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CUKIOSITIES 
 
 INDO-EUROPEAN TRADITION 
 AND FOLK-LORE. 
 
CURIOSITIES 
 
 OF 
 
 INDO-EUROPEAN TRADITION 
 AND FOLK-LORE. 
 
 WALTER K. KELLY. 
 
 Popular tradition is tough. — Dasent. 
 
 LONDON : 
 CHAPMAN & HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1863. 
 
 [The Right of Translation is reserved.'] 
 
Kz.i^z.^zS 
 
 LONDON : 
 BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFEIAitS. 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 The purpose of this book is to make known some 
 of the most remarkable discoveries which have been 
 achieved by the successors and countrymen of Jacob 
 Grimm, and to indicate, in a manner not too abstruse 
 for the general reader, the method and line of re- 
 search which they have pursued, with a success in 
 some instances surpassing all expectation. The 
 labours of their great master have received due 
 honour in this country : they have gladdened the 
 hearts of our children, enriched the minds of our 
 studious men, and nurtured a spirit of inquiry 
 which has done not a little towards rescuing from 
 oblivion the perishing remains of the old ways of 
 life and thought of our forefathers. Learned and 
 unlearned, we have all been delighted to sit as 
 listeners at the feet of Jacob Grimm, but I am not 
 aware that any attempt has yet been made to 
 naturalize amongst us the admii-able fruits secured 
 within the last few years by German explorers of 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 his school. Yet the attempt is surely -worth 
 making; for it may be truly said that it is only 
 through the ultimate facts ascertained by these men 
 that we begin to discern the true value and the 
 mutual bearings of all the secondary facts collected 
 by their predecessors. 
 
 The grand distinction of the new school is that 
 they have worked with a new instrument — the 
 Sanscrit language and literature — an instrument 
 which has yielded in their hands, and promises to 
 yield still more abundantly, results fairly comparable 
 with those which spectral analysis has realized in 
 physical science. They have made it their task to 
 trace back the traditional beliefs and popular cus- 
 toms of ancient and modern Europe to then- common 
 source, and have found the object of their search in 
 the crude conceptions of nature, and of the powers 
 that rule it, which were entertained by a primaeval 
 race of nomades, the ancestors of aU the chief 
 European races. In this way not only have they 
 succeeded in demonstrating what was but dimly 
 surmised before — the radical unity of all the prin- 
 cipal pagan reUgions of the West, but they have 
 evolved a principle of order out of the seeming 
 chaos of ancient and modei-n superstitions, and 
 assigned an intelligible cause for many of its doc- 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 trines and practices apparently the most fantastic 
 and unmeaning. What, for instance, could well have 
 appeared more hopeless than any attempt to account 
 for the origin of a custom so universal, yet appa- 
 rently so whimsical, as divination with_^the sieve and 
 shears, or for that of the belief that witches, like the 
 weird sisters in "Macbeth," were in the habit of 
 sailing over the sea or through the air in a sieve? 
 Yet it has been ascertained that the custom and the 
 beKef were no arbitrary freaks of fancy, but normal 
 deductions from primitive notions of natural pheno- 
 mena and their supposed causes. So too all our 
 legends of magic treasures concealed in lakes, 
 swamps, or mountains, and coming to the light at 
 stated periods, are found to have had a similar 
 origin ; and the invention of the divining-rod has 
 been brought home to a people, among whom the 
 more practical invention of a simple instrument for 
 producing fire from the friction of two pieces of 
 wood was regarded as a prodigious effort of super- 
 human genius. 
 
 In the foremost rank of the learned Germans who 
 are worthily building up the edifice of which Grimm 
 laid the broad and massive foundations in his 
 "Deutsche Mythologie," stands Dr. Adalbert Kuhn, 
 the author of many profound researches in compai'a- 
 
Viu PREFACE. 
 
 tive philology and mythology. His -work " On the 
 Descent of Fire and the Drink of the Gods " marks 
 a new epoch in the history of the latter science. It 
 has now been four years before the world, having 
 been published in 1859, and the soundness of its 
 surprising demonstrations has been acknowledged by 
 the best judges in Germany and France. It is my 
 chief authority for what will seeni newest to English 
 readers in the greater part of the following pages ; 
 and although the very different nature of my work 
 has seldom allowed me to translate two or three 
 consecutive sentences from Dr. Kuhn's elaborate 
 treatise, yet I wish it to be fuUy understood that but 
 for the latter the former could not have been written. 
 I am the more bound to state this once for all, as 
 emphatically as I can, because the very extent of 
 my indebtedness has hindered me from acknowledg- 
 ing my obhgations to Dr. Kuhn, in the text or in 
 footnotes, as constantly as I have done in most other 
 cases. 
 
 In not a few instances I have been able to illus- 
 trate Dr. Kuhn's principles by examples from the 
 folk-lore of Great Britain and Ireland, and would 
 gladly have done so more copiously had matter for 
 the purpose been more accessible. My efforts in 
 that direction have made me painfully aware how 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 much we are behind the Germans, not only as to 
 our insight into the meaning of such relics of the 
 past, but also as to our industry in collecting them. 
 The latter defect is indeed a natural consequence of 
 the former, and it is to be hoped that our local 
 archaeologists will no longer be content to labour 
 under either of them when once they have found 
 what far-reaching knowledge may be extracted out 
 of old wives' tales and notions. Only four years ago 
 the editor of "Notes and Queries" spoke hypotheti- 
 cally* of a time to come, when the study of folk-lore 
 (he was, I believe, the inventor of that very expressive 
 and sterling word) should have risen from a plea- 
 sant pastime to the rank of a science. Already his 
 anticipation has been realized, and henceforth every 
 careful collector of a novel scrap of folk-lore, or even 
 of a well-marked variety of an old type, may enter- 
 tain a reasonable hope that he has in some degree 
 subserved the purposes of the ethnologist and the 
 philosophic historian. 
 
 Subjoined is a list of the principal works referred 
 to in the following pages, with some of the abbre- 
 
 * In the Preface to "Choice Notes.' 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 viations which have been substituted for the full 
 titles : — 
 
 Amelie Bosquet, La Normandie pittoresque et merveilleuse. 
 Brand, Popular Antiquities, with additions by Sir Henry Ellis. 
 
 Bohn's edition. 
 Choice Notes, from Notes and Queries. Folk-Lore. London, 1859. 
 Dasent, Popular Tales from the Norse. Ediuhurgh. 
 D. M. — Jacob Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie. 3te Ausgabe. Got- 
 
 tingen, 1854. 
 Hertz, Der Werwolf. Stuttgart, 1862. 
 Kemble, The Saxons in England. London, 18d9. 
 Kubn, Herab. — Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Gottertranks. 
 
 Berlin, 1859. 
 Kuhn, Westf — Sagen, Gebrauchen und Marchen aus Westfalen. 
 
 Leipzig, 1859. 
 Kuhn, Zeitsohr. — Zeitsobrift fiix vergleichende Sprachforschung. 
 Kuhn und Schwartz, Ndd.. — Norddeutsche Sagen, Marchen und 
 
 Gebrauche. Leipzig, ] 848. 
 Liebrecht, G. T. — Der Gervasius vou Tilbury Otia Imperialia. 
 
 Hanover, 1856. 
 Mannhardt, Die Gbtterwelt der Deutsohen und Nordischen Volker. 
 
 Berlin, 1860. 
 Keinsberg-Diiringafeld, Test Kalender aus Bbhmen. Prag, 1862. 
 Eobert Chambers, Popular Ehymes of Scotland. Edinburgh, 1847. 
 Schwartz, Der Ursprung der Mythologie dargelegt an griechisoher 
 
 und deutscher sage. Berlin, 1860. 
 "Wolf, Beitrage zur Deutschen Mythologie. Gottingen. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTEODTJCTOaY — COMMON ANOESTKT OF THE INDO-BUBOPEAN 
 
 TTATIONS — COMMON ORIGIN OF THEIR MYTHOLOGIES . 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE DESCENT OF FIRE — PROMETHEUS — NBEDFIRE3 — 
 
 DRAGONS — WHEEL BURNING — FRODl's MILL . . 37 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FIRE AND SOUL "BRINGING BIRDS AND INSECTS — BABIES 
 FOUND IN FOUNTAINS, TREES, ROCKS, PARSLEY BEDS, 
 ETC. — THE SOULS OF THE DEAD AS BIRDS . . . 74 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE DEAD — THEIR WORLD AND THE WAY TO IT — PSYCHO- 
 POMP DOGS AND COWS — DEATH OMENS GIVEN BY DOGS 
 AND COWS — THE DEAD-SHOE — THE BRIG o' DREAD — 
 SHIPS AND BOATS — THE FERRYMAN'S FEE — ENGLAND 
 THE LAND OF THE DEAD — BERTHA — TEARS FOR THE 
 DEAD — SOULS OF UNCHRISTENED BABES — ZWERGS 
 CROSSING THE FERRY 106 
 
xu CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE DEINK OF THE GODS — THE TJNIVEKSE A TKEB — THE 
 ASH — THE BIRTH OF MAN FEOJI TREES — CREEPING 
 THROUGH HOLES IN TREES, ROOKS, ETC. . . . 137 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE ROWAN OR MOUNTAIN ASH — THE DIVINING ROD— THE 
 MANDRAKE — THE SPMNGWORT — PORGET-ME-NOT — 
 HAZEL— THORN — MISTLETOE 158 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE DIVINING OR WISH-ROD CONTINUED — TRADITIONS OF IT 
 IN GKEEOB AND ROME— FERN — INVISIBILITY — CRAZING 
 AND DEADLY POWER OF LIGHTNING PLANTS, TREES, 
 RODS, ETC.— MAGIC CUDGELS 187 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MYTHICAL DRINKING VESSELS, SIEVES, CAULDRONS, AND 
 OTHER UTENSILS — WITCHES — COWS — HARES — OATS — 
 NIGHTMARES 212 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE WEREWOLF ... 242 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE WILD HUNT — TEE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS . 266 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE HEARTH FIRE — MARRIAGE — BOUNDARY OAKS — RED 
 
 HAIR — PEAS 292 
 
INDO-EUROPEAN TRADITION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTKODUCTOny — COMMON ANCESTRY OF THE HJDO-ETJROPEAII HATIONS — 
 COMMOK OKIOIN 01' THEIE MYTHOLOdlES. 
 
 It is indisputable that the principal races of 
 Europe who are known in history, as well as the 
 high caste Hindoos and the ancient Persians, all 
 belong to the same stock ; and that the common 
 ancestors of this Aryan or Indo-European race once 
 dwelt together in the regions of the Upper Oxus, 
 now under the dominion of the khan of Bokhara. 
 The evidence upon which this cardinal fact has been 
 established is of like kind with that which com- 
 mands our belief in the ascertained truths of geology, 
 and is in no wise inferior to it in fulness, consistency, 
 and force of inductive detail. It is drawn from the 
 analysis and mutual comparison of all the languages 
 of the Indo-Europeans, in which they have uncon- 
 
2 THE ARYAN RACE. 
 
 sciously written the history of their race, just as the 
 earth has mitten the history of the mutations which 
 its surface has undergone, in the strata which now 
 compose its outer crust. 
 
 The Aryans of Europe are the Celts, Greeks, 
 Latins, Germans (Teuton and Scandinavian), Letts 
 and Slaves. The only portions of its soil not pos- 
 sessed by them are those occupied by the Basques, 
 Magyars, Turks, Finns, Laps, and some TJgrian 
 and Tatar tribes of Russia. 
 
 In the act of tracing out the mutual affinities of 
 the Aryan languages it was impossible to overlook 
 the traditional beliefs, rites, and customs which those 
 languages record. Hence the investigation gradually 
 resolved itself into the two allied sciences of Com- 
 parative PhHology and Comparative Mythology. 
 Both sciences bear testimony to the primitive unity, 
 mental and physical, of the whole Aryan family. 
 Often is the same verbal root found underlying 
 words and groups of words most dissimilar in appear- 
 ance, and belonging to widely different languages, 
 under circumstances that entirely preclude the hypo- 
 thesis that it is in any one of them a borrowed 
 possession. It is just the same with a multitude of 
 beliefs and customs which have existed from time 
 immemorial in Greece and in Scandinavia, in the 
 
THE ARYAN RACE. 3 
 
 Scottish highlands, the forests of Bohemia, and the 
 steppes of Russia, on the banks of the Shannon, the 
 Rhine, and the Ganges. Take any of them sepa- 
 rately, as it appears among a single people, and it 
 will rarely happen that we can penetrate very deeply 
 into its meaning or the causes of its being. We 
 shall even be in danger of too hastily attributing its 
 origin to some arbitrary caprice of ignorance and 
 superstition, just as fossil shells and bones have by 
 some been supposed to have been so formed db 
 origine by a freak of nature. But the mystery 
 clears up more and more as we examine the subject 
 on all sides by the light of kindi-ed phenomena ; 
 and in this way we are led on to many surprising 
 and pregnant discoveries of the common elements 
 out of which the mythical traditions of Greece, 
 Italy, and the Northern nations have been severally 
 and independently developed. In this way also the 
 most trivial maxim or practice of modem supersti- 
 tion may become an important link in the chain of 
 human history, taking that term in its most compre- 
 hensive sense. For " popular tradition is tough," 
 and there are still extant among ourselves and else- 
 where items innumerable of an ancient lore, trans- 
 cending that of the school-master, and now only 
 succumbing at last to the navvy and the steam- 
 
 B 2 
 
4 THE ARYAN RACE. 
 
 engine ; a lore which remains unchanged at the core 
 from what it was some thousands of years ago, ere 
 the first Aryan emigrants had turned their steps 
 westwards from their old home in Central Asia. 
 The dog had been domesticated long before that 
 event occurred, yet watch him now when he lies 
 down to sleep. Though his bed be a bare board, or 
 ground as destitute of herbage, he turns himself 
 round and round before he lies down, just as his wild 
 ancestors used to do before him, when they prepared 
 their couch in the long grass of the prairie. With 
 not less tenacity does the popular mind hold fast by 
 the substance of its ancient traditions, and also for 
 the most part with as much unconsciousness of their 
 primary import. 
 
 Previously to the dispersion of the Aryans, their 
 condition, as revealed by the languages of their 
 several branches, was in the main nomadic and 
 patriarchal, yet not without some beginnings of agri- 
 culture, and, in proportion thereto, some rudiments 
 of a higher form of social life, .some approach to a 
 municipal polity.* Their stock of knowledge was 
 what they had gathered for themselves during their 
 passage from the savage state to that in which we 
 here find them. The growth of their vocabulary 
 
 * Kuhn, Herabk. p. 1, and in Weber's Ind. Stud., i. 321—363. 
 
THEIB, PRIMITIVE VOCABULARY. 5 
 
 had kept pace with the progress of their observation 
 and experience, and was in fact an automatic register 
 of that progress. It was a highly figurative voca- 
 bulary, for that is a necessary condition of every 
 primitive tongue. In all stages of language, even in 
 that at which it has become " a dictionary of faded 
 metaphors," comparison is the ready handmaid of 
 nomenclatiu'e. A piece of machinery, for instance, 
 is called a spinning-jenny, because it does the work 
 of a spinning woman. " To call things which we 
 have never seen before by the name of that which 
 most nearly resembles them, is a practice of every 
 day hfe. That children at first call all men ' father,' 
 and all women ' mother,' is an observation as old as 
 Aristotle. The Eomans gave the name of Lucanian 
 ox to the elephant, and camelopardus to the gu-affe, 
 just as the New Zealanders are stated to have called 
 horses large dogs. The astonished Gaffers gave the 
 name of cloud to the first parasol which they had 
 seen ; and similar instances might be adduced almost 
 indefinitely. They prove that it is an instinct, if it 
 be not a necessity, to borrow for the unknown the 
 names already used for things known." * 
 
 In this way the primitive Aryans composed their 
 vocabulaiy of things seen in the sky, and so it 
 * Farrar " On the Origin of Language," p. 119. 
 
6 ASTAN MYTHS. 
 
 became for all succeeding generations an inexhaus- 
 tible repertory of the raw material of myths, legends 
 and nursery tales. The sun, for instance, was a 
 radiant wheel, or a golden bird, or an eye, an egg, a 
 horse ; and it had many other names. At sunrise or 
 sunset, when it appeared to be squatting on the 
 water, it was a frog ; and out of this name, at a later 
 period, when the original metaphor was lost sight of, 
 there grew a Sanscrit story, which is found also in 
 German and Gaelic with a change of gender. The 
 Sanscrit version is that "Bheki (the frog) was a 
 beautiful girl, and that one day, when sitting near a 
 well, she was discovered by a king, who asked her to 
 be his wife. She consented, on condition that he 
 should never show her a drop of water. One day, 
 being tired, she asked the king for water ; the king 
 forgot his promise, brought water, and Bheki dis- 
 appeared." * That is to say, the sun disappeared 
 when it touched the water. 
 
 Clouds, storms, rain, lightning and thunder, were 
 the spectacles that above all others impressed the 
 imagination of the early Aryans, and busied it most 
 in finding terrestrial objects to compare with their 
 ever varying aspect. The beholders were at home 
 on the earth, and the things of the earth were com- 
 
 * "Saturday Review,'' Feb. 23, 1861. 
 
PRIMITIVE VIEWS OF NATURE. 7 
 
 paratively familiar to them ; even the coming and 
 going of the celestial luminaries might often be 
 regarded by them with the more composure because 
 of their regularity ; but they could never surcease to 
 feel the liveliest interest in those wonderful meteoric 
 changes, so lawless and mysterious in their visita- 
 tions, which wrought such immediate and palpable 
 effects, for good or ill, upon the lives and fortunes of 
 the beholders. Hence these phenomena were noted 
 and designated with a watchfulness and a wealth of 
 imagery which made them the principal groundwork 
 of all the Indo-European mythologies and supersti- 
 tions. The thunder was the bellowing of a mighty 
 beast, or the roUing of a wagon. The lightning 
 was a sinuous serpent, or a spear shot straight 
 athwart the sky, or a fish darting in zigzags through 
 the waters of heaven. The stormy winds were 
 howling dogs or wolves ; the ravages of the whirl- 
 wind that tore up the earth were the work of a wild 
 boar. Light clouds were webs spun and woven by 
 celestial women, who also drew water from the foun- 
 tains on high, and poured it down as rain. The 
 yellow light gleaming through the clouds was their 
 golden hair. A fast-scudding cloud was a horse 
 flying from its pursuers. Other clouds were cows, 
 whose teeming udders refreshed and replenished the 
 
8 AHYAN VIEWS OF NATURE. 
 
 earth ; or they were buck goats, or shaggy skins of 
 beasts dripping water. Sometimes they were tower- 
 ing castles, or mountains and caverns, rocks, stones, 
 and crags,* or ships saihng over the heavenly waters. 
 In all this, and much more of the same kind, there 
 was not yet an atom of that symbolism which has 
 commonly been assumed as the starting point of all 
 mythology."f The mythic animals, for example, 
 were, for those who first gave them their names, no 
 mere images or figments of the mind ; they were 
 downright realities, for they were seen by men who 
 were quick to see, and who had not yet learned 
 to suspect any coUusion between their eyes and 
 their fancy. These " natural philosophers" — to 
 speak with Touchstone — had in full perfection 
 the faculty that is given to childhood, of makiug 
 everythiag out of anything, and of believing with a 
 large and implicit faith in its own creations. 
 
 The beings whom they first recognised as gods 
 were those that were visible to them in the sky, and 
 these were for the most part beasts, birds, and 
 reptiles. Some of the latter appeared to combine 
 the flight of birds with the form of creeping things, 
 
 * Nearly all the Sanscrit words for rook, stone, cliff, crag, &c., 
 signify also cloud. 
 
 + Schwartz, U. M. 12. 
 
BRUTE GODS. 9 
 
 and then the heavenly fauna was enriched with a 
 new genus, the winged dragon. Ghmpses of other 
 human forms besides those of the cloud women 
 were seen from time to time, or their existence was 
 surmised, and gradually the divine abodes became 
 peopled with gods in the likeness of men, to whom 
 were ascribed the same functions as belonged to the 
 bird, beast, and snake-gods. By-and-bye, when all 
 these crude ideas began to shape themselves into 
 something like an orderly system, the surplusage of 
 gods was obviated by blending the two kinds 
 together, or subjecting the one to the other. Thence- 
 forth the story ran that the gods changed themselves 
 from time to time into animal forms, or that each of 
 them had certain animals for his favourites and con- 
 stant attendants in heaven ; and these were sacred 
 to him on earth. 
 
 Let us not think too meanly of the intelligence of 
 our simple ancestors because they could regard brutes 
 as gods. It was an error not peculiar to them, but 
 common to all infant races of men. The early 
 traditions of every people point back to a period 
 when man had not yet risen to a clear conception of 
 his own pre-eminence in the scale of created hfe. 
 The power of discerning differences comes later into 
 play than that of perceiving resemblances, and the 
 
10 BRUTM GODS. 
 
 primeval man, living in the closest communion with 
 nature, must have begun with a strong feehng of his 
 likeness to the brutes who shared with him so many 
 wants, passions, pleasures, and pains. Hence the 
 attribution of human voice and reason to birds and 
 beasts in fable and story, and the doctrine of the 
 transmigration of souls. To this feeling of fellow- 
 ship there would afterwards be superadded a sense of 
 a mysterious something inherent in the nature of 
 brutes, which was lacking in that of man. He 
 found himself so vastly surpassed by them in 
 strength, agility, and keenness of sense ; they 
 evinced such a marvellous foreknowledge of coming 
 atmospheric changes which he could not surmise ; 
 they went so straight to their mark, guided by an 
 instinct to him incomprehensible, that he might well 
 come to look upon them with awe as beings superior 
 to himself, and surmise in their wondrous manifesta- 
 tions the workings of something divine.* 
 
 The distinction made in historic times between 
 gods of the upper sky, the waters, and the subter- 
 ranean world, was unknown to the primitive Aryans. 
 The horizon, where earth and sky seem to meet 
 together, was the place in which the supernatural 
 powers were most frequently descried. When they 
 
 * Herder, Ideen. Hertz, Der Werwolf. 
 
THE SKY SEA. H 
 
 were not there they were beyond the clouds, in then- 
 own world, which was common to them all, and 
 which extended indefinitely above and below the 
 surface of the earth. The origin of most water- 
 gods and nymphs of the European Aiyans may be 
 traced back to the storm and rain deities of the 
 parent stock ; and the greater part of the myths 
 relating to the sea are to be understood as primarily 
 applying not to the earthly, but the cloud-sea, for no 
 other great collection of waters was known to the 
 first Ai-yans in their inland home. In like manner 
 mythical mountains, rocks, and caverns are generally 
 to be understood as clouds. It was in the clouds 
 that men first beheld the deities of the under-world, 
 whose abode was fixed in later times in the regions 
 from which they might have been supposed to ascend 
 when there was wild work to be done in mid-air. 
 
 Although, as we have said, the cloud-sea of the 
 first Aryans has been generally transferred to the 
 earth in the mjrthologies of the" West, nevertheless 
 the existence of an ocean overhead continued to be 
 an article of wide-spread belief in Europe, down at 
 least to the thirteenth century; nor is it quite extinct 
 in some places even at this day. Agobard, Bishop 
 of Lyons, fought hard against it in the ninth century. 
 Many persons, he says, are so insensate as to beheve 
 
12 THE SKY SEA. 
 
 that there is a region called Magonia, whence ships 
 come in the clouds to take on board the fruits of the 
 earth which have been beaten down by storm and 
 hail. The aerial navigators carry on a regular traffic 
 in that way with the storm-making wizards, pay 
 them for the corn they have thrashed with wind 
 and hail, and ship it off to Magonia.* 
 
 Gervase of Tilbui-yf- relates, that as the people 
 were coming out from a church in England, on a dark 
 cloudy day, they saw a ship's anchor fastened in a 
 heap of stones, with its cable reaching up from it to 
 the clouds. Presently they saw the cable strained, 
 as if the crew were trying to haul it up, but it still 
 stuck fast. Voices were then heard above the clouds, 
 apparently in clamorous debate, and a saUor came 
 sliding down the cable. As soon as he touched the 
 ground the crowd gathered round him, and he died, 
 like a man drowned at sea, suffocated by our damp 
 thick atmosphere. An hour afterwards his ship- 
 mates cut their caible and sailed away ; and the 
 anchor they had left behind was made into fasten- 
 ings and ornaments for the church door, in memory 
 of the wondrous event. The same author tells 
 another tale to the like effect. A native of Bristol 
 
 * D.M. 604. 
 
 + In his Otia Imperialia, composed about A.D. 1211. 
 
THE SKY SEA. 13 
 
 sailed from that port for Ireland, leaving his wife 
 and family at home. His ship was driven far out of 
 its course to the remote parts of the ocean, and there 
 it chanced that his knife fell overboard, as he was 
 cleaning it one day after dinner. At that very 
 moment his wife was seated at table with her 
 children in their house at Bristol, and behold ! the 
 knife fell through an open skylight, and stuck in 
 the table before her. She recognised it immediately ; 
 and when her husband came home long afterwards 
 they compared notes, and found that the time when 
 the knife had fallen from his hand corresponded 
 exactly with that in which it had been so strangely 
 recovered. " Who, then," exclaims Gervase, " after 
 such evidence as this, will doubt the existence of a 
 sea above this earth of ours, situated in the air or 
 over it ? " Such a sea is stiU known to Celtic tradi- 
 tion. " If our fathers have not lied," say the 
 peasants of La Vendue, " there are birds that 
 know the way of the upper sea, and may no 
 doubt carry a message to the blessed in Paradise."* 
 
 The elemental nature of the early Aryan gods, 
 however obscured in the monstrous growths of the 
 later Hindu theology, is most transparent in the 
 Kisr Veda, the oldest collection of wi'itinffs extant in 
 
 * Huter, *' Skizzen aus der Yendee." Berlin, 1853. p. Q5, 
 
14 THM VEDAS. 
 
 any Indo-European tongue. It was put together 
 somewhere about the year 1400 B.C., and consists of 
 the hymns chanted by the southern branch of the 
 Aryans, after they had passed the Indian Caucasus, 
 and descended into the plain of the Seven Rivers 
 (the Indus, the Punjaub or Five Rivers, and the 
 Sarasvati), thence to overrun all India. The San- 
 scrit tongue in which the Vedas are written is the 
 sacred language of India : that is to say, the oldest 
 language, the one which was spoken, as the Hindus 
 believe, by the gods themselves, when gods and men 
 were in frequent fellowship with each other, from 
 the time when Yama descended from heaven to 
 become the first of mortals. This ancient tongue 
 may not be the very one which was spoken by the 
 common ancestors of Hindus and Europeans, but at 
 least it is its nearest and purest derivative, nor is 
 there any reason to believe that it is removed from 
 it by more than a few degrees. Hence the supreme 
 importance of the Sanscrit vocabulary and hterature 
 as a key to the languages and the supernatural lore 
 of ancient and modern Europe. 
 
 " The divinities worshipped [in the Rig Veda] are 
 not unknown to later [Hindu] systems ; but they 
 there perform very subordinate parts ; whilst those 
 deities who are the great gods — the dii majores — of 
 
THE VEDIO PANTHEON. 15 
 
 the subsequent period, are either wholly unnamed in 
 the Veda or are noticed in a different and inferior 
 capacity. . . . The far larger number of hymns 
 in the first book are dedicated to Agni and Indra, 
 the deities or personifications of Fire and Firma- 
 ment."* Indra has for friends and followers the 
 Maruts, or spirits of the winds, whose host consists, 
 at least in part, of the souls of the pious dead ; and 
 the EibhuSj who are of similar origin, but whose 
 element is rather that of the sunbeams or the light- 
 ning, though they too rule the winds, and sing like 
 the Maruts the loud song of the storm. Their name 
 means the "artificers," and not even the divine 
 workman of Olympus was more skilled than they in 
 all kinds of handicraft. The armour and weapons 
 of the gods, the chariot of the Asvins (deities of the 
 dawn), the thunderbolt and the lightning steed of 
 Indra, were of their workmanship. They made their 
 old decrepid parents young and supple-jointed again. 
 But the feat for which they are most renowned is 
 the revival of the slaughtered cow on which the 
 gods had feasted. Out of the hide alone these 
 wonder-working Ribhus reproduced the perfect living 
 animal ; and this they did not once, but again and 
 again. In other words, out of a small portion of the 
 * Wilson, Translation of Kig Yeda. 
 
16 THE TWELVE NIGHTS. 
 
 imperishable cloud that had melted away in rain 
 and seemed destroyed, they reproduced its whole 
 form and substance. Similar feats were ascribed to 
 the Northern thunder-god Thor, whose practice it 
 was to kill the two buck goats that drew his car, 
 cook them for supper, and bring them to Kfe again 
 in the morning by touching them with his hammer. 
 
 In the gloomy season of the winter solstice the 
 Kibhus sleep for twelve days in the house of the 
 sun-god Savitar ; then they wake up, and prepare 
 the earth to clothe itself anew with vegetation, and the 
 frozen waters to flow again. It appears certain, from 
 some passages in the Vedas, that twelve nights about 
 the winter solstice were regarded as prefiguring the 
 character of the weather for the whole year. A 
 Sanscrit text is noticed by Weber, which says 
 expressly, " The Twelve Nights are an image of the 
 year."* The very same belief exists at this day in 
 Northern Germany. The peasants say that the 
 calendar for the whole year is made in the twelve 
 days between Christmas and Epiphany, and that as 
 the weather is on each of those days so will it be 
 on the corresponding month of the ensuing year. 
 They believe also that whatever one dreams on any 
 
 * Mannbardt, p. 50. 
 
EIBHUS. ORPHEUS. ELVES. 17 
 
 of the twelve nights will come to pass within the 
 next year.* 
 
 Before the dispersion of the Aryan race the 
 Eibhus were also called Ajbhus, and this form of 
 the word is strictly identical with the Greek name, 
 Orpheus.f Of this, as of most other Greek mythical 
 names, the Greek langnage affords no explanation, but 
 Sanscrit reveals its origin and gives a new interest 
 to its story. We see how the cruder idea of the 
 Ribhus, sweeping trees and rocks in wild dance 
 before them by the force of their stormy song, grew 
 under the beautifying touch of the Hellenic imagi- 
 nation into the legend of that master of the lyre 
 whose magic tones made torrents pause and listen, 
 rocks and trees descend with delight from their 
 mountain beds, and moved even Pluto's unrelenting 
 heart to pity. In Northern Europe, the word Arbhus 
 became changed, in conformity with the laws of the 
 Germanic languages, into Albs, Alb, or Alp ; plural 
 Elbe, Elfen ; English Elf, Elves. The Maruts also 
 survived under the name of Mart, or Mahr. The 
 Enghsh Nightmare, French Cauchemar, is one of 
 them, and the whole femily formed the retinue of 
 Odin, when he rode abroad as the Wild Huntsman. 
 
 * Euhn, NJd. p. 411 ; Kulm, Westf. ii. 115. 
 + Max Miiller, " Oxford Essays," 1856. > 
 
 a 
 
18 BUDRA. ODIN. APOLLO. 
 
 Odin's prototjrpes are Indra and Rudra, the 
 storm-god and dragon-slayer. The latter is called 
 the father of the Maruts, or Winds, and they are 
 as often in attendance on him as on Indra. The 
 stormy Apollo of the older Greek legends is also 
 a close copy of Eudra The latter "is evidently a 
 form of Agni, or Indra." * 
 
 Agni, the god of fire (Latin, ignis), has for re- 
 tainers the Bhrigus and the Angirases. They are 
 his priests on earth whilst they dwell there in mortal 
 form ; and after death they are his friends and com- 
 panions in heaven. They are also the companions 
 of the clouds and the storms. The Angirases tend 
 the heavenly cows (the clouds), and the Maruts (the 
 storms) milk them. , On the whole, it is manifest 
 that all these divine tribes, Maruts, Ribhus, Bhrigus 
 and Angirases, are beings identical in nature, distin- 
 guished from each other only by their elemental 
 functions, and not essentially different from the 
 Pitris, or fathers. The latter are simply the souls 
 of the pious dead. High above the clouds and the 
 blue firmament there is a shining realm, whence the 
 sun, the moon, and the stars feceive their light, and 
 whence also is drawn the fire of the hghtning, which 
 again is the origin of the earthly fire. Here the 
 
 * Wilson, Rig Veda, Introtl. 
 
YAMA. MANU. PITRIS. 19 
 
 Pitris dwell in everlasting bliss with their great 
 progenitor, the god Yama. The myths relating to 
 the origin of mankind are many and various, but 
 they all agree in this, that the soul of the first man 
 came down to earth as a particle of living fire in 
 the lightning. So it is in the Greek legend of Pro- 
 metheus : he brought down fire from heaven and 
 created the first men. In the Vedas, Yama is the 
 first lightning-bom mortal, the first, too, who trod 
 the path of death, and therefore he became king of 
 the departed fathers. His brother, Manu, (i.e., 
 ma/n) is the chief of the living. It is manifest that 
 Yama and Manu were originally one, but were sub- 
 sequently divided, Manu becoming the supreme 
 representative of human life on earth, and Yama 
 that of its continuance after death. 
 
 Manu is the thinking being * (from the root man, 
 whence also the Greek, Latin, and English words, 
 m^nos, mens, mind). The Minos and Minyas of the 
 Greeks, and the Mannus of the Germans are iden- 
 tical with Manu. Minos is judge of the dead ; 
 Yama, who is only another form of Manu, is their 
 king. 
 
 The Pitris, or fathers, led no inactive lives in their 
 blissful abode. They were elementary powers, and 
 
 * Max Miiller, " Lectures on Language." 
 
 2 
 
20 PITRIS. BRIGHT ELVES. ANGELS. 
 
 it was their office to distribute the light that filled 
 that lustrous resion, and to adorn the firmament 
 with stars. They themselves too shone as stars to 
 mortal eyes. This most ancient belief is not yet 
 extinct in England and Germany. It has come 
 down to our own day through the fairy mythology 
 of the north, and has become blended with popular 
 conceptions of the nature of the angels. The author 
 of the prose Edda says that, " at the southern end 
 of heaven stands the palace of Gimli, the most 
 beautiful of all, and more brilliant than the sun. 
 It will continue to stand when heaven and earth 
 pass away, and all good and upright men of all 
 times will dwell therein. It is said, that above and 
 southward of yonder heaven, there is another called 
 Andlangr, and also a third above these two, which 
 is called Vidblainn ; and in this heaven, as we 
 believe, is that palace situated, and only inhabited 
 now by the bright elves (liosalfar)." These bright 
 elves are in all respects identical with the Pitris. 
 " The idea," says Sommer, " that men, at their birth, 
 come out from the community of the elves, and 
 return to it after death, is deeply-rooted in our 
 (German)- paganism." In most English villages 
 children are taught that it is very wrong to point at 
 the stars, but they are not often told why it is wrong. 
 
APAS. APSARASES. SWAN-MAIDENS. 21 
 
 Their parents have probably forgotten the reason 
 for that is a common occurrence in matters of 
 superstition. The rule remains in force long after 
 its principle has faded from popular recollection. 
 But in Germany the same precept is inculcated, and 
 the reason is always given for it : " the stars are the 
 angels' eyes."* 
 
 The cloud-maidens, of whom we have already 
 spoken, are known in the Vedas as Apas, (waters), 
 and are styled brides of the gods (JDevapatnis) and 
 Navyah, i.e., navigators of the celestial sea. Nearly 
 related to them, but less divine, are the Apsarases, 
 damsels whose habitat is between the earth and the 
 sun. They are the houris of the Vedic paradise, 
 destined to delight the souls of heroes. Their name 
 means either " the formless '' or " the water going," 
 and they appear to have been personifications of the 
 manifold but ill-defined forms of the mists ; but 
 other natural phenomena may also have been repre- 
 sented under their image. The Apsarases are fond 
 of transforming themselves into water fowl, espe- 
 cially swans ; they are the originals of the swan- 
 maidens of Germanic story, and are closely related 
 to the Elves, Mahrs, and Valkyries. 
 
 The Apsarases had shirts of swan plumage, and it 
 * Wolf, Beitr., ii. 291. 
 
22 SWAN-MAIDENS. VALKYEIE8. 
 
 was by putting on these garments that they trans- 
 formed themselves into swans. The Persian pens, 
 and the German swan-maidens changed their forms 
 in the same way and by the same means. The 
 German and Norse swan-maidens were in the habit 
 of taking off their swan shirts, and leaving them on 
 the margin of a lake, while they bathed there in 
 human form ; but it often happened that the shirt was 
 stolen by some mortal who had watched the pro- 
 ceeding, and who thereby became possessed of the 
 person of the swan-maiden. He made her his wife, 
 and they lived long and happily together ; but the 
 end of the story always was, that she found the shui. 
 at last, or wheedled him out of it, and then flew 
 away from him for ever. Odin's Valkyries had also 
 their swan-shirts, and the Norse goddess Freyja 
 had her falcon-shirt, which she lent to Loki, when 
 he went in quest of Thor's stolen hammer, and to 
 rescue Idunn, the goddess of youth, from captivity 
 among the frost giants. Thiassi, who kept her in 
 custody, had an eagle-shirt, and his fellow giant, 
 Suttungr, had another, in which he pursued Odin. 
 
 Opposed to the beneficent genii of the elements, 
 are troops of dark demons, from whom proceed all 
 the hurtful influences of nature. They hide the 
 heavenly luminaries from mortal eyes, and prevent 
 
INDRA'8 BATTLE WITH THE DEMONS. 23 
 
 the fertilizing waters from descending upon the 
 earth. It is they who produce the burning heat of 
 midsummer, and wither the green herbage with 
 scorching sunbeams. They are called by many 
 different names, accordingly as they are engaged in 
 one or other of their works of mischief Vritra is 
 the demon who steals the heavenly cows, (i e., the 
 light rain clouds), the Apas, and the golden treasure 
 of the sun, and shuts them up in his dark cavern. 
 There the captive Apas, the brides of the gods 
 (DSvapatnis), are forced to become brides of the 
 fiends (Dasapatnis) until they are rescued by Indra 
 and the other luminous gods. The dark cavern in 
 which they are imprisoned is the black storm-cloud, 
 that hangs long in the sky without unloading itself 
 Vritra means the concealer, him who covers up ; from 
 his work in the dog-days, the same demon receives 
 the names of Sushna, or the parcher, and Ahi 
 (Greek, dchis), the serpent or dragon. Sushna steals 
 the golden wheel of heaven (the sun), and would 
 burn up the earth with it but for Indra, who strikes 
 Sushna dead with his thunderbolt, extinguishes the 
 wheel in the sky sea, and lights it up again with a 
 milder radiance. The annually recurring battle 
 between the god and the demon is described with 
 great animation in the Vedas, and we shall see by- 
 
24 THE THUNDERERS WEAPON. 
 
 and-by how it was dramatically represented every 
 year in one of the popular customs of modern 
 Europe. It was, in fact, the model of all the 
 victorious dragon fights that have been subsequently 
 fought, whether by pagan or christian champions, 
 from Apollo, Hercules, and Siegfried, down to St. 
 George, and to that modem worthy, More of More- 
 hall, 
 
 " Who slew the dragon of Wantley." 
 
 Of Indra's weapon, the thunderbolt, ^^'e shall 
 speak at some length in another chapter. Here we 
 will only mention, that every time it was hurled by 
 the god it returned of itself to his hand. So also 
 did Odin's spear, and the same extremely convenient 
 property was manifested on all ordinary occasions by 
 Thor's lightning club or hammer. It was only in 
 the last storms of autumn that the latter remained 
 buried in the earth, and was lost to the god until 
 the following spring. In consequence of this pecu- 
 liarity of the hammer, or thunderbolt, it was 
 necessary to take precautions, not only against its 
 direct blow, but also against its back-stroke when it 
 was returning to its master's hand. For this reason 
 it continues to be the custom in many places in 
 Bavaria, as Mannhardt relates, to throw open all the 
 windows as wide as possible during a thunderstorm, 
 
CLOUD-BUILDERS. 25 
 
 SO that if the lightning should enter the house it 
 may have free vent to get out again. I can also 
 testify from personal knowledge, that the same 
 practice, with the addition of opening all the doors 
 as well as the windows, is carefully obsei-ved in some 
 places in Hertfordshire and Essex. 
 
 In the elevated and inland region of Arya, winter 
 was a rigorous season of seven months' duration. 
 Its cold and its gloom were believed, like the 
 burning heat of the dog-days, to be the work of a 
 demon, who weakened the light of the sun in the 
 dwindling days before the winter solstice, locked up 
 the waters of the sky, and bound those of the eai-th 
 in icy fetters. Or, as the Aryans expressed the fact, 
 he built himself seven wintry castles (i.e., the clouds 
 piled up by the wintry winds), in which he confined 
 the women, the cows, and the gold of the sun. 
 Such cloud-built towers and their architects occur 
 frequently in the Gi'ecian and German mythologies. 
 An offer was made to the gods, by one of the Norse 
 giants, to build them a strong castle in a year and a 
 half, if they would give him the sun and moon, and 
 the great goddess, Freyja. After consulting to- 
 gether upon the proposal, the gods resolved to accept 
 it, on these conditions : the giant was to complete 
 the building m one winter, and to do it all alone 
 
26 CLOUD-BUILDERS. 
 
 without any man's help ; if any part of it were 
 unfinished by the first day of summer, he was to 
 forfeit all claim to remuneration. The giant, aided 
 by his strong horse, Svadilfari, nearly completed the 
 building, though hindered by Loki (for the gods had 
 repented of their bargain), and at last he was killed 
 by the lightning god, Thor. 
 
 This myth, says Grimm, after passing through 
 those curious fluctuations which are often observable 
 in genuine popular traditions, survives in a new 
 form, in other times, and on other ground. A 
 Gei-man popular tale puts the devil in place of the 
 giant, and there is a whole string of legends, in 
 which the devil erects buildings and flings stones, 
 just like the giants of yore. The devil contracts to 
 build a house for a peasant, and to have his soul for 
 the job ; but he must complete it before the cock 
 crows, otherwise, the peasant goes scot-free. The 
 work is all but finished, there only remains one tile 
 to be put upon the roof, when the peasant imitates 
 the crowing of a cock, all the cocks in the neigh- 
 bourhood fall a-crowing, and the fiend is foiled of his 
 bargain. A Norwegian legend of a more archaic 
 kind, tells that King Olaf, of Norway, was wending 
 his way, in deep thought, over hill and dale ; he 
 had it in his mind to build a church, the like of 
 
ST. OLAF AND THE GIANT. 27 
 
 which should nowhere be found, but he saw that he 
 could not complete the building without greatly 
 burthening his kingdom. In his perplexity, he was 
 met by a man of strange appearance, who asked 
 him why he was so thoughtful. Olaf told him what 
 he was meditating, and the giant, or troll, offered to 
 complete the building singlehanded, by a certain 
 time, stipulating that he should have for payment 
 the sun and moon, or St. Olaf himself The bargain 
 was struck, but Olaf laid down such a plan for the 
 church, as he thought could not possibly be fulfilled ; 
 the church was to be so big that seven priests could 
 preach in it at once, without disturbing each other ; 
 the pillars, and the architectural "ornaments, without 
 and within, were to be carved out of hard flint, &c. 
 All this was soon done, and nothing remained want- 
 ing, but the roof and the spu-e. Again disturbed 
 in mind at the bargain he had made, Olaf wandered 
 over hill and dale. All at once he heard a child 
 crying within a hiU, and a giantess soothing it with 
 these words : " Hush ! Hush ! To-morrow Wind and 
 Weather, your father, will come home, and bring 
 with him the sun and the moon or St. Olaf himself" 
 Delighted with this discovery (for with the name of 
 the evil spirit one can destroy his power), Olaf 
 turned and went home. The work was finished. 
 
28 RAKSHASAS. OGEES. 
 
 even to the point of the spire. Then said Olaf, 
 " Wind and Weather ! you have set the spire awry." 
 At the word, down fell the giant with a horrible 
 crash from the roof-ridge of the church, and broke 
 into a great many pieces, and every piece a flint 
 stone.* 
 
 In the middle ages, the devil, who is proverbially 
 busy in a gale of wind, was in very extensive prac- 
 tice as an architect, but his buildings were always 
 left unfinished, or were ruined, as those of the 
 Aryan demon were by the thunderbolts of Indra. 
 
 To come back to the southern Aryans, their 
 Eakshasas, a very numerous tribe of demons, are 
 also called Atrin, or devourers, and are palpably the 
 earliest originals of the giants and ogres of our 
 nursery tales. They can take any form at will, but 
 their natural one is that of a huge mis-shapen giant, 
 " like a cloud," with hair and beard of the colour of 
 the red lightning. They go about open-mouthed, 
 gnashing their monstrous teeth and snuffing after 
 human flesh. Their strength waxes most terrible in 
 twilight, and they know how to increase its effect by 
 all sorts of magic. They carry off their human prey 
 through the air, tear open the living bodies, and with 
 their faces plunged among the entrails they suck up 
 
 * D.M. p. 614. 
 
COMMON IKDO-EUEOPEAN GODS. 29 
 
 the warm blood as it gushes from the heart. After 
 they have gorged themselves they dance merrily. 
 Sometimes it happens that a giantess, smitten with 
 love for the imperilled man, rescues him from the 
 Rakshasa, and changes her shape for his sake into 
 that of a beautiful maiden. Besides the demon giants 
 there are demon dwarfs also, called Panis. 
 
 The collective appellation of the Vedic gods is 
 Devas, and this name has passed into most of the 
 Indo-European languages ; for corresponding to the 
 Sanscrit deva is the Latin deus, Greek theos, Lithu- 
 anian ddwas, Lettish dews, Old Prussian deiws, Irish 
 dia, Welch duw, Cornish duy. Among the German 
 races the word deva survives only in the Norse 
 plural tivar, gods ; and among those of the Slave 
 stock, the Servians alone preserve a trace of it in the 
 word diw, giant. The daevas of the Medes and 
 Persians were in early times degraded from the rank 
 of gods to that of demons by a reUgious revolution, 
 just as the heathen gods of the Germans were 
 declared by the Christian missionaries to be devils ; 
 and the modem Persian div, and Ai-menian dev, 
 mean an evil spirit, Dev4 is derived from div, 
 heaven (properly "the shining"), and means the 
 heavenly being. 
 
 Hence it appears that certain gods were common 
 
30 COMMON INDO-EUROPEAN GODS. 
 
 to all the Indo-Europeans before their dispersion, and 
 the greatest of those " heavenly" beings must have 
 been he who was heaven itself — Div (nom. Dyaus, 
 gen. Div&). He is addressed in the Vedic hymns 
 as Dyaush pita, i. e., Heaven Father, and his wife is 
 Mata Prithivi, Mother Earth. He is the Zeus Pater 
 of the Greeks, the Jupiter of the Romans,* the 
 German Tius, Norse Tyr. Dyaush pita was the god 
 of the blue firmament, but even in the Vedic times 
 his grandeur was already on the wane. Indra, the 
 new lord of the firmament, had left him little more 
 than a titular sovereignty in his own domain, whilst 
 Varuna, another heavenly monarch, who was still in 
 the plenitude of his power, commanded more 
 respect than the roi faineant, his neighbour. The 
 all-covering Varuna,* the Uranos of the Greeks, was 
 lord of the celestial sea and of the realm, of light 
 above it, that highest heaven in which the Fathers 
 dwelt with their king Yama. After the southern 
 branch of the Aryans had entered India, Varuna 
 was brought down from the upper regions, to be 
 thenceforth the god of the earthly sea, which had 
 
 * Zeiis (gen. Dios) = Delis, = Dykvia ; Jupiter (Diupiter) = Div- 
 pater ; or Diespiter = Dyaus- pater. 
 
 + Varuna and the demon Vritri both deriTe their names from var, 
 vri, to cover, enfold. 
 
THE CHARIOT OF THE SUN. 31 
 
 then, for the first time become known to his 
 votaries. 
 
 Whilst the sun was still a wheel, a store of gold, a 
 swan or a flamingo, an eagle, falcon, horse, and many- 
 other things, it was also the eye of Varuna ; just 
 as among the Anglo-Saxons and other Germans it 
 was held to be the eye of Woden. Varuna and 
 Mithra (the friend), the god of dayhght, used to sit 
 together at morning on a golden throne, and journey 
 at evening in a brazen car. At the same time there 
 was a special god of the sun, Savitar or Smya, who 
 also had his beaming chariot, drawn by two, seven, 
 or ten red or golden coloured mares, called Haritas, 
 a name in which Professor Max Miiller has recognised 
 the original of the Greek Gharites.* The ideas of 
 the horse-sun and the wheel-sun had naturally 
 coalesced to fonn the chariot, and then the divine 
 charioteer followed as a matter of course. The utter 
 inconsistency of all these various representations of 
 the same visible object did not give the Vedic 
 hymnists the least concern. They took their 
 materials as they found them in the floating speech 
 and unmethodised conceptions of their people, and 
 used them with the freedom of an imagination 
 which had never been taught to run in critical 
 
 * "Oxford Essays," 1856, p. 81. 
 
32 A MULTIPLIOITY OF SUNS. 
 
 harness. It is difficult at this day for men whose 
 hereditary ideas of nature and its phenomena are 
 such as the long growth of science has made them — 
 it is difficult for minds thus trained and furnished to 
 go back to the point of view from which the primi- 
 tive Aryans looked upon a world wherein they had 
 evei-ything to learn for themselves. To them it was 
 by no means self-evident that the sun which shone 
 upon them to-day was the same they had seen 
 yesterday or the day before ; on the contrary it 
 seemed to them quite as reasonable to suppose that 
 every new day had its new sun. The Greek 
 mythology shows us a whole people of suns* in the 
 Cyclops, giants with one eye, round as a wheel, in 
 their foreheads. They were akin to the heavenly 
 cfiants and dwelt with the Phaeacians, the naviarators 
 of the cloud-sea, in the broad Hypereia,f the upper- 
 land, i. e., heaven, until the legend transplanted 
 them both to the western horizon. 
 
 The morning twilight is represented in the Vedas 
 by twin gods, and the ruddy dawn by the goddess 
 Ushas, who is one in name and fact with the Greek 
 Eos. Her light was conceived to be a herd of red 
 cows, and she herself figures in some hjnnns as a 
 
 * W. Grim-n, " Die Sage von Polyphem.'' p. 27 ff. 
 t Homer, Od. vii. 58, 206. 
 
THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH. 33 
 
 quail. Vartika, the Sanscrit name of the bird, 
 corresponds etymologically with ortyx, its Greek 
 name ; and in the myths of Greece and Asia Minor 
 the quail is a symbol of light or heat. Instead of 
 one Ushas, a plurality is sometimes mentioned, and 
 indeed there was no end of them, since every new 
 dawn appeared to be a new goddess. 
 
 The twin brothers who chase away the demons of 
 the night and bring on the morning, are the Asvins, 
 or Eiders. There are points of resemblance between 
 them and the twin sons of Leda which may be more 
 than casual. They are extolled for having rescued 
 many men from danger, and particularly for the aid 
 they frequently afforded to storm-beaten sailors, 
 whom they carried safely to shore in their chariot, or 
 on the backs of their horses. They were bounteous 
 givers, too, of wealth, food, and divine remedies for 
 the ills that flesh is heir to. The wife of Cyavana, the 
 son of BhrigTi, with whom they were in love, induced 
 them by stratagem to renew her husband's youth, 
 and this they effected by bathing him in a lake, 
 from which the bather emerges with whatever age he 
 pleases. Here we have for the first time that "foun- 
 tain of youth" which reappears, after so long a 
 period of apparent oblivion, in the poems of the 
 middle ages. The renovating lake is the cloud water 
 
34 SOMA. AMRITA. AMBROSIA. 
 
 which contains the drink of immortality, the amrita 
 of the Vedas, the ambrosia of the Greeks. 
 
 This heavenly beverage was brought down to earth 
 and bestowed on mortals by the god Soma, the per- 
 sonification of the soma plant, which the Hindus now 
 identify with the Asclepias acida, or Sarcostemma 
 viminale. This is a plant containing a milky juice 
 of a sweetish subacid flavour, which, being mixed 
 with honey and other ingredients, yielded to the 
 enraptured Aryans the first fermented liquor theii- 
 race had ever known. The poetic fire with which 
 Burns sings the praises of John Barleycorn may 
 help us, but only in a faint degree, to comprehend 
 the tumult of delight and wonder, the devout ecstasy, 
 with which the first draught of the miraculous soma 
 possessed the souls of a simple race of water-drinking 
 nomades. What a Vedic hymn would Burns have 
 raised had he been one of them ! But there was 
 not wanting many a sacred poet to commemorate 
 the glorious event, nor did it fail to be hallowed in 
 the traditions of succeeding generations from the 
 Ganges to the Atlantic. Among all the Indo-Euro- 
 peans it gave rise to a multitude of myths and 
 legends, having for their subject the simultaneous 
 descent of fire, of the soul of man, and of the drink 
 of the gods. One of the synonymes of soma is 
 
GANDHARVE8. KENTAURS. 35 
 
 madhu, which means a mixed drink ; and this word 
 is the methu of the Greeks, and the mead of our 
 own Saxon, Norse, and Celto-British ancestors. 
 
 The Gandharves, a tribe of demigods, are repre- 
 sented in some of the Vedic legends as custodians of 
 the amrita, or soma, and as keeping such close watch 
 over it that only by force and cunning can the thirsty 
 gods obtain a supply of the immortal beverage. The 
 horses of these Gandharves are highly renowned, 
 and they themselves often assume the form of their 
 favourite animals. Among Dr. Kuhn's many inter- 
 esting discoveries, not the least curious is that of 
 the identity of these Gandharves, in name and in 
 nature, with the half-human, half-equine Kentaurs, 
 or Centaurs, of Grecian fable. The parallel between 
 the Aryan and the Greek semihorses holds good even 
 as to the fight with the gods for the divine drink, 
 which the former refused to share with the latter. 
 The Kentaurs had a butt, or tun, of precious wine, 
 which was given to them by Dionysos, or Bacchus. 
 Pholos, one of their number, allowed Hercules to 
 drink of this wine, and that was the cause of the 
 war between the son of Jove and the Kentaurs. 
 The di-sdne perfume of the wine was wafted to the 
 nostrils of its absent owners, and rushing to the spot 
 they assailed their kinsman's guest with stones and 
 
 D 2 
 
36 AMBROSIA. 
 
 other missiles. This scene of turbulence, though 
 described as having occurred on earth, must be 
 understood as a piece of cloud-histoiy. The Ken- 
 taurs, like the Gandharves, were undoubtedly cloud- 
 demons, or demigods, and the wiue butt of the 
 former corresponds to the vessel in which the latter 
 kept their amrita, or soma, and which is called in 
 Sansciit Jcabandha, a word that signifies both butt 
 and cloud. 
 
 According to Nonnus, the Kentaurs were sons of the 
 Hyades, the rainy constellation, who are also spoken 
 of as the nurses of Dionysos. Asklepiades states 
 that the most distinguished amongst these starry 
 nymphs was named Ambrosia. Euripides speaks 
 of the fountains of ambrosia, the drink of immor- 
 tality, as situated at the verge of the ocean, the 
 region where heaven and earth meet together, and 
 the clouds rise and fall. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE DESCENT 0¥ TIRE — PROMETHEUS — NEEDEIRES — DRAGONS — 
 WHEEL BURHINQ — FRODl's MILL. 
 
 The gods Agni and Soma are described in the 
 Vedas as descending to earth to strengthen the 
 dominion of their own race, the Devas, who are at 
 war with their rivals, the Asuras, and to exalt men to 
 the gods. The story of this great event is variously- 
 told. One of its many versions as relates to Agni, 
 the god of fire, is that he had hid himself in a cavern 
 in heaven, and that Msltarisvan, a god, or demi- 
 god, brought him out from it and delivered him to 
 Manu, the first man, or to Bhrigu, the father of the 
 mythical family of that name. Matarisvan is thus a 
 prototype of Prometheus, and the analogy between 
 them will appear stiU closer when we come to see in 
 what way both were originally beheved to have 
 kindled the heavenly fire which they brought down 
 to earth. The process was the same as that by 
 which Indra kindles the lightning, and which is 
 daily imitated in the Hindu temples in the produc- 
 
38 CHUBNINQ AND FIRE-KINDLING. 
 
 tion of sacred fire. It is so like churning, that both 
 operations are designated by the same word. 
 
 " In churning in India, the stick is moved by a 
 rope passed round the handle of it, and round a post 
 planted in the ground as a pivot ; the ends of the 
 rope being drawn backwards and forwards by the 
 hands of the chumer, gives the stick a rotatory 
 motion amidst the milk, and this produces the sepa- 
 ration of its component parts." — Wilson, Rig Veda, 
 I. 28, 4 n. 
 
 " The process by which fire is obtained from wood 
 is called churning, as it resembles that by which 
 butter in India is separated from milk. The New 
 Hollanders obtain fire by a similar process. It con- 
 sists in drilling one piece of arani wood into another 
 by puUing a string, tied to it, with a jerk with one 
 hand, while the other is slackened, and so alternately 
 till the wood takes fire. The fire is received on 
 cotton or flax held in the hand of an assistant 
 Brahman." — Stevenso7i, Sdma Veda, Pref. VII. 
 
 Besides the churn, there is another well-known 
 domestic machine to which the " chark," or fire 
 generator of India, is nearly related. This is the 
 mangle or instrument for smoothing linen by means 
 of rollers. Manr/Ie is a corruption of mandel (from 
 the root mand, or manth, which implies rotatory 
 
MANGLING. CHVBNING. 39 
 
 motion), and as a verb it means properly to roll, in 
 which sense it is still used in provincial German. In 
 North Germany the peasants say, when they hear the 
 low rumbling of distant thunder, Use Herr Gott 
 mangelt, "The Lord is mangling," or rolHng — roll- 
 ing the thunder. The same verb in Sanscrit is 
 TnanthaTui, which is always used to denote the pro- 
 cess of churning, whether the product sought be 
 butter, or fire, or a mixture of the iagredients for 
 making soma-mead. The drilling, or churning, stick 
 is called mantha, manthara, or, with a prefix, pra- 
 mantha. The Hindu epics tell how that once upon 
 a time the Devas, or gods, and their opponents, the 
 Asuras, made a truce, and joined together in churn- 
 ing the ocean to procure amrita, the drink of immor 
 tality (p. 34). They took Mount Mandara for a 
 churning stick, and wrapping the great serpent Sesha 
 round it for a rope, they made the mountain spin 
 round to and fro, the Devas pulling at the serpent's 
 tail, and the Asuras at its head. Mount Mandara 
 was more anciently written Manthara, and manthara 
 is the Sanscrit name of the churning stick which is 
 used in every dairy in India. 
 
 The invention of the chark was an event of 
 immeasurable importance in the history of Aryan 
 civilisation. Scattered through the traditions of the 
 
40 INVENTION OF THE CHARK. 
 
 race there are glimpses of a time when the progeni- 
 tors of those who were to "carry to their fullest 
 growth all the elements of active life with which our 
 nature is endowed," had not yet acquired the art of 
 kindling fire at wiU. From that most abject con- 
 dition of savage life they were partially raised by the 
 discovery that two dry sticks could be set on fire by 
 long rubbing together. But the work of kindling 
 two sticks by parallel fiiction, effected by the hand 
 alone, was slow and laborious, and at best of but 
 uncertain efScacy. A little mechanical contrivance, 
 of the simplest and rudest kind, completely changed 
 the character of the operation. The chark was 
 invented, and from that moment the destiny of the 
 Ai-yan race was secured. Never again could the 
 extinction of a sohtary fire become an appalling 
 calamity under which a whole tribe might have to 
 sit down helpless, naked, and famishing, until relief 
 was brought them by the eruption of a volcano or 
 the spontaneous combustion of a forest. The most 
 terrible of elements, and yet the kindliest and most 
 genial, had become the submissive servant of man, 
 punctual at his call, and ready to do whatever work 
 he required of it. Abroad it helped him to subdue 
 the earth and have dominion over it ; at home it 
 was the minister to his household wants, the 
 
MYTHOLOGY OF THE CHARK. 41 
 
 centre and the guardian genius of his domestic 
 affections. 
 
 Always prompt to explain the ways of nature by 
 their own ways and those of the creatures about 
 them, the Aryans saw in the fire-churn, or chark, a 
 working model of the apparattis by which the fires of 
 heaven were kindled. The lightning was churned 
 out of the sun or the clouds ; the sun wheel that had 
 been extinguished at night, was rekindled in the 
 morning with the pramantha of the Asvins. The 
 fire-chum was regarded as a sacred thing by all 
 branches of Indo-Europeans. It is still in daily use 
 in the temples of the Hindus, and among others of 
 the race here and there recourse is had to it on 
 solemn occasions to this day. In Greece it gave 
 birth to the sublime legend of Prometheus. Greek 
 tragedy had its rise in the recital of rude verses in a 
 cart by uncouth actors daubed with lees of wine. 
 The noblest production of the Greek tragic stage was 
 but a transcendant version of the story of a stick 
 twirling in a hole in a block of wood. 
 
 To rub fire out of a chark is to get something that 
 does not come to hand of its own accord, and to get 
 it by brisk, if not violent action. Hence we find, 
 along with pramantha, the fire-churning stick, another 
 word of the same stock, pramatha, signifying theft ; 
 
42 PROMETHEUS. 
 
 for manthami had come by a very natural transition 
 to be used in the secondary sense of snatching away, 
 appropriating, stealing. In one of these senses it 
 passed into the Greek language, and became the 
 verb manthand, to learn, that is to say, to appro- 
 priate knowledge, whence jprometheia, foreknow- 
 ledge, forethought. In hke manner the French 
 apprendre, to learn, means originally to lay hold on, 
 to acquire. Derivatives of pramantha and pramatha 
 are also found in Greek. A Zeus Promantheus is 
 mentioned by Lycophron as having been worshipped 
 by the Thurians, and Prometheus is the glorious 
 Titan who stole fire from heaven. This is the 
 explicit meaning of the name ; but, furthermore, it 
 has imphcitly the signification of fire-kindler. Pro- 
 metheus appears distinctly in the latter character 
 when he sphts the head of Zeus, and Athene springs 
 forth from it aU armed ; for this myth undoubtedly 
 imports the birth of the Hghtning goddess from the 
 cloud. In other versions of the story, Hephaistos 
 takes the place of Prometheus, but this only shows 
 that the latter was, in like manner as the former, a 
 god of fire. At all events in this myth of the birth 
 of Athene, Prometheus figures solely as a fire- 
 kindler, and not at aU as a fire-stealer ; and since 
 in aU the older myths, names were not mere names 
 
PBOMETHMUS. 43 
 
 and nothing more, but liad a meaning whicli served 
 as gi-oundwork for the story, it follows that in this 
 instance the name must have had reference to the 
 Sanscrit pramantha. This conclusion is strong 
 enough to stand alone, but it seems also to be cor- 
 roborated by a name belonging to the later epic 
 times of the Hindus. In the Mahabharata and some 
 other works, Siva, who has taken the place of the 
 older fire gods, Agni and Rudra, has a troop of fire- 
 kindling attendants called Pramathas, or Pramathas. 
 
 Prometheus is then essentially the same as the 
 Vedic Matarisvan. He is the pramantha personi- 
 fied ; but his name, like its kindred verb, soon 
 acquired a more abstract and spiritual meaning on 
 Grecian ground. The memory of its old etymon 
 died out, and thenceforth it signified the Prescient, 
 the Foreseeing. Given such a Prometheus, it followed 
 almost as a matter of course that the Greek story- 
 tellers should provide him with a brother, Epime- 
 theus, his mental opposite, one who was wise after 
 the event, and always too late. 
 
 With the fire he brought down from heaven, 
 Prometheus gave life to the human bodies which he 
 had formed of clay at Panopeus, in Phocis. Here 
 again his legend is in close coincidence with that 
 of Matarisvan, for Panopeus was the seat of the 
 
44 PEOMETHEUS. 
 
 Phlegyans, a mythical race, whose name has the 
 same root as that of the Bhrigus,* and the same 
 meaning also — fulgent burning. Both races incurred 
 the displeasure of the gods for their presumption and 
 insolence. Phlegyas and others of his blood were 
 condemned to the torments of Tartarus. Bhrigu is 
 of course let off more easily in the Brahmanic 
 legend which tells of his offences, for the Brahmans 
 numbered him among their pious ancestors ; but 
 his father, Varuna, sends him on a penitential tour 
 to several hells, that he may see how the wicked 
 are punished, and be warned by their fate. 
 
 After what has gone before, the reader wiU per- 
 haps be prepared to discover a new meaning in the 
 words of Diodorus (v. 67), a meaning not fully com- 
 prehended by that \viiter himself, when he says of 
 Prometheus, that according to the mythogi'aphers he 
 stole fire from the gods, but that in reality he was 
 the inventor of the fire-making instrument. 
 
 The Aryan method of kindling sacred fire was 
 practised by the Greeks and Romans down to a late 
 period of their respective histories. The Greeks 
 
 • From the same root as Bhrigu come the German word hlitz, Old 
 German, Uik, lightning ; Anglo-Saxon, lUcan, and with the nasal, 
 German, lUnhen, English, hlinl; to twinkle, shine, glitter, and also to 
 wink, as the result of a sudden glitter. — See Wedgwood, Diet. Engl. 
 Etymology. 
 
THE GHARK IN OREEOE AND ROME. 45 
 
 called the instrument used for the purpose pyreia, 
 and the drilling stick trupanon. The kinds of wood 
 which were fittest to form one or other of the two 
 parts of which the instrument consisted are specified 
 by Theophrastus and Pliny, both of whom agree that 
 the laurel (daphne) made the best trupanon, and 
 next to it thorn and some other kinds of hard wood ; 
 whilst ivy, athragene, and Vitis sylvestris, were to be 
 preferred for the lower part of the pyreia. Festus 
 states that when the vestal fire at Rome happened 
 to go out, it was to be rekindled with fire obtained 
 by drilling a flat piece of auspicious wood (tabulam 
 felicis materise). We gather from Theophrastus and 
 Pliny whence it was that the chosen wood derived 
 its " auspicious " character, for they both lay parti- 
 cular stress ixpon the fact, that the three kinds 
 recommended by them were parasites, or — what 
 amounted to the same thing in their eyes — climbers, 
 that attached themselves to trees. The Veda pre- 
 scribes for the same ptirpose the wood of an asvattha 
 (religious fig), growing upon a sami (Acacia suma).* 
 The idea of a marriage, suggested by such a union 
 of the two trees, is also developed in the Veda with 
 great amplitude and minuteness of detail, and is a 
 
 * The sami sprang from heavenly fire sent down to earth, and the 
 asvattha from the vessel which contained it. 
 
46 SACRED FIRES IN EUROPE. ' 
 
 very prominent element in the whole cycle of myths 
 connected with the chark. 
 
 Among the Germans, as Grimm remarks, fire that 
 had long been in human use, and had been propa- 
 gated from brand to brand, was deemed unfit for 
 holy purposes. As holy water needed to be drawn 
 fresh from the well, in like manner fire which had 
 become common and profane was to be replaced 
 by a new and pure flame, which was called " wild- 
 fire," in contrast with the tame domesticated 
 element. "Fire from the flint was no doubt fairly 
 entitled to be called new and fresh, but either this 
 method of procuring it was thought too common, or 
 its production from wood was regarded as more 
 ancient and hallowed." * 
 
 The holy fires of the Germanic races are of two 
 classes. To the first class belong those which the 
 Church, finding herself unable to suppress them, 
 took under her own protection, and associated with 
 the memory of Christian saints, or of the Redeemer. 
 These are the Easter fires, and those of St. John's 
 day, Michaelmas, Martinmas, and Christmas. The 
 second class consists of the " needfires," which have 
 retained their heathen character unaltered to the 
 present day. With occasional exceptions in the case 
 
 ♦ D.M. 569. 
 
SACBED FIRES IN EUROPE. 47 
 
 of the St. John's day fires, those of the first class are 
 never lighted by friction, yet the Church has not 
 quite succeeded in effacing the vestiges of their 
 heathen origin. This is especially evident in the 
 usages of many districts where the purity of the 
 Easter fire (an idea boiTOwed from pagan tradition) 
 is secured by deriving the kindling flame either 
 from the consecrated Easter candles, or from the 
 new-born and perfectly pure element produced by 
 the priest with flint and steel. Montanus states, but 
 without citing authorities, that in very early times 
 the perpetual lamps in the churches were lighted 
 with fire produced by the friction of dry wood. 
 Formerly, " throughout England the [house] fires 
 were allowed to go out on Easter Sunday, after 
 which the chimney and fireplace were completely 
 cleaned, and the fire once more lighted." How it 
 was lighted may be inferred from the corresponding 
 usages in Germany and among the Slavonians. In 
 Carinthia, on Easter Sunday, the fires are extin- 
 guished in every house, and fresh ones are kindled 
 from that which the priest has blessed, having 
 lighted it with flint and steel in the churchyard. 
 In the district of Lechrain, in Bavaria, the Easter 
 Saturday fire is lighted in the churchyard with flint 
 and steel, and never with sulphur matches. Every 
 
48 NEEDFIEES. 
 
 household brings to it a walnut branch, which, after 
 being partially burned, is can-ied home to be laid 
 on the hearth fire during tempests, as a protection 
 against lightning. Wolf says* that the Church 
 began by striking new fire every day ; afterwards 
 this was done at least every Saturday, and in the 
 eleventh century the custom was confined to the 
 Saturday before Easter, on which day fire from the 
 flint is still produced, and blessed throughout the 
 whole Catholic Chui-ch. With this new and conse- 
 crated fire, says Le Long, a Flemish writer of the 
 sixteenth century, " every man lighted a good turf 
 fire in his house, and had thereby holy fire in his 
 house thi'oughout the whole year." 
 
 It is otherwise with the needfires, which are for 
 the most part not confined to any particular day. 
 They u.sed to Ije lighted on the occasion of epide- 
 mics occun-ing among cattle, and the custom is stiU 
 observed here and there to this day. Wherever it 
 can be traced among people of German or Scandi- 
 navian descent, the fire is always kindled by the 
 friction of a wooden axle in the nave of a waggon 
 wheel, or in holes bored in one or two posts. In 
 either case the axle or roller is worked with a rope, 
 which is wound round it, and pulled to and fro 
 
 * Beitrage, ii. 389. 
 
NEEDFIRES. 49 
 
 with the greatest possible speed by two opposite 
 groups of able-bodied men. The wheel was, beyond 
 all doubt, an emblem of the sun. In a few instances 
 of late date it is stated that an old wagon-wheel 
 was used, but this was doubtless a departure from 
 orthodox custom, for it was contrary to the very 
 essence of the ceremony. In Marburger official 
 documents of the year 1605 express mention is 
 m.ade of new wheels, new axles, and new ropes ; and 
 these we may be assured were universally deemed 
 requisite in earlier times. It was also necessary to 
 the success of the operation that all the fires should 
 be extinguished in the adjacent houses, and not a 
 spark remain in any one of them when the work 
 began. The wood used was generally that of the 
 oak, a tree sacred to the lightning god Thor because 
 of the red colour of its fresh-cut bark. Sometimes, 
 especially in Sweden, nine kinds of wood were used, 
 but their names are nowhere specified. The fuel for 
 the fire was straw, heath, and brushwood, of which 
 each household contributed its portion, and it was 
 laid down over some length of the narrow lane 
 which was usually chosen as the most convenient 
 place for the work. When the fire had burned 
 down sufficiently, the cattle were forcibly driven 
 through it two or three times, in a certain order. 
 
50 NEEDFIRES. 
 
 beginning with the swine and ending with the 
 horses, or vice versa. In several places in Lower 
 Saxony, according to recent accounts, it is usual for 
 the geese to bring up the rear. When aU the cattle 
 have passed through the fire, each householder takes 
 home an extinguished brand, which in some places 
 is laid in the manger. The ashes are scattered to 
 the winds, apparently that their wholesome influence 
 may be spread far abroad, or they are strewed over 
 the fields (as in Appenzell, for instance) that they 
 may preserve the crops from caterpillars and other 
 vermin. In Sweden the smoke of the needfires 
 was believed to have much virtue ; it made fruit- 
 trees productive, and nets that had been hung in it 
 were sure to catch much fish. 
 
 The earliest account of the needfire in England is 
 that quoted by Kemble* from the Chronicle of La- 
 nercost for the year 1268. The writer relates with 
 pious horror how " certain bestial persons, monks in 
 garb but not in mind, taught the country people to 
 extract fire from wood by friction, and to set up a 
 " simulacrum Priapi," as a means of preserving their 
 cattle from an epidemic pneumonia. This " simu- 
 laciTim Priapi" was unquestionably an image of the 
 sungod Fro or Fricco, whom Latin writers of the 
 
 * " The Saxons in EnglanJ." 
 
NEMDFIRES. 51 
 
 middle ages commonly designated by the name of 
 the Eoman god, and for a manifest reason* 
 
 The following account of a Celtic needfire, lighted 
 in the Scottish island of Mull in the year 1767, is 
 cited by Grimm : " In consequence of a disease 
 among the black cattle the people agreed to perform 
 an incantation, though they esteemed it a wicked 
 thing. They carried to the top of Carnmoor a wheel 
 and nine spindles of oakwood. They extinguished 
 eveiy fire in every house within sight of the hiU ; 
 the wheel was then turned from east to west over 
 the nine spindles long enough to produce fire by 
 friction. If the fire were not produced before 
 noon, the incantation lost its effect. They failed for 
 several days running. They attributed this failure to 
 the obstinacy of one householder, who would not 
 let his fires be put out for what he considered so 
 wrong a purpose. However, by bribing his servants. 
 
 * Wolf (Beitr. i. 107) has shown that the worship of Fro in the 
 likeness of Priapus continued down to a late period in Belgium, and 
 quotes, among other pertinent passages, the following from Adam of 
 Bremen : ' ' Tertius est Fricco paoem voluptatemque largitus morta- 
 libus, cujus etiam slmulachrum fingunt ingenti priapo ; ei nuptise 
 celebrand33 sunt, sacrifioia offeruut Friceoni." Wolf mentions several 
 images of this kind now or till recently extant in Belgium. They are 
 certainly not Eoman. The queer little statue which is held in such 
 high honour in Brussels is, according to Wolf, a modernised edition of 
 an image of Fro. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 NEEDFIRES. 
 
 they contrived to have them extinguished, and on 
 that morning raised their fire. They then sacrificed 
 a heifer, cutting in pieces and burning, while yet 
 alive, the diseased part. They then lighted their 
 own hearths from the pile, and ended by feasting on 
 the remains. Words of incantation were repeated 
 by an old man from Morven who came over as 
 a master of the ceremonies, and who continued 
 speaking all the time the fire was being raised. 
 This man was living a beggar at Bellochroy. Asked 
 to repeat the spell, he said, the sin of repeating it 
 once had brought him to beggary, and that he dared 
 not say those words again. The whole country 
 believed him accursed." 
 
 In the Scottish highlands, especially in Caithness, 
 recourse is stUl had to the needfire, chiefly for the 
 purpose of counteracting disorders in cattle caused 
 by witchcraft. " To defeat the sorceries, certaiu 
 persons who have the power to do so are sent for to 
 raise the needfire. Upon any small river, lake, or 
 island, a circular booth of stone or turf is erected, 
 on which a couple or rafter of a birch tree is placed, 
 and the roof covered over. In the centre is set a 
 perpendicular post, fixed by a wooden pin to the 
 couple, the lower end being placed in an oblong 
 groove on the floor ; and another pole is placed 
 
NEEDFIEES. 53 
 
 liorizontally, between the upright post and the leg 
 of the couple, into both which the ends, being 
 tapered, are inserted. This horizontal timber is 
 called the auger, being provided with four short 
 arms, or spokes, by which it can be turned round. 
 As many men as can be collected are then set to 
 work, having first divested themselves of all kiads 
 of metal, and two at a time continue to turn the 
 pole by means of the levers, while others keep 
 driving wedges under the u.pright post so as to 
 press it against the auger ; which by the friction 
 soon becomes ignited. From this the needfire is 
 instantly procured, and all other fires being im- 
 mediately quenched, those that are rekindled in 
 dwelling-houses and offices are accounted sacred 
 and the cattle are successively made to smell 
 them."* 
 
 The needfire is described under another name by 
 General Stewart, a recent writer on Scottish super- 
 stitions, who says that "the cure for witchcraft, 
 called Tein Econuch (or Forlorn Fire), is wrought 
 in the following manner : — 
 
 " Notice is previously communicated to all those 
 householders who reside within the nearest of two 
 running streams to extinguish their lights and fires 
 
 * Logan, " The Scottish Gael," ii. 64. 
 
54 NEEDFIBES. 
 
 on some appointed morning. On its being ascer- 
 tained that this notice has been duly observed, a 
 spinning-wheel, or some other convenient instru- 
 ment calculated to produce fire by friction, is set 
 to work with the most furious earnestness by the 
 unfortunate sufferer and all who wish well to his 
 cause. Eeheving each other by turns, they drive on 
 with such persevering diligence that at length the 
 spindle of the wheel, ignited by excessive friction, 
 emits forlorn fire in abundance, which by the appli- 
 cation of tow, or some other combustible material, 
 is widely extended over the whole neighbourhood. 
 Communicating the fire to the tow, the tow com- 
 municates it to a candle, the candle to a fir torch, 
 the torch to a cartful of peats, which the master 
 of the ceremonies, with pious ejaculations for the 
 success of the experiment, distributes to messengers, 
 who will proceed with portions of it to the different 
 houses within the said two running streams to 
 kindle the different fii-es. By the influence of this 
 operation the machinations and spells of witchcraft 
 are rendered null and void."* 
 
 It appears from the preceding accounts that, both 
 by Celts and Germans, a wheel was often used for 
 kindling the needfire. Jacob Grimm was the first 
 * Stewart, " Pop. Superstitions," &?. Loud. 1851. 
 
SUN- WHEEL. 55 
 
 to make it evident that, for the Germans at least 
 the wheel was an emblem of the sun, and numerous 
 facts which have come to light since he wrote, 
 abundantly verify his conclusion. He mentions, 
 among other evidence, that in the Edda the sun is 
 called fagrahvel, " fair or bright wheel," and that 
 the same sign O, which in the calendar represents 
 the sun, stands also for the Gothic double consonant 
 HW, the initial of the Gothic word hvil, Anglo- 
 Saxon hveol, English wheel. In the needfire on the 
 island of MuU the wheel was turned, according to 
 Celtic usage, from east to west, like the sun. Grimm 
 has also noticed the use of the wheel in other 
 German usages as well as in the needfire, and he is 
 of opinion that in heathen times it constantly formed 
 the nucleus and centre of the sacred and purifying 
 sacrificial flame. In confirmation of this opinion he 
 mentions the following remarkable custom which 
 was observed on the day when those who held under 
 the lord of a manor came to pay him their yearly 
 dues. A wagon-wheel which had lain in water, or 
 in the pool of a dung-yard, for six weeks and three 
 days, was placed in a fire kindled before the com- 
 pany, and they were entertained with the best of 
 good cheer until the nave, which was neither to be 
 turned nor poked, was consumed to ashes, and then 
 
56 sum LIGHTNING. 
 
 they were to go away. " I hold this," says Grimm, 
 "to have been a relic of a heathen sacrificial repast, 
 and I look upon the wheel as what had served to 
 light the fire, about which indeed nothing further 
 is stated. At aU events the fact proves the employ- 
 ment of the wagon-wheel as fuel on occasions of 
 solemnity."* 
 
 There was a twofold reason for this use of the 
 emblem of the sun ; for that body was regarded not 
 only as a mass of heavenly fire, but also as the 
 immediate source of the lightning. When black 
 clouds concealed the sun, the early Aryans believed 
 that its light was actually extinguished and needed 
 to be rekindled. Then the pramantha was worked 
 by some god in the cold wheel until it glowed again ; 
 but before this was finally accomplished, the pra- 
 mantha often shot out as a thunderbolt from the 
 wheel, or was carried off by some fire-robber. The 
 word thunderbolt itself, like its German equivalents, 
 expresses the cylindrical or conical form of the pra- 
 mantha. -f" When the bolts had ceased to fly from 
 the nave, and the wheel was once more ablaze, the 
 storm was over. Vishnu undoubtedly figures in the 
 Vedas as a god of the sun, and the great epic of the 
 Hindus relates that when he was aiTiied for the 
 * D.M. 678. + Compare cross-bow bolt. 
 
MIDSUMMER FIRES. 57 
 
 fight, Agni gave him a wheel with " a thunderbolt 
 nave." This can only mean a wheel that shoots 
 out thunderbolts from its nave when it is turned. 
 Mithra, the sun-god of the Aryans of Iran, is also 
 armed with a thunderbolt; and the names of 
 Astrape and Bronte, two of the horses of Helios, 
 show plainly that, for the early Greeks also, sun and 
 lightning were associated ideas.* 
 
 The Midsummer or St. John's-day fires, which 
 were kindled at the season of the summer solstice, 
 have been commonly spoken of as if they were of 
 one kind only, whereas they were of three kinds, as 
 specified by a medieval writer quoted by Kemble. 
 There were, first, bonfires ; secondly, processions 
 with burning brands round the fields ; thirdly, 
 wheels blazing and set rolling. The bonfires, he 
 says, were lighted for the purpose of scaring away 
 the dragons that poisoned the waters with the slime 
 that fell from them at that hot season, and there- 
 fore bones and all sorts of filth Avere thrown into 
 the fire, that the smoke might be the fouler and 
 more offensive to the dragons. (Here we have again 
 the primitive Aryan dragon Ahi, at his old work in 
 the sultry midsummer weather.) As for the wheel, 
 the same writer says, "it is rolled to signify that 
 
 * Kuhn, Herabk., p, 6S. 
 
58 MIDSUMMER FIBES. 
 
 the sun ascends at that time to the summit of 
 his circle, and immediately begins to descend 
 again."* 
 
 Writers of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries 
 speak of this practice as common in France. It has 
 been found in the Tyi-ol and in Carinthia; and 
 many North German examples of it are on record. 
 We will quote two of the latter, the first being that 
 which took place at Conz, on the Moselle, in the 
 year 1823, as described by Grimm :-f- 
 
 * The original was found by Kemtle in a Harleian MS., and is as 
 follows : — " Ejus venerandam nativitatem cum gaudio celebrabitis ; dieo 
 ejus nativitatem cum gaudio ; non illo cum gaudio, quo stulti, vani et 
 prophani, amatores mundi huius, accensis ignibus, per plateas, tur- 
 pibus et illicitis ludibus, comessationibus et ebrietatibus, cubilibus et 
 imiiudicitiis intendentes illam celebrare solent. . . . Dicamus de 
 tripudiis, quae in yigilia Sancti Johannia fieri solent, quorum tria 
 genera. In vigilia enim Beati Johannis coUigunt pueri in quibusdam 
 regionibus ossa et qusedam immunda, et insimul cremant, et eiinde 
 producitur fumus in acre. Faoiunt etiam brandas, et circuunt arva 
 cum brandis. Tertium de rota, quam faciunt volvi ; quod, cum 
 immunda cremant, hoc habent ex gentilibus. Antiquitus enim 
 dracones in hoc tempore excitabantur ad libidiuem propter calorem, et 
 volando per aera frequenter spermatizabantur aquse, et tunc erat 
 letalis, quia quicunque inde bibebant, aut moriebantur aut grave 
 morbum paciebantur. Quod attendentes pliilosophi, jusseruut ignem 
 fieri frequentur et sparsim circa puteos et fontes, et immundum ibi 
 cremari, et quaacumque immundum reddiderunt fumum ; nam per 
 talem fumum Bciebant fugari dracones. . . . Rota involvitur ad 
 significandum, quod sol tunc ascendit ad alciora sui cirouli, et statim 
 regreditur ; inde venit quod volvitur rota." 
 
 t D.M. 586. 
 
WHEEL-BUBNINO. 59 
 
 "Every lionse delivers a sheaf of straw on the top 
 of the Stromberg, where the men and lads assemble 
 towards evening, whilst the women and girls gather 
 about the Burbacher fountain. A huge wheel is 
 now bound round with straw in such a manner that 
 not a particle of the wood remains visible ; a stout 
 pole is passed through the middle of the wheel, and 
 the persons who are to guide it lay hold on the ends 
 of the pole, which project three feet on either side. 
 The rest of the straw is made up into a great 
 number of small torches. At a signal from the 
 mayor of Sierk (who according to ancient custom 
 receives a basket of cherries on the occasion) the 
 wheel is kindled with a torch and set rapidly in 
 motion. Everybody cheers and swings torches in 
 the air. Some of the men remain above, others 
 follow the burning wheel down hill in its descent to 
 the Moselle. It is often extinguished before it 
 reaches the river, but if it burns at the moment it 
 touches the water, that is held to be prophetic of a 
 good vintage, and the people of Conz have a right 
 to levy a fuder of white wine upon the surrounding 
 vineyards. Whilst the wheel is passing before the 
 female spectators they break out into cries of joy, 
 the men on the hill-top reply, and the people from 
 the neighbouring villages, who have assembled on 
 
60 WHEEL-BUBNING. 
 
 the banks of the river, mingle their voices in the 
 general jubilee." 
 
 Our next example is also from the neighbourhood 
 of the Moselle, and is reported by Hocker * At 
 first sight it may appear inapposite, because the 
 ceremony did not take place on St. John's-day, but 
 in Passion week. The difference, however, is not 
 import-ant, because, as Kuhn has shown, the St. 
 John's-day customs were not always observed on 
 the day to which they properly belonged, but were 
 often transferred to St. Vitus's, St. Peter and 
 St. Paul's, Easter or Lent, according to local cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 " It was the custom of the butchers and weavers 
 of Treves, on the Thursday in Passion week, to plant 
 an oak near the cross on the Marxberg (Mons 
 Martis, Donnersberg, Dummersberg), and to fit a 
 wheel to the oak. This having been done, the 
 peculiar and ancient popular sport took place on 
 Invocavit Sunday. Two guilds, the butchers on 
 horseback, the weavers on foot, well mounted, well 
 armed, and handsomely dressed, appeared in orderly 
 array in the corn-market. The bells of the cathedral 
 now began to peal, and were followed by those of 
 all the other steeples. The people poured into the 
 * " Gesehichten, Sagen und Legenden der Mosellaudes," p. 115, 
 
WHEEL-BURNING. 61 
 
 market-place, and thronged around the armed 
 squadrons to the bridge over the Moselle, where 
 the weavers remained behind as a garrison, whilst 
 the butchers rode to the Marxberg to protect the 
 work of the people. The latter began forthwith to 
 cut down the oak, kindle the wheel, and roll both 
 into the valley of the MoseUe. The horsemen fired 
 on the blazing wheel, and if it rolled into the 
 Moselle, they received a fuder of wine from the 
 Archbishop of Treves. After this the butchers, sur- 
 rounded by the exulting people, rode back to the 
 bridge, the bells still pealing, and went with the 
 weavers to the abbeys and to the rich, who gave 
 each man a cup of wine. The solemnity was closed 
 by marching three times through Weaver's Street 
 and the Back Lane, stopping each time before the 
 Crown-well, which was adorned with lemon-trees 
 hung with ribbons and garlands. There the cap- 
 tain of the horsemen spoke some rhymes, quaffed a 
 silver cup of white wine, and every horsemen fired 
 off his piece. Then the weavers gave the butchers 
 a repast with wine, and the rest of the day was 
 spent in jubilant carousing. — The first mention 
 of this ceremony occurs in the year 1550, the last 
 in 1779." 
 
 It has been clearly demonstrated by Dr. Kuhn 
 
62 MIDSUMMER DBAQONS. 
 
 that all the foregoing details respecting the St. 
 John's fires are in striking accordance with the Vedic 
 legend of Indra's fight with the midsummer demons. 
 The passage quoted from Kemble, besides stating 
 expressly that the course of the blazing wheel was 
 meant to represent the descent of the sun fi-om its 
 solstitial height, brings the St. John's fires in imme- 
 diate connection with the dragons that poison the 
 waters, just as did the demon Vritra, otherwise 
 called Ahi, the dragon. He possessed himself of 
 the sun-wheel and the treasures of heaven, seized 
 the (white) women, kept them prisoners in his 
 cavern, and "laid a curse" on the waters, until 
 Indra released the captives and took off the curse. 
 The same conception is repeated in countless 
 legends of mountains that open on St. John's-day, 
 when the imprisoned white women come forth, 
 and the hour approaches in which the spell laid 
 upon them and upon the buried treasures will be 
 broken. 
 
 The points of most significance in the two extracts 
 from Grimm and Hocker are these : the rolling of 
 the wheel down the hill-side ; its plunge into the 
 water; the prediction of a good vintage connected 
 therewith ; and, in the last custom described, the 
 gun-shots fired at the wheel by its pursuers. The 
 
INDRA AND A HI. 63 
 
 whole meaning of the ceremony hes in these details, 
 and the key to it. is found in the following passage 
 from a Vedic hymn : — 
 
 "With thee conjoined, Indu (Soma) did Indra 
 straightway pull down with force the wheel of the 
 sun that stood upon the mighty mountain top, and 
 the soTirce of all life was hidden from the great 
 scather.'' 
 
 Here we see at once that the German custom was 
 nothing else than a dramatic representation of the 
 great elemental battle portrayed in the sacred books 
 of the Southern Aryans. In the one the blazing 
 wheel stands on the top of the hUl, in the other the 
 sun stands on the summit of the cloud mountain. 
 Both descend from their heights, and both are 
 extinguished, the sun in the cloud sea, behind the 
 cloud mountain, the wheel in the river at the foot of 
 the hilL Here Indra, Soma, and the army of the 
 Maruts htirl their deadly weapons and charge the 
 demon host ; there the triumphant combatants fire 
 upon the foe or brandish their mimic lightning — 
 straw torches — and pursue him to the water's edge. 
 It is worthy of note that the women do not, as on 
 other occasions, take any active part in the German 
 ceremony ; their doing so would be inconsistent with 
 its character as an act of mimic warfare. They 
 
6-i THE SABVEST-SPOILING DEMON. 
 
 assemble only as spectators to watch the fortunes of 
 the fight, and to exult in the victory of their own 
 party. One of the many names given in the Vedas 
 to the commander who is opposed to Indra in this 
 great battle, is Kuyava, which means the harvest- 
 spoiler or the spoiled harvest ; hence the extinction 
 of his blighting instrament in the river was regarded 
 in the vine-growing districts of Germany as portend- 
 ing a good wine year. In Poitou an obscure remi- 
 niscence of the same principle seems to have been 
 preserved in the custom of kindling a wheel wrapped 
 in straw, and running it through the corn-fields to 
 make them fruitful. 
 
 Dr. Kuhn has anticipated and refuted an objection 
 that might be raised against the latter part of this 
 explanation. The Aryans, before their dispersion, 
 were but very little acquainted with regular agri- 
 culture, and therefore it might be supposed that the 
 Indian conception of a harvest-spoiling demon could 
 hardly have been ancient enough to be common to 
 the Hindus and to another branch of the parent 
 stock. But the second part of the name Ku-yava 
 must have meant originally grass in general (as ap- 
 pears from its derivative yavasa, i. e., pasture ground, 
 meadow), and perhaps it signified in a more special 
 sense the grasses which produced seed fit for human 
 
THE OLDEST CORN. 65 
 
 food — the cereal grasses* Thus the word com is 
 known as a generic term wherever the Gothic 
 languages are spoken, but popularly it is used to 
 signify that particular grain which is most important 
 in the rural economy of each country. In England 
 wheat is generally called com. In most parts of 
 Germany this name is given to rye ; in the Scandi- 
 navian kingdom to barley ; and in North America to 
 maize or Indian com.-f- Now if yava meant both 
 
 * This seems to Dr. Knhn to te the more prohable because no one 
 name of a cereal is found so extensiToly as yava among different Indo- 
 European nations. The "word yava is common both to Sanscrit and 
 Zend ; it is the Greek zea, zei4, and the Lithuanian javai. Hence there 
 are philological grounds for supposing that the oldest bread-stuff "was 
 a grain called by that name, and "we have even the direct testimony of 
 ancient tradition to that same effect, for, according to Eleusinian 
 legends, barley (zeS,) "was the first corn that "was harvested (Preller, 
 Dem. u. Pers. 293). The same belief prevailed in Crete, insomuch 
 that the name of Demeter "was there explained as meaning barley- 
 mother, as if the de -were a contraction of dfia = zeiS. (PreUer Gfriech. 
 Myth. 474). But since zeS, stood not only for barley but also for 
 dinkel and spelt, all this agrees very well "with Pliny's statement 
 (Hist. Nat. 18, 8) that/ar "was the oldest corn in all Latium, and also 
 "with the statement in the Alvism&l, that corn "was by the gods called 
 barr (radical bar), an expression "which means nothing more than that 
 this "was its most ancient name. No"w bar-r is the Latin far, Gothic 
 bares, Anglo-Saxon here, English here, barley ; and it is also found in 
 the "word barn, Anglo-Saxon berern, baarn, from here and ern, a place. 
 The compound "word barley, according to Wedgwood (Diet. Eng. 
 Etym.), " seems derived from Welsh barllys, "which might be explained 
 bread-plant, from lara, bread, and llys, a plant." 
 
 t Marsh, " Lectures on the English Language," p. 246. 
 
66 NMEDFIRES SACRIFICIAL. 
 
 grass and corn, the name Kuyava, as that of the 
 demon who spoiled the growth of both, might very 
 naturally have been current from the earliest times 
 among a pastoral people. " But I go still further," 
 says Kuhn, " and I beheve that Kuyava was also 
 regarded as the spoiler of vegetation in general, who 
 parched up the plants used in making the fermented 
 liquor, soma, and among these plants the Hindus 
 included yava — ^which in this case meant barley or 
 rice. It will be seen in the sequel that the demon 
 possesses himself also of the heavenly soma (the 
 moisture of the clouds), that he is robbed of it by 
 Indra, and that the like conception is found also 
 among the Greeks and the Germans. This then 
 sufficiently explains the hope of a good wine year 
 which was associated with the victory in the above 
 described German customs." 
 
 In the few examples we have given of the need- 
 fire, as used in Christian times, it appears only as a 
 superstitious practice, occasionally resorted to for 
 the cure of epidemics among cattle ; but this was 
 not its original character. It was an ancient and 
 solemn rehgious rite, accompanied with sacrifice, and 
 we have direct testimony to the fact that it was 
 observed on stated anniversaries, when men and 
 
BEALTINE. 67 
 
 cattle passed througli the flames to preserve tliein 
 from future maladies. Dehio, who wrote in the 
 sixteenth century, states that the cattle which were 
 first driven through the fire were sacrificed to the 
 saints* and Nicolaus Gryse is quoted by Grimm 
 as giving this account of the St. John's fires in 
 1593 : — " Towards evening, people warmed them- 
 selves at St. John's flame and needfire, which they 
 sawed out of wood ; such fire they kindled not in 
 God's but in St. John's name, leaped and ran 
 through the fire, drove the cattle through it, and 
 were full of joy when they had passed the night in 
 great sins, scandals, and wickednesses.'' "f 
 
 The needfire was kindled by the Celts in their 
 great popular assembhes on the occasion of their 
 annual festivals at the beginning of May and 
 November. Their Mayday, which was generally the 
 first of the month, but sometimes the second or 
 third, is called in the Irish and Gaelic tongues, la 
 healtine, beiltine, or heltein. La is day ; teine, 
 fire ; and heal or heil is understood to be the name 
 of a god, which is not immediately one with that 
 of the Asiatic Belus, but designates an exalted 
 luminous deity peculiar to the Celts.:!: The celebra- 
 
 * Wolf, Beitrage, i. 220. 
 t D. M. 578. t Ibid. 579. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 BEALTINE. 
 
 tion of bealtine, as at present practised in Scotland, 
 is thus described by Armstrong : — 
 
 " In some parts of the Highlands the young folks 
 of a hamlet meet in the moors on the first of May. 
 They cut a table in the green sod of a round figure, 
 by cutting a trench in the ground of such circum- 
 ference as to hold the whole company. They then 
 kindle a fire and dress a repast of eggs and mUk in 
 the consistence of a custard. They knead a cake of 
 oatmeal, which is toasted in the embers against a 
 stone. After the custard is eaten up, they divide 
 the cake in so many portions, as similar as possible 
 to one another in size and shape, as there are 
 persons in the company. They daub one of these 
 portions with charcoal until it is perfectly black. 
 They then put all the bits of the cake into a bonnet, 
 and every one, blindfold, draws out a portion. The 
 boimet-holder is entitled to the last bit. T\Tioever 
 draws the black bit is the devoted person who is 
 to be sacrificed to Baal, whose favour they mean 
 to implore in rendering the year productive. The 
 devoted person is compelled to leap three times over 
 the flames." 
 
 Here, says Grimm, there is no mistaking the 
 features of a religious rite. The leaping three 
 times over the flames shows that the main business 
 
BEALTINE. 69 
 
 had been tlie sacrifice of a man for the purpose of 
 appeasing the god and making him gracious, but 
 that subsequently brute victims were offered in 
 place of human, and that at last the actual sacrifice 
 was transmuted both for man and beast into a mere 
 jumping over the fire. The kindling of the fire by 
 friction is not mentioned in this passage from Arm- 
 strong, but as that method was deemed requisite in 
 the case of needfires for the cure of epidemics in 
 cattle, much more must it originally have been 
 practised on the occasion of the great annual 
 festival* 
 
 The first known mention of beiltine is that made 
 by Cormac, Ai-chbishop of Cashel, who died in the 
 year 908. Two fires were made near each other, 
 and it was wholesome for men and cattle to pass 
 between them iminjured ; hence the proverbial ex- 
 pression, ittir dha theinne beil, " between two fires," 
 to signify a great danger. Usher (Trias thaumat. 
 p. 125) states expressly that priests strictly super- 
 intended the sacrifice, and quotes Evinus as saying 
 that "it was provided by a rigorous law that aU 
 fires should be extinguished in every district on 
 that night, and that no one should be at hberty 
 to rekindle fire before the pile of sacrifice had been 
 • D. M. p. 680. 
 
70 A SACRIFICE m ENGLAND. 
 
 raised by the magi at Temoria (the Tighmora of 
 Ossian), and whoever transgressed this law in any 
 respect was visited for the offence with nothing less 
 than capital punishment." * 
 
 A heifer was sacrificed in the needfire in Mull 
 (p. 52), and Grimm cites an example of the same 
 practice in Northamptonshire in the present cen- 
 tury : — " Miss C. and her cousin, walking, saw a fire 
 in a field, and a crowd round it. They said, ' What 
 is the matter?' 'Killing a calf 'What for?' 
 ' To stop the murrain.' They went away as quickly 
 as possible. On speaking to the clergyman, he 
 made inquiries. The people did not like to talk 
 of the affair, but it appeared that when there is 
 a disease among the cows, or the calves are bom 
 sickly, they sacrifice (i. e., kill and burn) one ' for 
 good luck.' " 
 
 Those who have read Mr. Dasent's " Popular Tales 
 from the Norse" are aware that to this day the 
 peasants of Norway still tell of the wondrous mill 
 that ground whatever was demanded of it. The tra- 
 dition is of great antiquity, but the earliest known 
 version of it is that which Mr. Dasent has repeated 
 as follows, after the author of the Prose Edda. 
 
 " Of all beliefs, that in which man has, at all times 
 
 • D. M. 580, 
 
FSODI'S MILL. 71 
 
 of his history, been most prone to set faith, is that of 
 a golden age of peace and plenty, which had passed 
 away, but which might be expected to return. . . 
 Such a period of peace and plenty, such a golden 
 time, the Norseman could tell of in his mythic 
 Frodi's reign, when gold, or Frodi's meal, as it was 
 called, was so plentiful that golden armlets lay 
 untouched from year's end to year's end on the 
 king's highway, and the fields bore crops unsown. 
 . . . In Frodi's house were two maidens of 
 that old giant race, Fenja and Menja. These 
 daughters of the giant he had bought as slaves, 
 and he made them grind his quern or handmill, 
 Grotti, out of which he used to grind peace and 
 gold. Even in that golden age one sees there were 
 slaves, and Frodi, however bountiful to his thanes 
 and people, was a hard task-master to his giant 
 handmaidens. He kept them to the mill, nor gave 
 them longer rest than the cuckoo's note lasted, or 
 they could sing a song. But that quern was such 
 that it ground anything that the grinder chose, 
 though until then it had ground nothing but gold 
 and peace. So the maidens ground and ground, and 
 one sang their piteous tale in a strain worthy of 
 jEschylus as the other rested — they prayed for rest 
 and pity, but Frodi was deaf Then they turned in 
 
72 FRODI'S MILL. 
 
 giant mood, and ground no longer peace and plenty, 
 but fire and war. Then the quern went fast and 
 fmious, and that very night came Mysing the sea- 
 rover, and slew Frodi and all his men, and carried 
 off the quern ; and so Frodi's peace ended. The 
 maidens the sea-rover took with him, and when he 
 got on the high seas he bade them grind salt. So 
 they gi-ound ; and at midnight they asked if he had 
 not salt enough, but he bade them stiU grind on. 
 So they ground till the ship was full and sank, 
 Mysing, maids, and mill, and all, and that's why the 
 sea is salt." 
 
 This wonder-working mill stood once in heaven, 
 for Frodi, its owner, was no other than the sun-god 
 Freyr* (Swedish Fro, German Fro), whom Snorri 
 Sturlason and Saxo Grammaticus converted into an 
 earthly monarch, or found already brought down to 
 that condition, just as the great god Odin figures in 
 Snorri's Edda as a mortal king of Sweden. -f The flat 
 circular stone of Frodi's quern is the disk of the sun, 
 and its handle, or nwndidl,\ is the pramantha with 
 
 • Mannhardt, 243. 
 
 + Ibid. 45. 
 
 J Mondull is an Icelandio TPord, from the same root as manthami 
 (p. 39), and is defined by Egilsson, in his "Lex. Poet. Antiquse Ling. 
 Septentrionalis," as "lignum teres, quo mola trusatilis manu circum- 
 agitur, mobile, moluorum." 
 
FBODI'S MILL. 73 
 
 "which Indra or the Asvins used to kindle the ex- 
 tinguished luminary. An ancient popular ditty, 
 which stiU survives in Germany, tells of a mill 
 that grinds gold, silver, and love. The peasants in 
 various parts of Germany call the Milkyway the 
 Mealway, or the Millway, and say that it turns 
 with the sun, for it first becomes visible at the 
 point where the sun has set. It leads therefore to 
 the heavenly mill, and its colour is that of the meal 
 with which it is strewed.* 
 
 * Kutn, Westf. ii. 86. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 PIEE AND SOUL EKINaiNCJ BIRDS AND INSEOIS — BABIES FOUND IN 
 FOUNTAINS, TREES, ROOKS, PARSLEY BEDS, ETC. — THE SOULS OF 
 THE DEAD AS BIRDS. 
 
 The approach of windy weather is often indicated 
 by a pocuhar form of light streaming clouds, which 
 in England are very aptly named grey mares' tails. 
 In Northern Germany a modification of the same 
 appearance is called a weather or wind tree (wetter- 
 baum) — a name wherein we may read the original 
 conception out of which grew the Aryan prototype 
 of the Norseman's heavenly ash, Yggdrasil. Among 
 the many curious notions that met together in the 
 primitive Aryan cosmogony, was that of a prodigious 
 tree overspreading the whole world. The clouds 
 were its fohage ; sun, moon, and stars were its fruit ; 
 lightning lurked in its branches and mingled with 
 their sap. Hence arose a whole order of myths, 
 which accounted accordingly for the descent to 
 earth of fire, soma, and the soul of man, but which 
 were often blended with those that were based upon 
 
THE WREN. 75 
 
 the process of extracting fire from wood with the 
 pramantha. Birds that nestled in the fire-bearing 
 tree came down to earth, either as incorporations of 
 the lightning, or bringing with them a branch 
 charged with latent or visible fire. Agni, the god 
 of fire, sometimes appears in the Vedas as a bird — 
 falcon or eagle — engaged in an eiTand of this kind. 
 Such a bird was Jove's eagle, and such another was 
 its rival the little wren, which is mentioned by both 
 Aristotle and Pliny as disputing with the eagle the 
 sovereignty of the feathered creation.* The preten- 
 sions of the wren are not unknown to German 
 tradition, but Celtic memory has best preserved the 
 exalted mythic character of the smallest of European 
 birds. In the legends of Bretagne and Normandy 
 he is spoken of expressly as a fire-bringer. " A 
 messenger was wanted to fetch fire from heaven, 
 and the wren, weak and delicate as it is, undertook 
 the perilous task. It nearly cost the bold bird 
 its life, for its plumage was burned off even to the 
 down. The other birds with one accord gave each 
 of them one of their feathers to the little king, to 
 cover his naked and shivering skin. The owl alone 
 stood aloof, but the other birds were so indignant 
 
 * TprixiJ^os aiTif voKeiiios. Aristotle. Dissident aquila et troohilus, 
 si credimus, quoniam rex appellatur avium. Plin. Hist. Nat. x. 74. 
 
76 THE WREN. 
 
 at his unfeeling conduct that they would never more 
 admit him into their society." * 
 
 General Vallancey, who in this instance may be 
 quoted with safety, says of the wren : " The Druids 
 represented this as the king of all birds. The 
 superstitious respect shown to this little bird gave 
 offence to our first Christian missionaries, and by 
 their commands he is still hunted and killed on 
 Christmas-day ; and on the following (St. Stephen's- 
 day) he is carried about, hung by the leg in the 
 centre of two hoops crossing each other at right 
 angles, and a procession is made in every village, 
 of menj women, and children, singing an Irish catch 
 importing him to be the king of all birds." -f- 
 
 Sonnini says : " While I was at La Ciotat (near 
 Marseilles) the particulars of a singular ceremony 
 were related to me, which takes place every year at 
 the beginning of Nivose (end of December). A 
 numerous body of men, armed with swords and 
 pistols, set off in search of a very small bird which 
 the ancients called Troglodytes. When they have 
 found it (a thing not difiicult, because they always 
 take care to have one ready) it is suspended on the 
 middle of a pole, which two men carry on their 
 
 * Am^lie Bosquet, p. 220. 
 
 + Collectanea de rebus Hibernicis, xjii. p. 97. 
 
THE WBEN. 77 
 
 shoulders, as if it were a heavy burthen. This 
 whimsical procession parades round the town ; the 
 bird is weighed in a great pair of scales, and 
 the company then sit down to table and make 
 merry." * At Carcassonne the wren was earned 
 about upon a staff adorned with a garland of 
 olive, oak, and mistletoe. 
 
 In the Isle of Man the wren is believed to be 
 a transformed fairy. " The ceremony of hunting 
 the wren is founded on this ancient tradition. A 
 fairy of uncommon beauty once exerted such undue 
 influence over the male population, that she seduced 
 numbers at various times to follow her footsteps, till 
 by degrees she led them into the sea, where they 
 perished. This barbarous exercise of power had con- 
 tinued so long that it was feared the island would be 
 exhausted of its defenders. A knight errant sprang 
 up, who discovered some means of countervailing the 
 charms used by the siren, and even laid a plot for 
 her destruction, which ghe only escaped at the 
 moment of extreme hazard by assuming the form 
 of a wren. But though she evaded punishment 
 at that time, a spell was cast upon her by which 
 she was condemned to reanimate the same form on 
 every succeeding New Year's-day, until she should 
 
 * " Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt.'' Lond., 1800, pp. 11, 12. 
 
78 WREN. EAGLE. 
 
 perish by a human hand. In consequence of this 
 legend, every man and boy in the island devotes 
 the hours from the rising to the setting of the sun, 
 on each returning anniversary, to the hope of ex- 
 tirpating the fairy. Woe to the wrens which show 
 themselves on that fatal day ; they are pursued, 
 pelted, fired at, and destroyed without mercy. Their 
 feathers are preserved with religious care ; for it 
 is beheved that every one of the rehcs gathered in 
 the pursuit is an effectual preservative from ship- 
 wreck for the ensuing year, and the fisherman 
 who should venture on his occupation without such 
 a safeguard would by many of the natives be con- 
 sidered extremely foolhardy." * 
 
 A simpler, and perhaps more genuine, version 
 of this rather artificially coloured narrative were 
 desirable, but even in its present form it shows 
 sufficiently that the Celts of Man looked upon the 
 wren as a divine being transformed, and that they 
 hunted the bird for the, sake of its tahsmanic 
 feathers. 
 
 The story of the contest for the crown, in which 
 the wren outwitted the eagle, is traditional in Ire- 
 land, and the country people tell it to this effect : 
 — " The birds all met together one day, and settled 
 
 * Brand, " Pop, Antiquities," iii. 198. 
 
WEiam OWL. 79 
 
 among tliemselves that whichever of them could fly- 
 highest was to be the king of them all. Well, just 
 as they were on the hinges of being off, what does 
 the little rogue of a wren do but hop up, and perch 
 himself unbeknownst on the eagle's tail. So they 
 flew and flew ever so high, till the eagle was miles 
 above aU. the rest, and could not fly another stroke, 
 he was so tired. ' Then,' says he, ' I'm the king of 
 the birds,' says he, ' hurroo ! ' ' You lie,' says the 
 wi-en, darting up a perch and a half above the big 
 fellow. Well, the eagle was so mad to think how 
 he was done, that when the wi-en was coming 
 down he gave him a stroke of his wing; and 
 from that day to this the wren was never able 
 to fly higher than a hawthorn bush." 
 
 The same story, but with a different ending, is 
 t^ld in Germany, where the wren is called " hedge- 
 king" (Zaunkonig). According to the German ver- 
 sion, the tricky wren was imprisoned in a mouse- 
 hole, and the owl was set to watch before it, whilst 
 the other birds were deliberating upon the punish- 
 ment to be inflicted on the offender. But the owl 
 fell asleep, and the prisoner escaped. The owl 
 has never since ventured to show himself by day- 
 light.* The mention of the owl in this story, and 
 
 * Wolf, Beitrage, ii. 438. 
 
80 OWL. WREN. 
 
 in the preceding French one (p. 75), is worthy of 
 note. In both he is represented as behaving ia 
 an unfriendly manner to the wren, possibly from 
 a feeling of jealousy, because the owl himself had 
 claims to be considered as a highly distinguished 
 fire-bird. Was he not the favourite of the light- 
 ning goddess Athene,* and was she not even 
 called after him Glaucopis, "owl-eyed," because 
 her eyes, like his, were two orbs of lightning? 
 And, not to speak at present of other matters which 
 may be more conveniently dealt with hereafter, was 
 it not a moot point among the Iranians whether 
 he or the eagle sat in the place of honour on the 
 "inviolable tree" ?t 
 
 In France, besides its ordinary name, roitelet, 
 " little king," the wren is also called poulette au 
 bon Bieu, "God's little hen." In the Pays ^e 
 Caux it is stiU a sacred bird. To kiU it or rob its 
 nest is deemed an atrocity which wiU hrmg doivn 
 the lightning on the culprit's dwelling. Such an 
 act is also regarded with horror in Scotland,:}: and 
 
 * ia(r<p6pos Si 7) 'AStj^S. Eustathius. 
 + Kuhn,, Herab. p. 126. 
 
 J "What, for instance, could be more poetical than the puerile 
 malediction upon those who rob the nest of the wren ? 
 ' Malisons, malisons, mair than ten, 
 That harry the Ladye of Heaven's hen I ' " 
 
 Kobert Chambers, Pop. Ehymes. 
 
ROBIN BEDBREA8T. 81 
 
 not less so in the most purely Saxon parts of Eng- 
 land — Hertfordshire for instance — for 
 
 Eobin Redbreast and Jenny Wren 
 Are God Almighty's eook and hen. 
 
 The reverence paid to the robin is not peculiar 
 to England. Grimm testifies that the feeling has 
 prevailed among the whole German race from un- 
 known antiquity, and he refers to the bird's colour 
 and its name as evidences that it was sacred to 
 Thor, the god of the lightning. Robin is Robert, 
 in Anglo-Saxon Hrodhbeorht or Hrodhbriht, i.e., 
 fame-bright, and this name belonged to Thor. 
 There is no legend extant, of Germanic origin, which 
 directly coimects the robin with the descent of fire, 
 but there is one in Wales, as reported by a cor- 
 respondent of "Notes and Queries,"* which mani- 
 festly points that way. His old nurse, he says, a 
 Carmarthenshire woman, used to tell the children 
 that, " Far, far, far away, is a land of woe, dark- 
 ness, spirits of evil, and fire. ■ Day by day does 
 the little bird bear in his bill a drop of water to 
 quench the flame. So near to the burning stream 
 does he fly that his dear httle feathers are scorched ; 
 and hence he is named Bron-rhuddyn (i.e., breast- 
 * Choice Notes, p. 185. 
 
82 EOBIN. 
 
 burned or breast-scorclied). To serve little children 
 the robin dares approach the infernal pit. No good 
 child wiU hurt the devoted benefactor of man. The 
 robin returns from the land of fire, and therefore he 
 feels the cold of winter far more than his brother 
 birds. He shivers in the brumal blast ; hungry 
 he chirps before your door. Oh ! my child, then in 
 gratitude throw a few crumbs to poor redbreast." 
 
 Here we have evidently an ancient pagan tra- 
 dition altered and adjusted to popular notions of 
 Christianity ; but its original features may easily 
 be detected under their modem disguise. The bird 
 that goes to the land of fire and has its breast 
 scorched, is plainly a double of the Celto-Norman 
 wren (p. 75) that brought down fire from heaven, 
 but had all its plumage burnt off. 
 
 It is a pojjular belief in Germany as well as 'in 
 England that when the robin finds the corpse of a 
 human being in the woods, he covers the face at 
 least, if not the whole body, with flowers, leaves, 
 and moss, as he did by the babes in the wood, in 
 the old English ballad of the Babes in the Wood. 
 
 The woodpecker is a bird of great mythic cele- 
 brity. The Romans called it Picus, and surnamed 
 it Martius from the god Mars, and Feronius from 
 the Sabine goddess Feronia, who was very potent 
 
WOODPECKER. 83 
 
 in fire, and whose name also indicates that she, 
 and consequently her bird, were fire-bringers. The 
 name Feronia is related in the closest manner to 
 that of Phoroneus, of whom a Peloponnesian legend 
 asserted that he it was, and not Prometheus, who 
 first bestowed fire on man ; and both names are 
 identical with hhuranyu* a frequent epithet of 
 Agni, signifying one who pounces down, or bears 
 down rapidly. 
 
 Picus is then the fire-bringing bird, but also, 
 quite in accordance with that character, he is the 
 son of Saturn and first king of Latium. This is 
 only another way of saying that he too (like Manu, 
 Minyas, Minos, Phoroneus, and other fire-bringers) 
 is the first man ; and therefore it is that, under the 
 name of Picumnus, he continued in later times to 
 be the guardian genius of children along with his 
 brother Pilumnus. 
 
 Grimm has pointed out a remarkable coincidence 
 between the story of the first king of Latium and 
 the Anglo-Saxon pedigree of Odin, which makes 
 Beav or Beovolf one of the god's ancestors. Beo- 
 volf means beewolf {i.e., bee-eater), and that is a 
 German appellation of the woodpecker.-f- 
 
 * From the root bhar, <pepa, fero. Kuhn, Herab. p, 26. 
 t D.M. p. 342. 
 
 a 2 
 
84 PICUS OR WOODPECKER. 
 
 A Eoman legend, which throws much light on 
 the mythic character of Picus, relates that Numa, 
 being desirous of knowing by what rites the light- 
 ning might be deprecated, took, by the advice of 
 Egeria, the following means to obtain the desired 
 information. There was in the Aventine grove a 
 fountain, whither Picus and his son Faunus often 
 came to rest in the cool shade and quench their 
 thirst, which was great. Here Numa set huge 
 goblets of mead and wine, and placed twelve young 
 men in ambush, each with a fetter in his hand. 
 The tempting bait was swallowed without delay or 
 stint, the pair dropped with heavy heads upon the 
 spot, and were fast bound as they lay asleep. 
 When they awoke and found escape impossible, 
 they readily disclosed the secret by which Jupiter 
 EKcius might be brought down and constrained 
 to specify the requisite propitiation. This Jupiter 
 EKcius (called also " hospitalis," as Agni was called 
 " atithi," the guest) was the lightning which could 
 be drawn down by certain sacrifices and ceremonies. 
 It is plain from the legend, first, that Picus was 
 believed to be particularly fond of mead and wine 
 (=soma), for otherwise Numa would not have thought 
 of entrapping him with them ; and secondly, that 
 a very close connection with the heavenly fire was 
 
PILUMNU8. 85 
 
 imputed to him. Either it was thought that he 
 could give the best intelligence concerning its 
 nature, or perhaps the original intention of his 
 capture was that he might be forced to bring it 
 down innocuously. This latter supposition appears 
 the more probable, because the sfringwort (a vege- 
 table embodiment of the lightning, of which more 
 hereafter) was known to the Romans as well as to 
 the Germans, and was believed by both to be at 
 the command of the picus or woodpecker. 
 
 It was the custom at Rome, as soon as a child 
 was born, to strew a couch for PHumnus and 
 Picumnus, who were supposed to remain in the 
 house until it was ascertained that the babe, for 
 whom they had brought the fire of life, was likely 
 to live. Pilumnus, the brother of Picus, who seems 
 to be only his double, had his name from 'pilwm, 
 which means both javelin and pestle, and is in. either 
 case equivalent to the thunderbolt. Pilum ia the 
 sense of pestle, and the sound made by the bill of 
 the picus rapping at the trees, combined to make 
 PUumnus the god of the bakers ; for in old times 
 the baker and the miller or com-brayer were one, 
 and pistor, the Latin for baker, means also the 
 person who plies the pilum or pis-lum.* In 
 
 * ' ' There were no bakers in Eome down to the time of the Persian 
 
86 GERTRUDE'S BIRD. 
 
 Norway the black red-crested woodpecker is called 
 Gertrude's bird, and a Norse tale, in wbich the 
 names alone are Christian and all the rest purely 
 heathen, makes the bird a transformed baker. 
 
 "In those days when our Lord and St. Peter 
 wandered upon earth, they came once to an old 
 wife's house who sat baking. Her name was 
 Gertrude, and she had a red mutch on her head. 
 They had walked a long way and were both hungry, 
 and our Lord begged hard for a bannock to stay 
 their hunger. Yes, they should have it. So she 
 took a little tiny piece of dough and rolled it out, 
 but as she rolled it, it grew till it covered the whole 
 griddle. 
 
 " Nay, that was too big ; they couldn't have that. 
 So she took a tinier bit still ; but when that was 
 rolled out, it covered the whole griddle just the 
 same, and that bannock was too big, she said ; they 
 couldn't have that either. 
 
 " The third time she took a still tinier bit— so tiny 
 you could scarce see it ; but it was the same story 
 over again — the bannock was too big. 
 
 war, more than 580 years after the foundation of the city. The 
 citizens made their own bread, and that was the work of the women, 
 as it is still among most nations." Plin. Hist. Nat. xviii. 11, 28. 
 In the Western Islands of Scotland to this day each household prepares 
 its own barley meal by pounding the corn in a large stone mortar. 
 
QEETEUDE'S BIRD. 87 
 
 « f ^ 
 
 ' Well/ said Gertrude, ' I can't give you any- 
 thing ; you must just go without, for aU these 
 bannocks are too big.' 
 
 " Then our Lord waxed wi'oth and said, ' Since 
 you loved me so little as to grudge me a morsel of 
 food, you shall have this punishment, — you shall 
 become a bird, and seek your food between bark 
 and bole, and never get a drop to drink save when it 
 rains.' 
 
 " He had scarce said the last word before she was 
 turned into a great black woodpecker, or Gertrude's 
 bird, and flew from her kneading-trough right up 
 the chimney ; and till this very day you may see 
 her flying about, with her red mutch on her head, 
 and her body all black, because of the soot in the 
 chimney ; and so she hacks and taps away at the 
 trees for her food, and whistles when rain is coming, 
 for she is ever athirst, and then she looks for a 
 drop to cool her tongue." * 
 
 The curse pronounced upon the woodpecker in 
 this story, that it shall " never get a di-op to drink 
 save when it rains," accords with the supposed 
 intimate connection between the bird and the 
 clouds, and points, perhaps, to the reason which 
 first suggested that mythic relation. The green 
 
 * Dasent, " Popular Tales from the Norse," p. 230. 
 
88 OWL. CUCKOO. 
 
 woodpecker is the best known of its genus in 
 England, and is widely spread on the continent of 
 Europe. Its loud cry, when frequently uttered, is 
 commonly supposed to foretell the approach of rainy 
 weather. Hence one of its English provincial names 
 is Raiabird. 
 
 Tales like that of Gertrude's bird are told of the 
 cuckoo, and " They say the owl was a baker's 
 daughter."* The cuckoo was a baker's or mdler's 
 man, and that is why his feathers are dusted with 
 meal. He robbed poor people of their dough in 
 hard times, and when the dough swelled by God's 
 blessing in the oven, he drew it out and nipped off 
 a portion of it, crying out each time, "gukuk" 
 (look ! look !). To punish him, God turned him 
 into a bird of prey that is everlastingly repeating 
 the same cry.-f According to another legend, our 
 Lord passed by a baker's shop, from which there 
 came a pleasant smell of fresh bread, and sent his 
 disciples ia to beg for a loaf The baker refused it, 
 but his wife, who was looking on from a distance 
 with her six daughters, gave it in secret. For this 
 she and her daughters were placed in heaven as 
 the Seven Stars (the Pleiades ; English, hen with 
 her chickens), but the baker was turned into a 
 
 * Hamlet, iv. 5. t D, M. 641. 
 
CUCKOO. STOBK. 89 
 
 cuckoo ; and so long as Lis cry is heard in the spring, 
 from St. Tiburt's to St. John's day, the Seven Stars 
 are visible in the heavens.* The cuckoo's connec- 
 tion with storms and tempests is not clearly deter- 
 mined, but the owl's is indisputable. Its cry is 
 believed in England to foretell rain and hail, the 
 latter of which is usually accompanied with light- 
 ning, and the practice of nailing it to the barn 
 door, to avert the lightning, is common throughout 
 Europe, and is mentioned by Palladius in his treatise 
 on Agriculture.-f- 
 
 The stork, which in Holland, Denmark, and North 
 Germany is everywhere a welcome guest, is known 
 there universally as a fire-fowl and baby-bringer. 
 There are obvious reasons why these offices should 
 have been assigned to him. He is a bird of passage 
 coming with the storms, departing with them ; he 
 is the attendant and messenger of the goddess, with 
 whom he arrives in spring after her winter enchant- 
 ment or banishment, and his red legs mark him 
 also as a servant of the fire-god. In Hesse a 
 wagon-wheel (emblem of the sun) is laid upon the 
 roof for the stork to build his nest on. The house 
 on which he builds is safe from fire, even though 
 the neighbourhood be burned down. He must not 
 
 * D.M. 691. + De re rustioa, I. 35. 
 
90 8T0EK. CHILD FOUNTAIN. 
 
 be killed, for he is a sacred bird ; nor must his nest 
 be disturbed, lest the house be struck with lightning. 
 At Eothenburg an incensed stork, whose young had 
 been flunsr out of the nest, fetched a firebrand in 
 his bill, threw it into the empty nest, and set the 
 house on fire* When the storks are seen fluttering 
 round the steeple, a fire may be expected to break 
 out somewhere ; then they come with water in their 
 bills, and let it fall from the air into the flames.-f- 
 
 Our English nursery fable of the Parsley-bed in 
 which little strangers are found, is doubtless a 
 remnant of a fuller tradition, like that of the wood- 
 pecker among the Romans and that of the stork 
 among our continental kinsmen. Adebar or Ode- 
 baro, an ancient German name of the stork, means 
 literally child or soul bringer ; \ and it is not un- 
 known to Hans Andersen's readers that Danish 
 ladies are often obliged to keep their beds, because 
 the stork, which has brought another little brother 
 or sister to the house, has bitten mamma in the leg. 
 There is hardly a German village that has not its 
 Jcinderbrunnen (child fountain), where the stork 
 takes up the little ones and brings them home.§ 
 
 * Wolf, Beitrage, ii. 435. + Mannhai-dt, 193. 
 
 i D.M. 638. Ktthn, Herabk. p. 106. 
 
 § The Sanscrit word utsa, fountain, is a frequent Yedic appellation 
 of the clouds. 
 
FRAU HOLDA. THE VIBGIN. 91 
 
 The fountain is an image of the fire and light 
 bearing cloud, and is named in many places after 
 Frau Holda, or Lady Gracious, the goddess who sits 
 in her radiant hall beneath the waters, and cherishes 
 the unborn babes on her motherly bosom. Other 
 accounts tell of a beautiful sunny garden, in the 
 very heart of a hill or mountain (another image of 
 the clouds), where the little ones play about under 
 the eye of the divine protectress, and sip honey 
 from the blossoms. A 'woman, whose child had dis- 
 appeared, made her way into such a subterraneous 
 garden, which she found thronged with babies. In 
 the midst of them sat a lady of noble presence, clad 
 in white, nursing the lost child on her lap. Instead 
 of the heathen goddess, the Mother of God is com- 
 monly spoken of in modern times as the Lady of 
 the Fountain. She has her nursery, for instance, 
 in the Cunibert's Fountain in Cologne ; and the 
 Queckbrunnen * in Dresden, out of which "the 
 clapperstork fetches the Dresden children," is sacred 
 to her. Its waters, through our Lady's grace, make 
 childless women fruitful, and a chapel was built 
 over them in 1514, repaired in 1745, and enlarged 
 in 1783. In place of a weather vane the chapel 
 is surmounted by the figure of a stork, holding a 
 
 * That is, quick or 'live fountain. 
 
92 HOLLOW TREES. PARSLEY BED. 
 
 babe in swaddling clothes in its beak, and two 
 others in its claws* 
 
 Instead of the usual fountain, a hollow tree over- 
 hanging a pool is known in many places, both in 
 North and South Germany, as the first abode of 
 unborn infants. In this form of the common tra- 
 dition we have both the cloud sea and the tree 
 growing beside it, whence the spark of life is imme- 
 diately derived ; and here, too, we discover a rehc 
 of the old belief, common to the Greeks and the 
 Germans, that the progenitors of mankind were 
 horn of trees. " Frau Holda's tree" is a common 
 name in Germany for old decayed boles ; and she 
 herself, the cloud-goddess, is described in a Hessian 
 legend as having, in front, the form of a beautiful 
 woman, and behind, that of a hollow tree with a 
 rugged bark.-f- It is not unimportant, with reference 
 to the parsley-bed theory, that the baby's tree is 
 sometimes spoken of as growing in a kitchen- 
 garden (krautgarten) ; that in Saterland they say 
 "infants are fetched out of the cabbage," and that 
 in the Walloon part of Belgium they are said to be 
 found in the parson's garden. Parsley, cabbage, and 
 other vegetables may stand for the wholesome and 
 
 * Mannhardt, 280—3. 
 + Ibid, 284. 
 
CHILDREN FOUND IN A SOCK. 93 
 
 precious plants that clustered round tlie foot of the 
 heavenly tree (p. 74). 
 
 But trees, plants, fountains, and hills are not the 
 only cloud-forms that present themselves in this 
 legendary cycle. "Northward of the island of Gristow, 
 about halfway between Cammin and Ziinz, there is 
 a huge block of granite in the Diwenow, not far 
 from ■ its bank. Many a grey year ago that rock 
 was a fine castle, in which dwelt a greedy robber. 
 Maidens above all were his prey ; but one of them 
 to whom he offered violence, happening to be skilled 
 in magic, shrunk the whole castle together into a 
 big block of stone, and shut the wicked robber up 
 in it for ever. They tell the children in Cammin 
 that the stork brings them to their parents from 
 the big stone."* 
 
 The legend is transparent in all its details. It is 
 a meteoric drama, with its action and scenery trans- 
 planted from sky to earth. The robber and ravisher 
 is the storm-god who issues from his cloud-castle, 
 and chases the white-cloud maidens ; but his force 
 is spent, his cloud-castle collapses, and he is banned 
 by the power of nature's magic. 
 
 The stork must needs be a supernatural being, 
 like the Manx -wren and the picus or woodpecker. 
 
 * Kuhn u. Schwartz, Ndd. p. 14. 
 
94 STOMKS ARE MEN. LADYBIRD. 
 
 He too is both bird and man, as we learn from 
 Gervase of Tilbury * The transfoi-mation of storks 
 into men, and vice versd, is an article of popular 
 belief in Friesland,f and ia Prussia, where it is for- 
 bidden to hurt a stork, "for he is elsewhere a 
 man."j A Flemish legend recounts that a citizen 
 of Bruges met a man near Mount Sinai, who told 
 him they were neighbours in Bruges, for the nest 
 of the one was next door to the house of the other. 
 In confirmation of this statement the stork-man 
 showed a ring he had stolen from the Fleming 
 once upon a time, and gave it back to him on coa- 
 dition that he would not for the future allow his 
 herdsman to molest his feathered neighbour.§ 
 
 The goddess Holda is only another form of Freyja 
 or Fria, the wife of Odin and sister of Freyr or Fro, 
 the god of the sun and of love, in whose attributes 
 she participates. The Ladybird has many names, 
 aU of them mythic,|| and it is sacred to both god- 
 desses. Its home is in heaven or in the sun.lT and 
 
 * P. 35. t D.M. 638. 
 
 t Tettau und Temme, 285. § Liebrecht, G. T. 157. 
 
 II In England, Lady tird, lady fly, lady cow — names pointing 
 originally to Freyja, but subsequently to the Virgin ; in Holland, our 
 Dear Lady's little beast ; in Germany, sun calf, moon calf, sun chick, 
 God's calf — little bird, Mary bird — chafer — calf, Lady hen, Lady cow, 
 &c. ; in Bretagne, la petite vache du bon dieu ; in Bohemia, the same 
 (Bozj krawicku). H D.M. 658. 
 
LADYBIRD. 95 
 
 German children tell it in rhyme to fly up thither, 
 mount the chair (Freyja's throne) and bring back 
 sunshine and fine weather. They believe that, were 
 they to kill the insect, the sun would not shine the 
 next day* The English rhyme — 
 
 Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home, 
 
 Tour house is on fire, your children will burn — 
 
 seems to have some reference to the insect's minis- 
 trations with fire, the more so as the ladybird is 
 very commonly addressed in Germany to the same 
 purpose, and the children in Westphalia have a 
 rhyme which plainly implies that the burning 
 house is in heaven, for it states that the angels 
 are crying about it."f- Lastly, this important little 
 creature is appealed to in the same country as a 
 child-bringer, and asked to fly up to heaven and 
 bring down a golden dish and in it a golden 
 bantling. I 
 
 There is a German tradition of a little girl, the 
 daughter of poor parents, who was fond of playing 
 with ladybirds in the wood. One day when she 
 was thus engaged, a carriage drawn by ladybirds 
 drove up ; she stepped into it, and was carried 
 through the air to Lady Holda, who was sitting 
 
 * Wolf, ii. 449. + Kuhn, Westf. ii. 78. 
 
 t Mannhardt, 2S3. 
 
96 FJBE-BRINGESS PBOPHETIC. 
 
 at her spinning-wheel in front of a cottage. The 
 lady had sent for the child because a frightful war 
 was raging on the earth, and during the five years 
 of its continuance the child remained safe with the 
 kind goddess. At the end of that time she was 
 sent home with a fine bridal outfit of hnen.* 
 
 The majority of the fire-bringers, if not all of 
 them, are more or less prophetic, like Agni himself 
 Prometheus foretold the defeat of the Titans by 
 Jupiter, and prevented the latter from ruining 
 himself by marrying Thetis, who was destined to 
 bear a son who would eclipse his father. Picus 
 delivered oracles to the Sabines from the top of a 
 wooden piUar in the grove at Matiena. Omens are 
 drawn from the stork in North Germany. The first 
 time in the year a girl hears the bird, if it clatter 
 with its bill, she wiU break something; if it be 
 flying, she will be a bride before the year is out ; 
 if it be standing, she will be asked to stand god- 
 mother. K a flight of storks pass over a group of 
 men standing in a circle, one of the group will die 
 soon. The ladybird, which is so intimate with the 
 goddess of love and with Frau Holda, must know a 
 great many things. Its services in affairs of love 
 were known to Gay — 
 
 * Mannhardt, p. 287. 
 
LADYBIRD. 97 
 
 This ladyfly I take from ofiF the graas, 
 Whose spotted back might scarlet red surpass. 
 Fly, ladybird, north, south, or east, or west, 
 Fly where the man is found that I love best. 
 
 Little girls in Westphalia set the ladybird on the 
 point of their forefinger and invoke it in rhjnme to 
 say when they will be married : in one year 1 two 
 years ? three years ? &c. ; and they grow very impa- 
 tient if the insect lets them count too high before 
 it flies away. Sometimes it is asked, as it sits on the 
 finger, how the questioner will fare in the next world. 
 If it fly upwards, the questioner will go to heaven ; 
 if downwards, to the opposite place ; if horizontally, 
 to purgatory. In Sweden, if the black spots on the 
 wing-covers of the ladybird exceed seven, the usual 
 number, it is thought to be a sign that corn wiU be 
 dear ; if they are fewer, a plentiful harvest is expected. 
 
 To no bird has the gift of augury been more gene- 
 rally attributed than to the cuckoo.* Mannhardt 
 states positively that this herald of the spring is one 
 of the lightning-bearers,t and Kuhn inclines to the 
 same opinion, but abstains, with characteristic cau- 
 tion, from asserting as proved a fact which as yet 
 appears to him to be no more than highly probable. 
 The cuckoo is, at all events, intimately connected 
 with the lightning gods — with Zeus and with Thor. It 
 
 * D. M. 640. + P. 194. 
 
98 CUCKOO. 
 
 was in the form of a cuckoo that Zeus first flew to the 
 bosom of coy Hera and made her his bride.* A 
 seated image of the goddess shows a cuckoo upon 
 her wand ; in a bas-relief representing the marriage 
 procession of Zeus and Hera, a cuckoo sits upon the 
 god's sceptre ; and the mountain which was the scene 
 of their union had its name changed from Thronax, or 
 Thomax, to Oros Kokkugion, i. e., Cuckoo mountain, f 
 According to Mannhardt the cuckoo is the messenger 
 of Thor, the god in whose gift were health and 
 strength, length of days and marriage blessings, and 
 therefore it is that people call upon the bird to tell 
 how long they have to live, how soon they will be 
 married, and how many children they shall have ; 
 and that in Schaumburg the person who acts at a 
 wedding as master of the ceremonies carries a cuckoo 
 on his staff I At the first call of the cuckoo a German 
 peasant does the same thing as when he hears thun- 
 der for the first time in the year : he rolls himself 
 two or three times on the grass, thinking himself 
 thereby insured against pains in the back throughout 
 the rest of the year, and all the more so if the bird 
 continues its cry whilst he is on the ground. § 
 
 Csesarius (a.d. 1222) tells of a convertite who was 
 
 * Pansanias II., 17, 4 ; 36, 2. 
 t D. M. 644. t Mannhardt, 198. § Ibid., 200. 
 
CUCKOO. 99 
 
 about to become a monk, but changed his mind 
 on hearing the cuckoo's call, and counting twenty- 
 two repetitions of it. " Come," said he, " I have 
 certainly twenty-two years still to hve, and why 
 should I mortify myself during all that time ? I 
 will go back to the world, enjoy its delights for 
 twenty years, and devote the remaining two to peni- 
 tence." In the English invocation, 
 
 Cuokoo, cherry-tree, 
 Good bird tell me — 
 How many years have I to live ? 
 
 is the cherry-tree lugged in only to make rhyme, 
 or is there any allusion in it to the three full meals 
 of cheiTies which, it is said, the bird must eat before 
 it leaves off crying ? In Sweden, girls bid the cuckoo 
 sit on the bough and teU. them for certain how many 
 years they are to remain unmarried. If the bird 
 cries more than ten times, they say it sits upon a 
 fooUsh or bewitched bough, and they pay no heed 
 to its augury. In that country it is also of much 
 importance from what quarter of the heavens the 
 cuckoo's voice is first heard in spring. Heard from 
 the north, the unlucky side, it portends a year of 
 sorrow to the hearer ; from the east and west it 
 betokens luck, and from the south it gives promise 
 of a good butter year.* 
 
 * D. M. 641. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 CUCKOO. 
 
 The cuckoo's oracles were believed by the Poles to 
 be actually given by the great god Zywie, the life- 
 giver, who transformed himself into the bird on pur- 
 pose to utter them.* 
 
 If the first note of the cuckoo comes upon you 
 when you have no money in your pocket, that is 
 held, both in Germany and England, to portend want 
 of money throughout the year. On the contrary, he 
 that has coin in his pocket at that critical moment, 
 and does not forget to turn it, will have plenty. It 
 strikes me that this superstition tends not a little to 
 confirm the hypothesis of the cuckoo's being one of 
 the lightning-bearers ; for, as we shall find when 
 we come to speak of the divining-rod, it is a first 
 principle of Indo-European mythology that the 
 heavenly fire is the main source of all wealth and 
 prosperity. 
 
 The form of the cuckoo remotely resembles that of 
 some of the falcon tribe. May we hazard a conjec- 
 ture that hence, in Germanic tradition, that bird 
 in some degree represents the fire-bringing falcon of 
 the Aryans ? It is a popular belief in Germany, as 
 we learn from Grimm, that after St. Jnhn's day, 
 about which time the cuckoo becomes mute, it 
 changes into a hawJcf 
 
 * D. M. 643. t D. M. 1222— See note,p. 105. 
 
CUCKOO. HAIR. 101 
 
 Gay has these lines in his " Shepherd's Week "' : 
 
 When first the year, I heard the cuckoo siog, 
 And call with •welcome note the hudding spring, 
 I straightway set a-running with such haste, 
 Deb'rah that won the smock scarce ran so fast ; 
 Till spent for lack of breath, quite weary grown, 
 Upon a rising bank I sat adown. 
 And doff'd my shoe, and by my troth I swear, 
 Therein I spied this yellow frizzled hair — 
 As like to Lubberkin's in curl and hue. 
 As if upon his comely pate it grew. 
 
 The dehghtful inference was, that Lubberkin was 
 destined to be her own. The same thing is men- 
 tioned in the " Connoisseur," No. 58 : "I got up last 
 May morning, and went into the fields to hear the 
 cuckoo, and when I pulled off my left shoe, I found 
 a hair in it exactly the same colour with his." 
 
 Golden hair, or fiery red, like Thor's beard, is a 
 very common symbol of the sunbeams or the light- 
 ning ; and Schwartz has noticed,* as a casualty which 
 frequently befalls the stormgods and demigods, the 
 loss of their thick clustering locks in the elemental 
 strife. It would be quite in accordance with all that 
 is known to us of the natural history of myths, should 
 it appear that some of this fallen hair was the very 
 same that Lubberkin's sweetheart found in her shoe, 
 when prompted to look for it by a lightning-bird. 
 
 • Ursprung, pp, 143 — 145. 
 
102 SWALLOW. 
 
 The same omen is given in Westphalia by another 
 herald of the spring. When a man sees the first 
 swallow, he should look if there be a hair under his 
 foot. If he find one, his future wife's hair wiU be 
 of the same colour.* The swallow is everywhere a 
 sacred bird, and in some places, like the stork, it 
 preserves the house on which it builds its nest 
 from fije and lightning. On the other hand, if the 
 swallows do not return to their old nest, somebody 
 will die in the house, or it will be burned down.f 
 
 In Swabia, the man who kiUs a swallow will have 
 his cows give red milk, or his house will be struck 
 with lightning,! and some believe that such a sacri- 
 legious act will be followed by rain of four weeks' 
 duration. § In Perigord, the swallow is "the mes- 
 senger of life." The people call it la Poule de Dieu 
 (just like the wren), and this bird and the cricket 
 are regarded as members of the family. || In Nor- 
 mandy, it is the subject of a tradition analogous to 
 that concerning the woodpecker and the springwort, 
 as will be seen hereafter. Its chestnut-red head and 
 throat are probably not without significance ; and it 
 may be that, as in the case of the robiu (p. 81), some 
 old wife's tale, snatched from the oblivion to which 
 
 * Kuhn, Westf. ii., 71. t Ibid., pp. 70—72. 
 
 t Meier, 221. § D. M. 638. i| De Nore, 162. 
 
DEPARTED SOULS AS BIRDS. 103 
 
 it is now hastening, will eventually complete the 
 evidence upon which we shall be justified in assign- 
 ing to this guest of summer no uncertain place 
 among the fire-bringing birds. 
 
 That the soul quits the dead body in the form 
 of a bird is a wide-spread belief, and in Kuhn's 
 opinion it is intimately connected with the tradition 
 of birds as soul-bringers. The soul and the bird 
 that brought it down to earth may have been 
 supposed to become one, and to enter and quit 
 the body together. Stories of disembodied souls 
 appearing as doves are numerous, but lend only an 
 ambiguous support to Kuhn's conjecture, since we 
 cannot tell whether or not their origin is due, 
 in part or wholly, to biblical and ecclesiastical 
 ideas. We are on surer ground when we have to 
 deal with such heathen, or at least non-Christian, 
 instances as the following : — 
 
 In the Ssemundr Edda it is said that souls in 
 the form of singed birds flit about the nether world 
 like swarms of flies. According to the heathen 
 Bohemians, the soul flew out of the mouth of the 
 dying as a bird, and flitted from tree to tree 
 until the body was burned, after which it had rest. 
 The Finns, and also the Lithuanians, the latter an 
 Indo-European people, call the Milky Way the 
 
104 DEPARTED SOULS AS BIRDS. 
 
 Birds' Way, i. e., the way of souls. In Poland it is 
 said that every member of the Herburt family is 
 turned into an eagle after death ; and that the 
 eldest daughters of the Pileck Hne are transformed 
 into doves if they die unmarried, into owls if they 
 die married, and that they give previous notice 
 of their death to every member of their race by 
 pecking a finger of each.* The people in North 
 Germany believe that the soul of one who has died 
 on shipboard passes into a bird,-f- and when it shows 
 itself it is to foretell the death of another person. 
 It is a local Irish tradition that the first father 
 and mother of mankind exist as eagles in the island 
 of Innis Bofin, at the mouth of Killery Bay, in 
 Gal way. J 
 
 "Look, my dear," said S. S.'s wife to him one 
 morning as he lay iu bed. " Look at that kite 
 flying round the room." He saw nothing, but heard 
 a noise like a large bird flapping its wings. A few 
 minutes afterwards a sparrow came, dashed its bill 
 against the window, and flew away again. "Oh," 
 said Mrs. S., " something is the matter with poor 
 Edward" (her brother). She had hardly said the 
 word when a man on horseback rode up and said, 
 
 * D.M. 788. t Kuhn und Schwartz, Ndd. p. 436. 
 
 t Liebreclit, Gery. Tilb. p. 115, 
 
THE CUCKOO. 105 
 
 when S. opened the door to him, "Don't frighten 
 poor Mary; but master has just expired." The 
 messenger had only ridden from Somers Town to 
 Compton Street, Soho. I had this story from S. 
 himself, who was possessed with a notion that the 
 sparrow that tapped at his window was the soul 
 of his brother-in-law. 
 
 SUPPLEMENTAEY NOTE. 
 
 This sheet was abeady in type and just going to press 
 when I found, in the Times of September 3, 1863, the 
 follo"wing corroboration of the conjecture offered in the last 
 paragraph of page 100. At the meeting of the British 
 Association at Newcastle-on-Tyne on the preceding day, the 
 Eev. H. B. Tristram said : — ■ 
 
 ' ' The gentlemen of Durham and Northumberland believed 
 that the hedgehog ate the partridge eggs ; and so great was 
 the ignorance of natural history that, a short time ago, 
 when he remonstrated with a man for shooting a cuckoo, the 
 defence was that it was weU known that sparrowhawha 
 turned into cuckoos in the summer," 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE DEAD — THEIK WORLD AND THE WAT TO II — PSYOHOPOMP DOOS 
 AND COWS — DEATH OMENS GIVEN BT DOOS AND COWS — THE 
 
 DEAD-SHOE THE BRIG o' DREAD^SHIPS AND BOATS THE PERET- 
 
 MAN's FEB — ENGLAND THE LAND OP THE DEAD — BERTHA — TEARS 
 POH THE DEAD — SOULS OF DNCHRISTBNED BABES — ZWERGS CROSSING 
 THE PERRY. 
 
 It was the belief of the Aiyans that the soul — 
 that spark of heavenly fire — passed upwards after 
 death, to mingle with the spirits of the winds, the 
 clouds, the lightning, the sunbeams, and the stars, 
 and to find its everlasting abode in the highest 
 heaven. On its way thither it had to cross a vast 
 river — the cloud-water — which flows between the 
 world of men and the bright realm of Yama and 
 the Pitris, or fathers. But it was not left to make 
 the dread journey alone or unprotected ; for, as the 
 Vedas tell, it was taken up by a cow (i. e., a cloud) 
 from the divine world, which conveyed it across the 
 heavenly waters and over the Milky Way to Yama's 
 dwelling. For this reason it was made a religious 
 ordinance of the Hindus that the dying person 
 
PSYCHOPOMP COWS AND DOOS. 10'7 
 
 should lay hold of the tail of a cow in his last 
 moments. Cows drew the corpse to the funeral 
 pile, and a black cow was led after it to the same 
 spot, slaughtered and flayed there. The flesh of 
 the animal was heaped upon the corpse as it lay 
 on the pile, and its hide was spread over all. Fire 
 was then applied, and when the flames rose high 
 a hymn was sung, in which the cow was invoked 
 to ascend with the deceased to the land of the 
 departed fathers.* 
 
 Other Vedic accounts state that the wind, under 
 the form of a dog (p. 7), sent by Yama, accompanies 
 and protects the soul on its journey ; and again, it 
 is said, that two four-eyed dogs, acquainted with 
 men, watch the path that leads to Yama's abode. 
 In accordance with the conception of the dog as 
 the soul's escort to heaven, it is the custom of the 
 Parsees of Bombay to place a dog before the dying, 
 so that their eyes may rest upon the animal at the 
 last moment ; and two dogs are set before a woman 
 dying in pregnancy, one for each departing soul. 
 After death, according to Parsee belief, the soul 
 arrives at the bridge Tchinavat, where the gods 
 and the unclean spirits fight for possession of it. 
 If it be one of the righteous, it is defended by 
 
 * Mannhardt, p. SI. 
 
108 THE COW-PATE. MORTUAEIES. 
 
 the other pure souls and by the dogs that guard 
 the bridge. * 
 
 The reader will probably be surprised to learn 
 how many of these particulars have been preserved 
 in the mythologies and popular traditions of Europe. 
 It was an ancient belief of the whole German race 
 that the Milky Way is the way of souls, and in 
 Friesland it is even called the Cow-path (kaupat). 
 It was also believed that whoever had given a cow 
 to the poor on earth would not stumble or be 
 dizzy when he had to cross the fearful Gjallar 
 bridge — the bridge Tchinavat of the Persian Aryans 
 — for there, as in the Vedic times, he would find a 
 cow that would carry his soul safely over. " Hence 
 it was of yore a funeral custom in Sweden, Den- 
 mark, England, Upper and Lower Germany, that a 
 cow should follow the coffin to the churchyard. 
 This custom was partially continued [on the Con- 
 tinent] until recent times, being accounted for on 
 the ground that the cow was a gift to the clergy 
 for saying masses for the dead man's soul or preach- 
 ing his funeral sermon."f In England, when hea- 
 then sacrifices had been abolished, the animal was 
 likewise devoted to pious uses, in the way of what 
 our Saxon ancestors called saul sceat, i.e., soul-shot, 
 * MannharcU, p, 51, t Ibid., p. 320, 
 
THE EOWLINO DOQ. 109 
 
 or mortuary payment. " It was considered as a gift 
 left by a man at his death by way of recompense 
 for all failm-es in the payment of tithes and obla- 
 tions, and called a corse present. It is mentioned 
 in the national council of Ensham about the year 
 1006."* 
 
 In the office assigned to the dog of the Aryans, 
 as a messenger from the world of the dead, we see 
 the origin of that very wide-spread superstition 
 which recognizes a death-omen in the howling of 
 a dog. An intelligent Londoner tells me he has 
 often seen the omen given, and verified its fulfil- 
 ment. The dog's mode of proceeding on such 
 occasions, he says, is this : The animal tries to get 
 under the doomed person's window ; but if the 
 house stands within an inclosure, and it cannot 
 get in, it runs round the premises very uneasily, 
 or paces up and down before them like a sentry. 
 If the dog succeeds in making an entry, it stops 
 under the window, howls horribly, finishes with 
 three tremendous barks, and hurries away. The 
 same superstition prevails in France and in Ger- 
 many. In the latter country, a dog howling before 
 a house portends either a death or a fire. If it 
 howls along the highway, that is held in West- 
 
 * Brand, ii. 248. 
 
110 TAMA'S MESSENOEB D06S. 
 
 phalia to be a sure token that a funeral will soon 
 pass that way. In the German, as in the Aryan 
 mythology, the dog is an embodiment of the wind, 
 and also an attendant on the dead. It appears in 
 both characters in Odin's wild hunt. Dogs see 
 ghosts,* and when Hel, the goddess of death, goes 
 about, invisible to human eyes, she is seen by ^the 
 dogs.f 
 
 Yama's canine messengers were called Sarameyas ; 
 and that very name, put into a Greek form, was 
 borne, as Dr. Kuhn has demonstrated,! by Her- 
 meias or Hermes, the messenger of the Grecian 
 gods, who led the shades to Hades. 
 
 The fatal significance of the howhng dog is noto- 
 rious, but it is not so generally known that the other 
 Aryan psychopomp, the cow, is sometimes a fore- 
 tokener of death. A correspondent of " Notes and 
 Queries " gives the following record as written down 
 by him about the time to which it relates : — 
 
 " A bad omen seems to be drawn from an ox or a 
 cow breaking into a garden. Though I laugh at the 
 superstition, the omen was painfuUy fulfilled in my 
 case. About the middle of March, 1843, some cattle 
 were driven close to my house, and, the back door 
 
 • D.M. 632. t Ibid. 
 
 J Zeitachr. f. v. Sprachf. 
 
DEATH-OMENS FROM COWS. Ill 
 
 being open, three got into our little bit of garden 
 and trampled it. Wben our school-drudge came in 
 the afternoon and asked the cause of the confusion, 
 she expressed great sorrow and apprehension on being 
 told — said it was a bad sign — that we should hear of 
 three deaths within the next sLk months. Alas ! in 
 
 April we heard of dear J 's murder ; a fortnight 
 
 after A died ; and to-morrow, August 10, I 
 
 attend the funeral of my excellent son-in-law. I 
 have just heard of the same omen from another 
 quarter. 
 
 " This was added the next day : — 
 " But what is still more remarkable is, that when 
 I went down to Mr. M 's burial, and was men- 
 tioning the superstition, they told me that while he 
 was lying Ul, a cow got into the front garden, and 
 was driven out with great difficulty." * 
 
 "What does the 'black cow' signify," asks Grimm,f 
 "in such [German] phrases as 'the black cow is press- 
 ing him ' ; ' the black cow has trodden upon him' ? " 
 It is a common saying in Scotland, when a man is ill 
 and not likely to recover, or when he has lost one of 
 his family or kindred by death, " the black ox has 
 tramped upon him." King Oluf Digrbeen was fore- 
 warned of a great mortality, in a dream, by a black 
 * "Choice Notes," p. 20. + D. M. 631, n. 
 
112 THE WORLD OF THE DEAD. 
 
 ox that came from the eastward, and went about 
 from house to house, in each of which the majority 
 of the inmates were laid low at the sound of its 
 bellowing* 
 
 The heaven of the Aryans belonged alike to the 
 gods and to the souls of the dead ; but gi-adually, 
 as men came to have a higher sense of the might 
 and majesty of the gods, it seemed fit to separate 
 the realm of shades from the bright abode of the 
 divine rulers of the world. The former was there- 
 fore brought down below and placed, sometimes in 
 islands of the far West, sometimes beneath the 
 surface of the earth ; but, wherever it was sup- 
 posed to be, its scenery, bright or sombre, was that 
 which had belonged to it in the sky, and its rulers 
 were gods who had descended with it from the 
 upper regions."!" 
 
 Niflheimr, the world of mists, beneath one of the 
 roots of the world-tree Yggdrasil, was the dismal 
 realm of Hel or Hela, the Norse and German goddess 
 of death.j Cold and gloomy it was, like herself, but 
 
 * LietreoW, G. T. p. 92. + Schwartz, p. 271. 
 
 J Whom Christianity transformed from a person into ». place, in 
 like manner as it transformed tlie goddess Ostara into a season — 
 Easier. " The Christian notion of Hell," says Mr. Dasent, " is that 
 of a place of heat ; for in the East, -whence Christianity came, heat is 
 often an intolerable torment, and cold, on the other hand, everything 
 that is pleasant and delightful. But to the dweller in the North heat 
 
HELA. NAEAKA. NASTROND. 113 
 
 of old it was never spoken of as a place of punish- 
 ment and torment. Those who went to it were not 
 the bad alone, but all who died, even the noblest 
 and the best, — Brynhild for instance, and Baldr. 
 The only apparent exceptions were the heroes who 
 had fallen in battle, and whom Odin gathered to 
 himself in Valhalla.* But the idea of retribution 
 after death for crimes done in the body was not 
 unknown to German paganism. It was a part of 
 the Aryan creed, and the Vedas speak of the god- 
 dess Nirriti, and her dreadful world Naraka, the 
 destined abode of all guilty souls. It is not con- 
 ceivable that such a tradition could have died out, 
 even for a time, among any of the pagan Indo- 
 Europeans, and we know that, according to Anglo- 
 Saxon belief, " for the perjurer and the secret 
 murderer Nastrond existed, a place of torment and 
 punishment — the strand of the dead — fiUed with 
 foulness, peopled with poisonous serpents, dark, 
 
 brings with it sensations of joy and comfort, and life without fire has 
 a dreary outlook ; so their Hel ruled in a cold region over those who 
 were cowards by implication, while the mead-cup went round, and 
 huge logs blazed and crackled in Valhalla for the brave and beautiful 
 who had dared to die on the field of battle. But under Christianity 
 the extremes of heat and cold have met, and Hel, the cold uncomfort- 
 able goddess, is now our Hell, where flames and fires abound, and 
 where the devils abide in everlasting flame." — Popular Tales fi'om the 
 Norse, Introd. 
 * D.M. p. 764. 
 
 I 
 
114 THE ROAD TO HELA'S REALM. 
 
 cold, and gloomy : the kingdom of Hel was Hades, 
 the invisible, the world of shadows ; Nastrond was 
 what we call Hell."* Dr. Roth, one of the most 
 distinguished Vedic scholars, is of opinion that the 
 souls of the wicked swelled the host of the 
 EAkshasas (p. 28) as those of the good became 
 members of the community of Ribhus and Maruts. 
 The heaven of the Pitris (p. 18) is often called " the 
 world of good deed, the world of the righteous," and 
 they themselves were spirits of light and ministers 
 of good to men. Hence there is strong reason for 
 inferring, although the fact is nowhere expressly 
 stated, that the inhabitants of the opposite world 
 became spirits of darkness, and confederates of all 
 the evil powers. If this conjecture prove to be 
 well founded, it will have brought to light another 
 remarkable instance of the continuity of Aryan 
 tradition. 
 
 Long and dreary was the road to Hel's dark 
 dominion ; the descent to it from heaven was a 
 journey of nine days and nine nights for the gods 
 themselves. The greater part of the way lay 
 through morasses and vast moors overgrown with 
 furze and thorns ; and that the dead might not 
 pass over them barefoot, a pair of shoes was laid 
 
 • Kemble, " Saxons in EDgland," ii. 393. 
 
THE ROAD TO HELA'S REALM. 115 
 
 with them in the gi-ave. Hence a funeral is still 
 called " dead-shoe" (todtenschuh) in the Henneberg 
 district and perhaps in some others, and in Scandi- 
 navia the shoe itself is called "hel-shoe" (helsko).* 
 In a MS. of the Cotton Library, containing an 
 account of Cleveland in Yorkshire, in the reign 
 of Queen Elizabeth, there is a passage which illus- 
 trates this custom. It has been quoted by Sir 
 "Walter Scott in the notes to the " Minstrelsy of the 
 Scottish Border," and runs thus : " When any dieth, 
 certaine women sing a song to the dead bodie, 
 reciting the journey that the partye deceased must 
 goe, and they are of beliefe (such is their fondnesse) 
 that once in their lives it is good to give a pair 
 of new shoes to a poor man, for as much as after 
 this life they are to pass barefoote through a great 
 launde, fuU of thorns and furzen, except by the 
 meryte of the almes aforesaid they have redemed 
 the forfeyte ; for at the edge of the launde an oulde 
 man shall meet them with the same shoes that 
 were given by the partie when he was lyving, and 
 after he hath shodde them, dismisseth them to go 
 through thick and thin without scratch or scalle." 
 The dirge in question continued to be sung in 
 Yorkshire until the year 1624, and is as follows : \ 
 
 * Mannhardt, p. 320. D.M. 795. t Brand, ii. 274. 
 
 1 2 
 
114< THE EOAD TO IIELA'S REALM. 
 
 cold, and gloomy : the kingdom of Hel was Hades, 
 the invisible, the world of shadows ; N^strond was 
 what we call Hell."* Dr. Eoth, one of the most 
 distinguished Vedic scholars, is of opinion that the 
 souls of the wicked swelled the host of the 
 Rakshasas (p. 28) as those of the good became 
 members of the community of Ribhus and Maruts. 
 The heaven of the Pitris (p. 18) is often called " the 
 world of good deed, the world of the righteous," and 
 they themselves were spirits of light and ministers 
 of good to men. Hence there is strong reason for 
 inferring, although the fact is nowhere expressly 
 stated, that the inhabitants of the opposite world 
 became spirits of darkness, and confederates of all 
 the evil powers. If this conjecture prove to be 
 weU founded, it wiU have brought to light another 
 remarkable inistance of the continuity of Aryan 
 tradition. 
 
 Long and dreary was the road to Hal's dark 
 dominion ; the descent to it from heaven was a 
 journey of nine days and nine nights for the gods 
 themselves. The greater part of the way lay 
 through morasses and vast moors overgrown with 
 furze and thorns ; and that the dead might not 
 pass over them barefoot, a pair of shoes was laid 
 
 • KemMe, " Saxons in England," ii. 393. 
 
THE BIVER OF DEATH. 117 
 
 But if milk nor drink thou never gave naen, 
 
 Every night and awle, 
 The fire shall burn thee to the bare beane, 
 
 And Christ receive thy sawle. 
 
 The water that lies between the world of the 
 living and that of the dead is, found, in one shape 
 or other, in all the Indo-European mythologies. In 
 that of the Greeks it was the river Styx, Acheron, 
 or Cocytus, over which Charon ferried the shades 
 in his small two-oared boat ; or it was the Western 
 Ocean in which lay the Islands of the Blest. 
 Charon's boat is one of those cloud-ships which 
 were often seen by the Aryans floating upon the 
 upper sea; and he himself, the "glittering eyed"* 
 mariner, used to ply of old across those dark and 
 stormy waters. He was one of the primitive storm- 
 gods, and in modern Greece he is still to be seen 
 marching in clouds and darkness over the mountains 
 with his ghostly train.-f- 
 
 The Northern nations also believed that their 
 dead crossed the water in boats and ships, and so 
 far were they from expecting the passage to be 
 always effected over a bridge, that in Scandinavia 
 
 * This is the meaning of his name. Charon and charopos are 
 epithets applied to the eyes of the lion, the serpent, and the lightning 
 goddess Athene. 
 
 t Firmenich, TpayovSia Pai/iai/ca, p. 61 ; Schwartz, p. 126. 
 
118 THE DEAD SHIPPED. 
 
 bodies were buried in ships* This was manifestly 
 done with the intention that the dead should have 
 means at hand to carry them over whatever water 
 they might come to on their journey. The Norse 
 story of the death of Baldr tells how the -^ir 
 raised his funeral pile on board a ship, laid his 
 body upon it, and committed the blazing vessel to 
 the waves. The corpse of the deified hero Scild 
 was placed in a ship which " was wafted away by 
 the sea, no one knows whither." Sigmundr carried 
 the body of his beloved son Sinfibtli to the sea- 
 shore, where a man with a small boat offered it a 
 passage. Sigmundr laid the body in the boat, 
 which had then its fuU lading ; the unknown boat- 
 man pushed off from the shore, and floated away 
 with the corpse. Frotho's law specified how many 
 bodies of warriors — from one to ten according to 
 the rank of the deceased- — should be burned in 
 one ship. A Swedish popular legend tells of a 
 golden ship lying undergTOund in Runemad, on 
 board of which Odin conveyed the slain in BravaUa 
 to Valhalla. In the old French romance of Lancelot 
 du Lac the demoiselle d'Escalot (Tenn3'son's Lady 
 
 * D.M. 790, n. Among the Garrows of Bengal " The dead are 
 kept for four days ; burnt on a, pile of wood in a dingy or small boat, 
 placed on the top of the pile,'" &c.— Coleman, p. 319. 
 
THE DEAD SHIPPED. 119 
 
 of Shalott) gives these directions for the disposal of 
 her body after death : " le pria que son corps flit 
 mis en une nef, richement eqwippde, que Von lais- 
 seroit aller au gr4 du vent sans conduite." Did 
 the behef prevail, says Grimm, that the body, 
 abandoned to the sacred sea and to the winds, 
 would anive by itself at the land of death to which 
 no human hand could guide it ? * 
 
 There is a legend of a Herr von Falkenberg who 
 is condemned to beat about the ocean until the day 
 of judgment, on board a ship without hehn or steers- 
 man, playing at dice for his soul with the devU."f 
 " Seamen traversing the German Ocean often meet 
 with the infernal vessel." It was probably no 
 uncommon occurrence in early times for seafarers 
 to fall in with ships abandoned to the winds and 
 waves, with corpses on board, and out of such 
 encounters may have grown this legend of Falken- 
 berg, that of the Flying Dutchman, and others of 
 the same kind. 
 
 Whilst the preceding instances relate to the 
 shipment of dead or living bodies, that of disem- 
 bodied souls is the subject of other legends. A 
 drowsy boatman is roused up one stormy night by 
 
 * D.M. 790. 
 
 t Wolf, Niederlandiaclie Sagen. No. 130. 
 
120 GHOSTS FERRIED OVER. 
 
 the figure of a monk who puts a fare into his hand 
 and asks to be ferried over the river. At first six 
 monks step into the boat, but no sooner is it afloat 
 than a crowd of others, black and white, suddenly 
 fin it, and scarcely leave any room for the boatman. 
 He rows across with difficulty, the passengers step 
 ashore, and the boat is driven back by a stiff gale to 
 its berth on the other side, where more passengers 
 are waiting for it. As they enter, the foremost of 
 them puts the fare into the ferryman's hand with his 
 ice-cold fingers. The return trip is made in the 
 same boisterous manner. A similar story is told, 
 but with less detail, of monks crossing the Rhine 
 by night at Spires.* It appears that in former 
 times the Rhine, the political boundary of Germany, 
 was also regarded as the boundaiy between the 
 upper and the lower world, and that " to go to the 
 Rhine" and "to die" were mutually equivalent 
 expressions.f 
 
 The Greeks used to put a small piece of money, 
 an obolus, into the mouth of the dead, wherewith 
 the ghost might pay its fare to the Stygian feiTy- 
 man. The very same practice prevailed generally 
 in Germany, and is still continued in Altmark and 
 Havelland. The pretext now assigned for it is 
 
 • D.M. 791. t Kuhn, Westf. i. 129. 
 
THE ISLAND OF THE DEAD. 121 
 
 tliat it may prevent the corpse from returning as a 
 Nachzehrer — a kind of vampire peculiar to Germany. 
 But this, says Grimm, is a spurious motive devised 
 in later times. The coin placed under the dead 
 man's tongue was originally nothing else than the 
 naulus, or ferryman's fee.* 
 
 The historian of the Gothic war f relates a legend 
 of the island of Brittia, the substance of which is 
 given as follows by Sir Walter Scott in his " Count 
 Eobert of Paris " (I. 5) : — " I have read," says 
 Agelastes, "in that brilliant mirror which reflects 
 the times of our fathers, the volumes of the learned 
 Procopius, that beyond Gaul, and nearly opposite to 
 it, but separated by an arm of the sea, lies a ghastly 
 region, on which clouds and tempests for ever rest, 
 and which is known to its continental neighbours 
 as the abode to which departed spirits are sent 
 after this life. On one side of the strait dwell a few 
 fishermen, men possessed of a strange character, and 
 enjoying singular privileges in consideration of their 
 being the living ferrymen who, performing the office 
 of the heathen Charon, carry the spirits of the 
 departed to the island which is their residence after 
 death. At the dead of the night these fishermen 
 
 * D.M. 791 ; Schwartz, p. 273. 
 t Procopius, De Bello Goth. iv. 20. 
 
122 BEITTIA. 
 
 are, in rotation, summoned to perform the duty by 
 which they seem to hold permission to reside on this 
 strange coast. A knock is heard at the door of his 
 cottage who holds the turn of this singular office, 
 sounded by no mortal hand ; a whispering, as of a 
 decaying breez», summons the ferryman to his duty. 
 He hastens to his bark on the sea-shore, and has no 
 sooner launched it than he perceives its hull sink 
 sensibly in the water, so as to express the weight of 
 the dead with whom it is filled. No form is seen ; 
 and though voices are heard, yet the accents are 
 undistinguishable, as of one who speaks in his sleep." 
 Brittia, according to Procopius, lay not further 
 than 200 stadia from the coast, between Britannia 
 and Thu-le (the Scandinavian peninsula), opposite 
 the mouth of the Rhine, and was inhabited by the 
 Angili, the Frissones, and the Brittones. By 
 Britannia he means the western portion of Gaul, 
 one end of which is now called Bretagne, but which 
 extended in the sixth century over what was after- 
 wards Noi-mandy and Frisian Flanders to the mouths 
 of the Scheldt and the Rhine. His Brittia is 
 generally believed to have been Great Britain, but 
 this has been made matter of controversy. It is 
 enough for our pui-pose that popular opinion in 
 Germany and in Bretagne has settled the question 
 
ENGLAND A LAND OF THE DEAD. 123 
 
 affirmatively. In the former country it was of old 
 an established belief that Britain was the island of 
 souls, and such to this day it is still held to be under 
 its new name of England. " How the bells are ring- 
 ing in England ! " " How my children are crying in 
 England ! " "I hear my mother in England calling 
 the pigs ! " are exclamations usually uttered by the 
 amorous nightmare, a being of the under world, 
 when she wants an excuse for hastily quitting her 
 German lover.* 
 
 According to Villemarqud,"f" the place from which 
 the boat used to depart with its ghostly freight was 
 near Eaz, at the furthest point of the Armorican 
 coast, where there is a bay called the Bay of Souls 
 (bale des ames, bo^ ann anavo). It is said to be 
 customary to this day in the parish of Plouguel, on 
 the river Treguier in Bretagne, for corpses to be 
 conveyed to the churchyard by boat, over a narrow 
 arm of the sea, called passage cle I'enfer, instead of 
 taking them by the shorter land route. Moreover, 
 it is a popular belief throughout all Armorica, that 
 the dead betake themselves at the moment of their 
 departure to the parish priest of Braspar, whose dog 
 escorts them to Great Britain. The wheels of the 
 cart, which is overloaded with souls, are heard 
 
 * Kuhn, Westf. i. 54. t Barzas briez. i. 136. 
 
124 HOLD A OR BERTHA. 
 
 creaking in the air ; it is covered with a white 
 cloth, and is called carr an ancou, carrikel an 
 ancou, i.e., soul car. These, says Grimm, are merely 
 popular variations of the old legend. The Christian 
 inhabitants of Bretagne were no longer allowed to 
 ship the bodies of their dead over to the island, so 
 they conveyed them by water at least to the church- 
 yard ; and now their tradition runs that, instead of 
 on shipboard, the passage is made in a cart through 
 the air, as in the case of the mesnie furieuse, or wild 
 host. 
 
 The priest of Braspar's dog, that accompanies 
 them on their journey, manifestly belongs to the 
 breed of the Sarameyas (p. 110). 
 
 Niflheimr (p. 105) is a creation of the Norse 
 mythology, and Hel or Hela, its mistress, is less 
 generally known in Germany as the goddess of 
 death than is Holda or Bertha, with whom we are 
 already acquainted as the goddess of birth. In the 
 district of Linz, in Austria, a belated labourer or 
 workman is often met at the junction of cross-roads 
 by Bertha, who offers him a black cloth. If he takes 
 it he dies within the same year ; but if he cries out 
 
 Dame Berth, dame Berth, 
 Throw the cloth upon the earth, 
 
 the goddess will send him luck and plenty. The 
 
BERTHA AND HER ELVES. 125 
 
 black cloth is the black cloud which portends death 
 to somebody within the house over which it passes.* 
 When the goddess throws it down' — -that is to say, 
 when she lets it fall as rain upon the earth — it 
 becomes changed from a fatal presage into a source 
 of fruitfulness and prosperity. 
 
 The primeval belief that the soul returns after 
 death to the community of the elves out of which 
 it came, is expressed in the clearest manner in 
 other legends of Bertha. She has a very numerous 
 retinue, consisting of the souls of stiU-born chil- 
 dren, or, as Christian tradition expresses the same 
 belief, of children that died unbaptized. They act 
 in her service as elementary spirits, watering the 
 fields whilst she herself tills them with her plough 
 which she works underground.! 
 
 A young mother, whose only child had died, wept 
 beyond measure over her loss, and would not be 
 comforted. Every night she went to the little 
 grave, and cried and sobbed over it, till on the night 
 
 * Mannhardt, p. 290. 
 
 + D.M. p. 253. Bertha's elves are called Heimehen, a name which 
 in Grimm's opinion they can hardly have received on account of any 
 resemblance they bear to chirping crickets, which are also called heim- 
 chen ; nor can it be derived from lieim (heme), for these elves are not 
 household spirits. He thinks that the proper orthography is heinchen, 
 and that the name is related to that of Friend Hein, i. e., death, and 
 the Lower Saxon word heinenkXesi, i. c, death-cloth, shroud. 
 
126 BERTHA AND HER ELVES. 
 
 before Epiphany she saw Bertha pass not far from 
 her, followed by her troop of children. The last of 
 all these was one whose little shroud was all wet, 
 and who seemed exhausted by the weight of a 
 pitcher of water it carried. It tried in vain to cross 
 a -fence over which Bertha and the rest had passed ; 
 but the mother, instantly recognizing her child, 
 rushed to it and lifted it over. " how warm are 
 mother's arms," said the little one ; " but don't cry 
 so much, mother, for I must gather up every tear in 
 my pitcher. You have made it too full and heavy 
 already. See how it has run over and wet all my 
 shift." The mother cried her fill once more, and 
 then dried her tears.* 
 
 It is a very ancient maxim that it is not good to 
 weep for the dead. According to the belief of the 
 Zend branch of the Aryans, all the tears that were 
 shed for the depai-ted flowed into the great river 
 which the soul had to cross before it could reach the 
 Tchinevar Gate (= Tchinevat bridge). The following 
 passage is found in a Hindu dirge : " The souls of 
 the dead do not like to taste the tears let fall by 
 their kindred ; weep not therefore.""!" Every tear, 
 
 * Mannhardt, p. 290. 
 
 t Solilosser, Universal Hist. Uebersiclit der Gescli. d. alt. Welt, I.i 
 45. 
 
TEARS FOE THE DEAD. 127 
 
 according to the Edda, falls as blood upon the ice-cold 
 bosom of the dead. About the year 1154, as we 
 learn from the contemporary writer, Helmold, the 
 banished Bishop Vicelin appeared in a dream to a 
 maiden, and said, " Tell our brother Eppo, who has 
 wept many days for me, that he must cease to weep ; 
 for see, I carry his tears in my clothes." And he 
 showed her his garment, which was all wet with 
 tears. A lover's ghost says to his mistress in an old 
 Swedish ballad, 
 
 For liTar och en tar som du faller pa jord 
 Min kista hon blifver sa full utaf blod.* 
 
 Every time thou weepest, for each tear in that flood 
 The coffin I am laid in is filled with so much blood. 
 
 Sir Walter Scott says in a note to "Kedgauntlet," 
 letter xi., " The behef was general throughout Scot- 
 land, that the excessive lamentation over the loss of 
 friends disturbed the repose of the dead, and broke 
 even the rest of the grave." It exists also in 
 Ireland, f 
 
 In a Servian popular song;]; it is said that a sister 
 wept incessantly over her brother's grave, but her 
 
 * Sorgens magt (Geijer et Afzelius, I., 31). 
 
 t Crokei^s "Fairy Legends of the South of Ireland." 
 
 :J TalTJ L, 274, 1st edit. 
 
128 THE DEAD AND THE UNBORN. 
 
 tears at last became intolerable to the deceased 
 because he was detained on earth by her excessive 
 gi'ief, and suffered great torment. He cursed her, 
 therefore, and in consequence of his malediction she 
 was changed into a cuckoo, so that she might always 
 lament for herself 
 
 Holda and Bertha, or Perchta as she is called in 
 Southern Germany, are identical with Freyja ; and in 
 Aargau another, but nameless, representative of the 
 same supreme goddess is known as a kind and 
 bounteous lady with golden hair, who has her 
 dwelling in the interior of the Schlossberg. A 
 vaulted passage, through whose roof the stars are 
 seen, leads into a hall of apparently boundless 
 extent, glittering with thousands of lights, where 
 many old men sit fast asleep before an iron 
 trough. Before an oaken trough, in another vault 
 weU lighted with candles, sit thousands of sleeping 
 youths and maidens. And in a third hall, filled with 
 a milky, palpable light, there is an oaken trough 
 containing a countless multitude of sleeping children. 
 These are the unborn. The white lady of the man- 
 sion feeds them with anemones and snowdrops, 
 flowers of wondrous virtue, the stalks of which placed 
 in the mouth, supply for many a day the place of 
 every other kind of food. If there are parents that 
 
OLD PEOPLE GROUND YOUNG. 129 
 
 want a child, the white lady opens the trough with a 
 golden key, takes out a babe and gives it to the 
 midwife. Should it die unbaptised, it comes back to 
 the mountain, and is replaced in the same trough- 
 But if several weeks elapse before its death, or if the 
 white lady takes it back because mankind have not 
 been worthy of it, then it is placed in another trough 
 nearer the heai-t of the mountain, and fed there with 
 honey, which the bees of the village deposit every 
 time they swarm in the oaks of the Schlossberg. 
 
 In Lower Saxony another form of Freyja is called 
 Waldminchen, i. e., Woodnymph. Two hares hold 
 up the train of her robe, and two others carry lights 
 before her. Within her grotto there is a meadow 
 on which infant souls disport themselves, pluck 
 flowers, and weave garlands ; and beyond it there is 
 a mill, in which old men and women are ground 
 young, and naughty children are ground into good 
 ones. In England we have often heard of such a 
 mill, but no one seems to know where it is to be 
 found. It is only another form of Frodi's mill (p. 71). 
 
 Christian and pagan traditions are curiously 
 mingled in the account which the Tyi-olese give 
 of Perchta. They say that she is Claudia Procula, 
 the wife of Pontius Pilate, who sent this message to 
 her husband, " Have nothing to do with that just 
 
130 DRAGOLE-TAIL. 
 
 man." She was the first heathen who became a 
 Christian after the Saviour's death, and therefore 
 she was chosen to be the guardian angel of the souls 
 of children that die unbaptised.* 
 
 A Tyrolese peasant, who was returning home at 
 a late hour on one of the "twelve nights,'' saw Perchta 
 pass by with her unchristened babes. All the little 
 ones had short white smocks, but that of the last 
 one was too long, and the child was continually 
 treading upon it and tripping. "Come hei-e. 
 Draggle-tail," said the peasant, "and I'U tie up 
 your little skiit." The child came to him, and the 
 man having taken off his garter and done as he had 
 promised, " Oh, thank you," said the wee thing ; 
 " now I have got a name ;" and it vanished, no doubt 
 believing itself as good as baptised.-f* 
 
 A similar story of the ghost of an " unchristened 
 wean," the scene of which is laid at Whittinghame, 
 in Scotland, is recorded by Mr. Robert Chambers. 
 "An unnatural mother having murdered her child 
 at a large tree not far from the village, the ghost of 
 the deceased was afterwards seen, on dark nights, 
 running in a distracted manner between the said 
 tree and the churchyard, and was occasionally heard 
 crying. The villagers believed that it was obliged 
 
 • Manntardt, p. 291. + Ibid. 
 
SH0RT-H00GER8 0' WHITTINQHAME. 131 
 
 thus to take the air, and bewail itself, on account of 
 wanting a name — no anonymous person, it seems, 
 being able to got a proper footing in the other 
 world. Nobody durst speak to the unhappy little 
 spirit, from a superstitious dread of dying imme- 
 diately after ; and to all appearance the village of 
 Whittinghame was destined to be haunted till the 
 end of time for want of an exorcist. At length it 
 fortunately happened that a drunkard, one night on 
 reeling home, encountered the spirit, and being fear- 
 less in the strength of John Barleycorn, did not 
 hesitate to address it in the same famUiar style as if 
 it had been one of his own flesh-and-blood fellow- 
 topers. ' How's a' wi' ye this morning, Short- 
 Hoggers ? ' cried the courageous villager ; when the 
 ghost immediately ran away, joyfully exclaiming — 
 
 Oh, weel's me noo, I've gotten a name ; 
 They oa' me Short-Hoggers o' Whittinghame ! 
 
 And since that time it has never been either seen or 
 heard of The name that the drunkard applied to it 
 denotes that the ghost wore short stockings without 
 feet — a probable supposition, considering the long 
 series of years during which it had walked." * 
 
 * Robert Chambers, "Pop. Rhymes," p. 115. "My informant," 
 says Mr. Chambers, ' ' received this story, with the rhyme, from the 
 lips of an old woman of Whittinghame, who had seen the ghost." 
 
 £ 2 
 
132 PERCHTA AND THE FERRYMAN. 
 
 The passage of souls across the sky-water is 
 localised in sundry popular myths concerning 
 Perchta and her little ones. The goddess dwelt of 
 old in the valley of the Saal, but the people of the 
 place and she fell out, and she resolved to quit the 
 neighbourhood. On Perchta's eve the services of 
 the ferryman of Altar were bespoken for that night, 
 and when he came to the water-side he saw there a 
 great stately lady and a throng of weeping children 
 ready to be ferried over. The lady stepped on 
 board, and the children dragged a plough and lots 
 of other implements into the boat, loudly bewailing 
 their departure from that pleasant land. When 
 Perchta landed upon the opposite bank of the river 
 she ordered the ferryman to go back for the rest of 
 her party, and the man could not help obeying, 
 little as he liked the job. When he returned, 
 Perchta pointed to some chips she had cut from the 
 plough, and told him to take them for his pains. 
 He put three of them sulkily in his pocket, threw 
 them on the window-siU when he got home, and 
 went to bed in no very good humour. In the 
 morning his eyes were gladdened with the sight of 
 three bright gold pieces that lay where he had 
 thrown the chips.* 
 
 * E. M. p. 253. 
 
DWASFS CHOSS A FERBT. 133 
 
 Many similar tales are told of the German Zwergs 
 or dwarfs; who are the same race of little people as 
 the elves and fairies that live in the hearts of green 
 hills and mounds in Great Britain and Ireland. 
 Often does it happen that a whole colony of these 
 Zwergs effects an exodus from a German district, 
 because the people have given them some offence, or 
 " have become too knowing for them ;" and on these 
 occasions there is always a river to be crossed. 
 
 " Many years ago a little underground man came 
 to the ferryman at Gross-Wieden on the Weser, and 
 asked him if he would ply all night long for good 
 pay. Of course the ferryman did not say no ; so 
 the little man came again at dusk, stepped on board, 
 and bade him push off. The ferryman did so, and 
 was greatly astonished at seeing that the boat lay as 
 deep in the water as if it had a full freight. Still 
 more astonished was he, after they had reached the 
 other side, when the little man, still remaining in 
 the boatj told him to row back again ; and so they 
 phed backwards and forwards continually until 
 morning. At last the passenger stepped ashore, 
 and said to the ferryman, ' You would like to know 
 now who it is you carried over.' The feiTyman said 
 he would. ' Then look over my right shoulder,' 
 said the other. The man did so, and beheld 
 
134 FAIEY MONET. 
 
 thousands upon thousands of underground people, 
 all of whom he had ferried over in the course of 
 the night. The little man then went away, after 
 telling him that the passage-money lay ready for 
 him in the boat ; but when the ferryman went to 
 take up his hard-earned money, what did he find 
 lying there but a great heap of horse-dung ! 
 'Ugh!' said he; 'fine pay, truly;' and catching 
 up his baling-pan he pitched it all into the Weser ; 
 only a lump of it fell into his boot. After that, 
 when he went home, ' Well,' said his wife, ' you 
 have earned something tidy, I suppose ; why, you 
 have been at work the whole night.' He was so 
 cross that he hardly answered her ; but when he 
 drew off his big boot, chink ! chink ! it went all at 
 once, and out tumbled the good solid pistoles one 
 after the other. Away he ran to the Weser to 
 pick up the rest of the dung, but dung it remained 
 just as it was before. However, he had got enough 
 already, even as it was, and he became a rich man, 
 as his descendants are to this day."* 
 
 Sometimes the migrating Zwergs cross the river 
 by bridge instead of boat. When they took their 
 departure from the Harz it was agreed upon before- 
 hand that they should go over a narrow bridge at 
 
 , * Kuhn u. Schwartz, Ndd. p. 242. 
 
DWARFS AND PITEI8. 135 
 
 Neuhof, where each of them was to drop his toll 
 into a vessel placed for that purpose, but no human 
 inhabitant of the land was to be present. Some 
 inquisitive persons, however, stationed themselves 
 under the bridge, and heard the light tramp of their 
 feet for hours, as if a flock of sheep were passing 
 over* Grimm has compared this with the words 
 of the keeper of the Gjallar bridge to Hermodr, 
 when he went down to Niflheimr to see if he could 
 bring back Baldr from the dead : " My bridge 
 sounds more under you alone than under five troops 
 of dead men that rode over it yesterday." In the 
 passage over the river by bridge or feriy Grimm 
 sees a very clear proof of the relationship between 
 this class of elves and the souls of men. Other facts 
 confirm the same view. Some of the many names 
 by which the Zwergs are known in North Germany 
 mean the " ancients " or the " ancestors,'' t and 
 mark the analogy between the beings so designated 
 and the Hindu Pitris or Fathers (p. 19); whilst other 
 names — Holden {%. e., good, kind) in Germany ; good 
 people, good neighbours, in Ireland and Scotland — 
 
 * D. M. p. 794. 
 
 t Uellerken, iilleken, olken, aulken, alken, 61ken. Kuhn und 
 Schwartz, Ndd. p. 485. In East Friesland and Westphalia, countries 
 in which these names are current, old burial moands are called Aulken- 
 graben, and the urns found in them axe called dlken-pott. 
 
136 ELVES AND MANES. 
 
 connect the same elves with the Manes of the 
 Romans.* 
 
 "We shall meet again with the spirits of the dead 
 when we come to speak of the Wild Hunt and the 
 Furious Host. 
 
 * Kuhn, Ndd. p. 485. The meaning of the obsolete adjective manis 
 (of which manes is the plural, as holden is of hold) is seen in its oppo- 
 site immanis. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE DEINK OF THE OOBS — THE UNITEEaB A TEEE — THE ASH — THE 
 BIRTH OJ MAN PEOM TEEES — CREEPING IHEOHGH HOLES IN TREKS, 
 EOCKS, &C. 
 
 The primeval drink of imnaortality is called soma 
 by the Hindus and haoma by the Zend branch of the 
 Aryans. These names are identical ; the plants 
 which yield the juices so called are different, but 
 resemble each other in both having knotty stems. 
 The haoma plant grows like the vine, but its leaves 
 are like those of the jessamine ; the Indian soma 
 is now extracted from the Asclepias acida. The 
 Iranians, or West Aryans, describe two kinds of 
 haoma, the white and the yellow. The former is 
 a fabulous plant, believed to be the same as the 
 gaokerena of the Zendavesta; the latter, which is 
 used in religious rites, and is eztolled for its yellow 
 colour, as soma is in India, grows on mountains, and 
 was known to Plutarch. The Parsees of India send 
 one of their priests from time to time to Kirman to 
 procure supplies of the plant for sacred uses. The 
 
138 THE IRANIAN WORLD-TREE. 
 
 fabulous white haoma, or gaokerena, grows in 
 heaven, near another tree called the "impassive" 
 or "inviolable," which bears the seeds of every kind 
 of vegetable life. Both grow in the Vouru Kasha 
 lake, in which ten fish keep incessant watch upon a 
 hzard,* sent by the evil power Agramainyus (Ahri- 
 man) for the destraction of the haoma. The 
 "inviolable" tree is called also the eagle's, or, 
 according to some, the owl's tree. A bird of one 
 kind or the other, but most probably an eagle, sits 
 on its top. When he rises from it, a thousand 
 branches shoot forth ; when he perches again, he 
 breaks a thousand branches and makes their seed 
 fall. Another bird, that is constantly beside him, 
 picks them up, and carries them to where Tistar 
 draws water, which he then rains down upon the 
 earth with the seeds it contains. The two trees — 
 the eagle's and the white haoma — appear to have 
 been originally one. The hostile lizard is the 
 serpent or dragon of India, already known to us as 
 the ravisher of the Apas, and the harvest-spoiler. 
 
 Besides the earthly soma the Hindus recognise a 
 heavenly soma or amrita (ambrosia) that drops from 
 
 * Lest the reader should think disparagingly of the powers of 
 Ahriman's lizard, we may remind him that "alligator" is a corruption 
 of the Spanish d lagarto, the lizard. 
 
HINDOO AND NOESE WORLD-TREES. 139 
 
 the imperishable asvattha Qr peepul (Ficus religiosa), 
 out of which the immortals shaped the heavens 
 and the eai-th (p. 74). Beneath this mighty tree, 
 which spreads its branches over the third heaven, 
 dwell Yama and the Pitris, and quaff the drink of 
 immortality with the gods. At its foot grow plants 
 of all healing virtue, incorporations of the soma. 
 Two birds sit on its top, one of them eating figs, 
 whilst the other looks on without eating, and others 
 again press out the soma juice from its branches. 
 These details are from the Vedas ; later writings 
 have preserved the ancient tradition that the soma- 
 dropping tree bears fruit and seed of every kind in 
 the world. They call the tree Ilpa, and say it 
 grows in Brahma's world, surrounded by lake Ara, 
 beyond the ageless stream, which renews the youth 
 of those who but behold it, or at least of those who 
 bathe in it (p. 33). 
 
 The parallelism between the Indian and the 
 Iranian world-tree on the one hand, and the Ash 
 Yggdrasil on the other, is very striking. The latter 
 extends its branches over the whole world, and they 
 reach higher than heaven ; beneath them the gods 
 have their chief and holiest abode. The tree has 
 three roots, one striking upwards to heaven, one 
 towards the home of the frost giants, and one 
 
140 YGGDBASIL. 
 
 towards the under-world. From beneath each root 
 springs a sacred fountain, the Urdhrbrunm-, the 
 Mimirbrunnr, and the Hvergelmir. The first has 
 its name from Urdhr, the Norn or Fate, and beside 
 it the gods and the Noms had their judgment-seat. 
 Every morning the Noms draw water from their 
 fountain and pour it on the btanches of the ash ; it 
 falls from them into the valleys as honey-dew, and 
 the bees feed upon it. The precious water in the 
 second fountain — Mimir's — is so charged with wisdom 
 and understanding, that only for one draught of it 
 Odin pledged his eye, and laid it as a pawn in the 
 weU. An eagle sits on the tree, and a hawk between 
 the eagle's eyes. Four stags roam about the forest- 
 like ash. Through the branches and the roots creep 
 many serpents, chief among which is Nidhoggr. 
 That deadly serpent or dragon lies in Hvergelmir, 
 the infernal fountain, and gnaws at the roots ; whilst 
 the squirrel Ratatoskr runs up and down, and tries 
 to stir up strife between Nidhoggr and the eagle. 
 The water of Mimir's well is mead ; that of the Urd- 
 hrbrunnr falls as honey-dew from the ash ; honey is 
 the chief ingredient in mead, and a main one in 
 soma. Soma, mead, and honey are mythically one ; 
 and each and all of them are identical with the 
 precious rain that drops from the cloud-tree, and 
 
THE WORLD-TREE OF THE GREEKS. 141 
 
 fills the fountains or lakes* in which its roots are 
 dipped. 
 
 Yggdrasil, this cloud-tree of the Norseman, was 
 an ash (Norse, ashr), the tree out of which the gods 
 formed the first man,-f- who was thence called Askr. 
 The ash was also among the Greeks an image of the 
 clouds, and the mother of men. 
 
 Phoroneus (p. 83), in whom in the Peloponnesian 
 legend recognised the fire-bringer and the first man, 
 was the son of the river-god Inachos and the nymph 
 Melia, i. e., the ash. There were many Grecian 
 nymphs of this name, and all of them were daughters 
 either of Oceanos or of Poseidon, sea-gods whose 
 domain was originally the cloud-sea, and whose 
 daughters, one and all, were originally cloud-god^ 
 desses. One of these Melian nymphs was carried off 
 by the summer-god Apollo, who killed her brother 
 Kaanthos with his arrows, when the latter, failing 
 to recover his sister, set fire to the sacred grove of 
 the ravisher. The tomb of Kaanthos was to be seen 
 near the fountain of Ismenios, sacred to Ares, who 
 placed a dragon there to keep guard over it. Now, 
 
 * The fountain of the Norns is called a late in the Volnspa ; on the 
 other hand, the water in which the white haoma grows is sometimes 
 called the well Ardvisura. 
 
 t D. M. p. 527. 
 
142 THE MELIAN NYMPHS. 
 
 Kaanthos, or, with the digamma restored, Kavan- 
 thos, answers exactly to the Sanscrit Kavandha or 
 Kabandha, which means a big-belHed cask, a cloud 
 of that form, or a demon dwelling in such a cloud 
 (p. 36). In the Greek legend this demon flings fire 
 (lightning) at his sister's ravisher, who kills him as 
 Indra killed Kabandha. The fountain sacred to 
 Ares, a god of winter and the under-world, and the 
 dragon that guards it, are Hvergelmir, the infernal 
 fountain at the foot of Yggdrasil, with its inmate, 
 the dragon Nidhoggr ; and, to complete the parallel, 
 we have but to replace the Ismenian fountain at the 
 foot of the ash (Melia), where doubtless it lay origi- 
 nally, before the myth had been localised as a legen- 
 dary tale. A third Melia is the mother of Amykos 
 by Poseidon Genethlios, whose surname marks him 
 emphatically as the god at whose disposal is the 
 moisture that is the cause of all fruitfulness and 
 nourishment. His connection therefore with Melia 
 distinctly represents the Aryan tree, in which are 
 comprised the seeds of all vegetation. A fourth 
 MeHa is the daughter of Poseidon and wife of 
 Danaos, a husband and a father that show what 
 was her own nature, for the watering of the arid 
 Argos was ascribed, as a most remarkable feat, to 
 Danaos and his daughters. Lastly, there is a Melia 
 
PERSONIFICATIONS OF THE WORLD-TREE. 143 
 
 who bears to Silenos a son Pholos, who is one of the 
 Centaurs, a race of cloud-demons (p. 35). 
 
 Another indication of the original cloud-nature of 
 these Melian or ash nymphs is seen in the fact that 
 the Dodon^ean legends put in place of them, as 
 nurses of Zeus, the Hyades, the nymphs of the con- 
 stellation that rises at the rainy and stormy season 
 of the year. Furthermore, there is a fragment of 
 the poetess Moiro, preserved by Athenseus, which 
 describes the infant Zeus as being fed in Crete with 
 nectar brought by the eagle ; so that whilst the 
 Meliai or nymphs of the ash appear as personifica- 
 tions of an older Grecian world-tree, this story of 
 the eagle shows that the birds also that lodged in 
 the tree were once known to the Greeks. 
 
 Phoroneus was not the only man known in Greek 
 story who was born of the ash. According to Hesiod, 
 Jove made the third or brazen race out of ash- 
 trees ;* but the same idea must have been enter- 
 tained in a still more comprehensive form, for 
 another authority "f" states that the first race of men 
 sprang from the Melian nymphs ; and Hesychius 
 says in direct terms, " The fruit of the ash : the race 
 of men." 
 
 We have not yet exhausted the list of analogies 
 
 * "Works and Days," 144. + Schol. on Hesiod Theog. 187. , 
 
144 HONEY THE FIB8T FOOD OF BABES. 
 
 between Yggdrasil and the Grecian ash, for the 
 latter was, Uke the former, a honey-dropping tree. 
 Its name implies no less, for melia, ash, and meli, 
 melit, honey, have the same root, mel, which is found 
 in many other words with the sense of sweet, pleas- 
 ing, delightful. There was. a positive, as weU as a 
 mythic, reason why the Greeks should give the ash 
 a name signifying sweetness, because the Fraxinus 
 ornus, a species of ash indigenous in the south of 
 Europe, yields manna from its slit bark. They may 
 also have conceived that honey dropped upon the 
 earth as dew from the heavenly ash, for Theophrastus 
 mentions a kind of honey which fell in that form 
 from the air, and which was therefore called aeromeli. 
 We now perceive the reason why the honey-giving 
 nymphs of the ash and the honey-giving bees 
 (melissai) were so assimilated in the minds of the 
 Greeks, that the nurses of the infant Zeus (Meliai) 
 were called by them indifferently Meliai and Melissai. 
 The goat Amaltheia gave him her milk, and the 
 nymphs, his nurses, fed him with their golden 
 produce. Among the ancient Germans that sacred 
 food was the first that was put to the lips of the 
 newborn babe.* So it was also among the Hindus, 
 as appears from a passage in one of their sacred 
 
 * D. M. 659. 
 
ASH SAP IN THE HIGHLANDS. 145 
 
 books : — "The father puts his mouth to the right ear 
 of the newborn babe, and murmurs three times, 
 ' Speech ! speech ! ' Then he gives it a name, ' Thou 
 art Veda ;' that is its secret name. Then he mixes 
 clotted milk, honey, and butter, and feeds the babe 
 with it out of pure gold." * The superstitious 
 reverence in which bees are everywhere held makes 
 it probable that a similar practice prevailed among 
 all Indo-European races. It is found in a very 
 surprising shape among one Celtic people : — 
 
 " Lightfoot says that in the Highlands of Scot- 
 land, at the birth of an infant, the nurse takes a 
 green stick of ash, one end of which she puts into 
 the fire, and while it is burning, receives in a spoon 
 the sap that oozes from the other, which she admi- 
 nisters to the child as its first food." ■f 
 
 Amazing toughness of popular tradition ! Some 
 thousands of years ago the ancestors of this High- 
 land nurse had known the Fraxinus ornus in Arya, 
 or on their long journey thence through Persia, Asia 
 Minor, and the South of Europe, and they had given 
 its honey-like juice, as divine food, to their children ; 
 and now their descendant, imitating their practice in 
 
 * 9*t*P- brahm. Weber, 1108, quoted by Kuhn. 
 f "Sylvan Sketches," by the author of "The Flora Domestica." 
 London : 1825. p. 24. 
 
 L 
 
146 VIRTUES OF' ASH SAP. 
 
 the cold North, but totally ignorant of its true 
 meaning, puts the nauseous sap of her native ash 
 into the mouth of her hapless charge, because her 
 mother and her grandmother, and her grandmother's 
 grandmother had done the same thing before her. 
 
 " The reason," we are told by a modem native 
 authority, "for giving ash-sap to newborn children 
 in the Highlands of Scotland, is, first, because it acts 
 as a powerful astringent ; * and, secondly, because 
 the ash, in common with the rowan, is supposed to 
 possess the property of resisting the attacks of 
 witches, fairies, and other imps of darkness. With- 
 out some precaution of this kind they would change 
 the child, or possibly steal it away altogether. The 
 herd boys in the district of Buchan, in Aberdeen- 
 shire, always prefer a herding stick of ash to any 
 other wood, as in throwing at their cattle it is sure 
 not to strike on a vital part, and so kill or injure the 
 animal as a stick of any other kind of wood might do : 
 
 Rowan, ash, and red thread 
 Keep the devils frae their speed. 
 
 " It is a common practice with the housewives in 
 the same district to tie a piece of red worsted thread 
 
 * This is evidently not the reason why the practice was first adopted, 
 but an excuse, and a Tery bad one, for its continuance. 
 
VIRTUES OF ASH SAP. 147 
 
 round their cows' tails previous to turning them out 
 to grass for the first time in the spring. It secures 
 their cattle, they say, from an evil eye, from being 
 elfshot by fairies," &c.* 
 
 The sap of the ash, tapped on certain days in 
 spring, is drunk in Germany as a remedy for the 
 bites of serpents ; and the Czecks in Bohemia eat 
 honey (of which ash-sap is the equivalent) fasting, 
 on Holy Thursday, thinking that it will protect 
 them throughout the year against the usual effects 
 of such accidents, as well as against poisons in 
 general. They also give their cattle pieces of bread 
 and honey for the same purpose, and throw some 
 before sunrise into the wells and fountains, in order 
 that the water may remain pure and clear, and free 
 from frogs and other vermin. -f- In Cornwall, venom- 
 ous reptiles are never known to rest under the 
 shadow of an ash, and a single blow from an ash 
 stick is instant death to an adder. Struck by a 
 bough of any other tree, the reptile is said to retain 
 marks of life until the sun goes down.:|: 
 
 According to Pliny, a serpent will rather leap into 
 fire than into the shadow of an ash-tree. Wlien it is 
 
 * "Choice Notes,'' p. 24. Red thread is typical of lightning. 
 + Eeinsberg-Diiringsfeld, p. 120. 
 X "Choice Notes," p. 88. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 VIRTUES OF THE ASB. 
 
 touched with an ash rod, it lies as if dead ; and out 
 of a circle drawn round it while it sleeps, with such 
 an instrument, the creature cannot escape.* This 
 inherent virtue of the ash was known also to the 
 Greeks, as appears from a fragment of Meander. 
 A contributor to Wolf's Journal states that the wood 
 of the tree, cut at certain holy seasons, is reputed to 
 be incorruptible and to heal wounds — a property 
 due, no doubt, to the amrita with which it is impreg- 
 nated. Its character as an embodiment of fire, of 
 which we have already had so many evidences, is 
 manifested in a remarkable Swedish legend, quoted 
 by Grimm, -f- which tells that some seafaring people 
 received an ash-tree from a blind giant, with instruc- 
 tions to set it upon the altar of a church he wished 
 to destroy. Instead of doing as he bade them, they 
 placed the ash on the mound over a grave, which 
 instantly burst into bright flames. The gi-ave, it 
 may be presumed, was that of an unholy being of 
 the old pagan times. Plot says in his History of 
 Staffordshire, " The common people believe, that 'tis 
 very dangerous to break a bough from the ash, to 
 this very day." The sacredness of the tree is further 
 
 * So says likewise a piece of Devonshire folklore. ' ' Quarterly Kev." 
 July, 1863, p. 226. 
 + D. M. 907. 
 
TRACES OF A ROMAN WORLD-TREE. 149 
 
 shown by the fact, recently discovered, that courts 
 were held under it at Froidnow in Schweiz, and 
 Buochs in Unterwalden. Grimm has expressed his 
 surprise at nowhere finding any traces of a practice 
 which seemed likely to have been universal among 
 the Germans, since the gods sat in judgment under 
 the ash Yggdrasil. The supposition that the hazel, 
 which stands m. close mythical relationship to the 
 ash, almost entirely supplanted the latter in judi- 
 cial usages, affords a probable explanation of the 
 anomaly. 
 
 There are facts tending strongly to the conclusion, 
 though they may not suffice to place it beyond all 
 question, that a world-wide tree, with its appurte- 
 nances was a conception known to the Romans in 
 early times. All the qualities belonging to a bird 
 connected with such a tree are exhibited, explicitly 
 or by implication, in the history of their Picus ; and 
 the descent of men from trees appears to have been 
 a popular belief in Italy as well as ia Greece. 
 
 Haso nemora indigent Fauni Nymphssque tenebaat 
 Gensque Tirum truuois et duro robore nata. 
 
 &n. viii., 314. 
 
 Tliese -woods were first the seat of sykan powers, 
 Of nymphs and fauns, and savage men, who took 
 Their birth irom trunks of trees and stubborn oak. 
 
 Dryden. 
 
150 WORLD-TREE OF THE ROMANS. 
 
 Quippe aliter tunc orbe novo cceloque reeenti 
 Vivebant homines, qui rupto robore natl, 
 Compositive luto, nullos habuere parentes. 
 
 Juvenal, Sat. vi., 11. 
 
 For when the world was new, the race that broke, 
 Unfathered, from the soil or opening oak. 
 Lived most unlike the men of later times. 
 
 Gififord. 
 
 In another passage Virgil speaks of a sacred tree, 
 the ffisculus, in a manner which Grimm has noticed 
 as strikingly suggestive of Yggdrasil : — 
 
 iEsoulus in primis, quas quantum vortice ad auras 
 ^therias, tantum radice in tartara tendit. 
 
 Georg. ii., 291. 
 
 Jove's own tree. 
 High as his topmost boughs to heaven ascend. 
 So low his roots to hell's dominions tend. 
 
 Dryden. 
 
 Evidently these lines have a mythical import. 
 The aesculus was a species of oak sacred to Jove ; 
 and in Greece the oak, as well as the ash, was 
 accounted a tree from which men had sprung. The 
 disguised hero of the Odyssey is asked to state his 
 pedigree, since he must needs have one, " for," says 
 the interrogator, "belike you are not come of the 
 oak told of in old times, nor of the rock." The 
 "ruminal fig-tree" seems to play a part in the 
 legend of the foundation of Rome like that attri- 
 
SHREW-ASH. 151 
 
 bated to the oak by the Greeks and to the ash by the 
 Germans. Picus also has his share in the legend, 
 for he helped the she-"wolf to nourish the twins ; and 
 though Ovid does not tell us what kind of aliment 
 he gave them, we may venture to surmise that he 
 fed them with the mead which he himseK loved so 
 well, in like manner as the eagle in Crete fed the 
 infant Jove with nectar, the equivalent of mead. 
 
 The mythic characteristics of the ash help to 
 explain some English superstitions, the tme meaning 
 of which appears to have been generally misunder- 
 stood. White says in his " Natural History ■ of 
 Selborne," " At the south comer of the area near 
 the church there stood about twenty years ago a 
 very old grotesque hollow pollard ash, which for ages 
 had been looked on with no small veneration as a 
 shrew-ash. Now a shrew-ash is an ash whose twigs 
 or branches, when gently apphed to the limbs of 
 cattle, will immediately relieve the pains which a 
 beast suffers from the running of a shrew-mouse over 
 the part affected. For it is supposed that a shrew- 
 mouse is of so baneful and deleterious a nature, that 
 wherever it creeps over a beast, be it horse, cow, or 
 sheep, the suffering animal is afflicted with cruel 
 anguish, and threatened with the loss of the use of 
 the limb. Against this accident, to which they were 
 
152 SHEEW-ASH. 
 
 continually liable, our provident forefathers always 
 kept a shrew-ash at hand, which, when once medi- 
 cated, would maintain its vhtue for ever. A shrew- 
 ash was made thus : Into the body a deep hole was 
 bored with an auger, and a poor devoted shrew- 
 mouse was thrust in alive, and plugged in, no doubt 
 with several quaint incantations long since forgotten. 
 As, the ceremonies necessary for such a consecration 
 are no longer understood, all succession is at an end, 
 and no such tree is known to subsist in the manor 
 or hundred. As to that on the area, ' the late vicar 
 stubbed and burned it,' when he was waywarden, 
 regardless of the remonstrances of the bystanders, 
 who interceded in vain for its preservation." 
 
 It is manifest that this practice was founded prin- 
 cipally upon the supposed virtue inherent in the ash 
 of neutralising every kind of venom. It is a tree 
 that wiU tolerate nothing poisonous within its shadow, 
 and wounds are cured with its sap. As to the inser- 
 tion of the shrew-mouse within it, this may very 
 probably have been done in accordance with a medical 
 doctrine of great antiquity^ — the doctrine of sym- 
 pathy. The spear of Achilles healed with one end 
 of its ashen shaft the wound it had made with the 
 other ; it was a common practice, so common as to 
 have given rise to a well-known proverb, to mix 
 
CREEPING THROUGH HOLES IN TREES, <t-c. 153 
 
 some hairs of a dog with the salve, laid on the part 
 he had bitten ; and there have been famous leeches 
 who cm'ed sword wounds by applying their remedies, 
 not to the patient, but to the weapon. " Fairies," 
 says Grose, " sometimes shoot at cattle with arrows 
 headed mth flint stones ; these are often found and 
 are called elfshots. In order to effect the cure of an 
 animal so injured, it is to be touched with one of 
 those elfshots, or to be made drink the water in 
 which one has been dipped." The venom of the 
 shrew-mouse, neutralised by the sap of the ash, 
 would co-operate with it in curing the injured limb 
 to which the twigs were applied. A correspondent 
 sent the following scrap from a newspaper to Notes 
 and Queries, vol. v., p. 581 : — "At Oldham, last 
 week, a woman summoned the owner of a dog that 
 had bitten her. She said she should not have 
 adopted this course had the owner of the animal 
 given her some of its hair, to ensure her against any 
 evil consequences from the bite." 
 
 There stood in the village of Selbome in Gilbert 
 White's time " a row of pollard ashes, which," he 
 says, " by the seams and long circatrices down their 
 sides, manifestly show that in former times they 
 have been cleft asunder. These trees, when young 
 and flexible, were severed and held open by wedges, 
 
154 CHEEPING THROUGH HOLES IN TMEES. 
 
 while raptured children, stripped naked, were 
 pushed through the apertures, under a persuasion 
 that by such a process the poor babies would be 
 cured of their infirmity. As soon as the operation 
 was over, the tree, in the suffering part, was 
 plastered with loam and carefully swathed up. If 
 the part coalesced and soldered together, as usually 
 fell out where the feat was performed with any 
 adroitness at all, the party was cured ; but where 
 the cleft continued to gape, the operation, it was 
 supposed, would prove ineffectual. We have several 
 persons now living in the village, who in their child- 
 hood were supposed to be healed by this super- 
 stitious ceremony, derived down perhaps from our 
 Saxon ancestors, who practised it before their con- 
 version to Christianity." 
 
 This mode of cure has not yet gone quite out of 
 use in England, so far as the ash is concerned,* and 
 it is still a practice much in vogue in the southern 
 counties, when children are suffering from hooping- 
 cough and some other complaints, to make them 
 pass through the loop formed by a bramble which 
 has taken root at both ends. This custom, and that 
 of passing children and cattle through perforated 
 
 * Children are still passed through a split ash for the cure of hernia, 
 in Cornwall. "Choice Notes,'' p. 88. 
 
CEEEPINQ THROUGH HOLES IN TREES. 155 
 
 earth'' or rocks, or through natural or artificial 
 openings in trees, especially the ash and the oak, 
 is common to most European countries. In our own 
 it appears to have been no unusual thing in Saxon 
 times for women who were troubled with crying 
 brats to dig a hole in the ground and make a tunnel 
 through which they dragged the poor little squallers. 
 There was a bushy oak near Wittstock in Altmark, 
 the branches of which had grown together again at 
 some distance from the stem, leaving open spaces 
 between them. Whoever crept through these spaces 
 was freed from his malady whatever it might be, and 
 many crutches lay about, which had been thrown 
 away by visitors to the tree who no longer needed 
 them* Close to the road passing through the forest 
 of SiiUingswald, there was an aged oak with a hole 
 shaped like the eye of a needle in its huge stem. 
 This gave the foresters and charcoal burners a 
 welcome opportunity for " hanselling " strangers who 
 passed that way, that is to say, forcing them to pay 
 a small sum if they did not wish to be dragged 
 through the needle's eye. This custom of hanselling 
 travellers kept its ground after the belief in the 
 healing virtue of the tree had died out. 
 
 " This creeping through oak-cleft, earth or stone," 
 
 * D. M. 1119. 
 
156 CURE-WORKING HOLES. 
 
 says Grimm, " seems a transference of the malady or 
 the bewitchment to the genius of the tree or the 
 earth." But this is not a satisfactory explanation ; 
 for though such a mode of shifting off bodUy disorders 
 from men to trees is well known, nothing of the kind 
 appears to have been intended in the case in question. 
 For the cure of hernia, for instance, it was thought 
 essential that the cleft tree should become whole 
 again. Moreover, Grimm's theory is manifestly un- 
 tenable with 'reference to a cure-working hole in a 
 church wall, such as that of Stappenbeck, to which 
 " there was formerly a great resort of sick people, 
 for whenever one of them crept through it he was 
 instantly cured. But it lost its virtue at last when 
 sick animals were made to pass through it, and 
 then it was stopped up." * The best explanation 
 which has been given of this superstition is that 
 proposed by Liebrecht,-f- who thinks that the whole 
 proceeding was originally designed to symbolise the 
 new birth of the patient, who, coming naked again 
 into the world, left all his former maladies behind 
 him. It appears indeed to be a close copy of a 
 Hindu religious usage, and probably had its origin, 
 like the latter, in times previous to the dispersion of 
 the Aryans. 
 
 * Kuhn u. Schwartz, Ndd. p. 129. + Ger. Tilb. p. 170. 
 
TYPICAL REGENERATION. 157 
 
 " For the purpose of regeneration," says Coleman, 
 " it is directed to make an image of pure gold, of the 
 female power of nature, in the shape either of a 
 woman or of a cow. In this statue the person to be 
 regenerated is enclosed and dragged through the 
 usual channel. As a statue of pure gold and jDroper 
 dimensions would be too expensive, it is suf5Scient to 
 to make an image of the sacred yoni, through which 
 
 the person to be regenerated is to pass 
 
 Perforated rocks are considered as emblems of the 
 yoni, through which pilgrims and others pass for the 
 pui-pose of being regenerated. The utmost faith is 
 placed in this sin-expelling transit." * 
 
 The Hindu custom symbolises the new birth of 
 the soul, the European that of the body. The cloud, 
 the matrix of the vital spark, is represented in the 
 one by the figure of the woman or the cow, in the 
 other by the tree, and in both by the rock. 
 
 * Coleman, " Hindu Mjttology," 151, 175. 
 
CHAPTEI^ VI. 
 
 THE KOWAN OR MOUNTAIN ASH — THE DIVINING ROD — THE MANDRAKE 
 — THE SPEINGWORT — rOKOET-ME-NOT — HAZEL — THORN — MISTLETOE. 
 
 Of the many ways in which the Vedas recount 
 the descent of the heavenly soma to earth, one is 
 to the following effect. When gods and men were 
 pining for the precious beverage, the falcon under- 
 took to steal it from the demons who kept it shut up 
 in the rock (cloud). The attempt was successful, 
 but as the falcon was flying off with its prize, it was 
 grazed by an arrow shot after it by one of the 
 demons, and lost a claw and a feather. They feU 
 to the earth and struck root there, the claw becom- 
 ing a species of thorn, and the feather a palasa tree, 
 otherwise called parna, which has a red sap and 
 scarlet blossoms. Trees owning such an origin could 
 not fail to possess many supernatural properties, the 
 more so as the bird from which the claw and the 
 feather had dropped was a transformed god — some 
 hymnists say Indra, others say Agni. Sprung from 
 a god of the lightning, the trees were themselves 
 
THE PALA8A BOD. 159 
 
 divine, and they were incorporations not only of the 
 heavenly fire, but also of the soma with which the 
 claw and the feather were impregnated. The virtues 
 which distinguish them exist in no less degree in 
 many of their European representatives, such as 
 the black and white thorn, rowan or mountain ash, 
 hasel, fern, &c. 
 
 The palasa was much employed by the Hindus in 
 religious ceremonies, and particularly in one which 
 has descended to the dairy farms of Germany and 
 Sweden, where it is retained to this day with sur- 
 prisingly little change. 
 
 The milk used in the sacrifice which it was cus- 
 tomary to offer in the new moon (the season of 
 increase) on behalf of the Hindu master of a herd, 
 was only to be taken from cows that were still 
 suckling their calves. That there might be enough 
 of it, therefore, it was necessary that the calves 
 should be separated from their dams and driven to 
 pasture. To this end the ofiiciating priest chose on 
 the night of the new moon, or on that preceding it, 
 a palasa or sami rod which grew on the north-east, 
 north, or east side of the tree, .and he cut it off 
 saying, "For strength cut I thee." Then having 
 stripped off its leaves with the words, "For sap 
 (strip I) thee," and having placed together at least 
 
160 THE P ALAS A ROD. 
 
 six calves with their dams, he struck each of the 
 calves with the rod and drove them out saying, " Ye 
 are winds." This done, he touched the cows, one 
 for all, with the rod, and blessed them, bidding them 
 be good milkers, good breeders, safe from sickness 
 and robbers, and abidingly numerous in the posses- 
 sion of the master for whom the sacrifice was offered. 
 Lastly, he stuck up the rod in front or eastward of 
 one of the two places of the holy fire (the sacrificial 
 and the domestic), and bade it protect the cattle of 
 the same person. A Sanscrit commentator on this 
 rite says that the calf is struck with the parna-rod 
 in order that the soma contained in the latter may 
 pass into the former and enrich its udder. Another 
 states that the calves which have been commended 
 to the protection of the rod will, in consequence 
 thereof, be sure to come safely home from their 
 pasture in the evening — a plain proof that the rod 
 was regarded not as a thing but as a person ; it was 
 the incorporatioD of a god who was able from a 
 distance to protect the young cattle from robbers 
 and wild beasts. 
 
 Kuhn has compared with this ancient Hindu cere- 
 mony the custom of " quickening" the calves, as it is 
 observed in the county of Mark in Westphaha. 
 
 On the first of May the herdsman gets out of bed 
 
QUICKENING THE CALVES. 161 
 
 before dawn, and goes to that part of the hill on 
 which the sun first shines. There he chooses that 
 sapling quicken tree (rowan, mountain ash) on which 
 the first rays fall, and fells it. This must be done at 
 one stroke, otherwise it is a bad sign. He takes the 
 sapling to the farm-yard, where the people of the 
 house and the neighbours assemble, and the yearling 
 heifer which is to be quickened is led on to the 
 mixen. There the herdsman strikes it with a branch 
 of the quicken tree, first on the loins, then on the 
 haunches, repeating at each stroke a verse, in which 
 he prays that, as sap comes into the birch and 
 beech, and the leaf comes upon the oak, so may 
 milk fill the young cow's udder. Lastly, he strikes 
 the heifer on the udder and gives her a name. 
 After this, having been regaled with eggs, he adorns 
 the sapling with the shells, buttercups, &c., and 
 plants it in front of the cow-house or over the door.* 
 Throughout Dalsland, in Sweden, the first " mid- 
 day driving" of the year is celebrated as follows, a 
 day or two before or after Ascension Day, or Holy 
 Thursday, formerly the high festival of Thor. When 
 the cattle have been driven out to grass, a garland of 
 flowers is set upon one of the posts of the nearest 
 gate through which they will have to return home. 
 
 * Woeste, Volksiiberlieferungen der grafschaft Mark, p. 25. 
 
162 THEICE-A-DAT MILKINQ. 
 
 Meanwhile the herdsman trims their horns and 
 tricks them out as gaily as he can with flowers. 
 At noon, when he returns with the herd, that they 
 may be milked for the first time in the year at that 
 hour, he takes the garland off the gate post, and 
 setting it on the top of a rowan sapHng, which he 
 carries erect in both hands, he marches before the 
 herd to the homestead, and plants the rowan on the 
 haystack, where it remains during the whole graz- 
 ing season. The bells are then hung for the first 
 time on the cows', and if there be any among them 
 that have not yet got a name, the herdsman gives 
 them one as he strikes them three times on the 
 back with a rowan branch. The cows are fed at noon 
 with the choicest fodder, and the people of the house 
 take their dinner at the entrance of the cattle-yard. 
 
 In this ceremony, says Kuhn, the festive adorn- 
 ment of the cattle, the choice fodder set before 
 them, the assemblage of the whole household, and 
 their meal taken near the kine, are evidently relics 
 of an old sacrificial feast in which the guardian god 
 had his share, along with his votaries, in the fresh- 
 drawn milk. The holding of the feast on the day 
 on which the thrice-a-day milking began, shows how 
 important an event that was for an ancient pastoral 
 people. That it occun-ed of old in May is plain 
 
THE ROWAN. 163 
 
 from the Anglo-Saxon name of the month. May 
 was called Thrimilci, says Bede, because in that 
 month the cows were milked thrice a day. 
 
 These German and Swedish customs reveal the 
 cause of that reputation for magical powers which 
 the rowan tree or mountain ash has enjoyed from 
 time immemorial in all parts of our own country as 
 well as on the continent. Like its congener the ash, 
 and the palasa and sami of India, it is an embodi- 
 ment of soma and lightning. It is observed to be 
 frequent in the neighbourhood of what are com- 
 monly called druidical circles. A rowan stood in 
 every churchyard in Wales, as the yew did in 
 England ; and on a certain day of the year every 
 person wore a cross of the wood. It averted fasci- 
 nation and evil spirits.* For that reason " many," 
 says Plot, " are very careful to have a walking staff 
 of it, and wiU stick the boughs of it about their 
 beds."t In Cornwall, where it is called " care," it 
 " has stiU great repute among our countryfolk in 
 the curing of ills arising from supernatural as well 
 as ordinary causes. It is dreaded by evil spirits ; it 
 renders null the spells of the witch, and has many 
 other wonderful properties. The countryman will 
 
 * Erelyn, "Silva," ch. xvi. 
 t " Nat. Hist, of Staffordshire," ch. vi,, § 52. 
 
 M 2 
 
164* SO WAN TRUE. 
 
 carry for years a piece of the wood in bis pocket as 
 a charm against ill wish, or as a remedy for his 
 rheumatism. If his cow is out of health, and he 
 suspects her to be ' overlooked' — i.e., smitten by an 
 ' evil eye' — away he runs to the nearest wood, and 
 brings home bunches of care, which he suspends 
 over her stall, and wreathes round her horns ; after 
 which he considers her safe."* In Scotland "the 
 dairymaid will not forget to drive the cattle to the 
 sheaUng or summer pastures with a rod of the 
 rowan tree, which she carefaUy lays up over the 
 door of the sheal-boothy or summer house, and 
 drives them home again with the same.""f" 
 
 " At Modrufell, on the north coast of Iceland, is, 
 or was, a large rowan, always on Christmas-eve 
 stuck full of torches, which no wind could possibly 
 extinguish ; and one of the Orkneys possessed a 
 still more mysterious tree, with which the fate of the 
 islands was bound up, since if a leaf was carried 
 away they would pass to some foreign lord."| 
 
 Among the many English names of the mountain 
 ash, are witchen tree, witch elm, witch hazel, witch 
 wood ; quicken tree, quick beam (2'Ziic/i;=aKve, heam 
 
 * "Clioice Notes," p. 88. 
 
 + Dr. George Johnston, "Flora of Berwick-upon-Tweed," p. 110. 
 
 X " Quart. Rev.," July, 1863, p. 243. 
 
ROWAN TREE. 165 
 
 = German hauTn, tree) ; roan tree, roun tree, rowan. 
 These last three synonymes are from the Norse 
 tongues, and denote, as Grimm conjectures, the 
 runic or mysterious and magic character of the tree. 
 The red berries of the mountain ash correspond 
 in colour with the blossoms and the sap of the 
 Indian palasa, and they also mark the European 
 tree as appropriate to Thor, the German fire god. 
 It was called Thor's refuge ia the North, because he 
 was said to have clung to it when swept away by 
 the river Vimur. Kuhn shows it to be probable 
 that under the figure of the river we are to under- 
 stand the clouds, and that the legend originally 
 represented Thor as taking refuge, not upon the 
 tree, but actually within it, like Agni when he hid 
 himself in the heart of the asvattha or peepul tree. 
 That tree has red berries like those of the mountain 
 ash, and the latter resembles the sami in the 
 pinnate form of its leaves, which call to mind the 
 feather shot from the soma-bringing falcon. The 
 leaves of the palasa are not pinnate, but the tree 
 is remarkable for the luxmiant abundance of its 
 foliage, a characteristic which belongs also to the 
 mountain ash. On the whole, then, it is clear that 
 not without manifest reason did the mountain ash 
 acquire its high European renown. 
 
166 THE IMPERIAL MIMOSA. 
 
 But we can connect the rowan still more closely 
 with a tree venerated in India as a soma-bearer. 
 
 "Near Boitpoor, in Upper India," says Bishop 
 Heber, "I passed a fine tree of the mimosa, with 
 leaves at a little distance so much resembling those 
 of the mountain ash, that I was for a moment 
 deceived, and asked if it did not bring fruit ? They 
 answered no ; but that it was a very noble tree, 
 being called the imperial tree, for its excellent pro- 
 perties ; that it slept all night, and awakened and 
 was alive all day, withdrawing its leaves if any one 
 attempted to touch them. Above all, however, it 
 was useful as a preservative against magic. A sprig 
 worn in the turban, or suspended over the bed, was 
 a perfect security against all spells, evil eye, &c. ; 
 insomuch that the most formidable wizard would 
 not, if he could help it, approach' its shade. One 
 indeed, they said, who was very renowned for his 
 power (like Lorinite, in the Kehama) of killing 
 plants and drying up their sap with a look, had 
 come to this very tree and gazed on it intently ; but, 
 said the old man, who told me this with an air of 
 triumph, look as he might, he could do the tree 
 no harm. I was amazed and surprised to find the 
 superstition which in England and Scotland at- 
 taches to the rowan tree, here applied to a tree of 
 
MIMOSA CATECHU. 167 
 
 nearly similar form. What nation has in this case 
 been the imitator 1 Or from what common centre 
 are these common notions derived ?" 
 
 This imperial tree was most probably the MiTnosa 
 catechu ; but if not, it was at all events of the same 
 genus, and therefore, in a mythical point of view, 
 closely allied to or even identical with it. Now the 
 Mimosa catechu was the tree which sprang from the 
 claw lost by the soma-robbing falcon,* along with 
 the feather which became a palasa or parna tree 
 (p. 159). Its younger branches have straight thorns, 
 which afterwards become hooked, and very much 
 resemble a bird's claw. 
 
 The asvattha or peepul is often propagated by 
 seeds dropped by apes or birds on housetops or on 
 other trees ; and we have seen (p. 23) that a 
 peculiar virtue was ascribed to an asvattha which 
 had come by that means to grow upon a sami. The 
 same superior excellence is attributed at this day in 
 Sweden and Norway to the fiogronn, or fly-rowan, 
 which grows upon another tree, or in the cleft of a 
 rock, where the seed has been dropped by a bird — 
 perhaps by a god disguised in that form. " Any- 
 body who ventures out in those countries at night, 
 unprovided with flogronn to chew, must look sharp 
 
 * Kulin, Herab. p. 236. 
 
168 DIvmiNO-EOD. 
 
 lest he be robbed . of his wits or left unable to 
 stir from the spot."* Manifestly the fly-rowan is 
 chewed for sake of its juice, which must be a most 
 potent antidote to witchcraft. The Swedish author 
 last quoted says, " The belief is almost as general in 
 the efficacy of the flbgronn as a divining rod, for the 
 discovery of hidden treasures, but people can hardly 
 tell nowadays how the matter must be set about. 
 The art is explained, however, as follows, in a manu- 
 script of the beginning of the seventeenth century. 
 
 " When you find ia the wood or elsewhere, on old 
 walls or on high hiUs or rocks, a rowan which has 
 grown out of a berry let fall from a bird's bill, you 
 must go at twilight in the evening of the third day 
 after our Lady's day, and either uproot or break off 
 the said rod or tree ; but you must take care that 
 neither iron nor steel come nigh it, and that it do 
 not fall to the ground on the way home. Then place 
 the rod under the roof, at a spot under which you 
 have laid sundry metals, and in a short time you will 
 see with astonishment how the rod gradually bends 
 under the roof towards the metals. When the rod 
 has remained fourteen days or more in the same 
 place, you take a knife or an awl which has been 
 stroked with a magnet, and previously stuck through 
 
 * Dybeck's Runa, 1845, p. 62. 
 
' DIVININQ OR WISH-SOB. 169 
 
 a great Fro-gi-oda (?), slit the bark on all sides, and 
 pour or drop in cock's blood, especially such as is 
 drawn from the comb of a cock of one colour ; and 
 when this blood has dried, the rod is ready, and 
 gives manifest proof of the efficacy of its wondrous 
 nature. " 
 
 In England and in France the divining rod is 
 known chiefly for its alleged power of discovering 
 mines, buried treasure, and hidden springs of water, 
 and it is named accordingly ; but this is a modem 
 and too limited view of its wondrous efficacy, the 
 boundless range of which is duly signified by the 
 German name wish-rod (wiinschelruthe). That 
 name implies a rod which endows its possessor with 
 all earthly blessings, health, wealth, fortune, favour 
 — with everjrthing, in short, that heart can wish. In 
 the Niebelungen Lied it is called, like the bounteous 
 god Odin, simply "wish." "The wish lay there- 
 under, a rod of gold." In this larger sense the 
 divining or wish-rod corresponds very closely with 
 the Hindu chark, and also with the mandrake. 
 
 The mandrake is a root, in shape resembUng a 
 human being, and is renowned for its power of bring- 
 ing wealth and other good things to its possessor. A 
 letter is extant* which was written by a burgher of 
 
 • Keysler, Antiqu. Septempt., p. 507. 
 
170 MANDBAKE. 
 
 Leipsic to his brother in 1575, condoling with the 
 latter for the heavy losses he had sustained : his 
 cattle had died, his store of com and other provisions 
 had been spoiled, his business had all gone wrong 
 and there was great discord in consequence between 
 him and his wife. The writer, therefore, sends him 
 a mandrake or earth-mannikin, because if he keeps 
 it in his house, things will take quite a different turn 
 with him. When he receives it he is to let it rest 
 for three days, and then bathe it in warm water. He 
 is to sprinkle his cattle and the threshold of his 
 house with the water of the bath, and all will go 
 better with him. Be it kno-mi to him, moreover, 
 that the bath is singularly good in the case of a 
 woman in childbed ; if she cannot be delivered, let 
 her take a spoonful of the water, and she will bring 
 forth with joy and thankfulness. Finally, should he 
 have to go before the court or the council, he has 
 only to stick the mannikin under his right arm, and 
 then he will have judgment in his favour, be his 
 cause right or wrong. 
 
 From this letter, and other evidence to the same 
 effect, it is plain that the mandrake, as well as the 
 wish-rod, was credited with the power of con- 
 ferring good fortune in general, the only apparent 
 difference between the two being that a human form 
 
WISH-BOD. 171 
 
 was invariably attributed to the one but not to the 
 other. There is good reason however, according to 
 Dr. Kuhn, to think that anciently they were both 
 alike in this respect. Even now the likeness of a 
 puppet or doll is sometimes given to the wish-rod, it 
 is wrapped in swaddling clothes, a head is stuck 
 upon it, and a baptism is smuggled for it by furtively 
 attaching the puppet to the body of a child that is 
 about to be christened.* In the Oberpfalz, imme- 
 diately after the wish-rod is cut, it is baptised and 
 given a name, and three signs of the cross are made 
 over it with the hand.-f* But this is not all. In 
 every instance the divining or wish-rod has a forked 
 end. This is an essential point, as all authorities 
 agree in declaring. Now a forked rod (or " a forked 
 radish") is the simplest possible image of the human 
 figure. 
 
 The inference drawn by Dr. Kuhn from all this is 
 that, as the mandrake was conceived to be a super- 
 human being — god or demigod — so the equally man- 
 like wish-rod was originally understood to be an 
 incorporate god — ^the god of the lightning, as we 
 have seen with regard to the rowan rod, and as Dr. 
 Kuhn has likewise proved in the instances of the hazel 
 
 * ProWe, Harzbilder, 79. 
 
 t Schoawerth, Oberpfalzische Sagen, iii., 216, 
 
172 WISR-BOD. 
 
 and the thorn, the trees from which the wish-rod was 
 most commonly taken. A comparison with ancient 
 Hindu usages fully confirms the truth of this con- 
 clusion. The human form is expressly attributed in 
 the Kig Veda and other Sanscrit books to the pieces 
 of asvattha wood used for kindling sacred fire — so 
 many inches for the head and neck, so many for the 
 upper and lower parts of the trunk, the thighs and 
 legs respectively — and the operator is warned to be 
 very careful where he chums, for perdition will issue 
 from most parts of the arani, whereas he who churns 
 in the right spot will obtain fruition of all his wishes ; 
 he will gain wealth, cattle, sons, heaven, long life, 
 love, and good fortune. Evidently the tabular part 
 or block of the chark is equivalent to the wish- 
 rod, and the reason of this is that they are both 
 embodiments of the Hghtning. 
 
 So also was the caduceus, or Hermes' rod, which 
 Grimm and all the best authorities after him have 
 identified with the wish-rod ; and so were all the 
 plants which popular tradition has gifted with 
 similar virtues. Germany is inexhaustible in legends 
 of the luckflower and the springwort, before either 
 of which hidden doors and rocks fly open, and give 
 admission to vast treasures concealed in the hearts 
 of mountains. Rock, mountain, and cloud are 
 
LUOKFLOWER. 173 
 
 synonymous in all Indo-European mythologies ; 
 the luckflower or keyflower is the lightning that 
 opens the clouds, and the treasures it discloses 
 are that primal wealth of the pastoral Aryan, the 
 rain that refreshes the thirsty earth and the sun- 
 shine that comes after the tempest. The intimate 
 connection between lightning and human life and 
 happiness may not be very obvious to all minds at 
 the present day, but in primaeval times it was a 
 palpable fact intuitively understood, and out of it 
 grew the conception of the magic rod that fulfilled 
 all wishes. In like manner the epic poetry of the 
 Hindus evoked out of the waters of the cloud sea 
 the marvellous cow Kamaduh, from which all things 
 that could be desired might be milked. It is clear 
 that the supposed attraction of the divining-rod for 
 metals was also a product of the same primitive 
 mode of thought, for "the golden sunbeams" is a 
 current expression in all Indo-European languages 
 that possess an ancient literature. 
 
 The adventure with the luckflower is generally 
 described in this way. The fortunate discoverer of 
 the entrance into the treasury-hall, in the heart of 
 the mountain, is a man who has happened to find 
 a beautiful flower, in most instances a blue one, 
 which he sticks in his hat. The mountain suddenly 
 
174 FORGET NOT THE BEST! 
 
 opens to admit him ; he enters it, and a white lady 
 bids him help himself freely from the heaps of gold 
 coin he sees before him. He stuffs his pockets full 
 and is hastening away, when she calls after him, 
 " Forget not the best ! " He thinks, as he feels his 
 crammed pockets, that he has nothing to reproach 
 himself with in that respect, and he quite forgets 
 his hat, which he had dropped, with the blue flower 
 stuck upon it. As he hurries out through the door- 
 way the iron door shuts suddenly behind him with a 
 crash of thunder, and cuts off his right heel. The 
 mountain side has resumed its old impenetrable 
 appearance, and the entrance to the golden hall can 
 never be found again.* 
 
 It was from stories like this that the little blue 
 flower, Forget-me-not, received its name, which at 
 first was significant of its magic virtue, but after- 
 wards acquired a sentimental meaning. -f- 
 
 The springwort is procured by plugging up the 
 hole in a tree in which a green or black woodpecker 
 has its nest with young ones in it. As soon as the 
 bird is aware of what has been done, it flies off in 
 quest of a wondrous plant, which men might look 
 for in vain, and returning with it in its bill, holds 
 it before the plug, which immediately shoots out 
 
 * D. M. 923. t Ibid. 
 
SPBINOWORT. 175 
 
 from the tree as if driven by the most violent force. 
 But if one conceals himself before the woodpecker's 
 return, and scares it when it approaches, the bird 
 will let the root faU ; or a white or red cloth may- 
 be spread below the nest, and the bird will drop the 
 root upon the cloth after it has served its own turn * 
 This is the German account of the matter, and Pliny 
 tells the same tale, with this notable addition, that 
 the plug is driven out from the tree with an explo- 
 sion, f caused, as we may safely conclude, by the 
 thunder contained in the plant which is applied to 
 it by a bird already known to us as a lightning-bearer. 
 In the county of Mark, it is believed that the wood- 
 pecker drops the springwort upon a red cloth for the 
 purpose of burning it, lest it should fall into any- 
 body's hands, for it mistakes the cloth for a fire.| 
 In Swabia, they say the hoopoe brings the spring- 
 wort, and lets it fall into water or fire to destroy it. 
 To obtain it, therefore, one must have in readiness 
 a pan of water, or kindle a fire, or spread out a red 
 cloth or garment, on which the bird will let the plant 
 
 * D. M. 925. Kuhn und Sctwartz, Ndd., p. 450. 
 
 t" Adactos cavernis eorum a, pastore cuneos, admotu quodam ab his 
 herba, elabi creditur vulgo. Trebius auctor est, olavum cuneum ve 
 adactum quanta libeat vi arbori, in qua nidum habeat, statim exsilire 
 cum crepitu arboris, cum insederit clavo aut cuneo. — Plin. i., 18. 
 
 X Woeste, p. 44. 
 
176 THE SWALLOWS TALISMAN. 
 
 fall, believing it to be a fire* Evidently the original 
 notion was, that the bird must return the plant to 
 the element from which it springs, that being either 
 the water of the clouds, or the lightning-fire enclosed 
 therein. 
 
 The connection between the springwort and the 
 lightning is also expressed in another piece of folk- 
 lore current in the Obei-pfalz and in Swabia. It is 
 there said that when the plant is buried in the 
 ground at the summit of a mountain, it draws down 
 the lightning and divides the storm, making it pass 
 off to right and left. 
 
 In Normandy, as previously mentioned (p. 102), a 
 story is told of the swallow which has some analogy 
 to that of the woodpecker or hoopoe and the spring- 
 wort. " The swallow knows how to find on the sea- 
 shore a stone that has the marvellous power of resto- 
 ring sight to the blind. The villagers teU of a sure 
 means of obtaining possession of this stone. You 
 must put out the eyes of one of the swallow's young, 
 whereupon the mother-bird will immediately go in 
 quest of the stone. "When she has found it and 
 applied it effectually, she is careful to hide her 
 talisman where it can never be discovered. But if 
 one has taken the precaution to spread a piece of 
 
 * Meier, Schwilb. Sagen, No. 265. 
 
THUNDERBOLT-THORN. 177 
 
 scarlet stuff below the nest, the swallow will drop 
 the stone upon it, for, deceived by the colour, she 
 will believe she is dropping it into fire."* 
 
 We have not yet adequate data for a full explana- 
 tion of this curious tradition, but the celestial origin 
 of the talismanic stone can hardly be questioned. 
 
 The springwort is generally believed to be an 
 unknown species of plant, and therefore hard to find ; 
 but some accounts specify known plants, and among 
 these Grimm mentions the Euphorbia laihyris, 
 called by the Italians sferracavallo, because it acts so 
 strongly on metals that horses, if they tread on it, 
 lose their shoes. Now, there is a species of euphor- 
 bia, the Sanscrit name of which signifies thuuderbolt- 
 thorn, and several others which are all called thun- 
 derbolt-wood in the same language. "f" A story of the 
 Ilsenstein, within which lives an enchanted princess, 
 is related by Kuhn in his North German Legends, 
 and appears to him to throw additional light on the 
 nature of the wishing-rod as well as of the spring- 
 wort. The story is that "a shepherd, who was 
 driving his flock over the Ilsenstein, having stopped 
 to rest, leaning on his staff, the mountain suddenly 
 opened, for there was a springwort in his staff with- 
 
 * Amelie Bosquet, p. 217. 
 
 + Vajrakantaka, vajradru, vajradruma. — Wilson, s. t. 
 
178 HAZEL. 
 
 out his knowing it, and the princess stood before' 
 him. She bade him follow her, and when he was 
 inside the mountain, she told him to take as much 
 gold as he pleased. The shepherd filled all his 
 pockets, and was going away, when the princess 
 called after him, ' Forget not the best.' So, think- 
 ing she meant that he had not taken enough, he 
 filled his hat also ; but what she meant was his 
 staff, with the spring-wort, which he had laid against 
 the wall as soon as he stepped in. But now, just as 
 he was going out at the opening, the rock suddenly 
 slammed together and cut him in two." Now, it 
 appears to Kuhn that since shepherds' sticks, as 
 well as wishing-rods, are most commonly cut from 
 the blackthorn or the hazel, it was probably so with 
 the shepherd's staff in this instance ; and thus far the 
 story tends to show that the springwoit and the 
 wishing-rod are identical. 
 
 The hazel was sacred to Thor, as its reddish leaves 
 indicate, and like another of his trees, the rowan, it 
 was regarded as an actual embodiment of the light- 
 ning.* Hence the almost universal belief that it is 
 never struck by the thunderbolt, and that it protects 
 from both heavenly and earthly fire.f In some parts 
 of France the people dance three times round the 
 
 * Mannhai-dt, p. 193. + Vernaleken, A.lpensage, p. 416. 
 
HAZEL. 179 
 
 l)Oiifires on St. Jolin's day with, branches of hazel in 
 their hands, and peasant proprietors wave a hazel 
 branch through the flame, and hang it up before the 
 door of their cattle stall* In the Oberpfak, hazel 
 twigs are stuck in the window frames during a 
 tempest. Serpents cannot approach the tree,"f and 
 in Sweden it is believed that the touch of a hazel- 
 rod deprives them of their venom.j In a popular 
 story given by Panzer, the hero cuts off the seven 
 heads of a dragon with a hazel-rod.§ The mythic 
 dignity of the hazel is evidenced by two facts men- 
 tioned by Grimm : it was a law of the Ostrogoths 
 that anybody might hew down what trees he pleased 
 in the common wood, except oaks and hazels ; those 
 trees had peace, i. e., they were not to be felled ;|| 
 
 * Mannhardt, p. 201. t Menzel, Odhin, p. 155. 
 
 + Dybeck, Runa, 1848, p. 38. § Panzer, Beitr., i., 193. 
 
 II ' ' Eeference is supposed to be made to some old law in the fol- 
 lowing : — 
 
 ' The oat, the ash, the elm tree. 
 They are hanging a' three.' 
 That is, it was a capital crime to mutilate these trees. 
 ' ' Another Tcrsion of the rhyme runs thus ; — 
 ' The oak, the ash, the elm tree. 
 Hang a man for a' three, 
 And ae branch will set him free.' " 
 
 Robert Ch.imbers, "Popular Rhymes." 
 The coincidence is worth noting, although it is quite as possible that 
 the Scotch law or practice was dictated by motives of thrift as by 
 mythical considerations. 
 
 N 2 
 
180 WHITETHORN. BLACKTHORN'. 
 
 and it is a common saying in modern Germany, tLat 
 the oak and the hazel dislike each other, and cannot 
 agree together any more than the haw and the sloe 
 (whitethorn and blackthorn). This looks as if the 
 oak and the hazel were rivals for supremacy, hke 
 those old competitors for^kingship, the eagle and the 
 wren, and upon similar grounds. 
 
 As for the white and the black thorn, theirs was a 
 family quarrel, most probably provoked in the first 
 instance by the circumstance of their being both of 
 them European representatives of the sacred thorn- 
 tree of India, the Mimosa catechu (p. 167), and 
 endowed like it with supernatural properties. The 
 wood of the thorn (ramnos) was used by the Greeks 
 for the drilling-stick of thejr pyreia, and it was held 
 by them to be prophylactic against magic, as the 
 whitethorn was by the Romans,* among whom it 
 was used for marriage torches. Both trees have 
 enjoyed a similar repute among the German nations, 
 and wishing-rods have been made of the white as 
 well as of the black thorn. -f In Germany the Easter 
 fire was anciently called "buckthorn,"| simply, because 
 that was the fuel of which it always consisted, as it 
 
 * Sic fatus, spinam, qua tristes pellere posset 
 A foribus noxas, hasc erat alba, dedit, 
 
 Ot. Fast, vi., 130. 
 + Leoprecbtiog, Leobrain, p. 29. M. 583 u. 
 
WHITETHOEN. 181 
 
 does to this day at Dassel, in Westphalia. It is pro- 
 bable that the tree itself (bocksdorn) was so called 
 from the sacrificial buck goat which was burned upon 
 its wood in heathen times. A paschal buck goat for 
 the baptism of the first infant continued to be a 
 church offering in Schillingen, near Treves, until the 
 year 1712.* 
 
 Thorn-trees are reverenced also by the Celts. "The 
 whitethorn is one of the trees most in favour with 
 the small people ; and both in Brittany and in some 
 parts of Ireland it is held unsafe to gather even a 
 leaf from certain old and sohtary thorns, which grow 
 in sheltered hollows of the moorland, and are the 
 fairies' trysting places. But no ' evil ghost' dares to 
 approach the whitethorn.""!- The author of this 
 passage derives the supposed virtues of the white- 
 thorn from the general belief of the Middle Ages that 
 our Lord's crown of thorns was made of its branches, 
 though, as he observes, " we now know that it cannot 
 have been so." More than that, we know that the 
 whitethorn was a sacred tree before Christianity 
 existed, so that we must needs invert the statement 
 of the writer in the Quarterly, and conclude that the 
 
 * Kuhn, Westf. ii., 135. 
 
 + " Sacred Trees and Flowers," Quarterly Review, July, 1863, 
 pp. 231-2. 
 
182 WHITETHORN. HAZEL. 
 
 ancient sanctity of the aubepine or whitethorn wag 
 what gave rise to the mediseval belief. The passage 
 which the reviewer himself has quoted from Sir 
 John Mandeville bears on its front the unmis- 
 takable impress of pagan tradition : — 
 
 "Then was our Lord ylad into a gardyn .... 
 and there the Jewes scorned hym, and maden hym 
 a croune of the braunches of Albespyne, that is 
 whitethorn, that grew in the same gardyn, and 
 setten yt on hys heved .... And therefore hath 
 the whitethorn many virtues. For he that beareth 
 a braunche on hym thereof, no thondre, ne no manor 
 of tempest may dere (hurt) hym ; ne in the hows 
 that yt is ynne may non evil ghost entre." 
 
 The old traveller is here an unconscious witness 
 to the enduring vitality of the Aryan tradition, that 
 invested the hawthorn with the vuiues of a tree 
 sprung from the lightning. 
 
 To return to the hazel. Its relation to the clouds 
 and the lightning explains its supposed virtue as a 
 promoter of fruitfulness, and its consequent use in 
 divinations relating to love and marriage. When 
 Loki, transformed into a falcon, rescued Idhunn, the 
 goddess of youthful life, from the power of the frost- 
 giants, it was in the shape of a hazel nut that he 
 caiiied her off in his beak. In Altmark, nuts are 
 
HAZEL. 183 
 
 scattered at marriages, as they were in Rome. In 
 the Black Forest the leader of a marriage procession 
 tarries a hazel wand in his hand, and in Westphalia 
 and other parts of Germany a few nuts are mingled 
 with the seedcorn to make it prolific. Peas, another 
 of Thor's fruits, are also used for the same pur- 
 pose.* In Hertfordshire and other parts of England, 
 as well as in Germany, a certain relation is believed 
 to exist between the produce of the hazel bushes and 
 the increase of the population, a good nut year 
 always bringing — tant bien que tnal — an abundance 
 of babies. Among the sports of AUhallow-e'en, as 
 described in Brockett's Glossary, and by Burns in his 
 poem on that night, the burning of nuts is of great 
 importance as affording omens concerning marriage. 
 The persons engaged in the ceremony give the name 
 of a lad and a lass to each pair of nuts as they lay 
 them in the fire ; and as the nuts burn quietly 
 together, or start away from each other, so will be 
 the course and issue of the com'tship. The custom, 
 as practised in England, is thus described by Gay in 
 his "Spell"— 
 
 Two haiei nuts I threw into the flame, 
 And to each nut I gave a sweetheart's name. 
 This with the loudest hounce me sore amazed, 
 5'hat in a flame of brightest colour blazed. 
 
 * Mannhardt, p. 199.. 
 
184. HAZEL. 
 
 As blazed the nnt so may thy passion grow, 
 For 'twas thy nut that diJ so brightly glow. 
 
 " It is a custom in Ireland, when the young women 
 would know if their lovers are faithful, to put three 
 nuts upon the bars of the grate, naming the nuts 
 after the lovers. If a nut cracks or jumps, the lover 
 will prove unfaithful ; if it begins to blaze or bum, 
 he has a regard for the person making the trial. If 
 the nuts named after the gfirl and her lover bum 
 together, they will be married."* 
 
 In Bohemia, on Christmas Eve, girls fix coloured 
 waxhghts in the shells of the first parcel of nuts they 
 have opened that day, light them all at the same 
 time, and set them floating on water, after mentally 
 giving to each the name of a wooer. He whose 
 lighted bark first approaches the girl will be her 
 future husband. If an unwelcome suitor seems 
 likely to be first in, a head wind is directed against 
 his vessel from the fair one's lips, until the favourite 
 has won the race. But woe to him whose hght is 
 extinguished, for it portends his death.-f* 
 
 Hazel n\its are believed in Sweden to have the 
 power of making invisible. What that imphes wiU. 
 be seen in the next chapter. 
 
 The preceding data will enable the reader to con- 
 
 * Brand, "Pop. Antiq." t Keinsberg-Diiringsfeld, p. 550. 
 
MISTLETOE. 185 
 
 jecture rightly the cause to which the mistletoe owes 
 the sanctity in which it was held from the earliest 
 times by the German as well as the Celtic nations. 
 It possesses in a high degree all the virtues proper 
 to botanic lightning, as implied in its Swiss name, 
 donnerbesen, "thunder besom," and its mode of 
 growth is conformable in all particulars to its exalted 
 mythical character. It is a parasite, and, like the 
 asvattha and the rowan, it is everywhere believed to 
 spring from seed deposited by birds on trees. When 
 it was found upon the oak, the Druids ascribed ii^s 
 growth directly to the gods ; they chose the tree ;* 
 and the bird was their messenger, perhaps a god in 
 disguise. The oak mistletoe is held in the highest 
 repute in Sweden, and is commonly seen in farm- 
 houses, hanging from the ceiling to protect the house 
 and homestead from injuries in general, but especially 
 from fire. In England the Christmas frolics under 
 the mistletoe are a relic of the old faith in the 
 potency of the plant in affairs of love and marriage. 
 like the rowan-tree, the mistletoe makes cattle 
 
 • Nihil hatent druids (ita suos appellant magos) visco et arbore in 
 qua gignatur (si modo sit robur) sacratius. Jam per se roborum eli- 
 guut lueos, nee nlla sacra sine ea fronde conficiunt, ut inde appellati 
 quoque interpretatione gr^ca possint druidse videri. Enimvero quic- 
 quid adnascalur illis e ccelo missum putant, signumque esse electee db 
 ipso deo arboris. — Plin. 16, ii. 
 
186 MISTLETOE. 
 
 fruitful, being given to them in a drench for that 
 purpose, and according to Celtic tradition the plant 
 was a safeguard against poison, and a remedy for all 
 diseases, " They call it in their own tongue ' heal- 
 all' (omnia sanantem)," says Pliny. In Sweden its 
 virtues in this respect still rank very high in popular 
 esteem ; persons afflicted with the falling sickness 
 provide themselves with a knife having a handle of 
 oak mistletoe, as a means of warding off attacks of 
 the malady. For other complaints a piece of the 
 plant is hung round the patient's neck, or a ring 
 made of it is worn on the finger. This healing 
 virtue, which the mistletoe shares with the ash, is 
 a long-descended tradition, for "the kushtha, the 
 embodiment of the soma,"* a healing plant of the 
 highest renown among the Southern Aryans, was one 
 of those that gi-ew beneath the heavenly asvattha. In 
 fine, Swedes and Carinthians ascribe to the mistletoe 
 the powers of the springwort and of the wish-rod. 
 Nature has given it the essential form of the latter 
 in the regular forking of its branches, whilst this form 
 is only to be found in the rowan and the hazel by 
 diligent search. 
 
 • Kig Veda, ii., 164. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE WVININO OK WISH-ROD CONTINUED — TRADITIONS 07 IT IN 
 QREEOE AND ROME — FERN — INVISIBILITY — ORAZINO AND DEADLY 
 POWER OE LISHTNISa PLANTS, TREES, RODS, ETO. — MAGIO ODDGELS. 
 
 It is remarked as a matter of special significance 
 in the old sacred books of India, and by their San- 
 scrit commentators, that the palasa (p. 158) is triple- 
 leafed, that is to say, its leaves consist, like those of 
 the clover, of three distinct lobes springing from one 
 stalk. There can be no doubt as to what this form 
 of ■ leaf was understood to typify, for a trident,* and 
 a cross or hammer with three points, are among the 
 oldest Indo-European symbols of the forked light- 
 ning from which sprang the palasa, and which is 
 called trisulcwm, " three-pronged," by Ovid and 
 Varro. 
 
 The herald rod of Hermes {ia]pvKiiov) was taken 
 from a tree leafed like the palasa ; it was " a 
 rod of prosperity and wealth," a real wish-rod, 
 
 * Poseidon was the Zeus of the sea, and his trident was equiyalent 
 to his brother's fulmen trisulcum. 
 
188 HEBMES' STAFF. 
 
 "golden, triple-leafed,"* and was given to him by- 
 Apollo, the Grecian Rudra (p. 18). It had served 
 Apollo as a herdsman's staff when he tended the 
 cattle of Admetus, a fact which again assimilates 
 it to the palasa, the sami, and the rowan rod 
 (p. 159 ff.). In later times it was represented as 
 having two serpents coiled round it, with necks and 
 heads curving towards each other at its upper end, 
 appendages which were either mere artistic varia- 
 tions of its originally forked foim, or which stood foj 
 the serpents that were connected with the world-tree. 
 Hermes himself possesses among his multifarious 
 attributes and functions some that connect him in 
 a very marked manner with Agni. Repeatedly in 
 Vedic hymns and prayers is Agni invoked as the 
 messenger of the gods, and the mediator who carries 
 up to them the offerings of men in wreaths of 
 smoke from the altar fires. He is styled priest of 
 sacrifice and prayer-speaker. Hermes too is priest 
 of sacrifice, prayer-bearer (precum minister), -f- and 
 messenger of the Olympic gods, especially of Zeus 
 (Aios ayyekos). This very title of his, angelus, 
 messenger, angel, for which no Greek root can be 
 found, has been traced back by Roth to Angiras,J 
 
 * Homer, Hymn, in Merc. 529. 
 
 + Preller, Griech. Myth, i., 258. 
 
 J Bohtlingt-Roth, Worterb. s. v. Angiras. 
 
HERMES A EIRE-aOD. 189 
 
 a name frequently given in the Vedas to Agni him- 
 self, as well as to one of the priestly families attend- 
 ant upon himself Hermes is in fact an old fire-god, 
 and Callimachus actually ranks him with the fiery 
 Cyclops. The poet says in his hymn to Diana that 
 among the gods, when a girl is fractious, her mother 
 calls out for the Cyclops Arges and Steropes, and 
 then Hermes makes his appearance, coming forth 
 from the innermost part of the house (where the 
 hearth stood) hegrimed with soot. Above all, 
 Hermes was commonly credited with the invention 
 of the pyreia, or fire-kindling machine, which 
 Diodorus ascribed to Prometheus (p. 44). All 
 things considered, therefore, we must conclude that 
 the staff of Hermes could have been nothing else 
 than that ligneous receptacle of transformed light- 
 ning, the drilling-stick of the pyreia. 
 
 Dr. Kuhn has not been able to ascertain whether 
 or not there were any certain plants known to the 
 Greeks and Romans as substitutes in ordinary life 
 for the staff of Hermes ; but that they had their 
 wish-rods like ourselves, or at least traditions of such 
 instruments, is plain from sundry passages in their 
 writers. One of them, which the author of Charicles 
 has cited from Arrian, is this: "He has a bad father, 
 but I have a good one, and that is the staff of 
 
190 DIVINING-ROD. 
 
 Hermes. Touch what you will with it, they say, 
 and it turns to gold." Another is the well-known 
 passage in Tully's Offices : " But were all the neces- 
 saries of life supplied to us by means of a divine 
 rod (virgula divina) then," &c. 
 
 " Ex quovis iigno non fit Mercurius :" it is not 
 every forked hazel twig that is fit to make a 
 divining-rod, nor can so precious an instrument be 
 manufactured at all seasons and at a moment's 
 notice. Had the Antiquary been half as well 
 skilled in magic lore as he was in the art of dis- 
 covering Roman camps and Latia inscriptions, he 
 might have convicted Dousterswivel on the spot as 
 an impostor, when the fellow pretended to cut a 
 diviuing-rod in the broad glare of day, and with as 
 little ceremony as one might cut a walking-stick. 
 The success of such an operation is dependent upon 
 many sjiecial conditions. It must always be per- 
 formed after sunset and before sunrise, and only on 
 certain nights, among which are specified those of 
 Good Friday, Epiphany, Shrove Tuesday, St. John's 
 day, the first night of a new moon or that preceding 
 it. In cutting it one must face the east, so that the 
 rod shall be one which catches the first rays of the 
 morning sun ; or, as some say, the eastern and 
 western sun must shine through the fork of the 
 
DIVINING-ROD. 191 
 
 rod, otlierwise it will be good for nothing. Such 
 also were the directions given in the Vedas with 
 respect to the sami branch and the arani. They 
 were to be cut at new moon or on the night before 
 it, and none were to be chosen but such as grew 
 towards the east, the north, or straight upwards. 
 This last peculiarity has also been recognised as 
 proper to the wishing or divining rod, to which a 
 mediseval poet of Germany compares the form and 
 carriage of the Greek Helen, 
 
 " Fair as a -wish-rod came she gliding upright." * 
 
 The summer solstice is a favourite season for 
 gathering plants of the lightning tribe, and parti- 
 cularly the springwort and fern. It is believed in 
 the Oberpfalz that the springwort, or St. John's wort 
 (johanniswurzel) as some call it, can only be found 
 among the fern on St. John's night. It is said to be 
 of a yellow colour, and to shine in the night like a 
 candle ; which is just what is said of the mandrake 
 in an Anglo-Saxon manuscript of the tenth or 
 eleventh century. Moreover, it never stands still, 
 but hops about continually, to avoid the grasp of men. 
 Here then, in the luminosity and the power of nimble 
 movement attributed to the springwort, we have 
 
 * D. M. p. 926. 
 
"192 FERN. 
 
 another remarkable tradition signifying the trans- 
 formation of the lightning into the plant. It is also 
 a highly significant fact that the marvellous root is 
 said to be connected with fern ; for the johnsroot, 
 or John's hand, is the root of a species of fern (Poly- 
 podium Filix mas, Lin.) which is applied to many 
 superstitious uses. This fern has large pinnate 
 fronds, and is thus related to the mountain ash and 
 the mimosee. In fact, says Kuhn, it were hardly 
 possible to find in our climate a plant which more 
 accurately corresponds in its whole appearance to 
 the original signification of the Sanscrit name parna, 
 as leaf and. feather. Nor does the relationship 
 between them end here, for fern, Anglo-Saxon fearn, 
 Old German faram, farn, and Sanscrit •parna, are 
 one and the same word. It is also worthy of note 
 that whereas one of the German names of the 
 rowan means boar-ash (eberesche), so also there 
 is a fern {Polypodiu,m. Filix arboratica), which is 
 called in Anglo-Saxon eoferfarn, eferfarn, that is, 
 boar-fern. In all the Indo-European mythologies 
 the boar is an animal connected with storm and 
 lightning. 
 
 As to another large fern (Pteris aquilina), eagle 
 fern, a wide-spread belief prevails, that its cut stalk 
 presents the figure of an eagle, some say a double- 
 
FERN. ^ 93 
 
 headed eagle ; and, in fact, such a figure may 
 generally be made out with more or less distinctness 
 in the section. The plant itself, with its two great 
 feathered fronds, has the look of a bird with its 
 wings spread ; and, as if to confirm the likeness, the 
 young shoots, just rising out of the ground with their 
 downy covering, may be aptly compared to unfiedged 
 nestlings. Pteris, the Greek name of this fern, is an 
 old feminine form of pteron, a wing, and it seems to 
 have been given to the plant with reference to more 
 than its general appearance. The scholiast on Theo- 
 critus says that this fern was used for rustic beds, 
 not only for its softness, but also because its smell 
 drove away serpents. This last quality brings it 
 iuto the same mythical category with the ash and 
 the hazel. It is believed in Thuringia, that if any 
 one carries fern about him, he will be pursued by 
 serpents until he throws it away. In Sweden the 
 plant is called " snake-bane." 
 
 The luck-bringing power of the fern is not con- 
 fined to one species, but belongs to the tribe in 
 general. It resides in the fullest perfection in the 
 seed, the possessor of which may wish what he will, 
 and the devil must bring it him.* In Swabia they 
 say that fem-seed brought by the devil between 
 
 * Panzer, Beitr. ii., 73, 272, 306. 
 
194 PERN SEED. 
 
 eleven and twelve on Christmas night enables a man 
 to do as much work as twenty or thirty ordinary 
 men * Such a talisman must be proportionately 
 hard to find, and only on Midsummer eve can it be 
 gathered from 
 
 The wondrous one-niglit-seeding feme.t 
 
 On that one night it ripens from twelve to one, and 
 then it falls and instantly disappears. '' Much dis- 
 course," says Richard Bivot, "hath been about 
 gathering of fern-seed (which is looked upon as a 
 magical herb) on the night of Midsummer eve ; and 
 I remember I was told of one who went to gather 
 it, and the spirits whisk't by his ears like bullets, 
 and sometimes struck his hat and other parts of his 
 body ; in fine, though he apprehended he had gotten 
 a quantity of it, and secured it in papers, and a box 
 besides, when he came home he found all empty." J 
 
 Brand was told by a respectable countr3rman at 
 Ht'stdu in iliddlesex, that, when he was a young 
 man, he was often present at the ceremony of catch- 
 ing the fern-seed at midnight on the eve of St. John 
 Baptist. The attempt he said was often unsuccess- 
 
 * Meier, Schuabiscte Sagen, No. 267. 
 •|" Browne, Britannia's Pastoral.1. 
 
 X " Pandsemonium." London : 16S4 ; p. 217. Scott's " Minstrelsy 
 of Scottish Border." 
 
FERN SEED. 195 
 
 ful, for the seed was to fall into the plate of its own 
 accord, and that too without shaking the plant.* 
 One of the statements made by the Slovacks agrees 
 with Bivot's. They say that whoever comes too 
 near the flowers of fern will be overcome with sleep, 
 and that supernatural beings repulse aU who dare to 
 lay hand on the plant."!" 
 
 Fern-seed has the wonderful property of making 
 people invisible — 
 
 We have the receipt of fern-seed, we walk invisible. 
 
 Shaks., Henry IV., part 1, so. 1. 
 
 I had 
 No medicine, sir, to go iovisible. 
 No fern-seed in my pocket. 
 
 Ben Jonson, New Tnn. 
 
 The people of Westphalia tell of a curious thing 
 that once befell a man in those parts. He happened 
 on Midsummer night to be looking for a foal he had 
 lost, and passed through a meadow just as the fern- 
 seed was ripening, so that it fell into his shoes. In 
 the morning he went home, walked into the sitting- 
 room and sat down, but thought it strange that 
 neither his wife nor any of the family took the 
 least notice of him. " I have not found the foal," 
 said he. Everybody in the room started and looked 
 alarmed, for they heard the man's voice but saw 
 
 * Brand, i. 315. + Veriialeken, Alpensagen, p. 374. 
 
 2 
 
]96 INVISIBILITY. 
 
 nobody. His wife called him by his name, thinking 
 he must have hid himself. Thereupon he stood up, 
 planted himself in the middle of the floor and said, 
 " Why do you call me ? Here I am, right before 
 you." Then they were worse frightened than before, 
 for they had heard him stand up and walk, and still 
 they saw nothing. The man now became aware 
 that he was invisible, and it struck him at once that 
 he might possibly have fern- seed in his shoes, foi' 
 he felt as if there was sand in them. So he took 
 them off and shook them out, and as he did so, 
 there he stood, plain to be seen by everybody.* 
 
 No mythical gift can be less ambiguous in its 
 origin than is that of the power of becoming invi- 
 sible at will. The thing that confers it is always to 
 be understood as pertaining to the mists or clouds. 
 The poets of Greece and Rome constantly represent 
 the gods as concealing themselves and their attend- 
 ants from mortal eyes in a cloud. The northern 
 nations turned this cloud into a mantle or cap of 
 darkness, the latter commonly called a mist-cap 
 (nebelkappe). The king of the Greek realm of the 
 dead had likewise his dark helmet, which symbolised 
 the concealing clouds of which his world was made, 
 and for that very reason was he called Aides, the 
 
 • D. M. 1160. 
 
INVISIBILITY. BA VEN. 197 
 
 " invisible." * The German dwarfs, those thievish 
 elves and mist-brewers, who are notoriously addicted 
 to stealing the husbandman's peas in the field, are 
 always furnished with such a cap when they are 
 committing theft, and on many other occasions also.f 
 The fern-seed derives its power of making invisible 
 from the cloud that contained the heavenly fire from 
 which the plant is sprung. 
 
 A ma,n may make himself invisible whenever he 
 pleases if he is possessed of a " raven-stone," a talis- 
 man which is procured in New Pomerania in the 
 following manner. When you have discovered a 
 raven's nest you must climb the tree, and take your 
 chance that the parent birds are at least a hundred 
 years old, for otherwise you wiU have your trouble 
 for nothing. You are then to kill one of the nest- 
 linofs, which must be a male bird, and not more than 
 six weeks old. Then you may descend the tree, but 
 be very careful to mark well the spot where it stands, 
 for by-and-by it will become invisible, as soon as the 
 raven comes back, and lays a raven-stone in the throat 
 of its dead nestling. When it has done this, you 
 may go up again and secure the stone.| In 
 mythical language, stone and cloud are convertible 
 terms ; and here we have the cloud of darkness 
 
 • Schwartz, p. 67. t Ibid., p. 247. J Kulm, Wesfcf. ii., 76. 
 
198 RAVEN. 
 
 brought down by the storm-bird which was sacred 
 both to Apollo and Odin, the Greek and German 
 representatives of Eudra (p. 18). The raven's hue 
 is that of the storm-cloud, but it was not so until 
 angry Apollo turned it from white to black, like the 
 swan-white clouds of fair weather that darken as the 
 tempest gathers. Once upon a time, so nins the 
 Grecian story, Apollo sent his feathered attendant 
 to a fountain to fetch water for sacrifice. The raven 
 found a fig-tree with fruit nearly ripe, and waited 
 till they were quite so, that he might satisfy his 
 appetite. Then, having to devise some excuse for 
 his delay, he took the water-snake out of the foun- 
 tain, brought it with the pitcher to Apollo, and told 
 the god that the snake had daily drunk the fountain 
 dry. But Apollo, ^^'ho was not to be imposed upon, 
 turned the disobedient raven black, besides condemn- 
 ing it to be always plagued with thirst at the same 
 season of the year, and to give token of its punish- 
 ment by its painful croaking.* 
 
 To return from this digression to the fem-seed, 
 one method prescribeil for obtaining it is, in Dr. 
 Kidm's opinion, particularly worthy of notice. At 
 the summer solstice, if you shoot at the sun when it 
 has attained its midday height, three drops of blood 
 
 * Eratosth. Cat. xli. Scliwartz, p. 199. 
 
FERN. 199 
 
 "will fall. They must be gathered up and preserved, 
 for that is the fem-seed.* According to Dr. Kuhn, 
 this thoroughly heathen account of the heavenly 
 origin of fem-seed is certainly very ancient ; so also 
 is the conception of the Freischiitz or dead-shot, for it 
 coincides with that of the Cabdavedhi of the Hindu 
 epic poems. The latter has only to name the object 
 he wishes to hit, and the thing is done. In the 
 Mahabharata one of these fatal marksmen wounds 
 an enemy who has made himself invisible by magic 
 art. A German freischiitz did almost as well, for he 
 fired out of the back door of a farm-house, and shot 
 a kite that was making havoc among the poultry in 
 front of the house, f 
 
 Besides the powers already mentioned, fern has 
 others which distinctly mark its affinity with thunder 
 and lightning. "In the place where it grows the 
 devil rarely practises his glamour. He shuns and 
 abhors the house and place where it is, and thunder, 
 lightning, and hail rarely fall there." \ This is in 
 apparent contradiction with the Polish superstition, 
 according to which the plucking of fern produces a 
 violent thunderstorm ; but it is a natural supposition, 
 that the hitherto rooted and transformed thunderbolt 
 
 * Becbstein, Deutsche Sagenbuoh, fTo. 500. 
 t Leoprechting, p. 61. t D. M. 1181. 
 
200 FEBN. 
 
 resumes its pristine nature, when the plant that con- 
 tained it is taken from the ground. In the Thurin- 
 gian forest fern is called irrkraut, or bewildering 
 weed (from irren, to err, go astray), because who- 
 ever treads on it unawares loses his wits and knows 
 not where he is. In fact, he is in that condition of 
 mind which we English call " thunderstruck," and 
 which Germans, Romans, and Greeks have agreed 
 in denoting by exactly corresponding terms.* He 
 has been crazed by a shock from the hghtning with 
 which the fern is charged like a Leyden jar. In- 
 stances of a similar phenomenon occur in the legends 
 of India and Greece. When Cyavana, an Indian 
 personification of lightning, was pelted with clods by 
 the sons of Saryata, he grew wroth with them, and 
 immediately their souls were so bewildered that 
 father and son, brother and brother, began to fight 
 one with the other. Saryata could not explain to 
 himself how the fray had broken out ; but when he 
 asked his herdsmen, and they told him in what way 
 it had begun, he understood the whole matter, and 
 exclaimed, " It is Cyavana ! " -f- The madness of 
 Lycurgus was doubtless the effect of a like electric 
 force inherent in Dionysos or Bacchus, the iire-born 
 
 * Viz., piJonarot, angedonnert, attonitus, cjxSjiotmpis. 
 
 t ^atapathii-brahmana IV., i., 5.3. Kukn, Herabk. p. 223. 
 
PLANTAIN. 201 
 
 god (pyrigends), whom one legend describes as hav- 
 ing come down with the levin from heaven. " Does 
 not this Ughtning birth," asks Dr. Kuhn, " also ex- 
 plain why it was that, as Plutarch relates, men durst 
 not swear by Dionysos under a roof, but only in the 
 open air ? " 
 
 The power of disordering the wits which is evinced 
 by fern in Thuringia is ascribed in Aargau to the 
 plantain or waybread, which is there called irrwur- 
 zel, a name equivalent to irrkraut* Moreover, it 
 is related of this plant by Paracelsus, that its root is 
 changed every seven years into a bird.^f From these 
 data it is to be inferred that plantain is one of the 
 forms in which lightning has assumed a vegetative 
 existence, that it first came down to earth as a bird, 
 and that its septennial metamorphosis is a return of 
 that lightning-bringer to its former shape. It be- 
 comes a question, therefore, of much interest, whether 
 or not we can ascertain the bird's name ; but for the 
 present, I fear, we must leave that point undecided. 
 The writer in the Quarterly Revieiu, indeed, to 
 whom we have already referred more than once, 
 asserts that the bird is either the cuckoo or the 
 hoopoe (German, Wiedhopf). This would be wel- 
 
 * Eocliholz, Aarg. Sag. i., 79. Eulin, Herabk. p. 223. 
 + D. M. 1165. 
 
202 PLANTAIN. HOOPOE. 
 
 come information, capable of throwing miich light 
 on the whole mythical character of both birds, if 
 it could be relied upon ; but, unfortunately, the 
 reviewer cites no authority for a fact which is not 
 mentioned by Grimm, or by any other German 
 mythologist whose works we have consulted. His 
 words are : — 
 
 "... The plantain or waybread, said to have been 
 once a maiden, who, watching by the wayside for her 
 lover, was changed into the plant which stUl loves to 
 fix itself by the beaten path. Once in seven years it 
 becomes a bird, either the cuckoo or the cuckoo's 
 servant, the ' dinnick,' as it is called in Devonshire, 
 the German ' Wiedhopf,' which is said to follow its 
 master everywhere (Grimm, D. Myth. p. 787). The 
 latter part of the belief is a piece of Devonshire 
 folk-lore." 
 
 The reference to Grimm in this extract applies 
 accurately only to the first sentence. The trans- 
 formation of the plantain into a hoopoe could hardly 
 have been known to Grimm, for had it been so he 
 would not have failed to notice it. He says, indeed 
 (p. 646), that the hoopoe is a transformed being, but 
 does not tell us what it was before it became a bird. 
 I have searched in Paracelsus for the passage con- 
 cerning plantain, but have not been able to find it. 
 
HOOPOE. MANDRAKE. 203 
 
 The edition of that writer's collected works to which 
 Grimm refers is not in the British Museum. 
 
 At all events there are apparently good grounds 
 for including the hoopoe among the fire-bringers, 
 since, like the wood-pecker, it is said to know how 
 to find the spring-wort (p. 175) ; and, if this fact may- 
 be regarded as proved, it increases the probability 
 that the hoopoe's master belongs also to the same 
 class. 
 
 Analogy would lead us to expect that the plants 
 which were supposed to be incoi-porations of the 
 thunderbolt should be able to evince their destruc- 
 tive powers in other ways besides that of paralysing 
 the mind. They ought to be able to destroy life 
 itself, and some of them did in fact give marvellous 
 proof of their power to blast and kill. It was mani- 
 fested in the groans and shrieks of the mandrake 
 when it was pulled out of the ground — sounds so 
 horrible that neither man nor beast could hear them 
 and live. Extraordinary precautions were therefore 
 necessary in gathering the plant. It was not to be 
 touched with iron, but a circle was to be cut round 
 it with that metal that it might not run away, and 
 the ground was to be dug and loosened with an 
 ivory tool, until the root remained attached only by 
 a few fibres. This being done, the daring operator, 
 
204 MISTLETOE. 
 
 whose ears had previously been well stopped with 
 wool or wax, tied one end of a string round the 
 plant, and the other round the neck or tail of a 
 black dog that had not a single white hair, and that 
 had been brought fasting to the spot. The man 
 then moved away to some distance, showed the dog 
 food, and ran for his life. The dog ran after him, 
 pulled up the root, and fell dead, killed in an instant 
 by the unearthly yell of the mandrake as if by a 
 stroke of lightninar.* 
 
 The death-dealing power of the mistletoe is seen 
 in the legend of the bright day-god Baldr. Freyja 
 had taken an oath of all created things that they 
 would never hurt that " whitest" and most beloved 
 of the gods ; but there was " one little shoot that 
 groweth east of the Valhalla, so small and feeble that 
 she forgot to take its oath." It was the mistletoe, 
 and with a branch of that feeble plant, flung by the 
 hand of the blind Hodr, was Baldr struck dead. 
 
 That such death-dealing power belonged to the 
 lightning plants from the earliest times appears from 
 a Vedic incantation which Kuhn has translated."]* 
 It is addressed to a branch of an asvattha which had 
 grown iTpon a khadira, or Mimosa catechu, and 
 
 * D. M. 1151-5. 
 
 t It is found in the Atharvaveda, iii., 6. 
 
DEATH-DEALING ASVATTHA. 205 
 
 ■which was intended for hostile purposes. The in- 
 cantation runs thus : — 
 
 " A man from man has it sprung, an asvattha 
 upon the khadira ; may it kill my foes whom I hate, 
 and who hate me. Do thou, asvattha, tear to 
 pieces the foes . . . thou who art the companion 
 of the Vritra-slayer Indra, of Mitra and Varuna. As 
 thou, asvattha, dost smash and shatter in the great 
 sky sea, so smite all those whom I hate and who hate 
 me. Thou who marchest victorious as a strong steer, 
 through thee, asvattha, may we vanquish the foes ; 
 may Niniti bind, asvattha, with the indissoluble 
 bonds of death my foes whom I hate and who hate 
 me. As thou, asvattha, ascendest the trees and 
 makest them subject to thee, so cleave my foes' 
 heads and be victorious. Down may they go like 
 a ship torn from its mooring, chased away . . . 
 may they not return. Forth I drive them with 
 mind, and with thoughts, and with prayer, forth 
 drive we them with branch of the asvattha tree." 
 
 There cannot be the least doubt that the power 
 here ascribed to the asvattha was derived from the 
 lightning it contained ; and hence the whole passage 
 has served perfectly, in Dr. Kuhn's hands, to explain 
 for the first time a very remarkable legend and 
 custom of ancient Scandinavia. At the battle of 
 
206 ODIN HAVE YOU ALL! 
 
 Fyrisvall, King Erich turned towards Odin's temple, 
 and prayed for victory over his opponent Styrbjorn, 
 in return for which the god should have his Hfe 
 after ten winters. When that term had elapsed the 
 king would cheerfully quit the earth for Valhalla. 
 Soon afterwards there appeared a stalwart man, 
 easily known as Odin by his one eye and his broad- 
 brimmed hat, who put a reed * into Erich's hand, 
 and bade him hurl it over the heads of the enemy, 
 with the words, "Odin have you all!" The king 
 did so, the reed became a spear as it flew through 
 the air, and Styrbjorn and his men were struck 
 blind. From this event arose the Norse custom of 
 devoting the enemy to death by hurling over their 
 heads a spear consecrated to Odin, of received from 
 him, and crying out, " Dismayed is your king, fallen 
 your duke, sinking your banner, wroth with you is 
 Odin." t 
 
 The analogy between this Norse usage and the 
 ancient Roman mode of declaring war has been 
 remarked by Simrock and others. The Roman 
 fetialis advanced to the enemy's boundary, and 
 along with the declaration of war he hurled across 
 
 * In the original, reyrsproti, ' reed-sprout.' " One is almost 
 tempted," says Kuhn, "to read 'reynisproti,' a rowan twig." 
 t Mannhardt, p. 162. 
 
ROMAN DECLARATION OF WAR. 207 
 
 it a bloodstained spear, burned at the furtber end 
 or tipped with iron. It is to be inferred that this 
 spear must have been one dedicated to Jove the 
 Thunderer, fcr that god was specially invoked on the 
 occasion along with Janus Quirinus (the commoner 
 reading is Juno, Quirine). The other attributes of 
 the fetialis also point the same way, particularly the 
 Jupiter lapis, or Jove-stone, which was plainly the 
 thunderbolt, for so was the Thunderer's weapon 
 often represented among the Romans as well as 
 among the Germanic nations. The same inference 
 is increased in force by an ancient war custom of 
 the Greeks.* Instead of trumpeters they employed 
 in early times priests of Ares, called " fire-bearers " 
 {irvp^opoi). These men advanced from either army 
 into the space between, each bearing a lighted torch 
 which he flung forwards, and then retii-ed out of 
 danger. This torch was another and stUl more self- 
 evident symbol of the lightning. 
 
 In Odin, the old storm-god, are combined the 
 characteristics of Eudra, the father of the Maruts 
 or winds, and of Indra. His ashen spear Gungnir, 
 like Indra's asvattha spear, returns of itself to his 
 hand every time he throws it. Its nature is that 
 of the lightning, a fact which was fully manifested 
 * Described by the Scholiast on Euripides, Phcen. 1386. 
 
208 ODIN'S VICTIM. 
 
 when it smote Styrbjorn and his army with 
 blindness. 
 
 Human sacrifices were offered to Odin, and hang- 
 ing was a favourite mode of despatching the victims. 
 Vikarr, king of Agdhir, being wind-bound on a 
 cmise, Ms followers cast lots that they might learn 
 the will of Odin. The god required that one of the 
 warriors should be sacrificed to him, and the lots 
 being cast again, the choice fell upon King Vikarr. 
 That night Odin, in the form of an old man who 
 called himself Hrossharsgrani {%. e., Horsehair-beard) 
 commissioned the gigantic hero Starkadhr to accom- 
 plish his will, and gave him his spear, which to 
 human eyes appeared but a reed. Next morning 
 the king's councillors resolved to proceed to the 
 sacrifice, but to perform it only in a typical and 
 harmless fashion. Starkadhr fastened one end of a 
 calf's gut to the top of a pine saphng that grew near 
 an old stump, and telhng the king that the gallows 
 and the noose were ready, begged he would mount 
 the stump ; no harm would happen to him. The 
 king complied and put the noose round his own 
 neck, whereupon Starkadhr hurled the reed at him, 
 exclaiming, " Now give I thee to Odin." Instantly 
 the reed became a spear and pierced Vikarr through 
 and through ; the old stump broke down under 
 
ODIAS SPEAR. 209 
 
 his feet; the sapling shot up into a tall tree, 
 dragging the king with it; the calf's gut turned 
 into a stout rope ; and thus Odin received his victim. 
 From this mode of sacrifice, and from the fact that 
 Odin himself hung for nine days and nights on 
 Yggdrasil, he was surnamed god of the hanged, 
 gallows lord, gallows ruler. Hence also the super- 
 stition, very common in Germany, and not extinct in 
 England, that every suicide by hanging produces a 
 storm. Odin comes with his wild host to carry off 
 the soul of his self-immolated victim. 
 
 Odin's spear figures in popular tales, retaining 
 its marvellous qualities, but its form is necessarily 
 changed ; for the spear has long been an obsolete 
 weapon, and the costume and stage properties, so to 
 speak, of popular tales are always those of the 
 narrator's own times. Thus the spear of the ancient 
 god becomes for later generations a stick which can 
 send heads flying from their bodies at a touch, or 
 make whole armies come and vanish in a moment. 
 This is still grand enough, and some at least of the 
 actors in such tales are persons of royal race ; but in 
 the course of time the story descends from tragedy 
 or heroic drama to low comedy and farce. The 
 actors in it are ordinary workmen and peasants who 
 want no armies to settle their quarrels with one 
 
210 MAGIC CUDGELS. 
 
 another. A good sound cudgelling does the business 
 quite -well enough, and so the divine spear is found 
 in its last stage of transformation as the " stick 
 out of the bag" of a well-known story.* A lad sets 
 out on a journey, having in his possession three 
 wonderful things, — a buck-goat that spits gold, a 
 hen that lays golden eggs, and a table that covers 
 itself, without anybody's help, with the choicest food. 
 A rascally innkeeper steals these treasures from the 
 lad, and puts worthless trash in their place ; but a 
 stick, that jumps out of a bag in which it is usually 
 concealed, goes to work of its own accord upon the 
 innkeeper's back, and with such effect that the lad 
 gets his own again. The stick then returns of itself 
 to its owner's hand. 
 
 The table in this story is the all-nourishing cloud. 
 The buck-goat is another emblem of the clouds, and 
 the gold it spits is the golden light of the sun that 
 streams through the fleecy coverings of the sky. 
 The hen's golden egg is the sun itself The demon 
 of darkness has stolen these things ; the cloud gives 
 no rain, but hangs dusky in the sky, veiling the 
 light of the sun. Then the lightning spear of the 
 ancient storm-god Odin leaps out from the bag 
 that concealed it (the cloud again), the robber 
 
 • Wolf, I., p. 12. 
 
MAQIO CUDGELS. 211 
 
 falls, the rain patters down, the sun shines once 
 more. 
 
 The asvattha rod of the Atharvaveda incantation 
 and its equivalent, the spear of Odin, are in fact 
 wish-rods especially adapted for bringing victory 
 to their possessor. They have also another comic 
 counterpart in a sort of wish-rod, which serves 
 for administering a drubbing at a distance. With 
 such a hazel implement, cut and prepared with the 
 proper formalities, one has only to lay an old gar- 
 ment on a molehill or on a threshold, name the person 
 intended, and whack away. He will feel every blow 
 as sorely as though he were actually under the stick, 
 and if the old garment is beaten into holes, so will 
 it be with the skin of the absent sufferer. 
 
 p 2 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MYTHIOAl CRINKINS VESSELS, SIEVES, CAULDKONS, AND OTHER UTENSILS 
 — ■WITCHES — 0OW3— HAKES — OATS — NIGHTMAKES. 
 
 The train of thought by which the Aryans and the 
 Greeks were led to the discovery of casks and wine- 
 butts in the clouds (p. 36) could not fail to provide 
 the denizens of the sky with many other utensils, 
 such aa urns and pitchers, cups, drinking-horns, 
 cauldrons, and even sieves. The Grecian Naiads 
 were originally cloud-nymphs, who poui-ed out the 
 raia-water from their urns ; and the sieves in which 
 the Danaids were ultimately condemned to draw 
 water in Tartarus were those which they had used 
 of yore to pour down the mild rain upon the earth. 
 Originally the daughters of Danaus Avere cloud- 
 goddesses, and were honoured for having enriched 
 Argos with springs, and changed its arid territory 
 into a well-watered land (p. 142).* The goddess 
 Holda has been seen in the Harz going up a steep 
 hill with a bottomless pail of gold from which water 
 
 * Strabo, p. o. 371. 
 
SIEVES m THE SKY, 23 3 
 
 flowed incessantly ; and Meister Pfriem is described 
 in one of Grimm's popular tales as entering heaven,, 
 where he finds two angels engaged in drawing water 
 in a perforated vessel. There was even a tribe of 
 water-spirits, the Draci of Languedoc, old cloud-gods, 
 like the rest of their order, whose hands were said 
 to be perforated like colanders* Water poured 
 through a sieve was so obvious and apt an image 
 of the rain, that, other primitive peoples, as well 
 as the Aryans, could hardly have failed to seize it. 
 The Finnish goddess Untar sends aU kinds of fine 
 vapours down upon the earth through a sieve. 
 
 The connection of the sieve with the clouds and 
 the rain accounts for much that even Grimm was 
 forced to leave unexplained, when he summed up 
 the mythology of the subject with the unsktisfactoiy 
 remark, that " the sieve appears to be a sacred archaic 
 implement to which marvellous powers were attri- 
 buted." •f It possessed those powers because, like 
 the chark, it was invented and used by gods. The 
 Greeks, Romans, Germans, and Slaves employed it 
 in divination and in solemn ordeals. " The vulgar 
 in many parts," says Brockett,;): " have an abomin- 
 able practice of using a riddle and a pair of scissors 
 
 » Liebrecht, p. 185. + D. M. 1066. 
 
 X Glossary of North Country Words, o. t. 
 
214 SIEVE. 
 
 in divination. If they have had anything stolen 
 from them the riddle and shears are sure to be 
 tesorted to. A similar mode of discovering thieves 
 or others suspected of any crime prevailed among 
 the Greeks (Potter's Gr. Antiq. i., 352). In North- 
 umberland, young people turn the riddle for the 
 purpose of amusing themselves v?ith the foohsh idea 
 of raising their lovers. It is done between open 
 doors at midnight, and in the dark." 
 
 There v^as extant in Pliny's time a spell (precatio) 
 by means of which Tuccia, an unchaste vestal, car- 
 ried water in a sieve. In one of Grimm's popular 
 tales a good boy performs the same feat without 
 spilling a 4rop ; and it is a Hindu belief that an 
 innocent pei'son can confute his accusers by holding 
 water in lis hand in the shape of a solid ball* 
 
 The ancient Poles presaged victory from water 
 carried in a sieve. When Conrad made war upon 
 bis brother Wlodislas in 1209, the latter had with 
 him a wise woman — a jjythoness, the chronicler calls 
 her — who marched before his troops carrying in a 
 sieve water drawn from a river. It did not run 
 through, and from that portent she promised them 
 victory. But it was a false prophecy, and she herself 
 fell at the first onset.-f 
 
 * D.M. p. 1066. + Ibid. 
 
SJEVa. 215 
 
 A sieve, as a symbol of the clouds, is used as an 
 appropriate vehicle by witches, nightmares, and other 
 elfish beings in their excursions over sea and land. 
 " But in a sieve I'll thither sail," says the first witch 
 in " Macbeth " (act 1, sc. 3). Stories of voyages 
 performed in this way are still common enough in 
 Germany. A man, for instance, was going through 
 a field of corn, found a sieve on the path, and took 
 it with him. He had not gone far when a young 
 lady hurried after him, and hunted up and down as 
 if looking for something, ejaculating all the time, 
 "How my children are crying in England!" The 
 man thought he would lay down the s Ae and see 
 what would follow ; but hardly had.haHpne so ere 
 sieve and lady had vanished.* ^^^I^B^ case of 
 another damsel of the same species uW usual ex- 
 clamation is thus varied : " My sieve rim ; my sieve 
 rim ! how my mother is calling me in England ! " "I" 
 At the sound of her mother's voice the daughter 
 immediately thinks of her sieve, as an earthly lady 
 would call for her carriage when she was in haste to 
 set out on a journey. 
 
 Seeing that the nectar and ambrosia of the 
 Olympic gods were what mortals caU rain-water, 
 
 * Kuhn, u. Schwartz, NdJ. 262. 
 t Wolf, Zeitschiift, ii., 141. 
 
213 HORNS. 
 
 we know what to think of the golden urns and 
 beakers of their cupbearers Ganymede and Iris. 
 These vessels must have conae from the same work- 
 shop, and been of the same material, as the golden 
 cup which was given to Hercules by the sun-god 
 Helios, and which also served the hero as a ship to 
 convey him across the ocean, in like manner as the 
 Apas (p. 21) and other heavenly navigators were 
 borne in their cloud-ships over the waters on high. 
 Out of the same plastic material were formed the 
 horn of the river-god Acheloos, and the magic horn 
 of the nymph Amaltheia, for which Acheloos is said 
 to have ■changed his own when the latter was 
 broken ofin^ his combat with Hercules. Accord- 
 ing to anlthpr legend, Amaltheia's horn was one 
 which had oeen lost by the goat of that name that 
 had suckled Zeus, and the god made it a cornucopifx,. 
 Both legends amount to the same thing, the essential 
 fact being that the one horn or the other passed intr 
 the possession of the Naiads or rain-goddesses, in 
 whose hands it became a horn of abundance, for out 
 of it they poured down the rain which is the source 
 of all wealth and plenty. 
 
 The Wishmays or Valkyries, the manes of whose 
 horses dropped dew upon the earth, filled the drink- 
 ing-horns for the gods and the warriors in Odin's 
 
THE OLDEN BURO HOEN. 217 
 
 hall ; and, like them, white maidens, elves, and 
 witches offer full goblets and horns to thankless 
 mortals, who usually run away with the beaker after 
 spilling its contents on the ground. A Count of 
 Oldenburg, when out hunting one day, left his 
 retinue far behind, and pulled up at a mountain 
 called Osenberg. His hard ride had made him 
 thirsty, and as luck would have it, as he stood 
 before the mountain he saw it open, and out 
 came a damsel who presented him with drink in 
 a splendid horn. The Count took the horn in his 
 right hand, tossed its contents over his shoulder, and, 
 vaulting into the saddle, galloped away at full speed. 
 When far off he could still hear the damsel's wait- 
 ings, and when he looked back he sa'vsr the mormtain 
 open again and the damsel disappear within it. 
 Some of. the drink he had thrown away had fallen 
 on his horse, and all the hair was singed off the spot 
 it had touched. The Count took the horn home, and 
 after being long preserved in Oldenburg in memory 
 of the wonderful adventure, it was at last transferred 
 to the Hanoverian Museum. One thing especially 
 curious in this horn was, that its point was broken 
 off, and all the gold and silversmiths tried in vain to 
 mend it, for it was of a metal unknown to any man.* 
 
 • Kulin und Scliwartz, Ndd. p. 280. 
 
218 MLFIN GOBLETS. 
 
 The liquid that singed off the horse's hair must 
 have been stronar drink, brewed in the storm, and 
 with a good dash of lightning in it. A Danish ballad 
 tells how Svend Falling drank from a horn presented 
 to him by elfin women, and found himself, in conse- 
 quence of the draught, possessed of the strength of 
 twelve men,* and with an appetite in proportion. 
 
 It is related by William of Newbridge that a 
 countryman belonging to a village near his own 
 birthplace was returning home late at night, and 
 tipsy, from a visit to a friend in a neighbouring 
 village, when he heard a sound of singing and 
 merriment within a hill. Peeping through an 
 open door in the side of the hill, he saw a nu- 
 merous company of both sexes feasting in a large 
 and finely-lighted hall, and a cup was handed to 
 him by one of the attendants. He took .it, threw 
 out the contents, and made off with the cup, pur- 
 sued by the whole party of revellers ; but, like Tam 
 o' Shanter, he was saved by the speed of his mare, 
 and got safe home with his booty. The cup, which 
 was of unknown material and of unusual form and 
 colour, was presented to King Henry the First. 
 
 The most celebrated of these elfin drinking ves- 
 sels is the Luck of Edenhall. " It is stiU currently 
 
 * D.M. 345, u. 
 
ELFIN GOBLETS. 219 
 
 believed that he who has the courage to rush upon a 
 fairy festival, and snatch from them their drinking 
 cup or horn, shall find it prove to him a cornucopia 
 of good fortune, if he can bear it across a running 
 stream. A goblet is still carefully preserved in 
 Edenhall, Cumberland, which is supposed to have 
 been seized at a banquet of the elves by one of the 
 ancient family of Musgrave, or, as others say, by one 
 of their domestics in the manner above described. 
 The fairy train vanished, crying aloud : 
 
 ' If that glass do break or fall. 
 Farewell the luck of Edenhall !'"* 
 
 The Luck is described by Mr. Walter White as a 
 tall enamelled glass, apparently of Venetian work- 
 manship of the tenth century. It is supposed to 
 have been a chalice belonging to St. Cuthbert's 
 ruined chapel in the neighbourhood of the hall. 
 
 The reason why fairies, white women, and witches 
 offered drink to mortals has been clearly explained 
 by Grimm.-f- It was for the purpose of making those 
 who drank it remain with them and forget all other 
 women. The fairy beverage was the same as that 
 quaffed in Valhalla, and which was called, among 
 
 * Sir W. Scott's " Minstrelsy," ii., 130. 
 t D. M. p. 1055. 
 
220 THE DRINK OF THE IMMORTALS. 
 
 other names, ominnisol, i. e., the ale or drink of 
 forgetfulness, for the mortal who has tasted it at 
 once forgets the earth. The hero Sigurd received 
 from Grimhild a draught of ominnisol, and forthwith 
 forgot Brynhild, and Godrun had to drink of the 
 same oblivious potion before she could forget Sigurd 
 and choose AtH. The affinity of meaning between 
 the words ominnisol and nectar has been pointed 
 out by Kuhn.* Nectar signifies a destroyer of 
 earthly recollection and earthly existence,-f- for 
 which very reason it is equivalent to ambrosia 
 (Sanscrit amartyd, immortal), and the two words 
 are used interchangeably. The termination of 
 earthly life is the beginning of immortality. 
 Thetis (Iliad xix., 38) preserved the body of Pa- 
 troclus from decay with nectar and ambrosia. In 
 like manner it is said of the haoma plant (p. 137), 
 " Where grows the hoip, the preparer of corpses, 
 with which coi-pses are put in due order, and the 
 subsequent bodies are made." | 
 
 The identity of the heavenly soma with the cloud- 
 water, and the close connection in which fire and 
 
 * Herabk. 17.'!, n. 
 
 f Ne'/cTap is formed from the same root as i/eic-pSs, veK-vs, Lafc. nex, 
 nec-is, nec-are. 
 
 t Spiegel, Pfasigramm. 170, 6. Kulin, Herab. p. 175. 
 
BREWING IN THE SKY. 221 
 
 soma are brought in various Aryan legends, prove 
 that the drink of the gods was conceived to be a 
 product of the storm. It appears also that the 
 earthly soma was boiled or brewed before it was 
 fermented,* whence it must have followed as a 
 matter of course that its divine counterpart should 
 be supposed to undergo the same process. Hence 
 it is manifest that we cannot claim for any of the 
 later ages the credit of having invented the meta- 
 phor involved in the common saying, " It's brewing 
 a storm." In that phrase, as in many others, we 
 only repeat the thoughts of our primaeval ancestors. 
 In Germany the mists that gather about the lofty 
 mountain-tops before a storm are accounted for in 
 like manner, as if they were steam from the brewing 
 or boiling in which dwarfs, elves, or witches were 
 engaged. Such modes of expression, according to 
 the dictionary of the brothers Grimm, are of ex- 
 treme antiquity ; and Kuhn has identified the word 
 •hrew itself with the Sanscrit hrajj, which is applied 
 in the Rig Veda to the roasting of barley for an in- 
 gTedient in soma-wort, and is very closely related to 
 the word Bhrigu (p. 44). On tracing the word hrajj 
 still further back, Dr. Kuhn finds reason to think 
 that it originally comprised within its meaning the 
 
 * Kig Veda, iv., 27, 7. 
 
222 BREWING PANS. 
 
 action of the beings who brewed and lightened in 
 the storm, namely the Bhrigus, the genii of the 
 'lightning, who in one passage of the Veda are 
 expressly designated as yielders of soma. 
 
 If the Bhrigus or their associates were brewers 
 they must needs have had brewing utensils, at the 
 very least they must have had a brewing-pot, and 
 therefore we are justified in referring back the origin 
 of the witch's cauldron to the remotest antiquity. 
 Perhaps the oldest example of such a vessel of 
 which there is any distinct record is the cauldron 
 which Thor carried off from the giant Hymir, to 
 brew drink for the gods at Oegir's harvest feast. It 
 was five miles deep, and modern expounders of the 
 Eddie myths are of opinion that it was in fact the 
 vaulted sky. 
 
 Cauldrons or brewing-pans figure very promi- 
 nently in tales of the elfin race. When the 
 departing Zwergs pay their boat fare or bridge toll 
 in money, or when they arc caught stealing peas in 
 a field and have to pay ransom, the coin is almost 
 always dropped by them into a large brewing-pan 
 which is placQd expressly for the purpose. Not far 
 from the village of Scharfenberg, near Brilon, is the 
 Hollenhoel, a cave formerly inhabited by the HoUen 
 or Holden (p. 135). There they had all sorts of 
 
MOTHER LUDLAM. 223 
 
 utensils which they readily lent to the people of 
 the village. Among other things they had a large 
 brewing-pan, which the villagers often borrowed 
 when they wanted to brew beer, and when they 
 brought it back they just left a little beer in it by 
 way of thanks. It happened one day that ' some 
 unmannerly fellows saw the cauldron in the cave, 
 where it had been left by one who had borrowed it. 
 They drank up the beer, and, not content with that, 
 they defiled the cauldron in a most abominable 
 manner. From that time forth no one got the 
 loan of the cauldron again ; the Holden vanished 
 soon after, and not a trace of them remained.* 
 
 The same tale is told of another Holden cave at 
 Velmede, in Westphalia ; and there is a parallel for 
 it in the story of Ludlam's Hole, near Farnham, 
 in Surrey. " Mother Ludlam or Ludlow, a white 
 witch" (the inhabitant of the cave), " kindly assisted 
 her poor neighbours in necessities, by lending them 
 such culinary utensils and household fm-niture as 
 they wanted for particular occasions. The business 
 was thus transacted : the petitioner went into the 
 cave at midnight, turned three times round, and 
 thrice repeated : ' Pray, good Mother Ludlam, lend 
 me such a thing ' (naming the utensil); ' and I will 
 
 • Kuhn, Westf. p. 213. 
 
224 WITCHES. 
 
 return it within two days.' He or she then retired, 
 and coming again early the next morning found at 
 the entrance the requested movable. This inter- 
 course continued a long time, till once a person not 
 returning a large cauldron according to the stipu- 
 lated time, Madam Ludlow was so irritated at this 
 want of punctuality that she refused to take it back 
 when afterwards left in the cavern ; and from that 
 time to this has not accommodated any one with 
 the most trifling loan. The stoiy adds that the 
 cauldron was carried to Waverley Abbey, and, after 
 the dissolution of that monastery, deposited in Tren- 
 sham church."* 
 
 The human witches of Northern Europe are dege- 
 nerate and abhorred representatives of the ancient 
 goddesses and their attendants, who were themselves 
 developments of the primitive conception of the 
 cloud-women ; but witches, even in their degraded 
 state, exhibit a multitude of characteristics by which 
 we can recognise the originals of whom they are 
 but loathsome caricatures. Their alleged Mayday 
 meetings for instance on the Brocken, the Blocks- 
 berg, and at Lucken Hare in the Eildon Hills, are 
 not, as commonly supposed, merely reminiscences of 
 certain popular gatherings in heathen times, but 
 
 • Wonderful Magazine, v. 202. 
 
BESOM. 225 
 
 ■were originally assemblies of goddesses and their 
 retinues, making their customary progress through 
 the land at the opening of the spring, and visible to 
 their believing votaries in the shifting clouds about 
 the summits of the mountains. Even the Mayday 
 night dances of the witches, with the devil for a 
 master of the ceremonies in the shape of a buck- 
 goat, are but coarse representations of weather 
 tokens of the early spring ; they are analogous in all 
 but their ugliness to the dances of the nymphs, led 
 by the goat-footed Pan at the same glad season of 
 the year, amongst the clouds on the windy mountain 
 tops of Arcadia* 
 
 The witch's broom, or besom, appears to be not 
 less ancient than her cauldron, for it is known in 
 the folk-lore of the Hindus as well as in that of 
 the West. " The Asiatic as well as the European 
 witches practise their spells by dancing at midnight, 
 and the principal instrument they use on such oc- 
 casions is a broom." -f- Hence it is tolerably clear 
 that the broom must originally have been supposed, 
 like the sieve, to be used for some purpose or other 
 in the economy of the upper regions. Now it 
 seems that in modern times, besides serving the 
 
 * Schwartz, p. 222. 
 
 + Asiatic An. Kegist. 1801. Miscell. Tracts, p. 91. 
 
 Q 
 
226 BROOM. 
 
 witch as a nag, the implement is intended for 
 sweeping the sky ; for that is a work assigned to 
 its riders, as may be inferred from the prevalent 
 belief in the Harz, that on the 1st of May the 
 witches must dance away all the snow upon the 
 Blocksberg.* The besom is a tjrpe of the winds, 
 and therefore an appropriate utensil in the hands of 
 the witches who are wind-makers and workers in 
 that element. They say in the Mark that if you 
 want a wind you must bum an old broom ; and it 
 is a nautical tradition in Hamburg, that if you have 
 long had a contrary wind, and meet with another 
 ship, you must throw an old broom before it. The 
 wind wiU then chop round and become a good one 
 for you, and a bad one for the other ship.-f- 
 
 The traditional sanctity of the besom is indicated 
 by sundry other superstitions and customs of the 
 Germans and Slaves. For instance : — 
 
 It is well known in England, and also in Germany, 
 that no witch can step over a besom laid along the 
 threshold of the house door on the inside. She will 
 kick it or push it aside before she can enter your 
 house, and by this token you may know her for 
 what she is.| An axe (Thor's weapon) and a broom 
 
 * KuLn, u. Schwartz, Ndd. p. 376. + Ibid. p. 454. 
 
 X Kahu, Westf. p. 28. 
 
BROOM. 227 
 
 are laid crosswise on the inner side of the threshold 
 over which the nurse has to step when she goes out 
 with an infant to have it christened. This is done 
 that the babe may be safe from all the devices of 
 the powers of evil* When the cattle are first 
 driven out to pasture in the spring, a besom made 
 in " the twelve days " is laid on the threshold of 
 their stall, or of the gate of the cattle-yard, and they 
 are made to step over it, by which means they are 
 secured against witchcraft throughout the year.-|- 
 
 At Theden, on the Lenne, on Mayday, birches are 
 set Lip before the houses, and besoms are fastened to 
 them which are made quite white by peeling them.j 
 In several other parts of Westphalia, at the begin- 
 ning of Shrovetide, white besoms with white handles 
 are tied to the cows' horns. The house is afterwards 
 swept with them, and then they are hung up over or 
 near to the cowhouse door.§ 
 
 The custom of going about with burning besoms 
 at Michaelmas is mentioned by Schmitz, pp. 43, 44. || 
 The St. John's fires in the Harz are accompanied 
 with burning besoms which are swung in the air.lT 
 In Voigtland fires are seen on Walpurgis night on 
 
 * 
 
 Kuhn, 
 
 Westf. p. 
 
 34. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 + Kuhn, 
 
 u. Schwartz, Ndd. 
 
 pp. 
 
 410, 
 
 447. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Kuhn, 
 
 Westf. p. 
 
 15G. 
 
 
 
 
 § Ihid. 
 
 P- 
 
 167. 
 
 
 II 
 
 Ibid, r 
 
 1, 99. 
 
 
 
 
 
 11 Ibid. 
 
 P- 
 
 135. 
 Q 
 
 2 
 
228 BESOM. 
 
 most of the hills, and children run about with burn- 
 ing besoms* In the Altenburg territory people go 
 up a hill on "Walpurgis night with all the old 
 besoms they can gather, which they then set on 
 fire, and run about with them, playing all sorts of 
 tricks upon each other. -|- The Czechs of Bohemia do 
 the same thing on St. John's day, and young men 
 and lads are busy for weeks beforehand in collect- 
 ing all the worn-out besoms they can beg or steal 
 for the occasion. They dip them in tar, light them, 
 and ran with them from one bonfire to another, 
 jumping over each of the latter. The burnt stumps 
 of the broom handles are stuck in the cabbage 
 gardens, to preserve the plants from flies and cater- 
 pillars. In some places the lads and lasses toss 
 their burning besoms into the air, and sing a rhyme, 
 in which they ask for a token how many years they 
 have to live. If the besom is still alight when it 
 comes down, and continues to bum on the gi'ound, 
 they expect to live through the year, and they count 
 upon another year of life for every time the experi- 
 ment is repeated with success. | 
 
 The reason is plain why the plague of witches is 
 by aU accounts more severely felt in the dairy than 
 
 * D.M. p. 594. t Kuhn, u. Schwartz, Ndd. p. 377. 
 
 J Kcinsberg-DuriEgsfeld, pp. 307—311. 
 
cows AND WITCHES. 229 
 
 in any other department of rural economy. The 
 Aryan idea, that the rain-clouds were cows, has been 
 well preserved among the Northern nations. Hence 
 it is a common superstition in Germany, that a fire 
 kindled by hghtning can only be extinguished with 
 cow's milk, cow's hair, or cow dung. Read in its 
 natural sense, the proposition is, that flames kindled 
 by heavenly fire can only be quenched by the waters 
 of heaven. It is also a very common opinion that 
 rain and dew, the milk of the heavenly cows, are 
 capable of increasing the milk of earthly cows ; 
 hence a dewy May morning is welcomed as giving 
 promise of a good dairy year. On such a morning 
 witches go into the fields, brush the dew from the 
 grass, and collect it in linen cloths, which they 
 squeeze into their milk churns, to the manifest 
 increase of the butter. In North Germany it is 
 customary, when the cows are driven out to pasture 
 for the first time in spring, to tie a green maybush 
 to the taU of the foremost cow, that she may gather 
 up the dew with it, and so yield plenty of milk.* 
 On the same occasion the farm-wives in Aberdeen- 
 shire tie a red thread (p. 146j round the cows' tails, 
 to preserve the animals from witchcraft, and German 
 herdsmen lay a woman's red apron, or a broad axe 
 
 • Mannhardt, p. 89. 
 
230 COWS AND WITCHES. 
 
 covered with a -woman's red stocking, before the 
 threshold of the cow-house, and make the animals 
 step over it. 
 
 But it is no easy matter to guard against the 
 secret practices of the witch. There was a farmer in 
 Caseburg whose cows gave no mUk, though h« fed 
 them ever so well, so that at last he sent for a wise 
 man to see what he could do with them. The wise 
 man went into the cow-house, looked at the cows, 
 and saw at once what was the matter. They were 
 bewitched. So he went about the village to look for 
 the witch, and at last he found the neighbour's wife 
 standing in her own cow-house, at the wall nearest 
 to the farmer's. She had stuck a broom handle 
 iuto the wall, with a bucket hanging from it, and was 
 milking the broom stick, which gave milk like a 
 natural udder. Thus, then, this witch was caught 
 in the fact. The wise man threatened her terribly, 
 and from that day forth the farmer had no cause to 
 complain of his cows.* In Scotland, " witches were 
 supposed to have the power of supplying themselves 
 with milk from their neighbours' cattle by a very 
 simple though insidious process. Procuring a small 
 quantity of hair from the tail of every cow within 
 her reach, the vile wretch twisted it up into a rope, 
 
 • Kuhn und Schwartz, Ndd. p. 24. 
 
cows AlS'D WITCHES. 231 
 
 on which she tied a knot for each cow. At this she 
 tugged in the usual manner of milking a cow, pro- 
 nouncing at the same time some unhallowed iacan- 
 tation, at which the milk would stream abundantly 
 into her pail. The following is a verse said to have 
 been used on such occasions, though it seems of 
 larger application : — 
 
 ' Meares' milk and deer's milk, 
 And every beast that bears milk, 
 Between St. Johnston and Dundee, 
 Come a' to me, eome a' to me.' 
 
 It was believed that some cows of uncommon sagacity 
 knew when this process was going on, and would 
 give warning of it by lowing. An acute old woman 
 could easily distinguish this low from any other, as 
 it bore a peculiar expression of pain. The proper 
 antidote was to lay a twig of rowan-tree, bound with 
 a scarlet thread, across the threshold of the byre, or 
 fix a stalk of clover, having four leaves, to the stall. 
 To discover the witch, the goodman's breeks might 
 be put upon the horns of the cow, one leg upon each 
 horn, when for certain, she, being let loose, woidd run 
 straight to the door of the guilty party."* 
 
 As Indra used to milk the cloud cows and chum 
 the milk lakes and fountains with the thunderbolt, 
 
 * Robert Chambers, " Pop. Ehjmes," p. 111. 
 
232 COWS AND WITCHES. 
 
 SO did Thor. The German god's fiery weapon was 
 often represented as an axe,* and hence it is a 
 customary thing with witches to draw milk from 
 the handle of an axe stuck in a dooi-post.-|- They 
 stir the waters of a fountain about with a stake, and 
 bring out of it pats of the finest and sweetest butter ; 
 or, if they like, they can produce thunder and light- 
 ning by the same process. A httle girl was seen 
 paddling with a stick in a fountain, and was asked 
 what she was doing. " Oh," said she, " I am doing 
 what mother does, you know. She takes a stick and 
 turns it round and round in the fountain, and then 
 there comes a storm." \ 
 
 When cows go dry, their udders are stroked 
 with a belemnite that they may fill again. § 
 Belemnites are well-known fossils of a conical 
 form, and are called thunderbolts by the country 
 people in Germany, as well as by the workmen in 
 the chalk-pits of Lewes and Dover ; for it is an old 
 tradition that they are actually missiles shot down 
 from the thunder-cloud. In Sweden they are called 
 smordubbar, i. e., butter-beater. Their Greek name 
 
 * An Anglo-Saxon poem, quoted by KemLle, says that tbe thunder 
 tlireslies with a fiery axe : 
 
 £e tliunor hit thryseeJh mid thtere fyrenan secxe. 
 t D.M. 1025. i Mannhardt, p. 195. § Ibid. 
 
cows AND WITCHES. 233 
 
 signifies a missile, and was applied to certain stones 
 (fossils?) resembling arrow-heads. In Swabia and 
 Switzerland the cows are milked through a per- 
 forated stone, which is believed to have fallen from 
 the clouds, and is therefore called cowstone (kuhstein). 
 In Holstein the churn-dash is made of rowan wood, 
 and in Carinthia a red cloth is laid under the churn 
 when it is in use, to prevent the milk from being 
 bewitched and yielding no butter. For witches are 
 not content with stealing the produce of their neigh- 
 bours' cows, but delight in turning good milk into 
 blue or bloody, and their glosing speeches when they 
 enter a house endanger all the work of the dairy, 
 and hinder the butter from coming in the chura* 
 There are certain Sundays and holidays when these 
 wicked hags go to church, and though they seem to 
 be dressed like other women, people who are in pos- 
 session of certain talismans, such as an egg laid on 
 " Green Thursday" (formerly sacred to Thor), may see 
 that they wear churns or milk -pails on their heads_ 
 The fact is well known in Denmark and in Germany. -j- 
 Giraldus Cambrensis j says that in Wales, Ireland, 
 and Scotland, it was an old complaint, and a common 
 
 * D.M. 1025. 
 
 + D.M. 1032. Euhn, u. Schwartz, Kdd. p. 378. 
 
 J Topogr. Hiber. 2, I'J. 
 
234 HARE. 
 
 one in his own day, that certain old crones turned 
 themselves into hares, and in that shape sucked the 
 cows. The same complaint is still rife in those three 
 countries. A certain Scotch witch " has been seen 
 a hundred times milking the cows in the shape of a 
 hare." * This sort of thing appears to be peculiarly 
 Celtic ; at least I cannot call to mind any record of 
 its occurrence among other races, although witches 
 of German, as well as those of Celtic, descent are 
 known to affect the forms of hares and cats above 
 all other animals. The goddess who represents 
 Freyja in Lower Saxony is attended by hares (p. 
 129), two of them acting as her trainbearers, whilst 
 others carry lights before her. Another form of 
 Frejrja walks the fields in Aargau at night, accom- 
 panied by a silver-grey hare.f Mannhardt even 
 asserts that this animal is reputed to be a fire and 
 soul bringer, that many "baby fountains" (kinder- 
 briinnen) are named after it, and that in some places 
 children are said to come out of the hare's form. J 
 The hare is no doubt mythically connected with 
 the phenomena of the sky, but upon what natural 
 grounds it has been credited with such meteoric 
 relations is a point not yet determined. I incline 
 
 • AthensEum, Nov. 1S46. t Mannhardt, p. 303. 
 
 t Ibid. p. 283. 
 
HABE. 235 
 
 to think it will be found to lie, in part at least, in 
 the habits which the animal displays about the time 
 of the vernal equinox, and which have given rise 
 to the popular saying, " as mad as a March hare." 
 
 There are some local customs that seem to indicate, 
 however obscurely, that the hare, like the serpent 
 among the Celts, was anciently regarded as a promi- 
 nent actor in the celestial changes peculiar to that 
 season. At Easter, in Swabia and in Hesse, a nest is 
 made of moss, a hare is set upon it, and the children 
 are sent to look for the eggs that the hare has laid. * 
 Now it was the custom of the Parsees to distribute 
 red eggs at their spring festival ;f the Easter eggs 
 of the Germanic and Slave nations are indisputably 
 emblems of the renovated sun, and when we find 
 them thus associated with the hare, we may be 
 sure that there once was a reason for the venerable 
 joke. "Last year," says Schwartz, J "I heard them 
 say in the Saxon mountains, ' the Easter hare brings 
 the Easter eggs,' " and Friedreich § states that iu 
 many districts these eggs are made into cakes in the 
 form of a hare. Leoprechting mentions the same 
 practice as common in the Lechrain. || In England, 
 
 • Meier, Gebranohe, No. 65. Wolf, Zeitechrift, i. 175. 
 
 t Schwartz, p. 229. X P- 229. 
 
 § Symbolik der Natur, p. 692. II P- ITS. 
 
236 HARE. CAT. 
 
 too, we find some evidence of a connection between 
 Easter hares, and Easter eggs. " They have a singular 
 custom at Coleshill, in the county of Warwick, that 
 if the young men of the town can catch a hare and 
 bring it to the parson of the parish, before ten o'clock 
 on Easter Monday, the parson is bound to give them 
 a calf's head, a hundred of eggs for their breakfast, 
 and a groat in money." * 
 
 The question why the chariot of the goddess Freyja 
 was drawn by cats, and why Holda was attended by 
 maidens riding on cats, or themselves disguised in 
 feline form, is easily solved. Like the lynx, and the 
 owl of PaUas Athene, the cat owes its celestial 
 honours above all to its eyes, that gleam in the dark 
 like fire, but the belief in its supernatural powers may 
 very probably have been corroborated by the common 
 observation that the cat, like the stormy boar, is a 
 weatherwise animal. Pigs, as everybody knows, see 
 the wind ; in Westphalia they smell it.-j- Good wea- 
 ther may generally be expected when the cat washes 
 herself, but bad when she licks her coat against the 
 grain, or washes her face over her eai-, or sits with 
 her tail to the fire. In Germany, if it rains when 
 women have a large washing on hand, it is a sign 
 that the cats have a spite against them, because they 
 
 * Brand. t Kuhn, Westf. ii. 93. 
 
CAT. 237 
 
 have not treated the animals well ; an enemy to cats 
 may reckon upon it that he will be carried to his 
 grave in wind and rain ;* and in Holland, if the wea- 
 ther is rainy on a wedding-day, the saying is that 
 the bride has neglected to feed the cat.-f" Seeing 
 that these sly creatures know so much of the weather, 
 and are more than suspected of having a share-'in 
 making it, nothing can be more unwise than to pro- 
 voke them, as English sailors know very well. They 
 do not much hke to see cats on board, but least of 
 all do they like to see them unusually frisky, for 
 then they say " the cat has a gale of wind in her tail." 
 An infallible recipe for raising a storm is to throw 
 a cat overboard.:}: The presence of a dead hare on 
 board ship is also said to bring bad weather. § 
 
 Cats, though inveterate milk-stealers, very rarely 
 rob the dairy in any but the natural way ; on the 
 other hand, witch-cats have a great hankering after 
 beer, a liquor into which no canny puss will dip her 
 whiskers. Witches are adepts in the art of brewing 
 (p. 221), and therefore fond of making parties to 
 taste what their neighbours brew. It appears that 
 on these occasions they always masquerade as cats, 
 and what they steal they consume on the spot. 
 
 « Mannhardt, p. 90. + " Notes and Queries," x. 184. 
 
 J " Choice Notes," p. 160. § Ibid. 
 
238 CAT. NIGHTMARE. 
 
 There was a countryman whose beer was all drunk 
 up by night whenever he brewed, so that at last he 
 resolved for once to sit up aU night and watch. 
 Well, as he was standing by his brewing copper, up 
 came a great lot of cats, and he called to them, 
 " Come, puss, puss, come warm you a bit.'' So they 
 all squatted in a great ring round the fire as if to 
 warm themselves. After they had sat there for a 
 while, he asked them if the water was hot. " Just 
 on the boil," said they, and as they spoke he dipped 
 his long-handled pail in the wort, and soused the 
 whole company with it. They all vanished at once ; 
 but on the following day his wife had a terribly 
 scalded face, and then he knew who it was that had 
 always drunk up his beer.* 
 
 This story appears to be widely spread. I know it 
 to be current among the Flemish-speaking natives of 
 Belgium. 
 
 The nightmare, also, often appears as a cat. A 
 joiner in Biihl, who was much plagued with the 
 nightmare, at last saw it steal into his room in that 
 shape about midnight. Having stopped iip the hole 
 thuiligh which the cat had come in, he caught the 
 animal, and nailed it by one paw to the floor. Next 
 morning, instead of a cat, it was a handsome naked 
 
 * Kulin u. Schwartz, NJd. p. 287. 
 
NIGHTMARE. 239 
 
 woman he found, with a nail driven through her 
 hand. He married her, and they had three children ; 
 but one day he uncovered the hole he had stopped 
 up ; she escaped through it instantly in the shape of 
 a cat, and never returned* 
 
 There are a great number of cases on record in 
 which German nightmares have been caught by 
 stopping up the hole through which they had 
 entered, and either striking a light or waiting till 
 day, when the nightmare is always found in human 
 form, and naked, like Tamlane in the old ballad. 
 The sequel of the story is almost always the same 
 as in that of the joiner of Biihl, except that the 
 departing mahrt, or marte, often makes some excla- 
 mation about England, and that in many instances 
 she comes back every Saturday evening, but invi- 
 sible, and brings clean hnen for her husband and 
 children. 
 
 In a village near Eiesenburg, in East Prussia, there 
 was a girl, who, unknown to herself, was every night 
 transfoi-med into a black eat. In the morning she 
 used to feel exhausted as after a heavy dream ; but 
 the fact was that in her transformed state she aJsed 
 to go to her betrothed lover and scratch and torment 
 him. One night he caught the cat and tied it up in 
 
 • Baader Volkssagen, Ko. 136. 
 
240 NWHTMAEE. 
 
 a sack, in which he found next morning no cat, but 
 his naked sweetheart. The parson of the parish 
 cured her.* 
 
 In standard German the nightmare is called Alp, 
 i. e., Elf It has many German provincial names, 
 the most cun-ent of which is Mahrt, Marte, or 
 Mahr, different forms of a word which has no rela- 
 tion to the equine species, but is identical with the 
 Sanscrit Marut (p. 17). Sometimes the nightmare 
 appears as a mouse, a weasel, or a toad, but never, 
 I believe, as a horse or mare, except in Fuseli's well- 
 known engraving, which must have been designed 
 after one of those suppers of half-raw pork from 
 which the artist was wont to draw inspiration. It 
 is a bit of false etymology embodied in a correspond- 
 ing style of art. 
 
 The nightmare, or night-hag,-f is equestrian, not 
 equine. It is an old story in England, and still is 
 common in Germany, that they infest stables at 
 night and mount the horses, which are found 
 sweating in their stalls in the morning as after a 
 hard ride. :j: These riders, in all other respects iden- 
 
 * Tettau und Temme, Ostpreussen, p. 274. 
 
 t Hag, Anglo-Saxon hcegesse, is the German Jiexe, witch, a word as 
 applicable to a young and comely woman as to an ugly old crone. 
 t Brand, iii. 147, 
 
VALKYSS. 241 
 
 tical witli the Mahrts, are in some parts of Germany 
 called Walriderske, i. e., Valkyi's. In some of the 
 tales that are told of them, they still retain their old 
 divine nature ; in others they are brought down to 
 the common level of mere earthly witches. If they 
 ride now in stables, without locomotion, it is because 
 they swept of old through the air on their divine 
 coursers. Now they steal by night to the beds of 
 hinds and churls ; but there was a time when they 
 descended from Valhalla to conceive, in the embrace 
 of a mortal, the demigod whom they afterwards 
 accompanied to the battle-field, to bear bim thence 
 to the hall of Odin. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE WEREWOLF. 
 
 The werewolf is so called from the Anglo-Saxon 
 we/r (Lat. vir) " man" and wolf. The word corre- 
 sponds exactly to the Greek lycanthropos, Italian 
 lupo nwinnaro, Portuguese lobis-homein, and means 
 a wolf who is properly a man. Loup-garou, the 
 name given by the French to the same fearful 
 being, is a pleonastic compound, which they have 
 made out of their Romance appellation for the wolf 
 and their old Frankish wotd gerulf, i. e., werwlf, 
 werewolf The people of Bretagne have just such 
 another mongi-el term, bleiz-garou (from bleiz, wolf) ; 
 but they have also the purely Celtic terms denvleiz 
 and grekvleiz, meaning man- wolf and woman-wolf 
 
 The werewolf tradition has not been discovered 
 with certainty amongst the Hindus, but there is no 
 European nation of Aryan descent in which it has 
 not existed fi'om time immemorial. Hence it is 
 certain that the tradition itself, or the germs of it 
 more or less developed, must have been brought by 
 
WEREWOLF. LYOAON. 243 
 
 tliem all from Arya ; and if Dr. Schwartz has not 
 actually proved his case, he seems at least to have 
 conjectured rightly in assigning, as one of those 
 germs, the Ai-yan conception of the howling wind as 
 a wolf* The Maruts and other beings who were 
 busy in the storm assumed various shapes. The 
 human form was proper to many or all of them, for 
 they were identical with the Pitris or Fathers (p. 
 15), and it would have been a very natural thought, 
 when a storm broke out suddenly, that one or more 
 of those people of the air had been turned into 
 wolves for the occasion. It was also a primaeval 
 notion that there were dogs and wolves among the 
 dwellers in hell, and Weber, who has shown that 
 this belief was entertained by the early Hindus,"f- 
 is of opinion that these infernal animals were 
 real werewolves, that is to say, men upon whom 
 such a transformation had been inflicted as a punish- 
 ment. 
 
 The oldest werewolf story on record is that of 
 Lycaon, king of Arcadia, in which however the 
 legend of the werewolf proper is mixed up with 
 another, and apparently a less ancient one, relating 
 to the practice of sacrificing human victims, which 
 seems to have prevailed more extensively and to a 
 
 * Ursprung, p. 118. t Indische Studien, i. 412. 
 
 K 2 
 
244 WEREWOLF. 
 
 later period in Arcadia than in other parts of Greece. 
 Lycaon is said to have been turned into a wolf by- 
 Zeus Lycaios, as a punishment for having offered a 
 human victim to the god ; and after Lycaon's time, 
 according to a tradition recorded by Pausanias, 
 Plato, and Pliny, similar transformations continued 
 to be things of common occurrence on the same 
 spot. One of the race of Anthos (probably a 
 priestly family) was periodically chosen by lot and 
 taken to an Arcadian lake, where he hung up his 
 clothes on an oak. Then he swam across the lake, 
 was changed into a wolf, and roamed the wilderness 
 for nine years in company with other wolves. At 
 the end of that time, if he had not tasted human 
 flesh in the interval, he swam back again, found his 
 clothes where he had left them," and recovered his 
 original form, only with this difference, that it was 
 nine years older. 
 
 It is certain that in Greece as well as in Aiya 
 the wolf was in early times a S3rmbol of the stormy 
 winds. It was sacred above all other animals to 
 Apollo, who was surnamed after it Lycaios, or the 
 wolf-god. This fact has much pei-plexed many 
 learned men, and given them a world of trouble 
 in striving to explain why an animal that figures 
 so often and so naturally as a type of winter, night. 
 
WEREWOLF, APOLLO. 245 
 
 and death, should have become the favourite of the 
 radiant god of day. But all this labour would have 
 been spared had it been borne in mind that even in 
 Homer's time Apollo had not yet become the sun- 
 god. Originally he was the god of the summer 
 storms, and in that capacity he himself appeared 
 as a wolf on sundry occasions, as, for instance, in 
 Rhodes, when he slew the Telchins, a dwarfish race 
 of magicians, smiths, and weather-makers, like the 
 German Zwergs and the Panis of India. In the 
 spring time, the appropriate season for the birth of 
 such a god, Apollo's mother, " the dark-robed Leto," 
 or Latona (i. e., the dark storm-cloud), escorted at 
 Jove's command by the Northwind, came as a she- 
 wolf from Lycia to the place where she was delivered 
 of her twins. The Zeus Lycaios of the Arcadians 
 was evidently Zeus plus Apollo, the thunderer, con- 
 sidered with special reference to the winds that 
 accompany the thunder. In mythical language, 
 Apollo was the son of Zeus ; that is to say, he was 
 Zeus in another form. The two gods were in fact, 
 like Indra and Rudra (p. 18), only different personi- 
 fications of the same cycle of natural phenomena. 
 
 In Greece the tradition of the werewolf appears 
 to have run the usual course of myths. Beginning 
 as a figurative explanation of meteoric facts, it next 
 
246 WEREWOLF IN GREECE. 
 
 became a hieratic mystery, and then descended from 
 the domain of rehgion to that of magic and popu- 
 lar story. In this last stage it is the subject of a 
 ludicrous tale told by ^sop. A thief hung about 
 a tavern for some days without being able to steal 
 anything. At last he saw the host sitting before the 
 door in a handsome new garment, and going up to 
 him he began a conversation, in the course of which 
 he feU to yawning and then howling like a wolf 
 "What's the matter with you?" said the host. 
 " I'll tell you directly," said the thief, " but first let 
 me beg you will take care of my clothes, for I will 
 leave them here. I cannot tell how it is this yawning 
 comes upon me ; whether it be for my sins or for any 
 other cause is to me unknown ; but so sure as ever 
 I yawn three times I change into a wolf that devours 
 men." So saying he yawned a second time and 
 howled as before. The host stai-ted up and would 
 have made off, but the thief held him fast by his 
 tunic, saying, " Stay where you are, I beseech you, 
 and take care of my clothes, that I may not tear 
 them all to bits." With that he yawned a third 
 time, and the host, in mortal terror, ran and hid 
 himself in the innermost nook of his tavern, leaving 
 his tunic in the hands of the thief, who vanished 
 with it instantly. 
 
NEURIANS. ROMAN WEREWOLF. 247 
 
 Herodotus was infonned that the Neurians passed 
 for wizards among the Scythians and the Greeks who 
 were settled about the Black Sea^ because each of 
 them, once a year, became a wolf for a few days, and 
 then returned to his natural shape. 
 
 The transformation of men into wolves is known 
 in Roman literature only as a work of magic. Viigil 
 is the first Latin author who mentions this super- 
 stition. He is followed by Propertius ; and Petronius 
 gives the following circumstantial story as related by 
 Niceros at Trimalchio's banquet : — 
 
 " It happened that my master was gone to Capua 
 to dispose of some second-hand goods. I took the 
 opportunity, and persuaded our guest to walk with 
 me to the fifth milestone. He was a valiant soldier, 
 and a sort of grim water-drinking Pluto. About 
 cockcrow, when the moon was shining as bright as 
 midday, we came among the monuments. My friend 
 began addressing himself to the stars, but I was 
 rather in a mood to sing or to count them ; and when 
 I turned to look at him, lo ! he had already stripped 
 himself and laid down his clothes near him. My 
 heart was in my nostrils ; and I stood like a dead 
 man ; but he made a mark round his clothes {cvr- 
 cwm/ninxit vestiTfienta), and on a sudden became 
 a wolf. Do not think I jest ; I would not lie for any 
 
248 ROMAN WMBEWOLF. 
 
 man's estate. But to return to what I was saying. 
 When he becanae a wolf he began howling, and fled 
 into the woods. At first I hardly knew where I was, 
 and afterwards, when I went to take up his clothes, 
 they were turned into stone. Who then died with 
 fear but I ! Yet I drew my sword, and went cutting 
 the air right and left, till I reached the villa of my 
 sweetheart. I entered the court-yard. I almost 
 breathed my last, the sweat ran down my neck, my 
 eyes were dim, and I thought I should never recover 
 myself My Melissa wondered why I was out so 
 late, and said to me, — 'Had you come sooner you 
 might at least have helped us, for a wolf has entered 
 the farm and worried all our cattle ; but he had not 
 the best of the joke, for all he escaped, for our slave 
 ran a lance through his neck.' When I heard this 
 I could not doubt how it was, and as it was clear 
 daylight, I ran home as fast as a robbed innkeeper. 
 When I came to the spot where the clothes had 
 been turned into stone, I could find nothing except 
 blood. But when I got home I found my friend the 
 soldier in bed, bleeding at the neck like an ox, and 
 a doctor dressing his wound. I then knew he was 
 a turnskin ; nor would I ever have broke bread with 
 him again, no, not if you had killed me." 
 The werewolf is here called a turnskin (versi- 
 
WOLF-SHIETS. 249 
 
 pellis), there being no special name for the thing in 
 Latin, 
 
 It was an old belief in the North that transforma- 
 tions of all kinds were commonly effected by means 
 of an appropi'iate garment of fur or feather, which 
 could be put on or laid aside at pleasure (pp. 21, 22). 
 The oldest Norse legends of the werewolf make the 
 change of form depend upon the putting on of a wolf- 
 skin shirt. Thus it was, according to the Volsunga 
 Saga, that the heroes Sigmundr and Sinfjotli became 
 wolves for nine days out of ten. It was only on the 
 tenth day that they could put off the wolf-skins ; 
 and when, after a long course of adventures, they 
 desired to abandon the wolfish shape for ever, they 
 effected their purpose without difficulty or incon- 
 vience by burning the skins. The Berseker of 
 historic times were also men who had acquired 
 superhuman strength by transformation. It is said 
 of King Harald Harfagr, that he had among his 
 retainers a corps of berseker who were called 
 Mfhednar, that is to say, " wolf-frocked." " The 
 Saga itself," says Maurer,* " seems to indicate that 
 this epithet is to be understood as signifying that 
 the wan-iors in question wore coats of wolf-skin over 
 their armour; but this is manifestly a mistake of 
 
 * Bekehrung, u. 109. Hertz, p. 57. 
 
250 BEAR-SKIN SHIRTS. 
 
 later times, for the original conception was that of 
 men who possessed ulfahamir, wolf-shirts, and were 
 in fact werewolves." This view of the matter is 
 corroborated by the etymology lately assigned to 
 the word berseker by Egilssohn in his Poetical 
 Lexicon of the Icelandic tongue. According to that 
 weighty authority the word means one who has a 
 bear-skin shii-t (be^^r, bear, serhr, sark, shirt), and 
 possesses the strength of a bear through its trans- 
 forming power. King Harald's warriors differed from 
 those ursine heroes in having the skins and the 
 fierceness and force of wolves. 
 
 "Even now in Norway it is matter of popular 
 belief that Finns and Lapps, who from time im- 
 memorial have passed for the most skilful witches 
 and wizards in the world, can at will assume the 
 shape of bears ; and it is a common thing to say of 
 one of those beasts, when he gets unusually savage 
 and daring, 'that can be no Christian bear.' On 
 such a bear, in the parish of Ofdden, after he had 
 worried to death more than sixty horses and six men, 
 it is said that a girdle of bear-skin, the infallible 
 mark of a man thus transformed, was found when 
 he was at last tracked and slain." * 
 
 The Russians also are held by their Swedish 
 
 * Dasent, Introd. D. M. 1051. 
 
WEREWOLVES IN SWEDEN. 251 
 
 neighbours to be very potent wizards. In the last 
 war between Sweden and Russia, when the province 
 of Calmar was overrun with wolves, it was generally 
 believed that the Russians had turned the Swedish 
 prisoners of war into wolves, and sent them home to 
 ravage the country. It is also related of a soldier 
 in the Calmar regiment, that, having been trans- 
 formed into a wolf he made his way from Finland 
 over the Aland islands to Smaland, impelled by his 
 desire to see again his home and his wife and 
 children. He was shot by a hunter, who brought the 
 dead wolf into the village ; and when it was flayed a 
 shirt was found beneath the skin, which was recog- 
 nised by the soldier's wife as one she had made for 
 her husband before he went to the war. — A Swedish 
 bridegroom and his friends were riding through a 
 wood when they were all turned into wolves by evil 
 spirits. After the lapse of some years the forlorn 
 bride was walking one day in the same wood, and 
 in anguish of heart, as she thought of her lost lover, 
 she shrieked out his name. Instantly he appeared 
 in human form and rushed into her arms. The 
 sound of his christian name had dissolved the 
 devilish enchantment that bound him. 
 
 The baptismal name has not quite lost in Protest- 
 ant lands the virtue which belonged to it in Catholic 
 
252 BRITISH AND IRISH WEREWOLVES. 
 
 times as the name of one's patron saint. I have been 
 told by an Essex woman, that when she was a child she 
 had orders from her mother, who was very subject to 
 nightmare, not to call her "mother," when she groaned 
 at night, but to address her by her christian name. 
 
 It is a belief peculiar to Denmark that if a woman 
 uses a certain charm to secure ease and safety in 
 childbirth, every boy she will henceforth bear will 
 become a werewolf, every girl a nightmare. 
 
 Gervase of Tilbury testifies that werewolves were 
 common in England in his time ; and, though Celtic 
 witches generally prefer to disguise themselves as 
 hares, mention is made of a wolfwoman in the Mabi- 
 nogion. Camden reports a story current in the 
 county of Tipperary of men who were every year 
 turned into wolves, but declares that he does not 
 beheve it ; and Giraldus Cambrensis gives an older 
 instance of the same superstition. A priest, he says, 
 on his way from Ulster to Meath, was addressed one 
 night by a wolf in the following terms : " We belong 
 to a certain Ossyrian sept (Ulster), two of whom, 
 male and female, are every seven years compelled, 
 through a cui-se laid upon us by a certain saint, to 
 wit, Abbot Natalis, to depart both from their natural 
 foi-m and from their native soil ; for, wholly putting 
 off the human form, they put on that of wolves. But 
 
GERMAN ,WEREWOLVES. 253 
 
 after the space of seven years, if they be still alive, 
 two others take their places under like conditions, 
 and the first pair return to their pristine nature and 
 country." Having said this, the wolf led the priest 
 ta his companion in misfortune, that he might give 
 her the holy viaticum, for she lay at the point of 
 death ; and, to prove that she was a human being, 
 he stripped off the wolf-skin with his paw from her 
 head to her middle, and thereupon the perfect form 
 of an old woman was plain to be seen. The priest 
 gave her the sacrament, and then the wolf drew 
 back the skin over her head. The coincidence be- 
 tween this Celtic story and the Arcadian legend of 
 Lycaon and his successors, with respect to the con- 
 tiauance of the transformation for a stated number 
 of years, is worthy of note. 
 
 Stories about werewolves are still current in 
 Germany, especially in the north and east. The 
 transformation is in most cases effected by a girdle 
 which has taken the place of the old wolf-shirt. It 
 is made of the skin of a wolf, or of a man who has 
 been hanged, and is fastened with a buckle having 
 seven tongues. When the buckle is unclasped, or 
 the girdle is cut, the charm is dissolved. There was 
 a werewolf in the village of Hindenburg in Altmark 
 so terribly strong that he could carry off an ox in 
 
254 QEEMAN WEREWOLVES. 
 
 his mouth. He worried cattle and devoured human 
 beings, but never hurt his wife, because she could 
 horn him with magic words which he had taught her 
 for the purpose. Then she used to unbuckle his 
 belt, and he became a rational man again. The 
 girdle transforms eveiybody who puts it on, whether 
 he does so with that intention or not. A sale was 
 made, by order of the authorities, of a heap of old 
 things that lay in a room in the Erichsburg. Among 
 them were old implements of the chase which had 
 been taken from poachers, and also some werewolf 
 girdles. The amtmann's man, having a mind to try 
 the eflfect of the latter, buckled one of them on, was 
 immediately turned into a wolf, and started off for 
 Hunnesriick. The amtmann rode after him, and 
 cutting at his back with a sword, severed the girdle, 
 whereupon the man resumed his proper shape. — A 
 man in the neighbourhood of Steina having forgotten 
 to lock up his wolf-girdle, it was found by his httle 
 boy, who put it on and was transformed. He looked 
 like a bundle of peastraw, and lumbered off with the 
 clumsy gait of a bear. His father overtook him, and 
 unfastened the girdle before any mischief was done. 
 The boy afterwards stated that, the moment he put 
 on the girdle, he was seized with so ravenous a 
 hunger that he could fain have devoured everything 
 
WOLVES AND OUTLAWS. 255 
 
 that came in his way. Of all the German tales of 
 werewolves, the most widely difased is that of the 
 mower, herdsman of horses, or charcoal-burner, who, 
 believing that his two comrades are asleep in the 
 meadow, fastens a strip of woK-skin about him, 
 becomes a wolf, and eats up a whole foal. All this 
 has been observed by one of his comrades, and on 
 the way home, when he complains of pain ia his 
 body, " That is not to be wondered at," says the 
 man, "when a fellow has got a whole foal in his 
 belly." " Had you said that to me out yonder," 
 replied the werewolf, " you would never have reached 
 home again ;" and with these words he vanished, 
 never to retinn. 
 
 In Germany, as already mentioned, the skin of 
 a man that has been hanged makes as good a 
 werewolf girdle as the skin of a woLf, and this 
 for a reason derived, apparently, from old judicial 
 usages. The Northern nations used of old to class 
 the proscribed murderer and robber with the wolf, 
 and make that animal the symbol of his crime and 
 outlawry. In the old Norse tongue the common 
 appellation for such a man was vargr, wolf; the 
 man who had broken the peace of the temple by an 
 act of violence was called vargr i mum, " wolf in 
 the sacred place." The phrase " lupinum enim gerit 
 
256 GERMAN WEREWOLVES. 
 
 caput, quod Anglice wulfes heafod dicitur," is found 
 in the laws of Edward the Confessor; and in the 
 Tale of Gamelyn (ascribed to Chaucer, 1387) it is 
 said, " When that Gamelyn their lorde wolves hede 
 was cried and made." In old times a wolf was hung 
 by the side of thieves and robbers ; and varagtreo, 
 i. e., wolf-tree, is the old Saxon name for the 
 gallows. 
 
 Wounding a werewolf severely either forces him 
 to resume his natural form on the spot, or leads to 
 his speedy detection. A farmer and his wife were 
 haymaking near Caasburg. After a while the wife 
 declared that she felt an unconquerable restlessness ; 
 she could stay there no longer ; and away she went, 
 after making her husband promise that if any wild 
 beast came near, he would throw his hat to it and 
 run away. She had not long been gone when a wolf 
 swam across the Swine, and rushed at the haymakers. 
 The farmer threw his hat at the beast, which tore it 
 to bits ; but meanwhile a man stole round with a 
 pitchfork and stabbed the wolf from behind. The 
 form changed instantly, and all present were honiiied 
 at seeing that the man had slain the farmer's wife. — 
 A farmer of Malchin, when driving through a wood, 
 suddenly alighted, telling his wife to drive on, and 
 if anything attacked her, she was to throw her apron 
 
THE WEREWOLF OF 0TTEN8EE. 257 
 
 to it. Presently up came a wolf, and tore the apron 
 to pieces ; but the wife knew who it was after her 
 husband's return, when she saw some threads of the 
 apron sticking between his teeth. In a similar case 
 which occui-red at Gross Schnee the wife was struck 
 with death by the horrible discovery. 
 
 The last three iastances exemplify that inborn or 
 imposed necessity which some persons feel at parti- 
 cular seasons to become wolves, and rend or devour 
 something human or pertaining to the persons of 
 human beings. A stiU more hoiTible example of 
 this necessity is seen in the following story from 
 Ottensee, near Altona. A farmer there had made a 
 contract with the evil one, which secured to him an 
 unfailing supply of money, on condition that on the 
 last day of every month he should become a wolf, 
 and should each time kill a human being. This he 
 did punctually for a long time, but at last an old 
 woman whom he attacked jammed him so hard 
 between a door and a doorpost that he had to crawl 
 home severely injured. That night the devil came 
 to fetch him because he had broken his contract, 
 and to redeem himself he was forced to devour his 
 own little daughter. About a year afterwards he 
 fell upon his maid-servant in the field, but she called 
 him three times by his christian name, and he stood 
 
258 CHRISTIAN NAME. 
 
 in his proper shape before her. Thereupon she went 
 away to Hamburg, without saying a word to any- 
 body. That night the devil came again to fetch 
 away the farmer, and again he purchased his life by 
 eating his only remaining child. It was then 
 suspected that he was a werewolf ; his wife 
 deserted him, and the neighbours shunned him ; 
 so he stole away to Hamburg, where he thought 
 to continue his cannibal practices in an inn, but he 
 was recognized by his former maid-servant, and given 
 up to justice.* 
 
 A farmer's wife in Hesse used to put flesh-meat 
 on the table at every meal, but for a long time she 
 would not tell how she procured it. At last she 
 promised to let her husband see how it was done, on 
 condition that, whilst she was about it, he should 
 not call her by her christian name. They went 
 together into a field where sheep were feeding. 
 There the woman threw a ring over her ; in a 
 moment she was a wolf amongst the flock, and in 
 another she was off with a sheep in her mouth. 
 The husband was petrified ; but when the shepherd 
 and his dogs pursued the woK, the danger in which 
 he saw his wife made him forget his promise, and 
 he cried out, " Oh, Margaret ! " At the word the 
 
 • Hertz, p. 83. 
 
UNMASKING THE WEREWOLF. 259 
 
 wolf had vanished, and his wife stood naked in the 
 field. 
 
 Mere recognition of the werewolf, without directly 
 naming the person, often has the same disenchanting 
 effect. An old she-wolf met a farmer in the field, 
 and sprang again and again at his horse's neck. The 
 fai-mer thought he should know the woK's voice, its 
 tone seemed so familiar to his ears, and he cried out, 
 " Is that you, my old mother, or is it not 1 " — when 
 behold ! there she stood before him in her proper 
 shape, but unable to move a limb. He laid her on 
 the cart and took her home, but she did not hve 
 long after. 
 
 Another way of unmasking the werewolf or other 
 transformed persons is by casting iron or steel over 
 them. The skin splits crosswise on the werewolf's 
 forehead, and the naked man comes out through the 
 opening. If a sword be stuck in the ground with 
 the hilt downwards and the point turned towards 
 the werewolf, he is " banned," and must stay there 
 until the time comes when he must appear again as 
 a man. 
 
 It frequently happens that the werewolf is "frozen," 
 that is to say, invulnerable by ordinary weapons or 
 missiles. In that case he must be shot with elder- 
 pith, or with balls made of inherited silver. 
 
 8 2 
 
260 VAMPTSE WEREWOLF. 
 
 The change of a werewolf back again to human 
 form does not always take place so quickly as to pre- 
 vent the pursuers from descrying in the man some 
 vestige of the bestial shape. A villager of Elmen- 
 horst had from his birth the gift of changing himself 
 into a wolf In that form he was once chased into 
 his bedroom by two Hamburg butchers armed with 
 great whips. They found him in bed with his wife, 
 but not yet completely retransformed, for the wolf's 
 tail stiU hung out from under the quUt. 
 
 Distinct from the ordinary werewolf which we 
 have hitherto been considering is another kind 
 which is near akin to the vampyre, for it is not a 
 transformed living man, but a corpse that has risen 
 from the grave in the form of a wolf. The belief in 
 this kind of werewolf stdl prevails in Prussia, as it 
 did formerly in Normandy. In that province, down 
 to the close of the last century, a change of this 
 nature not uncommonly befeU the remains of one 
 who had died in mortal sin. First, the corpse began 
 to gnaw and tear the cloth that covered its face. 
 Then fearful sounds of wailing were heard issuing 
 out of the ground ; the coffin was burst open ; the 
 earth that lay upon it was rent, and flames of hell 
 broke forth. Whenever the watchful priest of the 
 parish became aware of those weU-known tokens, he 
 
KlNa JOHN A WEREWOLF. 261 
 
 had the corpse dug up, and then cutting off its head 
 with the sexton's spade, and bidding defiance to the 
 hell-hounds that strove against him, he carried the 
 head to the nearest stream and cast it in. It sank 
 at once ; but this was not all ; for, weighted with its 
 doom, it pierced the bottom of the river, and pressed 
 slowly downwards through the earth to the place of 
 its everlasting torments.* 
 
 King John of England is said to have gone about 
 as a werewolf after his death. An old Norman 
 chronicle avers that the monks of Worcester were 
 compelled bj the frightful noises proceeding from 
 his grave, to dig up his body and cast it out of con- 
 secrated ground. " Thus the ill presage of his sur- 
 name Lackland was completely realised, for he lost 
 in his lifetime almost all the domains under his 
 suzerainty, and even after death he could not keep 
 peaceful possession of his tomb." 
 
 Trials of alleged werewolves (loups-garous) were 
 very numerous in France in the sixteenth century, 
 and many of the accused were condemned to the 
 flames. Boquet, in his Discours des Borders, relates 
 the following facts as having occurred in 1588, near 
 Apchon, in the ' mountains of Auvergne : — ^A gen- 
 tleman looking out one evening from a window of 
 * Mdile. Bosquet. 
 
262 VAMPYSE WEREWOLF. 
 
 his chateau, saw a hunter -whom he knew, and asked 
 the man to bring him something on his return from 
 the chace. The hunter was attacked in the plain by 
 a great wolf, and after a sharp conflict cut off one of 
 its fore-paws with his hunting-knife. On his way 
 back he caUed at the chateau, and putting his hand 
 into his game-bag, to show the gentleman the wolf's 
 paw, he drew out a human hand with a gold ring, 
 which the gentleman at once recognized as his wife's. 
 He looked for her, and found her in the kitchen with 
 one arm concealed under her apron, and on uncover- 
 ing it he saw that the hand was gone. The lady 
 was brought to trial, confessed, and was burnt at 
 Ryon. Boquet says he had this story from a trust- 
 worthy person who had been on the spot a fortnight 
 after the event. 
 
 In Eastern Europe the werewolf appears in his 
 most appalling aspect, as a being whose nature is 
 blended with that of the vampyre. The same word 
 is used to designate both in the languages of most 
 branches of the Slave stock ; but this appears to be a 
 comparatively modem trait, for there is no sign of it 
 in the ancient tradition of the Neurians, of which we 
 have abeady spoken. In Poland there are traces of 
 the old belief that werewolves were bound to assume 
 that form at certain periods in every year ; in the 
 
POLISH WEREWOLVES. 263 
 
 Middle Ages it was twice a year, at Christmas and 
 St. John's Day ; but in later legends the wilkolak, 
 or werewolf, is generally the victim of a spiteful 
 sorceress's vengeance. Once upon a time, when 
 some young people were dancing on the banks of 
 the Vistula, a wolf broke in among them and car- 
 ried off the prettiest girl of the village. The young 
 men pursued, but they were unarmed, and the wolf 
 escaped with his booty to the woods. Fifty years 
 afterwards, whilst the villagers were again making 
 merry on the same spot, there appeared among them 
 a woebegone, ice-grey man, in whom an aged villager 
 recognized his long-lost brother. The latter narrated 
 how he had long ago been turned into a wolf by a 
 wicked witch ; how he had carried off the beautiful 
 girl duiing the harvest feast, and how the poor thing 
 had died of grief a year after in the forest. " From 
 that time forth," he said, " I flung myself with 
 ravenous hunger upon every human being that came 
 in my way ;" and he showed his hands, which __were 
 still all smeared with blood. "For the last four 
 years," he continued, "I have been going about 
 again in human shape, and I am come to look 
 once more upon my native place, for I must soon 
 become a wolf again." Hardly had he uttered 
 the words ere he sprang to his feet in the form 
 
264 POLISH WEEEWOLVBS. 
 
 of a wolf, and ran off howling, never to be seen 
 again. 
 
 It is related of another Pole that he was turned 
 into a wolf by a witch whose love he had despised. 
 In spite of his bestial form he loathed raw flesh, 
 and hved on milk, bread, and other food, which he 
 snatched from the labourers in the field. Living in 
 this way he wandered about for many a long year 
 without sleeping, until a great weariness at last 
 overcame him, and he fell asleep. On awaking, he 
 found himself again a man, and ran naked as he 
 was to his village ; but there he found everything 
 changed. 
 
 A peasant had been seven years a werewolf, when 
 the witchery suddenly ceased, and he hastened home; 
 but finding that his wife was married to his man, he 
 cried out in his wrath, " Oh, why am I no longer a 
 werewolf, that I might punish this base woman ! " 
 No sooner had he uttered the impious words than, 
 agaiD become a wolf, he sprang at his wife, de- 
 voured the child she had borne to his man, and 
 wounded herself mortally. The neighbours hastened 
 to the spot and killed him ; but when light came, 
 they saw, instead of a dead wolf, the body of the 
 man they had well known. 
 
 A witch came to a wedding, rolled her girdle 
 
POLISH WEREWOLVES. 265 
 
 together, laid it on the threshold, and poured on 
 the floor a drink brewed from linden wood. After 
 this, when the new-married couple and their friends 
 stepped over the threshold, they were turned into 
 wolves on the spot, and in that form they prowled 
 for three years about the witch's house with hideous 
 howlings. On the day when the enchantment ex- 
 pired, the witch came out with a fur cloak, wrapped 
 it, with the hairy side out, round one werewolf after 
 another, and thereby restored them to their natural 
 shape ; but the bridegi-oom's tail, which she had left 
 uncovered by the cloak, stuck to him for the rest of 
 his days. This happened in the year 1821 or 1822. 
 
 Of another wedding party of Poles it is related 
 that they became werewolves through a spell laid 
 on them by a soldier upon whom the bridegroom 
 had set his dogs. Some years afterwards three were- 
 wolves were killed in a great hunt, and under the 
 skin of one of them was found a fiddle, under those 
 of the other two were the wedding dresses of the 
 bride and bridegi'oom.* 
 
 * The examples of the werewolf tradition in this chapter are taken 
 for the most pail) from Dr. Hertz's treatise. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE WILD HUNT — THE TWILIQHT OP THE GODS. ' 
 
 When the Romans and the Geiinans became ac- 
 quainted with each other's gods, both sides agreed 
 in identifying the Odin, Woden, or Wuotan of the one 
 with the Mercury of the other. Tacitus, in his work 
 on the Germans, written in the fii'st century of our 
 era, says that above all the immortals they worshipped 
 Mercury, and propitiated him with human sacrifices. 
 We are told also in the legendary history of our own 
 country that when Hengist and Horsa arrived with 
 their Saxons in Britain, and were asked by King 
 Vortigern what gods they adored, " We sacrifice," said 
 they, "chiefly to Woden, whom you call Mercury, and 
 to his wife Frea." Hence, when the planetary week 
 of seven days was adopted by the Germans in the 
 fourth century, the Roman dies Mercurii (French 
 Mercredi) became their Woden's-day, in English, 
 Wednesday. 
 
 There were two principal reasons for this agree- 
 ment between the two races : one was that both gods 
 
WODEN. 267 
 
 were givers of wealth and good fortune ; the other, 
 that whereas it. was Mercuiy's office to conduct the 
 shades to Hades, so Woden rode with the wild host 
 of the dead and led them to Walhalla. 
 
 The name of Woden or Wuotan denotes the stormy 
 or furious goer, being derived from a verb which is 
 closely related to the Lowland Scotch word wucl, 
 mad or furious* The verb itself survives in English, 
 but greatly tamed down and restricted in meaning, 
 for it now signifies nothing more violent than to walk 
 through shallow water, to wade. Originally it meant 
 to go like one that is " wud," to go as the winds go 
 when they rend the forests in their furious course. 
 So went Woden or Odin, whose original nature was 
 that of a storm-god ;t and that is the character he 
 sustains at this day in the popular legends of Ger- 
 many. They picture him as sweeping through the 
 air in the roaring winds, either alone or with a great 
 retinue consisting of the souls of the dead, which 
 have become winds, and have, like the Maruts, 
 taken the shape of men, dogs, boars, &c. In some 
 parts of Germany the hunt is called Heljagd or 
 dead hunt, in others the English hunt (die engelske 
 
 * " Tlie women are a' gane wud." — Jacobite song of tte '45. 
 " Dinna put a knife in a wud man's hand." — Proverb. 
 
 + Wata, the Sanscrit name of the wind, is radically the same as 
 Wuotan. 
 
268 THE WILD HUNT. 
 
 jagd), which means the same thing (p. 123), England 
 being another name for the nether world* The 
 apparition is known under two forms and by corre- 
 sponding names, as the "Wild Hunt and as the Furious 
 Host. The former occurs chiefly in North and the 
 latter in South Germany. 
 
 Mounted on his white or dappled-grey steed, the 
 wild huntsman may always be recognized by his 
 broad-brimmed hat and his wide mantle, from which 
 he is surnamed Hakelbarend or Hakelberg, an old 
 word signifying mantle-wearer. The hooting owl 
 Tutursel flies before him, and ravens, birds peculiarly 
 sacred to Woden, accompany the chase. Whoever 
 sees it approach must fall flat on the gi'ound, or shel- 
 ter himself under an odd number of boards, nine or 
 eleven, otherwise he will be borne away through the 
 air and set down hundreds of miles away from home, 
 among people who speak a strange tongue. It is 
 stiU more dangerous to look out of the window when 
 Odin is sweeping by. The rash man is struck dead, 
 or at least he gets a box on the ear that makes his 
 head swell as big as a bucket and leaves a fiery 
 mark on his cheek. In some instances the offender 
 has been struck blind or mad. There are certain 
 places where Woden is accustomed to feed his horse 
 
 ♦ Kuhn, Westf. ii. 13. 
 
THE WILD HUNTSMAN'S HOUNDS. 269 
 
 or let it graze, and in those places the wind is always 
 blowing. He has also a preference for certain 
 tracks, over which he hunts again and again at fixed 
 seasons, from which circumstance districts and villages 
 in the old Saxon land received the name of Woden's 
 Way. Houses and bams in which there are two or 
 three doors opposite each other are very liable to be 
 made thoroughfares by the wild hunt. 
 
 The wild huntsman's hounds can talk like men. 
 A peasant caught one of them, a little one, and hid 
 it in his sack. Up came the wild huntsman and 
 missed it. "Where are you, Waldmann?" he cried. 
 " In Heineguggeli's sack," was the answer. When 
 the hounds are running; aloft their hair drops rain ; 
 when they light upon the earth they sniff about the 
 people they meet, and greedily devour whatever 
 comes in their way. It is recommended, as a means 
 of safety, to give them a bag of meal, that they may 
 eat the contents as they fly through the air. When 
 Woden rides through a house he often leaves one of 
 his hounds behind him. It lies down on the hearth, 
 and there it remains for a whole year, howling and 
 whining and living upon nothing but ashes, until the 
 god returns, when it jumps up, wags its tail, and 
 joins the pack again. There is only one way of rid- 
 ding the house sooner of the unwelcome guest, and 
 
270 THE WILD BUNT. 
 
 that is to brew beer in eggshells. The hound 
 watches the operation and exclaims 
 
 Thongli I am now as old as the old Bohemian wold, 
 
 Yet the like of this, I ween, in my life I ne'er have seen ; 
 
 and away it goes and is seen no more. On Christ- 
 mas evenings especially, that is to say, at the season 
 of the winter solstice, it is very unsafe to leave linen 
 hanging out of doors, for the wild huntsman's hounds 
 will tear it to pieces. 
 
 When Woden rides at the head of a full field the 
 object of the chase is generally a boar or a horse. 
 When he rides with his hounds alone, it is in pur- 
 suit of a woman with long snow-white breasts. 
 Seven years he follows her ; at last he runs her 
 down, throws her across his horse, and carries her 
 home. In Central Germany the wild hunt chases 
 a whole flock of elfish beings, the Moss-wifekins 
 and Wood-maidens, whose lives are bound up with 
 those of the forest trees. If any one adds his voice 
 by invitation to the cries of the wild hunters, the 
 god throws him down, as his share of the booty, a 
 horse's haunch that turns to gold. But if any one 
 dares to bawl out "halloa !" and "hurrah ! " in mockery 
 when the hunt passes by, Woden shouts to him in a 
 voice of thunder, 
 
THE FURIOUS HOST. 271 
 
 Tou that helped to chase the game 
 Eat your share now of the same ; 
 
 and down comes a horse's leg, or a moss-wifekin's 
 foot with the green shoe upon it. The stench of it 
 is suffocating, and it sticks fast to the mocker's back 
 or to his dwelling, and do what he will he cannot 
 remove it. The wild hunt comes out from the 
 hills and mountains, and disappears in them again, 
 or in ponds or lakes, when the hunt is over. 
 
 The Furious Host is also a cavalcade of the dead, 
 but not for purposes of the chase. Sometimes it 
 gallops through the stormy air as a herd of wild 
 boars ; but the spirits of which it consists generally 
 appear in human form. They are of both sexes 
 and of all ages, souls of unchristened babes being 
 included among them ; for Holda or Bertha often 
 joins the hunt. At the end of the last century a 
 woman was delivered of a still-born child. Soon 
 afterwards she heard that the furious host had 
 passed over the village, and in her anguish at the 
 thought of her child, now doomed to sweep through 
 the stonny air with the unblest spirits until the day 
 of judgment, she was seized with a violent malady 
 and died. In Tyrol, according to the testimony of 
 Baron von Alpenburg, it is no uncommon thing for 
 mothers, who have lost a chUd, to seek the aid of 
 
272 IRISH GHOSTS IN THE STORM. 
 
 the wizard, with the hope that he may be able to 
 reanimate the little corpse for a moment, so that 
 it may receive baptism and its soul be rescued from 
 the furious host, or from Bertha. Was it the tradi- 
 tion of the furious host — not unknown in England— 
 that suggested to Shakespeare the image of 
 
 Pity, like a naked new -bom babe, 
 Kiding the blast ! 
 
 I cannot find any mention of the wild hunt or the 
 furious host among the superstitions of Ireland ; 
 but there is one element of that tradition which 
 certainly exists there. " The ideas of the Irish 
 peasantry respecting the state of departed souls are 
 very singular." So says a writer in the Athenixum 
 (Jan. 1847). "Accordiug to the tenets of the 
 church to which the majority of them belong, the 
 souls of the departed are either in paradise, heU, 
 or purgatory. But popular belief assigns the ab- 
 as a third place of suffering, where unquiet souls 
 wander about until their period of penance is past. 
 On a cold or wet or stormy night the peasant will 
 exclaim with real sympathy, ' Musha ! God help the 
 poor souls that are in the shelter of the ditches, 
 or under the eves this way !' And the good 
 'chanathee,' or mother of a family, wiU sweep the 
 
MUSIO OF THE FURIOUS HOST. 273 
 
 hearth, that the poor souls may warm, themselves 
 when the family retires. The conviction that the 
 spirits of the departed sweep along with the storm 
 or shiver in the driving rain, is singularly wild and 
 near akin to the Skandinavian myth." 
 
 The first token which the furious host gives of its 
 approach is a low song that makes the hearer's flesh 
 creep. The grass and the leaves of the forest wave 
 and bow in the moonshine as often as the strain 
 begins anew. Presently the sounds come nearer 
 and nearer, and swell into the music of a thou- 
 sand instruments. Then bursts the hurricane, and 
 the oaks of the forest come crashing down. The 
 spectral appearance often presents itself in the 
 shape of a great black coach, on which sit 
 hundreds of spirits singing a wondrously sweet 
 song. Before it goes a man, who loudly warns 
 everybody to get out of the way. All who hear 
 him must instantly drop down with their faces to 
 the grotmd, as at the coming of the wild hunt, and 
 hold fast by something, were it only a blade of 
 grass ; for the furious host has been known to force 
 many a man into its coach and carry him hundreds 
 and hundreds of miles away through the air. 
 
 The legend of the furious host has taken a pecu- 
 liar shape in the Bernese Oberland, the Grisons and 
 
274 THE NIGHTFOLK. 
 
 Wallis, where it is known as the Nightfolk or Dead 
 Folk, and is desciibed as a ghostly procession, the 
 appearance of which betokens an approaching mor- 
 tality. The skeleton Death himself marches at its 
 head playing the fiddle, and it bears along, with low 
 mutterings and music, the corpses of those who are 
 next to die. If the Nightfolk knock at the door of 
 a house, whoever answers the summons must go 
 along with them and die. Two children were lying 
 down on a crossway, the one asleep, the other awake. 
 The latter heard a rattling of bones, and several 
 voices praying. It was the Nightfolk. Presently 
 one said, "Shall we wake the children?" "No," 
 replied another, " one of them will soon come with 
 us." The child had seen nothing. It died soon 
 after. 
 
 Most of the legendary details in the foregoing 
 sketch may be traced back to their origin, and found 
 to resolve themselves into figurative, and sometimes 
 highly poetical descriptions of natural phenomena. 
 As the man of southern climes prostrates himself 
 before the simoom and the sirocco, so did the man 
 of Northern Europe before the storm-god. The wild 
 huntsman loves to ride through houses that have 
 two outer doors directly opposite each other : that 
 is to say, in plain prose, there is always a thorough 
 
DETAILS INTERPRETED. 275 
 
 draught, more or less strong, from one such door to 
 the other. •Woden's hounds are human souls that 
 have become air, and as winds they tear the linen 
 that is hung out to dry, eat meal, or blow and 
 scatter it out of sight, and feed upon the ashes 
 that are swept up from the hearth by the gusts 
 that are always stronger there than in any other 
 part of the room — a fact which is typified by the 
 continual howling of the hound left behind by the 
 wild hunt. Woden's mantle is the speckled sky, and 
 his broad hat the cloud. His grey horse, again, is 
 the wind-driven cloud (p. 7), which the storm-god 
 rides or hunts, when he is not chasing the woman. 
 There are legends which combine both images, for 
 they tell how women who have sinned with priests 
 become the horses of the wild huntsman, who stops 
 from time to time, by night at a forge, and has them 
 shod with red-hot iron. The moss-wifekins and 
 wood-maidens are female elementary spirits brought 
 down to the earth from the clouds to become 
 genii of the forest, and when they are chased in 
 whole flocks — or, in other words, when the leaves are 
 blown off the trees — ^this is but a modification of 
 the older conception of the flying cloud. The 
 fetid leg of a horse or foot of the wood-nymph sig- 
 nifies the sulphurous lightning which Woden casts 
 
 T 2 
 
276 THE WILD HUNT. 
 
 down from the clouds ; and the red gleam of the 
 lightning is seen in the horse's leg that turns into 
 gold. 
 
 The woman chased by the wild huntsman is the 
 light whirlwind which precedes the great storm, and 
 which is called in Germany the wind's bride (Winds- 
 braut).* The dancing, pirouetting movements of the 
 one, and the stern rush of the other, suflficiently 
 explain the genders respectively ascribed to them. 
 This bride is Freyja, the wife of Odin. The seven 
 years during which the spell-bound storm-god has 
 hunted her without being able to run her down, are 
 the seven winter months during which the storm 
 has lost the peculiar character that belongs to it in 
 summer, and is comparatively inert, and, as it were, 
 " enchanted." In mythical language, the phrase 
 " seven years " has almost always the meaning we 
 have here assigned to it. Thus, gold-guarding di-a- 
 gons come forth and subterranean treasures sun 
 themselves every seven years — that is, after winter 
 is past ; and Thor's lightning hammer, biu-ied during 
 the winter in the earth, comes to the surface in seven 
 years, seven days, and seven hours. 
 
 The coach of the furious host is the cloud driven 
 along by the storm, and its marvellous music is the 
 
 * Schwartz, p. 6. 
 
cow EATEN AND MEVIVED. 277 
 
 strain that was sung of old by tte Manits (p. 15). 
 Its boars are winds (p. 7), and their white flashing 
 tusks were also looked upon by the southern Aryans 
 and the Greeks, as well as by the Germans, as images 
 of the hghtning. The cloud-water may easily be 
 recognized in the pond, lake, or river in which the 
 wild hunt and the furious host disappear, or over 
 which they are ferried. Many legends tell how the 
 spirits of the furious host slaughtered and ate up a 
 cow, which they brought to life again out of the hide. 
 This cow is the cloud which the souls consume, as 
 spirits of the winds, by pouring down its rain upon 
 the earth. Only a Uttle remnant of cloud, the hide, 
 remains, and it grows again into a new cloud. In 
 Vorarlberg, for instance, one Sunday during mass, 
 the Nightfolk came to a peasant's house, took a cow 
 out of the stall, killed, roasted, and ate it, making a 
 great uproar all the time. The peasant's children 
 were allowed to share in the repast, but were ordered 
 not to gnaw or destroy any of the bones. Before the 
 Nightfolk went away they gathered up the bones, 
 and wrapped them in the cow's hide ; but one little 
 bone was missing ; the children had thrown it away. 
 "There's no help for it," said the spirits; "the 
 animal must go lame." And sure enough, when the 
 people of the village came out of church, there stood 
 
278 WILD HUNT AND COWS. 
 
 the cow in the stall, as well as ever, only that one 
 foot was crippled. 
 
 Out of the same conception of the clouds as cows 
 arose the belief that Woden and his host carried 
 cows with them up into the clouds, and brought 
 them back three days afterwards, milked dry, or 
 never brought them back at all. If the cow is not 
 given up willingly, the god comes and takes it. The 
 people of the Hellhouse, in Ostenholz, a village 
 between the Weser and the Elbe, were obliged, year 
 by year, on every Christmas Eve, to turn out a cow 
 for the Hellhunter (the wild huntsman). As soon 
 as the animal was let out of the stall it disappeared. 
 Everybody knew perfectly well beforehand what cow 
 was to be taken, for when Martinmas or Michaelmas 
 was come, the cow whose turn it was had manifestly 
 grown fatter than any of the rest. Once the people 
 ventured to keep the animal shut up in the stall, 
 but there was such an uproar and din about the 
 house as never was heard before. The cow plunged 
 about in the stall as if she was mad, pulled up the 
 stakes out of the ground, and would never be quiet 
 until they let her out, when she instantly vanished. 
 
 We are too much accustomed to think of the 
 chief gods of Greece only as they appear in the more 
 finished theogony of that people, — rimmortal and 
 
DEATH OF HACKELBERG. 279 
 
 victorious over all enemies ; but the earlier legends 
 represented them as subject to defeat and even to 
 death. They tell how Apollo was slain by the 
 Python, and even the grave of Zeus was to be seen 
 in Crete* Such legends belong to a time when the 
 gods were still understood to be elementary beings, 
 part and parcel of nature, and subject to all its 
 changes. Their death was therefore regarded as a 
 trance, a sort of enchanted sleep, from which they 
 awoke to fresher life and vigour. So was it also 
 with the wild huntsman. Wherever the name of 
 Hackelberg (p. 268), or of one of his legendary repre- 
 sentatives, is known, it is coupled with this story -.-^ 
 He heard once at midnight a voice asking from the 
 neighbouring thicket if the stumpy-tail was ready 
 that was to kill him ; and that same night he 
 dreamed of perishing by the tusks of a furious wild 
 boar with a short tail. A gi-eat hunt had been 
 appointed for the next day, but in consequence of 
 his dream his wife implored him to remain at home. 
 He went to the hunt nevertheless, fell in with the 
 boar he had seen in his dream, and killed it after a 
 hard struggle. Elated with his victoiy, he kicked 
 the dead boar, saying, " Rip me up now if you can ! 
 
 ♦ Spannheim z. Callim. h. in Jovem, 8; in Dianam, 89. Sckwartz, 
 p. SQ. 
 
280 DEATH OF HACKELBERG-WODEN. 
 
 You were to have taken my life, and you are dead 
 before me.'' But the kick he gave was so violent 
 that the boar's sharp tusk pierced his leg through 
 his boot, and he died of the wound. Before his 
 death he gave orders that he should be laid in his 
 coffin, unwashed as he was, and buried in the spot 
 to which his dappled grey steed should draw him. 
 This was done, and he Kes buried on a wild moun- 
 tain spot, the way to which no one can find twice. 
 Some have come upon it by chance, but have never 
 been able to discover it again. 
 
 The meaning of the story is this. The storm- 
 god pursues the fierce whirlwind — ^the boar — ^that 
 ravages the woods and fields, but its death in the 
 last storms of autumn is soon followed by that of 
 the hunter himself During the winter Hackelberg- 
 Woden is dead, or asleep, or enchanted in the cloud 
 mountain. 
 
 In some places local tradition makes Hackelberg 
 a mere man ; in others an enormous giant. At 
 Kocklum, near Wolfenbuttel, the existence of a 
 group of hills is accov^nted for by saying that they 
 are composed of the gravel which Hackelberg once 
 threw out of his shoe as he passed that way with the 
 wild hunt Similar traditions are not unknown in 
 England. " There were formerly thi'ee huge upright 
 
THE WISH-HOUNDS. 281 
 
 stones neax Kennet, not far from Abury ; the 
 country people called them from time immemorial 
 'the devil's coits.' They could be playthings, it 
 might be readily imagined, for no other busy idler. 
 But the good folks of Somersetshire, by a sort of 
 refinement of such hackneyed traditions, hold that 
 a great stone near Stanton Drew, now called 
 ' HackeU's Goit,' and which formerly weighed thirty 
 tons, was thrown from a hiU about a mile off by a 
 mortal champion. Sir John Hautville." * 
 
 Woden and his hunting train still haunt Dart- 
 moor. One of that god's many names was Wunsch 
 (p. 169), Anglo-Saxon, Wisk, English, " wish," and 
 this name " is retained in the Devonshire term 
 ' whishtness,' used to signify ah unearthly creatures 
 and their doings. The spectral pack which hunts 
 over Dartmoor is called the ' wish-hounds,' and the 
 black 'master' who follows the chace is no doubt the 
 same who has left his mark on "Wistman's Wood" — 
 a very ancient forest of dwarf oaks overhanging the 
 
 West Dai-t.f 
 
 When the name of the wild huntsman ceased to 
 be generally remembered as that of a god, the people 
 substituted for it various names of historical or 
 
 * Knight's " Old England," p. 14. 
 t Qaarterly Kev., July, 1836, p. 219. 
 
282 KING ARTHUR. 
 
 legendary personages, such as Theodorick, the great 
 King of the Goths, or as he is popularly called in 
 Germany, Dietrich of Bern {i. e., Verona). In the 
 French province of Perigord, the wild hunt is called 
 La chasse H^rode, from a confusion of the name of 
 Herodias, the murderess of John the Baptist, with 
 Hrodso (i. e., renowned), a surname of Odin. The 
 "Grand Veneur" hunts in the forest of Fontaine- 
 bleau, Hugh Capet about Tours. In the department 
 of the Pyrenees, Lower Normandy, and Guienne, the 
 leader of the wild hunt is the Arthur of British and 
 Annorican romance. " Very often," says Gervase 
 of Tilbury, " have knights been seen hunting with 
 hounds and horns in the woods of Great or Little 
 Britain at noonday and by the light of the full 
 moon ; and when the foresters asked who they were, 
 they said they belonged to the company and house- 
 hold of Arthur." * In Scotland also, 
 
 Arthoiir knycht he raid on nyoht 
 Witt gylden spur and candel lyoht. t 
 
 In these two notices we miss one portion of the 
 original tradition — the stormy nature of the wild 
 hunt — for the spectral Arthur and his companions 
 pursue their game in calm weather, by torchlight or 
 under the unclouded moon. By the middle of the 
 
 ♦ G. T. p. 12. t " Complaynt of Scotland." 
 
Kim abthur. 283 
 
 eighteenth century the legend had become still more 
 incomplete in Scotland, for whilst the hunt was still 
 known there, the name of its leader had faded away 
 from popular recollection. How completely it was 
 forgotten is plain from the following lines in a poem 
 called Albania, which was first published in 1742.* 
 
 There since of old tlie haughty thanes of Ross, — 
 So to the simple swain tradition tells, — 
 Were wont with clans, and ready vassals throng'd, 
 To wake the bounding stag or guilty wolf, 
 There oft is heard at midnight or at noon. 
 Beginning faint, but rising still more loud 
 And nearer, voice of hunters and of hounds. 
 And horns hoarse-winded, blowing far and keen. 
 Forthwith the hubbub multiplies ; the gale 
 Labours with wilder shrieks and rifer din 
 Of hot pursuit, the broken cry of deer 
 Mangled by throttling dogs, the shouts of men. 
 And hoofs thick beating on the hollow hill. 
 Sudden the grazing heifer in the vale 
 Starts at the noise, and both the herdsman's ears 
 Tingle with inward dread. Aghast he eyes 
 The mountain's height, and all the ridges round. 
 Yet not one trace of living wight discerns. 
 Nor knows, o'erawed and trembling as he stands, 
 To what or whom he owes his idle fear. 
 To ghost, to witch, to fairy, or to fiend ; 
 But wonders, and no end of wondering finds. 
 
 But the Scottish Arthur still represents the storm- 
 god, though not in combination with the wild hunts- 
 man, for what says the rhyme ? 
 
 * It was reprinted by Leyden, in his "Scottish Descriptive Poems," 
 1803. 
 
284 ARTHUB. BABBAR08SA. 
 
 Arthur o' Bower has broken his bands, 
 And he's come roariu' ower the lands. 
 The king o' Soots and a' his power 
 Canna turn Arthur o' Bower.* 
 
 Woden was the god chiefly honoured of yore in the 
 festivities of Spring, and the people of Edinburgh 
 still go out and gather the May-day dew on Arthur's 
 Seat — at least they did so twenty years ago.-f In 
 another act of the Hackelberg-Wuotan drama, of 
 which we have now to speak, we shall again see the 
 British Arthur distinctly representing the god of his 
 foes, the heathens of Germany and Scandinavia. 
 
 Gei-many and Denmark abound in legends wherein 
 the winter trance of Woden is enacted by various 
 popular heroes. Charlemagne slumbers in many 
 places with his enchanted army — in the Desenberg 
 near Warburg, in the castle of HerstaUa on the 
 Weser, in the Karlsburg on the Spessart, the Traus- 
 berg and the Donnersberg in the Pfalz, &c. ; and the 
 Emperor Henry the Fowler is entranced in the 
 Sudemerberg, near Goslar. But the best known 
 of all these slumbering heroes is he of the red 
 beard, the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. He was 
 drowned when far from home on a crusade, but, 
 just as it was in Portugal after King Sebastian 
 
 * Robert Chambers, Pop. Ehy. p. 41. 
 t Chambers' Ed. Jour., April 30, 1842. 
 
THE KTFFHAUSER. 285 
 
 had perished in Africa, the lower classes of Frede- 
 rick's subjects would not believe the story. They 
 would have it that the Emperor was alive, and 
 would return to his dominions, and so stubbornly 
 did they hold fast by that opinion that several 
 pretenders took advantage of it to pass them- 
 selves off as the true Barbarossa. The German 
 people still maintain the same faith, for their 
 hero has been seen by many of them in the 
 Kyffhauser mountain, in the old palatinate of the 
 Saxon imperial house. There, in a cavern, with 
 all his knights and squires around him, he sits 
 to this day, leaning his head upon his arm, at 
 a table through which his beard has grown, or 
 round which, according to other accounts, it has 
 grown twice. When it has thrice encircled the 
 table, he will wake up to battle. The cavern 
 glitters with gold and jewels, and is as bright as 
 the sunniest day. Thousands of horses stand at 
 mangers filled with thorn-bushes instead of hay, 
 and make a prodigious noise as they stamp on the 
 ground and rattle their chains. The old Kaiser 
 sometimes wakes up for a moment and speaks to his 
 visitors. He once asked a herdsman who had found 
 his way into the Kyffhauser, "Are the ravens" 
 [Odin's birds] " still flying about the mountain 1 " 
 
286 ARTHUR A8 WODEN. 
 
 The man replied that they were. " Then," said Bar- 
 barossa, " I must sleep a hundred years longer." 
 
 That Frederick and all the rest of the cavemed 
 princes and wan-iors are no other than Woden and 
 his wild host, is clear from many details of the 
 legends concerning them.* People who visit the 
 Emperor in the Kjrffhauser receive just such presents 
 as are given by the wild huntsman, — horses' legs or 
 heads that afterwards turn into gold ; and there is a 
 lady in the Kyffhauser, who is variously called the 
 Princess, the Kaiser's housekeeper. Mademoiselle or 
 Jungfer, and sometimes even Frau HoUe (Holda), 
 who is beyond all doubt "Woden's wife Fria.-f- 
 
 "Arthur too, the vanished king, whose return is 
 expected by the Britons, and who rides at the head 
 of the nightly host, is said to dwell with his men- 
 at-arms in a mountain ; Felicia, Sybilla's daughter, 
 and the goddess Juno, live with him, and the whole 
 army are well provided with food, drink, horses, and 
 clothes." Such was the belief of mediaeval Germany, 
 as stated by Grimm ;| for the legend of the British 
 Arthur overspread all Christendom, and was even 
 localized in Sicily, where, as Gervase of Tilbury was 
 
 * D. M. p. 912. Maunhardt, p. 138. 
 
 t Ndd. p. 495. 
 
 t On the autbority of the Wartbui-g Kiieg. D. M. p. 912. 
 
WABRIOBS IN EILDON HILLS. 287 
 
 told by the inhabitants, the departed hero had his 
 dwelling in ^tna* To the same legend belongs 
 a tradition of Thomas the Rhymer, the favourite of 
 the Fairy Queen, which is cun-ent on the Scottish 
 border, and which has been related by Sir Walter 
 Scott."f* It is that " of a daring horse-jockey having 
 sold a black horse to a man of venerable and antique 
 appearance, who appointed the remarkable hiUock 
 upon Eildon hills, called the Lucken hare, as the 
 place where, at twelve o'clock at night, he should 
 receive the price. He came, his money was paid in 
 ancient coin, and he was invited by his customer to 
 view his residence. The trader in horses followed 
 his guide in the deepest astonishment through 
 several long ranges of stalls, in each of which a 
 horse stood motionless, while an armed warrior lay 
 equally stiU at the charger's feet. 'AU these men, 
 said the wizard in a whisper, ' will awaken at the 
 battle of Sheriffmoor.' At the extremity of this 
 extraordinary depot hung a sword and a horn, which 
 the prophet pointed out to the horse-dealer as con- 
 taining the means of dissolving the spell. The man 
 in confusion took the horn and attempted to wind it. 
 The horses instantly started in their staUs, stamped, 
 
 * Liebrecht. 
 
 + " Demonology and Witchcraft," p. 133, and Notes to " WaTerley." 
 
288 ENCHANTED HOST IN THE EILDONS. 
 
 and shook their bridles, the men arose and clashed 
 their armour, and the mortal, terrified at the tumult 
 he had excited, dropped the horn from his hand. A 
 voice like that of a giant, louder even than the 
 tumult around, pronounced these words : — 
 
 Woe to the coward that ever he was born, 
 
 That did DOt draw the sword before he blew the horn ! 
 
 A whirlwind expelled the horse-dealer from the 
 cavern, the entrance to which he could never find 
 again." 
 
 "This legend," Sir Walter adds, "with several 
 variations, is found in many parts of Scotland and 
 England ; the scene is sometimes laid in some 
 favourite glen of the Highlands, sometimes in the 
 deep coal-mines of Northumberland and Cumberland, 
 
 which run so far beneath the ocean But 
 
 it is a circumstance worth notice, that although this 
 edition of the tale is limited to the year 1715, by the 
 very mention of the Sheriffmoor, yet a similar story 
 appears to have been current during the reign of 
 Queen Elizabeth, which is given by Reginald Scot." 
 
 Sir Walter takes it for granted that Thomas the 
 Rhymer was himself the leader of the army for 
 which he purveyed horses, but this is a gratuitous 
 and improbable assumption. The very passage 
 
THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS. 289 
 
 whicli he has quoted from Leyden's "Scenes of 
 Infancy " shows that according to other versions of 
 the story the caverned warriors are King Arthur's 
 knights : 
 
 Say who is he, with summons long and high, 
 Shall bid the charmed sleep of ages fly, 
 KoU the long sound through Eildon'a caverns vast. 
 While each dark warrior kindles at the blast ; 
 The horn, the falchion grasp with mighty hand, 
 And peal proud Arthur's march from Fairy-land ? 
 
 Although Scott confessed his inabiUty to account 
 for the incident of the horn and. sword, its mean- 
 ing is not at all dubious. The caverned heroes, 
 as we have said, under whatever name they are 
 known, and wherever they repose, are all representa- 
 tives of Odin and his host. The great battle to 
 which they will at last awake is that which will be 
 fought before the end of the world, when heaven and 
 earth shall be destroyed and the Msii gods them- 
 selves shall perish, and their places shall be filled 
 by a new creation and new and brighter gods. The 
 sword concealed in the heart of the Eildon hill is 
 that of Heimdallr, the Sverdas or Sword-god, and 
 warder of Bifrost bridge, and his is the Gjallar horn 
 with which he ^viU warn the gods that the frost 
 giants are advancing to storm Valhalla.* 
 
 * Kuhn u. Schwartz, Ndd. p. 496. 
 
290 THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS. 
 
 The gods will answer to the call, but we know 
 their doom. By what miracle did the Germans and 
 Norsemen, alone among pagans, become possessed 
 with an idea apparently so antagonistic to the very 
 spirit of paganism? How came that rude and 
 bloodthirsty race, in times when they were as yet 
 so little given to abstract speculation, to conceive the 
 thought of a great consummation, in which all nature 
 should be destroyed by fire, the gods themselves, 
 whom they had made after their own likeness, should 
 perish, and their own highest ideal of life, human 
 and divine, should give place to something ineffably 
 jDurer and better ? Scarcely can we imagine by what 
 impulse they were prompted for once to strain their 
 thoughts so far beyond the ordinary reaches of their 
 souls, but at least we can trace the line along which 
 they moved in that astonishing flight. 
 
 Their whole religion was essentially a personifica- 
 tion of the processes of nature. For themselves, 
 they were before all things warriors ; and such as 
 their own habits of life were their views of nature, 
 and the language in which they clothed them. War, 
 elemental war, was the constant occupation of their 
 gods ; and when the usual tendency of polytheism to 
 rise towards monotheism led them to choose a 
 supreme deity, their choice could not be doubtful. 
 
THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS. 291 
 
 They raised to that rank the storai-god Odin, who 
 better represented the national character than did 
 any of the others, not even excepting Thor, and 
 whose death in Autumn and resurrection in Spring 
 corresponded to the beginning and end of nature's 
 two greatest annual vicissitudes. Thus the annual 
 death of nature and of its supreme god became 
 dominant and inseparable points in their theology, 
 just as in that of the Egyptians ; but unlike the 
 Egyptians they had among them some man of genius 
 who was able to push the same theory to its extreme 
 limits, and to impose his own views upon his country- 
 men. "Life and death," such a man would have 
 argued, " run the round of the year, and seven 
 months of death are a necessary preparation for five 
 months of life. What if the death were longer, 
 and also more profound and unbroken ; for now it is 
 suspended for twelve nights at the winter solstice, 
 when the gods revive and visit the earth. What if 
 the universe and the gods were once for all to die 
 outright t. Would not that perfect death be followed 
 by a perfect life, infinitely transcending all that has 
 come of the petty deaths of all the years since the 
 ash-tree first became a man ?" 
 
 ■a 2 
 
CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 THE HEARTH PIKr — MAEKIAGE— BOCNBAKY OAKS — KED BAIK — 
 PEAS. 
 
 Agni, beloved as the hearth fire, is styled in the 
 Vedas " the guest," but he is also worshipped as lord 
 of the house, the family, and the tribe, and god of 
 domestic life and of marriage. In these attributes 
 he coiTesponds exactly with Thor. 
 
 The ceremonies constituting the nuptial solemnity 
 in India are thus described by Colebrooke : * — " The 
 bridegroom goes in procession to the house where 
 the bride's father resides, and is there welcomed as a 
 guest. The bride is given to him by her father in 
 the form usual at every solemn donation, and their 
 hands are bound together with grass. He clothes 
 the bride with an upper and better garment, and the 
 skirts of her mantle and his are tied together. The 
 bridegroom makes oblation to fire, and the bride 
 drops rue on it as an oblation. The bridegroom 
 solemnly takes her hand in marriage. She treads 
 
 * Miscell. Essays, i. 224. 
 
MARRIAGE. 293 
 
 on a stone and muUar. They walk round the fire. 
 The bride steps seven steps, conducted by the bride- 
 groom, and he then dismisses the spectators, the 
 marriage being now complete and irrevocable. In 
 the evening of the same day the bride sits down on 
 a bull's hide, and the bridegroom points out to her 
 the polar star as an emblem of stability. They then 
 partake of a meal. The bridegi-oom remains three 
 days at the house of the bride's father ; on the 
 fourth he conducts her to his own house in solemn 
 procession. She is then welcomed by his kindred ; 
 and the solemnity ends with oblations to fire.'' 
 
 Burning torches were carried in bridal processions 
 at Rome, and the bride always wore the flammeum 
 or flame coloured veil, " for good omen's sake," as 
 Festus says. Her shoes were also of the same 
 colour. The Hindu bride wore a red girdle, the 
 cautuJca, a name which in later times designated 
 also the bridal ring. 
 
 In Scandinavia the union of man and wife was 
 anciently consecrated by laying Thor's symbol, the 
 hammer, in the bride's lap ; and Thursday is still 
 regarded as an auspicious day for marrying. In 
 Germany, where Christian tradition has partially 
 identified Thor with the devil, it is held unlucky to 
 marry on that day. In that coimtry, in old times. 
 
294 MARRIAGE. 
 
 when the bride first entered her husband's house, 
 she was led three times round the heaxth fire. 
 -Among other old customs, some of which are not 
 yet extinct, was the carrying of a red banner in 
 marriage processions. In some places, when the 
 bridal pair are setting out for church they are made 
 to step over a firebrand laid on the threshold of the 
 house they are leaving. In other places, after the, 
 bride has been formally received in the house where 
 the wedding is to be celebrated, she takes a pair of 
 tongs and a firebrand in each hand, and carries them 
 to the gate of the forecourt, where her friends are 
 waiting to form the wedding procession. In times 
 within living memory the bride wore a lofty head- 
 dress of a peculiar form, never used on any other 
 occasion. A band of red silk wound round it was 
 an indispensable part of its adornment. The bridal 
 nosegays of rosemary were always tied with red 
 thread, as they are still in HaveUand. In a wood 
 near Dahle there was formerly a great oak tree (now 
 red.uced to a stump) to which new married couples 
 used to repair, dance round it three times, and cut a 
 cross upon it. This cross betokened of yore Thor's 
 hammer, the consecrator of marriage.* 
 
 Thor's wife was Sif, whose name, signifjTng " kin," 
 
 * Kuhn, Westf. ii. 44. 
 
BOUNDARY OAKS. 295 
 
 is the Scottisli sib* and is found in the English 
 gossip, i.e., god-sib, this /word having originally 
 denoted the spiritual relationship between the god- 
 fathers and godmothers of the same child. The god 
 of the house-fire and guardian of the household and 
 its belongings was the natural protector of the 
 aggregate of families forming the gens or tribe, the 
 village, town, commune, or nation, and of the soil 
 occupied by each of them. Possession was taken 
 of unoccupied or newly purchased land with a 
 hammer, which the new owner cast out as he 
 drove over the ground ia a cart, or, in Scandi- 
 navia, by kindling a fire upon it;-f- and the oak, 
 Thor's tree (p. 49), was planted on the boundaries 
 of lands, and lordships great and small. To this 
 usage our English parishes owe their gospel oaks, 
 so called from the custom of having the gospel 
 read under or -near them by the clergyman attend- 
 ing the perambulation of the parish boundaries, 
 which took place annually on Ascension day or 
 Holy Thursday, the high festival of Thor in pagan 
 times, when his rites were doubtless celebrated 
 beneath his sacred tree. " It is possible that many 
 of the more famous oak trees yet standing in 
 
 * " It's guid to be sib to siller.'' Soots Proverb, 
 t Majmbardt, pp. 197, 227. 
 
296 BOUNDARY OAKS. 
 
 England may date from the days of at least 
 Saxon heathendom. . . Nearly all are boundary 
 trees, marking the original limit of -shire or of 
 manor. Such was the great ' Shire-oak' which 
 stood at the meeting place of York, Nottingham, 
 and Derby, into which three counties it extended 
 its vast shadow. "Wider spreading than the chest- 
 nut of the ' Centi CavaUi' on Mount Etna, the 
 branches of the Shire-oak could afford shelter to 
 230 horsemen. Such, too, is the 'Crouch' oak 
 at Addlestone, in Surrey, .under which Wickliffe 
 preached and Queen Elizabeth dined — one of the 
 ancient border-marks of Windsor Forest, whose 
 name, according to Mr. Kemble, refers to the 
 figure of the cross anciently cut upon it. Trees 
 thus marked are constantly referred to as boun- 
 daries in Anglo-Saxon charters."* The writer of 
 this passage is not quite accurate in saying that 
 "the cross withdrew the oak from the dominion 
 of Thor or Odin." More or less it did so in 
 Christian times, but previously to them the cross 
 as well as the tree may have belonged to Thor. 
 
 Indra's beard was golden ; Agni is invoked in the 
 Vedas as the god with the golden beard and golden 
 teeth. Fire and the " red gold" are associated ideas 
 " Quarterly Rev., July, 1863, p. 222. 
 
MED SAIR AND BEARD. 297 
 
 m all Indo-European languages. Thor's beard was 
 red, and it thundered and lightened when he blew 
 m it. His hair too was red, and that such hair and 
 beards were much admired when he was there to set 
 the fashion, may be inferred not only from general 
 considerations, but more particularly from the ex- 
 treme aversion which was conceived for them when 
 Christianity came in. Rother-bart, Teiifelsart, 
 " Eedbeard, devil-steered," is a German proverb ; 
 and the more to insult the memory of the fallen 
 god, it was fabled that he and the vUest of men, 
 the arch traitor Judas, had hair and beards of the 
 same colour. " His very hair," says Kosalind, pout- 
 ing because Orlando has not kept his appointment 
 with her — 
 
 " His very hair is of the dissembling colour. 
 
 Celia. ■' SometbingbrowBertiianJadas's; marry, his kisses are 
 Judas's own children. 
 
 Ros, " r faith, his hair is of a good colour. 
 
 Celia. " An excellent colour ; your chestnut was ever the only 
 colour." 
 
 The tradition about the colour of Judas's hair did 
 not come from the East, but is of German origin. 
 No allusion to it is found in the works of the fathers 
 of the church or of other early ecclesiastical writers. 
 
 As Odin was identified with the Eoman Mercury, 
 so Thunar, Donar, or Thor, was called in Latin by 
 
298 JUPITBKS BEARD. 
 
 the name of his brother thunderer, Jupiter. There 
 is a plant popularly called in Germany Donner-bart 
 (thunderbeard), in England Jupiter's beard, in 
 France Joubarbe, i. e., Jove's beard, which is set 
 on the roofs of houses to preserve them from 
 lightning. Whether these names properly belong 
 to house-leek, which bears a pink blossom, or 
 to stonecrop, which has numerous yellow flowers 
 (yellow is one of the lightning colours), or whether 
 they are common to both plants, I am unable to say, 
 for the authorities on the subject are ambiguous. 
 Mannhardt maintains the latter opinion,* Kuhn 
 asserts that the donner-bart is our English house- 
 leek, that it is a sedum, and that sedum, according 
 to Festus, was planted on housetops by the Romans 
 as a preservative against lightning. -f- House-leek 
 can by no stretch of fancy be likened to a beard ; 
 stonecrop has some resemblance to a crisp and curly 
 yellow beard. 
 
 The mythology of peas is very curious, but still 
 somewhat obscure. This much, however, is certain, 
 that the plant and its fruit are in some way or other 
 related to celestial fire. It may be that they were 
 regarded in this light because they belong to the 
 class of creeping and climbing plants to which such 
 * P. 191. t KuhD, Westf. ii. 90. 
 
PEAS. 299 
 
 relations were pre-eminently attiibuted (p. 45) ; at 
 all events, the fact that they too represented some- 
 thing in the vegetation of the sky is substantiated 
 by numerous details in their mythical history. The 
 dragons that poison the air and the waters (p. 57) 
 carry peas in their flight, and let them fall in such 
 quantities that they fill up the wells to the brim, 
 and their smell is so foul that the cattle refuse to 
 eat them* These peas are the lightnLag, that 
 seemed, as appears from a multitude of traditions, 
 to fall in drops or pellets, and their smell is the 
 sulphurous stench that clings to whatever else the 
 dragon brings, and to the gifts thrown down by the 
 Wild Huntsman. The Zwergs, who are closely con- 
 nected with Thor, and who forged for him his 
 lightning hammer, are exceedingly fond of peas, 
 as many a husbandman knows to his cost, whose 
 pea-fields they plunder under cover of their caps of 
 darkness. Peas were sacred to Thor himself, and 
 even now in Berlin, peas with sourcrout are a stand- 
 ing dish on Thor's own day, Thursday.* That 
 they are typical of lightning is further proved by 
 their being used in the same manner as the thunder- 
 bolt and as hazel nuts to promote the fertility of 
 seedcorn (p. 183). In Swabia and elsewhere peas 
 
 * Euhn u. Schwartz, Md. p. i. t Mannliardt, p. 190. 
 
300 PEAS. 
 
 are boiled over the St. John's fire, and eaten dry out 
 of the hollow of the hand. They are thought to be 
 good against all sorts of complaints, and particularly 
 against wounds and bruises.* It is also recom- 
 mended that children in the measles should be 
 washed with water in which peas have been boiled.-f* 
 
 The use of peas in divination concerning love 
 matters is accounted for by the fact that they are 
 sacred to the patron of marriage. In the Leit- 
 meritzer district of Bohemia the girls go into a field 
 of peas, and make there a garland of five or seven 
 kinds of flowers, all of different hues. This garland 
 they use as a pillow, lying down with their right ear 
 upon it, and then they hear a voice from under- 
 ground, which tells them what manner of man they 
 are to have for a husband.J 
 
 In England, when the kitchen-maid shells green 
 peas, if she chance to find a pod with nine peas she 
 hangs it over the kitchen door, and the first rustic 
 who comes in is infallibly to be her husband, or at 
 least her sweetheart. The village girls in Hertford- 
 shire lay the pod with nine peas under a gate, and 
 beheve they will have for husband the first man that 
 passes through, or one whose christian name and 
 
 * Jlannhardt, p 201. t Ibid. 197. 
 
 J Eeinsberg-Diiringsfeld, p. 312. 
 
PEASCOD WOOING. 301 
 
 surname have the same initials as his. A Cumbrian 
 girl, when her lover proves unfaithful, is, by way of 
 consolation, rubbed with pea-straw by the neighbour- 
 ing lads ; and when a Cumbrian youth loses his 
 sweetheart by marriage with a rival, the same sort 
 of comfort is administered to him by the lasses of 
 the village * 
 
 " Winter time for shoeing, peascod time for woo- 
 ing," is an old proverb found by Sir Henry Ellis in 
 a MS. Devon glossary. A peascod wooing was per- 
 formed, according to Brand, " by selecting one grow- 
 ing on the stem, snatching it away quickly, and, if 
 the good omen of the peas remaining in the husk 
 were preserved, then presenting it to the lady of 
 their choice." An example of this practice is 
 tenderly recounted by Touchstone : — ■ 
 
 " I remember when I was in love, I broke my sword npon a stone, 
 and bade him take that for coming a- night to Jane Smile ; and I 
 remember the kissing of her batler, and the cow's dugs that her 
 pretty chapped hands had milked ; and I remember the wooing of a 
 peascod instead of her, from whom I took two cods, and giving her 
 them again said, with weeping tears, ' Wear these for my sake.' " 
 
 * Brand, ii. 99. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Aargatj, 128 
 
 Acheloos, 216 
 
 Acheron, 117 
 
 Adder, 147 
 
 Adebar, 90 
 
 Admettis, 188 
 
 Aeromeli, 144 
 
 Agni, 15, 18, 37, 75, 83, 84, 9S, 
 
 165, 188, 189, 292, 296 
 Ahi, 23, 57, 62 
 Aides, 196 
 Amaltheia, 144 
 Amaltheia's horn, 216 
 Ambrosia, 34, 36, 220 
 Amrita, 34, 35, 36, 138 
 Angel, etymology of, 188 
 Angels' eyes, 21 
 Angiras, 188 
 Angirases, 18 
 Apas, 21, 23 
 Apollo, 18, 24, 141, 188, 198, 
 
 244, 245 
 Apsarases, 21 
 Arbhus, 17 
 Arges, 189 
 Arthur, King, 282—214, 286— 
 
 289 
 Arya, climate of, 25 
 Aryan gods, 8, 11, 13 
 Aryan mythology, origin of, 4 £f. 
 Aryans, 1 — 11 
 Aryans, southern, 14 
 Ash, birth of men from the, 141 
 
 —143 
 
 Ash-sap, 144 — 148. See Shrew- 
 ash. 
 
 Astrape, 67 
 
 Asuras, 37, 39 
 
 Asvattha, 45, 139, 165, 167 
 
 Asvattha, death-dealing, 205, 211 
 
 Asvins, 15, 33, 41 
 
 Atharvaveda, incantation from 
 the, 204, 205 
 
 Athene, 42, 80 
 
 Athragene, 45 
 
 Atrin, 28 
 
 Axe, 226, 232 
 
 Baal, 68 
 
 Baker, 85, 86, 88 
 
 Baker's daughter, 88 
 
 Baldr, 113, 118, 204 
 
 Barbarossa, 284—286 
 
 Barley, 65 
 
 Bay of Souls, 123 
 
 Bealtine, 67—70 
 
 Beer, 237, 238 
 
 Bees, 145 
 
 Beiltine. See Bealtine. 
 
 Belemnite, 232 
 
 Beltein. See Bealtine. 
 
 Berseker, 249 
 
 Bertha, 124—126, 128, 271. See 
 
 Perohta. 
 Besom, 226—228 
 Beovolf, 83 
 
 Bhrigu, 33, 37, 44, 221 
 Bhrigus, 18, 44, 222 
 
INDEX. 
 
 803 
 
 Bhuranyu, 83 
 
 Bird, as soul, 103—105 
 
 Birds, fire bringing, 74 ff. See 
 
 Hoopoe. 
 Birds' Way, 104 
 Black cloth, 124 
 Black cow, 107, 111 
 Black ox, 111, 112 
 Blocksberg, 224 
 Boats and ships, souls conveyed 
 
 in, 117, 119 
 Boats, funeral, 118, 119 
 Boar, 7, 192, 277, 279, 280 
 Bohemians, heathen, 103 
 Braspar's, priest of, dog, 123, 
 
 124 
 Bravalla, 118 
 Bretagne, 122, 123 
 Brewing, 221, 237 
 Brewing-pan, 222—224 
 Bridge of souls, 107, 108, 116 
 Brig o' Dread, 116 
 Britannia, 122 
 Brittia, 121, 122 
 Bron-rhuddyn, 81 
 Bronte, 57 
 Broom, 225—228 
 Brynhild, 113, 220 
 Buchan, 146 
 Buck-goat, 16, 181, 210 
 Buckthorn, 180, 181 
 Butter, 99, 232 
 
 Camdeh, 352 
 
 Corr an ancou, 124 
 
 Cat, 234, 236—240 
 
 Cabdavedhi, 199 
 
 Cauldron, 222—224 
 
 Centaurs, 35, 36, 143 
 
 Charites, 81 
 
 Chark, 38—46, 169, 172 
 
 Charon, 117, 121 
 
 Charopos, 117 
 
 Children, souls of still-born or 
 
 unchristened. See Bertha, 
 
 Perehta. 
 Christian name, 251, 252, 257, 
 
 258 
 
 Churning, 38, S9, 41 
 
 Claudia Procula, 129 
 
 Claw and feather, 158, 159 
 
 Climbing plants, 45 
 
 Cloud, 7, 11. SeeCov. 
 
 Cloud, black, 125 
 
 Cloud-sea, 8, 11—13, 23 
 
 Cloud-ships, 8, 117, 216 
 
 Cloud women, 7, 9, 23 
 
 Corn, oldest kind of, 65 
 
 CornwaU, 147, 154, 163 
 
 Coeytus, 117 
 
 Cow, 7, 15, 23, 157, 229—234, 
 
 277, 278 
 Cow, black, 107, 111 
 Cow foretokens death, 110 — 112 
 Cow-path, 108 
 Cow, psychopomp, 106, 108, 123, 
 
 124 
 Cow, slaughtered and revived, 15, 
 
 277 
 Cowstone, 233 
 Cross, 187, 294, 296 
 Crown of thorns, the, 181, 182 
 Cuckoo, 88, 89, 97—101, 105, 
 
 128, 201—203 
 Cumberland, 288 
 Cunibert's foimtain, 91 
 Cyavana, 33, 200 
 Cyclops, 32, 189 
 
 Danaids, 212 
 
 Danaos, 142 
 
 Dead, 103—108, 112—136. See 
 
 Wild Hunt. 
 Dead-shoe, 115 
 Devas, 37, 39 
 Devil, the, 26, 28 
 Devonshire, 202, 281 
 Dinnick, 202 
 Dionysos, 35, 200, 201 
 Divining-rod or wish-rod, 168, 
 
 169, 171, 172, 189—191 
 Dog, 4, 7 
 Dog-days, 25 
 Dog, howling, 109 
 Dog, psychopomp, 107, 123, 124 
 
304 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Dog, wind as, 110. See Wild 
 
 Hunt. 
 Dogs see ghosts, 110 
 Dove, 104 
 Draoi, 213 
 Draggletail, 130 
 Dragon, 62 
 
 Drinking-cups, 216—219 
 Durham, 105 
 Dwarfs. See Zwergs. 
 
 Eaole, 75, 78, 79, 104, 138, 
 
 140, 143, 151 
 Easter-fires, 46—48, 180 
 Edenhall, the Luck of, 218, 219 
 Egg, 210, 233, 235, 236 
 Eildon hills, 224 
 Elf, elves, 17, 20, 21, 125, 133 
 Elfshot, 153 
 England = underworld, 123, 215, 
 
 268 
 Escalot, demoiselle d', 118 
 Essex, 25, 252 
 Euphobia, 177 
 
 Faskahtel, 55 
 
 Falcon, 158, 182 
 
 Falkenberg, 119 
 
 Faunus, 84 
 
 Fenja and Menja, 71 
 
 Fern, 191—200 
 
 Fern seed, 193—197, 198 
 
 Feronia, 82 
 
 Ferry, 132, 133 
 
 Ferrymau's fee, 121 
 
 Finns, 103 
 
 Fire, vestal, 45 
 
 Fires, sacred, of the Germanic 
 
 races, 46 
 Flint and steel, 46, 47 
 Flogronn, 167 
 Flying Dutchman, 119 
 Porgetfulness, drink of, 220 
 Forget-me-not, 174 
 Forget not the best, 174, 178 
 Forked form of wish-rod, 171, 186 
 Forlorn fire, 53 
 Fountains, babies', 91, 234 
 
 Fountain of Youth, 33, 139 
 Fraxinus emus, 144, 145 
 Freyja, 22, 25, 94, 128 
 Freischutz, 199 
 Freyr. See Fro. 
 Fria, 94. See Freyja. 
 Frodi'a mill, 71—73, 129 
 Fro, Freyr, or Fricco, 50, 51, 68, 
 
 72, 94 
 Frog, 6 
 
 Fulmen trisulcum, 187 
 Furious host, 268, 271 ff. 
 
 Gandhartes, 35, 36 
 Qaokerena, 137, 138 
 Garrows, 118 
 Gertrude's bird, 86—88 
 Gervase of Tilbury, 12, 252 
 Gimli, 20 
 
 Qiraldus Cambrensis, 252 
 Gjallar bridge, 102, 135 
 Gjallar horn, 289 
 Glauoopis, 80 
 Goblets, elfin, 216—219 
 Gungnir. See Odin's spear. 
 
 Hackelbeeg, 268, 279 — 281 
 
 Hair, 101, 102 
 
 Hair of a dog, 153 
 
 Hair, red, 101, 297 
 
 Hammer, Thi.r's, 22, 24, 187, 
 
 293, 294, 295 
 Hands, perforated, 213 
 Hanging, 208, 209, 255 
 Haoma, 137, 220 
 Hare, 129, 234—236, 237 
 Haritas, 31 
 Harz, 134 
 
 Hawk, 100, 105, 140 
 Hazel, 178-180, 182—184 
 Heaven, Aryan, 112, 114, 139 
 
 — Greek, 112 
 
 — Norse, 20, 113 
 Jleimchen, 125 
 Heimdallr, 289 
 Helios, 57 
 
 Hell, 112—114 
 
 Hel or Hela, 110, 112—114, 124 
 
INDEX. 
 
 305 
 
 Hel-slioe, 115 
 
 Hen witli her oMokens, 88 
 
 Ilephaistos, 42 
 
 Hera, 98 
 
 Hercules, 24, 35 
 
 Hercules, cup-ship of, 216 
 
 Herraeias or Hermes, 110, 187 — 
 
 189 
 Hermes' rod, 172, 187—189 
 HermOdr, 135 
 
 Hertfordshire, 25, 81, 183, 300 
 HigHauds, Scottish, 52 
 Holda, 91, 94, 95, 124, 128, 212, 
 
 271 
 Holden, 135, 202, 222, 223 
 Holes in trees, &c., passing 
 
 through, 153—157 
 Holy Thursday, 147, 161, 233 
 Honey, 140, 144, 145, 147 
 Hoopoe, 175, 201, 202, 203 
 Horizon, 10, 36 
 Horn, 216—218, 287—289 
 Horse, 6, 7 
 House-leek, 298 
 Hrossharsgrani, 208 
 Hvergelmir, 140, 142 
 Hyades, 36, 143 
 Hypereia, 32 
 
 Iduitn, 22 
 
 llpa, 139 
 
 Ilsenstein, legend of the, 177 
 
 Indo-European mythologies, origin 
 
 of, 7 
 Indo-European race, 1 
 Indra, 15, 18, 23, 28, 30, 37, 
 
 62, 63, 229 
 Indu, 63 
 Innis Bofin, 104 
 Invisibility, 184, 196, 197 
 IiTkraut, 200 
 Trrwurzel, 201 
 Islands of the Blest, 117 
 Ismenian fountain, 141, 142 
 Isle of Man, 77 
 Ivy, 45 
 
 John, King, 261 
 
 Judas, 297 
 Jupiter, 30, 298 
 Jupiter Elicius, 84 
 Jupiter's beard, 298 
 
 Kaanthos, 141, 142 
 Kahandha, 36, 142 
 K4maduh, 173 
 Kavandha. See Kahandha. 
 Kripixitov. See Hermes' rod. 
 Khadu-a, 205 
 Kushtha, 186 
 Kuyava, 64, 66 
 Kyffhauser, 285, 286 
 
 Labtbikd, 94 — 97 
 Latium, first king of, 83 
 Laurel, 45 
 Loki, 22, 26 
 Lucken Hare, 224, 287 
 Luckflower, 172—174 
 Luck of Edenhall, the, 218 
 Ludlam's Hole, 223 
 Lycaon, 243 
 Lycurgus, 200 
 
 Madho, 35 
 
 Magonia, 12 
 
 Mahr, 17, 21. See Nightmare. 
 
 Mandara, Mount, 39 
 
 Mandrake, 169—171, 191, 203, 
 
 204 
 Mann, 19, 37 
 Marriage, 45, 183, 292—294. 
 
 See Hazel, Mistletoe, Peas, 
 
 Hair, &o. 
 Maruts, 15, 17, 18, 63, 240, 243 
 Matarisvan, 37, 43 
 Mayday meetings of witches, 224 
 Maydew, 229, 284 
 Magic cudgels, 209—211 
 Mangle, 38 
 Mead, 35, 140 
 Mealway, 73 
 
 Melian Nymphs, 141 — 143 
 Melissai, 144 
 Methu, 35 
 Midday driving, first, 161 
 
306 
 
 INDMX. 
 
 Milk, 228—234 
 
 Milkiog, thrice-a-day, 161—163 
 
 Milky Way, 73, 103, 106, 108 
 
 Mill, 71—73, 129 
 
 MUler, 85, 88 
 
 Millway, 73 
 
 Mimirbrunnr, 140 
 
 Mimosa catecliM, 166, 167, 180 
 
 Minos, 19 
 
 Minyas, 19 
 
 Mistletoe, 185, 204 
 
 Mithra, 31 
 
 Monks, ghosts of, 120 
 
 Mother Ludlam, 223 
 
 Mortuaries, 108 
 
 Mountain ash. See Eowan. 
 
 Mull, needfire in, 61, 55 
 
 Naohzeheee, 121 
 
 Naiads, 212, 216 
 
 Name, calling by, 27 
 
 Name, Christian, 251, 252, 257, 
 
 258 
 Naraka, 113 
 Nastrond, 113, 114 
 Naulus, 121 
 Navyah, 21 
 Nectar, 220 
 
 Needfire, 46, 48—54, 55, 66, 67 
 Neurians, 247 
 Nidhoggr, 140, 142 
 Niflheimr, 112—115, 124, 135 
 Nightfolk, 274 
 Nightmare, 17, 123, 215, 238— 
 
 241, 252 
 Nirriti, 113, 205 
 Noms, 140 
 Northamptonshire, 70 
 Northumberland, 105, 288 
 Numa, 84 
 Nuts. See Hazel. 
 
 Oak, 49, 150, 155, 179, 180, 294 
 
 —296 
 Obolus, 120 
 Odebaro, 90 
 Odin, 17, 18, 22, 72, 169, 198, 
 
 206, 207. See Wild Hunt. 
 
 Odin, Anglo-Saxon pedigree of, 
 
 83 
 Odin's eye, 140 
 Odin's spear, 24, 206—211 
 Olaf, king, 26—28 
 Oldenburg horn, 217 
 Ominnisol, 220 
 Orpheus, 17 
 Outlaws, 255 
 
 Owl, 75, 79, 80, 104, 138 
 Ox, 110 
 Ox, black, 111, 112 
 
 Paiasa, 158,159, 165, 187 
 
 Pan, 225 
 
 Panis, 29 
 
 Panopeus, 43 
 
 Paracelsus, 201 
 
 Parasitical plants, 45 
 
 Pama, 192. See Paiasa. 
 
 Parsees, 101, 107, 235 
 
 Parsley-bed, 90, 92 
 
 Passage de I'enfer, 123 
 
 Peas, 183, 197, 298-301 
 
 Peepul. See Asvattha. 
 
 Perchta, 128— 1H2 
 
 Persian Aryans, ] 08 
 
 Phseacians, 32 
 
 Phlegyans, 43 
 
 Phlegyas, 44 
 
 Phocis, 43 
 
 Pbolos, 35, 143 
 
 Phoroneus, 83, 141, 143 
 
 Picumnus, 85 
 
 Kcus, 82—85, 93, 96, 151 
 
 Pilumnus, 83, 85 
 
 Pitris, 18, 19, 20, 100, 114 
 
 Plantain, 201, 202 
 
 Pleiades, 88 
 
 Plough, Bertha's, 125 
 
 Plougnel, 123 
 
 Poland, 104 
 
 Poles, 100 
 
 Poseidon, 141, 142, 187 
 
 Pramatha, 41, 43 
 
 Pramantha, 39, 56 
 
 Priapus, 60, 61 
 
INDEX. 
 
 307 
 
 rrometliens, 19, 37, 41, 42, 43, 
 
 83 
 rteris, 192, 193 
 Ptinjaub, 14 
 Purgatory, 116 
 ni/p(f)(!poi, 207 
 Pyreia, 45, 189 
 
 QuAli, 33 
 
 Quicken-tree. See Eowan. 
 
 QuickeniDg the calves, 160 — 163 
 
 Kakshasas, 28, 114 
 
 Eatatiiskr, 140 
 
 Raven, 197, 198, 285 
 
 Ravenstone, 197 
 
 Eed colour, 49, 81, 146, 165, 
 
 175, 229, 230, 233 
 Eed hair, 297 
 Eed mUk, 102 
 Eegeneration, 157 
 Ebine, the, 120 
 Eibhus, 15, 16, 17, 18 
 Eig Veda, 13 ff. 
 Eiver of death, 117 
 Eobin Eedbreast, 81, 82 
 Books, birth from, 93 
 Eowan, 161, 162—165, 167, 168 
 Eudra, 18, 43 
 Eunemad, 118 
 
 St. GrEOEGE, 24 
 
 St. John's day, 89, 159 
 
 Sami, 45, 165 
 
 Sanscrit language, 1 4 
 
 Sarameyas, 110, 124 
 
 Saul sceat, 108 
 
 Savitar, 16, 31 
 
 Saxony, 129 
 
 Schlossberg, the dead and unborn 
 
 in the, 128 
 Serpent, 147 
 Sesha, 39 
 
 Seven Stars, the, 88, 89 
 Shalott, Lady of, 118 
 Ship.s, burial in, 118 
 Shoes of the dead, 114, 115, 116 
 Short-hoggers, 130, 131 
 
 Shrew-ash, 151 
 
 Siegfried, 24 
 
 Sieve, 212-215 
 
 Sigmundr, 118, 249 
 
 Sinfiotli, 118, 249 
 
 Siva, 43 
 
 Soma, 34, 36, 37, 63, 137, 158, 
 
 221 
 Souls, as birds, 103—105 
 Soul-shot, 108 
 Sparrow, 104 
 Sparrowhawk, 105 
 Springwort, 172, 174—178, 191 
 Starkadhr, 208 
 Stars, 20, 21 
 Steropes, 189 
 "Stick out of the bag," the, 209— 
 
 211 
 Stonecrop, 298 
 Stork, 89, 90, 93, 94, 96 
 Styrbjorn, 206, 208 
 Styx, 117 
 
 Suicide by hanging, 209 
 Sun, 6, 23, 31, 32, 55, 72, 73 
 Stirya, 31 
 Sushna, 23 
 Suttungr, 22 
 Svadilfari, 26 
 Svend Falling, 218 
 Swallow, 102, 17B 
 Swan, 21 
 
 Swan-maidens, 21, 22 
 Swan-shirts, 21 
 
 ToHiNAVAT bridge, 107, 103 
 
 Tchinevar gate, 126 
 
 Tears for the dead, 126—128 
 
 Telchins, 245 
 
 Thiassi, 22 
 
 Thomas the Ehymer, 2S7, 288 
 
 Thor, 16, 22, 49, 81, 97. 98, 101, 
 
 161, 165, 222, 232 
 Thorn, 45 
 
 Thorn, white and black, 180—182 
 Thor's beard, 101, 297 
 Thrimiloi, 163 
 Thule, 122 
 
308 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Thunderbolt, 24, 56, 57, 85, 207, 
 
 232 
 Thunderbolt-thorn, -wood, 177 
 Trees, mankind sprung from, 92, 
 
 141—143, 150 
 Treves, wheel-burning at, 60 
 Trident, 187 
 Trisulcum, 187 
 Trupanon, 45, 189 
 Twelve Nights, the, 16, 22, 227, 
 
 291 
 Twilight of the gods, the, 289 ff. 
 Tyrol, 129, 130 
 
 Untak, 213 
 Urdharbrunnr, 140 
 Ushas, 32, 33 
 
 Valhalla, 113 
 
 Valkyrs, 21, 22, 216, 241 
 
 Varuna, 30, 31, 44 
 
 Vestal fire, 45 
 
 Vishnu, 56 
 
 Vikarr, immoUtion of, 208 
 
 Vitis sylvestris, 45 
 
 Vouru Kasha lake, 138 
 
 ^■ritra, 23, 62 
 
 Waggon-wheel. See Wheel. 
 
 Waldminchen, 129 
 
 Walnut, 48 
 
 War, Roman declaration of, 206, 
 
 207 
 Water crossed by the dead, 117£f. 
 Waybread, 201, 202 
 Werewolf, 242—265 
 Wetterbaum, 74 
 Wheel, 23, 41, 48, 49, 51, 55, 56, 
 
 89 
 Wheel-burning, 54 — 64 
 
 Wheel-rolling, 58, 69 
 Whinny Moor, 116 
 Whirlwind, 7, 276, 280 
 Whitethorn, 181, 182 
 Whittinghame, 131 
 Wildfire, 46 
 Wild Hunt, 17, 266 ff. 
 William of Newbridge, 218 
 Wind-and-weather, a troll, 27 
 Wind as a dog, 7, 110. See 
 
 Wild Hunt. 
 Wind as a wolf, 7, 243—245 
 Wind typified by a broom, 226 
 Wind's bride, 276 
 Wish-hounds, 281 
 Wishmays, 216 
 Wish-rod. See Divining-rod. 
 Witches, -215, 221, 224 — 226, 
 
 228—234, 237, 238, 240 
 Woden, 266 ff. See Odin. 
 Wolf, 7, 242—265 
 Woodpecker, 82—88, 93, 174, 
 
 175 
 World-tree, 74, 138 ff. 
 Wren, 75—81, 82 
 Wuotan, 266 ff. See Odin. 
 
 YiMA, 14, 19, 100, 101, 107 
 Yava, 64, 65 
 
 Yggdrasil, 74, 139—141, 209 
 Yorkshire dirge, 115, 116 
 
 Zea, 65 
 
 Zeus, 30, 42, 97, 98, 143, 244, 
 
 245, 279 
 Zeus Promantheus, 42 
 Zwergsor dwarfs, 133 — 136, 197, 
 
 222, 299 
 Zywie, 100 
 
 ERADilURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHlTEFniAES. 
 
!i