DEMO NO LOGY

AND

DEVIL-LORE
BY

MONCURE DANIEL CONWAY, M.A.

B. D. OF DIVINITY COLLEGE, HARVARD UNIVERSITY
MEMIlhR OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, LONDON

WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS

VOL. I.

NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
1879
A
The girt Of
Mm. Bars Abbot,
of Cambridge,
Jan. 21, 1886.

Copyright, 1879,

BY

MONCURE DANIEL CONWAY.

 PREFACE.

THREE Friars, says a legend, hid themselves near the

Witch Sabbath orgies that they might count the devils ;
'
but the Chief of these, discovering the friars, said Reve
rend Brothers, our army is such that if all the Alps, their
rocks and glaciers, were equally divided among us, none
would have a pound's weight.' This was in one Alpine
valley. Any one who has caught but a glimpse of the
world's Walpurgis Night, as revealed in Mythology and
Folklore, must agree that this courteous devil did not
overstate the case. Any attempt to catalogue the evil
spectres which have haunted mankind were like trying to
count the shadows cast upon the earth by the rising sun.
This conviction has grown upon the author of this work at
every step in his studies of the subject.
In 1859 I contributed, as one of the American 'Tracts
for the Times,' a pamphlet entitled 'The Natural History
of the Devil.' Probably the chief value of that essay was
to myself, and this in that its preparation had revealed
to me how pregnant with interest and importance was
the subject selected. Subsequent researches in the same
direction, after I had come to reside in Europe, revealed
how slight had been my conception of the vastness of the
domain upon which that early venture was made. In
1872, while preparing a series of lectures for the Royal
 vi PREFACE.

Institution on Demonology, it appeared to me that the

best I could do was to print those lectures with some
notes and additions ; but after they were delivered there
still remained with me unused the greater part of materials
collected in many countries, and the phantasmal creatures
which I had evoked would not permit me to rest from my
labours until I had dealt with them more thoroughly.
The fable of Thor's attempt to drink up a small spring,
and his failure because it was fed by the ocean, seems
aimed at such efforts as mine. But there is another
aspect of the case which has yielded me more encourage-
"ment. These phantom hosts, however unmanageable as
to number, when closely examined, present comparatively
few types ; they coalesce by hundreds ; from being at first
overwhelmed by their multiplicity, the classifier finds
himself at length beating bushes to start a new variety.
Around some single form the physiognomy, it may
be, of Hunger or Disease, of Lust or Cruelty ignorant
imagination has broken up nature into innumerable bits
which, like mirrors of various surface, reflect the same in
endless sizes and distortions; but they vanish if that
j
central fact be withdrawn.
In trying to conquer, as it were, these imaginary
monsters, they have sometimes swarmed and gibbered
around me in a mad comedy which travestied their tragic
sway over those who believed in their reality. Gargoyles
extended their grin over the finest architecture, cor
nices coiled to serpents, the very words of speakers
started out of their conventional sense into images that
tripped my attention. Only as what I believed right
solutions were given to their problems were my sphinxes
laid ; but through this psychological experience it
 PREFACE. vii

appeared that when one was so laid his or her legion

disappeared also. Long ago such phantasms ceased to
haunt my nerves, because I discovered their unreality ;

I am now venturing to believe that their mythologic

forms cease to haunt my studies, because I have found
out their reality.
Why slay the slain ? Such may be the question that
will arise in the minds of many who see this book. A
'
Scotch song says, The Devil is dead, and buried at
'
Kirkcaldy ; if so, he did not die until he had created
a world in his image. The natural world is
overlaid
by an unnatural religion, breeding bitterness around
simplest thoughts, obstructions to science, estrange
ments not more reasonable than if they resulted from
varying notions of lunar figures, all derived from
the Devil - bequeathed dogma that certain beliefs and
disbeliefs are of infernal instigation. Dogmas moulded
in a fossil demonology make the foundation of institu
tions which divert wealth, learning, enterprise, to fictitious
ends. It has not, therefore, been mere intellectual
curiosity which has kept me working at this subject
these many years, but an increasing conviction that the i

sequelae of such superstitions are exercising a still formid

able influence. When Father Delaporte lately published
'
his book on the Devil, his Bishop wrote Reverend Father,
if every one busied himself with the Devil as you do,
the kingdom of God would gain by it.' Identifying the
kingdom here spoken of as that of Truth, it has been
with a certain concurrence in the Bishop's sentiment
that I have busied myself with the work now given to
the public.
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

PART I.
CHAPTER I.
DUALISM.

Origin of Deism Evolution from the far to the near Illustrations from
Witchcraft The primitive Pantheism The dawn of Dualism

CHAPTER II.
THE GENESIS OF DEMONS.

Their good names euphemistic Their mixed character Illustrations :

Beelzebub, Loki Demon-germs The knowledge of good and
evil Distinction between Demon and Devil . .

CHAPTER III.
DEGRADATION.

The degradation of Deities Indicated in names Legends of their fall

Incidental signs of the divine origin of Demons and Devils .

CHAPTER IV.

........
THE ABGOTT.
The ex-god Deities demonised by conquest Theological animosity
Illustration from the Avesta Devil-worship an arrested Deism
Sheik Adi Why Demons were painted ugly Survivals of their
beauty
VOL. I. b
 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.

CLASSIFICATION.
PACK

The obstructions The twelve chief classes Modifications of

of man
particular forms for various functions Theological Demons . 34

PART II.
CHAPTER I.

......
HUNGER.

Hunger-demons Kephn Kagura

Miru Rahu the Hindu sun-
devourer The earth monster at Pelsall A Franconian custom
Sheitan as moon-devourer Hindu offerings to the dead Ghoul
Goblin Vampyres Leanness of demons Old Scotch custom
The origin of sacrifices 41

CHAPTER II.
HEAT.

Demons of fireAgni Asmodeus Prometheus Feast of fire

Moloch Tophet Genii of the lamp Bel-fires Hallowe'en
Negro superstitions Chinese fire-god Volcanic and incendiary
demons Mangaian fire-demon Demons' fear of water . . 57

CHAPTER III.

......
COLD.

Descent of Ishtar into Hades Bardism Baldur Herakles Christ

Survivals of the Frost Giant in Slavonic and other countries The
Clavie The Frozen Hell The Northern abode of Demons
North side of churches 77

CHAPTER IV.
ELEMENTS.

A Scottish Munasa Rudra Siva's lightning eye The flaming sword

Limping Demons Demons of the storm Helios, Elias, Perun
 CONTENTS. xi

Thor arrows The Bob-tailed Dragon Whirlwind Japanese

Thunder God Christian survivals Jinni Inundations Noah
Nik, Nicholas, Old Nick Nixies Hydras Demons of the
Danube Tides Survivals in Russia and England . . 92

CHAPTER V.

ANIMALS.

Animal demons distinguished Trivial sources of Mythology Hedge

hog Fox Transmigrations in Japan Horses bewitched Rats
Lions Cats The Dog Goethe's horror of dogs Supersti
tions of the Parsees, people of Travancore, and American Negroes,
Red Indians, &c. Cynocephaloi The Wolf Traditions of the
Nez Perces Fenris Fables The Boar The Bear Serpent
Every animal power to harm demonised Horns . . .121

CHAPTER VI.

........
ENEMIES.

Aryas, Dasyus, Nagas Yakkhos Lycians Ethiopians Hirpini

Polites Sosipolis Were-wolves Goths and Scythians Giants
and Dwarfs Berserkers Britons Iceland Mimacs Gog and
Magog 150

CHAPTER VII.
BARRENNESS.

Indian Famine and Sun-spots Sun-worship Demon of the Desert

The Sphinx Egyptian Plagues described by Lepsius : Locusts,
Hurricane, Flood, Mice, Flies The Sheikh's ride Abaddon
Set Typhon The Cain wind Seth Mirage The Desert Eden
Azazel Tawiscara and the Wild-rose . . . . 1 70

CHAPTER VIII.
OBSTACLES.

Mephistopheles on crags Emerson on Monadnoc Ruskin on Alpine

peasants Holy and unholy mountains The Devil's Pulpit
Montagnards Tarns Tenjo T'ai-shan Apocatequil Tyrol-
ese legends Rock ordeal Scylla and Charybdis Scottish giants
Pontifex Devil's bridges Le geant Yeous . . . 190
xii CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IX.
ILLUSION.
TAGK

.....
Maya Natural Treacheries Misleaders Glamour Lorelei Chinese
Mermaid Transformations Swan Maidens Pigeon Maidens
The Seal-skin Nudity Teufelsee Gohlitsee Japanese Siren
Dropping Cave Venusberg Godiva Will-o'-Wisp Holy
Fraulein The Forsaken Merman The Water-Man Sea Phan
tom Sunken Treasures Suicide 210

CHAPTER X.
DARKNESS.

........
Shadows Night Deities Kobolds Walpurgisnacht Night as Abet
tor of Evil-doers Nightmare Dreams Invisible Foes Jacob
and his Phantom Nott The Prince of Darkness The Brood of
Midnight Second-Sight Spectres of Souter Fell The Moon
shine Vampyre Glamour Glam and Grettir A Story of Dart
moor 231

CHAPTER XI.
DISEASE.

The Plague Phantom Devil-dances Destroying Angels Ahriman

in Astrology- - Saturn Satan and Job Set The Fatal Seven
Yakseyo The Singhalese Pretraya Reeri Maha Sohon
Morotoo Luther on Disease-demons Gopolu Madan Cattle-
demon in Russia Bihlweisen The Plough . . . 249

CHAPTER XII.
DEATH.

The Vendetta of Death Teoyaomiqui Demon of Serpents Death

on the Pale Horse Kali War-gods Satan as Death Death
beds Thanatos Yama Yimi Towers of Silence Alcestis
Herakles, Christ, and Death Hell Salt Azrael Death and
the Cobbler Dance of Death Death as Foe and as Friend . 269
 CONTENTS. xiii

PART III.
CHAPTER I.
DECLINE OF DEMONS.
PAGE
The Holy Tree of Travancore The growth of Demons in India, and
their decline The Nepaul Iconoclast Moral Man and unmoral
Nature Man's physical and mental migrations Heine's 'Gods
'
in Exile The Goban Saor Master Smith A Greek caricature
of the Gods The Carpenter v. Deity and Devil Extermination
of the Were-wolf Refuges of Demons The Giants reduced to
Little People Deities and Demons returning to nature . . 299

CHAPTER II.
GENERALISATION OF DEMONS.

The Demons' bequest to their conquerors Nondescripts Exaggera

tions of Tradition Saurian Theory of Dragons The Dragon not
primitive in Mythology Monsters of Egyptian, Iranian, Vedic,
and Jewish Mythologies Turner's Dragon Delia Bella The
Conventional Dragon . . . . . .318

CHAPTER III.
THE SERPENT.

....
The beauty of the Serpent Emerson on ideal forms Michelet's
thoughts on the viper's head Unique characters of the Serpent
The Monkey's horror of Snakes The Serpent protected by super
stition Human defencelessness against its subtle powers
Dubufe's picture of the Fall of Man 325

CHAPTER IV.

.......
THE WORM.

An African Serpent-drama in America The Veiled Serpent The Ark

of the Covenant Aaron's Rod The Worm An Episode on the
Dii Involuti The Serapes The Bambino at Rome Serpent-
transformations 332
xiv CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.
APOPHIS.
PAGE
The Naturalistic Theory of Apophis The Serpent of Time Epic of
the Worm The Asp of Melite Vanquishers of Time Nachash-
Beriach The Serpent-Spy Treading on Serpents . 340

CHAPTER VI.
THE SERPENT IN INDIA.

....
The Kankato na The Vedic Serpents not worshipful Ananta and
Sesha The Healing Serpent The guardian of treasures Miss
Buckland's theory Primitive rationalism Underworld plutocracy
Rain and lightning Vritra History of the word 'Ahi' The
Adder Zohak A Teutonic Laokoon 348

CHAPTER VII.
THE BASILISK.

The Serpent's gem The Basilisk's eye Basiliscus mitratus House-

snakes in Russia and Germany King-snakes Heraldic Dragon
Henry III. Melusina The Laidley Worm Victorious Dragons
Pendragon Merlin and Vortigern Medicinal dragons . 361

CHAPTER VIII.

.....
THE DRAGON'S EYE.

The Eye of Evil Turner's Dragons Cloud-phantoms Paradise and

the Snake Prometheus and Jove Art and Nature Dragon
forms : Anglo-Saxon, Italian, Egyptian, Greek, German The
modern conventional Dragon 372

CHAPTER IX.

.....
THE COMBAT.

The pre-Munchausenite world The Colonial Dragon Io's journey

Medusa British Dragons The Communal Dragon Savage
Saviours A Mimac helper The Brutal Dragon Woman pro
tected The Saint of the Mikados 384
 CONTENTS. xv

CHAPTER X.
THE DRAGON-SLAYER.
PAGE
Demi-gods Alcestis Herakles The Ghilghit Fiend Incarnate de
liverer of Ghilghit A Dardistan Madonna The religion of
Atheism Resuscitation of Dragons St. George and his Dragon
Emerson and Ruskin on George Saintly allies of the Dragon . 394

CHAPTER XI.
THE DRAGON'S BREATH.

Medusa Phenomena of recurrence The Brood of Echidna and their

survival Behemoth and Leviathan The Mouth of Hell The
Lambton Worm Ragnar The Lambton Doom The Worm's
Orthodoxy The Serpent, Superstition, and Science . . 406

CHAPTER XII.

.......
FATE.
' '
Dore's '
Love and Fate Moira and Moirae The ' Fates of iEschylus
Divine absolutism surrendered Jove and Typhon Commu
tation of the Demon's share Popular fatalism Theological fatal
ism Fate and Necessity Deification of Will Metaphysics, past
and present 420
 I

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
vol. I.

FIG.

1. Beelzebub

2. ......
......
(Calmet)
Handle of Hindu Chalice
.
;

. . . . .9
FACE

31

.......
3. A Swallower " . . . . . -44
.54

......
4. St. Anthony's Lean Persecutor" . . .

Ancient Persian Medal

....
5. 103

.114

.....
6. Hercules and the Hydra (Louvre) . . . .

......
7. Japanese Demon . . . . . . . 123
8. Cerberus (Calmet) 133

9. Canine Lar (Herculaneum) 135

.......
10. The Wolf as Confessor (probably Dutch) 14.3

......
11. Singhalese Demon of Serpents 148

........
12. American Indian Demon 149

13. Italian and Roman Genii . . 157

14. Typhon (Wilkinson) . . . . . . .185

......
15. Snouted Demon 197
16. Demon found at Ostia 265

.....
17. Teoyaomiqui 273

......
18. Kali 277
19. Dives and Lazarus (Russian, seventeenth century) . . . 281

....
........
20. The Knight and Death 293

......
21. Greek Caricature of the Gods . . . . - 3'l
22. A Witch Mounted
(Delia Bella) 323

......
23. Serpent and Egg (Tyre) 325
24. Serpent and Ark (from a Greek coin) 334

........
25. Anguish 358
26. Swan-Dragon (French) 379

....
27. Anglo-Saxon Dragons (Csedmon MS., tenth century) . . 379
28. From the Fresco at Arezzo 380
' '
29. From Albert Durer's Passion . . . . .381
30. Chimsera 382

31. Bellerophon and Chimsera (Corinthian) 386

32. From the Temptation of St. Anthony . . 417
 DEMONOLATRY

CHAPTER I.
DUALISM.

Origin of Deism Evolution from the far to the near Illustrations

from witchcraft The primitive Pantheism The dawn of
Dualism.

A COLLEGE in the State of Ohio has adopted for its

'
motto the words This significant ad
Orient thyself.'
monition to Western youth represents one condition of
attaining truth in the science of mythology. Through
neglect of it the glowing personifications and metaphors
of the East have too generally migrated to the West only
to find it a Medusa turning them to stone. Our prosaic
literalism changes their ideals to idols. The time has
come when we must learn rather to see ourselves in them :

out of an age and civilisation where we live in habitual

recognition of natural forces we may transport ourselves
to a period and region where no sophisticated eye looks
upon nature. The sun is a chariot drawn by shining
steeds and driven by a refulgent deity ; the stars ascend
and move by arbitrary power or command ; the tree is the
bower of a spirit ; the fountain leaps from the urn of a
naiad. In such gay costumes did the laws of nature hold
VOL. I. a
2 CELESTIAL PHENOMENA.
their carnival until Science struck the hour for unmasking.
The costumes and masks have with us become materials
for studying the history of the human mind, but to know
them we must translate our senses back into that phase of
our own early existence, so far as is consistent with carry
ing our culture with us.
Without conceding too much to Solar mythology, it may
be pronounced tolerably clear that the earliest emotion of
worship was born out of the wonder with which man looked
up to the heavens above him. The splendours of the morn
ing and evening; the azure vault, painted with frescoes of
cloud or blackened by the storm ; the night, crowned with
constellations : these awakened imagination, inspired awe,
kindled admiration, and at length adoration, in the being
who had reached intervals in which his eye was lifted
above the earth. Amid the rapture of Vedic hymns to
these sublimities we meet sharp questionings whether
there be any such gods as the priests say, and suspicion is
sometimes cast on sacrifices. The forms that peopled the
celestial spaces may have been those of ancestors, kings,
and great men, but anterior to all forms was the poetic
enthusiasm which built heavenly mansions for them ; and
the crude cosmogonies of primitive science were probably
caught up by this spirit, and consecrated as slowly as
scientific generalisations now are.
Our modern ideas of evolution might suggest the reverse
of this that human worship began with things low and
gradually ascended to high objects ; that from rude ages,
in which adoration was directed to stock and stone, tree
and reptile, the human mind climbed by degrees to the
contemplation and reverence of celestial grandeurs. But
the accord of this view with our ideas of evolution is appa
rent only. The real progress seems here to have been
from the far to the near, from the great to the small. It
 \

ORDEAL OF FIRE AND WATER. 3

is, indeed, probably inexact to speak of the worship of

stock and stone, weed and wort, insect and reptile, as
primitive. There are many indications that such things
were by no race considered intrinsically sacred, nor were
they really worshipped until the origin of their sanctity
was lost and even now, ages after their oracular or sym
;

bolical character has been forgotten, the superstitions that

have survived in connection with such insignificant objects
point to an original association with the phenomena of the
heavens. No religions could, at first glance, seem wider
apart than the worship of the serpent and that of the
glorious sun yet many ancient temples are covered with
;

symbols combining sun and snake, and no form more

is
familiar in Egypt than the solar serpent standing erect
upon its tail, with rays around its head.
Nor this high relationship of the adored reptile found
is

only in regions where might have been raised up by

it

ethnical combinations as the mere survival of savage

a

symbol. William Craft, an African who resided for some

time in the kingdom of Dahomey, informed me of the
following incident which he had witnessed there. The
sacred serpents are kept in a grand house, which they
sometimes leave to crawl in their neighbouring grounds.
One day a negro from some distant region encountered
one of these animals and killed it. The people learning
that one of their gods had been slain, seized the stranger,
and having surrounded him with circle of brushwood, set
a

on fire. The poor wretch broke through the circle of

it

fire and ran, pursued by the crowd, who struck him with
heavy sticks. Smarting from the flames and blows, he
rushed into a river but no sooner had he entered there
;

than the pursuit ceased, and he was told that, having

gone through fire and water, he was purified, and might
emerge with safety. Thus, even in that distant and savage
4 CELESTIAL ORIGIN OF CHARMS.
region, serpent-worship was associated with fire-worship
and river-worship, which have a wide representation in
both Aryan and Semitic symbolism. To this day the
orthodox Israelites set beside
their dead, before burial,
the lighted candle and a basin of pure water. These have
been associated in rabbinical mythology with the angels
Michael (genius of Water) and Gabriel (genius of Fire) ;
but they refer both to the phenomenal glories and the
purifying effects of the two elements as reverenced by the
Africans in one direction and the Parsees in another.
Not less significant are the facts which were attested at
the witch-trials. It was shown that for their pretended
divinations they used plants as rue and vervain well
known in the ancient Northern religions, and often recog
nised as examples of tree-worship ; but it also appeared
that around the cauldron a mock zodiacal circle was
drawn, and that every herb employed was alleged to have
derived its potency from having been gathered at a certain
hour of the night or day, a particular quarter of the moon,
or from some spot where sun or moon did or did not shine
upon it. Ancient planet-worship indeed, still reflected
is,

in the habit of village herbalists, who gather their simples

at certain phases of the moon, or at certain of those holy
periods of the year which conform more or less to the
pre-christian festivals.
These are few out of many indications that the
a

small and senseless things which have become almost or

quite fetishes were by no means such at first, but were
mystically connected with the heavenly elements and
splendours, like the animal forms in the zodiac. In one
of the earliest hymns of the Rig- Veda said This
is
it

'

earth belongs to Varuna (Ovpavosi) the king, and the wide

sky he contained also in this drop of water.' As the
is
:

sky was seen reflected in the shining curve of dew-drop,

a
 PRIMITIVE PANTHEISM. 5

even so in the shape or colour of a leaf or flower, the

transformation of a chrysalis, or the burial and resurrection
of a scarabaeus' egg, some sign could be detected making
it answer in place of the typical image which could not
yet be painted or carved.
The necessities of expression would, of course, operate
to invest the primitive conceptions and interpretations of
celestial phenomena with those pictorial images drawn
from earthly objects of which the early languages are
chiefly composed. In many cases that are met in the
most ancient hymns, the designations of exalted objects
are so little descriptive of them, that we may refer them to
a period anterior to the formation of that refined and com
plex symbolism by which primitive religions have acquired
The Vedic compari
a representation in definite characters.
sons of the various colours of the dawn to horses, or the
rain-clouds to cows, denotes much less mature develop
a
ment of thought than the fine observation implied in the
connection of the forked lightning with the forked serpent-
tongue and forked mistletoe, or symbolisation of the uni
verse in the concentric folds of an onion. It is the presence
of these more mystical and complex ideas in religions which
indicate a progress of the human mind from the large and
obvious to the more delicate and occult, and the growth
of the higher vision which can see small things in their
large relationships. Although the exaltation in the Vedas
of Varuna as king of heaven, and as contained also in a
drop of water, is in one verse, we may well recognise an
immense distance in time between the two ideas there
embodied. The first represents that primitive pantheism
which is the counterpart of ignorance. An unclassified
outward universe is the reflection of a mind without form
and void : it is while all within is as yet undiscriminating
wonder that the religious vesture of nature will be this
undefined pantheism. The fruit of the tree of the know
 6 DISCORDANT DEITIES.

ledge of good and evil has not yet been tasted. In some
of the earlier hymns of the Rig- Veda, the Maruts, the
storm-deities, are praised along with Indra, the sun ;

Yama, king of Death, is equally adored with the goddess

'
of Dawn. No real foe of yours is known in heaven, nor
'
in earth.' The storms are thy allies.' Such is the high
optimism of sentences found even in sacred books which
elsewhere mask the dawn of the Dualism which ulti
mately superseded the harmony of the elemental Powers.
'
I create light and I create darkness, I create good and
I create '
Look unto Yezdan, who causeth the
evil.'
shadow to fall.' But it is easy to see what must be the
result when this happy family of sun-god and storm-god
and fire-god, and their innumerable co-ordinate divinities,
shall be divided by discord. When each shall have be
come associated with some earthly object or fact, he or she
will appear as friend or foe, and their connection with the
sources of human pleasure and pain will be reflected in
collisions and wars in the heavens. The rebel clouds will
be transformed to Titans and Dragons. The adored
Maruts will be no longer storm-heroes with unsheathed
swords of lightning, marching as the retinue of Indra,
but fire-breathing monsters Vritras and Ahis, and the
morning and evening shadows from faithful watch-dogs
become the treacherous hell-hounds, like Orthros and Cer
berus. The vehement antagonisms between animals and
men. and of tribe against tribe, will be expressed in the
conception of struggles among gods, who will thus be
classified as good or evil deities.
This was precisely what did occur. The primitive pan
theism was broken up : in its place the later ages beheld
the universe as the arena of a tremendous conflict between
good and evil Powers, who severally, in the process of
time, marshalled each and everything, from a world to a
worm, under their flaming banners.
 ( 7 )

CHAPTER II.
THE GENESIS OF DEMONS.

Their good names euphemistic Their mixed character Illustrations :

Beelzebub, Loki Demon-germs The knowledge of good and
evil Distinction between Demon and Devil.

The first pantheon of each race was built of intellectual

speculations. In a moral sense, each form in it might be
described as more or less demonic ; and, indeed, it may
almost be affirmed that religion, considered as a service
rendered to superhuman beings, began with the propitia
tion of demons, albeit they might be called gods. Man
found that in the earth good things came with difficulty,
while thorns and weeds sprang up everywhere. The evil
powers seemed to be the strongest. The best deity had a
touch of the demon in him. The sun is the most bene
ficent, yet he bears the sunstroke along with the sunbeam,
and withers the blooms he calls forth. The splendour, the
might, the majesty, the menace, the grandeur and wrath
of the heavens and the elements were blended in these
personifications, and reflected in the trembling adoration
paid to them. The flattering names given to these powers
by their worshippers must be interpreted by the costly
sacrifices with which men sought to propitiate them. No
sacrifice would have been offered originally to a purely
benevolent power. The Furies were called the Eumenides,
'the well-meaning,' and there arises a temptation to regard
8 EUPHEMISTIC TITLES.
the name as preserving the primitive meaning of the San
skrit original of Erinys, namely, Saranyu, which signifies
the morning light stealing over the sky. But the descrip
tions of the Erinyes by the Greek poets especially of
iEschylus, who pictures them as black, serpent-locked,
with eyes dropping blood, and calls them hounds show
that Saranyu as morning light, and thus the revealer of
deeds of darkness, had gradually been degraded into a
personification of the Curse. And yet, while recognising
the name Eumenides as euphemistic, we may admire none
the less the growth of that rationalism which ultimately
found in the epithet a suggestion of the soul of good in
things evil, and almost restored the beneficent sense of
Saranyu.
'
I have settled in this place,' says Athene in
' ' '
the Eumenides of ^Eschylus, these mighty deities, hard
to be appeased ; they have obtained by lot to administer
all things concerning men. But he who has not found
them gentle knows not whence come the ills of life.' But
before the dread Erinyes of Homer's age had become
the 'venerable goddesses' (aepvai deal) of popular phrase
in Athens, or the Eumenides of the later poet's high
insight, piercing their Gorgon form as portrayed by him
self, they had passed through all the phases of human
terror. Cowering generations had tried to soothe the
remorseless avengers by complimentary phrases. The
worship of the serpent, originating in the same fear,
similarly raised that animal into the region where poets
could invest it with many profound and beautiful signi
ficances. But these more distinctly terrible deities are
found in theshadowy border-land of mythology, from
which we may look back into ages when the fear in
which worship is born had not yet been separated into
its elements of awe and admiration, nor the heaven
of supreme forces divided into ranks of benevolent and
 SOLAR ANTAGONISMS. 9

malevolent beings ; and, on the other hand, we may look

forward to the ages in which the moral consciousness of
man begins to form the distinctions between good and
evil, right and wrong, which changes cosmogony into reli
gion, and impresses every deity of the mind's creation to
do his or her part in reflecting the physical and moral
struggles of mankind.
The intermediate processes by which the good and evil
were detached, and advanced to separate personification,

Fig. i. Beelzebub (Calmet).

cannot always be traced, but the indications of their work

are in most cases sufficiently clear. The relationship, for
instance, between Baal and Baal-zebub cannot be doubted.
The one represents the Sun in his glory as quickener of
Nature and painter of its beauty, the other the insect-
breeding power of the Sun. Baal-zebub is the Fly-god.
Only at a comparatively recent period did the deity of
ro FLY- GODS.

the Philistines, whose oracle was consulted by Ahaziah

(2 Kings i.), suffer under the reputation of being 'the
Prince of Devils,' his name being changed by a mere pun
to Beelzebul (dung-god). It is not impossible that the
modern Egyptian mother's hesitation to disturb flies
settling on her sleeping child, and the sanctity attributed
to various insects, originated in the awe felt for him. The
title Fly-god is parallelled by the reverent epithet aTr6fivio<;,
applied to Zeus as worshipped at Elis,1 the Myiagrus dens
of the Romans,2 and the Myiodes mentioned by Pliny.8
Our picture is probably from a protecting charm, and evi
dently by the god's believers. There is a story of a peasant
woman in a French church who was found kneeling before
a marble group, and was warned by a priest that she
was worshipping the wrong figure namely, Beelzebub.
'
Never mind,' she replied, ' it is well enough to have
friends on both sides.' The story, though now only ben
trovato,.vio\A& represent the actual state of mind in many
a Babylonian invoking the protection of the Fly- god
against formidable swarms of his venomous subjects.
Not less clear is the illustration supplied by Scandi
navian mythology. In Saemund's Edda the evil-minded
Loki says :
Odin ! dost thou remember
When we in early days
Blended our blood together ?

The two became detached very slowly ; for their separa

tion implied the crumbling away of a great religion, and
its distribution into new forms ; and a religion requires,
relatively, as long to decay as it does to grow, as we who
live under a crumbling religion have good reason to know.
Protap Chunder Mozoomdar, of the Brahmo-Somaj, in
an address in London, said, 'The Indian Pantheon has

1 Pausan. Solin. Polyhistor, i. 3

v. 14, 2. Pliny, xxix. 6, 34, init.
 DEMON-GERMS. II
many millions of deities, and no space is left for the
Devil.' He might have added that these deities have dis
tributed between them all the work that the Devil could
perform if he were admitted. His remark recalled to me
the Eddaic story of Loki's entrance into the assembly of
gods in the halls of Oegir. Loki destined in a later age
to be identified with Satan is angrily received by the
deities, but he goes round and mentions incidents in the
life of each one which show them to be little if any better
than himself. The gods and goddesses, unable to reply,
confirm the cynic's criticisms in theologic fashion by tying
him up with a serpent for cord.
The late Theodore Parker is said to have replied to a
'
Calvinist who sought to convert him The difference
between us is simple
your god is my devil.'
: There
can be little question that the Hebrews, from whom the
Calvinist inherited his deity, had no devil in their mytho
logy, because the jealous and vindictive Jehovah was
quite equal to any work of that kind, as the hardening
of Pharaoh's heart, bringing plagues upon the land, or
deceiving a prophet and then destroying him for his false
prophecies.1 The same accommodating relation of the
primitive deities to all natural phenomena will account for
the absence of distinct representatives of evil of the most
primitive religions.
The earliest exceptions to this primeval harmony of the
gods, implying moral chaos in man, were trifling enough :
the occasional monster seems worthy of mention only to
display the valour of the god who slew him. But such
were demon-germs, born out of the structural action of the
human mind so soon as it began to form some philosophy
concerning a universe upon which it had at first looked
with simple wonder, and destined to an evolution of vast
1 Ezekiel xiv. 9.
i2 FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF NATURE.
import when the work of moralising upon them should
follow.
Let us take our stand beside our barbarian, but no
longer savage, ancestor in the far past. We have watched
the rosy morning as it waxed to a blazing noon : then
swiftly the sun is blotted out, the tempest rages, it is a
sudden night lit only by the forked lightning that strikes
tree, house, man, with angry thunder-peal. From an in
structed age man can look upon the storm blackening the
sky not as an enemy of the sun, but one of its own super
lative effects ; but some thousands of years ago, when we
were all living in Eastern barbarism, we could not con
ceive that a luminary whose very business it was to give
light, could be a party to his own obscuration. We then
looked with pity upon the ignorance of our ancestors, who
had sung hymns to the storm-dragons, hoping to flatter
them into quietness; and we came by irresistible logic
to that Dualism which long divided the visible, and still
divides the moral, universe into two hostile camps.
This is the mother-principle out of which demons (in the
ordinary sense of the term) proceeded. At first few, as
distinguished from the host of deities by exceptional harm-
fulness, they were multiplied with man's growth in the
classification of his world. Their principle of existence
is capableof indefinite expansion, until it shall include all
the realms of darkness, fear, and pain. In the names of
demons, and in the fables concerning them, the struggles
of man in his ages of weakness with peril, want, and death,
are recorded more fully than in any inscriptions on stone.
Dualism is which all superficial appearances attest.
a creed

Side by side the desert and the fruitful land, the sun
shine and the frost, sorrow and joy, life and death, sit
weaving around every life its vesture of bright and sombre
threads, and Science alone can detect how each of these
 DEMONS AND DEVILS. 13

casts the shuttle to the other. Enemies to each other

they will appear in every realm which knowledge has not
mastered. There is a refrain, gathered from many ages,
in William Blake's apostrophe to the tiger :

Tiger ! tiger ! burning bright

In the forests of the night ;
What immortal hand or eye
Framed thy fearful symmetry ?

In what distant deeps or skies

Burned that fire within thine eyes ?
On what wings dared he 'aspire ?
What the hand dared seize the fire ?

When the stars threw down their spears

And water heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see ?
Did he who made the lamb make thee ?

That which one of the devoutest men of genius whom

England has produced thus asked was silently answered
in India by the serpent-worshipper kneeling with his
tongue held in his hand ; in Egypt, by Osiris seated on a
throne of chequer.1
It is necessary to distinguish clearly between the Demon
and the Devil, though, for some purposes, they must be
mentioned together. The world was haunted with demons
for many ages before there was any embodiment of their
spirit in any central form, much less any conception of a
Principle of Evil in the universe. The early demons had
no moral character, not any more than the man-eating
tiger. There is no outburst of moral indignation ming
ling with the shout of victory when Indra slays Vritra,
and Apollo's face is serene when his dart pierces the
Python. It required a much higher development of the
moral sentiment to give rise to the conception of a devil.

1 As in the Bembine Tablet in the Bodleian Library.

 i4 SHADOWS OF THE GODS

I Only that intensest light could cast so black a shadow

athwart the world as the belief in a purely malignant spirit.
To such a conception love of evil for its own sake the
word Devil is limited in this work ; Demon is applied
to beings whose harmfulness is not gratuitous, but inci
dental to their own satisfactions.
Deity and Demon are forms of the same word, and the
latter has simply, suffered degradation by the conventional
use of it to designate the less beneficent powers and
qualities, which originally inhered in every deity, after
they were detached from these and separately personified.
Every bright god had his shadow, so to say ; and under
the influence of Dualism this shadow attained a distinct
existence and personality in
the popular imagination.
The principle having once been established, that what
seemed beneficent and what seemed the reverse must be
ascribed to different powers, it is obvious that the evolu
tion of demons must be continuous, and their distribution
co-extensive with the ills that flesh is heir to.
 ( is )

CHAPTER III.
DEGRADATION.

The degradation of deities Indicated in names Legends of

their fall Incidental signs of the divine origin of demons
and devils.

The atmospheric conditions having been prepared in the

human mind for the production of demons, the particular
shapes or names they would assume would be determined
by a variety of circumstances, ethnical, climatic, political,
or even accidental. They would, indeed, be rarely acci
dental; but Professor Max Miiller, in his notes to the
Rig-Veda, has called attention to a remarkable instance
in which the formation of an imposing mythological figure
of this kind had its name determined by what, in all pro
bability, was an accident. There appears in the earliest
Vedic hymns the name of Aditi, as the holy Mother of
many gods, and thrice there is mentioned the female name
Diti. But there is reason to believe that Diti is a mere
reflex of Aditi, the a being dropped originally by a re
citer's license. The later reciters, however, regarding
every letter in so sacred a book, or even the omission of
a letter, as of eternal significance, Diti this decapitated
Aditi was evolved into a separate and powerful being,
and, every niche of beneficence being occupied by its god
or goddess, the new form was at once relegated to the
newly-defined realm of evil, where she remained as the
i6 PHILOLOGICAL TRACES.

mother of the enemies of the gods, the Daityas. Un

happily this accident followed the ancient tendency by
which the Furies and Vices have, with scandalous con
stancy, been described in the feminine gender.
The close resemblance between these two names of
Hindu mythology, severally representing the best and
the worst, may be thus accidental, and only serve to show
how the demon-forming tendency, after it began, was able
to press even the most trivial incidents into its service. But
generally the names of demons, and for whole races of
demons, report far more than this; and in no inquiry
more than that before us is it necessary to remember
that names are The philological facts supply
things.
a remarkable confirmation of the statements already made
as to the original identity of demon and deity. The word
' '
demon itself, as we have said, originally bore a good
instead of an evil meaning. The Sanskrit '
deva, the
shining one,' Zend daiva, correspond with the Greek deot,
'
Latin deus, Anglo-Saxon Tiw ; and remain in deity,'
'
deuce' (probably; it exists in Armorican, teuz, a phantom),
'devel' (the gipsy name for God), and in 'demon.' The
Demon of Socrates represents the personification of a
being still good, but no doubt on the path of decline from
pure divinity. Plato declares
that good men when they
' '
die become demons,' and he says demons are reporters
and carriers between gods and men.' Our familiar word
bogey, a sort of nickname for an evil spirit, comes from the
Slavonic word for God bog. Appearing here in the West
as bogey (Welsh bwg, a goblin), this word bog began, pro
' '
bably, as the Baga of cuneiform inscriptions, a name of
'
the Supreme Being, or possibly the Hindu Bhaga,' Lord
' '
of Life. In the Bishop's Bible the passage occurs,
'
'
Thou shalt not be afraid of any bugs by night : the
'
word has been altered to terror.' When we come to
 SIGNIFICANCE OF LEGENDS.

the particular names of demons, we find many of them

bearing traces of the splendours from which they have
declined. ' Siva,' the Hindu god of destruction, has a
meaning ('auspicious') derived from Svl, 'thrive' thus
'
related ideally to Pluto, wealth' and, indeed, in later
ages, appears to have gained the greatest elevation. In
a story of the Persian poem Masnavi, Ahriman is men
tioned with Bahman as a fire-fiend, of which class are the
Magian demons and the Jinns generally ; which, the sanc
tity of fire being considered, is an evidence of their high
origin. Avicenna says that the genii are ethereal animals.
Lucifer light-bearing is the fallen angel of the morning
star. Loki the nearest to an evil power of the Scan
dinavian personifications is the German lencht, or light.
'
Azazel a word inaccurately rendered ' scape-goat in
the Bible appears to have been originally a deity, as
the Israelites were originally required to offer up one
goat to Jehovah and another to Azazel, a name which
'
appears to signify the strength of God.' Gesenius and
Ewald regard Azazel as a demon belonging to the pre-
Mosaic religion, but it can hardly be doubted that the
four arch-demons mentioned by the Rabbins Samael,
Azazel, Asael, and Maccathiel are personifications of the
elements as energies of the deity. Samael would appear
to mean the 'left hand of God;' Azazel, his strength;
Asael, his reproductive force ; and Maccathiel, his retri
butive power.
Although Azazel is now one of the Mussulman names
for a devil, it would appear to be nearly related to Al
Uzza of the Koran, one of the goddesses of whom the
significant tradition exists, that once when Mohammed
'
had read, from the Sura called The Star,' the question,
'
What think ye of Allat, Al Uzza, and Manah, that other
' '
third goddess ? he himself added, These are the most
vol. I. b
i8 LAMENESS OF DEMONS.

high and beauteous damsels, whose intercession is to be

hoped for,' the response being afterwards attributed to a
suggestion of Satan.1 Belial is merely a word for godless-
ness ; it has become personified through the misunder
standing of the phrase in the Old Testament by the
translators of the Septuagint, and thus passed into chris
tian use, as in 2 Cor. vi. 15, 'What concord hath Christ
'
with Belial ? The word is not used as
proper name in a
the Old Testament, and the late creation of a demon out
of it may be set down to accident.
Even where the names of demons and devils bear no
such traces of their degradation from the state of deities,
there are apt to be characteristics attributed to them, or
myths connected with them, which point in the direction
indicated. Such is the case with Satan, of whom much
must be said hereafter, whose Hebrew name signifies the
adversary, but who, in the Book of Job, appears among the
sons of God. The name given to the devil in the Koran
Eblis is almost certainly diabolos Arabicised ; and while
this Greek word is found in Pindar2 (5th century B.C.),
meaning a slanderer, the fables in the Koran concerning
Eblis describe him as a fallen angel of the highest rank.
One of the most striking indications of the fall of de
mons from heaven is the wide-spread belief that they are
lame. Mr. Tylor has pointed out the curious persistence
of this idea in various ethnical lines of development.3
Hephaistos was lamed by his fall when hurled by Zeus
from Olympos ; and it is not a little singular that in
the English travesty of limping Vulcan, represented in
Wayland the Smith,4 there should appear the suggestion,

1 See Sale's a Pindar,

Koran, p. 281. Fragm., 270.
' '
Tylor's Early Hist, of Mankind,' p. 358 ; Prim. Cult.,' vol.
ii.

p. 230.
The Gascons of Labourd call the devil 'Seigneur Voland,' and some
t

revere him as patron.

a
 THE DE VIL'S HORNS.

remarked Cox, of the name 'Vala' (seducer),

by Mr.
one of the designations of the dragon destroyed by Indra.
'
In Sir Walter Scott's romance,' says Mr. Cox, ' Wayland
is a mere impostor, who avails himself of a popular super
stition to keep up an air of mystery about himself and
his work, but the character to which he makes pretence
belongs to the genuine Teutonic legend.'1 The Persian
demon Aeshma the Asmodeus of the Book of Tobit
appears with the same characteristic of lameness in
' '
the Diable Boiteux of Le Sage. The christian devil's
clubbed or cloven foot is notorious.
Even the horns popularly attributed to the devil ma>
possibly have originated with the aureole which indicates
'
the glory of his first estate.' Satan is depicted in various
relics of early art wearing the aureole, as in a miniature
of the tenth century (from Bible No. 6, Bib. Roy.), given
by M. Didron.2 The same author has shown that Pan
and the Satyrs, who had so much to do with the shaping
of our horned and hoofed devil, originally got their
horns from the same high source as Moses in the old
Bibles,3 and in the great statue of him at Rome by Michel
, Angelo.
It is through this mythologic history that the most
powerful demons have been associated in the popular
imagination with stars, planets, Ketu in India, Saturn
'
and Mercury the Infortunes,' comets, and other celestial
phenomena. The examples of this are so numerous that
it is impossible to deal with them here, where I can only
hope to offer a few illustrations of the principles affirmed ;

and in this case it is of less importance for the English

1 ' Myth, of the Aryan Nations,' vol. ii. p. 327.

a 'Christian Iconography,' Bohn, p. 158.
3 ' Videbant faciem egredientis Moysis esse cornutam.' Vulg. Exod.
xxxiv. 35.
20 AN A VENGING METEOR.

reader, because of the interesting volume in which the

subject has been specially dealt with.1 Incidentally, too,
the astrological demons and devils must recur from time
to time in the process of our inquiry. But it will pro
bably be within the knowledge of some of my readers
that the dread of comets and of meteoric showers yet
lingers in many parts of Christendom, and that fear of
unlucky stars has not passed away with astrologers.
There is a Scottish legend told by Hugh Miller of an
avenging meteoric demon. A shipmaster who had moored
his vessel near Morial's Den, amused himself by watching
the lights of the scattered farmhouses. After all the rest
had gone out one light lingered for some time. When
that light too had disappeared, the shipmaster beheld a
large meteor, which, with a hissing noise, moved towards
the cottage. Adog howled, an owl whooped ; but when
the fire-ball had almost reached the roof, a cock crew from
within the cottage, and the meteor rose again. Thrice
this was repeated, the meteor at the third cock-crow
ascending among the stars. On the following day the
shipmaster went on shore, purchased the cock, and took
it away with him. Returned from his voyage, he looked
for the cottage, and found nothing but a few blackened
stones. Nearly sixty years ago a human skeleton was
found near the spot, doubled up as if the body had been
huddled into a hole: this revived the legend, and pro
bably added some of those traits which make it a true bit
of mosaic in the mythology of Astraea.2
The fabled 'fall of Lucifer' really signifies a process
similar to that which has been noticed in the case of
Saranyu. The morning star, like the morning light, as

1 'Myths and Marvels of Astronomy.' By R. A. Proctor. Chatto &

Windus, 1878.
a ' Scenes and
Legends,' &c, p. 73.
 DEMONS LUMINOUS. 2 t

revealer of the deeds of darkness, becomes an avenger,

and by evolution an instigator of the evil it originally
disclosed and punished. It may be remarked also that
though we have inherited the phrase ' Demons of Dark
ness,' it was an ancient rabbinical belief that the demons
went abroad in darkness not only because it facilitated
their attacks on man, but because being of luminous forms,
they could recognise each other better with a background
of darkness.
 ( « )

CHAPTER IV.
THE ABGOTT.

The ex-god Deities demonised by conquest Theological animo

sity Illustration from the Avesta Devil-worship an arrested
Deism Sheik Adi Why demons were painted ugly Survivals
of their beauty.

The phenomena of the transformation of deities into

demons meet the studentof Demonology at every step.
We shall have to consider many examples of a kind simi
lar to those which have been mentioned in the preceding
chapter; but it is necessary to present at this stage of
our inquiry a sufficient number of examples to establish
the fact that in every country forces have been at work
to degrade the primitive gods into types of evil, as
preliminary to a consideration of the nature of those
forces.
We find the history of the phenomena suggested in the
German word for idol, Abgott ex-god. Then we have
pagan,' villager, and 'heathen,' of the heath, denoting those
'

who stood by their old gods after others had transferred

their faith to the new. These words bring us to consider the
influence upon religious conceptions of the struggles which
have occurred between races and nations, and consequently
between their religions. It must be borne in mind that by
the time any tribes had gathered to the consistency of a
nation, one of the strongest forces of its coherence would
 DEITIES DETHRONED. 23

be its priesthood. So soon as it became a general belief

that there were in the universe good and evil Powers, there
must arise a popular demand for the means of obtaining
their favour ; and this demand has never failed to obtain a
supply of priesthoods claiming to bind or influence the
praeternatural beings. These priesthoods represent the
strongest motives and fears of a people, and they were
gradually intrenched in great institutions involving power
ful interests. Every invasion or collision or mingling of
races thus brought their respective religions into contact
and rivalry ; and as no priesthood has been known to con
sent peaceably to its own downfall and the degradation of
its own deities, we need not wonder that there have been
perpetual wars for religious ascendency. It is not unusual
to hear sects among ourselves accusing each other of
idolatry. In earlier times the rule was for each religion
to denounce its opponent's gods as devils. Gregory the
Great wrote to his missionary in Britain, the Abbot Mel-
'
litus, second Bishop of Canterbury, that whereas the
people were accustomed to sacrifice many oxen in honour
of demons, let them celebrate religious and solemn festi
a

val, and not slay the animals to the devil (diabolo), but to
be eaten by themselves to the glory of God.' Thus the
devotion of meats to those deities of our ancestors which
the Pope pronounces demons, which took place chiefly at
Yule-tide, has survived in our more comfortable Christmas
banquets. This was the fate of all the deities which
Christianity undertook to suppress. But it had been the
habit of religions for many ages before. They never
denied the actual existence of the deities they were en
gaged in suppressing. That would have been too great
an outrage upon popular beliefs, and might have caused a
reaction ; and, besides, each new religion had an interest
of its own in preserving the basis of belief in these invisible
24 COMBINATIONS.

beings. Disbelief in the very existence of the old gods

might be followed by a sceptical spirit that might en
danger the new. So the propagandists maintained the
existence of native gods, but called them devils. Some
times wars or intercourse between tribes led to their
fusion ; the battle between opposing religions was drawn,
in which case there would be a compromise by which
several deities of different origin might continue together
in the same race and receive equal homage. The differing
degrees of importance ascribed to the separate persons of
the Hindu triad in various localities of India, suggest it as
quite probable that Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva signalled in
their union the political unity of certain districts in that
country.1 The blending of the names of Confucius and
Buddha, in many Chinese and Japanese temples, may show
us an analogous process now going on, and, indeed, the
various ethnical ideas combined in the christian Trinity
render the fact stated one of easy interpretation. But the
religious difficulty was sometimes not susceptible of com
promise. The most powerful priesthood carried the day,
and they used every ingenuity to degrade the gods of
their opponents. Agathodemons were turned into kako-
demons. The serpent, worshipped in many lands, might
be adopted as the support of sleeping Vishnu in India,
might be associated with the rainbow (' the heavenly ser-
1 '
Any Orientalist will appreciate the wonderful hotchpot of Hindu and
Arabic language and religion in the following details, noted down among rude
tribes of the Malay Peninsula. We hear of Jin Bumi, the earth-god (Arabic
jin = demon, Sanskrit bhiimi earth) ; incense is burnt to Jewajewa (San
skrit dewa = god), who intercedes with Pirman, the supreme invisible deity
above the sky (Brahma ?) ; the Moslem Allah Taala, with his wife Nabi
Mahamad (Prophet Mohammed), appear in the Hinduised characters of
creator and destroyer of all things ; and while the spirits worshipped in stones
'
are called by the Hindu term of ' dewa or deity, Moslem conversion has so
tar influenced the mind of the stone-worshipper that he will give to his sacred
'
boulder the name of Prophet Mohammed.' Tylor's Primitive Culture,' vol.
a. p. 23a
 ODIUM THEOLOGICUM.

pent') in Persia, but elsewhere was cursed as the very

genius of evil.
The operation of this force in the degradation of deities,
is particularly revealed in the Sacred Books of Persia.
In that country the great religions of the East would
appear to have contended against each other with especial
fury, and their struggles were probably instrumental in
causing one or more of the early migrations into Western
Europe. The great celestial war between Ormuzd and
Ahriman Light and Darkness corresponded with a
violent theological conflict, one result of which is that
the word deva, meaning 'deity' to Brahmans, means
'devil' to Parsees. The following extract from the
Zend-Avesta will serve as an example of the spirit in
which the war was waged :

'All your devas are only manifold children of the Evil

Mind and the great one who worships the Saoma of lies
and deceits ; besides the treacherous acts for which you are
notorious throughout the seven regions of the earth.
'
You have invented all the evil which men speak and
do, which is indeed pleasant to the Devas, but is devoid of
all goodness, and therefore perishes before the insight of
the truth of the wise.
'
Thus you defraud men of their good minds and of
their immortality by your evil minds as well through
those of the Devas as that of the Evil Spirit through
evil deeds and evil words, whereby the power of liars
1
grows.'
That is to say Ours is the true god : your god is a

devil.
The Zoroastrian conversion of deva (deus) into devil
does not alone represent the work of this odium theologi-
cum. In the early hymns of India the appellation asttras
1
Yajna, 32.
>6 DE VIL- WORSHIP.

is given to the gods. Asura means a spirit. But in the

process of time asura, like daemon, came to have a sinister
meaning : the gods were called suras, the demons asuras,
and these were said to contend together. But in Persia
the asuras demonised in India retained their divinity,
and gave the name ahura to the supreme deity, Ormuzd

(Ahura-mazda). On the other hand, as Mr. Muir sup

poses, Varenya, applied to evil spirits of darkness in the
Zendavesta, is cognate with Varuna (Heaven); and the
Vedic Indra, king of the gods the Sun is named in the
Zoroastrian religion as one of the chief councillors of that
Prince of Darkness.
But in every country conquered by a new religion, there
will always be found some, as we have seen, who will hold
on to the old deity under all his changed fortunes. These
'
will be called bigots,' but still they will adhere to the
ancient belief and practise the old rites. Sometimes even
after they have had to yield to the popular terminology,
and call the old god a devil, they will find some reason for
continuing the transmitted forms. It is probable that to
this cause was originally due the religions which have been
developed into what is now termed Devil-worship. The
distinct and avowed worship of the evil Power in preference
to the good is a rather startling phenomenon when pre
sented baldly ; as, for example, in a prayer of the Mada
gascar to Nyang, author of evil, quoted by Dr. ReVille :
'
O Zamhor ! to thee we offer no prayers. The good
god needs no asking. But we must pray to Nyang.
Nyang must be appeased. O Nyang, bad and strong
spirit, let not the thunder roar over our heads ! Tell the
sea to keep within its bounds ! Spare, O Nyang, the
ripening fruit, and dry not up the blossoming rice ! Let
not our women bring forth children on the accursed days.
Thou reignest, and this thou knowest, over the wicked ;
 THE SACRED PEACOCK. a?

and great is their number, O Nyang. Torment not, then,

'
any longer the good folk ! 1
This is natural, and suggestive of the criminal under
sentence of death, who, when asked if he was not afraid to
'
meet his God, replied, Not in the least; it's that other party
I'm afraid of.' Yet it is hardly doubtful that the worship
of Nyang began in an era when he was by no means con
sidered morally baser than Zamhor. How the theory of
Dualism, when attained, might produce the phenomenon
called Devil-worship, is illustrated in the case of the Yeze-
dis, now so notorious for that species of religion. Their
theory is usually supposed to be entirely represented by the
expression uttered by one of them, Will not Satan, then,
'

reward the poor Izedis, who alone have never spoken ill
'
of him, and have suffered so much for him ? 2 But these
words are significant, no doubt, of the underlying fact:
' '
they have never spoken ill of the Satan they worship.
The Mussulman calls the Yezedi Satan-worshipper only
a

as the early Zoroastrian held the worshipper of a deva to

be the same. The chief object of worship among the
Yezedis is the figure of the bird Taous, a half-mythical
peacock. Professor King of Cambridge traces the Taous
of this Assyrian sect to the " sacred bird called a phoenix,"
whose picture, as seen by Herodotus (ii. 73) in Egypt, is
described by him as 'very like an eagle in outline and
in size, but with plumage partly gold-coloured, partly
crimson,' and which was said to return to Heliopolis
every five hundred years, there to burn itself on the altar
of the Sun, that another might rise from its ashes.3
Now the name Yezedis is simply Izeds, genii ; and we are
thus pointed to Arabia, where we find the belief in genii

1 ' The Devil,' &c, from the French of the Rev. A. Reville, p. 5.
' Tylor's'
Primitive Culture,' vol. ii. p. 299.
* 'The Gnostics,' &c, by C. W. King, M.A., p. 153.
28 SHEIKH ADI.

is strongest, and also associated with the mythical bird

Rokh of its folklore. There we find Mohammed rebuking
the popular belief in a certain bird called Hamah, which was
said to take form from the blood near the brain of a dead
person and fly away, to return, however, at the endof
every hundred years to visit that person's sepulchre. But
this is by no means Devil-worship, nor can we find any
trace of that in the most sacred scripture of the Yezedis,
'
the Eulogy of Sheikh Adi.' This Sheikh inherited from
his father, Moosafir, the sanctity of an incarnation of the
divine essence, of which he (Adi) speaks as ' the All-
merciful.'

By his light he hath lighted the lamp of the morning.

I am he that placed Adam in my Paradise.
I am he that made Nimrod a hot burning fire.
I
am he that guided Ahmet mine elect,
I
gifted him with my way and guidance.
Mine are all existences together,
They are my gift and under my direction.
I am he that possesseth all majesty,
And beneficence and charity are from my grace,
I am he that entereth the heart in my zeal ;

And I shine through the power of my awfulness and majesty.

I am he to whom the lion of the desert came :
I rebuked him and he became like stone.
I am he to whom the serpent came,
And by my will I made him like dust.
I am he that shook the rock and made it tremble,
And sweet water flowed therefrom from every side.1

The reverence shown in these sacred sentences for Hebrew

names and traditions as of Adam in Paradise, Marah,
and the smitten rock and for Ahmet (Mohammed), ap-

1 Those who wish to examine this matter further will do well to refer to
'
Badger, and their Rituals,' in which the whole of the 'Eulogy'
Nestorians
is translated; and to Layard, 'Ninevah and Babylon,' in which there is a
translation of the same by Hormuzd Rassam, the King of Abyssinia's late
prisoner.
 MUSSULMAN IDOLATRY. 29

pears to have had its only requital in the odious designa

tion of the worshippers of Taous as Devil-worshippers,
a label which the Yezedis perhaps accepted as the Wes-
leyans and Friends accepted such names as 'Methodist'
and ' Quaker.'
Mohammed has expiated the many deities he degraded
to devils by being himself turned to an idol (mawmet),
a term of contempt all the more popular for its resem
blance to 'mummery.' Despite his denunciations of idol
atry, it is certain that this earlier religion represented by
the Yezedis has never been entirely suppressed even
among his own followers. In Dr. Leitner's interesting
collection there is a lamp, which he obtained from a
mosque, made in the shape of a peacock, and this is but
one of many similar relics of primitive or alien symbolism
found among the Mussulman tribes.
The evolution of demons and devils out of deities was
made to the popular imagination in every country
real
where the new religion found art existing, and by alliance
with it was enabled to shape the ideas of the people. The
theoretical degradation of deities of previously fair asso
ciation could only be completed where they were pre
sented to the eye in repulsive forms. It will readily
occur to every one that a rationally conceived demon or
devil would not be repulsive. If it were a demon that
man wished to represent, mere euphemism would prevent
its being rendered odious. The main characteristic of a
that which distinguishes it from a devil
is,

demon as
we have seen, that has real and human-like motive
it

for whatever evil causes. If afflict or consume man,

it

it

not from mere malignancy, but because impelled by

is
it

the pangs of hunger, lust, or other suffering, like the

famished wolf or shark. And sacrifices of food were
if

offered to satisfy its need, equally we might expect that

30 WHY DEMONS WERE PAINTED UGL Y.

no unnecessary insult would be offered in the attempt to

portray it. But if it were a devil a being actuated by
simple malevolence one of its essential functions, temp
tation, would be destroyed by hideousness. For the work
of seduction we might expect a devil to wear the form of
an angel of light, but by no means to approach his in
tended victim in any horrible shape, such as would repel
every mortal. The great representations of evil, whether
imagined by the speculative or the religious sense, have
never been, originally, ugly. The gods might be described
as falling swiftly like lightning out of heaven, but in the
popular imagination they retained for a long time much
of their splendour. The very ingenuity with which they
were afterwards investedwith ugliness in religious art,
attests that there were certain popular sentiments about
them which had to be distinctly reversed. It was because
they were thought beautiful that they must be painted
ugly > it was because they were even among converts
to the new religion still secretly believed to be kind
and helpful, that there was employed such elaboration of
hideous designs to deform them. The pictorial repre
sentations of demons and devils will come under a more
detailed examination hereafter it is for the present suffi
:

cient to point out that the traditional blackness or ugliness

of demons and devils, as now thought of, by no means
militates against the fact that they were once the popular
deities. The contrast, for instance, between the horrible
physiognomy given to Satan in ordinary christian art,
and the theological representation of him as the Tempter,
is obvious. Had the design of Art been to represent
the theological theory, Satan would have been portrayed
in a fascinating form. But the design was not that ; it
was to arouse horror and antipathy for the native deities
to which the ignorant clung tenaciously. It was to train
 ANCIENT DEVICES. 3i

children to think of the still secretly-worshipped idols as

frightful bestial beings.
and It is important, therefore,
that we should guard against confusing the speculative or
moral attempts of mankind to personify pain and evil
with the ugly and brutal demons and devils of artificial
superstition, oftenest pictured on church walls. Some-

Fig. 2. Handle op Hindu Chalice.

times they are set to support water-spouts, often the

brackets that hold their foes, the saints. It is a very
ancient device. Our figure 2 is from the handle of a
chalice in possession of Sir James Hooker, meant pro
bably to hold the holy water of Ganges. These are
3» GARGOYLES.

not genuine demons or devils, but carefully caricatured

deities.Who that looks upon the grinning bestial forms
carved about the roof of any old church as those on
Melrose Abbey and York Cathedral1 which, there is
reason to believe, represent the primitive deities driven
from the interior by potency of holy water, and chained to
the uncongenial service of supporting the roof-gutter can
see in these gargoyles (Fr. gargouille, dragon), anything
but carved imprecations Was it to such ugly beings,
?

guardians of their streams, hills, and forests, that our an

cestors consecrated the holly and mistletoe, or with such
that they associated their flowers, fruits, and homes ? They
were caricatures inspired by missionaries, made to repel
and disgust, as the images of saints beside them were
carved in beauty to attract. If the pagans had been the
artists, the good looks would have been on the other side.
And indeed there was an art of which those pagans were
the unconscious possessors, through which the true char
acters of the imaginary beings they adored have been
transmitted to us. In the fables of their folklore we find
the Fairies that represent the spirit of the gods and god
desses to which they are easily traceable. That goddess
who in christian times was pictured as a hag riding on
a broom-stick was Frigga, the Earth-mother, associated
with the first sacred affections clustering around the
hearth ; or Freya, whose very name was consecrated

1 The
significance of the gargoyles on the churches built on the foundations
of pagan temples may be especially observed at York, where the forms of
various animals well known to Indo-Germanic mythology appear. They are
probably copies of earlier designs, surviving from the days when the plan of
'
Gregory for the conversion of temples prevailed. The temples of the idols
in that nation,' wrote the Pope, A.c. 601, 'ought not to be destroyed; but
let the idols that are in them be destroyed ; let holy water be made and
sprinkled For if
in the said temples, let altars be erected and relics placed.
those temples built, it is requisite that they be converted from the
are well
worship of devils to the service of the true God.' Bede, Eccl. Hist. ch. 30.
 MOTHER ROSE. 33

in frau, woman and wife. The mantle of Bertha did

not cover more tenderness when it fell to the shoulders
of Mary. The German child's name for the pre-chris-
tian Madonna was Mother Rose : distaff in hand, she
watched over the industrious at their household work :

she hovered near the cottage,perhaps to find there some

weeping Cinderella and give her beauty for ashes.

VOL. i. c
 ( 34 )

CHAPTER V.

CLASSIFICATION.

The obstructions of man The twelve chief classes Modifica

tions of particular forms for various functions Theological
demons.

The statements made concerning the fair names of the

chief demons and devils which have haunted the imagina
tion of mankind, heighten the contrast between their celes
tial origin and the functions attributed to them in their
degraded forms. The theory of Dualism, representing a

necessary stage in the mental development of every race,

called for supply of demons, and the supply came from
a

the innumerable dethroned, outlawed, and fallen deities

and angels which had followed the subjugation of races
and their religions.But though their celestial origin might
linger around them in some slight legend or characteristic
as well as in their names, the evil phenomenon to which
each was attached as an explanation assigned the real
form and work with which he or she was associated in
popular superstition. We therefore find in the demons in
which men have believed a complete catalogue of the ob
stacles with which they have had to contend in the long
struggle for existence. In the devils we discover equally
the history of the moral and religious struggles through
which priesthoods and churches have had to pass. And
the relative extent of this or that particular class of de
 TWELVE LABOURS. 35

mons or devils, and the intensity of belief in any class as

shown in the number of survivals from will be found to

it,
reflect pretty faithfully the degree to which the special evil
represented by afflicted primitive man, as attested by

it
other branches of pre-historic investigation.
As to function, the demons we shall have to consider
are those representing I. Hunger; 2. Excessive Heat;

3.
Excessive Cold Destructive elements and physical
4.
;

convulsions Destructive animals Human enemies

6.
5.
;

;
The Barrenness of the Earth, as rock and desert
8. 7.

;
Obstacles, as the river or mountain Illusion, seduc

9.
;
tive, invisible, and mysterious agents, causing delusions;
10. Darkness (especially when unusual), Dreams, Night
mare 11. Disease; 12. Death.
;

These classes in obedience

to necessary
are selected,
limitations, as representing the twelve chief labours of
man which have given shape to the majority of his haunt
ing demons, as distinguished from his devils. Of course
all classifications of this character must be understood as
made for convenience, and the divisions are not to be too
sharply taken. What Plotinus said of the gods, that each
contained all the rest, equally true of both demons and
is

devils.The demons of Hunger are closely related to the

demons of Fire Agni devoured his parents (two sticks
:

consumed by the flame they produce) and from them we

;

pass easily to elemental demons, like the lightning, or

demons of fever. And similarly we find a relationship be
tween other destructive forces. Nevertheless, the distinc
tions drawn are not fanciful, but exist in clear and unmis
takable beliefs as to the special dispositions and employ
ments of demons and as we are not engaged in dealing
;

with natural phenomena, but with superstitions concerning

them, the only necessity of this classification that
is

it

shall not be arbitrary, but shall really simplify the im

3* VARIOUS FUNCTIONS.

mense mass of facts which the student of Demonology

has to encounter.
But there are several points which require especial at
tention as preliminary to a consideration of these various
classes of demons.
First, it is to be borne in mind that a single demonic
form will often appear in various functions, and that these
must not be confused. The serpent may represent the
lightning, or the coil of the whirlwind, or fatal venom ;
the earthquake may represent a swallowing Hunger-demon,
or the rage of a chained giant. The separate functions
must not be lost sight of because sometimes traceable to a
single form, nor their practical character suffer disguise
through their fair euphemistic or mythological names.
Secondly, the same form appears repeatedly in a dia
bolic as well as a demonic function, and here a clear
distinction must be maintained in the reader's mind. The
distinction already taken between a demon and a devil is
not arbitrary : the word demon is related to deity ; the
word devil, though sometimes connected with the Sanskrit
deva, has really no relation to but has bad sense as
it,

'calumniator:' but even there were no such etymolo

if

gical identity and difference, would be necessary to

it

distinguish such widely separate offices as those represent

ing the afflictive forces of nature where attributed to
humanly appreciable motives on the one hand, and evils
ascribed to pure malignancy or a principle of evil on
the other. The Devil may, indeed, represent a further
evolution in the line on which the Demon has appeared
;

Ahriman the Bad in conflict with Ormuzd the Good may

be a spiritualisation of the conflict between Light and
Darkness, Sun and Cloud, as represented in the Vedic
Indra and Vritra but the two phases represent different
;

classes of ideas, indeed different worlds, and the apprehen

 HOUSEHOLD GODS. 37

sion of both requires that they shall be carefully distin

guished even when associated with the same forms and
names.
Thirdly, there is an important class of demons which the
reader may expect to find fully treated of in the part of
my work more particularly devoted to Demonology, which
must be deferred, or further traced in that portion relating
to the Devil ; they are forms which in their original con
ception were largely beneficent, of evil
and have become
repute mainly through the anathema of theology. The
chequer-board on which Osiris sat had its development in
hosts of primitive shapes of light opposing shapes of dark
ness. The evil of some of these is ideal ; others are morally
amphibious : Teraphim, Lares, genii, were ancestors of the
guardian angels and patron saints of the present day ; they
were oftenest in the shapes of dogs and cats and aged
human ancestors, supposed to keep watch and ward about
the house, like the friendly Domovoi respected in Russia ;
the evil disposition and harmfulness ascribed to them are
partly natural but partly also theological, and due to the
difficulty of superseding them with patron saints and
angels. The degradation of beneficent beings, already
described in relation to large demonic and diabolic forms,
must be understood as constantly acting in the smallest
details of household superstition, with what strange re
action and momentous result will appear when we come
to consider the phenomena of Witchcraft.
Finally, it must be remarked that the nature of our
inquiry renders the consideration of the origin of myths
whether 'solar' or other of secondary importance. Such
origin it will be necessary to point out and discuss inci
dentally, but our main point will always be the forms in
which the myths have become incarnate, and their modi
fications in various places and times, these being the result
38 AIM OF DEMONOLOGY.
of those actual experiences with which Demonology is
chiefly concerned. A myth, as many able writers have
pointed out, in its origin, an explanation by the un
is,

civilised mind of some natural phenomenon not an alle

gory, not an esoteric conceit For this reason it possesses
fluidity, and takes on manifold shapes. The apparent sleep
of the sun in winter may be represented in a vast range of
myths, from the Seven Sleepers to the Man in the Moon
of our nursery rhyme; but the variations all have relation
to facts and circumstances. Comparative Mythology is
mainly concerned with the one thread running through
them, and binding them all to the original myth ; the task
of Demonology is rather to discover the agencies which
have given their several shapes. If it be shown that
Orthros and Cerberus were primarily the morning and
evening twilight or howling winds, either interpretation is
here secondary to their personification as dogs. Demono
logy would ask, Why dogs ? why not bulls ? Its answer in
each case detaches from the anterior myth its mode, and
shows this as the determining force of further myths.
 PART II.

THE DEMON.
 THE DEMON.

CHAPTER I.

HUNGER.

Hunger-demons Kephn Mini Kagura Rihu the Hindu sun-

devourer The earth monster at Pelsall A Franconian custom
Sheitan as moon-devourer Hindu offerings to the dead
Ghoul Goblin Vampyres Leanness of demons Old Scotch
custom. The origin of sacrifices.

In every part of the earth man's first struggle was for his
daily food. With only a rude implement of stone or bone
he had to get fish from the sea, bird from the air, beast
from the forest. For ages, with such poor equipment, he
had to wring a precarious livelihood from nature. He
saw, too, every living form around him similarly trying to
satisfy its hunger. There seemed to be a Spirit of Hunger
abroad. And, at the same time, there was such a resist
ance to man's satisfaction of his need the bird and fish
so hard to get, the stingy earth so ready to give him a
stone when he asked for bread that he came to the con
clusion that there must be invisible voracious beings who
wanted all good things for themselves. So the ancient
world was haunted by a vast brood of Hunger-demons.
There is an African tribe, the Karens, whose representa
42 MIRU-THE-RUDD Y.

tion of the Devil (Kephn) is a huge stomach floating

through the air ; and this repulsive image may be regarded
of nearly half the demons which have haunted
as the type
the human imagination. This, too, is the terrible Mini,
with her daughters and slave, haunting the South Sea
'
Islander. The esoteric doctrine of the priests was, that
souls leave the body ere breath has quite gone, and travel
of a cliff facing the setting sun (Ra). A large
to the edge
wave now approaches the base of the cliff, and a gigantic
bua tree, covered with fragrant blossoms, springs up from
Avaiki (nether world) to receive on its far-reaching branches
human spirits, who are mysteriously impelled to cluster on
its limbs. When at length
mystic tree is covered
the
with human spirits, it goes down with its living freight to
the nether world. Akaanga, the slave of fearful Mini,
mistress of the invisible world, infallibly catches all these
unhappy spirits in his net and laves them to and fro in
a lake. In these waters the captive ghosts exhaust them
selves by wriggling about like fishes, in the vain hope of
escape. The net is pulled up, and the half-drowned spirits
enter into the presence of dread Miru, who is ugliness per
sonified. The secret of Miru's power over her intended
victims is the 'kava' root {Piper tnythisticum). A bowl
of this drink is prepared for each visitor to the shades by
her four lovely daughters. Stupefied with the draught,
the unresisting victims are borne off to a mighty oven and
cooked. Miru, her peerless daughters, her dance-loving
son, and the attendants, subsist exclusively on human
spirits decoyed to the nether world and then cooked. The
drinking-cups of Miru are the skulls of her victims. She
'
is called in song Miru-the-ruddy,' because her cheeks ever
glow with the heat of the oven where her captives are
cooked. As the surest way to Miru's oven is to die a
natural death, one need not marvel that the Rev. Mr. Gill,
 A DEMON'S ANAESTHETIC. 43

who made these statements before the Anthropological

'
Institute in London (February 8, 1876), had heard many
anecdotes of aged warriors, scarcely able to hold a spear,
insisting on being led to the field of battle in the hope
of gaining the house of the brave.' As the South Sea
paradise seems to consist in an eternal war-dance, or, in
one island, in an eternal chewing of sugar-cane, it is
not unlikely that the aged seek violent death chiefly to
avoid the oven. We have here a remarkable illustra
tion of the distinguishing characteristic of the demon.
Fearful as Miru
is,

may be noted that there not one

is
it

gratuitous element of cruelty in her procedure. On the

contrary, she even provides her victims with an anaesthetic
draught. Her prey simply netted, washed, and cooked,
is

as for man are his animal inferiors. In one of the

islands (AitutakiJ, Miru believed to resort to device
is

a
which certainly terrible namely, the contrivance that
is

each soul entering the nether world shall drink a bowl of

living centipedes but this simply with the one end in
is
;

view of appeasing her own pangs of hunger, for the object

and effect of the draught to cause the souls to drown
is

themselves, being apparently only after entire death

it

that they can be cooked and devoured by Miru and her

household.
Fortunately for the islanders, Miru limited in her tor
is

tures to transmundane sphere, and room left for many

is
a

slip between her dreadful cup and the human lip. The
a

floating stomach Kephn

is,

however, not other-worldly.

We see, however, a softened form of him in some other
tribes. The Greenland ers, Finns, Laps, conceived the idea
that there a large paunch-demon which people could
is

invoke to go and suck the cows or consume the herds of

their enemies and the Icelanders have superstition that
a
;

some people can construct such demon out of bones and

a
44 THE ECLIPSE-DEMON.

skins, and send him forth to transmute the milk or flesh

of cattle into a supply of flesh and blood. A form of
this kind is represented in the Japanese Kagura (figure 3),
the favourite mask of January dancers and drum-beaters
seeking money. The Kagura is in precise contrast with
the Pretas (Siam), which, though twelve miles in height,
are too thin to be seen, their mouths being so small as to
render it impossible to satisfy their fearful hunger.
The pot-bellies given to demons in Travancore and
other districts of India, and the blood -sacrifices by
which the natives propitiate them
concerning which a missionary
naively remarks, that even these
heathen recognise, though in cor
rupted form, 'the great truth that
without shedding of blood there
' 1
is no remission of sins refer to
the Hunger-demon. They are the
brood of Kali, girt round with'
human skulls.
The expedition which went out
to India to observe the last solar eclipse was inci
dentally the means of calling attention to a remark
able survival of the Hunger-demon in connection with
astronomic phenomena. While the English observers
were arranging their apparatus, the natives prepared a
pile of brushwood, and, so soon as the eclipse began,
they set fire to this pile and began to shout and yell
as they danced around it. Not less significant were the
popular observances generally. There was a semi-holi
day in honour of the eclipse. The ghauts were crowded
with pious worshippers. No Hindu, it is thought, ought
to do any work whatever during an eclipse, and there
1 ' The Land of Charity,' by Rev. Samuel Mateer, p. 214.
 *

GIANT EATERS. 45

was ageneral tendency to prolong the holiday a little

beyond the exact time when the shadow disappears, and
indeed to prolong it throughout the day. All earthenware
vessels used for cooking were broken, and all cooked food
in the houses at the time of the eclipse was thrown out.
It is regarded as a time of peculiar blessings if taken in
the right way, and of dread consequences to persons in
clined to heterodoxy or neglect of the proper observances.
Between nine and ten in the evening two shocks of an earth
quake occurred, the latter a rather unpleasant one, shaking
the tables and doors in an uncomfortable fashion for several
seconds. To the natives it was no surprise they believe
firmly in the connection of eclipses and earthquakes.1
Especially notable is the breaking of their culinary
utensils by the Hindus during an eclipse. In Copen
hagen there is a collection of the votive weapons of
ancient Norsemen, every one broken as it was offered
up to the god of their victory in token of good faith, lest
they should be suspected of any intention to use again
what they had given away. For the same reason the cup
was offered broken with the libation. The Northman
felt himself in the presence of the Jotunn (giants), whose
name Grimm identifies as the Eaters For the Hindu
of to-day the ceremonies appropriate at an eclipse, how
ever important, have probably as little rational meaning
as the occasional Belfire that lights up certain dark corners
of Europe has for those who build it. But the traditional
observances have come up from the childhood of the world,
when the eclipse represented a demon devouring the sun,
who was to have his attention called by outcries and
prayers to the fact that if it was fire he needed there was
plenty on earth ; and if food, he might have all in their
houses, provided he would consent to satisfy his appetite
1 ' '
London Times Calcutta correspondence.
46 THE DEVOURING FLOOD.

with articles of food less important than the luminaries of

heaven.
Such is the shape now taken in India of the ancient
myth of the eclipse. When at the churning of the ocean
to find the nectar of immortality, a demon with dragon-
tail was tasting that nectar, the sun and moon told on
him, but not until his head had become immortal ; and it
is this head of Rahu which seeks now to devour the in
formers the Sun and Moon.1 Mythologically, too, this
Rahu has been divided ; for we shall hereafter trace the
dragon-tail of him to the garden of Eden and in the chris
tian devil, whereas in India he has been improved from a
vindictive to a merely voracious demon.
The fires kindled by the Hindus to frighten Rahu on
his latest appearance might have defeated the purpose of
the expedition by the smoke it was sending up, had not
two officers leaped upon the fire and scattered its fuel ; but
just about the time when these courageous gentlemen were
trampling out the fires of superstition whose smoke would
obscure the vision of science, an event occurred in England
which must be traced to the same ancient belief the
belief, namely, that when anything is apparently swallowed
up, as the sun and moon by an eclipse, or a village by
earthquake or flood, it is the work of a hungry dragon,
earthworm, or other monster. The Pelsall mine was
flooded, and a large number of miners drowned. When
the accident became known in the village, the women went
1 The Persian poet Sadi 'The
uses the phrase, whale swallowed Jonah,' as
a familiar expression for sunset; which is in curious coincidence with a

Mimac (Nova Scotian) myth that the holy hero Glooscap was carried to the
happy Sunset Land in a whale. The story of Jonah has indeed had interest
ing variants, one of them being that legend of Oannes, the fish-god, emerging
from the Red Sea to teach Babylonians the arts (a saga of Dagon) ; but the
phrase in the Book of Jonah 'the belly of Hell' had a prosaic significance
for the christian mind, and, in connection with speculations concerning Behe
moth and Leviathan, gave us the mediaeval Mouth of Hell.
 DEVOURERS PROPITIATED. 47

out with the families of the unfortunate men, and sat beside
the mouth of the flooded pit, at the bottom of which the
dead bodies yet remained. These women then yelled
down the
pit with voices very different from ordinary
lamentation. They also refused unanimously to taste
food of any kind, saying, when pressed to do so, that so

long as they could refrain from eating, their husbands

might still be spared to them. When, finally, one poor
woman, driven by the pangs of hunger, was observed to
eat a crust of bread, the cries ceased, and the women,
renouncing all hope, proceeded in silent procession to their
homes in Pelsall.
The Hindu people casting their food out of the window
during an eclipse, the Pelsall wives refusing to eat when
the mine is flooded, are acting by force of immemorial
tradition, and so are doing unconsciously what the African
woman does consciously when she surrounds the bed of
her sick husband with rice and meat, and beseeches the
demon to devour them instead of the man. To the same
class of notions belong the old custom of trying to dis
cover the body of one drowned by means of a loaf of
bread with a candle stuck in which was said would
it,

it

pause above the body, and the body might be made to

that the demon hold
is,

appear by firing a gun over

it

ing would be frightened off. A variant, too, the

is
it

Persian custom of protecting a woman in parturition by

spreading a table, with lamp at each corner, with seven
a

kinds of fruits and seven different aromatic seeds upon it.

In 1769, when Pennant made his 'Scottish Tour,' he
found fully observed in the Highlands the ceremony of
making the Beltane Cake on the first of May, and dedi
cating its distributed fragments to birds and beasts of
prey, with invocation to the dread being of whom they
were the supposed agents to spare the herds. Demons
48 SATAN AS MOON-DEVOURER.

especially love milk : the Lambton Worm required nine

cows' milk daily; and Jerome mentions a diabolical baby
which exhausted six nurses.
The Devil nominally inherits, among the peasantry of
Christendom, the attributes of the demons which preceded
him ; but it must be understood that in every case where
mere voracity is ascribed to the Devil, a primitive demon
is meant,and of this fact the superstitious peasant is
dimly conscious. In Franconia, when a baker is about to
put dough biscuits into an oven to be baked, he will first
throw half-a-dozen of them into the fire, saying, 'There,
poor devil ! those are for you.' If pressed for an explana
tion, he will admit his fear that but for this offering his
biscuits are in danger of coming out burnt ; but that the
' '
poor devil is not bad-hearted, only driven by his hunger
to make mischief. The being he fears is is,
therefore, clearly
not the Devil at all whose distinction a love of wicked
ness for its own sake but the half-starved gobbling ghosts
of whom, in christian countries, 'Devil' has become the
generic name. Of their sacrifices, Grace before meat a

is
remnant. In Moslem countries, however, Sheitan com
'
'

bines the demonic and the malignant voracities. During

the late lunar eclipse, the inhabitants of Pera and Con
stantinople fired guns over their houses to drive Sheitan'
'

(Satan) away from the moon, for, whoever the foe, the
Turk trusts in gunpowder. But superstitions represent
ing Satan as a devourer are becoming rare. In the
church of N6tre Dame at Hal, Belgium, the lectern
shows dragon attempting to swallow the Bible, which
a

supported on the back of an eagle.

is

There another and much more formidable form in

is

which the Hunger-demon appears in Demonology. The

fondness for blood, so characteristic of supreme gods, was
distributed as special thirst through large class of
a

a
 FOOD FOR THE DEAD. 49

demons. In the legend of Ishtar descending to Hades 1

to seek some beloved one, she threatens if the door be not
opened
I will raise the dead to be devourers of the living !

Upon the living shall the dead prey !

This menace shows that the Chaldaean and Babylonian

belief in the vampyre, called Akhkharu in Assyrian, was
fully developed at a very early date. Although the
Hunger- demon was very fully developed in India, it
does not appear to have been at any time so cannibalistic,
possibly because the natives were not great flesh-eaters.
In some cases, indeed, we meet with the vampyre super
stition ; as in the story of Vikram and the Vampyre, and
in the Tamil drama of Harichandra, where the frenzied
Sandramati says to the king, I belong to the race of
'

elves, and I have killed thy child in order that I might

feed on its delicate flesh.' Such expressions are rare
enough to warrant suspicion of their being importations.
The Vetala's appetite is chiefly for corpses. The poor
hungry demons of India such as the Bhiit, a dismal,
ravenous ghost, dreaded at the moon-wane of the month
Katik (Oct. -Nov.) was not supposed to devour man, but
only man's food. The Hindu demons of this class may
be explained by reference to the sraddha, or oblation to
ancestors, concerning which we read directions in the
Manu Code.
'
The ancestors of men are satisfied a
whole month with tila, rice, &c. ; two months with fish,
&c. The Manes say, Oh, may that man be born in our
line who may give us milky food, with honey and pure
butter, both on the thirteenth of the moon and when the
'
shadow of an elephant falls to the east ! The blood
thirsty demons of India have pretty generally been
caught up like Kali into a higher symbolism, and their
1 Tablet K 162 in the British Museum. See
'
Records of the Past,' i. 141.
VOL. I. D
5<> GOBLINS.

voracity systematised and satisfied in sacrificial commuta

tions. The popular belief in the southern part of that
country is indicated by Professor Monier Williams, in a
letter written from Southern India, wherein he remarks
that the devils alone require propitiation. It is generally
a simple procedure, performed by offerings of food or other
articles supposed to be acceptable to disembodied beings.
For example, when certain European, once a terror to
a
the district in which he lived, died in the South of India,
the natives were in the constant habit of depositing
brandy and cigars on his tomb to propitiate his spirit,
supposed to roam about the neighbourhood in a restless
manner, and with evil proclivities. The very same was
done to secure the good offices of the philanthropic spirit
of a great European sportsman, who, when he was alive,
delivered his district from the ravages of tigers. Indeed
all evil spirits arc thought to be opposed by good ones,
who, if duly propitiated, make it their business to guard
the inhabitants of particular places from demonic in
truders. Each district, and even every village, has its
guardian genius, often called its Mother.1
Such ideas as these are represented in Europe in some
varieties of the Kobold and the Goblin (Gk. KofiaXos).
Though the goblin must, according to folk-philosophy, be
fed with nice food, it is not a deadly being; on the con
trary, it is said the Gobelin
tapestry derives its name
because the secret of its colours was gained from these
ghosts. Though St. Taurin expelled one from Evreux,
he found it so polite that he would not send it to hell,
and it still haunts the credulous there and at Caen, with
out being thought very formidable.
'
The demon that ' lurks in graveyards is universal,
and may have suggested cremation. In the East it is
1 London '
Times,' July II, 1877.
 VAMPYRES. Si

represented mainly by such forms as the repulsive ghoul,

which preys on dead bodies ; but it has been developed
in some strange way to the Slavonic phantom called Vam-
pyre, whose peculiar fearfulness is that it represents the
form in which any deceased person may reappear, not
ghoul-like to batten on the dead, but to suck the blood of
the living. This is perhaps the most formidable survival
of demonic superstition now existing in the world.
A people who still have in their dictionary such a word
' '
as miscreant
(misbeliever) can hardly wonder that the
priests of the Eastern Church fostered the popular belief
that heretics at death changed into drinkers of the blood
of the living. The Slavonic vampyres have declined in
' '
England and America to be the Ogres,' who smell the
blood of an Englishman,' but are rarely supposed to enjoy
it ; but it exposes the real ugliness of the pious supersti
tions sometimes deemed pretty, that, in proportion to the
intensity of belief in supernaturalism, the people live in
terror of the demons that go about seeking whom they may
devour. In Russia the watcher beside a corpse is armed
with holy charms against attack from it at midnight. A
vampyre may be the soul of any outcast from the Church,
or one over whose corpse, before burial, a cat has leaped
or a bird flown. It may be discovered in a graveyard by
leading a black colt through ; the animal will refuse to
tread on the vampyre's grave, and the body is taken out
and a stake driven single blow.
it,

through always by
a

A related class of demons are the 'heart-devourers.' They

touch their victim with an aspen or other magical twig
;

the heart falls out, and

is,

perhaps, replaced by some baser

one. Mr. Ralston mentions Mazovian story in which
a

hero awakes with the heart of hare, and remains

a

a
a

coward ever after;1 and in another case quiet peasant

a

Songs of the Russian

1

People,
'

'
p.

409.
 SURVIVALS IN AMERICA.
received heart and was always crowing.
a cock's The
Werewolf, in some respects closely related to the vam-
pyre, also pursues his ravages among the priest-ridden
peasantry of the South and East.
In Germany, though the more horrible forms of the
superstition are rare, the 'Nachzehrer' is much dreaded.
Even in various Protestant regions it is thought safest that
a cross should be set beside every grave to impede any

demonic propensities that may take possession of the

person interred; and where food is not still buried with the
corpse to assuage any pangs of hunger that may arise, a
few grains of corn or rice are scattered upon it in remini
scence of the old custom. In Diesdorf it is believed that
if money is not placed in the dead person's mouth at
burial, or his name not cut from his shirt, he is likely to
become a Nachzehrer, and that the ghost will come forth
in the form of a pig. It is considered a sure preventative
of such a result to break the neck of the dead body. On
one occasion, it is there related, several persons of one
family having died, the suspected corpse was exhumed,
and found to have eaten up its own grave-clothes.
Dr. Dyer, an eminent physician of Chicago, Illinois,
told me (1875) that a case occurred in that city within his
personal knowledge, where the body of a woman who had
died of consumption was taken out of the grave and the
lungs burned, under a belief that she was drawing after
her into the grave some of her surviving relatives. In
1874, according to the Providence Journal, in the village of
Peacedale, Rhode Island, U.S., Mr. William Rose dug up
the body of his own daughter, and burned her heart, under
the belief that she was wasting away the lives of other
members of his family.
'
The characteristics of modern '
Spiritualism appear to
indicate that the superstitious have outgrown this ancient
 FUNERAL CUSTOMS. 53

fear of ghostly malevolence where surrounded by civilisa

tion. It is very rare in the ancient world or in barbarous
regions to find any invocations for the return of the spirits
of the dead. Mr. Tylor has quoted a beautiful dirge used
by the Ho tribe of India, beginning

We never scolded you, never wronged you ;

Come to us back !

But generally funereal customs are very significant of the

fear that spirits may return, and their dirges more in the
vein of the Bodo of North-East India: 'Take and eat:
heretofore you have eaten and drunk with us, you can do
so no more : you were one of us, you can be so no longer :
'
we come no more to you, come you not to us.' Even,'
says Mr. Tylor, 'in the lowest culture we find flesh hold
ing its own against spirit, and at higher stages the house
holder rids himself with little scruple of an unwelcome
inmate. The Greenlanders would carry the dead out by
the window, not by the door, while an old woman, waving
' ' '
a firebrand behind, cried Piklerrukpok ! i.e., There is
'
nothing more to be had here ! the Hottentots removed
the dead from the hut by an opening broken out on pur
pose, to prevent him from finding the way back ; the
Siamese, with the same intention, break an opening through
the house wall to carry the coffin through, and then hurry
it at full speed thrice round the house ; the Siberian Chu-
washes fling a red-hot stone after the corpse is carried out,
for an obstacle to bar the soul from coming back ; so
Brandenburg peasants pour out a pail of water at the door
after the coffin to prevent the ghost from walking ; and
Pomeranian mourners returning from the churchyard leave
behind the straw from the hearse, that the wandering soul
may rest there, and not come back so far as home.' 1
1 ' Primitive Culture. '
54 LEAN DEMONS.
It may be remarked, in this connection, that in nearly
all the pictures of demons and devils, they are represented
as very lean. The exceptions will be found generally in
certain Southern and tropical demons which represent
cloud or storm Typhon, for instance and present a
swollen or bloated appearance. No Northern devil is fat.
Shakespeare ascribes to Caesar a suspicion of leanness
Yond' Cassius hath a lean and hungry look :
He thinks too much : such men are dangerous.

When Antony defends Cassius, Caesar only replies, 'Would

'
he were fatter ! This mistrust of leanness is a reflection

Fig. 4. St. Anthony's Lean Persecutor (Salvator Rosa).

from all the Hunger-demons ; it interprets the old sayings

that a devil, however fair in front, may be detected by
hollowness of the back, and that he is usually so thin as
to cast no shadow.1
1 Caesarius D'Heisterbach, Miracul. iii.
 SACRIFICES. 55

Illustrations of the Hunger-demon and its survivals

might be greatly multiplied, were it necessary. It need
only, however, be mentioned that it is to this early and
most universal conception of preternatural danger that
the idea of sacrifice as well as of fasting must be ascribed.
It
is,

indeed, too obvious to require extended demonstra

tion that the notion of offering fruits and meat to an
invisible being could only have originated in the belief that
such being was hungry, however much the spiritualisation
of such offerings may have attended their continuance
among enlightened peoples. In the evolution of purer
deities, Fire the devouring element was substituted

'
'

for coarser method of accepting sacrifices, and became

it
a

sign of baser beings such as the Assyrian Akhkharu,

a

and the later Lamia to consume dead bodies with their

teeth and this fire was the spiritual element in the idola
;

tries whose objects were visible. But the original accent of

sacrifice never left it. The Levitical Law says '
The two
:

kidneys, and the fat that upon them, which by the

is

is

flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys,
it
shall he take away. And the priest shall burn them upon
the altar the food of the offering made by fire for a
it
is
:

sweet savour all the fat the Lord's. It shall be per

is

a
:

petual statute for your generations throughout all your

dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood.'1 We find
the Hunger-demon shown as well in the wrath of Jehovah
against the sons of Eli for eating the choice parts of the
meats offered on his altar, as in that offering of tender
infants to Moloch which his priests denounced, or in
Saturn devouring Aryan faith de
his children, whom
throned and they all reappear as phantoms thinly veiled
;

above the spotless Lamb offered up on Calvary, the sacri

ficed Macaria Blessed the pierced heart of Mary.
'),
('

Lev. iii. 15.

5« FASTING.

The beautiful boy Menoeceus must be sacrificed to save

Thebes ; the gods will not have aged and tough Creon,
though a king, in his place. Iphigenia, though herself
saved from the refined palate of Artemis, through the
huntress's for kid's blood, becomes the priestess
fondness
of human sacrifices. The human offering deemed half-
divine could alone at last satisfy the Deity, gathered in
his side this sheaf of sacrificial knives, whetted in many
lands and ages, and in his self-sacrifice the Hunger-demon
himself was made the victim. Theologians have been
glad to rescue the First Person of their Trinity from asso
ciation with the bloodthirsty demons of barbarous ages
by describing the sacrifice of Jesus as God himself becom
ing the victim of an eternal law. But, whatever may be
said of this complex device, it is sufficient evidence that
man's primitive demon which personified his hunger has
ended with being consumed on his own altar. For though
fasting is a survival of the same savage notion that man
may secure benefits from invisible beings by leaving them
the food, it is a practice which survives rather through
the desire of imitating ascetic saints than because of any
understood principle. The strange yet natural consum
mation adds depth of meaning to the legend of Odin
being himself sacrificed in his disguise on the Holy Tree
at Upsala, where human victims were hung as offerings to
him ; and to his rune in the Havamal

I know that I
hung
On a wind-rocked tree
Nine whole nights,
With a spear wounded,
And to Odin offered
Myself to myself.
 ( 57 )

CHAPTER II.
HEAT.
Demons of Fire Agni Asmodeus Prometheus Feast of fire
Moloch Tophet Genii of the lamp Bel-fires Hallowe'en
Negro superstitions Chinese fire-god Volcanic and incendiary
demons Mangaian fire-demon Demons' fear of water.

FlRE was of old the element of fiends. No doubt this

was in part due to the fact that it also was a devouring
element. Sacrifices were burnt; the demon visibly con
sumed them. But the
great flame-demons represent
chiefly the destructive and painful action of intense heat.
They originate in regions of burning desert, of sunstroke,
and drouth.
Agni, the Hindu god of fire, was adored in Vedic
hymns as the twin of Indra.
'
Thy appearance is fair to behold, thou bright-faced
Agni, when like gold thou shinest at hand ; thy brightness
comes like the lightning of heaven ; thou showest splen
dour like the splendour of the bright sun.
'
Adorable and excellent Agni, emit the moving and
graceful smoke.
'
The flames of Agni are luminous, powerful, fearful,
and not to be trusted.
'
I of that showerer of rain, whom
extol the greatness
men celebrate as the slayer of Vritra : the Agni, Vaiswa-
nara, slew the stealer of the waters.'
 DIABLE BOITEUX.
The slaying of Vritra, the monster, being the chief
exploit of Indra, Agni could only share in it as being the
flame that darted with Indra's weapon, the disc (of the
sun).
'
Thou (Agni) art laid hold off with difficulty, like the
young of tortuously twining snakes, thou who art a con

sumer of many forests as a beast is of fodder.'

Petrifaction awaits all these glowing metaphors of early
time. Verbal inspiration will make Agni a literally tortu
ous serpent and consuming fire. His smoke, called Kali
(black), is now the name of Siva's terrible bride.
Much is said in Vedic hymns of the method of pro
ducing the sacred flame symbolising Agni ; namely, the
'
rubbing together of two sticks. He it is whom the two
sticks have engendered, like a new-born babe.' It is a
curious coincidence that a similar phrase should describe
'
the devil on two sticks,' who has come by way of Persia
into European romance. Asmodeus was a lame demon,
and his 'two sticks' as 'Diable Boiteux' are crutches;
but his lameness may be referable to the attenuated ex
'
tremities suggested by spires of flame tortuously twining
snakes,' rather than to the rabbinical myth that he broke
his leg on his way to meet Solomon. Benfey identified
Asmodeus as Zend Aeshma-daeva, demon of lust. His
goat-feet and fire-coal eyes are described by Le Sage, and
the demon says he was lamed by falling from the air, like
Vulcan, when contending with Pillardoc. It is not difficult
to imagine how flame engendered by the rubbing of sticks
might have attained personification as sensual passion,
especially among Zoroastrians, who would detach from
the adorable Fire all associations of evil. It would har
monise well with the Persian tendency to diabolise Indian
gods, that they should note the lustful character occa
'
sionally ascribed to Agni in the Vedas. Him alone, the
 PROMETHEUS. 59

ever-youthful Agni, men groom like a horse in the evening

and at dawn ; they bed him as a stranger in his couch ;
the light of Agni, the worshipped male, is lighted.' Agni
was the Indian ' Brulefer' or love-charmer, and patron of
marriage; the fire-god Hephaistos was the husband of
Aphrodite ; the day of the Norse thunder-and-lightning
god Thor (Thursday), is in Scandinavian regions con
sidered the luckiest for marriages.
The process of obtaining fire by friction is represented
by a nobler class of myths than that referred to. In the
Mahdbhdrata the gods and demons together churn the
ocean for the nectar of immortality; and they use for
their churning-stick the mountain Manthara. This word
appears in pramantha, which means a fire-drill, and from
it comes the great name of Prometheus, who stole fire
from heaven, and conferred on mankind a boon which
rendered them so powerful that the jealousy and wrath
of Zeus were excited. This fable is generally read in its
highly rationalised and mystical form, and on this account
belongs to another part of our general subject ; but it may
be remarked here that the Titan so terribly tortured by
Zeus could hardly have been regarded, originally, as the
friend of man. At the time when Zeus was a god genu
inely worshipped when he first stood forth as the sup-
planter of the malign devourer Saturn it could have been
no friend of man who was seen chained on the rock for
ever to be the vulture's prey. It was fire in some destruc
tive form which must have been then associated with
Prometheus, and not that power by which later myths
represented his animating with a divine spark the man of
clay. The Hindu myth of churning the ocean for the
immortal draught, even if it be proved that the ocean is
heaven and the draught lightning, does not help us much.
The traditional association of Prometheus with the Arts
6o PARSEE RESTORATIONISM.

might almost lead one to imagine that the early use of

fire by some primitive inventor had brought upon him the
wrath of his mates, and that Zeus' thunderbolts repre
' '
sented some early strike against machinery.
It is not quite certain that it may not have been through
some euphemistic process that Fire-worship arose in Persia.
Not only does fire occupy a prominent place in the tor
tures inflicted by Ahriman in the primitive Parsee Inferno,
but it was one of the weapons by which he attempted
to destroy the heavenly child Zoroaster. The evil magi
cians kindled a fire in the desert and threw the child on
it but his mother, Dogdo, found him sleeping tranquilly
;

on the flames, which were as a pleasant bath, and his

face shining like Zohore and Moschteri (Jupiter and
Mercury).1 The Zoroastrians also held that the earth
would ultimately be destroyed by fire; its metals and
minerals, ignited by a comet, would form streams which all
souls would have to pass through : they would be pleasant
to the righteous, but terrible to the sinful, who, however,
would come through, purified, into paradise, the last to
arrive being Ahriman himself.
The combustible nature of many minerals under the
surface of the earth, which was all the realm of Hades
(invisible), would assist the notion of a fiery abode for
the infernal gods. Our phrase ' plutonic rock' would then
have a very prosaic sense. Pliny says that in his time
sulphur was used to keep off evil spirits, and it is not
impossible that it first came to be used as a medicine by
this route.2
Fire - festivals still exist in India, where the ancient
1 '
Du Perron, Vie de Zoroastre.'
8
The principle similia similibus curantur is a very ancient one ; but
though it may have originated in a euphemistic or propitiatory aim, the
homceopathist may claim that it could hardly have lived unless it had been
found to have some practical Advantages.
 FEAST OF FIRE. 61

raiment of Agni has been divided

up and distributed
among many deities. At the popular annual festival in
honour of Dharma Rajah, called the Feast of Fire, the
devotees walk barefoot over a glowing fire extending forty
feet. It lasts eighteen days, during which time those that
make vow to keep it must fast, abstain from women,
a
lie on the bare ground, and walk on a brisk fire. The
eighteenth day they assemble on the sound of instru
ments, their heads crowned with flowers, their bodies
daubed with saffron, and follow the figures of Dharma
Rajah and Draupadi his wife in procession. When they
come to the fire, they stir it to animate its activity, and
take a little of the ashes, with which they rub their fore
heads ; and when the gods have been carried three times
round it they walk over a hot fire, about forty feet. Some
carry their children in their arms, and others lances,
sabres, and standards. After the ceremony the people
press to collect the ashes to rub their foreheads with, and
obtain from devotees the flowers with which they were
adorned, and which they carefully preserve.1
The passion of Agni reappears in Draupadi purified by
fire for her five husbands, and especially her union with
Dharma Rajah, son of Yama, is celebrated in this unor
thodox passion-feast. It has been so much the fashion
for travellers to look upon all ' idolatry' with biblical eyes,
that we cannot feel certain with Sonnerat that there was
anything more significant in the carrying of children by
the devotees, than the supposition that what was good
for the parent was equally beneficial to the child. But
the identification of Moloch with an Aryan deity is not
important; the Indian Feast of Fire and the rites of
Moloch are derived by a very simple mental process from
the most obvious aspects of the Sun as the quickening
1 Sonnerat's ' '
Travels,
ii.

38.
6a MOLOCH.

and the consuming power in nature. The child offered to

Moloch was offered to the god by whom he was generated,
and as the most precious of all the fruits of the earth for
which his genial aid was implored and his destructive in
tensity deprecated. Moloch, a word that means ' sacrifice,'
was in all probability at first only a local (Ammonite) per
sonification growing out of an ancient shrine of Baal. The
Midianite Baal accompanied the Israelites into the wilder
ness, and that worship was never thoroughly eradicated. In
the Egyptian Confession of Faith, which the initiated took
even into their graves inscribed upon a scroll, the name of
God is not mentioned, but is expressed only by the words
Nuk pu Nuk, ' I am he who I am.' 1
The flames of the
burning bush, from which these same words came to Moses,
were kindled from Baal, the Sun ; and we need not wonder
that while the more enlightened chiefs of Israel pre
served the higher ideas and symbols of the countries they
abandoned, the ignorant would still cling to Apis (the
Golden Calf), to Ashtaroth, and to Moloch. Amos (v. 26),
and after him Stephen the martyr (Acts vii. 43), reproach
the Hebrews with having carried into the wilderness the
tabernacle of their god Moloch. And though the passing
of children through the fire to Moloch was, by the Mosaic
Law, made a capital crime, the superstition and the corre
sponding practice retained such strength that we find
Solomon building a temple to Moloch on the Mount of
Olives (1 Kings xi. 7), and, long after, Manasseh making
his son pass through the fire in honour of the same god.
It is certain from denunciations of the prophets2
the
that the destruction of children in these flames was actual.
From Jeremiah xix. 6, as well as other sources, we know
that the burnings took place in the Valley of Tophet or
1 Deutsch, 'Literary Remains,' p. 178.
a Isa. lvii. xvi. 20 ; Jer. xix. 5.
5 ; Ezek.
 GEHENNA. 63

Hinnom (Gehenna). The idol Moloch was of brass, and

its throne of brass; its head was that of a calf, and wore
a royal crown ; its stomach was a furnace, and when the
children were placed in its arms they were consumed by
the fierce heat, their cries being drowned by the beating
'
of drums ; from which, toph meaning a drum,' the place
was also called Tophet. In the fierce war waged against
alien superstitions by Josiah, he defiled Gehenna, filling it
with ordure and dead men's bones to make it odious,
'
that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass
'
through the fire to Moloch (2 Kings xxiii. 10), and a
perpetual fire was kept there to consume the filth of Jeru
salem.
From this horrible Gehenna, with its perpetual fire, its
loathsome worm, its cruelties, has been derived the picture
of a never-ending Hell prepared for the majority of human
beings by One who, while they live on earth, sends the
rain and sunshine alike on the evil and the good. Wo
Chang, a Chinaman in London, has written to a journal1 his
surprise that our religious teachers should be seized with
such concern for the victims of Turkish atrocities in Bul
garia, while they are so calm in view of the millions burn
ing, and destined to burn endlessly, in the flames of hell.
Our Oriental brothers will learn a great deal from our
missionaries among other things, that the theological god
;

of Christendom is still Moloch.

The Ammonites, of whom Moloch was the special de
mon, appear to have gradually blended with the Arabians.
These received from many sources their mongrel super
stitions, but among them were always prominent the
planet-gods and fire-gods, whom their growing mono
theism (to use the word still in a loose sense) transformed
to powerful angels and genii. The genii of Arabia are
1 The 'Jewish World.'
64 JEWISH SUPERSTITIONS
slaves of the lamp ; they are evoked by burning tufts of
hair ; they ascend as clouds of smoke. Though, as sub
ordinate agents of the Fire-fiend, they may be consumed
by flames, yet those who so fight them are apt to suffer
a like fate, as in the case of the Lady of Beauty in the

Arabian Nights' Entertainments. Many stories of this

kind preceded the declarations of the Old Testament,
that Jehovah breathes fire and brimstone, his breath
kindling Tophet also the passages of the Koran,
; and
and of the New Testament describing Satan as a fiery
fiend.
Various superstitions connecting infernal powers with
fire survive among the Jews of some remote districts of
Europe. The Passover is kept a week by the Jewish in
habitants in the villages on the Vosges mountains and on
the banks of the Rhine. The time of omer is the interval
between the Passover and Pentecost, the seven weeks
elapsing from the departure from Egypt and the giving of
the law, marked in former days by the offering of an omer
of barley daily at the temple. It is considered a fearful
time, during which every Jew is particularly exposed to
the evil influence of evil spirits. There is something
dangerous and fatal in the air; every one should be on
the watch, and not tempt the scJiedim (demons) in any
way. Havestrict eye upon your cattle, say the Jews,
a
for the sorceress will get into your stables, mount your
cows and goats, bring diseases upon them, and turn their
milk sour. In the latter case, try to lay your hand upon
the suspected person ; shut her up in a room with a basin
of sour milk, and beat the milk with a hazel-wand, pro
nouncing God's name three times. Whilst you are doing
will make great lamentation, for the blows
this, the sorceress
are falling upon her. Only stop when you see blue flames
dancing on the surface of the milk, for then the charm is
 RELICS OF FIRE-WORSHIP.

broken. If at nightfall a beggar comes to ask for a little

it,
charcoal to light his fire, be very careful not to give
and do not let him go without drawing him three times
by his coat-tail and without losing time, throw some large

;
handfuls of salt on the fire. In all of which we may
trace of parched wildernesses and fiery ser
traditions
pents, as well as of Abraham's long warfare with the Fire-
worshippers, until, according to the tradition, he was
thrown into the flames he refused to worship.
It probable that in all the popular superstitions which
is

now connect devils and future punishments with fire

are blended both the apotheosis and the degradation of
demons. The first and most universal of deities being
the Sun, whose earthly representative is fire, the student
of Comparative Mythology has to pick his way very
carefully in tracing by any ethnological path the innumer
able superstitions of European folklore in which Fire-
worship apparently reflected. The collection of facts
is

and records contained in a work so accessible to all who

care to pursue the subject as that of Brand and his editors,1
renders unnecessary that should go into the curious
it

facts to any great extent The uniformity of the

here.
traditions by which the midsummer fires of Northern
Europe have been called Baal-fires or Bel-fires warrant
the belief that they are actually descended from the
ancient rites of Baal, even apart from the notorious fact
that they have so generally been accompanied by the
superstition that benefit to children to leap over or
it
is
a

be passed through such fires. That this practice still sur

vives in out-of-the way places of the British Empire ap
pears from such communications as the following (from the

''Observations on Popular Antiquities,' &c., by John Brand. With the

additions of Sir Henry Ellis. An entirely new and revised edition. Chatto
Windus, 1877. See especially the chapter on 'Summer Solstice,'
&

p.

165.
VOL.
E
L
66 ROYAL FIRE-FESTIVAL.

Times), which are occasionally addressed to the London

journals: 'LERWICK (Shetland), July 7, 1871. Sir, It
may interest some of your readers to know that last night
(being St. John's Eve, old style) I observed, within a mile
or so of this town, seven bonfires blazing, in accordance
with the immemorial custom of celebrating the Midsum
mer solstice. These fires were kindled on various heights
around the ancient hamlet of Sound, and the children
'
leaped over them, and passed through the fire to Moloch,'
just their ancestors would have done a thousand years
as

ago on the same heights, and their still remoter progeni

tors in Eastern lands many thousand years ago. This
persistent adherence to mystic rites in this scientific epoch
seems to me worth taking note of. A.

J.'
To this may be added the following recent extract from
Scotch journal
a

Hallowe'en was celebrated at Balmoral Castle with

'

unusual ceremony, in the presence of her Majesty, the

Princess Beatrice, the ladies and gentlemen of the royal
household, and a large gathering of the tenantry. The
leading features of the celebration were a torchlight pro
cession, the lightingof large bonfires, and the burning in
effigy of witches and warlocks. Upwards of 150 torch-
bearers assembled at the castle as dark set in, and sepa
rated into two parties, one band proceeding to Invergelder,
and the other remaining at Balmoral. The torches were
lighted at quarter before six o'clock, and shortly after
a

the Queen and Princess Beatrice drove to Invergelder,

followed by the Balmoral party of torchbearers. The two
parties then united and returned in procession to the front
of Balmoral Castle, where refreshments were served to all,
and dancing was engaged in round huge bonfire. Sud
a

denly there appeared from the rear of the Castle a gro

tesque apparition representing witch with a train of fol
a
 BONFIRES. 67

lowers dressed like sprites, who danced and gesticulated in

all fashions. Then followed a warlock of demoniac shape,
who was succeeded by another warlock drawing a car,
on which was seated the figure of a witch, surrounded
by other figures in the garb of demons. The unearthly
visitors having marched several times round the burn
ing pile, the principal figure was taken from the car and
tossed into the flames amid the burning of blue lights
and a display of crackers and fireworks. The health of
her Majesty the Queen was then pledged, and drunk with
Highland honours by the assembled hundreds. Dancing
was then resumed, and was carried on till a late hour
at night.'
The Sixth Council of Constantinople (an. 680), by its
sixty -fifth canon, forbids these fires in the following
terms: 'Those bonefires that are kindled by certain
people before their shops and houses, over which also
they use ridiculously to leap, by a certain ancient custom,
we command them from henceforth to cease. Whoever,
therefore, shall do any such thing, if he be a clergyman,
let him be deposed ; if he be a layman, let him be excom
municated. For in the Fourth Book of the Kings it is
thus written : And Manasseh built an altar to all the host
of heaven, in the two courts of the Lord's house, and
made his children to pass through the fire.' There is a
charming naivete in this denunciation. It is no longer
' '
doubtful that this bonefire
over which people leaped
came from the same source as that Gehenna from which
the Church derived the orthodox theory of hell, as we
have already seen. When Shakespeare speaks (Macbeth)
of 'the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire,'1 he
is,

with his wonted felicity, assigning the flames of hell and

Pyra, a bonefire, wherein men's bodyes were burned.'

1
'

Cooper's The
saurus. Probably from Fr. ion; Wedgewood gives Dan. beam, beacon.
68 VIRGINIAN STORIES.
the fires of Moloch and Baal their right archaeological
relation.
In my boyhood I have often leaped over a bonfire in a
part of the State of Virginia mainly settled by Scotch
families, with whom probably the custom migrated thither.
In the superstitions of the negroes of that and other
Southern States fire plays a large part, but it is hardly
possible now to determine whether they have drifted there
from Africa or England. Sometimes there are queer coin
cidences between their notions and some of the early
legends of Britain. Thus, the tradition of the shepherd
guided by a distant fire to the entrance of King Arthur's
subterranean hall, where a flame fed by no fuel coming
through the floor reveals the slumbering monarch and
his court, resembles somewhat stories I have heard from
negroes of their being led by distant fires to lucky
others say unlucky or at any rate enchanted spots. A
negro belonging to my father told me that once, as he
was walking on a country road, he saw a great fire in the
distance ; he supposed it must be a house on fire, and
it,

hastened towards
meantime much puzzled, since he
knew of no house in that direction. As he went on his
way he turned into small wood near which the fire
a

seemed to be, but when he emerged, all he found was

a

single fire-coal burning in the path. There were no other

traces whatever of fire, but just then large dog leaped
a

past him with a loud bark and disappeared.

In letter on Voudouism in Virginia,' which appeared
'
a

in the New York Tribune, dated Richmond, September

17, 1875, occurs an account of class of superstitions
a

generally kept close from the whites, as have always

I

believed because of their purely African origin. As will

be seen, fire represents an important element in the super
stitious practices.
 VOUDOU SPELLS. 69

'
If an ignorant negro is smitten with a disease which
he cannot comprehend, he often imagines himself the
'
victim of witchcraft, and having no faith in white folks'
physic' for such ailments, must apply to one of these
quacks. A
physician residing near this city was invited
by such a one to witness his mode of procedure with a
dropsical patient for whom the physician in question had
occasionally charitably prescribed. Curiosity led him to
attend the seance, having previously informed the quack
that since the case was in such hands he relinquished all
connection with it. On the coverlet of the bed on which
the sick man lay was spread a quantity of bones, feathers,
and other trash. The charlatan went through with a series

of so-called conjurations, burned feathers, hair, and tiny

fragments of wood in a charcoal furnace, and mumbled
gibberish past the physician's comprehension. He then
proceeded to rip open the pillows and bolsters, and took
from them some queer conglomerations of feathers. These
he said had caused all the trouble. Sprinkling a whitish
powder over them, he burnt them in his furnace. A black
offensivesmoke was produced, and he announced trium
phantly that the evil influence was destroyed and that the
patient would surely get well. He died not many days
later, believing, in common with all his friends and rela
tives, that the conjurations of the 'trick doctor' had failed
to save him only because resorted to too late.'
The following account of a spell from which his wife
was rescued, was given me by a negro in Virginia :
'The wizard,' to quote the exact words of my infor
'
mant, threw a stick on a chest ; the stick bounded like
a trapball three times ; then he opened the chest, took out
something looking like dust or clay, and put it into a cup
with water over a fire ; then he poured it over a board
(after chopping it three times), which he then put up
70 JEWISH HOLY WATER.

beneath the shingles of the house. Returning to the chest

he took a piece of old chain, near the length of my hand,
took a hoe and buried the chain near the sill of the door
of my wife's house where she would pass ; then he went
away. I saw my wife coming and called to her not to
pass, and to go for a hoe and dig up the place. She did
this, and I took up the chain, which burned the ends of
all my fingers clean off. The same night the conjuror
came back : my wife took two half dollars and a quarter
in silver and threw them on the ground before him. The
man seemed as if he was shocked, and then offered her
his hand, which she refused to take, as I had bid her not
to let him touch her. He left and never came to the house
again. The spell was broken.'
I am convinced that this is a pure Voudou procedure,
and it is interesting in several regards. The introduction
of the chain may have been the result of the excitement of
the time, for it was during the war when negroes were
breaking their chains. The fire and water show how
wide-spread in Africa is that double ordeal which, as we
have seen, is well known in the kingdom of Dahomey.1
But the mingling of
something like dust' with the water
held in a cup over the fire, is strongly suggestive of the
Jewish method of preparing holy water, 'the water of
'
separation.' For an unclean person they shall take of
the dust of the burnt heiferof purification for sin, and
running water shall be put thereto in a vessel.'2 The
fiery element of the mixture was in this case imported
with the ashes of the red heifer. As for this sacrifice of
the red heifer itself8 it was plainly the propitiationof a
fiery demon. In Egypt red hair and red animals of all
kinds were considered infernal, and all the details of this
1 See Numbers xxxi. 23.
Chapter i. Compare
J Numbers xix. 1 7. 3 Ibid. xix. 2, seq.
 FIRE-GOD OF PEKING. 7*

sacrifice show that the colour of this selected heifer was

typical. The heifer was not a usual sacrifice : a red one

was obviously by its colour marked for the genii of fire

the terrible Seven and not to be denied them. Its blood
was sprinkled seven times before the tabernacle, and the
rest was utterly consumed including the hide, which is
particularly mentioned and the ashes taken to make the
'
water of separation.' Calmet notes, in this connection,
that the Apis of India was red-coloured.
The following interesting story of the Chinese Fire-god
was supplied to Mr. Dennys1 by Mr. Playfair of H.M.
Consulate, to whom it was related in Peking :
'
The temples of the God of Fire are numerous in
Peking, as is natural in a city built for the most part of
very combustible materials. The idols representing the god
are, with one exception, decked with red beards, typifying
by their colour the element under his control. The excep
'
tional god has a white beard, and thereby hangs a tale.'
'Ahundred years ago the Chinese imperial revenue
was in much better case than it is now. At that time
they had not yet come into collision with Western Powers,
' '
and the word indemnity had not, so far, found a place
in their vocabulary ; internal rebellions were checked as
soon as they broke out, and, in one word, Kien Lung was
in less embarrassed circumstances than Kwang Hsu; he
had more money to spend, and did lay out a good deal in
the way of palaces.
His favourite building, and one on
which no expense had been spared, was the ' Hall of Con
templation.' This hall was of very large dimensions ; the
rafters and the pillars which supported the roof were of a size
such as no trees in China furnish now-a-days. They were
not improbably originally sent as an offering by the tribu
tary monarch of some tropical country, such as Burmah or
1
'Folklore of China,' p. iai.
72 RED BEARDS.

Siam. Two men could barely join hands round the pillars;
they were cased in lustrous jet-black lacquer, which, while
adding to the beauty of their appearance, was also supposed
to make them less liable to combustion. Indeed, every
care was taken that no fire should approach the building ;

no lighted lamp was allowed in the precincts, and to have

smoked a pipe inside those walls would have been punished
with death. The floor of the hall was of different-coloured
marbles, in a mosaic of flowers and mystic Chinese char
acters, always kept polished like a mirror. The sides of
the room were lined with rare books and precious manu
scripts. It was, in short, the finest palace in the imperial
city, and it was the pride of Kien Lung.
'Alas for the vanity of human wishes! In spite of
every precaution, one night a fire broke out, and the Hall
of Contemplation was in danger. The Chinese of a century
ago were not without fire-engines, and though miserably
inefficient as compared with those of our London fire
brigade, they were better than nothing, and a hundred of
them were soon working round the burning building. The
Emperor himself came out to superintend their efforts and
encourage them to renewed exertions. But the hall was
doomed ; a more than earthly power was directing the
flames, and mortal efforts were of no avail.
For on one of
the burning rafters Kien Lung saw the figure of a little old
man, with a long white beard, standing in a triumphant
attitude. '
It is the God of Fire,' said the Emperor, '
we
'
can do nothing ; so the building was allowed to blaze in
peace. Next day Kien Lung appointed a commission to
go the round of the Peking temples in order to discover in
which of them there was a Fire-god with a white beard,
that he might worship him, and appease the offended deity.
The search was fruitless; all the Fire-gods had red beards.
But the commission had done its work badly; being highly
 /OSS BURNERS. 73

respectable mandarins of genteel families, they had con

fined their search to such temples as were in good repair
and of creditable exterior. Outside the north gate of the
imperial city was one old, dilapidated, disreputable shrine
which they had overlooked. It had been crumbling away
for years, and even the dread figure of the God of Fire,
which sat above the altar, had not escaped desecration.
'
Time had thinned his flowing locks,' and the beard had
fallen away altogether. One day some water-carriers who
frequented the locality thought, either in charity or by way
of a joke, that the face would look the better for a new
beard. So they unravelled some cord, and with the frayed-
out hemp adorned the beardless chin. An official passing
the temple one day peeped in out of curiosity, and saw the
hempen beard. 'Just the thing the Emperor was inquiring
about,' said he to himself, and he took the news to the
palace without delay. Next day there was a state visit to
the dilapidated temple, and Kien Lung made obeisance
and vowed a vow.
'O Fire-god,' said he, 'thou hast been wroth with me
in that I have built me palaces, and left thy shrine un-
honoured and in ruins. Here do I vow to build thee a
temple surpassed by none other of the Fire-gods in
Peking; but I shall expect thee in future not to meddle
with my palaces.'
'The Emperor was as good as his word. The new
temple is on the site of the old one, and the Fire-god has
a flowing beard of fine white hair.'
In the San Francisco Bulletin, I
recently read a de
scription of the celebration by the Chinese in that city
of their Feast for the Dead, in which there are some
significant features. The chief attention was paid, says
the reporter, to a figure 'representing what answers in
their theology to our devil, and whom they evidently
74 FIRE-FIENDS.

think it necessary to propitiate before proceeding with

their worship over individual graves.' This figure is on
the west side of their temple ; before and around it candles
and joss-sticks were kept burning. On the east side was
the better-looking figure, to which they paid comparatively
little attention.
It was of course but natural that the demons of fire
should gradually be dispelled from that element in its
normal aspects, as its uses became more important through
human invention, and its evil possibilities were mastered.
Such demons became gradually located in the region of
especially dangerous fires, as volcanoes and boiling springs.
The Titan whom the ancients believed struggling beneath
iEtna remained there as the Devil in the christian age.
St. Agatha is said to have prevented his vomiting fire for
a century by her prayers. St. Philip ascended the same
mountain, and with book and candle pronounced a prayer
of exorcism, at which three devils came out like fiery
'
flying stones, crying, Woe is us ! we are still hunted
'
by Peter through Philip the Elder ! The volcanoes
originated the belief that hell is at the earth's centre,
and their busy Vulcans of classic ages have been easily
transformed into sulphurous lords of the christian Hell.
Such is the mediaeval Haborym, demon of arson, with his
three heads man, cat, and rides through
serpent who
the air mounted on a serpent, and bears in his hand a
flaming torch. The astrologers assigned him command
of twenty-six legions of demons in hell, and the super
stitious often saw him laughing on the roofs of burning
houses.1 But still more dignified is Raum, who com

1 In Russia the pigeon, from consecrated to the thunder

being anciently
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.
 DEMONS FEAR WATER. 75

mands thirty legions, and who destroys villages; hence,

also, concerned in the destructions of war, he became the
demon who awards dignities ; and although this made his
usual form of apparition on the right bank of the Rhine
that of the Odinistic raven, on the left bank he may be
detected in the little red man who was reported as the
familiar of Napoleon I. during his career.
Among Mr. Gill's South Pacific myths is one of a Pro
metheus, Maui, who by assistance of a red pigeon gets
from the subterranean fire-demon the secret of producing
fire (by rubbing sticks), the demon (Mauike)being then
consumed with his realm, and fire being brought to the
upper world to remain the friend of man. In Vedic
legend, when the world was enveloped in darkness, the
gods prayed to Agni, who suddenly burst out as Tvashtri
pure fire, the Vedic Vulcan to the dismay of the uni
verse. In Eddaic sagas, Loki was deemed the most
voracious of beings until defeated in an eating match
with Logi (devouring fire).
Survivals of belief in the fiery nature of demons are very
numerous. Thus it is a very common belief that the Devil
cannot touch or cross water, and may therefore be escaped
by leaping a stream. This has sometimes been supposed
to have something to do with the purifying character of
water ; but there are many instances in christian folklore
where the Devil is shown quite independent of even holy
water if it is not sprinkled on him or does not wet his feet.
Thus in the Norfolk legend concerning St. Godric, the
Devil is said to have thrown the vessel with its holy water
at the saint's head out of anger at his singing a canticle
which the Virgin taught him. But when the Devil
attacked him in various ferocious animal shapes, St. Godric
escaped by running into the Wear, where he sometimes
stood all night in water up to his neck.
76 FIRE BELIEFS.

The Kobolds get the red jackets they are said to wear
from their fiery nature. Originally the lar familiaris of
Germany, the Kobold became of many varieties ; but in
one line he has been developed from the house-spirit,
whose good or evil temper was recognised in -the comforts
or dangers of fire, to a special Stone-demon. The hell-dog
in Faust's room takes refuge from the spell of ' Solomon's
'
Key behind the stone, and is there transformed to human
shape. The German maidens read many pretty oracles in
the behaviour of the fire, and the like in that of its fellow
Wahrsager the house-dog. It is indeed a widespread
notion that imps and witches lurk about the fireside,
obviously in cat and dog, and ride through the air on
implements that usually stand about the fire, shovel,
tongs, or broom. In Paris it was formerly the custom to
throw twenty-four cats into the fire on St. John's night,
the animals being, according to M. De Plancy, emblems
of the devil. So was replaced the holocaust of human
witches, until at last civilisation rang out its curfew for all
such fires as that.
 ( 77 )

CHAPTER III.
COLD.

Descent of Ishtar into Hades Bardism Baldur Hercules Christ

Survivals of the Frost Giant in Slavonic and other countries
The Clavie The Frozen Hell The Northern abode of demons
North side of churches.

EVEN across immemorial generations it is impossible to

read without emotion the legend of the Descent of Ishtar
into Hades.1 Through seven gates the goddess of Love
passes in search of her beloved, and at each some of her
ornaments and clothing are removed by the dread guar
dian. Ishtar enters naked into the presence of the Queen
of Death. But gods, men, and herds languish in her
absence, and the wonder-working Hea, the Saviour, so
charms the Infernal Queen, that she bids the Judge of her
realm, Annunak, absolve Ishtar from his golden throne.
'
He poured out for Ishtar the waters of life and let
her go.
Then the first gate let her forth, and restored to her
the first garment of her body.
The second gate let her forth, and restored to her the
diamonds of her hands and feet.
The third gate let her forth, and restored to her the
central girdle of her waist.

1 Tablet K 162 in Brit. Mus. Tr. by H. F. Talbot in '

Records of the
Past.'
78 THE DEATH OF NATURE.

The fourth gate let her forth, and restored to her the
small lovely gems of her forehead.
The fifth gate let her forth, and restored to her the
precious stones of her head.
The sixth gate let her forth, and restored to her the
earrings of her ears.
The seventh gate let her forth, and restored to her the
great crown on her head.'
This old miracle-play of Nature the return of summer
flower by flower is deciphered from an ancient Assyrian
tablet in a town within only a few hours of another, where
acircle of worshippers repeat the same at every solstice !
Myfyr Morganwg, the Arch-Druid, adores still Hea by
name as his Saviour, and at the winter solstice assembles
his brethren to celebrate his coming to bruise the head oi
the Serpent of Hades (Annwn, nearly the same as in the
tablet), that seedtime and harvest shall not fail.1
Is this a survival ? No doubt ; but there is no cult in
the world which, if '
scratched,' as the proverb says, will
not reveal beneath it the same conception. However it
'
may be spiritualised, every ' plan of salvation is cast in
the mould of Winter conquered by the Sun, the Descent
of Love to the Under World, the delivery of the impri
soned germs of Life.
It is very instructive to compare with the myth of
Ishtar that of Hermodr, seeking the release of Baldur the
Beautiful from Helheim.
The deadly powers of Winter are represented in the
Eddaic account of the death of Baldur, soft summer Light,
the Norse Baal. His blind brother Hodr is Darkness; the
demon who directed his arrow is Loki, subterranean fire ;

1 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.
 RESURRECTION OF NATURE. 79

the arrow itself is of mistletoe, which, fostered by Winter,

owes no duty to Baldur; and the realm to which he is
borne is that of Hel, the frozen Hermodr, having
zone.
arrived, assured Hel that the gods were in despair for the
loss of Baldur. The Queen replied that it should now be
'
tried whether Baldur was so beloved. If, therefore, all
things in the world, both living and lifeless, weep for him,
he shall return to the iEsir.' In the end all wept but the
old hag Thokk (Darkness), who from her cavern sang

Thokk will wail

With dry eyes
Baldur"s bale-fire.
Nought quick or dead
For Carl's son care I.
Let Hel hold her own.

So Baldur remained in Helheim. The myth very closely

resembles that of Ishtar's Descent. In similar accent the
messenger of the Southern gods weeps and lacerates him
self as he relates the grief of the upper world, and all men
and animals 'since the time that mother Ishtar descended
into Hades.' But in the latter the messenger is successful,
in the North he is unsuccessful. In the corresponding
myths of warm and sunny climes the effort at release is

more or less successful, in proportion to the extent of

winter. In Adonis released from Hades for four months
every year, and another four if he chose to abandon Per
sephone for Aphrodite, we have a reflection of a variable
year. That, and the similar myth of Persephone, varied in
the time specifiedfor their passing in the upper and under
worlds, probably in accordance with the climatic averages
of the regions in which they were told. But in the tropics
it was easy to believe the release complete, as in the myth
of Ishtar. In Mangaian myths the hero, Maui, escapes
from a nether world of fire, aided by a red pigeon.
8o GLAD TIDINGS FROM THE SOUTH.

When this contest between Winter's Death and Spring's

Life became humanised, it was as Hercules vanquish
ing Death and completely releasing Alcestis. When it
became spiritualised it was as Christ conquering Death
and Hell, and releasing the spirits from prison. The
wintry desolation had to be artificially imitated in a
forty days' fast and Lent, closing with a thrust from the
spear (the mistletoe arrow) amid darkness (blind Hpdr).
But the myth of a swift resurrection had to be artifi
cially preserved in the far North. The legend of a full
triumph over Death and Hell could never have originated
among our Norse ancestors. Their only story resembling
that of Iduna, related how her recovery from the Giants
it,

brought back health to the gods, not men. But was

it
from the South that men had to hear tidings of a rescue
for the earth and man.
We cannot realise now what glad tidings were they
which told this new gospel to peoples sitting in regions of
ice and gloom, after had been imposed on them against
it

their reluctant fears. In manifold forms the old combat

was renewed in their festivals,
and peoples who had long
been prostrate and helpless before the terrible powers of
nature were never weary of the Southern fables of heroic
triumphs over them, long interpreted in the simple phy
sical sense.
The great Demon of the Northern World still Winter,
is

and the hereditary hatred of him such that he still

is
is

cursed, scourged, killed, and buried or drowned under

various names and disguises. In every Slavonic country,
says Mr. Ralston, there are to be found, about carnival
time, traces of ancient rites, intended to typify the death
of Winter and the birth of Spring or Summer. In Poland
puppet made of hemp or straw flung into pond or
is

a
a

swamp with the words, The Devil take thee Then the
'
'

!
 JUDAS AS WINTER-DEMON. 81

participators in the deed scamper home, and if one of them

stumbles and falls it is believed he will die within the year.
In Upper Lausatia a similar figure is fastened on a pole to
be pelted, then taken to the village boundary and thrown
across it or cast into the water, its bearers returning
with green boughs. Sometimes the figure is shrouded in
white, representing snow, and bears in its hands a broom
(the sweeping storm) and a sickle (the fatal reaper). In
' '
Russia the Straw Mujik is burned, and also in Bulgaria ;

in the latter the bonfire is accompanied by the firing of

guns, and by dances and songs to Lado, goddess of Spring.
This reminiscence of Leto, on whose account Apollo slew
the Python, is rendered yet more striking by the week of
archery which accompanies recalling the sunbeam darts
it,

of the god. In Spain and Italy the demon puppet

is
scourged under the name of Judas, as indeed the case
is
in the annual Good Friday performance of Portuguese
sailors in the London Docks. Mr. Tylor found in Mexico
similar custom, the Judas being regular horned and
a
a

hoofed devil. In Scotland the pre-christian accessories of

corresponding custom are more pronounced both in the
a

time selected (the last day of the year, old style) and the
place. The Clavie,' as the custom of burning the puppet
'

of Winter mysteriously called, occurred on January

is

12
of this year (1878) at Burghead, a fishing village near
Forres, where stands an old Roman altar locally named
the Douro.' A tar-barrel was set on fire and carried by
'

fisherman round the town, while the people shouted and

a

hallooed. (If the man who carries the barrel falls an

is
it

evil omen.) The lighted barrel, having gone round the

town, was carried to the top of the hill and placed on
the Douro. More fuel was added. The sparks as they
fly upwards are supposed to be witches and evil spirits
leaving the town the people therefore shout at and curse
;

VOL.
f
I.
8a THE FROZEN HELL.

them as they disappear in vacancy. When the burning

tar-barrel falls in pieces, the fishwomen rush in and endea
vour to get a lighted bit of wood from its remains ; with
this light the fire on the cottage hearth is at once kindled,
and it is considered lucky to keep this flame alive all the
rest of the year. The charcoal of the Clavie is collected
and put in bits up the chimney to prevent the witches and
evil spirits coming into the house. The Douro is covered
with a thick layer of tar from the fires that are annually
lighted upon it. Close to it is a very ancient Roman
well.
It is an instance of the irony of etymology that the word
'
Hell' means a place of fireless darkness.
Nor is the fact
that the name of the Scandinavian demoness Hel, phoneti
'
cally corresponding with Kali, the Black One
'
(Goth.
Halja), whose abode was an icy hole, has her name pre-
se'rved as a place of fiery torment, without significance. In
regions where cold was known to an uncomfortable extent
as well usually find it represented in the ideas of
as heat, we
future punishment. The realm called Hades, meaning just
the same as Hell, suggests cold. Tertullian and Jerome
'
say that Christ's own phrases ' outer darkness and the
' '
gnashing (chattering) of teeth suggest a place of ex
treme cold alternating with the excessive heat. Traces of
similar speculations are found with the Rabbins. Thus
Rabbi Joseph says Gehenna had both water and fire.
Noah saw the angel of death approaching and hid from
him twelve months. Why twelve ? Because (explains
Rabbi Jehuda) such is the trial of sinners, six in water,
six in fire. Dante (following Virgil) has frigid as well as
burning hells ; and the idea was refined by some scholiasts
to a statement which would seem to make the alternations
of future punishment amount to a severe ague and fever.
Milton (Paradise Lost, ii.) has blended the rabbinical
 THE AGUE-DEMON. 83

notions with those of Virgil (JEn. vi.) in his terrible pic

ture of the frozen continent, where
The parching air
Burns frore, and cold performs th' effect of fire :
Thither by harpy-footed Furies haled
At certain revolutions all the damn'd
Are brought ; and feel by turns the bitter change
Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce,
From beds of raging fire to starve in ice
Their soft etherial warmth, and there to pine
Immovable, infix'd, and frozen round.

With which may be compared Shakespeare's lines in

' Measure for Measure '

The de-lighted spirit

To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice.

In Thibet hell is believed to have sixteen circles, eight

burning, eight frozen, which M. Delepierre attributes to
the rapid changes of their climate between the extremes of
heat and cold.1 Plutarch, relating the vision of Thespesius
in Hades, speaks of the frozen region there. Denys le
Chartreux (De Pcenis Inferni) says the severest of infernal
'
torments is freezing. In the ' Kalendar of Shepherds
(1506) a legend runs: 'Lazarus sayde, sawe a flode 'I
of frosone yce in the whiche envyous men and women
were plonged unto the navyll, and then sodynly came a
colde wynde ryght great that blewe and dyd depe downe
all the envyous into the colde water that nothynge was
seen of them.' Such, too, is Persian Arda Viraf's vision.
The Demon of Cold has a habitat, naturally, in every
Northern region. He is the Ke-mung of China, who
man-shaped, dragon-headed haunts the Chang river,
and causes rain-storms.2 In Greenland it is Erleursortok,
who suffers perpetual agues, and leaps on souls at death
1 ' L'Enfer,' p. '
Folklore of China,' p. 98.
5. Dennys'
84 THE EAST WIND.

to satisfy his hunger. The Chenoos (demons) of the

Mimacs of Nova Scotia present certain features of the race-
demons, but are fearfully cold. The Chenoo weapon is a
dragon's horn, his yell is fatal to the hearer, his heart is a
block of ice. This heart must be destroyed if the demon
is to be slain, but it can only be done by melting in the
fire : chief precaution required is that one is not
the
drowned in the flood so caused. The icy demon survived
'
long in Scotland. Sir James Melville, in his Memoirs,'
'
says the spirit or devil that helped the Scottish witches
to raise a storm in the sea of Norway was cold as ice and
his body hard as iron ; his face was terrible, his nose like
the beak of an eagle, great burning eyes, his hands and
legs hairy, with claws on his nails like a griffin.' Dr. Fian
was burnt for raising this demon to oppose James I. on his
stormy passage from Denmark.
This type of demon haunted people's minds in Scan
dinavia, where, though traditions of a flame demon (Loki)
and the end of the world by fire were imported, the popular
belief seems to have been mainly occupied with Frost giants,
and the formidable Oegir, god of the bleak sea east winds,
preserved in our word awe (Anglo-Saxon ege), and more
directly in the name of our familiar demon, the Ogre, so
often slain in the child's Gladsheim. Loki (fire) was, in
deed, speedily relegated by the JEsir (gods) to a hidden sub
terraneous realm, where his existence could only be known
by the earthquakes, geysers, Hecla eruptions which
and
he occasioned. Yet he was to come forth at Ragnarok,
the Twilight of the Gods. We can see a singular blend
ing of tropical and frigid zones the one traditional, the
'
other native in the Prose Edda. Thus : What will
remain,' said Gangler, 'after heaven and earth and the
whole universe shall be consumed, and after all the gods
and the homes of Valhalla and all mankind shall have
 FIER Y HE A VENS. 85

' '
perished ? There will be many abodes,' replied Thridi,
'
some good, The best place of all to be in
some bad.
will be Gimil, in heaven; and all who delight in quaffing
good drink will find a great store in the hall called
Brimir, which is also in heaven in the region Okolni.
There is of ruddy gold, (for) Sindri,
also a fair hall
which stands on the mountains of Nida. In those halls
righteous and well-minded men shall abide. In Na-strond
there is a vast and direful structure with doors that face
the north. It is formed entirely of the backs of serpents,
wattled together like wicker-work. But the serpents'
heads are turned towards the inside of the hall, and con
tinually vomit forth floods of venom, in which wade all
those who commit murder or who forswear themselves.
As it is said in the Voluspa:

She saw a hall

Far from the sun
In Nastrond standing,
Northward the doors look,
And venom-drops
Fall in through loopholes.
Formed is that hall
Of wreathed serpents.
There saw she wade
Through heavy streams
Men forsworn
And murderers.

These names for the heavenly regions and their occu

pants indicate sunshine and fire. Gimil means fire (ghnr) :

Brimir (brimi, flame), the giant, and Sindri {cinder), the

dwarf, jeweller of the gods, are raised to halls of gold.
Nothing is said of a garden, or walking therein 'in the
cool of the day.' On the other hand, Na-strond means
'
Strand of the Dead, in that region whose doors face the
north,' far from the sun,' we behold an inferno of extreme
86 GOTHIC DEMONS.

cold. Christianity has not availed to give the Icelanders

any demonic name suggestive of fire. They speak of
' '
Skratti (the roarer, perhaps our Old Scratch), and
'
'
Kolski (the coal black one), but promise nothing so lumi
nous and comfortable as fire or fire-fiend to the evil-doer.
In the great Epic of the Nibelungen Lied we have pro
bably the shape in which the Northman's dream of Para
dise finally cohered, a Rose-garden in the South, guarded
by a huge Worm (water-snake, or glittering glacial sea

intervening), whose glowing charms, with Beauty (Chriem-

hild) for their queen, could be won only by a brave dragon-
slaying Siegfried. In passing by the pretty lakeside home
of Richard Wagner, on my way to witness the Ammergau
version of another dragon-binding and paradise-regaining
legend, I noted that the old
of the (Starnberg)
name
lake was Wurmsee, from the dragon that once haunted

it,
while from the composer's window might be seen its Isle

'
of Roses,'
which the dragon guarded. Since then the
myth of many forms has had its musical apotheosis at
Bayreuth under his wand.
England, partly perhaps on account of its harsh climate,
of being the chief abode of demons.
once had the reputation
A demoness leaving her lover on the Continent says, My
'

mother calling me in England.'1 But England assigned

is

them still higher latitudes in christianising Ireland, Iona,

;

and other islands far north, was preliminary to expel

it

the demons. The Clavie,' the Deis-iuil of Lewis

'
'

'

and other Hebrides islands fire carried round cattle to

defend them from demons, and around mothers not yet
churched, to keep the babes from being changed show
'
'

that the expulsion still goes on, though in such regions

Norse and christian notions have become so jumbled that
fighting the devil with fire.' So in the Havamal men
is
it
'

De iiello Gothico,' iv. 20.

1

Procopius,
'
 NORTH SIDE OF CHURCHES. 87

'
are warned to invoke 'fire for distempers ; and Gudrun
sings
Raise, ye Jarls, an oaken pile ;
Let it under heaven the lightest be.
May it burn a breast full of woes !
The fire round my heart its sorrows melt

The last line is in contrast with the Hindu saying, '

the
flame of her husband's pyre cools the widow's breast.'
The characters of the Northern Heaven and Hell sur
vive in the English custom of burying the dead on the
southern side of a church. How widely this usage pre
vailed in Brand's time may be seen by reference to his
chapter on churchyards. The north side of the graveyard
was set apart for unbaptized infants and executed crimi
nals, and it was permitted the people to dance or play
tennis in that part.
Dr. Lee says that in the churchyard
at Morwenstow the southern portion only contains graves,
the north part being untenanted ; as the Cornish believe
(following old traditions) that the north is the region of
demons. In some parishes of Cornwall when a baptism
occurs the north door of the nave opposite the font is
thrown open, so that the devil cast out may retire to his
own region, the north.1 This accords with the saying in
' '
Martin's Month's Mind ab aquilone omne malum.
Indeed, it is not improbable that the fact noted by
White, in his ' History of Selborne,' that 'the usual ap
proach to most country churches is by the south,' indicated
a belief that the sacred edifice should turn its back on the
region of demons. It is a singular instance of survival
which has brought about the fact that people who listen
devoutly to sermons describing the fiery character of Satan
and his abode should surround the very churches in which
those sermons are heard with evidences of their lingering
1 '
Memorials of the Rev. K. S. Hawkes.
88 HOT AND COLD WINDS.

faith that the devil belongs to the region of ice, and that
their dead must be buried in the direction of the happy
abodes of Brimir and Sindri, Fire and Cinders !

M. Francois Lenormant has written an extremely in

structive chapter in comparison of the Accadian and the
Finnish mythologies. He there shows that they are as

one and the same tree, adapted to antagonistic climates.1

With similar triad, runes, charms, and even names in some
cases, their regard for the fire worshipped by both varies
in a way that seems at first glance somewhat anomalous.
The Accadians in their fire-worship exhausted the re
sources of praise in ascription of glory and power to the
flames; the Finns in their cold home celebrated the fire
festival at the winter solstice, uttered invocations over the
fire, and the mother of the family, with her domestic liba
'
tion, said Always rise so high, O my flame, but burn
:

not larger nor more ardent!' This diminution of enthu

siasm in the Northern fire-worshipper, as compared with
the Southern, may only be the result of euphemism in the
latter ; or perhaps while the formidable character of the
fire-god among the primitive Assyrians is indicated in the
utter prostration before him characteristic of their litanies
and invocations, in the case of the Finns the perpetual
presence of the more potent cold led to the less excessive
adoration. These ventured to recognise the faults of
fire.
The true nature of this anomaly becomes visible when
we consider that the great demon, dreaded by the two
countries drawing their cult from a common source, repre
sented the excess of the power most dreaded. The demon
in each case was a wind ; among the Finns the north wind,
among the Accadians the south-west (the most fiery) wind.
The Finnish demon was Hiisi, speeding on his pale horse
1 ' La Magie che>. les Chaldeens,' iii.
 YULETIDE.

through the air, with a terrible train of monster dogs, cats,

furies, scattering pain, disease, and death.1 The Accadian
demon, of which the bronze image is in the Louvre, is the
body of a dog, erect on eagle's feet, its arms pointed with
lion's paws ; it has the tail of a scorpion and the head of
askeleton, half stripped of flesh, preserving the eyes, and
mounted with the horns of a goat. It has four out
spread On the back of this ingeniously horrible
wings.
image is an inscription in the Accadian language, appris
ing us that it is the demon of the south-west wind, made
to be placed at the door or window, to avert its hostile
action.
As we observe such figures as these on the one hand,
and on the other the fair beings imagined to be antagon
istic to them ; as we note in runes and incantations how
intensely the ancients felt themselves to be surrounded by
these good and evil powers, and, reading nature so, learned
to see in the seasons successively conquering and conquered
by each other, and alternation of longer days and longer
nights, the changing fortunes of a never-ending battle ; we
may better realise the meaning of solstitial festivals, the
customs that gathered around Yuletide and New Year,
and the manifold survivals from them which annually
masquerade in christian costume and names. To our
sun-worshipping ancestor the new year meant the first
faint advantage of the warmer time over winter, as nearly
as he could fix it. The hovering of day between supe
riority of light and darkness is now named after doubting
Thomas. At Yuletide the dawning victory of the sun is
seen as a holy infant in a manger amid beasts of the stall.
The old nature-worship has bequeathed to christian belief
a close-fitting mantle. But the old idea of a war between
the wintry and the warm powers still haunts the period of
1 '
Lonnrot, Abliandlung iiber die Magische Medicin der Finnen.'
90 WATCHNIGHT.

the New Year ; andtwelve days and nights, once

the
believed to be the period of a fiercely-contested battle be
tween good and evil demons, are still regarded by many
as a period for especial watchfulness and prayer. New
Year's Eve, in the north of England still ' Hogmanay,'
probably O. N. Jwku-nott, midwinter-night, when the sacri
fices of Thor were prepared, formerly had many observ
ances which reflected the belief that good and evil ghosts
were contending for every man and woman : the air was
believed to be swarming with them, and watch must be
kept to see that the protecting fire did not go out in any
household; that no strange man, woman, or animal ap
proached, possibly a demon in disguise. Sacred plants
were set in doors and windows to prevent the entrance of
any malevolent being from the multitudes filling the
air. John Wesley, whose noble heart was allied with
a mind strangely
open to stories of hobgoblins, led
the way of churches and sects back into this ancient
atmosphere. Nevertheless, the rationalism of the age
has influenced St. Wesley's Feast Watchnight. It can
hardly recognise its brother in the Boar's Head Banquet of

Queen's College, Oxford, which celebrated victory over

tusky winter, the decapitated demon whose bristles were
once icicles fallen beneath the sylvan spirits of holly and
rosemary. Yet what the Watchnight really signifies in
the antiquarian sense is just that old culminating combat
between powers of fire and frost, once believed to
the
determine human fates. In White Russia, on New Year's
Day, when the annual elemental battle has been decided,
the killed and wounded on one hand, and the fortunate on
the other, are told by carrying from house to house the
rich and the poor Kolyadas. These are two children, one
dressed in fine attire, and crowned with a wreath of full
ears of grain, the other ragged, and wearing a wreath of
 THE KOLYADAS. 9*

threshed straw. These having been closely covered, each

householder is called in, and chooses one. If his choice
chances upon the 'poor Kolyada,' the attending chorus
chant a mournful strain, in which he is warned to expect
a bad harvest, poverty, and perhaps death ; if he selects
the 'rich Kolyada,' a cheerful song is sung promising him
harvest, health, and wealth.
The natives of certain districts of Dardistan assign poli
tical and social significance to their Feast of Fire, which
is celebrated in the month preceding winter, at new moon,
just after their meat provision for the season is laid in to
dry. Their legend that was then their national hero
is,

it

slew their ancient tyrant and introduced good government.

This legend, related elsewhere, of a tyrant slain through
is

the discovery that his heart was made of snow. He was

slain by the warmth of torches. In the celebrations all
the men of the villages go forth with torches, which they
swing round their heads, and throw in the direction of
Ghilgit, where the snow-hearted tyrant so long held his
castle. When the husbands return home from their torch-
throwing a little drama rehearsed. The wives refuse
is

them entrance till they have entreated, recounting the

benefits they have brought them after admission the
;

husband affects sulkiness, and must be brought round

with caresses to join in the banquet. The wife leads him
forward with this song Thou hast made me glad, thou
'
:

favourite of the Rajah Thou hast rejoiced me, oh bold

!

horseman am pleased with thee who so well usest the

I
!

gun and sword Thou hast delighted me, oh thou in

!

vested with mantle of honours Oh great happiness,

a

I
!

will buy by giving pleasure's price Oh thou nourish

it

ment to us, heap of corn, store of ghee delighted will

I

buy all by giving pleasure's price

'
it

!
 ( 9a )

CHAPTER IV.
ELEMENTS.

A Scottish Munasa Rudra Siva's lightning eye The flaming

sword Limping demons Demons of the storm Helios, Elias,
Perun Thor arrows The Bob-tailed Dragon Whirlwind
Japanese thunder god Christian survivals Jinni Inundations
Noah Nik, Nicholas, Old Nick Nixies Hydras Demons
of the Danube Tides Survivals in Russia and England.

DURING some recent years curious advertisements have

appeared in a journal of Edinburgh, calling for pious
persons to occupy certain hours of the night with holy
exercises. It would appear that they refer to a band of
prayerful persons who provide that there shall be an un
broken round of prayers during every moment of the day
Their theory that the usual cessation
is,

and night.
is
it

of christian prayers at night which causes so many dis

asters. The devils being then less restrained, raise storms
and all elemental perils.The praying circle, which hopes
to bind these demons by an uninterrupted chain of prayers,
originated, as am informed, in the pious enthusiasm of
I

alady whose kindly solicitude in some pre-existent sister

was no doubt personified in the Hindu Munasa, who, while
all gods slept, sat in the shape of a serpent on a branch of
Euphorbia to preserve mankind from the venom of snakes.
It to be feared, however, that hardly the wisdom of
is
is

it

the serpent which on prayerful watch at Edinburgh, but

is
 SCOTTISH SUPERSTITIONS. 93

rather a vigilance of that perilous kind which was exer

'
cised by Meggie o' the Shore,' anno 1785, as related by
Hugh Miller.1 On a boisterous night, when two young
girls had taken refuge in her cottage, they all heard about
midnight cries of distress mingling with the roar of the
'
sea. Raise the window curtain and look out,' said Meggie.
The terrified girls did so, and said, '
There is a bright light
in the middle of the Bay of Udall. It hangs over the
water about the height of a ship's mast, and we can see
something below it like a boat riding at anchor, with the
white sea raging around her.' '
Now drop the curtain,'
said Meggie ;
'
I am no stranger, my lasses, to sights and
noises like these sights and noises of another world ; but
I have been taught that God is nearer to me than any
spirit can be ; and so have learned not to be afraid.'
Afterwards it is not wonderful that a Cromarty yawl was
discovered to have foundered, and all on board to have
been drowned ; though Meggie's neighbours seemed to
have preserved the legend after her faith, and made the
scene described of what actually occurred.
a premonition
It was in a region where mariners when becalmed invoke
the wind by whistling ; and both the whistling and the
praying, though their prospects in the future may be
slender, have had a long career in the past.
'
In the ' Rig- Veda there is a remarkable hymn to Rudra
(the Roarer), which may be properly quoted here :
1. Sire of the storm gods, let thy favour extend to us ;

shut us not out from the sight of the sun ; may our hero
be successful in the onslaught. O Rudra, may we wax
mighty in our offspring.
2. Through the assuaging remedies conferred by thee,
O Rudra, may we reach a hundred winters; drive away
far from us hatred, distress, and all-pervading diseases.
1 '
Scenes and Legends of the North of Scotland.' Nimmo, 1876.
94 RUDRA.

3. Rudra, art the most excellent of beings in

Thou, 0
glory, the strongest of the strong, O wielder of the bolt ;
bear us safely through evil to the further shore ; ward off
all the assaults of sin.
4. May we not provoke thee to anger, O Rudra, by
our adorations, neither through faultiness in praises, nor
through wantonness in invocations ; lift up our heroes by
thy remedies ; thou art, I hear, the chief physician among
physicians.
5. May I propitiate with hymns this Rudra who is wor
shipped with invocations and oblations ; may the tender
hearted,easily-entreated, tawny-haired, beautiful-chinned
god not deliver us up to the plotter of evil [literally, to
the mind meditating ' I kill
'].

The bounteous giver, escorted by the storm-gods,

6.

hath gladdened me, his suppliant, with most invigorat

ing food as one distressed by heat seeketh the shade,
;

may free from harm, find shelter in the good-will of

I,

Rudra.
Where, that gracious hand of thine, which
Rudra,
O

is
7.

healing and comforting Do thou, removing the evil

is

which cometh from the gods, bounteous giver, have

O

mercy upon me.

To the tawny, the fair-complexioned dispenser of
8.

bounties, send forth a great and beautiful song of praise

I

adore the radiant god with prostrations; we hymn the

illustrious name of Rudra.
Sturdy-limbed, many-shaped, fierce, tawny, he hath
9.

decked himself with brilliant ornaments of gold truly

;

strength inseparable from Rudra, the sovereign of this

is

vast world.
10. Worthy of worship, thou bearest the arrows and
the bow worthy of worship, thou wearest resplendent
a
;

necklace of many forms; worthy of worship, thou rulest

 RUDRA. 95

over this immense universe ; there is none, O Rudra,

mightier than thou.
1 1. Celebrate the renowned and ever-youthful god who
on a chariot, who like wild beast, terrible,

is,
is seated

a
fierce, and destructive have mercy upon the singer,

O
;
Rudra, when thou art praised may thy hosts strike down

;
another than us.
12. As
boy saluteth his father who approacheth and
a

speaketh to him, so, Rudra, greet thee, the giver of

O

I
much, the lord of the good grant us remedies when thou
;

art praised.
Your remedies, storm-gods, which are pure and
O

13.

helping, bounteous givers, which are joy-conferring,

O

which our father Manu chose, these and the blessing and
succour of Rudra crave.
I

14.May the dart of Rudra be turned aside from us,

may the great malevolence of the flaming-god be averted

;
unbend thy strong bow from those who are liberal with
their wealth god, have mercy upon our off
O

generous
;

spring and our posterity (i.e., our children and children's

children).
15. Thus, tawny Rudra, wise giver of gifts, listen to
O

our cry, give heed to us here, that thou mayest not be

angry with god, nor slay us; may we, rich in heroic
O

us,
sons, utter great praise at the sacrifice.1
In other hymns the malevolent character of Rudra
is

made still more prominent

:

Slay not our strong man nor our little child, neither
7.

him who growing nor him who grown, neither our

is
is

father nor our mother; hurt Rudra, our dear

O

not,
selves.
Harm us not in our children and children's children,
8.

nor in our men, nor in our kine, nor in our horses. Smite
Rig- Veda,' ii. 33. Tr. by Professor Evans of Michigan.
1
'
9« THE EVIL EYE.

not our heroes in thy wrath ; we wait upon thee perpetu

ally with offerings.1
In this hymn (verse i) Rudra is described as 'having
braided hair;' and in the ' Yajur-veda' and the ' Atharva-
veda' other attributes of Siva are ascribed to him, such as
the epithet ntla-grtva, or blue-necked. In the ' Rig-veda'
Siva occurs frequently as an epithet, and means auspicious.
It was used as a euphemistic epithet to appease Rudra,
the lord of tempests ; and finally, the epithet developed
into a distinct god.
The parentage of Siva is further indicated in the legends
that his glance destroyed the head of the youthful deity
Ganesa, who now wears the elephant head, with which it
was replaced ; him to keep
and that the gods persuaded
his eyes perpetually winking (like sheet-lightning), lest
his concentrated look (the thunderbolt) should reduce the
universe to ashes. With the latter legend the gaze of the
evil eye in India might naturally be associated, though in
the majority of countries this was rather associated with
the malign influences ascribed to certain planets, especially
Saturn ; the charms against the evil eye being marked
over with zodiacal signs. The very myth of Siva's eye
survives in the Russian demon Magarko ('Winker') and
the Servian Vii, whose glance is said to have power to
reduce men, and even cities, to ashes.
The terrible Rudra is represented in a vast number of
beliefs, some of them perhaps survivals ; in the rough sea
and east-wind demon Oegir of the northern world, and
Typhon in the south; and in Luther's faith that 'devils
do house in the dense black clouds, and send storms, hail,
thunder and lightning, and poison the air with their infernal
stench,' a doctrine which Burton, the Anatomist of Melan-
1 'Rig- Veda,' i. 114.
 LIGHTNING-SWORDS. 97

choly, too, maintained against the meteorologists of his

time.
Among the ancient Aryans lightning seems to have
been the supreme type of divine destructiveness. Rudra's
dart, Siva's eye, reappear with the Singhalese prince of
demons Wessamonny, described as wielding a golden
sword, which, when he is angry, flies out of his hand,
to which it spontaneously returns, after cutting off a
thousand heads.1 A
wonderful spear was borne by Odin,
and was possibly the original Excalibur. The four-faced
Sviatevit of Russia, whose mantle has fallen to St. George,
whose statue was found at Zbrucz in 1851, bore a horn of
wine (rain) and a sword (lightning).
In Greece similar swords were wielded by Zeus, and also
by the god of war. Through Zeus and Ares, the original
wielders of the lightning Indra and Siva became types
of many gods and semi-divine heroes. The evil eye of
Siva glared from the forehead of the Cyclopes, forgers of
thunderbolts; and the saving disc of Indra flashed in
the swords and arrows of famous dragon-slayers Perseus,
Pegasus, Hercules, and St. George. The same sword
defended the Tree of Life in Eden, and was borne in
the hand of Death on the Pale Horse (a white horse
was sacrificed to Sviatevit in Russia within christian
times). And, finally, we have the wonderful sword
which obeys the command 'Heads off!' delighting all
nurseries by the service it does to the King of the Golden
Mountain.
'
I beheld Satan as lightning falling out of heaven.' To
the Greeks this falling of rebellious deities out of heaven
accounted, as we have seen explained, for their lameness.
But a universal phenomenon can alone account for the
'
many demons with crooked or crippled legs (like Diable
1 'lour. R. A. Soc.,' 1865-66.
Ceylon
VOL. L G
98 CROOKED LEGS OF DEMONS.

Boiteux all around the world. The Namaquas of South

')*
Africa have deity whose occupation to cause pain

'

is
'

it
a
and death; his name Tsui'knap, that 'wounded knee.'2

is

is
Livingstone says of the Bakwains, another people of
South Africa, It curious that in all their pretended

is
'
dreams or visions of their god he has always a crooked
leg, like the Egyptian Thau.'s In Mainas, South America,
they believe in a treacherous demon, Uchuella-chaqui, or
Lame-foot, who in dark forests puts on a friendly shape
to lure Indians to destruction; but the huntsmen say
they can never be deceived they examine this demon's

if
foot-track, because of the unequal size of the two feet.4
The native Australians believed in demon named Biam;

a
he in his lower extremities they
black and deformed
is

;
attributed to him many of their songs and dances, but
also sort of small-pox to which they were liable.5 We
a

have no evidence that these superstitions migrated from a

common centre and there can be little doubt that many
;

of these crooked legs are traceable to the crooked light

ning.6 At the same time this by no means inconsistent
is

with what has been already said of the fall of Titans and
angels from heaven as often accounting for their lameness
in popular myths. But in such details hard to reach
is
it

certainty, since many of the facts bear a suspicious

so
resemblance to each other. A wild boar with distorted
'

legs attacked St. Godric, and the temptation strong

'

is

to generalise on the story, but the legs probably mean

only to certify that was the devil.
it

Dr. Schliemann has unearthed among his other trea

sures the remarkable fact that temple of Helios (the
a

sun) once stood near the site of the present Church of

Welcker, 'Griechische Gotterlehre,'

1

vol. p. 661. Moffat, p. 257.

!
' i.

Reise in Chile,' vol.

3

Livingstone,
ii.

p. 124. Poppig, p. 358.

Eyre, vol. ii. Tylor, Early Hist.,' p.
6

'
p.

362. 359.
 VAYU'S WIND-CHARIOT. 99

Elias, at Mycenae, which has from time immemorial been

the place to which people repair to pray for rain.1 When
the storm-breeding Sun was succeeded by the Prophet
whose prayer evoked the cloud, even the name of the
latter did not need to be changed. The discovery is the
more interesting because it has always been a part of the
christian folklore of that region that, when a storm with
lightning Elias in his chariot of fire.' A
occurs, it is '

similar phrase is used in some part of every Aryan

country, with variation of the name : it is Woden, or King
Waldemar, or the Grand Veneur, or sometimes God, who
is said to be going forth in his chariot.
These storm-demons in their chariots have their fore
runner in Vata or Vayu, the subject of one of the most
beautiful Vedic hymns. '
I celebrate the glory of Vata's
chariot ; its noise comes rending and resounding. Touch
ing the sky he moves onward, making all things ruddy ;

and he comes propelling the dust of the earth.

'
Soul of the gods, source of the universe, this deity
moves as he lists. His sounds have been heard, but his
form is not seen ; this Vata let us worship with an obla
2
tion.'
This last verse, as Mr. Muir has pointed out, bears a
startling resemblance to the passage in John, 'The Wind
bloweth where it listeth, and thou canst not tell whence it
cometh or whither it goeth ; so is every one that is born
of the Wind.'8
But an equally striking development of the Vedic idea
is represented in the Siamese legend of Buddha, and in
this case the Vedic Wind-god Vayu reappears by name
for the Angels of Tempests, or Loka Phayu. The first
' So confirming the conjecture of Wachsmulh, in ' Das alte Grieclicnland
im neucn,' p. 23. K!iaj might also easily be associated with the name Mollis.
2 ' »
Rig- Veda,' x. (Muir). John iii. 8.
100 ANGELS OF COMMOTION.

portent which preceded the descent of Buddha from the

'
Tushita heavens was of the Tempest,
when the Angels
clothed in red garments, and with streaming hair, travel
among the of mankind crying, 'Attend all ye
abodes
who are near to death ; repent and be not heedless ! The
end of the world approaches, but one hundred thousand
years more and it will be destroyed. Exert yourselves,
then, exert yourselves to acquire merit. Above all things
be charitable; abstain evil; meditate with love
from doing
to all beings, and listen to the teachings of holiness. For
we are all in the mouth of the king of death. Strive then ear
nestly for meritorious fruits, and seek that which is good.' 1
Not less remarkable is the Targum of Jonathan Ben
Uzziel to I Kings xix., where around Elias on the moun
tain gather ' a host of angels of the wind, cleaving the
mountain and breaking the rocks before the Lord;' and
after these, ' angels of commotion,' and next 'of fire,' and,
finally, 'voices singing in silence' preceded the descent of
Jehovah. It can hardly be wondered that a prophet of
whom this story was told, and that of the storm evoked
from a small cloud, should be caught up into that chariot
of the Vedic Vayu which has rolled on through all the
ages of mythology.
Mythologic streams seem to keep their channels almost
as steadfastly as rivers, but as even these change at last or
blend, so do the old traditions. Thus we find that while
Thor and Odin remain as separate in survivals as Vayu
and Parjanya in India, in Russia Elias has inherited not
the mantle of the wind-god or storm-breeding sun, but of
the Slavonic Thunderer Perun. There is little doubt that
'
this is Parjanya, described in the Rig- Veda as the thun-
''

derer, the showcrer, the bountiful,'2 who 'strikes down

1 The Wheel of the Law,' by Henry Alabaster, Triibner & Co.

'
Rig- Veda,' v. 83 (Wilson).
 DEMONS' THUNDERBOLTS. 101

' ' '

trees and the wicked.' The people of Novgorod,' says
'
Herberstein, formerly offered their chief worship and
adoration to a certain idol named Perun. When subse
quently they received baptism they removed it from its
place, and threw it into the river Volchov ; and the story
goes that it swam against the stream, and that near the
'
bridge a voice This for you, O in
was heard saying,
habitants of Novgorod, in memory of me;' and at the
same time a certain rope was thrown upon the bridge.
Even now it happens from time to time on certain days
of the year that this voice of Perun may be heard, and on
these occasions the citizens run together and lash each
other with ropes, and such a tumult arises thereform that
all the efforts of the governor can scarcely assuage it.' 1
The statue of Perun in Kief, says Mr. Ralston, had a trunk
of wood, while the head was of silver, with moustaches of
gold, and among its weapons was a mace. Afanasief states
that in White-Russian traditions Perun is tall and well-
shaped, with black hair and a long golden beard. This
beard relates him to Barbarossa, and, perhaps, though
distantly, with the wood-demon Barbatos, the Wild
Archer, who divined by the songs of birds.2 Perun also
has a bow which is 'sometimes identified with the rain
bow, an idea which is known also to the Finns.
it,

From
according to the White Russians, are shot burning arrows,
which set on fire all things that they touch. In many
parts of Russia (as well as of Germany) supposed that
is
it

these bolts sink deep into the soil, but that at the end of
three or seven years they return to the surface in the shape
of longish stones of black or dark grey colour probably
a

belemnites, or masses of fused sand which are called

thunderbolts, and considered as excellent preservations
against lightning and conflagrations. The Finns call thein
Major's Tr.,' t6
1

VVierus' Pwudomonarchia Dasmon.'

ii.
'

'
102 THE KEY.

Ukonkiwi Ukko, and inCourland

the stone of thunder-god
their name is Perkuhnsteine, which explains itself. In some
cases the flaming dart of Perun became, in the imagina
tion of the people, a golden key. With it he unlocked the
earth, and brought to light its concealed treasures, its
restrained waters, its captive founts of light. With it
also he locked away in safety fugitives who wished to be
put out of the power of malignant conjurors, and per
formed various other good offices. Appeals to him to
exercise these functions still exist in the spells used by the
peasants, but his name has given way to that of some chris
tian personage. In one of them, for instance, the Arch
angel Michael is called upon to secure the invoker behind
an iron door fastenedby twenty-seven locks, the keys of
which are given to the angels to be carried to heaven.
In another, John the Baptist is represented as standing
upon a stone in the Holy Sea [i.e., in heaven], resting
upon an iron crook or staff, and is called upon to stay the
flow of blood from wound, locking the invoker's veins
a
'
with his heavenly key.' In this case the myth has passed
into a rite. In order to stay violent bleeding from the
a
nose, a locked padlock is brought, and the blood is allowed
to drop through its aperture, or the sufferer grasps a key
in each hand, either plan being expected to prove effica
cious. As far as the key is concerned, the belief seems to
be still maintained among ourselves.'1
The Key has a holy sense in various religions, and con
sequently an infernal key is its natural counterpart. The
Vedic hymns, which say so much about the shutting and
opening, imprisoning and releasing, of heavenly rains and
earthly fruits by demons and deities, interpret many
phenomena of nature, and the same ideas have arisen in
many lands. We cannot be certain, therefore, that Calmet
1 'Songs of the Russian People,' by W. R. S. Ralston, MA.
 A ZODIACAL DEMON.

is right in assigning an Indian origin to the subjoined

Figure 5, an ancient Persian medal. The signs of the zodiac
on its body show it to be one of those celestial demons
believed able to bind the beneficent or loose the formid
able powers of nature. The Key is of especial import in
Hebrew faith. It was the high-priest Eliakim's symbol of
'
office, as being also prefect in the king's house. The

Fig- 5

key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder :

he shall open and none shall shut ; he shall shut and none
shall open.'1 The Rabbins had a saying that God re
serves to himself four keys, which he will intrust not
1 Isa. It
xxii. 22. is remarkable that (according to Callimachus) Ceres
bore a key on her shoulder. She kept the granary of the earth.
104 CHINESE THUNDER-DUKE.

even to the angels : the key of rain, the key of the grave,

the key of fruitfulness, and the key of barrenness. It was

the sign of one set above angels when Christ was seen
with the keys of Hell and Death, or when he delivered
the keys of heaven to Peter,1 still thrust down the backs
of protestant children to cure nose-bleed.
The ubiquitous superstition which attributes the flint
arrows of pre-historic races to gods, shot by them as light
ning, and, as some said, from a rainbow, is too childlike a
theory to call for elaborate treatment. We need not, ethno-
graphically, connect our 'Thor arrows' and 'Elf shots'
with the stones hurled at mortals by the Thunder-Duke
(Lui-tsz) of China. The ancient Parthians, who used to
reply to the thunderstorm by shooting arrows at

it,
and the
Turks, who attack an eclipse with guns, fairly represent
the infancy of the human race, though perhaps with more
than its average pluck.
Dr. Macgowan relates, concerning
the Lei-chau (Thunder District) of China, various myths
which resemble those which surround the world. After
thunderstorms, black stones, believed, may be found
it
is

which emit light and peculiar sounds on being struck. In

a temple consecrated to the Thunder Duke the people
annually place drum for that stormy demon to beat. The
a

drum was formerly left on mountain-top with little

a

boy as sacrifice.2 Mr. Dennys* speaks of the belief in

a

18.; Matt. xvi. 'Journal N. C. B. R. A. S.,' 1853.

a
1

Rev.
i.

19.
Folklore of China,' p. The drum held by the imp in Fig. shows
3
'

124.
3

his relation to the thunder-god. In Japan the thunder-god represented as

is

having five drums strung together. The wind-god has a large bag of com
pressed air between his shoulders and he has steel claws, representing the
;

keen and piercing wind. The Tartars in Siberia believe that potent demon
a

may be evoked by beating drum their sorcerers provide a tame bear, who
a

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
sect, the Brahmo-Somaj, that said to be still beaten as accom
is
it

theistic
paniment to the organ sent to their chief church by their English friends.
 WHIRL WINDS.

the same country that violent winds and typhoons are

caused by the passage through the air of the ' Bob-tailed
Dragon,' and also of the rain-god Yu-Shiih. A storm-god
connected with the ' Eagre,' or bore of the river Tsien-
tang, presents a coincidence of name with the Scandi
navian Oegir, which would be hardly noticeable were it
not for the very close resemblance between the folklore
' '
concerning the Bob-tailed Dragon and the storm-dragons
of several Aryan races. Generally, in both China and
Japan the Dragon is regarded with a veneration equal to
the horror with which the serpent is visited. Of this
phenomenon and its analogies in Britain I shall have an
explanation to submit when we come to consider Dragon-
myths more particularly. To this general rule the ' Bob-
'
tailed Dragon of China is a partial exception. His fidelity
as a friend led to the ill return of an attack by which his
tail was amputated, and ever since his soured temper has
shown itself in raising storms. When a violent tempest
'
arises the Cantonese say, The Bob-tailed Dragon is pass
ing,' in the same proverbial way as the Aryan peasantries
attribute the same phenomenon to their storm-gods.
The notion is widely prevalent in some districts of
France that all whirlwinds, however slight, are caused by
wizards or witches, who are in them, careering through
the air; and it is stated by the Melusine that in the
department of the Orne storms are attributed to the
clergy, who are supposed to be circling in them. The
same excellent journal states that some years ago, in that
department, a parishioner who saw his crops threatened
by a hail-storm fired into the cloud. The next day he
heard that the parish priest had broken his leg by a fall
for which he could not account.
The following examples are given by Kuhn. Near
Stangenhagen is a treasure hid in a mountain which Lord
106 THUNDER-GODS.

von Thiimen tried to seek, but was caught up with his

horse by a whirlwind and deposited at home again. The
Devil is believed to be seated at the centre of every whirl
wind. At Biesenthal it is said a noble lady became the
Wind's bride. She was in her time a famous rider and
huntress, who rode recklessly over farmers' fields and
gardens; now she is herself hunted by snakes and dragons,
and may be heard howling in every storm.
I suspect that the bristling hair so frequently portrayed
in the Japanese Oni, Devils, refers to their frequent resi
dence at the centre of a gale of wind. Their demon of the
storm is generally pictured throned upon a flower of flames,
his upraised and extended fingers emitting the most terrific
lightnings, which fall upon his victims and envelop them
in flames. Sometimes, however, the Japanese artists poke
fun at their thunder-god, and show him sprawling on the
ground from the recoil of his own lightnings. The follow
ing extract from The Christian Herald (London, April 12,
1877) will show how far the dread of this Japanese Oni
extends :
'
A pious father writes,
'
A few days ago there
was a severe thunderstorm, which seemed to gather very
heavily in the direction where my son lived ; and I had a
feeling that I
must go and pray that he might be pro
tected, and not be killed by the lightning. The impres
sion seemed to say, There is no time to be lost.' I obeyed,
'

and went and knelt down and prayed that the Lord would
spare his life. believe I my prayer. My son
he heard
called on me afterwards, and, speaking of the shower, said,
'
The lightning came downwards and struck the very hoe
in my hands, and numbed me.' I said, '
Perhaps you
would have been killed if some one had not been praying
for you.' Since then he has been converted, and, I trust,
will be saved in God's everlasting kingdom.'
Such paragraphs may now strike even many christians
 WATERSPOUTS. 107

as But it is not so very long since some

'survivals.'
eminent clergymen looked upon Benjamin Franklin as
the heaven-defying Ajax of Christendom, because he
undertook to show people how they might divert the
lightnings from their habitations. In those days Franklin
personally visited a church at Streatham, whose steeple
had beenstruck by lightning, and, after observing the
region, gave an opinion that if the steeple were again
erected without a lightning-rod, it would again be struck.
'
The audacious man who snatched sceptres from tyrants
and lightnings from heaven,' as the proverb ran, was not
listened to: the steeple was rebuilt, and again demolished
by lightning.
The supreme god of the Quichuas (American), Viracvcha
(' sea foam rises out of Lake Titicaca, and journeys with
'),

lightnings for all opposers, to disappear in the Western

Ocean. The Quichua mentally brother of the Arab
is

camel-driver. The sea,' said in the Arabian Nights,'

is
it

'
'

'the sea became troubled before them, and there arose

from black pillar, ascending towards the sky, and
it
a

approaching the meadow,' and behold was a Jinn of

1
it
'

gigantic stature.' The Jinn sometimes helpful as

is

is
it

formidable repays the fisherman who unseals from

it

it
;

the casket fished up from the sea, as fruitfulness comes

out of the cloud no larger than man's hand evoked by
a

Elijah. The perilous Jinn described in the above extract

the waterspout. Waterspouts are attributed in China
is

to the battles of dragons in the air, and the same country

recognises a demon of high tides. The newest goddess in
China canonised protectress against the shipwrecking
is
a

Although the Koran and other authorities, as already stated, have asso.
1

ciated the Jinn with etherial fire, Arabic folklore nearer the meaning of the
is

word in assigning the name to all demons. The learned Arabic lexicographer
of Beirut, P. Bustani, says 'The Jinn the opposite of mankind, or
is
it
is

whatever veiled from the sense, whether angel or devil.'

is
io8 DEMONS OF INUNDATION.

storm-demons of the coast, an exaltation recently pro

claimed by the Government of the empire in obedience, as
the edict stated, to the belief prevailing among sailors.
In this the Chinese are a long way behind the mariners
and fishermen of the French coast, who have for centuries,
'
by a pious philology, connected ' Maria' with La MareV
and 'La Mer;'
and whenever they have been saved from
storms, bring their votive offerings to sea-side shrines of
the Star of the Sea.
The old Jewish theology, in its eagerness to claim for
'
Jehovah the absolutism which would make him Lord of
lords,' instituted his responsibility for many doubtful per
formances, the burthen of which is now escaped by the
device of saying that he 'permitted' them. In this way
the Elohim who brought on the Deluge have been iden
tified with Jehovah. None the less must we see in the
biblical account of the Flood the action of tempestuous
water-demons. What power a christian would recognise
in such an event were it related in the sacred books of
another religion may be seen in the vision of the Apo
calypse 'The Serpent cast out of his mouth a flood of
water after the woman, that he might cause her to be
carried away with the flood ; and the earth helped the
woman and opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood.'
This Demon of Inundation meets the explorer of Egyp
tian and Accadian inscriptions at every turn. The ter
rible Seven, whom even the God of Fire cannot control,
'break down the banks of the Abyss of Waters.'1 The
God of the Tigris, Tourtak (Tartak of the Bible), is ' the
'
great destroyer.' 2
Leviathan maketh the deep to boil
like a pot:' 'when he raises up himself the mighty are
afraid by reason of breakings they purify themselves.' 8
;

In the Astronomical Tablets, which Professor Sayce

1 'Cuneiform Ins.,' iv. lb.
8

Job xli.
ii.

15. 27.
 SEA-DRAGONS. 109

dates about B.C. 1600, we have the continual association of

eclipse and flood: 'On the fifteenth day an eclipse takes
place. The king dies ; and rains in the heaven, floods in
the channels are.'
'
In the month of Elul (August), the
fourteenth day, an eclipse takes place. . . . Northward
. . . its shadow is seen ; and to the King of Mullias a crown

is given. To the king the crown is an omen ; and over

the king the eclipse passes. Rains in heaven, floods in
the channels flow. A famine is in the country. Men
'
their sons for silver sell.' After a year the Air-god inun
1
dates.'
In the Chaldaeo- Babylonian cosmogony the three zones
of the universe were ruled over by a Triad as follows :
the Heaven by Anu ; the surface of the earth, including
the atmosphere, by Bel ; the under-world by Nouah.2
This same Nouah is the Assyrian Hea or Saviour ; and
it is Noah of the Bible. The name means a rest or
residence, the place where man may dwell. When Tia-
mat the Dragon, or the Leviathan, opens
'
the fountains of
Anu 'the windows of Heaven,' it is
the great deep,' and
Hea or Noah who saves the life of man. M. Francois
Lenormant has shown this to be the probable sense of one
of the most ancient Accadian fragments in the British
Museum. In it allusion is made to 'the serpent of seven
heads . . . that beats the sea.' 3
Hea, however, appears
to be more clearly indicated in a fragment which Pro
fessor Sayce appends to this :

Below in the abyss the forceful multitudes may they sacrifice.

The overwhelming fear of Anu in the midst of Heaven encircles
his path.
The spirits of earth, the mighty gods, withstand him not.
The king like a lightning-flash opened.

' 5 '
Records of the Past,' i. Lenormant, La Magic'
* ' Records of the Past,' iii. 129.
I 10 THE FLOOD.
ADAR, the striker of the fortresses of the rebel band, opened.
Like the streams in the circle of heaven I besprinkled the seed
of men.
His marching in the fealty of Bel to the temple I directed,

(He is) the hero of the gods, the protector of mankind, far (and)
near . . .
O my lord, life of Nebo (breathe thy inspiration), incline thine ear.
0 Adar, hero, crown of light, (breathe) thy inspiration, (incline)
thine ear.
The overwhelming fear of thee may the sea know . . .
Thy setting (is) the herald of his rest from marching,
In thy marching Merodach (is) at rest 1 . . .
Thy father on his throne thou dost not smile.
Bel on his throne thou dost not smite.
The spirits of earth on their throne may he consume.
May thy father into the hands of thy valour cause (them) to go forth.
May Bel into the hands of thy valour cause (them) to go forth.
(The king, the proclaimed) of Anu, the firstborn of the gods.
He that stands before Bel, the heart of the life of the House of
the Beloved.'
The hero of the mountain (for those that) die in multitudes.
the one god, he will not urge.'

In this primitive fragment we find the hero of the

mountain (Noah), invoking both Bel and Nebo, aerial and
infernal Intelligences, and Adar the Chaldaean Hercules,
' '
for their inspiration that breath which, in the biblical
story, goes forth in the form of the Dove (' the herald 01
' ' '
his rest in the Accadian fragment), and in the wind
by which the waters were assuaged (in the fragment ' the
'
spirits of the earth which are given into the hand of the
'
violent hero of the mountain,' whom alone the gods 'will
not urge').
The Hydra may be taken as a type of the destructive
water-demon in a double sense, for Its heads remain in
many mythical forms. The Syrian Dagon and Atergatis,
fish-deities, have bequeathed but their element to our

1 The god of the Euphrates. The Assyrian has 'of the high places. '
3 '
Records of the Past,' iii. 129, 130.
 OLD NICK. in
Undines of romance. Some nymphs have so long been
detached from aqueous associations as to have made their
names puzzling, and their place in demonology more so.
To the Nixy (i"?'%t<>) of Germany, now merely mischievous
like the British Pixy, many philologists trace the common
phrase for the Devil, '
Old Nick.' I believe, however,
that this phrase owes its popularity to St. Nicholas rather
than to the Norse water-god whose place he was assigned
after the christian accession. This saintly Poseidon, who,
from being the patron of fishermen, gradually became asso
'
ciated with that demon whom, Sir Walter Scott said, the
British sailor feared when he feared nothing else,' was also
of old the patron of pirates ; and robbers were called ' St.
Nicholas' clerks.' 1 In Norway and the Netherlands the
ancient belief in the demon Nikke was strong ; he was a
kind of Wild Huntsman of the Sea, and has left many
legends, of which '
The Flying Dutchman ' is one. But my
belief is that, through his legendary relation to boys, St.
Nicholas gave the name Old Nick its modern moral accent.
Because of his reputation for having restored to life three
murdered children St. Nicholas was made their patron, and
on his day, December 6, it was the old custom to consecrate
a Boy-Bishop, who held office until the 28th of the month.
By this means he became the moral appendage of the old
Wodan god of the Germanic races, who was believed in
winter time to find shelter in and shower benefits from
evergreens, especially firs, on his favourite children who
to wander beneath ' '
happened them. Bartel,' Klaubauf,'
or whatever he might be called, was reduced to be the
servant of St. Nicholas, whose name is now jumbled into
'
Santaclaus.' According to the old custom he appeared

1 '
Henry IV.,' Part
Act 2. '
Heart of Mid-Lothian,' xxv. An interest
1st,
ing paper on this subject by Mr. Alexander Wilder appeared in Tht Evolu
tion, New York, December 16, 1877.
112 NICK OF THE WOODS.

attended by his Knecht Klaubauf personated by those

who knew all about the childrenbringing sort ofa

doomsday. The gifts having been bestowed on the good

children, St. Nicholas then ordered Klaubauf to put the
naughty ones into his pannier and carry them off for
punishment. The terror and shrieks thus caused have
created vast misery among children, and in Munich and
some other places the authorities have very properly made
such tragedies illegal. But for many centuries it was the
custom of nurses and mothers to threaten refractory
children with being carried off at the end of the year by
Nicholas; and in this way each year closed, in the young
apprehension, with a Judgment Day, a Weighing of Souls,
and a Devil or Old Nick as agent of retribution.
Nick has long since lost his aquatic character, and we
find his name in the Far West (America) turning up as
'
The Nick of the Woods,' the wild legend of a settler
who, following a vow of vengeance for his wrongs, used to
kill the red men while they slept, and was supposed to
be a demon. The Japanese have a water-dragon Kappa
of a retributive and moral kind, whose office it is to
swallow bad boys who go to swim in disobedience to their
parents' commands, or at improper times and places. It
is not improbable that such dangers to the young origi
nated some of the water-demons, probably such as are
thought of as diminutive and mischievous, e.g., Nixies.
The Nixa was for a long time on the Baltic coast the
female ' Old Nick,' and much feared by fishermen. Her
malign disposition is represented in the Kelpie of Scotland,
a water-horse, believed to carry away the unwary by
sudden floods to devour them. In Germany there was a

river-goddess whose temple stood at Magdeburg, whence

its name. A legend exists of her having appeared in the
market there in christian costume, but she was detected by
 NIXIES. "3
a continual dripping of water from the corner of her
apron. In Germany the Nixies generally played the part
of the naiads of ancient times.1 In Russia similar beings,
called Rusalkas, are much more formidable.
In many regions of Christendom it is related that these
demons, relatives of the Swan-maidens, considered in
another chapter, have been converted into friendly or even
pious creatures, and baptized into saintly names. Some
times there are legends which reveal this transition. Thus
it is related that in the year 1440, the dikes of Holland being
broken down by a violent tempest, the sea overflowed the
meadows; and some maidens of the town of Edam, in
West Friesland, going in a boat to milk their cows, espied
a mermaid embarrassed in the mud, the waters being very
shallow.They took it into their boat and brought it to
Edam, and dressed it in women's apparel, and taught it
to spin. It ate as they did, but could not be brought to
speak. It was carried to Haarlem, where it lived for some
years,though showing an inclination to water. Parival,
who tells the story, relates that they had conveyed to it
some notions of the existence of a deity, and it made its
reverences devoutly whenever it passed a crucifix.
Another creature of the same species was in the year
1 53 1 caught in the Baltic, and sent as a present to Sigis-
mund, King of Poland. It was seen by all the persons
about the court, but only lived three days.
The Hydra the torrent which, cut off in one direction,
makes many headways in others has its survivals in the
many diabolical names assigned to boiling springs and to
torrents that become dangerously swollen. In California
' ' '
the boiling springs called Devil's Tea-kettle and Devil's
' ' '
Mush-pot repeat the Devil's Punch-bowls of Europe,
and the innumerable Devil's Dikes and Ditches. St
1 De Plancy.
VOL. L H
H4 THE HYDRA.

Gerard's Hill, near Pesth, on which the saint suffered

martyrdom, is believed to be crowded with devils when
ever an inundation threatens the city ; they indulge in
fiendish laughter, and play with the telescopes of the ob
servatory, so that they who look through them afterwards
see only devils' and witches' dances !
1
At Buda, across the
river from Pesth, is the famous 'Devil's Ditch,' which the

Fig. 6. Hercules and the Hydra (Louvre).

inhabitants use as a sewer while it is dry, making it a

Gehenna to poison them with stenches, but which often
becomes a devastating torrent when thaw comes on the
Blocksberg. In 1874 the inhabitants vaulted it over to
keep away the normal stench, but the Hydra-head so

1 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.
 DEMONS OF THE DANUBE. 115

lopped off grew again, and in July 1875 swallowed up a

hundred people.1
The once perilous Strudel and Wirbel of the Danube
are haunted by diabolical legends. From Dr. William
Beattie's admirable work on The Danube I quote the
' '

'
following passages : After descending the Greiner-
schwall, or rapids of Grein above mentioned, the river
rolls on for considerable space, in a deep and almost
a

tranquil volume, which, by contrast with the approaching

turmoil, gives increased effect to its wild, stormy, and
romantic features. At first a hollow, subdued roar, like
that of distant thunder, strikes the ear and rouses the tra
veller's attention. This increases every second, and the
stir and activity which now prevail among the hands on
board show that additional force, vigilance, and caution
are to be employed in the use of the helm and oars. The
water is now changed in its colour chafed into foam, and
agitated like a seething cauldron. In front, and in the
centre of the channel, rises an abrupt, isolated, and colossal
rock, fringed with wood, and crested with a mouldering
tower, on the summit of which is planted a lofty cross, to
which in the moment of danger the ancient boatmen were
wont to address their prayers for deliverance. The first
sight of this used to create no little excitement and appre
hension on board ; the master ordered strict silence to be
observed, the steersman grasped the helm with a firmer
hand, the passengers moved aside, so as to leave free
space for the boatmen, while the women and children were
hurried into the cabin, there to await, with feelings of no
little anxiety, the result of the enterprise. Every boat
man, with his head uncovered, muttered a prayer to his
patron saint ; and away dashed the barge through the
tumbling breakers, that seemed as if hurrying it on to
1 London ' Times,' July 8, 1875.
n6 THE BLACK MONK.

inevitable destruction. All these preparations, joined by

the wildness of the adjacent scenery, the terrific aspect of
the rocks, and the tempestuous state of the water, were
sufficient to produce a powerful sensation on the minds
even of those who had been all their lives familiar with
dangers ; while the shadowy phantoms with which super
stition had peopled it threw a deeper gloom over the
whole scene.'
Concerning the whirlpool called Wirbel, and the sur
'
rounding ruins, the same author writes : Each of these
mouldering fortresses was the subject of some miraculous
tradition, which circulated at every hearth. The sombre
and mysterious aspect of the place, its wild scenery, and
the frequent accidents which occurred in the passage,
invested it with awe and terror but above all, the super
;

stitions of the time, a belief in the marvellous, and the

credulity of the boatmen, made the navigation of the
Strudel and the Wirbel a theme of the wildest romance.
At night, sounds that were heard far above the roar of the
Danube issued from every ruin. Magical lights flashed
through their loopholes and casements, festivals were held
in the long-deserted halls, maskers glided from room to
room, the waltzers maddened to the strains of an infernal
orchestra, armed sentinels paraded the battlements, while
at intervals the clash of arms, the neighing of steeds, and
the shrieks of unearthly combatants smote fitfully on the
boatmen's ear. But the tower on which these scenes were
most fearfully enacted was that on the Longstone, com
'
monly called the Devil's Tower,' as it well deserved to
be for here, in close communion with his master, resided
the Black Monk,' whose office it was to exhibit false
'

lights and landmarks along the gulf, so as to decoy the

vessels into the whirlpool, or dash them against the rocks.
He was considerably annoyed in his quarters, however, on
 DEMONS OF THE RHONE. 117

the arrival of the great Soliman in these regions ; for to

repel the turbaned host, or at least to check their trium
phant progress to the Upper Danube, the inhabitants were
summoned to join the national standard, and each to
defend his own hearth. Fortifications were suddenly
thrown up, even churches and other religious edifices were
placed in a state of military defence ; women and chil
dren, the aged and the sick, as already mentioned in our
notice of Schaumburg, were lodged in fortresses, and thus
securedfrom the violence of the approaching Moslem.
Among the other points at which the greatest efforts were
made to check the enemy, the passage of the Strudel and
Wirbel was rendered as impregnable as the time and cir
cumstances of the case would allow. To supply materials
for the work, patriotism for a time got the better of super
stition, and the said Devil's Tower was demolished and
converted into a strong breastwork. Thus forcibly dis
lodged, the Black Monk is said to have pronounced a
malediction on the intruders, and to have chosen a new
haunt among the recesses of the Harz mountains.'
When the glaciers send down their torrents and flood
the Rhone, it is the immemorial belief that the Devil may
seen swimming in with sword in one
it,

be sometimes
a

hand and a golden globe in the other. Since con

is
it

trary to all orthodox folklore that the Devil should be

so friendly with water, the name must be regarded as a
modern substitute for the earlier Rhone demon. We pro
bably get closer to the original form of the superstition
in the Swiss Oberland, which interprets the noises of the
Furka Glacier, which feeds the Rhone, as the groans of
wicked souls condemned for ever to labour there in direct
ing the river's course; their mistress being a demoness
who sometimes appears just before the floods, floating on
raft, and ordering the river to rise.
a
n8 sEOLUS.

There is a tidal demonolatry also. The author of

' '
Rambles in Northumberland gives a tradition concern
'
ing the river Wansbeck : This river discharges itself into
the sea at a place called Cambois, about nine miles to the
eastward, and the tide flows to within five miles of Mor
peth. Tradition reports that Michael Scott, whose fame
as a wizard is not confined to Scotland, would have
brought the tide to the town had not the courage of the
person failed upon whom the execution of this project
depended. This agent of Michael, after his principal had
performed certain spells, was to run from the neighbour
hood of Cambois to Morpeth without looking behind, and
the tide would follow him. After having advanced a cer
tain distance he became alarmed at the roaring of the
waters behind him, and forgetting the injunction, gave a
glance over his shoulder to see if the danger was immi
nent, when the advancing tide immediately stopped, and
the burgesses of Morpeth thus lost the chance of having
the Wansbeck navigable between their town and the sea.

It is also said that Michael intended to confer a similar

favour on the inhabitants of Durham, by making the Wear
navigable to their city ; but his good intentions, which were
to be carried into effect in the same manner, were also
frustrated by the cowardice of the person who had to guide
the tide.'
The gentle and just king iEolus, who taught his
islanders navigation, in his mythologic transfiguration had
to share the wayward dispositions of the winds he was
said to rule but though he wrecked the Trojan fleet and
;

many a ship, his old human heart remained to be trusted

on the appearance of Halcyon. His unhappy daughter of
that name cast herself into the sea after the shipwreck of
her husband (Ceyx), and the two were changed into birds.
It was believed that for seven days before and seven after
 TIDAL DEMONS. 119

the shortest day of the year, when the halcyon is breeding,

^Eolus restrains his winds, and the sea is calm. The
accent of this fable has been transmitted to some variants
of the folklore of swans. In Russia the Tsar Morskoi or
Water Demon's beautiful daughters (swans) may naturally
be supposed to influence the tides which the fair bathers
of our time are reduced to obey. In various regions the
tides are believed to have some relation to swans, and to
respect them. I have met with a notion of this kind in
England. On the day of Livingstone's funeral there was
an extraordinary tide in the Thames, which had been pre
dicted and provided for. The crowds which had gathered
at the Abbey on that occasion repaired after the funeral
to Westminster Bridge to observe the tide, and among
them was a venerable disbeliever in science, who announced
'
to a group that there would be no high tide, because the
swans were nesting.' This sceptic was speedily put to
confusion by the result, and perhaps one superstition the
less remained in the circle that seemed to regard him as
an oracle.
The Russian peasantry live in much fear of the Rusalkas
and Vodyanuie, water-spirits who, of course, have for their
chief the surly Neptune Tsar Morskoi. In deprecation of
this tribe, the peasant is careful not to bathe without a
cross round the neck, nor to ford a stream on horseback
without signing a cross on the water with a scythe or knife.
In the Ukrain these water-demons are supposed to be the
transformed souls of Pharaoh and his host when they were
drowned, and they are increased by people who drown
themselves. In Bohemia fishermen are known sometimes
to refuse aid to one drowning, for fear the Vodyany will
be offended and prevent the fish, over which he holds rule,
from entering their nets. The wrath of such beings is
indicated by the upheavals of water and foam ; and they
120 FAIRER FORMS.

are supposed especially mischievous in the spring, when

torrents and floods are pouring from melted snow. Those
undefined monsters which Beowulf slew, Grendel and his
mother, are interpreted by Simrock as personifications of
the untamed sea and stormy floods invading the low flat
shores, whose devastations so filled Faust with horror (II.
iv.), and in combating which his own hitherto desolating
powers found their task.
The Sea sweeps on in thousand quarters flowing,
Itself unfruitful, barrenness bestowing ;
It breaks, and swells, and rolls, and overwhelms
The desert stretch of desolated realms. . . .

Let that high joy be mine for evermore,

To shut the lordly Ocean from the shore,
The watery waste to limit and to bar,
And push it back upon itself afar !

In such brave work Faust had many forerunners, whose

art and courage have their monument in the fairer fables
of all these elemental powers in which fear saw demons.
Pavana, in India, messenger of the gods, rides upon the
winds, and in his forty-nine forms, corresponding with the
points of the Hindu compass, guards the earth. Solomon,
too, journeyed on a magic carpet woven of the winds, which
still serves the purposes of the Wise. From the churned
ocean rose Lakshmf (after the solar origin was lost to the
myth), Hindu goddess of prosperity; and from the sea-
foam rose Aphrodite, Beauty. These fair forms had their
true worshipper in the Northman, who left on mastered
wind and wave his song as Emerson found it

The gale that wrecked you on the sand,

It helped my rowers to row ;
The storm is my best galley hand,
And drives me where I go.
 ( 1*1 )

CHAPTER V.
ANIMALS.

Animal demons distinguished Trivial sources of Mythology Hedge

hog Fox Transmigrations in Japan Horses bewitched Rats
Lions Cats The Dog Goethe's horror of dogs Supersti
tions of the Parsees, people of Travancore, and American Negroes,
Red Indians, &c. Cynocephaloi The Wolf Traditions of the
Nez Perces Fenris Fables The Boar The Bear Serpent
Every animal power to harm demonised Horns.

THE animal demons those whose evil repute is the result

of something in their nature which may be inimical to
man should be distinguished from the forms which have
been diabolised by association with mythological person
ages or ideas. The lion, tiger, and wolf are examples of the
one class ; the stag, horse, owl, and raven of the other. But
there are circumstances which render it very difficult to
observe this distinction. The line has to be drawn, if at
all, between the measureless forces of degradation on the
one side, discovering some evil in animals which, but for
their bad associations, would not have been much thought
of ; and of euphemism on the other, transforming harmful
beasts to benignant agents by dwelling upon some minor
characteristic.
There are a few obviously dangerous animals, such as
the serpent, where it is easy to pick our way; we can
recognise the fear that flatters it to an agathodemon and
122 THE HEDGEHOG.
the diminished fear that pronounces it accurst.1 But what
shall be said of the Goat ? Was there really anything
in its smell or in its flesh when first eaten, its butting,
or injury to plants, which originally classed it among the
unclean animals ? or was it merely demonised because of
its uncanny and shaggy appearance ? What explanation
can be given of the evil repute of our household friend the
Cat ? Is it derived by inheritance from its fierce ancestors
of the jungle ? Was it first suggested by its horrible
human-like sleep-murdering caterwaulings at night? or
has it simply suffered from a theological curse on the cats
said to draw the chariots of the goddesses of Beauty ?
The demonic Dog
is,

anything, a still more complex

if

subject. The student of mythology and folklore speedily

becomes familiar with the trivial sources from which vast
streams of superstition often issue. The cock's challenge
to the all-detecting sun no doubt originated his omin
ous career from the Code of Manu to the cock-headed
devils frescoed in the cathedrals of Russia. The fleshy,
forked roots of soporific plant issued in that vast Man
a

drake Mythology which has been the subject of many

volumes, without being even yet fully explored. The
Italians have saying that One knavery of the hedgehog
is
'
a

worth more than many of the fox yet the nocturnal and
'
;

hibernating habits and general quaintness of the humble

hedgehog, rather than his furtive propensity to prey on
eggs and chickens, must have raised him to the honours
of demonhood. In various popular fables this little animal
proves more than match for the wolf and the serpent.
a

It was in the form of a hedgehog that the Devil said

is

to have made the attempt to let in the sea through the

Brighton Downs, which was prevented by light being
a

This Protean type of both demon and devil must accompany us so con
1

tinually through this volume that but little need be said of in this chapter.
it
 THE FOX. 123

brought, though the seriousness of the scheme is still

attested in the Devil's Dyke. There is an ancient tradi
tion that when the Devil had smuggled himself into Noah's
Ark, he tried to sink it by boring a hole ; but this scheme
was defeated, and the human race saved, by the hedgehog
stuffing himself into the hole. In the Brighton story the
Devil would appear to have remembered his former failure
in drowning people, and to have appropriated the form
which defeated him.
The Fox, as incarnation of cunning, holds in the primi

tive belief of the Japanese almost the same position as

the Serpent in the nations that have worshipped, until
bold enough to curse it. In many of the early pictures
of Japanese demons one may generally detect amid
their human, wolfish, or other characters some traits of
the kitsune (fox). He is always the soul of the three-
eyed demon of Japan (fig. 7). He is the sagacious
'Vizier,' as the Persian Desatir calls him, and is prac
tically the Japanese scape-goat. If a fox has appeared
in any neighbourhood, the next trouble is attributed
124 THE HARE.
to his visit ; and on such occasions the sufferers and
their friends repair to some ancient gnarled tree in which
the fox is theoretically resident and propitiate him, just
as would be done to a serpent in other regions. In Japan
the fox is not regarded as always harmful, but generally
so. He is not to be killed on any account. Being thus
spared through superstition, the foxes increase sufficiently
to supply abundant material for the continuance of its
'
demonic character. Take us the foxes, the little foxes
that spoil the vines,' 1
is an admonition reversed in Japan.
The correspondence between the cunning respected in this
animal and that of the serpent, reverenced elsewhere, is
confirmed by Mr. Fitz Cunliffe Owen, who observed, as
he informs me, that the Japanese will not kill even the
poisonous snakes which crawl freely amid the decaying
Buddhist temples of Nikko, one of the most sacred places
in Japan, where once as many as eight thousand monastic
Buddhists were harboured. It is the red fox that abounds
in Japan, and its human-like cry at night near human habi
tations is such as might easily encourage these supersti
tions. But, furthermore, mythology supplies many illus
trations of a creditable tendency among rude tribes to
mark out for special veneration or fear any force in nature
finer than mere strength. Emerson says, ' Foxes are so
'
cunning because they are not strong. In our Japanese
demon, whose three eyes alone connect it with the prae-
ternatural vision ascribed by that race to the fox, the
harelip is very pronounced. That little animal, the Hare,
is associated with a large mythology, perhaps because out
of its weakness proceeds its main forces of survival
timidity, vigilance, and swiftness.The superstition con
cerning the hare is found in Africa. The same animal is
the much-venerated good genius of the Calmucs, who call
1 Canticles
ii.

15.
 THE WEASEL. "5
him Sakya-muni (Buddha), and say that on earth he sub
mitted himself to be eaten by a starving man, for which
gracious deed he was raised to dominion over the moon,
where they profess to see him. The legend is probably
traceable back to the Sanskrit word sasin, moon, which
means literally 'the hare-marked.' Sasa means 'hare.'
Pausanias relates the story of the moon-goddess instructing
exiles to build their city where they shall see a hare take
refuge in a myrtle-grove.1 In the demonic fauna of Japan
another cunning animal figures the Weasel. The name of
this demon is 'the sickle weasel,' and it also seems to
occupy the position of a scape-goat. In the language of
'
a Japanese report, When a person's clogs slip from under
his feet, and he falls and cuts his face on the gravel, or
when a person, who is out at night when he ought to
have been at home, presents himself to his family with a
freshly-scarred face, the wound is referred to the agency
of the malignant invisible weasel and his sharp sickle.'
In an aboriginal legend of America, also, two sister de
mons commonly take the form of weasels.
The popular feeling which underlay much of the animal-
worship in ancient times was probably that which is re
flected in the Japanese notions of to-day, as told in the
subjoined sketch from an amusing book.
'
One of these visitors was an old man, who himself was
at the time a victim of
popular superstition that the
a

departed revisit the scenes of their life in this world in

shapes of different animals. We noticed that he was not
in his usual spirits, and pressed him to unburden his mind
to us. He said he had lost his little son Chiosin, but that
was not so much the cause of his grief as the absurd way
in which his wife, backed up by a whole conclave of old
women who had taken up their abode in his house to
1
De GubematU, II. viii.
126 ANIMALS POSSESSED.
' '
comfort her, was going on. What do they all do ? we
' '
asked sympathetically. Why,' he replied, every beastly
animal that comes to my house, there is a cry amongst
'
them all, ' Chiosin, Chiosin has come back ! and the whole
house swarms with cats and dogs and bats for they say
they are not quite sure which is Chiosin, and that they
had better be kind to the lot than run the chance of treat
ing him badly; the consequence all these brutes are

is,
fed on my rice and meat, and now am driven out of

I
doors and called an unnatural parent because killed

a
I
mosquito which bit me
'
1
1

The strange and inexplicable behaviour of animals in

cases of fear, panic, or pain has been generally attributed
by ignorant races to their possession by demons. Of this
nature the story of the devil entering the herd of swine
is

and carrying them into the sea, related in the New Testa
ment. It said that even yet in some parts of Scotland
is

the milkmaid carries switch of the magical rowan to

a

expel the demon that sometimes enters the cow. Pro

fessor Monier Williams writes from Southern India
When my fellow-travellers and myself were nearly
'

dashed to pieces over precipice the other day by some

a

restive horses on a ghat near Poona, we were told that the

road at this particular point was haunted by devils who
often caused similar accidents, and we were given to
understand that we should have done well to conciliate
Ganesa, son of the god Siva, and all his troops of evil
spirits, before starting.' The same writer also tells us
that the guardian spirits or mothers who haunt most
'
'

regions of the Peninsula are believed to ride about on

horses, and they are angry, scatter blight and disease.
if

Hence the traveller just arrived from Europe startled

is

Our Life in Japan and Elmhirst, 9th Regiment),

1

'

(Jephson Chapman
'

Hall, 1869.
&
 THE HORSE AND THE GOAT. 127

and puzzled by apparitions of rudely-formed terra-cotta

horses, often as large as life, placed by the peasantry
round shrines in the middle of fields as acceptable pro
pitiatory offerings, or in the fulfilment of vows in periods
of sickness.' 1
This was the belief of the Corinthians in the Taraxip-
pos, or shade of Glaucus, who, having been torn in pieces
by the horses with which he had been racing, and which
he had fed on human flesh to make more spirited, re
mained to haunt the Isthmus and frighten horses during
the races.
There is a modern legend in the Far West (America) of
'
a horse called The White Devil,' which, in revenge for
some harm to its comrades, slew men by biting and tramp
ling them, and was itself slain after defying many attempts
at its capture; but among the many ancient legends of
demon-horses there are few which suggest anything about
that animal hostile to man. His occasional evil character
is simply derived from his association with man, and is

therefore postponed. For a similar reason the Goat also

must be dealt with hereafter, and as a symbolical animal.
A few myths are met with which relate to its unplea
sant characteristics. In South Guinea the odour of goats
is accounted for by the Saga that their ancestor having
had the presumption to ask a goddess for her aromatic
ointment, she angrily rubbed him with ointment of a
reverse kind. It has also been said that it was regarded as
a demon by the worshippers of Bacchus, because it cropped
the vines ; and that it thus originated the Trageluphoi, or
goat-stag monsters mentioned by Plato,2 and gave us also
the word tragedy? But such traits of the Goat can have
very little to do with its important relations to Mythology
1 London 'Times,' June II, 1877. 2
Rep. 488.
3 Literally, goat-song. More probably it has an astrological sense.
 THE STAG AND THE RAT.

and Demonology. To the list of animals demonised by

association must also be added the Stag. No doubt the
anxious mothers, wives, or sweethearts of rash young
huntsmen utilised the old fables of beautiful hinds which
in the deep forests changed to demons and devoured their
pursuers,1 for admonition but the fact that such stags had
;

to transform themselves for evil work is a sufficient certifi

cate of character to prevent their being included among
the animal demons such as have in whole

is,
proper, that
or part supplied in their disposition to harm man the basis
of demonic representation.
a

It will not be deemed wonderful that Rats bear vene

a
rable rank in Demonology. The shudder which some
nervous persons feel at sight of even harmless mouse

is
a
a survival from the time when was believed that in this
it

form unshriven souls or unbaptized children haunted their

former homes and probably would be difficult to esti
it
;

mate the number of ghost-stories which have originated in

their nocturnal scamperings. Many legends report the
departure of unhallowed souls from human mouths in the
shape of a Mouse. During the earlier Napoleonic wars
mice were used in Southern Germany as diviners, by being
set with inked feet on the map of Europe to show where
the fatal Frenchmen would march. They gained this
sanctity by a series of associations with force stretching
back to the Hindu fable of a mouse delivering the ele
phant and the lion by gnawing the cords that bound them.
The battle of the Frogs and Mice ascribed to Homer.
is

Mice are said to have foretold the first civil war in Rome
by gnawing the gold in the temple. Rats appear in
various legends as avengers. The uncles of King Popelus
II., murdered by him and his wife and thrown into a lake,
reappear as rats and gnaw the king and queen to death.
E.g., the demon Iluorco in the
1

Pentamerone.'
'
 THE LION. lag

The same fate overtakes Miskilaus of Poland, through the

transformed widows and orphans he had wronged. Mouse
Tower, standing in the middle of the Rhine, is the haunted
monument of cruel Archbishop Hatto, of Mainz, who
(anno 970) bade the famine-stricken people repair to his
barn, wherein he shut them fast and burned them. But
next morning an army of rats, having eaten all the corn
in his granaries,darkened the roads to the palace. The
prelate sought refuge from them in the Tower, but they
swam after, gnawed through the walls and devoured him.1
St. Gertrude, wearing the funereal mantle of Holda,
commands an army of mice. In this respect she succeeds
to the Pied Piper of Hamelin, who also leads off children ;
and my ingenious friend Mr. John Fiske suggests that this
may be the reason why Irish servant-maids often show
such frantic terror at sight of a mouse.2 The care of
children is often intrusted to them, and the appearance of
mice prognosticated of old the appearance of the praeter-
natural rat-catcher and psychopomp. Pliny says that in
his time it was considered fortunate to meet a white rat.
The people of Bassorah always bow to these revered ani
mals when seen, no doubt to propitiate them.
The Lion is a symbol of majesty and of the sun in his
glory (reached in the zodiacal Leo), though here and there
his original demonic character appears, as in the com

batsof Indra, Samson, and Herakles with terrible lions.

Euphemism, in one sense, fulfils the conditions of Sam
son's riddle Sweetness coming out of the Strong and"
has brought honey out of the Lion. His cruel character
has subtly fallen to Sirius the Dog-star, to whom are
ascribed the drought and malaria of' dog-days' (when the

1 See '
De Gubernatis' Zoological Mythology,' which contains further curious
details on this subject.
* '
Myths and Myth-makers.' Boston : Osgood & Co.
VOL. I. 1
 THE CAT.
sun is in Leo) ; but the primitive fact is intimated in seve
ral fables like that of Aristaeus, who, born after his mother
had been rescued from the Lybian lion, was worshipped
in Ceos as saviour from both droughts and lions.
a The
Lion couching at the feet of beautiful Doorga in India, re
appears drawing the chariot of Aphrodite, and typifies the
potency of beauty rather than, as Emerson interprets, that
beauty depends on strength. The chariot of the Norse
Venus, Freyja, was drawn by Cats, diminished forms of her
Southern sister's steeds. It was partly by these routes the
Cat came to play the sometimes beneficent r61e in Russian,
and to some extent in German, French, and English folk
lore, e.g.. Puss in Boots, Whittington and his Cat, and
Madame D'Aulnoy's La Chatte Blanche. The demonic
characteristics of the destructive cats have been inherited
by the black, or, as in Macbeth, the brindled, cat. In
Germany the approach of a cat to a sick-bed announces
death ; to dream of one is an evil omen. In Hungary it
is said every black cat becomes a witch at the age of
seven. It is the witch's favourite riding-horse, but may
sometimes be saved from such servitude by incision of the
sign of the cross. A scratch from a black cat is thought
to be the beginning of a fatal spell.
De Gubernatis 1
has a very curious speculation con
cerning the origin of our familiar fable the Kilkenny
Cats, which he traces to the German superstition which
dreads the combat between cats as presaging death to
one who witnesses it ; and this belief he finds reflected in
'
the Tuscan child's game of souls,' in which the devil and
angel are supposed to contend for the soul. The author
thinks this may be one outcome of the contest between
Night and Twilight in Mythology ; but, if the connec
tion can be traced, it would probably prove to be derived
1 '
Zoological Mythology,' p. 64.
 THE CAT AS AGATHODEMON. 131

from the struggle between the two angels of Death, one

variation of which is associated with the legend of the
strife for the body of Moses. The Book of Enoch says
that Gabriel was sent, before the Flood, to excite the man-
devouring giants to destroy one another. In an ancient
Persian picture in my possession, animal monsters are
shown devouring each other, while their proffered victim,
like Daniel, is unharmed. The idea is a natural one, and
hardly requires comparative tracing.
Dr. Dennys tells us that in China there exists precisely
the same superstition as in Scotland as to the evil omen
of a cat (or dog) passing over a corpse. Brand and Pen
nant both mention this, the latter stating that the cat or
dog that has so done is killed without mercy. This fact
would seem to show that the fear is for the living, lest the
soul of the deceased should enter the animal and become
one of the innumerable werewolf or vampyre class of
demons. But the origin of the superstition is no doubt
told in the Slavonic belief that if a cat leap over a corpse

the deceased person will become a vampyre.

In Russia the cat enjoys a somewhat better reputation
than it does in most other countries. Several peasants in
the neighbourhood of Moscow assured me that while they
would never be willing to remain in a church where a dog
had entered, they would esteem it
good sign if a cat
a
came to church. One aged woman near Moscow told me
that when the Devil once tried to creep into Paradise he
took the form of a mouse: the Dog and Cat were on
guard at the gates, and the Dog allowed the evil one to
pass, but the Cat pounced on him, and so defeated another
treacherous attempt against human felicity.
The Cat superstition has always been strong in Great
Britain. It indeed, in one sense true, as old Howell
is,

wrote (1647) We need not cross the sea for examples

'
1 32 THE DOG.

of this kind, we have too many (God wot) at home:

King James a great while was loath to believe there
were witches ; but that which happened to my Lord
Francis of Rutland's children convinced him, who were
bewitched by an old woman that was a servant of Belvoir
Castle, being displeased, she contracted with the
but,
Devil, who conversed with her in the form of a Cat, whom
she called Rutterkin, to make away those children out of
mere malignity and thirst of revenge.' It is to be feared
that many poor woman has been burned as a witch
a

against whom her cherished cat was the chief witness.

It would be a curious psychological study to trace how
far the superstition owns a survival in even scientific
minds, as in Buffon's vituperation of the cat, and in the
astonishing story, told by Mr. Wood, of a cat which saw
a ghost (anno 1 877) !
The Dog, so long the faithful friend of man, and even,
possibly, because of the degree to which he has caught
his master's manners, has a large demonic history. In
the Semitic stories there are many that indicate the path
' '
by which dog became the Mussulman synonym of
infidel; and the one dog Katmir who in Arabic legend
was admitted to Paradise for his faithful watching three
hundred and nine years before the cave of the Seven
Sleepers,1 must have drifted among the Moslems from
India as the Ephesian Sleepers did from the christian
world. In the beautiful episode of the '
Mahabharata,'
Yudhisthira having journeyed to the door of heaven,
refuses to enter into that happy abode unless his faithful
dog is admitted also. He is told by Indra, '
My heaven
hath no place for dogs ; they steal away our offerings on
earth;' and again, 'If a dog but behold a sacrifice, men
esteem it unholy and void.' This difficulty was solved
1 Koran, xviii.
 DOGS IN HADES. 133

by the Dog Yama in disguise revealing himself and

praising his friend's fidelity. It istolerably clear that it
is to his connection with Yama, god of Death, and under
the evolution of that dualism which divided the universe
into upper and nether, that the Dog was degraded among
our Aryan ancestors ; at the same time his sometimes
wolfish disposition and some other natural characters sup
plied the basis of his demonic character. He was at once
a dangerous and a corruptible guard.
In the early Vedic Mythology it is the abode of the
gods that is guarded by the two dogs, identified by solar

mythologists as the morning and evening twilight: a

later phase shows them in the service of Yama, and they
reappear in the guardian of the Greek Hades, Cerberus,
and Orthros. The first of these has been traced to the
Vedic Sarvara, the latter to the monster Vritra. ' Orthros'
is the phonetical equivalent of Vritra. The bitch Sarama,
mother of the two Vedic dogs, proved a treacherous
 PSYCHOPOMP.

guard, and was slain by Indra. Hence the Russian

peasant comes fairly by another version of how the Dog,
while on guard, admitted the Devil into heaven on being
thrown a bone. But the two watch-dogs of the Hindu
myth do not seem to bear an evil character. In a funeral
'
hymn of the Rig- Veda' (x. 14), addressed to Yama, King
'
of Death, we read : By an auspicious path do thou
hasten past the two four-eyed brindled dogs, the offspring
of Sarama ; then approach the beautiful Pitris who re
joice together with Yama. Intrust him, O Yama, to thy
two watch-dogs, four-eyed,
road-guarding, and man-
observing. The two brown messengers of Yama, broad of
nostril and insatiable, wander about among men ; may
they give us again to-day the auspicious breath of life
'
that we may see the sun !
And now thousands of years after this was said we find
the Dog still regarded as the seer of ghosts, and watcher
at the gates of death, of whose opening his howl forewarns.
The howling of a dog on the night of December 9, 1871,
at Sandringham, where the Prince of Wales lay ill, was
thought important enough for newspapers to report to a
shuddering country. I read lately of a dog in a German
village which was supposed to have announced so many
deaths that he became an object of general terror, and
was put to death. In that country belief in the demonic
character of the dog seems to have been strong enough
to transmit an influence even to the powerful brain of
Goethe.
In Goethe's poem, it was when Faust was walking with
the student Wagner that the black Dog appeared, rushing
around them in spiral curves spreading, as Faust said, 'a
magic coil as a snare around them ;' that after this dog
1

*
Wagner. Behold him stop upon his belly crawl . . ,
The clever scholar of the students, he \
 GOETHES ANTIPATHY. 135

had followed Faust into his study, it assumed a monstrous

shape, until changed to a mist, from which Mephistopheles
' '
steps forth the kernel of the brute in guise of a travel
ling scholar. This is in notable coincidence with the
archaic symbolism of the Dog as the most frequent form
of the 'Lares' (fig. 9), or household genii, originally
because of its vigilance. The form
here presented nearly identical
is
with the Cynocephalus, whom the
'
learned author of Mankind : their
Origin and Destiny,' identifies as the
Adamic being set as a watch and in
structor in Eden (Gen. xvi. 15), an
example of which, holding pen and
tablet (as described by Horapollo),
is given in that work from Phila?.
Chrysippus says that these were
Fig. Canine Lar
9.

afterwards represented as young (Herculancum).

men clothed with dog-skins. Remnants of the tutelary

character of the dog are scattered through German folk
lore : he is regarded as oracle, ghost-seer, and gifted with
second sight; in Bohemia he is sometimes made to lick
an infant's face that it may see well.
'
The passage in ' Faust has been traced to Goethe's anti
pathy to dogs, as expressed in his conversation with Falk
'
at the time of Wieland's death. Annihilation is utterly
out of the question ; but the possibility of being caught on
the way by some more powerful and yet baser monas, and
subordinated to it; this is unquestionably a very serious
consideration I, for my part, have never been able
; and
entirely to divest myself of the fear of in the way of
it,

mere observation of nature.' At this moment, says Falk,

a dog was heard repeatedly barking in the street. Goethe,
sprang hastily to the window and called to Take what
'
it
:
J36 MEPHISTOPHELES DOG.
form you will, vile larva, you shall not subjugate me !
'
After some pause, he resumed with the remark : This
rabble of creation is extremely offensive. It is a perfect
pack of monades with which we are thrown together in
this planetary nook ; their company will do us little'honour
with the inhabitants of other planets, if they happen to
hear anything about them.'
In visiting the house where Goethe once resided in
Weimar, I was startled to find as the chief ornament of
the hall a large bronze dog, of full size, and very dark,
looking proudly forth, as if he possessed the Goethean
monas after all. However, it is not probable that the
poet's real dislike of dogs arose solely from that specula
tion about monades. It is more probable that in observing
the old wall-picture in Auerbach's cellar, wherein a dog
stands beside Mephistopheles, Goethe was led to consider
carefully the causes of that intimacy. Unfortunately, and
notwithstanding the fables and the sentiment which invest
that animal, there are some very repulsive things about
him, such as his tendency to madness and the infliction
on man of a frightful death. The Greek Mania's 'fleet
hounds' (Bacchae 977) have spread terrors far and wide.
Those who carefully peruse the account given by Mr.
Lewes of the quarrel between Karl August and Goethe,
on account of the opposition of the latter to the introduc
tion of performing dog on the Weimar stage
a an incident
which led to his resignation of his position of intendant of
the theatre may detect this aversion mingling with his
disgust as an artist ; and it may be also suspected that
it was not the mere noise which caused the tortures he
described himself as having once endured at Gottingen
from the barking of dogs.
It however, not improbable that in the wild notion of
is,

Goethe, joined with his cynophobia, we find survival of

a
 THE BLOODHOUND. 137

the belief of the Parsees of Surat, who venerate the Dog

above all other animals, and who, when one is dying, place
a dog's muzzle near his mouth, and make it bark twice, so
that it may catch the departing soul, and bear it to the
waiting angel.
The devil-worshippers of Travancore to this day declare
that the evil power approaches them in the form of a Dog,
as Mephistopheles approached Faust. But before the
superstition reached Goethe's poem it had undergone
many modifications; and especially its keen scent had
influenced the Norse imagination to ascribe to it preter
natural wisdom. Thus we read in the Saga of Hakon the
Good, that when Eystein the Bad had conquered Dron-
theim, he offered the people choice of his slave Thorer or
his dog Sauer to be their king. They chose the Dog.
'
Now the dog was by witchcraft gifted with three men's
wisdom ; and when he barked he spoke one word and
barked two.' This Dog wore a collar of gold, and sat on
a throne, but, for all his wisdom and power, seems to have
been a dog still ; for when some wolves invaded the cattle,
he attacked and was torn to pieces by them.
Among the negroes of the Southern States in America
I have found the belief that the most frequent form of a
diabolical apparition is that of a large Dog with fiery eyes,
which may be among them an original superstition attri
butable to their horror of the bloodhound, by which, in
some regions, they were pursued when attempting to escape.
Among the whites of the same region I have never been
able to find any instance of the same belief, though belief
in the presage of the howling dog is frequent ; and it is
possible that this is a survival from some region in Africa,
where the Dog has an evil name of the same kind as the
scape-goat. Among some tribes in Fazogl there is an
annual carnival at which every one does as he likes. The
138 CANINE LUNAR DEMON.

king is then seated in the open air, a dog tied to the leg
of his chair, and the animal is then stoned to death.
Mark Twain 1
records the folklore of a village of Mis
souri, where we find lads quaking with fear at the howling
of 'stray dog' in the night, but indifferent to the howl
a

ing of a dog they recognise, which may be a form of the

common English belief that it is unlucky to be followed
' '
by a strange dog. From the same book it appears also
that the dog will always have his head in the direction of
the person whose doom is signified : the lads are entirely
relieved when they find the howling animal has his back
turned to them.
It is fragments of European
remarkable that these
superstition should meet in the Far West a plentiful crop
of their like which has sprung up among the aborigines,
as the following extract from Mr. Brinton's work, ' Myths
of the New World,' will show : ' Dogs were supposed to
stand in some peculiar relation to the moon, probably
because they howl at it and run at night, uncanny practices
which have cost them dear in reputation. The custom
prevailed among tribes so widely asunder as Peruvians,
Tupis, Creeks, Iroquois, Algonquins, and Greenland
Eskimos to thrash the curs most soundly during an
eclipse. The Creeks explained this by saying that the
big Dog was swallowing the sun, and that by whipping the
little ones they could make him desist. What the big Dog
was they were not prepared to say. We know. It was
the night goddess, represented by the Dog, who was thus
shrouding the world at mid-day. In a better sense, they
represented the more agreeable characteristics of the lunar
goddess. Xochiquetzal, most fecund of Aztec divinities,
patroness of love, of sexual pleasure, and of child-birth,
was likewise called Itzcuinan, which, literally translated,
1 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.' London: Chatto & Windus.
 CANINE MADNESS. 139

'
is bitch-mother.' This strange and to us so repugnant
title for a goddess was not without parallel elsewhere.
When in his wars the Inca Pachacutec carried his arms
into the province of Huanca, he found its inhabitants had
installed in their temples the figure of a Dog as their
highest deity. . . . This canine canonisation explains why
in some parts of Peru a priest was called, by way of honour,
allco, Dog ! . . . Many tribes on the Pacific coast united in
the adoration of a wild species, the coyote, the Cams latrans
of naturalists.' Of the Dog-demon Chantico the legend
'
of the Nahuas was, that he made a sacrifice to the gods
without observing a preparatory fast, for which he was
punished by being changed into a Dog. He then invoked
the god of death to deliver him, which attempt to evade
a just punishment so enraged the divinities that they
immersed the world in water.'
The common phrase 'hell-hounds' has come to us by
various routes. Diana being degraded to Hecate, the dogs
of Hades, Orthros and Cerberus, multiplied into a pack of
hounds for her chase, were degraded with her into infernal
howlers and hunters. A like degradation of Odin's hunt
took place at a later date. The Wild Huntsman, being a
diabolical character, is considered elsewhere. Concern
ing the Dog, it may be further said here, that there are
probably various characteristics of that animal reflected in
his demonic character. His liability to become rabid, and
to afflict human beings with hydrophobia, appears to have
had some part in it. Spinoza alludes to the custom in his
time of destroying persons suffering from this canine rabies
by suffocation ; and his English biographer and editor,
Dr. Willis, tells me that in his boyhood in Scotland he
always heard this spoken of as the old custom. That such
treatment could have prevailed can hardly be ascribed to
anything but a belief in the demonic character of the rabid
140 CYNOCEPHALOL

dog, cognate with the unconscious superstition which still

causes rural magistrates to order a dog which has bitten
any one to be slain. The notion that

is,
the dog goes

if
mad thereafter, the man will also. Of course would be

it
rational to preserve the dog's life carefully, in order that,

if
continues healthy, the bitten may feel reassured, as he
it

cannot be if be dead.
it
But the degradation of the dog had cause even in his

a
fidelity as watch. For this, as we have just seen, made
a

him common form among Lares or domestic demons.

a

The teraphim also were often in this shape. Christianity

had therefore for ascribing an infernal
a special reason
character to these little idols, which interfered with the
popular dependence on the saints. It will thus be seen
that there were many causes operating to create that for
midable class of demons which were called in the Middle
Ages Cynocephaloi. The ancient holy pictures of Russia
especially abound in these dog-headed devils in the six
;
teenth century they were frequently represented rending
souls in hell and sometimes the dragon of the Apocalypse
;

represented with seven horrible canine heads.

is

M. Toussenel, in his transcendental interpretations, has

identified the Wolf as the bandit and outlaw.1 The pro
verbial mediaeval phrase for an outlaw one who wears a
lupinum, wulfesheofod, which the ingenious
teste lave, caput
author perhaps remembered of good antiquity. The
is

wolf called robber in the Rig- Veda,' and he there also

is

is
'

demonised, since we find him fleeing before devotee. (In

a

the Zend Vendidad' the souls of the pious fear to meet the
'

wolf on the way to heaven.) The god Pushan invoked

is

against the evil wolf, the malignant spirit.2 Cardano says

Spirit of the Beasts of France,' ch.

1
'

i.

- 'Rigv.' 'Vendidad,' xix.

105, 18, 42, 108. Quoted by De Gubernatis
2
i.

Zoolog. Mythology,' ii. 142), to whose invaluable work lam largely indebted
('

in this chapter.
 THE WOLF. Hi
that to dream of a wolf announces a robber. There is in
the wolf, at the same time, that always attractive love of
liberty which, in the well-known fable, makes him pre
fer leanness to the comfort of the collar-wearing dog,
which makes him among demonic animals sometimes the
same as the mighty huntsmen Nimrod and shaggy Esau
among humanised demons. One is not surprised to find
occasionally good stories about the wolf. Thus the Nez
Perces tribe in America trace the origin of the human
race to a wolf. They say that originally, when there were
nothing but animals, there was a huge monster which
devoured them whole and alive. This monster swal
lowed a wolf, who, when he entered its belly, found the
animals therein snarling at and biting one another as
they had done on the earth outside. The wolf exhorted
them that their common sufferings should teach them
friendliness, and finally he induced them to a system of
co-operation by which they made their way out through
the side of the monster, which instantly perished. The
animals so released were at once transformed to men,
how and why the advocates of co-operation will readily
understand, and founded the Nez Perces Indians. The
myths of Asia and Europe are unhappily antipodal to this
in spirit and form, telling of human beings transformed to
wolves. In the Norse Mythology, however, there stands
a demon wolf whose story bears a touch of feeling, though
perhaps it was originally the mere expression for physical
law. This is the wolf Fenris, which, from being at first
the pet of the gods and lapdog of the goddesses, became
so huge and formidable that Asgard itself was endan
gered. All the skill and power of the gods could not
forge chains which might chain him ; he snapped them
like straws and toppled over the mountains to which he
was fastened. But the little Elves working underground
142 THE WOLF AGATHODEMON.

made that chain so fine that none could see or feel

it,
fashioned out of the beards of women, the breath of fish,

it
noise of the cat's footfall, spittle of birds, sinews of bears,
roots of stones, by which are meant things non-existent.
This held him. till the final destruction,
Fenris chained

is
when he shall break loose and devour Odin. The fine
chain that binds ferocity, the love that can tame all

is
it
creatures Is
the sunbeam that defines to the strongest
it
?

creature its habitat ?

The two monsters formed when Rahu was cloven in

twain, in Hindu Mythology, reappear in Eddaic fable as
the wolves Skoll and Hati, who pursue the sun and moon.
As said in the Voluspa
it
is

Eastward in the Iron-wood

The old one sitteth,
And there bringeth forth
Fenrir's fell kindred.
Of these one, the mightiest,
The moon's devourer,
In form most fiend-like,
And filled with the life- blood
Of the dead and the dying,
Reddens with ruddy gore
The seats of the high gods.

Euphemism attending propitiation of such monsters

may partly explain the many good things told of wolves
in popular legend. The stories of the she-wolf nourish
ing children, as Romulus and Remus, are found in many
lands. They must, indeed, have had some prestige, to
have been so largely adopted in saintly tradition. Like
the bears that Elisha called to devour the children, the
wolves do not lose their natural ferocity by becoming
pious. They devour heretics and sacrilegious people.
One guarded the head of St. Edmund the Martyr of
England another escorted St. Oddo, Abbot of Cluny, as
;
 THE CRAFTY WOLF. 143

his ancestors did the priests of Cluny. The skin of the

wolf appears in folklore as a charm against hydrophobia ;
its teeth are best for cutting children's gums, and its bite, if
survived, is an assurance against any future wound or pain.
The tragedy which is so foolishly sprung upon the
nerves of children, Little Red Riding-Hood, shows the
wolf as a crafty animal. There are many legends of a like
character which have made it a favourite figure in which

Fig. 10. The Wolf as Confessor (probably Dutch).

to represent pious impostors. In our figure 10, the wolf

' '
appears as the dangerous confessor ; it was intended, as

Mr. Wright thought, for Mary of Modena, Queen of James

II., and Father Petre. At the top of the original are the
words '
Converte Angliam' and beneath, '
It is a foolish
sheep that makes the wolf her confessor.' The craft of the
wolf is represented in a partly political partly social turn
given by an American fabulist to one of ^Esop's fables.
144 THE BOAR.

The wolf having accused the lamb he means to devour of

fouling the stream, and receiving answer that the lamb was
drinking farther down the current, alters the charge and
'
says, You opposed my candidature at the caucus two
years ago.'
'
I was not then born,' replies the lamb. The
wolf then says, '
Any one hearing my accusations would
testify that I am insane and not responsible for my
actions,' and thereupon devours the lamb with full faith in
a jury of his countrymen. M. Toussenel says the wolf is
a terrible strategist, albeit the less observant have found
little in his character to warrant this attribute of craft, his
physiognomy and habits showing him a rather transparent
highwayman. It is probable that the fables of this charac
ter have derived that trait from his association with demons
and devils supposed to take on his shape.
In beautiful hymn to the Earth in the ' Atharva Veda'
a
it is said, ' The Earth, which endureth the burden of the
oppressor, beareth up the abode of the lofty and of the
lowly, suffereth the hog, and giveth entrance to the wild
boar.' Boar-hounds in Brittany
and some other regions
are still kept at Government expense. There are many
indications of this kind that in early times men had to
defend themselves vigorously against the ravages of the
wild boar, and, as De Gubernatis remarks,1 its character
is generally demoniacal. The contests of Hercules with
the Erymanthian, and of Meleager with the Caly-
donian, Boar, are enough to show that it was through its
dangerous character that he became sacred to the gods of
war, Mars and Odin. But it is also to be remembered
that the third incarnation of Vishnu was as a Wild Boar;
and as the fearless exterminator of snakes the pig merited
this association with the Preserver. Provided with a thick
coat of fat, no venom can harm him unless it be on the
1 ' Myth.,' Triibner Co.
ii.

Zoolog.
&
7.
 THE BEAR. 145

lip. It
may be this ability to defy the snake-ordeal which,
after its uncleanliness had excepted the hog from human
voracity in some regions, assigned it a diabolical character.
In rabbinical fable the hog and rat were created by Noah
to clear the Ark of filth ; but the rats becoming a nuisance,
he evoked a cat from the lion's nose.
It is clear that our Asiatic and Norse ancestors never
had such a ferocious beast to encounter as the Grisly
Bear (Ursus horribilis) of America, else the appearances
of this animal in Demonology could never have been so
respectable. timid Asiatic Bear (U.
The comparatively
labiatus), the small and almost harmless Thibetan species
(U. Thibctanus), would appear to have preponderated over
the fiercer but rarer Bears of the North in giving us the
in which this animal

is,
Indo-Germanic fables, on the
whole, a favourite. Emerson finds in the fondness of the
English for their national legend of Beauty and the
'

Beast a sign of the Englishman's own nature. He a

is
'

'

bear with soft place in his heart he says No, and helps
a

you.' The old legend found place in the heart of par

a

ticularly representative American also Theodore Parker,

who loved to call his dearest friend Bear,' and who, on
'

arriving in Europe, went to Berne to see his favourites,

from which its name derived. The fondness of the
is

Bear for honey whence its Russian name, medv-jed,

'honey-eater' had probably something to do with
its
dainty taste for roses and its admiration for female beauty,
as told in many myths. In his comparative treatment of
the mythology of the Bear, De Gubernatis mentions the
1

transformation of King Trisankus into a bear, and con

nects this with the constellation of the Great Bear but
;

may with equal probability be related to the many

it

fables of princes who remain under the form of bear

a

'Zoolog. Myth.,' ii. ic&

1

seq.
'

VOL.
I.

K
146 TWO CHARACTERS OF THE BEAR.

until the spell is broken by the kiss of some maiden. It

is worthyof note that in the Russian legends the Bear is
by no means so amiable as in those of our Western folk
lore. In one, the Bear-prince lurking in his fountain holds
by the beard the king who, while hunting, tries to quench
his thirst, and releases him only after a promise to deliver
up whatever he has at home without his knowledge ;

the twins, Ivan and Maria, born during his absence, are
thus doomed are concealed, but discovered by the bear,
who carries them away. They are saved by help of
the bull. When escaping the bear Ivan throws down
a comb, which becomes a tangled forest, which, how
ever, the bear penetrates; but the spread-out towel
which becomes a lake of fire sends the bear back.1 It
is thus the ferocious Arctic Bear which gives the story
its sombre character. Such also is the Russian tale
of the Bear with iron hairs, which devastates the king
dom, devouring the inhabitants until Ivan and Helena
alone remain after the two in various ways try to escape,
;

their success is secured by the Bull, which, more kindly

than Elisha, blinds the Bear with his horns.2 (The Bear
retires In Norwegian story the Bear becomes
in winter.)
milder, beautiful youth by night, whose wife loses him
a
because she wishes to see him by lamplight : her place is
taken by a long-nosed princess, until, by aid of the golden
apple and the rose, she recovers her husband. In the
Pentameron,8 Pretiosa, to escape the persecutions of her
father, goes into the forest disguised as a she-bear ; she
nurses and cures the prince, who is enamoured of her, and
at his kiss becomes a beautiful maid. The Bear thus has
a twofold development in folklore. He used to be killed
(13th century) at the end of the Carnival in Rome, as the
1 Afanasief, v. 28.' * Ibid., v. 27.
* ii. 6 (De Gubernatis,
li.

117).
 THE SERPENT. »47

Devil.1 The Siberians, if they have killed a bear, hang his

skin on and apologise humbly to declaring that

it,
a tree

they did not forge the metal that pierced and they

it,
meant the arrow for bird from which plain that

is
it
a

;
they rely more on its stupidity than its good heart. In
Canada, when the hunters kill a bear, one of them ap
proaches and places between his teeth the stem of his
it

pipe, breathes in the bowl, and thus, filling with smoke

the animal's mouth, conjures its soul not to be offended at
his death. As the bear's ghost makes no reply, the hunts
man, in order to know his prayer granted, cuts the
if

is
thread under the bear's tongue, and keeps until the end

it
of the hunt, when a large fire kindled, and all the band
is

solemnly throw in what threads of this kind they have

it

;
these sparkle and vanish, as natural, sign that
if

is

is
it

a
the bears are appeased.2 In Greenland the great demon,
at once feared and invoked, especially by fishermen,

is
Torngarsuk, huge Bear with human arm. He in
is
a

visible to all except his priests, the Anguekkoks, who are

the only physicians of that people.
The extreme point of demonic power has always been
held by the Serpent. So much, however, will have to be
said of the destructiveness and other characteristics of this
animal when we come to consider at length its unique
position in Mythology, that content myself here with a
I

pictorial representation of the Singhalese Demon of Ser

pents. If any one find himself shuddering at sight of a
Rather the devil of lust than of cruelty, according to Du Cange "Occi-
1

dunt ursum, occiditur id est, temptator nostrae carnis."

diabolus,
De Plancy (Diet. Inf.), who also relates an amusing legend of the bear
2

who came to German choir, as seen by a sleepy chorister as he awoke the

a

naive 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. Callus was ungracious enough to banish from
;

Switzerland a'ter had brought him firewood in proof of its conversion.

it
148 DEMON OF SERPENTS.

snake, even in a country where they are few and compara

tively harmless, perhaps this figure (11) may suggest the
final cause of the shudder.
In conclusion, it may be said that not only every animal
ferocity, but every force which can be exerted injuriously,
has had its demonic representations. Every claw, fang,

Fig. 11. Singhalese Demon of Serpents.

sting, hoof, horn, has been as certain to be catalogued

and labelled in demonology as in physical science. It is
remarkable also how superstition rationalises. Thus the
horn in the animal world, though sometimes dangerous to
man, was more dangerous to animals, which, as foes of the
horned animals, were foes to man's interests. The early
herdsman knew the value of the horn as a defence against
dog and wolf, besides its other utilities. Consequently,
although it was necessary that the horn-principle, so to
say, in nature must be regarded as one of its retractile and
cruel features, man never demonised the animals whose
butt was most dangerous, but for such purpose transferred
 HORNS. 149

the horns to the head of some nondescript creature. The

horn has thus become natural weapon of man-demons.
a

The same evolution has taken place in America ; for,

although among its aboriginal legends we may meet with
an occasional demon-buffalo, such are rare and of apocry
phal antiquity. The accompanying American figure (12)
is from a photograph sent me by the President of Van-
derbilt University, Tennessee, who found it in an old

Fig. 12. American Indian Demon.

mound (Red Indian) in the State of Georgia. It is pro

bably as ancient as any example of a human head with
horns in the world ; and as it could not have been in
fluenced by European notions, it supplies striking evi
dence that the demonisation of the forces and dangers
of nature belongs to the structural action of the human
mind.
 ( iSo )

CHAPTER VI.
ENEMIES.

Aryas, Dasyus, Nngas Yakkhos Lycians Ethiopians Hirpini

Polites Sosipolis Were-wolves Goths and Scythians Giants
and Dwarfs Berserkers Britons Iceland Mimacs Gog and
Magog.

We paint the Devil black, says George Herbert. On the

other hand the negro paints him white, with reason enough.
The name of the Devil at Mozambique is Muzungu Maya,
or Wicked White Man. Of this demon they make little
images of extreme hideousness, which are kept by people
on the coast, and occasionally displayed, in the belief that
if White Devil is lurking near them he will vanish out
the
of sheer disgust with a glimpse of his own ugliness. The
hereditary horror of the kidnapper displayed in this droll
superstition may possibly have been assisted by the fami
liarity with all things infernal represented in the language
of the white sailors visiting the coast. Captain Basil Hall,
on visiting Mozambique about fifty years ago, found that
the native dignitaries had appropriated the titles of English
noblemen, and a dumpy little Duke of Devonshire met him
with his whole vocabulary of English, '
How do you do,
sir. Very glad see you. Damn your eyes. Johanna man
like English very much. God damn. That very good ?
Eh ? Devilish hot, sir. What news ? Hope your ship stay
too long while very. Damn my eye. Very fine day.'
In most parts of India Siva also is painted white, which
 ARYAS, DASYUS, AND NAG AS. 151

would indicate that there too was found reason to associate

diabolism with the white face. It is said Thugs the
spared Englishmen because their white faces suggested
relationship to Siva. In some of the ancient Indian
books the monster whom Indra slew, Vritra, is called
Dasyu (enemy), a name which in the Vedas designates
the Aborigines as contrasted with the Aryans of the
North. '
In the old Sanskrit, in the hymns of the
Veda, arya occurs frequently as a national name and as a
name of honour, comprising the worshippers of the gods
of the Brahmans, as opposed to their enemies, who are
called in the Veda Dasyus. Thus one of the gods, Indra,
who in some respects answers to the Greek Zeus, is invoked
in the following words (Rigveda, i. 57, 8) : ' Know thou
the Aryas, O Indra, and those who are Dasyus ; punish the
lawless, and deliver them unto thy servant ! Be thou the
mighty helper of the worshippers, and I will praise all
these thy deeds at the festivals.' 1

Naglok (snakeland) was at an early period a Hindu

name for hell. But the Nagas were not real snakes, in
that case they might have fared better, but an aboriginal
tribe in Ceylon, believed by the Hindus to be of serpent
origin, 'naga' being an epithet for 'native.'2 The Sin
ghalese, on the other hand,
adapted the popular
have
name for demons in India, 'Rakshasa,' in their Rakseyo, a
tribe of invisible cannibals without supernatural powers
(except invisibility), who no doubt merely embody the
traditions of some early race. The dreaded powers were
from another tribe designated Yakkhos (demons), and be-

1 Max Miiller, ' Science of Language,' i. 275.

a 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 con
'
fusion between serpents and human beings.' In the ' Padma Puiana we read
'
of serpent-like men.' (See my 'Sacred Anthology,' p. 263.)
 YAKKHOS.

lieved to have the power of rendering themselves invisible.

Buddha's victories over these demonic beings are related
in the '
Mahawanso.'
'
It was known (by inspiration) by the
vanquishers that in Lanka, filled by yakkhos, . . . would be
the place where his religion would be glorified. In like
manner, knowing that in the centre of Lanka, on the de
lightful bank of a river, ... in the agreeable Mahanaga
garden, . . . there was a great assembly of the principal
yakkhos, . . . the deity of happy advent, approaching
that great congregation, . . . immediately over their
heads hovering in the air, . . . struck terror into them
by rains, tempests, and darkness. The yakkhos, over
whelmed with awe, supplicated of the vanquisher to be
released from their terror. . . . The consoling vanquisher
thus replied :
'
I will release ye yakkhos from this your
terror and affliction : give ye unto me here by unanimous
consent a place for me to alight on.' All these yakkhos
'
replied Lord, we confer on thee the whole of Lanka,
:

grant thou comfort to us.' The vanquisher thereupon

dispellingtheir terror and cold shivering, and spread
ing his carpet of skin on the spot bestowed on him,
he there seated himself. He then caused the aforesaid
carpet, refulgent with a fringe of flames, to extend itself
on all sides : they, scorched by the flames, (receding) stood
around on the shores (of the island) terrified. The Saviour
then caused the delightful isle of Giri to approach for
them. As soon as they transferred themselves thereto
(to escape the conflagration), he restored it to its former
position.'1
This legend, which reminds one irresistibly of the ex
pulsion of reptiles by saints from Ireland, and other
Western regions, is the more interesting if it be considered
that these Yakkhos are the Sanskrit Yakshas, attendants
1 'Mahawanso' (Tumour), pp. 3, 6.
 SERPENT-MEN. »53

on Kuvera, the god of wealth, employed in the care of

his garden and treasures. They are regarded as generally
inoffensive. The transfer by English authorities of the
Tasmanians from their native island to another, with the
result of their extermination, may suggest the possible
origin of the story of Giri.
Buddha's dealings with the serpent-men or nagas is
related as follows in the same volume :
'
The vanquisher (i.e., of the five deadly sins), in the ...
fifth year of his buddhahood, while residing at the garden
of (the prince) Jeto, observing that, on account of a disputed
claim for a gem-set throne between t! naga Mahodaro
and a similar Chalodaro, a maternal uncle and nephew, a
conflict was at hand, taking with him his sacred dish
. . .

and robes, out of compassion to the nagas, visited Nagadipo.

. . . These mountain nagas were, moreover, gifted with
supernatural powers. . . . The Saviour and dispeller of the
darkness of sin, poising himself in the air over the centre
of the assembly, caused a terrifying darkness to these
nagas. Attending to the prayer of the dismayed nagas,
he again called forth the light of day. They, overjoyed at
having seen the deity of felicitous advent, bowed down at
the feet of the divine teacher. To them the vanquisher
preached a sermon of reconciliation. Both parties rejoic
ing thereat, made an offering of the gem-throne to the
divine sage. The divine teacher, alighting on the earth,
seated himself on the throne, and was served by the naga
kings with celestial food and beverage. The lord of the
universe procured for eighty kotis of nagas, dwelling on
land and in the waters, the salvation of the faith and the
state of piety.'
At every step in the conversion of the native Singhalese,
the demons and serpent-men, Buddha and his apos
tles are represented as being attended by the devas, the
 ETHIOPIANS.
deities of India, who are spoken of as if glad to become
menials of the new religion. But we find Zoroaster using
this term in demonic sense, and describing alien wor
a

shippers as children of the Devas (a Semite would say,

Sons of Belial). And in the conventional Persian pictures
of the Last Judgment (moslem), the archfiend has the
Hindu complexion. A similar phenomenon may be
observed in various regions. In the mediaeval frescoes of
Moscow, representing infernalit is not very
tortures,
difficult to pick out devils representing the physical char
acteristics of most of the races with which the Muscovite
has struggled in early times. There are also black Ethio
pians among them, which may be a result of devils being
considered the brood of Tchernibog, god of Darkness ;

but may also, not impossibly, have come of such apocry

phal narratives as that ascribed to St. Augustine.
'
I was
already Bishop of Hippo when I went into Ethiopia with
some servants of Christ, there to preach the gospel. In
this country we saw many men and women without heads,
who had two great eyes in their breasts ; and in countries
still more southerly we saw a people who had but one eye
in their foreheads.' 1

In considering animal demons, the primitive demonisa-

tion of the Wolf has been discussed. But it is mainly as
a transformation of man and a type of savage foes that
this animal has been prominent figure in Mythology.
a
Professor Max Miiller has made it tolerably clear that
Bellerophon means Slayer of the Hairy ; and that Belleros
is the transliterationof Sanskrit varvara, a term applied
to the dark Aborigines by their Aryan invaders, equivalent
to barbarians.2 This points us for the origin of the title
rather to Bellerophon's conquest of the Lycians, or Wolf-
men, than to his victory over the Chimaera. The story of
1 Ser. xxxiii. 5
Hardly consistent with De Civ. Dei, xvi. 8. 'Chips,' ii.
 L YCIANS AND HIRPINI.

Lycaon and his sons barbarians defying the gods and

devouring human flesh turned into wolves by Zeus, con
nects itself with the Lycians (hairy, wolfish barbarians),
whom Bellerophon conquered.
It was not always, however, the deity that conquered in
such encounters. In the myth of Soracte, the Wolf is seen
able to hold his own against the gods. Soranus, wor
shipped on Mount Soracte, was at Rome the god of Light,
and is identified with Apollo by Virgil.1 A legend states
that he became associated with the infernal gods, though
called Diespiter, because of the sulphurous exhalations
from the side of Mount Soracte. It is said that once
when some shepherds were performing a sacrifice, some
wolves seized the flesh ; the shepherds, following them,
were killed by the poisonous vapours of the mountain to
which the wolves retreated. An oracle gave out that this
was a punishment for their pursuing the sacred animals ;

and a general pestilence also having followed, it was

declared that it could only cease if the people were all
changed to wolves and lived by prey. Hence the Hirpini,
'
from the Sabine hirpus? a wolf. The story is a variant
of that of the Hirpinian Samnites, who were said to have
received their name from their ancestors having followed
a sacred wolf when seeking their new home. The Wolf
ceremonies were, like the Roman
Lupercalia, for pur
poses of purification. The worshippers ran naked through
blazing fires. The annual festival, which Strabo describes
as occurring in the grove of Feronia, goddess of Nature,
became at last a sort of fair. Its history, however, is
very significant of the formidable character of the Hirpini,
or Wolf-tribe, which could alone have given rise to such
euphemistic celebrations of the wolf.
It is interesting to note that in some regions this wolf
1 '
Sancti custos Soractis Apollo.' /En. xi. 785.
 POLITES.

of superstition was domesticated into Pierius says

a dog.

there was a temple of Vulcan in Mount iEtna, in whose

grove were dogs that fawned on the pious, but rent the
polluted worshippers. It will be seen by the left form
of Fig. 13 that the wolf had a diminution, in pictorial
representation similar to that which the canine Lares
underwent (p. 135). This picture is referred by John
Beaumont1 to Cartarius' work on 'The Images of the
'
Gods of the Ancients the form wearing a wolf's skin
;

and head is that of the demon Polites, who infested

Temesa in Italy, according to a story related by Pausanias.
Ulysses, in his wanderings, having come to this town, one
of his companions was stoned to death for having ravished
a virgin ; after which his ghost appeared in form of this

demon, which had to be appeased, by the direction of

the oracle of Apollo, by the annual sacrifice to him of
the most beautiful virgin in the place. Euthymus,
enamoured of a virgin about to be so offered, gave
battle to this demon, and, having expelled him from
the country, married the virgin. However, since the in
fernal cannot be deprived of their rights without
powers
substitution, this saviour of Temesa disappeared in the
river Caecinus.
The form on the right in Fig. 13 represents the genius
of the city of Rome, and is found on some of Hadrian's
coins ; he holds the cornucopia and the sacrificial dish.
The child and the serpent in the same picture represent
the origin of the demonic character attributed to the
Eleans by the Arcadians.This child-and-serpent symbol,
which bears resemblance to certain variants of Bel and
the Dragon, no doubt was brought to Elea, or Velia in
Italy, by the Phocaeans, when they abandoned their Ionian
homes rather than submit to Cyrus, and founded that
1
'Treatise of Spirits,' by John Beaumont, Gent., London, 1705.
 SOSIPOLIS. >57

town, B.C. 544. The two forms were jointly worshipped

with annual sacrifices in the temple of Lucina, under the
name Sosipolis. The legend of this title is related by
Pausanias. When the Arcadians invaded the Eleans, a
woman came to the Elean commander with an infant at her
breast, and said that she had been admonished in a dream

Fig. 13. Italian and Roman Genu.

to place her child in front of the army. This was done ;

as the Arcadians approached the child was changed to a

serpent, and, astounded at the prodigy, they fled without
giving battle. The child was represented by the Eleans
decorated with stars, and holding the cornucopia ; by the
Arcadians, no doubt, in a less celestial way. It is not
uncommon in Mythology to find the most dangerous
demons represented under some guise of weakness, as,
for instance, among the South Africans, some of whom
recently informed English officers that the Galeikas were
led against them by a terrible sorcerer in the form of a

hare. The most fearful traditional demon ever slain by

158 METAPHORICAL LYCANTHROPY.

hero in Japan was Shu den Dozi the Child-faced Drinker.

In Ceylon the apparition of a demon is said to be frequently
under the form of a woman with a child in her arms.
Many animal demons are mere fables for the ferocity of
human tribes. The Were- wolf superstition, which exists still
in Russia, where the transformed monster is called volkod-
Idk (volk, a wolf, and dlak, hair), might even have originated
in the costume of Norse barbarians and huntsmen. The
belief was always more or less rationalised, resembling that
held by Verstegan three hundred years ago, and which
may be regarded as prevalent among both the English and
Flemish people of his day. ' These Were-wolves,' he says,
'
are certain sorcerers, who, having anointed their bodies
with an ointment they make by the instinct of the devil,
and putting oncertain enchanted girdle, do not only
a
unto the view of others seem as wolves, but to their own
thinking have both the nature and shape of wolves so long
as they wear the said girdle ; and they do dispose them
selves as very wolves, in worrying and killing, and waste
of human creatures.' During the Franco-German war of
1870-71, a family of ladies on the German side of the
Rhine, sitting up all night in apprehension, related to me
such stories of the '
Turcos' that I have since found no
difficulty in understanding the belief in weird and praeter-
natural wolves which once filled Europe with horror. The
facility with which the old Lycian wolf-girdle, so to say,
was caught up and worn in so many countries where race-
wars were chronic for many ages, renders it nearly certain
that this superstition (Lycanthropy), however it may have
originated, was continued through the custom of ascribing
demonic characteristics to hostile and fierce races. It has
been, indeed, a general opinion that the theoretical belief
originated in the Pythagorean doctrine of metempsychosis.
Thus Shakspere :
 ABORIGINES OF INDIA.
Thou almost makes me w aver in my faith,
To hold opinion with Pythagoras,
That souls of animals infuse themselves
Into the trunks of men : thy currish spirit

Governed a wolf, who, hanged for human slaughter,

Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet,
And whilst thou layest in thy unhallowed dam
Infused itself in thee ; for thy desires
Are wolfish, bloody, starved, and ravenous.

But the superstition is much older than Pythagoras, who,

no doubt, tried to turn it into a moral theory of retribu
tions, as indeed did Plato in his story of the Vision of
Er the Armenian.
Professor Weber and others have adduced evidence in
dicating that although belief in the transformation of men
into beasts was not developed in the Vedic age of India,
the matrix of it was -there. But of our main fact the
association of demonic characters with certain tribes
India has presented many examples. In the mountains
of Travancore there are tribes which are still generally
believed to be on terms of especial familiarity with the
devils of that region ; and the dwellers on the plains relate
that on these mountains gigantic demons, sixteen or seven
teen feet high, may sometimes be seen hurling firebrands
at each other.
Professor Monier Williams contributes an interesting
note concerning this general phase of South - Indian
'
demonology. Furthermore, it must not be forgotten
that although a belief in devils and homage to bhutas,
or spirits, of all kinds is common all over India, yet
what is called devil-worship is far
systematically
more
practised in the South of India and Ceylon than in the
North. And the reason may be that as the invading
Aryans advanced towards Southern India, they found
portions of it peopled by wild aboriginal savages, whose
 GOTHS AND SCYTHIANS.

behaviour and aspect appeared to them to resemble that

of devils. The Aryan mind, therefore, naturally pictured
of the South as the chief resort
to itself the regions
and stronghold of the demon race, and the dread of
demonical agency became more deeply rooted in Southern
India than in the North. Curiously enough, too, it is
commonly believed in Southern India that every wicked
man contributes by his death to swell the ever-increasing
ranks of devil legions. His evil passions do not die with
him ; they are intensified, concentrated, and perpetuated
in the form of a malignant and mischievous spirit.' 1

It is obvious that this principle may be extended from

individuals to entire tribes.The Cimmerians were re
garded as dwelling in a land allied with hell. In the
legend of the Alhambra, as told by Washington Irving,
the astrologer warns the Moorish king that the beautiful
damsel is no doubt one of those Gothic sorceresses of
whom they have heard so much. Although, as we have
seen, England was regarded on the Continent as an island
of demons because of its northern latitude, probably some
of its tribes were of a character dangerous enough to pro
long the superstition. The nightmare elves were believed
to come from England, and to hurry away through the
keyholes at daybreak, saying 'The bells are calling in
England.'2 Visigoth probably left us our word bigot;
' '
and Goths and Vandals sometimes designate English
roughs, as 'Turks' those of Constantinople. Herodotus
says the Scythians of the Black Sea regarded the Neu-
rians as wizards, who transformed themselves into wolves

1 London 'Times,' June II, 1877.

Wuttke, ' Volksaberglaube,
s ' '
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.
 GIANTS AND DWARFS. 161

for a few days annually ; but the Scythians themselves

are said by Herodotus to have sprung from a monster,
half-woman half-serpent ; and possibly the association of
the Scotch with the Scythians by the Germans, who called
them both Scuttcn, had something to do with the uncanny
character ascribed to the British Isles. Sir Walter Raleigh
described the Red Men of America as gigantic monsters.
'Red Devils' is still the pioneer's epithet for them in the
Far West. The hairy Dukes of Esau were connected with
the goat, and demonised as Edom ; and Ishmael was not
believed much better by the more peaceful Semitic tribes.
Such notions are akin to those which many now have
of the Thugs and Bashi-Bazouks, and are too uniform
and natural to tax much the ingenuity of Comparative
Mythology.
Underlying many of the legends of giants and dwarfs
may be found a similar demonologic formation. A prin
ciple of natural selection would explain the existence of
tribes, which, though of small stature, are able to hold their
own against the larger and more powerful by their supe
rior cunning. That such equalisation of apparently un
equal forces has been known in pre-historic ages may be
gathered from many fables. Before Bali, the monarch
already mentioned, whose power alarmed the gods them
selves, Vishnu appeared as a dwarf, asking only so much
land as he could measure with three steps ; the apparently
ridiculous request granted, the god strode over the whole
earth with two steps and brought his third on the head of
Bali. In Scandinavian fable we have the young giantess
coming to her mother with the plough and ploughman
in her apron, which she had picked up in the field. To
her child's inquiry, '
What sort of beetle is this I found
' '
wriggling in the sand ? the giantess replies, Go put
it back in the place where thou hast found it. We
VOL. I. l
i6a BERSERKERS.

must be gone out of this land, for these little people

will dwell in it.'
The Sagas contain many stories which, while written in
'
glorification of the giant race, relate the destruction of
'

their chiefs by the magical powers of the dwarfs. I must

'
limit myself to a few notes on the Ynglinga Saga. In
Swithiod,' we are told, ' are many great domains, and many
wonderful races of men, and many kinds of languages.
There are giants, and there are dwarfs, and there are also
blue men. There are wild beasts, and dreadfully large
dragons.' We learn that in Asaland was a great chief,
Odin, who went out to conquer Vanaland. The Vana-
landers are declared to have magic arts, such as are
ascribed to Finns
and Lapps to this day by the more
ignorant of their neighbours. But that the people of Asa-
'
land learned their magic charms. Odin was the cleverest
of them all, and from him all the others learned their
'
magic arts.' Odin could make his enemies in battle
blind, or deaf, or terror-struck, and their weapons so blunt
that they could no more cut than a willow twig ; on the
other hand, his men rushed forward without armour, were
as mad as dogs or wolves, bit their shields, and were as
strong as bears or wild bulls, and killed people at a blow,
and neither fire nor iron told upon them. These were
called Berserkers.' (From ber, bear, and serkr, sark or
coat ; the word being probably, as Maurer says, a survival
of an earlier belief in the transformation of men into
bears.) But the successors of Odin did not preserve his
occult power. Svegdir, for instance, saw a large stone
and a dwarf at the door entering in it. The dwarf called
'
him to come in and he should Odin.
Swedger ran
see

into the stone, which instantly closed behind him, and

Swedger never came back.' The witchcraft of the Finn
people is said to have led Vanlandi (Svegdir's son) to his
 THE DUERGAR^ 163

death by Mara (night-mare). Vanlandi's son too, Visbur,

fell a victim to sorcery. Such legends as these, and many
others which may be found in Sturleson's Heimskringla,
have influenced our popular stories whose interest turns
on the skill with which some little Jack or Thumbling
overcomes his adversary by superior cunning.
Superstitions concerning dwarf-powers are especially
rife in Northumberland, they used to be called
where
Duergar, and they were thought to abound on the hills
between Rothbury and Elsdon. They mislead with
torches. One story relates that a traveller, beguiled at
night into a hut where a dwarf prepared a comfortable fire
for him, found himself when daylight returned sitting upon
the edge of a deep rugged precipice, where the slightest
movement had caused him to be dashed to pieces.1 The
Northumbrian generally, however, do not bear the
stories
emphasis of having grown out of aboriginal conditions, or
even of having been borrowed for such. The legends of
Scotland, and of the South- West of England, appear to me
much more suggestive of original struggles between large
races and small. They are recalled by the superstitions
which still linger in Norway concerning the Lapps, who
are said to carry on unholy dealings with gnomes.
' '
In the last century the Brownie was commonly spoken
of in Scotland as appearing in shape of 'a tall man,' and
the name seems to refer to the brown complexion of
that bogey, and its long brown hair,
hardly Scottish.2
It is generally the case that Second Sight, which once
attained the dignity of being called '
Deuteroscopia,' sees

a doomed man or woman shrink to the size of a dwarf.

' '
The tall man is not far off in such cases. In some age '

of the world more remote than even that of Alypos,' says

1
Richardson's'Borderer's Fable- Book,' vi. 97.
a Martin, Appendix to Report on ' Ossian,' p. 310.
164 BRITONS.

Hugh Miller, '

of Britain was peopled by giants
the whole
a fact amply supported by early English historians and
the traditions of the North of Scotland. Diocletian, king
of Syria, say the historians, had thirty-three daughters,
who, like the daughters of Danaus, killed their husbands
on their wedding night. The king, their father, in abhor
rence of the crime, crowded them all into a ship, which he
abandoned to the mercy of the waves, and which was
drifted by tides and winds till it arrived on the coast of
Britain, then an uninhabited island. There they lived
solitary, subsisting on roots and berries, the natural pro
duce of the soil, until an order of demons, becoming ena
moured of them, took them for their wives ; and a tribe of
giants, who must be regarded as the true aborigines of the
country, if indeed the demons have not a prior claim, were
the fruit of these marriages. Less fortunate, however, than
even their prototypes the Cyclops, the whole tribe was
extirpated a few ages after by Brutus the parricide, who,
with a valour to which mere bulk could offer no effectual
resistance, overthrew Gog-Magog and Termagol, and a
whole host of others with names equally terrible. Tradi
tion is less explicit than the historians in what relates to
the origin and extinction of the race, but its narratives of
their prowess are more minute. There is a large and
ponderous stone in the parish of Edderston which a
giantess of the tribe is said to have flung from the point of
a spindle across the Dornoch Firth ; and another, within a
few miles of Dingwall, still larger and more ponderous,
which was thrown by a person of the same family, and
which still bears the marks of a gigantic finger and
thumb.'1
Perhaps we may find the mythological descendants of
these Titans, and also of the Druids, in the so-called
1 '
Scenes and Legend?,' p. 13.
 ICELAND.
'
Great Men' once dreaded by Highlanders. The natives
of South Uist believed that a valley, called Glenslyte,
situated between two mountains on the east side of
the island, was haunted by these Great Men, and that if
any one entered the valley without formally resigning
themselves to the conduct of those beings, they would
infallibly become mad. Martin, having remonstrated with
the people against this superstition, was told of a woman's
having come out of the valley a lunatic because she had
not uttered the spell of three sentences. They also told
him of voices heard in the air. The Brownie (' a tall man
with very long brown hair who has cow's milk poured
'),

out for him on a hill in the same region, probably of this

giant tribe, might easily have been demonised at the
time when the Druids were giving St. Columba so much
trouble, and trying to retain their influence over the
people by professing supernatural powers.1
The man of the smaller stature, making up for his
inferiority by invention, perhaps first forged the sword, the
coat of mail, and the shield, and so confronted the giant
with success. The god with the Hammer might thus
supersede the god of the Flint Spear. Magic art seemed
to have rendered invulnerable the man from whom the
arrow rebounded.
It would appear from King Olaf Tryggvason's Saga
that nine hundred years ago the Icelanders and the Danes
reciprocally regarded each other as giants and dwarfs.
The Icelanders indited lampoons against the Danes which
allude to their diminutive size
:

The gallant Harald in the field

Between his legs lets drop his shield,
Into a pony he was changed, &c.

On the other hand, the Danes had by no means con-

a

Dr. James Browne's History of the Highlands,'

1

'

p. 113.
 MIMACS.

temptuous idea of their Icelandic enemies, as the following

'
narrative from Heimskringla proves. King Harald told
a warlock to hie to Icelandin some altered shape, and to
try what he could learn there to tell him : and he set out
in the shape of a whale. And when he came near to the
land he went to the west side of Iceland, north around
the land, when he saw all the mountains and hills full of
land-serpents, some great, some small. When he came to
Vapnafiord he went in towards the land, intending to go
on shore ; but a huge dragon rushed down the dale against
him, with a train of serpents, paddocks, and toads, that
blew poison towards him. Then he turned to go west
ward around the land as far as Eyafiord, and he went into
the fiord. Then a bird flew against him, which was so
great that its wings stretched over the mountains on either
side of the fiord, and many birds, great and small, with it.
Then he swam further west, and then south into Breida-
fiord. When he came into the fiord a large grey bull ran
against him, wading into the sea, and bellowing fearfully,
and he was followed by a crowd of land-serpents. From
thence he went round by Reikaness and wanted to land at
Vikarsted, but there came down a hill-giant against him
with an iron staff in his hands. He was a head higher
than the mountains, and many other giants followed him.'
The most seductive Hesperian gardens of the South and
East do not appear to have been so thoroughly guarded or
defended as Iceland, and one can hardly call it cowardice
when (after the wizard-whale brought back the log of its
'
voyage) it is recorded : Then the Danish king turned about
with his fleet and sailed back to Denmark.'
It is a sufficiently curious fact that the Mimacs, abori
gines of Nova Scotia,1 were found with a whale-story,
already referred to (p. 46), so much like this. They also
1 ' North American Review,' January 1871.
 ISLES OF THE GENII.

have the legend of an ancient warrior named Booin, who

possessed the praeternatural powers especially ascribed to
Odin, those of raising storms, causing excessive cold, in
creasing or diminishing his size, and assuming any shape.
Besides the fearful race of gigantic ice-demons dreaded by
this tribe, as elsewhere stated (p. 84), they dread also a

yellow-horned dragon called Cheepichealm, (whose form

the great Booin sometimes assumes). They make offer
ings to the new moon. They believe in pixies, calling
them Wigguladum-moochkik, 'very little people.' They
anciently believed in two great spirits, good and evil,
both called Manitoos ; since their contact with christians
only the evil one has been so called.
The entire motif of the Mimac Demonology to my

is,
mind, that of early conflicts with some formidable races.
It to be hoped that travellers will pay more attention to
is

this unique race before The Chinese

has ceased to exist.
it

theory of genii almost exactly that of the Mimacs. The

is

Chinese genii are now small as moth, now fill the world
a

;
can assume any form they command demons they never
;
;

die, but, at the end of some centuries, ride to heaven on a

dragon's back.1 Ordinarily the Chinese genii use the
yellow heron as an aerial courser. The Mimacs believe in
large praeternatural water-bird, Culloo, which devours
a

ordinary people, but bears on its back those who can tame
by magic.
it

Mr. Mayers, in his

Chinese Reader's Manual,' suggests
'

that the designation of Formosa as Isles of the Genii

'
'

(San Shen Shan) by the Chinese, has some reference to

their early attempts at colonisation in Japan. Su Fuh,
a

necromancer, who lived B.C. 219, said to have announced

is

their discovery, and at the head of a troop of young men

and maidens, voyaged with an expedition towards them,
1

Dennys, 81 et seq.
p.
 GOG AND MAGOG.

but, when within sight of the magic islands, were driven

back by contrary winds.
Gog and Magog stand in London Guildhall, though
much diminished in stature, to suit the English muscles
that had to bear them in processions, monuments of the
praeternatural size attributed to the enemies which the
Aryan race encountered in its great westward migrations.
Even to-day, when the progress of civilisation is harassed
by untamed Scythian hordes, how strangely fall upon our
ears the ancient legends and prophecies concerning them !
Thus saith the Lord Jehovah :
Behold I am against thee, O Gog,
Prince of Rosh, of Meshech, and of Tubul :
And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee ;
And I will cause thee to come up from the north parts,
And will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel :
And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand,
And will cause thine arrows to fall from thy right hand.
Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel,
Thou and all thy bands.1
'
In the Koran it is related of Dhulkarnein : He jour
neyed from south to north until he came between the two
mountains, beneath which he found a people who could
scarce understand what was said. And they said, O Dhul
karnein, verily Gog and Magog waste the land ; shall we,
therefore, pay thee tribute, on condition that thou build a
rampart between us and them ? He answered, The power
wherewith my Lord hath strengthened me is better than
your tribute ; but assist me strenuously and I will set a
strong wall between you and them. . . . Wherefore when
this wall was finished, Gog and Magog could not scale
it,

neither could they dig through it. And Dhulkarnein said,

This a mercy from my Lord but when the prediction
is

of my Lord shall come to be fulfilled, he will reduce the

wall to dust.'
Ezekiel xxxix.
1
 THE IMPRISONED GIANTS. 169

The terror inspired by these barbarians is reflected in

the prophecies of their certain irruption from their super-
naturally-built fastnesses ; as in Ezekiel :

Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm,

Thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land,
Thou and all thy bands,
And many people with thee ;

and in the Koran, ' Gog and Magog shall have a passage
open for them, and they shall hasten from every high
' '
hill ; and in the Apocalypse, Satan shall be loosed out of
his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which
are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to
gather them in battle : the number of whom is as the sand
of the sea.' Five centuries ago Sir John Maundeville was
telling in England the legend he had heard in the East.
'
In that same regioun ben the mountaynes of Caspye, that
men clepen Uber in the contree. Betwene the mountaynes
the Jews of 10 lynages ben enclosed, that men clepen
Gothe and Magothe : and they mowe not gon out on no
syde. There weren enclosed kynges, with hire peple,
22
that dwelleden betwene the mountayns of Sythe. There
King Alisandre chacede hem betwene the mountaynes, and
there he thought for to enclose hem thorghe work of his
But when he saughe that he might not doon
it,

men. ne
bringe to an ende, he preyed to God of Nature, that he
it

wolde performe that that he had begoune. And all were

so, that he was Payneme, and not worthi to ben herd,
it

zit God of his grace closed the mountaynes to gydre so

:

that thei dwellen there, all fast ylokked and enclosed with
highe mountaynes all aboute, saf only on o syde; and on
that syde the See of Caspye.'
is
 ( 17° )

CHAPTER VII.
BARRENNESS.

Indian famine and Sun-spots Sun-worship Demon of the Desert

The Sphinx Egyptian plagues described by Lepsius : Locusts,
Hurricane, Flood, Mice, Flies The Sheikh's ride Abaddon
Set Typhon The Cain wind Seth Mirage The Desert Eden
Azazel Tawiscara and the Wild Rose.

In their adoration of rain-giving Indra as also a solar

majesty, the ancient Hindus seem to have been fully aware
of his inconsistent habits. ' Thy inebriety is most intense,'
'
exclaims the eulogist, and soothingly adds, Thou desirest
that both thy inebriety and thy beneficence should be the
means of destroying enemies and distributing riches.' 1

Against famine is invoked the thunderbolt of Indra, and it

is likened to the terrible Tvashtri, in whose fearful shape
(pure fire) Agni once appeared to the terror of gods and
men.2 This Tvashtri was not an evil being himself, but,
as we have seen, an artificer for the gods similar to
Vulcan ; he was, however, father of a three-headed monster
who has been identified with Vritra. Though these early
worshippers recognised that their chief trouble was
connected with 'glaring heat' (which Tvashtri seems to
mean in the passage just referred to), Indra's celebrants
beheld him superseding his father Dyaus, and reigning
in the day's splendour as well as in the cloud's
bounty. This monopolist of parts in their theogony
1 ' 5
Rig- Veda,' iv. 175, 5 (Wilson). Ibid., i. 133, 6.
 FAMINE AND SUN-SPOTS. 171

anticipated Jupiter Pluvius. Vedic mythology is per

vaded with stories of the demons that arrested the rain
and stole the cloud-cows of Indra shutting them away
in caves, and the god is endlessly praised for dealing
death to such. He slays Vritra, the ' rain-arresting,' and
' '
Dribhika, Bala, Urana, Arbuda, devouring Swasna,' un-
absorbable Sushna,' Pipru, Namuchi, Rudhikra, Varchin
and his hundred thousand descendants;1 the deadly
strangling serpent Ahi, especial type of Drouth as it dries
up rivers ; and through all these combats with the alleged
authors of the recurring Barrenness and Famine, as most
of these monsters were, the seat of the evil was the Sun-
god's adorable self !

Almost pathetic does the long and vast history appear

just now, when competent men of science are giving us
good reason to believe that right knowledge of the sun,
and the relation of its spots to the rainfall, might have
covered India with ways and means which would have
adapted the entire realm to its environment, and wrested
from Indra his hostile thunderbolt the sunstroke of
famine. The Hindus have covered their lands with
temples raised to propitiate and deprecate the demons,
and to invoke the deities against such sources of drouth
and famine. Had they concluded that famine was the
result of inexactly quartered sun-dials, the land would
have been covered with perfect sun-dials ; but the famine
would have been more destructive, because of the in
creasing withdrawal of mind and energy from the true
cause, and its implied answer. Even so were conflagra
tions in London attributed to inexact city clocks; the
clocks would become perfect, the conflagrations more
numerous, through misdirection of vigilance. But how
much wiser are we of Christendom than the Hindus ?
1 '
Rig- Veda,' vi. 14.
172 SUPERSTITION AND MACHINERY.
They have adapted their country perfectly for propitia
tion of famine-demons that do not exist, at a cost which
would long ago have rendered them secure from the
famine-forces that do exist. We have similarly covered
Christendom with a complete system of securities against
hells and devils and wrathful deities that do not exist,
while around our churches, chapels, cathedrals, are the
actually-existent seething hells of pauperism, shame, and
crime.
'
Nothing can advance art in any district of this accursed
machine-and-devil-driven England until she changes her
mind in many things.' So wrote John Ruskin recently.
Of course, so long as the machine toils and earns wealth
and other power which still goes to support and further
social and ecclesiastical forms, constituted with reference
to salvation from a devil or demons no longer believed in,
'
the phrase machine-and-devil-driven' is true. Until the
invention and enterprise of the nation are administered in
the interest of right ideas, we may still sigh, like John
'
Sterling, for a dozen men to stand up for ideas as
Cobden and his friends do for machinery.' But it still
remains as true that all the machinery and wealth of
England devoted might make its every home
to man
happy, and educate every inhabitant, as that every idola
trous temple in India might be commuted into a shield
against famine.
Our astronomers and economists have enabled us to see

clearly how the case is with the country whose temples

offer no obstruction to christian vision. The facts point
to the conclusion that the sun-spots reach their maximum
and minimum of intensity at intervals of eleven years, and
that their high activity is attended with frequent fluctua
tions of the magnetic needle, and increased rainfall. In
lSll, and since then, famines in India have, with one
 SUN- WORSHIP. 173

exception, followed years of minimum sun-spots.1 These

facts are sufficiently well attested to warrant the belief
that English science and skill will be able to realise in
India the provision which Joseph is said to have made for
the seven lean years of which Pharaoh dreamed.
Until that happy era shall arrive, the poor Hindus will
only go on alternately adoring and propitiating the sun,
as its benign or its cruel influences shall fall upon them.
The artist Turner said, ' The sun is God.' The superb effects
of light in Turner's pictures could hardly have come from
any but a sun-worshipper dwelling amid fogs. Unfami-
liarity often breeds reverence. There are few countries in
which the sun, when it does shine, is so likely to be greeted
with enthusiasm, and observed in all its variations of splen
dour, as one in which its appearance is rare. Yet the
superstition inherited from regions where the sun is equally
adesolation was strong enough to blot out its glory in the
mind of a writer famous in his time, Tobias Swinden, M.A.,
who wrote work to prove the sun to be the abode of the
a
damned.2 The speculation may now appear only curious,
but, probably, it is no more curious than a hundred years
from now will seem to all the vulgar notion of future fiery
torments for mankind, the scriptural necessity of which
led the fanciful rector to his grotesque conclusion. These
two extremes the Sun-worship of Turner, the Sun-horror
of Swinden, survivals in England, represent the two anta
gonistic aspects of the sun, which were of overwhelming
import to those who dwelt beneath its greatest potency.
His ill-humour, or his hunger and thirst, in any year trans
formed the earth to a desert, and dealt death to thousands.
In countries where drouth, barrenness, and consequent
1 'The Nineteenth November 1877.
Century,' Article: 'Sun-Spots and
Famines,' by NormanLockyer and W. W. Hunter.
5 ' An
Inquiry into the Nature and Place of Hell,' by Tobias Swinden, M.A.,
late Rector of Cuxton-in-Kent. 1727.
174 DEMON OF THE DESERT.

famine were occasional, asin India, it would be an inevi

table result that they would represent the varying moods
of a powerful will, and in such regions we naturally find
the most extensive appliances for propitiation. The pre
ponderant number of fat years would tell powerfully on
the popular imagination in favour of priestly intercession,
and the advantage of sacrifices to the great Hunger-demon
who sometimes consumed the seeds of the earth. But in
countries where barrenness was an ever-present, visible,
unvarying fact, the Demon of the Desert would represent
Necessity, a power not to be coaxed or changed. People
dwelling in distant lands might invent theoretical myths
to account for the desert. It might be an accident result
ing from the Sun-god having given up his chariot one day
to an inexperienced driver who came too close to the
earth. But to those who lived beside the desert it could
only seem an infernal realm, quite irrecoverable. The
ancient civilisation of Egypt, so full of grandeur, might, in
good part, have been due to the lesson taught them by the
desert, that they could not change the conditions around
them by any entreaties, but must make the best of what
was left. If such, indeed, was the force that built the
ancient civilisation whose monuments remain so magnifi
cent in their ruins, its decay might be equally accounted
for when that primitive faith passed into a theological
phase. For as Necessity is the mother of invention, Fate
is fatal to the same. Belief in facts, and laws fixed in the
organic nature of things, stimulates man to study them
and constitute his life with reference to them ; but belief
that things are fixed by the arbitrary decree of an indivi
dual power is the final sentence of enterprise. Fate might
thus steadily bring to ruin the grandest achievements of
Necessity.
Had we only the true history of the Sphinx the
 THE SPHINX. 175

Binder we might find it a landmark between the rise and

decline of Egyptian civilisation. When the great Limita
tion surrounding the powers of man was first personified
with that mystical grandeur, it would stand in the desert
not as the riddle but its solution. No such monument was
ever raised by Doubt. But once personified and outwardly
shaped, the external Binder must bind thought as well ;

nay, will throttle thought if it cannot pierce through the

stone and discover the meaning of it. '
How true is that
old fable of the Sphinx who sat by the wayside pro
pounding her riddle to the passengers, which if they could
not answer she destroyed them ! Such a Sphinx is this
Life of ours to all men and societies of men. Nature, like
the Sphinx, is of womanly celestial loveliness and tender
ness ; the face and bosom of a goddess, but ending in claws
and the body of a lioness. There is in her a celestial
beauty, which means celestial order, pliancy to wisdom ;
but there is also a darkness, a ferocity, fatality, which are
infernal. She is a goddess, but one not yet disimprisoned ;

one still half-imprisoned, the articulate, lovely still en

cased in the inarticulate, chaotic. How true ! And does
she not propound her riddles to us ? Of each man she asks
'
daily, in mild voice, yet with a terrible significance, Know-
est thou the meaning of this Day ? What thou canst do
To-day, wisely attempt to do.' Nature, Universe, Destiny,
Existence, howsoever we name this grand unnameable
Fact, in the midst of which we live and struggle, is as a
heavenly bride and conquest to the wise and brave, to them
who can discern her behests and do them destroying
; a
fiend to them who cannot. Answer her riddle, it is well
with thee. Answer it not, pass on regarding it not, it will
answer itself ; the solution for thee is a thing of teeth and
claws; Nature to thee is a dumb lioness, deaf to thy
pleadings, fiercely devouring. Thou art not now her vie
i76 LOCUSTS.

torious bridegroom ; thou art her mangled victim, scattered

on the precipices, as a slave found treacherous, recreant,
1
ought to be, and must.'
On the verge of the Desert, Prime Minister to the Ne
cropolis at whose gateway it stands, the Sphinx reposes
amid the silence of science and the centuries. Who built
it ? None can answer, so far as the human artist, or the
king under whom he worked, is concerned. But the ideas
and natural forces which built the Sphinx surround even
now the archaeologist who tries to discover its history and
chronology. As fittest appendage to Carlyle's interpreta
tion, let us read some passages from Lepsius.
'
The Oedipus for this king of the Sphinxes is yet want
ing. Whoever would drain the immeasurable sand-flood
which buries the tombs themselves, and lay open the base
of the Sphinx, the ancient temple-path, and the surround
ing hills, could easily decide it.But with the enigmas of
history there are joined many riddles and wonders of
nature, which I must not leave quite unnoticed. The newest
of all, at least, I must describe.
'
I had descended with Abeken into a mummy-pit, to
open some newly discovered sarcophagi, and was not a
little astonished, upon descending, to find myself in a regu
lar snow-drift of locusts, which, almost darkening the
heavens, flew over our heads from the south-west from the
desert in hundreds of thousands to the valley. I took it
for a single flight, and called my companions from the
tombs, where they were busy, that they might see this
Egyptian wonder ere it was over. But the flight continued ;
indeed the work-people said it had begun an hour before.
Then we first observed that the whole region, near and
far, was covered with locusts. I sent an attendant into
the desert to discover the breadth of the flock. He ran
1 '
Carlyle, Past and Present,' i. 2.
 HOSTS OF THE COMET. 177

for the distance of a quarter of an hour, then returned and

told us that, as far as he could see, there was no end to
them. I rode home in the midst of the locust shower.
At the edge of the fruitful plain they fell down in showers ;

and so it went on the whole day until the evening, and so

the next day from morning till evening, and the third ;
in short to the sixth day, indeed in weaker flights much
longer. Yesterday it did seem that a storm of rain in the
desert had knocked down and destroyed the last of them.
The Arabs are now lighting great smoke-fires in the fields,
and clattering and making loud noises all day long to
preserve their crops from the unexpected invasion. It
will, however, do little good. Like a new animated vege
tation, these millions of winged spoilers cover even the
neighbouring sand-hills, so that scarcely anything is to be
seen of the ground ; and when they rise from one place
they immediately fall down somewhere in the neighbour
hood ; they are tired with their long journey, and seem to
have lost all fear of their natural enemies, men, animals,
fill their stomachs,
smoke, and noise, in their furious wish to
and in the feeding of their immense number. The most
wonderful thing, in my estimation, is their flight over the
naked wilderness, and the instinct which has guided them
from some oasis over the inhospitable desert to the fat
soil of the Nile vale. Fourteen years ago, it seems, this
Egyptian plague last visited Egypt with the same force.
The popular idea is that they are sent by the comet which
we have observed for twelve days in the South-west, and
which, as it is now no longer obscured by the rays of the
moon, stretches forth its stately tail across the heavens in
the hours of the night. The Zodiacal light, too, so seldom
seen in the north, has lately been visible for several nights
in succession.'
Other plagues of Egypt are described by Lepsius :

vol. 1.
M
i78 HURRICANE, FLOOD, MICE.
'
Suddenly the storm grew to a tremendous hurricane,
such as I have never seen in Europe, and hail fell upon us
in such masses as almost to turn day into night. . . . Our
tents lie in a valley, whither the plateau of the pyramids
inclines, and are sheltered from the worst winds from the
north and west. Presently I saw a dashing mountain flood
hurrying down upon our prostrate and sand-covered tents,
like a giant serpent upon its certain prey. The principal
stream rolled on to the great tent; another arm threatened
mine without reaching it. But everything that had been
washed from our tents by the shower was torn away by
the two streams, which joined behind the tents, and carried
into a pool behind the Sphinx, where a great lake imme
diately formed, which fortunately had no outlet. Just
picture this scene to yourself! Our tents, dashed down
by the storm and heavy rain, lying between two mountain
torrents, thrusting themselves in several places to the depth
of six feet in the sand, and depositing our books, drawings,
sketches, shirts, and instruments yes, even our levers and
iron crow-bars ; in short, everything they could seize, in
the dark foaming mud-ocean. Besides this, ourselves wet
to the skin, without hats, fastening up the weightier things,
rushing after the lighter ones, wading into the lake to the
waist to fish out what the sand had not yet swallowed ;
and all this was the work of a quarter of an hour, at the
end of which the sun shone radiantly again, and announced
the end of this flood by a bright and glorious rainbow.
'
Now comes the plague of mice, with which we were not
formerly acquainted ; in my tent they grow, play, and
whistle, as if they had been at home here all their lives,
and quite regardless of my presence. At night they have
already run my bed and face, and yesterday I
across
started terrified from my slumbers, as I suddenly felt the
sharp tooth of such a daring guest at my foot.
 SATAN'S WATER. 179

'
Above me canopy of gauze is spread, in order to keep
a
off the flies, these most shameless of the plagues ofEgypt,
during the day, and the mosquitos at night. . . . Scorpions
and serpents have not bitten us yet, but there are very
malicious wasps, which have often stung us.
'
The dale (in the Desert) was wild and monotonous,
nothing but sandstone rock, the surfaces of which were
burned black as coals, but turned into burning golden
as

yellow at every crack, and every ravine, whence a number

of sand-rivulets, like fire-streams from black dross, ran
and filled the valleys. No tree, no tuft of grass had we
yet seen, also no animals, except a few vultures and crows
feeding on the carcase of the latest fallen camel. . . . Over
a wild broken path, and cutting stones, we came
and
deeper and deeper into the gorge. The first wide basins
were empty, we therefore left the camels and donkeys
behind, climbed up the smooth granite wall, and thus pro
ceeded amidst these grand rocks from one basin to another ;
they were all empty. Behind there, in the farthest ravine,
the guide said there must be water, for it was never empty;
but there proved to be not a single drop. We were obliged
to return dry. . . . We saw the most beautiful mirages
very early in the day ; they most minutely resemble seas
and lakes, in which mountains, rocks, and everything in
their vicinity, are reflected as in the clearest water. They
form a remarkable contrast with the staring dry desert,
and have probably deceived many a poor wanderer, as the
legend goes. If one be not aware that no water is there,
it is quite impossible to distinguish the appearance from
the reality. A few days ago I felt quite sure that I per
ceived an overflowing of the Nile, or a branch near El
Mecheref, and rode towards but only found Bahr
it,

Sheitan, Satan's water, as the Arabs call it.'

1

Discoveries in Egypt,' &c

1

(Bentley.)
'

1852.
i8o THE SHEIKH'S RIDE.
Amid such scenery the Sphinx arose. Egypt was able
to recognise the problem of blended barrenness and beauty
alternation of Nature's flowing breast and leonine claw
but could she return the right answer ? The primitive
Egyptian answer may, indeed, as I have guessed, be the
great monuments of her civilisation, but her historic solu
tion has been another world. This world a desert, with
here and there a momentary oasis, where man may dance
and feast a little, stimulated by the corpse borne round
the banquet, ere he passes to paradise. So thought they
and were deceived ; from generation to generation have
they been destroyed, even unto this day. How destroyed,
Lepsius may again be our witness.
'
The Sheikh of the Saadich-derwishes rides to the chief
Sheikh of all the derwishes of Egypt, El Bekri. On the
way thither, a great number of these holy folk, and others,
too, who fancy themselves not a whit behind-hand in piety,
throw themselves flat on the ground, with their faces down
ward, and so that the feet of one lie close to the head of
the next over this living carpet the sheikh rides on his
;

horse, which is led on each side by an attendant, in order

to compel the animal to the unnatural march. Each body
receives two treads of the horse; most of them jump up
again without hurt, but whoever suffers serious, or as it
occasionally happens, mortal injury, has the additional
ignominy to bear of not having pronounced, or not being
able to pronounce, the proper prayers and magical charms
that alone could save him.'
'
What a fearful barbarous worship' (the Sikr, in which
the derwishes dance until exhausted, howling ' No God but
'
Allah') which the astounded multitude, great and small,
gentle and simple, gaze upon seriously, and with stupid
respect, and in which it not unfrequently takes a part !
The invoked deity is manifestly much less an object of
 MEANING OF THE SPHINX.
reverence than the fanatic saints who invoke him ; for mad,
idiotic, or other psychologically-diseased persons are very
generally looked upon as holy by the Mohammedans, and
treated with great respect. It is the demoniacal, incompre
hensibly-acting, and therefore fearfully-observed, power of
nature that the natural man always reveres when he per
sensible of some connection between
it,

ceives because he
is
and his intellectual power, without being able to com
it

mand first in the mighty elements, then in the wondrous

it
;

but obscure law-governed instincts of animals, and at last

in the yet more overpowering ecstatical or generally abnor
mal mental condition of his own race.'
The right answer to the enigma of the Sphinx Man.

is
But this creature prostrating himself under the Sheikh's
horse, or under the invisible Sheikh called Allah, and
ascribing sanctity to the half-witted, not Man at all.
is

Those hard-worked slaves who escaped into the wilder

ness, and set up for worship an anthropomorphic Supreme
Will, and sought their promised milk and honey in this
world alone, carried with them the only force that could
rightly answer the Sphinx. Their Allah or Elohim they
heard say, Why howlest thou to me Go forward.'
'

Somewhat more significant than his usual jests was that

cartoon of Punch which represented the Sphinx with
relaxed face smiling recognition on the most eminent of
contemporary Israelites returning to the land of his race's
ancient bondage, to buy the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal
half answers the Sphinx when man has subdued the
;

Great Desert to solution will be complete, and

sea, the
a

the Sphinx may cast herself into it.

Far and wide through the Southern world have swarmed
the locusts described by Lepsius, and with them have
migrated many superstitions. The writer of this well re
members the visit of the so-called Seventeen-year locusts,'
'
 ABADDON.

to the region of Virginia where he was born, and across

many years can hear the terrible never-ceasing roar coming
up from the woods, uttering, as all agreed, the ominous
'
word Pharaoh.'On each wing every eye could see the
letter W, signifying War. With that modern bit of ancient
Egypt in my memory, I find the old Locust-mythology
sufficiently impressive.
By an old tradition the Egyptians, as described by
Lepsius, connected the locusts with the comet. In the
Apocalypse (ix.) a falling star is the token of the descent
of the Locust-demon to unlock the pit that his swarms
may issue forth for their work of destruction. Their
king Abaddon, in Greek Apollyon, Destroyer, has had
an evolution from being the angel of the two (rabbinical)
divisions of Hades to the successive Chiefs of Saracenic
hordes. It is interesting to compare the graphic description
of a locust-storm in Joel, with its adaptation to an army
of human destroyers in the Apocalypse. And again the
curious description of these hosts of Abaddon in the latter
book, partly repeat the strange notions of the Bedouins
concerning the locust, of whom, says Niebuhr, ' com
one
pared the head of the locust to that of the horse; its
breast to that of a lion ; its feet to those of a camel ; its
body to that of the serpent ; its tail to that of the scorpion ;
its horns (antennae) to the locks of hair of a virgin.' The
present generation has little reason to deny the appropri
ateness of the biblical descriptions of Scythian hordes as
'
locusts. The land is as the garden of Eden before them,
and behind them a desolate wilderness.'
The ancient seeming contest between apparent Good
and Evil in Egypt, was represented in the wars of Ra and
Set. It is said (Gen. iv. 26), ' And to Seth, to him also
was born a son ; and he called his name Enos ; then began
men to call upon the name of the Lord.' Aquila reads
 SET.
'
this Then Seth began to be called by the name of the
Lord.' Mr. Baring-Gould remarks on this that Seth was
at first regarded by the Egyptians as the deity of light
and civilisation, but that they afterwards identified as
Typhon, because he was the chief god of the Hyksos or
shepherd kings ; and in their hatred of these oppressors
the name of Seth was everywhere obliterated from their
monuments, and he was represented as an ass, or with an
ass's head.1But the earliest date assigned to the Hyksos
dominion in Egypt, B.C. 2000, coincides with that of the
Egyptian planisphere in Kircher,2 where Seth is found
identified with Sirius, or the dog-headed Mercury, in Capri
corn. This is the Sothiac Period, or Cycle of the Dog-
star. He was thus associated with the goat and the winter
solstice, to which (B.C. 2000) Capricorn was adjacent. That
Seth or Set became the name for the demon of disorder
and violence among the Egyptians
is,

indeed, probably
due to his being chief god, among some tribes Baal
a

himself, among the Asiatics, before the time of the Hyksos.

was already an old story to put their neighbours' Light
It

for their own Darkness. The Ass's ears they gave him
referred not to his stupidity, but to his hearing everything,
as in the case of the Ass of Apuleius, and the ass Nicon
of Plutarch, or, indeed, the many examples of the same
kind which preceeded the appearance of this much mis
understood animal as the steed of Christ's triumphal entry
into Jerusalem. In Egyptian symbolism those long ears
were as much dreaded as devils' horns. From the eyes of
Ra all beneficent things, from the eyes of Set all noxious
things, were produced. Amen-Ra, as the former was
called, slew the son of Set, the great serpent Naka, which
in one hymn perhaps tauntingly said to have saved his
is

'

Legends of Old Testament Characters,'

1

p. 83.
'

i.

II. See Mankind their Origin and Destiny,' p. 699.

*

ii.

CEdip.,
'
I.

:
 TYPHON.

, feet! Amen-Ra becomes Horus and Set becomes Typhon.

The Typhonian myth is very complex, and includes the
conflict between the Nile and all its enemies the croco
diles that lurk in the sea that swallows the drouth

it,

it,
that dries the burning heat that brings malaria from
it,

it,
the floods that render destructive and Set was through

it
evolved to point where he became identified with
it

a
Saturn, Sheitan, or Satan. Plutarch, identifying Set with
Typho, says that those powers of the universal Soul,
which are subject to the influences of passions, and in the
material system whatever noxious, as bad air, irregular
is
seasons, of the sun and moon, are ascribed to
eclipses
Typho. The name Set, according to him, means 'violent'
and 'hostile;' and he was described as 'double-headed,'
'he who has two countenances,' and 'the Lord of the
World.' Not the least significant fact, in moral sense,

is
a
that Set or Typho represented as the brother of Osiris
is

whom he slew.
Without here going into the question of relationship
between Typhaon and Typhoeus, we may feel tolerably
certain that the fire-breathing hurricane-monster Typhaon
of Homer, and the hundred-headed, fierce-eyed roarer
Typhoeus of Tartarus, father of Winds and Harpies
son
represent the same ferocities of Nature. No fitter place
was ever assigned him than the African desert, and the
story of the gods and goddesses fleeing before Typhon into
Egypt, and there transforming themselves into animals,
from terror, transparent tribute to the dominion over
is
a

the wilderness of sand exercised by the typhoon in its

many moods. The vulture-harpy tearing the dead his
is

child. He many-headed now hot, stifling, tainted now

is

;
;

tempestuous here sciroc, there hurricane, and often tor

;

nado. It may be indeed that as at once coiled in the

whirlwind and blistering, he the fiery serpent to appease
is
 MIRAGE.

whom Moses lifted the brasen serpent for the worship of

Israel. I have often seen snakes hung up by negroes in
Virginia, to bring rain in time of drouth. Typhon, as may
easily be seen by the accompanying figure (14), is a hun
gry and thirsty demon. His tongue is lolling out with
thirst.1 His later connection with the underworld is shown
in various myths, one of which
seems to suggest a popular belief
that Typhon not pleased with
is
the mummies withheld from him,
and that he can enjoy his human
viands only through burials of the
dead. In Egypt, after the Coptic
Easter Monday called Shemmen-
Nesseem (smelling the zephyr)
come the fifty-days' hot wind,
called Khamseen or Cain wind.
After slaying Abel, Cain wandered
amid such a wind, tortured with
fever and thirst. Then he saw two
birds fight in the air ; one having
killed the other scratched a hole
in the desert sand and buried it.
Cain then did the like by his bro- Fig. J4. typhon (Wilkinson),

ther's body, when a zephyr sprang up and cooled his fever.

But still, say the Alexandrians, the fifty-days' hot Cain
wind return annually.
In pictures of the or in cloud-shapes faintly
mirage,
illumined by the afterglow, the dwellers beside the plains
of sand saw, as in phantasmagoria, the gorgeous palaces,
the air-castles, mysterious cities, which make the
and
romance of the desert. Unwilling to believe that such
realms of barrenness had ever been created by any good
1
Compare Kali, Fig. 18.
 THE DESERT EDEN.

god, they beheld in dreams, which answer to nature's own

mirage-dreaming, visions of dynasties passed away, of
magnificent palaces and monarchs on whose pomp and
heaven-defying pride the fatal sand-storm had fallen, and
buried their glories in the dust for ever. The desert be
came the emblem of immeasurable all-devouring Time.
In many of these legends there are intimations of a belief
that Eden itself lay where now all is unbroken desert. In
the beautiful legend in the Midrash of Solomon's voyage
on the Wind, the monarch alighted near a lofty palace of
gold, 'and the scent there was like the scent of the garden
of Eden.' The dust had so surrounded this palace that
Solomon and his companions only learned that there had
been an entrance from an eagle in it thirteen centuries
old, which had heard from its father the tradition of an
entrance on the western side. The obedient Wind having
cleared away the sand, a door was found on whose lock
'
was written, Be it known to you, ye sons of men, that we
dwelt in this palace in prosperity and delight many years.
When the famine came upon us we ground pearls in the
mill instead of wheat, but it profited us nothing.' Amid
marvellous splendours, from chamber to chamber garnished
Solomon passed to a mansion
with ruby, topaz, emerald,
on whose three gates were written admonitions of the
'
transitory nature of all things but Death. Let not for
tune deceive thee.' 'The world is given from one to
'
another.' On the third gate was written, Take pro
vision for thy journey, and make ready food for thyself
while it is yet day ; for thou shalt not be left on the
earth, and thou knowest not the day of thy Death.'
This gate Solomon opened and saw within a life-like
image seated : as the monarch approached, this image
cried with a loud voice, 'Come hither, ye children of Satan;
see! King Solomon is come to destroy you.' Then fire
 AZAZEL. 187

and smoke issued from the nostrils of the image ; and there
were loud and bitter cries, with earthquake and thunder.
But Solomon uttered against them the Ineffable Name,
and all the images fell on their faces, and the sons of Satan
fled and cast themselves into the sea, that they might not
fall into the hands of Solomon. The king then took from
the neck of the image a silver tablet, with an inscription
which he could not read, until the Almighty sent a youth
to assist him. It said : ' I, Sheddad, son of Ad, reigned
over a thousand thousand provinces, and rode on a thou
sand thousand horses ; a thousand thousand kings were
subject to me, and a thousand thousand warriors I slew
Yet in the hour that the Angel of Death came against me,
I could not withstand him.Whoso shall read this writing
let him not trouble himself greatly about this world, for
the end of all men is to die, and nothing remains to man
1
but a good name.'
Azazel 'strong against God' is the biblical name of
the Demon of the Desert (Lev. xvi.). ' Aaron shall cast
lots upon the two goats : one lot for Jehovah, and the
other for Azazel. And Aaron shall bring the goat upon
which the lot for Jehovah fell, and offer him for a sin-
offering : But the goat, on which the lot for Azazel fell,
shall be presented alive before Jehovah, to make an atone
ment with him, to let him go to Azazel in the wilderness.
. . And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head
.

of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of
the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all
their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and
send him away by the hand of a fit man into the desert.
And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto

1 '
Soc. of Heb. Literature's Publications. 2d Series. Legends from the
Midrash,' by Thomas Chenery (Triibner & Co.). The same legend is referred
' '
to in the story of the Astrologer in Washington Irving's Alhambra.
 TA WISCARA.

a land not inhabited ; and he shall let go the goat in the

desert.' Of the moral elements here involved much will
have to be said hereafter. This demon ultimately turned
to a devil ; and persisting through both forms is the familiar
'
well enough to have friends on both
principle that it is
'
sides so plainly at work in the levitical custom ; but it is
particularly interesting to observe that the same animal
should be used as offerings to the antagonistic deities. In
Egyptian Mythology we find that the goat had precisely
this two-fold consecration. It was sacred to Chem, the
Egyptian Pan, god of orchards and of all fruitful lands ;
'
and it became also sacred to Mendes, the Destroyer,' or
'Avenging Power' of Ra. It will thus be seen that the
same principle which from the sun detached the fructify
ing from the desert-making power, and made Typhon
and Osiris hostile brothers,prevailed to send the same
animal to Azazel in the Desert and Jehovah of the milk
and honey land. Originally the goat was supreme. The
Samaritan Pentateuch opens, 'In the beginning the Goat
created the heaven and the earth.' In the Hebrew cul
ture-myth of Cain and Abel, also brothers, there may be
represented, as Goldziher supposes, the victory of the agri
culturist over the nomad or shepherd ; but there is also
traceable in it the supremacy of the Goat, Mendez or
'
Azima. Abel brought the firstling of the goats.'
(Iroquois) myth of the
Very striking is the American
conflict between Joskeha and Tawiscara, the White One
and the Dark One. They were twins, born of a virgin
who died in giving them life. Their grandmother was the
moon (Ataensic, she who bathes). These brothers fought,
Joskeha using as weapon the horns of a stag, Tawiscara
the wild-rose. The latter fled sorely wounded, and the
blood gushing from him turned to flint-stones. The victor,
who used the stag-horns (the same weapon that Frey uses
 THE WILD ROSE. 189

against Beli, in the Prose Edda, and denoting perhaps a

primitive bone-age art), destroyed a monster frog which
swallowed all the waters, and guided the torrents into
smooth streams and lakes. He stocked the woods with
game, invented fire, watched and watered crops, and with
'
out him, says the old missionary Brebeuf, they think they
could not boil a pot.' The use by the desert-demon
Tawiscara of a wild rose as his weapon is a beautiful touch
in this myth. So much loveliness grew even amid the
hard flints. One is reminded of the closing scene in the
second part of Goethe's Faust. There, when Faust has
'
realised the perfect hour to which he can say, Stay, thou
'
art fair !by causing by his labour a wilderness to blossom
as a rose, he lies down in happy death; and when the
demons for his soul, angels pelt them with roses,
come
which sting them like flames. Not wild roses were these,
such as gave the Dark One such poor succour. The
defence of Faust is the roses he has evoked from briars.
 ( '9° )

CHAPTER VIII.
OBSTACLES.

Mephistopheles on Crags Emerson on Monadnoc Ruskin on Alpine

peasants Holy and Unholy Mountains The Devil's Pulpit
Montagnards Tarns Tenjo T'ai-shan Apocatequil Tyro-
lese Legends Rock Ordeal Scylla and Charybdis Scottish
Giants Pontifex Devil's Bridges Le ge"ant Yeous.

Related to the demons of Barrenness, and to the hostile

human demons, but still possessing characteristics of their
own, are the demons supposed to haunt gorges, mountain
ranges, ridges of rocks, streams which cannot be forded
and are yet unbridged, rocks that wreck the raft or boat.
Each and every obstruction that stood in the way of man's
plough, or of his first frail ship, or his migration, has been
assigned its demon. The reader of Goethe's page has
only to turn to the opening lines of Walpurgisnacht in
Faust to behold the real pandemonium of the Northern
man, as in Milton he may find that of the dweller amid
fiery deserts and volcanoes. That labyrinth of vales,
crossed with wild crag and furious torrent, is the natural
scenery to surround the orgies of the phantoms which flit
from the uncultured brain to uncultured nature. Else
where in Goethe's great poem, Mephistopheles pits against
the philosophers the popular theory of the rugged remnants
of chaos in nature, and the obstacles before which man is
powerless.
 MOUNTAIN AND CRAG. 191

Faust. For me this mountain mass rests nobly dumb ;

I nor why 'tis come

is,
ask not whence it

?
Herself when Nature in herself did found
This globe of earth, she then did purely round

;
The summit and abyss her pleasure made,
Mountain to mountain, rock to rock she laid

;
The hillocks down she neatly fashion'd then,
To valleys soften'd them with gentle train.
Then all grew green and bloom'd, and in her joy
She needs no foolish spoutings to employ.
Mephistopheles. So say ye It seems clear as noon to ye,
!

Yet he knows who was there the contrary.

was hard by below, when seething flame
I

Swelled the abyss, and streaming fire forth came

;
When Moloch's hammer forging rock to rock,
Far flew the fragment-cliffs beneath the shock

:
Of masses strange and huge the land was full

;
Who clears away such piles of hurl'd misrule

?
Philosophers the reason cannot see
;

There lies the rock, and they must let be.

it

We have reflected till ashamed we've grown

;

The common folk can thus conceive alone,

And in conception no disturbance know,
Their wisdom ripen'd has long while ago
:

A
is,

miracle they Satan honour show.

it

My wanderer on faith's crutches hobbles on

Towards the devil's bridge and devil's stone.1

The great American poet made his pilgrimage to the

mountain so beautiful in the distance, thinking to find
there the men of equal elevation. Did not Milton describe
Freedom as mountain nymph
'
'
a

To myself oft recount

I

The tale of many famous mount,

a

Wales, Scotland, Uri, Hungary's dells

;

Roys, and Scanderbergs, and Tells.

Here Nature shall condense her powers,
Her music, and her meteors,
And lifting man to the blue deep
Where stars their perfect courses keep,

Act
1

Faust, (Hayward's Translation).

ii.

4
 ALPINE PEASANTS.
Like wise preceptor, lure his eye
To sound the science of the sky.

But instead of finding there the man using those crags as

a fastness to fight pollution of the mind, he

searched the region round

And in low hut my monarch found :

He was no eagle, and no earl ;

Alas ! my foundling was a churl,
With heart of cat and eyes of bug,
Dull victim of his pipe and mug.1

Ruskin has the same gloomy report to make of the

'
mountaineers of Europe. The wild goats that leap along
those rocks have as much passion of joy in all that fair
work of God that toil among them. Perhaps
as the men
'
more.' Is it not strange to reflect that hardly an even
ing passes in London or Paris but one of those cottages
is painted for the better amusement of the fair and idle,
and shaded with pasteboard pines by the scene-shifter ;
and that good and kind people, poetically minded,
delight themselves in imagining the happy life led by
peasants who dwell by Alpine fountains, and kneel to
crosses upon peaks of rock
that nightly we lay down our
?

gold to fashion forth simulacra of peasants, in gay ribbons

and white bodices, singing sweet songs and bowing grace
fully to the picturesque crosses; and all the while the
veritable peasants are kneeling, songlessly, to veritable
crosses in another temper than the kind and fair audiences
dream of, and assuredly with another kind of answer than
is got out of the opera catastrophe.' 2

The writer remembers well the emphasis with which a

poor woman at whose cottage he asked the path to the
Natural Bridge in Virginia said, ' I don't know why so
many people come to these rocks ; for my part, give me a

1 ' Emerson's a 'Modem Painters,' Part V. 19.

Poems. Monadnoc.*
 HOLY AND UNHOLY MOUNTS. 193

level country.' Many ages lay between

that aged crone
and Emerson or Ruskin, and they were ages of heavy war
with the fortresses of nature. The fabled ordeals of water
and fire through which the human race passed were asso
ciated with Ararat and Sinai, because to migrating or
farming man the mountain was always an ordeal, irrespec
tive even of its torrents or its occasional lava-streams. A
terrible vista is opened by the cry of Lot, '
I cannot escape
'
to the mountain lest some evil take me ! Not even the
fire consuming Sodom in the plains could nerve him to
dare cope with the demons of the steep places. As time
went on, devotees proved to the awe-stricken peasantries
their sanctity and authority by combating those mountain
'
demons, and erecting their altars in the high places.' So
many summits became sacred. But this very sanctity was
the means of bringing on successive demoniac hordes to
haunt them ; for every new religion saw in those altars in
' '
high places not victories over demons, but demon-shrines.
And thus mountains became the very battlefields between
rival deities, each demon to his or her rival ; and the con
flict lasts from the cursing of the 'high places' by the
priests of Israel
1
to the Devil's Pulpits of the Alps and
Apennines. Among the beautiful frescoes at Baden is
that of the Angel's and the Devil's Pulpit, by Gotzen-
berger. Near Gernsbach, appropriately at the point where
the cultivable valley meets the unconquerable crests of
rock, stand the two pulpits from which Satan and an
Angel contended, when the first christian missionaries
had failed to convert the rude foresters. When, by the
Angel's eloquence, all were won from the Devil's side
except a few witches and usurers, the fiend tore up great
'
masses of rock and built the ' Devil's Mill on the moun
1 Bel's ' '
mountain, House of the Beloved,' 'high place in Assy
is called
rian, and would be included in these curses ('Records of the Past,' iii. 129).
VOL. I. N
194 MONTAGNARDS.

tain-top ; and he was hurled down by the Almighty on the

rocks near ' Lord's Meadow,' where the marks of his claws
may still be seen, and where, by a diminishing number of
undiminished ears, his groans are still heard when a storm
rages through the valley.
Such conflicts as these have been in some degree asso
ciated with every mountain of holy or unholy fame. Each
was in its time a prosaic Hill Difficulty, with lions by no
means chained, to affright the hearts of Mistrust and Timo
rous, till Dervish or Christian impressed there his holy
footprint, visible from Adam's Peak to Olivet, or built
there his convents, discernible from Meru and Olympus
to Pontyprydd and St. Catharine's Hill. By necessary
truces the demons and deities repair gradually to their
respective Seir and Sinai hold each their own.
summits,
But the Holy Hills have never equalled the number of
Dark Mountains1 dreaded by man. These obstructive
demons made the mountains Moul-ge and Nin-ge, names
for the King and Queen of the Accadian Hell ; they made
the Finnish Mount Kippumaki the abode of all Pests.
They have identified their name (Elf) with the Alps, given
nearly every tarn an evil fame, and indeed created a
'
special class of demons, Montagnards,' much dreaded by
mediaeval miners, whose faces they sometimes twisted so
that they must look backward physically, as they were
much in the habit of doing mentally, for ever afterward.
Gervais of Tilbury, in his Chronicle, declares that on the
top of Mount Canigon in France, which has a very inac
cessible summit, there is a black lake of unknown depth,
at whose bottom the demons have a palace, and that if any
one drops a stone into that water, the wrath of the moun
tain demons is shown in sudden and frightful tempests.
From a like tarn in Cornwall, as Cornish Folklore claims,
1
Jer. xiii. 16.
 TEN-JO.

on an accessible but very tedious hill, came up the hand

which received the brand Escalibore when its master
could wield it no more, as told in the Morte D' Arthur,
with, however, clear reference to the sea.
I cannot forbear enlivening my page with the following
sketch of a visit of English officers to the realm of Ten-jo,
the long-nosed Mountain-demon of Japan, which is very
suggestive of the mental atmosphere amid which such
spectres exist. The mountains and forests of Japan are,
say these writers, inhabited as thickly by good and evil
spirits as the Hartz and Black Forest, and chief among
them, in horrible sanctity, is O-yama, the word echoes
the Hindu Yama, Japanese Amma, /kings of Hades,
'
whose demon is Ten-jo. Abdul and Mulney once started,
on three days' leave, with the intention of climbing to the
summit not of Ten-jo's nose, but of the mountain ; their
principal reason for so doing being simply that they were
told by every one that they had better not. They first
tried the ascent on the most accessible side, but fierce
two-sworded yakomins jealously guarded it; and they
were obliged to make the attempt on the other, which
was almost inaccessible, and was Ten-jo's region. The
villagers at the base of the mountain begged them to give
up the project ; and one old man, a species of patriarch,
'
reasoned What are you going to do when
with them.
you get to the top?' he asked. Our two friends were
forced to admit that their course, then, would be very
similar to that of the king of France and his men come
down again.
The old man laughed pityingly, and said, Well, go if
'

but, take my word for Ten-jo will do you an

it,

you like ;

injury.'
They asked who Ten-jo was.
Why Ten-jo,' said the old man, an evil spirit, with
is
'
'
196 TEN-jaS TRIUMPH.

a long nose, who will dislocate your limbs if you persist in

going up the mountain on this side.'
' '
How do you know he has got a long nose ? they asked,
' '
Have you ever seen him ?
' '
Because all evil spirits have long noses here Mulney
'
hung his head, and,' continued the old man, not noticing
how dreadfully personal he was becoming to one of the
'
party, Ten-jo has the longest of the lot. Did you ever
'
know a man with a long nose who was good ?
'
Come on,' said Mulney hurriedly to Abdul, 'or the old
fool will make me out an evil spirit.'
' '
Syonara,' said the old man as they walked away, but
'
look out for Ten-jo !

After climbing hard for some hours, and not meeting a

single human being, not even the wood-cutter could be
tempted by the fine timber to encroach on Ten-jo's pre
cincts, they reached the top, and enjoyed a magnificent
view. After a rest they started on their descent, the worst
part of which they had accomplished, when, as they were
walking quietly along a good path, Abdul's ankle turned
under him, and he went down as if he had been shot, with
his leg broken in two places. With difficulty Mulney man
aged to get him to the village they had started from, and
the news ran like wild-fire that Ten-jo had broken the leg
of one of the adventurous tojins.
'
I told you how it would be,' exclaimed the old man,
' '
but you would go. Ah, Ten-jo is a dreadful fellow I
All the villagers, clustering round, took up the cry, and
shook their heads. Ten-jo's reputation had increased won
derfully by this accident. Poor Abdul was on his back
for eleven weeks, and numbers of Japanese for he was a
general favourite amongst them went to see him, and to
express their regret and horror at Ten-jo's behaviour.1
1 ' By Jephson and Elmhirst
Our Life in Japan.'
 TAISHAN. 197

It is obvious that to a demon dwelling in a high moun

tain a long nose would be variously useful to poke into
the affairs of people dwelling in the plains, and also to
enjoy the scent of their sacrifices offered at a respectful
distance. That feature of the face which Napoleon I.
regarded as of martial importance, and which is prominent
in the warriors marked on the Mycenaepottery, has gene
rally been a physiognomical characteristic of European
ogres, who are blood-smellers. That the significance of
Ten-jo's long nose is this, appears probable when we com
pare him with the Calmuck demon Erlik, whose long nose
is for smelling out the dying. The Cossacks believed that
the protector of the earth was a many-headed elephant.
The snouted demon (figure 15) is from a picture of Christ
delivering Adam and Eve from hell, by Lucas Van Ley-
den, 1521.

Fig. 15. Snouted Demon.

The Chinese Mountains also have their demons. The

demon of the mountain T'ai-shan, in Shantung, is believed
to regulate the punishments of men in this world and the
next. Four other demon princes rule over the principal
mountain chains of the Empire. Mr. Dennys remarks
that mountainous localities are so regularly the homes of
fairies in Chinese superstition that some connection be
tween the fact and the relation of
'
Elf to 'Alp' in Europe
iq8 APOCATEQUIL.

is suggested.1 But this coincidence is by no means so

remarkable as the appearance among these Chinese moun
'
tain sprites of the magical Sesame,' so familiar to us in
Arabian legend.The celebrated mountain Ku'en Lun
(usually identified with the Hindoo Kush) is said to be
peopled with fairies, who cultivate upon its terraces the
'
fields of sesamum and gardens of coriander seeds,' which
are eaten as ordinary food by those who possess the gift
of longevity.
In the superstitions of the American Aborigines we find
gigantic demons who with their hands piled up mountain-
chains as their castles, from whose peak-towers they hurled
stones on their enemies in the plains, and slung them to
the four corners of the earth.2 Such was the terrible
Apocatequil, whose statue was erected on the mountains,
with that of his mother on the one hand and his brother
on the other. He was Prince of Evil and the chief god of
the Peruvians. From Quito to Cuzco every Indian would
give all he possessed to conciliate him. Five priests, two
stewards, and a crowd of slaves served his image. His
principal temple was surrounded by a considerable village,
whose inhabitants had no other occupation than to wait
on him.3
The plaudits which welcomed the first railway train that
sped beneath the Alps, echoing amid their crags and
gorges, struck with death the old phantasms which had so
long held sway in the imagination of the Southern pea
santry. The great tunnel was hewn straight through the
stony hearts of giants whom Christianity had tried to slay,
and, failing that, baptised and adopted. It is in the Tyrol

1 Another derivation of Elf (Alf) is to connect it with Sanskrit ^i^5a = little ;

so that the Elves are theLittle Folk, Professor Buslaef of Moscow suggests
connection with the Greek Alphito, a spectre. See pp. l6on. and 223.
3 3
Brinton, p. 85. Ibid., p. 166.
 TYROLESE LEGENDS. 199

that we find the clearest survivals of the old demons of

obstruction, the mountain monarchs. Such is Jordan the
Giant of Kohlhiitte chasm, near Ungarkopf, whose story,
along with others, is so prettily told by the Countess Von
Gunther. This giant is something of a Ten-jo as to nose,
'
for he smellshuman meat' where his pursued victims are
hidden, and his snort makes things tremble as before a
tempest but he has not the intelligence ascribed to large
;

noses, for the boys ultimately persuade him that the way
to cross a stream is to tie a stone around his neck, and he
is drowned. One of the giants of Albach could carry a
rock weighing 10,000 pounds, and his comrades, while
carrying others of 700 pounds,
could leap from stone to
stone across rivers, and stoop to catch the trout with their
hands as they leaped. The ferocious Oreo, the mountain-
ghost who never ages, fulfils the tradition of his classic
name by often appearing as a monstrous black dog, from
whose side stones rebound, and fills the air with a bad
smell (like Mephisto). His employment is hurling way
'
farers down precipices.In her story of the ' Unholdenhof
'
or ' monster farm in the Stubeithal the Countess Von
Gunther describes the natural character of the mountain
demons.
'
It was on this self-same spot that the forester and his
son took up their abode, and they became the dread and
abomination of the whole surrounding country, for they
practised, partly openly and partly in secret, the most mani
fold iniquities, so that their nature and bearing grew into
something demoniacal. As quarrellers very strong, and as
enemies dreadfully revengeful, they showed their diaboli
cal nature by the most inhuman deeds, which brought
down injury not only on those against whom their wrath
was directed, but also upon their families for centuries.
In the heights of the mountains they turned the beds of the
200 HEIMO.

torrents, and devastated by this means the most flourish

ing tracts of land ; on other places the Unholde set on
fire whole mountain forests, to allow free room for the
avalanches to rush down and overwhelm the farms.
Through certain means they cut holes and fissures in the
rocks, in which, during the summer, quantities of water
collected, which froze in the winter, and then in the spring
the thawing ice split the rocks, which then rolled down
into the valleys, destroying everything before them. . . .

But at last Heaven's vengeance reached them. An earth

quake threw the forester's house into ruins, wild torrents
it,

tore over and thunderbolts set all around in a

it
blaze and by fire and water, with which they had sin
;

ned, father and son perished, and were condemned to

everlasting torments. Up to the present
day they are
to be seen at nightfall on the mountain in the form of
two fiery boars.'
1

Some of these giants, as has been intimated, were con

verted. Such was the case with Heimo, who owned and
devastated vast tract of country on the river Inn, which,
a

however, he bridged whence Innsbruck when he became

christian and a monk. This conversion was a terrible
a

disappointment to the devil, who sent a huge dragon to

stop the building of the monastery; but Heimo attacked
the dragon, killed him, and cut out his tongue. With
this tongue, a yard and a half long, in his hand, he
is

represented in his statue, and the tongue still pre

is

served in the cloister. Heimo

monk at became a
Wilten, lived a pious life, and on his death was buried
near the monastery. The stone coffin in which the gigantic
bones repose shown there, and measures over twenty-
is

eight feet.
Of nearly the same character as the Mountain Demons,
'Tales and Legends of the Tyrol.' (Chapman and Hall, 1874.)
1
 THE ROCK ORDEAL. 201

and possessing of the Demons of Bar

even more features
renness, are the monsters guarding rocky passes. They
are distributed through land, sea, and rivers. The famous
rocks between Italy and Sicily bore the names of dan
gerous monsters, Scylla and Charybdis, which have now
become proverbial expressions for alternative perils be
setting any enterprise. According to Homer, Scylla was
a kind of canine monster with six long necks, the mouths
paved each with three rows of sharp teeth while Charyb ;

dis, sitting under her fig-tree, daily swallowed the waters

and vomited them up again.1 Distantly related to these
fabulous monsters, probably, are many of the old notions of
ordeals undergone between rocks standing close together, or
sometimes through holes in rocks, of which examples are
found in Great Britain. An ordeal of this kind exists at
Pera, where the holy well is reached through a narrow slit.
Visitors going there recently on New Year's Day were
'
warned by the dervish in charge Look through it at the
water if you please, but do not essay to enter unless your
consciences are completely free from sin, for as sure as
you try to pass through with a taint upon your soul, you
will be gripped by the rock and held there for ever.' 2 The
'
Bocca della Verita' a great stone face like a huge mill
stone in the portico of the church S. Maria in
stands
Cosmedin at Rome, and its legend is that a suspected
person was required to place his hand through the open
mouth; if he swore falsely it would bite off the hand
the explanation now given being that a swordsman was
concealed behind to make good the judicial shrewdness
of the stone in case the oath were displeasing to the
authorities.
The myth of Scylla, which relates that she was a beau
tiful maiden, beloved by Glaucus, whom Circe through
1 a London Daily Telegraph Correspondence.
Od. xii. 73 ; 235, &c.
202 A THURINGIAN SCYLLA.

jealousy transformed to a monster by throwing magic

herbs into the well where she was wont to bathe, is
recalled by various European legends. In Thuringia, on
the road to Oberhof, stands the Red Stone, with its rose
bush, and a stream issuing from beneath

it,
where a beau
tiful maid imprisoned. Every seven years she may be
is
seen bathing in the stream. On one occasion a peasant
passing by heard a sneeze in the rock, and called out,
God help thee The sneeze and the benediction were
'
'

repeated, until at the seventh time the man cried, Oh,

'
thou cursed witch, deceive not honest people As he

'
!
then walked off, a wailing voice came out of the stone,
Oh, hadst thou but only wished the last time that God
'

would help me, He would have helped me, and thou

wouldst have delivered me now must tarry till the
I
;

Day of Judgment! The voice once cried out to wed

'

a
ding procession passing by the stone, To-day wed, next
'

year dead;' and the bride having died year after,

a

wedding processions dread the spot.

The legends of giants and giantesses, so numerous in
Great Britain, are equally associated with rocky mountain-
passes, or the boulders they were supposed to have tossed
thence when sportively stoning each other. They are the
Tor of the South and Ben of the North. The hills of Ross-
shire in Scotland are mythological monuments of Cailliach-
more, great woman, who, while carrying a pannier filled
with earth and stones on her back, paused for a moment
on level spot, now the site of Ben-Vaishard, when the
a

bottom of the pannier gave way, forming the hills. The

recurrence of the names Gog and Magog in Scotland
suggests that in mountainous regions the demons were
especially derived from the hordes of robbers and savages,
among whom, in their uncultivable hills, the ploughshare
could never conquer the spear and club.
 LA DAME BLANCHE.

Richard Doyle enriched the first Exhibition of the

Grosvenor Gallery in London, 1877, with many beautiful
pictures inspired by European Folklore. They were a
pretty garniture for the cemetery of dead religions. The
witch once seen on her broom departing from the high
crags of Cuhillan, cheered by her faithful dwarf, is no longer
unlovely as in the days when she was burned by proxy
in some poor human hag ; obedient to art a more potent
wand than her own she reascends to the clouds from
which she was borne, and is hardly distinguishable from
them. Slowly man came to learn with the poet

It was the mountain streams that fed

The fair green plain's amenities. 1

Then the giants became fairies, and not a few of these wore
at last the mantles of saints. A
similar process has been
undergone by another subject, which finds its pretty epitaph
in the artist's treatment. We saw in two pictures the Dame
Blanche of Normandy, lurking in the ravine beside a stream
under the dusk, awaiting yon rustic wood-cutter who is
presently horizontal in the air in that mad dance, after
which he will be found exhausted. As her mountain-sister
is faintly shaped out of the clouds that cap Cuhillan, this
one is an imaginative outgrowth of the twilight shadows, the
silvery glintings of moving clouds mirrored in pools, and her
tresses are long luxuriant grasses. She is of a sisterhood
which passes by hardly perceptible gradations into others,
elsewhere described the creations of Illusion and Night.
She is not altogether one of these, however, but a type of
more direct danger the peril of fords, torrents, thickets,
marshes, and treacherous pools, which may seem shallow,
but are deep.
The water-demons have been already described in their
1
John Sterling.
204 PONTIFEX.

obvious aspects, but it is necessary to mention here the

simple obstructive river-demons haunting fords and burns,
and hating bridges. Many tragedies, and many personi
fications of the forces which caused them, preceded the
sanctity of the title Pontifex. The torrent that roared
across man's path seemed the vomit of a demon : the sacred
power was he who could bridge it. In one of the most
'
beautiful celebrations of Indra it is said : He tranquillised
this great river so that it might be crossed ; he conveyed
across it in safety the sages who had been unable to pass
to realise the
it,

over and who, having crossed, proceeded

wealth they sought in the exhilaration of the soma, Indra
;

has done these deeds.'1 In Ceylon, the demon Tota still

casts malignant spells about fords and ferries.
Many are the legends of the opposition offered by de
mons to bridge-building, and of the sacrifices which had to
be made to them before such works could be accomplished.
A few specimens must suffice us. Mr. Dennys relates

a
very interesting one of the Loh-family bridge
at Shang
'
'

hai. Difficulty having been found in laying the foundations,

the builder vowed to Heaven two thousand children
if
the
stones could be placed properly. The goddess addressed
said she would not require their lives, but that the number
named would be attacked by small-pox, which took
place, and half the number died. AChinese author says,
If
bridges are not placed in proper positions, such as
'

the laws of geomancy indicate, they may endanger the

lives of thousands, by bringing about visitation of small
a

pox or sore eyes.' At Hang-Chow tea-merchant cast

a

himself into the river Tsien-tang as sacrifice to the

a

Spirit of the dikes, which were constantly being washed

away.
The Devil's Bridges,' to which Mephistopheles alludes
'

'Rig- Veda," Wilson.

1

ii.

15, 1854.
5.
 DEVILS BRIDGES. 205

so proudly, are frequent in Germany, and most of them,

whether natural or artificial, have diabolical associations.
The oldest structures often have legends in which are re
flected the conditions exacted by evil powers, of those
who spanned the fords in which men had often been
drowned. Of this class is the Montafon Bridge in the
Tyrol, and another is the bridge at Ratisbon. The legend
of the latter is fair specimen
a of those which generally
haunt these ancient structures. Its architect was appren
tice to a master who was building the cathedral, and laid
a wager that he would bridge the Danube before the other
laid the coping-stone of the sacred edifice. But the work
of bridging the river was hard, and after repeated failures
the apprentice began to swear, and wished the devil had
charge of the business Whereupon he of the cloven foot
!

appeared in guise of a friar, and agreed to build the fifteen

arches for a consideration. The fee was to be the first
three that crossed the bridge. The cunning apprentice
contrived that these three should not be human, but a dog,
a cock, The devil, in wrath at the fraud, tore
and a hen.
the animals to pieces and disappeared ; a procession of
monks passed over the bridge and made it safe ; and there
on are carved figures of the three animals. In most of the
stories it is a goat which is sent over and mangled, that
poor animal having preserved its character as scape-goat
in a great deal of the Folklore of Christendom. The Dan
ube was of old regarded as under the special guardianship
of the Prince of Darkness, who used to make great efforts
to obstruct the Crusaders voyaging down it to rescue the
Holy Land from pagans. On one occasion, near the con
fluence of the Vilz and Danube, he began hurling huge
rocks into the river-bed from the cliffs ; the holy warriors
resistedsuccessfully by signing the cross and singing an
anthem, but the huge stone first thrown caused a whirl
206 FRIENDLY OBSTACLES.

and swell in that part of the river, which were very dan
gerous until it was removed by engineers.
It is obvious, especially to the English, who have so long
found a defensive advantage in the silver streak of sea that
separates them from the Continent, that an obstacle, whether
of mountain-range or would, at a certain point in the
sea,
formation of a nation, become as valuable as at another it
might be obstructive. Euphemism is credited with having
given the friendly name
'
Euxine ' to the rough ' Axine '
Sea, 'terrible to foreigners.' But this is not so certain.
Many a tribe has found the Black Sea a protection and a
friend. In the case of mountains, their protective advan
tages would account at once for Milton's celebration of
Freedom mountain nymph, and for the stupidity of
as a
the people that dwell amid them, so often remarked ; the
very means of their independence would also be the cause
of their insulation and barbarity. It is for those who go
to and fro that knowledge is increased. The curious and
inquiring are most apt to migrate ; the enterprising will
not submit to be shut away behind rocks and mountains ;
by their departure there would be instituted, behind the
barriers of rock and hill, a survival of the stupidest.
These might ultimately come to worship their chains and
cover their craggy prison-walls with convents and crosses.
The demons of aliens would be their gods. The climbing
Hannibals would be their devils. It
might have been
expected, after the passages quoted from Mr. Ruskin
concerning the bovine condition of Alpine peasantries,
that he would salute the tunnel through Mont Cenis.
The peasantries who would see in the sub-alpine engine a
demon are extinct. Admiration of the genii of obstruc
tion, and horror of the demons that vanquished them, are
discoverable only in folk-tales distant enough to be pretty,
such as the interesting Serbian story of ' Satan's jugglings
 A SERBIAN FOLK-TALE. 207

and God's might,' in which fairies hiding in successively

opened nuts vainly try to oppose with fire and flood a she-
demon pursuing prince and his bride, to whose aid at last
a

comes a flash of lightning which strikes the fiend dead.

One of the beautiful 'Contes d'une Grand'mere,' by
George Sand, Le gtant Yious, has in it the sense of many
fables born of man's struggle with obstructive nature.
With her wonted felicity she places the scene of this true
human drama near the mountain Y^ous, in the Pyrenees,
whose name is a far-off echo of Zeus. The summit bore
an enormous rock which, seen from a distance, appeared
somewhat like a statue. The peasant Miquelon, who had
his little farm at the mountain's base, whenever he passed
made sign of the cross and taught his little son
the
Miquel to do the same, telling him that the great form
was that of a pagan god, an enemy of the human race.
An fell upon the home and garden of Miquelon ;
avalanche
the poor man himself was disabled for life, his house and
farm turned in a moment into a wild mass of stones.
Miquel looked up to the summit of Y^ous ; the giant had
disappeared henceforth it was
; mighty form of an
the
organic monster which the boy saw stretched over what
had once been their happy home and smiling acres. The
family went about begging, Miquelon repeating his strange
'
appeal, Le g^ant s'est couche" sur moi.' But when at last
the old man dies, the son resolves to fulfil the silent dream
of his life; he will encounter the giant Ydous still in
possession of his paternal acres. With eyes of the young
world this boy sees starting up here and there amid the
vast debris, the head of the demon he wishes to crush.
He hurls stones hither and thither where some fearful
feature or limb appears. He is filled with rage ; his
dreams are filled with attacks on the giant, in which the
colossal head tumbles only to reappear on the shoulders ;
every broken limb has the self-repairing power. There is
208 LE GÉANT YÉOUS.

no progress. But as the boy grows, and the contest grows,

and need comes, there gathers in Miquel a desire to clear
the ground. When he begins to think, it is no longer the
passion to avenge his father on the stony giant which
possesses him, but to recover
their lost garden. Thus,
indeed, the giant himself could alone be conquered. The
huge rocks are split by gunpowder, some fragments are
made into fences, others into a comfortable mansion for
Miquel's mother and When the garden smiles
sisters.
again, and all are happy the demon form is no longer
discoverable.1
This little tale interprets with fine insight the demono-
logy of barrenness and obstruction. The boy's wrath
against the unconscious cause of his troubles is the rage
often observed in children who retaliate upon the table or
chair on which they have been bruised, and it repeats
embryologically the rage of the world's boyhood inspired
by ascription of personal motives to inanimate obstruc
tions. Possibly such wrath might have added something
to the force with which man entered upon his combat
with nature ; but George Sand's tale reminds us that
whatever was gained in force was lost in its misdirection.
Success came in the proportion that fury was replaced
by the youth's growing recognition that he was dealing
with facts that could not be raged out of existence. It is
1 ' Du monstre qui m'avait tant ennuyé, il n'etait plus question ; il était pour
jamais réduit au silence. Il n'avait
plus forme de géant. Déjà en partie
convert 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 quel
que chose ; que la foudre t'épargne et que la neige te soit légère I II me
sembla passer, le long de l'escarpement, comme un grand soupir de résigna
tion 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.'
 NATURE AND ART. 209

crowned when he makes friends with the unconquerable

remnant of the giant, and sees that he is not altogether
evil.
It is at this stage that the higher Art, conversant with
Beauty, enters to relieve man of many moral wounds
received in the struggle. Clothed with moss and clematis,
Y^ous appears not so hideous after all. Further invested
by the genius of a Turner, he would be beautiful. Y^ous
is a fair giant after all, only he needed finish. He is a
type of nature.
The boyhood of the world has not passed away with
Miquel. We find a fictitious dualism cherished by the
lovers of nature in their belief or feeling that nature
exerts upon man some spiritual influence. Ruskin
has said that in looking from the Campanile at Venice
to the circle of snow which crowns the Adriatic, and
then to the buildings which contain the works of Titian
and Tintoret, he has felt unable to answer the question
of his own heart, By which of these the nature or the
manhood has God given mightier evidence of Himself?
So nature may teach the already taught. While Ruskin
looks from the Campanile, the peasant is fighting the
mountain and calling its rocky grandeurs by the devil's
name ; before the pictures he kneels. Untaught by art
and science, the mind can derive no elevation from nature,
can find no sympathy in it. It is a false notion that there
is any compensation for the ignorant, denied access to
art-galleries, in ability to pass their Sundays amid natural
scenery. Health that may bring them, but mentally they
are still inside the prison-walls from which look the stony
eyes of Fates and Furies. Natural sublimities cannot
refine minds crude as themselves they must pass through
;

thought before they can feed thought ; it is nature trans

figured in art that changes the snow-clad mountain from a
heartless giant to a saviour in snow-pure raiment.
vol. 1. o
 ( 210 )

CHAPTER IX.
ILLUSION.

Maya Natural Treacheries Misleaders Glamour Lorelei

Chinese Mermaid Transformations Swan Maidens Pigeon
Maidens The Seal-skin Nudity Teufelsee Gohlitsee Japa
nese Siren Dropping Cave Venusberg Godiva Will-o'-Wisp
Holy Fraulein The Forsaken Merman The Water-Man
Sea Phantom Sunken Treasures Suicide.

MOST beautiful of all the goddesses of India is Maya,

Illusion. In Hindu iconography she is portrayed in dra
pery of beautiful colours, with decoration of richest gems
and broidery of flowers. From above her crown falls a

veil which, curving above her knees, returns on the other

side, making, as it were, also an apron in which are held
fair animal forms prototypes of the creation over which
she has dominion. The youthful yet serious beauty of her
face and head is surrounded with a semi-aureolc, fringed
with soft lightning, striated with luminous sparks ; and
these are background for a cruciform nimbus made of
three clusters of rays. Maya presses her full breasts, from
which flow fountains of milk which fall in graceful streams
to mingle with the sea on which she stands.
So to our Aryan ancestors appeared the spirit that
paints the universe, flushing with tints so strangely impar
tial fruits forbidden and unforbidden for man and beast.
Mankind are slandered by the priest's creed, Populus vult
duipi ; they are justly vindicated in Plato's aphorism,
 MAYA. 21 I

' '
Unwillingly is the soul deprived of truth ; but still they
are deceived. Large numbers are truly described by
Swedenborg, who found hells whose occupants believed
themselves in heaven and sang praises therefor. Such
praises we may hear in the loud laughter proceeding from
dens where paradise has been gained by the cheap charm
of a glass of gin or a prostitute's caress. Serpent finds its
ideal in serpent. In heaven, says Swedenborg, we shall
see things as they are. But it is the adage of those who
have lost their paradise, and eat still the dry dust of reality
not raised by science ; the general world has not felt that
divine curse, or it has been wiped away so that the most
sensual fool may rejoice in feeling himself God's darling,
and pities the paganism of Plato. Man and beast are cer
tain that they do see things as they are. Maya's milk is
tinctured from the poppies of her robe ; untold millions of
misgivings have been put to sleep by her tender bounty ;
the waters that sustain her are those of Lethe.
But beneath every illusive heaven Nature stretches also
an illusive hell. The poppies lose their force at last, and
under the scourge of necessity man wakes to find all his
paradise of roses turned to briars. Maya's breast-fountains
pass deeper than the surface from one flows soft Lethe,
the other issues at last in Phlegethon. Fear is even a
more potent painter than Hope, and out of the mani
fold menaces of Nature can at last overlay the fairest
illusions. It is a pathetic fact, that so soon as man be
gins to think his first theory infers a will at work wher
ever he sees no cause ; his second, to suppose that it will
harm him I

Harriet Martineau's account of her childish terror

caused by seeing some prismatic colours dancing on the
wall of a vacant room she was entering ' imps that had
'

no worse origin than a tremulous candelabrum, but which

212 NATURAL TREACHERIES.
haunted her nerves through life is an experience which
may be traced in the haunted childhood of every nation.
There are other phenomena besides these prismatic
colours, which have had an evil name in popular super
stition, despite their beauty. Strange it might seem to a
Buddhist that yon exquisite tree with its blood-red buds
should be called the Judas-tree, as to us that the graceful
swan which might be the natural emblem of purity should
be associated with witchcraft 1 But the student of mytho
logy will at every moment be impressed by the fact that
myths oftener represent aprimitive science than mere
fancies and conceits. The sinuous neck of the swan, its
passionate jealousy, and the uncanny whistle, or else
dumbness, found where, from so snowy an outside, melody
might have been looked for, may have made this animal
the type of a double nature. The treacherous brilliants of
the serpent, or honey protected by stings, or the bright
blossoms of poisons, would have trained the instinct which
apprehends evil under the apparition of beauty. This,
as we shall have occasion to see, has had a controlling
influence upon the ethical constitution of our nature.
But it is at present necessary to observe that the primi
tive science generally reversed the induction of our
later philosophy ; for where an evil or pain was dis
covered in anything, it concluded that such was its
raison d'itre, and its attractive qualities were simply a
demon's treacherous bait. However, here are the first
stimulants to self-control in the lessons that taught dis
trust of appearances.
Because many a pilgrim perished through a confidence
in the lake-pictures of the mirage which led to carelessness
about economising his skin of water, the mirage gained its
present name Bahr Sheitan, or Devil's Water. The
'Will o' wisp,' which appeared to promise the night- wan
 MISLEADERS. 213

derer warmth or guidance, but led him into a bog, had its
excellent directions as to the place to avoid perverted by
an unhappy misunderstanding into a wilful falsehood, and
has been branded ignis fatuus. Most of the mimicries
in nature gradually became as suspicious to the primi
tive observer as aliases to a magistrate. The thing that
seemed to be fire, or water, but was not
; the insect or
animal which took its hue or form from some other, from
the leaf-spotted or stem-striped cats to that innocent insect
whose vegetal disguise has gained for it the familiar name
of ' Devil's Walking-stick ; ' the humanlike hiss, laugh, or
cry of animals ; the vibratory sound or movement which so
often is felt as if near when it really is far ; the sand which
seems hard but sinks ; the sward which proves a bog ;

all these have their representation in the demonology 01

delusion. The Coroados of Brazil says that the Evil One
'
sometimes transforms (himself) into a swamp, &c, leads
him astray, vexes him, brings him into danger, and even
kills him.' 1 It is like an echo of Burton's account.
'
Ter
restrial devils are those lares, genii, faunes, satyrs, wood-
nymphs, foliots, fairies, Robin Good-fellows, trulli, &c.,
which, as they are most conversant with men, so they do
them most harm. These are they that dance on heaths
and greens, as Lavater thinks with Trithemius, and, as
Olaus Magnus adds, leave that green circle which we
commonly find in plain fields. They are sometimes seen
by old women and children. Hieron. Pauli, in his descrip
tion of the city of Bercino, Spain, relates how they have
been familiarly seen near that town, about fountains and
hills. 'Sometimes,' saith Trithemius,
'they lead simple
people into the recesses of mountains and show them won
derful sights,' &c Giraldus Cambrensis gives an instance of
a monk of Wales that was so deluded. Paracelsus reckons
1 Von Spix and Von Martin's 'Travels in Brazil,' p. 243.
2'4 GLAMOUR.

up many places in Germany where they do usually walk

about in little coats, some two feet long.1 Real dangers
beset the woods and mountain passes, the swamp and
quicksand; in such forms did they haunt the untamed
jungles of imagination !
Over that sea on which Maya stands extends the
silvery wand of Glamour. It descended to the immortal
Old Man of the Sea, favourite of the nymphs, oracle
of the coasts, patron of fishermen, friend of Proteus, who
could see through all the sea's depths and assume all
shapes. How many witcheries could proceed from the
many-tinted sea to affect the eyes and enable them to see
Triton with his wreathed horn, and mermaids combing their
hair, and marine monsters, and Aphrodite poised on the
white foam 1 Glaucoma it may be to the physicians ; but
Glaucus it is in the scheme of Maya, who has never left
land or sea without her witness. Beside the Polar Sea a
'
Samoyed sailor, asked by Castren '
where is Num (i.e.,
Jumala, his god), pointed to the dark distant sea, and
said, He is there.
To the ancients there were two seas, the azure above,
and that beneath. The imaginative child in its develop
ment passes all those dreamy coasts; sees in clouds moun
tains of snow on the horizon, and in the sunset luminous
seas laving golden isles.When as yet to the young world
the shining sun was Berchta, the white fleecy clouds were
her swans. When she descended to the sea, as a thousand
stories related, it was to repeat the course of the sun for
all tribes looking on No one who has
a westward sea.
read that charming little book, 'The Gods in Exile,'2 will
wonder at the happy instinct of learning shown in Heine's

1 '
Anatomy of Melancholy.' Fifteenth Edition, p. 124.
1 '
Les Dieux en Exile.' Heinrich Heine. Revue ties Deux Monties,
April, 1853.
 LORELEI. 215

little poem, ' Sonnenuntergang,' 1 wherein we see shining

solar Beauty compelled to become the spinning housewife,
or reluctant spouse of Poseidon :

A lovely dame whom the old ocean-god

For convenience once had married ;
And in the day-time she wanders gaily
Through the high heaven, purple-arrayed,
And all in diamonds gleaming,
And all beloved, and all amazing
To every worldly being,
And every worldly being rejoicing
With warmth and splendour from her glances.
Alas ! at evening, sad and unwilling,
Back must she bend her slow steps
To the dripping house, to the barren embrace
Of grisly old age.

This of course is Heinesque, and has no relation to any

legend of Bertha, but is a fair specimen of mythology in
the making, and is quite in the spirit of many of the myths
that have flitted around sunset on the sea. Whatever the
explanation of their descent, the Shining One and her
fleecy retinue were transformed. When to sea or lake
came Berchta (or Perchta), it was as Bertha of the Large
Foot {i.e., webbed), or of the Long Nose (beak), and
her troop were Swan-maidens. Their celestial character
was changed with that of their mistress. They became
familiars of sorcerers and sorceresses. To ' wear yellow
slippers' became the designation of a witch.
How did these fleecy white cloud-phantoms become
demonised ? What connection is there between them and
the enticing Lorelei and the dangerous Rhine-daughters
watching over golden treasures, once, perhaps, metaphors
of moonlight ripples ? They who have listened to the
wild laughter of these in Wagner's opera, Das Rheingold,
1 ' Book of
Songs.' Translated by Charles E. Leland. New York : Henry
Holt & Co. 1874.
2lf) CHINESE MERMAID.
' '
and their weird Heiayaheia ! can hardly fail to suspect
that they became associated with the real human nymphs
whom the summer sun still finds freely sporting in the
bright streams of Russia, Hungary, Austria, and East
Germany, naked and not ashamed. Many a warning
voice against these careless Phrynes, who may have left
tattered raiment on the shore to be transfigured in the
silvery waves, must have gone forth from priests and anxious
mothers. Nor would there be wanting traditions enough
to impress such warnings. Few regions have been with
out such stories as those which the traveller Hiouen-
Thsang (7th century) found in Buddhist chronicles of the
Rakshasis of Ceylon. ' They waylay the merchants who
land in the isle, and, changing themselves to women of
great beauty, come before them with fragrant flowers and
music ; attracting them with kind words to the town of
Iron, they offer them a feast, and give themselves up to
pleasure with them ; then shut them in an iron prison, and
eat them one after the other.'
There is a strong accent of human nature in the usual
plot of the Swan-maiden legend, her garments stolen
while she bathes, and her willingness to pay wondrous
prices for them since they are her feathers and her swan-
hood, without which she must remain for ever captive of
the thief. The stories are told in regions so widely sun
dered, and their minor details are so different, that we may
at any rate be certain that they are not all traceable solely
to fleecy clouds. Sometimes the garments of the demoness
and these beings are always feminine are not feathery,
as in the German stories, but seal-skins, or of nondescript
red tissue. Thus, the Envoy Li Ting-yuan (1801) records
a Chinese legend of a man named Ming-ling-tzu, a poor
and worthy farmer without family, who, on going to draw
water from a spring near his house, saw a woman bathing
 TRANSFORMA TIONS.

in it. She had hung her clothes on a pine tree, and, in

'
punishment for her shameless ways' and for her fouling
the well, he carried off the dress. The clothing was un
like the familiar Lewchewan in style, and ' of a ruddy sun
set colour.' The woman, having finished her bath, cried
out in great anger, What thief has been here in broad
'

day ? Bring back my clothes, quick.' She then perceived

Ming-ling-tzu, and threw herself on the ground before him.
He began to scold her, and asked why she came and
fouled his water to which she replied that both the pine
;

tree and the well were made by the Creator for the use of
all. The farmer entered into conversation with her, and
pointed out that fate evidently intended her to be his wife,
as he absolutely refused to give up her clothes, while with
out them she could not get away. The result was that
they were married. She lived with him for ten years, and
bore him a son and a daughter. At the end of that time
her fate was fulfilled : she ascended a tree during the
absence of her husband, and having bidden his children
farewell, glided off on a cloud and disappeared.1
In South Africa a parallel myth, in its demonological
aspect, bears no trace of a cloud origin. In this case a
Hottentot, travelling with a Bushwoman and her child,
met a troop of wild horses. They were all hungry ; and
the woman, taking off a petticoat made of human skin,
was instantly changed into a lioness. She struck down a

horse, and lapped its blood ; then, at the request of the

Hottentot, who in his terror had climbed a tree, she re

sumed her petticoat and womanhood, and the friends, after

a meal of horseflesh, resumed their journey.2 Among the
Minussinian Tartars these demons partake of the nature
of the Greek Harpies they are bloodthirsty vampyre-
;

demons who drink the blood of men slain in battle, darken

1 * 'Hottentot Fables,' p.
Dennys Bleek, 58.
2l8 5 WAN-MAIDENS.

the air in their flight, and house themselves in one great

black fiend.1 As we go East the portrait of the Swan-
maiden becomes less dark, and she is not associated with
the sea or the under-world. Such is one among the Ma
lays, related by Mr. Tylor. In the island of Celebes it is
said that seven nymphs came down from the sky to bathe,
and were seen by Kasimbaha, who at first thought them
white doves, but in the bath perceived they were women.
He stole the robe of one of them, Utahagi, and as she
could not fly without it, she became his wife and bare him
She was called Utahagi because of
son. single magic
a

a
white hair she had this her husband pulled out, when
;

immediately storm arose, and she flew to heaven. The

a

child was in great grief, and the husband cast about how
he should follow her up into the sky.
The Swan-maiden appears somewhat in the character of
Nemesis in a Siberian myth told by Mr. Baring-Gould.
a

A certain Samoyed who had stolen a Swan-maiden's

robe, refused to return unless she secured for him the
it

heart of seven demon robbers, one of whom had killed

the Samoyed's mother. The robbers were in the habit of
hanging up their hearts on pegs in their tent. The Swan-
maiden procured them. The Samoyed smashed six of the
hearts made the seventh robber resuscitate his mother,
;

whose soul, kept in a purse, had only to be shaken over

the old woman's grave for that feat to be accomplished,
and the Swan-maiden got back her plumage and flew away
rejoicing.2
In Slavonic Folklore the Swan-maiden generally of
is

dangerous character, and swan killed they are care

if

is
a

ful not to show to children for fear they will die. When
it

they appear as ducks, geese, and other water-fowl, they

are apt to be more mischievous than when they come as

Baring-Gould, 'Curious Myths,' &c. Ibid.,

1

ii.
!

299.
 PIGEON-MAIDENS, AND THE SEAL-SKIN. 219

pigeons ; and it is deemed perilous to kill a pigeon, as

among sailors it was once held to kill an albatross. Afana-
sief relates a legend which shows that, even when asso
ciated with the water-king, the Tsar Morskoi or Slavonic
Neptune, the pigeon preserves its beneficent character. A
king out hunting lies down to drink from a lake (as in the
story related on p. 146), when Tsar Morskoi seizes him by
the beard, and will not release him until he agrees to give
him his infant son. The infant prince, deserted on the
edge of the fatal lake, by advice of a sorceress hides in
some bushes, whence presently sees twelve pigeons
he
arrive, which, having thrown off their feathers, disport
themselves in the lake. At length a thirteenth, more
beautiful than the rest, arrives, and her sorochka (shift)
Ivan seizes. To it she agrees to be his wife, and,
recover
having told him he will find her beneath the waters, re
sumes her pigeon-shape and flies away. Beneath the lake
he finds a beautiful realm, and though the Tsar Morskoi
treats him roughly and imposes heavy tasks on him, the
pigeon-maiden (Vassilissa) assists him, and they dwell
together happily.1
In Norse Mythology the vesture of the uncanny maid is
oftenest a seal-skin, and a vein of pathos enters the legends.
Of the many legends of this kind, still believed in Sweden
and Norway, one has been pleasantly versified by Miss
Eliza Keary. A fisherman having found a pretty white
seal-skin, took it home with him. At night there was a
wailing at his door; the maid enters, becomes his wife, and
bears him three children. But after seven years she finds
the skin, and with it ran to the shore. The eldest child
tells the story to the father on his return home.
Then we three, Daddy,
Ran after, crying, 'Take us to the sea !

1 'Shaski,' vi. 48.

220 NUDITY.
Wait for us, Mammy, we are coming too !
Here's Alice, Willie can't keep up with you !

Mammy, stop just for a minute or two !'

At last we came to where the hill
Slopes straight down to the beach,
And there we stood all breathless, still
Fast clinging each to each.
We saw her sitting upon a stone,
Putting the little seal-skin on.
O Mammy ! Mammy !

She never said goodbye, Daddy,

She didn't kiss us three ;
She just put the little seal-skin on
And slipt into the sea !
Some of the legends of this character are nearly as realistic
asMr. Swinburne's ' Morality' of David and Bathsheba.
To imagine the scarcity of wives in regions to which the
primitive Aryan race migrated, we have only to remember
the ben trovato story of Californians holding a ball in
honour of a bonnet, in the days before women had fol
lowed them in migration. To steal Bathsheba's clothes,
and so capture her, might at one period have been suffi
ciently common in Europe require all the terrors
to
contained in the armoury of tradition concerning the
demonesses that might so be taken in, and might so
tempt men to take them in. In the end they might
disappear, carrying off treasures in the most prosaic
fashion, or perhaps they might bring to one's doors a small
Trojan war. It is probable that the sentiment of modesty,
so far as it is represented in the shame of nudity, was the
result of prudential agencies. Though the dread of nudity
has become in some regions a superstition in the female
mind strong enough to have its martyrs as was seen at
the sinking of the Northjleet and the burning hotel in St.
Louis it is one that has been fostered by men in distrust
of their own animalism. In barbarous regions, where
civilisation introduces clothes, the women are generally
 TEUFELSEE. 221

the last to adopt them ; and though Mr. Herbert Spencer

attributes this to female it appears more
conservatism,
probable that it is because the men are the first to lose
their innocence and the women last to receive anything
expensive. It
noticeable how generally the Swan-
is
maidens are said in the myths to be captured by violence
or stratagem. At the same time the most unconscious
temptress might be the means of breaking up homes and
misleading workmen, and thus become invested with all
the wild legends told of the illusory phenomena of nature
in popular mythology.
It is marvellous to observe how all the insinuations of
the bane were followed by equal dexterities in the ante-
dote. The fair tempters might disguise their intent in
an appeal to the wayfarer's humanity ; and, behold, there
were a thousand well-attested narratives ready for the
lips of wife and mother showing the demoness appealing
for succour to be fatalest of all !
There is a stone on the Miiggelsberger, in Altmark,
which is said to cover a treasure ; this stone is sometimes
called
'
Devil's Altar,' and sometimes it is said a fire is seen
there which disappears when approached. It lies on the
verge of Teufelsee, a lake dark and small, and believed to
be fathomless. Where the stone lies a castle once stood
which sank into the ground with its fair princess. But from
the underground castle there is a subterranean avenue to a
neighbouring hill, and from this hill of an evening some
times comes an old woman, bent over her staff. Next
day there will be seen a most beautiful lady combing her
long golden hair. To all who pass she makes her entrea
ties that theywill set her free, her pathetic appeals being
backed by offer of a jewelled casket which she holds. The
only means of liberating her she announces, that some
is,

one shall bear her on his shoulders three times round

222 GOHLITZSEE.

Teufelsee church without looking back. The experiment

has several times One villager at his first
been made.
round saw a large hay-waggon drawn past him by four
mice, and following it with his eyes received blows on the
ears. Another saw a waggon drawn by four coal-black
fire-breathing horses coming straight against him, started
back, and all disappeared with the cry ' Lost again for
ever !
'
A third tried and almost got through. He was
found senseless, and on recovering related that when he
took the princess on his shoulders she was light as a
feather, but she grew heavier and heavier as he bore
her round. Snakes, toads, and all horrible animals with
fiery eyes surrounded him ; dwarfs hurled blocks of wood
and stones at him ; yet he did not look back, and had
nearly completed the third round, when he saw his village
burst into flames; then he looked behind a blow felled
him and he seems to have only lived long enough to tell
this story. The youth of Kopernick are warned to steel
their hearts against any fair maid combing her hair near
Teufelsee. But the folklore of the same neighbourhood
admits that it is by no means so dangerous for dames to
listen to appeals of this kind. In the Gohlitzsee, for
example, a midwife was induced to plunge in response to
a call for aid ; having aided a little Merwoman in travail,
she was given an apronful of dust, which appeared odd
until on shore it proved to be many thalers.
In countries where the popular imagination, instead of
being scientific, is trained to be religiously retrospective,
it relapses at the slightest touch into the infantine specu
lations of the human race. Not long ago, standing at a
'
shop-window in Ostend where a 'Japanese Siren was on
view, the clever imposture interested me less than the
comments of the passing and pausing observers. The
most frequent wonders seriously expressed were, whether
 THE JAPANESE SIREN. 223

she sang, or combed her hair, or was under a doom, or had

a soul to be saved. Every question related to Circe,
Ulysses and the Sirens, and other conceptions of anti
quity. The Japanese artists rightly concluded they could
float their Siren in any intellectual waters where Jonah
in his whale could pass, or a fish appear with its penny.
Nay, even in their primitive form the Sirens find their
kith and kin still haunting all the coasts of northern
Europe. A type of the Irish and Scottish Siren may be
found in the very complete legend of one seen by John
Reid, shipmaster of Cromarty. With long flowing yellow
hair she sat half on a rock, half in water, nude and beau
tiful, half woman half fish, and John managed to catch and
hold her tight till she had promised to fulfil three wishes ;
then, released, she sprang into the sea. The wishes were
all fulfilled, and to one of them (though John would never
reveal the good-luck of the Reids was for a century
it)

after ascribed.1
The scene of this legend the 'Dropping Cave,' and
is

significantly near the Lover's Leap. One of John's wishes

included the success of his courtship. These Caves run
parallel with that of Venusberg, where the minstrel Tann-
hauser tempted by Venus and her nymphs. Heine
is

finishes off his description of this Frau Venus by saying

he fancied he met her one day in the Place Breda. What
'

do you take this lady to be asked he of Balzac, who

'
?

was with him. She a mistress,' replied Balzac. A

is
'

'

duchess rather,' returned Heine. But the friends found

on further explanation that they were both quite right.
Venus' doves, soiled for a time, were spiritualised at last
and made white, while the snowy swan grew darker. An
old German word for swan, elbiz, originally denoting its
whiteness (alius), furthered its connection with all 'elfish
'

Hugh Miller,
1

Scenes and Legends,

'
'

p.

293.
224 GODIVA.

beings elf being from the same word, meaning white ;

but, as in Goethe's 'Erl Konig,' often disguising a
dark character. The Swan and the Pigeon meet (with
some modifications) as symbols of the Good and Evil
powers in the legend of Lohengrin. The witch trans
forms the boy into a Swan, which, however, draws to
save his sister, falsely accused of his murder, the Knight
of the Sangreal, who, when the mystery of his holy
name is inquiredinto by his too curious bride, is borne
away by white doves. These legends all bear in them,
however faintly, the accent of the early conflict of religion
with the wild passions of mankind. Their religious bear
ings bring us to inquiries which must be considered at a
later phase of our work. But apart from purely moral
considerations, it is evident that there must have been
practical dangers surrounding the early social chaos amid
which the first immigrants in Europe found themselves.
Although the legend of Lady Godiva includes elements
of another origin, it is probable that in the fate of Peeping
Tom there is a distant reflection of the punishment some
times said to overtake those who gazed too curiously upon
the Swan-maiden without her feathers. The devotion of
the nude lady of Coventry would not be out of keeping
with one class of these mermaiden myths. There is a
superstition, now particularly strong in Iceland, that all
fairies of Eve, whom she hid away on an
are children
occasion when the Lord came to visit her, because they
were not washed and presentable. So he condemned
them to be for ever invisible. This superstition seems
to be related to an whether these preter
old debate
natural beings are the children of Adam and Eve or
not. A Scotch story bears against that conclusion. A
beautiful nymph, with a slight robe of green, came from
the sea and approached a fisherman while he was
 HOL Y FRAULE1N. 225

reading his Bible. She asked him if it contained any

promise of mercy for her. He replied that it contained
an offer of salvation to 'all the children of Adam;'
whereupon with a loud shriek she dashed into the sea

again. Euphemism would co-operate with natural com

passion in saying a good word for 'the good little people,'
whether hiding in earth or sea. In Altmark, ' Will-o'-
wisps' are believed to be the souls of unbaptized children
sometimes of lunatics unable to rest in their graves ;
'
they are called Light-men,' and it is said that though they
may sometimes mislead they often guide rightly, especially
if a small coin be thrown them, this being also an African
plan of breaking a sorcerer's spell. Christianity long after
its advent in Germany had to contend seriously with cus
toms and beliefs found in some lakeside villages where the
fishermen regarded themselves as in friendly relations with
the praeternaturalguardians of the waters, and unto this
day speak of their presiding sea-maiden as a Holy Frau-
lein. They hear her bells chiming up from the depths in
holy seasons to mingle with those whose sounds are wafted
from church towers ; and it seems to have required many
fables, told by prints of fishermen found sitting lifeless on
their boats while listening to them, to gradually transfer
reverence to the new christian fairy.
It may be they heard some such melody as that which
has found its finest expression in Mr. Matthew Arnold's
' '
Forsaken Merman :

Children dear, was it yesterday

(Call yet once) that she went away ?
Once she sate with you and me,
On a red gold throne in the heart of the sea,
And the youngest sate on her knee.
She comb'd its bright hair, and she tended it well,
When down swung the sound of the far-off bell.
She sigh'd, she look'd up through the clear green sea ;
VOL. I. P
226 THE WATER-MAN.
'
She said I must go, for my kinsfolk pray
:

In the little grey church on the shore to-day.

'Twill be Easter-time in the world ah me !
And I lose my poor soul, Merman, here with thee'
'
I Go up, dear heart, through the waves,
said,
Say thy prayer, and come back to the kind sea-caves.'
She smil'd, she went up through the surf in the bay.
Children dear, was it yesterday ?

Perhaps we should find the antecedents of this Merman's

lost Margaret, whom he called back in vain, in the Danish
ballad of 'The Merman and the Marstig's Daughter,' who,
in Goethe's version, sought the winsome May in church,
thither riding as a gay knight on
horse of the water clear,
The saddle and bridle of sea-sand were.

They went from the church with the bridal train,

They danced in glee, and they danced full fain ;
They danced them down to the salt-sea strand,
And they left them standing there, hand in hand.
'
Now wait thee, love, with my steed so free,
And the bonniest bark I'll bring for thee.'
And when they passed to the white, white sand,
The ships came sailing on to the land ;

But when they were out in the midst of the sound,

Down went they all in the deep profound !
Long, long on the shore, when the winds were high,
They heard from the waters the maiden's cry.

1 rede ye, damsels, as best I can

Tread not the dance with the Water-Man !

According to other legends, however, the realm under-sea

was not a place for weeping. Child-eyes beheld all that
the Erl-king promised, in Goethe's ballad
Wilt thou go, bonny boy ? wilt thou go with me ?

My daughters shall wait on thee daintily ;

My daughters around thee in dance shall sweep,
And rock thee and kiss thee, and sing thee to sleep !
 SEA-PHANTOM. 227

Or perhaps child-eyes, lingering in the burning glow of

manhood's passion, might see in the peaceful sea some
picture of lost love like that so sweetly described in Heine's
'
Sea Phantom:'

But I still leaned o'er the side of the vessel,

Gazing with sad-dreaming glances
Down at the water, clear as a mirror,
Looking yet deeper and deeper,
Till far in the sea's abysses,
At first like dim wavering vapours,
Then slowly slowly deeper in colour,
Domes of churches and towers seemed rising,
And then,as clear as day, a city grand ....
Infinite longing, wondrous sorrow,
Steal through my heart,
My heart as yet scarce healed ;

It seems as though its wounds, forgotten,

By loving lips again were kissed,
And once again were bleeding
Drops of burning crimson,
Which long and slowly trickle down
Upon an ancient house below there
In the deep, deep sea-town,
On an ancient, high-roofed, curious house,
Where, lone and melancholy,
Below by the window a maiden sits,
Her head on her arm reclined,
Like a poor and uncared-for child ;
And I know thee, thou poor and long-sorrowing child !

... I meanwhile, my spirit all grief,

Over the whole broad world have sought thee,
And ever have sought thee,
Thou dearly beloved,
Thou long, long lost one,
Thou finally found one,
At last I have found thee, and now am gazing
Upon thy sweet face,
With earnest, faithful glances,
Still sweetly smiling ;
And never will I again on earth leave thee.
I am coming adown to thee,
223 SUNKEN TREASURES AND CITIES.
And with longing, wide-reaching embraces,
Love, I leap down to thy heart !

The temptations of fishermen to secure objects seen at

the bottom of transparent lakes, sometimes appearing like
boxes or lumps of gold, and even more reflections of
objects in the upper world or air, must have been sources
of danger ; there are many tales of their being so beguiled
to destruction. These things were believed treasures of
the little folk who live under water, and would not part
with them except on payment. In Blumenthal lake, 'tis
said, there is an iron-bound yellow coffer which fishermen
often have tried to raise, but their cords are cut as it nears
the surface. At the bottom of the same lake valuable
clothing is seen, and a woman who once tried to secure it
was so nearly drowned that it is thought safer to leave it.
The legends of sunken towns (as in Lake Paarsteinchen
and Lough Neagh), and bells (whose chimes may be heard
on certain sacred days), are probably variants of this class
of delusions. They are often said to have been sunk by
some final vindictive stroke of a magician or witch re
solved to destroy the city no longer trusting them. Land
slides, might originate legends
engulfing seaside homes,
like that of King Gradlon's daughter Dahut, whom the
Breton peasant sees in rough weather on rocks around
Poul-Dahut, where she unlocked the sluice-gates on the
city Is in obedience to her fiend-lover.
If it be rememberedthat less than fifty years ago Dr.
Belon1 thought it desirable to anatomise gold fishes, and
prove in various ways that it is a fallacy to suppose they
feed on pure gold (as many a peasant near Lyons declares
of the laurets sold daily in the market), it will hardly be
thought wonderful that perilous visions of precious things
were seen by early fishermen in pellucid depths, and that
1
'The Mirror,' April 7, 1832.
 SUICIDE. 229

these should at last be regarded as seductive arts of

Lorelei, who have given many lakes and rivers the reputa
tion of requiring one or more annual victims.
Possibly it was through accumulation of many dreams
about beautiful realms beneath the sea or above the
clouds that suicide became among the Norse folk so
common. It was a proverb that the worst end was to die
in bed, and to die by suicide was to be like Egil, and
Omund, and King Hake, like nearly all the heroes who
so passed to Valhalla. The Northman had no doubt con
cerning the paradise to which he was going, and did not
wish to reach it enfeebled by age. But the time would
come when the earth and human affection must assert
their claims, and the watery tribes be pictured as cruel
devourers of the living. Even so would the wood-nymphs
and mountain-nymphs be degraded, and fearful legends of
those lost and wandering in dark forests be repeated to
shuddering childhood. The actual dangers would mask
themselves in the endless disguises of illusion, the wold
and wave be peopled with cruel and treacherous seducers.
Thus suicide might gradually lose its charms, and a dismal
underworld of heartless gnomes replace the grottoes and
fairies.
We may close this chapter with a Scottish legend relat
'
ing to the Shi'ichs,' or Men of Peace, in which there is a
strange intimation of a human mind dreaming that it
dreams, and so far on its way to waking. A woman was
carriedaway by these shadowy beings in order that she
might suckle her child which they had previously stolen.
During her retention she once observed the Shi'ichs anoint
ing their eyes from a caldron, and seizing an opportunity,
she managed to anoint one of her own eyes with the oint
ment. With that one eye she now saw the secret abode
and all in it 'as they really were.' The deceptive splendour
230 MEN OF PEACE.
had vanished. The gaudy ornaments of a fairy grot had
become the naked walls of a gloomy cavern. When this
woman had returned to live among human beings again,
her anointed eye saw much that others saw not ; among
'
other things she once saw a man of peace,' invisible to
others, and asked him about her child. Astonished at
being recognised, he demanded how she had been able to
discover him ; and when she had confessed, he spit in her
eye and extinguished it for ever.
 ( *3T )

CHAPTER X.

DARKNESS.

Shadows Night Deities Kobolds Walpurgisnacht Night as Abet

tor of Evil-doers Nightmare Dreams Invisible Foes Jacob
and his Phantom Nott The Prince of Darkness The Brood of
Midnight Second-Sight Spectres of Souter Fell The Moon
shine Vampyre Glamour Glam and Grettir A Story of Dart
moor.

FROM the little night which clings to man even by day

his own shadow to the world's great shade of darkness,
innumerable are the coverts from which have emerged the
black procession of phantoms which have haunted the
slumbers of the world, and betrayed the enterprise of man.
How strange to the first man seemed that shadow walk
ing beside him, from the time when he saw it as a ghost
tracking its steps and giving him his name for a ghost, on
to the period in which it seemed the emanation of an
occult power, as to them who brought their sick into the
streets to be healed by the passing shadow of Peter; and
still on to the day when Beaumont wrote
Our acts our angels are, or good or ill,
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still ;

or that in which Goethe found therein the mystical symbol

of the inward arrest of our moral development, and said
'
No man can jump off of his shadow.' And then from the
culture of Europe we pass to the Feejee-Islanders, and find
them believing that every man has two spirits. One is his
232 NIGHT DEITIES.
shadow, which goes to Hades the other is his image as
;

reflected in water, and it is supposed to stay near the place

where the man dies.1 But, like the giants of the Brocken,
these demons of the Shadow are trembled at long after
they are known to be the tremblers themselves mirrored
on air. Have we not priests in England still fostering the
belief that the baptized child goes attended by a white
spirit, the unbaptized by a dark one ? Why then need we
apologise for the Fijians ?
But little need be said here of demons of the Dark, for
they are closely related to the phantasms of Delusion, of
Winter, and others already described. Yet have they dis
tinctive characters. As many as were the sunbeams were
the shadows every goddess of the Dawn (Ushas) cast her
;

shadow ; every Day was swallowed up by Night. This is

the cavern where hide the treacherous Panis (fog) in Vedic
mythology, they who steal and hide Indra's cows ; this is
the realm of Hades (the invisible) ; this is the cavern of
the hag Thokk (dark) in Scandinavian mythology, she
who alone of all in the universe refused to weep for Baldur
when he was shut up in Helheim, where he had been sent
by the dart of his blind brother Hodr (darkness). In the
cavern of Night sleep the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, and
Barbarossa, and all slumbering phantoms whose genius is
the night-winged raven. Thorr, the Norse Hercules, once
tried to lift a cat as it seemed to him
from the ground ;
but it was the great mid-earth serpent which encircles the
whole earth. Impossible feat as it was for Thorr who
got only one paw of the seeming cat off the ground in
that glassless and gasless era, invention has accomplished
much in that direction ; but the black Cat is still domi
ciled securely among idols of the mental cave.
There is an Anglo-Saxon word, cof-godas (lit. cove-gods),
1 ' The Origin of Civilisation,' &c. By Sir John Lubbock.
 KOBOLDS. 233

employed as the equivalent of the Latin lares (the Penates,

too, are interpreted as cof-godu, cofa signifying the inner
recess of a house, penetrale). The word in German corre
sponding to this cofa, is koben ; and from this Hildebrand
conjectures kob-old to be derived. The latter part of the
word he supposes to be wait (one who ' presides over,' e.g.,
Walter) ; so that the original form would be kob-walt.
1

Here, then, in the recesses of the household, among the

least enlightened of its members the menials, who still
often neutralise the efforts of rational people to dispel the
delusions of their children the discredited deities and
demons of the past found refuge, and through a little bap
tismal change of names are familiars of millions unto this
day. In of the ancient Hebrew, ' they lay in
the words
their own houses prisoners of darkness, fettered with the
bonds of a long night.' ' No power of the fire might give
them light, neither could the bright flames of the stars
lighten that horrible night.' 2
Well is it added, '
Fear is
nothing else but a betraying of the succours which reason
offereth,' a truth which finds ample illustration in the
Kobolds. These imaginary beings were naturally asso
of mines. There they gave
ciated with the dark recesses
the name to our metal Cobalt. The value of Cobalt was

Hildebrand in Grimm's ' Worterbuch.'

1
2
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.'
234 WALPURGISNA CHT.

not understood until the 17th century, and the metal was
first obtained by the Swedish chemist Brandt in 1733.
The miners had believed that the silver was stolen away
'
by Kobolds, and these worthless' ores left in its place.
Nickel had the like history, and is named after Old Nick.
So long did those Beauties slumber in the cavern of
Ignorance till Science kissed them with its sunbeam, and
led them forth to decorate the world !

How passed this (mental) cave-dweller even amid the

upper splendours and vastnesses of his unlit world ? A
Faust guided by his Mephistopheles only amid inter
minable Hartz labyrinths.

How sadly rises, incomplete and ruddy,

The moon's lone disk, with its belated glow,
And lights so dimly, that, as one advances,
At every step one strikes a rock or tree !
Let us then use a Jack-o'-lantern's glances :
I see one yonder, burning merrily.
Ho, there ! my friend ! I'll levy thine attendance :
Why waste so vainly thy resplendence ?
lie kind enough to light us up the steep !

Tell me, if we still are standing,

Or if further we're ascending ?
All is turning, whirling, blending,
Trees and rocks with grinning faces.
Wandering lights that spin in mazes,
Still increasing and expanding.1

It could only have been at a comparatively late period

of social development that Sancho's benediction on the
inventor of sleep could have found general response. The
Red Indian found its helplessness fatal when the ' Nick of
the Woods' was abroad ; the Scotch sailor found in it a
'
demon's opiate when the Nigg of the Sea' was gathering
his storms above the sleeping watchman. It was among
1 '
Bayard Taylor's Faust.' Walpurgis-night.
 THE MASK OF EVIL-DOERS. 235

the problems of Job, the cooperation of darkness with

evil-doers.
The eye of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight j
He saith, No eye will see me,
And putteth a mask upon his face.
In the dark men break into houses ;

In the day-time they shut themselves up ;

They are strangers to the light.
The morning to them is the shadow of death ;
They are familiar with the dark terrors of midnight.

Besides this fact that the night befriends and masks

every treacherous foe, it is also to be remembered that
man is weakest at night. Not only is he weaker than by
day in the veil drawn over his senses, but physiologically
also. When the body is wearied out by the toils or com
bats of the day, and the mind haunted by dreams of
danger, there are present all the terrors which Byron por
trays around the restless pillow of Sardanapalus. The
war-horse of the day becomes a night-mare in the dark
ness. In the Heimskringla it is recorded :
'
Vanland,
Svegdir's son, succeeded his father and ruled over the
Upsal domain. He was a great warrior, and went far
around in different lands. Once he took up his winter
abode in Finland with Snio the Old, and got his daughter
Drisa in marriage but in spring he set out leaving Drisa
;

behind, and although he had promised to return within

three years he did not come back for ten. Then Drisa
sent a message to the witch Hulda ; and sent Visbur, her
son by Vanland, to Sweden. Drisa bribed the witch-wife
Hulda, either that she should bewitch Vanland to return
to Finland or kill him. When this witch-work was going
on Vanland was at Upsal, and great desire came over
a
him to go to Finland, but his friends and counsellors
advised him against and said the witchcraft of the Fin
it,

people showed itself in this desire of his to go there. He

236 NIGHTMARE.
then became very drowsy, and laid himself down to sleep;
but when he had slept but a little while he cried out, say
'
ing, Mara was treading on him.' His men hastened to
help him ; but when they took hold of his head she trod
on his legs, and when they laid hold of his legs she pressed'
upon his head ; and it was his death.' 1

This witch no doubt, Hildur, a Walkyr of the Edda,

is,
leading heroes to Walhalla. Indeed, in Westphalia, night
mare called Walriderske. It a curious fact that
is

is
should be preserved in the French word for night
Mara
'
'

mare, Cauche-mar, cauche being from Latin calcare, to

'
'

tread. Through Teutonic folklore this Night-demon of

many names, having floated from England in a sieve
paddled with cow-ribs, rides to the distress of an increas
ingly unheroic part of the population. Nearly always still
the 'Mahrt' said to be pretty woman, sometimes,
is

indeed, a sweetheartinvoluntarily transformed to one,

is

every rustic settlement abounding with tales of how the

demoness captured by stopping the keyhole,
has been
calling the ridden sleeper by his baptismal name, and
making the sign of the cross by such process the wicked
;

beauty appears in human form, and apt to marry the

is

sleeper, with usually evil results. The fondness of cats for

getting on the breasts of sleepers, or near their breath, for
warmth, has made that animal common form of the
a

Mahrt.' Sometimes a black fly with red ring around

is
it
'

its neck. This demoness believed to suffer more pain

is

than inflicts, and vainly endeavours to destroy herself.

it

In savage and nomadic times sound sleep being an ele

ment of danger, the security which required men to sleep
on their arms demanded also that they should sleep as
it

were with one eye open. Thus there might have arisen
both the intense vividness which demons acquired by
1

228.
i.
 DREAMS. 237

blending subjective and objective impressions, and the

curious inability, so frequent among barbarians and not
unknown among the men civilised, to distinguish dream
from fact. The habit of day-dreaming seems, indeed,
more generalthan is usually supposed. Dreams haunt
all the region of our intellectual twilight, the borderland
of mystery, where rise the sources of the occult and the
mystical which environ our lives. The daily terrors of
barbarous life avail to haunt the nerves of civilised people,
now many generations after they have passed away, with
special and irrational shudders at certain objects or noises:
how then must they have haunted the dreams of humanity
when, like the daughter of Nathan the Wise, rescued from
flames, it passed the intervals of strife

With nerves unstrung through fear,

And fire and flame in all she sees or fancies ;
Her soul awake in sleep, asleep when wide aw. ke ?

Among the sources of demoniac beliefs few indeed are

'
more prolific than Dreams. The witchcraft of sleep,'
'
says Emerson, divides with truth the empire of our lives.
This soft enchantress visits two children lying locked in
each other's arms, and carries them asunder by wide
spans of land and sea, wide intervals of time. 'Tis super
fluous to think of the dreams of multitudes ; the astonish
ment remains that one should dream; that we should
resign this deifying reason and become the
so quietly
theatre of delusions, shows, wherein time, space, persons,
cities, animals, should dance before us in merry and mad
confusion, a delicate creation outdoing the prime and
flower of actual nature, antic comedy alternating with
horrid spectres. Or we seem busied for hours and days in
peregrinations over seas and lands, in earnest dialogues,
strenuous actions for nothings and absurdities, cheated by
spectral jokes, and waking suddenly with ghostly laughter,
238 JNVISIBLE FOES.

to be rebuked by the cold lonely silent midnight, and to

rake with confusion in memory among the gibbering non
sense to find the motive of this contemptible cachinna-
1
tion.'
It has always been the worst of periods of religious
excitement that they shape the dreams of old and young,
and find there a fearful and distorted, but vivid and
realistic, embodiment of their feverish experiences. In
the days of witchcraft thousands visited the Witches' Sab
baths, as they believed in the Walpurgis
and danced
orgies, borne (by hereditary orthodox canon) on their own
brooms up their own chimneys ; and to-day, by the same
morbid imaginations, the victims are able to see them
selves or others elongated, levitated, floating through the
air. If people only knew how few are ever really wide
awake, these spiritual nightmares would soon reach their
termination. The natural terrors before which helpless man
once cowered, have been prolonged past all his real victories
over his demons by a succession of such nightmares, so
that the vulgar religion might be portrayed somewhat
as Richard Wagner described his first tragedy, in which,

having killed off forty-two of his characters, he had to

bring them back as ghosts to carry on the fifth act 1

The perils of darkness, as ambush of foes human and

animal, concealer of pitfalls, misguider of footsteps, mis-
director of aims, were more real than men can well imagine
in an age of gaslight plus the policeman. The myth of
Joshua commanding the sun to stand still ; the cry of Ajax
'
when darkness fell on the combat, ' Grant me but to see !

refer us to the region from which come all childish shudders

at going into the dark. The limit of human courage is
reached where its foe is beyond the reach of its force.
Fighting in the dark may even be suicidal. A German
1 North American Review. March 1877.
 JACOB AND HIS PHANTOM. 239

fable of blindfold zeal the awakened sleeper demolishing

his furniture and knocking out his own teeth in the attempt
to punish cats has its tragical illustrations also. But
none of these actual dangers have been of more real evil
to man than the demonisation of them. This rendered
his very skill a blunder, his energy weakness. If it was
bad to retreat in the dusk from an innocent bush into an
unrecognised well, it was worse to meet the ghost with
rune or crucifix and find it an assassin. When man fights
with his shadow, he instantly makes it the demon he fears ;
ghoul-like it preys upon his paralysed strength, vampyre-
like it sucks his blood, and he is consigned disarmed to
the evil that is no shadow. The Scottish Sinclair march
ing through Norway, in the 16th century, owes his monu
ment at Wiblungen rather to the magpie believed to pre
cede him as a spy, with night and day upon its wings,
than to his own prowess or power.
In a sense all demons, whatever their shapes, are the
ancient brood of night. Mental darkness, even more moral
darkness within, supply the phantasmagoria in which un
known things shape themselves as demons. Esau is already
reconciled, but guilty Jacob must still wrestle with him
as a phantom of Fear till daybreak. A work has already
'
been written on The Night-side of Nature,' but it would
require many volumes to tell the story of what monsters
have been conjured out of the kind protecting darkness.
How great is the darkness which man makes for himself
out of the imagination which should be his light and vision !
'
Much of the so-called ' religion of our time is but elaborate
demoniculture and artificial preservation of mental Wal-
purgis-nights. Nott (Night) says the Edda rides first on
her horse called Hrimfaxi (frost-maned), which every
morning as he ends his course bedews the earth with the
foam that falls from his bit. Though the horse of Day
240 THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS.
Skinfaxi, or Shining-mane follows hard after her, yet the
foam is by no means drunk up by his fires. Foam of the
old phantasms still lingers in our mediaeval liturgies, and
even falls afresh where the daylight is shut out that altar-
candles may burn, or for other dark seances are prepared
the conditions necessary for whatsoever loves not the
light.
What we call the Dark Ages were indeed spiritually a
perpetual seance with lights lowered. Nay, human super
stition was able to turn the very moon and stars into mere
bluish night-tapers, giving just light enough to make the
darkness visible in fantastic shapes fluttering around the
Prince of Darkness, or Non-existence in Chief! How
much of the theosophic speculation of our time is the
mere artificial conservation of that darkness ? How much
that still flits bat-winged from universities, will, in the future,
be read with the same wonder as that with which even the
more respectable bats can now read account of the mid
night brood which now for the most part sleep tranquilly
'
in such books as Burton's ' Anatomy of Melancholy ?
'
There are,' he says, ' certain spirits which Miraldus calls
Ambulones, that walk about midnight on great heaths
and desert places, which (saith Lavater) draw men out
of their way, and lead them all night by a byway, or
quite bar them of their way. These have several names
in several places. We commonly call them Pucks.
In the deserts of Lop, in Asia, such illusions of walk
ing spirits are often perceived, as you may read in M.
Paulus, the Venetian, his travels. If one lose his com
pany by chance, these devils will call him by his name,
and counterfeit voices of his companions to seduce
him. Lavater and Cicogna have a variety of examples
of spirits and walking devils in this kind. Sometimes
they sit by the wayside to give men falls, and make
 THE BROOD OF MIDNIGHT.

their horses stumble and start as they ride (according to

the narration of that holy man Ketellus in Nubrigensis,
that had an especial grace to see devils) ; and if a man
curse and spur his horse for stumbling, they do heartily
rejoice at it.'
While observing a spirited and imaginative picture by
Macallum of the Siege of Jerusalem, it much interested
me to observe the greater or less ease with which other
visitors discovered the portents in the air which, follow
ing the narrative of Josephus, the artist had vaguely por
trayed. The chariots and horsemen said to have been
seen before that event were here faintly blent with in
definite outlines of clouds ; and while some of the artist's
friends saw them with a distinctness greater, perhaps, than
that with which they impressed the eye of the artist him
self, others could hardly be made to see anything except
shapeless vapour, though of course they all agreed that
they were there and remarkably fine.
It would seem that thus, in a London studio, there were
present all the mental pigments for frescoing the air and
sky with those visions of aerial armies or huntsmen which
have become so normal in history as to be, in a subjective
sense, natural. In the year 1763, an author, styling him
self Theophilus Insulanus, published at Edinburgh a book
on Second-Sight, in which he related more than a hundred
instances of the power he believed to exist of seeing
events before they had occurred, and whilst, of course,
they did not exist. It is not difficult in reading them
to see that they are all substantially one and the same
story, and that the sight in operation was indeed second ;

for man or woman, at imaginative and illiterate,

once
have a second and supernumerary pair of eyes inherited
from the traditional superstitions and ghost stories which
fill all the air they breathe from the cradle to the grave.
VOL. L Q
242 SECOND SIGHT.

While the mind is in this condition, that same nature

whose apparitions and illusions
originally evoked and
fostered the glamoury, still moves on with her minglings
of light and shade, cloud and mirage, giving no word of
explanation. There are never wanting the shadowy forms
without that cast their shuttles to the dark idols of the
mental cave, together weaving subtle spells round the
half-waking mind.
In the year all the North of England and Scot
1743
land was in alarm on account of some spectres which
were seen on the mountain of Souter Fell in Cumberland.
The mountain is about half-a-mile high. On a summer

evening a farmer and his servant, looking from Wilton

Hall, half a mile off, saw the figures of a man and a dog
pursuing some horses along the mountain-side, which is
very steep ; and on the following morning they repaired
to the place, expecting to find dead bodies, but finding
none. About one year later a troop of horsemen were
seen riding along the same mountain-side by one of the
same persons, the servant, who then called others who
also saw the aerial troopers. After a year had elapsed
the above vision was attested before a magistrate by two
of those who saw it. The event occurred on the eve of
the Rebellion, when horsemen were exercising, and when
also the popular mind along the Border may be supposed
to have been in a highly excited condition.
What was seen on this strongly-authenticated occasion ?

Was anything seen ? None can tell. It is open to us to

believe that there may have been some play of mirage.
As there are purely aerial echoes, so are there aerial re

flectors for the eye. On the other hand, the vision so

nearly resembles the spectral processions which have
passed through the mythology of the world, that we can
never be sure that it was not the troop of King Arthur,
 SPECTRES OF SOUTER FELL.

emerging from Avallon to announce the approaching

strife. A few strangely-shaped clouds, chasing
fleecy,
each other along the hillside in the evening's dusk would
have amply sufficed to create the latter vision, and the
danger of the time would easily have supplied all the
Second-Sight required to reveal it to considerable num
bers. In questions of this kind a very small circumstance
a phrase, a name, perhaps may turn the balance of
probabilities. Thus it may be noted that, in the instance
just related, the vision was seen on the steep side of
Souter Fell. Fell means a hill or a steep rock, as in
Drachenfels. But as to Souter, although, as Mr. Robert
Ferguson says, the word may originally have meant sheep,1
'
it is found in Scotland used as ' shoemaker in connec
tion with the fabulous giants of that region. Sir Thomas
Urquhart, in the seventeenth century, relates it as the
tradition of the two promontories of Cromarty, called
'Soutars,' that they were the work-stools of two giants
who supplied their comrades with shoes and buskins.
Possessing but one set of implements, they used to fling
these to each other across the opening of the firth, where
the promontories are only two miles apart. In process
of time the name Soutar, shoemaker, was bequeathed by
the craftsmen to their stools. It is not improbable that
the name gradually connected itself with other places
bearing traditions connecting them with the fabulous
Fell, from mean
race, and that in this way the Souter
ing in early times much the same as Giants' Hill, pre
served even in 1743-44 enough of the earlier uncanny
associations to awaken the awe of Borderers in a time
of rebellion. The vision may therefore have been seen
by light which had journeyed all the way from the mytho
1 In his very valuable work, ' Northmen in Cumberland and Westmoreland. *

Longmans. 1856.
244 MOONSHINE VAMPYRE.

logic heavens of ancient India : substantially subjective

such stuff as dreams and dreamers are made of no doubt
there were outer clouds, shapes and afterglows enough,
even in the absence of any fata morgana to supply
canvas and pigment to the cunning artist that hides in
the eye.
In an old tale, the often-slain Vampyre-bat only re
quests, with pathos, that his body may be laid where no
sunlight, but only the moonlight, will fall on it only that !
But it is under the moonshine that it always gains new
life. No demon requires absolute darkness, but half-
darkness, in which to live: enough light to disclose a
Somewhat, but not enough to define and reveal its nature,
is just what has been required for the bat-eyes of fable
and phantasy, which can make vampyre of a sparrow or
giant out of a windmill.
Glamour! A marvellous history has this word of the
artists and poets, meaning the charm with
sometimes
which the eye invests any object; or, in Wordsworth's
phrase, 'the light that never was on land or sea.' But no
artist or poet ever rose to the full height of the simple
term itself, which well illustrates Emerson's saying,
'
Words are fossil poetry.' Professor Cowell of Cambridge
'
says : Glam, or in the nominative Gldmr, is also a poeti
cal name for the Moon. It does not actually occur in the
ancient literature, but it given in the glossary in the
is
Prose Edda in the list of the very old words for the Moon.'
Vigfusson in his dictionary says, 'The word is interesting
on account of its identity with Scot. Glamour, which shows
that the tale of Glam was common to Scotland and Ice
land, and this much older than Grettir (in the year 1014).'
The Ghost or Goblin Glam seems evidently to have arisen
from a personification of the delusive and treacherous
effects of moonlight on the benighted traveller,
 GLAMOUR. 245

Quale per incertam lunam sub luce maligna

Est iter in sylvis.

Now, there is a curious old Sanskrit word, glau or gldv,

which is explained in all the old native lexicons as mean
ing
'
the moon.' It might either be taken as '
waning,' or
'
in a casual sense obscuring.'
The following lines from an early mediaeval poet, Bhasa
(seventh century), will illustrate the deceptive character of
moonlight from a Hindu point of view. The strong and
wild Norse imagination delights in what is terrible and
gloomy: the Hindu loves to dwell on the milder and
quieter aspects of human life.
'
The cat laps the moonbeams in the bowl of water,
thinking them to be milk : the elephant thinks that the
moonbeams, threaded through the intervals of the trees,
are the fibres of the lotus-stalk. The woman snatches at
the moonbeams as they lie on the bed, taking them for
her muslin garment : oh, how the moon, intoxicated with
'
radiance, bewilders all the world !

A similar passage, no doubt imitated from this, is also

quoted :
'
The bewildered herdsmen place the pails under the
cows, thinking that the milk is flowing ; the maidens also
put the blue lotus blossom in their ears, thinking that it is
the white ; the mountaineer's wife snatches up the jujube
fruit, avaricious for pearls. Whose mind is not led astray
'
by the thickly clustering moonbeams ? 1
In the Icelandic legend of the struggle between the
hero Grettir, translated by Magniissen and Morris (Lon
don, 1869), the saga supplies a scenery as archaeological
'
as if the philologists had been consulted.
Bright moon
light was there without, and the drift was broken, now
1 '
Journal of Philology,' vi. No. 1 1. On the Word Glamour and the Legend
of Clam, by Professor Cowell.
246 GLAM AND GRETTIR.

drawn over the moon, now driven off from her; and even
as Glam fell, a cloud was driven from the moon, and Glam
glared up against her.' When the hero beheld these glar
ing eyes of the giant Ghost, he felt some fiendish craft in
'
them, and could not draw his short sword, and lay well
nigh 'twixt home and hell.' This half-light of the moon,
which robs the Strong of half his power, is repeated in
Glam's curse : ' Exceedingly eager hast thou sought to
meet me, Grettir, but no wonder will it be deemed, though
thou gettest no good hap of me ; and this I must tell thee,
that thou now hast got half the strength and manhood
which was thy lot if thou hadst not met me : now I may
not take from thee the strength which thou hast got before
this ; but that may I rule, that thou shalt never be mightier
than now thou art . . . therefore this weird I
lay on thee,
ever in those days to see these eyes with thine eyes, and
thou wilt find it hard to be alone and that shalt drag
thee unto death.'
The Moon-demon's power is limited to the spell of
illusion he can cast. Presently he is laid low ; the ' short
sword' of a sunbeam pales, decapitates him. But after
Glam is burned to cold coals, and his ashes buried in skin
of a beast ' where sheep-pastures were fewest, or the ways
'
of men,' the spell lay upon the hero's eyes. Grettir said
that his temper had been nowise bettered by this, that he
was worse to quiet than before, and that he deemed all
trouble worse than it was ; but that herein he found the
greatest change, in that he was become so fearsome a man
in the dark, that he durst go nowhither alone after night
fall, for then he seemed to see all kinds of horrors. And
that has fallen since into a proverb, that Glam lends eyes,
or gives Glamsight to those who see things nowise as they
are.'
In reading which one may wonder how this world would
 LUNAR THEOLOGY. 247

look if for a little moment one's eyes could be purged of

glamour. Even at the moon's self one tries vainly to look :
where Hindu and Zulu see a hare, the Arab sees coils of a
serpent, and the Englishman sees a man ; and the most
intelligent of these several races will find it hard to see in
the moon aught save what their primitive ancestors saw.
And this small hint of the degree to which the wisest, like
Merlin, are bound fast in an air-prison by a Vivien whose
spells are spun from themselves, would carry us far could
'
we only venture to follow it out. The Moon,' observed
'
Dr. Johnson unconsciously, has great influence in vulgar
philosophy.' How much lunar theology have we around
us, so that many from the cradle to the grave get no clear
sight of nature or of themselves I Very closely did Carlyle
come to the fable of Glam when speaking of Coleridge's
'
prophetic moonshine,' and its effect on poor John Sterling.
'
If the bottled moonshine be actually substance ? Ah,
could one but believe in a church while finding it incred
ible I . . . The bereaved young lady has taken the veil
then I . . . To such lengths can transcendental moonshine,
cast by some morbidly radiating Coleridge into the chaos
of a fermenting life, act magically there, and produce
divulsions and convulsions and diseased developments.'
One can almost fancy Carlyle had ringing in his memory
the old Scottish ballad of the Rev. Robert Kirk, translator
of the Psalms into Gaelic, who, while walking in his night
gown at Aberfoyle, was 'snatched away to the joyless
Elfin bower.'

It was between the night and day

When the fairy-king has power.

The item of the night-gown might have already prepared

us for the couplet ; and it has perhaps even a mystical
'
connection with the vestment of the black dragoon' which
248 A STOR Y OF DARTMOOR.

Sterling once saw patrolling in every parish, to whom, how

ever, he surrendered at last.
A story is told of a manwandering on a dark night
over Dartmoor, whose feet slipped over the edge of a pit.
He caught the branch of a tree suspended over the terrible
chasm, but unable to regain the ground, shrieked for help.
None came, though he cried out till his voice was gone ;
and there he remained dangling in agony until the grey
light revealed that his feet were only a few inches from the
solid ground. Such are the chief demons that bind man
till cockcrow. Such are the apprehensions that waste
also the moral and intellectual strength of man, and mur
der his peace as he regards the necessary science of his
time to be cutting some frail tenure sustaining him over a
bottomless pit, instead of a release from real terror to the
solid ground
 ( 249 )

CHAPTER XI.

DISEASE.

The Plague Phantom Devil-dances Destroying Angels Ahrimnn

in Astrology Saturn Satan and Job Set The Fatal Seven
Yakseyo The Singhalese Pretraya Reeri Maha Sohon .

Morotoo Luther on Disease-demons Gopolu Madan Cattle-

demon in Russia Bihlweisen The Plough.

A FAMILIAR fable in the East tells of one who met a fear

ful phantom, which in reply to his questioning answered

'
I am Plague : I have come from yon city where ten
thousand lie dead : one thousand were slain by me, the
rest by Fear.' Perhaps even this story does not fully
report the alliance between the plague and fear ; for it is
hardly doubtful that epidemics retain their power in the
East largely because gained personification
they have
through fear as demons whose fatal power man can neither
prevent nor cure, before which he can only cower and pray.
In the missionary school at Canterbury the young men
'
prepare themselves to help the heathen' medically, and
so they go forth with materia medica in one hand, and in
the other an infallible revelation from heaven reporting
plagues as the inflictions of Jehovah, or the destroying
angel, or Satan, and the healing of disease the jealously
reserved monopoly of God.1
12
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
 DEVIL DANCES.
The demonisation of diseases is not wonderful. To
thoughtful minds not even science has dispelled the
mystery which surrounds many of the ailments that afflict
mankind, especially the normal diseases besetting children,
hereditary complaints, and the strange liabilities to infec
tion and contagion. A genuine, however partial, observa
tion would suggest to primitive man some connection
between the symptoms of many diseases and the myste
rious universe of which he could not yet recognise himself
an epitome. There were indications that certain troubles
of this kind were related to the seasons, consequently to
the celestial rulers of the seasons, to the sun that smote
by day, and the moon at night. Professor Monier
Williams, describing the Devil-dances of Southern India,
says that there seems to be an idea among them that
when pestilences are rife exceptional measures must be
taken to draw off the malignant spirits, supposed to cause
them, by tempting them to enter into these wild dancers,
and so become dissipated. He witnessed in Ceylon a
dance performed by three men who personated the forms
and phases of typhus fever.1 These dances probably be
long to the same class of ideas as those of the dervishes
in Persia, whose manifold contortions are supposed to
repeat the movements of planets. They are invocations
of the souls of good stars, and propitiations of such as are
anointing for the sick only after medical aid of which Asa died when he pre
ferred 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 Vati
'
can, 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. the Bible as a divine revelation in 150 different
England has distributed
languages ; and in London it punishes a sect for obedience to one of its plain
est directions.
1
London 'Times,' June II, 1877.
 LUNAR INFLUENCES.

evil Belief in such stellar and planetary influences has

pervaded every part of the world, and gave rise to astro
'
logical dances. Gebelin says that the minuet was the
datise obliqueof the ancient priests of Apollo, performed in
their temples. The diagonal line and the two parallels de
scribed in this dance were intended to be symbolical of the
zodiac, and the twelve steps of which it is composed were
meant for the twelve signs and the months of the year.
The dance round the Maypole and the Cotillon has the
same origin. Diodorus tells us that Apollo was adored with
dances, and in the island of Iona the god danced all night.
The christians of St. Thomas till a very late day celebrated
their worship with dances and songs. Calmet says there
were dancing-girls in the temple at Jerusalem.' 1
The influence of the Moon upon tides, the sleeplessness
it causes, the restlessness of the insane under its occasional
light, and such treacheries of moonshine as we have already
considered, have populated our uninhabited satellite with
demons. Lunar legends have decorated some well-founded
suspicions of moonlight. The mother draws the curtain
between the moonshine and her little Endymion, though
not because she sees in the waning moon a pining Selene
whose kiss may waste away the beautyof youth. A mere
survival is the 'bowing to the new moon:' a euphonism
'
traceable to many myths about lunacy,' among them, as,,
I think, to Delilah (' languishing in whose lap the solar
'),

Samson shorn of his locks, leaving him only the blind

is

destructive strength of the moonstruck.'

'

In the purely Semitic theories of the Jews we find dis

eases ascribed to the wrath of Jehovah, and their cure to
his merciful mood. Jehovah will make thy plagues won-
'

'Mankind their Origin and Destiny' (Longmans, 1872), p. 91. See also
1

Voltaire's Dictionary for an account of the sacred dances in the Catholic

Churches of Spain.
25 2 DESTROYING ANGELS.
derful, and the plagues of thy seed; ... he will bring upon
thee all the diseases of Egypt whereof thou wast afraid.' 1

The emerods which smote the worshippers of Dagon were

ascribed directly to the hand of Jehovah.8 In that vague
degree of natural dualistic development which preceded
the full Iranian influence upon the Jews, the infliction of
diseases was delegated to an angel of Jehovah, as in the
narratives of smiting the firstborn of Egypt, wasting the
army of Sennacherib, and the pestilence sent upon Israel
for David's sin. In the progress of this angel to be a
demon of disease we find a phase of ambiguity, as shown
'
in the hypochondria of Saul. The spirit of Jehovah
departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from Jehovah
troubled him.' 3

All such ambiguities disappeared under the influence of

Iranian dualism. In the Book of Job we find the infliction
of diseases and plagues completely transferred to a power
ful spirit, a fully formed opposing potentate. The ' sons
of God,' who in the first chapter of Job are said to have pre
sented themselves before Jehovah, may be identified in the
thirty-eighth as the stars which shouted for joy at the crea
tion. Satan is the wandering or malign planet which leads
in the Ahrimanic side of the Persian planisphere. In the
cosmographical theology of that country Ormuzd was to
reign for six thousand years, and then Ahriman was to
reign for a similar period. The moral associations of this
speculation are discussed elsewhere ; it is necessary here
only to point out the bearing of the planispheric concep
tion upon the ills that flesh is heir to. Ahriman is the
' '
star-serpent of the Zendavasta. '
When the paris ren
1 Deut. xxviii. 60. 'I Sam. v. 6.
3 I
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 Jeho
'
vah into a moral ruler which is fully traced in our chapter on Elohim and
'
J ehovah.
 AHRIMAN IN ASTROLOG Y.

dered this world desolate, and overran the universe ; when

the star-serpent made a path for himself between heaven
'
and earth,' &c. ; when Ahriman rambles on the earth, let
him who takes the form of a serpent glide on the earth ;
let him who takes the form of the wolf run on the earth,
and let the violent north wind bring weakness.'1
The dawn of Ormuzd corresponds with April. The sun
returns from winter's death by sign of the lamb (our Aries),
and thenceforth every month corresponds with a thousand
years of the reign of the Beneficent. September is denoted
by the Virgin and Child. To the dark domain of Ahriman
the prefectureof the universe passes by Libra, the same
balances which appear in the hand of Satan. The star-
serpent prevails over the Virgin and Child. Then follow
the months of the scorpion, the centaur, goat, &c., every
month corresponding to a thousand years of the reign of
Ahriman.
While this scheme corresponds in one direction with the
demons of cold, and in another with the entrance and
reign of moral evil in the world, beginnings of disease
on earth were also ascribed to this seventh thousand of
years when the Golden Age had passed. The depth of
winter is reached in domicile of the goat, or of Sirius,
Seth, Saturn, Satan according to the many variants.
And these, under their several names, make the great
'infortune' of astrology, wherein old Culpepper amply
'
instructed our fathers. In the general, consider that
Saturn is an old worn-out planet, weary, and of little
estimation in this world ; he causeth long and tedious
sicknesses, abundance of sadness, and a Cartload of doubts
and fears ; his nature is cold, and dry, and melancholy.

1 Boundesch,
ii. pp. 158, 188. For an exhaustive treatment of the astro
logical theories and pictures of the planispheres, see ' Mankind : their Origin
'
and Destiny (Longmans, 1872).
 SATURN.

And take special notice of this, that when Saturn is Lord

of an Eclipse (as he is one of the Lords of this), he governs
all the rest of the planets, but none can govern him.
Melancholy is made of all the humors in the body of man,
but no humor of melancholy. He is envious, and keeps
his anger long, and speaks but few words, but when he
speaks he speaks to purpose. A man of deep cogita
tions ; he will plot mischief when men are asleep ; he
hath an admirable memory, and remembers to this day
how William the Bastard abused him ; he cannot en
dure to be a slave ; he is poor with the poor, fearful
with the fearful ; he plots mischief against the Superiours,
with them that plot mischief against them ; have a care
of him, KINGS and MAGISTRATES of Europe ; he will show
you what he can do in the effects of this Eclipse ; he is
old, and therefore hath large experience, and will give
perilous counsel ; he moves but slowly, and therefore doth
the more mischief; all the planets contribute their natures
and strength to him, and when he sets on doing mischief
he will do it to purpose ; he doth not regard the company
of the rest of the Planets, neither do any of the rest of the
Planets regard his ; he is a barren Planet, and therefore
delights not in women; he brings the Pestilence; he is
destructive to the fruits of the earth ; he receives his light
from the Sun, and yet he hates the Sun that gives it
him.'1
Many ages anterior to this began in India the dread of
1 ' Catastrophe Fall of Monarchic A Caveat to Magis
: or the
Magnatum
trates, deduced from the Eclipseof the Sunne, March 29, 1652. With a pro
bable Conjecture of the Determination of the Effects. By Nick. Culpeper,
Gent., Stud, in Astrol. and Phys. Dan. 21, 22: He changeth the times
ii.

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 in light dwelleth

the darkness, and the
is

with him. London Printed for T. Vere and Nath. Brooke, in the Old
:

Baily, and at the Angel in Cornhil, 1652.'

 SATAN AND JOB. 255

Ketu, astronomically the ninth planet, mythologically the

tail of the demon Rahu, cut in twain as already told
(p. 46), supposed to be the prolific source of comets,
meteors, and falling stars, also of diseases. From this
Ketu or dragon's tail were born the Arunah Ketavah
(Red Ketus or apparitions), and Ketu has become almost
another word for disease.1
Strongly influenced as were the Jews by the exact divi
sion of the duodecimal period between Good and Evil,
affirmed by the Persians, they never lost sight of the ulti
mate supremacy of Jehovah. Though Satan had gradually
become a voluntary genius of evil, he still had to receive
permission to afflict, as in the case of Job, and during the life
time of Paul appears to have been still denied that 'power
'
of death which is first asserted by the unknown author of
the Epistle to the Hebrews.2 Satan's especial office was
regarded as the infliction of disease. Paul delivers the
'
incestuous Corinthian to Satan for the destruction of the
flesh,' and he also attributed the sickness and death of
many to their communicating unworthily.3 He also recog
' '
nises his own thorn in the flesh' as an angel from Satan,'
though meant for his moral advantage.4
A penitential Psalm (Assyrian) reads as follows :

0
my Lord ! my sins are many, my trespasses are great;
and the wrath of the gods has plagued me with disease,
and with sickness and sorrow.
1 fainted, but no one stretched forth his hand !

I groaned, but no one drew nigh !

I cried aloud, but no one heard !

O Lord, do not abandon thy servant !

In the waters of the great storm seize his hand !

1 See the
Dictionary of Bohtlingk and Roth. Heb.
ii.

14.
*
I Cor. xii.
4

Cor. v. S i xi. 30.

7.
2
a5 6 SET AND THE SE VEN HA THORS.
The sins which he has committed turn them to right
eousness.1
This Psalm would hardly be out of place in the English
burial-service, which deplores death as a visitation of
divine wrath. Wherever such an idea prevails, the natural
outcome of it is a belief in demons of disease. In ancient
Egypt following the belief in Ra the Sun, from whose
eyes all pleasing things proceeded, and Set, from whose
eyes came all noxious things, from the baleful light of
Set's eyes were born the Seven Hathors, or Fates, whose
names are recorded in the Book of the Dead. Mr. Fox
' '
Talbot has translated the Song of the Seven Spirits :

They are seven ! they are seven !

In the depths of ocean they are seven !
In the heights of heaven they are seven !
In the ocean-stream in a palace they were born !
Male they are not : female they are not !
Wives they have not : children are not born to them !

Rule they have not : government they know not !

Prayers they hear not !
They are seven ! they are seven ! twice over they are seven !
J

These demons have a way of herding together; the

Assyrian tablets abundantly show that their occupation
was manifested by diseases, physical and mental. One
prescription runs thus :

The god (....) shall stand by his bedside :

Those seven evil spirits he shall root out, and shall expel them from
his body :
And those seven shall never return to the sick man again !

It is hardly doubtful that these were the seven said to

1 ' Records of the Past,' iii. p. 136. Tr. by Mr. Fox Talbot.
s 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 !
 TERAPHIM AND TARASCA. 257

have been cast out of Mary Magdalen ; for their father

Set is Shedtm (devils) of Deut. xxxii. 17, and Shaddai
(God) of Gen. xvi. 1. But the fatal Seven turn to the
seven fruits that charm away evil influences at parturition
in Persia, also the Seven Wise Women of the same country
traditionally present on holy occasions. When Arda Viraf
was sent to Paradise by a sacred narcotic to obtain intelli
gence of the true faith, seven fires were kept burning for
seven days around him, and the seven wise women chanted
hymns of the Avesta.1
The entrance of the seven evil powers into a dwelling
was believed by the Assyrians to be preventible by setting
in the doorway small images, such as those of the sun-
god (Hea) and the moon-goddess, but especially of Marduk,
corresponding to Serapis the Egyptian Esculapius. These
powers were reinforced by writing holy texts over and on
'
each side of the threshold. In the night time bind around
the sick man's head a sentence taken from a good book.'
The phylacteries of the Jews were originally worn for the
same purpose. They were called Tenia, and were related
to teraphim, the little idols Jews to keep out
2
used by the
demons such as those of Laban, which his daughter
Rachel stole.
The resemblance of teraphim to the Tarasca (connected
by some with G. repo?, a monster) of Spain may be noted,
the serpent figures carried about in Corpus Christi
processions. The latter word is known in the south of
France also, and gave its name to the town Tarascon.
The legend is that an amphibious monster haunted the
Rhone, preventing navigation and committing terrible
ravages, until sixteen of the boldest inhabitants of the

1 The Pahlavi Text has been prepared by Destur Jamaspji Asa, and tran
slated by Haug and West. Triibner, 1872.
3
Cf. 6g. 9.
VOL. I. K
 PHYLACTERIES, TALISMANS.

district resolved to encounter it. Eight lost their lives,

but the others, having destroyed the monster, founded the
'
town of Tarascon, where the Fete de la tarasque' is still
kept up.1 Calmet, Sedley, and others, however, believe
that teraphim is merely a modification of seraphim, and
the Tefila, or phylacteries, of the same origin.
The phylactery was tied into a knot. Justin Martyr
'
says that the Jewish exorcists used magic ties or knots.'
The origin of this custom among the Jews and Baby
lonians may be found in the Assyrian Talismans preserved
in the British Museum, of which the following has been
translated by Mr. Fox Talbot :

Hea says : Go, my son !

Take a woman's kerchief,
Bind it round thy right hand, loose it from the left hand !
Knot it with seven knots : do so twice :
Sprinkle it with bright wine :
Bind it round the head of the sick man :
Bind it round his hands and feet, like manacles and fetters.
Sit down on his bed :
Sprinkle holy water over him.
He shall hear the voice of Hea,
Darkness shall protect him !
And Marduk, eldest son of Heaven, shall find him a happy
habitation.2

The number seven holds an equally high degree of

potency in Singhalese demonolatry, which is mainly occu
pied with diseases. The Capuas or conjurors of that
island enumerate 240,000 magic spells, of which all except
one are for evil, which implies a tolerably large prepon
derance of the emergencies in which their countervailing
efforts are required by their neighbours. That of course
can be easily appreciated by those who have been taught
that all human beings are included under a primal curse.
1 Larousse's '
Diet. Universel.'
5 ' Records,' &c,
iii. p. 141. Marduk is the Chaldaean Hercules.
 YAKSEYO. 259

'
The words of Micah, Thou wilt cast all their sins into the
depths of the sea,' are recalled by the legend of these
1

evil spells of Ceylon. The king of Oude came to marry

one of seven princesses, all possessing praeternatural
powers, and questioned each as to her art. Each declared
her skill in doing harm, except one who asserted her power
to heal all ills which the others could inflict. The king
having chosen this one as his bride, the rest were angry,
and for revenge collected all the charms in the world, en
closed them in a pumpkin the only thing that can con
tain spells without being reduced to ashes and sent this
infernal machine to their sister. It would consume every
thing for sixteen hundred miles round ; but the messenger
dropped it in the sea. A god picked it up and presented
it to the King of Ceylon, and these, with the healing
charm known to his own Queen, make the 240,000 spells
known to the Capuas of that island, who have no doubt
deified the rescuer of the spells on the same principle that
inspires some seaside populations to worship Providence
more devoutly on the Sunday after a valuable wreck in
their neighbourhood.
The astrological origin of the evils ascribed to the
Yakseyo (Demons) of Ceylon, and the horoscope which is
a necessary preliminary to any dealing with their influ
ences ; the constant recurrence of the number seven,
denoting origin with races holding the seven-planet
theories of the universe ; and the fact that all demons are
said, on every Saturday evening, to attend an assemblage
called Yaksa Sabawa (Witches' Sabbath), are facts that
may well engage the attention of Comparative Mycolo
gists.2 In Dardistan the evil spirits are called Yatsh ;
1 Micah vii.
19.
a 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
a6o PRETRA YA.
'
they dwell in the regions of snow,' and the overthrow of
their reign over the country is celebrated at the new moon
of Daykio, the month preceding winter.
The largest proportion of the Disease Demons of Ceylon
are descended from its Hunger Demons. The Preta there
is much the same phantom as in Siam, only they are not
quite so tall.1 They range from two to four hundred feet
in height, and are so numerous that a Pali Buddhist book
exhorts people not to throw stones, lest they should harm
one of these harmless starveling ghosts, who die many
times of hunger, and revive to suffer on in expiation of
their sins in a previous existence. They are harmless in
one sense, but filthy ; and bad smells are personified in
them. The great mass of demons resemble the Pretraya,
in that their king (Wessamony) has forbidden them to
satisfy themselves directly upon their victims, but by in
flicting diseases they are supposed to receive an imagina
tive satisfaction somewhat like that of eating people.
Reeri is the Demon of Blood-disease. His form is that
of a man with face of a monkey ; he is fiery red, rides on a
red bull, and all hemorrhages and diseases of the blood are
attributed to him. Reeri has eighteen different disguises
or avatars. One of these recalls his earlier position as a
demon of death, before Vishnu revealed to Capuas the
means of binding him : he is now supposed to be present
at every death-bed in the form of a delighted pigmy, one
span and six inches high. On such occasions he bears a
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 sur
vivals. In the London ' Times' of June 24, 1875, there was reported an in
quest at Corsham, Wiltshire, on the body of Miriam Woodham, who died
under the prescriptionsof William Higwood, 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.'
1 See
p. 44.
 SINGHALESE DEMONARCHY. 261

cock in one hand, a club in the other, and in his mouth a

corpse. In the same country Maha Sohon is the 'great
graveyard demon.' He resides in a hill where he is sup
posed to surround himself with carcases. He is 122 feet
high, has four hands and three eyes, and a red skin. He
has the head of a bear; the legend being that while quar
relling with another giant his head was knocked off, and
the god Senasura was gracious enough to tear off the
head of a bear and clap it on the decapitated giant. His
capua threatens him with a repetition of this catastrophe
if he does not spare any threatened victim who has called
in his priestly Except for this timidity about his
aid.
head, Maha is formidable, being chief of 30,000 demons.
But curiously enough he is said to choose for his steeds
the more innocent animals, goat, deer, horse, elephant,
and hog.
One of the demons most dreaded in Ceylon is the
' '
Foreign Demon Morotoo, said to have come from the
coast of Malabar, and from his residence in a tree dissemi
nated diseases which could not be cured until, the queen
being afflicted, one capua was found able to master him.
Seven-eighths of the charms used in restraining the dis
ease-demons of Ceylon, of which I have mentioned but a
few, are in the Tamil tongue. In various parts of India
are found very nearly the same systematic demonolatry
'
and devil-dancing ;' for example in Travancore, to whose
superstitions of this character the Rev. Samuel Mateer has
devoted two chapters in his work ' The Land of Charity.'
The great demon of diseases in Ceylon is entitled Maha
Cola Sanni Yakseya. His father, a king, ordered his queen
to be put to death in the belief that she had been faithless
to him. Her body was to be cut in two pieces, one of
which was to be hung upon a tree (Ukberiya), the other to
be thrown at its foot to the dogs. The queen before her
262 GRAVEYARD DEMONS.

execution said, '

If
this charge be false, may the child in
my womb be born this instant a demon, and may that
demon destroy the whole of this city and its unjust king.'
So soon as the executioners had finished their work, the
two severed parts of the queen's body reunited, a child
was born who completely devoured his mother, and then
repaired to the graveyard (Sohon), where for a time
he fattened on corpses. Then he proceeded to inflict
mortal diseases upon the city, and had nearly depopulated
it when the gods Iswara and Sekkra interfered, descending
to subdue him in the disguise of mendicants. Possibly
the great Maha Sohon mentioned above, and the Sohon
(graveyard) from which Sanni dealt out deadliness, may
be best understood by the statement of the learned writer
from whom these facts are quoted, that, 'excepting the
Buddhist priests, and the aristocrats of the land, whose
bodies were burnt in regular funeral-piles after death, the
corpses of the rest of the people were neither burned nor
buried, but thrown into a place called Sohona, which was
an open piece of ground in the jungle, generally a hollow
among the hills, at the distance of three or four miles from
any inhabited place, where they were left in the open air
to be decomposed or devoured by dogs and wild beasts.' 1
There would appear to be even more ground for the dread
of the Great Graveyard Demon in many parts of Chris
tendom, where, through desire to preserve corpses for a
happy resurrection, they are made to steal through the
water-veins of the earth, and find their resurrection as fell
diseases. Iswara and Sekkra were probably two reformers
who persuaded the citizens to bury the poor deep in the
earth ; had they been wise enough to place the dead where
nature would give them speedy resurrection and life in
grass and flowers, it would not have been further recorded
1 A.
'Jour. Ceylon R. Soc.,' 1865-66.
 MADNESS.

that 'they ordered him (the demon) to abstain from eating

men, but gave him Wurrun or permission to inflict disease
on mankind, and to obtain offerings.' This is very much
the same as the privilege given our Western funeral agen
cies and cemeteries also ; and when the Modliar adds that
'
Sanni has eighteen principal attendants,' one can hardly
help thinking of the mummers, gravediggers, chaplains,
all engaged unconsciously in the work of making the
earth less habitable.
The first of the attendants of this formidable avenger of
his mother's wrongs is named Bhoota Sanni Yakseya,
Demon of Madness. The whole demonolatry and devil-
dancing of that island are so insane that one is not sur
prised that this Bhoota had but little special development.
It is amid clear senses we might naturally look for full
horror of madness, and there indeed do we find it. One
of the most horrible forms of the disease-demon was the
personification of madness among the Greeks, as Mania.1
In the Hercules Furens of Euripides, where Madness, ' the
unwedded daughter of black Night,' and sprung of 'the
blood of Ccelus,' is evoked from Tartarus for the express
purpose of imbreeding in Hercules 'child-slaying distur
bances of reason,' there is a suggestion of the hereditary
nature of insanity. Obedient to the vindictive order of
Juno, 'in her chariot hath gone forth the marble-visaged,
all-mournful Madness, the Gorgon of Night, and with the
hissing of hundred heads of snakes, she gives the goad to
her chariot, on mischief bent.' We may plainly see that the

1 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 house
hold fiend up to the time of Junius Brutus, who substituted poppy-heads.
264 BLAKE'S PLAGUE.

religion which embodied such a form was itself ending in

madness. Already ancient were the words fiavruct) (pro
phecy) and fiavucrj (madness) when Plato cited their
identity to prove one kind of madness the special gift of
Heaven : 1 the notion lingers in Dryden's line, ' Great wits
to madness sure are near allied;' and survive in regions
where deference is paid to lunatics and idiots. Other
diseases preserve in their names indications of similar
association : e.g., Nympholepsy, St. Vitus's Dance, St.
'
Anthony's Fire. Wesley attributes still epilepsy to pos
session.' This was in pursuance of ancient beliefs.
Typhus, a name anciently given to every malady accom
panied with stupor (rtkfxK), seemed the breath of feverish
Typhon. Max Miiller connects the word quinsy with
Sanskrit amh, ' to throttle,' and Ahi the throttling serpent,
its medium being angina ; and this again is Kiwarfyr), dog-
throttling, the Greek for quinsy.2
The genius of William Blake, steeped in Hebraism,
never showed greater power than in his picture of Plague.
A gigantic hideous form, pale-green, with the slime of
stagnant pools, reeking with vegetable decays and gan
grene, the face livid with the motley tints of pallor and
putrescence, strides onward with extended arms like a
sower sowing his seeds, only in this case the germs of his
horrible harvest are not cast from the hands, but emanate
from the fingers as being of their essence. Such, to the
savage mind, was the embodiment of malaria, sultriness,
rottenness, the putrid Pretraya, invisible, but smelt and
felt.Such, to the ignorant imagination, is the Destroying
Angel to which rationalistic artists and poets have tried to
add wings and majesty; but which in the popular mind
was no doubt pictured more like this form found at Ostia
1 Phxdrus, i. Cf. Ger. uUg and silly.
549.
5 '
Lect. on Language,' i. 435.
 LUTHER ON DISEASES.

(fig. 16), and now passing in the Vatican for a Satan,

probably a demon of the Pontine Marshes, and of the fever
that still has victims of its fatal cup (p. 291). In these
fearful forms the poor savage believed with such an in
tensity that he was able to shape the brain of man to his
phantasy; bringing about the ano
maly that the great reformer,
Luther, should affirm, even while
fighting superstition, that a Chris
tian ought to know that he lives
in the midst of devils, and that
the devil is nearer to him than his
coat or his shirt. The devils, he
tells us, are all around us, and are
at every moment seeking to en
snare our lives, salvation, and hap
piness. There are many of them
in the woods, waters, deserts, and
in damp muddy places, for the pur
pose of doing folk a mischief. They
also house in the dense black clouds,
and send storms, hail, thunder and
Fig. 16. Demon found at
lightning, and poison the air with Ostia.

their infernal stench. In one place, Luther tells us that the

devil has more vessels and boxes full of poison, with which
he kills people, than all the apothecaries in the whole world.
He sends all plagues and diseases among men. We may
be sure that when any one dies of the pestilence, is
drowned, or drops suddenly dead, the devil does
it.

Knowing nothing of Zoology, the primitive man easily

falls into the belief that his cattle the means of life may
be the subjects of sorcery. Jesus sending devils into a
herd of swine may have become
by artificial process
a

divine benefactor in the eye of Christendom, but the myth

266 CATTLE-DISEASE DEMONS.

makes Him bear an exact resemblance to the dangerous

sorcerer that fills the savage mind with dread. It is
probable that the covetous eye denounced in the deca
logue means the evil eye, which was supposed to blight
an object intensely desired but not to be obtained.
Gopolu, already referred to (p. 136) as the Singhalese
demon of hydrophobia, bears the general name of the
'
Cattle Demon.' He is said to have been the twin of the
demigod Mangara by a queen on the Coromandel coast.
The mother died, and a cow suckled the twins, but after
wards they quarrelled, and Gopolu being slain was trans
formed into a demon. He repaired to Arangodde, and
fixed his abode in a Banyan where there is a large bee
hive, whence proceed many evils. The population around
this Banyan for many miles being prostrated by diseases,
the demigod Mangara and Pattini (goddess of chastity)
admonished the villagers to sacrifice a cow regularly, and
thus they were all resuscitated. Gopolu now sends all
cattle diseases. India is full of the like superstitions. The
people of Travancore especially dread the demon Madan,
'
he who is like a cow,' believed to strike oxen with sud
den illness, sometimes men also.
In Russia we find superstition sometimes modified by
common sense. Though the peasant hopes that Zegory
(St. George) will defend his cattle, he begins to see the
chief foes of his cattle. As in the folk-song

We have gone around the field,

We have called Zegory. . . .
O thou, our brave Zegory,
Save our cattle,
In the field and beyond the field,
In the forest and beyond the forest,
Under the bright moon,
Under the red sun,
From the rapacious wolf,
 BIHL WEISEN. 267

From the cruel bear,

From the cunning beast.1

Nevertheless when a cattle plague occurs many villages

relapse into a normally extinct state of mind. Thus, a
few years ago, in a village near Moscow, all the women,
having warned the men away, stripped themselves entirely
naked and drew a plough so as to make a furrow en
tirely around the village. At the point of juncture in this
circle they buried alive a cock, a cat, and a dog. Then
they filled the air with lamentations, crying 'Cattle
Plague ! Cattle Plague ! spare our cattle ! Behold, we
'
offer thee cock, cat, and dog ! The dog is a demonic
character in Russia, while the cat is sacred ; for once when
the devil tried to get into Paradise in the form of a mouse,
the dog allowed him to pass, but the cat pounced on him
the two animals being set on guard at the door. The
offering of both seems to represent a desire to conciliate
both sides. The nudity of the women may have been to
represent to the hungry gods their utter poverty, and ina
bility to give more; but it was told me in Moscow, where
I happenedto be staying at the time, that it would be
dangerous for any man to draw near during the perform
ance.
In Altmark 2
the demons who bewitch cattle are called
'
Bihlweisen,' and are believed
to bury certain diabolical
charms under thresholds over which the animals are to
pass, causing them to wither away, the milk to cease, etc.
The prevention is to wash the cattle with a lotion of sea
cabbage boiled with infusion of wine. In the same pro
vince it is related that once there appeared in a harvest-
field at one time fifteen, at another twelve men (appa
rently), the latter headless. They all laboured with
1 Ralston's '
Songs of the Russian People,' p. 230.
3 ' '
Sagen der Altmark. Von A. Kuhn. Berlin, 1843.
268 THE PLOUGH.

scythes, but though the rustling could be heard no grain

fell. When questioned they said nothing, and when the
people tried to seize them they ran away, cutting fruit
lessly as they ran. The priests found in this a presage of
the coming cattle plague. The Russian superstition of
the plough, above mentioned, is found in fragmentary sur
vivals in Altmark. Thus, it is said that to plough around
a village and then sit under the plough (placed upright),
will enable any one to see the witches ; and in some
villages, some bit of a plough is hung up over a doorway
through which cattle pass, as no devil can then approach
them. The demons have a natural horror of honest work,
and especially the culture of the earth. Goethe, as we
have seen, notes their fear of roses : perhaps he remem
bered the legend of Aspasia, who, being disfigured by a
tumour on the chin, was warned by a dove-maiden to dis
miss her physicians and try a rose from the garland of
Venus ; so she recovered health and beauty.
 r
269 )

CHAPTER XII.
DEATH.

The Vendetta of Death Teoyaomiqui Demon of Serpents Death

on the Pale Horse Kali
War-gods Satan as Death Death
beds Thanatos Yama Yimi Towers of Silence Alcestis
Hercules, Christ, and Death Hel Salt Azrael Death and
the Cobbler Dance of Death Death as Foe, and as Friend.

Savage races believe that no man dies except by sorcery.

Therefore every death must be avenged. The Actas of
' '
the Philippines regard the Indians as the cause of the
deaths among them ; and when one of them loses a relative,
' '
he lurks and watches until he has spied an Indian and
killed him.1 It from this when primitive
is a progress
man advances to the belief that the fatal sorcerer is an
invisible man a demon. When this doctrine is taught in
the form of a belief that death entered the world through
the machinations of Satan, and was not in the original
scheme of creation, it is civilised ; but when it is inculcated
under a set of African or other non-christian names, it is
barbarian.
The following sketch, by Mr. Gideon Lang, will show
the intensity of this conviction among the natives of New
South Wales :
'
While at Nanima I constantly saw one of these, named
Jemmy, a remarkably fine man, about twenty-eight years
1 Wake's '
Evolution of Morality,' i. 107.
270 VENDETTA OF DEATH.
' '
of age, who was the model Christian of the missionaries,
and who had been over and over again described in their
reports as a living proof that, taken in infancy, the natives
were as capable of being truly christianised as a people who
had had eighteen centuries of civilisation. I confess that I
strongly doubted, but still there was no disputing the
apparent facts. Jemmy was not only familiar with the
Bible, which he could read remarkably well, but he was
even better acquainted with the more abstruse tenets of
Christianity ; and so far as the whites could see, his be
haviour was in accordance with his religious acquirements.
One Sunday morning I walked down to the black fellows'
camp, to have a talk with Jemmy, as usual. I found him
sitting in his gunyah, overlooking of the Mac- a valley
quarrie, whose waters glanced brightly in the sunshine of
the delicious spring morning. He was sitting in a state of
nudity, excepting his waistcloth, very earnestly reading
the Bible, which indeed was his constant practice ; and
I could see that he was perusing the Sermon on the
Mount. I seated myself, and waited till he concluded
the chapter, when he laid down the Bible, folded his
hands, and sat with his eyes fixed abstractedly on his
fire. I bade him ' good morning,' which he acknow-
leged without looking up. I
Jemmy, what then said,
'

is the meaning of your spears being stuck in a circle

round you?' He looked me steadily in the eyes, and
said solemnly and with suppressed fierceness, 'Mother's
dead !
'
I said that I was very sorry to hear it ;
'
but what
had her death to do with the spears being stuck around
' ' '
so ? Bogan black-fellow killed her ! was the fierce and
'
Killed by a Bogan black ! I exclaimed :
'
gloomy reply.
'
why, your mother has been dying a fortnight, and Dr.
Curtis did not expect her to outlive last night, which you
know as well as I do.' His only reply was a dogged
 A NANIMA TRAGEDY. 271

repetition of the words :

'
A Bogan black-fellow killed
her !
'
I appealed to him as a Christian to the Sermon
on the Mount, that he had just been reading ; but he
absolutely refused to promise that he would not avenge
his mother's death. In the afternoon of that day we
were startled by a yell which can never be mistaken by
any person who has once heard the wild war-whoop of the
blacks when in battle array. On marching out we saw all
the black fellows of the neighbourhood formed into a line,
and following Jemmy in an imaginary attack upon an
enemy. Jemmy himself disappeared that evening. On
the following Wednesday morning I found him sitting
complacently in his gunyah, plaiting a rope of human
hair, which I at once knew to be that of his victim.
Neither of us spoke ; I stood for some time watching him
as he worked with a look of mocking defiance of the anger
he knew I felt. I pointed to a hole in the middle of his
'
fire, and said, Jemmy, the proper place for your Bible is
there.' He looked up with his eyes flashing as I turned
away, and I never saw him again. I afterwards learned
that he had gone to the district of the Bogan tribe, where
the first black he met happened to be an old friend
and companion of his own. This man had just made
the first cut in the bark of a tree, which he was about
to climb for an opossum; but on hearing footsteps he
leaped down and faced round, as all blacks do, and whites
also, when blacks are in question. Seeing that it was only
Jemmy, however, he resumed his occupation, but had no
sooner set to work than Jemmy sent a spear through his
back and nailed him to the tree.1
Perhaps if Jemmy could have been cross-examined by
the non-missionary mind, he might have replied with some
effect to Mr. Lang's suggestion that he ought to part with
1 ' '
The Aborigines of Australia (1865), p. 15.
272 BIBLICAL WITCHCRAFT.
his Bible. Surely he must have found in that volume a
sufficient number of instances to justify his faith in the
power of demons over human health and life. Might he
'
not have pondered the command, thou shalt not suffer a
witch to live,' and imagined that he was impaling another
Manasseh, who ' used enchantments, and used witchcraft,
and dealt with a familiarspirit, and with wizards (and)
wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke
Him to anger.'1 Those who hope that the Bible may
carry light into the dark places of superstition and habita
tions of cruelty might, one would say, reflect upon the
long contest which European science had with bibliolators
in trying to relieve the popular mind from the terrors of
witchcraft, whose genuineness it was (justly) declared con
trary to the Scriptures to deny. There are districts in
Great Britain and America, and many more on the con
tinent of Europe, where the spells that waste and destroy
are still believed in ; where effigies of wax or even onions
are labelled with some hated name, and stuck over with
pins, and set near fires to be melted or dried up, in full
belief that some subject of the charm will be consumed
by disease along with the object used. Under every roof
where such coarse superstitions dwell the Bible dwells
beside them, and experience proves that the infallibility
of all such talismans diminishes pari'passu.
What the savage is really trying to slay when he goes
forth to avenge his relative's death on the first alien he
finds may be seen in the accompanying figure (17), which
represents the Mexican goddess of death Teoyaomi-
qui. The image is nine feet high, and is kept in a
museum in the city of Mexico. Mr. Edward B. Tylor,
from whose excellent book of travels in that country
'
the figure is copied, says of it : The stone known as
1 2
Chron. xxxiii. 6.
 TEOYAOMIQUI. 273

the statue of the war-goddess is a huge block of basalt

covered with sculptures. The antiquaries think that the
figures on it stand for different personages, and that it is

Fig. 17. Teoyaomiqui.

three gods Huitzilopochtli, the god of war; Teoyaomi

qui, his wife; and Mictlanteuctli, the god of hell. It has
necklaces of alternate hearts and dead men's hands, with
death's heads for a central ornament. At the bottom of
the block is a strange sprawling figure, which one cannot
VOL.1. S
274 DEMON OF SERPENTS.

see now, for it is the base which rests on the ground ; but
there are two shoulders projecting from the idol, which
show plainly that it did not stand on the ground, but was
supported aloft on the tops of two pillars. The figure
carved upon the bottom represents a monster holding a
skull in each hand, while others hang from his knees and
elbows. His mouth is a mere oval ring, a common feature
of Mexican four tusks project just above it.
idols, and
The new moon laid down like a bridge forms his forehead,
and a star is placed on each side of it.
This is thought to
have been the conventional representation of Mictlan-
teuctli (Lord of the Land of the Dead), the god of hell,
which was a place of utter and eteranal darkness. Pro
bably each victim as he was led to the altar could look up
between the two pillars and see the hideous god of hell
staring down upon him from above. There is little doubt
that this is the famous war-idol which stood on the great
teocalli of Mexico, and before which so many thousands of
human beings were sacrificed. It lay undisturbed under
ground in the great square, close to the very site of the
teocalli, until sixty years ago. For many years after that
it was kept buried, lest the sight of one of their old deities
might be too exciting for the Indians, who, as I have
it,

mentioned before, had certainly not forgotten and

secretly ornamented with garlands of flowers while
it

it

remained above ground.'

If my reader will now turn to the (fig. n) portrait of
the Demon of Serpents, he will find conception funda
a

mentally similar to the Mexican demoness of death or

slaughter, but one that not shut up in museum of anti
is

quities still haunts and terrifies a vast number of the

it
;

people born in Ceylon. He the principal demon invoked

is

in Ceylon by the malignant sorcerers in performing the

84,000 different charms that afflict evils (Hooniyan). His
 DEATH ON THE PALE HORSE. 275

general title is Oddy Cumara Hooniyan Dewatawa;

but he has a special name for each of his six several
apparitions, the chief of these being Cali Oddisey, or
demon of incurable diseases, therefore of death, and Naga
Oddisey, demon of serpents deadliest of animals. Be
neath him is the Pale Horse which has had its career
so long and far, even to the White Mare on vhich, in
some regions, Christ is believed to revisit the earth every
Christmas ; and also the White Mare of Yorkshire Folk
lore which bore its rider from Whitestone Cliff to hell.
This Singhalese form also, albeit now associated by
Capuas with fatal disease, was probably at first, like
the Mexican, a war goddess and god combined, as is

shown by the uplifted sword, and reeking hand uplifted in

'
triumph. Equally a god of war is our Death on the Pale
Horse,' which christian art, following the so-called Apoca
lypse, has made so familiar.
'
I looked, and behold a pale
horse : and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell
followed with him. And power was given to him over the
fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with
hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.'
This is but a travesty of the Greek Ares, the Roman Mars,
or god of War. In the original Greek form Ares was not
solely the god of war, but of destruction generally. In
the CEdipus Tyrannus of Sophocles we have the popular
conception of him as one to whom the deadly plague is
ascribed. He is named as the ' god unhonoured among
'
gods,' and it is said : The city is wildly tossing, and no
more can lift up her head from the waves of death ; wither
ing the ripening grain in the husks, withering the kine in
their pastures ; blighted are the babes through the failing
labours of women ; the fire-bearing god, horrid Pestilence,
having darted down, ravages the city ; by him the house
276 KALI.

of Cadmus is empty, and dark Hades enriched with groans

and lamentations.'
' '
Mother of the deadliest of Singhalese demono-
Calas
latry, sister of the Scandinavian Hel in name and nature,
is Kali. Although the Hindu writers repudiate the idea
that there is any devil among their three hundred and
thirty millions of deities, it is difficult to deny Kali that
distinction. Her wild dance of delight over bodies of the
slain would indicate pleasure taken in destruction for its
own sake, so fulfilling the definition of a devil ; but, on the
other hand, there is a Deccan legend that reports her as
devouring the dead, and this would make her a hunger-
demon. We may give her the benefit of the doubt, and
class her among the demons or beings whose evil is not
gratuitous all the more because the mysteriously protrud
ing tongue, as in the figure of Typhon (p. 185), probably
suggests thirst. Hindu legend does, indeed, give another
interpretation, and say that when she was dancing for joy
at having slain a hundred-headed giant demigod, the
shaking of the earth was so formidable that Siva threw
himself among the slain, whom she was crushing at every
step, hoping to induce her to pause ; but when, unheeding,
she trod upon the body of her husband, she paused and
thrust out her tongue from surprise and shame. The
'
Vedic description of Agni as an ugra (ogre), with tongue
of flame,' may better interpret Kali's tongue. It is said
Kali is pleased for a hundred years by the blood of a tiger ;
for a thousand by that of a man ; for a hundred thousand
by the blood of three men.
How are we to understand this dance of Death, and the
further legend of her tossing dead bodies into the air for
amusement ? Such a figure found among a people who
shudder at taking life even from the lowest animals is
 KALI. 277

hardly to be explained by the destructiveness of nature

Fig. 18. Kali.

personified in her spouse Siva. Her looks and legends
27S DURGA.

alike represent slaughter by human violence. May it not

be that Kali represents some period when the abhorrence
of taking life among a vegetarian people a people, too,
believing in transmigration might have become a public
danger ? When Krishna appeared
it was, according to
the Bhagavat Gita, as charioteer inciting Arjoon to war.
There must have been various periods when a peaceful
people must fall victims to more savage neighbours unless
they could be stimulated to enter on the work of destruc
tion with a light heart. There may have been periods
when the human Kalis of India might stimulate their hus
bands and sons to war with such songs as the women of
Dardistan sing at the Feast of Fire (p. 91). The amour of
the Greek goddess of Beauty with the god of War, leaving
her lawful spouse the Smith, is full of meaning. The
Assyrian Venus, Istar, appeared in a vision, with wings and
halo, bearing a bow and arrow for Assurbanipal. The Thug
appears to have taken some such view of Kali, regarding
her as patroness of their plan for reducing population.
They are said to have claimed that Kali left them one of
her teeth for a pickaxe, her rib for a knife, her garment's
hem for a noose, and wholesale murder for a religion. The
uplifted right hand of the demoness has been interpreted as
intimating a divine purpose in the havoc around her, and
it is possible that some such euphemism attached to the
attitude before the Thug accepted it as his own benediction
from this highly decorated personage of human cruelty.
The ancient reverence for Kali has gradually passed to
her mitigated form Durga. Around her too are visible
the symbols of destruction but she is supposed to be
;

satisfied with pumpkin-animals, and the weapons in her

ten hands are believed to be directed against the enemies
of the gods, especially against the giant king Muheshu.
She is mother of the beautiful boy Kartik, and of the
 WAR- GODS. 279

elephant-headed inspirer of knowledge Ganesa. She is

reverenced now as female energy, the bestower of beauty
and fruitfulness on women.
The identity of war-gods and death-demons, in the
most frightful conceptions which have haunted the human
imagination, is of profound significance. These forms do
not represent peaceful and natural death, not death by old
age, of which, alas, those who cowered before them knew
but little,but death amid cruelty and agony, and the
cutting down of men in the vigour of life. That indeed
was terrible, even more than these rude images could
describe.
But there arc other details in these hideous forms. The
priest has added to the horse and sword of war the adored
'
serpent, and hideous symbols of the Land of the Dead.'
For it is not by terror of death, but of what he can per
suade men lies beyond, that the priest has reigned over
'
mankind. When Isabel (in Measure for Measure ') is
trying to persuade her brother that the sense of death lies
most in apprehension, the sentenced youth still finds death
'
a fearful thing.'
Ay, but to die, and go we know not where ;
To lie in cold obstruction and to rot ;
This sensible warm motion to become
A kneaded clod ; and the delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice ;
To be imprisoned in the viewless winds,
And blown with violence round about
The pendent world ; or to be worse than worst
Of these, that lawless and incertain thoughts
Imagine howling ! 'tis too horrible !
The weariest and most loathed worldly life
That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment
Can lay on nature, is a paradise
To what we fear of death.
In all these apprehensions of Claudio there is no thought
 280 SATAN AS DEATH.
of annihilation. What if he had seen death as an eternal
sleep ? Let Hamlet answer :

To die, to sleep ;
No more ; and, by a sleep, to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished.

The greater part of the human race still belong to reli

gions which, in their origin, promised eternal repose as the
supreme final bliss. Had death in itself possessed horrors
for the human mind, the priest need not have conjured up
beyond it those tortures that haunted Hamlet with the
evils beyond which make even the
dreams
of possible
wretched rather bear the ills they have than fly to others
they know not of. It would have been sufficient sanction
to promise immortality only to the pious. But as in
Claudio's shuddering lines every hell is reflected whether
of ice, fire, or brutalisation so are the same mixed with
the very blood and brain of mankind, even where literally
r outgrown. Christianity superadded to the horrors by im-
'
porting the idea that death came by human sin, and so by
gradual development ascribing to Satan the power of
death; thereby forming a new devil who bore in him the
power to make death a punishment. How the matter
stood in the mediaeval belief may be seen in figure 19, copied
from a Russian Bible of the (early) seventeenth century.
Lazarus smiles to see the nondescript soul of Dives torn
from him by a devil with a hook, while another drowns
the groans with a drum. Satan squirts an infernal baptism
on the departing soul, and the earnest co-operation of the
archangel justifies the satisfaction of Lazarus and Abra
ham. This degraded belief is still found in the almost
gleeful pulpit-picturings of physical agonies as especially
attending the death-beds of 'infidels,' as Voltaire and
 DEATH-BEDS.

Paine, and its fearful result is found in the degree to

which priesthoods are still able to paralyse the common
sense and heart of the masses by the barbaric ceremonials

Fig. 19. Dives and Lazarus (Russian, 17th cent.).

with which they are permitted to surround death, and the

arrogant line drawn between unorthodox goats and credu
'
lous sheep by ' consecrated ground.
282 THANATOS.

Mr. Keary, in his interesting volume on ' The Dawn of

History,! says that it has been suggested that the youthful
winged figure on the drum of a column from the temple
of Diana at Ephesus to the British Museum, may be a
representation of Thanatos, Death. It would be agreeable
to believe that the only important representation of Death
left by Greek art is that exquisite
figure, high whose
tribute is that it was at first thought to be Love ! The
figure is somewhat like the tender Eros of preraphaelite
art, and with the same look of gentle melancholy. Such
a sweet and simple form of Death would be worthy of
the race which, amid all the fiery or cold rivers of the
underworld which had gathered about their religion, still
saw running there the soft-flowing stream of forgetfulness.
Let one study this Ephesian Thanatos reverently no
engravingor photograph can do it even partial justice
and then in its light read those myths of Death which
seem to bear us back beyond the savagery of war and the
artifices of priests to the simpler conceptions of humanity.
In its serene light we may especially read both Vedic and
Iranian hymns and legends of Yama.
The first man to die became the powerful Yama of the
Hindus, the monarch of the dead ; and he became invested
with metaphors of the sun that had set.2 In a solemn and
pathetic hymn of the Vedas he is said to have crossed the
rapid waters, to have shown the way to many, to have first
known the path on which our fathers crossed over.3 But
in the splendours of sunset human hope found its prophetic
pictures of a heaven beyond. The Vedic Yama is ever
the friend. It is one of the most picturesque facts of
mythology that, after Yama had become in India another
1 Published
by Mozle, and Smith, 1878.
- Max Miiller. ' '
Lectures on Language, ii. p. 562, et seq.
3 See the in Professor
beautifully translated funereal hymn of the Veda
Whitney's 'Oriental and Linguistic Studies," p. 52, etc.
 YAMA AND YIMA.

name for Death, the same name reappeared in Persia, and

in the Avesta, as a type at once of the Golden Age in the
past and of paradise in the future.
' '
Such was the Iranian Yima. He was that flos regum
'
whose reign represented the ideal of human happi
ness, when there was neither illness nor death, neither
'
heat nor cold,' and who has never died. According to
the earlier traditions of the Avesta,' says Spiegel, 'Jima
does not die, but when evil and misery began to prevail
on earth, retires to a smaller space, a kind of garden or
Eden, where he continues his happy life with those who
remained true to him.' Such have been the antecedents
of our many beautiful myths which ascribe even an earthly
immortality to the great, to Barbarossa, Arthur, and even
to the heroes of humbler races Hiawatha and Glooscap
as

of North American tribes, who are or were long believed

to have ' sailed into the fiery sunset,' or sought some fair
island, or to slumber in a hidden grotto, until the world
shall have grown up to their stature and requires their
return.
In Japan the (Sintoo) god of Hell is now named Amma,
and one may suspect that it is some imitation of Yama by
reason of the majesty he still retains in the popular con
ception. He is pictured as a grave man,wearing a judicial
cap, and no cruelties seem to be attributed to him per
sonally, but only to the oni or demons of whom he is lord.
The kindly characteristics of the Hindu Yama seem in
Persia to have been replaced by the bitterness of Ahriman,
or Anra-mainyu, the genius of evil. Haug interprets Anra-
'
mainyu as The word is the counterpart
Death-darting.'
of Spefita-mainyu, and means originally the 'throttling
spirit;' being thus from anh, philologically the root of all
evil, as we shall see when we consider its dragon brood.
'
Professor Whitney translates the name Malevolent.' But,
 TOWERS OF SILENCE.

whatever may be the meaning of the word, there is little

doubt that the Twins of Vedic Mythology Yama and
Yami parted into genii of Day and Night, and were ulti
mately spiritualised in the Spirit of Light and Spirit of
Darkness which have made the basis of all popular theology
from the time of Zoroaster until this day.
Nothing can be more remarkable than the extreme
difference between the ancient Hindu and the Persian view
of death. As to the former it was the happy introduction
to Yama, to the latter it was the visible seal of Ahriman's
equality with Ormuzd. They held it in absolute horror.
The Towers of Silence stand in India to-day as monu
ments of this darkest phase of the Parsi belief. The dead
body belonged to Ahriman, and was left to be devoured
by wild creatures ; and although the raising of towers for
the exposure of the corpse, so limiting its consumption to
birds, has probably resulted from a gradual rationalism
which has from time to time suggestedby such
that
means souls of the good may wing their way to Ormuzd,
yet the Pars! horror of death is strong enough to give rise
to such terrible suspicions, even if they were unfounded,
as those which surrounded the Tower (Khao's Dokhma)
in June 1877. The strange behaviour of the corpse-bearers
in leaving one tower, going to another, and afterwards (as
was said) secretly repairing to the first, excited the belief
that a man had been found alive in the first and was after
wards murdered. The story seems to have begun with
certain young Parsis themselves, and, whether it be true
or not, they undoubtedly interpreted rightly the
have
ancient feeling of that sect with regard to all that had
been within the kingdom of the King of Terrors.
'
As
'
sickness and death,' says Professor Whitney, were sup
posed to be the work of the malignant powers, the dead
body itself was regarded with superstitious horror. It had
 ALCESTIS. 285

been gotten by the demons into their own peculiar posses

sion, and became a chief medium through which they
exercised their defiling action upon the living. Every
thing that came into its neighbourhood was unclean, and
to a certain extent exposed to the influences of the male
volent spirits, until purified by the ceremonies which the
law prescribed.' 1 It is to be feared this notion has crept
in among the Brahmans; the Indian Mirror (May 26,

1878) states that a Chandernagore lady, thrown into the

Ganges, but afterwards found to be alive, was believed to
be possessed by Dano (an evil spirit), and but for inter
ference would have found a watery grave. The Jews also
were influenced by this belief, and to this day it is for
bidden a Cohen, or descendant of the priesthood, to touch
a dead body.
The audience at the which recently
Crystal Palace
witnessed the performance of Euripides' Alceslis could
hardly, it is to be feared, have realised the relation of
the drama to their own religion. Apollo induces the
Fates to consent that Admetus shall not die provided
he can find a substitute for him. The pure Alcestis steps
forward and devotes herself to death to save her hus
band. Apollo tries to persuade Death to give back
Alcestis, but Death declares her fate demanded by justice.
While Alcestis is dying, Admetus bids her entreat the
gods for pity; but Alcestis says it is a god who has
'
brought on the necessity, and adds, ' Be it so ! She sees
'
the hall of the dead, with the winged Pluto staring from
beneath his black eyebrows.' She reminds her husband
of the palace and regal sway she might have enjoyed
in Thessaly had it for him. Bitterly does
she not left
Pheres reproach Admetus for accepting life through the
vicarious suffering and death of another. Then comes
1 ' The Avesta.' '
Oriental and Linguistic Studies,' p. 196.
286 HERAKLES, CHRIST, AND DEATH.

Hercules ; he vanquishes Death ; he leads forth Alcestis

'
from into the light.' With her he comes into
beneath
the presence of Admetus, who is still in grief. Admetus
cannot recognise her ; but when he recognises her with
joy, Hercules warns him that it is not lawful for Alcestis
to address him ' until she is unbound from her consecra
tion to the gods beneath, and thethird day come'
It only requires a change of names to make Alcestis a

Passion-play. The unappeasable Justice which is as a

Fate binding the deity, though it may be satisfied vica
'
riously ; the last enemy, Death ;' the atonement by sacri
fice of a saintly human being, who from a father's palace
is brought by love freely to submit to death ; the son of a
god (Zeus) by a human mother (Alcmene), the god-man
Herakles, commissioned to destroy earthly evils by
twelve great labours, descending to conquer Death and
'
deliver one of the spirits in prison,' the risen spirit not
recognised at first, as Jesus was not by Mary ; still bearing
the consecration of the grave until the third day, which
with the living (' Touch me not, for I
forbade intercourse
am not yet ascended to my Father'), all these enable us
to recognise in the theologic edifices around us the frag
ments of a crumbled superstition as they lay around
Euripides.
From the old pictures of Christ's triumphal pilgrimage
on earth parallels for the chief Labours of Herakles may
be found ; he is shown treading on the lion, asp, dragon,
and Satan ; but the myths converge in the Descent into
Hades and the conquest of Death. It is remarkable that
in the old pictures of Christ delivering souls from Hades
he is generally represented closely followed by Eve, whose
form so emerging would once have been to the greater
part of Europe already familiar as that of either Alcestis,
Eurydice, or Persephone. One of the earliest examples
 QUEENS OF DEATH. 287

of the familiar subject, Christ conquering Death, is that

in the ancient (tenth century) Missal of Worms, that city
whose very name preserves the record of the same com
bat under the guise of Siegfried and the Worm, or Dragon.
The cross is now the sword thrust near the monster's
mouth. The picture illustrates the chant of Holy Week :
'
De manu Mortis liberabo eos, de Morte redimam eos.
Ero Mors tua, O Mors ; morsus tuus ero, inferne.' From
the pierced mouth of Death are vomited flames, which
remind us of his ethnical origin ; but it is not likely
that to the christianised pagans of Worms the picture
could ever have conveyed an impression so weirdly hor
'
rible as that of their own goddess of Death, Hel. Her
hall is called Elvidnir, realm of the cold storm : Hunger
is her table ; Starvation, her knife ; Delay, her man ; Slow
ness, her maid ; Precipice, her threshold ; Care, her bed ;

burning Anguish, the hangings of her apartments. One

half of her body is livid, the other half the colour of human
flesh.'
With the Scandinavian picture of the Abode of Death
may be compared the description of the Abode of Nin-ki-
gal, the Assyrian Queen of Death, from a tablet in the
British Museum, translated by Mr. Fox Talbot : 1
To the House men enter but cannot depart from :
To the Road men go but cannot return.
The abode of darkness and famine
Where Earth is their food : their nourishment Clay :

Light is not seen ; in darkness they dwell :

Ghosts, like birds, flutter their wings there ;
On the door and the gate-posts the dust lies undisturbed.

The Semitic tribes, undisturbed, like the importers of

their theology into the age of science, by the strata in
which so many perished animal kingdoms are entombed,
attributed all death, even that of animals, to the forbidden
1 '
Records of the Past,' i. 143.
288 SALT.

fruit. The Rabbins say that not only Adam and Eve, but
the animals in Eden, partook of that fruit, and came under
the power of Sammael the Violent, and of his agent Azrael,
the demon of Death.
The Phoenix, having refused this
food, preserved the power of renovating itself.
It is an example of the completeness and consistency
with which a theory may organise its myth, that the fatal
demons are generally represented as abhorring salt the
'
preserving agent and foe of decay. The Covenant of
'
Salt among Jews probably had this signifi
the ancient
cance, and the care with which Job salted his sacrifice is
considered elsewhere. Aubrey says, ' Toads (Saturnine
animals) are killed by putting salt upon them. I have
seen the experiment.' The devil, as heir of death-demons,
appears in all European folklore as a hater of salt. A
legend, told by Heine, relates that a knight, wandering in
a wood in Italy, came upon a ruin, and in it a wondrous
statue of the goddess of Beauty. Completely fascinated,
the knight haunted the spot day after day, until one evening
he was met by a servant who invited him to enter a villa
which he had not before remarked. What was his surprise
to be ushered into the presence of the living image of his
adored statue! Amid splendour and flowers the enrap
tured knight is presently seated with his charmer at a
banquet. Every luxury of the world is there ; but there
is no salt When he hints this want a cloud passes over
!

the face of his Beauty. Presently he asks the servant to

bring the salt; the servant does so, shuddering; the knight
helps himself to it. The next sip of wine he takes elicits
a cry from him : it is liquid fire. Madness seizes upon
him ; caresses, burning kisses follow, until he falls asleep
on the bosom of his goddess. But what visions ! Now he
sees her as a wrinkled crone, next a great bat bearing a
torch as it flutters around him, and again as a frightful
 ABADDON. 289

monster, whose head he cuts off in an agony of terror.

When the knight awakes it is in his own villa. He hastens
to his ruin, and to the beloved statue ; he finds her fallen
from the pedestal, and the beautiful head cut from the
neck lying at her feet.
The Semitic Angel of Death is a figure very different
from any that we have considered. He is known in theo
logy only in the degradation which he suffered at the
hands of the Rabbins, but originally was an awful but by
no means evil genius. The Persians probably imported
him, under the name of Asuman, for we do not find him
mentioned in their earlier books, and the name has a re

semblance to the Hebrew shamad, to exterminate, which

' '
would connect it with the biblical destroyer Abaddon.
This is rendered more probable because the Zoroastrians
believed in an earlier demon, Vfzaresha, who carried souls
after death region of Deva-worshippers (India).
to the
The Chaldaic Angel of Death, Malk-ad Mousa, may have
derived his name from the legerd of his having approached
Moses with the object of forcing his soul out of his body,
but, being struck by the glory of Moses' face, and by virtue
of the divine name on his rod, was compelled to retire.
The legend is not so ancient as the name, and was pos

sibly a Saga suggested by the name ; it is obviously the

origin of the tradition of the struggle between Michael and
Satan for the body of Moses (Jude 9.). This personifica
tion had thus declined among the Jews into being evil
enough to be identified with Samael, who, in the Book of
the Assumption of Moses, is named as his assailant, and
subsequently with Satan himself, named in connection with
the New Testament version. It was on account of this
degradation of being described in the earlier books of
a
the Bible as the commissioner of Jehovah that there was
gradually developed among the Jews two Angels of Death,
vol. 1. t
290 AZRAEL.

one (Samael, or his agent Azrael) for those who died out
of the land of Israel, and the other (Gabriel) for those who
had the happier lot of dying in their own country.
This relegation of Samael to the wandering Jews who
if they died abroad were not supposed to reach Paradise
with facility, if at all is significant. For Samael is pretty
certainly a conception borrowed from outlying Semitic
tribes. What that conception was we find in Job xviii. 18,
'
where he is the king of Terrors,' and still more in the
Arabic Azrael. The legend of this typical Angel of Death
is that he was promoted to his high office for special ser
vice. When Allah was about to create man he sent the
angels Gabriel, Michael, and Israfil to the earth to bring
clay of different colours for that purpose ; but the Earth
warned them that the being about to be formed would
rebel against his creator and draw down a curse upon her

(the Earth), and they returned without bringing the clay.

Then Azrael was sent by Allah, and he executed his com
mission without fear ; and for this he was appointed the
angel to separate souls from bodies. Azrael had subordi
nate angels under him, and these are alluded to in the
opening lines of the Sura 79 of the Koran :

By the angels who tear forth the souls of some with violence ;
And by those who draw forth the souls of others with gentleness.

The souls of the righteous are drawn forth with gentleness,

those of the wicked torn from them in the way shown in
the Russian picture (Fig. 19), which is indeed an illustra
tion of the same mythology.
These terrible tasks were indeed such as were only too
likely to bring Azrael into the evil repute of an execu
tioner in the course of time but no degradation of him
;

seems to have been developed among the Moslems. He

seems to have been associated in their minds with Fate,
and similar stories were told of him. Thus it is related that
 OSRAIN. 291

once when Azrael was passing by Solomon he gazed

intently upon a man with whom Solomon was conversing.
Solomon told his companion that it was the Angel of
Death who was looking at him, and the man replied, ' He
seems to want me : order the wind to carry me from
'
hence into India ; when this was done Azrael approached
Solomon and said, '
I looked earnestly at that man from
wonder, for I was commanded to take his soul in India.' 1

Azrael was often represented as presenting to the lips

a cup of poison. It is probable that this image arose from
the ancient ordeal by poison, whereby draughts, however
manipulated beforehand with reference to the results, were
popularly held to be divinely mingled for retributive or
' '
beneficent effects. Cup thus became among Semitic
tribes a symbol of Fate. The cup of consolation,' ' cup
'

of wrath,' cup, of trembling,' which we read of in the Old

' '
Testament ; the cup of blessing,' and cup of devils,'
spoken of by Paul, have this significance. The cup of
Nestor, ornamented with the dove (Iliad, xi. 632), was
'
probably a cup of blessing,' and Mr. Schliemann has found
several of the same kind at Mycenae. The symbol was
'
repeatedly used by Christ, Let this cup pass from me,'
'The cup that my Father hath given me to drink shall I
not drink it,' '
Are ye able to drink of the cup that I drink
of,' and the familiar association of AzraeTs cup is ex
'
pressed in the phrase taste of death.'
One of the most pleasing modifications of the belief in
the Angel of Death is that found by Lepsius2 among the
Mohammedan negroes of Kordofan. Osraln (Azrael), it is
said, receives the souls of the dead, and leads the good to
their reward, the bad to punishment. ' He lives in a tree,
el segerat mohana (the tree of fulfilling), which has as many

1 ' Koran '

Sale's (ed. 1836). See pp. 4, 339, 475-
2 '
Discoveries,' &c., p. 223.
 DEATH AND THE COBBLER.
leaves as there are inhabitants in the world. On each leaf
is a name, and when a child is born a new one grows. If
any one becomes ill his leaf fades, and should he be
destined to die, Osrain breaks it off. Formerly he used to
come visibly to those whom he was going to carry away,
and thus put them in great terror.
Since the prophet's
time, however, he has become invisible ; for when he came
to fetch Mohammed's soul he told him that it was not
good that by his visible appearance he should frighten
mankind. They might then easily die of terror, before
praying ; for he himself, although a courageous and
spirited man, was somewhat perturbed at his appearance.
Therefore the prophet begged God to make Osrain
invisible, which prayer was granted.' Mr. Mackenzie
adds on this that, among the Moravian Jews, at new
moon a branch is held in its light, and the name of a
person pronounced : his face will appear between the
horns of the moon, and should he be destined to die the
leaves will fade.
Mr. John Ruskin has been very severe upon the Italians
for the humour with which they introduce Death as a
person of their masque.
'
When I was in Venice in 1850,
'
he says, the most popular piece of the comic opera was
" Death and the Cobbler," in which the
point of the plot
was the success of a village cobbler as a physician, in con
sequence of the appearance of Death to him beside the
bed of every patient who was not to recover ; and the
most applauded scene in it was one in which the physician,
insolent in success, and swollen with luxury, was himself
taken down into the abode of Death, and thrown into an
agony of terror by being shown lives of men, under the
form of wasting lamps, and his own ready to expire.' On
which he expresses the opinion that 'this endurance of
fearful images is partly associated with indecency, partly
 THE DANCE OF DEATH. 293

with general fatuity and weakness of mind.'1 But may it

not rather be the healthy reaction from morbid images of
terror, with which a purely natural and inevitable event
has so long been invested by priests, and portrayed in such
popular pictures as ' The Dance of Death ? ' The mocking
laughter with which the skeletons beset the knight in our
picture (Fig. 20), from thewall of La Chaise Dieu, Auvergne,

Fiy. 30. The Knight and Dkath.

marks the priestly terrorism, which could not fail to be

vulgarised even more by the frivolous. In 1424 there was
a masquerade of the Dance of Death in the Cemetery of
the Innocents at Paris, attended by the Duke of Bedford
and the Duke of Burgundy, just returned from battle. It
may have been the last outcome in the west of Kali's
but it is fortunate when Fanaticism
dance over the slain ;

has no worse outcome than Folly. The Skeleton Death

1 ' Modern Painters,' Part V. xix.
 294 DEATH AS FOE.

has the advantage over earlier forms of suggesting the

naturalness of death. It is more scientific. The gradual
discovery by the people that death is not caused by sin
A has largely dissipated its horrors in regions where the
ignorance and impostures of priestcraft are of daily obser
vation ; and although the reaction may not be expressed
with good taste, there would seem to be in it a certain
vigour of nature, reasserting itself in simplicity.
In the northern world we are all too sombre in the
matter. It of superstition which have moulded
is the ages
our brains, and too generally given to our natural love of
life the unnatural counterpart of a terror of death. What
has been artificially bred into us can be cultivated out of
us. There are indeed deaths corresponding to the two
Angels the death that comes
by lingering disease and
pain, and that which comes by old age. There are indeed
Azraels in our cities who poison the food and drink of the
people, and mingle death in the cup of water ; and of them
there should be increasing horror until the gentler angel
abides with us, and death by old age becomes normal. The
departure from life being a natural condition of entering
it,

upon melancholy indeed that should be ideally

is

it
it

confused with the pains and sorrows often attending it.

It fabled that Menippus the Cynic, travelling through
is

Hades, knew which were the kings there by their howling

louder than the rest. They howled loudest because they
had parted from most pleasures on earth. But all the
happy and young have more reason to lament untimely
death than kings. The only tragedy of Death the ruin
is

of living Love. Mr. Watts, in his great picture of Love

and Death (Grosvenor Gallery, 1877), revealed the real
horror. Not that skeleton which has its right time and
place, not the winged demon (called angel), who has no
right time or place, here, but huge, hard, heartless
is

a
 DEATH AS FRIEND. 295

form, as of man half-blocked out of marble ; a terrible

emblem of the remorseless force that embodies the incom
pleteness and ignorance of mankind a force that steadily
crushes hearts where intellects are devoting their energies
to alien worlds. Poor Love has little enough science ; his
puny arm stretched out to resist the colossal form is weak
as the prayers of agonised parents and lovers directed
against never-swerving laws ; he is almost exhausted ; his
lustrous wings are broken and torn in the struggle ; the
dove at his feet crouches mateless ; the rose that climbed
on his door is prostrate ; over his shoulder the beam-like
arm has set the stony hand against the door where the
roseof joy must fall.
The aged when they die do but follow the treasures
that have gone before. One by one the old friends have
left them, the sweet ties parted, and the powers to
enjoy and help become feeble. When of the garden
that once bloomed around them memory alone is left,
friendly is death to scatter also the leaves of that last
rose where the loved ones are sleeping. This is the real
office of death. Nay, even when it comes to the young
and happy it is not Death but Disease that is the real
enemy in disease there is almost no compensation at all
;

but learning its art of war; but Death is Nature's pity for
helpless pain ; where love and knowledge can do no more
it comes as a release from sufferings which were sheer tor
ture if prolonged.
The presence of death is recognised
oftenest by the cessation of pain. Superstition has done
few heavier wrongs to humanity than by the mysterious
terrors with which it has invested that change which, to
the simpler ages, was pictured as the gentle river Lethe,
flowing from the abode of sleep, from which the shades
drank oblivion alike of their woes and of the joys from
which they were torn.
 PART III.

THE DRAGON.
 THE DRAGON.

CHAPTER I.

DECLINE OF DEMONS.
The Holy Tree of Travancore The growth of Demons in India and
their decline The Nepaul Iconoclast Moral Man and unmoral
Nature Man's physical and mental migrations Heine's ' Gods
'
in Exile The Goban Saor Master Smith A Greek caricature
of the Gods The Carpenter v. Deity and Devil Extermination
of the Werewolf Refuges of Demons The Giants reduced to
Little People Deities and Demons returning to nature.

Having indicated, necessarily in mere outline and by

selected examples, the chief obstacles encountered by
primitive man, and his apprehensions, which he personi
fied as demons, it becomes my next task to show how and
why many of these demons declined from their terrible
proportions and made way for more general forms, ex
pressing comparatively abstract conceptions of physical
evil. This will involve some review of the processes
through which man's necessary adaptation to his earthly
environment brought him to the era of Combat with
multiform obstruction.
There was, until within a few recent years, in a mountain
of Travancore, India, an ancient, gigantic Tree, regarded by
 I

300 THE HOLY TREE OF TRAVANCORE'.

the natives as the residence of a powerful and dangerous
deity who reigned over the mountains and the wild beasts.1
Sacrifices were offered to this tree, sermons preached before
seems to have been the ancient cathedral of the
it,

and
district. it Its trunk was so large that four men with out
stretched arms could not compass it.
This tree in its early growth may symbolise the up-
springing of natural religion. Its first green leaves may
be regarded as corresponding to the first crude imagina
tions of man as written, for instance, of the on leaves
Vedas. Perceiving in nature, as we have seen, a power of
contrivance like his own, might far superior to his own,
a

man naturally considered that all things had been created

and were controlled by invisible giants and bowing help

;
lessly beneath them sang thus his hymns and supplications.
'This earth belongs to Varuna, the king, and the wide
sky, with its ends far apart the two seas (sky and ocean)
:

are Varuna's loins he also contained in this drop of

is
;

water. He who would flee far beyond the sky even he

would not be rid of Varuna. His spies proceed from
heaven towards this earth.'
Through want of strength, thou ever strong and bright
'

god, have gone wrong have mercy, have mercy

'
I

However we break thy laws from day to day, men as

'

we are, god Varuna, do not deliver us to death

it O

'
!

Was an old sin, Varuna, that thou wished to destroy

'

the friend who always praises thee

'
!

'O Indra, have mercy, give me my daily bread! Raise

up wealth to the worshipper, thou mighty Dawn
'
!

Thou art the giver of horses, Indra, thou art the giver
'

of cows, the giver of corn, the strong lord of wealth the

:

old guide of man disappointing no desires to him we

:

The history of this tree which for told in the Rev.

1

parable
is

use
a
I

Samuel Mateer's 'Land of Charity.' I.ondon: John Snow Co.

&

1871.
 MAN'S CONTRACT WITH HIS GODS. 301

address this song. All this wealth around here is known

to be thine alone take from it conqueror, bring it hither!'
:

In these characteristic sentences from various hymns we

behold man making his first contract with the ruling powers
of nature : so much adoration and flattery on his part for
so much benefit on theirs. But even in these earliest
hymns there are intimations that the gods were not fulfil
'
ling their side of the engagement. Why is it,' pleads the
worshipper, 'that you wish to destroy one who always
praises you ? Was it an old sin ?' The simple words un
consciously report how faithfully man was performing his
part of the contract. Having omitted no accent of the
prayer, praise, or ritual, he supposes the continued indif
ference of the gods must be due to an old sin, one he has
forgotten, or perhaps one committed by some ancestor.
In this state of mind the suggestion would easily take
root that words alone were too cheap to be satisfactory to
the gods. There must be offerings. Like earthly kings
they must have their revenues. We thus advance to the
phase of sacrifices. But still neither in answer to prayer,
flattery, or sacrifice did the masses receive health or wealth.
Poverty, famine, death, still continued their remorseless
course with the silent machinery of sun, moon, and star.
But why, then, should man have gone on fulfilling his
part of the contract believing and worshipping deities,
who when he begged for corn gave him famine, and when
he asked for fish gave him a serpent ? The priest inter
vened with ready explanation. And here we may consult
the holy Tree of Travancore again ? Why should that
particular Tree of a species common in the district and
'
not usually very large have grown so huge ? Because
'
it is holy,' said the priest. Because it was believed holy,'
says the fact. For ages the blood and ashes of victims fed
its roots and swelled its trunk ; until, by an argument not
302 HO W THE HOL Y TREE GRE W.

confined to India, the dimensions of the superstition were

assumed to prove its truth. When the people complained
that all their offerings and worship did not bring any
returns the priest replied, You stint the gods and they
stint you. The people offered the fattest of their flocks
and fruits : More yet ! said the priest. They built fine
altars and temples for the gods : More yet ! said the priest.
They built fine houses for the priests, and taxed them
selves to support them. And when thus, fed by popular
sacrifices and toils, the religion had grown to vast power,
the priest was able to call to his side the theologian for
further explanation. The theologian and the priest said
'
Of course there must be good reasons why the gods do
not answer all your prayers they did not answer some
(if

you would be utterly consumed) mere mortals must not

;

dare to inquire into their mysteries but that there are

;

gods, and that they do attend to human affairs, made

is
perfectly plain by this magnificent array of temples, and
by the care with which they have supplied all the wants
of us, their particular friends, whose cheeks, as you see,
hang down with fatness.'
If, after this explanation, any scepticism or rebellion arose
among the less favoured, the priest might easily add
'Furthermore, we and our temples are now institutions;
we are so strong and influential that evident that the
is
it

gods have appointed us to be their representatives on

earth, the dispensers of their favours. Also, of their dis
favours. We are able to make up for the seeming indif
ference of the gods, rewarding you you give us honour
if

and wealth, but ruining you you turn heretical.'

if

So grew the holy Tree. But strong as was there was

it

something stronger. Some few years ago missionary

a

from London went to Travancore, and desired to build a

chapel near the same tree, no doubt to be in the way of
 HO W THE HOL Y TREE FELL. 303

its worshippers and to borrow some of the immemorial

sanctity of the spot. This missionary fixed a hungry eye
upon that holy timber, and reflected how much holier it
would be if ending its career in the beams of a christian
chapel. So one day English authorities being con
veniently near he and his workmen began to cut down
the sacred Tree. The natives gradually gathered around,
and looked on with horror. While the cutting proceeded
a tiger drew near, but shouts drove him off: the natives
breathed freer; the demon had come and looked on, but
could not protect the Tree from the Englishman. They
still shuddered, however, at the sacrilege, and when at last
the Holy Tree of Travancore fell, its crash was mingled
with the cries and screams of its former worshippers. The
victorious missionary may be pointing out in his chapel
the cut-up planks which reveal the impotence of the deity
so long feared by the natives ; and perhaps he is telling
them of the bigness of his Tree, and claiming its flourish
ing condition in Europe proof of its supernatural char
as
acter. Possibly he may omit to mention the blood and
ashes which have fattened the root and enlarged the trunk
of his Holy Tree !

That Tree in Travancore could never have been so

destroyed if the primitive natural religion in which lay its
deeper root had not previously withered. The gods, the
natural forces, which through many ages had not
so
heeded man's daily martyrdoms, had now for a long time
been shown quite as impotent to protect their own shrines,
images, holy trees, and other interests. The priests as
vainly invoked those gods to save their own country from
subjugation by other nations with foreign gods, as the
masses had invoked their personal aid. For a long time
the gods in some parts of India have received only a
formal service, coextensive with their association with a
304 THE NEPAUL ICONOCLAST.

lingering order, or as part of princely establishments ;

but they topple down from time to time, as the masses
realise their freedom to abandon them with impunity.
They are at the mercy of any strong heretic who arises.
The following narrative, quoted by Mr. Herbert Spencer,
presents a striking example of what some Hindoos had
been doing before the missionary cut down the Tree at
Travancore :
'
A
Nepaul king, Rum Bahadur, whose beautiful queen,
finding her lovely face had been disfigured by small
pox, poisoned herself, cursed his kingdom, her doctors,
and the gods of Nepaul, vowing vengeance on all. Having
ordered the doctors to be flogged, and the right ear and
nose of each to be cut off, he then wreaked his vengeance
on the gods of Nepaul, and after abusing them in the most
gross way, he accused them of having obtained from him
12,000 goats, some hundred-weights of sweetmeats, 2000
gallons of milk, &c., under false pretences. He then
ordered all the artillery, varying from three to twelve-
pounders, to be brought in front of the palace. All the
guns were then loaded to the muzzle, and down he marched
to the headquarters of the Nepaul deities. All the guns
were drawn up in front of the several deities, honouring
the most sacred with the heaviest metal. When the order
to fire was given, many of the chiefs and soldiers ran away
panic-stricken, and others hesitated to obey the sacri
legious order; and not till several gunners had been cut
down were the guns opened. Down came the gods and
the goddesses from their hitherto sacred positions ; and
after six hours' heavy cannonading, not a vestige of the
deities remained.'
However panic-stricken the Nepaulese may have been
at this ferocious manifestation, it was but a storm bred
out of a more general mental and moral condition. Rum
 MORAL MAN AND UNMORAL NATURE. 305

Bahadur only laid low in a few moments images of gods

who, passing from the popular interest, had been succes
sively laid to sleep on the innumerable shelves of Hindu
mythology. The early Dualism was developed into Moral
Man on one side, and Unmoral Nature on the other.
Man had discovered that moral order in nature was repre
sented solely by his own power : by his culture or neglect
the plant or animal grew or withered, and where his control
did not extend, there sprang the noxious weed or beast.
So far as good gods had been imagined they were re
spected now only as incarnate in men. But the active
powers of evil still remained, hurtful and hateful to man,
and the pessimist view of nature became inevitable. To
man engaged in his life-and-death struggle with nature
many beauty which now nourishes the theist's optimism
a
was lost. The fragrant flower was a weed to the man
hungry for bread, and he viewed many an idle treasure
with the disappointment of Sadi when, travelling in the
desert, he found a bag in which he hoped to discover grain,
but found only pearls. Fatal to every deity not anthro
pomorphic was the long pessimistic phase of human faith.
Each became more purely a demon, and passed on the
road to become a devil.
Many particular demons man conquered as he pro
gressively carried order amid the ruggedness and wildness
of his planet. Every new weapon or implement he in
vented punctured a thousand phantoms. Only in the
realms he could not yet conquer remained the hostile
forces to which he ascribed praeternatural potency, because
not able to pierce them and see through them. Never
theless, the early demonic forms had to give way, for man
had discovered that they were not his masters. He could
cut down the Upas and root up the nightshade ; he had
bruised many a serpent's head and slain many a wolf.
vol. I. v
3o6 PHYSICAL AND MENTAL MIGRATIONS.
In detail innumerable enemies had been proved his in
feriors in strength and intelligence.
Important migrations
took place: passes, geographically, away from the
man
region of some of his worst enemies, inhabits countries
more fruitful, less malarious, his habitat exceeding that of
his animal foe in range ; and, still better, he passes by
mental migration out of the stone age, out of other help
less ages, to the age of metal and the skill to fashion and
use it. He has made the fire-fiend his friend. No longer
henceforth a naked savage, with bit of stone or bone only
to meet the crushing powers of the world and win its
reluctant supplies !
There is a sense far profounder than its charming play
of fancy in Heine's account of the ' Gods in Exile,' an
'
essay which Mr. Pater well describes as full of that
strange blending of sentiment which is characteristic of
the traditions of the Middle Age concerning the Pagan
religions.' 1
Heine writes : ' Let me briefly remind the
reader how the gods of the older world, at the time
of the definite triumph of Christianity, that is, in the
third century, fell into painful embarrassments, which
greatly resembled certain tragical situations of their earlier
life. They now found themselves exposed to the same
troublesome necessities towhich they had once before
beeu exposed during the primitive ages, in that revo
lutionary epoch when the Titans broke out of the cus
tody of Orcus, and, piling Pelion on Ossa, scaled Olympus.
Unfortunate gods They had, then, to take flight ignomi-
!

niously, and hide themselves among us here on earth under

all sorts of disguises. Most of them betook themselves to
Egypt, where for greater security they assumed the form
of animals, as generally known. Just in the same way
is

they had to take flight again, and seek entertainment in

Studies in the History of the Renaissance.' Macmillan
&

Co.
1
'

1873.
 THE GODS IN EXILE.
remote hiding-places, when those iconoclastic zealots, the
black brood of monks, broke down all the temples, and
pursued the gods with fire and curses. Many of these
unfortunate emigrants, entirely deprived of shelter and am
brosia, had now to take to vulgar handicrafts as a means
of earning their bread. In circumstances, many,
these
whose sacred groves had been confiscated, let themselves
out for hire as wood-cutters in Germany, and had to drink
beer instead of nectar. Apollo seems to have been con
tent to take service under graziers, and as he had once kept
the cows of Admetus, so he lived now as a shepherd in
Lower Austria. Here, however, having become suspected,
on account of his beautiful singing, he was recognised by a
learned monk as one of the old pagan gods, and handed
over to the spiritual tribunal. On the rack he confessed
that he was the god Apollo ; and before his execution he
begged that he might be suffered to play once more upon
the lyre and to sing a song. And he played so touchingly,
and sang with such magic, and was withal so beautiful in
form and that all the women wept, and many of
feature
them were so deeply impressed that they shortly after
wards fell sick. And some time afterwards the people
wished to drag him from the grave again, that a stake
might be driven through his body, in the belief that he had
been a vampire, and that the sick women would by this
means recover. But they found the grave empty.'
Naturally : it is hard to bury Apollo. The next time he
appeared was, no doubt, as musical director in the nearest
cathedral. The young singers and artists discovered by
such severe lessonsthat it was dangerous to sing Pagan
ballads too realistically ; that a cowl is capable of a high
degree of decoration ; that Pan's pipe sounds well evolved
into an organ; that Cupids look just as well if called
Cherubs. It is odd that it should have required Robert
3o8 THE GOB AN SAOR.

Browning three centuries away to detect the real form and

face beneath the vestment of the Bishop who orders his
tomb at Saint Praxed's Church :

The bas-relief in bronze ye promised me,

Those Pans and Nymphs ye wot of, and perchance
Some tripod, thyrsus, with a vase or so,
The Saviour at his sermon on the mount,
Saint Praxed in a glory, and one Pan
Ready to twitch the Nymph's last garment off,
And Moses with the tables. . . .

So in one direction grew the hermitage to the Vatican ; so

Zeus regained his throne by exchanging his thunderbolts
for Peter's keys, and Mars regained his steed as St. George,
and Hercules as Christ wrestles with Death once more.
But while these artificial restorations were going on in
one direction, in another some of the gods were passing
through many countries, outwitting and demolishing their
former selves as lowered to demons. There are many
legends which report this strange phase of development,
one of the finest being that of The Goban Saor, told by
Mr. Kennedy. The King of Munster sent for this wonder
ful craftsman to build him a castle. The Goban could
fashion a spear with three strokes of his hammer St.
Patrick, who found the Trinity in the shamrock, may have
determined the number of strokes, and when he wished
to drive in nails high up, had only to throw his hammer
at them. On his way to work for the King, Goban, ac
companied by his son, passed the night at the house of
a farmer, whose daughters one dark and industrious, the
other fair and idle receivedfrom him (Goban) three bits
'
of advice : Always have the head of an old woman by
the hob ; warm yourselves with your work in the morn
ing ; and some time before I come back take the skin of a
newly-killed sheep to the market, and bring itself and the
price of it home again.' As Goban, with his son, journeyed
 THE MASTER SMITH. 309

on, they found a poor man vainly trying to roof his house
with three joists and mud ; and by simply making one end
of each joist rest on the middle of another, the other ends
being on the wall, the structure was perfect. He relieved
puzzled carpenters by putting up for them the pegless and
nailless bridge described in Caesar's Commentaries. Hav
ing done various great things, Goban returns to the home
stead of the girls who had received his three bits of advice.
The idle one had, of course, blundered at each point, and
been ridiculed in the market for her proposition to bring
back the sheep's skin and its price. The other, by kindly
taking in an aged female relative, by working till she was
warm, and by plucking and selling the wool of the sheep's
skin and bringing home the latter, had obeyed the Goban's
advice, and was selected as his daughter-in-law the prince
attending the wedding. Now, as to building the castle,
Goban knew that the King had employed on previous
castles four architects and then slain them, so that they
should never build another palace equal to his. He there
fore says he has left at home a necessary implement which
his wife will only give to himself or one of royal blood.
The King sends his son, who is kept as hostage till the
husband's safe return.
This is the Master Smith of Norse fable, who has a chair
from which none can rise, and who therein binds the devil ;

which again is the story of Hephaistos, and the chair

in which he entrapped Hera until she revealed the secret
of his birth. The ' devil ' whom the Master Smith entraps
in Norse mythology, simply Loki and as Loki
is,

a
is
:

degraded Hephaistos, fire in its demonic forms, we have

all these legends the fire-fiend fought with fire.
in

This re-dualisation of the gods into demonic and saintly

forms had long preparation. The forces that brought
it
a

about may be seen already beginning in Hesiod's repre

3io GREEK CARICATURE OF THE GODS.

sentations of the gods, in their presentation on the stage

by Euripides, in a manner certain to demonise them to the
vulgar, and to subject them to such laughter among scholars
as still rings across the ages in the divine dialogues of
Lucian. What the gods had become to the Lucians
before they reached Heines may be gathered from
the
the accompanying caricature (Fig. 21).1 Nothing can be
more curious than the encounters of the gods with their
dead selves, their Manes. What unconscious ingenuity in
the combinations ! St. Martin on his grey steed divides
with the beggar the cloud-cloak of Wodan on his black
horse, treading down just such paupers in his wild hunt ;
as saint he now shelters those whom as storm-demon he
chilled but the identity of Junker Martin is preserved
;

in both titles and myths, and the Martinhorns (cakes),

twisted after fashion of the horns of goat or buck pur
sued by Wodan, are deemed potent like horse-shoes to
defend house or stable from the outlawed god. 2

1 '
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, con
sisting of a bag, a bow, and his Scythian cap. Chiron (XIPON) 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 com
panion, both being furnished with the masks and other attributes of the comic
performers. Above are the mountains, and on them the nymphs of Parnassus
(STM*AI), 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 riTGIAS, the Pythian,
placed over the head of the burlesque Apollo, it seems evident that the
'
artist had written IIEI9IAS, 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 Helbu
recently caused a theatrical riot?
2 Wuttke. ' iS.
Volksaberglaube,'
 DOTARD DEITIES. 311

The more impressive and attractive myths transferred

to christian saints as the flowers sacred to Freyja became

Our Lady's-glove, or slipper, or smock there remained to

the old gods, in their own name, only the repulsive and
puerile, and by this means they were doomed at once to
become unmitigated knaves and fools. If Titans, Jotunn
or Jinni, they were giant humbugs, whom any small Hans

Fig. 21. Greek Caricature of the Gods.

or Jack might outwit and behead. Our Fairy lore is full

of stories which show that in the North as well as in Latin
countries there had already been a long preparation for
the contempt poured by Christianity upon the Norse
deities. Many of the stories, as they now stand in Folk
tales, speak of the vanquished demon or giant as the devil,
but it perfectly easy to detach the being meant from the
is
name so indiscriminately bestowed by christian priests upon
most of the outlawed deities. In Lithuania, where survived
too much reverence for some of the earlier deities to admit
312 CARPENTER, DEITY, AND DEVIL.

of their being identified with the devil, we still find them

triumphed over by the wit and skill of the artisan. Such
is the case in a favourite popular legend of that country in
which Perkunas the ancient Thunder-god, corresponding
to Perun in Russia is involved in disgrace along with the
devil by the sagacity and skill of a carpenter. The aged
god, the venerable Devil, and the young Carpenter, united
for a journey. Perkun kept the beasts off with thunder
and lightning, the Devil hunted up food, the Carpenter
cooked. At
length they built a hut and lived in it, and
planted the ground with vegetables. Presently a thief
invaded their garden. Perkun and the Devil successively
tried to catch him, but were well thrashed ; whereas the
Carpenter by playing the fiddle fascinated the thief, who
was a witch, a hag whose hand the fiddler managed to get
into a split tree (under pretence of giving her a music
lesson), holding her there till she gave up her iron waggon
and the whip which she had used on his comrades. After
this the three, having decided to separate, disputed as to
which should have the hut; and they finally agreed that it
should be the possession of him who should succeed in
frightening the two others. The Devil raised a storm
which frightened Perkun, and Perkun with his thunder
and lightning frightened the Devil ; but the Carpenter
held out bravely, and, in the middle of the night, came
in with the witch's waggon, and, cracking her whip, the
Devil and Perkun both took flight, leaving the Carpenter
in possession of the hut.1
So far as Perkun is concerned, and may be regarded
of the gods, the hut may be symbol of
as representative

Europe, and the Carpenter type of the power which

conquered all that was left of them after their fair or
1 'Litauische Marchen,"
Schleicher, 141-145. Mr. Ralston's translation
abridged.
 WERE WOL VES IN DECLINE. 3*3

noble associations had been transferred to christian forms.

Somewhat later, the devil was involved in a like fate, as
we shall have to consider in a future chapter.
The most horrible superstitions, if tracked in their
popular development, reveal with special impressiveness
the progressive emancipation of man from the phantasms
of ferocity which represented his primal helplessness. The
universal werewolf superstition, for instance, drew its un
speakable horrors from deep and wide-spreading roots.
Originating, probably, in occasional relapses to canni
balism among tribes or villages which found themselves
amid circumstances as urgent as those which sometimes
lead a wrecked crew to draw lots which shall die to sup
port the rest, it would necessarily become demonised by
the necessity of surrounding cannibalism with dangers
worse than starvation. But it would seem that individuals
are always liable, by arrest of development which usually
takes the formof disease or insanity, to be dragged back
to the savage condition of their race. In the course of
this dark history, we note first an increasing tendency to
show the means of the transformation difficult. In the
Volsunga Saga it is by simply putting on a 'wolf-shirt'
(wolfskin) that a man may become a wolf. Then it is
said it is done by a belt made of the skin of a man who
has been hung all executed persons being sacred to
Wodan (because not dying a natural death), to whom also
the wolf was sacred. Then it is added, that the belt must
be marked with the signs of the zodiac, and have a buckle
with seven teeth. Then it is said that 'only a seventh
son' is possessed of this diabolical power; or others say
one whose brows meet over his nose. The means of
detecting werewolves and retransforming them to human
shape multiplied as those of transformation diminished in
number, and such remedies reflected the advance of human
3'4 WERE WOL VES VANISH.

skill. The werewolf could be restored by crossing his path

with a knife or polished steel; by a sword laid on the
ground with point towards him ; by a silver ball. Human
skill was too much for him. In Posen mothers had dis
covered that one who had bread in his or her mouth could
by even such means discover werewolves ; and fathers, to
this hint about keeping 'the wolf from the door,' added
that no one could be attacked by any such monster if he
were in a cornfield. The Slav levelled a plough at him.
Thus by one prescription and another, and each represent
ing a part of man's victory over chaos, the werewolf was
driven out of all but 'unlucky' days in the year, and
a few

especially found his last refuge in Twelfth Night. But

even on that night the werewolf might be generally escaped
by the simple device of not speaking of him. If a wolf
had to be spoken of he was then called Vermin, and Dr.
Wuttke mentions parish priest named Wolf in East
a
Prussia who on Twelfth Night was addressed as Mr.
Vermin !The actual wolf being already out of the forests
in most places by art of the builder and the architect ; the
phantasmal wolf driven out of fear for most of the year
by man's recognition of his own superiority to this exter
' '
minated beast ; even the proverbial ears of the vanishing
werewolf ceased to be visible when on his particular fest-
night his name was not mentioned.
The last execution of a man for being an occasional
werewolf was, I believe, in 1589, near Cologne, there being
some evidence of cannibalism. But nine years later, in
France, where the belief in the Lonp-garou had been
intense, a man so accused was simply shut up in a mad
house. It is an indication of the revolution which has
occurred, that when next governments paid attention to
werewolves it was because certain vagabonds went about
professing to be able to transform themselves into wolves,
 REFUGES OF DEMONS.

in order to extort money from the more weak-minded and

ignorant peasants.1 There could hardly be conceived a
more significant history : the werewolf leaves where he
entered. Of ignorance trying, too often
and weakness
in vain, 'to keep the wolf from the door,' was born this
voracious phantom ; with the beggar and vagabond, sur
vivals of helplessness become inveterate, he wanders thin
and crafty. He keeps out of the way of all culture,
whether of field or mind. So is it indeed with all demons
in decline of which I can here only adduce a few char
acteristic examples. So runs the rune
When the barley there is,
Then the devils whistle;
When the barley is threshed,
Then the devils whine;
When the barley is ground,
Then the devils roar;
When the flour is produced,
Then the devils perish.

The old Scottish custom, mentioned by Sir Walter

Scott, of leaving around each cultivated field an untilled
1 Of this latter kind of hungry werewolf a specimen still occasionally revisits

the glimpses of the moonshine which, for too many minds, still replaces day
light. So recently as January 17, 1878, one Kate Bedwell, a 'pedlar,' was
sentenced in the Marylebone PoliceLondon, to three months' hard
Court,
labour for obtaining various sums of money,
amounting to 9s. iod., by
terrorism, from Eliza Rolf, a cook. The pedlar came to the plaintiffs place
of work and asked her if she would like to have her fortune told. Eliza re
' No, I know it it is hard work or The fortune teller asked
plied, ; starving.'
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 some
thing 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.
3i 6 GIANTS TURNED TO LITTLE PEOPLE.

fringe, called the Gude Mans Croft, is derived from the

ancient belief that unless some wild place is left to the
sylvan spirits they will injure the grain and vegetables ;
and, no doubt, some such notion leads the farmers of
Thurgau still to graft mistletoe upon their fruit-trees.
Many who can smile at such customs do yet preserve in
their own minds, or those of their servants or neighbours,
crofts which the ploughshare of science is forbidden to
touch, and where the praeternatural troops still hide their
shrivelled forms. But this wild
girdle becomes ever
narrower, and the images within it tend to blend with
rustling leaf and straw, and the insects, and to be other
wise invisible, save to that second sight which is received
from Glam. As in some shadow-pantomime, the deities
and demons pursue each other in endless procession, drop
ping down as awe-inspiring Titans, vanishing as grotesque
pigmies vanishing beyond the lamp into Nothingness !
So came most of the monsters we have been describing
Animals, Volcanoes, Icebergs, Deserts, though they
might be by growing culture and mastery of nature to
be called 'the little people;' and perhaps it is rather
through pity than euphemism when they were so often
'
called, as in Ireland {Duine Mathd), the good little
people.' 1
At every step in time or space back of the era
of mechanic arts the little fairy gains in physical pro
portions. The house-spirits (Domovoi) of Russia are full-
sized, shaggy human-shaped beings. In Lithuania the
corresponding phantoms (Kaukas) average only a foot in
height. The Krosnyata, believed in by the Slavs on
the Baltic coast, are similarly small ; and by way of the
kobolds, elves, fays, travelling westward, we find the size

1 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.
 GODS RETURNING TO NATURE. 317

of such shapes diminishing, until warnings are given that

the teeth must never be picked with a straw, that slender
tube being a favourite residence of the elf! In Bavaria
a little red chafer with seven spots {Coccinella septem-
punctata) is able to hold Thor with his lightnings, and in
other regions is a form of the goddess of Love!1 Our
' '
English name for the tiny beetle Lady-bug is derived
from the latter notion ; and Mr. Karl Blind has expressed
the opinion that our children's rune

Lady-bug, lady-bug, fly away home,

Thy house is on fire, thy children will roam

is last echo of the Eddaic prophecies of the destruction of

the universe by the fire-fiend Loki ! 2 Such reductions of
the ancient gods, demons, and terrors to tiny dimensions
would, of course, be only an indirect result of the general
cause stated. They were driven from the great world, and
sought the small world : they survived in the hut and were
adapted to the nerves of the nursery. So alone can Tithonos
live on beyond the age for which he is born he shrinks to
:

a grasshopper; and it is now by only careful listening that

in the chirpings of the multitudinous immortals, of which
Tithonos is type, may be distinguished the thunders and
roarings of deities and demons that once made the earth
to tremble.
1 Mannhardt, '
Cotter/ 287.
3 Freia-Holda, the Teutonic '
goddess of Love. Cornhill Magazine,' May,
1872.
 ( 3i» )

CHAPTER II.
GENERALISATION OF DEMONS.

The Demons' bequest to their conquerors Nondescripts Exaggera

tions of tradition Saurian Theory of Dragons The Dragon not
primitive in Mythology Monsters of Egyptian, Iranian, Vedic,
and Jewish Mythologies Turner's Dragon Delia Bella The
Conventional Dragon.

After all those brave victories of man over the first

chaos, organic inorganic, whose effect upon his
and
phantasms has been indicated ; after fire had slain its
thousands, and iron its tens of thousands of his demons,
and the rough artisan become a Nemesis with his rudder
and wheel pursuing the hosts of darkness back into Night
and Invisibility
; still stood the grim fact of manyformed

pain and evil in the world, still defying the ascending

purposes of mankind. Moreover, confronting these, he is
by no means so different mentally from that man he
was before conquering many foes in detail, and laying
their phantoms, as he was morally. More courage man
had gained, and more defiance ; and, intellectually, a step
had been taken, if only one : he had learned that his evils
are related to each other. Hunger is of many heads and
forms. Its yawning throat may be seen in the brilliant sky
that lasts till it is as brass, in the deluge, the earthquake,
in claw and fang; and then these together do but relate
the hunger-brood to Fire and Ferocity ; the summer sun
 NONDESCRIPT AND EX A G GERA TIONS. 3 19

beam may be venomous as a serpent, and the end of them

all Some tendency to these more general con
is Death.

ceptions of an opposing principle and power in the world

seems to be represented in that phase of development at
which nondescript forms arise. These were the con
quered demons' bequest.
It of course, impossible to measure the various forces
is,

which combined to produce the complex symbolical forms

of physical evil. Tradition not always
good draughts
is

a
man, and in portraying for a distant generation in Ger
many a big snake killed in India might not be exact as
to the number of its heads or other details. Heroes before
Falstaff were liable to overstate their foes in buckram. The
less measurable thing by fact, the more immense in
a

fancy werewolves of especial magnitude haunted regions

:

where there had not been actual wolves for centuries

;
huge serpents play large part in the annals of Ireland,
a

where not even the smallest have been found. But after
all natural influences have been considered, one can hardly
look upon the sphynx, the chimaera, or on conven
a

tional dragon, without perceiving that he in presence of

is

higher creation than a demonic bear or a giant ruffian.

a

The fundamental difference between the two classes that

is

one natural, the other praeternatural. Of course were

is is

wolf preternatural as a gryphon to the eye of science,

as
but as original expressions of human imagination the
former could hardly have been a more miraculous monster
than the Siamese twins to intelligent people to-day. The
demonic forms are generally natural, albeit caricatured or
exaggerated. And this effort at a praeternatural concep
tion is, in this early form, by no means mere superstition
;

rather poetic and artistic, kind of crude effort at

is
it

allgemeinheit, at realisation of the types of evil the claw-

principle, fang-principle in the universe, the physiognomies
320 SA URIAN THEOR Y OF DRAGONS.
of venom and pain detached from forms to which they are
accidental.
Some of the particular forms we have been considering
are, indeed, by no means of the prosaic type. Such con
ceptions as Rahu, Cerberus, and several others, are tran
sitional between the natural
mystical conceptions ;
and
while the sphynx, however complete a combination of ideal
forms, is not all demonic. In this Part III. are included
those forms whose combination is not found in objective
nature, but which are yet travesties of nature and genuine
fauna of the human mind.
Perhaps it may be thought somewhat arbitrary that I
should describe all these intermediate forms between
demon devil by the term DRAGON ; but I believe
and
there is no other fabulous form which includes so many
individual types of transition, or whose evolution may be
so satisfactorily traced from the point where it is linked
with the demon to that where it bequeathes its characters
to the devil. While, however, this term is used as the
best that suggests itself, it cannot be accepted as limiting
our inquiry or excluding other abstract forms which ideally
correspond to the dragon, the generalised expression for
an active, powerful, and intelligent enemy to mankind, a
being who is antagonism organised, and able to command
every weapon in nature for an antihuman purpose.
The opinion has steadily gained that the conventional
dragon is the traditional form of some huge Saurian. It
has been suggested that some of those extinct forms may
have been contemporaneous with the earliest men, and
that the traditions of conflicts with them, transmitted
orally and pictorially, have resulted in preserving their
forms in fable (proximately). The restorations of Saurians
on their islet at the Crystal Palace show how much com
mon sense there is in this theory. The discoveries of
 THE DRAGON NOT PRIMITIVE. 321

Professor Marsh of Yale College have proved that the

general form of the dragon is startlingly prefigured in
nature ; and Mr. Alfred Tylor, in an able paper read
before Society, has shown that we
the Anthropological
are very apt to be on the safe side in sticking to the
' '
theory of an object-origin for most things.
Concerning this theory, it may be said that the earliest
descriptions, both written and pictorial, which have been
discovered of the reptilian monsters around which grew the
germs of our dragon-myths, are crocodiles or serpents,
and not dragons of any conventional kind, with a few
doubtful exceptions. In an Egyptian papyrus there is a
hieroglyphic picture of San-nu Hut-ur, 'plunger of the
'
sea ; it is a marine, dolphin-like monster, with four feet,
and a tail ending in a serpent's head.1 With wings, this
might approach the dragon-form. Again, Amen-Ra slew
Naka, and this serpent 'saved his feet.' Possibly the
phrase is ironical, and means that the serpent saved
nothing but apart from that, the poem is too highly
;

metaphorical the victorious god himself being described

'
in it as a '
beautiful bull for the phrase to be important.
On Egyptian monuments are pictured serpents with human
heads and members, and the serpent Nahab-ka is pictured
on amulets with two perfect human legs and feet.2 Winged
serpents are found on Egyptian monuments, but almost as

frequently with the incredible number of four as with the

conceivable two wings of the pterodactyl. The forms of
the serpents portrayed with anthropomorphic legs
thus
and slight wings are, in their main shapes, of ordinary
species. In the Iranian tradition of the temptation of the
first man and woman, Meschia and Meschiane, by the

1 ' Records of the Past,' vi. 124.

'
See Cooper's Serpent-Myths of Ancient Egypt,' figs. 109 and 1 12. Serapis
as a human-headed serpent is shown in the same essay (from Sharpe), fig. 119.
VOL. T. X
322 SERPENT-MONSTERS EARLIEST.

'two-footed serpent of lies.' And it is possible that out of

'
this myth of the ' two-footed serpent grew the puzzling
legend of Genesis that the serpent of Eden was sentenced
thereafter to crawl on his belly. The snake's lack of feet,
however, with equal probability have given rise
might
to the explanation given in mussulman and rabbinical
stories of his feet being cut off by the avenging angel.
But the antiquity of the Iranian myth is doubtful ; while
the superior antiquity of the Hindu fable of Rahu, to

which it seems related, suggests that the two legs of the

Ahriman serpent, like the four arms of serpent-tailed
Rahu, is an anthropomorphic addition. In the ancient
' '
planispheres we find the crooked serpent mentioned in

the Book of Job, but no dragon.

The two great monsters of Vedic mythology, Vritra and
Ahi, are not so distinguishable from each other in the
Vedas as in more recent fables. Vritra is very frequently
called Vritra Ahi Ahi being explained in the St. Peters
'
burg Dictionary as the Serpent of the Heavens, the demon
Vritra.' Ahi literally means 'serpent,' answering to the
Greek e^-hva; and when anything is added it ap
pears to be anthropomorphic heads, arms, eyes as in
the case of the Egyptian serpent-monsters. The Vedic
demon Urana is described as having three heads, six eyes,
and ninety-nine arms.
There would appear to be as little reason for ascribing
to the Tannin of the Old Testament the significance of
dragon, though it is generally so translated. It is used
under circumstances which show it to mean whale, serpent,
and various other beasts. Jeremiah (xiv. 6) compares them
to wild asses snuffing the wind, and Micah describes
(i.
8)

their 'wailing.' The fiery serpents said to have afflicted

Israel in the wilderness are called seraphim, but neither
in

their natural or mythological forms do they anticipate our

 TURNER'S DRAGON. 323

conventional dragon beyond the fiery character that is

blended with the serpent character. Nor do the descrip
tions of Behemoth and Leviathan comport with the dragon-
form.
The serpent as an animal is a consummate development.
Its feet, so far from having been amputated, as the fables
say, in punishment of its sin, have been withdrawn beneath
the skin as crutches used in a feebler period. It is found
as a tertiary fossil. Since, therefore, the dragon form ex
hypothesi is a reminiscence of the huge, now fossil, Saurians
which preceded the serpent in time, the early mythologies
could hardly have so regularly described great serpents
instead of dragons. If the realistic theory we are dis
cussing were true, the earliest combats those of Indra,
for instance ought to have been with dragons, and the
serpent enemies would have multiplied as time went on ;

but the reverse is the case the (alleged) extinct forms

being comparatively modern in heroic legend.
Mr. John Ruskin once remarked upon Turner's picture of
the Dragon guarding the Hesperides, that this conception
so early as 1806, when no Saurian skeleton was within the
artist's reach, presented a

singular instance of the sci

entific imagination. As a
coincidence with such ex
tinct forms Turner's dragon
is surpassed by the monster
on which a witch rides in
one of the engravings of
Delia Bella, published in

1637. In that year, on the Fig. 22. A Witch Mounted

(Delia Bella).
occasion of the marriage of
the grand duke Ferdinand II. in Florence, there was a

masque d' Inferno, whose representations were engraved by

 THE CONVENTIONAL DRAGON.

Delia Bella, of which this is one, so that it may be rather

to some scenic artist than to the distinguished imitator of
Callot that we owe this grotesque form, which the late Mr.
Wright said ' might have been borrowed from some distant
geological period.' If so, the fact would present a curious
coincidence with the true history of Turner's Dragon ; for
after Mr. Ruskin had published his remark about the scien
tific imagination represented in an old friend of the artist

it,
declared that Turner himself had told him that he copied
that dragon from a Christmas spectacle in Drury Lane
theatre. But Turner had shown the truest scientific in
stinct in repairing to the fossil-beds of human imagina
tion, and drawing thence the conventional form which
never had existence save as the structure of cumulative
tradition.
 ( 325 )

CHAPTER III.
THE SERPENT.

The beauty of the Serpent Emerson on ideal forms Michelet's

thoughts on the viper's head Unique characters of the Serpent
The monkey's horror of Snakes The Serpent protected by super
stition Human defencelessness against its subtle powers
Dubufe's picture of the Fall of Man.

In the accompanying picture, a medal of the ancient city

of Tyre, two of the most beautiful forms of nature are
brought together, the Serpent and the Egg. Mr. D. R.
Hay has shown the end
less extent to which the
oval arches have been
reproduced in the cera
mic arts of antiquity ;

and the same sense of

symmetry which made
the Greek vase a combi
nation of Eggs prevails
in the charm which the
same graceful outline
possesses wherever sug
gested, as in curves of
- Fig. 23 Serpent and Ecc (TyreX
the swan, crescent of
the moon, the elongated shell, on which Aphrodite may
well be poised, since the same contours find their con
summate expression in the flowing lines attaining their
repose in the perfect form of woman. The Serpent
326 BEAUTY OF THE SERPENT.
has had an
'
model of the '
of grace and beauty
line
even larger fascination for the eye of the artist and the
poet. It is the one active form in nature which cannot be
ungraceful, and to estimate the extent of its use in decora
tion is impossible, because all undulating and coiling lines
are necessarily serpent forms. But in addition to the per
fections of this form which fulfil all the ascent of forms in
Swedenborg's mystical morphology, circular, spiral, perpe
tual-circular, vortical, celestial the Serpent bears on it, as
it were, gems of the underworld that seem to find their
counterpart in galaxies.
One must conclude that Serpent-worship is mainly
founded in fear. The sacrifices offered to that animal are
alone sufficient to prove this. But as it is certain that the
Serpent appears in symbolism and poetry in many ways
which have little or no relation to its terrors, we may well
doubt whether it may not have had a career in the human
imagination previous to either of the results of its reign
of terror, worship and execration. It is the theory of
Pestalozzi that every child is born an artist, and through
its pictorial sense must be led on its first steps of education.
The infant world displayed also in its selection of sacred
trees and animals a profound appreciation of beauty. The
myths in which the Serpent is represented as kakodemon
refer rather to its natural history than to its appearance ;
and even when its natural history came to be observed, there
was there now is such a wide discrepancy between its
physiology and its functions, also between its intrinsic
characters and their relation to man, that we can only accept
its various aspects in mythology without attempting to trace
their relative precedence in time.
The past may in this case be best interpreted by the pre
sent. How different now to wise and observant men are
the suggestions of this exceptional form in nature !
 EMERSON ON IDEAL FORMS. 327

Let us read a passage concerning it from Ralph Waldo

Emerson:
'
In the old aphorism, nature is always self-similar. In
the plant, the eye or germinative point opens to a leaf, then
to another leaf, with a power of transforming the leaf into
radicle, pistil, petal, bract, sepal, or seed.
stamen, The
whole art of the plant is still to repeat leaf on leaf without
end, the of heat, light, moisture, and food,
more or less
determining the form it shall assume. In the animal, nature
makes a vertebra, or a spine of vertebrae, and helps herself
still by a new spine, with a limited power of modifying its
form, spine on spine, to the end of the world. A poetic
anatomist, in our own day, teaches that a snake being a
horizontal line, and man being an erect line, constitute a
right angle; and between the lines of this mystical quadrant,
all animated beings find their place : and he assumes the
hair-worm, the span-worm, or the snake, as the type or pre
diction of the spine. Manifestly, at the end of the spine,
nature puts out smaller spines, as arms ; at the end of the
arms, new spines, as hands ; at the other end she repeats
the process, as legs and feet. At the top of the column she
puts out another spine, which doubles or loops itself over
as a span-worm, into a ball, and forms the skull, with
extremities again : the hands being now the upper jaw, the
feet the lower jaw, the fingers and toes being represented
this time by upper and lower teeth. This new spine is
destined to high uses. It is a new man on the shoulders of
1
the last.'
As one reads this it might be asked, How could its ideal
ism be more profoundly pictured for the eye than in the
Serpent coiled round the egg, the seed out of which all
these spines must branch out for their protean variations?
What refrains of ancient themes subtly sound between the
1
'Representative Men,' American edition of 1850, p. 108.
328 THE VIPER'S HEAD.

lines, from the Serpent doomed to crawl on its belly in

the dust, to the Serpent that is lifted up !

Now let us turn to the page of Jules Michelet, and read

what the Serpent signified to one mood of his sympathetic
nature.
'
It was one of my saddest hours when, seeking in nature
a refuge from thoughts of the age, I for the first time
encountered the head of the viper. This occurred in a

valuable museum of anatomical imitations.

The head marvellously imitated and enormously en

larged, so as to remind one of the tiger's and the jaguar's,

exposed in its horrible form a something still more
horrible. You seized at once the delicate, infinite, fear

fully prescient precautions by which the deadly machine

is sopotently armed. Not only is it provided with
numerous keen-edged teeth, not only are these teeth

supplied with ingenious reservoir of poison

an which

slays immediately, but their extreme fineness which

renders them liable to fracture is compensated by an
advantage that perhaps no other animal possesses,
namely, magazine of supernumerary teeth, to supply
a
at need the place of any accidentally broken. Oh, what
provisions for killing ! What precautions that the victim
shall not escape ! What love for this horrible creature!
I stood by it scandalised, if I may so speak, and with
a sick soul. Nature, the great mother, by whose side
I had taken refuge, shocked me with a maternity so
cruelly impartial. Gloomily I
walked away, bearing on
my heart a darker shadow than rested on the day itself,
one of the sternest in winter. I had come forth like a

child ; I returned home like an orphan, feeling the notion

of a Providence dying away within me.' 1

Many have so gone forth and so returned ; some to

1 ' L'Oiseau,' par Jules Michelet.

 UNIQUE CHARACTERS OF THE SERPENT. 329

' '
say, There is no God ; to say (as is reported of
a few
a living poet), 'I believe in God, but am against him;'
but some also to discern in the viper's head Nature's
ironclad, armed with her best science to defend the
advance of form to humanity along narrow passes.
The primitive man was the child that went forth when
his world was also a child, and when the Serpent was still
doing its part towards making him and it a man. It
was a long way from him to the dragon-slayer ; but it is
much that he did not merely cower; he watched and
observed, and there is not one trait belonging to his
deadly crawling contemporaries that he did not note
and spiritualise in such science as was possible to him.
The last-discovered of the topes in India represents
Serpent-worshippers gathered around their deity, holding
their tongues with finger and thumb. No living form
in nature could be so fitly regarded in that attitude. Not
only is the Serpent normally silent, but in its action it
has 'the quiet of perfect motion.' The maximum of
force is shown in relatively to its size, along with the
it,

minimum of friction and visible effort. Footless, wingless,

as a star, its swift gliding and darting sometimes like
is

the lightning whose forked tongue seemed to incarnate.

it

The least touch of its ingenious tooth more destructive

is

than the lion's jaw. What mystery in its longevity, in

its self-subsistence, in its self-renovation Out of the
!

dark comes arrayedin jewels, a crawling magazine of

it

death in its ire, in its unknown purposes able to renew

its youth, and fable for man imperishable life Wonderful
!

also are its mimicries. It sometimes borrows colours of

the earth on which reposes, the trees on which hangs,
it
it

now seems covered with eyes, and the spectacled snake

'
'

appeared to have artificially added to its vision. Alto

gether unique among natural forms, and its vast
it
is
33o MONKEYS' HORROR OF SNAKES.

history in religious speculation and mythology does

credit to the observation of primitive man.
Recent experiments have shown the monkeys stand in
the greatest terror of snakes. Such terror is more and
more recognised as a survival in the European man. The
Serpent is almost the only animal which can follow a
monkey up a tree and thereattack its young. Our
arboreal anthropoid progenitors could best have been
developed in some place naturally enclosed and fortified,
as by precipices which quadrupeds could not scale, but
which apes might reach by swinging and leaping from
trees. But there could be no seclusion where the Serpent
could not follow. I am informed by the King of Bonny
that in his region of Africa the only serpent whose worship
is fully maintained is the Nomboh (Leaper), a small snake,
white and glistening, whose bite is fatal, and which, climb
ing into trees, springs thence upon its prey beneath, and
can travel far by leaping from branch to branch. The
first arboreal man who added a little to the natural
defences of any situation might stand in tradition as
a god planting a garden ; but even he would not be
supposed able to devise any absolute means of defence
against the subtlest of all
Among the
the beasts.
three things Solomon found too wonderful for him was
'the way of a serpent upon a rock' (Prov. xxx. 19).
This comparative superiority of the Serpent to any and all
devices and contrivances known to primitive men whose
proverbs must have made most of Solomon's wisdom
would necessarily have its effect upon the animal and
mental nerves of our race in early times, and the Serpent
would find in his sanctity a condition favourable to
survival and multiplication. It is this fatal power of
superstition to change fancies into realities which we
find still protecting the Serpent in various countries.
 DUBUFES PICTURE. 331

From being venerated as the arbiter of life and death, it

might thus actually become such in large districts of
country. In Dubufe's picture of the Fall of Man, the
wrath of Jehovah is represented by the lightning, which
has shattered the tree beneath which the offending pair
are now crouching ; beyond it Satan is seen in human
shape raising his arm in proud defiance against the
blackened sky. So would the Serpent appear. His
victims were counted by many thousands where the
lightning laid low one. Transmitted along the shudder
ing nerves of many generations came the confession of
'
the Son of Sirach, There is no head above the head of a
serpent.'
 ( 33* )

CHAPTER IV.
THE WORM.

An African Serpent-drama in America The Veiled Serpent The Ark

of the Covenant Aaron's Rod The Worm An Episode on the
Dii Involuti The Serapes The Bambino at Rome Serpent-
transformations.

On the eve of January 1, 1863, that historic New Year's

Day on which President Lincoln proclaimed freedom to
American slaves, I was present at a Watchnight held by
negroes in a city of that country. In opening the meeting
the preacher said, though in words whose eloquent short
comings I
cannot reproduce : ' Brethren and sisters, the
President of the United States has promised that, if the
Confederates will free all
do not lay down their arms, he
their slaves to-morrow. They have not laid down their
arms. To-morrow will be the day of liberty to the op
pressed. But we all know that evil powers are around
the President. While we sit here they are trying to make
him break his word. But we have come together to watch,
and see that he does not break his word. Brethren, the
bad influences around the President to-night are stronger
than any Copperheads.1 The Old Serpent is abroad to
night, with all his emissaries, in great power. His wrath
is great, because he knows his hour is near. He will be in
1 A deadly Southern snake, coloured like the soil on which it lurks, had
become the current name for politicians who, while professi-g loyalty to the
Union, aided those who sought to overthrow it.
 AFRICAN SERPENT-DRAMA IN AMERICA. 333

thischurch this evening. As midnight comes on we shall

hear his rage. But, brethren and sisters, don't be alarmed.
Our will prevail.
prayers His head will be bruised. His
back will be broken. He will go raging to hell, and God
Almighty's New Year will make the United States a true
land of freedom.'
The sensation caused among the hundreds of negroes
present by these words was profound ; they were frequently
'
interrupted by cries of Glory ! and there were tears 01
'

joy. But the scene and excitement which followed were

indescribable. A few moments before midnight the con
gregation were requested to kneel, which they did, and
prayer succeeded prayer with increasing fervour. Pre
sently a loud, prolonged hiss was heard. There were
' '
cries He's here ! he's here ! Then came a volley of
hisses they seemed to proceed from every part of the
;

room, hisses so entirely like those of huge serpents that

the strongest nerves were shaken ; above them rose the
preacher's prayer that had become a wild incantation, and
ecstatic ejaculations became so universal that it was a
marvel what voices were left to make the hisses. Finally,
from a neighbouring steeple the twelve strokes of mid
night sounded on the frosty air, and immediately the
hisses diminished, and presently died away altogether,
and the New Year that brought freedom to four millions
of slaves was ushered in by the jubilant chorus of all
present singing a hymn of victory.
Far had come those hisses and that song of victory, ter
minating the dragon-drama of America. In them was the
burden of Ezekiel : ' Son of man, set thy face against
Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and

against all Egypt, saying, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah :

Behold I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the
great dragon that lieth in the midst of the rivers ... I
will put a hook in thy jaws.' In them was the burden of
334 THE VEILED SERPENT.
'
Isaiah : In that day Jehovah with his sore and great and
strong sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing- serpent,
even Leviathan that crooked serpent : he shall slay the
dragon that is in the sea.' In it was the cry of Zophar:
'
His meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps
within him. He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall
vomit them up again : God shall cast them out of his
belly.' And these Hebrew utterances, again, were but the
distant echoes of far earlier voices of those African slaves
still seen pictured with their chains on the ruined walls of
Egypt, voices that gathered courage at last to announce
the never-ending struggle of man with Oppression, asthat
combat between god and serpent which never had a nobler
event than when the dying hiss of Slavery was heard in
America, and the victorious Sun rose upon a New World
of free and equal men.
The Serpent thus exalted in America to a type of op
pression is very different from any snake that may this
day be found worshipped deity by the African in his
as a
native land. The swarthy snake-worshipper in his migra
tion took his god along with him in his chest or basket at
once ark and altar and in that hiding-place it underwent
transformations. He emerged as the protean emblem of
both good and evil. In a mythologic sense the serpent
certainly held its tail in its mouth. No civilisation has
reached the end of its typical supremacy.
Concerning the accompanying Eleusinian form (Fig. 24),
' The mysterious trunk,
Calmet says :
coffer, or basket, may be justly reckoned
among the most remarkable and sacred
instruments of worship, which formed part
of the processional ceremonies in the
Fig. n Srrpent and heathen world. This was held so sacred
akk (from » Greek
t^at jt was not publicly exposed to view,
or publicly opened, but was reserved for the inspection
 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 335

of the initiated, the fully initiated only. Completely to

explain this symbol would require a dissertation; and,
indeed, it has been considered, more or less, by those who
have written on the nature of the Ark of the testimony
among the Hebrews. Declining the inquiry at present,
we merely call the attention of the reader to what this
'
mystical coffer was supposed to contain a serpent !
The French Benedictine who wrote this passage, though
his usual candour shames the casuistry of our own time,
found it necessary to conceal the Hebrew Ark : it was
precisely so that the occupant of the Ark was originally
concealed though St. John exorcised it from the
; and
Chalice its genius lingers in the Pyx, before whose Host
' '
lifted up the eyes of worshippers are lowered.
The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews (chap, ix.), de
'
scribing the Tabernacle, says : After the second veil, the
tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all ; which had
the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid
round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that
had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables
of the covenant.' But this rod of Aaron, which, by bud
ding, had swallowed up all rival pretensions to the tribal
priesthood, was the same rod which had been changed to
a serpent, and swallowed up the rod-serpents of the sor
cerers in Pharaoh's presence. So soft and subtle is '
the
'
way of a serpent upon a rock !
This veiling of the Serpent, significant of a great deal, is
characteristic even of the words used to name it. Of these
I have selected one to head this chapter, because it is one
of the innumerable veils which shielded this reptile's trans
formation from a particular external danger to a demonic
type. This general description of things that wind about
or turn {vermes, traced by some to the Sanskrit root hvar,
'
curved gradually came into use to express the demon
'),
336 THE WORM.

serpents. Dante and Milton call Satan a worm. No

doubt among the two hundred names for the Serpent, said
to be mentioned in an Arabic work, we should find parallels
'
to this old adaptation of the word worm.' In countries
as Germany and England where no large serpents are

found, the popular imagination could not be impressed by

merely saying that Siegfried or Lambton had slain a

snake. The tortuous character of the snake was preserved,

but, by that unconscious dexterity which so often appears
in the making of myths, it was expanded so as to include
a power of supernatural transformation. The Lambton
worm comes out of the well very small, but it afterwards
coils in nine huge folds around its hill. The hag-ridden
daughter of the King of Northumberland, who
crept into a hole a worm
And out stept a fair ladye,

did but follow the legendary rule of the demonic serpent

tribe.
Why was the Serpent slipped into the Ark or coffer and
hid behind veils ? To answer this will require here an
episode.
In the Etruscan theology and ceremonial the supreme
power was lodged with certain deities that were never seen.

They were called the Dii Involuti, the veiled gods. Not

even the priests ever looked upon them. When any dire

calamity occurred, it was said these mysterious deities had

spoken their word in the council of the gods, a word

always final and fatal.

There have been fine theories on the subject, and the

Etruscans have been complimented for having high trans

cendental views of the invisible nature of the Divine Being.
But a more prosaic theory is probably true. These gods

were wrapped up because they were not fit to be seen.

The rude carvings of some savage tribe, they had been

 DII INVOLUTI. 337

seen and adored at first : temples had been built for them,
and their priesthood had grown powerful ; but as art ad

vanced and beautiful statues arose, these rude designs

could not bear the contrast, and the only way of preserv
ing reverence for them, and the institutions grown up
around them, was to hide them out of sight altogether.
Then it could be said they were so divinely beautiful
that the senses would be overpowered by them.
There have been many veiled deities, and though their
veils have been rationalised, they are easily pierced. The
inscription on the temple of Isis at Sais was :
'
I am
that which has been, which and which shall be, and no
is,

one has yet lifted the veil that hides me.' Isis at this time
had probably become a negro Madonna, like that still
worshipped in Spain as holiest of images, and called by the
same title, Our Immaculate Lady.' As the fair race and
'

the dark mingled in Egypt, the primitive Nubian com

plexion and features of Isis could not inspire such reverence
as more anciently, and before her also curtain was hung.
a

The Ark of Moses carried this veil into the wilderness, and
concealed objects not attractive to look at probably two
scrawled stones, some bones said to be those of Joseph,
a

pot of so-called manna, and the staff said to have once

been serpent and afterwards blossomed. Fashioned by
a

a rude tribe, the Ark was fit thing to hide, and hidden
it
a

has been to this day. When the veil of the Temple was
rent, allegorically at the death of Christ, actually by
Titus, nothing of the kind was found and would seem
it
;

that the Jews must long have been worshipping before a

veil with emptiness behind it. Paul discovered that the
veil said to have covered the face of Moses when he de
scended from Sinai was a myth meant that the people
it
;

should not see to the end of what was nevertheless tran-

VOL. y
I.
338 SERAPHS AND BAMBINO.

sient. '
Their minds were blinded ; for unto this day,
when Moses is read, that veil is on their heart.'
Kircher says the Seraphs of Egypt were images without
any emrnency of limbs, rolled as it were in swaddling
clothes, partly made of stone, partly of metal, wood, or
shell. Similar images, he says, were called by the Romans
'secret gods.' As an age of scepticism advanced, it was
'
sometimes necessary that these
'
involuti should be

slightly revealed, lest it should be said there was no god

there at all. Such is the case with the famous bambino of
Aracceli Church in Rome. This effigy, said to have been
carved by a pilgrim out of a tree on the Mount of Olives,
and painted by St. Luke while the pilgrim was sleeping,
is now kept in its ark, and visitors are allowed to see part
of its painted When the writer of this requested a
face.
sight of the whole form, or of the head at any rate, the
exhibiting priest was astounded at the suggestion. No
doubt he was right : the only wonder is that the face is not
hid also, for a more ingeniously ugly thing than the flat,
blackened, and rouged visage of the bambino it were diffi
cult to conceive. But it wears a very cunning veil never
theless. The face is set in marvellous brilliants, but these
are of less effect in hiding its ugliness than the vesture of
mythology around it. The adjacent walls are covered
with pictures of the miracles it has performed, and which
have attracted to it such faith that it is said at one time
to have received more medical fees than all the physicians
in Rome together. Priests have discovered that a veil
over the mind is thicker than a veil on the god. Such
is the popular veneration for the bambino, that, in 1849,
the Republicans thought it politic to present the monks
with the Pope's state coach to carry the idol about. In the
end it was proved that the Pope was securely seated beside
 SERPENT TRANSFORMATIONS.
the bambino, and he presently emerged from behind his
veil also.
There came, then, a period when the Serpent crept be
hind the veil, or lid of the ark, or into a chalice, a very
small worm, but yet able to gnaw the staff of Solomon.
No wisdom could be permitted to rise above fear itself,
though its special sources might be here and there reduced
or vanquished. The snake had taught man at last its arts
of war. Man had summoned to his aid the pig, and the
ibis made havoc among the reptiles ; and some of that
terror which is the parent of that kind of devotion passed
away. When it next emerged, it was in twofold guise, as
Agathodemon and Kakodemon, but in both forms as the
familiar of some higher being. It was as the genius of
Minerva, of Esculapius, of St. Euphemia. We have already
seen him (Fig. 1 3) as the genius of the Eleans, the Soso-
polis, where also we see the Serpent hurrying into his
cavern,leaving the mother and child to be worshipped
in the temple of Lucina. In christian symbolism the
' '
Seraphim burning (sdraf) serpents veiled their faces
and forms beneath their huge wings, crossed in front, and
'
so have been able to become the eminent,' and to join in
the praises of modern communities at being delivered from
just such imaginary fiery worms as themselves !
 ( 34° )

CHAPTER V.

APOPHIS.

The Naturalistic Theory of Apophis The Serpent of Time Epic of

the Worm The Asp of Melite Vanquishers of Time Nachash-
Beriach The Serpent-Spy Treading on Serpents.

THE considerations advanced in the previous chapter enable

us to dismiss with facility many of the rationalistic inter
pretations which have been explain the
advanced to
monstrous serpents of sacred books by reference to ima
ginary species supposed to be now extinct. Flying serpents,
snakes many-headed, rain-bringing, woman-hating, &c,
may be suffered to survive as the fauna of bibliolatrous
imaginations. Such forms, however, are of such mytho-
logic importance that it is necessary to watch carefully
against this method of realistic interpretation, especially
as there are many actual characteristics of serpents suffi

ciently mysterious to conspire with it. A recent instance

of this literalism may here be noticed.
Mr. W. R. Cooper1 supposes the evil serpent of Egyptian
'
Mythology to have a real basis in a large and unidentified
species of coluber, of great strength and hideous longitude,'
'
which was, even from the earliest ages, associated as the

representative of spiritual, and occasionally physical evil,

'
and was named Hof, Rehof, or Apophis, the destroyer, the

enemy of the gods, and the devourer of the souls of men.'

1
See his learned and valuable treatise, 'The Serpent Myths of Ancient
Egypt.' Hardwicke, 1873.
 NATURALISTIC THEORY.
'
That such a creature, he adds, once inhabited the Libyan
desert, we have the testimony of both Hanno the Cartha
ginian and Lucan the Roman, and if it is now no longer an
inhabitant of that region, it is probably owing to the
advance of civilisation having driven it farther south.'
Apart from the extreme improbability that African
exploration should have brought no rumours of such a
monster if it existed, it may be said concerning Mr. Cooper's
theory: (i.) If, indeed, the references cited were to a reptile
now unknown, we might be led by mythologic analogy to
expect that it would have been revered beyond either the
Asp or the Cobra. In proportion to the fear has generally
been the exaltation of its objects. Primitive peoples have
generally gathered courage to pour invective upon evil
monsters when either from their non-existence or rarity
there was least danger of its being practically resented as a
personal affront. (2.) The regular folds of Apophis on
the sarcophagus of Seti I. and elsewhere are so evidently
mystical and conventional that, apparently, they refer to a
serpent-form only as the guilloche on a wall may refer to
sea-waves. Apophis (or Apap) would have been a decora
tive artist to fold himself in such order.
These impossible labyrinthine coils suggest Time, as
the serpent with its tail in its mouth signifies Eternity,
an evolution of the same idea. This was the interpre
tation given by a careful scholar, the late William Hickson,1
to the procession of nine persons depicted on the sarco
phagus mentioned bearing a serpent, each holding a
as
'
fold, all being regular enough for a frieze. The scene,' says
appears to relate to the Last Judgment, for
'
this author,
Osiris is seen on his throne, passing sentence on a crowd
before him ; and in the same tableaux are depicted the
river that divides the living from the dead, and the bridge
1 ' Time and Faith,' i. 204. Groombridge, 1857.
342 TIME.

of life.The death of the serpent may possibly be intended

to symbolise the end of time.' This idea of long duration
might be a general one relating to all time, or it might
refer to the duration of individual life ; it involved natur
ally the evils and agonies of life; but the fundamental
conception is more simple, and also more poetic, than even
these implications, and it means eternal waste and decay.
One has need only to sit before a clock to see Apophis:
there coil upon coil winds the ever-moving monster, whose
tooth is remorseless, devouring little by little the strength
and majesty of man, and reducing his grandest achieve
ments even his universe to dust. Time is the undying
Worm.
God having made me worm, I make you smoke.
Though safe your nameless essence from my stroke,
Yet do I gnaw no less
Love in the heart, stars in the livid space,
God jealous, making vacant thus your place,
And steal your witnesses.

Since the star flames, man would be wrong to teach

That the grave's worm cannot such glory reach ;
Naught real is save me.
Within the blue, as 'neath the marble slab I lie,
I bite at once the star within the sky,
The apple on the tree.
To gnaw yon star is not more tough to me
Than hanging grapes on vines of Sicily ;
I clip the rays that fall ;

Eternity yields not to splendours brave.

Fly, ant, all creatures die, and nought can save
The constellations all.
The starry ship, high in the ether sea,
Must split and wreck in the end : this thing shall be :
The broad-ringed Saturn toss
To : Sirius, touched by me, decay,
ruin
As the small boat from Ithaca away
That steers to Kalymnos.1
1 ' The Epic of the Worm,' by Victor Hugo. Translated by Bayard Taylor
' '
from La Legende des Siecles
 ASP OF MELITE. 343

The natural history of Apophis, so far as he has any,

is probably suggested in the following passage cited

by Mr. Cooper from Wilkinson: 'iElian relates many
strange stories of the asp, and the respect paid to it
by the Egyptians ; but we may suppose that in his six
teen of asps other snakes were included. He
species
also speaks of a dragon which was sacred in the Egyp
tian Melite, and another kind of snake called Paries or
Paruas, dedicated to iEsculapius. The serpent of Melite
had priests and ministers, a table and bowl. It was kept
in a tower, and fed by the priests with cakes made of flour
and honey, which they placed there in a bowl. Having
done this they retired. The next day, on returning to the
apartment, the food was found to be eaten, and the same
quantity was again put into the bowl, for it was not lawful
for any one to see the sacred reptile.' 1
It was in this concealment from the outward eye that
the Serpent was able to assume such monstrous proportions
to the eye of imagination ; and, indeed, it is not beyond
conjecture that this serpent of Melite, coming in conflict
with Osirian worship, was degraded and demonised into
that evil monster (Apophis) whom Horus slew to avenge
his destruction of Osiris (for he was often identified with
Typhon).
Though Horus cursed and slew this terrible demon-
serpent, in all Egyptian Mythology with
he reappears
undiminished strength, and all evil powers were the brood
1 Bruce relates of the Abyssinians that a serpent is commonly in their
kept
houses to consult for an augury of good or evil. Butter and honey are placed
of which
it,

partake, the omen the serpent refuse to eat,

if
if

before good
is
it

some misfortune sure to happen. This custom seems to throw light on the
is

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, 60.
i.

Compare the apocryphal tale of Bel and the Dragon. Bel was healing
a

god of the Babylonians, and the Dragon whom he slew may have been
regarded in later times as his familiar.
344 NA CHASH-BERIA CH.

of himself or Typhon, who were sometimes described as

brothers and sometimes as the same beings. From the

' '
Ritual of the Dead we learn that it was the high privilege
and task of the heroic dead to be reconstructed and go
forth to encounter and subdue the agents of Apophis, who
sent out to engage them the crocodiles Seb, Hem, and
Shui, and other crocodiles from north, south, east, and west ;
the hero having conquered these, acquires their might, and
next prevails over the walking viper Ru ; and so on with
other demons called 'precursors of Apophis,' until their
prince himself is encountered and slain, all the hero's
guardian deities attending to fix a knife in each of the
monster's folds. These are the Vanquishers of Time,
the immortal.
In Apophis we find the Serpent fairly developed to a
'
principle of evil. He is an accuser of the sun ;' the twelve
gateways into Hades are surmounted by his representa
tives, which the Sun must pass twelve hours of night. He
is at once the 'Nachash beriach' and 'Nachash aktalon'
the 'Cross-bar serpent' and the 'Tortuous serpent' which
we meet with in Isa. xxvii. 1 : 'In that day the Lord
with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish
leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked
serpent.' The marginal translation in the English version
is 'crossing like a bar,' instead of piercing, and the Vul
gate has serpens vectis. This refers to the moral function
of the serpent, barring the way, or guarding the door.
as
No doubt this is the 'crooked serpent' of Job xxvi. 13,
for the astrological sense of it does not invalidate the
terrestrial Imagination could only project
significance.
into the heavens what it had learned on earth. Bochart
'
in identifying ' Nachash-beriach as 'the flying Serpent,'
is quite right : the Seraph, or winged Serpent, which
barred the way to the tree of life in Eden, and in some
 THE SPY. 345

traditions was the treacherous guard at the gate of the

garden, and which bit Israel in the wilderness, was this
same protean Apophis. For such tasks, and to soar
into the celestial planisphere, Serpent must needs
the
have wings ; and thus it is already far on its way to
become the flying Dragon. But in one form, as the
betrayer of man, it must lose its wings and crawl upon
the ground for ever. The Serpent is thus not so much
agathodemon and kakodemon in one form, as a principle
of destructiveness which is sometimesby the employed
deity to punish his enemies, as Horus employs fiery Kheti,
but sometimes requires to be himself punished.
There have been doubts whether the familiar derivation
of 6<pi<;, the eye, shall continue.
serpent, from 8\fr, Some
connect the Greek word with eyis, but Curtius maintains
that the old derivation from oyjr is correct.1 Even were
this not the etymology, the popularity of it would equally
suggest the that this reptile was of old supposed
fact
to kill with its glance ; and it was also generally regarded
as gifted with praeternatural vision. By a similar pro
cess to that which developed avenging Furies out of the
detective dawn Erinys from Saranyu, Satan from Lucifer2
this subtle Spy might have become also a retributive
and finally a malignant power. The Furies were por
trayed bearing serpents in their hands, and each of these
might carry ideally the terrors of Apophis : Time also is
'
a detective, and the guilty heard it saying, Your sin will
find you out.'
Through of this kind the Serpent
many associations
became at an early period an agent of ordeal. Any one
handling it with impunity was regarded as in league
with or specially hedged about by the deity whose
it,

of Greek Etymology,' ii. 63. English translation.

1

Principles
'

See pp. and 20.

8

8
346 TREADING ON SERPENTS.
'
formed the crooked serpent.'
hands It may have been
as snake-charmers that Moses and Aaron appeared be
fore Pharaoh and influenced his imagination; or, if the
story be a myth, its existence still shows that serpent
performances would then have been regarded as creden
tials of divine authentication. So when Paul was ship
wrecked on Malta, where a viper is said to have fastened
on his hand, the barbarians, having at first inferred that
he was a murderer, 'whom though he hath escaped the
sea, yet Vengeance suffereth not to live,' concluded he
was a god when they found him unharmed. Innumerable
traditions preceded the words ascribed to Christ (Luke x.
19), 'Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents
and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and
nothing shall by any means hurt you.' It is instructive to
compare this sentence attributed to Christ with the notion
of the barbarians concerning Paul's adventure, whatever it
may have been. Paul's familiarity with the Serpent seems
to them proof that he is a god. Such also is the idea
'
represented in Isa. xi. 8, The sucking child shall play
on the hole of the asp.' But the idea of treading on
serpents marks a period more nearly corresponding to
that of the infant Hercules strangling the serpents. Yet
though these two conceptions serpent - treading, and
serpent - slaying approach each other, they are very
different in source significance, both morally and
and
historically. The word used in Luke, varelv, conveys the
idea of walking over something in majesty, not in hostility;
it must be interpreted by the next sentence (x. 20), ' Not
withstanding, in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject
The serpent-slayer
unto you (ra irvev/iara virordcyaerai).'
or dragon-slayer is not of Semitic origin. The awful
supremacy of Jehovah held all the powers of destruction
chained to his hand ; and to ask man if he could draw out
 ANECDOTE OF ZINZENDORF. 347

Leviathan with hook was only another form of reminding

a
him of his own inferiority to the creator and lord of Levia
than. How true the Semitic ideas running though the
Bible, and especially represented in the legend of Paul
in Malta, are to the barbarian nature is illustrated by an
'
incident related in Mr. Brinton's Myths of the New
World.' The pious founder of the Moravian Brotherhood,
Count Zinzendorf, was visiting a missionary station among
the Shawnees in the Wyoming Valley, America. Recent
quarrelswith the white people had so irritated the red
men that they resolved to make him their victim. After
he had retired to his hut several of the braves softly peered
in. Count Zinzendorf was seated before a fire, lost in
perusal of the Scriptures ; and while the red men gazed
they saw what he did not a huge rattlesnake trailing
across his feet to gather itself in a coil before the comfort
able warmth of the fire. Immediately they forsook their
murderous purpose, and retired noiselessly, convinced that
this was indeed a divine man.
 ( 348 )

CHAPTER VI.
THE SERPENT IN INDIA.

The Kankato na The Vedic Serpents not worshipful Ananta and

Sesha The Healing Serpent The guardian of treasures Miss
Buckland's theory Primitive rationalism Underworld pluto
Vritra History of the word ' Ahi
'
cracy Rain and lightning
The Adder Zohak A Teutonic Laokoon.

That Serpent - worship in India was developed by

euphemism seems sufficiently shown in the famous Vedic
hymn called Kankato na, recited as an antidote against
all venom, of which the following is a translation:
'
i. Some creature of little venom ; some creature of
great venom; or some venomous aquatic reptile; creatures
of two kinds, both destructive of life, or poisonous, unseen
creatures, have anointed me with their poison.
'2. The antidote coming to the bitten person destroys
the unseen venomous creatures ; departing it destroys
them ; deprived of substance it destroys them by its
odour ; being ground it pulverises them.
'
3. Blades of sara grass, of knsara, of darhba, of sairya,
of munja, of virana, all the haunt of unseen venomous
creatures, have together anointed me with their venom.
'
The cows had lain down in their stalls ; the wild
4.
beasts had retreated to their lairs ; the senses of men were
at rest; when the unseen venomous creatures anointed me
with their venom.
 KANKATO NA. 349

'
5, Or they may be discovered in the dark, as thieves
in the dusk of evening ; for although they be unseen yet
all are seen by them ; therefore, men be vigilant.
'
6. Heaven, serpents, is your father ; Earth, your
mother ; Soma, your brother ; Aditi, your sister ; unseen,
all-seeing, abide in your holes ; enjoy your own good
pleasure.
'
7. Those who move with their shoulders, those who
move with their bodies, those who sting with sharp fangs,
those who are virulently venomous ; what do ye here, ye
unseen, depart together far from us.
'
The all-seeing Sun rises in the East, the destroyer
8.
of the unseen, driving away all the unseen venomous
creatures, and all evil spirits.
'
The Sun has risen on high, destroying all the many
9.
poisons; Aditya, the all-seeing, the destroyer of the unseen,
rises for the good of living beings.
'
10. I deposit the poison in the solar orb, like a leathern
bottle in the house of a vendor of spirits ; verily that ador
able Sun never dies ; nor through his favour shall we die
of the venom ; for, though afar off, yet drawn by his
coursers he will overtake the poison : the science of anti
dotes converted thee, Poison, to ambrosia.
'11. That insignificant little bird has swallowed thy
venom ; she does not die ; nor shall we die
for although ;

afar off, yet, drawn by his coursers, the Sun will overtake
the poison : the science of antidotes has converted thee,
Poison, to ambrosia.
'
May the thrice-seven sparks of Agni consume the
12.
influence of the venom ; they verily do not perish ; nor
shall we die ; for although afar off, the Sun, drawn by his
coursers, will overtake the poison : the science of antidotes
has converted thee, Poison, to ambrosia.

'13. I recite the names of ninety and nine rivers, the

350 VEDIC SERPENTS NOT WORSHIPFUL.

destroyers of poison : although afar off, the Sun, drawn by

his coursers, will overtake the poison : the science of anti
dotes will convert thee, Poison, to ambrosia.
'
14. May the thrice-seven peahens, the seven-sister
rivers, carry off, O Body, thy poison, as maidens with
pitchers carry away water.
'
May the insignificant mungoose carry off thy
15.
venom, Poison : if not, I will crush the vile creature with
a stone : so may the poison depart from my body, and go
to distant regions.
'
Hastening forth at the command of Agastya, thus
16.

spake the mungoose : The venom of the scorpion is in

nocuous Scorpion, thy venom is innocuous.' 1
;

Though, in the sixth verse of this hymn, the serpents

are said to be born of Heaven and Earth, the context
does not warrant the idea that any homage to them is
intended ; they are associated with the evil Rakshasas,
the Sun and Agni being represented as their haters and
destroyers. The seven-sister rivers (streams of the sacred
Ganges) supply an antidote to their venom, and certain
animals, the partridge and the mungoose, are said, though
insignificant, to be their superiors. The science of anti
dotes alluded to is that which Indra taught to Dadhyanch,
who lost his head for communicating it to the Aswins. It
is notable, however, that in the Vedic period there is no
thing which represents the serpent as medicinal, unless by
a roundabout process we connect the expression in the

Rig- Veda that the wrath of the Maruts, or storm-gods, is

'
as the ire of serpents,' with the fact that their chief, Rudra,
is celebrated as the bestower of ' healing herbs,' and they
themselves solicited for 'medicaments.' This would be
stretching the sense of the hymns too far. It is quite pos
sible, however, that at a later day, when serpent-worship
1 '
Rig-veda,' v. (Wilson).
 ANANTA AND SESHA.

was fully developed in India, what is said in the sixth

verse of the hymn may have been adduced to confirm the
superstition.
It seems clear, then, that at the time the Kankato na was
written, the serpent was regarded with simple abhorrence.
And we may remember, also, that even now, when the
Indian cobra is revered as a Brahman of the highest caste,
there is a reminiscence of his previous ill repute preserved
in the common Hindu belief that a certain mark on his
head was left there by the heel of Vishnu, Lord of Life, who
trod on it when, in one of his avatars, he first stepped
upon the earth. Although in the later mythology we find
Vishnu, in the intervals between his avatars or incarnations,
reposing on a serpent (Sesha), this might originally have
signified only his lordship over
it,

though Sesha also

is
called Ananta, the Infinite. The idea of the Infinite a

is
late one, however, and the symbolisation of by Sesha
it

is
consistent withlower significance at first. In Hindu
a

popular fables the snake appears in its simple character.

Such the fable of which so many variants are found, the
is

most familiar in the West being that of Bethgelert, and

which the thirteenth of the 4th Hitopadesa. The Brah
is

man having left his child alone, while he performs rite to

a

his ancestors, on his return finds a pet mungoose (nakula)

smeared with blood. Supposing the mungoose has de
his child, he slays and then discovers that the
it,

voured
poor animal had killed which had crept upon
serpent
a

the infant. In the Kankato na the word interpreted by

Sayana as mungoose (Viverra Mungo, or ichneumon)
is

not the same (nakula), but evidently means some animal

it

sufficiently unimportant to cast contempt upon the Serpent.

The universality of the Serpent as emblem of the healing
art found as such among the Egytians, Greeks, Germans,
Aztecs, and natives of Brazil suggests that its longevity
35* THE HEALING SERPENT.
and power of casting its old skin, apparently renewing its
youth, may have been the basis of this reputation. No
doubt, also, they would have been men of scientific tenden
cies and of close observation who first learned the snake's
susceptibilities to music, and how its poison might be drawn,
or even its fangs, and who so gained reputation as partakers
of its supposed powers. Through such primitive rational
ism the Serpent might gain an important alliance and climb
to make the asp-crown of Isis as goddess of health (the
Thermuthis), to twine round the staff of Esculapius, to
be emblem of Hippocrates, and ultimately survive to be
the sign of the European leech, twining at last as a red
stripe round the barber's pole. The primitive zoologist
and snake-charmer would not only, in all likelihood, be a
man cunning in the secrets of nature, but he would study
to meet as far as he could the popular demand for pallia
tives and antidotes against snake-bites; all who escaped
death after such wounds would increase his credit as a
practitioner ; and even were his mitigations necessarily few,
his knowledge of the Serpent's habits and of its varieties
might be the source of valuable precautions.
Such probable facts as these must, of course, be referred
to a period long anterior to the poetic serpent-symbolism
ofEgypt, and the elaborate Serpent mythology of Greece
and Scandinavia. How simple ideas, having once gained
popular prestige, may be caught up by theologians, poets,
metaphysicians, and quacks, and modified into manifold
forms, requires no proof in an age when we are witnessing
the rationalistic interpretations by which the cross, the
sacraments, and the other plain symbols are invested with
all manner of philosophical meanings. The Serpent hav
ing been adopted as the sign-post of Egyptian and Assyrian
doctors and it may have been something of that kind that
was set up by Moses in the wilderness would naturally
 THE GUARDIAN OF TREASURE. 353

become the symbol of life, and after that it would do duty

in any capacity whatever.
An ingenious anthropologist, Mr. C. Staniland Wake,1
supposes the Serpent in India to have been there also the
symbol of praeternatural and occult knowledge. Possibly
this may have been so to a limited extent, and in post-
Vedic times, but to me the accent of Hindu serpent-
mythology appears to be emphatically in the homage paid
to it as the guardian of the treasures. I may mention here
also the theory propounded by Miss A. W. Buckland in
a paper submitted to the Anthropological Institute in
London, March 10, 1874, on 'The Serpent in connection
with Primitive Metallurgy.' In this learned monograph
the writer maintains that a connection may be observed
between the knowledge of
early serpent-worship and a
metals, and indeed that the Serpent was the sign of Tura
nian metallurgists in the same way as I have suggested
that in Egypt and Assyria it was the sign of physicians.
She believes that the Serpent must have played some part
in the original discovery of the metals and precious stones
by man, in recognition of which that animal was first
assumed as a totem and thence became an emblem.
She states that traditional and ornamentational evidences
show that the Turanian races were the first workers in
metals, and that they migrated westward, probably from
India to Egypt and Chaldaea, and thence to Europe, and
even to America, bearing their art and its sign ; and that
they fled before the Aryans, who had the further art of
smelting, and that the Aryan myths of serpent-slaying
record the overthrow of the Turanian serpent-worshippers.
I cannot think that Miss Buckland has made out a case
for crediting nomadic Turanians with being the original
'
1 In a paper on the Origin of Serpent-worship,' read before the Anthro-
phological Institute in London, December 17, 1872.
VOL. I. Z
354 M/SS BUCKLANUS THEORY.

metallurgists; though it is not impossible that it may

have been a Scythian tribe in Southern India who gave
its fame to gold of Ophir/ which Max Miiller
' the

has shown to have been probably an Indian region.1

But that these early jewellers may have had the Serpent
as their sign or emblem is highly probable, and in ex

planation of it there seems little reason to resort to the

hypothesis of aid having been given by the Serpent to man
in his discovery of metals. Surely the jewelled decoration
of the serpent would in itself have been an obvious sug
gestion of it as the emblem of gems. Where a reptile for
some reasons associated with the snake the toad had
not the like bright spots, the cognate superstition might
arise that its jewel is concealed in its head. And, finally,
when these reptiles had been connected with gems, the eye
of either would easily receive added rays from manifold
eye-beams of superstition.
We might also credit the primitive people with sufficient
logical power to understand why they should infer that an
animal so wonderfully and elaborately provided with dead-
liness as the Serpent should have tasks of corresponding
importance. The medicine which healed man (therefore
possibly gods), the treasures valued most by men (therefore
by anthropomorphic deities), the fruit of immortality (which
the gods might wish to monopolise), might seem the
supreme things of value, which the supreme perfection of
the serpent's fang might be created to guard. This might
be so in the heavens as well as in the world or the under
'
world. The rainbow was called the Celestial Serpent' in
Persia, and the old notion that there is a bag of gold at the
end of it is known to many an English and American
child.
Whatever may have been the nature of the original sug-
1 ' Science of Language,' i. 230.
 UNDERWORLD PLUTOCRACY. 355

gestion, there are definite reasons why, when the Serpent

was caught up to be part of combinations representing a
Principle of Evil, his character as guardian of treasures
should become of great importance. Wealth is the
characteristic of the gods of the Hades, or unseen world
beneath the surface of the earth.
In the vast Sinhalese demonology we find the highest
class of demons (dewatawas) described as resident in golden
palaces, glittering with gems, themselves with skins of
golden hue, wearing cobras as ornaments, their king,
Wessamony seated on a gem-throne and wielding a golden
sword. Pluto is from the word for wealth (ttKovtos;), as also
is his Latin name Dis (dives). For such are lords of all
beneath the sod, or the sea's surface.Therefore, it is impor
tant to observe, they own all the seeds in the earth so long
as they remain seeds. So soon as they spring to flower,
grain, fruitage, they belong not to the gods of Hades but to
man : an idea which originated the myth of Persephone,
and seems to survive in a school of extreme vegetarians,
who refuse to eat vegetables not ripened in the sun.
These considerations may enable us the better to appre
hend the earlier characters of Ahi, the Throttler, and Vritra,
the Coverer. As guardians of such hidden treasures as
metals and drugs the
Serpent might be baroneted and
invoked to bestow favours ; but those particular serpents
which by hiding away the cloud-cows withheld the rain, or
choked the rivers with drought, all to keep under-world
garners fat and those of the upper world lean, were to
be combated. Against them man invoked the celestial
deities, reminding them that their own altars must lack
offerings if they did not vanquish these thievish Binders
and Concealers.
The Serpent with its jewelled raiment, its self-renovating
power, and its matchless accomplishments for lurking,
356 RAIN AND LIGHTNING.
hiding, fatally striking, was gradually associated with
undulations of rivers and sea-waves on the earth, with
' '
the Milky-way, with coverers of the sky night and
cloud above all, with the darting, crooked, fork-tongued
lightning. It may the lightning that was
have been
the Amrita churned out of the azure sea in the myth
'
of the Mahabharata,' when the gods and demons turned
the mountain with a huge serpent for cord (p. 59), mean
ing the descent of fire, or its discovery ; but other fair
and fruitful things emerged also, the goddess of wine,
the cow of plenty, the tree of heaven. The inhabitants
of Burmah still have a custom of pulling at a rope to pro
duce rain. A
rain party and a drought party tug against
each other, the rain party being allowed the victory, which,
in the popular notion is generally followed by rain. \
have often seen snakes hung up after being killed to bring
rain, in the State of Virginia. For there also rain means
wealth. It is there believed also that, however much it may
be crushed, a snake will not die entirely until it thunders.
'
These are distant echoes of the Vedic sentences. Friend
'
Vishnu,' says Indra, stride vastly sky give room for the
;

thunderbolt to strike ; let us slay Vritra and let loose the

waters.' 'When, Thunderer, thou didst by thy might slay
Vritra, who stopped up the streams, then thy dear steeds
grew."
Vritra, though from the same root as Varuna (the sky),
means at first a coverer of the sky cloud or darkness ;
hence eventually he becomes the hider, the thief, who
steals and conceals of heaven a rainless
the bounties
cloud, a suffocating night ; and eventually Vritra coalesces
with the most fearful phantasm of the Aryan mind the
serpent Ahi.
The Greek word for Adder, tr^t?, is a modification of
Ahi. Perhaps there exists no more wonderful example
 VR1TRA A HI. 357

of the unconscious idealism of human nature than the

history of the name of the great Throttler, as it has been
traced by Professor Max Miiller. The Serpent was also
called ahi in Sanskrit, in Greece echis or echidna, in Latin
anguis. The root is ah in Sanskrit, or amh, which means
to press together, to choke, to throttle. It is a curious
root this amh, and it still lives in several modern words,
In Latin it appears as ango, anxi, anctum, to strangle ; in
angina, quinsy; in angor, suffocation. But angor meant
not only quinsy or compression of the neck : it assumed a
moral import, and signifies anguish or anxiety. The two
adjectives angustus, narrow, and anxius, uneasy, both came
from the same root. In Greek the root retained its natural
and material meaning; in eggys, near, and echis, serpent,
throttler. But in Sanskrit it was chosen with great truth
as the proper name of sin. Evil no doubt presented itself
under various aspects to the human mind, and its names
are many; but none so expressive as those derived from
our root amh, to throttle. Amhas in Sanskrit means sin,
but it does so only because it meant originally throttling
the consciousness of sin being like the grasp of the
of the victim. All who have seen
assassin on the throat
and contemplated the statue of Laokoon and his sons,
with the serpent coiled around them from head to foot,
may realise what those ancients felt and saw when they
called sin amhas, or the throttler. This amhas is the same
as theGreek ago s, sin. In Gothic the same root has pro
duced agis, in the sense of fear, and from the same source
we have awe, in awful, i.e., fearful, and ug in ugly. The
English anguish is from the French angoise, a corruption
of the Latin angustia, a strait.1 In this wonderful history
of a word, whose biography, as Max Miiller in his Hib-
bert Lectures said of Deva, might fill a volume, may also
1 ' Lectures on Language,' i. 435.
358 THE ADDER.

be included our ogre, and also the German unke, which

' '
means a 'frog' or 'toad,' but originally a snake espe

cially the little house-snake which plays a large part in

Teutonic folklore, and was supposed to bring good luck.1
This euphemistic vari
ant

is,
however.the only
exception can find

I
to the baleful branches
into which the root
ah has grown through
the world one of its

;
fearful fruits being the
accompanying figure,
copied from one of the
ornamental bosses of
Wells Cathedral.
Fig. 25. Anguish.
The Adder demonhas
been universal. Herodotus relates that from a monster, half-
woman, half-serpent, sprang the Scythians, and the fable has
often been remembered in the history of the Turks. The
' '
Zohakof Firdusi is the Iranian form of Ahi. The name is
'
the Arabicised form of the ' Azhi Dahaka of the Avesta,
' '
the baneful serpent vanquished by Thra£taono (Traitana
of the Vedas), and this Iranian name again (Dasaka) is Ahi.
The name reappears in the Median Astyages.2 Zohak is
represented as having two serpents growing out of his
shoulders, which the late Professor Wilson supposed might
have been suggested by a phrase in the Kankato na (ye
'
ansya ye angyah) which he translates, Those who move
with their shoulders, those who move with their bodies,'
which, however, may mean 'those produced on the

1 Grimm's '
Mythology,' p. 650 Simrock, p. 440.
ff.

Roth, in the 'Journal of the German Oriental Society,' vol. ft,

*

ii.

216
p.

has elucidated the whole myth.

 ZOHAK. 359

shoulders, biting with them,' and 'might furnish those

who seek for analogies between Iranian and Indian legends
with a parallel in the story of Zohak.' The legend alluded
to is a favourite one in Persia, where it is used to point a
moral, as in the instruction of the learned Saib to the
Prince, his pupil. Saib related to the boy the story of
King Zohak, to whom a magician came, and, breathing on
him, caused two serpents to come forth from the region oi
his breast, and told him they would bring him great glory
and pleasure, provided he would feed these serpents with
the poorest of his subjects. This Zohak did ; and he had
great pleasure and wealth until his subjects revolted and
shut the King up in a cavern where he became himself a
prey to the two serpents. The young Prince to whom this
legend was related was filled with horror, and begged Saib
to tell him a pleasanter one. The teacher then related
that a young Sultan placed his confidence in an artful
courtier who filled his mind with false notions of greatness
and happiness, and introduced into his heart Pride and
Voluptuousness. To those two passions the young Sultan
sacrificed the interests of his kingdom, until his subjects
banished him but his Pride and Voluptuousness remained
;

in him, and, unable to gratify them in his exile, he died of

rage and despair. The prince-pupil said, '
I like this story
better than the other.' 'And yet,' said Saib, 'it is the
same.'
It is curious that this old Persian fable should have
survived in the witch-lore of America, and at last sup
plied Nathaniel Hawthorne with the theme of one of
his beautiful allegorical romances, that, namely, of the
man with a snake in his bosom which ever threatened to
throttle him if he did not feed it. It came to the Ameri
can fabulist throughmany a mythical skin, so to say.
One of the most beautiful it has worn is a story which is
360 A TEUTONIC LAOKOON.

still told by mothers to their children in some districts of

Germany. It relates that a little boy and girl went into
the fields to gather strawberries. After they had gathered
they met an aged woman, who asked for some of the fruit.
The little girl emptied her basket into the old woman's
lap; but the boy clutched his, and said he wanted his
berries for himself.
When they had passed on the old woman
called them back, and presented to each a little box. The
girl opened hers, and found in it two white caterpillars
which speedily became butterflies, then grew to be angels
with golden wings, and bore her away to Paradise. The
boy opened his box, and from it issued two tiny black
worms ; these swiftly to huge serpents, which,
swelled
twining all about the boy's limbs, drew him away into
the dark forest ; where this Teutonic Laokoon still re
mains to illustrate in his helplessness the mighty power
of little faults to grow into bad habits and bind the whole
man.
 ( 3<5i )

CHAPTER VII.
THE BASILISK.

The Serpent's gem The Basilisk's eye Basiliscus mitratus House-

snakes in Russia and Germany King-snakes Heraldic dragon
Henry III. Melusina The Laidley Worm Victorious dragons
Pendragon Merlin and Vortigern Medicinal dragons.

A DRAGOON once presented himself before Frederick the

Great and offered the king a small pebble, which, he said,
had been cut from the head of a king-snake, and would no
doubt preserve the throne. Frederick probably trusted
more to dragoons than dragons, but he kept the little
curiosity, little knowing, perhaps, that it would be as pro
lific of legends as the cock's egg, to which it is popularly
in cockatrices (whose name may have given rise
traceable,
to the cock-fables) or basilisks. It has now taken its
place in German folklore that Frederick his great
owed
ness to a familiar kept near him in the form of a basilisk.
But there are few parts of the world where similar legends
might not spring up and coil round any famous reputation.
An Indian newspaper, the Lawrence Gazette, having men
tioned that the ex-king of Oudh is a collector of snakes,
'
adds Perhaps he wishes to become possessed of the
precious jewel which some serpents are said to contain, or
of that species of snake by whose means, it is said, a per
son can fly in the air.' Dr. Dennys, in whose work on
Chinese Folklore this is quoted, finds the same notion in
 THE SERPENT'S GEM.

China. In one story a foreigner repeatedly tries to pur

chase a butcher's bench, but the butcher refuses to sell

it,
suspecting there must be some hidden value in the article

;
for this reason he puts the bench by, and when the
foreigner returns year afterwards, learns from him that

a
lodged in the bench was snake, kept alive by the blood

a
which held a precious gem in its mouth

it,
soaking through
quite worthless after the snake was dead. Cursing his
stupidity at having put the bench out of use, the butcher
cut open and found the serpent dead, holding in its
it

mouth something like the eye of dried fish.

a
Here we have two items which may only be accidental,
and yet, on the other hand, possibly possess significance.
The superior knowledge about the serpent attributed to

a
foreigner may indicate that such stories in China are
'
'

traditionally alien, imported with the Buddhists and

;
the comparison of the dead gem to an eye may add

a
little to the probabilities that this magical jewel, whether
in head of toad or serpent, the reptile's eye as seen by
is

the glamour of human eyes. The eye of the basilisk at

once its wealth-producing, its fascinating, and its paralysing is
talisman, though all these beliefs have their various sources
and their several representations in mythology. That
it

was seen as a gem was due, as think, to the jewelled

I

skin of most serpents, which gradually made them symbols

of riches that was believed able to fascinate may be
it
;

attributed to the general principles of illusion already

considered but its paralysing power, its evil eye, connects
;

with notion, found alike in Egypt and India, that

it

the serpent kills with its eye. Among Sanskrit words for
serpent are drig-visha' and drishti-visha' literally
'
'

having poison in the eye.'

'

While all serpents were lords and guardians of wealth,

certain of them were crested, or had small horns, which
 BASILISK. 363

conveyed the idea of a crowned and imperial snake, the

fiaoCklaicos. Naturalists have recognised this origin of the
name by giving the same (Basiliscus mitratus) to a genus
of Inguanidae, remarkable for a membranous crest not
only on the occiput but also along the back, which this
lizard can raise and depress at pleasure. But folklore, the
science of the ignorant, had established the same connec
tion by alleging that the basilisk is hatched from the egg
of a black cock, which was the peasant's explanation of
the word cockatrice. De Plancy traces one part of the
belief to a disease which causes the cock to produce a
small egg-like substance; but the resemblance between
its comb and the crests of serpent and frog 1 was the pro
bable link between them ; while the ancient eminence of
the cock as the bird of dawn relegated the origin of the
basilisk to a very exceptional member of the family a
black cock in its seventh year. The useful fowl would
seem, however, to have suffered even so slightly mainly
through a phonetic misconception. The word 'cocka
' ' '
trice is crocodile transformed. We have it in the
Old French 'cocatrix,' which again is from the Spanish
'cocotriz,' meaning 'crocodile,' icpoicoBei\o<; ; which Hero

dotus, by the way, uses to denote a kind of lizard,

and whose sanctity has extended from the Nile to the
Danube, where folklore declares that the skeleton of
the lizard presents an image of the passion of Christ,
and it must never be harmed. Thus ' cockatrice ' has
' '
nothing to do with cock' or coq,' though possibly the
coincidence of the sound has marred the ancient fame
'
of the Bird of Dawn.' Indeed black cocks have been
so generally slain on this account that they were for a
long time rare, and so the basilisks had a chance of
1
I have in my possession a specimen of the horned frog of America, and it
is sufficiently curious.
364 HOUSE-SNAKES.

becoming extinct. There were fabulous creatures enough,

however, to perpetuate the basilisk's imaginary powers,
some of which will be hereafter considered. We may de
vote the remainder of this chapter to the consideration of
a variant of dragon-mythology, which must be cleared out
of our way in apprehending the Dragon. This is the
agathodemonic or heraldic Dragon, which has inherited
the euphemistic characters of the treasure-guarding and
crowned serpent.
In Slavonic legend the king-serpent plays a large part,
and innumerable stories relate the glories of some peasant
child that, managing to secure a tiny gem from his crown,
while the reptilian monarch was bathing, found the jewel
daily surrounded with new treasures. This is the same
serpent which, gathering up the myths of lightning and of
comets, many German legends as the red
flies through
Drake, Kolbuk, Alp, or Alberflecke, dropping gold when it
is red, corn if blue, and yielding vast services and powers
to those who can magically master it. The harmless ser
pentsof Germany were universally invested with agatho
demonic functions, though they still bear the name that
relates them to Ahi, viz., unken. Of these household-
snakes Grimm and Simrock give much information. It
is said that in fields and houses they approach solitary
children and drink milk from the dish with them. On
their heads they wear golden crowns, which they lay down
beforedrinking, and sometimes forget when they retire.
They watch over children in the cradle, and point out to
their favourites where treasures are hidden. To kill them
brings misfortune. If the parents surprise the snake with
the child and kill child wastes away. Once the
it,

the
snake crept into the mouth of a pregnant woman, and
when the child was born the snake was found closely
coiled around its neck, and could only be untwined by
a
 KING SNAKES. 365

milk-bath ; but it never left the child's side, ate and slept
with it,
and never did harm. If such serpents left house

it

a
or farm, prosperity went with them. In some regions

it
is
said male and female snake appear whenever the master
a

or mistress of the house about to die, and the legends of

is
the Unken sometimes relapse into the original fear out of
which they grew. Indeed, their vengeance everywhere

is
much dreaded, while their gratitude, especially for milk,

is
as imperishable as might be expected from their ancestor's
quarrel with Indra about the stolen cows. In the Gesta
Romanorum related that milkmaid was regularly
is
it

approached at milking-time by a large snake to which

she gave milk. The maid having left her place, her suc
cessor found on the milking-stool a golden crown, on
which was inscribed In Gratitude.' The crown was sent
'

to the milkmaid who had gone, but from that time the
snake was never seen again.1
In England serpents were mastered by the vows of

a
saintly Christian. The Knight Bran in the Isle of Wight
said to have picked up the cockatrice egg, to have been
is

pursued by the serpents, which he escaped by vowing to

build St. Lawrence Church in that island, the egg having
afterwards brought him endless wealth and uniform success
in combat. With the manifold fables concerning the royal
dragon would seem to blend traditions of the astrological,
celestial, and lightning serpents. But these would coincide
with development arising from the terrestrial worms
a

and their heroic slayers. The demonic dragon with his

terrible eye might discern from afar the advent of his
predestined destroyer. Itmight seek to devour him in
infancy. As the comet might be deemed portent of
a

some powerful prince born on earth, so might be com

it

pliment to royal family, on the birth of prince, to report

a

Gesta Rom., cap. 68. Grimm's Myth., 650 Simrock,

1

p.

ff. 400.
366 HERALDIC DRAGON.

that a dragon had been seen. Nor would it be a long step

from this office of the dragon as the herald of greatness to
placing that monster on banners. From these banners
would grow sagas of dragons encountered and slain. The
devices might thus multiply. Some process of this kind
would account for the entirely good reputation of the
dragon in China and Japan, where it is the emblem of all
national grandeur. It would also appear to underlie
the proud titles of the Pythian Apollo and Bellerophon,
gained from the monsters they were said to have slain.
The city of Worms takes its name from the serpent
instead of its slayer.1 Pendragon, in the past and even
our dragoon of the present are names in which the
horrors of the monster become transformed in the hero's
fame. The dragon, says Mr. Hardwicke, was the standard
of the West Saxons, and of the English previous to the Nor
man Conquest. It formed one of the supporters of the royal
arms borne by all the Tudor monarchs, with the exception
of Queen Mary, who substituted the eagle. Several of
the Plantagenet kings and princes inscribed a figure of
the dragon on their banners and shields. Peter Langtoffe
says, at the battle of Lewis, fought in 1264, 'The king
schewed forth his schild, his dragon full austere.' Another
authority says the said king (Henry III.) ordered to be
'
made dragon in the manner of a banner, of a certain
a
red silk embroidered with gold ; its tongue like a flaming
fire must always seem to be moving ; its eyes must be
made of sapphire, or of some other -tone suitable for that
2
purpose.'
It will thus be seen that an influence has been intro
duced into dragon-lore which has no relation whatever to
the demon itself. This will explain those variants of the
1 Others derive the name from the ancient
Borbetomagus.
* Traditions,
p. 44.
 MELUSINA. 367

legend of Melusina the famous woman-serpent which

invest her with romance. Melusina, whose indiscreet hus
band glanced at her in forbidden hours, when she was in
her serpent shape, was long the glory of the Chateau de
Lusignan, where her cries announced the approaching
death of her descendants. There is a peasant family still
dwelling in Fontainebleau Forest who claim to be de
scended from Melusina; and possibly some instance of this
kind may have dropped like a seed into the memory
'
of the author of Elsie Venner
'
to reappear in one of the
finest novels of our generation. The corresponding senti
ment is found surrounding the dragon in the familiar
British legend of the Laidley 1 Worm. The king of North
umberland brought home a new Queen, who was also a
sorceress, and being envious of the beauty of her step
daughter, changed that poor princess into the worm which
devastated all Spindleton Heugh. For seven miles every
green thing was blighted by its venom, and seven cows
had to yield their daily supplies of milk. Meanwhile the
king and his son mourned the disappearance of the prin
cess. The young prince fitted out a ship to go and slay
the dragon. The wicked Queen tries unsuccessfully to
prevent the expedition. The prince leaps from his ship
into the shallow sea, and wades to the rock around which
the worm lay coiled. But as he drew near the monster
said to him :

Oh, quit thy sword, and bend thy bow,

And give me kisses three j
If I'm not won ere the sun goes down,
Won I shall never be.
He quitted his sword and bent his bow,
He gave her kisses three ;
She crept into a hole a worm,
But out stept a ladye.

1
Loathely.
 I

368 VICTORIOUS DRAGONS.

In the end the prince managed to have the wicked Queen

transformed into a toad, which in memory thereof, as every
Northumbrian boy knows, spits fire to this day : but it is
notable that the sorceress was not transformed into a
dragon, as the story would probably have run if the dragon
form had not already been detached from its original
character, and by many noble associations been rendered
an honourable though fearful shape for maidens like this
princess and like Melusina.
In the same direction point the legends which show
dragons as sometimes victorious over their heroic assail
ants. Geoffrey of Monmouth so relates of King Morvidus
of Northumbria, who encountered a dragon that came
from the Irish Sea, and was last seen disappearing in
the monster's jaws '
like a small fish.' A more famous
instance of Beowulf, whose Anglo-Saxon saga is
is that
summed up by Professor Morley as follows : ' Afterward
the broad land came under the sway of Beowulf. He
held it well for fifty winters, until in the dark night a
dragon, which in a stone mound watched a hoard of gold
and cups, won mastery. It was a hoard heaped up in sin,
its lords were long since dead ; the last earl before dying
hid it in the earth-cave, and for three hundred winters the
great held the cave, until some man, finding by
scather
chance a rich cup, took it to his lord. Then the den was
searched while the worm slept ; again and again when the
dragon awoke there had been theft. He found not the man
but wasted the whole land with fire nightly the fiendish
;

air-flyer made fire grow hateful to the sight of men. Then

it was told to Beowulf. . . . He sought out the dragon's
den and fought with him in awful strife. One wound the
poison-worm struck in the flesh of Beowulf.' Whereof
Beowulf died.
Equally significant is the legend that when King Arthur
 PENDRAGON. 369

had embarked at Southampton on his expedition against

Rome, about midnight he saw in a dream 'a bear flying
in the air, at the noise of which all the shores trembled ;
also a terrible dragon, flying from the west, which
enlightened the country with the brightness of its eyes.
When these two met they had a dreadful fight, but the
dragon with its fiery breath burned the bear which as
saulted him, and threw him down scorched to the earth.'
This vision was taken to augur Arthur's victory. The father
of Arthur had already in a manner consecrated the
symbol, being named Uther Pendragon (dragon's head).
On the death of his brother Aurelius, it was told ' there
appeared a star of wonderful magnitude and brightness,'
darting forth a ray, at the end of which was a globe of
fire, in form of a dragon, out of whose mouth issued two
rays, one of which seemed to stretch out itself towards the
Irish Sea, and ended in seven lesser rays.' Merlin in
terpreted this phenomenon to mean that Uther would be
made king and conquer various regions; and after his
first victory Uther had two golden dragons made, one of
which he presented to Winchester Cathedral, retaining
the other to attend him in his wars.
In the legend of Merlin and Vortigern we find the
Dragon so completely developed into a merely warrior
like symbol that its moral character has to be determined
by its colour. As in the two armies of serpents seen by
Zoroaster, in Persian legends, which fought in the air,
the victory of the white over the black foreshowing the
triumph of Ormuzd over Ahriman, the tyranny of Vor
tigern is represented by a red dragon, while Aurelius and
Uther are the two heads of a white dragon. Merlin, about
to be buried alive, in pursuance of the astrologer's decla
ration to Vortigern that so only would his ever-falling wall
stand firm, had revealed that the recurring disaster was
vol. I. 2 A
37° MERLIN AND VORTIGERN.
caused by the struggle of these two dragons underground.
When the monsters were unearthed they fought terribly,
until the white one

Hent the red with all his might,

And to the ground he him cast,
And, with the fire of his blast,
Altogether brent the red,
That never of him was founden shred ;
But dust upon the ground he lay.

The white dragon vanished and was seen no more ; but

the tyrant Vortigern fulfilled the fate of the red dragon,
being burnt in his castle near Salisbury. These two
dragons met again, however, as red and white roses.
Many developments corresponding to these might be
cited. One indeed bears a startling resemblance to our
English legends. Of King Nuat Meiamoun, whose con
quest of Egypt is placed by G. Maspero about B.C. 664-654,
Stele of the Dream relates : ' His Majesty
' '
the Ethiopian
beheld a dream in the night, two snakes, one to his right,
the other to his left, (and) when His Majesty awoke . . .
'
he said : Explain these things to me on the moment,' and
lo they explained it to him, saying : ' Thou wilt have the
!

Southern lands, and seize the Northern, and the two

crowns will be put on thy head, (for) there is given unto
thee the earth in all its width and its breadth.' These
two snakes were probably suggested by the urcei of the
Egyptian diadem.
Beyond the glory reflected upon a monster from his
conqueror, there would be reason why the alchemist and
the wizard should encourage that aspect of the dragon.
The more perilous that Gorgon whose blood Esculapius
used, the more costly such medicament ; while, that the
remedy may be advantageous, the monster must not be
wholly destructive. This is so with the now destructive
 MEDICINAL DRAGONS. 371

now preservative forces of nature, and how they may blend

in the theories, and subserve the interests, of pretenders is
well shown in a German work on Alchemy (1625) quoted
by Mr. Hardwicke. 'There is a dragon lives in the
forest, who has no want of poison ; when he sees the sun
or fire he spits venom, which flies about fearfully. No
living animal can be cured of it ; even the basilisk does
not equal him. He who can properly kill this serpent
has overcome all his danger. His colours increase in
death; physic is produced from his poison, which he
entirely consumes, and eats his own venomous tail.
This must be accomplished by him, in order to produce
the noblest balm. Such great virtue as we will point
out herein that all the learned shall rejoice.'
It will be readily understood that these traditions and
fables would combine to 'hedge about a king' by ascrib
ing to him familiarity with a monster so formidable to
common people, and even investing him with its attri
butes. The dragon's name, Spdiccov, derived from the San
skrit word for serpent (drig-vishd), came to mean ' the thing
that sees.' While this gave rise to many legends of prae-
ternatural powers of vision gained by tasting or bathing
in a dragon's blood, as in the poem of Siegfried ; or from
waters it guarded, as ' Eye Well,' in which Guy's dragon
dipped its tail to recover from wounds ; the Sanskrit sense
of eye-poisoning was preserved in legends of occult and
dangerous powers possessed by kings, one of the latest
being the potent evil eye popularly ascribed in Italy to
the late Pius IX. But these stories are endless; the legends
adduced will show the sense of all those which, if unex
plained, might interfere with our clear insight into the
dragon itself, whose further analysis will prove it to be
wholly bad, the concentrated terrors of nature.
 ( 372 )

CHAPTER VIII.
THE DRAGON'S EYE.

The Eye of Evil Turner's Dragons Cloud-phantoms Paradise and

the Snake Prometheus and Jove Art and Nature Dragon
forms : Anglo-Saxon, Italian, Egyptian, Greek, German The
modern conventional Dragon.

The etymologies of the words Dragon and Ophis given

in the preceding chapter, ideally the same, both refer to
powers of the serpent which it does not possess in nature,
the praeternatural vision and the glance that kills. The
real nature of the snake is thus overlaid ; we have now to
deal with the creation of another world.
There are various conventionalised types of the Dragon,
but through them all one feature is constant, the idealised
serpent. Its presence is the demonic or supernatural sign.
The heroic dragon-slayer must not be supposed to have
wrestled with mere flesh and blood, in whatever powerful
form. The combat which immortalises him is waged with
all the pains and terrors of earth and heaven concentrated
and combined in one fearful form.
Impossible and phantasmal as was this form in nature,
its mystical meaning in the human mind was terribly real.
It was this Eye of anti-human nature which filled man with
dismay, and conjured up the typical phantom. It was this
Pain, purposed and purposing, the Agony of far-searching
vision, subtlest skill, silently creeping, winged, adapted to
 THE EYE OF E VIL. 373

meet his every device with a cleverer device, which gra

dually impressed mankind with belief in a general prin
ciple of antagonism to human happiness.
It is only as a combination that any dragon form is
miraculous. Every constituent feature and factor of it is
in nature, but here they are rolled together in one pande-
monic expression and terror. Yet no such form loses its
relations with nature : it is lightning and tempest, fever-
bearing malaria and fire, venom and fang, slime and
jungle, all the ferocities of the earth, air, and heavens,
gathering to their fatal artistic force, and waylaying man
at every step in his advance. In Turner's picture of
Apollo slaying the Python there is marvellous sugges
a

tion of the natural conceptions from which the dragon was

evolved. The fearful folds of the monster,undulating
with mound and rock on which he lies, at points almost
blend with tangle of bushes and the jagged chaos amid
which he stretches. The hard, wild, cruel aspects of in
animate nature seem here and there rankly swelling to
horrible life, as yet but half-distinguishable from the
stony-hearted matrix ; the crag begins to coil and quiver,
the jungle puts forth in claws ; but above all appear the
monstrous EYES, in which the forces of pain, hardship,
obstacle have atlast acquired purpose and direction.
The god confronts them with eyes yet keener ; his arrow,
feathered with eyebeams, has reached its mark, straight
between the monster's eyes ; but there is no more anger
in his face than might mar the calm strength of a gardener
clearing away the stone and thicket that make the con
stituent parts of Python.
If we turn now to the neighbouring picture in the
National Gallery by the same artist, the Hesperian
Gardens and their Guard, we behold the Dragon on his
high crag outlining and vitalising not only the edge of
374 TURNERS DRAGONS.
rock but also the sky it meets. His breath steams up
into cloud. The heavens also have their terrors, which
take on eyes and coils. On the line of the horizon were
hung the pictures of the primitive art-gallery. Imagina
tion painted them with brush dipped now in blackness of
of the lightning or the sunset, but
the storm, now in fires
the forms were born of experience, of earthly struggle,
defeat, and victory.
As I write these words, I
lay aside my pen to look
across a little lake amid the lonely hills of Wales to a
sunset which is flooding the sky with glory. Through the
almost greenish sky the wind is bearing fantastic clouds,
that sometimes take the shape of chariots, in which cloud-
veiled forms are seated, and now great birds with varie
gated plumage, all hastening as it were to some gathering-
place of aerial gods. Beneath a long bar of maroon-tint
stretches a sea of yellow light, on the hither side of which
is set a garden of fleecy trees touched with golden fruit.
Amid them plays a fountain of changing colours. On the
left has stood, fast as a mountain range, a mass of dark-
blue cloud with uneven peaks ; suddenly a pink faint glow
shines from behind that leaden mass, and next appears,
sinuous with its long indented top, the mighty folds of a
fiery serpent. Nay, its head is seen, its yawning lacertine
jaws, its tinted crest. It is sleepless Ladon on his high
barrier keeping watch and ward over the Hesperian
garden.
Juno set him there, but he is the son of Ge, the earth.
The tints of heaven invest and transform, and in a sense
create him ;but he would never have been born mytholo-
gically had it not been that in this world stings hover near
all sweetness, danger environs beauty, and, as Plato said,
'Good things come hard.' The grace and lustre of the
serpent with his fatal fang preceded him, and all the perils
 CLOUD PHANTOMS. 375

that lurk beneath things fair and fascinating. So far

there is nothing essentially moral or unmoral about him.
This dragon is a shape designed by primitive meteorology
and metaphysics together. Man has asked what is so,
and this is the answer : he has not yet asked why it is so,
whether it ought to be so, and whether it may not be
otherwise. The challenge has not yet been given, the era
of combat not yet arrived. The panoplied guard and
ally of gods as unmoral as himself has yet to be trans
formed under the touch of the religious sentiment, and
expelled from the heaven of nobler deities as a dragon
cast down, deformed, and degraded for ever.
As thought goes on, such allies compromise their em
ployers ; the creator's work reflects the creator's character ;

and after many timorous ages we find the dragon-guarded

deities going down with their cruel defenders. It is not
without significance that in the Sanskrit dictionary the
most ancient of all words for god, Asura, has for its
' ' '
primary meaning demon or ' devil : the gods and
dragons united to churn the ocean for their own wealth,
and in the end they were tarred with one brush. I have
already described in the beginning of this work the degra
dation of deities, and need here barely recall to the reader's
memory the forces which operated to that result. The
bearing of that force upon the celestial or paradise-guard
ing Serpent is summed up in one quatrain of Omar
Khayyam :

O Thou who man of baser earth didst make,

And e'en in Paradise devised the Snake ;
For all the sin wherewith the face of man
Is blackened, man's forgiveness give and take !

The heart of humanity anticipated its logic by many

ages, and, long before the daring genius of the Persian
poet wrote this immortal epitaph on the divine allies of the
376 PARADISE AND THE SNAKE.

Serpent, heroes had given battle to the whole fraternity.

Nay, in their place had arisen a new race of gods, whose
theoretical omnipotence was gladly surrendered in the
interest of their righteousness ; and there was now war in
heaven; the dragon and his allies were cast down, and man
was now free to fight them as enemies of the gods as well
as himself. Woe henceforth to any gods suspected of
taking sides with the dragon in this man's life-and-death
struggle with the ferocities of nature, and with his own
terrors reflected from them ! The legend of Prometheus
'
was their unconsciously-given notice to quit,' though it
waited many centuries for its great interpreter. It is
Goethe who alone has seen how pale and weak grow
Jove's fireworks before the thought-thunderbolts of the
artist, launched far beyond the limitations that chain him
in nature. Gods are even yet going down in many lands
before the sublime sentence of Prometheus :

Curtain thy heavens, thou Jove, with clouds and mist,

And, like a boy that moweth thistles down,
Unloose thy spleen on oaks and mountain-tops ;
Yet canst thou not deprive me of my earth,
Nor of my hut, the which thou didst not build,
Nor of my hearth, whose little cheerful flame
Thou enviest me !

I know not aught within the universe

More slight, more pitiful than you, ye gods I
Who nurse your majesty with scant supplies
Of offerings wrung from fear, and muttered prayers,
And needs must starve, were't not that babes and beggars
Are hope-besotted fools !

When I was yet a child, and knew not whence

My being came, nor where to turn its powers,
Up to the sun I bent my wildered eye,
As though above, within its glorious orb,
There dwelt an ear to listen to my plaint,
A heart, like mine, to pity the oppressed.
 PROMETHEUS AND JO VE.
Who gave me succour
Against the Titans in their tyrannous might ?
Who rescued me from death from slavery ?
Thou ! thou, my soul, burning with hallowed fire,
Thou hast thyself alone achieved it all !
Yet didst thou, in thy young simplicity,
Glow with misguided thankfulness to him
That slumbers on in idlesse there above !
I reverence thee ?
Wherefore ? Hast thou ever
Lightened the sorrows of the heavy laden ?
Thou ever stretch thy hand to still the tears
Of the perplexed in spirit ?
Was it not
Almighty Time, and ever-during Fate
My lords and thine that shaped and fashioned me
Into the man I am ?
Belike it was thy dream
That I should hate life fly to wastes and wilds,
For that the buds of visionary thought
Did not all ripen into goodly flowers ?
Here do I sit and mould
Men after mine own image
A race that may be like unto myself,
To suffer, weep ; to enjoy, and to rejoice ;
And, like myself, unheeding all of thee !

The myth of Prometheus reveals the very dam of all

dragons, the mere terrorism of nature which paralysed
the energies of man. Man's first combat was to be with
his own quailing heart. Apollo driving back the Argives
to their ships with the image of the Gorgon's head on

Jove's shield is Homer's picture of the fears that unnerved

heroes :

l'hcebus himself the rushing battle led ;

A veil of clouds involved his radiant head :

High held before him, Jove's enormous shield

Portentous shone, and shaded all the field :
Vulcan to Jove th' immortal gift consigned,
To scatter hosts, and terrify mankind. . . .
373 ART AND NATURE.
Deep horror seizes ev"ry Grecian breast,
Their force is humbled, and their fear confest.
So flies a herd of oxen, scattered wide,
No swain to guard them, and no day to guide,
When two fell lions from the mountain come,
And spread the carnage thro' the shady gloom. . .
The Grecians gaze around with wild despair,
Confused, and weary all their pow'rs with prayer.1

A generation whose fathers remembered the time when

men educated in universities regarded Franklin with his
'
lightning-rod heaven-defying,' can readily understand
as
the legend of Vulcan type of the untamed force of fire
being sent to bind Prometheus, master of fire.2 How
much fear of the forces of nature, as personified by super
stition, levelled against the first creative minds and hands
the epithets which Franklin heard, which still fall and
upon the heads of some scientific investigators ! Storm,
lightning, rock, ocean, vulture, these blend together with
the intelligent cruelty of Jove in the end ; and behold, the
Dragon The terrors of nature, which drive cowards to
!

their knees, raise heroes to their height. Then it is a

flame of genius matched against mad thunderbolts.
Whether the jealous nature-god be Jehovah forbidding
sculpture, demanding an altar of unhewn stone, and re
fusing the fruits of Cain's garden, or Zeus jealous of the
artificer's flame, they are thrown into the Opposition by
the artist ; and when the two next meet, he of the thunder
bolt with all his mob will be the Dragon, and Prometheus
will be the god, sending to its heart his arrow of light.
The dragon forms which have become familiar to us
through mediaeval and modern iconography are of com
paratively little importance as illustrating the social or
spiritual conditions out of which they grew, and of which
they became emblems. They long ago ceased to be de
scriptive, and in the rude periods or places a very few
1 Pope's ' 3
Homer,' Book xv. See p. 59.
 DRAGON FORMS. 379

scratches enough to indicate the dragon ;

were sometimes
such mere suggestions in the end allowing large freedom
to subsequent designers in varying original types.

Fig. 26. Swan-Dragon (French).

As to external form, the various shapes of the more primi

tive dragons have been largely determined by the mythologic
currents amid which they have fallen, though their original
basis in nature may gene
rally be traced. In the far
North, where the legends
of swan-maidens, pigeon-
maidens, and vampyres
were paramount in the
Middle Ages, we find the
bird-shaped dragon very
common. Sometimes the
serpent-characteristics are
pronounced, as in this
ancient French Swan-
Dragon (Fig. 26) ; but,
again, and especially in Fig. 27. Anglo-Saxon Dragons (Caedmon
MS-, tenth century).
regions where serpents
are rare and comparatively innocuous, the serpent tail is
often conventionalised away, as in this initial V from the
38o ANGLO-SAXON AND SOUTHERN DRAGON'S.

Caedmon Manuscript, tenth century (Fig. 27), a fair example

of the ornamental Anglo-Saxon dragon. The cuttlefish
seems to have suggested the animalised form of the Hydra,
which in turn helped to shape the Dragon of the Apoca
lypse. Yet the Hydra in pictorial representation appears
to have been influenced by Assyrian ideas; for although
the monster had nine heads, it is often given seven (number
of the Hathors, or Fates) by the engravers, as in Fig. 6.
The conflicts of Hercules with the Hydra repeated that of
Bel with Tiamat ('the Deep'), and had no doubt its

Fig. 28. From the Fresco at Arezzo.

counterpart in that of Michael with the Dragon, the

finest representation of which, perhaps, is the great fresco
by Spinello (fourteenth century) at Arezzo, a group from
which is presented in Fig. 28. In this case the wings
represent those always attributed in Semitic mytho
logy to the Destroying Angel. The Egyptian Dragon,
of which the crocodile is the basis, at an early period
entered into christian symbolism, and gradually effaced
most of the pagan monsters. The crocodile and the alli
gator, besides being susceptible of many horrible varia-
 EGYPTIAN AND GERMAN DRAGONS. 381

tions in pictorial treatment, were particularly acceptable

to the christian propaganda, because of the sanctity attached
to them by African tribes,
sanctity which continues to
a
this day in many parts of that country, where to kill one
of these reptiles is believed to superinduce dangerous
inundations. In Semitic traditions, also, Leviathan was
generally identified as a demonic crocodile, and the feat
of destroying him was calculated to impress the imagina
tions of all varieties of people in the Southern countries for
which Christianity struggled so long. This form contributed

Fig. 29. From Albert Durer's '

Passion.'

some of its characters to the lacertine dragons which were

Middle Ages, with what effect may
so often painted in the
be gathered from the accompanying design by Albert
Durer (Fig. 29). In this loathsome creature, which seeks
'
to prevent deliverance of the spirits in prison,' we
may remark the sly and cruel eye : the praeternatural
vision of such monsters was still strong in the tradi
tions of the sixteenth century. In looking at this lizard-
guard at the mouth of hell we may realise that it has
been by some principle of psychological selection that
382 CHIMERA.

the reptilian kingdom gradually gained supremacy in

these portrayals of the repulsive. If we compare with
Fig. 29 the well-known form of the Chimaera (Fig. 30),
most of us will be conscious of a sense of relief; for though
the reptilian form is present ap
in the latter, it is but an
pendage almost an ornament to the lion. It impos is
sible to feel any loathing towards this spirited Trisomatos,
and one may recognise in it a different animus from that
which depicted the christian dragon. One was meant to

Fig. 30. Chimera.

attest the boldness of the hero who dared to assail it the ;

other was meant, in addition to that, to excite hatred and

horror of the monster assailed. We may, therefore, find
a very distinct line drawn between such forms as the
Chimaera and such as the Hydra, or our conventional
Dragon. The hairy inhabitants of Lycia, human or
bestial, whom Bellerophon conquered,1 were not meant to
be such an abstract expression of the evil principle in
nature as the Dragon, and while they are generalised, the
1
See p. 154.
 THE CONVENTIONAL DRAGON. 383

elements included are also limited. But the Dragon, with

its claws, wings, scales, barbed and coiling tail, its fiery
breath, forked tongue, and frequent horns, includes the
organic, inorganic, the terrestrial and atmospheric, and is
the combination of harmful contrivances in nature.
Nearly all of the Dragon forms, whatever their original
types and their region, are represented in the conventional
monster of the European stage, which meets the popular
conception. This Dragon is a masterpiece of the popular
imagination, and it required many generations to give it
artistic shape. Every Christmas he appears in some
London pantomime, with aspect similar to that which
he has worn for many ages. His body is partly green,
with memories of the sea and of slime, and partly
brown or dark, with lingering shadow of storm-clouds.
The lightning flames still in his red eyes, and flashes
from his fire-breathing mouth. The thunderbolt of Jove,
the spear of Wodan, are in the barbed point of his tail.
His huge wings batlike, spiked sum up all the my
thical life of extinct Harpies and Vampyres. Spine of
crocodile is on his neck, tail of the serpent, and all the
jagged ridges of rocks and sharp thorns of jungles
bristle around him, while the ice of glaciers and brassy
glitter of sunstrokes are in his scales. He is ideal of all
that is hard, obstructive, perilous, loathsome, horrible in
nature : every detail of him has been seen through and
vanquished by man, here or there, but in selection and
combination they rise again as principles, and conspire
to form one great generalisation of the forms of Pain
the sum of every creature's worst.
 ( 334 )

CHAPTER IX.
THE COMBAT.

The pre-Munchausenite world The Colonial Dragon Io's journey

Medusa British Dragons The Communal Dragon Savage
Saviours A Mimac helper The Brutal Dragon Woman pro
tected The Saint of the Mikados.

The of the Unknown has now, by exploration of

realm
our planet and by science, been pretty well pressed into
annexation with the Unknowable. In early periods, how
ever, unexplored lands and seas existed only in the human
imagination, and men appear to have included them within
the laws of analogy as slowly as their descendants so
included the planets. The monstrous forms with which
superstition now peoples regions of space that cannot be
visited could then dwell securely in parts of the world
where their existence or non-existence could not be veri
fied. Science had not yet shown the simplicity and unity
underlying the superficial varieties of nature ; and though
Rudolf Raspe appeared many times, and related the
adventures of his Baron Munchausen in many languages, it
was only a hundred years ago that he managed to raise
a laugh over them. It has taken nearly another hundred
to reveal the humour of Munchausenisms that relate to
invisible and future worlds.
The Dragon which now haunts the imagination of a few
compulsory voyagers beyond the grave originated in
 PRE-MUNCHAUSENITE WORLD. 385

speculations concerning the unseen shores of equally

mythical realms, whose burning zones and frozen seas
had not yet been detached from this planet to make the
Inferno of another. In our section on Demonology we
have considered many of these imaginary forms in detail,
limiting ourselvesgenerally to the more realistic embodi
ments of special obstacles. Just above that formation
comes the stratum in which we find the separate features
of the previous demonic fauna combining to forms which
indicate the new creative power which, as we have seen,

makes nature over again in its own image.

thus on the physical plane, with a view of
Beginning
passing to the social, political, and metaphysical arenas
where man has successively met his Dragons, we may first
consider the combination of terrors and perils, real and
imaginary, which were confronted by the early colonist.
I will venture to call this the COLONIAL DRAGON.
This form may be represented by any of those forms
against which the Prometheus of iEschylus cautions Io
» on her way to the realm which should be called Ionia.
'When thou shalt have crossed the stream that bounds
the continents to the rosy realms of the morning where
the sun sets forth, thou shalt reach beyond the roaring
. . .

sea Cisthene's Gorgonian plains, where dwell the Phorkides,

. . . and hard by are their three winged sisters, the Snake-
haired Gorgons, by mortals abhorred, on whom none of
human race can look and live. ... Be on thy guard
against the Gryphons, sharp-fanged hounds of Jove that
never bark, and against the cavalry host of one-eyed
Arimaspians, dwelling on the gold-gushing fount, the
stream of Pluto. Thou wilt reach a distant land, a dark
tribe, near to the fount of the sun, where runs the river
1
iEthiops.'
1
.iEsch. Prom. 790, &c.
VOL. I. 2 B
386 COLONIAL DRAGON.

One who has looked upon Leonardo da Vinci's Medusa

at Florence of a mytho-
one of the finest interpretations
logic subject ever painted may comprehend what to the
early explorer and colonist were the fascinations of those
rumoured regions where nature was fair but girt round
with terrors. The Gorgon's head alone is given, with its
fearful tangle of serpent tresses ; her face, even in its pain,
possesses the beauty that may veil a fatal power; from
her mouth is exhaled a vapour which in its outline has
brought into life vampyre, newt, toad, and loathsome

Fig. 31. Bellerophon and Chimera (Corinthian).

nondescript creatures. Here is the malaria of undrained

coasts, the vermin of noxious nature. The source of these
must be destroyed before man can found his city ; it is the
fiery poisonous breath of the Colonial Dragon.
Most of the Dragon-myths of Great Britain appear to
have been importations of the Colonial monsters. Per
haps the most famous of these in all Europe was the
Chimaera, which came westward upon coins, Bellerophon
having become a national hero at Corinth almost super-
 BRITISH DRAGONS. 387

seding the god of war himself and his effigy spread with
many migrations. Our conventional figure of St. George
is still Bellerophon, though the Dragon has been substi
tuted for Chimaera, a change which christian tradition
and national respect for the lion rendered necessary (Fig.
31). Corresponding to this change in outward representa
tion, the monster-myths of Great Britain have been gra
dually pressed into service as moral and religious lessons.
The Lambton Worm illustrates the duty of attending mass
and sanctity of the sabbath ; the demon serpents of
Ireland and Cornwall prove the potency of holy exorcism ;
and this process of moralisation has extended, in the case
of the Boar, whose head graces the Christmas table at
Queen's College, Oxford, to an illustration of the value of
Aristotelian philosophy. It was with a volume of Aris
totle that the monster was slain, the mythologic affinities
of the legend being quaintly preserved in the item that it
was thrust down the boar's throat.
But these modifications are very transparent, the British
legends being mainly variants of one or two original myths
which appear to have grown out of the heraldic devices
imported by ancient families. These probably acquired
realistic statement through the prowess and energy of
chieftains, and wereexaggerated by their descendants,
perhaps also connected with some benefit to the com
munity, in order to strengthen the family tenure of its
estates. For this kind of duty the Colonial Dragon was
the one usually imported by the family romancer or poet.
The multiplication of these fables
is,

indeed, sufficiently
curious. It looks as there were some primitive agrarian
if

sentiment which had

to be encountered by aid of
appeals to exceptional warrant. The family which could
trace its title to an estate to an ancestor who rescued
the whole district, was careful to preserve some memorial
388 SOCKBURN WORM.

of the feat. On account of the interests concerned in old

times we should be guarded in receiving the rationalised
interpretations of such myths, which have become tradi
tional in some localities. The barbaric achievements of
knights did not lose in the ballads of minstrels any mar
vellous splendours, but gained many ; and most of these
came from the south and east. The Dragon which Guy
of Warwick slew still retained traces of Chimaera; it had
paws as a lion.' Sir William Dugdale thought that this
'

was a romanticised version of a real combat which Guy

fought with a Danish chief, A.C. 926. Similarly the Dragon
of Wantley has been reduced to a fraudulent barrister.
The most characteristic of this class of legends is that of
Sockburn. Soon after the Norman conquest the Conyers
family received that manor by episcopal grant, the tradi
tion being that it was because Sir John Conyers, Knight,
slew a huge Worm which had devoured many people.
The falchion with which this feat was achieved is still
preserved, and I believe it is still the custom, when a new
bishop visits that diocese, for the lord of Sockburn to pre
sent this sword.The lord of the manor meets the bishop
in the middle of the river Tees, and says : ' My Lord
Bishop, I here present you with the falchion wherewith
the Champion Conyers slew the Worm, Dragon, or fiery
flying Serpent, which destroyed man, woman, and child,
in memory of which the king then reigning gave him the
manor of Sockburn to hold by this tenure, that upon the
first entrance of every bishop into the country this falchion
should be presented.' The bishop returns the sword and
wishes the lord long enjoyment of the tenure, which
has been thus held since the year 1396. The family
tradition is that the Dragon was a Scotch intruder named
Comyn, whom Conyers compelled to kneel before the
episcopal throne. The Conyers family of Sockburn seem
 COMMUNAL DRAGON. 389

to have been at last overtaken by a Dragon which was too

much for them : the last knight was taken from a work
house barely in time not to die there.
In the 'Memoirs of the Somervilles' we read that one of
'
that family acquired a parish by slaying a hydeous mon
ster in forme of a worme.' 1

The wode Laird of Laristone

Slew the Worme of Worme's Glen,
And wan all Linton parochine.

It was '
in lenth
Scots yards, and somewhat bigger than
3
an ordinary man's leg, with a hede more proportionable
to its lenth than its greatness ; its forme and collour (like)
to our common muir adders.'
This was a very moderate dragon compared with others,
by slaying which many knights won their spurs: this,
for example, which Sir Dygore killed in the fourteenth
century
A Dragon great and grymme,
Fullof fyre, and also of venymme :
With a wide throte and tuskes grete,
Uppon that knight fast gan he bete ;
And as a Lionn then was his fete,
His tayle was long and ful unmete ;
Between his hede and his tayle
Was xxii. fote withouten fayle ;
His body was like a wine tonne,
He shone full bright ageynst the sunne;
His eyes were bright as any glasse,
His scales were hard as any brasse.

The familiar story of St. Patrick clearing the snakes out

of Ireland, and the Cornish version of in which the exor
it,

cist St. Petrox, presents some features which relate to

it
is

the colonist's combat with his dragon, though more

it
is

interesting in other aspects. The Colonial Dragon in

cludes the diseases, the wild beasts, the savages, and all
Vol.
1

p. 38.
i.
390 SAVAGE SA VIO URS.

manner of obstructions which environ a new country.

But when these difficulties have been surmounted, the
young settlement has still its foes to contend with, war
like invaders from without, ambitious members within.
We then find the Dragon taking on the form of a public
enemy, and his alleged slayer is representative of the
commune, possibly in the end to transmit its more real de-
vourer. Most of the British Dragon-myths have expanded
beyond the stage in which they represent merely the
struggles of immigrants with wild nature, and include
the further stage where they represent the formation of
the community. The growth of patriotism at length is
measured by its shadow. The Colonial is transformed to
the Communal Dragon. Many Dragon-myths are adap
tations of the ancient symbolism to hostes communes : such
are the monsters described as desolating villages and dis
tricts, until they are encountered by antagonists animated
by public spirit. Such antagonists are distinguishable
from the heroes that go forth to rescue the maiden in dis
tress : their chief representative in mythology is Herakles,
most of whose labours reveal the of self-devotion
man
redressing public wrongs, and raising the standard of
humanity as well as civilisation.
The age of chivalry has its legend in the Centaurs
and Cheiron. The Hippo-centaurs are mounted savages:
Cheiron is the true knight, withstanding monsters in his
own shape, saving Peleus from them, and giving hospi
tality to the Argonauts. The mounted man was dragon
to the man on foot until he became the chevalier ; then
the demonic character passed to the strategist who had
no horse. It is curious enough to find existing among
the Mormons a murderous order calling themselves
Danites, or Destroying Angels, after the text of Gen. xlix.
17, 'Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the
 BRUTAL DRAGON. 39i

path, that biteth the horse's heel that his rider shall fall
backward.' The Ritter, however, so far as his Dragon
was concerned, was as one winged, and every horse a
Pegasus when it bore him to decide the day between the
adder and its victim. It is remarkable that the Mormons
should have carried from the East a cruel superstition to
find even among the Red Men, who are disappearing before
the western march of Saxon strength, more gentle fables.
Among the Mimacs, the aborigines of Nova Scotia,
there is a legend of a young hero named Keekwajoo, who,
in seeking for a wife, is befriended by a good sage named
Glooscap, who warns him against a powerful magician
disguised as a beaver, and two demon sisters, who will
waylay him in the disguise of large weasels. The youth
is admonished to beat a certain drum as his canoe passes
them, and he is saved as Orpheus in passing Cerberus and
Ulysses in sailing past the Syrens. The weasels, hearing
the music, aspire to wed the stars, but find themselves in
an indescribable nest at the top of a tall white pine.1
The chevalier encounters also the BRUTAL DRAGON,
whose victim is Woman. From immemorial time man's
captive, unable to hold her own against brute force, she is
at the mercy of all who are insensible to the refined and
passive powers. The rock-bound Andromeda, the pur
sued Leto, or whatever fair maid it may be that the
Dragon-slayer may have begun mythologically
rescues,
as emblem of the Dawn, whose swallower is the Night
Cloud ; but in the end she symbolises a brighter dawn,
that of civility and magnanimity among men.
It is a notable fact that far away in Japan we should
find a Dragon-myth which would appear to represent,
with rare beauty, the social evolution we have been con
sidering. Their great mythological Serpent, Yamati-no-
1 ' North American Review,' January 1871.
392 SAINT OF THE MIKADOS.
of eight heads and tails, stretching

is,
oroti, that the serpent
over eight valleys, would pretty certainly represent a river
annually overflowing its banks. One reminded by this

is
monster of the accounts given by Mencius of the difficulties
with streams which the Chinese had to surmount before
they could make the Middle States habitable. But this
Colonial Dragon, in the further evolution of the country,
reappears as the Brutal Dragon. The admirable legend
relates that, while the rest of the world were using stone
implements, there came into the possession of Sosano-o-
no-Mikoto (the Prince of Sosano) a piece of iron which
was wrought into sword. That maiden-sword of the
a

world was fleshed to save a maiden from the jaws of a

monster. The prince descended from heaven to a bank
of the river Hino Kawa, and the country around seemed
uninhabited but presently he saw a chopped stick float
;

ing down the stream, and concluded that there must

be beings dwelling farther up; so he travelled until he
came to spot where he beheld an aged man and his
a

wife (Asinaduti and Tenaduti), with their beautiful

daughter, Him£ of Inada. The three were weeping
bitterly, and the prince was informed that Hime was
the last of their daughters, seven of whom had been
devoured by terrible serpent. This serpent had eight
a

heads, and the condition on which had ceased to deso

it

late the district was that one of these eight maidens should
be brought annually to this spot to satisfy his voracity.
The last had now been brought to complete the dreadful
compact. The Japanese are careful to distinguish this
serpent from a dragon, with them an agathodemon. It
had no feet, and its heads branched by as many necks from
single body, this body being so large that stretched
it
a

over eight valleys. was covered with trees and moss,

It

and its belly was red as blood. The prince doubted

if
 SAINT OF THE MIKADOS.

even with his sword he could encounter such a monster,

so he resorted to stratagem ; he obtained eight vast bowls,
filled them with eight different kinds of wine, and, having
built a fence with the same number of openings, set a bowl
in each. The result may be imagined : the eight heads in
passing over the bowls paused, drank deep, and were soon
in a state of beastly intoxication. In this condition the
heads were severed from their neck, and the maiden saved
to wed the first Mikado Prince.
 ( 394 )

CHAPTER X.
THE DRAGON-SLAYER.

Demigods Alcestis The Ghilghit Fiend Incarnate de

Herakles
liverer of Ghilghit A Dardistan MadonnaThe religion of
Atheism Resuscitation of Dragons St. George and his Dragon
Emerson and Ruskin on George Saintly allies of the Dragon.

Theology has pronounced Incarnation a mystery, but

nothing is simpler. The demigod is man's appeal from
the gods. It
may also be, as Emerson says, that ' when
the half-gods go the gods arrive,' but it is equally true
that their coming signals the departure of deities which
man had long invoked in vain. The great Heraklean
myth presents us the ideal of godlike force united to
human sympathy. Ra (the Sun) passing the twelve gates
(Hours) of Hades (Night)1 is humanised in Herakles and
his Twelve Labours. He is Son of Zeus by a human
mother Alcmene and his labours for human welfare, as
well as his miraculous conception, influenced Christianity.
The divine Man assailing the monsters of divine creation
represents human recognition of the fact that moral order
in nature is co-extensive with the control of mankind.
One expression of this perception is the Alcestis of Euri
pides, whose significance in relation to death we have
considered.2
'
Alcestis,' as I have written in another work, '
is one of
the few ancient Greek melodramas. The majority of
1 ' 3
Records of the Past,' x. 79. Page 285.
 ALCESTIS. 395

dramas left us by the poets of Greece turn upon religious

themes, and usually they are tragedies. It is evident that
to them the popular religion around them was itself a

tragedy. Their heroes and heroines such as Prometheus

and Macaria were generally victims of the jealousy or
caprice of the gods and though the poets display in their
;

dramas the irresistible power of the gods, they do so with

out reverence for that and generally show the
power,
human victims to be more honourable than the gods. But
the Alcestis ' of Euripides is not a tragedy ; it ends hap
'

pily, and in the rescue of one of those victims of the gods.

It stands as about the first notice served on the gods that
the human heart had got tired of their high-handed pro
ceedings, and they might prepare to quit the thrones of a
universe unless they could exhibit more humanity. . . .

Knowing that neither he nor any other deity can legally

resist the decree of another deity, Apollo is reduced to
hope for help from man. Human justice may save when
divine justice sacrifices.He prophesies to Death that
although he may seize Alcestis, a man will come who will
conquer him, and deliver that woman from the infernal
realm. . . . Then Hercules comes on the scene. He has
been slaying lion and dragon, and he now resolves to con
quer Death and deliver Alcestis. This he does.' 1
In this pre-christian yet christian Passion Play, the part
played by the heart of woman is equally heroic with that
which represents the honour of man. So in the religion
which followed there was an effort to set beside the incar
nate vanquisher of infernal powers the pierced heart of
Mary. But among all the legends of this character it were
difficult to find one more impressive than that which Dr.
Leitner found in Dardistan, and one which, despite its
1 'Alcestis in England.' Printed by the South Place Society, Finsbury,
London. 1877. 4
396 THE GHILGHIT FIEND.

length, will repay a careful perusal. This legend of the

origin of the Ghilghit tribe and government was told by a
native.
'
Once upon a time there lived a race at Ghilghit whose
origin is uncertain. Whether they sprung from the soil or
had immigrated from a distant region is doubtful ; so much
is believed that they were Gayupf, i.e., spontaneous, abori
gines, unknown. Over them ruled a monarch who was a
descendant of the evil spirits, the Yatsh, who terrorised
over the world. His name was Shiribadatt, and he re
sided at a castle in front of which was a course for the per
formance of the manly game of Polo. His tastes were
capricious, and in every one of his actions his fiendish
origin could be discerned. The natives bore his rule with
resignation, for what could they effect against a monarch
at whose command even magic aids were placed ? How
ever, the country was rendered fertile, and round the capi
tal bloomed attractive. The heavens, or rather the vir
tuous Peris, at last grew tired of his tyranny, for he had
crowned his iniquities by indulging in a propensity for
cannibalism. This taste had been developed by an acci
dent. One day his cook brought him some mutton broth
the like of which he had never tasted. After much inquiry
as tothe nature of the food on which the sheep had been
brought up, it was eventually traced to an old woman, its
first owner. She stated that her child and the sheep were
born on the same day, and losing the former, she had con
soled herself by suckling the latter. This was a revelation
to the tyrant. He had discovered the secret of the palata-
bility of the broth, and was determined to have a never-
ending supply of it. So he ordered that his kitchen should
be regularly provided with children of a tender age, whose
flesh, when converted into broth, would remind him of the
exquisite dish he had once so much relished. This cruel
 ADVENT OF THE DELIVERER.
order was carried out. The people of the country were
dismayed at such a state of things, and sought slightly to
improve it by sacrificing, in the first place, all orphans and
children of neighbouring tribes. The tyrant, however, was
insatiable, and soon was his cruelty felt by many families
at Ghilghit, who were compelled to give up their children
to slaughter.
'
Relief came at last. At the top of the mountain Ko,
which it takes a day to ascend, and which overlooks the
village of Doyur, below Ghilghit, on the other side of the
river, appeared three figures. They looked like men, but
much more strong and handsome. In their arms they
carried bows and arrows, and turning their eyes in the
direction of Doyur, they perceived innumerable flocks of
sheep and cattle grazing on a prairie between that village
and the foot of the mountain. The three strangers were
brothers, and none of them had been born at the same
time. It was their intention to make Azru Shemsher, the
youngest, Rajah of Ghilghit, and, in order to achieve their
purpose, they hit upon the following plan. On the already
noticed prairie, which is called Didingd, a sportive calf was
gambolling towards and away from its mother. It was the
pride of its owner, and its brilliant red colour could be seen
'
from a distance. Let us see who is the best marksman,'
exclaimed the eldest, and, saying this, he shot an arrow in
the direction of the calf, but missed his aim. The second
brother also tried to hit but also failed. At last, Azru
it,

Shemsher, who took in the sport, shot his

deep interest
a

arrow, which pierced the poor animal from side to side and
killed it. The brothers, whilst descending, congratulated
Azru on his sportsmanship, and on arriving at the spot
where the calf was lying, proceeded to cut its throat and
to take out from its body the titbits, namely, the kidneys and
the liver.
393 HIS INCARNATION.
'
They then roasted these delicacies, and invited Azru
to partake of them first. He respectfully declined, on the
'
ground of his youth, but they urged him to do so, in
'
order,' they said, to reward you for such an excellent
shot.' Scarcely had the meat touched the lips of Azru
than the brothers got up, and, vanishing into the air, called
'
out, Brother ! you have touched impure food, which Peris
never should eat, and we have made use of your ignorance
of this law, because we want to make you a human being 1

who shall rule over Ghilghit ; remain, therefore, at Doyur.'

Azru, in deep grief at the separation, cried, ' Why remain
' '
at Doyur, unless it be to grind corn ? Then,' said the
' '
brothers, go to Ghilghit.' Why,' was the reply, ' go to
' '
Ghilghit, unless it be to work in the gardens ? No, no,'
'
was the last and consoling rejoinder ; you will assuredly
become the king of this country, and deliver it from its
'
merciless oppressor ! No more was heard of the depart
ing fairies, and Azru remained by himself, endeavouring
to gather consolation from the great mission which had
been bestowed on him. A villager met him, and, struck
by his appearance, offered him shelter in his house. Next
morning he went on the roof of his host's house, and call
ing out to him to come up, pointed to the Ko mountain,
on which, he said, he plainly discerned a wild goat. The
incredulous villager began to fear he had harboured a
maniac, if no worse character; but Azru shot off his arrow,
and, accompanied by the villager (who had assembled some
friends for protection, as he was afraid his young guest
might be an associate of robbers, and lead him into a trap),
went in the direction of the mountain. There, to be sure,
at the very spot that was pointed out, though many miles
distant, was lying the wild goat, with Azru's arrow trans
fixing its body. The astonished peasants at once hailed
1
Eating meat was the process of incarnation.
 A DARDISTAN MADONNA. 399

him as their leader, but he exacted an oath of secrecy

from them, for he had come to deliver them from their
tyrant, and would keep his incognito till such time as
his plans for the destruction of the monster would be
matured.
'
He then took leave of the hospitable people of Doyur,
and went to Ghilghit. On reaching this place, which is
scarcely four miles distant from Doyur, he amused himself
by prowling about in the gardens adjoining the royal resi
dence. There he met one of the female companions of
Shiribadatt's daughter fetching water for the princess. This
lady was remarkably handsome, and of a sweet disposi
tion. The companion rushed back, and told the young
lady to look from over the ramparts of the castle at a
wonderfully handsome young man whom she had just
met. The princess placed herself in a place from which
she could observe any one approaching the fort. Her
maid then returned, and induced Azru to come with her
in the Polo ground, in front of the castle; the princess
was smitten with his beauty, and at once fell in love with
him. She then sent word to the young prince to come
and see her. When he was admitted into her presence
he for a long time denied being anything more than a
common labourer. At last he confessed to being a fairy's
child, and the overjoyed princess offered him her heart
and hand. It may be mentioned here that the tyrant
Shiribadatt had a wonderful horse, which could cross a
mile at every jump, and which its rider had accustomed to
jump both into and out of the fort, over its walls. So
regular were the leaps which this famous animal could
take that he invariably alighted at the distance of a mile
from the fort, and at the same place. On that very day
on which the princess had admitted young Azru into the
fort King Shiribadatt was out hunting, of which he was
400 THE HEART OF ICE.

desperately fond, and to which he used sometimes to

devote a week or two at a time.
'We must now return to Azru, whom we left conversing
with the princess. Azru remained silent when the lady
confessed her love. Urged to declare his sentiments, he
said that he would not marry her unless she bound herself
to him by the most stringent oath; this she did, and they
became in the sight of God as if they were wedded man
and wife. He then announced that he had come to
destroy her father, and asked her to kill him herself.
This she refused; but as she had sworn to aid him in
every way she could, he finally induced her to promise
that she would ask her father where his soul was. ' Refuse
'
food,' said Azru, for three or four days, and your father,
who is devotedly fond of you, will ask for the reason of
'
your strange conduct ; then say, Father, you are often
staying away from me for several days at a time, and I am
getting distressed lest something should happen to you ;

do reassure me by letting me know where your soul

is,
and let me feel certain that your life safe.' This the
is

princess promised to do, and when her father returned

refused for several days.
food The anxious Shiribadatt
made inquiries, to which she replied by making the already
named request. The tyrant was for few moments thrown
a

into mute astonishment, and finally refused compliance

with her preposterous demand. The love-smitten lady
went on starving herself, till at last her father, fearful for
his daughter's life, told her not to fret herself about him
as his soul was of snow, in the snows, and that he could
only perish by fire. The princess communicated this infor
mation to her lover. Azru went back to Doyur and the
villages around, and assembled his faithful peasants. Them
he asked to take twigs of the fir-tree, bind them together,
and light them then to proceed in body with torches
a
;
 FATAL TORCHES. 401

to the castle in a circle, keep close together, and surround

it on every side. He then went and dug out a very deep
hole, as deep as a well, in the place where Shiribadatt's
horse used to alight, and covered it with green boughs.
The next day he received information that the torches were
ready. He at once ordered the villagers gradually to draw
near the fort in the manner which he had already indicated.
King Shiribadatt was then sitting in his castle ; near
him his treacherous daughter, who was so soon to lose her
parent. All at once he exclaimed, ' I feel very close ; go
out, dearest, and
what has happened.'
see The girl went
out, and saw torches approaching from a distance; but
fancying it to be something connected with the plans of
her husband, she went back and said it was nothing. The
torches came nearer and nearer, and the tyrant became
exceedingly restless. Air, air,' he cried, ' I feel very ill ;
'

do see, daughter, what is the matter.' The dutiful lady

went, and returned with the same answer as before. At
last the torch-bearers had fairly surrounded the fort, and
Shiribadatt, with a presentiment of impending danger,
'
rushed out of the room, saying, that he felt he was
dying.' He then ran to the stables and mounted his
favourite charger, and with one blow of the whip made
him jump over the wall of the castle. Faithful to its
habit the noble animal alighted at the same place, but,
alas ! only to find itself engulfed in a treacherous pit.
Before the king had time to extricate himself the villagers
had run up with their torches. '
Throw them upon him,'
cried Azru. With one accord all the blazing wood was
thrown upon Shiribadatt, who miserably perished.'
Azru was then most enthusiastically proclaimed king,
celebrated his nuptials with the fair traitor, and, as sole
tribute, exacted the offering of one sheep annually, instead
of the human child, from every one of the natives.
VOL. 1. 2 c
 THE HEARTLESS SUPPLANTED.

When Azru had safely ascended the throne he ordered

the tyrant's place The
to be levelled to the ground.
willing peasants, manufacturing spades of iron, flocked to
accomplish a grateful task, and sang whilst demolishing
his castle :
'
My nature is of a hard metal,' said Shiri and Badatt.
'
Why hard ? I, Koto, the son of the peasant Dem Singh,
am alone with this iron spade I raze to the
hardy ;

ground thy kingly house. Behold now, although thou

art of race accursed, of Shatsho Malika, I, Dem Singh's
son, am of a hard metal for with this iron spade
; I level
'
thy very palace ; look out ! look out ! 1
An account of the Feast of Torches, instituted as a
memorial of this tradition, has already been given in
another connection.2 The legend, the festival, and the
song just quoted constitute a noble human epic. That
startling defiance of the icy-hearted god by the human-
hearted peasant, that brave
long cowering cry of the
wretch who at last holds in his spade an iron weapon
to wield against the hardness of nature, are the sublime
paean of the Dragon-slayer. Look out, ye snow-gods !

Man's heart is there, and woman's heart; their courage,

plus the spade, can level your palaces ; their love will
melt you, their arts and sciences kill you : so fatal may be
torches !

All great religions were born in this grand atheism. As

the worship of Herakles meant the downfall of Zeus, the
worship of Christ meant the overthrow of both Jove and
Jehovah. Every race adores the epoch when their fathers
grew ashamed of their gods and identified them as dragons
the supreme cruelties of nature welcoming the man

1 ' Results of a Tour in Dardistan, Kashmir,' &c, by Chevalier Dr. G. W.

Leitner, Lahore, vol. i. part iii.
Trubner & Co.
1
Page 91.
 CHRISTIAN DRAGON-MYTHS.
who first rose from his knees and defied them. But in the
end the Priests of the Dragon manage to secure a com
promise, and by labelling him with the name of his slayer,
manage to resuscitate and re-enthrone him. For, as we
shall presently Dragon never really dies.
see, the

Christianity did not fail to avail itself of the Dragon-

slayer's prestige, which had preceded it in Europe and in
Africa. It could not afford to offer for popular reverence
saints less heroic than pagan warriors and demigods. The
old Dragon-myths, especially those which made the fame
of Herakles, were appropriated to invest saintly forms. St
Michael, St. Andrew, St. Margaret, and many another, were
pictured subduing or treading on Dragons. Christ was
shown crushing the serpent Sin, spearing the dragon Death,
or even issuing from its impotent jaws, like Jason from the
Dragon.1 But in this competition for the laurels of dead
Dragon-slayers, and fierce hostility to dragons already
slain, the real Dragon was left to revive and flourish in
security, and in the end even inherited the mantle and the
palm of his own former conqueror.
The miscarriage of canonisation in the case of St. George
is a small and merely curious thing in itself; but it is
almost mystical in its coincidence with the great miscar
riage which brought the cross of Christ to authorise the
crucifixions of the men most like him for a thousand years.
Mr. John Ruskin has sharply challenged Ralph Waldo
Emerson's penetrating touch on the effigy that decorates
the escutcheons of England and Russia. '
George of
Cappadocia,' says Emerson, 'born at Epiphania in Cilicia,
was a low parasite, who got a lucrative contract to supply
the army with bacon. A rogue and an informer, he got
rich and was forced to run from justice. He saved his
1 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.
404 RUSKIN AND EMERSON ON ST. GEORGE.

money, embraced Arianism, collected a library, and got

promoted by a faction to the episcopal throne of Alexan
dria. When Julian came, A.D. 361, George was dragged
to prison. The prison was burst open by the mob, and
George was lynched as he deserved. And this precious
knave became in good time Saint George of England,
patron of chivalry, emblem of victory and civility, and the
pride of the best blood of the modern world.' Whereon
Emerson further remarks that 'nature trips us up when
we strut.'
It is certainly rather hard for the founder of the St.
George Association to be told that his patron was no
Dragon-slayer at all, but the Dragon's ally. Mr. Ruskin
may be right in contending that whatever may have been
the facts, they who made George patron saint of England
still meant their homage for a hero, or at any rate not for
a rogue ; but he is unsatisfactory in his argument that our

St. George was another who died for his faith seventy
years before the bacon-contractor. Even if the Ruskin
St. George, said to have suffered under Diocletian, could
be shown historical, his was a very commonplace martyr
dom compared with that of a bishop torn in pieces by a
'
'
pagan mob. The distant christian nations would never
have listened to the pagan version of the story even had
it reached them. A bishop so martyred would have been
the very man to give their armies a watchword. The
martyr was portrayed as a Dragon-slayer only as a title
might be added to the name of one knighted, or the badge
of an order set upon his breast ; the heraldic device grew
into a variant of the common legend which suggests the
'
origin of the mythical George. The magician Athanasius,
successively an opponent of Christianity, a convert, and a

martyr, is his chief antagonist ; and the city of Alexandria

appears as the Empress Alexandria, the wife of Diocletian,
 A FICTITIOUS DRAGON-SLAYER.

and herself a convert and a martyr.' This sentence from

' '
Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography tells
more than Professor Ruskin's seventeenth-century autho
rity. The Dragon is the same Athanasius whose creed
sends forth its anathemas in churches dedicated to the
Arian canonised for having slain him !

Though it be granted that they who made George of

Cappadocia the ideal hero of England really intended
their homage for a martyr and hero, it must equally be
acknowledged that his halo was clearly drawn from Dra
gon-fire. He was a man who had taken to the sword, and
by it perished ; so much was known and announced in his
canonisation. He was honoured as 'the Victor' among
the Greeks, therefore to-day patron of Russia ; as protec
tor of Crusaders, therefore now patron of England ; thus
is he saint of a war waged by the strong against the weak,
in interest of a church and priesthood against human free
dom ; therefore George was taking the side of the Dragon
against Christ, restoring the priestly power he had assailed,
and delivering up his brave brothers in all history to be
nailed to Christianity as a cross.
Let George remain ! Whether naming fashionable
temples or engraved on gold coins, the fictitious Dragon-
slayer will remain the right saint in the right place so long
as the real Dragon-slayer is made to name every power
he hated, and to consecrate every lie in whose mouth he
darted his spear.
 ( 406 )

CHAPTER XI.
THE DRAGON'S BREATH.

Medusa Phenomena of recurrence The Brood of Echidna and their

survival Behemoth and Leviathan The Mouth of Hell The
Lambton Worm Ragnar The Lambton Doom The Worm's
Orthodoxy The Serpent, Superstition, and Science.

ASURA has already been mentioned as the most ancient

Aryan name for deity. The meaning of it

is,
the Breather.
It has also been remarked that in the course of time the
word came to signify both the good and the evil spirit.
What this evil breath meant in nature told in Leonardo
is

da Vinci's picture of the expiring Medusa, referred to

on p. 386, from whose breath noxious creatures are pro
duced. It may only to
have been that the artist meant
interpret the Gorgon as a personification of the malarious
vapours of nature and their organic kindred so, he
if
;

painted better than he knew, and has suggested that fatal

vitality of the evil power which raised to its throne as
it

principle coeternal with good.

The phenomena of recurrence in things evil made for
man the mystery of iniquity. The darkness
may be dis
persed, but returns the storm may clear away, but
it

gathers again inundations, sickly seasons, dog-days,

it

Cain-winds, they go and return the cancer cut out and

is
;

grows again the tyrant may be slain, tyranny survives.

;

The serpent slipping from one skin to another coils steadily

into the symbol of endlessness. In another expression
it
 PHENOMENA OF RECURRENCE.

is the poisonous breath of the Dragon. It is this breath

that cannot be killed the special incarnations of

it,
; any
temporary brood of

it,
may be destroyed, but the principle
in nature which produces them cannot be exterminated.
Dragon fables have this undertone to their brave strain.
In the Rig Veda said that when Indra slew

is
(v.

it
32)
Ahi, another more powerful was generated.' Isaiah (xiv.
'

29) cries, Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the

'

rod of him that smote thee broken for out of the

is

:
serpent's root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit
shall be fiery flying serpent.' Herakles struggles with
a

the giant robber, Antaeus, only to find the demon's

strength restored by contact with the earth. He kills
one head of the Hydra only to see two grow in its
place and even when he has to burn away
managed
;

these, the central head found to be immortal, and he

is

can only hide under a rock. That one the self-

it

is

multiplying principle of evil. The vast brood of Echidna

in mythology expresses the brood of evil in nature.
Echidna, daughter of Ge and Tartarus, Earth and Hell
phonetic reappearance of Ahi half-serpent, half-woman,
is

with black eyes, fearful and bloodthirsty. She becomes

the mother of fire-breathing Typhon, buried beneath the
earth by Jove's lightning when he aspired to scale Olym
pus; of the Dragon that guarded the Hesperian garden
;

of the Sphinx which puzzled and devoured; of three-

headed Cerberus of the eagle that preyed on rock-bound
;

Prometheus of the Nemaean lion which Herakles slew

;

of Chimaera and of Scylla the monster whom Homer

;

describessitting between two large rocks waylaying mari

ners on the way from Italy to Sicily, possessing twelve
feet, six long necks and mouths, each with three rows of
rushing teeth.
The Dragon that Cadmus slew also had terrible teeth
;
408 BEHEMOTH AND LEVIATHAN.

and it will be remembered that when these teeth were

sown they sprang up as armed men. Like them, the ancient
Dragon-myths were also sown, broadcast, in the mental
and moral fields, cleared and ploughed by a new theology,
and they sprang up as dogmas more hard and cruel than
the ferocious forces of nature which gave birth to their
ancestral monsters.
What the superstitious method of interpreting nature,
forced as it is to personify its painful as well as its plea
sant phenomena, inevitably results in, finds illustration
in the two great lines of tradition the Aryan and the
Semitic which have converged to form the christian
mythology.
The Hebrew personification, Jehovah, originating in a
rude period, became with many savage and im
invested
moral traditions ; but when his worshippers had reached
a higher moral culture, national sentiment had become too
deeply involved with the sovereign majesty of their deity
for his alleged actions to be criticised, or his absolute
supremacy and omnipotence to be questioned, even to
save his moral character. Thus, the Rabbins appear to
have been at their wits' end to account for the existence
of the two great monsters which had got into their
sacred records from an early mythology Behemoth
and Leviathan. Unwilling to admit that Jehovah had
created foes to his own kingdom, or that creatures
which had become foes to it were beyond his power to
control, they worked out a theory that Behemoth and
Leviathan were made and preserved by special order of
Jehovah to execute his decrees at the Messianic Day of
Judgment. They probably corresponded at an earlier
period with the gryphon, or grabber, and the serpent
which bit, guardians at the gate of paradise ; but the need
of such guards, biters, and spies by the all-powerful all
 THE BOOK OF NOAH.

seeing Shaddai having been recognised, the monsters had

to be rationalised into accord with his character as a retri
butive ruler. Hence Behemoth and Leviathan are repre
sented as being fattened with the wicked, who die in order
to be the food of the righteous during the unsettled times
that follow the revelation of the Messiah ! Behemoth is

Jehovah's 'cattle on a thousand hills' (Ps. 1. 10). In

Pireque de Rabbi Eliezur he is described as feeding daily
upon a thousand mountains on which the grass grows
again every night; and the Jordan supplies him with
drink, as it is said in Job (xl. 23), ' he trusteth that he can
draw up Jordan into his mouth.' In the Talmud these
monsters are divided into two pairs, but are said to have
been made barren lest their progeny should destroy the
earth. They are kept in the wilderness of Dendain, the
mythical abode of the descendants of Cain, east of Eden,
for the unique purpose mentioned.
But now we may remark the steady progress of these
monsters to the bounds of their mythological habitat.
There came a time when Behemoth and Leviathan were
hardly more presentable than other personified horrors.
They too must ' take the veil,' a period in the history of
mythical, corresponding to extinction in that of actual,
monsters. The following passage in the Book of Enoch
is believedby Professor Drummond to be a later insertion,
probably from the Book of Noah, and as early as the
middle of the first century : ' In that day two monsters
shall be divided ; a female monster named Leviathan, to
dwell in the abyss of the sea, above the sources of the
waters ; but the male is called Behemoth, which occupies
with its breast a desolate wilderness named Dendain, on
the east of the garden where the righteous
elect and
dwell, where my grandfather (Enoch) was taken up, being
the seventh from Adam, the first man whom the Lord of
 THE MOUTH OF HELL.

the spirits created. And I asked that other angel to show

me the might of these monsters, how they were separated
in one day, and one was set in the depth of the sea, the
other on the firm land of the wilderness. And he spoke
'
to Thou son of man, thou desirest in this to know
me,
what has been concealed.' And the other angel who went
with me, and showed me what is in concealment, spake,
'
. . . These two monsters are prepared conformably to
the greatnessof God to be fed, in order that the penal
judgment of God may not be in vain.' 1
We may thus see that there were antecedents to the
'
sentiment of Aquinas, Beati in regno ccelesti videbunt
pcenas damnatorum, ut beatitudo illis magis complaceat.'
Or, perhaps, one might say rather to the logic of Aquinas ;
for though he saw that it would be necessary for souls in
bliss to be happy at vision of the damned or else deficient
in bliss, it is said he could hardly be happy from think
ing of the irreversible doom of Satan himself. It would
appear that only the followers of the Genevan who antici
pated his god's hell for Servetus managed to adapt their
hearts to such logic, and glory in the endless tortures of
their fellow-creatures.
An eloquent minister in New York, Octavius B. Froth-
ingham, being requested to write out his views on the
'question' of everlasting damnation, began with the re
mark that he felt somewhat as a sportsman suddenly
called upon to hunt the Iguanodon. Really it is Behe
moth and Leviathan he was called to deal with. Levia
than transmitted from Jonah to the Middle Ages the idea
of 'the belly of Hell,' and Behemoth's jaws expanded in
'
the 'mouth of Hell of the Miracle-plays; and their utility,
as described in the Book of Enoch, perhaps originated the
1 ' The Jewish Messiah,' &c. By James Drummond, B.A. Longmans &
Co. (1877). See in this valuable work chapter xxi.
 THE LAMBTON WORM. 4ii
doctrine of souls tasting heavenly joys from the agonies of
others. The dogma of Hell has followed the course of its
prototype with precision. It has arrived at just that
period when, as in the case of Enoch's inquiring, the in
vestigator finds it has taken the veil. Theologians shake
their heads, call it a terrible question, write about free-will
and sin, but only a few, of the fatuous sort, confess belief
in the old-fashioned Hell where the worm dieth not and
the fire is not quenched.
Let us now take under consideration the outcome of
theAryan Dragon, which has travelled far to meet Behe
moth in the west. And it is probable that we could not,
with much seeking, find an example so pregnant with
instruction for our present inquiry as our little Durham
folk-tale of the Lambton Worm.
This Worm is said to have been slain by Sir Lambton,
crusader, and ancestor of the Earls of Durham. This
young Lambton was a wild fellow ; he was fond of fishing
in the river Wear, which runs near Durham Castle, and he
had an especial taste for fishing there on Sunday morn
ings. He was profane, and on Sundays, when the people
were all going to mass, they were often shocked by hear
ing the loud oaths which Lambton uttered whenever he
had no rise. One Sunday morning something got hold of
his hook, pulled strong, and he made sure of a good trout ;
what was his disappointment when instead thereof he
found at the end of his line a tiny black worm. He tore
it off with fierce imprecations and threw it in a well near
by. However, soon after this the young man joined the
crusaders and went off to the Holy Land, where he dis
tinguished himself by slaying many Saracens.
But while he was off there things were going on badly
around Durham Castle. Some peasant passing that well
into which the youth had cast the tiny black worm looked
412 CONDITIONS OF THE COMBAT.

into that made him shudder,

it,
and beheld creature

a
a
diabolical big snake with nine ferocious eyes. A little
time only had elapsed before this creature had grown too

it,
large for the well to hold and came out and crawled

it
on, making a path of desolation, breakfasting on a village,
until came to small hill. Around that hill it coiled
it

a
with nine coils, each weighty enough to make a separate
terrace. One may still see this hill with its nine terraces,
and be assured of the circumstances by peasants residing
near. Having taken up its headquarters on this hill, the
nine-eyed monster was in the habit of sallying forth every
day and satisfying his hunger by devouring the plumpest
family he could find, until at length the people consulted
an oracle some say witch, others again a priest and
a

were told that the monster would be satisfied were

it
if
given each day the milk of nine cows. So nine cows were
got together, and plucky dairymaid was found to milk
a

the cows and carry to the dragon. If single gill of the

it

milk was missing the monster took

dire revenge upon
a

the nearest village. This was the unpleasant situation

which young Lambton found when he returned home
from the crusades. He was now an altered man. He
was no longer given to fishing and profanity. He felt
keenly that by raising the demon out of the river Wear he

had brought woe upon his neighbours, and he resolved to

engage the Worm in single combat. But he learned
that had already been fought by several knights, and
it

had slain them, while no wounds received by itself availed

anything, since, were cut in twain, the pieces grew
if
it

together again. The knight then consulted the oracle,

witch or priest, and was told that he could prevail in the
combat on certain conditions. He must provide himself
with special armour, all over which must be large razor-
blades. He must manage to entice the worm into the
 ANALYSIS OF THE MYTH. 4'3

middle of the river Wear, in whose waters the combat

must take place. And, finally, he must vow to slay as a
sacrifice the first living thing he should meet after his vic
tory. These conditions having been fulfilled, the knight
entered the stream. The dragon, not having received his
milk as usual that morning, crawled from his hill seeking
whom he might devour, and seeing the knight in the river,
went at him. Quickly he coiled around the armour, but
its big razors cut him into many sections ; and these sec

tions could not piece themselves together again because

the current of the river washed them swiftly away.
Now, observe how this dragon was pieced together
mythologically. He is a storm cloud. He begins smaller
than a man's hand and swells to huge dimensions; that
characteristic of the howling storm was represented in the
howling wolf Fenris of Norse Mythology, who was a little
pet, a sort of lapdog for the gods at first, but when full
grown broke the chains that tied him to mountains, and
was only fettered at last by the thread finer than cobweb,
which was really the sunbeam conquering winter. Then,
when this worm was cut in two, the parts came together
again. This feature of recurrence is especially character
istic of Hydras. In the Egyptian ' Tale of Setnau,' Ptah-
nefer-ka saw the river-snake twice resume its form after
he had killed it with his sword, he succeeded the third
time by placing sand between the two parts ; and what
returning floods taught the ancient scribe remained to
characterise the dragon encountered by Guy of Warwick,
which recovered from every wound by dipping its tail in
the well it had guarded. The Lernean Hydra had nine
heads, the Lambton Worm nine eyes and nine folds,
and drank nine cows' milk. His fondness for the milk
of cows connects him straightly with the dragon Vritra,
whom Indra slew because he stole Indra's cows (that
is,
4M THE LAMBTON DOOM.
the good clouds, whose milk is gentle rain, and do no
harm), and shut them up in a cavern to enjoy their milk
himself. That is the oldest Dragon fable on record, and
it is said in the Rig- Veda that beneath Indra's thunder
bolt the monster broke up into pieces, and was washed
away in a current of water. Finally, in being destroyed
at last by razor blades, the dragon is connected with that
slain by Ragnar, in whose armour the sun-darts of Apollo
'
had turned to icicles. In the Death-Song of Ragnar
Lodbrach,' preserved by Olaus Wormius, it is said that
King Ella of Northumberland having captured that terror
of the North (8th cent.), ordered him to be thrown into a
pit of serpents. His surname, Lodbrach, or Hair Breeches,
had been given because of his method of slaying a Worm
which devastated Gothland, whose king had promised his
daughter to the man who should slay the same. Ragnar
dressed himself in hairy skins, and threw water over the
hair, which, freezing, encased him in an armour of ice.
The Worm, unable to bite through this, was impaled by
Ragnar. Another version is that Ragnar killed two ser
pents which the King of Gothland had set to guard his
daughter, but which had grown to such size that they
terrified the country. It may be observed that the Lamb-
ton story christianises the Ragnar legend, showing that to
be done in atonement for sin which in the other was done
for love. The Cornish legend of St. Petrox has also taken
a hint from Ragnar, and announces the rescue of christians
from the serpent-pitin which the pagan hero perished.
The icicles reappear on the slayer of the dragon of Want-
ley, represented by long spikes bristling from his armour.
The Knight Lambton, remembering his vow to slay as
a sacrifice the first living thing he might meet after the
combat, had arranged that a dog should be placed where it
would attract his eye. But it turned out that his own father
 NEMESIS OF DRA GON-EMPL 0 YERS. 4'5

came rushing to him. As he could not kill his father, he

consulted the oracle again to know what would be the
penalty of non-fulfilment of his vow. It was that no
representative of the family should die in his bed for nine
generations. The notion is still found in that neighbour
hood that no Earl of Durham has since then died in his
bed. The nine generations have long passed since any
crusading Lambton lived, but several peasants of the dis
trict closed their narrative with, ' Strange to say, no Earl of
Durham has died in his bed !
'
At the castle I talked
with a servant on the estate while looking at the old
statues of the knight, worm, and dairymaid, all kept there,
and he told me he had heard that the late Earl, as death
drew nigh, asked to sit up insisted and died in a chair.
If there be any truth in this, it would show that the family
itself has some morbid feeling about the legend which has
been so long told them with pride. The old well from
which the little worm emerged a monster is now much
overgrown, but I was told that it was for a long time a

wishing-well, and the pins cast in by rustics may still be

seen at the bottom of it.
Pins are the last offerings at the Worm's Well ; ' wishes
'

its last prayers ; but where go now the coins and the
prayers? To propitiate a power and commute a doom
resting upon much the same principles as those repre
sented in the Lambton legend. A community desolated
because one man is sinful miniatures a world's doom
for Adam's sin. The demand of a human sacrifice is more
clear in the Sockburn story, where Conyers offered up his
only son to the Holy Ghost in the parish church before
engaging the Dragon, that being a condition of success
' '
prescribed by the Oracle' or Sybil.' This claim of the
infernal powers represented by the Worm many-eyed,
all-seeing cannot be set aside; Lambton's filial love
4i 6 ORTHODOXY OF THE WORM.

may resist it only to have it pass as the hereditary doom

of his family, representing an imputed sin. ' For I, the
Lord thy God, am a jealous God, and visit the sins of
the fathers on the children unto the third and fourth
generation.'
There are processes of this kind in nature, hereditary
evils, transmitted diseases and disgraces, and afflictions of
many through the offences of one. But a fearful Nemesis
'
follows the deification and adoration of them. How can
I be happy in heaven,' said a tender-hearted lady to her
clerical adviser, 'when I must see others in hell?' 'You
will be made to see that it is all for the best.' '
If I
am to be made so heartless, I prefer to go to hell.' This
genuine conversation reports the doom of all deities
whose extension is in dragons. Hell implies a Dragon
as its representative and ruler. Theology may induce
the abject and cowardly to subject their human hearts
to the process of induration
required for loyalty to
such powers, but in the end it makes atheism the only
salvation of brave, pure, and loving natures. The Dragons'
breath has clouded the ancient heavens and blighted the
old gods but the starry ideals they pursue in vain. Behe
;

moth has supplied sirloins to many priesthoods for a long

time, but he has at last become too tough even for their
teeth, and they feed him less carefully every year. Nay,
he is encountered now and then by his professional feeders,
and has found even in Westminster Abbey his Guy of
Warwick.
Nor could this desp'rate champion daunt
A Dun Cow bigger than elephant ;

But he, to prove his courage sterling,

Cut from her enormous side a sirloin.

The Worms whether Semitic Leviathan or Aryan

Dragon are nearly fossilised as to their ancient form.
 THE DRAGON DOGMA. 417

The sacrifice of Jephtha's daughter to the one, and of

young Conyers to the other, found commutation in the
case of man's rescue from Satan by Christ's descent to
Hades, and in the substitution of nine uneasy deaths for the
demanded parricide in the Lambton case; and the most
direct ' survival ' of these may be found in any country lad
trying to cure his warts by providing a weed for them to
adhere to. Their end in Art was in such forms as this starve
ling creature of Callot's (Fig. 32), whose thin, spectacled

Fig. 31. From the Temptation of St. Anthony (Calloti

rider, tilting at St. Anthony, denotes as well the doom of all

powers, however lofty, whose majesty requires tali auxilio et
istis defensoribus. The Dragon passes and leaves a roar of
laughter behind him, in which even St. Anthony could now
join. But Leviathan and Lambton Worm have combined
and merged their life in a Dogma; it is a Dogma as remorse
less and voracious as its prototype, and requires to be fed
with all the milk of human kindness, or it at once begins
to gnaw the foundations of Christendom itself. Christi
anity rests upon the past work of the Worm in Paradise,
and its present work in Hell. It makes no real difference
whether man's belief in a universe enmeshed in serpent-
coils be expressed in the Hindu's cowering adoration of
VOL. I. 2D
4i 8 SERPENT SUPERSTITION AND SCIENCE.

the venomous potentate, or the christian's imprecation

upon it fundamentally it is serpent-worship in each case.
:

Vishnu reposes on his celestial Serpent; the god of Dogma

maintains his government by support of the infernal Ser
pent. Fear beheld him appearing in Durham to vindicate
the mass and the Sabbath ; but the same fear still sees
him in the fiery world punishing Sabbath-breakers and
blasphemers against his Creator and chief. That fear built
every cathedral in Christendom, and they must crumble
with the phantasm evoked for their creation.
The Serpent in itself is a perfect type of all evil in
nature. It of a perfectly
is irreconcilable with the reign
good and omnipotent man over the universe. No amount
of casuistry can explain its co-existence with anthropo
morphic Love and Wisdom, as all acknowledge when a
parallel casuistry attempts to defend any other god than
their own from deeds that are, humanly considered, evil.
It is just as easy to defend the jealousy and cruelty of
Jove, on the ground that his ways are not as our ways, as
it is to defend similar tempers in Jehovah. The monster
sent by one to devour Prometheus is ethically atwin with
the snake created by the other to bite the heel of man.
Man is saved from the superstitious evolution of the
venomous Serpent into a Dragon by recognising its real
evolution as seen by the eye of Science. Science alone
can tell the true story of the Serpent, and justify its place
in nature. It forbids man his superstitious method of
making a god in his own image, and his egotistic method
of judging nature according to his private likes and dis
likes, his convenience or inconvenience. Taught by Science
man may, with a freedom the barbarian cannot feel, exter
minate the Serpent ; with a freedom the christian cannot
know, he may see in that reptile the perfection of that
economy in nature which has ever defended the advancing
 SCIENCE THE SPEAR OF ITHURIEL. 419

forms of life. It judges the good and evil of every form

with reference to its adaptation to its own purposes. Thus
Science alone wields the spear of Ithuriel, and beneath its
touch every Dragon shrinks instantly to its little shape in
nature to be dealt with according to what it is.
 ( 42° )

CHAPTER XII.
FATE.

'
Dord's ' Love and Fate
'
Moira and Moirae The ' Fates of iEschylus
Divine absolutism surrendered Jove and Typhon Commu
tation of the Demon's share Popular fatalism Theological
fatalism Fate and Necessity Deification of Will Metaphysics,
past and present.

GUSTAVE DORE has painted a picture of ' Love and Fate,'

in which the terrible hag is portrayed towering above the
tender Eros, and while the latter is extending the thread
as far as he can, the wrinkled hands of Destiny are the
boundaries of his power, and the fatal shears close upon
the joy he has stretched to its inevitable limit. To the
ancient mind these two forms made the two great realms
of the universe, their powers meeting in the fruit with a
worm at its core, in seeds of death germinating amid the
play of life, in all the limitations of man. They are pro
tected in myths of Elysium and Hades, Eden and the Ser
pent, Heaven and Hell, and their manifold variants.
Perhaps there is no one line of mythological develop
ment which more clearly and impressively illustrates the
forces under which grew the idea of an evil principle, than
the changes which the personification of Fate underwent
in Greece and Rome. The Moira, or Fate with Homer, is
only a secondary cause, if that, and simply carries out the
decrees of her father, Zeus. Zeus is the real Fate. Never
 MOIRA AND MOIRAE.

theless, while this is the Homeric theory or theology,

there are intimations (see chap, xxvii. part 4) that the real
awe of men was already transferred from Zeus to the
Erinnyes. This foreshadows a change of government.
With Hesiod we find, instead of one, three Moirae. They
are no longer offspring of Zeus, but, as it were, his Cabinet.
They do not act independently of him, but when, in pur
suance of their just counsels, Zeus issues decrees, the
Moirae administer them. Next we find the Moirae of
Hesiod developed by other writers into final Recorders ;

they write the decrees of Zeus on certain indestructible

tablets, after which they are irrevocable and inevitable.
With ./Eschylus we find the Moirae developed into inde
pendent and supreme powers, above Zeus himself. The
chained Prometheus looks not to Zeus but to Fate for his
final liberation.

Chorus. Who, then, is the guide of Necessity ?

Prometheus.The tri-form Fates and the unforgetting Furies.
Cho. Is Zeus, then, less powerful than they?
Prom. At least 'tis certain he cannot escape his own doom.
Cho. And what can be Zeus' doom but everlasting rule ?
Prom. This ye may not learn ; press it not.
Cho. Surely some solemn mystery thou hidest.
Prom. Turn to some other theme : for this disclosure time has not
ripened : it must be veiled in deep mystery, for by the keeping of
this secret shall come my liberty from base chains and misery.

These great landmarks represent successive revolutions

in the Olympian government. Absolutism became bur-
thensome : irresponsible monarch, Zeus became respon
as

sible for the woes of the world, and his priests were
satisfied to have an increasing share of that responsibility
allotted to his counsellors, until finally the whole of it is
transferred. From that time the countenance of Zeus, or
Jupiter, shines out unclouded by responsibility for human
misfortunes and earthly evils ; and, on the other hand, the
422 JOVE AND TYPHON.
once beautiful Fates are proportionately blackened, and
they become hideous hags, the aged and lame crones of
popular belief in Greece and Rome, every line of whose
ugliness would have disfigured the face of Zeus had he
not been subordinated to them.
Moira means 'share,' and originally, perhaps, meant
simply the power that meted out to each his share of life,
and of the pains and pleasures woven in it till the term be
reached. But as the Fates gained more definite personality
they began to be regarded as having also a 'share' of
their own. They came to typify all the dark and formid
able powers as to their inevitableness. No divine power
could set them aside, or more than temporarily subdue
them. Fate measured out her share to the remorseless
Gorgon as well as to the fairest god. But where destructive
power was exercised in a way friendly to man, the Fates
are put somewhat in the background, and the feat is claimed
' '
for some god. Such, in the Prometheus of iEschylus,
is the spirit of the wonderful passage concerning Typhon,
rendered with tragic depth by Theodore Buckley: 'I
commiserated too,' says the rock-bound Prometheus, 'when
I beheld the earth-born inmate of the Cilician caverns,
a tremendous prodigy, the hundred -headed impetuous
Typhon, overpowered by force ; who withstood all the
gods, hissing slaughter from his hungry jaws, and from
his eyes there flashed a hideous glare as if he would
perforce overthrow the sovereignty of Jove. But the
sleepless shaft of Jupiter came upon him, the descend
ing thunderbolt breathing forth flame which scared him
out of his presumptuous bravadoes ; for having been
smitten to his very soul he was crumbled to a cinder, and
thunder-blasted in his prowess. And now, a hapless and
paralysed form, is he lying hard by a narrow frith, pressed
down beneath the roots of iEtna. And, seated on the
 THE SHARE OF EVIL POWERS.

topmost peaks, Vulcan forges the molten masses whence

there shall burst forth floods, devouring with full jaws the
level fields of fruitful Sicily ; with rage such as this shall
Typhon boil over in hot artillery of a never glutted fire-
breathing storm ; albeit he hath been reduced to ashes by
the thunderbolt of Jupiter.'
In this passage we see Jove invested with the glory of
defeating a great demon; but we also recognise the demon
still under the protection of Fate. Destiny must bear that
burthen. So was it said in the Apocalypse Satan should
be loosed after being bound in the Pit a thousand years ;
and so Mohammed declared Gog and Magog should break
loose with terror and destruction from the mountain-prison
in which Allah had cast them. The destructive Principle
' '
had its share as well as the creative and preservative
Principles,and could not be permanently deprived of it.
Gradually the Fates of various regions and names were
identified with the deities, whose interests, gardens, or
treasures they guarded ; and when some of these deities
were degraded their retainers were still more degraded,
while in other cases deities were enabled to maintain fair
fame by fables of their being betrayed and their good
intentions frustrated by such subordinates. Thus we find
a certain notion of technical and official power investing
such figures as Satan, Ahriman, Iblis, and the Dragon, as
if the upper gods could not disown or reverse altogether
the bad deeds done by these commissioners.
But the large though limited degree of control neces
sarily claimed for the greatest and best gods had to be
represented theologically. Hence there was devised a
system of Commutation. The Demon or Dragon, though
abusing his power, could not have it violently withdrawn,
but might be compelled to accept some sacrifice in lieu of
the precise object sought by his voracity. These substi
424 COMMUTATION.

tutions are found in every theological system, and to

apply them to individuals constitutes the raison d'etre of
every priesthood. In the progress towards civilisation the
substitutes diminish in value, and finally they become
merely nominal and ceremonial, an effigy of a man
instead of the man, or wine instead of blood. At first the
commutation was often in the substitution of persons of
lower for others of higher rank, as when slaves or wives
were, or are, sacrificed to assure paradise to the master or
husband. Thus, Death is allowed to take Alcestis instead
of Admetus. A higher degree of civilisation substitutes
animals for human victims. In keeping with this is the
legend of Christ's sending demons out of two men into a
herd of swine :
1
which, again, is referable to the same class
of ideas as the legend that followed concerning Jesus him
self as a vicarious offering; mankind in this case being the
herd, as compared with the son of a god, and the transfer
of the Satanic power from the human race to himself, for
even a little time, being accepted in theology as an equi
valent, on account of the divine dignity of the being who
descended into hell. It was some time, however, before
theology worked out this theory as it now stands, the
candid fathers having rejoiced in the belief that the con
tract for commutation on its face implied that Christ was
to remain for ever in hell, Satan being outwitted in this.
The ancient Babylonian charms often end with the
'
refrain : May the enchantment go forth and to its own
dwelling-place betake itself.' Every evil spirit was sup
posed to have an appropriate dwelling, as in the case of
Judas, into whom Satan entered,2 and of whom it is said
he 'by transgression fell, that he might go to his own
place.8 Very ingenious are some of the ancient specula

1 8 Acts i. 25.
Matt. viii. 30. Luke xxiii. 3.
 POPULAR FATALISM. 425

tions concerning the habitations and congenial resorts of

demons. In some regions the colour of a disease on the
skin is supposed to indicate the tastes of the demon
causing it;and the spells of exorcism end by assigning
him to something of the same hue. The demon of jaun
dice is generally consigned to the yellow parrots, and
inflammation to the red or scarlet weeds. Their colours
are respected. Humanity is little considered in the Eastern
formulas of this kind, and it is pretty generally the case
that in praying against plague or famine, populations are
often found selecting a tribe to which their trouble is
'
adjured to betake itself. May Nin-cigal,' says a Baby
'
lonian exorcism, turn her face towards another place ;

may the noxious spirit go forth and seize another ; may

the female cherub and the female demon settle upon his
body ; may the king of heaven preserve, may the king of
'
earth preserve !
So is it in regions and times which we generally think of
as semi-barbarous. But every now and then communities
which fancy themselves civilised and enlightened are
brought face to face with the popular fatalism in its pagan
form, and are shocked thereat, not remembering that it is
equally the dogma of vicarious satisfaction or atonement.
A lady residing in the neighbourhood of the Traunsee,
Austria, informs me that recently two men were nearly
drowned in that lake, being rescued at the last moment
and brought to life with great difficulty. But this inci
dent, instead of causing joy among the neighbours of the
men, excited their displeasure ; and this not because the
rescued were at all unpopular, but because of a wide
spread notion that the Destinies required two lives, that
they would have to be presently satisfied with two others,
and that since the agonies of the drowning men had
passed into unconsciousness, it would have been better to
426 THEOLOGICAL FATALISM.

surrender the selected victims to their fate. At Elsinore,

in Denmark, when the sea moans it is said to 'want some
body,' and it is generally the case that some story of a
person just drowned circulates afterwards.
While the early mythological forms of the Fates diminish
and pass away as curious superstitions, they return in meta
physical disguises. They gather their kindred in primitive
sciences and cosmogonies, and finding their old home swept
free of pagan demons, and, garnished with philosophic
phrases, they enter as grave theories ; but their subtlety
and their sting is with them, and the last state of the
house they occupy is worse than the first.
Yes, worse : for all that man ever won of courage or
moral freedom, by conquering his dragons in detail, he
surrenders again to the phantom - forces they typified
when he gives up his mind to belief in a power not him
self that makes for evil. The terrible conclusion that Evil
is a positive and imperishable Principle in the universe
carries in it the poisonous breath of every Dragon. It
lurks in all theology which represents the universe as an
arena of struggle between good and evil Principles, and
human life as a war of the soul against the flesh. It ani
mates all the pious horrors which identify Materialism
with wickedness. It nestles in the mind which imagines
a personal deity opposed by any part of nature. It coils
around every heart which adores absolute sovereign Will,
however apotheosised.
All of these notions, most of all belief in a supreme arbi
trary Will, are modern disguises of Fate ; and belief in
Fate is the one thing fatal to human culture and energy.
The notion of Fate (fatum, the word spoken) carries in it
the conception of arbitrariness in the universe, of power
deliberately exerted without necessary reference to the
nature of things ; and it is precisely opposed to that idea
 FATE AND NECESSITY. 427

of Necessity taught by Science, which is another name for

the supremacy of Law. Happily the notion of a universe
held at the mercy of a personal decree is suicidal in a
world full of sorrows and agonies, which, on such a theory,
can only be traced to some individual caprice or male
volence. However long abject fear may silence the lips
of the suffering, rebellion is in their hearts. Every blow
inflicted, directly or permissively, by mere Will, however
omnipotent, every agony that is consciously detached
from universal organic necessity, in order that it may be
'
called providential,' can arouse no natural feeling in man
nobler than indignation. The feeling of a suitor in a
court of law, who knows that the adverse judgment that
ruins him has no root in the facts or the law, but proceeds
from the prejudice or whim of the judge, can be nowise
different from that of a mother who sees her son stricken
down by death, and hears at his grave that he was con
sumed by the wrath of a god who might have yielded to
her prayer, but refused it. The heart's protest may be
throttled for a time by the lingering coil of terror, but
it is there, and christian theologians will be as anxious
it,

to protect their deity from at whatever cost to his

sovereignty, as their predecessors who invented the Cabi
net of Women to relieve Jove from responsibility.
Metaphysics which appear to have developed into
the art of making things look true in words when their
untruth in fact has been detected have indeed already
set about the task just predicted. Eminent divines are
found writing about matter and spirit, freedom and natural
law, as solemnly as all this discussion were new, and
if

had never carried out to its inevitable results.

been
They can only put in christian or modern phraseology
conclusions which have been reached again and again
in the history of human speculation. The various schools
428 METAPHYSICS.

of Buddhist and Vedantist

philosophy have come by
every conceivable route to their fundamental unity of
belief in God, Soul, and Matter; in a pessimist visible
nature, an ideal invisible nature, and a human soul held
in matter like a frog in a snake's but able by cer
mouth,
tain mysterious, mostly metaphysical or verbal, tactics,
to gain release, and pass into a corresponding situation in
the deity.
'As a king, whose son had strayed away from him and
lived in ignorance of his father among the Veddahs (wild
'
men), will, on discovering his son, exclaim, Come to me,
'
my darling son ! and make him a participator of the
happiness he himself enjoys, even so will the Supreme
God present himself before the soul when in distress the
soul enmeshed in the net of the five Veddahs (senses),
and, severing that soul from Pasam (Matter), assimilate it
to himself, and bless it at his holy feet.'
It is too late for man to be interested in an 'omni
'
potent Personality, whose power is mysteriously limited
at the precise point when it is needed, and whose moral
government is another name for man's own control of
nature. Nevertheless, this Oriental pessimism is the Paul
ine theory of Matter, and it is the speculative protoplasm
out of which has been evolved, in many shapes, that
personification which remains for our consideration the
Devil.

END OF VOL. I.

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