition the idea implied by the -genitive case, there are only a few Latin words with which such a -process is possible, and even in the case of _actio_ the separation is -somewhat misleading. In _homo_ the real root is _hom_, and the genitive -is not homo-nis but _hominis_. So, again, though we were able to -separate ‘asmi’ into two parts--‘as’ and ‘mi’--one expressing the idea -of being, the other the person ‘I,’ this distinction is the refinement -of the grammarian, and would never have been recognized by an ordinary -speaker of Sanskrit, for whom ‘asmi’ simply meant ‘I am,’ without -distinction of parts. In our ‘am’ the grammarian recognizes that the ‘a’ -expresses existence, and the ‘m’ expresses I; but so completely have we -lost sight of this, that we repeat the ‘I’ before the verb. Just the -same in Latin. No Roman could have recognized in the ‘s’ of _sum_ ‘am’ -and in the ‘m’ ‘I;’ for him _sum_ meant simply and purely ‘I am.’ It was -no more separable in his eyes than the French _êtes_ (Latin _estis_) in -_vous êtes_ is separable into a root ‘es,’ contracted in the French into -‘ê,’ meaning _are_, and an addition ‘tes’ signifying _you_. This, then, -is the last stage upon which language enters. It is called the -inflexional or inflected stage, because the different grammatical -changes are not now denoted by a mere addition to an intelligible word, -but by a change in the word itself. The root may in many cases remain -and be recognizable in its purity, but very frequently it is -unrecognizable, so that the different case-or tense-endings can no -longer be looked upon as additions, but as changes. Take almost any -Latin substantive, and we see this: _homo_, a man, the genitive is -formed by changing _homo_ into _hominis_, or, if we please, adding -something to the root _hom_--which has in itself no meaning; _musa_ -changes into _musæ_; and so forth. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: The five stages in the formation of language.] - -And now to recapitulate. We have in tracing the growth of language -discovered first of all two stages whereby the material of the language -was formed: the class of what we have called the meaning or significant -words came into being, and out of this was formed the second class of -so-called meaningless or auxiliary words. These two stages were in the -main passed through before any known language came into existence; for -there is no known language which does not contain words of both these -classes; albeit the second stage is likewise a process which is still -going on, as in the examples chosen, where _even_ and _just_ pass from -being adjectives into _even_ and _just_ the adverbs, and the French -substantives _pas_ and _point_ take a like change of meaning. - -These first two stages passed, there follow three other stages which go -to the formation of the grammar of a language: first the stage of merely -coupling words together, so as to form fresh words--the _monosyllabic_ -state; then the stage in which one part of the additional word has lost -its meaning while the root-word remains unchanged--the stage called the -_agglutinative_ condition of language; and, finally the stage in which -the added portion has become to some extent absorbed into the -root-word--which last stage is the _inflected_ condition of a language. - -When we have come to this inflexional state, the history of the growth -of language comes to an end. It happens indeed, sometimes, that a -language which has arrived at the inflected stage may in time come to -drop nearly all its inflexions. This has been the case with English and -French. Both are descended from languages which had elaborate -grammars--the Saxon and the Latin; but both, through an admixture with -foreign tongues and from other causes, have come to drop almost all -their grammatical forms. We show our grammar only in a few changes in -our ordinary verbs--the second and third persons singular, _thou goest_, -_he goes_; the past tense and the past participle, _use_, _used_; _buy_, -_bought_, etc.; in further variations in our auxiliary verb ‘to be;’ by -changes in our pronouns, _I_, _me_, _ye_, _you_, _who_, _whom_, etc.; -and by the ‘’s’ and ‘s’ of the possessive case and of the plural, and -the comparison of adjectives. The French preserve their grammar to some -extent in their pronouns, their adjectives, the plurals of their nouns, -and in their verbs. Instances such as these are cases of decay, and do -not find any place in the history of the growth of language. - -We now pass on to examine where the growth of language has been fully -achieved, where it has remained only stunted and imperfect. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -FAMILIES OF LANGUAGE. - - -We have now traced the different stages through which language may pass -in attaining to its most perfect form, the inflected stage. There were -the two stages in which what we may call the bones of the language were -formed, the acquisition of those words which, like _pen_, _ink_ and -_paper_, when standing alone bring a definite idea into the mind, and, -next, the acquisition of those other words which, like _to_, _for_, -_and_, produce no idea in the mind when taken alone. We saw that while -the first class of words _may_ have been acquired with any imaginable -rapidity, the second class could only have gradually come into use as -one by one they fell out of the rank of the ‘significant’ class. - -Again, after this skeleton of language has been got together, there -were, we saw, three other stages which went to make up the grammar of a -language: the radical stage, in which all the words of the language can -be cut up into _roots_ which are generally monosyllables, each of which -has a meaning as a separate word; the agglutinative stage, when the -root, _i.e._ the part of the word which expresses the essential idea, -remains always distinct from any added portion; and, thirdly, the -inflected stage, when in many cases the root and the addition to the -root have become so interwoven as to be no longer distinguishable. - -Of course, really to understand what these three conditions are like, -the reader would have to be acquainted with some language in each of the -three; but it is sufficient if we get clearly into our heads that there -are these stages of language-growth, and that, further, each one of all -the languages of the world may be said to be in one of the three. Our -opportunities of tracing the history of languages being so limited, we -have no recorded instance of a language passing out of one stage into -another; but when we examine into these states they so clearly wear the -appearance of _stages_ that there seems every reason to believe that a -monosyllabic language might in time develop into an agglutinative, and -again from that stage into an inflexional, language, _if nothing stopped -its growth_. - -[Sidenote: Arrest in the growth of language.] - -But what, we may ask, are the causes which put a stop to the free growth -and development of language? One of these causes is the invention of -writing. Language itself is of course spoken language, speech, and as -such is subject to no laws save those which belong to our organs of -speaking and hearing. No sooner is the word spoken than it is gone, and -lives only in the memory; and thus speech, though it may last for -centuries, dies, as it were, and comes to life again every hour. It is -with language as it is with those national songs and ballads which, -among nations that have no writing, take the place of books and -histories. The same poem or the same tale passes from mouth to mouth -almost unchanged for hundreds of years, and yet at no moment is it -visible and tangible, nor for the most part of the time audible even, -but for these centuries lives on in men’s memories only. So Homer’s -ballads must have passed for several hundred years from mouth to mouth; -and, stranger still, stories which were first told somewhere by the -banks of the Oxus or the Jaxartes by distant ancestors of ours, are told -to this very day, little altered, by peasants in remote districts of -England and Scotland. But to return to language. It is very clear that -so long as language remains speech and speech only, it is subject to -just so many variations as, in the course of a generation or two, men -may have introduced into their habits of speaking. Why these variations -arise it is perhaps not quite easy to understand; but every one knows -that they do arise, that from age to age, from generation to generation, -not only are new words being continually introduced, and others which -once served well enough dropped out of use, but constant changes are -going on in the pronunciation of words. As we have already said, if left -to itself a language would not remain quite the same in two different -districts. We know, for instance, that the language of common people -does differ very much in different counties, so that what with varieties -of pronunciation, and what with the use of really peculiar words, the -inhabitants of one county are scarcely intelligible to the inhabitants -of another. - -This constant change in language can be resolved, so to say, into two -forces--one of decay, the other of renewal. The change which each word -undergoes is of the nature of decay. It _loses_ something from its -original form. But then, out of this change, it passes into new forms; -and very often out of one word, by this mere process of change in sound, -two words spring. We have already seen instances of how this may come -about. The Anglo-Saxon _agân_ becomes in process of time _agone_, as we -have seen. That word again, by a further process of decay, changes into -_ago_. So far we have nothing but loss. But then the Old English _agân_ -had only the same meaning as our past participle _gone_.[26] So now we -have two words really in the place of one, and where formerly men would -have said, ‘It is a long time _agone_,’ or ‘That man has lately -_agone_,’ we now can say, ‘It is a long time _ago_,’ ‘The man has lately -_gone_.’ And we may in any language watch this process of decay -(_phonetic decay_, as it is called) and regeneration (_dialectic -regeneration_, the philologists call it) ever going forward. We see, as -it were,-- - - ‘The hungry ocean gain - Advantage o’er the kingdom of the shore; - And the firm soil win of the watery main - Increasing store with loss, and loss with store.’ - -The influence which keeps a language together, and tends to make changes -such as these as few as possible, is that of writing. When once writing -has been invented it is clear that language no longer depends upon the -memory only, no longer has such a seemingly precarious tenure of life as -it had when it was no more than speech. The writing remains a strong -bulwark against the changes of time. Although our written words are but -the symbols of sound, they are symbols so clear that the recollection of -the sound springs up in our minds the moment the written word comes -before our eyes. So it is that there are hundreds of words in the -English language which we should many of us not use once in a lifetime, -which are yet perfectly familiar to us. All old-fashioned words which -belong to the _literary_ language, and are never used now in common -life, would have been forgotten long ago except for writing. The fact, -again, that those provincialisms which make the peasants of different -counties almost mutually unintelligible do not affect the intercourse of -educated people, is owing to the existence of a written language. - -[Sidenote: Chinese.] - -It was at one time thought by philologists that in Chinese we had a -genuine specimen of a language in the radical stage of formation. As -such it is cited, for instance, in Professor Max Müller’s _Lectures on -the Science of Language_. But the most trustworthy Chinese scholars are, -I believe, now of opinion that the earliest Chinese of which we can find -any trace had already passed through this stage and become an -agglutinative language, and that it has since decayed somewhat from that -condition to become once more almost a monosyllabic language. - -However that may be, it is acknowledged that Chinese has never passed -beyond a very primitive condition, and that its having rested so long in -this state is due more than anything else to the early invention of -writing in that country. We know how strange has been the whole history -of civilization in China. How the Chinese, after they had made long ago -an advance far beyond all their contemporaries at that date of the -world’s history, seem to have suddenly stopped short there, and have -remained ever since a stunted incomplete race, devoid of greatness in -any form. Their character is reflected very accurately in their -language. While it was still in a very primitive condition writing was -introduced into the country, and from that time forward the tongue -remained almost unchanged. Other languages which are closely allied to -Chinese--Burmese, Siamese, and Thibetan--are so nearly monosyllabic that -they can scarcely be considered to have yet got fairly into the -agglutinative stage. - -It is, then, writing which has preserved for us Chinese in the very -primitive condition in which we find it. For people in a lower order of -civilization there may be many other causes at work to prevent an -agglutinative language - -[Sidenote: Turanian languages.] - -becoming inflexional. It is not always easy to say what the hindering -causes have been in any individual case; but perhaps, if we look at the -difference between the last two classes of language, we can get some -idea of what they might be for the class of agglutinative languages as a -whole. An inflexional language has quite lost the memory of the real -meaning of its inflexions--or at least the real reason of them. We could -give no reason why we should not use _bought_ in the place of _buy_, -_art_ in the place of _am_, _whom_ in the place of _who_--no other -reason save that we have always been taught to use the words in the -position they take in our speech. But there was once a time when the -changes only existed in the form of _additions_ having a distinct -meaning. Even in agglutinative languages these additions have a distinct -meaning _as_ additions, or, in other words, if we were using an -agglutinative language we should be always able to distinguish the -addition from the root, and so should understand the precise effect of -the former in modifying the latter. To understand the use of words in an -agglutinative language, therefore, a great deal less of tradition and -memory would be required than are wanted to preserve an inflected -language. This really is the same as saying that for the inflected -language we must have a much more constant use; and this again implies a -greater intellectual life, a closer bond of union among the people who -speak it, than exists among those who speak agglutinative languages. - -Or if we look at the change from another point of view, we can say that -the cause of the mixing up of the root, and its addition came at first -from a desire to _shorten_ the word and to save time--a desire which was -natural to people who spoke much and had much intercourse. We may then, -from these various considerations, conclude that the people who use the -agglutinative languages are people who have not what is called a close -and active national life. This is exactly what we find to be the case. -If a primitive language, such as the Chinese, belongs to a people who -have, as it were, developed too quickly, the agglutinative languages, as -a class, distinguish a vast section of the human race whose natural -condition is a very unformed one, who are for the most part nomadic -races without fixed homes, or laws, or states. They live a tribal -existence, each man having little intercourse save with those of his -immediate neighbourhood. They are unused to public assemblies. Such -assemblies take among early peoples almost the place of literature, in -obliging men to have a common language and a united national life. Being -without these controlling influences, it results that the different -dialects and tongues belonging to the agglutinative class are almost -endless. It is not our intention to weary the reader by even a bare list -of them. But we may glance at the chief heads into which these -multifarious languages may be grouped, and the geographical position of -those who speak them. - -The agglutinative tongues include the speech of all those peoples of -Central Asia whom in common language we are wont to speak of as Tartars, -but whom it would be more correct to describe as belonging to the Turkic -or Mongol class, and of whom several different branches--the Huns, who -emigrated from the borders of China to Europe; the Mongols or Moghuls, -who conquered Persia and Hindustan; and lastly, the Osmanlîs, or -Ottomans, who invaded Europe and founded the Turkish Empire--are the -most famous, and most infamous, in history. Another large class of -agglutinative languages belongs to the natives of the vast region of -Siberia, from the Ural mountains to the far east. Another great class, -closely allied to these last, the Finnish tongues namely, once spread -across all the northern half of what is now European Russia, and across -North Scandinavia; but the people who spoke them have been gradually -driven to the extreme north by the Russians and Scandinavians. Lastly, a -third division is formed by those languages which belonged to the -original inhabitants of Hindustan before the greater part of the country -was occupied by the Hindus. These languages are spoken of as the -Dravidian class. The natural condition of these various nations or -peoples is, as we have said, a nomadic state, a state in which -agriculture is scarcely known, though individual nations out of them -have risen to considerable civilization. And as in very early times -ancestors of ours who belonged to a race speaking an inflexional -language bestowed upon some part of these nomadic people the appellation -_Tura_, which means ‘the swiftness of a horse,’ from their constantly -moving from place to place, the word Turanian has been applied to all -these various peoples, and the agglutinative languages are spoken of -generally as Turanian tongues. - -[Sidenote: Aryan and Semitic languages.] - -And now we come to the last--the most important body of languages--the -inflected; and we see that for it have been left all the more important -nations and languages of the world. Almost all the ‘historic’ people, -living or dead, almost all the more civilized among nations, come under -this our last division: the ancient Egyptians, Chaldæans, Assyrians, -Persians, Greeks, and Romans, as well as the modern Hindus and the -native Persians, and almost all the inhabitants of Europe, with the -countless colonies which these last have spread over the surface of the -globe. The class of inflected languages is separated into two main -divisions or _families_, within each of which the languages are held by -a tie of relationship. Just as people are of the same family when they -recognize their descent from a common ancestor, so languages belong to -one family when they can show clear signs that they have grown out of -one parent tongue. We may be sure that we are all the children of the -first pair, and we may know in the same way that all languages must have -grown and changed out of the first speech. But the traces of parentage -and relationship are in both cases buried in oblivion; it is only when -we come much farther down in the history of the world that we can really -see the marks of distinct kinship in the tongues of nations separated by -thousands of miles, different in colour, in habits, in civilization, and -quite unconscious of any common fatherhood. - -[Sidenote: Kinship in languages.] - -Now as to the way in which this kinship among languages may be detected. -Among some languages there is such a close relationship that even an -unskilled eye can discover it. When we see, for instance, such -likenesses as exist in English and German between the very commonest -words of life--_kann_ and _can_, _soll_ and _shall_, _muss_ and _must_, -_ist_ and _is_, _gut_ and _good_, _hart_ and _hard_, _mann_ and _man_, -_für_ and _for_, together with an innumerable number of verbs, -adjectives, substantives, prepositions, etc., which differ but slightly -one from another--we may feel sure either that the English once spoke -German, that the Germans once spoke English, or that English and German -have both become a little altered from a lost language which was spoken -by the ancestors of the present inhabitants of England and Deutsch-land. -As a matter of fact the last is the case. English and German are brother -languages, neither is the parent of the other. Now having our attention -once called to this relationship, we might, any of us who know English -and German, at once set about making a long list of words which are -common to the two languages; and it would not be a bad amusement for any -reader just to turn over the leaves of a dictionary and note how many -German words (especially of the common sort) they find that have a -corresponding word in English. The first thing we begin to see is the -fact that the consonants form, as it were, the bones of a word, and that -changes of a vowel are, as a rule, comparatively unimportant provided -these remain unaltered. The next thing we see is that even the -consonants do not generally remain the same, but that in place of one -such letter in one language, another of a sound very like it appears in -the other language. - -For instance, we soon begin to notice that ‘T’ in German is often -represented by ‘D’ in English, as _tag_ becomes _day_; _tochter_, -_daughter_; _breit_, _broad_; _traum_, _dream_; _reiten_, _ride_; but -sometimes by ‘TH’ in English, as _vater_ becomes _father_; _mutter_, -_mother_. Again, ‘D’ in German is often equal to ‘TH’ in English, as -_dorf_, _thorpe_; _feder_, _feather_; _dreschen_, _thrash_ (_thresh_); -_drängen_, _throng_; _der_ (_die_), _the_; _das_, _that_. Now there is a -certain likeness common to these three sounds, ‘T,’ ‘D,’ and ‘TH,’ as -any one’s ear will tell him if he say _te_, _de_, _the_. As a matter of -fact they are all pronounced with the tongue pressed against the teeth, -only in rather different places; and in the case of the last sound, -_the_,[27] with a breath or aspirate sent between the teeth at the same -time. So we see that, these letters being really so much alike in sound, -there is nothing at all extraordinary in one sound becoming exchanged -for another in the two languages. We learn, therefore, to look beyond -the mere appearance of the word, to weigh, so to speak, the sounds -against each other, and to detect likenesses which might perhaps -otherwise have escaped us. For instance, if we see that CH in German is -often represented by GH in English--in such words as _tochter_, -_daughter_; _knecht_, _knight_; _möchte_, _might_; _lachen_, -_laugh_,--we have no difficulty in now seeing how exactly _durch_ -corresponds to our _through_. For we have at the beginning the _d_ which -naturally corresponds to our _t_, the _r_ remains unchanged, and the -_ch_ naturally corresponds to our _gh_; only the vowel is different in -position, and that is of comparatively small account. Nevertheless at -first sight we should by no means have been inclined to allow the near -relationship of _durch_ and _through_. Thus our power of comparison -continually increases, albeit a knowledge of several languages is -necessary before we can establish satisfactory rules or proceed with at -all sure steps. - -When we have acquired this knowledge there are few things more -interesting than noting the changes which words undergo in the different -tongues, and learning how to detect the same words under various -disguises. And when we have begun to do this, it is by comparing the -words of our own language with corresponding words in the allied tongues -German, Norse, or Dutch, whatever it may be, that we are most frequently -reminded of the meaning of words which have half grown out of use with -us. As, for instance, when the German _Leiche_ (corpse) reminds us of -the meaning of lich-gate (A.S. lica, a corpse) and Lichfield; or the -Norse _moos_, a marshy or heathy region, explains our _moss_-troopers. I -doubt if most people quite know what sea-mews are, still more if the -word mewstone (which, for example, is the name of a rock near Plymouth) -would at once call up the right idea into their mind. But the German -_Möwe_, sea-gull, makes it all plain. How curious is the relationship -between _earth_ and _hearth_, which is exactly reproduced in the German -_Erde_ and _Herde!_ or the obsolete use of the word _tide_ for ‘time’ -(the original meaning of the tides--the ‘times,’) in the expression -‘Time and tide wait for no man’! But in the Norse we have the same -expression _Tid og Time_, which signifies exactly Macbeth’s ‘time and -the hour.’ And of course these words, our _tide_, Norse _Tid_, are the -correspondants of the German _zeit_. When once we have detected how -often the German _z_ corresponds to the English _t_--as in _Zahn_, -tooth; _Zehe_, toe; _Zählen_, to tell (_i.e._, to count); _Zinn_, -tin--we have no difficulty in seeing that our _town_ may correspond to -the German _Zaun_, a hedge: and we guess, what is in fact the case, that -the original meaning of town was only an enclosed or empaled place. The -relationship of our _fee_ to the German _Vieh_, cattle, and the proof -that the earliest money with us was cattle-money, would, at first sight, -be perhaps not so easily surmised by a mere comparison of German and -English words. These are only one or two of the ten thousand points of -interest which rise up before us almost immediately after we have, so to -say, stepped outside the walls of our own language into the domains of -its very nearest relations. - -Nor is the interest of this kind of comparison less great very often in -the case of proper names. The smaller family--or, as we have used the -word family to express a large class of languages, let us say the branch -to which English and German belong--is called the Teutonic branch. To -that branch belonged nearly all those barbarian nations who, towards the -fall of the Roman empire, began the invasion of her territories, and -ended by carving out of them most of the various states and kingdoms of -modern Europe. The best test we have of the nationalities of these -peoples, the best proof that they were connected by language with each -other and with the modern Teutonic nations, is to be found in their -proper names. We have, for instance, among the Vandals such names as -Hilderic, Genseric, and the like; we compare them at once with Theodoric -and Alaric, which were names of famous Goths. Then as the Gothic -language has been preserved we recognize the termination _rîk_ or _rîks_ -in Gothic, meaning a ‘king,’ and connected with the German _reich_, and -also with the Latin _rex_--Alaric becomes _al-rik_, ‘all-king,’ -universal king. In Theodoric we recognize the Gothic _thiudarik_, ‘king -of the people.’ Again, this Gothic word _thiuda_ is really the same as -the German _deutsch_, or as ‘Dutch,’ and is the word of which ‘Teutonic’ -is only a Latinized form. In the same way Hilda-rik in Gothic is ‘king -of battles;’ and having got this word from the Vandals we have not much -difficulty in recognizing Childeric, the usually written form of the -name of a Frankish king, as the same word. This change teaches us to -turn ‘CH’ of Frankish names in our history-books into ‘H,’ so that -instead of Chlovis (which should be Chlodoveus) we first get Hlovis, -which is only a softened form of Hlodovig, or Hludwig, the modern -Ludwig, our Louis. _Hlud_ is known to have meant ‘famous’[28] and _wig_ -a ‘warrior,’ so that Ludwig means famous warrior. The same word ‘wig’ -seems to appear in the word Merovingian, a Latinized form of -Meer-wig,[29] which would mean sea-warrior. - -These instances show us the _kind_ of results we obtain by a comparison -of languages. In the case of these names, for instance, we have got -enough to show a very close relationship amongst the Vandals, the Goths, -and the Franks; and had we time many more instances might have been -chosen to support this conclusion. Here, of course, we have been -confining ourselves to one small _branch_ of a large family. The road, -the farther we go, is beset with greater difficulties and dangers of -mistake, and the student can do little unless he is guided by fixed -rules, which we should have to follow, supposing we were able to carry -on our inquiries into many and distant languages. We may, to some -extent, judge for ourselves what some of these guiding rules must be. - -Those words which we have instanced as being common to English and -German, both we and the Germans have got by inheritance from an earlier -language. Yet there are in English hundreds of words which are not -acquired by inheritance from other languages, but merely by adoption; -hundreds of words have been taken directly from the Latin, or from the -Latin through the French, or from the Greek, and not derived from any -early language which was the parent of the Latin, Greek, and English. -How shall we distinguish between these classes of words? We answer, in -the first place, that the _simpler_ words are almost sure to be -inherited, because people, in however rude a state they were, could -never have done without words to express such everyday ideas as _to -have_, _to be_, _to laugh_, _to make_, _to kill_--_I_, _thou_, _to_, -_for_, _and_; whereas they might have done well enough without words -such as _government_, _literature_, _sensation_, _expression_, words -which express either things which were quite out of the way of these -primitive people, or commonish ideas in a somewhat grand and abstract -form. - -One of our rules, therefore, must be to begin by choosing the commoner -class of words, or, generally speaking, those words which are pretty -sure never to have fallen out of use, and which therefore must have been -handed down from father to son. - -There is another rule--that those languages must be classed together -which have like grammatical forms. This is the rule of especial -importance in distinguishing a complete family of languages. For when -once a language has got into the inflected stage, though it may -hereafter lose or greatly modify nearly all its inflexions, it never -either sinks back into the agglutinative stage, or adopts the -grammatical forms of another language which is also in the inflected -condition. - -These are the general rules, therefore, upon which we go. We look first -for the grammatical forms and then for the simple roots, and according -to the resemblance or want of resemblance between them we decide whether -two tongues have any relationship, and whether that relationship is near -or distant. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: The Semitic races.] - -Now it has in this way been found out that all inflected languages -belong to one of two families, called the Semitic and the Aryan. Let us -begin with the Semitic. This word, which is only a Latinized way of -saying Shemite, is given to the nations who are supposed to be descended -from Shem, the second son of Noah. The nations who have spoken languages -belonging to this Semitic family have been those who appear so much in -Old Testament history, and who played a mighty part in the world while -our own ancestors were still wandering tribes, and at an age when -darkness still obscured the doings of the Greeks and Romans. Foremost -among all in point of age and fame stand the Egyptians, who are believed -to have migrated in far pre-historic ages to the land in which they rose -to fame. They found there a people of a lower, a negro or half-negro -race, and mingled with them, so that their language ceased to be a pure -Semitic tongue. In its foundation, however, it was Semitic. The earliest -of the recorded kings of Egypt, Menes, is believed to date back as far -as 5000 B.C. Next in antiquity come the Chaldæans, who have left behind -them great monuments in the ancient cities Erech and Ur, and their -successors the Assyrians and Babylonians. Abraham, himself, we know, was -a Chaldæan, and from him descended the Hebrew nation, who were destined -to shed the highest honour on the Semitic race. Yet, so great may be the -degeneration of some races and the rise of others, so great may be the -divisions which thus spring up between peoples who were once akin, it is -also true that all those peoples whom the Children of Israel were -specially commanded to fight against and even to exterminate--the -Canaanites, the Moabites, and the Edomites--were likewise of Semitic -family. The Phœnicians are another race from the same stock who have -made their mark in the world. We know how, coming first from the coasts -of Tyre and Sidon, they led the way in the art of navigation, sent -colonies to various parts of the world, and foremost among these founded -Carthage, the rival and almost the destroyer of Rome. Our list of -celebrated Semitic races must close with the Arabs, the founders of -Mohammedanism, the conquerors at whose name all Europe used to tremble, -whose kingdoms once extended in an unbroken line from Spain to the banks -of the Indus. - -[Sidenote: The Aryan races.] - -Such a list gives no mean place to the Semitic family of nations; but -those of the Aryan stock are perhaps even more conspicuous. This family -(which is sometimes called Japhetic, or descendants of Japhet) includes -the Hindus and Persians among Asiatic nations, and almost all the -peoples of Europe. It may seem strange that we English should be related -not only to the Germans and Dutch and Scandinavians, but to the -Russians, Poles, Lithuanians, French, Spanish, Italians, Romans, and -Greeks as well; stranger still that we can claim kinship with such -distant peoples as the Armenians, Persians, and Hindus. Yet such is the -case, and the way in which all these different nations once formed a -single people, speaking one language, and their subsequent dispersion -over the different parts of the world in which we now find them, affords -one of the most interesting inquiries within the range of pre-historic -study. What seems actually to have been the case is this: In distant -ages, somewhere about the rivers Oxus and Jaxartes, and on the north of -that mountainous range called the Hindoo-Koosh, dwelt the ancestors of -all the nations we have enumerated, forming at this time a single and -united people, simple and primitive in their way of life, but yet having -enough of a common national life to preserve a common language. They -called themselves Aryas or Aryans, a word which, in its very earliest -sense, seems to have meant those who move upwards, or straight; and -hence, probably, came to stand for the noble race as compared with other -races on whom, of course, they would look down.[30] - -How long these Aryans had lived united in this their early home it is, -of course, impossible to say; but as the tribes and families increased -in numbers, a separation would naturally take place. Large associations -of clans would move into more distant districts, the connection between -the various bodies which made up the nation would be less close, their -dialects would begin to vary, and thus the seeds of new nations and -languages would be sown. The beginning of such a separation was a -distinction which arose between a part of the Aryan nation, who stayed -at the foot of the Hindoo-Koosh Mountains, and in all the fertile -valleys which lie there, and another part which advanced farther into -the plain. This latter received the name _Yavanas_, which seems to have -meant the protectors, and was probably given to them because they stood -as a sort of foreguard between the Aryans, who still dwelt under the -shadow of the mountains, and the foreign nations of the plains. And now, -their area being enlarged, they began to separate more and more from one -another; while at the same time, as their numbers increased, the space -wherein they dwelt became too small for them who had, out of one, formed -many different peoples. Then began a series of _migrations_, in which -the collection of tribes who spoke one language and formed one people -started off to seek their fortune in new lands, and thus for ever broke -off association with their kindred and their old Aryan home. One by one -the different nations among the Yavanas (the protectors) were infected -with this new spirit of adventure, and though they took different -routes, they all travelled westward, and arrived in Europe at last.[31] - -A not improbable cause has been suggested of these migrations. It is -known that, in spite of the immense volume of water which the Volga is -daily pouring into it, the Caspian Sea is gradually drying up, and it -has been conjectured as highly probable that hundreds of years ago the -Caspian was not only joined to the Sea of Aral, but extended over a -large district which is now sandy desert. The slow shrinking in its bed -of this sea would, by decreasing the rainfall, turn what was once a -fertile country into a desert; and if we suppose this result taking -place while the Aryan nations were gradually increasing in numbers, the -effect would be to drive them, in despair of finding subsistence in the -ever-narrowing fertile tract between the desert and the mountains, to -seek for new homes elsewhere. This, at any rate, is what they did. First -among them, in all probability, started the Kelts or Celts, who, -travelling perhaps to the south of the Caspian and the north of the -Black Sea, found their way to Europe, and spread far on to the extreme -west. At one time it is most likely that the greater part of Europe was -inhabited by Kelts, who partly exterminated and partly mingled with the -stone-age men whom they found there. As far as we know of their actual -extension in historic times we find this Keltic family living in the -north of Italy, in Switzerland, over all the continent of Europe west of -the Rhine, and in the British Isles; for the Gauls, who then inhabited -the northern part of continental Europe west of the Rhine, the ancient -Britons, and probably the Iberians, the ancient inhabitants of Spain, -belonged to this family.[32] The Highland Scotch, who belong to the old -blood, call themselves Gaels, and their language Gaelic, which is -moreover so like the language of the old Irish (who called themselves by -practically the same name--Gaedhill) that a Highlander could make -himself understood in Ireland; perhaps he might do so in Wales, where -the inhabitants are likewise Kelts. These words Gael and Gaedhill are of -the same origin and meaning as Gaul. In the early days of the Roman -republic the Gauls, as we know, inhabited all the north of Italy, and -used often to make successful incursions down to the very centre of the -peninsula. Beyond the Alps they extended as far as into Belgium, which -formed part of ancient Gaul. So much for the Kelts. - -Another great family which left the Aryan home was that from which -descended the Greeks and Romans.[33] The primitive ancestors of these -two people have been called the Pelasgians (Pelasgi), the name which the -Greeks gave to their own ancestors who lived in the days before the name -Hellenes was used for the Greek nationality. There is evidence of a -certain early civilization, which is believed to have been that of these -primitive Pelasgi, in the centre of Asia Minor. And it seems probable -that the line of migration of this nationality passed to the south of -the Caspian Sea, then through Asia Minor, and finally, not all at once, -but in successive streams, some across the Hellespont or Dardanelles to -the north of Italy and the north of Greece, and some to the coast of -Asia Minor, and across by the islands of the Ægean to the mainland of -Greece. At every point upon the route there were left behind -remains--offshoots, as it were, or cuttings from the great Pelasgic -stem,--a primitive half-Greek stock in the centre of Asia Minor, a -barbarous half-Greek stock in Thrace and Macedon; while all along the -coasts of Asia Minor and the Greek Islands, and in the southern parts of -European Greece (more especially those which looked eastward) there -arose a much more cultivated race. For in these regions the Greeks came -in contact with the Phœnicians, and gathered much from the -civilizations of Egypt and Assyria. If there were remains of a primitive -Italian race in the north of Italy these were (in subsequent, but still -pre-historic years) blotted out by the spread of the Gauls beyond the -Alps. - -How little did these rival nationalities, the Greeks and Romans, deem -that their ancestors had once formed a single people! All such -recollections had been lost to the Greeks and Romans, who, when we find -them in historic times, had invented quite different stories to account -for their origin. - -Next we come to two other great families of nations who seem to have -taken the same route at first, and perhaps began their travels together -as the Greeks and Romans did. These are the Teutons and the Slavs. They -seem to have travelled by the north of the Caspian and Black Sea, -extending over all the south of Russia, and down to the borders of -Greece; then gradually to have pushed on to Europe, ousting the Kelts -from the eastern portion, until we find them in the historical period -threatening the borders of the Roman empire on the Rhine and the Danube. -Probably the Teutons pushed on most to the west, and left the Slavs -behind. - -The Teutonic family of nations first comes before us vaguely in the -history of the invasion of Gaul and Italy by the Cimbri and the -Teutones, which, as we know, was checked by Marius in the years 102 and -101 B.C. It is probable that both Cimbri and Teutones were of German -origin, though some have connected the name _Cimbri_ with _Cymri_, the -native name of the Welsh (whence _Cumberland_, etc.). This attack by the -Cimbri and Teutones was only an isolated attempt on behalf of the -Teutons. The great invasion of the Roman empire by them did not begin -till five centuries later, in 395 A.D. Of the nations who from this time -forward were engaged in the dismemberment of the empire, and in laying -the foundations of mediæval history, almost all seem to have been of -Teutonic origin. The chief among these nationalities were the -Goths--divided into two great nationalities, the Visi-Goths (West -Goths), and the Ostro-Goths (East Goths), who successively conquered -Italy, and founded kingdoms in Italy, South Aquitaine, and Spain. Then -there were the Vandals, the Burgundians, the Alani and the Suevi, who -invaded Gaul at the beginning of the fifth century, and passed on, some -of them, to found kingdoms in Spain and Africa. There were the Lombards -who succeeded the Ostro-Goths as conquerors of Italy; the Franks who -subdued the Burgundians and the Visi-Goths; the Bavarians who settled in -the Roman provinces of Vindelicia and Noricum, the English (Saxons, -Angles, and Jutes) who settled in the Roman province of Britain. All -these nations carved for themselves new states out of the fragments of -the Roman empire, and these states have for the most part remained -unchanged till our day. And of all those other German states, many of -which were acquired by driving back the Slavs (_e.g._ modern Saxony, -Prussia), we need not speak here. For we have already said what are the -modern nations which compose the Teutonic, or be it, for the words are -the same, the Deutsch, or Dutch family. They are the Scandinavians--that -is to say, the inhabitants of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland, the -English, the Dutch and Flemings (most of the old Keltic inhabitants of -Belgium were subsequently driven out by Teutonic invaders), and the -Germans. - -Lastly, we come to the Slavonians (Slavs), about whom and the -Panslavonic movement which is to weld all the Slavonic peoples into one -great nationality we have heard so much in recent years. The word Slav -comes from _slowan_, which in old Slavonian meant to ‘speak,’ and was -given by the Slavonians to themselves as the people who alone, in their -view, spoke intelligibly. Just so the Greek word βάρβαροι -(_barbaroi_), from which we get our word barbarians, arose, in obedience -to a like prejudice, only from the imitation of people babbling or -making unintelligible sounds--‘bar-bar-bar.’ But among the Germans who -conquered and enslaved the people, Slav became synonymous with the Latin -_servus_, and from them it passed on to express the idea of -slave--_esclave_, _schiavo_, etc. The Slavonic people once extended much -farther to the west in Northern Europe than they do at present--as far, -for instance, as the Elbe in Northern Germany. We begin to hear of them -in history about the age of Charlemagne--a little, that is, before the -end of the eighth century, A.D. The _Obotriti_ and the _Wiltzi_ are the -names of two Slavonic nations on the Baltic, of whom we hear much about -this time. But they can no longer be identified as the ancestors of any -existing race. In the reign of Charlemagne’s grandson, called Lewis the -German, we hear much of other Slavonic peoples whose names have more -meaning for us--the Sorabians, the Czechs (_i.e._ Bohemians), the Mähren -or Moravians, and the Carinthians, who, if they have as separate peoples -ceased to exist, have left behind them their names in the lands they -inhabited. - -The same has been the case with other Slavonic peoples who appear later -in history--the Pomeranians and the Prussians (earlier Borussians) and -the Silesians. The people who now bear these names and inhabit these -countries are by origin almost exclusively Teutonic; but the names -themselves and the earlier inhabitants were not Teutons, but Slavs. - -The existing Slavonic nationalities are the Russians, Lithuanians -(incorporated in Russia), the Poles, the Czechs or Bohemians, the -Bulgarians, Servians, Montenegrins, etc.,--most, in fact, of the nations -of the Southern Danube. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Pre-historic research through language.] - -This is the classification of nationalities by their language. No -classification is perfect; and we know, as an historical fact, that many -nations have abandoned their original tongue, and adopted that of some -other people--their conquerors probably,--as the Gauls and Goths (or -Iberians) of France and Spain have adopted the Latin of the Romans, as -the Highland Scottish, the Irish, the Welsh and Cornishmen have adopted -English. - -But a classification by language is far more satisfactory than any other -sort of classification of nations. For when we think of nations we do -not think first of all of their _physique_. The most important thing to -know about them is not their hair was dark or red, their eyes brown or -blue. What we care most to learn are their national character, their -thoughts, their beliefs, their forms of social life. And for the days -when we have no national literature, no history, to guide us, almost the -only means of gaining reliable information upon these points is by a -study of the language of the people in question. Language holds within -it far better than do _tumuli_ or weapons, or articles of pottery or -woven-stuffs or ornaments, the records of long-past times, records of -material civilization and mental culture likewise. It holds these -records, as a chemist would say, in solution in it; not visible perhaps -to the mere passer-by; but if we know how to precipitate the solution it -is wonderful what results we obtain. - -No sooner has he finished his classification of languages than a mine of -almost exhaustless wealth then opens before the philologist--a mine, -too, which has at present been only broached. He soon learns the laws -governing the changes of sound from one tongue into another. We have -noted experimentally some of these laws in the more simple relationships -of language, as between English and German, where ‘tag’ becomes ‘day,’ -‘dorf’ ‘thorpe,’ and the like; and all relationships of language are -answerable to similar rules. There are laws for the change of sound from -Sanskrit into the primitive forms of Greek, Latin, German, English, -etc., just as there are laws of change between the first two or the last -two.[34] So we soon learn to recognize a word in one language which -reappears in altered guise in another. And it may be well imagined how -valuable such knowledge can be made. If we find a word common say to -Greek and Latin, signifying some simple object, a weapon, a tool, an -animal, a house, it is not over-likely that it will have changed from -the time when it was first employed: the words of this kind which are -now in use have, we know, little tendency to change. So that the time -when this word was first used is in all probability the time when the -_thing_ was first known to primitive man; and if the word is common to -the whole Aryan family, or if it is peculiar to a portion only, then it -is argued that the thing was known or unknown before the separation of -the Aryan folk. I do not, of course, say that rule is never at fault, -only that this is a better criterion than any other sort of research -would afford us, and that by this method of word-comparison we get no -bad picture of the world of our earliest Aryan ancestors. - -It might well have happened that when the migrations began our ancestors -were still like the stone-age men of the shell-mounds, still in the -hunter condition; that they knew nothing of domesticated animals, or of -pastures and husbandmen: or it might be, again, that they had left the -pastoral state long behind, and that all their ideas associated -themselves with agriculture, with the division of the land, and with the -recurring seasons for planting. The evidence of language, dealt with -after the fashion we have described, points to the belief that the -ancient Aryans had only made some beginnings of agriculture, as a -supplement to their natural means of livelihood, their flocks and herds: -for among the words common to the whole Aryan race there are very few -connected with farming, whereas their vocabulary is redolent of the -herd, the cattle-fold, the herdsman, the milking-time. Even the word -daughter, which corresponds to the Greek _thugatêr_ and the Sanskrit -_duhitar_, means in the last language ‘the milker,’ and that seems to -throw back the practice of milking to a vastly remote antiquity.[35] - -On the other hand, the various Indo-European branches have different -names for the plough, one name for the German races, another for the -Græco-Italic, and for the Sanskrit. And though _aratrum_ has a clear -connection with a Sanskrit root _ar_, it is not absolutely certain that -it ever had in this language the sense of ploughing, and not merely of -wounding, which is a still more primitive meaning of the same root, -whence came the expression for ploughing as of wounding the earth. - -Or say we wish to form some notion of the social life of the Aryans. Had -they extended ideas of tribal government? Had they kings, or were they -held together only by the units of family life? Our answer would come -from an examination of their common word for ‘king.’ If they have no -common word, then we may guess that the title and office of kingship -arose among the separate Aryan people and received a name from each. Or -is it that their common word for king had first some simpler -signification, ‘father,’ perhaps, showing that among the Aryan folk the -social bond was still confined within the real or imaginary boundary of -the family? In fact we do find a common word for king in several of the -Aryan languages which has no subsidiary meaning less than that of -_directing_, or keeping straight. This is the Latin _rex_, the Gothic -_rîks_, Sanskrit _rîg_, etc., and its earliest ascertainable meaning was -‘the director.’ The Aryans then, even in those days, acknowledged as -supreme[36] some director chosen (probably) from out of the tribe, a -chief to lead their common warlike or migratory expeditions. - -These are but illustrations of the method upon which are founded all -conclusions touching these our ancestors, and the manner of our -knowledge concerning them; far better obtained than merely by gazing -upon the instruments which have fallen from their hands, or the -monuments they might have raised to commemorate the dead. The -difference, in truth, between relics such as these which lie enclosed in -language, and the weapons and tombs of the Stone Ages, is exactly the -difference between Shakespeare’s statue in Westminster Abbey or his bust -at Stratford, and that ‘livelong monument’ whereof Milton spoke. By -perfecting beyond the power of any other race the wonderfully complex -faculty of speech the Aryans secured that their memory should be handed -on the more certainly, and with far greater completeness, than by -records left palpable to men’s eyes and hands. Many of their secret -thoughts might be unlocked by the same key. Already the same means are -being used to give us glimpses of their religious ideas. For the _names_ -of the common Aryan gods can be arrived at by just the same comparative -method: it may well happen that a name which is only a proper name in -one language, can in another be traced to a root which unravels its -original meaning. It was so, we saw, with the word _daughter_. Here the -Sanskrit root seems to unravel the hidden--the lost, and so -hidden--meaning in the Greek or English words. So with a god, the -meaning of a name, concealed from the sight of those who used it in -prayer or praise, becomes revealed to _us_ by the divining rod of the -science of language. - -And it is true, nevertheless, that the mine of wealth thus opened has as -yet been but cursorily explored.[37] There are far more and greater fish -in this sea than ever came out of it. Some day, perhaps, a strictly -scientific method may be found for classifying and tracing the changes -which words undergo. Sometimes a word is found greatly modified; -sometimes it survives almost intact between the different tongues. Is -there any reason for this? At present we cannot say. - -The question might be answered by means of an elaborate classification -under the head of the alterations which words have undergone,[38] and -such a comparative vocabulary would lead to the solution of infinite -questions concerning the growth of nations. We should be able to look -almost into the minds of people long ago, better than we can examine the -minds of contemporary races in a lower mental condition, and see what -ideas took a strong hold upon them, what things they treated as -realities, what metaphorically, and how large for them was the empire of -imagination. - -Next there is the boundless field of proper names, both those of persons -and geographical names. These last in every country bear a certain -witness to the races who have passed through that country, and -show--roughly at least--the order of their appearance there. The older -geographical names will be those of natural features, rivers, mountains, -lakes, which have been never absent from the scene; the newer names will -be those bestowed upon the works of man. In our own country this is the -case. The names of our rivers (Thames, Ouse, Severn, Wye) are nearly all -Keltic, _i.e._ British; those of our towns are Teutonic, Saxon or Norse. -Some few Roman names linger on, as in the name and termination -‘Chester;’ but this, as meaning a place of strength, shows us clearly -the reason of its survival. Every European country has changed hands, as -ours has done; nay, every country in the world.[39] So here again we -have promise of plenty of work for the philologist in compiling a -‘Glossary of Proper Names’ with etymologies. - -Lastly, let it not be forgotten that a great part of all that has been -done for the Aryan can be done likewise for the Semitic languages--a -field as yet little turned by the plough; and the reader will confess -the debt the world is likely some day to owe to Comparative Philology. - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -THE NATIONS OF THE OLD WORLD. - - -[Sidenote: Prehistoric nationalities.] - -When we try and gather into one view the results of our inquiries upon -the kindreds and nations of the old world, it must be confessed we are -struck rather by the extent of our ignorance than of our knowledge. For -all the light we are able to shed, the movements and the passage of the -various races in this prehistoric time appear to the eye of the mind -most like the movement of great hosts of men seen dimly through a mist. -Or shall we say that we are in the position of persons living upon some -one of many great military highways, while before their eyes pass -continually bodies of troops in doubtful progress to and fro, affording -to them, where they stand, no indication of the order of battle or the -plan of the campaign? Still, to men in such a position there would be -more or less of intelligence possible in the way in which they watched -the steps of those who passed before them; and we, too, though we cannot -attempt really to follow the track of mankind down from the earliest -times, may yet gather some idea of the changing positions which from age -to age have been occupied by the larger divisions of our race. - -In the Bible narrative continuous history begins, at the earliest, not -before the time of Abraham. In the earlier chapters of Genesis we find -only scattered notices of individuals who dwelt in one particular corner -of the world, nothing to indicate the general distribution of races, or -the continuous lapse of time. It is, moreover, a fact that, owing partly -to the associations of childhood, we are apt, by a too literal -interpretation, to rob the narrative of some part of its historical -value. Here, proper names, which we might be inclined to take for the -names of single individuals, often stand for whole races, and sometimes -for the countries which gave their names to the people dwelling in them. -‘Son of,’ too, must not be taken in its most literal meaning, but in the -wider, and in old languages the perfectly natural, sense of ‘descended -from.’ When nations kept the idea of a common ancestor before their -minds, in a way with which we of the present day are quite unfamiliar, -it was very customary to describe any one person of that people as the -‘son of’ the common ancestor. Thus a Greek who wished to bring before -his hearers the common nationality of the Greek people--the -Hellenes--would speak of them as being the sons of Hellen, of the -Æolians or Ionians as sons of Æolus or Ion. In another way, again, an -Athenian or Theban might speak of his fellow-citizens as sons of Athens -or of Thebes. Such language among any ancient people is not poetical or -hyperbolical language, but the usual speech of every day. It is in a -similar fashion that in the Bible narrative, centuries are passed -rapidly over. And if the remains of the stone ages lift a little the -veil which hides man’s earliest doings upon earth, it must be confessed -that the light which these can shed is but slight and partial. We catch -sight of a portion of the human race making their rude implements of -stone and bone, living in caves as hunters and fishers, without domestic -animals and without agriculture, but not without faculties which raise -them far above the level of the beasts by which they are surrounded. -Yet of these early men we may say we know not whence they come or -whither they go. We cannot tell whether the picture which we are able to -form of man of the earliest time--of the first stone age--is a general -or a partial picture; whether it represents the majority of his -fellow-creatures, or only a particular race strayed from the first home -of man. - -[Sidenote: Black, yellow, red, and white races.] - -We must therefore be content to resign the hope of anything like a -review of man’s life since the beginning. Before we see him clearly, he -had probably spread far and wide over the earth, and already separated -into the three or four most important divisions of the race. It is usual -to divide the human race into four divisions named after, but not -entirely founded upon, the colour of their skins. These divisions are -the black, yellow, red, and white races. I do not propose to go into any -elaborate description either of the peculiarities or the _habitat_ of -these four sections of humanity. The greater part of mankind have no -place in history properly so called. We know them only in the present, -their past is lost for ever. And the present volume being designed to -open the door to history is really not concerned with races such as -these. It will be enough very briefly to indicate the main -characteristics of the four races of mankind, and to refer the reader -for more information to the chapter in Mr. Tylor’s _Anthropology_ -dealing with the subject. - -[Sidenote: The Black Races.] - -The black or negro race, then, consists of two divisions the negroes of -Africa, and the negroes of certain among the islands of the Pacific -bordering upon Australia and called Melanesia. This Melanesia, or ‘the -negro islands’ as we might call them, include Tasmania, New Guinea, and -a great number of smaller islands. But they do not include Australia -and New Zealand, the inhabitants of both which countries have physical -features differing from those of the genuine negro, though the -Australian type approaches very near to his. The colour of the skin is -not really the chief characteristic of this race, but far more so is the -very crisp hair (what is called wool), the very flat and broadened nose, -the broad lips, and the advanced under-jaw, or, as it is called, the -_prognathism_ of the face. This black race has never had anything that -deserves to be called either a literature or a history. - -[Sidenote: The Red Races.] - -The red race, which we will take next, is that which inhabits or, till -the Europeans came, inhabited the whole of America, North and South, -except the extreme North, the country of the Eskimo. We take these -people next because they are almost as unknown to history as are the -negroes. The peculiarities of the red races are their red skin, their -high cheek-bones, the straight black hair which, exactly opposite to -that of the negro, never curls.[40] This race has not been quite so -stationary as the negro. Some of its members, the Aztecs of Mexico, the -Incas of Peru, did attain to a considerable civilization. But they had -advanced no way in the art of writing or keeping records of their past, -which is thus wholly lost to us; and we have no means of connecting the -civilization of the red races with the civilization of that part of the -world which has had a history. - -We are therefore left to deal with the two remaining classes, the yellow -and the white. The oldest, that is to say apparently the least changed, -of these is the yellow - -[Sidenote: The Yellow Races.] - -race, and perhaps their most typical representatives are the Chinese. -The type is a sufficiently familiar one. ‘The skull of the yellow race -is rounded in form. The oval of the head is larger than with Europeans. -The cheek-bones are very projecting; the cheeks rise towards the -temples, so that the outer corners of the eyes are elevated; the eyelids -seem half closed. The forehead is flat above the eyes. The bridge of the -nose is flat, the chin short, the ears disproportionately large and -projecting from the head. The colour of the skin is generally yellow, -and in some branches turns to brown. There is little hair on the body; -beard is rare. The hair of the head is coarse, and, like the eyes, -almost always black.’[41] In the present day the different families of -the globe have gone through the changes which time and variety of -climate slowly bring about in all; and the yellow race has not escaped -these influences. While some of its members have by a mixture with white -races or by gradual improvement, reached a type not easily -distinguishable from the European, others have, through the effect of -climate, approached more nearly to the characteristics of the black -family. We may, however, still class these divergent types under the -head of the yellow race, which we consequently find extending over a -vast portion of our globe. Round the North Pole the Eskimo, the Lapps, -and the Finns form a belt of people belonging to this division of -mankind. Over all Northern and Central Asia the various tribes of -Mongolian or Turanian race inhabiting the plains of Siberia and of -Tartary, and again the Thibetans, the Chinese, Siamese, and other -kindred peoples of Eastern Asia, are members of this yellow family. From -the Malay peninsula the same race has spread southward, passing from -land to land over the countless isles which cover the South Pacific, -until they have reached the islands which lie around the Australian -continent, the islands of _Polynesia_ in the South Pacific, and have -mingled with the negro race that had preceded them there and that -remains unmixed in the _Melanesian_ islands. The Maoris, the inhabitants -of New Zealand, belong to this yellow race; and the Australians, -_perhaps_, represent a mixture of negro and yellow races. In all, this -division of mankind covers an immense portion of the globe stretching -from Greenland in a curved line, through North America and China, -downwards to New Zealand, and again westward from China through Tartary -or Siberia, up to Lapland in the north of Europe. And it must be added -that many anthropologists consider the red races of America only a -variety of this wide-spread yellow race. - -[Sidenote: The White Races.] - -From the results of the previous chapter we see that to the yellow race -must be attributed all those peoples of Europe and Asia which speak -agglutinative languages, and therefore that for the white race are left -the inflected tongues. These it will be remembered, we divided into two -great families, the Semitic and the Aryan or Japhetic. We thus see that -from the earliest times to which we are able to point we have living in -Europe and Asia these three divisions of the human family, whom some -have looked upon as the descendants of Ham, Shem, and Japhet. What -relationship the other excluded races of mankind, the black and red, -bear to the Hamites, Shemites, and Japhetites, has not been suggested. -It seems more reasonable to consider Noah as merely the ancestor of the -white races, and, therefore, so far as our linguistic knowledge goes, of -the Semitic and Aryan families of speech only. But outside the pure -Semites there lived a race of a less pure nationality, springing, -probably, from a mixture of Semites with earlier black and yellow races. -These people we may distinguish as Hamites. A division of this race were -the Cushites, the stock from which the Egyptian, the Chaldæan, and many -of the Canaanite nations were mainly formed. - -But though from the earliest times there were probably in Asia these -three divisions of mankind, their relative position and importance was -very different from what it is now. At the present time the Turanian -races are everywhere shrinking and dwindling before the descendants of -Japhet. At the moment at which I write it is the Aryan Slavs who are -pushing the yellow-skinned Tartars farther and farther back in Siberia -and Central Asia, and are endeavouring to push the Mongolian Turks from -their last foothold in Europe.[42] The Tartar races have had their era -of great conquest too, for to them belong those races--Huns, Avars, -Magyars--who have spread such devastation in Europe, to them belong such -conquerors as Attila, Genghis Khan, and Timûr Lenk (Tamerlane). In the -first few centuries after Mohammedism was introduced among them, the -Turanians of Central Asia rose into power. Several different Tartar -races in succession--Seljûks, Ayyûbites, Mongols (Moghuls), etc.--rose -upon the ruins of the Arab Chalifate, and invaded India, Persia, Africa, -and Europe. The last of these is the race of the Osmanlîs, or, as we -call them simply, the Turks. Their days of conquest are past, and -therefore, great as is the space which the Turanian people now occupy -over the face of the globe, there is reason to believe that in early -prehistoric times they were still more widely extended. In all -probability the men of the polished-stone age in Europe and Asia were of -this yellow-skinned Mongolian type. We know that the human remains of -this period seem to have come from a short and round-skulled people; and -this roundness of the skull is one of the chief marks of the Mongolians -as distinguished from the white races of mankind. - -We know, too, that the earliest inhabitants of India belonged to a -Turanian, and therefore to a yellow, race; and that Turanians mingled -with one of the oldest historical Semitic peoples, and helped to produce -the civilization of the Chaldæans. And as, moreover, we find in various -parts of Asia traces of a civilization similar to that of Europe during -the latter part of the polished-stone age, it seems not unreasonable, in -casting our eyes back upon the remotest antiquity on which research -sheds any light, to suppose an early widespread Turanian or Mongolian -family extending over the greater part of Europe and Asia. These -Turanians were in various stages of civilization or barbarism, from the -rude condition of the hunters and fishers of the Danish shell-mounds to -a higher state reigning in Central and Southern Asia, and similar to -that which was afterwards attained towards the end of the polished-stone -age in Europe. The earliest home of these pure Turanians was probably a -region lying somewhere to the east of Lake Aral. ‘There,’ says a writer -from whom we have already quoted, ‘from very remote antiquity they had -possessed a peculiar civilization, characterized by gross Sabeism, -peculiarly materialistic tendencies, and complete want of moral -elevation; but at the same time, by an extraordinary development in some -branches of knowledge, great progress in material culture in some -respects, while in others they remained in an entirely rudimentary -state. This strange and incomplete civilization exercised over great -part of Asia an absolute preponderance, lasting, according to the -historian Justin, 1500 years.’[43] - -As regards its pre-historic remains, we know that this civilization, or -half-civilization, was especially distinguished by the raising of -enormous grave-mounds and altar-stones, and it must have been -characterized by strong, if not by the most elevated, religious ideas, -and by a peculiar reverence paid to the dead. Now, we have seen that it -is by characteristics very similar to these that the civilization of -Egypt is distinguished, and Egypt, of all nations which have possessed a -history, is the oldest. - -[Sidenote: Egypt.] - -These are reasons, therefore, for considering the Egyptian civilization, -which is in some sort the dawn of history in the world, as the -continuation--the improvement, no doubt, but still the continuation--of -the half-civilization of the age of stone, a culture handed on from the -Turanian to the Cushite peoples. We may look upon this very primitive -form of culture as spreading first through Asia, and later on outwards -to the west. Four thousand and five thousand years before Christ are the -dates disputed over as those of Menes, the first recorded King of -Egypt.[44] And Egypt even at this early time seems to have emerged from -the age of stone, and been possessed, at least, of bronze, possibly of -iron. The later date, 4000 B.C., probably marks the beginning of the -stone-age life corresponding to the more extensive remains in Europe. It -was therefore with this early culture as it has been with subsequent -fuller civilizations-- - - ‘Nosque ubi primus equis Oriens afflavit anhelis - Illic sera rubens accendit lumina Vesper.’ - -The Egyptian civilization which (for us) begins with Menes, say 5000 -B.C., reaches its zenith under the third and fourth dynasty, under the -builders of the pyramids some eight hundred or a thousand years -afterwards. Then in its full strength the Egyptian life rises out of the -past like a giant peak, or like its own pyramids out of the sandy -plains. It is cold and rigid, like a mass of granite, but it is so great -that it seems to defy all efforts of time. Even when the Egyptians first -come before us everything seems to point them out as a people already -old; whether it be their enormous tombs and temples, their elaborately -ordered social life, or their complicated religious system, with its -long mysterious ritual. For all this, the Egyptian life and thought -present two elements of character which may well spring from the union -of two distinct nationalities. Its enormous tombs and temples and its -excessive care for the bodies of the dead--for what are the pyramids but -exaggerations of the stone-age grave-mounds, and the temples but -improvements upon the megalithic dolmens?--recall the era of stone-age -culture. The evident remains of an early animal worship show a descent -from a low form of religion, such a religion as we find among Turanian -or African races. But with these co-existed some much grander features. -The Egyptians were intellectual in the highest degree,--in the highest -degree then known to the world; and, unlike the stone-age men, succeeded -in other than merely mechanical arts. In astronomy they were rivalled by -but one nation, the Chaldæans; in painting and sculpture they were at -the head of the world, and were as nearly the inventors of history as of -writing itself,--not _quite_ of either, as will be seen hereafter. -Mixed, too, with their animal worship were some lofty religious -conceptions stretching not only beyond _it_--the animal worship--but -beyond that ‘natural’ polytheism which was the earliest creed of our own -ancestors the Aryans, and a noble hope and ambition for the future of -the soul. Were these higher features due to the influx of Semitic blood? -It seems likely, when we remember how from the same race came a chosen -people to whom the world is indebted for all that is greatest in -religious thought. - -[Sidenote: Chaldæa.] - -During the fourth and fifth dynasties, or some three or four thousand -years before Christ, Egypt and the Egyptians do, as we have said, rise -up distinctly out of the region of mere conjecture. Three or four -thousand years before Christ--five or six thousand years ago: this is no -small distance through which to look back to the place where the first -mountain-peak of history appears in view. What was doing in the other -unseen regions round this mountain? Only probably in one other part of -the globe could there have been found at this date a civilization in the -smallest degree comparable to that of the Egyptians. This region is the -valley of the Tigrus and Euphrates. - -The Tigro-Euphrates valley, or Mesopotamia, was in early days as regards -appearance and position very similar to the land of Egypt. These two -territories are in fact two oases in an immense band of desert, which -stretches from the western edge of the great Sahara (which is almost the -edge of Africa itself) in a curved sweep, through part of Arabia, part -of Persia, up to the great plains of central Asia; in other words, it -stretches across more than one-third of the circumference of the globe. -The Tigro-Euphrates oasis which the Greeks called Mesopotamia is in the -Bible called Chaldæa or the country of the Chaldees. In days known to -history, its inhabitants were a mixed people, of whom the oldest -element was undoubtedly Turanian; and this section of the nation had -probably descended from the country afterwards called Iran to the mouths -of the Tigris and Euphrates. These people are called by modern scholars -the Accadians, or the Shûmîro-Accadians.[45] They are the Accad of the -Bible. Mixed with them were a people of Semitic, or half-Semitic origin, -whose language is closely allied to the Hebrew and the Aramæan. If we -take the Biblical name for them, we should call them Hamites or -Cushites. But the best ethnological name would be that of Aramæans. - -These two races mingled, and formed the nation of Chaldæans as known to -history; and in time the Semitic element predominated over the Turanian. -Nevertheless it was the Accadians who had brought to the common stock -the earliest elements of civilization. Their earliest tombs show them in -possession of both the metals bronze and iron, though of the latter in -such small quantities that it took with them the position of a precious -metal; ornaments were made from it as much as from gold. What is far -more important, the Accadians possessed a hieroglyphic writing similar -in character to that of the Egyptians, and, after their junction with -the Semite people, that developed into a syllabic alphabet.[46] We may -date the fusion of the Accadian and Aramæan peoples at about 4000 B.C. - -It is in this country, be it remembered, in the Tigro-Euphrates basin, -that the Bible places the earliest history of the human race. ‘And it -came to pass that as they journeyed from the East they found a plain in -the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.’[47] Here, too, is placed the -building of Babel, and the subsequent dispersion of the human family. -Here ruled Nimrod, ‘the son of Cush,’ the first of the kings of this -region of whom any authentic mention is made; though we have dynastic -lists of supernatural beings who were supposed to have reigned in -Chaldæa in far distant ages of the world, as we have in the case of -Egypt. Even of Nimrod’s reign no monumental records have yet come to -light. The cities which Nimrod built, says the Bible, were Erech [in -Accadian, Ounoug, or Ûrûk] and Ur [Accad. Urû]--these two are the -present Warkah and Mugheir,--Accad [Agadê] and Calneh. But the earliest -human king of whom we have anything like an authentic date is either -Sargon I., who may have reigned as early as 3800 B.C., or Ûrbagûs, who -seems to have ruled over all Mesopotamia, contemporaneously with the -fifth Egyptian dynasty (3900 or 2900 B.C.). - -The Chaldean buildings of this period, like the contemporary Egyptian -ones, are of gigantic proportions, and like them seem to recall bygone -days, the grandiose conceptions of the later stone-age, those _tumuli_ -and cromlechs which, spread over the face of the world, most undoubtedly -have suggested to subsequent nations of mankind the belief in a giant -race which had preceded them on earth-- - - ‘The far-famed hold, - Piled by the hands of giants - For god-like kings of old.’ - -And thus, as has already been often said, this earliest civilization in -the world looks back to pre-historic days as much as forward to historic -ones. - -Close beside Chaldæa, in the more mountainous country to the east, but -not far from the Persian Gulf, rose another civilization, that of the -Elamites, which may possibly have been not much later than the Chaldæan. -This, too, we may believe, was in its origin Turanian. The capital of -the country of Elam was Susa. Between 2300 and 2280 B.C., a king of -Susa, Kurdur-Nankunty, conquered the reigning king of Chaldæa, and -henceforward the two districts were incorporated into one country. The -accession of strength thus gained to his crown induced one of the kings -of the Elamitic line, Kudur-lagomer (Chedorlaomer) by name, to aspire -towards a wider empire (c. 2200 B.C.). He sent his armies against the -Semitic nations on his west, who were now beginning to settle down in -cities, and to enjoy their share of the civilization of Egypt and -Chaldæa. These he subdued, but after sixteen years they rebelled; and it -was after a second expedition to punish their recalcitrancy, wherein he -had conquered the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, and had among the -prisoners taken Lot, the nephew of Abraham, that Chedorlaomer was -pursued and defeated by the patriarch. ‘And when Abram heard that his -brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his -own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan. And he -divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote -them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of -Damascus. And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his -brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.’[48] - -The conquest of a powerful Chaldæan king by a handful of wandering -Semites seems extraordinary, and might have sounded a note of warning to -the ear of the Chaldæans. Their kingdom was destined soon to be -overthrown by another Semitic people. After a duration of about half a -thousand years for the Elamite kingdom, and some seven hundred years -since the time of Nimrod, the Chaldæan dynasty was overthrown and -succeeded by an Arabian one, that is, by a race of nomadic Shemites -from the Arabian plains; and after two hundred and forty-five years they -in their turn succumbed to another more powerful people of the same -Semitic race, the Assyrians. The empire thus founded upon the ruins of -the old Chaldæan was one of the greatest of the ancient world, as we -well know from the records which meet us in the Bible. Politically it -may be said to have balanced the power of Egypt. But the stability of -this monarchy rested upon a basis much less firm than that of Egypt; the -southern portion--the old Chaldæa--of which Babylon was the capital, was -always ready for revolt, and after about seven hundred years the -Babylonians and Medes succeeded in overthrowing their former conquerors. -All this belongs to history--or at least to chronicle--and is therefore -scarcely a part of our present inquiry. - -To these primitive civilizations of Egypt, Chaldæa, and Susa we might, -if we could put faith in native records, be inclined to add a fourth. - -[Sidenote: China.] - -The _Chinese_ profess to extend their lists of dynasties seven, eight, -or even ten thousand years backward, but there is nothing on which to -rest such extravagant pretensions. Their earliest known book is believed -to date from the twelfth century before Christ. It is therefore not -probable that they possessed the art of writing more than fifteen -hundred years before our era, and before writing is invented there can -be no reliable history. The best record of early times _then_ is to be -found in the popular songs of a country, and of these China possessed a -considerable number, which were collected into a book--the _Book of -Odes_--by their sage Confucius.[49] The picture which these odes present -is of a society so very different from that of the time from which their -earliest book--the _Book of Changes_--dates, that we cannot refuse to -credit it with a high antiquity. From the songs we learn that before -China coalesced into the monarchy which has lasted so many years, its -inhabitants lived in a sort of feudal state, governed by a number of -petty princes and lords. The pastoral life which distinguished the -surrounding Turanian nations had already been exchanged for a settled -agricultural one, to which houses, and all the civilization which these -imply, had long been familiar. For the rest, their life seems to have -been then, as now, a simple, slow-moving life, not devoid of piety and -domestic affection. But it should be mentioned here that recent -researches seem to point to the conclusion, strange as it may appear, -that the Chinese civilization is closely connected with that of the -Accadians, and may have had an origin from some contact with the -Accadian peoples in their earliest homes in Central Asia. In any case it -hardly seems likely that this can be classed as the fourth civilization -which may have existed in the world when the pyramids were being built. -But it is without doubt after these three the next oldest of the -civilizations which the world has known. It seems to be remote alike -from the half-civilization of the other Mongolian people of the stone -age, and from the mixed Turanian-Semitic civilizations of Egypt and -Chaldæa. - -To these early civilizations in the old world, may we add any from the -new, and believe in a great antiquity of the highest civilization of the -_red_ race? The trace of an early civilization in Mexico and Peru, -bearing many remarkable points of resemblance to the civilization of -Chaldæa, is undoubted. This _may_ have been passed on by the Chinese at -a very early date. But there is nothing to show that the identity in -some of the features of their culture extended to an identity in their -respective epochs. - -[Sidenote: Assyrians, Phœnicians, Hebrews.] - -A greater destiny, though a more tardy development, awaited the pure -Semitic and Japhetic races. Among the former we might notice many -nations which started into life during the thousand years following that -date of 3000 B.C., which we have taken as our starting-point. Of the -Assyrians we have already spoken. The next most conspicuous stand the -Phœnicians, who, either in their early home upon the seacoast of -Syria, or in their second home, the sea itself, or in one of their -countless colonies, came into contact with almost every one of the great -nations of antiquity, from the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and the -Israelites, to the Greeks and Romans. - -But it is upon the life and history of the nomadic Shemites, and among -them of one chosen people, that our thoughts chiefly rest. Among the -prouder citied nations which inhabited the plains of the Tigris and -Euphrates, from the Mediterranean to the Caspian Sea, dwelt a numerous -people, more or less nomadic in their habits, under the patriarchal form -of government which belonged to their mode of life. Among such a people -the chief of one particular family or clan was summoned by a Divine call -to escape from the influence of the idolatrous nations around, and to -live that vagrant pastoral life which was in such an age most fitted for -the needs of purity and religious contemplation. It is as something like -a wandering Bedouin chieftain that we must picture Abraham, while we -watch him, now joining with one small city king against another, now -driven by famine to travel with his flocks and herds as far as Egypt. -Then again he returns, and settles in the fertile valley of the Jordan, -where Lot leaves him, and, seduced by the luxuries of a town life, quits -his flocks and herds and settles in Sodom, till driven out again by the -destruction of that city. And we are not now reading dry dynastic lists, -but the very life and thought of an early time.[50] To us--whose lives -are so unsimple--the mere picture of this simple nomadic life of early -days would have an interest and a charm; but it has a double charm and -interest viewed by the light of the high destiny to which Abraham and -his descendants were called. Plying the homely, slighted shepherd’s -trade, these people lived poor and despised beside the rich monarchies -of Egypt or Chaldæa; one more example, if one more were needed, how wide -apart lie the empires of spiritual and of material things. - -Up to very late times the Children of Israel bore many of the -characteristics of a nomadic people. It was as a nation of shepherds -that they were excluded from the national life of Egypt. For long years -after their departure thence they led a wandering life; and though, when -they entered Palestine, they found cities ready for their -occupation--for the nations which they dispossessed were for the most -part settled people, builders of cities--and inhabited them, and, -growing corn and wine, settled partly into an agricultural life, yet the -chief wealth of the nation still probably consisted in their flocks, and -the greater portion of the people still dwelt in tents. This was, -perhaps, especially the case with the people of the north, for even so -late as the separation, when the ten tribes determined to free -themselves from the tyranny of Rehoboam, we know how Jeroboam cried out, -‘To your tents, O Israel.’ ‘So Israel departed unto their tents,’ the -narrative continues. After the separation we are told that Jeroboam -built several cities in his own dominions. The history of the Israelites -generally may be summed up as the constant expression and the ultimate -triumph of a wish to exchange their simple life and theocratic -government for one which might place them more on a level with their -neighbour states. At first it is their religion which they wish to -change, whether for the gorgeous ritual of Egypt or for the vicious -creeds of Asiatic nations; and after a while, madly forgetful of the -tyrannies of a Ramses or a Tiglath-Pileser, they desire a king to reign -over them in order that they may ‘take their place’ among the other -Oriental monarchies. Still their first two kings have rather the -character of military leaders, the monarchy not having become -hereditary; the second, the warrior-poet, the greatest of Israel’s sons, -was himself in the beginning no more than a shepherd. But under his son -Solomon the monarchical government becomes assured, the country attains -(like Rome under Augustus) the summit of its splendour and power, and -then enters upon its career of slow and inevitable decline. - -[Sidenote: The Aryans.] - -Now let us turn to the Japhetic people--the Aryans. It is curious that -the date of three thousand years before Christ, from which we started in -our glance over the world, should also be considered about that of the -separation of the Aryan people. Till that time they had continued to -live--since when we know not--in their early home near the Oxus and -Jaxartes, and we are able by the help of comparative philology to gain -some little picture of their life at the time immediately preceding the -separation. We have already seen how this picture is obtained; how, -taking a word out of one of the Aryan languages and making allowance for -the changed form which it would wear in the other tongues, if we find -the same word with the same meaning reappearing in all the languages of -the family, we may fairly assume that the _thing_ for which it stands -was known to the old Aryans before the separation. If, again, we find a -word which runs through all the European languages, but is not found in -the Sanskrit and Persian, we guess that in this case the thing was known -only to the Yavanas, the first separating body of younger Aryans, from -whom it will be remembered all the European branches are descended. Thus -we get a very interesting list of words, and the means of drawing a -picture of the life of our primæval ancestors. The earliest appearance -of the Aryans is as a pastoral people, for words derived from the -pastoral life have left the deepest traces on their language. Daughter, -we saw, meant originally ‘the milker;’ the name of money, and of booty, -in many Aryan languages is derived from that of cattle;[51] words which -have since come to mean lord or prince originally meant the guardian of -the cattle;[52] and others which have expanded into words for district -or country, or even for the whole earth, meant at first simply the -pasturage. So not without reason did we say that the king had grown out -of the head of the family, and the pens of sheepfolds expanded into -walled cities. - -But though a pastoral, the ancient Aryans do not seem to have been a -nomadic race, and in this respect they differed from the Shemites of the -same period, and from the Turanians, by whom they were surrounded. For -the Turanian _civilization_ had pretty well departed from Asia by that -time, and having taught its lessons to Egypt and Chaldæa, lived on, if -at all, in Europe only. There it faded before the advance of the Celts -and other Aryan people, who came bringing with them the use of bronze -weapons and the civilization which belonged to the bronze age. The stone -age lingered in the lake dwellings of Switzerland, as we thought, till -about two thousand years before Christ or perhaps later, and it may be -that this date, B.C. 2000, which is also nearly that of Abraham, -represents within a few hundred years the entry of the Aryans into -Europe. The Greeks are generally believed to have appeared in Greece, or -at least in Asia Minor, about the nineteenth century before our era, and -they were probably preceded by the Latin branch of the Aryan family, as -well as by the Celts in the north of Europe. So that the period of one -thousand years which intervened between our starting-point and the call -of Abraham, the starting-point of the Hebrew history, and which saw the -growth and change of many great Asiatic monarchies, must for the Aryans -be only darkly filled up by the gradual separation of the different -nations, and their unknown life between this separation and the time -when they again become vaguely known to history. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Summary.] - -The general result, then, of our inquiries into the grouping of nations -of the world in pre-historic times may be sketched in rough outline. At -a very early date, say 4000 or 5000 B.C., arose an extensive Turanian -half-civilization, which, flourishing probably in Central and Southern -Asia, spread in time and through devious routes to India and China upon -one side, on the other side to Europe. This was, at first at any rate, a -stone age, and was especially distinguished by the raising of great -stones and grave-mounds. This civilization was communicated to the -Egyptians and Chaldæans, a mixed people--Semite, Turanian, -Ethiopian--who were not strangers to the use of metals. As early as 3000 -years before our era the civilization of Egypt had attained its full -growth, and had probably even then a considerable past. Chaldæa, too, -and the neighbouring Elam were both advanced out of their primitive -state; possibly so also were China, Peru, and Mexico. But the pure -Semite peoples, the ancestors of the Jews, and the Aryans, were still -pastoral races, the one by the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, the -other by the banks of the Jaxartes and the Oxus. The first of these -continued pastoral and nomadic for hundreds of years, but about this -time the Western Aryans separated from those of the East, and soon after -added some use of agriculture to their shepherd life. Then between 3000 -and 2000 B.C. came the separation of the various peoples of the Western -Aryans and their migration towards Europe, where they began to appear at -the latter date. After all the Western Aryans had left the East, the -older Aryans seem to have lived on for some little time together, and at -last to have separated into the nations of Iranians and Hindus, the -first migrating southward, and the second crossing the Hindoo-Koosh and -descending into the plains of the Indus and the Ganges. Thence they -drove away or exterminated most of the older Turanian inhabitants, as -their brethren had a short time before done to the Turanians whom they -found in Europe. Such, so far as we can surmise, were in rough outline -the doings of the different kindreds and nations and languages of the -old world in times long before history. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -EARLY SOCIAL LIFE. - - -[Sidenote: Formation of settlements.] - -We have seen, so far, that the early traces of man’s existence point to -a gradual improvement in the state of his civilization, to the -acquirement of fresh knowledge, and the practice of fresh arts. The rude -stone implements of the early drift-period are replaced by the more -carefully manufactured ones of the polished-stone age, and these again -are succeeded by implements of bronze and of iron. By degrees also the -arts of domesticating animals and of tilling the land are learnt; and by -steps, which we shall hereafter describe, the art of writing is -developed from the early pictorial rock-sculptures. Now, in order that -each step in this process of civilization should be preserved for the -benefit of the next generation, and that the people of each period -should start from the vantage-ground obtained by their predecessors, -there must have been frequent intercommunication between the different -individuals who lived at the same time; so that the discovery or -improvement of each one should be made known to others, and become part -of the common stock of human knowledge. In the very earliest times, -then, men probably lived collected together in societies of greater or -less extent. We know that this is the case now with all savage tribes; -and as in many respects the early races of the drift-beds seem to have -resembled some now existing savage tribes in their mode of life, -employing, to a certain extent, the same implements, and living on the -same sort of food, this adds to the probability of their gregariousness. -The fact, too, that the stone implements of the first stone period have -generally been found collected near together in particular places, -indicates these places as the sites of early settlements. Beyond this, -however, we can say very little of the social state of these early -stone-age people. Small traces of any burial-ground or tomb of so great -an antiquity have yet been found, and all that we can say of them with -any certainty is, that their life must have been very rude and -primitive. Although they were collected together in groups, these groups -could not have been large, and each must have been generally situated at -a considerable distance from the next, for the only means of support for -the men of that time was derived from hunting and fishing. Now it -requires a very large space of land to support a man who lives entirely -by hunting; and this must have been more particularly the case in those -times when the weapons used by the huntsman were so rude, that it is -difficult for us now to understand how he could ever have succeeded in -obtaining an adequate supply of food by such means. Supposing that the -same extent of territory were required for the support of a man in those -times as was required in Australia by the native population, the whole -of Europe could only have supported about seventy-six thousand -inhabitants, or about one person to every four thousand now in -existence. - -Next to the cave-dwellings the earliest traces of anything like fixed -settlements which have been found are the ‘kitchen-middens.’ The extent -of some of these clearly shows that they mark the dwelling-place of -considerable numbers of people collected together. But here only the -rudest sort of civilization could have existed, and the bonds of society -must have been as primitive and simple as they are among those savage -tribes at the present time, who support existence in much the same way -as the shell-mound people did. In order that social customs should -attain any development, the means of existence must be sufficiently -abundant and easily procurable to permit some time to be devoted to the -accumulation of superfluities, or of supplies not immediately required -for use. The life of the primitive hunter and fisher is so precarious -and arduous, that he has rarely either the opportunity or the will for -any other employment than the supply of his immediate wants. The very -uncertainty of that supply seems rather to create recklessness than -providence, and the successful chase is generally followed by a period -of idleness and gluttony, till exhaustion of supplies once more compels -men to activity. That the shell-mound people were subject to such -fluctuations of supply we may gather from the fact that bones of foxes -and other carnivorous animals are frequently found in those mounds; and -as these animals are rarely eaten by human beings, except under the -pressure of necessity, we may conclude that the shell-mound people were -driven to support existence by this means, through their ill-success in -fishing and hunting, and their want of any accumulation of stores to -supply deficiencies. - -The next token of social improvement that is observable is in the -tumuli, or grave-mounds, which may be referred to a period somewhat -later than that of the shell-mounds. These contain indications that the -people who constructed them possessed some important elements necessary -to their social progress. They had a certain amount of time to spare -after providing for their daily wants, and they did not spend that time -exclusively in idleness. The erection of these mounds must have been a -work of considerable labour, and they often contain highly finished -implements and ornaments, which must have been put there for the use of -the dead. They are evidences that no little honour was sometimes shown -to the dead; so that some sort of religion must have existed amongst the -people who constructed the ancient grave-mounds. The importance of this -element in early society is evident if we inquire further for whom and -by whom these mounds were erected. Now, they are not sufficiently -numerous, and are far too laborious in their construction, to have been -the ordinary tombs of the common people. They were probably tombs -erected for chiefs or captains of tribes to whom the tribes were anxious -to pay especial honour. We do not know at all how these separate tribes -or clans came into existence, and what bonds united their members -together; but so soon as we find a tribe erecting monuments in honour of -its chiefs, we conclude that it has attained a certain amount of -compactness and solidity in its internal relations. Amongst an -uneducated people there is probably no stronger tie than that of a -common faith, or a common subject of reverence. It is impossible not to -believe, then, that the people who made these great, and in some cases -elaborately constructed tombs, would continue ever after to regard them -as in some sort consecrated to the great chiefs who were buried under -them. Each tribe would have its own specially sacred tombs, and perhaps -we may here see a germ of that ancestor-worship which may be traced in -every variety of religious belief. - -It has been supposed by some that a certain amount of - -[Sidenote: Barter.] - -commerce or barter existed in the later stone age. The reason for this -opinion is that implements of stone are frequently found in localities -where the stone of which they are made is not native. At Presigny le -Grand, in France, there exists a great quantity of a particular kind of -flint which seems to have been very convenient for the manufacture of -implements; for the fields there are covered with flint-flakes and chips -which have been evidently knocked off in the process of chipping out the -knives, and arrow-heads, and hatchets which the stone-age men were so -fond of. Now, implements made of this particular kind of flint are found -in various localities, some of which are at a great distance from -Presigny; and it has therefore been supposed that Presigny was a sort of -manufactory for flint weapons which were bartered to neighbouring -tribes, and by them again perhaps to others further off; and so these -weapons gradually got dispersed. But it is also possible that the tribes -of the interior, who would subsist almost exclusively by hunting, and -would therefore be of a more wandering disposition than those on the -sea-coast, may have paid occasional visits to this flint reservoir for -the purpose of supplying themselves with weapons of a superior quality, -just as the American Indians are said to go to the quarry of Coteau des -Prairies on account of the particular kind of stone which is found -there. - -In any case, whatever system of barter was carried on at that time was -of a very primitive kind, and not of frequent enough occurrence to -produce any important effects on the social condition of the people. -That that condition had already advanced to some extent beyond its -original rudeness, shows us that there existed, at all events, some -capacity for improvement among the tribes which then inhabited Europe; -but, when we compare them with modern tribes of savages, whose apparent -condition is much the same as theirs was, and who do not seem to have -made any advance for a long period, or, so far as we can judge, to be -capable of making any advance by their own unassisted efforts, we cannot -but conclude that the stone-age people, if left to themselves, would -only have emerged out of barbarism by very slow degrees. Now we know -that, about the time when bronze implements first began to be used, some -very important changes also occurred in the manners and customs of the -inhabitants of Europe. A custom of burning the dead superseded then the -older one of burial; domestic animals of various sorts seem to have been -introduced, and the bronze implements themselves show, both in the -elaborateness of their workmanship and the variety of their designs, -that a great change had come over European civilization. The greatness -and completeness of this change, the fact that there are no traces of -those intermediate steps which we should naturally expect to find in the -development of the arts, denote that this change was due to some -invading population which brought with it the arts that had been -perfected in its earlier home; and other circumstances point to the East -as the home from which this wave of civilization proceeded. Language has -taught us that at various times there have been large influxes of Aryan -populations into Europe. To the first of these Aryan invaders probably -was due the introduction of bronze into Europe, together with the -various social changes which appear to have accompanied its earliest -use. To trace then the rise and progress of the social system which the -Aryans had adopted previous to their appearance in Europe, we must go to -their old Asiatic home, and see if any of the steps by which this system -had sprung up, or any indications of its nature, may be extracted from -the records of antiquity. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: The patriarchal family.] - -Hitherto scarcely any attempt has been made to discover or investigate -pre-historic monuments in the East. We can no longer therefore appeal to -the records of early tombs or temples, to indications taken from early -seats of population; but though as yet this key to Aryan history has not -been made available, we have another guide ready to take us by the hand, -and show us what sort of lives our ancestors used to lead in their -far-off Eastern home. That guide is the science of Language, which can -teach us a great deal about this if we will listen to its lessons: a -rich mine of knowledge which has as yet been only partially explored, -but one from which every day new information is being obtained about the -habits and customs of the men of pre-historic times. - -All that we know at present of the Aryan race indicates that its social -organization originated in a group which is usually called the -Patriarchal Family, the members of which were all related to each other -either by blood or marriage. At the head of the family was the -patriarch, the eldest male descendant of its founder; its other members -consisted of all the remaining males descended on the father’s side from -the original ancestor, their wives, and such of the women, also -descended on the father’s side from the same ancestor, as remained still -unmarried. To show more exactly what people were members of the ancient -patriarchal family, we will trace such a family for a couple of -generations from the original founder. Suppose, then, the original -founder married, and with several children, both sons and daughters. All -the sons would continue members of this family. The daughters would only -continue members until they married, when they would cease to be -members of the family of their birth, and become members of their -respective husbands’ families. So when the sons of the founder married, -their wives would become members of the family; and such of their -children as were sons would be members, and such as were daughters would -be members only until they married; and so on through succeeding -generations. On the founder’s death he would be succeeded as patriarch -by his eldest son. On the eldest son’s death, he would be succeeded by -_his_ eldest son, if he had a son; and if not, then by his next brother. -The patriarchal family also included in its circle, in later times at -all events, slaves and other people, who, although perhaps not really -relations at all, were _adopted_ into the household, assumed the family -name, and were looked upon for all purposes as if its actual members. -This little group of individuals seems originally to have existed -entirely independent of any external authority. It supported itself by -its own industry, and recognized no other law or authority than its own. -The one source of authority within this little state was the patriarch, -who was originally regarded, not only as the owner of all the property -of which the family was possessed, but also as having unlimited power -over the different individuals of which it was composed. All the members -lived together under the same roof, or within the same enclosure. No -member could say that any single thing was his own property. Everything -belonged to the family, and every member was responsible to the -patriarch for his actions. - -[Sidenote: Custom and law.] - -Originally the power of the patriarch may have been almost absolute over -the other members of the family, but it must very early have become -modified and controlled by the growth of various customs. Indeed, in -trying to picture to ourselves these early times, when as yet no -regular notions of law had arisen, it is important to remember how great -a force is possessed by custom. Even now, when we distinguish pretty -clearly between law and custom, we still feel the great coercive and -restraining powers of the latter in all the affairs of life. But when no -exact notions of law had been formed, it seemed an almost irresistible -argument in favour of a particular action that it had always been -performed before. There would thus spring up in a household certain -rules of conduct for the different members, certain fixed limits to -their respective family duties. Before any individual would be commanded -by the patriarch to do any particular duty, it would come to be inquired -whether it was customary for such a duty to be assigned to such an -individual. Before the patriarch inflicted any punishment on a member of -the family, it would come to be inquired whether and in what manner it -had been customary to punish the particular act complained of. Many -things would tend to increase this regard for custom. The obvious -advantages resulting from regularity and certainty in the ordering of -the family life would soon be felt, and thus a public opinion in favour -of custom would be created. Ancestor-worship, too, which plays so -conspicuous a part in early Aryan civilization, acted, no doubt, as a -powerful strengthener of the force of custom, as is indicated by the -fact that in many nations the traditionary originator of their laws is -some powerful ancestor to whom the nation is accustomed to pay an -especial reverence. - -Resulting from this development of custom into law in the early family -life of the Aryans, we find that special duties soon became assigned to -persons occupying particular positions. To the young men of the -household were assigned the more active outdoor employments; to the -maidens the milking of the cows; to the elder women other household -duties. And the importance of knowing what the customs were also gave -rise to the family council, or ‘sabhâ,’ as it is called in Sanskrit, -which consisted of the elders of the family, the ‘sabhocita,’ presided -over by the ‘sabhapati,’ or president of the assembly. The importance -attached to the decisions of this council was so great, that the -‘sabyâ,’ or decrees of the ‘sabhâ,’ came to be used simply to express -law or custom. It is probable therefore that this assembly regulated to -a great extent the customs and laws of the family in its internal -management, and also superintended any negotiations carried on with -other families. - -[Sidenote: The house-fire.] - -To complete our picture of the patriarchal family, we have the -traditions of three distinct customs or rites affecting its internal -economy. Two of these rites, the maintenance of the sacred house-fire, -and the marriage ceremony, probably date back to a very remote period; -and the third, the custom of adoption, though of later development, may -be regarded, in its origin at least, as primitive. Fire is itself so -wonderful in its appearance and effects, so good a servant, so terrible -a master, that we cannot feel any surprise at its having attracted a -great deal of attention in early times. The traces of fire-worship are -so widely spread over the earth that there is scarcely a single race -whose traditions are entirely devoid of them. But the sacred house-fire -of the Aryans is interesting to us chiefly in its connection with other -family rites in which it played an important part. This fire, which was -perpetually kept burning on the family hearth, seems to have been -regarded in some sort, as a living family deity, who watched over and -assisted the particular family to which it belonged. It was by its aid -that the food of the family was cooked, and from it was ignited the -sacrifice or the funeral pyre. It was the centre of the family life; the -hearth on which it burned was in the midst of the dwelling, and no -stranger was admitted into its presence. That hearth was to each member -of the household as it were an _umbilicus orbis_, or navel of the -earth--_hearth_, only another form of _earth_.[53] When the members of -the family met together to partake of their meals, a part was always -first offered to the fire by whose aid the meal was prepared; the -patriarch acted as officiating priest in this as in every other family -ceremony; and to the patriarch’s wife was confided the especial charge -of keeping the fire supplied with fuel. - -[Sidenote: Marriage.] - -By _marriage_, as we have seen, a woman became a member of her husband’s -family. She ceased to be any longer a member of the household in which -she was born, for the life of each family was so isolated that it would -have been impossible to belong to two different families at once. So we -find that the marriage ceremony chiefly consisted in an expression of -this change of family by the wife. In general it was preceded by a -treaty between the two families, a formal offer of marriage made by the -intending husband’s family on his behalf, together with a gift to the -bride’s family, which was regarded as the price paid for the bride. If -all preliminary matters went forward favourably, then, on the day fixed -for the marriage, the different members of the bridegroom’s family went -to the household of the bride and demanded her. After some orthodox -delay, in which the bride was expected to express unwillingness to go, -she was formally given up to those who demanded her, the patriarch of -her household solemnly dismissing her from it and giving up all -authority over her. She was then borne in triumph to the bridegroom’s -house; and, on entering it, was carried over the threshold, so as not to -touch it with her feet; thus expressing that her entry within the house -was not that of a mere guest or stranger. She was finally, before the -house-fire, solemnly admitted into her husband’s family, and as a -worshipper at the family altar. - -[Sidenote: Adoption.] - -This ceremony was subject to a great many variations amongst the -different Aryan races; but in every one of them some trace of it is to -be found, and this always apparently intended to express the same idea, -the change of the bride’s family. _Adoption_, which in later times -became extremely common among the Romans--the race which seems in Europe -to have preserved most faithfully the old Aryan family type--originated -in a sort of extension of the same theory that admitted of the wife’s -entry into her husband’s family, as almost all the details of the -ceremony of adoption are copied from that of marriage. Cases must have -occurred pretty often where a man might be placed in such a position as -to be without a family. He may have become alienated from his own -kindred by the commission of some crime, or all his relatives may have -died from natural causes or been killed in war. In the condition in -which society was then, such a man would be in a peculiarly unenviable -position. There would be no one in whom he could trust, no one who would -be the least interested in him or bound to protect him. Thus wandering -as an outlaw, without means of defence from enemies, and unable to -protect his possessions if he chanced to have any, or to obtain means of -subsistence if he had none, he would be very desirous of becoming a -member of some other family, in order that he might find in it the -assistance and support necessary for his own welfare. It might also -sometimes happen, that owing to a want of male descendants some house -might be in danger of extinction. Now the extinction of a family was a -matter of peculiar dread to its members. Connected with the worship of -the hearth was the worship of the ancestors of the family. It was the -duty of each patriarch to offer sacrifices on stated occasions to the -departed spirits of his ancestors; and it was considered as a matter of -the utmost importance that these sacrifices should be kept up, in order -to insure the happiness of those departed spirits after death. So -important indeed was this rite held to be, that it was reckoned as one -of the chief duties which each patriarch had to perform, and the family -property was regarded as dedicated to this object in priority to every -other. It would therefore be the chief care of each head of a household -to leave male descendants, in order that the offerings for his own and -his ancestors’ benefit might be continued after his death. The only -person, however, capable of performing these rites was a member of the -same family, one who joined in the same worship by the same household -fire: so if all the males of a family were to die out, these rights must -of necessity cease. - -The marriage ceremony had already supplied a precedent for introducing -members into a house who were not born in it. It was very natural, then, -that this principle should be extended to the introduction of males when -there was any danger of the male line becoming extinct. This was done by -the ceremony of adoption, which was in many respects similar to that of -marriage, being a formal renunciation of the person adopted by the -patriarch of his original family, in case he was a member of one, and a -formal acceptance and admission into the new family of his adoption, of -which he was thenceforward regarded as a regular member. This ceremony -exhibits in a very marked manner the leading peculiarity of the -patriarchal household. We see how completely isolated, in theory, such -a group was from the rest of the world; having its own distinct worship, -in which no one but its own members were permitted to share, reverencing -its own ancestors only, who might receive worship from none but their -descendants. So jealously was this separation of families guarded, that -it was impossible for a man or woman at the same time to worship at two -family shrines. While displaying its isolation in the strongest light, -adoption is nevertheless a mark of decay in the patriarchal family. It -is an artificial grafting on the original simple stock; and however -carefully men may have shut their eyes at first to its artificial -nature, it must have had a gradual tendency to undermine the reverence -paid to the principle of blood relationship. - -Before we consider, however, the causes of decay of this form of -society, which we shall do in the next chapter, there are some other -indications of their manner of livelihood which will help us to -understand the social condition of these Aryan patriarchal families. We -have seen that, with the introduction of bronze into Europe, various -changes took place in the manner of men’s lives. One of these is the -regular domestication of animals. It is true that domestic animals were -by no means unknown before the bronze age in Europe: but until that time -this custom had not attained any great extension. In remains of -settlements whose age is supposed to be before the introduction of -bronze, by far the larger number of animals’ bones found are those -belonging to wild species, while those belonging to tame species are -comparatively rare. This shows that the principal part of the food of -those people who lived before the bronze age was obtained by hunting. -After the introduction of bronze, however, exactly the reverse is the -case. In these later remains the bones of domestic animals become much -more common, while those of wild animals are comparatively rare, which -shows what an important revolution had taken place in men’s habits. - -[Sidenote: Introduction of the pastoral life.] - -It must also be remembered that many remains supposed to belong to the -later stone age may, in fact, belong to societies that existed during -the bronze age, but who had not yet adopted the use of bronze, or else -from their situation were unable to obtain any. As yet so little is -known of how this metal was obtained at that time, that it is impossible -to say what situations would be least favourable for obtaining it; but -considering that tin, of which bronze is partly composed, is only found -in a very few places, the wonder is rather that bronze weapons are so -frequent amongst the different remains scattered over Europe, than that -they should be absent from some of them. Moreover, the races that -inhabited Europe before the Aryans came there would afterwards remain -collected together in settlements, surrounded by the invading -population, for a considerable length of time before they had either -been exterminated or absorbed by the more civilized race. These -aborigines would adopt such of the arts and customs of the Aryans as -were most within their reach. The increased population and the greater -cultivation of the land which followed the Aryan invasion would make it -more difficult to obtain food from hunting, and the aborigines would -therefore be compelled to adopt domestication of animals as a means of -support, which they would have little difficulty in doing, as they would -be able to obtain a stock to start from, either by raids on their -neighbours’ herds or, perhaps, by barter. But the manufacture of bronze -weapons, being a much more complicated affair than the rearing of -cattle, would take a much longer time to acquire. This perhaps may -account for the remains found in the lake-dwellings, some of which show -a considerable degree of social advance, but an entire ignorance of the -use of bronze, while in the later ones bronze weapons are also found. We -may, then, regard the domestication of animals, to the extent that it -was practised by the Aryans in their Asiatic home, as a new thing in -Europe, and as introduced by the Aryans. It was on their flocks and -herds that these races chiefly depended for subsistence, and the -importance of the chase as a means of livelihood was very much less with -them than it was with the old hunter-tribes that formed the earlier -population of Europe. This in itself was a great advance in -civilization. It implied a regular industry, and the possession of -cattle was not only a guarantee against want, but an inducement to a -more regular and orderly mode of living. - -There are no lessons so important to uncivilized nations as those of -providence and industry, and the pastoral life required and encouraged -both these qualities. It was necessary to store up at one time of year -food to support the cattle during another period; to preserve a -sufficient number of animals to keep the stock replenished. The cows too -had to be milked at regular times, and every night the flocks and herds -had to be collected into pens to protect them from beasts of prey, and -every morning to be led out again to the pasture. All this shows the -existence of a more organized and methodical life than is possible to a -hunter-tribe. The pastoral life, moreover, seems to be one particularly -suited to the patriarchal type of society. Each little community is -capable of supplying its own wants, and is also compelled to maintain a -certain degree of isolation. The necessity of having a considerable -extent of country for their pasturage would prevent different families -from living very near each other. In its simplest state, too, the -pastoral life is a nomadic one; so that the only social connection which -can exist among such a people is one of kinship, for having no fixed -homes they can have no settled neighbours or fellow-countrymen. The -importance attached to cattle in this stage of civilization is evidenced -by the frequent use of words in their origin relating to cattle, in all -the Aryan languages, to express many of the ordinary incidents of life. -Not only do cattle occupy a prominent place in Aryan mythology, but -titles of honour, the names for divisions of the day, for the divisions -of land, for property, for money, and many other words, all attest by -their derivation how prominent a position cattle occupied with the early -Aryans. The patriarch is called in Sanskrit ‘lord of the cattle,’ the -morning is ‘the calling of the cattle,’ the evening ‘the milking time.’ -The Latin word for money, _pecunia_, and our English word ‘fee’ both -come from the Aryan name for cattle. In Anglo-Saxon movable property is -called ‘cwicfeoh,’ or living cattle, while immovable property, such as -houses and land, is called ‘dead cattle.’ And so we find the same word -constantly cropping up in all the Aryan languages, to remind us that in -the pastoral life cattle are the great interest and source of wealth to -the community, and the principal means of exchange employed in such -commerce as is there carried on. - -[Sidenote: Commerce.] - -The commerce between different tribes or families seems to have been -conducted at certain meeting-places agreed upon, and which were situated -in the boundary-land or neutral territory between the different -settlements. Very frequently at war with each other, or at best only -preserving an armed and watchful quiet,--each side ready at a moment’s -notice to seize on a favourable opportunity for the commencement of -active hostilities,--continual friendly intercourse was impossible. So -that when they wished for their mutual advantage to enter into amicable -relations, it was necessary to establish some sort of special agreement -for that purpose. It is probable, then, that when they found the -advantages which could be derived from commercial exchanges, certain -places were agreed upon as neutral territory where these exchanges might -take place. Such places of exchange would naturally be fixed upon as -would be equally convenient to both parties; and their mutual jealousy -would prevent one tribe from permitting the free entrance within its own -limits of members of other tribes. Places, too, would be chosen so as to -be within reach of three or four different tribes; and thus the place of -exchange, the market-place, would be fixed in that border-land to which -no tribe laid any special claim. So we see that to commerce was due the -first amicable relations of one tribe with another; and perhaps our -market crosses may owe their origin to some remains of the old ideas -associated with assemblies where men first learnt to look upon men of -different tribes as brothers in a common humanity. - -It took a long time, however, to mitigate that feeling of hostility -which seems to have existed in early times between different -communities. Even when they condescended to barter with each other they -did not forget the difference between the friend and the foe. In the -_Senchus Mor_, a book compiled by the old Irish or ‘Brehon’ lawyers, -this difference between dealing with a friend and a stranger is rather -curiously indicated in considering the rent of land. ‘The three rents,’ -says the _Great Book of the Law_, as it is called, ‘are rack rent (or -the extreme rent) from a person of a strange tribe, a fair rent from one -of the tribe (that is one’s own tribe), and the stipulated rent, which -is paid equally by the tribe and the strange tribe.’ Such a distinction -is generally recognized in all early communities. In dealing with a man -of his own tribe, the individual was held bound in honour not to take -any unfair advantage, to take only such a price, to exact only such a -value in exchange, as he was legitimately entitled to. It was quite -otherwise, however, in dealings with members of other tribes. Then the -highest value possible might justly be obtained for any article; so that -dealings at markets which consisted of exchanges between different -tribes, came to mean a particular sort of trading, where the highest -price possible was obtained for anything sold. It is probable that this -cast, to a certain extent, a slur upon those who habitually devoted -themselves to this kind of trading. Though it was recognized as just to -exact as high a price as possible from the stranger, still the person -who did so was looked upon to a certain extent as guilty of a -disreputable action; viewed, in fact, much in the same light as usurious -money-lenders are viewed nowadays. They were people who did not offend -against the laws of their times, but who sailed so near the wind as to -be tainted, as it were, with fraud. Indeed, our word ‘monger,’ which -simply means ‘dealer,’ comes from a root which, in Sanskrit, means ‘to -deceive;’ so commerce and cheating seem to have been early united, and -we must therefore not be surprised if they are not entirely divorced -even in our own time. - -Now ‘mark,’ which, as we know, means a boundary or border-land, comes -from a root which means ‘the chase,’ or ‘wild animals.’ So ‘mark’ -originally meant the place of the chase, or where wild animals lived. -This gives us some sort of picture of these early settlements, whose -in-dwellers carried on their commerce with each other in such primitive -fashion. They were little spots of cleared or cultivated land, -surrounded by a sort of jungle or primeval forest inhabited only by wild -beasts. It was in such wild places as these that the first markets used -to be held. Here, under the spreading branches of the trees, at some -spot agreed upon beforehand,--some open glade, perhaps, which would be -chosen because a neighbouring stream afforded means of refreshment,--the -fierce distrustful men would meet to take a passing glimpse at the -blessings of peace. These wild border-lands which intervened also -explain to us how it was that so great an isolation continued to be -maintained between the different settlements. If their pasture-lands had -abutted immediately on each other, if the herds of one tribe had grazed -by the herds of another, there must have been much more intercommunion -and mutual trust than appears to have existed. - -The value of cattle does not consist only in the food and skins which -they provide. Oxen have from a very early time been employed for -purposes of agriculture; and we find among the names derived from cattle -many suggesting that they must have been put to this use at the time -when those names arose. Thus the Greeks spoke of the evening as -βουλυτός (boulutos), or the time for the unyoking of oxen; and -the same idea is expressed in the old German word for evening, ‘àbant’ -(Abend), or the unyoking. This, then, is the next stage in social -progress: when agriculture becomes the usual employment of man. With the -advance of this stage begins the decay of the patriarchal life, which, -as we shall see in the next chapter, gradually disappears and gives -place to fresh social combinations. Though we have hitherto spoken only -of the patriarchal life of the Aryans, it was a life even more -characteristic of the Semitic race. They were essentially pastoral and -nomadic in their habits, and they seem to have continued to lead a -purely pastoral life much longer than the Aryans did. In the Old -Testament we learn how Abraham and Lot had to separate because their -flocks were too extensive to feed together; and how Abraham wandered -about with his flocks and herds, his family and servants, dwellers in -tents, leading a simple patriarchal life, much as do the Arabs of the -present day. Long after the neighbouring people had settled in towns, -these Semitic tribes continued to wander over the intervening plains, -depending for food and clothing only on their sheep and cattle and -camels. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -THE VILLAGE COMMUNITY. - - -[Sidenote: The agricultural life.] - -So long as people continued to lead a wandering shepherd life, the -institution of the patriarchal family afforded a sufficient and -satisfactory basis for such cordial union as was possible. It was a -condition of society in which the relations of the different members to -each other were extremely simple and confined within very narrow -boundaries; but these habits of life prevented the existence of any very -complicated social order, and at the same time gave a peculiar force and -endurance to those customs and ties which did exist. For while the -different tribes had no settled dwelling-places, the only cohesion -possible was that produced by the personal relations of the different -members one to another. Those beyond the limits of the tribe or -household could have no permanent connection with it. They were simply -‘strangers,’ friends or enemies, as circumstances might determine, but -having no common interests, connected by no abiding link, with those who -were not members of the same community. When a family became so numerous -that it was necessary for its members to separate, the new family, -formed under the influence of this pressure, would at first remember the -parent stock with reverence, and perhaps regard the patriarch of the -elder branch as entitled to some sort of obedience from, and possessing -some indefinite kind of power over, it after separation. It would, -however, soon wander away and lose all connection with its relatives, -forgetting perhaps in the course of time whence it had sprung, or -inventing a pedigree more pleasing to the vanity of its members. But -when men began to learn to till the soil, by degrees they had to abandon -their nomadic life, and to have for a time fixed dwelling-places, in -order that they might guard their crops, and gather, in the time of -harvest, the fruits of their labour. Cattle were no longer the only -means of subsistence, nor sufficiency of pasture the only limit to -migration. A part of their wealth was, for a time, bound up in the land -which they had tilled and sowed, and to obtain that wealth they must -remain in the neighbourhood of the cultivated soil. Thus a new -relationship arose between different families. They began to have -neighbours--dwellers on and cultivators of the land bordering their -own,--so that common interests sprang up between those who hitherto had -nothing in common, new ties began to connect together those who had -formerly no fixed relationship. - -The adoption of agriculture changed likewise the relation of men to the -land on which they dwelt. Hitherto the tracts of pasture over which the -herdsman had driven his flocks and cattle had been as unappropriated as -the open sea, as free as the air which he breathed. He neither claimed -any property in the land himself, nor acknowledged any title thereto in -another. He had spent no labour on it, had done nothing to improve its -fertility; and his only right as against others to any locality was that -of his temporary sojourn there. But when agriculture began to require -the expenditure of labour on the land, and its enclosure, so as to -protect the crops which had been sown, a new distinct idea of the -possession of these enclosed pieces of land began to arise, so that a -man was no longer simply the member of a particular family. He had -acquired new rights and attributes, for which the patriarchal economy -had made no provision. He was the inhabitant of a particular locality, -the owner and cultivator of a particular piece of land. The effect of -this change was necessarily to weaken the household tie which bound men -together, by introducing new relations between them. The great strength -of that early bond had consisted in its being the only one which the -state of society rendered possible; and its force was greatly augmented -by the isolation in which the different nomadic groups habitually lived. -The adoption of a more permanent settlement thus tended in two ways to -facilitate the introduction of a new social organization. By increasing -the intercourse, and rendering more permanent the connection between -different families, it destroyed their isolation, and therefore weakened -the autocratic power of their chiefs; and at the same time, by -introducing new interests into the life of the members of a family, and -new relations between different families, it compelled sometimes the -adoption of regulations necessarily opposed to the principles of -patriarchal rule. We must remember, however, that the change from a -nomadic to a settled state took place very gradually, some peoples being -influenced by it much more slowly than others. Agriculture may be -practised to a certain extent by those who lead a more or less wandering -life, as is the case with the Tartar tribes, who grow buckwheat, which -only takes two or three months for its production; so that at the end of -that time they are able to gather their harvest and once more wander in -search of new pastures. And it is from its use by them that this grain -has received in French the name of _blé sarrasin_ (Saracen corn) or -simply _sarrasin_. We may suppose that the earliest agriculture -practised was something of this rude description; and even when tribes -learnt the advantage of cultivating more slowly germinating crops, they -would not readily abandon their nomadic habits, which long continuance -had rendered dear to them; but would only become agriculturists under -the pressure of circumstances. The hunter tribes of North American -Indians, and the Gipsies of Europe, serve to show us how deeply rooted -in a people may become the love of wandering and the dislike to settled -industry. - -[Sidenote: The village community.] - -It was probably to the difficulty of supporting existence produced by -the increase of population that the more continuous pursuit of -agriculture was due; and it would therefore be first regularly followed -by the less warlike tribes, whose territory had been curtailed by the -incursions of their bolder neighbours. No longer able to seek pasture -over so extended an area as formerly, and with perhaps an increasing -population, they would find the necessity of obtaining from the land a -greater proportionate supply of subsistence than they had obtained -hitherto. Agriculture would therefore have to be pursued more regularly -and laboriously, and thus the habit of settlement would gradually be -acquired. Under this influence we may discern a change taking place in -the social state of the Aryan tribes. Gradually they become less nomadic -and more agricultural; and as this takes place, there arises also a -change in the relations of peoples to each other. We should naturally -expect considerable variety in the effects produced on different nations -by the adoption of a settled life. The results depend upon climate and -locality, upon the kind of civilization chosen, and the special -idiosyncrasies of the people who adopt it. All these elements had their -share in moulding the life of the Aryans when they became an -agricultural people. Yet we find, nevertheless, one special type of -society to have been the prevailing type among them. This form of -society is called the Village Community. It possesses some features -apparently so peculiarly its own, that it would be difficult to decide -on the cause of its adoption or growth. It will be safer with our -present limited knowledge to be satisfied with noting the more marked -characteristics of this form of society, and the localities in which it -may be traced; and not attempt to determine whether it is to be regarded -as a natural resultant of the settlement of patriarchal families, or as -inherited or evolved by some particular groups of tribes. - -The village community in its simplest state consisted of a group of -families, or households, whose dwellings were generally collected -together within an enclosure. To this group belonged a certain tract of -land, the cultivation and proprietorship of which were the subject of -minute regulations. The regulations varied in different localities to a -certain extent, but they were based on the division of the land into -three principal parts, viz. (1) the land immediately in the -neighbourhood of the dwellings, (2) another part specially set aside for -agricultural purposes, and (3) the remaining portion of the surrounding -open country, which was used only for grazing. Each of these divisions -was regarded as in some sort the common property of the village; but the -rights of individuals in some of them were more extensive than in -others. That part of the land which was annexed especially to the -dwellings was more completely the property of the different inhabitants -than any other. Each head of a house was entitled to the particular plot -attached to his dwelling, and probably these plots, and the dwellings to -which they were annexed, remained always practically in the ownership -of the same family. The area of this section, however, was very -insignificant when compared with the remainder of the communal estate. -In this the arable land was divided into a number of small plots, each -or several of which were assigned to particular households. The mode of -division was very various; but generally speaking, either each household -had an equal share assigned to it, or else a share in proportion to the -number of its males. Redistributions of the shares took place either at -stated periods, or whenever circumstances had rendered the existing -division inequitable. Each household cultivated the particular share -assigned to it, and appropriated to its own use the crops produced; but -individuals were never allowed themselves to settle the mode of -cultivation that they might prefer. The crops to be sown, and the part -of land on which they were to be sown, were all regulated by the common -assembly of the whole village, as were also the times for sowing and for -harvest, and every other agricultural operation; and these laws of the -assembly had to be implicitly followed by all the villagers. The third -portion, open or common land of the village, was not divided between the -households at all; but every member of the community was at liberty to -pasture his flocks and herds upon it. - -In their relations to each other the villagers seem to have been on a -footing of perfect equality. It is probable that there existed generally -some sort of chief, but his power does not appear to have been very -great, and for the most part he was merely a president of their -assemblies, exercising only an influence in proportion to his personal -qualifications. The real lawgivers and rulers of this society were the -different individuals who constituted the assembly. These, however, did -not comprise all the inhabitants of the village. Only the heads of the -different families were properly included in the village assembly. But -the household had no longer the same extended circle as formerly, and, -so far as we can gather, there seems to have been little check on the -division of families and the formation of new households. - -It must be borne in mind, however, that we have no existing institution -exactly resembling the village community, such as we may suppose it to -have originally been. As with the patriarchal family, we meet with it -only after it has undergone considerable modification, and we have to -reconstruct it from such modified forms and traditions as remain to us. -Many minor details of its nature are therefore necessarily matters of -speculation. The community, however, may still be found in a changed -form in several localities; notably among the peasantry in Russia, where -it bears the name of the _mir_, and among the native population of -India. Its former existence among the Teuton tribes is attested by the -clearest evidence. With each of these peoples, however, the form is -somewhat varied from what we may conclude to have been its original -nature; in each country it has been subject not only to the natural -growth and development which every institution is liable to, but to -special influences arising from the events connected with the nation’s -history, and from the nature and extent of its territory. But before we -inquire what these different influences may have been, let us notice -first certain leading characteristics of this group, and consider how -they probably arose. - -The first thing that we notice is the change in the source of authority -in the Village Community as compared with that which existed in the -patriarchal family. The ruling power is no longer placed in the hands of -an individual - -[Sidenote: The assembly of householders.] - -chief, but is vested in an assembly of all the householders. The second -marked peculiarity is the common possession of nearly all the land by -the village, combined with the individual possession of goods of a -movable nature by the different members. These may be said to be the two -essentials of a true village community. Now the change from the -patriarchal to this later social form may have taken place by either of -two processes--the extension of an individual family into a community, -or the amalgamation of various families. Probably both of these -processes took place; but wherever anything like the formation of a -village community has been actually observed, and the process has -occasionally been discernible even in modern times in India, it is due -to the former of the two causes indicated. This mode of formation also -appears to have left the most distinct impress on society, and we will -therefore notice first how it probably acted. - -When a family had devoted itself to agricultural pursuits, and settled -in a fixed locality, one of those divisions of its members might take -place which probably were of frequent occurrence in the nomadic state. -Although theoretically we speak of the patriarchal family as united and -indivisible, yet as a matter of fact we know that it could not always -have been so, and that families must frequently have either split up, or -else sent off little colonies from their midst. Now, we have seen how -marked an effect the settlement of the family must have had in -preserving a permanent connection between that family and the households -which sprang out of it. The separation between the older and the younger -households would be by no means so complete as formerly. The subsidiary -family would continue in close intercourse with the elder branch, and -would enjoy with it the use of the land which had been appropriated. In -course of time it might happen that a whole group of families would thus -become settled near each other, all united by a common origin and -enjoying in common the land surrounding the settlement. The desire for -mutual protection, which would often be felt, would alone be a strong -inducement to preserve the neighbourhood between those who through -kinship were allies by nature and tradition. Thus, though each separate -family would continue in its internal relations the peculiarities of the -patriarchal rule, the heads of the different families would be related -to each other by quite a new tie. They would not be members of one great -family all subservient to a common chief. They would be united simply by -the bond of their common interests. - -In this way, no doubt, sprang up a new relationship between the family -chiefs, a relationship not provided for in the construction of the -patriarchal family. We might expect perhaps that a special pre-eminence -would be accorded to the original family from which the others had -separated, and possibly some traces of this pre-eminence may here and -there be discovered. Why we have not more traces of it may be difficult -to explain. For upon the whole the relationship among the different -heads of households seems generally to be one of equality. As we do not -know exactly by what process families became divided, it is useless to -speculate how this equality arose. Alongside of this new reign of -equality among the different patriarchs or heads of households, went a -decrease in the power of the patriarch within his own circle. The family -had ceased to be the bond of union of the community at large, albeit the -units composing the new combination were themselves groups constructed -on the patriarchal type; so that the fact that they were now only parts -of larger groups had the effect of weakening the force of patriarchal -customs. When the household was the only state of which an individual -was a member, to leave it was to lose all share in its rights and -property, to become an outlaw in every possible sense. But when the -family became part of the village, the facilities for separating from it -were necessarily increased. Households would more readily subdivide, now -that after separation their component parts continued united in the -community. Thus by degrees the old patriarchal life decayed, and gave -place to this new and more elastic social formation. The importance of -an individual’s relation to the family became less, that of the family -to the community became greater; so that in time the community took to -itself the regulation of many affairs originally within the exclusive -power of the patriarch. - -With these changes in social life came new theories of rights and -obligations. A new lesson was learnt with regard to property. It is -difficult to discern whether, in the older, the patriarchal society, the -property was regarded as exclusively that of the chief, or as belonging -to the family collectively. The truth seems to be that the two ideas -were blended, and neither was conceived with any clearness or -completeness. In the village community for the first time the two forms -of property, personal and communal, became fully distinguished; each -kind, by defining and limiting, producing a clearer idea of the other. -The land, the bond of union, and the limit of the extent of the -community, remained the common property of all; in part, no doubt, -because the idea of possessing land was still so new that it had not -been thoroughly grasped. The produce of the land, whether corn or -pasture, was, on the other hand, rather regarded as a proper subject of -private possession. At first, perhaps, in obedience to the habits of an -earlier life, even this may have been looked upon as common property. -But it did not long continue so, as the separation of the households -remained too complete to permit of any community with regard to the -possessions of the individual homestead, or of the produce required for -the support of each household; and this enforced separation of household -goods soon extended to the live stock, and to the produce of the -harvest.[54] - -[Sidenote: Law.] - -The effects produced by their new relation to each other upon the -individual members of this group were very important. Hitherto such idea -of law as existed was confined to the mandates or traditional -regulations of the patriarchs. Law was at first inseparably connected -with religion. It was looked upon as a series of regulations handed down -by some ancestor who had received the regulations by Divine inspiration. -This notion of the origin of law is so general, that it is to be met -with in the traditions of almost every nation. Thus we find the -Egyptians reputing their laws to the teachings of Hermes (Thoth); while -the lawgivers of Greece, Minôs and Lycurgus, are inspired, the one by -Zeus the other by Apollo. So too the Iranian lawgiver Zoroaster is -taught by the Good Spirit; and Moses receives the commandments on Mount -Sinai. Now, though this idea of law is favourable to the procuring -obedience to it, it produces an injurious effect on the law itself, by -rendering it too fixed and unalterable. Law, in order to satisfy the -requirements and changes of life, should be elastic and capable of -adaptation; otherwise, regulations which in their institution were -beneficial will survive to be obnoxious under an altered condition of -society. But so long as laws are regarded as Divine commands they -necessarily retain a great degree of rigidity. The village community, in -disconnecting the source of law from the patriarchal power, tended to -destroy this association. The authority of the patriarch was a part of -the religion of the early Aryans; he was at once the ruler and the -priest of his family; and though this union between the two characters -long continued to have great influence on the conception of law, the -first efforts at a distinction between Divine and human commands sprang -from the regulations adopted by the assembly of the village. The -complete equality and the joint authority exercised by its members was -an education in self-government, which was needed to enable them to -advance in the path of civilization, teaching them the importance of -self-dependence and individual responsibility. - -Those who learnt that lesson best displayed in their history the -greatness of its influence, having gained from it a vigour and readiness -to meet and adapt themselves to new requirements such as was never -possessed by those absolute monarchies which sprang out of an enlarged -form of the principle of patriarchal government. The history of the -various states which arose in Asia, each in its turn to be overwhelmed -in a destruction which scarcely left a trace of its social influence, -exhibits in a very striking manner the defects which necessarily ensue -when a people ignorant of social arts attempts to form an extensive -scheme of government. The various races who have risen to temporary -empire by the chances of war in the East, have been in very many -instances nomadic tribes whose habits had produced a hardihood which -enabled them to conquer with ease their effeminate neighbours of the -more settled districts, but whose social state was not sufficiently -advanced to allow them to carry on any extended rule. Used only to their -simple nomadic life, they were suddenly brought face to face with wants -and possessions of which they had hitherto had no experience, and which -lay beyond the bounds of their customs or ideas. They contented -themselves with exacting from the conquered such tribute as they could -extort, leaving their new subjects to manage their own affairs much as -they had done before, till the conquerors, gradually corrupted by the -luxuries which their position afforded, and having failed to make for -themselves any firm footing in their new empire, were in their turn -overwhelmed by fresh hordes of nomadic invaders. - -Such, indeed, may be the fate of any nation. Such was the fate of Rome. -Her mighty empire, too, fell; but how different a record has she left -behind from that of the short-lived monarchies of the East! Having -learnt in her earliest infancy, better perhaps than any other nation, -how to reconcile the conflicting theories of the household and the -community, she never flagged in her study of the arts of government. -Early imbued with a love of law and order, her people discovered in due -time how to accommodate their rule to the various conditions of those -which came under their sway. Her laws penetrated to the remotest -boundaries of her state, and the rights of a Roman citizen were as -clearly defined in Britain as in Rome itself. Thus the Romans have left -behind them a system of law the wonder and admiration of all mankind, -one which has left indelible marks on the laws and customs, the arts and -civilization, of every country which once formed part of their -dominions. - -Such were among the changes resulting from the adoption of the village -community; but their influences only gradually asserted themselves, and -the extent of their development was very various among different -peoples. In India, the religious element in the household had always a -peculiar force, and its influence continued to affect to a great extent -the formation of the community. There this organization never lost sight -of the patriarchal power, and has exhibited a constant tendency to -revert to that more primitive social form. Among the Slavonic tribes the -community seems to have found its most favourable conditions, and some -of the reasons for this are not difficult to discern. The Slavs in -Russia have for a long time had open to them an immense tract of thinly -inhabited country, their only rivals to the possession of which were the -Finnish tribes of the north. Now, the village community is a form -peculiarly adapted for colonization, and this process of colonizing -fresh country by sending out detachments from over-grown villages seems -to have gone on for a long time in Russia; so that the communities which -still exist there present a complete network; all are bound by ties of -nearer or more distant relationship to each other; every village having -some ‘mother-village’ from which it has sprung.[55] Having a practically -boundless territory awaiting their settlement, none of those -difficulties in obtaining land which led to the decay of the village in -western Europe affected the Russians in their earlier history. - -With the Teutons the village had a somewhat different history. It is -difficult to determine exactly to what extent it existed among them; but -traces of its organization are still discoverable among the laws and -customs of Germany and England. The warlike habits of the German tribes, -however, soon produced a marked effect on this organization. The chief -of the village, whether hereditary or elective, was under normal -conditions possessed of but little power. Among a warlike people, -however, the necessity for a captain or dictator must have been much -greater than with peaceful tribes; for war requires, more than any other -pursuit, that it should be directed by an individual mind. Among the -peaceful inhabitants of India or Russia the village head-man was -generally some aged and venerable father exercising a sort of paternal -influence over the others through the reverence paid to his age and -wisdom. The habits of the Teutons gave an excessive importance to the -strength and vigour of manhood, and they learnt to regard those who -exhibited the greatest skill in battle as their natural chieftains. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -RELIGION. - - -We have hitherto been occupied in tracing the growth of inventions which -had for their end the supply of material wants, or the ordering of -conditions which should enable men to live peaceably together in -communities, and defend the products of their labour from the attacks of -rival tribes and warlike neighbours. A very little research into the -relics of antiquity, however, brings another side of human thought -before us, and we discover, whether by following the revelations of -language or by examining into the traces left in ancient sites, abundant -proof to show that the material wants of life did not alone occupy the -thoughts of our remote ancestors any more than our own, and that even -while the struggle for life was fiercest, conjectures about the unseen -world and the life beyond the grave, and aspirations towards the -invisible source of life and light they felt to be around them, occupied -a large space in their minds. God did not leave them without witness at -any time, but caused the ‘invisible things to be shown by those that do -appear.’ And even in the darkest ages and among the least-favoured races -there were always to be found some minds that vibrated, however feebly, -to the suggestions of this teaching, and shaped out for themselves and -their tribe some conception of a Divine Ruler and His government of the -world from those works of His hands of which their senses told them. -Before commerce, or writing, or law had advanced beyond their earliest -beginnings, religious rites and funeral rites had no doubt been -established in every tribe, and men’s thoughts about God and His -relationship to His creatures had found some verbal expression, some -sort of creed in which they could be handed down from father to son and -form a new tie to bind men together. The task of tracing back these -rites and creeds to their earliest shape is manifestly harder than that -of tracing material inventions, or laws between man and man, to their -first germs, for we are here trenching on some of the deepest questions -which the human mind is capable of contemplating--nothing less, indeed, -than the nature of conscience and the dealings of God Himself with the -souls of His creatures. We must therefore tread cautiously, be content -to leave a great deal uncertain, and, making up our minds only on such -points as appear to be decided by revelation, accept on others the -results of present researches as still imperfect, and liable to be -modified as further light on the difficult problems in consideration is -obtained. - -[Sidenote: Explanation of mythology through the study of language.] - -The study of language has perhaps done more than anything else to clear -away the puzzles which mythologies formerly presented to students. It -has helped in two ways: first, by tracing the names of objects of -worship to their root-forms, and thus showing their meaning and -revealing the thought which lay at the root of the worship; secondly, by -proving the identity between the gods of different nations, whose names, -apparently different, have been resolved into the same root-word, or to -a root of the same meaning, when the alchemy of philological research -was applied to them. - -The discovery of a closer relationship than had been formerly suspected -between the mythologies of various nations is a very important one, as -it enables us to trace the growth of the stories told of gods and -heroes, from the mature form in which we first become acquainted with -them in the religious systems of the Greeks, Romans, and Scandinavians, -to the primitive shape in which the same creeds were held by the more -metaphysical and less imaginative Eastern peoples among whom they -originally sprang up. In some respects this task of tracing back the -poetical myths of Greek and Northern poets to the simpler, if grander, -beliefs of the ancient Egyptians or Chaldæans or Hindus is not unlike -our search in a perfected language for its earliest roots. We lose -shapeliness and beauty as we come back, but we find the form that -explains the birth of the thought, and lets us see how it grew in the -minds of men. One chief result arrived at by this comparison of creeds, -and by unravelling the meaning of the names of ancient gods and heroes, -is the discovery that a worship of different aspects and forces of -nature lies at the bottom of nearly all mythologies, and that the cause -of the resemblance between the stories told of the gods and heroes (a -resemblance which strikes us as soon as we read two or three of them -together) is that they are in reality only slightly different ways of -describing natural appearances according to the effect produced on -different minds, or to the variations of climate and season of the year. -Having once got the key of the enigma in our hands, we soon become -expert in hunting the parable through all the protean shapes in which it -is presented to us. The heroes of the old stories we have long loved -begin to lose their individuality and character for us. And instead of -thinking of Apollo, and Osiris, and Theseus, and Herakles, and Thor as -separate idealizations of heroic or godlike character; of Ariadne, and -Idun, and Isis as heroines of pathetic histories, our thoughts as we -read are busied in tracing all that is said about them to the aspects of -the sun in his march across the heavens, through the vicissitudes of a -bright and thundery eastern, or a gusty northern, day, and the tenderly -glowing and fading colours of the western sky into which he sinks when -his course is run. - -Our first feeling on receiving this simple explanation of the old -stories of mythology is rather one of disappointment than of -satisfaction; we feel that we are losing a great deal--not the interest -of the stories only, but all those glimpses of deep moral meanings, of -yearnings after Divine teachers and rulers, of acknowledgment of the -possibility of communion between God and man, which we had hitherto -found in them, and which we are sure that the original makers of them -could not have been without. It seems to rob the old religions of the -essence of religion--spirituality--and reduce them to mere observations -of natural phenomena, due rather to the bodily senses than to any -instincts or necessities of the soul. But here the science of language, -with which we were about to quarrel as having robbed us, comes in to -restore to the old beliefs those very elements of mystery, awe, and -yearning towards the invisible, which we were fearing to see vanish -away. As is usually the case on looking deeper, we shall find that the -explanation which seemed at first to impoverish really enhances the -beauty and worth of the subject brought into clearer light. It teaches -us to see something more in what we have been used to call mere -nature-worship than appears at first sight. - -When we were considering the beginnings of language, we learned that -all root-words were expressions of sensations received from outward -things, every name or word being a description of some bodily feeling, a -gathering-up of impressions on the senses made by the universe outside -us. With this stock of words--pictorial words, we may call them--it is -easy to see that when people in early times wanted to express a mental -feeling, they were driven to use the word which expressed the sensation -in their bodies most nearly corresponding to it. We do something of the -same kind now when we talk of _warm_ love, _chill_ fear, _hungry_ -avarice, and _dark_ revenge--mixing up words for sensations of the body -to heighten the expression of emotions of the mind. In using these -expressions we are conscious of speaking allegorically, and we have, -over and above our allegorical phrases, words set aside especially for -describing mental actions, so that we can talk of the sensations of our -bodies and of our minds without any danger of confounding them together. -But in early times, before words had acquired these varied and enlarged -meanings, when men had only one word by which to express the glow of the -body when the sun shone and the glow of the mind when a friend was near, -the difficulty of speaking, or even thinking, of mental and bodily -emotions apart from each other must have been very great. Only gradually -could the two things have become disentangled from one another, and -during all the time while this change was going on an allegorical way of -speaking of mental emotions and of the source of mental emotions must -have prevailed. It is not difficult to see that while love and warmth, -fear and cold, had only one word to express them, the sun, the source of -warmth, and God, the source of love, were spoken of in much the same -terms, and worshipped in songs that expressed the same adoration and -gratitude. It follows, therefore, that while we acknowledge the large -proportion in which the nature element comes into all mythologies, we -need not look upon the worshippers of nature as worshippers of visible -things only. They felt, without being able to express, the Divine cause -which lay behind the objects whose grandeur and beauty appealed to their -wonder, and they loved and worshipped the Unseen while naming the seen -only. As time passed on and language developed, losing much of its -original significance, there was, especially among the Greeks and -Romans, a gradual divergence between the popular beliefs about the gods -and the spirit of true worship which originally lay behind them. People -no longer felt the influence of nature in the double method in which it -had come to them in the childhood of the race, and they began to -distinguish clearly between their bodies and their minds, between the -things that lay without and the emotions stirred within. Then the old -nature-beliefs became degraded to foolish and gross superstitions, and -yearning souls sought God in a more spiritual way. - -The mythologies of the different Aryan nations are those which concern -us most nearly, entering as they do into the very composition of our -language, and colouring not only our literature and poetry, but our -cradle-songs and the tales told in our nurseries. We shall find it -interesting to compare together the various forms of the stories told by -nations of the Aryan stock, and to trace them back to their earliest -shape. - -[Sidenote: Egyptian religion.] - -But before entering on this task, it may be well to turn our attention -for a little while to a still earlier mythology, where the mingling of -metaphysical conceptions with the worship of natural phenomena is -perhaps more clearly shown than in any other, and which may therefore -serve as a guide to help us in grasping this connection in the more -highly coloured, picturesque stories we shall be hereafter attempting -to unravel. This earliest and least ornamented mythology is that of the -ancient Egyptians, a people who were always disposed to retain primitive -forms unchanged, even when, as in the case of their hieroglyphics, they -had to use the primitive forms to express thoughts which these forms -could not naturally convey. That they followed this course with their -religious ceremonies and in their manner of representing their gods, is -perhaps fortunate for us, as it enables us to trace with greater ease -the particular aspect of nature, and the mental sensation or moral -lesson identified with it, which each one of their gods and goddesses -embodied. We have the rude primitive form embodying an aspect or force -of nature, instead of a beautiful confusing story, merely for the most -part titles, addresses, and prayers, whose purport more or less reveals -the spiritual meaning which that aspect of nature conveyed to the -worshipper. - -The chief objects of nature-worship must obviously be the same, or -nearly the same, in every part of the world, so that even among -different races, living far apart, and having no connection with each -other, a certain similarity in the stories told about gods and heroes, -and in the names and titles given to them, is observable. The sun, the -moon, the heavens and stars, the sea, the river, sunshine and darkness, -night and day, summer and winter,--these objects and changes must always -make the staple, the back-bone so to speak, round which all mythological -stories founded on nature-worship are grouped. But climate and scenery, -especially any striking peculiarity in the natural features of a -country, have a strong influence in modifying the impressions made by -these objects on the imaginations of the dwellers in the land, and so -giving a special form or colour to the national creed, bringing perhaps -some Divine attribute or some more haunting impression of the condition -of the soul after death, into a prominence unknown elsewhere. The -religion of the ancient Egyptians was distinguished from that of other -nations by several such characteristics, and in endeavouring to -understand them we must first recall what there is distinctive in the -climate and scenery of Egypt to our minds. - -[Sidenote: Influence of nature in Egyptian religion.] - -The land of Egypt is, let us remember, a wedge-shaped valley, broad at -its northern extremity and gradually narrowing between two ranges of -cliffs till it becomes through a great part of its length a mere strip -of cultivatable land closely shut in on each side. Its sky overhead is -always blue, and from morning till evening intensely bright, flecked -only occasionally, and here and there, by thin gauzy clouds, so that the -sun’s course, from the first upshooting of his keen arrowy rays over the -low eastern hills to his last solemn sinking in a pomp of glorious -colour behind the white cliffs in the west, can be traced unimpeded day -after day through the entire course of the year. Beyond the cliffs which -receive the sun’s first and last greeting stretches a boundless -waste--the silent, dead, sunlit desert, which no one had ever traversed, -which led no one knew where, from whose dread, devouring space the sun -escaped triumphant each morning, and back into which it returned when -the valley was left to darkness and night. - -The neighbourhood of the desert, and the striking contrast between its -lifeless wastes and the richly cultivated plains between the hills, had, -as we can see, a great effect on the imaginations of the first -inhabitants of the land of Egypt, and gave to many of their thoughts -about death and the world beyond the grave an intensity unknown to the -dwellers among less monotonous scenery. The contrast was a perpetual -parable to them, or rather perhaps a perpetual _memento mori_. The -valley between the cliffs presented a vivid picture of active and -intense life, every inch of fruitful ground teeming with the results of -labour--budding corn, clustering vines, groups of palm-trees, busy -sowers and reapers and builders; resounding, too, everywhere with brisk -sounds of toil or pleasure. The clink of anvil and hammer, the creaking -of water-wheels, the bleating and lowing of flocks and herds, the tramp -of the oxen treading out the corn, the songs of women, and the laughter -of children playing by the river. On the other side of the cliffs, what -a change! There reigned an unbroken solitude and an intense silence, -such as is only found in the desert, because it comes from the utter -absence of all life, animal or vegetable: no rustle of leaf or bough, no -hum of an insect or whirr of a wing, breaks the charmed stillness even -for a minute. There is silence, broad, unbroken sunshine, bare cliffs, -rivers of golden sand--nothing else. Amenti, the ancient Egyptians -called the western desert into which, as it seemed to them, the sun went -down to sleep after his day’s work was done; Amenti, the vast, the -grand, the unknown; and it was there they built their most splendid -places of worship, there that they carried their dead for burial, -feeling that it spoke to them of rest, of unchangeableness, of eternity. - -Another striking and peculiar feature of Egyptian scenery was the -beautiful river--the one only river--on which the prosperity, the very -existence, of the country depended. It, too, had a perpetual story to -tell, a parable to unfold, as it flowed and swelled and contracted in -its beneficent yearly course. They saw that all growth and life depended -on its action; where its waters reached, there followed fruitfulness and -beauty, and a thousand teeming forms of animal, vegetable, and insect -life; where its furthest wave stayed, there the reign of nothingness and -death began again. The Nile, therefore, became to the ancient Egyptians -the token and emblem of a life-giving principle in nature, of that -perpetual renewal, that passing from one form of existence into another, -which has ever had so much hopeful significance for all thinking minds. -Its blue colour when it reflected the sky was the most sacred of their -emblems, and was devoted to funeral decorations and to the adornments of -the dead, because it spoke to them of the victory of life over death, of -the permanence of the life-principle amid the evanescent and vanishing -forms under which it appeared. Of these two distinctive features of -nature in Egypt, the unexplored western desert and the unending river, -we must, then, think as exercising a modifying or intensifying effect on -the impressions produced on the minds of ancient Egyptians by those -aspects of nature which they had in common with other Eastern peoples. -Let us think what these are. First and most conspicuous we must put the -sun, in all his changing aspects, rising in gentle radiance over the -eastern hills, majestically climbing the cloudless sky, sending down -fierce perpendicular rays through all the hot noon, withdrawing his -overwhelming heat towards evening as he sloped to his rest, and painting -the western sky with colour and glory, on which the eyes of men could -rest without being dazzled, vanishing from sight at last behind the -white rocks in the west. And then the moon--white, cold, changeable, -ruling the night and measuring time. Besides these, the planets and -countless hosts of stars; the green earth constantly pouring forth food -for man from its bosom; the glowing blue sky at noon and the purple -midnight heaven; the moving wind; the darkness that seemed to eat up and -swallow the day. - -[Sidenote: Sun-gods.] - -[Sidenote: Amun.] - -Now let us see how the ancient Egyptians personified these into gods, -and what were the corresponding moral or spiritual ideas of which each -nature-power spake to their souls. We shall find the mythology easier to -remember and understand if we group the personifications round the -natural objects whose aspects inspired them, instead of enumerating them -in their proper order as first, second, and third class divinities. So -for the present we will class them as Sun-gods, Sky-gods, Wind-gods, -etc.; and we will begin with the sun, which among ancient Egyptians -occupied the _first_ place, given, as we shall see, to the sky among our -Aryan ancestors. The sun, indeed, not only occupies the most conspicuous -position in Egyptian mythology, but is presented to us in so many -characters and under so many aspects that he may be said to be the chief -inspiration, the central object of worship, nothing else, indeed, coming -near to his grandeur and his mystery. It is to be remarked, however--and -this is a distinctive feature in the Egyptian system of worship--that -the _mystery_ of the sun’s disappearance during the night and his -reappearance every morning is the point in the parable of the sun’s -course to which the Egyptians attached the deepest significance, and to -the personification of which they gave the most dignified place in their -hierarchy of gods. Atum, or Amun, ‘the concealed one,’ was the name and -title given to the sun after he had sunk, as they believed, into the -under-world; and by this name they worshipped the concealed Creator of -all things, the ‘Dweller in Eternity,’ who was before all, and into -whose bosom all things, gods and men, would, they thought, return in the -lapse of ages. The figure under which they represented this their oldest -and most venerable deity was that of a man, sometimes human-headed and -sometimes with the man’s face concealed under the head and horns of a -ram--the word ‘ram’ meaning ‘concealment’ in the Egyptian language. The -figure was coloured blue, the sacred colour of the Source of life. Two -derivations are given for the name Amun. It means that which brings to -light; but it also expresses the simple invitation ‘Come,’ and in this -sense it appears to be connected with a sentence in the ritual, where -Atum is represented as dwelling alone in the under-world in the ages -before creation, and on ‘a day’ speaking the word ‘Come,’ when -immediately Osiris and Horus (light and the physical sun) appeared -before him in the under-world. - -[Sidenote: Osiris.] - -The aspect of the sun as it approached its mysterious setting exercised, -perhaps, a still greater power over the thoughts of the Egyptians, and -was personified by them in a deity, who, if not the most venerable, was -the best loved of all their gods. Osiris was the name given from the -earliest times to the kind declining sun, who appeared to men to veil -his glory, and sheathe his dazzling beams in a lovely, many-coloured -radiance, which soothed and gladdened the weary eyes and hearts of men, -and enabled them to gaze fearlessly and lovingly on the dread orb from -which during the day they had been obliged to turn their eyes. This was -the god who loved men and dwelt among them, and for man’s sake permitted -himself to be for a time quenched and defeated by the darkness--it was -thus that the ancient people read the parable of the sun’s evening -beauty and of his disappearance beneath the shades of night, amplifying -it, as the needs of the human heart were more distinctly recognized, -into a real foreshadowing of that glorious truth towards which the whole -human race was yearning--_the_ truth of which these shows of nature -were, indeed, speaking continually to all who could understand. The -return of Osiris every evening into the under-world invested him also, -for the ancient Egyptians, with the character of guardian and judge of -souls who were supposed to accompany him on his mysterious journey, or -at all events to be received and welcomed by him in Amenti (the realm of -souls) when they arrived there. Osiris therefore filled a place both -among the gods of the living and those of the dead. He was the link -which connected the lives of the upper and the under worlds together, -and made them one--the Lover and Dweller among men while yet in the -body, and also the Judge and Ruler of the spirit-realm to which they -were all bound. Two distinct personifications showed him in these -characters. As the Dweller among men and the Sharer of the commonness -and materiality of their earth-life, he was worshipped under the form of -a bull--the Apis, in which shape his pure soul was believed constantly -to haunt the earth, passing from one bull to that of another on the -death of the animal, but never abandoning the land of his choice, or -depriving his faithful worshippers of his visible presence among them. -In his character of Judge of the dead, Osiris was represented as a -mummied figure, of the sacred blue colour, carrying in one hand the rod -of dominion, and in the other the emblem of life, and wearing on his -head the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. In the judgment scenes -he is seated on a throne at the end of the solemn hall of trial to which -the soul has been arraigned, and in the centre of which stands the -fateful balance where, in the presence of the evil accusing spirit and -of the friendly funeral gods and genii who stand around, the heart of -the man is weighed against a symbol of Divine Truth. - -Next in interest to the setting sun is the personification under which -the Egyptians worshipped the strong young sun, the victorious conqueror -of the night, who each - -[Sidenote: Horus.] - -[Sidenote: Ra.] - -morning appeared to rise triumphant from the blank realm of darkness in -which the rays of yesterday’s sun had been quenched. They figured him as -the eldest son of Osiris, Horus, the vigorous bright youth who loved his -father, and avenged him, piercing with his spear-like ray the monster -who had swallowed him up. Horus is represented as sailing up the eastern -sky from the under-world in a boat, and slaying the serpent Night with a -spear as he advances. The ultimate victory of life over death, of truth -and goodness over falsehood and wrong, were the moral lessons which this -parable of the sun’s rising read to the ancient Egyptians. The midday -sun, ruling the heavens in unclouded glory, symbolized to them majesty -and kingly authority, and was worshipped as a great and powerful god -under the name of Ra, who was often identified with Amun and worshipped -as Amun-Ra. This was especially the case at Thebes. - -[Sidenote: Ptah.] - -Though these four appearances may well seem to exhaust all the aspects -under which the sun can be considered, there are still several other -attributes belonging to him which the ancient Egyptians noticed and -personified into other sun-gods. These we will enumerate more briefly. -Ptah, a god of the first order, worshipped with great magnificence at -Memphis, personified the life-giving power of the sun’s beams, and in -this character was sometimes mixed up with Osiris, and in the ritual is -spoken of also as the creative principle, the ‘word’ or ‘power’ by which -the essential deity revealed itself in the visible works of creation. -Another deity, Mandoo, appears to personify the fierce power of the -sun’s rays at midday in summer, and was looked upon as the god of -vengeance and destruction, a leader in war, answering in some measure, -though not entirely, to the war-gods of other mythologies. - -[Sidenote: Sekhet-Pasht.] - -There were also Gom, Moui, and Kons, who are spoken of always as the -_sons_ of the sun-god, those who reveal him or carry his messages to -mankind, and in them the _rays_, as distinguished from the _disk_ of the -sun, are apparently personified. The rays of the sun had also a feminine -personification in Sekhet or Sekhet-Pasht, the goddess with the -lioness’s head. To her several different and almost opposite qualities -were attributed: as, indeed, an observer of the burning and enlightening -rays of an Eastern sun might be doubtful whether to speak oftenest of -the baleful fever-heat with which they infect the blood, or of their -vivifying effects upon the germs of animal and vegetable life. Thus the -lioness-goddess was at once feared and loved; dreaded at one moment as -the instigator of fierce passions and unruly desires, invoked at another -as the giver of joy, the source of all tender and elevating emotions. -Her name, Pasht, means ‘the lioness,’ and was perhaps suggested by the -fierceness of the sun’s rays, answering to the lion’s fierce strength or -the angry light of his eyes. She was also called the ‘Lady of the Cave,’ -suggesting something of mystery and concealment. Her chief worship was -at Bubastis; but, judging from the frequency of her representations, -must have been common throughout Egypt. - -[Sidenote: Thoth.] - -We will now take the second great light of the heavens, the moon, and -consider the forms under which it was personified by the Egyptians. -Rising and setting like the sun, and disappearing for regular periods, -the moon was represented by a god, who, like the god of the setting sun, -occupied a conspicuous position among the powers of the under-world, and -was closely connected with thoughts of the existence of the soul after -death, and the judgment pronounced on deeds done in the body. Thoth, -‘the Word,’ the ‘Lord of Divine Words,’ was the title given to this -deity; but though always making one in the great assemblage in the -judgment-hall, his office towards the dead does not approach that of -Osiris in dignity. He is not the judge, he is the recorder who stands -before the balance with the dread account in his hand, while the -trembling soul awaits the final sentence. His character is that of a -just recorder, a speaker of true words; he wears the ostrich feather, -the token of exact rigid evenness and impartiality, and yet he is -represented as having _uneven_ arms, as if to hint that the cold white -light of justice, untempered by the warmth of love, cannot thoroughly -apprehend what it seems to take exact account of, leaving, after all, -one side unembraced, unenlightened, as the moonlight casts dense shadows -around the spots where its beams fall. The silent, watching, peering -moon! Who has not at times felt an inkling of the parable which the -ancient Egyptians told of her cold eye and her unwarming rays which -enlighten chilly, and point out while they distort? - -In spite of his uneven arms, however, Thoth (the dark moon and the light -moon) was a great god, bearing sway in both worlds in accordance with -his double character of the revealed and the hidden orb. On earth he is -the great teacher, the inventor of letters, of arithmetic, and -chronology; the ‘Lord of Words,’ the ‘Lover of Truth,’ the ‘Great and -Great.’ Thoth was sometimes represented under the form of an ape; but -most frequently with a human figure ibis-headed; the ibis, on account of -his mingled black and white feathers, symbolizing the dark and the -illumined side of the moon. Occasionally, however, he is drawn with a -man’s face, and bearing the crescent moon on his head, surmounted by an -ostrich feather; in his hand he holds his tablets and his recording -pencil. - -[Sidenote: Maut and Neit.] - -The sky-divinities were all feminine among the Egyptians; representing -the feminine principle of receptivity, the sky being regarded by them -mainly as the abode, the home, of the sun and moon gods. The greatest of -the sky-deities was Maut, or Mut, the mother, who represents the deep -violet night sky, tenderly brooding over the hot exhausted earth when -the day was over, and wooing all living things to rest, by stretching -cool, protecting arms above and around them. The beginning of all -things, abysmal calm, but above all, motherhood, were the metaphysical -conceptions which the ancient Egyptians connected with the aspect of the -brooding heavens at midnight, and which they worshipped as the oldest -primeval goddess, Maut. The night sky, however, suggested another -thought, and gave rise to yet another personification. Night does not -bring only repose; animals and children sleep, but men wake and think; -and, the strife of day being hushed, have leisure to look into their own -minds, and listen to the still small voice that speaks within. Night was -thus the parent of thought, the mother of wisdom, and a personification -of the night sky was worshipped as the goddess of wisdom. She was named -Neit, a word signifying ‘I came from myself,’ and she has some -attributes in common with the Greek goddess of wisdom, Athene, whose -warlike character she shared. Nu, another sky-goddess, who personifies -the sunlit blue midday sky, may also on other accounts claim kinship -with the patroness of Athens. She is the life-giver--the joy-inspirer. -Clothed in the sacred colour which the life-giving river reflects, the -midday sky was supposed to partake of the river’s vivifying qualities, -and its goddess Nu is very frequently pictured as seated in the midst of -the tree of life, giving of its fruits to faithful souls who have -completed their time of purification and travel in the under-world, and -are waiting for admission to the Land of Aoura, the last stage of -preparation before they are received into the immediate presence of the -great gods. - -[Sidenote: Saté and Hathor.] - -Two other aspects of the sky were considered worthy of personification -and worship. The morning sky, or perhaps the eastern half of the morning -sky, which awaited the sun’s earliest beams, and which was called Saté, -and honoured as the goddess of vigilance and endeavour, and the -beautiful western sky at even, more lovely in Egypt than anywhere else, -to the exaltation of which the Egyptians applied their prettiest titles -and symbols. Hathor, the ‘Queen of Love,’ was the name they gave to -their personification of the evening sky, speaking of her at once as the -loving and loyal wife of the sun, who received the weary traveller, the -battered conqueror, to rest on her bosom after his work was done, and -the gentle household lady whose influence called men to their homes when -labour was finished, and collected scattered families to enjoy the -loveliest spectacle of the day, the sunset, in company. Hathor is -represented as a figure with horns, bearing the sun’s disk between them, -or sometimes carrying a little house or shrine upon her head. - -[Sidenote: Kneph.] - -The sky, however, with the ancient Egyptians, did not include the _air_; -that again was personified in a masculine form, and regarded as a very -great god, some of whose attributes appear to trench on those of Osiris, -and Ptah; Kneph was the name given to the god who embodied the air, the -living breath or spirit; and he was one of the divinities to whom a -share in the work of creation was attributed. He is represented in a -boat, moving over the face of the waters, and breathing life into the -newly created world. He was no doubt connected in the minds of pious -Egyptians with thoughts of that breath of God by whose inspiration man -became a living soul; but in his nature-aspect he perhaps especially -personified the wind blowing over the Nile valley after the inundation, -and seeming to bring back life to the world by drying up the water under -which the new vegetation was hidden. - -[Sidenote: Isis.] - -The soil of the country thus breathed upon, which responded to the rays -of Osiris and the breath of Kneph by pouring forth a continual supply of -food for men, was naturally enough personified into a deity who claimed -a large share of devotion, and was worshipped under many titles. Isis, -the sister-wife of Osiris, was the name given to her, and so much was -said of Isis, and so many stories told of her, that it appears at times -as if, under that single name, the attributes of all the other goddesses -were gathered up. Isis, was a personification, not of the receptive -earth only, but of the feminine principle in nature wherever perceived, -whether in the tender west that received the sun, or in the brooding -midnight sky that invited to repose, or in the cherishing soil that drew -in the sun’s warmth, and the breath of the wind, only to give them forth -again changed into flowers and fruit and corn. Isis of ‘the ten thousand -names’ the Greeks called her; and if we consider her as the embodiment -of all that can be said of the feminine principle, we shall not be -surprised at her many names, or at the difficulty of comprehending her -nature. She was, above all else, however, the wife of Osiris and the -mother of Horus, which certainly points to her being, or at all events -to her having been originally, a sky-goddess; but then again she is -spoken of as dressed in robes of many hues, which points to the changing -and parti-coloured earth. Some of her attributes - -[Sidenote: Nephthys.] - -seem to connect her with the dark moon, especially the fact that her -most important offices are towards the dead in the under-world, whose -government she is spoken of as sharing with her husband Osiris. In -pictures of the funeral procession she is drawn as standing at the head -of the mummied body during its passage over the river that bounds the -under-world, and in that position she represents the beginning; her -younger sister, Nephthys, the end, stands at the foot of the still -sleeping soul; the two goddesses thus summing up, with divinity at each -end, the little span of mortal life. In the judgment-hall, Isis stands -behind the throne of Osiris, drooping great protecting wings over him -and it. This quality of protecting, of cherishing and defending, appears -to be the spiritual conception worshipped under the form of the -many-named goddess. Isis is constantly spoken of as the protector of her -brother Osiris, and is drawn on the tomb with long drooping wings. She -is also frequently represented as nursing Horus, the son who avenged his -father, and in that character she wears the cow’s head, the cow being -sacred to Isis, as was the bull to Osiris. - -But when we have made this summary there is one thing which should also -be borne in mind with regard to the religion of Egypt. Ancient Egypt, -which appears at first sight such a single and united empire, was in -reality (and in this respect it was something like the Chinese empire) -deeply infected with a sort of feudalism, in virtue of which the -different divisions (nomes) of the country did in reality constitute -something like different states. And each state tried to preserve its -sense of independence by having some special divinity or group of -divinities which it held in peculiar honour. So that the Egyptian -pantheon itself is infected by this republican spirit. Almost each -single god is supreme somewhere; elsewhere he may be almost overlooked. - -[Sidenote: Animal-gods.] - -The origin of the strangely intimate connection between these Egyptian -gods, and certain animals held to be sacred to them, and in some cases -to be incarnations of them, is a very difficult question to determine. -Two explanations are given by different writers. One is that the -animal-worship was a remnant of the religion of an inferior race who -inhabited Egypt in times far back, and who were conquered but not -exterminated by immigrants from Asia, who brought a higher civilization -and a more spiritual religion with them, which, however, did not -actually supersede the old, but incorporated some of its baser elements -into itself. Other writers look upon the animal-worship as but another -form of the unending parable from nature, which, as we have seen, -pervades the whole Egyptian mythology. The animals, according to this -view, being not less than the nature-gods worshipped as revelations of a -divine order, manifesting itself through the many appearances of the -outside world; their obedient following of the laws imposed on their -natures through instinct making them better witnesses to the Divine Will -than self-willed, disobedient man was found to be. - -This is one of the problems which must be left to be determined by -further researches into unwritten history, or perhaps by a fuller -understanding of Egyptian symbols. That a great deal of symbolical -teaching was wrapped up in the Egyptians’ worship of animals may be -gathered by the lesson which they drew from the natural history of the -sacred beetle, whose habit of burying in the sand of the desert a ball -of clay, full of eggs, which in due course of time changed into -chrysalises and then into winged beetles, furnished them with their -favourite emblem of the resurrection of the body and the continued life -of the soul through the apparent death-sleep--an emblem which was -wanting to no temple, and without which no body was ever buried. -Thinking of this, we must allow that their eyes were not shut to the -teaching of the ‘visible things’ which in the ages of darkness yet spoke -a message from God. - -We have now gone over the most important of the Egyptian gods, -connecting them with the natural appearances which seem to have inspired -them, so as to give the clue to a comparison with the nature-gods of the -Aryans, of which we shall speak in the next chapter. There were, of -course, other objects of worship, not so easily classed, among which we -ought to mention Hapi, the personification of the river Nile; Sothis, -the dog-star, connected with Isis; and two more of the funeral -gods--Anubis, who in his nature-aspect may be possibly another -personification of air and wind, and who is always spoken of as the -friend and guardian of pure souls, and represented at the death-bed -sometimes in the shape of a human-headed bird as helping the new-born -soul to escape from the body; and Thmei, the goddess of Truth and -Justice, who introduces the soul into the hall of judgment. The evil -powers recognized among the ancient Egyptians were principally -embodiments of darkness and of the waste of the desert, and do not -appear to have had any distinct conception of moral evil associated with -them. They are, however, spoken of in the book of the dead as enemies of -the soul, who endeavour to delude it and lead it out of its way on its -journey across the desert to the abode of the gods. Amenti was no doubt -the desert, but not only the sunlit desert the Egyptians could overlook -from their western hills--it included the unknown world beyond and -underneath, to which they supposed the sun to go when he sank below the -horizon, and where, following in his track, the shades trooped when -they had left their bodies. The story of the trials and combats of the -soul on its journey through Amenti to the judgment-hall, and its -reception by the gods, is written in the most ancient and sacred of -Egyptian books, the Ritual, or Book of the Dead, which has been -translated into French by M. de Rougé, and later by M. Pierret, and into -English by Dr. Birch. The English translation is to be found in the -Appendix to the fifth volume of Bunsen’s _Egypt’s Place in History_. - -[Sidenote: Chaldæan religion.] - -The mythologies of the other uninspired Semitic nations resemble the -Egyptian in the main element of being personifications of the powers of -nature. The Chaldæans directed their worship chiefly towards the -heavenly bodies as did the ancient Egyptians, but not exclusively. Their -principal deities were arranged in triads of greater and less dignity; -nearly all the members of these were personifications of the heavens or -the heavenly bodies. The first triad comprised Ana, the heavens or the -hidden sun, Father of the gods, Lord of Darkness, Ruler of a far-off -city, Lord of Spirits. By these titles, suggestive of some of the -attributes and offices towards the dead, attributed by the Egyptians to -Atum and Osiris, was the first member of their first order of gods -addressed by the Chaldæans. Next in order came Bil, also a sun-god: the -Ruler, the Lord, the Source of kingly power, and the patron and image of -the earthly king. His name has the same signification as Baal, and he -personifies the same aspect of nature, the sun ruling in the heavens, -whose worship was so widely diffused among all the people with whom the -Israelites came in contact. The third member of the first triad was Hoa -or Ea, who personified apparently the earth: Lord of the abyss, Lord of -the great deep, the intelligent Guide, the intelligent Fish, the Lord of -the Understanding, are some of his titles, and appear to reveal a -conception somewhat answering to that of Thoth. His symbol was a -serpent, and he was represented with a fish’s head, which connects him -with the Philistine’s god Dagon. The second triad comprised Sin, or -Urki, a moon-god, worshipped at Ur, Abraham’s city--his second name -Urki, means ‘the watcher,’ and has the same root as the Hebrew name for -‘angel’--San, the disk of the sun; and Vul, the air. Beneath these -deities in dignity, or rather perhaps in distance, came the five -planets, each representing some attribute or aspect of the deity, or -rather being itself a portion of deity endowed with a special -characteristic, and regarded as likely to be propitious to men from -being less perfect and less remote than the greater gods. These -planetary gods were called--Nebo (Mercury), the lover of light; Ishtar -(Venus), the mother of the gods; Nergal (Mars), the great hero; Bel -Merodach (Jupiter), the ruler, the judge; Nin (Saturn), the god of -strength. To these gods the chief worship of the Assyrians was paid, and -it was their majesty and strength, typifying that of the earthly king, -which Assyrian architects personified in the winged, man-headed bulls -and lions with examples of which we are familiar. The gods of the -Canaanite nations, Moloch, Baal, Chemosh, Baal-Zebub, and Thammuz, were -all of them personifications of the sun or of the sun’s rays, considered -under one aspect or another; the cruel gods, to whom human sacrifices -were offered, representing the strong, fierce summer sun, and the gentle -Thammuz being typical of the softer light of morning and of early -spring, which is killed by the fierce heat of midday and midsummer, and -mourned for by the earth till his return in the evening and in autumn. -Ashtoreth, the horned queen, symbolized by trees and worshipped in -groves, is the moon and also the evening star; but, like Isis, she seems -to gather up in herself the worship of the feminine principle in nature. -The Canaanites represented their gods in the temples by symbols instead -of by sculptured figures. An upright stone, either an aerolite or a -precious stone (as in the case of the great emerald kept in the shrine -of the Temple of Baal-Melcarth at Tyre), symbolized the sun and the -masculine element in nature; while the feminine element was figured -under the semblance of a grove of trees, the Ashara, sometimes -apparently a grove outside the temple, and sometimes a mimic grove kept -within. - -There was, however, behind and beyond all these, another and perhaps a -more ancient and more metaphysical conception of God worshipped by all -the Semitic peoples of Asia. His name, Il or El, appears to have been -for Chaldæans, Assyrians, Canaanites, and for the wandering tribes of -the desert, including the progenitors of the chosen people, the generic -name for God; and his worship was limited to a distant awful -recognition, unprofaned by the rites and sacrifices wherein the -nature-gods were approached. Il became a concealed, distant deity, too -far off for worship, and too great to be touched by the concerns of men, -among those nations with whom the outside aspects of nature grew to be -concealers instead of revealers of the Divine; while to the chosen -people the name acquired ever new significance, as the voice of -inspiration unfolded the attributes of the Eternal Father to His -children. - -This sketch of the heathen mythology of the Shemites is, it must be -owned, very barren in incident and character. It presents, indeed, no -more than a shadowy hierarchy of gods and heroes, through whose thin -personalities the shapes of natural objects loom with obtrusive -clearness. They may serve, however, as finger-posts to point the way -through the mazes of more complex, full-grown myths, and it must also be -remembered that we have not touched upon the later more ornamented -stories of the Egyptian gods, such as that of the death and -dismemberment of Osiris by his enemy Typhon, and the recovery of his -body, and his return to life through the instrumentality of Isis and -Horus. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -ARYAN RELIGIONS. - - -[Sidenote: Nature-worship.] - -That morning speech of Belarius (in _Cymbeline_) might serve as an -illustration of a primitive religion, a nature-religion in its simplest -garb: - - ‘Stoop, boys: this gate - Instructs you how to adore the heavens, and bows you - To morning’s holy office: the gates of monarchs - Are arched so high, that giants may jet through - And keep their impious turbans on, without - Good-morrow to the sun. Hail, thou fair heaven! - We house i’ the rock, yet use thee not so hardly - As prouder livers do.’ - -Omit only that part which speaks the bitterness of disappointed hopes -which once centred round the doing as prouder livers do, and the rest -breathes the fresh air of mountain life, different altogether from our -life, free alike from its cares and temptations and moral -responsibilities. Belarius gazes up with an unawful eye into the -heavenly depths, and fearlessly pays his morning orisons. ‘Hail, thou -fair heaven!’ There is no sense here of sin, humility, self-reproach. -And in this respect--taking this for the moment as the type of an Aryan -religion--how strongly it contrasts with the utterances of Hebrew -writers! Is this the voice of natural as opposed to inspired religion? -Not altogether; for the Semitic mind was throughout antiquity imbued -with a deeper sense of awe or fear--awe in the higher religion, fear in -the lower--than ever belonged to the Aryan character. We see this -difference in the religions of Egypt and Assyria; and it will be -remembered that, when speaking of the earliest records of the Semitic -and Aryan races, we took occasion to say that it may very well have been -to their admixture of Semitic blood that the Egyptians stood indebted -for the mystic and allegorical part of their religious system; for among -all the Semitic people, whether in ancient or modern times, we may -observe a tendency--if no more--towards religious thought, and towards -thoughts of that mystic character which characterized the Egyptian -mythology. - -But the Aryans grew up and formed themselves into nations, and developed -the germs of their religion apart from external influence, and in a land -which from the earliest times had belonged to them alone. Their -character, their religion, their national life, were their own; and -though in after-times these went through distinctive modifications, when -the stems of nations that we know, Greeks, Latins, Germans, and the -rest, grew out of the Aryan stock, they yet bore amid these changes the -memory of a common ancestry. The land in which they dwelt was favourable -to the growth of the imaginative faculties, and to that lightness and -brightness of nature which afterwards so distinguished the many-minded -Greeks, rather than to the slow, brooding character of the Eastern mind. -There, down a hundred hillsides and along a hundred valleys trickled the -rivulets whose waters were hurrying to swell the streams of the Oxus and -the Jaxartes. And each hill and valley had its separate community, -joined, indeed, by language and custom to the common stock, but yet -living a separate simple life in its own home, which had, one might -almost say, its individual sun and sky as well as hill and river. No -doubt in such a land innumerable local legends and beliefs sprang up, -and these, though lost to us now, had their effects upon the changes -which among the many branches of the race the Aryan mythology -underwent--a mythology which before all others is remarkable for the -endless diversity of its legends, for the infinite rainbow-tints into -which its essential thoughts are broken. - -[Sidenote: Sky-and sun-gods.] - -Despite these divergences, the Aryans had a common chief deity--the sky, -the ‘fair heaven.’ This, the most abstracted and intangible of natural -appearances, at the same time the most exalted and unchanging, seemed to -them to speak most plainly of an all-embracing deity. And though their -minds were open to all the thousand voices of nature, and their -imaginations equal to the task of giving a personality to each, yet -none, not even the sun himself, imaged so well their ideal of a highest -All-Father as did the over-arching heaven. - -The traces of this primitive belief the Aryan people carried with them -on their wanderings. This sky-god was the Dyâus (the sky) of Indian -mythology, the Zeus of the Greeks, the Jupiter of the Romans, and the -Zio, Tew, or Tyr of the Germans and Norsemen. For all these names are -etymologically allied. Zeus (gen. Dios) and Dyâus are from the same -root; so are Jupiter (anciently Diupiter) and the compound form -Dyâus-pitar (father Dyâus); and Zio and Tew also bear traces of the same -origin. Indeed, it is by the reappearance of this name as the name of a -god among so many different nations that we argue his having once been -the god of all the Atyan people. The case is like that of our word -_daughter_. As we find this reappearing in the Greek _thugatêr_, and the -Sanskrit _duhitar_, we feel sure that the old Aryans had a name for -daughter from which all these names are derived; and as we find the -Sanskrit name alone has a secondary meaning, signifying ‘the milker,’ we -conclude that this was the original meaning of the name for a daughter. -Just so, Zeus and Jupiter and Zio and Dyâus show a common name for the -chief Aryan god; but the last alone explains the meaning of that name, -for Dyâus signifies the sky. - -This sky-god, then, stood to the old Aryans for the notion of a supreme -and common divinity. Whatever may have been the divinities reigning over -local streams and woods, they acknowledged the idea of one overruling -Providence whom they could only image to their minds as the -over-spreading sky. This, we may say, was the essential feature in their -religion, its chief characteristic; whereas to the Semitic nations, the -sun, the visible orb, was in every case the supreme god. The reason of -this contrast does not, it seems to me, lie _only_ in the different -parts which the sun played in the southern and more northern regions; -or, if it arises in the difference of the climate, it not the less forms -an important chapter in religious development. There are discernible in -the human mind two diverse tendencies in dealing with religious ideas. -Both are to be found in every religion, among every people; one might -almost say in every heart. The first tendency is an impulse upwards--a -desire to press the mind continually forward in an effort to idealize -the deity, but, by exalting or seeming to exalt Him into the highest -regions of abstraction, it runs the risk of robbing Him of all -fellowship with man, and man of all claims upon His sympathy and love. -Then comes the other tendency, which oftentimes at one stroke brings -down the deity as near as possible to the level of human beings, and -leaves him at the end no more than a demi-god or exalted man. One may be -called the metaphysical, the other the mythological tendency; and we -shall never be able to understand the history of religions until we -learn to see how these influences interpenetrate and work in every -system. They show at once that a distinction must be drawn between -mythology and religion. The supreme god will not be he of whom most -tales are invented, because, as these tales must appeal to human -interests and relate adventures of the human sort, they will cling more -naturally round the name of some inferior divinity. The very age of -mythology--so far as regards the beings to whom it relates[56]--is -probably rather that of a decaying religion. - -In any case, there will probably be a metaphysical and a mythological -side to every system. Thus among the Egyptians, Amun, the concealed, was -the metaphysical god; but their mythology centred round the names of -Osiris and Horus. And just so with the Aryans, the sky was the original, -most abstracted, and most metaphysical god; the sun rose into prominence -in obedience to the wish of man for a more human divinity. If the -Semitic people were more inclined toward sun-worship, the Aryans -inclined rather toward heaven-worship; and the difference is consistent -with the greater faculty for abstract thought which has always belonged -to our race. - -The two influences of which we have spoken are perfectly well marked in -Aryan mythology. The history of it may almost be said to represent the -rivalry between the sky-gods and the gods of the sun. It is on account -of his daily change that the last far less becomes the position of a -supreme god. Born each day in the east, faint and weak he battles with -the clouds of morning; radiant and strong he mounts into the midday sky; -and then, having touched his highest point, he turns to quench his beams -in the shadowy embrace of night. Even the Egyptians and Assyrians, in -view of these vicissitudes, were driven to invent a sort of abstract -sun, separated in thought from the mere visible orb. This daily course -might stand as an allegory of the life of man. The luminary who -underwent these changing fortunes, however great and godlike in -appearance, must have some more than common relationship with the world -below; he must be either a hero raised among the gods, or, better (for -of this thought the Aryans too had their dim foreshadowing), he is an -Avatar, an Incarnation of the Godhead, come down to take upon him for a -while the painful life of men. This was the way the sun-gods were -regarded by the Indo-European nations. Accordingly, while their deepest -religious feelings belonged to the abstract god Zeus, Jupiter among the -Greeks and Romans, Dyâus and later on Brahma (a pure abstraction) among -the Indians, the stories of their mythology belonged to a more human -divinity, who in most cases is the sun-god. He is the Indra[57] of the -Hindus, who wrestles with the black serpent, the Night, as Horus did -with Typhon; he is the Apollo of the Greeks, likewise the slayer of the -serpent, the Pythôn; or else he is Heracles (Hercules), the -god-man--sometimes worshipped as a god, sometimes as a demi-god -only--the great and mighty hero, the performer of innumerable labours -for his fellows; or he is Thor, the Hercules of the Norsemen, the enemy -of the giants and of the great earth-serpent, which represent the dark -chaotic forces of nature; or Frey, the bearer of the sword, or the mild -Balder, the fairest of all the gods, the best-beloved by gods and men. - -It is clear that a different character of worship will belong to each -order of divinity. The sacred grove or the wild mountain-summit would be -naturally dedicated to the mysterious pervading presence; the temple -would be the natural home of the human-featured god; and this all the -more because men worshipped in forest glade or upon mountain-top before -they dedicated to their gods houses made with hands. Dyâus is the old, -the primevally old, divinity, the ‘son of time’ as the Greeks called -him.[58] Whenever, therefore, we trace the meeting streams of thought, -the _cult_ of the sun-god and the _cult_ of the sky, to the latter -belongs the conservative part of the national creed, his rival is the -reforming element. In the Vedic religion of India, Indra, as has been -said, has vanquished the older deity; we feel in the Vedas that Dyâus, -or even another sky-god, Varuna, though often mentioned, no longer -occupy a commanding place. Not, however, without concessions on both -sides. Indra could not have achieved this victory but that he partakes -of both natures. He is the sky as well as the sun, more human than the -unmoved _watching_ heavens, he is a worker for man, the sender of the -rain and the sunshine, the tamer of the stormwinds, and the enemy of -darkness. - -And if any one should examine in detail the different systems of the -Aryan people, he would, I think, have no difficulty in tracing -throughout them the two influences which have been dwelt upon, and in -each connecting these two influences with their sky-and sun-gods. -Whatever theory may be used to account for it, the change of thought is -noticeable. Man seems to awake into the world with the orison of -Belarius upon his lips; he is content with the silent unchanging -abstract god. But as he advances in the burden and heat of the day he -wishes for a fellow-worker, or at least for some potency which watches -his daily struggles with less of godlike sublime indifference. Hence -arise his sun-gods--the gods who toil and suffer, and even succumb and -die. - -[Sidenote: The earth-goddess.] - -The sky-and the sun-gods, then, were, I think, the two chief male -divinities among the Aryan folk taken as a whole. There corresponded to -them in most Aryan creeds two female divinities, an older and a younger, -a wife and a maiden, such as were on the one side among the Greeks Hera -and Demeter, and on the other side Athene and Artemis,[59] or -Persephone, the daughter of Demeter. In the Norse creed, again, there is -Frigg, the wife of Odin, and Freyja, the sister of Frey. This last is -indeed not a maiden in the Eddic mythology. But the husband of Freyja is -a person of such very small importance that we may feel sure he is only -a sort of _addendum_ to her nature and surroundings, and that she is in -character very much the counterpart of her brother, a maiden-goddess--goddess -of spring-time and of love. - -In respect to the elder, the married goddess, we may say, almost with -certainty, that she is the earth--the natural wife of the heavens, and -naturally thought of as the mother of all mankind--_Terra Mater_. We -know that the ancient Germans worshipped a goddess whom Tacitus calls -Nerthus (possibly a mistake for _Hertha_, Earth), and, he adds, -_Nerthus id est Terra Mater_. And in the Scandinavian offshoot of the -ancient German creed there can be no doubt that the same idea of Mother -Earth is embodied in the goddess Frigg, the wife of Odin. - -The Romans had their native goddess Tellus, who was only obscured in -later times by such Greek or half-Greek divinities as Demeter or Cybele. -For this Demeter of the Greeks bears a name which most philologists are -agreed had a signification precisely the same as _Terra -Mater_--Gê-mêtêr. Demeter is but one of many wives of Zeus mentioned in -the Theogony of Hesiod. All of these wives, including Hera (Juno), the -highest in rank of them all, were probably at one time or another -personifications of the earth. - -The Vedas, too, have their mother-goddess, their Mother Earth. This is -Prithvi, or Prithivi, the wide-stretching, generally called -Prithivi-mátar, which is also Earth-Mother. And some think this word -‘Prithvi’ is connected with that of the Northern Frigg.[60] And the -Vedas have their young maiden-goddess, who in the Vedas is called Ushas -the Dawn. - -[Sidenote: Goddesses of Spring and Dawn.] - -What is the nature-significance of this maiden-goddess? It is less easy -to determine than in the case of the other three divinities. One form of -the maiden-goddess is the divinity of the seed, like Persephone, that is -to say, a goddess of all vegetation, and hence of the spring. In the -Vedas, again, Ushas is a goddess of the dawn, an idea nearly allied to -that of Spring; and some people think that this is also the foundation -of Athenê’s nature. There are other characteristics of the -maiden-goddess which look as if she were an embodiment of the clouds; -but then the clouds are so nearly connected with the dawn that such an -idea can scarcely be said to contradict the other notion. The -maiden-goddess is in many cases born of the sea. Not only is Aphroditê, -or Venus, born of the sea, but Athenê is so likewise; at any rate one of -her names, Tritogeneia, implies this origin. The more common story of -Athenê’s birth, that she sprang from the head of her father, Zeus--this, -too, when we remember that Zeus is the sky, is not inconsistent with her -being the cloud. - -When all is said, it must be owned that the nature-origin of this -maiden-goddess is not so obvious as in the case of the divinities of the -sky, sun, or earth. That only means that, as a nature-goddess, she is -not so necessary to the creed, but that on the other hand many objects -of nature--the dawn, the clouds, streams, the wind, sunshine--have -suggested the thought of this divinity, and that the suggestion found a -natural echo in the heart of mankind. - -There are, of course, behind the greater nature-gods a number of other -natural forces--the sea, the wind, lightning, fire, streams, fountains, -the dawn, the clouds. These all receive their place in the Aryan -pantheon. But the characters of the lesser gods tend to echo those of -the greater. Sometimes two different but nearly allied objects of nature -are rolled into one to form a new god. - -Thus the god of storms and thunder is often associated with the sky, as -are Zeus and Jupiter among the Greeks and Romans. Dyâus, the most -primitive form of sky-god, is the clear heaven. The name is connected -with a root _div_, to shine. But Zeus and Jupiter are the cloudy or -thundery skies. The Vedic Indra is often not unlike them. That is to -say, the sky-god, in their persons, has taken upon him the nature of the -god of storms. But despite these changes, we may still go back to the -gods of earth, and sky, and sun, and cloud as forming the backbone of -the Aryan creed taken as a whole. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Vedic religion of India.] - -From this primitive stock different religious systems developed -themselves just as different nationalities sprang from the original -Aryan race. We can only form an adequate idea of what these religious -systems were like by studying them in the books of religion, of poetry, -and mythology which the various peoples have left behind them. And as a -matter of fact, we have really only three or four literatures of ancient -religion and mythology among the different branches of the Aryan people -from which much information can be gained. These are the Vedas for the -ancient Indians, Greek literature for the religion of the Greeks, and -the Old Norse poetry--what we may call the Eddaic literature--for the -religion of the Scandinavians. The Romans, before their literature -began, had almost exchanged their early creed for that of the Greeks; -the other German races (not Scandinavian) and the Slavs left no record -of their beliefs before they were converted to Christianity. Of the Zend -Avesta, the religious book of the Persians, we will speak hereafter. - -[Sidenote: Indra.] - -Naturally enough, each separate creed has developed many peculiar -features. In the religion of India, Indra, who had been the younger and -more active divinity--whether a sun-god or no we cannot be quite -sure--had, before the Vedas came to be written, almost completely ousted -Dyâus from the supreme position which he once occupied. The worship of -Indra is the central point of Vedic religion; and in many hymns of the -Vedas Indra has taken the character of a god of storms; almost as much -so as Zeus and Jupiter. It was the power of the god which was -especially worshipped. He was no doubt the god of battles _par -excellence_ to the ancient Indian. The Vedic hymnist calls upon him, as -the Psalmist calls upon Jehovah, to show his might and confound those -who dared to doubt his supremacy. For here in India, as in Palestine, -‘the wicked saith in his heart There is no God.’ - - -HYMN TO INDRA. - -_Indra speaks._ - - ‘I come with might before thee, stepping first, - And behind me move all the heavenly powers. - -_The Poet speaks._ - - ‘If thou, O Indra, wilt my lot bestow, - A hero’s part dost thou perform for me. - - ‘To thee the holy drink I offer first; - Thy portion here is laid, thy _soma_[61] brewed. - Be, while I righteous am, to me a friend; - So shall we slay of foemen many a one. - - ‘Ye who desire blessings bring your hymn - To Indra, for the true is always true. - “There is no Indra,” many say. “Who ever - Hath seen him? Why should we his praise proclaim?” - -_Indra speaks._ - - ‘I am here, singer; look on me, here stand I. - In might all other beings I surpass. - Thy holy service still my strength renews, - And thereby smiting, all things I smite down. - - ‘And as on heaven’s height I sat alone, - To me thy offering and thy prayer rose up. - Then spake my soul this word unto herself: - “My votaries and their children call upon me.”’ - -The _character_ of Indra, then, is, as we find it in the Vedas, more -like that of a supreme Zeus than of any other divinity of the parallel -Aryan religious systems. But his _deeds_, the mythology connected with -his name, remind us of the deeds of Apollo. For he is the great -serpent-or dragon-slayer, like the Greek Apollo and the Northern Thor. -Heracles, too, as we remember, is a serpent-slayer. The ‘enemy’ whom -Indra is most constantly implored to strike are two serpents, Ahi and -Vritra. These are serpents of darkness, but they are also the concealers -of the water, and this water Indra sets free. ‘Him (the serpent) the god -struck with Indra-might, and set free the all-gleaming water for the use -of man.’ Therefore these serpents must also typify the clouds. - -In going forth to fight, Indra is accompanied by a band of supernatural -heroes, who have no exact counterpart in any of the other Aryan -mythologies, and who are certainly beings, children we might say, of the -storm. Their name is the Maruts. And some of the many hymns dedicated to -them have a fine martial ring, like the tramp of armed men-- - - -HYMN TO THE MARUTS. - - ‘Where is the fair assemblage of heroes, - The men of Rudra,[62] with their bright horses? - For of their birth knoweth no man the story, - Only themselves, their wondrous descent. - - ‘The light they flash upon one another; - The eagles fought, the winds were raging; - But this secret knoweth the wise man, - Once that Prishna[63] her udder gave them. - - ‘Our race of heroes, through the Maruts be it - Ever victorious in reaping of men. - On their way they hasten, in brightness the brightest, - Equal in beauty, unequalled in might.’ - -[Sidenote: Agni.] - -The god who is most peculiar to the Vedic pantheon is Agni, the -Fire-god. The word _Agni_ is allied to the Latin _ignis_. No doubt Agni -has his representatives in the creeds of other Aryan peoples, in the -Hephæstus of the Greeks, or in the Vulcan of the Romans; probably in the -Loki of the Scandinavians. But these are all quite secondary beings: -Loki cannot be called a god at all. Agni, on the other hand, is one of -the very greatest of the Vedic deities. Only Indra has more hymns -dedicated to him than Agni. This shows how great was the reverence which -fire commanded among the Indians, and it is consistent with much that -has been said in an earlier chapter of the importance which primitive -people always attach, and which the native Indians to this day still -attach, to the sacred house-fire in their midst. It reminds us too of -the fire-worship of the Persians.[64] - -Agni, however, is not only the house-fire. He has a double birth--one on -earth, one in the clouds. He descends as the lightning descends from -heaven. But, at the same time, he is born of the rubbing of two sticks, -and in the flame of the sacrifice he is imagined to ascend again to -heaven bringing with him the prayers of the worshipper. How well, -therefore, Agni was adapted to take the place of the younger god, the -friend of man, when Indra, once probably a sun-god, had (so to say) -removed himself from familiar approach by taking his throne high in -heaven! - - -HYMN TO AGNI. - - ‘Agni is messenger of all the world. - - * * * * * - - Skyward ascends his flame the merciful, - With our libations watered well; - And now the red smoke seeks the heavenly way, - And men enkindle Agni here. - - ‘We make of thee our Herald, Holy One; - Bring down the gods unto our feast. - O son of night, and all who nourish man, - Pardon us when on you we call. - - ‘Thou, Agni, art the ruler of the house; - Thou at the altar art our priest. - O purifier, wise and rich in good, - O sacrificer, bring us safely now.’ - -There are other genuine sun-gods in the Vedic creed, to whom hymns are -addressed. One of these is Mitra.[65] Mitra too is a friend of man-- - - To man comes Mitra down in friendly converse. - Mitra it was who fixed the earth and heaven. - Unslumbering mankind he watches over. - To Mitra then your full libations pour.’ - -But there are not many hymns addressed to Mitra alone. And he stands far -behind Indra or Agni in the Vedic creed as we actually find it. Another -sun-god--the disk of the sun, so to say--is Surya, the shiner. He is -sometimes called the eye of Mitra and Varuna. But in other places he is -said to come through heaven dragging his wheel. Yet great as he is, the -sun-god is compelled to follow his daily round. ‘He travels upon -changeless paths.’ Another sun-god is Savitar, whose name is almost -identical in meaning with Surya. - -[Sidenote: Dawn and Evening.] - -The writers of the Vedic hymns were very largely taken up with observing -and recording in their mythic fashion all the skyey phenomena from dawn -to sunset. For each changed aspect of the heavens, bright or cloudy, -calm or windy, they had a divinity. They sang to the fair young morning -as she came out of the chambers of darkness and opened the stalls for -the cattle to go forth to pasture; they sang the heavy labouring sun of -midday; they sang the stormy sky or the hurrying clouds; and at evening -they sang the evening sun sinking peacefully to rest and bringing ‘night -and peace’ to all the world. Wherefore, to bring to a close this picture -of the religion of the Vedas, we will give just two more hymns from that -vast collection, the Rig-Veda--a hymn to the morning, and a hymn to the -sun (Savitar) at sun-setting. - - -HYMN TO THE DAWN. - - ‘Dawn full of wisdom, rich in everything! - Fairest! attend the singers’ song of praise. - O thou rich goddess, old, yet ever young! - Thou, all-dispenser, in due order comest. - - ‘Shine forth, O goddess, thine eternal morning, - With thy bright cars our song of praise awakening. - Thee draw through heaven the well-yoked team of horses-- - The horses golden-bright, that shine afar. - - ‘Enlightener of all being, breath of morning, - Thou holdest up aloft the light of gods. - Unto one goal ever thy course pursuing, - Oh, roll towards us now thy wheel again! - - ‘Opening at once her girdle, she appears, - The lovely Dawn, the ruler of the stalls. - She, light-producing, wonder-working, noble, - Up-mounted from the coast of earth and heaven. - - ‘Up, up, and bring to meet the Dawn, the goddess - Bright beaming now, your humble song of praise. - To heaven climbed up her ray the sweet due bearing, - Joying to shine the airy space she filled. - - ‘With beams of heaven the Pure One was awakened, - The Rich One’s ray mounted through both the worlds. - To Ushas[66] goest thou, Agni, with a prayer - For goodly wealth, when she bright-shining comes.’ - - -HYMN TO THE EVENING SUN. - - ‘Savitar the god arose, in power arose, - His quick deeds and his journey to renew. - He ‘tis who to all gods dispenses treasure, - And blesses those that call him to the feast. - - ‘The god stands up and stretches forth his arm, - Raises his hand and all obedient wait; - For all the waters to his will incline, - And the winds even on his path are stilled. - - ‘Now he unyokes the horses that have borne him, - The wanderer from his travel now he frees, - The serpent-slayer’s fury now is stayed; - At Savitar’s command come night and peace. - - And now rolls up the spinning wife her web, - The artificer now his cunning labour leaves, - - * * * * * - - And to the household folk beneath the roof, - The household fire imparts their share of light. - - * * * * * - - ‘He who to work went forth is now returned, - The longing of all wand’rers turns toward home; - Leaving his toil, goes each man to his house: - The universal mover orders so. - - ‘In the water settest thou the water’s heir,[67] - On the firm earth badst the wild beast to roam; - The bird[68] makes for his nest, cattle for their stall, - To their own home all beasts the sun-god sends.’ - -[Sidenote: Greek religion.] - -In Greece it would seem that the chief religious influences came from -Zeus (Jupiter[69]) and Apollo, and belonged, as appears, to two separate -branches of the same race who came together to form the Hellenic people. -The ancestors of the Greeks had, we know, travelled from the Aryan home -by a road which took them south of the Black Sea, and on to the -table-land of Asia Minor. So far a comparison of names and traditions -shows them advancing in a compact body. Here they separated; and, after -a stay of some centuries, during which a part had time to mingle with -the Semitic people of the land, they pushed forward, some across the -Hellespont and round that way by land through Thrace and Thessaly, -spreading as they went down to the extremity of the peninsula; others to -the western coast of Asia Minor, and then, when through the lapse of -years they had learnt their art from the Phœnician navigators who -frequented all that land, onward from island to island, as over -stepping-stones, across the Ægean. - -[Sidenote: Zeus.] - -The Pelasgic Zeus, however, is not quite the same being as is the Zeus -whom we are to fancy as the supreme god of the Hellenic race. This last, -we know, is called the Olympic Zeus. The Pelasgic god is a being who -loves solitary mountain heights or dark groves of trees. In this aspect -of his character he is very like the chief divinity of the Northmen, -Odin. And there can be no doubt that in his nature he is a god of -storms and wind. He is not the clear sky, as is the Vedic Dyâus (from -the root _div_, shining), and as had once been the supreme god of the -Aryan race. From that condition to the condition of a god of storms, -Zeus had already passed before we catch any sight of him under this name -Zeus--in other words, before we catch any sight of _him_ at all. - -These Pelasgi were before all things the worshippers of pure nature. -Theirs were all those primitive elements in the Greek religion which -were caught up into the more developed creed, and, though they were -softened in the process of amalgamation with it, still showed above its -surface as masses of rock show upon a hillside, albeit they are covered -over by a thin covering of green. Those strange half-human beings like -Pan, the Arcadian god, like the Thessalian centaurs,--these belong to -the primitive creed of the Greeks. So long as they were confounded with -the phenomena of nature in which they took their rise, they were, in -every sense, natural enough. But when art took possession of them, and -tried to body them forth in visible shapes, they became monsters, -unformed, neither man nor beast. - -The fact that the greatest shrines of Zeus were at Dodona in Epirus, and -in Elis, both states on the _western_ coast of Greece, would almost of -itself show that the worship of Zeus belonged more especially to the -first comers of the Greek race, who got pushed further westward as the -more enlightened people came in from the east; and while _these_ were -worshipping their gods in temples, the Pelasgic Greeks still worshipped -their Zeus in sacred groves like those of Dodona and of Elis. - -The god, on the other hand, who is more especially the god of the newer -Greek people, the Dorians and the Ionians, - -[Sidenote: Apollo.] - -those who reformed the Greek race, and through whom the Pelasgic people -grew into the Hellenes, this god is Apollo. - -Apollo is, we have said, in origin a sun-god. We see some traces of his -nature even in the statues which represent him, as in the abundant hair -which streams from his head, the picture of the sun’s rays.[70] But, of -course, long before historic days he had become much more than a mere -god of nature to his worshippers. He had become what we know him, the -ideal of youthful manhood as the Greeks admired it most, the ideal of -suppleness and strength, the ideal, too, of what we call ‘culture,’ of -poetry and music, and all that adds a grace to life. - -Apollo’s chief shrines were rather on the eastern than on the western -side of Greece--at Delphi, for example, in Phocis. (Is it not -characteristic to find in this wise the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, the -oracle of Zeus at Dodona?) But Delphi is the most westerly of Apollo’s -favourite homes. Another, we know, was on the island of Delos, midway in -the Ægean, that island which the Greeks fancied the _umbilicus -orbis_--the navel of the world. Delphi and Delos are the shrines of -Apollo belonging to one out of the two great nationalities of the new -blood who reformed the nation of the Greeks. Delphi and Delos belong to -the Dorians. But among the Ionians of Asia Minor, who were the other -great reforming element in Greek life, Apollo had likewise many holy -places. And we know how, in the Iliad, he is represented as the champion -of the easterns, the Asiatic Greeks, against the westerns, the Greeks -of Greece proper. ‘Hear me,’ prays Glaucus, in the Iliad--‘hear me, O -king, who art somewhere in the rich realm of Lycea or of Troy; for -everywhere canst thou hear a man in sorrow, such as my sorrow is.’ - -Not but that these worshippers of Apollo were likewise worshippers of -Zeus. It was from the Dorians, whose ancient home was in Thessaly, in -the vale of Tempe, and under the shadow of Olympus, that sprang the -worship of the Olympian Zeus. This Olympian Zeus was the same as the -ancient god of the Pelasgians--the Pelasgian Zeus--the same, and yet -different, for he was the ancient storm-god, softened and made more -human by his contact with Apollo. In time this Olympian Zeus superseded -the Pelasgic god even in his own favourite seats, and we have the -phenomenon of the festival in his honour--the greatest festival of -Greece--the Olympia, being held in the plains of Elis, near the ancient -grove of the Pelasgian Zeus. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Hermes.] - -As before by a comparison of words, so now in mythology by a comparison -of legends, we form our notion of the remoteness of the time at which -these stories first passed current. Not only, for instance, do we see -that Indra and Apollo resembled each other in character, but we have -proof that nature-myths--stories really narrating some process of -nature--were familiar alike to Greeks and Indians. The Vedas, the sacred -books from which we gather our knowledge of ancient Hindu religion, do -not relate their stories of the gods in the same way, or with the same -clearness and elaboration, that the Greek poets do. They are collections -of hymns, prayers in verse, addressed to the gods themselves, and what -they relate is told more by reference and implication than directly. -But even with this difference, we have no difficulty in signalizing some -of the adventures of Indra as almost identical with those of the son of -Lêtô. Let one suffice. The pastoral life of the Aryans is reflected in -their mythology, and thus it is that in the Vedas almost all the varied -phenomena of nature are in their turn compared to cattle. Indra is often -spoken of as a bull; still more commonly are the clouds the cows of -Indra, and their milk the rain. More than one of the songs of the -Rig-Veda allude to a time when the wicked Pa_n_is (beings of fog or -mist[71]) stole the cows from the fields of Indra and hid them away in a -cave. They obscured their footprints by tying up their feet or by making -them drag brushwood behind them. Then Indra sent his dog Sarama (the -dawn or breath of dawn), and she found out where the cattle were hidden. -But (according to one story) the Pa_n_is overcame her honesty and gave -her a cup of milk to drink, so that she came back to Indra and denied -having seen the cows. But Indra discovered the deception, and came with -his strong spear and conquered the Pa_n_is, and recovered what had been -stolen. - -Now turn to the Greek myth. The story here is cast in a different key. - - ‘Te boves olim nisi reddidisses - Per dolum amotas, puerum minaci - Voce dum terret, viduus pharetra - Risit Apollo.’ - -Hermes (Mercury) is here the thief. He steals the cattle of Apollo -feeding upon the Pierian mountain, and conceals his theft much as the -Pa_n_is had done. Apollo discovers what has been done, and complains to -Zeus. But Hermes is a god, and no punishment befalls him like that which -was allotted to the Pa_n_is; he charms Apollo by the sound of his lyre, -and is forgiven, and allowed to retain his booty. Still, all the -essentials of the story are here; and the story in either case relates -the same nature-myth. The clouds which in the Indian tale are stolen by -the damp vapours of morning, are in the Greek legend filched away by the -morning breeze; for this is the nature of Hermes. And that some such -power as the wind had been known to the Indians as accomplice in the -work, is shown by the complicity of Sarama in one version of the tale. -For Sarama likewise means the morning breeze; and, in fact, _Sarama_ and -_Hermes_ are derived from the same root, and are almost identical in -character. Both mean in their general nature the wind; in their special -appearances they stand now for the morning, now for the evening breeze, -or even for the morning and evening themselves. - -[Sidenote: Heracles.] - -The next most important deity as regards the whole Greek race is -Heracles (Hercules). It is a great mistake to regard him, as our -mythology-books often lead us to do, as a demi-god or hero only. -Originally, and among a portion of the Greek race, he was one of the -mightiest gods; but at last, perhaps because his adventures became in -later tradition rather preposterous and undignified, he sank to be a -demi-god, or immortalized man. The story of Heracles’ life and labours -is a pure but most elaborate sun-myth. From his birth, where he -strangles the serpents in his cradle--the serpents of darkness, like the -Pythôn which Apollo slew--through his _Herculean_ labours to his death, -we watch the labours of the sun through the mists and clouds of heaven -to its ruddy setting; and these stories are so like to others which are -told of the Northern Heracles, Thor, that we cannot refuse to believe -that they were known in the main in days before there were either -Greek-speaking Greeks or Teutons. The closing scene of Heracles’ life -speaks the most eloquently of his nature-origin. Returning home in -victory--his last victory--to Trachis, Deianira sends to him there the -fatal white robe steeped in the blood of Nessus. No sooner has he put it -on than his death-agony begins. In the madness of his pain he dashes his -companion, Lichas, against the rocks; he tears at the burning robe, and -with it brings away the flesh from his limbs. Then, seeing that all is -over, he becomes more calm. He gives his last commands to his son, -Hyllus, and orders his funeral pile to be prepared upon mount Œta, as -the sun, after its last fatal battle with the clouds of sunset, sinks -down calmly into the sea. Then as, after it has gone, the sky lights up -aglow with colour, so does the funeral pyre of Heracles send out its -light over the Ægean, from its _western_ shore. - -[Sidenote: Ares.] - -I believe Ares to have been once likewise a sun-god. The special home of -his worship was warlike Macedon and Thrace. There can be no question, -however, that in pre-historic times his worship was much more widely -extended than we should suppose from reading Homer or the poets -subsequent to Homer. Traces of his worship are to be found in the Zeus -Areios at Elis, and in the Athenian Areopagus. But his natural home was -in the North. He was the national divinity of the Thracians. And I have -no doubt, as I have said, that he was once the sun-god of these Northern -people, and only in later times became an abstraction, a god of war and -valour. - -[Sidenote: Dêmêtêr.] - -Another deity who was distinctly of Aryan origin was Dêmêtêr (Ceres), a -name which is, as we have said, probably, none other than Gêmêtêr, -‘mother earth.’ She is the Greek equivalent of the Prithvi of the Vedas. -But whereas Prithvi has sunk into obscurity, Dêmêtêr was associated -with some of the most important rites of Greek religion. The association -of ideas which, face to face with the masculine godhead, the sun or sky, -placed the fruitful all-nourishing earth, is so natural as to find a -place in almost every system. We have seen how the two formed a part of -the Egyptian and Chaldæan mythologies. And we have seen that each branch -of the Aryan folk carried away along with their sky-and sun-worship this -earth-worship also. But among none of the different branches was the -great nature-myth which always gathers round the earth-goddess, woven -into a more pathetic story than by the Greeks. The story is that of the -winter death or sleep of earth, or of all that makes earth beautiful and -glad. And it was thus the Greeks told that world-old legend. Persephone -(Proserpina), or Corê, is the green earth, or the green verdure which -may be thought the daughter of earth and sky. She is, indeed, almost the -reduplication of Dêmêtêr herself; and in art it is not always easy to -distinguish a representation as of one or of the other. At spring-time -Persephone, a maiden, with her maidens, is wandering careless in the -Nysian plain, plucking the flowers of spring, ‘crocuses and roses and -fair violets,’[72] when in a moment all is changed. Hades, regent of -Hell, rises in his black-horsed golden chariot; unheeding her cries, he -carries her off to share his infernal throne and rule in the kingdoms of -the dead. In other words, the awful shadow of death falls across the -path of youth and spring, and Hades appears to proclaim the fateful -truth that all spring-time, all youth and verdure, are alike with hoary -age candidates for service in his Shadowy Kingdom. The sudden contrast -between spring flowers and maidenhood and death gives a dramatic -intensity to the scene and represents the quiet course of decay in one -tremendous moment.[73] To lengthen out the picture and show the slow -sorrow of earth robbed of its spring and summer, Dêmêtêr is portrayed -wandering from land to land in bootless search of her lost daughter. We -know how deep a significance this story had in the religious thought of -Greece; how the representation of it composed the chief feature of the -Eleusinian mysteries, and how these and other mysteries probably -enshrined the intenser, more hidden feelings of religion, and continued -to do so when mythology had lost its hold upon the popular mind. It is, -indeed, a new-antique story, patent to all and fraught for all with -solemnest meaning. So that this myth of the death of Proserpine has -lived on in a thousand forms through all the Aryan systems. - -[Sidenote: Athenê and other goddesses.] - -Persephone is one of the most characteristic of the maiden-goddesses of -whom we spoke above. The most literal and material interpretation of her -myth would show her to be an embodiment of the grain, which sinks into -the ground when it is sown and springs up again to live above the earth -for half the year. But in a wider sense I have no doubt that Persephone -is meant to typify the spring of which the grain might well be a sort of -symbol, or to typify vegetation generally. And this is one of the -natural characters belonging to the maiden-goddess. She is very -frequently a goddess of spring in some aspect or other--of spring as the -season of beauty and love. Such is the Freyja of the Norse mythology; -such, to some extent, are Aphroditê (Venus) and Artemis (Diana).[74] - -There is, however, one divinity among the Greeks who seems to have a -somewhat different character, and who is so much more important a -maiden-goddess than any of these that she at once springs into our -thoughts when we are speaking of divinities of this class. I mean, of -course, Athenê (Minerva). But in the first place, the wide worship of -Athenê is partly accidental and due to her being the patroness of -Athens; in the second place, Athenê has taken so many ethical -characteristics, she is so advanced a conception of a divine being, that -she is not at all a good representative of a religion in its early -state. It would be rather confusing than otherwise to have to trace the -character of Athenê step by step out of the natural phenomenon from -which she sprang. I will only say here that I believe her to have been -originally born from the sea or from a river. She may once have actually -been a goddess of water. Afterwards she became, I think, the goddess of -the rivers of heaven or the clouds. And as the clouds hold the storm and -the lightning, Athenê is sometimes a storm-goddess, sometimes a goddess -of the lightning.[75] Or again, she may be the heaven which bears the -storm-cloud, the thundering heaven. We remember that Zeus and Athenê -each have the privilege of wearing the Ægis--the dreadful fringed Ægis, -which is, I think, the lightning-bearing cloud. - -Artemis (Diana) is the moon-goddess, at least she is so in her character -as sister of Apollo. But there were really many different Artemises in -Greece. And very often she is a river-goddess. In the same way, there -were many different Aphroditês. The more sensuous the character in which -Aphroditê (Venus) appears, the more does she show her Asiatic birth; and -this was why the Greeks, when regarding her especially as the goddess of -love, called her Cypris, or Cytheræa, after Cyprus and Cythera, which -had been in ancient days stations for the Phœnician traders, and -where they had first made acquaintance with the Greeks. Aphroditê was -the favourite goddess of these mariners, as, indeed, a moon-goddess well -might be; and it was they who gave her her most corrupt and licentious -aspect. For she has not always this character even among the -Phœnicians; but oftentimes appears as a huntress, more like Artemis, -or armed as a goddess of battle, like Athenê. Doubtless, however, -goddesses closely allied to Aphroditê or Artemis, divinities of -productive nature and divinities of the moon, belonged to the other -branches of the Indo-European family. The _idea_ of these divinities was -a common property; the exact being in whom these ideas found expression -varied with each race. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Scandinavian religion.] - -If we travel from India and from Hellas to the cold North, the same -characteristic features reappear. In the Teutonic religions, _as we know -them_,[76] Odin has taken the place of the old Aryan sky-god, Dyâus. The -last did, indeed, linger on in the Zio or Tyr of these systems; but he -had sunk from the position of a chief divinity. The change, however, is -not great. The god chosen to fill his place resembles him as nearly as -possible in character. Odin, or Wuotan,[77] whose name in its -etymological meaning is probably the god who moves violently or rushes -along,[78] was originally a god of the wind rather than of the -atmosphere of heaven. Yet along with this more confined part of his -character, he bears almost all the attributes of the exalted sky-god, -the Dyâus or Zeus; only he adds to these some parts peculiar to a god of -wind; and we can easily understand how, as these Aryan people journeyed -northwards, their wind-god grew in magnitude and power. - -[Sidenote: Odin.] - -It was Odin who lashed into fury their stormy seas, and kept the -impatient _vikings_ (fjord-men) forced prisoners in their sheltered -bays. He it was who rushed through their mountain forests, making the -ancient pine-tops bend to him as he hurried on; and men sitting at home -over their winter fires, and listening to his howl, told one another how -he was hastening to some distant battle-field, there to direct the -issue, and to choose from among the fallen such heroes as were worthy to -accompany him to Valhalla, the Hall of Bliss.[79] Long after the worship -of Christ had overturned that of the Æsir,[80] this, the most familiar -and popular aspect of Odin’s nature, lived on in the thoughts of men. In -the Middle Ages the wind reappears in the legend of the Phantom Army, a -strange apparition of two hosts of men seen to join battle in midair. -The peasant of the Jura or the Alps could tell how, when alone upon the -mountain-side, he had beheld the awful vision. Sometimes all the details -of the fight were visible, but as though the combatants were riding in -the air; sometimes the _sounds_ of battle only came from the empty space -above, till at the end a shower of blood gave the fearful witness a -proof that he was not the dupe of his imagination only.[81] In other -places, especially, for example, in the Harz mountains, the Phantom -Army gave place to the Wild Huntsman. This phantom hunt has many -different names in the different countries of Europe. With us it is -known best under the name of Herne the Hunter or of Arthur’s Chase. In -Brittany this last name is also used. In the Harz and in other places in -Germany the huntsman was called Hackelbärend or Hackelberg; and the -story went how he had been chief huntsman to the Duke of Brunswick, but -for impiety or for some dreadful oath, like that which had brought -vengeance on the famous Van der Decken, had been condemned to hunt for -ever through the clouds--for ever, that is, until the Day of -Judgment.[82] All the year through he pursues his way alone, and the -peasants hear his holloa, mingled with the baying of his two dogs.[83] -But for twelve nights--between Christmas and the Twelfth-night--he hunts -on the earth; and if any door is left open during the night, and one of -the two hounds runs in, he will bring misfortune upon that house. - -Besides this wilder aspect of his character, Odin appears as the -heaven-god--all-embracing--the father of gods and men, like Zeus. -‘All-father Odin’ he is called, and his seat was on Air-throne; thither -every day he ascended and looked over Glad-home, the home of the gods, -and over the homes of men, and far out beyond the great earth-girding -sea, to the dim frost-bound giant-land on earth’s border. And whatever -he saw of wrong-doing and of wickedness upon the earth, that he set to -rights; and he kept watch against the coming of the giants over seas to -invade the abode of man and the citadel of the gods. Only these -last--the race of giants--he could not utterly subdue and exterminate; -for Fate, which was stronger than all, had decreed that they should -remain until the end, and only be overthrown at the Twilight of the Gods -themselves. But of this myth, which was half-Christian, we have not -space to speak at length here. - -In this picture of Odin we surely see a fellow-portrait to that of the -‘wide-seeing’ Zeus. ‘The eye of Zeus, which sees all things and knows -all,’ says one poet; or again, as another says, ‘Zeus is the earth, -Zeus is the sky, Zeus is all, and that which is over all.’ - -[Sidenote: Tyr, Thor, and Balder.] - -Behind Odin stands Tyr--of whom we have already spoken--and Thor and -Balder, who are, or originally were, two different embodiments of the -sun; Thor being also a god of thunder. He is in character very closely -allied to Heracles. He is the mighty champion, the strongest and most -warlike of all the gods. But he is the friend of man and patron of -agriculture,[84] and as such the enemy of the giant-race, which -represents not only cold and darkness, but the barren, rugged, -uncultivated regions of earth. Like Heracles, Thor is never idle, -constantly with some work on hand, ‘faring eastward to fight Trolls -(giants),’ as the Eddas often tell us. In one of these expeditions he -performs three labours, which may be paralleled from the labours of -Heracles. He nearly drains the sea dry by drinking from a horn; this is -the sun ‘sucking up the clouds’ from the sea, as people still speak of -him as doing. It corresponds to the turning the course of the Alpheus -and Peneus, which Heracles performs. Then he tries to lift (as he -thinks) a large cat from the ground, but in reality he has been lifting -the great mid-earth serpent (notice the fact that we have the sun at war -with a serpent once more) which encircles the whole earth, and he has by -his strength shaken the very foundations of the world. This is the same -as the feat of Heracles in bringing up Cerberus from the underworld. And -lastly, he wrestles, as he thinks, with an old woman, and is worsted; -but in reality he has been wrestling with Old Age or Death, from whom no -one ever came off the victor. So we read in Homer that Heracles once -wounded Hades himself, and ‘brought grief into the land of shades,’ and -in Euripides’ beautiful play, _Alcestis_, we see Heracles struggling, -but this time victoriously, with Thanatos, Death himself. In these -labours the Norse hero, though striving manfully, fails; but the Greek -is always victorious. Herein lies a difference belonging to the -character of the two creeds. - -Balder the Beautiful--the fair, mild Balder--represents the sun more -truly than Thor does: the sun in his gentle aspect, as he would -naturally appear to a Norseman. His house is Breidablik, ‘Wide-glance,’ -that is to say, the bright upper air, the sun’s home. He is like the son -of Lêtô seen in his benignant aspect, the best beloved among gods, the -brightener of their warlike life, beloved, too, by all things on earth, -living and inanimate, and lamented as only the sun could be--the chief -nourisher at life’s feast. For, when Balder died, everything in heaven -and earth, ‘both all living things and trees and stones and all metals,’ -wept to bring him back again, ‘as thou hast no doubt seen these things -weep when they are brought from a cold place into a hot one.’ A modern -poet has very happily expressed the character of Balder, the sun-god, -the great quickener of life upon earth. Balder is supposed to leave -heaven to tread the ways of men, and his coming is the signal for the -new birth, as of spring-time, in the sleeping world. - - ‘There is some divine trouble - On earth and in air; - Trees tremble, brooks bubble, - Ants loosen the sod, - Warm footsteps awaken - Whatever is fair, - Sweet dewdrops are shaken - To quicken each clod. - The wild rainbows o’er him - Are melted and fade, - The light runs before him - Through meadow and glade. - Green branches close round him, - Their leaves whisper clear-- - He is ours, we have found him, - Bright Baldur is here.’[85] - -[Sidenote: Frigg, Freyja, Frey.] - -The earth-mother of the Teutons was Frigg, the wife of Odin; but perhaps -when Frigg’s natural character was forgotten, Hertha (Earth) became -separated into another personage. ‘Odin and Frigg,’ says the Edda, -‘divide the slain;’ and this means that the sky-god received the breath, -the earth-goddess the body. But on the whole Frigg plays an -insignificant part in our late form of Teuton mythology. Closely related -to her, as Persephone is related to Dêmêtêr, with a name formed out of -hers, stands Freyja, the goddess of spring and beauty and love; for the -Northern goddess of love might better accord with the innocence of -spring than could the Phœnician Aphroditê. Freyja has a brother -Freyr, who reduplicates her name and character, for he too is a sun-god -or a god of spring. - -Very beautiful is the myth which reverses the sad story of Persephone -(and of Balder), and tells of the barren earth wooed by the returning -spring. Freyr one day mounted the seat of Odin which was called -air-throne, and whence a god might look over all the ways of earth. And -looking out into giant-land far in the north, he saw a light flash forth -as the aurora lights up the wintry sky.[86] And looking again, he saw -that a maiden wondrously beautiful had just opened her father’s door, -and that this was her beauty which shone out over the snow. Then Freyr -left the air-throne and determined to send to the fair one and woo her -to be his wife. Her name was Gerda.[87] Freyr sent his messenger Skirnir -to carry his suit to Gerda; and Skirnir told her how great Freyr was -among the gods, how noble and happy a place was Asgard, the home of the -gods. For all Skirnir’s pleading Gerda would give no ear to his suit. -But Freyr had given his magic sword (the sun’s rays) to Skirnir; and at -last the ambassador, tired of pleading, drew that and threatened to take -the life of Gerda unless she granted Freyr his wish. So she consented to -meet him nine nights hence in the wood of Barri. The nine nights typify, -it is thought, the nine winter months of the Northern year; and the name -of the wood, Barri, means ‘the green;’ the beginnings of spring in the -wood being happily imaged as the meeting of the fresh and the barren -earth. - -All the elements of nature were personified by the spirit of Aryan -poetry, and it would be a hopeless task--wearisome and useless to the -reader--to give a mere category of the nature-gods in each system. Those -which had most influence upon their religious thought were they who have -been mentioned, the gods of the sky and sun and mother-earth. The other -elemental divinities were (as a rule) more strictly bound within the -circle of their own dominions. It is curious to trace the difference -between these strictly polytheistic deities--coequal in their several -spheres--and those others who arose in obedience to a wider ideal of a -godhead. We have seen that the Indians had a strictly elemental heaven -or sky, as well as their god Dyâus, and that they called him Varu_n_a, a -word which corresponds etymologically to the Greek Ouranos, the heaven. -In the later Indian mythology Varu_n_a came to stand, not for the sky, -but for the wide expanse of ocean, and so corresponds to the Greek -Poseidon, the Latin Neptune, and the Norse Œgir. All these were the -gods of the sea and of all waters. The wind, as we saw, combined in the -person of Odin with the character of a highest god; but in the Greek the -part was played by an inferior divinity, Hermes. In India there is a -wind-god (called Vaja); but the character is likewise divided among a -plurality of minor divinities, the Ma_r_uts. Of Agni, the god of fire, -corresponding to Hephæstus and Vulcan, we have spoken; and in the North -Fire is not a god at all, but an evil being called Loki. This is enough -to show that the worship of Agni rose into fervour after the separation -of the Aryan folk. - -We postpone to the next chapter the mention of the gods of the -under-world. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: The Zend religion.] - -The religions of which we have been giving this slight sketch have been -what we may call ‘natural’ religions, that is to say, the thoughts about -God and the Unseen world which without help of any special _vision_ seem -to spring up simultaneously in the minds of the different Aryan peoples. -But one among the Aryan religions still in pre-historic times broke off -abruptly from its relation with the others, and, under a teacher whom we -may fairly call god-taught, in beauty and moral purity passed far beyond -the rest. - -This was the Zoroastrian, the faith of the Iranian (ancient Persian) -branch, or, as it is perhaps better called, the Zend or Mazdean -religion; a creed which holds a pre-eminence among all the religions of -antiquity, excepting alone that of the Hebrews. And that there is no -exaggeration in such a claim is sufficiently witnessed by the inspired -writings themselves, in which the Persian kings are frequently spoken -of as if they as much as the Hebrews were worshippers of Jehovah. -‘Cyrus the servant of God,’ ‘The Lord said unto my lord (Cyrus),’ are -constantly recurring expressions in Isaiah. - -In some respects this Zoroastrianism seems to stand in violent -opposition to the Aryan religion. Nevertheless, at the back of the -religion of the Zend Avesta, which is the sacred book of the Iranian -creed, we can (as was before hinted) trace the outline of an earlier -natural religion essentially the same--so far as we can judge--with the -religion of the Vedas. And upon the whole we should be disposed to say -that Zoroastrianism appears to be not much else than a higher -development of that earlier system. At any rate, we may feel sure that -the older system was before the coming of the ‘gold bright’[88] -reformer, essentially a polytheism with only some yearnings towards -monotheism, and that Zoroaster settled it upon a firmly monotheistic -basis. This very fact leaves us little to say about the Iranian system -considered strictly as a religion. For when once nations have risen to -the height of a monotheism there can be little essential difference in -their beliefs; such difference as there is will be in the conception -they have of the character of their gods, whether it be a high, a -relatively high, or relatively low one; and this again is more perhaps a -question of moral development than of religion. Their one god, since he -made all things and rules all things, cannot partake of the exclusive -nature of any natural phenomenon; he cannot be a god of wind or water, -of sun or sky. The Zoroastrian creed did afterwards introduce (then for -the first time in the world’s history) a very important element of -belief, namely, of the distinct origin, and almost if not quite equal -powers, of the good and evil principles. But this was later than the -time of Zarathustra. - -The name which Zarathustra taught the people to give to the one god was -unconnected with Aryan nature-names, Dyâus, or Varu_n_a, or Indra. He -simply called him the ‘Great Spirit,’ or, in the Zend, Ahura-mazda;[89] -in later Persian, Hormuzd or Ormuzd. He is the all-perfect, all-wise, -all-powerful, all-beautiful. He is the creator of all things. And--still -nearer to the Christian belief--before the creation of the world, by -means whereof the world itself was made, existed the _Word_. Some trace -of this same doctrine of the pre-existing Word (_Hanover_, in the -Zoroastrian religion) is to be found in the Vedas, where he is called -_Vach_. It would be here impossible to enter into an examination of the -question how far these early religions seem to shadow forth the mystical -doctrine of the _Logos_. The evil principle opposed to Ormuzd is -Angra-Mainyus (Ahrimanes), but in the true doctrine he is by no means -the equal of God, no more so than is Satan. The successive corruption of -pure Zoroastrianism after the time of its founder is marked by a -constant exaggeration of the power of the evil principle (suggested, -perhaps, by intercourse with devil-worshipping nations of a lower type) -until Ahrimanes becomes the rival of Ormuzd, coequal and co-eternal with -him. - -Such is the simple creed of the Persians, accompanied of course by rites -and ceremonies, part invented by the reformer, part inherited from the -common Aryan parentage. It is well known that the Persians built no -temples, but worshipped Ormuzd chiefly upon the mountain-tops; that they -paid great respect to all the elements--that is to air, water, and fire, -the latter most of all--a belief which they shared with their Indian -brethren, but stopped far short of worshipping any. That they held very -strongly the separate idea of the soul, so that when once a body had -lost its life, they considered it to be a thing wholly corrupt and evil; -a doctrine which carried in the germ that of the inherent evil of -matter, as the philosophical reader will discern. - -It remains to say something of their religious books. The _Zend Avesta_ -was supposed to comprise the teaching of Zoroaster, and was believed to -have been written by him. Only one complete book has been preserved--it -is called the _Vendidâd_. The _Zend_ language in which the _Avesta_ is -written is the oldest known form of Persian, older than that in use at -the time of Darius the Great; but this is no proof that it dates back to -the days of Zarathustra. Part of it is in prose and part in verse, and -as in every literature we find that the fragments of verse are they -which survive the longest, it has been conjectured that the songs of the -_Zend Avesta_ (Gâthâs they are called) may even have been written by the -great reformer himself. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -THE OTHER WORLD. - - -[Sidenote: The death of the sun-god.] - -If the sun-god was so natural a type of a man-like divinity, a god -suffering some of the pains of humanity, a sort of type of man’s own -ideal life here, it was natural that men should question this oracle -concerning their future life and their hopes beyond the grave. We have -seen that the Egyptians did so; seen how they watched the course of the -day-star, and, beholding him sink behind the sandy desert, pictured a -home of happiness beyond that waste, a place to be reached by the soul -after many trials and long wandering in the dim Amenti-land which lay -between. The Aryans dwelt, we believe, upon the slopes of the -Hindoo-Koosh or in the level plain beneath; and, if the conjecture be -reasonable that a great part of the land now a sandy desert was then -filled by an inland sea,[90] many of them must have dwelt upon its -borders and seen the sun plunge in its wave each evening. Then or -afterwards they saw this, and interpreted what they saw in the very -thought of Milton:-- - - ‘Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more, - For Lycidas, your sorrow, is not dead, - Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor. - So sinks the day-star in the ocean-bed, - And yet anon repairs his drooping head, - And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore - Flames in the forehead of the morning sky.’ - -And thus a belief grew up among them that after death their souls would -have to cross this ocean to some happy paradise which lay beyond in the -‘home of the sun.’ - -[Sidenote: Life in the tomb. The _double_.] - -But there is another idea, more simple and material than this, and -therefore more natural to human nature in all its phases. This is the -notion that the dead man abides in his tomb, that he comes to life in it -after a certain fashion, and lives a new life there not greatly -different from his life on earth, only calmer and more stately-- - - ‘Calm pleasures there abide, majestic pains.’ - -First of all, perhaps, the survivors are content to think of the dead -man as simply living in his underground house. To prevent him coming out -thence, the stone-age men, we noticed, scattered shards, flints, and -pebbles, before the mouth of the house. To that tomb they brought their -offerings of meat and drink. The notion of the soul is not yet separated -from that of the body. But that does not show that all the ideas of -those who confounded the two were purely materialistic. In common -parlance we often confound spiritual and material things quite as much; -and yet in our thoughts we have the power of separating them. We talk of -a good-hearted man, and yet we can distinguish between the purely -imaginary or spiritual entity here meant by ‘heart,’ and the mere -physical organ. I do not say that early man could have distinguished -between the idea of the dead body and the surviving soul. Probably he -could not. I only say that we are not to judge of his belief merely by -his rites and ceremonies. - -So far as these ceremonies go, man began, we judge, by thinking first of -securing for the dead an everlasting habitation. And so he covered his -grave with an immense pile of earth.[91] The pile grew greater and -greater, and at last, as we saw, it took the shape of the pyramid. Then -came the entrance-chamber or _porch_ to the tomb, in which the survivors -offered sacrifices to the dead to keep him alive by the smell of the -burnt offering. - -The Egyptians had very little power of abstracting the idea of the -immaterial soul from the material dead body. At any rate, they did not -(for a long time) conceive the soul as a purely immaterial being. They -thought of the immortal part of man as a sort of _double_ of the mortal -part. This double they called his _ka_. The _ka_ could not exist without -some material form, and therefore they took infinite pains to provide it -with a body of some kind. They mummified the dead body so as to make it -last as long as possible. But besides that, they made numerous images of -the dead; sometimes (if his state could afford it) large statues of -wood[92] or stone. And in addition to these they made a vast number of -smaller images, generally of pottery--those little mummy figures in blue -or green pottery,[93] of which we find such endless quantities buried in -the tombs. There was usually a secret chamber or passage practised in -the tomb to contain these mummied figures, and it was so arranged that -the scent of the sacrifice might come along it.[94] - -All these ideas belong, we see, to the most _stationary_ notion of the -dead. If they were followed out logically, the soul would be considered -as tied for ever to the mummy, which lies below in a dark chamber, or to -the little images in their small passage within the wall of the tomb. -But the Egyptians did not carry out this idea logically. For we find -prayers upon the walls of their earliest tombs, that Osiris should give -to the dead, sheep, oxen, and farm-labourers, and ‘sport,’ or corn, and -wine, and dancers, and jesters--all the pleasures, in fact, which he had -had in life. Therefore the dead must really have been thought to have -the power of life and motion as he had enjoyed it upon earth, -inconsistent as such an idea is with the constant enchainment of the -_ka_ to some material belonging, to the mummy or to the image of -pottery. - -[Sidenote: The journey of the dead.] - -Wherefore it came about that the Egyptians began to have a sort of -notion of _two_ souls--one the half-material _ka_, which remained in the -tomb; the other of an immaterial nature, which moved about. - -But this notion of two souls arose because the Egyptians were _more_ -precise and logical than most peoples have been in their speculations as -to the future state. Among other races we see a constant confusion -between the idea of resting in the tomb, and the idea of journeying to -another land generally in the wake of the sun. And the food and drink -placed on the tomb, instead of being the simple nourishment of the -dead, were designed merely as a temporary provision for him _on his way_ -to the land of souls. - -The expectation of a journey after death to reach the home of shades is -all but universal; and the opinion that the home of the departed lies in -the west is of an almost equally wide extension. The Egyptian religion, -with its wonderful Book of the Dead, gives as much weight to this side -of belief as to the other notion of resting in the tomb. To lengthen out -the soul’s journey, which was fancied to last thousands of years, and -give incident where all must have been really imaginary, the actual -journey of the mummy to its resting-place was lengthened after life to -portray the more ghostly wanderings of the spirit. As a rule, the cities -of the living in Egypt lay upon the eastern bank of the Nile; the tombs, -the cities of the dead, on the left or western bank, generally just -within the borders of the desert. Wherefore, as the body was carried -across the Nile to be buried in the desert, so the soul was believed to -begin his journey in the dim twilight region of Apap, king of the -desert, to cross a river more than once, to advance _towards the sun_, -light gradually breaking upon him the while, until at last he enters the -‘Palace of the Two Truths,’ the judgment-hall of Osiris (the sun). Last -of all, he walks into the sun itself, or is absorbed into the essence of -the deity. - -In these two notions we have, I think, the germ of almost all the most -ancient belief touching the soul’s future. A confusion between the two -notions would imagine the soul making a journey through the earth to an -underground land of shades. So far as we know, this was the prevailing -feeling among the Hebrews. Old Hebrew writers (with whom the hopes of -immortality were not strong) speak of going down into the grave,[95] a -place thought of as a misty, dull, unfeeling, almost unreal abode. - -[Sidenote: Journey to the sky.] - -Finally, a third element--if not universal, common certainly to the -Aryan races--will be the conception of the soul separating from the body -altogether and mounting upwards to some home in the sky. All these -elements are found to exist and coexist in early creeds, and the force -of the component parts determines the colour of man’s doctrine about the -other world. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: The other world of the Aryans.] - -Among all the Aryan peoples the Greeks seem to have turned their -thoughts farthest away from the contemplation of the grave; and though -the voice of wonder and imagination could not quite be silent upon so -important a question, Hades and the kingdom of Hades filled a -disproportionately small space in their creed. They shrank from images -of Death, and adorned their tombs or cinerary urns with wreaths of -flowers and figures of the dancing Hours: it is doubtful if the god -Thanatos (Death) has ever been pictured by Greek art.[96] And from what -they have left on record concerning Hades and the realms of death, it is -evident that they regarded it _chiefly_ from its merely negative side, -in that aspect which corresponds most exactly to the notion of a dark -subterraneous kingdom, and not to that of a journey to some other -distant land. The etymology of their mythical King of Souls corresponds, -too, with the same notions. Hades means nothing else than A-eidês, the -unseen. And when it was said that the dead had gone to Hades, all that -was literally meant was that it had gone to the unseen place. But later -on, the place became personified into the grim deity whom we know in -Greek mythology, the brother of Zeus and Poseidon, he to whose share -fell, in the partition of the world, the land of perpetual night. The -underworld pictured by Homer is just of that voiceless, sightless -character which accords with the name of Hades. Even the great heroes -lose almost their identity, and all the joy and interest they had in -life. To ‘wander mid shadows a shadow, and wail by impassable streams,’ -is henceforward their occupation. - -Not that the Greek had _no_ idea of another world of the more heavenly -sort; ideas obtained as a joint inheritance with their brother nations; -only their thoughts and their poetry do not often centre round such -pictures. Their Elysian fields are a western sun’s home, just after the -pattern of the Egyptian; and so are their Islands of the Blest, where, -according to one tradition, the just Rhadamanthus had been transported -when he fled from the power of his brother Minôs.[97] Only, observe, -there is this difference between these Paradises and the Egyptian house -of Osiris--the latter was reached across the sandy desert, the former -are separated by the ocean from the abode of men. These are the -_Heavens_ of the Greek mythology; while the realm of Hades--or later on -the realm Hades--might by contrast be called their Hell. Let us look a -little nearer at this heaven-picture. - -[Sidenote: The River of Death.] - -The Caspian Sea--or by whatever name we call the great mediterranean sea -which lay before them--would be naturally, almost inevitably, considered -by the Aryans from their home in Bactria to bound the habitable world. -The region beyond its borders would be a twilight-land like the land of -Apap (the desert-king) of the Egyptians; and still farther away would -lie the bright region of the sun’s proper home. And these ideas would be -both literal--cosmological conceptions, as we should call them--and -figurative, or at least mythical, referring to the future state of the -soul. The beautiful expression of the Hebrew for that twilight western -region, ‘the valley of the shadow of death,’ might be used for the -Apap-land in its figurative significance, and not the less justly -because there creeps in here the other notion of death as of a -_descending_ to the land of shades, for the two ideas of the western -heaven and the subterraneous hell were never utterly separated, but, -among the Aryans at any rate, constantly acted and reacted upon one -another. So with the Greeks we have as a cosmological conception--or let -us say, more simply, a part of their world-theory--the encircling river -Oceanus, with the dim Cimmerian land beyond; and we have the Eylsian -fields and the islands of the blest for the most happy dead. And then by -a natural transfer of ideas the bounding river becomes the river of -death--Styx and Lethê--and is placed below the earth in the region of -death. Even the Elysian fields at last suffer the same change: they too -pass below the earth. - -The Indian religion, too, has its river of death. ‘On the fearful road -to Yama’s door,’ says a hymn, ‘is the terrible stream Vaitara_n_î, in -order to cross which I sacrifice a black cow.’[98] - -This river of death must be somehow crossed. The Greeks, we know, had -their grim ferryman. - - ‘Portitor has horrendus aquas et flumina servat - Terribili squalore Charon: cui plurima mento - Canities inculta jacet; stant lumina flamma,’ etc. - -The Indians crossed their river of death by a bridge, which was guarded -by two dogs, not less terrible to evildoers than Charon and Cerberus. - -‘A narrow path, an ancient one, stretches there, a path untrodden by -men, a path I know of. - -‘On it the wise, who had known Brahma, ascend to the dwellings of -Svarga, when they have received their dismissal.’[99] So sings a poet. - -Swarga is the Bright Land (_svar_, to shine), _i.e._ the Home of the -Sun. The names of the two guardian dogs, too, are interesting. They are -the sons of that Saramâ whom we have already seen sent by Indra to -recover his lost cattle, whose name signifies the breeze of morning. -Saramâ’s two sons, the dogs of Yama, being so closely connected with the -god of the under-world--as Saramâ is with Indra the sun-god--might be -guessed as the winds of evening or, more vaguely, the evening, as Saramâ -is the morning. They are so; and by their name of Sârameyas, are even -more closely related to Hermes than Saramâ was.[100] We now know why to -Hermes was allotted the office of Psychopomp, or leader of the shades to -the realm of Hades--or at least we partly know; for we see that he is -the same with the two dogs of Yama in the Indian myth. But they are also -connected by name with another much more infernal being, Cerberus. Their -individual names were _Cerbura_[101] the spotted, and Syama the black. -Thus the identity of nature is confirmed by the identity of name. - -Death and Sleep are twin-brothers, and we need not be surprised to find -the Sârameyas, or rather _a_ god Sârameyas, addressed as a sort of god -of sleep, a divine hound, the protector of the sleeping household, as we -do find in a very beautiful poem of the Rig-Vedas.[102] - - ‘Destroyer of sickness, guard of the house; oh, thou who - takest all shapes, be to us a peace-bringing friend. - Bay at the robber, Sârameyas, bay at the thief; why bayest - thou at the singer of Indra? why art thou angry with me? - sleep, Sârameyas. - The mother sleeps, the father sleeps, the dog sleeps, the - clan-father[103] sleeps, the whole clan sleeps; sleep thou, Sârameyas. - Those who sleep by the cattle, those who sleep by the wain, - the women who lie on the couches, the sweet-scented ones, - all these we bring to slumber.’ - -How these verses breathe of the fragrant air of early pastoral life! In -their names, again, of ‘black’ and ‘spotted’ it is very probable that -the dogs typified two appearances of night--black or starry. - -[Sidenote: The heavenward journey.] - -And yet we must remember that Hermes is not a god of night, or sleep, -but strictly and properly of the wind, and that his name, as that of -Sârameyas, bears this meaning in its construction. The god who bore away -the souls to the other world, however connected with the night, ‘the -proper time for dying,’ must have been originally the wind. And in this -we see an exquisite appropriateness. The soul is, in its original and -literal meaning, the breath[104]--‘the spirit does but mean the breath.’ -What more natural, therefore, than that the spirit should be carried -away by the wind-god? This was peculiarly an Aryan idea. Yet let it not -be laid to the Aryans’ charge, as though their theories of the soul and -future life were less spiritual than those of other nations: quite the -contrary was the case. So far as they abandoned the notion of the -existence of the _body_ in another state and transferred the future to -the soul, their ideas became higher, and their pictures of the other -world more amplified. But how, it may be asked, did the Aryans pass to -their more spiritual conception of the soul? The more external causes of -this progress it is worth while briefly to trace. - -The sun, it has been said, acted powerfully upon men’s minds in pointing -the hopes of futurity. And in sketching the sun-myth which lay concealed -in the story of the life of Heracles, we noticed one feature which -suggests thoughts about a not yet mentioned element in the funeral rites -of the Aryans. The fiery setting of the sun would itself suggest a fiery -funeral, and pre-eminently so to a race who seem to have been addicted -more than any other to this form of interment. Balder, the Northern -sun-god, likewise receives such a funeral, and this more even than the -death of Heracles exemplifies the double significance of the sun’s -westering course. For he sails away upon a burning ship. When, -therefore, this fire-burial was thoroughly established in custom as the -most heroic sort of end, it is not likely that men would longer rely -upon their belief that the body continued in an after-life. The thought -of the dead man living in his grave or travelling thence to regions -below must, or should, by the consistent be definitely abandoned. In -place of it, a theory of the vital faculty residing in the breath, -which almost amounts to a soul distinct from the body, is accepted. Or, -if the doubting brethren still require some visible representation of -this vital power, the smoke[105] of the funeral pyre may typify the -ascending soul. Nay, it would appear as though inanimate things likewise -had some such essence, which by the fire could be separated from their -material form. For what would formerly have been placed with the dead in -the grave is now placed upon the pyre. In the funeral of Patroclus -(_Il._ xxiii.) we have a complete picture of these reformed rites, which -seems to be applicable to all the Aryan folk; nor surely could we wish -for anything more striking and impressive. The fat oxen and sheep are -slain before the pyre, and with the fat from their bodies and with honey -the corpse is liberally anointed. Then twelve captives are sacrificed to -the manes of the hero; they and his twelve favourite dogs are burnt with -him upon the pile. We soon see the reason for the anointing of the -corpse with fat, and taking so much pains that it should be thoroughly -consumed. It was necessary for the peace of the shade that his body -should be thoroughly burned; for the funeral ceremony was looked upon as -the inevitable portal to Hades; without it the ghost still lingered upon -earth unable to cross the Stygian stream. So afterwards, when the pile -will not burn, Achilles prays to the North and the West Winds and pours -libations to them that they may come and consummate the funeral rite. -All night as the flame springs up Achilles stands beside it, calling -upon the name of his friend and watering the ground with libations from -a golden cup. Toward morning the flame sinks down; and then the two -winds, according to the beautiful language of mythology, return homeward -across the Thracian sea. - -All the Aryan nationalities practised cremation in some form or other, -or had practised it; most only gave it up upon the introduction of -Christianity. The time is too remote, therefore, to say when this form -of interment was in truth a novelty; and the fact that the bronze age in -Europe is, as distinguished from that of stone, a corpse-burning age, is -one of the reasons which urge us to the conclusion that the bronze-using -invaders were of the Aryan family.[106] The Indians, owing to their -excessive reverence for Agni the fire-god, adhered to the practice most -faithfully; though the very same reason (namely, their regard for the -purity of fire) made the reformed Iranian religion utterly repudiate -it--a fact which might seem strange did we not know how Zoroastrianism -was sometimes governed by a spirit of opposition to the older -faith.[107] Among the Norsemen about the time of the introduction of -Christianity into Scandinavia, Burn? or Bury? became a test-question, -and a constant cause of dispute between the rival creeds. - -[Sidenote: Other world of the Norsemen.] - -In the Northern religion, too, therefore, we have the same leading ideas -which we have signalized in the Indian or Grecian systems. Especially -does that notion of the breath of the body, or the smoke of the funeral -pyre representing the soul of the hero and carried upward under care of -the wind, come prominently forward. This might be expected because, it -will be remembered, the wind in the Northern mythology is not, as with -the Indians, a servant of Yama only, or as with the Greeks a lesser -divinity, but is the first of all the gods. To Odin is assigned the task -of collecting the souls of heroes who had fallen in battle; and there -are few myths more poetical than that which pictures him riding to -battle-fields to execute his mission. He is accompanied by his -Valkyriur, ‘the choosers,’ a sort of Amazonian houris, half human, -half-godlike, who ride through the air in the form of swans; wherefore -they--who are originally, perhaps, the clouds--are often called in the -Eddas, Odin’s swan-maidens. It has been said that this myth lived on in -after-ages in the form of the _Phantom Army_ and _Herne the Hunter_: and -the essential part of it, the myth of the soul carried away by the wind, -lived on more obscurely in a hundred other tales, some of which we may -glance at in our next chapter upon _Mythology_. But while this idea of -the mounting soul is often clearly expressed--as, for instance, where in -Beowulf,[108] in the last scene, the hero is burnt by the seashore, it -is said of him that he _wand to wolcum_, ‘curled to the clouds,’ -imaging well the curling smoke of the pyre--there still lingered on -other ideas of the death-home, a subterraneous land (Helheim, Hel’s -home) ruled over by the goddess Hel,[109] and an infernal Styx-like -stream, with the bridge of Indian mythology transferred to the lower -world. And so much were the three distinct ideas interwoven, that in the -myth of Balder each one may be traced. For here the sun-god, who is the -very origin and prototype of the two more exalted elements of the creed -of the heavenward journey,[110] has himself to stoop downward to the -gates of Hel. If this legend sanctified for the heathens the practice of -fire-burial, they had certainly so much excuse for their obstinate -adherence to the older custom, as one of the most beautiful myths ever -told might plead for them. We may look upon the story of the death and -burning of Balder in two aspects--first as an image of the setting sun, -next as an expression of men’s thoughts concerning death, and the course -of the soul to its future home. If in this latter respect the story -seems to mix up two different myths concerning the other world, we need -not be surprised at that. - -Balder dies, as the sun dies each day, and as the summer dies into -winter. He falls, struck by a dart from the hand of his blind brother -Hödr (the darkness), and the shadow of death appears for the first time -in the homes of Asgard. At first the gods knew not what to make of it, -‘they were struck dumb with horror,’ says the Edda;[111] but seeing -that he is really dead, they prepare his funeral pyre. They took his -ship _Hringhorni_ (Ringhorn, the disk of the sun), and on it set a pile -of wood, with Balder’s horse and his armour, and all that he valued -most, to which each god added some worthy gift. And when Nanna, the wife -of Balder, saw the preparations, her heart broke with grief, and she too -was laid upon the pile. Then they set fire to the ship, which sailed out -burning into the sea. - -But Balder himself had to go to Helheim, the dark abode beneath the -earth, where reigns Hel,[112] the goddess of the dead. Then Odin sends -his messenger, Hermödr, to the goddess, to pray her to let Balder return -once more to earth. For nine days and nine nights Hermödr rode through -dark glens, so dark that he could not discern anything until he came to -the river Gjöll (‘the sounding’--notice that here the Greek Cocytus -reappears), over which he rode by Gjöll’s bridge, which was pleasant -with bright gold. A maiden sat there keeping the bridge; she inquired of -him his name and lineage--for, said she, ‘Yestereve five bands of dead -men rid over the bridge, yet they did not shake it so much as thou hast -done. But thou hast not death’s hue upon thee; why, then, ridest thou -here on the way to Hel?’ - -‘I ride to Hel,’ answered Hermödr, ‘to seek Balder. Hast thou perchance -seen him pass this way?’ - -‘Balder,’ answered she, ‘hath ridden over Gjöll’s bridge. But yonder, -northward, lies the road to Hel.’ - -Hermödr then rode into the palace, where he found his brother Balder -filling the highest place in the hall, and in his company he passed the -night. The next morning he besought Hel, that she would let Balder ride -home with him, assuring her how great the grief was among the gods. - -Hel answered, ‘It shall now be proved whether Balder be so much loved as -thou sayest. If, therefore, all things both living and lifeless weep for -him, then shall he return. But if one thing speak against him or refuse -to weep, he shall be kept in Helheim.’ - -And when Hermödr had delivered this answer, the gods sent off messengers -throughout the whole world, to tell everything to weep, in order that -Balder might be delivered out of Helheim. All things freely complied -with this request, both man and every other living thing, and earths, -and stones, and trees, and metals, just as thou hast no doubt seen these -things weep when they are brought from a cold place into a hot one. As -the messengers were returning, and deemed that their mission had been -successful, they found an old hag, named Thokk,[113] sitting in a -cavern, and her they begged to weep Balder out of Helheim. But she -said:-- - - ‘Thokk will wail Nought quick or dead - With dry eyes For carl’s son care I. - Balder’s bale-fire. Let Hel hold her own.’ - -So Balder remained in Helheim. - -Such was the sad conclusion of the myth of which the memory is kept up -even in these days. For in Norway and Sweden--nay, in some parts of -Scotland, the _bale-fires_ celebrating the bale or death of the sun-god -are lighted on the day when the sun passes the highest point in the -ecliptic. Balder will not, said tradition, remain for ever in Helheim. A -day will come, the twilight of the gods, when the gods themselves will -be destroyed in a final victorious contest with the evil powers. And -then, when a new earth has arisen from the deluge which destroys the -old, Balder, the god of Peace, will come from Death’s home to rule over -this regenerate world. A sublime myth--if indeed it can be called a -_myth_. - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - -MYTHOLOGIES AND FOLK-TALES. - - -[Sidenote: Diversity of myths.] - -If we found it difficult to reduce to a consistent simplicity the -religious ideas of the Aryan races, what hope have we to find any thread -through the labyrinth of their unbridled imagination in dealing with -more fanciful subjects? The world is all before them where to choose; -nature, in her multitudinous works and ever-changing shows, is at hand -to give breath to the faculty of myth-making, and lay the foundation of -all the stories which have ever been told. The two elements concurrent -to the manufacture of mythologies are the varying phenomena in nature, -and that which is called the anthropomorphic (personifying) faculty in -man. I do not mean by this that all myths represent natural appearances. -Some simply relate events, real human experiences; all that is mythic -about such stories is that they are _misplaced_. Some one has gone -through the adventures, but not the person of whom they are told. Other -tales transfer in a like fashion human experiences to beings who are not -human, to animals, to trees and streams, maybe even to implements, to -spades and ploughs, to hatchets, swords, or ships. All these may be -subject of mere tale-telling. But what I understand by mythology are -the stories related of the gods--at all events, stories of supernatural -beings who are almost gods. And among the Aryan folk, as the gods are in -almost every instance the personifications of phenomena or powers of -nature, the myths of widest extension were necessarily occupied with -these. - -Religion being the greatest concern of man, the myths which allied -themselves most closely to his religious ideas would be those which -maintained the longest life and most universal acceptance. In reviewing -some of the Aryan myths--in a hasty and general review as it must needs -be--the preceding chapter will serve to guide us to the myths most -closely connected with religious notions, which have a chief claim upon -our attention. Indeed, reading in a converse manner, it was the fact -that so many myths clung around certain natural phenomena which allowed -us, with proper reservation, to point these out as the phenomena which -held the most intimate place in men’s minds and hearts. _With proper -reservations_, because the highest, most abstracted god does not lend -himself as a subject for the myth-making faculty. He stands apart from -the polytheistic circle: below him stand the nature-gods who are also -the heroes of the mythologies. - -And now, with a backward glance to what has been already written, we may -expect the chief myth systems to divide themselves into certain classes -corresponding with the god--or natural phenomenon--that is their -concern. We may expect to find myths relating especially to the labours -of the sun, like those of Heracles and Thorr, or to the wind, like that -of Hermes stealing the cattle of Apollo, or to the earth sleeping in the -embrace of winter, or sorrowing for the loss of her greenery, or joying -again in her recovered life. And again we may look to find myths more -intimately concerned with death, and with the looked-for future of the -soul. These will mingle like mingling streams, but we shall often be -able to trace their origin. - -But, to begin with, do not suppose that, if I say that a natural -phenomenon has given rise to a story, I mean to say that the story could -not have arisen except through this natural phenomenon. Or, to put it in -plainer language, do not suppose that if I say that this or that -adventure is related of the sun or of the wind, I mean that the -adventure was never heard of before the sun or wind was worshipped as a -god or idealized as a hero. If Indra, or Apollo, is called the -serpent-slayer, I do not mean that it is by the battle of the sun and -the clouds that men got the idea of slaying serpents. If the wind is -said to ride a-horseback over hill and dale, if the thunder-god is said -to hurl his hammer at the mountain-tops, I do not mean that men never -thought of horses or battle-hammers till they began to make stories -about the wind and sun. What I do mean is that certain special forms of -the myths related, _as we now see them_, were told of the Aryan god who -was some phenomenon of nature--the sun or whatever he might be. It is -necessary to give this word of caution, because the relationship of -mythology to religion has sometimes, by recent writings upon the -subject, been a good deal confused and obscured. - -The diversity of the natural phenomena which give them rise will not in -any way hinder the myths from reproducing the _human_ elements which -have, since the world began held their pre-eminence in romance and -history. There will be love-stories, stories of battle and victory, of -magic and strange disguises, of suddenly acquired treasure, and, most -attractive of all to the popular mind, stories of princes and princesses -whose princedom is hidden under a servile station or beggar’s -gaberdine, and of heroes who allow their heroism to rust for a while in -strange inaction, that - - ‘Imitate the sun, - Who doth permit the base contagious clouds - To smother up his beauty from the world, - That, when he please again to be himself, - Being wanted, he may be more wondered at.’ - -Not necessarily because such heroes _were_ the sun, but rather that the -tales, appealing so intimately to the common sympathies of human nature, -attach themselves pre-eminently to the great natural hero, the sun-god. - -[Sidenote: Sun-myths.] - -To begin, then, with the sun-god. His love-stories relate most commonly -the pursuit of the dawn, a woman, by the god of day. She flies at the -approach of the sun; or, if the two are married in early morning, when -the day advances, the dawn dies or the sun leaves her to pursue his -allotted journey. We read how Apollo pursued Daphnê, while she still -fled from him, and at last, praying to the gods, was changed into a -laurel, which ever afterwards remained sacred to the son of Lêtô. There -is nothing new in the story; it might be related of any hero. Yet, as we -find Greek art so often busy with it, we might guess that it had -obtained for some reason a hold more than commonly firm upon the popular -imagination. And when we turn from the Greek to the Sanskrit we are able -to unravel the myth and show it, so far as the names are concerned, -peculiar to the sun-god. Daphnê (it is believed) is the Sanskrit Ahanâ, -that is to say, the Dawn. - -A tenderer love-story is that which speaks of the sun and the dawn as -united at the opening of the day, but of the separation which follows -when the sun reveals himself in his true splendour. The parting, -however, will not be eternal, for the sun in the evening shall sink into -the arms of the west, as in the morning he left those of the east--all -the physical appearances at sundown will correspond with those of the -dawn--so in poetical language he will be said to return to his love -again at the evening of life. In right accord with its natural origin -and native attractiveness, we find this story repeated almost -identically as regards its chief incidents by all the branches of the -Aryan family. For an Indian version of it the reader may consult the -story of Urva_s_i and Pururavas, told by Mr. Max Müller from one of the -Vedas.[114] Urva_s_i is a fairy who falls in love with Pururavas, a -mortal, and consents to become his wife, on condition that she should -never see him without his royal garment on, ‘for this is the manner of -women.’ For a while they lived together happily; but the Gandhavas, the -fairy beings to whom Urva_s_i belonged, were jealous of her love for a -mortal, and they laid a plot to separate them. ‘Now, there was a ewe -with two lambs tied to the couch of Urva_s_i and Pururavas, and the -fairies stole one of them, so that Urva_s_i upbraided her husband and -said, “They steal my darlings as though I lived in a land where there is -no hero, and no man.” And Pururavas said, “How can that be a land -without heroes or men where I am?” and naked he sprang up. Then the -Gandhavas sent a flash of lightning, and Urva_s_i saw her husband naked -as by daylight. Then she vanished. “I come back,” she said; and went.’ - -Cupid loves Psyche as Pururavas Urva_s_i, but here the story is so far -changed that the woman breaks the condition laid upon their union. Not -this time by accident, but from the evil counselling of her two sisters, -Psyche disobeys her husband. They have long been married, but she has -never seen his face; and doubts begin to arise lest some horrid -monster, and not a god, may be the sharer of her couch. So she takes the -lamp, and when she deems her husband is fast locked in sleep, gazes upon -the face of the god of love. - - ‘But as she turned at last - To quench the lamp, there happed a little thing - That quenched her new delight, for flickering, - The treacherous flame cast on his shoulder fair - A burning drop; he woke, and seeing her there, - The meaning of that sad sight knew full well; - Nor was there need the piteous tale to tell.’[115] - -Here, it is true, we have wandered away from the adventures of the sun. -Cupid or Eros is in no sense a sun-god; nor has Psyche any proved -connection with Ushas, the Dawn. Once a sun-myth does not mean always a -sun-myth.[116] So much the contrary, that it is part of our business to -show how stories, first appropriated to Olympus or Asgard, may descend -to take their place among the commonest collection of nursery tales. It -is the case with this myth of the Dawn. The reader’s acquaintance with -nursery literature has probably already anticipated the kinship to be -claimed by one of the most familiar childish legends. But as one more -link to rivet the bond of union between _Urvasi and Pururavas_ and -_Beauty and the Beast_, let us look at a story of Swedish origin called -_Prince Hatt under the Earth_. - -‘There was once, very very long ago, a king who had three daughters, all -exquisitely fair, and much more amiable than other maidens, so that -their like was not to be found far or near. But the youngest princess -excelled her sisters, not only in beauty, but in goodness of heart and -kindness of disposition. She was consequently greatly beloved by all, -and the king himself was more fondly attached to her than to either of -his other daughters. - -‘It happened one autumn that there was a fair in a town not far from the -king’s residence, and the king himself resolved on going to it with his -attendants. When on the eve of departure, he asked his three daughters -what they would like for fairings, it being his constant custom to make -them some present on his return home. The two elder princesses began -instantly to enumerate precious things of curious kinds; one would have -this, the other that; but the youngest daughter asked for nothing. At -this the king was surprised, and asked her whether she would not like -some ornament or other; but she answered that she had plenty of gold and -jewels. When the king, however, would not desist from urging her, she at -length said, “There is one thing which I would gladly have, if only I -might venture to ask it of my father.” “What may that be?” inquired the -king; “say what it is, and if it be in my power you shall have it.” “It -is this,” replied the princess, “I have heard talk of the _three singing -leaves_, and them I wish to have before anything else in the world.” The -king laughed at her for making so trifling a request, and at length -exclaimed, “I cannot say that you are very covetous, and would rather by -half that you had asked for some greater gift. You shall, however, have -what you desire, though it should cost me half my realm.” He then bade -his daughters farewell and rode away.’ - -Of course he goes to the fair, and on his way home happens to hear the -three singing leaves, ‘which moved to and fro, and as they swayed there -came forth a sound such as it would be impossible to describe.’ The king -was glad to have found what his daughter had wished for, and was about -to pluck them, but the instant he stretched forth his hand towards them, -they withdrew from his grasp, and a powerful voice was heard from under -the earth saying, ‘Touch not my leaves.’ ‘At this the king was somewhat -surprised, and asked who it was, and whether he could not purchase the -leaves for gold or good words. The voice answered, “I am _Prince Hatt -under the Earth_, and you will not get my leaves either with good or bad -as you desire. Nevertheless I will propose to you one condition.” “What -condition is that?” asked the king with eagerness. “It is,” answered the -voice, “that you promise me the first living thing that you meet when -you return to your palace.”’ As we anticipate, the first thing which he -meets is his youngest daughter, who therefore is left with lamentation -under the hazel bush: and, as is its wont on such occasions, the ground -opens, and she finds herself in a beautiful palace. Here she lives long -and happily with Prince Hatt, upon condition that she shall never see -him. But at last she is permitted to pay a visit to her father and -sisters; and her stepmother succeeds in awakening her curiosity and her -fears, lest she should really be married to some horrid monster. The -princess thus allows herself to be persuaded to strike a light and gaze -on her husband while he is asleep. Of course, just as her eyes have -lighted upon a beautiful youth he awakes, and as a consequence of her -disobedience--(here the story alters somewhat)--he is struck blind, and -the two are obliged to wander over the earth, and endure all manner of -misfortunes before Prince Hatt’s sight is at last restored. - -The sun is so apt to take the place of an almost super-human hero, that -most of the stories of such when they are purely mythical relate some -part of the sun’s daily course and labours. Thus in the Greek, Perseus, -Theseus, Jason, are in the main sun-heroes, though they mingle with -their histories tales of real human adventure. One of the most easily -traceable sun-stories is that of Perseus and the Gorgon. The later -representations of Medusa in Greek art give her a beautiful dead face -shrouded by luxurious snaky tresses; but the earlier art presents us -with a round face, distorted by a hideous grin from ear to ear, broad -cheeks, low forehead, over which curl a few flattened locks. We at once -see the likeness of this face to the full moon; a likeness which, -without regard to mythology, forces itself upon us; and then the true -story of Perseus flashes upon us as the extinction of the moon by the -sun’s light. This is the baneful Gorgon’s head, the full moon, which so -many nations superstitiously believed could exert a fatal power over the -sleeper; and when slain by the son of Danaê, it is the pale ghostlike -disc which we see by day. It is very interesting to see how the Greeks -made a myth of the moon in its--one may say--literal unidealized aspect, -in addition to the countless more poetical myths which spoke of the moon -as a beautiful goddess, queen of the night, the virgin huntress -surrounded by her pack of dogs--the stars. In the instance of Medusa -these two aspects of one natural appearance are brought into close -relationship, for Athênê--who is sometimes a moon-goddess--wears the -Gorgon’s head upon her shield. - -As we have passed on to speak of the moon, we may as - -[Sidenote: Moon-myths.] - -well notice some of the other moon-myths: though in the case of these, -as of the myths of the sun, our only object must be to show the -characteristic forms which this order of tales assumes, so that the way -may be partly cleared for their detection; nothing like a complete list -of the infinitely varied shapes which the same nature-story can assume -being possible. One of the most beautiful of moon-myths is surely the -tale of Artemis (Diana) and Endymion. This last, the beautiful shepherd -of Latmos,[117] by his name ‘He who enters,’ is in origin the sun just -entering the _cave_ of night.[118] The moon looking upon the setting sun -is a signal for his long sleep, which in the myth becomes the sleep of -death. The same myth reappears in the well-known German legend of -Tannhäuser. He enters a mountain, the Venusberg, or Mount of Venus, and -is not sent to sleep, but laid under an enchantment by the goddess -within. In other versions of the legend the mountain is called not -Venusberg but Horelberg, and from this name we trace the natural origin -of the myth. For there was an old moon-goddess of the Teutons called -Horel or Hursel. She therefore is the enchantress in this case; and the -Christian knight falls a victim to the old German moon-goddess. It has -been supposed that the story of the massacre of St. Ursula and her -eleven thousand virgins--whose bones they show to this day at -Cologne--arose out of the same nature-myth; and that this St. Ursula is -also none other than Hursel, followed by her myriad troop of stars.[119] - - * * * * * - -The northern religion, or say the old German creed its - -[Sidenote: Northern sun-myths, etc.] - -first cousin, has been fruitful in myths which were repeated all through -the Middle Ages and out of which the greater part of our popular tales -have sprung. Thor, originally the sun and now the god of thunder, the -champion of men, and the enemy of the Jötuns (giants), becomes in later -days Jack the Giant Killer; Odin, by a like descent, the Wandering Jew, -or the Pied Piper of Hamelin. And thus through a hundred popular legends -we can detect the natural appearance out of which they originally -sprang. Let us look at them first in their old heathen forms. Thor, the -hero and sun-god, the northern Heracles, distinguishes himself as the -implacable enemy of the rime-giants and frost-giants, the powers of cold -and darkness; and to carry on his hostilities, he makes constant -expeditions, ‘farings’ into giant-land, or Jötunheim, as it is called; -and these expeditions generally end in the thorough discomfiture of the -strong but rude and foolish personifications of barren nature. - -One of these, the adventure to the house of Thrym,[120] is to recover -Thor’s hammer, which has been stolen by the giant and hidden many miles -beneath the earth. A spy is sent from Asgard (the city of the gods) into -Jötunheim, and brings back word that Thrym will not give up his prize -unless Freyja--goddess of Spring and Beauty--be given to him as his -bride; and at first Thor proposes this alternative to Freyja herself, -little, as may be guessed, to her satisfaction. - - ‘Wroth was Freyja and with fury fumed, - All the Æsir’s hall under her trembled; - Broken flew the famed Brisinga necklace.’[121] - -But the wily Loki settles the difficulty. Thor shall to Jötunheim clad -in Freyja’s weeds, - - ‘Let by his side, keys jingle, and a neat coif set on his head.’ - -So taking Loki with him clad as a serving-maid, the god fares to Thrym’s -house, as though he were the looked-for bride. It must, one would -suppose, have been an anxious time for Thor and Loki, while unarmed they -sate in the hall of the giant; for the hero could not avoid raising some -suspicions by his unwomanly appearance and demeanour. He alone devoured, -we are told, an ox, eight salmon, ‘and all the sweetmeats women should -have,’ and he drank eight ‘scalds’ of mead. Thrym naturally exclaimed -that he never saw brides eat so greedily or drink so much mead. But the -‘all-crafty’ Loki sitting by, explained how this was owing to the hurry -Freyja was in to behold her bridegroom, which left her no time to eat -for the eight nights during which she had been journeying there. And so -again when Thrym says-- - - ‘Why are so piercing Freyja’s glances? - Methinks that fire burns from her eyes,’ - -Loki explains that for the same reason she had not slept upon her -journey; and the foolish, vain giant is gulled once more. At last the -coveted prize, the hammer, was brought in to consecrate the marriage, -and ‘Thor’s soul laughed in his breast, when the fierce-hearted his -hammer knew. He slew Thrym, the Thursar’s (giant’s) lord, and the -Jötun’s race crushed he utterly.’ - -At another time Thor engages Alvîs, ‘of the race of the Thursar,’[122] -in conversation upon all manner of topics, concerning the names which -different natural objects bear among men, among gods, among giants, and -among dwarfs, until he guilefully keeps him above earth till after -sunrise, which it is not possible for a dwarf or Jötun to do and live. -So Alvîs bursts asunder.[123] This tale shows clearly enough how much -Thor’s enemies are allied with darkness. - -Thor is not always so successful. In another of his journeys[124] the -giants play a series of tricks upon him, quite suitable to the Teutonic -conception of the cold north, as a place of magic, glamour, and -illusion. One giant induces the thunderer to mistake a mountain for him, -and to hurl at _it_ the death-dealing bolt--his hammer Mjölnir. -Afterwards he is set to drain a horn which he supposes he can finish at -a draught, but finds that after the third pull at it, scarcely more than -the rim has been left bare; at the same time Loki engages in an eating -match with one Logi, and is utterly worsted. But in reality Thor’s horn -has reached to the sea, and he has been draining at that; while the -antagonist of Loki is the devouring fire itself. Next Thor is unable to -lift a cat from the ground, for it is in truth the great Midgard serpent -which girds the whole earth. Finally he is overcome in a wrestling match -with an old hag, whose name is Ella, that is Old Age or Death. Enough -has been said in these stories to show how directly the cloak of Thor -descends to the heroes of our nursery tales, Jack the Giant Killer and -Jack of the Bean-Stalk. - -Not unconnected with the sun-god are the mythical heroes of northern -poetry, the Perseus or Theseus of Germany and Scandinavia. The famous -Sigurd the Volsung, the slayer of Fafnir, or his counterpart Siegfrid of -the Nibelung song, or again the hero of our own English poem -Beowulf,[125] are especially at war with dragons--which represent the -powers of darkness--or with beings of a Jötun-like character. They are -all discoverers of treasure; and this so far corresponds with the -character of Thor that the thunderbolt is often spoken of as the -revealer of the treasures of the earth, and that the sign of it was -employed as a charm for that purpose. And when we read the account of -these adventures we see how entirely unhuman in character most of them -were, and how much the incidents in the drama bear a reminiscence of the -natural phenomena from which they sprang. - -This is especially the case with Beowulf. The poem is weird and -imaginative in the highest degree: the atmosphere into which we are -thrown seems to be the misty delusive air of Jötunheim, and the -unearthly beings whom Beowulf encounters must have had birth within the -shadows of night and in the mystery which attached to the wild unvisited -tracts of country. Grendel, a horrid ghoul who feasts on human beings, -whom Beowulf wrestles with (as Thor wrestles with Ella) and puts to -death, is described as an ‘inhabiter of the moors,’ the ‘fen and -fastnesses;’ he comes upon the scene ‘like a cloud from the misty hills, -through the wan night a shadow-walker stalking;’ and of him and his -mother it is said, - - ‘They a father know not, - Whether any of them was - Born before - Of the dark ghosts.’ - -They inhabit, in a secret land, the wolves’ retreat, and in ‘windy -ways-- - - Where the mountain stream - Under the ness’s mist - Downward flows.’ - -[Sidenote: Wind-myths.] - -Of the myths which spring from the wind, and which may therefore be -reckoned the children of Odin, by far the most interesting are those -which attach to him in his part of Psycopomp, or soul-leader, and which -form a part, therefore, of an immense series of tales connected with the -Teutonic ideas of death as they were detailed in the last chapter. There -were many reasons why these occupied a leading place in middle-age -legend. The German race is naturally a gloomy or at least a thoughtful -one: and upon this natural gloom and thoughtfulness the influence of -their new faith acted with redoubled force, awaking men to thoughts not -only of a new life but of a new death. Popular religion took as strong a -hold of the darker as of the brighter aspects of Catholicism, and was -busy grafting the older notions of the soul’s future state upon the -fresh stock of revealed religion. Thus many of the popular notions both -of heaven and hell may be discovered in the beliefs of heathen Germany. -Let us, therefore, abandoning the series of myths which belong properly -to the Aryan religious beliefs as given in Chapter IX. (though upon -these, so numerous are they, we seem scarcely to have begun), turn to -others which illustrate our last chapter. Upon one we have already -touched; Odin, as chooser of the dead, hurrying through the air towards -a battle-field with his troop of shield-maidens, the Valkyriur;[126] or -if we like to present the simpler nature-myth, the wind bearing away the -departing breath of dying men, and the clouds which he carries on with -him in his course. For there is no doubt that these Valkyriur, these -shield-or swan-maidens, who have the power of transforming themselves at -pleasure into birds, were originally none other than the clouds; perhaps -like the cattle of Indra, they were at first the clouds of sunrise. We -meet with such beings elsewhere than in northern mythology. The -Urva_s_i, whose story we have been relating just now, after the -separation from her mortal husband changes herself into a bird and is -found by Pururavas in this disguise, sitting with her friends the -Gandhavas upon the water of a lake. This means the clouds of evening -resting upon the wide blue sky. The Valkyriur themselves, when they have -been married to men, often leave them, as the Indian fairy left her -husband; and lest they should do so it is not safe to restore them the -swan’s plumage which they wore as Valkyriur; should they again obtain -their old equipment they will be almost sure to don it and desert their -home to return to their old life. The Valkyriur, then, are clouds; and -in so far as they appear in the legends of other nations they have no -intimate connection with Odin. But when they are the clouds of sunset, -and when Odin in his character of soul-bearer becomes before all things -the wind of the _setting_ sun (that breeze which so often rises just as -the sun goes down, and which itself might stand for the escaping soul of -the dying day), then the Valkyriur make part of an ancient myth of -death. And almost all the stories of swan-maidens, or transformations -into swans, which are so familiar to the ears of childhood, are related -to Odin’s warrior maidens. If we notice the plot of these stories, we -shall see that in them too the transformation usually takes place at -sun-setting or sunrising. For instance, in the tale of the six swans in -Grimm’s _Household Stories_,[127] the enchanted brothers of the princess -can only reappear in their true shapes just one hour before sunset. - -In Christian legends the gods of Asgard, subjected to the changes which -inevitably follow a change of belief, became demoniacal powers; and Odin -the chief god takes the place of the arch-fiend. For this part he is -especially suited by his character of conductor of the souls; if he -formerly led them to heaven, he now thrusts them down to hell. But so -many elements came together to compose the mediæval idea of the devil -that in this character the individuality of Odin is scarcely preserved. -At times a wish to revive something of this personal character was felt, -especially when the frequent sound of the wind awoke old memories; then -Odin re-emerges as some particular fiend or damned human soul. He is the -Wandering Jew, a being whose eternal restlessness well keeps up the -character of the wind blowing where it listeth: or he is, as we have -said, the Wild Huntsman of the Harz, and of many other places. - -The name of this last being, Hackelberg, or Hackelbärend (cloak-bearer), -sufficiently points him out as Odin, who in the heathen traditions had -been wont to wander over the earth clad in a blue cloak,[128] and broad -hat, and carrying a staff. Hackelberg, the huntsman to the Duke of -Brunswick, had refused even on his death-bed the ministrations of a -priest, and swore that the cry of his dogs was pleasanter to him than -holy rites, and that he would rather hunt for ever upon earth than go to -heaven. ‘Then,’ said the man of God, ‘thou shalt hunt on until the Day -of Judgment.’ Another legend relates that Hackelberg was a wicked noble -who was wont to hunt on Sundays as on other days, and (here comes in the -_popular_ version) to impress the poor peasants to aid him. One day he -was joined suddenly by two horsemen. One was mild of aspect, but the -other was grim and fierce, and from his horse’s mouth and nostril -breathed fire. Hackelberg turned then from his good angel, and went on -with his wild chase, and now, in company of the fiend, he hunts and will -hunt till the last day. He is called in Germany the _hel-jäger_, -‘hell-hunter.’ The peasants hear his ‘hoto’ ‘hutu,’ as the storm-wind -rushes past their doors, and if they are alone upon the hillside they -hide their faces while the hunt goes by. The white owl, Totosel, is a -nun who broke her vows, and now mingles her ‘tutu’ (towhoo) with his -‘holoa.’ He hunts, accompanied by two dogs (the two dogs of Yama), in -heaven, all the year round, save upon the twelve nights between -Christmas and Twelfth-night.[129] If any door is left open upon the -night when Hackelberg goes by, one of the dogs will run in and lie down -in the ashes of the hearth, nor will any power be able to make him stir. -During all the ensuing year there will be trouble in that household, but -when the year has gone round and the hunt comes again, the unbidden -guest will rise from his couch, and, wildly howling, rush forth to join -his master. Strangely distorted, there lurks in this part of the story -a ray of the Vedic sleep-god Sârameyas. - -‘Destroyer of sickness, guard of the house, oh, thou who takest all -shapes, be to us a peace-bringing friend.’ - -The Valkyriur in their turn are changed by the mediæval spirit into -witches. The Witches’ Sabbath, the old beldames on broomsticks riding -through the air, to hold their revels on the Brocken, reproduce the -swan-maidens hurrying to join the flight of Odin. And, again, changed -once more, ‘Old Mother Goose’ is but a more modern form of a middle-age -witch, when the thought of witches no longer strikes terror. And while -we are upon the subject of witches it may be well to recall how the -belief in witches has left its trace in our word ‘nightmare.’ _Mara_ was -throughout Europe believed to be the name of a very celebrated witch -somewhere in the North, though the exact place of her dwelling was -variously stated. It is highly probable that this name Mara was once a -byname of the death-goddess Hel, and it _may_ be etymologically -connected with the name of the sea (Meer), the sea being, as we have -seen, according to one set of beliefs, the home of the soul. - -Odin, or a being closely analogous with him, reappears in the familiar -tale of the Pied Piper of Hameln, he who, when the whole town of Hameln -suffered from a plague of rats and knew not how to get rid of them, -appeared suddenly--no one knew from whence--and professed himself able -to charm the pest away by means of the secret magic of his pipe. But it -is a profanation to tell the enchanted legend otherwise than in the -enchanted language of Browning:-- - - ‘Into the street the piper stept, - Smiling first a little smile, - As if he knew what magic slept - In his quiet pipe the while; - Then like a musical adept - To blow the pipe his lips he wrinkled.’ - -Then the townsfolk, freed from their burden, refused the piper his -promised reward, and scornfully chased him from the town. On the 26th of -June he was seen again, but this time (Mr. Browning has not incorporated -this little fact) fierce of aspect and dressed like a _huntsman_, yet -still blowing upon the magic pipe. - -Now it is not the rats who follow, but the children:-- - - ‘All the little boys and girls, - With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls, - And sparkling eyes and teeth like pearls, - Tripping and skipping, ran merrily after - The wonderful music with shouting and laughter.’ - -And so he leads them away to Koppelberg Hill, and - - ‘Lo, as they reached the mountain side, - A wondrous portal opened wide, - As if a cavern were suddenly hollowed; - And the Piper advanced and the children followed. - And when all were in, to the very last, - The door in the mountain side shut fast.’ - -[Sidenote: Myths of death and the other world.] - -This too is a myth of death. It is astonishing when we come to examine -into the origin of popular tales how many we find that had at first a -funeral character. This Piper hath indeed a magic music which none can -disobey, for it is the whisper of death; he himself is the soul-leading -Hermes (the wind, the piper), or at least Odin, in the same office. But -the legend is, in part at any rate, Slavonic; for it is a Slavonic -notion which likens the soul to a mouse.[130] When we have got this -clue, which the modern folk-lore easily gives us, the Odinic character -of the Piper becomes very apparent. Nay, in this particular myth we can -almost trace a history of the meeting of two peoples, Slavonic and -German, and the junction of their legends. Let us suppose there had been -some great and long-remembered epidemic which had proved peculiarly -fatal to the children[131] of Hameln and the country round about. The -Slavonic dwellers there--and in prehistoric times some Slavs were to be -found as far west as the Weser--would speak of these deaths mythically -as the departure of the mice (_i.e._ the souls), and perhaps, keeping -the tradition, which we know to be universally Aryan, of a -water-crossing, might tell of the mice as having gone to the water. Or -further, they might feign that these souls were led there by a piping -wind-god: he, too, is the common property of the Aryan folk. Then the -Germans coming in, and wishing to express the legend in their -mythological form, would tell how the same Piper had piped away all the -_children_ from the town. So a double story would spring up about the -same event. The Weser represents one image of death, and might have -served for the children as well as for the mice: to make the legend -fuller, however, another image is selected for them, the dark, -‘concealed’ place, namely, Hel, or the cave of Night and Death. - -The two images of death which occur in the last story rival each other -through the field of middle-age legend and romance. When we hear of a -man being borne along in a boat, or lying deep in slumber beneath a -mountain, we may let our minds wander back to Balder sailing across the -ocean in his burning ship _Hringhorni_, and to the same Balder in the -halls of Hel’s palace. The third image of death is the blazing pyre -unaccompanied by any sea-voyage. One or other of these three allegories -meets us at every turn. If the hero has been snatched away by fairy -power to save him from dying, and the last thing seen of him was in a -boat--as Arthur disappears upon the lake Avalon--the myth holds out the -hope of his return, and sooner or later the story of this return will -break off and become a separate legend. Hence the numerous -half-unearthly heroes, such as Lohengrin, who come men know not whence, -and are first seen sleeping in a boat upon a river. These are but broken -halves of complete myths, which should have told of the former -disappearance of the knight by the same route. Both portions really -belong to the tale of Lohengrin; he went away first in a ship in search -of the holy grail, and in the truest version[132] returns in like manner -in a boat drawn by a _swan_. In some tales he is called the Knight of -the Swan. He comes suddenly, in answer to a prayer to Heaven for help, -uttered by the distressed Else of Brabant. But he does not return at -once again to the Paradise which has sent him to earth. He remains upon -earth, and becomes the husband of Else, and a famous warrior; and part -of another myth entwines itself with his story. Else must not ask his -name; but she disobeys his imperative command, and this fault parts them -for ever. Here we have Cupid and Psyche, or Prince Hatt and his wife, -over again. The boat appears once more drawn by the same swan; Lohengrin -steps into it, and disappears from the haunts of men. We have already -seen how, through the Valkyriur, the swan is connected with ideas of -death. It remains to notice how they are naturally so connected by the -beautiful legend that the swan sings once only in his life, namely, when -he is leaving it--that his first song is his own funeral melody. A much -older form of the Lohengrin myth is referred to in the opening lines of -_Beowulf_, where an ancestor of that hero is said to have been found, a -little child, lying asleep in an open boat which had drifted, no one -knows whence, to the shore of Gothland. - -Death being thus so universally symbolized by the River of Death, it is -easy to see the origin of the myth that ghosts will not cross living -water. It meant nothing else than that a ghost cannot return again to -life. Even witches cannot do so, as we know in the case of Tam -O’Shanter, that when he reached the Brig’ o’ Doon the pursuit was -baffled. - -Many are the impressive stories connected with the myth of the soul’s -transit over water--be it a River or a Sea of Death. In the dark days -which followed the overthrow of the Western Empire, when all the -civilization of its remoter territories had melted away, there grew up -among the fishermen of Northern Gaul a wild belief that the Channel -opposite them was the mortal river, and that the shores of this island -were the asylum of dark ghosts. The myth went, that in the villages of -the Gaulish coast the fishermen were summoned by rotation to perform the -dreadful task of ferrying over the departed spirits. At night a knocking -was heard on their doors, a signal of their duties, and when they -approached the beach they saw boats lying deep in the water as though -heavily freighted, but yet to _their_ eyes empty. Each stepping in, took -his rudder, and then by an unfelt wind the boat was wafted in one night -across a distance which, rowing and sailing, they could ordinarily -compass scarcely in eight. Arrived at the opposite shore (our coast), -they heard names called over, and voices answering as if by rota, and -they felt their boats becoming light. Then when all the ghosts had -landed they were wafted back to Gaul.[133] - -The belief in the passage by the soul over a ‘Bridge’ which is the -bridge over the River of Death is as universal almost as the notion of -that River of Death itself. Many creeds see that bridge in the Milky -Way. The Vedic hymns do so. They call the Milky Way by many names, of -which the most common is the path of Yama, the way to the house of Yama, -and Yama is the ruler of the Dead--‘a narrow path,’ as we have already -quoted. - -‘A narrow path, an ancient one, stretches thither,[134] a path untrodden -by men, a path I know of.’ - -The Persians, too, knew the bridge under the name of Kinvad or Chinvad. -And from the Persians the Mohammedans get the same notion, which is -embodied in the Koran. There the Bridge of Death is called Es-Sirat. It -is finer than a hair and sharper than the edge of a sword, along which, -nevertheless, the soul of the good Moslem will be snatched across like -lightning or like the wind; but the wicked man or the unbeliever will -fall headlong thence into an abyss of fire beneath. - -The Norsemen had their Bridge of Souls in the Gjallarbrû, ‘The -Resounding Bridge,’ over which Balder had to ride.[135] And when we read -the mediæval accounts of journeys to the other world, to Purgatory or -Hell, in almost every one we find that the passage over a Bridge--the -Brig’ o’ Dread of the ballad--is a part of the journey. - -Among the sleepers underground whose legend reproduces the image of -death as simply a life within the tomb, the most celebrated are Kaiser -Karl in the Unterberg--the under-hill, or hill leading to the -under-world; or, as another legend goes, in the Nürnberg, which is -really the Niederberg (_im niedern Berg_), the down-leading hill; and -Frederick Red-Beard sleeping in like manner at Kaiserslautern, or under -the Rabenspurg (raven’s hill). Deep below the earth the old Kaiser sits, -his knights around him, their armour on, the horses harnessed in the -stable ready to come forth at Germany’s hour of need. His long red beard -has grown through the table on which his head is resting. Once, it is -said, a shepherd chanced upon the cave which leads down to the -under-ground palace, and awoke the Emperor from his slumber. ‘Are the -ravens still flying round the hill?’ asked Frederick. ‘Yes.’ ‘Then must -I sleep another hundred years.’ - -We cannot speak of all the images of Death which reappear in the popular -tales. Very many of these are taken from the funeral fire. We constantly -meet with stories of maidens who lie (asleep probably) surrounded by a -circle of flame, a hedge of fire. Through this the knight or hero must -ride to awaken his beloved. When Skirnir went down to woo the maiden -Gerda--the winter earth[136]--he found her house all surrounded by such -a hedge of fire. But oddly enough, there is another way of representing -the funeral fire symbolically as a circle of thorns, because thorns were -constantly used to form the funeral pyre of the Northmen. Thence a thorn -hedge takes the place of a hedge of flame, and it, or even a single -thorn, may become the symbol of the funeral fire, and so of death. - -Here are two stories in which we see how one image may pass into the -other. - -In the tale of Sigurd the Volsung both these symbols are used; when -Sigurd first finds Brynhild she has been pricked by Odin with a -sleep-_thorn_, in revenge, because she took part against his favourite -Hialmgunnar; for she was a Valkyria. Sigurd awakes her. At another time -he rides to her through a circle of fire which she has set round her -house, and which no other man dared face. In the myth of Sigurd, twice -as it were riding through death to Brynhild, we see first of all a -nature-myth precisely of the same kind as the myth of Freyr and Gerda -(p. 230),[137] precisely the reverse of the myth of Persephone. Brynhild -is the dead earth restored by the kiss of the sun, or of summer. -Afterwards the part of Brynhild is taken by the Sleeping Beauty, and -Sigurd becomes the prince who breaks through the thorn-hedge. Observe -one thing in the last story. The prick from the sleep-thorn becomes a -prick from a spinning-wheel, and thus loses all its original meaning, -while the circle of fire is transformed into a thorn-hedge--proof -sufficient that they were convertible ideas. - -Lastly, it remains to say that the stories of glass mountains ascended -by knights are probably allegories of death--heaven being spoken of to -this day by Russian and German peasants as a glass mountain. - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - -PICTURE-WRITING. - - -[Sidenote: Lateness of the discovery of letters.] - -Though it is true, as we have said before, that every manufactured -article involves a long chapter of unwritten history to account for its -present form, and the perfection of the material from which it is -wrought, there is no one of them, not the most artistic, that will so -well repay an effort to hunt it through its metamorphoses in the ages to -its first starting-point, as will the letters that rapidly drop from our -pen when we proceed to write its name. Each one of these is a -manufactured article at which a long, long series of unknown artists -have wrought, expanding, contracting, shaping, pruning, till at length, -the result of centuries of effort, our alphabet stands clear--a little -army of mute, unpretending signs, that are at once the least considered -of our inherited riches--mere jots and tittles--and the spells by which -all our great feats of genius are called into being. Does unwritten -history or tradition tell us anything of the people to whose invention -we owe them? or, on the other hand, can we persuade the little shapes -with which we are familiar to so animate themselves, and give such an -account of the stages by which they grew into their present likeness, as -will help us to understand better than we did before the mental and -social conditions of the times of their birth? One question, at least, -they answer clearly--we know that while in their earliest forms they -must have preceded the birth of History, they were the forerunners and -heralds of his appearance, and if we are obliged to relegate their -invention to the dark period of unrecorded events, we must place it at -least in the last of the twilight hours, the one that preceded daybreak, -for they come leading sunlight and certainty behind them. It will be -hard if these revealers of other births should prove to be entirely -silent about their own. Another point seems to grow clear as we think. -As letters are the elements by which records come to us, it is not in -records, or at least not in early records, that we must look for a -history of their invention. Like all other tools, they will have lent -themselves silently to the ends for which they were called into being. -For a long, long time, they will have been too busy giving the history -of their employers to tell us consciously anything about themselves. We -must leave the substance of records, then, and look to their manner and -form, if we would unravel the long story of the invention and growth of -our alphabet; and as it is easiest to begin with the thing that is -nearest to us, let us pause before one of our written words, and ask -ourselves exactly what it is to us. - -[Sidenote: Writing the art of picturing sound.] - -In discussing the growth of language, we surmised that words were at -first descriptive of the things they named, in fact, pictures to the -ear. What, then, is a written word? Is it, too, a picture, and what does -it picture, to the eye? When we have written the words _cat_, _man_, -_lion_, what have we done? We have brought the images of certain things -into our minds, and that by a form presented to the eye; but is it the -form of the object we immediately think of? No, it is the form of its -name; it is, therefore, the picture of a sound. To picture _sound_ is, -surely, a very far-fetched notion, one that may have grown out of many -previous efforts to convey thought from mind to mind; but certainly not -likely to occur first to those who began the attempt to give permanent -shape to the thoughts floating within them. So great and difficult a -task must have baffled the powers of many enterprisers, and been -approached in many ways before the first steps towards accomplishing it -were securely taken. We shall find that the history of our alphabet is a -record of slow stages of growth, through which the idea of sound-writing -has been evolved; the first attempts to record events were made in a -different direction. Since, as we have agreed, we are not likely to find -a record of how events were first recorded, and as the earliest attempts -are likely to have been imperfect and little durable, we must be content -to form our notions of the earliest stage in our grand invention, by -observing the methods used by savages now to aid their memories; and if -we wish to determine the period in the history of the human race when -such efforts are likely to have been first made, we must recall what we -have already learned of the history of primitive man, and settle at what -stage of his development the need for artificial aids to memory would -first press upon him. - -Stories and poetry are not likely to have been the first things written -down. While communities were small and young, there was no need to write -painfully what it was so delightful to repeat from mouth to mouth, and -so easy for memories to retain; and when the stock of tradition and the -treasure of song grew so large in any tribe as to exceed the capacity of -ordinary memories (stronger, in some respects, before the invention of -writing than now), men with unusual gifts would be chosen and set apart -for the purpose of remembering and reciting, and of handing down to -disciples in the next generation, the precious literature of the tribe. -Such an order of ‘remembrancers’ would soon come to be looked upon as -sacred, or at least highly honourable, and would have privileges and -immunities bestowed on them which would make them jealous of an -invention that would lessen the worth of their special gift. The -invention of writing, then, is hardly likely to have come from the -story-tellers or bards. It was probably to aid the memory in recalling -something less attractive and more secret than a story or a song that -the first record was made. - -So early as the time of the cave-dwellers, there was a beginning of -commerce. Traces have been found of workshops belonging to that period, -where flint weapons and tools were made in such quantities as evidently -to have been designed for purposes of barter, and the presence of amber -and shells in places far from the coast, speaks of trading journeys. -With bargains and exchange of commodities, aids to memory must surely -have come in; and when we think of the men of the Neolithic age as -traders, we can hardly be wrong in also believing them to have taken the -next step in civilization which trade seems to bring with it--the -invention of some system of mnemonics. - -[Sidenote: Tallies.] - -No man or woman would be likely to trust their bargaining to another -without giving him some little token or pledge by way of safeguard -against mistake or forgetfulness. It would be a very trifling, -transitory thing at first; something in the nature of a tally, or a -succession of knots or woven threads in a garment, allied to the knot -which we tie on our handkerchief overnight to make us remember something -in the morning. It seems hardly worthy of notice, and yet the invention -of that artificial aid to memory is the germ of writing, the little -seed from which such great things have come. Unfortunately, our -discoveries of stone-age relics have not yet furnished us with any -suggestion as to how the men of that epoch arranged and carried out the -aids to memory they probably had; but we can trace the process of -invention among still extant races. - -Some tribes of Red Indians, for example, keep records on cords called -wampum, by means of beads and knots. When an embassy is sent from one -chieftain to another, the principal speaker carries one of these pieces -of wampum, and from it reads off the articles of the proposed treaty, -almost as easily as if it were from a note-book. - -In the Eastern Archipelago, and in Polynesia proper, cord-records of the -same kind were in use forty years ago, and by means of them the -tax-gatherers in the island of Hawaii kept clear accounts of all -articles collected from the inhabitants of the island. The revenue-book -of Hawaii was a rope four hundred fathoms long, divided into portions -corresponding to districts in the island, and each portion was under the -care of a tax-gatherer, who by means of knots, loops, and tufts of -different shapes, colours, and sizes, managed to keep an accurate -account of the number of hogs, dogs, pieces of sandal-wood, etc., at -which each inhabitant of his district was rated. The Chinese, again, -have a legend that in very early times their people used little cords -marked by knots of different sizes, instead of writing. - -But the people who brought the cord system of mnemonics to the greatest -perfection were the Peruvians. They were still following it at the time -of their conquest by the Spaniards; but they had elaborated it with such -care as to make it available for the preservation of even minute details -of the statistics of the country. The ropes on which they kept their -records were called _quipus_, from _quipu_, a knot. They were often of -great length and thickness, and from the main ropes depended smaller -ones, distinguished by colours appropriate to subjects of which their -knots treated--as, white for silver, yellow for gold, red for soldiers, -green for corn, parti-coloured when a subject that required division was -treated of. These dependent coloured strings had, again, other little -strings hanging from them, and on these exceptions were noted. For -instance, on the _quipus_ devoted to population--the coloured strings on -which the number of men in each town and village was recorded had -depending from them little strings for the widowers, and no doubt the -widows and the old maids had their little strings from the coloured cord -that denoted women. One knot meant ten; a double knot, one hundred; two -singles, side by side, twenty; two doubles, two hundred; and the -position of the knots on their string and their form were also of -immense importance, each subject having its proper place on the quipus -and its proper form of knot. The art of learning to read quipus must -have been difficult to acquire; it was practised by special -functionaries, called quipucamayocuna, or knot-officers, who, however, -seem only to have been able to expound their own records; for when a -quipus was sent from a distant province to the capital, its own officer -had to travel with it to explain it; a clumsy and cumbrous way of -sending a letter, it must be confessed. - -Knot-records were almost everywhere superseded by other methods of -recording events as civilization advanced; but still they continued to -be resorted to under special circumstances, and by people who had not -the pens of ready writers. Darius made a quipus when he took a thong, -and tying sixty knots on it, gave it to the Ionian chiefs, that they -might untie a knot every day, and go back to their own land if he had -not returned when all the knots were undone. The Scythians, however, -who, about the same time, sent a message to Darius, afford us an example -of another way of attaching special meanings to certain objects, and -thereby giving a peculiar use as aids to memory,--writing letters with -objects instead of pen and ink, in fact. Here, however, symbolism comes -in, and makes the mnemonics at once prettier and less trustworthy as -capable of more than one interpretation. The Scythian ambassadors -presented Darius (as Herodotus tells us) with a mouse, a bird, a frog, -and an arrow, and the message with which they had been intrusted was -that, unless he could hide in the earth like a mouse, or fly in the air -like a bird, or swim in water like a frog, he would never escape the -arrows of the Scythians. - -Of this last kind of mnemonic was the bow, too heavy for an ordinary man -to bend, which the long-lived Ethiopians sent to Cambyses; and the -twelve memorial stones which Joshua was directed to place in the river -Jordan, in order that the sons might ask the fathers, and the fathers -tell the sons what had happened in that place; and, again, such were the -yokes and bonds which Jeremiah put round his neck when he testified -against the alliance with Egypt before Zedekiah, and the earthen pot -that he broke in the presence of the elders of the people. Signs joined -with words and actions to convey a fuller or more exact meaning than -words alone could convey. Perhaps we ought hardly to call these last -examples helps to memory; they partake more of the nature of pictures, -and were used to heighten the effect of words. But we may regard them as -a connecting link between the merely mechanical tally, wampum and -quipus, and the effort to record ideas we must now consider--picturing. -It must, however, always be borne in mind that, though we shall speak of -these various methods of making records as stages of progress and -development, it is not to be supposed that the later ones immediately, -or indeed ever wholly, superseded the first any more than the -introduction of bronze and iron did away with the use of flint weapons. -The one method subsisted side by side with the other, and survived to -quite late times, as we see in such usages as the bearing forth of the -fiery cross to summon clansmen to the banner of their chieftain, and the -casting down of the knight’s glove as a gage of battle, or, to come down -to homely modern instances, the tallies and knots on handkerchiefs that -unready writers carry to help their memories even now. - -Helps to memory of the kinds which we have been speaking of never get -beyond being _helps_. They cannot carry thought from one to another -without the intervention of an interpreter, in whose memory they keep -fast the words that have to be said; they strengthen tradition, but they -cannot change tradition into history, and are always liable to become -useless by the death of the man, or order of men, to whom they have been -intrusted. - -[Sidenote: Picturing.] - -A more independent and lasting method of recording events was sure to be -aimed at sooner or later; and we may conjecture that it usually took its -rise among a people at the period when their national pride was so -developed as to make them anxious that the deeds of some conspicuous -hero should be made known, not only to those interested in telling and -hearing of them, but to strangers visiting their country, and to remote -descendants. Their first effort to record an event, so as to make it -widely known, would naturally be to draw a picture of it, such that all -seeing the picture would understand it; and accordingly we find that -the earliest step beyond artificial helps to memory is the making of -rude pictures which aim at showing a deed or event as it occurred -without suggesting the words of a narrative; this is called ‘picturing’ -as distinguished from picture-writing. That this, too, was a very early -art we may guess from the fact that rude pictures of animals have been -found among the relics of the earliest stone age. Whether or no we are -justified in conjecturing that the pictures actually found are rough -memorials of real hunting scenes, at least we learn from them that the -thought of depicting objects had come, and the skill to produce a -likeness been attained; and the idea of using this power to transmit -events lies so near to its possession, that we can hardly believe one to -have been long present without the other. To enable ourselves to imagine -the sort of picture-records with which the stone-age men may have -ornamented some of their knives, spears, and hammers, we must examine -the doings of people who have continued in a primitive stage of -civilization down to historic times. - -Some curious pictures done by North American Indians have been found on -rocks and stones, and on the stems of pine-trees in America, which -furnish excellent examples of early picturing. Mr. Tylor, in his _Early -History of Mankind_, gives engravings of several of these shadowy -records of long-past events. One of these, which was found on the -smoothed surface of a pine-tree, consists merely of a rude outline of -two canoes, one surmounted by a bear with a peculiar tail and the other -by a fish, and beyond these a quantity of shapes meant for a particular -kind of fish. The entire picture records the successes of two chieftains -named Copper-tail Bear and Cat-fish, in a fishing excursion. Another -picture found on the surface of a rock near Lake Superior is more -elaborate, and interests us by showing a new element in picturing, -through which it was destined to grow into the condition of -picture-writing. This more elaborate picture shows an arch with three -suns in it--a tortoise, a man about to mount a horse, and several -canoes, one surmounted by the image of a bird. All this tells that the -chief called King-fisher made an expedition of three days across a lake, -and arriving safely on land, mounted his horse. The new element -introduced into this picture is symbolism, the same that transformed the -homely system of tallies into the Scythian’s graceful living message to -Darius. It shows the excess of thought over the power of expression, -which will soon necessitate a new form. The tortoise is used as a symbol -of dry land. The arch is, of course, the sky, and the three suns in it -mean three days. The artist who devised these ways of expressing his -thought was on the verge of picture-writing, which is the next stage in -the upward progress of the art of recording events, and the stage at -which some nations have terminated their efforts. - -[Sidenote: Picture-writing.] - -Picture-writing differs from picturing in that it aims at conveying to -the mind, not a representation of an event, but a narrative of the event -in words, each word being represented by a picture. The distinction is -of immense importance. The step from the former to the latter is one of -the greatest which mankind has ever made in the course of its progress -in civilization. When the step had been made the road toward the -acquisition of a regular alphabet lay _comparatively_ open. It was still -beset with difficulties, but none so great as the difficulty of making -this particular step. Let us try and fully understand this. We will take -a sentence and see how it might be conveyed by the two methods. _A man -slew a lion with a bow and arrows while the sun went down._ Picturing -would show the man with a drawn bow in his hand, the lion struck by the -arrow, the sun on the horizon. Picture-writing would present a series of -little pictures and symbols dealing separately with each word--a man, a -symbol for ‘slew,’ say a hand smiting, a lion, a connecting symbol for -‘with,’ and so on. We see at once how much more elaborate and exact the -second method is, and that it makes the telling of a continuous story -possible. We also discover that these various stages of writing -correspond to developments of language, and that as languages grow in -capacity to express nobler thoughts, a greater stress will be put upon -invention to render the more recondite words by pictures and symbols, -till at last language will outgrow all possibility of being so rendered, -and another method of showing words to the eye will have to be thought -of--for all languages at least that attain their full development. That -a great deal may be expressed by pictures and symbols, however, we learn -from the picturing and picture-writing of past races that have come down -to us, and from the present writing of the Chinese, who with their -radical language have preserved the pictorial character that well -accords with an early stage of language. - -The Red Indians of North America have invented some very ingenious -methods of picturing time and numbers. They have names for the thirteen -moons or months into which they divide the year--Whirlwind moon, moon -when the leaves fall off, moon when the fowls go to the south, etc., and -when a hunter setting forth on a long expedition wished to leave a -record of the time of his departure for a friend who should follow him -on the same track, he carved on the bark of a tree a picture of the name -of the moon, accompanied with such an exact representation of the state -of the moon in the heavens on the night when he set out, that his -friends had no difficulty in reading the date correctly. The Indians of -Virginia kept a record of events in the form of a series of wheels of -sixty spokes, each wheel representing the life of a man, sixty years -being the average life of a man among the Indians. The spokes meant -years, and on each one a picture of the principal occurrences of the -year was drawn. - -A missionary who accompanied Penn to Pennsylvania says that he saw a -wheel, on one spoke of which the first arrival of Europeans in America -was recorded. The history of this disastrous event for the Indians was -given by a picture of a white swan spitting fire from its mouth. The -swan, being a water-bird, told that the strangers came over the sea, its -white plumage recalled the colour of their faces, and fire issuing from -its mouth represented fire-arms, the possession of which had made them -conquerors. The North American Indians also use rude little pictures, -rough writing we may call it, to help them to remember songs and charms. -Each verse of a song is concentrated into a little picture, the sight of -which recalls the words to one who has once learned it. A drawing of a -little man, with four marks on his legs and two on his breast, recalls -the adverse charm, ‘Two days must you fast, my friend, four days must -you sit still.’ A picture of a circle with a figure in the middle -represents a verse of a love-song, and says to the initiated, ‘Were she -on a distant island I could make her swim over.’ This sort of picturing -seems to be very _near_ writing, for it serves to recall words--but -still only to recall them--it would not suggest the words to those who -had never heard the song before; it is only an aid to memory, and its -employers have only as yet taken the first step in the great discovery -we are speaking of. The Mexicans, though they had attained to much -greater skill than this in the drawing and colouring of pictures, had -not progressed much further in the invention. Their picture-scrolls do -not seem ever to have been more than an elaborate system of mnemonics, -which, hardly less than the Peruvian quipus, required a race of -interpreters to hand down their meaning from one generation to another. -This fact makes us regret somewhat less keenly the decision of the first -Spanish archbishop sent to Mexico, who, on being informed of the great -store of vellum rolls, and folds on folds of cloth covered with -paintings, that had been discovered at Anahuac, the chief seat of -Mexican learning, ordered the entire collection to be burnt in a heap--a -_mountain_ heap, the chroniclers of the time call it--lest they should -contain incantations or instructions for the practice of magical arts. -As some excuse for this notion of the archbishop’s, we will mention the -subjects treated of in the five books of picture-writing which Montezuma -gave to Cortez:--the first book treated of years and seasons; the second -of days and festivals; the third of dreams and omens; the fourth of the -naming of children; the fifth of ceremonies and prognostications. - -The few specimens of Mexican writing which have come down to us, show -that, though the Aztecs had not used their picture-signs as skilfully as -some other nations have done, they had taken the first step towards -phonetic, or sound-writing; a step which, if pursued, would have led -them through some such process as we shall afterwards see was followed -by the Egyptians and Phœnicians, to the formation of a true alphabet. -They had begun to write proper names of chiefs and towns by pictures of -things that recalled the _sound_ of their names, instead of by a symbol -suggestive of the appearance or quality of the place or chieftain, or of -the _meaning_ of the names. It is difficult to explain this without -pictures; but as this change of method involves a most important step in -the discovery of the art of writing, we had better pause upon it a -little, and get it clear to our minds. There was a king whose name -occurs in a chronicle now existing, called Itz-co-atle, Knife-snake; his -name is generally written by a picture of a snake, with flint knives -stuck in it; but in one place it is indicated in a different manner. The -first syllable is still _pictured_ by a knife; but for the second, -instead of a snake, we find an earthen pot and a sign for water. Now the -Mexican name for pot is ‘co-mitle,’ for water ‘atle;’ read literally the -name thus pictured would read ‘Itz-comitle-atle,’ but it is clear, since -the name intended was ‘Itz-co-atle,’ that the pot is drawn to suggest -only the first syllable of its name, _co_, and by this change it has -become no longer a picture, but a phonetic, syllabic sign, the next step -but one before a true letter. What great results can be elaborated from -this change we shall see when we begin to speak of Egyptian writing. - -We must not leave picture-writing till we have said something about the -Chinese character, in which we find the highest development of which -_direct_ representation of things appears capable. Though we should not -think it, while looking at the characters on a Chinese tea-paper or box, -every one of those groups of black strokes and dots which seem so -shapeless to our eyes is a picture of an object; not a picture of the -sound of its name, as our written words are, but a representation real -or symbolic of the thing itself. Early specimens of Chinese writing show -these groups of strokes in a stage when a greater degree of resemblance -to the thing signified is preserved; but the exigencies of quick -writing, among a people who write and read a great deal, have gradually -reduced the pictures more and more to the condition of arbitrary signs, -whose connection with the things signified must be a matter of habit and -memory. The task of learning a sign for every word of the language in -place of conquering the art of spelling does seem, at first sight, to -put Chinese children in a pitiable condition, as compared with -ourselves. To lessen our compassion, we may recall that the Chinese -language is still in a primitive condition, and therefore comprehends -very much fewer distinct sounds than do the languages we know, the same -sound being used to express meanings by a difference in intonation. This -difference could not easily be given in writing; it is therefore, with -the Chinese, almost a necessity to recall to the mind the thing itself -instead of its name. - -[Sidenote: Ideographs.] - -Beside the ordinary pictorial signs which convey a direct and simple -idea to the mind, men must in pictorial writing need a great number of -signs for ideas which cannot be pictured. All abstract ideas, for -instance, come under this head. But even some things which could -themselves be drawn are not always so portrayed. When a symbol, and not -a direct picture, is used for the thing or idea represented we call the -symbol an _ideograph_. We see, then, that pictorial signs may be used in -several different ways, sometimes as real pictures, sometimes as -ideographs, which again may be divided into groups as they are used--(1) -metaphorically, as a bee for industry; (2) enigmatically, as, among the -Egyptians, an ostrich feather is used as a symbol of justice, because -all the plumes in the wing of this bird were supposed to be of equal -length; (3) by syndoche--putting a part for the whole,--as two eyeballs -for eyes; (4) by metonomy--putting cause for effect,--as a tree for -shadow; the disk of the sun for a day, etc. This system of writing in -pictures and symbols requires so much ingenuity, such hosts of pretty -poetic inventions, that perhaps there is less dulness than would at -first appear in getting the Chinese alphabet of some six thousand signs -or so by heart. We will mention a few Chinese ideographs in -illustration. The sign for a man placed over the sign for a mountain -peak signifies a hermit; the sign for a mouth and that for a bird placed -side by side signify the act of singing; a hand holding a sweeping-brush -is a woman; a man seated on the ground, a son (showing the respectful -position assigned to children in China); an ear at the opening of a door -means curiosity; two eyes squinting towards the nose mean to observe -carefully; one eye squinting symbolises the colour white, because so -much of the white of the eye is shown when the ball is in that position; -a mouth at an open door is a note of interrogation, and also the verb to -question. - -[Sidenote: Determinative signs.] - -Even Chinese writing, however, has not remained purely ideographic. Some -of the signs are used phonetically to picture sound, and this use must -necessarily grow now that intercourse with Western nations introduces -new names, new inventions, and new ideas, which, somehow or other, must -get themselves represented in the Chinese language and writing. - -The invention of determinative signs--characters put beside the word to -show what class of objects a word belongs to--helps the Chinese to -overcome some of the difficulties which their radical language offers to -the introduction of sound-writing. For example, the word ‘Pa’ has eight -different meanings, and when it is written phonetically, a reader would -have to choose between eight objects to which he might apply it, if -there were not a determinative sign by its side which gives him a hint -how to read it. This is as if when we wrote the word ‘vessel’ we were to -add ‘navigation’ when we intended a ship; and ‘household’ when we meant -a jug or puncheon. The Chinese determinative signs are not, however, -left to each writer’s fancy. Two hundred and fourteen signs (originally -themselves pictures, remember) have been chosen out, and are always used -in this way. The classes into which objects are divided by these -numerous signs are minute, and do not appear to follow any scientific -method or arrangement. There is a sign to show that a written word -belongs to the class noses, another for rats, another for frogs, another -for tortoises. One is inclined to think that the helpful signs must be -as hard to remember as the words themselves, and that they can only be -another element in the general confusion. Probably their frequent -recurrence makes them soon become familiar to Chinese readers, and they -act as finger-posts to guide the thoughts into the right direction. -Determinative signs have always come in to help in the transitional -stage between purely ideographic and purely phonetic writing, and were -used by both Egyptians and Assyrians in their elaborate systems as soon -as the phonetic principle began to be employed among their ideographs. - -It is an interesting fact that the Japanese have dealt with the Chinese -system of writing precisely as did the Phœnicians with the Egyptian -hieroglyphics. They have chosen forty-seven signs from the many -thousands employed by the Chinese, and they use them phonetically only; -that is to say, as true sound-carrying letters. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - -PHONETIC WRITING. - - -[Sidenote: Transition to phonetic writing.] - -The step from picturing or picture-drawing to writing by pictures is, as -we have said, an immense one. But now we have to record one more step, -almost as great, which is the transition from the picturing of single -things--or, if you wish, single _ideas_--to the picturing, not of ideas -at all, but of sounds merely. This is the step we have now to follow -out, to trace the process through which picture-writing passed into -sound-writing, and to find out how signs (for we shall see they are the -same signs) which were originally meant to recall objects to the eye, -have ended in being used to suggest, or, shall we say, _picture_, sounds -to the ear. This is what we mean by _phonetic_ writing. A written word, -let us remember, is the picture of a sound, and it is our business to -hunt the letters of which it is formed through the changes they must -have undergone while they were taking upon themselves the new office of -suggesting sound. We said, too, that we must not expect to find any -written account of this change, and that it is only by examining the -_forms_ of the records of other events that this greatest event of -literature can be made out. What we want is to see the pictorial signs, -while busy in telling us other history, beginning to perform their new -duties side by side with the old, so that we may be sure of their -identity; and this opportunity is afforded us by the hieroglyphic -writing of the ancient Egyptians, who, being people disposed to cling to -everything that had once been done, never altogether left off employing -their first methods, even after they had taken another and yet another -step towards a more perfect system of writing; but carried on the old -ways and the new improvements side by side. The nature of their -language, which was in part radical and in part inflexional, was one -cause of this intermixture of methods in their writing; it had partly -but not entirely outgrown the stage in which picture-signs are most -useful. Ideograph is the proper name for a picture-sign, which, as soon -as picture-writing supersedes picturing, becomes the sign for a thought -quite as often as it is the sign for an object. Very ancient as are the -earliest Egyptian records, we have none which belong to the time when -the invention of writing was in the stage of picturing; we only -conjecture that it passed through this earliest stage by finding -examples of picturing mixed with their other kinds of writing. Each -chapter of the _Ritual_, the oldest of Egyptian books, has one or more -designs at its head, in which the contents of the chapter are very -carefully and ingeniously pictured; and the records of royal triumphs -and progresses which are cut out on temple and palace walls in -ideographic and phonetic signs, are always prefaced by a large picture -which tells the same story in the primitive method of picturing without -words. - -[Sidenote: Egyptian writing.] - -The next stage of the invention, ideographic writing, the ancient -Egyptians carried to great perfection, and reduced to a careful system. -The signs for ideas became fixed, and were not chosen according to each -writer’s fancy. Every picture had its settled value, and was always -used in the same way. A sort of alphabet of ideographs was thus formed. -A heart drawn in a certain way always meant ‘love,’ an eye with a tear -on the lash meant ‘grief,’ two hands holding a shield and spear meant -the verb ‘to fight,’ a tongue meant ‘to speak,’ a footprint ‘to travel,’ -a man kneeling on the ground signified ‘a conquered enemy,’ etc. -Conjunctions and prepositions had their fixed pictures, as well as verbs -and nouns; ‘also’ was pictured by a coil of rope with a _second_ band -across it, ‘and’ by a coil of rope with an arm across it, ‘over’ by a -circle surmounting a square, ‘at’ by the picture of a hart reposing near -the sign for water--a significant picture for such a little word, which -recalls to our minds the Psalm, ‘As the hart panteth after the -water-brooks,’ and leads us to wonder whether the writer were familiar -with the Egyptian hieroglyph. - -So much was done in this way, that we almost wonder how the need for -another method came to be felt; perhaps a peculiarity of the Egyptian -language helped the splendid thought of picturing _sound_ to flash one -happy day into the mind of some priest, when he was laboriously cutting -his sacred sentence into a temple wall. The language of ancient Egypt, -like that of China, had a great many words alike in sound but different -in meaning, and it could not fail to happen that some of these words -with two meanings would indicate a thing easy to draw, and a thought -difficult to symbolize; for example, the ancient Egyptian word _neb_ -means a basket and a ruler; and _nefer_ means a lute and goodness. There -would come a day when a clever priest, cutting a record on a wall, would -bethink him of putting a lute instead of the more elaborate symbol that -had hitherto been used for goodness. It was a simple change, and might -not have struck any one at the time as involving more than the saving -of a little trouble to hieroglyphists, but it was the germ out of which -our system of writing sprang. The priest who did _that_ had taken the -first step towards picturing sound, and cut a true phonetic sign--the -true if remote parent, in fact, of one of the twenty-four letters of our -own alphabet. - -Let us consider how the thought would probably grow. The writers once -started on the road of making signs stand for sounds would observe how -much fewer sounds there are than objects and ideas, and that words even -when unlike are composed of the same sounds pronounced in different -succession. If we were employed in painting up a notice on a wall, and -intended to use ideographs instead of letters, and moreover if the words -manage, mansion, manly, mantles, came into our sentence, should we not -begin each of these words by a figure of a man? and again, if we had to -write treacle, treason, treaty, we should begin each with a picture of a -tree; we should find it easier to use the same sign often for part of a -word, than to invent a fresh symbol for each entire word as we wrote it. -For the remaining syllables of the words we had so successfully begun we -should have to invent other signs, and we should perhaps soon discover -that in each syllable there were in fact several sounds, or movements of -lips or tongue, and that the same sounds differently combined came over -and over again in all our words. Then we might go on to discover exactly -how many movements of the speaking organs occurred in ordinary speech, -and the thought of choosing a particular picture to represent each -movement might occur; we should then have invented an alphabet in its -earliest form. That was the road along which the ancient Egyptians -travelled, but they progressed very slowly, and never quite reached its -end. They began by having syllabic signs for proper names. Osiri was a -name that occurred frequently in their sacred writings, and they -happened to have two words in their language which made up its -sound--_Os_ a throne, _iri_ an eye. Hence a small picture of a throne -came to be the syllabic sign for the sound _os_, the oval of an eye for -the sound _iri_; in like manner Totro, the name of an early king, was -written by a hand _Tot_ and a circle _ro_, and thus a system of spelling -by syllables was established. Later they began to divide syllables into -movements of the speaking organs, and to represent these movements by -drawing objects whose name began with the movement intended. For -example, a picture of a lion (_labo_) was drawn, not for the whole sound -(_labo_), but for the liquid _l_; an owl (_mulag_) stood for the labial -_m_; a water-jug (_nem_) for _n_. They had now, in fact, invented -letters; but though they had made the great discovery they did not use -it in the best way. They could not make up their minds to keep to -phonetic writing, and throw away their pictures and ideographs. They -continued to mix all these methods together, so that when they painted a -lion--it might be a picture and mean _lion_, it might be a symbolic sign -and mean _pre-eminence_, or it might be a true letter and stand for the -liquid _l_. The Egyptians were obliged to invent a whole army of -determinative signs, like those now employed by the Chinese, which they -placed before their pictures to show when a group was to be read -according to its sound, when it was used symbolically, and when it was a -simple representation of the object intended. - -We have already pointed out how among the Egyptian monuments, the -sculptures on the tombs and temples, and in many of the more important -_papyri_--as, for example, their Book of the Dead itself--we have -specimens of all the three methods by which ideas may be conveyed to -the _eye_. We have first the picture of some event--the king, say, -offering sacrifice to a god,--then we have each separate word of the -sentence first recorded by ideographs, then spelled by ordinary letters. - -Another source of difficulty in deciphering the writing of the ancient -Egyptians, is that they were not content with a single sign for a single -sound; they had a great many different pictures for each letter, and -used them in fanciful ways. For example, if _l_ occurred in the name of -a king or god, they would use the lion-picture to express it, thinking -it appropriate; but if the same sound occurred in the name of a queen, -they would use a lotus-lily as more feminine and elegant. They had as -many as twenty different pictures which could be used for the first -letter of our alphabet _a_, and thirty for the letter _h_, one of which -closely resembles our capital H in form, being two upright palm-branches -held by two arms which make the cross of the H. No letter had fewer than -five pictures to express its sound, from which the writer might choose -according to his fancy; or perhaps, sometimes, according to the space he -had to fill up on the wall, or obelisk, where he was writing, and the -effect in form and colour he wished his sentence to produce. Then again, -all their letters were not quite true letters (single breathings). The -Egyptians never got quite clear about vowels and consonants, and -generally spelt words (unless they _began_ with a vowel sound) by -consonants only, the consonants carrying a vowel breathing as well as -their own sound, and thus being syllabic signs instead of true letters. - -Since much of the writing of the ancient Egyptians was used ornamentally -as decoration for the walls of their houses and temples, and took with -them the place of the tapestry of later times, the space required to -carry out their complex system of writing was no objection to it in -their eyes; neither did they care much about the difficulty of learning -so elaborate an array of signs, as for many centuries the art of reading -and writing was almost entirely confined to an order of priests whose -occupation and glory it was. When writing became more common, and was -used for ordinary as well as sacred purposes, the pictorial element -disappeared from some of their styles of writing, and quick ways of -making the pictures were invented, which reduced them to as completely -arbitrary signs, with no resemblance to the objects intended, as the -Chinese signs now are. - -[Sidenote: Hieratic and Demotic writing.] - -The ancient Egyptians had two ways of quick writing, the Hieratic (or -priestly), which was employed for the sacred writings only, and the -Demotic, used by the people, which was employed for law-papers, letters, -and all writing that did not touch on religious matter or enter into the -province of the priest. Yet, though literature increased and writing was -much practised by people engaged in the ordinary business of life (we -see pictures on the tombs of the great man’s upper servant seated before -his desk and recording with reed-pen and ink-horn the numbers of the -flocks and herds belonging to the farm), little was done to simplify the -art of writing by the ancient Egyptians. Down to the latest times when -Hieroglyphics were cut, and Demotic and Hieratic characters written, the -same confusing variety of signs were employed--pictorial, ideographic, -symbolic, phonetic--all mixed up together, with nothing to distinguish -them but the determinative signs before spoken of, which themselves -added a new element to the complexity. - -It was left for a less conservative and more enterprising people than -the ancient Egyptians to take the last and greatest step in perfecting -the invention which the ancient - -[Sidenote: The Phœnician alphabet.] - -Egyptians had brought so far on its road, and by throwing away all the -first attempts, to allow the serviceable, successful parts of the system -to stand out clear. The Phœnicians, to whom tradition points as the -introducers of our alphabet into Europe, and who, during early ages, -were in very close political and trading connection with the ancient -Egyptians, are now believed to be the authors of the improvement by -which we benefit. They did not invent the alphabet which the Greeks -learned from them; they could have had no reason to invent signs, when -they must have been well acquainted with the superabundance that had -been in use for centuries before they began to build their cities by the -sea-shore. What they probably did was to choose from the Egyptian -characters, with which all the traders of the world must have been -familiar, just so many phonemes or sound-carrying signs as represented -the sounds of which their speech was made up; and rejecting all others, -they kept strictly to these chosen ones in all their future writings. -This was a great work to have accomplished, and we must not suppose that -it was done by one man, or even in one generation; as probably it took a -very long time to perfect the separation between vowels and consonants: -a distinction which had already been made by the ancient Egyptians, for -they had vowel signs, though, as before remarked, they constantly made -their consonants carry the vowels, and spelt words with consonants -alone. You will remember that consonants are the most important elements -of language, and constitute, as we have said before, the bones of words; -but also that distinctions of time, person, and case depend in an early -stage of language very much on vowels; and you will therefore understand -how important to clearness of expression it was to have clearly defined -separate signs for the vowels and diphthongs that had, so to speak, all -the exactitude of meaning in their keeping. The Phœnicians, of all -the people in the early world, were most in need of a clear and precise -method of writing: for, being the great traders and settlers of ancient -times, one of its principal uses would be to enable them to communicate -with friends at a distance by means of writings which should convey the -thoughts of the absent ones, or the private instructions of a trader to -his partner without need of an interpreter. - -The advantages of simplicity and clearness had been less felt by -Egyptian priests while inscribing their stately records on walls of -temples and palaces, and on the tapering sides of obelisks which were -meant to lift sacred words up to the eye of Heaven rather than to expose -them to those of men. They believed that a race of priests would -continue, as long as the temples and obelisks continued, who could -explain the writing to those worthy to enter into its mysteries; and -they were not sorry, perhaps, to keep the distinction of understanding -the art of letters to their own caste. - -It was not till letters were needed by busy people, who had other things -to do besides studying, that the necessity for making them easy to -learn, and really effective as carriers of thought across distances, was -sincerely felt. Two conjectures as to the method pursued by the -Phœnicians in choosing their letters and adapting them to their own -language have been made by the learned. One is, that while they took the -forms of their letters from the Egyptian system of signs, and adopted -the principle of making each picture of an object stand for the first -sound of its name, as _labo_ for _l_, they did not give to each letter -the value it had in the Egyptian alphabet, but allowed it to mean for -them the first sound of its name in their own language. For example, -they took the sign for an ox’s head and made it stand for the sound -_a_, not because it was one of the Egyptian signs for ‘_a_’ but because -Aleph was the name for an ox and ‘_a_’ was its first syllable. This, -which seems a natural method enough, is, however, not the method which -was followed by the Japanese in choosing their alphabet from signs; and -more recent investigations prove such a close resemblance between the -earliest forms of Phœnician letters, and early forms of signs for the -same sounds in Hieratic character, that a complete descent in -sound-bearing power, as well as in form, is now claimed for our letters -from those hieroglyphics, which, in our ignorance of the relationship, -we used to consider a synonymous term for something unintelligible. The -Semitic language spoken by the Phœnicians was richer in sounds than -the less developed language spoken by the ancient Egyptians; but as the -Egyptians used several signs for each letter, the Phœnicians easily -fell into the habit of giving a slightly different value to two forms -originally identical, and thus provided for all the more delicate -distinctions of their tongue. A close comparison of the forms of the -letters of the earliest known Canaanite inscriptions with Hieratic -writing of the time of the Old Empire reveals a resemblance so striking -between fifteen of the Phœnician letters and Hieratic characters -carrying the same sounds, that a conviction of the derivation of one -from the other impresses itself on even a careless observer. The -correspondence of the other five Canaanite letters with their Hieratic -counterparts is less obvious to the uneducated eye, but experts in such -investigations see sufficient likeness even there to confirm the theory. - -The gradual divergence of the Phœnician characters from their -Hieratic parents is easily accounted for by the difference of the -material and the instrument employed by the Phœnicians and Egyptians -in writing. The Hieratic charracter was painted by Egyptian priests on -smooth papyrus leaves with a brush or broad pointed reed pen. The -Canaanite inscriptions are graven with a sharp instrument on hard stone, -and as a natural consequence the round curves of the Hieratic character -become sharp points, and there is a general simplification of form and a -throwing aside of useless lines and dots, the last remnants of the -picture from which each Hieratic character originally sprang. The -_names_ given later to the Phœnician letters, Aleph, an ‘ox;’ Beth, a -‘house;’ Gimel, a ‘camel;’ Daleth, a ‘door;’ are not the names of the -objects from which the forms of these letters were originally taken. The -Hieratic ‘A’ was taken from the picture of an eagle, which stood for ‘A’ -in hieroglyphics; ‘B’ was originally a sort of heron; ‘D,’ a hand with -the fingers spread out. New names were given by the Phœnicians to the -forms they had borrowed, from fancied resemblances to objects which, in -their language, began with the sound intended, when the original -Egyptian names had been forgotten. It is hard for us to see a likeness -between our letter ‘A’ and an ox’s horns with a yoke across; or between -‘B’ and the ground-plan of a house; ‘G’ and a camel’s head and neck; ‘M’ -and water; ‘W’ and a set of teeth; ‘P’ and the back of a head set on the -neck; but our letters have gone through a great deal of straightening -and putting into order since they came into Europe and were sent out on -their further westward travels. The reader who has an opportunity of -examining early specimens of letters on Greek coins will find a freedom -of treatment which makes them much more suggestive of resemblances, and -the earlier Phœnician letters were, no doubt, more pictorial still. -The interesting and important thing to be remembered concerning our -letters is that each one of them was, without doubt, a picture once, and -gets its shape in no other way than by having once stood for an object, -whose name in the ancient people’s language began with the sound it -conveys to us. - -These Phœnician letters, born on the walls of Egyptian tombs older -than Abraham, and selected by Phœnician traders who took their boats -up to Memphis at or before Joseph’s time, are the parents of all the -alphabets now used in the world, with the exception of that one which -the Japanese have taken from Chinese picture-writing. The Phœnicians -carried their alphabet about with them to all the countries where they -planted trading settlements, and it was adopted by Greeks, and by the -Latins from the Greeks, and then gradually modified to suit the -languages of all the civilized peoples of east and west.[138] The Hebrew -square letters are a form of divergence from the original type, and even -the Sanskrit character in all its various styles can be traced back to -the same source by experts who have studied the transformations through -which it has passed in the course of ages. It is, of course, easy to -understand that these ubiquitous little shapes which through so many -centuries have had the task laid on them of spelling words in so many -different languages must have undergone some variations in their values -to suit the tongues that interpreted them. - -The original family of twenty letters have not always kept together, or -avoided the intrusion of new comers. Some of the languages they have had -to express, being in an early - -[Sidenote: Runes.] - -stage of development, have not wanted even so many as twenty letters, -and have gradually allowed some of them to fall into disuse and be -forgotten; an instance of this we find in the alphabet of the northern -nations--the Gothic--which consisted only of sixteen _runes_--called by -new names; they have been handed down either directly from the Greek, or -from the Greek through the Roman alphabet, and furnished with mystic -meanings and with names peculiar to themselves. - -[Sidenote: Additional letters.] - -In languages where nicer distinctions of sound were called for than the -original twenty Phœnician signs carried, a few fresh letters were -added, but in no case has any quite new form been invented. The added -letters have always been a modification of one of the older -forms--either a letter cut in half, or one modified by an additional -stroke or dot. In this way the Romans made _G_ out of _C_, by adding a -stroke to one of its horns. _V_ and _U_, _I_ and _J_ were originally -slightly different ways of writing one letter, which have been taken -advantage of to express a new sound when the necessity for a greater -number of sound-signs arose; _W_, as its very name shows, is only a -doubled form of _V_. At first sight it seems a simple thing enough to -invent a letter, but let us remember that such a thing as an arbitrarily -invented letter does not exist anywhere. To create one out of nothing is -a feat of which human ingenuity does not seem capable. Every single -letter in use anywhere (we can hardly dwell on this thought too long) -has descended in regular steps from the pictured object in whose name -the sound it represents originally dwelt. Shape and sound were wedded -together in early days by the first beginners of writing, and all the -labour bestowed on them since has only been in the way of modification -and adaptation to changed circumstances. No wonder that, when people -believed a whole alphabet to have been invented straight off, they also -thought that it took a god to do it. Thoth, the Great-and-great, with -his emblems of justice and his recording pencil; Oannes, the -Sea-monster, to whom all the wonders of the under-world lay open; Swift -Hermes, with his cap of invisibility and his magic staff; One-eyed Odin, -while his dearly purchased draught of wisdom-water was inspiring him -still. No one indeed--as we see plainly enough now--but a hero like one -of these, was equal to the task of inventing an alphabet. - -[Sidenote: Cuneiform writing.] - -Before we have quite done with alphabets, we ought to speak of another -system of ancient writing, the cuneiform; which, though it has left no -trace of itself on modern alphabets, is the vehicle which preserves some -of the most interesting and ancient records in the world. The cuneiform -or arrow-shaped character used by the ancient Chaldeans, Assyrians, -Babylonians, and Persians, is supposed to owe its peculiar form to the -material on which it was habitually graven by those who employed it. It -arose in a country where the temples were built of unburned brick -instead of stone, and the wedge-shaped form of the lines composing the -letters is precisely what would be most easily produced on wet clay by -the insertion and rapid withdrawal of a blunt-pointed stick or reed. -Like all other systems, it began in rude pictures, which gradually came -to have a phonetic value, in the same manner as did the Egyptian -hieroglyphics. The earliest records in this character are graven on the -unburned bricks of pyramidal-shaped temples, which a little before the -time of Abraham began to be built by a nation composed of mixed Shemite, -Cushite, and Scythian (_i.e._ Turanian) peoples round the shores of the -Persian Gulf. The invention of the character is ascribed in the records -to the Turanian race, the Accadians, who are always designated by the -sign of a wedge, which was equivalent to calling them the writers, or -the literary people. The Accadians discovered this writing; but it was -taken up and wrought to much greater perfection by their successors, the -Shemites. In their hands it became the vehicle in which the history of -the two great empires of Babylon and Nineveh, and the achievements of -ancient Persian kings, have come down to us. For when Nineveh fell -before the Persians, they adopted the cuneiform writing of the -Assyrians. - -We have all seen and wondered at the minute writing on the Assyrian -marbles and tablets in the British Museum, and stood in awe before the -human-headed monster gods-- - - ‘Their flanks with dark runes fretted o’er,’ - -whose fate, in surviving the ruin of so many empires, and being brought -from so far to enlighten us on the history of past ages, can never cease -to astonish us. When we look at them again, let us spare a thought to -the history of the character itself. Its mysteries have cost even -greater labour to unravel than hieroglyphics themselves. To the latest -times of the use of cuneiform by the Achæmenidæ, pictorial, symbolic, -and phonetic groups continued to be mixed together, and a system of -determinative signs was employed to show the reader in what sense each -word was to be taken. But this system of writing never reached the -perfection attained by the Egyptian hieroglyphs. It never advanced to -the use of what may be called true letters, never beyond the use of -syllabic signs. So that in time it was superseded by alphabets descended -from the Egyptian. The symbolism, too, of the cuneiform writing is very -complex, and the difficulty of reading the signs used phonetically is -greatly increased by the fact of the language from which they acquired -their values (a Turanian one) being different from the Semitic tongue, -in which the most important records are written. - -Of other systems of writing, chiefly pictorial, known in the ancient -world, such as the Hittite and the Cypriot--or, again, of the -picture-writing of many other savage tribes beside the North American -Indians, it is not necessary to speak. For we are not writing a history -of alphabets, but of the acquisition of the _art_ of writing by -mankind. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - -CONCLUSION. - - -[Sidenote: Vortices of national life.] - -At this point, where we are bringing our inquiries to a conclusion, we -would fain look a little nearer into the mists which shroud the past, -and descry, were it possible, the actual dawn of history for the -individual nations; would see, not only how the larger bodies of men -have travelled through the prehistoric stages of their journey, but how, -having reached its settled home, each people begins to emerge from the -obscurity that surrounds its early days. What were the exact means, we -ask, whereby a collection of nomadic or half-nomadic tribes separated, -reunited, separated again, and developed upon different soils the -qualities which distinguish them from all others? What _is_, in fact, -the beginning of real national life? - -The worlds which circle round the sun, or rather, the multitudinous -systems of orbs which fill space, might pose a like inquiry. There was a -time when _these_ which are now distinct worlds were confounded as a -continuous nebula, a thin vapour of matter whirling round in one -unchanging circle. In time, their motion became less uniform, -vortices--as the word is--set in, smaller bodies of vaporous matter -which, still obeying the universal movement, set up internal motions -among themselves, and cooling, separated into separate orbs. How like is -all this process to the history of nations! These, confounded once -together in one unstable mass of wandering tribes, have in like manner -separated from their nebulous brethren, and, setting up their internal -vortices, have coalesced into nations. And yet as a system of planets, -albeit with their own distinctive motions, do all revolve in one -direction round one central force, so the different families of nations, -which we may call the planets of a system, seem in like manner compelled -by a power external to themselves in one particular course to play a -particular part in the world’s history. The early stone-age Turanians, -the Cushite civilizers of Egypt and Chaldæa, the Semitic people, may all -be looked upon as different systems of nations, each with its mission to -the human race. Thus, too, the Aryan people, after they had once become -so separated as to lose all family remembrance, are found working -together to accomplish an assigned destiny, migrating in every -direction, and carrying with them everywhere the seeds of a higher -civilization. - -The rays of history are seen gradually spreading from Egypt up through -Mesopotamia to the nations of Palestine--not yet the land of the -Hebrews--then to Asia Minor, and so to Greece. That is the land-root of -civilization. We are speaking rather of succession in time than of -actual succession by inheritance. We cannot tell, at any rate, that -Chaldæa was in any way indebted to Egypt for its early civilization, or -Egypt to Chaldæa. But with the exception of that blank, the rest of the -progress of civilization by inheritance does follow pretty clearly. The -Assyrian Empire inherited from the old Babylonian Empire. And the -nations of Palestine inherited from Egypt and Assyria both. On the -borders of Asia Minor were two peoples who commanded--for a time, at -any rate--the trade routes from Palestine and Mesopotamia into Asia -Minor. These two peoples were the Hittites[139] and the Phœnicians. -One commanded the trade route by land, the other commanded it by sea. Of -the first we know at present very little--little more than that they had -a capital at Karkemish; that they commanded the navigation of the -Orontes and the Upper Euphrates; and that they were at one time strong -enough to stand at the head of a confederation of peoples who made war -upon Egypt when at the summit of her power. There can be little doubt -that the Hittites passed on to the peoples of Asia Minor, who were in -blood nearly allied to the Greeks, some of the civilization of the -Semitic peoples farther south, and that these peoples passed the same on -to the Greeks of Asia Minor. - -But of course the Phœnicians must still be reckoned as the great -transporters of civilization from Egypt and from Asia to the rest of the -world. They could hardly be said to possess a country; but they -possessed cities of vast importance and no small magnificence along the -coast of Palestine--Lamyra, Aradus, Byblos, Sydon, Tyre. From these -centres went out that boundless maritime enterprise which made the -Phœnicians the trading people of the world. Very early--in -pre-historic ages--the Phœnicians had possessed themselves of Cyprus. -From that point to the Grecian coast of Asia Minor, or to the coasts and -islands on either side of the Ægean, was an easy transition; then on to -the Mediterranean, to Sicily and Italy, but more especially to the -island of Sardinia; or again to Egypt and the farther coasts of Africa -on to Spain, and finally, through the Pillars of Heracles, to the -far-off ‘tin islands’ of the west, which were, it is likely enough, the -British Isles. This is, in brief, the picture of the doings of the -Phœnicians long before the days of history had begun to dawn upon the -Aryan nations of the Mediterranean. - -If we desire to get any idea of the process by which the separation of -the Aryan peoples became completed, we must put quite upon one side the -idea of a nation as we see it now. Now, when we speak the word, we think -of a political unit subject to one government, stationary, and confined -within pretty exact limits of space. But very different were the nations -during the process of their formation; there was scarcely any political -unity among them, their homes were unfixed, their members constantly -shifting and changing combinations, like those heaps of sand we see -carried along in a cyclone. Let us, then, forget our political atlases, -with their different colours and well-marked boundaries, and think not -of the inanimate adjunct of a nation, the soil on which it happens to -dwell, but of the nation as the men of whom it is made up. The earliest -things we discern are those vortices set up in the midst of a -homogeneous people, an attractive power somewhere in the midst of them -which draws them into closer fellowship. It acts like the attractive -power of a crystal in selecting from any of the surrounding matters the -fragments most suited to its proper formation. Thus the earliest -traditions of a people are generally the history of some individual -tribe from which the whole nation feigns itself descended; either -because of its actual pre-eminence from the beginning, the power it had -of drawing other tribes to share its fortunes, or because, out of many -tribes drawn together by some common interest or sentiment, the bards of -later days selected this one tribe from among the others, and adopted -its traditions for their own. If we remember this, much that would -otherwise appear a hopeless mass of contradiction and ambiguity is -capable of receiving a definite meaning. - -[Sidenote: The Greeks.] - -The first rays of European history shine upon the island-dotted sea and -bounding coasts of the Ægean. Here sprang into life the Greek people, -who have left behind so splendid a legacy of art and philosophy. These, -as has been already said, made their entry into Europe traversing the -southern shores of the Euxine, along which passed, still as one people, -the ancestors of the Greeks and the Italians. The former, at all events, -seem to have delayed long upon their route, and it was upon these -shores, or perhaps rather in the tableland of ancient Phrygia, that -first began the separation of two races who reunited to form the Greek -nation. Some, the older race, the Pelasgi, made their way to the -Hellespont, and by that route into European Greece; the others, the -Ionians as they subsequently became, passed onward to the sea-shore of -Asia Minor, and, tempted no doubt by the facilities of the voyage, -crossed from this mainland to the neighbouring islands, which lie so -thickly scattered over the Ægean that the mariner passing from shore to -shore of Asiatic and European Greece need never on his voyage lose sight -of land. They did not, however, find these islands deserted, or occupied -by savages only. The Phœnicians had been there beforehand, as they -were beforehand upon almost every coast in Europe, and had made -mercantile stations and established small colonies for the purposes of -trading with the Pelasgi of Greece. The adventurous Ionians were thus -brought early into contact with the advanced civilization of Asia, and -from this source gained in all probability a knowledge of navigation, -letters, and some of the Semitic mythical legends. Thus while the -mainland Greeks had altered little of the primitive culture, the germs -of a Hellenic civilization, of a Hellenic life, were being fostered in -the islands of the Ægean. We see this reflected in many Greek myths--in -the legend, for example, of Minôs and his early Cretan kingdom; in the -myth of Aphroditê springing from the sea by Cythera; and in the worship -of Phœbus Apollo which sprang up in Delos. Legend spoke of two -Minôses--one, the legislator of Crete, representative of all that was -most ancient in national policy, and for that reason transferred to be -the judge of souls in Hell; the second, he who made war against the -Athenians, and compelled them to pay their dreadful yearly tribute of -seven youths and seven maidens to be devoured of the Minotaur in the -Cretan labyrinth. Until Theseus came. No doubt the two Minôses are but -amplifications of one being, who, whether mythical or historical, is an -echo in the memory of Greeks of the still older Cretan kingdom. In both -tales Minôs has a dreadful aspect; perhaps because this ‘Lord of the -Isles’ had been inimical to the early growing communities of the -mainland. - -The myths of Aphroditê and Apollo have been already commented upon as -enfolding within them the history of their origin. Aphroditê is -essentially an Asiatic divinity; she springs to life in a Phœnician -colony. But Phœbus Apollo is before all things the god of the Ionian -Greeks; and as _their_ first national life begins in the islands, _his_ -birth too takes place in one of these, the central one of all, Delos. In -Homer, Delos, or Ortygia, is feigned to be the central spot of the -earth. - -Thus the Greeks were from the beginning a commercial people. Before -their history began, there is proof that they had established a colony -in the Delta of the Nile; and the frequent use of the word _Javan_[140] -in the Bible--which here stands for Ionians--shows how familiar was -their name to the dwellers in Asia. Wherever these mariners came in -contact with their brethren of the continent, they excited in them the -love of adventure, and planted the germs of a new life, so that it was -under their paramount influence that these primitive Greeks began to -coalesce from mutually hostile tribes into nations. In Northern Greece -it was that the gathering together of tribes and cities first began. -These confederations were always based primarily upon religious union, -the protection of a common deity, a union to protect and support a -common shrine. They were called Amphictyonies, confederations of -neighbours, a name which lived long in the history of Greece. These -amphictyonies seem first to have arisen in the north. Here too the words -_Hellenic_, _Hellenes_, first spring up as national epithets. Hellas -never extended farther north than the north of Thessaly, and was -naturally marked off from foreign countries by Olympia and Pierus. But -the term spread southwards till it embraced all Greek-speaking lands to -the extremity of the peninsula, and over the islands of the Ægean, and -the coast of Asia Minor, on to the countless colonies which issued from -Greek shores; for Hellas was not a geographical term, it included all -the peoples of true Hellenic speech, and distinguished them from the -_barbaroi_, the ‘babblers,’ of other lands. - -The two great nations of the Græco-Italic family kept up some knowledge -of each other after they had forgotten the days of their common life, -and, strange to say, in days before either of the two races had come to -regard itself as a distinct people, each was so regarded by the other. -The Italians classed the Greeks in the common name of Græci or Graii, -and the Greeks bestowed the name of Ὀπικός upon the nation of -the Italians. It is curious to reflect upon the different destinies -which lay ahead of these two races, who came under such similar -conditions into their new homes. Whether it were through some -peculiarity in their national character, or a too-rapid civilization, or -the two great influences of a changeful character and adventurous life, -the Greeks never cemented properly together the units of their race; the -Italians, through a much slower process of integration, lived to weld -their scattered fragments into the most powerful nation the world has -ever seen. - -[Sidenote: The Romans.] - -This second half, then, of the Græco-Italic family, crossing the -Hellespont like (or with) the first dwellers in Greece proper, proceeded -onwards until, skirting the shores of the Adriatic, they found out a -second peninsula, whose fertile plains tempted them to dispute the -possession of the land with the older inhabitants. Who were these older -inhabitants? In part they must have been those lake-dwellers of northern -Italy to whom reference was made in our second chapter, and who were -evidently closely allied to the stone-age men of Switzerland; but -besides these we have almost no trace of the men who were dispossessed -by the Italic tribes, and these last, who pushed to the farthest -extremity of the peninsula, must have completely absorbed, or completely -exterminated, the aborigines. The process by which the Italians spread -over the land is altogether hidden from us. Doubtless their several -seats were not assigned to the different branches at once, or without -bloodshed. Though still no more than separate tribes, we are able to -divide the primitive Italians into stocks of which the southern most -resembled the ancient type of the Pelasgic family; those in the centre -formed the Latin group; while north of these (assuming that they, too, -were Aryans) lay the Etruscans, the most civilized of all the three. At -this time the tribes seem to have acknowledged no common bond, nothing -corresponding to the word Hellenic had sprung up to unite their -interests: existence was as yet to the strongest only. And while the -land was in this chaotic state, one tribe, or small confederacy of -tribes, among the Latin people began to assert its pre-eminence. We see -them dimly looming through a cloud of fable, daring, warlike, -unscrupulous in their dealings with their neighbours, firm in their -allegiance to each other. This tribe gradually increased in strength and -proportions till, from being a mere band of robbers defending themselves -within their rude fortifications, they grew in the traditions of their -descendants, and of the other tribes whom in course of time they either -subdued or absorbed, to be regarded as the founders of Rome. They did -not accomplish their high destiny without trials and reverses. More -powerful neighbouring kingdoms looked on askance during the days of -their rise, and found opportunity more than once to overthrow their city -and all but subdue their state. Their former brethren, the Celts,[141] -who had been beforehand of all the Aryan races in entering Europe, and -now formed the most powerful people in this quarter of the globe, -several times swept down upon them like a devastating storm. But after -each reverse the infant colony arose with renewed Antæan vigour. - -Thus in Italy, the development from the tribal to the national state was -internal. No precocious maritime race awoke in many different centres -the seeds of nationality; rather this nationality was a gradual growth -from one root, the slow response to a central attractive force. The -energy of Rome did not go out in sea adventure, or in the colonization -of distant lands; but it was firmly bent to absorb the different people -of her own peninsula, people of like blood with herself, but in every -early stage of culture from an almost nomadic condition to one of -considerable advancement in the arts of peace. - -[Sidenote: The Celts.] - -When from the Greeks and Romans we turn to the Celts and Teutons, we -must descend much lower in the records of history before we can get any -clear glimpse at these. The Celts, who were probably the first Aryans in -Europe, seem gradually to have been forced farther and farther west by -the incursions of other peoples. At one time, however, we have evidence -that they extended eastward, at least as far as the Rhine, and over all -that northern portion of Italy--now Lombardy and part of Sardinia--which -to the Romans went by the name of Cisalpine Gaul. The long period of -subjection to the Roman rule which Gaul experienced, obliterated in that -country all traces of its early Celtic manners, and we are reduced for -our information concerning these to the pages of Roman historians, or to -the remains of Celtic laws and customs preserved in the western homes of -the race. The last have only lately received a proper attention. The -most primitive Irish code--the Brehon laws--has been searched for traces -of the primitive Celtic life. From both our sources we gather that the -Celts were divided into tribes regarded as members of one family. These -clans were ruled over by chiefs, whose offices were hereditary, or very -early became so. They were thus but slightly advanced out of the most -primitive conditions,--they cannot be described as a nation. Had they -been so, extensive and warlike as they were, they would have been -capable of subduing all the other infant nationalities of Aryan folk. As -it was, as mere combinations of tribes under some powerful chieftain -(Cæsar describes just such), they gave trouble to the Roman armies even -under a Cæsar, and were in early days the most dreadful enemies of the -Republic. Under Brennus, they besieged and took Rome, sacked the city, -and were only induced to retire on the payment of a heavy ransom. A -hundred years later, under another Brennus, they made their way into -Thrace, ravaged the whole country, and from Nicomedes, King of Bithynia, -obtained a settlement in Asia Minor in the district which from them -received the name of Galatia. The occurrence of those two chiefs named -Brennus shows us that this could hardly have been a mere personal name. -It is undoubtedly the Celtic Brain, a king or chieftain, the same from -which we get the mythic Bran,[142] and in all probability the Irish -O’Brien. The recognition of the Celtic fighting capacity in the ancient -world is illustrated by another circumstance, and this is more -especially interesting to us of the modern world, whose army is so -largely made up of Celts from Ireland and Scotland (Highlanders). Hierôn -I., the powerful tyrant of Syracuse, founded his despotism, as he -afterwards confessed, chiefly upon his standing army of thirty thousand -Gaulish mercenaries whom he kept always in his pay. - -For the rest, we know little of the internal Celtic life and of the -extent of its culture. Probably this differed considerably in different -parts, in Gaul for instance, and in Ireland. The slight notices of -Gaulish religion which Cæsar and Pliny give refer chiefly to its -external belongings, to the hereditary sacerdotal class, who seem also -to have been the bardic class; of its myths and of their real -significance we know little more than what can be gathered by analogy of -other nations. We may assert that their nature-worship approached most -nearly to the Teutonic form among those of all the Aryan peoples. - -Peculiarly interesting to us are such traces as can be - -[Sidenote: The Teutons.] - -gleaned of the Teutonic race. The first time we have seen that they show -themselves upon the stage of history is possibly in company with the -Celts, supposing for a moment that the Cimbri, who in company with the -Teutones, the Tigurini, and the Ambrones were defeated by Marius (B.C. -101), were Celts.[143] What branch of the German family (if any) the -Teutones were, is quite uncertain. Again, in the pages of Cæsar we meet -with several names of tribes evidently of German origin. The Treviri, -the Marcomanni (Mark men, men of the march or boundary), Allemanni -(all-men, or men of the great or the mixed[144] nation), the Suevi -(Suabians), the Cherusci--men of the sword, perhaps the same as -_Saxons_, whose name has the same meaning. - -It is not till after the death of Theodosius at the end of the fourth -century of our era that the Germans fill a conspicuous place on the -historical canvas. By this time they had come to be divided into a -number of different nations, similar in most of the elements of their -civilization and barbarism, closely allied in languages, but politically -unconnected, or even opposed. Most of these Teutonic peoples grew into -mighty nations and deeply influenced the future of European history. It -is therefore right that we pass them rapidly in review. 1. The Goths had -been long settled in the region of the Lower Danube, chiefly in the -country called Mœsia, where Ulfilas, a Gothic prince who had been -converted to Christianity, returned to preach to his countrymen, became -a bishop among them, and by his translation of the Bible into their -tongue, the Mœso-Gothic, has left a perpetual memorial of the -language. During the reign of Honorius, the son of Theodosius, a -portion of this nation, the West-or Visi-goths, quitted their home and -undertook under Alaric (All-king) their march into Italy, thrice -besieged and finally took Rome. Then turning aside, they founded a -powerful kingdom in the south of Gaul and in Spain. A century later the -East-Goths (Ostro-Goths), under the great Theodoric (People’s-king) -again invaded Italy and founded an Ostrogothic kingdom upon the ruins of -the Western Empire. 2, 3, 4, 5. The Suevi, Alani, Burgundians, and -Vandals crossed the Rhine in 405, and entered Roman territory, never -again to return to whence they came. The Burgundians (City-men) fixed -their abode in East-Central Gaul (Burgundy and Switzerland), where their -kingdom lasted till it was subdued by the Franks; but the other three -passed on into Spain, and the Vandals (Wends[145]) from Spain into -Africa, where they founded a kingdom. 6. The Franks (Free-men), having -been for nearly a century settled between the Meuse and the Scheldt, -began under Clovis (Chlodvig, Hludwig, Lewis) (A.D. 480) their career of -victory, from which they did not rest until the whole of Gaul owned the -sway of Merovingian kings. 7. The Longobardi (Long-beards, or men of the -long borde, long stretch of alluvial land), who after the Ostrogoths had -been driven out of Italy by the Emperor of the East, founded in defiance -of his power a second Teutonic kingdom in that country--a kingdom which -lasted till the days of Charlemagne. 8. And last, but we may safely say -not least, the Saxons (Sword-men, from _seaxa_, a sword), who invaded -Britain, and under the name of Angles (Engle) founded the nation to -which we belong, the longest-lived of all those which rose upon the -ruins of the Roman Empire. - -The condition of the German people, even so late as the time when they -began their invasion of the Roman territory, was far behind that of the -majority of their Aryan fellows. It is likely that they were little more -civilized than the Greeks and Romans were, in days when they lived -together as one collection of tribes. For the moment when we catch sight -of these--the Greeks and Romans--in their new homes, we see them settled -agriculturists, with no trace left of their wandering habits. It was not -so with the Teutons: they knew agriculture certainly, they had known it -before they separated from the other peoples of the European family (for -the Greek and Latin words for plough reappear in Teutonic speech[146]); -but they had not altogether bid adieu to their migratory life--we see -them still flowing in a nebulous condition into the Roman lands. Even -the Tartars of our day--the very picture of a nomadic people--practise -some form of agriculture. They plant buckwheat, which, growing up in a -few months, allows them to reap the fruits of their industry without -tying them long to a particular spot. The Teutons were more stationary -than the Tartars, but doubtless they too were constantly shifting their -homes--choosing fresh homesteads, as Tacitus says they did, wherever any -spot, or grove, or stream attracted them. The condition of society -called the village community, which has been described in a former -chapter, though long abandoned by the cultivated Greeks and Romans, was -still suitable to the exigencies of _their_ life; but these exigencies -imposed upon it some fresh conditions. Their situation, the situation of -those who made their way into the western countries of Europe, was -essentially that of conquerors; for they must keep in subjection the -original inhabitants, whether Romans or Celts; and so all their social -arrangements bent before the primary necessity of maintaining an -effective war equipment. Age and wisdom were of less value to the -community than youthful vigour. The patriarchal chief, chosen for his -reputation for wisdom and swaying by his mature counsels the free -assemblies of the states, gives place with them to the leader, famous -for his valour and fortunes in the field, by virtue of which he exacts a -more implicit obedience than would be accorded in unwarlike times, until -by degrees his office becomes hereditary; the partition of the conquered -soil among the victors, and the holding of it upon conditions of -military service, conditions which led so easily to the assertion of a -principle of primogeniture, and thence, by slow but natural stages, to -the conditions of tenure known as _feudal_; these are the marks of the -early Teutonic society. - -Such germs of literary life as the Teutons possessed were enshrined in -ballads, such as all nations possess in some form. The re-echoes of -these have come down to us in the earliest known poems by men of -Teutonic race, all of which are unfortunately of very recent date. All -are distinguished by the principle of versifying which is essentially -Teutonic; the trusting of the cadence, not to an exact measurement of -syllables or quantities, but to the pauses or beats of the voice in -repetition, the effect of these beats being heightened by the use of -alliteration. Poems of this true Teutonic character, though many of them -in their present shape are late in date, are the well-known old German -lay of _Hadubrand and Hildebrand_, the old Scandinavian poems which we -call Eddic poems, our old English poem _Beowulf_, and the _Bard’s Tale_ -and the _Fight of Finnesburg_, and finally that long German poem called -the _Nibelungen_, or say the poem out of which this long one has been -made. These poems repeat old mythic legends, many of which have for -centuries been handed down from father to son, and display the mythology -and religion of our German ancestors, such as in a former chapter we -endeavoured to sketch them out. Slight as they are, they are of -inestimable value, in that they help us to read the mind of heathen -Germany, and to weigh the significance of the last great revolution in -Europe’s history--a revolution wherein we, through our ancestors, have -taken and through ourselves are still taking part, and in which we have -therefore so close an interest. - -But having carried the reader down to this point, our task comes to an -end. Even for Europe, the youngest born as it were in the world’s -history, when we have passed the epoch of Teutonic invasion, the star of -history _sera rubens_ has definitely risen. Nations from this time -forward emerge more and more into the light, and little or nothing falls -to the part of pre-historic study. - - - - -APPENDIX. - -NOTES AND AUTHORITIES. - - ⁂ For the convenience of the reader, authorities are cited - whenever it is possible in an English form, and if not in an - English, in a French. - - -CHAPTERS I. AND II. - - Christy and Lartet, _Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ_. - Davis and Thurnam, _Crania Britannica_. - Dawkins, _Cave Hunting_. - Dawkins, _Early Man in Britain_. - Evans, _Stone Implements of Great Britain_. - Evans, _Bronze Implements of Great Britain_. - Geikie, _The Great Ice Age_. - Greenwell, _British Barrows_. - Keller, _The Lake-Dwellings of Switzerland_ (trs. Lee). - Lyell, _Antiquity of Man_. - Lubbock, _Pre-historic Times_. - Mortillet, _Origine de la Navigation et de la Pêche_. - Mortillet, _Promenades Préhistoriques à l’Exposition_. - Mortillet, _Le Préhistorique, L’Antiquité de l’homme_. - Montelius, _La Suède Préhistorique_. - Tylor, _Anthropology_. - Tylor, _Early History of Mankind_. - Tylor, _Primitive Culture_. - Troyon, _Habitations Lacustres_. - Worsaae, _The Pre-history of the North_ (trs. Simpson). - -And numerous articles in the Archæological and Anthropological journals -of England, France, and Germany. - - -Pp. 8, and 14-15. _Antiquity of Man._--The question concerning the -history of Palæolithic man which presses the most immediately for -solution, is that which has been just touched upon here: whether the -variety of animal remains with which the remains of men are found -associated, do really point to an immensely lengthened period of his -existence, in this primitive state. We have said that human bones are -found associated with those of the mammoth (_Elephas primigenius_), -those of the woolly rhinoceros, and with the remains of other animals -whose existence seems to imply a cold-temperate, or almost frigid, -climate; at another place, or a little lower in the same river bed (the -higher gravel beds are the oldest), we may find the bones of the -hippopotamus, an animal which in these days is never found far away from -the tropics. The conclusion seems obvious: man must have lived through -the epoch of change--enormously long though it was--from a cold to an -almost tropical climate. Some writers have freely accepted this view, -and even gone beyond it to argue the possibility of man having lived -through one of the great climatic revolutions which produced an Ice Age. -(See the arguments on this head in Mr. Geikie’s _Ice Age_.) And in a -private letter, written from the West Indies, Kingsley says that he sees -reason for thinking that man existed in the Miocene Era. (See _Life of -Kingsley_.) - -On the other hand, these rather startling theories have not yet received -their _imprimatur_ from the highest scientific authorities. There are -many ways in which they clash with the story which the stone-age remains -seem to tell of man’s primitive life. For instance, the civilization of -the caves is to all appearance in advance of that of the drift-beds; and -yet, as we have seen (p. 18), the cave men must have existed during the -earlier part of the stone age, that of the mammoth. Here we see -evidences of a decided improvement, an advance; whereas between the -drift-remains associated with the mammoth and those associated with the -hippopotamus are seen few or none. - - -P. 9. _Cave-drawings or carvings._--The best representations of these -are to be found in the work of Christy and Lartet given above. - - -P. 19. The ideas which savages or primitive men associate with drawings -or representations of things (as also with the _names_ of things) are -sometimes exceedingly complex and difficult of apprehension--for us. -This the following example may show:-- - -In the earliest Egyptian tombs the beautiful and realistic drawings have -long attracted the attention of archæologists, both on account of their -intrinsic merit, and from the curious contrast which they present to the -more conventional religious drawing and sculpture of a later date. -Though the drawings of the first class are found exclusively upon the -walls of tombs, they have apparently no connection either with ideas of -death or with religious observances. They seem to represent merely the -earthly and secular life of the entombed man: here he is superintending -his labourers at their work, here he is hunting, here he is reclining at -the banquet and watching the performances of fools or dancing-girls. -This is what a mere study of the drawings suggests. A more complete -study of the inscriptions which accompany them have, however, convinced -Egyptian archæologists that the object of these wall-paintings is not -merely decorative or representative, in the sense in which drawings are -representative to us. Their essential use is what we may call magical. -They are believed to contain (and this is a universal savage belief as -touching drawings or sculptures of any kind) some elements of the things -they represent. Thus the tomb-paintings would be a kind of _doubles_ of -the things which the deceased enjoyed in this life. And they would be -placed in the tomb in order that the _double_ of the deceased (what the -Egyptians called his _ka_) might enjoy the usufruct of them in the new -state. - -This is the simplest _magic_ use of the copies or representation of -things in early Egyptian tombs. But the idea of the makers of these -drawings seems often to be more complicated than this. The drawings by -being placed in the tombs are supposed to give the _ka_ of the deceased -(_not_ in the tomb, but far away in the land of shades) the enjoyment of -the doubles of the things which he enjoyed in life. In this instance the -drawings are not the actual possessions which the dead man has, but they -correspond to, or influence, or in a certain sense create in the land of -shades new possessions, the doubles of the old. - -These subtle and complex notions are by no means to be expressed by the -conventional words _magic_, _animism_, etc., loosely thrown about by -anthropologists. - - -Pp. 47 and 52. _Weaving._--The art of platting, which carries in it the -germ of the art of weaving, is of immemorial, undiscoverable antiquity. -There can hardly have been a time when men did not weave together twigs -or reeds to form a rude tent covering--a primitive house. And one proof -of the immense antiquity of this practice is given by the numerous names -for twigs, reeds, etc., in different languages which are derived from -words signifying to twist or weave. The word _weave_ itself (Ger. -_weben_) is connected with a Sanskrit root _vê_, meaning much the same -thing; and we find this same root _vê_ appearing again in the Latin, -_vimen_ a twig, and _vitis_, a vine, the last so named from its -tendrils, which we should judge were used for platting before they were -used for producing grapes. From the same root, again, and for the same -reason, are derived the Latin _viburnum_, briony; the Slavonic _wetle_, -willow; the Sanskrit _vetra_, reed. The Latin _scirpus_, reed, and the -Greek γρῖφος, a net, are allied; but these may not be -instances quite in point. - -Such rude platting as this is a very different thing from the -elaborately woven cloths found among the remains of the lake-villages, -whose construction involves also the art of _spinning_. - - -P. 54. The view put forward in this chapter concerning the race of the -neolithic men in Europe, is that which seems to the writer most -consistent with _all_ the facts known, concerning the distribution of -pre-historic man. As was said in the Preface, the students in different -branches of pre-historic inquiry have not begun yet to collate -sufficiently the results of their researches, and their opinions -sometimes clash. We have to reconcile the pre-historic anthropologist -and the ethnologist with the student of comparative philology. Most of -the former are agreed that the earliest inhabitants of this quarter of -the globe were most allied in character to the Lapps and Finns; and were -consequently of what we have distinguished (Chapter V.) as the -yellow-skinned family. But they are far from agreed that the -bronze-using men were not of the same race; and some (Keller for -instance) are violently opposed to the notion that the substitution of -metal for stone was a sudden transition, and due to foreign importation. -In some instances there is evidence that the change was gradual. - -But the evidence on the other side is stronger. The human remains found -with the bronze weapons are generally clearly distinguishable (in -formation of skull, etc.) from those associated with the implements of -stone. The funeral rites of the bronze-age men were as a rule different -from those of the stone-age men; for while the former generally buried -their dead, the latter seem generally to have burnt theirs (see Grimm, -_Ueber das Verbrennen der Leichen_). Now we have strong reason for -believing that the Aryan races (see Chapters IV., V.) practised this -sort of interment; and we have further reason for thinking that the use -of metals was known to them before their entry into Europe (see Pictet, -_Les Origines Indo-Européennes_ and Grimm, _Geschichte der deut. -Sprache_). Moreover, these Aryans unless their original home were in -Europe (see p. 99, _note_), must have come in at some time, and when -they did come, they must have produced an entire revolution in the life -of its inhabitants. No time seems so appropriate for their appearance as -that which closes the age of stone. - -This theory does not preclude the possibility of, in many places, a -side-by-side existence of stone users and bronze users, or even a -gradual extension of the art of metallurgy; and these conditions would -be especially likely to arise in such secluded spots as the -lake-dwellings. Therefore, Dr. Keller’s arguments are not impeached by -the theory that the Aryans were the introducers of bronze into Europe. - - -CHAPTERS III. AND IV. - - Bopp, _Comparative Grammar of the Sanskrit Zend, etc._ (trs.). - Bréal, _Principes de Philologie Comparée_. - Geiger, _Contributions to the History of the Development - of the Race_ (trs.). - Grimm, _Geschichte der deutschen Sprache_. - Grimm, _Ueber den Ursprung der Sprache_. - Kuhn, _Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung_. - Müller, Max, _Lectures on the Science of Language_. - Müller, Max, _Sanskrit Literature_. - Peile, _Introduction to Greek and Latin Etymology_. - Pictet, _Les Origines Indo-Européennes_. - Sayce, _Introduction to the Science of Language_. - Wilson, _Introduction to the Rig Veda Sanhita_. - -Agreeably to the plan enunciated in the first chapter (pp. 4-6) I have -used up all the more generally admitted facts and theories to form what -seemed to me a reasonable account of the growth of language; to form an -account too which should subserve one great end of this volume, by -stimulating the thoughts of the reader at the same time that it pointed -out the nature of the evidence upon which conclusions are founded, -thereby preparing the reader to pursue the enquiry upon his own account. - -The science of Comparative Philology is, however, in too unripe a -condition to allow us to speak with dogmatic assurance with regard to -its inferences; even those which seem fundamental have been, and may -again, be called in question. It is right here, therefore, to remind the -reader that it is quite upon the cards that further research may end by -upsetting the generally accepted theory of the growth of inflexions in -language. Even now there is a school of philologists and anthropologists -that denies the premise upon which this theory rests--the _radical_ -origin of all language. This school maintains that, instead of speech -beginning in monosyllabic root-sounds, as is generally supposed, it -begins in extremely elaborate and complicated sounds which are in fact -nothing else than sentences; that it is only by the wear and tear of use -that the sentence has got split up into its component sounds, which have -then taken the character of monosyllabic roots. - -This theory was first set on foot by a writer (Waitz) who is an -anthropologist rather than a student of language, and it might be -distinguished as the anthropological theory of the origin of speech. We -have no space here for a full discussion of its merits. It will be -enough to indicate some _à priori_ arguments in its favour. - -1. It would make the language of primitive man analogous to a state of -things which many people think they have discovered as typical of the -most primitive savages--namely, a state of society which, in its -customs, marriage laws, etc., differs from modern society in being not -more simple, but infinitely more complex. - -2. This supposed original expressive sentence and its subsequent -analysis would have considerable analogy to what we ourselves have just -seen is the history of writing, which begins with a more or less -elaborate picture; then the parts of the picture are split up, and by -the wear and tear of frequent use these parts are added together in -separate items to form picture-_writing_, which is quite a different -thing from picturing, and which is the immediate parent of writing as we -know it. An analogy of this kind cannot be without weight. - -On the other hand, it must be pointed out that the strongest arguments -in favour of this view are the _à priori_ arguments. True, we do not -know enough of the languages of the world to speak with dogmatic -assurance. But the history of all the languages which have been closely -studied points away from the anthropological theory. - -Again, the first argument in favour of Waitz’s theory is itself clearly -founded upon a paradox. It can scarcely be seriously maintained that -while we can trace the growth of implements, such as spears and knives, -from the simplest possible form upwards, such implements as speech and -social laws have been ready made in a highly complex form. Argument -number two serves to expose the grossness of this paradox. It would be -as reasonable to maintain that mankind had begun by drawing pictures -before they learnt to draw the elements out of which the pictures were -composed. - -The whole theory, therefore, belongs to the category of theories which -explain _obscurum per obscurius_. It may be, and no doubt is, -practically impossible to explain in any _natural_ way how speech arose. -But at all events it is easier to understand how it may have arisen in a -simple form and grown to one more complex, than to imagine it beginning -in a complex state and by detrition resolving into simple elements. - - -P. 68. _Consonantal and vowel sounds._--The fact that even in Aryan -roots the consonants have more weight than the vowel sounds will be -evident merely from the instances given in the course of this and the -following chapter--_fly_, _flee_, _flew_ (_w_ is here a vowel sound); -_night_, _Nacht_; _knight_, _Knecht_; _Raum_, _room_; _asmi_, _esmi_ -(_eimi_), _sum_, etc. This general rule holds good for almost all -languages, and seems necessarily to do so from the stronger character of -the consonantal and the weaker character of the vowel sounds. - -But the _relative_ importance of vowels and consonants is very different -in different classes of language. In the Aryan tongues the essential -root is made up of vowels and consonants, and the variations upon the -root idea are _generally_ expressed by additions to the root and not by -internal changes in it. In this way, as we saw, most grammatical -inflexions are made: hom-o, hom-inis, am-o, am-abam, τύπτω, ἒτυτον, -ἒτυψον, etc. But in Semitic languages the root consists of -the consonants only, and the inflexions are produced by internal -changes, changes of the vowels which belong to a consonant. For example, -in Arabic the three consonants _k-t-l_ (_katl_) represent the abstract -notion of the act of killing. From them we get _kátil_, one who kills; -_kitl_ (pl. _aktal_), an enemy; _katala_, he slew; _kutila_, he was -slain. From _z-r-b_ (_zarb_), the act of striking; _zarbun_, a striking -(in concrete sense); _zarábun_, a striker; _zaraba_, he struck; -_zuriba_, he was struck. Compare these with occido, occidi, occisor, or -with τύπτω, τέτυφα, etc., and we see that in the Aryan tongues -the radical remains almost unchanged, and the inflexions are made _ab -extra_; but in the Semitic language the inflexions are made by changes -of vowel sound within the framework of the root consonants. - -The usual grammatical root in Arabic is composed of three consonants, as -in the examples given above. Most of the Semitic languages are in too -fully formed a state to allow us to see whether or no these roots, which -are of course at the least dissyllabic, grew up out of single sounds; -but a comparison with some languages of the Semitic family (_e.g._ -Egyptian) which are still near to their early radical state, show us -that they have probably done so. - -The Coptic language, which is the nearest we can get to the tongue of -the ancient Egyptians, is extremely interesting in that it displays the -processes of grammar formation, as has just been said, in a more -intelligible shape than we find in the higher Semitic tongues. - - -P. 98. We are here speaking, be it remembered, of families of -_language_. The ethnology of a people is not necessarily the same as its -language; so that when we speak of a family of language including the -tongues of a certain number of races, we do not imply that they were -wholly of the same ethnic family. This caution is especially necessary -as regards the earliest great pre-historic nations who seem to have been -what are called Cushites--anything but pure Semites (see Chapter -V.)--but whose languages may properly be ranged in the Semitic family. -The Egyptian, for instance, was more nearly monosyllabic than any other -Semitic tongue (Chapter XIII.); yet such inflexions as it has show an -evident relationship with Hebrew and other Semitic languages (see -Appendix to Bunsen’s _Egypt’s Place in Universal History_). - - -CHAPTER V. - - Brugsch, _Recueils de Monuments Égyptiens_. - Brugsch, _Histoire d’Égypt_. - Brugsch, _Matériaux pour servir_, etc. - Bunsen, _Egypt’s Place_, etc. (ed. Dr. Birch). - Ebers, _Egyptian History_. - Flower, W. H., _Races of Men_. - Legge, _Chinese Classics, with Introduction, etc._ - Lenormant, _Manual of the Ancient History of the East_ (trs.). - Lepsius, _Chronologie der Egypten_. - Mariette Pasha, _Abrégé de l’Histoire d’Égypte_. - Maspero, _Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l’Orient_. - Maury, _Le Livre et l’Homme_. - Rawlinson, _Herodotus, with Notes_. - Rawlinson, _Five Great Monarchies_, etc. - Rougé (Vte. de), _Examen de l’Ouvrage de M. Bunsen_. - Sayce, _Ancient Empires of the East_. - Tylor, _Anthropology_. - - -P. 119. The word Turanian is untenable as an ethnic term. It can be -used--though with a somewhat loose signification--to distinguish those -languages which are in the agglutinative stage. But the reader must be -careful not to suppose that it comprises a class of nearly allied -peoples, as the Aryan and Semitic families of language, upon the whole, -do. The only race which includes the Turanian peoples of Europe and Asia -includes also those who speak monosyllabic languages: this is the yellow -race, and is of course a division of the widest possible kind. - - -P. 122. Touching the relationship of the Egyptians to the negroes a -variety of opinions are held. There can be no question that their types -of face forbid us to doubt that there was some relationship between -them; while the representations of negroes upon the ancient monuments of -Egypt show that from the remotest historical period there was a marked -distinction between the peoples, and that from that early time till now -the negroes have not changed in the smallest particular of ethnical -character. On the other hand, many people consider the Egyptians and the -Accadians to have been essentially the same people, the Cushites--or as -some call them Hamites--a race which perhaps anciently spread from -Susiana across Arabia and the Red Sea to Abyssinia and Egypt. - - -P. 123. The names _Chaldæan_ and _Assyrian_ are used with a variety of -significations by Orientalists, and in a way likely to be confusing to -the general reader. He will do well, therefore, to bear the following -facts in mind:-- - -1. The Tigris and the Euphrates, after both taking their rise in the -Caleshîn Dagh mountain in the Armenian highlands, soon separate by a -wide sweep, the Euphrates flowing south-west and towards the -Mediterranean, the Tigris flowing south-east towards the Persian Gulf. -But instead of flowing _into_ the Mediterranean, the Euphrates again -turns first due south, then south-east, so that it thenceforward flows -parallel with the Tigris. They approach nearer and nearer, until about -Bagdad they are separated by some twenty miles only; but here they once -more begin to increase the distance between them, and do not again -approach until just before they unite to fall into the Persian Gulf. In -ancient days they never united, as the Persian Gulf spread more than a -hundred miles farther inland than it does to-day. - -The territory enclosed between these two great streams, with the -addition of some territory to the east of the Tigris and west of the -Euphrates, is that which the Greeks called Mesopotamia. Lower -Mesopotamia begins about the point where the streams approach the -nearest, and this Lower Mesopotamia is the territory distinguished by -the name _Chaldæa_. - -Territorially this Chaldæa was in ancient days divided into two -districts--Shûmir in the south, and Accad in the north. - -The earliest known inhabitants of these districts were a Turanian race, -who from their territorial possessions should properly be called the -Shûmir-Accadians or Shûmiro-Accadians. But it is common to call them -simply Accadians (or Accad), and their language, an agglutinative or -Turanian one, Accadian likewise. - -Here therefore is the first element of confusion--between the smaller -territorial division, Accadia, and the larger ethnic division, which -includes all the primitive inhabitants of Chaldæa. - -2. But there mingled with these primitive Accadians a Semitic race, and -gradually transformed them, so that the speech of the country changed -from being a Turanian or agglutinative, to being a Semitic and inflected -language. - -Now, these Semitic people are probably the Chaldæans of the Bible; at -any rate the Bible seems to take no account of the primitive Turanian -stock. Its Chaldæans are a people allied by nationality to the Shemites, -though perhaps so far mixed with an earlier stock as to be what we may -call proto-Semitic. - -Here is the second element of confusion, a confusion between the -unchanged land of Chaldæa and the two races who in succession inhabited -it. - -3. Finally, the language of the Semitic (or proto-Semitic) Chaldæans was -practically the same as that of the people who rose into a nation in -Upper Mesopotamia, viz. the Assyrians. The Assyrians, as is said in -Chapter V., founded an empire which overthrew the ancient Chaldæan or -Babylonian empire,--for from its largest town the empire is also called -the Babylonian--and was in its turn overthrown by an alliance between -the revolted Babylon and the King of Media. - -The third element of confusion then arises from applying to the language -of the Semitic Chaldæans the name Assyrian, which involves no -participation in the empire of the Assyrians. - -It is probable that these elements of confusion have not always been -avoided in the preceding chapters. But with the aid of this note they -will no longer present difficulties to the reader. - -It will be seen that both the Egyptians and Chaldæans of Genesis, chap. -x., are a Semitic people so far as regards the character of their -language, and belong in the main to the white race. So far as regards -their ethnic character, they were probably more mixed than the peoples -(Hebrews, Assyrians proper, etc.) who are called the children of Shem, -and therefore we may call them proto-Semitic. - -The term Hamitic is altogether misleading, and had better be unused in -ethnical classifications. The real meaning, if we follow the intention -of its use in the Bible, is to distinguish from the purer Semites -(Hebrews, Moabites, etc.) what we may call the proto-Semites; that is, a -number of races, such as the Egyptians and Chaldæans, as well as the -Canaanites generally, who spoke Semitic languages, but were very -probably of impure blood, very likely of Semitic and Turanian -intermixture. If the word Hamitic be used to include the rest of the -inhabitants of the world who were not Semitic or Aryan, then, though it -will not be very useful, no objection can be taken to its employment. -But in that case we shall be obliged, forming our classification by the -known rather than by the unknown, to include the Canaanites (who spoke -Semitic languages) in the Semitic family; and this will be in direct -contradiction to the use of Hamitic in the Bible narrative. - - -CHAPTERS VI. AND VII. - - Coulanges, _La Cité Antique_. - Grimm, _Deutsche Rechts-Alterthümer_. - Lavalaye, _La Propriété et ses Formes Primitives_. - Maine, _Ancient Law_. - Maine, _Village Communities_. - Maine, _Early Institutions_. - Maurer, _Geschichte der Dorf-Verfassung_. - Nasse, _Agricultural Communities of the Middle Ages_ (translated by Ouvry). - Pictet, _Les Origines Indo-Européennes_. - -In the account here given of the two most important social forms, the -patriarchal family and the village community, the endeavour has been -rather to present such a picture of them as may exhibit their chief -peculiarities in a sufficiently clear and striking manner, than to enter -into a minute examination of the various remains from which the picture -has been constructed. It must not be supposed, however, that the -representations here given can be completely verified from existing -information. They are rather to be looked upon as typical of what these -forms may have been in their earliest stage and under favourable -circumstances. We only meet with traces of them when undergoing decay. -Although the writer fully recognizes the importance of the researches of -McLellan and others concerning the earlier conditions of society, no -attempt has been made to give an account of the results which have been -arrived at in this field of inquiry. Two reasons may be assigned for -this omission. Firstly, the intrinsic difficulties of treating the -subject in a manner suitable to the ‘general reader’ are, it is -conceived, a sufficient excuse for the omission. Secondly, the results -at present attained are so vague that the mere statement of them would -be valueless without entering into great detail. All that can as yet -fairly be regarded as established is either that the Aryan and Semitic -races have at one time possessed social customs and practices similar to -those which are found in the most barbarous people; or that they have -during some period of their history so far amalgamated with, or been -influenced by, other races that had just emerged from this state, as to -absorb into their traditions and customs traces of a social condition of -a much lower and more primitive kind than that in which we first find -them. If we try to form any conception of what the earlier state may -have been, we at once see that the results at present attained are -almost purely negative. All that can be predicated is that at one time a -large proportion of the human race did _not_ possess the notions of the -family and the marriage tie which were entertained by people in the -patriarchal state; that they did _not_ trace blood relationship in the -same way. What particular customs immediately preceded or led to the -patriarchal family, whether this latter is to be considered as the -original social type, and the lower forms are to be regarded as derived -from it, or _vice versâ_--to these questions no satisfactory answer can -at present be given. - -Each step indeed in social change is to be looked upon, to a great -extent, as simply a phenomenon to be noted, the causes for which it is -impossible to determine accurately. This is especially the case with the -village community. The extent of its distribution would incline one to -the belief that it is a natural or necessary result of a certain stage -of social development; while the elaborate and artificial nature of its -construction points to the probability of some common origin from which -its developments might be traced. The greatest difficulty, however, lies -in trying to assign to this institution its due effect on civilization: -for it is frequently found in close combination with institutions to -which its spirit seems most strongly opposed. Thus while we find it -flourishing among the Germanic tribes, we also discover among them a -tendency to the custom of primogeniture much more marked than is -discoverable among other Aryan races. Yet this custom scarcely seems to -find a place in the pure village community beyond the limits of each -individual household. At the same time the patriarchal power was -certainly less among the Germans than among the early Romans, and -probably also less than among the Slavs. - - -CHAPTERS VIII.-XI. - - Bournouf, _Commentaire sur le Yaçna_. - Bugge, _Sæmundar Edda_. - Bunsen, _God in History_ (trs.). - Bunsen, _Egypt’s Place_, etc. - Busching, _Nibelungen Lied_. - Cox, _Mythology of the Aryan Nations_. - Edda den ældra ok Snorra. - Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie. - Grimm, Ueber das Verbr. der Leichen. - Grimm, Heldenbuch. - Keary, Outlines of Primitive Belief. - Kuhn, Herabkunft des Feuers. - Kuhn, _Sagen, Gebräuche u. Mährchen_. - Kuhn, in _Zeitsch f. v. Sp._ and _Z. f. deut. Alt_. - Lang, _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_. - Lepsius, _Todtenbuch_. - Maspero, _Histoire Ancienne_, etc. - Müller, Op. cit. - Müller, _Lectures on the Science of Religion_. - Müller, _Chips from a German Workshop_. - Müller, _Origin and Growth of Religion_ (Hibbert Lectures). - Müller, _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. iv. Zend Avesta (Darmesteter). - Preller, _Griechische Mythologie_. - Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_. - Ralston, _Russian Folk-tales_. - Rawlinson, Op. cit. - Rougé (Vte. de), _Études sur le Rituel des Égypt_. - Sayce, _Religion of the Ancient Babylonians_. - Simrock, _Handbuch der. d. Myth_. - Tiele, _Outlines of the History of Religion_ (trs.). - Vigfusson and Powell, _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_. - Welcker, _Griechische Götterlehre_. - Wuttke, _Deutsche Volksaberglaube_. - -The origin and history of religion and mythology is (as we might expect) -a matter of keen controversy; and I cannot anticipate that the reader -would rise from the perusal of all the books given in the above list -with his mind not confused upon many points on which they touch. To -explain the position taken up in Chapters VIII.-XI., I will add the -following notes, which may help the reader over some difficult and -disputed questions. - -1. In the first place, we have confined our attention altogether to the -essential framework of the religious system or the myth-system with -which we were concerned. The _irrational element_ is omitted, and the -mere process of omitting this relieves us from entering upon many points -which are strongly controverted at this moment. For instance, the work -of Mr. A. Lang cited above (and which I specially mention here, as it is -a good deal upon the _tapis_ at the present moment) is altogether -occupied in combating a certain theory of Mr. Max Müller’s, that the -irrational element in Aryan mythologies (Greek and Sanskrit especially) -could be shown to have arisen in most instances from _an abuse of -language_, or, more exactly, from an oblivion of the true meaning of -some essential word or name contained in the myth, whereby a wholly -mistaken and wholly irrational element has been incorporated into the -history of the god or hero. - -This theory Mr. A. Lang combats by adducing the evidence that these -irrational parts in mythology may be _survivals_ of thought from an -earlier age in the history of the people, when what seemed irrational -(and often disgusting) to their literary successors, and seems -irrational and disgusting to us, seemed neither one nor the other. - -Into this controversy we are not required to enter. But it is important -to point out to the reader how completely this lies outside the sphere -of study which we have chosen; the more so because, through some -criticisms of Mr. Lang’s book, a notion has gained currency (among those -presumably who have not read the book in question) that Mr. Lang has -revolutionized the whole study of religion and mythology, whereas he -only proposes to deal with one section, and that a small one, of it. - -Nor can it fairly be said that we are bound in these chapters to pay -much attention to the _irrational element_ in belief. If we were writing -a complete treatise upon flint implements, we should be bound to include -not only those flints which had been clearly chipped with a definite -design, and which followed well-established forms, but with pieces of -abnormal shape, and even with flakes and cores, the _detritus_, so to -say, which had been left aside when the more available flints had been -chosen. If, again, we were dealing completely with the history of -village communities or systems of land tenure, we should be bound in -like fashion to treat of abnormal as well as normal forms. But obviously -that is not what is expected in the chapters of this book. We only -profess to treat of early civilization under its more usual aspects and -in its completest form. So with early beliefs; we only profess to -concern ourselves with what is rational and normal in the creeds with -which we are dealing. - -There are always certain drawbacks, certain new liabilities to error, -which follow the step of each fresh advance in science. The shadow of -this kind which attends the comparative method which had been adopted -with such splendid results, not only in many natural sciences, but in -almost all branches of pre-historic study--the comparative study of -laws, institutions, language, myths, and creeds--is a tendency to -confound the condition of these things with which we are actually -concerned with their condition at some previous time. As Mr. Tylor -admirably says about language, that, interesting as it is to trace the -history of words, our understanding of their actual meaning is not -always facilitated by a misty sense that at some previous time they -meant something else, so we may say of many other things--laws, for -example, and customs, or, still more, myths and religions. - -It will be obvious, for instance, that our appreciation of the place in -history of certain personages will be very little affected by tracing -some of the stories told about them to quite different countries and -periods in the history of the world. Suppose (for example) that we -should find in New Zealand legends a story closely analogous to the -story of Harold’s oath to William the Bastard. It would be by no means -safe to affirm that, if we sifted the multitudinous legends of the -world, we should not be able to find some pretty close analogy to -William’s celebrated trick of concealing the venerated relics beneath -the altar. How, it may be asked, would such a discovery affect our -estimate of the parts which William and Harold played as the rival -claimants for the English throne? If the reader can answer that question -he can decide the influence which studies into the religion of the -Maoris or Andaman Islanders are likely to have over his estimate of the -_rational_ parts of an historic creed. Such a discovery as we have -imagined would suggest the possibility that some remote channel of -tradition had fathered an old myth upon Harold and William. But it would -give us no clue as to how well it fitted upon their characters, how far -it gained general currency at the time. Upon these questions alone -depends our estimate of the position which the two historic personages -occupied in the world of their day. For a story which is generally -believed is almost the same as a story which is true. - -Or, if the reader prefers a story which is really a myth, take the -history of Hasting at the siege of Luna, with which most readers will be -acquainted, and how he gained an entry into the town by feigning death -and obtaining that his body should be carried within the walls for -Christian burial. _That_ is undoubtedly a myth; it is found to be -sporadic among the histories of the Vikings and of the Normans, their -descendants. Should we discover that a very similar story has been -current among the Incas of Peru, how far could that discovery affect our -estimate of the supposed character of Hasting? - -When the reader has made up his mind upon this subject he will be in a -position, we have said, to estimate the weight which we ought to attach -to discoveries of this kind in reference to historic creeds; because the -heroes of these creeds are evidently in the position of historic -personages for those who hold the belief. As long as the Norsemen think -that they hear Odin rushing along at night upon his horse Sleipnir, Odin -is for them an historic personage; as long as Greeks think that it is -Zeus who is ‘thundering from Ida,’ Zeus is as real to them as William -the Bastard was to the English nation--more real than Hasting was to -Dudo. And I maintain that an understanding of what the Greeks thought -about Zeus, or the Norsemen about Odin, is very little furthered by (in -Mr. Tylor’s words) a vague notion that at some other time they thought -something quite different. - -We may, however, legitimately go a little way behind the date of our -documents. Our comprehension of the feudal system of land tenure is not -much assisted by comparing it with systems in use among the Zulus; but -it is useful to study the land tenure prevalent among the German -nationalities before the feudal system properly so called was -introduced. In the same way, behind the actual religious ideas shadowed -forth in the Vedic hymns, in Homer, or in the Eddaic poems, we may, I -maintain, legitimately go back to a time when the divine beings of these -creeds were more nearly identified with natural phenomena out of which -they sprang. It is just this condition of the Aryan creeds which I have -sought to portray in the chapters devoted to the subject. In the actual -documents before us the gods of Greece or Scandinavia do not take the -guise of the heaven, or the sun, or the wind. But enough remains in -their natures to show that it was out of these phenomena that they -emerged to become the independent personalities which we know. This is -what is meant by the _nature_ or _origins_ of Indra, Zeus, Odin, etc., -as the expressions are used above. - - -P. 195. I take the liberty of transcribing a passage from Mr. Max -Müller’s Lectures on the Science of Religion. - -‘One of the oldest names of the deity, among the Semitic nations, was -El. It meant strong. It occurs in the Babylonian inscriptures as Ilu, -God, and in the very name of Bab-il, the gate or temple of Il. In -Hebrew, it occurs both in its general sense, as strong, or hero, and as -a name of God. We have it in _Beth-el_, the House of God, and in many -other names. If used with the article as ha-El, the Strong One, or the -God, it always is meant in the Old Testament for Jehovah, the true God. -El, however, always retained its appellative power, and we find it -applied therefore, in parts of the Old Testament, to the God of the -Gentiles also. - -‘The same El was worshipped at Byblus, by the Phœnicians, and he was -called there the Son of Heaven and Earth. His father was the son of -Eliun, the most high god, who had been killed by wild animals. The son -of Eliun who succeeded him was dethroned, and at last slain by his own -son _El_, whom Philo identifies with the Greek Kronos, and represents as -the presiding deity of the planet Saturn. In the Himyaritic inscriptions -too the name of El has been discovered. - -‘With the name of El, Philo connected the name of Elohim, the plural of -Eloah. In the battle between _El_ and his father, the allies of El, he -says, were called Eloeim, as those who were with Kronos were called -Kronioi. This is no doubt a very tempting etymology of _Eloah_; but as -the best Semitic scholars, and particularly Professor Fleischer, have -declared against it, we shall have, however reluctantly, to surrender -it. - -‘Eloah is the same word as the Arabic Ilâh, God. In the singular, -_Eloah_ is used synonymously with El; in the plural, it may mean gods in -general, or false gods: but it becomes in the Old Testament the -recognized name for the true God, plural in form but singular in -meaning. In Arabic Ilâh without the article means a god in general; with -the article Al-Ilâh, or Allâh, becomes the name of the God of Abraham -and Moses.’ - - -P. 197. _Nature-Worship._--The part which the phenomena of nature play -in training the thoughts of uncultivated men toward religion, and -poetry, and hero-worship, and legendary lore, has been made the subject -of warm controversy. And it may not be altogether amiss if we bestow a -little thought upon the question, and upon the character of evidence by -which this nature-worship is thought to be established. - -That it is in no sense a degradation of our estimate of man to suppose -that his thoughts were led upward from the contemplation of the objects -of sense which lay around to the contemplation of a Higher Being beyond -the region of sensible things, will become, it is to be hoped, clear -upon a little reflection, and upon a candid examination of what has been -said in pp. 173-176. But still it may fairly be asked, Did this process -of deifying the powers of nature take place? Why should not the human -mind have come independently by the direct revelation of God’s voice -speaking in the hearts of men to a notion of a God ruler of the world, -and then, by a natural process of decay, proceed thence to a polytheism, -a pantheon of beings who were supposed to rule over the different -phenomena of nature, just as the different members of a cabinet hold -sway over the various branches of national government? - -This was, until comparatively recent years, the received opinion -concerning mythology, and it is one which tacitly keeps its place in the -writings of many scholars, especially of those who have been brought up -almost exclusively upon the study of classical languages and classical -religions: for it is only after a wide study, and a comparison of many -different religions in many different stages, that the conviction of the -opposite truth forces itself upon one. It is obvious that for the -purpose of a scientific knowledge of the formation of religious systems, -we must not observe them in their fullest development, but rather turn -to such of their brother-religions as have remained in a more stunted -condition. Nor, again, should we deal, except very cautiously, with an -extremely imaginative people, like the Greeks; for with them changes -from any primitive form will be much more rapid and more complete than -the changes in some more meagre systems. The fragmentary Teutonic myths, -and the relics of these in mediæval superstition, are for this purpose -sometimes more trustworthy than those of Greece; and partly on this -account, partly because they are less familiar to the reader, we have -drawn largely upon them for illustration in our chapters upon Aryan -religion and Folk-tales. - -The most useful of all, however, is the religion of the Vedas, in so far -as the Vedas give us an insight into the earliest faith of the people of -India. Here we may often detect the etymology of a name which would be -inexplicable if we only knew it in Greek or Latin and Norse. We have -seen how this is the case in respect of the word Dyâus; and how the -etymology of this word clearly shows, what from themselves we should -never discover, that Zeus and Jupiter and Tyr are names which had -originally the same meaning as a natural phenomenon. We say -_originally_, because the Sanskrit is found by numberless examples -(whereof we gave one, _duhitar_) to show an origin for many words whose -origin is lost in other Aryan languages, and therefore to stand nearest -to the primitive tongue of the Aryans. In this lies the whole force of -the argument. If the old Aryans once used the same word for ‘heaven’ and -for ‘god,’ it is impossible to believe that they had the power of -separating at will the two ideas which we receive from these two words: -for an examination of formal logic shows us that notions do not become -completely distinguishable until they receive individual names. The -inference is obvious that a considerable number, at any rate, of the -gods of our Aryan ancestors were nature-gods in the strictest sense. - -It is equally true, however, that such divinities tend to fall into -certain forms, and accommodate themselves to ideals which, or the germs -of which, we may believe pre-existed in the human mind. It is thus that -we have noticed the sun-gods and the heaven-gods fulfilling their -separate functions, and answering to certain defined needs in the human -heart. - - -P. 230. _Persephonê and Balder._--The true _tragedy_ of the death of -summer is in the Norse religion portrayed in the myth of Balder, the -sun-god, which in respect of its force and intention fully answers to -the Persephonê myth. It has often been a subject of surprise that -Balder’s-bale, Balder’s death, was not celebrated at a time of year -appropriate to mourning for the loss of the sun-god, but at the summer -solstice, when Balder attains his fullest might and brightest splendour. -Why choose such a day as that to think of his mournful bedimming in the -wintry months? It seems to show a strange, gloomy, and forecasting -nature on the part of our Norse ancestors to be always reflecting that -in the midst of life--in the midst of our brightest, fullest life--we -are in death. - -I imagine that the custom of celebrating Balder’s-bale in this way arose -not entirely from the desire to preach this melancholy sermon; though in -part no doubt this desire was the cause of it. It arose also from a -dramatic instinct inducing men for the sake of a strong contrast to -surround the sun-god with all the images of summer at the time when they -were thinking of his death. It gives a dramatic intensity to the moment; -and thus it corresponds exactly with the picture of Persephonê playing -in the meadows in spring-time surrounded by all the attributes of -spring, just as Hades rises from the earth to bear her for ever from the -light of day. - - -P. 241. _Thanatos._--Thanatos and Hypnos belong to the region of -allegory rather than pure mythology. For in pure mythology the place of -the first is taken by Hades. In Vedic mythology their part is played by -the two Sâramayas; one probably chiefly a divinity of Death, the other -of Sleep, and the two being brothers, as of course Death and Sleep are. - -It has been suggested that among a group of figures sculptured upon the -drum of a column brought from the Artemesium (Temple of Diana) at -Ephesus, one is a representation of Thanatos, Death. The figure is that -of a boy, as young and comely as Love, but of a somewhat passive -expression, and with a sword girt upon his thigh, which Eros never -wears. His right hand is raised as though he were beckoning: and with -him stand Dêmêtêr and Hermes, both divinities connected with the rites -of the dead. Save in this instance--if it be an instance--Thanatos is -unknown to early Greek art. Hypnos when he appears wears a fair womanish -face with closed eyes, scarcely distinguishable from the artistic -representation of the Gorgon. As the moon, this last is in some sense a -being of sleep and death. - - -P. 255. Myths and the rules of their interpretation have been made of -late years the subject of controversy almost as keen as that which has -raged round that primary question concerning the existence of -_nature-worship_ which we have discussed above. In this (XI.) and the -previous chapters the writers have endeavoured to keep before the reader -only those features in a myth which are essential towards the -information we are seeking. For instance, the number of myths which can -in any system be traced to the phenomena of the sun is a matter of the -highest importance, as showing the influence which a certain set of -phenomena had upon the national mind: but of much less significance is -the question of the exact origin of the different features in these -legendary tales. If any given tale be found to originate _solely_ in a -confusion of language, a mistaken, misinterpreted epithet, then it has -almost no interest for us as an interpreter of the popular thought and -feeling: unless indeed the shape which the story takes should reproduce -(as it probably will) some one of the universal forms which seem to -stand ready in the human mind for the moulding of its legends. - -With regard to the particular question of sun (and other nature) myths -and their occurrence, the question which stands between rival disputants -is something of this sort: ‘All myths, that is, all primitive legends,’ -says one party which may be regarded as the philological school, ‘are -found, if we examine closely enough into the meaning of the proper names -which occur in them, to represent originally some natural phenomenon, -which is in nine cases out of ten (at least for southern nations) a -story of some part of the sun’s daily course, some one of his -innumerable aspects.’ ‘Is it conceivable,’ say their opponents (we may -call these the anthropologists) ‘that man could ever have been in such a -condition that all his attention was turned upon the workings of nature -or upon the heavenly bodies? Far more probable is it, that these stories -arose from a variety of natural causes, real traditions of some hero, -reminiscences of historical events transformed in the mist of -exaggeration, or the legacy of days when men had strange and almost -inconceivable ideas about the world they live in, when they thought -animals spoke and had histories like men, that men could and frequently -did become trees, and trees men, etc., etc. Indeed, so strange and -senseless are the notions of primitive men, that it is wasted labour to -try and interpret them.’ This is a rough statement of the two heads of -argument. The second, so far as merely negative, must fall before -positive proof, as that the nature-myth hidden in an immense number of -stories can be by philology satisfactorily unravelled. There is, -however, also positive proof on the other side, when many stories, which -as nature-myths interpreted on philological principles should only have -existed among the people of a particular linguistic family, are found -among other races who have no real relation whatever to the first. - -Both these sets of facts can be adduced, and to reconcile them in every -case would no doubt be hard. On the whole, however, it will perhaps be -found that, as has just been said, certain moulds for the construction -of stories seem to exist already in the human mind, obeying some natural -craving, and into these, as into a Procrustean bed, the myth more or -less easily must fit. These primitive forms do not, however, preclude -the undoubted existence--strange as such a phenomenon may appear--of an -especial mythopæic age connected with man’s observations of the -phenomena of nature--an age in which natural religions gained their -foundation, and when the doings of the external world had a much deeper -effect upon man’s imagination than in later times they have ever had. - - -P. 266. Thor’s journey to the house of giant Utgardloki (out-world -fire--fire of the under-world of Chapter X., and Chapter XI., p. -278)--is not told in the elder Edda, but appears at some length in the -Edda of Snorro (Daemisögur 44-48). There can be little question of the -antiquity of the tale, closely connected as it is with the labours of -Hercules as well as with all the most important elements in the Norse -mythology. But it may very easily be that it has undergone some -modifications before appearing in its present form; and we should be -naturally inclined to signalise as modern additions those parts of the -story which have an allegorical rather than a truly mythical character. -Allegory is a thing altogether distinct from real myth, and when it -springs up shows that the mythical character of the story is falling -into oblivion. The former is a growth of self-conscious fancy, while the -latter is the child of genuine belief. For instance--as an illustration -of the difference between allegory and mythology--I should be inclined -to signalise the appearance of the beings Logi (fire) and Elli (old age) -as a fanciful, an invented element in the story. Logi and Elli are not -important enough to be genuine deities of Fire and Age. In fact, the -former element has already received its personification in the person of -Loki. Yet the incidents with which they are associated may well have -formed an integral character of the older legend; and in the case of -Elli I feel pretty sure they must have done so. - -What I imagine to have been the real case is this. Thor’s journey to -Utgardloki is a story closely parallel to the myth of the Death of -Balder, and tells once more the story of the sun-god descending to the -under-world. This fact is clearly shown by the name of the giant, who is -nothing else than a personification of the funeral fire, the fire which -surrounds the abode of souls (pp. 275, 278). All the powers with whom -Thor strives are personifications in some way of death--all, or almost -all. He tugs as he thinks at a cat and cannot lift it from the ground; -but the cat is Jormundgandr, the great mid-earth serpent, in part the -personification of the sea, but also (by reason of this) the -personification of the devouring hell ‘rapax Orcus’ (compare Cerberus -and the Sârameyas, and notice the middle age change of Orcus to Ogre). -He (or, in the story as we now have it, Loki) contends with a -personification of the death-fire, not with a mere allegorical -representation of fire in its common aspect. And again he contends not -with Elli, old age, but with Hel, the goddess of the under-world. - -This is the original form into which I read back the mythical journey to -Utgardloki. It is easy to see how the story got changed. Loki is made to -accompany Thor instead of to fight against him; the later mythologists -not being able to understand how Loki could sometimes be a god and dwell -in Asgard, sometimes be a giant of Jotunheim. With this change the -others would easily creep in. Logi is invented to fight with Loki, and -Elli in place of Hel appears in obedience to a desire for allegory in -the place of true myth. - - -CHAPTERS XII. AND XIII. - - Edkins, _Introduction to Study of the Chinese Characters_. - Lenormant, _Essai sur la Propagation de l’Alphabet Phénicien_. - Mahaffy, _Prolegomena to History_. - Rawlinson, _Five Monarchies_. - Rougé (Vte de), _Origine Égyptienne de l’Alphabet Phénicien_. - Taylor, _The Alphabet_. - Tylor, _Early History of Mankind_. - -None of the Semitic alphabets can be considered as quite complete; as a -complete alphabet requires a subdivision of sounds into their smallest -divisions, and an appropriate sign for each of these. But none of the -Semitic alphabets in their original forms seem to have possessed these -qualifications. They never get nearer to the expression of vowel sounds -than by letters which may be considered half vowels. Each of their -consonants (in Phœnician, Hebrew, Arabic) carried a vowel sound with -it, and was therefore a syllabic sign and not a true letter. - -No account is here given of the theory that the Chinese and the -Babylonian writing are derived from the same source, as this new and -startling theory is not sufficiently upon the _tapis_ to be treated of -in a book of this kind. The reader who is desirous of informing himself -upon the subject may do so (as far as is yet possible) by obtaining the -pamphlet by M. Terrien de la Couperie, _Early History of Chinese -Civilization_, wherein this theory was first expounded, as also another -and subsequent _brochure_, _History of Archaic Chinese Writing_. - - -CHAPTER XIV. - - Curtius, _History of Greece_ (trs.). - Gibbon, with notes by Milman, etc. - Latham, _Germania of Tacitus_. - Latham, _Nationalities of Europe_. - Von Maurer, Op. cit. - Mommsen, _Die unterital. Dialekten_. - Mommsen, _Roman History_ (trs.). - - -P. 320. Following Mommsen, the Etruscans are here spoken of as though -belonging to the Italic family. This is liable to grave doubts; but the -question is at present too unsettled to admit of satisfactory discussion -in this place. - -THE END. - - - - -INDEX. - - -“_Abant_,” the word, 154. - -Abraham, Bible history begins with, 113, 129; - and Lot, 126, 155. - -Accad, 125. - -Accadians, 124, 128; - the inventors of cuneiform writing, 311. - -Adoption, ceremony of, among the Aryans, 146. - -Agglutinative languages, 79, 81, 83, 88 _et seq._; - spoken by the yellow race, 118. - -Agni, 210; hymn to, 211; - the Indian fire-god, 248. - -Agricultural life, the, gives rise to new relations, 156. - -Ahanâ, 257. - -Ahura-mazda, the god of Zoroastrianism, 234. - -Air-god of the Egyptians, 188. - -Alani, the, 104, 325. - -Alaric, 325. - -Alphabet, the Phœnician, 304 _et seq._ - -Amenti, 179. - -Amun, 181, 201. - -Ana, 193. - -Ancestor worship, 143; - of the Aryans, 147. - -Angles, the, 325. - -Animal gods of the Egyptians, 191. - -Animal worship of the Egyptians, 123. - -Anubis, 192. - -Aphroditê, 206, 224; - an Asiatic divinity, 318. - -Apollo, 202, 209, 214; - the god of the Dorians and Ionians, 216; - shrines of, 216; - the sun-god pursuing Daphne, 257; - found in the mythology of all branches of the Aryan family, 258. - -Aral, lake, the region of, the home of the Turanians, 120. - -Aramæans, 124. - -_Aratrum_, the word, 108. - -Ares, the national divinity of the Thracians, 220. - -Armenians, 99. - -Art, the earliest rudiments of, 17. - -Artemis, 204, 223 _et seq._; - and Endymion, the story of, a moon myth, 263. - -“Arthur’s Chase,” 226. - -Aryans, 98; - the origin of, 99; - evidence of language concerning, 108; - the early, a pastoral people, 132; - their entry into Europe, 133; - their social system, 140; - their faculty for abstract thought, 201; - the other world of, 241 _et seq._; - possessed a spiritual conception of the soul, 246; - separation of, 316; - their languages, 90; - two main divisions of, 91; - their mythology, remarkable for diversity of its legends, 199; - their religion contrasted with Semitic, 197; - the sky-god in, 199. - -Ashara, the, 195. - -Ashtoreth, 194. - -Assyrians, the, 98, 129; - their gods, 193 _et seq._ - -Athene, 204 _et seq._, 222. - -Attila, 119. - -Australians, the, 118. - -Avars, the, 119. - -Aztec picture writing, 292. - -Aztecs of Mexico, the, 116. - - -Baal, 193. - -Baal Chemosh, 194. - -Baal Zebub, 194. - -Babel, 124. - -Babylon, 127. - -Babylonians, the, 98. - -Bæda, quotation from, 1. - -Balder, 203; - a sun-god, 229, 246; - the myth of his death, 250 _et seq._ - -Barbarians, origin of word, 105. - -Barbarossa, legend of, 278. - -Barter in the stone age, 139. - -Bavarians, the, 104. - -“Beauty and the Beast,” 259. - -Bel Merodoch, 194. - -Beowulf, 327; the poem of, 267; - the Lohengrin myth in, 276. - -Bible narrative, an aid to prehistoric study, 2; - itself corrected and enlarged by prehistoric inquiry, 5; - continuous history begins with Abraham, 113. - -Bil, Assyrian sun-god, 193. - -Black races, the, 115. - -Bow, earliest use of the, 50. - -Brahma, 202. - -Brehon laws, the, 322. - -Brennus, 322. - -Bridge of death, the, 277. - -Bronze age, the, 54; - domestication of animals in, 148. - -Bronze introduced into Europe by the Aryans, 140. - -Bronze weapons, found throughout Europe, 149. - -Browning’s “Pied Piper of Hameln,” 272. - -Bulgarians, the, 106. - -Burgundians, the, 104, 325. - -Burial customs, 40. - -Burial mounds. See TUMULI. - - -Canaanites, the, 98; their gods, 195. - -Carinthians, the, 105. - -Case endings, origin of, 75. - -Caspian Sea, the boundary of the Aryan home, 243. - -Cattle, place of, in Aryan mythology, 151. - -Cave-dwellers, 49; - implements of, 15; - drawings of, 18; - used fire, 20; - skeletons of, 21. - -Celts, the, 101, 322; - their fighting capacity, 323. - -Cerberus, 245. - -Chaldæa, 123. - -Chaldæans, 98; - a mixed people, 124; - their buildings, 125; - their civilization, traces of, found in that of Mexico and Peru, 128; - their religion, 193. - -Cherdorlaomer, 126. - -China, 127. - -Chinese, 117; - kept in a primitive condition by the early invention of writing; - their characters, symbolic, 293 _et seq._; - determinitive signs of, 295; - their civilization connected with that of the Accadians, 128. - -Cimbri, the, 103. - -Civilization, successive steps in the earliest, 135. - -Clovis, 325. - -Commerce of Cave-dwellers, 52; - among the Aryans, 152. - -Confucius, 127. - -Cord records, 284. - -Crab, the word, 68. - -Cromlechs, 42. - -Cuneiform writing, 310. - -Cupid and Psyche, the myth of, 258. - -Cushites, the, 119. - -Cybele, 205. - -Czechs, the, 105. - - -Dagon, 194. - -Daphne, the dawn, 257. - -Daughter, signification of the word, 108, 110, 132, 200. - -Dawn and evening in the Veda, 212. - -Death, the region of, 236 _et seq._; - Aryan idea of, 237; - Egyptian idea of, 238; - a journey to the sky, 241; - the Indian conception of, 244; - the river of, 243; - and sleep, 243; myths of, 273; - the various images of, in popular tales, 278. - -Delphi, 216. - -Demeter, 204, 205; - and Persephone, 220 _et seq._ - -Determinitive signs, 295. - -_dic_ the Latin root, 70. - -Domestication of animals in second stone age, 50; - in the bronze age, 148. - -Drift implements, 10; - form a class apart, 11; - types of, 13. - -Drift period, men of the, 49. - -Druid circles, so-called, 42. - -Dutch, 99, 104. - -Dyâus, 199, 202, 207. - - -Eadwine, King, 1. - -Earth-goddess of the Aryans, 204. - -Eddic poems, 327. - -Egypt, history begins in, 52, 121; - peculiar features of nature in, 178; - the land-root of civilization, 314. - -Egyptians, 97. - -Egyptian civilization, the continuation of that of the stone age, 121; - intellectual character of, 122. - ----- idea of death and the soul, 238 _et seq._ - ----- life and thought, two elements in the character of, 122. - ----- religion, 176; - how distinguished from that of other nations, 178; - influence of nature on, 178; - nature gods of, 181; - distinctive feature of, 181; - divinities of, 181 _et seq._ - ----- writing, 298 _et seq._; - mixed character of, 301; - difficulty in deciphering, 302; - Hieratic and Demotic, 303. - -El. See IL. - -Elamites, 125. - -Elysian Fields, 242. - -English, the, 104. - -_Erde_ and _Herde_, 94. - -Erech, 125. - -Eskimo, the, 117. - -Etruscans, the, 320. - - -Fee, the word, 151. - -“Fight of Finnsburg,” 327. - -Finnish tongues, 90. - -Finns, the, 117. - -Flemings, the, 104. - -Flint weapons of Presigny, 139. - -Franks, 104, 325. - -French, the, 99. - -Frey, 203, 204. - -Freyja, 204; - the goddess of spring, beauty, and love, 230. - -Freyr, 230. - -Frigg, 204, 205, 230. - - -Gaedhill, 101. - -Gaels, 101. - -Gaulish myth of a sea of death, 276. - -Gauls, the, 101. - -Genghis Khan, 119. - -Geological periods, length of, 7. - -Gerda, 231. - -German and English, kinship of, 92. - -Germans, the, 99. - -Gesture language gives no insight into the origin of language, 62. - -_Gewiss_, the word, 66. - -Gipsies, 159. - -Glass mountains, the stories of, allegories of death, 279. - -Goths, the, 324. - -Government, an extensive scheme of, impossible to a people - ignorant of social arts, 167. - -Græco-Italic family, the, 319. - -Grammatical terminations accounted for, 74. - -Greek conception of the realms of death, 241 _et seq._ - -Greeks, 99, 102; - appearance of in Europe, 133; - their religion, 214; - the first European nation, 317; - from the beginning a commercial people, 318. - -Grimm’s laws, 107. - - -Hackelberg, the wild huntsman of the Harz, 270. - -Hades, 241. - -Hadubrand and Hildebrand, the lay of, 327. - -Hamites, the, 119. - -Hapi, 192. - -Hathor, 188. - -Hel, 250. - -Hellenes, 102; - first use of the word as a national epithet, 319. - -Hera, 204. - -Heracles, 202, 209; - life and labors of, 218. - -Hermes, 217 _et seq._; - the wind god, 232, 244. - -Herne the Hunter, 226, 249. - -Hieratic and Demotic writing of the Egyptians, 303. - -Hieroglyphic writing of the Egyptians, 298. - -Hindoos, 98. - -History, prerequisite conditions of, 3. - -Hittites, the, 315. - -Hoa, 193. - -Hormuzd, 234. - -Horus, 184, 196, 201. - -House-fire, the sacred, among the Aryans, 144. - -Householders, assembly of, in the village community, 163. - -Human victims found in tumuli, 37. - -Huns, the, 119. - -Hunter, life of the primitive, 137. - - -Iberians, the, 101. - -Ideographs, groups of, 294. - -Il, the most ancient conception of God known to the Semites, 195. - -Implements of later stone age, 39. - -Incas of Peru, 116. - -Indians, the North American, 159; - “picturing” of, 288, 290 _et seq._ - -Indra, 202, 206; - hymn to, 208; - character of, 209; - resembles Apollo, 217. - -Inflected language, 79, 81, 83; - spoken by the white race, 118; - divisions of, 118. - -Inflections, growth of, 70; - the third stage in the formation of language, 72. - -Ishtar, 194. - -Isis, 189, 195, 196. - -Israel, the children of a nomadic people, 130. - -Italians, 99; the primitive, 320. - - -“Jack the Giant Killer,” 264. - -Japanese use of Chinese characters, 296. - -“_Javan_” in the Bible for Ionians, 318. - -Jupiter, 199, 202, 206, 207. - - -Kaiser Karl in the Unterberg, 278. - -Karkemish, 315. - -Kinship in languages, 91. - -Kitchen-Middens. See SHELL MOUNDS. - -Kneph, 188. - -Kurdur-Nankunty, a king of Susa, 126. - - -Lake dwellings, bronze weapons found in the later, 150. - -Lake villages, the, 44; - construction of, 45; - object of 46; - civilization of, 47, 52. - -Language, the growth of, 55; - five stages in, 81; - arrested by the invention of writing, 84; - change in, resolved into two forces, 85; - classification by, 106; - holds the records of past times, 106; - the key to the early Aryan civilization, 141. - -_Langue d’oil_ and _langue d’oc_, 66. - -Lapps, the, 117. - -Letters, invention and growth of, 280 _et seq._; - invention of, by the Egyptians, 301. - -Law first connected with religion, 166. - -_Leiche_, the word, 93. - -Lithuanians, the, 99, 105. - -Lohengrin, myth, 275, 276. - -Loki, 210. - -Lombards, the, 104. - -Longobardi, the, 325. - -Lot, 126. - - -Mâ, the Sanskrit root, 68. - -Magyars, the, 119. - -Mammoth age, the, 10. - -Mammoth, drawing of a, by a prehistoric man, 18. - -Man, the earliest traces of, 6; - his first stages of life, 16. - -“Man,” the one who measures, 68. - -Mankind, progress of, in the stone ages, 48 _et seq._ - -Maoris, the, 118. - -Mara, the name, 272. - -Mark, the word, 153. - -Marriage ceremony among the Aryans, 145. - -Maruts, the hymn to, 209. - -Maut, an Egyptian divinity, 187 - -Melanesia, 115. - -Menes, 121. - -Mesopotamia, 123. - -Milky Way, the, a river of death, 277. - -Minôs, 318. - -Mir, the Russian, 162. - -Mitra, 211. - -Mnemonics, different systems of, 284 _et seq._ - -Moloch, 194. - -Monger, the word, 153. - -Mongolians, marks of the, 120. - -Monosyllabic language, 78, 81, 83. - -Montenegrins, the, 106. - -Moon, “the measurer,” 68. - -Moon-gods of the Egyptians, 185. - -Moon myths, 262 _et seq._ - -Moravians, the, 105. - -Moses receives the law, 166. - -Mound-builders, their religion, 40. - -Mythologies, the relationship between different, 173; - of the different Aryan nations, 176. - -Mythology explained through the study of language, 172, 173; - the earliest, 177; - of the Shemites barren in incident and character, 195; - the stories related of the gods, 255. - -Myths, diversity of, 254; - of death and the other world, 273. - - -Nation, the beginnings of, 313, 316. - -Nations of the prehistoric world, 133. - -Nature worship at the bottom of most mythologies, 173; - this does not imply an absence of spirituality, 176; - the objects of, everywhere the same, 177; - in Aryan religions, 197. - -Neanderthal, 15; - skeleton discovered in, 22. - -Nebo, 194. - -Negroes of Africa and Melanesia, 115. - -Neit, 187. - -Neolithic era, 13, 29. - -Nephthys, 190. - -Nergal, 194. - -Nerthus, 204. - -New Guinea, 115. - -Nibelungen, the, 327. - -Nile, the, significance of to the Egyptians, 180; - the personification of, 192. - -Nimrod, 125. - -Nin, 194. - -Noah, 118. - -Norsemen, the other world of the, 249. - - -_Obotriti_, the, 105. - -O’Brien, origin of the name, 323. - -Odin, 204, 224 _et seq._; - the heaven god, 227; - collects the souls of heroes slain in battle, 249, 268; - as the Wandering Jew, etc., 264; - as the “Pied Piper” of Hameln, 264, 272; - as the arch fiend, 270. - -“Old Mother Goose,” 272. - -Osiri, the name, how written by the Egyptians, 301. - -Osiris, 182, 193, 196, 201. - -Ostro-Goths, the, 104. - -Ouse, the, prolific in drift implements, 11. - -Oxus, the, 99. - - -Palæolithic era, 13, 25. - -Pan, 215. - -Pastoral life, qualities involved in, 150; - a nomadic one, 151. - -Patriarch, the authority of a, part of Aryan religion, 167. - -Patriarchal family, the, 141. - -Patriarchal customs, 142. - -Patroclus, funeral of, a picture of Aryan rites, 247. - -_Pecunia_, the word, 151. - -Pelasgi, 102, 320; - the worshippers of pure nature, 215. - -Persephone, 204, 221 _et seq._ - -Perseus and the Gorgon, a sun story, 262. - -Persians, 98. - -Perthes, M. Boucher de, 11. - -Peruvian system of mnemonics, 284. - -Phantom army, the legend of, 225, 249. - -Phœbus Apollo, the god of the younger Greeks, 318. - -Phœnicians, 98, 129; - commercial needs gave rise to their alphabet, 305; - the transporters of civilization, 315; - in Europe, 317. - -Phœnician alphabet, 304; - how formed, 305; - resemblance to Hieratic writing of Egyptians, 306; - the parent of all existing alphabets except Japanese, 308; - how modified, 309. - -Phonetic signs, origin of, 299 _et seq._ - -Phonetic writing, transition to, 297. - -Picture records, 287. - -Picture writing, 289 _et seq._ - -Picturing, 287; - distinguished from picture-writing, 290. - -“Pied Piper of Hameln,” the, 264, 272; - a Slavonic legend, 273. - -Poles, the, 99, 105. - -Polynesian islands, 118. - -Pomeranians, the, 105. - -Pottery, broken, strewed at the grave’s mouth, 40. - -Prehistoric conditions, our knowledge of, uncertain, 4. - -Prehistoric studies, aids to, 2; - of events, rather than chronological, 6. - -Prince Hatt under the earth, the Swedish story of, 260. - -Prithvi, 205, 220. - -Proper names, researches into, 111; - in the Bible often stand for races, 114. - -Prussians, the, 105. - -Ptah, 184. - -Pyramids, a sort of tumuli, 53. - -Python, the, 202. - - -Quipus, the Peruvian cord records, 285. - - -Ra, 184. - -Red races, 116; - considered by some a variety of the yellow race, 118. - -Religion of the mound-builders, 40; - first signs of, 51. - -Religious rites hard to trace back, 172. - -Rents, the three, 152. - -Rex, the, 95, 109. - -Rivers, English, the names of, Keltic, 111. - -Romans, the, 99, 102, 320; - development as a nation, internal, 321. - -Rome, her proficiency in the arts -of government, 168. - -Root sounds, 67. - -Runes, Gothic, 309. - -Russians, the, 99, 105. - -Russian village communities, 169. - - -Sabhâ, the, 144. - -St. Ursula, the myth of, 263. - -San, 194. - -Sarama, 218; the Sons of, 244. - -Sargon I., 125. - -_Sarrasin_, the word, 159. - -Sati, 188. - -Savitar, hymn to, 213. - -Saxons, 325. - -Scandinavians, 99, 104. - -Sea coast, gradual protrusion of, 34. - -Sea of death, the, mythical, 276. - -Sekhet-Pasht, 185. - -Semitic languages. See ARYAN. - -Semitic races, 97. - -Semitic religion infused with awe, 198. - -Servians, the, 106. - -Shell mounds, 29, 34; - proofs of their antiquity, 35, 136. - -_Sheol_, 241, note. - -Siamese, the, 117. - -Sigurd the Volsung, 267; - fire and thorn hedge used in the tale of, 278. - -Silesians, 105. - -Sin, 194. - -Skirnir, 231. - -Sky-divinities of the Egyptians, 187. - -Sky-god of the Aryans, 200. - -Slavonians, the, 103, 104; - pushing back the Tartars, 119. - -Social life, early, 135. - -Soil-deity of the Egyptians, 189. - -Somme, the, drift implements first discovered in the bed of, 11. - -“Son of,” how used in the Bible, 114. - -Sorabians, the, 105. - -Sothis, 192. - -Sound and sense, connection of, 61. - -Spanish, the, 99. - -Speech, the origin of, indiscoverable, 59. - -Stone age, the two periods of, 12. - -Stone age, the old, man’s life in, 24; - animals of, 26. - -Stone age, the later, 28; - theories to account for the transition to, 28; - continuous history begins with, 29; - man of, in Denmark, 30; - navigation of, 30; - domestic animals in, 32, 36; - men of, not cannibals, 32; - burial mounds of, 36; - human victims in, 37; - classes of implements of, 38; - pottery of, 39; - ornaments, 41; - burial customs of, 40; - tumuli, the truest existing representatives of, 43; - also called the polished stone age, 43; - duration of, in Europe, 44; - civilization of, 47 _et seq._; - successive steps in, 49 _et seq._; - first signs of religion in, 51; - civilization of, 52; - implements of, different materials of, 50; - people, little known of their social state, 136. - -Stone ages, progress of mankind in, 48 _et seq._ - -Stonehenge, 36, 42. - -Suevi, the, 104, 325. - -Sun, supreme god of the Semitic nations, 200; - hopes of futurity suggested by, 246. - -Sun-god, the death of, 236. - -Sun-gods of the Egyptians, 181 _et seq._; - how regarded by the Indo-European nations, 202. - -Sun-heroes, the different, 262. - -Sun-myths, 257. - -Surya, 211. - -Susa, 126. - -Swan, the, connected with ideas of death, 275. - -Swarga, 244. - -Symbolical teaching of the Egyptians, 191. - - -Tallies, the invention of, the germ of writing, 283. - -Tannhäuser, the legend of, 263. - -Tartar class of languages, 89. - -Tartar races, invasion of the, 119. - -Tasmania, 114. - -Tellus, 205. - -Teutonic family of nations, 103, 104. - -Teutons, village history of the, 169; - divisions of, 324; - an agricultural people, 326; - conquerors, 326; - feudal, 327; - poems of, 327. - -Tew, 199. - -Thanatos, 241. - -Thammuz, 194. - -Thibetans, the, 117. - -Thmei, 192. - -Thor, 202; - labors of, 228; - as “Jack the Giant Killer,” 264; - the recovery of his hammer, 264. - -Thoth, 185, 194. - -“Time and Tide,” 94. - -Timûr Link (Tamerlaine), 119. - -Tomb-builders, the, 36. - -Towns, English, the names of Teutonic, etc., 111. - -Tumuli, 36; contents of, 37; - pottery found in, 52, 125; - civilization of the builders of the, 138. - -Turanian languages, 88. - -Turanians of Central Asia, 119; - the early inhabitants of India were, 120. - -Turks, the, 119. - -Typhon, 196, 202. - -Tyr, 228. - - -Ulfilas, 324. - -Ur of the Chaldees, 125. - -Urki, 194. - -Urvasi and Pururaras, the story of, 258. - -Ushas, 205. - - -Vandals, 104, 325. - -Van der Decken, 226. - -Valkyriur, the, 249, 269; - changed into witches, 272, 275. - -Varuna, 203; corresponds to Ouranos, 231. - -Vedic religion of India, 207. - -Verb endings, origin of, 75. - -Village community, the, 159; - features and regulations of, 160; - relation of the members to each other, 161; - correspondence of the Russian _Mir_ to, 162; - source of authority in, 162; - essentials of a true, 163; - assembly of householders, 163; - origin of, 163; - the ideas of personal and communal property arise in, 165; - origin of, distinction between -divine and human law, in, 167; - changes resulting from the adoption of, 68; - chief of the Teuton, possessed of but little power, 170. - -Visi-Goths, 104. - -Vortices of national life, 313. - -Vritra, 209. - -Vul, 194. - - -Wampum, 284. - -“Wandering Jew,” the, 264, 270. - -White races, 118. - -_Wiltzi_, 105. - -Wind-myths, 268. - -Words, significant and _in_-significant, 57 _et seq._; - formation of, by joining others, 72. - -Writing, the art of picturing sound, 281; - the invention of, 282. - -Yaranas, 100, 132. - -Yellow races, 117. - -_Yes_, origin of the word, 65. - - -Zend Avesta, 207, 233, 235. - -Zend language, the, 235. - -Zend religion, the, pre-eminence of, 232. - -Zeus, 199, 202, 206; - the Olympic and Pelasgic, 214; - shrines of, at Dodona and in Elis, 215, 227. - -Zio, 199. - -Zoroaster, 166. - -Zoroastrianism, 233. - - -FOOTNOTES: - - [1] Bæda, ii. 13. - - [2] See Appendix. - - [3] Mr. Evans in his _Stone Implements of Great Britain_ divides those - of the River Drift into Flakes, Pointed Implements, and Sharp-rimmed - Implements. - - [4] Most of these carved implements were discovered by Mr. Christy and - M. Lartet, and left by the former to the French Museum of Prehistoric - Antiquities at St. Germains. Exact copies of these in plaster, as well - as several carved bones, may however be seen at the British Museum; - and during the last year the national collection has been greatly - enriched by the acquisition of several beautiful specimens of cave - carvings from the collection of M. Pecadeau de l’Isle. - - [5] See Appendix. - - [6] It is curious that there are no remains in Scandinavia which can - with certainty be called palæolithic. It would seem as though during - this era the countries remained too cold for habitation. - - [7] Both in Switzerland and in the neighbourhood of the Pyrenees. - - [8] _In height_, that is. The distance of coast-line which disappears - owing to the mere volcanic depression, or the distance of coast-line - which appears on the other shore from volcanic upheaval (independently - of river deposits, etc.), depends of course upon the level of the - coast. It would not, however, be generally more than a yard or two. - - [9] Probably as altars or perhaps as gods themselves. I desire to - speak with great caution of the rude stone monuments of Europe; for of - all branches of prehistoric study this has been the least developed by - modern research. - - [10] It seems highly probable that the invention of some sort of malt - liquor followed upon the growth of corn. Tacitus mentions such a - liquor as having been drunk by the Germans of his day. He is doubtless - describing a sort of beer. - - [11] But not sheep apparently; at least not in Western Europe. In - these islands the sheep did not appear before the time of Julius Cæsar. - - [12] _Hamlet_, act v., sc. 1. - - [13] M. Troyon has started the idea that the crouched attitude of the - dead--_repliée_, as he describes it: he declares that it does not - in the least resemble the crouched attitude which men of some races - assume when sleeping--was imposed upon the dead with a symbolical - meaning, viz. that it was meant to imitate the position of the - child in the womb of its parent, and as such to enfold the hope of - resurrection in the act of entombment. The idea is a poetical one, but - I much doubt whether it has pre-existed in other minds before finding - a place in that of M. Troyon. The author, however, should be heard in - defence of his own theory, and may be so in the _Revue Arch._, ix. 289. - - [14] Some of the varieties of grain found in these lake-dwellings are - not otherwise known to botanists. - - [15] The Phœnicians are said by tradition to have invented the - manufacture of glass. But there is no proof of this. - - [16] Of course the making of very rude huts of branches and leaves may - have been practised by these--such huts as formed the only shelter of - the Tasmanians down to our day. For an imaginative description of the - most primitive house, see Violet de Duc, _The Houses of Men in all - Ages_, ch. i. - - [17] The simile is Mr. Max Müller’s. - - [18] In English we have _grind_, _grate_, (_s_)_cra_(_pe_), _grave_ - (German _graben_, ‘to dig;’ Eng. ‘grub.’) All words for writing mean - cutting, because all writing was originally graving on a stone: thus - the Latin _scribo_ (corrupted in the French to _écris_), in the Greek - is _grapho_, in the German _schreibe_. These words, as well as the - English _write_, are known to be all from the same root; it is not - pretended that they are _proofs_ of a natural selection of sound; but - they may be instances of it. - - [19] The reader, however, may be referred to Tylor’s _Early History of - Mankind_, ch. iv., for much interesting information on the subject. - - [20] _Yes_ is probably not the same word as the German _ja_ (whose - significant form is lost), though our _yea_ is. - - [21] See below, pp. 70-80. - - [22] These two words have, it is true, quite changed their meanings; - but our _knight_ rose to its honourable sense from having come to be - used only for the servants or attendants of the king (in battle), - while the German word retained its older sense of servant, groom, only. - - [23] See above, p. 66. - - [24] The reader who does not know Latin may easily recognize the - kindred forms in French, Italian, Spanish, etc. - - [25] Mr. Max Müller calls it the _terminational_ stage. - - [26] _Agone_ is possibly from a stronger form _âgan_, ‘to pass away.’ - - [27] To get the full sound of the _th_, this should be said not as we - pronounce our article _the_ (which really has the sound _dhe_), but - like the first part of Thebes, theme, etc. - - [28] Cf. the Greek _klutos_. - - [29] Stephen, _Lectures on the History of France_. - - [30] This is the theory of Aryan origins still most generally - accepted. It has, however, been maintained by several philologists - that there is no evidence of an Asiatic origin of the European nations. - - [31] See Chapter I. - - [32] Among the Iberians, however, the Celtic blood was much diluted - with an infusion of that of an earlier Turanian race allied to the - modern Basques. - - [33] Or say, rather, the people of Italy. Only the Etruscans - must probably be excepted from the category, and the Gauls, who - subsequently settled themselves in Cisalpine Gaul. - - [34] The principal among these laws were elaborated by Jacob Grimm, - and hence called ‘Grimm’s Laws.’ They may be seen in his _Teutonic - Grammar_, and also in his _History of the German Tongue_. - - [35] Because they would be hardly likely to give a fresh name to such - an intimate relationship as the daughter. On the other hand, it seems - necessary that the Aryan race must have been in the hunter state at - some period, and equally necessary that they must _then_ have had a - word for daughter. Milking, it may be urged, might be practised before - the domestication of animals. See also Chapter VI. - - [36] Supreme, because his title became a supreme title among these - _different_ Aryan stocks. - - [37] And this without any reproach to the industry of those at work. - The volumes of Kühn’s _Zeitschr. für vergleichende Sprachforschung_, - Lazarus and Steinthal’s _Zeitsch. f. Völkerpsychologie_, M. Pictet’s - fascinating _Origines indo-européennes_, etc., are storehouses which - display the treasures already obtained. - - [38] Such a book as we have imagined would form a natural sequel to - the principles of comparative grammar as laid down by Bopp, etc. It - would differ from a mere comparative dictionary in the arrangement, - showing the nature and extent of modification which each word had - undergone--where, for instance, Grimm’s laws of change hold good, - where not; the cases of the survival of archaic forms (agreeable to - Grimm’s _second law_); and, if they could be discovered as the result - of such a classification, the determining causes of such survival - among any of the different races. - - [39] I have been told that the late Lord Strangford, a great linguist, - and a comparative philologist to boot, could always find amusement - for an idle half-hour in a book which the reader would probably think - of, if asked to name the most uninteresting of created things--I mean - Bradshaw, English or foreign; and his interest lay in extracting the - hidden meaning and history which lay concealed in these lists of - geographical names. - - [40] It is found that the peculiarity of curling or not curling in - hair depends upon the form, the form in _section_, of the individual - hairs. The woolly hairs are oval in section, the straight ones round. - - [41] Lenormant, _Manual of the Ancient History of the East_, vol. i., - p. 55. - - [42] Not that this particular foothold has descended to the Turks from - early times. See the next paragraph. - - [43] Lenormant, _Manual_, i. 343. It should be remarked that the - authority of Justin on such a point is not high. - - [44] Mariette’s date is B.C. 5004, Lepsius’s 3892, - Wilkinson’s only 2700. Wilkinson’s chronology, however, founded upon - the theory of _contemporaneous dynasties_ in the lists of Manetho, has - now been generally rejected. - - [45] Shûmîr was a portion of the country inhabited by the Accadians. - - [46] See Chapter XIII. - - [47] Gen. xi. 2. - - [48] Gen. xiv. - - [49] Kung-foo-tse was his real name. - - [50] ‘Fool! why journeyest thou wearisomely in thy antiquarian - fervour to gaze on the stone pyramids of Geeza, or the clay stones - of Sacchara? These stand there, as I can tell thee, idle and inert, - looking over the desert, foolishly enough, for the last three thousand - years; but canst thou not open thy Hebrew BIBLE, or even - Luther’s version thereof?’ _Sartor Resartus._ - - [51] For example, the Hindee _rupee_, the Latin _pecunia_, and our - _fee_. - - [52] As the Sanskrit _gôpa_, ‘a prince,’ the Slavonic _hospodar_ (from - _gôspada_) contains the word _gô_, our ‘cow,’ and means the protector - of the cattle; from the same root, Sanskrit _gavya_, ‘pasturage,’ - Saxon _gê_, ‘county,’ Greek _gaia_, or _gê_, ‘earth.’ - - [53] See above, page 94. - - [54] Cattle were probably originally communal property: and were - appropriated to individuals at a later stage than other movable goods. - In the Roman law we find that they could only be transferred by the - same forms as were required for the conveyance of land: being classed - amongst the ‘res mancipi.’ - - [55] The same connection between ‘mother’ and ‘daughter’ villages also - once existed to a large extent in Germany. - - [56] That is to say, the stories themselves may be old enough; the - application of them to some special members of a pantheon marks the - condition of the creed. - - [57] The etymology of Indra’s name is uncertain. It cannot therefore - be said whether or no he was originally a sun-god, though he has many - of the attributes of one. In the Vedas he is also a god of storms. - - [58] Welcker maintains (_Griech. Götterlehre_) that the title, Son - of Time, belonged to Zeus before Kronos (Chronos) was invented as a - personality to be the father of Zeus. - - [59] I purposely leave out Aphrodite (Venus) from this category, as - she partakes so much of the nature of an Oriental goddess. - - [60] Not directly, however; see Grimm, D. M., vol. i., p. 252. - - [61] Soma was the mystic (and no doubt intoxicating) drink used in the - sacrifices, and poured as libation to the gods. It was personified as - a divinity. - - [62] The _flash_, the father of the Maruts (?). - - [63] The dew? (=Prokris?) imaged here as a cow. She is the mother of - the Maruts. - - [64] Though the character of this has been a good deal exaggerated in - the popular notions of the religion of the ancient Persians. - - [65] Mitra is associated with the idea of the sun. But I incline to - think that originally he was rather the wind of morning, or even the - morning _sky_. He is almost always linked in the hymns with Varuna, - who most certainly was at one time the sky (ούρανός), and once a - supreme god. See what is said below of Surya. - - [66] The Dawn. See p. 205. - - [67] The fish. - - [68] Literally, ‘the egg’s son.’ - - [69] It has been already said that the Latin mythology, _as we know - it_, is almost all borrowed directly from the Greek. It is obviously - right, therefore, to call the deities by their Greek, and not, as was - till recently always done, by their Latin names. The Latin gods had - no doubt much of the character of their Greek brethren; but it is to - the Greek poets that we are really indebted for what we know about - them. In this chapter, for the sake of clearness, the Latin name is - generally given in parentheses after the Greek one. - - [70] To appreciate this we must compare the representations of Apollo - with those of Helios, who was simply and frankly a sun-god even to - the later Greeks, and we see that they are essentially the same - personality. Even in the very early statues of Apollo, where the - artist had not the skill to make wide, flowing locks, the hair is - always indicated with great care and some elaboration of detail. - - [71] A word allied to our _fen_. - - [72] Homeric hymn to Dêmêtêr. - - [73] See Appendix. _Persephone and Balder._ - - [74] Albeit that Aphroditê like Athenê is likewise a goddess sprung - from water--from the sea. - - [75] As she springs from the head of Zeus, the storm-cloud. - - [76] Our knowledge of Teutonic mythology is chiefly gathered from the - Norsemen, and in fact almost exclusively from Icelandic literature. - The most valuable source of all is the collection of sacred songs - which generally goes by the name of _Edda den Ældra_, the Elder Edda. - - [77] Odhinn is the Norse, Wuotan the German, Wodan or Wodin the - English name. - - [78] Or else the god who inspires. (See _Corp. Poet Bor._, Introd., p. - civ.) - - [79] Literally, ‘The Hall of the Slain,’ _i.e._ the hall of heroes. - - [80] Æsir, pl. of As or Ans, the general Norse name for a god. - - [81] One of the last appearances of such a phantom army is graphically - described by Mr. Motley in his _History of the Dutch Republic_. - The occasion was a short time before the battle of Mookerhyde, in - which the army of Prince Louis of Nassau was defeated, and himself - slain:--‘Early in February five soldiers of the burgher guard at - Utrecht, being on their midnight watch, beheld in the sky above them - the representation of a furious battle. The sky was extremely dark - except directly over their heads, where for a space equal in extent - to the length of the city, and in breadth to that of an ordinary - chamber, two armies in battle array were seen advancing upon each - other. The one moved rapidly up from the north-west, with banners - waving, spears flashing, trumpets sounding, accompanied by heavy - artillery and by squadrons of cavalry. The other came slowly forward - from the south-east, as if from an entrenched camp, to encounter - their assailants. There was a fierce action for a few moments, the - shouts of the combatants, the heavy discharge of cannon, the rattle - of musketry, the tramp of heavy-armed foot-soldiers, and the rush of - cavalry being distinctly heard. The firmament trembled with the shock - of the contending hosts, and was lurid with the rapid discharges of - their artillery.... The struggle seemed but short. The lances of the - south-eastern army seemed to snap ‘like hempstalks,’ while their firm - columns all went down together in mass beneath the onset of their - enemies. The overthrow was complete--victors and vanquished had faded; - the clear blue space, surrounded by black clouds, was empty, when - suddenly its whole extent where the conflict had so lately raged was - streaked with blood, flowing athwart the sky in broad crimson streaks; - nor was it till the five witnesses had fully watched and pondered over - these portents that the vision entirely vanished.’ (Vol. ii., p. 526.) - - [82] The story of Van der Decken, the Flying Dutchman, is surely (more - especially since its dramatization by Wagner) too well known to need - relation. Van der Decken, or Dekken, seems to mean ‘the man with the - cloak;’ he too is probably a changed form of Odin. - - [83] It may be as well to say here that every detail of the legend is - found upon a critical inquiry to be significant. His name Hackelbärend - (cloak-bearer) connects him with Odin, the wind-god. His two dogs - connect him with two dogs of Sanskrit mythology, also signifying the - wind. - - [84] See Uhland, _Der Mythus von Thor_. - - [85] _Baldur; a Song of Divine Death_, by Robert Buchanan. - - [86] This scarcely holds as a simile, for in fact the light _is_ the - aurora. It need hardly be said, therefore, that the comparison is not - found in the original story. - - [87] _I.e._ Garðr a general name for earth, expanded from the confined - meaning of inclosure, _yard_ (allied to οἶκος, _hortus_); just as γαῖα - is connected with a cow-inclosure. - - [88] The meaning of Zoroaster, or rather Zarathustra, his true name. - The reader may usefully consult M. James Darmesteter’s _Zend Avesta_ - (_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. iv.), in which he will see how much - of this religion is (in the opinion of M. Darmesteter) simply an early - nature-religion parallel to that of the Vedas. - - [89] Hence the name Mazdean applied to this creed. - - [90] See Chapter IV., p. 100. - - [91] Or the graves of those whom he desired specially to honour. We - can guess at the process of his thought pretty well. First, the body - is buried deep, or earth is thrown over it in a heap, to keep it from - being torn up by wild beasts. Then as the covering of the body gets to - be thought a special insurance of vitality to the soul, the practice - is exaggerated more and more until we get the great grave-mounds and - the pyramids. - - [92] Wooden statues were very common in the earliest Egyptian - dynasties. But they belong to these only. - - [93] Blue or green is the colour of Osiris, who represents the soul. - (See Chapter VII.) - - [94] The Egyptian tombs having generally an upper chamber for the - sacrifices or funeral feasts, and a chamber in the earth beneath for - the mummy. - - [95] _Sheol_ is the Hebrew word generally translated ‘grave’ in our - version. Very different from the teaching of modern religion is the - following passage:-- - - ‘_Sheol_ shall not praise the Jehovah, - The dead shall not celebrate Thee: - They that go down into the pit shall not hope for Thy truth. - The living, the living, shall praise Thee as I do this day.’ - (Isa. xxxviii. 18, 19.) - - - [96] Still, this effect of their art on us may arise from the - disappearance of some monuments which had a very different character, - _e.g._ the _campo santo_ pictures, as we may call them, of Polygnotus - at Delphi. (See Pausanias, x. 28.) - - [97] The reason why the ‘blameless Ethiopians’ were honoured by name - and by the company of the gods, is most likely to be found in the fact - of their living, as Homer thought, so near the western border of the - world. - - [98] Weber, in Chamb. 1020. - - [99] V_r_hadâra_n_yaka, _Ed. Pol._, iii. 4-7. - - [100] According to the proper laws of change from Sanskrit to Greek, - Sârameyas = Έρμείας, Έρμής - - [101] Wilson, _As. Res._, iii. 409. - - [102] vii. 6, 15. - - [103] Father of the ‘family’ in its larger sense. (See the chapter on - Early Social Life.) - - [104] ψυχή, _spiritus_, Geist, ghost, all from the notion of breathing. - - [105] - - ψυχή δἐ κατἀ χθονὀς, ἠΰτε καπνός, ᾤχετο - (_Il._ xxiii, 100.) - - ‘And to its home beneath the earth like _smoke_ - His soul went down.’ - - - [106] The suggestion of Grimm (_Ueber das Verb. der Leichen_), that - burying may have been used by an agricultural people, by those who - were wont to watch the sown seed spring into new life, whereas burning - is the custom of shepherd races, is not supported by a wide survey - of the facts. The Aryans were not essentially pastoral, on the whole - less so than the Turanian people who buried (see Herod., I. 4, for the - Scythians), and less so again than the Semites, who did the same. - - [107] The Vendidâd relates how after that Auramazda had created - sixteen perfect localities upon earth, Ahrimanes came after (like the - sower of tares), and did what in him lay to spoil the paradises, by - introducing all sorts of noxious animals and other abominations, such - as the practice of burning the dead body or giving it to the water. - The Iranians, as is well known, suspended their dead upon a sort of - grating, and left them to be devoured of wild birds. - - [108] _Beowulf_, the oldest poem in our language (in Early English), - is considered to have been written somewhere about A.D. - 700. It relates the adventures of a prince of Jutland or of Southern - Sweden. Though made and sung in a Christian country, it breathes the - spirit of an earlier (heathen) time, as the instance of the burning of - Beowulf alone would testify. - - [109] Hel, from _helja_, ‘to conceal,’ answered identically to Hades. - - [110] This heavenward journey may be described as at first a - haven-ward one (_i.e._ across the sea); later as a really heavenward - one through the air, with the wind-god. - - [111] This is the Younger, or Prose Edda, of Snorro (Dæmisaga 49), not - that called the Edda of Sæmund--the _Elder_ Edda. Undoubtedly the myth - of Balder is largely infused with Christian elements. - - [112] Hel, in Norse mythology, is a person, the regent of Helheim. - Just in the same way Hades is in Homer always a god, never a place. - The idea concerning Helheim seems to have been that all who were not - slain in battle went to its dark shore. - - [113] _i.e._ Dokkr, _dark_. She sits in a cave, because both day and - night are imagined as coming from a cave. So Shelley sings-- - - ‘Swiftly walk over the western cave, - Spirit of Night, - Out of thy misty eastern cave.’ - - - [114] Or, strictly speaking, the Brahmana of the Yagur Veda. The - Brahmana is the scholiast (as it were) or _targum_ of the original - text. Urva_s_i is Ushas, the Dawn. - - [115] Morris, _Earthly Paradise_: Cupid and Psyche. - - [116] I have no doubt there is another element in all these stories, - not inconsistent with but complementary to the first--namely, what I - will call a _mystery_ element connected with a descent to the world of - shades, such as formed the staple of the Eleusinian mysteries. Thus - I think Pururavas is the hidden sun (the dark Osiris as it were). - He might call himself Pururavas _under the earth_ as Prince Hatt is - Prince Hatt _under the earth_. This would explain how the story got - to be connected with Psyche (the Soul). It may be said, too, that - there is often a _mystery_ element connected with such notions as the - concealment of names, etc. - - [117] Connected with Lêthê, _concealment_ or _forgetfulness_, as with - Lêto, the mother of Apollo. All signify the darkness. - - [118] See last chapter, p. 252. Endymion is found by Artemis sleeping - in a cave of Latmos. - - [119] See Baring-Gould, _Curious Myths_, etc. - - [120] He is actually a reduplication of Thor; for his name means - _thunder_, as does Thor’s. Thor is of course much more than a god of - thunder only; but his hammer is undoubtedly the thunder-bolt. Thrym - represents the same power associated with beings of frost and snow, - the winter thunder, in fact. This stealing Thor’s hammer is merely a - repetition of the idea implied by his name and character. - - [121] Which Freyja wore. - - [122] Giant does not really translate Thurs. Most of the Thursar - were giants as opposed to the Dvargar, the dwarfs. But this Alvîs - (all-wise) is spoken of as a dwarf. - - [123] There is a clear recollection of this in the end of - Rumpelstiltskin. - - [124] This story, be it said, comes only from the younger Edda. No - hint of it in the older. - - [125] ‘Beowulf,’ we have said, is thought to have been first composed - in English at the end of the seventh century. There was probably an - earlier and more simple version of the poem which has come down to - us. I do not mean to say that either Beowulf or Sigurd are simply - personifications of the sun; only that some of their belongings and - adventures have descended to them from sun-heroes. - - [126] Valkyria, sing.; Valkyriur, pl. - - [127] _Kinder-u. Hausmärchen._ - - [128] _I.e._ the sky. See Grimm, _Deutsche Myth._, s.v. (Hackelberg); - and also two very interesting articles by A. Kühn, _Zeitsch. für - deutsch. Alterth._, v. 379, vi. 117, showing relationship of - Hackelbärend and the Sârameyas. - - [129] These twelve nights occupy in the middle-age legends the place - of a sort of battle-ground between the powers of light and darkness. - One obvious reason of this is that they lie in midwinter, when the - infernal powers are the strongest. Another reason, perhaps, is that - they lie between the great Christian feast and the great heathen one, - the feast of Yule. Each party might be expected to put forth its full - power. - - [130] Perhaps for a reason like that which made the beetle a symbol of - the soul or immortality among the Egyptians, namely, because the mouse - hibernates like the sleeping earth. It is worth noticing that Anubis, - the Egyptian psychopomp, is also a wind-god.--A. K. - - [131] The appearance of _children_ in the story need not, however, - necessarily mean that the mortality had specially affected the - children. It may only have been an expression like the Latin - _manes_--the little ones--used for the souls of the departed. We know - how constantly in mediæval art the soul is represented as drawn out of - the body in the form of a child. - - [132] There are at least six different versions of the same legend - given in Grimm’s _Deutsche Sagen_. - - [133] This myth is related by Procopius (_B. G._, iv.). There is - little doubt that this island, which _he_ calls Brittia (and of course - distinguishes from Britannia), is really identical with it. The _wall_ - which he speaks of as dividing it is proof sufficient. - - [134] To the house of Yama. - - [135] See above, p. 251. - - [136] See above, p. 231. - - [137] The fortune which accompanies a myth is very curious. That - of Freyr and Gerda is by no means conspicuous in the Edda, and I - should not have been justified in comparing it in importance with the - Persephone myth, _but_ that precisely the same story forms a leading - feature in _the_ great Norse and Teuton epic, the Volsung and Nibelung - songs. - - [138] It is interesting to note that _one_ of the proofs that the - Greek _alphabet_ is derived from the Phœnician is precisely similar - to the proof that the Sanskrit _Dyâus_ or _duhitar_ are earlier - forms than Zeus or _daughter_. Because in Greek _alphabet_ means - only _alpha_ (α) _beta_ (β), but in Phœnician _alpha_ or _aleph_ and - _beta_ or _beth_ have distinct meanings--‘ox’ and ‘house’--the objects - supposed to be symbolized by the first two Phœnician letters. See - above. - - [139] Or Khita. - - [140] The word would be more correctly spelt _Yawân_. It is known that - Iôn has been changed from Ivôn, or rather Iwôn, by the elision of the - digamma. - - [141] _i.e._ the Gauls. - - [142] For the story of Bran’s head, which spoke after it was cut off, - and which is in its natural interpretation probably the sun, see Mr. - M. Arnold’s _Celtic Literature_. - - [143] Or if the Teutones were really Germans. Some have denied this - (see Latham’s _Germania_, Appendix). But, I think, without sufficient - reason. - - [144] Latham’s _Germania_. - - [145] And therefore possibly Slaves, Wend being a name applied by - Teutons to Slaves. - - [146] _e.g._ Old German, _aran_, to plough = _arare_, etc. - - -Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber: - -party exterminated=> partly exterminated {pg 101} - -certain among the the islands=> certain among the islands {pg 115} - -of the Semitic=> of the Semetic {pg 118} - -the Ayran people=> the Aryan people {pg 199} - -have the Elsyian fields=> have the Elysian fields {pg 243} - -the Egyptian heiroglyphics=> the Egyptian hieroglyphics {pg 311} - -closely alied to=> closely allied to {pg 320} - -the ancient Egptian=> the ancient Egyptian {pg 339} - -case in repect of=> case in respect of {pg 351} - -in Phenician=> in Phœnician {pg 357} - -to the Eyptians=> to the Egyptians {pg 364} - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dawn of History, by C. F. Keary - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAWN OF HISTORY *** - -***** This file should be named 52030-0.txt or 52030-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/0/3/52030/ - -Produced by Sonya Schermann, Chuck Greif and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, -set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to -copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to -protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project -Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you -charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you -do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the -rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose -such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and -research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do -practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is -subject to the trademark license, especially commercial -redistribution. - - - -*** START: FULL LICENSE *** - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project -Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at -http://gutenberg.org/license). - - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy -all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. -If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the -terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or -entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement -and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" -or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the -collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an -individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are -located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from -copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative -works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg -are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project -Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by -freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of -this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with -the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by -keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project -Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in -a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check -the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement -before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or -creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project -Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning -the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United -States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate -access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently -whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, -copied or distributed: - -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/license - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived -from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is -posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied -and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees -or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work -with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the -work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 -through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the -Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or -1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional -terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked -to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the -permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any -word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or -distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than -"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version -posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), -you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a -copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon -request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other -form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided -that - -- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is - owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he - has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the - Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments - must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you - prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax - returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and - sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the - address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to - the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." - -- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or - destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium - and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of - Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any - money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days - of receipt of the work. - -- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set -forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from -both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael -Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the -Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm -collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain -"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or -corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual -property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a -computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by -your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with -your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with -the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a -refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity -providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to -receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy -is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further -opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER -WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO -WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. -If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the -law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be -interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by -the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any -provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance -with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, -promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, -harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, -that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do -or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm -work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any -Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. - - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers -including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists -because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from -people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. -To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation -and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 -and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive -Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at -http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent -permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. -Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered -throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at -809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email -business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact -information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official -page at http://pglaf.org - -For additional contact information: - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To -SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any -particular state visit http://pglaf.org - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. -To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate - - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm -concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared -with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project -Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. - - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. -unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily -keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. - - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - http://www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/52030-0.zip b/old/52030-0.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 3fcf658..0000000 --- a/old/52030-0.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52030-h.zip b/old/52030-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 7821e55..0000000 --- a/old/52030-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52030-h/52030-h.htm b/old/52030-h/52030-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 667aa7f..0000000 --- a/old/52030-h/52030-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,13011 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" -"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> - -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en"> - <head> <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> -<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> -<title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of By The Dawn of History, by C. F. Keary. -</title> -<style type="text/css"> - p {margin-top:.2em;text-align:justify;margin-bottom:.2em;text-indent:4%;} - -.c {text-align:center;text-indent:0%;} - -.cb {text-align:center;text-indent:0%;font-weight:bold;} - -.csml {text-indent:0%;margin-left:8em; -font-size:85%;} - -.nind {text-indent:0%;} - -.listt {text-indent:0%;margin-left:5%;} - -.r {text-align:right;margin-right: 5%;} - -.rt {text-align:right;} - -.sans {font-family:sans-serif, serif;margin: 1% 35% 1% 35%; -font-size: 80%;} - -small {font-size: 70%;} - -big {font-size: 130%;} - - h1 {margin-top:5%;text-align:center;clear:both;} - - h2 {margin-top:4%;margin-bottom:2%;text-align:center;clear:both; - font-size:120%;} - - h3 {margin:4% auto 2% auto;text-align:center;clear:both;font-size:100%;} - - hr {width:90%;margin:2em auto 2em auto;clear:both;color:black;} - - hr.full {width: 50%;margin:5% auto 5% auto;border:4px double gray;} - - table {margin-top:2%;margin-bottom:2%;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;border:none;} - - body{margin-left:4%;margin-right:6%;background:#ffffff;color:black;font-family:"Times New Roman", serif;font-size:medium;} - -a:link {background-color:#ffffff;color:blue;text-decoration:none;} - - link {background-color:#ffffff;color:blue;text-decoration:none;} - -a:visited {background-color:#ffffff;color:purple;text-decoration:none;} - -a:hover {background-color:#ffffff;color:#FF0000;text-decoration:underline;} - -.smcap {font-variant:small-caps;font-size:100%;} - - img {border:none;} - -.figcenter {margin-top:3%;margin-bottom:3%;clear:both; -margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:center;text-indent:0%;} - @media print, handheld - {.figcenter - {page-break-before: avoid;} - } - -.footnotes {border:dotted 3px gray;margin-top:5%;clear:both;} - -.footnote {width:95%;margin:auto 3% 1% auto;font-size:0.9em;position:relative;} - -.label {position:relative;left:-.5em;top:0;text-align:left;font-size:.8em;} - -.fnanchor {vertical-align:30%;font-size:.8em;} - -div.poetry {text-align:center;} -div.poem {font-size:90%;margin:auto auto;text-indent:0%; -display: inline-block; text-align: left;} -.poem .stanza {margin-top: 1em;margin-bottom:1em;} -.poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} -.poem span.i1 {display: block; margin-left: .45em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} -.poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} -.poem span.i3 {display: block; margin-left: 3em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} -.poem span.i5 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} -.poem span.i8 {display: block; margin-left: 7em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} -.poem span.i10 {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} -.poem span.i9 {display: block; margin-left: 9em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} - -.pagenum {font-style:normal;position:absolute; -left:95%;font-size:55%;text-align:right;color:gray; -background-color:#ffffff;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;text-indent:0em;} -@media print, handheld -{.pagenum - {display: none;} - } - -.sidenote {width:10%;padding-bottom:.5em;padding-top:.5em; -padding-left:.5em;padding-right:.5em;margin-left:1em;text-align:center; -float:right;clear:right;margin-top:1em;font-size:80%; -color:black;background:#eeeeee;border:dashed 1px;} - -@media handheld { -.sidenote {float: left; clear: none; font-weight: bold; -text-decoration:underline;font-size:75%;} -} - -th {padding:.5em;} -</style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dawn of History, by C. F. Keary - -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/license - - -Title: The Dawn of History - An Introduction to Pre-Historic Study - -Author: C. F. Keary - -Release Date: May 9, 2016 [EBook #52030] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAWN OF HISTORY *** - - - - -Produced by Sonya Schermann, Chuck Greif and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - -<hr class="full" /> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="314" height="500" alt="cover" title="" /> -</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="" -style="border: 2px black solid;margin:1% auto 2% auto;max-width:50%; -padding:1%;"> -<tr><td> - -<p class="c"><a href="#CONTENTS"><span class="smcap">Contents</span>.</a><br /> -<span class="smcap"><a href="#INDEX">Index</a></span></p> -<p class="c">Some typographical errors have been corrected; -<a href="#transcrib">a list follows the text</a>.</p> -<p class="c">(etext transcriber's note)</p></td></tr> -</table> - -<div class="sans"> -<p class="cb">BY THE SAME AUTHOR.<br />———</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td valign="top"><b>THE DAWN OF HISTORY</b>. An Introduction to Pre-historic Study. 12mo</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><b>$1.25</b></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top"><b>OUTLINES OF PRIMITIVE BELIEF</b> among the Indo-European Races. Crown 8vo.</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><b>2.50</b></td></tr> -</table> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_i" id="page_i"></a>{i}</span> </p> - -<h1> -THE<br /> -<br /> -DAWN OF HISTORY:</h1> - -<p class="c"><i>AN INTRODUCTION TO</i><br /> -<br /> -<big>PRE-HISTORIC STUDY.</big><br /> -<br /><br /> -EDITED BY<br /> - -<b>C. F. KEARY, M.A., F.S.A.</b><br /> -<br /> -NEW EDITION.<br /> -<br /> -NEW YORK:<br /> -CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS.<br /> -1902<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_ii" id="page_ii"></a>{ii}</span><br /> -<br /> -<small>THE CAXTON PRESS<br />NEW YORK.</small> -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_iii" id="page_iii"></a>{iii}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">The</span> present edition of the <i>Dawn of History</i> is a considerable -enlargement upon the former one, as may be judged from the fact that the -former, including the Appendix, contained only 231 pages, whereas the -present edition contains 357. These enlargements have chiefly affected -the first four chapters with the ninth and tenth, and, generally -speaking, the chapters for which the editor is wholly responsible. He -felt himself quite incapable of improving chapters eight, eleven, and -thirteen, which can hardly fail to be recognized as the best in the -volume; and, unhappily, the hand which wrote them—that of Annie -Keary—is no longer able to revise or alter. Some slight corrections -therefore have been made, in accordance with the advance of these -branches of study during recent years, but nothing more. No more were -needed, for (in the case of the chapters on writing, for example) -further research has only tended to establish more firmly the -conclusions here accepted. The chapters on early social life (vi., -vii.), again, did<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_iv" id="page_iv"></a>{iv}</span> not seem to the editor to require more than slight -corrections.</p> - -<p>In the chapters dealing with religion and mythology, it was not to be -expected that the writers could avoid treading upon controversial -ground; but as almost every proposition upon these matters is disputed -by some one, it was not possible to adopt the plan of putting forward -only those facts and theories which may be considered as established. -Some disputed points are discussed in the Appendix. Even on the subject -of language the views of one (small) school of philologists had to be -relegated in like manner to the Appendix.</p> - -<p>So far for the character of the alterations upon the first edition. The -new matter introduced, whenever it has not been of the nature of a -correction of the old, has been aimed in the direction of making more -clear the <i>processes</i> through which the human mind has gone in the -acquisition of each fresh capacity—more clear the extent to which each -successive phase of pre-historic life has been built upon the preceding -phase—more clear the process by which mankind seems to have gone -through the stages of language-formation, and so forth. This has been -the direction in which the editor has sought to improve upon the earlier -edition: rather than in loading his pages by a greater accumulation of -facts, to make the relationship of the various facts to one another -plainer and more easy to remember; in one word, to appeal to the reason -much more than to the memory.</p> - -<p>This is by no means the principle on which a great<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_v" id="page_v"></a>{v}</span> majority of -<i>introductions</i> and <i>manuals</i> seem to have been written, but upon a -principle almost the reverse of this.</p> - -<p>Finally, it has never been lost sight of, that the present volume is -meant to leave the reader, so to say, at the door of history. It is not -designed to be an <i>anthropology</i>, or a history of the growth of faculty -among mankind at large, but only a <i>pre-historic study</i>, an account of -the ascertainable doings and thoughts on the part of the people who have -gone to make up the historic races of the world. Even the stone-age -civilization is treated, not as a phase of culture in the abstract, but -as an element of the growth in culture of the historic nations of our -planet.</p> - -<p class="r"> -C. F. KEARY.<br /> -</p> - -<p>200, <span class="smcap">Cromwell Road</span>, S.W.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_vi" id="page_vi"></a>{vi}</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_vii" id="page_vii"></a>{vii}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="PREFACE_TO_THE_FIRST_EDITION" id="PREFACE_TO_THE_FIRST_EDITION"></a>PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">The</span> advance of pre-historic study has been during the last ten years -exceptionally rapid; and, considering upon how many subsidiary interests -it touches, questions of politics, of social life, of religion almost, -the science of pre-historic archæology might claim to stand in rivalry -with geology as the favourite child of this century; as much a favourite -of its declining years as geology was of its prime. But as yet, it will -be confessed, we have little popular literature upon the subject, and -that for want of it the general reader is left a good deal in arrear of -the course of discovery. His ideas of nationalities and kindredship -among peoples is, it may be guessed, still hazy. We still hear the -Russians described as Tartars: and the notion that we English are -descendants of the lost Israelitish tribes finds innumerable supporters. -I am told that a society has been formed in London for collecting proofs -of this more than Ovidian metamorphosis. The reason of this public -indifference is very plain. Pre-historic science has not yet passed out -of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_viii" id="page_viii"></a>{viii}</span> that early stage when workers are too busy in the various branches -of the subject to spare much time for a comparison of the results of -their labours; when, one may say, fresh contributions are pouring in too -fast to be placed upon their proper shelves in the storehouse of our -knowledge. In such a state of things the reader who is not a specialist -is under peculiar disadvantages for a discovery of what has been done. -He stands bewildered, like the sleeping partner in a firm, to whom no -one—though he is after all the true beneficiary—explains the work -which is passing before his eyes.</p> - -<p>It will not be thought a misplaced object to attempt some such -explanation, and that is the object of the following chapters. And as at -some great triumph of mechanism and science—a manufactory, an -observatory, an ironclad,—a junior clerk or a young engineer is told -off to accompany the intelligent visitor and explain the workings of the -machinery; or as, if the simile serve better, in those cities which are -sought for their treasures of art and antiquity, the lower class of the -population become self-constituted into guides to beauties which they -certainly neither helped to create nor keep alive; so this book offers -itself to the interested student as a guide over some parts of the -ground covered by pre-historic inquiry, without advancing pretensions to -stand beside the works of specialists in that field. The peculiar -objects kept in view have been, to put the reader in possession of (1) -the general results up to this time attained, the chief additions which -pre-historic science has made to the sum of our knowledge, even if this<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_ix" id="page_ix"></a>{ix}</span> -knowledge can be given only in rough outline; (2) the method or -mechanism of the science, the way in which it pieces together its -acquisitions, and argues upon the facts it has ascertained; and (3) to -put this information in a form which might be attractive and suitable to -the general reader.</p> - -<p>The various labours of a crowd of specialists are needed to give -completeness to our knowledge of primitive man, and it is scarcely -necessary to say that there are a hundred questions which in such a -short book as this have been left untouched. The intention has been to -present those features which can best be combined to form a continuous -panorama, and also to avoid, as far as possible, the subjects most under -controversy. No apology surely is needed for the <i>conjoint</i> character of -the work: as in every chapter the conclusions of many different and -sometimes contradictory writers had to be examined and compared, and as -these chapters, few as they are, spread over various special fields of -inquiry.</p> - -<p>It is to be hoped that some readers to whom pre-historic study is a new -thing may be sufficiently interested in it to desire to continue their -researches. For the assistance of such, lists are given, at the end, of -the chief authorities consulted on the subject of each chapter, with -some notes upon questions of peculiar interest.</p> - -<p>The vast extent of the field, the treasures of knowledge which have been -already gathered, and the harvest which is still in the ear, impress the -student more and more the deeper he advances into the study. Surely, if -from some higher sphere, beings of a purely<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_x" id="page_x"></a>{x}</span> spiritual -nature—nourished, that is, not by material meats and drinks, but by -<i>ideas</i>—look down upon the lot of man, they must be before everything -amazed at the complaints of poverty which rise up from every side. When -every stone on which we tread can yield a history, to follow up which is -almost the work of a lifetime; when every word we use is a thread -leading back the mind through centuries of man’s life on earth; it must -be confessed that, for riches of any but a material sort, for a wealth -of ideas, the mind’s nourishment, there ought to be no lack.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_xi" id="page_xi"></a>{xi}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> - -<tr><th class="c" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td> </td><td class="rt"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><span class="smcap">The Earliest Traces of Man (Editor)</span></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_1">1</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th class="c" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><span class="smcap">The Second Stone Age (Editor)</span></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_28">28</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th class="c" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><span class="smcap">The Growth of Language (Editor)</span></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_55">55</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th class="c" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><span class="smcap">Families of Language (Editor)</span></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_83">83</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th class="c" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><span class="smcap">The Nations of the Old World (Editor)</span></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_113">113</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th class="c" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><span class="smcap">Early Social Life (H. M. Keary)</span></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_135">135</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th class="c" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><span class="smcap">The Village Community (H. M. Keary)</span><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_xii" id="page_xii"></a>{xii}</span></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_156">156</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th class="c" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><span class="smcap">Religion (A. Keary)</span></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_171">171</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th class="c" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><span class="smcap">Aryan Religions (Editor)</span></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_197">197</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th class="c" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><span class="smcap">The Other World (Editor)</span></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_236">236</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th class="c" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><span class="smcap">Mythologies and Folk-Tales (Editor)</span></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_254">254</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th class="c" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><span class="smcap">Picture-Writing (A. Keary)</span></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_280">280</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th class="c" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><span class="smcap">Phonetic Writing (A. Keary)</span></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_297">297</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th class="c" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><span class="smcap">Conclusion (Editor)</span></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_313">313</a></td></tr> -<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top"><span class="smcap"><a href="#APPENDIX">Appendix</a></span>—<i>Notes and Authorities</i></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_329">329</a></td></tr> -<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> - -<tr><td><a href="#INDEX"><span class="smcap">Index</span></a>: -<a href="#A">A</a>, -<a href="#B">B</a>, -<a href="#C">C</a>, -<a href="#D">D</a>, -<a href="#E">E</a>, -<a href="#F">F</a>, -<a href="#G">G</a>, -<a href="#H">H</a>, -<a href="#I-i">I</a>, -<a href="#K">K</a>, -<a href="#L">L</a>, -<a href="#M">M</a>, -<a href="#N">N</a>, -<a href="#O">O</a>, -<a href="#P">P</a>, -<a href="#Q">Q</a>, -<a href="#R">R</a>, -<a href="#S">S</a>, -<a href="#T">T</a>, -<a href="#U">U</a>, -<a href="#V-i">V</a>, -<a href="#W">W</a>, -<a href="#Y">Y</a>, -<a href="#Z">Z</a></td></tr> -</table> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_1" id="page_1"></a>{1}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="THE_DAWN_OF_HISTORY" id="THE_DAWN_OF_HISTORY"></a>THE DAWN OF HISTORY.</h2> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.<br /><br /> -<small>THE EARLIEST TRACES OF MAN.</small></h2> - -<div class="sidenote">The dawn<br /> of history.</div> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">When</span> St. Paulinus came to preach Christianity to the people of -Northumbria, King Eadwine (so runs the legend) being minded to hear him, -and wishing that his people should do so too, called together a council -of his chief men and asked them whether they would attend to hear what -the saint had to tell; and one of the king’s thanes stood up and said, -‘Let us certainly hear what this man knows, for it seems to me that the -life of man is like the flight of a sparrow through a large room, where -you, King, are sitting at supper in winter, while storms of rain and -snow rage abroad. The sparrow, I say, flying in at one door and -straightway out again at another is, while within, safe from the storm; -but soon it vanishes out of sight into the darkness whence it came. So -the life of man appears for a short space; but of what went before, or -what is to follow, we are all ways ignorant.’<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> This wise and true -saying of the Saxon thane holds good too for the human race as far as -its progress is revealed to us by<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_2" id="page_2"></a>{2}</span> history. We can watch this progress -through a brief interval—for the period over which real, continuous -authentic history extends; and beyond that is a twilight space, wherein, -amid many fantastic shapes of mere tradition or mythology, here and -there an object or an event stands out more clearly, lit up by a gleam -from the sources of more certain knowledge which we possess.</p> - -<p>To draw with as much accuracy as may be the outline of these shapes out -of the past is the business of the prehistoric student; and to assist -him in his task, what has he? First, he has the Bible narrative, wherein -some of the chief events of the world’s history are displayed, but at -uncertain distances apart. Then we have the traditions preserved in -other writings, in books, or on old temple stones—in these the truth -has generally to be cleared from a mist of allegory, or at least of -mythology. And, lastly, besides these conscious records of times gone -by, we have other dumb memorials, old buildings—cities or -temples—whose makers are long since forgotten, old tools or weapons, -buried for thousands of years, to come to light in our days; and again, -old words, old beliefs, old customs, old arts, old forms of civilization -which have been unwittingly handed down to us, can all, if we know the -art to interpret their language, be made to tell us histories of the -antique world. It is, then, no uninteresting study by which we learn how -to make these silent records speak. ‘Of man’s activity and attainment,’ -Carlyle finely says, ‘the chief results are aeriform, mystic, and -preserved in tradition only: such are his Forms of Government, with the -Authority they rest on; his Customs or Fashions both of Cloth-habits and -Soul-habits; much more his collective stock of Handicrafts, the whole -Faculty he has acquired of manipulating nature—all these things, as -indispensable and priceless as they are, cannot in<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_3" id="page_3"></a>{3}</span> any way be fixed -under lock and key, but must flit, spirit-like, on impalpable vehicles -from Father to Son; if you demand sight of them they are nowhere to be -met with. Visible Ploughmen and Hammermen there have been, even from -Cain and Tubalcain downwards; but where does your accumulated -Agricultural, Metallurgic and other Manufacturing <small>SKILL</small> lie warehoused? -It transmits itself on the atmospheric air, on the sun’s rays (by -Hearing and by Vision); it is a thing aeriform, impalpable, of quite -spiritual sort.’</p> - -<p>How many of these intangible spiritual possessions must man have -acquired before he has learned the art of writing history, and so of -keeping a record of what had gone before: how much do we know that any -individual race of men has learned before it brings itself forward with -distinctness in this way! For as a first condition of all man must have -learned to write; and writing, as we shall hereafter see, is a slowly -developing art, which man acquired by ages of gradual experiment. His -language, too, must ere this have reached a state of considerable -cultivation; and it will be our object in the course of these pages to -show through what a long history of its own the language of any nation -must go before it becomes fit for the purposes of literature—through -how many changes it passes, and what a story it reveals to us by every -change. And then, again, before a nation can have a history it must <i>be</i> -a nation, must have a national life to record; that is to say, the -people who compose it must have left the simple condition of society -which belongs to a primitive age, the state of a mere hunter or fisher, -even the state of being a mere shepherd, the pastoral and nomadic life -which precedes the knowledge of agriculture. He must have drawn closer -the loose bonds which held men together under the conditions of -patriarchal<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_4" id="page_4"></a>{4}</span> life, and have constituted a more permanent system of -society. Whether under pressure from without, the pressure of hostile -nationalities, or only from the growth of a higher conception of social -life, the nation has had to rise from out of a mere collection of -tribes, until the head of the family has become the king—the rude tents -of early days have grown into houses and temples, and the pens of their -sheepfolds grown into walled cities, such as Corinth or Athens or Rome. -Such changes as these must be completed before history comes to be -written; and with such changes as these, and with a thousand others, -changes and growths in Art, in Poetry, in Manufactures, in Commerce, and -in Laws, the pre-historical student has to deal. On all these subjects -we shall have something to say.</p> - -<p>Before, however, we enter upon any one of these it is right that we -remind the reader—and remind him once for all—that our knowledge upon -all these points is but partial and uncertain, and never of such a -character as will allow us to speak with dogmatic assurance. Our -information can necessarily never be direct; it can only be built upon -inferences of a higher or lower degree of probability. It is, however, a -necessity of our minds that from whatever information we possess we must -form an unbroken panorama—imagination has no place for unfilled blanks; -and we may form our picture freely and without danger of harm, so long -as we are ready to modify or enlarge it when more knowledge is -forthcoming. As the eye can in a moment supply the deficiencies of some -incompleted picture, a landscape of which it gets only a partial glance, -or a statue which has lost a feature, so the mind selects from its -knowledge those facts which form a continuous story, and loses those -which are known only as isolated fragments.</p> - -<p>Set a practised and an unpractised draughtsman to draw<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_5" id="page_5"></a>{5}</span> a circle, and we -may witness how differently they go to work. The second never takes his -pencil off the paper, and produces his effect by one continuous line, -which the eye has no choice but at once to condemn as incomplete. The -wiser artist proceeds by a number of short consecutive strokes, -splitting up, as it were, his divergence over the whole length of the -figure he is drawing, and so allows the eye, or perhaps one should -rather say the mind, by that faculty it has, to select the complete -figure which it can conceive more easily than express. No one of the -artist’s strokes is the true fraction of a circle, but the result is -infinitely more satisfactory than if he had tried to make his pencil -follow unswervingly the curve he wished to trace. Or again, notice how a -skilful draughtsman will patch up by a number of small strokes any -imperfect portion of a curve he is drawing, and we have another like -instance of this selective faculty of the eye or of the mind. Just in -the same way is it with memory. Our ideas must be carried on -continuously, we cannot afford to remember <i>lacunæ</i>, mere blank spaces.</p> - -<p>In the Bible narrative, for example, wherein, as has before been said, -certain events of the world’s history are related with distinctness, but -where as a rule nothing is said of the times which intervened between -them, we are wont to make very insufficient allowance for these -unmentioned periods, and form for ourselves a rather arbitrary picture -of the real course of things, fitting two events on to one another which -were really separated by long ages. To correct this view, to enlarge the -series of known facts concerning the early history of the human race, -comes in pre-historic inquiry; and again, to correct the picture we now -form, doubtless fresh information will continue to pour in. All this is -no reason why we should pronounce our present picture to be untrue; it -is only incomplete. We must be always<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_6" id="page_6"></a>{6}</span> ready to enlarge it, and to fill -in the outlines, but still we can only remember the facts which we have -already acquired, if we look at them, not as fragments only, but as a -complete whole.</p> - -<p>In representing, therefore, throughout the following chapters, the -advance of the human race in the discovery of all those arts and -faculties which go to make up civilization in the light of a continuous -progress, it will not be necessary to pause and remind the reader in -every case that these steps of progress which seem to spread themselves -out so clearly before us have been made in an uncertain manner, -sometimes rapidly, sometimes very slowly and painfully, sometimes by -immense strides, sometimes by continual haltings and goings backwards -and forwards. It will be enough to say here, once for all, that our -history must be thought of as a history of events rather than a strictly -chronological one; just as the geological periods are not measured by -days and years, but by the mutations through which our solid-seeming -earth has passed.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<div class="sidenote">The earliest<br /> traces of man.</div> - -<p>First we turn to what must needs be our earliest inquiry—the search -after the oldest traces of man which have been found upon the earth. It -has been said that one of the first fruits of knowledge is to show us -our own ignorance; and certainly in the early history of the world and -of man there is nothing which science points out so clearly as the vast -silent periods whereof until recently we had no idea. It is difficult -for us of the present age to remember how short a time it is since all -our certain knowledge, touching the earth on which we live, lay around -that brief period of its existence during which it had come under the -notice and the care of man.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_7" id="page_7"></a>{7}</span></p> - -<p>When all we knew of Europe, and especially of our own islands, belonged -to the comparatively short time during which they have been known to -history, we had in truth much to wonder at in the political changes -these countries were seen to have undergone; and our imaginations could -be busy with the contrast between the unchanged features of our lands -and seas and the ever-varying character of those who dwelt upon or -passed over them. It is interesting to think that on such a river bank -or on such a shore Cæsar or Charlemagne have actually stood, and that -perhaps the grass or flowers or shells under their feet looked just the -same as they do now, that the waves beat upon the strand in the same -cadence, or the water flowed by with the same trickling sound. But when -we open the pages of geology, we have unrolled before us a history of -the earth itself, extending over periods compared with which the longest -epoch of what is commonly called history seems scarcely more than a day, -and of mutations in the face of nature so grand and awful that as we -reflect upon them, forgetting for an instant the enormous periods -required to bring these changes about, they sound like the fantastic -visions of some seer, telling in allegorical language the history of the -creation and destruction of the world.</p> - -<p>Of such changes, not the greatest, but the most interesting to the -question we have at present in hand, were those vicissitudes of climate -which followed upon the time when the formation of the crust of the -earth had been practically completed. We learn of a time when, instead -of the temperate climate which now favours our country, these islands, -with the whole of the north of Europe, were wrapped in one impenetrable -sheet of ice. The tops of our mountains, as well as of those of -Scandinavia and the north of continental Europe, bear marks of the -scraping of this enormous<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_8" id="page_8"></a>{8}</span> glacier, which must have risen to a height of -two or three thousand feet. Not a single green thing, therefore, might -be seen between our latitudes and the pole, while the ice-sheet, passing -along the floor of the North Sea, united these islands with Scandinavia -and spread far out into the deep waters of the Atlantic. For thousands -of years such a state of things endured, but at last it slowly passed -away. As century followed century the glacier began to decrease in size. -From being colder than that of any explored portion of our hemisphere, -the climate of northern Europe began to amend, until at last a little -land became visible, which was covered first with lichens, then with -thicker moss, and then with grass; then shrubs began to grow, and they -expanded into trees and the trees into forests, while still the -ice-sheet went on decreasing, until now the glaciers remained only in -the hills. Animals returned from warmer climates to visit our shores. -The birds and beasts and fishes of the land and sea were not much -different from those which now inhabit there; the species were -different, but the genera were for the most part the same. Everything -seemed to have been preparing for the coming of man, and it is about -this time that we find the earliest traces of his presence upon -earth.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> - -<p>We may try and imagine what was the appearance of the world, and -especially of Europe—for it is in Europe that most of these earliest -traces of our race have as yet been found, though all tradition and -likelihood point out man’s first home to have been in Asia—when we -suppose that man first appeared upon these western shores. At this time -the continent of Europe stood at a higher level than it does now. The -whole of the North Sea, even between Scotland and Denmark, is not more -than fifty fathoms, or<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_9" id="page_9"></a>{9}</span> three hundred feet deep, while the Irish Sea is -not more than sixty fathoms; and at this period undoubtedly the British -Isles, besides being all joined together, formed part of the mainland, -not by being united to France only, but by the presence of dry land all -the way from Scotland to Denmark, over all that area now called the -German Ocean. Our Thames and our other eastern rivers were then but -tributaries of one large stream, which bore through this continent, and -up into the northern seas, their waters united with those of the Rhine, -and perhaps of the Weser and the Elbe. The same upheaval turned into -land a portion of the Atlantic Ocean, all that bed probably which now -extends from Spain and Africa as far as the Azores and the Canaries. The -north of Africa was joined on to this continent and to Spain, for the -narrow Straits of Gibraltar had not yet been formed; but a great sea -stood where we now have the Great Sahara, and united the Mediterranean -and the Red Sea, while a great Mediterranean Sea stood in Central Asia, -and has left no more than traces in the Caspian Sea and the Sea of Aral.</p> - -<p>We have to look at a map to see the effect of these changes in the -appearance of Europe; and there were no doubt other internal changes in -the appearances of the countries themselves. The climate still was much -more extreme than it is now. The glaciers were not yet quite gone. And -the melting of these and of the winter snows gave rise to enormous -rivers which flowed from every hill. Our little river the Ouse, for -instance, which flows out through Norfolk into the Wash, was, when -swollen by these means, probably many miles broad. Vast forests grew -upon the banks of the rivers, and have left their traces in our peat -formations; and in these forests roamed animals unknown to us. Of these -the most notable was the mammoth<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_10" id="page_10"></a>{10}</span> (<i>Elephas primigenius</i>, in the -language of the naturalists), a huge, maned elephant, whose skeleton and -gigantic tusks are conspicuous in some of our museums, and who has given -his name to this the earliest age of man’s existence: it is called the -Mammoth Age of man. With the mammoth, too, lived other species of -animals, which are either now extinct, or have since been driven from -our latitudes; the woolly rhinoceros, the cave lion, the cave bear, the -Lithuanian bison, the urus, the reindeer, and the musk-ox. It is with -the remains of these animals, near the ancient banks of these great -rivers, that we find the earliest tools and weapons manufactured by -human hands.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Implements of<br /> the river drift.</div> - -<p>The earliest of all the known remains of human-kind are the implements -which are found deposited in the ancient beds of rivers. Now flooded by -melting snow into huge lakes and now again drained off by the sudden -bursting of a bound, it was natural that these great streams should -often change their course, and often dig out huge areas of soil from the -land upon their banks. In doing so they sometimes dug out the implements -which earlier generations of men had left behind them on the surface of -the soil, and which a few years would be enough to cover with mould and -hide from sight. Then carrying along these implements of flint, they -have deposited them in great beds of sand and gravel, somewhere in their -ancient course.</p> - -<p>We have no means of measuring the time which may have elapsed since -these stone weapons and tools were made. And we need not speak here of -the geological changes which must have passed over the surface of the -earth since they were deposited upon it. All we know is that, after the -great streams flowing through wide valleys have dug these implements -from under the earth which time had heaped over<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_11" id="page_11"></a>{11}</span> them, carried them -along and deposited them once more amid sand and pebbles in a bed upon -some point of its course, the river must through long subsequent years -have cut so much deeper into the valley through which it flowed, and at -the same time probably so shrunk in its bed, that these river drifts, as -they are called, stand in many cases fifty, eighty, a hundred feet above -the level of the present stream. It is because they are found in the -beds made by the ancient rivers, that the implements of this period are -called <i>drift implements</i>.</p> - -<p>The river Ouse, of which we spoke just now, which, though to-day a small -river, drains a large and level country as it runs through the counties -of Bedford, Huntingdon, and Cambridge, has been one of the most prolific -in this class of pre-historic remains. Another river which still better -deserves to be remembered in this respect is the Somme in the north of -France. For it was in the beds of this stream, by Abbeville and Amiens, -that the drift implements were first discovered, or first recognized for -what they really are, the earliest traces of human labour; and it was -here that the foundation was laid for this branch of pre-historic study -by M. Boucher de Perthes. This was forty-one years ago, in 1847.</p> - -<p>These <i>drift implements</i>, then, form a class apart—apart even from all -other stone implements made by man, and probably earlier than any other -class. Very simple and rude are these drift implements. It would require -a skilled eye to detect any difference between most of them and a flint -which had only been chipped by natural means. But the first thing to -remember is, that the makers of these implements had nothing but other -still ruder materials to help them in this manufacture of theirs. Metals -of all kinds were as yet utterly unknown to man.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_12" id="page_12"></a>{12}</span></p> - -<p>We who are so habituated to the employment of metal, either in the -manufacture or the composition of every article which meets our eye, can -scarcely realize that man lived long ages on the earth before the metals -and minerals, its hidden treasures, were revealed to him. This pen I -write with is of metal, or, were it a quill, it would still have been -shaped by the use of steel; the rags of which this paper is made up have -been first cut by metal knives, then bleached by a mineral (chlorine), -then torn on a metal cylinder, then thrown into a vat which was either -itself of metal or had been shaped by metal tools, then drawn on a -<i>wire</i>-cloth, etc. And so it is with everything which is made nowadays. -We can scarcely think of any single manufacture in which is not -traceable the paramount influence of man’s discoveries beneath the -surface of the ground. But primitive man could profit by no such -inherited knowledge, and had only begun to acquire some powers which he -could transmit to his own descendants. For his tools he must look to the -surface of the earth only; and the hardest substances he could find were -stones. Not only during the period of which we are now speaking, but for -hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years lasted man’s ignorance of the -metals, ignorance therefore of all that the metals could produce for -him. The long age of this state of ignorance is distinguished in -pre-history by the name of the Stone Age, because the hardest things -then known to mankind were stones, and the most important of his -implements and utensils had therefore to be made of stones.</p> - -<p>There can be no harm if we so far anticipate our second chapter as to -say that this Stone Age is distinguished by pre-historic students into -two main periods: (1) the age in which all the stone implements were -made exclusively by chipping, (2) the age in which grinding or polishing -was<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_13" id="page_13"></a>{13}</span> brought in to supplement the use of chipping. Wherefore the first -age is also called the Unpolished Stone Age, the second is called the -Polished Stone Age. Not that by any means all the implements in the -later age were made of polished stone; far from it. Only that, -contemporaneously with the stone implements still made by chipping -merely, others of polished stone were used. But of this more hereafter. -Lastly, the two epochs are also distinguished more simply as the Old -Stone Age and the New Stone Age—or, turned into Greek, the Palæolithic -Era and the Neolithic Era.</p> - -<p>Now we go back to speak of the Palæolithic Era only. And in this we have -as yet got no further than the implements of the river drifts. It is not -to be supposed that at any time of his history man used implements of -stone and no others; for wood and bone must have been always as ready to -his hand as stone was, and for many purposes bone and wooden utensils -would serve better than stone ones. But the stone implements would -always deserve to be accounted the most important; because by means of -them the others of softer material must have been shaped. As regards the -drift deposits, here the remains of man’s work <i>are</i> exclusively stone -implements, but probably only because all that were made of some softer -substance have perished, or remain as yet undiscovered. And most -primitive these stone tools or weapons are. By the rudeness and -uniformity of their shapes as contrasted even with other classes of -stone implements, they testify to the simplicity of those who -manufactured them. They have for the most part only two or three -distinctive types: they are either of a long, pear-shaped make, narrowed -almost to a point at the thin end, and adapted, we may suppose, for -boring holes, while the broad end of the pear was pressed against the -palm of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_14" id="page_14"></a>{14}</span> the hand; and secondly, of a sort of oval form, chipped all -round the edge, capable of being fitted into a wooden haft, a cleft -stick or whatever it might be, to form an implement which might be used -for all sorts of cutting or scraping. A variety of this last implement, -of rather a tongue-like shape, was called by the French workmen who -worked under M. Boucher de Perthes, <i>langue-de-chat</i>. These might serve -the purpose of spear-heads. Some have supposed that stones of this last -form were used, as similar ones are used by the Esquimaux to this day, -in cutting holes in the ice for the purpose of fishing: we must not -forget that during at any rate a great part of the early stone age the -conditions of life were those of arctic countries at the present time. A -third variety of stone implements is made of thinner flakes, and capable -of being used as a knife.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> - -<p>We cannot determine all the uses to which primitive man must have put -his rude and ineffective weapons; we can only wonder that with such he -was able to maintain his existence among the savage beasts by which he -was surrounded; and we long to form to ourselves some picture of the way -in which he got the better of their huge strength, as well as of his -dwelling-place, his habits, and his appearance. Rude as his weapons are, -and showing no trace of improvement, it seems as though man of the drift -period must have lived through long ages of the world’s history. These -implements are found associated with the remains of the mammoth and the -woolly rhinoceros, animals naturally belonging to the arctic or -semi-arctic climate which succeeded the glacial era; but like implements -are found, associated with the remains of the bones of the lion, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_15" id="page_15"></a>{15}</span> -tiger, and the hippopotamus, all of which, and the last especially, are -rarely found outside the torrid zone. This would imply that the drift -implements lasted through the change from a rigid to a torrid climate, -and probably back again to a cold temperate one.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<div class="sidenote">Implements of<br /> the caves.</div> - -<p>Contemporary very likely with some portion of the drift period are -another series of deposits which contain still more interesting traces -of early man. These are what are called the <i>cave</i> deposits—a -remarkable series of discoveries made in caves in various parts of -Europe which appear to carry us down farther in the history of human -development.</p> - -<p>These caves are natural caverns, generally formed in the limestone -rocks, and at present the most remarkable ‘finds’ have been obtained -from the caves of Devonshire, of the Department of the Dordogne in -France, from various caves in Belgium, and from a very remarkable cavern -in the Neanderthal, near Düsseldorf, in Germany. But there is scarcely -any country in Europe where some caves containing human bones and -weapons have not been opened. The rudest drift implements seem older -than almost any of those found in caves; and, on the whole, the -cave-remains seem to give us a picture of man in a more civilized -condition than the man of the drift.</p> - -<p>Let us pause for one moment before these cave remains. For, simple as -they are, they open a little bit the veil which hides from us the lives -of the earliest of men. We call the things which we have found -<i>implements</i>. For we cannot really tell whether they should be called -tools or weapons. Nay, and this is a thing worth remembering, in the -most primitive conditions of society man’s tools are his weapons and his -weapons are almost his only tools. Man’s first<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_16" id="page_16"></a>{16}</span> condition of life is the -<i>venatory</i> condition. He is at first a mere hunter (or <i>trapper</i>) and -fisherman. He begins without the use of any domestic animal. He has not -even the dog, at first, to help him in his hunting; much less has he -cattle or sheep to vary his occupation in life. With the rest of the -animal creation he is constantly at war. He preys upon other animals, -and other animals, if they can, prey upon him. Wherefore, as I have -said, his earliest tools are likewise his weapons, his weapons are his -tools; and the arts of peace and war are undistinguishable.</p> - -<p>The next distinct stage of life is the pastoral stage. Man has now his -domesticated animals; he has cattle and sheep and horses maybe. Tending -his flocks and herds is now his chief occupation. But this tending -implies <i>protecting</i> them and himself. And still, though some of his -implements are for peaceful use—his crooks, his goads, his lassoes, his -bridles, his hurdles and sheep-pens, or, again, his needles for sewing -together the hides which form his clothes—still <i>most</i> are for war. -Yet, if any distinction is possible, his weapons should now be those of -defence rather than those of offence.</p> - -<p>The third great stage is the agricultural—a stage of life at which all -civilized nations and many which can hardly be called civilized have -arrived; when man ploughs and sows, and reaps, plants vines and -orchards. Then most of the implements used in these industries, the -implements on which therefore his nourishment depends, are wholly -distinct from the weapons of war, and the peaceful existence has become -(as the phrase is) <i>differentiated</i> from the warlike. This is the token -of a higher civilization.</p> - -<p>At present we are far from such a stage of progress in the history of -man. The cave-dwellers were, we may be sure, in the hunting and fishing -stage of civilization; and we<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_17" id="page_17"></a>{17}</span> cannot really tell, among a large -proportion of their weapons, which were designed to serve against -animals for the purposes of the chase, and which against their -fellow-men. We can hardly distinguish among some of their weapons -whether they were to be used in hunting or fishing. They had stone axes -and spear-heads, and they also had what we may call harpoons. But -harpoons are merely lances attached to a thong, and may be used with -equal success against animals or against the larger fish, salmons or -whales. These harpoons are barbed. They are made of wood and of bone. A -curious and close inquiry has discovered that the bones of animals found -among the human remains in the caves have been scored in such a way as -to suggest that the sinews were cut from them—to be used, no doubt, as -thongs to the harpoons, as lines for fishing, as threads for sewing -garments, etc. The cave men had also barbed hooks—fishing-hooks we may -call them; though they too may sometimes have been employed against -animals or even <i>birds</i>. It is most probable that these primitive men -did <i>not</i> know the use of the bow and arrow, and that the name -arrow-heads sometimes given to certain of their weapons is a misnomer; -that they should be called javelin-heads. Bone awls have been found, no -doubt for the sake (chiefly) of piercing the scraped skins of animals, -which might afterwards be sewn together into garments: bone knives, -pins, and <i>needles</i> have also been found—the last a most important form -of implement—in considerable numbers.</p> - -<p>What is still more interesting than all these discoveries, we here find -the rudiments of art. Some of the bone implements, as well as some -stones, are engraved, or even rudely sculptured, generally with the -representation of an animal. These drawings are singularly faithful, and -really give us a picture of the animals which were man’s contemporaries<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_18" id="page_18"></a>{18}</span> -upon the earth; so that we have the most positive proof that man lived -the contemporary of animals long since extinct. The cave of La -Madeleine, in the Dordogne, for instance, contained a piece of a -mammoth’s tusk engraved with an outline of that animal; and as the -mammoth was probably not contemporaneous with man during the latter part -even of the old-stone age, this gives an immense antiquity to the first -dawnings of art. How little could the scratcher of this rough -sketch—for it is not equal in skill to drawings which have been found -in other caves—dream of the interest which his performance would excite -thousands of years after his death! Not the greatest painter of -subsequent times, and scarcely the greatest sculptor, can hope for so -near an approach to immortality for their works. Had man’s bones been -only found in juxtaposition with those of the mammoth and his -contemporary animals, this might possibly have been attributed to chance -disturbances of the soil, to the accumulation of river deposits, or to -many other accidental occurrences; or had the mammoth’s bone only been -found worked by man, there was nothing positive to show that the animal -had not been long since extinct, and this a chance bone which had come -into the hands of a later inhabitant of the earth, just as it has since -come into our hands; but the actual drawing of this old-world, and as it -sometimes seems to us almost fabulous, animal, by one who actually saw -him in real life, gives a strange picture of the antiquity of our race, -and withal a strange feeling of fellowship with this stone-age man who -drew so much in the same way as a clever child among us might have drawn -to-day.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_19" id="page_19"></a>{19}</span></p> - -<p>It is worth while to look well at these cave-drawings. They are of -various degrees of merit, for some are so skilful as to excite the -admiration of artists and the astonishment of archæologists. And it is a -curious fact that during ages which succeeded those of the -cave-dwellers, all through the polished stone period and the age of -bronze—of which we shall have to speak anon—no such ambitious -imitative works of art seem to have been attempted. So far as we can -tell, these after generations of men aimed at no such thing as a drawing -of an animal or even of a plant. They confined themselves to ornamental -<i>patterns</i>, to certain arrangements of points and lines. The love of -imitation is doubtless one of the rudimentary feelings in the human -mind; as we may see by watching children. But, rudimentary as it is, it -springs from the same root as the highest promptings of the -intellect—that is to say, from the wish to <i>create</i>—to fashion -something actually ourselves. This is sufficient to explain the origin -of these carvings; yet we need not suppose that when the art of making -them was once known they were used merely for amusement. Long afterwards -we find such drawings and representations looked upon as having some -qualities of the things they represent; as, for instance, where in an -ancient grave at Mæshow, in the Orkney islands, we find the drawing of a -dragon, which had been supposed to watch over the treasures concealed -therein. Savages in the present day often think that part of them is -actually taken away when a drawing of them is made, and exactly a -similar feeling gave rise to the superstition so prevalent in the Middle -Ages, that witches and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_20" id="page_20"></a>{20}</span> magicians could make a figure in wax to imitate -the one on whom they wished to wreak their vengeance, and that all the -pains inflicted upon this waxen antitype were reproduced in the body of -the victim. On such confusion of ideas do all idolatries rest. So may we -not, without too bold a flight, imagine that some superstitious notions, -touching the efficacy of these drawings, was a spur to the industry of -our first forerunners on the earth, and contributed to their wonderfully -acquired skill in their art? May they not have thought that their -representations gave them some power over the animals they represented: -that the lance-head carved with a mammoth would be efficient against the -mammoth’s hide; that the harpoon containing the representation of a deer -or a fish was the weapon best adapted for transfixing either?<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> - -<p>However this may be, we cannot close our eyes to the interest which -attaches to the first dawnings of art in the world. Nor is this interest -confined altogether to its æsthetic side—the mere beauty and value of -art itself—great though this be. Not only does drawing share that -mysterious power of imparting intense pleasure which belongs to every -form of art, but it was likewise, after human speech, the first -discovered means of conveying an idea from one man to another. As we -shall come to see in a later chapter, the invention of drawing bore with -it the seeds of the invention of writing, the greatest step forward, in -material things at any rate, that man has ever made.</p> - -<p>There is one other fact to be mentioned, and then the information which -our cave discoveries can give us concerning the life of man in those -days is pretty nearly exhausted. Traces of fires have been found in -several caves, so that there can be no doubt that man had made this -important discovery,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_21" id="page_21"></a>{21}</span> the discovery of fire, also. It seems to us -impossible to imagine a time when men could have lived upon the earth -without this all-useful element, when they must have devoured their food -uncooked, and only sheltered themselves from the cold by the thickness -of their clothing, or at night by huddling together in close underground -houses. We have certainly no proof that man’s existence was ever of such -a sort as this; but yet it is clear that the art of making fires is one -not discoverable at first sight. How long man took to find out that -method of ignition by friction of two sticks—the method employed in -different forms by all the less cultivated nations spread over the -globe, and one which we may therefore fairly take to be the most -primitive and natural—we shall never know. We have only the negative -evidence that he had discovered it at that primæval time when he began -to leave his remains within the caves.</p> - -<p>Thus have we completed the catalogue of facts upon which we may build up -for ourselves some representation of the life of man in the earliest -ages of his existence upon earth. It must be confessed that they are -meagre enough. We should like some further facts which would help us to -picture the man himself, his size, his appearance, what race he most -resembled of any of those which now inhabit our globe. Unfortunately we -have little that can assist us here. Human remains have been found—on -one or two occasions a skeleton in tolerably complete preservation—but -not yet in sufficient numbers to allow us to draw any certain -conclusions from them, or even to hazard any very probable conjecture.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Human<br /> remains.</div> - -<p>Among these discoveries of human skeletons, none excited more interest -at the time it was made than the Neanderthal skeleton, so-called from -the place in which it was found. The discovery was made in 1857 by Dr. -Fuhlrott of Elberfeld; and when the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_22" id="page_22"></a>{22}</span> skull and other parts of the -skeleton were exhibited at a scientific meeting at Bonn, in the same -year, doubts were expressed as to the human character of the remains. -These doubts, which were soon dissipated, arose from the very low type -of the head, which was pronounced by many to be the most ape-like skull -that they had ever seen. The bones themselves indicated a person of much -the same stature as a European of the present day, but with such an -unusual thickness in some of them as betokened a being of very -extraordinary strength. This discovery, had it been supported by others, -might have seemed to indicate a race of men of a type inferior even to -the most savage races of our present globe. But it has not been so -supported. On the contrary, another skull found at Engis, near Liége, -not more than seventy miles from the cave of the Neanderthal, was proved -after careful measurements not to differ materially from the skulls of -individuals of the European race—a fact which prevents us from making -any assertions respecting the primitive character in race or physical -conformation of these cave-dwellers. Indeed, in a very careful and -elaborate paper upon the Engis and Neanderthal skulls, Professor Huxley -places an average skull of a modern native of Australia about half-way -between those of the Neanderthal and Engis caves; but he also says that -after going through a large collection of Australian skulls, he ‘found -it possible to select from among these crania two (connected by all -sorts of intermediate gradations), the one of which should very nearly -resemble the Engis skull, while the other should somewhat less closely -approximate to the Neanderthal skull in form, size, and proportions.’ -And yet as regards blood, customs, or language, the natives of Southern -and Western Australia are as pure and homogeneous as almost any race of -savages in existence. This shows us how<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_23" id="page_23"></a>{23}</span> difficult would have been any -reasoning founded upon the insufficient data we possess. In fact, it -would no doubt be possible to find in Europe among persons of abnormal -under-development, such as idiots, skulls of a formation which would -match that of the Neanderthal.</p> - -<p>This class of evidence is therefore merely negative. We certainly cannot -pronounce that man of the old stone age was of a lower type than low -types of savages of the present day; we cannot even say that he was as -undeveloped as are the Lapps of modern Europe; but in this negative -evidence there is a certain amount of satisfaction. We might be not -unwilling to place on the level of the Eskimo or the Lapp the fashioners -of the rudest of the stone implements, but the <i>artists</i> of the caves we -may well imagine to have attained a higher development. And there is -nothing at all unreasonable or opposed to our experience of Nature in -supposing a race of human beings to have flourished in Europe in these -old times, to have been possessed of a certain amount of civilization, -but not to have advanced from that towards any very great improvement -before they were at last extinguished by some other race with a greater -faculty for progress. As we shall come to see later on, there is some -reason for connecting man of the later stone age as regards race with -the Eskimo or Lapp of to-day. Yet even if this be admitted, we must look -upon the latter rather as the dregs of the races they represent. It is -not always the highest types of any particular race, whether of men, of -animals, or of plants, which live the longest. Species which were once -flourishing are often only represented by stunted and inferior -descendants; just as the animals of the lizard class once upon a time, -and long before the coming of man upon the earth, had their age of -greatest development and reached proportions which are unknown in these -days.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_24" id="page_24"></a>{24}</span></p> - -<p>So we may imagine man spreading out at various times and in many -different streams from his first home in Asia. The earlier races to -leave this nursing-place did not, we may suppose, contain sufficient -force to carry them beyond a low level of culture; very likely they sank -in civilization and in the end got pushed on one side by more energetic -people who came like a second wave from the common source. When, in the -history of the world, we come to speak of races of whom we know more, we -shall see strong reasons to believe that this was the rule followed; -nay, it is even followed at the present day, where European races are -spreading over all the world, and gradually absorbing or extinguishing -inferior members of the human family. We must, therefore, in our present -state of ignorance, be content to look upon palæolithic man merely as we -find him, and not to advance vague surmises whether he gradually -advanced to the use of better stone weapons, and at last to metals, or -whether he was extinguished by subsequent races who did thus advance.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">The life of <br />palæolithic man.</div> - -<p>Taking, then, this race as we find it, without speculating upon its -immediate origin or future, we may endeavour to gather some notion of -man’s way of life in these primitive times. It was of the simplest. We -may well suppose, for some proofs to the contrary would otherwise most -likely have been discovered, that his life was that of the hunter, which -is, it has been said, generally the earliest phase of human society, and -that he had not yet learned to till the ground, or to keep domestic -animals for his use. No bones of animals like the sheep or dog are found -among palæolithic remains, and therefore it seems probable that -palæolithic man had not yet entered upon the next and higher phase, the -pastoral life. He had probably no fixed home, no idea of nationality, -scarcely<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_25" id="page_25"></a>{25}</span> any of obligations beyond the circle of his own family, in -that larger sense in which the word ‘family’ is generally understood by -savages. Some sort of family or tribe no doubt held together, were it -only for the sake of protecting themselves against the attacks of their -neighbours. For the rest, their time was spent, as the time of other -savages is spent, out of doors in fighting and hunting, within doors in -preserving their food and their skins, in elaborately manufacturing -their implements of stone and bone. In the inclement seasons they were -crowded together in their caves, perhaps for months together, as the -Eskimo are in winter, almost without moving. As appears from the remains -in the caves, they were in the habit at such times of throwing the old -bones and the offal of their food into any corner (the Eskimo do so to -this day), without taking the smallest trouble to obviate the unpleasant -effects produced by the decay of all this animal matter in an atmosphere -naturally close. Through the long winter nights they found time to -perfect their skill in those wonderful bone carvings, and to lay up a -store of weapons which they afterwards—anticipating the rise of -commerce—exchanged with the inhabitants of some other cave for <i>their</i> -peculiar manufacture; for in one of the caves of the Dordogne we find -the remains of what must have been a regular manufactory of one sort of -flint-knife or lance-head, almost to the exclusion of any other of the -ordinary weapons, while another cave seems to have been devoted as -exclusively to the production of implements of bone.</p> - -<p>Man had no doubt a hard life, not only to obtain the food he needed, but -to defend himself against the attacks of many wild animals by whom he -was surrounded, animals whose particular species have in many cases -become extinct, and whose classes have long ceased to inhabit Europe.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_26" id="page_26"></a>{26}</span> -Such are the cave lion, cave bear, cave hyæna, brown bear, grizzly bear, -mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, urus, bison, and such rarities (with us) as -the reindeer, the Irish elk, and the beaver.</p> - -<p>Some people have thought that they discovered in the traces of fires -which had been sometimes lighted before caves in which were found human -skeletons, the indication of sepulchral rites, and that these caves were -used as burial-places. But these suppositions are too vague and -uncertain to be relied upon. It may, however, be said that we have -evidence pointing to the fact that even in the drift period men buried -their dead, and it is hardly possible to believe that they did so -without paying some obsequies to the remains. On this interesting -subject of sepulchral rites we must forbear to say anything until we -come to speak of the second stone age. Our knowledge of the early -stone-people must close with the slight picture we have been able to -form of their life; of their death, of their rites of the dead, and the -ideas concerning a future state which these might indicate, we cannot -speak.</p> - -<p>This, then, is all we know of man of the first stone age, and it is not -probable that our knowledge will ever be greatly increased. New finds of -these stone implements are being made almost every day, not in Europe -only, though at present chiefly there, but in many other parts of the -globe. But the new discoveries closely resemble the old, the same sort -of implements recur again and again, and we only learn by them over how -great a part of the globe this stage in our civilization extended. -Further information of this kind may change some of our theories -concerning the duration or the origin of this civilization, but it will -not add much to our knowledge of its nature. Yet it cannot be denied -that the thought of man’s existence<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_27" id="page_27"></a>{27}</span> only, though we know little more -than this, a contemporary of the mammoth at the time which immediately -succeeded the glacial period, or perhaps before the glacial period had -quite come to an end, is full of the deepest interest for us. The long -silent time which intervenes between the creation of our first parents -and those biblical events whereof the narration is to a certain extent -continuous and consecutive, till the dawn of history in the Bible -narrative in fact, is to some small extent filled in. We shall see in -the next chapter how the second stone age serves to carry the same -picture further. In rudest outline the life of man is placed before us, -and if we have no more than this, we have at any rate <i>something</i> which -may occupy our imaginations, and prevent them, as they otherwise would -do, as, of old, men’s minds did, from leaping almost at a bound from the -Creation to the Flood, and from the Flood to the time of Abraham.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_28" id="page_28"></a>{28}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.<br /><br /> -<small>THE SECOND STONE AGE.</small></h2> - -<div class="sidenote">The age of<br /> polished stone.</div> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">Between</span> the earlier and the later stone age, between man of the drift -period and man of the neolithic era, occurs a vast blank which we cannot -fill in. We bid adieu to the primitive inhabitants of our earth while -they are still the contemporaries of the mammoth and woolly rhinoceros, -or of the cave lion and the cave bear, and while the very surface of the -earth wears a different aspect from what it now wears. With a changed -condition of things, with a race of animals which differed not -essentially from those known to us, and with a settled conformation of -our lands and seas not again to be departed from, comes before us the -second race of man—man of the polished stone age. We cannot account for -the sudden break; or, what is in truth the same thing, many different -suggestions to account for it have been made. Some have supposed that -the palæolithic men lived at a time anterior to the last glacial era, -for there were many glacial periods in Europe, and were either -exterminated altogether or driven thence to more southern countries by -the change in climate. Others have imagined that a new and more -cultivated race migrated into these countries, and at once introduced -the improved weapons of the later stone age;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_29" id="page_29"></a>{29}</span> and lastly, others have -looked upon the first stone age as having existed before the Deluge, and -hold that the second race of man, the descendants of Noah, began at once -with a higher sort of civilization. Two of these four theories, it will -be seen, must suppose that man somewhere went through the stages of -improvement necessary to the introduction of the newer sort of weapons, -and they therefore take it for granted that the graduated series of -stone implements, indicating a gradual progress from the old time to the -newer, though they have not yet been found, are to be discovered -somewhere. The first and last theories would seem to be more independent -of this supposition, and therefore, as far as our knowledge yet goes, to -be more in accordance with the facts which we possess. It is, however, -by no means safe to affirm that the graduated series of implements -required to support the other suppositions will never be found.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<div class="sidenote">The<br /> kitchen-middens.</div> - -<p>Be this as it may, with the second era begins something like a -continuous history of our race. However scanty the marks of his tracks, -we may feel sure that from this time forward man passed on one unbroken -journey of development and change through the forgotten eras of the -world’s life down to the dawn of history. We take the rudest condition -in which we find man to be the most primitive, and we start with him in -this new stone age as still a fisher or a hunter only. He first appears -before us as depending for his nourishment chiefly upon the shell-fish -on certain coasts of northern Europe. In the north of Europe—that is to -say, upon the shores of the Baltic—are found numbers of mounds, some -five or ten feet high, and in length as much, sometimes, as a thousand -feet, by one or two hundred feet in breadth. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_30" id="page_30"></a>{30}</span> mounds consist for the -most part of myriads of cast-away shells of oysters, mussels, cockles, -and other shell-fish; mixed up with these are not a few bones of birds -and quadrupeds, showing that these also served for food to the primitive -dwellers by the shell mounds. The mounds are called in the present day -kjökken-möddings, kitchen-middens. They have been chiefly found in -Denmark. They are, in truth, the refuse heaps of the earliest kitchens -which have smoked in these northern regions;<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> for they are the remains -of some of the earliest among the polished-stone age inhabitants of -Europe. So primitive are the weapons of the Danish kitchen-middens, that -they have sometimes been classed with the old stone age implements. But -I believe some traces of grinding if not of polishing have been found on -them. And at any rate the mammalia contemporary with the kitchen-midden -men are very different from those of the drift or of the caves.</p> - -<p>The raisers of these refuse mounds were, we may judge, pre-eminently -fishers; and not generally fishers of that adventurous kind who seek -their treasure in the depths of the ocean. They lived chiefly upon those -smaller fish and shell-fish which could be caught without much -difficulty or danger. Yet not only on these; for the bones of some -deep-sea fish have also been discovered, whence we know that these -mound-raisers were possessed of the art of navigation, though doubtless -in a most primitive form. Among remains believed to be contemporary with -the shell mounds are found canoes not built of planks, as our boats and -as most canoes are nowadays, but merely hollowed out of the trunks of -trees; sometimes these canoes are quite<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_31" id="page_31"></a>{31}</span> straight fore and aft, just as -the trunk was when it was cut, sometimes a little bevelled from below, -like a punt of the present day; but we believe they are never found -rounded or pointed at the prow. Here, then, we see another discovery -which has been of the greatest use to mankind, whereof the first traces -come to us from these northern shell mounds. That ‘heart with oak and -bronze thrice bound,’ the man who first ventured to sea in the first -vessel, had lived before this time. Whoever he was, we cannot, if we -think of it, refuse to endorse the praise bestowed upon him by the poet; -it required no mean courage to venture out to sea on such a strange -make-shift as was the first canoe. Perhaps the earliest experiment was -an involuntary one, made by some one who was washed away upon a large -log or felled tree. We can fancy how thence would arise the notion of -venturing again a little way, then of hollowing a seat in the middle of -the trunk, until the primitive canoes, such as we find, came into -existence.</p> - -<p>In these imperfect vessels men gradually ventured further and further -into the ocean; and, judging of the extent of their voyages by the -deep-sea remains, we may be certain that their bravery was fatal to -many. This is in all probability the history of the discovery or -re-discovery of the art of navigation among savage people generally; in -all cases does the canoe precede the regular boat. I say ‘re-discovery’ -because a nation which has settled long inland might very easily lose -the art even if their ancestors had possessed it. For it is a fact that -people rarely begin attempts at ship-building before they come to live -near the sea. As long as they can range freely on land, their rivers do -not tempt them to any dangerous experiments. But the vast plain of the -sea is too important, and makes too great an impression on their -imagination for its charm to be long withstood.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_32" id="page_32"></a>{32}</span> Sooner or later, with -much risk of life, men are sure to try and explore its solitudes, and -navigation takes its rise. This art of seafaring, then, is amongst the -most noticeable of the belongings of the fishermen of the shell mounds. -Considering that they had none but rude stone implements, the felling -and hollowing of trees must have been an affair of no small labour, and -very likely occupied a great deal of their time when they were not -actually seeking their food, even though the agency of fire supplemented -the ineffectual blows of their stone weapons. They probably used nets -for their sea-fishing, made most likely of twisted bark or grass. And -they were hunters as well as fishers, for it has been said that the -remains of various animals have been discovered on the shell mounds. -From these remains we see that the age of the post-glacial animals has -by this time quite passed away; no mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, or cave -lion or bear is found; even the reindeer, which in palæolithic days must -have ranged over France and Switzerland, has retired to the north.</p> - -<p>The fact is, the climate is now much more temperate and uniform than in -the first stone age. Then the reindeer and the chamois, animals which -belong naturally to regions of ice and snow, freely traversed, in winter -at least, the valleys or the plains far towards the south of Europe.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> -But as the climate changed, the first was driven to the extreme north of -Europe, and the second to the higher mountain peaks. The only extinct -species belonging to the shell mounds is the wild bull (<i>bos -primigenius</i>), which however survived in Europe until quite historical -times. His remains appear in great numbers, as do those of the seal, now -very rare, and the beaver, which is extinct in Denmark. No remains of -any domesticated animal are found; but the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_33" id="page_33"></a>{33}</span> existence of tame dogs is -guessed at from the fact that the bones bear traces of the gnawing of -canine teeth, and from the absence of bones of young birds and of the -softer bones of animals generally. For it has been shown experimentally -that just such portions are absent from these skeletons as will be -devoured when birds or animals of the same species are given to dogs at -this day. Dogs, therefore, we may feel pretty sure, were domesticated by -the stone-age men; so here again we can see the beginning of a step in -civilization which has been of incalculable benefit to man, the taming -of animals for his use. The ox, the sheep, the goat, were as yet -unknown; man was still in the hunter’s condition, and had not advanced -to the shepherd state, only training for his use the dog, to assist him -in pursuit of the wild animals who supplied part of his food. He was, -too, utterly devoid of all agricultural knowledge. Probably the -domestication of the dog marks a sort of transition state between the -hunter and the shepherd. When that experiment has been tried, the notion -must sooner or later spring up of training other animals, and keeping -them for use or food. With regard to the dogs themselves, it is a -curious fact that those of the stone age are smaller than those of the -bronze period, while the dogs of the bronze age are again smaller than -those of the age of iron. This is an illustration of the well-known fact -that domestication increases the size and improves the character of -animals, as gardening does that of plants.</p> - -<p>There is one other negative fact which we gather from the bones of these -refuse-heaps—no human bones are mingled with them; so we may conclude -that these men were not cannibals. In fact, cannibalism is an -extraordinary perversion of human nature, arising it is difficult to say -exactly how, and only showing itself among particular people and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_34" id="page_34"></a>{34}</span> under -peculiar conditions. There is no doubt that, among a very large -proportion of the savage nations which at present inhabit our globe, -cannibalism is practised, and of this fact many explanations have been -offered; but they are generally far-fetched and unsatisfactory; and it -is certainly not within our scope to discuss them here. How little -natural cannibalism is even to the most savage men is proved by the fact -that man is scarcely ever, except under urgent necessity, found to feed -upon the flesh of carnivorous or flesh-eating animals, and this alone, -besides every instinct of our nature, would be sufficient to prevent him -from eating his fellow-men.</p> - -<p>We have many proofs of the great antiquity of the shell mounds. Their -position gives one. Whilst most of them are confined to the immediate -neighbourhood of the seashore, some few are found at a distance of -several miles inland. These exceptions may always be referred to the -presence of a stream which has gradually deposited its mud at the place -where it emptied itself into the sea, or to some other sufficient cause -of the protrusion of the coast-line; so that these miles of new coast -have come into existence after the shell mounds were raised. On the -other hand, there are no mounds upon those parts of the coast which -border on the Western Ocean. But it is just here that, owing to a -gradual depression of the land at the rate of two or three inches in a -century<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> the waves are slowly eating away the shore. This is what -happens on every sea-coast. Almost all over the world there is a small -but<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_35" id="page_35"></a>{35}</span> constant movement of the solid crust of the earth, which is, in -fact, only a crust over the molten mass within. Sometimes, and in some -places, the imprisoned mass makes itself felt, in violent upheavals, in -sudden cracks of the inclosing surface, which we call earthquakes and -volcanoes; but oftener its effect is slight and almost unnoticed. This -interchange of state between the kingdoms of the land and of the ocean -helps to show us the time which has passed between the making of the -kitchen-middens and our own days. There seems little doubt that all -along the Danish coast of the North Sea, as well as on that of the -Baltic, these mounds once stood; but by the gradual undermining of the -cliffs the former series have all been swept away, while the latter -have, as it appears, been moved a little inland; and we have seen that -when there was another cause present to form land between the -kitchen-middens and the sea, the distance has often been increased to -several miles.</p> - -<p>Here is another and a still stronger proof of the antiquity of the shell -mounds. If we examine the shells themselves, we find that they all -belong to still living species, and they are all exactly similar to such -as might be found in the ocean at the present day. But it happens that -this is not now the case with the shells of the same fish belonging to -the Baltic Sea. For the waters of this sea are now brackish, and not -salt; and since they became so the shell-fish in it have gradually grown -smaller, and do not now attain half their natural size. The oyster, -moreover, will not now live at all in the Baltic, except near its -entrance, where, whenever the wind blows from the north-west, a strong -current of salt ocean water is poured in. Yet oyster shells are -especially abundant in the kitchen-middens. From all this we gather -that, at the time of the making of these mounds, there must have been -free communication between the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_36" id="page_36"></a>{36}</span> ocean and the Baltic Sea. In all -probability, in fact, there were a number of such passages through the -peninsula of Jutland, which was consequently at that time an -archipelago.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<div class="sidenote">The tumuli<br /> or barrows.</div> - -<p>As ages passed on the descendants of these isolated fishermen spread -themselves over Europe, and, improving in their way of life and mastery -over mechanical arts, found themselves no longer constrained to trust -for their livelihood to the spoils of the sea-shallows. They made lances -and axes (headed with stone), and perfected the use of the bow and arrow -until they became masters of the game of the forest. And then, after a -while, man grew out of this hunter stage and domesticated other animals -besides the dog: oxen, pigs, and geese. No longer occupied solely by the -search for his daily food, he raised mighty tombs—huge mounds of earth -enclosing a narrow grave—to the departed great men of his race; and he -reared up those enormous masses of stone called cromlechs or -dolmens—such as we see at Stonehenge—as altars to his gods.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> - -<p>The great tombs of earth—which have their fellows not in Europe only, -but over the greater part of the world—are the special and -characteristic features of the stone age. The raisers of the -kitchen-middens probably preceded the men who built the tombs; for their -mode of life was, as we should say, the most primitive; but they were -confined to a corner of Europe. The tomb-builders formed one of a mighty -brotherhood of men linked together by the characteristics of a common -civilization. These stone-age sepulchres,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_37" id="page_37"></a>{37}</span> called in England tumuli, -barrows, or hows, are hills of earth from one to as much as four hundred -feet long, by a breadth and height of from thirty to fifty feet. They -are either chambered or unchambered; that is, they are either raised -over a small vault made of stone (with perhaps a sort of vestibule or -entrance chamber), or else a mere hollow has been excavated within the -mound. In these recesses repose the bodies of the dead, some great -chieftain or hero—the father of his people, who came to be regarded -after his death with almost the veneration of a god. Beside the dead -were placed various implements and utensils, left there to do him honour -or service, to assist him upon the journey to that undiscovered country -whither he was bound; the best of sharpened knives or spear-heads, some -jars of their rude pottery, once filled with food and drink, porridge, -rough cakes and beer.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> And maybe a wife or two, and some captives of -the last battle were sacrificed to his shade, that he might not go quite -unattended into that ‘other world.’ The last ceremony, the slaughter of -human victims to the manes of the dead, was not always, but it must have -been often, enacted. Out of thirty-two stone-age barrows excavated in -Wiltshire, seventeen contained only one skeleton, and the rest various -numbers, from two to an indefinite number; and, in one case at least, -all the skulls <i>save one</i> were found cleft as by a stone hatchet.</p> - -<p>At the doors of the mounds or in an entrance chamber many bones have -been discovered, the traces of a funeral feast, the wake or watch kept -on the evening of the burial. Likely enough, if the chief were almost -deified after death,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_38" id="page_38"></a>{38}</span> the funeral feast would become periodical. It -would be considered canny and of good omen that the elders of the tribe -should meet there at times in solemn conclave, on the eve of a warlike -expedition or whenever the watchful care of the dead hero might avail -his descendants. From the remains of these feasts, and from the relics -of the tombs, we have the means of forming some idea of man’s -acquirements at this time. His implements are improvements upon those of -the stone age: in all respects, that is, save in this one, that he had -now no barbed weapons; whereas we remember that in the caves barbed -harpoons are frequently met with. Nor, again, had he the artistic talent -of the cave-dwellers: no traces of New Stone-age drawings have come to -light. For the rest, his implements and weapons may be divided into a -few distinctive classes:—</p> - -<p>1. Hammers, hatchets, tomahawks, or chisels; an instrument made of a -heavy piece of stone brought to a sharp cutting edge at one end, and at -the other rounded or flat, so as to serve the double purpose of a hammer -and an axe. When these are of an elongated form they are called celts or -chisels. As subspecies to the hammers and celts we have picks and -gouges. 2. Arrow and spear heads, which differ in size but not much in -form, both being long and narrow in shape, often closely resembling the -leaf of the laurel or the bay, sometimes of a diamond shape, but more -often having the lateral corners nearest to the end which fitted into -the shaft. Viewed edgeways, they also appear to taper towards either -end, for while one point was designed to pierce the victim, the other -was fitted into a cleft handle, and bound into it with cord or sinew. -Implements have been discovered still fitted into their handles. 3. The -stone knives, which have generally two cutting edges, and when this is -the case do not greatly differ from the spear-heads,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_39" id="page_39"></a>{39}</span> though they are -commonly less pointed than the latter. And to these three important -forms we may add, as less important types, a rounded form of implement, -generally called a scraper, and similar to the scrapers of the -palæolithic era; stones designed for slinging, net-weights, and perhaps -corn-grinders or nut-crushers. A few bone implements have been found in -the tumuli, a pin, a chisel, and a knife or so; but they are very rare, -they are never carved, and have not one quarter of the interest which -belongs to the bone implements of the caves. Finally, we must not omit -to say that in Anhalt, in Germany, a large stone has been found which -seems to have served the purpose of a plough. For there can be little -doubt that if some of the tumuli belong to a time before the use of -domesticated animals—save the dog—they last down to a time when man -not only had tame oxen, pigs, goats, and geese,<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> but also sowed and -planted, and lived the life of an agricultural race; nor will it be said -that such an advance was extraordinary when we say that the minimum -duration of the age of polished stone in central Europe was probably two -thousand years.</p> - -<p>Other relics from the mounds, not less interesting than the weapons, are -their vessels of pottery; for here we see the earliest traces of another -art. This pottery is of a black colour, curiously mixed with powdered -shells, perhaps to strengthen the clay, perhaps for ornament. Its -pottery belongs to the latter portion of this age of stone, a period -distinguished not only by the use of domestic animals, but also by the -growth of cereals. We have said that bones of cattle, swine, and in one -case of a goose, have been found among the refuse of the funeral feasts. -But man was still a<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_40" id="page_40"></a>{40}</span> hunter, as he is to this day, though he had found -other means of support besides the wild game; so we also find the bones -of the red deer and the wild bull, both of which supplied him with food. -Wolves’ teeth, too, have been found pierced, so as to be strung into a -necklace; for personal adornment formed, in those days as now, part of -the interest of life. Jet beads have been discovered in large numbers, -and even some of amber, which seems to have been brought from the Baltic -to these countries and as far south as Switzerland; and it is known that -during the last portion of what is, nevertheless, still the stone -period, the most precious metal of all, gold, was used for ornament. -Gold is the one metal which is frequently found on the surface of the -ground, and therefore it was naturally the first to come under the eye -of man.</p> - -<p>The religion of the mound-builders probably consisted in part of the -worship of the dead, so that the very tombs themselves, and not the -cromlechs only, were a sort of temples. And yet they had the deepest -dread of the reappearance of the departed upon earth—of his ghost. To -prevent his ‘walking’ they adopted a strange practical form of exorcism. -They strewed the ground at the grave’s mouth with sharp stones or broken -pieces of pottery, as though a ghost could have his feet cut, and by -fear of that be kept from returning to his old haunts. For ages and ages -after the days of the mound-builders the same custom lived on of which -we here see the rise. The same ceremony—turned now to an unmeaning -rite—was used for the graves of those, such as murderers or suicides, -who might be expected to sleep uneasily in their narrow house. This is -the custom which is referred to in the speech of the priest to -Laertes.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> Ophelia had died under such suspicion of suicide, that it<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_41" id="page_41"></a>{41}</span> -was a stretch of their rule, he says, to grant her Christian burial.</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘And but the great command o’ersways our order,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">She should in ground unsanctified have lodged<br /></span> -<span class="i1">To the last trumpet: for charitable prayers,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Shards, flints and pebbles, should be thrown on her.’<br /></span> -<span style="margin-left: 4em;"> * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - *</span><br /> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>The body of him for whom the mound was built was not buried in the -centre, but at one end, and that commonly the east, for in most cases -the barrows lie east and west. It is never stretched out flat, but lies -or sits in a crouched attitude, the head brought down upon the breast, -and the knees raised up to meet the chin. So that the dead man was -generally left facing toward the west—the going down of the sun. There -cannot but be some significance in this. The daily death of the sun has, -in all ages and to all people, spoken of man’s own death, his western -course has seemed to tell of that last journey upon which all are bent. -So that the resting-place of the soul is nearly always imagined to lie -westward in the home of the setting sun. For the rest, there seems -little doubt that the barrows represent nothing else—though upon a -large scale—than the dwelling-home of the time, and we may believe that -the greater part of the funeral rights connected with the mounds were -very literal and unsymbolical.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> The Eskimo and Lapps of our day<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_42" id="page_42"></a>{42}</span> -dwell in huts no more commodious than the small chambers of the barrows, -and exceedingly like them in shape; only they keep them warm by heaping -up over them not earth but snow. In these hovels they sit squatting, in -an attitude not unlike that of the skeleton of the tumuli. Of the human -remains the skulls are small and round, and have a prominent ridge over -the sockets of the eyes, showing that the ancient race was of small -stature with round heads—what is called <i>brachycephalus</i>, or -short-headed, and had over-hanging eyebrows; in short, their skeletons -bare a considerable resemblance to those of the modern Laplanders.</p> - -<p>We are still, however, left in darkness about that part of the stone-age -thought which has left the grandest traces, and of which we should so -much have wished to be informed; I mean the religion. Besides the tumuli -we have those enormous piles of stone called cromlechs, or dolmens, and -sometimes <i>miscalled</i> Druid circles—such as the well-known Stonehenge; -these cromlechs were, we may believe, temples or sacred places. Each -arrangement of the stones is generally like a simple portico, made by -placing one enormous block upon two others; and these porticoes are -sometimes arranged in circles, as at Stonehenge, sometimes in long -colonnades, as at Carnac in Brittany. Lesser dolmens have been found in -most European countries. There can be little doubt that these huge -monuments possessed a religious character. And here is one proof of the -fact. As a rule, the grave-mounds—the tumuli—are built upon elevations -commanding a considerable prospect, and it is rare to find two within -sight. Yet over Salisbury Plain, and the part about Stonehenge, they are -much more numerous, as many as a hundred and fifty having been -discovered in this neighbourhood, as though all the ground about this -great cromlech were a hallowed region, and it were a desired<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_43" id="page_43"></a>{43}</span> privilege -to be buried within such sacred precincts. Of the worship which these -stone altars commemorate we know absolutely nothing. There seems to be -no reasonable doubt that they belong to the period we are describing. -The name Druid Circles, which has been sometimes given them, is an -absurd anachronism, for, as we shall have occasion to see later on, the -ancestors of the Kelts (or Celts), to whom the Druidical religion -belonged, were probably at this time still living on the banks of the -Oxus in Central Asia; at any rate they had not yet migrated to Brittany -or to Great Britain. Thus, though we must continue to wonder how these -people could ever have raised such enormous stones as altars of their -religion, the nature of that religion itself is hidden from us.</p> - -<p>The tumuli and the relics which they contain are the truest -representatives of the second stone age which have come down to us. The -barrows raise their summits in every land, and the characteristic -features of the remains found in them are the same for each. We must -judge that they, that the most genuine stone-age tumuli, arose during -the greatest extension of the stone-age races, before any new peoples -had come to dispute their territory. What the kitchen-middens show in -the germ, they show in its perfection—all the perfection attainable by -it.</p> - -<p>We have already enumerated the most important forms of weapons and -implements found in these <i>tumuli</i>; and there would be no use in -entering upon a lengthy verbal description of what would be so much -better illustrated by drawings. The books enumerated in the Appendix -give abundant illustrations of the stone-age remains. One caution, -however, we need to give the reader. This second stone age is called, we -know, the age of polished stone. But, as has been already said, that by -no means implies that all the implements<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_44" id="page_44"></a>{44}</span> made in these days were -polished. On the contrary, certain stone manufactures, notably -arrow-heads, were never polished. They went on being made by chipping, -not only during the whole of the second stone age, but far into the -first metal age, when bronze had been introduced and was used for the -manufacture of numerous weapons and implements. The grinding of the -edges of certain sharp weapons is a more important characteristic than -the polishing of the whole or a portion of their surface. But this -grinding was not universally employed, but used generally only for the -larger implements.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<div class="sidenote">The lake<br /> villages.</div> - -<p>And now, having dealt with the remains from the <i>tumuli</i>, the flower, as -we may call them, of the second stone period, we pass on to a third -series of remains, which must be in part contemporary with the -stone-using men, and have continued on and been absorbed into the metal -age, which next supervened. These remains came from what are called the -lake-dwellings, and though traces of such dwellings have been found in -many countries in Europe, in our isles among others, still the chief -<i>provenance</i> of the lake-dwellings, so far as our discoveries yet go, is -in Switzerland and the north of Italy. But let it not be supposed that -these lake-dwellings extended over a short period. A variety of separate -pieces of evidence enforce upon us the conclusion that the stone age in -Europe endured for at least two thousand years. Even the latter portion -of that epoch will allow a cycle vast enough for the lives of the -lake-dwellers; for the dwellings did not come to an end at the end of -the age of stone, they only began in it. They were seen by Roman eyes -almost as late as the beginning of our own era.</p> - -<p>For at least two thousand years, then, we may say, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_45" id="page_45"></a>{45}</span> men who lived in -the country of the Swiss lakes, and those of Northern Italy, adopted for -the sake of security the custom of making their dwellings, not upon the -solid ground, but upon platforms constructed with infinite trouble above -the waters of the lake. And the way they set about it was in this wise: -Having chosen their spot—if attainable, a sunny shore protected as much -as possible from storms, and having a lake-bottom of a soft and sandy -nature—they proceeded to drive in piles, composed of tree-stems taken -from the neighbouring forests, from four to eight inches in diameter. -These piles had to be felled, and afterwards sharpened, either by fire -or a stone axe, then driven in from a raft by the use of ponderous stone -mallets; and when we have said that in one instance the number of piles -of a lake village has been estimated at from 40,000 to 50,000, the -enormous labour of the process will be apparent. This task finished, the -piles were levelled at a certain height above the water, and a platform -of boards was fastened on with pegs. On the platform were erected huts, -probably square or oblong in shape, not more than twenty feet or so in -length, adapted however for the use of a single family, and generally -furnished, it would appear, with a hearthstone and a corn-crusher -apiece. The huts were made of wattle-work, coated on both sides with -clay. Stalls were provided for the cattle, and a bridge of from only ten -or twelve to as much as a hundred yards in length led back to the -mainland. Over this the cattle must have been driven every day, at least -in summer, to pasture on the bank; and no doubt the village community -separated each morning for the various occupations of fishing, for -hunting, for agriculture, and for tending the cattle. As may be -imagined, these wooden villages were in peculiar danger from fire, and a -very large number have suffered<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_46" id="page_46"></a>{46}</span> destruction in this way; a circumstance -fortunate for modern science, for many things which had been partially -burnt before falling into the lake have, by the coating of charcoal -formed round them, been made impervious to the corroding influence of -the water. Thus we have preserved their very grain itself, and their -loaves or cakes of crushed but not ground meal. The grains are of -various kinds of wheat and barley, oats, and millet.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p> - -<p>It is natural to ask for what object the enormous trouble of erecting -these lake-dwellings could have been undertaken; and the only answer -which can be given is, that it was to protect their inhabitants from -their enemies. Whether each village formed a separate tribe and made war -upon its neighbours, or whether the lake-dwellers were a peaceful race -fleeing from more savage people of the mainland, is uncertain. There is -nothing which leads us to suppose they were a race of a warlike -character, and as far as the arts of peace go they had advanced -considerably upon the men of the tumuli. More especially do the <i>woven -cloths</i>, sometimes worked with simple but not inartistic patterns, -excite our admiration. They had their trade too. Ornaments of amber are -frequent, and amber must have been brought from the Baltic; while in one -settlement, believed to be of the stone age, the presence of a glass -bead would seem to imply indirect commerce with Egypt, the only country -in which the traces of glass manufacture at this remote period have been -found.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> It is believed by good authorities, that the stone age in -Europe came to an end about two thousand years before Christ, or at a -date<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_47" id="page_47"></a>{47}</span> which is generally considered to be about that of Abraham; and its -shortest duration, as we saw, must also be considered to be two thousand -years.</p> - -<p>These men of the lakes stand in no degree behind the mound-builders for -the material elements of civilization. Nay, they are in some respects -before them. Their life seems to have been more confined and simple than -that which was going on in other parts of Europe. Its very peacefulness -and simplicity gave men the opportunity for perfecting some of their -arts. Thus their agriculture was more careful and more extended than -that of the men of the tumuli. Their cattle would appear to have been -numerous; all were stall-fed upon the island home; if in the morning -driven out to pasture over the long bridge to the mainland, they were -brought home again at night. To agriculture these lake-dwellers had -added the special art of gardening, for they cultivated fruit-trees; and -they span hemp and flax, and even constructed—it is believed—some sort -of loom for weaving cloth. Yet for all that, if in these respects they -were superior to the men of the tumuli, their life was probably more -petty and narrow than the others’. There must have been some grandeur in -the ideas of men who could have built those enormous tombs and raised -those wondrous piles of altar-stones. If the first were made in honour -of their chiefs, the existence of such chiefs implies a power in the -stone-age men of expanding into a wide social life; so too the immense -labour which the raising of the cromlechs demanded argues strong if not -the most elevated religious ideas. And it has been often and truly -remarked that these two elements of progress, social and religious life, -are always intimately associated. It is in a common worship more than in -common language that we find the beginning of nationalities. It was so -in Greece.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_48" id="page_48"></a>{48}</span> The city life grew up around the temple of a particular -tutelary deity, and the associations of cities arose from their -association in the worship at some common shrine. The common nationality -of the Hellenes was kept alive more than anything in the quadrennial -games in honour of the Olympian Zeus, just as the special citizenship of -Athens found expression in the peculiar worship of the virgin goddess -Athênê. So we may well argue from the great stone remains, that man had -even then made <i>some</i> progress in political life. They show us the -extended conditions of tribal government. But the lake-dwellers only -give us a picture of the simplest and narrowest form of the village -community. It is with them a complete condition of social equality; -there is no appearance of any grade of rank; no hut on these islands is -found larger or better supplied or more cared for than the rest. A -condition of things not unlike that which we find in Switzerland at the -present day; one favourable to happiness and contentment, to improvement -in the simpler arts, but not to wide views of life, or to any great or -general progress.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<div class="sidenote">The civilization of<br /> the stone ages.</div> - -<p>And now let us, before we bid adieu to the men of the stone age, recount -our gains, and see what picture the researches of pre-historic science -allow us to draw of the progress of mankind from its earliest condition -to that in which we now find it. We will forget for a moment the great -gap which intervenes between the two stone ages, the age of unpolished -stone and the age of polished stone, and simply following step by step -the changes in human implements much as if we were walking round the -cases of some well-arranged museum, we will note, as we pass it, each -marked improvement or new acquisition in the arts of life.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_49" id="page_49"></a>{49}</span></p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>1. To begin, then, with the men of the river drift—so far as we can -judge, the rudest and most uncultured of all. It is not certain that -these men had so much as wooden handles to their implements of stone, -but it is probable that they had them. As we have said, they had only -two or three marked varieties in these weapons. How little advance there -seems from the state of simply using or hurling the stones in the state -in which they are found! At the same time, it must be said that the -implements of wood or horn, pointed stakes or even javelins, which these -early men <i>may</i> have had would almost certainly have perished.</p> - -<p>Nor, again, is there any evidence that the men of the drift period were -cognizant of the use of fire, though here it is more likely that they -were than that they were not.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>2. When we come to the cave-dwellers we see marked signs of a higher -civilization. The first and most important of these signs undoubtedly is -the <i>evidence</i> of knowledge how to procure fire. We see a much greater -variety in the implements used by the cave-dwellers. This, no doubt, is -due <i>in part</i> to the disappearance of a portion of the implements of the -drift age; but still we must take things as we find them. And putting -side by side the specimens of the drift-implements and the -cave-implements, we are at once struck by the superiority of the latter -in make and in variety of form.</p> - -<p>Thirdly, as has already been pointed out, we have here the earliest -traces of art. On that subject it is not necessary again to dwell.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>3. And now pass on to the second stone age, and see what progress man -has made in the interval which separates the two periods. We begin with -the society represented by<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_50" id="page_50"></a>{50}</span> the kitchen-middens. We do not possess any -certainly polished-stone implements from these refuse-heaps. But I do -not lay any great stress upon the invention of the art of polishing or -even of grinding the stone; though that was not without importance, for -it enabled the men of the second stone age to make use of much harder -and more durable sorts of stone for their cutting implements. The -earliest stone-age men made their implements of all sorts almost -exclusively of flints, because the flint was a stone not difficult to -chip into shape and to give an edge to by chipping. But when it comes to -polishing or grinding instead of chipping an edge upon stones, there are -a variety of other kinds of stone which are much more durable and much -more serviceable than flints are, for the very reason that they are not -liable to chip, and these stones (jade, granite, greenstone, obsidian, -or one or other of the marbles, for example) we find a good deal -employed during the latter stone age.</p> - -<p>What, however, is more significant than would be the use of -polished-stone implements by the kitchen-midden men is the evidence of -their use of canoes, and therefore the evidence that they understood the -art of navigation.</p> - -<p>Next after that we must place the use of the bow, which also was -probably known to the earliest men of the polished-stone age, but not to -those of the preceding era.</p> - -<p>Finally, we have the beginning of domestication of animals in the -domestication of the dog. But we have as yet no beginning of -agriculture.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>4. Pass on to the men who raised the tumuli and we find still further -signs of progress. Of these the tumuli themselves are the most -significant. For in them we see the beginning of the art of building. I -do not say that houses were unknown to the kitchen-midden men; only that -we<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_51" id="page_51"></a>{51}</span> have no proof that they lived in houses; and we are here taking the -evidences of advancing civilization as we come across them. In the case -of the still earlier cave-dwellers we may take it for granted that the -art of house-building was unknown to them, and quite as much so to the -men of the river drift.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p> - -<p>True, the tumuli are not houses; they are tombs. But the men who could -raise these tombs could raise houses likewise, and there can be little -doubt that the architecture of the tombs, here and throughout the -history of mankind, was modelled upon the architecture of the houses. -Wherefore we may assume that these last were low and narrow chambers, a -sort of constructed caves, so to speak, which is just what we should -expect the earliest houses to be. We should expect that the first -advance from cave-dwelling or burrowing in the ground would be to raise -an artificial mountain and burrow within that. But soon the insecurity -of this house would become apparent, and the next advance—no mean one, -however,—would be the propping of stones upon others to make a chamber -before the earth was heaped up in the tumulus, and when that step had -been reached the art of house-building had begun.</p> - -<p>We might call the next step forward the acquisition of a religion, of -which the first signs are apparent in the cromlechs of this age. In this -case, again, we only follow the testimony of the remains that have been -discovered in the order in which they have come to light. It would be -far too much to say that the earlier stone-age men were without -religious<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_52" id="page_52"></a>{52}</span> observances. All we can say is, that the first certain -remains of these belong to the time of the tumuli and the cromlechs. The -reasons which lead us to believe that these last, the cromlechs, had a -religious character have been already given.</p> - -<p>Commerce was not unknown even to the cave-dwellers, but the first proofs -of anything like a distant commerce come to us from the date of the -grave-mounds.</p> - -<p>The domestic animals of the tumuli begin to be numerous—oxen, pigs, -goats, and geese,—though these remains are not found in the earliest -mounds. And there is likewise among them some trace of agriculture.</p> - -<p>Finally, traces of the art of pottery-making appear for the first time -in these graves.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>5. The village communities show an advance to the most undoubted use of -agriculture, to the planting of fruit-trees, to the weaving of cloths, -and a much more extended practice of domestication than obtained among -the men of the grave-mounds.</p> - -<p>Thus we see that as long ago as the stone age, before man had yet -discovered any metal except, maybe, gold, he had advanced so far as to -have discovered the most necessary arts of life, hunting, fishing, -navigation (in some form), the domestication of animals, agriculture, -planting, weaving, the making of garments—not of skin only, but also of -linen or cloth—and the making of pottery.</p> - -<p>And now let us note one other thing—the point where the stone age seems -to approach most nearly to the borders of actual history. History begins -in Egypt. For no continuous Biblical history exists for the days prior -to Abraham. But in Egypt, for many centuries before Abraham, we have a -continuous history, or at least continuous chronicles and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_53" id="page_53"></a>{53}</span> dynastic -lists, whose authenticity is admitted, and the remains of no mean -civilization in the buildings contemporary with these earliest -chronicles.</p> - -<p>Egyptian history may be said to begin with the builders of the pyramids. -But the pyramids themselves are nothing else than the children of the -tumuli of the second stone age. We may call them a sort of crystallized -tumuli—barrows of stone instead of earth. But, in truth, the earliest -pyramids were probably not built of stone. It is generally believed that -the stone pyramids which we see to-day at Gîza and Sakkara were preceded -by pyramids of unbaked brick. And what are such buildings of unbaked -brick save carefully raised mounds of earth? Here, then, we get the -nearest meeting-point between the stone age and the age of history.</p> - -<p>Again, the principle upon which were constructed the Egyptian tombs—of -which the pyramids were only the most conspicuous forms—were precisely -the same as the principles which governed the construction of the more -elaborate barrows. These last had not only a chamber for the dead. This -chamber was in many cases approached by a passage also made of stones -covered with earth; and there can be no question that the mouth of the -tomb was used as a sort of ante-room in which the relatives of the dead -might hold their wake, or funeral feast. Here have been found the traces -of fires, the remains of animals, fragments of vessels of pottery, etc., -used or consumed in the feasts. We may believe that the ceremony was -repeated at stated intervals. The very same principle governed the -construction of the Egyptian tombs. These likewise (in their earliest -known forms) consisted of an inner tomb and of an outer chamber; -generally between the one and the other there was a passage. The outer -chamber is that to which archæologists have given the name of <i>mastaba</i>. -In it<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_54" id="page_54"></a>{54}</span> the relatives of the dead continued year after year to keep a -funeral feast in his memory. Or we may say more than in memory of the -dead—<i>with</i> the dead, we may say. For the essence of the feast, the -fumes of the baked meats, was thought to penetrate along the passage and -reach the mummy himself in his dark chamber.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<div class="sidenote">Ages of bronze<br /> and iron.</div> - -<p>Thus we come to the end of the stone age or ages. The next great -discovery which man made was that of the metals. Not iron at first; -before iron was discovered there supervened the age known as the Bronze -Age, when copper and tin were known but not iron, and all the most -important implements were made of that mixture of copper and -tin—bronze, the hardest substance then obtainable. In some countries -the discovery of the metals was natural, and one age followed upon the -other in gradual sequence. But in Europe it was not so. The men of the -bronze age were a new race, sallying out of the East to dispossess the -older inhabitants, and if in some places the bronze men and the stone -men seem to have gone on for a time side by side, the general character -of the change is that of a sudden break.</p> - -<p>Therefore we do not now proceed to speak of the characteristic -civilization of the bronze age. As will be seen hereafter, the bringers -of the new weapons belonged to a race concerning whom we have much -ampler means of information than is possessed for the first inhabitants -of these lands; and we are spared the necessity of drawing all our -knowledge from a scrutiny of their arms or tombs. But before we can -satisfactorily show who were the successors of the stone-age men in -Europe, and whence they came, we must turn aside towards another -inquiry, viz. into the origin of language.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_55" id="page_55"></a>{55}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.<br /><br /> -<small>THE GROWTH OF LANGUAGE.</small></h2> - -<div class="sidenote">The growth of<br /> language.</div> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">We</span> have looked upon man fashioning the first implements and weapons and -houses which were ever made; we now turn aside and ask what were the -first of those immaterial instruments, those ‘aëriform, mystic’ legacies -which were handed down and gradually improved from the time of the -earliest inhabitants of our globe? Foremost among these, long anterior -to the ‘metallurgic and other manufacturing <i>skill</i>,’ comes language. -With us, in whose minds thought and speech are so bound together as to -be almost inseparable, the idea that language is an instrument which -through long ages has been slowly improved to its present perfection, -seems difficult of credit. We think of early man having the same ideas -and expressing them as readily as we do now; but this he could not -really have done. Not, indeed, that we have any reason to believe that -there was a time when man had no language at all; but it seems certain -that long ages were necessary before this instrument could be wrought to -the fineness in which we find it, and to which, in all the languages -with which we are likely to become acquainted, we are accustomed. A rude -iron knife or spear-head seems a simple and natural thing to<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_56" id="page_56"></a>{56}</span> make. But -we know that before it could be made iron had to be discovered, and the -art of extracting iron from the ore; and, as a matter of fact, we know -that thousands of years passed before the iron spear-head was a -possibility; thousands of years spent in slowly improving the weapons of -stone, and passing on from them to the weapons of bronze. So, too, with -language; simple as it seems at first sight to fit the word on to the -idea, and early as we ourselves learn this art, a little thought about -what language is will show us how much we owe to the ages which have -gone before.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">The two main<br /> classes of words<br /> ‘significant’<br /> and -‘insignificant.’</div> - -<p>To understand fully the department of study called the science of -language considerable linguistic knowledge is necessary. But to grasp -many of the general principles of this science, and many of the most -important facts which it teaches, we do not need any such wide -knowledge. In fact, a little thoughtful examination of any single tongue -(his own, whichever it may be) would teach a person many things which -without thought he would be inclined to pass over as matters of course -or matters of no consequence. In truth, in this science of language what -we need, even before we need a very wide array of facts, is what is -called the scientific method in dealing with the facts which we possess. -But, again, this which we call the scientific method is really -represented by two qualities which have less pretentious -names—<i>observation</i> and <i>common sense</i>.</p> - -<p>Let us begin then by, so to say, challenging our own language, our -English as we find it to-day, and see what hints we can gain from it of -the formation of language as a whole and of its origin. An ounce of -information gained in this wise, by examination and the use of our own -common sense, is worth a much greater bulk of knowledge gained<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_57" id="page_57"></a>{57}</span> -second-hand from books, and merely remembered as facts divorced from -their causes.</p> - -<p>Take any sentence, and place that, so to say, under a microscope, or -under the dissecting-knife—take the opening sentence of this chapter, -for example.</p> - -<p>“We have looked upon man fashioning the first implements and weapons and -houses that were ever made.”</p> - -<p>Let us look at these few words alone.</p> - -<p>The first thing we have to notice about this sentence, and any other -sentence almost that we could anywhere find, is that the words which -compose it fall into two distinct classes, the classes of what I will -call <i>meaning</i> and <i>meaningless</i>, or significant and <i>in</i>-significant -words. In the first class fall the words <i>we</i>, <i>looked</i>, <i>man</i>, -<i>fashioning</i>, <i>implements</i>, <i>weapons</i>, <i>houses</i>, <i>made</i>. These I call -‘meaning’ or ‘significant’ words, because, if we isolate each one and -utter it alone, it will call up some image to the mind—<i>we</i>, <i>weapons</i>, -<i>fashioning</i>, <i>houses</i>, <i>made</i>, and so forth: the image may be pretty -clear or it may be (in the case of the verbs it is) somewhat hazy. But -in every case some image or some idea does rise before the mind when any -of these words is pronounced. <i>Have</i> and <i>were</i> I exclude for the moment -from either class. The words of the second class, then, from the -sentence chosen are—<i>upon</i>, <i>the</i>, <i>and</i>, <i>ever</i>. Of the first three, -at any rate, there can be no difficulty as to why they are classed as -the meaningless or insignificant words of the sentence. Isolated from -the words of the first class, <i>upon</i>, <i>the</i>, or <i>and</i> can by no means -possibly call up any image or suggest any idea to the mind.</p> - -<p>Now, if you take any implement whose manufacture the world has ever -seen, unless it be of the most primitive description imaginable, you -will find it really devisable into two parts, upon much the same -principle that we have here<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_58" id="page_58"></a>{58}</span> resolved our typical sentence into two -primary divisions; it will consist of the <i>essential</i> part, the part -which <i>by itself</i> would be useful, and the unessential adjunct which is -designed to assist the usefulness of the other portion, but which is -useless by itself—or if not useless by itself, it is useless for the -purposes for which the implement we are concerned with is made. All -handles meant to assist in the use of an implement, be it a stone axe or -a most elaborate modern weapon, form such an adjunct to the essential -part. Such useful and by comparison useless parts are the blade and the -handle of a knife, the barrel and the stock of a gun, the carrying -portion of the wheelbarrow and the wheel, the <i>share</i>—the shearing or -cutting portion of a plough—and the wooden framework; and so forth. -There is no need to multiply examples. Nor, I think, is there any need -to insist further how strictly analogous the two classes of words here -distinguished are to the two parts of any other implement invented by -man. It goes almost of course that the essential portion of any -implement is the portion which was invented first, that knife-blades -were invented before knife-handles, barrows before barrow-wheels, etc. -Wherefore it seems to follow of course that, of the two classes of words -whereof language consists—whereof all languages consist—the meaning -and the meaningless words, the first were the earliest invented or -discovered. This is the same as saying that language once consisted -altogether of words which had a definite meaning attaching to them even -when uttered by themselves, and consequently that the words of the -second class grew, so to say, out of the words of the first class.</p> - -<p>These are the conclusions which a mere examination of a single language, -our own, under the guidance of observation and common sense, would force -upon us; always supposing<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_59" id="page_59"></a>{59}</span> our language to be a representative one. And -these conclusions are strengthened when we come to look a little into -the history of words, so far as we can trace it.</p> - -<p>So far back, therefore, we may go in the history of language to a time -when all the words which men used were words which by themselves evoked -distinct ideas. Relegating these words, as far as we can, into the -classes which grammarians have invented for the different parts of -speech, we see that the significant words are all, as a rule, either -nouns (or <i>pro</i>-nouns), adjectives, or verbs; that the insignificant -words are, as a rule, adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions—what, in -fact, are called <i>particles</i>, fragments of speech. I say, <i>as a rule</i>, -for both divisions. The pronouns and the auxiliary verbs, for example, -are very difficult to classify; and it depends rather on their use in -each individual sentence, to which division they are to be relegated.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Origin of <br />speech undiscoverable.</div> - -<p>But though we have now learnt to distinguish the words which by -themselves convey definite ideas, and those others whose meaning depends -upon the first class, we are as far as ever from understanding how -words, whether of one kind or the other, come to have the significance -which they have for us. <i>Book</i>—no sooner have we pronounced the word -than an <i>idea</i> more or less distinct comes into our mind. The thought -and the sound seem inseparable, and we cannot remember the time when -they were not so. Yet the connection between the thought and the sound -is not necessary. In fact, a sound which generally comes connected with -one idea may—if we are engaged at the time upon a language not our -own—enter our minds, bringing with it an idea quite unconnected with -the first. <i>Share</i> and <i>chère</i>, <i>plea</i> and <i>plie</i>, <i>feel</i> and <i>viel</i> -(German), are examples in point; and the same thing is shown by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_60" id="page_60"></a>{60}</span> -numerous sounds in our language which have two or more quite distinct -meanings, as for example—<i>ware</i> and <i>were</i>, and (with most people) -<i>where</i> too. <i>Rite</i> and <i>right</i> and <i>wright</i> are pronounced precisely -alike; therefore there can be no reason why one sound should convey one -idea more than another. In other words, the idea and the sound have an -arbitrary, not a natural connection. We have been <i>taught</i> to make the -sound ‘book’ for the idea book, but had we been brought up by French -parents the sound ‘livre’ would have seemed the natural one to make.</p> - -<p>So that this wondrous faculty of speech has, like those other faculties -of which Carlyle speaks, been handed down on impalpable vehicles of -sound through the ages. Never, perhaps, since the time of our first -parents has one person from among the countless millions who have been -born had to invent for himself a way of expressing his thoughts in -words. This is alone a strange thing enough. Impossible as it is to -imagine ourselves without speech, we may ask the question—What should -we do if we were ever left in such a predicament? Should we have <i>any</i> -guide in fitting the sound on to the idea? <i>Share</i> and <i>chère</i>, <i>feel</i> -and <i>viel</i>—among these unconnected notions is there <i>any</i> reason why we -should wed our speech to one rather than another? Clearly there is no -reason. Yet in the case which we imagined of a number of rational beings -who had to invent a language for the first time, if they are ever to -come to an understanding at all there must be some common impulse which -makes more than one choose the same sound for a particular idea. How, -for instance, we may ask, was it with our first parents? They have -passed on to all their descendants for ever the idea of conveying -thought by sound, and all the great changes which have since come into -the languages of the world have been gradual and, so<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_61" id="page_61"></a>{61}</span> to say, natural. -But this first invention of the idea of speech is of quite another -character.</p> - -<p>Here we are brought to the threshold of that impenetrable mystery ‘the -beginning of things,’ and here we must pause. We recognize this faculty -of speech as a thing mysterious, unaccountable, belonging to that -supernatural being, man. There must, one would think, have been and must -be in us a something which causes our mouth to echo the thought of the -heart; and originally this echo must have been spontaneous and natural, -the same for all alike. Now it is a mere matter of tradition and -instruction, the sound we use for the idea; but at first the two must -have had some subtle necessary connection, or how could one of our first -parents have known or guessed what the other wished to say? Just as -every metal has its peculiar ring, it is as though each impression on -the mind rang out its peculiar word from the tongue.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> Or was it like -the faint tremulous sound which glasses give when music is played near? -The outward object or the inward thought called out a sort of mimicry, a -distant echo—not like, but yet born of the other—on the lips. These -earliest sounds may perhaps still sometimes be detected. In the sound -<i>flo</i> or <i>flu</i>, which in an immense number of languages stands connected -with the idea of flowing and of rivers, do we not recognize some attempt -to catch the smooth yet rushing sound of water? And again, in the sound -<i>gra</i> or <i>gri</i>, which is largely associated with the notion of grinding, -cutting, or scraping,<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> there is surely something of this in<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_62" id="page_62"></a>{62}</span> the -guttural harshness of the letters, which make the tongue grate, as it -were, against the roof of the mouth.</p> - -<p>It does not, however, seem probable that the earliest words were mere -<i>imitations</i> of the sounds produced by the objects they designed to -express, such as are some of the words of child-language whereby dogs -are called <i>bow-wows</i> and lambs are called <i>baas</i>. Nor need we wonder at -this, when we note the principles upon which other sorts of -<i>language</i>—expressive actions, for instance—are conceived and used. If -we intend to express the idea of motion by an expressive gesture, we do -not make any copy of the mode of that motion. We say ‘Go,’ and we dart -out our hand, half to show that the person we are addressing is to go in -the direction which we point out, or that he is to keep away from us; -half, again, to give the idea of his movement by the rapidity of our -own. But if we wanted to convey this last idea by mere imitation we -should move our legs rapidly and not our arms.</p> - -<p>It might be thought that the study of the gesture-language which has -been used by men, especially the gesture-language of deaf-mutes, who -have no other, would give us the best insight into the origin of -language among mankind. But in reality the results of such a study are -not very satisfactory; and for this reason, that the deaf-mute has in -every case been in contact with one or more persons who possessed -speech, and whose ideas were therefore entirely formed by the possession -and the inheritance of language. This inherited language they translate -into signs for the benefit of the deaf-mute, while the latter is still a -baby and incapable of inventing language; wherefore it, in its turn, -<i>inherits</i> a language almost as much as its parent has done,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_63" id="page_63"></a>{63}</span> though it -is a language of gesture and not of spoken words.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> It is a fact, -however, that deaf-mutes who cannot hear the sounds they make, do -nevertheless articulate certain <i>sounds</i> which they constantly associate -with the same ideas. These seem to bring us very near the -language-making faculty of man. Lists of these sounds have been made, -but they are not such that we can draw any conclusions touching the -natural or universal association of sound and sense.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Growth of<br /> the ‘insignificant’<br /> words out<br /> of the -‘significant.’</div> - -<p>The origin of human speech and the mode of its first operation are -therefore undiscoverable. We can place no measure to the rapidity with -which the first created man may have obtained his stock of words of our -first class; as Adam is described naming each one of the animals among -whom he lived. All these beginnings lie beyond the ken of linguistic -science. But even when he was furnished as fully as we choose to suppose -with a class of words which had a meaning of their own, there was still -the second class whose invention must have followed upon the invention -of the first. The adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, particles,—the -words which meant <i>to</i>, <i>and</i>, <i>at</i>, <i>but</i>, <i>when</i>,—these we have -already seen must as a whole have come into use later than the other -class of words.</p> - -<p>This, then, we may fairly call the second stage in the growth of -language, the making of these auxiliary words to enforce the meaning of -the first class of words. And at the first moment it might seem -impossible to imagine how these words could ever have come into -existence. Given a certain word-making faculty, we can understand how -mankind got sounds to express such ideas as <i>man</i>, <i>head</i>, <i>hard</i>, -<i>red</i>. But how he could ever have acquired sounds to<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_64" id="page_64"></a>{64}</span> express such vague -notions as <i>at</i>, <i>by</i>, <i>and</i>, it is much less easy to conceive. A closer -observation, however, even of our own language, and a wider knowledge of -languages generally, lead to the conclusion that all the words of the -second class, the auxiliary words, sprang from words of the first class; -that every insignificant word has grown out of a word which had its own -significance; that, for instance, <i>with</i>, <i>by</i>, <i>and</i>, have descended -from roots (now lost) which, if placed alone, would have conveyed as -much idea to the mind as <i>pen</i>, <i>ink</i>, or <i>paper</i> does to us.</p> - -<p>This, I say, we should guess even from an examination of our own -language alone. For the process is still going on. Take the word <i>even</i>, -as used in the sentence which we have just written: ‘Even from an -examination.’ Here <i>even</i> is an adverb, quite meaningless when used -alone, at least as an adverb; but if we see it alone it becomes another -word, an adjective, a meaning word, bringing before us the idea of two -things hanging level. ‘Even from’ is nonsense as an <i>idea</i> with nothing -to follow it, but ‘even weights’ is a perfectly clear and definite -notion, and each of the separate words <i>even</i> and <i>weights</i> give us -clear and definite notions too. It is the same with <i>just</i>, which is -both adverb and adjective. ‘Just as’ brings no thought into the mind, -but ‘just man’ and <i>just</i> and <i>man</i>, separately or together, do. <i>While</i> -or <i>whilst</i> are meaningless; but, ‘a while,’ or ‘to while’—to -loiter—are full of meaning. In each case the meaningless word came from -the meaning word, and was first used as a sort of metaphor, and then the -metaphorical part was lost sight of. <i>Ago</i> is a meaningless word by -itself, but it is really only a changed form of the obsolete word -<i>agone</i>, which was an old past participle of the verb ‘to go.’</p> - -<p>And we might find many instances of words in the same process of -transformation in other languages. The English<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_65" id="page_65"></a>{65}</span> word <i>not</i> is -meaningless, and just as much so are the French <i>pas</i> and <i>point</i> in the -sense of <i>not</i>; but in the sense of <i>footstep</i>, or <i>point</i>, they have -meaning enough. Originally <i>Il ne veut pas</i> meant, metaphorically, ‘He -does not wish a step of your wishes,’ ‘He does not go a footstep with -you in your wish;’ <i>Il ne veut point</i>, ‘He does not go a point with you -in your wish.’ Nowadays all this metaphorical meaning is gone, except to -the eye of the grammarian. People recognize that <i>Il ne veut point</i> is -rather stronger than <i>Il ne veut pas</i>, but it never occurs to them to -ask why.</p> - -<p>There are so many of these curious examples that one is tempted to go on -choosing instances; but we confine ourselves to one more. Our word <i>yes</i> -is a word which by itself is quite incapable of calling up a picture in -our minds, but the word <i>is</i> or ‘it is,’ though the idea it conveys is -very abstract, and, so to say, intangible—as compared, for instance, -with such verbs as <i>move</i>, <i>beat</i>—nevertheless belongs to the -‘significant’ class. Now, it happens that the Latin language used the -word <i>est</i> ‘it is’ where we should now use the word ‘yes;’ and it still -further happens that our <i>yes</i><a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> is probably the same as the German -<i>es</i>, and was used in the same sense of <i>it is</i> as well. Instead of the -meaningless word ‘yes’ the Romans used the word <i>est</i> ‘it is,’ and our -own ancestors expressed the same idea by saying ‘it.’ Still more. It is -well known that French is in the main a descendant from the Latin, not -the Latin of Rome, but the corrupter Latin which was spoken in Gaul. Now -these Latin-speaking Gauls did not, for some reason, say <i>est</i>, ‘it is,’ -for <i>yes</i>, as the Romans did; but they used a pronoun, either <i>ille</i>, -‘he,’ or <i>hoc</i>, ‘this.’ When, therefore, a Gaul desired to say ‘yes,’ he -nodded, and said <i>he</i> or else <i>this</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_66" id="page_66"></a>{66}</span> meaning ‘He is so,’ or ‘This is -so.’ As it happens the Gauls of the north said <i>ille</i>, and those of the -south said <i>hoc</i>, and these words gradually got corrupted into two -meaningless words, <i>oui</i> and <i>oc</i>. It is well known that the people in -the south of France were especially distinguished by using the word <i>oc</i> -instead of <i>oui</i> for ‘yes,’ so that their ‘dialect’ got to be called the -<i>langue d’oc</i>, and this word Languedoc gave the name to a province of -France. Long before that time, however, we may be sure, both the people -of the <i>langue d’oil</i>, or <i>langue d’oui</i>, and those of the <i>langue d’oc</i> -had forgotten that their words for ‘yes’ had originally meant ‘he’ and -‘this.’</p> - -<p>We can, from the instances above given, form a pretty good guess at the -way in which the auxiliary or meaningless class of sounds came into use -in any language. Each of these must once have had a distinct -significance by itself, then (getting meanwhile a little changed in form -probably) it gradually lost the separate meaning and became only a -particle of speech, only an adjunct to other words. In another way, we -may say that before man spoke of ‘on the rock’ or ‘under the rock’ he -must have used some expression like ‘head of rock,’ or more literally -‘head rock’ and ‘foot rock;’ and that as time went on, new words coming -into use for <i>head</i> and <i>foot</i>, these earlier ones dropped down to be -mere adjuncts, and men forgot that they had ever been anything else. -Just so no ordinary Frenchman knows that his <i>oui</i> and <i>il</i> are both -sprung from the same Latin <i>ille</i>; nor does the ordinary Englishman -recognize that <i>ago</i> is a past participle of ‘go;’ nor again, to take a -new instance, does, perhaps, the ordinary German recognize that his -<i>gewiss</i>, ‘certainly,’ is merely an abbreviation of the past participle -<i>gewissen</i>, ‘known.’</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>We have now followed the growth of language through<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_67" id="page_67"></a>{67}</span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">Root-sounds.</div> - -<p class="nind">two of its stages, first, the coining of the principal or essential -parts of speech, the nouns, adjectives, and verbs; and secondly, the -coining at a later date of the auxiliary parts of speech, the -prepositions, adverbs, and conjunctions, and (where they exist) the -enclitics <i>the</i> and <i>a</i>; these last, however, (<i>as separate words</i>,<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a>) -are wanting from a large number of languages. A third stage is the -variation of certain words to form out of them other words which are -nearly related in character to the first. We may speak of this process -as a process of ringing the changes upon certain <i>root-sounds</i> to form a -series of words allied in sound and allied in sense also. We have -several instances of such groups of allied words in our own language. -<i>Fly</i>, <i>flee</i>, <i>flew</i>, <i>fled</i>, are words allied in sound and in sense. -In these cases the sound of the letters f-l constitutes what we may call -the root-sound. And it may be said at once that those languages are said -to be related in each of which a certain number of words can be traced -back to root-sounds which are common to the two or more tongues.</p> - -<p>In the case of the vast majority of words, before we can begin by -comparing one word with another, or trying to discover the root-words of -several different languages, we have first to trace the history of these -words backwards, each in its own language, and find their most primitive -forms. But in tongues which are pretty nearly related we have often no -difficulty in seeing the similarity of corresponding words just as they -stand to-day. We have no difficulty, for instance, in seeing the -connection of the German <i>Knecht</i> and our <i>knight</i>,<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> the German -<i>Nacht</i> and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_68" id="page_68"></a>{68}</span> our <i>night</i>, the German <i>Raum</i> and our <i>room</i>; or, again, -the connection between the Italian <i>padre</i> and the French <i>père</i>, the -Italian <i>tavola</i> and the French (and English) <i>table</i>, etc.</p> - -<p>But where the connection between languages is more distant, we have more -and more to go back to much simpler roots, in order to show the -relationship between them; and by a vast majority the primitive -root-sounds in any large family of languages are single syllables, -whereof the most constant parts are (as a rule) the consonants. So far -as our knowledge goes, we might think of man as beginning human speech -with a certain number of these simple root-sounds, and then proceeding -to ring the changes upon these root-sounds to express varieties in the -root-idea. Sometimes it is easy enough to trace the connection of ideas -between different words which have been formed out of the same -root-word. But sometimes this is not at all easy. Nor can we say why -this special sound has been adopted for any one notion more than for a -number of others to which it would have applied equally well. From a -root, which in Sanskrit appears in its most ancient form, as <i>mâ</i>, ‘to -measure,’ we get words in Greek and Latin which mean ‘to think;’ and -from the same root comes our ‘man,’ the person who measures, who -compares, <i>i.e.</i>, who thinks, also our <i>moon</i>, which means ‘the -measurer,’ because the moon helps to measure out the time, the <i>months</i>. -But how arbitrary seems this connection between <i>man</i> and <i>moon</i>! So, -too, our <i>crab</i> is from the word <i>creep</i>, and means the animal that -creeps. But why this name should have been given to crab rather than to -ant and beetle it is impossible to say. So that there appears as little -trace of a reason governing the formation of words out of root-sounds as -there appeared in the adoption of root-sounds to express certain -fundamental ideas.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_69" id="page_69"></a>{69}</span></p> - -<p>Thus equipped with his fixed root and the various words formed out of -it, man had the rough <i>material</i> out of which to build up all the -elaborate languages which the world has known. And he continued his work -something in this fashion. As generation followed generation the -pronunciation of words was changed, as is constantly being done at the -present day. Our grandmothers pronounced ‘Rome,’ ‘Room,’ and ‘brooch,’ -as it was spelt, and not as we pronounce it—‘broach.’ And let it be -remembered, before writing was invented, there was nothing but the -pronunciation to fix the word, and a new pronunciation was really a new -word. When there was no written form to petrify a word, these changes of -pronunciation were very rapid and frequent, so that not only would each -generation have a different set of words from their fathers, but -probably each tribe would be partly unintelligible to its neighbouring -tribes, just as a Somersetshire man is to a great extent unintelligible -to a man from Yorkshire. The first result of these changes would be the -springing up of that class of ‘meaningless’ words of which we spoke -above. Out of some significant words, such as ‘head’ and ‘foot,’ would -arise insignificant words similar to ‘over’ and ‘under.’ Such a change -could only begin when of two names each for ‘head’ and ‘foot’ one became -obsolete as a noun, and was only used adverbially. Then what had -originally meant, metaphorically, ‘head of rock’ and ‘foot of rock’<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> -might come to be used for ‘over’ and ‘under the rock,’ in exactly the -same way that the word <i>ago</i>, having changed its form from <i>agone</i>, has -become a ‘meaningless’ word to the Englishman of to-day.</p> - -<p>And with the acquisition of the insignificant words a new and very -important process began. To understand<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_70" id="page_70"></a>{70}</span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">Growth of<br /> inflexions.</div> - -<p class="nind">what it was we will, as we did before, begin by examining the formation -of some of the languages with which we are, probably, more or less -familiar. Let us note how very many more variations on the same root are -to be found in some languages than in others. On the root <i>dic</i>, which -in Latin expresses the notion of speaking, we have the variations -<i>dico</i>, <i>dixi</i>, <i>dicere</i>, <i>dictum</i>, <i>dictio</i>, <i>dicto</i>, <i>dicor</i>, -<i>dictor</i>, <i>dictator</i>, <i>dictatrix</i>, etc.; and yet this does not nearly -exhaust the list, for we have all the changes in the different tenses of -<i>dico</i>, <i>dicto</i>, <i>dicor</i>, etc., in the different cases of <i>dictio</i>, -<i>dictator</i>. dictatrix, etc. The languages which contain these numerous -variations upon one root are what are called the <i>inflected</i> languages, -and the greater number of the changes which they make come under the -head of what grammarians call inflexions. These inflexions are of no -meaning in themselves, they have no existence even in themselves as -words. And yet what is curious is that they are the same for a great -number of different words; and they express the same <i>relative</i> meaning -in the places where they stand whatever the word may be. If the <i>-nis</i> -of <i>dictionis</i> expresses a certain idea relative to <i>dictio</i>, so does -the <i>-nis</i> of <i>lectionis</i> express the same idea relative to <i>lectio</i>, -the <i>-nis</i> of <i>actionis</i> the same idea relative to <i>actio</i>, and so -forth.</p> - -<p>Or, to take an example from a modern inflected language, if the <i>-es</i> of -<i>Mannes</i>, expresses a certain idea relative to <i>Mann</i>, so does the same -inflexion (<i>-es</i> or <i>-s</i>) in <i>Hauses</i>, <i>Baums</i>, etc., relative to <i>Haus</i> -and <i>Baum</i>.</p> - -<p>Now, how are we to explain this fact? Our grammars, it is true, take it -for granted, and give it us as a thing which requires no -explanation—the genitive inflexion is <i>-nis</i> or <i>-es</i>, or whatever it -may be. That is all they tell us. But we cannot be content to take -anything of course. An<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_71" id="page_71"></a>{71}</span> explanation, however, is not difficult, and -follows, <i>almost</i> of course, on the exercise of a little common sense. -If the <i>-es</i> of Mannes, Hauses, Baumes (Baums) expresses the idea ‘of,’ -then, at one time or another, <i>es</i>, or some root from which it is -derived, must have <i>meant</i> ‘of.’ This explains easily and naturally -enough the inflexions in any inflected language. They have no meaning -now, but at one time they (or their original forms—their ancestors, so -to speak) had no doubt just as much meaning by themselves as our ‘of.’ -And therefore the only difference between our use in England to-day, and -the ancestral use in a primitive language, was that we say ‘of [the] -man,’ and the ancestral language would have said ‘man-of,’ ‘house-of,’ -etc. This accounts for the same genitive forms being used for so many -different words.</p> - -<p>And that the same genitive forms are not used <i>throughout</i> any language -is no real objection to this theory. If we say <i>dictionis</i>, <i>lectionis</i>, -but <i>musæ</i>, <i>rosæ</i>; if we say <i>Mannes</i>, <i>Hauses</i>, but <i>Blume</i>, <i>Rose</i>, -the only reason of these varieties is that the languages from which -these inflexions are derived possessed more than one word meaning ‘of,’ -and that one of these words was attached to a certain series of nouns, -another word to another series.</p> - -<p>This is the explanation which mere common sense would give of the origin -of inflexions in language, and further research, had we time to examine -the history of language more elaborately, would show that it was -<i>fundamentally</i> the right explanation. The only correction which we -should have to make on this first and crude theory is explained a little -further on. Thus we see in this third stage of language a process very -closely analogous to the second. The second stage gave us the auxiliary -words, which have decayed so to say, out of the class of significant -words.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_72" id="page_72"></a>{72}</span> The third stage gives us the auxiliary words joined on to the -significant ones, and in their turn decaying to become mere inflexions.</p> - -<p>I have called this growth of inflexions the <i>third</i> stage. It is the -<i>third great</i> stage in the formation of language, and is the only other -stage distinguishable when we are examining what is called an inflected -language. And all the languages the general reader is likely to know -belong to this class. But when we turn to a wider study of the various -tongues in use among mankind we find that this process of forming -inflexions is a very slow one, that it, in its turn, has gone through -many stages. And it is, in fact, the different stages through which a -language has passed on its road to the formation of inflexions which -settles the class in which it is to be placed among the various tongues -spoken by mankind.</p> - -<p>We shall soon understand what are these further stages in -language-formation. As far as we have been able to see at present, the -inflexion presents itself as something added on to the significant word -to give it a varied meaning. It is evidently therefore part of a new -process through which language has to go after it has completed its -original stock of sounds, namely, the formation of fresh words by -joining together two others which already exist. This is a process -which, no doubt, in some shape or other, began in the very earliest -ages, and which is to this day going on continually. The simpler form of -it is the joining together two words which are significant when they -stand alone to form a third word expressing a new idea; just as we have -joined ‘ant’ to ‘hill’ and formed <i>ant-hill</i>, which is a different idea -than either <i>ant</i> or <i>hill</i> taken alone. In the words <i>playful</i>, -<i>joyful</i>, again, we have the same process carried rather further. The -words mean simply play-full, ‘full of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_73" id="page_73"></a>{73}</span> play,’ joy-full, ‘full of joy.’ -But we do not in reality quite think of this meaning when we use them. -The termination <i>ful</i> has become half-meaningless by itself, and in -doing so we observe it has slightly changed its original form.</p> - -<p>But far more important in the history of language is the joining of the -meaningless or auxiliary words on to other words of the first, the -significant class, whereby in the course of time the inflexions of -language have been formed. Although <i>we</i> always put the meaningless -qualifying word before the chief word, and say ‘on the rock,’ or ‘under -the rock,’ it is more natural to man, as is shown by all languages, to -put the principal idea first, and say ‘rock on,’ ‘rock under,’ the idea -<i>rock</i> being of course the chief idea, the part of the rock, or position -in relation to the rock, coming after. So the first step towards forming -grammar was the getting a number of meaningless words, and joining them -on to the substantive, ‘rock,’ ‘rock-by,’ ‘rock-in,’ ‘rock-to,’ etc. So -with the verb. The essential idea in the verb is the action itself, the -next idea is the time or person in which the action takes place; and the -natural thing for man to do is to make the words follow that order. The -joining process would give us from <i>love</i>, the idea of loving, ‘love-I,’ -‘love-thou,’ ‘love-he,’ etc.; and for the imperfect ‘love-was-I,’ -‘love-was-thou,’ ‘love-was-he,’ ‘love-was-we,’ ‘love-was-ye,’ -‘love-was-they;’ for perfect ‘love-have-I,’ ‘love-have-thou,’ -‘love-have-he,’ etc. Of course, these are merely illustrations, but they -make the mode of this early joining process clearer than if we had -chosen a language where that process is actually found in its purity, -and then translated the forms into their English equivalents.</p> - -<p>We have now arrived at a stage in the formation of language where both -<i>meaning</i> and <i>meaningless</i> words have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_74" id="page_74"></a>{74}</span> introduced, and where words -have been made up out of combinations of the two. We see at once that -with regard to meaningless words the use of them would naturally be -fixed very much by tradition and custom; and whereas there might be a -great many words standing for <i>ant</i> and <i>hill</i>, and therefore a great -many ways of saying ant-hill, for the meaningless words, such as <i>under</i> -and <i>on</i>, there would probably be only a few words. The reason of this -is very plain. While all the separate synonyms for <i>hill</i> expressed -different ways in which it struck the mind, either as being high, or -large, or steep, or what not, for <i>under</i> and <i>on</i>, being meaningless -words not producing any <i>picture</i> in the mind, only one word apiece or -one or two words could very well be in use. So long as <i>under</i> and <i>on</i> -were significant words, meaning, perhaps, as we imagined, <i>head of</i>, or -<i>foot of</i>, there would be plenty of synonyms for them; but only one or -two out of all these would be handed down in their meaningless forms. -And it is this very fact which, as we have seen, accounts for all the -grammars of all languages, every one of those grammatical terminations -which we know so well in Latin and Greek, and German, having been -originally nothing else than meaningless words added on to modify the -words which still retained their meaning. We saw before that it was much -more natural for people to say ‘rock-on’ or ‘hand-in’ than ‘on the rock’ -or ‘in the hand’—because rock and hand were the most important ideas -and came first into the mind, while <i>on</i>, <i>in</i>, etc., were only -subsidiary ideas depending upon the important ones. If we stop at rock -or hand without adding <i>on</i> and <i>in</i>, we have still got something -definite upon which our thoughts can rest, but we could not possibly -stop at <i>on</i> and <i>in</i> alone, and have any idea in our minds at all. It -is plain enough therefore that, though we say ‘on the rock,’ we must -have the <i>idea</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_75" id="page_75"></a>{75}</span> of all the three words in our mind before we begin the -phrase, and therefore that our words do not follow the natural order of -our ideas; whereas rock-on, hand-in, show the ideas just in the way they -come into the mind.</p> - -<p>It is a fact, then, that all case-endings arose from adding on -meaningless words to the end of the word, the noun or pronoun—<i>Mann</i>, -<i>des mann-es</i>, <i>dem Mann-e</i>; <i>hom-o</i>, <i>hom-inis</i>, <i>hom-ini</i>: the -addition to the root in every case was once a distinct word of the -auxiliary kind, or derived from such a word. The meanings of -case-endings such as these cannot, it is true, be discovered now, for -they came into existence long before such languages as German or Latin -were spoken, and their meanings were lost sight of in ages which passed -before history. But that time when the terminations which are -meaningless now had a meaning, and the period of transition between this -state and the state of a language which is full of grammatical changes -inexplicable to those who use them, form distinct epochs in the history -of every language. And it is just the same with verb-endings as with the -case endings—<i>ich bin</i>, <i>du bist</i>, really express the ‘I’ and ‘thou’ -twice over, as the pronouns exist though hidden and lost sight of in the -<i>-n</i> and <i>-st</i> of the verb. In the case of verbs, indeed, we may without -going far give some idea of how these endings can be detected. We may -say at once that Sanskrit, Persian, Armenian, Greek, Latin, French, -Italian, Spanish, German, English, Norse, Gaelic, Welsh, Lithuanian, -Russian, and other Slavonic languages are all connected together in -various degrees of relationship, all descended from one common ancestor, -some being close cousins, and some very distant. Now in Sanskrit ‘I am’ -is thus declined:—</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary=""> - -<tr valign="top"><td><i>as-mi</i></td><td>I am.</td><td><i>’-smas</i> </td><td> we are.</td></tr> -<tr valign="top"><td><i>a-si</i></td><td>thou art. </td><td><i>’s-tha</i> </td><td> ye are.</td></tr> -<tr valign="top"><td><i>as-ti</i></td><td> he is.</td><td><i>’s-anti</i> </td><td> they are.</td></tr> -</table> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_76" id="page_76"></a>{76}</span></p> - -<p class="nind">By separating the root from the ending in this way we may the more -easily detect the additions to the root, and their meanings. <i>As</i> is the -root expressing the idea of being, existing; <i>mi</i> is from a root meaning -<i>I</i> (preserved in <i>me</i>, Greek and Lat. <i>me</i>, <i>mi</i>, <i>m[ich]</i>, etc.); so -we get <i>as-mi</i>, am-I, or I am. Then we may trace this form of word -through a number of languages connected with the Sanskrit. The most -important part of <i>as-mi</i>, the consonants, are preserved in the Latin -<i>sum</i>, I am, from which, by some further changes come the French <i>suis</i>, -the Italian <i>sono</i>: the same word appears in our <i>a-m</i>, and in the Greek -<i>eimi</i> (Doric <i>esmi</i>), I am. Next, coming to the second word, we see one -of the <i>s’s</i> cut out, and we get <i>a-si</i>, in which the <i>a</i> is the root, -and the <i>si</i> the addition signifying <i>thou</i>. To this addition correspond -the final <i>s’s</i> in the Latin <i>es</i>, French <i>es</i>—<i>tu es</i>, and the Greek -<i>eis</i> (Doric <i>essi</i>). So, again, in <i>as-ti</i>, the <i>ti</i> expresses he, and -this corresponds to the Latin <i>est</i>, French <i>est</i>, the Greek <i>esti</i>, the -German <i>ist</i>; in the English the expressive <i>t</i> has been lost. We will -not continue the comparison of each word; it will be sufficient if we -place side by side the same tense in Sanskrit and in Latin,<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> and give -those who do not know Latin an opportunity of recognizing for themselves -the tense in its changed form in French or Italian:—</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">English</span>. </td> -<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Sanskrit</span>. </td> -<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Latin</span>. </td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">I am</td><td align="left"><i>as-mi</i></td><td align="left"><i>sum</i>.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">thou art</td><td align="left"><i>a-si</i></td><td align="left"><i>es</i>.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">he is</td><td align="left"><i>as-ti</i></td><td align="left"><i>est</i>.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">we are</td><td align="left"><i>’s-mas</i></td><td align="left"><i>sumus</i>.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">ye are</td><td align="left"><i>’s-tha</i></td><td align="left"><i>estis</i>.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">they are</td><td align="left"><i>’s-anti</i></td><td align="left"><i>sunt</i>.</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="nind">The plural of the added portion we see contains the letters <i>m-s</i>, and -if we split these up again we get the separate roots<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_77" id="page_77"></a>{77}</span> <i>mi</i> and <i>si</i>, so -that <i>mas</i> means most literally ‘I,’ and ‘thou,’ and hence ‘we.’ In the -second person the Latin has preserved an older form than the Sanskrit, -<i>s-t</i> the proper root-consonants for the addition part of the second -person plural, combining the ideas thou and he, from which, ye. The -third person plural cannot be so easily explained.</p> - -<p>It will be seen that in the English almost all likeness to the Sanskrit -terminations has been lost. Our verb ‘to be’ is very irregular, being, -in fact, a mixture of several distinct verbs. The Anglo-Saxon had the -verb <i>beó</i> contracted from <i>beom</i> (here we have at least the <i>m-</i> ending -for I), I am, <i>byst</i>, thou art, <i>bydh</i>, he is, and the same appear in -the German <i>bin</i>, <i>bist</i>. It is, of course, very difficult to trace the -remains of the meaningless additions in such advanced languages as ours, -or even in such as Sanskrit, Latin, and Greek. Nevertheless, the reader -may find it not uninteresting to trace in the Latin through most of the -tenses of verbs these endings—<i>m</i>, for I, the first person; <i>s</i>, for -thou, the second person; <i>t</i>, for he, the third person; <i>m-s</i>, for I and -thou, we; <i>st</i>, for ye, thou and he, ye; <i>nt</i>, for they. And the same -reader must be content to take on trust the fact that other additions -corresponding to different tenses can also be shown or reasonably -guessed to have been words expressive by themselves of the idea which -belongs to the particular tense; so that where we have such a tense as—</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td align="left"><i>amabam</i> </td><td align="left">I was loving,</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left"><i>amabas</i> </td><td align="left">thou wast loving,</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left"><i>amabat</i>, <i>etc.</i> </td><td align="left">he was loving,</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="nind">we may recognize the meaning of the component parts thus:—</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td align="left"><i>ama-ba-m</i> </td><td align="left">love-was-I.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left"><i>ama-ba-s</i> </td><td align="left">love-was-thou.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left"><i>ama-ba-t</i> </td><td align="left">love-was-he.</td></tr> -</table> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_78" id="page_78"></a>{78}</span></p> - -<p>Of course, really to show the way in which these meaningless additions -have been made and come to be amalgamated with the root, we should have -to take examples from a great number of languages in different stages of -development. But we have thought it easier, for mere explanation, to -take only such languages as were likely to be familiar to the reader, -and even to supplement these examples with imaginary ones—like -‘rock-on,’ ‘love-was-I,’ etc.—in English. For our object has been at -first merely to give an intelligible account of how language has been -formed, of the different stages it has passed through, and to leave to a -future time the question as to which languages of the globe have passed -through all these stages, and which have gone part of their way in the -formation of a perfect language. Between the state of a language in -which the meaning of all the separate parts of a word are recognized and -that state where they are entirely lost, there is an immense gap, that -indeed which separates the most from the least advanced languages of the -world.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Monosyllabic<br /> Language.</div> - -<p>Every language that is now spoken on the globe has gone through the -stage of forming meaningless words, and is therefore possessed of words -of both classes. They no longer say ‘head-of-rock’ or ‘foot-of-rock,’ -but ‘rock-on’ and ‘rock-under.’ But there are still known languages in -which almost every syllable is a word, and where grammar properly -speaking is scarcely needed. For grammar, if we come to consider it -exactly, is the explanation of the meaning of those added syllables or -letters which have lost all natural meaning of their own. If each part -of the word were as clear and as intelligible as ‘rock-on’ we should -have no need of a grammar at all. A language of this sort is called a -monosyllabic or a radical language, not because the people only<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_79" id="page_79"></a>{79}</span> speak -in monosyllables, but because each word, however compound, can be split -up into monosyllables or <i>roots</i>, which have a distinctly recognizable -meaning. ‘Ant-hill-on’ or ‘love-was-I,’ are like the words of such a -language.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Agglutinative <br />language.</div> - -<p>The next stage of growth is where the meaning of the added parts has -been lost sight of, except when it is connected with the word which it -modifies; but where the essential word has a distinct idea by itself, -and without the help of any addition. Suppose, for instance, through -ages of change the ‘was I’ in our imaginary example got corrupted into -‘wasi,’ where <i>wasi</i> had no meaning by itself, but was used to express -the first person of the past tense. The first person past of love would -be ‘love-wasi,’ of move ‘move-wasi,’ and so on, ‘wasi’ no longer having -a meaning by itself, but ‘love’ and ‘move’ by themselves being perfectly -understandable. Or, to take an actual declension from a Turanian -language,—</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr valign="top"><td align="left"><i>bakar-im</i> </td><td align="left">I regard, </td><td align="left"><i>bakar-iz</i> </td><td align="left">we regard,</td></tr> -<tr valign="top"><td align="left"><i>bakar-sin</i> </td><td align="left">thou regardest, </td><td align="left"><i>bakar-siniz</i> </td><td align="left">you regard,</td></tr> -<tr valign="top"><td align="left"><i>bakar</i> </td><td align="left">he regards, </td><td align="left"><i>bakar-lar</i> </td><td align="left">they regard,</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="nind">where, as we see, the root remains entirely unaffected by the addition -of the personal pronoun.</p> - -<p>A language in this stage is said to be in the agglutinative stage,<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> -because certain grammatical endings (like ‘wasi’) are merely as it were -glued on to a root to change its meaning, while the root itself remains -quite unaffected, and means neither less nor more than it did before.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Inflected<br /> language.</div> - -<p>But, as ages pass on, the root and the addition get so closely combined -that neither of them alone has, as a rule, a distinct meaning, and the -language arrives at its third stage of grammar-formation. It is not -difficult to find examples of a language in this condition,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_80" id="page_80"></a>{80}</span> for such is -the case with all the languages by which we are surrounded. All the -tongues which the majority of us are likely to study, almost all those -which have any literature at all, have arrived at this last stage, which -is called the inflexional. For instance, though we might divide -<i>actionis</i> into two parts <i>actio</i> and <i>nis</i>, and say that the former -contains the essential idea, and the addition the idea implied by the -genitive case, there are only a few Latin words with which such a -process is possible, and even in the case of <i>actio</i> the separation is -somewhat misleading. In <i>homo</i> the real root is <i>hom</i>, and the genitive -is not homo-nis but <i>hominis</i>. So, again, though we were able to -separate ‘asmi’ into two parts—‘as’ and ‘mi’—one expressing the idea -of being, the other the person ‘I,’ this distinction is the refinement -of the grammarian, and would never have been recognized by an ordinary -speaker of Sanskrit, for whom ‘asmi’ simply meant ‘I am,’ without -distinction of parts. In our ‘am’ the grammarian recognizes that the ‘a’ -expresses existence, and the ‘m’ expresses I; but so completely have we -lost sight of this, that we repeat the ‘I’ before the verb. Just the -same in Latin. No Roman could have recognized in the ‘s’ of <i>sum</i> ‘am’ -and in the ‘m’ ‘I;’ for him <i>sum</i> meant simply and purely ‘I am.’ It was -no more separable in his eyes than the French <i>êtes</i> (Latin <i>estis</i>) in -<i>vous êtes</i> is separable into a root ‘es,’ contracted in the French into -‘ê,’ meaning <i>are</i>, and an addition ‘tes’ signifying <i>you</i>. This, then, -is the last stage upon which language enters. It is called the -inflexional or inflected stage, because the different grammatical -changes are not now denoted by a mere addition to an intelligible word, -but by a change in the word itself. The root may in many cases remain -and be recognizable in its purity, but very frequently it is -unrecognizable, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page_81" id="page_81"></a>{81}</span>so that the different case-or tense-endings can no -longer be looked upon as additions, but as changes. Take almost any -Latin substantive, and we see this: <i>homo</i>, a man, the genitive is -formed by changing <i>homo</i> into <i>hominis</i>, or, if we please, adding -something to the root <i>hom</i>—which has in itself no meaning; <i>musa</i> -changes into <i>musæ</i>; and so forth.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<div class="sidenote">The five stages<br /> in the formation<br /> of language.</div> - -<p>And now to recapitulate. We have in tracing the growth of language -discovered first of all two stages whereby the material of the language -was formed: the class of what we have called the meaning or significant -words came into being, and out of this was formed the second class of -so-called meaningless or auxiliary words. These two stages were in the -main passed through before any known language came into existence; for -there is no known language which does not contain words of both these -classes; albeit the second stage is likewise a process which is still -going on, as in the examples chosen, where <i>even</i> and <i>just</i> pass from -being adjectives into <i>even</i> and <i>just</i> the adverbs, and the French -substantives <i>pas</i> and <i>point</i> take a like change of meaning.</p> - -<p>These first two stages passed, there follow three other stages which go -to the formation of the grammar of a language: first the stage of merely -coupling words together, so as to form fresh words—the <i>monosyllabic</i> -state; then the stage in which one part of the additional word has lost -its meaning while the root-word remains unchanged—the stage called the -<i>agglutinative</i> condition of language; and, finally the stage in which -the added portion has become to some extent absorbed into the -root-word—which last stage is the <i>inflected</i> condition of a language.</p> - -<p>When we have come to this inflexional state, the history of the growth -of language comes to an end. It happens indeed, sometimes, that a -language which has arrived at<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_82" id="page_82"></a>{82}</span> the inflected stage may in time come to -drop nearly all its inflexions. This has been the case with English and -French. Both are descended from languages which had elaborate -grammars—the Saxon and the Latin; but both, through an admixture with -foreign tongues and from other causes, have come to drop almost all -their grammatical forms. We show our grammar only in a few changes in -our ordinary verbs—the second and third persons singular, <i>thou goest</i>, -<i>he goes</i>; the past tense and the past participle, <i>use</i>, <i>used</i>; <i>buy</i>, -<i>bought</i>, etc.; in further variations in our auxiliary verb ‘to be;’ by -changes in our pronouns, <i>I</i>, <i>me</i>, <i>ye</i>, <i>you</i>, <i>who</i>, <i>whom</i>, etc.; -and by the ‘ ’s’ and ‘s’ of the possessive case and of the plural, and -the comparison of adjectives. The French preserve their grammar to some -extent in their pronouns, their adjectives, the plurals of their nouns, -and in their verbs. Instances such as these are cases of decay, and do -not find any place in the history of the growth of language.</p> - -<p>We now pass on to examine where the growth of language has been fully -achieved, where it has remained only stunted and imperfect.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_83" id="page_83"></a>{83}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br /><br /> -<small>FAMILIES OF LANGUAGE.</small></h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">We</span> have now traced the different stages through which language may pass -in attaining to its most perfect form, the inflected stage. There were -the two stages in which what we may call the bones of the language were -formed, the acquisition of those words which, like <i>pen</i>, <i>ink</i> and -<i>paper</i>, when standing alone bring a definite idea into the mind, and, -next, the acquisition of those other words which, like <i>to</i>, <i>for</i>, -<i>and</i>, produce no idea in the mind when taken alone. We saw that while -the first class of words <i>may</i> have been acquired with any imaginable -rapidity, the second class could only have gradually come into use as -one by one they fell out of the rank of the ‘significant’ class.</p> - -<p>Again, after this skeleton of language has been got together, there -were, we saw, three other stages which went to make up the grammar of a -language: the radical stage, in which all the words of the language can -be cut up into <i>roots</i> which are generally monosyllables, each of which -has a meaning as a separate word; the agglutinative stage, when the -root, <i>i.e.</i> the part of the word which expresses the essential idea, -remains always distinct from any added portion; and, thirdly, the -inflected stage, when in many cases the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_84" id="page_84"></a>{84}</span> root and the addition to the -root have become so interwoven as to be no longer distinguishable.</p> - -<p>Of course, really to understand what these three conditions are like, -the reader would have to be acquainted with some language in each of the -three; but it is sufficient if we get clearly into our heads that there -are these stages of language-growth, and that, further, each one of all -the languages of the world may be said to be in one of the three. Our -opportunities of tracing the history of languages being so limited, we -have no recorded instance of a language passing out of one stage into -another; but when we examine into these states they so clearly wear the -appearance of <i>stages</i> that there seems every reason to believe that a -monosyllabic language might in time develop into an agglutinative, and -again from that stage into an inflexional, language, <i>if nothing stopped -its growth</i>.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Arrest in the<br /> growth of<br /> language.</div> - -<p>But what, we may ask, are the causes which put a stop to the free growth -and development of language? One of these causes is the invention of -writing. Language itself is of course spoken language, speech, and as -such is subject to no laws save those which belong to our organs of -speaking and hearing. No sooner is the word spoken than it is gone, and -lives only in the memory; and thus speech, though it may last for -centuries, dies, as it were, and comes to life again every hour. It is -with language as it is with those national songs and ballads which, -among nations that have no writing, take the place of books and -histories. The same poem or the same tale passes from mouth to mouth -almost unchanged for hundreds of years, and yet at no moment is it -visible and tangible, nor for the most part of the time audible even, -but for these centuries lives on in men’s memories only. So Homer’s -ballads must have passed for several<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_85" id="page_85"></a>{85}</span> hundred years from mouth to mouth; -and, stranger still, stories which were first told somewhere by the -banks of the Oxus or the Jaxartes by distant ancestors of ours, are told -to this very day, little altered, by peasants in remote districts of -England and Scotland. But to return to language. It is very clear that -so long as language remains speech and speech only, it is subject to -just so many variations as, in the course of a generation or two, men -may have introduced into their habits of speaking. Why these variations -arise it is perhaps not quite easy to understand; but every one knows -that they do arise, that from age to age, from generation to generation, -not only are new words being continually introduced, and others which -once served well enough dropped out of use, but constant changes are -going on in the pronunciation of words. As we have already said, if left -to itself a language would not remain quite the same in two different -districts. We know, for instance, that the language of common people -does differ very much in different counties, so that what with varieties -of pronunciation, and what with the use of really peculiar words, the -inhabitants of one county are scarcely intelligible to the inhabitants -of another.</p> - -<p>This constant change in language can be resolved, so to say, into two -forces—one of decay, the other of renewal. The change which each word -undergoes is of the nature of decay. It <i>loses</i> something from its -original form. But then, out of this change, it passes into new forms; -and very often out of one word, by this mere process of change in sound, -two words spring. We have already seen instances of how this may come -about. The Anglo-Saxon <i>agân</i> becomes in process of time <i>agone</i>, as we -have seen. That word again, by a further process of decay, changes into -<i>ago</i>. So far we have nothing but loss. But then the Old English<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_86" id="page_86"></a>{86}</span> <i>agân</i> -had only the same meaning as our past participle <i>gone</i>.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> So now we -have two words really in the place of one, and where formerly men would -have said, ‘It is a long time <i>agone</i>,’ or ‘That man has lately -<i>agone</i>,’ we now can say, ‘It is a long time <i>ago</i>,’ ‘The man has lately -<i>gone</i>.’ And we may in any language watch this process of decay -(<i>phonetic decay</i>, as it is called) and regeneration (<i>dialectic -regeneration</i>, the philologists call it) ever going forward. We see, as -it were,—</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i8">‘The hungry ocean gain<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Advantage o’er the kingdom of the shore;<br /></span> -<span class="i2">And the firm soil win of the watery main<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Increasing store with loss, and loss with store.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>The influence which keeps a language together, and tends to make changes -such as these as few as possible, is that of writing. When once writing -has been invented it is clear that language no longer depends upon the -memory only, no longer has such a seemingly precarious tenure of life as -it had when it was no more than speech. The writing remains a strong -bulwark against the changes of time. Although our written words are but -the symbols of sound, they are symbols so clear that the recollection of -the sound springs up in our minds the moment the written word comes -before our eyes. So it is that there are hundreds of words in the -English language which we should many of us not use once in a lifetime, -which are yet perfectly familiar to us. All old-fashioned words which -belong to the <i>literary</i> language, and are never used now in common -life, would have been forgotten long ago except for writing. The fact, -again, that those provincialisms which make the peasants of different -counties almost mutually unintelligible do not affect the intercourse of -educated people, is owing to the existence of a written language.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_87" id="page_87"></a>{87}</span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">Chinese.</div> - -<p>It was at one time thought by philologists that in Chinese we had a -genuine specimen of a language in the radical stage of formation. As -such it is cited, for instance, in Professor Max Müller’s <i>Lectures on -the Science of Language</i>. But the most trustworthy Chinese scholars are, -I believe, now of opinion that the earliest Chinese of which we can find -any trace had already passed through this stage and become an -agglutinative language, and that it has since decayed somewhat from that -condition to become once more almost a monosyllabic language.</p> - -<p>However that may be, it is acknowledged that Chinese has never passed -beyond a very primitive condition, and that its having rested so long in -this state is due more than anything else to the early invention of -writing in that country. We know how strange has been the whole history -of civilization in China. How the Chinese, after they had made long ago -an advance far beyond all their contemporaries at that date of the -world’s history, seem to have suddenly stopped short there, and have -remained ever since a stunted incomplete race, devoid of greatness in -any form. Their character is reflected very accurately in their -language. While it was still in a very primitive condition writing was -introduced into the country, and from that time forward the tongue -remained almost unchanged. Other languages which are closely allied to -Chinese—Burmese, Siamese, and Thibetan—are so nearly monosyllabic that -they can scarcely be considered to have yet got fairly into the -agglutinative stage.</p> - -<p>It is, then, writing which has preserved for us Chinese in the very -primitive condition in which we find it. For people in a lower order of -civilization there may be many other causes at work to prevent an -agglutinative language<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_88" id="page_88"></a>{88}</span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">Turanian<br /> languages.</div> - -<p class="nind">becoming inflexional. It is not always easy to say what the hindering -causes have been in any individual case; but perhaps, if we look at the -difference between the last two classes of language, we can get some -idea of what they might be for the class of agglutinative languages as a -whole. An inflexional language has quite lost the memory of the real -meaning of its inflexions—or at least the real reason of them. We could -give no reason why we should not use <i>bought</i> in the place of <i>buy</i>, -<i>art</i> in the place of <i>am</i>, <i>whom</i> in the place of <i>who</i>—no other -reason save that we have always been taught to use the words in the -position they take in our speech. But there was once a time when the -changes only existed in the form of <i>additions</i> having a distinct -meaning. Even in agglutinative languages these additions have a distinct -meaning <i>as</i> additions, or, in other words, if we were using an -agglutinative language we should be always able to distinguish the -addition from the root, and so should understand the precise effect of -the former in modifying the latter. To understand the use of words in an -agglutinative language, therefore, a great deal less of tradition and -memory would be required than are wanted to preserve an inflected -language. This really is the same as saying that for the inflected -language we must have a much more constant use; and this again implies a -greater intellectual life, a closer bond of union among the people who -speak it, than exists among those who speak agglutinative languages.</p> - -<p>Or if we look at the change from another point of view, we can say that -the cause of the mixing up of the root, and its addition came at first -from a desire to <i>shorten</i> the word and to save time—a desire which was -natural to people who spoke much and had much intercourse. We may then, -from these various considerations, conclude<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_89" id="page_89"></a>{89}</span> that the people who use the -agglutinative languages are people who have not what is called a close -and active national life. This is exactly what we find to be the case. -If a primitive language, such as the Chinese, belongs to a people who -have, as it were, developed too quickly, the agglutinative languages, as -a class, distinguish a vast section of the human race whose natural -condition is a very unformed one, who are for the most part nomadic -races without fixed homes, or laws, or states. They live a tribal -existence, each man having little intercourse save with those of his -immediate neighbourhood. They are unused to public assemblies. Such -assemblies take among early peoples almost the place of literature, in -obliging men to have a common language and a united national life. Being -without these controlling influences, it results that the different -dialects and tongues belonging to the agglutinative class are almost -endless. It is not our intention to weary the reader by even a bare list -of them. But we may glance at the chief heads into which these -multifarious languages may be grouped, and the geographical position of -those who speak them.</p> - -<p>The agglutinative tongues include the speech of all those peoples of -Central Asia whom in common language we are wont to speak of as Tartars, -but whom it would be more correct to describe as belonging to the Turkic -or Mongol class, and of whom several different branches—the Huns, who -emigrated from the borders of China to Europe; the Mongols or Moghuls, -who conquered Persia and Hindustan; and lastly, the Osmanlîs, or -Ottomans, who invaded Europe and founded the Turkish Empire—are the -most famous, and most infamous, in history. Another large class of -agglutinative languages belongs to the natives of the vast region of -Siberia, from the Ural<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_90" id="page_90"></a>{90}</span> mountains to the far east. Another great class, -closely allied to these last, the Finnish tongues namely, once spread -across all the northern half of what is now European Russia, and across -North Scandinavia; but the people who spoke them have been gradually -driven to the extreme north by the Russians and Scandinavians. Lastly, a -third division is formed by those languages which belonged to the -original inhabitants of Hindustan before the greater part of the country -was occupied by the Hindus. These languages are spoken of as the -Dravidian class. The natural condition of these various nations or -peoples is, as we have said, a nomadic state, a state in which -agriculture is scarcely known, though individual nations out of them -have risen to considerable civilization. And as in very early times -ancestors of ours who belonged to a race speaking an inflexional -language bestowed upon some part of these nomadic people the appellation -<i>Tura</i>, which means ‘the swiftness of a horse,’ from their constantly -moving from place to place, the word Turanian has been applied to all -these various peoples, and the agglutinative languages are spoken of -generally as Turanian tongues.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Aryan and<br /> Semitic<br />languages.</div> - -<p>And now we come to the last—the most important body of languages—the -inflected; and we see that for it have been left all the more important -nations and languages of the world. Almost all the ‘historic’ people, -living or dead, almost all the more civilized among nations, come under -this our last division: the ancient Egyptians, Chaldæans, Assyrians, -Persians, Greeks, and Romans, as well as the modern Hindus and the -native Persians, and almost all the inhabitants of Europe, with the -countless colonies which these last have spread over the surface of the -globe. The class of inflected languages is separated into two main -divisions or<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_91" id="page_91"></a>{91}</span> <i>families</i>, within each of which the languages are held by -a tie of relationship. Just as people are of the same family when they -recognize their descent from a common ancestor, so languages belong to -one family when they can show clear signs that they have grown out of -one parent tongue. We may be sure that we are all the children of the -first pair, and we may know in the same way that all languages must have -grown and changed out of the first speech. But the traces of parentage -and relationship are in both cases buried in oblivion; it is only when -we come much farther down in the history of the world that we can really -see the marks of distinct kinship in the tongues of nations separated by -thousands of miles, different in colour, in habits, in civilization, and -quite unconscious of any common fatherhood.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Kinship in<br /> languages.</div> - -<p>Now as to the way in which this kinship among languages may be detected. -Among some languages there is such a close relationship that even an -unskilled eye can discover it. When we see, for instance, such -likenesses as exist in English and German between the very commonest -words of life—<i>kann</i> and <i>can</i>, <i>soll</i> and <i>shall</i>, <i>muss</i> and <i>must</i>, -<i>ist</i> and <i>is</i>, <i>gut</i> and <i>good</i>, <i>hart</i> and <i>hard</i>, <i>mann</i> and <i>man</i>, -<i>für</i> and <i>for</i>, together with an innumerable number of verbs, -adjectives, substantives, prepositions, etc., which differ but slightly -one from another—we may feel sure either that the English once spoke -German, that the Germans once spoke English, or that English and German -have both become a little altered from a lost language which was spoken -by the ancestors of the present inhabitants of England and Deutsch-land. -As a matter of fact the last is the case. English and German are brother -languages, neither is the parent of the other. Now having our attention -once called to this relationship, we might, any of us who know English -and German, at<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_92" id="page_92"></a>{92}</span> once set about making a long list of words which are -common to the two languages; and it would not be a bad amusement for any -reader just to turn over the leaves of a dictionary and note how many -German words (especially of the common sort) they find that have a -corresponding word in English. The first thing we begin to see is the -fact that the consonants form, as it were, the bones of a word, and that -changes of a vowel are, as a rule, comparatively unimportant provided -these remain unaltered. The next thing we see is that even the -consonants do not generally remain the same, but that in place of one -such letter in one language, another of a sound very like it appears in -the other language.</p> - -<p>For instance, we soon begin to notice that ‘<small>T</small>’ in German is often -represented by ‘<small>D</small>’ in English, as <i>tag</i> becomes <i>day</i>; <i>tochter</i>, -<i>daughter</i>; <i>breit</i>, <i>broad</i>; <i>traum</i>, <i>dream</i>; <i>reiten</i>, <i>ride</i>; but -sometimes by ‘<small>TH</small>’ in English, as <i>vater</i> becomes <i>father</i>; <i>mutter</i>, -<i>mother</i>. Again, ‘<small>D</small>’ in German is often equal to ‘<small>TH</small>’ in English, as -<i>dorf</i>, <i>thorpe</i>; <i>feder</i>, <i>feather</i>; <i>dreschen</i>, <i>thrash</i> (<i>thresh</i>); -<i>drängen</i>, <i>throng</i>; <i>der</i> (<i>die</i>), <i>the</i>; <i>das</i>, <i>that</i>. Now there is a -certain likeness common to these three sounds, ‘<small>T</small>,’ ‘<small>D</small>,’ and ‘<small>TH</small>,’ as -any one’s ear will tell him if he say <i>te</i>, <i>de</i>, <i>the</i>. As a matter of -fact they are all pronounced with the tongue pressed against the teeth, -only in rather different places; and in the case of the last sound, -<i>the</i>,<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> with a breath or aspirate sent between the teeth at the same -time. So we see that, these letters being really so much alike in sound, -there is nothing at all extraordinary in one sound becoming exchanged -for another in the two languages. We learn, therefore, to look beyond -the mere appearance of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_93" id="page_93"></a>{93}</span> word, to weigh, so to speak, the sounds -against each other, and to detect likenesses which might perhaps -otherwise have escaped us. For instance, if we see that <small>CH</small> in German is -often represented by <small>GH</small> in English—in such words as <i>tochter</i>, -<i>daughter</i>; <i>knecht</i>, <i>knight</i>; <i>möchte</i>, <i>might</i>; <i>lachen</i>, -<i>laugh</i>,—we have no difficulty in now seeing how exactly <i>durch</i> -corresponds to our <i>through</i>. For we have at the beginning the <i>d</i> which -naturally corresponds to our <i>t</i>, the <i>r</i> remains unchanged, and the -<i>ch</i> naturally corresponds to our <i>gh</i>; only the vowel is different in -position, and that is of comparatively small account. Nevertheless at -first sight we should by no means have been inclined to allow the near -relationship of <i>durch</i> and <i>through</i>. Thus our power of comparison -continually increases, albeit a knowledge of several languages is -necessary before we can establish satisfactory rules or proceed with at -all sure steps.</p> - -<p>When we have acquired this knowledge there are few things more -interesting than noting the changes which words undergo in the different -tongues, and learning how to detect the same words under various -disguises. And when we have begun to do this, it is by comparing the -words of our own language with corresponding words in the allied tongues -German, Norse, or Dutch, whatever it may be, that we are most frequently -reminded of the meaning of words which have half grown out of use with -us. As, for instance, when the German <i>Leiche</i> (corpse) reminds us of -the meaning of lich-gate (A.S. lica, a corpse) and Lichfield; or the -Norse <i>moos</i>, a marshy or heathy region, explains our <i>moss</i>-troopers. I -doubt if most people quite know what sea-mews are, still more if the -word mewstone (which, for example, is the name of a rock near Plymouth) -would at once call up the right idea into their mind. But the German -<i>Möwe</i>, sea-gull, makes it all plain. How curious is the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_94" id="page_94"></a>{94}</span> relationship -between <i>earth</i> and <i>hearth</i>, which is exactly reproduced in the German -<i>Erde</i> and <i>Herde!</i> or the obsolete use of the word <i>tide</i> for ‘time’ -(the original meaning of the tides—the ‘times,’) in the expression -‘Time and tide wait for no man’! But in the Norse we have the same -expression <i>Tid og Time</i>, which signifies exactly Macbeth’s ‘time and -the hour.’ And of course these words, our <i>tide</i>, Norse <i>Tid</i>, are the -correspondants of the German <i>zeit</i>. When once we have detected how -often the German <i>z</i> corresponds to the English <i>t</i>—as in <i>Zahn</i>, -tooth; <i>Zehe</i>, toe; <i>Zählen</i>, to tell (<i>i.e.</i>, to count); <i>Zinn</i>, -tin—we have no difficulty in seeing that our <i>town</i> may correspond to -the German <i>Zaun</i>, a hedge: and we guess, what is in fact the case, that -the original meaning of town was only an enclosed or empaled place. The -relationship of our <i>fee</i> to the German <i>Vieh</i>, cattle, and the proof -that the earliest money with us was cattle-money, would, at first sight, -be perhaps not so easily surmised by a mere comparison of German and -English words. These are only one or two of the ten thousand points of -interest which rise up before us almost immediately after we have, so to -say, stepped outside the walls of our own language into the domains of -its very nearest relations.</p> - -<p>Nor is the interest of this kind of comparison less great very often in -the case of proper names. The smaller family—or, as we have used the -word family to express a large class of languages, let us say the branch -to which English and German belong—is called the Teutonic branch. To -that branch belonged nearly all those barbarian nations who, towards the -fall of the Roman empire, began the invasion of her territories, and -ended by carving out of them most of the various states and kingdoms of -modern Europe. The best test we have of the nationalities of these -peoples, the best proof that they were connected by<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_95" id="page_95"></a>{95}</span> language with each -other and with the modern Teutonic nations, is to be found in their -proper names. We have, for instance, among the Vandals such names as -Hilderic, Genseric, and the like; we compare them at once with Theodoric -and Alaric, which were names of famous Goths. Then as the Gothic -language has been preserved we recognize the termination <i>rîk</i> or <i>rîks</i> -in Gothic, meaning a ‘king,’ and connected with the German <i>reich</i>, and -also with the Latin <i>rex</i>—Alaric becomes <i>al-rik</i>, ‘all-king,’ -universal king. In Theodoric we recognize the Gothic <i>thiudarik</i>, ‘king -of the people.’ Again, this Gothic word <i>thiuda</i> is really the same as -the German <i>deutsch</i>, or as ‘Dutch,’ and is the word of which ‘Teutonic’ -is only a Latinized form. In the same way Hilda-rik in Gothic is ‘king -of battles;’ and having got this word from the Vandals we have not much -difficulty in recognizing Childeric, the usually written form of the -name of a Frankish king, as the same word. This change teaches us to -turn ‘<small>CH</small>’ of Frankish names in our history-books into ‘<small>H</small>,’ so that -instead of Chlovis (which should be Chlodoveus) we first get Hlovis, -which is only a softened form of Hlodovig, or Hludwig, the modern -Ludwig, our Louis. <i>Hlud</i> is known to have meant ‘famous’<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> and <i>wig</i> -a ‘warrior,’ so that Ludwig means famous warrior. The same word ‘wig’ -seems to appear in the word Merovingian, a Latinized form of -Meer-wig,<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> which would mean sea-warrior.</p> - -<p>These instances show us the <i>kind</i> of results we obtain by a comparison -of languages. In the case of these names, for instance, we have got -enough to show a very close relationship amongst the Vandals, the Goths, -and the Franks; and had we time many more instances might have been -chosen<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_96" id="page_96"></a>{96}</span> to support this conclusion. Here, of course, we have been -confining ourselves to one small <i>branch</i> of a large family. The road, -the farther we go, is beset with greater difficulties and dangers of -mistake, and the student can do little unless he is guided by fixed -rules, which we should have to follow, supposing we were able to carry -on our inquiries into many and distant languages. We may, to some -extent, judge for ourselves what some of these guiding rules must be.</p> - -<p>Those words which we have instanced as being common to English and -German, both we and the Germans have got by inheritance from an earlier -language. Yet there are in English hundreds of words which are not -acquired by inheritance from other languages, but merely by adoption; -hundreds of words have been taken directly from the Latin, or from the -Latin through the French, or from the Greek, and not derived from any -early language which was the parent of the Latin, Greek, and English. -How shall we distinguish between these classes of words? We answer, in -the first place, that the <i>simpler</i> words are almost sure to be -inherited, because people, in however rude a state they were, could -never have done without words to express such everyday ideas as <i>to -have</i>, <i>to be</i>, <i>to laugh</i>, <i>to make</i>, <i>to kill</i>—<i>I</i>, <i>thou</i>, <i>to</i>, -<i>for</i>, <i>and</i>; whereas they might have done well enough without words -such as <i>government</i>, <i>literature</i>, <i>sensation</i>, <i>expression</i>, words -which express either things which were quite out of the way of these -primitive people, or commonish ideas in a somewhat grand and abstract -form.</p> - -<p>One of our rules, therefore, must be to begin by choosing the commoner -class of words, or, generally speaking, those words which are pretty -sure never to have fallen out of use, and which therefore must have been -handed down from father to son.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_97" id="page_97"></a>{97}</span></p> - -<p>There is another rule—that those languages must be classed together -which have like grammatical forms. This is the rule of especial -importance in distinguishing a complete family of languages. For when -once a language has got into the inflected stage, though it may -hereafter lose or greatly modify nearly all its inflexions, it never -either sinks back into the agglutinative stage, or adopts the -grammatical forms of another language which is also in the inflected -condition.</p> - -<p>These are the general rules, therefore, upon which we go. We look first -for the grammatical forms and then for the simple roots, and according -to the resemblance or want of resemblance between them we decide whether -two tongues have any relationship, and whether that relationship is near -or distant.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<div class="sidenote">The Semitic<br /> races.</div> - -<p>Now it has in this way been found out that all inflected languages -belong to one of two families, called the Semitic and the Aryan. Let us -begin with the Semitic. This word, which is only a Latinized way of -saying Shemite, is given to the nations who are supposed to be descended -from Shem, the second son of Noah. The nations who have spoken languages -belonging to this Semitic family have been those who appear so much in -Old Testament history, and who played a mighty part in the world while -our own ancestors were still wandering tribes, and at an age when -darkness still obscured the doings of the Greeks and Romans. Foremost -among all in point of age and fame stand the Egyptians, who are believed -to have migrated in far pre-historic ages to the land in which they rose -to fame. They found there a people of a lower, a negro or half-negro -race, and mingled with them, so that their language ceased to be a pure<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_98" id="page_98"></a>{98}</span> -Semitic tongue. In its foundation, however, it was Semitic. The earliest -of the recorded kings of Egypt, Menes, is believed to date back as far -as 5000 <small>B.C.</small> Next in antiquity come the Chaldæans, who have left behind -them great monuments in the ancient cities Erech and Ur, and their -successors the Assyrians and Babylonians. Abraham, himself, we know, was -a Chaldæan, and from him descended the Hebrew nation, who were destined -to shed the highest honour on the Semitic race. Yet, so great may be the -degeneration of some races and the rise of others, so great may be the -divisions which thus spring up between peoples who were once akin, it is -also true that all those peoples whom the Children of Israel were -specially commanded to fight against and even to exterminate—the -Canaanites, the Moabites, and the Edomites—were likewise of Semitic -family. The Phœnicians are another race from the same stock who have -made their mark in the world. We know how, coming first from the coasts -of Tyre and Sidon, they led the way in the art of navigation, sent -colonies to various parts of the world, and foremost among these founded -Carthage, the rival and almost the destroyer of Rome. Our list of -celebrated Semitic races must close with the Arabs, the founders of -Mohammedanism, the conquerors at whose name all Europe used to tremble, -whose kingdoms once extended in an unbroken line from Spain to the banks -of the Indus.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">The Aryan <br />races.</div> - -<p>Such a list gives no mean place to the Semitic family of nations; but -those of the Aryan stock are perhaps even more conspicuous. This family -(which is sometimes called Japhetic, or descendants of Japhet) includes -the Hindus and Persians among Asiatic nations, and almost all the -peoples of Europe. It may seem strange that we English should be related -not only<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_99" id="page_99"></a>{99}</span> to the Germans and Dutch and Scandinavians, but to the -Russians, Poles, Lithuanians, French, Spanish, Italians, Romans, and -Greeks as well; stranger still that we can claim kinship with such -distant peoples as the Armenians, Persians, and Hindus. Yet such is the -case, and the way in which all these different nations once formed a -single people, speaking one language, and their subsequent dispersion -over the different parts of the world in which we now find them, affords -one of the most interesting inquiries within the range of pre-historic -study. What seems actually to have been the case is this: In distant -ages, somewhere about the rivers Oxus and Jaxartes, and on the north of -that mountainous range called the Hindoo-Koosh, dwelt the ancestors of -all the nations we have enumerated, forming at this time a single and -united people, simple and primitive in their way of life, but yet having -enough of a common national life to preserve a common language. They -called themselves Aryas or Aryans, a word which, in its very earliest -sense, seems to have meant those who move upwards, or straight; and -hence, probably, came to stand for the noble race as compared with other -races on whom, of course, they would look down.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p> - -<p>How long these Aryans had lived united in this their early home it is, -of course, impossible to say; but as the tribes and families increased -in numbers, a separation would naturally take place. Large associations -of clans would move into more distant districts, the connection between -the various bodies which made up the nation would be less close, their -dialects would begin to vary, and thus the seeds of new nations and -languages would<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_100" id="page_100"></a>{100}</span> be sown. The beginning of such a separation was a -distinction which arose between a part of the Aryan nation, who stayed -at the foot of the Hindoo-Koosh Mountains, and in all the fertile -valleys which lie there, and another part which advanced farther into -the plain. This latter received the name <i>Yavanas</i>, which seems to have -meant the protectors, and was probably given to them because they stood -as a sort of foreguard between the Aryans, who still dwelt under the -shadow of the mountains, and the foreign nations of the plains. And now, -their area being enlarged, they began to separate more and more from one -another; while at the same time, as their numbers increased, the space -wherein they dwelt became too small for them who had, out of one, formed -many different peoples. Then began a series of <i>migrations</i>, in which -the collection of tribes who spoke one language and formed one people -started off to seek their fortune in new lands, and thus for ever broke -off association with their kindred and their old Aryan home. One by one -the different nations among the Yavanas (the protectors) were infected -with this new spirit of adventure, and though they took different -routes, they all travelled westward, and arrived in Europe at last.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p> - -<p>A not improbable cause has been suggested of these migrations. It is -known that, in spite of the immense volume of water which the Volga is -daily pouring into it, the Caspian Sea is gradually drying up, and it -has been conjectured as highly probable that hundreds of years ago the -Caspian was not only joined to the Sea of Aral, but extended over a -large district which is now sandy desert. The slow shrinking in its bed -of this sea would, by decreasing the rainfall, turn what was once a -fertile country<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_101" id="page_101"></a>{101}</span> into a desert; and if we suppose this result taking -place while the Aryan nations were gradually increasing in numbers, the -effect would be to drive them, in despair of finding subsistence in the -ever-narrowing fertile tract between the desert and the mountains, to -seek for new homes elsewhere. This, at any rate, is what they did. First -among them, in all probability, started the Kelts or Celts, who, -travelling perhaps to the south of the Caspian and the north of the -Black Sea, found their way to Europe, and spread far on to the extreme -west. At one time it is most likely that the greater part of Europe was -inhabited by Kelts, who partly exterminated and partly mingled with the -stone-age men whom they found there. As far as we know of their actual -extension in historic times we find this Keltic family living in the -north of Italy, in Switzerland, over all the continent of Europe west of -the Rhine, and in the British Isles; for the Gauls, who then inhabited -the northern part of continental Europe west of the Rhine, the ancient -Britons, and probably the Iberians, the ancient inhabitants of Spain, -belonged to this family.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> The Highland Scotch, who belong to the old -blood, call themselves Gaels, and their language Gaelic, which is -moreover so like the language of the old Irish (who called themselves by -practically the same name—Gaedhill) that a Highlander could make -himself understood in Ireland; perhaps he might do so in Wales, where -the inhabitants are likewise Kelts. These words Gael and Gaedhill are of -the same origin and meaning as Gaul. In the early days of the Roman -republic the Gauls, as we know, inhabited all the north of Italy, and -used often to make successful incursions<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_102" id="page_102"></a>{102}</span> down to the very centre of the -peninsula. Beyond the Alps they extended as far as into Belgium, which -formed part of ancient Gaul. So much for the Kelts.</p> - -<p>Another great family which left the Aryan home was that from which -descended the Greeks and Romans.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> The primitive ancestors of these -two people have been called the Pelasgians (Pelasgi), the name which the -Greeks gave to their own ancestors who lived in the days before the name -Hellenes was used for the Greek nationality. There is evidence of a -certain early civilization, which is believed to have been that of these -primitive Pelasgi, in the centre of Asia Minor. And it seems probable -that the line of migration of this nationality passed to the south of -the Caspian Sea, then through Asia Minor, and finally, not all at once, -but in successive streams, some across the Hellespont or Dardanelles to -the north of Italy and the north of Greece, and some to the coast of -Asia Minor, and across by the islands of the Ægean to the mainland of -Greece. At every point upon the route there were left behind -remains—offshoots, as it were, or cuttings from the great Pelasgic -stem,—a primitive half-Greek stock in the centre of Asia Minor, a -barbarous half-Greek stock in Thrace and Macedon; while all along the -coasts of Asia Minor and the Greek Islands, and in the southern parts of -European Greece (more especially those which looked eastward) there -arose a much more cultivated race. For in these regions the Greeks came -in contact with the Phœnicians, and gathered much from the -civilizations of Egypt and Assyria. If there were remains of a primitive -Italian race in the north of Italy these were (in subsequent, but still -pre-historic<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_103" id="page_103"></a>{103}</span> years) blotted out by the spread of the Gauls beyond the -Alps.</p> - -<p>How little did these rival nationalities, the Greeks and Romans, deem -that their ancestors had once formed a single people! All such -recollections had been lost to the Greeks and Romans, who, when we find -them in historic times, had invented quite different stories to account -for their origin.</p> - -<p>Next we come to two other great families of nations who seem to have -taken the same route at first, and perhaps began their travels together -as the Greeks and Romans did. These are the Teutons and the Slavs. They -seem to have travelled by the north of the Caspian and Black Sea, -extending over all the south of Russia, and down to the borders of -Greece; then gradually to have pushed on to Europe, ousting the Kelts -from the eastern portion, until we find them in the historical period -threatening the borders of the Roman empire on the Rhine and the Danube. -Probably the Teutons pushed on most to the west, and left the Slavs -behind.</p> - -<p>The Teutonic family of nations first comes before us vaguely in the -history of the invasion of Gaul and Italy by the Cimbri and the -Teutones, which, as we know, was checked by Marius in the years 102 and -101 <small>B.C.</small> It is probable that both Cimbri and Teutones were of German -origin, though some have connected the name <i>Cimbri</i> with <i>Cymri</i>, the -native name of the Welsh (whence <i>Cumberland</i>, etc.). This attack by the -Cimbri and Teutones was only an isolated attempt on behalf of the -Teutons. The great invasion of the Roman empire by them did not begin -till five centuries later, in 395 <small>A.D.</small> Of the nations who from this time -forward were engaged in the dismemberment of the empire, and in laying -the foundations of mediæval<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_104" id="page_104"></a>{104}</span> history, almost all seem to have been of -Teutonic origin. The chief among these nationalities were the -Goths—divided into two great nationalities, the Visi-Goths (West -Goths), and the Ostro-Goths (East Goths), who successively conquered -Italy, and founded kingdoms in Italy, South Aquitaine, and Spain. Then -there were the Vandals, the Burgundians, the Alani and the Suevi, who -invaded Gaul at the beginning of the fifth century, and passed on, some -of them, to found kingdoms in Spain and Africa. There were the Lombards -who succeeded the Ostro-Goths as conquerors of Italy; the Franks who -subdued the Burgundians and the Visi-Goths; the Bavarians who settled in -the Roman provinces of Vindelicia and Noricum, the English (Saxons, -Angles, and Jutes) who settled in the Roman province of Britain. All -these nations carved for themselves new states out of the fragments of -the Roman empire, and these states have for the most part remained -unchanged till our day. And of all those other German states, many of -which were acquired by driving back the Slavs (<i>e.g.</i> modern Saxony, -Prussia), we need not speak here. For we have already said what are the -modern nations which compose the Teutonic, or be it, for the words are -the same, the Deutsch, or Dutch family. They are the Scandinavians—that -is to say, the inhabitants of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland, the -English, the Dutch and Flemings (most of the old Keltic inhabitants of -Belgium were subsequently driven out by Teutonic invaders), and the -Germans.</p> - -<p>Lastly, we come to the Slavonians (Slavs), about whom and the -Panslavonic movement which is to weld all the Slavonic peoples into one -great nationality we have heard so much in recent years. The word Slav -comes from <i>slowan</i>, which in old Slavonian meant to ‘speak,’ and was -given by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_105" id="page_105"></a>{105}</span> Slavonians to themselves as the people who alone, in their -view, spoke intelligibly. Just so the Greek word βάρβαροι -(<i>barbaroi</i>), from which we get our word barbarians, arose, in obedience -to a like prejudice, only from the imitation of people babbling or -making unintelligible sounds—‘bar-bar-bar.’ But among the Germans who -conquered and enslaved the people, Slav became synonymous with the Latin -<i>servus</i>, and from them it passed on to express the idea of -slave—<i>esclave</i>, <i>schiavo</i>, etc. The Slavonic people once extended much -farther to the west in Northern Europe than they do at present—as far, -for instance, as the Elbe in Northern Germany. We begin to hear of them -in history about the age of Charlemagne—a little, that is, before the -end of the eighth century, <small>A.D.</small> The <i>Obotriti</i> and the <i>Wiltzi</i> are the -names of two Slavonic nations on the Baltic, of whom we hear much about -this time. But they can no longer be identified as the ancestors of any -existing race. In the reign of Charlemagne’s grandson, called Lewis the -German, we hear much of other Slavonic peoples whose names have more -meaning for us—the Sorabians, the Czechs (<i>i.e.</i> Bohemians), the Mähren -or Moravians, and the Carinthians, who, if they have as separate peoples -ceased to exist, have left behind them their names in the lands they -inhabited.</p> - -<p>The same has been the case with other Slavonic peoples who appear later -in history—the Pomeranians and the Prussians (earlier Borussians) and -the Silesians. The people who now bear these names and inhabit these -countries are by origin almost exclusively Teutonic; but the names -themselves and the earlier inhabitants were not Teutons, but Slavs.</p> - -<p>The existing Slavonic nationalities are the Russians, Lithuanians -(incorporated in Russia), the Poles, the Czechs<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_106" id="page_106"></a>{106}</span> or Bohemians, the -Bulgarians, Servians, Montenegrins, etc.,—most, in fact, of the nations -of the Southern Danube.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<div class="sidenote">Pre-historic<br /> research<br /> through<br /> language.</div> - -<p>This is the classification of nationalities by their language. No -classification is perfect; and we know, as an historical fact, that many -nations have abandoned their original tongue, and adopted that of some -other people—their conquerors probably,—as the Gauls and Goths (or -Iberians) of France and Spain have adopted the Latin of the Romans, as -the Highland Scottish, the Irish, the Welsh and Cornishmen have adopted -English.</p> - -<p>But a classification by language is far more satisfactory than any other -sort of classification of nations. For when we think of nations we do -not think first of all of their <i>physique</i>. The most important thing to -know about them is not their hair was dark or red, their eyes brown or -blue. What we care most to learn are their national character, their -thoughts, their beliefs, their forms of social life. And for the days -when we have no national literature, no history, to guide us, almost the -only means of gaining reliable information upon these points is by a -study of the language of the people in question. Language holds within -it far better than do <i>tumuli</i> or weapons, or articles of pottery or -woven-stuffs or ornaments, the records of long-past times, records of -material civilization and mental culture likewise. It holds these -records, as a chemist would say, in solution in it; not visible perhaps -to the mere passer-by; but if we know how to precipitate the solution it -is wonderful what results we obtain.</p> - -<p>No sooner has he finished his classification of languages than a mine of -almost exhaustless wealth then opens before the philologist—a mine, -too, which has at present been only<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_107" id="page_107"></a>{107}</span> broached. He soon learns the laws -governing the changes of sound from one tongue into another. We have -noted experimentally some of these laws in the more simple relationships -of language, as between English and German, where ‘tag’ becomes ‘day,’ -‘dorf’ ‘thorpe,’ and the like; and all relationships of language are -answerable to similar rules. There are laws for the change of sound from -Sanskrit into the primitive forms of Greek, Latin, German, English, -etc., just as there are laws of change between the first two or the last -two.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> So we soon learn to recognize a word in one language which -reappears in altered guise in another. And it may be well imagined how -valuable such knowledge can be made. If we find a word common say to -Greek and Latin, signifying some simple object, a weapon, a tool, an -animal, a house, it is not over-likely that it will have changed from -the time when it was first employed: the words of this kind which are -now in use have, we know, little tendency to change. So that the time -when this word was first used is in all probability the time when the -<i>thing</i> was first known to primitive man; and if the word is common to -the whole Aryan family, or if it is peculiar to a portion only, then it -is argued that the thing was known or unknown before the separation of -the Aryan folk. I do not, of course, say that rule is never at fault, -only that this is a better criterion than any other sort of research -would afford us, and that by this method of word-comparison we get no -bad picture of the world of our earliest Aryan ancestors.</p> - -<p>It might well have happened that when the migrations began our ancestors -were still like the stone-age men of the shell-mounds, still in the -hunter condition; that they knew<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_108" id="page_108"></a>{108}</span> nothing of domesticated animals, or of -pastures and husbandmen: or it might be, again, that they had left the -pastoral state long behind, and that all their ideas associated -themselves with agriculture, with the division of the land, and with the -recurring seasons for planting. The evidence of language, dealt with -after the fashion we have described, points to the belief that the -ancient Aryans had only made some beginnings of agriculture, as a -supplement to their natural means of livelihood, their flocks and herds: -for among the words common to the whole Aryan race there are very few -connected with farming, whereas their vocabulary is redolent of the -herd, the cattle-fold, the herdsman, the milking-time. Even the word -daughter, which corresponds to the Greek <i>thugatêr</i> and the Sanskrit -<i>duhitar</i>, means in the last language ‘the milker,’ and that seems to -throw back the practice of milking to a vastly remote antiquity.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p> - -<p>On the other hand, the various Indo-European branches have different -names for the plough, one name for the German races, another for the -Græco-Italic, and for the Sanskrit. And though <i>aratrum</i> has a clear -connection with a Sanskrit root <i>ar</i>, it is not absolutely certain that -it ever had in this language the sense of ploughing, and not merely of -wounding, which is a still more primitive meaning of the same root, -whence came the expression for ploughing as of wounding the earth.</p> - -<p>Or say we wish to form some notion of the social life of the Aryans. Had -they extended ideas of tribal government?<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_109" id="page_109"></a>{109}</span> Had they kings, or were they -held together only by the units of family life? Our answer would come -from an examination of their common word for ‘king.’ If they have no -common word, then we may guess that the title and office of kingship -arose among the separate Aryan people and received a name from each. Or -is it that their common word for king had first some simpler -signification, ‘father,’ perhaps, showing that among the Aryan folk the -social bond was still confined within the real or imaginary boundary of -the family? In fact we do find a common word for king in several of the -Aryan languages which has no subsidiary meaning less than that of -<i>directing</i>, or keeping straight. This is the Latin <i>rex</i>, the Gothic -<i>rîks</i>, Sanskrit <i>rîg</i>, etc., and its earliest ascertainable meaning was -‘the director.’ The Aryans then, even in those days, acknowledged as -supreme<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> some director chosen (probably) from out of the tribe, a -chief to lead their common warlike or migratory expeditions.</p> - -<p>These are but illustrations of the method upon which are founded all -conclusions touching these our ancestors, and the manner of our -knowledge concerning them; far better obtained than merely by gazing -upon the instruments which have fallen from their hands, or the -monuments they might have raised to commemorate the dead. The -difference, in truth, between relics such as these which lie enclosed in -language, and the weapons and tombs of the Stone Ages, is exactly the -difference between Shakespeare’s statue in Westminster Abbey or his bust -at Stratford, and that ‘livelong monument’ whereof Milton spoke. By -perfecting beyond the power of any other race the wonderfully complex -faculty of speech the Aryans secured that their memory should be handed -on the more certainly, and with far<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_110" id="page_110"></a>{110}</span> greater completeness, than by -records left palpable to men’s eyes and hands. Many of their secret -thoughts might be unlocked by the same key. Already the same means are -being used to give us glimpses of their religious ideas. For the <i>names</i> -of the common Aryan gods can be arrived at by just the same comparative -method: it may well happen that a name which is only a proper name in -one language, can in another be traced to a root which unravels its -original meaning. It was so, we saw, with the word <i>daughter</i>. Here the -Sanskrit root seems to unravel the hidden—the lost, and so -hidden—meaning in the Greek or English words. So with a god, the -meaning of a name, concealed from the sight of those who used it in -prayer or praise, becomes revealed to <i>us</i> by the divining rod of the -science of language.</p> - -<p>And it is true, nevertheless, that the mine of wealth thus opened has as -yet been but cursorily explored.<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> There are far more and greater fish -in this sea than ever came out of it. Some day, perhaps, a strictly -scientific method may be found for classifying and tracing the changes -which words undergo. Sometimes a word is found greatly modified; -sometimes it survives almost intact between the different tongues. Is -there any reason for this? At present we cannot say.</p> - -<p>The question might be answered by means of an elaborate classification -under the head of the alterations which words have undergone,<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> and -such a comparative vocabulary would<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_111" id="page_111"></a>{111}</span> lead to the solution of infinite -questions concerning the growth of nations. We should be able to look -almost into the minds of people long ago, better than we can examine the -minds of contemporary races in a lower mental condition, and see what -ideas took a strong hold upon them, what things they treated as -realities, what metaphorically, and how large for them was the empire of -imagination.</p> - -<p>Next there is the boundless field of proper names, both those of persons -and geographical names. These last in every country bear a certain -witness to the races who have passed through that country, and -show—roughly at least—the order of their appearance there. The older -geographical names will be those of natural features, rivers, mountains, -lakes, which have been never absent from the scene; the newer names will -be those bestowed upon the works of man. In our own country this is the -case. The names of our rivers (Thames, Ouse, Severn, Wye) are nearly all -Keltic, <i>i.e.</i> British; those of our towns are Teutonic, Saxon or Norse. -Some few Roman names linger on, as in the name and termination -‘Chester;’ but this, as meaning a place of strength, shows us clearly -the reason of its survival. Every European country has changed hands, as -ours has done; nay, every country in the world.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> So here again we<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_112" id="page_112"></a>{112}</span> -have promise of plenty of work for the philologist in compiling a -‘Glossary of Proper Names’ with etymologies.</p> - -<p>Lastly, let it not be forgotten that a great part of all that has been -done for the Aryan can be done likewise for the Semitic languages—a -field as yet little turned by the plough; and the reader will confess -the debt the world is likely some day to owe to Comparative Philology.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_113" id="page_113"></a>{113}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.<br /><br /> -<small>THE NATIONS OF THE OLD WORLD.</small></h2> - -<div class="sidenote">Prehistoric<br /> nationalities.</div> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">When</span> we try and gather into one view the results of our inquiries upon -the kindreds and nations of the old world, it must be confessed we are -struck rather by the extent of our ignorance than of our knowledge. For -all the light we are able to shed, the movements and the passage of the -various races in this prehistoric time appear to the eye of the mind -most like the movement of great hosts of men seen dimly through a mist. -Or shall we say that we are in the position of persons living upon some -one of many great military highways, while before their eyes pass -continually bodies of troops in doubtful progress to and fro, affording -to them, where they stand, no indication of the order of battle or the -plan of the campaign? Still, to men in such a position there would be -more or less of intelligence possible in the way in which they watched -the steps of those who passed before them; and we, too, though we cannot -attempt really to follow the track of mankind down from the earliest -times, may yet gather some idea of the changing positions which from age -to age have been occupied by the larger divisions of our race.</p> - -<p>In the Bible narrative continuous history begins, at the earliest, not -before the time of Abraham. In the earlier<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_114" id="page_114"></a>{114}</span> chapters of Genesis we find -only scattered notices of individuals who dwelt in one particular corner -of the world, nothing to indicate the general distribution of races, or -the continuous lapse of time. It is, moreover, a fact that, owing partly -to the associations of childhood, we are apt, by a too literal -interpretation, to rob the narrative of some part of its historical -value. Here, proper names, which we might be inclined to take for the -names of single individuals, often stand for whole races, and sometimes -for the countries which gave their names to the people dwelling in them. -‘Son of,’ too, must not be taken in its most literal meaning, but in the -wider, and in old languages the perfectly natural, sense of ‘descended -from.’ When nations kept the idea of a common ancestor before their -minds, in a way with which we of the present day are quite unfamiliar, -it was very customary to describe any one person of that people as the -‘son of’ the common ancestor. Thus a Greek who wished to bring before -his hearers the common nationality of the Greek people—the -Hellenes—would speak of them as being the sons of Hellen, of the -Æolians or Ionians as sons of Æolus or Ion. In another way, again, an -Athenian or Theban might speak of his fellow-citizens as sons of Athens -or of Thebes. Such language among any ancient people is not poetical or -hyperbolical language, but the usual speech of every day. It is in a -similar fashion that in the Bible narrative, centuries are passed -rapidly over. And if the remains of the stone ages lift a little the -veil which hides man’s earliest doings upon earth, it must be confessed -that the light which these can shed is but slight and partial. We catch -sight of a portion of the human race making their rude implements of -stone and bone, living in caves as hunters and fishers, without domestic -animals and without agriculture, but not without faculties which raise -them far above the level<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_115" id="page_115"></a>{115}</span> of the beasts by which they are surrounded. -Yet of these early men we may say we know not whence they come or -whither they go. We cannot tell whether the picture which we are able to -form of man of the earliest time—of the first stone age—is a general -or a partial picture; whether it represents the majority of his -fellow-creatures, or only a particular race strayed from the first home -of man.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Black,<br /> yellow, red,<br /> and white<br /> races.</div> - -<p>We must therefore be content to resign the hope of anything like a -review of man’s life since the beginning. Before we see him clearly, he -had probably spread far and wide over the earth, and already separated -into the three or four most important divisions of the race. It is usual -to divide the human race into four divisions named after, but not -entirely founded upon, the colour of their skins. These divisions are -the black, yellow, red, and white races. I do not propose to go into any -elaborate description either of the peculiarities or the <i>habitat</i> of -these four sections of humanity. The greater part of mankind have no -place in history properly so called. We know them only in the present, -their past is lost for ever. And the present volume being designed to -open the door to history is really not concerned with races such as -these. It will be enough very briefly to indicate the main -characteristics of the four races of mankind, and to refer the reader -for more information to the chapter in Mr. Tylor’s <i>Anthropology</i> -dealing with the subject.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">The Black<br /> Races.</div> - -<p>The black or negro race, then, consists of two divisions the negroes of -Africa, and the negroes of certain among the islands of the Pacific -bordering upon Australia and called Melanesia. This Melanesia, or ‘the -negro islands’ as we might call them, include Tasmania, New Guinea, and -a great number of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_116" id="page_116"></a>{116}</span> smaller islands. But they do not include Australia -and New Zealand, the inhabitants of both which countries have physical -features differing from those of the genuine negro, though the -Australian type approaches very near to his. The colour of the skin is -not really the chief characteristic of this race, but far more so is the -very crisp hair (what is called wool), the very flat and broadened nose, -the broad lips, and the advanced under-jaw, or, as it is called, the -<i>prognathism</i> of the face. This black race has never had anything that -deserves to be called either a literature or a history.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">The Red<br /> Races.</div> - -<p>The red race, which we will take next, is that which inhabits or, till -the Europeans came, inhabited the whole of America, North and South, -except the extreme North, the country of the Eskimo. We take these -people next because they are almost as unknown to history as are the -negroes. The peculiarities of the red races are their red skin, their -high cheek-bones, the straight black hair which, exactly opposite to -that of the negro, never curls.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> This race has not been quite so -stationary as the negro. Some of its members, the Aztecs of Mexico, the -Incas of Peru, did attain to a considerable civilization. But they had -advanced no way in the art of writing or keeping records of their past, -which is thus wholly lost to us; and we have no means of connecting the -civilization of the red races with the civilization of that part of the -world which has had a history.</p> - -<p>We are therefore left to deal with the two remaining classes, the yellow -and the white. The oldest, that is to say apparently the least changed, -of these is the yellow<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_117" id="page_117"></a>{117}</span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">The Yellow<br /> Races.</div> - -<p class="nind">race, and perhaps their most typical representatives are the Chinese. -The type is a sufficiently familiar one. ‘The skull of the yellow race -is rounded in form. The oval of the head is larger than with Europeans. -The cheek-bones are very projecting; the cheeks rise towards the -temples, so that the outer corners of the eyes are elevated; the eyelids -seem half closed. The forehead is flat above the eyes. The bridge of the -nose is flat, the chin short, the ears disproportionately large and -projecting from the head. The colour of the skin is generally yellow, -and in some branches turns to brown. There is little hair on the body; -beard is rare. The hair of the head is coarse, and, like the eyes, -almost always black.’<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> In the present day the different families of -the globe have gone through the changes which time and variety of -climate slowly bring about in all; and the yellow race has not escaped -these influences. While some of its members have by a mixture with white -races or by gradual improvement, reached a type not easily -distinguishable from the European, others have, through the effect of -climate, approached more nearly to the characteristics of the black -family. We may, however, still class these divergent types under the -head of the yellow race, which we consequently find extending over a -vast portion of our globe. Round the North Pole the Eskimo, the Lapps, -and the Finns form a belt of people belonging to this division of -mankind. Over all Northern and Central Asia the various tribes of -Mongolian or Turanian race inhabiting the plains of Siberia and of -Tartary, and again the Thibetans, the Chinese, Siamese, and other -kindred peoples of Eastern Asia, are members of this yellow family. From -the Malay peninsula the same race has spread southward, passing from -land to land over the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_118" id="page_118"></a>{118}</span> countless isles which cover the South Pacific, -until they have reached the islands which lie around the Australian -continent, the islands of <i>Polynesia</i> in the South Pacific, and have -mingled with the negro race that had preceded them there and that -remains unmixed in the <i>Melanesian</i> islands. The Maoris, the inhabitants -of New Zealand, belong to this yellow race; and the Australians, -<i>perhaps</i>, represent a mixture of negro and yellow races. In all, this -division of mankind covers an immense portion of the globe stretching -from Greenland in a curved line, through North America and China, -downwards to New Zealand, and again westward from China through Tartary -or Siberia, up to Lapland in the north of Europe. And it must be added -that many anthropologists consider the red races of America only a -variety of this wide-spread yellow race.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">The White<br /> Races.</div> - -<p>From the results of the previous chapter we see that to the yellow race -must be attributed all those peoples of Europe and Asia which speak -agglutinative languages, and therefore that for the white race are left -the inflected tongues. These it will be remembered, we divided into two -great families, the Semitic and the Aryan or Japhetic. We thus see that -from the earliest times to which we are able to point we have living in -Europe and Asia these three divisions of the human family, whom some -have looked upon as the descendants of Ham, Shem, and Japhet. What -relationship the other excluded races of mankind, the black and red, -bear to the Hamites, Shemites, and Japhetites, has not been suggested. -It seems more reasonable to consider Noah as merely the ancestor of the -white races, and, therefore, so far as our linguistic knowledge goes, of -the Semitic and Aryan families of speech only. But outside the pure<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_119" id="page_119"></a>{119}</span> -Semites there lived a race of a less pure nationality, springing, -probably, from a mixture of Semites with earlier black and yellow races. -These people we may distinguish as Hamites. A division of this race were -the Cushites, the stock from which the Egyptian, the Chaldæan, and many -of the Canaanite nations were mainly formed.</p> - -<p>But though from the earliest times there were probably in Asia these -three divisions of mankind, their relative position and importance was -very different from what it is now. At the present time the Turanian -races are everywhere shrinking and dwindling before the descendants of -Japhet. At the moment at which I write it is the Aryan Slavs who are -pushing the yellow-skinned Tartars farther and farther back in Siberia -and Central Asia, and are endeavouring to push the Mongolian Turks from -their last foothold in Europe.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> The Tartar races have had their era -of great conquest too, for to them belong those races—Huns, Avars, -Magyars—who have spread such devastation in Europe, to them belong such -conquerors as Attila, Genghis Khan, and Timûr Lenk (Tamerlane). In the -first few centuries after Mohammedism was introduced among them, the -Turanians of Central Asia rose into power. Several different Tartar -races in succession—Seljûks, Ayyûbites, Mongols (Moghuls), etc.—rose -upon the ruins of the Arab Chalifate, and invaded India, Persia, Africa, -and Europe. The last of these is the race of the Osmanlîs, or, as we -call them simply, the Turks. Their days of conquest are past, and -therefore, great as is the space which the Turanian people now occupy -over the face of the globe, there is reason to believe that in early -prehistoric times they were still more widely extended. In all<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_120" id="page_120"></a>{120}</span> -probability the men of the polished-stone age in Europe and Asia were of -this yellow-skinned Mongolian type. We know that the human remains of -this period seem to have come from a short and round-skulled people; and -this roundness of the skull is one of the chief marks of the Mongolians -as distinguished from the white races of mankind.</p> - -<p>We know, too, that the earliest inhabitants of India belonged to a -Turanian, and therefore to a yellow, race; and that Turanians mingled -with one of the oldest historical Semitic peoples, and helped to produce -the civilization of the Chaldæans. And as, moreover, we find in various -parts of Asia traces of a civilization similar to that of Europe during -the latter part of the polished-stone age, it seems not unreasonable, in -casting our eyes back upon the remotest antiquity on which research -sheds any light, to suppose an early widespread Turanian or Mongolian -family extending over the greater part of Europe and Asia. These -Turanians were in various stages of civilization or barbarism, from the -rude condition of the hunters and fishers of the Danish shell-mounds to -a higher state reigning in Central and Southern Asia, and similar to -that which was afterwards attained towards the end of the polished-stone -age in Europe. The earliest home of these pure Turanians was probably a -region lying somewhere to the east of Lake Aral. ‘There,’ says a writer -from whom we have already quoted, ‘from very remote antiquity they had -possessed a peculiar civilization, characterized by gross Sabeism, -peculiarly materialistic tendencies, and complete want of moral -elevation; but at the same time, by an extraordinary development in some -branches of knowledge, great progress in material culture in some -respects, while in others they remained in an entirely rudimentary -state. This strange and incomplete civilization exercised over great -part<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_121" id="page_121"></a>{121}</span> of Asia an absolute preponderance, lasting, according to the -historian Justin, 1500 years.’<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p> - -<p>As regards its pre-historic remains, we know that this civilization, or -half-civilization, was especially distinguished by the raising of -enormous grave-mounds and altar-stones, and it must have been -characterized by strong, if not by the most elevated, religious ideas, -and by a peculiar reverence paid to the dead. Now, we have seen that it -is by characteristics very similar to these that the civilization of -Egypt is distinguished, and Egypt, of all nations which have possessed a -history, is the oldest.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Egypt.</div> - -<p>These are reasons, therefore, for considering the Egyptian civilization, -which is in some sort the dawn of history in the world, as the -continuation—the improvement, no doubt, but still the continuation—of -the half-civilization of the age of stone, a culture handed on from the -Turanian to the Cushite peoples. We may look upon this very primitive -form of culture as spreading first through Asia, and later on outwards -to the west. Four thousand and five thousand years before Christ are the -dates disputed over as those of Menes, the first recorded King of -Egypt.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> And Egypt even at this early time seems to have emerged from -the age of stone, and been possessed, at least, of bronze, possibly of -iron. The later date, 4000 <small>B.C.</small>, probably marks the beginning of the -stone-age life corresponding to the more extensive remains in Europe. It -was therefore with this early culture as it has been with subsequent -fuller civilizations—<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_122" id="page_122"></a>{122}</span></p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Nosque ubi primus equis Oriens afflavit anhelis<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Illic sera rubens accendit lumina Vesper.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>The Egyptian civilization which (for us) begins with Menes, say 5000 -<small>B.C.</small>, reaches its zenith under the third and fourth dynasty, under the -builders of the pyramids some eight hundred or a thousand years -afterwards. Then in its full strength the Egyptian life rises out of the -past like a giant peak, or like its own pyramids out of the sandy -plains. It is cold and rigid, like a mass of granite, but it is so great -that it seems to defy all efforts of time. Even when the Egyptians first -come before us everything seems to point them out as a people already -old; whether it be their enormous tombs and temples, their elaborately -ordered social life, or their complicated religious system, with its -long mysterious ritual. For all this, the Egyptian life and thought -present two elements of character which may well spring from the union -of two distinct nationalities. Its enormous tombs and temples and its -excessive care for the bodies of the dead—for what are the pyramids but -exaggerations of the stone-age grave-mounds, and the temples but -improvements upon the megalithic dolmens?—recall the era of stone-age -culture. The evident remains of an early animal worship show a descent -from a low form of religion, such a religion as we find among Turanian -or African races. But with these co-existed some much grander features. -The Egyptians were intellectual in the highest degree,—in the highest -degree then known to the world; and, unlike the stone-age men, succeeded -in other than merely mechanical arts. In astronomy they were rivalled by -but one nation, the Chaldæans; in painting and sculpture they were at -the head of the world, and were as nearly the inventors of history as of -writing itself,—not <i>quite</i> of either, as will be seen hereafter. -Mixed, too, with their animal worship were some lofty<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_123" id="page_123"></a>{123}</span> religious -conceptions stretching not only beyond <i>it</i>—the animal worship—but -beyond that ‘natural’ polytheism which was the earliest creed of our own -ancestors the Aryans, and a noble hope and ambition for the future of -the soul. Were these higher features due to the influx of Semitic blood? -It seems likely, when we remember how from the same race came a chosen -people to whom the world is indebted for all that is greatest in -religious thought.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Chaldæa.</div> - -<p>During the fourth and fifth dynasties, or some three or four thousand -years before Christ, Egypt and the Egyptians do, as we have said, rise -up distinctly out of the region of mere conjecture. Three or four -thousand years before Christ—five or six thousand years ago: this is no -small distance through which to look back to the place where the first -mountain-peak of history appears in view. What was doing in the other -unseen regions round this mountain? Only probably in one other part of -the globe could there have been found at this date a civilization in the -smallest degree comparable to that of the Egyptians. This region is the -valley of the Tigrus and Euphrates.</p> - -<p>The Tigro-Euphrates valley, or Mesopotamia, was in early days as regards -appearance and position very similar to the land of Egypt. These two -territories are in fact two oases in an immense band of desert, which -stretches from the western edge of the great Sahara (which is almost the -edge of Africa itself) in a curved sweep, through part of Arabia, part -of Persia, up to the great plains of central Asia; in other words, it -stretches across more than one-third of the circumference of the globe. -The Tigro-Euphrates oasis which the Greeks called Mesopotamia is in the -Bible called Chaldæa or the country of the Chaldees. In days known to -history, its inhabitants were a mixed people, of whom<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_124" id="page_124"></a>{124}</span> the oldest -element was undoubtedly Turanian; and this section of the nation had -probably descended from the country afterwards called Iran to the mouths -of the Tigris and Euphrates. These people are called by modern scholars -the Accadians, or the Shûmîro-Accadians.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> They are the Accad of the -Bible. Mixed with them were a people of Semitic, or half-Semitic origin, -whose language is closely allied to the Hebrew and the Aramæan. If we -take the Biblical name for them, we should call them Hamites or -Cushites. But the best ethnological name would be that of Aramæans.</p> - -<p>These two races mingled, and formed the nation of Chaldæans as known to -history; and in time the Semitic element predominated over the Turanian. -Nevertheless it was the Accadians who had brought to the common stock -the earliest elements of civilization. Their earliest tombs show them in -possession of both the metals bronze and iron, though of the latter in -such small quantities that it took with them the position of a precious -metal; ornaments were made from it as much as from gold. What is far -more important, the Accadians possessed a hieroglyphic writing similar -in character to that of the Egyptians, and, after their junction with -the Semite people, that developed into a syllabic alphabet.<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> We may -date the fusion of the Accadian and Aramæan peoples at about 4000 <small>B.C.</small></p> - -<p>It is in this country, be it remembered, in the Tigro-Euphrates basin, -that the Bible places the earliest history of the human race. ‘And it -came to pass that as they journeyed from the East they found a plain in -the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.’<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> Here, too, is placed the -building of Babel, and the subsequent dispersion of the human family.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_125" id="page_125"></a>{125}</span> -Here ruled Nimrod, ‘the son of Cush,’ the first of the kings of this -region of whom any authentic mention is made; though we have dynastic -lists of supernatural beings who were supposed to have reigned in -Chaldæa in far distant ages of the world, as we have in the case of -Egypt. Even of Nimrod’s reign no monumental records have yet come to -light. The cities which Nimrod built, says the Bible, were Erech [in -Accadian, Ounoug, or Ûrûk] and Ur [Accad. Urû]—these two are the -present Warkah and Mugheir,—Accad [Agadê] and Calneh. But the earliest -human king of whom we have anything like an authentic date is either -Sargon I., who may have reigned as early as 3800 <small>B.C.</small>, or Ûrbagûs, who -seems to have ruled over all Mesopotamia, contemporaneously with the -fifth Egyptian dynasty (3900 or 2900 <small>B.C.</small>).</p> - -<p>The Chaldean buildings of this period, like the contemporary Egyptian -ones, are of gigantic proportions, and like them seem to recall bygone -days, the grandiose conceptions of the later stone-age, those <i>tumuli</i> -and cromlechs which, spread over the face of the world, most undoubtedly -have suggested to subsequent nations of mankind the belief in a giant -race which had preceded them on earth—</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i5">‘The far-famed hold,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Piled by the hands of giants<br /></span> -<span class="i0">For god-like kings of old.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">And thus, as has already been often said, this earliest civilization in -the world looks back to pre-historic days as much as forward to historic -ones.</p> - -<p>Close beside Chaldæa, in the more mountainous country to the east, but -not far from the Persian Gulf, rose another civilization, that of the -Elamites, which may possibly have been not much later than the Chaldæan. -This, too, we may believe, was in its origin Turanian. The capital of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_126" id="page_126"></a>{126}</span> -the country of Elam was Susa. Between 2300 and 2280 <small>B.C.</small>, a king of -Susa, Kurdur-Nankunty, conquered the reigning king of Chaldæa, and -henceforward the two districts were incorporated into one country. The -accession of strength thus gained to his crown induced one of the kings -of the Elamitic line, Kudur-lagomer (Chedorlaomer) by name, to aspire -towards a wider empire (c. 2200 <small>B.C.</small>). He sent his armies against the -Semitic nations on his west, who were now beginning to settle down in -cities, and to enjoy their share of the civilization of Egypt and -Chaldæa. These he subdued, but after sixteen years they rebelled; and it -was after a second expedition to punish their recalcitrancy, wherein he -had conquered the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, and had among the -prisoners taken Lot, the nephew of Abraham, that Chedorlaomer was -pursued and defeated by the patriarch. ‘And when Abram heard that his -brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his -own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan. And he -divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote -them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of -Damascus. And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his -brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.’<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a></p> - -<p>The conquest of a powerful Chaldæan king by a handful of wandering -Semites seems extraordinary, and might have sounded a note of warning to -the ear of the Chaldæans. Their kingdom was destined soon to be -overthrown by another Semitic people. After a duration of about half a -thousand years for the Elamite kingdom, and some seven hundred years -since the time of Nimrod, the Chaldæan dynasty was overthrown and -succeeded by an Arabian one,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_127" id="page_127"></a>{127}</span> that is, by a race of nomadic Shemites -from the Arabian plains; and after two hundred and forty-five years they -in their turn succumbed to another more powerful people of the same -Semitic race, the Assyrians. The empire thus founded upon the ruins of -the old Chaldæan was one of the greatest of the ancient world, as we -well know from the records which meet us in the Bible. Politically it -may be said to have balanced the power of Egypt. But the stability of -this monarchy rested upon a basis much less firm than that of Egypt; the -southern portion—the old Chaldæa—of which Babylon was the capital, was -always ready for revolt, and after about seven hundred years the -Babylonians and Medes succeeded in overthrowing their former conquerors. -All this belongs to history—or at least to chronicle—and is therefore -scarcely a part of our present inquiry.</p> - -<p>To these primitive civilizations of Egypt, Chaldæa, and Susa we might, -if we could put faith in native records, be inclined to add a fourth.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">China.</div> - -<p>The <i>Chinese</i> profess to extend their lists of dynasties seven, eight, -or even ten thousand years backward, but there is nothing on which to -rest such extravagant pretensions. Their earliest known book is believed -to date from the twelfth century before Christ. It is therefore not -probable that they possessed the art of writing more than fifteen -hundred years before our era, and before writing is invented there can -be no reliable history. The best record of early times <i>then</i> is to be -found in the popular songs of a country, and of these China possessed a -considerable number, which were collected into a book—the <i>Book of -Odes</i>—by their sage Confucius.<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> The picture which these odes present -is of a society so very different from that of the time from which their -earliest book—the <i>Book of Changes</i>—dates,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_128" id="page_128"></a>{128}</span> that we cannot refuse to -credit it with a high antiquity. From the songs we learn that before -China coalesced into the monarchy which has lasted so many years, its -inhabitants lived in a sort of feudal state, governed by a number of -petty princes and lords. The pastoral life which distinguished the -surrounding Turanian nations had already been exchanged for a settled -agricultural one, to which houses, and all the civilization which these -imply, had long been familiar. For the rest, their life seems to have -been then, as now, a simple, slow-moving life, not devoid of piety and -domestic affection. But it should be mentioned here that recent -researches seem to point to the conclusion, strange as it may appear, -that the Chinese civilization is closely connected with that of the -Accadians, and may have had an origin from some contact with the -Accadian peoples in their earliest homes in Central Asia. In any case it -hardly seems likely that this can be classed as the fourth civilization -which may have existed in the world when the pyramids were being built. -But it is without doubt after these three the next oldest of the -civilizations which the world has known. It seems to be remote alike -from the half-civilization of the other Mongolian people of the stone -age, and from the mixed Turanian-Semitic civilizations of Egypt and -Chaldæa.</p> - -<p>To these early civilizations in the old world, may we add any from the -new, and believe in a great antiquity of the highest civilization of the -<i>red</i> race? The trace of an early civilization in Mexico and Peru, -bearing many remarkable points of resemblance to the civilization of -Chaldæa, is undoubted. This <i>may</i> have been passed on by the Chinese at -a very early date. But there is nothing to show that the identity in -some of the features of their culture extended to an identity in their -respective epochs.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_129" id="page_129"></a>{129}</span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">Assyrians, <br />Phœnicians,<br /> Hebrews.</div> - -<p>A greater destiny, though a more tardy development, awaited the pure -Semitic and Japhetic races. Among the former we might notice many -nations which started into life during the thousand years following that -date of 3000 <small>B.C.</small>, which we have taken as our starting-point. Of the -Assyrians we have already spoken. The next most conspicuous stand the -Phœnicians, who, either in their early home upon the seacoast of -Syria, or in their second home, the sea itself, or in one of their -countless colonies, came into contact with almost every one of the great -nations of antiquity, from the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and the -Israelites, to the Greeks and Romans.</p> - -<p>But it is upon the life and history of the nomadic Shemites, and among -them of one chosen people, that our thoughts chiefly rest. Among the -prouder citied nations which inhabited the plains of the Tigris and -Euphrates, from the Mediterranean to the Caspian Sea, dwelt a numerous -people, more or less nomadic in their habits, under the patriarchal form -of government which belonged to their mode of life. Among such a people -the chief of one particular family or clan was summoned by a Divine call -to escape from the influence of the idolatrous nations around, and to -live that vagrant pastoral life which was in such an age most fitted for -the needs of purity and religious contemplation. It is as something like -a wandering Bedouin chieftain that we must picture Abraham, while we -watch him, now joining with one small city king against another, now -driven by famine to travel with his flocks and herds as far as Egypt. -Then again he returns, and settles in the fertile valley of the Jordan, -where Lot leaves him, and, seduced by the luxuries of a town life, quits -his flocks and herds and settles in Sodom, till driven out again by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_130" id="page_130"></a>{130}</span> -destruction of that city. And we are not now reading dry dynastic lists, -but the very life and thought of an early time.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> To us—whose lives -are so unsimple—the mere picture of this simple nomadic life of early -days would have an interest and a charm; but it has a double charm and -interest viewed by the light of the high destiny to which Abraham and -his descendants were called. Plying the homely, slighted shepherd’s -trade, these people lived poor and despised beside the rich monarchies -of Egypt or Chaldæa; one more example, if one more were needed, how wide -apart lie the empires of spiritual and of material things.</p> - -<p>Up to very late times the Children of Israel bore many of the -characteristics of a nomadic people. It was as a nation of shepherds -that they were excluded from the national life of Egypt. For long years -after their departure thence they led a wandering life; and though, when -they entered Palestine, they found cities ready for their -occupation—for the nations which they dispossessed were for the most -part settled people, builders of cities—and inhabited them, and, -growing corn and wine, settled partly into an agricultural life, yet the -chief wealth of the nation still probably consisted in their flocks, and -the greater portion of the people still dwelt in tents. This was, -perhaps, especially the case with the people of the north, for even so -late as the separation, when the ten tribes determined to free -themselves from the tyranny of Rehoboam, we know how Jeroboam cried out, -‘To your tents, O Israel.’ ‘So<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_131" id="page_131"></a>{131}</span> Israel departed unto their tents,’ the -narrative continues. After the separation we are told that Jeroboam -built several cities in his own dominions. The history of the Israelites -generally may be summed up as the constant expression and the ultimate -triumph of a wish to exchange their simple life and theocratic -government for one which might place them more on a level with their -neighbour states. At first it is their religion which they wish to -change, whether for the gorgeous ritual of Egypt or for the vicious -creeds of Asiatic nations; and after a while, madly forgetful of the -tyrannies of a Ramses or a Tiglath-Pileser, they desire a king to reign -over them in order that they may ‘take their place’ among the other -Oriental monarchies. Still their first two kings have rather the -character of military leaders, the monarchy not having become -hereditary; the second, the warrior-poet, the greatest of Israel’s sons, -was himself in the beginning no more than a shepherd. But under his son -Solomon the monarchical government becomes assured, the country attains -(like Rome under Augustus) the summit of its splendour and power, and -then enters upon its career of slow and inevitable decline.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">The Aryans.</div> - -<p>Now let us turn to the Japhetic people—the Aryans. It is curious that -the date of three thousand years before Christ, from which we started in -our glance over the world, should also be considered about that of the -separation of the Aryan people. Till that time they had continued to -live—since when we know not—in their early home near the Oxus and -Jaxartes, and we are able by the help of comparative philology to gain -some little picture of their life at the time immediately preceding the -separation. We have already seen how this picture is obtained; how, -taking a word out of one of the Aryan languages and making allowance for -the changed form<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_132" id="page_132"></a>{132}</span> which it would wear in the other tongues, if we find -the same word with the same meaning reappearing in all the languages of -the family, we may fairly assume that the <i>thing</i> for which it stands -was known to the old Aryans before the separation. If, again, we find a -word which runs through all the European languages, but is not found in -the Sanskrit and Persian, we guess that in this case the thing was known -only to the Yavanas, the first separating body of younger Aryans, from -whom it will be remembered all the European branches are descended. Thus -we get a very interesting list of words, and the means of drawing a -picture of the life of our primæval ancestors. The earliest appearance -of the Aryans is as a pastoral people, for words derived from the -pastoral life have left the deepest traces on their language. Daughter, -we saw, meant originally ‘the milker;’ the name of money, and of booty, -in many Aryan languages is derived from that of cattle;<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> words which -have since come to mean lord or prince originally meant the guardian of -the cattle;<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> and others which have expanded into words for district -or country, or even for the whole earth, meant at first simply the -pasturage. So not without reason did we say that the king had grown out -of the head of the family, and the pens of sheepfolds expanded into -walled cities.</p> - -<p>But though a pastoral, the ancient Aryans do not seem to have been a -nomadic race, and in this respect they differed from the Shemites of the -same period, and from the Turanians, by whom they were surrounded. For -the Turanian <i>civilization</i> had pretty well departed from Asia by that -time,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_133" id="page_133"></a>{133}</span> and having taught its lessons to Egypt and Chaldæa, lived on, if -at all, in Europe only. There it faded before the advance of the Celts -and other Aryan people, who came bringing with them the use of bronze -weapons and the civilization which belonged to the bronze age. The stone -age lingered in the lake dwellings of Switzerland, as we thought, till -about two thousand years before Christ or perhaps later, and it may be -that this date, <small>B.C.</small> 2000, which is also nearly that of Abraham, -represents within a few hundred years the entry of the Aryans into -Europe. The Greeks are generally believed to have appeared in Greece, or -at least in Asia Minor, about the nineteenth century before our era, and -they were probably preceded by the Latin branch of the Aryan family, as -well as by the Celts in the north of Europe. So that the period of one -thousand years which intervened between our starting-point and the call -of Abraham, the starting-point of the Hebrew history, and which saw the -growth and change of many great Asiatic monarchies, must for the Aryans -be only darkly filled up by the gradual separation of the different -nations, and their unknown life between this separation and the time -when they again become vaguely known to history.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<div class="sidenote">Summary.</div> - -<p>The general result, then, of our inquiries into the grouping of nations -of the world in pre-historic times may be sketched in rough outline. At -a very early date, say 4000 or 5000 <small>B.C.</small>, arose an extensive Turanian -half-civilization, which, flourishing probably in Central and Southern -Asia, spread in time and through devious routes to India and China upon -one side, on the other side to Europe. This was, at first at any rate, a -stone age, and was especially distinguished by the raising of great -stones and grave-mounds. This civilization was communicated<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_134" id="page_134"></a>{134}</span> to the -Egyptians and Chaldæans, a mixed people—Semite, Turanian, -Ethiopian—who were not strangers to the use of metals. As early as 3000 -years before our era the civilization of Egypt had attained its full -growth, and had probably even then a considerable past. Chaldæa, too, -and the neighbouring Elam were both advanced out of their primitive -state; possibly so also were China, Peru, and Mexico. But the pure -Semite peoples, the ancestors of the Jews, and the Aryans, were still -pastoral races, the one by the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, the -other by the banks of the Jaxartes and the Oxus. The first of these -continued pastoral and nomadic for hundreds of years, but about this -time the Western Aryans separated from those of the East, and soon after -added some use of agriculture to their shepherd life. Then between 3000 -and 2000 <small>B.C.</small> came the separation of the various peoples of the Western -Aryans and their migration towards Europe, where they began to appear at -the latter date. After all the Western Aryans had left the East, the -older Aryans seem to have lived on for some little time together, and at -last to have separated into the nations of Iranians and Hindus, the -first migrating southward, and the second crossing the Hindoo-Koosh and -descending into the plains of the Indus and the Ganges. Thence they -drove away or exterminated most of the older Turanian inhabitants, as -their brethren had a short time before done to the Turanians whom they -found in Europe. Such, so far as we can surmise, were in rough outline -the doings of the different kindreds and nations and languages of the -old world in times long before history.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_135" id="page_135"></a>{135}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br /><br /> -<small>EARLY SOCIAL LIFE.</small></h2> - -<div class="sidenote">Formation of <br />settlements.</div> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">We</span> have seen, so far, that the early traces of man’s existence point to -a gradual improvement in the state of his civilization, to the -acquirement of fresh knowledge, and the practice of fresh arts. The rude -stone implements of the early drift-period are replaced by the more -carefully manufactured ones of the polished-stone age, and these again -are succeeded by implements of bronze and of iron. By degrees also the -arts of domesticating animals and of tilling the land are learnt; and by -steps, which we shall hereafter describe, the art of writing is -developed from the early pictorial rock-sculptures. Now, in order that -each step in this process of civilization should be preserved for the -benefit of the next generation, and that the people of each period -should start from the vantage-ground obtained by their predecessors, -there must have been frequent intercommunication between the different -individuals who lived at the same time; so that the discovery or -improvement of each one should be made known to others, and become part -of the common stock of human knowledge. In the very earliest times, -then, men probably lived collected together in societies of greater or -less extent. We know that this is the case now with all savage tribes;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_136" id="page_136"></a>{136}</span> -and as in many respects the early races of the drift-beds seem to have -resembled some now existing savage tribes in their mode of life, -employing, to a certain extent, the same implements, and living on the -same sort of food, this adds to the probability of their gregariousness. -The fact, too, that the stone implements of the first stone period have -generally been found collected near together in particular places, -indicates these places as the sites of early settlements. Beyond this, -however, we can say very little of the social state of these early -stone-age people. Small traces of any burial-ground or tomb of so great -an antiquity have yet been found, and all that we can say of them with -any certainty is, that their life must have been very rude and -primitive. Although they were collected together in groups, these groups -could not have been large, and each must have been generally situated at -a considerable distance from the next, for the only means of support for -the men of that time was derived from hunting and fishing. Now it -requires a very large space of land to support a man who lives entirely -by hunting; and this must have been more particularly the case in those -times when the weapons used by the huntsman were so rude, that it is -difficult for us now to understand how he could ever have succeeded in -obtaining an adequate supply of food by such means. Supposing that the -same extent of territory were required for the support of a man in those -times as was required in Australia by the native population, the whole -of Europe could only have supported about seventy-six thousand -inhabitants, or about one person to every four thousand now in -existence.</p> - -<p>Next to the cave-dwellings the earliest traces of anything like fixed -settlements which have been found are the ‘kitchen-middens.’ The extent -of some of these clearly<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_137" id="page_137"></a>{137}</span> shows that they mark the dwelling-place of -considerable numbers of people collected together. But here only the -rudest sort of civilization could have existed, and the bonds of society -must have been as primitive and simple as they are among those savage -tribes at the present time, who support existence in much the same way -as the shell-mound people did. In order that social customs should -attain any development, the means of existence must be sufficiently -abundant and easily procurable to permit some time to be devoted to the -accumulation of superfluities, or of supplies not immediately required -for use. The life of the primitive hunter and fisher is so precarious -and arduous, that he has rarely either the opportunity or the will for -any other employment than the supply of his immediate wants. The very -uncertainty of that supply seems rather to create recklessness than -providence, and the successful chase is generally followed by a period -of idleness and gluttony, till exhaustion of supplies once more compels -men to activity. That the shell-mound people were subject to such -fluctuations of supply we may gather from the fact that bones of foxes -and other carnivorous animals are frequently found in those mounds; and -as these animals are rarely eaten by human beings, except under the -pressure of necessity, we may conclude that the shell-mound people were -driven to support existence by this means, through their ill-success in -fishing and hunting, and their want of any accumulation of stores to -supply deficiencies.</p> - -<p>The next token of social improvement that is observable is in the -tumuli, or grave-mounds, which may be referred to a period somewhat -later than that of the shell-mounds. These contain indications that the -people who constructed them possessed some important elements necessary -to their<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_138" id="page_138"></a>{138}</span> social progress. They had a certain amount of time to spare -after providing for their daily wants, and they did not spend that time -exclusively in idleness. The erection of these mounds must have been a -work of considerable labour, and they often contain highly finished -implements and ornaments, which must have been put there for the use of -the dead. They are evidences that no little honour was sometimes shown -to the dead; so that some sort of religion must have existed amongst the -people who constructed the ancient grave-mounds. The importance of this -element in early society is evident if we inquire further for whom and -by whom these mounds were erected. Now, they are not sufficiently -numerous, and are far too laborious in their construction, to have been -the ordinary tombs of the common people. They were probably tombs -erected for chiefs or captains of tribes to whom the tribes were anxious -to pay especial honour. We do not know at all how these separate tribes -or clans came into existence, and what bonds united their members -together; but so soon as we find a tribe erecting monuments in honour of -its chiefs, we conclude that it has attained a certain amount of -compactness and solidity in its internal relations. Amongst an -uneducated people there is probably no stronger tie than that of a -common faith, or a common subject of reverence. It is impossible not to -believe, then, that the people who made these great, and in some cases -elaborately constructed tombs, would continue ever after to regard them -as in some sort consecrated to the great chiefs who were buried under -them. Each tribe would have its own specially sacred tombs, and perhaps -we may here see a germ of that ancestor-worship which may be traced in -every variety of religious belief.</p> - -<p>It has been supposed by some that a certain amount of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_139" id="page_139"></a>{139}</span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">Barter.</div> - -<p class="nind">commerce or barter existed in the later stone age. The reason for this -opinion is that implements of stone are frequently found in localities -where the stone of which they are made is not native. At Presigny le -Grand, in France, there exists a great quantity of a particular kind of -flint which seems to have been very convenient for the manufacture of -implements; for the fields there are covered with flint-flakes and chips -which have been evidently knocked off in the process of chipping out the -knives, and arrow-heads, and hatchets which the stone-age men were so -fond of. Now, implements made of this particular kind of flint are found -in various localities, some of which are at a great distance from -Presigny; and it has therefore been supposed that Presigny was a sort of -manufactory for flint weapons which were bartered to neighbouring -tribes, and by them again perhaps to others further off; and so these -weapons gradually got dispersed. But it is also possible that the tribes -of the interior, who would subsist almost exclusively by hunting, and -would therefore be of a more wandering disposition than those on the -sea-coast, may have paid occasional visits to this flint reservoir for -the purpose of supplying themselves with weapons of a superior quality, -just as the American Indians are said to go to the quarry of Coteau des -Prairies on account of the particular kind of stone which is found -there.</p> - -<p>In any case, whatever system of barter was carried on at that time was -of a very primitive kind, and not of frequent enough occurrence to -produce any important effects on the social condition of the people. -That that condition had already advanced to some extent beyond its -original rudeness, shows us that there existed, at all events, some -capacity for improvement among the tribes which then<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_140" id="page_140"></a>{140}</span> inhabited Europe; -but, when we compare them with modern tribes of savages, whose apparent -condition is much the same as theirs was, and who do not seem to have -made any advance for a long period, or, so far as we can judge, to be -capable of making any advance by their own unassisted efforts, we cannot -but conclude that the stone-age people, if left to themselves, would -only have emerged out of barbarism by very slow degrees. Now we know -that, about the time when bronze implements first began to be used, some -very important changes also occurred in the manners and customs of the -inhabitants of Europe. A custom of burning the dead superseded then the -older one of burial; domestic animals of various sorts seem to have been -introduced, and the bronze implements themselves show, both in the -elaborateness of their workmanship and the variety of their designs, -that a great change had come over European civilization. The greatness -and completeness of this change, the fact that there are no traces of -those intermediate steps which we should naturally expect to find in the -development of the arts, denote that this change was due to some -invading population which brought with it the arts that had been -perfected in its earlier home; and other circumstances point to the East -as the home from which this wave of civilization proceeded. Language has -taught us that at various times there have been large influxes of Aryan -populations into Europe. To the first of these Aryan invaders probably -was due the introduction of bronze into Europe, together with the -various social changes which appear to have accompanied its earliest -use. To trace then the rise and progress of the social system which the -Aryans had adopted previous to their appearance in Europe, we must go to -their old Asiatic home, and see if any of the steps by which this system -had<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_141" id="page_141"></a>{141}</span> sprung up, or any indications of its nature, may be extracted from -the records of antiquity.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<div class="sidenote">The patriarchal<br /> family.</div> - -<p>Hitherto scarcely any attempt has been made to discover or investigate -pre-historic monuments in the East. We can no longer therefore appeal to -the records of early tombs or temples, to indications taken from early -seats of population; but though as yet this key to Aryan history has not -been made available, we have another guide ready to take us by the hand, -and show us what sort of lives our ancestors used to lead in their -far-off Eastern home. That guide is the science of Language, which can -teach us a great deal about this if we will listen to its lessons: a -rich mine of knowledge which has as yet been only partially explored, -but one from which every day new information is being obtained about the -habits and customs of the men of pre-historic times.</p> - -<p>All that we know at present of the Aryan race indicates that its social -organization originated in a group which is usually called the -Patriarchal Family, the members of which were all related to each other -either by blood or marriage. At the head of the family was the -patriarch, the eldest male descendant of its founder; its other members -consisted of all the remaining males descended on the father’s side from -the original ancestor, their wives, and such of the women, also -descended on the father’s side from the same ancestor, as remained still -unmarried. To show more exactly what people were members of the ancient -patriarchal family, we will trace such a family for a couple of -generations from the original founder. Suppose, then, the original -founder married, and with several children, both sons and daughters. All -the sons would continue members of this family. The daughters would only -continue members until<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_142" id="page_142"></a>{142}</span> they married, when they would cease to be -members of the family of their birth, and become members of their -respective husbands’ families. So when the sons of the founder married, -their wives would become members of the family; and such of their -children as were sons would be members, and such as were daughters would -be members only until they married; and so on through succeeding -generations. On the founder’s death he would be succeeded as patriarch -by his eldest son. On the eldest son’s death, he would be succeeded by -<i>his</i> eldest son, if he had a son; and if not, then by his next brother. -The patriarchal family also included in its circle, in later times at -all events, slaves and other people, who, although perhaps not really -relations at all, were <i>adopted</i> into the household, assumed the family -name, and were looked upon for all purposes as if its actual members. -This little group of individuals seems originally to have existed -entirely independent of any external authority. It supported itself by -its own industry, and recognized no other law or authority than its own. -The one source of authority within this little state was the patriarch, -who was originally regarded, not only as the owner of all the property -of which the family was possessed, but also as having unlimited power -over the different individuals of which it was composed. All the members -lived together under the same roof, or within the same enclosure. No -member could say that any single thing was his own property. Everything -belonged to the family, and every member was responsible to the -patriarch for his actions.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Custom<br /> and law.</div> - -<p>Originally the power of the patriarch may have been almost absolute over -the other members of the family, but it must very early have become -modified and controlled by the growth of various customs. Indeed, in -trying to picture to ourselves these<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_143" id="page_143"></a>{143}</span> early times, when as yet no -regular notions of law had arisen, it is important to remember how great -a force is possessed by custom. Even now, when we distinguish pretty -clearly between law and custom, we still feel the great coercive and -restraining powers of the latter in all the affairs of life. But when no -exact notions of law had been formed, it seemed an almost irresistible -argument in favour of a particular action that it had always been -performed before. There would thus spring up in a household certain -rules of conduct for the different members, certain fixed limits to -their respective family duties. Before any individual would be commanded -by the patriarch to do any particular duty, it would come to be inquired -whether it was customary for such a duty to be assigned to such an -individual. Before the patriarch inflicted any punishment on a member of -the family, it would come to be inquired whether and in what manner it -had been customary to punish the particular act complained of. Many -things would tend to increase this regard for custom. The obvious -advantages resulting from regularity and certainty in the ordering of -the family life would soon be felt, and thus a public opinion in favour -of custom would be created. Ancestor-worship, too, which plays so -conspicuous a part in early Aryan civilization, acted, no doubt, as a -powerful strengthener of the force of custom, as is indicated by the -fact that in many nations the traditionary originator of their laws is -some powerful ancestor to whom the nation is accustomed to pay an -especial reverence.</p> - -<p>Resulting from this development of custom into law in the early family -life of the Aryans, we find that special duties soon became assigned to -persons occupying particular positions. To the young men of the -household were assigned the more active outdoor employments; to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_144" id="page_144"></a>{144}</span> -maidens the milking of the cows; to the elder women other household -duties. And the importance of knowing what the customs were also gave -rise to the family council, or ‘sabhâ,’ as it is called in Sanskrit, -which consisted of the elders of the family, the ‘sabhocita,’ presided -over by the ‘sabhapati,’ or president of the assembly. The importance -attached to the decisions of this council was so great, that the -‘sabyâ,’ or decrees of the ‘sabhâ,’ came to be used simply to express -law or custom. It is probable therefore that this assembly regulated to -a great extent the customs and laws of the family in its internal -management, and also superintended any negotiations carried on with -other families.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">The<br /> house-fire.</div> - -<p>To complete our picture of the patriarchal family, we have the -traditions of three distinct customs or rites affecting its internal -economy. Two of these rites, the maintenance of the sacred house-fire, -and the marriage ceremony, probably date back to a very remote period; -and the third, the custom of adoption, though of later development, may -be regarded, in its origin at least, as primitive. Fire is itself so -wonderful in its appearance and effects, so good a servant, so terrible -a master, that we cannot feel any surprise at its having attracted a -great deal of attention in early times. The traces of fire-worship are -so widely spread over the earth that there is scarcely a single race -whose traditions are entirely devoid of them. But the sacred house-fire -of the Aryans is interesting to us chiefly in its connection with other -family rites in which it played an important part. This fire, which was -perpetually kept burning on the family hearth, seems to have been -regarded in some sort, as a living family deity, who watched over and -assisted the particular family to which it belonged. It was by its aid -that the food of the family was<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_145" id="page_145"></a>{145}</span> cooked, and from it was ignited the -sacrifice or the funeral pyre. It was the centre of the family life; the -hearth on which it burned was in the midst of the dwelling, and no -stranger was admitted into its presence. That hearth was to each member -of the household as it were an <i>umbilicus orbis</i>, or navel of the -earth—<i>hearth</i>, only another form of <i>earth</i>.<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> When the members of -the family met together to partake of their meals, a part was always -first offered to the fire by whose aid the meal was prepared; the -patriarch acted as officiating priest in this as in every other family -ceremony; and to the patriarch’s wife was confided the especial charge -of keeping the fire supplied with fuel.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Marriage.</div> - -<p>By <i>marriage</i>, as we have seen, a woman became a member of her husband’s -family. She ceased to be any longer a member of the household in which -she was born, for the life of each family was so isolated that it would -have been impossible to belong to two different families at once. So we -find that the marriage ceremony chiefly consisted in an expression of -this change of family by the wife. In general it was preceded by a -treaty between the two families, a formal offer of marriage made by the -intending husband’s family on his behalf, together with a gift to the -bride’s family, which was regarded as the price paid for the bride. If -all preliminary matters went forward favourably, then, on the day fixed -for the marriage, the different members of the bridegroom’s family went -to the household of the bride and demanded her. After some orthodox -delay, in which the bride was expected to express unwillingness to go, -she was formally given up to those who demanded her, the patriarch of -her household solemnly dismissing her from it and giving up all -authority over her. She was then borne in triumph to the bridegroom’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_146" id="page_146"></a>{146}</span> -house; and, on entering it, was carried over the threshold, so as not to -touch it with her feet; thus expressing that her entry within the house -was not that of a mere guest or stranger. She was finally, before the -house-fire, solemnly admitted into her husband’s family, and as a -worshipper at the family altar.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Adoption.</div> - -<p>This ceremony was subject to a great many variations amongst the -different Aryan races; but in every one of them some trace of it is to -be found, and this always apparently intended to express the same idea, -the change of the bride’s family. <i>Adoption</i>, which in later times -became extremely common among the Romans—the race which seems in Europe -to have preserved most faithfully the old Aryan family type—originated -in a sort of extension of the same theory that admitted of the wife’s -entry into her husband’s family, as almost all the details of the -ceremony of adoption are copied from that of marriage. Cases must have -occurred pretty often where a man might be placed in such a position as -to be without a family. He may have become alienated from his own -kindred by the commission of some crime, or all his relatives may have -died from natural causes or been killed in war. In the condition in -which society was then, such a man would be in a peculiarly unenviable -position. There would be no one in whom he could trust, no one who would -be the least interested in him or bound to protect him. Thus wandering -as an outlaw, without means of defence from enemies, and unable to -protect his possessions if he chanced to have any, or to obtain means of -subsistence if he had none, he would be very desirous of becoming a -member of some other family, in order that he might find in it the -assistance and support necessary for his own welfare. It might also -sometimes happen, that owing to a want of male descendants<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_147" id="page_147"></a>{147}</span> some house -might be in danger of extinction. Now the extinction of a family was a -matter of peculiar dread to its members. Connected with the worship of -the hearth was the worship of the ancestors of the family. It was the -duty of each patriarch to offer sacrifices on stated occasions to the -departed spirits of his ancestors; and it was considered as a matter of -the utmost importance that these sacrifices should be kept up, in order -to insure the happiness of those departed spirits after death. So -important indeed was this rite held to be, that it was reckoned as one -of the chief duties which each patriarch had to perform, and the family -property was regarded as dedicated to this object in priority to every -other. It would therefore be the chief care of each head of a household -to leave male descendants, in order that the offerings for his own and -his ancestors’ benefit might be continued after his death. The only -person, however, capable of performing these rites was a member of the -same family, one who joined in the same worship by the same household -fire: so if all the males of a family were to die out, these rights must -of necessity cease.</p> - -<p>The marriage ceremony had already supplied a precedent for introducing -members into a house who were not born in it. It was very natural, then, -that this principle should be extended to the introduction of males when -there was any danger of the male line becoming extinct. This was done by -the ceremony of adoption, which was in many respects similar to that of -marriage, being a formal renunciation of the person adopted by the -patriarch of his original family, in case he was a member of one, and a -formal acceptance and admission into the new family of his adoption, of -which he was thenceforward regarded as a regular member. This ceremony -exhibits in a very marked manner the leading peculiarity of the -patriarchal household. We<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_148" id="page_148"></a>{148}</span> see how completely isolated, in theory, such -a group was from the rest of the world; having its own distinct worship, -in which no one but its own members were permitted to share, reverencing -its own ancestors only, who might receive worship from none but their -descendants. So jealously was this separation of families guarded, that -it was impossible for a man or woman at the same time to worship at two -family shrines. While displaying its isolation in the strongest light, -adoption is nevertheless a mark of decay in the patriarchal family. It -is an artificial grafting on the original simple stock; and however -carefully men may have shut their eyes at first to its artificial -nature, it must have had a gradual tendency to undermine the reverence -paid to the principle of blood relationship.</p> - -<p>Before we consider, however, the causes of decay of this form of -society, which we shall do in the next chapter, there are some other -indications of their manner of livelihood which will help us to -understand the social condition of these Aryan patriarchal families. We -have seen that, with the introduction of bronze into Europe, various -changes took place in the manner of men’s lives. One of these is the -regular domestication of animals. It is true that domestic animals were -by no means unknown before the bronze age in Europe: but until that time -this custom had not attained any great extension. In remains of -settlements whose age is supposed to be before the introduction of -bronze, by far the larger number of animals’ bones found are those -belonging to wild species, while those belonging to tame species are -comparatively rare. This shows that the principal part of the food of -those people who lived before the bronze age was obtained by hunting. -After the introduction of bronze, however, exactly the reverse is the -case. In these later remains the bones of domestic animals become much -more<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_149" id="page_149"></a>{149}</span> common, while those of wild animals are comparatively rare, which -shows what an important revolution had taken place in men’s habits.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Introduction<br /> of the<br /> pastoral life.</div> - -<p>It must also be remembered that many remains supposed to belong to the -later stone age may, in fact, belong to societies that existed during -the bronze age, but who had not yet adopted the use of bronze, or else -from their situation were unable to obtain any. As yet so little is -known of how this metal was obtained at that time, that it is impossible -to say what situations would be least favourable for obtaining it; but -considering that tin, of which bronze is partly composed, is only found -in a very few places, the wonder is rather that bronze weapons are so -frequent amongst the different remains scattered over Europe, than that -they should be absent from some of them. Moreover, the races that -inhabited Europe before the Aryans came there would afterwards remain -collected together in settlements, surrounded by the invading -population, for a considerable length of time before they had either -been exterminated or absorbed by the more civilized race. These -aborigines would adopt such of the arts and customs of the Aryans as -were most within their reach. The increased population and the greater -cultivation of the land which followed the Aryan invasion would make it -more difficult to obtain food from hunting, and the aborigines would -therefore be compelled to adopt domestication of animals as a means of -support, which they would have little difficulty in doing, as they would -be able to obtain a stock to start from, either by raids on their -neighbours’ herds or, perhaps, by barter. But the manufacture of bronze -weapons, being a much more complicated affair than the rearing of -cattle, would take a much longer time to acquire. This perhaps may -account for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_150" id="page_150"></a>{150}</span> remains found in the lake-dwellings, some of which show -a considerable degree of social advance, but an entire ignorance of the -use of bronze, while in the later ones bronze weapons are also found. We -may, then, regard the domestication of animals, to the extent that it -was practised by the Aryans in their Asiatic home, as a new thing in -Europe, and as introduced by the Aryans. It was on their flocks and -herds that these races chiefly depended for subsistence, and the -importance of the chase as a means of livelihood was very much less with -them than it was with the old hunter-tribes that formed the earlier -population of Europe. This in itself was a great advance in -civilization. It implied a regular industry, and the possession of -cattle was not only a guarantee against want, but an inducement to a -more regular and orderly mode of living.</p> - -<p>There are no lessons so important to uncivilized nations as those of -providence and industry, and the pastoral life required and encouraged -both these qualities. It was necessary to store up at one time of year -food to support the cattle during another period; to preserve a -sufficient number of animals to keep the stock replenished. The cows too -had to be milked at regular times, and every night the flocks and herds -had to be collected into pens to protect them from beasts of prey, and -every morning to be led out again to the pasture. All this shows the -existence of a more organized and methodical life than is possible to a -hunter-tribe. The pastoral life, moreover, seems to be one particularly -suited to the patriarchal type of society. Each little community is -capable of supplying its own wants, and is also compelled to maintain a -certain degree of isolation. The necessity of having a considerable -extent of country for their pasturage would prevent different families -from living very near each other. In its simplest<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_151" id="page_151"></a>{151}</span> state, too, the -pastoral life is a nomadic one; so that the only social connection which -can exist among such a people is one of kinship, for having no fixed -homes they can have no settled neighbours or fellow-countrymen. The -importance attached to cattle in this stage of civilization is evidenced -by the frequent use of words in their origin relating to cattle, in all -the Aryan languages, to express many of the ordinary incidents of life. -Not only do cattle occupy a prominent place in Aryan mythology, but -titles of honour, the names for divisions of the day, for the divisions -of land, for property, for money, and many other words, all attest by -their derivation how prominent a position cattle occupied with the early -Aryans. The patriarch is called in Sanskrit ‘lord of the cattle,’ the -morning is ‘the calling of the cattle,’ the evening ‘the milking time.’ -The Latin word for money, <i>pecunia</i>, and our English word ‘fee’ both -come from the Aryan name for cattle. In Anglo-Saxon movable property is -called ‘cwicfeoh,’ or living cattle, while immovable property, such as -houses and land, is called ‘dead cattle.’ And so we find the same word -constantly cropping up in all the Aryan languages, to remind us that in -the pastoral life cattle are the great interest and source of wealth to -the community, and the principal means of exchange employed in such -commerce as is there carried on.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Commerce.</div> - -<p>The commerce between different tribes or families seems to have been -conducted at certain meeting-places agreed upon, and which were situated -in the boundary-land or neutral territory between the different -settlements. Very frequently at war with each other, or at best only -preserving an armed and watchful quiet,—each side ready at a moment’s -notice to seize on a favourable opportunity for the commencement of -active hostilities,—<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_152" id="page_152"></a>{152}</span>continual friendly intercourse was impossible. So -that when they wished for their mutual advantage to enter into amicable -relations, it was necessary to establish some sort of special agreement -for that purpose. It is probable, then, that when they found the -advantages which could be derived from commercial exchanges, certain -places were agreed upon as neutral territory where these exchanges might -take place. Such places of exchange would naturally be fixed upon as -would be equally convenient to both parties; and their mutual jealousy -would prevent one tribe from permitting the free entrance within its own -limits of members of other tribes. Places, too, would be chosen so as to -be within reach of three or four different tribes; and thus the place of -exchange, the market-place, would be fixed in that border-land to which -no tribe laid any special claim. So we see that to commerce was due the -first amicable relations of one tribe with another; and perhaps our -market crosses may owe their origin to some remains of the old ideas -associated with assemblies where men first learnt to look upon men of -different tribes as brothers in a common humanity.</p> - -<p>It took a long time, however, to mitigate that feeling of hostility -which seems to have existed in early times between different -communities. Even when they condescended to barter with each other they -did not forget the difference between the friend and the foe. In the -<i>Senchus Mor</i>, a book compiled by the old Irish or ‘Brehon’ lawyers, -this difference between dealing with a friend and a stranger is rather -curiously indicated in considering the rent of land. ‘The three rents,’ -says the <i>Great Book of the Law</i>, as it is called, ‘are rack rent (or -the extreme rent) from a person of a strange tribe, a fair rent from one -of the tribe (that is one’s own tribe), and the stipulated rent, which -is paid<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_153" id="page_153"></a>{153}</span> equally by the tribe and the strange tribe.’ Such a distinction -is generally recognized in all early communities. In dealing with a man -of his own tribe, the individual was held bound in honour not to take -any unfair advantage, to take only such a price, to exact only such a -value in exchange, as he was legitimately entitled to. It was quite -otherwise, however, in dealings with members of other tribes. Then the -highest value possible might justly be obtained for any article; so that -dealings at markets which consisted of exchanges between different -tribes, came to mean a particular sort of trading, where the highest -price possible was obtained for anything sold. It is probable that this -cast, to a certain extent, a slur upon those who habitually devoted -themselves to this kind of trading. Though it was recognized as just to -exact as high a price as possible from the stranger, still the person -who did so was looked upon to a certain extent as guilty of a -disreputable action; viewed, in fact, much in the same light as usurious -money-lenders are viewed nowadays. They were people who did not offend -against the laws of their times, but who sailed so near the wind as to -be tainted, as it were, with fraud. Indeed, our word ‘monger,’ which -simply means ‘dealer,’ comes from a root which, in Sanskrit, means ‘to -deceive;’ so commerce and cheating seem to have been early united, and -we must therefore not be surprised if they are not entirely divorced -even in our own time.</p> - -<p>Now ‘mark,’ which, as we know, means a boundary or border-land, comes -from a root which means ‘the chase,’ or ‘wild animals.’ So ‘mark’ -originally meant the place of the chase, or where wild animals lived. -This gives us some sort of picture of these early settlements, whose -in-dwellers carried on their commerce with each other in such primitive -fashion. They were little spots of cleared or cultivated<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_154" id="page_154"></a>{154}</span> land, -surrounded by a sort of jungle or primeval forest inhabited only by wild -beasts. It was in such wild places as these that the first markets used -to be held. Here, under the spreading branches of the trees, at some -spot agreed upon beforehand,—some open glade, perhaps, which would be -chosen because a neighbouring stream afforded means of refreshment,—the -fierce distrustful men would meet to take a passing glimpse at the -blessings of peace. These wild border-lands which intervened also -explain to us how it was that so great an isolation continued to be -maintained between the different settlements. If their pasture-lands had -abutted immediately on each other, if the herds of one tribe had grazed -by the herds of another, there must have been much more intercommunion -and mutual trust than appears to have existed.</p> - -<p>The value of cattle does not consist only in the food and skins which -they provide. Oxen have from a very early time been employed for -purposes of agriculture; and we find among the names derived from cattle -many suggesting that they must have been put to this use at the time -when those names arose. Thus the Greeks spoke of the evening as -βουλυτός (boulutos), or the time for the unyoking of oxen; and -the same idea is expressed in the old German word for evening, ‘àbant’ -(Abend), or the unyoking. This, then, is the next stage in social -progress: when agriculture becomes the usual employment of man. With the -advance of this stage begins the decay of the patriarchal life, which, -as we shall see in the next chapter, gradually disappears and gives -place to fresh social combinations. Though we have hitherto spoken only -of the patriarchal life of the Aryans, it was a life even more -characteristic of the Semitic race. They were essentially pastoral and -nomadic in their habits, and they seem to have continued to lead a -purely pastoral<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_155" id="page_155"></a>{155}</span> life much longer than the Aryans did. In the Old -Testament we learn how Abraham and Lot had to separate because their -flocks were too extensive to feed together; and how Abraham wandered -about with his flocks and herds, his family and servants, dwellers in -tents, leading a simple patriarchal life, much as do the Arabs of the -present day. Long after the neighbouring people had settled in towns, -these Semitic tribes continued to wander over the intervening plains, -depending for food and clothing only on their sheep and cattle and -camels.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_156" id="page_156"></a>{156}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br /><br /> -<small>THE VILLAGE COMMUNITY.</small></h2> - -<div class="sidenote">The agricultural<br /> life.</div> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">So</span> long as people continued to lead a wandering shepherd life, the -institution of the patriarchal family afforded a sufficient and -satisfactory basis for such cordial union as was possible. It was a -condition of society in which the relations of the different members to -each other were extremely simple and confined within very narrow -boundaries; but these habits of life prevented the existence of any very -complicated social order, and at the same time gave a peculiar force and -endurance to those customs and ties which did exist. For while the -different tribes had no settled dwelling-places, the only cohesion -possible was that produced by the personal relations of the different -members one to another. Those beyond the limits of the tribe or -household could have no permanent connection with it. They were simply -‘strangers,’ friends or enemies, as circumstances might determine, but -having no common interests, connected by no abiding link, with those who -were not members of the same community. When a family became so numerous -that it was necessary for its members to separate, the new family, -formed under the influence of this pressure, would at first remember the -parent stock with reverence, and perhaps regard the patriarch of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_157" id="page_157"></a>{157}</span> -elder branch as entitled to some sort of obedience from, and possessing -some indefinite kind of power over, it after separation. It would, -however, soon wander away and lose all connection with its relatives, -forgetting perhaps in the course of time whence it had sprung, or -inventing a pedigree more pleasing to the vanity of its members. But -when men began to learn to till the soil, by degrees they had to abandon -their nomadic life, and to have for a time fixed dwelling-places, in -order that they might guard their crops, and gather, in the time of -harvest, the fruits of their labour. Cattle were no longer the only -means of subsistence, nor sufficiency of pasture the only limit to -migration. A part of their wealth was, for a time, bound up in the land -which they had tilled and sowed, and to obtain that wealth they must -remain in the neighbourhood of the cultivated soil. Thus a new -relationship arose between different families. They began to have -neighbours—dwellers on and cultivators of the land bordering their -own,—so that common interests sprang up between those who hitherto had -nothing in common, new ties began to connect together those who had -formerly no fixed relationship.</p> - -<p>The adoption of agriculture changed likewise the relation of men to the -land on which they dwelt. Hitherto the tracts of pasture over which the -herdsman had driven his flocks and cattle had been as unappropriated as -the open sea, as free as the air which he breathed. He neither claimed -any property in the land himself, nor acknowledged any title thereto in -another. He had spent no labour on it, had done nothing to improve its -fertility; and his only right as against others to any locality was that -of his temporary sojourn there. But when agriculture began to require -the expenditure of labour on the land, and its enclosure, so as to -protect the crops which had been sown,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_158" id="page_158"></a>{158}</span> a new distinct idea of the -possession of these enclosed pieces of land began to arise, so that a -man was no longer simply the member of a particular family. He had -acquired new rights and attributes, for which the patriarchal economy -had made no provision. He was the inhabitant of a particular locality, -the owner and cultivator of a particular piece of land. The effect of -this change was necessarily to weaken the household tie which bound men -together, by introducing new relations between them. The great strength -of that early bond had consisted in its being the only one which the -state of society rendered possible; and its force was greatly augmented -by the isolation in which the different nomadic groups habitually lived. -The adoption of a more permanent settlement thus tended in two ways to -facilitate the introduction of a new social organization. By increasing -the intercourse, and rendering more permanent the connection between -different families, it destroyed their isolation, and therefore weakened -the autocratic power of their chiefs; and at the same time, by -introducing new interests into the life of the members of a family, and -new relations between different families, it compelled sometimes the -adoption of regulations necessarily opposed to the principles of -patriarchal rule. We must remember, however, that the change from a -nomadic to a settled state took place very gradually, some peoples being -influenced by it much more slowly than others. Agriculture may be -practised to a certain extent by those who lead a more or less wandering -life, as is the case with the Tartar tribes, who grow buckwheat, which -only takes two or three months for its production; so that at the end of -that time they are able to gather their harvest and once more wander in -search of new pastures. And it is from its use by them that this grain -has received in French the name of <i>blé sarrasin</i> (Saracen corn)<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_159" id="page_159"></a>{159}</span> or -simply <i>sarrasin</i>. We may suppose that the earliest agriculture -practised was something of this rude description; and even when tribes -learnt the advantage of cultivating more slowly germinating crops, they -would not readily abandon their nomadic habits, which long continuance -had rendered dear to them; but would only become agriculturists under -the pressure of circumstances. The hunter tribes of North American -Indians, and the Gipsies of Europe, serve to show us how deeply rooted -in a people may become the love of wandering and the dislike to settled -industry.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">The village<br /> community.</div> - -<p>It was probably to the difficulty of supporting existence produced by -the increase of population that the more continuous pursuit of -agriculture was due; and it would therefore be first regularly followed -by the less warlike tribes, whose territory had been curtailed by the -incursions of their bolder neighbours. No longer able to seek pasture -over so extended an area as formerly, and with perhaps an increasing -population, they would find the necessity of obtaining from the land a -greater proportionate supply of subsistence than they had obtained -hitherto. Agriculture would therefore have to be pursued more regularly -and laboriously, and thus the habit of settlement would gradually be -acquired. Under this influence we may discern a change taking place in -the social state of the Aryan tribes. Gradually they become less nomadic -and more agricultural; and as this takes place, there arises also a -change in the relations of peoples to each other. We should naturally -expect considerable variety in the effects produced on different nations -by the adoption of a settled life. The results depend upon climate and -locality, upon the kind of civilization chosen, and the special -idiosyncrasies of the people who adopt it. All these<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_160" id="page_160"></a>{160}</span> elements had their -share in moulding the life of the Aryans when they became an -agricultural people. Yet we find, nevertheless, one special type of -society to have been the prevailing type among them. This form of -society is called the Village Community. It possesses some features -apparently so peculiarly its own, that it would be difficult to decide -on the cause of its adoption or growth. It will be safer with our -present limited knowledge to be satisfied with noting the more marked -characteristics of this form of society, and the localities in which it -may be traced; and not attempt to determine whether it is to be regarded -as a natural resultant of the settlement of patriarchal families, or as -inherited or evolved by some particular groups of tribes.</p> - -<p>The village community in its simplest state consisted of a group of -families, or households, whose dwellings were generally collected -together within an enclosure. To this group belonged a certain tract of -land, the cultivation and proprietorship of which were the subject of -minute regulations. The regulations varied in different localities to a -certain extent, but they were based on the division of the land into -three principal parts, viz. (1) the land immediately in the -neighbourhood of the dwellings, (2) another part specially set aside for -agricultural purposes, and (3) the remaining portion of the surrounding -open country, which was used only for grazing. Each of these divisions -was regarded as in some sort the common property of the village; but the -rights of individuals in some of them were more extensive than in -others. That part of the land which was annexed especially to the -dwellings was more completely the property of the different inhabitants -than any other. Each head of a house was entitled to the particular plot -attached to his dwelling, and probably these plots, and the dwellings to -which they were annexed, remained always<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_161" id="page_161"></a>{161}</span> practically in the ownership -of the same family. The area of this section, however, was very -insignificant when compared with the remainder of the communal estate. -In this the arable land was divided into a number of small plots, each -or several of which were assigned to particular households. The mode of -division was very various; but generally speaking, either each household -had an equal share assigned to it, or else a share in proportion to the -number of its males. Redistributions of the shares took place either at -stated periods, or whenever circumstances had rendered the existing -division inequitable. Each household cultivated the particular share -assigned to it, and appropriated to its own use the crops produced; but -individuals were never allowed themselves to settle the mode of -cultivation that they might prefer. The crops to be sown, and the part -of land on which they were to be sown, were all regulated by the common -assembly of the whole village, as were also the times for sowing and for -harvest, and every other agricultural operation; and these laws of the -assembly had to be implicitly followed by all the villagers. The third -portion, open or common land of the village, was not divided between the -households at all; but every member of the community was at liberty to -pasture his flocks and herds upon it.</p> - -<p>In their relations to each other the villagers seem to have been on a -footing of perfect equality. It is probable that there existed generally -some sort of chief, but his power does not appear to have been very -great, and for the most part he was merely a president of their -assemblies, exercising only an influence in proportion to his personal -qualifications. The real lawgivers and rulers of this society were the -different individuals who constituted the assembly. These, however, did -not comprise all the inhabitants of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_162" id="page_162"></a>{162}</span> the village. Only the heads of the -different families were properly included in the village assembly. But -the household had no longer the same extended circle as formerly, and, -so far as we can gather, there seems to have been little check on the -division of families and the formation of new households.</p> - -<p>It must be borne in mind, however, that we have no existing institution -exactly resembling the village community, such as we may suppose it to -have originally been. As with the patriarchal family, we meet with it -only after it has undergone considerable modification, and we have to -reconstruct it from such modified forms and traditions as remain to us. -Many minor details of its nature are therefore necessarily matters of -speculation. The community, however, may still be found in a changed -form in several localities; notably among the peasantry in Russia, where -it bears the name of the <i>mir</i>, and among the native population of -India. Its former existence among the Teuton tribes is attested by the -clearest evidence. With each of these peoples, however, the form is -somewhat varied from what we may conclude to have been its original -nature; in each country it has been subject not only to the natural -growth and development which every institution is liable to, but to -special influences arising from the events connected with the nation’s -history, and from the nature and extent of its territory. But before we -inquire what these different influences may have been, let us notice -first certain leading characteristics of this group, and consider how -they probably arose.</p> - -<p>The first thing that we notice is the change in the source of authority -in the Village Community as compared with that which existed in the -patriarchal family. The ruling power is no longer placed in the hands of -an individual<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_163" id="page_163"></a>{163}</span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">The assembly<br /> of<br /> householders.</div> - -<p class="nind">chief, but is vested in an assembly of all the householders. The second -marked peculiarity is the common possession of nearly all the land by -the village, combined with the individual possession of goods of a -movable nature by the different members. These may be said to be the two -essentials of a true village community. Now the change from the -patriarchal to this later social form may have taken place by either of -two processes—the extension of an individual family into a community, -or the amalgamation of various families. Probably both of these -processes took place; but wherever anything like the formation of a -village community has been actually observed, and the process has -occasionally been discernible even in modern times in India, it is due -to the former of the two causes indicated. This mode of formation also -appears to have left the most distinct impress on society, and we will -therefore notice first how it probably acted.</p> - -<p>When a family had devoted itself to agricultural pursuits, and settled -in a fixed locality, one of those divisions of its members might take -place which probably were of frequent occurrence in the nomadic state. -Although theoretically we speak of the patriarchal family as united and -indivisible, yet as a matter of fact we know that it could not always -have been so, and that families must frequently have either split up, or -else sent off little colonies from their midst. Now, we have seen how -marked an effect the settlement of the family must have had in -preserving a permanent connection between that family and the households -which sprang out of it. The separation between the older and the younger -households would be by no means so complete as formerly. The subsidiary -family would continue in close intercourse with the elder branch, and -would enjoy with it<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_164" id="page_164"></a>{164}</span> the use of the land which had been appropriated. In -course of time it might happen that a whole group of families would thus -become settled near each other, all united by a common origin and -enjoying in common the land surrounding the settlement. The desire for -mutual protection, which would often be felt, would alone be a strong -inducement to preserve the neighbourhood between those who through -kinship were allies by nature and tradition. Thus, though each separate -family would continue in its internal relations the peculiarities of the -patriarchal rule, the heads of the different families would be related -to each other by quite a new tie. They would not be members of one great -family all subservient to a common chief. They would be united simply by -the bond of their common interests.</p> - -<p>In this way, no doubt, sprang up a new relationship between the family -chiefs, a relationship not provided for in the construction of the -patriarchal family. We might expect perhaps that a special pre-eminence -would be accorded to the original family from which the others had -separated, and possibly some traces of this pre-eminence may here and -there be discovered. Why we have not more traces of it may be difficult -to explain. For upon the whole the relationship among the different -heads of households seems generally to be one of equality. As we do not -know exactly by what process families became divided, it is useless to -speculate how this equality arose. Alongside of this new reign of -equality among the different patriarchs or heads of households, went a -decrease in the power of the patriarch within his own circle. The family -had ceased to be the bond of union of the community at large, albeit the -units composing the new combination were themselves groups constructed -on the patriarchal type; so that the fact that they were now only parts -of larger groups had the effect of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_165" id="page_165"></a>{165}</span> weakening the force of patriarchal -customs. When the household was the only state of which an individual -was a member, to leave it was to lose all share in its rights and -property, to become an outlaw in every possible sense. But when the -family became part of the village, the facilities for separating from it -were necessarily increased. Households would more readily subdivide, now -that after separation their component parts continued united in the -community. Thus by degrees the old patriarchal life decayed, and gave -place to this new and more elastic social formation. The importance of -an individual’s relation to the family became less, that of the family -to the community became greater; so that in time the community took to -itself the regulation of many affairs originally within the exclusive -power of the patriarch.</p> - -<p>With these changes in social life came new theories of rights and -obligations. A new lesson was learnt with regard to property. It is -difficult to discern whether, in the older, the patriarchal society, the -property was regarded as exclusively that of the chief, or as belonging -to the family collectively. The truth seems to be that the two ideas -were blended, and neither was conceived with any clearness or -completeness. In the village community for the first time the two forms -of property, personal and communal, became fully distinguished; each -kind, by defining and limiting, producing a clearer idea of the other. -The land, the bond of union, and the limit of the extent of the -community, remained the common property of all; in part, no doubt, -because the idea of possessing land was still so new that it had not -been thoroughly grasped. The produce of the land, whether corn or -pasture, was, on the other hand, rather regarded as a proper subject of -private possession. At first, perhaps, in obedience to the habits of an -earlier life, even this may<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_166" id="page_166"></a>{166}</span> have been looked upon as common property. -But it did not long continue so, as the separation of the households -remained too complete to permit of any community with regard to the -possessions of the individual homestead, or of the produce required for -the support of each household; and this enforced separation of household -goods soon extended to the live stock, and to the produce of the -harvest.<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a></p> - -<div class="sidenote">Law.</div> - -<p>The effects produced by their new relation to each other upon the -individual members of this group were very important. Hitherto such idea -of law as existed was confined to the mandates or traditional -regulations of the patriarchs. Law was at first inseparably connected -with religion. It was looked upon as a series of regulations handed down -by some ancestor who had received the regulations by Divine inspiration. -This notion of the origin of law is so general, that it is to be met -with in the traditions of almost every nation. Thus we find the -Egyptians reputing their laws to the teachings of Hermes (Thoth); while -the lawgivers of Greece, Minôs and Lycurgus, are inspired, the one by -Zeus the other by Apollo. So too the Iranian lawgiver Zoroaster is -taught by the Good Spirit; and Moses receives the commandments on Mount -Sinai. Now, though this idea of law is favourable to the procuring -obedience to it, it produces an injurious effect on the law itself, by -rendering it too fixed and unalterable. Law, in order to satisfy the -requirements and changes of life, should be elastic and capable of -adaptation; otherwise, regulations which in their institution were -beneficial will<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_167" id="page_167"></a>{167}</span> survive to be obnoxious under an altered condition of -society. But so long as laws are regarded as Divine commands they -necessarily retain a great degree of rigidity. The village community, in -disconnecting the source of law from the patriarchal power, tended to -destroy this association. The authority of the patriarch was a part of -the religion of the early Aryans; he was at once the ruler and the -priest of his family; and though this union between the two characters -long continued to have great influence on the conception of law, the -first efforts at a distinction between Divine and human commands sprang -from the regulations adopted by the assembly of the village. The -complete equality and the joint authority exercised by its members was -an education in self-government, which was needed to enable them to -advance in the path of civilization, teaching them the importance of -self-dependence and individual responsibility.</p> - -<p>Those who learnt that lesson best displayed in their history the -greatness of its influence, having gained from it a vigour and readiness -to meet and adapt themselves to new requirements such as was never -possessed by those absolute monarchies which sprang out of an enlarged -form of the principle of patriarchal government. The history of the -various states which arose in Asia, each in its turn to be overwhelmed -in a destruction which scarcely left a trace of its social influence, -exhibits in a very striking manner the defects which necessarily ensue -when a people ignorant of social arts attempts to form an extensive -scheme of government. The various races who have risen to temporary -empire by the chances of war in the East, have been in very many -instances nomadic tribes whose habits had produced a hardihood which -enabled them to conquer with ease their effeminate neighbours of the -more settled<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_168" id="page_168"></a>{168}</span> districts, but whose social state was not sufficiently -advanced to allow them to carry on any extended rule. Used only to their -simple nomadic life, they were suddenly brought face to face with wants -and possessions of which they had hitherto had no experience, and which -lay beyond the bounds of their customs or ideas. They contented -themselves with exacting from the conquered such tribute as they could -extort, leaving their new subjects to manage their own affairs much as -they had done before, till the conquerors, gradually corrupted by the -luxuries which their position afforded, and having failed to make for -themselves any firm footing in their new empire, were in their turn -overwhelmed by fresh hordes of nomadic invaders.</p> - -<p>Such, indeed, may be the fate of any nation. Such was the fate of Rome. -Her mighty empire, too, fell; but how different a record has she left -behind from that of the short-lived monarchies of the East! Having -learnt in her earliest infancy, better perhaps than any other nation, -how to reconcile the conflicting theories of the household and the -community, she never flagged in her study of the arts of government. -Early imbued with a love of law and order, her people discovered in due -time how to accommodate their rule to the various conditions of those -which came under their sway. Her laws penetrated to the remotest -boundaries of her state, and the rights of a Roman citizen were as -clearly defined in Britain as in Rome itself. Thus the Romans have left -behind them a system of law the wonder and admiration of all mankind, -one which has left indelible marks on the laws and customs, the arts and -civilization, of every country which once formed part of their -dominions.</p> - -<p>Such were among the changes resulting from the adoption of the village -community; but their influences only gradually<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_169" id="page_169"></a>{169}</span> asserted themselves, and -the extent of their development was very various among different -peoples. In India, the religious element in the household had always a -peculiar force, and its influence continued to affect to a great extent -the formation of the community. There this organization never lost sight -of the patriarchal power, and has exhibited a constant tendency to -revert to that more primitive social form. Among the Slavonic tribes the -community seems to have found its most favourable conditions, and some -of the reasons for this are not difficult to discern. The Slavs in -Russia have for a long time had open to them an immense tract of thinly -inhabited country, their only rivals to the possession of which were the -Finnish tribes of the north. Now, the village community is a form -peculiarly adapted for colonization, and this process of colonizing -fresh country by sending out detachments from over-grown villages seems -to have gone on for a long time in Russia; so that the communities which -still exist there present a complete network; all are bound by ties of -nearer or more distant relationship to each other; every village having -some ‘mother-village’ from which it has sprung.<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> Having a practically -boundless territory awaiting their settlement, none of those -difficulties in obtaining land which led to the decay of the village in -western Europe affected the Russians in their earlier history.</p> - -<p>With the Teutons the village had a somewhat different history. It is -difficult to determine exactly to what extent it existed among them; but -traces of its organization are still discoverable among the laws and -customs of Germany and England. The warlike habits of the German tribes, -however, soon produced a marked effect on this organization.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_170" id="page_170"></a>{170}</span> The chief -of the village, whether hereditary or elective, was under normal -conditions possessed of but little power. Among a warlike people, -however, the necessity for a captain or dictator must have been much -greater than with peaceful tribes; for war requires, more than any other -pursuit, that it should be directed by an individual mind. Among the -peaceful inhabitants of India or Russia the village head-man was -generally some aged and venerable father exercising a sort of paternal -influence over the others through the reverence paid to his age and -wisdom. The habits of the Teutons gave an excessive importance to the -strength and vigour of manhood, and they learnt to regard those who -exhibited the greatest skill in battle as their natural chieftains.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_171" id="page_171"></a>{171}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br /><br /> -<small>RELIGION.</small></h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">We</span> have hitherto been occupied in tracing the growth of inventions which -had for their end the supply of material wants, or the ordering of -conditions which should enable men to live peaceably together in -communities, and defend the products of their labour from the attacks of -rival tribes and warlike neighbours. A very little research into the -relics of antiquity, however, brings another side of human thought -before us, and we discover, whether by following the revelations of -language or by examining into the traces left in ancient sites, abundant -proof to show that the material wants of life did not alone occupy the -thoughts of our remote ancestors any more than our own, and that even -while the struggle for life was fiercest, conjectures about the unseen -world and the life beyond the grave, and aspirations towards the -invisible source of life and light they felt to be around them, occupied -a large space in their minds. God did not leave them without witness at -any time, but caused the ‘invisible things to be shown by those that do -appear.’ And even in the darkest ages and among the least-favoured races -there were always to be found some minds that vibrated, however feebly, -to the suggestions of this teaching,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_172" id="page_172"></a>{172}</span> and shaped out for themselves and -their tribe some conception of a Divine Ruler and His government of the -world from those works of His hands of which their senses told them. -Before commerce, or writing, or law had advanced beyond their earliest -beginnings, religious rites and funeral rites had no doubt been -established in every tribe, and men’s thoughts about God and His -relationship to His creatures had found some verbal expression, some -sort of creed in which they could be handed down from father to son and -form a new tie to bind men together. The task of tracing back these -rites and creeds to their earliest shape is manifestly harder than that -of tracing material inventions, or laws between man and man, to their -first germs, for we are here trenching on some of the deepest questions -which the human mind is capable of contemplating—nothing less, indeed, -than the nature of conscience and the dealings of God Himself with the -souls of His creatures. We must therefore tread cautiously, be content -to leave a great deal uncertain, and, making up our minds only on such -points as appear to be decided by revelation, accept on others the -results of present researches as still imperfect, and liable to be -modified as further light on the difficult problems in consideration is -obtained.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Explanation of<br /> mythology through<br /> the study of<br /> language.</div> - -<p>The study of language has perhaps done more than anything else to clear -away the puzzles which mythologies formerly presented to students. It -has helped in two ways: first, by tracing the names of objects of -worship to their root-forms, and thus showing their meaning and -revealing the thought which lay at the root of the worship; secondly, by -proving the identity between the gods of different nations, whose names, -apparently different, have been resolved into the same root-word, or to -a root of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_173" id="page_173"></a>{173}</span> same meaning, when the alchemy of philological research -was applied to them.</p> - -<p>The discovery of a closer relationship than had been formerly suspected -between the mythologies of various nations is a very important one, as -it enables us to trace the growth of the stories told of gods and -heroes, from the mature form in which we first become acquainted with -them in the religious systems of the Greeks, Romans, and Scandinavians, -to the primitive shape in which the same creeds were held by the more -metaphysical and less imaginative Eastern peoples among whom they -originally sprang up. In some respects this task of tracing back the -poetical myths of Greek and Northern poets to the simpler, if grander, -beliefs of the ancient Egyptians or Chaldæans or Hindus is not unlike -our search in a perfected language for its earliest roots. We lose -shapeliness and beauty as we come back, but we find the form that -explains the birth of the thought, and lets us see how it grew in the -minds of men. One chief result arrived at by this comparison of creeds, -and by unravelling the meaning of the names of ancient gods and heroes, -is the discovery that a worship of different aspects and forces of -nature lies at the bottom of nearly all mythologies, and that the cause -of the resemblance between the stories told of the gods and heroes (a -resemblance which strikes us as soon as we read two or three of them -together) is that they are in reality only slightly different ways of -describing natural appearances according to the effect produced on -different minds, or to the variations of climate and season of the year. -Having once got the key of the enigma in our hands, we soon become -expert in hunting the parable through all the protean shapes in which it -is presented to us. The heroes of the old stories we have long loved -begin to lose their individuality and character for us. And instead of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_174" id="page_174"></a>{174}</span> -thinking of Apollo, and Osiris, and Theseus, and Herakles, and Thor as -separate idealizations of heroic or godlike character; of Ariadne, and -Idun, and Isis as heroines of pathetic histories, our thoughts as we -read are busied in tracing all that is said about them to the aspects of -the sun in his march across the heavens, through the vicissitudes of a -bright and thundery eastern, or a gusty northern, day, and the tenderly -glowing and fading colours of the western sky into which he sinks when -his course is run.</p> - -<p>Our first feeling on receiving this simple explanation of the old -stories of mythology is rather one of disappointment than of -satisfaction; we feel that we are losing a great deal—not the interest -of the stories only, but all those glimpses of deep moral meanings, of -yearnings after Divine teachers and rulers, of acknowledgment of the -possibility of communion between God and man, which we had hitherto -found in them, and which we are sure that the original makers of them -could not have been without. It seems to rob the old religions of the -essence of religion—spirituality—and reduce them to mere observations -of natural phenomena, due rather to the bodily senses than to any -instincts or necessities of the soul. But here the science of language, -with which we were about to quarrel as having robbed us, comes in to -restore to the old beliefs those very elements of mystery, awe, and -yearning towards the invisible, which we were fearing to see vanish -away. As is usually the case on looking deeper, we shall find that the -explanation which seemed at first to impoverish really enhances the -beauty and worth of the subject brought into clearer light. It teaches -us to see something more in what we have been used to call mere -nature-worship than appears at first sight.</p> - -<p>When we were considering the beginnings of language,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_175" id="page_175"></a>{175}</span> we learned that -all root-words were expressions of sensations received from outward -things, every name or word being a description of some bodily feeling, a -gathering-up of impressions on the senses made by the universe outside -us. With this stock of words—pictorial words, we may call them—it is -easy to see that when people in early times wanted to express a mental -feeling, they were driven to use the word which expressed the sensation -in their bodies most nearly corresponding to it. We do something of the -same kind now when we talk of <i>warm</i> love, <i>chill</i> fear, <i>hungry</i> -avarice, and <i>dark</i> revenge—mixing up words for sensations of the body -to heighten the expression of emotions of the mind. In using these -expressions we are conscious of speaking allegorically, and we have, -over and above our allegorical phrases, words set aside especially for -describing mental actions, so that we can talk of the sensations of our -bodies and of our minds without any danger of confounding them together. -But in early times, before words had acquired these varied and enlarged -meanings, when men had only one word by which to express the glow of the -body when the sun shone and the glow of the mind when a friend was near, -the difficulty of speaking, or even thinking, of mental and bodily -emotions apart from each other must have been very great. Only gradually -could the two things have become disentangled from one another, and -during all the time while this change was going on an allegorical way of -speaking of mental emotions and of the source of mental emotions must -have prevailed. It is not difficult to see that while love and warmth, -fear and cold, had only one word to express them, the sun, the source of -warmth, and God, the source of love, were spoken of in much the same -terms, and worshipped in songs that expressed the same adoration and -gratitude. It follows, therefore, that while<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_176" id="page_176"></a>{176}</span> we acknowledge the large -proportion in which the nature element comes into all mythologies, we -need not look upon the worshippers of nature as worshippers of visible -things only. They felt, without being able to express, the Divine cause -which lay behind the objects whose grandeur and beauty appealed to their -wonder, and they loved and worshipped the Unseen while naming the seen -only. As time passed on and language developed, losing much of its -original significance, there was, especially among the Greeks and -Romans, a gradual divergence between the popular beliefs about the gods -and the spirit of true worship which originally lay behind them. People -no longer felt the influence of nature in the double method in which it -had come to them in the childhood of the race, and they began to -distinguish clearly between their bodies and their minds, between the -things that lay without and the emotions stirred within. Then the old -nature-beliefs became degraded to foolish and gross superstitions, and -yearning souls sought God in a more spiritual way.</p> - -<p>The mythologies of the different Aryan nations are those which concern -us most nearly, entering as they do into the very composition of our -language, and colouring not only our literature and poetry, but our -cradle-songs and the tales told in our nurseries. We shall find it -interesting to compare together the various forms of the stories told by -nations of the Aryan stock, and to trace them back to their earliest -shape.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Egyptian <br />religion.</div> - -<p>But before entering on this task, it may be well to turn our attention -for a little while to a still earlier mythology, where the mingling of -metaphysical conceptions with the worship of natural phenomena is -perhaps more clearly shown than in any other, and which may therefore -serve as a guide to help us in grasping this connection in the more -highly coloured, picturesque<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_177" id="page_177"></a>{177}</span> stories we shall be hereafter attempting -to unravel. This earliest and least ornamented mythology is that of the -ancient Egyptians, a people who were always disposed to retain primitive -forms unchanged, even when, as in the case of their hieroglyphics, they -had to use the primitive forms to express thoughts which these forms -could not naturally convey. That they followed this course with their -religious ceremonies and in their manner of representing their gods, is -perhaps fortunate for us, as it enables us to trace with greater ease -the particular aspect of nature, and the mental sensation or moral -lesson identified with it, which each one of their gods and goddesses -embodied. We have the rude primitive form embodying an aspect or force -of nature, instead of a beautiful confusing story, merely for the most -part titles, addresses, and prayers, whose purport more or less reveals -the spiritual meaning which that aspect of nature conveyed to the -worshipper.</p> - -<p>The chief objects of nature-worship must obviously be the same, or -nearly the same, in every part of the world, so that even among -different races, living far apart, and having no connection with each -other, a certain similarity in the stories told about gods and heroes, -and in the names and titles given to them, is observable. The sun, the -moon, the heavens and stars, the sea, the river, sunshine and darkness, -night and day, summer and winter,—these objects and changes must always -make the staple, the back-bone so to speak, round which all mythological -stories founded on nature-worship are grouped. But climate and scenery, -especially any striking peculiarity in the natural features of a -country, have a strong influence in modifying the impressions made by -these objects on the imaginations of the dwellers in the land, and so -giving a special form or colour to the national creed, bringing perhaps -some Divine<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_178" id="page_178"></a>{178}</span> attribute or some more haunting impression of the condition -of the soul after death, into a prominence unknown elsewhere. The -religion of the ancient Egyptians was distinguished from that of other -nations by several such characteristics, and in endeavouring to -understand them we must first recall what there is distinctive in the -climate and scenery of Egypt to our minds.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Influence<br /> of nature in<br /> Egyptian religion.</div> - -<p>The land of Egypt is, let us remember, a wedge-shaped valley, broad at -its northern extremity and gradually narrowing between two ranges of -cliffs till it becomes through a great part of its length a mere strip -of cultivatable land closely shut in on each side. Its sky overhead is -always blue, and from morning till evening intensely bright, flecked -only occasionally, and here and there, by thin gauzy clouds, so that the -sun’s course, from the first upshooting of his keen arrowy rays over the -low eastern hills to his last solemn sinking in a pomp of glorious -colour behind the white cliffs in the west, can be traced unimpeded day -after day through the entire course of the year. Beyond the cliffs which -receive the sun’s first and last greeting stretches a boundless -waste—the silent, dead, sunlit desert, which no one had ever traversed, -which led no one knew where, from whose dread, devouring space the sun -escaped triumphant each morning, and back into which it returned when -the valley was left to darkness and night.</p> - -<p>The neighbourhood of the desert, and the striking contrast between its -lifeless wastes and the richly cultivated plains between the hills, had, -as we can see, a great effect on the imaginations of the first -inhabitants of the land of Egypt, and gave to many of their thoughts -about death and the world beyond the grave an intensity unknown to the -dwellers among less monotonous scenery. The contrast<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_179" id="page_179"></a>{179}</span> was a perpetual -parable to them, or rather perhaps a perpetual <i>memento mori</i>. The -valley between the cliffs presented a vivid picture of active and -intense life, every inch of fruitful ground teeming with the results of -labour—budding corn, clustering vines, groups of palm-trees, busy -sowers and reapers and builders; resounding, too, everywhere with brisk -sounds of toil or pleasure. The clink of anvil and hammer, the creaking -of water-wheels, the bleating and lowing of flocks and herds, the tramp -of the oxen treading out the corn, the songs of women, and the laughter -of children playing by the river. On the other side of the cliffs, what -a change! There reigned an unbroken solitude and an intense silence, -such as is only found in the desert, because it comes from the utter -absence of all life, animal or vegetable: no rustle of leaf or bough, no -hum of an insect or whirr of a wing, breaks the charmed stillness even -for a minute. There is silence, broad, unbroken sunshine, bare cliffs, -rivers of golden sand—nothing else. Amenti, the ancient Egyptians -called the western desert into which, as it seemed to them, the sun went -down to sleep after his day’s work was done; Amenti, the vast, the -grand, the unknown; and it was there they built their most splendid -places of worship, there that they carried their dead for burial, -feeling that it spoke to them of rest, of unchangeableness, of eternity.</p> - -<p>Another striking and peculiar feature of Egyptian scenery was the -beautiful river—the one only river—on which the prosperity, the very -existence, of the country depended. It, too, had a perpetual story to -tell, a parable to unfold, as it flowed and swelled and contracted in -its beneficent yearly course. They saw that all growth and life depended -on its action; where its waters reached, there followed fruitfulness and -beauty, and a thousand teeming forms of animal, vegetable,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_180" id="page_180"></a>{180}</span> and insect -life; where its furthest wave stayed, there the reign of nothingness and -death began again. The Nile, therefore, became to the ancient Egyptians -the token and emblem of a life-giving principle in nature, of that -perpetual renewal, that passing from one form of existence into another, -which has ever had so much hopeful significance for all thinking minds. -Its blue colour when it reflected the sky was the most sacred of their -emblems, and was devoted to funeral decorations and to the adornments of -the dead, because it spoke to them of the victory of life over death, of -the permanence of the life-principle amid the evanescent and vanishing -forms under which it appeared. Of these two distinctive features of -nature in Egypt, the unexplored western desert and the unending river, -we must, then, think as exercising a modifying or intensifying effect on -the impressions produced on the minds of ancient Egyptians by those -aspects of nature which they had in common with other Eastern peoples. -Let us think what these are. First and most conspicuous we must put the -sun, in all his changing aspects, rising in gentle radiance over the -eastern hills, majestically climbing the cloudless sky, sending down -fierce perpendicular rays through all the hot noon, withdrawing his -overwhelming heat towards evening as he sloped to his rest, and painting -the western sky with colour and glory, on which the eyes of men could -rest without being dazzled, vanishing from sight at last behind the -white rocks in the west. And then the moon—white, cold, changeable, -ruling the night and measuring time. Besides these, the planets and -countless hosts of stars; the green earth constantly pouring forth food -for man from its bosom; the glowing blue sky at noon and the purple -midnight heaven; the moving wind; the darkness that seemed to eat up and -swallow the day.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_181" id="page_181"></a>{181}</span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">Sun-gods.</div> - -<div class="sidenote">Amun.</div> - -<p>Now let us see how the ancient Egyptians personified these into gods, -and what were the corresponding moral or spiritual ideas of which each -nature-power spake to their souls. We shall find the mythology easier to -remember and understand if we group the personifications round the -natural objects whose aspects inspired them, instead of enumerating them -in their proper order as first, second, and third class divinities. So -for the present we will class them as Sun-gods, Sky-gods, Wind-gods, -etc.; and we will begin with the sun, which among ancient Egyptians -occupied the <i>first</i> place, given, as we shall see, to the sky among our -Aryan ancestors. The sun, indeed, not only occupies the most conspicuous -position in Egyptian mythology, but is presented to us in so many -characters and under so many aspects that he may be said to be the chief -inspiration, the central object of worship, nothing else, indeed, coming -near to his grandeur and his mystery. It is to be remarked, however—and -this is a distinctive feature in the Egyptian system of worship—that -the <i>mystery</i> of the sun’s disappearance during the night and his -reappearance every morning is the point in the parable of the sun’s -course to which the Egyptians attached the deepest significance, and to -the personification of which they gave the most dignified place in their -hierarchy of gods. Atum, or Amun, ‘the concealed one,’ was the name and -title given to the sun after he had sunk, as they believed, into the -under-world; and by this name they worshipped the concealed Creator of -all things, the ‘Dweller in Eternity,’ who was before all, and into -whose bosom all things, gods and men, would, they thought, return in the -lapse of ages. The figure under which they represented this their oldest -and most venerable deity was that of a man, sometimes human-headed and -sometimes with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_182" id="page_182"></a>{182}</span> man’s face concealed under the head and horns of a -ram—the word ‘ram’ meaning ‘concealment’ in the Egyptian language. The -figure was coloured blue, the sacred colour of the Source of life. Two -derivations are given for the name Amun. It means that which brings to -light; but it also expresses the simple invitation ‘Come,’ and in this -sense it appears to be connected with a sentence in the ritual, where -Atum is represented as dwelling alone in the under-world in the ages -before creation, and on ‘a day’ speaking the word ‘Come,’ when -immediately Osiris and Horus (light and the physical sun) appeared -before him in the under-world.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Osiris.</div> - -<p>The aspect of the sun as it approached its mysterious setting exercised, -perhaps, a still greater power over the thoughts of the Egyptians, and -was personified by them in a deity, who, if not the most venerable, was -the best loved of all their gods. Osiris was the name given from the -earliest times to the kind declining sun, who appeared to men to veil -his glory, and sheathe his dazzling beams in a lovely, many-coloured -radiance, which soothed and gladdened the weary eyes and hearts of men, -and enabled them to gaze fearlessly and lovingly on the dread orb from -which during the day they had been obliged to turn their eyes. This was -the god who loved men and dwelt among them, and for man’s sake permitted -himself to be for a time quenched and defeated by the darkness—it was -thus that the ancient people read the parable of the sun’s evening -beauty and of his disappearance beneath the shades of night, amplifying -it, as the needs of the human heart were more distinctly recognized, -into a real foreshadowing of that glorious truth towards which the whole -human race was yearning—<i>the</i> truth of which these shows of nature -were, indeed, speaking continually to all who could understand.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_183" id="page_183"></a>{183}</span> The -return of Osiris every evening into the under-world invested him also, -for the ancient Egyptians, with the character of guardian and judge of -souls who were supposed to accompany him on his mysterious journey, or -at all events to be received and welcomed by him in Amenti (the realm of -souls) when they arrived there. Osiris therefore filled a place both -among the gods of the living and those of the dead. He was the link -which connected the lives of the upper and the under worlds together, -and made them one—the Lover and Dweller among men while yet in the -body, and also the Judge and Ruler of the spirit-realm to which they -were all bound. Two distinct personifications showed him in these -characters. As the Dweller among men and the Sharer of the commonness -and materiality of their earth-life, he was worshipped under the form of -a bull—the Apis, in which shape his pure soul was believed constantly -to haunt the earth, passing from one bull to that of another on the -death of the animal, but never abandoning the land of his choice, or -depriving his faithful worshippers of his visible presence among them. -In his character of Judge of the dead, Osiris was represented as a -mummied figure, of the sacred blue colour, carrying in one hand the rod -of dominion, and in the other the emblem of life, and wearing on his -head the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. In the judgment scenes -he is seated on a throne at the end of the solemn hall of trial to which -the soul has been arraigned, and in the centre of which stands the -fateful balance where, in the presence of the evil accusing spirit and -of the friendly funeral gods and genii who stand around, the heart of -the man is weighed against a symbol of Divine Truth.</p> - -<p>Next in interest to the setting sun is the personification under which -the Egyptians worshipped the strong young sun, the victorious conqueror -of the night, who each<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_184" id="page_184"></a>{184}</span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">Horus.</div> - -<div class="sidenote">Ra.</div> - -<p class="nind">morning appeared to rise triumphant from the blank realm of darkness in -which the rays of yesterday’s sun had been quenched. They figured him as -the eldest son of Osiris, Horus, the vigorous bright youth who loved his -father, and avenged him, piercing with his spear-like ray the monster -who had swallowed him up. Horus is represented as sailing up the eastern -sky from the under-world in a boat, and slaying the serpent Night with a -spear as he advances. The ultimate victory of life over death, of truth -and goodness over falsehood and wrong, were the moral lessons which this -parable of the sun’s rising read to the ancient Egyptians. The midday -sun, ruling the heavens in unclouded glory, symbolized to them majesty -and kingly authority, and was worshipped as a great and powerful god -under the name of Ra, who was often identified with Amun and worshipped -as Amun-Ra. This was especially the case at Thebes.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Ptah.</div> - -<p>Though these four appearances may well seem to exhaust all the aspects -under which the sun can be considered, there are still several other -attributes belonging to him which the ancient Egyptians noticed and -personified into other sun-gods. These we will enumerate more briefly. -Ptah, a god of the first order, worshipped with great magnificence at -Memphis, personified the life-giving power of the sun’s beams, and in -this character was sometimes mixed up with Osiris, and in the ritual is -spoken of also as the creative principle, the ‘word’ or ‘power’ by which -the essential deity revealed itself in the visible works of creation. -Another deity, Mandoo, appears to personify the fierce power of the -sun’s rays at midday in summer, and was looked upon as the god of -vengeance and destruction, a leader in war, answering in some measure, -though not entirely, to the war-gods of other mythologies.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_185" id="page_185"></a>{185}</span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">Sekhet-Pasht.</div> - -<p>There were also Gom, Moui, and Kons, who are spoken of always as the -<i>sons</i> of the sun-god, those who reveal him or carry his messages to -mankind, and in them the <i>rays</i>, as distinguished from the <i>disk</i> of the -sun, are apparently personified. The rays of the sun had also a feminine -personification in Sekhet or Sekhet-Pasht, the goddess with the -lioness’s head. To her several different and almost opposite qualities -were attributed: as, indeed, an observer of the burning and enlightening -rays of an Eastern sun might be doubtful whether to speak oftenest of -the baleful fever-heat with which they infect the blood, or of their -vivifying effects upon the germs of animal and vegetable life. Thus the -lioness-goddess was at once feared and loved; dreaded at one moment as -the instigator of fierce passions and unruly desires, invoked at another -as the giver of joy, the source of all tender and elevating emotions. -Her name, Pasht, means ‘the lioness,’ and was perhaps suggested by the -fierceness of the sun’s rays, answering to the lion’s fierce strength or -the angry light of his eyes. She was also called the ‘Lady of the Cave,’ -suggesting something of mystery and concealment. Her chief worship was -at Bubastis; but, judging from the frequency of her representations, -must have been common throughout Egypt.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Thoth.</div> - -<p>We will now take the second great light of the heavens, the moon, and -consider the forms under which it was personified by the Egyptians. -Rising and setting like the sun, and disappearing for regular periods, -the moon was represented by a god, who, like the god of the setting sun, -occupied a conspicuous position among the powers of the under-world, and -was closely connected with thoughts of the existence of the soul after -death, and the judgment pronounced on deeds done in the body. Thoth,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_186" id="page_186"></a>{186}</span> -‘the Word,’ the ‘Lord of Divine Words,’ was the title given to this -deity; but though always making one in the great assemblage in the -judgment-hall, his office towards the dead does not approach that of -Osiris in dignity. He is not the judge, he is the recorder who stands -before the balance with the dread account in his hand, while the -trembling soul awaits the final sentence. His character is that of a -just recorder, a speaker of true words; he wears the ostrich feather, -the token of exact rigid evenness and impartiality, and yet he is -represented as having <i>uneven</i> arms, as if to hint that the cold white -light of justice, untempered by the warmth of love, cannot thoroughly -apprehend what it seems to take exact account of, leaving, after all, -one side unembraced, unenlightened, as the moonlight casts dense shadows -around the spots where its beams fall. The silent, watching, peering -moon! Who has not at times felt an inkling of the parable which the -ancient Egyptians told of her cold eye and her unwarming rays which -enlighten chilly, and point out while they distort?</p> - -<p>In spite of his uneven arms, however, Thoth (the dark moon and the light -moon) was a great god, bearing sway in both worlds in accordance with -his double character of the revealed and the hidden orb. On earth he is -the great teacher, the inventor of letters, of arithmetic, and -chronology; the ‘Lord of Words,’ the ‘Lover of Truth,’ the ‘Great and -Great.’ Thoth was sometimes represented under the form of an ape; but -most frequently with a human figure ibis-headed; the ibis, on account of -his mingled black and white feathers, symbolizing the dark and the -illumined side of the moon. Occasionally, however, he is drawn with a -man’s face, and bearing the crescent moon on his head, surmounted by an -ostrich feather; in his hand he holds his tablets and his recording -pencil.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_187" id="page_187"></a>{187}</span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">Maut and<br /> Neit.</div> - -<p>The sky-divinities were all feminine among the Egyptians; representing -the feminine principle of receptivity, the sky being regarded by them -mainly as the abode, the home, of the sun and moon gods. The greatest of -the sky-deities was Maut, or Mut, the mother, who represents the deep -violet night sky, tenderly brooding over the hot exhausted earth when -the day was over, and wooing all living things to rest, by stretching -cool, protecting arms above and around them. The beginning of all -things, abysmal calm, but above all, motherhood, were the metaphysical -conceptions which the ancient Egyptians connected with the aspect of the -brooding heavens at midnight, and which they worshipped as the oldest -primeval goddess, Maut. The night sky, however, suggested another -thought, and gave rise to yet another personification. Night does not -bring only repose; animals and children sleep, but men wake and think; -and, the strife of day being hushed, have leisure to look into their own -minds, and listen to the still small voice that speaks within. Night was -thus the parent of thought, the mother of wisdom, and a personification -of the night sky was worshipped as the goddess of wisdom. She was named -Neit, a word signifying ‘I came from myself,’ and she has some -attributes in common with the Greek goddess of wisdom, Athene, whose -warlike character she shared. Nu, another sky-goddess, who personifies -the sunlit blue midday sky, may also on other accounts claim kinship -with the patroness of Athens. She is the life-giver—the joy-inspirer. -Clothed in the sacred colour which the life-giving river reflects, the -midday sky was supposed to partake of the river’s vivifying qualities, -and its goddess Nu is very frequently pictured as seated in the midst of -the tree of life, giving of its fruits to faithful souls who have -completed<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_188" id="page_188"></a>{188}</span> their time of purification and travel in the under-world, and -are waiting for admission to the Land of Aoura, the last stage of -preparation before they are received into the immediate presence of the -great gods.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Saté and<br /> Hathor.</div> - -<p>Two other aspects of the sky were considered worthy of personification -and worship. The morning sky, or perhaps the eastern half of the morning -sky, which awaited the sun’s earliest beams, and which was called Saté, -and honoured as the goddess of vigilance and endeavour, and the -beautiful western sky at even, more lovely in Egypt than anywhere else, -to the exaltation of which the Egyptians applied their prettiest titles -and symbols. Hathor, the ‘Queen of Love,’ was the name they gave to -their personification of the evening sky, speaking of her at once as the -loving and loyal wife of the sun, who received the weary traveller, the -battered conqueror, to rest on her bosom after his work was done, and -the gentle household lady whose influence called men to their homes when -labour was finished, and collected scattered families to enjoy the -loveliest spectacle of the day, the sunset, in company. Hathor is -represented as a figure with horns, bearing the sun’s disk between them, -or sometimes carrying a little house or shrine upon her head.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Kneph.</div> - -<p>The sky, however, with the ancient Egyptians, did not include the <i>air</i>; -that again was personified in a masculine form, and regarded as a very -great god, some of whose attributes appear to trench on those of Osiris, -and Ptah; Kneph was the name given to the god who embodied the air, the -living breath or spirit; and he was one of the divinities to whom a -share in the work of creation was attributed. He is represented in a -boat, moving over the face of the waters, and breathing life into<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_189" id="page_189"></a>{189}</span> the -newly created world. He was no doubt connected in the minds of pious -Egyptians with thoughts of that breath of God by whose inspiration man -became a living soul; but in his nature-aspect he perhaps especially -personified the wind blowing over the Nile valley after the inundation, -and seeming to bring back life to the world by drying up the water under -which the new vegetation was hidden.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Isis.</div> - -<p>The soil of the country thus breathed upon, which responded to the rays -of Osiris and the breath of Kneph by pouring forth a continual supply of -food for men, was naturally enough personified into a deity who claimed -a large share of devotion, and was worshipped under many titles. Isis, -the sister-wife of Osiris, was the name given to her, and so much was -said of Isis, and so many stories told of her, that it appears at times -as if, under that single name, the attributes of all the other goddesses -were gathered up. Isis, was a personification, not of the receptive -earth only, but of the feminine principle in nature wherever perceived, -whether in the tender west that received the sun, or in the brooding -midnight sky that invited to repose, or in the cherishing soil that drew -in the sun’s warmth, and the breath of the wind, only to give them forth -again changed into flowers and fruit and corn. Isis of ‘the ten thousand -names’ the Greeks called her; and if we consider her as the embodiment -of all that can be said of the feminine principle, we shall not be -surprised at her many names, or at the difficulty of comprehending her -nature. She was, above all else, however, the wife of Osiris and the -mother of Horus, which certainly points to her being, or at all events -to her having been originally, a sky-goddess; but then again she is -spoken of as dressed in robes of many hues, which points to the changing -and parti-coloured earth. Some of her attributes<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_190" id="page_190"></a>{190}</span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">Nephthys.</div> - -<p class="nind">seem to connect her with the dark moon, especially the fact that her -most important offices are towards the dead in the under-world, whose -government she is spoken of as sharing with her husband Osiris. In -pictures of the funeral procession she is drawn as standing at the head -of the mummied body during its passage over the river that bounds the -under-world, and in that position she represents the beginning; her -younger sister, Nephthys, the end, stands at the foot of the still -sleeping soul; the two goddesses thus summing up, with divinity at each -end, the little span of mortal life. In the judgment-hall, Isis stands -behind the throne of Osiris, drooping great protecting wings over him -and it. This quality of protecting, of cherishing and defending, appears -to be the spiritual conception worshipped under the form of the -many-named goddess. Isis is constantly spoken of as the protector of her -brother Osiris, and is drawn on the tomb with long drooping wings. She -is also frequently represented as nursing Horus, the son who avenged his -father, and in that character she wears the cow’s head, the cow being -sacred to Isis, as was the bull to Osiris.</p> - -<p>But when we have made this summary there is one thing which should also -be borne in mind with regard to the religion of Egypt. Ancient Egypt, -which appears at first sight such a single and united empire, was in -reality (and in this respect it was something like the Chinese empire) -deeply infected with a sort of feudalism, in virtue of which the -different divisions (nomes) of the country did in reality constitute -something like different states. And each state tried to preserve its -sense of independence by having some special divinity or group of -divinities which it held in peculiar honour. So that the Egyptian -pantheon itself is infected by this republican spirit. Almost each -single god<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_191" id="page_191"></a>{191}</span> is supreme somewhere; elsewhere he may be almost overlooked.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Animal-gods.</div> - -<p>The origin of the strangely intimate connection between these Egyptian -gods, and certain animals held to be sacred to them, and in some cases -to be incarnations of them, is a very difficult question to determine. -Two explanations are given by different writers. One is that the -animal-worship was a remnant of the religion of an inferior race who -inhabited Egypt in times far back, and who were conquered but not -exterminated by immigrants from Asia, who brought a higher civilization -and a more spiritual religion with them, which, however, did not -actually supersede the old, but incorporated some of its baser elements -into itself. Other writers look upon the animal-worship as but another -form of the unending parable from nature, which, as we have seen, -pervades the whole Egyptian mythology. The animals, according to this -view, being not less than the nature-gods worshipped as revelations of a -divine order, manifesting itself through the many appearances of the -outside world; their obedient following of the laws imposed on their -natures through instinct making them better witnesses to the Divine Will -than self-willed, disobedient man was found to be.</p> - -<p>This is one of the problems which must be left to be determined by -further researches into unwritten history, or perhaps by a fuller -understanding of Egyptian symbols. That a great deal of symbolical -teaching was wrapped up in the Egyptians’ worship of animals may be -gathered by the lesson which they drew from the natural history of the -sacred beetle, whose habit of burying in the sand of the desert a ball -of clay, full of eggs, which in due course of time changed into -chrysalises and then into winged beetles, furnished them with their -favourite emblem of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_192" id="page_192"></a>{192}</span> resurrection of the body and the continued life -of the soul through the apparent death-sleep—an emblem which was -wanting to no temple, and without which no body was ever buried. -Thinking of this, we must allow that their eyes were not shut to the -teaching of the ‘visible things’ which in the ages of darkness yet spoke -a message from God.</p> - -<p>We have now gone over the most important of the Egyptian gods, -connecting them with the natural appearances which seem to have inspired -them, so as to give the clue to a comparison with the nature-gods of the -Aryans, of which we shall speak in the next chapter. There were, of -course, other objects of worship, not so easily classed, among which we -ought to mention Hapi, the personification of the river Nile; Sothis, -the dog-star, connected with Isis; and two more of the funeral -gods—Anubis, who in his nature-aspect may be possibly another -personification of air and wind, and who is always spoken of as the -friend and guardian of pure souls, and represented at the death-bed -sometimes in the shape of a human-headed bird as helping the new-born -soul to escape from the body; and Thmei, the goddess of Truth and -Justice, who introduces the soul into the hall of judgment. The evil -powers recognized among the ancient Egyptians were principally -embodiments of darkness and of the waste of the desert, and do not -appear to have had any distinct conception of moral evil associated with -them. They are, however, spoken of in the book of the dead as enemies of -the soul, who endeavour to delude it and lead it out of its way on its -journey across the desert to the abode of the gods. Amenti was no doubt -the desert, but not only the sunlit desert the Egyptians could overlook -from their western hills—it included the unknown world beyond and -underneath, to which they supposed the sun to go when he sank below the -horizon,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_193" id="page_193"></a>{193}</span> and where, following in his track, the shades trooped when -they had left their bodies. The story of the trials and combats of the -soul on its journey through Amenti to the judgment-hall, and its -reception by the gods, is written in the most ancient and sacred of -Egyptian books, the Ritual, or Book of the Dead, which has been -translated into French by M. de Rougé, and later by M. Pierret, and into -English by Dr. Birch. The English translation is to be found in the -Appendix to the fifth volume of Bunsen’s <i>Egypt’s Place in History</i>.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Chaldæan<br /> religion.</div> - -<p>The mythologies of the other uninspired Semitic nations resemble the -Egyptian in the main element of being personifications of the powers of -nature. The Chaldæans directed their worship chiefly towards the -heavenly bodies as did the ancient Egyptians, but not exclusively. Their -principal deities were arranged in triads of greater and less dignity; -nearly all the members of these were personifications of the heavens or -the heavenly bodies. The first triad comprised Ana, the heavens or the -hidden sun, Father of the gods, Lord of Darkness, Ruler of a far-off -city, Lord of Spirits. By these titles, suggestive of some of the -attributes and offices towards the dead, attributed by the Egyptians to -Atum and Osiris, was the first member of their first order of gods -addressed by the Chaldæans. Next in order came Bil, also a sun-god: the -Ruler, the Lord, the Source of kingly power, and the patron and image of -the earthly king. His name has the same signification as Baal, and he -personifies the same aspect of nature, the sun ruling in the heavens, -whose worship was so widely diffused among all the people with whom the -Israelites came in contact. The third member of the first triad was Hoa -or Ea, who personified apparently the earth: Lord of the abyss, Lord<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_194" id="page_194"></a>{194}</span> of -the great deep, the intelligent Guide, the intelligent Fish, the Lord of -the Understanding, are some of his titles, and appear to reveal a -conception somewhat answering to that of Thoth. His symbol was a -serpent, and he was represented with a fish’s head, which connects him -with the Philistine’s god Dagon. The second triad comprised Sin, or -Urki, a moon-god, worshipped at Ur, Abraham’s city—his second name -Urki, means ‘the watcher,’ and has the same root as the Hebrew name for -‘angel’—San, the disk of the sun; and Vul, the air. Beneath these -deities in dignity, or rather perhaps in distance, came the five -planets, each representing some attribute or aspect of the deity, or -rather being itself a portion of deity endowed with a special -characteristic, and regarded as likely to be propitious to men from -being less perfect and less remote than the greater gods. These -planetary gods were called—Nebo (Mercury), the lover of light; Ishtar -(Venus), the mother of the gods; Nergal (Mars), the great hero; Bel -Merodach (Jupiter), the ruler, the judge; Nin (Saturn), the god of -strength. To these gods the chief worship of the Assyrians was paid, and -it was their majesty and strength, typifying that of the earthly king, -which Assyrian architects personified in the winged, man-headed bulls -and lions with examples of which we are familiar. The gods of the -Canaanite nations, Moloch, Baal, Chemosh, Baal-Zebub, and Thammuz, were -all of them personifications of the sun or of the sun’s rays, considered -under one aspect or another; the cruel gods, to whom human sacrifices -were offered, representing the strong, fierce summer sun, and the gentle -Thammuz being typical of the softer light of morning and of early -spring, which is killed by the fierce heat of midday and midsummer, and -mourned for by the earth till his return in the evening and in autumn. -Ashtoreth, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_195" id="page_195"></a>{195}</span> horned queen, symbolized by trees and worshipped in -groves, is the moon and also the evening star; but, like Isis, she seems -to gather up in herself the worship of the feminine principle in nature. -The Canaanites represented their gods in the temples by symbols instead -of by sculptured figures. An upright stone, either an aerolite or a -precious stone (as in the case of the great emerald kept in the shrine -of the Temple of Baal-Melcarth at Tyre), symbolized the sun and the -masculine element in nature; while the feminine element was figured -under the semblance of a grove of trees, the Ashara, sometimes -apparently a grove outside the temple, and sometimes a mimic grove kept -within.</p> - -<p>There was, however, behind and beyond all these, another and perhaps a -more ancient and more metaphysical conception of God worshipped by all -the Semitic peoples of Asia. His name, Il or El, appears to have been -for Chaldæans, Assyrians, Canaanites, and for the wandering tribes of -the desert, including the progenitors of the chosen people, the generic -name for God; and his worship was limited to a distant awful -recognition, unprofaned by the rites and sacrifices wherein the -nature-gods were approached. Il became a concealed, distant deity, too -far off for worship, and too great to be touched by the concerns of men, -among those nations with whom the outside aspects of nature grew to be -concealers instead of revealers of the Divine; while to the chosen -people the name acquired ever new significance, as the voice of -inspiration unfolded the attributes of the Eternal Father to His -children.</p> - -<p>This sketch of the heathen mythology of the Shemites is, it must be -owned, very barren in incident and character. It presents, indeed, no -more than a shadowy hierarchy of gods and heroes, through whose thin -personalities the shapes of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_196" id="page_196"></a>{196}</span> natural objects loom with obtrusive -clearness. They may serve, however, as finger-posts to point the way -through the mazes of more complex, full-grown myths, and it must also be -remembered that we have not touched upon the later more ornamented -stories of the Egyptian gods, such as that of the death and -dismemberment of Osiris by his enemy Typhon, and the recovery of his -body, and his return to life through the instrumentality of Isis and -Horus.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_197" id="page_197"></a>{197}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.<br /><br /> -<small>ARYAN RELIGIONS.</small></h2> - -<div class="sidenote">Nature-worship.</div> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">That</span> morning speech of Belarius (in <i>Cymbeline</i>) might serve as an -illustration of a primitive religion, a nature-religion in its simplest -garb:</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i9">‘Stoop, boys: this gate<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Instructs you how to adore the heavens, and bows you<br /></span> -<span class="i0">To morning’s holy office: the gates of monarchs<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Are arched so high, that giants may jet through<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And keep their impious turbans on, without<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Good-morrow to the sun. Hail, thou fair heaven!<br /></span> -<span class="i0">We house i’ the rock, yet use thee not so hardly<br /></span> -<span class="i0">As prouder livers do.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">Omit only that part which speaks the bitterness of disappointed hopes -which once centred round the doing as prouder livers do, and the rest -breathes the fresh air of mountain life, different altogether from our -life, free alike from its cares and temptations and moral -responsibilities. Belarius gazes up with an unawful eye into the -heavenly depths, and fearlessly pays his morning orisons. ‘Hail, thou -fair heaven!’ There is no sense here of sin, humility, self-reproach. -And in this respect—taking this for the moment as the type of an Aryan -religion—how strongly it contrasts with the utterances of Hebrew -writers! Is this<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_198" id="page_198"></a>{198}</span> the voice of natural as opposed to inspired religion? -Not altogether; for the Semitic mind was throughout antiquity imbued -with a deeper sense of awe or fear—awe in the higher religion, fear in -the lower—than ever belonged to the Aryan character. We see this -difference in the religions of Egypt and Assyria; and it will be -remembered that, when speaking of the earliest records of the Semitic -and Aryan races, we took occasion to say that it may very well have been -to their admixture of Semitic blood that the Egyptians stood indebted -for the mystic and allegorical part of their religious system; for among -all the Semitic people, whether in ancient or modern times, we may -observe a tendency—if no more—towards religious thought, and towards -thoughts of that mystic character which characterized the Egyptian -mythology.</p> - -<p>But the Aryans grew up and formed themselves into nations, and developed -the germs of their religion apart from external influence, and in a land -which from the earliest times had belonged to them alone. Their -character, their religion, their national life, were their own; and -though in after-times these went through distinctive modifications, when -the stems of nations that we know, Greeks, Latins, Germans, and the -rest, grew out of the Aryan stock, they yet bore amid these changes the -memory of a common ancestry. The land in which they dwelt was favourable -to the growth of the imaginative faculties, and to that lightness and -brightness of nature which afterwards so distinguished the many-minded -Greeks, rather than to the slow, brooding character of the Eastern mind. -There, down a hundred hillsides and along a hundred valleys trickled the -rivulets whose waters were hurrying to swell the streams of the Oxus and -the Jaxartes. And each hill and valley had its separate community, -joined, indeed, by language and custom to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_199" id="page_199"></a>{199}</span> common stock, but yet -living a separate simple life in its own home, which had, one might -almost say, its individual sun and sky as well as hill and river. No -doubt in such a land innumerable local legends and beliefs sprang up, -and these, though lost to us now, had their effects upon the changes -which among the many branches of the race the Aryan mythology -underwent—a mythology which before all others is remarkable for the -endless diversity of its legends, for the infinite rainbow-tints into -which its essential thoughts are broken.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Sky-and<br /> sun-gods.</div> - -<p>Despite these divergences, the Aryans had a common chief deity—the sky, -the ‘fair heaven.’ This, the most abstracted and intangible of natural -appearances, at the same time the most exalted and unchanging, seemed to -them to speak most plainly of an all-embracing deity. And though their -minds were open to all the thousand voices of nature, and their -imaginations equal to the task of giving a personality to each, yet -none, not even the sun himself, imaged so well their ideal of a highest -All-Father as did the over-arching heaven.</p> - -<p>The traces of this primitive belief the Aryan people carried with them -on their wanderings. This sky-god was the Dyâus (the sky) of Indian -mythology, the Zeus of the Greeks, the Jupiter of the Romans, and the -Zio, Tew, or Tyr of the Germans and Norsemen. For all these names are -etymologically allied. Zeus (gen. Dios) and Dyâus are from the same -root; so are Jupiter (anciently Diupiter) and the compound form -Dyâus-pitar (father Dyâus); and Zio and Tew also bear traces of the same -origin. Indeed, it is by the reappearance of this name as the name of a -god among so many different nations that we argue his having once been -the god of all the Atyan people. The case is<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_200" id="page_200"></a>{200}</span> like that of our word -<i>daughter</i>. As we find this reappearing in the Greek <i>thugatêr</i>, and the -Sanskrit <i>duhitar</i>, we feel sure that the old Aryans had a name for -daughter from which all these names are derived; and as we find the -Sanskrit name alone has a secondary meaning, signifying ‘the milker,’ we -conclude that this was the original meaning of the name for a daughter. -Just so, Zeus and Jupiter and Zio and Dyâus show a common name for the -chief Aryan god; but the last alone explains the meaning of that name, -for Dyâus signifies the sky.</p> - -<p>This sky-god, then, stood to the old Aryans for the notion of a supreme -and common divinity. Whatever may have been the divinities reigning over -local streams and woods, they acknowledged the idea of one overruling -Providence whom they could only image to their minds as the -over-spreading sky. This, we may say, was the essential feature in their -religion, its chief characteristic; whereas to the Semitic nations, the -sun, the visible orb, was in every case the supreme god. The reason of -this contrast does not, it seems to me, lie <i>only</i> in the different -parts which the sun played in the southern and more northern regions; -or, if it arises in the difference of the climate, it not the less forms -an important chapter in religious development. There are discernible in -the human mind two diverse tendencies in dealing with religious ideas. -Both are to be found in every religion, among every people; one might -almost say in every heart. The first tendency is an impulse upwards—a -desire to press the mind continually forward in an effort to idealize -the deity, but, by exalting or seeming to exalt Him into the highest -regions of abstraction, it runs the risk of robbing Him of all -fellowship with man, and man of all claims upon His sympathy and love. -Then comes the other tendency, which oftentimes at one stroke brings -down the deity as<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_201" id="page_201"></a>{201}</span> near as possible to the level of human beings, and -leaves him at the end no more than a demi-god or exalted man. One may be -called the metaphysical, the other the mythological tendency; and we -shall never be able to understand the history of religions until we -learn to see how these influences interpenetrate and work in every -system. They show at once that a distinction must be drawn between -mythology and religion. The supreme god will not be he of whom most -tales are invented, because, as these tales must appeal to human -interests and relate adventures of the human sort, they will cling more -naturally round the name of some inferior divinity. The very age of -mythology—so far as regards the beings to whom it relates<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a>—is -probably rather that of a decaying religion.</p> - -<p>In any case, there will probably be a metaphysical and a mythological -side to every system. Thus among the Egyptians, Amun, the concealed, was -the metaphysical god; but their mythology centred round the names of -Osiris and Horus. And just so with the Aryans, the sky was the original, -most abstracted, and most metaphysical god; the sun rose into prominence -in obedience to the wish of man for a more human divinity. If the -Semitic people were more inclined toward sun-worship, the Aryans -inclined rather toward heaven-worship; and the difference is consistent -with the greater faculty for abstract thought which has always belonged -to our race.</p> - -<p>The two influences of which we have spoken are perfectly well marked in -Aryan mythology. The history of it may almost be said to represent the -rivalry between the sky-gods and the gods of the sun. It is on account -of his daily<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_202" id="page_202"></a>{202}</span> change that the last far less becomes the position of a -supreme god. Born each day in the east, faint and weak he battles with -the clouds of morning; radiant and strong he mounts into the midday sky; -and then, having touched his highest point, he turns to quench his beams -in the shadowy embrace of night. Even the Egyptians and Assyrians, in -view of these vicissitudes, were driven to invent a sort of abstract -sun, separated in thought from the mere visible orb. This daily course -might stand as an allegory of the life of man. The luminary who -underwent these changing fortunes, however great and godlike in -appearance, must have some more than common relationship with the world -below; he must be either a hero raised among the gods, or, better (for -of this thought the Aryans too had their dim foreshadowing), he is an -Avatar, an Incarnation of the Godhead, come down to take upon him for a -while the painful life of men. This was the way the sun-gods were -regarded by the Indo-European nations. Accordingly, while their deepest -religious feelings belonged to the abstract god Zeus, Jupiter among the -Greeks and Romans, Dyâus and later on Brahma (a pure abstraction) among -the Indians, the stories of their mythology belonged to a more human -divinity, who in most cases is the sun-god. He is the Indra<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> of the -Hindus, who wrestles with the black serpent, the Night, as Horus did -with Typhon; he is the Apollo of the Greeks, likewise the slayer of the -serpent, the Pythôn; or else he is Heracles (Hercules), the -god-man—sometimes worshipped as a god, sometimes as a demi-god -only—the great and mighty hero, the performer of innumerable labours -for his fellows; or he is Thor, the Hercules<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_203" id="page_203"></a>{203}</span> of the Norsemen, the enemy -of the giants and of the great earth-serpent, which represent the dark -chaotic forces of nature; or Frey, the bearer of the sword, or the mild -Balder, the fairest of all the gods, the best-beloved by gods and men.</p> - -<p>It is clear that a different character of worship will belong to each -order of divinity. The sacred grove or the wild mountain-summit would be -naturally dedicated to the mysterious pervading presence; the temple -would be the natural home of the human-featured god; and this all the -more because men worshipped in forest glade or upon mountain-top before -they dedicated to their gods houses made with hands. Dyâus is the old, -the primevally old, divinity, the ‘son of time’ as the Greeks called -him.<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> Whenever, therefore, we trace the meeting streams of thought, -the <i>cult</i> of the sun-god and the <i>cult</i> of the sky, to the latter -belongs the conservative part of the national creed, his rival is the -reforming element. In the Vedic religion of India, Indra, as has been -said, has vanquished the older deity; we feel in the Vedas that Dyâus, -or even another sky-god, Varuna, though often mentioned, no longer -occupy a commanding place. Not, however, without concessions on both -sides. Indra could not have achieved this victory but that he partakes -of both natures. He is the sky as well as the sun, more human than the -unmoved <i>watching</i> heavens, he is a worker for man, the sender of the -rain and the sunshine, the tamer of the stormwinds, and the enemy of -darkness.</p> - -<p>And if any one should examine in detail the different systems of the -Aryan people, he would, I think, have no difficulty in tracing -throughout them the two influences<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_204" id="page_204"></a>{204}</span> which have been dwelt upon, and in -each connecting these two influences with their sky-and sun-gods. -Whatever theory may be used to account for it, the change of thought is -noticeable. Man seems to awake into the world with the orison of -Belarius upon his lips; he is content with the silent unchanging -abstract god. But as he advances in the burden and heat of the day he -wishes for a fellow-worker, or at least for some potency which watches -his daily struggles with less of godlike sublime indifference. Hence -arise his sun-gods—the gods who toil and suffer, and even succumb and -die.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">The<br /> earth-goddess.</div> - -<p>The sky-and the sun-gods, then, were, I think, the two chief male -divinities among the Aryan folk taken as a whole. There corresponded to -them in most Aryan creeds two female divinities, an older and a younger, -a wife and a maiden, such as were on the one side among the Greeks Hera -and Demeter, and on the other side Athene and Artemis,<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> or -Persephone, the daughter of Demeter. In the Norse creed, again, there is -Frigg, the wife of Odin, and Freyja, the sister of Frey. This last is -indeed not a maiden in the Eddic mythology. But the husband of Freyja is -a person of such very small importance that we may feel sure he is only -a sort of <i>addendum</i> to her nature and surroundings, and that she is in -character very much the counterpart of her brother, a -maiden-goddess—goddess of spring-time and of love.</p> - -<p>In respect to the elder, the married goddess, we may say, almost with -certainty, that she is the earth—the natural wife of the heavens, and -naturally thought of as the mother of all mankind—<i>Terra Mater</i>. We -know that the ancient Germans worshipped a goddess whom Tacitus calls -Nerthus<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_205" id="page_205"></a>{205}</span> (possibly a mistake for <i>Hertha</i>, Earth), and, he adds, -<i>Nerthus id est Terra Mater</i>. And in the Scandinavian offshoot of the -ancient German creed there can be no doubt that the same idea of Mother -Earth is embodied in the goddess Frigg, the wife of Odin.</p> - -<p>The Romans had their native goddess Tellus, who was only obscured in -later times by such Greek or half-Greek divinities as Demeter or Cybele. -For this Demeter of the Greeks bears a name which most philologists are -agreed had a signification precisely the same as <i>Terra -Mater</i>—Gê-mêtêr. Demeter is but one of many wives of Zeus mentioned in -the Theogony of Hesiod. All of these wives, including Hera (Juno), the -highest in rank of them all, were probably at one time or another -personifications of the earth.</p> - -<p>The Vedas, too, have their mother-goddess, their Mother Earth. This is -Prithvi, or Prithivi, the wide-stretching, generally called -Prithivi-mátar, which is also Earth-Mother. And some think this word -‘Prithvi’ is connected with that of the Northern Frigg.<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> And the -Vedas have their young maiden-goddess, who in the Vedas is called Ushas -the Dawn.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Goddesses<br /> of Spring<br /> and Dawn.</div> - -<p>What is the nature-significance of this maiden-goddess? It is less easy -to determine than in the case of the other three divinities. One form of -the maiden-goddess is the divinity of the seed, like Persephone, that is -to say, a goddess of all vegetation, and hence of the spring. In the -Vedas, again, Ushas is a goddess of the dawn, an idea nearly allied to -that of Spring; and some people think that this is also the foundation -of Athenê’s nature. There are other characteristics of the -maiden-goddess which look as if she were an embodiment of the clouds; -but then the clouds are so nearly connected<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_206" id="page_206"></a>{206}</span> with the dawn that such an -idea can scarcely be said to contradict the other notion. The -maiden-goddess is in many cases born of the sea. Not only is Aphroditê, -or Venus, born of the sea, but Athenê is so likewise; at any rate one of -her names, Tritogeneia, implies this origin. The more common story of -Athenê’s birth, that she sprang from the head of her father, Zeus—this, -too, when we remember that Zeus is the sky, is not inconsistent with her -being the cloud.</p> - -<p>When all is said, it must be owned that the nature-origin of this -maiden-goddess is not so obvious as in the case of the divinities of the -sky, sun, or earth. That only means that, as a nature-goddess, she is -not so necessary to the creed, but that on the other hand many objects -of nature—the dawn, the clouds, streams, the wind, sunshine—have -suggested the thought of this divinity, and that the suggestion found a -natural echo in the heart of mankind.</p> - -<p>There are, of course, behind the greater nature-gods a number of other -natural forces—the sea, the wind, lightning, fire, streams, fountains, -the dawn, the clouds. These all receive their place in the Aryan -pantheon. But the characters of the lesser gods tend to echo those of -the greater. Sometimes two different but nearly allied objects of nature -are rolled into one to form a new god.</p> - -<p>Thus the god of storms and thunder is often associated with the sky, as -are Zeus and Jupiter among the Greeks and Romans. Dyâus, the most -primitive form of sky-god, is the clear heaven. The name is connected -with a root <i>div</i>, to shine. But Zeus and Jupiter are the cloudy or -thundery skies. The Vedic Indra is often not unlike them. That is to -say, the sky-god, in their persons, has taken upon him the nature of the -god of storms. But despite these changes, we may still go back to the -gods of earth, and sky, and sun,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_207" id="page_207"></a>{207}</span> and cloud as forming the backbone of -the Aryan creed taken as a whole.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<div class="sidenote">Vedic<br /> religion<br /> of India.</div> - -<p>From this primitive stock different religious systems developed -themselves just as different nationalities sprang from the original -Aryan race. We can only form an adequate idea of what these religious -systems were like by studying them in the books of religion, of poetry, -and mythology which the various peoples have left behind them. And as a -matter of fact, we have really only three or four literatures of ancient -religion and mythology among the different branches of the Aryan people -from which much information can be gained. These are the Vedas for the -ancient Indians, Greek literature for the religion of the Greeks, and -the Old Norse poetry—what we may call the Eddaic literature—for the -religion of the Scandinavians. The Romans, before their literature -began, had almost exchanged their early creed for that of the Greeks; -the other German races (not Scandinavian) and the Slavs left no record -of their beliefs before they were converted to Christianity. Of the Zend -Avesta, the religious book of the Persians, we will speak hereafter.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Indra.</div> - -<p>Naturally enough, each separate creed has developed many peculiar -features. In the religion of India, Indra, who had been the younger and -more active divinity—whether a sun-god or no we cannot be quite -sure—had, before the Vedas came to be written, almost completely ousted -Dyâus from the supreme position which he once occupied. The worship of -Indra is the central point of Vedic religion; and in many hymns of the -Vedas Indra has taken the character of a god of storms; almost as much -so as Zeus and Jupiter. It was the power of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_208" id="page_208"></a>{208}</span> god which was -especially worshipped. He was no doubt the god of battles <i>par -excellence</i> to the ancient Indian. The Vedic hymnist calls upon him, as -the Psalmist calls upon Jehovah, to show his might and confound those -who dared to doubt his supremacy. For here in India, as in Palestine, -‘the wicked saith in his heart There is no God.’</p> - -<p class="c"><small>HYMN TO INDRA.</small></p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="csml"><i>Indra speaks.</i></span> -<span class="i0">‘I come with might before thee, stepping first,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">And behind me move all the heavenly powers.<br /></span> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<span class="csml"><i>The Poet speaks.</i></span> -<span class="i0">‘If thou, O Indra, wilt my lot bestow,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">A hero’s part dost thou perform for me.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘To thee the holy drink I offer first;<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Thy portion here is laid, thy <i>soma</i><a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> brewed.<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Be, while I righteous am, to me a friend;<br /></span> -<span class="i2">So shall we slay of foemen many a one.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Ye who desire blessings bring your hymn<br /></span> -<span class="i2">To Indra, for the true is always true.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“There is no Indra,” many say. “Who ever<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Hath seen him? Why should we his praise proclaim?”<br /></span> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<span class="csml"><i>Indra speaks.</i></span> -<span class="i0">‘I am here, singer; look on me, here stand I.<br /></span> -<span class="i2">In might all other beings I surpass.<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Thy holy service still my strength renews,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">And thereby smiting, all things I smite down.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘And as on heaven’s height I sat alone,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">To me thy offering and thy prayer rose up.<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Then spake my soul this word unto herself:<br /></span> -<span class="i2">“My votaries and their children call upon me.” ’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_209" id="page_209"></a>{209}</span></p> - -<p>The <i>character</i> of Indra, then, is, as we find it in the Vedas, more -like that of a supreme Zeus than of any other divinity of the parallel -Aryan religious systems. But his <i>deeds</i>, the mythology connected with -his name, remind us of the deeds of Apollo. For he is the great -serpent-or dragon-slayer, like the Greek Apollo and the Northern Thor. -Heracles, too, as we remember, is a serpent-slayer. The ‘enemy’ whom -Indra is most constantly implored to strike are two serpents, Ahi and -Vritra. These are serpents of darkness, but they are also the concealers -of the water, and this water Indra sets free. ‘Him (the serpent) the god -struck with Indra-might, and set free the all-gleaming water for the use -of man.’ Therefore these serpents must also typify the clouds.</p> - -<p>In going forth to fight, Indra is accompanied by a band of supernatural -heroes, who have no exact counterpart in any of the other Aryan -mythologies, and who are certainly beings, children we might say, of the -storm. Their name is the Maruts. And some of the many hymns dedicated to -them have a fine martial ring, like the tramp of armed men—</p> - -<p class="c"><small>HYMN TO THE MARUTS.</small></p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="" -style="font-size:90%;"> -<tr><td align="left">‘Where is the fair</td><td align="left">assemblage of heroes,</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left"> The men of Rudra,<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a></td><td align="left">with their bright horses?</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left"> For of their birth</td><td align="left">knoweth no man the story,</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left"> Only themselves,</td><td align="left">their wondrous descent.</td></tr> -<tr><td colspan="4"> </td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">‘The light they flash</td><td align="left">upon one another;</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left"> The eagles fought,</td><td align="left">the winds were raging;</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left"> But this secret</td><td align="left">knoweth the wise man,</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left"> Once that Prishna<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a></td><td align="left">her udder gave them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_210" id="page_210"></a>{210}</span></td></tr> -<tr><td colspan="4"> </td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">‘Our race of heroes,</td><td align="left">through the Maruts be it</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left"> Ever victorious</td><td align="left">in reaping of men.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left"> On their way they hasten, </td><td align="left">in brightness the brightest,</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left"> Equal in beauty,</td><td align="left">unequalled in might.’</td></tr> -</table> - -<div class="sidenote">Agni.</div> - -<p>The god who is most peculiar to the Vedic pantheon is Agni, the -Fire-god. The word <i>Agni</i> is allied to the Latin <i>ignis</i>. No doubt Agni -has his representatives in the creeds of other Aryan peoples, in the -Hephæstus of the Greeks, or in the Vulcan of the Romans; probably in the -Loki of the Scandinavians. But these are all quite secondary beings: -Loki cannot be called a god at all. Agni, on the other hand, is one of -the very greatest of the Vedic deities. Only Indra has more hymns -dedicated to him than Agni. This shows how great was the reverence which -fire commanded among the Indians, and it is consistent with much that -has been said in an earlier chapter of the importance which primitive -people always attach, and which the native Indians to this day still -attach, to the sacred house-fire in their midst. It reminds us too of -the fire-worship of the Persians.<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a></p> - -<p>Agni, however, is not only the house-fire. He has a double birth—one on -earth, one in the clouds. He descends as the lightning descends from -heaven. But, at the same time, he is born of the rubbing of two sticks, -and in the flame of the sacrifice he is imagined to ascend again to -heaven bringing with him the prayers of the worshipper. How well, -therefore, Agni was adapted to take the place of the younger god, the -friend of man, when Indra, once probably a sun-god, had (so to say) -removed himself from familiar approach by taking his throne high in -heaven!<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_211" id="page_211"></a>{211}</span></p> - -<p class="c"><small>HYMN TO AGNI.</small></p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Agni is messenger of all the world.<br /></span> -<span style="margin-left: 4em;"> * - * - * - * - * -</span><br /> -<span class="i1">Skyward ascends his flame the merciful,<br /></span> -<span class="i3">With our libations watered well;<br /></span> -<span class="i1">And now the red smoke seeks the heavenly way,<br /></span> -<span class="i3">And men enkindle Agni here.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘We make of thee our Herald, Holy One;<br /></span> -<span class="i3">Bring down the gods unto our feast.<br /></span> -<span class="i1">O son of night, and all who nourish man,<br /></span> -<span class="i3">Pardon us when on you we call.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Thou, Agni, art the ruler of the house;<br /></span> -<span class="i3">Thou at the altar art our priest.<br /></span> -<span class="i1">O purifier, wise and rich in good,<br /></span> -<span class="i3">O sacrificer, bring us safely now.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>There are other genuine sun-gods in the Vedic creed, to whom hymns are -addressed. One of these is Mitra.<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> Mitra too is a friend of man—</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">To man comes Mitra down in friendly converse.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Mitra it was who fixed the earth and heaven.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Unslumbering mankind he watches over.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">To Mitra then your full libations pour.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>But there are not many hymns addressed to Mitra alone. And he stands far -behind Indra or Agni in the Vedic creed as we actually find it. Another -sun-god—the disk of the sun, so to say—is Surya, the shiner. He is -sometimes called the eye of Mitra and Varuna. But in other places he is -said to come through heaven dragging his wheel. Yet great as he is, the -sun-god is compelled to follow his daily<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_212" id="page_212"></a>{212}</span> round. ‘He travels upon -changeless paths.’ Another sun-god is Savitar, whose name is almost -identical in meaning with Surya.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Dawn and<br /> Evening.</div> - -<p>The writers of the Vedic hymns were very largely taken up with observing -and recording in their mythic fashion all the skyey phenomena from dawn -to sunset. For each changed aspect of the heavens, bright or cloudy, -calm or windy, they had a divinity. They sang to the fair young morning -as she came out of the chambers of darkness and opened the stalls for -the cattle to go forth to pasture; they sang the heavy labouring sun of -midday; they sang the stormy sky or the hurrying clouds; and at evening -they sang the evening sun sinking peacefully to rest and bringing ‘night -and peace’ to all the world. Wherefore, to bring to a close this picture -of the religion of the Vedas, we will give just two more hymns from that -vast collection, the Rig-Veda—a hymn to the morning, and a hymn to the -sun (Savitar) at sun-setting.</p> - -<p class="c"><small>HYMN TO THE DAWN.</small></p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Dawn full of wisdom, rich in everything!<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Fairest! attend the singers’ song of praise.<br /></span> -<span class="i1">O thou rich goddess, old, yet ever young!<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Thou, all-dispenser, in due order comest.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Shine forth, O goddess, thine eternal morning,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">With thy bright cars our song of praise awakening.<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Thee draw through heaven the well-yoked team of horses—<br /></span> -<span class="i1">The horses golden-bright, that shine afar.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Enlightener of all being, breath of morning,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Thou holdest up aloft the light of gods.<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Unto one goal ever thy course pursuing,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Oh, roll towards us now thy wheel again!<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Opening at once her girdle, she appears,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">The lovely Dawn, the ruler of the stalls.<br /></span> -<span class="i1">She, light-producing, wonder-working, noble,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Up-mounted from the coast of earth and heaven.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_213" id="page_213"></a>{213}</span><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Up, up, and bring to meet the Dawn, the goddess<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Bright beaming now, your humble song of praise.<br /></span> -<span class="i1">To heaven climbed up her ray the sweet due bearing,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Joying to shine the airy space she filled.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘With beams of heaven the Pure One was awakened,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">The Rich One’s ray mounted through both the worlds.<br /></span> -<span class="i1">To Ushas<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> goest thou, Agni, with a prayer<br /></span> -<span class="i1">For goodly wealth, when she bright-shining comes.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="c"><small>HYMN TO THE EVENING SUN.</small></p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Savitar the god arose, in power arose,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">His quick deeds and his journey to renew.<br /></span> -<span class="i1">He ‘tis who to all gods dispenses treasure,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">And blesses those that call him to the feast.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘The god stands up and stretches forth his arm,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Raises his hand and all obedient wait;<br /></span> -<span class="i1">For all the waters to his will incline,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">And the winds even on his path are stilled.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Now he unyokes the horses that have borne him,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">The wanderer from his travel now he frees,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">The serpent-slayer’s fury now is stayed;<br /></span> -<span class="i1">At Savitar’s command come night and peace.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i1">And now rolls up the spinning wife her web,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">The artificer now his cunning labour leaves,<br /></span> -<span style="margin-left: 4em;"> * - * - * - * - * -</span><br /> -<span class="i0">And to the household folk beneath the roof,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">The household fire imparts their share of light.<br /></span> -<span style="margin-left: 4em;"> * - * - * - * - * -</span><br /> -<span class="i0">‘He who to work went forth is now returned,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">The longing of all wand’rers turns toward home;<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Leaving his toil, goes each man to his house:<br /></span> -<span class="i1">The universal mover orders so.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘In the water settest thou the water’s heir,<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a><br /></span> -<span class="i1">On the firm earth badst the wild beast to roam;<br /></span> -<span class="i1">The bird<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> makes for his nest, cattle for their stall,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">To their own home all beasts the sun-god sends.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_214" id="page_214"></a>{214}</span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">Greek <br />religion.</div> - -<p>In Greece it would seem that the chief religious influences came from -Zeus (Jupiter<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a>) and Apollo, and belonged, as appears, to two separate -branches of the same race who came together to form the Hellenic people. -The ancestors of the Greeks had, we know, travelled from the Aryan home -by a road which took them south of the Black Sea, and on to the -table-land of Asia Minor. So far a comparison of names and traditions -shows them advancing in a compact body. Here they separated; and, after -a stay of some centuries, during which a part had time to mingle with -the Semitic people of the land, they pushed forward, some across the -Hellespont and round that way by land through Thrace and Thessaly, -spreading as they went down to the extremity of the peninsula; others to -the western coast of Asia Minor, and then, when through the lapse of -years they had learnt their art from the Phœnician navigators who -frequented all that land, onward from island to island, as over -stepping-stones, across the Ægean.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Zeus.</div> - -<p>The Pelasgic Zeus, however, is not quite the same being as is the Zeus -whom we are to fancy as the supreme god of the Hellenic race. This last, -we know, is called the Olympic Zeus. The Pelasgic god is a being who -loves solitary mountain heights or dark groves of trees. In this aspect -of his character he is very like the chief divinity of the Northmen, -Odin. And there can be no<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_215" id="page_215"></a>{215}</span> doubt that in his nature he is a god of -storms and wind. He is not the clear sky, as is the Vedic Dyâus (from -the root <i>div</i>, shining), and as had once been the supreme god of the -Aryan race. From that condition to the condition of a god of storms, -Zeus had already passed before we catch any sight of him under this name -Zeus—in other words, before we catch any sight of <i>him</i> at all.</p> - -<p>These Pelasgi were before all things the worshippers of pure nature. -Theirs were all those primitive elements in the Greek religion which -were caught up into the more developed creed, and, though they were -softened in the process of amalgamation with it, still showed above its -surface as masses of rock show upon a hillside, albeit they are covered -over by a thin covering of green. Those strange half-human beings like -Pan, the Arcadian god, like the Thessalian centaurs,—these belong to -the primitive creed of the Greeks. So long as they were confounded with -the phenomena of nature in which they took their rise, they were, in -every sense, natural enough. But when art took possession of them, and -tried to body them forth in visible shapes, they became monsters, -unformed, neither man nor beast.</p> - -<p>The fact that the greatest shrines of Zeus were at Dodona in Epirus, and -in Elis, both states on the <i>western</i> coast of Greece, would almost of -itself show that the worship of Zeus belonged more especially to the -first comers of the Greek race, who got pushed further westward as the -more enlightened people came in from the east; and while <i>these</i> were -worshipping their gods in temples, the Pelasgic Greeks still worshipped -their Zeus in sacred groves like those of Dodona and of Elis.</p> - -<p>The god, on the other hand, who is more especially the god of the newer -Greek people, the Dorians and the Ionians,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_216" id="page_216"></a>{216}</span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">Apollo.</div> - -<p class="nind">those who reformed the Greek race, and through whom the Pelasgic people -grew into the Hellenes, this god is Apollo.</p> - -<p>Apollo is, we have said, in origin a sun-god. We see some traces of his -nature even in the statues which represent him, as in the abundant hair -which streams from his head, the picture of the sun’s rays.<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> But, of -course, long before historic days he had become much more than a mere -god of nature to his worshippers. He had become what we know him, the -ideal of youthful manhood as the Greeks admired it most, the ideal of -suppleness and strength, the ideal, too, of what we call ‘culture,’ of -poetry and music, and all that adds a grace to life.</p> - -<p>Apollo’s chief shrines were rather on the eastern than on the western -side of Greece—at Delphi, for example, in Phocis. (Is it not -characteristic to find in this wise the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, the -oracle of Zeus at Dodona?) But Delphi is the most westerly of Apollo’s -favourite homes. Another, we know, was on the island of Delos, midway in -the Ægean, that island which the Greeks fancied the <i>umbilicus -orbis</i>—the navel of the world. Delphi and Delos are the shrines of -Apollo belonging to one out of the two great nationalities of the new -blood who reformed the nation of the Greeks. Delphi and Delos belong to -the Dorians. But among the Ionians of Asia Minor, who were the other -great reforming element in Greek life, Apollo had likewise many holy -places. And we know how, in the Iliad, he is represented as the champion -of the easterns, the Asiatic<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_217" id="page_217"></a>{217}</span> Greeks, against the westerns, the Greeks -of Greece proper. ‘Hear me,’ prays Glaucus, in the Iliad—‘hear me, O -king, who art somewhere in the rich realm of Lycea or of Troy; for -everywhere canst thou hear a man in sorrow, such as my sorrow is.’</p> - -<p>Not but that these worshippers of Apollo were likewise worshippers of -Zeus. It was from the Dorians, whose ancient home was in Thessaly, in -the vale of Tempe, and under the shadow of Olympus, that sprang the -worship of the Olympian Zeus. This Olympian Zeus was the same as the -ancient god of the Pelasgians—the Pelasgian Zeus—the same, and yet -different, for he was the ancient storm-god, softened and made more -human by his contact with Apollo. In time this Olympian Zeus superseded -the Pelasgic god even in his own favourite seats, and we have the -phenomenon of the festival in his honour—the greatest festival of -Greece—the Olympia, being held in the plains of Elis, near the ancient -grove of the Pelasgian Zeus.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<div class="sidenote">Hermes.</div> - -<p>As before by a comparison of words, so now in mythology by a comparison -of legends, we form our notion of the remoteness of the time at which -these stories first passed current. Not only, for instance, do we see -that Indra and Apollo resembled each other in character, but we have -proof that nature-myths—stories really narrating some process of -nature—were familiar alike to Greeks and Indians. The Vedas, the sacred -books from which we gather our knowledge of ancient Hindu religion, do -not relate their stories of the gods in the same way, or with the same -clearness and elaboration, that the Greek poets do. They are collections -of hymns, prayers in verse, addressed to the gods themselves, and what -they relate is told more by reference and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_218" id="page_218"></a>{218}</span> implication than directly. -But even with this difference, we have no difficulty in signalizing some -of the adventures of Indra as almost identical with those of the son of -Lêtô. Let one suffice. The pastoral life of the Aryans is reflected in -their mythology, and thus it is that in the Vedas almost all the varied -phenomena of nature are in their turn compared to cattle. Indra is often -spoken of as a bull; still more commonly are the clouds the cows of -Indra, and their milk the rain. More than one of the songs of the -Rig-Veda allude to a time when the wicked Pa<i>n</i>is (beings of fog or -mist<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a>) stole the cows from the fields of Indra and hid them away in a -cave. They obscured their footprints by tying up their feet or by making -them drag brushwood behind them. Then Indra sent his dog Sarama (the -dawn or breath of dawn), and she found out where the cattle were hidden. -But (according to one story) the Pa<i>n</i>is overcame her honesty and gave -her a cup of milk to drink, so that she came back to Indra and denied -having seen the cows. But Indra discovered the deception, and came with -his strong spear and conquered the Pa<i>n</i>is, and recovered what had been -stolen.</p> - -<p>Now turn to the Greek myth. The story here is cast in a different key.</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Te boves olim nisi reddidisses<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Per dolum amotas, puerum minaci<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Voce dum terret, viduus pharetra<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Risit Apollo.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">Hermes (Mercury) is here the thief. He steals the cattle of Apollo -feeding upon the Pierian mountain, and conceals his theft much as the -Pa<i>n</i>is had done. Apollo discovers what has been done, and complains to -Zeus. But Hermes is a god, and no punishment befalls him like that which -was<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_219" id="page_219"></a>{219}</span> allotted to the Pa<i>n</i>is; he charms Apollo by the sound of his lyre, -and is forgiven, and allowed to retain his booty. Still, all the -essentials of the story are here; and the story in either case relates -the same nature-myth. The clouds which in the Indian tale are stolen by -the damp vapours of morning, are in the Greek legend filched away by the -morning breeze; for this is the nature of Hermes. And that some such -power as the wind had been known to the Indians as accomplice in the -work, is shown by the complicity of Sarama in one version of the tale. -For Sarama likewise means the morning breeze; and, in fact, <i>Sarama</i> and -<i>Hermes</i> are derived from the same root, and are almost identical in -character. Both mean in their general nature the wind; in their special -appearances they stand now for the morning, now for the evening breeze, -or even for the morning and evening themselves.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Heracles.</div> - -<p>The next most important deity as regards the whole Greek race is -Heracles (Hercules). It is a great mistake to regard him, as our -mythology-books often lead us to do, as a demi-god or hero only. -Originally, and among a portion of the Greek race, he was one of the -mightiest gods; but at last, perhaps because his adventures became in -later tradition rather preposterous and undignified, he sank to be a -demi-god, or immortalized man. The story of Heracles’ life and labours -is a pure but most elaborate sun-myth. From his birth, where he -strangles the serpents in his cradle—the serpents of darkness, like the -Pythôn which Apollo slew—through his <i>Herculean</i> labours to his death, -we watch the labours of the sun through the mists and clouds of heaven -to its ruddy setting; and these stories are so like to others which are -told of the Northern Heracles, Thor, that we cannot refuse to believe -that they were known in the main in days before<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_220" id="page_220"></a>{220}</span> there were either -Greek-speaking Greeks or Teutons. The closing scene of Heracles’ life -speaks the most eloquently of his nature-origin. Returning home in -victory—his last victory—to Trachis, Deianira sends to him there the -fatal white robe steeped in the blood of Nessus. No sooner has he put it -on than his death-agony begins. In the madness of his pain he dashes his -companion, Lichas, against the rocks; he tears at the burning robe, and -with it brings away the flesh from his limbs. Then, seeing that all is -over, he becomes more calm. He gives his last commands to his son, -Hyllus, and orders his funeral pile to be prepared upon mount Œta, as -the sun, after its last fatal battle with the clouds of sunset, sinks -down calmly into the sea. Then as, after it has gone, the sky lights up -aglow with colour, so does the funeral pyre of Heracles send out its -light over the Ægean, from its <i>western</i> shore.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Ares.</div> - -<p>I believe Ares to have been once likewise a sun-god. The special home of -his worship was warlike Macedon and Thrace. There can be no question, -however, that in pre-historic times his worship was much more widely -extended than we should suppose from reading Homer or the poets -subsequent to Homer. Traces of his worship are to be found in the Zeus -Areios at Elis, and in the Athenian Areopagus. But his natural home was -in the North. He was the national divinity of the Thracians. And I have -no doubt, as I have said, that he was once the sun-god of these Northern -people, and only in later times became an abstraction, a god of war and -valour.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Dêmêtêr.</div> - -<p>Another deity who was distinctly of Aryan origin was Dêmêtêr (Ceres), a -name which is, as we have said, probably, none other than Gêmêtêr, -‘mother earth.’ She is the Greek equivalent of the Prithvi of the Vedas. -But whereas Prithvi has sunk into obscurity,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_221" id="page_221"></a>{221}</span> Dêmêtêr was associated -with some of the most important rites of Greek religion. The association -of ideas which, face to face with the masculine godhead, the sun or sky, -placed the fruitful all-nourishing earth, is so natural as to find a -place in almost every system. We have seen how the two formed a part of -the Egyptian and Chaldæan mythologies. And we have seen that each branch -of the Aryan folk carried away along with their sky-and sun-worship this -earth-worship also. But among none of the different branches was the -great nature-myth which always gathers round the earth-goddess, woven -into a more pathetic story than by the Greeks. The story is that of the -winter death or sleep of earth, or of all that makes earth beautiful and -glad. And it was thus the Greeks told that world-old legend. Persephone -(Proserpina), or Corê, is the green earth, or the green verdure which -may be thought the daughter of earth and sky. She is, indeed, almost the -reduplication of Dêmêtêr herself; and in art it is not always easy to -distinguish a representation as of one or of the other. At spring-time -Persephone, a maiden, with her maidens, is wandering careless in the -Nysian plain, plucking the flowers of spring, ‘crocuses and roses and -fair violets,’<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> when in a moment all is changed. Hades, regent of -Hell, rises in his black-horsed golden chariot; unheeding her cries, he -carries her off to share his infernal throne and rule in the kingdoms of -the dead. In other words, the awful shadow of death falls across the -path of youth and spring, and Hades appears to proclaim the fateful -truth that all spring-time, all youth and verdure, are alike with hoary -age candidates for service in his Shadowy Kingdom. The sudden contrast -between spring flowers and maidenhood and death gives a dramatic -intensity to the scene and represents the quiet course of decay in one -tremendous<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_222" id="page_222"></a>{222}</span> moment.<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> To lengthen out the picture and show the slow -sorrow of earth robbed of its spring and summer, Dêmêtêr is portrayed -wandering from land to land in bootless search of her lost daughter. We -know how deep a significance this story had in the religious thought of -Greece; how the representation of it composed the chief feature of the -Eleusinian mysteries, and how these and other mysteries probably -enshrined the intenser, more hidden feelings of religion, and continued -to do so when mythology had lost its hold upon the popular mind. It is, -indeed, a new-antique story, patent to all and fraught for all with -solemnest meaning. So that this myth of the death of Proserpine has -lived on in a thousand forms through all the Aryan systems.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Athenê and <br />other goddesses.</div> - -<p>Persephone is one of the most characteristic of the maiden-goddesses of -whom we spoke above. The most literal and material interpretation of her -myth would show her to be an embodiment of the grain, which sinks into -the ground when it is sown and springs up again to live above the earth -for half the year. But in a wider sense I have no doubt that Persephone -is meant to typify the spring of which the grain might well be a sort of -symbol, or to typify vegetation generally. And this is one of the -natural characters belonging to the maiden-goddess. She is very -frequently a goddess of spring in some aspect or other—of spring as the -season of beauty and love. Such is the Freyja of the Norse mythology; -such, to some extent, are Aphroditê (Venus) and Artemis (Diana).<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a></p> - -<p>There is, however, one divinity among the Greeks who seems to have a -somewhat different character, and who<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_223" id="page_223"></a>{223}</span> is so much more important a -maiden-goddess than any of these that she at once springs into our -thoughts when we are speaking of divinities of this class. I mean, of -course, Athenê (Minerva). But in the first place, the wide worship of -Athenê is partly accidental and due to her being the patroness of -Athens; in the second place, Athenê has taken so many ethical -characteristics, she is so advanced a conception of a divine being, that -she is not at all a good representative of a religion in its early -state. It would be rather confusing than otherwise to have to trace the -character of Athenê step by step out of the natural phenomenon from -which she sprang. I will only say here that I believe her to have been -originally born from the sea or from a river. She may once have actually -been a goddess of water. Afterwards she became, I think, the goddess of -the rivers of heaven or the clouds. And as the clouds hold the storm and -the lightning, Athenê is sometimes a storm-goddess, sometimes a goddess -of the lightning.<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> Or again, she may be the heaven which bears the -storm-cloud, the thundering heaven. We remember that Zeus and Athenê -each have the privilege of wearing the Ægis—the dreadful fringed Ægis, -which is, I think, the lightning-bearing cloud.</p> - -<p>Artemis (Diana) is the moon-goddess, at least she is so in her character -as sister of Apollo. But there were really many different Artemises in -Greece. And very often she is a river-goddess. In the same way, there -were many different Aphroditês. The more sensuous the character in which -Aphroditê (Venus) appears, the more does she show her Asiatic birth; and -this was why the Greeks, when regarding her especially as the goddess of -love, called her Cypris, or Cytheræa, after Cyprus and Cythera, which -had been in<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_224" id="page_224"></a>{224}</span> ancient days stations for the Phœnician traders, and -where they had first made acquaintance with the Greeks. Aphroditê was -the favourite goddess of these mariners, as, indeed, a moon-goddess well -might be; and it was they who gave her her most corrupt and licentious -aspect. For she has not always this character even among the -Phœnicians; but oftentimes appears as a huntress, more like Artemis, -or armed as a goddess of battle, like Athenê. Doubtless, however, -goddesses closely allied to Aphroditê or Artemis, divinities of -productive nature and divinities of the moon, belonged to the other -branches of the Indo-European family. The <i>idea</i> of these divinities was -a common property; the exact being in whom these ideas found expression -varied with each race.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<div class="sidenote">Scandinavian<br /> religion.</div> - -<p>If we travel from India and from Hellas to the cold North, the same -characteristic features reappear. In the Teutonic religions, <i>as we know -them</i>,<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> Odin has taken the place of the old Aryan sky-god, Dyâus. The -last did, indeed, linger on in the Zio or Tyr of these systems; but he -had sunk from the position of a chief divinity. The change, however, is -not great. The god chosen to fill his place resembles him as nearly as -possible in character. Odin, or Wuotan,<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> whose name in its -etymological meaning is probably the god who moves violently or rushes -along,<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> was originally a god of the wind rather than of the -atmosphere of heaven. Yet<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_225" id="page_225"></a>{225}</span> along with this more confined part of his -character, he bears almost all the attributes of the exalted sky-god, -the Dyâus or Zeus; only he adds to these some parts peculiar to a god of -wind; and we can easily understand how, as these Aryan people journeyed -northwards, their wind-god grew in magnitude and power.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Odin.</div> - -<p>It was Odin who lashed into fury their stormy seas, and kept the -impatient <i>vikings</i> (fjord-men) forced prisoners in their sheltered -bays. He it was who rushed through their mountain forests, making the -ancient pine-tops bend to him as he hurried on; and men sitting at home -over their winter fires, and listening to his howl, told one another how -he was hastening to some distant battle-field, there to direct the -issue, and to choose from among the fallen such heroes as were worthy to -accompany him to Valhalla, the Hall of Bliss.<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> Long after the worship -of Christ had overturned that of the Æsir,<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> this, the most familiar -and popular aspect of Odin’s nature, lived on in the thoughts of men. In -the Middle Ages the wind reappears in the legend of the Phantom Army, a -strange apparition of two hosts of men seen to join battle in midair. -The peasant of the Jura or the Alps could tell how, when alone upon the -mountain-side, he had beheld the awful vision. Sometimes all the details -of the fight were visible, but as though the combatants were riding in -the air; sometimes the <i>sounds</i> of battle only came from the empty space -above, till at the end a shower of blood gave the fearful witness a -proof that he was not the dupe of his imagination only.<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> In other -places, especially, for example,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_226" id="page_226"></a>{226}</span> in the Harz mountains, the Phantom -Army gave place to the Wild Huntsman. This phantom hunt has many -different names in the different countries of Europe. With us it is -known best under the name of Herne the Hunter or of Arthur’s Chase. In -Brittany this last name is also used. In the Harz and in other places in -Germany the huntsman was called Hackelbärend or Hackelberg; and the -story went how he had been chief huntsman to the Duke of Brunswick, but -for impiety or for some dreadful oath, like that which had brought -vengeance on the famous Van der Decken, had been condemned to hunt for -ever through the clouds—for ever, that is, until the Day of -Judgment.<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> All<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_227" id="page_227"></a>{227}</span> the year through he pursues his way alone, and the -peasants hear his holloa, mingled with the baying of his two dogs.<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> -But for twelve nights—between Christmas and the Twelfth-night—he hunts -on the earth; and if any door is left open during the night, and one of -the two hounds runs in, he will bring misfortune upon that house.</p> - -<p>Besides this wilder aspect of his character, Odin appears as the -heaven-god—all-embracing—the father of gods and men, like Zeus. -‘All-father Odin’ he is called, and his seat was on Air-throne; thither -every day he ascended and looked over Glad-home, the home of the gods, -and over the homes of men, and far out beyond the great earth-girding -sea, to the dim frost-bound giant-land on earth’s border. And whatever -he saw of wrong-doing and of wickedness upon the earth, that he set to -rights; and he kept watch against the coming of the giants over seas to -invade the abode of man and the citadel of the gods. Only these -last—the race of giants—he could not utterly subdue and exterminate; -for Fate, which was stronger than all, had decreed that they should -remain until the end, and only be overthrown at the Twilight of the Gods -themselves. But of this myth, which was half-Christian, we have not -space to speak at length here.</p> - -<p>In this picture of Odin we surely see a fellow-portrait to that of the -‘wide-seeing’ Zeus. ‘The eye of Zeus, which sees all things and knows -all,’ says one poet; or again, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_228" id="page_228"></a>{228}</span> another says, ‘Zeus is the earth, -Zeus is the sky, Zeus is all, and that which is over all.’</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Tyr, Thor, <br />and Balder.</div> - -<p>Behind Odin stands Tyr—of whom we have already spoken—and Thor and -Balder, who are, or originally were, two different embodiments of the -sun; Thor being also a god of thunder. He is in character very closely -allied to Heracles. He is the mighty champion, the strongest and most -warlike of all the gods. But he is the friend of man and patron of -agriculture,<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> and as such the enemy of the giant-race, which -represents not only cold and darkness, but the barren, rugged, -uncultivated regions of earth. Like Heracles, Thor is never idle, -constantly with some work on hand, ‘faring eastward to fight Trolls -(giants),’ as the Eddas often tell us. In one of these expeditions he -performs three labours, which may be paralleled from the labours of -Heracles. He nearly drains the sea dry by drinking from a horn; this is -the sun ‘sucking up the clouds’ from the sea, as people still speak of -him as doing. It corresponds to the turning the course of the Alpheus -and Peneus, which Heracles performs. Then he tries to lift (as he -thinks) a large cat from the ground, but in reality he has been lifting -the great mid-earth serpent (notice the fact that we have the sun at war -with a serpent once more) which encircles the whole earth, and he has by -his strength shaken the very foundations of the world. This is the same -as the feat of Heracles in bringing up Cerberus from the underworld. And -lastly, he wrestles, as he thinks, with an old woman, and is worsted; -but in reality he has been wrestling with Old Age or Death, from whom no -one ever came off the victor. So we read in Homer that Heracles once -wounded Hades himself, and ‘brought grief into the land<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_229" id="page_229"></a>{229}</span> of shades,’ and -in Euripides’ beautiful play, <i>Alcestis</i>, we see Heracles struggling, -but this time victoriously, with Thanatos, Death himself. In these -labours the Norse hero, though striving manfully, fails; but the Greek -is always victorious. Herein lies a difference belonging to the -character of the two creeds.</p> - -<p>Balder the Beautiful—the fair, mild Balder—represents the sun more -truly than Thor does: the sun in his gentle aspect, as he would -naturally appear to a Norseman. His house is Breidablik, ‘Wide-glance,’ -that is to say, the bright upper air, the sun’s home. He is like the son -of Lêtô seen in his benignant aspect, the best beloved among gods, the -brightener of their warlike life, beloved, too, by all things on earth, -living and inanimate, and lamented as only the sun could be—the chief -nourisher at life’s feast. For, when Balder died, everything in heaven -and earth, ‘both all living things and trees and stones and all metals,’ -wept to bring him back again, ‘as thou hast no doubt seen these things -weep when they are brought from a cold place into a hot one.’ A modern -poet has very happily expressed the character of Balder, the sun-god, -the great quickener of life upon earth. Balder is supposed to leave -heaven to tread the ways of men, and his coming is the signal for the -new birth, as of spring-time, in the sleeping world.</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘There is some divine trouble<br /></span> -<span class="i2">On earth and in air;<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Trees tremble, brooks bubble,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Ants loosen the sod,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Warm footsteps awaken<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Whatever is fair,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Sweet dewdrops are shaken<br /></span> -<span class="i2">To quicken each clod.<br /></span> -<span class="i1">The wild rainbows o’er him<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Are melted and fade,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">The light runs before him<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Through meadow and glade.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_230" id="page_230"></a>{230}</span><br /></span> -<span class="i1">Green branches close round him,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Their leaves whisper clear—<br /></span> -<span class="i1">He is ours, we have found him,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Bright Baldur is here.’<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a><br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<div class="sidenote">Frigg,<br /> Freyja,<br /> Frey.</div> - -<p>The earth-mother of the Teutons was Frigg, the wife of Odin; but perhaps -when Frigg’s natural character was forgotten, Hertha (Earth) became -separated into another personage. ‘Odin and Frigg,’ says the Edda, -‘divide the slain;’ and this means that the sky-god received the breath, -the earth-goddess the body. But on the whole Frigg plays an -insignificant part in our late form of Teuton mythology. Closely related -to her, as Persephone is related to Dêmêtêr, with a name formed out of -hers, stands Freyja, the goddess of spring and beauty and love; for the -Northern goddess of love might better accord with the innocence of -spring than could the Phœnician Aphroditê. Freyja has a brother -Freyr, who reduplicates her name and character, for he too is a sun-god -or a god of spring.</p> - -<p>Very beautiful is the myth which reverses the sad story of Persephone -(and of Balder), and tells of the barren earth wooed by the returning -spring. Freyr one day mounted the seat of Odin which was called -air-throne, and whence a god might look over all the ways of earth. And -looking out into giant-land far in the north, he saw a light flash forth -as the aurora lights up the wintry sky.<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> And looking again, he saw -that a maiden wondrously beautiful had just opened her father’s door, -and that this was her beauty which shone out over the snow. Then Freyr -left the air-throne and determined to send to the fair one and woo<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_231" id="page_231"></a>{231}</span> her -to be his wife. Her name was Gerda.<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a> Freyr sent his messenger Skirnir -to carry his suit to Gerda; and Skirnir told her how great Freyr was -among the gods, how noble and happy a place was Asgard, the home of the -gods. For all Skirnir’s pleading Gerda would give no ear to his suit. -But Freyr had given his magic sword (the sun’s rays) to Skirnir; and at -last the ambassador, tired of pleading, drew that and threatened to take -the life of Gerda unless she granted Freyr his wish. So she consented to -meet him nine nights hence in the wood of Barri. The nine nights typify, -it is thought, the nine winter months of the Northern year; and the name -of the wood, Barri, means ‘the green;’ the beginnings of spring in the -wood being happily imaged as the meeting of the fresh and the barren -earth.</p> - -<p>All the elements of nature were personified by the spirit of Aryan -poetry, and it would be a hopeless task—wearisome and useless to the -reader—to give a mere category of the nature-gods in each system. Those -which had most influence upon their religious thought were they who have -been mentioned, the gods of the sky and sun and mother-earth. The other -elemental divinities were (as a rule) more strictly bound within the -circle of their own dominions. It is curious to trace the difference -between these strictly polytheistic deities—coequal in their several -spheres—and those others who arose in obedience to a wider ideal of a -godhead. We have seen that the Indians had a strictly elemental heaven -or sky, as well as their god Dyâus, and that they called him Varu<i>n</i>a, a -word which corresponds etymologically to the Greek Ouranos, the heaven. -In the later Indian mythology Varu<i>n</i>a came to<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_232" id="page_232"></a>{232}</span> stand, not for the sky, -but for the wide expanse of ocean, and so corresponds to the Greek -Poseidon, the Latin Neptune, and the Norse Œgir. All these were the -gods of the sea and of all waters. The wind, as we saw, combined in the -person of Odin with the character of a highest god; but in the Greek the -part was played by an inferior divinity, Hermes. In India there is a -wind-god (called Vaja); but the character is likewise divided among a -plurality of minor divinities, the Ma<i>r</i>uts. Of Agni, the god of fire, -corresponding to Hephæstus and Vulcan, we have spoken; and in the North -Fire is not a god at all, but an evil being called Loki. This is enough -to show that the worship of Agni rose into fervour after the separation -of the Aryan folk.</p> - -<p>We postpone to the next chapter the mention of the gods of the -under-world.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<div class="sidenote">The Zend <br />religion.</div> - -<p>The religions of which we have been giving this slight sketch have been -what we may call ‘natural’ religions, that is to say, the thoughts about -God and the Unseen world which without help of any special <i>vision</i> seem -to spring up simultaneously in the minds of the different Aryan peoples. -But one among the Aryan religions still in pre-historic times broke off -abruptly from its relation with the others, and, under a teacher whom we -may fairly call god-taught, in beauty and moral purity passed far beyond -the rest.</p> - -<p>This was the Zoroastrian, the faith of the Iranian (ancient Persian) -branch, or, as it is perhaps better called, the Zend or Mazdean -religion; a creed which holds a pre-eminence among all the religions of -antiquity, excepting alone that of the Hebrews. And that there is no -exaggeration in such a claim is sufficiently witnessed by the inspired -writings themselves, in which the Persian kings are frequently spoken -of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_233" id="page_233"></a>{233}</span> as if they as much as the Hebrews were worshippers of Jehovah. -‘Cyrus the servant of God,’ ‘The Lord said unto my lord (Cyrus),’ are -constantly recurring expressions in Isaiah.</p> - -<p>In some respects this Zoroastrianism seems to stand in violent -opposition to the Aryan religion. Nevertheless, at the back of the -religion of the Zend Avesta, which is the sacred book of the Iranian -creed, we can (as was before hinted) trace the outline of an earlier -natural religion essentially the same—so far as we can judge—with the -religion of the Vedas. And upon the whole we should be disposed to say -that Zoroastrianism appears to be not much else than a higher -development of that earlier system. At any rate, we may feel sure that -the older system was before the coming of the ‘gold bright’<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> -reformer, essentially a polytheism with only some yearnings towards -monotheism, and that Zoroaster settled it upon a firmly monotheistic -basis. This very fact leaves us little to say about the Iranian system -considered strictly as a religion. For when once nations have risen to -the height of a monotheism there can be little essential difference in -their beliefs; such difference as there is will be in the conception -they have of the character of their gods, whether it be a high, a -relatively high, or relatively low one; and this again is more perhaps a -question of moral development than of religion. Their one god, since he -made all things and rules all things, cannot partake of the exclusive -nature of any natural phenomenon; he cannot be a god of wind or water, -of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_234" id="page_234"></a>{234}</span> sun or sky. The Zoroastrian creed did afterwards introduce (then for -the first time in the world’s history) a very important element of -belief, namely, of the distinct origin, and almost if not quite equal -powers, of the good and evil principles. But this was later than the -time of Zarathustra.</p> - -<p>The name which Zarathustra taught the people to give to the one god was -unconnected with Aryan nature-names, Dyâus, or Varu<i>n</i>a, or Indra. He -simply called him the ‘Great Spirit,’ or, in the Zend, Ahura-mazda;<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a> -in later Persian, Hormuzd or Ormuzd. He is the all-perfect, all-wise, -all-powerful, all-beautiful. He is the creator of all things. And—still -nearer to the Christian belief—before the creation of the world, by -means whereof the world itself was made, existed the <i>Word</i>. Some trace -of this same doctrine of the pre-existing Word (<i>Hanover</i>, in the -Zoroastrian religion) is to be found in the Vedas, where he is called -<i>Vach</i>. It would be here impossible to enter into an examination of the -question how far these early religions seem to shadow forth the mystical -doctrine of the <i>Logos</i>. The evil principle opposed to Ormuzd is -Angra-Mainyus (Ahrimanes), but in the true doctrine he is by no means -the equal of God, no more so than is Satan. The successive corruption of -pure Zoroastrianism after the time of its founder is marked by a -constant exaggeration of the power of the evil principle (suggested, -perhaps, by intercourse with devil-worshipping nations of a lower type) -until Ahrimanes becomes the rival of Ormuzd, coequal and co-eternal with -him.</p> - -<p>Such is the simple creed of the Persians, accompanied of course by rites -and ceremonies, part invented by the reformer, part inherited from the -common Aryan parentage.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_235" id="page_235"></a>{235}</span> It is well known that the Persians built no -temples, but worshipped Ormuzd chiefly upon the mountain-tops; that they -paid great respect to all the elements—that is to air, water, and fire, -the latter most of all—a belief which they shared with their Indian -brethren, but stopped far short of worshipping any. That they held very -strongly the separate idea of the soul, so that when once a body had -lost its life, they considered it to be a thing wholly corrupt and evil; -a doctrine which carried in the germ that of the inherent evil of -matter, as the philosophical reader will discern.</p> - -<p>It remains to say something of their religious books. The <i>Zend Avesta</i> -was supposed to comprise the teaching of Zoroaster, and was believed to -have been written by him. Only one complete book has been preserved—it -is called the <i>Vendidâd</i>. The <i>Zend</i> language in which the <i>Avesta</i> is -written is the oldest known form of Persian, older than that in use at -the time of Darius the Great; but this is no proof that it dates back to -the days of Zarathustra. Part of it is in prose and part in verse, and -as in every literature we find that the fragments of verse are they -which survive the longest, it has been conjectured that the songs of the -<i>Zend Avesta</i> (Gâthâs they are called) may even have been written by the -great reformer himself.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_236" id="page_236"></a>{236}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.<br /><br /> -<small>THE OTHER WORLD.</small></h2> - -<div class="sidenote">The death<br /> of the<br /> sun-god.</div> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">If</span> the sun-god was so natural a type of a man-like divinity, a god -suffering some of the pains of humanity, a sort of type of man’s own -ideal life here, it was natural that men should question this oracle -concerning their future life and their hopes beyond the grave. We have -seen that the Egyptians did so; seen how they watched the course of the -day-star, and, beholding him sink behind the sandy desert, pictured a -home of happiness beyond that waste, a place to be reached by the soul -after many trials and long wandering in the dim Amenti-land which lay -between. The Aryans dwelt, we believe, upon the slopes of the -Hindoo-Koosh or in the level plain beneath; and, if the conjecture be -reasonable that a great part of the land now a sandy desert was then -filled by an inland sea,<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> many of them must have dwelt upon its -borders and seen the sun plunge in its wave each evening. Then or -afterwards they saw this, and interpreted what they saw in the very -thought of Milton:—</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">For Lycidas, your sorrow, is not dead,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor.<br /></span> -<span class="i1">So sinks the day-star in the ocean-bed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_237" id="page_237"></a>{237}</span><br /></span> -<span class="i1">And yet anon repairs his drooping head,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Flames in the forehead of the morning sky.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">And thus a belief grew up among them that after death their souls would -have to cross this ocean to some happy paradise which lay beyond in the -‘home of the sun.’</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Life<br /> in the tomb. <br />The <i>double</i>.</div> - -<p>But there is another idea, more simple and material than this, and -therefore more natural to human nature in all its phases. This is the -notion that the dead man abides in his tomb, that he comes to life in it -after a certain fashion, and lives a new life there not greatly -different from his life on earth, only calmer and more stately—</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Calm pleasures there abide, majestic pains.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>First of all, perhaps, the survivors are content to think of the dead -man as simply living in his underground house. To prevent him coming out -thence, the stone-age men, we noticed, scattered shards, flints, and -pebbles, before the mouth of the house. To that tomb they brought their -offerings of meat and drink. The notion of the soul is not yet separated -from that of the body. But that does not show that all the ideas of -those who confounded the two were purely materialistic. In common -parlance we often confound spiritual and material things quite as much; -and yet in our thoughts we have the power of separating them. We talk of -a good-hearted man, and yet we can distinguish between the purely -imaginary or spiritual entity here meant by ‘heart,’ and the mere -physical organ. I do not say that early man could have distinguished -between the idea of the dead body and the surviving soul. Probably he -could not. I only say that we are not to judge of his belief merely by -his rites and ceremonies.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_238" id="page_238"></a>{238}</span></p> - -<p>So far as these ceremonies go, man began, we judge, by thinking first of -securing for the dead an everlasting habitation. And so he covered his -grave with an immense pile of earth.<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a> The pile grew greater and -greater, and at last, as we saw, it took the shape of the pyramid. Then -came the entrance-chamber or <i>porch</i> to the tomb, in which the survivors -offered sacrifices to the dead to keep him alive by the smell of the -burnt offering.</p> - -<p>The Egyptians had very little power of abstracting the idea of the -immaterial soul from the material dead body. At any rate, they did not -(for a long time) conceive the soul as a purely immaterial being. They -thought of the immortal part of man as a sort of <i>double</i> of the mortal -part. This double they called his <i>ka</i>. The <i>ka</i> could not exist without -some material form, and therefore they took infinite pains to provide it -with a body of some kind. They mummified the dead body so as to make it -last as long as possible. But besides that, they made numerous images of -the dead; sometimes (if his state could afford it) large statues of -wood<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> or stone. And in addition to these they made a vast number of -smaller images, generally of pottery—those little mummy figures in blue -or green pottery,<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a> of which we find such endless quantities buried in -the tombs.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_239" id="page_239"></a>{239}</span> There was usually a secret chamber or passage practised in -the tomb to contain these mummied figures, and it was so arranged that -the scent of the sacrifice might come along it.<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a></p> - -<p>All these ideas belong, we see, to the most <i>stationary</i> notion of the -dead. If they were followed out logically, the soul would be considered -as tied for ever to the mummy, which lies below in a dark chamber, or to -the little images in their small passage within the wall of the tomb. -But the Egyptians did not carry out this idea logically. For we find -prayers upon the walls of their earliest tombs, that Osiris should give -to the dead, sheep, oxen, and farm-labourers, and ‘sport,’ or corn, and -wine, and dancers, and jesters—all the pleasures, in fact, which he had -had in life. Therefore the dead must really have been thought to have -the power of life and motion as he had enjoyed it upon earth, -inconsistent as such an idea is with the constant enchainment of the -<i>ka</i> to some material belonging, to the mummy or to the image of -pottery.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">The<br /> journey of <br />the dead.</div> - -<p>Wherefore it came about that the Egyptians began to have a sort of -notion of <i>two</i> souls—one the half-material <i>ka</i>, which remained in the -tomb; the other of an immaterial nature, which moved about.</p> - -<p>But this notion of two souls arose because the Egyptians were <i>more</i> -precise and logical than most peoples have been in their speculations as -to the future state. Among other races we see a constant confusion -between the idea of resting in the tomb, and the idea of journeying to -another land generally in the wake of the sun. And the food and drink -placed on the tomb, instead of being the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_240" id="page_240"></a>{240}</span> simple nourishment of the -dead, were designed merely as a temporary provision for him <i>on his way</i> -to the land of souls.</p> - -<p>The expectation of a journey after death to reach the home of shades is -all but universal; and the opinion that the home of the departed lies in -the west is of an almost equally wide extension. The Egyptian religion, -with its wonderful Book of the Dead, gives as much weight to this side -of belief as to the other notion of resting in the tomb. To lengthen out -the soul’s journey, which was fancied to last thousands of years, and -give incident where all must have been really imaginary, the actual -journey of the mummy to its resting-place was lengthened after life to -portray the more ghostly wanderings of the spirit. As a rule, the cities -of the living in Egypt lay upon the eastern bank of the Nile; the tombs, -the cities of the dead, on the left or western bank, generally just -within the borders of the desert. Wherefore, as the body was carried -across the Nile to be buried in the desert, so the soul was believed to -begin his journey in the dim twilight region of Apap, king of the -desert, to cross a river more than once, to advance <i>towards the sun</i>, -light gradually breaking upon him the while, until at last he enters the -‘Palace of the Two Truths,’ the judgment-hall of Osiris (the sun). Last -of all, he walks into the sun itself, or is absorbed into the essence of -the deity.</p> - -<p>In these two notions we have, I think, the germ of almost all the most -ancient belief touching the soul’s future. A confusion between the two -notions would imagine the soul making a journey through the earth to an -underground land of shades. So far as we know, this was the prevailing -feeling among the Hebrews. Old Hebrew writers (with whom the hopes of -immortality were not strong) speak<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_241" id="page_241"></a>{241}</span> of going down into the grave,<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> a -place thought of as a misty, dull, unfeeling, almost unreal abode.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Journey to<br /> the sky.</div> - -<p>Finally, a third element—if not universal, common certainly to the -Aryan races—will be the conception of the soul separating from the body -altogether and mounting upwards to some home in the sky. All these -elements are found to exist and coexist in early creeds, and the force -of the component parts determines the colour of man’s doctrine about the -other world.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<div class="sidenote">The other world of the Aryans.</div> - -<p>Among all the Aryan peoples the Greeks seem to have turned their -thoughts farthest away from the contemplation of the grave; and though -the voice of wonder and imagination could not quite be silent upon so -important a question, Hades and the kingdom of Hades filled a -disproportionately small space in their creed. They shrank from images -of Death, and adorned their tombs or cinerary urns with wreaths of -flowers and figures of the dancing Hours: it is doubtful if the god -Thanatos (Death) has ever been pictured by Greek art.<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> And from what -they have left on record concerning Hades and the realms of death, it is -evident that they regarded it<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_242" id="page_242"></a>{242}</span> <i>chiefly</i> from its merely negative side, -in that aspect which corresponds most exactly to the notion of a dark -subterraneous kingdom, and not to that of a journey to some other -distant land. The etymology of their mythical King of Souls corresponds, -too, with the same notions. Hades means nothing else than A-eidês, the -unseen. And when it was said that the dead had gone to Hades, all that -was literally meant was that it had gone to the unseen place. But later -on, the place became personified into the grim deity whom we know in -Greek mythology, the brother of Zeus and Poseidon, he to whose share -fell, in the partition of the world, the land of perpetual night. The -underworld pictured by Homer is just of that voiceless, sightless -character which accords with the name of Hades. Even the great heroes -lose almost their identity, and all the joy and interest they had in -life. To ‘wander mid shadows a shadow, and wail by impassable streams,’ -is henceforward their occupation.</p> - -<p>Not that the Greek had <i>no</i> idea of another world of the more heavenly -sort; ideas obtained as a joint inheritance with their brother nations; -only their thoughts and their poetry do not often centre round such -pictures. Their Elysian fields are a western sun’s home, just after the -pattern of the Egyptian; and so are their Islands of the Blest, where, -according to one tradition, the just Rhadamanthus had been transported -when he fled from the power of his brother Minôs.<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a> Only, observe, -there is this difference between these Paradises and the Egyptian house -of Osiris—the latter was reached across the sandy desert, the former -are<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_243" id="page_243"></a>{243}</span> separated by the ocean from the abode of men. These are the -<i>Heavens</i> of the Greek mythology; while the realm of Hades—or later on -the realm Hades—might by contrast be called their Hell. Let us look a -little nearer at this heaven-picture.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">The River of Death.</div> - -<p>The Caspian Sea—or by whatever name we call the great mediterranean sea -which lay before them—would be naturally, almost inevitably, considered -by the Aryans from their home in Bactria to bound the habitable world. -The region beyond its borders would be a twilight-land like the land of -Apap (the desert-king) of the Egyptians; and still farther away would -lie the bright region of the sun’s proper home. And these ideas would be -both literal—cosmological conceptions, as we should call them—and -figurative, or at least mythical, referring to the future state of the -soul. The beautiful expression of the Hebrew for that twilight western -region, ‘the valley of the shadow of death,’ might be used for the -Apap-land in its figurative significance, and not the less justly -because there creeps in here the other notion of death as of a -<i>descending</i> to the land of shades, for the two ideas of the western -heaven and the subterraneous hell were never utterly separated, but, -among the Aryans at any rate, constantly acted and reacted upon one -another. So with the Greeks we have as a cosmological conception—or let -us say, more simply, a part of their world-theory—the encircling river -Oceanus, with the dim Cimmerian land beyond; and we have the Eylsian -fields and the islands of the blest for the most happy dead. And then by -a natural transfer of ideas the bounding river becomes the river of -death—Styx and Lethê—and is placed below the earth in the region of -death. Even the Elysian fields at last suffer the same change: they too -pass below the earth.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_244" id="page_244"></a>{244}</span></p> - -<p>The Indian religion, too, has its river of death. ‘On the fearful road -to Yama’s door,’ says a hymn, ‘is the terrible stream Vaitara<i>n</i>î, in -order to cross which I sacrifice a black cow.’<a name="FNanchor_98_98" id="FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a></p> - -<p>This river of death must be somehow crossed. The Greeks, we know, had -their grim ferryman.</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Portitor has horrendus aquas et flumina servat<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Terribili squalore Charon: cui plurima mento<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Canities inculta jacet; stant lumina flamma,’ etc.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">The Indians crossed their river of death by a bridge, which was guarded -by two dogs, not less terrible to evildoers than Charon and Cerberus.</p> - -<p>‘A narrow path, an ancient one, stretches there, a path untrodden by -men, a path I know of.</p> - -<p>‘On it the wise, who had known Brahma, ascend to the dwellings of -Svarga, when they have received their dismissal.’<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a> So sings a poet.</p> - -<p>Swarga is the Bright Land (<i>svar</i>, to shine), <i>i.e.</i> the Home of the -Sun. The names of the two guardian dogs, too, are interesting. They are -the sons of that Saramâ whom we have already seen sent by Indra to -recover his lost cattle, whose name signifies the breeze of morning. -Saramâ’s two sons, the dogs of Yama, being so closely connected with the -god of the under-world—as Saramâ is with Indra the sun-god—might be -guessed as the winds of evening or, more vaguely, the evening, as Saramâ -is the morning. They are so; and by their name of Sârameyas, are even -more closely related to Hermes than Saramâ was.<a name="FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a> We now know why to -Hermes was allotted the office of Psychopomp, or leader of the shades to -the realm of Hades—or at least we partly<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_245" id="page_245"></a>{245}</span> know; for we see that he is -the same with the two dogs of Yama in the Indian myth. But they are also -connected by name with another much more infernal being, Cerberus. Their -individual names were <i>Cerbura</i><a name="FNanchor_101_101" id="FNanchor_101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a> the spotted, and Syama the black. -Thus the identity of nature is confirmed by the identity of name.</p> - -<p>Death and Sleep are twin-brothers, and we need not be surprised to find -the Sârameyas, or rather <i>a</i> god Sârameyas, addressed as a sort of god -of sleep, a divine hound, the protector of the sleeping household, as we -do find in a very beautiful poem of the Rig-Vedas.<a name="FNanchor_102_102" id="FNanchor_102_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a></p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Destroyer of sickness, guard of the house; oh, thou who takest all shapes, be to us a peace-bringing friend.<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Bay at the robber, Sârameyas, bay at the thief; why bayest thou at the singer of Indra? why art thou angry with me? sleep, Sârameyas.<br /></span> -<span class="i1">The mother sleeps, the father sleeps, the dog sleeps, the clan-father<a name="FNanchor_103_103" id="FNanchor_103_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a> sleeps, the whole clan sleeps; sleep thou, Sârameyas.<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Those who sleep by the cattle, those who sleep by the wain, the women who lie on the couches, the sweet-scented ones, all these we bring to slumber.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">How these verses breathe of the fragrant air of early pastoral -life! In their names, again, of ‘black’ and ‘spotted’ it is -very probable that the dogs typified two appearances of -night—black or starry.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">The heavenward journey.</div> - -<p>And yet we must remember that Hermes is not a god of -night, or sleep, but strictly and properly of the wind, and -that his name, as that of Sârameyas, bears this -meaning in its construction. The god who -bore away the souls to the other world, however -connected with the night, ‘the proper time for dying,’ -must have been originally the wind. And in this we see<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_246" id="page_246"></a>{246}</span> -an exquisite appropriateness. The soul is, in its original -and literal meaning, the breath<a name="FNanchor_104_104" id="FNanchor_104_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_104_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a>—‘the spirit does but -mean the breath.’ What more natural, therefore, than -that the spirit should be carried away by the wind-god? -This was peculiarly an Aryan idea. Yet let it not be laid -to the Aryans’ charge, as though their theories of the soul -and future life were less spiritual than those of other nations: -quite the contrary was the case. So far as they abandoned -the notion of the existence of the <i>body</i> in another state and -transferred the future to the soul, their ideas became higher, -and their pictures of the other world more amplified. But -how, it may be asked, did the Aryans pass to their more -spiritual conception of the soul? The more external causes -of this progress it is worth while briefly to trace.</p> - -<p>The sun, it has been said, acted powerfully upon men’s -minds in pointing the hopes of futurity. And in sketching -the sun-myth which lay concealed in the story of the life of -Heracles, we noticed one feature which suggests thoughts -about a not yet mentioned element in the funeral rites of the -Aryans. The fiery setting of the sun would itself suggest a -fiery funeral, and pre-eminently so to a race who seem to -have been addicted more than any other to this form of -interment. Balder, the Northern sun-god, likewise receives -such a funeral, and this more even than the death of Heracles -exemplifies the double significance of the sun’s westering -course. For he sails away upon a burning ship. When, -therefore, this fire-burial was thoroughly established in -custom as the most heroic sort of end, it is not likely that -men would longer rely upon their belief that the body continued -in an after-life. The thought of the dead man living -in his grave or travelling thence to regions below must, or -should, by the consistent be definitely abandoned. In place<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_247" id="page_247"></a>{247}</span> -of it, a theory of the vital faculty residing in the breath, -which almost amounts to a soul distinct from the body, is -accepted. Or, if the doubting brethren still require some -visible representation of this vital power, the smoke<a name="FNanchor_105_105" id="FNanchor_105_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a> of the -funeral pyre may typify the ascending soul. Nay, it would -appear as though inanimate things likewise had some -such essence, which by the fire could be separated from -their material form. For what would formerly have been -placed with the dead in the grave is now placed upon the -pyre. In the funeral of Patroclus (<i>Il.</i> xxiii.) we have a -complete picture of these reformed rites, which seems to -be applicable to all the Aryan folk; nor surely could we -wish for anything more striking and impressive. The fat -oxen and sheep are slain before the pyre, and with the fat from -their bodies and with honey the corpse is liberally anointed. -Then twelve captives are sacrificed to the manes of the -hero; they and his twelve favourite dogs are burnt with -him upon the pile. We soon see the reason for the -anointing of the corpse with fat, and taking so much pains -that it should be thoroughly consumed. It was necessary -for the peace of the shade that his body should be -thoroughly burned; for the funeral ceremony was looked -upon as the inevitable portal to Hades; without it the -ghost still lingered upon earth unable to cross the Stygian -stream. So afterwards, when the pile will not burn, -Achilles prays to the North and the West Winds and -pours libations to them that they may come and consummate -the funeral rite. All night as the flame springs up Achilles -stands beside it, calling upon the name of his friend and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_248" id="page_248"></a>{248}</span> -watering the ground with libations from a golden cup. -Toward morning the flame sinks down; and then the two -winds, according to the beautiful language of mythology, -return homeward across the Thracian sea.</p> - -<p>All the Aryan nationalities practised cremation in some -form or other, or had practised it; most only gave it up -upon the introduction of Christianity. The time is too -remote, therefore, to say when this form of interment was -in truth a novelty; and the fact that the bronze age in -Europe is, as distinguished from that of stone, a corpse-burning -age, is one of the reasons which urge us to the -conclusion that the bronze-using invaders were of the Aryan -family.<a name="FNanchor_106_106" id="FNanchor_106_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a> The Indians, owing to their excessive reverence -for Agni the fire-god, adhered to the practice most faithfully; -though the very same reason (namely, their regard -for the purity of fire) made the reformed Iranian religion -utterly repudiate it—a fact which might seem strange did we -not know how Zoroastrianism was sometimes governed by a -spirit of opposition to the older faith.<a name="FNanchor_107_107" id="FNanchor_107_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_107_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a> Among the Norsemen -about the time of the introduction of Christianity into<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_249" id="page_249"></a>{249}</span> -Scandinavia, Burn? or Bury? became a test-question, and a -constant cause of dispute between the rival creeds.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Other world of the Norsemen.</div> - -<p>In the Northern religion, too, therefore, we have the same -leading ideas which we have signalized in the Indian or -Grecian systems. Especially does that notion -of the breath of the body, or the smoke of the -funeral pyre representing the soul of the hero -and carried upward under care of the wind, come prominently -forward. This might be expected because, it will -be remembered, the wind in the Northern mythology is not, -as with the Indians, a servant of Yama only, or as with the -Greeks a lesser divinity, but is the first of all the gods. To -Odin is assigned the task of collecting the souls of heroes -who had fallen in battle; and there are few myths more -poetical than that which pictures him riding to battle-fields -to execute his mission. He is accompanied by his Valkyriur, -‘the choosers,’ a sort of Amazonian houris, half -human, half-godlike, who ride through the air in the form -of swans; wherefore they—who are originally, perhaps, the -clouds—are often called in the Eddas, Odin’s swan-maidens. -It has been said that this myth lived on in after-ages in the -form of the <i>Phantom Army</i> and <i>Herne the Hunter</i>: and the -essential part of it, the myth of the soul carried away by -the wind, lived on more obscurely in a hundred other tales, -some of which we may glance at in our next chapter upon -<i>Mythology</i>. But while this idea of the mounting soul is -often clearly expressed—as, for instance, where in Beowulf,<a name="FNanchor_108_108" id="FNanchor_108_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_108_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a> -in the last scene, the hero is burnt by the seashore, it is<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_250" id="page_250"></a>{250}</span> -said of him that he <i>wand to wolcum</i>, ‘curled to the clouds,’ -imaging well the curling smoke of the pyre—there still -lingered on other ideas of the death-home, a subterraneous -land (Helheim, Hel’s home) ruled over by the goddess -Hel,<a name="FNanchor_109_109" id="FNanchor_109_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_109_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> and an infernal Styx-like stream, with the bridge of -Indian mythology transferred to the lower world. And so -much were the three distinct ideas interwoven, that in the -myth of Balder each one may be traced. For here the -sun-god, who is the very origin and prototype of the two -more exalted elements of the creed of the heavenward -journey,<a name="FNanchor_110_110" id="FNanchor_110_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_110_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a> has himself to stoop downward to the gates of Hel. -If this legend sanctified for the heathens the practice of fire-burial, -they had certainly so much excuse for their obstinate -adherence to the older custom, as one of the most beautiful -myths ever told might plead for them. We may look upon -the story of the death and burning of Balder in two aspects—first -as an image of the setting sun, next as an expression -of men’s thoughts concerning death, and the course of the -soul to its future home. If in this latter respect the story -seems to mix up two different myths concerning the other -world, we need not be surprised at that.</p> - -<p>Balder dies, as the sun dies each day, and as the summer -dies into winter. He falls, struck by a dart from the hand -of his blind brother Hödr (the darkness), and the shadow -of death appears for the first time in the homes of Asgard. -At first the gods knew not what to make of it, ‘they were -struck dumb with horror,’ says the Edda;<a name="FNanchor_111_111" id="FNanchor_111_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_111_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a> but seeing that<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_251" id="page_251"></a>{251}</span> -he is really dead, they prepare his funeral pyre. They took -his ship <i>Hringhorni</i> (Ringhorn, the disk of the sun), and on -it set a pile of wood, with Balder’s horse and his armour, -and all that he valued most, to which each god added some -worthy gift. And when Nanna, the wife of Balder, saw the -preparations, her heart broke with grief, and she too was -laid upon the pile. Then they set fire to the ship, which -sailed out burning into the sea.</p> - -<p>But Balder himself had to go to Helheim, the dark abode -beneath the earth, where reigns Hel,<a name="FNanchor_112_112" id="FNanchor_112_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_112_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a> the goddess of the -dead. Then Odin sends his messenger, Hermödr, to the -goddess, to pray her to let Balder return once more to -earth. For nine days and nine nights Hermödr rode -through dark glens, so dark that he could not discern anything -until he came to the river Gjöll (‘the sounding’—notice -that here the Greek Cocytus reappears), over which -he rode by Gjöll’s bridge, which was pleasant with bright -gold. A maiden sat there keeping the bridge; she inquired -of him his name and lineage—for, said she, ‘Yestereve -five bands of dead men rid over the bridge, yet they -did not shake it so much as thou hast done. But thou hast -not death’s hue upon thee; why, then, ridest thou here on -the way to Hel?’</p> - -<p>‘I ride to Hel,’ answered Hermödr, ‘to seek Balder. -Hast thou perchance seen him pass this way?’</p> - -<p>‘Balder,’ answered she, ‘hath ridden over Gjöll’s bridge. -But yonder, northward, lies the road to Hel.’</p> - -<p>Hermödr then rode into the palace, where he found his -brother Balder filling the highest place in the hall, and in<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_252" id="page_252"></a>{252}</span> -his company he passed the night. The next morning he -besought Hel, that she would let Balder ride home with -him, assuring her how great the grief was among the gods.</p> - -<p>Hel answered, ‘It shall now be proved whether Balder -be so much loved as thou sayest. If, therefore, all things -both living and lifeless weep for him, then shall he return. -But if one thing speak against him or refuse to weep, he -shall be kept in Helheim.’</p> - -<p>And when Hermödr had delivered this answer, the gods -sent off messengers throughout the whole world, to tell -everything to weep, in order that Balder might be delivered -out of Helheim. All things freely complied with this -request, both man and every other living thing, and earths, -and stones, and trees, and metals, just as thou hast no doubt -seen these things weep when they are brought from a cold -place into a hot one. As the messengers were returning, -and deemed that their mission had been successful, they -found an old hag, named Thokk,<a name="FNanchor_113_113" id="FNanchor_113_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_113_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a> sitting in a cavern, and -her they begged to weep Balder out of Helheim. But she -said:—</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td align="left">‘Thokk will wail</td><td align="left">Nought quick or dead</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left"> With dry eyes</td><td align="left">For carl’s son care I.</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left"> Balder’s bale-fire. </td><td align="left">Let Hel hold her own.’</td></tr> -</table> - -<p>So Balder remained in Helheim.</p> - -<p>Such was the sad conclusion of the myth of which the memory is kept up -even in these days. For in Norway and Sweden—nay, in some parts of -Scotland, the <i>bale-fires</i> celebrating the bale or death of the sun-god -are lighted on<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_253" id="page_253"></a>{253}</span> the day when the sun passes the highest point in the -ecliptic. Balder will not, said tradition, remain for ever in Helheim. A -day will come, the twilight of the gods, when the gods themselves will -be destroyed in a final victorious contest with the evil powers. And -then, when a new earth has arisen from the deluge which destroys the -old, Balder, the god of Peace, will come from Death’s home to rule over -this regenerate world. A sublime myth—if indeed it can be called a -<i>myth</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_254" id="page_254"></a>{254}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.<br /><br /> -<small>MYTHOLOGIES AND FOLK-TALES.</small></h2> - -<div class="sidenote">Diversity of myths.</div> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">If</span> we found it difficult to reduce to a consistent simplicity the -religious ideas of the Aryan races, what hope have we to find any thread -through the labyrinth of their unbridled imagination in dealing with -more fanciful subjects? The world is all before them where to choose; -nature, in her multitudinous works and ever-changing shows, is at hand -to give breath to the faculty of myth-making, and lay the foundation of -all the stories which have ever been told. The two elements concurrent -to the manufacture of mythologies are the varying phenomena in nature, -and that which is called the anthropomorphic (personifying) faculty in -man. I do not mean by this that all myths represent natural appearances. -Some simply relate events, real human experiences; all that is mythic -about such stories is that they are <i>misplaced</i>. Some one has gone -through the adventures, but not the person of whom they are told. Other -tales transfer in a like fashion human experiences to beings who are not -human, to animals, to trees and streams, maybe even to implements, to -spades and ploughs, to hatchets, swords, or ships. All these may be -subject of mere tale-telling.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_255" id="page_255"></a>{255}</span> But what I understand by mythology are -the stories related of the gods—at all events, stories of supernatural -beings who are almost gods. And among the Aryan folk, as the gods are in -almost every instance the personifications of phenomena or powers of -nature, the myths of widest extension were necessarily occupied with -these.</p> - -<p>Religion being the greatest concern of man, the myths which allied -themselves most closely to his religious ideas would be those which -maintained the longest life and most universal acceptance. In reviewing -some of the Aryan myths—in a hasty and general review as it must needs -be—the preceding chapter will serve to guide us to the myths most -closely connected with religious notions, which have a chief claim upon -our attention. Indeed, reading in a converse manner, it was the fact -that so many myths clung around certain natural phenomena which allowed -us, with proper reservation, to point these out as the phenomena which -held the most intimate place in men’s minds and hearts. <i>With proper -reservations</i>, because the highest, most abstracted god does not lend -himself as a subject for the myth-making faculty. He stands apart from -the polytheistic circle: below him stand the nature-gods who are also -the heroes of the mythologies.</p> - -<p>And now, with a backward glance to what has been already written, we may -expect the chief myth systems to divide themselves into certain classes -corresponding with the god—or natural phenomenon—that is their -concern. We may expect to find myths relating especially to the labours -of the sun, like those of Heracles and Thorr, or to the wind, like that -of Hermes stealing the cattle of Apollo, or to the earth sleeping in the -embrace of winter, or sorrowing for the loss of her greenery, or joying -again in her recovered life. And again we may look to find myths more<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_256" id="page_256"></a>{256}</span> -intimately concerned with death, and with the looked-for future of the -soul. These will mingle like mingling streams, but we shall often be -able to trace their origin.</p> - -<p>But, to begin with, do not suppose that, if I say that a natural -phenomenon has given rise to a story, I mean to say that the story could -not have arisen except through this natural phenomenon. Or, to put it in -plainer language, do not suppose that if I say that this or that -adventure is related of the sun or of the wind, I mean that the -adventure was never heard of before the sun or wind was worshipped as a -god or idealized as a hero. If Indra, or Apollo, is called the -serpent-slayer, I do not mean that it is by the battle of the sun and -the clouds that men got the idea of slaying serpents. If the wind is -said to ride a-horseback over hill and dale, if the thunder-god is said -to hurl his hammer at the mountain-tops, I do not mean that men never -thought of horses or battle-hammers till they began to make stories -about the wind and sun. What I do mean is that certain special forms of -the myths related, <i>as we now see them</i>, were told of the Aryan god who -was some phenomenon of nature—the sun or whatever he might be. It is -necessary to give this word of caution, because the relationship of -mythology to religion has sometimes, by recent writings upon the -subject, been a good deal confused and obscured.</p> - -<p>The diversity of the natural phenomena which give them rise will not in -any way hinder the myths from reproducing the <i>human</i> elements which -have, since the world began held their pre-eminence in romance and -history. There will be love-stories, stories of battle and victory, of -magic and strange disguises, of suddenly acquired treasure, and, most -attractive of all to the popular mind, stories of princes and princesses -whose princedom is hidden under a servile<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_257" id="page_257"></a>{257}</span> station or beggar’s -gaberdine, and of heroes who allow their heroism to rust for a while in -strange inaction, that</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i8">‘Imitate the sun,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Who doth permit the base contagious clouds<br /></span> -<span class="i0">To smother up his beauty from the world,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">That, when he please again to be himself,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Being wanted, he may be more wondered at.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">Not necessarily because such heroes <i>were</i> the sun, but rather that the -tales, appealing so intimately to the common sympathies of human nature, -attach themselves pre-eminently to the great natural hero, the sun-god.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Sun-myths.</div> - -<p>To begin, then, with the sun-god. His love-stories relate most commonly -the pursuit of the dawn, a woman, by the god of day. She flies at the -approach of the sun; or, if the two are married in early morning, when -the day advances, the dawn dies or the sun leaves her to pursue his -allotted journey. We read how Apollo pursued Daphnê, while she still -fled from him, and at last, praying to the gods, was changed into a -laurel, which ever afterwards remained sacred to the son of Lêtô. There -is nothing new in the story; it might be related of any hero. Yet, as we -find Greek art so often busy with it, we might guess that it had -obtained for some reason a hold more than commonly firm upon the popular -imagination. And when we turn from the Greek to the Sanskrit we are able -to unravel the myth and show it, so far as the names are concerned, -peculiar to the sun-god. Daphnê (it is believed) is the Sanskrit Ahanâ, -that is to say, the Dawn.</p> - -<p>A tenderer love-story is that which speaks of the sun and the dawn as -united at the opening of the day, but of the separation which follows -when the sun reveals himself in his true splendour. The parting, -however, will not be eternal, for the sun in the evening shall sink into -the arms<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_258" id="page_258"></a>{258}</span> of the west, as in the morning he left those of the east—all -the physical appearances at sundown will correspond with those of the -dawn—so in poetical language he will be said to return to his love -again at the evening of life. In right accord with its natural origin -and native attractiveness, we find this story repeated almost -identically as regards its chief incidents by all the branches of the -Aryan family. For an Indian version of it the reader may consult the -story of Urva<i>s</i>i and Pururavas, told by Mr. Max Müller from one of the -Vedas.<a name="FNanchor_114_114" id="FNanchor_114_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_114_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a> Urva<i>s</i>i is a fairy who falls in love with Pururavas, a -mortal, and consents to become his wife, on condition that she should -never see him without his royal garment on, ‘for this is the manner of -women.’ For a while they lived together happily; but the Gandhavas, the -fairy beings to whom Urva<i>s</i>i belonged, were jealous of her love for a -mortal, and they laid a plot to separate them. ‘Now, there was a ewe -with two lambs tied to the couch of Urva<i>s</i>i and Pururavas, and the -fairies stole one of them, so that Urva<i>s</i>i upbraided her husband and -said, “They steal my darlings as though I lived in a land where there is -no hero, and no man.” And Pururavas said, “How can that be a land -without heroes or men where I am?” and naked he sprang up. Then the -Gandhavas sent a flash of lightning, and Urva<i>s</i>i saw her husband naked -as by daylight. Then she vanished. “I come back,” she said; and went.’</p> - -<p>Cupid loves Psyche as Pururavas Urva<i>s</i>i, but here the story is so far -changed that the woman breaks the condition laid upon their union. Not -this time by accident, but from the evil counselling of her two sisters, -Psyche disobeys her husband. They have long been married, but she has -never<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_259" id="page_259"></a>{259}</span> seen his face; and doubts begin to arise lest some horrid -monster, and not a god, may be the sharer of her couch. So she takes the -lamp, and when she deems her husband is fast locked in sleep, gazes upon -the face of the god of love.</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i8">‘But as she turned at last<br /></span> -<span class="i0">To quench the lamp, there happed a little thing<br /></span> -<span class="i0">That quenched her new delight, for flickering,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">The treacherous flame cast on his shoulder fair<br /></span> -<span class="i0">A burning drop; he woke, and seeing her there,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">The meaning of that sad sight knew full well;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Nor was there need the piteous tale to tell.’<a name="FNanchor_115_115" id="FNanchor_115_115"></a><a href="#Footnote_115_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a><br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>Here, it is true, we have wandered away from the adventures of the sun. -Cupid or Eros is in no sense a sun-god; nor has Psyche any proved -connection with Ushas, the Dawn. Once a sun-myth does not mean always a -sun-myth.<a name="FNanchor_116_116" id="FNanchor_116_116"></a><a href="#Footnote_116_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a> So much the contrary, that it is part of our business to -show how stories, first appropriated to Olympus or Asgard, may descend -to take their place among the commonest collection of nursery tales. It -is the case with this myth of the Dawn. The reader’s acquaintance with -nursery literature has probably already anticipated the kinship to be -claimed by one of the most familiar childish legends. But as one more -link to rivet the bond of union between <i>Urvasi and Pururavas</i> and -<i>Beauty and the Beast</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_260" id="page_260"></a>{260}</span> let us look at a story of Swedish origin called -<i>Prince Hatt under the Earth</i>.</p> - -<p>‘There was once, very very long ago, a king who had three daughters, all -exquisitely fair, and much more amiable than other maidens, so that -their like was not to be found far or near. But the youngest princess -excelled her sisters, not only in beauty, but in goodness of heart and -kindness of disposition. She was consequently greatly beloved by all, -and the king himself was more fondly attached to her than to either of -his other daughters.</p> - -<p>‘It happened one autumn that there was a fair in a town not far from the -king’s residence, and the king himself resolved on going to it with his -attendants. When on the eve of departure, he asked his three daughters -what they would like for fairings, it being his constant custom to make -them some present on his return home. The two elder princesses began -instantly to enumerate precious things of curious kinds; one would have -this, the other that; but the youngest daughter asked for nothing. At -this the king was surprised, and asked her whether she would not like -some ornament or other; but she answered that she had plenty of gold and -jewels. When the king, however, would not desist from urging her, she at -length said, “There is one thing which I would gladly have, if only I -might venture to ask it of my father.” “What may that be?” inquired the -king; “say what it is, and if it be in my power you shall have it.” “It -is this,” replied the princess, “I have heard talk of the <i>three singing -leaves</i>, and them I wish to have before anything else in the world.” The -king laughed at her for making so trifling a request, and at length -exclaimed, “I cannot say that you are very covetous, and would rather by -half that you had asked for some greater gift. You shall, however, have -what you desire, though it should cost me<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_261" id="page_261"></a>{261}</span> half my realm.” He then bade -his daughters farewell and rode away.’</p> - -<p>Of course he goes to the fair, and on his way home happens to hear the -three singing leaves, ‘which moved to and fro, and as they swayed there -came forth a sound such as it would be impossible to describe.’ The king -was glad to have found what his daughter had wished for, and was about -to pluck them, but the instant he stretched forth his hand towards them, -they withdrew from his grasp, and a powerful voice was heard from under -the earth saying, ‘Touch not my leaves.’ ‘At this the king was somewhat -surprised, and asked who it was, and whether he could not purchase the -leaves for gold or good words. The voice answered, “I am <i>Prince Hatt -under the Earth</i>, and you will not get my leaves either with good or bad -as you desire. Nevertheless I will propose to you one condition.” “What -condition is that?” asked the king with eagerness. “It is,” answered the -voice, “that you promise me the first living thing that you meet when -you return to your palace.” ’ As we anticipate, the first thing which he -meets is his youngest daughter, who therefore is left with lamentation -under the hazel bush: and, as is its wont on such occasions, the ground -opens, and she finds herself in a beautiful palace. Here she lives long -and happily with Prince Hatt, upon condition that she shall never see -him. But at last she is permitted to pay a visit to her father and -sisters; and her stepmother succeeds in awakening her curiosity and her -fears, lest she should really be married to some horrid monster. The -princess thus allows herself to be persuaded to strike a light and gaze -on her husband while he is asleep. Of course, just as her eyes have -lighted upon a beautiful youth he awakes, and as a consequence of her -disobedience—(here the story alters somewhat)—he is struck blind, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_262" id="page_262"></a>{262}</span> -the two are obliged to wander over the earth, and endure all manner of -misfortunes before Prince Hatt’s sight is at last restored.</p> - -<p>The sun is so apt to take the place of an almost super-human hero, that -most of the stories of such when they are purely mythical relate some -part of the sun’s daily course and labours. Thus in the Greek, Perseus, -Theseus, Jason, are in the main sun-heroes, though they mingle with -their histories tales of real human adventure. One of the most easily -traceable sun-stories is that of Perseus and the Gorgon. The later -representations of Medusa in Greek art give her a beautiful dead face -shrouded by luxurious snaky tresses; but the earlier art presents us -with a round face, distorted by a hideous grin from ear to ear, broad -cheeks, low forehead, over which curl a few flattened locks. We at once -see the likeness of this face to the full moon; a likeness which, -without regard to mythology, forces itself upon us; and then the true -story of Perseus flashes upon us as the extinction of the moon by the -sun’s light. This is the baneful Gorgon’s head, the full moon, which so -many nations superstitiously believed could exert a fatal power over the -sleeper; and when slain by the son of Danaê, it is the pale ghostlike -disc which we see by day. It is very interesting to see how the Greeks -made a myth of the moon in its—one may say—literal unidealized aspect, -in addition to the countless more poetical myths which spoke of the moon -as a beautiful goddess, queen of the night, the virgin huntress -surrounded by her pack of dogs—the stars. In the instance of Medusa -these two aspects of one natural appearance are brought into close -relationship, for Athênê—who is sometimes a moon-goddess—wears the -Gorgon’s head upon her shield.</p> - -<p>As we have passed on to speak of the moon, we may as<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_263" id="page_263"></a>{263}</span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">Moon-myths.</div> - -<p class="nind">well notice some of the other moon-myths: though in the case of these, -as of the myths of the sun, our only object must be to show the -characteristic forms which this order of tales assumes, so that the way -may be partly cleared for their detection; nothing like a complete list -of the infinitely varied shapes which the same nature-story can assume -being possible. One of the most beautiful of moon-myths is surely the -tale of Artemis (Diana) and Endymion. This last, the beautiful shepherd -of Latmos,<a name="FNanchor_117_117" id="FNanchor_117_117"></a><a href="#Footnote_117_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a> by his name ‘He who enters,’ is in origin the sun just -entering the <i>cave</i> of night.<a name="FNanchor_118_118" id="FNanchor_118_118"></a><a href="#Footnote_118_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a> The moon looking upon the setting sun -is a signal for his long sleep, which in the myth becomes the sleep of -death. The same myth reappears in the well-known German legend of -Tannhäuser. He enters a mountain, the Venusberg, or Mount of Venus, and -is not sent to sleep, but laid under an enchantment by the goddess -within. In other versions of the legend the mountain is called not -Venusberg but Horelberg, and from this name we trace the natural origin -of the myth. For there was an old moon-goddess of the Teutons called -Horel or Hursel. She therefore is the enchantress in this case; and the -Christian knight falls a victim to the old German moon-goddess. It has -been supposed that the story of the massacre of St. Ursula and her -eleven thousand virgins—whose bones they show to this day at -Cologne—arose out of the same nature-myth; and that this St. Ursula is -also none other than Hursel, followed by her myriad troop of stars.<a name="FNanchor_119_119" id="FNanchor_119_119"></a><a href="#Footnote_119_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a></p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>The northern religion, or say the old German creed its<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_264" id="page_264"></a>{264}</span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">Northern sun-myths, etc.</div> - -<p class="nind">first cousin, has been fruitful in myths which were repeated all through -the Middle Ages and out of which the greater part of our popular tales -have sprung. Thor, originally the sun and now the god of thunder, the -champion of men, and the enemy of the Jötuns (giants), becomes in later -days Jack the Giant Killer; Odin, by a like descent, the Wandering Jew, -or the Pied Piper of Hamelin. And thus through a hundred popular legends -we can detect the natural appearance out of which they originally -sprang. Let us look at them first in their old heathen forms. Thor, the -hero and sun-god, the northern Heracles, distinguishes himself as the -implacable enemy of the rime-giants and frost-giants, the powers of cold -and darkness; and to carry on his hostilities, he makes constant -expeditions, ‘farings’ into giant-land, or Jötunheim, as it is called; -and these expeditions generally end in the thorough discomfiture of the -strong but rude and foolish personifications of barren nature.</p> - -<p>One of these, the adventure to the house of Thrym,<a name="FNanchor_120_120" id="FNanchor_120_120"></a><a href="#Footnote_120_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a> is to recover -Thor’s hammer, which has been stolen by the giant and hidden many miles -beneath the earth. A spy is sent from Asgard (the city of the gods) into -Jötunheim, and brings back word that Thrym will not give up his prize -unless Freyja—goddess of Spring and Beauty—be given to him as his -bride; and at first Thor proposes this alternative to Freyja herself, -little, as may be guessed, to her satisfaction.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_265" id="page_265"></a>{265}</span></p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Wroth was Freyja and with fury fumed,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">All the Æsir’s hall under her trembled;<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Broken flew the famed Brisinga necklace.’<a name="FNanchor_121_121" id="FNanchor_121_121"></a><a href="#Footnote_121_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a><br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">But the wily Loki settles the difficulty. Thor shall to Jötunheim clad -in Freyja’s weeds,</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Let by his side, keys jingle, and a neat coif set on his head.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">So taking Loki with him clad as a serving-maid, the god fares to Thrym’s -house, as though he were the looked-for bride. It must, one would -suppose, have been an anxious time for Thor and Loki, while unarmed they -sate in the hall of the giant; for the hero could not avoid raising some -suspicions by his unwomanly appearance and demeanour. He alone devoured, -we are told, an ox, eight salmon, ‘and all the sweetmeats women should -have,’ and he drank eight ‘scalds’ of mead. Thrym naturally exclaimed -that he never saw brides eat so greedily or drink so much mead. But the -‘all-crafty’ Loki sitting by, explained how this was owing to the hurry -Freyja was in to behold her bridegroom, which left her no time to eat -for the eight nights during which she had been journeying there. And so -again when Thrym says—</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Why are so piercing Freyja’s glances?<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Methinks that fire burns from her eyes,’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">Loki explains that for the same reason she had not slept upon her -journey; and the foolish, vain giant is gulled once more. At last the -coveted prize, the hammer, was brought in to consecrate the marriage, -and ‘Thor’s soul laughed in his breast, when the fierce-hearted his -hammer knew. He slew Thrym, the Thursar’s (giant’s) lord, and the -Jötun’s race crushed he utterly.’</p> - -<p>At another time Thor engages Alvîs, ‘of the race of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_266" id="page_266"></a>{266}</span> Thursar,’<a name="FNanchor_122_122" id="FNanchor_122_122"></a><a href="#Footnote_122_122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a> -in conversation upon all manner of topics, concerning the names which -different natural objects bear among men, among gods, among giants, and -among dwarfs, until he guilefully keeps him above earth till after -sunrise, which it is not possible for a dwarf or Jötun to do and live. -So Alvîs bursts asunder.<a name="FNanchor_123_123" id="FNanchor_123_123"></a><a href="#Footnote_123_123" class="fnanchor">[123]</a> This tale shows clearly enough how much -Thor’s enemies are allied with darkness.</p> - -<p>Thor is not always so successful. In another of his journeys<a name="FNanchor_124_124" id="FNanchor_124_124"></a><a href="#Footnote_124_124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a> the -giants play a series of tricks upon him, quite suitable to the Teutonic -conception of the cold north, as a place of magic, glamour, and -illusion. One giant induces the thunderer to mistake a mountain for him, -and to hurl at <i>it</i> the death-dealing bolt—his hammer Mjölnir. -Afterwards he is set to drain a horn which he supposes he can finish at -a draught, but finds that after the third pull at it, scarcely more than -the rim has been left bare; at the same time Loki engages in an eating -match with one Logi, and is utterly worsted. But in reality Thor’s horn -has reached to the sea, and he has been draining at that; while the -antagonist of Loki is the devouring fire itself. Next Thor is unable to -lift a cat from the ground, for it is in truth the great Midgard serpent -which girds the whole earth. Finally he is overcome in a wrestling match -with an old hag, whose name is Ella, that is Old Age or Death. Enough -has been said in these stories to show how directly the cloak of Thor -descends to the heroes of our nursery tales, Jack the Giant Killer and -Jack of the Bean-Stalk.</p> - -<p>Not unconnected with the sun-god are the mythical<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_267" id="page_267"></a>{267}</span> heroes of northern -poetry, the Perseus or Theseus of Germany and Scandinavia. The famous -Sigurd the Volsung, the slayer of Fafnir, or his counterpart Siegfrid of -the Nibelung song, or again the hero of our own English poem -Beowulf,<a name="FNanchor_125_125" id="FNanchor_125_125"></a><a href="#Footnote_125_125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a> are especially at war with dragons—which represent the -powers of darkness—or with beings of a Jötun-like character. They are -all discoverers of treasure; and this so far corresponds with the -character of Thor that the thunderbolt is often spoken of as the -revealer of the treasures of the earth, and that the sign of it was -employed as a charm for that purpose. And when we read the account of -these adventures we see how entirely unhuman in character most of them -were, and how much the incidents in the drama bear a reminiscence of the -natural phenomena from which they sprang.</p> - -<p>This is especially the case with Beowulf. The poem is weird and -imaginative in the highest degree: the atmosphere into which we are -thrown seems to be the misty delusive air of Jötunheim, and the -unearthly beings whom Beowulf encounters must have had birth within the -shadows of night and in the mystery which attached to the wild unvisited -tracts of country. Grendel, a horrid ghoul who feasts on human beings, -whom Beowulf wrestles with (as Thor wrestles with Ella) and puts to -death, is described as an ‘inhabiter of the moors,’ the ‘fen and -fastnesses;’ he comes upon the scene ‘like a cloud from the misty hills, -through the wan night a shadow-walker stalking;’ and of him and his -mother it is said,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_268" id="page_268"></a>{268}</span></p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘They a father know not,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Whether any of them was<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Born before<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Of the dark ghosts.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">They inhabit, in a secret land, the wolves’ retreat, and in ‘windy -ways—</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Where the mountain stream<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Under the ness’s mist<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Downward flows.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<div class="sidenote">Wind-myths.</div> - -<p>Of the myths which spring from the wind, and which may therefore be -reckoned the children of Odin, by far the most interesting are those -which attach to him in his part of Psycopomp, or soul-leader, and which -form a part, therefore, of an immense series of tales connected with the -Teutonic ideas of death as they were detailed in the last chapter. There -were many reasons why these occupied a leading place in middle-age -legend. The German race is naturally a gloomy or at least a thoughtful -one: and upon this natural gloom and thoughtfulness the influence of -their new faith acted with redoubled force, awaking men to thoughts not -only of a new life but of a new death. Popular religion took as strong a -hold of the darker as of the brighter aspects of Catholicism, and was -busy grafting the older notions of the soul’s future state upon the -fresh stock of revealed religion. Thus many of the popular notions both -of heaven and hell may be discovered in the beliefs of heathen Germany. -Let us, therefore, abandoning the series of myths which belong properly -to the Aryan religious beliefs as given in Chapter IX. (though upon -these, so numerous are they, we seem scarcely to have begun), turn to -others which illustrate our last chapter. Upon one we have already -touched; Odin, as chooser of the dead, hurrying through the air towards -a battle-field with<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_269" id="page_269"></a>{269}</span> his troop of shield-maidens, the Valkyriur;<a name="FNanchor_126_126" id="FNanchor_126_126"></a><a href="#Footnote_126_126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a> or -if we like to present the simpler nature-myth, the wind bearing away the -departing breath of dying men, and the clouds which he carries on with -him in his course. For there is no doubt that these Valkyriur, these -shield-or swan-maidens, who have the power of transforming themselves at -pleasure into birds, were originally none other than the clouds; perhaps -like the cattle of Indra, they were at first the clouds of sunrise. We -meet with such beings elsewhere than in northern mythology. The -Urva<i>s</i>i, whose story we have been relating just now, after the -separation from her mortal husband changes herself into a bird and is -found by Pururavas in this disguise, sitting with her friends the -Gandhavas upon the water of a lake. This means the clouds of evening -resting upon the wide blue sky. The Valkyriur themselves, when they have -been married to men, often leave them, as the Indian fairy left her -husband; and lest they should do so it is not safe to restore them the -swan’s plumage which they wore as Valkyriur; should they again obtain -their old equipment they will be almost sure to don it and desert their -home to return to their old life. The Valkyriur, then, are clouds; and -in so far as they appear in the legends of other nations they have no -intimate connection with Odin. But when they are the clouds of sunset, -and when Odin in his character of soul-bearer becomes before all things -the wind of the <i>setting</i> sun (that breeze which so often rises just as -the sun goes down, and which itself might stand for the escaping soul of -the dying day), then the Valkyriur make part of an ancient myth of -death. And almost all the stories of swan-maidens, or transformations -into swans, which are so familiar to the ears of childhood, are related -to Odin’s warrior maidens. If we notice the plot of these stories, we -shall see that in them<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_270" id="page_270"></a>{270}</span> too the transformation usually takes place at -sun-setting or sunrising. For instance, in the tale of the six swans in -Grimm’s <i>Household Stories</i>,<a name="FNanchor_127_127" id="FNanchor_127_127"></a><a href="#Footnote_127_127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a> the enchanted brothers of the princess -can only reappear in their true shapes just one hour before sunset.</p> - -<p>In Christian legends the gods of Asgard, subjected to the changes which -inevitably follow a change of belief, became demoniacal powers; and Odin -the chief god takes the place of the arch-fiend. For this part he is -especially suited by his character of conductor of the souls; if he -formerly led them to heaven, he now thrusts them down to hell. But so -many elements came together to compose the mediæval idea of the devil -that in this character the individuality of Odin is scarcely preserved. -At times a wish to revive something of this personal character was felt, -especially when the frequent sound of the wind awoke old memories; then -Odin re-emerges as some particular fiend or damned human soul. He is the -Wandering Jew, a being whose eternal restlessness well keeps up the -character of the wind blowing where it listeth: or he is, as we have -said, the Wild Huntsman of the Harz, and of many other places.</p> - -<p>The name of this last being, Hackelberg, or Hackelbärend (cloak-bearer), -sufficiently points him out as Odin, who in the heathen traditions had -been wont to wander over the earth clad in a blue cloak,<a name="FNanchor_128_128" id="FNanchor_128_128"></a><a href="#Footnote_128_128" class="fnanchor">[128]</a> and broad -hat, and carrying a staff. Hackelberg, the huntsman to the Duke of -Brunswick, had refused even on his death-bed the ministrations of a -priest, and swore that the cry of his dogs was<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_271" id="page_271"></a>{271}</span> pleasanter to him than -holy rites, and that he would rather hunt for ever upon earth than go to -heaven. ‘Then,’ said the man of God, ‘thou shalt hunt on until the Day -of Judgment.’ Another legend relates that Hackelberg was a wicked noble -who was wont to hunt on Sundays as on other days, and (here comes in the -<i>popular</i> version) to impress the poor peasants to aid him. One day he -was joined suddenly by two horsemen. One was mild of aspect, but the -other was grim and fierce, and from his horse’s mouth and nostril -breathed fire. Hackelberg turned then from his good angel, and went on -with his wild chase, and now, in company of the fiend, he hunts and will -hunt till the last day. He is called in Germany the <i>hel-jäger</i>, -‘hell-hunter.’ The peasants hear his ‘hoto’ ‘hutu,’ as the storm-wind -rushes past their doors, and if they are alone upon the hillside they -hide their faces while the hunt goes by. The white owl, Totosel, is a -nun who broke her vows, and now mingles her ‘tutu’ (towhoo) with his -‘holoa.’ He hunts, accompanied by two dogs (the two dogs of Yama), in -heaven, all the year round, save upon the twelve nights between -Christmas and Twelfth-night.<a name="FNanchor_129_129" id="FNanchor_129_129"></a><a href="#Footnote_129_129" class="fnanchor">[129]</a> If any door is left open upon the -night when Hackelberg goes by, one of the dogs will run in and lie down -in the ashes of the hearth, nor will any power be able to make him stir. -During all the ensuing year there will be trouble in that household, but -when the year has gone round and the hunt comes again, the unbidden -guest will rise from his couch, and, wildly howling, rush forth to join -his master. Strangely distorted, there<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_272" id="page_272"></a>{272}</span> lurks in this part of the story -a ray of the Vedic sleep-god Sârameyas.</p> - -<p>‘Destroyer of sickness, guard of the house, oh, thou who takest all -shapes, be to us a peace-bringing friend.’</p> - -<p>The Valkyriur in their turn are changed by the mediæval spirit into -witches. The Witches’ Sabbath, the old beldames on broomsticks riding -through the air, to hold their revels on the Brocken, reproduce the -swan-maidens hurrying to join the flight of Odin. And, again, changed -once more, ‘Old Mother Goose’ is but a more modern form of a middle-age -witch, when the thought of witches no longer strikes terror. And while -we are upon the subject of witches it may be well to recall how the -belief in witches has left its trace in our word ‘nightmare.’ <i>Mara</i> was -throughout Europe believed to be the name of a very celebrated witch -somewhere in the North, though the exact place of her dwelling was -variously stated. It is highly probable that this name Mara was once a -byname of the death-goddess Hel, and it <i>may</i> be etymologically -connected with the name of the sea (Meer), the sea being, as we have -seen, according to one set of beliefs, the home of the soul.</p> - -<p>Odin, or a being closely analogous with him, reappears in the familiar -tale of the Pied Piper of Hameln, he who, when the whole town of Hameln -suffered from a plague of rats and knew not how to get rid of them, -appeared suddenly—no one knew from whence—and professed himself able -to charm the pest away by means of the secret magic of his pipe. But it -is a profanation to tell the enchanted legend otherwise than in the -enchanted language of Browning:—</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Into the street the piper stept,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Smiling first a little smile,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">As if he knew what magic slept<br /></span> -<span class="i1">In his quiet pipe the while;<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Then like a musical adept<br /></span> -<span class="i1">To blow the pipe his lips he wrinkled.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_273" id="page_273"></a>{273}</span></p> - -<p>Then the townsfolk, freed from their burden, refused the piper his -promised reward, and scornfully chased him from the town. On the 26th of -June he was seen again, but this time (Mr. Browning has not incorporated -this little fact) fierce of aspect and dressed like a <i>huntsman</i>, yet -still blowing upon the magic pipe.</p> - -<p>Now it is not the rats who follow, but the children:—</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘All the little boys and girls,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">And sparkling eyes and teeth like pearls,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Tripping and skipping, ran merrily after<br /></span> -<span class="i1">The wonderful music with shouting and laughter.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">And so he leads them away to Koppelberg Hill, and</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Lo, as they reached the mountain side,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">A wondrous portal opened wide,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">As if a cavern were suddenly hollowed;<br /></span> -<span class="i1">And the Piper advanced and the children followed.<br /></span> -<span class="i1">And when all were in, to the very last,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">The door in the mountain side shut fast.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<div class="sidenote">Myths of death and the other world.</div> - -<p>This too is a myth of death. It is astonishing when we come to examine -into the origin of popular tales how many we find that had at first a -funeral character. This Piper hath indeed a magic music which none can -disobey, for it is the whisper of death; he himself is the soul-leading -Hermes (the wind, the piper), or at least Odin, in the same office. But -the legend is, in part at any rate, Slavonic; for it is a Slavonic -notion which likens the soul to a mouse.<a name="FNanchor_130_130" id="FNanchor_130_130"></a><a href="#Footnote_130_130" class="fnanchor">[130]</a> When we have got this -clue, which the modern folk-lore easily gives us, the Odinic character -of the Piper becomes very apparent. Nay,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_274" id="page_274"></a>{274}</span> in this particular myth we can -almost trace a history of the meeting of two peoples, Slavonic and -German, and the junction of their legends. Let us suppose there had been -some great and long-remembered epidemic which had proved peculiarly -fatal to the children<a name="FNanchor_131_131" id="FNanchor_131_131"></a><a href="#Footnote_131_131" class="fnanchor">[131]</a> of Hameln and the country round about. The -Slavonic dwellers there—and in prehistoric times some Slavs were to be -found as far west as the Weser—would speak of these deaths mythically -as the departure of the mice (<i>i.e.</i> the souls), and perhaps, keeping -the tradition, which we know to be universally Aryan, of a -water-crossing, might tell of the mice as having gone to the water. Or -further, they might feign that these souls were led there by a piping -wind-god: he, too, is the common property of the Aryan folk. Then the -Germans coming in, and wishing to express the legend in their -mythological form, would tell how the same Piper had piped away all the -<i>children</i> from the town. So a double story would spring up about the -same event. The Weser represents one image of death, and might have -served for the children as well as for the mice: to make the legend -fuller, however, another image is selected for them, the dark, -‘concealed’ place, namely, Hel, or the cave of Night and Death.</p> - -<p>The two images of death which occur in the last story rival each other -through the field of middle-age legend and romance. When we hear of a -man being borne along in a boat, or lying deep in slumber beneath a -mountain, we may let our minds wander back to Balder sailing across the -ocean in his burning ship <i>Hringhorni</i>, and to the same Balder<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_275" id="page_275"></a>{275}</span> in the -halls of Hel’s palace. The third image of death is the blazing pyre -unaccompanied by any sea-voyage. One or other of these three allegories -meets us at every turn. If the hero has been snatched away by fairy -power to save him from dying, and the last thing seen of him was in a -boat—as Arthur disappears upon the lake Avalon—the myth holds out the -hope of his return, and sooner or later the story of this return will -break off and become a separate legend. Hence the numerous -half-unearthly heroes, such as Lohengrin, who come men know not whence, -and are first seen sleeping in a boat upon a river. These are but broken -halves of complete myths, which should have told of the former -disappearance of the knight by the same route. Both portions really -belong to the tale of Lohengrin; he went away first in a ship in search -of the holy grail, and in the truest version<a name="FNanchor_132_132" id="FNanchor_132_132"></a><a href="#Footnote_132_132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a> returns in like manner -in a boat drawn by a <i>swan</i>. In some tales he is called the Knight of -the Swan. He comes suddenly, in answer to a prayer to Heaven for help, -uttered by the distressed Else of Brabant. But he does not return at -once again to the Paradise which has sent him to earth. He remains upon -earth, and becomes the husband of Else, and a famous warrior; and part -of another myth entwines itself with his story. Else must not ask his -name; but she disobeys his imperative command, and this fault parts them -for ever. Here we have Cupid and Psyche, or Prince Hatt and his wife, -over again. The boat appears once more drawn by the same swan; Lohengrin -steps into it, and disappears from the haunts of men. We have already -seen how, through the Valkyriur, the swan is connected with ideas of -death. It remains to notice how they are naturally so connected by<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_276" id="page_276"></a>{276}</span> the -beautiful legend that the swan sings once only in his life, namely, when -he is leaving it—that his first song is his own funeral melody. A much -older form of the Lohengrin myth is referred to in the opening lines of -<i>Beowulf</i>, where an ancestor of that hero is said to have been found, a -little child, lying asleep in an open boat which had drifted, no one -knows whence, to the shore of Gothland.</p> - -<p>Death being thus so universally symbolized by the River of Death, it is -easy to see the origin of the myth that ghosts will not cross living -water. It meant nothing else than that a ghost cannot return again to -life. Even witches cannot do so, as we know in the case of Tam -O’Shanter, that when he reached the Brig’ o’ Doon the pursuit was -baffled.</p> - -<p>Many are the impressive stories connected with the myth of the soul’s -transit over water—be it a River or a Sea of Death. In the dark days -which followed the overthrow of the Western Empire, when all the -civilization of its remoter territories had melted away, there grew up -among the fishermen of Northern Gaul a wild belief that the Channel -opposite them was the mortal river, and that the shores of this island -were the asylum of dark ghosts. The myth went, that in the villages of -the Gaulish coast the fishermen were summoned by rotation to perform the -dreadful task of ferrying over the departed spirits. At night a knocking -was heard on their doors, a signal of their duties, and when they -approached the beach they saw boats lying deep in the water as though -heavily freighted, but yet to <i>their</i> eyes empty. Each stepping in, took -his rudder, and then by an unfelt wind the boat was wafted in one night -across a distance which, rowing and sailing, they could ordinarily -compass scarcely in eight. Arrived at the opposite shore (our coast), -they heard names called over, and voices answering as if by rota, and -they felt their boats becoming<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_277" id="page_277"></a>{277}</span> light. Then when all the ghosts had -landed they were wafted back to Gaul.<a name="FNanchor_133_133" id="FNanchor_133_133"></a><a href="#Footnote_133_133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a></p> - -<p>The belief in the passage by the soul over a ‘Bridge’ which is the -bridge over the River of Death is as universal almost as the notion of -that River of Death itself. Many creeds see that bridge in the Milky -Way. The Vedic hymns do so. They call the Milky Way by many names, of -which the most common is the path of Yama, the way to the house of Yama, -and Yama is the ruler of the Dead—‘a narrow path,’ as we have already -quoted.</p> - -<p>‘A narrow path, an ancient one, stretches thither,<a name="FNanchor_134_134" id="FNanchor_134_134"></a><a href="#Footnote_134_134" class="fnanchor">[134]</a> a path untrodden -by men, a path I know of.’</p> - -<p>The Persians, too, knew the bridge under the name of Kinvad or Chinvad. -And from the Persians the Mohammedans get the same notion, which is -embodied in the Koran. There the Bridge of Death is called Es-Sirat. It -is finer than a hair and sharper than the edge of a sword, along which, -nevertheless, the soul of the good Moslem will be snatched across like -lightning or like the wind; but the wicked man or the unbeliever will -fall headlong thence into an abyss of fire beneath.</p> - -<p>The Norsemen had their Bridge of Souls in the Gjallarbrû, ‘The -Resounding Bridge,’ over which Balder had to ride.<a name="FNanchor_135_135" id="FNanchor_135_135"></a><a href="#Footnote_135_135" class="fnanchor">[135]</a> And when we read -the mediæval accounts of journeys to the other world, to Purgatory or -Hell, in almost every one we find that the passage over a Bridge—the -Brig’ o’ Dread of the ballad—is a part of the journey.</p> - -<p>Among the sleepers underground whose legend reproduces<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_278" id="page_278"></a>{278}</span> the image of -death as simply a life within the tomb, the most celebrated are Kaiser -Karl in the Unterberg—the under-hill, or hill leading to the -under-world; or, as another legend goes, in the Nürnberg, which is -really the Niederberg (<i>im niedern Berg</i>), the down-leading hill; and -Frederick Red-Beard sleeping in like manner at Kaiserslautern, or under -the Rabenspurg (raven’s hill). Deep below the earth the old Kaiser sits, -his knights around him, their armour on, the horses harnessed in the -stable ready to come forth at Germany’s hour of need. His long red beard -has grown through the table on which his head is resting. Once, it is -said, a shepherd chanced upon the cave which leads down to the -under-ground palace, and awoke the Emperor from his slumber. ‘Are the -ravens still flying round the hill?’ asked Frederick. ‘Yes.’ ‘Then must -I sleep another hundred years.’</p> - -<p>We cannot speak of all the images of Death which reappear in the popular -tales. Very many of these are taken from the funeral fire. We constantly -meet with stories of maidens who lie (asleep probably) surrounded by a -circle of flame, a hedge of fire. Through this the knight or hero must -ride to awaken his beloved. When Skirnir went down to woo the maiden -Gerda—the winter earth<a name="FNanchor_136_136" id="FNanchor_136_136"></a><a href="#Footnote_136_136" class="fnanchor">[136]</a>—he found her house all surrounded by such -a hedge of fire. But oddly enough, there is another way of representing -the funeral fire symbolically as a circle of thorns, because thorns were -constantly used to form the funeral pyre of the Northmen. Thence a thorn -hedge takes the place of a hedge of flame, and it, or even a single -thorn, may become the symbol of the funeral fire, and so of death.</p> - -<p>Here are two stories in which we see how one image may pass into the -other.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_279" id="page_279"></a>{279}</span></p> - -<p>In the tale of Sigurd the Volsung both these symbols are used; when -Sigurd first finds Brynhild she has been pricked by Odin with a -sleep-<i>thorn</i>, in revenge, because she took part against his favourite -Hialmgunnar; for she was a Valkyria. Sigurd awakes her. At another time -he rides to her through a circle of fire which she has set round her -house, and which no other man dared face. In the myth of Sigurd, twice -as it were riding through death to Brynhild, we see first of all a -nature-myth precisely of the same kind as the myth of Freyr and Gerda -(<a href="#page_230">p. 230</a>),<a name="FNanchor_137_137" id="FNanchor_137_137"></a><a href="#Footnote_137_137" class="fnanchor">[137]</a> precisely the reverse of the myth of Persephone. Brynhild -is the dead earth restored by the kiss of the sun, or of summer. -Afterwards the part of Brynhild is taken by the Sleeping Beauty, and -Sigurd becomes the prince who breaks through the thorn-hedge. Observe -one thing in the last story. The prick from the sleep-thorn becomes a -prick from a spinning-wheel, and thus loses all its original meaning, -while the circle of fire is transformed into a thorn-hedge—proof -sufficient that they were convertible ideas.</p> - -<p>Lastly, it remains to say that the stories of glass mountains ascended -by knights are probably allegories of death—heaven being spoken of to -this day by Russian and German peasants as a glass mountain.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_280" id="page_280"></a>{280}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.<br /><br /> -<small>PICTURE-WRITING.</small></h2> - -<div class="sidenote">Lateness of the discovery of letters.</div> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">Though</span> it is true, as we have said before, that every manufactured -article involves a long chapter of unwritten history to account for its -present form, and the perfection of the material from which it is -wrought, there is no one of them, not the most artistic, that will so -well repay an effort to hunt it through its metamorphoses in the ages to -its first starting-point, as will the letters that rapidly drop from our -pen when we proceed to write its name. Each one of these is a -manufactured article at which a long, long series of unknown artists -have wrought, expanding, contracting, shaping, pruning, till at length, -the result of centuries of effort, our alphabet stands clear—a little -army of mute, unpretending signs, that are at once the least considered -of our inherited riches—mere jots and tittles—and the spells by which -all our great feats of genius are called into being. Does unwritten -history or tradition tell us anything of the people to whose invention -we owe them? or, on the other hand, can we persuade the little shapes -with which we are familiar to so animate themselves, and give such an -account of the stages by which they grew into their present likeness, as -will help us to understand better than we did before the mental<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_281" id="page_281"></a>{281}</span> and -social conditions of the times of their birth? One question, at least, -they answer clearly—we know that while in their earliest forms they -must have preceded the birth of History, they were the forerunners and -heralds of his appearance, and if we are obliged to relegate their -invention to the dark period of unrecorded events, we must place it at -least in the last of the twilight hours, the one that preceded daybreak, -for they come leading sunlight and certainty behind them. It will be -hard if these revealers of other births should prove to be entirely -silent about their own. Another point seems to grow clear as we think. -As letters are the elements by which records come to us, it is not in -records, or at least not in early records, that we must look for a -history of their invention. Like all other tools, they will have lent -themselves silently to the ends for which they were called into being. -For a long, long time, they will have been too busy giving the history -of their employers to tell us consciously anything about themselves. We -must leave the substance of records, then, and look to their manner and -form, if we would unravel the long story of the invention and growth of -our alphabet; and as it is easiest to begin with the thing that is -nearest to us, let us pause before one of our written words, and ask -ourselves exactly what it is to us.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Writing the art of picturing sound.</div> - -<p>In discussing the growth of language, we surmised that words were at -first descriptive of the things they named, in fact, pictures to the -ear. What, then, is a written word? Is it, too, a picture, and what does -it picture, to the eye? When we have written the words <i>cat</i>, <i>man</i>, -<i>lion</i>, what have we done? We have brought the images of certain things -into our minds, and that by a form presented to the eye; but is it the -form of the object we immediately think of? No, it is the form<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_282" id="page_282"></a>{282}</span> of its -name; it is, therefore, the picture of a sound. To picture <i>sound</i> is, -surely, a very far-fetched notion, one that may have grown out of many -previous efforts to convey thought from mind to mind; but certainly not -likely to occur first to those who began the attempt to give permanent -shape to the thoughts floating within them. So great and difficult a -task must have baffled the powers of many enterprisers, and been -approached in many ways before the first steps towards accomplishing it -were securely taken. We shall find that the history of our alphabet is a -record of slow stages of growth, through which the idea of sound-writing -has been evolved; the first attempts to record events were made in a -different direction. Since, as we have agreed, we are not likely to find -a record of how events were first recorded, and as the earliest attempts -are likely to have been imperfect and little durable, we must be content -to form our notions of the earliest stage in our grand invention, by -observing the methods used by savages now to aid their memories; and if -we wish to determine the period in the history of the human race when -such efforts are likely to have been first made, we must recall what we -have already learned of the history of primitive man, and settle at what -stage of his development the need for artificial aids to memory would -first press upon him.</p> - -<p>Stories and poetry are not likely to have been the first things written -down. While communities were small and young, there was no need to write -painfully what it was so delightful to repeat from mouth to mouth, and -so easy for memories to retain; and when the stock of tradition and the -treasure of song grew so large in any tribe as to exceed the capacity of -ordinary memories (stronger, in some respects, before the invention of -writing than now), men with unusual gifts would be chosen and set apart -for the purpose<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_283" id="page_283"></a>{283}</span> of remembering and reciting, and of handing down to -disciples in the next generation, the precious literature of the tribe. -Such an order of ‘remembrancers’ would soon come to be looked upon as -sacred, or at least highly honourable, and would have privileges and -immunities bestowed on them which would make them jealous of an -invention that would lessen the worth of their special gift. The -invention of writing, then, is hardly likely to have come from the -story-tellers or bards. It was probably to aid the memory in recalling -something less attractive and more secret than a story or a song that -the first record was made.</p> - -<p>So early as the time of the cave-dwellers, there was a beginning of -commerce. Traces have been found of workshops belonging to that period, -where flint weapons and tools were made in such quantities as evidently -to have been designed for purposes of barter, and the presence of amber -and shells in places far from the coast, speaks of trading journeys. -With bargains and exchange of commodities, aids to memory must surely -have come in; and when we think of the men of the Neolithic age as -traders, we can hardly be wrong in also believing them to have taken the -next step in civilization which trade seems to bring with it—the -invention of some system of mnemonics.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Tallies.</div> - -<p>No man or woman would be likely to trust their bargaining to another -without giving him some little token or pledge by way of safeguard -against mistake or forgetfulness. It would be a very trifling, -transitory thing at first; something in the nature of a tally, or a -succession of knots or woven threads in a garment, allied to the knot -which we tie on our handkerchief overnight to make us remember something -in the morning. It seems hardly worthy of notice, and yet the invention -of that artificial aid to memory is the germ of writing, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_284" id="page_284"></a>{284}</span> little -seed from which such great things have come. Unfortunately, our -discoveries of stone-age relics have not yet furnished us with any -suggestion as to how the men of that epoch arranged and carried out the -aids to memory they probably had; but we can trace the process of -invention among still extant races.</p> - -<p>Some tribes of Red Indians, for example, keep records on cords called -wampum, by means of beads and knots. When an embassy is sent from one -chieftain to another, the principal speaker carries one of these pieces -of wampum, and from it reads off the articles of the proposed treaty, -almost as easily as if it were from a note-book.</p> - -<p>In the Eastern Archipelago, and in Polynesia proper, cord-records of the -same kind were in use forty years ago, and by means of them the -tax-gatherers in the island of Hawaii kept clear accounts of all -articles collected from the inhabitants of the island. The revenue-book -of Hawaii was a rope four hundred fathoms long, divided into portions -corresponding to districts in the island, and each portion was under the -care of a tax-gatherer, who by means of knots, loops, and tufts of -different shapes, colours, and sizes, managed to keep an accurate -account of the number of hogs, dogs, pieces of sandal-wood, etc., at -which each inhabitant of his district was rated. The Chinese, again, -have a legend that in very early times their people used little cords -marked by knots of different sizes, instead of writing.</p> - -<p>But the people who brought the cord system of mnemonics to the greatest -perfection were the Peruvians. They were still following it at the time -of their conquest by the Spaniards; but they had elaborated it with such -care as to make it available for the preservation of even minute details -of the statistics of the country. The ropes on which<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_285" id="page_285"></a>{285}</span> they kept their -records were called <i>quipus</i>, from <i>quipu</i>, a knot. They were often of -great length and thickness, and from the main ropes depended smaller -ones, distinguished by colours appropriate to subjects of which their -knots treated—as, white for silver, yellow for gold, red for soldiers, -green for corn, parti-coloured when a subject that required division was -treated of. These dependent coloured strings had, again, other little -strings hanging from them, and on these exceptions were noted. For -instance, on the <i>quipus</i> devoted to population—the coloured strings on -which the number of men in each town and village was recorded had -depending from them little strings for the widowers, and no doubt the -widows and the old maids had their little strings from the coloured cord -that denoted women. One knot meant ten; a double knot, one hundred; two -singles, side by side, twenty; two doubles, two hundred; and the -position of the knots on their string and their form were also of -immense importance, each subject having its proper place on the quipus -and its proper form of knot. The art of learning to read quipus must -have been difficult to acquire; it was practised by special -functionaries, called quipucamayocuna, or knot-officers, who, however, -seem only to have been able to expound their own records; for when a -quipus was sent from a distant province to the capital, its own officer -had to travel with it to explain it; a clumsy and cumbrous way of -sending a letter, it must be confessed.</p> - -<p>Knot-records were almost everywhere superseded by other methods of -recording events as civilization advanced; but still they continued to -be resorted to under special circumstances, and by people who had not -the pens of ready writers. Darius made a quipus when he took a thong, -and tying sixty knots on it, gave it to the Ionian<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_286" id="page_286"></a>{286}</span> chiefs, that they -might untie a knot every day, and go back to their own land if he had -not returned when all the knots were undone. The Scythians, however, -who, about the same time, sent a message to Darius, afford us an example -of another way of attaching special meanings to certain objects, and -thereby giving a peculiar use as aids to memory,—writing letters with -objects instead of pen and ink, in fact. Here, however, symbolism comes -in, and makes the mnemonics at once prettier and less trustworthy as -capable of more than one interpretation. The Scythian ambassadors -presented Darius (as Herodotus tells us) with a mouse, a bird, a frog, -and an arrow, and the message with which they had been intrusted was -that, unless he could hide in the earth like a mouse, or fly in the air -like a bird, or swim in water like a frog, he would never escape the -arrows of the Scythians.</p> - -<p>Of this last kind of mnemonic was the bow, too heavy for an ordinary man -to bend, which the long-lived Ethiopians sent to Cambyses; and the -twelve memorial stones which Joshua was directed to place in the river -Jordan, in order that the sons might ask the fathers, and the fathers -tell the sons what had happened in that place; and, again, such were the -yokes and bonds which Jeremiah put round his neck when he testified -against the alliance with Egypt before Zedekiah, and the earthen pot -that he broke in the presence of the elders of the people. Signs joined -with words and actions to convey a fuller or more exact meaning than -words alone could convey. Perhaps we ought hardly to call these last -examples helps to memory; they partake more of the nature of pictures, -and were used to heighten the effect of words. But we may regard them as -a connecting link between the merely mechanical tally, wampum and -quipus, and the effort to record ideas we must now consider<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_287" id="page_287"></a>{287}</span>—picturing. -It must, however, always be borne in mind that, though we shall speak of -these various methods of making records as stages of progress and -development, it is not to be supposed that the later ones immediately, -or indeed ever wholly, superseded the first any more than the -introduction of bronze and iron did away with the use of flint weapons. -The one method subsisted side by side with the other, and survived to -quite late times, as we see in such usages as the bearing forth of the -fiery cross to summon clansmen to the banner of their chieftain, and the -casting down of the knight’s glove as a gage of battle, or, to come down -to homely modern instances, the tallies and knots on handkerchiefs that -unready writers carry to help their memories even now.</p> - -<p>Helps to memory of the kinds which we have been speaking of never get -beyond being <i>helps</i>. They cannot carry thought from one to another -without the intervention of an interpreter, in whose memory they keep -fast the words that have to be said; they strengthen tradition, but they -cannot change tradition into history, and are always liable to become -useless by the death of the man, or order of men, to whom they have been -intrusted.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Picturing.</div> - -<p>A more independent and lasting method of recording events was sure to be -aimed at sooner or later; and we may conjecture that it usually took its -rise among a people at the period when their national pride was so -developed as to make them anxious that the deeds of some conspicuous -hero should be made known, not only to those interested in telling and -hearing of them, but to strangers visiting their country, and to remote -descendants. Their first effort to record an event, so as to make it -widely known, would naturally be to draw a picture of it, such that all -seeing the picture would understand it;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_288" id="page_288"></a>{288}</span> and accordingly we find that -the earliest step beyond artificial helps to memory is the making of -rude pictures which aim at showing a deed or event as it occurred -without suggesting the words of a narrative; this is called ‘picturing’ -as distinguished from picture-writing. That this, too, was a very early -art we may guess from the fact that rude pictures of animals have been -found among the relics of the earliest stone age. Whether or no we are -justified in conjecturing that the pictures actually found are rough -memorials of real hunting scenes, at least we learn from them that the -thought of depicting objects had come, and the skill to produce a -likeness been attained; and the idea of using this power to transmit -events lies so near to its possession, that we can hardly believe one to -have been long present without the other. To enable ourselves to imagine -the sort of picture-records with which the stone-age men may have -ornamented some of their knives, spears, and hammers, we must examine -the doings of people who have continued in a primitive stage of -civilization down to historic times.</p> - -<p>Some curious pictures done by North American Indians have been found on -rocks and stones, and on the stems of pine-trees in America, which -furnish excellent examples of early picturing. Mr. Tylor, in his <i>Early -History of Mankind</i>, gives engravings of several of these shadowy -records of long-past events. One of these, which was found on the -smoothed surface of a pine-tree, consists merely of a rude outline of -two canoes, one surmounted by a bear with a peculiar tail and the other -by a fish, and beyond these a quantity of shapes meant for a particular -kind of fish. The entire picture records the successes of two chieftains -named Copper-tail Bear and Cat-fish, in a fishing excursion. Another -picture found on the surface of a rock near Lake Superior is more -elaborate, and interests us by showing a<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_289" id="page_289"></a>{289}</span> new element in picturing, -through which it was destined to grow into the condition of -picture-writing. This more elaborate picture shows an arch with three -suns in it—a tortoise, a man about to mount a horse, and several -canoes, one surmounted by the image of a bird. All this tells that the -chief called King-fisher made an expedition of three days across a lake, -and arriving safely on land, mounted his horse. The new element -introduced into this picture is symbolism, the same that transformed the -homely system of tallies into the Scythian’s graceful living message to -Darius. It shows the excess of thought over the power of expression, -which will soon necessitate a new form. The tortoise is used as a symbol -of dry land. The arch is, of course, the sky, and the three suns in it -mean three days. The artist who devised these ways of expressing his -thought was on the verge of picture-writing, which is the next stage in -the upward progress of the art of recording events, and the stage at -which some nations have terminated their efforts.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Picture-writing.</div> - -<p>Picture-writing differs from picturing in that it aims at conveying to -the mind, not a representation of an event, but a narrative of the event -in words, each word being represented by a picture. The distinction is -of immense importance. The step from the former to the latter is one of -the greatest which mankind has ever made in the course of its progress -in civilization. When the step had been made the road toward the -acquisition of a regular alphabet lay <i>comparatively</i> open. It was still -beset with difficulties, but none so great as the difficulty of making -this particular step. Let us try and fully understand this. We will take -a sentence and see how it might be conveyed by the two methods. <i>A man -slew a lion with a bow and arrows while<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_290" id="page_290"></a>{290}</span> the sun went down.</i> Picturing -would show the man with a drawn bow in his hand, the lion struck by the -arrow, the sun on the horizon. Picture-writing would present a series of -little pictures and symbols dealing separately with each word—a man, a -symbol for ‘slew,’ say a hand smiting, a lion, a connecting symbol for -‘with,’ and so on. We see at once how much more elaborate and exact the -second method is, and that it makes the telling of a continuous story -possible. We also discover that these various stages of writing -correspond to developments of language, and that as languages grow in -capacity to express nobler thoughts, a greater stress will be put upon -invention to render the more recondite words by pictures and symbols, -till at last language will outgrow all possibility of being so rendered, -and another method of showing words to the eye will have to be thought -of—for all languages at least that attain their full development. That -a great deal may be expressed by pictures and symbols, however, we learn -from the picturing and picture-writing of past races that have come down -to us, and from the present writing of the Chinese, who with their -radical language have preserved the pictorial character that well -accords with an early stage of language.</p> - -<p>The Red Indians of North America have invented some very ingenious -methods of picturing time and numbers. They have names for the thirteen -moons or months into which they divide the year—Whirlwind moon, moon -when the leaves fall off, moon when the fowls go to the south, etc., and -when a hunter setting forth on a long expedition wished to leave a -record of the time of his departure for a friend who should follow him -on the same track, he carved on the bark of a tree a picture of the name -of the moon, accompanied with such an exact representation of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_291" id="page_291"></a>{291}</span> the state -of the moon in the heavens on the night when he set out, that his -friends had no difficulty in reading the date correctly. The Indians of -Virginia kept a record of events in the form of a series of wheels of -sixty spokes, each wheel representing the life of a man, sixty years -being the average life of a man among the Indians. The spokes meant -years, and on each one a picture of the principal occurrences of the -year was drawn.</p> - -<p>A missionary who accompanied Penn to Pennsylvania says that he saw a -wheel, on one spoke of which the first arrival of Europeans in America -was recorded. The history of this disastrous event for the Indians was -given by a picture of a white swan spitting fire from its mouth. The -swan, being a water-bird, told that the strangers came over the sea, its -white plumage recalled the colour of their faces, and fire issuing from -its mouth represented fire-arms, the possession of which had made them -conquerors. The North American Indians also use rude little pictures, -rough writing we may call it, to help them to remember songs and charms. -Each verse of a song is concentrated into a little picture, the sight of -which recalls the words to one who has once learned it. A drawing of a -little man, with four marks on his legs and two on his breast, recalls -the adverse charm, ‘Two days must you fast, my friend, four days must -you sit still.’ A picture of a circle with a figure in the middle -represents a verse of a love-song, and says to the initiated, ‘Were she -on a distant island I could make her swim over.’ This sort of picturing -seems to be very <i>near</i> writing, for it serves to recall words—but -still only to recall them—it would not suggest the words to those who -had never heard the song before; it is only an aid to memory, and its -employers have only as yet taken the first step in the great discovery -we are speaking of. The Mexicans,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_292" id="page_292"></a>{292}</span> though they had attained to much -greater skill than this in the drawing and colouring of pictures, had -not progressed much further in the invention. Their picture-scrolls do -not seem ever to have been more than an elaborate system of mnemonics, -which, hardly less than the Peruvian quipus, required a race of -interpreters to hand down their meaning from one generation to another. -This fact makes us regret somewhat less keenly the decision of the first -Spanish archbishop sent to Mexico, who, on being informed of the great -store of vellum rolls, and folds on folds of cloth covered with -paintings, that had been discovered at Anahuac, the chief seat of -Mexican learning, ordered the entire collection to be burnt in a heap—a -<i>mountain</i> heap, the chroniclers of the time call it—lest they should -contain incantations or instructions for the practice of magical arts. -As some excuse for this notion of the archbishop’s, we will mention the -subjects treated of in the five books of picture-writing which Montezuma -gave to Cortez:—the first book treated of years and seasons; the second -of days and festivals; the third of dreams and omens; the fourth of the -naming of children; the fifth of ceremonies and prognostications.</p> - -<p>The few specimens of Mexican writing which have come down to us, show -that, though the Aztecs had not used their picture-signs as skilfully as -some other nations have done, they had taken the first step towards -phonetic, or sound-writing; a step which, if pursued, would have led -them through some such process as we shall afterwards see was followed -by the Egyptians and Phœnicians, to the formation of a true alphabet. -They had begun to write proper names of chiefs and towns by pictures of -things that recalled the <i>sound</i> of their names, instead of by a symbol -suggestive of the appearance or quality of the place or chieftain, or of -the <i>meaning</i> of the names. It is difficult to<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_293" id="page_293"></a>{293}</span> explain this without -pictures; but as this change of method involves a most important step in -the discovery of the art of writing, we had better pause upon it a -little, and get it clear to our minds. There was a king whose name -occurs in a chronicle now existing, called Itz-co-atle, Knife-snake; his -name is generally written by a picture of a snake, with flint knives -stuck in it; but in one place it is indicated in a different manner. The -first syllable is still <i>pictured</i> by a knife; but for the second, -instead of a snake, we find an earthen pot and a sign for water. Now the -Mexican name for pot is ‘co-mitle,’ for water ‘atle;’ read literally the -name thus pictured would read ‘Itz-comitle-atle,’ but it is clear, since -the name intended was ‘Itz-co-atle,’ that the pot is drawn to suggest -only the first syllable of its name, <i>co</i>, and by this change it has -become no longer a picture, but a phonetic, syllabic sign, the next step -but one before a true letter. What great results can be elaborated from -this change we shall see when we begin to speak of Egyptian writing.</p> - -<p>We must not leave picture-writing till we have said something about the -Chinese character, in which we find the highest development of which -<i>direct</i> representation of things appears capable. Though we should not -think it, while looking at the characters on a Chinese tea-paper or box, -every one of those groups of black strokes and dots which seem so -shapeless to our eyes is a picture of an object; not a picture of the -sound of its name, as our written words are, but a representation real -or symbolic of the thing itself. Early specimens of Chinese writing show -these groups of strokes in a stage when a greater degree of resemblance -to the thing signified is preserved; but the exigencies of quick -writing, among a people who write and read a great deal, have gradually -reduced the pictures more and more to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_294" id="page_294"></a>{294}</span> condition of arbitrary signs, -whose connection with the things signified must be a matter of habit and -memory. The task of learning a sign for every word of the language in -place of conquering the art of spelling does seem, at first sight, to -put Chinese children in a pitiable condition, as compared with -ourselves. To lessen our compassion, we may recall that the Chinese -language is still in a primitive condition, and therefore comprehends -very much fewer distinct sounds than do the languages we know, the same -sound being used to express meanings by a difference in intonation. This -difference could not easily be given in writing; it is therefore, with -the Chinese, almost a necessity to recall to the mind the thing itself -instead of its name.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Ideographs.</div> - -<p>Beside the ordinary pictorial signs which convey a direct and simple -idea to the mind, men must in pictorial writing need a great number of -signs for ideas which cannot be pictured. All abstract ideas, for -instance, come under this head. But even some things which could -themselves be drawn are not always so portrayed. When a symbol, and not -a direct picture, is used for the thing or idea represented we call the -symbol an <i>ideograph</i>. We see, then, that pictorial signs may be used in -several different ways, sometimes as real pictures, sometimes as -ideographs, which again may be divided into groups as they are used—(1) -metaphorically, as a bee for industry; (2) enigmatically, as, among the -Egyptians, an ostrich feather is used as a symbol of justice, because -all the plumes in the wing of this bird were supposed to be of equal -length; (3) by syndoche—putting a part for the whole,—as two eyeballs -for eyes; (4) by metonomy—putting cause for effect,—as a tree for -shadow; the disk of the sun for a day, etc. This system of writing in -pictures and symbols requires so much ingenuity,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_295" id="page_295"></a>{295}</span> such hosts of pretty -poetic inventions, that perhaps there is less dulness than would at -first appear in getting the Chinese alphabet of some six thousand signs -or so by heart. We will mention a few Chinese ideographs in -illustration. The sign for a man placed over the sign for a mountain -peak signifies a hermit; the sign for a mouth and that for a bird placed -side by side signify the act of singing; a hand holding a sweeping-brush -is a woman; a man seated on the ground, a son (showing the respectful -position assigned to children in China); an ear at the opening of a door -means curiosity; two eyes squinting towards the nose mean to observe -carefully; one eye squinting symbolises the colour white, because so -much of the white of the eye is shown when the ball is in that position; -a mouth at an open door is a note of interrogation, and also the verb to -question.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Determinative signs.</div> - -<p>Even Chinese writing, however, has not remained purely ideographic. Some -of the signs are used phonetically to picture sound, and this use must -necessarily grow now that intercourse with Western nations introduces -new names, new inventions, and new ideas, which, somehow or other, must -get themselves represented in the Chinese language and writing.</p> - -<p>The invention of determinative signs—characters put beside the word to -show what class of objects a word belongs to—helps the Chinese to -overcome some of the difficulties which their radical language offers to -the introduction of sound-writing. For example, the word ‘Pa’ has eight -different meanings, and when it is written phonetically, a reader would -have to choose between eight objects to which he might apply it, if -there were not a determinative sign by its side which gives him a hint -how to read it. This is as if when we wrote the word ‘vessel’ we were to -add ‘navigation’ when we intended a ship; and ‘household’ when<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_296" id="page_296"></a>{296}</span> we meant -a jug or puncheon. The Chinese determinative signs are not, however, -left to each writer’s fancy. Two hundred and fourteen signs (originally -themselves pictures, remember) have been chosen out, and are always used -in this way. The classes into which objects are divided by these -numerous signs are minute, and do not appear to follow any scientific -method or arrangement. There is a sign to show that a written word -belongs to the class noses, another for rats, another for frogs, another -for tortoises. One is inclined to think that the helpful signs must be -as hard to remember as the words themselves, and that they can only be -another element in the general confusion. Probably their frequent -recurrence makes them soon become familiar to Chinese readers, and they -act as finger-posts to guide the thoughts into the right direction. -Determinative signs have always come in to help in the transitional -stage between purely ideographic and purely phonetic writing, and were -used by both Egyptians and Assyrians in their elaborate systems as soon -as the phonetic principle began to be employed among their ideographs.</p> - -<p>It is an interesting fact that the Japanese have dealt with the Chinese -system of writing precisely as did the Phœnicians with the Egyptian -hieroglyphics. They have chosen forty-seven signs from the many -thousands employed by the Chinese, and they use them phonetically only; -that is to say, as true sound-carrying letters.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_297" id="page_297"></a>{297}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.<br /><br /> -<small>PHONETIC WRITING.</small></h2> - -<div class="sidenote">Transition to phonetic writing.</div> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">The</span> step from picturing or picture-drawing to writing by pictures is, as -we have said, an immense one. But now we have to record one more step, -almost as great, which is the transition from the picturing of single -things—or, if you wish, single <i>ideas</i>—to the picturing, not of ideas -at all, but of sounds merely. This is the step we have now to follow -out, to trace the process through which picture-writing passed into -sound-writing, and to find out how signs (for we shall see they are the -same signs) which were originally meant to recall objects to the eye, -have ended in being used to suggest, or, shall we say, <i>picture</i>, sounds -to the ear. This is what we mean by <i>phonetic</i> writing. A written word, -let us remember, is the picture of a sound, and it is our business to -hunt the letters of which it is formed through the changes they must -have undergone while they were taking upon themselves the new office of -suggesting sound. We said, too, that we must not expect to find any -written account of this change, and that it is only by examining the -<i>forms</i> of the records of other events that this greatest event of -literature can be made out. What we want is to see the pictorial signs, -while busy in telling us other<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_298" id="page_298"></a>{298}</span> history, beginning to perform their new -duties side by side with the old, so that we may be sure of their -identity; and this opportunity is afforded us by the hieroglyphic -writing of the ancient Egyptians, who, being people disposed to cling to -everything that had once been done, never altogether left off employing -their first methods, even after they had taken another and yet another -step towards a more perfect system of writing; but carried on the old -ways and the new improvements side by side. The nature of their -language, which was in part radical and in part inflexional, was one -cause of this intermixture of methods in their writing; it had partly -but not entirely outgrown the stage in which picture-signs are most -useful. Ideograph is the proper name for a picture-sign, which, as soon -as picture-writing supersedes picturing, becomes the sign for a thought -quite as often as it is the sign for an object. Very ancient as are the -earliest Egyptian records, we have none which belong to the time when -the invention of writing was in the stage of picturing; we only -conjecture that it passed through this earliest stage by finding -examples of picturing mixed with their other kinds of writing. Each -chapter of the <i>Ritual</i>, the oldest of Egyptian books, has one or more -designs at its head, in which the contents of the chapter are very -carefully and ingeniously pictured; and the records of royal triumphs -and progresses which are cut out on temple and palace walls in -ideographic and phonetic signs, are always prefaced by a large picture -which tells the same story in the primitive method of picturing without -words.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Egyptian writing.</div> - -<p>The next stage of the invention, ideographic writing, the ancient -Egyptians carried to great perfection, and reduced to a careful system. -The signs for ideas became fixed, and were not chosen according to each -writer’s fancy. Every picture had its<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_299" id="page_299"></a>{299}</span> settled value, and was always -used in the same way. A sort of alphabet of ideographs was thus formed. -A heart drawn in a certain way always meant ‘love,’ an eye with a tear -on the lash meant ‘grief,’ two hands holding a shield and spear meant -the verb ‘to fight,’ a tongue meant ‘to speak,’ a footprint ‘to travel,’ -a man kneeling on the ground signified ‘a conquered enemy,’ etc. -Conjunctions and prepositions had their fixed pictures, as well as verbs -and nouns; ‘also’ was pictured by a coil of rope with a <i>second</i> band -across it, ‘and’ by a coil of rope with an arm across it, ‘over’ by a -circle surmounting a square, ‘at’ by the picture of a hart reposing near -the sign for water—a significant picture for such a little word, which -recalls to our minds the Psalm, ‘As the hart panteth after the -water-brooks,’ and leads us to wonder whether the writer were familiar -with the Egyptian hieroglyph.</p> - -<p>So much was done in this way, that we almost wonder how the need for -another method came to be felt; perhaps a peculiarity of the Egyptian -language helped the splendid thought of picturing <i>sound</i> to flash one -happy day into the mind of some priest, when he was laboriously cutting -his sacred sentence into a temple wall. The language of ancient Egypt, -like that of China, had a great many words alike in sound but different -in meaning, and it could not fail to happen that some of these words -with two meanings would indicate a thing easy to draw, and a thought -difficult to symbolize; for example, the ancient Egyptian word <i>neb</i> -means a basket and a ruler; and <i>nefer</i> means a lute and goodness. There -would come a day when a clever priest, cutting a record on a wall, would -bethink him of putting a lute instead of the more elaborate symbol that -had hitherto been used for goodness. It was a simple change, and might -not have struck any one at the time as involving more<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_300" id="page_300"></a>{300}</span> than the saving -of a little trouble to hieroglyphists, but it was the germ out of which -our system of writing sprang. The priest who did <i>that</i> had taken the -first step towards picturing sound, and cut a true phonetic sign—the -true if remote parent, in fact, of one of the twenty-four letters of our -own alphabet.</p> - -<p>Let us consider how the thought would probably grow. The writers once -started on the road of making signs stand for sounds would observe how -much fewer sounds there are than objects and ideas, and that words even -when unlike are composed of the same sounds pronounced in different -succession. If we were employed in painting up a notice on a wall, and -intended to use ideographs instead of letters, and moreover if the words -manage, mansion, manly, mantles, came into our sentence, should we not -begin each of these words by a figure of a man? and again, if we had to -write treacle, treason, treaty, we should begin each with a picture of a -tree; we should find it easier to use the same sign often for part of a -word, than to invent a fresh symbol for each entire word as we wrote it. -For the remaining syllables of the words we had so successfully begun we -should have to invent other signs, and we should perhaps soon discover -that in each syllable there were in fact several sounds, or movements of -lips or tongue, and that the same sounds differently combined came over -and over again in all our words. Then we might go on to discover exactly -how many movements of the speaking organs occurred in ordinary speech, -and the thought of choosing a particular picture to represent each -movement might occur; we should then have invented an alphabet in its -earliest form. That was the road along which the ancient Egyptians -travelled, but they progressed very slowly, and never quite reached its -end. They began by having syllabic signs for<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_301" id="page_301"></a>{301}</span> proper names. Osiri was a -name that occurred frequently in their sacred writings, and they -happened to have two words in their language which made up its -sound—<i>Os</i> a throne, <i>iri</i> an eye. Hence a small picture of a throne -came to be the syllabic sign for the sound <i>os</i>, the oval of an eye for -the sound <i>iri</i>; in like manner Totro, the name of an early king, was -written by a hand <i>Tot</i> and a circle <i>ro</i>, and thus a system of spelling -by syllables was established. Later they began to divide syllables into -movements of the speaking organs, and to represent these movements by -drawing objects whose name began with the movement intended. For -example, a picture of a lion (<i>labo</i>) was drawn, not for the whole sound -(<i>labo</i>), but for the liquid <i>l</i>; an owl (<i>mulag</i>) stood for the labial -<i>m</i>; a water-jug (<i>nem</i>) for <i>n</i>. They had now, in fact, invented -letters; but though they had made the great discovery they did not use -it in the best way. They could not make up their minds to keep to -phonetic writing, and throw away their pictures and ideographs. They -continued to mix all these methods together, so that when they painted a -lion—it might be a picture and mean <i>lion</i>, it might be a symbolic sign -and mean <i>pre-eminence</i>, or it might be a true letter and stand for the -liquid <i>l</i>. The Egyptians were obliged to invent a whole army of -determinative signs, like those now employed by the Chinese, which they -placed before their pictures to show when a group was to be read -according to its sound, when it was used symbolically, and when it was a -simple representation of the object intended.</p> - -<p>We have already pointed out how among the Egyptian monuments, the -sculptures on the tombs and temples, and in many of the more important -<i>papyri</i>—as, for example, their Book of the Dead itself—we have -specimens of all the three methods by which ideas may be conveyed to -the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_302" id="page_302"></a>{302}</span> <i>eye</i>. We have first the picture of some event—the king, say, -offering sacrifice to a god,—then we have each separate word of the -sentence first recorded by ideographs, then spelled by ordinary letters.</p> - -<p>Another source of difficulty in deciphering the writing of the ancient -Egyptians, is that they were not content with a single sign for a single -sound; they had a great many different pictures for each letter, and -used them in fanciful ways. For example, if <i>l</i> occurred in the name of -a king or god, they would use the lion-picture to express it, thinking -it appropriate; but if the same sound occurred in the name of a queen, -they would use a lotus-lily as more feminine and elegant. They had as -many as twenty different pictures which could be used for the first -letter of our alphabet <i>a</i>, and thirty for the letter <i>h</i>, one of which -closely resembles our capital H in form, being two upright palm-branches -held by two arms which make the cross of the H. No letter had fewer than -five pictures to express its sound, from which the writer might choose -according to his fancy; or perhaps, sometimes, according to the space he -had to fill up on the wall, or obelisk, where he was writing, and the -effect in form and colour he wished his sentence to produce. Then again, -all their letters were not quite true letters (single breathings). The -Egyptians never got quite clear about vowels and consonants, and -generally spelt words (unless they <i>began</i> with a vowel sound) by -consonants only, the consonants carrying a vowel breathing as well as -their own sound, and thus being syllabic signs instead of true letters.</p> - -<p>Since much of the writing of the ancient Egyptians was used ornamentally -as decoration for the walls of their houses and temples, and took with -them the place of the tapestry of later times, the space required to -carry out their complex<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_303" id="page_303"></a>{303}</span> system of writing was no objection to it in -their eyes; neither did they care much about the difficulty of learning -so elaborate an array of signs, as for many centuries the art of reading -and writing was almost entirely confined to an order of priests whose -occupation and glory it was. When writing became more common, and was -used for ordinary as well as sacred purposes, the pictorial element -disappeared from some of their styles of writing, and quick ways of -making the pictures were invented, which reduced them to as completely -arbitrary signs, with no resemblance to the objects intended, as the -Chinese signs now are.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Hieratic and Demotic writing.</div> - -<p>The ancient Egyptians had two ways of quick writing, the Hieratic (or -priestly), which was employed for the sacred writings only, and the -Demotic, used by the people, which was employed for law-papers, letters, -and all writing that did not touch on religious matter or enter into the -province of the priest. Yet, though literature increased and writing was -much practised by people engaged in the ordinary business of life (we -see pictures on the tombs of the great man’s upper servant seated before -his desk and recording with reed-pen and ink-horn the numbers of the -flocks and herds belonging to the farm), little was done to simplify the -art of writing by the ancient Egyptians. Down to the latest times when -Hieroglyphics were cut, and Demotic and Hieratic characters written, the -same confusing variety of signs were employed—pictorial, ideographic, -symbolic, phonetic—all mixed up together, with nothing to distinguish -them but the determinative signs before spoken of, which themselves -added a new element to the complexity.</p> - -<p>It was left for a less conservative and more enterprising people than -the ancient Egyptians to take the last and greatest step in perfecting -the invention which the ancient<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_304" id="page_304"></a>{304}</span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">The Phœnician alphabet.</div> - -<p>Egyptians had brought so far on its road, and by throwing away all the -first attempts, to allow the serviceable, successful parts of the system -to stand out clear. The Phœnicians, to whom tradition points as the -introducers of our alphabet into Europe, and who, during early ages, -were in very close political and trading connection with the ancient -Egyptians, are now believed to be the authors of the improvement by -which we benefit. They did not invent the alphabet which the Greeks -learned from them; they could have had no reason to invent signs, when -they must have been well acquainted with the superabundance that had -been in use for centuries before they began to build their cities by the -sea-shore. What they probably did was to choose from the Egyptian -characters, with which all the traders of the world must have been -familiar, just so many phonemes or sound-carrying signs as represented -the sounds of which their speech was made up; and rejecting all others, -they kept strictly to these chosen ones in all their future writings. -This was a great work to have accomplished, and we must not suppose that -it was done by one man, or even in one generation; as probably it took a -very long time to perfect the separation between vowels and consonants: -a distinction which had already been made by the ancient Egyptians, for -they had vowel signs, though, as before remarked, they constantly made -their consonants carry the vowels, and spelt words with consonants -alone. You will remember that consonants are the most important elements -of language, and constitute, as we have said before, the bones of words; -but also that distinctions of time, person, and case depend in an early -stage of language very much on vowels; and you will therefore understand -how important to clearness of expression it was to have clearly defined -separate signs for the vowels and diphthongs<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_305" id="page_305"></a>{305}</span> that had, so to speak, all -the exactitude of meaning in their keeping. The Phœnicians, of all -the people in the early world, were most in need of a clear and precise -method of writing: for, being the great traders and settlers of ancient -times, one of its principal uses would be to enable them to communicate -with friends at a distance by means of writings which should convey the -thoughts of the absent ones, or the private instructions of a trader to -his partner without need of an interpreter.</p> - -<p>The advantages of simplicity and clearness had been less felt by -Egyptian priests while inscribing their stately records on walls of -temples and palaces, and on the tapering sides of obelisks which were -meant to lift sacred words up to the eye of Heaven rather than to expose -them to those of men. They believed that a race of priests would -continue, as long as the temples and obelisks continued, who could -explain the writing to those worthy to enter into its mysteries; and -they were not sorry, perhaps, to keep the distinction of understanding -the art of letters to their own caste.</p> - -<p>It was not till letters were needed by busy people, who had other things -to do besides studying, that the necessity for making them easy to -learn, and really effective as carriers of thought across distances, was -sincerely felt. Two conjectures as to the method pursued by the -Phœnicians in choosing their letters and adapting them to their own -language have been made by the learned. One is, that while they took the -forms of their letters from the Egyptian system of signs, and adopted -the principle of making each picture of an object stand for the first -sound of its name, as <i>labo</i> for <i>l</i>, they did not give to each letter -the value it had in the Egyptian alphabet, but allowed it to mean for -them the first sound of its name in their own language. For example, -they took the sign for an ox’s head and made it<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_306" id="page_306"></a>{306}</span> stand for the sound -<i>a</i>, not because it was one of the Egyptian signs for ‘<i>a</i>’ but because -Aleph was the name for an ox and ‘<i>a</i>’ was its first syllable. This, -which seems a natural method enough, is, however, not the method which -was followed by the Japanese in choosing their alphabet from signs; and -more recent investigations prove such a close resemblance between the -earliest forms of Phœnician letters, and early forms of signs for the -same sounds in Hieratic character, that a complete descent in -sound-bearing power, as well as in form, is now claimed for our letters -from those hieroglyphics, which, in our ignorance of the relationship, -we used to consider a synonymous term for something unintelligible. The -Semitic language spoken by the Phœnicians was richer in sounds than -the less developed language spoken by the ancient Egyptians; but as the -Egyptians used several signs for each letter, the Phœnicians easily -fell into the habit of giving a slightly different value to two forms -originally identical, and thus provided for all the more delicate -distinctions of their tongue. A close comparison of the forms of the -letters of the earliest known Canaanite inscriptions with Hieratic -writing of the time of the Old Empire reveals a resemblance so striking -between fifteen of the Phœnician letters and Hieratic characters -carrying the same sounds, that a conviction of the derivation of one -from the other impresses itself on even a careless observer. The -correspondence of the other five Canaanite letters with their Hieratic -counterparts is less obvious to the uneducated eye, but experts in such -investigations see sufficient likeness even there to confirm the theory.</p> - -<p>The gradual divergence of the Phœnician characters from their -Hieratic parents is easily accounted for by the difference of the -material and the instrument employed by the Phœnicians and Egyptians -in writing. The Hieratic charracter<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_307" id="page_307"></a>{307}</span> was painted by Egyptian priests on -smooth papyrus leaves with a brush or broad pointed reed pen. The -Canaanite inscriptions are graven with a sharp instrument on hard stone, -and as a natural consequence the round curves of the Hieratic character -become sharp points, and there is a general simplification of form and a -throwing aside of useless lines and dots, the last remnants of the -picture from which each Hieratic character originally sprang. The -<i>names</i> given later to the Phœnician letters, Aleph, an ‘ox;’ Beth, a -‘house;’ Gimel, a ‘camel;’ Daleth, a ‘door;’ are not the names of the -objects from which the forms of these letters were originally taken. The -Hieratic ‘A’ was taken from the picture of an eagle, which stood for ‘A’ -in hieroglyphics; ‘B’ was originally a sort of heron; ‘D,’ a hand with -the fingers spread out. New names were given by the Phœnicians to the -forms they had borrowed, from fancied resemblances to objects which, in -their language, began with the sound intended, when the original -Egyptian names had been forgotten. It is hard for us to see a likeness -between our letter ‘A’ and an ox’s horns with a yoke across; or between -‘B’ and the ground-plan of a house; ‘G’ and a camel’s head and neck; ‘M’ -and water; ‘W’ and a set of teeth; ‘P’ and the back of a head set on the -neck; but our letters have gone through a great deal of straightening -and putting into order since they came into Europe and were sent out on -their further westward travels. The reader who has an opportunity of -examining early specimens of letters on Greek coins will find a freedom -of treatment which makes them much more suggestive of resemblances, and -the earlier Phœnician letters were, no doubt, more pictorial still. -The interesting and important thing to be remembered concerning our -letters is that each one of them was, without doubt, a picture once, and -gets<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_308" id="page_308"></a>{308}</span> its shape in no other way than by having once stood for an object, -whose name in the ancient people’s language began with the sound it -conveys to us.</p> - -<p>These Phœnician letters, born on the walls of Egyptian tombs older -than Abraham, and selected by Phœnician traders who took their boats -up to Memphis at or before Joseph’s time, are the parents of all the -alphabets now used in the world, with the exception of that one which -the Japanese have taken from Chinese picture-writing. The Phœnicians -carried their alphabet about with them to all the countries where they -planted trading settlements, and it was adopted by Greeks, and by the -Latins from the Greeks, and then gradually modified to suit the -languages of all the civilized peoples of east and west.<a name="FNanchor_138_138" id="FNanchor_138_138"></a><a href="#Footnote_138_138" class="fnanchor">[138]</a> The Hebrew -square letters are a form of divergence from the original type, and even -the Sanskrit character in all its various styles can be traced back to -the same source by experts who have studied the transformations through -which it has passed in the course of ages. It is, of course, easy to -understand that these ubiquitous little shapes which through so many -centuries have had the task laid on them of spelling words in so many -different languages must have undergone some variations in their values -to suit the tongues that interpreted them.</p> - -<p>The original family of twenty letters have not always kept together, or -avoided the intrusion of new comers. Some of the languages they have had -to express, being in an early<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_309" id="page_309"></a>{309}</span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">Runes.</div> - -<p class="nind">stage of development, have not wanted even so many as twenty letters, -and have gradually allowed some of them to fall into disuse and be -forgotten; an instance of this we find in the alphabet of the northern -nations—the Gothic—which consisted only of sixteen <i>runes</i>—called by -new names; they have been handed down either directly from the Greek, or -from the Greek through the Roman alphabet, and furnished with mystic -meanings and with names peculiar to themselves.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Additional letters.</div> - -<p>In languages where nicer distinctions of sound were called for than the -original twenty Phœnician signs carried, a few fresh letters were -added, but in no case has any quite new form been invented. The added -letters have always been a modification of one of the older -forms—either a letter cut in half, or one modified by an additional -stroke or dot. In this way the Romans made <i>G</i> out of <i>C</i>, by adding a -stroke to one of its horns. <i>V</i> and <i>U</i>, <i>I</i> and <i>J</i> were originally -slightly different ways of writing one letter, which have been taken -advantage of to express a new sound when the necessity for a greater -number of sound-signs arose; <i>W</i>, as its very name shows, is only a -doubled form of <i>V</i>. At first sight it seems a simple thing enough to -invent a letter, but let us remember that such a thing as an arbitrarily -invented letter does not exist anywhere. To create one out of nothing is -a feat of which human ingenuity does not seem capable. Every single -letter in use anywhere (we can hardly dwell on this thought too long) -has descended in regular steps from the pictured object in whose name -the sound it represents originally dwelt. Shape and sound were wedded -together in early days by the first beginners of writing, and all the -labour bestowed on them since has only been in the way of modification -and adaptation to changed circumstances.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_310" id="page_310"></a>{310}</span> No wonder that, when people -believed a whole alphabet to have been invented straight off, they also -thought that it took a god to do it. Thoth, the Great-and-great, with -his emblems of justice and his recording pencil; Oannes, the -Sea-monster, to whom all the wonders of the under-world lay open; Swift -Hermes, with his cap of invisibility and his magic staff; One-eyed Odin, -while his dearly purchased draught of wisdom-water was inspiring him -still. No one indeed—as we see plainly enough now—but a hero like one -of these, was equal to the task of inventing an alphabet.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">Cuneiform writing.</div> - -<p>Before we have quite done with alphabets, we ought to speak of another -system of ancient writing, the cuneiform; which, though it has left no -trace of itself on modern alphabets, is the vehicle which preserves some -of the most interesting and ancient records in the world. The cuneiform -or arrow-shaped character used by the ancient Chaldeans, Assyrians, -Babylonians, and Persians, is supposed to owe its peculiar form to the -material on which it was habitually graven by those who employed it. It -arose in a country where the temples were built of unburned brick -instead of stone, and the wedge-shaped form of the lines composing the -letters is precisely what would be most easily produced on wet clay by -the insertion and rapid withdrawal of a blunt-pointed stick or reed. -Like all other systems, it began in rude pictures, which gradually came -to have a phonetic value, in the same manner as did the Egyptian -hieroglyphics. The earliest records in this character are graven on the -unburned bricks of pyramidal-shaped temples, which a little before the -time of Abraham began to be built by a nation composed of mixed Shemite, -Cushite, and Scythian (<i>i.e.</i> Turanian) peoples round the shores of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_311" id="page_311"></a>{311}</span> -Persian Gulf. The invention of the character is ascribed in the records -to the Turanian race, the Accadians, who are always designated by the -sign of a wedge, which was equivalent to calling them the writers, or -the literary people. The Accadians discovered this writing; but it was -taken up and wrought to much greater perfection by their successors, the -Shemites. In their hands it became the vehicle in which the history of -the two great empires of Babylon and Nineveh, and the achievements of -ancient Persian kings, have come down to us. For when Nineveh fell -before the Persians, they adopted the cuneiform writing of the -Assyrians.</p> - -<p>We have all seen and wondered at the minute writing on the Assyrian -marbles and tablets in the British Museum, and stood in awe before the -human-headed monster gods—</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Their flanks with dark runes fretted o’er,’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">whose fate, in surviving the ruin of so many empires, and being brought -from so far to enlighten us on the history of past ages, can never cease -to astonish us. When we look at them again, let us spare a thought to -the history of the character itself. Its mysteries have cost even -greater labour to unravel than hieroglyphics themselves. To the latest -times of the use of cuneiform by the Achæmenidæ, pictorial, symbolic, -and phonetic groups continued to be mixed together, and a system of -determinative signs was employed to show the reader in what sense each -word was to be taken. But this system of writing never reached the -perfection attained by the Egyptian hieroglyphs. It never advanced to -the use of what may be called true letters, never beyond the use of -syllabic signs. So that in time it was superseded by alphabets descended -from the Egyptian. The symbolism, too, of the cuneiform writing is very<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_312" id="page_312"></a>{312}</span> -complex, and the difficulty of reading the signs used phonetically is -greatly increased by the fact of the language from which they acquired -their values (a Turanian one) being different from the Semitic tongue, -in which the most important records are written.</p> - -<p>Of other systems of writing, chiefly pictorial, known in the ancient -world, such as the Hittite and the Cypriot—or, again, of the -picture-writing of many other savage tribes beside the North American -Indians, it is not necessary to speak. For we are not writing a history -of alphabets, but of the acquisition of the <i>art</i> of writing by -mankind.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_313" id="page_313"></a>{313}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.<br /><br /> -<small>CONCLUSION.</small></h2> - -<div class="sidenote">Vortices of national life.</div> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">At</span> this point, where we are bringing our inquiries to a conclusion, we -would fain look a little nearer into the mists which shroud the past, -and descry, were it possible, the actual dawn of history for the -individual nations; would see, not only how the larger bodies of men -have travelled through the prehistoric stages of their journey, but how, -having reached its settled home, each people begins to emerge from the -obscurity that surrounds its early days. What were the exact means, we -ask, whereby a collection of nomadic or half-nomadic tribes separated, -reunited, separated again, and developed upon different soils the -qualities which distinguish them from all others? What <i>is</i>, in fact, -the beginning of real national life?</p> - -<p>The worlds which circle round the sun, or rather, the multitudinous -systems of orbs which fill space, might pose a like inquiry. There was a -time when <i>these</i> which are now distinct worlds were confounded as a -continuous nebula, a thin vapour of matter whirling round in one -unchanging circle. In time, their motion became less uniform, -vortices—as the word is—set in, smaller bodies of vaporous matter -which, still obeying the universal movement, set up internal<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_314" id="page_314"></a>{314}</span> motions -among themselves, and cooling, separated into separate orbs. How like is -all this process to the history of nations! These, confounded once -together in one unstable mass of wandering tribes, have in like manner -separated from their nebulous brethren, and, setting up their internal -vortices, have coalesced into nations. And yet as a system of planets, -albeit with their own distinctive motions, do all revolve in one -direction round one central force, so the different families of nations, -which we may call the planets of a system, seem in like manner compelled -by a power external to themselves in one particular course to play a -particular part in the world’s history. The early stone-age Turanians, -the Cushite civilizers of Egypt and Chaldæa, the Semitic people, may all -be looked upon as different systems of nations, each with its mission to -the human race. Thus, too, the Aryan people, after they had once become -so separated as to lose all family remembrance, are found working -together to accomplish an assigned destiny, migrating in every -direction, and carrying with them everywhere the seeds of a higher -civilization.</p> - -<p>The rays of history are seen gradually spreading from Egypt up through -Mesopotamia to the nations of Palestine—not yet the land of the -Hebrews—then to Asia Minor, and so to Greece. That is the land-root of -civilization. We are speaking rather of succession in time than of -actual succession by inheritance. We cannot tell, at any rate, that -Chaldæa was in any way indebted to Egypt for its early civilization, or -Egypt to Chaldæa. But with the exception of that blank, the rest of the -progress of civilization by inheritance does follow pretty clearly. The -Assyrian Empire inherited from the old Babylonian Empire. And the -nations of Palestine inherited from Egypt and Assyria both. On the -borders of Asia Minor were two peoples<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_315" id="page_315"></a>{315}</span> who commanded—for a time, at -any rate—the trade routes from Palestine and Mesopotamia into Asia -Minor. These two peoples were the Hittites<a name="FNanchor_139_139" id="FNanchor_139_139"></a><a href="#Footnote_139_139" class="fnanchor">[139]</a> and the Phœnicians. -One commanded the trade route by land, the other commanded it by sea. Of -the first we know at present very little—little more than that they had -a capital at Karkemish; that they commanded the navigation of the -Orontes and the Upper Euphrates; and that they were at one time strong -enough to stand at the head of a confederation of peoples who made war -upon Egypt when at the summit of her power. There can be little doubt -that the Hittites passed on to the peoples of Asia Minor, who were in -blood nearly allied to the Greeks, some of the civilization of the -Semitic peoples farther south, and that these peoples passed the same on -to the Greeks of Asia Minor.</p> - -<p>But of course the Phœnicians must still be reckoned as the great -transporters of civilization from Egypt and from Asia to the rest of the -world. They could hardly be said to possess a country; but they -possessed cities of vast importance and no small magnificence along the -coast of Palestine—Lamyra, Aradus, Byblos, Sydon, Tyre. From these -centres went out that boundless maritime enterprise which made the -Phœnicians the trading people of the world. Very early—in -pre-historic ages—the Phœnicians had possessed themselves of Cyprus. -From that point to the Grecian coast of Asia Minor, or to the coasts and -islands on either side of the Ægean, was an easy transition; then on to -the Mediterranean, to Sicily and Italy, but more especially to the -island of Sardinia; or again to Egypt and the farther coasts of Africa -on to Spain, and finally, through the Pillars of Heracles, to the -far-off ‘tin islands’ of the west, which were, it is likely enough, the -British Isles. This is, in brief, the picture of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_316" id="page_316"></a>{316}</span> the doings of the -Phœnicians long before the days of history had begun to dawn upon the -Aryan nations of the Mediterranean.</p> - -<p>If we desire to get any idea of the process by which the separation of -the Aryan peoples became completed, we must put quite upon one side the -idea of a nation as we see it now. Now, when we speak the word, we think -of a political unit subject to one government, stationary, and confined -within pretty exact limits of space. But very different were the nations -during the process of their formation; there was scarcely any political -unity among them, their homes were unfixed, their members constantly -shifting and changing combinations, like those heaps of sand we see -carried along in a cyclone. Let us, then, forget our political atlases, -with their different colours and well-marked boundaries, and think not -of the inanimate adjunct of a nation, the soil on which it happens to -dwell, but of the nation as the men of whom it is made up. The earliest -things we discern are those vortices set up in the midst of a -homogeneous people, an attractive power somewhere in the midst of them -which draws them into closer fellowship. It acts like the attractive -power of a crystal in selecting from any of the surrounding matters the -fragments most suited to its proper formation. Thus the earliest -traditions of a people are generally the history of some individual -tribe from which the whole nation feigns itself descended; either -because of its actual pre-eminence from the beginning, the power it had -of drawing other tribes to share its fortunes, or because, out of many -tribes drawn together by some common interest or sentiment, the bards of -later days selected this one tribe from among the others, and adopted -its traditions for their own. If we remember this, much that would -otherwise appear a hopeless mass of contradiction and ambiguity is -capable of receiving a definite meaning.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_317" id="page_317"></a>{317}</span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">The Greeks.</div> - -<p>The first rays of European history shine upon the island-dotted sea and -bounding coasts of the Ægean. Here sprang into life the Greek people, -who have left behind so splendid a legacy of art and philosophy. These, -as has been already said, made their entry into Europe traversing the -southern shores of the Euxine, along which passed, still as one people, -the ancestors of the Greeks and the Italians. The former, at all events, -seem to have delayed long upon their route, and it was upon these -shores, or perhaps rather in the tableland of ancient Phrygia, that -first began the separation of two races who reunited to form the Greek -nation. Some, the older race, the Pelasgi, made their way to the -Hellespont, and by that route into European Greece; the others, the -Ionians as they subsequently became, passed onward to the sea-shore of -Asia Minor, and, tempted no doubt by the facilities of the voyage, -crossed from this mainland to the neighbouring islands, which lie so -thickly scattered over the Ægean that the mariner passing from shore to -shore of Asiatic and European Greece need never on his voyage lose sight -of land. They did not, however, find these islands deserted, or occupied -by savages only. The Phœnicians had been there beforehand, as they -were beforehand upon almost every coast in Europe, and had made -mercantile stations and established small colonies for the purposes of -trading with the Pelasgi of Greece. The adventurous Ionians were thus -brought early into contact with the advanced civilization of Asia, and -from this source gained in all probability a knowledge of navigation, -letters, and some of the Semitic mythical legends. Thus while the -mainland Greeks had altered little of the primitive culture, the germs -of a Hellenic civilization, of a Hellenic life, were being fostered in -the islands of the Ægean. We see this reflected in many<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_318" id="page_318"></a>{318}</span> Greek myths—in -the legend, for example, of Minôs and his early Cretan kingdom; in the -myth of Aphroditê springing from the sea by Cythera; and in the worship -of Phœbus Apollo which sprang up in Delos. Legend spoke of two -Minôses—one, the legislator of Crete, representative of all that was -most ancient in national policy, and for that reason transferred to be -the judge of souls in Hell; the second, he who made war against the -Athenians, and compelled them to pay their dreadful yearly tribute of -seven youths and seven maidens to be devoured of the Minotaur in the -Cretan labyrinth. Until Theseus came. No doubt the two Minôses are but -amplifications of one being, who, whether mythical or historical, is an -echo in the memory of Greeks of the still older Cretan kingdom. In both -tales Minôs has a dreadful aspect; perhaps because this ‘Lord of the -Isles’ had been inimical to the early growing communities of the -mainland.</p> - -<p>The myths of Aphroditê and Apollo have been already commented upon as -enfolding within them the history of their origin. Aphroditê is -essentially an Asiatic divinity; she springs to life in a Phœnician -colony. But Phœbus Apollo is before all things the god of the Ionian -Greeks; and as <i>their</i> first national life begins in the islands, <i>his</i> -birth too takes place in one of these, the central one of all, Delos. In -Homer, Delos, or Ortygia, is feigned to be the central spot of the -earth.</p> - -<p>Thus the Greeks were from the beginning a commercial people. Before -their history began, there is proof that they had established a colony -in the Delta of the Nile; and the frequent use of the word <i>Javan</i><a name="FNanchor_140_140" id="FNanchor_140_140"></a><a href="#Footnote_140_140" class="fnanchor">[140]</a> -in the Bible—which here stands for Ionians—shows how familiar was -their name to<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_319" id="page_319"></a>{319}</span> the dwellers in Asia. Wherever these mariners came in -contact with their brethren of the continent, they excited in them the -love of adventure, and planted the germs of a new life, so that it was -under their paramount influence that these primitive Greeks began to -coalesce from mutually hostile tribes into nations. In Northern Greece -it was that the gathering together of tribes and cities first began. -These confederations were always based primarily upon religious union, -the protection of a common deity, a union to protect and support a -common shrine. They were called Amphictyonies, confederations of -neighbours, a name which lived long in the history of Greece. These -amphictyonies seem first to have arisen in the north. Here too the words -<i>Hellenic</i>, <i>Hellenes</i>, first spring up as national epithets. Hellas -never extended farther north than the north of Thessaly, and was -naturally marked off from foreign countries by Olympia and Pierus. But -the term spread southwards till it embraced all Greek-speaking lands to -the extremity of the peninsula, and over the islands of the Ægean, and -the coast of Asia Minor, on to the countless colonies which issued from -Greek shores; for Hellas was not a geographical term, it included all -the peoples of true Hellenic speech, and distinguished them from the -<i>barbaroi</i>, the ‘babblers,’ of other lands.</p> - -<p>The two great nations of the Græco-Italic family kept up some knowledge -of each other after they had forgotten the days of their common life, -and, strange to say, in days before either of the two races had come to -regard itself as a distinct people, each was so regarded by the other. -The Italians classed the Greeks in the common name of Græci or Graii, -and the Greeks bestowed the name of Ὀπικός upon the nation of -the Italians. It is curious to reflect upon the different destinies -which lay ahead of these two races, who<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_320" id="page_320"></a>{320}</span> came under such similar -conditions into their new homes. Whether it were through some -peculiarity in their national character, or a too-rapid civilization, or -the two great influences of a changeful character and adventurous life, -the Greeks never cemented properly together the units of their race; the -Italians, through a much slower process of integration, lived to weld -their scattered fragments into the most powerful nation the world has -ever seen.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">The Romans.</div> - -<p>This second half, then, of the Græco-Italic family, crossing the -Hellespont like (or with) the first dwellers in Greece proper, proceeded -onwards until, skirting the shores of the Adriatic, they found out a -second peninsula, whose fertile plains tempted them to dispute the -possession of the land with the older inhabitants. Who were these older -inhabitants? In part they must have been those lake-dwellers of northern -Italy to whom reference was made in our second chapter, and who were -evidently closely allied to the stone-age men of Switzerland; but -besides these we have almost no trace of the men who were dispossessed -by the Italic tribes, and these last, who pushed to the farthest -extremity of the peninsula, must have completely absorbed, or completely -exterminated, the aborigines. The process by which the Italians spread -over the land is altogether hidden from us. Doubtless their several -seats were not assigned to the different branches at once, or without -bloodshed. Though still no more than separate tribes, we are able to -divide the primitive Italians into stocks of which the southern most -resembled the ancient type of the Pelasgic family; those in the centre -formed the Latin group; while north of these (assuming that they, too, -were Aryans) lay the Etruscans, the most civilized of all the three. At -this time the tribes seem to have acknowledged no common bond, nothing -corresponding to the word Hellenic<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_321" id="page_321"></a>{321}</span> had sprung up to unite their -interests: existence was as yet to the strongest only. And while the -land was in this chaotic state, one tribe, or small confederacy of -tribes, among the Latin people began to assert its pre-eminence. We see -them dimly looming through a cloud of fable, daring, warlike, -unscrupulous in their dealings with their neighbours, firm in their -allegiance to each other. This tribe gradually increased in strength and -proportions till, from being a mere band of robbers defending themselves -within their rude fortifications, they grew in the traditions of their -descendants, and of the other tribes whom in course of time they either -subdued or absorbed, to be regarded as the founders of Rome. They did -not accomplish their high destiny without trials and reverses. More -powerful neighbouring kingdoms looked on askance during the days of -their rise, and found opportunity more than once to overthrow their city -and all but subdue their state. Their former brethren, the Celts,<a name="FNanchor_141_141" id="FNanchor_141_141"></a><a href="#Footnote_141_141" class="fnanchor">[141]</a> -who had been beforehand of all the Aryan races in entering Europe, and -now formed the most powerful people in this quarter of the globe, -several times swept down upon them like a devastating storm. But after -each reverse the infant colony arose with renewed Antæan vigour.</p> - -<p>Thus in Italy, the development from the tribal to the national state was -internal. No precocious maritime race awoke in many different centres -the seeds of nationality; rather this nationality was a gradual growth -from one root, the slow response to a central attractive force. The -energy of Rome did not go out in sea adventure, or in the colonization -of distant lands; but it was firmly bent to absorb the different people -of her own peninsula, people of like blood with herself, but in every -early stage of culture from an<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_322" id="page_322"></a>{322}</span> almost nomadic condition to one of -considerable advancement in the arts of peace.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">The Celts.</div> - -<p>When from the Greeks and Romans we turn to the Celts and Teutons, we -must descend much lower in the records of history before we can get any -clear glimpse at these. The Celts, who were probably the first Aryans in -Europe, seem gradually to have been forced farther and farther west by -the incursions of other peoples. At one time, however, we have evidence -that they extended eastward, at least as far as the Rhine, and over all -that northern portion of Italy—now Lombardy and part of Sardinia—which -to the Romans went by the name of Cisalpine Gaul. The long period of -subjection to the Roman rule which Gaul experienced, obliterated in that -country all traces of its early Celtic manners, and we are reduced for -our information concerning these to the pages of Roman historians, or to -the remains of Celtic laws and customs preserved in the western homes of -the race. The last have only lately received a proper attention. The -most primitive Irish code—the Brehon laws—has been searched for traces -of the primitive Celtic life. From both our sources we gather that the -Celts were divided into tribes regarded as members of one family. These -clans were ruled over by chiefs, whose offices were hereditary, or very -early became so. They were thus but slightly advanced out of the most -primitive conditions,—they cannot be described as a nation. Had they -been so, extensive and warlike as they were, they would have been -capable of subduing all the other infant nationalities of Aryan folk. As -it was, as mere combinations of tribes under some powerful chieftain -(Cæsar describes just such), they gave trouble to the Roman armies even -under a Cæsar, and were in early days the most dreadful enemies of the -Republic. Under Brennus, they besieged and took Rome,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_323" id="page_323"></a>{323}</span> sacked the city, -and were only induced to retire on the payment of a heavy ransom. A -hundred years later, under another Brennus, they made their way into -Thrace, ravaged the whole country, and from Nicomedes, King of Bithynia, -obtained a settlement in Asia Minor in the district which from them -received the name of Galatia. The occurrence of those two chiefs named -Brennus shows us that this could hardly have been a mere personal name. -It is undoubtedly the Celtic Brain, a king or chieftain, the same from -which we get the mythic Bran,<a name="FNanchor_142_142" id="FNanchor_142_142"></a><a href="#Footnote_142_142" class="fnanchor">[142]</a> and in all probability the Irish -O’Brien. The recognition of the Celtic fighting capacity in the ancient -world is illustrated by another circumstance, and this is more -especially interesting to us of the modern world, whose army is so -largely made up of Celts from Ireland and Scotland (Highlanders). Hierôn -I., the powerful tyrant of Syracuse, founded his despotism, as he -afterwards confessed, chiefly upon his standing army of thirty thousand -Gaulish mercenaries whom he kept always in his pay.</p> - -<p>For the rest, we know little of the internal Celtic life and of the -extent of its culture. Probably this differed considerably in different -parts, in Gaul for instance, and in Ireland. The slight notices of -Gaulish religion which Cæsar and Pliny give refer chiefly to its -external belongings, to the hereditary sacerdotal class, who seem also -to have been the bardic class; of its myths and of their real -significance we know little more than what can be gathered by analogy of -other nations. We may assert that their nature-worship approached most -nearly to the Teutonic form among those of all the Aryan peoples.</p> - -<p>Peculiarly interesting to us are such traces as can be<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_324" id="page_324"></a>{324}</span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">The Teutons.</div> - -<p class="nind">gleaned of the Teutonic race. The first time we have seen that they show -themselves upon the stage of history is possibly in company with the -Celts, supposing for a moment that the Cimbri, who in company with the -Teutones, the Tigurini, and the Ambrones were defeated by Marius (<small>B.C.</small> -101), were Celts.<a name="FNanchor_143_143" id="FNanchor_143_143"></a><a href="#Footnote_143_143" class="fnanchor">[143]</a> What branch of the German family (if any) the -Teutones were, is quite uncertain. Again, in the pages of Cæsar we meet -with several names of tribes evidently of German origin. The Treviri, -the Marcomanni (Mark men, men of the march or boundary), Allemanni -(all-men, or men of the great or the mixed<a name="FNanchor_144_144" id="FNanchor_144_144"></a><a href="#Footnote_144_144" class="fnanchor">[144]</a> nation), the Suevi -(Suabians), the Cherusci—men of the sword, perhaps the same as -<i>Saxons</i>, whose name has the same meaning.</p> - -<p>It is not till after the death of Theodosius at the end of the fourth -century of our era that the Germans fill a conspicuous place on the -historical canvas. By this time they had come to be divided into a -number of different nations, similar in most of the elements of their -civilization and barbarism, closely allied in languages, but politically -unconnected, or even opposed. Most of these Teutonic peoples grew into -mighty nations and deeply influenced the future of European history. It -is therefore right that we pass them rapidly in review. 1. The Goths had -been long settled in the region of the Lower Danube, chiefly in the -country called Mœsia, where Ulfilas, a Gothic prince who had been -converted to Christianity, returned to preach to his countrymen, became -a bishop among them, and by his translation of the Bible into their -tongue, the Mœso-Gothic, has left a perpetual memorial of the -language. During the reign of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_325" id="page_325"></a>{325}</span> Honorius, the son of Theodosius, a -portion of this nation, the West-or Visi-goths, quitted their home and -undertook under Alaric (All-king) their march into Italy, thrice -besieged and finally took Rome. Then turning aside, they founded a -powerful kingdom in the south of Gaul and in Spain. A century later the -East-Goths (Ostro-Goths), under the great Theodoric (People’s-king) -again invaded Italy and founded an Ostrogothic kingdom upon the ruins of -the Western Empire. 2, 3, 4, 5. The Suevi, Alani, Burgundians, and -Vandals crossed the Rhine in 405, and entered Roman territory, never -again to return to whence they came. The Burgundians (City-men) fixed -their abode in East-Central Gaul (Burgundy and Switzerland), where their -kingdom lasted till it was subdued by the Franks; but the other three -passed on into Spain, and the Vandals (Wends<a name="FNanchor_145_145" id="FNanchor_145_145"></a><a href="#Footnote_145_145" class="fnanchor">[145]</a>) from Spain into -Africa, where they founded a kingdom. 6. The Franks (Free-men), having -been for nearly a century settled between the Meuse and the Scheldt, -began under Clovis (Chlodvig, Hludwig, Lewis) (<small>A.D.</small> 480) their career of -victory, from which they did not rest until the whole of Gaul owned the -sway of Merovingian kings. 7. The Longobardi (Long-beards, or men of the -long borde, long stretch of alluvial land), who after the Ostrogoths had -been driven out of Italy by the Emperor of the East, founded in defiance -of his power a second Teutonic kingdom in that country—a kingdom which -lasted till the days of Charlemagne. 8. And last, but we may safely say -not least, the Saxons (Sword-men, from <i>seaxa</i>, a sword), who invaded -Britain, and under the name of Angles (Engle) founded the nation to -which we belong, the longest-lived of all those which rose upon the -ruins of the Roman Empire.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_326" id="page_326"></a>{326}</span></p> - -<p>The condition of the German people, even so late as the time when they -began their invasion of the Roman territory, was far behind that of the -majority of their Aryan fellows. It is likely that they were little more -civilized than the Greeks and Romans were, in days when they lived -together as one collection of tribes. For the moment when we catch sight -of these—the Greeks and Romans—in their new homes, we see them settled -agriculturists, with no trace left of their wandering habits. It was not -so with the Teutons: they knew agriculture certainly, they had known it -before they separated from the other peoples of the European family (for -the Greek and Latin words for plough reappear in Teutonic speech<a name="FNanchor_146_146" id="FNanchor_146_146"></a><a href="#Footnote_146_146" class="fnanchor">[146]</a>); -but they had not altogether bid adieu to their migratory life—we see -them still flowing in a nebulous condition into the Roman lands. Even -the Tartars of our day—the very picture of a nomadic people—practise -some form of agriculture. They plant buckwheat, which, growing up in a -few months, allows them to reap the fruits of their industry without -tying them long to a particular spot. The Teutons were more stationary -than the Tartars, but doubtless they too were constantly shifting their -homes—choosing fresh homesteads, as Tacitus says they did, wherever any -spot, or grove, or stream attracted them. The condition of society -called the village community, which has been described in a former -chapter, though long abandoned by the cultivated Greeks and Romans, was -still suitable to the exigencies of <i>their</i> life; but these exigencies -imposed upon it some fresh conditions. Their situation, the situation of -those who made their way into the western countries of Europe, was -essentially that of conquerors; for they must keep in subjection the -original inhabitants, whether Romans or Celts; and so all their social<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_327" id="page_327"></a>{327}</span> -arrangements bent before the primary necessity of maintaining an -effective war equipment. Age and wisdom were of less value to the -community than youthful vigour. The patriarchal chief, chosen for his -reputation for wisdom and swaying by his mature counsels the free -assemblies of the states, gives place with them to the leader, famous -for his valour and fortunes in the field, by virtue of which he exacts a -more implicit obedience than would be accorded in unwarlike times, until -by degrees his office becomes hereditary; the partition of the conquered -soil among the victors, and the holding of it upon conditions of -military service, conditions which led so easily to the assertion of a -principle of primogeniture, and thence, by slow but natural stages, to -the conditions of tenure known as <i>feudal</i>; these are the marks of the -early Teutonic society.</p> - -<p>Such germs of literary life as the Teutons possessed were enshrined in -ballads, such as all nations possess in some form. The re-echoes of -these have come down to us in the earliest known poems by men of -Teutonic race, all of which are unfortunately of very recent date. All -are distinguished by the principle of versifying which is essentially -Teutonic; the trusting of the cadence, not to an exact measurement of -syllables or quantities, but to the pauses or beats of the voice in -repetition, the effect of these beats being heightened by the use of -alliteration. Poems of this true Teutonic character, though many of them -in their present shape are late in date, are the well-known old German -lay of <i>Hadubrand and Hildebrand</i>, the old Scandinavian poems which we -call Eddic poems, our old English poem <i>Beowulf</i>, and the <i>Bard’s Tale</i> -and the <i>Fight of Finnesburg</i>, and finally that long German poem called -the <i>Nibelungen</i>, or say the poem out of which this long one has been -made. These poems repeat old mythic legends, many of which<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_328" id="page_328"></a>{328}</span> have for -centuries been handed down from father to son, and display the mythology -and religion of our German ancestors, such as in a former chapter we -endeavoured to sketch them out. Slight as they are, they are of -inestimable value, in that they help us to read the mind of heathen -Germany, and to weigh the significance of the last great revolution in -Europe’s history—a revolution wherein we, through our ancestors, have -taken and through ourselves are still taking part, and in which we have -therefore so close an interest.</p> - -<p>But having carried the reader down to this point, our task comes to an -end. Even for Europe, the youngest born as it were in the world’s -history, when we have passed the epoch of Teutonic invasion, the star of -history <i>sera rubens</i> has definitely risen. Nations from this time -forward emerge more and more into the light, and little or nothing falls -to the part of pre-historic study.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_329" id="page_329"></a>{329}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="APPENDIX" id="APPENDIX"></a>APPENDIX.<br /><br /> -<small>NOTES AND AUTHORITIES.</small></h2> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_330" id="page_330"></a>{330}</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_331" id="page_331"></a>{331}</span></p> - -<p>⁂ For the convenience of the reader, authorities are cited -whenever it is possible in an English form, and if not in an -English, in a French.</p> - -<h3>CHAPTERS I. <small>AND</small> II.</h3> - -<p class="listt"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Christy and Lartet, <i>Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Davis and Thurnam, <i>Crania Britannica</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dawkins, <i>Cave Hunting</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dawkins, <i>Early Man in Britain</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Evans, <i>Stone Implements of Great Britain</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Evans, <i>Bronze Implements of Great Britain</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Geikie, <i>The Great Ice Age</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Greenwell, <i>British Barrows</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Keller, <i>The Lake-Dwellings of Switzerland</i> (trs. Lee).</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lyell, <i>Antiquity of Man</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lubbock, <i>Pre-historic Times</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mortillet, <i>Origine de la Navigation et de la Pêche</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mortillet, <i>Promenades Préhistoriques à l’Exposition</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mortillet, <i>Le Préhistorique, L’Antiquité de l’homme</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Montelius, <i>La Suède Préhistorique</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tylor, <i>Anthropology</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tylor, <i>Early History of Mankind</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tylor, <i>Primitive Culture</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Troyon, <i>Habitations Lacustres</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Worsaae, <i>The Pre-history of the North</i> (trs. Simpson).</span><br /> -</p> - -<p class="nind">And numerous articles in the Archæological and Anthropological journals -of England, France, and Germany.</p> - -<p><a href="#page_8">Pp. 8</a>, and <a href="#page_14">14-15</a>. <i>Antiquity of Man.</i>—The question concerning<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_332" id="page_332"></a>{332}</span> the -history of Palæolithic man which presses the most immediately for -solution, is that which has been just touched upon here: whether the -variety of animal remains with which the remains of men are found -associated, do really point to an immensely lengthened period of his -existence, in this primitive state. We have said that human bones are -found associated with those of the mammoth (<i>Elephas primigenius</i>), -those of the woolly rhinoceros, and with the remains of other animals -whose existence seems to imply a cold-temperate, or almost frigid, -climate; at another place, or a little lower in the same river bed (the -higher gravel beds are the oldest), we may find the bones of the -hippopotamus, an animal which in these days is never found far away from -the tropics. The conclusion seems obvious: man must have lived through -the epoch of change—enormously long though it was—from a cold to an -almost tropical climate. Some writers have freely accepted this view, -and even gone beyond it to argue the possibility of man having lived -through one of the great climatic revolutions which produced an Ice Age. -(See the arguments on this head in Mr. Geikie’s <i>Ice Age</i>.) And in a -private letter, written from the West Indies, Kingsley says that he sees -reason for thinking that man existed in the Miocene Era. (See <i>Life of -Kingsley</i>.)</p> - -<p>On the other hand, these rather startling theories have not yet received -their <i>imprimatur</i> from the highest scientific authorities. There are -many ways in which they clash with the story which the stone-age remains -seem to tell of man’s primitive life. For instance, the civilization of -the caves is to all appearance in advance of that of the drift-beds; and -yet, as we have seen (<a href="#page_18">p. 18</a>), the cave men must have existed during the -earlier part of the stone age, that of the mammoth. Here we see -evidences of a decided improvement, an advance; whereas between the -drift-remains associated with the mammoth and those associated with the -hippopotamus are seen few or none.</p> - -<p><a href="#page_9">P. 9</a>. <i>Cave-drawings or carvings.</i>—The best representations of these -are to be found in the work of Christy and Lartet given above.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_333" id="page_333"></a>{333}</span></p> - -<p><a href="#page_19">P. 19</a>. The ideas which savages or primitive men associate with drawings -or representations of things (as also with the <i>names</i> of things) are -sometimes exceedingly complex and difficult of apprehension—for us. -This the following example may show:—</p> - -<p>In the earliest Egyptian tombs the beautiful and realistic drawings have -long attracted the attention of archæologists, both on account of their -intrinsic merit, and from the curious contrast which they present to the -more conventional religious drawing and sculpture of a later date. -Though the drawings of the first class are found exclusively upon the -walls of tombs, they have apparently no connection either with ideas of -death or with religious observances. They seem to represent merely the -earthly and secular life of the entombed man: here he is superintending -his labourers at their work, here he is hunting, here he is reclining at -the banquet and watching the performances of fools or dancing-girls. -This is what a mere study of the drawings suggests. A more complete -study of the inscriptions which accompany them have, however, convinced -Egyptian archæologists that the object of these wall-paintings is not -merely decorative or representative, in the sense in which drawings are -representative to us. Their essential use is what we may call magical. -They are believed to contain (and this is a universal savage belief as -touching drawings or sculptures of any kind) some elements of the things -they represent. Thus the tomb-paintings would be a kind of <i>doubles</i> of -the things which the deceased enjoyed in this life. And they would be -placed in the tomb in order that the <i>double</i> of the deceased (what the -Egyptians called his <i>ka</i>) might enjoy the usufruct of them in the new -state.</p> - -<p>This is the simplest <i>magic</i> use of the copies or representation of -things in early Egyptian tombs. But the idea of the makers of these -drawings seems often to be more complicated than this. The drawings by -being placed in the tombs are supposed to give the <i>ka</i> of the deceased -(<i>not</i> in the tomb, but far away in the land of shades) the enjoyment of -the doubles of the things which he enjoyed in life. In this instance the -drawings are not the actual possessions which the dead man has, but they -correspond to, or influence, or in a certain sense create in the land of -shades new possessions, the doubles of the old.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_334" id="page_334"></a>{334}</span></p> - -<p>These subtle and complex notions are by no means to be expressed by the -conventional words <i>magic</i>, <i>animism</i>, etc., loosely thrown about by -anthropologists.</p> - -<p><a href="#page_47">Pp. 47</a> and <a href="#page_52">52</a>. <i>Weaving.</i>—The art of platting, which carries in it the -germ of the art of weaving, is of immemorial, undiscoverable antiquity. -There can hardly have been a time when men did not weave together twigs -or reeds to form a rude tent covering—a primitive house. And one proof -of the immense antiquity of this practice is given by the numerous names -for twigs, reeds, etc., in different languages which are derived from -words signifying to twist or weave. The word <i>weave</i> itself (Ger. -<i>weben</i>) is connected with a Sanskrit root <i>vê</i>, meaning much the same -thing; and we find this same root <i>vê</i> appearing again in the Latin, -<i>vimen</i> a twig, and <i>vitis</i>, a vine, the last so named from its -tendrils, which we should judge were used for platting before they were -used for producing grapes. From the same root, again, and for the same -reason, are derived the Latin <i>viburnum</i>, briony; the Slavonic <i>wetle</i>, -willow; the Sanskrit <i>vetra</i>, reed. The Latin <i>scirpus</i>, reed, and the -Greek γρῖφος, a net, are allied; but these may not be -instances quite in point.</p> - -<p>Such rude platting as this is a very different thing from the -elaborately woven cloths found among the remains of the lake-villages, -whose construction involves also the art of <i>spinning</i>.</p> - -<p><a href="#page_54">P. 54</a>. The view put forward in this chapter concerning the race of the -neolithic men in Europe, is that which seems to the writer most -consistent with <i>all</i> the facts known, concerning the distribution of -pre-historic man. As was said in the Preface, the students in different -branches of pre-historic inquiry have not begun yet to collate -sufficiently the results of their researches, and their opinions -sometimes clash. We have to reconcile the pre-historic anthropologist -and the ethnologist with the student of comparative philology. Most of -the former are agreed that the earliest inhabitants of this quarter of -the globe were most allied in character to the Lapps and Finns; and were -consequently of what we have distinguished (Chapter V.) as the -yellow-skinned family. But they are<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_335" id="page_335"></a>{335}</span> far from agreed that the -bronze-using men were not of the same race; and some (Keller for -instance) are violently opposed to the notion that the substitution of -metal for stone was a sudden transition, and due to foreign importation. -In some instances there is evidence that the change was gradual.</p> - -<p>But the evidence on the other side is stronger. The human remains found -with the bronze weapons are generally clearly distinguishable (in -formation of skull, etc.) from those associated with the implements of -stone. The funeral rites of the bronze-age men were as a rule different -from those of the stone-age men; for while the former generally buried -their dead, the latter seem generally to have burnt theirs (see Grimm, -<i>Ueber das Verbrennen der Leichen</i>). Now we have strong reason for -believing that the Aryan races (see Chapters IV., V.) practised this -sort of interment; and we have further reason for thinking that the use -of metals was known to them before their entry into Europe (see Pictet, -<i>Les Origines Indo-Européennes</i> and Grimm, <i>Geschichte der deut. -Sprache</i>). Moreover, these Aryans unless their original home were in -Europe (see <a href="#page_99">p. 99, <i>note</i></a>), must have come in at some time, and when -they did come, they must have produced an entire revolution in the life -of its inhabitants. No time seems so appropriate for their appearance as -that which closes the age of stone.</p> - -<p>This theory does not preclude the possibility of, in many places, a -side-by-side existence of stone users and bronze users, or even a -gradual extension of the art of metallurgy; and these conditions would -be especially likely to arise in such secluded spots as the -lake-dwellings. Therefore, Dr. Keller’s arguments are not impeached by -the theory that the Aryans were the introducers of bronze into Europe.</p> - -<h3>CHAPTERS III. <small>AND</small> IV.</h3> - -<p class="listt"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bopp, <i>Comparative Grammar of the Sanskrit Zend, etc.</i> (trs.).</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bréal, <i>Principes de Philologie Comparée</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Geiger, <i>Contributions to the History of the Development of the Race</i> (trs.).</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Grimm, <i>Geschichte der deutschen Sprache</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Grimm, <i>Ueber den Ursprung der Sprache</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_336" id="page_336"></a>{336}</span></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kuhn, <i>Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Müller, Max, <i>Lectures on the Science of Language</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Müller, Max, <i>Sanskrit Literature</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Peile, <i>Introduction to Greek and Latin Etymology</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pictet, <i>Les Origines Indo-Européennes</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sayce, <i>Introduction to the Science of Language</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wilson, <i>Introduction to the Rig Veda Sanhita</i>.</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>Agreeably to the plan enunciated in the first chapter (pp. 4-6) I have -used up all the more generally admitted facts and theories to form what -seemed to me a reasonable account of the growth of language; to form an -account too which should subserve one great end of this volume, by -stimulating the thoughts of the reader at the same time that it pointed -out the nature of the evidence upon which conclusions are founded, -thereby preparing the reader to pursue the enquiry upon his own account.</p> - -<p>The science of Comparative Philology is, however, in too unripe a -condition to allow us to speak with dogmatic assurance with regard to -its inferences; even those which seem fundamental have been, and may -again, be called in question. It is right here, therefore, to remind the -reader that it is quite upon the cards that further research may end by -upsetting the generally accepted theory of the growth of inflexions in -language. Even now there is a school of philologists and anthropologists -that denies the premise upon which this theory rests—the <i>radical</i> -origin of all language. This school maintains that, instead of speech -beginning in monosyllabic root-sounds, as is generally supposed, it -begins in extremely elaborate and complicated sounds which are in fact -nothing else than sentences; that it is only by the wear and tear of use -that the sentence has got split up into its component sounds, which have -then taken the character of monosyllabic roots.</p> - -<p>This theory was first set on foot by a writer (Waitz) who is an -anthropologist rather than a student of language, and it might be -distinguished as the anthropological theory of the origin of speech. We -have no space here for a full discussion of its merits. It will be -enough to indicate some <i>à priori</i> arguments in its favour.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_337" id="page_337"></a>{337}</span></p> - -<p>1. It would make the language of primitive man analogous to a state of -things which many people think they have discovered as typical of the -most primitive savages—namely, a state of society which, in its -customs, marriage laws, etc., differs from modern society in being not -more simple, but infinitely more complex.</p> - -<p>2. This supposed original expressive sentence and its subsequent -analysis would have considerable analogy to what we ourselves have just -seen is the history of writing, which begins with a more or less -elaborate picture; then the parts of the picture are split up, and by -the wear and tear of frequent use these parts are added together in -separate items to form picture-<i>writing</i>, which is quite a different -thing from picturing, and which is the immediate parent of writing as we -know it. An analogy of this kind cannot be without weight.</p> - -<p>On the other hand, it must be pointed out that the strongest arguments -in favour of this view are the <i>à priori</i> arguments. True, we do not -know enough of the languages of the world to speak with dogmatic -assurance. But the history of all the languages which have been closely -studied points away from the anthropological theory.</p> - -<p>Again, the first argument in favour of Waitz’s theory is itself clearly -founded upon a paradox. It can scarcely be seriously maintained that -while we can trace the growth of implements, such as spears and knives, -from the simplest possible form upwards, such implements as speech and -social laws have been ready made in a highly complex form. Argument -number two serves to expose the grossness of this paradox. It would be -as reasonable to maintain that mankind had begun by drawing pictures -before they learnt to draw the elements out of which the pictures were -composed.</p> - -<p>The whole theory, therefore, belongs to the category of theories which -explain <i>obscurum per obscurius</i>. It may be, and no doubt is, -practically impossible to explain in any <i>natural</i> way how speech arose. -But at all events it is easier to understand how it may have arisen in a -simple form and grown to one more complex, than to imagine it beginning -in a complex state and by detrition resolving into simple elements.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_338" id="page_338"></a>{338}</span></p> - -<p><a href="#page_68">P. 68</a>. <i>Consonantal and vowel sounds.</i>—The fact that even in Aryan -roots the consonants have more weight than the vowel sounds will be -evident merely from the instances given in the course of this and the -following chapter—<i>fly</i>, <i>flee</i>, <i>flew</i> (<i>w</i> is here a vowel sound); -<i>night</i>, <i>Nacht</i>; <i>knight</i>, <i>Knecht</i>; <i>Raum</i>, <i>room</i>; <i>asmi</i>, <i>esmi</i> -(<i>eimi</i>), <i>sum</i>, etc. This general rule holds good for almost all -languages, and seems necessarily to do so from the stronger character of -the consonantal and the weaker character of the vowel sounds.</p> - -<p>But the <i>relative</i> importance of vowels and consonants is very different -in different classes of language. In the Aryan tongues the essential -root is made up of vowels and consonants, and the variations upon the -root idea are <i>generally</i> expressed by additions to the root and not by -internal changes in it. In this way, as we saw, most grammatical -inflexions are made: hom-o, hom-inis, am-o, am-abam, τύπτω, ἒτυτον, -ἒτυψον, etc. But in Semitic languages the root consists of -the consonants only, and the inflexions are produced by internal -changes, changes of the vowels which belong to a consonant. For example, -in Arabic the three consonants <i>k-t-l</i> (<i>katl</i>) represent the abstract -notion of the act of killing. From them we get <i>kátil</i>, one who kills; -<i>kitl</i> (pl. <i>aktal</i>), an enemy; <i>katala</i>, he slew; <i>kutila</i>, he was -slain. From <i>z-r-b</i> (<i>zarb</i>), the act of striking; <i>zarbun</i>, a striking -(in concrete sense); <i>zarábun</i>, a striker; <i>zaraba</i>, he struck; -<i>zuriba</i>, he was struck. Compare these with occido, occidi, occisor, or -with τύπτω, τέτυφα, etc., and we see that in the Aryan tongues -the radical remains almost unchanged, and the inflexions are made <i>ab -extra</i>; but in the Semitic language the inflexions are made by changes -of vowel sound within the framework of the root consonants.</p> - -<p>The usual grammatical root in Arabic is composed of three consonants, as -in the examples given above. Most of the Semitic languages are in too -fully formed a state to allow us to see whether or no these roots, which -are of course at the least dissyllabic, grew up out of single sounds; -but a comparison with some languages of the Semitic family (<i>e.g.</i> -Egyptian) which are still near to their early radical state, show us -that they have probably done so.</p> - -<p>The Coptic language, which is the nearest we can get to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_339" id="page_339"></a>{339}</span> tongue of -the ancient Egyptians, is extremely interesting in that it displays the -processes of grammar formation, as has just been said, in a more -intelligible shape than we find in the higher Semitic tongues.</p> - -<p><a href="#page_98">P. 98</a>. We are here speaking, be it remembered, of families of -<i>language</i>. The ethnology of a people is not necessarily the same as its -language; so that when we speak of a family of language including the -tongues of a certain number of races, we do not imply that they were -wholly of the same ethnic family. This caution is especially necessary -as regards the earliest great pre-historic nations who seem to have been -what are called Cushites—anything but pure Semites (see Chapter -V.)—but whose languages may properly be ranged in the Semitic family. -The Egyptian, for instance, was more nearly monosyllabic than any other -Semitic tongue (Chapter XIII.); yet such inflexions as it has show an -evident relationship with Hebrew and other Semitic languages (see -Appendix to Bunsen’s <i>Egypt’s Place in Universal History</i>).</p> - -<h3>CHAPTER V.</h3> - -<p class="listt"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Brugsch, <i>Recueils de Monuments Égyptiens</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Brugsch, <i>Histoire d’Égypt</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Brugsch, <i>Matériaux pour servir</i>, etc.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bunsen, <i>Egypt’s Place</i>, etc. (ed. Dr. Birch).</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ebers, <i>Egyptian History</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Flower, W. H., <i>Races of Men</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Legge, <i>Chinese Classics, with Introduction, etc.</i></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lenormant, <i>Manual of the Ancient History of the East</i> (trs.).</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lepsius, <i>Chronologie der Egypten</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mariette Pasha, <i>Abrégé de l’Histoire d’Égypte</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Maspero, <i>Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l’Orient</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Maury, <i>Le Livre et l’Homme</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rawlinson, <i>Herodotus, with Notes</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rawlinson, <i>Five Great Monarchies</i>, etc.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rougé (Vte. de), <i>Examen de l’Ouvrage de M. Bunsen</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_340" id="page_340"></a>{340}</span></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sayce, <i>Ancient Empires of the East</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tylor, <i>Anthropology</i>.</span><br /> -</p> - -<p><a href="#page_119">P. 119</a>. The word Turanian is untenable as an ethnic term. It can be -used—though with a somewhat loose signification—to distinguish those -languages which are in the agglutinative stage. But the reader must be -careful not to suppose that it comprises a class of nearly allied -peoples, as the Aryan and Semitic families of language, upon the whole, -do. The only race which includes the Turanian peoples of Europe and Asia -includes also those who speak monosyllabic languages: this is the yellow -race, and is of course a division of the widest possible kind.</p> - -<p><a href="#page_122">P. 122</a>. Touching the relationship of the Egyptians to the negroes a -variety of opinions are held. There can be no question that their types -of face forbid us to doubt that there was some relationship between -them; while the representations of negroes upon the ancient monuments of -Egypt show that from the remotest historical period there was a marked -distinction between the peoples, and that from that early time till now -the negroes have not changed in the smallest particular of ethnical -character. On the other hand, many people consider the Egyptians and the -Accadians to have been essentially the same people, the Cushites—or as -some call them Hamites—a race which perhaps anciently spread from -Susiana across Arabia and the Red Sea to Abyssinia and Egypt.</p> - -<p><a href="#page_123">P. 123</a>. The names <i>Chaldæan</i> and <i>Assyrian</i> are used with a variety of -significations by Orientalists, and in a way likely to be confusing to -the general reader. He will do well, therefore, to bear the following -facts in mind:—</p> - -<p>1. The Tigris and the Euphrates, after both taking their rise in the -Caleshîn Dagh mountain in the Armenian highlands, soon separate by a -wide sweep, the Euphrates flowing south-west and towards the -Mediterranean, the Tigris flowing south-east towards the Persian Gulf. -But instead of flowing <i>into</i> the Mediterranean, the Euphrates again -turns first due south, then south-east, so that it thenceforward flows -parallel with the Tigris. They approach nearer and nearer, until about -Bagdad they are separated by some twenty miles only; but here<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_341" id="page_341"></a>{341}</span> they once -more begin to increase the distance between them, and do not again -approach until just before they unite to fall into the Persian Gulf. In -ancient days they never united, as the Persian Gulf spread more than a -hundred miles farther inland than it does to-day.</p> - -<p>The territory enclosed between these two great streams, with the -addition of some territory to the east of the Tigris and west of the -Euphrates, is that which the Greeks called Mesopotamia. Lower -Mesopotamia begins about the point where the streams approach the -nearest, and this Lower Mesopotamia is the territory distinguished by -the name <i>Chaldæa</i>.</p> - -<p>Territorially this Chaldæa was in ancient days divided into two -districts—Shûmir in the south, and Accad in the north.</p> - -<p>The earliest known inhabitants of these districts were a Turanian race, -who from their territorial possessions should properly be called the -Shûmir-Accadians or Shûmiro-Accadians. But it is common to call them -simply Accadians (or Accad), and their language, an agglutinative or -Turanian one, Accadian likewise.</p> - -<p>Here therefore is the first element of confusion—between the smaller -territorial division, Accadia, and the larger ethnic division, which -includes all the primitive inhabitants of Chaldæa.</p> - -<p>2. But there mingled with these primitive Accadians a Semitic race, and -gradually transformed them, so that the speech of the country changed -from being a Turanian or agglutinative, to being a Semitic and inflected -language.</p> - -<p>Now, these Semitic people are probably the Chaldæans of the Bible; at -any rate the Bible seems to take no account of the primitive Turanian -stock. Its Chaldæans are a people allied by nationality to the Shemites, -though perhaps so far mixed with an earlier stock as to be what we may -call proto-Semitic.</p> - -<p>Here is the second element of confusion, a confusion between the -unchanged land of Chaldæa and the two races who in succession inhabited -it.</p> - -<p>3. Finally, the language of the Semitic (or proto-Semitic) Chaldæans was -practically the same as that of the people who rose into a nation in -Upper Mesopotamia, viz. the Assyrians. The Assyrians, as is said in -Chapter V., founded an empire which overthrew the ancient Chaldæan or -Babylonian empire,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_342" id="page_342"></a>{342}</span>—for from its largest town the empire is also called -the Babylonian—and was in its turn overthrown by an alliance between -the revolted Babylon and the King of Media.</p> - -<p>The third element of confusion then arises from applying to the language -of the Semitic Chaldæans the name Assyrian, which involves no -participation in the empire of the Assyrians.</p> - -<p>It is probable that these elements of confusion have not always been -avoided in the preceding chapters. But with the aid of this note they -will no longer present difficulties to the reader.</p> - -<p>It will be seen that both the Egyptians and Chaldæans of Genesis, chap. -x., are a Semitic people so far as regards the character of their -language, and belong in the main to the white race. So far as regards -their ethnic character, they were probably more mixed than the peoples -(Hebrews, Assyrians proper, etc.) who are called the children of Shem, -and therefore we may call them proto-Semitic.</p> - -<p>The term Hamitic is altogether misleading, and had better be unused in -ethnical classifications. The real meaning, if we follow the intention -of its use in the Bible, is to distinguish from the purer Semites -(Hebrews, Moabites, etc.) what we may call the proto-Semites; that is, a -number of races, such as the Egyptians and Chaldæans, as well as the -Canaanites generally, who spoke Semitic languages, but were very -probably of impure blood, very likely of Semitic and Turanian -intermixture. If the word Hamitic be used to include the rest of the -inhabitants of the world who were not Semitic or Aryan, then, though it -will not be very useful, no objection can be taken to its employment. -But in that case we shall be obliged, forming our classification by the -known rather than by the unknown, to include the Canaanites (who spoke -Semitic languages) in the Semitic family; and this will be in direct -contradiction to the use of Hamitic in the Bible narrative.</p> - -<h3>CHAPTERS VI. <small>AND</small> VII.</h3> - -<p class="listt"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Coulanges, <i>La Cité Antique</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Grimm, <i>Deutsche Rechts-Alterthümer</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_343" id="page_343"></a>{343}</span></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lavalaye, <i>La Propriété et ses Formes Primitives</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Maine, <i>Ancient Law</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Maine, <i>Village Communities</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Maine, <i>Early Institutions</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Maurer, <i>Geschichte der Dorf-Verfassung</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nasse, <i>Agricultural Communities of the Middle Ages</i> (translated by Ouvry).</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pictet, <i>Les Origines Indo-Européennes</i>.</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>In the account here given of the two most important social forms, the -patriarchal family and the village community, the endeavour has been -rather to present such a picture of them as may exhibit their chief -peculiarities in a sufficiently clear and striking manner, than to enter -into a minute examination of the various remains from which the picture -has been constructed. It must not be supposed, however, that the -representations here given can be completely verified from existing -information. They are rather to be looked upon as typical of what these -forms may have been in their earliest stage and under favourable -circumstances. We only meet with traces of them when undergoing decay. -Although the writer fully recognizes the importance of the researches of -McLellan and others concerning the earlier conditions of society, no -attempt has been made to give an account of the results which have been -arrived at in this field of inquiry. Two reasons may be assigned for -this omission. Firstly, the intrinsic difficulties of treating the -subject in a manner suitable to the ‘general reader’ are, it is -conceived, a sufficient excuse for the omission. Secondly, the results -at present attained are so vague that the mere statement of them would -be valueless without entering into great detail. All that can as yet -fairly be regarded as established is either that the Aryan and Semitic -races have at one time possessed social customs and practices similar to -those which are found in the most barbarous people; or that they have -during some period of their history so far amalgamated with, or been -influenced by, other races that had just emerged from this state, as to -absorb into their traditions and customs traces of a social condition of -a much lower and more primitive kind<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_344" id="page_344"></a>{344}</span> than that in which we first find -them. If we try to form any conception of what the earlier state may -have been, we at once see that the results at present attained are -almost purely negative. All that can be predicated is that at one time a -large proportion of the human race did <i>not</i> possess the notions of the -family and the marriage tie which were entertained by people in the -patriarchal state; that they did <i>not</i> trace blood relationship in the -same way. What particular customs immediately preceded or led to the -patriarchal family, whether this latter is to be considered as the -original social type, and the lower forms are to be regarded as derived -from it, or <i>vice versâ</i>—to these questions no satisfactory answer can -at present be given.</p> - -<p>Each step indeed in social change is to be looked upon, to a great -extent, as simply a phenomenon to be noted, the causes for which it is -impossible to determine accurately. This is especially the case with the -village community. The extent of its distribution would incline one to -the belief that it is a natural or necessary result of a certain stage -of social development; while the elaborate and artificial nature of its -construction points to the probability of some common origin from which -its developments might be traced. The greatest difficulty, however, lies -in trying to assign to this institution its due effect on civilization: -for it is frequently found in close combination with institutions to -which its spirit seems most strongly opposed. Thus while we find it -flourishing among the Germanic tribes, we also discover among them a -tendency to the custom of primogeniture much more marked than is -discoverable among other Aryan races. Yet this custom scarcely seems to -find a place in the pure village community beyond the limits of each -individual household. At the same time the patriarchal power was -certainly less among the Germans than among the early Romans, and -probably also less than among the Slavs.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_345" id="page_345"></a>{345}</span></p> - -<h3>CHAPTERS VIII.-XI.</h3> - -<p class="listt"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bournouf, <i>Commentaire sur le Yaçna</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bugge, <i>Sæmundar Edda</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bunsen, <i>God in History</i> (trs.).</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bunsen, <i>Egypt’s Place</i>, etc.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Busching, <i>Nibelungen Lied</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cox, <i>Mythology of the Aryan Nations</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Edda den ældra ok Snorra.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Grimm, Ueber das Verbr. der Leichen.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Grimm, Heldenbuch.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Keary, Outlines of Primitive Belief.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kuhn, Herabkunft des Feuers.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kuhn, <i>Sagen, Gebräuche u. Mährchen</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kuhn, in <i>Zeitsch f. v. Sp.</i> and <i>Z. f. deut. Alt</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lang, <i>Myth, Ritual, and Religion</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lepsius, <i>Todtenbuch</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Maspero, <i>Histoire Ancienne</i>, etc.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Müller, Op. cit.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Müller, <i>Lectures on the Science of Religion</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Müller, <i>Chips from a German Workshop</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Müller, <i>Origin and Growth of Religion</i> (Hibbert Lectures).</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Müller, <i>Sacred Books of the East</i>, vol. iv. Zend Avesta (Darmesteter).</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Preller, <i>Griechische Mythologie</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ralston, <i>Songs of the Russian People</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ralston, <i>Russian Folk-tales</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rawlinson, Op. cit.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rougé (Vte. de), <i>Études sur le Rituel des Égypt</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sayce, <i>Religion of the Ancient Babylonians</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Simrock, <i>Handbuch der. d. Myth</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tiele, <i>Outlines of the History of Religion</i> (trs.).</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Vigfusson and Powell, <i>Corpus Poeticum Boreale</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Welcker, <i>Griechische Götterlehre</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wuttke, <i>Deutsche Volksaberglaube</i>.</span><br /> -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_346" id="page_346"></a>{346}</span></p> - -<p>The origin and history of religion and mythology is (as we might expect) -a matter of keen controversy; and I cannot anticipate that the reader -would rise from the perusal of all the books given in the above list -with his mind not confused upon many points on which they touch. To -explain the position taken up in Chapters VIII.-XI., I will add the -following notes, which may help the reader over some difficult and -disputed questions.</p> - -<p>1. In the first place, we have confined our attention altogether to the -essential framework of the religious system or the myth-system with -which we were concerned. The <i>irrational element</i> is omitted, and the -mere process of omitting this relieves us from entering upon many points -which are strongly controverted at this moment. For instance, the work -of Mr. A. Lang cited above (and which I specially mention here, as it is -a good deal upon the <i>tapis</i> at the present moment) is altogether -occupied in combating a certain theory of Mr. Max Müller’s, that the -irrational element in Aryan mythologies (Greek and Sanskrit especially) -could be shown to have arisen in most instances from <i>an abuse of -language</i>, or, more exactly, from an oblivion of the true meaning of -some essential word or name contained in the myth, whereby a wholly -mistaken and wholly irrational element has been incorporated into the -history of the god or hero.</p> - -<p>This theory Mr. A. Lang combats by adducing the evidence that these -irrational parts in mythology may be <i>survivals</i> of thought from an -earlier age in the history of the people, when what seemed irrational -(and often disgusting) to their literary successors, and seems -irrational and disgusting to us, seemed neither one nor the other.</p> - -<p>Into this controversy we are not required to enter. But it is important -to point out to the reader how completely this lies outside the sphere -of study which we have chosen; the more so because, through some -criticisms of Mr. Lang’s book, a notion has gained currency (among those -presumably who have not read the book in question) that Mr. Lang has -revolutionized the whole study of religion and mythology, whereas he -only proposes to deal with one section, and that a small one, of it.</p> - -<p>Nor can it fairly be said that we are bound in these chapters<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_347" id="page_347"></a>{347}</span> to pay -much attention to the <i>irrational element</i> in belief. If we were writing -a complete treatise upon flint implements, we should be bound to include -not only those flints which had been clearly chipped with a definite -design, and which followed well-established forms, but with pieces of -abnormal shape, and even with flakes and cores, the <i>detritus</i>, so to -say, which had been left aside when the more available flints had been -chosen. If, again, we were dealing completely with the history of -village communities or systems of land tenure, we should be bound in -like fashion to treat of abnormal as well as normal forms. But obviously -that is not what is expected in the chapters of this book. We only -profess to treat of early civilization under its more usual aspects and -in its completest form. So with early beliefs; we only profess to -concern ourselves with what is rational and normal in the creeds with -which we are dealing.</p> - -<p>There are always certain drawbacks, certain new liabilities to error, -which follow the step of each fresh advance in science. The shadow of -this kind which attends the comparative method which had been adopted -with such splendid results, not only in many natural sciences, but in -almost all branches of pre-historic study—the comparative study of -laws, institutions, language, myths, and creeds—is a tendency to -confound the condition of these things with which we are actually -concerned with their condition at some previous time. As Mr. Tylor -admirably says about language, that, interesting as it is to trace the -history of words, our understanding of their actual meaning is not -always facilitated by a misty sense that at some previous time they -meant something else, so we may say of many other things—laws, for -example, and customs, or, still more, myths and religions.</p> - -<p>It will be obvious, for instance, that our appreciation of the place in -history of certain personages will be very little affected by tracing -some of the stories told about them to quite different countries and -periods in the history of the world. Suppose (for example) that we -should find in New Zealand legends a story closely analogous to the -story of Harold’s oath to William the Bastard. It would be by no means -safe to affirm that, if we sifted the multitudinous legends of the -world, we should not be able to find some pretty close analogy to -William’s celebrated<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_348" id="page_348"></a>{348}</span> trick of concealing the venerated relics beneath -the altar. How, it may be asked, would such a discovery affect our -estimate of the parts which William and Harold played as the rival -claimants for the English throne? If the reader can answer that question -he can decide the influence which studies into the religion of the -Maoris or Andaman Islanders are likely to have over his estimate of the -<i>rational</i> parts of an historic creed. Such a discovery as we have -imagined would suggest the possibility that some remote channel of -tradition had fathered an old myth upon Harold and William. But it would -give us no clue as to how well it fitted upon their characters, how far -it gained general currency at the time. Upon these questions alone -depends our estimate of the position which the two historic personages -occupied in the world of their day. For a story which is generally -believed is almost the same as a story which is true.</p> - -<p>Or, if the reader prefers a story which is really a myth, take the -history of Hasting at the siege of Luna, with which most readers will be -acquainted, and how he gained an entry into the town by feigning death -and obtaining that his body should be carried within the walls for -Christian burial. <i>That</i> is undoubtedly a myth; it is found to be -sporadic among the histories of the Vikings and of the Normans, their -descendants. Should we discover that a very similar story has been -current among the Incas of Peru, how far could that discovery affect our -estimate of the supposed character of Hasting?</p> - -<p>When the reader has made up his mind upon this subject he will be in a -position, we have said, to estimate the weight which we ought to attach -to discoveries of this kind in reference to historic creeds; because the -heroes of these creeds are evidently in the position of historic -personages for those who hold the belief. As long as the Norsemen think -that they hear Odin rushing along at night upon his horse Sleipnir, Odin -is for them an historic personage; as long as Greeks think that it is -Zeus who is ‘thundering from Ida,’ Zeus is as real to them as William -the Bastard was to the English nation—more real than Hasting was to -Dudo. And I maintain that an understanding of what the Greeks thought -about Zeus, or the Norsemen about Odin, is very little furthered by (in -Mr. Tylor’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_349" id="page_349"></a>{349}</span> words) a vague notion that at some other time they thought -something quite different.</p> - -<p>We may, however, legitimately go a little way behind the date of our -documents. Our comprehension of the feudal system of land tenure is not -much assisted by comparing it with systems in use among the Zulus; but -it is useful to study the land tenure prevalent among the German -nationalities before the feudal system properly so called was -introduced. In the same way, behind the actual religious ideas shadowed -forth in the Vedic hymns, in Homer, or in the Eddaic poems, we may, I -maintain, legitimately go back to a time when the divine beings of these -creeds were more nearly identified with natural phenomena out of which -they sprang. It is just this condition of the Aryan creeds which I have -sought to portray in the chapters devoted to the subject. In the actual -documents before us the gods of Greece or Scandinavia do not take the -guise of the heaven, or the sun, or the wind. But enough remains in -their natures to show that it was out of these phenomena that they -emerged to become the independent personalities which we know. This is -what is meant by the <i>nature</i> or <i>origins</i> of Indra, Zeus, Odin, etc., -as the expressions are used above.</p> - -<p><a href="#page_195">P. 195</a>. I take the liberty of transcribing a passage from Mr. Max -Müller’s Lectures on the Science of Religion.</p> - -<p>‘One of the oldest names of the deity, among the Semitic nations, was -El. It meant strong. It occurs in the Babylonian inscriptures as Ilu, -God, and in the very name of Bab-il, the gate or temple of Il. In -Hebrew, it occurs both in its general sense, as strong, or hero, and as -a name of God. We have it in <i>Beth-el</i>, the House of God, and in many -other names. If used with the article as ha-El, the Strong One, or the -God, it always is meant in the Old Testament for Jehovah, the true God. -El, however, always retained its appellative power, and we find it -applied therefore, in parts of the Old Testament, to the God of the -Gentiles also.</p> - -<p>‘The same El was worshipped at Byblus, by the Phœnicians, and he was -called there the Son of Heaven and Earth. His father was the son of -Eliun, the most high god, who had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_350" id="page_350"></a>{350}</span> killed by wild animals. The son -of Eliun who succeeded him was dethroned, and at last slain by his own -son <i>El</i>, whom Philo identifies with the Greek Kronos, and represents as -the presiding deity of the planet Saturn. In the Himyaritic inscriptions -too the name of El has been discovered.</p> - -<p>‘With the name of El, Philo connected the name of Elohim, the plural of -Eloah. In the battle between <i>El</i> and his father, the allies of El, he -says, were called Eloeim, as those who were with Kronos were called -Kronioi. This is no doubt a very tempting etymology of <i>Eloah</i>; but as -the best Semitic scholars, and particularly Professor Fleischer, have -declared against it, we shall have, however reluctantly, to surrender -it.</p> - -<p>‘Eloah is the same word as the Arabic Ilâh, God. In the singular, -<i>Eloah</i> is used synonymously with El; in the plural, it may mean gods in -general, or false gods: but it becomes in the Old Testament the -recognized name for the true God, plural in form but singular in -meaning. In Arabic Ilâh without the article means a god in general; with -the article Al-Ilâh, or Allâh, becomes the name of the God of Abraham -and Moses.’</p> - -<p><a href="#page_197">P. 197</a>. <i>Nature-Worship.</i>—The part which the phenomena of nature play -in training the thoughts of uncultivated men toward religion, and -poetry, and hero-worship, and legendary lore, has been made the subject -of warm controversy. And it may not be altogether amiss if we bestow a -little thought upon the question, and upon the character of evidence by -which this nature-worship is thought to be established.</p> - -<p>That it is in no sense a degradation of our estimate of man to suppose -that his thoughts were led upward from the contemplation of the objects -of sense which lay around to the contemplation of a Higher Being beyond -the region of sensible things, will become, it is to be hoped, clear -upon a little reflection, and upon a candid examination of what has been -said in pp. 173-176. But still it may fairly be asked, Did this process -of deifying the powers of nature take place? Why should not the human -mind have come independently by the direct revelation of God’s voice -speaking in the hearts of men to a notion of a God ruler of the world, -and then, by a natural process of decay, proceed thence to a polytheism, -a pantheon of beings who were<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_351" id="page_351"></a>{351}</span> supposed to rule over the different -phenomena of nature, just as the different members of a cabinet hold -sway over the various branches of national government?</p> - -<p>This was, until comparatively recent years, the received opinion -concerning mythology, and it is one which tacitly keeps its place in the -writings of many scholars, especially of those who have been brought up -almost exclusively upon the study of classical languages and classical -religions: for it is only after a wide study, and a comparison of many -different religions in many different stages, that the conviction of the -opposite truth forces itself upon one. It is obvious that for the -purpose of a scientific knowledge of the formation of religious systems, -we must not observe them in their fullest development, but rather turn -to such of their brother-religions as have remained in a more stunted -condition. Nor, again, should we deal, except very cautiously, with an -extremely imaginative people, like the Greeks; for with them changes -from any primitive form will be much more rapid and more complete than -the changes in some more meagre systems. The fragmentary Teutonic myths, -and the relics of these in mediæval superstition, are for this purpose -sometimes more trustworthy than those of Greece; and partly on this -account, partly because they are less familiar to the reader, we have -drawn largely upon them for illustration in our chapters upon Aryan -religion and Folk-tales.</p> - -<p>The most useful of all, however, is the religion of the Vedas, in so far -as the Vedas give us an insight into the earliest faith of the people of -India. Here we may often detect the etymology of a name which would be -inexplicable if we only knew it in Greek or Latin and Norse. We have -seen how this is the case in respect of the word Dyâus; and how the -etymology of this word clearly shows, what from themselves we should -never discover, that Zeus and Jupiter and Tyr are names which had -originally the same meaning as a natural phenomenon. We say -<i>originally</i>, because the Sanskrit is found by numberless examples -(whereof we gave one, <i>duhitar</i>) to show an origin for many words whose -origin is lost in other Aryan languages, and therefore to stand nearest -to the primitive tongue of the Aryans. In this lies the whole force of -the argument. If the old Aryans once used the same word for ‘heaven’ and -for ‘god,’ it is impossible<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_352" id="page_352"></a>{352}</span> to believe that they had the power of -separating at will the two ideas which we receive from these two words: -for an examination of formal logic shows us that notions do not become -completely distinguishable until they receive individual names. The -inference is obvious that a considerable number, at any rate, of the -gods of our Aryan ancestors were nature-gods in the strictest sense.</p> - -<p>It is equally true, however, that such divinities tend to fall into -certain forms, and accommodate themselves to ideals which, or the germs -of which, we may believe pre-existed in the human mind. It is thus that -we have noticed the sun-gods and the heaven-gods fulfilling their -separate functions, and answering to certain defined needs in the human -heart.</p> - -<p><a href="#page_230">P. 230</a>. <i>Persephonê and Balder.</i>—The true <i>tragedy</i> of the death of -summer is in the Norse religion portrayed in the myth of Balder, the -sun-god, which in respect of its force and intention fully answers to -the Persephonê myth. It has often been a subject of surprise that -Balder’s-bale, Balder’s death, was not celebrated at a time of year -appropriate to mourning for the loss of the sun-god, but at the summer -solstice, when Balder attains his fullest might and brightest splendour. -Why choose such a day as that to think of his mournful bedimming in the -wintry months? It seems to show a strange, gloomy, and forecasting -nature on the part of our Norse ancestors to be always reflecting that -in the midst of life—in the midst of our brightest, fullest life—we -are in death.</p> - -<p>I imagine that the custom of celebrating Balder’s-bale in this way arose -not entirely from the desire to preach this melancholy sermon; though in -part no doubt this desire was the cause of it. It arose also from a -dramatic instinct inducing men for the sake of a strong contrast to -surround the sun-god with all the images of summer at the time when they -were thinking of his death. It gives a dramatic intensity to the moment; -and thus it corresponds exactly with the picture of Persephonê playing -in the meadows in spring-time surrounded by all the attributes of -spring, just as Hades rises from the earth to bear her for ever from the -light of day.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_353" id="page_353"></a>{353}</span></p> - -<p><a href="#page_241">P. 241</a>. <i>Thanatos.</i>—Thanatos and Hypnos belong to the region of -allegory rather than pure mythology. For in pure mythology the place of -the first is taken by Hades. In Vedic mythology their part is played by -the two Sâramayas; one probably chiefly a divinity of Death, the other -of Sleep, and the two being brothers, as of course Death and Sleep are.</p> - -<p>It has been suggested that among a group of figures sculptured upon the -drum of a column brought from the Artemesium (Temple of Diana) at -Ephesus, one is a representation of Thanatos, Death. The figure is that -of a boy, as young and comely as Love, but of a somewhat passive -expression, and with a sword girt upon his thigh, which Eros never -wears. His right hand is raised as though he were beckoning: and with -him stand Dêmêtêr and Hermes, both divinities connected with the rites -of the dead. Save in this instance—if it be an instance—Thanatos is -unknown to early Greek art. Hypnos when he appears wears a fair womanish -face with closed eyes, scarcely distinguishable from the artistic -representation of the Gorgon. As the moon, this last is in some sense a -being of sleep and death.</p> - -<p><a href="#page_255">P. 255</a>. Myths and the rules of their interpretation have been made of -late years the subject of controversy almost as keen as that which has -raged round that primary question concerning the existence of -<i>nature-worship</i> which we have discussed above. In this (XI.) and the -previous chapters the writers have endeavoured to keep before the reader -only those features in a myth which are essential towards the -information we are seeking. For instance, the number of myths which can -in any system be traced to the phenomena of the sun is a matter of the -highest importance, as showing the influence which a certain set of -phenomena had upon the national mind: but of much less significance is -the question of the exact origin of the different features in these -legendary tales. If any given tale be found to originate <i>solely</i> in a -confusion of language, a mistaken, misinterpreted epithet, then it has -almost no interest for us as an interpreter of the popular thought and -feeling: unless indeed the shape which the story takes should reproduce -(as it probably will) some one of the universal forms which<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_354" id="page_354"></a>{354}</span> seem to -stand ready in the human mind for the moulding of its legends.</p> - -<p>With regard to the particular question of sun (and other nature) myths -and their occurrence, the question which stands between rival disputants -is something of this sort: ‘All myths, that is, all primitive legends,’ -says one party which may be regarded as the philological school, ‘are -found, if we examine closely enough into the meaning of the proper names -which occur in them, to represent originally some natural phenomenon, -which is in nine cases out of ten (at least for southern nations) a -story of some part of the sun’s daily course, some one of his -innumerable aspects.’ ‘Is it conceivable,’ say their opponents (we may -call these the anthropologists) ‘that man could ever have been in such a -condition that all his attention was turned upon the workings of nature -or upon the heavenly bodies? Far more probable is it, that these stories -arose from a variety of natural causes, real traditions of some hero, -reminiscences of historical events transformed in the mist of -exaggeration, or the legacy of days when men had strange and almost -inconceivable ideas about the world they live in, when they thought -animals spoke and had histories like men, that men could and frequently -did become trees, and trees men, etc., etc. Indeed, so strange and -senseless are the notions of primitive men, that it is wasted labour to -try and interpret them.’ This is a rough statement of the two heads of -argument. The second, so far as merely negative, must fall before -positive proof, as that the nature-myth hidden in an immense number of -stories can be by philology satisfactorily unravelled. There is, -however, also positive proof on the other side, when many stories, which -as nature-myths interpreted on philological principles should only have -existed among the people of a particular linguistic family, are found -among other races who have no real relation whatever to the first.</p> - -<p>Both these sets of facts can be adduced, and to reconcile them in every -case would no doubt be hard. On the whole, however, it will perhaps be -found that, as has just been said, certain moulds for the construction -of stories seem to exist already in the human mind, obeying some natural -craving, and into these, as into a Procrustean bed, the myth more or<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_355" id="page_355"></a>{355}</span> -less easily must fit. These primitive forms do not, however, preclude -the undoubted existence—strange as such a phenomenon may appear—of an -especial mythopæic age connected with man’s observations of the -phenomena of nature—an age in which natural religions gained their -foundation, and when the doings of the external world had a much deeper -effect upon man’s imagination than in later times they have ever had.</p> - -<p><a href="#page_266">P. 266</a>. Thor’s journey to the house of giant Utgardloki (out-world -fire—fire of the under-world of Chapter X., and Chapter XI., p. -278)—is not told in the elder Edda, but appears at some length in the -Edda of Snorro (Daemisögur 44-48). There can be little question of the -antiquity of the tale, closely connected as it is with the labours of -Hercules as well as with all the most important elements in the Norse -mythology. But it may very easily be that it has undergone some -modifications before appearing in its present form; and we should be -naturally inclined to signalise as modern additions those parts of the -story which have an allegorical rather than a truly mythical character. -Allegory is a thing altogether distinct from real myth, and when it -springs up shows that the mythical character of the story is falling -into oblivion. The former is a growth of self-conscious fancy, while the -latter is the child of genuine belief. For instance—as an illustration -of the difference between allegory and mythology—I should be inclined -to signalise the appearance of the beings Logi (fire) and Elli (old age) -as a fanciful, an invented element in the story. Logi and Elli are not -important enough to be genuine deities of Fire and Age. In fact, the -former element has already received its personification in the person of -Loki. Yet the incidents with which they are associated may well have -formed an integral character of the older legend; and in the case of -Elli I feel pretty sure they must have done so.</p> - -<p>What I imagine to have been the real case is this. Thor’s journey to -Utgardloki is a story closely parallel to the myth of the Death of -Balder, and tells once more the story of the sun-god descending to the -under-world. This fact is clearly shown by the name of the giant, who is -nothing else than a personification of the funeral fire, the fire which -surrounds the abode of souls (pp. 275, 278). All the powers with whom -Thor strives are personifications<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_356" id="page_356"></a>{356}</span> in some way of death—all, or almost -all. He tugs as he thinks at a cat and cannot lift it from the ground; -but the cat is Jormundgandr, the great mid-earth serpent, in part the -personification of the sea, but also (by reason of this) the -personification of the devouring hell ‘rapax Orcus’ (compare Cerberus -and the Sârameyas, and notice the middle age change of Orcus to Ogre). -He (or, in the story as we now have it, Loki) contends with a -personification of the death-fire, not with a mere allegorical -representation of fire in its common aspect. And again he contends not -with Elli, old age, but with Hel, the goddess of the under-world.</p> - -<p>This is the original form into which I read back the mythical journey to -Utgardloki. It is easy to see how the story got changed. Loki is made to -accompany Thor instead of to fight against him; the later mythologists -not being able to understand how Loki could sometimes be a god and dwell -in Asgard, sometimes be a giant of Jotunheim. With this change the -others would easily creep in. Logi is invented to fight with Loki, and -Elli in place of Hel appears in obedience to a desire for allegory in -the place of true myth.</p> - -<h3>CHAPTERS XII. <small>AND</small> XIII.</h3> - -<p class="listt"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Edkins, <i>Introduction to Study of the Chinese Characters</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lenormant, <i>Essai sur la Propagation de l’Alphabet Phénicien</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mahaffy, <i>Prolegomena to History</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rawlinson, <i>Five Monarchies</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rougé (Vte de), <i>Origine Égyptienne de l’Alphabet Phénicien</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Taylor, <i>The Alphabet</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tylor, <i>Early History of Mankind</i>.</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>None of the Semitic alphabets can be considered as quite complete; as a -complete alphabet requires a subdivision of sounds into their smallest -divisions, and an appropriate sign for each of these. But none of the -Semitic alphabets in their original forms seem to have possessed these -qualifications. They never get nearer to the expression of vowel sounds -than<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_357" id="page_357"></a>{357}</span> by letters which may be considered half vowels. Each of their -consonants (in Phœnician, Hebrew, Arabic) carried a vowel sound with -it, and was therefore a syllabic sign and not a true letter.</p> - -<p>No account is here given of the theory that the Chinese and the -Babylonian writing are derived from the same source, as this new and -startling theory is not sufficiently upon the <i>tapis</i> to be treated of -in a book of this kind. The reader who is desirous of informing himself -upon the subject may do so (as far as is yet possible) by obtaining the -pamphlet by M. Terrien de la Couperie, <i>Early History of Chinese -Civilization</i>, wherein this theory was first expounded, as also another -and subsequent <i>brochure</i>, <i>History of Archaic Chinese Writing</i>.</p> - -<h3>CHAPTER XIV.</h3> - -<p class="listt"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Curtius, <i>History of Greece</i> (trs.).</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gibbon, with notes by Milman, etc.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Latham, <i>Germania of Tacitus</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Latham, <i>Nationalities of Europe</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Von Maurer, Op. cit.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mommsen, <i>Die unterital. Dialekten</i>.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mommsen, <i>Roman History</i> (trs.).</span><br /> -</p> - -<p><a href="#page_320">P. 320</a>. Following Mommsen, the Etruscans are here spoken of as though -belonging to the Italic family. This is liable to grave doubts; but the -question is at present too unsettled to admit of satisfactory discussion -in this place.</p> - -<p> </p> -<p class="cb">THE END.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_358" id="page_358"></a>{358}</span> </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_359" id="page_359"></a>{359}</span> </p> - -<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX.</h2> - -<p class="c"><a href="#A">A</a>, -<a href="#B">B</a>, -<a href="#C">C</a>, -<a href="#D">D</a>, -<a href="#E">E</a>, -<a href="#F">F</a>, -<a href="#G">G</a>, -<a href="#H">H</a>, -<a href="#I-i">I</a>, -<a href="#K">K</a>, -<a href="#L">L</a>, -<a href="#M">M</a>, -<a href="#N">N</a>, -<a href="#O">O</a>, -<a href="#P">P</a>, -<a href="#Q">Q</a>, -<a href="#R">R</a>, -<a href="#S">S</a>, -<a href="#T">T</a>, -<a href="#U">U</a>, -<a href="#V-i">V</a>, -<a href="#W">W</a>, -<a href="#Y">Y</a>, -<a href="#Z">Z</a></p> - -<p class="nind"> -“<i><a name="A" id="A"></a>Abant</i>,” the word, <a href="#page_154">154</a>.<br /> - -Abraham, Bible history begins with, <a href="#page_113">113</a>, <a href="#page_129">129</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Lot, <a href="#page_126">126</a>, <a href="#page_155">155</a>.</span><br /> - -Accad, <a href="#page_125">125</a>.<br /> - -Accadians, <a href="#page_124">124</a>, <a href="#page_128">128</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the inventors of cuneiform writing, <a href="#page_311">311</a>.</span><br /> - -Adoption, ceremony of, among the Aryans, <a href="#page_146">146</a>.<br /> - -Agglutinative languages, <a href="#page_79">79</a>, <a href="#page_81">81</a>, <a href="#page_83">83</a>, <a href="#page_88">88</a> <i>et seq.</i>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">spoken by the yellow race, <a href="#page_118">118</a>.</span><br /> - -Agni, <a href="#page_210">210</a>; hymn to, <a href="#page_211">211</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Indian fire-god, <a href="#page_248">248</a>.</span><br /> - -Agricultural life, the, gives rise to new relations, <a href="#page_156">156</a>.<br /> - -Ahanâ, <a href="#page_257">257</a>.<br /> - -Ahura-mazda, the god of Zoroastrianism, <a href="#page_234">234</a>.<br /> - -Air-god of the Egyptians, <a href="#page_188">188</a>.<br /> - -Alani, the, <a href="#page_104">104</a>, <a href="#page_325">325</a>.<br /> - -Alaric, <a href="#page_325">325</a>.<br /> - -Alphabet, the Phœnician, <a href="#page_304">304</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> - -Amenti, <a href="#page_179">179</a>.<br /> - -Amun, <a href="#page_181">181</a>, <a href="#page_201">201</a>.<br /> - -Ana, <a href="#page_193">193</a>.<br /> - -Ancestor worship, <a href="#page_143">143</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of the Aryans, <a href="#page_147">147</a>.</span><br /> - -Angles, the, <a href="#page_325">325</a>.<br /> - -Animal gods of the Egyptians, <a href="#page_191">191</a>.<br /> - -Animal worship of the Egyptians, <a href="#page_123">123</a>.<br /> - -Anubis, <a href="#page_192">192</a>.<br /> - -Aphroditê, <a href="#page_206">206</a>, <a href="#page_224">224</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">an Asiatic divinity, <a href="#page_318">318</a>.</span><br /> - -Apollo, <a href="#page_202">202</a>, <a href="#page_209">209</a>, <a href="#page_214">214</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the god of the Dorians and Ionians, <a href="#page_216">216</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">shrines of, <a href="#page_216">216</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the sun-god pursuing Daphne, <a href="#page_257">257</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">found in the mythology of all branches of the Aryan family, <a href="#page_258">258</a>.</span><br /> - -Aral, lake, the region of, the home of the Turanians, <a href="#page_120">120</a>.<br /> - -Aramæans, <a href="#page_124">124</a>.<br /> - -<i>Aratrum</i>, the word, <a href="#page_108">108</a>.<br /> - -Ares, the national divinity of the Thracians, <a href="#page_220">220</a>.<br /> - -Armenians, <a href="#page_99">99</a>.<br /> - -Art, the earliest rudiments of, <a href="#page_17">17</a>.<br /> - -Artemis, <a href="#page_204">204</a>, <a href="#page_223">223</a> <i>et seq.</i>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Endymion, the story of, a moon myth, <a href="#page_263">263</a>.</span><br /> - -“Arthur’s Chase,” <a href="#page_226">226</a>.<br /> - -Aryans, <a href="#page_98">98</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the origin of, <a href="#page_99">99</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">evidence of language concerning, <a href="#page_108">108</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the early, a pastoral people, <a href="#page_132">132</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their entry into Europe, <a href="#page_133">133</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their social system, <a href="#page_140">140</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their faculty for abstract thought, <a href="#page_201">201</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the other world of, 2<a href="#page_41">41</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">possessed a spiritual conception of the soul, <a href="#page_246">246</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">separation of, <a href="#page_316">316</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their languages, <a href="#page_90">90</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">two main divisions of, <a href="#page_91">91</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their mythology, remarkable for diversity of its legends, <a href="#page_199">199</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their religion contrasted with Semitic, <a href="#page_197">197</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the sky-god in, <a href="#page_199">199</a>.</span><br /> - -Ashara, the, <a href="#page_195">195</a>.<br /> - -Ashtoreth, <a href="#page_194">194</a>.<br /> - -Assyrians, the, <a href="#page_98">98</a>, <a href="#page_129">129</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their gods, <a href="#page_193">193</a> <i>et seq.</i></span><br /> - -Athene, <a href="#page_204">204</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#page_222">222</a>.<br /> - -Attila, <a href="#page_119">119</a>.<br /> - -Australians, the, <a href="#page_118">118</a>.<br /> - -Avars, the, <a href="#page_119">119</a>.<br /> - -Aztec picture writing, <a href="#page_292">292</a>.<br /> - -Aztecs of Mexico, the, <a href="#page_116">116</a>.<br /> - -<br /> -<a name="B" id="B"></a>Baal, <a href="#page_193">193</a>.<br /> - -Baal Chemosh, <a href="#page_194">194</a>.<br /> - -Baal Zebub, <a href="#page_194">194</a>.<br /> - -Babel, <a href="#page_124">124</a>.<br /> - -Babylon, <a href="#page_127">127</a>.<br /> - -Babylonians, the, <a href="#page_98">98</a>.<br /> - -Bæda, quotation from, <a href="#page_1">1</a>.<br /> - -Balder, <a href="#page_203">203</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a sun-god, <a href="#page_229">229</a>, <a href="#page_246">246</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the myth of his death, <a href="#page_250">250</a> <i>et seq.</i></span><br /> - -Barbarians, origin of word, <a href="#page_105">105</a>.<br /> - -Barbarossa, legend of, <a href="#page_278">278</a>.<br /> - -Barter in the stone age, <a href="#page_139">139</a>.<br /> - -Bavarians, the, <a href="#page_104">104</a>.<br /> - -“Beauty and the Beast,” <a href="#page_259">259</a>.<br /> - -Bel Merodoch, <a href="#page_194">194</a>.<br /> - -Beowulf, <a href="#page_327">327</a>; the poem of, <a href="#page_267">267</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Lohengrin myth in, <a href="#page_276">276</a>.</span><br /> - -Bible narrative, an aid to prehistoric study, <a href="#page_2">2</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">itself corrected and enlarged by prehistoric inquiry, <a href="#page_5">5</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">continuous history begins with Abraham, <a href="#page_113">113</a>.</span><br /> - -Bil, Assyrian sun-god, <a href="#page_193">193</a>.<br /> - -Black races, the, <a href="#page_115">115</a>.<br /> - -Bow, earliest use of the, <a href="#page_50">50</a>.<br /> - -Brahma, <a href="#page_202">202</a>.<br /> - -Brehon laws, the, <a href="#page_322">322</a>.<br /> - -Brennus, <a href="#page_322">322</a>.<br /> - -Bridge of death, the, <a href="#page_277">277</a>.<br /> - -Bronze age, the, <a href="#page_54">54</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">domestication of animals in, <a href="#page_148">148</a>.</span><br /> - -Bronze introduced into Europe by the Aryans, <a href="#page_140">140</a>.<br /> - -Bronze weapons, found throughout Europe, <a href="#page_149">149</a>.<br /> - -Browning’s “Pied Piper of Hameln,” <a href="#page_272">272</a>.<br /> - -Bulgarians, the, <a href="#page_106">106</a>.<br /> - -Burgundians, the, <a href="#page_104">104</a>, <a href="#page_325">325</a>.<br /> - -Burial customs, <a href="#page_40">40</a>.<br /> - -Burial mounds. See <span class="smcap">Tumuli</span>.<br /> - -<br /> -<a name="C" id="C"></a>Canaanites, the, <a href="#page_98">98</a>; their gods, <a href="#page_195">195</a>.<br /> - -Carinthians, the, <a href="#page_105">105</a>.<br /> - -Case endings, origin of, <a href="#page_75">75</a>.<br /> - -Caspian Sea, the boundary of the Aryan home, <a href="#page_243">243</a>.<br /> - -Cattle, place of, in Aryan mythology, <a href="#page_151">151</a>.<br /> - -Cave-dwellers, <a href="#page_49">49</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">implements of, <a href="#page_15">15</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">drawings of, <a href="#page_18">18</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">used fire, <a href="#page_20">20</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">skeletons of, <a href="#page_21">21</a>.</span><br /> - -Celts, the, <a href="#page_101">101</a>, <a href="#page_322">322</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their fighting capacity, <a href="#page_323">323</a>.</span><br /> - -Cerberus, <a href="#page_245">245</a>.<br /> - -Chaldæa, <a href="#page_123">123</a>.<br /> - -Chaldæans, <a href="#page_98">98</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a mixed people, <a href="#page_124">124</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their buildings, <a href="#page_125">125</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their civilization, traces of, found in that of Mexico and Peru, <a href="#page_128">128</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their religion, <a href="#page_193">193</a>.</span><br /> - -Cherdorlaomer, <a href="#page_126">126</a>.<br /> - -China, <a href="#page_127">127</a>.<br /> - -Chinese, <a href="#page_117">117</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">kept in a primitive condition by the early invention of writing;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their characters, symbolic, <a href="#page_293">293</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">determinitive signs of, <a href="#page_295">295</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their civilization connected with that of the Accadians, <a href="#page_128">128</a>.</span><br /> - -Cimbri, the, <a href="#page_103">103</a>.<br /> - -Civilization, successive steps in the earliest, <a href="#page_135">135</a>.<br /> - -Clovis, <a href="#page_325">325</a>.<br /> - -Commerce of Cave-dwellers, <a href="#page_52">52</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">among the Aryans, <a href="#page_152">152</a>.</span><br /> - -Confucius, <a href="#page_127">127</a>.<br /> - -Cord records, <a href="#page_284">284</a>.<br /> - -Crab, the word, <a href="#page_68">68</a>.<br /> - -Cromlechs, <a href="#page_42">42</a>.<br /> - -Cuneiform writing, <a href="#page_310">310</a>.<br /> - -Cupid and Psyche, the myth of, <a href="#page_258">258</a>.<br /> - -Cushites, the, <a href="#page_119">119</a>.<br /> - -Cybele, <a href="#page_205">205</a>.<br /> - -Czechs, the, <a href="#page_105">105</a>.<br /> - -<br /> -<a name="D" id="D"></a>Dagon, <a href="#page_194">194</a>.<br /> - -Daphne, the dawn, <a href="#page_257">257</a>.<br /> - -Daughter, signification of the word, <a href="#page_108">108</a>, <a href="#page_110">110</a>, <a href="#page_132">132</a>, <a href="#page_200">200</a>.<br /> - -Dawn and evening in the Veda, <a href="#page_212">212</a>.<br /> - -Death, the region of, <a href="#page_236">236</a> <i>et seq.</i>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Aryan idea of, <a href="#page_237">237</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Egyptian idea of, <a href="#page_238">238</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a journey to the sky, <a href="#page_241">241</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Indian conception of, <a href="#page_244">244</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the river of, <a href="#page_243">243</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and sleep, <a href="#page_243">243</a>; myths of, <a href="#page_273">273</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the various images of, in popular tales, <a href="#page_278">278</a>.</span><br /> - -Delphi, <a href="#page_216">216</a>.<br /> - -Demeter, <a href="#page_204">204</a>, <a href="#page_205">205</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Persephone, <a href="#page_220">220</a> <i>et seq.</i></span><br /> - -Determinitive signs, <a href="#page_295">295</a>.<br /> - -<i>dic</i> the Latin root, <a href="#page_70">70</a>.<br /> - -Domestication of animals in second stone age, <a href="#page_50">50</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in the bronze age, <a href="#page_148">148</a>.</span><br /> - -Drift implements, <a href="#page_10">10</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">form a class apart, <a href="#page_11">11</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">types of, <a href="#page_13">13</a>.</span><br /> - -Drift period, men of the, <a href="#page_49">49</a>.<br /> - -Druid circles, so-called, <a href="#page_42">42</a>.<br /> - -Dutch, <a href="#page_99">99</a>, <a href="#page_104">104</a>.<br /> - -Dyâus, <a href="#page_199">199</a>, <a href="#page_202">202</a>, <a href="#page_207">207</a>.<br /> - -<br /> -<a name="E" id="E"></a>Eadwine, King, <a href="#page_1">1</a>.<br /> - -Earth-goddess of the Aryans, <a href="#page_204">204</a>.<br /> - -Eddic poems, <a href="#page_327">327</a>.<br /> - -Egypt, history begins in, <a href="#page_52">52</a>, <a href="#page_121">121</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">peculiar features of nature in, <a href="#page_178">178</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the land-root of civilization, <a href="#page_314">314</a>.</span><br /> - -Egyptians, <a href="#page_97">97</a>.<br /> - -Egyptian civilization, the continuation of that of the stone age, <a href="#page_121">121</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">intellectual character of, <a href="#page_122">122</a>.</span><br /> - -—— idea of death and the soul, <a href="#page_238">238</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> - -—— life and thought, two elements in the character of, <a href="#page_122">122</a>.<br /> - -—— religion, <a href="#page_176">176</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">how distinguished from that of other nations, <a href="#page_178">178</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">influence of nature on, <a href="#page_178">178</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nature gods of, <a href="#page_181">181</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">distinctive feature of, <a href="#page_181">181</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">divinities of, <a href="#page_181">181</a> <i>et seq.</i></span><br /> - -—— writing, <a href="#page_298">298</a> <i>et seq.</i>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mixed character of, <a href="#page_301">301</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">difficulty in deciphering, <a href="#page_302">302</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hieratic and Demotic, <a href="#page_303">303</a>.</span><br /> - -El. See <span class="smcap">Il</span>.<br /> - -Elamites, <a href="#page_125">125</a>.<br /> - -Elysian Fields, <a href="#page_242">242</a>.<br /> - -English, the, <a href="#page_104">104</a>.<br /> - -<i>Erde</i> and <i>Herde</i>, <a href="#page_94">94</a>.<br /> - -Erech, <a href="#page_125">125</a>.<br /> - -Eskimo, the, <a href="#page_117">117</a>.<br /> - -Etruscans, the, <a href="#page_320">320</a>.<br /> - -<br /> -<a name="F" id="F"></a>Fee, the word, <a href="#page_151">151</a>.<br /> - -“Fight of Finnsburg,” <a href="#page_327">327</a>.<br /> - -Finnish tongues, <a href="#page_90">90</a>.<br /> - -Finns, the, <a href="#page_117">117</a>.<br /> - -Flemings, the, <a href="#page_104">104</a>.<br /> - -Flint weapons of Presigny, <a href="#page_139">139</a>.<br /> - -Franks, <a href="#page_104">104</a>, <a href="#page_325">325</a>.<br /> - -French, the, <a href="#page_99">99</a>.<br /> - -Frey, <a href="#page_203">203</a>, <a href="#page_204">204</a>.<br /> - -Freyja, <a href="#page_204">204</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the goddess of spring, beauty, and love, <a href="#page_230">230</a>.</span><br /> - -Freyr, <a href="#page_230">230</a>.<br /> - -Frigg, <a href="#page_204">204</a>, <a href="#page_205">205</a>, <a href="#page_230">230</a>.<br /> - -<br /> -<a name="G" id="G"></a>Gaedhill, <a href="#page_101">101</a>.<br /> - -Gaels, <a href="#page_101">101</a>.<br /> - -Gaulish myth of a sea of death, <a href="#page_276">276</a>.<br /> - -Gauls, the, <a href="#page_101">101</a>.<br /> - -Genghis Khan, <a href="#page_119">119</a>.<br /> - -Geological periods, length of, <a href="#page_7">7</a>.<br /> - -Gerda, <a href="#page_231">231</a>.<br /> - -German and English, kinship of, <a href="#page_92">92</a>.<br /> - -Germans, the, <a href="#page_99">99</a>.<br /> - -Gesture language gives no insight into the origin of language, <a href="#page_62">62</a>.<br /> - -<i>Gewiss</i>, the word, <a href="#page_66">66</a>.<br /> - -Gipsies, <a href="#page_159">159</a>.<br /> - -Glass mountains, the stories of, allegories of death, <a href="#page_279">279</a>.<br /> - -Goths, the, <a href="#page_324">324</a>.<br /> - -Government, an extensive scheme of, impossible to a people ignorant of social arts, <a href="#page_167">167</a>.<br /> - -Græco-Italic family, the, <a href="#page_319">319</a>.<br /> - -Grammatical terminations accounted for, <a href="#page_74">74</a>.<br /> - -Greek conception of the realms of death, <a href="#page_241">241</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> - -Greeks, <a href="#page_99">99</a>, <a href="#page_102">102</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appearance of in Europe, <a href="#page_133">133</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their religion, <a href="#page_214">214</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the first European nation, <a href="#page_317">317</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">from the beginning a commercial people, <a href="#page_318">318</a>.</span><br /> - -Grimm’s laws, <a href="#page_107">107</a>.<br /> - -<br /> -<a name="H" id="H"></a>Hackelberg, the wild huntsman of the Harz, <a href="#page_270">270</a>.<br /> - -Hades, <a href="#page_241">241</a>.<br /> - -Hadubrand and Hildebrand, the lay of, <a href="#page_327">327</a>.<br /> - -Hamites, the, <a href="#page_119">119</a>.<br /> - -Hapi, <a href="#page_192">192</a>.<br /> - -Hathor, <a href="#page_188">188</a>.<br /> - -Hel, <a href="#page_250">250</a>.<br /> - -Hellenes, <a href="#page_102">102</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">first use of the word as a national epithet, <a href="#page_319">319</a>.</span><br /> - -Hera, <a href="#page_204">204</a>.<br /> - -Heracles, <a href="#page_202">202</a>, <a href="#page_209">209</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">life and labors of, <a href="#page_218">218</a>.</span><br /> - -Hermes, <a href="#page_217">217</a> <i>et seq.</i>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the wind god, <a href="#page_232">232</a>, <a href="#page_244">244</a>.</span><br /> - -Herne the Hunter, <a href="#page_226">226</a>, <a href="#page_249">249</a>.<br /> - -Hieratic and Demotic writing of the Egyptians, <a href="#page_303">303</a>.<br /> - -Hieroglyphic writing of the Egyptians, <a href="#page_298">298</a>.<br /> - -Hindoos, <a href="#page_98">98</a>.<br /> - -History, prerequisite conditions of, <a href="#page_3">3</a>.<br /> - -Hittites, the, <a href="#page_315">315</a>.<br /> - -Hoa, <a href="#page_193">193</a>.<br /> - -Hormuzd, <a href="#page_234">234</a>.<br /> - -Horus, <a href="#page_184">184</a>, <a href="#page_196">196</a>, <a href="#page_201">201</a>.<br /> - -House-fire, the sacred, among the Aryans, <a href="#page_144">144</a>.<br /> - -Householders, assembly of, in the village community, <a href="#page_163">163</a>.<br /> - -Human victims found in tumuli, <a href="#page_37">37</a>.<br /> - -Huns, the, <a href="#page_119">119</a>.<br /> - -Hunter, life of the primitive, <a href="#page_137">137</a>.<br /> - -<br /> -<a name="I-i" id="I-i"></a>Iberians, the, <a href="#page_101">101</a>.<br /> - -Ideographs, groups of, <a href="#page_294">294</a>.<br /> - -Il, the most ancient conception of God known to the Semites, <a href="#page_195">195</a>.<br /> - -Implements of later stone age, <a href="#page_39">39</a>.<br /> - -Incas of Peru, <a href="#page_116">116</a>.<br /> - -Indians, the North American, <a href="#page_159">159</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“picturing” of, <a href="#page_288">288</a>, <a href="#page_290">290</a> <i>et seq.</i></span><br /> - -Indra, <a href="#page_202">202</a>, <a href="#page_206">206</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">hymn to, <a href="#page_208">208</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">character of, <a href="#page_209">209</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">resembles Apollo, <a href="#page_217">217</a>.</span><br /> - -Inflected language, <a href="#page_79">79</a>, <a href="#page_81">81</a>, <a href="#page_83">83</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">spoken by the white race, <a href="#page_118">118</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">divisions of, <a href="#page_118">118</a>.</span><br /> - -Inflections, growth of, <a href="#page_70">70</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the third stage in the formation of language, <a href="#page_72">72</a>.</span><br /> - -Ishtar, <a href="#page_194">194</a>.<br /> - -Isis, <a href="#page_189">189</a>, <a href="#page_195">195</a>, <a href="#page_196">196</a>.<br /> - -Israel, the children of a nomadic people, <a href="#page_130">130</a>.<br /> - -Italians, <a href="#page_99">99</a>; the primitive, <a href="#page_320">320</a>.<br /> - -<br /> -“Jack the Giant Killer,” <a href="#page_264">264</a>.<br /> - -Japanese use of Chinese characters, <a href="#page_296">296</a>.<br /> - -“<i>Javan</i>” in the Bible for Ionians, <a href="#page_318">318</a>.<br /> - -Jupiter, <a href="#page_199">199</a>, <a href="#page_202">202</a>, <a href="#page_206">206</a>, <a href="#page_207">207</a>.<br /> - -<br /> -<a name="K" id="K"></a>Kaiser Karl in the Unterberg, <a href="#page_278">278</a>.<br /> - -Karkemish, <a href="#page_315">315</a>.<br /> - -Kinship in languages, <a href="#page_91">91</a>.<br /> - -Kitchen-Middens. See <span class="smcap">Shell Mounds</span>.<br /> - -Kneph, <a href="#page_188">188</a>.<br /> - -Kurdur-Nankunty, a king of Susa, <a href="#page_126">126</a>.<br /> - -<br /> -<a name="L" id="L"></a>Lake dwellings, bronze weapons found in the later, <a href="#page_150">150</a>.<br /> - -Lake villages, the, <a href="#page_44">44</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">construction of, <a href="#page_45">45</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">object of <a href="#page_46">46</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">civilization of, <a href="#page_47">47</a>, <a href="#page_52">52</a>.</span><br /> - -Language, the growth of, <a href="#page_55">55</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">five stages in, <a href="#page_81">81</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">arrested by the invention of writing, <a href="#page_84">84</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">change in, resolved into two forces, <a href="#page_85">85</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">classification by, <a href="#page_106">106</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">holds the records of past times, <a href="#page_106">106</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the key to the early Aryan civilization, <a href="#page_141">141</a>.</span><br /> - -<i>Langue d’oil</i> and <i>langue d’oc</i>, <a href="#page_66">66</a>.<br /> - -Lapps, the, <a href="#page_117">117</a>.<br /> - -Letters, invention and growth of, <a href="#page_280">280</a> <i>et seq.</i>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">invention of, by the Egyptians, <a href="#page_301">301</a>.</span><br /> - -Law first connected with religion, <a href="#page_166">166</a>.<br /> - -<i>Leiche</i>, the word, <a href="#page_93">93</a>.<br /> - -Lithuanians, the, <a href="#page_99">99</a>, <a href="#page_105">105</a>.<br /> - -Lohengrin, myth, <a href="#page_275">275</a>, <a href="#page_276">276</a>.<br /> - -Loki, <a href="#page_210">210</a>.<br /> - -Lombards, the, <a href="#page_104">104</a>.<br /> - -Longobardi, the, <a href="#page_325">325</a>.<br /> - -Lot, <a href="#page_126">126</a>.<br /> - -<br /> -<a name="M" id="M"></a>Mâ, the Sanskrit root, <a href="#page_68">68</a>.<br /> - -Magyars, the, <a href="#page_119">119</a>.<br /> - -Mammoth age, the, <a href="#page_10">10</a>.<br /> - -Mammoth, drawing of a, by a prehistoric man, <a href="#page_18">18</a>.<br /> - -Man, the earliest traces of, <a href="#page_6">6</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his first stages of life, <a href="#page_16">16</a>.</span><br /> - -“Man,” the one who measures, <a href="#page_68">68</a>.<br /> - -Mankind, progress of, in the stone ages, <a href="#page_48">48</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> - -Maoris, the, <a href="#page_118">118</a>.<br /> - -Mara, the name, <a href="#page_272">272</a>.<br /> - -Mark, the word, <a href="#page_153">153</a>.<br /> - -Marriage ceremony among the Aryans, <a href="#page_145">145</a>.<br /> - -Maruts, the hymn to, <a href="#page_209">209</a>.<br /> - -Maut, an Egyptian divinity, <a href="#page_187">187</a><br /> - -Melanesia, <a href="#page_115">115</a>.<br /> - -Menes, <a href="#page_121">121</a>.<br /> - -Mesopotamia, <a href="#page_123">123</a>.<br /> - -Milky Way, the, a river of death, <a href="#page_277">277</a>.<br /> - -Minôs, <a href="#page_318">318</a>.<br /> - -Mir, the Russian, <a href="#page_162">162</a>.<br /> - -Mitra, <a href="#page_211">211</a>.<br /> - -Mnemonics, different systems of, <a href="#page_284">284</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> - -Moloch, <a href="#page_194">194</a>.<br /> - -Monger, the word, <a href="#page_153">153</a>.<br /> - -Mongolians, marks of the, <a href="#page_120">120</a>.<br /> - -Monosyllabic language, <a href="#page_78">78</a>, <a href="#page_81">81</a>, <a href="#page_83">83</a>.<br /> - -Montenegrins, the, <a href="#page_106">106</a>.<br /> - -Moon, “the measurer,” <a href="#page_68">68</a>.<br /> - -Moon-gods of the Egyptians, <a href="#page_185">185</a>.<br /> - -Moon myths, <a href="#page_262">262</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> - -Moravians, the, <a href="#page_105">105</a>.<br /> - -Moses receives the law, <a href="#page_166">166</a>.<br /> - -Mound-builders, their religion, <a href="#page_40">40</a>.<br /> - -Mythologies, the relationship between different, <a href="#page_173">173</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of the different Aryan nations, <a href="#page_176">176</a>.</span><br /> - -Mythology explained through the study of language, <a href="#page_172">172</a>, <a href="#page_173">173</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the earliest, <a href="#page_177">177</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of the Shemites barren in incident and character, <a href="#page_195">195</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the stories related of the gods, <a href="#page_255">255</a>.</span><br /> - -Myths, diversity of, <a href="#page_254">254</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of death and the other world, <a href="#page_273">273</a>.</span><br /> - -<br /> -<a name="N" id="N"></a>Nation, the beginnings of, <a href="#page_313">313</a>, <a href="#page_316">316</a>.<br /> - -Nations of the prehistoric world, <a href="#page_133">133</a>.<br /> - -Nature worship at the bottom of most mythologies, <a href="#page_173">173</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">this does not imply an absence of spirituality, <a href="#page_176">176</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the objects of, everywhere the same, <a href="#page_177">177</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Aryan religions, <a href="#page_197">197</a>.</span><br /> - -Neanderthal, <a href="#page_15">15</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">skeleton discovered in, <a href="#page_22">22</a>.</span><br /> - -Nebo, <a href="#page_194">194</a>.<br /> - -Negroes of Africa and Melanesia, <a href="#page_115">115</a>.<br /> - -Neit, <a href="#page_187">187</a>.<br /> - -Neolithic era, <a href="#page_13">13</a>, <a href="#page_29">29</a>.<br /> - -Nephthys, <a href="#page_190">190</a>.<br /> - -Nergal, <a href="#page_194">194</a>.<br /> - -Nerthus, <a href="#page_204">204</a>.<br /> - -New Guinea, <a href="#page_115">115</a>.<br /> - -Nibelungen, the, <a href="#page_327">327</a>.<br /> - -Nile, the, significance of to the Egyptians, <a href="#page_180">180</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the personification of, <a href="#page_192">192</a>.</span><br /> - -Nimrod, <a href="#page_125">125</a>.<br /> - -Nin, <a href="#page_194">194</a>.<br /> - -Noah, <a href="#page_118">118</a>.<br /> - -Norsemen, the other world of the, <a href="#page_249">249</a>.<br /> - -<br /> -<i><a name="O" id="O"></a>Obotriti</i>, the, <a href="#page_105">105</a>.<br /> - -O’Brien, origin of the name, <a href="#page_323">323</a>.<br /> - -Odin, <a href="#page_204">204</a>, <a href="#page_224">224</a> <i>et seq.</i>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the heaven god, <a href="#page_227">227</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">collects the souls of heroes slain in battle, <a href="#page_249">249</a>, <a href="#page_268">268</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as the Wandering Jew, etc., <a href="#page_264">264</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as the “Pied Piper” of Hameln, <a href="#page_264">264</a>, <a href="#page_272">272</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as the arch fiend, <a href="#page_270">270</a>.</span><br /> - -“Old Mother Goose,” <a href="#page_272">272</a>.<br /> - -Osiri, the name, how written by the Egyptians, <a href="#page_301">301</a>.<br /> - -Osiris, <a href="#page_182">182</a>, <a href="#page_193">193</a>, <a href="#page_196">196</a>, <a href="#page_201">201</a>.<br /> - -Ostro-Goths, the, <a href="#page_104">104</a>.<br /> - -Ouse, the, prolific in drift implements, <a href="#page_11">11</a>.<br /> - -Oxus, the, <a href="#page_99">99</a>.<br /> - -<br /> -<a name="P" id="P"></a>Palæolithic era, <a href="#page_13">13</a>, <a href="#page_25">25</a>.<br /> - -Pan, <a href="#page_215">215</a>.<br /> - -Pastoral life, qualities involved in, <a href="#page_150">150</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a nomadic one, <a href="#page_151">151</a>.</span><br /> - -Patriarch, the authority of a, part of Aryan religion, <a href="#page_167">167</a>.<br /> - -Patriarchal family, the, <a href="#page_141">141</a>.<br /> - -Patriarchal customs, <a href="#page_142">142</a>.<br /> - -Patroclus, funeral of, a picture of Aryan rites, <a href="#page_247">247</a>.<br /> - -<i>Pecunia</i>, the word, <a href="#page_151">151</a>.<br /> - -Pelasgi, <a href="#page_102">102</a>, <a href="#page_320">320</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the worshippers of pure nature, <a href="#page_215">215</a>.</span><br /> - -Persephone, <a href="#page_204">204</a>, <a href="#page_221">221</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> - -Perseus and the Gorgon, a sun story, <a href="#page_262">262</a>.<br /> - -Persians, <a href="#page_98">98</a>.<br /> - -Perthes, M. Boucher de, <a href="#page_11">11</a>.<br /> - -Peruvian system of mnemonics, <a href="#page_284">284</a>.<br /> - -Phantom army, the legend of, <a href="#page_225">225</a>, <a href="#page_249">249</a>.<br /> - -Phœbus Apollo, the god of the younger Greeks, <a href="#page_318">318</a>.<br /> - -Phœnicians, <a href="#page_98">98</a>, <a href="#page_129">129</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commercial needs gave rise to their alphabet, <a href="#page_305">305</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the transporters of civilization, <a href="#page_315">315</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Europe, <a href="#page_317">317</a>.</span><br /> - -Phœnician alphabet, <a href="#page_304">304</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">how formed, <a href="#page_305">305</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">resemblance to Hieratic writing of Egyptians, <a href="#page_306">306</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the parent of all existing alphabets except Japanese, <a href="#page_308">308</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">how modified, <a href="#page_309">309</a>.</span><br /> - -Phonetic signs, origin of, <a href="#page_299">299</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> - -Phonetic writing, transition to, <a href="#page_297">297</a>.<br /> - -Picture records, <a href="#page_287">287</a>.<br /> - -Picture writing, <a href="#page_289">289</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> - -Picturing, <a href="#page_287">287</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">distinguished from picture-writing, <a href="#page_290">290</a>.</span><br /> - -“Pied Piper of Hameln,” the, <a href="#page_264">264</a>, <a href="#page_272">272</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a Slavonic legend, <a href="#page_273">273</a>.</span><br /> - -Poles, the, <a href="#page_99">99</a>, <a href="#page_105">105</a>.<br /> - -Polynesian islands, <a href="#page_118">118</a>.<br /> - -Pomeranians, the, <a href="#page_105">105</a>.<br /> - -Pottery, broken, strewed at the grave’s mouth, <a href="#page_40">40</a>.<br /> - -Prehistoric conditions, our knowledge of, uncertain, <a href="#page_4">4</a>.<br /> - -Prehistoric studies, aids to, <a href="#page_2">2</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of events, rather than chronological, <a href="#page_6">6</a>.</span><br /> - -Prince Hatt under the earth, the Swedish story of, <a href="#page_260">260</a>.<br /> - -Prithvi, <a href="#page_205">205</a>, <a href="#page_220">220</a>.<br /> - -Proper names, researches into, <a href="#page_111">111</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in the Bible often stand for races, <a href="#page_114">114</a>.</span><br /> - -Prussians, the, <a href="#page_105">105</a>.<br /> - -Ptah, <a href="#page_184">184</a>.<br /> - -Pyramids, a sort of tumuli, <a href="#page_53">53</a>.<br /> - -Python, the, <a href="#page_202">202</a>.<br /> - -<br /> -<a name="Q" id="Q"></a>Quipus, the Peruvian cord records, <a href="#page_285">285</a>.<br /> - -<br /> -<a name="R" id="R"></a>Ra, <a href="#page_184">184</a>.<br /> - -Red races, <a href="#page_116">116</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">considered by some a variety of the yellow race, <a href="#page_118">118</a>.</span><br /> - -Religion of the mound-builders, <a href="#page_40">40</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">first signs of, <a href="#page_51">51</a>.</span><br /> - -Religious rites hard to trace back, <a href="#page_172">172</a>.<br /> - -Rents, the three, <a href="#page_152">152</a>.<br /> - -Rex, the, <a href="#page_95">95</a>, <a href="#page_109">109</a>.<br /> - -Rivers, English, the names of, Keltic, <a href="#page_111">111</a>.<br /> - -Romans, the, <a href="#page_99">99</a>, <a href="#page_102">102</a>, <a href="#page_320">320</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">development as a nation, internal, <a href="#page_321">321</a>.</span><br /> - -Rome, her proficiency in the arts<br /> -of government, <a href="#page_168">168</a>.<br /> - -Root sounds, <a href="#page_67">67</a>.<br /> - -Runes, Gothic, <a href="#page_309">309</a>.<br /> - -Russians, the, <a href="#page_99">99</a>, <a href="#page_105">105</a>.<br /> - -Russian village communities, <a href="#page_169">169</a>.<br /> - -<br /> -<a name="S" id="S"></a>Sabhâ, the, <a href="#page_144">144</a>.<br /> - -St. Ursula, the myth of, <a href="#page_263">263</a>.<br /> - -San, <a href="#page_194">194</a>.<br /> - -Sarama, <a href="#page_218">218</a>; the Sons of, <a href="#page_244">244</a>.<br /> - -Sargon I., <a href="#page_125">125</a>.<br /> - -<i>Sarrasin</i>, the word, <a href="#page_159">159</a>.<br /> - -Sati, <a href="#page_188">188</a>.<br /> - -Savitar, hymn to, <a href="#page_213">213</a>.<br /> - -Saxons, <a href="#page_325">325</a>.<br /> - -Scandinavians, <a href="#page_99">99</a>, <a href="#page_104">104</a>.<br /> - -Sea coast, gradual protrusion of, <a href="#page_34">34</a>.<br /> - -Sea of death, the, mythical, <a href="#page_276">276</a>.<br /> - -Sekhet-Pasht, <a href="#page_185">185</a>.<br /> - -Semitic languages. See <span class="smcap">Aryan</span>.<br /> - -Semitic races, <a href="#page_97">97</a>.<br /> - -Semitic religion infused with awe, <a href="#page_198">198</a>.<br /> - -Servians, the, <a href="#page_106">106</a>.<br /> - -Shell mounds, <a href="#page_29">29</a>, <a href="#page_34">34</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">proofs of their antiquity, <a href="#page_35">35</a>, <a href="#page_136">136</a>.</span><br /> - -<i>Sheol</i>, <a href="#page_241">241</a>, note.<br /> - -Siamese, the, <a href="#page_117">117</a>.<br /> - -Sigurd the Volsung, <a href="#page_267">267</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fire and thorn hedge used in the tale of, <a href="#page_278">278</a>.</span><br /> - -Silesians, <a href="#page_105">105</a>.<br /> - -Sin, <a href="#page_194">194</a>.<br /> - -Skirnir, <a href="#page_231">231</a>.<br /> - -Sky-divinities of the Egyptians, <a href="#page_187">187</a>.<br /> - -Sky-god of the Aryans, <a href="#page_200">200</a>.<br /> - -Slavonians, the, <a href="#page_103">103</a>, <a href="#page_104">104</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pushing back the Tartars, <a href="#page_119">119</a>.</span><br /> - -Social life, early, <a href="#page_135">135</a>.<br /> - -Soil-deity of the Egyptians, <a href="#page_189">189</a>.<br /> - -Somme, the, drift implements first discovered in the bed of, <a href="#page_11">11</a>.<br /> - -“Son of,” how used in the Bible, <a href="#page_114">114</a>.<br /> - -Sorabians, the, <a href="#page_105">105</a>.<br /> - -Sothis, <a href="#page_192">192</a>.<br /> - -Sound and sense, connection of, <a href="#page_61">61</a>.<br /> - -Spanish, the, <a href="#page_99">99</a>.<br /> - -Speech, the origin of, indiscoverable, <a href="#page_59">59</a>.<br /> - -Stone age, the two periods of, <a href="#page_12">12</a>.<br /> - -Stone age, the old, man’s life in, <a href="#page_24">24</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">animals of, <a href="#page_26">26</a>.</span><br /> - -Stone age, the later, <a href="#page_28">28</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">theories to account for the transition to, <a href="#page_28">28</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">continuous history begins with, <a href="#page_29">29</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">man of, in Denmark, <a href="#page_30">30</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">navigation of, <a href="#page_30">30</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">domestic animals in, <a href="#page_32">32</a>, <a href="#page_36">36</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">men of, not cannibals, <a href="#page_32">32</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">burial mounds of, <a href="#page_36">36</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">human victims in, <a href="#page_37">37</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">classes of implements of, <a href="#page_38">38</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pottery of, <a href="#page_39">39</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ornaments, <a href="#page_41">41</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">burial customs of, <a href="#page_40">40</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">tumuli, the truest existing representatives of, <a href="#page_43">43</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">also called the polished stone age, <a href="#page_43">43</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">duration of, in Europe, <a href="#page_44">44</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">civilization of, <a href="#page_47">47</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">successive steps in, <a href="#page_49">49</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">first signs of religion in, <a href="#page_51">51</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">civilization of, <a href="#page_52">52</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">implements of, different materials of, <a href="#page_50">50</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">people, little known of their social state, <a href="#page_136">136</a>.</span><br /> - -Stone ages, progress of mankind in, <a href="#page_48">48</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> - -Stonehenge, <a href="#page_36">36</a>, <a href="#page_42">42</a>.<br /> - -Suevi, the, <a href="#page_104">104</a>, <a href="#page_325">325</a>.<br /> - -Sun, supreme god of the Semitic nations, <a href="#page_200">200</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">hopes of futurity suggested by, <a href="#page_246">246</a>.</span><br /> - -Sun-god, the death of, <a href="#page_236">236</a>.<br /> - -Sun-gods of the Egyptians, <a href="#page_181">181</a> <i>et seq.</i>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">how regarded by the Indo-European nations, <a href="#page_202">202</a>.</span><br /> - -Sun-heroes, the different, <a href="#page_262">262</a>.<br /> - -Sun-myths, <a href="#page_257">257</a>.<br /> - -Surya, <a href="#page_211">211</a>.<br /> - -Susa, <a href="#page_126">126</a>.<br /> - -Swan, the, connected with ideas of death, <a href="#page_275">275</a>.<br /> - -Swarga, <a href="#page_244">244</a>.<br /> - -Symbolical teaching of the Egyptians, <a href="#page_191">191</a>.<br /> - -<br /> -<a name="T" id="T"></a>Tallies, the invention of, the germ of writing, <a href="#page_283">283</a>.<br /> - -Tannhäuser, the legend of, <a href="#page_263">263</a>.<br /> - -Tartar class of languages, <a href="#page_89">89</a>.<br /> - -Tartar races, invasion of the, <a href="#page_119">119</a>.<br /> - -Tasmania, <a href="#page_114">114</a>.<br /> - -Tellus, <a href="#page_205">205</a>.<br /> - -Teutonic family of nations, <a href="#page_103">103</a>, <a href="#page_104">104</a>.<br /> - -Teutons, village history of the, <a href="#page_169">169</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">divisions of, <a href="#page_324">324</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">an agricultural people, <a href="#page_326">326</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conquerors, <a href="#page_326">326</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">feudal, <a href="#page_327">327</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">poems of, <a href="#page_327">327</a>.</span><br /> - -Tew, <a href="#page_199">199</a>.<br /> - -Thanatos, <a href="#page_241">241</a>.<br /> - -Thammuz, <a href="#page_194">194</a>.<br /> - -Thibetans, the, <a href="#page_117">117</a>.<br /> - -Thmei, <a href="#page_192">192</a>.<br /> - -Thor, <a href="#page_202">202</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">labors of, <a href="#page_228">228</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as “Jack the Giant Killer,” <a href="#page_264">264</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the recovery of his hammer, <a href="#page_264">264</a>.</span><br /> - -Thoth, <a href="#page_185">185</a>, <a href="#page_194">194</a>.<br /> - -“Time and Tide,” <a href="#page_94">94</a>.<br /> - -Timûr Link (Tamerlaine), <a href="#page_119">119</a>.<br /> - -Tomb-builders, the, <a href="#page_36">36</a>.<br /> - -Towns, English, the names of Teutonic, etc., <a href="#page_111">111</a>.<br /> - -Tumuli, <a href="#page_36">36</a>; contents of, <a href="#page_37">37</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pottery found in, <a href="#page_52">52</a>, <a href="#page_125">125</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">civilization of the builders of the, <a href="#page_138">138</a>.</span><br /> - -Turanian languages, <a href="#page_88">88</a>.<br /> - -Turanians of Central Asia, <a href="#page_119">119</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the early inhabitants of India were, <a href="#page_120">120</a>.</span><br /> - -Turks, the, <a href="#page_119">119</a>.<br /> - -Typhon, <a href="#page_196">196</a>, <a href="#page_202">202</a>.<br /> - -Tyr, <a href="#page_228">228</a>.<br /> - -<br /> -<a name="U" id="U"></a>Ulfilas, <a href="#page_324">324</a>.<br /> - -Ur of the Chaldees, <a href="#page_125">125</a>.<br /> - -Urki, <a href="#page_194">194</a>.<br /> - -Urvasi and Pururaras, the story of, <a href="#page_258">258</a>.<br /> - -Ushas, <a href="#page_205">205</a>.<br /> - -<br /> -<a name="V-i" id="V-i"></a> -Van der Decken, <a href="#page_226">226</a>.<br /> - -Valkyriur, the, <a href="#page_249">249</a>, <a href="#page_269">269</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">changed into witches, <a href="#page_272">272</a>, <a href="#page_275">275</a>.</span><br /> - -Varuna, <a href="#page_203">203</a>; corresponds to Ouranos, <a href="#page_231">231</a>.<br /> - -Vedic religion of India, <a href="#page_207">207</a>.<br /> - -Verb endings, origin of, <a href="#page_75">75</a>.<br /> - -Village community, the, <a href="#page_159">159</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">features and regulations of, <a href="#page_160">160</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation of the members to each other, <a href="#page_161">161</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">correspondence of the Russian <i>Mir</i> to, <a href="#page_162">162</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">source of authority in, <a href="#page_162">162</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">essentials of a true, <a href="#page_163">163</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">assembly of householders, <a href="#page_163">163</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">origin of, <a href="#page_163">163</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the ideas of personal and communal property arise in, <a href="#page_165">165</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">origin of, distinction between</span><br /> -divine and human law, in, <a href="#page_167">167</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">changes resulting from the adoption of, <a href="#page_68">68</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">chief of the Teuton, possessed of but little power, <a href="#page_170">170</a>.</span><br /> - -Visi-Goths, <a href="#page_104">104</a>.<br /> - -Vortices of national life, <a href="#page_313">313</a>.<br /> - -Vritra, <a href="#page_209">209</a>.<br /> - -Vul, <a href="#page_194">194</a>.<br /> - -<br /> -<a name="W" id="W"></a>Wampum, <a href="#page_284">284</a>.<br /> - -“Wandering Jew,” the, <a href="#page_264">264</a>, <a href="#page_270">270</a>.<br /> - -White races, <a href="#page_118">118</a>.<br /> - -<i>Wiltzi</i>, <a href="#page_105">105</a>.<br /> - -Wind-myths, <a href="#page_268">268</a>.<br /> - -Words, significant and <i>in</i>-significant, <a href="#page_57">57</a> <i>et seq.</i>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">formation of, by joining others, <a href="#page_72">72</a>.</span><br /> - -Writing, the art of picturing sound, <a href="#page_281">281</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the invention of, <a href="#page_282">282</a>.</span><br /> -<br /> -<a name="Y" id="Y"></a>Yaranas, <a href="#page_100">100</a>, <a href="#page_132">132</a>.<br /> - -Yellow races, <a href="#page_117">117</a>.<br /> - -<i>Yes</i>, origin of the word, <a href="#page_65">65</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<a name="Z" id="Z"></a>Zend Avesta, <a href="#page_207">207</a>, <a href="#page_233">233</a>, <a href="#page_235">235</a>.<br /> - -Zend language, the, <a href="#page_235">235</a>.<br /> - -Zend religion, the, pre-eminence of, <a href="#page_232">232</a>.<br /> - -Zeus, <a href="#page_199">199</a>, <a href="#page_202">202</a>, <a href="#page_206">206</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Olympic and Pelasgic, <a href="#page_214">214</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">shrines of, at Dodona and in Elis, <a href="#page_215">215</a>, <a href="#page_227">227</a>.</span><br /> - -Zio, <a href="#page_199">199</a>.<br /> - -Zoroaster, <a href="#page_166">166</a>.<br /> - -Zoroastrianism, <a href="#page_233">233</a>.<br /> -</p> - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="cb">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Bæda, ii. 13.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> See Appendix.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Mr. Evans in his <i>Stone Implements of Great Britain</i> -divides those of the River Drift into Flakes, Pointed Implements, and -Sharp-rimmed Implements.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Most of these carved implements were discovered by Mr. -Christy and M. Lartet, and left by the former to the French Museum of -Prehistoric Antiquities at St. Germains. Exact copies of these in -plaster, as well as several carved bones, may however be seen at the -British Museum; and during the last year the national collection has -been greatly enriched by the acquisition of several beautiful specimens -of cave carvings from the collection of M. Pecadeau de l’Isle.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> See Appendix.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> It is curious that there are no remains in Scandinavia -which can with certainty be called palæolithic. It would seem as though -during this era the countries remained too cold for habitation.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Both in Switzerland and in the neighbourhood of the -Pyrenees.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <i>In height</i>, that is. The distance of coast-line which -disappears owing to the mere volcanic depression, or the distance of -coast-line which appears on the other shore from volcanic upheaval -(independently of river deposits, etc.), depends of course upon the -level of the coast. It would not, however, be generally more than a yard -or two.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Probably as altars or perhaps as gods themselves. I desire -to speak with great caution of the rude stone monuments of Europe; for -of all branches of prehistoric study this has been the least developed -by modern research.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> It seems highly probable that the invention of some sort -of malt liquor followed upon the growth of corn. Tacitus mentions such a -liquor as having been drunk by the Germans of his day. He is doubtless -describing a sort of beer.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> But not sheep apparently; at least not in Western Europe. -In these islands the sheep did not appear before the time of Julius -Cæsar.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> <i>Hamlet</i>, act v., sc. 1.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> M. Troyon has started the idea that the crouched attitude -of the dead—<i>repliée</i>, as he describes it: he declares that it does not -in the least resemble the crouched attitude which men of some races -assume when sleeping—was imposed upon the dead with a symbolical -meaning, viz. that it was meant to imitate the position of the child in -the womb of its parent, and as such to enfold the hope of resurrection -in the act of entombment. The idea is a poetical one, but I much doubt -whether it has pre-existed in other minds before finding a place in that -of M. Troyon. The author, however, should be heard in defence of his own -theory, and may be so in the <i>Revue Arch.</i>, ix. 289.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Some of the varieties of grain found in these -lake-dwellings are not otherwise known to botanists.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> The Phœnicians are said by tradition to have invented -the manufacture of glass. But there is no proof of this.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Of course the making of very rude huts of branches and -leaves may have been practised by these—such huts as formed the only -shelter of the Tasmanians down to our day. For an imaginative -description of the most primitive house, see Violet de Duc, <i>The Houses -of Men in all Ages</i>, ch. i.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> The simile is Mr. Max Müller’s.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> In English we have <i>grind</i>, <i>grate</i>, (<i>s</i>)<i>cra</i>(<i>pe</i>), -<i>grave</i> (German <i>graben</i>, ‘to dig;’ Eng. ‘grub.’) All words for writing -mean cutting, because all writing was originally graving on a stone: -thus the Latin <i>scribo</i> (corrupted in the French to <i>écris</i>), in the -Greek is <i>grapho</i>, in the German <i>schreibe</i>. These words, as well as the -English <i>write</i>, are known to be all from the same root; it is not -pretended that they are <i>proofs</i> of a natural selection of sound; but -they may be instances of it.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> The reader, however, may be referred to Tylor’s <i>Early -History of Mankind</i>, ch. iv., for much interesting information on the -subject.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> <i>Yes</i> is probably not the same word as the German <i>ja</i> -(whose significant form is lost), though our <i>yea</i> is.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> See below, pp. 70-80.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> These two words have, it is true, quite changed their -meanings; but our <i>knight</i> rose to its honourable sense from having come -to be used only for the servants or attendants of the king (in battle), -while the German word retained its older sense of servant, groom, only.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> See above, p. 66.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> The reader who does not know Latin may easily recognize -the kindred forms in French, Italian, Spanish, etc.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Mr. Max Müller calls it the <i>terminational</i> stage.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> <i>Agone</i> is possibly from a stronger form <i>âgan</i>, ‘to pass -away.’</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> To get the full sound of the <i>th</i>, this should be said not -as we pronounce our article <i>the</i> (which really has the sound <i>dhe</i>), -but like the first part of Thebes, theme, etc.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Cf. the Greek <i>klutos</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Stephen, <i>Lectures on the History of France</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> This is the theory of Aryan origins still most generally -accepted. It has, however, been maintained by several philologists that -there is no evidence of an Asiatic origin of the European nations.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> See Chapter I.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Among the Iberians, however, the Celtic blood was much -diluted with an infusion of that of an earlier Turanian race allied to -the modern Basques.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Or say, rather, the people of Italy. Only the Etruscans -must probably be excepted from the category, and the Gauls, who -subsequently settled themselves in Cisalpine Gaul.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> The principal among these laws were elaborated by Jacob -Grimm, and hence called ‘Grimm’s Laws.’ They may be seen in his -<i>Teutonic Grammar</i>, and also in his <i>History of the German Tongue</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Because they would be hardly likely to give a fresh name -to such an intimate relationship as the daughter. On the other hand, it -seems necessary that the Aryan race must have been in the hunter state -at some period, and equally necessary that they must <i>then</i> have had a -word for daughter. Milking, it may be urged, might be practised before -the domestication of animals. See also Chapter VI.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Supreme, because his title became a supreme title among -these <i>different</i> Aryan stocks.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> And this without any reproach to the industry of those at -work. The volumes of Kühn’s <i>Zeitschr. für vergleichende -Sprachforschung</i>, Lazarus and Steinthal’s <i>Zeitsch. f. -Völkerpsychologie</i>, M. Pictet’s fascinating <i>Origines indo-européennes</i>, -etc., are storehouses which display the treasures already obtained.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Such a book as we have imagined would form a natural -sequel to the principles of comparative grammar as laid down by Bopp, -etc. It would differ from a mere comparative dictionary in the -arrangement, showing the nature and extent of modification which each -word had undergone—where, for instance, Grimm’s laws of change hold -good, where not; the cases of the survival of archaic forms (agreeable -to Grimm’s <i>second law</i>); and, if they could be discovered as the result -of such a classification, the determining causes of such survival among -any of the different races.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> I have been told that the late Lord Strangford, a great -linguist, and a comparative philologist to boot, could always find -amusement for an idle half-hour in a book which the reader would -probably think of, if asked to name the most uninteresting of created -things—I mean Bradshaw, English or foreign; and his interest lay in -extracting the hidden meaning and history which lay concealed in these -lists of geographical names.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> It is found that the peculiarity of curling or not curling -in hair depends upon the form, the form in <i>section</i>, of the individual -hairs. The woolly hairs are oval in section, the straight ones round.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Lenormant, <i>Manual of the Ancient History of the East</i>, -vol. i., p. 55.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Not that this particular foothold has descended to the -Turks from early times. See the next paragraph.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Lenormant, <i>Manual</i>, i. 343. It should be remarked that -the authority of Justin on such a point is not high.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> Mariette’s date is <small>B.C.</small> 5004, Lepsius’s 3892, Wilkinson’s -only 2700. Wilkinson’s chronology, however, founded upon the theory of -<i>contemporaneous dynasties</i> in the lists of Manetho, has now been -generally rejected.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> Shûmîr was a portion of the country inhabited by the -Accadians.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> See Chapter XIII.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> Gen. xi. 2.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> Gen. xiv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> Kung-foo-tse was his real name.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> ‘Fool! why journeyest thou wearisomely in thy antiquarian -fervour to gaze on the stone pyramids of Geeza, or the clay stones of -Sacchara? These stand there, as I can tell thee, idle and inert, looking -over the desert, foolishly enough, for the last three thousand years; -but canst thou not open thy Hebrew <span class="smcap">Bible</span>, or even Luther’s version -thereof?’ <i>Sartor Resartus.</i></p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> For example, the Hindee <i>rupee</i>, the Latin <i>pecunia</i>, and -our <i>fee</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> As the Sanskrit <i>gôpa</i>, ‘a prince,’ the Slavonic -<i>hospodar</i> (from <i>gôspada</i>) contains the word <i>gô</i>, our ‘cow,’ and means -the protector of the cattle; from the same root, Sanskrit <i>gavya</i>, -‘pasturage,’ Saxon <i>gê</i>, ‘county,’ Greek <i>gaia</i>, or <i>gê</i>, ‘earth.’</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> See above, page 94.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> Cattle were probably originally communal property: and -were appropriated to individuals at a later stage than other movable -goods. In the Roman law we find that they could only be transferred by -the same forms as were required for the conveyance of land: being -classed amongst the ‘res mancipi.’</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> The same connection between ‘mother’ and ‘daughter’ -villages also once existed to a large extent in Germany.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> That is to say, the stories themselves may be old enough; -the application of them to some special members of a pantheon marks the -condition of the creed.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> The etymology of Indra’s name is uncertain. It cannot -therefore be said whether or no he was originally a sun-god, though he -has many of the attributes of one. In the Vedas he is also a god of -storms.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> Welcker maintains (<i>Griech. Götterlehre</i>) that the title, -Son of Time, belonged to Zeus before Kronos (Chronos) was invented as a -personality to be the father of Zeus.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> I purposely leave out Aphrodite (Venus) from this -category, as she partakes so much of the nature of an Oriental goddess.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> Not directly, however; see Grimm, D. M., vol. i., p. 252.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> Soma was the mystic (and no doubt intoxicating) drink used -in the sacrifices, and poured as libation to the gods. It was -personified as a divinity.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> The <i>flash</i>, the father of the Maruts (?).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> The dew? (=Prokris?) imaged here as a cow. She is the -mother of the Maruts.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> Though the character of this has been a good deal -exaggerated in the popular notions of the religion of the ancient -Persians.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> Mitra is associated with the idea of the sun. But I -incline to think that originally he was rather the wind of morning, or -even the morning <i>sky</i>. He is almost always linked in the hymns with -Varuna, who most certainly was at one time the sky (ούρανός), -and once a supreme god. See what is said below of Surya.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> The Dawn. See <a href="#page_205">p. 205</a>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> The fish.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> Literally, ‘the egg’s son.’</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> It has been already said that the Latin mythology, <i>as we -know it</i>, is almost all borrowed directly from the Greek. It is -obviously right, therefore, to call the deities by their Greek, and not, -as was till recently always done, by their Latin names. The Latin gods -had no doubt much of the character of their Greek brethren; but it is to -the Greek poets that we are really indebted for what we know about them. -In this chapter, for the sake of clearness, the Latin name is generally -given in parentheses after the Greek one.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> To appreciate this we must compare the representations of -Apollo with those of Helios, who was simply and frankly a sun-god even -to the later Greeks, and we see that they are essentially the same -personality. Even in the very early statues of Apollo, where the artist -had not the skill to make wide, flowing locks, the hair is always -indicated with great care and some elaboration of detail.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> A word allied to our <i>fen</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> Homeric hymn to Dêmêtêr.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> See Appendix. <i>Persephone and Balder.</i></p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> Albeit that Aphroditê like Athenê is likewise a goddess -sprung from water—from the sea.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> As she springs from the head of Zeus, the storm-cloud.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> Our knowledge of Teutonic mythology is chiefly gathered -from the Norsemen, and in fact almost exclusively from Icelandic -literature. The most valuable source of all is the collection of sacred -songs which generally goes by the name of <i>Edda den Ældra</i>, the Elder -Edda.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> Odhinn is the Norse, Wuotan the German, Wodan or Wodin the -English name.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> Or else the god who inspires. (See <i>Corp. Poet Bor.</i>, -Introd., p. civ.)</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> Literally, ‘The Hall of the Slain,’ <i>i.e.</i> the hall of -heroes.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> Æsir, pl. of As or Ans, the general Norse name for a god.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> One of the last appearances of such a phantom army is -graphically described by Mr. Motley in his <i>History of the Dutch -Republic</i>. The occasion was a short time before the battle of -Mookerhyde, in which the army of Prince Louis of Nassau was defeated, -and himself slain:—‘Early in February five soldiers of the burgher -guard at Utrecht, being on their midnight watch, beheld in the sky above -them the representation of a furious battle. The sky was extremely dark -except directly over their heads, where for a space equal in extent to -the length of the city, and in breadth to that of an ordinary chamber, -two armies in battle array were seen advancing upon each other. The one -moved rapidly up from the north-west, with banners waving, spears -flashing, trumpets sounding, accompanied by heavy artillery and by -squadrons of cavalry. The other came slowly forward from the south-east, -as if from an entrenched camp, to encounter their assailants. There was -a fierce action for a few moments, the shouts of the combatants, the -heavy discharge of cannon, the rattle of musketry, the tramp of -heavy-armed foot-soldiers, and the rush of cavalry being distinctly -heard. The firmament trembled with the shock of the contending hosts, -and was lurid with the rapid discharges of their artillery.... The -struggle seemed but short. The lances of the south-eastern army seemed -to snap ‘like hempstalks,’ while their firm columns all went down -together in mass beneath the onset of their enemies. The overthrow was -complete—victors and vanquished had faded; the clear blue space, -surrounded by black clouds, was empty, when suddenly its whole extent -where the conflict had so lately raged was streaked with blood, flowing -athwart the sky in broad crimson streaks; nor was it till the five -witnesses had fully watched and pondered over these portents that the -vision entirely vanished.’ (Vol. ii., p. 526.)</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> The story of Van der Decken, the Flying Dutchman, is -surely (more especially since its dramatization by Wagner) too well -known to need relation. Van der Decken, or Dekken, seems to mean ‘the -man with the cloak;’ he too is probably a changed form of Odin.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> It may be as well to say here that every detail of the -legend is found upon a critical inquiry to be significant. His name -Hackelbärend (cloak-bearer) connects him with Odin, the wind-god. His -two dogs connect him with two dogs of Sanskrit mythology, also -signifying the wind.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> See Uhland, <i>Der Mythus von Thor</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> <i>Baldur; a Song of Divine Death</i>, by Robert Buchanan.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> This scarcely holds as a simile, for in fact the light -<i>is</i> the aurora. It need hardly be said, therefore, that the comparison -is not found in the original story.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> <i>I.e.</i> Garðr a general name for earth, expanded from the -confined meaning of inclosure, <i>yard</i> (allied to οἶκος, -<i>hortus</i>); just as γαῖα is connected with a cow-inclosure.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> The meaning of Zoroaster, or rather Zarathustra, his true -name. The reader may usefully consult M. James Darmesteter’s <i>Zend -Avesta</i> (<i>Sacred Books of the East</i>, vol. iv.), in which he will see how -much of this religion is (in the opinion of M. Darmesteter) simply an -early nature-religion parallel to that of the Vedas.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> Hence the name Mazdean applied to this creed.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> See Chapter IV., p. 100.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> Or the graves of those whom he desired specially to -honour. We can guess at the process of his thought pretty well. First, -the body is buried deep, or earth is thrown over it in a heap, to keep -it from being torn up by wild beasts. Then as the covering of the body -gets to be thought a special insurance of vitality to the soul, the -practice is exaggerated more and more until we get the great -grave-mounds and the pyramids.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> Wooden statues were very common in the earliest Egyptian -dynasties. But they belong to these only.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> Blue or green is the colour of Osiris, who represents the -soul. (See Chapter VII.)</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> The Egyptian tombs having generally an upper chamber for -the sacrifices or funeral feasts, and a chamber in the earth beneath for -the mummy.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> <i>Sheol</i> is the Hebrew word generally translated ‘grave’ in -our version. Very different from the teaching of modern religion is the -following passage:— -</p> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘<i>Sheol</i> shall not praise the Jehovah,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">The dead shall not celebrate Thee:<br /></span> -<span class="i1">They that go down into the pit shall not hope for Thy truth.<br /></span> -<span class="i1">The living, the living, shall praise Thee as I do this day.’<br /></span> -<span class="i10">(Isa. xxxviii. 18, 19.)<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> Still, this effect of their art on us may arise from the -disappearance of some monuments which had a very different character, -<i>e.g.</i> the <i>campo santo</i> pictures, as we may call them, of Polygnotus at -Delphi. (See Pausanias, x. 28.)</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> The reason why the ‘blameless Ethiopians’ were honoured by -name and by the company of the gods, is most likely to be found in the -fact of their living, as Homer thought, so near the western border of -the world.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> Weber, in Chamb. 1020.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> V<i>r</i>hadâra<i>n</i>yaka, <i>Ed. Pol.</i>, iii. 4-7.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> According to the proper laws of change from Sanskrit to -Greek, Sârameyas = Έρμείας, Έρμής</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_101_101" id="Footnote_101_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_101_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> Wilson, <i>As. Res.</i>, iii. 409.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102_102" id="Footnote_102_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> vii. 6, 15.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103_103" id="Footnote_103_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> Father of the ‘family’ in its larger sense. (See the -chapter on Early Social Life.)</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_104_104" id="Footnote_104_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_104_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> ψυχή, <i>spiritus</i>, Geist, ghost, all from the -notion of breathing.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_105_105" id="Footnote_105_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor_105_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> -</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">ψυχή δἐ κατἀ χθονὀς, ἠΰτε καπνός, ᾤχετο<br /></span> -<span class="i9">(<i>Il.</i> xxiii, 100.)<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘And to its home beneath the earth like <i>smoke</i><br /></span> -<span class="i1">His soul went down.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_106_106" id="Footnote_106_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor_106_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> The suggestion of Grimm (<i>Ueber das Verb. der Leichen</i>), -that burying may have been used by an agricultural people, by those who -were wont to watch the sown seed spring into new life, whereas burning -is the custom of shepherd races, is not supported by a wide survey of -the facts. The Aryans were not essentially pastoral, on the whole less -so than the Turanian people who buried (see Herod., I. 4, for the -Scythians), and less so again than the Semites, who did the same.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_107_107" id="Footnote_107_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor_107_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> The Vendidâd relates how after that Auramazda had created -sixteen perfect localities upon earth, Ahrimanes came after (like the -sower of tares), and did what in him lay to spoil the paradises, by -introducing all sorts of noxious animals and other abominations, such as -the practice of burning the dead body or giving it to the water. The -Iranians, as is well known, suspended their dead upon a sort of grating, -and left them to be devoured of wild birds.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_108_108" id="Footnote_108_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> <i>Beowulf</i>, the oldest poem in our language (in Early -English), is considered to have been written somewhere about <small>A.D.</small> 700. -It relates the adventures of a prince of Jutland or of Southern Sweden. -Though made and sung in a Christian country, it breathes the spirit of -an earlier (heathen) time, as the instance of the burning of Beowulf -alone would testify.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_109_109" id="Footnote_109_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor_109_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> Hel, from <i>helja</i>, ‘to conceal,’ answered identically to -Hades.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_110_110" id="Footnote_110_110"></a><a href="#FNanchor_110_110"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> This heavenward journey may be described as at first a -haven-ward one (<i>i.e.</i> across the sea); later as a really heavenward one -through the air, with the wind-god.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_111_111" id="Footnote_111_111"></a><a href="#FNanchor_111_111"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> This is the Younger, or Prose Edda, of Snorro (Dæmisaga -49), not that called the Edda of Sæmund—the <i>Elder</i> Edda. Undoubtedly -the myth of Balder is largely infused with Christian elements.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_112_112" id="Footnote_112_112"></a><a href="#FNanchor_112_112"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> Hel, in Norse mythology, is a person, the regent of -Helheim. Just in the same way Hades is in Homer always a god, never a -place. The idea concerning Helheim seems to have been that all who were -not slain in battle went to its dark shore.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_113_113" id="Footnote_113_113"></a><a href="#FNanchor_113_113"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> <i>i.e.</i> Dokkr, <i>dark</i>. She sits in a cave, because both -day and night are imagined as coming from a cave. So Shelley sings— -</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Swiftly walk over the western cave,<br /></span> -<span class="i3">Spirit of Night,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Out of thy misty eastern cave.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_114_114" id="Footnote_114_114"></a><a href="#FNanchor_114_114"><span class="label">[114]</span></a> Or, strictly speaking, the Brahmana of the Yagur Veda. -The Brahmana is the scholiast (as it were) or <i>targum</i> of the original -text. Urva<i>s</i>i is Ushas, the Dawn.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_115_115" id="Footnote_115_115"></a><a href="#FNanchor_115_115"><span class="label">[115]</span></a> Morris, <i>Earthly Paradise</i>: Cupid and Psyche.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_116_116" id="Footnote_116_116"></a><a href="#FNanchor_116_116"><span class="label">[116]</span></a> I have no doubt there is another element in all these -stories, not inconsistent with but complementary to the first—namely, -what I will call a <i>mystery</i> element connected with a descent to the -world of shades, such as formed the staple of the Eleusinian mysteries. -Thus I think Pururavas is the hidden sun (the dark Osiris as it were). -He might call himself Pururavas <i>under the earth</i> as Prince Hatt is -Prince Hatt <i>under the earth</i>. This would explain how the story got to -be connected with Psyche (the Soul). It may be said, too, that there is -often a <i>mystery</i> element connected with such notions as the concealment -of names, etc.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_117_117" id="Footnote_117_117"></a><a href="#FNanchor_117_117"><span class="label">[117]</span></a> Connected with Lêthê, <i>concealment</i> or <i>forgetfulness</i>, -as with Lêto, the mother of Apollo. All signify the darkness.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_118_118" id="Footnote_118_118"></a><a href="#FNanchor_118_118"><span class="label">[118]</span></a> See last chapter, p. 252. Endymion is found by Artemis -sleeping in a cave of Latmos.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_119_119" id="Footnote_119_119"></a><a href="#FNanchor_119_119"><span class="label">[119]</span></a> See Baring-Gould, <i>Curious Myths</i>, etc.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_120_120" id="Footnote_120_120"></a><a href="#FNanchor_120_120"><span class="label">[120]</span></a> He is actually a reduplication of Thor; for his name -means <i>thunder</i>, as does Thor’s. Thor is of course much more than a god -of thunder only; but his hammer is undoubtedly the thunder-bolt. Thrym -represents the same power associated with beings of frost and snow, the -winter thunder, in fact. This stealing Thor’s hammer is merely a -repetition of the idea implied by his name and character.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_121_121" id="Footnote_121_121"></a><a href="#FNanchor_121_121"><span class="label">[121]</span></a> Which Freyja wore.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_122_122" id="Footnote_122_122"></a><a href="#FNanchor_122_122"><span class="label">[122]</span></a> Giant does not really translate Thurs. Most of the -Thursar were giants as opposed to the Dvargar, the dwarfs. But this -Alvîs (all-wise) is spoken of as a dwarf.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_123_123" id="Footnote_123_123"></a><a href="#FNanchor_123_123"><span class="label">[123]</span></a> There is a clear recollection of this in the end of -Rumpelstiltskin.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_124_124" id="Footnote_124_124"></a><a href="#FNanchor_124_124"><span class="label">[124]</span></a> This story, be it said, comes only from the younger Edda. -No hint of it in the older.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_125_125" id="Footnote_125_125"></a><a href="#FNanchor_125_125"><span class="label">[125]</span></a> ‘Beowulf,’ we have said, is thought to have been first -composed in English at the end of the seventh century. There was -probably an earlier and more simple version of the poem which has come -down to us. I do not mean to say that either Beowulf or Sigurd are -simply personifications of the sun; only that some of their belongings -and adventures have descended to them from sun-heroes.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_126_126" id="Footnote_126_126"></a><a href="#FNanchor_126_126"><span class="label">[126]</span></a> Valkyria, sing.; Valkyriur, pl.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_127_127" id="Footnote_127_127"></a><a href="#FNanchor_127_127"><span class="label">[127]</span></a> <i>Kinder-u. Hausmärchen.</i></p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_128_128" id="Footnote_128_128"></a><a href="#FNanchor_128_128"><span class="label">[128]</span></a> <i>I.e.</i> the sky. See Grimm, <i>Deutsche Myth.</i>, s.v. -(Hackelberg); and also two very interesting articles by A. Kühn, -<i>Zeitsch. für deutsch. Alterth.</i>, v. 379, vi. 117, showing relationship -of Hackelbärend and the Sârameyas.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_129_129" id="Footnote_129_129"></a><a href="#FNanchor_129_129"><span class="label">[129]</span></a> These twelve nights occupy in the middle-age legends the -place of a sort of battle-ground between the powers of light and -darkness. One obvious reason of this is that they lie in midwinter, when -the infernal powers are the strongest. Another reason, perhaps, is that -they lie between the great Christian feast and the great heathen one, -the feast of Yule. Each party might be expected to put forth its full -power.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_130_130" id="Footnote_130_130"></a><a href="#FNanchor_130_130"><span class="label">[130]</span></a> Perhaps for a reason like that which made the beetle a -symbol of the soul or immortality among the Egyptians, namely, because -the mouse hibernates like the sleeping earth. It is worth noticing that -Anubis, the Egyptian psychopomp, is also a wind-god.—A. K.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_131_131" id="Footnote_131_131"></a><a href="#FNanchor_131_131"><span class="label">[131]</span></a> The appearance of <i>children</i> in the story need not, -however, necessarily mean that the mortality had specially affected the -children. It may only have been an expression like the Latin -<i>manes</i>—the little ones—used for the souls of the departed. We know -how constantly in mediæval art the soul is represented as drawn out of -the body in the form of a child.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_132_132" id="Footnote_132_132"></a><a href="#FNanchor_132_132"><span class="label">[132]</span></a> There are at least six different versions of the same -legend given in Grimm’s <i>Deutsche Sagen</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_133_133" id="Footnote_133_133"></a><a href="#FNanchor_133_133"><span class="label">[133]</span></a> This myth is related by Procopius (<i>B. G.</i>, iv.). There -is little doubt that this island, which <i>he</i> calls Brittia (and of -course distinguishes from Britannia), is really identical with it. The -<i>wall</i> which he speaks of as dividing it is proof sufficient.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_134_134" id="Footnote_134_134"></a><a href="#FNanchor_134_134"><span class="label">[134]</span></a> To the house of Yama.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_135_135" id="Footnote_135_135"></a><a href="#FNanchor_135_135"><span class="label">[135]</span></a> See above, p. 251.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_136_136" id="Footnote_136_136"></a><a href="#FNanchor_136_136"><span class="label">[136]</span></a> See above, p. 231.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_137_137" id="Footnote_137_137"></a><a href="#FNanchor_137_137"><span class="label">[137]</span></a> The fortune which accompanies a myth is very curious. -That of Freyr and Gerda is by no means conspicuous in the Edda, and I -should not have been justified in comparing it in importance with the -Persephone myth, <i>but</i> that precisely the same story forms a leading -feature in <i>the</i> great Norse and Teuton epic, the Volsung and Nibelung -songs.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_138_138" id="Footnote_138_138"></a><a href="#FNanchor_138_138"><span class="label">[138]</span></a> It is interesting to note that <i>one</i> of the proofs that -the Greek <i>alphabet</i> is derived from the Phœnician is precisely -similar to the proof that the Sanskrit <i>Dyâus</i> or <i>duhitar</i> are earlier -forms than Zeus or <i>daughter</i>. Because in Greek <i>alphabet</i> means only -<i>alpha</i> (α) <i>beta</i> (β), but in Phœnician <i>alpha</i> or -<i>aleph</i> and <i>beta</i> or <i>beth</i> have distinct meanings—‘ox’ and -‘house’—the objects supposed to be symbolized by the first two -Phœnician letters. See above.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_139_139" id="Footnote_139_139"></a><a href="#FNanchor_139_139"><span class="label">[139]</span></a> Or Khita.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_140_140" id="Footnote_140_140"></a><a href="#FNanchor_140_140"><span class="label">[140]</span></a> The word would be more correctly spelt <i>Yawân</i>. It is -known that Iôn has been changed from Ivôn, or rather Iwôn, by the -elision of the digamma.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_141_141" id="Footnote_141_141"></a><a href="#FNanchor_141_141"><span class="label">[141]</span></a> <i>i.e.</i> the Gauls.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_142_142" id="Footnote_142_142"></a><a href="#FNanchor_142_142"><span class="label">[142]</span></a> For the story of Bran’s head, which spoke after it was -cut off, and which is in its natural interpretation probably the sun, -see Mr. M. Arnold’s <i>Celtic Literature</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_143_143" id="Footnote_143_143"></a><a href="#FNanchor_143_143"><span class="label">[143]</span></a> Or if the Teutones were really Germans. Some have denied -this (see Latham’s <i>Germania</i>, Appendix). But, I think, without -sufficient reason.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_144_144" id="Footnote_144_144"></a><a href="#FNanchor_144_144"><span class="label">[144]</span></a> Latham’s <i>Germania</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_145_145" id="Footnote_145_145"></a><a href="#FNanchor_145_145"><span class="label">[145]</span></a> And therefore possibly Slaves, Wend being a name applied -by Teutons to Slaves.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_146_146" id="Footnote_146_146"></a><a href="#FNanchor_146_146"><span class="label">[146]</span></a> <i>e.g.</i> Old German, <i>aran</i>, to plough = <i>arare</i>, etc.</p></div> - -</div> - -<p><a name="transcrib" id="transcrib"></a></p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="" -style="padding:2%;border:3px dotted gray;"> -<tr><th align="center">Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:</th></tr> -<tr><td align="center">party exterminated=> partly exterminated {pg 101}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">certain among the the islands=> certain among the islands {pg 115}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">of the Semitic=> of the Semetic {pg 118}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">the Ayran people=> the Aryan people {pg 199}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">have the Elsyian fields=> have the Elysian fields {pg 243}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">the Egyptian heiroglyphics=> the Egyptian hieroglyphics {pg 311}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">closely alied to=> closely allied to {pg 320}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">the ancient Egptian=> the ancient Egyptian {pg 339}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">case in repect of=> case in respect of {pg 351}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">in Phenician=> in Phœnician {pg 357}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">to the Eyptians=> to the Egyptians {pg 364}</td></tr> -</table> -<hr class="full" /> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dawn of History, by C. F. Keary - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAWN OF HISTORY *** - -***** This file should be named 52030-h.htm or 52030-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/0/3/52030/ - -Produced by Sonya Schermann, Chuck Greif and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, -set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to -copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to -protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project -Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you -charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you -do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the -rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose -such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and -research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do -practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is -subject to the trademark license, especially commercial -redistribution. - - - -*** START: FULL LICENSE *** - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project -Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at -http://gutenberg.org/license). - - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy -all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. -If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the -terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or -entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement -and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" -or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the -collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an -individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are -located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from -copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative -works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg -are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project -Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by -freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of -this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with -the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by -keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project -Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in -a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check -the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement -before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or -creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project -Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning -the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United -States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate -access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently -whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, -copied or distributed: - -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/license - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived -from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is -posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied -and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees -or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work -with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the -work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 -through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the -Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or -1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional -terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked -to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the -permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any -word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or -distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than -"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version -posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), -you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a -copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon -request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other -form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided -that - -- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is - owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he - has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the - Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments - must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you - prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax - returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and - sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the - address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to - the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." - -- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or - destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium - and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of - Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any - money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days - of receipt of the work. - -- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set -forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from -both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael -Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the -Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm -collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain -"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or -corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual -property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a -computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by -your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with -your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with -the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a -refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity -providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to -receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy -is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further -opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER -WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO -WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. -If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the -law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be -interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by -the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any -provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance -with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, -promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, -harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, -that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do -or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm -work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any -Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. - - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers -including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists -because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from -people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. -To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation -and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 -and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive -Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at -http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent -permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. -Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered -throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at -809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email -business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact -information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official -page at http://pglaf.org - -For additional contact information: - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To -SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any -particular state visit http://pglaf.org - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. -To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate - - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm -concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared -with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project -Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. - - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. -unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily -keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. - - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - http://www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - - -</pre> - -</body> -</html> diff --git a/old/52030-h/images/cover.jpg b/old/52030-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 366b3ed..0000000 --- a/old/52030-h/images/cover.jpg +++ /dev/null |
