of mythology, De Brosses, in his 'Culte des Dieux Fétiches,' in the middle of the eighteenth century, and which is derived from a Portuguese word meaning a talisman. But on this, again, we can only touch in the briefest way; since to do justice to the subject it is necessary to adventure far outside our limits, and indeed into fields of extra-Aryan mythology, and of the folk-lore of non-Aryan savage tribes that do not come within our province. But Professor Max Müller, in his Hibbert Lectures and elsewhere, has used the evidence freely that is supplied in the Indo-Aryan literature, and all the profound sense of the infinite in the Indo-Aryan myths, in discounting the prevalence of fetishism among the primitive Aryans. We do not at all agree with his conclusions. But he helps us to see that the deities of the Vedas' and 'Brahmanas' (the hymns and books of devotion of India) are sprung from the same order of personified elemental phenomena as the fire-god or the sun-hero in other Aryan mythologies. To take Indra, the chief of these deities: we trace in the anomalous attributes of his divinity the signs of a savage deity who was now the offspring of a cow, now a ram,—a ram that on occasion could fly. Moreover, is there not a savage survival in the idea that Indra was much addicted to soma-drinking; or that he committed the "unpardonable sin" (according to the Vedic cult), i. e., the slaying of a Brahman? Indra even drank soma which was not intended for him, and the dregs became Vrittra the serpent, his enemy. In fighting this foe, Indra lost his energy, which fell to earth and begot trees and shrubs; while Vrittra, being cut in half, accounted for the moon and other phenomena in the universe. In pursuing this branch of mythology, the superb library afforded by the Sacred Books of the East' may be consulted, eked out by such other works as Dr. Muir's Ancient Sanskrit Texts,' and Ludwig's translation of the 'Rig-Veda.' The same mixture of sublime and ideal and lofty ideas with savage and primitive and wildly immoral conceptions of the gods, will be found in the Indo-Aryan, that is found in the Greek mythology. There is no need to dwell here on the account that Homer gives of the Greek gods, and their conduct and misconduct of their Divine affairs, for Homer will be found treated elsewhere; but let us recall that the children of Heaven and Earth, if we turn from Homer to Hesiod, included Ocean, Hyperion, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Tethys, and Cronus. And then we come to the Greek Indra, in Zeus; who unlike Indra, however, is born in the second generation of the gods, and even then only saved by a trick from the all-devouring wrath of his father Cronus. Cronus alone affords a myth that is a sort of test of the whole mythopoeic making of divinities out of crude material, and preserving the cruder characteristics even in the highly developed forms of a complex, consciously arranged mythology. It is thus we follow the early Greek myths, and watch them passing out of pure folk-lore and primary mythology into secondary and literary forms, until we come to their presentment by Homer and Hesiod. It is the same process as we see, working on equally Aryan ideas, in the Scandinavian mythology; until it arrives at its secondary stage, in the marvelous world of human and divine creation in the 'Nibelungen Lied.' In this evolution of barbaric divinities, and the elaboration of the crude heroic ideal, Odin may be compared very suggestively with the Greek Zeus, and Zeus with the Vedic Indra; and Indra again with the Norse Odin: and much light may thus be gained by a resort to comparative mythology in considering the chief deities of the greater Indo-European systems of ex-Christian religion. But indeed, whether we study the great myths or the humblest things in folk-lore, the Indo-European or Aryan tongues will be found to stammer out at last but the same message of the infinities that received its highest expression in a Semitic tongue. The Celts and Germans, the Sanskrit and Zendish peoples, the Latins and Greeks, all belong to one family of speech; but even a ten-centuries maintained speech is less permanent, and a less certain synthetic measure of man, than human nature and human imagination. And it is only now, when folk-lore is beginning to see the common ground betwixt the Aryan and the non-Aryan races and their histories, that it is learning to make its lanterns light for us the "dark backward and abysm of time," across which we look wistfully to the legended old dreams first dreamt in the childish cradle sleep of our race. Like faint memories of that cradle sleep, we listen now to the myths of the creation of the earth, and of man's destiny; myths of the stars; myths of the joy and sorrow of life and death; and of fire and of the elements. Read apart, they are beautiful and divine fables; read in the unity of man's common aspiration, they are the testament of the imperfect first beginning, and the slow growth toward perfection, of his expression of the mystery of nature, and of the eternal that is behind nature. A word remains to be said about the illustrative items that follow, which are chosen mainly with a view to showing the variety of the entertainment offered by the Aryan myths and folk-lore. As it is, we have omitted those fairy and folk tales, which are, like 'Rumpelstilskin' and 'Jack the Giant-Killer,' enshrined in every reader's memory; we have omitted also such passages as those in Homer, or the 'Nibelungen Lied,' or in the Arthurian legendary romances, which fall under other departments of the present work. Of those which do appear, and which may not carry their full and sufficient XVIII-659 explanation on the face of them, we may explain that the 'Kinvad Bridge and the 'Brig o' Dread' show the identity and the worldwide prevalence of the folk-lore relating to the passage of the souls of the dead. The contemporary Russian account of the faith in 'Hangman's Rope' points to the old idea, common in witches' prescriptions, of the virtue of a dead man's hand or other belongings, especially if the man came by a dark and dreadful end; it is but another form, in fact, of fetish-worship. The tale of the 'Bad Wife' is a variant of one common to all tongues, relating to matrimonial troubles and the punishment of a local Hades,- the nearest convenient pit, or cave, or dark pool, Mare au diable, or "Devil's Punchbowl." The Silesian tale of the 'Sleeping Army' is a variant of a common tradition which is locally related of King Arthur and his knights in South Wales. The two May Day verses, and those relating to Christmas decorations, are but another relic of the old treeworship, whose traces linger in many an unsuspected rustic rhyme to-day. Certain old English charms and superstitions relating to the sacred efficacy against evil of bread,—an idea common to all northern Aryan folk-lore, may be found daintily preserved by Herrick, who was the earliest collector of Devonshire folk-lore. An old knife charm, and a variant of the custom of honoring the Christmas fire,— a relic of old fire-worship,-which we have described above among the Mordvins, are also taken from the 'Hesperides.' The 'Legend of Bomere Pool,' the tale of the 'Fairy Prince from Lappmark,' and the Catalonian folk-tale, serve to illustrate further the universal Aryan custom (and indeed the extra-Aryan custom too) of attaching mythical characters, good and evil, elvish and demonic, to marked localities, hills, lakes, and the like. All these, let us remind the reader finally, are but crumbs from the great feast, whose full equipment includes not only the humblest couplet or game-rhyme that children sing, but the mysteries of mediæval romance, and the epic glooms and splendors of all the Aryan mythologies. Willian & Sharp THE KINVAD BRIDGE From the Zend-Avesta ' HEN the fiend named Vizareska carries off in bonds the souls THE of the wicked Daêva-worshipers who live in sin. The soul enters the way made by Time, and open both to the wicked and the righteous. At the head of the Kinvad Bridge, the holy bridge made by Mazda, they ask for their spirits and souls, the reward for the worldly goods which they gave away below. Then comes the well-shapen, strong, and tall maiden with the hounds at her sides; - she who can distinguish, who is graceful, who does what she desires, and is of high understanding. She makes the soul of the righteous go up above the heavenly hill; above the Kinvad Bridge she places it in the presence of the heavenly gods themselves. NOTE.- The Kinvad Bridge crosses over Hades to Paradise. For the souls of the good, it grows wider (nine javelins width); for the wicked it narrows to a thread, and they fall from it into the depths of Hades. THE BRIDGE OF DREAD From Border Minstrelsy' ["This dirge used to be sung in the North of England, over a dead body, previous to burial. The tune is weird and doleful, and joined to the mysterious import of the words, has a solemn effect. The word sleet, in the chorus, seems to be corrupted from selt, or salt."- Sir Walter Scott's note.] HIS ae nighte, this ae nighte, THIS Every night and alle; Fire and sleete, and candle lighte, And Christe receive thye saule. When thou from hence away are paste, To Whinny-muir thou comest at laste: If ever thou gavest hosen and shoon, Sit thee down and put them on: And Christe receive thye saule. If hosen and shoon thou ne'er gavest nane, The Whinnes shall pricke thee to the bare bane: From Whinny-muir when thou mayst passe, To Brigg o' Dread thou comest at laste: From Brigg o' Dread when thou mayst passe, To purgatory fire thou comest at laste: If ever thou gavest meat or drink, The fire shall never make thee shrinke: If meat and drinke thou gavest nane, The fire will burn thee to the bare bane: This ae nighte, this ae nighte, Fire and sleete, and candle lighte, M THE LEGEND OF BOMERE POOL+ From Miss C. S. Burne's 'Shropshire Folk-Lore › ANY years ago a village stood in the hollow which is now fillen up by the mere. But the inhabitants were a wicked race, who mocked at God and his priest. They turned back to the idolatrous practices of their fathers, and worshiped Thor and Woden; they scorned to bend the knee, save in mockery, to the White Christ who had died to save their souls. The *There must originally have been two more verses, describing the fate of the good and bad souls at the Bridge. + Compare Hawthorne's Philemon and Baucis,' in the Wonder Book,' which is essentially the same story. |