Chapter i
. Compare Numbers xxxi. 23.
[40] Numbers xix. 17.
[41] Ibid. xix. 2, seq.
[42] 'Folklore of China,' p. 121.
[43] In Russia the pigeon, from being anciently consecrated to the thunder god, has become emblem of the Holy Ghost, or celestial fire, and as such the foe of earthly fire. Pigeons are trusted as insurers against fire, and the flight of one through a house is regarded as a kindly warning of conflagration.
[44] Tablet K 162 in Brit. Mus. Tr. by H. F. Talbot in 'Records of the Past.'
[45] The Western Mail, March 12, 1874, contains a remarkable letter by the Arch-Druid, in which he maintains that 'Jesus' is a derivation from Hea or Hu, Light, and the Christian system a corruption of Bardism.
[46] 'L'Enfer,' p. 5.
[47] Dennys' 'Folklore of China,' p. 98.
[48] Procopius, 'De Bello Gothico,' iv. 20.
[49] 'Memorials of the Rev. R. S. Hawkes'.
[50] 'La Magie chez les Chaldéens,' iii.
[51] Lönnrot, 'Abhandlung über die Magische Medicin der Finnen.'
[52] 'Scenes and Legends of the North of Scotland.' Nimmo, 1876.
[53] 'Rig-Veda,' ii. 33. Tr. by Professor Evans of Michigan.
[54] 'Rig-Veda,' i. 114.
[55] 'Jour. Ceylon R. A. Soc.,' 1865-66.
[56] Welcker, 'Griechische Götterlehre,' vol. i. p. 661.
[57] Moffat, p. 257.
[58] Livingstone, p. 124.
[59] Pöppig, 'Reise in Chile,' vol. ii. p. 358.
[60] Eyre, vol. ii. p. 362.
[61] Tylor, 'Early Hist.,' p. 359.
[62] So confirming the conjecture of Wachsmuth, in 'Das alte Griechenland im neuen,' p. 23. Elias might also easily be associated with the name Æolus.
[63] 'Rig-Veda,' x. (Muir).
[64] John iii. 8.
[65] 'The Wheel of the Law,' by Henry Alabaster, Trübner & Co.
[66] 'Rig-Veda,' v. 83 (Wilson).
[67] 'Major's Tr.,' ii. 26.
[68] Wierus' 'Pseudomonarchia Dæmon.'
[69] 'Songs of the Russian People,' by W. R. S. Ralston, M.A.
[70] Isa. xxii. 22. It is remarkable that (according to Callimachus) Ceres bore a key on her shoulder. She kept the granary of the earth.
[71] Rev. i. 18.; Matt. xvi. 19.
[72] 'Journal N. C. B. R. A. S.,' 1853.
[73] 'Folklore of China,' p. 124. The drum held by the imp in Fig. 3 shows his relation to the thunder-god. In Japan the thunder-god is represented as having five drums strung together. The wind-god has a large bag of compressed air between his shoulders; and he has steel claws, representing the keen and piercing wind. The Tartars in Siberia believe that a potent demon may be evoked by beating a drum; their sorcerers provide a tame bear, who starts upon the scene, and from whom they pretend to get answers to questions. In Nova Scotian superstition we find demons charmed by drums into quietude. In India the temple-drum preserved such solemn associations even for the new theistic sect, the Brahmo-Somaj, that it is said to be still beaten as accompaniment to the organ sent to their chief church by their English friends.
[74] Although the Koran and other authorities, as already stated, have associated the Jinn with etherial fire, Arabic folklore is nearer the meaning of the word in assigning the name to all demons. The learned Arabic lexicographer of Beirut, P. Bustani, says 'The Jinn is the opposite of mankind, or it is whatever is veiled from the sense, whether angel or devil.'
[75] 'Cuneiform Ins.,' iv. 15.
[76] Ib. ii. 27.
[77] Job xli.
[78] 'Records of the Past,' i.
[79] Lenormant, 'La Magie.'
[80] 'Records of the Past,' iii. 129.
[81] The god of the Euphrates.
[82] The Assyrian has 'of the high places.'
[83] 'Records of the Past,' iii. 129, 130.
[84] 'Henry IV.,' Part 1st, Act 2. 'Heart of Mid-Lothian,' xxv. An interesting paper on this subject by Mr. Alexander Wilder appeared in The Evolution, New York, December 16, 1877.
[85] De Plancy.
[86] An individual by this means saw his wife among the witches, so detecting her unhallowed nature, which gave rise to a saying there that husbands must not be star-gazing on St. Gerard's Eve.
[87] London 'Times,' July 8, 1875.
[88] This Protean type of both demon and devil must accompany us so continually through this volume that but little need be said of it in this chapter.
[89] Canticles ii. 15.
[90] De Gubernatis, II. viii.
[91] 'Our Life in Japan' (Jephson and Elmhirst, 9th Regiment), Chapman & Hall, 1869.
[92] London 'Times,' June 11, 1877.
[93] Rep. 488.
[94] Literally, goat-song. More probably it has an astrological sense.
[95] E.g., the demon Huorco in the 'Pentamerone.'
[96] See De Gubernatis' 'Zoological Mythology,' which contains further curious details on this subject.
[97] 'Myths and Myth-makers.' Boston: Osgood & Co.
[98] 'Zoological Mythology,' p. 64.
[99] Koran, xviii.
[100] Wagner. Behold him stop--upon his belly crawl.... The clever scholar of the students, he!
[101] 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.' London: Chatto & Windus.
[102] 'Spirit of the Beasts of France,' ch. i.
[103] 'Rigv.' i. 105, 18, 42, 2; 'Vendidad,' xix. 108. Quoted by De Gubernatis ('Zoolog. Mythology,' ii. 142), to whose invaluable work I am largely indebted in this chapter.
[104] 'Zoolog. Myth.,' ii. 7. Trübner & Co.
[105] 'Zoolog. Myth.,' ii. 108 seq.
[106] Afanasief, v. 28.
[107] Ibid., v. 27.
[108] ii. 6 (De Gubernatis, ii. 117).
[109] Rather the devil of lust than of cruelty, according to Du Cange: "Occidunt ursum, occiditur diabolus, id est, temptator nostræ carnis."
[110] De Plancy (Dict. Inf.), who also relates an amusing legend of the bear who came to a German choir, as seen by a sleepy chorister as he awoke; the naïve narrator of which adds, that this was the devil sent to hold the singers to their duty! The Lives of the Saints abound with legends of pious bears, such as that commemorated along with St. Sergius in Troitska Lavra, near Moscow; and that which St. Gallus was ungracious enough to banish from Switzerland after it had brought him firewood in proof of its conversion.
[111] Max Müller, 'Science of Language,' i. 275.
[112] The term is now used very vaguely. Mr. Talboys Wheeler, speaking of the 'Scythic Nagas' (Hist. of India, i. 147), says: 'In process of time these Nagas became identified with serpents, and the result has been a strange confusion between serpents and human beings.' In the 'Padma Purana' we read of 'serpent-like men.' (See my 'Sacred Anthology,' p. 263.)
[113] 'Mahawanso' (Turnour), pp. 3, 6.
[114] Ser. xxxiii. Hardly consistent with De Civ. Dei, xvi. 8.
[115] 'Chips,' ii.
[116] 'Sancti custos Soractis Apollo.'--Æn. xi. 785.
[117] 'Treatise of Spirits,' by John Beaumont, Gent., London, 1705.
[118] London 'Times,' June 11, 1877.
[119] Wuttke, 'Volksaberglaube,' 402. Pliny (iv. 16) says: 'Albion insula sic dicta ab albis rupibus quas mare alluit.' This etymon of Albion from the white cliffs is very questionable; but, since Alb and Elf are generally related, it might have suggested the notion about English demons. Heine identifies the 'White Island,' or Pluto's realm of Continental folklore, as England.
[120] Richardson's 'Borderer's Fable-Book,' vi. 97.
[121] Martin, Appendix to Report on 'Ossian,' p. 310.
[122] 'Scenes and Legends,' p. 13.
[123] Dr. James Browne's 'History of the Highlands,' p. 113.
[124] 'North American Review,' January 1871.
[125] Dennys, p. 81 et seq.
[126] Ezekiel xxxix.
[127] 'Rig-Veda,' iv. 175, 5 (Wilson).
[128] Ibid., i. 133, 6.
[129] 'Rig-Veda,' vi. 14.
[130] 'The Nineteenth Century,' November 1877. Article: 'Sun-Spots and Famines,' by Norman Lockyer and W. W. Hunter.
[131] 'An Inquiry into the Nature and Place of Hell,' by Tobias Swinden, M.A., late Rector of Cuxton-in-Kent. 1727.
[132] Carlyle, 'Past and Present,' i. 2.
[133] 'Discoveries in Egypt,' &c. (Bentley.) 1852.
[134] 'Legends of Old Testament Characters,' i. p. 83.
[135] OEdip., 1. II. ii. See 'Mankind: their Origin and Destiny,' p. 699.
[136] Compare Kali, Fig. 18.
[137] Soc. of Heb. Literature's Publications. 2d Series. 'Legends from the Midrash,' by Thomas Chenery (Trübner & Co.). The same legend is referred to in the story of the Astrologer in Washington Irving's 'Alhambra.'
[138] Faust, ii. Act 4 (Hayward's Translation).
[139] 'Emerson's Poems. Monadnoc.'
[140] 'Modern Painters,' Part V. 19.
[141] Bel's mountain, 'House of the Beloved,' is called 'high place' in Assyrian, and would be included in these curses ('Records of the Past,' iii. 129).
[142] Jer. xiii. 16.
[143] 'Our Life in Japan.' By Jephson and Elmhirst.
[144] Another derivation of Elf (Alf) is to connect it with Sanskrit Alpa = little; so that the Elves are the Little Folk. Professor Buslaef of Moscow suggests connection with the Greek Alphito, a spectre. See pp. 160n. and 223.
[145] Brinton, p. 85.
[146] Ibid., p. 166.
[147] 'Tales and Legends of the Tyrol.' (Chapman and Hall, 1874.)
[148] Od. xii. 73; 235, &c.
[149] London Daily Telegraph Correspondence.
[150] John Sterling.
[151] 'Rig-Veda,' ii. 15, 5. Wilson. 1854.
[152] 'Du monstre qui m'avait tant ennuyé, il n'était plus question; il était pour jamais réduit au silence. Il n'avait plus forme de géant. Déjà en partie couvert de verdure, de mousse et de clématites qui avaient grimpé sur la partie où j'avais cessé de passer, il n'était plus laid; bientôt on ne le verrait plus du tout. Je me sentais si heureux que je voulus lui pardonner, et, me tournant vers lui:--A present, lui dis-je, tu dormiras tous tes jours et tous tes nuits sans que je te dérange. Le mauvais esprit qui était en toi est vaincu, je lui defends de revenir. Je t'en ai délivré en te forçant à devenir utile à quelque chose; que la foudre t'épargne et que la neige te soit légère! Il me sembla passer, le long de l'escarpement, comme un grand soupir de résignation qui se perdit dans les hauteurs. Ce fut la dernière fois que je l'entendais, et je ne l'ai jamais revu autre qu'il n'est maintenant.'
[153] Von Spix and Von Martin's 'Travels in Brazil,' p. 243.
[154] 'Anatomy of Melancholy.' Fifteenth Edition, p. 124.
[155] 'Les Dieux en Exile.' Heinrich Heine. Revue des Deux Mondes, April, 1853.
[156] 'Book of Songs.' Translated by Charles E. Leland. New York: Henry Holt & Co. 1874.
[157] Dennys.
[158] Bleek, 'Hottentot Fables,' p. 58.
[159] Baring-Gould, 'Curious Myths,' &c.
[160] Ibid., ii. 299.
[161] 'Shaski,' vi. 48.
[162] Hugh Miller, 'Scenes and Legends,' p. 293.
[163] 'The Mirror,' April 7, 1832.
[164] 'The Origin of Civilisation,' &c. By Sir John Lubbock.
[165] Hildebrand in Grimm's 'Wörterbuch.'
[166] Wisdom of Solomon, xvii. What this impressive chapter says of the delusions of the guilty are equally true of those of ignorance. 'They sleeping the same sleep that night ... were partly vexed with monstrous apparitions, and partly fainted, their heart failing them ... whosoever there fell down was straitly kept, shut up in a prison without iron bars.... Whether it were a whistling wind, or a melodious noise of birds among the spreading branches, or a pleasing fall of water running violently, or a terrible sound of stones cast down, or a running that could not be seen of skipping beasts, or a roaring voice of most savage wild beasts, or a rebounding echo from the hollow mountains: these things made them to swoon for fear. The whole world shined with clear light ... over them only was spread a heavy night, an image of that darkness which should afterward receive them: but yet were they to themselves more grievous than that darkness.'
[167] Bayard Taylor's 'Faust.' Walpurgis-night.
[168] i. 228.
[169] North American Review. March 1877.
[170] In his very valuable work, 'Northmen in Cumberland and Westmoreland.' Longmans. 1856.
[171] 'Journal of Philology,' vi. No. II. On the Word Glamour and the Legend of Glam, by Professor Cowell.
[172] 2 Chron. xvi. 12; 2 Kings xx.; Mark v. 26; James v. 14; &c., &c. The Catholic Church follows the prescription by St. James of prayer and holy anointing for the sick only after medical aid--of which Asa died when he preferred it to the Lord--has failed; i.e. extreme unction. Castelar remarks that the Conclave which elected Pius IX. sat in the Quirinal rather than the Vatican, 'because, while it hoped for the inspirations of the Holy Spirit in every place, it feared that in the palace par excellence divine inspirations would not sufficiently counteract the effluvias of the fever.' The legal prosecutions of the 'Peculiar People' for obeying the New Testament command in case of sickness supply a notable example of the equal hypocrisy of the protestant age. England has distributed the Bible as a divine revelation in 150 different languages; and in London it punishes a sect for obedience to one of its plainest directions.
[173] London 'Times,' June 11, 1877.
[174] 'Mankind: their Origin and Destiny' (Longmans, 1872), p. 91. See also Voltaire's Dictionary for an account of the sacred dances in the Catholic Churches of Spain.
[175] Deut. xxviii. 60.
[176] 1 Sam. v. 6.
[177] 1 Sam. xvi. 14. In chap. xviii. 10, this evil spirit is said to have proceeded from Elohim, a difference indicating a further step in that evolution of Jehovah into a moral ruler which is fully traced in our chapter on 'Elohim and Jehovah.'
[178] Boundesch, ii. pp. 158, 188. For an exhaustive treatment of the astrological theories and pictures of the planispheres, see 'Mankind: their Origin and Destiny' (Longmans, 1872).
[179] 'Catastrophe Magnatum: or the Fall of Monarchie. A Caveat to Magistrates, deduced from the Eclipse of the Sunne, March 29, 1652. With a probable Conjecture of the Determination of the Effects.' By Nich. Culpeper, Gent., Stud. in Astrol. and Phys. Dan. ii. 21, 22: He changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth Kings, and setteth up Kings: he giveth wisdome to the Wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: he revealeth the deep and secret things, he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him. London: Printed for T. Vere and Nath. Brooke, in the Old Baily, and at the Angel in Cornhil, 1652.'
[180] See the Dictionary of Böhtlingk and Roth.
[181] Heb. ii. 14.
[182] 1 Cor. v. 5; xi. 30.
[183] 2 Cor. xii. 7.
[184] 'Records of the Past,' iii. p. 136. Tr. by Mr. Fox Talbot.
[185] Ibid., iii. p. 143. The refrain recalls the lines of Edgar A. Poe:--
They are neither man nor woman, They are neither brute nor human, They are ghouls!
[186] The Pahlavi Text has been prepared by Destur Jamaspji Asa, and translated by Haug and West. Trübner, 1872.
[187] Cf. fig. 9.
[188] Larousse's 'Dict. Universel.'
[189] 'Records,' &c., iii. p. 141. Marduk is the Chaldæan Hercules.
[190] Micah vii. 19.
[191] See the excellent article in the Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the R.A.S., by Dundris De Silva Gooneratnee Modliar (1865-66). With regard to this sanctity of the number seven it may be remarked that it has spread through the world with Christianity,--seven churches, seven gifts of the Spirit, seven sins and virtues. It is easy therefore to mistake orthodox doctrines for survivals. In the London 'Times' of June 24, 1875, there was reported an inquest at Corsham, Wiltshire, on the body of Miriam Woodham, who died under the prescriptions of William Bigwood, herbalist. It was shown that he used pills made of seven herbs. This was only shown to be a 'pagan survival' when Bigwood stated that the herbs were 'governed by the sun.'
[192] See p. 44.
[193] 'Jour. Ceylon R. A. Soc.,' 1865-66.
[194] This demoness is not to be connected with the Italian Mania, probably of Etruscan origin, with which nurses frightened children. This Mania, from an old word manus signifying 'good,' was, from the relation of her name to Manes, supposed to be mother of the Lares, whose revisitations of the earth were generally of ill omen. According to an oracle which said heads should be offered for the sake of heads, children were sacrificed to this household fiend up to the time of Junius Brutus, who substituted poppy-heads.
[195] Phædrus, i. 549. Cf. Ger. selig and silly.
[196] 'Lect. on Language,' i. 435.
[197] Ralston's 'Songs of the Russian People,' p. 230.
[198] 'Sagen der Altmark.' Von A. Kuhn. Berlin, 1843.
[199] Wake's 'Evolution of Morality,' i. 107.
[200] 'The Aborigines of Australia' (1865), p. 15.
[201] 2 Chron. xxxiii. 6.
[202] Published by Mozley and Smith, 1878.
[203] Max Müller. 'Lectures on Language,' ii. p. 562, et seq.
[204] See the beautifully translated funereal hymn of the Veda in Professor Whitney's 'Oriental and Linguistic Studies,' p. 52, etc.
[205] 'The Avesta.' 'Oriental and Linguistic Studies,' p. 196.
[206] 'Records of the Past,' i. 143.
[207] Sale's 'Koran' (ed. 1836). See pp. 4, 339, 475.
[208] 'Discoveries,' &c., p. 223.
[209] 'Modern Painters,' Part V. xix.
[210] The history of this tree which I use for a parable is told in the Rev. Samuel Mateer's 'Land of Charity.' London: John Snow & Co. 1871.
[211] 'Studies in the History of the Renaissance.' Macmillan & Co. 1873.
[212] Concerning which Mr. Wright says: 'It is taken from an oxybaphon which was brought from the Continent to England, where it passed into the collection of Mr. William Hope.... The Hyperborean Apollo himself appears as a quack-doctor, on his temporary stage, covered by a sort of roof, and approached by wooden steps. On the stage lies Apollo's luggage, consisting of a bag, a bow, and his Scythian cap. Chiron (ChIRÔN) is represented as labouring under the effects of age and blindness, and supporting himself by the aid of a crooked staff, as he repairs to the Delphian quack-doctor for relief. The figure of the centaur is made to ascend by the aid of a companion, both being furnished with the masks and other attributes of the comic performers. Above are the mountains, and on them the nymphs of Parnassus (NYMPhAI), who, like all the other actors in the scene, are disguised with masks, and those of a very gross character.... Even a pun is employed to heighten the drollery of the scene, for instead of PYThIAS, the Pythian, placed over the head of the burlesque Apollo, it seems evident that the artist had written PEIThIAS, the consoler.'--'History of Caricature,' p. 18. But who is the leaf-crowned figure, without mask, on the right hand? Was it some early Offenbach, who found such representation of the gods welcome at Athens where the attempt to produce our modern Offenbach's Belle Helène recently caused a theatrical riot?
[213] Wuttke. 'Volksaberglaube,' 18.
[214] Schleicher, 'Litauische Märchen,' 141-145. Mr. Ralston's translation abridged.
[215] Of this latter kind of hungry werewolf a specimen still occasionally revisits the glimpses of the moonshine which, for too many minds, still replaces daylight. So recently as January 17, 1878, one Kate Bedwell, a 'pedlar, was sentenced in the Marylebone Police Court, London, to three months' hard labour for obtaining various sums of money, amounting to 9s. 10d., by terrorism, from Eliza Rolf, a cook. The pedlar came to the plaintiff's place of work and asked her if she would like to have her fortune told. Eliza replied, 'No, I know it; it is hard work or starving.' The fortune-teller asked her next time if she would have her planet ruled; the other still said no; but her nerves yielded when the 'Drud' told her 'she lived under three stars, one good the others bad, and that she could disfigure her or turn her into something else.' 'Thank God, she did not!' exclaimed the poor woman in court. However, she seemed to have trusted rather in her money than in any other providence for her immunity from an unhappy transformation. But even into this rare depth of ignorance enough light had penetrated to enable Eliza to cope with her werewolf in the civilised way of haling her before a magistrate. When Fenris gets three months with hard labour, he no doubt realises that he has exceeded his mental habitat, and that the invisible cords have bound him at last.
[216] Elf has, indeed, been referred by some to the Sanskrit alpa=little; but the balance of authority is in favour of the derivation given in a former chapter.
[217] Mannhardt, 'Götter,' 287.
[218] Freia-Holda, the Teutonic goddess of Love. 'Cornhill Magazine,' May, 1872.
[219] 'Records of the Past,' vi. 124.
[220] See Cooper's 'Serpent-Myths of Ancient Egypt,' figs. 109 and 112. Serapis as a human-headed serpent is shown in the same essay (from Sharpe), fig. 119.
[221] 'Representative Men,' American edition of 1850, p. 108.
[222] 'L'Oiseau,' par Jules Michelet.
[223] A deadly Southern snake, coloured like the soil on which it lurks, had become the current name for politicians who, while professing loyalty to the Union, aided those who sought to overthrow it.
[224] See his learned and valuable treatise, 'The Serpent Myths of Ancient Egypt.' Hardwicke, 1873.
[225] 'Time and Faith,' i. 204. Groombridge, 1857.
[226] 'The Epic of the Worm,' by Victor Hugo. Translated by Bayard Taylor from 'La Légende des Siècles.'
[227] Bruce relates of the Abyssinians that a serpent is commonly kept in their houses to consult for an augury of good or evil. Butter and honey are placed before it, of which if it partake, the omen is good; if the serpent refuse to eat, some misfortune is sure to happen. This custom seems to throw a light on the passage--'Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good' (Isa. vii. 15).--Time and Faith, i. 60.
Compare the apocryphal tale of Bel and the Dragon. Bel was a healing god of the Babylonians, and the Dragon whom he slew may have been regarded in later times as his familiar
[228] 'Principles of Greek Etymology,' ii. 63. English translation.
[229] See pp. 8 and 20.
[230] 'Rig-veda,' v. (Wilson).
[231] In a paper on the 'Origin of Serpent-worship,' read before the Anthropological Institute in London, December 17, 1872.
[232] 'Science of Language,' i. 230.
[233] 'Lectures on Language,' i. 435.
[234] Grimm's 'Mythology,' p. 650 ff. Simrock, p. 440.
[235] Roth, in the 'Journal of the German Oriental Society,' vol. ii. p. 216 ff., has elucidated the whole myth.
[236] I have in my possession a specimen of the horned frog of America, and it is sufficiently curious.
[237] Gesta Rom., cap. 68. Grimm's Myth., 650 ff. Simrock, p. 400.
[238] Others derive the name from the ancient Borbetomagus.
[239] Traditions, p. 44.
[240] Loathely.
[241] Pope's 'Homer,' Book xv.
[242] See p. 59.
[243] See p. 154.
[244] Æsch. Prom. 790, &c.
[245] Vol. i. p. 38.
[246] 'North American Review,' January 1871.
[247] 'Records of the Past,' x. 79.
[248] Page 285.
[249] 'Alcestis in England.' Printed by the South Place Society, Finsbury, London. 1877.
[250] Eating meat was the process of incarnation.
[251] 'Results of a Tour in Dardistan, Kashmir,' &c., by Chevalier Dr. G. W. Leitner, Lahore, vol. i. part iii. Trübner & Co.
[252] Page 91.
[253] In the Etruscan Museum at Rome there is a fine representation of this. The old belief was that a dragon could only be attacked successfully inside.
[254] 'The Jewish Messiah,' &c. By James Drummond, B.A. Longmans & Co. (1877). See in this valuable work