Zoological mythology; or, The legends of animals

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ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

I-RINTED HV BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY
EDINBURGH AND LONDON

ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY

THE LEGENDS OF ANIMALS

ANGELO DE GUBERNATIS

PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE IN THE ISTITUTO DI STUDII

SUPERIORI E DI FERFEZIONAMENTO, AT FLORENCE

FOREIGN MEMBER OF THE KOVAL INSTITUTE OF PHTLOLOOY AND ETHNOGRAPHY

OF THE DUTCH INDIES

I IS! TJFO VOL LIMES

VOL. II.

LONDON
TRUBNEE & CO., 60 PATEENOSTER ROW

1872
[A II rights rese^fed]

6L

//^/&

^ chAjtith-^-J

LLJ

UIMIVLHS
*-^ LIBRARY

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CONTENTS.

fart Jfirst.
THE ANIMALS OF THE EARTH.

(Continued.)

CHAPTEE V.

The Hog, the Wild Boar, and the Hedgehog, . . 1

CHAPTER VI.
The Dog, ... 17

CHAPTER VII.

The Cat, The Weasel, the Mouse, the Mole, the Snail,
THE Ichneumon, the Scorpion, the Ant, the Locust, and
the Grasshopper, ... ... .41

CHAPTER VIII.
The Hare, the Rabbit, the Ermine, and the Beaver, . 76

CHAPTER IX.

The Antelope, the Stag, the Deer, and the Gazelle, . 8.3

CHAPTER X.
The Elephant, .... . . . 91

CHAPTER XI.

The Monkey and the Bear, . . ... 96

CHAPTER XII.

The Fox, the Jackal, and the Wolf, . . . . 121

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XIII.

The Lion, the Tiger, the Leopard, the Panther, and the

Chameleon, . . ... ... 153

CHAPTER XIV.

The Spider, . . . . 162

part S^t0atr.
THE ANIMALS OF THE AIR

CHAPTER I.
Birds, . . 167

CHAPTER 11.

The Hawk, the Eagle, the Vulture, the Phcenix, the
Harpy, the Strix, the Bat, the Griffon, and the
Siren, . . 180

CHAPTER III.
The Wren, the Beetle, and the Firefly, . . 207

CHAPTER IV.

The Bee, the Wasp, the Fly, the Gnat, the Mosquito, the

Horsefly, and the Cicada, . . 215

CHAPTER V.

The Cuckoo, the Heron, the Heathcock, the Partridge^
the Nightingale, the Swallow, the Sparrow, and the
Hoopoe, ... . 225

CHAPTER VL

The Owl, the Crow, the Magpie, and the Stork, . , . 243

CHAPTER VII.
The Woodpecker and the Martin, . . ^ 2(34

CHAPTER VIII.

The Lark and the Quail, . ^--^

CONTENTS.

Vll

CHAPTER IX.

The I'ock: and the Hen, . 279

CHAPTER X.

The Dove, the Duck, the Goose, and the Swan, . 294

CHAPTER XL
The Parrot, ■ . . 320

CHAPTER XII. ,. ;

The Peacock, . . . 32;?

fart f^irir.

THE ANIMALS OF THE WATETi.

CHAPTER I.

Fishes, and particularly the Pike, the Sacred Fish or
Fish of St Peter, the Carp, the Mblwel, the Herring,
THE Eel, the Little Goldfish, the Sea-Urchin, the
Little Perch, the Bream, the Dolphin, and the
Whale, . . 329

CHAPTER II.

The Crad, ... . 354

CHAPTER III.
The Tortoise, . . . . 36o

CHAPTER IV.
The Frog, the Lacerta Viridis, and the Toad, 371

CHAPTER V.
The Serpent and the Aquatic Monster, . , 388

Conclusion, . . ... 421

ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY;

OR

THE LEGENDS OF ANIMALS.

gmt fait
THE ANIMALS OF THE EAETH.

CHAPTER V.

THE HOG, THE "WILD BOAE, AND THE HEDGEHOG.

SUMMARY,

Tie hog as a hero disguise. — The disguises of the hero and of the
heroine. — Ghoshs, the leprous maiden. — The moon in the welL —
Ap^l^ cured by Indras. — ApMi has the dress of a hog. — Godhi,
the persecuted maiden in a hog's dress. — The hogs eat the apples
in the maiden's stead. — The meretricious Circe and the hogs. —
Porcus and upodaras. — The wild boar god in India and in Persia.
— Tydoeus, the wild boar. — The wild boar of Erymanthos. — The
wild boar of Meleagros. — The Vedic monster wild boar. — The
dog and the pig.' — Puloman, the wild boar, burned. — The hog
in the fire. — The hog cheats the wolf.^ — The astute hedgehog. —
The hegehog, the wild boar, and the hog are presages of water. —
The porcupine and its quills ; the comb and the dense forest. —
The ears and the heart of the wild boar. — The wild boar and the
hog at Christmas. — The devil a wild boar. — -The heroes killed by
the wild boar. — The tusk of the wild boar now life-giving, now
deadly ; the dead man*s tooth.- — The hero asleep ; the hero be-
come a eunuch ; the lettuce-eunuch eaten by Adonis, prior to his
being killed by the wild boar.

VOL. II. A

ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

The hog, as well as the wild boar, is another disguise
of the solar hero in the night — another of the forms
very often assumed by the sun, as a mythical hero,
in the darkness or clouds. He adopts this form in order
sometimes to hide himself from his persecutors, sometimes
to exterminate them, and sometimes on account of a
divine or demoniacal malediction. This form is some-
times a dark and demoniacal guise assumed by the hero;
on which account the poem of Hyndla, in the Edda,
calls the hog a hero's animal. Often, however, it repre-
sents the demon himself. When the solar hero enters
the domain of evening, the form he had of a handsome
youth or splendid prince disappears ; but he himself, as
a general rule, does not die along with it ; he only
passes into another, an uglier, and a monstrous form.
The black bull, the black horse, the grey horse, the
hump-backed horse, the ass, and the goat, are all forms of
the same disguise with which we are already acquainted.
The thousand-bellied Indras, who has lost his testicles ;
Aromas, who disguises himself as a eunuch ; Indras,
Vishnus, Zeus, Achilletis, Odin, Thor, Helgi, and many
other mythical heroes, Who disguise themselves as women ;
and the numerous beautiful heroines who, in mythology
and tradition, disguise themselves as bearded men, are
all ancient forms under which was represented the passage
of either the sun or the aurora of evening into the dark-
ness, cloud, ocean, forest, grotto, or hell of night. The
hero lamed, blinded, bound, drowned, or buried in a Avood,
can be understood when referred respectively to the sun
which is thrown down the mountain-side, which is lost
in the darkness, which is held fast by the fetters of the
darkness, which plunges into the ocean of night, or which
hides itself from our sight in the nocturnal forest. The
illumined and illuminating sun, when it ceases to shine

THE MYTH OF APAlA.

in tlie dark night, becomes devoid of sight, devoid of in-
telligence, and stupid. The handsome solar hero becomes
ugly when, with the night, his splendour ceases ; the
strong, red, healthy, solar hero, who- pales and grows
dark in the night, becomes ill. We still say in Italy that
the sun is ill when we see- it lose its brightness, and,, as it
were, grow pale.

In the 117th hymn of the first book of the S^gvedas,
the Agvin^u cure the leprous daughter of Kakshlvant,
Ghoshs, who is growing old without a husband in her
father's house, and find her a husband ; the Ajvin^u
deliver the aurora from the darkness of night,, and marry
her,^

In the eightieth hymn of the eighth; book of the
Itigvedas, the same myth occurs again with relation to
Indras, and in a more complete form. We have already
remarked, in the first book of the Rigvedds, the maiden
Ap41a who descends from the mountain to draw water,
and draws up the somas (ambrosia, or else the moon,
whence, as it seems to> me, the origin of the double Italian
proverb, " Pescare, or mostrare la luna nel pozzo," to fish
up, or show the moon in the well, which was afterwards
corrupted to indicate one who saysj or narrates, what is
untrue or impossible), and takes it to Indras, the well-
known drinker of ambrosia (here identified with the moon,
or somas). Indras, contented with the maiden, con-
sents, as she is ugly and deformed, to- pass over the three
heavenly stations, that is,, to pass over his father's head,
her vast breast and her bosom. ^ In the last strophe of
the hymn quoted above, Indras makes a luminous robe.

1 Cfr. the cbapter on the Duck, the Goose, the Swan, and the l)ove.
^ Im^ni triwi vishtapi tinindra '^i rohaya giras tatasyorva^to ad
idam ma npodare.

ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

a skin of the sun, for Ap414, who has been thrice purified,
by the wheel, by the chariot itself, and by the rudder of
Indras's chariot.' And the same myth occurs once more
in a clearer and more complete form in a legend of the
Brihaddevatd, Ap4M beseeches Indras, loved by her, to
make for her a beautiful and perfect (faultless, unim-
peachable) skin. Indras, hearing her voice, passes over
her with wheel, chariot, and rudder ; by three efforts, he
takes ojff her ugly skin. Ap414 then appears in a beautiful
one. In the skin thus stript off there was a bristle
(jalyakah) ; above, it had a hirsute appearance ; below,
it resembled the skin of a lizard.^ The bristle or thorn
upon the skin of Apala is naturally suggestive of the
hedgehog, the porcupine, the wild boar, and the bristly
hog. The aurora, as the Vedic h5rmn sings, shines only
at the sight of her husband ; thus Apal4, of the ugly or

1 Khe rathasya klie 'nasah kbe yugasya gatakrato apilani indra
trisli putvy akrinoh s-ilryatva^am.

^ Sulom^m anavadyangiih kuru m^m gakra sutva(5im
Tasyas tad va<ianam grutvd pritas tena purandarah.
E,atlia6hidrena tarn indrah gakatasya yugasya (^a
PraksMpya nigdakarsha tris tatah s^ sutva(5a ^bhavat
Tasyaiii tvadi vyapetiyam sarvasyam galyako 'bhavat
Uttara tv abhavad godba krikalligas tvag uttam^.
Godhd seems to signify lie who bas tbe form of a hair (go^ among its
other meanings, has that of hair). As an animal, the dictionaries
also recognise in the godha a lizard. But perhaps we may also trans-
late it by toad or frog ; we could thus also understand the fable of
the frog which aspires to equal the ox. I observe, moreover, to ex-
emplify the ease with which we can pass from the ox to the frog, and
from the frog to the lizard, how in the Russian story of Afanasdeff,
ii. 23, a beautiful princess is hidden in a frog; in Tuscan and Pied-
montese stories and in Sicilian superstitions, in a toad. In the stories
of the Pentamerone^ the good fairy is a lacerta cormtta (a horned
lizard). Ghosha, too, has for its equivalent in Sanskrit, karkatacrifift,
which means a horned shrimp. In other varieties the young prince is
a he-2;oat or a dragon.

THE LEPROUS MAIDEN— CINDERELLA. 5

the hog's skin, and Ghoshs, the leprous maiden, become
splendid and healthy by the grace of their husband.
Thus Cinderella, or she who has a dress of the colour of
ashes, or of a grey or dark colom^, like the sky of night
(in Eussian stories Cinderella is called Cernushka, which
means little black one, as well as little dirty one) ,
appears exceedingly beautiful only when she finds herself
in the prince's ball-room, or in church, in candlelight,
and near the prince- : the aurora is beautiful only when
the sun is near.

In the twenty-eighth story of the sixth book of
Afanassieff, the maiden persecuted by her father and
would-be seducer, who wishes to marry her, because he
thinks her as beautiful as her mother (the evening aurora
is as beautiful as the morning aurora), covers herself with
a hog's skin, which she takes off only when she marries a
young prince..^ In another story of White Eussia,^ we
have, instead, the son of a king persecuted by his father,
who is constrained to quit his father s house with a cloak
made of a pig's skin. In an unpublished story of the
Monferrato, the contents of which Dr Ferraro has com-
municated to me,, the girl persecuted by her step-mother
is condemned to eat in one night an interminable number
of apples ; by means of two hog's bristles, she calls up a
whole legion of pigs, who eat the apples in her stead.

As to the rudder of Indras's chariot in the lower
bosom of Ap414, it would seem to me to. have a phallic
signification. Indras may have cured Ap414 by marrying
her, as the A9vinau, by means of a husband, cured the
leprous Ghosh4, who was growing old in her father's
house. In the tenth story of the Pentamerone, the king

1 For tlie persecuted maiden in connection with the hog or hogs,
cfr. also the Pentamerone, iii. 10. 2 Afanassieff, v. 38.

ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

of Koccaforte marries an old woman, believing he is
espousing a young one. .He throws her out of the
window, but she is arrested in her fall by a tree, to which
she clings ; the fairies pass by, and make her young again,
as well as beautiful mA rich, and tie up her hair with
a golden ribbon. The aged sister of the old woman who
has grown young again (the night) goes to the barber,
thinking that the same result may be attained simply by
having her skin removed, and is flayed alive. For the
myth of the two sisters, night and aurora, the black
maiden and she who disguises herself in black, in grey,
or the colour of ashes, consult also the Pentamerone, ii. 2.
According to the Italian belief, the hog is dedicated to
St Anthony, and a St Anthony is also celebrated as the
protector of weddings, like the Scandinavian Thor, to
whom the hog is sacred. The hog symbolises fat ; and
therefore, in the sixteenth Esthonian story, the hog is
eaten at weddings.

The companions of Odysseus, transformed by the mere-
tricious enchantress Circe, with the help of poisonous
herbs, into filthy hogs, care only to gratify their bodily
appetites, whence Horace, in the second of the first book
of the Epistolce —

^' Sirenum voces, et Circes pocula nosti, •

Quas si cum sociis stultus cupidusque bibisset
Sub domina meretrice fuisset turpis et excors
Vixisset canis immundus, vel arnica luto Sus."

The hog, as one of the most libidinous of animals, is
sacred to Venus ; for this reason, according to the Pytha-
gorian doctrines, lustful men are transformed into hogs,
and the expression '' pig" is applied to a man given over
to every species of lust. In Varro^ we read :- — "Nuptia-
rum initio, antiqui regcs ac sublimes viri in Hetruria in

^ J)e lie Etcstica, ii. 4.

THE RUDDER OF INDRAS.

conjuctione nuptiali nova nupta et novus maritus pri-
mum porcum immolant; prisci quoque Latini et etiam
Grseci in Italia idem fecisse videntur^ nam et nostrse
mulieres, maximse nutrices naturam, qua foeminse sunt, in
virginibus appellant porcum, et grsece choiron, signifi-
cantes esse dignum insigni nuptiarum." The rudder of
Indras, wMcL. passes over the upodaras (or lower bosom)
of Ap^l4, is illustrated by this passage in Varro.

As to the wild boar, its character is generally demon-
iacal ; but the reason why the Hindoo gods were invested
with this form was in a great degree due to equivocation
in language. The word vishnus means he who penetrates ;
on account of its sharp tusks, in a Vedic hymn,^ the wild
boar is called vishnus, or the penetrator. Hence, pro-
bably, by the same analogy, in another hymn, Eudras,
the father of the Marutas, the winds, is invoked as a red,
hirsute, horrid, celestial wild boar,^ and the Marutas are
invoked when the thunderbolts are seen in the form of
wild boars running out from the iron teeth and golden
wheels ; ^ that is, carried by the chariot of the Marutas,
the winds, who also are said to have tongues of fire, and
eyes like the sun.* Vishnus himself, in the Migvedas, at
the instigation of Indras, brings a hundred oxen, the

^ :Rigv. L 61, 7.

2 Divo var^ham arusham kapardinam tvesbam rllpam namas^ ni
hvay^mahe; Rigv. i. 114, 5.

^ Pagyan Mranya<5akri,n ayodanshtr^n vidhavato var^h^n; Rigv. i.
88, 5.

* Agni^ihy^ manavah. sIlradaksliasalL ; Rigv. i. 89, 7. — In the Edda^
the chariot of Frey is drawn by a hog. The head of the mythical hog
is luminous. In the twenty-eighth story of the second book of
Afanassieff, Ivan Dur^k obtains from the two young heroes, who
miraculously appear to him, three marvellous gifts, i.e., the hog with
golden bristles, the buck with golden horns and tail, and the horse
with mane and tail also of gold.

ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

milky gruel, and the destropng wild boar.^ Therefore
Indras himself loves the shape of a wild boar, which, in
the Avesta, is his alter ego. Verethraghnas assumes the
same form. We know that the sun (sometimes the
moon), in the form of a ram or he-goat, thrusts and
pushes against the cloud, or the darkness, until he pierces
it with his golden horns ; and so Vishnus, the penetrator,
with his sharp golden tusks (thunderbolts, lunar horns,
and solar rays), puts forth such great strength in the
darkness and the cloud that he bursts through both, and
comes forth luminous and victorious. According to the
Pauranic traditions, Vishnus, in his third incarnation,
when killing the demon Hirany^kshas (or him of the
golden eye), drew forth or delivered the earth from the
waters (or from the ocean of the damp and gloomy
night of the winter),^ According to the Rdmdyanam,^

^ Vigvet ti Tishnur ibharad urukramas tveshitah. gatam mahisli^n
kshirapikam odanam var^ham indra emusbam; Bigv. viii. 66, 10. —
In the Thebaid of Statius (v. 487), Tydceus, too, is dressed in the
spoils of a wild boar —

" Terribiles contra setis, ac dente recurvo,

Tydea per latos humeros ambire laborant

Exuviae, Calydonis honos."
^ According to other fables, the three persons of the Trinity at one
time disputed as to who had the pre-eminence. Brahman, who, from
the summit of the lotus where he was seated, saw nothing in the
universe, believed himself the first of creatures. He descended into
the stem of the lotus, and finding at last N^r^anas (Vishnus) asleep,
he asked him who he was. *' I am the first-born," replied Vishnus ;
Brahman disputed this title and dared even to attack him. But during
the struggle, Mahadeva (Qiva) threw himself between them, crying, " It is
I who am the first-born. Nevertheless I will recognise as my superior
bim who is able to see the summit of my head or the sole of my feet,"
Vishnus (as hidden or infernal moon), transforming himself into a wild
boar, pierced through the ground and penetrated to the infernal regions,
where he saw the feet of Mahadeva. The latter, on his return, saluted bim
as the first-born of the gods ; Bournouf, Ulnde Fran^aise, ^ H, H 9.

THE MONSTER WILD BOAR,

Inclras took tlie form of a wild boar immediately after his
birth.

The Arcadian "wild boar of Mount Erymanthtis is familiar
to the reader. Herakles killed it in his third labom-, in
the same way as Vishnus in the third of his incarnations
became a wild boar ; Ovid describes him very elegantly
in the eighth book of the Metamorphoses —

" Sanguine et igne micant oculi, riget horrida cervix ^
Et setse densis similes hastilibus horrent,
Stantque velut vallum, velut alta hastilia set3e ,
Fervida cum rauco latos stridore per armos
Spuma fluit, dentes sequantur dentibus Indis,
Fulmen ab ore venit frondes afflatibus ardent."

The wild boar of Meleagros is a variety of this very
monster ; it is, therefore, not without reason that when
Herakles goes to the infernal regions, all the shades flee
before him, except those of Meleagros and Medusa,
Meleagros and Herakles resemble each other, are identi-
fied with each other ; as to Medusa, we must not forget
that the head of the Gorgon was represented upon the
segis of Zeus, that Gorgon is one of the names given to
Pallas, and that the Gorgons, and especially Medusa, are
connected with the garden of the Hesperides, where the
golden apples grow which Herakles loves.

In the sixty-first hymn of the first book of the
jRigvedas, the god, after having eaten and di'unk well,
kills, with the weapon stolen from the celestial black-
smith Tvashtar, the monster wild boar, who steals that
which is destined for the gods,^ In the ninety-ninth
hymn of the tenth book of the jRigvedas, Tritas (the third
brother), by the strength which he has received from

1 Asyed u mituh savaneshu sadyo mabah pitum papivad <$arv anna
musbiiyad vislinuli padatarii sabiyam vidbyad varabam tiro adrini asti;
str. 7.

ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

Indras, kills the monster wild boar.' In the Tdittiriya
Brdhmanam, we find another very interesting passage.
The wild boar keeps guard over the treasure of the
demons, which is enclosed within seven mountains.
Indras, with the sacred herb, succeeds in opening the
seven mountains, kiUs the wild boar, and, in conse-
quence, discovers the treasure.^ In the fifty-fifth hymn
of the seventh book of the Bigvedas, the hog and the
dog lacerate and tear each other to pieces in turns f the
dog and the pig are found in strife again in the j3Esopian
fable.

In the Mahdhhdratam,^ Puloman assumes the form of
a wild boar to carry off the wife of Bhrigus ; she pre-
maturely gives birth to Cyavanas, who, to avenge his
mother, bums the wild boar to ashes. The thunderbolt
tears through the cloud, the sun's ray (or the lunar horn)
breaks through the darkness. In the popular Tuscan story,
the stupid Pimpi kills the hog, by teasing and torment-
ing it with the tongs, which he has made red-hot in the
fire. In the ninth of the Sicilian stories collected by
Laura Gonzenbach, the girl Zafarana, throwing three hog's
bristles upon the burning embers, causes the old prince,
her husband, to become young and handsome again ; it
is ever the same lucid myth (a variety of Ap414). Thus,
in the first Esthonian story, the prince, by eating pork
(or in the night forest), acquires the faculty of under-

^ Asya trito nv o^asi vridb^no vipd variham ayoagray^ han ; str. 6.

^ Varahoyam vamamoshah saptan^m girin^m parastid vittam vedyam
asur^n^m vibharti, sa darbhapiri^ulam (piri^alam ?) uddhritya, sapta
girin bhittvi tarn abanniti, already quoted by Wilson, J^igv, San,
i. 164. — Cfr. the chapter on the Woodpecker.

^ Tvam sllkarasya dardrihi tava dardartu sukarah ; str. 4. — The
dog in relation with the hog occurs again in the two Latin proverbs :
" Canis peccatum sus dependit," and " Alitor catuli longe olent, aliter
sues." * i. 893.

THE CUNNING HOG AND THE HEDGEHOG, ii

standing the language of birds ; the hero acquires malice,
if he has it not already ; he becomes cunning, if he was
previously stupid ; we therefore also find in a story of
Afanassieff^ the wolf cheated, first by the dog, then by
the goat, and finally by the hog, who nearly drowns him.
The wolf wishes to eat the hogs little ones; the hog
requests him to wait under a bridge, where there is no
water, whilst he goes, as he promises, in the meantime
to wash the young porkers ; the wolf waits, and the hog
goes to let off the water, which, as it passes under the
bridge, puts the wolfs life in danger. Hence the belief
noticed by Aristotle, that the hog is a match for the
wolf, and the corresponding Greek fables. This prudence
is found carried to the highest degree in the hedgehog.
The Arabs are accustomed to say that the champion of
truth must have the courage of the cock, the scrutiny
of the hen, the heart of the lion, the rush of the wild
boar, the cunning of the fox, the prudence of the hedge-
hog, the swiftness of the wolf, the resignation of the dog,
and the complexion of the naguir.^ A verse attributed
to Archilokos says : —

"Poll' oid' alop^x, all' ecliinos en mega,"

which passed into the proverb : ^' One knavery of the
hedgehog is worth more than many of the fox." In the
Aiiarey, Br,^ the hedgehog is said to be bom of the
talon of the rapacious hawk. In the jEsopian fables,
the wolf comes upon a hedgehog, and congratulates
himself upon his good luck ; but the hedgehog defends
itself. The wolf flatters it and beseeches it to lay down
its arms, but it answers that it is imprudent to do so

^ iv. 13. ' Daumas, La Vie ArahCj xv.

8 ui. 3, 26.

12 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

while the danger of fighting remains. Hence the com-
mon belief that the wolf is afraid of the hedgehog;
hence the proverb, " It is very easy to find the hedgehog,
but very difficult to hold it." In a fable of Abstemius,
the hedgehog appears as an enemy, not only of the wolf,
but also of the serpent ; it pricks the viper which has
taken refuge in its den. Then the viper begs it to go
out, but it answers, "Let him go out who cannot stay."
The hedgehog has the appearance of a little wild boar ;
and as an enemy of the wolf and of the serpent, it
appears to me to combine in one the dwarf Vishnus and
the wild boar Vishnus, the exterminator of monsters,
who, as we know, almost always assume, in Hindoo
mythology, the form of a wolf or a serpent. And inas-
much as Vishnus, like Indras, is a thundering and rain-
giving god, in his character of sun in the cloud, or nightly
and autumnal moon, the hedgehog, too, is believed to pre-
sage wind and rain. The wild boar, when dreamed of, is,
according to Axtemidoros, quoted by Aldrovandi,^ an omen
of tempest and rain deluge. To this, refers also the fable
spoken of by ^lianos and Pliny concerning the hogs car-
ried off by the pirates, which make the ship sink. The
cloud-hogs are evidently represented by this myth.

The porcupine seems to be an intermediate form
between the hedgehog and the wild boar. According to
the popular belief, the ashes of a dead porcupine are,
when scattered on the head, an excellent remedy against
baldness, and a hair-restorative. And inasmuch as it is
difficult to make the porcupine's quills fall, I read ia
Aldrovandi,^ that women "Ad discriminandos capiUos,
ut iUos conservent illsesos, aculeis potius hystricum,
quam acubus utuntur." This information derived from

' Cfr. Aldrovandi, Be Quadrup. Digit. Viv. ii. 2 /j^^^

MYTHICAL COMBS.—SACRIFICIAL HOGS. 13

Aldrovandi is interesting, as enabling us to understand a
not uncommon circumstance in Eussian stories. The
hero and heroine who flee from the monster that pursues
them have received from a good magician or a good
fairy the gift of a comb, of such a nature that when
thrown on the ground it makes a dense thicket or
impenetrable forest arise, which arrests the pursuer's
progress..^ This is a reminiscence of the porcupine with the
thick-set quills, of the bristly wild boar, of the gloomy night
or cloud itself, of the horned moon, which hides the fugi- ,
tive solar hero and heroine from the sight of the pursuer.
Notwithstanding this, the hog and the wild boar
generally play in Indo - European tradition a part
resembling that of the scape-goat and of the ass souffre-
douleur. In the Pan6atantTam, the ears and the heart
of the credulous ass, torn by the lion, are eaten. In
Babrios, the rdle of the ass is sustained by the stag
(which is often in myths a variation of the foolish hero).
In the Gesta Romanorum,^ the wild boar loses, by his
silliness, first one ear, then the other, then his tail ; at
last he is kiUed, and his heart eaten by the cook. In
Germany, it is the custom, as it formerly was in England,
to serve up at dinner on Christmas Day an ornamented
boar's head, no doubt as a S3Txibol of the gloomy monster
of lunar winter killed at the winter solstice, after which the
days grow always longer and brighter. For the same
reason, the common people in Germany often go to sleep

^ Cfr. Afanassieff, v. 28.

^ Ixsxiii., quoted by Benfey in Ms Einleitung to the Pancatantram.
— The fable is taken from the thirtieth of Avianus, where the wild
boar loses his two ears and is then eaten, but the cook (who represents
in tradition the cunning hero) has taken its heart to eat it :—
" Sed cum consumpti dominus cor qusereret Apri
Impatiens, fertur (cor) rapuisse coquus."

14 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

on Christmas Day in the pig-sty, hoping to dream there ;
this dream is a presage of good luck. The new sun is
born in the sty of the winter hog ; even the Christian
Redeemer was bom in a stable, but instead of the hog it
was the ass, its mythical equivalent, that occupied it.
For this reason, too, the devil often assumes in German
superstition the form of a monstrous boar, which the
hero kills. ^ The wild boar is also described as an aversier
(or demon) in the romance of Garin le Loherain ^ —

"Yoi^s quel aversier,
Grant a le dent fors de la gueule un piet
Mult fu hardis qui a cop I'atendi^."

The author of Loci Communes says that Ferquhar IL,
king of Scotland, was killed by a wild boar; other
writers tell us, on the contrary, that his death was caused
by a wolf; but we already know how, in the myth, wolf and
wild boar are sometimes equivalent the one to the other.

In the same way as Vishnus changed himself into a
wild boar, and the hog was sacred to the Scandinavian
Mars, so was the wild boar sacred to the Eoman and
Hellenic Mars ; and even Mars himself assumed the
shape of a monstrous lunar wild boar in order to kill the
young Adonis, beloved of Venus. There is no god or
saint so perfect but has once in his life committed a
fault, as there is not a demon so wicked as not to have
done good at least once. The adversaries exchange
parts. In Servius, it is with a wild boar s tusk that the
bark is cut off the tree in which Myrrha, pregnant with

1 In Du Cange, too, "ojoer significat diabolum; Papias M. S. Bitur.
Ex illo Scripturse : * Singularis aper egressus est de silva.' '* — Cfr. also
TJhland's Schriften zur Geschichte der Dichtung und Sage, iii, 141, et
seq.

2 ii. 220, et seq., quoted by Uhland.

LIFE-GIVING AND DEATH-DEALING TUSK. 15

Adonis after lier incest witli her father, shuts herself up
(we have above seen, on the contrary, Indras who opens
with an herb the hiding-place of the wild boar, in order
to kill it). We here have again the incestuous father, the
girl in the wooden dress, the forest, the penetrating tusk
of the wild boar which bursts through the forest of night,
and enables the young hero to come forth, whom he kills
in the evening out of jealousy. In the ancient popular
belief of Sweden, too, the wild boar kills the sun whilst
he is asleep in a cavern and his horses grazing, Notice,
moreover, the double character of the tusk of the nocturnal
lunar wild boar ; in the morning it is a life-giving tusk,
which enables the solar hero to be born ; in the evening
it is a death-dealing one ; the wild boar is alive during
the night, and the darkness is split open by the white
tooth of the living wild boar. The lunar wild boar or hog
is sacrificed, — it is killed at morn, in the nuptials of the
solar hero. The tooth of this dead wild boar, in the
evening, causes the death of the young hero or heroine,
or else transforms them into wild beasts. In popular
fairy tales the witch, feigning a wish to comb the head
of the hero or the heroine, thrusts into his or her
head now a large pin, now a dead man's tooth, and
thus deprives them of life or human form. This is a
reminiscence of the tusk of the cloudy, nocturnal, or
wintry wild boar who kiUs the sun, or metamorphoses
him, or puts him to sleep.

To represent the evening sun asleep, a curious par-
ticular is ofi'ered us in the myth of Adonis. It is well-
known that doctors attribute to the lettuce a soporific
virtue, not dissimilar to that of the poppy. Now, it is
interesting to read in Nikandros Koloplionios, quoted by
Aldrovandi, that Adonis was struck by the wild boar
after having eaten a lettuce. Ibykos, a Pythagorean poet.

i6 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

calls tlie lettuce by tlie name of eunuch, as it is that
which puts to sleep, which renders stupid and impotent ;
Adonis who has eaten the lettuce is therefore taken from
Venus by the lunar wild boar, being eunuch and incapable.
The solar hero falls asleep in the night, and becomes a
eunuch, like the Hindoo Ar^unas, when he is hidden;
and otherwise, the sun becomes the moon.

CHAPTER VL

THE DOG.

SUMMARY.

"Why the myth of the dog is difficult of interpretation. — Entre cMen
et loup. — The dog and the moon. — The bitch SaramU; her double
aspect in the Ved^s and in the Rdmdyanam ; messenger, consoler,
and infernal being. — The dog and the purple ; the dog and the
meat ; the dog and its shadow ; the fearless hero and his shadow j
the black monster ; the fear of Indras. — The two Vedic dogs ;
S^rameyas and Hermes. — The favourite dog of Saram^ ; the dog
that steals during the sacrifice ; the form of a dog to expiate
crimes committed in former states of existence ; relative Hindoo,
Pythagorean and Christian beliefs. — The dog Yamas.~The dog
demon that barks, with the long bitter tongue. — The red bitch
towards morning a beautiful maiden during the night. — The
intestines of the dog eaten.' — The hawk that carries honey and the
sterile woman. — Dog and woodpecker. — The dog carries the
bones of the witch's daughter. — The dog-messenger brings news
of the hero. — The nurse-bitch.— The dog and his collar; the dog
tied up ; the hero becomes a dog. — The dog helps the hero. — The
branch of the apple-tree opens the door. — The dog tears the devil
in pieces.' — The two sons of Ivan think themselves dog's sons. —
The intestines of the fish given to be eaten by the bitch. — Ivan
the son of the bitch, the very strong hero, goes to the infernal
regions. — Dioscuri, Kerberos, funereal purifying dogs of the Per-
sians ; the penitent dog ; the two dogs equivalent to the two
Agviniu. — The luminous children transformed into puppies;
relative legends ; the maiden whose hands have been cut off
obtains golden hands ; branches of trees, hands, sons born of a
tree ; the myth compared and explained in the Vedic hymns, with
the example of Hiranyahastas ; the word vadhrimatt. — The
demoniacal dog. — The strength of the mythical dog. — Monstrous

VOL. II. B

i8 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

dogs. — The dog Sirius. — To swear by the dog or by the wolf. —
A dog is always born among wolves. — The dog dreamed of. —
Double appearance of the dog; the stories of the king of the
assassins and of the magician with seven heads. — St Vitus invoked
in Sicily whilst a dog is being tied up. — The dog of the shepherd
behaves like a wolf among the sheep. — The dog as an instrument
of chastisement; the expressions to lead the dog and the igno-
minious punishment of carrying the dog. — The dogs that tear in
pieces; the death caused by the dog prognosticated; the dogs
Sirius and Kerberos igneous and pestilential ; the incendiary dog
of St Dominic, the inventor of pyres for burning heretics, and the
dog of the infected San Eocco.

The myth of the dog is one of those of which the
interpretation is more delicate. As the common dog
stays upon the doorstep of the house, so is the
mythical dog generally found at the gate of the sky,
morning and evening, in connection with the two
A§vin4u. It was a fugitive phenomenon of but an in-
stant's duration which determined the formation of the
principal myth of the dog. When this moment is past,
the myth changes its nature. I have already referred to
the French expression, '^ entre chien et loup," as used to
denote the twilight;^ the dog precedes by one instant
the evening twilight, and follows by one instant that of
morning : it is, in a word, the twilight at its most
luminous moment. Inasmuch as it watches at the gates
of night, it is usually a funereal, infernal, and formidable
animal ; inasmuch as it guards the gates of day, it is
generally represented as a propitious one; and as we

1 Leukophos ; a verse of Vilkelmus Brito defines it in a Latin
strophe given in Du Cange —

" Tempore quo neque nox neque lux sed utruniqiie videtur ;"
and further on —

'^ Interque canem distare lupmnque"
According to Pliny and Solinus, the shadow of the hyena makes the
dog dumb, i.e.-, the night disperses the twilight; the moon vanishes.

THE THREE DOGS. 19

have seen that, of the two A9vin4u, one is in especial
relation with the moon, and the other with the sun, so,
of the two dogs of mythology, one is especially lunar,
and the other especially solar. Between these two dogs
we find the bitch their mother, who, if I am not mis-
taken, represents now the wandering moon of heaven,
the guiding moon that illumines the path of the hero
and heroine, now the thunderbolt that tears the cloud,
and opens up the hiding-place of the cows or waters.
We have, therefore, thus far three mythical dogs. One,
menacing, is found by the solar hero in the evening at the
western gates of heaven; the second, the more active, helps
him in the forest of night, where he is hunting, g-uides him
in danger, and shows him the lurking-places of his enemies
whilst he is in the cloud or darkness; the third, in the morn-
ing, is quiet, and found by the hero when he comes out of
the gloomy region, towards the eastern sky.

Let us now examine briefly these three forms in
Hindoo mythology. I have said that the mythical bitch
appears to me sometimes to represent the moon, and
sometimes the thunderbolt. In India, this bitch is named
Saram4, properly she who walks, who runs or flows. We
are accustomed to say of the dog that it barks at the
moon, which the popular proverb connects with robbers.
The dog that barks at the moon,^ is perhaps the same
dog that barks to show that robbers are near. In the
108th hymn of the tenth book of the JRigvedas, we
have a dramatic scene between the misers or thieves (the
Panayas) and the bitch Sarama, the messenger of Indras,
who wishes for their treasures.^ In order to come to

1 The dog was sacred to tlie huntress Diana, whom we know to be
the moon, hence the Latin proverb, " Delia nota canibus."

2 Indrasya dtitir ishit^ darami maha idhanti panayo nidhin vah ;

str. 2.

20 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

them, she traverses the waters of the Eas4 (a river of
hell) ; the treasure that is hidden in the mountain con-
sists of cows, horses, and various riches ; the Panayas
wish Saramsi to stay with them as their sister, and to
enjoy the cows along with them ; Saram^ answers that
she does not recognise their brotherhood, inasmuch as
she is already the sister of Indras, and the terrible
Angirasas.^ In the sixty-second hymn of the first book,
the bitch Saram^ discovers the cows hidden in the rock,
and receives in recompense from Indras and the Angirasas
nourishment for her offspring ; then men cry out, and
the cows bellow.^ Going towards the sun, in the path of
the sun, Saram4 finds the cows.^ When Indras splits
the mountain open, Saram^ shows him first the waters/
Having previously seen the fissure in the mountain, she
showed the way. The first she guided rapidly, the band
of the noisy ones having previously heard the noise/
This noise may refer either to the waters, the sounding
rivers (nadas, nadis), or the lowing cows (gavas). Now,
this bitch that discovers the hiding-places, inasmuch as
she breaks through the darkness of night, seems to be
the moon ; inasmuch as she breaks through the cloud,
she seems to be the thunderbolt. The secret of this

1 Rasaya ataram payansi ; str. 2. — Ayam nidhih sarame adribudhno
gobhir agvebhir vasubhir nyrishtab.; str. 7. — SvasSram tvi krmavai
mi punar ga apa te gavam subhage bha^Eimaj str. 9. — Niham veda
bhritritvam no svasritvam indro vidur angirasag 6aghorih ; str. 10.

2 Indrasyingirasim desbtau vidat sarami tanayiya dhisim brihas-
patir bbinad adrim vidad gih sam usriyibhir vivaganta narah \ str, 3.

3 Ritam yati sarami gi avindat. — Ritasya pathi sarama vidad g^h;
Rigv. V. 45, 7, 8.

^ Apo yad adrim puruhuta dardar ivir bbuvat sarami plirvyam te ;
Rigv. iv. 16, 8.

^ Vidad yadi sarami nignam adrer mahi pithab pfirvyam sadhryak
kali agram nayat supady akshar^nim adbi ravam prathami ^inati git;
Rigv. iii. 31, 6.

THE BITCH SARAMA.

equivoque lies in the root sm\ In the JRigvedas, we
have seen Saramd. disdaining to pass for the sister of
the thieves or the monsters ; in the Rdmdyanam^ the
wife of one of the monsters, of the very brother of
Eavanas the robber, is called Sarami, and takes, instead
of the- monster's part, that of Eamas and Sit4 the
ravished wife. We have already several times seen the
moon as a beneficent cow, as a good fairy, or as the
Madonna. Saram^ (of which Suram4, another benignant
rakshasl, is probably only an incorrect form^), the consoler
of Sit^, who announces prophetically her approaching
deliverance by her husband E4mas, appears to me in
the light of another impersonation of the moon. It is
on this account that Sit4^ praises Saram^ as a twin-
sister of hers (sahodara), afi'ectionate, and capable of
traversing the heavens, and penetrating into the watery
infernal regions (ras4talam).* The benignant sister of
Sit£L can only be another luminous being ; she is the good
sister whom the maiden of the Eussian story, persecuted
by her incestuous father, in Afanassieff, finds in the
subterranean world, where she is consoled and assisted
in escaping from the power of the witch ; she is the
moon. The moon is the luminous form of the gloomy
sky of night, or of the funereal and infernal region ;
whilst its two luminous barriers in that sky, in the east
and in the west, are morning and evening aurora ; the
luminous forms of the cloudy sky are lightning and
thunderbolts. And it is from one of these luminous
mythical forms that the Greeks, according to Pollux,
quoted by Aldrovandi, made of the dog the inventor of
purple, which the dog of Herakles was the first to bite.

1 vi. 9. 2 y^ 62. 3 yi_ 10.

* Cfr. the Vedic text above quoted.

2 2 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

The clog of the ^sopian fable/ with meat in its mouth,
is a variation of this myth. The red sky of evening
appears purple in the morning, and in the evening as
the meat that the dog lets fall into the waters of the
ocean of night. In the Pancoiantraw y we have instead
the lion of evening (the evening sun), who, seeing in the
fountain (or in the ocean of night) another lion (now the
moon, now his own shadow, the night, or the cloud),
throws himself into the water to tear him to pieces, and
perishes in it. The hare (the moon) is the animal which
allures the famished lion of evening to perish in the waters.
The two sons of the bitch Sarama preserve several of
their mother's characteristics. Now they are spoken of
together as S4ramey^u; now they are mentioned together,
but distinct from one another ] now one alone of them, the
most legitimate, by the name of Sdrameyas, whose identity
with the Greek Hermes or Hermeias has already been
proved by Professor Kuhn. Saram4 in connection with
the Pan ay as, merchants or thieves, and Saram^ as the

^ In the Tuti-Name, instead of the dog with the bone or piece of
meat, we have the fox. The dog who sees his shadow in the water ',
the fearless hero who, in Tuscan stories, dies when he sees his own
shadow ; the black monster (the shadow) who, in numerous stories,
presents himself instead of the real hero to espouse the beautiful
princess, carry our thoughts back to Indras, who, in the Rigvedas,
after having defeated the monster, flees away over the rivers, upon
seeing something which is probably the shadow of Vritras, killed by
him, or his own shadow. In the Aitar. Brahm, iii. 2, 15, 16, 20, this
flight of Indras is also recorded, and it is added, that Indras hides
himself, and that the Pitaras {i.e., the souls of the departed) find
him again. Indras thinks that he has killed Vritras, but really has
not killed him; then the gods abandon him; the Marutas alone (as
dogs friendly to the bitch Sarama) remain faithful to him. The
monster killed by Indras in the morning rises again at eve. According
to other Vedic accounts, Indras is obliged to flee, stung by remorse,
having committed a brihmanicide.

THE DOGS AS GUARDIANS OF TREASURES, 23

divine messenger, gives us the keyto the legend of Mercury,
god of thieves and merchants, and messenger of the gods.
In a Vedic hymn we find described with great clear-
ness the two dogs that guard the gates of hell, the
monsters' dwelling, or the kingdom of the dead. It
prays for one departed, "that he may be able to pass
safely beyond the two dogs, sons of Saram4, having four
eyes, spotted, who occupy the right path, and to come to
the benignant Manes " (for there are also the malignant
ones, or Durvidatr^h) ; these dogs are called "the very
fierce guardians, who watch the road, observing men,
have vast nostrils, are long-winded, and very strong?
the messengers of Yamas ; " they are invoked " that they
may cause to enjoy the sight of the sun, and give a happy
life."^ But the Migvedas itself already shows us the two
sons of the bitch Saram4, as the two who look in turns
(one after the other), whom Indras must put to sleep. ^
One, however, of the two sons of Saram^ is especially
invoked and feared, the S^rameyas par excellence. The
Vedic hymn speaks of him as he who returns (punahsaras),
and represents him as " luminous, with, reddish teeth,
that shine like spears, in the well-rooted gums," and
implores him to sleep, or "to bark only at the robber,
or at the thief, not at the singers of hymns in honour of
Indras."^ The bitch Saram4 is passionately fond of her

^ Ati drava sdramey^u qvkuku (5ataraksliau gabaMu sidhun^ patba
athi pitrint suvidatran upehi — Yiu te gv^niu yama rakshitarau
(iaturakshau pathirakshi nridakshasiu — Urunasiv asutrip^ udumbalau
yamasya dtlt^u <;arato ^an^n anu — Tllv asmabhyam drigaye suryfLya
punar dati,m asum adyeba bhadram ; Rigv. x. 14, 10-13.

2 Ni shvapaya mitbudrigau ; Rigv. i. 29, 3.— The Petropolitan
Dictionary explains the word mith. by " abwechselend sichtbar."

3 Yad ar^una sarameya datah piganga yadhase viva bhri^anta
rishtaya upa srakveshu bapsato ni shu svapa ; stenam riya sarameya
taakaram v4 punahsara stotrin indrasya rtlyasi kini asman dudhuu^yase
ni shu svapa ; IRigv. vii. 55, 2, 3.

24 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

son ; in recompense for her discovery of the cows of Indras,
she demands nouiishment for her son, which nourishment
the commentator explains to be the milk of the liberated
cows ; the first rays of the morning sun and the last
rays of the evening sun drink the milk of the dawn or
silvery twilight In the Mahdbhdratam^ the bitch
Sarami curses King 6-anamegayas, because his three
brothers^ when attending the sacrifice, maltreated and
flogged the dog S4rameyas, who had also gone there,
although he had neither touched with his tongue nor
desired with his eyes the oblations destined to the gods
(as, on the contrary, the white dog did, who, in the
sacrifice of Dion, near Athens, stole part of the victim,
whence the name of Klinosarges was given to that place).
The same legend occurs again, slightly modified, in the
seventh book of the Rdmdyanam.^ E4mas sends
Lakshmanas, his brother, to see whether there are any dis-
putes to be settled in the kingdom ; Lakshmanas returns,
saying that the whole kingdom is at peace, E^mas sends
him again ; he sees a dog erect on the doorstep of the
palace, barking. The name of this dog is Sarameyas.
Eamas enables him to enter the palace. The dog com-
plains that he has been beaten without just cause by a
Brahman. The Brihman is called, appears, confesses his
fault, and awaits his punishment. The dog Sarameyas
proposes as his punishment that the Brahman should
take a wife (the usual proverbial satire against wives),
and become head of a family in the very place where he
himself had supported the same dignity prior to' assum-
ing the shape of a dog. After this the dog Sarameyas,
who remembers his previous states of existence, returns
to do penitence at Benares, whence he had come.

1 i. G57, GQQ, ^ Canto 62.

THE DOG AT THE SACRIFICE^YAMAS, 25

Therefore the dog and the Kerberos are also a form
into which the hero of the myth passes. The Hindoo
and Pythagorean rehgious beliefs both teach that metem-
psychosis is a means of expiation ; the curse of the
offended deity is now a vengeance now a chastisement for
an error that the hero or some one of his relations has com-
mitted, and which has provoked the deity's indignation.^

Sometimes the deity himself assumes the form of a
dog in order to put the hero's virtue to the proof, as in
the last book of the Mahdhhdratam, where the god
Yamas becomes a dog, and follows Yudhishthiras (the
son of Yamas), who regards him with such affection, that
when invited to mount into the chariot of the gods, he
refuses to do so, unless his faithful dog is allowed to
accompany him.

Sometimes, however, the shape of a dog or bitch (as
it is easy to pass from Yamas, the god of hell in the
form of a dog, to the dog-fiend) is a real and specific
form of a demon. The JRigvedas speaks of the dog-
demons bent upon tormenting Indras, who is requested
to kill the monster in the form of an owl, a bat, a dog,
a wolf, a great bird, a vulture ;^ it invokes the Ajvinau
to destroy on every side the barking dogs f it solicits

^ Thus Hecuba, the "wife of Priam, after having suffered cruel tribu-
lation as a -woman, in Ovid —

" Perdidit infelix hominis post omnia formam
Externasque novo latratu terruit auras."

In the Breviarium Romanum, too, in the offices of the dead, God is
besought not to consign to the beasts (ne tradas bestiis, &c.) the souls
of His servants.

2 Eta u tye patayanti gvayatava in dram dipsanti dipsavo 'dabhyam
— Ulukay^tum gugulukay^tum ^ahi gvayitum uta kokayitum supar-
nay^tum gridhray^tura drishadeva pra mrina raksha indra ; Rigv. vii.
104, 20, 22.

^ Gambhayatam abhito riyatahj Rigv. i. 182, 4.

26 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

the friends to destroy the long-tongued and avaricious dog
(in the old Italian chronicle of Giov. Morelli, misers are
called Cani del danaro, dogs of money), as the Bhrigavas
have killed the monster Makhas.^ And the skin of the
red bitch is another monstrous form in which is dressed
every morning (as the aurora in the morning sky), in the
twenty-third Mongol story, the beautiful maiden who is
in the power of the prince of the dragons ; she (as moon) is
beautiful maiden only at night ; towards day she becomes
a red bitch (the moon gives up her place to the aurora) ;
the youth who has married her wishes to burn this bitch's
skin, but the maiden disappears ; the sun overtakes the
aurora, and he disappears with the moon. We have
already seen this myth.

In the eighteenth hymn of the fourth book of the
JRigvedas, the thirteenth strophe seems to me to contain
an interesting particular. A devotee complains as follows :
— " In my misery I had the intestines of the dog cooked ;
I found among the gods no consoler ; I saw my wife
sterile ; the hawk brought honey to me."^ Here we
find the dog in connection with a bird.^ In the twenty-

^ Apa 9vinam 9nathis]itana sakL^yo dirglia^ihvyam — Apa gvinam
arlidhasam hat^ makharii na bhrigavali; Rig v. ix. 101, I, 13.

^ Avartyi 9una antr^ni pe6e na deveshu vivide mardit^ram apa^yam
^^yam amahiyaminim adhi, me gyeno madhv ^ ^abb^ra; Rigv. iv. 18,
13. The bird wbo brings honey has evidently here a phallical mean-
ing, as also the intestine, the part that is inside of now the dog, now the
fish, and now the ass (all of which are phallical symbols), desired as a
delicacy by the women of fairy tales, must be equivalent to the madku
brought by the bird.

3 In the fifth story of the fourth book of the Pentamerone, the bird
does the same that a dog does in the third story of the third book \
the bird brings a knife, the dog brings a bone, and the imprisoned
princess, by means of this knife and bone, is enabled to make a hole
in the prison, and to free herself.

THE MESSENGER DOG, BIRD, AND HORSE. 27

fifth story of the fourth book of Afanassieff, we find the
woodpecker that brings food and drink to its friend the
dog, and avenges him after his death. In the forty-first
story of the fourth book, the dog is killed by the old
witch, because he carries in a sack the bones of her wicked
daughter, who has been devoured by the head of a mare.
In the twentieth story of the fifth book, we have the dog
in the capacity of a messenger employed by the beautiful
girl whom the serpent has married ; he carries to her
father a letter that she has written, and brings his answer
back to her. In the legend of St Peter, the dog serves
as a messenger between Peter and Simon the magician ;
in the legend of San Rocco, the dog of our Lord takes
bread to the saint, alone and iU under a tree. The name
of Cyrus's nurse, according to Textor, was Kiina, whence
Cyrus might have been nourished, like Askl^pios, with
the milk of a dog. I have abeady said that the story of
the dog is connected with the myth of the A§vin4u, or,
what is the same thing, with that of the horse ; horse
and dog are considered in the light of coursers : the horse
bears the hero, and the dog usually takes news of the
hero to his friends, as the bitch Saram^, the messenger of
the gods, does in the Rigvedas} The hero who assumes
the shape of a horse cautions his father, when he sells
him to the devil, not to give up- the bridle to the buyer.
In the twenty-second story of the fifth book of Afanas-
sieff, the young man transforms himself into a dog, and
lets his father sell him to a great lord, who is the devil in
disguise, but tells him not to give up the collar.^ The

^ In the Pentamerone, i, 7, the enchanted bitch brings to the princess
news of the young hero.

^ In the seventh Esthonian story, the man with the black horse binds
three dogs tightly ; if they get loose, no one will be able to keep them
back. — In the Edda^ Thrymer, the prince of the giants, keeps the grey
dogs bound with golden chains.

28 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

gentleman buys the dog for two hundred roubles, but
insists upon having the collar too, calling the old man a
thief upon the latter refusing to consign it into his hands.
The old man, in his distraction, gives it up ; the dog is
thus in the power of the lord, that is, of the devil. But
on the road, a hare (the moon) passes by ; the gentleman
lets the dog pursue it, and loses sight of it ; the dog
again assumes the shape of a hero, and rejoins his father.
In the same story, the young man adopts, the second
time, the form of a bird (we shall see the A9vin4u as
swans and doves in the chapter on the swan, the goose,
and the dove), and the third time that of a horse. In the
twenty-eighth story of the fifth book, a horse, a dog, and
an apple-tree are born of the dead bull who protects
Ivan and Mary fleeing in the forest from the bear.
Riding on the horse, and accompanied by the dog, Ivan
goes to the chase. The first day he captures a wolfs
whelp alive, and carries it home ; the second day he takes
a young bear ; the third day he returns to the chase, and
forgets the dog ; then the six-headed serpent, in the shape
of a handsome youth, carries off" his sister, and shuts the
dog up under lock and key, throwing the key into the
lake. Ivan returns, and, by the advice of a fahy, he
breaks a twig off the apple-tree, and strikes with it the
bolt of the door which encloses the dog ; the dog is thus
set at liberty, and Ivan lets dog, wolf, and bear loose
upon the serpent, who is torn in pieces by them, and re-
covers his sister. In the fiftieth story of the fifth book,
the dog of a warrior-hero tears the devil, who presents
himself first in the form of a bull, and then in that of a
bear, to prevent the wedding of the hero taking place.
In the fifty-second story of the sixth book, the dogs which
Ivan Tzarevic has received from two fairies, together with
a wolfs whelj), a bear's, and a lion's cub, tear the monster

THE FISH WITH GOLDEN FINS, 29

serpent to pieces. The two dogs carry us back to the
myth of the Agvin^u. In the fifty-third story of the
sixth book, the monster cuts Ivan's head ofi". Ivan has
two sons, who believe themselves to be of canine descent ;
they ask their mother to be permitted to go and resus-
citate their father. An old man gives them a root,
which, when rubbed on Ivan s body, will bring him to
life again ; they take it, and use it as directed. Ivan is
resuscitated, and the monster dies. Finally, in the fifty-
fourth story of the fifth book of Afanassieff, we learn
how the sons of the dog are born, and their mode of
birth is analogous to that mentioned in the Vedic hymn.
A king who has no sons has a fish with golden fins ; he
orders it to be cooked, and to be given to the queen to
eat. The intestines of the fish (the phaUos) are thrown
to the bitch, the bones are gnawed by the cook, and the
meat is eaten by the queen. To the bitch, the cook, and
the queen a son is born at the same time. The three sons
are all called Ivan, and are regarded as three brothers ;
but the strongest (he who accomplishes the most diflGicult
enterprises) is Ivan the son of the bitch, who goes under
ground into the kingdom of the monsters (as of the
two Dioscuri, one descends into heU, like the two funereal
dogs, light-coloured and white, of the Avesta, which are
in perfect accordance with the Vedic Sdrameydu^). In

"^ Einen gelblichen Hund mit vier Augen oder einen weissen mit
gelben Ohren; Vendidad, viii. 41, et seq., Spiegel's version. And
Anquetil, describing the Baraschnon no schabe, represents the purifying
dog as follows : — "Le Mobed prend le baton k neuf nceuds, entre dans
les Keischs et attache la cuillere de fer an neuvi^me noeud. L'impur
entre anssi dans les Keischs. On y amine un chien ; et si c'est une
femme que Ton purifie, comme eUe doit etre nue, c'est aussi une femme
qui tient le chien. L'impur ayant la main droite sur sa tete et la
gauche sur le chien, passe successivement sur les six premieres pierres
et s'y lave avec Purine que lui donne le Mobed." — In the Kdtydiy. SH..

30 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

the same story, besides the three brother-heroes, three
heroic horses are brought forth by the three mares that
have drunk the water in which the fish was washed before
being cooked ; in other European variations, and in the
Eussian stories themselves, therefore, we sometimes have,
instead of the bitch's son, the son of the mare (or the cow).
The two Ajvin^u are now two horses, now two dogs,
now a dog and a horse (now a bull and a lion).-^ Ivan
Tzarevic, whom the horse and the dog save from danger,
is the same as the Vedic hero, the sun, whom the Ayvindu
save from many dangers.

In the Eussian stories, as weU as in the Italian ones,
the witch substitutes for one, two, or three sons of the
prince, who have stars on their forehead, and were born
of the princess in her husband's absence, one, two, or
three puppies. In these same stories, the hand of the
persecuted princess is cut off. In the thirteenth story of
the third book of Afanassieff,^ the witch sister-in-law
accuses her husband's sister of imaginary crimes in his
presence. The brother cuts her hands off; she wanders
into the forest ; she comes out again only after the lapse
of several years ; a young merchant becomes enamoured
of her, and marries her. During her husband's absence,

the question is seriously discussed whether a dog, who was seen to fast
on the fourteenth day of the month, did so on account of rehgious
penitence.— Cfr. Muir's Sanskrit Texts, i. 365.

^ Dog and horse, with bites and kicks, kill the monster doe and
free the two brother-heroes in the Pentameronej i. 9.

2 Cfr. also the sixth of the third book. — In the second story of the
third book of the Pentamerone, the sister herself cuts off her own
hands, of which her brother, who wishes to marry her, is enamoured.
— Cfr. the Mediceval Legends of Santa Uliva, annotated by Professor
Alessandro d'Ancona, Pisa, Nistri, 1863; and the Figlia del Re
di Daciay illustrated by Professor Alessandro Wesselofski, Pisa,
Nistri, 1866, besides the thirty-first of the stories of the Brothers Grimm.

THE YOUNG WOMAN WITHOUT HANDS. 31

she gives birth to a child whose body is all of gold,
effigies of stars, moon, and sun covering it. His parents
write to their son, telling him the news ; but the
witch sister-in-law abstracts the letter (as in the myth of
Belleroph6n), and forges another, which announces, on
the contrary, that a monster, half dog and half bear, is
born. The husband writes back, bidding them wait
until he returns to see with his own eyes his new-born
son. The witch intercepts this letter also, and changes
it for another, in which he orders his young wife to be
sent away. The young woman, without hands, wanders
about with her boy. The boy falls into a fountain ; she
weeps ; an old man tells her to throw the stumps of her
arms into the fountain ; she obeys, her hands return, and
she recovers her boy again. She finds her husband ; and
no sooner does she uncover the child in his sight, than
all the room shines with light (asviatilo).

In a Servian story,^ the father of the maiden whose
hands had been cut off by the witch, her mother-in-law,
causes, by means of the ashes of three burned hairs from
the tail of the black stallion and that of the Avhite mare,
golden hands to grow on the maiden s arms. The apple-
tree, with golden branches, which we have already men-
tioned, is the same as this girl who comes out of the
forest (or wooden chest) with golden hands. From the
branches it is easy to pass to the hands of gold, to the
fair-haired son who comes out of the trunk. ^ The idea
of a youth as the branch of a tree has been rendered
poetical by Shakspeare, who makes the Duchess of
Gloster say of the seven sons of Edward —

^ The thirty- third of the collection of Karadzik, quoted by Professor
Wesselofsky in his introduction to the story of the Figlia del Re di
Dacia.

'^ Cfr. my little essay on the Alhero di Naiale.

32 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

*' Edward's seven sons, whereof thyself art one,
Were as seven phials of his sacred blood,
Or seven fair branches springing from one root."^

In Hindoo myths, the hand of Savitar having been cut
off, one of gold is given to him, whence the epithet he
enjoys of Hiranyahastas, or he "who has a golden hand.
But in the 116th and 117th hymns of the first book we
find a more interesting datum. The branch is the hand
of the tree ; the branch is the son who detaches himself
from the maternal trunk of the tree ; the golden son is
the same as the golden branch, the golden hand of the
tree. The mother who obtains a golden hand is the
same as the mother who has Hiranyahastas — i.e.. Golden-
hand — for her son. The Vedic hymn says that the
Ajvinau gave Golden-hand as a son to the Vadhrimatl.^
The word vadhriifnaU is equivocal. The Petropolitan
Dictionary interprets it only as she who has a eunuch, or
one who is castrated, for her husband, but the proper
sense of the word is she who has something cut off, she
who has, that is, the maimed arm, as in the fairy tale, for
which reason she is given a golden hand. As the wife
of a eunuch, the Vedic woman, therefore, receives from
the Agvin^u a son with a golden hand ; as having an
imperfect arm, she receives only a golden hand, as in
the 116th hymn of the first book, the same Agvinau give
to VijpaM, who had lost his own in battle, an iron leg.^

^ King Richard II., act. i. scene 2.

2 Qrutam ta6 <5h^sur iva vadhrimat y^ hiranyahastam agvinEiv
adattam; Rigv. i. 116, 13. — Hiranyahastam agvin^, rar^n^ putram
nari vadhrimatyi, adattam ; i. 117, 24. — The dog in connection with
a man's hand is mentioned in the Latin works of Petrarch, when
speaking of Vespasian, who considered as a good omen the incident of
a dog bringing a man's hand into the refectory.

^ Sadyo ^angham ^yasim vigpal^yai dhane hite sartave praty adhat-
tam ; str. 15.

THE CANICULA. ZZ

The Rigvedas, therefore, already contains in its germ
the very popular subject of the man or woman without
hands, in same way as we have already found in it, in
embryo, the legends of the lame man, the blind man or
woman, the ugly and the disguised woman.

But to return to the dog. Besides his agility^ in run-
ning, his strength holds a prominent place in the myth.
The Kerberos shows an extraordinary strength in rending
his enemies. In the Eussian stories the dog is the hero's
strength, and is associated with the wolf, the bear, and
the lion. In popular stories, now terrible lions and now
dreadful dogs are found guarding the gate of the monster s
dwelling. The monk of San Gallo, in Du Cange, says
that the " canes germanici " are so agile and ferocious,
that they suffice alone to hunt tigers and lions ; the same
fable is repeated in Du Cange of the dogs of Albania,
which are so great and fierce, " ut tauros premant et
leones perimant." The enormous chained dog, painted
on the left side of the entrance of Eoman houses, near
the porter's room ; the motto cave canem ; the expiations
made in Greece and at Rome (whence the names "Canaria
Hospitia " and " Porta Catularia," where a dog was im-
molated to appease the fury of the Canicula, and whence
the verse of Ovid — -

*' Pro cane sidereo canis hie iraponitur arse,")
at the time of the Canicula or of the Canis Sirius, to

^ It is perhaps for this reason that the Hungarians give to their dogs
names of rivers, as being runners ; but it is also said that they do so
from their belief that a dog which bears the name of a river or piece of
waXer never goes mad, especially if he be a white dog, inasmuch as the
Hungarians consider the red dog and the black or spotted one as
diabolical shapes. In Tuscany, when a Christian's tooth is taken out,
it must be hidden carefully, that the dogs may not find it and eat it ;
here dog and devil are assimilated,

VOL. II. c

34 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

conjure away the evils which he brings along with the
summer heat, in connection with the sol leo, and the
corresponding festival of the killing of the dog (ktinop-
hontis), besides the barking dogs that appear in the
groin of Scylla/ are all records of the mythical dog of
hell. The dog, as a domestic animal, has been confounded
with the savage brute which generally represents the
monster. The dog is scarcely distinguishable from the
wolf in the twilight. In Du Cange we read that in the
Middle Ages it was the custom to swear now by the dog
now by the wolf.^ In the country round Arezzo, in
Tuscany, it is believed that when a she- wolf brings forth
her young ones, a dog is always found among them,
which, if it were allowed to live, would exterminate
all the wolves. But the she-wolf, knowing this, no
sooner perceives the dog-wolf than she drowns it when
she takes the wolves to drink. ^ In the district of

^ Scylla laves her groin in a fountain, the waters of which the
enchantress Circe has corrupted, upon which monstrous dogs appear
in her body, whence Ovid —

" Scylla venit mediaque tenus descenderat alvo,
Cum sua foedari latrantibus inguina monstris
Aspicit, ac primo non credens corporis illas
Esse sui partes, refugitque, abiitque timetque
Ora proterva canum."
^ Hsec lucem accipiunt ab Joinville in Hist. S. Ludovici, dum
foedera inter Imp. Joannem Vatatzem et Comanorum Principem inita
recenset, eaque firmata ebibito alterius invicem sanguine, hacque ad-
hibita ceremonia, quam sic enarrat: ''Et aucore firent-ils autre chose.
Car ils firent passer un chien entre nos gens et eux, et ddcouperent
tout le chien k leurs espies, disans que aiiisy fussent-ils d^coupez s'ilg
failloient Tun ^ I'autre." — Cfr. in Du Cange the expression "cerebrare
canem."

3 In a fable of Abstemius, a shepherd's dog eats one of the sheep
every day, instead of watching over the flock. The shepherd kills
him, saying, that he prefers the wolf, a declared enemy, to the dog, a
false friend. This uncertainty and confusion between the doo" and the

THE BITCH AS SPY. ^t^

Florence, it is believed that the wolf, as ■well as the
dog, when it happens to be the subject of a dreamy is (as

volf explains the double nature of the dog ; to prove which I shall
refer to two unpublished Italian stories : the first, which I heard from
the mouth of a peasant-woman of Fucecchio, shows the bitch in the
capacity of the monster's spy \ the second was narrated a few years
ago by a Piedmontese bandit to a peasant- woman who had shown
hospitality to him, at Capellanuova, near Cavour in Piedmfcnt. The
first story is called The King of the Assassins^ and is as follows : —

There was once a widow with three daughters who worked as
seamstresses. They sit upon a terrace ; a handsome lord passes and
marries the eldest^ he takes her to his castle in the middle of a wood,
after having told her that he is the chief of the assassins. He gives
her a she-puppy and says, " This will be your companion ; if you treat
her well, it is as if you treated me well." Taking her into the palace,
he shows her all the rooms, and gives her all the keys ; of four rooms,
however, which he indicates, there are two which she must not enter ;
if she does so, evil will befall her. The chief of the assassins spends
one day at home and then three away. During his absence she
maltreats the puppy, and gives her scarcely anything to eat ; then she
lets herself be overcome by curiosity, and goes to see what there is in
the two rooms, followed by the puppy. She sees in one room heads
of dead people, and in the other tongues, ears, tkc, hiing up. This
sight fills her with terror. The chief of the assassins returns and asks
the bitch whether she has been well treated ; she makes signs to the
contrary, and informs her master that his wife has been in the for-
bidden rooms. He cuts off her head, and goes to find the second sister,
whom he induces to come to him by under invitation to visit his wife ; she
undergoes the same miserable fate. Then he goes to take the third sister,
and tells her who he is; she answers, "It is better thus, for I shall no
longer be afraid of thieves/' She gives the bitch soup, caresses her,
and makes herself loved by her; the king of the assassins is con-
tented, and the puppy leads a happy life. After a month, while he
is out and the puppy amusing itself in the garden, she enters the
two rooms, finds her two sisters, and goes into the other rooms, where
there are ointments to fasten on limbs that have been cut off, and
ointments to bring the dead to life. Having resuscitated her sisters,
and given them food, she hides them in two great jars, furnished with
breathing lioles, and asks her husband to take them as a present to
her mother, warning him not to look into the jars, as she will see. him.

36 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

in Terence) a prognostic of sickness or death, especially
if the dog is dreamt of as running after or trying to bite

He takes them, and when he tries to look in, he hears, as he had been
forewarned, not one voice, but two whispering from within them, " My
love, I see you/' Terrified at this, he gives up the two jars at once to
the mother. Meanwhile his wife has killed the bitch in boiling oil ;
she then brings all the dead men and women to life, amongst whom
there is Qarlino, the son of a king of France, who marries her. Upon
the return of the king of the assassins he perceives the treachery, and
vows revenge ; going to Paris, he has a golden pillar constructed in
which a man can be concealed without any aperture being visible, and
bribes an old woman of the palace to lay on the prince's pillow a leaf
of paper which will put him and all his servants to sleep as soon as he
reclines on it. Shutting himself up in the pillar, he has it carried
before the palace ; the queen wishes to possess it, and insists upon
having it at the foot of her bed. Night comes ; the prince puts his
head upon the leaf, and he and his servants are at once thrown into a
deep sleep. The assassin steps out of the pillar, threatens to put the
princess to death, and goes into the kitchen to fill a copper with oil, in
which to boil her. Meanwhile she calls her husband to help her, but
in vain ; she rings the bell, but no one answers ; the king of the
assassins returns and drags her out of bed ; she catches hold of the
prince's head, and thus draws it off the paper ; the prince and his
servants awake, and the enchanter is burnt alive.

The second story is called The Magician of the Seven Heads, and
was narrated to me by the peasant-woman in the following terms : —

An old man and woman have two children, Giacomo and Carolina.
Giacomo looks after three sheep. A hunter passes and asks for them ;
Giacomo gives them, and receives in reward three dogs, Throttle -iron,
Run-like-the-wind, and Pass-everywhere, besides a whistle. The father
refuses to keep Giacomo at home ; he goes away with his three dogs,
of which the first carries bread, the second viands, and the third wine.
He comes to a magician's palace and is well received. Bringing his
sister, the magician falls in love with her and wishes to marry her ;
but to this end the brother must be weakened by the abstraction of
his dogs. His sister feigns illness and asks for flour; the miller
demands a dog for the flour, and Giacomo yields it for love of his
sister; in a similar manner the other two dogs are wheedled away
from him. The magician tries to strangle Giacomo, but the latter
blows his whistle, and the dogs appear and kill the magician and the

THE DOG AND ST VITUS. 37

one. In Horace [Ad Oalatheam) it is an evil omen to
meet witli a pregnant bitch —

" Impios parrae prsecinentis omen
Ducat et proegnans canis."

In Sicily, St Vitus is prayed to that he may keep- the

dogs chained —

" Santu Vitu, Santu Vitu,
lo tri voti vi lu dicu :
Va', chiamativi a lu cani
Ca mi voli muzzicari."

And "when tying the dog up, they say —

" Santu Yitu,
Beddu e pulitu^
Anghi di cira
E di ferru filatu ;
Pi lu nuomu di Maria
Ligu stu cani
Ch' aju avanti a mia.''

sister. Giacomo goes away "with the three dogs, and comes to a city
which is in mourning because the king's daughter is to be devoured
by the seven-headed magician. Giacomo, by means of the three dogs,
kills the monster ; the grateful princess puts the hem of her robe
round Throttle-iron's neck and promises to marry Giacomo. The latter,
who is in mourning for his sister, asks for a year and a day ; but
before going he cuts the seven tongues of the magician off and takes
them with him. The maiden returns to the palace. The chimney-
sweeper forces her to recognise him as her deliverer; the king, her
father, consents to his marrying her; the princess, however, stipulates
to be allowed to wait for a year and a day, which is accorded. At the
expiration of the appointed time, Giacomo returns, and hears that the
princess is going to be married. He sends Throttle-iron to strike the
chimney-sweeper (the black man, the Saracen, the Turk, the gipsy,
the monster) with his tail, in order that his collar may be remarked ;
he then presents himself as the real deliverer of the princess, and
demands that the magician's heads be brought ; as the toncrues are
wanting, the trick is discovered. The young couple are married, and
the chimney-sweeper is burnt.

S^ ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

When tlie dog is tied up, they add —

" Fermati, cani
Ca t' aju ligatu."^^

In Italy and Russia, when the dog howls like a wolf,
that is, plays the wolf, it forebodes misfortune and death.
It is also narrated/ that after the alliance between Csesar,
Lepidus, and Antony, dogs howled like wolves.

When one is bitten by a dog ^ in Sicily, a tuft of hair
is cut off the dog and plunged into wine with a burning
cinder ; this wine is given to be drunk by the man who
has been bitten. In Aldrovandi^ I read, on the other
hand, that to cure the bite of a mad dog, it is useful to
cover the wound with wolf's skin.

The dog is a medium of chastisement. Our Italian
expressions, "Menare il cane per I'aia" (to lead the dog
about the barn-floor), and " Dare il cane a menare " (to
give the dog to be led about), are probably a reminiscence
of the ignominious mediaeval punishment of Germany of
carrying the dog, inflicted upon a noble criminal, and
which sometimes preceded his final execution.^ The

^ Cfr. the Bihlioteca delle Tradizioni Popolari Sicilianej edited by
Gius. Pitrfe, ii. canto 811.

^ In Eichardus Dinothus, quoted by Aldrovandi.

^ From a letter of my friend Pitrfe.

* De Quadrup. Dig. Viv. ii.

^ Cfr. Du Cange, s. v. "canem ferre." The ignominy connected
with this punishment has perhaps a phallic signification, the dog and
the phallos appear in connection with each other in an unpublished
legend maliciously narrated at Santo Stefano di Calcinaia, near Florence,
and which asserts that woman was not born of a man, but of a do2.
Adam was asleep ; the dog carried off one of his ribs ; Adam ran
after the dog to recover it, but brought back nothing save the dog's
tail, which came away in his hand. The tail of the ass, horse, or pig,
which is left in the peasant's hand in other burlesque traditions,
besides serving as an indication, as the most visible part, to find the
lost or fallen animal again, or to return into itself, may perhaps have

DEATH BY DOGS, 39

punishment of laceration by dogs, which has actually
been carried out more than once by the order of earthly
tyrants, has its prototype in the well-known myth of
Kerberos and the avenging dogs of hell. Thus Pirithoos,
who attempts to carry off Perseph6ne from the infernal
king of the Molossians, is torn to pieces by the dog
Trikerberos. Euripides, according to the popular tradi-
tion, was lacerated in the forest by the avenging dogs of
Archelaos. It is told of Domitian, that when an astro-
loger on one occasion predicted his approaching death,
he asked him whether he knew in what way he himself
would die ; the astrologer answered that he would be
devoured by dogs (death by dogs is also predicted in a'
story of the Pentamerone) ; Domitian, to make the oracle
false, ordered him to be killed and burned ; but the
wind put the flames out, and the dogs approached and
devoured the corpse. Boleslaus II., king of Poland, in
the legend of St Stanislaus, is torn by his own dogs
while wandering in the forest, for having ordered the
saint's death. The Vedic monster Qushnas, the pesti-
lential dog Sirius of the summer skies, and the dog
Kerberos of the nocturnal heU, vomit flames ; they
chastise the world, too, with pestilential flames ; and
the pagan world tries all arts, pra)dng and conjuring,
to rid itself of their baleful influences. But this dog is

a meaning analogous to that of the tail of Adam's dog. — I hope the
reader will pardon me these frequent repugnant allusions to indecent
images ; but being obliged to go back to an epoch in -which, idealism
was still in its cradle, while physical life was in all its plenitude of
vigour, images were taken in preference from the things of a more
sensible nature, and which made a deeper and more abiding impres-
sion. It is well known that in the production of the Vedic fire by
means of the friction of two sticks, the male and the female are
alluded to, so that the grandiose and splendid poetical myth of Pro-
metheus had its origin in the lowest of similitudes.

40 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

immortal, or rather it generates children, and returns to
fill men with terror in a new, a more direct, and a more
earthly form in the Christian world. It is narrated, in
fact, that before the birth of St Dominic, the famous
inventor of the tortures of the Holy Inquisition (a truly
Satanic Lucifer), his mother, being pregnant of him,
dreamed that she saw a dog carrying a lighted brand
about, setting the world on fire. St Dominic truly realised
his mother's dream ; he was really this incendiary dog ;
and, therefore, in the pictures that represent him, the dog
is always close to him with its lighted brand. Christ is
the Prometheus enlarged, purified, and idealised ; and St
Dominic, the monstrous Vulcan, deteriorated, diminished,
and fanaticised, of the Christian Olympus. The dog,
sacred in pagan antiquity to the infernal deities, was
consecrated to St Dominic the incendiary, and to Eocco,
the saint who protects the sick of the plague. The
Eoman feasts in honour of Vulcan (Volcanalia) fell in the
month of August ; and the Eoman Catholic Church fetes
in the month of August the, two saints of the dogs of the
fire and the plague, St Dominic and St Eocco.

CHAPTEE VIL

THE CAT, THE WEASELj THE MOUSE, THE MOLE, THE SNAIL, THE
ICHNEUMON, THE SCORPION, THE ANT, THE LOCUST, AND
THE GRASSHOPPER,

SUMMARY.

M£Lr^4raSj m^rgaras, mrigas, mrig^ris, mrlgar^^as. — Nakulas. — Mush. —
Vamras, vamri, vapri, valmikam, formica. — The serpent and the
ants. — Indras as an ant ; the serpent eaten by the ants. — Vamras
drinking, assisted by the Agvin^u. — The grateful ant ; the hermit-
dwarfs. — Ants' milk. — Ants' legs. — The ant dies when its wings
grow ; the ants and the treasure. — The ants separate the grains. —
The locust and the ant ; garabhas as the moon. — Grasshopper and
ant. — Avere il grille, aver la luna; indovinala, grillo. — Wedding
between ant and grasshopper. — Locusts destroyed by fire. —
Hippomiirmekes. — The Indian locust that guards honey again. —
The scorpion, and its poison absorbed. — The ichneumon, enemy of
the serpent. — The weasel. — Galanthis. — The cat with ears of
butter. — The cat as a judge. — The lynx. — The penitent cat. — The
beneficent cat. — The cat witb a golden tail. — Cat and dog as
friends ; the dog carries the cat ; they find the lost ring again. —
The new-born son changed for a cat. — The cat that sings and tells
tales. — The cat created by the moon; Diana as a cat. — The
sacred cat. — The funereal and diabolical cat. — Cat and fox. — The
cat hangman.' — Le chat hotte. — Chatte hlanche ; the cat that spins
and weaves. — The cat becomes a girl. — The enchanted palace of
the cats. — The cats of February ; the black cat ; the cat dreamed-
of. — The cat becomes a witch at seven years of age. — The cat in
the sack. — The mewing of the cat. — The cats dispute for souls. —
Battle of cats. — The mice that bite their tails or that gnaw the
threads of the net. — The mouse in the boney. — The mouse that
becomes a maiden ; the mouse and the mountain. — The mouse
that becomes a tiger. — The souls of the dead pass into mice;

42 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

funereal and diabolical mice ; superstitions relating to this belief. —
The mouse that releases the lion and the elephant from the trap. —
Ganegas crushes the mouse \ Apollo Smyntheus. — When the cat 's
away the mice can dance. — The mouse plays blind-man's-buff with
the bear. — The grateful mouse. — The mouse that foresees the
future. — Mouse and sparrow, first friends and then enemies. —
The batrachomyomachia. — The mouse, the tooth, and the coin. —
Hiranyakas ; the squirrel. — Tlie monster mole ; the mole as a
gravedigger ; the blind mole. — The snail in the popular song;
the snail and the serpent ; the snail as a funereal animal.

I UNITE in one series several mythical nocturnal animals,
which, although really of very diflferent natures, enter
into only one order of myths.

They are thie^dng and hunting "animals, and are there-
fore very aptly placed in the darkness of night {iiaktacdrin
is an epithet applied in Sanskrit both to the cat and the
thief), in the nocturnal forest, in connection now with
Diana the huntress, or the good fairy the moon, and now
with the ugly witch ; now appearing as the helpers of
the hero, and now as his persecutors.

The etymologies of several Hindoo words may be of
some interest to the reader, and may with propriety be
adduced here. Mdrgdras, the cat, means the cleanser
(as the animal that, in fact, cleans itself). Eef erring to
the myth, we know already that one of the principal
exactions of the witch is that her step-daughter should
comb her hair, or else clean the corn, during the night ;
and that the good fairy, the Madonna, while she too has
her hair combed, scatters gems about, spins, and cleans
the corn for the good maiden. The witch of night forces
the maiden aurora to separate the luminous wheat of
evening from the dark tares of night ; the moon with
its silvery splendour disperses the shades of night. The
mdrgdras, or cleanser of the night, the white cat, is the
moon. Aranyamdr^draSj or cat of the forest, is the

ETYMOLOGIES, 43

name given to the wild cat, with which the lynx, too, is
identified. As a white cat, as the moon, it protects
innocent animals ; as a black cat, as the dark night, it
persecutes them. The cat is a skilful hunter ; moreover,
it is easy to confound the word mdrgdras (the cleanser)
with the word mdrgaras, the proper meaning of which
is hunter, investigator, he who follows the track, the
mdrgas, or else the enemy of the mrigas (as mrig4ris) ;.
the road is the clean part of the land, as the margin is
the white or clean part of a book. The hunter may be
he that goes on the margin or on the track, or else he
that hunts and kills the mrigas or forest animal. The
moon (the huntress Diana) is also called in Sanskrit
mrigardgas, or king of the forest animals ; and, as kings
are wont, it sometimes defends its subjects and sometimes
eats them. The cat-moon eats the grey mice of the night.

Nakulas is the name given in Sanskrit to the ichneu-
mon, the enemy of mice, scorpions, and snakes. The word
. seems to be derived from the root naf, nak = necare,
whence nakulas would appear to be the destroyer (of
nocturnal mice).

The mouse, milsh, m'dshas, milshahas, is the thief, the
ravisher, whence also its name rat {a rapiendo).

The Hindoo names of the ant are vamras and vamrt
(besides pipilxxhas). Vamrt is connected with vapd,
vapram, vapH, ant-hole, and, by metathesis, valmikam
[i.e., appertaining to ants), which has the same meaning.
The IjB.tm formica unites together the two forms vamrt
and valmikam. The roots are vap, in the sense of to
throw, and vam, to erupt or to throw out, as the ants do
when they erect little mounds of earth.

In the Mahdbhdratam, the hole of a serpent is also
called by the name of valmikam; from this we can
explain the fable of the third book of the JPancatantram,

44 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

where we have a serpent fighting against ants. He kills
many of them, but their number is so interminable that
he is at last forced to succumb. Thus, in the mythical
Vedic heavens, it is in the shape of a vamras or ant that
Indras fights victoriously against the old monster that
invades the sky.^ Nay, mojre, in the Pancatantram, the
ants sting and bite the serpent and kill it ; thus Indras
(who, as we have just said, is an ant in the cloud or the
night) gives to the ants the avaricious serpent, the son of
Agrus, dragging it out of its hiding-place.^ Indras is
therefore a variety of the Captain Formicola of the
Tuscan fairy tale. Finally, the Rigvedas offers us yet
another curious particular. The two A9vin4u come to
assist Vamraa (or Indras in his form of an ant, i.e., they
come to assist the ant) whilst it is drinking (vamrarii
vipip^nam). The ant throws or lifts up little hiUocks of
earth by biting the ground. The root vap, which means
to throw, to scatter, has also the sense of to cut, and
perhaps to make a hole in. The convex presupposes
the concave ; and vam is related to vap (as somnus is
related to hilpnos, to svap^Kts, and to sopor). Indras, as
an ant, is the wounder, the biter of the serpent. He
makes it come out of its den, or vomits it forth (eructat) ;
the two etymological senses are found again in the myth.
The weapons with which Indras wounds the serpent are
doubtless now the solar rays, and now the thunderbolts.
Indras, in the cloud, drinks the somas. The ant drinks,
and the Agvin^u, whilst it drinks, come to its help, for
no doubt the ant when drinking is in danger of being

1 Vriddhasya <5id vardhato dyam inakshatah stavano vamro vi
^aghana sariidihah ; Jiigv. i.- 51, 9.

^ Vamribhih putram agruvo adanarii nivegaiiad dhariva a ^abhartha;
Jtigv. iv. 19, 9. — Another variation is the hedgehog, which, as we have
seen in Chapter V., forces the viper out of its den.

THE ANTS HELPED BY THE HERO. 45

drowned. And this brings us to the story of the
grateful animals, in which the young hero finds an ant
about to be drowned.

In the twenty-fourth of the Tuscan fairy tales pub-
lished by me, when the shepherd's son, by a good advice
which he has received, determines to do good to every
one he meets, he sees on the path an ant-hill, which is
about to be destroyed by water ; he then makes a bank
round it, and thus saves the ants / in their turn the ants
pay back the debt. The king of the land demands of the
young man, as a condition of receiving his daughter in
marriage, that he should separate and sort the different
kinds of grain in a granary ; up marches Captain
Formicola with his army, and accomplishes the stipulated
task. In other varieties of the same story, instead of
the embankment, we have the leaf that the hero puts
under the ant to float it out of the water contained in
the footprint of a horse, which again recalls the lotus-
leaf on which the Hindoo deity navigates the ocean.
This water in which the ant is drownino^ was afterwards
changed into the proverbial ants' milk,^ which is now
used to express an impossibility, but which, when referred
to Indras, to the mythical ant, represents the ambrosial and
pluvial moisture. In the sixth Sicilian story of Signora
Gonzenbach, the boy Giuseppe, having given crumbs of
bread to the hungry ants, receives from the king of the
ants the present of an ant's leg, in order that he may

^ The dwarf-hermits, who transport a leaf upon a car, and are about
to be drowned in the water contained in the foot-print of a cow, and
who curse Indras, who passes smiling without assisting them, in the
legend of the Mahdhhdratam, are a variety of these same ants. — Cfr.
the chapters on the Elephant and on the Fishes, where we havQ Indras
who fears to be submerged.

^ Fa cunto ca no le mancava lo latto de la formica ; Fentamerone^
i. 8.

46 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

use it when required. When he wishes to become an ant,
in order to penetrate into the giant's palace, he has only
to let the ant's leg fall to the ground, with the words,
" I am a Christian, and am becoming an ant," which
immediately comes to pass. In the same story Giuseppe
procures sheep, in order to attract the serpent by their
smell, and induce it to come out of its lurking-place.
Here we evidently return to the Vedic subject of the ant
Indras, who tempts the serpent to come out in order to
give it to the ants. In the eighth story of the fourth
book of the Pentamerone, the ant shows the third part
of the way to the girl Cianna, who is going to search for
the mother of time ; on the door of her dwelling Cianna
will find a serpent biting its tail (the well-known symbol
of the cyclical day or year, and of time, in antiquity), and
she is to ask the mother of time, on the ant's part,
advice as to how the ants can live a hundred years.
The mother of time answers to Cianna that the ants
will live a hundred years when they can dispense with
flying, inasmuch as "quanno la formica vo morire,
mette I'ascelle" {i.e., the wings). The ant, grateful, for
this good advice, shows Cianna and her brothers the
place underground where the thieves have deposited their
treasure. We also remember the story of the ants who
bring grains of barley into the mouth of the royal child
Midas, to announce his future wealth. In Herodotus
(iii.), and in the twelfth book of the stories of Tzetza^

^ Bihlion Istorikon, xii. 404, — In the Epi&t Fresh. Johannis, we
find also : — "In quadam provincia nostra sunt formicse in magnitudine
catulorum, habentes vii. pedes et alas iv. Istse formicse ab occasu solis
ad ortum morantur sub terra et fodiunt purissimum aurum tota nocte
— quaerunt victum suum tota die. In nocte autem veniunt homines
de cunctis civitatibus ad colligendum ipsum aurum et imponunt
elephantibus. Quando formicse sunt supra terram, nullus ibi audet
accedere propter crudelitatem et ferocitatem ipsarum." — Cfr. mfra.

TBE ANTS AND TREASURE—THE LOCUST 47

I find the curious information that there are in India
ants as large as foxes, that keep golden treasures in their
holes ; the grains of wheat are this gold. The morning
and evening heavens are sometimes compared to granaries
of gold ; the ants separate the grain during the night,
carrying it from west to east, and purifying it of all that
is unclean, or cleansing the sky of the nocturnal shadows.
The work assigned every night by the witch to the
maiden aurora of evening is done in one night by the
black ants of the sky of night. Sometimes the girl meets
on the way the good fairy (the moon), who comes to her
help; the maiden, assisted by the ants, meets the madonna-
moon. But the moon is called also the leaper or hopper,
a nocturnal locust ; the darkness, the cloud and the dark-
coloured earth (in lunar eclipses) are at the same time
ant-hills and black ants, that pass over or before the
moon ; and, therefore, in the race between the ant and
the locust, it is said in the fable that the ant won the
race. The locust, or garahhas, or falabhas, is presented
to us as an improvident animal in two sentences of the
first and fourth books of the Pancatantram, The green
grasshopper or locust leaps ; the fair-haired moon leaps.
(I have already noticed in the chapter on the ass how the
words haris and harit mean both green and fair, or
yellow ; in the second canto of the sixth book of the
Rdmdyanam, the monkey Qarabhas is said to inhabit
the mountain Candras or Mount Moon ; Qarabhas, there-
fore, appears as the moon.) Locust and grasshopper jump
(cfr. the Chap, on the hare) ; hence the ant is not only in
connection with the locust, but also with the grasshopper ;
the Hindoo expression garabhas means both grasshopper
(in Sanskrit, also named varshakart) and locust. In one
of the popular songs of the Monferrato collected by
Signor Ferraro, we have the wedding of the grasshopper

4S ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

and the ant ; the magpie, the mouse, the ortolan, the
crow, and the goldfinch bring to the wedding a little
cut straw, a cushion, bread, cheese, and wine. In the
popular Tuscan songs published by Giuseppe Tigri, I
find the word grilli (grasshoppers) used in the sense of
lovers. In Italian, grillo also means caprice, and espe-
cially amorous caprice ; and medico grillo is applied to a
foolish doctor.^ And yet the grasshopper ought to be
the diviner par excellence. In Italy, when we propose a
riddle, we are accustomed to end it with the words
'' indovinala, grillo " (guess it, grasshopper) ; this expres-
sion perhaps refers to the supposed fool of the popular
story, who almost always ends by showing himself wise.
The sun enclosed in the cloud and in the gloom of night
is generally the fool, but he is at the same time the fool
who, in the kingdom of the dead, sees, hears, and learns
everything ; and the moon, too, personified as a grass-
hopper or locust, is the supposed fool who, on the con-
trary, knows, sees, understands, aiid teaches everything ;
from the moon are taken prognostics ; hence riddles may
be proposed to the capricious moon, or the celestial
cricket. In Italian, the expressions '^ aver la luna "
(to have the moon), and "avere il grillo" (to have the
grasshopper), are equivalent, and mean to sufi'cr from
a nervous attack, or the spleen. I also find the wedding
between ant and grasshopper in a very popular, but as
yet unpublished Tuscan song. The ant asks the grass-
hopper whether he desires her for his wife, and recom-
mends him, if he does not, to look after his own aff'airs,
that is, to leave her alone. And then the narrative

1 Of tliis expression a historical origin is given, referring it to a
Bolognese doctor of the twelfth century, named Grillo. — Cfr. Fanfani,
Vocabolario dell ^uso Toscano, s. v. ''grillo."

THE GRASSHOPPER AND THE ANT. 49

begins. The grasshopper goes into a field of linen ; the
ant begs for a thread to make herself aprons and shirts
for the wedding ; then the gTasshopper says he wishes
to marry her. The grasshopper goes into a field of
vetches \ the ant asks for ten vetches, to cook four in a
stew, and to put six upon the spit for the wedding-
dinner. After the wedding, the grasshopper follows the
trade of a greengrocer, then that of an innkeeper ; but
his aftairs succeed so badly, that he first puts his own
trousers in pawn, and then becomes bankrupt, and beats
his wife the ant ; at last he dies in misery. Then the
ant faints away, throws herself upon the bed, and beats
her breast for sorrow with her heel (as ants do when they
die).^ The nuptials of the black ant, the gloom of night,

^ Here are the words of the song of this carious wedding, which I
heard sung at Santo Stefano di Calcinaia, near Florence : —

*^ Grillo, mio grillo,
Se tu vuoi moglie, dillo ;
Se tu n' la vuoi,
Abbada a' fatti tuoi.

Tinfillulilalera

Linfillulilalk.

'* Povero grillo, 'n un campo di lino.
La formicuccia gne ne chiese un filo.
D'un filo solo, cosa ne vuoi tu fare %
Grembi e camicie ; mi vuo' maritare.
Disse lo grillo : — Ti pigliero io.
La formicuccia : — Son contenta anch' io.
TinfiUuL, &c.

" Povero grillo, 'n un campo di ceci ;
La formicuccia gne ne chiese dieci
Di dieci soli, cosa ne vuoi tu fare ?
Quattro di stufa, e sei li vuo' girare.
TinfiliuL, &c.

" Povero grillo facea I'ortolano
L'andava a spasso col ravanello in mano ;
VOL. TI. D

50 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

with the moon, locust, or grasshopper, take place in the
evening ; the grasshopper dies, the moon pales, and the
black ant, the night, also disappears. In the Pancatan-
tram, the locusts are destroyed by fire. In the so-called
letter of Alexander the Great to Olympias,^ I find the
ants scared away by means of fire, whilst they are en-
deavouring to keep horses and heroes at a distance.
These extraordinary ants recall to us the hippomtirmekes
of the Greeks, or ants of horses. The ants, the insects
of the forest of night, molest the hero and solar horse
that traverse it ; the black ants of night are dispersed by
the solar fire of the morning : this we can understand all
the better when Tzetza, quoted before, speaking of the
Indian ants, calls them as large as foxes ; when Pliny,
in the eleventh book of his History, says they are of the
colour of a cat, and the size of Egyptian wolves ; and
when Solinus tells us that they have the shape of a
large dog, with lion s feet, with which they dig gold up.
j^Elianos calls them guardians of gold (t6n chrus6n

Povero grillo, andava a Pontedera,
Con le vilancie pesava la miseria.
Tinfillul , &c.

'' Povero grillo, I'andiede a Monteboni,
Dalla miseria rimpegnb i calzoni ;
Povero grillo facea I'oste a Colle,
L'andb fallito e bastonb la moglie.
Tinfillul., &c.

" La formicuccia and5 alia festa a il Porto,
Ebbe la nova cbe il suo grillo era morto
La formicuccia, quando seppe la nova
La cascb in terra, stette svenuta uu 'era.
La formicuccia si butto su il letto,
Con le calcagna si batteva il petto,
Tinfillul.," ikc.
' Cfr. Zaclier, rseudo-Callisthenes, Halle, 1SG7.

MONSTER ANTS— THE SCORPION 51

phlilattontes). Evidently the ants have abready taken
here a monstrous and demoniacal aspect. Several other
ancient authors have written concerning these Indian
ants, including Herodotus, Strabo, Philostratos, and
Lucian. I shall only mention here, as bearing on our
subject, that, according to Lucian, it is by night that
they dig up the gold, and that, according to Pliny, the
ants dig up gold in winter (night and winter are often
equivalent in mythology). "The Indians, moreover,
steal it during summer, whilst the ants stay hidden in
their subterranean lurking-places on account of the
vapours; however, tempted forth by the smell, they
run out, and often cut the Indians in pieces, although
they flee away on very swift camels, they are so rapid,
ferocious, and desirous of gold,"^ This monster ant,
with lion's claws, which Pliny also describes as homed,
approaches very closely to the mythical black scorpion
of the clouds and the night, the Vedic Vrigcikas, which,
now a very little bird (iyattik4 jakuntika), now a very
small ichneumon (kushumbhakas, properly the little golden
one, perhaps the young morning sun), destroys with its
tooth (agman^, properly with the biter), absorbing or
taking away the poison, as jars take off the water, i.e.,
the sun's rays dissipate the vapours of the sun enclosed
in the cloud or the gloom. ^ Here the ichneumon (viverra
ichneumon) appears as the benefactor o£ the scorpion
rather than as its enemy ; it takes its poison away, that
is, it frees the sun from the sign of Scorpio, from the*
vapours which envelope it. The ichneumon is in Sanskrit
called mikulas. In the twelfth story of the first book of
the Paiicatantram, we see it, on the contrary, as the

1 Pliny, Hist Nat. xi. 31.

2 lyattik^ ^akuntik^ sak^ ^aghasa te visham; Rigv. i. 191, 11.

52 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

declared enemy of the black serpent, which it kills in
its den. But inasmuch as the weasel-ichneumon bites
venomous animals, it is itself obliged to deliver itself
from the venom it has in consequence imbibed. There-
fore, in the Aiharvavedas, mention is already made of
the salutary herb with which the nakulas (which is also
the name of one of the -two sons of the Ayvin^iu, in the
Mahdhhdratam) cures himself of the bite of venomous
animals, that is, of serpents, scorpions, and monstrous
mice, his enemies. The weasel (mustela), which differs
but little from the ichneumon, is almost the same in the
myths. The weasel, too, as we learn from the ninth
book of Aristotle's History of Animals, fights against
serpents, after having eaten the famous herb called rue,
the smell of which is said to be insupportable to serpents.
But, as its Latin name tells us, it is no less skilful as a
hunter of mice.^ The reader is doubtless familiar with
the ^sopian fable of the weasel which petitions the man
for its liberty for the service which it has rendered him
by freeing his house from rats ; and with that of Phsedrus,
of the old weasel which catches mice in the flour-trough
by rolling itself in the flour, so that the mice approach,
under the impression that it is a solid mass. Plautus's
parasite reckons upon a good dinner for himself from
having met with a weasel carrying away the whole of a
mouse except its feet (auspicio hodie optumo exivi
foras ; mustela murem abstulit prseter pedes) ; but the
expected dinner never appearing, he declares that the
presage is false, and pronounces the weasel a prophet
only of evU, inasmuch as- in one and the same day it
changes its place ten times. According to the ninth
book of Ovid's Metamorphoses, the maid Galanthis was

iv. 1.

THE WEASEL. 53

changed by the goddess Lucina (the moon) into a weasel,
for having told a lie, announcing the birth of Herakl6s
before it had taken place : —

" Strenuitas antiqua manet, nee terga colorem
Amisere suum, forma est diversa priori ;
Quae, quia mendaci parientem juverat ore,
Ore parit."

The popular superstition which makes the weasel bring
forth its young by its mouth, probably had its origin in
this fable. From the mouth intemperate words are
brought forth. Simonides, in Stobeus, quoted already by
Aldrovandi,^ compares wicked women to weasels. The
moon that changes the chattering Galanthis into a weasel
appears to be the same as the white moon itself trans-
formed into a white weasel, the moon that explores the
nocturnal heaven and discovers all its secrets.

Ants, mice, moles (like serpents), love, on the contrary,
to stay hidden, and to keep their secrets concealed. The
ichneumon, the weasel, and the cat generally come out
of their hiding-places, and chase away whoever is con-
cealed, carrying away from the hiding-places whatever
they can. They are both themselves thieves, and hunt
other thieves.

It is easy now to pass from the Latin mustela to the
Sanskrit cat milshakdrdtis, or mushihdntakrit.

In thePancatantram'ytlie cat Butter-ears (dadhikarnas),
or he of the white ears, who feigns to repent of his crimes,
is called upon to act as judge in a dispute pending
between the sparrow, kapiii^alas and the hare Quick-
walker (sighragas), who had taken up his quarters in the
dwelling of the absent sparrow. Butter-ears solves the
question by feigning deafness, and requesting the two

^ Be Quad. Dig. Viv, ii.

54 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

disputants to come nearer, to confide their arguments in
his ears ; the hare and the sparrow rely on his good faith,
and approach, when the cat clutches and devours them
both. In the Hitoyadeqas} we have, instead of the
sparrow, the vulture caradgavas, which meets with its
death in consequence of having shown hospitality to the
cat, " of which it knew neither the disposition nor the
strength " (a^n4takula9llasya). In the Tuii-Name^ we
have, instead of the cat, the Ijtis,^ that wishes to possess
itself of the lion s house, which is guarded by the monkey ;
it terrifies the lion, and drives it to flight. In the Anvari-
Suhaili,^ instead of the cat or lynx, Ave find represented
the leopard. In the MaJidhhdratam,^ we find again the
fable of the penitent cat. The cat, by the austerity which
it practises on the banks of the Ganges, inspires con-
fidence in the birds, which gather round it to do it
honour. After some time, the mice imitate the example
of the birds, and put themselves under the cat's protection,
that it may defend them. The cat makes its meals upon
them every day, by inducing one or two to accompany it

1 i. 49. ^ ii. 22.

2 The forgetfulness of the lynx, as well as of the cat, is proverbial.
St Jeromej in the Ep. ad Chrisog. — " Verum tu quod natura lynces
insitum habent, ne post tergum respicientes meminerint priorum, et
mens perdat quod oculi videre desierint, ita nostrse es necessitudinis
penitus oblitus." Thus of the lynx it is said by ^lianos that it covers
its urine with sand (like the cat), so that men may not find it, for
in seven days the precious stone lyncurion is formed of this urine.
The cat that sees by night, the lynx that sees through opaque bodies,
the fable of Lynkeus, who, according to Pliny, saw in one day the
first and the last moon in the sign of Aries, and the lynx that, accord-
ing to ApoUonios, saw through the earth what was going on in hell,
recall to us the moon, the wise and all-seeing fairy of the &ky, and the
infernal moon.

* Quoted by Benfey in the Einleitung to the Pancatantram.
6 V. 5421-0448.

THE PENITENT CAT 55

to the river, and fattens exceedingly fast, whilst the mice
diminish every day. Then a wise mouse determines to
follow the cat one day when it goes to the river ; the cat
eats both the mouse that accompanies it and the spy.
Upon this the mice discover the trick, and evacuate
altogether the post of danger. The penitent cat is already
proverbial in the Code ofManus} In \he Reinehe Fitchs
of Goethe/ the cat goes to steal in the priest's house, by
the wicked advice of the fox, when every one falls upon
him —

" Sprang er wiitliend entschlossen
Zwischen die Sclienkel des Pfaffen und biss und kratzte gefahrlicb."

The Roman du Renard,^ when the priest is mutilated
by the cat, makes his wife exclaim —

" C'en est fait de nos amours !
Je suis veuve sans recours !"

In the same Romany when the cat Tibert, the ambassador
of King Lion, arrives at Mantpertuis, where the fox reigns,
we read —

" Tibert lui pr6senta la patte ;
II fait le saint, il fait la chatte !
Mais k bon chat, bon rat ! Renard aussi le flatte !
II s'entend k dorer ses paroles de miel !
Si Tun est saint, I'autre est hermite;
Si I'un est chatte, I'autre est mite."

^ " Let no man, apprised of this law, present even water to a priest
who acts like a cat;" iv. 192, version of Jones and Graves' Ghamney
Haughton^ edited by Percival, Madras, 1863. — In «. Russian story
quoted by Afanassieff in his observations to the first volume of his
stories, the cat Eustachio feigns itself penitent or monk in order to
eat the mouse when it passes. It being observed that the cat is too
fat for a penitent, it answers that it eats from the duty of pieserving its
health.

' iii. 147, Stuttgart, Cotta, 1857.

^ Translation by Ch. Potvin, Paris and Brussels, 1861.

56 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

In the romance of the fox, the fox endeavours to
destroy the cat by inducing it to catch the mice that are
in the priest's house. In an unpublished Tuscan story/
we have, on the contrary, the fox that invites the mouse
to the shop of a butcher who has recently killed a pig.
The mouse promises to gnaw the wood till the hole is
large enough for the fox to pass through it ; the fox eats
till it is able to pass, and then goes away ; the mouse
eats and fattens so much that it can no longer pass ; the
cat then comes and eats it.

In the thirty- fourth story of the second book of Afanas-
sieff, the cat occurs again, as in India, in connection with
the sparrow, but not to eat it ; on the contrary, they are
friends, and twice deliver the young hero from the witch.
This is a form of the Agvin^u. In the sixty-seventh
story of the sixth book, the two Ajvin^u return in the
shape respectively of a dog and a cat (now enemies one
of the other, as the two mythical brothers often show
themselves, and now friends for life and death). A young
man buys for a hundred roubles a dog with hanging ears,
and for another hundred roubles a cat with a golden tail,^
both of which he nourishes well. With a hundred roubles
more, he acquires the ring of a dead princess, from which
thirty boys and a hundred and seventy heroes, who
perform every kind of marvel, can come forth at the
possessor's will. By means of these wonders, the young

^ From tlie peasant-woman Uliva Selvi, who told it to me at
Antignano, near Leghorn.

2 Cfr. Afanassieff, v. 32, where a cat is bought by a virtuous work-
man for the price of a kapeika (a small coin), the only price that he
bad consented to take as a reward for his work ; the same cat is
bought by the king for three vessels. With another kapeika, earned
by other work, the workman delivers the king's daughter from the
devil, and subsequently marries her.

DOG AND CAT. 57

man is enabled to wed the king's daughter ; but as the
latter wishes to ruin him, she makes him drunk, steals
his ring, and departs into a far distant kingdom. The
Tzar then shuts the youth up in prison ; the dog and the
cat go to recover the lost ring. When they pass the
river, the dog swims and carries the cat upon his back
(the blind and the lame, St Christopher and Christ),
They come to the place where the princess lives, and enter
into her dwelling. They then engage themselves in the
service of the cook and the housemaid ; the cat, following
its natural instinct, gives chase to a mouse, upon which
the mouse begs for its life, promising to bring the ring to
the cat. The princess sleeps with the ring in her mouth ;
the mouse puts its tail into her mouth ; she spits, the ring
comes out, and is taken by the dog and the cat, who*
deliver the young man, and force the fugitive Tzar's
daughter to return to her first abode.

In the following story of Afanassieff, when the
youngest of the three sisters bears three sons to Ivan
Tzarevic, her envious elder sisters make the prince believe
that she has brought forth a cat, a dog, and a vulgar
child. The three real sons are carried off; the princess
is blinded and enclosed with her supposed child in a cask,
which is thrown into the sea. The cask, however, comes
to shore and opens ;^ the supposititious son immediately
bathes the princess's eyes with hot water, and she re-
covers her sight, after which he finds her three luminous
sons again, who light up whatever is near them with
their splendour, and is again united to her husband. In
a Eussian variation of the same story, the three sons are
changed by the witch into three doves ; the princess,

^ Cfr. analogous subjects in Chapter I., e.g., Emilius the lazy and
stupid youth, and the blind woman who recovers her sight.

58 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

with her supposed son, is saved from the sea, and takes
refuge upon an island, where, perched upon a gold
pillar, a wise cat sings ballads and tells stories. The
three doves are transformed into handsome youths, whose
legs are of silver up to the knee, their chests of gold, their
foreheads like the moon, and their sides formed of stars,
and recover their father and mother.

Thus far we have seen the cat with white ears, who
hunts the hare (or moon), the morning twilight, and the
penitent cat who eats mice at the river's side, and which
is mythically the same. We have observed that, of the
two Agvin^u, one represents especially the sun, and the
other the moon ; the thieving cat, who is the friend of
some thieves and the enemy of others (whence the
Hungarian and Tuscan superstition, to the effect that for
a good cat to be a skilful thief, it must itself have been
stolen ; then it is sure to catch mice well), is now the
morning twilight, now the moon who gives chase to the
mice of the night. According to the Hellenic cosmogony,
the sun and the moon created the animals ; the sun
creating the lion, and the moon the cat. In the fifth
book of Ovid's Metamorphoses, when the gods fled from
the giants, Diana took the form of a cat.^ In Sicily the
cat is sacred to St Martha, and is respected in order not
to irritate her : he who kills a cat will be unhappy for
seven years. In the ancient German belief, the goddess

1

Hue quoque terrigenam venisse Typhcea narrat,

Et se mentitis superos celasse figuris ;

Duxque gregis, dixit, fit Jupiter ; unde recurvis

Nunc quoque formatus Lybis est cum cornibus Aramon

Delius in corvo, proles Semeleia capro

Fele sorer Phoebi, nivea Saturnia vacca,

Pisce Venus latuit, Cyllenius ibidis alis.

—V. 325-332.

CAT AND F0± 59

Freya was drawn by two cats. At present, the cat and
tlie mouse are sacred to the funereal St Gertrude. In the
sixty-second story of the sixth book of Afanassieff, we
have the chattering cat, which the hero Baldak must kill
in the territory of the hostile Sultan (that is, in the win-
try night). In the eighth story of the fourth book of the
Pentamerone, we also find a she-cat that plays the part
of the ogre's spy ; in the tenth story of the Pentamerone,
and in the first of the Novelline di Santo Stefano di
Calcinaia, on the contrary, the cat reveals the witch's
treachery to the prince. In the twenty- third story of the
fourth book of Afanassieff, the cat Katofiei appears as
the husband of the fox, who passes him ofi" as a burgo-
master. United together, they terrify the wolf and the
bear,^ the cat climbing up a tree. In the ^sopian
fables, on the contrary, the cat and the fox dispute as to
which is the superior animal ; the cat makes the dog
catch the fox, whilst it itself climbs up a tree. In the third
story of the second book of Afanassieff, the cat associates
with the cock in the search for the bark of trees ; it
delivers its comrade three times from the fox that had
run ofi" with it ; the third time, the cat not only liberates
the cock, but also eats the four young foxes. In the
thirtieth story of the fourth book, the cat Catonaievic, the
son of Cato (this name is derived from the equivoque
between the words catus and caton ; in French, besides
chat, we have chaton, chatonique, &c.), delivers the cock
twice from the fox, but the third time the fox eats the
poor bird. In a Eussian variety of this story, the cat
kills the five little foxes and then the fox, after haviner
sung as follows : —

^ In the eighteenth story of the third book of Afanassieff it is in
company with the lamb (in the nineteenth, with the he-goat) that the
cat terrifies the wolf and the bear.

6o ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

" The cat walks upon its feet
In red boots ;

It wears a sword by its side,
And a stick by its tMgli ;
It wishes to kill the fox,
And to make its soul perish."^

In another variety, the cat and the lamb go to deliver
the cock from the fox. The latter has seven daughters.
The cat and the lamb allure them by songs to come out,
and they kill them one after the other, wounding them in
their foreheads ; they then kill the fox itself, and so
deliver the cock. In the romance of the fox, the cat is
the hangman, and ties the fox to the gibbet.

In the third story of the first book, the witch's cat,
grateful to the good girl who has given her some ham to
eat, teaches her how to escape, and gives her the usual
towel which, when thrown on the ground, makes a river
appear, and the usual comb which, in like manner, causes
an impenetrable forest to arise before the witch who
runs after the girl to devour her.

We have already seen the Vedic moon who sews the
wedding-robe with a thread that does not break. In the
Russian story we have already remarked how the little
puppet, to oblige the good maiden, makes a shirt destined
for the Tzar, which is so fine that no one else can make
the like. In the celebrated tale of the witty Madame
d'Aulnoy, La Chatte Blanche, we have the white cat

^ ** Idiot kot na nagdh,
V krasnih sapagdh ;
Nessiot sabliu na plessi6 ;
A palodku pri bedrid,
Hodiet lissu parublt,
leia dushu zagublt."
Puss-in-boots (le chat bott6), helps the third brother in the tale of
Perrault.

THE WHITE CAT 6i

Blancliette, veiled in black, who inhabits the enchanted
palace, rides upon a monkey, speaks, and gives to the
young prince, "who rides upon a wooden horse (the forest
of night), inside an acorn, the naost beautiful little dog
that ever existed in the world, that he may take it to the
king his father — a little dog, " plus beau que la canicule"
(evidently the sun itself, which comes out of the golden
egg or acorn), which can pass through a ring (the disc of
the sun), and then a marvellously painted cloth, which is
so fine that it can pass through the eye of a small needle,
and is enclosed in a grain of millet, although of the
length of "quatre cents aunes" (the eye of the needle,
the acorn, the grain of millet, and the ring are equivalent
forms to represent the solar disc). This wonderful cat
finally herself becomes a beautiful maiden, '^ Parut comme
le soleil qui a ete quelque temps envelopp^ dans une nue ;
ses cheveux blonds ^taient epars sur ses epaules * ils
tombaient par grosses boucles jusqu'^ ses pieds. Sa
t^te etait ceinte de fleurs, sa robe, d'une leg^re gaze
blanche, doublee de tafietas couleur de rose." The white
cat of night, the white moon, resigns her place in the
morning to the rosy aurora ; the two phenomena that
succeed each other appear to be metamorphoses of the
same being. The white cat, with its attendant cats,
before becoming a beautiful maiden, invites the prince to
assist in a battle which he engages in with the mice. To
this we can compare the jEsopian fable of the young
man who, in love with a cat, beseeches Venus to transform
her into a woman. Venus gratifies him ; the youth
marries her; but when the bride is in bed {i.e., in the
night, when the evening aurora again gives up its place
to the moon, or when it meets with the grey mice of
night), a mouse passes by, and the woman, who still re-
tains her feline nature, runs after it.

62 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

When the sun enters into the night, it finds in the
starry heavens an enchanted palace, where either there is
not a living soul to be found, or where only the cat-moon
moves about. Hence, in my opinion, the origin of the
expression that we make use of in Italy to indicate an
empty house — " Non vi era neanche un gatto " (there
was not even a cat there). The cat is considered the
familiar genie of the house. The enchanted palace is
always situated either at the summit of a mountain, or in
a gloomy forest (like the moon). This palace is the
dwelling either of a good fairy, or a good magician, or of
a witch, or a serpent-demon, or at least cats. The visit
to the house of the cats is the subject of a story which I
have heard told, with few variations, in Piedmont and in
Tuscany,^

AVe have hitherto seen only the luminous or white cat,
the cat-moon and twilight, under a generally benignant
aspect. But when the night is without a moon, we have
only the black cat in the dense gloom. This black cat
then assumes a demoniacal character.

In the Monferrato it is believed that aU the cats that
wander about the roofs in the month of February are not

^ In Tuscany the previously mentioned story-teller, Uliva Selvi, at
Antignano, near Leghorn, narrated it to me as follows : — A mother
has a number of children and no money ; a fairy tells her to go to the
summit of the mountain, where she will find many enchanted cats in a
beautiful palace, who give alms. The woman goes, and a kitten lets
her in ; she sweeps the rooms, lights the fire, washes the dishes, draws
water, makes the beds, and bakes bread for the cats ; at last she
comes before the king of the cats, who is seated with a crown on his
head, and asks for alms. The great cat rings the golden bell with a
golden chain, and calls the cats. He learns that the woman has
treated them well, and orders them to fill her apron with gold coins
(rusponi). The wicked sister of the poor woman also goes to visit the
cats, but she maltreats them, and returns home all scratched, and more
dead than alive from pain and terror.

THE BLACK CAT. (,^

really cats, but witclies, wliicli one must shoot For this
reason, black cats are kept away from the cradles of
children. The same superstition exists in Germany/ In
Tuscany, it is believed that when a man desires death,
the devil passes before his bed in the form of any animal
except the lamb, but especially in that of a he-goat, a
cock, a hen, or a cat. In the German superstition,^ the
black cat that places itself upon the bed of a sick man
announces his approaching death ; if it is seen upon a
grave, it signifies that the departed is in the devil's
power. If one dreams of a black cat at Christmas, it is
an omen of some alarming illness during the following
year. Aldrovandi, speaking of Stefano Cardano, narrates
that, being old and seriously iU, or rather dying, a cat
appeared unexpectedly before him, emitted a loud cry,
and disappeared. The same Aldrovandi teUs us of a cat
which scratched the breast of a woman, who, recognising
in it a supernatural being, died after the lapse of a few
days. In Hungary it is believed that the cat generally
becomes a witch from the age of seven years to that of
twelve, and that witches ride upon tom-cats, especially
black ones ; it is, moreover, believed that to deliver the
cat from the witch, it is necessary to make upon its skin
an incision in the form of a cross. The cat in the
bag of proverbs has probably a diabolical allusion. In
the tenth story of the Pentamerone, when the King of
Eoccaforte, thinking that he is marrying a beautiful
maiden, finds that, on the contrary, he has espoused a
hideous veiled old hag (the night), he says, " Questo e
peo nee vole a chi accatta la gatta dinto lo sacco." In

^ Cfr. Rochholtz, Deidsclier Glaube und Braiiche, i. 161.

^ lb. — I find the same belief referred to in the twenty-first Estho-

nian story of Kreutzwald.

64 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

Sicily, when the Eosaiy is recited for navigators, the
mewing of the cat presages a tedious voyage.^ When
the witches in Macbeth prepare their evil enchantments
against the king, the first witch commences with the
worrjs —

''Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed."

In a German belief noticed by Professor Eochholtz, two
cats that fight against each other are to a sick man an
omen of approaching death. These two cats are pro-
bably another form of the children's game in Piedmont
and Tuscany, called the game of souls, in which the devil
and the angel come to dispute for the soul. Of the two
cats, one is probably benignant and the other malignant ;
they represent perhaps night and twilight. An Irish
legend tells us of a combat between cats, in which all the
combatants perished, leaving only their tails upon the
battlefield. (A similar tradition also exists in Piedmont,
but is there, if I am not mistaken, referred to wolves.)
Two cats that fight for a mouse, and allow it to escape,
are also mentioned in Hindoo tradition.^

In the 105th hymn of the first book of the Itigvedas,
and in the thirty-third of the tenth book, a poet says to
Indras, " The thought rends me, thy praiser, as mice tear

1 It is almost universally believed that when the cat cleans itself
behind its ears with its wet paw, it presages rain. And yet the Latin
proverb says —

*' Catus amat pisces, sed aquas intrare recusat;"

and the Hungarian proverb, that the cat does not die in water. It is
for this reason, perhaps, that it is said, in a watery autumn the cat is
worth little — ("The cat of autumn and tbe woman of spring are not
worth much ; " Hung, prov.)

^ Polier, Mythologie des Indes, ii. 571.

THE MOUSE BECOMES A MAIDEN. 65

their tails by gnawing at them. "^ But according to
another interpretation, instead of "tails," "we should read
"threads ; " in this case, the mice that rend the threads
would refer to the fable of the mouse that delivers from
the net now the elephant, and now the lion (of which
fable I shall endeavour to prove the Vedic antiquity in
the next chapter).

The twelfth story of the third book of the Pan6atan-
tram is of great mythological interest. From the beak
of a hawk (in another Hindoo legend, from two cats that
are disputing for it) a mouse takes refuge in the hands of
a penitent, whilst he is bathing in the river. The peni-
tent transforms the mouse into a beautiful maiden, and
wishes to marry her to the sun ; the maiden declines —
he is too hot. The penitent next wishes to marry her to
the cloud which defeats the sun ; the maiden declares it
is too dark and cold. He then proposes to give her to
the wind which defeats the cloud (in the white Yagiir-
vedas, the mouse is sacred to the god Eudras, the wind
that howls and lightens in the cloud) ; the maiden re-
fuses — it is too changeful. The penitent now proposes
that she should wed the mountain, against which the
wind cannot prevail, but the girl says it is too hard ; and

^ Musho na gigna vy adanti m^dhyah stotHram te gatakrato ; jRi(/v.
i. 105, 8. — The commentator now interprets gignd by sutrdni, threads,
and now calls the reader's attention to the legend of the mice that lick
their tails after plunging them into a vase full of butter, or some other
savoury substance; but here vy adanti can only mean, they lacerate
by biting, as in the preceding strophe we have the thought that tears
by biting, as the wolf tears the thirsty wild beast (ma vyanti adhyo
na trishna^am mrigam). — The mouse in the jar of provisions also
occurs in the fable of the mouse and the two penitents in the Panca-
tantram, in the Hellenic fable of the son of Minos and of Pasiphae,
who, pursuing a mouse, falls into a jar of honey, in which he is suf-
focated, until recalled to life by a salutary herb.

VOL. II. E

66 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

finally the penitent asks if she would be willing to part
with her afiections to the mouse, who alone can make a
hole in the mountain ; the maiden is satisfied with this
last proposal, and is again transformed into a female
mouse, in order to be able to wed the male mouse. In
this beautiful myth (which is a variation of the other
one which we have already mentioned of the cat-maiden
that, though transfigured, still retains its instinct as a
huntress of mice), the whole revolution of the twenty-four
hours of the day is described. The mouse of night ap-
pears first ; the twilight tries to make it its prey ; the
night becomes the aurora ; the sun presents itself for her
husband ; the sun is covered by the cloud, and the cloud
is scattered by the wind ; meanwhile the evening aurora,
the girl, appears upon the mountain ; the mouse of night
again appears, and with her the maiden is confounded.
The HUopadefas contains an interesting variety of the
same myth. The mouse falls from the vulture's beak, and
is received by a wise man, who changes it into a cat,
then, to save it from the dog, into a dog, and finally into
a tiger. When the mouse is become a tiger, it thinks of
killing the wise man, who, reading its thoughts, trans-
forms it again into a mouse. Here we find described the
same circle of daily celestial phenomena. The succession
of these phenomena sometimes causes transformations in
the myths.

The well-known proverb of the mountain that gives
birth to the mouse, refers to the myth contained in the
story of the Pancatantram.. We already know that the
solar hero enters in the evening with the solar horse into
the mountain and becomes stone, and that all the heavens
assume the colour of this mountain. From the moun-
tain come forth the mice of night, the shadows of night,
to which the cat-moon and the cat-twilight give chase; the

THE SOULS OF THE DEAD AS MICE. 67

thieving propensities of the mice display themselves in
the night. In German superstition the souls of the dead
assume the forms of mice, and when the head of a house
dies, it is said that even the mice of the house abandon
it.^ In general, every apparition of mice is considered a
funereal presage ; it is on this account that the funereal
St Gertrude was represented surrounded by mice. The
first witch in Macbeth, when she wishes to persecute the
merchant who is sailing towards Aleppo, and shipwreck
him, that she may avenge herself upon his wife, who had
refused to give her some chestnuts, threatens to become
like a rat without a tail. In the Historia Sarmatice,
quoted by Aldrovandi, the uncles of King Popelus II.,
whom, with his wife for accomplice, he murders in secret,
and throws into the lake, become mice, and gnaw
the king and queen to death. The same death is
said to have been the doom of Migcislaus, the son of
the Duke Conrad of Poland, for haviag wrongfully
appropriated the property of widows and. orphans ; and
of Otto, Archbishop of Mainz, for having burned the
granary during a famine. Mice are said to have pre-
saged at Rome the first civil war, by gnawing the gold
in the temple ; and it was, moreover, alleged that a

^ Den Mausen pfeifen, heisst den Seelen ein Zeichen geben, um von
ihnen abgeholt zu werden ; ebenso wie der Kattenfanger zu Hameln
die Lockpfeife blast, auf deren Ton alle Miiase und Kinder der
Stadt mit ibm in den Berg hineinziehen, der sich hinter ihnen
zuschliesst. Mause sind Seelen. Die Seele des auf der Jagd entschla-
fenen Kciuigs Guntram kommt schlangleinartig aus seineni Munde
hervor, um so in einen nachsten Berg und wieder zuriickzulaufen.
Der goethe'sche Faust weigert sich dem Tanz mit dem hiibschen Hexen-
madchen am Blocksberg fortzusetzen : —

*' Den mitten 'im Gesange sprang
Ein rothes Mauschen ihr aus dem Munde."

— Bochholtz, Deut Glauhe u, Brmich, i. 156, 157.

68 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

female mouse had given birth in a trap to five male
mice, of which she had devoured two. Other prodigies,
in which mice were implicated, are mentioned as having
taken place at Eome, even in the times of Cato, who was
accustomed to make them the butt of his indignant
scorn. To a person who told him, for instance, how the
mice had gnawed the boots, he answered that this was
no miracle ; it would have been a miracle if the boots
{caligce) had eaten the mice.

The mouse in the fable is sometimes in connection
with the elephant and the lion, whom it sometimes
insults and despises (as in the Tuti-Name)} and some-
times comes to help and deliver from their fetters. The
meaning of the mjdih is evident : the elephant and the
lion represent here the sun in the darkness ; in the even-
ing the mouse of night leaps upon the two heroic animals,
which are then old or infirm ; in the morning the sun is
delivered out of the fetters of the night, and it is sup-
posed that it was the mouse which gnawed the ropes and
set at liberty now the elephant, as in the Pantalantram^
now the lion, as in the ^Esopian fable.

The Hindoo god Ganegas, the god of poets, eloquence,
and wisdom, is represented with an elephant's head, and
his foot crushing a mouse. Thus, among the Greeks,
Apollo Smintheus, so called because he had shot the
mice that stole the yearly provisions from Krinos, the
priest of Apollo himself, was represented with a mouse
under him. As the Christian Virgin crushes the serpent
of night under her foot, so does the pagan sun-god crush
under his feet the mouse of night.

When the cat's away, the mice may play ; the shadows
of night dance when the moon is absent,

' i. 268.

BLIND-MAN' S-B UFR 69

In the fifteenth story of the fifth book of Afancissieff,
the witch step-mother desires her old husband to lead
away his daughter to spin in the forest^ in a deserted
hut. The girl finds a little mouse there, and gives it
something to eat. At night the bear comes/ and wishes
to play with the girl at the game of blind-man's-buff
(this very popular game has evidently a mythical origin
and meaning ; every evening in the sky the sun amuses
itself by playing bhnd-man's-buff ; it blinds itself, and
runs blind into the night, where it must find again its
predestined bride or lost wife, the aurora). The little
mouse approaches the maiden, and whispers in her ear,
" Maiden, be not afraid ; say to him, ' Let us play ; ' then
put out the fire and hide under the stove ; I will run
and make the little bells ring." (Mice seem to have an
especial predilection for the sound of bells. It is well-
known how, in the Hellenic fable, the council of mice
resolve, to deliver themselves from the cat, to put a beU
round its neck ; no one, however, undertakes to perform
the arduous enterprise.) The bear thinks he is running
after the maiden, and runs, on the contrary, after the
mouse, which he cannot catch. The bear tires himself
out, and congratulating the maiden, says to her, '' Thou
art my mistress, maiden, in playing at blind-man's-buff" ;
to-morrow morning I will send you a herd of horses and
a chariot of goods." (The morning aurora comes out of
the forest, delivers herself from the clutches of the bear,
from the witch of the night, and appears drawn by
horses upon a chariot full of treasure. The myth is a
lucid one.)

^ The mouse that passes over the yarn occurs again in German
tradition: — '' Gertrudenbuchlein ab: Zwei Mauschen nagen an einer
flachsumwundenen Spindel* sine Spinnerinn sitzt am St Gertrudentag,
noch in der Zeit der Zwblften, wo die Geister in Gestalt von Mausen
erscheinen, darf geaponnen werden ;" Rochholtz, %it supra, i. 158.

70 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

In other numerous legends we have the grateful mouse
that helps the hero or heroine. In the thirteenth Calmuc
story, the mouse, the monkey, and the bear, grateful for
having been delivered, from the rogues that tormented
them, by the son of the Brahman, come to his help by
gnawing and breaking open the chest in which the young
man had been enclosed by order of the king ; afterwards,
with the assistance of the fishes, they help him to recover
a lost talisman.

In the fifty-eighth story of the sixth book of Afa-
nassieff,^ the mouse, the war-horse, and the fish silurus, out
of gratitude assist the honest workman who has fallen
into a marsh, and cleanse him ; upon seeing which the
princess, that has never laughed, laughs, and thereafter
marries the workman. (The young morning sun comes out
of the marsh or swamp of night ; the aurora, who was
at first a dark, wicked, and ugly girl, marries the young
sun whom the mouse has delivered out of the mud, as it
delivered the lion out of the toils.)

In the fifty-seventh story of the sixth book of Afa-
nassieff, it is the mouse that warns Ivan Tzarevic to flee
from the serpent- witch (the black night) his sister, who
is sharpening her teeth to eat him.

In the third story of the first book of Afanassieff, the
mice help the good maiden, who had given them some-
thing to eat, to do what the witch, her step-mother, had
commanded.

In the twenty-third story of the fifth book of Afa-
nassieffy the mouse and the sparrow appear at first as
friends and associates. But one day the sparrow, having
found a poppy-seed, thinks it so small that he eats it up

^ Cfr, Feniamerone, iii. 5. — In the story, iv. 1, the grateful mice
assist Mine6 Aniello to find the lost ring by gnawing the finger on
■which the madcian wears it.

THE BA TRA CHO MYOMA CHI A. 7 1

without offering a share to his partner. The mouse hears
of it, and is indignant ; he breaks the alliance, and
declares war against the sparrow. The latter assembles
all the birds of the air, and the mouse all the animals of
the earth, and a sanguinary battle commences. In a
Eussian variety of the same story, instead of the sparrow,
it is the mouse that breaks the compact. They collect
together the provisions against winter, but when, towards
the end of the season, they are all but finished, the
mouse expels the sparrow, and the sparrow goes to com-
plain to the king of the birds. The king of the birds
visits the king of the beasts, and sets forth the complaint
of the sparrow ; the king of the beasts then calls the
mouse to account, who defends himself with such
humility and cunning, that he ends by convincing his
monarch that the sparrow is in the wrong. Then the
two kings declare war against each other, and engage in
a formidable struggle, attended with terrible bloodshed
on both sides, and which ends in the king of the birds
being wounded. (The nocturnal or wintry mouse expels
the solar bird of evening or of autumn. )

In the Batrachomyo'niachia, attributed to Homer, the
royal mouse Psicharpax (properly ravisher of crumbs),
the third son of Troxartes (eat-bread), boasts to Phtisig-
nathos (he who inflates his cheeks), the lord of the
frogs, that he does not fear the man, the point of whose
finger (akron daktulon) he has bitten while he was
asleep ; whilst, on the other hand, he has for his enemies
the falcon (which we have already, in the Hindoo story,
seen let the mouse fall from its beak) and the cat. The
frog, who wishes to entertain the mouse, invites it to get
upon his back, to be carried to his royal mansion; at
first the mouse is amused with its ride, but when the frog
makes it feel the icy water, the poor mouse's heart begins

72 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

to fail ; finally, at the sight of a serpent, the frog forgets
its rider and runs away, throwing the mouse head-over-
heels into the water to be the prey of the serpent. Then,
before expiring, remembering that the gods have an
avenging eye, it threatens the frogs with the vengeance
of the army of the mice. War is prepared. The mice
make themselves good boots with the shells of beans ;
they cover their cuirasses of bubnishes with the skin of a
flayed cat ; their shield is the centre knob of the lamps
(luchn6n to mesomphalon, ^.e., if I am not mistaken, a
fragment of a little lamp of terra-cotta, and, properly
speaking, the lower and central part) ; for a lance they
have a needle, and for a helmet a nutshell. The gods
are present at the battle as neutrals, — Pallas having
declared her unwillingness to help the mice, because they
stole the oil from the lamps burning in her honour, and
because they had gnawed her peplum, and being equally
indifferent to the frogs, because they had once wakened
her when returning from war, and when, being tired and
weary, she wished to rest. The battle is fiercely fought,
and is about to have an unfavourable result for the frogs,
when Zeus takes pity upon them ; he lightens and hurls
his thunderbolts. At last, seeing that the mice do not
desist, the gods send a host of crabs, who, biting the
tails, the hands, and the feet of the mice, force them to
flee. This is undoubtedly the representation of a mj^hical
battle. The frogs, as we shall see, are the clouds ; the
night meets the cloud ; the mouse fights with the frog.
Zeus, the thunder-god, to put an end to the struggle,
thunders and lightens ; at last the retrograde crab makes
its appearance ; the combatants, frogs and mice, natu-
rally disappear.

The mouse is never conceived otherwise than in
connection with the nocturnal darkness, and hence, by

THE SQUIRREL— THE MOLE. 73

extending the myth, in connection also with the darkness
of winter, from which light and riches subsequently come
forth. In Sicily it is believed that when a child's tooth
is taken out, if it be hidden in a hole, the mouse will
take it away and bring a coin for the child in com-
pensation. The mouse is dark-coloured, but its teeth
and fore-parts are white and luminous. The mouse
Hiranyakas, or the golden one, in the Pai\tatan~
tram, is the black or grey mouse of night. It is the
red squirrel that, in an -^sopian fable, answers to the
query of the fox why it sharpens its teeth when it
has nothing to eat, that it does so to be always pre-
pared against its enemies. In the Edda, the squirrel
runs upon the tree Yggdrasil, and sets the eagle and
Nidhogg at discord.

The mole and the snail are of the same nature as the
grey mouse. The Hindoo word dkhus, or the mole
(abeady spoken of as a demon killed by Indras, in the
jRigvedas^), properly signifies the excavator.

In the Reinehe FucKs the mole appears as a grave-
digger, as the animal that heaves the earth up, and
makes ditches underground ; it is, in fact, the most skil-
ful of gravediggers, and its black colour and supposed
blindness are in perfect accordance with the funereal
character assigned to it by mjrthology. In an apologue
of Laurentius, the ass complains to the mole of having
no horns, and the monkey of having a short tail ; the
mole answers them —

" Quid potestis banc meam
Miseram intuentes coecitatem, hsec conqueri ? "

^ AUyyasya paragur nan^ga tarn 4 pavasya (pavasva according to
Aufrecht's text, and according to the commentator — cfr. Bollensen,
Zur Herstellung des Veda, in the Orient und Occident of Benfey, ii.
484) deva soma* ^khum (5id eva deva soma; Rigv. ix. 67, 30.

74 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

According to tlie Hellenic myth, Phineus became a
mole because he had, following the advice of his second
wife, Idaia, allowed his two sons by his first wife, Cleo-
patra, to be blinded, and also because he had revealed
the secret thoughts of Zeus,^

In Du Cange I find that even in the Middle Ages it
was the custom on Christmas Eve for children to meet
with poles, having straw wrapped round the ends, which
they set fire to, and to go round the gardens, near the
trees^ shouting —

" Taupes et mulots
Soi-tez de nos clos
Sinon je vous brulerai la barbe et les os."

We find a similar invocation in the seventh story of the

second book of the Pentamerone, The beautiful girl goes

to find maruzze, and threatens the snail to make her

mother cut off its horns —

" lesce, iesce, coma
Ca mammata te scorna,
Te scorna 'ncoppa Tastreco
Che fa lo figlio mascolo."

In Piedmont, to induce the snail to put its horns out,
children are accustomed to sing to it —

" LUmassa, liimassora,
Tira fora i to corn,
Dass no,2 i vad dal barb^
E it tje fass tai6 ! "

^ Cfr. the Antigone of Sophocles, v. 973, et seq.
2 This dass no of the Piedmontese means " if not," and is evidently
of Germanic origin. The Piedmontese dialect has also taken from the
Germanic languages the final negative.-^-In Germany, children sing to
the snails —

" Schneckhlls, peekh^s,
Stak din vSr h(5rner rut,
Siist schmit ick di in'n graven
Da fr^ten di de raven."
—Cfr. Kuhn und Schwartz, iV. d. S, M. w. G.j p. 453.

THE SNAIL, 75

Sicilian children terrify tlie snail by informing it that
their mother is coming to burn its horns with a candle —

" Weaci li coma ch 'a mamma veni
E t* adduma lu cannileri."

In Tuscany they threaten the white snail (la marinella),
telling it to thrust out its little horns to save itself from
kicks and blows —

" Chi66ciola marinella,
Tira fuori le tue cornella,
E se tu non le tirerai
Calci e pugni tu buscherai."

In Tuscany it is believed, moreover, that in the month
of April the snail makes love with the serpents, and is
therefore venomous ; hence they sing —

" Chi vuol presto morire
Mangi la cMocciola d' aprile." ^

The snail of popular superstition is demoniacal ; hence
it is also invoked by children in Germany by the name
of the funereal St Gertrude — ■

*' Kuckuck, kuckuck Gerderut
Stak dine v§r Horns herut." ^

1 In Rahelais, i. 38, when Gargantua has eaten five pilgrims in his
salad, another still remains hidden under a leaf of lettuce. His father
says to him — "Je crois que c*est Ik une come de limasson, ne le
mangez point. Pourquoy? dist Gargantua, ilz sont bona tout se
moys.''

^ Simrock, Handbuch der Deutschen Mythologie, 2te Aufl., p. 516.

CHAPTER VIII.

HARE, RABBIT, ERMINE, AND BEAVER. '

S U M M A E Y,

The hare is the moon ; ^ar^as and ^a^in. — The hares at the lake of the
moon; the king of the hares in the moon. — The hare and the
elephant. — The hare and the lion. — The hare devours the "western
monster ; the hare devours his mother the mare. — Mortuo leoni
lepores insultant. — The hare and the eagle. — The hare that guards
the cavern of the beasts. — The hare comes out on the 15th of the
month and terrifies the wolf. — The hare transformed into the
moon by Indras. — Ermine and beaver. — Hare's-foot. — Hare and
moon fruitful. — Hare and moon that guide the hero. — Somnus
leporinus. — The hare and the bear. — The hare and the nuptial
procession. — The hare that contains a duck. — The girl riding
upon the hare.

The mythical hare is undoubtedly the moon. In San-
skrit, the gagas means properly the leaping one, as well as
the hare, the rabbit, and the spots on the moon (the
saltans), which suggest the figure of a hare. Hence the
names oigagm^OY furnished with hares, and of gafadharas,
gafabhrit, or he who carries the hare given to the moon.
In the first story of the third book of the Pancatantram,
the hares dwell upon the shore of the Lake Candrasaras,
or lake of the moon ; and their king, Vigayadattas (the
funereal god, the god of death), has for his palace the
lunar disc. When the hare speaks to the king of the

THE HARES AND THE ELEPHANTS. 77

elephants who crushed the hares (in the same way as
we have seen the cow do in Chapter L), he speaks in the
moon's name. The hare makes the elephant believe that
the moon is in anger. against the elephants because they
crush the hares under their feet ; then the elephant
demands to see the moon, and the hare conducts him to
the lake of the moon, where he shows him the moon in
the water. Wishing to approach the moon and ask for-
giveness, the elephant thrusts his proboscis into the
water ; the water is agitated, and the reflection of the
moon is disturbed, and multiplied a thousand-fold. The
hare makes the elephant believe that the moon is still
more angry because he has disturbed the water ; then the
king of the elephants begs for pardon, and goes far away
with his subjects ; from that day the hares live tran-
quilly on the shores of the moon-lake, and are no longer
crushed under the ponderous feet of their huge com-
panions. The moon rules the night (and the winter),
the sun rules the day (and the summer). The moon is
cold, the sun is hot. The solar elephant, lion, or bull,
goes down at even to drink at the river, at the lake of
the nocturnal moon ; the hare warns the elephant that if
he does not retire, if he continues to crush the hares on
the shores of the lake, the moon will take back her cold
beams, and then the elephants will die of thirst and
excessive heat. The other story of the Pan6atantram
is a variety of the myth, which we mentioned in the
chapter of the dog, of the hare who conducts to his ruin
the hungry lion who wishes to eat her, by making him
throw himself into a fountain or well. This myth, which
is analogous to that of the mouse as the enemy of now
the elephant, now the lion, and now the hawk, is already
very clearly indicated in the Vedic hymns. In the
twenty-eighth hymn of the tenth book of the Jtigvedas,

78 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

in whicli the fox comes to visit the western lion (the
sick lion^), in which we have the lion who falls into
the trap^ (and whom the mouse insults in the evening,
and delivers in the morning by gnawing at the ropes
which bind it : in the Hellenic proverb it is the hare that
draws the lion into the golden net — " elkei lagos lionta
chrlisind broch6/' in the same way as in the Paricatan"
tram, it allures him into the well), and in which the
hare devours the western monster^ (a variety of the
Hellenic tradition of the hare brought forth by a mare,
and which immediately thereafter devours its mother) —
in this hymn we find the germ of several fables of animals
of the same cycle. The inferior animal vanquishes the
superior one, and upon this peculiarity the whole hymn
turns ; for this reason, too, in the same hymn, the dog
or jackal (canis aureus) assails the wild boar,^ and the
calf defeats the bull/ The hare occurs again as the
proverbial enemy of the lion (whence the Latin proverb,
*' Mortuo leoni lepores insultant," or safeaw^ ; the moon
jumps up when the sun dies), in the last book of the
Rdmdyanam^ where the great king of the monkeys, BMin,
regards the king of the monsters, Eavanas, as a lion
does a hare, or as the bird Garudasa serpent.^

In jSsop we find the hare that laughs at its
enemy, the dying eagle, because the hunter killed
it with an arrow furnished with eagle's feathers.
In another iEsopian fable, the rabbit avenges itself
upon the eagle which has eaten its young ones,

1 Lopacah siiiham pratyandam atsali ; ^i^v. x, 28, 4.

2 Avaruddhah paripadaih na sinhah; x. 28, 10.
^ Qa^ah kshuram pratyancSam ^agara; x. 28, 9.

^ Kroshta varaharii nir atakta kakshat; x. 28, 4.

* Vatso vrishabharii ^I'lguvanah ; x. 28, 9.

*^ Sinhah ^agamivalakshya garudo va bhngafigamam ; Rdmdij, xxiii.

THE HARE AND THE WOLF-^THE BEAVER. 79

by rooting up and throwing down the tree upon
which the eagle has its nest, so that the eaglets are
kiUed.

In the seventeenth Mongol story, the hare is the
guardian of the cavern of the wild beasts (or the moon,
the mrigar^^as and guardian of the forest of night) ; in
the same story an old woman (the old fairy or old
Madonna) is substituted for the hare. In the twenty-
first Mongol story, the hare sets out on a journey with
the lamb, on the fifteenth day of the month, when the
moon comes forth, and defends the lamb from the
wolf of night, terrifying the latter by telling it that it
has received a writing from the god Indras, in which
the hare is ordered to bring to Indras a thousand
wolves' skins.

In a Buddhist legend, the hare is transfigured by
Indras into the moon, because it had freely given him its
flesh to eat, when, disguised as a pilgrim, he came up
begging for bread. The hare, having nothing else to
offer him, threw itself upon the fire, that Indras might
appease his hunger.^

In the Avesta we find the ermine as the kinff of the
animals, and the beaver as the sacred and inviolable
animal, in whose skin the pure Ardvijlira is invested
(white and silvery as the white dawn, rosy and golden as
the am-ora ; unless Ardvijtira, whose diadem is made of a
hundred stars, should also be interpreted as denoting the
moon, which is now silvery, and now fair and golden).
Moreover, for the beaver to represent the moon (the
chaste Diana) is in perfect accordance with the reputa-
tion it has as a eunuch (castor a castrando) in popular

1 Cfr. Memoires sur les Contrees Occidentales, traduits du Sanscrit par
Hiouen Thsang, et du Chinois par St Julien, i. 375.

8o ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

superstition ; whence the words of Cicero concerning
beavers/ and the verses of Juvenal — -

*' Imitatus castora qui se
Eunuchum ipse facit cupiens evadere damnum
Testiculorum, adeo medicatum intelliget unguen."^

In the twenty-first Esthonian story, a silly husband is
called by the name of Hare's-foot. In Aldrovandi, on
the other hand, Philostratos narrates the case of a woman
who had miscarried seven times in the act of child-birth,
but who the eighth time brought forth a child, when her
husband unexpectedly drew a hare out of his bosom.
Although the moon is herself the timid and chaste goddess
(or eunuch), she is, as pluvial, the/c^czincZa^riaJ, and famous
as presiding over and protecting child-birth ; this is why,
when the hare-moon, or Lucina, assisted at parturition,
it was sure to issue happily. The mythical hare and
the moon are constantly identified. It is on this account
that in Pausanias, the moon-goddess instructs the exiles
who are searching for a propitious place to found a city,
to build it in a myrtle-grove into which they should see
a hare flee for refuge. The moon is the watcher of the
sky, that is to say, she sleeps with her eyes open ; so also
does the hare, whence the soinnus leporinus became a
proverb. In the ninth Esthonian story, the thunder-god
is compared to the hare that sleeps with its eyes open ;
Indras, who transforms the hare into the moon, has
already been mentioned ; Indras becomes a eunuch in
the form of sahasrakshas, or of the thousand-eyed god

^ Redimunt ea parte corporis, propter quam maxime expetuntur;
Fro ^milio Scauro, It is said that when the beaver is pursued by
hunters, it tears off its testicles, as the most precious part for which
beavers are hunted, popular medical belief attributing marvellous
virtues to beavers* testicles.

'^ xii. 35.

THE HARE AND MARRIAGES,

(the starry sky in the night, or the sun in this starry
sky) ; the thousand eyes become one, the milloculus
becomes monoculus, when the moon shines in the evening
sky ; hence we say now the hundred eyes of Argos, and
now simply the eye of Argos — the eye of God.

In a Slavonic tale/ the hare laughs at the bear s cubs,
and spits upon them ; the bear runs after the hare,
and in the hunt is decoyed into an intricate jungle,
where it is caught. As the lion is unknown in Russia,
the bear is substituted for it ; the Russian hare allures
the bear into the trap, as the Hindoo and Greek one
causes the lion to fall into it. This hare which does harm
to the solar hero or animal of evening is the same as that
which, in the fiftieth story of the fifth book of A/anas-
sieff] and in Russian popular tradition, meeting the nuptial
car, bodes evil to the wedding, and is of evil omen to the
bride and bridegroom. The hare-moon, the chaste protec-
tress of marriages and births, the benefactress of mankind,
must not meet the car ; if she opposes the wedding (per-
haps at evening and in the autumn), or if the hare is
crushed or overtaken by the car (as the proverb says),
it is a bad presage, not only for the wedded couple,
but for all mankind; solar as well as lunar eclipses
were always considered sinister omens in popular super-
stition. In the Russian popular tales we frequently
find mention of the hare under a tree, or on a rock
in the midst of the sea, where there is a duck, which
contains an egg ; the yoke of this egg (the solar disc) is
a precious stone ; when it falls into the hands of the
young hero, the monster dies, and he is able to espouse
the young princess.^ The girl of seven years of age.

^ Cited by Afanassieff in tlie observations on the first volume of the
Russian stories. ^ Cfr. Afanasdeff, i. 14, ii. 24, v. 42.

VOL. JI. F

82 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

who, to solve in action the riddle proposed by the Tzar,
who offers to marry her, rides upon a hare, is a variety
of this myth. By the help of the moon, the sun and
evening aurora arrive at the region of the morning, find
each other, and are married ; the moon is the mediatrix
of the mythical nuptials ; the hare which represents it
must therefore not only not oppose them, but help them
materially ; at evening the moon separates the sun from
the aurora ; at morning she unites them again.

CHAPTER IX

THE ANTELOPE, THE STAG, THE DEER, AND THE GAZELLE.

SUMMARY.

Luminous stag and black stag. — The Marutas drawn by antelopes,
and dressed in antelopes' skins. — The stag, the gazelle, and the
antelope as forms assumed or created by the demon to ruin several
heroes whilst they hunt. — Mari(5as. — Indras kills the mrigas.' —
The solar hero or heroine transformed into a stag, a gazelle, or an
antelope. — Aktaion. — Artemis and the stag. — The stags of the
Yggdrasill. — The stag Eikthyrner. — The hind as a nurse. — The
hind and the old woman on the 1st of January. — The hind and
the snow j the white hind.

The stag represents the luminous forms that appear in
the cloudy or the nocturnal forest ; these, therefore, are
now lightning and thunderbolts, now the cloud itself
from which the lightning and thunderbolts are discharged,
now the moon in the gloom of night. The mythical stag
is nearly always either entirely luminous or else spotted ;
when it is black it is of a diabolical nature, and repre-
sents the whole sky of night. Sometimes the luminous
stag is a form assumed by the demon of the forest to
compass the ruin of the hero.

The Rigvedas represents to us the Marutas, or winds
that lighten and thunder in the clouds, as drawn by
antelopes. The Marutas ''are born shining of them-
selves, with antelopes, with lances, amid thunder-peals

84 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

and flashes of lightning." ^ "They have yoked, with a
red yoke, the antelopes.^ The young battalion of the
Marutas goes of itself, and has an antelope for its horse."^
The horses of the Marutas, which we already know to be
antelopes, are called vinged,^ and are said to have golden
fore-feet/ The antelopes of the Marutas are splendid/
Nor are the Marutas only carried by antelopes ; they also
wear upon their shoulders antelopes' skins/

But the antelope, the gazelle, and the stag generally,
instead of helping the hero, involve him rather in per-
plexity and peril. This mythical subject is amplified in
numerous Hindoo legends.

In the first scene of K41idasas' ^ahuntald, a black-
spotted (krishnas^ras) gazelle misleads King Dushyantas.

In the Mahdhhdratam,^ King Pankshit pursues a
gazelle and wounds it (as the god Qivas one day wounded
the gazeUe of the sacrifice) ; he then foUows its track,
but the gazelle flees at sight of him, inasmuch as it has
taken the path of heaven in its primitive (^.e., celestial)
form. The king loses the track of his prey, and in trying
to find it again, brings death upon his head.

In the same Mahdbhdratam,^ King Pandus dies at the

^ Ye prishatibhir rishtibliilL s^kam v^Qibhir an^ibhib. — a^iyanta
svabMnavaii; Eigv. i. 37, 2.

^ Upo ratheshu prisbattr ayugdbvam prashtir vabati robitah ; i.
39, 6.

^ Sa hi svasrit prisbadagvo yuvsi ganah : i. 87, 4.

* A vidyunmadbbir marutab. svarkM rathebbir y^tba risbtimadbbir
a9vaparnaib ; i. 88, 1.

^ AgvMr biranyapanibbih. ; viii. 7, 27.

6 Qubbe sammiglab. prisbatir ayukshata ; iii. 26, 4.

'' Ansesbu et^h ; Eigv. i. 166, lO.^Concerning the uso of similar
skins for dress in India, cfr. tbe long and instructive note of Professor
Max Muller, Eigveda-Sanhita Translated and Explained, i. 221-223.

8 i. 1665. ^ i. 3811, et seq. ; i. 4585, et seq.

THE INDIAN MYTHICAL STAG. 85

moment when he is uniting himself with his wife M4drl,
because he had one day in the chase transfixed a male
gazelle at the instant when it was about to have fruit of
its union with a female gazelle.

In the Vishnu P./ King Bharatas, who has abandoned
his throne to give himself up entirely to penitence, loses
the fruit of his ascetic life, by becoming passionately
enamoured of a fawn.

In the Rdmdyanam,^ Marlcas, who is possessed by
a demon, becomes, by order of Ravanas, the king of
the monsters, a golden stag spotted with silver, having
four golden horns adorned with pearls, and a tongue as
red as the sun, and tempts Ramas to pursue him in order
to procure his silver -spotted skin, for which Sita has
expressed a desire, that she might lie down upon it and
rest herself In this way the stag (here an equivalent of
the hare) succeeds in separating Ramas from Slt4. It
then emits a lamentable cry, imitating the voice of
R^mas, so as to induce Lakshmanas, his brother, to
come to his assistance, and leave Slta alone, that
R^vanas may then be able to carry her off with im-
punity. Lakshmanas leaves her unwillingly, because,
perceiving that the stag shines like the constellation of
the head of the stag (or gazelle, Mrigagiras), he suspects
it to be an apparition of Maricas, who, as a stag, has
already caused the ruin of many other princes who have
hunted him. The moon, in Sanskrit, besides the name
of Qa§adharas, or who carries the hare, has also that of
Mrigadharas, or who carries the gazelle (or stag). The
solar hero loses himself in the forest of night while
pursuing the gazelle-moon. A demoniacal gazeUe seems
to appear even in the JRigvedas, where Indras fights and

ii. 13, translated by Wilson. 2 jj^^ 4.9^ 43^ ^9^

86 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

kills a monster called Mrigas. In Germanic tradition
there are numerous legends in which the hero who hunts
the stag meets with his death or is dragged into hell.^

As the moon is a stag or gazelle, and comes after the
sun, so it was also sometimes imagined that the solar
hero or heroine was transformed into a stag or hind.

In the Tuti'Name^ a king goes to the chase, kills an
antelope, doffs the human form, and disguises himself as
an antelope. This mythical disguise can be understood
in two ways. The evening sun reflects its rays in the
ocean of night, the sun-stag sees its horns reflected in
the fountain or lake of night, and admires them. At
this fountain sits a beautiful and bewitching siren, the
moon ; this fountain is the dwelling of the moon ; she
allures the hero-stag that admires itself in the fountain,
and ruins it, or else the stag attracts the hero to the
fountain, where it causes him to meet with his death. ^
The stag of the fable, after admiring itself in the foun-
tain, is torn to pieces by the dogs who overtake it in the
forest because its horns become entangled in the branches ;
the solar rays are enveloped in the branches of the noc-
turnal forest. Aktaion, who, for having seen Artemis
(the moon) naked in the bath, is changed into a stag and
torn by dogs, is a variety of the same fable. In Stesiclioros,
quoted by Pausanias, Artemis puts a stag's skin round
Aktaion and incites the dogs to devour him in order
that he may not be able to wed the moon. Sun and
moon are brother and sister; the brother, wishing to

1 Cfr. Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 354.

2 ii. 258, Rosen's version.

2 Oft fiihrt der Hirscli nur zu einer schbnen Frau am Brunnen ;
sie ist aber der Unterwelt verwandt und die Yerbindung mit ibr an
die Bedingung gekniipft, dass die ungleiche Natur des Verbundenen
nicht an den Tag gezogen werde.

ARTEMIS AND THE STAG. 87

seduce his sister, meets with his death. A Lithuanian
song describes the moon Menas (the Hindoo Manu-s) as
the unfaithful husband of the sun (who is a female),
being enamoured of Aushrine (the Vedic Usr^, the
morning aurora). The god Perkuns, to avenge the sun,
kills the moon. In a Servian song, the moon reproaches
his mistress or wife, the morning, aurora, on account
of her absence. The aurora answers that she travels
upon the heights of Belgrade, that is, of the white
or the luminous city, in the sky, upon the lofty
mountains.

The king in the Tuti-Name who assumes the guise of
an antelope, appears to be a variety of the solar hero at
the moment of the approach of night, or of the ass that
invests itself in the lion's skin. But inasmuch as the
Indian moon is Mrigar4^as, or king of the wild animals,
no less than the lion, inasmuch as the moon succeeds the
sun, one mrigas another, one lion another, or one ^tag
another, when the solar hero or heroine enters into the
night, he or she appears in the form of a luminous stag
or hind, no longer as the sun, but as the moon, which,
although luminous, penetrates into hell, and is in relation
with demons and itself demoniacal.

Artemis (the moon) is represented as a hunting goddess
in the act of wounding, with her left hand, an antelope
between the horns. To this goddess is also attributed the
merit of having overtaken the stags without the help of
dogs, perhaps because, sometimes, she is herself a dog, sur-
prising the solar stag of evening. The four stags of Artemis
connect themselves in my mind with the four stags that
stay round the tree Yggdrasill in the Edda, and which
come out of the river Haeffing. The stag Eikthpner
which, eating the leaves of the tree Lerad, causes all its
waters to flow out, seems, on the other hand, to refer to

88 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

the sun as it merges and loses its rays in the cloud (the
solar stag is also referred to in the Edda),

Artemis, who substitutes a hind for Iphigeneia, who
was to have been sacrificed, seems to point to the moon-
hind as taking the place of the evening aurora. We also
recognise the moon in the hind which, according to
jSllianos and Diodoros, nourished Telephos, son of
HerakMs (Herakles in his fourth labour overtakes the
stag with golden horns), who had been exposed in the
forest by the order of his grandfather ; as well as in that
which, according to Justinus, fed with its milk in the
forest the nephew of the king of the Tartessians, and
afterwards, according to the "Lives of the Saints/' the
blessed jEgidius, the hermit who lived in the forest.
There are numerous mediseval legends which reproduce
this circumstance of the young hero abandoned in the
forest and nourished now by a goat, now by a hind, the
same which afterwards serves as a guide to the royal
father in recovering the prince his son, or to the prince-
husband in recovering the abandoned princess his bride.
It was probably by some such reminiscence of the
mythical nourishing hind that, as I read in Du Cange,^
silver images of stags (cervi argentei) were placed in
ancient Christian baptistries.

Among the customs of the primitive Christians con-
demned by St Augustine, St Maximus of Turin, and
other sacred writers, was that of disguising one's self on
the 1st of January as a hind or an old woman. The
old woman and the hind here evidently represent the
witch or ugly woman of winter ; and inasmuch as the
winter is, like the night, under the moon s influence,

1 Du Cange adds : " Quoad baptismam, quomodo cervus ad fontes
aquarum, summo desiderium perveniendum esse monstraretur.*'

THE DEMONIACAL HIND, 89

the disguise of a hind was another way of representing
the moon. When the moon or the sun shines, the hind
is luminous and generally propitious, the wild goat is
beneficent (the wild goat, the deer, and the stag are the
same in the mjd^hs ; the same word, mrigas, serves in
India to express the constellation of the gazelle and that
of the Capricorn or wild goat), and hunts the wolves
away from the sleeping hero in the forest/ When the
sky is dark, the hind, from being luminous, has become
black, and, as such, is the most sinister of omens ; some-
times, in the midst of the night or of the winter, the
beautiful luminous hind, or moon, or sun, disappears,
and the black monster of night or of winter remains
alone. In the ninth story of the Pentamerone, the
Huo'rco (the rakshas or monster) transforms himself into
a beautiful hind to allure the young Canneloro^ who
pursues it in the hope of securing it. But it decoys
him into the midst of the forest (of winter), where it
causes so much snow to fall, "che pareva che lo cielo
cadesse" (the white hind into which the witch trans-
forms the beautiful maiden, in the story of Madame
d'Aulnoy, would seem to have the same meaning) ;
then the hind becomes a monster again in order to
devour the hero. The period in which the moon is
hidden or on the wane, in which the night is dark, was
considered ill-omend by the ancient Hindoos, who held,
on the other hand, that the time of full moon, or at
least of the crescent moon, was propitious. Our country-
people have preserved several superstitions relative to
a similar belief. In a Eutenian legend, published by
Novosielski, the evening star (Lithuanian, vakerinne;
Slavonic, vecernitza, the evening aurora) prays its friend

^ Cfr. Porchat, Contes Merveilleux, xiii.

90 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

Lunus (the moon is masculine in Slavonic as in Sanskrit)
to wait a little before rising, that they may rise together,
and adds, "We shall illumine together sky and earth:
the animals will be glad in the fields, and the traveller
will bless us on his way."

CHAPTER X.

THE ELEPHANT.

SUMMARY.

The myth of the elephant is entirely Indian. — The Marutas as elephants ;
Indras as an elephant. — The elephant ridden by Indras and
Agnis. — The four elephants that support the world. — Airavanas
and Airavatas. — The elephant becomes diabolical. — Nigas and
nagas ; Qringm. — The monkeys fight against the elephants. — The
elephant in the marsh. — The elephant and the tortoise ; war be-
tween them. — The eagle, the elephant, and the tortoise. — The
bird, the fly, and the frog lure the elephant to his death. — Hermit
dwarfs. — Indras and his elephant fall together.

The whole mythical history of the elephant is confined
to India. The strength of his proboscis and tusks, his
extraordinary size, the ease with which he carries heavy
burdens, his great fecundity in the season of loves, all con-
tributed to his mythical importance, and to his fame as a
great ravager of the celestial gloomy or cloudy forest, as
an Atlas, a supporter of worlds, and the steed of the
pluvial god.

The elephant has a place even in the Vedic heavens.

The Marutas, drawn by antelopes, are compared to
wild elephants that level forests ; ^ the horns of the ante-
lopes, the tusks of the wild boar, the trunk and tusks of

^ Mrigi iva hastinah kh^dathi vani yad irunishu tavishir ayugdh-
vam ; I}igv, i. 64, 7.

92 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

the elephant, are of equivalent significance, and are seen
in the solar rays, in lightnings and thunderbolts. The
pluvial and thundering god Indras is compared to a wild
elephant that expends his strength^ — to a wild elephant
that, in the season of loves, is, on all hands, in a constant
state of feverish agitation.^ The god Agnis is invoked to
come forth like a formidable king upon an elephant.^

The elephant generally represents the sun as it shuts
itself up in the cloud or the darkness, or comes out of it,
shooting forth rays of light or flashes of lightning (which
were also supposed to be caused by the friction on the
axle of the wheel of the sun's chariot). The sun, in the
four seasons, visits the four quarters of the earth, east and
west, south and north; hence, perhaps, the Hindoo concep-
tion of four elephants that support the four corners of the
earth.* Indras, the pluvial god, rides upon an enormous

A A

elephant, Airavatas or Aii*avanas, the cloud or darkness
itself, with its luminous eruptions ; 4iravatam and ^iravati
are also appellations of the lightning. The elephant Aira-
vanas or Airavatas is one of the first of the progeny of the
heavens, begotten of the agitation of the celestial ocean.

It plays a prominent part in the battles of Indras
against the monsters ; hence Eivanas, the monster king
of Lanka, stiU bears the scars of the wounds given him
by the elephant Airavatas, in the war between the gods
and the demons/ although this same EAvanas boasts of
having one day defeated Indras, who rode upon the
elephant Airavanas.^

But the mythical elephant did not always preserve
the character of an animal beloved of the gods ; after

^ Mrigo na hasti tavishim ushanah ; Rigv. iv. 16, 14.

^ Dana mrigo na varanah purutrtl (^aratham dadhe; Rigv, viiL 33, 8.

3 Yahi ri^ev^mavan ibhena; JRigv. iv. 4, 1,

4 R&mdy:i. 42. ^ iii. 35. c iii. 47.

THE ELEPHANT IN THE WATERS, 93

other animals were admitted into special favour, it too
assumed, in time, a monstrous aspect. The sun hides
itself in the cloud, in the cloudy or nocturnal moun-
tain, in the ocean of night, in the autumn or the snowy
winter. Hence we have the white elephant (Dhavalas),
the malignant killer of wise men (rishayas, the solar rays) ;
the wind, father of Hanumant, in the form of a monkey,
lacerates him with his claws, and tears out his tusks ;
the elephant falls like a mountain^ (the mountain of
snow, or white cloud, dissolve themselves ; this white
elephant and the white mountain, or Dhavalagiris, are
the same; the equivoque easily arose between n^gas,
elephant, and nagas, mountain and tree ; the word
cringin, properly horned, means tree, mountain, and
elephant; the wind breaks through and disperses the
cloud, and pushes forward the avalanches of snow). Thus
it is said that the monkey Sann&danas was one day
victorious over the elephant Airavatas.^ (The northern
path of the moon is called £liravatapath4.)

We have already seen the elephant that crushes the
hares under his feet on the shores of the moon-lake, and
disturbs with his trunk the waters of this lake. In the
Rdmdyanam^^ Bharatas considers it as of a sinister omen
his having dreamed of a great elephant fallen into marshy
ground. The sun plunges into the ocean of night, and
of the autumnal rains.

The elephant near or in the waters is mythically equiva-
lent to the lunar and solar tortoise that dwells on the shores
of the lake and sea, or at the bottom of the sea. In the
Hindoo cosmogony, it is now the elephant and now the
tortoise that supports the weight of the world. For this
reason there is rivalry between these two mythical animals,

^ Edmdy. V. 3. ^ y\. ^, a ii 71.

94 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

Therefore tlie eagle, or king of birds, or the bird
Garudas, the solar bird, is represented as a mortal enemy
now of the serpent, now of the elephant (the word nAga8
means equally serpent and elephant; Airavatas is also
the name of a monstrous serpent), and now of the tortoise.
In the Rdmdyanam,^ the bird Garudas carries into the
air an elephant and a tortoise (the relative occidental
fables are evidently of Hindoo origin), in order to eat
them. The same legend is developed in the Mahdbhdra-
tam,^ where two brothers dispute with each other about
the division of their goods, each curses the other, and
they become, the one a colossal elephant, and the other a
colossal tortoise, and, as such, continue to fight fiercely
against each other in a lake, until the gigantic bird
Garudas (the new sun), takes them both and carries them
to the summit of a mountain.

In the fifteenth story of the first book of the Panca-
tantram, we find birds represented as enemies of the
elephant, on account of the ravages it commits, where
the bird, the fly, and the frog work the ruin of the
elephant ; the fly enters into one of the elephant's ears ;
the bird pecks at its eyes, and blinds it ; the frog croaks
on the banks of a deep pool ; the elephant, impelled by
thirst, comes to the pool and is drowned.

The Vedic elephant has a divine nature, being con-
nected with the pluvial Indras ; but when Indrasiell, to
give place to Brahman, Vishnus, and Qivas, his elephant
was also fated to become the prey of the bird of Vishnus,
of the bird Garudas (or the sun). In the fable of the
Pancatantram quoted above, the elephant brings upon
its head the vengeance of the sparrow, because it had
rooted up a tree upon which the sparrow had made its nest

1 iii. 39. 2 I 1353^ ^^^^

INDRAS AND THE ELEPHANT. 95

and laid its eggs, which were broken in consequence.
The Vishnuitic legend of the Mahdhhdratam relating to
the bird Garudas, which carries the elephant into the air,
offers several other analogous and interesting particulars.
The bird Garudas flies away with the elephant and the
tortoise ; on the way, being tired, it rests upon the huge
bough of a tree ; the bough breaks under the enormous
weight. From this bough are suspended, with their
heads down, in penitence, several dwarf hermits, born of
the hairs of Brahman ; then the bird Garudas takes in its
beak the whole bough, with the little hermits, and carries
them up in the air till they succeed in escaping. These
hermit dwarfs upon the branch (who remind us of the
ants), had one day cursed Indras. Kayyapas Pragapatis,
wishing one day to make a sacrifice in order to obtain
the favour of a son, orders the gods to provide him with
wood. Indras, like the four elephants who support
the world, places upon his shoulders a whole moun-
tain of wood. Laden with this weight, he meets on the
way the hermit dwarfs, who were carrying a leaf in a
car, and were in danger of being drowned in a pool of
water, the size of the foot-print of a cow. Indras, instead
of coming to their assistance, smUes and passes by ; the
hermit dwarfs, in indignation, pray for the birth of a new
Indras ; on this account the Indras of birds was born —
the bird of Garudas, the steed of Vishnus, which naturally
makes war against the steed of Indras, the elephant.

CHAPTER XL

THE MONKEY AND THE BEAU.
SUMMARY.

Monkey and bear are already associated together in India ; Gambavant
is a great monkey and the king of the bears. — Haris, kapis,
kapili, kapidhva^as ; rikshas, arkas, ursns, arktos, rakshas ; the
Great Bear ; rishayas, harayas. — The Manitas as rivals of Indras ;
Vishnus as Indras' rival ; the monkeys allied to Vishnus ; the
Vedic monster monkey killed by Indras ; Haris or Vishnus. —
Hari mother of monkeys and horses. — Bilin, king of the monkeys,
son of Indras, defeated by his brother Sugrivas, son of the sun. —
Hanumant in opposition to Indras ; Hanumant son of the wind ;
Hanumant as the brother of Sugrivas ; Hanumant is the strong
brother or companion. — Hanumant flies; he presses the mountain
and makes the waters come out of it ; he draws the clouds after
himself. — The epic monkeys and the Marutas. — The monkey and
the water. — The monkeys and the salutary herbs. — The sea-
monster draws to itself the shadow of Hanumant and swallows
him ; Hanumant comes out of the monster's body safe and sound ;
the mountain Hiranyanabhas. — Hanumant makes himself as small
as a cat in order to search for Sita ; Hanumant proves his power
to Situ by making himself as large as a cloud or a mountain ; he
massacres the monsters with a pillar; Dadhyan6, Hanumant,
Samson ; Hanumant bound ; he sets fire to Lanki with his tail, —
The monkey sacrificed to cure the burns of horses. — Siti has a
weakness for Hanumant. — Dvividas a monster monkey. — The
monkey destroys the sparrow's nest. — The monkey draws a king
into the jaws of an aquatic monster. — The demoniacal monkey ;
monkey and fox. — The monkey deceiver. — Sinister omens of the
monkey. — The monkey envies thefox's tail. — The stupid monkey.
— The bear of the Marutas. — Tri^aiikus with the skin of a bear ;
the seven rishayas. — Kiksharfigas ; the moon as a reputed father. —

MONKE Y AND BEAR. 97

Bears and monkeys in the forest of honey; Balar^mas ; medvjed ;
the bear and the honey ; Italian proverbs ; the bear and the
peasant ; the deceived bear ; the vengeance of the bear ; the bear
in the sack \ the demoniacal bear ; the bear and the fox ; the
monkey and the woodcutter ; the bear and the trunk of a tree ;
the peasant and the gentleman ; the death of the athlete Mil6n ;
the bear entangled in the waggon that had fallen into the cistern. —
The king bear, monster of the fountain ; sons sacrificed to the
bear by their father ; the young men flee from the bear ; the
sleep of the bear. — The bear's cub. — The bear and women, — The
hero-bear \ the heroine she-bear. — The virgin she-bears. — Ursukj
rikshik^. — Tvanko Medviedko. — Kalistos. — The bear as a musi-
cian. — The quartette of animals. — Bear and monkey. — Bear and
ass. — The monkey as a messenger, an intermediate form.

I HERE unite under one heading two animals of very-
diverse nature and race, but which, from some gross
resemblances, probably helped by an equivoque in the
language, are closely affiliated in the Hindoo myth. I say
Hindoo in particular, because the monkey, which is so
common in India, was long unknown to many of the
Indo-European nations in their scattered abodes, so that
if they had some dim reminiscence of it as connected
with that part of Asia where the Aryan mythology took
its rise, they soon forgot it when they no longer had
under their eyes the animal itself which had suggested
the primitive mythical form. But as they held tena-
ciously by the substance of the mj^h, they by and by
substituted for the original mythical animal, called
monkey, in the south the ass, and in the north often the
bear. Even in India, where the pre-eminent quality of
the monkey was cunning, we already find monkeys
and bears associated together, A reddish colour of the
skin, want of symmetry and ungainliness of form,
strength in hugging with the fore paws or arms, the
faculty of climbing, shortness of tail, sensuality, capacity
for instruction in dancing and in music, are all char-

VOL. II. G

98 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

acteristics wliicli more or less distinguish and meet in
bears as well as in monkeys.

In the Rdmdyanam, the wise Gambavant, the Odysseus
of the expedition of Lank^, is called now king of the bears
(rikshap^rthivah)/ now great monkey (mah^kapih).^

The word liaris means fair, golden, reddish, sun, and
monkey ; the word hapis (probably, the changeful one)
means monkey and sun. In Sanskrit, the vidyut or
thunderbolt,' the reddish thunderbolt, of the colour of a
monkey, is also called kapild. Ar^unas, the son of
Indras, has for insignia the sun or a monkey, whence his
name of Kapidhva^as.

Professor Kuhn also supposes that the word rikshas,
which means bear and star, is derived from the root arc
in. the sense of to shine {arhas is the sun), on account of
the reddish colour of the bear's skin.^ But riJcshas (like
ursus and arktos) may also be derived from rakshas, the
monster (perhaps as a keeper back, a constrictor, arctor) ;
so that the very word which names it supplies the point
of transition from the idea of the divine bear to that of
the monster bear.

In the Iligvedas, the Marutas are represented as the
most powerful assistants of Indras ; but a Vedic hymn

1 Edmdi/. iv. 63. 2 V. 55.

3 For the connection between the seven rikshas (rishayaSj wise men,
stars, or bears) of the Hindoos and the septemtriones, the seven stars
of the she-bear (Arktos, Arkturus), and the Arctic regions, cfr. the
interesting discussion of Professor Max Miiller, in the second series of
his Lectures. — The seven rishayas are the same as the seven Aiigirasas,
the seven harayas, and the Marutas, who are seven (multiplied by
three, that is, twenty-one). In the Marutas, as harayas, we have the
monkeys. Even the wife of the king of the monkeys is named Tara,
or, properly, the star. Thus there seems to exist between the monkey
and the star the same relation as between the bear and the star, a new
argument to vindicate the identity of the two animals in mythology.

THE WORD HARIS. 99

already shows them in the light of Indras' rivals. The
god Vishnus in the Rigvedas is usually a sympathetic
form of Indras ; but in some hymns he already appears
as his antagonist. In the preceding chapter we spoke of
the Vishnuitic bird, of the wind, father of Hanumant,
and of a monkey, as enemies of Indras' elephant. In
Hindoo epic tradition, Vishnus^ personified in E4mas,
has the monkeys for his allies. The most luminous and
effulgent form of the god is very distinct from his occult
and mysterious appearances. Vishnus, the sun, the
solar rays, the moon and the winds that lighten, are an
army of golden monkeys to fight the monster. For the
same reason the monkey, on the contrary, has in the
Rigvedas a monstrous form ; that which was diabolical
becomes divine in the lapse of time, and similarly that
which was divine, diabolical. In the eighty-sixth hymn
of the tenth book of the Rigvedas, Vishnus, personified in
Kapis (monkey), or Vrishakapis (monkey that pours out,
j)luvial monkey), comes to destroy the sacrifical offerings
loved by Indras. Indras, being superior to all, cuts off
his head, as he wishes not to be indulgent to an evil-
doer/ This monkey is probably the pluvial, reddish
lightning cloud carried by the wind, Avhich Indras
pierces through with his thunderbolt, although these
same lightning and thundering clouds, carried by the
winds or Marutas (i.e., the Marutas themselves), are
usually represented in the Rigvedas as assisting the
supreme deity. A difference having arisen between
Vishnus and Indras, and between the Marutas and
Indras, the Marutas took Vishnus' part, and became
monkeys like Vishnus, — the word haris, which is a

^ Priya tashtani me kapir vyakta vy adiidushat ^iro nv asya ravisham
na sugarii dushkrite bhuvam vigvasmad indra uttarah ; str. 5.

100 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

favourite name of Vishnus (now moon, now sun), meaning
also monkey, Vishnus surrounds himself with fair, red-
dish, or golden monkeys, or with harayas (solar rays or
lightning, thunder-striking and thundering clouds), in
the same way as the Vedic Indras was drawn by harayas.
E^mas hapiraihas is simply an incarnation of Vishnus,
who usurps the rights qf Indras, which last, as we have
seen, had lent his harayas to Vishnus, in order that he
might take his three famous steps. Evidently Vishnus
forgot to return the fair-haired ones to his friend ; hence
from this time the strength of Indras passes almost
entirely into Vishnus, who, in the form of E^mas, helped
by the harayas or red-haired ones, ^.e., by the monkeys,
moves across the Dekhan (a region densely inhabited by
monkeys) to the conquest of the isle of Lanka. The
Mahdbhdratam informs us that monkeys and horses had
Harl for their mother.^ The splendid Marutas form the
army of Indras, the red-haired monkeys and bears that
of Eamas ; and the mythical and solar nature of the
monkeys and bears of the Rdmdyanam manifests itself
several times. The king of the monkeys is a sun-god.
The ancient king was named Bilin, and was the son of
Indras (Qakraslanus). His young brother, Sugrlvas, he
who changes his shape at pleasure (k^marlipas), who,
helped by Eamas, usurped his throne, is said to be own
child of the sun (bh4skarasy4urasah putrahsliryanan-
danah).^ Here it is evident that the Vedic antagonism
between Indras and Vishnus is reproduced in a zoological
and entirely apish form. The old Zeus must give way
to the new, the moon to the sun, the evening to the
morning sun, the sun of winter to that of spring ; the
young sun betrays and overthrows the old one. We

^ i. 2628. 2 iii, 75^

INDRAS AND THE MONKEYS, loi

have already seen that the legend of the two brothers,
B41in and Sugrlvas, is one of the forms which the myth
of the Agvin^u assumes. E'4mas, who treacherously kills
the old king of the monkeys, B41in, is the equivalent of
Vishnus, who hurls his predecessor, Indras, from his
throne ; and Sugrlvas, the new king of the monkeys,
resembles Indras when he promises to find the ravished
Stt4, in the same way as Vishnus, in one of his incarna-
tions, finds again the lost Ved4s. And there are other
indications in the Rdmdyanam ^ of opposition between
Indras and the monkeys who assist E^mas. The great
monkey Hanumant, of the reddish colour of gold (hema-
pingalah), has his jaw broken, Indras having struck him
with his thunderbolt, and caused him to faU upon a moun-
tain, because, while yet a child, he threw himself off a
mountain into the air in order to arrest the course of the
sun, whose rays had no eff"ect upon him,^ (The cloud
rises from the mountain and hides the sun, which is
unable of itself to disperse it ; the tempest comes, and
brings flashes of lightning and thunderbolts, which tear
the cloud in pieces.)

The whole legend of the monkey Hanumant repre-
sents the sun entering into the cloud or darkness, and
coming out of it. His father is said to be now the
wind, now the elephant of the monkeys^ (kapikun^aras),
now kejarin, the long-haired sun, the sun with a mane,
the lion sun (whence his name of kefarinah putrah).
Erom this point of view, Hanumant would seem to
be the brother of Sugrivas, who is also the offspring of
the sun, the strong brother in the legend of the two
brothers connected with that of the three ; that is to say,
we should have now B41in, Hanumant, and Sumivas

o*

1 iv. 5. 2 y^ 2, vii. 39. ^ y_ 3

102 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

brothers, now R^mas, Hanumant, and Lakshamanas.
The strong brother is between the other two ; the sun in
the cloud, in the darkness or in the winter, is placed
between the evening sun and that of morning, or be-
tween the dying sun of autumn and the new one of
spring.

Hanumant fli-es (like the ass) ; his powers of flight are
seated in his sides and his hips, which serve him for
wings. Hanumant ascends to the summit of Mount
Mahendras, in order to throw himself into the air;
whilst he presses the mountain (a real vrishakapis), he
makes the waters gush out of it ; when he moves, the
trees of the mountain-forest are torn up by their roots,
and follow him in the current made by him as he cuts
his way through the air (here we meet once more with
the mythical forest, the mythical tree that moves of itself
like a cloud). The wind in his armpits roars like a
cloud (^imlita rva gar^ati), and the shadow that he
leaves behind him in the air resembles a line of clouds
(meghar^^lva viyuputr^nug^mini) ;^ he draws the clouds
after him.^ Thus all the epic monkeys of the Rdmd-
yanam are described in the twentieth canto of the first
book by expressions which very closely resemble those
applied in the Vedic hymns to the Marutas, as swift
as the tempestuous wind (v4yuvegasam^s) , changing
their shape at pleasure (kamarlipinas), making a noise
like clouds, sounding like thunder, battling, hurling
mountain-peakSj shaking great uprooted trees, armed
with claws and teeth, shaking the mountains, uprooting
trees, stirring up the deep waters, crushing the earth
with their arms, lifting themselves into the air, making
the clouds fall. Thus B^lin, the king of the monkeys,

1 Edmdi/. V. 4, V. 5. 2 y^ 55^

THE FLYING MONKEY. 103

comes out of the cavern, as the sun out of the cloud
(toyad^diva bh^skarah)/

In the same "v\^ay as we have seen the harayas, or horses
of Indras, the gandharv^s, and the mythical ass in con-
nection with the salutary waters, with the herbs, and
with the perfumes, so in the Rdmdyanam it is the
monkeys that carry the herbs and the salutary roots of
the mountain, that is, of the cloud-mountain or of the
mountain of perfumes.

The cloud in which the sun Hanumant travels through
the air throws a shadow upon the sea ; a sea-monster per-
ceives this shadow, and by it attracts Hanumant to him-
self. (We have already seen the fearless hero who is
misled by his own shadow and lost.) Hanumant is
k^marupas, like Sugrlvas, and like all the other monkeys,
his companions. When he sees that the monster is about
to swallow him, he distends and expands his figure out of
all measure ; the ogress assumes the same gigantic pro-
portions ; when she does so, Hanumant (repeating the
miracle of his type Haris, or the dwarf Vishnus), becomes
as small as a man's thumb, enters into the vast body of
the monster, and comes out on the other side.) Hanu-
mant continues to fly across the ocean, in order to arrive

^ Rdmdy. iv. 12, v. 6. — The monkey on the sea is also to be found
in a Greek apologue, but the subject is somewhat different. A monkey,
which during a tempest had been washed from a ship, and tossed
about upon the stormy waves under the promontory of Attica, is
mistaken by a dolphin for a man ; the dolphin, having great affection
for the race to which he presumed he belonged, takes him up and
carries him towards the shore. But before letting him touch firm
ground, he asks him whether he is an Athenian ; the monkey answers
that he is of illustrious birth • the dolphin asks if he knows the
Piraeus ; the monkey, thinking that it is a man's name, answers that
he is a great friend of his; upon which the dolphin, indignant at
having been deceived, lets the monkey fall again into the sea.

104 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

at tlie island of Laiik^. The ocean takes pity upon him,
and, to help him, raises up Mount Hiranyanabhas, ^.e,, of
the golden navel, the mountain whence the sun comes out ;
indeed, Hanumant says^ that he struck the mountain
with his tail, and broke its summit, that shone like the
sun, in order to rest upon it. Hanumant then recommences
his flight, and finds a new obstacle in the marine monster
Sinhik4 (the mother of E4hus, the eclipse with a ser-
pent s tail, which devours now the sun, now the moon).
She also draws to herself the shadow of Hanumant;
Hanumant, resorting once more to his former stratagem,
becomes small, and enters into her body ; but he is no
sooner inside than he increases in bulk, swells out, tears
her, kills her, and escapes, a feat for which he receives
the homage of the birds, who will thenceforth be able to
cross the ocean with impunity.^ When he arrives in
Lank4, Hanumant, that he may search for and find Slta by
moonlight, becomes as small as a cat (vrishadaiigapram^-
nas) ; when he finds her, and ofi'ers to carry her away
from Lanka, she cannot believe that so small an animal
is able to accomplish so great an enterprise ; then Hanu-
mant makes himself as tall as a black cloud, as a high
mountain ; he breaks down the whole forest of agokas,
mounts upon a temple that stands on a thousand columns,
claps his hands, and fills all Lank4 with the din ; he
tears from the temple a pillar adorned with gold, and,
swinging it around, devotes the monsters to wholesale
slaughter.^ The mythical monkey and the mythical ass
resemble each other; hence the analogy between the
legend of Dadhyaiic (quoted in the second chapter), that
of Samson, and that of Hanumant. But the legend of
the monkey Hanumant presents another curious re-

1 E6.m6.y, v. 56. * v. 8. 3 y, 37^

THE TAIL OF THE MONKEY, 105

semblance to that of Samson. Hanumant is bound with
cords by Indra^it, son of Eavanas ;^ he could easily free
himself, but does not wish to do so. Eavanas, to put
him to shame, orders his tail to be burned, because the
tail is the part most prized by monkeys (kaplnirh kila
Mngulam ishtam, whence the fable of the monkey who
complains of having no tail). Hanumant 's tail is greased
and set on fire, and himself thereafter marched in this
plight ignominiously through the streets of Lank4. But
Slt4 having invoked the favour of the god Agnis, the
fire, though it plays round the tail of Hanumant, does
not burn it, and Hanumant by this means is able to
avenge himself for the insult, by setting fire to and burn-
ing to ashes the city of Lanka. ^ (The tail of Hanumant,
which sets fire to the city of the monsters, is probably a
personification of the rays of the morning or spring sun,
which sets fire to the eastern heavens, and destroys the
abode of the nocturnal or winter monsters.) The enter-
prise of the Marutas in the Rigvedas^ and that of the
monkey Hanumant in the Rdmdyanam, assume such
dimensions that they obscure the fame of both Indras
and E^mas ; the former without the Marutas, the latter
without Hanumant, would be unable to defeat the
monsters. Sit^ perceives this so clearly, that, at the end
of the poem, she makes Hanumant such a present that
E^mas might well become jealous. Hanumant, however,
is an honest and pious cavalier ; it suffices him to have

1 Rdmd^j. V. 5Q.

2 V. 50. — In the Pancatantram^ v. 10, it is said, on the contrary,
that monkeys possess the virtue of healing the wounds of horses that
have been scalded or burned, as the sun of morning chases the darkness
away. According to a variety of this story contained in the Tuti-
Name, i. 130, the bite of a monkey can be cured only by the blood of
the very monkey who had inflicted it.

io6 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

defended justice in the service of his master, nor does he
ask to be recompensed for the hard achievement that he
has accomplished. For the rest, a popular Hindoo
sentence says that monkeys are not accustomed to weep
for themselves ; ^ they weep (rodanti) for others. The
same is true of the Rudr4s, or winds, that weep in the
cloud ; they do not lament for themselves ; their tears
fall upon the ground in beneficent rain that fertilises our
fields and tempers the heat of our summers ; neverthe-
less, they themselves afterwards feel, as solar rays, the
benefit of weeping, that is, of rain. In the Rdmdyanam,
monkeys who die in battle are resuscitated by rain;
when the cloud dissolves itself in rain, the fair-haired,
the golden ones, the harayas, the sunbeams or monkeys,
show themselves again in all their vigour.

We have seen thus far the cloud-monkey, from which
the sun emerges, and into which he re-enters. But we
have abeady said more than once that the sun often
assumes a monstrous form, when enclosed in the cloud or
the darkness. It is 'thus we explain the divine hero
Balaramas, who, in the Vishnu P.,^ destroys the demon
Dvividas, who had taken the form of a monkey. In the
eighteenth story of the first book of the Pancatantram,
a monkey, whilst the wind blows and the rain falls,
shakes a tree upon which a sparrow has made its nest,
and breaks the eggs in pieces. In the tenth story of the
fifth book, the king of the monkeys, by means of a crown
of pearls, attracts a king of men who had killed monkeys
to cure his horses (to which the fire had been communi-
cated by the wool of a ram which the cook had chased
away from the kitchen with a burning brand) to a

1 A^natakulagile 'pi prltiin kurvanti v^narah ^tm^rthe da na rodanti;
Bohtlingk, iTidische Sprilche, 107. ^ y. 36.

THE TAIL OF THE MONKEY. 107

fountain guarded by a monster who devours the king and
his suite. In the eleventh story of the same book, a
monkey upon a tree is the friend of one of the two
crepuscular monsters, and this monster invites it to eat
the man ; the man, however, retaliates, and fiercely bites
its long tail ; the monkey then believes this man to be
stronger than the monster, and the latter believes the
man who holds the monkey by the tail with his teeth to
be the monster of the other twilight, i.e., the morning
twilight. Here the monkey is confounded with the fox,
which is a mythical animal of a specially crepuscular
nature, and which also comes to ruin on account of its
tail. The reader has already observed how the incen-
diary monkey-tail of Hanumant corresponds to the tails of
the foxes in the legend of Samson. The Hellenic and
Latin proverbs generally regard the monkey as a very
cunning animal, so much so that Hercules and the monkey
represented the combination of streng'th and deceit.
According to Cardano, a monkey seen in dreams is a pre-
sage of deceit. According to Lucian, it was an augury
-of an unlucky day to meet with a monkey in the early
morning. The Spartans considered it an omen of most
sinister import that the monkey of the king of theMolossians
had upset their urn while they were going to consult the
oracle. According to Suetonius, when Nero thought he
saw his horse flee, having the shape of a monkey in his
hind parts, he believed it to prognosticate death. The
monkey, accordingly, was usually conceived of in Greece
and at Eome as a cunning and demoniacal animal. The
hero in the cloud, in the dark, or in hell, on the other
hand, learns wisdom ; and just as before this he is
only a poor fool, so the monkey, too, is also sometimes
represented in the ancient fables of Southern Europe as
an animal full of simplicity. In Italy we have a proverb

io8 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

wHcli says tliat every monkey thinks her young ones
beautiful ; this refers to the apologue of the monkey
that believes her young ones to be the most beautiful
animals in the world, because Jove, seeing them one day
leaping about, could not refrain from laughing. The
fox, in an epigram, laughs at the monkey who craves
from him the half of his tail, on the plea that it would
disencumber himself of just so much useless appendage,
and supjDly his suitor with the very covering required to
protect his all too naked buttocks : —

" Malo verrat humum quam sit tibi causa decoris,
Quam tegat immundas res bene munda nates.''

In India the analogy between the monkey and the
a^s, as a stupid animal, is of still more frequent occur-
rence. In the Pancatantram, we have the monkeys who
try to warm themselves by the light of the glowworm ;
a monkey presuming to correct the handiwork of a
carpenter, meets with its death by putting its hands into
the cleft of a tree trunk, and heedlessly withdrawing
the wedge that caused it. In the- Tvti-Name^ we find a
variety of the story of the ass and the lyre, i.e., the wise
S4z-Perd4z, who learns from the monkey, assisted by
the wind, the way to form musical instruments. (The
thundering cloud is the mythical musical instrument
"par excellence; it is the wind that moves it, it is the
wind that makes it sound : the hero in the cloud, gand-
harvas, ass or monkey, is a musician.)

The strong, powerful, and terrible bear of the Marutas,^
or winds, in the stormy, lightning and thundering cloud,
is already mentioned in the Vedic hymn. So the con-

1 i. 266.

2 Ptiksho na vo marutali Qinuvaii aoio dadhxo gduriva bhimayuh _
Rigv. V. ^^y 3.

7HE KING OF THE BEARS. 109

stellation of the she-bear^ seems also to be referred to
in them. In the RamAyanamf we find in connection
with it the legend of King Trijankus, who, cm-sed by
the sons of Vasishthas, becomes a candalas, covered with
the skin of a bear (rikshacarmanivasi). Vigvamitras, the
rival of Vasishthas, promises to introduce it into heaven,
under cover of his own body ; but Indras scorns to admit
itj and indignantly spurns it, hurling it down heels
over head. Vi9v^mitras arrests it in its descent as it
falls with its head downmost, within the constellation of
the seven rishayas or wise men, that is to say, in the
constellation of the Great Bear. And as the bear is in
relation with the polar constellation, with the north, the
frigid regions, the winter and the stars, so the moon,
who rules particularly over the cold night in the icy
season, is called in Sanskrit rikshardgas and rikshefas,
or king of the luminous ones, king of the stars, king of
the bears. The king of the bears also takes part in the
expedition to Lanka. The king of the bears (here in re-
lation to the moon) is the eunuch, the reputed, father, the
St Joseph, of the king of the monkeys, Sugrlvas, who
was, on the contrary, really generated in the bosom of the
wife of the bear-king, by the magnanimous STm.^ Led
on by the bear or monkey G4mbavant, the king of the
bears (rikshap^rthivas), the monkeys enter into the forest
of the honey (madhuvanam), guarded by the monkey
Dadhimukhas (mouth of butter, generated by Somas, the
ambrosial god Lunus),* and devastate and ransack the
forest in order to suck its honey. ^ In the Vishnu P.,^
even Balar^mas, brother of the god Krishnas, makes

^ Ami ya rikshU nihit^sa u66i, ; JRigv. i 24, 10.

2 Mmdi/, I 60-62. s ^i 46_ 4 yi (5.

s V. 59. 6 V. 25,

no ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

himself drunk with the spirituous hquor contained in the
fissure of a tree.

The bear- eater of honey is an extremely popular sub-
ject of Eussian tradition ; the very name of the bear,
medv-jed, means in Eussian, " he who eats honey " {miod
is honey, and iest to eat ; but the form medv [medu] is
more perfectly equivalent to the Hindoo madhu = the
sweet honey ambrosia ; the bear in the madhuvmiam
corresponds entirely to the medvjed or bear who eats
honey of the Eussians). In a Slavonic story referred to
by Afanassieflf in the observations to the first book of
the Eussian stories, the bear, deceived by the hare, is left
shut up in the trunk of a tree. A peasant passes by;
the bear begs him to deliver it from this trunk, promis-
ing to show him a bee-hive, and beseeching him not to
tell any one that a hare had deceived it. The peasant
frees the bear ; the bear shows the bee-hive, the peasant
takes the honey and goes home.-^ The bear goes and

^ This story, with some variations, was already known in the six-
teenth century: "Demetrius Moschovitarum legatus Eomam missus,
teste Paulo Jovio (quoted by Aldrovandi), narravit proxiniis annis
vicinise suae agricolam quserendi mellis causa in prsegrandem et cavam
arborem superne desiliisse, eumque profundo mellis gurgite collo tenus
fuisse immersum et biduo vitam solo melle sustinuisse, cum in ilU
solitndine vox agricolse opem implorantis ad viatorum aures non per-
veniret. Tandem hie, desperata salute, ursas beneficio extractus evasit,
nam hujus fer^ ad mella edenda more humane in arboris civitatem se
demittentis, pellem tergoris manibus comprehendit et inde ab ursa
subito timore exterrita et retrocedente extractus fuit." — The bear is
also celebrated in Kriloff's fables as an eater of honey. — In an apologue
of Abstemius, the bear, when searching for honey, is stung by a bee ;
he avenges himself by destroying the honeycombs, but the swarms of
bees fly upon him, and sting and torment him on every side; the bear
then complains that by not having known how to support a small evil
he had drawn upon himself a very grave one. — The pears of the
Italian proverb in connection with the bear also refer to hydromel or
to honey. The Italian proverbs are as follows; " Dar le pere in

THE BEAR AND THE HONEY, m

listens at the door to overhear the conversation. The
peasant narrates how he had procured the honey by
means of a bear who, following a hare, had been caught
in a tree. The bear determines to have its revenge. One
day it finds the peasant in the field, and is about to fall
upon and rend him/ when the fox makes its appearance,
shakes its tail, and says to the peasant, " Man, thou hast
ingenuity in thy head, and a stick in thy hand." The
peasant immediately understands the stratagem. He
begs the bear to let him perform his devotions first ; and
off'ers, as a devotion, instead of doing penance, to carry
the bear, shut up in a sack, three times round the field,
after which the bear is to do with him whatever it likes.

giiardia all' orso " (to give the pears to be guarded by the bear) ; " Chi
divide la pera (or il miele) all' orso ne ha sempre men che parte "
(he who divides the pear (or the honey) with the bear, always has
less than a part, that is, the bear eats it all), and " L'orso sogna pere "
(the bear dreams of pears). To catch the bear is the same as to be
inebriated ; the bear, in fact, is, in the legends, often inebriated himself
with honey, as the Vedic Indras with the ambrosia, and as Balar^mas in
the spirituous liquor contained in the fissure of a tree {Yishnu-P. v. 25).
The sun in the cloud or in the rainy or wintry season drinks more than
necessary. Cfr. also Ealston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 182.

^ In the fifteenth story of Afanassieff^ the bear revenges himself
upon an old man who had cut off one of his paws with a hatchet ; the
bear makes himself a paw from the wood of a linden-tree, takes the
old man and the old woman by surprise in their house and devours
them. In the nineteenth story of the fourth book, the bear allies
himself with the fox lamed by the peasant, and Avith the gadfly that
the peasant had placed behind thq straw, in order to revenge himself
upon the peasant, who, promising to cover him with spots like the horse,
had struck him here and there on the body with a red-hot axe, so that
the bones were left bare. This fable is perhaps connected with the
Hindoo superstition that the burns of a horse are cured by means of
a monkey. As to the wooden paws, they are doubtless the branches
of the cloudy or nocturnal forest. In the Edcla of Somund it is said
that the Alfes are accustomed to call the trees the beautiful arms ; we
already know the meaning of the boy with the golden hand.

112 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

The bear, proud of being carried by the man/ enters into
the sack ; the man binds it strongly, and then beats it so
■with his stick that it dies.

The bear, representing usually the luminous one in the
darkness, has frequently in Slavonic tradition a demo-
niacal character,^ or else that of a fool, like the ass. In
the first of the Eussian stories, the fox terrifies the bear,
and then delivers the peasant from it. (The peasant
in popular rustic narratives is almost always a heroic
personage, who becomes a wiseacre and a prince.)
The peasant cheats his companion, the bear, twice :
when they sow turnips together, the peasant reserves
for himself whatever grows underground, and leaves to
the bear whatever comes out of the earth and appears
above ; when they sow wheat, the bear, thinking to be
very knowing, takes for his own part what grows under,
and gives to the peasant what grows above the ground.
The peasant is about to be devoured by the bear, when

1 In the tenth story of the third book of Afanassieff, Nadzei, the
son of a virgin who is the daughter of a priest, makes himself formid-
able by cutting down the forest and drawing, without assistance, out of
the forest the bear that destroyed the cats.

^ In a description of the last Sunday of the Roman carnival of the
thirteenth century, in Du Cange, s. v. Garnelevarium, we read : " Occi-
dunt ursum, occiditur diabolus, id est, temptator nostras carnis." — In
Bohemia it is still the custom at the end of the carnival to bring the
bear, — that is, a man disguised as a bear, with straw, who goes round
to ask for beer (or hydromel, which takes the place of the mythical
honey or ambrosia). The women take the straws to put them into
the place where the hens lay their eggs, to make them lay better. In
Suabia the straw bear is accused of having killed a blind cat, and
therefore condemned, with all formality, to death, after having had,
before his death, two priests to console him ; on Ash-Wednesday the
bear is solemnly buried. — Cfr. Eeinsberg von DUringfeld, Das festliche
Jahr. — The poet Hans Sachs, quoted by Simrock, covers with a bear's
Bkin two old women who are to be presented to the devil.

now THE BEAR DIES. 113

the fox comes to the rescue/ In the JSrst story of the
fourth book of Afanassieff, the fox goes to pass the
winter in the bear's den, and devours all the provision of
hens that the bear had laid up. The bear asks what it
is eating, and the fox makes him believe that it is taking
meat from its own forehead. The bear asks whether it is
good, upon which the fox gives him some to taste ; the
bear then tries also to take meat from his forehead, and
dies ; thus the fox has enough to eat for a year.

The romance of the fox also presents to us the fox in
opposition to the bear, whom he induces to put his paws
into the cleft of the trunk of a tree, as happened to the
Hindoo monkey of the Pancatantram, In the Russian
story, '^ instead of the fox, we have the peasant, and in-
stead of the monkey and the bear, we have the gentleman
(who in the poor man's eyes is often a personification of
the demon) who is caught by his hands in the fissure of
a tree. The peasant revenges himself in this way upon
the gentleman who had, after having bought from others
a little canary for fifteen roubles, refused to buy from
him a large goose for a hundred roubles. The very
strong athlete Mil6n of KJroton, who in one day used to
eat an ox four years old, a legendary hero, is torn to
pieces by wild beasts, having been caught by the hands
in the crevice of a log which he was splitting. Animal
and hero continually alternate in myths. In the fourth
story of the fifth book of Afanassieff, the peasant meets
with his death on account of the funereal and demoniacal
storks and the bear. The peasant binds himself to his
waggon in order not to fall off; the horse wishes to

^ Cfr., moreover, Afanassieff, ii. 33. — In a popular Norwegian story,
the fox makes the bear catch fish, with Ms tail, which is frozen in the
water. 2 Afanassief, v. 2.

VOL. n. H

114 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

drink, and drags the waggon into a well. The bear,
being pursued, passes by, falls unexpectedly into the
well, becomes involved with the waggon, and, in order
to extricate himself, is constrained to drag out waggon,
peasant, and all. Soon afterwards the bear, in search of
honey, climbs up a tree ; another peasant passes, sees the
bear upon the tree, and wishing to secure the animal,
cuts down the tree ; bear and waggon fall down, and the
peasant is killed, whilst the bear releases itself and
escapes. The bear which is looking for honey and the
bear in the well remind us of the asimis in unguento, and
of the ass in the roses : the ass v/ho is the friend of the
gardener or of the priest of Flora and Pomona, in the
fable of La Fontaine,^ has the same signification. In
the twenty-eighth story of the fifth book of Afanassieff,
King Bear lies hidden in a fountain (we have already
seen the Hindoo monkey that draws a king into a foun-
tain, into the monster's jaws) ; a king goes to hunt ;
feeling thirsty, he wishes to drink at this fountain ; the
bear clutches him by the beard, and only releases him on
condition that he will give up in his stead whatever he
has at home without knowing it (this is a variation of
the story of Harijcandras). The king consents, and
returning home, learns that twins, named Ivan and Maria,
are born to him. To save them from the bear, their
father has them lowered into a subterranean cavern, well
furnished and very deep, which he supplies with abun-
dant provisions. The twins grow up healthy and strong ;
the king and queen die, and the bear comes to search for
the twins. He finds in the royal palace a pair of scissors,
and asks them Avhere the king's sons are ; the scissors
answer, *' Throw me upon the ground in the courtyard ;

1 viii. 10.

THE MONSTER-BEAR. 115

where I fall, there search." The scissors fall over the very
place under which Ivan and Maria are concealed. The
bear opens the ground with his paws, an,d is about to
devour the young brother and sister ; they beg for their
lives, and the bear spares them, at sight of the abundance
of hens and geese provided for them. The bear then
resolves to take them into his service ; they twice
attempt in vain to escape, the first time with the help
of a hawk, the second with that of an eagle: at last a
bull succeeds in releasing them. Pursued by the bear,
they throw down a comb, and an impenetrable forest
springs up ; the bear lacerates and wounds himself all
over in passing through. Ivan then spreads out a towel
which makes a lake of fire ; at this sight the bear, who
is afraid of being burned, who does not like heat, but,
on the contrary, prefers cold, goes back.

In the twenty-seventh story of the fifth book of
Afanassieff, a demoniacal bear with iron hairs, devas-
tates a whole kingdom, devouring all the inhabitants ;
Ivan Tzarevic and Helena Prekrasnaia alone remain ;
but the king has them placed with provisions upon a
high pillar (a new form of Mount Hiraiiyanabhas, whence
the sun issues forth, which comes up from the bottom of
the sea, and upon which the great monkey Hanumant
places himself. The bear is also found in connection
with a gem in the Vishnu P}) In the Tuti-Name,^ the
carpenter teaches two bears to take their food upon a
statue which is a perfect image of his companion the
miserly goldsmith, who had defrauded him of some
money. By means of the bears, whom he represents as
the two sons of the goldsmith who had run away from him,
he terrifies him. The goldsmith, perceiving the carpen-

1 iv. 13. 2 i. 6.

it6 zoological MYTHOLOGY,

ter's craftiness, gives him back his money). The famished
bear approaches the pillar. Ivan throws him down some
food ; the bear, after having eaten, goes to sleep. -^ While
he sleeps, Ivan and Helena flee away upon a horse ; the
bear awakes, overtakes them, brings them back to the
pillar, and makes them throw him down some food, after
which he again goes to sleep. The young brother and
sister then try to escape upon the backs of geese ; the
bear again wakens, overtakes them, burns the geese, and
takes Ivan and Helena back to the pillar. Having a
third time supplied the bear with food, it is again over-
come by sleep ; this time the deliverer comes in the
shape of a bull, who blinds the bear with his horns, and
throws him into a stream, where he is drowned. In the
same story, the demon, wishing to expose Ivan to certain
death, sends him to search for the milk of a she-bear.^
The demon appears again in the form of a bear in the
fiftieth story of the fifth book of Afanassieff, where the
dog of a soldier rends him to pieces. But although the
bear is demoniacal, the bear's cub, on the other hand,
helps the hero.^ In the eleventh story of the sixth book

1 Concerning the bear's sleep, it is interesting to read the curious
information furnished by Aldrovandi {De Quadr. Dig. Yiv. i.) : "De-
vorant etiam ursi ineunte hyeme radices nomine nobis adhuc ignotas,
quibus per longum temporis spatium cibi cupiditas expletur et somnus
conciliatur. Nam in Alpibus Helveticis aiunt, referente Gesnero, vacca-
rum pastorem eminus vidisse ursum, qui radicem quemdam manibus
propriis effossam edebat, et post ursi discessum, illuc se transtulisse ;
radicemque illam degustasse, qui postmodum tanto somni desiderio
affectus est, ut se continere non potuerit, quin in vii stratus somno
frueretur." The bear, as a nocturnal and wintry animal, must of
necessity conciliate sleep.

2 Cfr. Afanassieffj vi. 5.— According to Hellenic tradition, Paris and
Atalanta were nourished with the milk of a she-bear.

3 Cfr. Afanassieff] v. 27, v. 28. — According to Cardano, to meet with
a bear's cub just born indicated a change of fortune for the better.

THE BEAR AND THE WOMAN, 117

of Afanassieff, a woman who is gathering mushrooms
loses herself and enters into the bear's den — the bear
takes her to himself. We have already seen the bear
that plays at blind-man's-buflf with the mouse, thinking
that he is playing with the beautiful maiden. The wind
Paidras and jEoIus, king of the winds, we have already
seen, in the first chapter of this book, to be passionately
fond of beautiful nymphs. In a Norwegian story
(a variation of that of the White Cat), in Ashiornsen,
the hero is disguised as a bear, and becomes a beautiful
young man by night. His wife, by her indiscreet
curiosity, i.e., because she had wished to see him by
lamplight, loses him, and her place is taken by the
long-nosed princess, until, with the help of a golden
apple and a horse, she is able to find her husband again.
In the sixth story of the second book of the Pentamerone,
it is, on the other hand, the girl Pretiosa who, to escape
the embraces of her father, goes into the forest disguised
as a she-bear. A young prince, the son of the king of
the water, becomes enamoured of her, and takes her to
the palace. The prince becomes iU for love of the she-
bear ; she assists him and cures him. While he is kissing
her, she becomes a beautiful girl (''la chiti bella cosa de
lo Munno"). We learn from two mediseval writings
quoted by Du Cange {s.v, Ursus), that it was already the
custom in the Middle Ages to lead the bear round to
make him play indecent games ("Nee tiu:pia joca cum
urso vel tornatricibus ante se facere permittat"), and
that hairs of a bear stained in some ointment used to
be sold, " Tamquam philacteria, ad depeUendos morbos,
atque, adeo oculorum fascinos amoliendos." The Athe-
nians called she-bears the virgins sacred to the chaste
Artemis, the friend of closed places ; and to this, it
would appear, must also be referred the interesting

Ti8 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

Christian legend of the virgin St Ursula/ whom Karl
Simrock identifies with the demoniacal, funereal, somni-
ferous, death-bringing Holda. Were this identification
accepted, Ursula would be, moreover, in close ideal and
etymological relation with the Vedic monster Rikshikl

But to return to the Eussian story, the woman who
enters into the bear's den unites herself with him, and
subsequently gives birth to a son, who is a man down to
the waist, and a bear from the waist downwards. His
mother, therefore, names him Ivanko-Medviedko (Little
.John, the son of the bear). This half- man half-bear be-
comes a cunning animal, and cheats the devil, making
him fight with the bear, and persuading him to think
that the bear is his middle brother (that is, the strong
brother). In a Danish tradition we read of a girl vio-
lated by a bear, who gives birth afterwards to a monster.
According to the Hellenic myth, the nymph Kalistos,
daughter of King Lykaon, violated by Zeus, is changed
by Juno or by Artemis into a she-bear, gives birth to
Arkas, and, being killed with her son by shepherds, is
converted into a star.

The cunning bear appears again as a musician (like
the ass) in the seventeenth story of the third book of
Afanassieff, where he sings so well that he deceives the
old shepherdess, and succeeds in carrying ojff her sheep.
In a note to the ninth Esthonian story of Kreutzwald,
Herr Lowe observes, that in the Northern languages, the
god of thunder and the bear are synonymous. The bear,
the monkey, the ass, and the bull (all of which are per-
sonifications of the cloud), form a musical quartette in a

^ Cfr. the work of Scliade, Die Sage von der Heiligen Ursula.
She is also to be found among the Leggende del Secolo Decimoquarto,
published at Florence by Signor Del Lungo (Barbera, publisher).

THE MONKEY AS MESSENGER, 119

fine fable of Kriloff. The bear is made to dance like the
monkey/ the ass, and the gandharvas, his mythical
equivalent. In the same way as the ass's skin chases
away fear, the eye of a bear dried and hung upon a
child's neck preserves from fear.^ In the legends of the
saints, especially of the hermits, to whom the bear,
inspired by God, often gives up his den in obedience to
their commands, we read of St Maximin that he trans-
formed a bear into an ass because he had eaten an ass
that carried a load.

In the nineteenth fable of the twelfth book of La
Fontaine, the monkey appears as a messenger of Jove,
with the caduceus, to

" Partager un brin d'herbe entre quelques fourmis ; "

while two enormous animals, the elephant and the
rhinoceros, are contending for the superiority. The
monkey, as Mercury, as an intermediate and mediating
form between two heroic similar animals, comes near to
the knowing fox, the reddish colour of which (as well as
of the bear) it partakes of. It is no longer the pure fair
sun of day, and it is not yet the black monster of night ;
it is too black to be red, and too red to be black ; it has

^ "... il parle, on I'entend, il sait danser, bailer

Faire des tours de toute sorte

Passer en des cerceaux."

- — La Fontaine^ Fables, ix. 3.
In La Fontaine, the monkey is again identified with the ass, as a
judge on the tribunal between the wolf and the fox, and afterwards
as dressed in the skin of the dead lion. In the fourth fable of the
eleventh book, La Fontaine makes the monkey M.A. narrate the
story of the asinus asinum fricat; in the second fable of the twelfth
book the monkey scatters the miser's treasure, as in Hindoo tradition
it spoils the sacrificial offerings.

2 Cfr. Aldrovandi, De Quadr, Big. Yiv.

120 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

all the cunning of the devils, and is acquainted with all
the habits of the saints. The monkey, the imitator of
man (a Darwinist would say his progenitor), partakes,
like man, of the nature of the brutish demon and of the
intelligent god.

CHAPTER XIL

THE FOX, THE JACKAL, AND THE WOLE.

SUMMARY.

Lop^gas, lopigiM. — The jackal takes in Hindoo tradition tlie place of the
fox. — What the fox represents in mythology, and why the jackal is
his mythical equivalent. — Double aspect of the mythical fox, in
connection with the cock and in connection with the wolf, turned
towards the day and towards the night, now friendly, now hostile
to the hero. — The fox deceives all the other animals, in order to
have all the prey to itself. — The fox is the monster's enemy. — The
blue jackal. — The inquisitive jackal. — The avenging jackal. — The
astute fox ; the woman more cunning than the fox. — The fox's
skin. — The buttered tail of the jackal. — The fox eats the honey,
the butter, or the cake belonging to the wolf, and then accuses
him. — The fox sends the wolf to fish. — The fox eats the woman
whom he had promised to bring to life. — The fox as a mourner. —
The peasant ungrateful to the fox. — " Cauda de vulpe testa-
tur." — The fox eats the bear, the bird feeds the fox, and after-
wards draws it in among the dogs. — Former hospitality is to be
forgotten. — The fox as the cat's wife. — The round cheese of the
myth is the moon. — The fox steals the fishes. — The fox is of
every profession. — The grateful fox enriches the poor hero. —
King Fire and Queen Loszna.^ — The house of the fox and that of
the hare. — The fox deceives the cock ; the cock deceives the fox. —
The fox's tail in the beaks of the chickens. — The fox's malice ;
the ideal of a prince according to Macchiavelli ; fox and serpent.
— The fox cheats almost all the animals ; it does not, however,
succeed in cheating the other foxes, and sometimes not even the
lion. — The Catholic Church furnishes new types for the legend of
the fox. — Union of the fox with the wolf. — Diverse nature of the
wolf. — The red wolf. — The thieving wolf. — The wolf (or the devil)
and the fishes ; the fish in shallow water. — The dog and the wolf. —

122 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

The wolf as a shepherd. -^Wolf's belly.^The good wolf and the good
maiden. — The son of the wolf understands the language of birds.
— The she-wolf as a nurse ; she-wolves and strumpets. — Disguises
in a wolf's skin. — Wolf-hunter — The wolf's shadow. — Wolves
that chastise in the name of God ; sanctified wolves. — The dead
wolf; the wolf's skin. — Diabolical wolves. — The white wolf. —
Wulfesheofod.— Ysengrin. — The wolf sings psalms.- — The cunning
of the wolf. — The wolf s tail. — The dwarf in the wolf's body;
the dwarf in the wolfs sack. — The she-wolf at Rome. — Dante's
she-wolf.

The fox is scarcely spoken of once in the JRigvedas by
the name of lop^jas (al6p^x), as penetrating to the old
Western lion ; this word (like lopdkas, which is inter-
preted in the Petropolitan Dictionary as "a kind of
jackal") seems to mean properly '^ the destroyer" (ac-
cording to Professor Weber, Aasfresser). The Sanskrit
language also gives ns the diminutive lopdfiM, which is
interpreted as the female of a jackal and as the fox
(vulpecula). The legendary fox, however, is generally
represented in Hindoo tradition by the jackal, or canis
aureus (srigalas, kroshtar, gom4yus, as a shouter). The
fox is the reddish mediatrix between the luminous day
and the gloomy night : the crepuscular phenomenon of the
heavens taking an animal form, no form seemed more
adapted to the purpose than that of the fox or the jackal,
on account of their colour and some of their cunning
habits : the hour of twilight is the time of uncertainties
and of deceits. Professor Weber^ supposes that all the
cunning actions attributed to the jackal in Hindoo fables
were taken on loan from the fox of Hellenic fables. We
must certainly assign no undue importance to the ex-
pressions vancakas and mrigadhurtaJcas (the cheater of

^ Cfr. Ueher den Zusammenhang itidischer Faheln mit gnechischenf ( ^
Berlin, Diimmler, 1855.

FOX AND JACKAL. 123

animals), given in Hindoo lexicons to the jackal, inasmuch
as these lexicons are not of very remote antiquity ; but
at the same time we must confess, that the cunning of
the fox has been exaggerated by popular superstition as
much as the stupidity of the ass, for a mythical reason,
and from tradition, far more than by the observation of
exceptional habits in these animals, Avhich could easily
be identified in mythology, in which, as I have already
observed, some few gross and accidental similarities are
enough to cause the same phenomena to be represented
by animals of a very different genus. Thus the hairy
reddish bodies of the bear and the monkey, and certain
postures which they assume in common, are enough to
make us understand how they are sometimes substituted
for each other in legends ; for the same reason, to the
monkey and to the bear are attributed some of the enter-
prises for which the legendary fox is celebrated. How
much greater, therefore, must have been the confusion
which arose between the canis vulpes (the reddish fox)
and the canis aureus (or jackal), animals which agree in
showing themselves towards night, in feeding upon little
animals, in having skins of the same colour, who have
very bright eyes, and several other zoological charac-
teristics in common ?

The legendary fox (or the jackal, which is its mythical
equivalent) has, like nearly all mythical figures, a double
aspect. As it represents the evening, and as the sun is
represented as a bird (the cock), the fox, the proverbial
enemy of chickens, is, in the sky too, the robber and
devourer of the cock, and as such the natural enemy o±
the man or hero, who ends by showing himself to be
more cunning than it is, and by effecting its ruin. The
fox cheats the cock in the evening, and is cheated by the
cock in the morning. It is therefore an animal of de-

1 24 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOG Y.

moniacal nature, when considered as tlie devourer or
betrayer of the sun (cock, lion, or man), in the form of
the red western sky, or of the evening aurora, and as
being killed or put to flight by the sun itself (cock, lion,
or man), in the form of the red eastern sky, or the morn-
ing aurora/ We have already seen, in the first chapter
of this work, the aurora both as a wise girl and a perverse
one ; in its animal metamorphosis, the fox reproduces this
aspect. But the aurora has not this mythical aspect
alone. If, as she is turned towards or against the sun,
she is supposed to be the killer of the luminous day in
the evening, and to be chased away by the luminous day
in the morning, she also, when considered as turning
towards or against the night, assumes a heroic and
sym.pathetic aspect, and becomes the friend and assister
of the solar hero or animal against the wolf of the dark-
ness of night. In these two mythical aspects is contained
and explained all the essential legendary story of the fox,
to narrate which, as far as it concerns Western tradition,
volumes have already been written. I shall limit myself
to culling and summarising from Oriental and Slavonic
tradition their chief characteristics, in order to compare
them briefly with the most generally known particulars
of Western legendary lore ; as it seems to me that when
I shall have shown the double nature of the fox in
mythology, as representing the two auroras, when I shall
have proved that the sun is personified now as a hero,
now as a cock, and now as a lion, and the night as a
wolf, it will be easy to refer to this interpretation the

1 In a German tradition referred to by Schmidt, Forschungen, s.
105, we have the deity who presents himself as a fox to the hunter
voluntarily to be sacrificed ; the hunter flays him, and the flies and
ants eat his flesh. In a Eussian story of which I shall give an abridg-
ment, the wolf eats the fox when he sees it without its hairy covering.

THE PERFIDIO US JA CKAL. 125

immense variety of legendary subjects to which, on
account of the smaller proportions to which I have
been obliged to reduce this work, I shall be unable to
allude.

In the Mahdbhdratam^ a learned jackal, who has
finished his studies, associates with the ichneumon, the
mouse, the wolf, and the tiger, but only in order to cheat
them all. He makes the tiger kill a gazelle, and then sends
all the animals to bathe before eating it. Then, when
the tiger returns, he makes him run after the mouse, by
representing it as having boasted that it had killed the
tiger ; he makes the mouse flee, persuading it that the
ichneumon has bitten the gazelle, and that its flesh is
therefore poisonous ; he makes the wolf take to its heels,
by informing it that thq tiger is coming to devour it ; he
makes the ichneumon glad to escape, by boasting that
' he has vanquished the other three animals ; then the
jackal eats the whole gazelle himself. In the Pancatan-
tram,^ the jackal cheats, in a similar manner, the lion
and the wolf out of their part of a camel; we have
already seen how it cheated the lion out of the ass. In
the twentieth Mongol story, the fox stirs up discord
between the two brothers, bull and lion, who kill each
other in consequence.

In the Rdmdyanam,^ the jackal appears as the hero's
friend, inasmuch as by howling, and vomiting flre, he is
of sinister omen to the monster Kharas, who prepares to
attack E^mas. In the Khorda-Avesta, a hero devoured

^ i. 5566, et seq.

2 i. 16, iv. 2 ; cfr. also iv. 10, and the chapter on the Hare. — In
the story, iii. 14, of the FanSatantramy the jackal cheats the lion who
has occuiDied his cave, by making him roar ; and thus assuring him-
self that the lion is in the cave, he is able to escape.

3 iii. 29.

J2G ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

by Agra-Mainjni, the god of the monsters, is named
Takhmo-urupis, or Takhma-urupa, which means strong
fox.

One of the most interesting fables, in a mythological
point of view, is that of the jackal who, falling among
pigments, comes out blue, or of opaline lustre, and passes
himself off as a peacock of the sky. The animals make
him their king, but he betrays himself by his voice :
hearing other jackals howling, he howls also ; upon which
the lion, the real king of the beasts, tears him to pieces.-^
This is a variety of the ass dressed in the lion's skin, but
yet more so of the. crow that takes up and decks itself in
the peacock's feathers ; the black night shines as an azure
sky, as sahasr^kshas (an appellation of Indras and of the
peacock, as having a thousand eyes or stars). The even-
ing aurora, the fox, transforms itself into the azure sky
of night, until at morn, the deceit being exposed, the '
lion (^.6., the sun) rends the fox, and disperses the night
and the aurora.

The Pancatmitram contains two other narratives re-
lating to the legendary jackal^viz., the inquisitive and
silly jackal, who, in an attempt to break the skin of a
drum to see what is inside, breaks one of his teeth, and
who, wishing to eat the string of a bow, has his mouth
lacerated and dies ; ^ and the vile jackal who, brought up
among the lion's cubs, reveals his vulpine nature when
he should have thrown himself with the two lions, his
adoptive brothers, upon the elephant, but, instead of that,

^ Cfr. Pcnicatantram, i. 10; Tati-Name, ii. 146,

2 i. 2, ii. 3. — In the nineteentli Mongol story, the young man who
passes himself off as a hero is ordered to bring to the queen the skin
of a certain fox which is indicated to him j on the way the youth loses
his bow ; returning to look for it, he finds the fox dead close to the
bow, which it had tried to bite, and which had struck and killed it.

THE FOX AS FRIEND OF THE HERO. 127

took to flight.-^ In the Tuti-Name^ the jackal desires
to revenge himself upon the parrots, whom he judges
indirectly implicated in the death of his young ones ; up
comes the lynx, who is astounded that the jackal,
celebrated for its craftiness, is unable to devise a way of
ruining the parrots. At last the lynx advises him to pre-
tend being lame, and let himself be followed by a hunter
as far as the abode of the parrots, at which place he will
be able to skulk away, and the hunter, seeing the parrots,
will set his nets and catch them.

In the Tuti-Name we also find several other parti-
culars relating to the jackal, which will pass into the
Russian stories of the fox.

The jackal makes the woLf come out of his den, which
the latter had taken possession of, by calling the shep-
herd/ In another place, the cunning fox laughs at the
stolid tiger, but the woman proves herself to be more
cunning than the fox.^ It is also in the Tuti-Name^
that we read of a companion of the poor Abdul Me^id,
enamoured of the king's daughter, who teaches him how
to enrich himself, or rather to appear rich, in order to
wed her. In a much more scientific and interesting
variety of this legend, in the Eussian stories, it is, on the
contrary, the fox who enriches the poor hero. The nine-
teenth Mongol story, in which the false hero makes his
fortune by means of the spoils of a certain designated

1 iv. 4. 2 i. 134^ 135^

3 Tuti-Name, ii. 125. — In the stories of the same night (the twenty-
second) of the Tiiti-Name, we have the lynx (lupus cervarius) who
wishes to take the house of the monkey -who occupies the lion's house,
and the jackal who runs after the camers testicles, as in the PaMatan-
tram he runs after those of the bull. In the story, ii. 7, the fox lets
his bone fall into the water in order to catch a fish (a variety of the
well-known fable of the dog and of the wolf or devil as fisherman).
* Tiiti-Kame, ii. 142, 143. ^ i. 1G8, ei scq.

128 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOG K

fox, is another intermediate form between the two tradi-
tions, the Hindoo and the Eussian.

The name of a jackal in the Pandatantram is Dadhi-
pucchas, which means tail of butter, buttered tail (the
aurora is ambrosial).

In the first of the stories of Afanassieff, the fox eats
the honey belonging to the wolf (which reminds one of
the sentence of Plautus, " Ssepe condita luporum fiunt
rapinse vulpium"^), and then accuses the wolf of having
eaten it himself; the wolf proposes a sort of judgment
of God; they are to go together to the sun, and he who
pours out honey will be accounted guilty : they go and
lie down ; the wolf falls asleep, and when the honey
comes out of the fox, he pours it upon the wolf, who,
when he awakes, confesses his fault. In the first story
of the fourth book of Afanassieff, the cock and the hen
bring ears of corn to the old man and poppies to the old
woman ; the old couple make a cake of them and put it
out to dry.^ Up come the fox and the wolf and take the
cake, but finding that it is not yet dry, the fox proposes
going to sleep whilst it is drying. While the wolf sleeps,
the fox eats the honey that is in the cake, and puts dung
in its place. The wolf awakens, and after him the fox
too pretends to waken, and accuses the wolf of having
touched the cake ; the wolf protests his innocence, and
the fox proposes, as a judgment of God, that they shall
go to sleep in the sunshine ; the wax will come out of

^ Querolus, i. 2.

2 In the eighteenth story of the fourth book of Afanassief, an
extraordinary cake escapes from the house of an old man and woman,
and wanders about ; it finds the hare, the wolf , and the bear, who all
wish to eat it ; it sings its story to them all, and is allowed to go ; it
sings it to the fox, too, but the latter praises the song, and eats the
cake, after having made it get upon his back.

THE FOX EA TS HONE Y AND B UTTER. 1 29

him who has eaten the honey/ The wolf really goes to
sleep, and the fox goes meanwhile to a neighbouring
beehive, eats the honey, and throws the honeycombs
upon the wolf, who, wakening from his slumbers, con-
fesses his fault, and promises in reparation to give his
share of the prey to the fox as soon as he procures any.
In the continuation of the story, the fox sends the wolf to
fish with his tail (the same as the bone of the dog) in the
lake, and, after having made his tail freeze, feigns to be
himself ill, and makes the wolf carry him, murmuring on
the way the proverb, " He who is beaten carries him who
is not beaten." In a variety of the same story, the fox eats
the wolfs butter and flour ; in another, the fox pretends
to be called during the night to act as the rabbit's mid-
wife, and eats the wolf's butter, accusing him afterwards
of having eaten it himself; in order to discover the
guilty one, they resolve upon trying the judgment by
fire, before which the two animals are to go to sleep, and
the one from whose skin the butter shall come out, is
to be accounted guilty; whilst the wolf is asleep and
snoring, the fox upsets the rest of the butter over him.
In the seventh story of the fourth book of Afanassieff,
the fox promises to an old man to bring his wife to life
again ; he requests him to warm a bath, to bring flour
and honey, and then to stand at the door without ever
turning round to look at the bath ; the old man does so,
and the fox washes the old woman and then eats her,
leaving nothing but the bones ; he then makes a cake of
the flour and honey, and eats that too, after which he
cries out to the old man to throw the door wide open,

^ In Afanassieff, i. 14, tlie hero, Theodore, finds some wolves fight-
ing among themselves for a bone, some bees fighting for the honey,
and some shrimps fighting for caviare ; he makes a just division, and
the grateful wolves, bees, and shrimps help him in need.

VOL. II. I

130 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

and escapes. In the first story of the first book, the old
man whose wife is dead goes to look for mourners ; he
finds the bear, who ofi'ers to do the weeping, but the old
man thinks that he has not a sufficiently good voice ;
going on, he meets the fox, who also offers to perform the
same service, and gives a good proof of his skill in sing-
ing (this particular would appear to be more applicable
to the crying jackal than to the fox). The old man
declares himself perfectly satisfied, and places the cunning
beast at the foot of the corpse to sing a lament, whilst he
himself goes to make the grave ; during the old man's
absence, the fox eats everything he finds in the house,
and the old woman too. In the ninth story of the
fourth book the fable ends otherwise ; the fox does his
duty as a weeper, and the old man rewards him by the
gift of some chickens ; the fox, however, demanding
more, the old man puts into a sack two dogs and a
chicken, and gives it to the fox, who goes out and opens
the sack. The dogs run out and pursue him ; he takes
refuge in his den, but neglects to draw in his tail, which
betrays him. " Cauda de vulpe testatur," said also the
Latin proverb. In a variety of the first story of the first
book, it is as a reward for having released the peasant from
the bear that the fox receives a sack containing two hens
and a dog. The dog pursues the fox, who takes to his hole,
and then asks his feet what they have done ; they answer
that they ran away ; he then asks his eyes and ears, which
answer that they saw and heard; finally he asks his tail
(here identified with the phallos), which, confused, answers
that it put itself between his legs to make him fall. Then
the fox, wishing to chastise his tail, puts it out of the
hole ; the dog, by means of it, drags out the whole fox,
and tears him to pieces. In the fourth story of the third
book, the fox delivers the peasant from, not the bear, but

THE VOICE OF THE FOX. 131

the wolf ; the peasant then cheats him in the same way,
by putting dogs into the sack ; the fox escapes, and to
punish his tail for impeding his flight, leaves it in the dog's
mouth, and runs off; afterwards the fox is drowned by
falling into a barrel which is being filled with water (the
deed of the phallos ; cfr. the chapter on the Fishes), and the
peasant takes his skin. In another Eussian story, recorded
by Afa.nassieff in the observations to the first book of
his stories, the fox, having delivered the peasant from the
bear, asks for his nose in way of recompense, but the
peasant terrifies •him and puts him to flight. In a
Slavonic story referred to in the same observations, the
bird makes its nest, of which the fox covets the eggs ;
the bird informs the dog, who pursues the fox ; the latter,
betrayed by his tail, holds his usual monologue with his
feet, eyes, ears, and tail. In the twenty-second story of
the third book, the fox falls with the bear, the wolf, and
the hare, into a ditch where there is no water. The four
animals are oppressed by hunger, and the fox proposes
that each should raise his voice in succession and
shout his utmost ; he who shouts feeblest will be eaten
by the others. The hare's turn comes first, then that of
the wolf ; bear and fox alone remain. The fox advises
the bear to put his paws upon his sides ; attempting to
sing thus, he dies, and the fox eats him. Being again
hungry, and seeing a bird feeding its young, he threatens
to kill the young birds unless the parent brings him
some food ; the bird brings him a hen from the village.
The fox afterwards renews his threats, desiring the bird
to bring him something to drink ; the bird immediately
brings him water from the village. Again the fox
threatens to kill the young ones if the old bird does not
deliver him out of the ditch ; the bird throws in billets
of wood, and thus succeeds in helping him out. Then

132 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

the fox desires the bird to make him laugh ; the bird
invites him to run after it ; it then goes towards the
village, where it cries out, " Woman, woman, bring me
a piece of tallow" (babka, babka, priniessi mnid sala
kussok) ; the dogs hear the cry, come out, and rend the
fox. In the twenty-fourth story of the third book, the
fox again delivers the peasant from the wolf, whom he
had shut up in a sack to save him from the persecution
of the hunters. The wolf is no sooner out of danger
than he wishes to eat the peasant, saying that "old
hospitality is forgotten."^ The peasant beseeches him
to await the judgment of the first passer-by ; the first
whom they meet is an old mare who has been expelled
from the stables on account of her age, after having long
served her masters ; she finds that the wolfs sentence is
just. The peasant begs the wolf to wait for a second
passer-by ; this is an old black dog who has been ex-
pelled from the house after long services, because he can
no longer bark ; he also approves the wolfs decision.
The peasant again begs them to wait for a third and
decisive judgment ; they meet the fox, who resorts ' to
a well-known stratagem; he affects to doubt that so
large an animal as the wolf could get into so small a
sack. The wolf, mortified at so unjust a suspicion,
wishes to prove that he has told the truth, re-enters into
the sack, and is beaten by the peasant till he dies. But
the peasant himself then proves ungrateful to the fox,
saying, too, that old hospitality is to be forgotten
(properly the hospitality of bread and salt, hlieh-sol).
In the eighth story of the fourth book, the fox brings
upon his back to her father and mother a girl who.

1 Cfr. Lou lozip penjat in tlie Conies de VArmagnac, collected by
Biad6, Paris, 1867, p. S>.

THE FOX AND THE CHEESE. 133

having lost herself in the forest, was weeping upon a
tree. The old man and woman, however, are not
grateful to the fox ; for on the latter asking for a hen in
reward, they put him into a sack with a dog ; the rest
of the story is already known to the reader. In the
twenty-third story of the fourth book, the fox marries
the cat and puts the bear and the wolf to flight. We
have already mentioned the fox of the Eussian story
who sends the wolf to catch fish in the river with his
tail, by which means the tail is frozen oflF. In a popular
Norwegian story, instead of the wolf, it is the bear who
is thus cheated by the fox. In a Servian story, we hear
of a fox who steals three cheeses off a waggon, and after-
wards meets the wolf, who asks where he had found
them. The fox answers, in the water (the sky of night).
The wolf wishing to fish for cheeses, the fox conducts him
to a fountain where the moon is reflected in the water,
and points to it as a cheese; he must lap up the water
in order to get at it. The wolf laps and laps till the
water comes out of his mouth, nose, and ears (probably
because he was drowned in the fountain. The wolf, the
black monster of night, takes the place of the crow in
connection with the cheese (the moon) and the fox ; the
Servian story itself tells us what the cheese represents ^).
In a Eussian story, published in the year 1860, by the
Podsniesznik, and quoted in the observations to the first
book of the stories of Afanassieff, the fox is killed
by a peasant whose fish he had stolen ; the peasant
takes his skin and goes off. Up comes the wolf, and
seeing his god-father without a skin, weeps over him

^ Cfr. the English expression applied to the moon, *' made of green
cheese ; " this is the connection between green and yellow previously
mentioned.

134 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

according to ttie prescribed ceremony, and then eats him.
We have already seen the fox as a mourner and as a
midwife. In the twentieth story of the third book of
Afanassieff, the fox wishes to work as a blacksmith. In
other Eussian stories we have the fox-confessor and the
fox-physician ; finally, the fox as a god-mother is a very-
popular subject of Eussian stories. In a Eussian story,
published in the fourth number of the Eussian Historical
and Juridical Archives of Kalassoff, the fox appears as a
go-between for the marriage of two young men with two
princesses. But, above all, the fox is famous for having
brought about the wedding of the poor Buhtan Buhtanovic
and of his alter ego, Koszma Skorobagatoi (Cosimo the
swiftly-enriched) with the daughter of the Tzar. Buhtan
had only five kapeika (twopence in all). The fox has
them changed, and asks the Tzar to lend him some
bushels to measure the money with. These bushels are
each time found too small, and larger ones are demanded,
using which, the cunning fox always takes care to leave
some small coin at the bottom. The Tzar marvels at the
riches of Buhtan, and the fox then asks for Buhtan the
Tzar's daughter to wife. The Tzar wishes first to see
the bridegroom. How dress him ? The fox then makes
Buhtan fall into the mud near the king's palace whilst
they are passing over a little bridge. He then goes to
the Tzar, relates the misfortune, and begs him to lend
him a dress for Buhtan. Buhtan puts it on, and never
ceases regarding his changed appearance. The Tzar being
astonished at this, the fox hastens to say that Buhtan
was never so badly dressed before, and takes the first
opportunity of warning him in private against conduct
so suspicious. Then, withdrawn from himself, he does
nothing but stare at the golden table, which again
astonishes the Tzar; this is accounted for by the fox.

THE FOX GIVES RICHES. 135

who explains that in Buhtan's palace similar tables are
to be found in the baoh-room ; meanwhile the fox hints
to Buhtan to look more about him. The wedding cere-
mony is performed and the bride led away. The fox
runs on before ; but instead of leading them into
Buhtan's miserable hut^ he takes them to an enchanted
palace^ after having, by a tricky chased out of it the
serpent, the crow, and the cock that inhabited it/ — Poor
Kuszinka has only one cock and five hens remaining.
He takes the fox by surprise whUst he is attempting to
eat his, hens, but moved by the fox's prayers, releases
him. Then the grateful fox promises to transform him
into Cosimo the swiftly-enriched. The fox goes into the
Tzar's park and meets the wolf, who asks him how he is
become so fat ; he answers that he has been banqueting
at the Tzar's palace. The wolf expresses a desire to go
there too, and the fox advises him to invite forty times
forty more wolves (that is 1600 wolves). The wolf
follows his advice, and brings them all to the Tzar's
palace, upon which the fox tells the Tzar that Cosimo
the swiftly-emiched sends them to him as a gift. The
Tzar marvels at the great riches of Cosimo ; the fox uses
the same stratagem twice again with the bears and the
martens. After this, he asks the Tzar to lend him a
silver bushel, pretending that all Cosimo's golden bushels
are full of money. The Tzar gives it, and when the fox
sends it back, he leaves a few small coins at the bottom,
returning it with the request that the Tzar would give
his daughter to Cosimo in marriage. The Tzar answers
that he must first see the pretender to her hand. The
fox then makes Cosimo fall into the water, and arrays
him in robes lent by the Tzar, who receives him with

^ Afanasdeff, iv. 10.

136 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

every honour. After , some time, the Tzar signifies his
desire of visiting Cosimo's dwelling. The fox goes on
before, and finds on the way flocks of sheep, and herds
of hogs, cows, horses, and camels. He asks of all the
shepherds to whom they belong, and is uniformly
answered, "To the serpent -uhlan." The fox orders
them to say that they belong to Cosimo the swiftly-
enriched, or else they will see King Fire and Queen
Loszna,^ who will burn ever5rthing to ashes. He comes
to the palace of white stone, where the king serpent-
uhlan lives. He terrifies him in the same way, and
compels him to take refuge in the trunk of an oak-tree,
where he is burnt to death. Cosimo, the swiftly-enriched,
becomes Tzar of all the possessions of the uhlan-serpent
and enjoys them with his bride. ^ (I need not dwell
upon the mythological importance of this story; the
serpent consumed by fire is found in the most primitive
myths ; here the canis-vulpes, the red bitch, the fox seems
to play part of the role of the Vedic messenger-bitch.)

In the first story of Afanassieff, the fox chases the
hare, instead of the serpent, out of its home. The fox
has a house of ice and the hare one of wood. At the
arrival of spring, the fox's house melts ; then the fox,
under the pretext of warming itself, enters the hare's
house and sends its occupant away. The hare weeps,
and the dogs come to chase the fox away, but it cries

^ It is here, perhaps, to be remarked that in the Piedmontese dialect
lightning is called loszna.

2 Afanassiefff iv. 11. In the fourth story of the second book of the
Fentameronej instead of a fox, it is the cat that enriches Pippo Gagliufo
and runs before him. In the same way as in the Russian stories the
man shows himself ungrateful towards the fox, so in the Pentamerone
the cat ends by cursing the ungrateful Pippo Gagliufo whom she had
done good to. In the following story the fox offers herself as com-
panion to the young bride who is looking for her lost husband.

THE FOX AND THE COCK, 137

out from its seat by the stove, that when it leaps out,
whoever is caught will be torn into a thousand pieces ;
hearing which, the dogs run away in terror. The bear
comes, and then the bull, but the fox terrifies them too.
At last the cock comes up with a scythe, and loudly
summons it to come out or be cut to pieces. The
terrified fox jumps out and the cock cuts it to pieces
with the scythe. In another story of Little Eussia, men-
tioned by Afanassieff in the observations to the first book
of his stories, the fox, on the contrary, is the victim
which the hairy goat wishes to expel from its home.
Several animals, wolf, lion, and bear, present themselves
to help it, but the cock alone succeeds in expelling the
intruder. Here the cock appears as the friend of the
fox and the enemy of the goat. In the twenty-third
story of the third book of Afanassieff, the fox defends
the sheep against the wolf, who accuses it of having
dressed itself in his skin, and brings about the ruin of
the wolf by its craftiness. In the third story of the
fourth book, the cat and the lamb release the cock from
the fox ; these contradictions are explained by the double
mythical significance which we have attributed above to
the fox, and by its double appearance as aurora in the
evening and in the morning. In the evening, it generally
cheats the hero ; in the morning it cheats the monster.
In the second story of the fourth book of Afanassieff,
the fox requests the cock to come down from a tree to
confess itself to him. The cock does so, and is about to
be eaten by the fox, but it flatters him so much that he
lets it escape again. (The solar cock, supposed to be in
the fox's power at night, escapes from it and comes forth
again in the morning.) The third story of the fourth
book gives us the interesting text of the words sung by
the fox to deceive the cock :

138 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

" Little cock, little cock,
With the golden crest,
With the buttered head.
With the forehead of curdled milk !
Show yourself at the window ;
I will give you some gruel
In a red spoon." ^

The cock, when caught by the fox, invokes the cat's
assistance, crying, "Me the fox has carried away; he
carried away me, the cock, into the gloomy forest, into
distant lands, into foreign lands, into the three times
ninth (twenty-seventh) earth, into the thirtieth king-
dom ; cat Catonaievic, deliver me ! "

^ " Pietush6k, pietushok,

Zalatoi grebeshok,

Mdsliannaja galovka,

Smiatanij lobok !

Vighliani v oshko \

Dam tebie kashki,

Na krasnoi loszkie."
In an unpublished Tuscan story which I heard related at Antignano
near Leghorn, a chicken wishes to go with its father (the cock) into
the Maremma to search for food. Its father advises it not to do so
for fear of the fox, but the chicken insists upon going ; on the way it
meets the fox, who is about to eat it, Avhen the chicken beseeches him
to let it go into the Maremma, where it will fatten, lay eggs, bring up
young chickens, and be able to provide the fox with a much more sub-
stantial meal than it now could. The fox consents. The chicken brings
up a hundred young ones ; when they are grown up, they set out to
return home ; every fowl carries in its mouth an ear of millet, except
the youngest. On the way they meet the fox waiting for them \ on
seeing all these animals each with a straw in its beak, the astonished
fox asks the mother-hen what it is they carry. ** All fox's tails," she
answers, upon which the fox takes to its heels. — We find the fox's
tail in connection with ears of corn in the legend of Samson 3 the
incendiary fox is also found in Ovid's Fasti, iv. 705 ; (from the malice
with which the story-teller (a woman) relates the fable, it is probable
that the fox's tail has here also a phallic meaning). — In Sextus Empiriciis
we read that a fox's tail hung on the arm of a weak husband is of
great use to him.

THE GLORY OF THE FOX. 139

The knavish actions of the fox, however, are far more
celebrated in the West than in the East. A proverb says
that, to write all the perfidious knaveries of the fox, all
the cloth manufactured at Ghent, turned into parchment,
would not be sufficient. This proverb justifies me in
saying but little of it, as I am unable to say as much as
I should wish. Greeks and Latins are unanimous in
celebrating the sagacity and perfidy of the fox. The cynic
Macchiavelli, in the eighteenth chapter of the Principe,
asserts that a good prince must imitate two animals, the
fox and the lion, (must, that is to say, have deceit and
strength), but especially the fox ; and this answers to
the sentence attributed by Plutarch (in the Memorahle
Sayings of the Greeks) to Lysander, " Where the lion's
skin does not suffice, put on that of the fox." Aristotle,
in the ninth book of the History of Animals, also con-
siders the fox as the serpent's friend, probably because of
the analogy existing between them in respect of per-
fidiousness, according to another Greek saying, viz.,
"He who hopes to triumph, must arm himself with the
strength of the lion and the prudence of the serpent." A
proverbial Latin verse says —

"Vulpes amat fraudem, lupus agnam, fsemina laudem."

There is scarcely an animal which is not deceived by
the fox in Greek and Latin fable ; the fox alone does not
succeed in deceiving the fox. In ^lEsop, the fox who has
lost his tail in a trap endeavours to persuade the other
foxes of the uselessness of that appendage ; but the latter
answer that he would not have given them such advice
Avere he not aware that a tail is a useful member. The
fox deceives the ass, giving it up a prey to the lion (as
in the Pancatantram) ; it deceives the hare by ofierino-
it as a prey to the dog, who, pursuing the hare, loses

140 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

both, hare and fox ; ^ it deceives the goat, by cozening it
into the well that it may escape out of it, and then leaving
it there to its fate ; it cheats in several ways now the cock,
now the wolf; and it imposes upon even the powerful
king of beasts, whom, however, he sometimes cannot
deceive. A graceful apologue of Thomas Morus shows
us the counterpart of the Hellenic fable of the fox and
the sick lion, that is to say, the sick fox visited by
the lion : —

'* Dum jacet angusta vulpes segrota caverna

Ante fores blando constitit ore leo.
Etquid, arnica, vale. Cito, me lambente, valebiS,

Nescis in lingua vis mihi quanta mea.
Lingua tibi medica est, vulpes ait, at nocet illud

Vicinos, quod liabet, tarn bona lingua, males."

But when we come down to the Middle Ages, the fable
of the fox develops into such manifoldness, that the study
of all the phases in which it unfolds itself ought to be
the subject of a special work.^ Suffice it to notice here
that, to popularise in Flanders, and subsequently in
France and Germany, the idea of the fox as the type of
every species of malice and imposture, it is the priest
who, for the most part, is the human impersonation of
the masculine Eeinart. The Procession du Renart is

1 Thus, in the myth of Kephalos, his dog cannot, by a decree of
fate, overtake the fox ; but inasmuch as, on the other hand, no one
also, by decree of fate, can escape from the dog of Kephalos, dog and
fox are both, by the command of Zeus, changed into stone (the two
auroras, or dying sun and dying moon).

2 This work has, on the other hand, been already almost accomplished,
as regards the Franco- Germanic part, in the erudite and interesting
introduction (pp. 5-163) which Ch. Potvin has prefixed to his trans-
lation into verse of the Roman du Renard, Paris, Bohn^ ; Bruxelles,
Lacroix, 1861. I am told that Professor Schiefner read a discourse
two years since at St Petersburg upon the story of the fox, but I do
not know whether it has been published.

THE ROMISH FOX. 141

famous; it was a farce conceived in 1313 by Philippe le
Bel, on account of his quarrel with Pope Boniface VIII.,
and acted by the scholars of Paris. The principal per-
sonage was a man disguised in the skin of a fox, and
wearing over all a priest's surplice, whose chief industry
it was to give chase to chickens. This form of satire,
however, directed against the Church, is certainly much
older than those times, and goes back to the epoch of the
first differences between the Church and the Empire in
the eleventh century, at which time two mediseval Latin
poems appeared, Reinardus Vulpes and Ysengrimus ;
with the schism of England and the Eeformation of the
sixteenth century, however, Heinardtis Vulpes decisively
became a Eomish fox. The finesse and perfection of the
satirical poem which S. Naylor, its English translator,
calls " the unholy bible of the world," also increased the
fox's popularity, and made it yet more proverbial. The
principal subjects of the poem existed previously, not
only in oral, but also in literary tradition ; they were
grouped together and put in order, and a more human,
more malicious nature was given to the fox, a nature
more hypocritical even than before, and more priestly,
whence it now more than ever —

" Urbibus et castris regnat et ecclesiis/'

Macchiavelli, St Ignazio di Loyola, and St Vincenzo
de' Paoli took upon themselves the charge of propagatino-
its type over the whole world.

The wolf is better, when he is a wolf, for then we
know at least what he wants ; we knoAv that he is our
enemy, and are accordingly on our guard ; but he, too,
sometimes disguises himself, by imposture or magic, as a
sheep, a shepherd, a monk, or a penitent, like Yscngrin ;
and from this point of view resembles not a little his

142 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

perfidious god-mother the fox ; it is well known that
amongst the exploits of Eeinart there is that of his extra-
matrimonial union with the she- wolf
■ In the Rigvedas we already find several interesting
mythical data concerning the wolf ; he is in it entirely
demoniacal, as the exhausted Vrikas, to which, in a hymn,
the Ajvinau give back its strength/ seems, as it appears
to me, not to be the wolf, but the messenger crow which,
during the night, must carry the solar hero.

As in the Zendic Vendidad,^ the souls of good men,
when on the way to heaven, are afraid of meeting the
wolf, so in the Rigvedas, the devotee says that once the
reddish wolf (which seems to be confounded here with
the jackal or the fox) saw him coming on the way, and
fled in terror ; ^ he invokes the (luminous) night to send
the wolf, the robber far away,^ and the god Pushan (the
sun) to remove the evil wolf, the malignant spirit, from
the path of the devotees, the wolf that besieges the roads,
thieving, fraudulent, double-dealing.^ The poet, after
having called the enemy Vrikas, prays, with impre-
cations, that he may lacerate his own body ;^ and the wild
beast, full of witchcraft/ which Indras kills, is probably

^ Vrik^ya 6i^ ^asamaniya 9aktam; Rigv. vii. 68, 8. — The grateful
wolf and crow are found united to assist Ivan Tzarevi6 in the twenty-
fourth story of the second book of Afanassieff.

2 xix. 108, 109.

^ Aruno raa sakrid vrikah path^ yantam dadarga hi u^ ^ihite
nid^yya; Rigv, i. 105, 18.

^ Yavay^ vrikyam vrikarh yavaya stenam urmya; Rigv. x. 127, 6.
— A wolf seen in a dream, according to Cardano, announces a robber.

^ Yo nail pushann agho vriko duhgeva ^didegati apa sma tvam
patho gahi — Paripanthinam mashi vanarii huragtSitam — D vayavinah ;
Rigv. i. 42, 2-4.

^ Svayarii ripus tanvam ririshishta; Rigv. vi. 51, 6, 7.

^ }iliyinam mrigam ; J}igv, i. 80, 7.

THE LUPUS PISCATOR, 143

a wolf. But, besides this, I think I can find in the
Rigvedas the ' lupus piscator of Eussian and Western
tradition ; (according to iElianos there were wolves
friendly to fishermen near the Palus Moeotis.) In the
fifty-sixth hymn of the eighth book, Matsyas (the fish)
invokes the Adityas (that is, the luminous gods) to free
him and his from the jaws of the wolf. So in another
strophe of the same hymn, we must in reason suppose
that it is a fish that speaks when she who has a terrible
son (^'.e., the mother of the sun) is invoked as protectress
from him who in the shallow waters endeavours to kill
him.^ We also find a fish lying in shallow water ex-
plicitly mentioned in another hymn ; ^ which proves to us
the image of the fish w^ithout water, which was widely
developed in later Hindoo tradition, to have been in the
Vedic age already a familiar one. We find the dog as
the enemy of the wolf in the Hindoo words vrihdris
vrikdrdtis, and vriJcadangas. (In the thirteenth story of
the fourth book of Afaiiassieff, the wolf wishes to eat the
dog ; the latter, who feels himself too weak to resist, begs
the wolf to bring him something to eat, in order that he
may become larger, and be more tender for the wolfs
teeth ; but when he is in good condition, he acquires
strength and makes the wolf run. The enmity of the
dog and the wolf was also made popular in the ^sopian
fables.)

In the Rdmdyanam^ we already meet with the pro-

^ Te na asno vrik^nim idity^so mumo6ata; Rigv. viii. 56, 14. —
Parshi dine gabhira an ugraputre ^igh^nsatah ; Rigv. viii. b^^ 11.

2 Matsyam na dina udani kshiyantam ; Rigv. x. 68, 8.

3 iii. 45. — In the twenty-second night of the Tuti-Name^ the
wolf enters, on the contrary, into the house of the jackal ; here wolf
and jackal are already distinguished in it from one another, — that is,
us red wolf and black wolf.

144 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

verbial expression of tlie sheep who do not increase when
guarded by the wolf or jackal (rakshayamin^ na vardhante
mesh^ gomayuna).

In the Mahdhlidratam, the second of the three sons of
Kuntl, the strong, terrible, and voracious Bhimas, is called
Wolf s-belly (Vrikodaras, the solar hero enclosed in the
nocturnal or winter darkness). Here the wolf has a
heroic and sympathetic form, as in the Tuti-Name ^ he, .
although famished, shows compassion upon a maiden who
travels to fulfil a promise ; as in the same Tuti-Name ^ he
helps the lion against the mice, and in the story of Ardschi
Bordschi, the boy, son of a wolf, understands the language
of wolves, and teaches it to the merchants with whom he
lives ; like the Eussian she-wolf that gives her milk to
Ivan Karolievic, in order that he may take it to the
witch, his wife, who induced him to fetch it in the hope
that he would thereby meet with his death ;^ and like the
she- wolf of the fifteenth Esthonian story, who comes up
on hearing the cry of a child, and gives its milk to nourish
it. The story tells us that the shape of a wolf was
assumed by the mother of the child herself, and that
when she was alone, she placed her wolf-disguise upon a
rock, and appeared as a naked woman to give milk to
her child. The husband, informed of this, orders that
the rock be heated, so that when the wolfs skin is again
placed upon it, it may be burnt, and he may thus be able
to recognise and take back to himself his wife. The she-
wolf that gives her milk to the twin-brothers, Eomulus
and Eemus, in Latin epic tradition, was no less a woman
than the nurse- wolf of the Esthonian story.^ The German

1 i. 253. 2 i. 271.

3 Cfr. Afanassieff, vi. 51, v. 27, and v. 28.

* It is also said that the nurse of the Latin twins was a strumpet,
because liipoe or lupance foeminos were names given to such women,

THE SHADOW OF THE WOLF. 145

hero Wolfdieterich, the wolves who hunt for the hero in
Eussian stories, sacred to Mars and to Thor as their
hunting dogs, have the same benignant nature. (The
evening aurora disguises herself in the night with a
wolf's skin, nourishes as a she-wolf the new-born solar
hero, and in the morning puts down her wolfs skin upon
the fiery rock of the East, and finds her husband again.)
What Solinus tells us of the Neuri, viz., that they trans-
formed themselves into wolves at stated periods ; and
what used to be narrated of the Arcadians, to the effect
that when they crossed a certain marsh, they became
wolves for eight years, — suggests us a new idea of the
zoological transformations of the solar hero.^ In La
Fontaine,^ the shadow of the wolf makes the sheep flee
in the evening. As a hero transformed, the wolf has a
benignant aspect in legends. According to Baronius, in
the year 617, a number of wolves presented themselves

■whence also tlie name of lupanaria given to tlie liouses to which they
resorted: "Abscondunt spurcas haec monumenta lupas.'* Olaus Magnus
■wrote, that "wolves, attracted by smell, attack pregnant "women, whence
the custom that no pregnant woman should go out unless accompanied
by an armed man. The ancients believed that the phallos of the
wolf roasted and eaten weakened the Venus.

^ In the Legendes et Croyances Superstitieuses de la Creitse, collected
by Bonnafoux, Gu^ret, 1867, p. 27, we read concerning the loup
garoil, xhat the wolf thanks whoever wounds him. It is said that
they who are disguised in th^ skin of the loup garou are condemned
, ^souls : "Chaqr i' Jh "wTllJ!?-^ forces d'aller chercher la maudite peau
k un endroit c -in r^cii- liW®"^ ainsi jusqu'k ce qu'ils rencontrent
.me ame charii^ \ise qui les d^livre en les blessant.'*

2 u^ ^ secojf^t nuit

^^'-^^rousso^^^^™^^^'

?

Un loiip.i pl^ii^i le troupeau s'enfuit
Ce n'^tait p. I'S Uoup, ce n'en etait que Tombre.*'
The sheep were right, hov.r'fer, to flee. In the Udda^ the fourth
swallow says, *' When I see t!'yi wolfs ears, I think that the wolf is not
far off." The twilight is the (shadow or ear of the wolf.

VOL. II. ' K

146 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

at a monastery, and tore in pieces several friars "who
entertained heretical opinions. The wolves sent by God
tore the sacrilegious thieves of the army of Francesco
Maria, Duke of Urbino, who had come to sack the
treasure of the holy house of Loreto. A wolf guarded
and defended from the wild beasts the head of St
Edmund the Martyr, King of England. St Oddo, Abbot
of Cluny, assailed in a pilgrimage by foxes, was delivered
and escorted by a wolf; thus a woH showed the way to
the beatified Adam, in the same Avay as, in IlerodotoSy
the wolves served as guides to the priests of Ceres. A
wolf, having devoured two mares which drew a cart, was
forced by St Eustorgius to draw the cart in their stead,
and obeyed his orders. St Norbert compelled a wolf,
first to let a sheep go after having clutched it, and then
to guard the sheep aU day without touching them. We
read of the youth of the ancient Syracusan hero Hielon
that, being at school, a wolf carried off* his tablets in order
to make him pursue it ; no sooner was Hielon out,
than the wolf re-entered the school, and massacred the
master and the other scholars.

And even after his death the wolf is useful. The
ancients believed that a wolfs hide, when put on by one
who had been bitten by a mad dog, was a charm against
hydroj)hobia. According to Pliny, wolfs teeth rubj:»^a on
the gums of children during teething relieve°o^ the pain
(which is quite credible, but any t^-"- ^^^ ^^--^ooth Avould
serve the same purpose, by maki#'^ii-brother^^-[; sooner).
In Sicily it is believed that a wn? 'W'as no Ifucreases the
courage of whoever puts it os^ii story.* ^ province of
Girgcnti shoes arc made of wolfs/ Jr children whom

their parents wish to grow up / ^^ag, brave, and pug-
nacious. The animals themselji^ that are ridden by
persons who wear these shoes mre cured of thci|: pain.

WOLF'S SKIN— THE LOUP GAROU, 147

The animal allupatu (that is, which has once been bitten
hj a wolf) becomes invulnerable, and never feels any-
other kind of pain. It is also believed in Sicily that when
a wolfs skin is exposed in the open air, it causes drums
to break when they are beaten. This superstition re-
minds us of the fable of the fox that kills itself by break-
ing the drum or biting the string of a bow ; the mythical
drum (that is, the cloud) is destroyed when the wolfs
skin is taken off. In ^sop's fable, the wolf 3 skin is
recommended by the fox as a cure for the sick lion.

But the wolf of tradition usually has a perverse or
cUabolical signification ; and as the demon is represented
now as a master of every species of perfidy and wicked- ^
ness, and now as a fool, so is the wolf. In the HeUenie-"^^
myth, Lycaon, King of Arcadia, became a wolf because
he had fed upon human flesh. According to Servius, the
wolves among the people, called for this reason Hirpini
(the Sabine word hirpus meaning a wolf), carried oflf the
entrails of the victim sacrificed to Pluto, and therefore
brought down a pestilence upon the land. Wolves tore
the hero Milon to pieces in the forest. Wolves are an-^
omen of death ; the loup garou of popular French tradi-
tion is a diabolical form.^ In the Edda, the two wolves
SkoU and Hati wish to take, one the sun and the other
the moon ; th^^ ^^. devours the sun, father of the world,
and gives birth^ by tf^aughter. He is then killed by
Vidarr. Hati p^ write, the luminous betrothed of the
ky; the wolf I^^^ l^^'son of the demoniacal Lokis,

seo

^ Lous loups-garous so '^ens coumo nous autes ; mes an he^'t un

^countrat dab lou diable, e c, ') s6 soun fourgatz de se cambia en bestios

^ jer ana au sabbat e courre tL i-to la neyt. Y a per aco un mouy^n de

■ lous goari. Lous can tira f''jng pendent qu' an perdut la forme de

rhome, e asta leu la rept' ** ^on per toutjourj Blad6, Contes et Pro-

verbes Populaires recueili ■ ArmagnaCj Paris, 1867, p. 5L

/

148 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

chained by the Ases, bites off the hand that the hero
Tyr, as an earnest of the good faith of the Ases, had put
into his month/ when chained to the western gate.
Nanna, of the Pentamerone, after having travelled over
the world, is disguised in the shape of a wolf, and
changes in character and in colour, becoming malicious ;
the three sons of the Finns go to inhabit the Valley of the
Wolf, near the Wolfs Lake, and find there three women
spinning, who can transform themselves into swans.
On Christmas Eve, the King Helgi meets a witch who
rides upon a wolf, having eagles for bridles.^ Wolves
eat each other ; the wolf Sinfiolti becomes a eunuch ; the
wolf who flees before the hero is an omen of victory, as
well as the wolf who howls under the branches of an ash-
tree. (The howling of the wolf, the braying of the ass, the
hissing of the serpent, announce the death of the de-
moniacal monster ; this howling must necessarily take
place in the morning, or the spring, when the hero has
recovered his strength, as the Edda says that "a hero
must never fight towards sunset)." If Gunnar (the solar
hero) loses his life, the wolf becomes the master of the
treasure, and of the heritage of Nifl ; the heroes roast the

^ We ought perhaps to add here the tradition oiAeeTvy G'^esarius
Heisterbacensis of a wolf who, biting the arn^ — o t ^^^j^ ctracrg }ier to
a place where there is another wolf; th^Ling rCghe cries the more
fiercely the wolf bites her. The other t^jJu iiiSa bone in his throat,
which the girl extracts ; here the girl tii;win-bpi^ce of the crane or
stork of the fable ; the bone may be no^M oon, now the snn.

2 In another passage in the Edda, t| ' gle sits upon the wolf.
According to the Latin legend of the ^^ ^dation of Lavinium, the
Trojans saw a singular prodigy. A fire | res in the woods ; the wolf
brings dry twigs in his mouth to make/ C burn better, and the eagle
helps him by fanning the flames with I is wings. The fox, on the
other hand, dips its brush in the river tol^^ut out the fire with it, but
does not succeed. fG

YSENGRIN, 149

wolf. All these legendary particulars relating to the
wolf in the Edda concur in showing us the wolf as a
gloomy and diabolical monster. The night and the'
winter is the time of the wolf spoken of in the Voluspa ;
the gods who enter, according to the German tradition,
into wolves' skins, represent the sun as hiding himself in
the night, or the snowy season of winter (whence the
demoniacal white wolf of a Eussian story,^ in the midst
of seven black wolves). Inasmuch as the .__solaiLJiero ^..
becom es a wolf , he has a diyin e natu re ; in_asmuch, on „
the contrary, as the wolf is the proper form of the devil,
his nature is entirely malignant. The condemned man,—
the proscribed criminal, the bandit, the utlagatus or 6nt-^'^
law^were said in the Middle Ages to wear a caput lupi-
num (in England, ivulfesheofod ; in France, teste Iceue).
The wolf Ysengrin, descended partly from the ^Esopianj
wolf, and partly from Scandinavian myths, which were J
propagated in Germany, Flanders, and France, possesses i-
much of the diabolical craftiness of the fox ; he usually--^
adopts against sheep the same stratagems which the fox
makes use of to entrap chickens. The French proverb
makes the fox preach to the fowls ; the Italian proverb
makes the wolf sing psalms when he wishes to ensnare
the sheep. As we have seen the jackal and the fox con-
founded in the East, so Eeinart and Ysengrin are some-
times identified by their cunning in Western tradition.
A recent French writer, who had observed the^^bitajif
the wolf, says that he is " efii^ayant de sagacite et de
calcul."^ In the seco.ad story of the second book of
9

^ Cfr. Afanassieff, iii. 19.

2 Les loups, qui ont tres (pen d'amis en France, et qui sont obliges
d'apporter dans toutes leursj d-marches une excessive prudence, chas-
sent presque toujours k la^^iuette. J'ai 6t6 plusieurs fois en position
d'admirer la profondeur dc^ leurs combinaisons strat^giques ; c*est

150 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

Afanassieff, tlie same wizard-wolf who knew how to
imitate the goat's voice to deceive the kids, goes to the
house of an old man and an old woman, who have five
sheep, a horse, and a calf. The wolf comes and begins
to sing. The old woman admires the song, and gives
him one sheep, then the others, then the horse, next the
calf, and finally herself. The old man, left alone, at last
succeeds in hunting the wolf aM^ay. In the preceding
story, where the animals accuse each other, the de-
moniacal wolf, when his turn comes, accuses God. We
have already spoken of the wolf who, by the order of St
Eustorgius, draws the cart instead of the mares which he
had eaten. In the twenty-fifth story of the third book
of Afanassieff, the wolf comes up to the sleeping work-
man, and smells him ; the workman awakes, takes the
wolf by the tail,^ and kills him. Another time the same
workman, when he goes with his father to the chase,
after having enriched himself Avith money which he had
taken from three brigands who had hidden it in a deserted
mill, meets again with two wolves who eat the horses,
but, entangling themselves in the reins, they are com-
pelled to draw the car home again themselves; here,
therefore, we have the miracle of St Eustorgius reduced
to its natTiral mythical proportions. Here, evidently, the
wolf begins to show himself as a stupid animal ; the

effrayant de sagacity et de calcnl; Toussenel, V Esprit des Betes, ch. i. —
And Aldrovandi, De Quadrup. Dig. Viv. ii. " Lupi omnem vim
ingenii naturalem in ovibus insidiando 'exercent ; noctu enim ovili
appropinquantes, pedes lambunt, ne strejitiTm in gradiendo edant, et
foliis obstrepentibus pedes quasi reos mordent."

^ In Piedmont it is also said in jest, (that a man once met a wolf
and thrust his hand down its throat, so far down that it reached its
tail on the other side ; he then pulled thf tail inside the wolf's body
and out through its throat, so that the wolf, turned inside out, expired.

THE WOLF AND THE DWARF. 151

demon teaches his art to the little solar hero in the even-
ing, and is betrayed by the hero himself in the morning ;
the fox cheats the solar cock in the evening, and is de-
ceived by it in the morning ; the wolf succeeds by his
wickedness in the evening, and is ruined in the morning.
We have already mentioned the Norwegian story of the
little Schmierbock, who, put into a sack by the witch,
twice makes a hole in the sack and escapes, and the third
time makes the witch eat her own daughter. Schmier-
bock is the ram ; the witch or night puts him into the
sack. In the Piedmontese story,^ and in the Russian one,
instead of Schmierbock, we have Piccolino (the very
little one), and the Small Little Finger (malcik-s palcik,
that is, the little finger, which is the wise one, according
to popular superstition). The Russian story is as follows :
An old woman, while baking a cake (the moon), cuts off
her little finger and throws it into the fire. From the little
finger in the fire, a dwarf, but very strong son, is born,
who afterwards does many wonderful things. One day
he was eating the tripe of an ox in the forest ; the wolf
passes by, and eats dwarf and tripe together. After this,

1 In an unpublished, though very popular Piedmontese story,
Piccolino is upon a tree eating figs ; the wolf passes by and asks him
for some, threatening him thus : " Piculin, dame un fig, dass no, i t
mangiu." Piccolino throws him down two, which are crushed upon
the wolfs nose. Then the wolf threatens to eat him if he does not
bring him a fig down ; Piccolino comes down, and the wolf puts him
in a sack and carries him towards his house, where the mother-wolf is
"waiting for him. But on the way the wolf is pressed by a corporeal
necessity, and is obliged to ,go on the roadside; meanwhile, Piccolino
makes a hole in the sack, comes out and puts a stone in his place.
The wolf returns, shoulders the sack, but thinks that Piccolino has
become much heavier. He goes home and tells the she-wolf to be
glad, and prepare the cauldron full of hot water ; he then empties the
sack into the cauldron \ thqi stone makes the boiling water spurt out
upon the wolf^s head, and he is scalded to death.

152 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

the wolf approaches a flock of sheep, but the dwarf cries
out from within the wolf, "Shepherd, shepherd, thou
sleepest and the wolf carries off a sheep." The shepherd
then chases the wolf away, who endeavours to get rid of
his troublesome guest ; the dwarf requests the wolf to
carry him home to his parents ; no sooner have they
arrived there than the dwarf comes out behind and
catches hold of the wolfs tail, shouting, ''Kill the wolf,
kill the grey one." The old people come out and kill it.^
The mythical wolf dies now after only one night, now
after only one winter of life. To the mythical wolf, how-
ever, bastard sons were born7-who, ^hmging omy~Eheir
skin, succeeded in living for a long period among mortals
J in the midst of civil society, preserving;, jievertheless,
their wolf-like habits. The French proverb says, ''Le
loup alia a Eome ; il y laissa de son poll et rien de ses
coutumes." The pagan she- wolf gave milk to the Eoman
heroes ; the Catholic wolf, thunderstruck by Dante,^ on
the contrary, feeds upon them —

" Ed lia natura si malvagia e ria,

Che mai non empie la bramosa voglia,

E dopo il pasto ha piu fame che pria.

Molti son gli animali a cui s'ammoglia.''

^ Cfr. the well-known English fairy-tales of Tom Thumb and Hop-
o'-my-Thumb. ^ Inferno, c. L

CHAPTEE XIIL

THE LION, THE TIGER, THE LEOPARD, THE PANTHER,
AND THE CHAMELEON,

SUMMARY.

Xion and tiger symbols of royal majesty, — Tvashtar as a lion. — The

hair of Tvashtar in the iire. — Winds that roar like lions. — The

lion-seducer. — The lion and the honey; the lion and riches. —

N"oMlg§age \he lion. — The lion's part. — The monster lioness. —

• 'I XT' \ick lion ; the lion with a thorn in its foot. — Monster

,-. -al lions. — The lion is afraid of the cock. — Sterility

'>16 S3iin6 J)»
ofVii^ ^.^... Jhe story of Atalanta. — The snn in the sign Leo.—

The virgin and the lion. — Qivas, Dionysos, and the tiger. — A hair

from the tiger's tail ; the Mantikora. — The chameleon ; the god

chameleon.

The tiger and tlie lion have in India the same dignity,
and are both supreme symbols of royal strength and
majesty/ The tiger of men and the lion of men are
two expressions equivalent to prince, as the prince is
supposed to be the best man. It is strength that gives
victory and superiority in natural relations ; therefore
the tiger and the lion, called kings of beasts, represent

^ H^rakl^s, Hektor, Achilli^s, among the Greek heroes j "Wolfdieterich,
and several other heroes of Germanic tradition, have these animals for
their ensigns; the- lion is the 1 steed of the hero Hildebrand. Cfr. Die
Deutsche Heldensage von Wiljhelm Grimm, Berlin, Diimmler, 1867. —
When Agarista and Philip dreamed of a lion, it was considered an
augury, the one of the birt-h of Pericles, and the other of that of
Alexander the Great. i

154 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

the king in tlie civic social relations among men. The
narasinhas of India was called, in the Middle Ages, the
king par excellence; thus in Greece the king was also
called leon.

The myth of the lion and the tiger is essentially an
Asiatic one ; notwithstanding this, a great part of it was
developed in Greece, where lion and tiger were at one
time not unknown, and must have, as in India, inspired
something like that religious terror caused by oriental
kings.

We have already mentioned the Vedic monster lion of
the West, in w^hich we recognise the expiring sun. The
strong Indras, kiUer of the monster, Vritras, is also repre-
sented as a lion. In the same v/ay as the Jewish Samson
is found in coniLection "udth the lion, an(^b say&7"" with
honey, and as the strength of the lion and^^t rien de ses
is said to be centred in the hair (the sui/ to the Eor'^-.des
his rays or mane, loses all his strength), so in the
parallel myth of Indras we find analogous circumstances.
Tvashtar, the Hindoo celestial blacksmith, M^ho makes
weapons now for the gods and now for the demons (the
reddish sky of morning and of evening is likened to
a burning forge ; the solar hero or the sun in this forge,
is a blacksmith), is also represented in a Vedic hymn^ as
a lion, turned towards which, towards the west, heaven
and earth rejoice, although (on account of the din made
by him when coming into the woild) they are, before all,
terrified. The form of a lion is one of the favourite shapes
created by the mythical and legendary blacksmith.

In the Mdrhandeya-P.,'^ this same Tvashtar (which
the Rigvedas represents' as a lion), wishing to avenge
. .[

1 Ublie tvaslitur bibhyatur ^^yam^ii^t pratidi sinham prati ^osbayete ;
^igv. i. 95, 5. ^ v.

THE BURNED HAIRS OF THE LION. 155

himself upon the god Indras, who had (perhaps at morn)
killed one of his sons, creates another son, Vritras (the
coverer), by tearing a lock of hair off his head and
throwing it into the fire (the sun burns every evening in
the western forge, his rays or mane, and the gloomy
monster of night is born). Indras makes a truce with
Vritras (in Eussian stories, heroes and monsters nearly
always challenge each other to say before fighting
whether they will have peace or war), and subsequently
violates the treaty ; for this perfidy he loses his strength,
which passes into M4rutas, the son of the wind (the
Hanumant of the Rdmdyanam, In a Vedic hymn, the
voice of the Marutas is compared to the roar of lions),^
and into the three brothers P4ndavas, sons of Kunti
(the passage of the legend from tHe Vedas to the two
principal Hindoo epic poems is thus indicated). Thus,
in the same Mdrkandeya-P., Indras, having violated
Ahaly4, the wife of Gautamas, loses his beauty (in other
Puranic legends he becomes a eunuch or has a thousand
wombs. Indras is powerful as the sun ; he is powerful,
too, in the cloud, by means of the thunderbolt ; but
when he hides himself in the serene and starry sky, he is
powerless), which passes to the two AgvinAu, who after-
wards renew themselves in the two P4ndavAu sons of
Madri, as the sons of the demons were personified in the
sons of Dhritar^shtras.

Tvashtar, the creator, now of divine, now of monstrous
forms, Tvashtar the lion, must necessarily create leonine
forms. In a Tuscan story, the blacksmith makes a lion
by means of which Argcntofo penetrates by night into

1 Te svanino riidriya, varslianirni^'iili sinht^ na hesliakratavah suda-
iiavah ; Rir/v. iii. 26, 5. — In the Bohemian story of grandfather
VsievedaSj the young hero is sent by the prince who wishes to ruin
him to take the three golden Lairs of this grandfather (the sun).

iS6 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

the room of a young princess, with whom he unites him-
self. In the third story of the fourth book of the Penta-
merone, the three prince brothers, when the fairy's curse
is over, return home with their brides, drawn by sis
lions. This lion-seducer reminds us of Indras, who was
also a lion and a seducer of women. A h3rnin tells us
that Indras fights like a terrible lion ;^ in another hymn,
the same lion is considered, as in the legend of Samson,
in connection with honey. ^ In the twenty-second night
of the Tuti-Name, the lion presents himself in connection
with riches ; flattered by a man who calls him a king, he
lets him collect the riches scattered on the ground by a
caravan which the lion had destroyed,^ His royal nature
is also shown in the Rdmdyanam,^ in which King
Dajarathas says that his son Eamas, the lion of men,
after his exile, will disdain to occupy the kingdom pre-
viously enjoyed by Bharatas, in the same way as the lion
disdains to feed upon flesh which has been licked by
other animals. It is perhaps for this reason that, in the
fable, the lion's part means all the prey. The proud one
becomes the violent one, the tyrant, and hence the
monster. In the Aitareya Br.^ the earth, full of gifts

1 Sinho nabhimaiyudHnibiblirat ; Rigv. iv. 16,*14. Cfr. i. 174, 3.

2 Sinham nasanta madhvo ay^sam harim aru haiii divo asya patim ;
^igv. ix. 89, 3.

2 In tlie Greek apologue, Ptolemy, king of Egypt, wishes to send
some money to Alexander in homage to him ; the mule, the horse, the
ass, and the camel offer themselves of their own accord to carry the
sacks. On the way, they meet the lion, who wishes to join the party,
saying that he too carries money ; but not being accustomed to such
work, he modestly begs the other four to divide his load among them-
selves. They consent ; soon afterwards, passing through a country
rich in herds, the lion feels inclined to stay, and demands his portion
of the money, but as his money resembles that of the others, not to
mistake, he takes by force both his own and theirs,

4 ii. 62. ^ vi. 5, 35.

THE WESTERN LION-SUN. 157

made by the right hand — that is, by the eastern part —
presented by the Adity^s (or luminous gods) to the
Afigirasas (the seven solar rays, the seven wise men, and
hence the priests), attacks, in the evening, the nations
with its mouth wide open, having become a lioness
(sinhibhlitv^). In the Rdmdyanam^ the car that carries
the monster Indra^it is impetuously drawn by four lions.
In the Tuti-Name^ we have the fable of the lion, instead
of the wolf, that accuses the lamb, and the lion who is
afraid of the ass, of the buU (as in the introduction to the
Pancatcmtram), and of the lynx. The Western lion-sun
is now monstrous, now aged, now ill, now has a thorn in
his foot,^ is now blind, and now foolish. The monstrous
lion who guards the monster's dwelling, the infernal
abode, is found in a great number of popular stories. In
Ilellenic tradition the monstrous lion occurs more than
once ; such is the lion that ravages the country of the
King of Megara, who promises his daughter to wife to
the hero that will kill it ; such is the lioness who, with
her bloody jaws (the purple in the dog's mouth and the
meat in the dog's mouth of the myths are of equivalent
import) makes Thysbe's veil bloody, so that when Pyramos
sees it he believes Thysbe to be dead, and kills himself ;

1 V. 43. 2 I 229.

3 The anecdote of Androkles and the lion grateful for having a
thorn extracted from his foot, is also related in almost the same words
of Mentor the Syracusan, Helpis of Samos, the Abbot Gerasimos, St
Jerome and (as to the blinded lion whose sight is given back to him)
of Macharios, the confessor. The thorn in the lion's foot is a zoologi-
cal form of the hero who is vulnerable in his feet. In the sixth of
the Sicilian stories published by Signora Gonzenbach, the boy Giuseppe
takes a thorn out of a lion's foot ; the grateful lion gives him one of
his hairs; by means of this hair, the young man can, in case of
necessity, become a terrible lion, and as such, he bites off the head of
the king of the dragons.

1S8 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

when Thysbe sees this, she too kills herself in despair
(an ancient form of the death of Romeo and Juliet) ;
such is the Nemsean lion strangled by Herakles ; such
the lion of Mount Olympos which the young Polydamos
kills without weapons ; such were the leonine monsters
with human faces which, according to Solinus, inhabited
the Caspian ; such was the Chimsera, part lion, part goat,
and part dragon, and several other mythical figures of
the passage of the evening sun into the gloom of night.

And it is under the conception of the lion as monstrous
that the ancients were unanimous in believing that he
fears above all animals the cock, and especially its fiery
comb. The solar cock of morning entirely destroys the
monsters. In a fable of Achilles Statins, the lion com-
plains that Prometheus had allowed a cock to frighten
him, but soon after consoles himself, upon learning that
the elephant is tormented by the little mosquito that
buzzes in its ears. Lucretius, too, in the fourth book De
Rerum Naturd represents the cock as throwing seeds : —

" Nimirum quia sunt Gallorum in corpore qusgdam
Semina, qu£e cum sint oculis immissa Leonuni
Pupillas interfodiunt acremque dolorem ^
Praebent, ut nequeant contra durare feroces."

Sometimes the hero or god passes into the form of a
lion to vanquish the monsters, like Dionysos, ApoUoUj
Herakles, in Greece, and Indras and Vishnus in India.

1 Thus, the ancients attributed to the lion a particular antipathy to
strong smells, such as garlic, and the pudenda of a woman. But this
superstition must be classed with that which ascribes sterility to the
lioness. The women of antiquity, when they met a lioness, considered
it as an omen of sterility. In the .^Esopian fable, the foxes boast of
their fruitfulness before the lioness, whom they laugh at because she
gives birth to only one cub. ''Yes," she answers, ''but it is a lion ;"
under the sign of the lion, the earth also becomes arid, and conse-
quently unfruitful.

THE SIGN OF THE LION, 159

In the legend of St Marcellus, a lion having appeared to
the saint in a vision as killing a serpent, this appearance
was considered as a presage of good fortune to the enter-
prise of the Emperor Leo in Africa. SometimeSj on the
other handj hero and heroine become lion and lioness by
the vengeance of deities or monsters. Atalanta defies
the pretenders to her hand to outstrip her in running,
and kills those who lose. Hippomenes, by the favour of
the goddess of love, having received three apples from
the garden of the Hesperides, provokes Atalanta to the
race ; on the way, he throws the apples down ; Atalanta
cannot resist the impulse to gather them up, and Hippo-
menes overtakes her, and unites himself with her in the
wood sacred to the mother of the gods ; the offended
goddess transforms the young couple into a lion and a
lioness. In the Gesta Romanorum, a girl, daughter of
the Emperor Vespasian, kills the claimant of her hand in
a garden, in the form of a ferocious lion. Empedokles,
however, considered the transformation into a lion as the
best of aU human metamorphoses. When the sun enters
into the sign of the lion, he arrives at his greatest height
of power ; and the golden crown which the Florentines
placed upon their lion in the public square, on the day of
St John, was a symbol of the approach of the season
which they call by one word alone, sollione. This lion
is enraged, and makes, as it is said, plants and animals
rage. The pagan legend says of Prometheus —

"Insani leonis
Vim stomacho apposuisse nostro."^

But the mythical lion, the sun, docs not inspire the
man with rage alone, but strength also.^

^ Horace, Carm. i. 16.

2 Sculpebant Ethnici auro vel argento leonis imaginem, et ferentes

i6o ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

The tiger, the panther, and the leopard possess several
of the mythical characteristics of the lion as a hidden sun,
with which they are, moreover, sometimes confounded in
their character of omniform animals. The leopard was
sacred to the god Pan, whose nature we akeady know,
and the panther to Protheus and Dionysos, because it is
said to have a liking for wine (we have seen the Vedic
lion Indras in connection with honey, and Indras himself
in connection with the somas), and becauses the nurses
of Dionysos were transformed into panthers, Dionysos
appears now surrounded by panthers, by means of which
he terrifies pirates and puts them to flight, and now
drawn by tigers. Dionysos is at the same time a phallical
and an ambrosial god, and hence the god of wine ; thus
in India, Qivas, the phallical god, far excellence^ and who
is omniform like Tvashtar and Yamas, his almost equiva-
lent forms, has the tiger for his ensign, and is covered
with a tiger s skin. It is a singula!: fact that in Hindoo
tradition a murderous strength is attributed to the tiger's
tail. A Hindoo proverb says that a hair of the tiger s
tail may be the cause of losing one's life,^ which naturally
suggests to our minds the tiger Mantikora,^ which has

hujusmodi simulacra generosiores et audaciores evadere dicebantur ;
idcirco non est mirum si Aristoteles (in lib. de Seer. Seer.) seripserit
annulum ex auro vel argento, in quo eoelata sit ieon puellas equitantis
leonem die et hora solis vagantis in domieilio leonis gestantes, ab
omnibus honorari; Aldrovandi, Be Quadrup. Dig. Viv. i. — In the signs
of the Zodiae, Virgo eomes after upon Leo ; Christians also celebrate the
assumption of the Virgin into heaven towards the middle of August,
v'hen the sun passes from the sign of the lion into that of the virgin.

^ Cfr. Bohtlingk, Indische Si^^ruche, 2te Aufiage, i. 1.

2 Ktesias explains this word as " devourer of men," but by means
of Sanskrit it can only be explained by substituting to the initial m
one of the words that signify man, such as nara, cjana, manava^
mdnusha, (fee. Antikora would seem to be derived from the Sanskrit
antakara = destroyer, who puts an end to, killer.

THE CHAMELEON, i6i

in its tail hairs which are darts thrown by it to defend
itself, and are spoken of by Ktesias, in Paiisanias,

Finally, having considered the tiger, the panther,
and the leopard, variegated and omniform animals, and
compared them with the lion, whose combat with the
serpent we have also mentioned, it is natural to add a
few more words concerning the chameleon, of whose
enmity to the serpent and medicinal virtues Greek and
Latin authors have written at such length. The Jcrikaldfas
or krikaldsas^ or chameleon, is already spoken of in a
Vedic Brdhmanam, In the fifty-fifth canto of the last
book of the Rdmdyanam, we read that King Nrigas was
condemned to remain invisible to all creatures in the form
of a chameleon during many hundreds and thousands of
years, until the god Vishnus, humanised in the form of
Vasudevas, will come to release him from this curse,
incurred for having delayed to judge a controversy pend-
ing between two Br^hmans concerning the ownership of
a cow and a calf. In the stories of grateful animals, as
is well-known, the hero often earns their gratitude by
intervening to divide their prey into just portio^s, while
they are disputing over it themselves. From the last
book of the Rdmdyanam, we. learn also that the form
of the chameleon is that assumed by Kuveras, the god
of riches, when the gods flee terrified from the sight of
the monster E^vanas. As Yamas and Qivas are almost
equivalent forms, so between Yamas and Kuveras there
is the same relation as between Pluto and Plutus. To the
tiger Qivas corresponds the chameleon Kuveras ; and the
chameleon god of wealth, enemy of the serpent, is closely
connected in mythology with the lion Indras, with the
lion that kills the monster serpent, and with the lion that
covets the treasure.

VOL. II. L

CHAPTER XIV.

THE SPIDER.

StTMMAEY.

Taaoan superstition relating to the spider ; the red sky of evening. —
The night, the moon, and the aurora as weavers. — Arachn^. —
Aurnavabhas. — Dhatd and Vidhata. — Golden cloths.^The spider
and his prey. — The golden veil. — The lake of fire and the -witch
burnt. — The eagle and the spider. — The sack made of a spider's
web.

There is in Tuscany a very interesting supei-stition rela-
ting to tlie spider : it is believed that if a spider be seen
in the evening it must not be burnt, as it is destined to
bring good fortune ; but when seen in the morning, it
must be burnt without being touched. The evening
and morning aurora are compared to the spider and
the spider's web ; the evening aurora must prepare the
morning aurora during the night. We have quoted on
a previous occasion the Piedmontese proverb, *'Eosso di
sera, buon tempo si spera " (red at night, we hope for
fine weather). If the sun dies in the west without clouds,
if the luminous spider shows itself in the western sky, it
augurs for the morrow a fine morning and a fine day.
In the Itigvedaswe have on this subject several interest-
ing data ; the aurora weaved during the night (and is
therefore called vayanti ; ^ sometimes she is helped by

1 ^igv. ii. 38, 4. — In the fifty-fourth story of the fourth book of
Afanassieff the king who has no children makes the maiden seven
years old manufacture a fisherman's net in the spfice of only one night.

THE SPIDER, 163

R^£l, the full moon^) tlie robe for her husband. But, in
another hynm, she is entreated to shine soon, and not to
stretch out or weave her work too long, in order that the
sun with his rays may not fall upon it and burn it like
a thief/ In the legend of Odysseus, Penelope undoes in
the night the work of the day ; this is another aspect of
the same myth : Penelope, as aurora, undoes her web at
even, to weave it again at morn. The myth of Arachn6 y
(the name of the spider, and of the celebrated Lydian
virgin whom Athene, the aurora, according to Professor
Max MiiUer, taught to spin, and whose father was Idmon,
a colourer in purple), whom Athene, jealous of the skill
she had acquired in weaving in purple colours, strikes on
the forehead and transforms into a spider, is a variety of
the same myth of the weaving aurora. When the spider
becomes dark, and when its web is gloomy, then the
spider, or son of the spider, or Aurnavabhas, assumes a
monstrous form, Aurnavabhas (4rnav4bhis, ^nan^bhis,
Arnanabhas, as spider, are already spoken of in the Vedic
writings) is the name of the gloomy monster Vritras,
killed by the god Indras, the terrible monster which
Indras, immediately after his birth, is obliged to kill ^ at

1 In the German legend we have the spinner in the moon. "Die
Altmarkisch'e Sage bei Temme 49, ' die Spinnerin im Monde,' wo ein
Madchen von seiner Mutter verwiinscht wird, im Monde zu sitzen und
zu spinnen, scheint entstellt, da jener Fluch sie nicht wegen Spinnens,
sondern Tanzens im Mondschein trifft ; " Simrock, Deutsche Mythologie,
2te Aufl. p. 23. — Cfr. also the first chapter of this work, and that on the
bear, where we read of a girl dancing with the bear in the night. —
Perhaps there is also some correspondence between the Vedic word
rdhd and a-rackne.

2 Vy u6ha duhitar divo m^ 6iram tanutha apah net tvi stenarii
yath^ ripuih tapati sHro ariSish^; liigv. v. 79, 9.

^ Vritram avabhinad danum ^urnavabham; Etgv. ii. 11, 18. —
Ga^il^no nu gatakratur vi pridhad iti mataram ka ugrah ke ha grin-
vire ad im gavasy abravid aurnavabham ahiguvam te putra santu
nishturali ; Etgv, viii. 66, 1, 2.

i64 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

the instigation of his mother. In the Mahdhhdratam ^
we find two women that spin and weave, Dhati and
Vidhat4 ; they weave upon the loom of the year with
black and white threads, i.e., they spin the days and the
nights. We, therefore, have a beneficent spider and a
malignant one.

In the fourth story of the fifth book of the Pentameronej
the young Parmetella marries a black slave, who gives
her as servants swans, '' Vestute de tela d'oro, che, subeto
'ncignannola da capo a pede, la mesero 'n forma de ragno,
che pareva propio na Eegina." (The black man becomes
a handsome youth during the night, perhaps as the moon ;
she wishes to see his features, and he disappears ; this is
a variety of the popular story of the wife's indiscretion.)
In the fifth story of the second book of Afanassieff, the
spider sets its web to catch flies, mosquitoes, and wasps ;
a wasp, being caught in the web, begs to be released in
consideration of the many children that she will leave
behind her (the same stratagem that is used by the hen
against the fox in the Tuscan story previously mentioned.)
The credulous spider lets her go ; she then warns wasps,
flies, and mosquitoes to keep hidden. The spider then
asks help from the grasshopper, the moth, and the bug
(nocturnal animals), who announce that the spider is dead,
having given up the ghost upon the gibbet, which gibbet
was afterwards destroyed (the evening aurora has dis-
appeared into the night). The flies, mosquitoes, and wasps
again come out, and fell into the spider's web (into the
morning aurora). In the eighteenth story of the sixth
book oi Afanassieff, the beautiful girl who flees from the
house of the witch that persecutes her, stretches out a
veil, which, by the help of a beautiful young maiden (the

1 i. 802, 825.

THE SPIDER. 165

moon), she has embroidered with gold ; immediately a
great sea of fire springs up, into which the old witch falls
and is burned ; and here we come back to the popular
Italian superstition that the spider must be burned in
the morning.

The spider is an animal of the earth, but it weaves its
web in the air ; and as such — as intermediary between
the animals of the earth and those of the air — supplies
us with a bridge by which we may pass naturally from
the first to the second part of the present work/ I hope
that this bridge will prove as sufficient as the sack in
which the young Esthonian hero carries the treasure away
from hell, a sack composed of the threads of a spider, so
strong that it is impossible to tear them. I wish I had,
in the first book, some of the skill of the spider, and that
I could weave with a few threads from the labyrinth of
Aryan legendary tradition concerning animals a web
which, if it be not as luminous as that of Arachne, may
be more durable than that of Penelope.

^ I observe, moreover, how in the Kussian fables of Kriloff the same
part is attributed to the spider as in the West to the "wren (the regulus)
and to the beetle. The eagle carries, without knowing it, a spider in
its tail upon a tree ; the spider then makes its web over it. Bird and
spider therefore exchange places.

THE ANIMALS OF THE AIE.

CHAPTEE L

BIRDS.
SUMMARY.

The sky-atmosphere and the sky-tree. — The sun, the Agviniu, Tndras,
the Marutas, and Agnis as birds, — Indras cuts off the -wings of
the mountains. — Indras and Somas as two birds hovering round
the same tree of honey. — The wisdom of birds. — The birds
requested to sacrifice themselves to fulfil the duties of hospitality,
refase. — The dvi^as bird and brihman. — Penitent birds. — Con-
solatory birds. — Presages of birds in India. — Verethraghna as a
bird. — The bird's feather. — The red bird. — Grateful and prophetic
birds. — The hero that understands the language of birds. — The bird
and the two cypresses. — The hero becomes a bird by acquiring
Solomon's ring. — The blue bird. — The bird caught by putting salt
upon its tail. — The excrement of birds is propitious. — The demo-
niacal bird. — The bird that feeds the heroes. — Birds and poets;
singers and prophets. — Auguries and auspices. — The auguries
were laughed at in Greece. — Flight to right and to left.

The sky, especially by night, is conceived now as a road
on Avhich one can walk, and where sometimes the traveller
may be lost, or make others lose their Avay ; now as the
air itself, in which one flies or is carried in flight, with
the risk sometimes of falling ; noAv as a tree, in which
one speaks or builds nests, with the risk of the words

i68 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

being sometimes sinister, or the nests falling ; and now
as a sea in whicli one navigates in peril of shipwreck.

The sky-atmosphere and the sky-tree are the world of
the mythical flying birds and insects. The god, the
demon, the hero, and the monster, when traversing this
field, either take the forms of winged animals, or make
use of them to ascend to the celestial paths, or else are
conducted by them to their ruin.

The sun and the moon, the sunbeams, the thunder-
bolts, flashes of lightning, auroras, clouds that move and
thunder, and the very shadows that move, often take in
myths the forms of flying animals.

In the Rigvedas, the sun is called a bird (vih) ; ^ the
A9vin^u come with the wheels of the car like a bird with
feathers;^ Indras is the well- winged red one;^ the
Marutas perch like birds upon the culm of buttered
grass ;^.Agnis accomplishes the wish of the bird;^ the
well- winged ones of Agnis {i.e., the thunderbolts) appear
as destroyers when the black bull has bellowed (that is,
when the black cloud has thundered) ; ^ Savitar must not
destroy the woods of the birds ; " from the house of the
aurora the birds come forth ; ^ the goddesses and the

1 Rigv. i. 72, 9.

2 Vir na parnaiJi; lb. i. 183, 1.

^ Arunah. suparnah; lb. x. 55^ 6.

^ Vayo na stdann adhi barMshi priye ; lb. i. 85, 7.

^ Manmasadhano veh; lb. i. 96, 6.

^ A te suparn^ aminantan eviih krishno non^va vrisliablio yadidam ,
lb. i. 79, 2.

"^ Vanani vibhyo nakir as3a tani vrata devasya savitar minanti ;
lb. ii. 38, 7.

^ Ut te vayag^id vasater apaptan ; lb, i. 124, 12. — In the twenty-
third story of the second book of Afanassieffj when the beautiful girl
Helen, another form of the aurora, is at the king's ball, she throws
bones with one hand, when birds spring up, and water with the other,
when gardens and fountains sirring up.

THE TWO BIRDS. 169

brides of the heroes are requested to come to the assist-
ance of men with unclipt wings/ Finally, an interesting
Vedic hymn shows us the sun and the moon, Indras and
Somas, as two well-winged birds united in friendship,
that continually fly round the same tree (^.e., the sky) ;
of these, one eats the sweet pippalas, the other shines
without eating. Both, well-winged, sing as they safely
guard the treasure of ambrosia. The honey of this tree
is called pippalas : of this tree all the birds eat the honey,
and on it they build their nests. ^

The wisdom of birds is much celebrated in popular,
Aryan tradition. On this subject the Mdrkandeya-P ?
narrates a long and instructive legend.

The wise G4iminis wishes some episodes of the great
legend of the Mahdbhdratam, which seem obscure, to be
explained to him. He has recourse to the learned
M4rkandeyas ; but the latter says he does not know bow
to enlighten him, and advises him to interrogate the
birds, the best of the birds, sons of Dronas, who know
the essence of things, who meditate upon the sacred
treatises, the birds Ping^kshas, Vibodhas, Supattras, and
Sumukhas, who will disperse his doubts. They live in a

^ Abhi no devir avasa mahah garmani nripatnih. a<^hinnapatr4h
sa6aiitS.m; Rigv. i. 22, 11. — If the goddesses are here the same as the
nymphsj they may be the same as the clouds, and I should refer to
this passage, the legend of the Bdmdyanam (v. bQ), according to "which
the lofty mountains were once winged (the clouds) and wandered
about the earth at pleasure ; Indras, with his thunderbolt, cut their
wings, and they fell down.

2 Dv^ suparn^ sayu^^ sakhiy^ saminam vriksham pari shasva^^te
tayor anyah pippalam sv^dv atty anagnann anyo abhi d^kagitt — Yatr^
suparna amritasya bhigam animesham vidathabhisvaranti ; Rigv. i.
164, 20. — Perhaps we should compare to this legend the two birds
Amru and Camru of the Khorda-Avesta, of which one makes the seeds
of the three mythical trees fall, and the other scatters them about.

3 Calcutta, 1851.

170 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

cave in the middle of the Vindhy^s ; let him go to them
and ask them. Gaiminis wonders how simple birds can
possess so much wisdom. Markandeyas then relates to
him their genealogy. A nymph, who had seduced by
her song the penitent Durv^sas, was condemned to be
born again in the family of the bird Garudas, and to
spend sixteen years in the form of a bird, until, after
giving birth to four sons, she should be wounded by an
arrow and regain once more her primitive form in
heaven. As a bird she is named T^kshl, and is married
= to the bird Dronas, who is wise and instructed in the
Ved^s and Ved4ngas. T4rkshi is present at the battle
between the K^urav^s and the Pandav4s ; a dart strikes
her in the belly, from which four eggs that shine like the
moon fall to the ground. After the battle, the ascetic
Qamlkas approaches the place where the four eggs lie,
and hears the young birds chirping cicikuci. The wise
man marvels at seeing that they have escaped such
carnage, concludes they must be Br4hmans, and thinks
this a circumstance of most favourable augury and a
presage of great fortune (mah4bh4gyapradar§ini). He
carries the birds to his house, and places them where
they run no risk of being harmed by cats, mice, hawks,
or weasels. The birds are taken care of and nourished
by the wise man, and grow up strong and learned,
listening to the lessons that the wise man gives in
school, and, being grateful to him as their deliverer,
expressing their gratitude by means of Avords which, by
exercise, they articulate clearly. Interrogated as to
their previous existence, they remember that there was
once a sage named Vipulacvan, father of two children,
Sukrishas and Tumburus ; these four were sons of Tum-
burus. Whilst they lived in the woods with their father,
Indras,thc king of the gods, comes to them in the form

THE SACRIFICE OF THE BIRD, 171

of a gigantic old bird, and demands human flesh from
the hospitable sage. The wise man wonders that a bird,
so old, that is, at an age in which every desire should be
extinguished, should be so cruel as to wish for human
flesh. Nevertheless he requests (like Vi9vamitras in the
legend of Qunahcepas previously mentioned) his own
sons to sacrifice themselves in fulfilment of this duty.
They do not at first refuse this act of hospitality, but
when they hear that they are to be eaten by the bird,
they decisively refuse, pleading, among other arguments,
the physiological, or rather, materialistic one, that if they
are virtuous, their virtue too will perish with their bodies,
whilst, on the other hand, in order to preserve their
virtue long, they think themselves bound to prolong
their existence as much as possible (we have already
seen the cat adopting a similar argument to justify his
fatness). Their father, indignant at this refusal after
giving their promise, curses them, condemning them to
be born again as animals, and then magnanimously ofiers
himself to the famished bird. Upon which Indras reveals
himself in his proper divine form, and then disappears
after blessing the sage. The sons beseech their father to
release them from the malediction ;" he takes pity upon
them, but is unable to revoke his words ; it is only in
his power to temper the severity of the punishment.
They are condemned to retain the animal form ; but in
that form they are to be recompensed with the gift of
insight into the mysteries of being. It is for this reason
that, when Qamlkas finds them, he salutes them by the
name of Br4hmans, For the rest, the equivoque is easily
comprehensible, when we reflect that the word dvigas,
or twice born, means bird (that is, born first as an egg,
and afterwards as an animal), as well as Br4hman (who,
by taking the sacred cord, the prastexta, and the sacrament

172 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

of the holy oil, is born again). Etymology here assists
our comprehension of the legend. In the same way as
the Brahman is the wisest of men, so are the dvi^^s or
birds the wisest of animals. The birds, cursed by the
hermit their father, go therefore to Mount Vindhyas,
which is watered by many blessed streams, where they
live as austere penitents. G^iminis goes to consult them ;
when he approaches their abode, he hears them speaking
distinctly to each other. He then comes up and sees them
perched on the top of a rock. G4iminis addresses them
with amiable words ; the birds answer him that, since so
great a sage is come to visit them, their wish is accom-
plished and their curse come to an end. Then follow the
questions of G^iminis relating to Gan^rdanas, Dr^upadl,
Baladevas, and the five sons of Dr^upadi. The birds,
before answering, sing a kind of hymn to Vishnus, and
expound his principal incarnations. In the Mahdhhdra-
tam^ the ascetic Brahmans go in the forms of birds to
console the rishis M^ndavyas, impaled by order of the
king, for having given hospitality to the robbers of the
royal booty.

Birds know everything, and hence presages are taken
especially from thein, whence the name auspiciuTri or
augurium, applied specifically to a presage. In the last
book of the Rdmdyanam,^ the monsters are terrified by
such omens as the following : — " Thousands of vultures
and ducks with mouths that throw flames, which form a
circle like that of the god of death upon the battalions
of the monsters ; the doves, the red-feet, the s^rikas
(turdus salicse) were dispersed."

In the Avesta, Verethraghna often appears as a bird,
and as understanding the language of birds. A bird's
feather, in the Avesta, assists Verethraghna, as in Fir-

1 i. 4305. 2 Sixth canto.

THE BIRDS FEATHER. 173

dusi, a feather of the bird Simurg, burnt by Zal, calls
up to his assistance the bird Simurg in person/
According to a legend of the Khorda-Avesta, the
splendour of the old Yima, who had become proud and
false-tongued (thus, in India, the celestial Yamas and
the happy Qivas become infernal destroying deities), fled
away in the form of a bird. According to the popular
superstition of White Eussia, the little bird diedka (the
little one), is the guardian of treasures and has eyes of
fire and a fiery beard (this is doubtless a representation
of the demoniacal sun of evening, of Kuveras or of Plutos.^

^ Professor Spiegel says in a note, Khorda-Avesta, p. 147: "Die
Beschwbrung vormittelst einer Feder ist gewiss eine alteranische
Vorstellung." — In a story, hitherto unpublished, of the Monferrato,
communicated to me by Signor Ferraro, a woman, who had gone to
eat parsley in the garden of a sorceress, was obliged to give her
daughter up to her as a penalty for the offence. The girl was after-
wards subjected to three difficult trials ; to sunder in one day a
mountain of wheat and millet into the grains composing it, to eat
in one day a mountain of apples, and to wash, dry, and iron in
one hour all the linen of a year. In the first trial, by means of
two bird's feathers, she calls up a. thousand birds, who separate
the grain from the millet. — In the fourth story of the fifth book
of the Fentameronej the birds strip themselves of their feathers
to fill a mattress which the witch has ordered the young Permetella
to make. In a Tuscan story, for the possession of a peacock's feather,
the young brother is killed.

2 In Afanassieffj v. 38, a similar little bird ravages during the night
the field of a lord ; the youngest of the three brothers, who is believed
to be foolish, catches it and sells it to the king, who shuts it in a
room under lock and key. The king's son releases the little bird,
which in gratitude gives him a horse that wins battles, and a golden
apple, by means of which he is able to wed a princess. — In the story
v. 22, the young man who has been instructed by the devil trans-
forms himself into a bird and tells his father to sell him, but not to
give up the cage. The devil buys the bird, but does not obtain the
cage -J he puts the bird into a handkerchief to take it to his daughter,
but when he comes home the bird has disappeared. — In the story v.
42, the king of birds releases Ivan from the witch who wishes to eat

1 74 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOG K

In the Conies Merveilleux of Porchat, the red bird ap-
pears as a messenger.

In the legend of Sal, in Firdusi, there is a riddle about
two cypresses, one withered and the other verdant, upon
first the one and then the other of which a bird regularly
builds his nest. The hero Sal, who solves the riddle,.
says that the two cypresses are the two opposite seasons

him, and takes him to his betrothed. The witch tears a few feathers
off the king of birds, but does not succeed in stopping him. — In the
story V. 46, the devil teaches the language of birds to the young hero.
— In the story vi. 69, the wise maiden goes to take into the kingdom
of darkness the bird that speaks, the tree that sings, and the water of
life, with which she brings to life her two brothers, born before her,
whom a witch had thrown into a fountain (the aurora delivers the
A9vin^u). — In the fiftli Sicilian story of Signora Gonzenbach, brother
and sister go into the witch's castle to take the water that dances and
the bird that speaks. The bird tells the water, in the king's presence,
the story of the two young people. — In the fifth story of the second
book of the Pentamerone, the fox teaches the young Grannonia what
birds say. — In the seventh story of the fifth book of the Pentamerone,
it is the youngest of the five brothers that acquires the faculty of
understanding the language of birds. — In Pietro de Creseenzi (x. 1),
we find a "rex Daucus (Dacus?) qui divino intellectu novit natu-
ram accipitrum et falconum et eos domesticare ad prsedam instruere,
et ab segritudinibus liberare." — In the legend of St Francis of Assisi,
the great saint was able to make himself understood to birds, and to
make the swallows be silent ; the same saint made a wolf mild and
tame; the miracle of Orpheus is repeated in numerous other legends.
— In the sixteenth Mongol story of Siddhikiir, a wise dwarf, who
understands the language of birds, hears two birds, father and son,
speak to each other on the summit of a tree about the king's son, who
had been assassinated by the son of the minister. — In the Edda^ Atli
has a long dialogue with a bird whose language he understands. —
Finally, the whole of the comedy of Aristophanes entitled The Birds
(Ornithes) shows the wisdom and diviidng power of birds, and, as
animals of presage, their intimate relation with the thunderbolts of
2eus. — According to the German belief, the fat of a serpent teaches
how to understand the language of birds. Cfr. Simrock, the work
previously quoted, p. 457.

THE BIRD AND THE HERO. 175

of the year or the two sides of the sky, and that the
bird is the sun.^

In the eighteenth Esthonian story, two birds, speaking
to each other, signify where the famous enchanted ring of
Solomon is to be found, which the young hero is looking
for. When the hero finds the ring, he is able to transform
himself at will into a bird ; but the daughter of hell, in
the shape of an eagle, carries it off from him. In the
fourth Esthonian story, the girl of seven years of age
becomes, by beneficent magic, a bird, when she is obliged
to travel far. In the thirty-fifth of the stories of Santo
Stefano di Calcinaia, the wife of the bird-catcher terrifies
the devil in the form of an enormous and monstrous
bird. In the fifth story of the fourth book of the
Pentamerone, a fairy in the form of a bird arrests the
arm of the king of Alta-Marina whilst he is about to kill
his own wife Portiella. The fairy was grateful to the
young woman, because, when she was asleep in a wood,
Portiella had awakened her to deliver her from a satyr
who was attempting to violate her.^ The king shuts
PortieUa up in a tower without light ; the bird makes a
hole in it and brings food to her, stealing the fowls from
the kitchen during the cook's absence. Portiella gives
birth to a son, who is also nourished by the bird. The
oiseau bleu, couleiir du temps, of the story of Madame
d'Aulnoy, who flies at night from the cjrpress to the
window of the beautiful imprisoned Florine, is a beautiful

^ " Die zwei Cypressen sind die Himmelsseiten,
Die beiden, die uns Gliick und Laid bereiten ;
Der Vogel, der drin nistet, ist die Sonne,
Sie giebt beim Schneiden Schmerz, beim Kommen Wonne."
— Schack, Heldensagen von Mrdicd, p. 122.
2 A variety of the myth of Priapos, mentioned in the chapter on the
Ass.

176 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

variety of this same story. Several Russian stories end
with the following refrain of an aznre bird (sinicka, little
azure one) : "little azure one flies and says, Azure, but
beautiful." ^ Inasmuch as the sun of morning, or spring,
comes out of the dark-blue bird of night, or of winter,
we can understand the popular Italian and German
superstition, that when the excrement of a bird falls upon
a man it is an omen of good luck. The excrement of
the mythical bird of nighfc, or of winter, is the sun.
Considered in connection with morning or spring, the
dark-coloured bird of night, or winter, is propitious ;
considered by itself, or in relation to the evening sun or
the dying summer, it is a funereal and diabolical animal.
Such is the bird Kamek of the Avesta, which stretches
its wings over aU mankind, which carries off and hides
the sun, creates darkness, keeps back the waters and
devours all creatures, until after seven years and seven
nights, the hero Kere949pa strikes it and makes it fall.

Moreover, the bird that brings food is a subject which
in very popular in almost all the traditions of the Indo-
European nations. Every one has heard of the bird
w^hich nourished Semiramis, abandoned by her mother in
a desert and stony place, with curdled milk and cheese

^ Sinicka letat i gavarit : Sin da cliarosh. — The dark-blue bird is a
symbol of the azure sky of night or winter, whilst, on the other hand,
the wooden bird, at which the maidens of Westphalia throw sticks on
St John's Day, seems to be a phallical symbol ; she who hits the bird
is queen. The bird is a well-known phallical symbol ; and a phallical
origin must be ascribed to the popular superstition that a bird may
be rendered helpless by putting salt upon its tail. The salacitas of
an animal, when given way to, takes every energy from it ; the
urdhvaretas alone is strong. It was perhaps for a similar reason that
in the Middle Ages, when a city was destroyed to its foundations, it
was the custom to throw salt upon it, in order that it might never rise
again. Salt thrown away is like seed sown in the desert, where it is
fruitless.

PROPHETIC BIRDS. 1 7 7

(the moonlight), stolen from the neighbouring flocks of
sheep, according to the narrative of Diodorus Siculus;
and the same Persian bird nourishes, according to the
legend, several other children, future heroes of Iran, who
had been similarly exposed ; in the legend of Romulus
and Eemus, the woodpecker assumes the same place and
office as the nurse she-wolf. In the watery night and the
watery winter, the solar child-hero, abandoned to himself,
is nourished by birds. The nightingale or singer of the
night sends forth his melodious notes from the nocturnal
tree, predicting thus the renewal of daylight ;. in the tree-
cloud, the thunder rumbles, the oracle speaks, and the
bird prophesies. Theokritos calls poets the birds of fhe
Muses (mous6n ornithas). The kokilas is the bird of
the Hindoo poets and teaches them melody; to this
bird corresponds the Hindoo Kyknos of the Titti-Name,
of which it is said that it has innumerable holes in
its beak, from each of which a melodious sound comes
forth.

The Hindoo kavisy the Latin vate^, and the Hellenic
mantis represent at once both the singer and the sage ;
thus the singers of the woods are at the same time
omniscient prophets. They began with prophecies about
the weather, as the thunder announces the storm, and
finished by prophesying everything. The peasantry of
Tuscany endeavour to this day to guess what weather
it will be on the morrow from the songs of the birds. ^
The augures, the auguremens, the aucelli, and the arus-
j)ices were preserved even in the Middle Ages, according

^ It is a mountaineer of the province of Siena that speaks : "I per-
ceived by the song of the birds that the weather was about to change ;
their voice told me, it was so merry ; " Giuliani, Morallta e Poesia del
Vivente Lingttaggio della Toscaiia, p. 149.

VOL. II. M

178 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

to the testimony of Du Cange.^ As to the auguries and
auspices of the ancient Greeks and Eomans, I refer the
reader to the numerous erudite works which treat of
them in a particular manner. I must observe, however,
that whilst among the Latins augury was deemed such a
solenrn thing that Publius Claudius and Lucius Junius
were judged worthy of death for having set out on a
voyage against the will of the auguries, and that whilst
ave, that is to say, good augury, was still the solemn for-
mula of Eoman salutation, the Greeks had already tm-ned
auguries and auspices into derision. The reader re-
members, no doubt, how in the Iliad the hero Hektor
declares that he cares not whether the birds go to the
right, towards the aurora and the sun, or to the left,
towards the sunset. In Eusebius ^ Ave read that a bird
was presented to Alexander, the Macedonian, when on
the point of setting out for the Eed Sea, in order that he
might read the auguries by it according to custom ;
Alexander, in answer, killed the bird with an arrow ; the
bystanders being offended by this breach of the rules, the
Macedonian hero added, " What folly is this ? In what
way could this bird, which could not foresee its death
by this arrow, predict the fortunes of our journey ? "
Auguries and auspices were also taken in India. Accord-
ing to the Rdmdyanam,^ birds seen at a wedding to go
to the left, are a sinister omen ;^ birds that fly, crying, to

^ Cfr. among others, the words alhanellus (haubereau) avis auguralis
species, and aucellus.

^ De Prceparat. Evang, lib. ix. 3 j^ ^g^

* Amongst the Eomans, on the contrary, the flight to the left was
an excellent omen , thus Plautus in the Epidicus : " Tacete, habete
animum boniim, liqnido exeo foras auspicio, ave sinistra." (But this
change from right to left may depend upon the various positions
taken by the observer in placing himself.) In the mediaeval legend

A UG URIES AND A USPICIES. 1 7 9

the left of E^mas, announce to him a serious disaster,
viz., the carrying off of %\\k}

of Alexander, a bird with a human face (a harpy) meets Alexander
and advises him to turn to the right, when he will see marvellous
things. — Cfr. Zacher, Pseudo-Callisthenes, Halle, 1867, p. 142.
1 Rdmdy. iii. 64.

CHAPTEE IL

THE HAWK, THE EAGLE, THE VULTUJiE, THE PHCENIX, THE HARPY,
TEE STKIX, THE BAT, THE GRIBTON, AND THE SIREN.

SUMMARY.

The bird of prey the most heroic of birds. —Indras as a hawk. — The
hawk and the ambrosia; the ambrosia as sperm. — The bird of
prey and the serpent. — Agnis, the Agviniu, and the Marntas" as
hawks. — The place of sacrifice has the form of an eagle. — The
two sons of Vinati. — Garudas, the bird of Vishnus ; he fights
against the monsters. — Genealogy of the vultures. — Gatayus and
Sampatis. — The king or the young hero who offers himself up to
be devoured by the hawk or the eagle. — The grateful hawk or
eagle. — Qyena and Qaena ; Simurg ; the feather of the bird of
prey. — The birds as clouds. — The eagles as winds ; Aquila and
Aquilo. — The hawks as luminous birds ; the eagles as demoniacal
ones. — Accipiter. — The hawk as an emblem of nobility. — The
hawk as the ensign of Attila. — The hawk in Hellenic antiquity. —
The kite among the stars } it discharges its body upon the image
of the god. — The beetle, the eagle, and Zeus. — The eagle as the
thunderbolt or sceptre of Zeus. — The eagle presages supreme
power and fertility ; the eagle and the laurel. — The eagle carries
off the robes of Aphrodite. — The eagle takes away the slippers of
Rhodope. — The eagle kills ^schilos. — Nisos and Scylla. — The
vulture in ancient classical authors. — The vultures in hell. — The
learned vulture. — Voracity of the vulture. — Imaginary birds. —
The sun as a phoenix.— The demonaical harpies or Furiae, canes
Jovis.— Strix and striges ; they suck blood. — Proca and Crane.
■ — Bats and vampires. — The Stymphalian birds. — The birds of
Seleucia. — The Gryphes and the Arimaspi. — The griffons sacred to
Nemesis; the hypogriff, gryphos, logogriph, griffonage.— The
Siren now as a bird, now as a fish. — Circe ; a lunar myth.

THE HA WK INDRAS. i8i

The most heroic of birds is the bird of prey ; the strength
of its beak, wings, and claws, its size and swiftness, caused
it to be regarded as a swift celestial messenger, carrier,
and warrior.

The hawk, the eagle, and the vulture, three powerful
birds of prey, generally play the same part in myths and
legends ; the creators of myths having from the first
observed their general resemblance, without paying any
regard to their specific differences.

The bird of prey, in mythology, is the sun, which
now shines in its splendour, and now shows itself in the
cloud or darkness by sending forth flashes of lightning,
thunderbolts, and sunbeams. The flash, the thunderbolt,
and the sunbeam are now the beak, now the claw of the
bird of prey, and now, the part being sometimes taken for
the whole, even the entire bird.

In the RigvedaSj the god Indras often appears in the
form of a hawk or §yenas. Indras is like a hawk that
flies swiftly over the other hawks, and, being weU-winged,
carries to men the food tasted by the gods.-^ He is en-
closed in a hundred iron fortresses ; nevertheless, with
swiftness, he succeeds in coming out of them ; ^ while
flying away, he carries in his claw the beautiful, virgin,
luminous ambrosia, by means of which life is prolonged
and the dead brought to life again ^ (the rain, which is
also confounded with the ambrosial humour of the moon.

1 Pra gyenah 9yenebliya agupatv^ — Adakray^ yat svadhay^ suparno
havyam bharan manave deva^ushtam ; Rigv. iv. 26, 4. — The somah
gyenabhritali is also mentioned in the Eigv. i. 80, 2, iv. 27, is. 77 and
other passages.

2 Qatam m^ pura ayasir arakshann adha gyeno ^avas^ nir adiyam ■ ■
Eigv. iv. 27, 1.

3 Yam te gyena^ d^rum avrikarii padtibliarad arunam m^nam and-
basah— ena vayo vi tary ayur ^ivasa ena ^agara bandhut^; Eigv. x
144 5.

i82 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

In tlie first strophe of the same hymiij Indus is also called
ambrosia)/ The hawk with iron claws kills the hostile
demons/ has great power of breathing, and draws from
afar the chariot with a hundred wheels.^ However, while
the hawk carries the ambrosia through the air, he trembles
for fear of the archer Krij^nus/ who, in fact^ shot off one
of his claws (of which the hedgehog was born, according
to the Aitareya Br.,^ and according to the Vedic hymn,^
one of his feathers which, falling on the earth, afterwards
became a tree). After the victory gained over Ahis, the
serpent-demon, Indras flees like a terrified hawk/ This
is the first trace of the legendary and proverbial enmity
between the bird of prey and the serpent. In the third
book of the Rdmdyanam, E^vanas says that he will
carry off Sit4 as the well-winged one (carries off) the
serpent (suparnah panna^amiva).

Nor is Indras alone a hawk in the JRigvedas, but Agnis

^ In the Mahdhhdratam (i. 2383), the ambrosia takes the shape of
sperm, A king, far from his wife Girika, thinks of her; the sperm
comes from him and falls upon a leaf. A hawk carries the leaf away ;
another hawk sees it and disputes with it for the possession of the
leaf ; they fight with one another and the leaf falls into the waters of
the Yamuna, where the nymph Adrik^ (equivalent to Girika), changed
by a curse into a fish, sees the leaf, feeds upon the sperm, becomes
fruitful, and is delivered ; cfr. the chapter on the Fishes.

2 Qyeno 'yop^shtir hanti dasylln ; Rigv. x. 99, 8. — In the Eussian
stories the hawk and the dog are sometimes the most powerful helpers
of the hero.

^ Ghrishuh gyen^ya kritvana isuh ; ^/^y. x. 144, 3. — Yam suparnah
paravatah gyenasya putra' ^bharat gatadakram ; Rigv. x. 144, 1.

^ Sa purvyah pavate yam divas pari gyeno math^yad ishitas tiro
ra^ah sa madhva i yuvate yevi^-fi,na it krig^nor astur manas^ha bib-
hyusha; Rigv. ix. 77, 2. 5 iii. 3, 26.

® Antah patat patatry asya parnam ; Rigv. iv. 27, 4. — Cfr, for this
mythical episode the texts given by Prof. Kuhn and the relative dis-
cussions. Die llerahhimft d. F. u. d. S., pp. 138 seq. and 180 seq.

^ Qyeno na bhitah ; Rigv. i. 32, 14.

HAWKS AND VULTURES. 183

too. M^tarigv^n and tlie liawk agitate, the one the
heavenly fire, the other the ambrosia of the mountain/
The chariot of the A§vin4u is also sometimes drawn by
hawks, as swift as heavenly vultures.^ They are them-
' selves compared to two vultm-es that hover romid the tree
where the treasure is^ (we have seen in the preceding
chapter that the tree is the sky). The Marutas are also
called Gridhr4s or vultures (falcons according to Max
Mliller.'*) In the Rigvedas, again, when the sun goes to
the sea, he looks with a vulture's eye.^ On account of this
form of a bird of prey, often assumed by the solar god in
the Vedic myths, we read in the Aitareya Br,, that the
place destined for the sacrifice had the same shape. In
the Rdmdyanam we find, in the sacrifice of a horse, that
the place of sacrifice has the form of the bird Garudas,
the powerful mythical eagle of the Hindoos. In the
149th hymn of the tenth book of the Migvedas, the
ancient well- winged son of the sun Savitar is already
named Garutman. The mythical bird is the equivalent
of the winged solar horse, or hippogriff"; indeed, the
118th hymn of the first book of the jRigvedas, soon
after celebrating the hawks that draw the chariot of the
Agvin^u, calls them beautiful flying horses (a§va vapu-
shah patamg^h). We have observed that of the two twins,
or the two brothers, one prevails over the other. Thus

^ Anyam divo matarigv^ ^abliar^mathnid anyam pari gyeno adreh ;
MgvA. 93, 6.

2 A v^m gyen^so agvini vahantu — ye apturo divyi^o na gridhrah ;
Migv. i. 118, 4

2 Gridhreva vriksham nidhimantam adha; Bigv, ii. 39, 1.

^ JRigv, i. 88, 4. — In fact, in the hymn i. 165, 2, the Marutas are
explicitly compared to hawks that fly through the air (gyenin iva
dhra^ato antarikshe).

^ Drapsah samiidram abhi ya^ ^ig^ti pagyan gridhrasya 6akshas^ 3
Eigv. X. 123, 8.

i84 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

of the two mythical vultures, of the two sons of Vinat4,
in the legend of the Mahdbhdratam,'^ their mother having
broken the egg before the proper time, one, Arunas, is
born imperfect, and curses his mother, condemning her
to be the slave of her rival KadrA for five thousand
years, until her other son, the luminous, perfect, and
powerful solar bird Garudas, comes to release her. Arunas
becomes the charioteer of the sun ; Garudas is, instead,
the steed of the god Vishnus, the solar horse, the sun
itself, victorious in all its splendour. No sooner are the
two birds born, than the horse Ucc^ihyravas also appears,
which again signifies that solar bird and solar horse are
identical. Like the hawk Indras, or the hawk of Indras,
Garudas, the bird of Vishnus, or Vishnus himself, is thirsty,
drinks many rivers,^ carries off from the serpents the
ambrosia, protected (as in the Rigvedas) by a circle of
iron. Like Vishnus, Garudas, from being very tall, makes
himself very little, penetrates among the serpents, covers
them with dust and blinds them ; it is, indeed, on
account of this feat that Vishnus adopts him for his
celestial steed. ^ The god Vishnus goes on the back of
the well- winged one to fight against the monsters ; * in-
dignant with them, he throws them to the ground with
the flapping of his wings ; the monsters aim their darts
at him as another form of the hero, and he fights on his
own account and for the hero.^ When the bird Garudas
appears, the fetters of the monsters, which compress like
serpents the two brothers E4mas and Lakshmanas, are
loosed, and the two yoimg heroes rise more handsome
and stronger than before.^ The Nish^das come from
their damp abodes, enter into the gaping jaws of Garudas

i. 1078, seq. 2 Mhh. i. 1495. » Ih, i. 1496,

Rdmdy. vii. 6. ^ lb. vii. 7. 6 /^, y\^ 26.

THE OMNISCIENT VULTURE, 185

in thousands, enveloped by the Avind and the dust.-^
(The sun of morning and that of spring devour the
black monsters of night and of winter.)

Hitherto we have seen the hawk, the eagle (as Garudas),
and the vulture exchanged for each other; even the Hindoo
mythical genealogy confirms this exchange. According
to the Rdmdyanam,^ of T4mr4 (properly the reddish one ;
she also gave birth to Kj?^uii6i, the mother of the herons)
was born Qyenl (that is, the female hawk) ; of Qyeni
was born Vinat4. Vinat4 (properly the bent one) laid
the egg whence Arunas and Garudas came forth (the two
Dioskuroi also came, as is well known, out of the egg of
Leda, united with the swan) ; Garudas was in his turn
father of two immense vultures, G^t^yus and Sampatis.
In this genealogy the ascending movement of the sun
appears to be described to us, like the myth of the sun
Vishnus, who, from a dwarf, becomes a giant. The vul-
ture G4t£Lyus knows everything that has happened in the
past, and everything that will come to pass in the future,
inasmuch as, like the Vedic sun, he is vigvavedas, all-
seeing, omniscient, and has traversed the whole earth.
lu the Rdmdyanam we read of the last fi.erce battle of
the aged vulture GA-tiyus with the terrible monster
Eavanas, who carries off the beautiful Sit4 during the
absence of her husband E4mas. G^tayus, although old
in years, rises into the air to prevent the carrying off of
Sit4 by E4vanas in a chariot drawn by asses ; the vulture
breaks with his strong claws the bow and arrow of
Eivanas, strikes and kills the asses, splits the chariot in
two, throws the charioteer down, forces E^vanas to leap
to the ground, and wounds him in a thousand ways ; but
at last the king of the monsters succeeds with his sword

1 Mbh, i. 1337, seq, a iii. 20.

i86 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

in cutting off the wings, feet, and sides of the faithful
bird, who expires in pain and grief, whilst the demon
carries the ravished woman into Lank4.

Thus far, therefore, we always find in the bird of prey
a friend of the hero and the god. Such is also, in the
Rdmdyanam,^ the immense vulture that comes to place
itself, and to vomit blood upon the standard of the monster
Kharas, to predict his misfortunes to him ; and such is
the elder brother of G4tayus, the vulture Sampatis, who,
coming out of a cavern, informs the great monkey Hanu-
mant where Sit4 may be found. Sampatis, after having
seen Hanumant, recovers his own wings, which had been
burnt by the sun's rays, once when he had wished to
defend his younger brother from them whilst they were
flying together too high up in the regions of the sun ^ (a
variety of the Hellenic legend of Dedalus and Icarus, of
that of Hanumant who wished to fly after the sun in order
to catch it, and of that of the two A§vin4u).

When, in the very popular Hindoo legend of the
Buddhist king who sacrifices himself instead of the dove
that had looked for hospitality from him, the hawk ap-
pears as the persecutor of the dove, this apparent perse-
cution is only a trial that Indras, the hawk, and Agnis,
the dove, wish to make of the king's virtue. No sooner
does the hawk see that the king offers himself up to be
devoured by the hawk, who complains that the king has
taken his prey, the dove, from him, than both hawk and
dove reassume their divine form, and cover the holy king
with benedictions.^ Indras and Agnis, united together, are

^ iii. 29. 2 Ji^rndy, iv. 58, 59.

3 For the numerous Eastern varieties of this legend, cfr. the Ein-
leitung to the Pancatantram^ of Prof. Benfey, p. 388, seq. — In the
fifth story of the first book of Afanassief (cfr. the sixth of the same
book), Little John is carried back from the bottom of the earth into

THE HERO V/HO SACRIFICES HIMSELR 187

also themselves a form of the two Agvin^u, like the two
faithful doves that sacrifice themselves in the third book
of PaYictantram,

The wise gaena bf the Avesta has a character nearly-
resembling the Vedic bird gyenas. According to the
Bu7idehesh, two gaenas stay at the gates of hell, which
correspond to the two crepuscular hawks or vultures of

Russia upon the wings of an eagle. When the eagle is hungry it turns
its head, and Johnny gives it food ; when the provisions come to an
end, Johnny feeds it with his own flesh. — In the twenty-seventh story
of the second book, the two young people are carried from the world
of darkness into that of light on the wings of the bird Kolpalitza;
when the provisions come to an end, it is the girl that gives flesh, cut
off her thigh, to the bird. But the youth, who has with him the
water of life, heals the amorous maiden ; cfr. also Afanassieff^ v. 23,
and V. 28, where, instead of the eagle, we find the hawk. — The same
sacrifice of himself is made in a Piedmontese story, recorded by me in
first number of the Rivista Orientale, by a young prince, who wishes
to cross the sea in order to see the princess that he loves j the same is
done by the young hero of the following unpublished Tuscan story,
which I heard from a certain Martino Nardini of Prato : — '* A three-
headed dragon steals during the night the golden apples in the garden
of the king of Portugal ; the three sons of the king watch during the
night : the first two fall asleep, but the third discovers the thief and
wounds him. The day after, the three brothers follow the track caused
by the robber's blood : they come to a beautiful palace, in which there
is a cistern, into which the third brother is lowered down, taking a
trumpet with him to sound when he wishes to be taken up. Follow-
ing a dark path he comes to a fine meadow, where there are three
splendid palaces, one of bronze, one of silver, and one of gold , fol-
lowing the trace of blood, he goes to the palace of bronze ; a beautiful
maiden opens the gate to him, and wonders why he has come down to
the world underground ; the young couple are pleased with each
other, and proriiise to marry one another j the maiden has a crown of
brilliatits, of which she gives him half as a pledge. The dragon comes
back home, and says : —

" Ucci, ucci

O che puzzo di Cristianucci,

O ce n* hi o ce n' e stati,

O ce n* e di rimpiattati."

i8S ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

the Ved^s. The bird with wings that strike, into which
the hero Thraetaona is transformed in the Khorda Avesta,
whilst it reminds us of the Hindoo warrior vulture, can
serve as a link to join together theZendic §aena and
the Persian Simurg. The bird Simurg has its marvellous
nest upon Mount Alburs, upon a peak that touches the
sky, and which no man has ever yet seen. The child Sal
is exposed upon this mountain ; he is hungry and cold.

The maiden, who has concealed the young hero, caresses the dragon
and makes him fall asleep. When he is asleep, she brings the young
man out of his concealment, gives him a sword and tells him to cut
the three heads off at one blow. Helped by a second maiden, the
young hero prepares to accomplish a second undertaking in the silver
palace of the five-headed dragon. He must cut the five heads off at a
blow, for if one remains, it is as if he had cut none off. After having
killed the dragon, he promises to marry the second maiden too.
Finally, he knocks at the gate of the golden palace, which is opened
by a third maiden ; she too asks, " What ever induced you to come to
lose your life in the lower world? The seven-headed dragon lives
here." He promises to marry her ; the dragon does not wish to go to
rest this night ; but the maiden persuades him to do so, upon which
the youths cuts off the seven heads in two strokes. The three girls,
who were three princesses carried off by the dragons, are released, and
take all the riches that they can find in order to carry them into
the upper world. They come to the cistern, the hero sounds the
trumpet, and the two brothers draw up all the riches, the three
maidens, shutting up the entrance with a stone, and leaving their
young brother alone in the subterranean world. The two elder
brothers force the three princesses to declare that they had delivered
them ; they then go to the King of Portugal and boast of this feat,
saying, that the third brother is lost. The three princesses are sad, at
which the King of Portugal wonders. The elder brothers w;ish to
marry the maiden who was in the bronze palace ; but she declares
that she will only marry him who brings to her the other half of the
crown of brilliants. They send to all the goldsmiths and jewellers to
find one who can make it. Meanwhile, the third brother, abandoned
underground, cries out for aid; an eagle approaches the tomb, and
promises to carry him into the woi^ld above, if he will allay its hunger.
The young hero, by the eagle's advice, puts lizards and serpents into a

THE BIRD SIMURG, 189

and cries out ; the bird Simurg passes by, hears his cry,
takes pity upon him, and carries the child to its solitary
peak. A mysterious voice blesses the glorious bird, who
nourishes the boy, instructs, protects, and strengthens
him, and, when he lets him go, gives him one of his own
feathers, saying that when he is in danger he must throw
this feather into the fire, and he will come at once to
assist him,^ and take him back into the kingdom. He

sackj and calls the eagle after having made a plentiful provision of
food. He fastens the sack round his neck in order to give an animal
to the .eagle each time that it asks for food. When they are a few
arms' length distant from the upper world, the sack is empty ; the
youth cuts his flesh off with a knife and gives it to the eagle, which
carries him into the world, when the young man asks him how he can
return home. The bird directs him to follow the high road. A char-
coal-seller passes by ; the young man proposes himself as his assistant,
on condition that he give him some food. The charcoal-seller takes
him with himself for some time, and then recommends him to an old
man, his friend, who is a silversmith. Meanwhile, the king's servants
have been six months wandering towards the sunset, searching for a
silversmith capable of making the other half of the crown, but in vain;
they then wander for six months towards the sunrise till they come to
the dwelling of the poor silversmith where the third brother serves as
an assistant. The old man says he is not able to make the half crown ;
but the young man asks to see the other half, recognises it, and pro-
mises to give it back entire in eight days. At the expiration of this
time, the king sends for the crown and the manufacturer, but the
youth sends his master instead of himself. The princess, however,
insists upon seeing the young assistant too ; he is seut for and brought
to the palace ; the king does not recognise him, and asks what reward
he wants; he answers that he -wishes for what the crown cost to the
princess. The latter recognises him, after which his father does so too.
The young hero weds the princess to whom he had promised himself;
and the two brothers are covered with inflammable gums, and used as
lamps to light up the wedding.

1 In a hitherto unpublished story of the Monferrato, communi-
cated to me by Signor Ferraro, a king with three sons is blind ; he
would be cured if he could bathe his eyes in oil with a feather of the
griffon-bird, which lives upon a high mountain. The third brother

190 ZOOLOGICAL MY2H0L0GY.

only asks him never to forget his faithful and loving
preserver. He then carries the young hero to his father's
palace. The king praises the divine bird in the follow-
ing words : — " king of birds! Heaven has given thee
'Strength and wisdom ; thou art the assister of the needy,
propitious to the good and the consoler of the afflicted ;
may evil be dispersed before thee, and may thy greatness
last for ever." In the fifth adventure of Isfendiar, in
Firdusi, the gigantic bird Simurg appears, on the con-
trary, as demoniacal as he that dims the sunbeams with
his wings (in the Birds of Aristophanes, when a great
number of birds appear, the spectators cry out, " Apollo,
the clouds ! ") Isfendiar fights with him, and cuts him
to pieces.

In Scandinavian and German mythology, while the
hawk is generally a luminous shape, preferred by the
heroes, and by Freya, the eagle is a gloomy form preferred
by demons, or at least by the hero or god (like Odin) ^

succeeds in catching one, having been kind to an old woman; he
brings the griffon-bird to his father, who recovers his sight and his
youth. — Cfr. the third story of the fourth book of the Pentamerone, in
which a hawk that is a princess transformed, also gives to the brother
of his wife one of his feathers, which he is to throw to the ground in
case of necessity j indeed, when young Tittone requires it, a battalion
of hawks appear in order to free the imprisoned maiden loved by
Tittone. — In the fifth story of the fifth book of the Pentamerone^ the
hawk serves as a guide to a young king to find a beautiful princess
whom a witch has put to sleep, and who is believed to be dead. This
princess becomes the mother of two sons, who are called Sun and
Moon. — In the sixth Sicilian story of Signora Gonzenbach, a young
man releases an eagle that was entangled in the branches of a tree ; the
grateful eagle gives him one of its feathers ; letting it fall to the groand,
the youth can become an eagle at pleasure.

1 In the ninth Esthonian story it is the eagle that takes the message
to the thunder-god to enable him to recover his weapon, which the
devil had carried off. — In the first Esthonian story, the eagle also
appears as the propitious messenger of the young prince.

THE EAGLE, 191

hidden in the gloomy night or in the windy cloud.
The Edda tells us that the winds are produced by the
shaking of the wings of a giant, who sits in the
form of an eagle at the extremity of the sky ; the aquila
and the wind called aquilo by the Latins, as they corre-
spond etymologically, seem also to be mythically identical,
I have observed on a previous occasion that in the Edda
the witch rides upon a wolf, using eagles as reins. In
the Nihelungen, Krimhilt sees in a dream his beloved
hawk strangled by two eagles.

On the other hand, the swallows sing to Sigurd in the
Edda, predicting to him his meeting with the beautiful
warrior maiden who, coming forth from the battles, rides
upon an eagle. But this warlike girl was, however,
destined to cause the death of Sigurd.

In the chapter on the elephant, we saw how the bird
Garudas transported into the air an elephant, a tortoise,
a bough of a tree, and hermits. In the Greek variety of
the same myth, we have the eagle instead of Garudas.
In the Edda, three Ases (Odin, Loki, and Honir) are
cooking an oz under a tree ; but from the summit of the
tree, an eagle interrupts the cooking of the meat, because
it wishes to have a share. The Ases consent ; the eagle
carries off nearly everything, upon which Loki, indignant,
wounds the eagle with a stake ; but whilst one end of
the stake remains attached to the eagle, the other is
fastened to Loki's hand, and the eagle carries him up into
the air. Loki feels his arms break, and implores the
eagle to have compassion upon him ; the gigantic bird
lets him go, on condition of obtaining, instead of him,
Iduna and her apples.-^ In the twenty- third story of the

^ In the story of Santo Stefano, La Principessa die non ride, the
eaglets have the same faculty of drawing after themselves everything

192 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

fifth book of Afanassieff, the eagle, after having been
benefited by a peasant, eats up his sheep. The name of
eagles was given during the Middle Ages to certain
demons which were said to appear in the form of an
eagle, especially on account of their rapacious expression,
and aquiline nose/

The hawk, on the other hand, I repeat, usually ap-
pears as divine, in opposition to all that is diabolical. In
the twenty-second story of the fifth and the forty-sixth
of the sixth book of Afanassieff, the hero transforms
himself into a hawk, in order to strangle the cock into
which the devil has metamorphosed himself (a Eussian
proverb, however, says of the devil that he is more pleas-
ing than the luminous hawk).^ When they wished, in

that they touch ; and, as forms of the winds (or the clouds), in which
character they sometimes appear, we can understand this property of
theirs ; the wind, too, draws after itself everything that comes in its
way, and especially the violent north wind (aquilo). — In Eussian
stories we have, instead, now the funereal storks, now the marvellous
goose taking the place of the eagle that drags things behind it.

1 In the tenth Sicilian story of Signora Gonzenbach, it is in the
shape of a silver eagle that the king of the assassins penetrates into
the room where the young wife of the king sleeps, upon whom he
wishes to avenge himself. — Stephanus Stephanius, the interpreter of
Saxo Gi'ammaiicus, writes, that among t]je English, the Danes, and
other Northern nations, it was the custom when an enemy was defeated,
to thrust a sword, as a greater mark of ignominy, into his back, in such
a manner as to separate the backbone on both sides by a longitudinal
wound; thence stripes of flesh having been cut off, they were fastened
to the sides, so as to represent eagle's wings. (In Eussian popular
stories, when heroes and monsters fight, we find frequent reference to
a similar custom.)

2 Panravilas satan^ ludshe j'-asnavo sakaU, Afanassieff^ vi. 16. — The
proverb, however, may have another sense, viz., better the devil in per-
son than a beautiful but diabolical shape. The devil tomatimes assumed
the form of a hawk, as we learn from the legend of Endo, an English
man-at-arms, who became enamoured of one into which the devil had
transformed himself, in Guillelmus Neubrigensis, IlUt. Angl. i. 19.

THE HA WK AN EMBLEM OF NOBILITY. 193

popular Russian phraseology, to express something that it
is impossible to overtake, it was said, ''Like the hurri-
cane in the field, and the luminous hawk in the sky."
We know that the Latin accipiier and the Greek
dlcilpteros mean the swift- winged. In the seventh story
of the first book of Afanassieff, the hawk appears in
opposition to the black crow. When the young girl,
disguised as a man, succeeds in deceiving the Tzar three
times, she says to him, *'Ah! thou crow, crow; thou
hast not known, crow, how to catch the hawk in a
cage."

The hawk was one of the distinctive badges of the
mediaeval cavalier ; even ladies kept them, Krimhilt
brings up a wild hawk ; Brunhilt, when she throws her-
self upon the funeral pyre, that she may not survive
Sigurd, has two dogs and two hawks immolated along
with her. On the sepulchres of mediaeval cavaliers and
ladies, a hawk was not unfrequently found, as an emblem
of their nobility. According to a law of the year 818, the
sword and hawk belonging to the losing cavalier were to be
respected by his conqueror, and left unappropriated ; the
hawk to hunt, and the sword to fight with. In Dti Cange,
we read that in 1642 Monsieur De Sassay claimed as
his feudal right, "ut nimirum accipitrem suum ponere
possit super altare majus ecclesise Ebraicensis (of Evreux),
dum sacra in eo peragit ocreatus, calcaribusque in-
structus presbyter parochus d'Ezy, pulsantibus tympanis,
organorum loco." According to the law of the Bur-
gundians, he who attempted to steal another man's
hawk was, before all, obliged to conciliate the hawk itself
by giving it to eat (sex uncias carnis acceptor ipse super
testones comedat) ; or if the hawk refused to eat, the
robber had to pay an indemnity to the proprietor, besides
a fine (sex solidos illi cujus acceptor est, cogatur exsol-

i'OL. II.

194 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

vere ; niulctse autem nomine solidos duos). According to
information supplied me by my learned friend Count
Geza Kuun, the hawk (turul) was the military ensign of
Attila. According to a tradition preserved in the chro-
nicle of Keza and of Buda, Emesu, mother of Attila, saw
in a dream a hawk which predicted a happy future to
her, after which dream she became pregnant.

Nor was the hawk less honoured in Hellenic antiquity ;
according to Homer, it was the rapid messenger of Apollo ;
the spy of Apollo, sacred to Zeus, according to ^lianos ;
having after death the faculty of vaticination, according
to Porphyrios (who even recommends the heart of a hawk,
a stag, or a mole to any one about to practise divination).
In the Iliad, Apollo coming down from Mount Ida, is
compared to the swift hawk, the killer of doves, the
swiftest of all birds. Many are the superstitious beliefs
concerning the hawk collected by .ZElianos ; such as, for
instance, that it does not eat the hearts of animals ; that
it weeps over a dead man ; that it buries unbmied bodies,
or at least puts earth upon their eyes, in which it thinks
it sees the sun again, upon which, as its most beloved
star, it always fixes its gaze ; that it loves gold ; that it
lives for seven hundred years ; not to mention the extra-
ordinary medical virtues which are always attributed to
every sacred animal, and which are particularly considered
as essential to the sacred hawk. Several of the qualities
of the sacred hawk passed also into other falcons of
inferior quality, the kite (milvius),^ for instance, of which
it is said that it was placed among the stars for having
carried to Zeus the entrails of the monster bull-serpent,
and, according to the third book of Ovid's Fasti, for

1 In Plato's PhcedoUy rapacious men are transformed into wolves and
kites.

THE EAGLE OF ZEUS AND THE BEETLE. 195

having brought back to Zeus the lost ring (an ancient form
of the mediseval ring of Solomon, i.e., the solar disc) : —
*' Jupiter alitibus rapere imperat, attulit illi,
Milvius, et meritis venit in astra suis."

With regard to the kite, we find an apologue/ according
to which the kite, at the point of death, asks its mother
to beg grace from the neighbouring statue of the god,
and especially forgiveness, for the sacrilege which it had
frequently committed, discharging its body upon the
image of the god (the sun upon the sky).

A richer variety of this story is found in another
apologue, which illustrates a Greek proverb ("seton
kantaros maieusomai ") ; but instead of the hawk, we
have the beetle, and instead of the statue, the god himself,
Zeus, with eagle's eggs in his lap. The beetle (the
hostess-moon), wishing to punish the eagle, which had
violated the laws of hospitality with regard to the hare
(also the moon), attempts to destroy its eggs ; the eagle
goes and places them in the lap of Zeus ; the beetle,
who knows that Zeus hates everything that is unclean,
lets some dung fall upon him ; Zeus forgets the eggs,
shakes himself, and breaks them. Here the eagle is
identified with Zeus, as in the Vedic hymns the hawk
with Indras. In the first of Pindar's Pythic odes, the
poet speaks of the eagle as sleeping on the sceptre of Zeus
(as a thunderbolt, which is the real sceptre of Zeus).
The eagle of Zeus is also represented as holding the
thunderbolt in its claws, which is in accordance with

^ Cfr. Aldrovandi, Ornith. v. — And, moreover, in the same Aldro-
vandi : — " Narrant qui res Africanas Uteris mandarunt Aquilam
marem aliquando cum Lupa coire . . . producique ac edi Draconem,
qui rostro et alis avis speciem referat, cauda serpentem, pede Lupum,
cute esse versicolorem, nee supercilia posse attollere."

196 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

the sentence, "Fulmina sub Jove sunt." When Zeus
is equipping himself to fight against the Titans, the
eagle brings his dart to him, for which reason Zeus
adopted the eagle as his ensign of war. In Dion Cassms,
the eagles let the golden thunderbolts drop out of their
talons into the camp of the Pompeians, and fly towards
the camp of Ceesar to announce his victory. We find
very numerous examples in the ancient classics of eagles
that presage now victory, now supreme power to the
heroes, that now nourish, now save them, and now
sacrifice themselves for them.-^ The eagle of Zeus, the
royal eagle, does not feed 'upon flesh, but upon herbs,
properly upon the moisture of these herbs, by means of
which we can comprehend the rape of Ganymede, the
cup-bearer of Zeus, carried oflf by the eagle in the same
way as the hawk of Indras carries off" the somas in the
jRigvedas, The Hellenic eagle is generally, like Zeus, a
bringer of light, fertility, and happiness. Pliny narrates
of an eagle, that immediately after the wedding of
Augustus it let fall, as an omen of fecundity in the family
of Augustus, into the lap of Livia Drusilla a white hen,
having a branch of laurel in its beak ; this branch was
planted, and grew into a dense laurel-grove ; the hen had
so many descendants, that afterwards the villa where this
happened was called the Villa of the Hens. Suetonius
adds that in the last year of the life of Nero all the hens
died, and all the laurel plants w^ere dried up. We also
flnd the eagle in connection with the laurel in the myth
of Amphiaraos, whose spear, carried off' by the eagle and
plunged into the ground, grew into a laurel plant.

^ I recommend, to whoever -wishes to find all these circumstances
united, the perusal of the first volume of the Ornithologia of Aldro-
vandi, who dedicated in it to birds of prey a long and detailed study.
— Cfr. also Bachofen, Die Sage von Tanaquilj Heidelberg, 1870.

THE EAGLE AND THE GIRL. 197

In the first chapter of the first book, when speaking of
the myth of the aurora, "we mentioned the young hero
who disrobes the beautiful princess on the bank of the
river and carries her apparel away. In the Hellenic myth
we find a zoological variety of this rsij^h. Aphrodite
(here the evening aurora) bathes in the Acheloos (the
river of night) ; Hermes (the extreme western light, and
perhaps even the moon) becomes enamoured of her, and
makes the eagle (the bird of night) carry ofi" her gar-
ments, to obtain which. Aphrodite satisfies the desire of
Hermes. In Strabo we find a variation of the same
story which reminds us of the fairy-tale of Cinderella.
Whilst Rhodope is bathing, the eagle snatches one of her
slippers out of her maid's hands and carries it oif to the
king of Memphis, who, seeing the slipper, falls in love
with the foot that wore it, gives orders to search every-
where for the girl to whom the slipper belongs, and,
when Ehodope is found, marries her. -Mianos says that
this king was Psammetichos. But the Hellenic eagle is
divine as long as the god Zeus, whom it represents, is
propitious ; when Zeus becomes the tyrant of heaven,
and condemns Prometheus to be bound upon a rock, the
eagle goes to gnaw at his heart. And because the poet
jEschilos glorified Prometheus, making him curse the
tyranny of Zeus, hence, doubtless, arose the legend that
-ffischilos was, when old and bald, killed by a tortoise,
which the eagle, mistaking the head of ^schilos for a
white rock, had let fall from the sky in order to break
it and feed upon it. The eagle which, according to
Theophrastos, announced death to the cutters of black
hellebore, was also a funereal and demoniacal bird. In
the eighth book of Ovid's Metamorphoses^ King Nisos,
the golden-haired (the sun of evening), is transformed
into a marine eagle (the night or winter), Avhen his

iqS zoological mythology.

daughter Scylla (the night, or winter), in order to give
him up to his enemies, destroys his strength by cutting
his hair (an evident variation of the solar legend of Delilah
and Samson).

The vulture, too, is a sacred bird in the legends of
ancient classical authors ; Herodotos says that it is very
dear to Herakles (the killer of the eagle that gnaws at
the heart of Prometheus, who had made for the hero the
cup in which he had been enabled to cross the sea) ; it
announces sovereign dominion to Eomulus, Csesar, and
Augustus. Pliny writes that burnt vulture's feathers
make serpents flee ; the same feathers, according to
Pliny, have the property of facilitating parturition, inas-
much as, as St Jerome writes (adversus Jovinianum ii.),
" Si medicorum volumina legeris, videbis tot curationes
esse in vulture, quot sunt membra."^ Two vultures
(a form of the AgvinAu) eat every day, in hell, the liver
that continually grows again (the immortale jecur of
Virgil) of the giant Tityo, the offender of Latona
(the moon), dear to Jupiter. (The monster of night is
killed every day and rises again every night). The two
youths jEgipios and Nephron are another form of the
Agvin^u, who, hating each other on account of the love
which each has for the other's mother, are changed by
Zeus into two vultures, after that -^gipios, by a strata-
gem of Nephron, united himself with his own mother.
Iphiklos consults the birds to have children, from the
vulture downwards, who alone knew how to assign the
reason why Iphiklos had no children and indicate the
means of obtaining them. Philakos had tried to kill
Iphiklos ; not having succeeded, he fastened his sword

^ Comparative popular medecine might be tlae subject of a special
work which could not fail to be instructive and interestinij.

THE VULTURE'S VORACITY. 199

on a wild pear-tree ; around the sword a covering of
bark grew, which hid it from the sight of men. The
vulture shows the place where this tree grows, and
advises Iphiklos to take the bark off, to clean the rust
off the sword, and after ten days to drink the rust in a
toast ; Iphiklos thus obtains offspring.

The vulture, therefore, generally preserves in Grseco-
Latin tradition the heroic and divine character which it
has in Indian tradition, although its voracity became
proverbial in ancient popular phraseology. Lucian calls
a great eater the greatest of all the vultures. Moreover,
the special faculty of distinguishing the smell of a dead
body, even before death, is attributed to him ; whence
Seneca, in an epistle against the man who covets the
inheritance of a living person, says " Vultur es, cadaver
expecta," and Plautus in the Truculentus says of certain
parasitical servants : " Jam quasi vulturii triduo prius
preedivinabant, quo die esituri sient."

Besides these royal birds of prey that become mythical,
there are several mythical birds of prey that never existed,
still to be noticed, such as the phoenix, the harpy, the
griffon, the strix, the Seleucide birds, the Stymphalian
birds, and the sirens. Popular imagination believed in
their terrestrial existence for a long time, but it can be
said of them aU as of the Arabian Phoenix ; —

" All affirm that it exists ;
Where it is no one can tell." ^

In point of fact, no man has ever seen them ; a few
deities or heroes alone approached them ; their seat is in
the sky, where, according to their several natures and

1

' Come TAraba Fenice ;
Che ci sia, ciascun lo dice ;
Dove sia, nessim lo sa.''

200 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

the different places occupied by the sun or the moon
in the sty, they attract, ravish, seduce, enchant, or
destroy.

The phoenix is, beyond all doubt, the eastern and
western sun ; hence Petrarch was able to say with reason,

"Ne "n ciel nfe 'n terra h pi^ d'una Fenice,"
as there is not more than one sun ; and we, like the
the ancient Greeks, say of a rare man or object, that he
or it is a phoenix. Tacitus, who narrates, in the four-
teenth book, the fable of the phoenix, calls it animal
sacrum soli; Lactantius says that it alone knows the
secrets of the sun —

" Et sola arcanis conscia Phoebe tuis/'
and represents it as rendering funereal honours to its
father in the temple of the sun ; Claudian calls it soKs
a.vem and describes its whole life in a beautiful little poem.
It is born in the East, in the wood of the sun, and
until it has assumed its whole splendid shape it feeds
upon dew and perfumes, whence Lactantius —

*' Ambrosios libat coelesti nectarerores
Stellifero teneri qui cecidere polo.
Hos legit, his mediis alitur in odoribus ales,
Donee maturam proferat effigiem."

It then feeds upon all that it sees. When it is about to
die it thinks only of its new birth —

" Componit bustumque sibi, partumque futurum " {Claudian) ;

inasmuch as it is said to deposit a little worm, the
colour of milk, in its nest, which becomes a funeral pyre,

" Fertur vermis lacteus esse color " {Lactantius).

Before dying, it invokes the sun :

"Hie sedet, et solem blando clangore salutat
Debilior, miscetque preces, et supplice cantu
Prsestatura novas vires incendia poscit ;
Quern procul abductis vidit cum Phoebus habenis,
Stat subito, dictisque pium solatur alumnum " {Claudian).

FHCENIX^HARIIES. 201

The sun extinguishes the conflagration, which consumes
the phoenix, and out of which it has to arise once more.
At last the phoenix is born again with the dawn —

" Atque ubi sol pepulit fulgentis lumina portss,
Et primi emicuit luminis aura levis,
Incipit ilia sacri modulamina fundere cantus,
Et mira lucem voce ciere novam " [Lactantius).

In my opinion, no more proofs are required to de-
monstrate the identity of the phcenix with the sun of
morning and of evening, and, by extension, with that of
autumn and of spring. That which was fabled con-
^ cerning it in antiquity, and by reflection, in the Middle
Ages, agrees perfectly with the twofold luminous pheno-
menon of the sun that dies and is bom again every
day and every year out of its ashes, and of the hero or
heroine who traverses the flames of the burning pyre
intact.

The nature of the phoenix is the same as that of the
burning bird (szar-ptitza) of Eussian fairy tales, which
swallows the dwarf who goes to steal its eggs (the
evening aurora swallows the sun).-^

The solar bird of evening is a bird of prey ; it draws
to itself with its damp claw ; it draws into the dark-
ness of night ; it has night behind it ; its appearance is
charming and its countenance alluring, but the rest of
its body is as horrid as its nature.

Virgil and Dante ascribe women's faces to the Har-
pies —

" Ali hanno late e colli e visi umani
Pi^ con artigli e pennuto il gran ventre.''

Eutilius ^ says that their claws are glutinous —

"Qua pede glutineo, quod tetigere trahunt."

1 Cfr. Afanasdeff, v. 27. 2 j^-^^^ i_

202 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

Others give them vultures' bodies, bears' ears, arms and
feet of men, and the white breasts of women. Servius,
speaking of the name they bear of canes Jovis, notes
that this epithet was given them because they are the
Furies in person, " Unde etiam epulas apud Virgilium
abripiunt, quod Furiarum est." Ministers of the ven-
geance of Zeus, they contaminate the harvests of the
king-seer Phineus, inspired by Apollo, whom some con-
sider to be a form of Prometheus, the revealer of the
secret of Zeus to mankind, and others, the blinder of his
own sons.

The bird of prey, the evening solar bird, becomes a
strix, or witch, during the night. We have already
noticed the popular belief that the cat, at seven years of
age, becomes a witch. An ancient superstition given by
Aldrovandi also recognises witches in cats, and adds
that, in this form, they suck the blood of children. The
same is done by the witches of popular stories,^ and by
the striges. During the night they suck the blood of
children ; that is to say, the night takes away the colour,
the red, the blood of the sun. Ovid, in the sixth book
of the Fasti, represents the maleficent striges as follows :

" Nocte volant, puerosque petunt nutricis egentes,
Et vitiant cunis corpora rapta suis.
Carpere dicuntur iactentia viscera rostris,
Et plenum poto sanguine guttur habent."

Festus derives the word strix d stringendo, from the

^ In the first chapter of the first book we saw how the witch sucked
the breasts of the beautiful maiden. — In £>i(. Cange, s. v. Ammaj we
read as follows : " Isidorus, lib. xii. cap. vii. bubo strix nocturua :
* Haec avis, inquit ille, vulgo Amma dicitur ab amando parvulos, unde
et lac prsebere dicitur nascentibus.' Anilem hanc fabulam non habet
Papias MS. Ecclesige Bituricensis. Sic enim ille: Amma avis nocturna
ab amando dicta, hsec et strix dicitur a stridore."

THE STRIX—BATS AND VAMPIRES. 203

received opinion that they strangle children. The
striges, in the book of the Fasti, previously quoted,
attack the child Proca, who is only five days old —

" Pectoraque exhorbent avidis infantia linguis/'

The nurse invokes the help of Crane, the friend of Janus,
who has the faculty of hunting good and evil away
from the doorsteps of houses. Crane hunts the witches
away with a magical rod, and cures the child thus —

"Protinus arbutea postes ter in ordine tangit
Fronde ter arbutea limina fronde notat.
Spargit aquis aditus, et aqu£e medicamen habebant,
Extaque de porca cruda bimestre tenet."

The usual conjurings are added, and the incident ends
thus —

" Post illud, nee aves cunas violasse feruntur,
Et rediit puero qui fuit ante color."

Quintus Serenus, when the strix atra presses the child,
recommends as an amulet, garlic, of which we have seen
that the strong odour puts the monstrous lion to flight.

The same maleficent and demoniacal nature is shared
in by the bats and the vampires, which I recognise in
the " two winged ones entreated not to suck " of a Vedic
hymn.^

Of analogous nature were the Stymphalian birds, which

^ M^ mam ime patatrini vi dugdMm ; Rigv. i. 158, 4. — In Sicily,
tbe bat called taddarita is considered as a form of the demon ; to
take and kill it, one sings to it —

'* Taddarita, ^ncanna, 'ncanna,

Lu dimonio ti 'ncanna

E ti 'ncanna pri li peni

Taddarita, veni, veni."
When it is caught, it is conjured, because, when it shrieks, it blas-
pheme?. Hence it is killed at the flame of a candle or at the fire, or
else is crucified.

204 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

obscure the sun's rays with their wings, use their feathers
as darts, devour men and lions, and are formidable on
account of their claws —

*' Unguibus Arcadise volucres Stympliala colentes " {Lucretius) ;

which H^rakles, and afterwards the Argonauts, by the
advice of the wise Phineos, put to flight with the noise
of a musical instrument, and by striking their shields
and spears against each other. The bird of Seleucia
which Galenus describes as "of an insatiable appetite,
malignant, astute, a devourer of locusts," also has the
same diabolical nature. If our identification of the locust
with the moon be accepted, to kill the locust, its
shadow alone sufficed. But inasmuch as the locusts are
considered destroyers of corn, the birds of Seleucia,
which come to devour them, are held to be beneficent,
and the ministers of Zeus.

The gryphes are represented as of double nature, now
propitious, now malignant. Solinus calls them, " Alites
ferocissimse et ultra rabiem ssevientes." Ktesias de-
clares that India possesses gold in moimtains inhabited
by griffins, quadrupeds, as large as wolves, which have
the legs and claws of a lion, red feathers on their breasts
and in their other parts, eyes of fire and golden nests.
For the sake of the gold, the Arimaspi, one-eyed men,
fight with the griffins. As the latter have long ears,
they easily hear the robbers of the gold; and if they
capture them, they invariably kill them. In Hellenic
antiquity, the griffins were sacred to Nemesis, the god-
dess of vengeance, and were represented in sepulchres in
the act of pressing down a bull's head ; but they were
far more celebrated as sacred to the golden sun, Apollo,
whose chariot they drew (the hippogriff", which, in
medieval chevaleresque poems, carries the hero, is their

GRIFFINS'—SIRENS. 205

exact equivalent). And as Apollo is the prophetical
and divining deity, whose oracle, when consulted, delivers
itself in enigmas, the word griffin, too, meant enigma,
logogriph being an enigmatical speech, and griffonnage
an entangled, confused, and embarrassing handwriting.

Finally, the siren, or mermaid, who had a woman's
face, and ended now as a bird, now as a fish ; and who,
according to Greek grammarians, had the form of a
sparrow in its upper parts and of a woman in the lower,
seems to be a lunar rather than a solar animal. The
sirens allure navigators in particular, and fly after the
ship of the cunning Odysseus, who stuffs his ears ; for
which reason they throw themselves in despair into the
sea. The sirens are fairies like Circe ; hence Horace ^
names them together —

" Sirenum voces et Circes pocula nosti."

Pliny, who believed that they existed in India, attributed
to them the faculty of lulling men to sleep by their
songs, in order to tear them to pieces afterwards ; they
calmed the winds of the sea by their voices, they knew
and could reveal every secret (like the fairy or Madonna
moon). Some say that the sirens were born of the blood
of Acheloos, defeated by Herakl^s ; others, of Acheloos
and one of the Muses ; others, again, narrate that they
were once girls, and that Aphrodite transformed them
into sirens because they wished to remain virgins. In
the sixteenth Esthonian story, the beautiful maiden of

^ According to a Sicilian story, as yet unpublislied, communicated
to me by Dr Ferraro, a siren once carried off a girl, and bore her out
to sea with her ; and, though she occasionally allowed her to come to
the shore, she secured her against running away by means of a chain
which was fastened to her own tail. The brother released his sister
by throwing bread and meat to the siren to satiate her hunger, em-
ploying seven blacksmiths the while to cut the chain.

2c6 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

the waters, daughter of the mother of the waters, falls in
love with a young hero with whom she stays six days of
the week ; the seventh day, Thursday, she leaves him, to
go and plunge into the water, forbidding the youth to
come and see her : the young man is unable to repress
his curiosity, surprises the maiden when bathing, and
discovers that she is a woman in her upper and a fish in
her lower parts —

" Desinit in piscem mulier formosa superne ; "

the maiden of the waters is conscious of being looked at,
and disappears sorrowfully from the young man's sight/

^ Cfr. the Pentamerone, iv. 7 ; and the legend of Lohengrin, in the
chapter on the Swan.

CHAPTER III.

THE WRElSr, THE BEETLE, AJSTD THE EIREFLY.

SUMMARY.

Eex and regulus. — lyattika gakuntik^. — The wren's testament. —
Vasiliskos ; kunigli. — The wren and the eagle. — The wren and the
beetle. — The death of Csesar predicted by a wren. — Equus Iwice. —
Indragopas. — The red-mantled beetle. — The little cow of God in
Eussia. — The chicken of St Michael in Piedmont. — The cow-lady.
— The Lucia and St Lucia. — The little pig of St Anthony ; the
butterfly as a phallical symbol. — The cockchafer. — St Nicholas. —
Other popular names of the coccinella septempunctata. — The lady-
cow tells children how many years they have to live. — The firefly
and the refulgent glowworm. — The firefly flogged ; it gives light
to the wheat , the shepherd's candle.

Fbom the largest of birds we now pass to the smallest,
from the ?ex to the regulus (in Italian, capo d'oro,
golden head), and to the red, golden, and green beetles
(yellow and green are confounded with one another, as
we showed on a previous occasion, in the equivocal words,
haris and harit), which are equivalent to it, and which
are substituted for it in mythology. I recognise the wren
in the very little bird (iyattik^ gakuntik^) of the Migvedas,
which devours the poison of the sun.^ In a populai
German song, the wren bewails the evils of winter, which,
for the rest, it represents (in its character of the moon, it

^ Gaghisa te visham; Rigv, i. 191, 11.

2o8 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

absorbs the solar vapours). A popular song of Scotch
children celebrates the wren's testament —

" The wren, she lies in care's nest,
Wr meikle dole and pyne."

The wren (Greek, hasilishos; old German, kunigli), like
the beetle, appears as the rival of the eagle. It flies
higher than the latter. In a story of the Monferrato,^
the wren and the eagle challenge each other to a trial of
their powers of flight. All the birds are present. While
the proud eagle rises in the air, despising the wren, and
flies so high that it is soon wearied, the wren has placed
itself under one of the eagle's wings, and when it sees
the latter exhausted, comes out, and, singing victory,
rises higher still. Pliny says that the eagle is the enemy
of the wren: "Quoniam rex appellatur avium." Aris-
totle, too, relates that the eagle and the wren fight against
each other. The fable of the challenge between the eagle
and the wren was already known in antiquity ; the chal-
lenge was said to have been given when the birds wished
to procure for themselves a king. The eagle, which had
flown higher than all the other birds, was about to be
proclaimed king, when the wren, hidden under one of
the eagle's wings, flew upon the latter's head, and pro-
claimed itself victorious. The wren and the beetle seem
generally to represent the moon, known to be the pro-
tectress of weddings ; for this reason, according to Aratos,
weddings were not to take place whilst the wren was

1 Communicated to me by Dr Ferraro. — A similar story is still told
in Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Ireland, with the variation of the
stork as the eagle's rival in flying : when the stork falls down tired
out, the wren, which was hidden under one of its wings, comes forth
to measure itself with the eagle, and not being tired, is victorious. — In
a popular story of Hesse, the wren puts ail the animals, guided by
the bear, to flight by means of a stratagem.

EQUUS LUNM—INDRAGOPAS. 209

hidden in the earth. We know how the full moon (a
phallical symbol) was considered the most propitious
season for weddings). According to Suetonius, the death
of Caesar was predicted to happen on the Ides of March
by a wren, which was torn in pieces by several other
birds in the Pompeian temple, as it was carrying a laurel
branch away (as the eagle does ; out of the wintry dark-
ness, ruled over by the moon in particular, spring comes
forth ; the dark eagle represents sometimes the dark-
ness, as the wren the moon, which wanders in the
darkness).

We saw the beetle that flies upon the eagle in the pre-
ceding chapter. Pliny says of the Persian Magi that
they charmed away hail, locusts, and every similar evil
from the country, when ' ^ aquilse scalperentur aut
scarabei," with an emerald. According to Telesius, the
Calabrians, in the Cosentino, call the gold-green beetle
by the name of the horse of the moon (equus lunse).
This is the sacred beetle, which is so often represented in
ancient cameos and obelisks, and in the Isiac peplums of
the mummies. But there is another beetle which is yet
more familiar to Indo-European tradition — viz., the little
and nearly round one, with a red mantle and black
spots (ladybird or cow-lady). It was already known in
India, where the name of indrq.gopas (protected by
Indras) is given to a red beetle. In a Hindoo verse we
read that the mantled red beetle faUs down because it
has flown too high^ (in this myth the rising and setting
both of the moon and of the sun are represented ; cfr.
the legends of Icaros, Hanumant, and Sampatis). In
Germany the red beetle is advised to flee because its

1 Atyunnatirii prapyjt narah pr^v^rah kitako yatha sa vinagyatya-
samdeham; Boiitlingkj Indische Sprilchej 2te Aufl, Spr. 181.

VOL. II. O

210 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

house is on fire.^ In Eussia the same red beetle with

black spots is called the little cow of God (we have

already seen the cow-moon), and children say to it —

" Little cow of God,
Fly to the sky,
God will give you bread.^'^

In Piedmont the same beetle is called the chicken of St
Michael, and children say to it —
" Chicken of St Michael,
Put on your wings and fly to heaven."^

In Tuscany it is called lucia,* and children cry out to it —
" Lucia, lucla
Metti Tali e vola via,"

^ The same superstition exists in some parts of England, where the
children address it thus : —

" Cow-lady, cow-lady, fly away home ;
Your house is all burnt, and your children are gone."

The English names for this beetle are ladybird, ladycow, ladybug,
and ladyfly (cfr, Webster's English Dictionary). The country-people
also call it golden knop or knob (Cfr. Trench On the Study of Words).
^ " Boszia Kar6vka

Paleti na niebo.

Bog dat tibi^ hleba."
3 " La galina d' San Michel

Btita j ale e vola al ciel."
* Sacred, no doubt, to St Lucia, In the Tyrol, according to the
Festliche Jahr of Baron E-einsberg, St Lucia gives presents to girls,
and St Nicholas to boys. The feast of St Lucia is celebrated on the
15th of September • that evening no one need stay up late, for who-
ever works that night finds all the work undone in the morning. The
night of St Lucia is greatly feared (the saint loses her sight ; the sum-
mer, the warm sunny season, comes to an end ; the Madonna moon dis-
appears, and then becomes queen of the sky, the guardian of light, as
St Lucia), and conjurings are made against nightmare, devils, and
witches. A cross is put into the bed that no witch may enter into it.
That night, those who are under the influence of fate see, after eleven
o'clock, upon the roofs of houses a light moving slowly and assuming
different aspects ; prognostications of good or evil are taken from this
light, which is called Litzieschein.

THE COCCINELLA SEPTEMPUNCTATA, 211

(Put out your wings and fly away.) The red beetle
with black spots is also called St Nicholas (Santu
Mcola), or even little dove (palumedda). When one of
their teeth falls, children expect a gift from the beetle ;
they hide the tooth in a hole, and then invoke the
little animal/ returning to the place, they usually
find a coin there, deposited by their father or mother.
The red beetle, the ladycow of the English (coccinella
septempunctata), has several names in Germany, which
have been collected by Mannhardt in his German M)rtho-
logy ; among others, we find those of little bird of God,
little horse of God, little cock of Mary, little cock of gold,
little animal of heaven, little bird of the sun, little cock
of the sun, little calf of the sun, little sun, little cow of
women (it is therefore also invoked for milk and butter),
and little cock of women. German maidens, in fact, in
Upland, send it to their lovers as a messenger of love,
with the following verses : —

" Jungfrau Marias,

Schlusselmagd,

Flieg nach Osten,

Flieg nach. Westen,

Flieg dahin wo mein Liebster "wolint.''^

The ladycow shows the Swedish maidens their bridal
gloves ; Swiss children interrogate it (in the same way
as the cuckoo is interrogated) to know how many years
they will live.^

The worship which is given to the red beetle is

^ " Santu Nicola, Santu Nicola

Facitimi asciari ossa e chiova.''

(St Nicholas, St Nicholas,

Make me find bone and coin.)
2 Cfr. Menzel, Die Vorchristliche Unsterhlichkeits-Lehre,
^ Cfr. Rochholtz, Deutscher Glaube unci Branch

212 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

analogous to that reserved for the firefly (cicindela) ;
the firefly, however, like the German Feuerkafer, which
German children, in spring, strike in a hole and carry
home^ the luminous glowworm that hides in hedges,
like the wren, called also in Italian forasiepe, pierce-
hedge, round which glowworm the stupid monkeys of
the PaMatantram sit in winter to warm themselves), is
not treated so well. In Tuscany the poor firefly, which
appears in late spring (in Germany it appears somewhat
later, whence its name of Johanniswlirmchen), is menaced
with a flogging, and children sing to it after catching

it:—

*' Lucciola, lucciola, vien da me,
Ti darb un pan del re,^
Con deir ova affritellate,
Came secca e bastonate."

(Firefly, firefly, come to me ; I will give you a king's
loaf of bread, with fried eggs, bacon, and a flogging.) It
is said in Tuscany that the firefly gives light to the
wheat when the corn begins to grow in the ear ; when it
has grown, the firefly disappears.^ Children are accus-
tomed to catch the firefly and put it under a glass,
hoping in the morning they will find a coin instead of
the firefly. In Sicily, the firefly is called the little
candle of the shepherd {cannilicchia di picuraru; the
shepherd, or celestial pastor, the sun ; the moon gives

1 Kuhn und Schwartz, N. d. S. M. u. G., p. 377.
^ In another Tuscan variety, the song begins —
" Lucciola, Lucciola, bassa, bassa,
Ti darb una materassa," &e.
(Firefly, firefly, down so low, I will give you a mattrass.)

3 Pliny, too, wrote in the eighteenth book of his Natural History :
*'Lucentes vespere cicindelas Bignum esse maturitatis panici et milii.'*
G. Telesius of the Cosentino wrote an elegant Latin poem upon the
firefly or cicindela^ in the seventeenth century.

THE FIREFL Y~THE B UTTERFL Y. 213

light to tiie sun and shows him the way to traverse from
autumn to spring, from evening to day), and is sought
for and carried home to secure good luck. And inas-
much as the firefly shines by night, it is more probable
that it represented the moon than the sun in popular
mythical beliefs. The firefly disappears as soon as the
ears are ripe, ?".e., with the summer; we have already
seen that the winter, or cold season of the year (like the
night or cold season of the day) is under the especial
influence of the moon. The red beetle must flee when
summer comes, in order not to be burnt ; the firefly, the
glowworm, or worm of fire, is flogged, and the summer
sun triumphs.

I suppose that the same mythical nature belongs to
the butterfly (perhaps the black little butterfly with red
spots), which is called in Sicily the little bird of good
news (occidduzzu bona nova), or little pig of St Anthony
(purcidduzzu di S. Antoni), and which is believed to
bring good luck when it enters a house. It is entreated
to come into the house, which is then immediately shut,
so that the good luck may not go out. When the insect
is in the house, they sing to it : —

*' In your mouth, milk and honey ;
In my house, health and wealth. "^

The butterfly was in antiquity both a phallical symbol
(and therefore Eros held it in his hand) and a funereal
one, with promises of resurrection and transformation ;
the souls of the departed were represented in the forms of
butterflies carried towards Elysium by a dolphin. The
butterfly was also often represented upon the seven strings
of the lyre, and upon a burning torch. It dies to be born

1 " 'Ntr' ^ to vucca latti e meli,
'Ntr' a m& casa saluti e beni/'

214 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

again. The phases of the moon seem to correspond in
the sky to the zoological transformations of the butterfly.
Other beetles — the green beetle and the cockchafer —
have also extraordinary virtues in fairy tales. In the
fifth story of the third book of the Pentamerone, the
cockchafer (scarafone ; in Toscana, it is called also indo-
virello) can play on the guitar, saves the hero, Nardiello,
and makes the princess laugh that had never laughed
before. In the fifty-eighth story of the sixth book of
Afa7iassieff, the green beetle cleans the hero who had
fallen into the marsh, and makes the princess laugh
who had never laughed before (the beetle, which appears
in spring, like the phallical cuckoo, releases the sun from
the marsh of winter).

CHAPTEE IV.

THE BEE, THE WASP, THE 'FLY, THE GNAT, THE MOSQUITO,
THE HORSEFLY, AND THE CICADA.

SUMMARY.

The bees and the Agviniu. — Madhumakshas. — Indras, Krishnas, and
Vishnus as Midhavas. — The bees and Madhuhan. — Beowulf. —
The god of thunder and the bees. — Vishnus as a bee. — The
ocymum nigrum. — The bees as nurses. — Melissai. — Sel^n^ as
Melissa. — Souls as bees. — The bees born in the bull's dead body,
— The bee according to Finnish mythology. — The bees descended
from paradise as part of the mind of God. — Bee's-wax causes
light. — The Bienenstock. — The madhumati ka^^. — The bees as
winds. — Apis and avis. — The mother of the bees.— The young
hero as a bee. — The fairy moon as a gnat. — The fly's palace. —
The flies bartered for good cattle. — Intelligence of the bee, — The
wasp as a judge. — The fly, the gnat, and the mosquito. — The
louse and the flea. — The ant and the fly. — The ant and the
cicada. — The cicadse and the muses. — Tithon as a cicada. — The
sparrow and the cicada. — The cicada and the cuckoo.

I FIND the bee in the Vedic mythology, where the
Agvin^u "carry to the bees the sweet honey," ^ where
the horses of the A9vin^u, compared to " ambrosial
swans, innocent, with golden wings, which waken with
the dawn, swim in the water, and enjoy themselves,
cheerful,'' are invoked to come, ''like the fly of honey,"

^ Madhu priyam bharatho yat saradbhyah; Rigv. i. 112, 21.

2i6 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

ie., the bee, "to the juices."^ The gods Indras,
Krishnas, and Vishnus, on account of their name
Madhavas (that is, born of madhus, belonging to or in
connection with it), "were also compared in India to
bees ; the bee, as making and carrying honey (mad-
hukaras), is especially the moon ; as sucking it, it is
especially the sun. The name of bhramaras or wanderer
given in India to the bee, is as applicable to the sun as
to the moon. In the Mahdbhdratam ^ it is said that the
bees kill the destroyer of honey (madhuhan). In the
chapter on the bear, we saw how the bear was killed by
the bees (cfr. the name Beowulf, explained as the wolf of
bees), and how in India it personified Vishnus. Now it
is not uninteresting to learn how Madhuhan, originally
the destroyer of the madhu, became a name of Krishnas
or Vishnus in the Mahdbhdratam and in the Bhdgavata
P, ; of madhu (honey) was made a demon, killed by the
god (sun and moon, sun and cloud, are rivals ; the solar
bear destroys the beehive of the moon and the clouds)/

1 Haiisiso ye vim madhumanto asridlio hiranyaparna uhuva ushar-
budhah udapruto mandino mandinisprigo madlivo na maksliah savanani
gadhathah ; Rigv, iv. 45, 4. Here makshas, in conjunction with
madhvaSj gives us the sense of madkumakshas and madhumakshika,
which means bee, and not fly, as it was interpreted by other trans-
lators, and by the Petropolitan Dictionary, whose learned editors will
be all the more induced to make this slight correction in the new
Verbesserungen, as in this hymn, as well as in the hymn i. 112, the
bees are considered in connection with the Agvinau. ^ iii. 1333.

^ The god of thunder (or Indras), in opposition to the bees, is also
found in a legend of the Cerkessians quoted by Menzel. The god
destroys them ; but one of them hides under the shirt of the mother
of God, and of this one all the other bees are born. — According to the
popular superstition of Normandy, in De Nore^ quoted by Menzel, the
bees (the same is said of the wasps and the horseflies) are revengeful
when maltreated, and carry happiness into a house when treated well.
"^ In Russia it is considered sacrilege to kill a bee.

THE BULL AND THE BEE. 217

Vishnus (as Haris, the sun and the moon) is sometimes
represented as a bee upon a lotus-leaf, and Krishnas with
an azure bee on his forehead. When the Hindoos take
honey out of a hive with a rod, they always hold in one
hand the plant toolsy (ocymum nigrum), sacred to
Krishnas (properly the black one), because one of the
girls beloved of Krishnas was transformed into it/

In the legend of Ibrahim Ibn Edhem, in the Tuti-
Name^ we read of a bee that carries crumbs of bread
away from the king's table to take them to a blind
sparrow. Meliai and M^lissai, or bees, were the names
of the nymphs who nursed Zeus ; the priestesses of the
nurse-goddess Dem^t^r were also called Melissai.

According to Porphyrios ^ the moon (Sel^n6) was also
called a bee (Melissa). Selene was represented drawn
by two white horses or two cows ; the horn of these
cows seems to correspond to the sting of the bee. The
souls of the dead were supposed to come down from the
moon upon the earth in the forms of bees. Porphyrios
adds that, as the moon is the culminating point of the
constellation of the bull (as a bull herself), it is believed
that bees are born in the bull's carcase. Hence the
name of bougeneis given by the ancients to bees.
Dionysos (the moon), after having been torn to pieces
in the form of a bull, was born again, according to those
who were initiated in the Dionysian mysteries, in the
form of a bee ; hence the name of Bougenes also given
to Dionysos, according to Plutarch. Three hundred
golden bees were represented, in conjunction with a
bull's head, in the tomb of Childeric, the king of the
Franks. Sometimes, instead of the lunar buU we find

^ Cfr. Addison, Indian Reminiscences. 2 jj^ \\2i.

^ Perl ton en Odiisseia ton NUmplion antron.

2i8 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

the solar lion ; and tlie lion in connection with bees
occurred in the mysteries of Mithras (and in the legend
of Samson).

According to the Finnish mjd^hology of Tomasson,
quoted by Menzel/ the bee is implored to fly far away
over the moon, over the sun, near to the axis of the con-
stellation of the waggon, into the dwelling of the Creator
god, and carry upon its wings and in its mouth health
and honey to the good, and wounds of fire and iron to
the wicked.

According to a popular belief (which is in accord-
ance with the legend of the Cerkessians), the bees alone
of all animals descended from paradise.^ Virgil, too, in
the fourth book of the Georgics, celebrates the divine

^ Die Bienen gebeten werden : " Biene, du Weltvoglein, flieg in die
Weite, iiber neun Seen, Uber den Mond, liber die Sonne, hinter des
Himmelssterne, neben der Acbse des Wagengestirns ; flieg in den
Keller des Schiipfers, in des Allmachtigen Vorrathskammer, bring
Arznei mit deinen FlUgeln, Honig in deinem Schnabel, fUr bose
Eisenwunden und Feuerwunden ; " Die YorcJiristliche Unsterhlichhdts-
Lehre. In this work, to wMcli I refer the reader, Menzel treats at
length of the worship of bees, and of honey.

2 In the Engadine in Switzerland, too, it is believed that the souls
of men emigrate from the world and return into it in the forms of
bees. The bees are there considered messengers of death ; cfr. Roch-
holz, Deutscher Glauhe und Branchy i. 147, 148. — When some one
dies, the bee is invoked as foUows, almost as if requesting the soul of
the departed to watch for ever over the living : —

" Bienchen, unser Herr ist todt,
Verlass mich nicht in meiner Noth."

In Germany, people are unwilling to buy the bees of a dead man, it
being believed that they will die or disappear immediately after him :
— "Stirbt der Hausherr, so muss sein Tod nicht bloss dem Vieh im
Stall und den Bienen im Stocke angesagt werden;" Sinirock, the
work quoted before, p. 601. — In the East, as is well-known, it was tlie
custom to bury great men in a tomb sprinkled over with honey or bees-
wax as a symbol of immortality.

THE BEES— THE WAX, 219

nature of the bee, which is a part of the mind of God,
never dies, and alone among animals ascends alive into
heaven (in popular Hellenic, Latin, and German tradition,
the bee personifies the soul, and this being considered
immortal, the bee, too, is supposed to escape death) : —

" Esse apibus partem divinae mentis et haustus
^thereos dixere : Deumque namque ire per omnes
Terrasque, tractusque maris coelumque profundum.
Hinc pecudes, armenta, viros, genus omne ferarum,
Quemque sibi tenues nascentem arcessere vitas ;
Scilicet hue reddi deinde ac resoluta referri
Omnia ; nee morti esse locum \ sed viva volare
Sideris in numerum atque alto succedere ccelo."

The wax of bees, because it produces light, and is,
moreover, used in churches,^ must also have had its part
in increasing the divine prestige of bees, and the belief in
their immortality, as being those that feed the fire.
According to a writing of 1482, cited by Du Gauge, the
sacred disease or ignis sacer (pestilential erysipelas) was
cured by wax dissolved in water.

In Germany the death of their master is announced to
the bees in the little stick round which the honey is made
in the hive. The hive or the Bienenstock, participates
in the divine nature of the bees, and calls my attention
to the madhumati kag^ or madhoh kag^ of the Rigvedas,
and of the Atharvavedas, attributed to the Agvin^u, and
destined to soften the sacrificial butter, which is of a
nature similar to the caduceus of Mercury, and to the
magical rod, born of all the various elements and of none
in particular, daughter of the wind, and sometimes per-

^ Der Adel der Bienen ist vom Paradies entsprossen und wegen der
Siinde des Menschen kamen sie von da heraus und Gott schenkte ihnen
seinen Segen, und deskalb ist die Messe nicht zu singen ohne Wachs •
Leo, Malberg. Glossce, 1842.

220 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

haps itself tlie wind ; the anima, the soul (the bee), is a
breath, a breeze, a wind (anemos, anilas), which changes
its place, but never dies ; it collects and scatters honeys
and perfumes, and passes away, changeful as the American
flybird that sucks honey, the continual beating of whose
wings resembles the buzzing of a bee ; the a/pis and avis
are assimilated. In Du Cange,^ I find an oration to the
mother of the bees, to call back the dispersed ones of her
family, conceived thus : — " Adjuro te, Mater aviorum per
Deum regem coelorum et per ilium Eedemptorem Pilium
Dei te adjuro, ut non te altum levare, nee longe volare,
sed quam plus cito potest ad arborem venire ; ibi te allocas
cum omni tua genera, vel cum socia tua, ibi habeo bono
vaso parato, ut vos ibi, in Dei nomine, laboretis," &c.

In the twenty-second story of the fifth book of Afanas-
sieff, a bee transforms itself into a young hero, in order
to prove to the old man that he is able to fetch back his
son, who has remained three years under the instruction
of the devil (the moon enables the old sun to find the
young one ; it helps the sun to cheat the devil of night).
In the same story it is in the form of a gnat that the
guardian-fairy perches herself upon the young hero, whom
his father has to recognise amongst twelve heroes that
bear the greatest resemblance to one another. In the
forty-eighth story of the fifth book, the gnat distinguishes,
among the twelve maidens that resemble each other ex-
tremely, the one whom the young hero loves, that is, the
daughter of the priest, whom the devil had taken posses-
sion of, because her father had once said to her, " The
devil take you." This indicatory gnat occurs in numerous
fairy tales, and discharges the ofiice of the fairy moon ;

1 Balitz. Capitulor. toni. ii. p. 6G3, in oratione ad revocandum
examen apum dispersum ex Cod. MS. S. Galli.

THE WASPS. 221

this is the guide and messenger of the hero. "We have
already seen the moon as a hostess. In the thirty-first
story of the fom^th book of Afanassieff, we have the fly
that entertains in its palace (according to the sixteenth
story of the third book, a horse's head) the louse, the flea,
the mosquito, the little mouse, the lizard, the fox, the hare,
and the wolf, untfl the bear comes up and crushes with
one paw the whole palace of the fly, and all the mythical
nocturnal animals that it contains. We have also seen
the hero who barters his bull for a vegetable which brings
him fortune, and we have seen above the bee that is born
of the dead bull. In the seventh story of the third book of
Afanassieff, the third brother, supposed to be foolish,
collects, on the contrary, flies and mosquitoes in two
sacks, which he suspends upon a lofty oak-tree, where he
barters them for good cattle (the moon is the pea of good
fortune, the giver of abundance). We know that the
moon was represented as the judge of the departed in the
kingdom of the dead, and as an omniscient fairy. The
industrious bees have a singular reputation for superior
intelligence.^ In the thirteenth fable of the third book of
Phcedrus, proof of the same wisdom is given by the wasp,
who sits in the tribunal as a conscientious judge between
the drones and the working bees in regard to the honey
which the bees had collected and stored up on a lofty
oak-tree, and to which the drones had pretensions.

The fly, the gnat, and the mosquito, though small,
annoy, and sometimes cause the death of, the most
terrible animals ; the beetle gets upon the eagle to escape
the hare ; the hare allures the elephant and the lion into

1 In Du Cange : " Apis significat formam virginitatis, sive sapien-
tiam, in malo, invasorem." — Papias M. S. Bitur ; ex illo forsitan
officii Ecclesiast. in festo S. Cecilise : " Cecilia famula tua, Domine,
quasi Apis tibi argumentosa deservit," &c.

222 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

the water ; ^ the moon allures the sun into the night and
the winter ; the moon overcomes the sun, devoid of
rays ; the sun is deprived of its rays, the hero loses his
strength with his hair ; the fly alights upon the bald
head of the old man, and annoys him in every way ;
the old man, wishing to strike the fly, only slaps himself.
In Phcedriis, again, we find the fly quarrelling with the
rustic ant; the fly boasts of partaking of the ofierings
given to the gods, of dwelling amidst the altars, of flying
through every temple, of sitting upon the heads of kings,
of the kisses of beautiful women, and that without the
necessity of submitting to any labour. The ant answers
the fly by referring to the certain approach of winter,
during which the ant, who had worked hard, has abundant
provisions, and lives, whilst the fly dies of cold and star-
vation. Moreover, the ant says to it in one expressive
verse —

" Estate me lacessis ; cum bruma est, siles.''

This same discussion is reported, with more semblance of

1 Cfr. the chapters on the Hare, the Lion, and the Elephant. The
louse and the flea have the same mythical nature as the mosquito and
the fly. — In the ninth Esthonian story, the son of the thunder, by
means of a louse, obliges the thunder-god to scratch his head for a
moment, and thus to let fall the 'weapon of thunder, which is instantly
carried off to hell. The lice that fall down from the head of the
witch combed by the good maiden, or from that of the Madonna
combed by the wicked maiden, have already been mentioned. The
Madonna that combs the child is, moreover, a subject of traditional
Christian painting. — In the fifth story of the first book of the Penta-
merone, we read of a monstrous louse. The king of Altamonte fattens
a louse so much that it grows to the size of a wether. He then has
it flayed, orders the skin to be dirtied, and promises to give his
daughter to wife to whoever guesses what skin this is. The ogre
alone guesses, and carries the maiden off, whom seven heroes after-
wards go to deliver towards the aurora " subito che TAucielie (the
birds) gridaro : Viva lo Sole."

THE CICADA, 223

truth, by other fabulists, as having happened between
the shrill and inert cicada and the silent and laborious
ant.

In the preceding chapter "we saw the musical beetle.
"We are tempted to figure the bee as a musician, from
.the form of the bee being sometimes attributed to the
Hellenic Muses and Apollo, and the name " bee of Delphi "
being given to the Pythoness (as a cloud). But accord-
ing to Plato, the Muses transformed into cicadas the
men who amused themselves by singing, and were so
absorbed in that occupation they forgot to eat and to
drink. If this myth be not a satirical invention of
Plato's against poets, the bees as Muses, and those who
became cicadse on account of the Muses, should enter into
the same mythical family. According to Isidorus, the
cicadse are born of the saliva of the cuckoo ; this belief
figuratively expresses the passage from spring to the
summer season, to the season of the harvest, to the
season of abundance, in which, according to a Tuscan
proverb among thieves, he is a fool who cannot make
his own fortune.^ According to Hesiichios, the ass was
called at Cyprus by the name of a mature cicada (tettix
pr6inos) ; the cicada (as the sun) dies, and the ass (as the
night or winter) appears. According to Phile,^ the cicadse
feed upon the eastern dew, perhaps in reminiscence of the
Hellenic myth which makes the sun Tithon the lover
of the aurora. The sun feeds upon the ambrosia, and is
therefore immortal ; but he has not the gift of eternal
youth ; his members dry up ; after having sung all
through the laborious noisy day, through the laborious

"^ Quando la cicala il c. batte

L'ha del m. clii non si fa la parte."
2 Peri Zbhi idiotetos, xxiv., with tlie additions of Joachim Camera-
rius.

2 24 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

noisy summer, he expires ; for this reason the Hellenic
m}'1:h represented the aged Tithon as transformed into
a cicada.^ The cicada is born again in spring of the
cuckoo's saliva, and in the morning of the dew of the
aurora ; the two accounts correspond with one another.
The cicada of summer appears, and the cuckoo of spring
disappears ; hence the popular belief that the cicadse wage
war to the death with the cuckoo, attacking it under its
wings ; hence it is supposed that the cuckoo devours its
own nurse ; the aurora devours the night, the spring
devours the winter.

^ Plutarch, in the Life of Sylla, cites among the prognostics of the
civil war between Marius and Sylla, the incident of a sparrow lacerat-
ing a cicada, of which it left part in the temple of Bellona, and carried
part away.

CHAPTEE V.

THE CUCKOO, THE HERON, THE HEATHCOCK, THE PARTRIDGE,
THE NIGHTINGALE, THE SWALLOW, THE SPARROW, AND THE
HOOPOE.

SUMMARY.

The kokilas, the nightingale of the Hindoo poets. — The heron. —
Kokas. — Kapin^alas. — The partridges. — The Vedas instead of the
enchanted ring. — The partridge as a devil.^ — ^The heathcock. —
The partridge and the peasant. — The pigmies ride on partridges.
— Talaus becomes a partridge. — The kapiii^alas as a cuckoo ;
Indras as a kapi6galas ; Indras as a cuckoo. — Rambh^ becomes a
stone. — Zeus as a cuckoo. — The laughing nightingale instead of
the cuckoo. — The myth of Tereus. — The v^hoop, or hoopoe, an-
nounces, it divines secrets ; the blind whoop and its young ones.
— It buries its parents. — The cuckoo and the hawk. — The cuckoo
anyapushtas. — The phallical cuckoo. — The cuckoo as a good
omen for matrimony. — The cuckoo is deceitful and a derider.
— The cuckoo as the messenger of spring, and as the bringer
of summer. — The death of the cuckoo. — Cocu, coucoulj couquiol,
cucuauU, kohkiiges. — The cuckoo announces rain j the cuckoo
as a funereal bird. — The years of the cuckoo. — The cuckoo,
the nightingale, and the ass. — The learned nightingales. —
The nightingales predict the future. — The monster as a night-
ingale. — The wind as a whistler. — The nightingale as the
messenger of Zeus. — Paidolet6r. — The phallical nightingale. — The
nightingale as the singer of the night. — The nightingale as the
messenger of lovers ; he now helps them, and now compels them
to separate. — The sun dries the nightingale up ^ a wedding
custom. — The swallow \ the chicken of the Lord. — The seven
swallows of the Edda. — The swallow blinds the witch. — The
birds of the Madonna ; San Francesco and the swallows. — It is a
mortal sin to kill them. — The swallows as guests ; sacred birds.
— The swallow beautiful only in spring. — The swans and the
VOL. IL r

226 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

swallows sing. — The swallows as babblers. — -It is a bad omen to
dream of swallows. — Clielid5n, the 'pudendum muliehre. — The
sparrow as a phallical bird. — The swallow as a diabolical form.

The kokilas or Indian cuckoo is for the Hindoo poets
what the nightingale is for ours. The choicest epithets
are employed to describe its singing, and the one most
frequently applied to it in this reference is that of ravisher
of the heart (hridayagrahin). While I write, I have not
under my eyes, nor can I have, Schlegel's edition of the
Rdmdyanam ; but if my memory does not deceive me,
in the introduction, the poet' V41mikis makes the first
glokas, when he hears the lamentation of a kokilas whose
beloved companion has been killed. In the edition of
Gorresio, instead of the kokilas, we have the kr^uncas,
which is the heron according to Gorresio, and the bustard
(Brachvogel) according to the Petropolitan Dictionary.
Kokas, a synonym of kokilas, is also mentioned in a
Vedic hymn.-^ The Hindoo commentator explains it as
cakrav^kas, which must be the equivalent of heron,
although the dictionaries interpret it particularly as the
anas casarca. In the forty-second and forty-third
hymns of the Rigvedas, a bird occurs which partakes of
the nature of both the cuckoo and the heron, or bustard.
Here the bird "proclaims the future, predicts, launches
its voice as the boatman his boat : " it is invoked " that
it be of good augury," that "the haAvk may not strike
it," nor "the vulture," nor "the archer armed with
darts;" in order that, "having called towards the
funereal western region, it may speak propitiously with
good-omened words," that it may "shout to the eastern
side of the houses, propitious, with good-omened words. "^

1 Rigv. vii. 104, 22.

2 Kanikradag ^anusham prabruvana iyarti Ta<iam ariteva navam
sumafigalag (ia gakune bhavasi ma tva ka (iid abhibha vigvyavidat.

1

THE PARTRIDGE. 227

In this proplietic bird, explained by the Brihaddevatd
as kapiil^alas, the Petropolitan Dictionary recognises the
heathcock (Haselhuhn), of which tittiris or partridge
is also a rendering. A Hindoo brahmanic tradition
transforms into partridges the scholars of Vaigampayanas
to peck at the Vedas of Y^^navalkyas. The scholars
of Vaijampayanas are the compilers of the Tciittiriya-
Veda, or Veda of the partridges, or else black Veda. The
Vedas sometimes occupies in Eastern tradition the place of
the enchanted ring. In Western tradition, the devil, or
black monster, becomes a cock in order to peck at the pearl
or ring of the young hero who has become wise. In St
Jerome's and St Augustine's writings, we also read that the
devil often assumes the form of a partridge.^ The Indian
tittiris occurs again in the Eussian tieteriev (the heath-
cock). In a story of the second book of Afanassieff, the
Tzar gives to a peasant a golden heathcock for a dish of
kissel, made of a grain of oats found in a dunghill (a
variety of the well-known fable of the chicken and the
pearl). The heathcock finds the grain. In another story
of the fifth book of Afanassieff, a heathcock sits upon
the oak-tree that is to carry the peasant-hero into heaven ;
it falls down, struck by the bullet of a gun that goes ofl:
of itself, because a spark, coming out of the tree, fell upon
the powder of the gun and made the charge explode.
The partridge and the peasant often occur in connection

Ma tv^ gyena ud vadhin ma suparno ma tvi vidad ishuman viro
ast^ ; pitry^manu pradigam kanikradat sumangalo biiadr^v^di vadeha.
Ava kranda dakskinato grihanim sumangalo bkadravadi gakunte ;
Rigv. ii. 42.

1 St Anthony of Padua said of tke partridge : " Avis est dolosa et
Immunda et hypocritas habentes, ut dicit Petrus, oculos plenos adul-
terii et incessabilis delicti signa." — Partridge's foot (perdikos pous)
meant, in tke Greek proverb, a deceitful foot.

228 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

with each other in popular traditions. The shoes that
the peasant took for partridges are proverbial. Odoricus
Forojuliensis speaks in his Itinerarmm of a man at
Trebizonde who conducted four thousand partridges ; as
he walked on the ground, the partridges flew through
the air ; when he stopped to sleep, the partridges also
came down. According to the Ornithologus, the pigmies,
in the war against the cranes, rode upon partridges.
An extraordinary degree of intelligence and prophetic
virtue is ascribed to these birds. Aldrovandi asserts,
in his Ornithology, that tame partridges cry out loudly
when poison is being prepared in the house. The
partridge was also called dwdala in antiquity, both
because of its intelligence, and because of the fable in
which Talaus, the nephew of Dsedalus, the inventor
of rhyme, thrown from the citadel of Athen^, by the
envoy of Daedalus, was changed into a partridge by the
pitying gods.

But to return to the point we started from, that is, to
the Hindoo kapin^alas, we must notice that Professor
Kuhn,^ has recognised in it the cuckoo rather than the
heathcock. A legend of the Brihaddevatd informs us
that Indras, desirous of being sung to, and having become
kapin^alas, placed himself at the right hand of the wise
man that desired (by the merit of his praises) to rise
into heaven ; then the wise man having, with the eye of
a sage, recognised the god in the bird, sang for psalms
those two Vedic hymns of which one begins with the
word kanikradat" ^ The god Indras is found again in

1 Indiscke Studien, i. 117, 118.

2 Stutim tu punar ev6(5hanam indro bliutvi kapin^alah
Hisher ^garnishor ^gam vavige prati dakshinam

Sa tarn UrsLena saihprekshya 6akshush^ pakshirdpinam
Par^bhydm api tushtiva sllktibliydm tu kanikradat.

THE CUCKOO, 229

the form of a cuckoo (kokilas) in ih^RAmAyanam^ where
Indras sends the nymph Eambh4 to seduce the ascetic
Vigv^mitras, and in order to increase her attractions, he
places himself near her in the form of a cuckoo that sings
sweetly.. But Vigv^mitras, with the eye of asceticism,
perceives that this is a seduction of Indras, and curses the
nymph, condemning her to become a stone in the forest
for ten thousand years.

In the first chapter of the first book we already saw
the cuckoo in connection with the thundering Zeus^ and
as the indiscreet observer of and agent in celestial loves.
In the Tuti-Name^ instead of the cuckoo, we have the
nightingale. The nightingale holds the betrayed king
up to ridicule, laughing at him. The king wishes to
know what this laugh of the nightingale means, and
Gtilfish^n explains the enigma to him, not so much
because he is able, as is supposed, to understand the
language of birds, but because from the tower where he
was imprisoned he had been the spectator of the amours
of the queen with her secret lover.

In the Greek myth of Tereus we find united several of
the birds hitherto named, and the swallow besides ; the
pheasant takes the place of the partridge, and the whoop
or hoopoe that of the cuckoo. Ittis eaten by his father
Tereus, without the latter's knowledge, becomes a phea-
sant ; Tereus, who follows Progne, becomes a whoop ;
Progne, who flees from him, is transformed into a
swallow ; Philomela, the sister of Progne, whose tongue
had been cut out by Zeus to prevent her from speaking,
took the form of a nightingale, whence Martial —

" Flet Philomela nefas incesti Tereos, et quae
Muta puelia fuit, garrula fertur avis."

1 i. QQ. 2 ii, 79^

230 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

With regard to the hoopoe, several beliefs are current
analogous to those known concerning the cuckoo and
the swallow. In several parts of Italy it is called
(on account of its crest and appearance in these months)
the little cock of March or the little cock of l^ay. It
announces the spring. By the ancients, its song before
the vines ripened was looked upon as a prediction of
a plentiful vintage and good wine. It has the virtue of
divining secrets ; when it cackles, it announces that foxes
are hidden in the grass ; when it groans, it is a prognos-
tication of rain ; by means of a certain herb, it opens
secret places.^ According to Cardanus, if a man anoints
his temples with the blood of a whoop he sees marvel-
lous things in his dreams. Albertus Magnus tells us
that when an old whoop becomes blind, its young ones
anoint its eyes with the herb that opens shut places, and
they recover their sight. This is in perfect conformity
with a Hindoo story (a variation of the legend of Lear)
narrated by -ffilianos, according to which a king of India
had several sons ; the youngest was maltreated by his
brothers, who ended by maltreating and expelling their
father. The youngest brother alone remained faithful to
his parents, and followed them; but while they were
travelling, they died of weariness ; the son opened his
own head with his sword and buried his parents in it ;
the sun, moved to pity by this sight, changed the youth
into a beautiful bird with a crest. But this crested bird,
instead of the whoop, may also be the lark, concerning
which the Greeks had also a similar legend.

^ Cfr. the chapter on the Woodpecker. A whoop, kept by me for
some time with its young ones, had been taken with its nest from the
trunk of a tree which had been cut down, and which it it had scooped
out in its higher part in order to build its nest in the lowest and
deepest part of the trunk.

THE CUCKOO INDRAS. 231

The cuckoo is the bird of spring ; when it appears,
the first claps of thunder are heard in the sky, an-
nouncing the season of heat. According to Isidorus it
is the kite that brings the lazy cuckoo from distant
regions. In the time of Pliny, the cuckoo was supposed
to be born of the sparrow-hawk, and Albertus Magnus,
in the Middle Ages, asserted, ''Cuculus quidam com-
ponitur ex Columba et Niso sive Sparverio; alius, es
Columba et Asture, mores etiam habet ex utroque com-
positos." There is nothing falser, zoologically speaking;
but inasmuch as the lightning carries the thunder, the
mythical hawk may well carry or produce the mythical
cuckoo. Moreover, the habits of the cuckoo are very
singular, and have not anything in common with those
of the falcon and the dove, or indeed any other animal.
It is well-known, that, among the Hindoo names of the
cuckoo we find anyapushtas and anyabhritas, which
mean nourished by another (the crow is called anyabhrit,
or nourisher of others, because it nurses the eggs of the
cuckoo, which, for the rest, deposits them even in the
nests of much smaller animals^). From this singular
habit of the cuckoo, it was natural to conclude that the
male cuckoo united itself in adultery with the strange
female bird to which it afterwards confided the eggs,
which would thus be bastard eggs of the female itself
that sits on them. We have just seen Indras as a
cuckoo and as a seducer of Eambha ; Indras as an adul-
terer is also very popular in the legend of Ahaly^, in
which the cock (the morning sun) appears, instead, as
the indiscreet betrayer of the secret amours of Indras

1 I, for instance, kept for some time a young cuckoo which had been
found in the nest of a little granivorous singing bird, which is very
common in Tuscany, and is called scoperina or scopina.

232 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

(the hidden sun). In a popular song of Bretagne, the
perfidious mother-in-law insinuates to her son the
suspicion that his young wife betrays him, saying,
"preservez votre nid du coucou."^

The cuckoo is the sun or solar ray in the darkness,
or still oftener the thunderbolt hidden in the cloud.
Datyuhas is one of the Indian names of the cuckoo, and
also of the cloud, out of which alone the cuckoo is said
to drink. As a hidden sun, the cuckoo is now an absent
husband, a travelling husband, a husband in the forests,
and now an adulterer in secret amorous intercourse with
the wife of another. In any case, it is often a phallical
symbol, and therefore delights in mysteries. Mean-
while, it sits on the sceptre of Her6, the protectress of
marriages and childbirths, whilst Zeus himself, the
thunder-striker, the thunderer, her adulterous brother, is
called kokklik or cuckoo, because he had hidden himself
in Here's lap in the shape of a cuckoo, in order not to
be recognised. Hence the song of the cuckoo was con-
sidered a good omen to whoever intended to marry. In
the popular song of the Monferrato sung for the Easter
eggs, the landlord is cunningly advised that it is time to
marry his daughters. In Swedish and Danish songs,
the cuckoo carries the wedding-nut to the nuptials.
Nor was this because of its reputation as an adulterer,
but because it has a phalhcal meaning, because it loves
mysteries, and because it appears only in spring, in the
season of loves. For the rest, as an adulterer, it would
have been a bad omen for marriages ; in the Asinaria
of Plautus, indeed, a woman calls her husband cuculus,
because he sleeps with other women. The cuckoo is
therefore, properly, the deceitful husband, the adulterer,

1 Villemarqu^, Barzaz Breiz, sixi5me 6d. p. 493.

THE CUCKOO AS MOCKER. 233

the hidden lover. The cuckoo is the derider; when
children play at hide and seek, they are accustomed in
Germany and in Italy, as well as in England, to cry out
cuckoo to him who is to seek them in vain, as is hoped.
The Latin word cucii, with which the pruners of vines
who came late were held up to derision, the corresponding
Piedmontese motto and gesture, mentioned in the first
chapter of this work, and the Italian expression cuculiare
for to ridicule, show the cuckoo as a cunning animal.
It is the first, as is said, of the migratory birds to appear,
and the first to disappear. In Germany it is believed
that the grapes ripen with difficulty if the cuckoo con-
tinues to sing after St John's Day, It is the welcome
messenger of spring ^ in the country, where it calls the

^ The old English popular song celebrates it as the bringer of
summer —

" Sumer is icumen in, ihude sing cuccu.''

The old Anglo-Saxon song of St Guthlak makes the cuckoo the
announcer of the year (geacas gear budon). The ancient song of May
in Germany welcomes it with the words —

" The cuckoo with its song makes every one gay.''

The popular Scotch song caresses it thus —

" The cuckoo 's a fine bird, he sings as he flies ;
He brings us good tidings, he tells us no lies.
He sucks little bird's eggs 'to make his voice clear,
And when he sings ' cuckoo,' the summer is near."
In Shakspeare {Love's Labour Lost, v. 2), the owl represents winter,
and the cuckoo spring — " This side is Hiems, winter, this Ver, the
spring J the one maintained by the owl, the other by the cuckoo.'^

In a mediaeval Latin eclogue recorded in the third volume of
Uhland^s Schriften (Abhandlung iiber die deutschen Yolkslieder), the
death of the cuckoo is wept over —

" Heu cuculus nobis fuerat cantare suetus,
Qufe te nunc rapuit hora nefanda tuis 1
Omne genus hominum Cuculum complangat ubique !
Perditus est cuculus, heu perit ecce meus.

234 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

peasants to their work. Hesiod says that when the
cuckoo sings among the oak-trees, it is time to plough.

But inasmuch as the cuckoo seldom shows itself,
inasmuch as it represents essentially the sun hidden in
the clouds, and as we know that the sun hidden in the
clouds has several contradictory aspects, as a wise hero
that penetrates everything, as an intrepid hero that
defies every danger, as a betrayed hero, as a deceived
husband, a traitor, a monster or a demon, so the cuckoo
also has an ungrateful and sinister aspect. The adulterer
who visits in secret the wife of another, becomes the
absent husband that is travelling, the husband in the
forest, Avhilst his wife entertains guests at home ; or else
the husband that sleeps whilst his wife is only too
watchful ; whence the verse of Plautus —

"At etiam cubat cuculus, surge, Amator, i domum,"

and the French word cocu^ and those registered by Du
Cange,^ coucoid, couquiol, cuciiault^ to express the husband
of an adulterous woman. In Aristophanes, inept and
inexperienced men are called kokktiges. According to
Pliny, a cuckoo bound with a hare's skin induces sleep

Non pereat Cuculus, veniet sub tempore veris

Et nobis veniens carmina Iseta ciet.
Quis scit, si veniat ? tiineo est submersus in undis,

Vorticibus raptus atque necatus aquis."

A popular German song shows us the cuckoo first wet, and then dried
by the sun —

" Der Kuckuck auf dem Zaune sass,
Kuckuck, kuckuck !
Es regnet sehr und ward nass.
Darnach da kam der Sonnenschein,
Kuckuck, kuckuck !
Der kuckuck der ward hiibsch und fein."

— Cfr. also the ■ " Entstehung des Kukuks" in Hahn's Albanesische
Mdrchen, ii. 144, 316. ^ s. v. cucullus.

THE CUCKOO AND THE NIGHTINGALE, 235

(that is to say, the sun hides itself, the moon appears,
and the world falls asleep). When the cuckoo approaches
a city, and especially if it enters it, it bodes rain (that
is, the sun hidden in clouds brings rain). In Plutarch
(Life of Aratos), the cuckoo asks the other birds why
they flee from his sight, inasmuch as he is not ferocious ;
the birds answer that they fear in him the future sparrow-
hawk. The cuckoo that placed itself upon the spear of
Luitprand, king of the Longobards, was considered by
them as a sinister omen, as if the cuckoo were a funereal
bird. In Italy we say "tbe years of the cuckoo," and in
Piedmont "as old as a cu'ckoo," to indicate great age.
A mediseval eclogue ascribes to the cuckoo the years of
the sun, "Phoebo comes annus in sevum." As no one
sees how the cuckoo disappears (the belief that it is
killed by the cicadse not being generally received), it is
supposed that it never dies, that it is always the same
cuckoo that sings year after year in the same wood.
And, inasmuch as it is immortal, it must have seen
everything and must know everything. The subalpine
people, the Germans and the Slaves, ask the cuckoo how
many years they still have to live. The asker judges
how many years of life he may count upon from the
number of times that the cuckoo sings ; in Sanskrit the
varsha or pluvial season determines the new year.

We said at the commencement of this chapter that
the kokilas is the nightingale of Hindoo poets and its
equivalent; and we have just noticed that the cuckoo
also represents the phallos. In the chapter on the ass,
we saw that the same role is sometimes taken by it.
These three animals are found in conjunction in the
well-known apologue of the cuckoo that disputes for
superiority in singing with the nightingale ; the ass,
supposed to be the best judge in music on account of his

236 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

long ears, being called to decide the question, declares
for the cuckoo. (In the wonderful fable of KriloflF,
instead of the cuckoo, the bird preferred by the ass is
the cock ; the nightingale is said in it to be the lover
and singer of the aurora.) Then the nightingale appeals
from the unjust sentence to man, singing melodiously.^

A German song of the sixteenth century ^ places the
nightingale in opposition to the cuckoo: "it sings, it
leaps, it is always gay when the other little birds are
silent."

According to Pliny, the nightingales of the young
Caesars, sons of Claudius, spoke Greek and Latin, and
meditated every day to learn something new. Thus,
the Orniihologus speaks of two nightingales which, in
1546, at Eatisbon, disputed as to which spoke German
best ; in one of these discussions of the nightingale, the
war between Charles V. and the Protestants was pre-
dicted. In the forty-sixth story of the sixth book of
Afanassieff, a nightingale in a cage sings dolorously;
the old man who possesses it says to his son Basil, that
he would give half his substance to know what the
nightingale is predicting by this woful song. The boy,
who understands the language of the bird, announces to
his parents a prophecy of the nightingale that they will
one day serve him. The father is indignant ; one day
when the boy is asleep, he carries him to a boat and
launches it on the sea. The nightingale immediately
leaves the house, and flying away, perches upon the
boy's shoulder. A shipmaster finds the boy and the
nightingale, and takes them ; the nightingale predicts
tempests and the approach of pirates. At last they

^ Cfr. the chapter on the Peacock.
2 Cfr. Uhland's Schriften, iii. 25,

THE NIGHTINGALE, 237

arrive in a city wliere the royal palace is assailed by
tkree crows, whicli no one who attempts it succeeds in
chasing away ; the king promises half the kingdom and
his youngest daughter to whoever can expel them,
threatening death to whoever essays the, enterprise in
Vain. The boy, advised by the nightingale, presents
himself, and tells the king that the crow, his mate, and
his young one are there to be judged by him (we have
seen a similar legend in the chapter on the dog) ; they
wish to have it determined whether the young crow
belongs to his father or to his mother. The king says,
"To his father ; " then the young crow flies away with
his father, while the female crow moves off in another
direction. The boy marries the princess, becomes a
great lord, obtains half the kingdom, travels, and is one
night the guest, without their knowledge, of his own
parents, who bring him water to wash himself. Thus
the prediction of the nightingale is accomplished. In
the popular Eussian legend of Ilia Muromietz (Elias of
Murom), the monster brigand killed by the hero's dart is
called Nightingale (Salav^i). He has placed his nest
upon twelve oak-trees, and kills as many as come in his
way by simply whistling/ In the Edda of Sdmund,
the dwarf Alwis says of the wind, that it is called wind
by men, vagabond by the gods, the noisy one by the
powerful, the weeper by the giants, the bellowing
traveller by the Alfes, and the whistler in the abode of
Hel, that is, in the infernal regions; the Russian de-
moniacal monster-nightingale would therefore appear to
be the wind in the darkness.

The nightingale, like the cuckoo, is called by Sappho,
in Suidas, by the name of messenger of Zeus (now the

1 Cfr. Afanasdeff, i. 12.

238 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

moon, now the wind, now the thunder which announces
rain). It also assumes a sinister aspect, under the name
of killer of sons (paidolet6r), given it by Euripides. In
a popular song of Bretagne/ the nightingale laments that
the month of May has passed by with its flowers. In
another song of Bretagne, the nightingale seems to have
the same phallical signification which it has in the Tuti-
Name, During the night, a wife is agitated on account
of the nightingale (the moon) ; her husband has it caught
with a net, and laughs when he has it.^ The nightingale,
as its name shows in the Germanic tongues, is the singer
of the night, and a nocturnal bird. Hence Shakspeare,
in Romeo and Juliet,^ names it, in contrast to the lark,
the announcer of morning : —

'' Jul. Wilt thou be gone] it is not yet near day ;
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear ;
Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree :
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.

Rom. It was the lark, the herald of the morn,
No nightingale."

And it is as a nocturnal animal, and as a bird that sings
concealed, that the nightingale (as the moon does) pleases
lovers, who make it their mysterious and secret messenger
in popular superstition and popular songs in Germany, as
in France. In the third story of the fifth book of the
Pentamero7ie, the girl Betta makes a cake which has the
form of a handsome youth with golden hair; by the
grace of the goddess of love, the cake-youth speaks and

^ Villemarqu^, Barzaz Breiz, sixifeme ^d. p. 392.

2 " Quand 11 le tint, se mit ^ rire de tout son coeur. E il I'^touffa,
et le jeta dans le blanc giron de la pauvre dame. Tenez, tenez, ma
jeune spouse, voici votre joli rossignolj c'est pour vous que je I'ai
attrap6 ; je suppose, ma belle, qu'il vous fera plaisir ; " Villemarqu^,
Barzaz Breiz^ p. 154. ^ iii. 5.

THE NIGHTINGALE— THE SWALLOW. 239

walks, and Betta marries him ; but a queen robs her of
him. Betta goes to seek him ; an old woman gives to
her three marvellous things, by means of which Betta
obtains from the queen the permission of sleeping during
the night with her youth, who has become the queen s
husband; one of these three marvels is a golden cage
containing a bird made of precious stones and gold,
which sings like a* nightingale. In popular German
songs, lovers seek to propitiate the nightingale by means
of gold, but it answers that it knows not what to do
with it ; the nightingale (like the cuckoo, w hich is pro-
pitious to weddings, although an adulterer) now helps
lovers, and now compels them to separate. In a popular
English song,^ two lovers go together into the shadoAAy
forest, where the nightingale sings ; the maiden is terri-
fied by the nightingale ; but when she has married her
young lover, she no longer fears either the gloomy Avood
or the nightingale's warbling. However much poetic
imagination may have adorned similar legends, their
phallical origin can always be traced. A popular German
song says that the sun dries the nightingale up. Accord-
ing to popular wedding customs, it is a great shame if the
young pair let themselves be surprised in bed by the sun
after the first night of their union ; hence the practical
joke often played upon the husband by his friends, who
shut the outer shutters of the windows, in order that the
rays of the morning sun may not enter the nuptial
chamber. But our subject presses ; let us continue.

The swallow has the same mythical meaning as the
cuckoo ; it is the joyful herald of spring, emerging from

^ Dixon, Ancient Poems, Ballads^ and Songs of the Peasantry of
England; cfr. also on tlie traditions relating to tbe cuckoo and the
nightingale in Russia, Ralston, The Songs of the llmsian People.

240 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

the tenebrific winter. In the winter season, the swallow
is of sinister omen ; in the spring-tiine, on the contrary,
it is propitious.

In Piedmont, the swallow is called the chicken of the
Lord. In the Edda, the seven swallows, one after
another, advise Sigurd, who is still undecided, to kill the
monster that guards the treasures. Sigurd follows the
advice of the swallows, finds and obtains the hidden gold,
and recovers his wife (the sun marries the spring, the
flowery and verdant earth, when the swallows arrive and
begin to sing). In the fifth story of the fourth book of
the Pentamerone, the swallow blinds the witch who had
expelled it from its nest (the wintry season obliges the
swallows to depart; the hot and luminous season dis-
perses the wintry darkness). In Germany the swallows
are called the birds of the Madonna; San Francesco
called the swallows his sisters ; and in the Oberinnthal it
is believed that they helped the Lord God in building
the sky. In Germany, as well as in Italy, the swallows
are considered to be birds of the best augury; it is a
mortal sin to kill them, or to destroy their nests. In
Germany and in Hungary, if a man destroys a swallow's
nest, his cow no longer gives milk, or else gives it mixed
with blood. Hence it is advisable always to have a
window open, because if a swallow enters the house it
brings every kind of happiness with it ; in the same way,
it is believed that guests bring luck into a house, and
this is a beautiful belief, which is honourable to mankind,
and one of the most signal evidences of man's sociable
nature. In the Ornithes of Aristophanes, the swallows
are intrusted with the building of the city of the birds.
Solinus writes that even birds of prey dare not touch the
swallow, which is a sacred bird. According to Arrianos,
a swallow which chirped round the head of Alexander

THE SWALLOW, 241

the Great, whilst he was asleep, wakened him to warn
him of the machinations in his family that were being
plotted against him. In an apologue the swallow warns
the hen not to sit upon the eggs of the serpent. Swal-
lows were anciently used in time of war as messengers.
According to Pliny, again, the head of a swallow that
fed in the morning, was, when cut off at full moon, and
tied in linen and hung up, an excellent remedy for
headache.

But in an apologue where the swallow boasts to the
crow of its beauty, the crow answers that he is always
equally beautiful, whilst the swallow is only beautiful in
spring. In another apologue, Avhich is found in the
Epistle of St Gregory of Nazianzen to Prince Seleusius,
the swallows boast to the swans of their twittering for
the benefit of the public, whilst the swans sing only for
themselves, and that little, and in solitary places. The
swans answer that it is better to sing little and well to a
chosen few than much and badly to all. The Greeks,
in a proverb, advise men not to keep swallows under
their roofs, by which they meant to put them on their
guard against babblers. The swallow here evidently
begins to assume, as in the mythical tragedy of Tereus, a
sinister aspect, for which reason Horace calls it —

" Infelix avis et Cecropias domus
Sternum opprobrium."

The swallow, beautiful and propitious in spring, becomes

ugly and almost diabolical in the other seasons. Hence

the ancients believed that it was a bad omen to dream of

swallows. According to Xenophon, the appearance of

the sAvallows preceded the expedition of Cyrus against

the Scythians, and announced it to- be unlucky. Tlie

same presage is made by the swallows to Darius when

he moves against the Scythians, and to Antiochus, Avho
VOL. n. Q

242 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

is at war with the Parthians. It is also said that Pytha-
goras would have no swallows in his house, because they
were insectivorous. In Suidas, the ^pudendum muliehre
is called cheliddn; and it is perhaps as such that the
swallow is represented in opposition to the sparrow,
which is a well-known phallical symbol, sacred (Uke the
doves) to Venus, whom it accompanied, according to
Apuleius,^ and to Asklepios. The sparrow destroys the
swallow's nest, as it is said in a popular German song of
Michaelstein : —

'* Als ich auszog, auszog,
Hatt' icL. Kisten und Kasten voll,
Als icli 'wiederkam, wiederkam,
Hatt' der Sperling,
Der Dickkopf, der Dickkopf
Alles verzelirt."

The swallow, moreover, is a diabolical, dark form which, by
the witch's enchantment, the beautiful maiden assumes
when she finds herself near the fountain (i.e., near the
ocean of night, or of winter). ^

^ Currum Dese prosequentes, gannitu constrepenti lasciviunt Passeres;
De Asino Aiu^eo, vi.

2 A woman of Antignano, near Leghorn, once told me the story of a
beautiful princess who stayed upon a tree till her husband returned,
who had gone in quest of robes for her. Whilst she is waiting, up
comes a negress to wash clothes, and sees in the water the reflection
of the beautiful princess. She induces her to' come down by ofi'ering
to comb her hair for her, and puts a pin into her head, so that she
becomes a swallow. The negress then takes the maiden's place by her
husband. The swallow, however, finds means of letting herself be
caught by her husband, who, stroking her head, finds the pin, and
draws it out; then the swallow becomes again a beautiful princess.
The same story is narrated more at length in Piedmont, in other parts
of Tuscany, in Calabria, and in other places ; but instead of the
swallow we have the dove, as in the Tuti-Name.

CHAPTEE VL

THE OWL, THE CKOW, THE MAGPIE, AND THE STOEK.

SUMMARY.

The funereal owl. — The owl and the vulture. — The owl and the
crow. — The owls as friends of the swans and enemies of the
crows. — The wise owl. — The Eulenspiegel. — The owl as the
daughter of NUkteos. — The enemy of Niikteos. — An ill-omened
bird. — Prophetic virtue of the owl. — The horned owl. — The owl
as a weaver. — The owl and the coins.' — The crow and the peacock.
— The crow and the nightingale. — The crow and the swan. —
Gracculus ad fides. — The prophetic crow. — The crow and the
cheese. — The crow as the son of Indras ; the Athenians swore by
the crow and by Zeus. — The crow and Sit^. — The cunning crow.
— The crow, the parrot, and the bird of prey. — The crow as the
shadow of a dead man. — Yamas as a crow. — The white crow. —
Go to the crows. — The rooks. — The crow as a devil. — It helps an
old man to pick grains of corn up. — The crow and the cuckoo. —
The crow and the waters. — The crow and the figs. — The crow and
the hydromel. — The crow and the water of life and death. — The
crow as the bird of light. — The crow on a mountain covered with
diamonds. — The crows as brothers and sisters of the heroine and
of the hero. — The crow as the messenger of St Oswald. — The
crow, the maiden, and the crab. — The corvus pica. — The blue
magpie. — The two magpies. — Huginn and Muninn. — The magpie
as the bringer of the balsam herb. — The magpie sacred to Bacchus.
— The magpie and the nightingale. — The daughters of Euippes as
magpies. — The rook and the magpie as friends of gold. — The
magpie as an infernal bird. — The malice of the magpie. — The
white and black magpie. — The magpie and the guests. — The
stork. — The stork and the heron. — The stork as the bringer of
children. — Funereal presage of the stork. — The stork and the old

244 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

man. — Paternal and filial affection of the stork. — The presents of
the stork. — The stork brother of the woodcock. — The inebriated
storks. — The storks in the other world.

The owl, the crow, the magpie, and the stork are in
intimate mythical relation with each other. To give an
idea of the monster that wanders in the night, the
Rigvedas compares him to a khargala^, which is probably
an owl (also called naktacaras) ; it also directs the
devotee to curse death and the god of the dead (to con-
jure them away), when the owl emits her painful cry, and
when the kapotas or dark dove touches the fire ^ (thus we
read in the fragments of Menander, ''if the owl should cry,
we have reason to be afraid ") ; in the Pancatantram^
the king of the crows also compares the hostile owl that
arrives towards night to the god of the dead (the god
Yamas).'" In Hungary the owl is called the bird of death.
In the Mahdblidratam,^ the mind of the wicked which
sees clearly, fishes in turbid waters, and is dexterous in foul
actions, is compared to the owl, who (probably as moon)
distinguishes every shape in the night. In the Mahd-
hhdratam, again,^ the owl kills the crows by night whilst
they are sleeping. In the Rdmdyanam,^ the owl (as the
moon) contends with the vulture (the sun), who had
usurped its nest ; the two disputants appeal to E4mas,
who asks each how long the nest had belonged to it ; the
vulture answers, " Since the earth was peopled with
men," and the owl, '' Since the earth was covered with

^ Pra yd ^ig^ti khargaleva naktam apa druhd tanvam guhain§,n3. ;
Rigv. vii. 104, 17.

2 Yad nluko vadati mogham etad yat kapotah padam agnau
krinoti, yasya dutah prahita esha etat tasmai yamaya namo astn mrit-
yave; lligv. i. 165, 4. ^ j^^ 73^

^ iii. 15,128, and IlitopadegaSj iv. 47.

^ iii. 308, X. 38. « vi. 64.

THE OWLS AND THE CROWS. 245

trees." R^mas, with justice, decides in favour of the
owl, observing that his claim is the more ancient, since
there were trees before there were men, and is for
punishing the vulture, but desists upon learning that the
latter was once King Brahmadattas, condemned to become
a vulture by the "wise G^utamas, because he had once
offered meat and fish to that penitent to eat. E4mas
touches the vulture, which, the malediction having come
to an end, immediately resumes its human form. The
third book of the PariSatantram treats of the war be-
tween the owls and the crows. The birds are weary of
having a useless king like Garudas, who thinks of no one
but the god Vishnus, and does not trouble himself to pro-
tect the nests of the little birds his subjects ; they medi-
tate electing a king, and are about to choose the owl,^
when the crow (the dark night) comes to give its veto,
of which the Pancatantram says, that it is the most
cunning amongst birds, as the barber among men, the fox
among animals, and the mendicant friars among religious
orders. ' The war between the owl and the crow (the
moon and the dark night) is popular in Hindoo tradition ;
kak4ris, or enemy of the crow, is one of the Sanskrit names
of the owl, and the k4kolukik4 or owl-like crow, as has
already several times been observed by the learned men
who have studied Hindoo literary chronology, is already
mentioned in the Grammar of P^ninis.

1 In the articles against Bernard Saget in tlie year 1300, recorded by
Du Cange, I read — " Aves elegerunt Regem quemdam avem vocatam
Due, et est avis pulchrior et major inter omnes aves, et accidit semel
quod Pica conquesta fuerat de Accipitre dicto Domino E-egi, et con-
gregatis avibus, dictus Eex nihil dixit nisi quod flavit (flevit f), Vel
(veluti) idem de rege nostro dicebat ipse Episcopus, qui ipse est
pulchrior homo de mundo, et tamen nihil scit facere, nisi respicere
homines."

246 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

In the tliirtieth story of tlie fourth book oi Afanassieff,
the crow. eats the eggs of the geese and the swans. The
owl, out of hatred to the crow, accuses him to the eagle ;
the lying crow denies, but is nevertheless condemned to
be imprisoned.

In the ninth book of Aristotle's History of Animals, I
also find that the crow fights with the owl, whose eggs it
destroys at midday, whilst the owl, on the other hand,
eats the crow's eggs during the night. In Italian, the
expression " the owl amongst the crows," is used to
indicate a serious danger. In John Tzetza, we also find
an apologue, according to which the crow was about to
be elected king of the birds, having arrayed itself in the
feathers that had fallen from the other birds, when the
owl comes up (in Babrios, instead of the owl, it is the
swallow that does the same), recognises one of its own
feathers, and plucks it out, setting thus an example to
the other birds, who in a short time despoil the crow
entirely. (This is a variety of the well-known fable of
the crow in the peacock's feathers, and of the same fable,
in an opposite sense, contained in the PcoiSatantram,
where the crow is the wise bird, and the owl the simple
one.) There are other instances of cunning ascribed to
the owl in fables ; for instance, it predicted to the birds
that an archer would kill them with their own feathers, and
advised them not to let the oak-trees grow, because on
them the mistletoe grows, and birds are caught by means
of it. The German Eulenspiegel, the legendary malicious
buffoon, who wears a great hat, is probably of the same
mythical family. The Greeks considered the owl to be a
form of the daughter of Nlikteus of Lesbio (according to
others, of the king of the Ethiopians. Nukteus and the
black Ethiopian, both being the night, correspond to each
other), who, having become enamoured of her father, lay

THE OWL AND ATHAN£. 247

with him without his knowledge ; her father wished to
kill her, but Athene took pity upon her, and transformed
her into an owl, which, remembering its crime, always
flees from the light (it is far from the day, like the
moon). The owl was sacred to Athene, the goddess of
wisdom, inasmuch as she sees in darkness ; the flight of
the bird of night was, therefore, for the Athenians a sign
that the goddess who protected their city was propitious ;
hence the owls of Athens passed into a proverb. The owl,
otherwise (according to the superstition of the ancient
Greeks, recorded by Pliny among the Latin writers), was
the enemy of Dionysos (who loves the mysteries, w^hich
the moon and the aurora disperse) ; hence the pre-
scription of ancient medicine, that the eggs of the owl,
drunk for three days in wine, make drunkards abstemi-
ous. Philostratos, in the Life of ApoUonius, goes so far
as to say that when one eats an owl's egg, one takes a
dislike to wine before having tasted it. But, even in
antiquity, the owl was generally looked upon as the
ignoble and ill-omened bird that it really is. It is
said of Demosthenes, that before going into exile, he
declared that Athene delighted in three fear-inspiring
beasts — the owl, the dragon, and the Athenian people.
In Mlianos and Apuleius, the owls are spoken ofi" as birds
of iU omen. But the male owl was and is still especially
considered as a bird of the worst and most funereal char-
acter in Italy, Eussia, Germany, and Hungarj^^ In the

1 Among the Tartars, according to Aldrovandi, the feathers of the
male owl are worn as an amulet, probably to conjure the owl himself
away, in the same way as, in the Vedic hymns, Death is invoked in
order that it may remain far off. In the Khorda Avesta (p, 147),
translated by Spiegel, the hero Verethraghna derives his strength
from the owl's feathers. — We are acquainted with the funereal moon
in the form of Proserpine; the Hindoos considered Manus in relation

248 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

fourth book of Virgil's Mneid, the song of the male

owl is fatal —

" Seraque culminibus ferali carmine Bubo
Visa queri et longas in fletum ducere voces."

The Eomans purified the city with water and sulphur
when a male owl or a wolf happened to enter into the
temple of Jupiter, or into the Capitol. According to
Silius Italicus, the defeat of Cannes was also prognosti-
cated by the male owl —

'' Obseditqne frequens castrorum limina Bubo.''

And Ovid, in the tenth book of the Metamorphoses —

" Ignavus Bubo dirum mortalibus omen ;
Nam dirse mortis nuntius esse solet.''

According to the fifth book of the same Metamorphoses,
Ascalaphos was transformed by Ceres into a male owl,
and condemned to predict evil, because he had accused
her to Jove of having eaten a pomegranate in secret,
against the prohibition.

The prophetic faculty of the owl, according to popular
belief, is so great, that Albertus Magnus could seriously

with the moon, with which, moreover, it was also identified. Manus,
as the first and the father of men, is also the first of the dead. Manus
gives the somas to Indras. The dying sun is exchanged in the
funereal kingdom for the moon ; but of the moon's kingdom the
souls come down, and to the moon's kingdom they return. With
Manus the word Menerva is joined, a Latin form, as a goddess, of the
Greek Ath^n^. The owl, the symbol of Minerva, may be equivalent
to Manus as the moon. The intimate connection which exists in
myths and legends between the maiden aurora and the maiden moon
is well-known; they reciprocally do services to each other. Ath^n^
may very well have represented equally the two wise maidens — the
moon, who sees everything in the dark night ; the aurora, who, coming
out of the gloomy night, illumines everything. The head of Zeus, out
of which Ath^n^ comes, appears to be a form of the eastern sky.

THE HORNED WL. ^ 249

write in his times — " Si cor ejus cum dextro pede super

dormientem ponatur, statim tibi dicit quidquid fecerit,

et quidquid ab eo interrogaveris. Et hoc a fratribus

nostris expertum est moderno tempore." When the

witches in Macbeth make the horrid mixture in the great

caldron, in order to obtain from it the virtue of sinister

presages, they put into it, amongst other maleficent

inojredients —

" Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting.
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing."

In Sicily, the owl that moans, the crow that caws, and
the dog that howls by night near the house of a sick man,
announce approaching death to him ; but among owls,
the horned owl (the horned moon), jacobu, or chiovu, or
chi6, is especially feared. The horned owl sings near
the house of a sick man three days before his death ; if
there are no sick people in the house, it announces to one
at least of its inhabitants that he or she will be struck
with squinancy of the tonsil. The peasants in Sicily,
when in spring they hear the lamentation of the horned
owl for the first time, go to their master to give notice of
their intention of leaving his service ; whence the Sicilian
proverb —

" Quannu canta lu chib
Cu 'avi patruni, tinta canciar lu pb."

The Sicilian poet G-iovani Meli, in the little poem, Pianto
di Palemone, refers to the sinister presage of the horned
owl in the following verses —

*' Ah ! miu patri lu predissi,
E trimava 'ntra 11 robbi,
Ch'eu nascivi 'ntra I'ecclissi
E cliiancianu li jacobbi."

250 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

In the popular Sicilian legend, entitled La Princtpessa
di Carini, when the friar goes to act as a spy, the moon
envelops itself in clouds,- the horned owl flies round,

screeching —

"Lujacobbu chiancennu svulazzau."

In several German popular songs, the horned owl and
the common owl complain that they are alone and
deserted in the forest. The owl (as the moon) is also
represented in German tradition as a nocturnal weaver.^
In the same tradition, the funereal owl is found men-
tioned in connection with the funereal crow.^

I have already mentioned, in the chapter on the WoK,
that vrikas, in the Vedic hymns, may mean both wolf
and crow. The crow, like the wolf, represents the dark
night. The owl with yellow eyes (whence in Athens
certain coins bearing the effigies of an owl were called
owls, and in Italy golden coins are vulgarly called owls'-
eyes) seems to represent the crepuscular bird in parti-
cular (from which we can understand why it was
especially sacred to Athene), and much oftener still
the night with the yellow eye of the moon. The
crow, on the other hand, seems to be the representa-
tive of the gloomy night or cloud. The owl which
destroys the crow's nest, and discovers the deceit of the
crow when disguised in the feathers of other birds, seems
to be the same as the moon that disperses the darkness,

^ " Selbst in sternloser Nacht ist keine Verborgenheit, es lauert eine
gramliche Alte, die Eule ; sie sitzt in ihrem finstern Kammerlein,
spinnt mit silbernen Spindelchen und sieht libel dazu, was in der
Dunkelbeit vorgebt. Der Holzscbnitt des alten Flugblattes zeigt die
Eule auf einem StUhlcben am Spinnrocken sitzend."

^ *' Wenn durcb. die dunne Luft ein scbwarzer Rabe fleucbt
Und krahet sein Geschrei, und wenn des Eulen Fraue
Ibr Wiggen-gwige beult : sind Losungen sehr rauhe."

— E-ocbboltz, the work quoted before, i. p. 155.

THE CROW AND THE CHEESE. 251

or the sahasr^kshas (the heavenly peacock), that shuts
the thousand eyes of the starry sky, and makes the
thousand stars of the heaven grow pale. The owl, as the
king of birds (we know also the Indras-moon as Mriga-
r^^as, or king of beasts) seems generally to be the same
as the moon, the mistress of the night. Indras is often
the peacock-god, the azure starry sky of night ; but blue
and black, as we have said, are two equivalent colours (the
azure god Indras becomes the azure or dark Krishnas,
and, on the contrary, the crow becomes a peacock), and
are expressed by one and the same word ; hence the
black bird and the blue one are substituted for one
another. According to Festus, the crow was, before the
peacock, sacred to Juno. The crow-peacock has already
become proverbial in the Panbatantram^ where we read
that the hasty fool takes a crow for a peacock. The
voice of the peacock is as shrill as that of the crow ; in
the Rdradyanam^ the water-cock (^alakukkubhas, the
heron, the halcyon, the duck, the swan) laughs at the
peacock when striving to answer the cuckoo. Thus, the
Greek proverb laughs at the crowswhich aremore honoured
than the nightingales (korakes aedon6n aldesim6teroi).
Martial places them in contrast with the swans —
" Inter Lsed^os ridetur corvus Olores ; "

and the Greek proverb turns into ridicule the rook
amongst the Muses (koloios en tais mousais), and the
Latin one, the " Gracculus ad fides." In a variety of the
forty-sixth story of the sixth book ot Afanassieff, the crow
occupies the place of the prophetic nightingale. The fox
(the spring aurora) takes the cheese (the moon) from the
crow (the winter night), by making it sing. In the Mahdb-
hdratam,^ the monster Rahus disguises himself as a god,

1 i. 175. 2 ii 5_ 3 I 1152.

252 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

that he may go and drink the ambrosia of the gods ; the
sun and the moon denounce the imposture ; Eahus is
recognised, and Vishnus cuts off his head with his disc ;
this is an ancient variety of the fable of the crow among
the peacocks. This disguise of the crow, however, will
appear quite natural when we reflect that Indras is a
peacock, and that in the Rdmdyamm^ a certain learned
crow (panditas) is called by Hanumant the son of Indras
(putrah kila sa cakrasya ; in the Ornithes of Aristo-
phanes, I read that at Athens men swore by the crow
and by Zeus). I have observed, on a previous occasion,
that the Vedic Indras assumes in the Hindoo poems a
sinister, and sometimes even a diabolical aspect. In the
Rdmdyanam,^ a crow attacks Sit4 with wings, beak, and
claws ; Eamas hurls an enchanted dart at it ; the bird, by
divine grace, does not die, but as it flies rapidly, between
drop and drop, whilst it rains from the cloud, it sees
nothing but darts and shadows of darts in the air. Then
it returns to Rimas to beseech him to deliver it from this
enchantment ; E4mas says that the enchantment must
run its full course, but that he can make it take effect in
one part of the body alone ; let the crow choose the part
that Eamas must aim at. The cunning bird, hoping that
Eamas will miss his aim, says one of its eyes ; E4mas
aims at it and strikes it, to the great wonder of Sit^,
against whom the crow had begun to make war, after
that Eimas had marked her forehead in red (probably
after the evening aurora ; the legendary husband and
wife exchange the ring of recognition, now the sun and
now the moon, in the evening or the autumn, in order to
find themselves together again, by its means, in the morn-
ing or the spring). I have cited in the preceding chapter,

1 ii. 105, V. 3. 2 /5^

THE CUNNING CROW,— WHITE CROWS 253

from the PariSatantram, the popular Hindoo belief that
the crow is the most cunning of birds, as the fox is the
most cunning of animals. Aristotle says that the crow
is the fox's friend ; in the Rdmdyanam, the stratagem
adopted by the fox in the Western fable to make the
cheese fall out of the crow's beak, obliging it to open its
beak and let the booty fall, is advised by the rook or
crow (s4rika or gracula religiosa). A bird of prey holds
a parrot in its claws, and a s4rik4 in its beak ; the rook
says, "Parrot, bite the foot of the enemy whilst he. is
alone and in the air, and whilst his beak presses me ;
and as his beak is occupied and cannot bite thee,
bite thou him, in order that he may let you go ; " the
rook thus hoped that, by opening its beak, which it did
with pain, the bird of prey would let it too go. In
Plautus a crafty servant is compared to a crow. The
crow also personifies in Hindoo tradition the shadow of a
dead man ; to give food to the crows is for the Hindoos
the same as to give food to the souls of the dead ; hence
part of their meals was always, and is still, according to
all travellers in India, left for the crows. Even in the
Rdmdyanam,^ R^mas orders Sit4 to preserve the rest of
the food for the crows. In the flight of the gods before
the demons, described in the last book of the Rdmdyanam,
the god Indras hides himself in the form of a peacock,
and Yamas, the god of the dead, in that of a crow (in
Hellenic mythology, during the war against the giants, it
is Apollo that transforms himself into a crow, but pro-

1 ii. 1 05 ; cfr. also Du Cange, s. v. corhitor. — In the German
legend of tlie Emperor Frederic Barbarossa, the emperor, buried under
a mountain, wakens and asks, " Are the crows still flying round the
mountain?" he is answered that thej'- are still flying. The emperor
sighs and lies down again, concluding that the hour of his resur-
rection has not yet arrived.

254 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

bably into a white one, as white crows were, according
to the Greek belief, dedicated to the sun. It is said that
the crow was once white, but that Apollo made it black,
indignant at. that animal for bringing to him the un-
welcome news of having surprised in adultery his mistress,
the Princess Koronis ; here the crow occupies the place
of the mythical cuckoo. In another Hellenic myth, the
crow loses the favour of Pallas for having brought the
intelligence that Erichtonios, born to Pallas by the seed
of the celestial blacksmith, which had fallen upon the
earth, had been found by the three daughters of Kekrops.
In reward for the services of the crow, Yamas conceded
to it the right of eating the funereal food, for which
reason the shades of the dead, when this food is given to
the crow, are enabled to pass into a better world. In
the Clouds of Aristophanes, the Greek proverb, "Go to
the crows" (ball' es korakas), means "die." Hence in
India as in Persia, in Eussia as in Germany, in Greece as
in Italy, the crow is pre-eminently a funereal bird of
sinister omen. According to -^lianos, the Venetians of
ancient Hadria were accustomed to appease the rooks, in
order that they should not devastate the fields, by
solemnly sending to meet them two ambassadors, who
presented to them a mixture of oil and flour. If the
rooks accepted the offering, it was a good sign. In
Lambert of Aschaffenburg, a pilgrim sees in a dream a
horrid crow which caws and flies round Cologne, and
Avhich is hunted away by a splendid horseman; the
pilgrim explains that the crow is the devil, and the horse-
man St George. In the Chronicles of the Beatified
Anthony, we find described fetid and black pools "in
regione Puteolorum in Apulia," whence the souls arise in
the forms of monstrous birds in the evening hours of the
Sabbath, which neither cat nor let themselves be caught,

THE FUNEREAL CROW. 255

but wander till in the morning an enormous crow com-
pels them to submerge themselves in the waters. In
Germany, according to Eochholtz, when a crow places
itself upon the roof of a house where there is a dead body,
it means that the dead man's soul is damned. At Brusasco,
in Piedmont, children sing to the crow this funereal verse,
counterfeiting in the chorus the crow's cry — •

" CurnaidsSj
Porta '1 s(5iass (the colander) ;
Me mari I'e morta
Sut la porta.

Qu^ ! "

In a popular Swedish song, in the collection translated
into German by Warrens, I read this verse, where the
crow assumes an entirely monstrous form ; men spit at
it, as they do at the devil — ■

" Es flog ein Rabe iiber das Dach,
Hatt' Menscbenfleiscli in den Krallen,
Drei Tropfen Blutes trauften berab,
Ich spiilte, wo sie gefallen."

In the thirty-ninth story of the fourth book of Afanas-
sieff, an old man, having let some grain fall to the
ground, says that if the sun warmed him, the moon gave
him light, and the crow helped him to pick the corn up,
he would give each one of his three daughters. Sun,
moon, and crow listen to him, and marry the three
maidens. Some time after, the old man goes to visit his
son-in-law the crow, who makes him mount a never-
ending ladder, carrying him in his beak ; but when they
are high up, the crow lets the old man drop, and he dies.

Inasmuch as Indras, or Zeus, that is, the pluvial god,
takes now the shape of a cuckoo, now that of a crow, the
crow, in the fifteenth story of Siddhikilr, announces the
proximity of water to the thirsty prince. Tommaso Badino

256 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

of Piacenza ^ narrates an apologue whicli reminds us of the
biblical legend of the Deluge. Phoebos sends the crow to
find the lustral water for the sacrifice of Zeus ; ^ but the
crow, when it arrives at the fountain, sees some figs near it ;
instead of doing its errand, it waits till the (phallical) figs
ripen. Hence the crow passed into a proverb as a procras-
tinator (the legend of St Athanasius, moreover, recognises
the procrastinator in the crow, because it says ''eras " with
its voice). Nor can we accept the biblical derivation
of the belief of the procrastinating crow, when we find it
explicitly mentioned and illustrated in Ovid by the story
of the figs and that of the corn, whose maturity the crow
waits for before carrying the water. The meaning of the
myth appears to me evident ; the thundering and rainy
clouds yield water towards the end of June, when the
first figs and the grain are ripe (in Plutarch's Life of
Nicias, instead of these we have the golden dates); the-
crow represents the pluvial god; as the cuckoo brings
the rains of spring, the crow brings those of summer, and
afterwards, when the later figs ripen, those of autumn,
which announce the winter, dear to the crows.^

" Imbrium divina vis immineiitum." *

^ In the Omithologia of Aldrovandi. Tlie messenger crow is of
frequent occurrence in legends.

- In Plutarch, two crows guide Alexander the Great, when he goes
to consult the oracle of Zeus Ammon.

3 Hence the name of Avis S. Martini also given to the crow, be-
cause it often comes about St Martin's day. In Du Cange and in the
Roman du Rmard we also find indicated the auspices to be taken
from the'crow's flight ; for the same custom in Germany, cfr. Simrock,
the work quoted before, p. ^^:^,

4 Horace, Carm, iii. 27. — In Afanassief, again (iv. 36), the rook is
asked where it has flown to. It answers, " Into the meadows to
write letters and sigh after the maiden;'' and the maiden is advised
to hurry towards the water. The maiden declares that she fears the

THE CROW AS MESSENGER. 257

In a popular Swedish song, hydromel is offered to the
messenger crow ; instead of this, it solicits small grains
for its young. In the fifty-second story of the sixth
book of Afanassieff, the crow is sent to seek for the
water of life and death, and to make experiments with it
upon itself before bringing it.

But out of darkness comes forth light, the sun ; from the
black nightj the clear day ; from the black crow, the white
one ; hence, in the first of the Esthonian stories, we find
the crow represented as the bird of light, in the same way
as in the Hellenic myth it was sacred to Apollo. In the
sixth of the Sicilian stories of Signora Gonzenbach,
crows carry the boy Giuseppe, shut up in a sack made
of a horse's skin dried in the sun, to a mountain covered
with diamonds, and the egg of a crow thrown on the
head of the monster giant kills him. In the ninth story
of the fourth book of the Pentamerone, a king sees the
blood of a cro\v, which had been killed, upon some white
marble, and wishes for a bride who shall be white like
the marble and red like the blood, and have hair as
black as the crow's feathers. The foolish hero Ivan, in
Afanassieffs story (vi. 9), calls the crows his little
sisters, and pours out for them the food contained in the
small pipkins which he was carrying to sell. In popular
German and Scandinavian songs, where the crow often
appears as the succourer of the beautiful maiden (the sun ;
die Sonne is feminine in German, as is well known), it
is said to be the heroine's brother. The crow is the
weU-known messenger of Saint Oswald, king in Engel-
land (the land of the Angles). The crow often brings

crab. In this maiden, that is afraid of the crab, I think I can recog-
nise the zodiacal sign of Virgo (attracted by the crab of the summer),
— the virgin who approaches the water, the autumn and the autumnal
rains ; the virgin loved by the crow, who is the friend of the rains.

VOL. II R

2s8 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

good luck to the heroes, even by sacrificing itself;
the death of night and of winter brings round again
day and spring ; hence the two celebrated verses of
Horace —

" Oscinem corvum prece suscitabo
Solis ab ortu."^

Several of the mythical characteristics of the crow,
indeed, the principal ones, are also ascribed to the mag-
pie (corvus pica). The blue magpie seems to be spoken
of as a bird of evil omen, even in a Vedic hymn, in con-
nection with the disease of consumption.^ In the forty-
sixth story of Afanassieff, the magpies are in relation
with the mythical water; one magpie is sent for the
water of life, and another for the water of speech, to
resuscitate the two sons of a prince and princess, whom
a witch had touched with the hand of death as they
slept. These two magpies seem to correspond to the two
crows, Huginn and Muninn, which the Scandinavian god
Odin sent every day into the world to learn all the
news there current, which they afterwards brought back
and whispered in one of his ears. In a German legend
given by Grimm, the magpie appears as the bringer of
the balsam herb (Springwurzel). The Greeks and the
Latins considered the magpie to be sacred to Bacchus,
because it is in connection with the ambrosial drink ;
and, as drunkards are garrulous, so the magpie is famous
for its garrulity. We have seen the rook amongst the
Muses ; in Theocritus the magpie defies the nightingale
in singing ; in Galenus it is proverbially emulous of the
Siren ; the nine daughters of Euippes were changed into
magpies, because they had presumed to emulate the nine

^ Horace, Carm. iii. 27.

2 Sakaiii yaksLma pra pata (^asbena kikidivina; Rigv. x. 97, 13.

THE MAGPIE, 259

Muses in singing, whence Dante, invoking Calliope,
wishes to continue his song —

*' Con quel suono
Di cui le Piche misere sentiro,
Lo colpo tal che disper^r perdono."

The reader knows, no doubt, the fable of Arne, as given
in Ovid, who, in her thirst for gold, betrayed her country
to the enemy, and was changed into a rook (monedula),
the friend of gold. In the tenth book of his History,
Livy narrates the fable of a crow that ate the gold in
the Capitol. In a popular Danish ballad, gold is offered
to the messenger crow, who (like the cuckoo) answers
that it knows not what to do with it, and desires rather
nourishment fit for crows. The magpie, too, became
proverbial as a robber of gold and silver, which it goes to
hide, not so much because it likes shining metals, as
because it hates too great light. The crow and the mag-
pie hide the sun and the golden ears of corn in the rainy
and wintry season. In German mythology, the magpie
is an infernal bird, into which witches often transform
themselves, or which is ridden by them. Hence it is also
believed in Germany that the magpie must be killed
during the twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany
(when the days begin to lengthen again). But, inas-
much as every species of malice is learned in hell, the
malice of the magpie became even more proverbial than
that of the crow. The magpie makes use of this knowledge
now to do evil, as a malignant fairy, now to do good to
men, as a benignant fairy : the colour of the blue magpie
appears now luminous, now tenebrific ; the colours of
white and black in the magpie (a-s in the swallow) repre-
sent its two mythical contradictory characters. In German
superstition the magpie teUs of the approach of the wolf;
hence it is still believed that it is unlucky to kill a

26o ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

magpie. In the Russian popular song, the magpie is the
punisher of the lazy little finger which would not go to
the well to find water : —

" TKe magpie, the magpie,
Had cooked the gruel,
It leaped upon the threshold,
It invited the guests." ^

It invites aU the guests, except the little finger, which is
the smallest of the fingers on account of its laziness ; — we
have already mentioned the lazy little brother who refuses
to go to take water, in the first chapter of the first book.
In Eussia, it is believed that when a magpie comes to
perch upon the threshold of a house, it announces the
arrival of guests ; this belief reminds me of the magpie
of Petronius : " Super limen autem cavea pendebat aurea,
in qu^ pica varia intrantes salutabat."^

As the crow and the magpie are thought of, in mytho-
logy, in connection with the water, and with the funereal
and infernal winter, so the stork represents especially the
rainy and wintry season. The heron, already mentioned
in the chapter on the Cuckoo, presents several of the
mythical characteristics of the stork. In the twenty-

^ Sarovka, sar6vka,

Kasha varlla

Na parok skak^la,

Gastiei saszivdla.
- The magpie is proverbial as a babbler ; hence, from its Italian
name gana^ the name gazzetta given to newspapers, as divulging
secrets. — In the Dialogus Creaturarum, dial. 80, it is written of the
magpie, called Agazia: "Pica est avis callidissima. . . . Hfec apud
quenidam venatorem et humane et latine loquebatur, propter quod
Venator ipsam plenaria fulciebat. Pica autem nou immemor beneficii,
volens remunerare eum, volavit ad Agazias, et cum eis familiariter
sedebat et huuiane sermocinabatur. Agazise quoque in hoc plurimum
lEet^tbantur cupientes et ipsa3 garrire hunianeque luqui.^'

THE STORK. 261

ninth story of the fourth book of Afana^sieff, the stork,
tired of living alone, goes to the heron and proposes
marriage to her. The heron sends him away in con-
tempt. No sooner is the stork gone, than the heron
repents, and goes in her turn to propose to the stork,
who refuses out of sulkiness. He then repents of his
refusal, and retutos to the heron, who, sulky in her turn,
rejects him. The story ends by sa3dng that the heron
and the stork continue to visit one another, but that
they are not married yet. This fable, although it has a
satirical meaning, also implies the intimate mythical
relationship between the heron and the stork. The heron
and the stork are two birds which equally love the
water, and therefore serve to represent the cloudy, rainy,
wintry, or gloomy sky, which, as we have already said,
is often represented as a black sea. From the night, the
cloud, or the winter, comes forth the young sun, the new
sun, the little child-hero who had been exposed in the
waters ; hence the popular German belief of children that
the storks carry children from the fountain.^ However,
properly speaking, as long as the stork holds the child-
hero in its beak, the latter is not considered born ; it is
only born at the moment in which, opening its beak, it
puts the child down in its mother's lap. The stork per-
sonifies the funereal sky, the sky when the celestial hero,
the sun, is dead. Hence it is believed in Germany that
when storks fly round, or over a group of persons,
some one of them is about to die ; the clouds and the
shadows that collect together presage the disappearance
or death of the sun.

^ Hence the request made in the popular song to the stork, to bring
a little sister ; cfr. the songs of the stork in Kuhn and Schwarz,
iV. S. M. u. G. p. 452. As the bringer of children, the stork is re-
presented as the serpent's enemy; cfr. Tzetza^ i. 945.

262 ZOOLOGICAL MYLHOLOGY.

In Russian stories we have a double aspect of the stork
(besides the fable, probably imported, of the stork and
the fox as cousins, who invite each other to supper). In
the seventeenth story of the second book of Afanassieff,
an old man begs the stork to be as his son (the reputa-
tion of the storks for their paternal and filial affection is
of ancient date ^). The stork gives to the old man a sack
out of which come two young men, who cover the table
with a silk tablecloth, fm^nished with every good thing.
A godmother who has three daughters changes the old
man's sack whilst he is returning home. The old man,
laughed at and beaten by his wife, returns to the stork,
who gives him another sack, out of which also come two
young men, who flog people vigorously. By means of
this sack the old man recovers the former one, and reduces
his wife to obedience. In a variety of the same story,
the stork makes to the foolish hero three presents — a
horse which, when it is told to stop, is transformed into
a heap of money, and, when it is told to go on, resumes
its former shape ; a tablecloth which both spreads itself
and takes itself off ; and a horn out of which come the
two young floggers. In the thirty-seventh story of the
fourth book of Afanassieff, the stork is said to be the
brother of the woodcock, and they cut hay together, but
do nothing else. We mentioned, in the chapter on the
Bear, the storks that eat the harvests of a peasant who
threatens to cut off their feet. They upset a barrel of
wine in order to drink its contents ; the indignant peasant
takes and binds them to his waggon, but the inebriated
storks are so strong, that they carry peasant, waggon,
and horse up into the air. Here the stork assumes a

1 Cfr. Phile, vi. 2 ; and Aristophanes in the Ornithes —
"Dei tons neotous t* patera palin trephein."

THE STORK. 263

diabolical aspect, as the representative of the wintry
season ; the chariot of the peasant is that of the sun. In
the fifth story of the sixth book of Afanassieff, the
soldier-impostor tells an old woman that he is going
back to the other world, where he found her son leading
storks to the pasturage. Here the storks have the fune-
real and infernal nature of the crows, which we have
observed to be, in Aryan beliefs, one of the forms assumed
by the souls of the dead.

CHAPTEE VIL

THE WOODPECKER AND THE MARTIN.

STJMMAEy,

The picus in the work of Professor Kahn. — Picus, corvus pica, and
picumnus ; the Vedic word vrikas, — The she-wolf and the wood-
pecker as the nurses of the Latin twifi heroes. — Picufi as the
phallos ; picus, picumnus, piluTnnus, pilum, pistor ; piciu, pinco,
pincio, pinson^ pincone. — The sacred herb of Indras which cleaves
the mountains. — Jupiter as a picus ; the picus presages rain ; the
herb of the woodpecker has the virtue of opening every shut place.
— The woodpecker and the honey. — Beowulf and the woodpecker.
— The woodpecker and the gold. — The green woodpecker. — The
woodpecker as the devil. — The woodpecker in opposition to the
fox. — The vengeance of the woodpecker. — The halcyon. — The
martin or bird of St Martin. — Martin piciu. — The yilnx in love
with Zeus ; it attracts lovers. — Alhuoneioi hemerai ; the halcyon.
— Robin Redbreast and its " charitable bill." — The bird of St
Gertrude ; the incendiaria avis ; Jean rouge-gorge, — Sea-birds
with white and black plumage and a little spot of blood on
their heads.

The woodpecker has already had the honour of being
studied with great learning by Professor Adalbert Kuhn,
in his excellent Work upon the celestial fire and water, to
which I refer the cultivated reader for the principal
myths relating to the subject ; that is to say, for the com-
parison of the Vedic hawk and the Vedic fire-bhuranyus
with the Hellenic Phoroneus, the Latin 'picus Feronius,
the incendiaria avis, the picus that carries thunder, and

THE WOODPECKER. 265

that which carries food to the twins Romulus and Eemus,^
and which itself enjoy swine, with King Picus, progenitor
of a race, and with the corresponding German traditions.
I shall only observe here the mythological relationship
between 'picus and the corvus pica {picumnns was ap-
plied both to the woodpecker and the magpie), in order
to return to the equivocal Vedic word vrihas, which
means wolf and crow, whence also arose and fostered itself
the confusion between the she- wolf that nurses the Latin
twin heroes, and the woodpecker which, in the same
legend, offers itself as their nourisher. The woodpecker,
the magpie, and the wolf, personify equally the god in
the darkness, the devil, the cloud, the sky of night, the
rainy season, the wintry season ; from the night, and
from the winter, the new sun, fed by the she-wolf, or by
the funereal bird, arises ; the penetrating beak of the
woodpecker in the cloud is the thunderbolt ; in the
night, and in the wintry season, it is now the moon
that disperses the darkness, now the sunbeam that
comes out of the darkness. The thunderbolt, the moon,
and the sun's ray, moreover, sometimes assume in myths
the form of the phallos ; the woodpecker as a phallos
and the King Picus, progenitor of a race, seem to me to
be the same. The Latin legend puts picus in connection
with picumnus, piliimnus, the pilum, and the pistor, in
the same way as a Norwegian story puts in relation
with flour the cuckoo, which we abeady know to be a
phallical symbol, properly the presser down. In the
Piedmontese dialect, the common name of the phallos is
piciu; in Italian, "pinco d^nApincio have the same mean-

1 a

Lacte quis infantes nescit crevisse ferino 1
Et picum expositis ssepe tulisse cibos ? "

— Ovid, Fasiij iii.

2(56 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

ing ; pincione is tlie chaffinch (in French pinson) ; and
pinco7ie means a fool, for the same reason that the ass,
as a phallical symbol, personified folly. We already
know Indras as a cuckoo, as a peacock, and as a hawk.
To find Indras again in the woodpecker, the Tdittiriya-
Brahmanam ofiers us a notable analogy. In it Indras
kiUs the wild boar, hidden in the seven mountains (the
shadows of the night, or the clouds), cleaving them by
the touch of the stem of a sacred luminous and golden
herb (sa darbhapiil^tilam uddhritya sapta girin bhittv4^),
which may be the moon in the night, or else the thunder-
bolt in the cloud ; the thunderbolt is also not seldom
represented in Aryan traditions as a magic rod. It is
with a golden rod that, in the seventh book of the ^neid,
the enchantress Cii'ce transforms the wise King Picus,
son of Saturn (as Jupiter-Indras ; Suidas also speaks of
a Pekos Zeus, buried in Crete) into a bird, into the picus,
sacred to the god of warriors (Mars-Indras), whence his
name of picus martins, the woodpecker, which is sup-
posed to presage rain (like Zeus and Indras) —

" Picus equum domitor, quern, capta cupidine conjux,
Aurea percussum virga, versumque venenis,
Fecit aveni Circe, sparsitque coloribus alas."

Pliny relates that the woodpecker has the virtue of open-
ing every shut place, touching it with a certain herb,
which increases and decreases with the moon ; ^ this herb

^ Compare pingMas with pM^alas and pirigaras. — In the hymn, x.
28, 9, of the Rigvedas, we also have the mountain cleft from afar by a
clod of earth : Adrim logena vy abhedam ^rit. This analogy is so
much the more remarkable, as in the same hymn, 4:th strophe, the
wild boar is also spoken of.

2 The same virtue of opening the mountain by means of an herb I

THE WOODPECKER, 267

may be the moon itself, which opens the hiding-places
of the night, or the thunderbolt which opens the hiding-
places of the cloud. It is well known that in the Vedic
hymns, Indras, who is generally the pluvial and thunder-
ing god, is frequently associated with the soma (ambrosia
and moon), and even identified with it. Pliny adds, more-
over, that whoever takes honey out of the hive with the
beak of a woodpecker is not liable to be stung by the
bees ; this honey may be the rain in the cloud as well as
the lunar ambrosia or the dew of the morning aurora ;
hence the woodpecker's beak may be the thunderbolt as
well as the moonbeam, or the sunbeam. Beowulf (the
wolf of the bees) is spoken of in connection with the
woodpecker as well as with the bear : the Bienenfresser
of German legends, or \hQpica merops, explains the Latin
superstition and the Beowulf. Like the crow, the wood-
pecker, too, stays in darkness, but brings water, seeks for
honey, and finds the light. In the Aulularia, Plautus
makes woodpeckers live upon golden mountains (picos, qui
aureos montes incolunt). Inasmuch as the woodpeckers
announced the approach of winter, or were seen on the
left, according to the well-known verse of Horace^ —

" Teque nee Isevus vetet ire picus,
they were considered birds of evil omen. In the Orni-

find attributed to the little martin, in connection with Venus, in
Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 415 : "Schon in einem Gedichte
Meister Altschwerts, ed. Holland, s. 70, wird der Zugang zu dem
Berge durch ein Kraut gefunden, das der Springwurzel oder blauen
Schliisselblume unserer Ortssagen gleicht. Kaum hat es der Dichter
gebrochen, so kommt ein Martinsvogelchen geflogen, das guter Vor-
bedeutung zu sein pflegt ; diesem folgt er und begegnet einem Zwerge,
der ihn in den Berg zu Frau Venus fuhrt.*'
2 Carm. iii. 27.

268 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

thologus, it is said that tlie green woodpecker (the moon,
by the previously mentioned equivocalness of haris) pre-
sages winter (the moon, as we have said, rules over the
winter). For this reason, St Bphiphanios could compare
the woodpecker with the devil. According to Pliny, the
woodpecker that perched upon the head of the prsetor
Lucius Tubero, whilst he was administering justice,
announced approaching ruin to the empire if it were
allowed to go free, and approaching death to the prsetor
if killed ; Lucius Tubero, moved by love of his country,
seized the woodpecker, killed it, and died soon afterwards.
Hence Pliny could say with reason that woodpeckers
were "in auspiciis magni."

In the twentieth story of the third book ot Afanassieff,
the woodpecker, which usually appears as a very know-
ing bird, lets itself be deceived by the fox, who eats its
young ones, under the pretext of teaching them an art.
In the twenty-fifth story of the fourth book, on the other
hand, the woodpecker assumes a heroic and formidable
aspect. It makes friends with an old dog, which has
been expelled from its kennel, and offers its services as
purveyor. A woman, is carrying some dinner to her
husband, who isworkingin the fields. Thewoodpecker flies
before her and feigns to let itself be taken ; the woman,
to run after it, puts the dinner down, and the dog feeds
upon it (in a variety of the same story, the woodpecker
also offers to the dog a means of getting something to
drink). Afterwards the dog meets the fox ; then, in order
to please the woodpecker (who, perhaps, remembered the
treachery of the fox who ate its little ones), it runs upon
the fox and maltreats it. A peasant passes by and
thrashes the poor dog, who dies. Then the woodpecker
becomes furious in its desire of vengeance, and begins to

THE HALCYON.— THE YtJNX 269

peck now at the peasant, and now at his horses ; the
peasant tries to flog the woodpecker, instead of which he
flogs the horses to death. Nor does the woodpecker's
veiigeance stop here ; it goes to the peasant's wife and
pecks at her ; she endeavours to beat it, but instead of
doing so, she beats her own sons (these are two varieties
of the story of the mother who beats her son, thinking
to beat the ass, which, as a phallical symbol, we have
akeady said corresponds to the woodpecker. The Tnj\h
of Seilenos, which we saw in connection with the ass,
has also been quoted by Professor Kuhn in relation with
the woodpecker. In the third book of the Pa7i6atantram,
we have a bird that throws gold from behind, a charac-
teristic of the mythical ass in fairy tales). Here the
woodpecker has the same office which in another Russian
story, abeady recorded, is attributed to the wintry, fune-
real, and ill-omened stork, the sun hidden in the darkness,
or the cloud.

The halcyon, which announces tempests, and the bird
of St Martin, the fisher martin, are of the same wintry and
phallical nature as the woodpecker. In Piedmont, a fool is
insultingly called by the name of Martin-Piciu (the podex
and the phaUos, and also the phaUos martin, which reminds
us of the picus pistor, and the picus martius), and the
above-quoted Italian expression pincone is equivalent to
it. The sun that hides itself in darkness or clouds loses
its power. The phallical symbol is evident. Here re-
mark the Hellenic fable of the bird Ylinx tetraknamon,
of the four rays, of the long tongue, always changeful (the
French call it paille en cul). Pan is said to have been
the father of a girl called Ytinx, who, having attempted to
seduce Zeus, was changed by the vengeance of Here into
a bird of the same name. In Pindar, Jason made use

270 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

of this bird, the gift of Aphrodite, to gain the favour of
Medea, In TheocritoSj this bird is invoked by girls in love
to attract their lovers into the house ; women made use
of this bird in their mischief- working love-mysteries.

According to the fifth book of Aristotle's History of
Animals, the halcyon sits on its eggs in the serene days
of winter, called therefore alklioneiai h^merai ; and the
author cites a sentence of Simonides concerning this bird :
" When Zeus, in the wintry season, creates twice seven
warm days, mortals say, ' This tepid weather is nourish-
ing the variously-painted halcyons.'" Ovid relates that
Alcyon was transformed into the bird of this name while
weeping for her husband, who had been drowned in the
sea, whence Ariosto wrote' —

" E s^udir le Alcione alia marina
Deir antico infortunio lamentarse."

This bird, the kingfisher, several kinds of woodpeckers,
the wren, the crow, and the redbreast, the Scotch Eobin
Eedbreastj also called in English ruddock and Eobin-
ruddock, which, "with charitable bill," according to the
expression of Shakspeare in Cymheline^ throws funereal
flowers upon unburied bodies,^ are all birds sacred to St

1 " Thou Shalt not lack
The flower that 's like thy face, pale primrose ; nor
The azured hare-bell, like thy veins ; no, nor
The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander,
Out-sweetened not thy breath ; the ruddock would,
With charitable bill (O bill, sore-shaming
Those rich-left heirs, that let their fathers lie
Without a monument !), bring thee all this."

— iv. 2.
2 Cfr. what is said on the whoop, the stork, and the lark. —
Concerning the bird gaulus, I find in Du Cange as follows : " Gaulus

THE REDBREAST. 271

Martin, the holy gravedigger, the bringer of winter,
who, according to the Celtic and German traditions,
divides his own cloak with poor men, and covers them.
German legends are full of incidents relating to this
funereal and wintry bird, with which now the funereal
Norwegian bird of St Gertrude, now the cuckoo, now the
ineendiaria avis, are assimilated. Hence the same red-
breast which in German tradition is sacred to St Martin
is called Jean rouge-gorge in the popular songs of
Brittany, published by Villemarque, and is sacred to St
John ; but this John may be the St John of winter,
whose festival is celebrated on the 27th of December,
that is, two days after the Nativity of Christ, or in the
days in which the sun, the Saviour, is born again, and
the light increases. Birds of the same funereal nature as
that of St Martin appear in the Breton song Bran (or
the prisoner of war): — "At Kerloan, upon the battle-
field, there is an oak-tree which spreads its branches over
the shore ; there is an oak-tree at the place where the
Saxons took to flight before the face of Evan the Great.
On this oak, when the moon shines at night, birds come
to meet one another, sea-birds with white and black
plumage, and a little spot of blood on their heads ; with
them there comes an old grey crow, and with it a young
crow. Both are very weary, and their wings are wet ;
they come from beyond the seas, they come from afar ;
and the birds sing such a beautiful song that the great
sea is hushed and listens ; this song they sing with one
voice, except the old crow and the young one ; now the

Merops avis apibus infensa, unde et Apiastra vocitatur. Papias :
' Meropes, Genus avium, idem et Gauli, qui parentes suos recondere,
et alere dicuntur, sunt autem virides et vocantur Apiastrse.'"

272 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

crow has said — ' Sing, little birds ; sing, sing, little birds
of the land; you do not die far away from Bretagne/"
The same funereal birds which have pity for the dead,
like the stork, also take care of new-born infants, and
bring the light forth. The cloudy nocturnal or wintry
monster discovers his treasures ; the funereal bird buries
the dead, and brings them to life again ; its beak pierces
through the mountain, finds the water and the fire, and
tears the veil of death ; its luminous head disperses the
gloomy shadows.

CHAPTER VIII

THE LARK AND THE QUAIL.

SUMMARY.

The lark the first of animals. — It existed before the earth. — It buries
its father in its own head. — The lark sings the praises of God. —
Pra^i,patis creates the stomas first. — The crested sun. — Christos
and crista ; the crested lark and St Christophoros. — Alauda the
lauder. — The lark upon the father's tomb, — The mother-lark. —
The lark announces morning and summer. — Bharadv^^as, the
bringer of food, the bringer of good things and of sound. —
Bharadva^as as a mythical singer or poet, nourished by a lark ;
the son of Brihaspati's. — The old Bharadva^as ascends into heaven
in union with the sun. — The quail. — Vartiki, vartakas, wachtel,
perepiolka. — The quail and the wolf in the Rigvedas. — The wise
girl upon a hare, with a quail tied to her hand. — Jove as a quail. —
The quail sacred to Hercules. — The moon and the quail. — The
quail becomes a stone. — The quail believed to eat poisonous
hellebore. — The quail as a sacred bird. — The game of the quail. —
The quail and the cock. — The quail as a prophetic bird. — The
quail puts a price upon corn.

To the crested lark, in tlie Ornithes of Aristophanes, the
name of king is given, and the same virtue of funereal
charity is attributed to it which we have already seen
in the redbreast of winter, in the stork, and in the
crested whoop. According to Aristophanes the lark was
not only the first of animals, but it existed before the
earth and before the gods Zeus and Kronos and the

VOL. II. s

274 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

Titans, Hence, when the lark's father died, there was
no earth to bury him in ; then the lark buried its father
in its own head (or in its pyramidal crest). Goropius
explains the belief that the lark existed before the earth,
by observing that the lark sings seven times a day the
praises of God in the high air, and that prayer was the
first thing which existed in the world. In Hindoo cos-
mogony, when Pra^^patis, the creator, wishes to multi-
ply himself, he begins by creating the stomas or hymn.^
The father of the lark is therefore the god himself The
crested lark is the same as the crested sun, the sun with
his rays. In the legend of St Christopher, I see an
equivoque between the word Christos and the word
crista, and, either way, I see the sun personified. St
Christopher, in the legend, carries Christ, and is associated
with the lark. Goropius, when a child, on seeing a
picture representing St Christopher, marvelled that the
lark did not flee from the tree-staff of St Christopher,
whilst the sparrows, instead, fled before him as soon as
he approached ; he was answered that the lark is not
afraid of St Christopher, because it sees on the saint's
shoulders its own creator, God. Christ, the father of the
lark, dies, and the lark buries him in its crista. In the
same way an equivoque in speech made of the lark
(alauda) the lauder (laudatrix) of God ; thus it seems to
me that the equivoque between crista and Christos
passed into the legend of St Christopher. In the nine-
teenth Mongol story, the poor young man makes his
fortune when he hears a lark upon his father's tomb,
which has come and placed itself upon the loom. The
lark is a form of the young man himself, the young sun
who from poor becomes rich ; the loom upon which the

^ Tdittiriya Yayiu^. vii. 1, 4.

THE LARK, 275

lark perches is the sky. The Greek name of the crested
lark (kortidalos) corresponds to the Latin galerita. The
lark with the crest or with the tuft explains the custom
of the Gauls, recorded by Suetonius in the Life of Julius
Csesar, of representing a crested lark upon their helmets.
The -^sopian fables of the mother-lark wdth its young
ones, and of the lark with the birdeatcher^ show us this
bird full of cunning and wisdom.. As the larks sing the
praises of God only when the sky is serene, and as they
announce the morning ^ and the summer^ they represent
the crested sun which illumines all, which is all-luminous,
aU-seeing, (the Vedic viqvavedas), the golden sun. In
the thirteenth Esthonian story, the maiden that sleeps
will waken when she hears again the summer song of
the larks. (Here the maiden is the earth, which wakens
in the spring.)

The Hindoo name of the lark is na less interesting
than the Latin cdauda. Bharadv4^as, or the lark, may
mean the bringer of food or of goods (as the sun), as weU
as the bringer of sound (the singer of hymns) and the
sacrificer. In this triple interpretation which can be
given to the word hharadvdgas, nearly all the myth of
the lark seems to be contained. Bharadv4^as, after-
wards, also becomes the name of a celebrated poet, and of
one of the seven mythical sages, who, according to the
legend, was nourished by a lark, and who is said to be
the son of Brihaspatis, the god of sacrifice. Fire, identi-
fied with Divod^sas, one of the favourites of the god
Indras, who destroys for him the strong celestial cities
of Qambaras. The Tdittiriya-brdhmanam also shows
us the wise Bharadva^as in connection with Indras.

1 Hence Gregory of Tours relates, in i)w Cange : ** In Ecclesia
ArvernHj dum matutinge celebrarentur Yigiliaej in quadam civitate avis
Corydalus, quam Alaudam vocamus, ingressa est."

2 76 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

Bharadv^^as lias become old whilst travelling three
degrees of the life of a studious penitent ; Indras
approaches the aged sage, and asks him, how, if he still
had many years to Kve, he would employ his lifetime ?
The sage answers that he would continue to live in
penitence and in study. In the three first degrees of
his life, Bharadv^i^as has studied the three Ved^s (the
Atliarva-veda having come afterwards, or not being as
yet recognised as a sacred book). In the fourth period,
Bharadvagas learns universal science (jarvavidya), be-
comes immortal, and ascends into heaven in union with
the sun (A>dityasya sayu^yam).

The quail is also in intimate relation with the summer
sun, but especially with the moon.

Vartik^ and vartakas are its Indian names, which may
mean both she who is turned towards, the animated
one, the ready, the swift, the watchful (cfr. the German
Wachtel), and the pilgrim (cfr. the Eussian perepiolha).
In the Rigvedas, the Agvin^u deliver the quail from
torments ; they release the quail from the rage of the
Avolf ; they liberate it from the jaws of the wolf that is
devouring it.^ In the forty-first story of the sixth book
of Afanassieff, the Avise girl comes upon a hare with a
quail tied to her hand, and presents herself before the
Tzar, whose riddle she must solve in order to marry him.
This quail is the symbol of the Tzar himself, or the sun ;
the wise girl is the aurora (or the spring), who arrives near
the sun upon the hare, that is, upon the moon, travers-
ing the shadows of night (or winter). The Greeks and
Latins, observing, j)erhaps, that the moon takes sleep

^ Vartikarii grasitam amundatam; Rigv. i. 112, 8. — Amundataih
vartik^m aiihasali; i. 118, 8. — Asno vrikasya vartikam abhike yuvarii
iiara n.lsatyiimumuktam ; i. 116, 14. — Vrikasya <5id vartikam antar
asyad yuvarii gagibhir grasitam amun(iatani ; x. 39, 13.

THE QUAIL, 277

away from the quail, believed that the quail was sacred to
Latona, and relate that Jove became a quail to lie with
Latona, of which union Diana and Apollo (moon and sun)
were born/ Others also affirm that the quail was sacred to
Hercules, who, by the scent of a quail, recovered his life,
which had been taken from him by Tuphon. It is
believed that when the moon rises, the quail cries out
and is excited to agitation against it, and that the quail's
head increases or diminishes according to the moon's
influence. As the quail seems to represent the sun, and
loves heat, it fears the cold moon. From these mythical
relations of the quail was doubtless derived the fear
which the ancients had for the quail, which they believed
to eat poisonous hellebore during the night, and to be
therefore poisonous and subject to epilepsy. Plutarch,
in the Apo'pldegmata, relates that Augustus punished
with death a president of Egypt who had eaten a quail
which had carried off the prize in the fight ; for it was
long the custom to make quails fight with one another,
in the same way as at Athens the game of the quail was
a favourite diversion, in which several quails were placed
in a circle, and he who hit one carried off all the others.
According to Artemidoros, quails announced to their
feeders the evils by which they would be visited from
the side of the sea. The quail which agitates itself

1 The same fable is also related in a different way : Jove cohabits
with Latona, and subsequently forces her sister, Asterien, who is, in
pity, changed by the gods into a quail. Jove becomes an eagle to
catch her ; the gods change the quail into a stone — (cfr. the stories of
Indras as a cuckoo and Kambhi, of Indras as a cock and Ahaly^. It is
a popular superstition that quails, like the crane, when they travel, let
little stones fall in order to recognise on their return the places by
which they passed the first time) — which lies for a long time under
w^ater, till by the prayer of Latona it is taken out.

278 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

against the moon (thus -^lianos writes that the cock
excites himself and exults when the moon rises ^) pre-
sages the bad season, the pluvial or wintry season, and
makes use of its own presage to migrate to warmer
regions. The quail watches, travels, and cries out during
the night ; from the number of times that it cries out in
succession in the fields, the peasants of Tuscany infer
the price of corn ; as the quail generally renews its cry
three, four or more times, when it cries three times they
say that corn will be cheap, and that, when it cries out
four or more times, it will be dear ; and so they say that
the quail puts a price upon corn.^ The quail arrives
with the sun in our fields in spring, and goes away with
the sun in September. In the Mahdhhdratam,^ when
the hero Bhimas is squeezed by an enormous serpent,
a quail appears near the sun, dark (praty^dityamabh^s-
var^), with only one wing, one eye, and one foot, horrible
to the sight, vomiting blood (raktam vamanti). This
quail may represent either the red sky of evening, in the
west, or the red heavens at the conclusion of summer.

^ j^lianos says that the cock is in the moon's favour, either because
it assisted Latona in parturition, or because it is generally believed
(as a symbol of fecTindation) to be the facilitator of childbirth. As a
watchful animal it was natural to consider it especially dear to the
moon, the nocturnal watcher. — The cock, as an announcer of news,
was sacred to Mercury ; as the curer of many diseases, to ^sculapius ;
as a warrior, to Mars, Hercules, and Pallas, who, according to Pau-
sanias, wore a hen upon her helmet ; as an increaser of the family, to
the Lares, &c. Even Koman Catholic priests will deign to receive
with especial favour, ad majorem Dei gloriam, the homage of cocks,
capons, and chickens.

2 This year, my quails cried out six times ; and the corn in Italy is
very dear, the spring having been a very rainy one,

» iii. 12,437.

CHAPTER IX.

THE COCK AND THE HEN.

SUMMARY.

Alektriion, a satellite of Mars, the lover of Venus, becomes a cock. —
Indras, the lover of Ahaly^ as a cock ; Ahalya turned to stone.
— Indras as a eunuch or as a ram. — Pra^apatis loves Ms daughter
the aurora, and becomes a goat. — Ahalya in the ashes, like
Cinderella. — The thunder and the eggs ; the iron nail and the
laurel in the nest. — To, be made of stucco, to be turned to stone by
the thunder which astonishes. — It is a sacrilege to kill cocks and
hens. — The cock Parodars in the Avesta. — The cock chases the
demons away.— The cock wakens the aurora and arouses man-
kind. — Christus and the cock as cristiger, cristatus, cristeus. — The
cock sacred to St James, to St Christopher and Donar. — St James
as a cock. — The hen crows like a cock. — Men turned to stone,
and the cock who calls them to life again. — The cock as a devil. —
The enchanted hut stands upon a hen's little feet. — Cocks killed
as a form of witches. — The lapillus alectorius ; the same enclosed
in a ring. — To dream of brood-hens with chickens. — The egg is
more cunning than the hen. — The golden cock on the rock ;
marvels come out of the rock. — The Qgg which becomes a girl. —
The cock on the top of high buildings, to indicate the winds, and
also the hours. — The black cock and the red one. — The black
hen. — The cock sacrificed. — The cock, son of Mars. — Cockfights.
—Auguries taken from cocks and hens ; these auguries held up to
derision. — The hen's egg ; " Gallus in sterquilinio suo plurimum
potest." — The pearl is an Qgg] the hen's egg in the sky is the
sun. — The white hen. — Easter eggs. — The golden egg. — The
cosmic egg.- — It is an excellent augury to begin with the eggj
"Ab ovo ad malum." — To begin ah ovo.

28o ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

Alektkuon (the Greek name of tlie cock) was the com-
panion and satellite of Mars. "WHien Mars wished to
spend the night with Venus during the absence of Vulcan,
he placed Alektrtion to watch at the door. Alektriion,
however, fell asleep ; and Mars, surprised by the return-
ing husband, and full of indignation, transformed Alek-
trtion into a cock, in order that it might learn to be
watchful ; whence Ausonius —

" Ter clara instantis Eoi
Signa canit serus, deprenso Marte, satelles."

According to a P4uranic legend, Indras, the Indian
Mars, enamoured of Ahaly4, the wife of G^utamas, and
accompanied by Candras (the moon), assumed the form of a
krikav^kas (cock or peacock), and went to sing at mid-
night near the dwelling of Ahaly^, whilst her husband
was absent. Then, divesting himself of the form of a cock
(or peacock), he left Candras at the door to watch, and
united himself with Ahaly4 (the hen). Meanwhile G4uta-
mas returns ; Candras not having warned the lovers of
his approach, the saint turns Ahaly^ to stone, and scatters
over the body of Indras a thousand wombs ; which, being
submerged in the waters, the pitying gods subsequently
changed into a thousand eyes (sahasr^kshas is one of the
Hindoo names of Indras and of the peacock). Accord-
ing to a variety of this legend, — which is analogous to the
fable of the Zeus as a quail, the seducer of the sister of
Latona, or of Latona herself, changed into a stone and
submerged in the waters, — Indras becomes a eunuch, and
obtains, as we have already seen, in compensation, two
ram's testicles. In the Aitareya Br., the god Brahman
Pra^apatis becomes a goat or a roebuck (rigyas), in order
to lie with his own daughter Aurora. In the thirty-
second and thirty-third hj'-mn of the eighth book of the

AHALYA.—EGGS AND THUNDER, 281

Bigvedas, the god Indras and the god Brahman change
places. Indras is at first beautiful (jiprin) ; he after-
wards becomes a woman (strl hi brahm4 babhiivitha).
In the Rdmdyanam,^ G4utamas condemns Indras to
become powerless, and Ahalya to remain hidden in the
forest, lying in the ashes (bhasmajiyinl), until Eamas
comes to deliver her. The ashy sky, the stony sky, the
watery sky, are identical ; Ahaly4 (the evening aurora)
in the ashes is the germ of the story of Cinderella, and
of the daughter of the King of Dacia, persecuted by her
lover, her father himself.

A popular Italian belief, which has been mentioned by
Pliny and Columella, says that when it thunders while
the hen is sitting on her eggs, they are spoiled. To
remedy this evil, Pliny advises to put under the fodder
of the eggs an iron nail, or else some earth taken ujd
by a ploughshare. Columella says that many put little
branches of laurel and roots of garlic, with iron nails.
These are all symbols of the sulphureous thunderbolts
(because of their strong smell), and of the thunderbolt con-
ceived of as an iron weapon ; the remedy recommended
is according to the principle of similia similihus, for the
same reason as the devil is prayed to in order to keep
him away. In Sicily, when a hen is setting on her eggs,
they put at the bottom of the nest a nail, which has the
property of attracting and absorbing every kind of noise
that may be noxious to the chickens. Now it seems in-
teresting to me to find an analogous belief in Vedic anti-
quity, A strophe, where the word andd may be rendered
eggs as well as testicles, which therefore leads us to
think of oviparous birds and chickens no less than men,
invokes Indras, the thunder-god, as follows : — "Do not

1 i. 49.

282 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

harm its, Indras ; do not destroy us ; do not take from us
our beloved enjoyments ; do not break, great one,
strong one, our eggs (or testicles) ; do not ruin the fruits
of our bowels."^ Indras can not only become a eunuch
himself, but he can make others become eunuchs;
thunder makes us astonished, and as we also say, by an
analogous expression, in Italy, makes us of stucco or turn
to stone.

The cock and the oviparous hen, as birds which are
as egg-yielding symbols of abundance, and which per-
sonify the sun, were and are sacred in India and in
Persia,^ where it is considered a sacrilege to kiU them.
Cicero, in his Oratio pro Murena, writes that among
the ancients he who ultroneously killed a cock did not
sin less than he who suffocated his own father. In Du
Cange we read that Geoffrey I., Duke of Brittany, whilst
he was on a journey to Eome, was slain with a stone by
a woman, one of whose hens had been killed by the
Duke's sparrowhawk. The same superstition about hens
is still observed in Italy by a great number of house-
wives.

In the Avesta the crow of the cock accompanies the flight
of the demons, wakens the aurora, and arouses mankind.^

1 Ma no vadhtr incira mi pari di ma nah. priyi bho^anini pra
moshih anda mi no maghavan <^hakra nir bhen mi nah pitri bbet
saha^anusbani ; J^igv, i. 104, 8.

2 Der Vogel der den Namen Parodars fiibrt, o heiliger Zarathustra,
den die ubelredenden Menschen mit den Namen Kahrkatag belegen,
dieser Yogel erliebt seine Stimme bei jeder gottlichen Morgenrofche :
Stehet auf, ihr Menschenj preiset die beste Eeinheit, vertreibet die
Daeva; Vendidad, xviii. 34-38, Spiegel's version. — The cock Parodars
chases away with his cry especially the demon Bushyangta, who
oppresses men with sleep, and he returns again in a fragment of the
Khorda-Avesta (xxxiz.): "Da, vor dem Kommen der Morgenrothe,
spricht dieser Vogel Parodars, der Vogel der mit Messeru verwundet,

PARODARS.'-THE CROW OF THE COCK. 283

Even the Christian poet Prudentius, who still sees a solar
symbol in the Christits, compares him to the cock, also
called cristiger, cristatus, cristeus^ prays to Christ to
chase away sleep, to break the fetters of night, to undo
the old sin, and to bring the new light, after having said

of the cock —

" Ferunt vagantes dsemones,
Lset03 tenebris noctium
Gallo canente exterritos
Sparsim timere et cedere,
.... omnes credimus
lUo quietis tempore
Quo gallus exsultans canit
Christum redisse ex inferis."

We have seen in the preceding chapter, the crested
lark in connection with St Christopher. In Germany,
on the 25th of July, sacred to St James ^ (the saint who

Worte gegen das Feuera aus. Bei seinem Sprechen lauft Bushyangta
mit langen Handen herzu von der nordlichen Gegend, von den nord-
lichen Gegenden, also sprechen, also sagend : " ScMafet o Menschen,
schlafet, siindlich Lebende, schlafet, die ihr ein siindiges Leben fiihrt."
As in tlie song of Prudentius, the idea of sleep and that of sin are
associated together ; the song of Prudentius suggests the idea that it
was -vv-ritten by some one who was initiated in the solar mysteries of
the worship of Mithras.

1 Cfr. Du Cange, s. v. — And the same Du Cange, in the article
gallina, quotes an old mediaeval glossary in which gallina is said to
mean Christ, wisdom, and soul. — The cock of the Gospel announces,
reveals, betrays Christ three times, in the three watches of the night,
to which sometimes correspond the three sons of the legends.

2 According to a legend of St James, an old father and mother go
with their young son on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella in
Spain. On the way, in an inn at San Domingo de la Calzada, the
innkeeper's daughter offers her favours to the young man, who rejects
them ; the girl avenges herself upon him by putting a silver plate in
his sack, for which he is arrested and impaled as a thief. The old
parents continue their journey to Santiago ; St James has pity upon
them, and works a miracle which is only known to be his afterwards.

284 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

empties the bottle, as they say in Piedmont), to St
Christopher, and the ancient god of thunder, Donar, cocks
were made to dance, and then sacrificed. Donar carries
Oerwandil on his shoulders across rivers, as the giant
Christopher carries Christ.

There is a superstition which is widely diffused in
Italy, Germany, and Eussia, according to which a hen
that begins to crow like a cock is of the worst omen; and
it is the universal persuasion that it ought to be killed
immediately, in order not to die before it. As the same
belief exists in Persia, the discussion of Sadder with
regard to it is interesting, to prove that the hen which
crows like a cock must not be killed, because, if it become
a cock, that means that it will be able to kill the demon,
(therefore at Persian tombs they were accustomed to set
a cock free). Having regard to the superstitious Eastern
and European beliefs, the worthy Professor Spiegel
will now find, I hope, the following passage, which ap-
peared rather obscure to him, a little clearer : — " Qui
religione sinceri sunt ludificationes expertes, quando per-
cipiunt ex gallina vociferationem galli non debentillam

The old couple return to their country, passing by San Domingo;
here they find their son alive, whom they had seen impaled, for
which tbey there and then oflfer solemn thanks to St James. All are
astonished. The prefect of the place is at dinner when the news is
brought to him ; he refuses to believe it, and says that the young man
is no more alive than the roasted fowl whicli is being set upon the
table \ no sooner has he uttered the words, than the cock begins to
crow, resumes its feathers, jumps out of the plate and flies away. The
innkeeper s daughter is condemned ; and in honour of the miracle, the
cock is revered as a sacred animal, and at San Domingo the houses
are ornamented with cock's feathers. A similar wonder is said, by
Sigonio, to have taken place in the eleventh century in the Bolognese \
but instead of St James, Christ and St Peter appear to perform
miracles. — Cfr. also the relationship of St Elias (and of the Russian
hero Ilya) feasted on the 21st of July, when the sun enters the sign
of the lion, with Helios, the hellenic sun.

THE COCK AND THE STONY SKY. 285

gallinam interficere ominis causa, quia earn interficiendi
jus nullum habent. . . . Nam in Persia si gallina fit
gallus, ipsa infaustuni diabolum franget. Si autem alium
gallum adhibueris in auxilium, ut cum gallina consortium
habeatj non erit incommodum ut tunc ille diabolus sit
interfectus." According to a Sicilian proverb, the hen
that crows like a cock must neither be sold nor given
away, but eaten by its mistress/

In the forty-fifth story of the fifth book of Afanassieff,
the cocks crow, and the devil's smoke disappears. In the
fortieth story of the same book, the cock crows, and the
devil disappears from the kingdom in which he made
every man and every thing turn to stone. The son of a
peasant, staying to pray all through the night with
lighted candles, alone escapes from the devil's evil works ;
after three nights of similar penitence, all the men who
were turned to stone come to life again, and the young
and pious peasant espouses the king's beautiful daughter.

In the thirtieth story of the fifth book of Afanassieff,
when the cock begins to crow, the old man becomes of a
sudden at once rigid and silent. Here, perhaps, there is
an allusion to the old sun of evening, and to the cock's
crowing in the evening. The cock of night, therefore,
assumes sometimes a diabolical form. In the twenty-
second story of the fifth book of Afanassieff, the devil
becomes a cock in order to eat the corn into which the
young man who was first turned into a gold ring, has
been at length transformed. But this cock of night,
being demoniacal, although his crest (the sun) is always
red, is of a black colour. The cock is red in the morning
and in the evening ; in the night it is black, with its red

■ ^ La gallina cantatura
Nun si vinni, nfe si duna,
Si la mancia la patruna.

286 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

crest turned now to the east, now to tlie west ; it is upon
the little feet of a hen/ that the little movable enchanted
Eussian hut stands, which the young heroes and young
heroines on a journey meet with in the forest, and cause
to turn in the direction they came from.

In the ninth story of the second book of the Penta-
merone, a queen gives orders to kill the cocks in the
town, so that the crowing may cease, because as long as
the cocks crow, she will, by a witch's enchantment, be
unable to recognise and embrace her son. The witch
herself evidently assumes here the form of the diabolical
cock that crows in the night. ^

^ Cfr. Afanassieffj i. 3, ii. 30 ; sometimes^ instead of the hen's feet
■\ve have the dog's paws ; cfr. v. 28.

2 Concerning this subject I can add an unpublished story which
Signor S. M. Greco sends me from Cosenza in Calabria : — A poor
girl is alone in the fields ; she plucks a rampion, sees a stair, goes
down, and comes to the palace of the fairies, who at sight of her are
smitten with love. She asks to be allowed to go back to her mother,
and obtains permission ; she tells her mother that she hears a noise '
every night, without seeing anything, and is advised to light a candle
and she will see. Next evening the girl does so, and sees a youth of
great beauty with a looking-glass on his breast. The third evening
she does the same, but a drop of was falls upon the looking-glass and
wakens the youth, who cries out lamentably, *' Thou shalt go hence/'
The girl wishes to go away ; the fairies give her a fall clew of thread,
with the advice that she must go to the top of the highest mountain
and leave the clew to itself ; where it goes, thither must she follow.
She obeys, and arrives at a town which is in mourning on account of
the absence of the prince ; the queen sees the girl from the window
and makes her come in. After some time she gives birth to a hand-
some son, and a shoemaker, who works by night, begins to sing —

" Sleep, sleep, my son ;
If your mother knew some day
That you are my son,

In a golden cradle she would put you to sleep.
And in golden swaddling-clothes.
Sleep, sleep, my son."

LAPILLUS ALECTORIUS.—COCK AND PEARL. 287

In the first story of the fourth book of the Paita-
merone, the old Minec' Aniello feeds a cock well, but
being afterwards in want of money, sells it to two
magicians, who, when walking back, say to each other
that the cock is precious for the stone that it contains,
which, enclosed in a ring, will enable one to obtain all
that he wishes (the lapillus alectorius, which is said to be
as large as a bean, to be like crystal, to be good for preg-
nant women, and for inspiring courage ; it is alleged that
the hero Milon owed all his strength to it). Minec'
Aniello hears this, steals the cock, kills it, takes the stone,
and by its means becomes young again, in a beautiful
palace of gold and silver. When the magicians defraud
him of this stone, enclosed in a ring, the young man
becomes old again, and goes to seek his lost ring in the
kingdom of the deep hole (de Pertuso cupo) inhabited by
the rat ; the rats gnaw the finger of the magician who
has the ring ; Minec' Aniello recovers his ring, and
changes the two magicians into asses ; he rides upon
one ass, and then throws it down the mountains ; the
other ass is loaded with lard, and sent in gratitude to the
rats. Here the cock appears as a nocturnal animal ; the
stone which, when enclosed in a ring, performs miracles,
is the sun which comes out when invoked by the cock of
night. According to the Sicilian belief, when one dreams

The queen then learns from the girl, that he who sings thus is the
prince, who is destined to stay far from the palace until the sun rises
without him perceiving it. Orders are then given to kill all the fowls
in the town, and to cover all the windows with a black veil scattered
over with diamonds, in order that the prince may believe it is still
night and may not perceive the rising of the sun. The prince is
deceived, and marries the maiden who is the fairies' favourite, and
they lived happy and contented,

Whilst I, if you will believe me.
Found myself with a thorn in my foot.

111

ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

of brood-heiis with chickens in. uninhabited and deserted
houses, it is a si^n that there are treasures hidden in these
houses, and one must go to dig them up.

In the first of the Esthonian stories, the cock that
crows is a spy over the old woman. ^ In the third
Esthonian story, a woman gives her husband three eggs
of a black hen to eat in order to obtain three dwarf
heroes. In the twenty -second Esthonian story, the
shepherds that watch over the son of the persecuted
king, seeing the knowingness of the boy, recognise the
truth of the proverb that "the egg is more cunning than
the hen." In the ninth Esthonian story, a young man,
after having made a compact with the devil, cheats him,
giving him the blood of a cock instead of his own. In
the fourth Esthonian story, when three strokes are given
with a golden rod upon a rock, a large golden cock
comes out and perches upon the top of it ; it beats its
wings and crows ; at each crowing a marvel comes out of
the stone, a tablecloth that spreads itself and a porringer
that fills itself. In the twenty-fourth Esthonian story,
an old fairy gives to the queen a little basket with a
bird's egg inside ; the queen must hatch it for three
months, like a pearl, in her bosom ; first a little living
doll will be born, which, when warmed in a basket
covered with wool, wiU become a real girl ; at the same
time that the doll becomes a real girl, the queen will
give birth to a beautiful male child. Linda, the wife
of Kalew, in Finnish mythology, is also born of the egg
of a woodcock or a heathcock.

In Hungry (where a dyed tin cock is placed upon the
top of high buildings to indicate the direction of the

1 Die schlaue Alte brachte bald heraus, was der Dorfhahn hinter
ihrem Eucken der juiigsten Tochter ins Ohr gekraht hatte ; Kreutz-
Tvald u. Lowe, Elistnische Marchen,

THE WEATHERCOCK. 289

wind — this is the Bnglisli and Italian weathercock ; we
have all heard of the cock of the tower of St Mark
at Venice which makes the hours strike), it is believed
that, to appease the devil, one must sacrifice a black
cock to him. The red cock, on the contrary, signifies
fire.^

In the Monferrato it is believed that a black hen
split open alive in the middle, and placed where one
feels the pain of the mal di punta, will take away
the disease and the pain, on condition that when this
strange plaster is taken ofi", the feathers be burned in the
house.

The cock or fowl which, in the festive customs of
Essex and of Norfolk (of which traces are preserved in
the striking of the porringer, by a man bhndfolded at
the feast of Mid- Lent in several parts of France and in
Piedmont), a man blind-folded wins, if he succeeds in
striking it upon the shoulders of another man (or else
sometimes shut up in a porringer at the height of twelve
or fourteen feet from the ground, at which projectiles

^ In the annals of the city of Debreczen, in the year 1564, we read
as follows : "Sterna et exitialis memoria de incendio trium ordinum
in anno prsesenti: feria secunda proxima ante fest. nat. Marise gloriosse
exorta est flamma et incendiuna periculosum in platea Eargondia;
eadem similiter ebdomade exortum est incendiuni altera vice, de platea
Csapo de domo inquilinari Stephani literati, multas domos ... in
cinerem redegit, et quod majus inter csetera est, nobilissimi quoque
tenipli divi Andreae et turris tecturse combustse sunt, ex qua turri et
ejus pinnaculo, gallus etiam sereus, a multis annis insomniter dies ac
noctes jejuno stomacho stans et in omnes partes advigilans, flammam
ignis sufferre non valens, invitus devolare, descendere et illam suam
solitam stationem deserere coactus est, qui gallus tantee cladis com-
miserescens ac nimio dolore obmutescens de pinnaculo desiliendio, collo
confracto in terram coincidens et suae vitse proprise quoque non parcens,
fidele suum servitium invitus derelinquendo, misere expiravit et vitam
suam finivit sic."

VOL. u. T

290 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

are thrown ^) is a personification of the funereal cock out
of which, when struck, the daily fire is made to come.
The sacrifice of a cock was a custom in India, Greece,
and Germany.

In the same way as the ancients used to make quails
fight against each other, so they made cocks ; hence the
cock was called son of Mars (Are6s neottos). We already
know that the cock's crest terrifies the maned lion ; the
crest and the mane are equivalent ; and we have also
seen what heroic Adrtue was attributed to the lapilliis
alectorius. Plutarch writes that the Lacedsemonians
sacrificed the cock to Mars to obtain victory in the
battles which they fought in the open air. Pallas wore
the cock upon her helmet, Idomeneus upon his shield.
Plutarch says, moreover, that the inhabitants of Cariaused
to carry a cock on the end of their lances, and refers the
origin of this custom to Artaxerxes ; but it appears to be
much more ancient, for the Carians wore crested helmets
as far back as the time of Herodotus, for which reason
the Persians gave the Carians the name of cocks. Cock-
fights, which became so popular in England, are also
common in India. Philon, the Hebrew, relates of
Miltiades, that before the battle of Marathon he in-
flamed the ardour of his soldiers by exhibiting cock-
fights ; the same, according -^lianos, was done by
Themistocles. John Goropius (who gives the extrava-
gant etymologies of danen and alanen from de hahnen
and cdl hahneji) relates that the Danes were accustomed
to carry two cocks to war, one to teU the hours and the
other to excite the soldiers to battle. Du Cange informs

^ Keinsberg von Duringsfeld observes {Das festliche Jahr), that
sometimes, for jest, in North Walsham, instead of the cock an owl is
put,— another funereal symbol with which we are already acquainted.

THE PEARL IN THE DUNGHILL—THE EGG, 291

us that duels between cocks were also the custom in
France in the seventeenth century, and gives some
fragments of mediseval writings in which these are pro-
hibited as a superstitious custom and one which was
objectionable.

It is well known that the ancient Eomans, before
engaging in battle, took auguries from cocks and fowls,
although this custom sometimes gave occasion to derision.
Of Publius Claudius, for instance, it is said that, being
about to engage in a naval battle in the first Punic war,
he consulted the auguries in order not to ofi'end against
the customs of his country ; but that when the augurs
announced that the fowls would not eat, he ordered
them to be taken and thrown into the sea, saying, "If
they will not eat, then let them drink."

Part of the worship which was offered to the cock and
to the hen was also rendered to the egg : the Latin
proverb, "Gallus in sterquilinio suo plurimum potest,"
shows the great value of the egg. The pearl which the
fowl searches fof in the dunghill is nought else but its
own egg ; and the egg of the hen in the sky is the sun
itself. During the night the celestial hen is black, but
it becomes white in the morning ; and being white, on
account of the snow, it is the hen of winter. The white
hen is propitious on account of the golden chickens
hatched by it. In the Monferrato it is believed that
the eggs of a white hen laid on Ascension Day, in a
new nest, are a good remedy for pains in the stomach,
head, and ears, and that, when taken into a cornfield,
they prevent the blight, or black evil,, from entering
amongst the crops, or when taken into a vineyard, they
save it from hail. The eggs which are eaten at Easter and
concerning which, accompanied sometimes by songs and
proverbs, so many popular customs, mythologically in

292 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

accordance, are current in the various countries of
Europe, celebrate the resurrection of the celestial egg,
a symbol of abundance/ the sun- of spring. The hen of
the fable and the fairy tales, which lays golden eggs, is
the mythical hen (the earth or the sky) "which gives
birth every day to the sun. The golden ^gg is the
beginning of life in Orphic and Hindoo cosmogony ; by
the golden egg the world begins to move, and movement
is the principle of good. The golden egg brings forth
the luminous, laborious, and beneficent day. Hence it
is an excellent augury to begin with the egg, which
represents the principle of good, whence the equivocal
Latin proverb, "Ab ovo ad malum," which signified
"from good to evil," but which properly meant, "from
the egg to the apple," the Latins being accustomed to
begin their dinners with hard-boiled eggs and to end
them with apples (a custom which is still preserved
among numerous Italian families).^

But to begin ab ovo also means to begin at the
beginning. Horace says that he does not begin from the
twin eggs the description of the Trojan war —

"Nee gemino bellum Trojanum orditur ah ovo^^

^ Not only the egg of the hen is a symbol of abundance, but even
the bones of fowls served in popular tradition to represent matrimonial
faith and coition. In Russia, when two (probably husband and wife)
eat a fowl together, they divide the bone of the neck, the English
merrythought, between them ; then each of them takes and keeps
a part, promising to remember this rupture. When either of the two
subsequently presents something to the other, the one who receives
must immediately say, " I remember ; " if not, the giver says to him,
" Take and remember.'' The forgetful one loses the game. A similar
game, called the verde or green, is played in Tuscany during Lent
between lovers with a little twig of the box-tree.

^ The sun is an ^gg at the beginning of day ; he becomes, or finds,
an apple-tree in the evening, in the western garden of the Hesperides.

AB OVO, 293

alluding to the egg of Leda, to whicli the Gxeek proverb,
"Come out of the egg" (ex 6ou exelthen), also alludes^
said of a very handsome man, and referring to fair Helen
and her two luminous brothers the Dioskuroi. But here
the white cock has became a white swan, of which we
shall speak in the following chapter.

CHAPTER X.

THE DOVE, THE DUCK, THE GOOSE, AND THE SWAN.
SUMMAEY.

White, red, and dark-coloured doves, ducks, geese, and swans. — The
funereal dove ; it is united with the owl ; kapotas. — The doves
flee from unhappy persons. — The dove and the hawk. — Two doves
sacrifice themselves, one for the other ; a form of the Agviniu. —
The dove and the ant. — Transformation of the hero and heroine
into doves. — The two prophetic doves upon the cross-trees of the
mast. — Among funereal games, that of shooting arrows at a dove
which hangs from the mast of a ship. — The doves of Dod'ona. —
The dove and the water. — St Radegonda as a dove preserves
sailors from shipwreck. — A dove guides the Argonauts. — The
soul of Semiramis becomes a dove. — It is sacrilege to eat a dove. —
Hero and heroine become doves, in order to escape. — The dove
as the bringer of joy, of light, of good ; it is a symbol of the
winter that ends, and of the spring which is beginning. — The
daughters of Anius become white doves, — Two doves separate the
barley for the girl. — The fireworks, the stove, and the car of
Indras, perform the same miracles, i.e., they make beautiful the
girl with the ugly skin. — Zezolla benefited by the dove of the
fairies. — The doves on the rosebush. — The nymph Peristera helps
Aphrodite to pluck flowers, — The phallical dove. — The word
hansas ; the gug-lebedi of Russian tales. — Agnis as a hansas. — The
Marutas as hansas. — The horses of the two Agvinau as hansas. —
The duck makes its nest upon the thief's head. — Bribus on the
thieves' head ; Bribus as Indras, and as a bird. — Brahman upon the
hansas. — The sun as a golden duck. — The betrothed wife as a
duck. — The arrows of Ramas as hansas. — Kabandhas drawn by
hansHs. — The hansas as love messengers. — The geese-swans and
the young hero in Russian tales. — The serpent-witch and the

THE DOVE. 295

princess as a white duck. — The golden and silver eggs of the
duck. — The golden %gg of the duck causes the death of the horse.
— The geese of the Capitol. — The goose which, after having been
cooked, rises again alive. — Geese as discoverers of deceits. — The
Valkiries as swans. — Berta the Heine p^dauque. — The wild goose
on the bush, — The goose eaten on St Michael's Day. — The hero
and the swan. — The kingdom of the San Graal. — The legend of
Lohengrin ; a variety of the myth of the Agviniu ; Lohengrin
and Elsa's brother, the sun and the moon. — The legend of the
Dioskuroi ; Zeus as a swan ; the Dioskuroi deliver Helen, as
Lohengrin delivers Elsa.

Inasmuch as there is the white dove and the dove-
coloured one/ the white duck and goose, the duck and
the dark-coloured or fire-coloured goose, the white swan
and the flamingo, the red swan and the black, these
birds, dove, goose, duck, and swan, from the diversity of
colour which they assume upon the earth, also assumed
mythical aspects which are sometimes contradictory
when translated to the sky to represent celestial pheno-
mena. While the white ones served for the more poetical
images of mythology, the red and the dark ones offered
aspects now benignant, now malignant, alluring the
hero now to his ruin, and now, instead, to good fortune.
The red hues, for example, of the western sky appear as
flames into which the witch wishes to precipitate the
young hero ; the roseate tints of the eastern heavens, on
the contrary, are generally the pyre or furnace in which
the hero burns the ill-favoured witch who endeavours to
ruin him ; from the dawn of morning, from the white
sky, from the snow of winter, from the white earth or
white swan, the golden egg (the sun) comes forth ; now
the beautiful maiden, now the young hero emerges from

1 The Indian word hapotas^ which means a dove, also indicates the
grey colour of antimony, the colour of the commonest species of doves,
and of those which are fed on St Mark's Place at Venice.

296 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

it — the aurora and the sun, or else the spring and the
sun. The evening sun and aurora in the night, the sun
and the verdant earth, which divests itself of its vari-
coloured attire in autumn, veil, cover, and lose them-
selves ; their most vivid hues become obscure in the
gloom of night, or are covered by the snow of winter ;
the hero becomes a dark-coloured dove, or a gloomy swan
which crosses the waters. I have noted more than
once how the night of the year corresponds to those
of the day; the sun which hides itself in the night
of evening, and the sun which veils itself in the night
of winter, are often represented by the same mythical
images.

Let us now see under what mythical aspects the dove,
the duck, and the swan appear in the East, in order to
compare them with Western traditions.

The jRigvedas presents us with the funereal dove,
the grey or dark-coloured dove, the messenger of the
nocturnal or wintry darkness. Seeing it is joined in the
Vedic hymn with the owl, it was supposed that it repre-
sented some other bird than the dove, and interpreters
were fain to recognise in the Vedic kapotas the turdus
macrourus rather than the dove ; but this interpretation
seems to me inadmissible, since the Vedic kapotas ap-
pears as a domestic bird, and one which approaches the
dwellings of men, habits which thrushes have not, and
which doves have. In the 165th hymn of the tenth book
of the Migvedas, the kapotas is exorcised as a messenger
of the funereal Nirritis, of death, and of Yamas the god
of the dead, in order that it may do no evil : " Be pro-
pitious to us," cries the poet, "be propitious to us, rapid
(or messenger) kapotas; inoffensive may the bird be unto us,
gods, in the houses. AVhen the owl emits that painful
cry, Avhen the kapotas touches the fire, honour be to

THE TWO DOVES, 297

Mrityus, to Yamas, whose messenger it is."^ As birds of
evil omen also must the doves be recognised, which flee
from, the unhappy in the Pancatantram^ In the dove
pursued by the hawk (the hawk has also in Sanskrit the
name of kapotiris, or enemy of doves) of the Buddhist
legend concerning the king who sacrifices himself to keep
his word, which has been recorded in the chapter on the
hawk, the hawk is the form taken by Indras, and the
dove the form of Agnis, the fire. The same legend is
found again in the Tuti-Name, with this variation that
the vultm^e takes the place of the falcon, and Moses that
of the Buddhist king. In order to fulfil the duties of
hospitality, he cuts ofi' as much of his own flesh as the
dove weighs, to give it to the vulture, who takes in jest
the same part of the hero which the hatred of races and
religious fanaticism make the Jew of Venice, immor-
talised by the genius of Shakspeare, demand with serious-
ness. In other Hindoo varieties of the same legend of
the hero who sacrifices himself, we find two doves (in
the Pancatantram) which sacrifice themselves one for
the other ; two doves that love one another (in the Tuti-
Name,^ they are two turtle-doves). Here we have a
form of the two Agvin4u, of the two brothers of whom
one sacrifices himself for the other ; the weU-known fable
of La Fontaine, Les Deux Pigeons, is a reminiscence of
this Eastern legend. In the same way, a variety of the
legend of the two brothers is contained in the fable of
-^sop, and of La Fontaine, of the dove that throws a
blade of grass into the water to the ant that is about to
drown, and thus saves it, for which reason the grateful

1 Qivah kapota ishito no astu anagfi dev^h gakuno griheshu ; str. 2.
— For the fourth stroj^he, cfr. the chapter which treats of the Owl.

2 ii. 9.

3 ii 239. — Cfr. the chapter on the Eagle.

298 ZOOLOGICAL MY2H0L0GY.

ant soon after bites tlie foot of the hunter who has
caught the dove, so that he is compelled to let it go. In
the chapter which treats of the swallow, we saw the
beantifu] maiden upon the tree at the fountain changed
into a swallow by the witch's enchantment ; numerous
other legends, instead of the transformation into a
swallow, give us that into a dove/ The stories of the
maiden Filadoro and of the Island of the Ogres, in the
Pentameronef a Piedmontese story communicated by
me in 1866 to my friend Professor Alexander Wesselofski,
who published it in his essay upon the poet Pucci ; the
thirteenth Sicilian story of Signora Gonzenbach (of which
the twelfth story is a variation) ; the forty-ninth story of
the sixth book of Afanassieff (a variety of which occurs
at the end of the fifth of the stories of Santo Stefano di
Calcinaia), and a great number of analogous European
stories, reproduce this subject of the maiden transformed
into a dove by the witch's enchantment : as the swallow
is white and black, so does the dove into which the
beautiful maiden is transformed appear now white and
now black. No less numerous are the stories in which,
instead of the young princess, we read of young princes
transformed into doves ; I publish here two unpublished
Tuscan stories which refer to this subject, and which
(particularly the second) are of great interest.^

^ It appears to me that the same confusion arose between coluber
and coliimha as between cheliidros, a kind of serpent, and clielidtn^ a
swallow. The beautiful maiden upon a tree occurs even in the Tuti-
Name, i. 178, seq. 2 ij^ 7^ ^nd v. 9

2 They were related to me at Antignano near Leghorn by the
peasant woman Uliva Selvi : —

A gentleman had twelve sons and one daughter, who had, by
enchantment, been metamorphosed into an eagle, and was kept in a
cage. The father takes the twelve sons to mass every day; every
day he meets an old beggar-woman and gives alms to her; one day,

THE TRANSFORMATION INTO A DOVE. 299

Hitherto the dove has appeared as a mournful and
diabolical form assumed by the hero or heroine, on com-

liowever, lie has no money with him, and therefore gives her nothing;
the old woman curses him, wishing that he may never see his sons
again. No sooner said than done ; the twelve sons become twelve
doves and fly away. The despairing father and mother begin to
weep ; in their despnir they forget to feed the eagle. Opposite the
gentleman's house the king lived, who becomes enamoured of the
eagle as though of a beautiful maiden ; he has her stolen and replaced
by another eagle. Not far thence there lived a washerwoman who
had such a beautiful daughter that she never let her go out except at
night. They wash at the fountain surrounded by poplar-trees ; at
midnight, as they wash, they hear a noise among the poplar-trees,
and the maiden is afraid. One night they listen and hear the doves
speaking and telling one another the incidents of the day, where
they had been and what they had been doing. They then fly into a
beautiful garden ; the girl follows them ; they enter into a beautiful
palace, and the washerwoman relates what she has seen to the gentle-
man, who rejoices, and promises a great reward to the washerwoman
if she will show him where his sons go to sleep. Both father and
mother go to see ; the pigeons speak, and say, " Were our mother to
see us . . . " ; they then fly away. The gentleman then consults an
astrologer, who advises him to allure the old witch into his house by
the promise of alms, to shut her up in a room, and to compel her by
main force to indicate the means of turning the pigeons into youths
once more, or else to kill her. The old woman gives a powder which,
when scattered on the highest mountain, will make the pigeons return
home. The father goes to the mountain, scatters the powder and
returns home, where he finds his sons, who are inquiring after the
eagle. They go to see it and do not recognise it ; they complain to
their mother of this. Meanwhile, the young king is always near his
eagle as if making love to it ; and his mother is displeased at it. The
twelve brothers meet a fairy who, for some alms, tells who has their
eagle, and that it will soon return home a beautiful maiden. And the
eagle becomes a beautiful girl and is married by the king.

There was once a king who had a handsome son, enamoured of a
beautiful princess. He is carried off" with two servants by the magicians
and transformed into a pigeon ; the servants undergo the same meta-
morphosis ; one becomes green, one red, and the other greyish violet
(pavonazzo). They take him into a beautiful palace where he must

300 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

pulsion of external magic. Of funereal character, too.
are tlie two doves which place themselves upon the cross-
trees of the ship in which Gennariello is carrying a hawk,
a horse, and a white and red bride with black hair to
his brother Milluccio (a variation of the legend of the
Ajvin^u, and of that of the youth who sacrifices himself

stay for seven years. Each has a large basin, — one is of gold, another
of silver, and the third of bronze. When they plunge into them,
they become three handsome youths. The princess, meanwhile, is
dying to know where her lover is gone ; she goes to have her hair
combed on a terrace ; the three pigeons carry away her looking-glass,
then the ribbon of her hair, and then her comb. A great festival
occurs in this town, to which the girls of the land go by night ; on
the way, one of them, near the break of day, turns aside for a few
minutes ; she sees a golden gate, finds a little gold key on the earth,
opens the door and enters into a fine garden. At the end of the path
there is beautiful palace, into which she goes ; she finds the three
basins of gold, silver, and bronze, and sees the pigeons become young
men. Meanwhile the king's daughter falls ill of grief, and is to
all appearance dying ; the king resolves to have her cured at any
cost. The girl who had been in the place relates to the king's
daughter all that she has seen ; the latter is cured and goes with the
girl to the palace ; they find it, enter, and see a table laid for three
persons ; the two girls hide themselves. The prince and the princess
meet with one another; but the prince, upon seeing her, is full of
despair, saying that her impatience has prolonged the enchantment
for seven years more, whilst it had at the time only three more days
to run. He becomes a pigeon again ; she must stay for seven years
upon a tower exposed to all the inclemency of the seasons. Seven
years pass by ; the princess has become so ugly that she looks like a
beast, with long hair all over her burned skin. The enchantment comes
to an end for him after seven years ; he goes to look for her ; she says,
" How much have I suffered for you!" The prince does not recognise
her, and leaves her; she is left naked in a dense forest, and goes to
seek her father. Night comes on, and the princess and her servant-
maid do not know where to take refuge ; they climb up a tree, whence
they perceive a light. They walk towards it and find a beautiful
little palace ; a beautiful lady, a fairy, shows herself, and asks, " Is
this you, Caroline ? " This was the princess's name. But the fairy
can give no news of the prince, and sends her on to another fairy, her

THE TWO DOVES. 301

for his brother). The two doves speak to each other ;
one says that Gennariello is taking to his brother Mil-
luccio a hawk which immediately after its arrival will
tear out his eyes, and that he who should warn Milluccio
of it, or not take the hawk to him, would turn to marble ;
then that Gennariello is taking to his brother Milluccio a

sister, with the same result ; she then goes to a third fairy, walking a
double distance each time. The three fairies were three queens who
had been betrayed by the same young prince. The third fairy gives
to the princess a magical rod ; she must go to the prince and do to
him what he did to her — spit in his face, to wit. She is brought in a
boat before the young king's palace, and there, following the fairy's
instructions, she raises, by means of the rod, a beautiful palace, a
palace more beautiful than that of the king, with a beautiful fountain.
The young king wishes to go and see it ; he sees a beautiful princess
and kisses his hani to her, but she shuts the window in his face. He
then invites her to dinner, but she refuses. He sends her a mag-
nificent diamond, which she gives to her majordomo, saying that she
has many more beautiful. He then sends her a splendid dress, which
can be taken in the palm of the hand; she tears it into pieces and gives
it to the cook to be used for kitchen purposes. The young king
becomes passionately enamoured of her, and sends to her his best
watch, which she gives also to her majordomo. He falls ill of a
dreadful fever and wishes to marry her ; he sends his mother. The
princess laughs at the prince and refuses to come, saying, " Why does
he not come himself?" His mother begs again that she will come.
" Let him come,'' she answers ; and at last she consents to come if
they will make from her palace to that of the king a covered way so
well and thickly made that not a ray of light can enter, and which
she may be able to pass through with her equipage. Half way, the
covering opens, and the sunbeams enter, upon which she disappears.
(Cfr. the Indian myth of Urvagi). The king being about to die, his
mother returns to the princess, who demands that they bring him to her
as if dead, in a bier. The king confesses that he has betrayed four
maidens, and that it is on account of the fourth that he is coming to
such a miserable end. The princess laughs at him and spits twice in his
face; the third time he rises again, they are reconciled and married. (The
spitting of the princess, which makes the dead prince rise again, is the

dew of the ambrosia, or of spring, which brings the sun to life again.)

Cfr. the stories ii. 5, iv. 8, of the Pentameronej and v. 22 of Afanassieff.

302 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

horse which, as soon as it is ridden, will break his neck,
and that he who should warn Milluccio of this, or not
take the horse to him, would turn to marble ; and finally,
it says that Gennariello is taking to his brother a wife on
whose account a dragon will devour the bride and bride-
groom during the first night of their union, and that he
who should warn Milluccio of this, or not take the bride
to him, would turn to marble. The cunning Gennariello
takes hawk, horse, and bride to Milluccio ; but before he
takes the hawk in his hand, Gennariello cuts ofi" its head ;
before he rides the horse, Gennariello cuts its legs ofi";
and before the dragon comes up to devour the bride and
bridegxoom, Gennariello shears off its head. Milluccio,
who has not seen the dragon, sees his brother with a knife
in his hand, and thinks that he has come to kill him ; he
has him bound and condemned to death. In order not
to escape this fate, Gennariello reveals everything and
turns to marble. Milluccio learns that by anointing the
marble with the blood of his two little sons, his brother
can be recalled to life ; he slaughters his children ; the
mother, in despair, goes to the window to kill herself by
throwing herself down, but she sees her father coming to-
wards her, and shouting, ''Drinto na nugola." He resus-
citates her children, saying that it was to avenge himself,
he had caused such bitter pain to all ; on Gennariello,
because he had carried ofi* his daughter ; on Milluccio,
who was the cause of her being carried ofi"; on his
daughter, because she had eloped from her home. The
two doves that perched upon the crosstrees of the mast
were therefore messengers of death to the hero and to the
heroine, as sometimes, on the other hand, they are their
own funereal form. The reader will doubtless remember
how, in the funeral of Patroclus in the Iliad, amongst
the funereal games, there is that of shooting arrows at a

THE FUNEREAL DOVE, 303

dove hung upon the mast of a ship. (He will also re-
member the two prophetic doves which gave responses
upon two oak-trees or beeches at Dodona, and which
cried, "Zeus was, Zeus is, Zeus will be, Zeus, the
greatest of the gods !") The dove here appears in con-
nection with funereal waters ; the fable is well known of
the dove that meets with its death by beating its head
against a wall upon which water is painted.^ In the
legend of Queen Eadegonda, the holy queen, in the form
of a dove, delivers sailors from shipwreck. According to
Apollonios, a dove was the guide of the Argonauts. It
is said that Semiramis was transformed into one after her
death. The dove also appears as a funereal symbol in
Christian monuments ; hence, and from its use as the
symbol of the St Esprit, the superstition cherished by a
great portion of the people in Italy, Germany, HoUand,
and Eussia, to the effect that it is a sin to eat a dove.
It is well-known what reverence was shown to it in
antiquity, particularly in Syria and in Palestine.

Sometimes the form of a dove is voluntarily assumed
by the two young lovers, to flee from the persecution of
the monster ; as, for instance, in the sixth of the Novelline
di Santo Stefano. Sometimes the funereal dove (hke
the funereal crow) is the bringer of joy and good things to
men and gods. The popular custom of the artificial dove,
commonly caUed the dove of the Pazzi (from the name

1 It is said of the widowed turtle-dove that it will never drink again
in any fountain of limped water for fear of reviving the image of its
lost companion by seeing its own in the water. The Christians pre-
tend that the voice of the turtle-dove represents the cry, the sighing,
and afterwards, for the resurrection of Christ, the joy of Mary Mag-
dalen, ^lianos says that the turtle-dove is sacred not only to the
goddess of love, and to the goddess of harvests, but also to the funereal
Parcse.

304 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

of the noble Florentine family which possessed the
privilege), "which, at Florence, on Holy Saturday, that is
to say, Easter Eve, starts from the altar of the Cathedral,
and flies at midday to light the fireworks upon the little
square between Santa Maria del Fiore and the Baptistery
of St John, to announce that Christ has risen to a crowd
of peasants, who have flocked in from the country to
augur from the dove's flight whether they will have a
good harvest in the following year, — is a symbol of the
end of winter, and of the commencement of spring. In
the Metamorphoses of Ovid, the daughters of Anius, by
the grace of Bacchus, change into corn, wine, and oil,
whatever they touch, according to the words of the same
Anius —

" Tactu natarum cuncta mearum

In segetem, laticemque meri, baccamque Minervag

Transformabantur,"

Agamemnon wishes to have them with him to provision
the army ; the daughters of Anius refuse ; Agamemnon
then purposes compelling them by main force ; but
Bacchus takes pity upon them, and transforms them into
white doves. In the thirtieth story of the sixth book of
Afanassieff, two doves (a form of the Acvinau) come to
separate the barley for Masha or Little Mary, the black
(cornushka) or ugly or dirty little girl, the persecuted
Cinderella, and then making her mount upon the stove,
transform her into an exceedingly beautiful maiden, re-
newing thus the miracle of Indras (and of the A§vin4u),
who restores to beauty the maiden of the ugly skin.
The fireworks of the popular Tuscan custom, the stove, and
the car of Indras perform the same miracle. In the sixth
story of the first book of the Pentamerone, the maiden
Zezolla, called at home " a cat, a cinder-girl," because she
was always watching the fire, ill-treated at home by her

PERISTERA, 305

step-mother, is benefited by the dove of the fairies of the
island of Sardinia, which sends her a plant that yields
golden dates, a golden spade, a little golden bucket, and
a silk tablecloth. The girl must cultivate the plant, and
simply remember, when she wishes for some favour, to
say—

" Dattolo mio 'naurato,
Co la zappatella d*oro t'haggio zappato,
Co lo secchietello d'oro t'haggio adacquato,
Co la tovaglia de seta t'haggio asciuttato j
Spoglia a te, e vieste a me."

The date-tree yields some of its riches to adorn the
maiden. Thus, when the young king proclaims a festival,
she goes disguised in regal attire, and dances with an
efi'ect that outdazzles like a sun. When she is followed
by the prince the first time, she throws gold behind her ;
the second time, pearls ; the third, her slipper ; and by
means of it she is recognised and espoused. In the
twenty-second Esthonian story, when the young prince-
lover arrives, two doves perch upon the rose-bush, in
which the beautiful daughter of the gardener is enclosed
by enchantment ; the beautiful maiden comes out of the
rose-bush, and, showing the half of her ring, weds the
prince who has preserved the other half In the Hellenic
myth. Aphrodite and Love play at seeing who will pluck
most fiowers ; winged Love is winning, but the nymph
Peristera helps Aphrodite ; Love indignant, changes her
into the peristera or dove, which Aphrodite, to console
her, takes under her protection. The doves now draw
the chariot of Venus, and now (like the sparrows) accom-
pany it. In the Odyssey the doves bring the ambrosia
to Zeus,^ and it is in the form of a dove that Zeus (well

^ In the legend of St Remy it is a dove that carries to the saint the
flagon of water with which he must baptize King Clodoveus.
VOL. II. U

3o6 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

known to be an olteT ego of Indras) visits the virgin
Phthia. Catullus, speaking of Csesar s salacitas, makes
mention of the columbidum albulum, or little dove of
Venus/ In this passage the dove becomes a phallical
symbol ; and we are reminded of the well-known my-
thical episode of the animal, bird, or fish which laughs,
by the equivocal Italian proverb, ''The dove that laughs
wants the bean " (said of a woman when she smiles
upon her lover ^). It is narrated of Aphrodite, that she
cured Aspasia of a tumour by the help of a dove ; here
the dove does to Aspasia the same service as the rudder
of Indras's chariot to Apali in the Vedic legend.

But in mythical tradition the place of the doves is
sometimes taken by ducks, which are exchanged for
swans.

The Hindoo word hansas means now swan, now duck
(anas, anser), now goose, now phsenicopterus. No

^ " Et ille nunc superbns et superfiuens
Peranibulabit omnium cubilia,
Ut albulus Columbus, aut Adoneus ?
Cinsgde Romule, Lsec videbis et feres?"

The chastity and the proverbial conjugal fidelity attributed to doves is
here denied. Catullus had evidently closely observed the habits of these
animals, vfhich are sometimes, on the contrary, of a shameless infidelity.
I have seen a white dove, who, in the presence of his wife, intent upon
hatching her eggs, violated the nuptial bed of a gray dove, at a
moment when the jealous husband was eating; the wife accepted the
caresses of the husband and of the lover in the same passive attitude.

^ We may also record here another Italian proverb, " To take two
doves with one bean/' In Italian anatomy a part of the phallos is
called a bean (fava). The birds, and especially the thrushes and the
doves, according to the popular belief, not only have the faculty of
making other birds, but even plants fruitful. The words of Pliny, Hist
Nat xvi. 44, have already been quoted by Prof. Kuhn : *' Omnino
autem satum nuUo mode nascitur, nee nisi per alvum avium redditum,
maxime palumbis ac turdis."

THE DUCK OR GOOSE-SWAN. 307

wonder then that the myths exchanged, one for another,
animals which were confounded together under one and
the same appellation. Russian stories call the birds goose-
swans (gujlebedi) which now carry off, and now save the
young hero.

In the Vedic hymns, the hansas (duck-swan or goose-
swan) is represented more than once.. Agnis, the fire,
when entreated to arouse himself in houses with the
aurora, is compared to a swan in the waters (or to the
light in the darkness, to white upon black, or the sun in
the azure sky^). The god Agnis is himself called hansas,
the companion (as a thunderbolt) of the movable (waves
or clouds), going in company with the celestial waters.^
The song of the companions of Brihaspatis, singing
hymns to the cows or aurorse of the morn, resembles the
song of the hahs4s.^ The Marutas, with the splendid
bodies (the w^inds that lighten, howl, and thunder) are
compared to hans4s with black backs^ (which reminds us
of the swallows with black backs and with white ones,
of black crows and white crows, black swans and white
ones). The horses of the two Ajvin^u are compared to
haris^s, ambrosial, innocent, with golden wings, which
waken with the aurora (being sunbeams), which swim in
the waters, joyful and merry. ^ In the Russian stories of
Afanassie.ff^ a duck comes to make its nest upon the
head of the thief who has fallen into the waters out of

^ Qvasity apsu lianso na sidan kratvi 6etishtlio vigam usharbhut ;
Rigv. i. 65, 9.

2 Bibliatsun^m sayu^am hansam ^hur apim divyanam sakhye
(Sarantam; x. 124, 9.

^ Hansair iva sakhibliir vivadadbhir agmanmayani nakana vyasyan
brihaspatir abhi kanikradad ga ; x. 67, 3.

* Sasvag cid dhi tanvak gumbkamini % kans^so nilaprishtki apaptan ;
vii. 59, 7.

^ Cfr. tke ckapter wkicb treats of tke Bee. ^ vi. 2.

3o8 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

the sky. The duck lays a golden egg (the sun) in its
nest at morn, and a silver egg (the moon) at even. In
the Rigvedas^ I read that upon the head of the thieves
(Fanayas), similar to the vast forest of the Ganges, at its
higher part, Bribuh went to place himself, , scattering
thousands of gifts. ^ I think I can recognise in Bribus a
bird and a personification of Indras, Bribus is, in
Q4nkh4yanas, represented as a takshan, which is ex-
plained as a constructor, an artificer, a carpenter ; hence
Bribus is supposed to be the carpenter of the Panayas.
But this seems improbable, besides being in contradiction
to the Vedic strophe. The proper primitive sense of the
word takshan is the cutter, he who breaks in pieces ; in
Bribus, therefore, I recognise not the carpenter of the
Panayas, but their destroyer. As we also find, in another
Vedic hymn,^ Bribus in connection with two other birds,
viz., the bharadva^as (the lark) and the stokas (the
cuckoo), I am induced to suppose that Bribus too is a
bird. Finally, as I find Bribus in connection with Indras,
I see in this bird that perches upon the head of the
Panayas, a form of the god Indras himself. The duck,
in Eussian stories, deposits its egg upon the robber's head ;
thus Indras takes their treasures ofi" the head of the
Panayas. We already know of the pearls which fall
from the head of the good fairy, combed by the virtuous
maiden ; we also know that the mythical waters are in
relation with the treasures. We must record here the
legend of the Rdmdyanam concerning the origin of the
Ganges, which, before pouring its waters upon the earth,
let them wander for a long time upon the hairy head of

^ Adhi bribuh panlnam varshishthe mljrdhann asthat uruh kaksho
na g^iigyah; Rigv. vi. 45, 31, — Bribum sahasradatamam sHrim sahas-
nis^tamam ; vi. 45, 33. — Cfr. also the 32d strophe.

^ Jyigv. vi. 46.

THE INDIAN HANSAS. 309

the god Qivas, wlio is a more elevated form of Kuveras,
the god of riches.^ We know also that the pearl and the
egg are the same in the myths.

The god Brahman is represented in Hindoo mjrthology
riding upon a white hansas.

In the Rdmdyanam, the sky is compared to a lake of
which the resplendent sun is the golden duck.^ E4mas
(a form of the sun Vishnus), whose speech has the
accent of the hansas drunk with love/ hurls with his
divine bow an arrow which penetrates through seven
palm-trees, the mountain, and the earth, out of which it
afterwards comes, and returns to E^mas in the form of a
hansas/ Kabandhas, who, when traversing the fire, is
released by his monstrous form, is drawn by hans4s
whilst ascending into heaven/ Finally, the hansas are
well known which served as love-messengers between the
prince N'alas and the Princess Damayanti in the cele-
brated episode of the Mahdbhdratam,

In the fourth story of the first book of Afanassieff,
little Johnny (Ivasco) is upon an oak-tree, which the
witch is gnawing, to possess herself of him ; three flights
of geese-swans pass one after the other ; Johnny begs for

^ The goose is found in connection with robbers in the twenty-third
story of the sixth book of Afanassieff, Two servants stole a precious
pearl from the king ; being about to be found out, they give the pearl,
by the advice of an old woman, to the grey goose in a piece of bread ;
the goose is then accused of having stolen the pearL It is killed, the
pearl is found, and the two robbers escape.

2 V. 55. — lii the forty-ninth story of the fifth book of Afanassieff,
a riddle occurs where the betrothed wife is represented as a duck. A
father sends his son to find the wife who is predestined for him, with
the following enigmatical order : " Go to Moscow ^ there there is a
lake ; in the lake there is a net ; if the duck has fallen into the net,
take the duck ; if not, withdraw the net." The son returns home with
the duck — that is to say, with his betrothed wife.

3 ii. 4G. 4 iv. 11. 5 y^i 75^

] 1

iD

310 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

their assistance; the first flight refuse; as also the
second ; those of the third take Johnny upon their wings
and carry him home.^ In the nineteenth story of the
sixth book, the geese-swans assume, on the contrary, a
malignant aspect, carrying the little brother on their wings
away from his negligent sister. The story says that
these animals have had for a long time the evil reputa-
tion of carrying little children off. The geese-swans
carry the boy into a fairy's house, where he plays with
golden apples. The sister follows upon his track; she
inquires at a stove, an apple-tree, and a brook of milk,
where the goose-swans have carried the boy to, but
learns nothing ; at last the malicious little iosz (the sea-
urchin) reveals to her the secret. The sister takes her
brother and carries him home, having been followed by
the geese-swans and having had to hide herself during
her flight by the brook, by the apple-tree and then by
the stove.

But if geese, ducks, and swans sometimes do evil, or
are sometimes diabolical forms assumed by the witch's
deceit, they generally produce good and conduct to good.
In a variation of the forty-sixth story of the sixth book
of Afanassieff, the geese predict the future to Ivan the
merchant's son, who, having been to school under the
devil, learns there, amongst other things, the language of
birds. In the sixtieth story of the sixth book of
Afanassieff, the swan, a beautiful maiden, helps the
unhappy Danilo, whom the prince has ordered to sew a
pelisse which must have golden lions for buttons and
birds from beyond the seas for button-holes ; the same
swan performs other miracles for the youth whom she
loves. In the forty-sixth story of the fourth book of

^ Cfr. Afanassiefi vi. 17, and a variety of the vi. 19.

THE DEATH OF THE DUCK. 311

Afanassieff, the old serpent-witch makes the princess
become a white duck during the prince's absence. The
duck lays three eggs, out of which she has three sons,
two handsome, and one ill-favoured, but cunning. The
witch kills, during their sleep, the two handsome sons
and turns them to ducks ; the third escapes by means of
his cunning; the white duck, anxious about her sons,
flies to the prince's palace and begins to sing —

'* Krizt, kria, my little sons !
Kria, kria, little pigeons !
The old witch has extinguished you ;
The old "witch, the malignant serpent,
The deceitful malignant serpent !
Your own father has carried you off,
Your own father, my husband !
She drowned us in the rapid stream,
She transformed us into little white ducks,
And she herself lives in regal pomp 1"

The prince has the duck caught by the wings, and
says, ''White birch-tree, put thyself behind; beautiful
maiden, before." At this magical formula, the tree rises
behind him and he finds his beautiful princess before
him. He then compels the witch to bring the little
children to life again.

The death of the duck sometimes makes the fortune
of the hero or the heroine, on account of the egg which
it produces (the sun in the morning and the moon in the
evening). In the fifty-third story of the fifth book of
Afanassieff, the young hero, by the advice of an un-
known young man, goes to seek under the roots of a
birch-tree a duck which lays one day (in the morning)
a golden egg, and next day (in the evening) a silver one ;
upon its breast, the following Avords are written in golden
letters: — "He who eats its head will become king; he
who cats the heart will spit gold." He carries it to his

312 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

mother when his father is absent and his mother has an
intrigue with another gentleman. The gentleman reads
the golden letters and advises the woman to have the
duck cooked ; but the two sons are before him ; and
whilst their mother is at mass, one eats the head and
the other the heart of the duck, and meet with the
adventures which are related in the chapter on the
Horse. ^ The golden egg of the duck causes the death of
the witch and the monster in numerous Slavonic stories.
In the thirty-third story of the fifth book oi Afanassieff,
a marvellous goose, of the same nature as those that in
the Capitol warned the Eomans of the ambuscade of the
Gauls, discovers the traitors. The wife of a rich mer-
chant asks her husband to procure for her the marvel of
marvels. Her husband buys, in the twenty -seventh
world and in the thirtieth kingdom (which is the king-
dom of the other night- world), from an old man,^ a goose
which, after having been cooked and eaten, all except the
bones, rises again alive. The goose performs the same
miracle in the merchant s house ; on the morrow, when
the husband is absent, his wife iiivites a lover of hers
into the house and wishes to cook the goose to welcome
him. She says to it, " Come here ; " the goose obeys ;
she commands it to get into the frying-pan, but it re-
fuses. The woman puts it in by force, but remains
fastened to the frying-pan ; ^ the lover tries to release

1 Cfr. an interesting variety of this story in the Griechische und
Alhanische Marchen of Hahn.

2 Thus, in a Norwegian story, the dirty cinder-girl carries silver ducks
away from the magicians. — In the eighth Esthonian story, the third
brother is sent to hell for the ducks and geese with golden feathers.

^ In a Scandinavian and Italian variety of this story, instead of the
goose we have the eagle and eaglets , the goose returns, in the first
story of the fifth book of the P'eniamerone, to do the same duty as in the
Bussian story, but with some more vulgar and less decent incidents.

THE GOOSE AS A SPY. 313

her, but sticks fast also ; the servants come to the rescue,
and stick one to the other and all to the frying-pan,
until the husband appears, hears his wife's confession,
thrashes the lover and releases the woman from the goose.
In the Pentamerone, too, geese appear as discoverers
of deceits. Marziella, when she combs her hair, scatters
pearls and flower-buds about her ; when she walks, lilies
and violets grow up under her feet ; ^ her brother
Ciommo is to conduct her to the king as his wife ; but
the old aunt changes the bride, putting her own ugly
daughter in the place of her beautiful niece. The indig-
nant king sends Ciommo to pasture the geese ; he neglects
them, but Marziella, who had been carried off by a siren,
comes from the bottom of the sea to feed them, " de pasta
riale," and to give them "rose-water" to drink. The
geese grow fat, and begin to sing near the king's
palace —

*' Fire, pire, pire ;
Assai bello h lo sole co la luna ;
Assai chii bella h chi coverna a nuie."

The king sends a servant after the geese, and thus dis-
covers everything; he wishes to marry the beautiful
maiden, but the siren keeps her tied with a golden
chain ; the king, with a noiseless file, files with his own
hands the chain which keeps the maiden's foot fast, and
thereafter marries her.^ It is a gooseherd who, in the

^ The image of the legs which, when they move, make flowers grow up,
is very ancient ; students of Hindoo literature will remember the push-
pinyau darato ^anghe of the Aitareya Br., in the story of ^unah^epas.

2 The ninth of the Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia is an
interesting variety of this ; the beautiful maiden who feeds the geese
is disguised in an old woman's skin ; the geese, who see her naked,
cry out : *' Coco, la bella padrona ch 'i' ho," until the prince, by means
of a noiseless file, makes the cook enter the room and carry the old

314 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

twentietli Esthonian story, releases the beautiful girl
from the monster husband, the killer of his wives (a form
of Barbebleu).

woman's skin away wliile she sleeps, and then weds her. — The follow-
ing unpublished story, communicated to me by Signor Greco from
Cosenza in Calabria, is a variation of that of the Pentamerone : —

Seven jprinces have a very beautiful sister. An emperor decides
upon marrying her, but upon the condition that if he does not find her
to his taste, he will decapitate her seven brothers. They set out alto-
gether, and the mother-in-law with her daughter follow them. On the
way, the sun is hot, and the elder brother cries out, *' Solabella, defend
me from the heat, for you must please the king." The step-mother
advises her to take off her necklaces and to put them on her half-sister.
The second brother next complains of the heat, and the step-mother,
advises her to take off her gold apparel and to put it on her half-sister.
By such means the step-mother at last succeeds in making her naked ;
they come to the sea, and the step-mother pushes her in ; she is taken
by a siren, who holds her by her foot with a golden chain. The princes
arrive with the ugly sister ; the king weds the ugly wife and cuts off
the heads of the seven brothers. When the maiden is wandering
about in the sea, she asks the king's ducks for news of her brothers ;
the ducks answer that they have been executed. She weeps; the tears
become pearls and the ducks feed upon them. This marvel comes to
the ears of the king, who follows the ducks and asks the girl why she
shuns the society of men; to which she answers : "Alas! how can I,
who am fastened by a golden chain 1" and then relates everything.
Having recognised his bride, the king gives her this advice : she must
ask how, after the siren's death, she would be able to free herself;
and then he departs. Next day, Solabella tells the king that the siren
will not die, because she lives in a little bird, enclosed in a silver cage
which is shut up in a marble case, and seven iron ones, of which
she has the keys, and that if the siren died, a horseman, a white horse,
and a long sword would be necessary to cut the chain. The king
brings her a certain water, which he advises her to give the siren to
drink ; she will then fall asleep, and the girl will be able to take the
keys and kill the little bird. When it is killed, the white horse
plunges into the sea, and the sword cuts the chain. Then the king
takes his beautiful bride to his palace, and the old step-mother is
burned in a shirt of pitch ; the seven brothers are rubbed with an
ointment which brings them to life again, each exclaiming, " Oh ! what
a beautiful dream I have had ! "

FOOT-OF-GOOSE. 315

In the Eussian story, the fairy maidens (in German
traditions, the Virgin Mary too) sometimes take, in order
to cross the waters, the form of geese-swans ; thus in the
Eddas, three Valkyries spin on the shores of the lake,
with their swan forms close behind them. " The
maidens," sings the poem of Volund, "flew from the
south across Morkved, in order that the young Allhvit
might be able to accomplish his destiny. The daughters
of the South sat down upon the shore to spin the precious
cloth. One of them, the most beautiful maiden of the
world, was clasped to the white bosom of Egil \ Svanhvit,
the second, wore swan's feathers ; the third embraced
the white neck of Volund." ^ To the Bertha of popular
German tradition, only the foot of the white goose or
of the swan of the Valkyries has remained ; hence her
name of Foot-of-goose and of Reine pedauque, in the
same way as the swan's foot alone has remained to the
goddess Freya.

When the form of a duck, a goose, or a swan is
destroyed, the young hero or the young heroine alone
remain. In a German tradition, quoted by Simrock in
his German Mythology, we find an enchanted hunter who
strikes a wild goose on the flight, and which falls into a
bush ; he comes up to take it, and instead of it (in the
same way as we saw above, the rosebush on which the
doves perch) a naked woman rises before him. The
custom of eating a goose in England on St Michael's
Day, is referred by tradition to the times of Queen
Elizabeth, who, on St Michael's Day, received the news
of the defeat of the Invincible Armada, when she had

1 The old ogress of the ninth story of the fifth book of the
Pentameronej who keeps three beautiful maidens shut up in three
citron-trees, and who feeds the asses which kick the swans upon the
banks of the river, is a variety of the same myth.

3i6 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

just eaten a goose. But inasmuch as, according to
Baron von Eeinsberg-Dtiringsfield, the custom of eating
a goose on St Michael's Day dates from the times of
Edward IV. , we must admit that Queen Elizabeth con-
formed to a popular custom which already existed in
England,-^ St Michael's goose announces the winter like
the halcyon. It is eaten as an augury of the termination
of the rainy and wintry season, inasmuch as when the
aquatic bird, the halcyon, the goose, the duck, or the
swan, finds no more water, when the sea of night, or the
snow of winter dries up, when the aquatic bird is
wounded, or is eaten, or dies, the golden egg is found,
the sun comes out, the aurora returns, the winter appears
again, the young hero and the beautiful maiden come
forth. When the hero or heroine becomes an aquatic
bird,^ when he becomes a swan, is drawn by a swan, or
rides upon it, it means that he is traversing the sea of
death, and that he is returning to the kingdom of the San
Graal. When he comes on the swan to meet the beautiful
maiden, no one must ask him whence he came. The
swan awaits him and will draw him once more under its
magic power, and into its gloomy kingdom, as soon as
this kingdom is remembered by the living. The imagi-
nation of the Celtic and Germanic nations has, in a cycle
of numerous and fascinating legends, invested with solemn

^ Instead of geese, swans ■were also solemnly eaten ; a popular
mediseval German song in Latin offers the lamentation of the roasted
swan; cfr. Uhland's Schriften^ iii. 71, 158. — In the Pancatantram,
we have the swan sacrificed by the owl. In order to allure the swan,
the funereal owl, who wishes to kill it, invites it into a grove of lotus-
flowers, only, however, to decoy it subsequently into a dark cavern,
where the swan is killed by some travelling merchants, who believe it
to be an owl.

^ In the Eddas, when the hero Sigurd expires, the geese bewail his
death.

LOHENGRIN. 317

mystery tMs myth, to which the inspired and classical
music of Eichard Wagner has, in Lohengrin, imparted a
new attractive magic. Lohengrin, the recent naius, the
hero born of himself, arrives in a boat drawn by a
swan, into which a sorceress has transformed Elsa's
young brother : he comes to deliver the Princess Elsa,
and is about to marry her, but he does not forget that as
long as he remains with her, so much the longer will the
torment of her brother endure, so much the longer will
he suffer in the shape of a swan ; woe to him if any one
asks who he is, whence he came, or what that swan is,
for he would then be obliged to remember that the swan
waits for him to deliver it; Lohengrin must either
renounce his love for Elsa, or betray his cavalier's faith
to the swan, of whose mysterious nature he is cognisant ;
he bids a funereal farewell to Elsa, reunites her with her
young brother, and mournfully disappears on the gloomy
waters, over whose moonlit depths he had come. This
is the legend of the two brothers, raised to its utmost
poetic and ideal power by Northern genius. The sun
and the moon appear in turns before the dawn and the
spring. They are separated, and one delivers the other
in the legends inspired by the good genie of man, as in
others inspired by his evil genie, one persecutes and
deceives the other. We have, even in the Vedic hymns,
the Ajvin^u, the divine twins, identified now with the
twilights, now with the sun and the moon, drawn by
swans ; Lohengrin is the sun ; Lisa's brother is the moon.
When the evening aurora, when the autumnal earth, loses
the sun, it finds the moon ; when the morning aurora or
the vernal earth loses the moon, the sun takes its place ;
the lovers change places. One swan causes the birth of
the other, carries the other, dies for the other, like one
dove for the other, and as the Dioskuroi lay down their

3i8 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

lives for each other. And, in truth, the legend of the
Dioskuroi is, in some points, in marvellous accordance
with the Northern legends of the rider of the swan.
Zeus becames a swan and unites himself with Leda, wife
of Tyndareos, and generates by her the sun and the moon,
Pollideukes and Helen ; according to Homer Helen alone
is Zeus s daughter, and Pollideukes and Kastor are sons
of Tyndareos ; according to Herodotos, Helen, on the
contrary, is the daughter of Tyndareos, and this is in
accordance with Euripides, who tells us that the Dioskuroi
are sons of Zeus. In the Heroides of Ovid, where the
primitive tradition has already been altered, Leda, after
having united herself to the swan Zeus, gives birth to
two eggs ; Helen comes out of one, Kastor and Polli-
deukes out of the other. Evidently tot capita tot sen-
tentice ; but these contradictions, far from excluding the
myth of the sun, the moon, and the aurora (or of the
spring) confirm it. It is always difficult to determine
the paternity of a child who is born in an irregular
manner, and the birth of Helen and her two brothers
was certainly eztraordinary. What is important here is
that we have the swan which generates sons in Leda ;
these sons, who are partly of the nature of the bird, and
partly of that of the woman, must assume a double form,
and now become swans like their father, now shine
in their mother's beauty ; when, moreover, we think
that only one of the brothers was, with Helen, born of the
swan, it becomes natural to think of the other brother
who may love Helen without being guilty of incest.^
Before becoming famous by the varied fortunes of Troy,

1 Cfr. also, with regard to this subject, the twenty-fourth Esthonian
story of the princess born in the egg, of whom her brother, born in a
more normal manner of the queen, becomes enamoured.

THE DIOSKUROL 319

Helen, as a girl, had her adventures ; Theseus seduced
her and carried her off. The Dioskuroi come to deliver
her in the same way as Lohengrin comes upon the swan
to deliver Elsa, whilst her seducer is about to effect her
ruin. Finally, the adventures of the two Dioskuroi, of
whom one sacrifices himself for the other, correspond to
the legend of the Schwanritter, the brother, or brother-
in-law, who, on account of the swan offers up his own
life. Thus India, Greece, and Germany united, in various
forms, the figure of the swan with the story of the two
brothers, or of the two companions ; India created the
myth, Greece coloured it, Germany has imbued it with
passionate energy and pathos.

CHAPTEE XL

THE PARROT.

SUMMARY. .

Haris and harit ; harayas and hari ; green and yellow called by a
common name. — The moon as a green tree and as a green parrot ;
the parrot and the tree assimilated. — The wise moon and the wise
parrot ; the phallical moon and the phallical parrot, in numerous
love stories. — The god of love mounted on the parrot. — The
parrot and the wolf pasture together.

The myth of the parrot originated in the East, and
developed itself almost exclusively among the Oriental
nations.

I mentioned in the chapter on the Ass, that the words
haris and harit signify green no less than fair-haired,
and hence gave rise to the epic myth of the monsters
with parrot's faces, or drawn by" parrots. The solar
horses are called harayas ; harl are the two horses of
Indras ; Haris is a name of Indras himself, but especially
of the god Vishnus ; but there are more fair-haired figures
in the sky then these ; the golden thunderbolt which
shoots through the cloud, and the golden moon, the
traveller of the night, are such. Moreover, because
green and yellow are called by this common name, all
these fair ones, and the moon in particular, assumed the
form, now of a green tree, now of a green parrot. A
very interesting Vedic strophe offers us an evident proof

THE PARROT, 321

of this. The solar horses (or the sun himself, Haris) say-
that they have imparted the colour haris to the parrots,
to the pheasants (or peacocks.-^ Benfey and the Petro-
politan Dictionary, however, explain ropandhd by drossel
or thrush), and to the trees, which are therefore called
h^rayas. As the trees are green, so are the parrots gene-
rally green (sometimes also yellow and red, whence the
appellation haris is always applicable to them).^ The
moon, on account of its colour, is now a tree (a green
one), now an apple-tree with golden branches and apples,
now a parrot (golden or green, and luminous). The moon
in the night is the wise fairy who knows all, and can
teach all. In the introduction to the Mahdbhdratam, the
name Qukas or parrot is given to the son of Krishnas, i.e.,
of the black one, who reads (as moon) the Mahdbhdratam
to the monsters. In the chapter on the Ass, we saw the
ass and the monster of the Rdmdyanam with parrots'
faces. But inasmuch as the ass is a phallical symbol,
the parrot is also ridden by the Hindoo god Kamas, or
the god of love (hence also called Qukav4has). The
moon (masculine in India) has already been mentioned,
in the first chapter of the first book, as a symbol of the
phallos ; in the same way as the thunderbolt pierces the
cloud, the moon pierces the gloom of the night, penetrates
and reveals the secrets of the night. Therefore, the parrot

1 The parrot is sung of by Statius in connection with the same
birds in the second book of the Sylvce —

" Lux volucrum plagse, regnator Eose
Quam non gemmata volucri Junonia cauda
Vinceret, aspectu gelidi non phasidis ales."

2 A pathetic elegy in Sanskrit distiches, of a Buddhist character, of
which I do not now remember the source, presents us the gukas or
parrot, who wishes to die when the tree agokas, which has always been
his refuge, is dried up.

VOL, n. t;

322 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

being identified with the night in the ^ukasaptatt, and
in other books of Hindoo stories, we see the parrot often
appearing in love-stories, and revealing amorous secrets.

Some of the stories concerning the parrot passed into
the West ; no doubt, by means of literary transmission,
that is to say, of the mediaeval Arabic and Latin versions
of the Hindoo stories.^

Some of the Hindoo beliefs concerning the parrot had
already passed into ancient Greece, and .^lianos shows
himself to be very well acquainted with the sacred worship
which the Brahmans of India professed for it. Oppianos,
moreover, tells us of a superstition which confirms what
we have said concerning the essentially lunar character of
the mythical parrot ; he says that the parrot and the
wolf pasture together, because the wolves love this green
bird ; this is the same as saying that the gloomy night
loves the moon. One of the Hindoo epithets applied to the
moon, moreover, is ra^antkaras, or he who makes the night.

^ Such as, for instance, the following unpublished story, communi-
cated to me by Dr Ferraro, which is related in the Monferrato, and of
which I have also heard, in ray childhood, a variation at Turin : — A
king, going to the wars, and fearing that another king, who is his
rival, will profit by his absence to seduce his wife, places by her side
one of his friends transformed into a parrot ; this friend warns her to
remain faithful every time that the rival king sends to tempt the
queen by means of a cunning old woman. The queen pays attention
to the parrot's advice, and remains faithful till the husband's return.
This is, in a few words, the contents of the seventy Hindoo tales of the
parrot, of which the Tuti-Name is a Persian version. — In the story
which I heard at Turin, the wife is, on the contrary, unfaithful and
covers the parrot's cage that it may not see ; she then fries some fishes
in the guest's honour ; the parrot thinks that it is raining. The fish
and the rain remind us of the myth of the phallical and pluvial cuckoo.

CHAPTER XII.

THE PEACOCK.
SUMMARY.

The starry sky and the rayed sun. — The peacock becomes a crow ; the
crow becomes a peacock.' — Peacock and swan } the dove and the
peacock. — The kokilas and the peacock. — Indras now a peacock,
now a cuckoo. — The peacock's feather. — Indras's horses have
peacock's feathers and peacock's tails. — Skandas rides upon the
peacock. — Argus becomes a peacock.— The peacock as the avis
Junonia ; Jove is the bird of Juno.

We end otit mythical journey in the kingdom of winged
animals with the bird of all the colours.

The serene and starry sky and the shining sun are
peacocks. The calm, azure heavens, bespangled with a
thousand stars, a thousand brilliant eyes, and the sun
rich with the colours of the rainbow, offer the appear-
ance of a peacock in all the splendour of its eye-
besprinkled feathers. When the sky or the thousand-
rayed sun (sahasr^nyus) is hidden in the clouds, or
veiled by the autumnal waters, it again resembles the
peacock, which, in the dark part of the year, like a
great number of vividly-coloured birds, sheds its beauti-
ful plumage, and becomes dark and unadorned ; the
crow which had put the peacock's feathers on then
returns to caw amongst the funereal crows. In winter
the peacock-crow has nothing remaining to it except its

324 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

disagreeable and shrill cry, not dissimilar to that of the
crows. It is commonly said of the peacock that it has
an angel's feathers, a devil's voice, and a thief s walk.
The crow-peacock is proverbial.^

The peacock hides itself when it becomes ugly; so
does the sky, and so does the sun when the autumnal
clouds cover it ; but in the summer clouds the thunder
rumbles, and thunder made upon the primeval races of
men the impression of an irresistible, much-loved, and
wished-for music, resembling the song of the melodious
kokilas (the cuckoo), or of the watercock (the heron,
the halcyon, the duck, or the swan).^ In the Rdmd-
yanam, as we observed in the chapter on the Cuckoo, the
peacock and the kokilas appear as rivals in singing ;
although the Avatercock laughs at the peacock for its
pretentiousness, this rivaby is no slender proof upon
which to admit the mythical identity of two rival birds/

^ Cfr. tlie chapter on the Crow.

- " Wie wir den Hugschapler sogar auf den Pfauen schwbren sehen,
legten sie die Angelsachsen auf den Schwan ab (R. A. 900), den wir
Avohl nach den obigen Gesange Ngordhs, S. 343 als den ihm geheiligten
Vogel (ales gratissima nautis, Myth. 1074) zu fassen haben, (tc."
Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 347. — A Hindoo proverb con-
siders the dove in connection with the peacock ; it says, " Better a
pigeon to-day than a peacock to-morrow'' (Varaniadya kapoto na gvo
mayllrah). According to the Ornithologia of Aldrovandi, the peacocks
are the doves' friends, because they keep serpents and all venomous
animals at a distance.

^ The Russian fable of Kriloff presents to us the ass as a judge
between the nightingale (the kokilas of Western poets) and the cock
in a trial of singing ; in Sanskrit qilchin, or crested, means cock and
peacock ; besides mayHras, peacock, we have mayliradatakas, the
domestic cock. Mayuras is also the name of a Hindoo poet. — In the
chapter on the Cuckoo we saw the cuckoo and the nightingale as rivals
in singing ; the kokilas and the peacock are the equivalents of the
nightingale and the cuckoo ; we have also identified the cuckoo with
the swallow, and seen the swallows as rivals of the swans in singing ;
cfr. the chapter on the Crow.

THE PEACOCK. 3^5

The Hindoo myth, in fact, shows us the god Indras (now
sky, now sun) as a peacock and as a cuckoo (like Zeus).
When the sky is blue, serene, and starry, or when the
sun shines w^th its thousand rays, and in the colours of
the rainbow, the sahasr4kshas, or thousand-eyed Indras,
is found as a peacock ; when the sky or the sun in the
cloud thunders and lightens, Indras becomes a kokilas
that sings. In the twentieth of the stories of Santo
Stefano di Calcinaia, two brothers steal a peacock's
feather from their younger brother, and kill him (that is,
they kill the peacock, in the same way as in the Eussian
story the red little boots are stolen from the little brother,
and he is killed). Where the- little brother of the
peacock's feather is killed and buried, a sapling grows
up ; a stick is made out of the sapling, and out of the
stick a pipe, which, when played upon, sings the dirge of
the little brother who was killed for a peacock's feather.
When the luminous sky or the sun is hidden in the
clouds, when the luminous feathers of the peacock are
torn o£f,^ when the peacock is buried, the tree which is
its tomb (the cloud) speaks, at the return of spring, like
the cornel-tree of Polidorus in Virgil, and the trunk of
Pier delle Vigne in Dante's Inferno; the tree becomes a
cane, a magic flute, a melodious kokilas. Indras-kokilas
remembers Indras-peacock, Indras whose horses, even in
the Vedic hymns, have "peacocks' feathers,"^ and "tail
(or phallos) of peacocks."^ We have already seen that the

1 Hence Aldrovandi writes -with reason, that the smoke of the burnt
feathers of a peacock (that is, of the celestial peacock), when taken
into the eyes, cures them of their redness.

2 A mandriir indra haribhir yihi mayuraromabhih ; Rigv. iii. 45, 1.

3 A tv^ rathe hiranyaye hari mayllragepyi; viii. 1, 25. — Klearchos
relates in Ath^naios, that a peacock in Leucas loved a maiden so much,
that when she died it also immediately expired.

326 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

body of Indras was, after intercourse (as sun) with Ahaly^
in adultery, covered with a thousand wombs (waves or
clouds ; cfr. the equivoque sahasradhdras, given to the solar
disc, properly because it has a thousand darts that wound),
which were already a thousand eyes (stars or sunbeams),
whence his names of Sahasradri9, Sahasranayanas, Sahas-
ranetras, and Sahasrakshas, which are equivalent. The
long refulgent tail of the peacock took a phallical form.
According to the Petropolitan Dictionary, mayliregvaras
(or Qivas-peacock), is the proper name of a lingam or
phallos, the well-known emblem of (yivas, which also calls
our attention to Mayurarathas, Mayiiiraketus, Cikhiviha-
nas, and (^ikidhva^as, names of Skandas, the god of war,
Avho is also a phallical god, like Mars, the lover of Venus,
and like the Hindoo Kamadevas, or god of love, who
rides upon the parrot, and which therefore brings tis back
to the lunar phallical symbol.-^ The sky with the sun, as
well as with the moon, is superseded by the sterile sky
with the stars of the night or the clouds of autumn;
the phallos falls ; the impotent sky remains — Indras the
eunuch, Indras with a thousand wombs, Indras plunged
into the waves of the spotted clouds, Indras a ram, the
pluvial or autumnal Indras, Indras lost in the sea of winter,
Indras the fish, Indras without rays, without lightning, and

^ According to tbe Pancatantram (i. 175), in the very house of
Qivas (the phallical god), the animals make war against each other ;
tlie serpent (the night) wishes to eat the mouse (which seems here to
be the grey twilight) ; the peacock (here, perhaps, the moon), wishes
to eat the serpent (cfr. the preceding notes ; according to -iElianos, a
certain man who wished to steal from the King of Egypt a peacock,
supposed to be sacred, found an asp in its stead) ; the lion (the sun)
wishes to eat the peacock. (The Hindoo name of mayliraris, or enemy
of the peacock, given to the chameleon, is remarkable ; the animal
which changes its colour is the rival of the bird which is of every
colour ; gods and demons are equally vigvar&pA,s and ktlmarupas.)

THE PEACOCK. 327

without thunder, Indras cursed, he who had been beauti-
ful and resplendent like a crested peacock (gikhin), Indras
as the peacock enemy of the serpent (ahidvish, ahiripus),
into which form he returns by the pity of the gods.
According to the Tuti-Name, when a woman dreams of
a peacock, it presages the birth of a handsome son.

The Greeks were also acquainted with the myth of the
peacock, and amplified it. In the first book of Ovid's
Metamorphoses, Argus, with the hundred eyes, who sees
everything (Panoptes and son of Zeus), by the order of
the goddess Juno, the splendid and proud wife of Jove,
to whom the peacock is sacred (and therefore called avis
Jimonia, ales Junonia; the peacock of Juno is Jove him-
self, as we have already seen that Jove's cuckoo is himself;
Argos the son of Zeus is Zeus himself), whilst two eyes
rest (perhaps the sun and the moon), watches with the
others (the stars) lo (the daughter of Argus himself,
priestess of Juno, identified Avith Isis the moon, loved by
Jove). Mercury, by means of music, puts- Argus to sleep,
and kills him as he slumbers. The eyes of the dead
Argus pass into the tail of the peacock (that is, the dead
peacock rises again). The peacock, which annually loses
and renews its various colours and splendours, and is
fruitful in progeny, served, like the phoenix, as a symbol
of immortality, and a personification of the fact that the
sky is obscured and becomes serene again, that the sun
dies and is born again, that the moon rises, is obscured,
goes down, is concealed, and rises once more. It is said
of Pythagoras that he believed himself to have once been
a peacock, that the peacock's soul passed into Euphorbos,
that of Euphorbos into Homer, and that of Homer into
him. It was also alleged that out of him the soul of the
ancient peacock passed into the poet Ennius, whence
Persius —

ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

" Postquam destituit esse
Maeonides quintus pavone ex Pythagorseo."

If the peacock be Zeus, if Zeus be Dyius, if Dy4us be
the luminous and splendid sky, the divine light, which
of my readers would disclaim the Pythagorean belief?
The dream of being the sons of the divine light, and
destined to return to the heavenly fatherland, certainly
is much more consoling than the dreary conclusion of
modern science, >yhich reduces us, in our origin and final
lapse, into unconscious vegetables upon the surface of the
earth. The only drawback is, that this same heretical
mythology, which often, even in its grossest forms, such
as the animal ones, opens up to our incredulous reason a
ray of hope in the immortality of the soul, that this
mythology which resuscitates and transfigures into new
living forms all its dead, does not permit us to believe in
an eternity of joy in heaven; heaven, like earth, is in
perpetual revolution, and the gods of Olympus are no
more secure on their divine throne than our royal
automata that sit upon their earthly ones. The metem-
psychosis does not end when the soul goes to heaven ; on
the contrary, it is in heaven that it is fated to undergo
the strangest and most diverse transformations ; from
the heroic form we have seen it pass into that of a
quadruped and a biped. Nor is its curse yet come to
an end ; the deity or the hero must humble himself yet
more, and assume in the zoological scale the most im-
perfect of organisms ; the animal god will lose hi^
speech in the form of a stupid fish ; he will creep like
a serpent or hop grotesquely like a filthy toad.

THE ANIMALS OF THE WATER.

CHAPTER I.

FISHES, AND PARTICULAELT THE PIKE, THE SACRED FISH OR FISH OF ST PETER, THE
CARP, THE MELWEL, THE HERRING, THE EEL, THE LITTLE GOLDFISH, THE SEA-
URCHIN, THE LITTLE PERCH, THE BREAM, THE DOLPHIN, AND THE WHALE.

SUMMARY.

Why Indras, the fearless hero, flees after having defeated the serpent ;
the fish causes the death of the fearless hero. — Qakravat^ras and
the fisher. — The stone and the fish. — Adrika, Giriki, the mother
of fishes. — The matsy^s as a nation. — Qaradvat. — Pradyumnas. —
Guhas. — The fishes langh. — The fish guards the white haoma. —
The water of the fish drunk by the cook. — The devil steals the
fishes. — The dwarf Andvarri and the pike as the guardian of gold
and of a ring. — The goldfish and the pike. — The dwarf Vishnus
as a little goldfish. — The legend of the Deluge. — Vishnus as a
, horned fish draws the ship of Manus ; the sea-urchin or hedge-
hog of the Ganges, the little destroyer. — The dolphin with the
horned bull draws the chariot or vessel of the AgvintLu. — The
little turbulent perch. — The thorns of the sea-urchin compared to
a hundred oars. — The whale as a bridge or island ; the whale
devours a fleet. — The pike. — The bream. — The phallical fishes ;
the phallos and the simpleton. — Why fishes are eaten in Lent,
that is, spring; and on Friday, the day of Freya or Venus. — The
poisson d'avriL — The herring. — The eel. — The bream cleans
the workman. — The phallical and demoniacal eel ; anguilla and
anguis. — The eel and the cane; ikslms and Jskslivdkus. — Dia-
bolical fishes. — The red mullet. — The bream and the ring. —
Cimedia. — The whale vomits out the vessels; the whale as an

330 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

island. — The little perch finds the ring and draws the casket by
the help of the dolphins. — The war of the little perch with the
other fishes. — The eel pout. — The perch. — The sturgeon. — The
little perch is the fox of fishes. — The words matsyas, matto, mad,
matt, mattaSy madidus. — The drunken pike. — The three fishes. —
Qakuntali, the pearl and the fish. — The genera cyprinus and
perca ; htcius, lucioperca sandra ; the lunar horn. — The dolphin.
— The carp. — The fish Zeus Chalkeus, the fish faber, the fish of
St Peter ; the fish of St Christopher ; the equivoque of crista and
christus again in conjunction with the legend of St Christopher.

The god Inclras, in the Rigvedas, after having killed the
monster, flees in terror across the ninety-nine navigable
rivers ; the pluvial god, after having lightened, thunder-
stricken and thundered, is terrified by his own work ;
the Vedic poet asks him what he has seen, but the god
passes on and answers not ; killing the monster, he has
unchained the waters ; the pluvial god has wounded
himself while wounding his enemy ; the monster's
shadow or his own shadow pursues him ; the waters
increase and threaten to drown him. The god Indras
fears the very waters he has caused to flow. The god
Indras was condemned to remain, hidden in the waters
(of night and winter) during the period of his maledic-
tion, for defiling in adultery the nuptial bed of Ahaly4.
The god shut up in the waters, the wet god, is his most
infamous and accursed form.^ The celestial metamor-

1 Indras, as a warlike god, does not know fear, or rather, he kills
fear (the hymn says, "Aher y^t^rarh kani apagya indra hridi yat te
^aghnuso bhir aga<i6hat; Eigv. i. 32, 14), and lets himself be terrified
by a trifle, which may be either a nightly shadow (the dark man of fairy
tales), or the terror caused to him by some fish (the moon) which leaps
upon him in the waters which he himself has set free.' — In the twenty-
second of the Tuscan stories published by me, the young hero who
passed through all the dangers of hell without being afraid, dies at the
sight of his own shadow. (We have also referred to this when treating
of the dog and the lion who meet with their death, allured by their own

THE FISH AND THE STONE, ^i^

phosis into a fish is perhaps the vilest transmutations
of animal, and therefore the most feared ; the fish lives
especially in order to reproduce itself; to represent,
therefore, the decadence of the god after a phallical
crime of his, he is condemned to lie down in the waters.
We know that the fisher, in the ^ahuntald, lives at
Qakr^vataras (that is, the fall of Indras). We have seen
the sister of Latona, and "Rambh4 and Ahaly^, after having
transgressed, the one with Jupiter and the others with
Indras, become stones in the waters. The fish, rendered
powerless and stupid, becomes inert and motionless like
a stone (sun and moon pass into sky or cloud). We
already find the image of the stone with the honey
brought, in the Rigvedas,^ into close affinity to that of
the fish which lies in shallow water, or of the fish made
powerless and deprived of its vital qualities.

The legend of the nymph Adrika (from the word
adris, which means a stone, a rock, a mountain, or a
cloud) presents the same analogy between the stone-
cloud, that is, the stone in the waters, and the fish. By
a divine malediction, Adrik4 is transformed into a fish,
and lives in the Yamun^. Being in these waters, she
picks up a leaf upon which had fallen the sperm of King
Uparicaras, enamoured of Girik4 (or of Adrik^ herself,
the two words adrikd and girikd being equivalent) ; this

shadow.) — In the forty-sixth story of the fifth book of Afanassieff, the
merchant's son, who did not know fear, who feared neither darkness nor
brigands nor death, is terrified and dies when he falls into the water,
because the little perch entered into his bosom whilst he was sleeping in
his fishing-boat. — It is also easy to pass from the idea of Indras, who
inebriates himself in the soma to that of the fish, when we consider
that the Hindoo word matsyas, the fish, properly means the inebriated,
from the root mad, to inebriate and to make cheerful.

2 Agn^pinaddham madhu pary apagyam matsyam na dina udani
kshiyantam ; Rigv. x. 68, 8.

332 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

leaf had been let fall into the waves of the Yamun^ by
the bird 9yenas, that is, by the hawk. Having fed upon
this sperm, the nymph fish is caught by fishermen, and
taken to King Uparicaras ; the fish is opened, and the
nymph resumes her heavenly form ; of her a son and a
daughter are born, Matsyas the male fish, and Matsy^
the female one/ The male afterwards becomes king of
the matsyas or fishes, which some authorities have, in
vain, as I think, endeavoured to identify with a historical
nation ; for it is not enough to find them named as a
people in the Mahdhhdratam, to prove their real historical
existence, when we know that the whole basis of thd
Mahdhhdratam is mythological. Moreover, when we find
the Matsyas in the Vedic hymns, it is one more argu-
ment from which to infer the mythical nature of the
peoples named in the Rigvedas in connection with the
waters. In another legend of the Mahdhhdratam, the
semen of the penitent Qaradvat (properly the autumnal
or the pluvial one), provoked by the sight of a beautiful
nymph, falls upon the wood of an arrow ; the wood of
the arrow splits in two, and two sons are born of it, who
are given to the king ; a variety of this legend will be
found further on in the Western traditions connected with
the story of the fish.^

To the ninety-nine or hundred cities of Qambaras (the
clouds) destroyed by Indras, correspond the ninety-nine
rivers which Indras crosses. In the Vishmi P.,^ a fish
receives the hero Pradyumnas (an appellation of the god

1 Mbh. 2371-2392.

2 Mbh. i. 5078-5086. — In another variety of the same myth, the
semen of the wise Bharadvi^as comes out at the sight of a nympli ;
the sage receives it in a cup, out of which comes Dronas, the armourer
and a,Ycher par excellence ; i. 5103-5106. ^ v. 27.

THE WATER OF THE FISH. 333

of love), tlirown into the sea by Qambaras, and enables
him to recover and wed M4y4devl.

King Guhas (the hidden one ? the dark one ?) the king
of the black Nishad4s, the king of Qringaveras (in which we
have already recognised the moon), who, during the night,
receives Ramas on the banks of the Ganges, hospitably
entertains him, offering him beverages, meat, and fishes/

In the Qahasaptatl^ and in the Tuti-Name, the fishes
laugh at the prudery of an adulterous servant-girl ; we
have already shown, in the first chapter of the first book,
the phallical signification of the fish that laughs.

In the Khorda Avesta, we find a fish with acute eye-
sight (Karo-ma§yo, the posterior Khar-mahl), which
guards the white haoma, that is, the ambrosia (with
which sperm was also identified).

In the Fseudo-CalUsthenes, Alexander, having arrived
at the luminous fountain which scatters perfumes, asks
his cook for something to eat ; the cook prepares to wash
the fish in the refulgent water ; the fish returns to life,
and disappears from his sight ; but the cook drinks some
of the water of the fish, and gives some to Alexander's
daughter Une, who becomes, by the curse of Alexander
himself, a nereid or marine nymph, whilst he fastens a
stone to the cook's neck, and orders him to be thrown
to the bottom of the sea. It is unnecessary for me to
demonstrate the analogy between this legend and the
myth of Indras, or to insist upon the phallical meaning
of the myth.

We already know that phallical images and demoniacal
ones sometimes correspond ; hence, in the ninth Esthonian
story, the devil steals the fishes from the fishermen ;
hencCj in the Eddas, the brigand Loki now assumes the

1 Edmdy, ii. 92.

334 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

form of a salmon, and now catches the pike, into which
the dwarf Andvarri has transformed himself. The pike is
the guardian of gold and of a ring which is taken from
him ; the fish enters into the stone, and predicts that
gold will be the cause of the death of the two brothers.
The ambrosial rain which comes out of the cloud, and
the ambrosial dew, are the water in which the fish is
washed, and the ambrosial dew is the water or seed of
the fish ; the fair-haired and silvery moon in the ocean
of night is the little gold fish, and the little silver fish
which announces the rainy season, the autumn, the
deluge. Out of the cloudy, nocturnal, or wintry ocean,
comes forth the sun, the pearl lost in the sea, which the
gold or silver fish brings out.

The little goldfish of our aquariums, the cyprinus

clirysoparius, the cyprinus aiiratus, the cyprinus sophore

(the Hindoo gapharas, in the feminine faphart), and the

luminous pike, like the moon, can expand and contract.

We are abeady acquainted with the sea-monster which,

in the Rdmdyanam (like the siren fish), allures from the

sea the shadow of Hanumant, and can make itself now

small, now large ; we have seen the dwarf Andvarri of

the Eddas, who hides himself in the form of a pike ; we

are familiar with the god Vishnus or Haris, who, from

being a dwarf, becomes a giant (Haris means fair-haired

or golden, and refers now to the sun, now to the moon) ;

Vishnus, in his incarnation as a fish, first takes the form

of the little golden fish, the gaphari ; and, in this form,

the god Vishnus is especially identified with the moon,

the ruler of the rainy season. As the moon (which we

have already seen as a little learned puppet) grows by

quarters, and from being exceedingly small, becomes

large, so, in the Hindoo legend of the Deluge, narrated

in the Vedic commentaries, in the Mahdhhdratam, and

THE FISH AND THE DELUGE, 335

in the P4uranic legends, the god Vishnus or Haris begins
by being an exceedingly small fish, a caphari, which
beseeches the penitent Manus to be taken out of the
great river, the Ganges, where it is afraid of being
devoured by the aquatic monsters. Manus receives the
little fish in the vase of water in which he performs his
ablutions (a Hindoo proverb says that the gapharl is
agitated from petulance in water an inch deep, whilst
the rohitas, a kind of carp, does not become proud even
in bottomless depths ^) ; in one night (evidently in its
character as the moon) the fish grows so much that it
can no longer remain in the vase ; Manus carries it into
a pool, afterwards into the Ganges ; finally, the fish in-
creases so much in size that Manus, recognising Vishnus
in it, is obliged to give it entire liberty in the sea. Then
the grateful fish announces that in seven days the waters
will inundate the world, and all the wicked will perish ;
he orders him (as the biblical God does Noah) to build a
ship : ''Thou shalt enter into it," says Vishnus to him,
*' with seven sages, a couple of every kind of animal,
and the seeds of every plant. Thou shalt wait in it the
end of the night of Brahman; and when the vessel is
agitated by the waves, thou shalt attach it by a long
serpent to the horn of an enormous fish, which will come
near thee, and will guide thee over the Avaves of the
abyss." On the appointed day, the waters of the sea
came up over the surface of the earth ; the fish made its
appearance to draw the ship in order to save Manus.
The ship stopped upon the horn, that is, upon the peak
of a mountain. Now this little goldfish, in which
Vishnus is incarnate, when it becomes horned to draw
the ship of Manus, assimilates itself to another interestino"

^ Cfr. Bbhtlingk, Indische Sprilchej i. 59.

33^ ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

sea animal, the sea-urchin or hedgehog of the Ganges,
(yinjum^ras, which is also one of the names of the dwarf
Vishnus (we have already seen Vishnus as a wild-boar),
and which means properly the little destroyer. The
eighteenth strophe of the precious 116th hymn of the
first book of the ^igvedas, shows us the §in§um4ras or
sea-urchin, which, together with another horned animal,
the bull (we have already seen the moon as a horned
bull) draws the chariot of the Acvin4u, full of riches;^
we know that the chariot of the Ajviniu is often a
vessel. Qingum^ras also means in Sanskrit the dolphin ;^
and the dolphins and the fish called jorsh (the little
perch) 5 with its little horns, thorns, and thin shape,
sharpened at one end like a pole ending in a point,
called in Eussian stories the turbulent one (kropacishko),
are in relation with each other, as they draw the casket
away ; the jorsh takes the place of the " little destroyer,"
of the 9incumaras, of the sea-urchin, concerning which
there is a very interesting Sicilian verse, which compares
the stings of the sea-urchin to a hundred oars, with
which it must row, carrying its little invokers ; after
having caught it, Sicilian children scatter a little salt
over it, and sing —

" Vocami, vocami, centu rimi,
V6cami, vocami, centu riini."

^ PLevad uv^ha sa(5ano ratho vim vrishabhag 9a gihgumirag (Sa
yuktl

2 Our readers will not be astonished at seeing tlie dolpliin, the
whale, and the sea-urchin classed here with fishes. We are not treat-
ing of natural history according to the classifications of science, but of
the gross classifications made by impressionable popular imaginations.
Thus, amongst the animals of the water we shall find the serpent
described, although it be amphibious, because popular belief makes
the dragon watch over the waters.

THE FALLEN RING— THE WHALE. 337

(Row for me, row for me, hundred oars). Then it
moves, and the children are delighted. In the Eussian
little poem, Kanioh Garhunoh, of Jershoff, already men-
tioned by us in the chapter on the Horse, /Ivan must seek,
for the sultan, a ring shut up in a casket which has
fallen into the sea (the evening or the autumnal sun).
Ivan upon his crook-backed horse arrives in the middle
of the sea, where there is a whale which cannot move
because it has swallowed a fleet, that is to say, the solar
vessel. The part played here by the whale is the same
as that of the sea-monster who swallows Hanumant in
the Rdmdyanam, to vomit him out again, as in the case
of the biblical Jonah (the night devours the sun, or
carries it into its body). Hanumant enters into the fish
by its mouth, and comes out at its tcail ; however, in the
narrative given of it in the fifty-sixth canto of the fifth
book by Hanumant himself, he says that the sea-monster
having shut its mouth, he came out of it by the right
ear. When the night is with the moon, instead of
swallowing the hero, the bull-moon or fish-moon carries
him or serves as a bridge for him. In Russian fairy
tales the brown pike (which, on account of its colour, is
called the chaste widow) ^ is noAv a form assumed by the

^ The pike becomes in spring of an azure or bluish or greenish-blue
colour ; hence the name of goliibbi — perd (that is, of the azure or
bluish fins ; in German, the bluish colour is called echt-grau — that is,
grey of pike ; in the nineteenth of the Russian stories of Erlenivein^
golden fins are ascribed to the pike), which is also given to it in
Eussia. Goluh, or brown, violet and azure, is a name given in Prussia
to the dove ; so in Italy we say, that the dove is pavonazzo (properly
the colour of the peacock, which is generally blue and green). But in
Sanskrit, amongst the names of the peacock there is that of harisy a
word which represents both the moon and the sun. By the same
analogy, the bluish or greenish pike may represent the moon. But
another analogy, caused by a similar conception, is found again in the

VOL. II. Y

33^ ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

devil in order to eat the young hero, who has become a
little perch/ and now an enormous fish with great teeth,
which slaughters the little fishes.^ Now, instead, it
serves as a bridge for Ivan Tzarevic, who is seeking for
the egg of the duck which is inside the hare under the
oak-tree in the midst of the sea ; ^ now it is caught in the
fountain (as the moon, soma, in the well) by the foolish
and lazy Emilius, and because Emilius saves its life, it
makes him rich by performing several miracles for him,
such as that of the barrels full of water, of the trees of
the forest, of the waggons or the stoves which move
off by themselves, and finally that of the cask thrown
into the sea, into which Emilius is shut with the beautiful
daughter of the Tzar, and which comes to shore and
breaks open.* Now the phallical pike with the golden

word ^ydmas, wliicli means black, azure, and also silvery ; whence it
serves to represent the convolvolus argenteus (we must remember that
the Latin name of the pike is lucius ; the Greek, lukios — that is, the
luminous one). The pike takes the colour of the water in which it
lives, and the waters are dark, black, azure, greenish, silvery ; as being
azure, or greenish, or silvery, the pike represents the moon ; as being
dark, the tenebrific night, the cloud, the wintry season. — In the thirty-
second story of the fourth book of Afanassieff, the little perch relates
that the pike was once luminous (that is, in spring), and that it became
black after the conflagration which took place in the Lake of Eastoff
from the day of St Peter (June 29) to the day of St Elias (July
20), or in the beginning of summer. As we learn in the Pseudo-
GallistheneSj near the black stone, which makes black whoever touches
it, there are fishes which are cooked in cold water, and not at the fire,
I recollect here also that the Hecht-konig^ or king of pikes, is described
as yellow and black-spotted. i Afanassieff, v. 22.

^ Afanassieffj i. 2. — Cfr. the eleventh of the Novelline di Santo
Stefano di Galcinaia ; a monstrous fish devours the princess ; the fish
is said to be a shark (pesce cane) ; and v. 8 of the Fentamerone,

2 Cfr. Afanassiefj ii. 24.

* Cfr. Afanassieff, v. 55, vi. 32. — It is the same fish which, saved by
the girl who is persecuted by her step-mother, comes to her assistance,

THE PIKE^PHALLICAL FISHES. 339

fins ^ is caught, washed, quartered, and roasted ; the
dirty water is thrown away and drunk by the cow
(in Afanassieff) or by the mare (in Erlenwein) ; a por-
tion of the fish is eaten by the black slave, whilst she is
carrying it to table, the rest by the queen ; hence three
young heroes, considered as brothers, are born at the
same time to the cow (or mare), to the black maiden,
and to the queen. Now the pike (as in the satirical fable
of Krilofi") draws the car in company with the crab
and the heron; and here, it would appear, these two
animals are rather stupid than intelligent, inasmuch as,
whilst the pike draws the car into the water, the crab
draws it back on the earth and the heron essays to
mount with it into the air. Here we have the usual
correspondence between the phallical figure and that of
the simpleton. Thus, in the Piedmontese dialect, the
phallos and the stupid man is called merlu (blackbird).
From the word merlo (Lat. merula) was derived the
name of the fish called merluccio or merluzzo (gadus
merlucius, the melwel or haddock), called asellus by the
Latins and onos by the Greeks. The ass is a well-known
phallical symbol, and Bacchus being also a phallical

separates the wheat from the barley for her (like the Madonna, the
purifying moon-fairy, the nightly cleanser of the sky), and gives splendid
robes to her, in vi. 29. — In the story v. 54, instead of the pike as a
fcecundator we find the bream, which is also called " of the golden fins"
(szlatopioravo), of which the colours are the same as those of the pike.
1 In the nineteenth Eussian story of Erlenwein, and in a variety of
the same in the last book of Afanassieff's stories. — In an unpublished
story of the Monferrato, communicated to me by Dr Ferraro, a fisher-
man catches a large fish which says to him, " Let me go, and you will
always be fortunate." The wife of the fisherman opposes this, roasts
and eats the fish, from whose bones are born to the fisherman three
sons, three horses, and three dogs. Evidently the story has been
corrupted.

340 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

god, we read in Pliny, '' Asellorum duo genera, Callarisa
minores, et Bacchi, qui non nisi in alto (in the deep)
capiuntur." The Italian name haccald, given to the cod-
fish, seems to me to be derived from the union of the
two names Bacchus and Callaria. In the Piedmontese
dialect, a stupid man is also called by the name of
baccald. There is also a fish called merula, of which
the ancients describe the extraordinary salacity, by in-
dulging which it literally consumes itself away and
perishes/ In Italy we find the following phallical pro-
verbs : " The blackbird has passed the Po," and " The
blackbird has passed the river ; " to denote a woman or
a man exhausted, to impotence. The ancients wrote of
the fish called chrusofrus by the Greeks, and atcrata by
the Latins, that it would let itself be taken in children's
and women's hands, and (according to Athenaios) it
was sacred to Aphrodite. Aphrodite, Venus, goddess of
love, especially, represented in myths the aurora and the
spring (hence in Lent and on Friday, the day of Freya,
dies Veneris, we eat fishes) ; therefore the gemini pisces,
the two fishes joined in one, were sacred to her, and the
joke of the poisson d'Avril, as I have already mentioned
in the first chapter of the first book, is a jest of phallical
origin, which should be abandoned.^ Aphrodite and
Eros, pursued by Typhon, transformed themselves into
fishes and plunged into the Euphrates. The Hellenic
Eros was also represented riding (instead of the phallical
butterfly) on a dolphin ; according to other accounts, he
rides upon a swan with dolphins before him. In an
epigram of the Anihologia Grceca, the dolphin, moreover,

^ Cfr. Salvianus, Aquatilium Animalium Historicej EoniEe, 1554.
2 At Berlin, children sing on the first of April —
" April ! April ! April !
Man kann den Narren schicken wohin man will."

PHALLIC AL FISHES— THE EEL. 341

carries a weary nightingale. In several parts of Alsace,
on the evening of St Andrew's Day, girls eat herrings to
dream during the night of the husband who is to quench
their thh^st.^ The fishyw?^5 of Pliny, or Julia, is called
donzella (damsel) in Italian, and menchia di re (king's
phallos) at Naples and in Venetia, and other fishes also
take their name from the organs of generation.^ The
phallos is called u pesce at Naples, and, in Italian, nuovo
pesce (a new fish) signifies a stupid man. An essentially
phallical character, moreover, is possessed by the eel,
Avhich, according to Agatharchides, quoted by Hippolitus
Salvianus, the Boeotians crowned as a victim and sacri-
ficed solemnly to the gods, which, according to Herodotos,
the Egyptians venerated as a divine fish, and which
Athenaios pompously calls the Helen of dinners. The
eel became proverbial ; the Italian proverbial expressions,
" To take the eel," " To hold the eel by its tail," " When
the eel has taken the hook it must go where it is drawn,"
are all equivocal. The Germans also have a proverb
concerning the eel, which reminds us of the story of the
cook who steals the fish from Alexander, and, together
with Alexander's daughter, drinks its water.^ The phallos

^ Another custom concerning herrings is described by Baron von
Reinsberg, relating to Ash- Wednesday, when people return from church
in Limburg : " Begiebt man sich zuerst nach Hause, um nach gewohn-
ter Weise den Haring abzubeissen. Sobald man namlich aus der
Kirche kommt, wird ein Haring, nun muss jeder mit geschlossenen
Beinen, die Arme fest an den Leib gedrUckt, in die Hohe springen und
dabei suchen, ein Stiick abzubeissen." And Karl Simrock, the work
quoted before, p. 561, writes: "In der Mark muss man zu Neujahr
Hirse oder Haringe essen, im Wittenbergischen Heringssalat, so hat
man das ganze Jahr iiber Geld.''

2 Cfr. Salvianus, ut supra. The habit certain fishes have of ejecting
froth from the mouth may have suggested a phallical image.

^ Bei Hans Sachs, Niirnberger, Ausgabe von 1660, ii. 14, 96, Eine
Frau und Magd essen den fUr den Herrn bestimmten Aal ; eiue Elster

342 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

discovers secrets^ and therefore, in a German legend/
the facnlty of seeing everything which is under the
water is ascribed to a woman who had eaten an eel
(a variety of the story of the fish that laughs, which, in
the ninth story of the third book oi Afanassieff, enriches
whoever possesses it, and the fish sihirus (the bream), so
called from the Greek words silld and oura, because it
shakes its tail, which, in the fifty-eighth story of the
sixth book of Afanassieff, cleans the workman who had
fallen into the mud, and makes the princess laugh who
had never laughed before). In the eighteenth story of
Santo Stefano di Calcinaia, a fisherman catches an eel
with two tails and two heads, which is so large that he
has to be assisted in carrying it. The eel speaks, and
commands that its two tails be planted in the garden,
that its intestines be given to the bitch, and its two
heads to the fisherman's wife. Two swords are born of
the tails in the garden (in the Hindoo legend we saw
two sons born of the wood of Qaradvat's arrow), two
dogs are born of the intestines to the bitch, and two
beautiful young men of the heads to the wife (the two
Agvin^u, drawn, as we have seen in the Vedic hymn, by
the sea-urchin). In the chapter on the Dove, we saw
the two young lovers, when pursued, take the form of
doves. In the fourteenth Sicilian story of Signora
Gonzenbach, the young man and the maiden pursued
by the witch transform themselves first into church and
sacristan, then into garden and gardener, then into rose

schwatzt es aus ; um sich zu rachen, rupfen die Weiber ihr den Kopf
kahl. Daher man sprichwortlich von einem kahlen Monclie sagt : der
hat gewiss vom Aale ausgeschwatzt ; Menzel, Die Vorchristliche Unsterh-
lichheits-Lehre.

1 In the same: "So erzahlt Gilbert bei Leibnitz Script, rer. Brunsw.
i. 987. Ein Frauenzimmer, welches Aal gegessen, habe plotzlich Alles
sehen konnen was unter Wasser war."

THE EEL. 343

and rosebushj and finally into fountain and eel. In the
first volume of the Cabinet des Fees, the fairy Aiguillette
is taken in the form of an eel. In the fourth of the
stories of Santo Stefano di Calcinaia, the beautiful maiden
is asked by the servant-maid of the priest (that is, by the
servant-maid of the black man, by the black woman or
the night), who went to wash clothes at the fountain, to
come down from the tree. The maiden descends, is
thrown into the fountain and devoured by an enormous
eel. The fishermen catch the eel and take it to the
prince ; the witch has it killed and thrown into a cane-
brake. The eel is then transformed into a large and
beautiful cane, which is also carried to the prince, who,
cutting it gently with a penknife, makes his beautiful
girl come out (this legend is a variety of that of the
wooden girl).^ This form of a diabolical eel has a close
relationship with the monster-serpent ; the anguilla re-
minds one of the anguis ; hence, in the ninth story of
the first book of the Pentmnerone, instead of the eel as
a foecundator, as in the eighteenth Tuscan story, we find
the fish called draco raarinus (in Italian, trascina), of
which it is curious to read, what Volaterranus writes,
that — " Si manu dextra adripias eum contumacem
renitentemque experieris, si Iseva subsequentem," — as if
he meant to imply that the left hand is the hand of the
devil. Thus Oppianos describes the wedding of the
muraina eel (the mtirana) with the serpent (the viper
according to Pianos and Pliny), Other fishes have
assumed an essentially diabolical character, such as the

1 It is well known that the word ikshvdhus has been referred to the
word iJcshus, the sugar-cane. In the fortieth canto of the first book of
the Rdmdyanam, one of the two wives of Sagaras gives birth to a son
who continues his race; the other wife gives birth to an ikshvakus
(gourd or cane) containing 60,000 sons.

344 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

fish called. aUp^x (Lat. vulpes, vulpecula), of wliich
^lianos relates that it swallows the hook and then
vomits it out with its own intestines ; the rana piscatrix,
also called the marine devil ; the trugdn (Lat. pastinaca,
It. bruco), which, according to Oppianos, kills men with
its dart (fame reports that Ulysses was killed with the
bone of a trugdn) and dries up trees (although it is
strange that to cure one's self from such a fatal wound,
as it was supposed by the ancients to be venomous,
Dioscoris only recommends a decoction of sage). The
sea-scorpion (whose wounds, according to the ancients,
were cured by means of the trigla, the red mullet — Lat.
muUus — sacred according to Athenaios and ApoUodorus
to Artemis, or to Diana Trivia, the moon ; Plutarch
writes that it was sacred to Diana as a hunting fish,
because it kills the marine hare, noxious to man ; but
we have seen that the mythical hare is the moon itself),
the bream, or silurus, giants, or piscis harbatus, which, in
Hungary, according to Mannhardt (Manardus, quoted in
the sixteenth century by Ippolito Salviano), had the
reputation of attacking men, so much so, that it is said
that one of these fishes, which are, in fact, very voracious,
was once found, with a man's hand, covered with rings,
in its intestines. But these rings in the fish's body (like
the gem called cimedia,^ which, according to the popular
belief, is found in the brain of a great number of fishes)
recall us to the interrupted poem of JershofiF, to the
little perch, the dolphins, the whale, and the ring fallen
into the water and found again by the fish, which is
perhaps the most interesting subject of legends in the
mythical cycle of the fishes, and, if I may say so, their
epic exploit.

^ Cfr, Du Cange, s. v,j and Salvianus, the work quoted before.

THE WHALE— THE LITTLE FERCH. 345

Ivan, therefore, has come with his hump-backed little
horse into the midst of the sea near the whale which has
swallowed a fleet ;^ upon the whale a forest has grown;
women go to seek for mushrooms in its moustaches. Ivan
communicates his wish, and the whale calls all the fishes
together, but no one can give information except one little
fish, the little jorsh, or little perch, which, however, is at
the time engaged in chasing one of its adversaries. The
Avhale sends ambassadors to the jorsh, which unwillingly
desists for an instant from the fight, in order to search
for the casket; it finds it, but is not strong enough to
lift it up. The numerous army of the herrings come and
try, but in vain ; at last two dolphins come and raise the
casket. Ivan receives the wished-for ring ; the whale's
malediction comes to an end ; it vomits the fleet forth
again, and is once more able to move about, whilst the
little perch returns to pursue its enemies. This war of
the little perch with its adversaries has had in popular
Russian tradition its Herodotuses and its Homers, who

^ In the tliirteentb. story of the first book of Afanassieff (pi which
the Bohemian story of Grandfather Vdevedas is a "well-known variety),
the whale complains that all the footmen and horsemen pass over it
and consume it to the bones. It begs the hero Basilius to ask the
serpent how long it has still to undergo this fate; the serpent answers,
when it has vomited forth the ten vessels of the rich Mark. — In the
eighth story of the fourth book of the Pentamerone, the whale teaches
Cianna the way to find the mother of time, requiring her, in recom-
pense, to be informed of the way in which the whale may be able to
swim freely to and fro in the sea without encountering rocks and
sandbanks. Cianna brings back for answer, that it must make friends
with the sea-mouse {lo sorece marino, perhaps the same as the sea-
urchin), which will serve as its guide. — In the eighth story of the fifth
book of the Pentamerone, the little girl is received in the sea by a
large enchanted fish, in whose belly she finds beautiful companions,
gardens, and a beautiful palace furnished with everything. The fish
carries the girl to the shore.

346 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

have celebrated its praises both in prose and verse.
Afanassieff gives in the third book of his stories, from a
manuscript of the last century, the description of the
judgment of the little perch (jorsh) before the tribunal of
the fishes. The bream (le§c) accuses the little jorsh, the
"wicked warrior (as the sea-urchin is the little destroyer ;
the confounding of the sea-urchin with the little perch is
all the easier in Eussian legends, inasmuch as the former is
called josz, and the latter jorsh), who has wounded all
the other fishes with its rough bristles, and compelled
them to forsake the Lake of Eastofi". The jorsh defends
itself by saying that it is strong in virtue of its inherent
vigour; that it is not a brigand, but a good subject,
who is known everywhere, highly prized and cooked
by great lords, who eat it with satisfaction. The bream
appeals to the testimony of other fishes, who give witness
against the little perch, who thereupon complains that
the other fishes, in their overweening importance, wish,
by means of the tribunals, to ruin him and his com-
panions, taking advantage of their smallness. The judges
call the perch, the eel-pout, and the herring to give
witness. The perch sends the eel-pout, and the eel-pout
excuses itself for not appearing, pleading that its belly is
fat, and it cannot move ; that its eyes are small, and its
vision imperfect ; that its lips are thick, and it does not
know how to speak before persons of distinction. The
herring gives witness in favour of the bream, and against
the little perch. Among the witnesses against the jorsh,
the sturgeon also appears ; it maligns the jorsh, alleging
that when he attempts to eat it he must spit more out
than he can swallow, and complains that when it was one
day going by the Volga to Lake Eastofi", the little perch
called him his brother and deceived him, saying, in order
to induce him to retire from the lake, that he had once

THE LITTLE PERCH, 347

also been a fish of such size that his tail resembled the
sail of a ship, and that he had become so small after
having entered Lake EastoflP. The stm-geon goes on to
say that he was afraid, but remained in the river, where
his sons and companions died of hunger, and he himself
was reduced to the last extremities. He adduces, more-
over, another grave accusation against the jorsh, who had
made him go in front, in order that he might fall into
the fishermen's hands, cunningly hinting that the elder
brothers should go before the younger ones. The sturgeon
confesses that he gave way to this graceful flattery, and
entered into a weir made to catch fish, which he found
to be similar to the gates of great lords' houses — large
when one goes in, and small when one goes out ; he fell
into the net, in which the jorsh saw him, and cried out,
deriding him, "Suffer for the love of Christ." The
deposition of the sturgeon makes a great impression
upon the minds of the judges, who give orders to inflict
the knout upon the little jorsh, to impale it in the great
heat, as a punishment for its cheating ; the sentence is
sealed by the crayfish with one of his claws. But the
jorsh, who has heard the sentence, declares it to be un-
just, spits in the eyes of the judges, jumps into the
briar brake, and disappears from the sight of the fishes,
who remain lost in shame and mortification.

In the thirty-second story of the fourth book of
Afanassieff, we find two varieties of this zoological
legend.

The turbulent jorsh enters into Lake EastoflP, and
possesses himself of it. Called to judgment by the bream,
it answers that from the day of St Peter to that of St
Elias, the whole lake was on fire ; and cites in proof of
this assertion that the roach's eyes are still red from its
effects, that the perch's fins are also still red, that the

348 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

pike became dark coloured, and that the eel-pout is black
in consequence. These fishes, called to give witness,
either do not appear, or else deny the truth of these
assertions. The jorsh is arrested and bound, but it begins
to rain, and the place of judgment becomes muddy ; the
jorsh escapes, and, from one rivulet to another, arrives at
the river Kama, where the pike and the sturgeon find
him, and take him back to be executed.

The jorsh, arrested and brought to judgment, demands
permission to take a walk for only one hour in Lake
Eastoff* ; but after the expiration of the appointed time,
it neglects to come out of the lake, and annoys the other
fishes in every way, stinging and provoking them. The
fishes have recourse for justice to the sturgeon, who sends
the pike to look for the jorsh ; the little perch is found
amongst the stones ; it excuses itself by saying that it is
Saturday, and that there is a festival in his fathers
house, and advises him to take a constitutional in the
meanwhile, and enjoy himself; on the morrow, although
it be Sunday, he promises to present himself before the
judges (the analogy between the actions of the jorsh and
those of Eeineke Fuchs is very remarkable). Meanwhile,
the jorsh makes his companion drunk. The Sanskrit
name of the fish, matsyas, from the root mad, we know to
mean drunk and joyous, properly damp (Lat., madidus) ;
in Italian, hriaco SLud folle are sometimes equivalent;
in the Piedmontese dialect, bagnd (wet) and imhecil
(idiot) are expressions of the same meaning. Drunken-
ness is of two forms : there is a drunkenness which
makes impotent and stupid ; it is a question of quantity
and of quality of beverages, as well as constitution.
Thus, there are two kinds of madness ; that which makes
a man infuriated, to cope with whom the strait- waistcoat
is necessary, and that which ends by exhausting all a

THE INEBRIATED FISH. 349

man's strengtli in prostration and debility. Indras,
when drunk, becomes a hero ; the pike when drunk is a
fool (cfr. the Italian matto, English mad, which means
insane, crazy, with the German mat% which means cast
down, exhausted^). When the jorsh has made the pike
drunk, it shuts it in a rick of straw, where the inebriated
fish is to die. Then the bream comes to take the little
perch from among the stones, and to bring him before
the judge. The jorsh demands a judgment of God. He
tells his judges to put him in a net ; if he stays in the
net, he is wrong ; if he comes out, he is right ; the jorsh
jerks about in the net so much that he gets out The
judge acquits him, and gives him entire liberty in the
lake ; then the jorsh begins his numerous revenges upon
the little fishes, proving his astuteness in continual efi'orts
to ruin them.

As the drunkard and the fool now intensify their
strength and now lose it, so they now double and
now lose their intelligence. Hence, among mythical
fishes we find very wise ones and very stupid ones. The
story is very popular of the three fishes of different in-
telligence, of which the lazy and improvident one allows
himself to be caught by the fishermen, whilst his two
companions escape ; it is found in the first book of the
Pancatantram, In the fifth book of the Pancatantram,
a variety occurs : we read of a fish which has the intelli-
gence of a hundred (Qatabuddhis), of one which has the
intelligence of a thousand (Sahasrabuddhis), and of the
frog which has the intelligence of one (Ekabuddhis) ;
but that of the two fishes is not intelligence, but pre-

1 If I am not mistaken, the German words Narr^ fool, and nass,
wet, are in connection with, each other by the same analogy which
gives us the Sanskrit mattas, drunk, and the Latin madidxiSj damp,
from the root mad.

350 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

sumption ; tte one intelligence of the frog is better than
the hundred and the thousand of the fishes. The frog
escapes, but the two fishes fall into the hands of the
fishermen.

The little sea-urchin (and the dwarf Vishnus and the
dolphin are equivalent to it, the word giiigumdras being
equivocal in Sanskrit) in the JRigvedas draws the chariot
of riches ; in the Eddas, a dwarf in the form of a pike
(in Greek lukios, in Latin lucius) watches over gold, and
guards the ring; in Eussian legends, the little jorsh
(formidable, like the josz, by its sharp quills), united
with the dolphins, draws out of the sea the casket con-
taining the sultan's ring. The horn of the moon, which
appears in the sea of night, belongs now to the bull
which carries the fugitive hero, now to the fish japhari,
which, having become large, takes in tow the ship of
Manus, and saves it from the waters, that it -may not be
wrecked. Now it is the solar hero or heroine that takes
the form of a fish to save himself or herself; now the fish
helps the solar hero or heroine in their escape ; now the
little golden or luminous fish plunges into the sea, or
into the river, to seek the pearl or ring for the hero or
heroine who had let it fall, the ring without which King
Dushyantas cannot recognise his bride QakuntaM ; now
it vomits out from its mouth or its tail that which it
has swallowed — ^the hero, the pearl, the ring (the solar
disc).

In the sixth act of ^akuntald, the fisherman finds in
the stomach of a fish (the cyprimis dentatus), the pearl
enchased in the ring which King Dushyantas had given
to QakuntaM, in order to be able to recognise her when
they should come together again. The genera cyprinus
and perca, as the thorny or wounding ones in the order
of fishes, have supplied the greatest number of heroes to

THE DOLPHIN— THE CARP. 351

mythology ; the sea-urchin is identified to them on
account of its darts ; the names lieclit, hrochet, pike,
given to the lucms in Germany, France, and England,
express its faculty of stinging, or cleaving "with its flat
and cutting mouth (the fish lucioperca sandra is an in-
termediate form between the perch and the pike). The
lunar horn, the thunderbolt, the sunbeam, have the same
prerogative as these fishes ; the dolphin, on account of
the two scythe-shaped fins which it has on its anterior
extremity, or of its fat and curved dorsal fin, as well as on
account of its black and silvery colour, might well serve
to represent the two lunar horns and the moon s phases.
Thus the pike and the bream, dark or bluish on their
backs, are white underneath. The dolphin also has a
flat mouth and sharp teeth, like the pike.^ The lunar
horn announces rain ; thus the scythe-shaped fin of the
dolphin, appearing on the waves of the sea, announces a
tempest to navigators, warns them, and saves them from
shipwreck ; hence, as a cinjumaras, it may, like the sea-
urchin, have saved or drawn the chariot, that is, the
vessel of the A9vin^u, laden with riches. The dolphin
which watches over Amphitrite, by order of Poseid6n, in
the Hellenic myth, is the same as the dolphin, the spy of
the sea, or the moon, the spy of the nocturnal and wintry
sky. Inasmuch as the sky of night or winter was com-
pared to the kingdom of the dead, both the dolphin and
the moon, according to the Hellenic belief, carried the
souls of the dead.

The cyprinus, par excellence, the carp (Lat. carpus),

1 A superstitious belief quoted by Pliny concerning the cramp-fish
merits being recorded here : " Mirum quod de Torpedine inveuio si
capta cum Luna in Libra fuerit, triduoque asservetur sub dio, faciles
partus facere postea quoties inferatur.''

352 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

is celebrated, in connection with gold, in an elegant little
Latin poem of Hieronimus Fracastorus. Carpus was the
name of a ferryman of the Lake of Garda, who, seeing
Saturn fleeing, took him for a robber who was carrying gold
away, and endeavoured to despoil him of this gold ; then
Saturn cursed him and his companions in the following
manner : —

'^ Gens inimica Deum dabitur quod poscitis aurum :
Hoc imo sub fonte aurum pascetis avari.
Dixerat : ast illis veniam poscentibus et vox
Deficit, et jam se cernunt mutescere et ora
In rictum late patulum producta deliiscunt,
In pinnas abiere manus ; vestisque rigescit
In sf-iuamas, caudamque pedes sinuantur in imam ;
Qui fuerat subita obductus formidine mansit
Pallidus ore color, quamquam livoris iniqui
Indicium suffusa nigris sunt corpora guttis ;
Carpus aquas, primus numen qui Isesit, in amplas
Se primus dedit et fundo se condidit imo."

From the comparisons which we have made hitherto,
it is impossible not to admit that the enterprise of the
fish Avho seeks the gold or the pearl, who finds it, or who
contains it in himself, is a very ancient Aryan tradition.
In the Vedic hymns we see now Indras, now the Ajvinau,
saving the heroes from shipwreck, and bringing riches to
mankind ; we have also seen the jinyum^ras (sea-urchin,
dolphin, or Vishnus) draw the chariot of the Agvin^u, who
are bringing riches. The Greeks called a fish of a strange
shape by the name now of Zeus, now of chalketis (the
naine given to Hephaistos, or Mulciber, or Vulcanus, the
worker in metals), or blacksmith, whence the name
of ZeusfdbeVy by which it was known to the Latins.
This fish is of a really monstrous shape. Its back is
brownish, with yellow stripes ; the rest of its body is of
a silvery -grey colour ; on its sides it has two spots of the

THE SACRED FISH. 353

deepest black. Its dorsal fin opens like a fan, with rays
going out on all sides, and furnished with strong quills,
which make this prominence resemble a crest. We
remember that the cock and the lark were compared to
Christ and to Christophoros, on account of their crest ;
the same happened in the case of the Zeus faber.-^ The
Italian legend says that those two black spots (which
make the fish's body resemble a forge, whence its name
of blacksmith) were caused by the marks left upon it one
day by St Christopher, while carrying Christ ujDon his
shoulders across the river. The fish which wears the
crest and Christopher are here identified Avith each other.
But this is not all ; at Eome, at Genoa, and at Naples,
this same fish is called the fish of St Peter, because it is
said to be the same fish which was caught by St Peter
in the Gospels, in the mouth of which (as a blacksmith
or chalkelis, it must have known well how to coin money),
by a miracle of Christ's, St Peter found the coin which
was to serve for the tribute. Is it probable that the
legend of the fish with gold in its mouth, so common in
Aryan legends, was current in Judea ? I do not think
so ; inasmuch as petrus and the "petra, upon which Christ
makes a bad Grseco-Latin pun, in connection with the fish,
is another mythical incident which calls me back to the
Aryan world, and tears me away from the Semitic Avorld,
and from childish faith in the Judaic authenticity of the
evangelical story, though without prejudice to my belief
in the holiness of the doctrine.

1 s, V. citulcif Du Cange writes concerning the fish faber or Zeus :
'' Idem forte piscis, quern Galli doream vocant ab aureo laterum colore,
nostri et Hispani Galli Baionenses jau, id est gallum, a dorsi pinnis
surrectis veluti gallorum gallinaceorum cristis." The fish Zeus lives
in solitude ; hence it appears to me to be the same sacred fish, called
anthias, of which Aristotle, in the ninth book of the History of
Animals, says that it lives where no other animal is found.

VOL. II. 2

CHAPTEE 11.

THE CRAB,

SUMMARY

The riddle, how it is a fish, and not a fish. — The crab appears and the
sun goes back ; the crab-moon draws the solar hero back. — The
crane and the crab. — The crab kills the serpent and releases the
solar hero. — The crab draws the chariot. — Palinurus. — The crabs
prick and waken the hero, — The race between the crab and the
fox. — The prince becomes a crab to release his beloved from the
waters. — The nightingale, the stag, and the crab as awakeners. —
The crab as an antidote for the venom of the toad, and as a
remedy for the stone,

Ijs" the eightli Esthonian story, a husband beats his wife
because she is unable to solve the riddle which he pro-
poses, to provide him a fish to eat, which is not a fish,
and which has eyes, but not in its head. The third
brother, the cunning one, recommends his mother to
cook the crab, which lives in the water like a fish, and
which has eyes, but not in its head.

When the sun seems to enter, in the month of June,
into the tropic which bears the sign of the crab (Lat.
cancer ; Gr. harhinos ; Sanskrit, karlcatas, karhas, Tear-
hatahas ; the Hindoo constellation of the crab is called
harhin, or furnished with the crab, in the same way as
the leaping moon, furnished with the hare, is called fapn),
it is said to come back again ; on the fixst day of summer
the days begin to shorten, as on the first, of winter they

THE CRAB. zc^i

begin to lengthen ; the sun in the month of June was
therefore compared to a crab, which retraces its steps, or
was represented as drawn by a crab, which, in this case^
is particularly the moon. "We all know the myth of
Herakles, who, when combatting the hydra of Lerne, was
caught and drawn back by the crab, which Hera, there-
fore, transformed into the celestial constellation of the
crab. In the Pseudo-Callisthenes, Alexander returns in
terror from his jom^ney to the fountain of immortality,
when he sees that the crabs draw his ships back into the
sea. In the same work, we find a crab caught which
contains seven precious pearls ; Alexander has it shut up
in a vase, which is enclosed in a large cage, fastened by
an iron chain ; a fish draws the cage a mile out to sea ;
Alexander, half dead with terror, thanks the gods for the
warning, and so saving his life, persuading himself that
it is not fit to attempt impossible undertakings. In the
seventh story of the first book of the Pancatantram, the
old crane, on the other hand, terrifies the crab and the
fishes by threatening them with a visitation of the gods
in the chariot of Eohini, the red wife of the Lunus, that is,
in the constellation of the Wain or the Bulls (the fourth
lunation of the moon), in consequence of which the rain
will cease to fall, the pond will be dried up, and the crabs
and fishes wiU die ; the fishes allow themselves to be
deceived by the crane, who eats them on the way ; but
the crab, on the contrary, when it has got half way,
perceives the deceit of the crane, kills it, and returns
back again. Professor Benfey has found a variation of
this story in the Buddhist sacred and historical books
of Ceylon. In the ^sopian fables, the crab kiUs the
serpent. In the twentieth story of the first book of the
Pancatantram, the crab causes, at the same time, the
death of the serpent and the crane, by means of the

35*5 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

iclineumon ; the crab, which, walks a little backwards
and a little forwards, when transported into the sky,
causes now the death of the solar hero and now that of
the monster, now delivers the solar hero from the mon-
ster and now drags it into the waters. In the fifteenth
and last story of the fifth book of the Pandatantram, the
young hero Brahmadattas takes, for his companion in his
journey, the crab, who, whilst he sleeps in the shade of
a tree, kills the serpent which comes to kill him. " This
mythical crab, this red animal which kills the serpent, is
sometimes the sun, but, perhaps, oftener it may be com-
pared to the horned moon, which increases and diminishes,
and releases the solar hero, asleep in the shadow of the
night and of the winter, from the black serpent who
endeavours to turn his sleep into death ; Brahmadattas,
when he wakens, recognises the crab as his deliverer.
Thus Ave have already seen the moon considered more
than once, in several forms, as the saviour of the solar
hero and heroine. When the sun falls in the evening,
in the west, it must necessarily go back like the crab, to
reappear in the morning on the same eastern side from
whence it came ; when the sun goes back and the days
grow shorter, after the summer solstice, the crab, in the
Zodiacal cycle, retraces its steps. When the sun goes
back, the moon either rules the darkness of the frigid
night, or in autumn brings on the autumnal rains ; the
horns of the moon, and those of the crab, serve now to
draw the hero into the waters (in the evening, and after
solstice of June), now to draw him out of the waters
(towards dawn and towards spring). The sun is now
represented as having transformed himself into the moon,
and now as having been deceived or saved by the moon.
The sun which retraces its steps is a crab ; the moon
which draws back, or draws out, is also a crab, and, in this

THE CRAB. 357

respect^ seems to hold the same place as the sea-urchin
with the hundred oars, or of the dolphin with the scythe-
shaped fin, which draws the chariot of the solar hero, or
the solar hero himself. In the fable of Kriloff, the crab
draws the chariot with the pike and the heron (the latter
taking the place here of the crane, which we have seen
above in connection with the crab, and which is also
called in Sanskrit by the same name as the crab, that is,
karkatas). It it well known that the sea-crab, Palimtrus
vulgaris, took its name from the pilot Palinurus, who
fell into the sea. In the fourteenth story of the first
book of Afanassieff, the crabs prick and waken the
young hero Theodore (gift of God, an equivalent of
Brahmadattas, given by the god Brahman), put to sleep
by the witch ; they are grateful to the hero, because he
divided the caviare into equal parts among the crabs who
were disputing for it.

We have seen the challenge to a race with the hare
and the locust, the hare and locust both seem to lose
the race. Afterwards we saw the challenge to a trial of
flight of the beetle and the wren with the eagle, in which
the animal that symbolises the moon, on the other hand,
wins the race. Thus, in the same way, as to spring
succeeds June or the month of the crab, we find repre-
sented in the fifth story of the fourth book of Afanassieff
a race between the fox (which, as it symbolises the
twilights of the day, represents also the equinoxes in
the year) and the crab (it is well known that the crab,
Palimiriis vulgaris^ was called by the Latins by the name
of lociista). The crab fastens itself to the fox's tail ; the
latter arrives at the winning-post without knowing of
the crab's presence ; the fox then turns round to see
whether his opponent is far ofi*, upon which the crab,
letting go the fox's brush and dropping quietly on the

3SS ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

ground, looks up and placidly remarks that it lias been
waiting for some time.

In the first of the Esthonian stories, the young prince,
in order to release from the waters his beloved, who had
become a water-rose, by the eagle's advice takes off his
clothes, covers himself with mud, and holding his nose
between his fingers, snivels out, " From a man, a crab ; "
then he instantly becomes a crab, and goes to draw the
water-rose out of the water, to bring it to shore near a
stone, at Avhich, when arrived, he says, " From the water-
rose, the maiden ; from the crab, the man." (This myth
appears to represent the amours of the sun as a female,
with the moon as a male.) I observe that among the
Sanskrit meanings of the word harhatas, which means a
crab, there is that of a heap of water-roses, or a heap of
lotuses.

We have already seen the nightingale and the stag as
images representing the moon ; here we also find a crab
as a lunar figure. The moon is the watcher of night ;
either it sleeps with its eyes open like the hare, or it is
watchful like the stag, or, as a nightingale, it justifies
the Greek proverb of the watchers who sleep less than
the nightingales (oud' hoson Aedones lipnoousin), 01% as
crab, it wakens up with its claws those who are asleep
and menaced by any danger/ In Pliny we find the
nightingale, the stag, and the crab in concord ; he in-

^ We know that lynx's eyes, or lyns-like eyes, mean very sharp-
sighted ones; ancient physicians recommended against the stone or the
disease of the gravel, now the lyncurium, the stone which was sup-
posed to be made of the urine of the lynxes, given by India to Bacchus,
according to Ovid's expression, and now crab's eyes. The moon
destroys with its light the stone-sky, the sky of night \ hence crab's
eyes are recommended against the disease of the stone. When the
moon is not in the sky of night, the stone is there.

THE CRAB, 359

forms us that crab's eyes, with the nightingale's flesh,
tied up in a stag's skin, are useful to keep a man awake.
The moon, in fact, not only herself watches, but makes
men watch, or prolong their vigils ; we know, moreover,
of the excitement with which her presence agitates the
quail, which cannot sleep when the moon shines in the
sky. Pliny also recommends the river-crab, cut in pieces
and drunk, as a remedy against any poison, but especially
against the venom projected by the toad. In the Reis-
terhac. Hist MiracuL, we read of a man named Theodoric,
and surnamed Cancer, that the devil persecuted him in
the form of a toad ; he kills the diabolical toad more
than once, but it always rises again ; then Cancer,
recognising the devil in this form, forms a heroic resolu-
tion, uncovers one of his thighs, and lets himself be
bitten ; the thigh inflames, but he is cured at last, and
from that day forward he is and continues a holy man.
German superstition, therefore, combines with Grseco-
Latin to consider the crab as an enemy of the monster ;
but as in Grseco-Latin beliefs, besides the crab which
awakens, there is also, as we have seen, the crab which
seeks to ruin the solar hero, so in Germanic mythical
tradition, the death of the solar and- diurnal hero Baldur
takes place, when the sun enters the Zodiacal sign of
Cancer.

CHAPTEK HI.

THE TOKTOISE.

.SUMMARY.

Equivoque between the words Icacchapas and Tcapjcfpas (by the inter-
mediate form, Izac^afaB). — Explanation of the myth of the produc-
tion of the ambrosia, by means of the mandaras. — Mantharas as a
tortoise. — Kllrmas. — Kaddhapas the lord of the shores. — The
tortoise and the elephant. — Kagyapas as Pra^apatis. — Somas and
)Savitar. — Kagyapas and the thirteen daughters of Dakshas ; Dak-
sha^a. — The funereal tortoise and the frog. — The tortoise and the
lyre ; the Schild-krote ; the shields of the Kureti ; ka66has,
kaddhapi ; kurmas as a poet and as a wind. — The tortoise and
the warriors.- — The shields fallen from the sky. — The demoniacal
tortoise. — The tortoise as an island. — The hare and the tortoise. —
The tortoise defeats the eagle.

Of the three principal Hindoo names of the tortoise,
Mirmas, hacchajpas, and Jcapyapas, the third alone, in
connection Avith the second, seems to have any import-
ance in the history of myths. The expression Mrmas
is the word usually employed to designate the real tortoise,
Avhilst the expression hapjapas gave rise to mythical
equivoques, which deserve to be observed.

We know of the famous incarnation of Vishnus as a
tortoise, treated of in the KHrma P, The problem was
to stir up the ocean of milk to make ambrosia; the sea
had no bottom, inasmuch as the earth had as yet no
existence; to stir up the waters of the ocean, something

KA^AFAS, KAddHAFAS, KACYAFAS. z^i

of colossal size was needed ; the gods had recourse to
the mandaras, which was made to serve for the purpose,
as the king of the rods, kagapas; the gods and the
demons shook the rod, and the ambrosia came forth ; no
sooner was the ambrosia produced, than the world of
animated beings began to be created. The character of
this cosmogony is preternaturally phallical; the white
froth of the sea (born of the genital organs of Ouranos,
castrated by his son Kronos), whence Aphrodite rises,
and the cosmic ambrosia, being nothing else than the
genital sperm. At a later period a mountain was seen in
the mandaras, and the words hagapas and kacchapas
(subsequently changed into kagyapas) being confused,
the king of the rods or phallos, par excellence, was con-
verted into a tortoise. The mandaras (from the root
mand-mad, to inebriate, to make joyful), however, might
mean the agitator, that which makes joyful ; but as
from mad is derived the word matsyas, the fish now
drunken, now stupid, so the word mandaras also has,
for its proper meanings, slow and large, and is closely
connected with mandas, which, besides slow, lazy, soft,
also means drunken ; with mandakas, foolish ; and with
mandanas, merry ; and, as such, we can understand how
there Avas in the celestial Paradise, in the mandanas or mak-
ing joyful, the tree mandaras, the inebriating. Finally, it
is connected with manthanas, the agitator, and identified
with mantharas, which also means the agitator, the sIoav,
and the lazy. But there is also another analogy which
ofi'ers us the means of understanding how the equivoque
of kagapas, confased with kacchapas, and which after-
wards became kagyapas or tortoise, became popular, just
through the word Mrmas, which, as we have said, means
a tortoise. When the mandaras or mantharas was con-
ceived of as a producer of ambrosia, tbey soon identified

Z^2 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

the mantharas itself (the slow, the late, the curved) with
the tortoise ; in fact, mantharas is the name given to a
tortoise in the Hitopadegas, and the name manthara-
has is applied to another, in Somadevas and in the
[PaTicatantram, Considered simply as the slow and the
curved, the thought of the tortoise, which answers this
description, naturally arose in connection with the name ;
the primitive myth became complicated, and the man-
daras and the kagapas, which were originally one and
same, were at length distinguished from each other, the
kacapas, at first a ka9yapas or kacchapas or tortoise, and,
vice versa, the mandaras or mantharas also ; the words
in course of time lost their primitive meaning, the man-
daras (as the slow one) became a mountain (which does
not move), and the kagapas a tortoise, supporting the
mountain, at once vast, ponderous, and inert. As it
often happens in mythology that two distinct person-
alities spring out of two names at first applied to the
same mythical object or being, and both being names
Avhich indicate something heavy, it was surmised that
the one heavy thing carried the other, and that the heavy
tortoise, into which the god Vishnus transformed himself,
sustained the weight of the heavy mountain placed upon
it by his alter ego Indras. The ideas of weighty and
curved being united in both the mandaras and the
kagapas, the tortoise, as klirmas, serves well for this
office of a carrier, an assertion I venture to make, inas-
much as in hUr-mas I think I can recognise the same
root which appears in the Sanskrit giir-u-s, fem. gur-v-i,
superlat. gar-ishth-a-s (Lat gra~v-is, from garvis), and
in the Latin curvus}

As for the name of kacchapas, to which the equivocal

^ Cfr. tile Sanskrit roots, har, Iciir, yur, gilr.

THE TORTOISE, LORD OF THE SHORES. 363

Hindoo epithet of kagyapas, applied to the tortoise^
should be referred, it properly means the lord, the
guardian of the shores, he who occupies the shores, and
is a perfectly apt designation for the tortoise, and an
expression d propos to what is related of it in the legend
quoted by us in the chapter on the elephant. Both
animals (sun and moon) frequent the banks of the same
lake, and have conceived a mortal dislike one for the
other, continuing in their brutal forms the quarrel which
existed between them when they were not only two men
but two brothers. As the elephant and the tortoise both
frequent the shores of the same lake, they mutually annoy
each other, renewing and maintaining in mythical zoology
the strife which subsists between the two mythical brothers,
who fight with each other for the kingdom of heaven,
either in the form of twilights, or of equinoxes, or of sun
and moon, or of twilight and sun, or of twilight and moon,
in any of the various interpretations which can, all with
same basis of truth, be given to the myth of the A9vin^u,
according to their appearance among celestial phenomena,
which, although distinct, have nevertheless a great resem-
blance. In this particular mythical struggle between
the tortoise and the elephant, terminated by the bird
garudas, who carries them both up into the air in order
to devour them, the tortoise and the elephant seem,
however, especially to personify the two twilights of
the day and the two twilights of the year — that is, the
equinoxes, or the sun and the moon in the crejauscular
hour, the sun and the moon in the equinoctial day, upon
the banks of the great heavenly lake.

But, in the legend contained in the Mahdhhdratam ^
of the tortoise and the elephant carried into the air by

1 i. 1353-1456.

364 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGy.

the Vishnuitic bird, there is still another interesting
circumstance or variation, which corroborates the cosmic
interpretation of the mjrth of the tortoise now proposed
by me. The divine Kagyapas is mentioned in it; he
desires to have a son, and therefore has himself served
by the gods (since it is the gods who make the mandaras,
the producer of ambrosia, turn round) in the sacrifice
adapted to produce children. The phallical Indras
carries on his shoulders a mountain of wood, which evi-
dently corresponds to the mandaras or kaga-pas, and, on
the way, ofi'ends the dwarf hermits born of the hairs of
the body of Brahman, that is, the hairs themselves ; to
this Kagyapas, the name of Pra^apatis or lord of genera-
tion is given. We here again meet with the monstrous
phallos which produces the ambrosia (or the Somas to
which corresponds Savitar, the generator and the lord of
the creatures ^) and generates living beings in the world.
Kagyapas being considered as the generator, he was
therefore placed in relation with the movements of the
moon and the sun, who are also generators (as Somas and
Savitar) ; and it is in this respect that Kagyapas also
appears as the foecundator of the thirteen daughters of
Dakshas, who correspond to the thirteen months of the
lunar year (Daksha^a is the name of a lunar asterism and
of the wife of a phallical Qivas, and dakshag^patis one of
the Hindoo names given to the moon ; Dakshas is also
identified with Pra^'apatis ; whence Kagyapas must have
united himself, probably as the phallical moon, with his
own daughters, or with his thirteen lunations). Of the
thirteen wives made fruitful by Kagyapas, everything
that lives was bom, — gods, demons, men, and beasts, — so

1 Savit^ vii prasavanimigo. — Ait. Br. The story of Cunaligepas ;
he appears evidently as a form of Pra^lpatis.

THE BURIED TORTOISE. 365

that in the cosmogony of the mandaras, of the Kajapas,
and hence of the tortoise, the mandaras, when shaken,
produced the phallical ambrosia, of which all animated
things were spontaneously generated.

But the tortoise, taken in connection with the moon,
sometimes also had a funereal signification. The souls
of the dead go into the world of the moon, into the sky
of night, and the souls of the living descend from the
world of the moon, that is, from the night ; Qivas, the
god of Paradise, becomes the destroying god ; Plutus and
Pluto are identified. Thus, in a note of Professor Haugh
to the Aitareya Br,, I think I can recognise the tortoise,
as representing in particular the dying moon, the burnt-
up moon, which has the fire of spring for its tomb, round
whose corpse the moon also moves in the here equivalent
form of a frog (being haris, which means both yellow
and green), and who is herself afterwards turned out.
We know how Haris or Vishnus now represents the sun
and now the moon (the sun and the moon, as Indras and
Somas, were called together rakshohanau or monster-
killers), is identified now with the tortoise, now with the
bird garudas, the enemy of the tortoise. Here is, how-
ever, the note of Professor Haugh : "At each Atiratra of
the Gav^m ayanam the so-called Chayana ceremony
takes place. This consists in the construction of the
Uttara Vedi (the northern altar) in the shape of an
eagle. About 1440 bricks are required for this structure,
each being consecrated with a separate Yagusmantra,
This altar represents the universe. A tortoise is buried
alive in it, and a living frog carried round it and after-
wards turned out." According to Pliny, the blood of a
tortoise is an antidote to the venom of a toad (in the same
way as the hare and a stag s horn is also recommended
as of similar efficacy on the old principle of similia

o

66 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

simiUbus ; the hare is the moon, the stag's horn the moon's
horn ; the blood of the killed tortoise would appear to
represent the moon itself as in a manner chasing the gloom
of night away). The tortoise is also found in connection
with frogs in a fable of Abstemius ; the tortoise envies the
frogs, who can move rapidly, but ceases to complain when
it sees them become the prey of the eel.

One of the ten stars of the constellation of the tortoise,
situated in the northern heavens — that is, in the cloudy
and gloomy autumnal sky, and therefore especially
ruled by the moon — was called the lyre by the Greeks,
and it was fabled that the tortoise of which Hermes had
made the lyre, had been transfigured into it. I may
remark here that the German name for the tortoise is
Schild-krote (toad with shields), that the Koribantes^
produced their noisy music, and accompanied their
P}Trhic dances with kettledrums and the sound of arms,
and that the Kureti, in order to conceal from Kronos the
birth of Zeus, struck their shields with their lances. It
is interesting to observe, that in Sanskrit also, kacchas is
the name given to the little shields of the tortoise or
kacchapas ; that kacchapi is the term applied to the noise
of the thundering Sarasvati, or the thunder ; that several
Vedic poets are called Kacyapas ; that Klirmas (another
designation of the tortoise) is also the name of the Vedic
poet, the son of Gritsamadas, and also an epithet applied
to the flatus ventris, which is compared to a clap of
thunder (Cfr. the roots kar, kur, gar, gitr). In the

^ The Koribantes remind us of the Salii of the Latins, to whom
Numa gives the arms and the words, to be sung leaping. According to
Ovid's distich —

" Jam dederat Salii (a saltu nomina ducunt)
Armaque et ad certos verba canenda modos."

—Fasti, iii. 389.

THE SHIELDS OF THE TORTOISE. 367

chapter on the ass, we saw \K\^ flatus compared to the
noise of a trumpet or a kettle-drum ; here we have the
thunderbolts that strike upon the shields, the spots of the
celestial tortoise, of the rainy moon, upon the clouds,
attracted by or formed from the moon's spots, that is,
which produce the thunder. According to the Hellenic
myth, the tortoise obtained from Zeus himself — that is,
from the pluvial god, from the god of the clouds, the god
in connection with the shield-clouds which concealed his
birth, and we may add, from the god tortoise, — ^the power
of concealing itself under shields, and of carrying its house
along with it. The Eomans were accustomed to bathe
new-born babes in the concavity of a tortoise, as if in a
shield. It was predicted that Clodius Albinus would one
day attain to sovereign power, because, when he was born,
an enormous ' tortoise was brought to his father by some
fishermen. The tortoise protects Zeus, the new-born
warrior-god ; the tortoise, on account of its shields,
makes the new-born child a warrior, and predicts
dominion to him ; my well-informed readers will re-
member how a shield, fallen from the sky, presaged to
the Eomans the glories they should achieve as a warlike
people, according to Ovid's verses —

"... Totum jam sol emerserat orbein :

Et gravis setherio venit ab axe fragor.
Ter tonuit sine nube Deus, tria fulgura misit.

Credite dicenti : mira sed acta loquor.
A media coelum regione dehiscere coepit :

Submisere oculos cum duce turba suo.
Ecce levi scutum versatum leniter aura

Decidit : a populo clamor ad aatra venit."

Under this aspect the tortoise becomes the dark moon
in opposition to the luminous one, the slow moon, in
opposition to the jumping one. Being slow or tardigrade,

368 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

in the myths the tortoise is the moon, but the winter
one ; and sometimes it becomes also now the cloud, now
the earth, now even the darkness (as such it appears
demoniacal in a German legend, where two devils who
have assumed the forms of monstrous tortoises, prevent
the foundations of the cathedral church of Merseburg from
being laid ; the tortoises are exorcised, and their bodies
slain, in memory of Avhich circumstance it is said that
the cups of these tortoises are preserved, hung up in the
church ; in the fourteenth fargard of the Vendidad, too,
the tortoises are, as demoniacal, to be killed). We have
seen in the first chapter of the first book, the hare-
moon passed over and crushed by the cow's waggon,
suggesting to us the cloud (as the moon, now a bridge,
now an island of the sky, as sea), which passes over the
moon, but he perhaps, again, of the eclipse of the moon
by the means of the earth, which is also called a cow
in Sanskrit, In Sanskrit, the earth, which comes out of
Avaters — an island ^ (as the moon and the cloud) — is also
called by the name of ktirmas, i.e., a tortoise (properly the

1 It is interesting in this connection to find in the translation of
Lane a passage from the Agdib-el-MalchlooJcdt (Marvels of Creation), a
work of the thirteenth century : " The tortoise is a sea and land
animal. As to the sea tortoise it is very enormous, so that the
people of the ship imagine it to be an island. One of the merchants
relates as follows regarding it: ^We found in the sea an island elevated
above the water, having upon it green plants, and we went forth to it,
and dug [holes for fire] to cook ; whereupon the island moved, and the
sailors said, " Come ye to your place, for it is a tortoise, and the heat
of the fire hath hurt it, lest it carry you away." By reason of the
enormity of its body,' said he [i.e., the narrator above mentioned], *it
was as though it were an island, and earth collected upon its back in
the length of time, so that it became like land, and produced plants.' "
Evidently here the tortoise occupies the same place as, in popular tradi-
tion, the lunar whale recorded by us in the chapter on the Fishes. Cfr.
Lane, The Thousand aiid One Nights, Londorij 1841, vol. iii chap. xx.

THE TORTOISE AND THE EAGLE. 369

curved, the humped, the eminent, the prominent ; man-
tharas is a name given to the tortoise, and Manthar4 is
the name of the humpbacked woman who causes the
ruin of K4mas in the Edmdyanam). Hence we also
have in the West, besides the fables of the leaping hare
(the moon) and the cow, of the leaping locust (the mpon)
and the ant, the apologue of the hare and the tortoise
who run together ; the hare, relying on. its swiftness, falls
asleep and loses, while the tortoise by steady persever-
ance wins the race.

We have already seen the tortoise in the Hindoo
legends as the rival of the eagle or the Vishnuitic bird
Garudas. The two are now identified and now fight
against each other (we must remember that it was by the
advice of Ka9yapas that the bird Garudas ravished the
ambrosia from the serpents). In Greece, the proverb of
the tortoise which vanquishes the eagle, was already
diffused ; now it is the eagle which carries the tortoise
into the air, or rather makes it fly, now it is, on the
other hand, the tortoise which defies the eagle to arrive
first. It is interesting to compare with this the Siamese
apologue published by A. Bastian in the Orient unci
Occident, of evidently Hindoo origin. The bird Khruth,
no doubt a limited and particular form of Garudas, wishes
to eat a tortoise (here perhaps the moon) which lies upon
the shore of a lake. The tortoise consents to be eaten,
under the condition that the Khruth accepts a challenge
to a trial of speed, and arrives soonest on the other side
of the lake, the bird to go through the air, and the tortoise
through the water. The bird Khruth accepts the wager ;

n. 1 and 8, p. 80 seq. — Grein, Bibliotheh der angelsdclisisclieii Foesie,
Gottingen, 1857, 1, 235, the Celtic legend of St Brandan and the
Pseudo-CalUsthenes.

VOL. II. 2 A

370 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

then the tortoise calls together millions and millions of
tortoises, and places them all in such a way that they
surround the lake, each distant a few steps from the
water. Then it gives the signal to the bird to commence
the race. The Khruth rises into the air, and flees to the
opposite bank ; wherever he essays to alight, he finds
the tortoise has been there before him. (This myth
represents, perhaps, the relation of the sun to the luna-
tions).

CHAPTER IV.

IHE FKOG, THE LACERTA VIHTDIS, AND THE TOAD.
SUMMARY.

The mindukas or frogs as clouds in the Rigvedas. — Bhekas. — The
froff announces the summer ; the canta-rana announces Christ. —
The serpent, the hero, and the frog. — The frog and the ox. —
Dionysos and the frogs. — Indras and the frogs. — The dumb frogs.
— Proserpina and the frog. — Eana cum gryllo. — The frog finds
the sultan's ring. — The frog and the rook. — The frog as the
serpent's daughter. — The demoniacal frog. — The yellow and the
green frog. — The beautiful maiden as a frog. — The demoniacal
toad. — The sacred toad. — The beautiful maiden as a toad. — The
toad in Tuscany, in Sicily, and in Germany. — The handsome
youth as a toad. — Women who gave birth to toads. — The venom-
ous and the alexipharmic toad. — Krote and Schildkrote. — The
toad swallows the dew. — The stone of tl?e frog. — The horned
lizard. — Eidechse, hagedisse. — Apollo as sauroktanos. — The lizard
on St Agnes's Day. — The little lizards must not be killed in Sicily,
being intercessors before the Lord. — The amphisbhsena. — The
lacerta viridis. — The coideuvre as a good fairy.

I AM sorry to be unable to concur entirely in the opinion
of the illustrious Professor Max Muller, when, in trans-
lating a hymn of the Rigvedas, in his History of Ancient
Sanskrit Literature, he remarks, ''The 103d hymn, in
the seventh Mandalam, which is called a panegyric of
the frogs, is clearly a satire on the priests." It is possihle
that at a later period, in deriding a br^hmanic school
similar to that of the mandtikas, a satirical sense would

372 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

have been ascribed to this hymn, but it does not seem to
me that the intention of the author of the Vedic hymn
was such. Professor Max Muller has shown well in his
History how the Vedic hymns have suffered in the hands
of the Br^hmans, by means of their arbitrary interpreta-
tions ; the interesting story of the hypothetical god Kas
is a very convincing proof of it ; it is, therefore, possible,
and even probable, that attempts were made to use this
Vedic hymn as an arrow for satire ; but if I am not mis-
taken, no trace of a satirical meaning can be found in the
hymn itself Above all, I must observe that the Anukra-
manik^ of the liigvedas properly calls the hymn only
par^anyastutis, or hymn in honour of Par^anyas, the
hymn of the tempest ; secondly, it scarcely seems possible
that a satirical hymn, intended to caricature the priests,
should be inserted in the seventh book, which is attri-
buted to Vasishtas, the most religious of all the legendary
Br^hmans, and he who, for the glory of Brahmanism and
the rights of the sacerdotal caste, maintained such a pro-
tracted and disastrous war against Vicv^mitras, the
champion of the warrior race ; hence, if a satirical hymn
against priests had been found in the third book of the
jRigvedas, ascribed to the wise Vigv^mitras, I should not
have thought it so strange, whilst it would be misplaced
in the hymns said to be written by Vasishtas. To me it
seems rather that, when speaking of frogs, the hymn does
not allude to the frogs of the earth, but to the clouds, the
cloud-frogs, attracted by the pluvial moon, whilst the
tempest is at its height. We know that in the liigvedas,
the wives of the gods weave hymns in honour of the
lightning and thundering god Indras, who has killed the
monster serpent which kept back the waters of the
heavenly cloud ; we have also, in the first chapter of the
first book, heard the cows lowing and exulting joyfully

THE CLOUD-FROGS. 373

before their deliverer Inclras, who lets his seed drop in
the midst of them as soon as they are released from the
cave where they were imprisoned. In the seventh book,
the hymns 101 and 102 are sung in honom* of Indras as
Par^anyas ; the hymn 103 is also sung in his honour, but
by the clouds of the sky themselves, by the celestial frogs,
inasmuch as the frog which croaks, when transported into
the sky, is nought else then the thundering cloud ; in
fact, in Sanskrit the word hlielas, which means frog, has
also the meaning of cloud. We have seen that the cuckoo
who sings in spring, and admonishes the tillers of the soil
to begin their work, personifies the thunder in the sky :
the frog has the same office ; it, like the thunder, an
nounces the approaching tempest. And because, when
the first claps of thunder are heard, it is the summer which
announces its coming, so the frog that croaks and the frog
that sings served specially to announce the summer. I
remember that, a few years ago, there still existed at
Turin, among children, the custom of sounding in the
Holy Week (in order to greet the approaching festival of
the resurrection of Christ, who died amongst flashes of
lightning and peals of thunder) a wooden instrument,
which emitted a sharp squeak resembling the croaking
of a frog, and which was therefore called canta-rana
(the frog sings). It was also the custom on Easter Eve
to strike all the doors violently with sticks, as if to re-
produce under another form the sound of the canta-rana.
According to Pliny, the frogs die in winter, and are born
again in spring ; when the frogs ask for a king, and
obtain, in the Greek fable ^ a serpent, and in the Eussian

1 Cfr. the first story of tlie fourtli book of tlie PanSatantram, Avhere
the king of the frogs invokes the help of a black serpent to avenge
himself upon certain frogs who are his enemies, and, instead of this,
draws down death upon all the frogs and upon his own son.

374 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

fable of KriloflF a heron, the serpent and the heron sym-
bolise the autumnal and wintry seasons. IndraS; Zeus,
and Christ are born and born again amid the noise of
musical instruments, shields, arms, winds and thunder,
among the lowing of cows, the bleating of goats, the
braying of asses, and the croaking of frogs, called by
Aristophanes philddon genos. In the 103d hymn of the
seventh book of the jRigvedas, one mandtikas (frog or
cloud) lows like a cow (gom^yus) ; another like a goat
(a^amayus) ; one is prignis, or variegated ; another
haritas, or fair-haired, golden, red (the cloud born by the
lightning and the violence of the wind), and, as a frog,
green or grey ; the mandlikas or frog being transported
into the sky, or identified, as a ^om^yus, with the cow,
it is no wonder that, in the fable, the frog has the pre-
sumption of thinking it can inflate itself to the size of an
ox ; but when the little cloud has become a large one, it
ends by bursting, and so does the frog in his attempt to
distend himself and become as large as the ox. (In the
eighteenth Esthonian story, we find a monster who has a
body like that of an ox, and feet like those of a frog.)
When Indras and Zeus have accomplished their work in
the celestial cloud, when the cloud has passed away and
dispersed, when the frogs are drunk with water, they
cease their croaking ; thus, in the Frogs of Aristophanes,
when Dionlisos (ntiseios Dios) has passed the Stygian
marsh, they stop croaking ; whilst Zeus, on the other hand,
floods the earth with water, they (Dios pheugontes
ombron) retire into the depths of the waters to dance in
chorus (as the ap-sar4s). On the other hand, before the
pluvial god satisfies their desires, before it rains, they
croak incessantly; the thunder always makes itself
heard before the rain, and at the outbreak of the tempest ;
hence, in the JRigvedas itself, Indus (the moon), as a

THE MOON AND THE FROG, 375

bringer of rain (or the rain itself), is implored to run and
plead Avith Indras, the pluvial god, to satisfy the desire
of the frog/ Here, therefore, it is esjDecially Indus who
satisfies the frogs' desire for rain. Indus, as the moon,
brings or announces the somas, or the rain ; the frog, croak-
ing, announces or brings the rain ; and at this point the
frog, which we have seen identified at first with the cloud,
is also identified with the pluvial moon. Another charac-
teristic of the frog made this identification all the more
natural, and that was, its green colour (harit). By the
word Jiarit (which, as we, several times, have remarked,
means yellow and green in Sanskrit) not only the moon,
but the green parrot was designated, and also the frog.
The identification having been efi*ected, the Greeks could
then relate fables concerning the frog of the Island of
Seriphos (batrachos ek Seriphou),. which was dumb ; so
in the Lives of St Eegulus and St Benno,. we read that
when these two saints, as they preached the Christian
faith, were annoyed by the croaking of the frogs, they
ordered the frogs to be silent, and they became dumb for
ever. In truth, the frogs are silent (and even die, accord-
ing to Pliny) in winter, which is under the especial
dominion of the silent moon ; the frog and the moon
are exchanged one for the other. In Ovid, the meta-
morphosis of the frog is made to enter into the lunar
myth, that is, into the myth of Proserpina ; it was the
form of the frog which certain peasants of Lycia assumed
who dirtied the water of which Ceres and Proserpina
wished to drink ; their croaking (coax) is the punish-
ment to which the goddesses condemned them, because
in those waters they had emitted a vile sound from

1 Vir in manduka i<;hatindrayendo pari srava ; Rigv, ix.
112.

376 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

their mouths.^ Another proof of the identity of the frog
with the moon is the Latin proverb, " Rana cum gryllo,"
which afterAvards served to represent two opposite things,
but which, in fact, are the same, on account of their
shrill voice, their way of hopping, and their common
mythical connection with the leaping moon. "We are
reminded of the moon and the cloud in the war waged
between the frogs and the mice, who are mutually
destroying each other until the falcon comes with impar-
tiality to annihilate botk We are, moreover, reminded
of the little goldfish, the fair-haired moon, and the pike, in
the frog which, in the Tiiti-Name, finds the sultan's
ring, which had fallen into the river, for the young hero,
in gratitude to him for having saved it from the serpent
who was about to devour it ; it is said that both the frog
and the serpent were two fairies who, freed from their
curse, united themselves to protect the young hero (the
new sun). In the twenty-third Mongol story, the golden
frog (the moon) is dancing ; the rook (the night) carries
it off to eat it ; the frog recommends it to wash it in
Avater; the rook is taken in, and the frog, like the jorsh
of Eussian stories, succeeds in escaping ; this frog is said
to be the daughter of the prince of the dragons, who
watches over the pearl. As the daughter of a serpent,
the golden frog (the moon), when it is darkened, itself
appears as a diabolical serpent or pythoness, and is more
like a toad than a frog ; then it becomes, according to
Sadder, a meritorious service to kill the frogs : " Eanas
si interfecerit aliquis quicunque fortis eorum adversarius,
ejus quidem merita propterea erunt mille et ducenta.
Aquam eximat eamque removeat et locum siccum faciat

^ A similar tradition was current concerning the tarantula (stellio).
Ceres, being thirsty, wished to drink ; the boy Stelles prevented her,
and the goddess transformed him into a stellio. According to Ulpianus,
from the stellio was derived the crimen stellionaius.

THE MAIDEN-FROG. 377

et turn eas necabit a capite ad calcem. Hinc Diaboli
damnum percipientes maximum flebunt et ploratum
edent copiosissimum."

In the second Calmuc story of Siddhiklir, two dragons
who keep back the river which irrigates the earth and
makes it fruitful, and who eat a man every year, assume
the form of frogs (one yellow and the other green), and
speak to one another of the way in which they can be
killed. The king's son understands their language, and
kills them, helped by a poor friend of his, with whom he en-
riches himself, but only to encounter (like the two mythical
brothers) the most dangerous adventures afterwards.

But the diabolical form of a frog is sometimes assumed
by the beautiful maiden (or else by the handsome youth)
as the effect of a malediction or an enchantment. Thus
it is in the interesting twenty-third story of the second
book of Afanassieff. There is a Tzar who has three
sons ; each son must shoot an arrow ; where the arrow
falls, each brother will find his predestined wife. The
two eldest brothers marry in this way two beautiful
women ; the arrow of the youngest brother Ivan, how-
ever, is taken up by a frog, whom he is oblige to marry.
The Tzar wishes to see which of the three brides makes
the handsomest present to her husband. All three give
their husbands a shirt, but that of the frog is the most
beautiful ; for whilst Ivan sleeps (that is, in the night),
she casts her skin, becomes the beautiful Helen (generally
the aurora, but here, it Avould seem, the same transformed
into the good fairy moon), and orders her attendants to
prepare the finest shirt possible ; she then again becomes
a frog. The Tzar (a truly patriarchal Tzar) then wishes
to see which of his three daughters-in-law bakes bread
best ; the first two brides know not what to do, and send
secretly to see what the frog does ; the frog, who sees all,

378 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

understands the trick, and bakes the bread badly on pur-
pose ; afterwards, Avhen she is alone and Ivan asleep, she
again becomes the beautiful Helen, and orders her attend-
ants to bake a loaf such as those which her father ate only
on feast-days. The loaf of the frog is pronounced the best.
Lastly, the Tzar wishes to see which of his daughters-in-
law dances best. Ivan is sorrowful, thinking that his
bride is a frog ; but Helen consoles him, sending him to
the ball, where she will join him ; Ivan rejoices to think
that his wife has the gift of speech, and goes to the ball ;
the frog takes her robes off, becomes the beautiful Helen
once more, dresses herself splendidly, comes to the ball,
and all exclaim as they pass by her (as to the Homeric
Helen), "How beautiful ! " They first sit down to table
to eat ; Helen takes bones in one hand, and water in the
other; her sisters-in-law do the same. Then the ball
begins. Helen throws water from one hand, and groves
and fountains spring up ; and bones (we remember a
similar virtue in the bones of the cow) from the other,
from which birds flutter upward (the same is narrated in
a story I heard in Piedmont when a child). Meanwhile,
Ivan runs home to burn the frog's skin. Helen returns
home, can no longer become a frog, and is sorrowful ; she
goes with Ivan to bed, and awakening at morn, says to
him, " Ivan Tzarevid, thou hast not bq^n patient enough;
I would have been thine ; now, as God wills it, Farewell !
Seek me in the twenty-seventh earth, in the thirtieth
kingdom" (z.e., in my opinion, in hell, in the night into
which the moon and the aurora descend, and whence the
moon comes out again and renews itself after twenty-seven
days ; the Eussian story is evidently a variety of the fable
of Cupid and Psyche).^ She then disappears. Ivan goes

^ Cfr. also Afanassieff, vi. 55; Masha (Alary), the wife of Ivan, at first
appears as a goose, afterwards as a frog, a lizard, and a spindle.

THE TOAD. 379

to seek his bride at the dwelling of the frog's mother, who
is a witch ; he takes from her the spindle which spins gold,
throws part of it before him, and the rest behind. Helen
appears once more, and the pair flee away upon the carpet
which flies by itself. Here the helped aurora and the
helping moon are assimilated.

But in popular stories the hero and heroine assume by
witchcraft, instead of the form of a dark frog, that of a
toad, and sometimes that of a horned lizard/ whence the
verse of Mehun—

"Boterauls et couleuvres, visions de deables."

Inasmuch as the toad is a form proper to the demon, it
is feared and hunted ; inasmuch as, on the contrary, it is
considered as a diabolical form imposed ' by force upon a
divine or princely being, it is respected and venerated as
a sacred animal. In Tuscany it is considered by the
peasants a sacrilege to kill a toad. A low Tuscan song
heard by me at Santo Stefano di Calcinaia records the
transformation of the beautiful maiden into a toad ; the
mother toad speaks to her daughter to console her, in-
spiring her with the hope of being soon married to the
king's son —

" Botta, gragna,-
11 figlio del re che poco ti ama
Se non t'ama, t'amer^,
Quando per isposa lui t'avra."

^ In the eighth story of the first book of the Pentamerone it is a
lacerta cornuta (horned lizard, the moon) which watches over the
destiny of the girl Eenzolle (the aurora).

2 It was thus that I heard it recited, but it should, as it appears to
me, be corrected both in rhyme and sense, and gragna changed into
grama, unless gragna is a verb and stands for grandina (hail) ; in
Italy, there is a superstitious belief that the toads are generated of the
first large drops of rain which fall into the dust at the beginning of a
tempest. ^

38o ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

(Wretched toad ! the king's son, who little loves thee,
if he love thee not, will love thee when he has thee for
his wife.) The prince weds the toad, which is imme-
diately transformed into a beautiful maiden. With
regard to the superstitions concerning the toad current in
Sicily, it is interesting to note what my friend Giuseppe
Pitre writes to me — "The toad brings fortune ; he who
is not fortunate must provide himself Avith a toad and
feed it in his house ^ upon bread and wine, a consecrated
nourishment, inasmuch as it is alleged toads are either
'lords' or 'women from without,' or ' uncomprehended
genii,' or 'powerful fairies,' who have fallen under some
malediction. Hence they are not killed, nor even
molested, lest when offended they should come at night
to spit Avater upon the offender's eyes, Avhich never

^ A similar superstition is current in Germany, as I find in Kocli-
lioltz, the work quoted before, i. 147 : "Auch die Hauskrote, Unke,
Mulime genannt, wohnt im Hauskeller und halt durch ihren Einfluss
die hier verwahrten Lebensmittel in einem gedeihlichen Zustand.
Dadurch kommt Wohlstand ins Haus, und das Thier heisst daher
Schatzkr(5te. In Verwechslung mit dem braunachwarzen Kellermolch
wird sie auch Gmohl genannt und soil eben so oft ihre Farbe veran-
dern, als der Faniilie cine Veranderung bevorsteht." — The various
popular superstitions concerning the salamander are well known, — viz.,
that it resists the power of fire, that it lives in fire, that it becomes
like fire: "immo ad ignem usque elenientarem orbi lunari finitimum
ascendere " (according to Aldrovandi), and that, devoid of hairs itself,
it causes the hairs of others to fall out by means of its saliva, whence
Martial, cursing the baldness of a woman's head —

'' Hoc salamandra caput, aut sseva novacula nudet/'

Pliny therefore recommends against the poisonous venom which is
ascribed to the salamander, the seeds of the hairy and stinging nettle,
with broth of a tortoise (which it resembles by its yellow spots). The
salamander of popular superstition seems to me to represent the moon
which lights itself, which lives by its own fire, which has no rays or
hair^of its own, and which makes the rays or hairs of the sun fall.

THE TOAD, 381

heal, not even if he recommend himself to the regard of
Santa Lucia." Hence the poet Meli, in his Fata Galanti,
writes that he prevented a peasant from killing a toad —

*' Jeu cb'avia 'ntisu da li miei maggiuri
Che li buffi ^un si diviiiu amraazzari,
Fici in modu chi I'ira e lu rancuri
A ddu viddanu cci fici passari."

As a recompense for having saved its life, the toad soon
afterwards appears to him in the shape of a very beautiful
woman, and promises to assist him all the days of his
life—

*' Oh picciotti furtunatu !
Eu ti prutiggirb d'ora nn' avanti,
Jeu su' dda buffa, chi tu, gratu e umaiiu
Sarvasti antura da Fiinpiu viddanu."

In Piedmont, I have heard a popular story ^ related

^ It "was narrated to me by a peasant woman who heard it at Cavour
in Piedmont : —

A man who is paralytic has three daughters, Catherine, Clorinda,
and Margaret ; he sets out on a journey to consult a great doctor, and
asks his daughters what they wish him to bring them when he returns ;
Margaret will be content if he bring her a flower. He arrives at his
destination, a castle j everything is prepared to receive him, but the
doctor is not to be found ; he sets out to return home, but on the way
he recollects the flower, which he had forgotten ; he goes back to the
garden of the castle and is about to pluck a daisy (margherita), when
a toad warns him that he will die in three days if he does not give it
one of his daughters to wife. The father informs his daughters of
this, upon which the two eldest refuse ; but the youngest, in order to
save her father's life, consents. Her father is cured, and the weddincr
takes place ; during the night the toad becomes a beautiful youth, but
warns his bride never to tell any one, for if she does, he will always
remain a toad, and he gives her a ring by means of which she will obtain
whatever she wishes for. The sisters have an inkling of some mystery,
and make her confess; the toad falls ill and disappears ; she calls him
with the ring, but in vain ; seeing this, she throws the ring, as useless,
into a pond, upon which the beautiful youth steps out, and never be-
comes a toad again j their happiness together thereafter is unbroken.

382 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

in which the toad is, on the other hand, the diabolical
form assumed by a handsome youth ; in Aldrovandi^

In an unpublished Tuscan story, related to me by Uliva Selvi at
Antignano near Leghorn, instead of the toad we have a magician of
frightful aspect. The father of the three daughters is a sailor •
he promises to fetch a shawl to the first, a hat to the second, and
a rose to the third. When the voyage is over, he is about to
return, but, having forgotten the rose, the ship refuses to move ; he is
compelled to go back to look for the rose in a garden; a magician
hands the rose with a little box to the father to give it to one of his
daughters, whom the magician is to marry. At midnight, the father,
having returned home, relates to his third daughter all that happened.
The little box is opened \ it carries off the third daughter to the
magician, who happens to be king of Pietraverde, and is now a hand-
some young man. He shows her, in the palace, three rooms, of which
one is red, one white, and another black. They live together happily.
Meanwhile, the eldest sister is to be married ; the magician conducts
his wife into the red room ; she wishes to go to the wedding, and the
magician consents, but warns her not to say either who he is, or
aught she knows of him, if she does not wish to lose him, as to
recover him again she would have to wait till she should wear out as
many shoes as there are in the world. He gives her a dress which, as
she goes, is heard rustling a lomg way off \ and he tells her, if her pin
should drop, to let the bride pick it up and keep it 3 warning her,
moreover, not to drink or to eat of anything they may offer her. All
this she observes to the letter. The second sister is about to be
married \ the magician leads his wife into the white room and repeats
the same instructions, only, instead of the pin, she is to let her ring of
brilliants drop. The father dies; the magician then takes his wife
into the black room, the chamber of melancholy. She wishes to o-o
to the funeral, and is permitted, after the usual warnings; the
magician, moreover, gives her a ring ; if it become black, she will lose
him ; she forgets the warning and loses him. She wanders about for
seven years, and no one can give her any news of the king of Pietra-
verde ; she then disguises herself as a man, and arrives at a city where
the king's hostler takes her into his service; no sooner does she touch
the carriages than they become clean. The queen passes by and
wonders at the personal appearance of the youth ; she engages him to
work in her kitchen, then to serve at table, and finally to be her
vaUt de chamhre. The queen falls in love with him, and wishes to
have him at any cost ; in vain ; she then accuses him of designing to

THE WOMAN AND THE TOAD. 383

vseveral things are narrated of women who gave birth to

toads. "^

take her life. The king, although unwillingly, has him put in prison ;
soon he has pity upon him and lets him free. The fictitious youth con-
tinues to wander about \ he arrives at the city, and asks for news of
the king of Pietraverde \ they tell her that he has long been dead, and
point her to a room where his bier is supported by columns of wax, or
candles ; he will not awake until the candles are consumed. She goes
up and weeps; the king takes three hairs from his beard and recom-
mends her to preserve them carefully. She continues her wanderings,
still dressed as a man, and is engaged by other hostlers of a king as
assistant. The news of her bravery reach the king, who takes her
into his kitchen. The queen sees him and falls in love with him \ in
vain \ she accuses him to the king, who puts her in prison ; she is
condemned to death, and the guillotine is prepared. While going to
execution, she remembers the three hairs, and burns one ; an army of
warriors appear, sent by the king of Pietraverde ; they terrify all the
king's people, whom they compel to postpone the execution till next
day. The next day she does the same with the same result. The
third day she brings out the third hair ; the cavalry appear again,
commanded this time by the king of Pietraverde in person, dressed so
that he shone like a brilliant, that he appeared like a sun ; he releases
the youth from the execution ; the king of Pietraverde has the young
girl dressed as a princess ; she is tried in a court of justice ; her
innocence is established \ the queen's head is cut off.

^ *' Suessanus tradit, quod bufonem quempiam obviam fieri felicissi-
mum augurium fuisse antiquitas existimavit. — Anno 1553, in villa
quadam Thuringia ad Unstrum, a muliere bufo caudatus liatus est,
quemadmodum in libro de prodigiis et ostentis habetur. Nee mirum,
quia Ccelius Aurelianus et Platearius scribunt mulieres aliquando cum
foeto humano bufones et alia animalia hujus generis eniti, Sed hujus
monstrosae conceptionis causam non assignant. Tradit quidem Platea-
rius ilia preesidia, quse ad provocandos menses commendantur, ducere ;
etiam bufonem fratrem Salernitanorum quemadmodum aliqui lacer-
tum fratrem Longobardorum nominant. Quoniam mulieres Salerni-
tanse potissimum in principio conceptionis succum apii et porrorum
potant, ut hoc animal interimant, antequam foetus viviscat. Insuper
mulier qusedam ex Gesnero, recens nupta cum omnium opinione
prsegnans diceretur, quatuor animalia bufonibus similia peperit et
optime valuit/' — Aldrovandi also reads: "apud Heisterbacensem in
historia miraculorum," that some monks found a living toad inside a

384 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

From the double and contradictory aspect in which
the toad Avas regarded, popular medicine, although
believing that the humour which the toad, when pro-
voked, ejects from behind, is fatal, and that the toad not
only poisoned men, but even all the plants over which it
passed, still recommends the wearing of dried toads under
the armpits as amulets against plague and poison. The
same alexipharmic virtue was also ascribed to the stone
called and believed to be toad's-stone (or bufonite), which
was said to change colour when its wearer was poisoned.
The bufonite was supposed to be taken out of a toad's
head, but science has demonstrated that the bufonite,
sold by quacks is made of the tooth of a fossil fish.^
Out of the toad, the dark animal of the night, the gloom
or winter, the solar pearl comes ; thus popular German
stories regard the Schild-krote (or toad with the shield)
as sacred, on account of the pearl supposed to be
contained in its head. In Hungary it is said that the
toad swallows the dew in the dry season ; it is believed,
moreover, that the frog, like the serpent, vomits forth, in
spring, a precious stone called the stone of the serpent or
the stone of the frog. According to what Count Geza
Kuun writes to me, in the testament of a citizen of
Kaisa three golden rings are mentioned, one of which
contained a "frog's stone."

I have observed above that the toad s place is some-
times taken in popular tales by the horned lizard ; the
lizard also represents the demoniacal shape, the sliape of
a witch. On this subject there was an interesting dis-

hen in place of intestines. In the same author, a priest finds an
immense toad at the bottom of a jar of wine ; whilst he is wondering
how such a large toad should have been able to enter by such a small
orifice, the toad disappears.

^ Cfr. Targioni Tozzetti, Lezioni di Materia Medicoj Florence, 1821.

THE LIZARD. 385

cussion by Karl Simrock upoB the \yord Eidedise (the
lizard in German), derived from the ancient form
Hagedisse which is the same as Hexe or witch. It is
as a witch that the lizard is killed, in the Greek myth,
by ApoUines, whence its name of sauroktanos} But,
inasmuch as the lizards appear in spring and announce
the fine season, they are considered (according to
Porphyrios) sacred to- the sun, and therefore of good
augury. A Bolognese proverb says, "Sant' Agnes, la
luserta cor pr' al paes," to indicate that the season is
beginning to improve, inasmuch as with the appearance
of the lizards on the Day of St Agnes, which is in the
beginning of March, spring begins to make itself felt.
In Sicily it is believed that the little lizards called San
Giuyanni must not be killed, because they are in the
presence of the Lord in heaven, and light the little lamp
to the Lord (as we have already seen the firefly give
light to the grain). And when they are killed, in order
that they may not curse one, one must say to the tail
which is shaking, that it was not the real killer, but the
dog of St Matthew who committed the crime,,

" Nun fu' ieu, nun fu' ieu :
Fu lu cani di San Matteu."

They are believed to be powerful intercessors before the
Lord, for which reason Sicilian children warm them in

^ Some extraordinary lizards of which Aldrovandi speaks are of a
half sacred and half monstrous nature ; " Preeter illud memorabile,
quod Mizaldus recitat accidisse anno Domini 1551, mense Julii in
Hungaria prope paguni Zichsum juxta Theisum fluvium nimirum in
multorum hominum alvo lacertas naturalibus similes ortas fuisse.
Interdum contingit, ut animadvertit Schenchius, lacertam viridem in
cseti magnitudinem excrescere, qualis aliquando Lutetise visa est.
Stepe etiam lacertse duobus et tribus caudis refertas nascuntur, quas
Yulgus ludentibus favorabiles esse nugatur."

VOL. II. 2 B

386 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

their bosoms, and feed them on crumbs of bread soaked
in water.

But an especially sacred character is ascribed to the
lacerta viridis (It. ramarro ; Sicilian, vanuzzii, a diminu-
tive of Giovanni) and to the amphisbhcena, of which the
ancients believed that it had two heads (like the Hindoo
ahlranis), its tail being taken for one. The amphisbhcena
is still held sacred and revered in India. ^ The green
lizard of popular superstition is partly solar and partly
lunar ; the firefly and the quail, as summer animals, are
sacred to the sun ; as watchers by night, to the moon.
Thus the green lizard, as a summer animal which hunts
away the serpent of winter, appears particularly in rela-
tion with the sun ; but inasmuch as there is also the
serpent of night, the green lizard or green ramarro takes
the place of the crab-moon, that is, it wakens the young
solar hero who sleeps in the night, and wakens the
sleeping man lest the serpent should bite him. The
moon of winter wakens the sun of spring, the moon of
night wakens the sun of day ; the moon-lizard, like the
moon crab, hunts the serpent or black monster away.
In Piedmont, Tuscany, and Sicily, the green lizard is
believed to be the friend of mankind ; indeed, it is called
guarda omu in Sicily, where it is believed to cure from

^ In the Mahdhhdratam, i. 981-1003, it is said that the serpents
amphisbhsense (dundubhis, dundavas, n^abhritas, the same, I think,
as the mannuni of Malabar,) being good, must not be killed; an
amphisbhaena relates that it had once been the wise Sahasrap^d (pro-
perly of the hundred feet ; the amphisbhaena appears to be a lizard
without feet, and with a tail the same size as its head, for which
reason the belief arose that it had two heads ; it seems to be another
personification of the circular year, like the serpent), and that it
became a serpent by a curse, because it had once frightened a Brahman
with a fictitious serpent made of grass ; at the sight of the wise
Kurus, the amphisbhsena is released from its malediction.

THE GREEN LIZARD. 387

incantations, perhaps on account of the yellow cross which
the people think they can see upon its head. At Santo
Stefano of Calcinaia it is said that the green lizard hisses
in the ears of Christians like a Christian when the serpent
approaches a man ; they even relate several cases of
shepherds or peasants who, being asleep, were saved by
the green lizard passing over them (Aldrovtodi speaks of
a similar superstition). It is, moreover, believed that
the green lizard, if caught and put in a vase full of oil,
will produce the oil of a ramarro, which is said to be
good against wounds and poisons. In the Contes
Merveilleux de Porchat, a fairy protects the poor Laric
and brings fortune to him in the shape of a grateful
couleuvre, which he, in winter, found frozen and warmed
in his bosom. The couleuvre makes radiant coins fall
to Laric from the beaks of certain partridges, enables
him to find whatever he is in need of, and puts a golden
chain round the neck of his wife. Thus the myths of the
golden (or green) fish, the golden (or green) frog and the
golden (or green) lizard, correspond to each other in the
beautiful myth of the good moon-fairy, who protects
the solar hero or heroine in the nights both of the day
and the year.

CHAPTER V.

THE SERPENT ANB THE AQUATIC MONSTER.
SUMMARY.

The feet and tlie tail ; tlie serpent is the favourite form of the demon ;
the devil is betrayed by his tail. — The serpent and the waters;
the dragon as the keeper back of the waters, and as the guardian
of the treasures ; the devil evoked from the waters. — The otter.
— The chief enterprise of Indras is the killing of the serpent. —
The names of the Vedic serpent ; arhuda and reptilis. — Descrip-
tion of the Vedic serpent. — The wives of the demons and the
wives of the gods ; Indras wounds the wife of the demon in the
yonis, and the demon himself in the eggs ; the serpent's death
consists in the broken egg ; broken eggs, skins, vases, boxes, and
testicles. — The god as a serpent ; the python. — Gods and demons,
birds and serpents dispute the possession of the ambrosia. —The
phallical Anantas of cosmogony; the two phalloi. — Nigalat^ ;
the game of the serpents, n^gas, nagapadas, nigapagas. — The
caduceus. — Kagyapas Pra^^patis, father of the birds and of the
serpents. — Kumbhakarnas. — The hero dies as soon as he touches
the serpent. — The funereal rope of Yamas is a serpent ; the collar
of Hephaistos. — The serpents carry Sit^ on their heads. — The
city of Bhogavati. — The hero becomes an aquatic monster in
consequence of a curse. — The serpent released from the fire. —
The wisdom of the serpent passes into the hero. — The three-
headed serpent. — The serpent sacred in India and in Germany. —
The stone of the serpent. — The serpent and the tree. — The tree
and the phallos. — The cypress. — The tree, the maiden, and the
serpent at the fountain. — The tree of the cross. — The serpent is
wholly diabolical in Persian tradition. — The serpent is a mythical
animal, both physically and morally amphibious. — The hero, the
frog, and the serpent. — The grateful serpent. — Dialogue between

THE DEVIL AS SERPENT. 389

two little serpents in a variety of the legend of Lear. — The
serpent burnt. — Serpents and worms. — The serpent as the
beautiful maiden's husband. — The heads of the serpent. — The
serpent of the Black Sea. — The serpent-fairy gives eyes back to
the blind woman. — The avenging serpent. — When the serpent is
asleep. — The serpent in the garden of the Hesperides. — The
serpent-wizard. — Tiie serpent's kiss. — The serpent that whistles.
— The wings of the serpent wet ; the Vedic myth once
more.

The mythical animal with which I conclude the study of
traditional zoology is perhaps the most popular of the
whole series. The omniform demon makes the god or
hero who falls under his power assume the most diverse
zoological forms, the power of transforming into which he
holds in possession, of which he holds the secret ; but he
almost always reserves for himself as his most favourite
and privileged form that of the serpent. The devil,
says the popular proverb, is known by his tail ; and to
show that women know more than the devil, it adds that
they also know where the devil secretes his tail, or where
he keeps his poison, for his poison and power to harm
are in his tail. A devil without a tail would not be a
real devil ; it is his tail which betrays him ; and this tail
is the serpent's tail.^ In the forty-fifth story of the fifth
book of Afanassieff, the devil-serpent comes every night
to visit the young widow in the form of her deceased
husband, eats with her and sleeps with her till morning ;
she grows thinner every night, like a candle before the
fire ; but her mother counsels her to let a spoon drop
M^hen she is sitting at table, that, in lifting it, she may
scrutinise the guest's feet ; instead of his feet, she only
sees his tail. Then the widow goes to the church to be

^ St Augustine, Horn. 36, says of the devil: *' Leo et draco est;
Leo propter impetum, Draco propter insidias ; " in Albania, the devil
is called dreikj, and in Komania, dracu.

390 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

purified.^ In the Eddas, too, the serpent Lokis, who
has taken the form of a horse, betrays himself by his
feet.

The serpent-devil appears in special connection with
the infernal waters (darkness of night and of winter, and
cloudy sky), which conceal treasures, the pearl, the solar
hero or heroine with the waters of youth and life. The
serpent-devil draws to himself every beautiftd thing,
now to swallow them, now to preserve and guard them
like a miser. The dragon became the symbol of the
keeper back of the waters, of the guardian of the
treasures, who devours or attracts to himself everything
that shines. In Du Cange, the name of dracus is given
to "species dsemonum qui circa Ehodanum fluvium in
Provincia visuntur forma hominis, et in cavernis man-
sionem habent." In ancient Latin manuscript comments
given by the same Du Cange, the devil is called by the
name of hydros or aquatic serpent. Hincmarus Eemensis
believes that the devil is evoked from the waters,^ and
according to St Augustine, it was from the waters and
from the illusions created in the water by demons that
Numa derived his inspirations.^ Hence the custom, so

^ A proverb of the Edmdyanam says, that " only a female serpent
can distinguish the feet of a male serpent (v. 38) : Ahireva hyaheh
pid^u vi^aniy^nna saragayah). The feet of the serpent, like those of
the devil, which is the tail (or the phallos of the male) can be perceived
by a female alone ; women know where the devil has his tail.

2 Tom. i., " Sunt qui in aquae inspectione umbras dasmonum evocant,
et imagiones vel ludificationes ibi videre et ab iis aliqua audire se
perhibent.*'

^ In the seventh book De Civitate Dei^ the saint writes : " Ipse
Numas ad quem nullus Dei propheta, nuUus Sanctus Angelas mitte-
batur, Hydromantiam facere compulsus est, ut in aqua videret imagines
deorum vel potius ludificationes deemonum, a quibus audiret, quid in.
sacris constituere atque observare deberet quod genus divinationis
idem Varro a Persis dicit allatum."

THE DEVIL AND THE WATERS, 391

frequent in German and Slavonic countries/ of blessing
the water to chase the monsters away from it ; hence,
also, the custom which I have observed in several parts
of Eussia, where the children, before they bathe in the
rivers, and as soon as they put their feet in the water,
make profound inclinations and the sign of the cross;
hence, according to Du Cange, the god of the waters,
Neptunus, in the Middle Ages, becomes under the name
of Aquatiquus, a personification of the devil ; ^ hence,
also, the otter (enlidris) assumes a diabolical character in
the Edda, where the Ases take its skin off and fill it
with the gold taken from the dwarf-pike Andvarri, and
in the sixth story of the first book of Afanassieff, where
it destroys the beasts of the menagerie of a Tzar, and
finally drags the third son of the Tzar Ivan under an
enormous white stone (the snowy winter) in the lower
world, where there are palaces of gold and silver and
three beautiful girls, sisters of the monster otter, who
sleeps in the sea, and snores so that he pushes the waves
to a distance of seven versts, until Ivan, after having
drunk the water of strength, cuts the monster's head off
at a blow, after which it falls into the sea.

But to proceed in the order which we have hitherto
generally followed, let us examine before all the tradi-
tion of the aquatic monster, the dragon or serpent, in
Hindoo mythology.

^ It also exists in Roumania, where the new solar year is celebrated
by the benediction of the waters, as if to exorcise the demons that
inhabit them.

2 Codex Beg., 5600 ann. circ. 800, fol. 101, in Du Cange: "Sunt
aliqui rustici homines, qui credunt aliquas mulieres, quod vulgum
dicitur strias, esse debeant, et ad infantes vel pecora nocere possint,
vel dusiolus, vel Aquatiquus, vel geniscus esse debeat.'' Neptunus,
vel aliquis genius, quia quis prseest designari videtur.

392 ZOOLOGICAL MYIHOLOGY,

The most important of the heroic undertakings ac-
complished by the Vedic god Indras is, as akeady
remarked, that of killing the monster ; and the enter-
prise of Indras against the monster is the theme of all
the great popular Indo-Persian, Grseco-Latin, Turko-
Slavonic, Franco- Germanic, and Franco-Celtic epic poems,
as also of the greatest number of the popular stories
which are the real epic material of the new epopees.
Indras, Vishnus, Ahura-Mazda, Feridun, Apollo, Hera-
kles, Kadmoa, Jason, Odin, Sigurd, and several other
gods and heroes, are celebrated for the undertaking of
killing the serpent. Now, in the Vedic hymns the black
monster (krishnas), the growing monster (r4uhin),^ the
full-grown monster (piprus), the monster coverer (vritras),
the monster that dries up (gushnas), the monster that keeps
back (namucis), generally appears with the name and
shape of a serpent, or if it has not always the form of a
serpent, it is assimilated to it, and certainly inclines to
become so from its office of a constrictor, its black colour,
and other characteristics which it possesses in common
with the serpent (Ahis).^

The monster killed by Indras, the monster with the
horrid voice which Indras strikes upon the head with a
thunderbolt, is, like the serpent, deprived of feet, deprived
both of hands and shoulders.^ But the serpent is also

1 The monsters whicli mount into heaven by magical deceits, killed
by Indras, are said to creep like serpents : May^bhir utsisripsata indra
dyam; Rigv. viii. 14, 14.

^ The name of Arhudas, given to the monster which Indras, the ram
(meshas), crushes (for ni-hram seems to me to have this meaning)
under his fo^t while it is lying, is nothing else than a serpent ; more-
over, he, whose people is the sarpds or serpents, is the king of the
serpents. To arhud-as I would refer the Latin words rep-ere, rept-are,
reptil-is.

^ Apad ahasto apritanyad indram ^sya va^ram adhi sinau ^aghana ;

THE INDIAN SERPENT, 393

often explicitly named in the Rigvedas as a monster
■which keeps back the waters, and which is killed by
Indras. The serpent, the first-born of the serpents, was
lying in the mountain ; ^ he was lying under his mother/
he was keeping the waters, his wives, shut up, as a miser
his treasure, or a robber the stolen cows ; ^ a miser or
rich robber * resembling a magician, he staid enclosed in
a cavern, and kept the waters in it ; ^ he lay down and
perhaps slept ; ^ he lay near the seven torrents ; ^ Indras
arouses him ; ® in another hymn, however, the serpent,
making a loud noise, provokes Indras, and comes against
him.^ When Indras kills the serpent with the thunder-
bolt, or else crushes it under his foot, or burns it, he
opens the torrent of the waters and causes it to flow out

Mgv. i. 32, 7. — Yo vyansam ^ahrishinena manyuni, yali gambararii yo.
ahan piprum avratam ; i. 101, 2. — Apadam atram maliata vadhena ni
duryona ivrinan mridhravacam ; v. 32, 8.

^ Ahann ahim parvate gigriyanam ; i. 32, 2. — Ahann enam pra-
thama^ELm ahinam ; i. 32, 3.

2 M<5avayi abhavad vritraputrendro asyi ava vadhar ^abhira — uttari
sHr adharah putra asid danuh gaye sabavatsi na dbenuh; i. 32, 9.
Properly speaking, tbe verse speaks here of Yritras, and not of Abis ;
but tbe coverer and tbe constrictor being equivalent, it seems to me
tbat tbere are not bere two beings distinguisbed, in tbe same bymn,
by two analogous appellations.

^ Disapatnir abigopa atisbtban niruddba apab panineva gavab ; i.
32, 11. — Tbe reader will remember tbe discussion concerning tbe pro-
verb of sbutting tbe stable after tbe oxen are stolen, in tbe first chapter
of tbe first book.

^ Avadabo diva a dasyum u6di; i. 33, 7.

^ Gub^bitarii gubyarh gulbam apsu apivritam m^yinarii ksbiyantam
uto apo dyam tastabbvinsam abann abirii gura viryena; ii. 11, 5.

^ AgayHnam abim va^rena magbavan vi vrigdab; iv. 17, 7.

"^ Sapta prati pravata ^gayinam abim. va^rena vi rin§, aparvan ; iv.
19, 3.

^ Sasantam va^ren^bodbayo 'bim ; i. 103, 7.

^ Navantam abirii sarii pinag ri^zsbin ; vi. 17, 10.

394 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

towards the sea ; lie makes the sun be borii, and finds the
cows ; ^ he destroys the machinations of the sorcerer,
generates the sun, the day, and the dawn, removes every
enemy to a distance,^ makes the serpent's trunk fall to
the earth, like a tree cut down by axes, or torn up by
the roots,^ and (as in Russian stories the hero, after
having cut the monster's head off, throws his trunk into
the sea) over the killed monster, now fallen, the waters
which make joyful pass ; * the gods, who have given
Indras three hundred oxen to eat (according to another
hymn, only one hundred), and three lakes of ambrosia to
drink, that he might be able to vanquish Ahis, are joyful
at the victory gained by Indras over the serpent, with
their wives and with the birds ; not only this, but the
women, the wives of the gods, compose on this occasion
a hymn to Indras/

We have already seen several times in the course of
this work how, by killing his monstrous form, the hero
or heroine enclosed in this is set at liberty ; the
waters, or rainy clouds, which are the monster wives of
the demons, as long as the monster keeps them^ in the

1 Sa mahina indro arno ap4m priirayad aliihadhi samudram a^ana-
yat stiryam vidad gah ; ii. 19, 3. — Sri^ah sindhunr aliin^ gagras^nin ;
Rigv. iv. 17, 1. — Ahann ahim anv apas tatarda pra vakshan§. abhinat
parvatanim ; i. 32, 2.

2 Yad indr^ban pnathama^^m aliin^m in miyinim aminih prota
mayah — 4t s"Qryam ^anayan dyim ushisam tiditni gatrum na kilS.
vivitse ; i. 32, 4,

^ Ahan vritram vritrataram vyansam indro va^rena mahat^ vadhena
skandhansiva kuligeni vivriknihih. gayata upaprik pritHvyih ; i. 32, 5-
— Ud vriha rakshah sahamlllam indra vrigda madhyam praty agrarii
grinihi; iii. 30, 17.

* Qayinam mano ruhini ati yanty dpah \ i. 32, 8.

^ Ann tvS, patnir hriskitam vayag 6a vigve deviso amadann anu tvi ;
L 103, 7. — Asmi id u gnag did devapatnir indriyirkam ahikatya uvuii;
L 61, 8.

THE DEATH OF THE MONSTER, 395

darkness, become the radiant wives of the gods when
they are released ; the same may be said of the aurora,
kept in ward by the gloomy or watery monster of night,
or of the spring detained in the dreary realm of winter ;
as long as they are in the power of the black demon,
they are black and monstrous, and live with him in the
infernal kingdom ; when delivered from this kingdom,
however, they become beautiful maidens, or princesses of
dazzling splendour. When the monster figlits with the
god or solar hero of the thunderbolt, he arms his women
too, and makes use of them as powerful helpers ;^ hence
Indras also aims at them and lacerates the black- wombed
witches,^ being afterwards himself condemned to become
Sahasrayonis. In popular Aryan tradition, however, it
is often the daughter, wife, or sister of the monster that
reveals to the hero the way of killing the monster. In
Eussian stories, one of the ways oftenest recommended
to ensure the death of the monster, is to take the egg
contained in the duck which is under the tree in the
midst of the sea, and crush it upon the monster's fore-
head, who immediately dies ; with the monster s death
the two young lovers,- — the daughter, wife, or sister of
the monster, and the young hero, — marry each other.
We have just seen that when Indras has killed the
monster serpent, the waters pour out, and the sun ap-

^ Striyo hi disa ^yudh^ni (iakre ; Rigv, v. 30, 9.

2 Sa vritrahendrah krishnayonih. puramdaro d^sir airayad vi; ii.
20j 7. — ^Vritras the killer of Piprus, Indras puram-daras, properly,
who "wounds the full one, who cleaves the full or the swollen one, and
hence who wounds, the city, and Indras the lacerator of the witches
with the black wombs are equivalent ; cfr. what was said concerning
the thunderbolt as a phallos, in the first chapter of the first book,
where the cuckoo is spoken of, and in the chapter on the Cuckoo in the
second book. — In the hymn, i. 32, 9, Indras also wounds underneath
the mother of the monster : Indro asy^ ava vadhar ^abhira.

396 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

pears. In another Vedic hymn we also find the interest-
ing accompaniment of the ^gg, which reminds us, on the
one hand, of the subject of Eussian popular stories, and
on the other of the belief described by us in the chapter
on the Hen, to the effect that the thunderbolt breaks its
eggs : Indras, with his strength, breaks the eggs of the
monster that dries up the waters, and wins the luminous
waters ; ^ crushing the eggs, or wounding the testicles of
the gloomy monster, he makes the sun come out of them,
and thereupon the monster dies.^ The symbolical repre-
sentation of the solar year in the form of a serpent
biting his tail is equivalent to the myth of the monster-
serpent who dies when his eggs are broken, that is,
when the light comes out of its tenebrous envelope.

Inasmuch, moreover, as from the monster serpent, the
cloud and the darkness, come forth flashes of lightning,
thunder-bolts, sunbeams, tongues of fire, even serpents
sometimes assume a divine nature in the Vedic hymns. The

^ Uto nu (5id ya o^as^ gushnasy^nd^ni bhedati ^eshat svarvatir apah ;
Rigv. viii. 40, 10. — In tlie hymn i. 54, 10, it is said that the cloud-
mountain is found amongst the intestines of the coverer; one might
say that the serpent binds the cloud in the form of bowels. The reader
will recollect what we observed concerning the intestines, the heart, and
the liver, of the sacrificed victim in the first chapter of the first book.

2 In the twentieth story of the fifth book of Afanassieff we find a
singular variety, which is of some importance in the history of
mythology and language. A princess asks the serpent, her husband,
by what his death can be caused. The serpent answers that his death
can be brought about by the hero Nikita Kaszemiaka, who, in fact,
comes up and kills the serpent by submerging him in the sea. Nikita
is called, it is said, Kaszemiaka, because his occupation was that of
tearing skins. The torn skins (cfr. here also the Jupiter Aegiocus)
take here the place of the duck's egg broken upon the serpent, and of
the eggs of the monster broken by Indras. In Italian, cocciOj means
a piece of a broken vase, and also, in bdtany, the skin of a seed ;
incocciarsi signifies to be angry. In Piedmont, it is said of one who
annoys people, that he breaks the boxes, and, more vulgarly, that he
breaks the testicles.

THE WISE SERPENT. 397

Vedic god of fire, Agnis, the born of the waters (napatam
ap4m)j called Ahir-btidhnyas, has already been compared
to the Greek piltMn ophis, the python. Agnis is also
compared to a serpent with a golden mane/ which reminds
us of the horned monster that dries up, spoken of in
another hymn as killed by Indras.^ Indras himself is called
he who has the strength of the serpent.^ The Marutas
have the serpent's anger ; * and as the Marutas are
resplendent with golden attire and ornaments, so the
monsters appear adorned with gold and pearls/ In the
Aitareya Br,^ the serpent Arbudas has even become a
rishis, a wise poet, as the python becomes the oracle of
wisdom in Greece ; and the serpents oppose a Vedas of
their own (the Sarpavedas) to the Ved4s of the gods. In
the same Aitareya Br.,^ we have the description of a
struggle between the gods and a venomous serpent, whose
greedy eye gazes at the somas, of which he desires to be
possessed. The gods bandage his eyes ; the serpent sings
a verse in praise of the somas ; the gods, as an antidote,
sing several verses, and counteract the effect of the ser-
pent's verse. And the witch (4surl) of the long tongue (Dir-
gha^ihvl) is no doubt a serpent, who in the Aitareya Br.,^

^ Hiranyakego 'hihj Bigv. i. 79, 1.

^ Vi gringinam abliina(5 (^husbnam indrah; i. 33, 12.

^ Aliigushmasattvi ; v. 33, 5.

* Ahimanyavah. ; i. 64, 9.

^ Oakranasah. parinaliam pritMvy^ biranyena maninji gumbhama-
nah; i. 33, 8. ^ vi. 1, 1.

'' The passage cited before.

^ i. 3, 22. — In Eussian stories, we frequently find the incident of a
serpent, or witcb, who endeavours to file, or pierce through, with her
tongue the iron doors which enclose the forge in which the pursued
hero has taken refuge ; he, from within, helped by divine blacksmiths,
draws the witch's tongue in with red-hot pincers and causes her death;
he then opens the gates of the forge, which represents now the red
sky of evening, now the red sky of morning.

398 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

again, licks the morning libation of the gods, and makes
it inebriating. In the Rdmdyanam it is recorded that
the long-tongued witch (Dirgha^ihvi), the devonrer, is
killed by Indras. The struggle between the gods and
the serpents for the possession of the ambrosia is the
subject of a long episode of the first book of the Mahd-
hhdratam} The serpent loves dampness, water, ambrosia,
and rain. When Bhlmas, the son of the wind, is thrown
into the waters of the Ganges, he falls into the kingdom
of the serpents, who give him the water of strength to
drink. ^ In the Mahdbhdratam, the mother of the ser-
pents, who have been bm^ned by the sun, invokes the
rain to bring them to life again ; Indras, to please her,
veils the sky with clouds.^ In the Rdmdyaham, instead
of the serpents, the monkeys are resuscitated by means
of the rain. The rains of spring also waken the earth,
which is in the Attar ey a Br^ called by the name of
Sarpara^-nl, and was at first, like the serpents, bald, that
is, devoid of vegetation ; invoking the heavenly cow, it
became covered with trees. In the Hindoo cosmogony,
which we described in the chapter on the Tortoise, a very
interesting account is given of the way the great stick
or phallos, the generator of the world, is made to turn
round. The serpent Anantas (the infinite) or Vasukis/
who makes the mountain revolve, is twined round it;

1 i. 792, et seq, — Cfr. also the second Esthonian tale, where the
young hero, in the kingdom of the serpents, drinks milk in the cup of
the king of the serpents himself.

2 Mbh. i. 5008, et seq, s i 1283-1295. 4 y^ 4^ 23.

5 Cfr. JRdmdi/anam, i. 46, and Mahdbhdratam, i. 1053, 1150. — In
the Edmdyanam (vi. 26), the arrows of the monsters are said to bind
like serpents ; the bird Garudas appears and the serpents untie them-
selves, the fetters are loosed ; E^mas and Lakshmanas, supposed to be
dead, rise again stronger than before.

THE PHALLICAL SERPENT. 399

the mountain and the serpent are synonymous ; ^ they
are two phalloi, which rub each other, and produce
the seed (n^galat^ or climbing serpent, serpent-creeper,
is one of the Hindoo names of the phallos ; in Piedmont
it is said of a man in the venereal act, that he " climbs
upon the woman ; " and in Sanskrit nigas, n^gapadas,
n%apacas, n^gap^gakas, denotes union in the manner
of serpents, who apply their bodies to each other in their
entire length,^ in the same way as fire is produced by the
friction of two pieces of wood — the arani, Anantas, or
V4sukis, and Mandaras, or Kajapas, and hence Kagyapas,
are identified with one another ;) and this is all the more
probable as Kagyapas is also called by the name of
Vasukas, and as'Kagyapas himself, in another cosmogonic
legend of the Mahdhhdratam, appears as having made
fruitful two wives, KadrA, properly the dark one, and
Vinat^,^ properly the concave, the curved or swollen one

^ As we have seen that mandaras is equivalent to mantharas, a
name of the tortoise which, according to the cosmogonic legend, sus-
tains the weight of the mountain, or enormous stick which produces
the mountain, so Anantas, in another Hindoo legend (cfr. Mhh. i.
1587-1588) sustains the weight of the world. — The rod of pearls
which when placed in fat enables the young prince to obtain whatever
he wishes for, seems to have the same originally phallical meaning as
the mandaras ; it is the king of the serpents who presents it to the
young prince. The fat may, in the mythical sky, be the milk of the
morning dawn, or the rain of the cloud, or the snee, or the dew ; as
soon as the thunderbolt touches the fat of the clouds, or of the snee,
or as soon as the sunbeam touches the milk of the dawn, the sun,
riches, and fortune come forth.

2 The coitus is also called a game of serpents in the Tuti-Wame.
Preller and Kuhn have already proved the phallical signification of the
caduceus (tripetelon) of Herm§s, represented now with two wings, now
with two serpents. The phallical serpent is the cause of the fall of
the first man.

3 Vinatd is also the name of a disease of women ; and, as far as we
can judge from the passage of the MaMbhdratam (iii. 14,480), which

400 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

(two appellatives by which the yonis appears to be equally
represented), from one of which is produced the ^gg from
which serpents are hatched, and especially the n^g^s
serpents, with human faces, like the devils, and from
the other, that which generates Armias and Garudas (a
form of the Ajvin^u). Whilst, in the Mahdhhdratam,
the serpent Vasukis rubs itself against the Mandaras and
makes it turn round, it keeps blowing wind, smoke,
and flames out of its mouth, which form clouds, with the
water of which the creator gods are afterwards refreshed.
Although this last particular shows the serpents intent
upon the welfare of the gods, they hold in Hindoo tradi-
tion the same place as Anhromainyu, or Ahrimanes, in
Persian ; whilst one phallos gives birth to luminous
phenomena and good beings, the other produces gloomy
phenomena and wicked beings.

Among the productions of the phallical and serpentine
genie of darkness are the clouds. In the Rdmciyanam^
the monster Kumbhakarnas sleeps for sixth months ; no
number of drums, trumpets, nor any noise is able to
awaken him ; he is struck with hammers, but feels
nothing ; elephants pass over him, but he does not move :
at last the tinkling of the golden ornaments of beautiful
women suffice to rouse him. He rises ; his arms resemble
two great serpents, and his mouth the mouth of hell.
He yawns, and that yawn alone sends forth a wind
which resembles a rushing wind that shall usher in the
end of the world. The aspect of Kumbhakarnas when
he rises is like that of an immense cloud swelled out with

refers to it, it is the malignant genius who destroys the foatus in the
womb of the pregnant mother. He is defined as ^aJcunigrdh% properly
the seizer of the bird. Kagyapas, the universal phallos, the Pra^apatis,
certainly unites himself to Yinati in the form of a phallos-bird, as to
Kadru in that of a phallos-serpent. ^ vi. 37-38, 46.

THE FUNEREAL SERPENT. 401

rain towards the end of summer ; he is horned like a
mountain, and bellows like a thunder-cloud. No sooner
is he born, than, inasmuch as by the curse of Brahman he
can waken but one day in the year (that is in the autumn),
he asks for food, and devours buflfaloes, wild boars, men
and women ; he once swallowed even the ten nymphs, or
Apsarasas (the clouds that blow over the waters), of the
god Indras ; he finds that the world is not provided
with animals enough to satiate his hunger. When
Kumbhakarnas moves to battle against the monkeys of
Eamas, he draws his enemies to himself to devour them,
he draws and receives the shock of whole mountains, but
is not shaken. E4mas cuts one of his arms off, and the
arm cut off (or the serpent, or the cloud cut off, like the
stick of fairy tales which beats of itself) continues to
massacre the monkeys. EsLmas cuts Kumbhakarnas's
other arm off, which supports with its hand the whole
trunk of a robust shorea ; but arm and trunk continue
to slaughter the enemies on their own account.^ At last
E^mas shoots him in the mouth and heart ; the monster
falls, and crushes as he falls two thousand monkeys under
his immense body. Here, therefore, we again see the
monster and the serpent in relation with the clouds and
waters. To touch the serpent, that is, the rainy season
or the night, is for the solar hero or heroine the same as
to die. In the Mahdhhdratam'^ the girl Pramadvar^
falls dead to the ground, having inadvertently pressed a
serpent with her foot on the way ; Eurus brings her to
life again by renouncing half of his own life. In this
legend the year or the day personifies life ; summer
sacrifices itself to winter, winter to summer, day to night.

^ Cfr. for this subject the first and second chapters of the first book.
2 i. 949, 974.

VOL. II. 2 c

02 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

night to day, the sun to the moon, and the moon to the
sun. In the beautiful legend of Savitri, the wife sacrifices
herself and offers herself to Yamas, the god of the dead,
in order to be faithful to her husband. In the same
Mahdhhdratam,^ the King Parlkshit falls into the
power of Takshakas, the king of the serpents, a form
of Yamas the god of the dead (also called Anantas),
because he had thrown a dead serpent on the shoulders
of a Brahman. In the Rdmdyanam,^ it is said that a
man who has, when asleep, fallen into the hands of
the god of the dead, Yamas, is bitten by a venomous
serpent. The very rope with which Yamas the god of
the dead binds men is a serpent. To the rope-serpent of
Yamas we must refer the fatal collar with seven serpents
and seven pearls (a symbol of the year, half luminous,
half gloomy) which Hephaistos gave to Harmonia and
Kadmos on the occasion of their wedding. Kadmos and
Harmonia become serpents, and are taken into heaven
by the gods. The daughters of Kadmos all come to an
unhappy end. The collar is afterwards possessed by
Erliphile, for Avhich reason evils befalls Amphiaraos, and
subsequently also Alkme6n. When Sit4;^ in order to
escape from the unjust suspicions of her husband and
the perverse evil-speakings of the vulgar, wishes to dis-
appear from the sight of men and to descend under
ground, the serpents (pannages, who go not with feet)
carry her upon their heads (as in Christian tradition the
Virgin crushes the head of the serpent-seducer), and from
the depths of the earth a voice is heard saying : " Difficult
to be acquired is the sight of this woman, who resides in
the three worlds ; staying down here, she is honoured by

1 i. 1671, 1980, etseq. 2 ^^^ i^

3 Rdmdy. vii. 104, 105.

SEI^FENTS AND RICHES. 403

the serpents (pu^yate n^g^ih), and, in the world of the
mortals, by mankind ; nectar of the higher blessed ones,
she is the satiator of the immortals." The kingdom of
the n^gas, or the city of Bhogavatl (an equivocal word,
which means both furnished with serpents and furnished
with riches), is full of treasures, like the hell of Western
tradition. This infernal world went definitively under
ground when the gods, having fallen, took humbler forms
upon the earth and upon the waters of the earth ; the
lower world became the kingdom of the serpents and of
the devils of the Vedic cloudy and gloomy heavens (devils
and serpents, which Jewish tradition therefore represents
with great justice as fallen angels). The riches of heaven,
concealed by the cloudy or gloomy monster of night or
winter, passed into the earth ; the observation of heavenly
phenomena helped this conception. The true mythica.1 trea-
sures are the sun and the moon in their splendour ; when
they go down they seem to hide themselves underground ;
the solar hero goes underground, he goes to hell, after
having lost all his treasures and all his riches ; he under-
takes in poverty his infernal journey ; when the sun rises
from the mountain, it seems to come out from under-
ground ; the solar hero returns from his journey through
hell, he returns resplendent and wealthy; the infernal
demon gives back to him part of the treasures which he
possesses, having carried them off from him, or else the
young hero recovers them by his valour. But this hell
was once the watery, wintry, nocturnal heaven itself,
from which now the sun, now the moon emerges ; the hero
or the god was obscured or eclipsed, and assumed a gloomy
form in the sky itself, and, as we have already said,^

^ Cfr. concerning this subject in particular, the first chapter of the
first book, the chapter on the Wolf and that on the Frog.

404 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

he who destroys, lacerates, or kills this form, does a
service to the poor and cursed wandering Jew who
wears it. We are reminded of the aquatic monster, in
the Rdmdyanam,^ by the gandharvas^ Tumburus, who
assumed, under a curse, the form of the monster VirMhas
who carries Sit4 off from E^mas, with the sole design
that Eamas may kill him and deliver him from the male-
diction, so that he may be able to reascend in happiness
to heaven. In a similar manner, Hanumant delivers
from her curse the ogress of the lake, the seizer (grihl)
and devourer, who was once a nymph. ^ The body of
the old rishis Qarabhangas also gives us the idea of a
serpent s body. Qarabhangas desires to deliver himself
from it, as a serpent casts oflf its old skin. He then
enters the fire ; the fire burns him ; Qarabhangas, arising
from the conflagration, comes forth young, splendid, and
as brilliant as fire.^ In the celebrated episode of Nalas
in the Mahdhhdratam,^ the serpent Karkotakas, sur-
rounded by the flames, asks Nalas, on the other hand, to
deliver him from the flames ; the serpent makes himself
small in order that Nalas may be able to carry him
away ; Nalas does so, and the serpent bites him ; he then

1 iii. 8.

2 Cfr. the discussion concerning the gandharvas in the chapter on the
Ass.

^ Rdmdy. vi. 82. — This nymph becomes grahi, because she had
once struck a holy Brahman with her chariot. The same reason is
assigned for the malediction which falls upon King ISTahushas, who
became an enormous serpent ; this serpent squeezed the hero Bhimas
in its mortal coils; his brother, Yudhishthiras, runs up, and answers
in a highly satisfactory manner to the abstruse philosophical questions
addressed to him by the serpent, which then releases BMmas, casts
off its skin, and ascends in the form of Nahushas to heaven ; Mhh.
iii. 12, 356, et seq. 4 B^dmdy. iii, 8.

5 iii. 2609, ttseq.

THE SERPENT IN THE FLAMES. 405

loses his shape, which passes into that of the serpent. In
this new diabolical form Nalas becomes invulnerable and
invisible. The diverse action taken by fire in legends
can be comprehended by reference to the solar hero, now
in the morning, now in the evening, now in spring, now
in autumn : in the morning and in the spring the serpent
of night enters the flames and becomes a handsome youth
again ; in the evening and in the autumn the serpent
comes out of the flames of the evening aurora, or of the
summer, and becomes the moon, after having made the
sun disappear, or rendered it invisible or invulnerable.
In the forty-seventh story of the sixth book of Afanassieff,
a hunter (the hunting solar hero) is about to heat the
stove ; a serpent is lying in it, and promises, if he will
draw it out of the fire, to render him happy, and teach
him the language of all animals. He tells the hunter
to put the end of his stick into the fire, by which means
it will be enabled to make its escape ; the hunter com-
plies, but is warned that he will die himself should he
reveal that secret to any one.

The serpent, therefore, is not only monstrous and
maleficelnt in Hindoo tradition, but also at once the
learned one, and he who imparts learning ; it sacrifices
itself to let the hero carry away the water of life, the
water of strength, the health-giving herb or the treasure ;
it not only often spares, but it favours the predestined
hero ; it destroys individuals, but preserves the species ;
it devours nations, but preserves the regenerative kings ;
it poisons plants, and throws men into deep sleep, but it
gives new strength in its occult domain to the sun, who
gives new life to the world every morning and every
spring. In the Vedic heavens the serpent is a magician
expert in every kind of magic ; in the kingdom of the
serpents the young lost hero recovers his splendour.

4o6 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

wisdom, and victorious power. Hence the worship in
India of the serpent, who is revered as a symbol of every
species of learning. We have, on a previous occasion,
found the horned or crested serpent who personifies, in
the Rigvedas, fire or the god Agnis, and by this we
must understand the crest or mane of the sun, which
comes out of the darkness ; thus the god Haris or Vishnus
lies upon a crested serpent or a many-headed serpent
Three-headed serpents or dragons, such as are famous in
fairy tales, occur in the Harivan^as^ and correspond to
the Vedic monster Trigiras, that is, three-headed. The
crest of the serpent is the god Vishnus himself, as a solar
deity who comes out of the serpent's body. Hence the
hooded-serpent, called Nalla P4mba in the Malabar,^ is
especially revered in India. *' The sudden appearance of
one of these serpents," wrote Lazzaro Papi from India,
''is considered to presage some future good or evil. It
is the divinity himself in this form, or at least his
messenger, and the bringer of rewards or chastisement.
Although it is exceedingly venomous, it is neither killed,
molested, nor crushed in the house which it enters, but
respected, and even caressed and adored by the more
superstitious. They give it milk to drink, and the
accommodation to which it is accustomed ; they con-
struct little huts for it, and prepare receptacles and nests
for it under large trees. This reminds me of the ancient
inhabitants of Prussia, who nourished several serpents
with milk in honour of Patriumpho or Patrimpos, their
deity. The family in which one of these serpents takes
up its abode esteems itself fortunate and secure from

^ Trigirsha iva n^gapotas ; 12,74:4.

2 Cfr. Papi, Lettere sulle Indie Orientaliy Lucca, 1829; it is the
cohra de capello of the Portuguese.

THE SACRED SERPENT. 407

poverty and other misfortunes ; and if some one, as it
not seldom happens, is bitten by them and dies, the
victim of his own credulity, it is, they say, a punishment
of God that has overtaken him for some crime." It is
nearly the same belief as that which we found in the
preceding chapter concerning the toad and the amphis-
bhsena. In Hungary, as Count Geza Kunn informs me,
some fairies are said to be born with a serpent's skin,
and to resume their form after this serpent's skin
has been shed. It is said that a precious stone can
be found under a serpent's tongue. When the serpents
warm themselves in the sun of spring, they blow out the
stone (or the sun itself), and subsequently conceal it
under the tongue of a still larger serpent, the king of the
serpents.

The serpent is supposed to protect and preserve the
lost riches, and to guard the soul of the dead hero ; hence
serpents, like crows amongst birds, are revered in India
as embodied souls of the dead. In Germany,^ the white
serpent (that is, the snowy winter), according to the
popular legend, gives to whoever eats of it (or w^ho is
licked by it in the ears) the gift of understanding the
language of birds, and of universal knowledge (it is in
the night of Christmas, that is, in the midst of the snow,
that those who are predestined to see marvels can com-
prehend, in the stables, the language of the cattle, and, in
the woods, the language of the birds ; according to the
legend, Charles le Gros, in the night of Christmas, saw
heaven and hell open, and was able to recognise his
forefathers). Thus in Greece, Melampos, Cassandra,
and Tiresias became seers by their contact with the

^ Cfr. Simrock Deutsche Mythologie, pp. 478, 513, 514, and Roch-
holtz DeiUscher Glauhe und Branch^ i. 146.

4o8 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

serpent, symbolised at a later period in the python and
the pj^honess, as the depositaries of all the oracles of
wisdom. In Scandinavian mythology, Odin also assumes
the form of a serpent (ormr), and the name of Ofnir, in
the same way as Zeus becomes a serpent in Greek mytho-
logy Avhen he wishes to create Zagreus, the bull-headed,
another Zeus or another Diontisos. In Rochholtz and
Simrock, we find indications of the same worship as that
given to the serpent in India, where it is regarded as a
good domestic genie. Milk is given to certain domestic
little snakes to drink ; they are put to watch over little
children in their cradles, with whom they divide their
food ; they bring good luck to the children near which
they stay ; it is therefore considered a fatal sacrilege to
kill them. It is fabled, moreover, that a serpent is some-
times born with a child entwined round its neck, and
that it and the child are thenceforth inseparable (an
image of the year and of the day, half luminous and half
tenebrous, inseparable the one from the other). It guards
the cattle in the stables, and procures for good and
beautiful maidens husbands worthy of them. According
to a popular legend, two serpents are found in every
house (a male and a female), which only appear when
they announce the death of the master and mistress
of the house ; when these die, the snakes also cease
to live. To kiU one of these serpents is to kill the head
of the family. Under this aspect, as a protector of
children, as a giver of husbands to girls, and identified
with the head or progenitor of the family, the serpent is
again a phallical form. From the gloomy serpent of
night, the tenebrous serpent of winter, even the nocturnal
and wintry heavens illumined by the moon, and from the
Avhite moon, emerges the diurnal sun, the sun of spring,
the day and the warm and luminous season. The ogre,

THE SERPENT AND THE TREE, 409

dragon, or serpent keeps back the waters in the cloud
and the waters in the rivers, occupies the fountains, lies
at the roots of the tree which yields honey, of the
ambrosial tree, of the tree in the midst of the lake of
milk ; the tree and the phallos are again identified. The
Phrygian Attis, loved by Cybele, is deprived of his
phallos, and expires ; Cybele transforms him into a pine
tree (which is cone-bearing and evergreen, which resists,
like the moon, even the rigours of winter), in which the
funereal and regeneratory phallos is personified ; the
cypress (cone-bearing and evergreen), which the three
brothers of the fairy tales must watch during the night,
and which only the youngest brother succeeds in deliver-
ing from the dragon or serpent which carries it away, is
also represented in Persian tradition as in the middle of
a lake of ambrosia. The serpent steals this tree, as in
the Hindoo myth it steals the ambrosia from the gods ;
it knows well that in it consists the regeneratory strength
of the hero, whom the serpent has bitten ; sometimes it
steals the tree from him, and sometimes guards over it.
Out of the golden apple, or out of the orange of the tree
guarded by the dragon, in popular tales, the beautiful
maiden comes ; the dragon keeps her back a second time
on the way, making her mount upon a tree, or throwing
her into the fountain, near which the beautiful maiden
becomes a dark fish or a dark bird (a swallow or a dove),
in order to come out again from the fish or the bird in
the form of a beautiful girl. The love of the young
princess for the young hero, in Eussian stories, comes out
of the duck's egg taken under the tree, and the death of
the serpent-dragon is caused by it. Here the gloomy
monster of the, night and winter, the monster serpent,
appears, in guardianship of the moon, the protectress of
marriages, as an ambrosial and evergreen tree, and, like

410 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

the cypresSj a funereal tree, which is at the same time
symbolical of immortality. From the moon of winter
and of night, the solar hero of spring and the day, the
maiden spring and the maiden aurora come forth. The
serpent, like the toad, the frog, the fish, and the bird,
now desires the moon of winter and of night for itself,
and now presents it to the young hero, whom it protects.
The moon appears when the diurnal sun goes down in
the west ; hence the garden of the Hesperides, as the word
denotes, was supposed to be situated in the west ; the
moon rules the northern heavenly region, the cold season
of the year ; for this reason Apollodorus placed this same
garden of the Hesperides in the north, amongst the
Hyperboreans, where the tree of oblivion also grew accord-
ing to ^lianos. In India, the ambrosial tree, the tree of
immortality, the tree of Brahman's paradise, like the
moon and Qivas (the god of paradise and of hell, the
phaUical and destroying god), was also placed in the
north, on Mount Merus, the phaUical and primeval
mountain, near the sea of oblivion, guarded by a dragon ;
but because the dragon or serpent represents evil oftener
than good, because Qivas, the moon, and the cypress, have
a double aspect, phaUical and funereal, paradisiacal and
infernal, because Kagyapas, the great primitive phallos,
created opposite things in the form of a bird and in that
of a serpent, two trees are also represented upon Mount
Merus, one of good and one of evil, one of life and one
of death, which reminds us of the Jewish and Mahometan
traditions. The legends concerning the tree of the
golden apples or figs, which yields honey or ambrosia,
guarded by dragons, in which the life, the fortune, the
glory, the strength, ^nd the riches of the hero have their
beginning, are numerous among every people of Aryan
origin \ in India and in Persia, in Prussia and in Poland,

THE SERPENT AND THE TREE. 411

in Sweden and in Germany, in Greece and in Italy,
popular myths, poems, songs, and fairy tales amplify
with a great variety of incidents, partly unconscious of
their primitive signification, this strange subject of phal-
lical cosmogony.^

1 Cfr. again the legend of Adam and Eve, of the tree and the serpent,
and the original sin. In the mediaeval comedy La Sibila del Oriente,
Adam when dying says to his son, " Mira en cima de mi sepulcro, que
un arbol nace." In Russian stories the young hero will be fortunate,
now because he watched at his father's tomb, now because he defended
the paternal cypress from the demon who wished to carry it off. In
the legend of the wood of the cross, according to a sermon of Her-
mann von Fristlar (cfr. Mussafia, Sulla Leggenda del legno della Groce)^
the tree upon the wood of which, made into a cross, Christ died, is
said to have been a cypress. The same mediaeval legend describes the
terrestrial paradise whence Adam was expelled, and where Seth repairs
to obtain for Adam the oil of pity. The tree rises up to heaven, and
its root goes down to hell, where Seth sees the soul of his brother
Abel. On the summit there is a child, the Son of God, the promised
oil. The angel gives to Seth three grains which he is to put into
Adam's mouth ; three sprouts spring up which remain an arm's-length
in height till the time of ]\Ioses, who converts them into miraculous
rods, and replants them before his death • David finds them again,
and performs miracles with them. The three sprouts become one
plant which grows proudly into a tree. Solomon wishes to build the
temple with this wood ; the workmen cannot make use of it ; he then
has it carried into the temple; a sybil tries to sit upon it, and her
clothes take fire; she cries out, "Jesus, God and my Lord," and pro-
phesies that the Son of God will be hanged upon that wood. She is
condemned to death, and the wood thrown into a fish-pond, which
acquires thaumaturgic virtue ; the wood comes out and they wish to
make a bridge of it ; the Queen of the East, Saba, refuses to pass over
it, having a presentiment that Jesus will die upon that wood. Abia
has the wood buried, and a fish-pond appears over it. — Now, this is
what an author, unsuspected of heresy, writes concerning the symbol of
the serpent (Martigny, Dictionnaire des Antiquites Chretiennes) : " Les
ophites, suivant en cela 4es nicolaites et les premiers gnostiques,
rendirent au serpent lui-m^me un culte direct d'adoration, et les
manich^ens le mirent aussi ^ la place de J^sus Christ (S. Augustin.
De Hares, cap. xvii. et xlvi.) Et nous devons regarder conime ex-

412 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY. '

The Persian cosmogony is of a less material character
than the Hindoo, but its principle is the same. Ahura-
mazda and Anhromainyu, who occupy the first place as
the creators of the world, are also two males in opposition
to one another. From Ahuramazda descends Thrsetaona
or Feridun, the killer of the serpent (azhi) Dahaka, or
Dahak, or Zohak, the three-headed dragon which Anhro-
mainyu created to destroy the beautiful in the world, as
the strongest of monsters.^ In Hindoo tradition we find
the bird Garudas on the side of the gods, and the N^gas
or serpent on that of the demons ; so, in Persian tradi-
tion, the bird Simurg is on the side of the gods, and
the serpent or sea-monster on that of the demons. It is
in the midst of the waters that the hero Kerey^jpa finds
the great serpent Qruvara, who devours men and horses,
and who ejects a venom as large as a man's thumb.
Taking him probably for an island,^ he has food cooked

tremement probable que les talismans et les amulettes avec la figure du
serpent qui sont arrives jusqu' k nous, proviennent des h6r^tiques de
la race de Basilide, et non pas des parens, comme on le suppose com-
mun^ment." To the continuers of the admirable studies of Strauss
and Renan will be reserved the office of seeking the sense hidden in this
myth, made poetical by the evangelical morals. When we shall be
able to bring into Semitic studies the same liberty of scientific
criticism which is conceded to Aryan studies, we shall have a Semitic
mythology ; for the present, faith, a natural sense ' of repugnance to
abandon the beloved superstitions of our credulous childhood, and
more than all, a less honourable sentiment of terror for the opinion of
the world, have restrained men of study from examining Jewish
history and tradition with entire impartiality and severity of judg-
ment. We do not wish to appear Voltairians, and we prefer to shut
our eyes not to see, and our ears not to hear what history, studied
critically and positively, presents to us less agreeable to our pride as
men, and to our vanity as Christians.

1 Cfr, Ya<^na^ ix. 25-27 ; cfr. also Prof. Spiegel's introduction to
the Khorda Avesta^ pp. 59, 60.

2 Cfr. the chapter concerning the Fishes and that on the Tortoise.

THE PERSIA N SERPENT. 4 1 3

upon it ; the serpent feels the heat, and begins to move ;
it then throws Kerej^gpa, the courageous Kere9d5pa, over
backwards. There seems to be some analogy between this
myth of the Ya9na of the Avesta and the story of the
fearless hero of the Russian story, who, being asleep in a
boat, falls into the river when terrified by the little fish
which had jumped upon him. (The serpent appears also
as the enemy of fire in the Kho7'da-Avesta.y The
serpent causes the diseases which Thrsetaona is requested
to cure ; it poisons whatever it sees and touches ; and,
according to the Khorda-Avesta,^ the wicked are con-
demned to feed upon poison after death. In the Shah-
Name the sun disappears, devoured by a sea-monster or
crocodile. In the third adventure of Isfendiar, the hero
is almost inebriated by the venomous smoke and the
pestilential breath of the dragon which he has victoriously
combated ; and, after having won, he falls to the ground
as if dead ; thus Indras, after having defeated the
monstrous serpent, flees in terror over the rivers, like a
madman attacked by hydrophobia, terrified by the
shadow, the smoke, or the water of the dead serpent,
because this shadow, which is perhaps his own, and not
his enemy's, menaces to submerge him in those poisoned
waves, and to transform him into a sea-monster, assimi-
lating him thus to his enemy ; inasmuch as the god
sends to make man like himself, so also does the demon.
In Persia, therefore, the serpent is generally considered
as a demoniacal and monstrous animal, the personification
of evil. If it is prayed to, it is to conjure it away, to in-
duce it to go far distant, as the Arabs and the Tatars
particularly do to expel the devil. The Persian genius has

^ Cfr. Prof. Spiegel's introduction to the Khorda-Avesta^ p. 60.
2 xxxviii. 36.

414 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

not the mobility, the plasticity, and elasticity of the
Hindoo ; its mjrthical images are more severe and less
multiform ; hence the serpent remained in Persian tradi-
tion the demoniacal animal far excellence. In the Tuti-
Name, on the contrary, which is of Hindoo origin, the
serpent has a double aspect. The serpent wishes to eat
the frog. (In the fifteenth story of the third book of the
Pancatantram, the frogs ride upon the serpent, and leap
upon it in delight, like Phsedrus's frogs upon King Log,
which was sent to them in derision by Jove ; the serpent
and the rod are assimilated.) The hero saves the frog, (
upon which the serpent reproves him, because he thus
takes its food from it ; the hero then cuts off some of his
own flesh to give it to the serpent ; ^ the serpent protects
the hero ever afterwards, and cures with an ointment the
king's daughter, who had been bitten by another serpent ;
the king gives his daughter, on her recovery, to the hero
who had satisfied the serpents hunger. In the tenth
story of the third book of the Pa/icatantram, two little
serpents, who talk to each other, both work their own
ruin and make the fortune of the hero and of the heroine.
A king's son has a serpent in his body without knowing

1 A variety of the Hindoo legend of the hawk (Indras), of the dove
(Agnis), and of King givis, wLo, to save tlie dove from the hawk, his
guest, gives some of his own flesh to the hawk to eat. Here the
serpent is identified with the hawk or eagle ; in the Mongol story,
however, the dragon is grateful to the man who delivered him from
the bird Garudas; the king. of the dragons keeps guard over the white
pearls, arrives upon a white horse, dressed in white (probably the snow
of -winter, or the moon) ; the king of the dragons rewards the hero by
giving him a red bitch, some fat, and a string of pearls. — In the sixth
story of the Pancatantram, we have the serpent and the crow, one at
the foot of a tree, the other on the summit ; the serpent eats the crow's
eggs, and the crow avenges itself by stealing a golden necklace from
the queen and throwing it into the snake's hole ; the men go to seek the
necklace, find the serpent and kill it.

THE TWO SERPENTS. 415

it, and becomes ill ; lie abandons in despair his father's
palace, and goes begging ; he is given, in contempt, the
second daughter of another king to wife, who had never
said amiable things to her father, like her eldest sister (a
variation of the legend of Cordelia and Lear) ; whilst one
day the young prince has fallen asleep with his head
upon an ant-hill, the little serpent which is in his body
puts out its head to breathe a little fresh air, and sees
another serpent coming out of the ant-hill ; ^ the two
little serpents begin to dispute and call each other names ;
one accuses the other of tormenting the young prince by
inhabiting his body, and the accused responds by charging
it with hiding two jars full of gold under the ant-hill.^
Continuing their quarrel, one says how easy it would be
to kill the other ; a little mustard would suffice to settle
the first, and a little hot oil the second (the serpent is
killed by being burned ; the rich uhlan-serpent of the
Eussian story is burned in the trunk of an oak-tree, in
which it had taken refuge out of fear for the fire and the
lightning) ; the hidden wife listens to everything, de-
livers her husband from the little serpent in his body,
and kills the other serpent to take out the treasure which
it keeps hidden/ In the fourteenth of the stories of Santo

1 We have seen in the chapter on the Ant how the ants make
serpents come out of their holes; in Bavaria, according to Baron
Beinsberg von Diiringsfeld, the work quoted before, p. 259, an asp
(natter) taken in August must be shut well up in a vase in order that
it may die of heat and of hunger ; then it is placed upon an ants' nest,
that the ants may eat all its flesh ; of what remains, a sort of pater-
noster is made, which is supposed to be very useful against all kinds of
eruptions upon the head.

2 Cfr. the interminable riches of the uhlan-serpent in the story vi.
11, of Afanassieff.

2 Here we have a serpent which expels and ruins another. In a
similar manner, before the times of San Carlo Borromeo, a bronze
serpent, which had been carried from Constantinople by the Arch-

41 6 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

Stefano di Calcinaia, the third of the young daughters, in
order to save her father from certain death, consents to
marry the serpent, who carries her upon his tail to his
palace, where he becomes a handsome man called Sor
Fiorante, of the red and white stockings. But she must
reveal the secret to no one. The maiden (as in the fable
of Cupid and Psyche) does not resist the temptation of
speaking of it to her sisters, on which her husband dis-
appears ; she finds him again after having filled seven
flasks with her tears ; breaking first a walnut, then a
hazel-nut, and finally an almond, of which each contains
a magnificent robe, she recovers her husband, and is re-
cognised by him.^ In a variety of the same story in my

bishop Arnolfo in the year 1001, was revered in the basilica of St
Ambrose at Milan ; some said that it was the serpent of ^sculapius,
others that of Moses, others that it was an image of Christ ; for us it
is enough to remark here that it was a mythical serpent, before which
Milanese mothers brought their children when they suffered from
worms, in order to relieve them, as we learn from the depositions of
the visit of San Carlo to this basilica: "Est qusedam superstitio de ibi
mulierum pro infantibus morbo verminum laborantibus,'' San Carlo
put down this superstition.

^ These marvels are always three, as the apples are three, the beautiful
girls three, the enchanted palaces in the kingdom of the serpents which
they inhabit three (cfr. Afanassieff, i. 5). The heads of the dragon
are in this story and generally three, but sometimes also five, six
(cfr. Afanassieff, v. 28), seven (cfr. Pentamerone, i, 7, and Afanassieff,
ii. 27 ; the serpent of the seven heads emits foul exhalations), nine
(iii. 2, V. 24), or twelve (cfr. Afanassieff, ii. 30) — In the twenty-first
story of the second book of Afanassieffj first the serpent with three
heads appears, then that with six, then that with nine heads which
throw out water and threaten to inundate the kingdom. Ivan Tzarevid
exterminates them. In the twenty-second story of the same book the
serpent of the Black Sea, with wings of fire, flies into the Tzar's
garden and carries off the three daughters ; the first is obtained and
shut up by the five-headed serpent, the second by the seven-headed
one, and the third by the serpent with twelve heads ; the young hero
Frolka Sidien kills the three serpents and liberates the three daughters.

THE SERPENT AND THE MAIDEN 417

little collection, a good serpent fairy advises the blind
princess, and gives her the hazel-nut, the almond, and
the walnut ; each of the three gifts contains a marvel ;
by means of the first marvel the young princess regains
one eye from the false wife ; by means of the second
marvel, the other eye, which the serpent puts in its
place ;^ and by means of the third, which is a golden hen
with forty-four golden chickens (perhaps forty-four stands
for forty times four, or a hundred and sixty, which might
represent the luminous and warm days of the year, from
the first of April to the end of August), she finds her lost
husband again. In an unpublished Sicilian story com-
municated to me by Dr Ferraro, a serpent presses the
neck of King Moharta to avenge a beautiful gixl whom
the king had forsaken, after having violated her; in
order to release himself from the serpent, the king is
compelled to marry the beautiful girl whom he had
betrayed. In the sixteenth of the Tuscan stories pub-
lished by me, the three sons of the king go to get the
water which jumps and dances, and which is guarded
by a dragon who devours as many as approach it ; the
dragon sleeps from twelve to two o'clock, and sleeps with
its eyes open, which signifies, if we interpret twelve
o'clock as twelve o'clock of the day, that the dragon is
asleep when the sun watches, and if, on the contrary, as
twelve o'clock at night, that it sleeps when the moon,
compared to the hare which sleeps with its eyes open,
shines in the sky.^ In an ancient Neapolitan vase ex-

^ Cfr. also, for the legend of the blind woman, the first chapter of
the first book.

2 When the mythical serpent refers to the year, the hours corre-
spond to the months, and the months daring which the mythical
serpent sleeps seem to be those of summer, in contradiction to what is
observed in nature.

VOL. II. 2 D

4i8 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

plained by Gerhard and Panofka, we find a tree and a
fountain, a serpent (the same as that which gnaws at the
roots of the tree Yggdrasill in the Eddas), three Hes-
perides, and Herakles. One Hesperis is giving the
wounded serpent some beverage in a cup, the second is
plucking an apple, the third is about to pluck one, and
Herakles has also an apple in his hand. The myth and
the story of the ogre and the three oranges correspond
perfectly to one another.^ The maiden was at first
identified with the serpent, as the daughter of the dragon,
and as a female serpent ; she lays aside her disguise on
the approach of the young hero, and recovers all her
splendour. In an unpublished story of the Monferrato,
communicated to me by Dr Ferraro, a beautiful girl,
when plucking up a cabbage (a lunar image), sees under
its roots a large room, goes down into it, and finds a
serpent there, who promises to make her fortune if she
will kiss him and sleep with him; the girl consents.
After three months, the serpent begins to assume the legs
of a man, then a man's body, and finally the face of a
handsome youth, the son of a king, and marries his young
deliverer. In popular tradition, we also have the con-

1 In the fifth story of the second book of the Pentamerone, a
serpent has itself adopted, as their son, by a man and woman who
have no children, and then asks for the king's daughter to wife ;
the king, who thinks to turn the serpent into ridicule, answers that he
will consent when the serpent has made all the fruit-trees of the royal
garden become golden, the soil of the same garden turn into precious
stones^ and his whole palace into a pile of gold. The serpent sows kernels
of fruits and egg-shells in the garden ; from the first, the required
trees spring up ; from the second, the pavement of precious stones ]
he then anoints the palace with a certain herb, and it turns to gold.
The serpent comes to take his wife in a golden chariot, drawn by four
golden elephants, lays aside his serpent's disguise, and becomes a hand-
some youth.

THE SERPENT'S WHISTLES. 419

trary form of the same myth, that is, the beautiful
maiden "who becomes a serpent again. In a German
legend,^ the young hero hopes to deliver the beautiful
maiden by three kisses : ^ the first time he kisses her
as a beautiful girl ; the second time as a monster, half
woman half serpent ; the third time he refuses to kiss
her, because she has become entirely a serpent.

When the day or the summer dies, the mythical ser-
pent shows himself (in absolute contradiction to what we
are taught by Natural History, one would almost say
that when the serpent ceases to creep along the ground
and to devour the animals of the earth, it goes to creep
and to devour the animals of the sky) ; then the north
winds begin to whistle, — and the serpent, particularly the
mythical serpent, is a famous A^fhistler. Isidorus ^ even
identifies the basilisk and the serpent, called a regulus
with the whistle itself : " Sibilus idem est qui et Regulus :
sibilo enim occidit antequam mordeat vel exurat." In
the twenty-fifth story of the fifth book of Afanassieff,
the gipsy and the serpent challenge one another to see
who will whistle loudest. When the serpent whistles or
hisses (that is, in autumn) all the trees lose their leaves.
The gipsy defeats the serpent by a cheat ; he makes it
believe that it will be unable to resist the eff'ects of his
whistle if it does not cover its head, and then beats it
without pity, so that the serpent is convinced of the
gipsy's superiority, and says that it reveres him as its
elder brother.^ I cited in the first chapter of the first

1 Cfr. Mone, Anzeig. iii. 88.

2 Cfr. on this subject the stories recorded in the first and second
chapters of the first book. ^ Ovigines, siv. 4.

^ Cfr. the same, Afanassieff, vi. 10, where the cunning workman, in
reward for having vanquished the little devil in whistling, and for
having made it believe that he could throw a stick upon the clouds,
obtains the money which can remain in a hat which never fills.

420 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

book the Russian story of Alexin the son of the priest,
or the divine Alexin, who fights against Tugarin, the son
of the serpent, or the demon-serpent, and begs the Virgin
to bathe the monster's wings with the rain of the black
cloud : the monster's wings being heavy with water, force
it to fall to the groimd. Here we return again to the
simple yet grandiose Vedic myth, the most remote of
all, from which we started ; we return to lyrical poetry,
inspired, spontaneous, ingenuous, full of agreeable or
fearful surprises, of naive enthusiasms, of creative im-
pulses, the unconscious originator of a new civilisation
and a n^^ faith, as yet undefiled with phallical cosmo-
gonies, as yet unruptured and unimpoverished by the
sterile dreams of eunuch-like metaphysics.

CONCLUSION.

" E come quel die con lena affannata
Uscito fuor del pelago a la riva
Si volge all 'onda perigliosa e guata,
Cosi ranimo mio che ancor fuggiva
Si volse indietro a rimirar ..."

and the shadows of the mythological monsters rise again
before me, and occupy my fearful thoughts. During these
months of my solitary sojourn on Olympus, have I only
been the victim of a horrible nightmare, or have I
apprehended aright the reality of the changeful figures
of the sky in their animal forms ? The ancient mytho-
logy, Avhich used to be taught to us at school, was filled
with the incests of Jove, of Mars, and of Venus ; but they
were classical myths, and the adulterers were called gods ;
and our good fathers, in the vain search for symbolical
meanings, tortured their ingenious brains to extract from
each scandal of Olympus a moral lesson for the instruc-
tion of youth. Hence it was permitted to art to repre-
sent Jove as a bull, an eagle, a swan, a seducer iti an
animal form, without ofiending decency or violating the
sanctity of the schools ; and the young scholars were
encouraged to write their rhetorical exercises in Italian
or Latin verse upon the favourite themes of classical
mythology, inasmuch as with symbols and moral allegories
the vile matter could all be made divine. Platonic or

422 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

metaphysical love not requiring the vehicles of sense to
communicate itself, the animal forms of the god were for
our old masters nothing else than symbols and allegories,
conceived and intended to veil an elevated educational
Avisdom. But we have rocked ourselves long enough in
the cradle of this infantile fantasy, and must now discard
from this and kindred themes all such idle dreams. It is
at last necessary to summon up the courage to front the
problems of history with the same frankness and ardour
with which naturalists approach the mysteries of Nature,
and pierce the veil ; nor is this attempt so hazardous,
since, in order to demonstrate entirely our historical
theses, we have certain and positive data provided for us
in speech and in legend by comparative oral and written
tradition. We do not invent; we simply accumulate,
and then put in order the facts relating to the common
history of popular thought and sentiment in our privileged
race. The difficulty consists only in classifying the facts ;
the facts themselves are many and evident. It is very
possible to be deceived in their arrangement, and hence
also in their minute interpretation ; and I am, for my part,
not without apprehension that I may have here and there
made an unlucky venture in interpreting some particular
myths ; but if this may, in some degree, reflect discredit
on my intelligence, which is perhaps imperfectly armed,
and without sufficient penetration, this can in nowise
prejudice the fundamental truths which permit com-
parative mythology to constitute and install itself as a
positive science, that may henceforth, like every science,
instruct and edify with profit. The principal error into
which the students of the new science are apt to fall, and
into which I may myself have sometimes been betrayed
in the course of this work, is that of confining their
observations to one special favourite mythical point or

CONCLUSION. 423

moment, and referring almost every myth to it, and not
taking sufficient account of their mobility and their
separate history, that is, of the various periods of their
manifestation. One sees in the myth only the sun, an-
other only the moon in its several revolutions, and their
amours with the verdant and resplendent earth ; one sees
the darkness of night in opposition to the light of day, an-
other the same light in opposition to the gloomy cloud ;
one the loves of the sun with the moon, another those of
the sun with the aurora. These diverse, special, and too
exclusive points of view, from which the myths have
hitherto been generally studied by learned men, have
afforded ill-disposed adversaries an opportunity of ridi-
culing the science of Comparative Mythology as a science
which is little serious, and which changes its nature
according to the student who occupies himself with it.
But this opposition is disarmed by its own weapons.
For what does the concord of all learned men and
scholars in this department prove ? It proves, in my
opinion, but one thing, and that is, the reproduction
and confirmation of the same natural myths under mul-
tiples forms, the representation by analogous myths of
analogous phenomena, and that the variations met with
in fairy tales are also found in myths. The sun chases
away the darkness in the day, the moon the darkness
in the night ; both are called haris, or fairhaired, golden,
luminous. Indras is haris ; as haris, he is now in rela-
tion with the sun that thunders in the cloud (Jupiter
Tonans), now with the ambrosial moon which attracts
rain (Jupiter Pluvius) ; Zeus gives up the field to his son
Diontisos, and, be it as the sun, be it as the moon, he is
always Zeus the refulgent one, Diespiter or the father of
light ; in the first case, he pierces through the cloud, and
in the second through the darkness. Even when the

424 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

moon or the sun is hidden, when Zeus or Dioniisos lives ^ '^
in his august mystery, they prepare new luminous
phenomena. Thus Vishnus is haris, and as haris he is
identified now with, the sun, now with the moon ; or, to
speak with more precision, the sun haris and the moon
haris are confounded in one sole mythical personage, in
one god, who represents them both in various moments,
that is to say, in Vishnus. It is desirable that the entirety
of the myths should be studied with full comprehension
of the whole field which the myth may have enriched,
and of the whole period in which the myth may have
been developed ; but this does not prevent, in special
studies, a learned man from addressing himself (as Pro-
fessors Kuhn, Mtiller, and Breal have done) to one
special point to prove one special mythological thesis.
To this point he applies his lever; he might, perhaps,
use it somewhere else ; but this causes no prejudice
to the essential truth, by bringing his demonstrations
to the highest degree of clearness in one point alone.
The, excess of demonstration can easily be corrected, and
meanwhile from these special studies, in which investi-
gation becomes every day more profound, the myths
come out in brighter colours. It would be an exag-
geration to ascribe to all the myths one unvaried manner
of formation, as also to think absolutely that all myths
began by a simple confusion of words. Equivocal-
ness, no doubt, played a principal part in the formation of
myths ; but this same equivocalness would not always
have been possible without the pre-existence, so to speak,
of pictorial analogies. The child who even now, gazing .
on the sky, takes a white cloud for a mountain of snow,
certainly does not yet know that parvatas meant both
cloud and mountain in the Vedic language ; he continues,
however, to elaborate his elementary myth by means of

CONCLUSION. 425

simple analogies of images. The equivoque of words
usually succeeded to the analogy of external figures as they
appeared to primitive man. He had not yet named the
cloud as a mountain, and yet he already saw it. When
the confusion of images took place, that of words became
almost inevitable, and only served to determine it, to
give it in the external sound a more consistent form, to
manifest it more artistically, and to constitute it into a
sort of trunk upon which, with the help of new par-
ticular observations, of new images, and of new equi-
voques, an entire tree of mythical genealogies was to
sprout out.

It has fallen to me to study the least elevated depart-
ment of mythology. In the primitive man, who created the
myths, the same twofold tendency shows itself which we
observe in ourselves — the instinct by which we are allied
to the brutes, and the instinct which lifts us to the com-
prehension and sentiment of the divine or the ideal.
The ideal was the portion of few ; material instinct that
of many : the ideal was the promise of human progress ;
material instinct represented that inert resisting matter
which stiU acts in opposition to progress. Hence images
full of elevated poesy by the side of others, vulgar and
gross, which remind us of the relation of man to that
petulant and lascivious brute from which it is supposed
that he descends. The god who becomes a brute cannot
preserve always intact his divinity ; the animal form is
that of his avatdras or of his decadence, of his fall ; it is
usually the form assumed by the god or the hero in
consequence of a cm-se or a crime. The Hindoo and the
Pythagorean beliefs considered the disguise of the animal
as the purgatory of a guilty man. And the god-beast,
the hero-beast, the man-beast cannot restrain themselves
from brutish acts. The proud and ferocious King A^icv4-

426 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY.

mitras, the Indian Nebuchadnezzar, when he wanders
through the forest in the form of a monster, takes the
nature of the forest-rakshasas, the devourer ; the beauti-
ful celestial nymphs become sea-monsters, devour the
heroes who approach their fountain. Only when the
animal form is killed, when the matter is shaken off, does
the god or hero assume his divine goodness, beauty, and
excellence. Here mythology is not in contradiction to
physiology ; the character of the mythical personages is
the result of their corporeal forms^ of their organism,
until the natural destiny changes, and a new physical
transformation taking place in the species, even its moral
characteristics are modified ; light is good, darkness is evil,
or good only inasmuch as it is supposed to enclose light
in its body. From the dark wood rubbed and shaken,
from the dark stone struck and dilated, comes forth the
spark which causes conflagrations ; from the body when
exercised and made agile comes forth the splendour of
look, of speech, of affection, of thought ; the god breaks
forth. Substance is dark, but when it is agitated it pro-
duces light ; as long as it is inert, it is evil, and it is still
evil as long as it attracts to itself, as if to a centre of
gravity, everything that lives. In as far as the monster
swallows beautiful things, it is evil ; in as far as it lets
them radiate and go forth, it is good. Disperse the cloud,
disperse the darkness, dilate and expand the matter which
tends to grow narrow and to become inert, to absorb life,
and the divine light will come out of it, the splendid in-
telligent life will appear ; the fallen hero, the hero turned
to stone, w^ho has become inert substance, will ascend
again, agile and refulgent, into the divine heavens.

Certainly, I am far from believing that this was the inten-
tion of the myth. Morals have often been an appendix of
fables, but they never enter into the primitive fable itself.

CONCLUSION. 427

The elementary myth is a spontaneous production of im-
agination, and not of reflection. When the myth exists, art
and religion may make use of it as an allegory for their
aesthetic and moral ends ; but the myth itself is devoid
of moral conscience ; the myth shows, as I have said, only
more or less elevated instincts. And if I have sought
to compare several physiological laws with the myths,
it is not because I attribute to the myth a wisdom greater
than that which it contains in reality, but only to indicate
that, much better than metaphysics, the science of nature,
with the criteria of positive philosophy, can help us to
study the original production of myths and their succes-
sive development in tradition. I have had to prove in
mythology its most humble aspect, that is to say, the
god enclosed in the animal ; and inasmuch as amongst
the various mythical animals which I have endeavoured
to describe, several preserve the propitious character and
resplendent form of the god, they are generally considered
as the form which the deity assumes either to feed secretly
upon the forbidden fruit or to fulfil a term of punish-
ment for some former fault of his ; in any case, these
forms never serve to give us a superlative idea of the
divine excellence and perfection. Instead of ascribing
to the god all the attributes of beauty, goodness, and
strength at once, instead of associating in one all the
gods, or all the sympathic forces and figures of Nature, a
new divine form was created for each attribute. And
because the primitive man was not so much inclined to
make abstractions as comparisons (to represent strength,
for instance, he had recourse to the image of the bull, the
lion, or the tiger ; to represent goodness, he figured it in
the lamb, the dog, or the dove ; to represent beauty, he
chose the gazelle, the stag, the peacock, and so on), in

428 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY,

the primitive speech, of mankind no conjunctions existed
by means of which to unite the two terms of a comparison :
hence a strong king became the lion, a faithful friend the
dog, an agile girl the gazelle, and so on. We sometimes
hear our women, in their moments of tenderness for a
distant person, or in their impatience to go where their
heart calls them, or in their curiosity to know what is
going on at such a moment in such a place, say, " I wish
I could become a bird to go there." In reality they envy
only the bird's wings, in order to fly, to arrive there
sooner, and for this desire alone they Avould renounce
all the precious privileges which distinguish them as
women. The same sacrifice of their own luminous forms
to obtain some determinate end happens in the mythical
sky. The god humbles himself in order to make use of
some quality which he needs to manifest especially. Thus
Indras, to put the generosity of King Qivis to the proof,
finds it necessary to follow, in the shape of a hawk, the
god Agnis, who had become a dove, and taken refuge
with the king. Primitive man does not ascribe to the
god any other form than those which he sees round him,
and which he knows : the god cannot have wings of his
own, divine wings ; he must become a bird in order to
be winged. Thus, to draw a chariot, or to carry a hero
through the air, he must become a hippogrifi*, that is,
horse and bird ; and when he falls into the sea, he must
enter a fish's body to escape drowning.

The god can therefore exercise his divine power only
on the condition of entering into the forms of those
animals which are supposed to have the privilege of the
qualities which the god is in need of in a special m3rthical
occurrence. But in this animal form in which the god
displays in a transcendent manner some particular quality,

CONCLUSION, 429

he dims at the same time a great part of his divine
splendour. Having, therefore, surprised the deity in this
strange and unlucky moment, the reader will not, I hope,
impute to me the poor figure which the deity has had to
make in many pages of this work ; nor will he think evil
of me if I have deprived him, perchance, of some illusion
in compensation for some imperfect, but perhaps not use-
less revelation.

INDEX,

{This Index is compiled at the instance of the Puhllsher, and is not hy the Author.)

Absalom and his hair, i. 334.

Aohilleus, horses of, i. 351.

Achelooa, horn of, i. 266.

A^vin^u, the, i. 18, 19; friendship for
Tritas, 25 ; awakening of, 27 ; and the
aurora, 30 ; eyes to the blind, feet to
the lame, 32, 36 ; and Kabandhas, 63 ;
the sons of, 78 ; as the two ears of
Vishnus, 81 ; 285-287, 300-302, 304,
306-308, 310, 315, 319, 321, 327, 370 ;
ass of, 371.

Adam and Eve, legend of, ii. 411.

Aditis and the cow, in Vedic literature,
i. 5, 6 ; 23, 70, 74.

Adonis, ii. 14-16.

Adrika, the nymph-fish, ii. 331 ; son and
daughter of, 332.

.-Eschylos, fabled death of, ii. 197.

jEsculapius, i. 353.

Afrasiab, i. 114, 116, 117.

Agas and synonyms, i. 402.

Agnis, as the fire-god, 10 ; adjutant to
Indras, 13 ; 299, 301.

Agnus Dei, sacrifice of the, i. 423.

Ahaly^, legend of, i. 414.

Ahura Mazda, i. 97, 109.

AiStaa, bulls of, i. 267.

Ai-Kan, story of, i. 146.

Alexander the Great, i. 119 ; and augury,
ii. 178 ; and the fish, 333 ; and the crab,
355.

AUwi's, the dwarf, i. 207, 225, 260, 261.

Amalthea, i. 430.

Amazons, the, i. 211, 212.

Ambrosia, i. 5 ; giver of, 18 ; the milk
which forms, 52, 54 ; contest for, 53
the demons and, 53 ; Gandharvas, guar-
dians of, 53 ; 81 ; of the cow, 275, 276 .
the origin of, ii. 361 ; the phallical re-
ference of, 361, 365.

Ampelos, i. 267.

AmpMsbhsena, the, ii. 386.

Anautas, the serpent, ii. 398, 399.

Angadas, i. 337.

Animals, gradation of, for sacrifice, i. 44 ;
substitutes for, in sacrifice, 44 ; battles
of tame and savage, 186 ; inviolability
of the mysteries of, 246 ; mythical
identification of, ii. 123 ; colours of, in
mythology, 295, 296.

Ansumant, i. 332.

Antony, St, the Vedic, i. 47 ; and the
hog, ii. 6.

Antelopes and the Marutas, ii. 83, 84 ;
king disguised as an, 86.

Ants, the, and the serpent, ii. 44 ; and
the shepherd's son, 45 ; and the grain,
47 ; and the horses, 50 ; Indian, 50, 51 ;
that dig up gold, 51 ; the monster, 51.

ApM^, Indras, and the somas, ii. 3; and
her ugly skin, 5.

AphroditI, i. 394 ; and Hermes, ii. 197.

Apollo, and Laomedon, i. 279 ; Smintheus,
ii. 68 ; and the crow, 254.

Apple-tree, the legend of, i. 251 ; the
mythical, 405 ; and the goat, 405.

Aquila and Aquilo, ii. 191, 192.

Arabs, the, saying of, ii. 11.

Arachnfi, ii. 163.

Arcadia, i. 387, 390.

Ardshi-Bordshi Khan, the history of, i.
120 ; stories from, 134, 139.

Ardvi Ctira An^hita, the Persian, i. 99,
100. '

Argos panoptes, i. 418,

Argus, ii. 327.

Ar|unas, i. 79, 104.

Ariadne, i. 212.

Arkas, ii. 118.

Arnfi, ii. 259.

Artemis and Aktaion, ii. 86 ; the huntress
87 ; and hind, 88.

Arunas, i. 292.

Ases, the three, and the eagle, ii. 191

Ashis Vaguhi, i. 108, 109.

Ass, the, among the Greeks and Romans,
i. 259, 260 ; in the East, 360 ; in the
"West, 360 ; mistakes about, 361 ; Chris-
tianity powerless to redeem, 361, 362 ;
hymn in honour of, 361, 362 ; treat-
ment of, by the Church, 363; down-
trodden condition of, 363 ; in the
Eigvedas, 364 ; names of, 364, 365 ; of
Apuleius, 366; which carries mysteries
367 ; and flight into Egypt, 367 ; of the
A^vin^u, 371 ; of Indras, 371 ; phallic
nature of, 372, 373; chastisement of,
for phallic offences, 372, 373 ; fall of
in the Rigvedas, 372, 374; the de-
moniacal, 374, 376 ; slowness, 374 ; the
golden, 375, 376 ; the Hindoo, 377 ; and
the jackal, 377, 378 ; -lion, 378, 379 ;

432

INDEX.

-musician, 378, 379; three-legged, bray-
ing, 379 ; and lion, 380 ; braying of,
and the merchants, 380 ; and Vesta,
384 ; and the Trojans, 386 ; ears of,
386 ; skin of, 388 ; that throws gold
from its tail, 388 ; and the waters of
Styx, 390 ; horned, of India, 390, 391 ;
horn of the Scythian, 390, 391; and
Silenos, 391, 392. 394 ; and Bacchus,
392 ; and the talisman, 393 ; skin of,
394 ; proverbs about, 394 ; the combed,
395 ; shadow and nose, 395 ; golden, of
Apuleius, 395 ; uncontainedness, 396 ;
that brays, 397, 398; in hell, 398;
knowledge of, 398,
Assassins, story of the king of the, ii. 35.
Atavism in mythology, i. 199.
Atli, i. 226.

Attis, the Phrygian, ii. 409.
Audhumla, the cow, i. 224.
Aulad, the warrior, i. 112, 113.
Aurora, the cow, process of re-creating,
i. 20 ; cow of abundance, 26 ; relations
to Indras, 27 ; the milk of, 27 ; and her
cows, 25, 29; the girl, the swift one
without feet, 30, 31 ; the evening, per-
fidy of, 32 ; as a sorceress, 33 ; per-
secutions of, 34 ; the saviour, 35 ; once
blind, now seeing and sight-giving, 36 ;
and the night, 36-38 ; the sisters, 38 ;
the younger, 38, 39 ; nuptials of, and
its conditions, 39 ; fruit of the nuptials
of, 39, 40 ; and Kak^, 50 ; characteristic
form of, 50 ; as a cow, 51 ; mother of
the sun, 61 ; rich in pearls, 66 ; and
the moon, 56, 65; the Persian, 100-102,
121-125, 146 ; awakener of, 163 ; 170 ;
amours of, 324 ; the two, and the fox,
ii. 124.
Avesta, the, i. 109, 110.

Bacchus and the asses, i. 392.

BalinandSugrivas,i. 312, 313;ii. 100,101.

Barrel, the mythical, i. 197.

Basiliga, story of, i. 298, 299.

Batrachomyomachia, the, ii. 71.

Battos the shepherd, i. 279.

Bear, at blind-man's-buff with the maiden,
ii. 69 ; and Vicv4mitras, 109 ; king of
the bears, 109 ; in the forest of honey,
109 ; eater of honey, 110 ; and peasant,
110-112 ; duped by the peasant, 112 ;
and the fox, 113 ; king and the twins,
114, 115 ; the demoniacal, and the two
children, 115, 116 ; disguises of, 117 ;
woman in the den of, 117, 118 ; half
bear half man, 118; as musician, 118,
119.

Beaver, the, ii. 79, 80.

Bees and the Agvin^u, ii. 215 ; Vedic gods
as, 216 ; as moon, 217 ; from the bull's
carcase, 217 ; in Finnish mythology,
218 ; spiritual and immortal, 218-220 ;
wax of, 219 ; and young hero, 220 ; as
musician, 223.
Beetle, the, and eagle, ii. 209 ; the sacred,
209 ; red, 209, 210 ; names of the red,

210, 211 ; and first teeth of children,
211; worship of the red,, 211, 212;
green, 214,
Bellerophontes, i. 305, 338.
Berta, i. 85; the Russian Queen, 218;
Queen, legend of, 251-267 ; large-footed,
253.
Betta and the cake-youth, ii, 238, 239.
Bharatas, King, ii, 85.
Bharadv^gas, ii. 275, 276.
Bhlmas the terrible, i. 77-79, 104.
Bhogavati, city of, ii. 403.
Bhrigus and Cyavanas, ii. 10.
Binding, vanquishing by, i. 106, 107.
Birds, language of, i. 151, 152 ; the myth-
ical impersonations of, ii. 168, 169;
the wise, story of, 169-172 ; virtue
of feathers of, 172; the language of,
174 ; story of, and the queen, 175 ;
excrement of, 176; the blue, 176;
Semiramis and, 176 ; as diviners, 177 ;
auguries from, 178 ; the, of Bretagne,
I 271, 272.
Bitch, the mythical, ii. 19-25 ; as spy, 35.
Blind lame one, the, i. 31, 32.
Blue BeaTd, the Esthonian, i. 168.
Boar, the, of Erymanthus, ii. 9 ; of Mel-
eagros, 9 ; the monster wild, in the
Rigvedas, 9, 10 ; Indo-European tra-
dition of, 13 ; tusks of, 15.
Brahmadattas and the crab, ii. 356.
BrahmanS,3, the, i. 414.
Breal, M., i. 263.
Bribus, ii. 308.
Bridge, the mythical, i, 228.
Brian, the Celtic hero, i. 239, 240.
Brother, the third, i. 79, 83 ; the Turanian,
and his dream, 139-142 ; the riddle-
solving eldest Turanian, 142 ; the
third, in quest of the lost cow, 155,
156 ; journey to hell, 157 ; as coun-
sellor, 156, 159 ; royal, as peasant,
162; awakener of the princess of the
seven years' slumber, 162, 163; who
mounts to heaven, 176 ; and the tree-
purchaser, 176 ; endeavour of, to milk
the bull, 177 ; who snaps his fingers,
184; ascent into and descent from
heaven of, 189, 190; who steals from
the other two, 194 ; and the flying-ship,
205 ; in bronze, silver, and gold, 291.
Brothers, the three, i. 77, 80, 82, 104 ; the
Persian, 106; the two, 107, 108, 120;
the three, 109, 111, 125, 128 ; the four,
and the pearls, 127; the six, Calmuc
story of, 128, 129; the two, Calmuc
story of, 130 ; the two Calmuc, rich
and poor, 131, 132 ; the two (lion and
bull), and the fox, 134 ; the three, 148,
153, 156, 161; the three dwarf, story
of, 161, 162 ; the two rich and poor,
and magic stone, 177 ; the three, of the
purse, whistle, and mantle, 288, 289 ;
the two, who go one to the right and
the other to the left, 317, 319 ; 327.
Brunhilt, i. 212.
Brutus, the first, i. 199^

INDEX.

433

Bufonite, ii. 384.

Buhtan and the fox, ii. 134, 135.

Bull, the sun a, i. 4 ; the, fecundator of
the cow, 6 ; the great bellowing, 7-10 ;
the horns of , 9 ; a symbol of royalty,
44; of the Persians, 95; the excre-
ment of, 80, 95 ; disembodied soul of,
97 ; ambrosial, 99 ; capacity of, for
drinking, 175 ; in the council of ani-
mals, 185 ; which comes out of the sea,
222, 223; which carries the maiden,
223 ; about to be sacrificed, 270 ; with-
out entrails, 270, 271.

Buri, i. 224.

Butterfly, the mythical, ii. 213, 214.

Butter-ears, the cat, ii. 53, 54.

Bucephalus, i. 338.

Cabala, i. 73.
Cacus, i. 280. 281.
Caducous of Mercury, ii. 219, 22U.
Cakuntala, i. 219.

Calf, the, as marriage -priest, i. 257.
(^ambaras, cities of, i. 13.
Oantanus, myth of, i. 67, 68.
Canicula, the, ii. 33.
^aoka, i. 98.
Uaradvat, ii. 332.
L'iirmishtha, the witch, i. 83, 84.
Oarp, the, ii. 351, 352.
Carpus, ii. 352.

Cat, the white, ii. 42 ; penitent, 54 ; fox,
and fattened mouse, 56 ; and sparrow,
56 ; dog, and ring, 56, 57 ; and dog and
supposititious child, 57 ; and moon, 58 ;
and Diana, 58; and St Martha, 58;
and Freya, 69 ; and St Gertrude, 59 ;
the chattering, 59 ; and fox, 59 ; and
cock, 59 ; and lamb, 60 ; the gi'ateful,
60 ; the white, Blanchette, 61 ; and
the house, 62.
Cats, the enchanted, ii. 62 ; the black,
62, 63 ; ill-omened apparitions of, 63 ;
and witches, 63, 64 ; the two, 64.
Cavari, i. 64, 66, 69.
Cerberi, the, i, 49.
Cerire, i. 117.
Chameleon, the, ii. 161.
Charlemagne, tradition of, i. 161 ; and

Orlando, 256.
Children, king of, story of, i. 135, 136.
Chimsera, the, ii. 158.
Chinese, the, and Little Tom, i. 336.
Christ and Prometheus, ii. 40.
Christopher, St, and Christ, ii. 57 , and

lark, 274 ; and the cocks, 284.
Chrysaor, i. 305.

Cianna and the grateful ant, ii. 46.
Cicada, the, ii. 223, 224.
Cienzo and Meo, story of, i. 329, 330.
Cinderella, origin of the legend of, i. 31 ;
101, 126, 161 ; the Kussian, 196, 197 ;
ii. 5, 197, 281, 304.
Circe and the ass's head, i. 366 ; and the

companions of Odysseus, ii. 6.
Oivas, the dtus phallicus, i. 44, 59; ii.
' 160.

VOL. II.

ChuuUus, Publius, and the auguries, ii.

291.
Clodoveus and St Martin, i. 356.
Clouds, the, i. 6-9 ; mythical conceptions
of, 31, 12; sky with, as a forest, 14;
as mountains, 61 ; battles in, 62 ; as
barrels, 63.
Cock, the mythical functions of, ii. 278 ;
and Mars, 280 ; Indraa, the paramour
of Ahaly^. as a, 280 ; and hen in Indin
and Persia, and sacredness of the, 282,
284 ; crowing of, 282, 285, 286 ; Ohristus
invoked as a, 283 ; in the Ciosjicls, 2iS;-; ;
the miraculous, 284 ; of night, 285 ;
and Minec' Aniellu, 287 ; Esthonian
legends of, 288; hitting the, 289 ; as a
symbol, 290 ; -fights, 290 ; the Danes
and, 290; auguries from, 291.
Coition, mythical, i. 348.
Cornucopia, Scandinavian, i. 225.
Cosmogony, the Persian, ii. 412.
Cosimo and the fox, ii. 135, 136.
Cow and the Bull, the, origin and mean-
ing of the myth, i. 3, 4; respect paid
to, in the family, 46.
Cow, the infinite, celestial, i. 5, 6 ; son of
the, 5; -child, the spotted, 6, 14; as
monster, 15 ; -moon, 19 ; -aurora, 19,
20 ; of abundance, 26, 95 ; hide of, as
symbol of fecundity, 46, 47 ; sour
milk of, as favourable to generation,
47 ; milk-yielding, of night, 48 ; invoca-
tion of the spotted, 50 ; the sacred, of
the Persians, 97 ; purification by the
excrement, 99 ; pearl excrement of,
129 ; the black, 167 ; and the weather,
174 ; Vedic, double aspect, 175 ; filled
with straw and sparrows, 187 ; of
abundance, Scandinavian, 224 ; red,
228 ; German proverbs relating to, 229 ;
and dwarf Allwis, 260 ; testicles of, and
the jackal, 233 ; the, that spins, 250 ;
the Sabine, 268 ; the sacrificed, 269 ,
the ashes of, 276.
Cow-cloud, the, i. 14, 15, 74.
Cow-moon, the, i. 274, 275.
Cows, the, of night, i. 17 ; the two, 27 ;
that do not cover themselves with dust,
28, 31 ; seen in dreams, 47, 48 ; coming
forth of, 50.
Cowherd, the hero disguised as, i. 168

169.
Cox, Mr, i. 262, 263.

Crab, the, in the riddle, ii. 354 ; celestial,
in June, 354 ; in the myth of Herakles,
3.^5 ; and Alexander, 355 ; and the de-
ceiving crane, 355 ; and the serpent,
356 ; sun and moon as, 356 ; and
fox, -357 ; "from a man, a," 358 ; as a
charm, 359 ; Cancer, the, 359.
Crescentia, the Persian, i. 121.
Cross, the, ii. 411 ; of paradise, 411.
Crow, the, in borrowed feathers, ii. 240 ;
mythical significance, 250, 251 ; and
cheese, 251 ; disguised, 251, 252 ; the
enchanted, and P.amas, 252 ; cunnin<'
of, 253; Kanias and Aj>ollo as, 25;!-

2 E

434

INDEX,

and Pallas and Yamas, 254 ; of evil
omen, 254 ; the giant, 255 ; and the
dead, 255 ; and the old man, 255 ; the
procrastinating, and Phcebus, 256 ; as
messenger, 257 ; the egg, 257 ; brood,
257.
Cuckoo, the, and Zeus, i. 248 ; its mythi-
cal congeners, ii. 226 ; Indras as a, 228,
229, 231 ; biith of the, 231 ; a phalli-
cal symbol, 232 ; and Hera and Zeus,

232 ; and marriage, 232 ; as mocker,

233 : harbinger of spring, 233 : sinister
aspect of, 234 ; as cuckold, 234 ; as
a bird of omen, 234, 235 ; immortal
and omniscient, 235; and nightingale,
235.

^unahgepas, i. 35 ; story of, 69-72, 74.
Cupid and Psyche, i. 368, 369 ; ii. 378.
Cypresses, riddle of the two, ii. 174.
Cyrus, legend of, i. 110, 118
Cyzicene, the, i. 275.

DvEDALUS and Icarus, ii. 186.

Dadhyanc, the head of, i. 303, 304.

DadhikrS,, the solar horse, i. 337.

Dakshas, ii. 364.

Danaidee, the, i. 265.

Daphnd, i. 170, 273.

Darius Hystaspes, myth of, i. 346.

Daughter, the third, and the toad, i. 381 ;
and the magician, 382, 383,

Dawns, the two, i. 27.

Dejanira, i. 212.

Delilah, counter-types of, i. 212.

Deluge, the Vedic, ii. 335. ,

Demons, mountain of, i. ^^.

Demosthenes on Ath^n^, ii. 247.

DevayS,nl, the nymph, i. 83, 84.

Devil, the, as a bull, i. 184 ; and the
waters, ii. 390, 391.

Dh^umyas, three disciples of, i. 79.

Diana (Hindoo), ii. 43.

Dead, the, good luck brought by, i.
198.

Dionysos, ii. 217 ; and the panther,
160.

Dioskuroi, i. 304, 305 ; the legend of,
318.

Dirghatamas, i. 84, 85.

Dog, the, and cat, ii. 56, 57.

Dolphin, the, ii. 351.

Dominic, St, and the dog, ii. 40.

Domitian and the astrologer, ii. 39.

Dove, in the Rigvedas, ii. 297 ; Agnisas,
297 ; Moses and the flesh of, 297 ; self-
sacrificing, 297; and the ant, 298 ;
stories of the maiden {and prince)
transformed into, 298 ; story of the
twelve sons changed into, 298, 299 ; of
the prince and servants changed into,
299-301 ; the two, and GennarieUo,
300-302 ; the funereal, 303 ; as an-
nouncer of the resurrection, 304 ; the
daughters of Anius changed into, 304 ;
the two, and Little Mary, 304 ; and
Zezolla, 305 ; doves and the rosebush-
maiden, 305 ; Periatera changed into.

305 ; and Venus, 305 ; the laughing,
306 ; and Aspasia, 306 ; infidelity of,
306.

Drinking, trial of, i. 206.

Drusilla, Livia, and the white hen, ii. 196,

Duck, swan, or goose, the, Agnis as, ii.
307 ; the Marutas, and the horses of the
A^vinS-u as, 307 ; and golden egg, 308 ;
the sun as, 309 j in the lake, 309 ; the
white, and her three sons, 311 ; death
of, 311 ; that lays a golden and a silver
egg, 311, 212.

Drunkenness, and madness, ii. 348, 349.

Dundus, i. 75, 76.

Dundubhis, the cloud-monster, i. 75.

Eagle, the, and Zeus, ii. 195-197;
and the classic heroes, 196 ; the
Hellenic, 196 ; and Aphrodite, 197.

Earrings, theft and recovery of the, of
Kamas, i. 80, 81. ^

Eel, the, as phallical, sacrificial, and
divine, ii. 341 ; proverbs about, 341 ;
eating, 342 ; with two heads and two
tails, 342 ; transformation into a foun-
tain and an, 343 ; the maiden changed
into an, 343 ; and monster-serpent,
343 ; diabolical, 344 ; the epic exploit,
344.

Eggs, hatching of, and thunder, ii. 281 ;
worship of, 291 ; the golden, 292 ; be-
ginning with, 292, 293.

Elephant and the hare, ii. 77 ; mythical
qualities of, 91 ; general mythical
significance, 92 ; Airavanas, 92 ; the
white, overcome by the monkey, 93 ; in
the lake, 93 ; that supports the world,
92, 93, 95 ; and the tortoise, 93-95 ;
the Vedic, 94.

Emilius, the lazy, and the grateful pike,
i. 195-198.

Empusa, i. 367.

Endymion, i. 429.

Epics, the, killing of the serpent the
theme of all, ii. 392.

Eros as a fish, ii. 340.

Esmeralda and Quasimodo, loves of, i.
421.

Eulenspiegel, ii. 246.

Eurdp^. i. 264, 265, 272.

Exchanges, tales of unfortunate, i. 176.

Fabquhar II., death of, ii. 14.

Fecundity, symbols of, i. 49.

Feridun, episode of old age of, i. 111.

Finger, the knowing little, i. 166 ; Small
Little, story of, ii. 151, 152.

Finns, the, the epopee of, i. 150.

Firefly, the, ii. 212, 213.

Firud, i. 117.

Fish, the laughing, i. 249 ; symbolic
meaning of, 249; the April, 250; and
the man's seed, 250 ; celestial meta-
morphosis into, ii. 331 ; become a
stone, 331 ; laughing, 333 ; Alexander
and the, 333; the little gold, 334;
Vishnus as a, 334, 335 ; and Aphrodit6,

INDEX,

435

340 ; phallical, 341 ; wise and stupid,
349 ; and the ring, 350 ; the heroic, 350,
351 ; and pearl, 35'^ ; sacred, 353.

Fly, the, and bear, ii. 221 ; aad ant, 222.

Flies, ii. 221.

Fleece, the golden, i. 146, 429.

Flute, the magic, i. 161, 195.

Fool, the fortunate, 195 ; the would-be,
fortune -making, i. 240.

Fox, the, and the bear, ii. 113 ; mythical
significance, 122 ; and jackal, 123 ;
double aspect of legendary, 123, 124 ;
the wolf and honey, 128, 129 ; and the
old man whose wife is dead, 129, 130 ;
as weeper, 130 ; and tail, 131 ; and four
hungry animals, 131 ; the hungry, and
bird, 131 ; and wolf, 132, 133 ; and lost
girl, 133 ; and the cheese, 133 ; as go-
between, 134 ; and Buhtan, 134, 135 ;
and Cosimo, 135 ; and hare, 136, 137 ;
and cock, 137, 138 ; knaveries and
cunning, 139 : and other animals, 139,
140 ; the sick, and lion, 140 ; human
antitype, 140 ; Lycaon, 147.

Formicola, Captain, and the shepherd's
son, ii. 45.

Freya, i. 212 ; the foot of, 253.

Frog, the, and mouse, ii. 71, 72.

Frogs, the, in the sky, ii. 373 ; imitating
the sounds of, 373 ; and the serpent or
heron, 374 ; in the 103d hymn of the
Rigvedas, 374 ; and Indras and Zeus,
374; and the moon, 375-377; the
dumb, 375 ; and Vroserpina, 375 ;
and serpent, 376 ; and rook, 376 ; the
diabolical, 376, 377 ; two dragons in
the form of, 377 ; the maiden changed
into, 377-379.

Gahs, the, i. 98.
Galanthis, iL 53.
Galathea, i. 421, 422.
Gandham^danas mountains, i. 52, 55.
Gandharvas, the, i. 52, 53, 149, 160, 311 ;

appetites of, 365 ; 367, 369, 370, 379.
Ganegas, ii 68.
Ganga, the nymph, i. 68.
Ganges, the, ii. 308.
Ganymede, rape of, ii. 196.
Garatkarus, the wise, i. 68, 69.
Gardabhas, i. 365, 369.
Gargantua, at birth, i. 259.
Garudas, the bird, and elephant, ii. 94,

95 ; and the monsters, 184 ; and the

birds, 245 ; 363.
G^t5>yus, the omniscient vulture, ii. 185.
Gazelle, the misleading, ii. 84.
Gefion, voyage of, i. 222.
Gemshid, legend of, i. 95.
Genevieve, the Persian, 1. 121 ; 219.
Gennariello and Milluccio, ii. 300-302.
Geusurva, the, i. 98, 99.
Gerion, the oxen of, i. 273, 277.
Ghoshs,, the lein-ous, ii. 3, 5,
Giaot-monster, the, and dwarf, i. 14S,

149.
Giovaunino, the fearless, i. 202, 388.

Girl, the, persecuted, i. 121 ; affianced to
three, 123 ; in the chest, Calmuc story
of, 131 ; seven years old, Esthonian
story of, 153 ; wise, of the wood, 154 ;
the poor, and the lady of the waters
(Esth.), 154 ; the beautiful, and the
witch, 218.
Giuseppe, the boy, and the ant*s leg, ii.

45, 46.
Gnat, the, ii. 221.

Goat, the, triple aspect of, 1. 401; the
cloud as, 402 ; the he-, 402, 403 ; Aq-
vinilu as, 403; and apple-tree, 405;
and walnut-tree, 405 ; kids of, and
wolf, 406, 407 ; revenge of the goat,
406, 407 ; mythical meaning, 407 ; he-,
and merchant's daughter, 410 ; the
sacrificed he-, 415, 416 ; as all-seeing,
418 ; with seven eyes, 419 ; with twelve
eyes, 419 ; constellation of the, 421 ;
as rain -bringing, 421 ; milk of the, 421,
424 ; blood of the he-, 422 ; stones, 422 ;
sacrifice of he-, 423 ; cunning of the
she-, 424 ; the witch and the boy goat-
herds, 425 ; and the peasants of Sicily,
426 ; and the goatherd of Val di For-
mazza, 426 ; and the god Thor, 426 ;
in the Scandinavian mythology, 427 ;
the homed, 427, 428; lust of, 427,
428 ; in Greek niythology, 428.

Gods, the cheating of, i. 44, 45.

Gold, hand of, ii. 32.

Goose, the, and pearl, ii. 309 ; the
miraculous, 312 ; foot of, 315 ; the
disenchanted, 315 ; eating of, on St
Michael's Day, 316.

Gorgons, the, ii. 9.

Godiva, the Mongol, i. 138.

Grasshopper, the, the wedding of, with
the ant, ii. 48, 49 ; as diviner, 48 ; song
of the wedding, 49.

Griffins, the, ii. 204, 205.

Gudrun, i. 226.

Guhas, i. 58.

Guhas, King, ii. 333.

Halcyon, the, phallical nature of, ii.
269; the Greek, 270.

Kansas, the, ii. 306, 307, 309.

Hanumant in quest of the herb of health
i. 52; 57-59, 61, 64, 78, 89; the monkey*
ii. 101,106. '

Haoma, the ambrosial god, i. 97, 104.

Harayas and Haritas, i. 376.

Hare, the mythical, ii. 76; habitat and
king, 76 ; and the elephant, 77 ; and
hungry lion, 77 ; and the lion, 78 ; and
dying eagle, 78 ; and cave of the wild
beasts, 79 ; and lamb, 79 ; transfigured
by Indras, 79 ; and parturition, 80 ;
that sleeps with eyes open, 80 ; and
bear, 81 ; and a wedding procession,
81 ; and the girl that rides on it, 82.

Harigcandras, i. 69-72.

tiaris and hari, meanings of, i. 376 ■ ii
99, 320. ' ■

Harpies, the, ii. 201, 202.

43^

INDEX.

Hawk, mytliical meaning of, ii. l'J2, 193;
as a badge of knighthood, 193 ; sacred-
iiess of, 193 ; and Attila, 11*4 ; and the
Greek gods, 194 ; superstitious beliefs
about, 194.

Heads, exchange of, i. 303, 304.

Health, herb of, i. 52-54 ; Gandharvas,
guardians of, 53.

Heaven, cup of, i. 8 ; battle in, 10, 11.

Hedgehog and wolf, ii. 11, 12.

Helen, the Argive, i. 170, 212; ii. 318.

Hen, the crowing, ii. 284, 285 ; dreaming
of the brood of the, 288.

Heraklcs and Augeias, i. 143 ; and Cacus,
232, 235, 266, 267 ; and the golden cup,
273 ; and, the oxen of Gerion, 277 ;
competes with the he-goat, 428; and
the boar, ii. 9.

Hermes and Admetos, i. 279 ; and SS-ra-
meyjis, ii. 22.

Hermits, the dwarf, ii. 364.

Hero, the solar, riddle of, as a wonderful
cowherd, i. 29 ; maiden helper, 209 ; con-
cealed, 237 ; in the night, 326 ; saved
by a tree, 334, 335.

Heroes, the, hunger and thirst of, i. 8 ;
chief arena of, 15 ; weapons of, 62 ;
mountain of, 97 ; biblical, 118 ; dis-
guise of, ii. 2 ; noises at the birth of,
373.

Heroines, perverted, i. 211, 212.

Hesperides, garden of the, i. 274 ; ii. 410.
418.

Hiiipolytos, the legend of, i. 345.

Hipponieues and Atalanta, ii. 159.

Hog, as guise of the hero, ii. 2 ; the skin
of, 5 ; bristles of, 5 ; dedicated to St
Anthony, 6 ; lust of, 6 ; as Vishnus,
7, 8 ; and wolf, 11.

Holda, the dark, i, 251, 252.

Hoopoe, the, ii. 230.

Horse, the, of the sun, i. 290, 291 ; black,
291, 292, 295 ; the three, 291, 296 ; tail
and mane, 295 ; and the cat, 317 ; the
myth of, 330, 331; fat of, 332; the
strength of Indras, 336 ; the symbolic
meaning of head of, 339 ; the hero's,
340 ; binding of, 341 ; the neighing of,
346, 347 ; tears of, 349, 350 ; mythical,
349 ; the foam of, 352 ; the hoofs of,
353, 354 ; and the gods, 355.

Husband, the wicked, i. 124.

Husbands, exchange of, i. 317.

Tool, the wooden, iEsop's fable of, i. 177.

Ichneumon, the, ii. 51-53.

Iliad, the, most solemn moment of, i. 16.

Ilvalas and Vdt^pis, legend of, i. 414. J

Indras, the rOle of, i. 7, 15; appetite and I
food, 8 ; hoins of the bull, 9 ; as the ,
fire-god Agnis, 10 ; his fields of battle,
12, 15 ; great exi>loits of, 12 ; three-
fold victory, 13, 14 ; weapons of, 14 ;
companion of Somas, 18, 19 ; the
triple, 20; moments of, 2(), 23;
special function, 27 ; vrdations to the
aurora, 27 ; and the blind lame one,

32 ; destroyer of the witch Aurora,
33 ; lover of the aurora, 35 ; i)ersonified
in RS^mas, 59-61 ; slays Vi^varilpas,
76 ; fall of, 76 ; protector of CJtankas,
80, 81 ; transformation, 89 ; quarrel of,
with the Marutas, 106 ; horses of, 351 ;
as a ram, 403 ; with the thousand eyes,
418 ; the rudder of, ii. 7 ; as a wild boar,
8 ; and the dwarf hermits, 95 ; and
Vishnus, 99, 100 ; and the monkeys,
101 ; and Vritras, 154, 155 ; deprived of
strength and beauty, 155 ; as a hawk,
181 ; and Ahalya, 280, 281, 330 ; im-
potent, 326 ; unchainmg the waters,
330 ; drunk, 349 ; and the monster,
393, 394 ; killing the monster, 394, 395.

Indus, i. 18.

lo, i. 264, 265, 271, 272.

Iphiklos, ii. 198, 199.

Isfendiar, seven adventures of, i. 118.

Iskander, legend of, i. 119.

Ivan, three essays of, i. 301, 302 ; {and
Mary), with horse, dog, and apple-tree,
ii. 28; resuscitated, 29; the three, sons
respectively of the bitch, the cook, and
the queen, 29 ; and the ring, 345 ; and
his frog-bride, story of, 377-379.

Ivan Tzarevic and the serpent, i. 177 ;
and Helen and the bear, 178 ; and Prin-
cess Mary, 179-182 ; and the demoniacal
cow, 181 ; and the magic apples, 182 ;
and the witch in the balance, 183 ; and
the hero Nikanore, 184 ; and the theft
of the black bull, 186 ; son of the black
girl, 188 ; and his brothers, killing the
serpents, 191 ; and the rescue of the
three sisters, 194 ; of the dog, 194 ; the
drinker, 194 ; and the dead body of his
mother, 198, 199 ; courage of, 201 ;
variations of, 202-204 ; horse of, 340.

Ivan Durak and the humpbacked horse,
i. 293, 294 ; and the fire-breathmg grey
horse, 296 ; who, mounted, three times
kisses the princess through twelve
glasses, 297.

Ivanushka and little Helen, i. 409.

Jack and the beanstalk, i. 244.

Jackal and the ass, i. 378 ; the perfidious,
ii. 125 ; friend of the hero, 125 ; in
borrowed feathers, 126 ; the, inquisi-
tive and vile, 126 ; and the parrots, 127.

Joan lou Pec, i. 397.

-lohn, little, and his red shoes, i. 19.5, 196.

Johnny and the goose-swans, ii. 309, 310.

Jonah (the Hindoo), ii. 337.

Jorsh, the, ii. 336-345 ; trial by the fishes
of, 346-349 ; and Keinecke Fuchs, 348.

Julius Csesar, horse of, i. 338, 350.

Jupiter Ammon, i. 429.

Kabandhas, the monster, i. 62-64.

Kagapas, the, ii. 362.

Kagyapas, the fecundator, ii. 364.

Kadmos, i. 265, 272.

Kai Khosru, the hero. i. 117, 118.

Kan Pudai, Alt;tic story of, i. 144, 145.

INDEX.

437

ICapilas, ravislier of the sacrificial horse,

i. 331.
Kapis, ii. 98, 99.

Katoma and the hero's horse, i. 340, 341.
KS-ucalyd,, i. 332.

Kawus, King, i. 112, 113, 115, 116.
Kentaiu's, the, i. 367-369.
Ker lupta and the third brother, i. 290.
Kere9^Qpa, the Persian hero, i. 106, 108 ;

myth of, 313, 314, 335.
King's son, the, and the peasant girl,

i. 163-166.
Kishmar, cypress of, i. 96.
Krimhilt, i. 212.
Krishnas, celebration of birth of, i. 51 ;

father of, 75.
Kruth, the bird, and tortoise, ii. 369, 370.
Kulin, A., i. 263.
Kumbhakarnas, the monster, ii. 400,

401.

Lakshmanas, i. 55 ; and Ramas, 62, 63,

66, 77 ; ii. 85.
Lame, the, and the blind, i. 217.
Lapillus Alectorius, ii. 287.
Lanka, three brothers of, i. 77.
Lark, the, in cosmogony, ii. 273, 274 ; and

St Chiistopher, 274 ; the crested, 275 ;

Bharadvfi^gas, 275.
Leaf, the magic, i. 155, 156.
Lear, King, in embryo, i. 85 ; ii. 230.
LMa, ii. 185.
Lion, the, and the bull, i. 278 ; (and tiger)

symbol of strength and majesty, ii. 153 ;

Indras as a, 154 ; virtae of hair of, 155 ;

lion's share, 156 ; -sun, the western, 157 ;

sign of, 159 ; Androcles and, 157 ; the

NemsBan, 158; afraid of the cock, 159.
Lizard, the, as witch, ii. 385 ; as omen,

385 ; the little, 385 ; the green, 386,

387 ; and poor Laric, 387.
Locust, the nocturnal, ii. 47.
Lohengrin and Elsa, the legend of, ii.

317-319.
Loki, i. 226, 227 ; and the pike, ii. 333,

334.
Louse, the, stories of, ii. 222.
Lucia, St, the Vedic, i. Z^^ 254 ; feast of,

ii. 210.
Lucius, of Apuleius, i. 366.
Luuus. i. 58 ; the god, 139, 324.
Lynx, the, ii. 54.

Madonna the old, and the maiden who
combs her head, i. 180.

Magician, the, of the seven heads, ii. 36.

Magpie, the, in mythology, ii. 258, 259 ;
as a robber, 259 ; knowledge and malice
of, 259 ; bird of omen, 260.

Mah&,bharatam, the, most solemn moments
of, i. 16.

Mahrusa, i. 125.

ftlaiden, the enchanted, and her hair, i.
146 ; Esthonian story of the prince
and persecuted, 151-153 ; and the golden
slipper, 208; that by a i)uppet weaves a
shirt for a prince, 20^ ; the, and the

apple-tree, 251 ; the fairies' favourite,
and the enchanted prince, ii. 286,
287.

Man and woman, the old, with the nine
cows, i. 132 133 ; the old, who essays
heaven in vain with his wife, 190 ; and
the cabbage, beanstalk, &c., 190, 191 ;
the old, and the beanstalk, 243.

Man-bull, Calmuc tale of, i. 129.

Mandaras, the, ii. 361, 362.

Manus, ii. 248 ; and Vishnus as a fish,
335.

MansCir, i. 315.

IMurcellus, St, the legend of, ii. 159.

Rliire's head and the two girls, i. 298.

M^rg^ras, ii. 42, 43.

Mari(jas, the stag, i. 64 ; ii. 85.

Mars and the wild boar, ii. 14.

Martin, St, and birds of, ii. 270.

Marutas, or winds, i. 5-7, 10, 12 ; kindred
of, 17, 59 ; ii. 7 ; horses of, S3, 84 ; as
monkeys, 99.

Marziella and the geese, ii. 313.

Mary and the cow's ear, and the step-
mother with three daughters, i. 179-
182 ; little, and the slipper, 196, 197.

Matsyas, the, ii. 332.

MS,yA,vin, the monster, i, 313.

Max Miiller, i. 262, 263 ; and the panegyric
of the frogs, ii. 371, 372.

Medea, of the Vedas, i. 33, 35.

Medea, i. 212.

Medusa, i. 305.

Menas, ii. 87.

Merchant, synonymous with miser, i. 184 ;
son of the, who transforms himself
into a horse, 342 ; the, and his three
daughters, 410.

Mercury, i. 335 ; legend of, ii. 23.

Merdi Ganb^z, the faithful, i. 120.

Merhuma, the story of, i. 120, 121 ; 315.

Merula, the fish, ii. 340.

Metempsychosis, ii, 328.

Mice and the dead, ii. 67 ; apparitions of,

67 ; men transformed into, 67 ; presages
from, 67, 68 ; and lion and elephant,

68 ; war of, with the frogs, 72.
Michael, St, i. 183.

Midas, myth of (the Mongoliau), i. 381 ;
(the Phrygian), 382, 383 ; as musical
critic, 385 ; ears of, 386 ; as a miser,
389 ; the progenitor and judge, 390.

Milky-sea, the, i. 52 ; -way, the, 2"J8.

Millstone, the devil under the, i. 114.

Milon of Kroton, ii. 113, 147.

Minotaurus, the Calmuc, i. 129 ; 265.

Minucehr, the hero, i. 112.

Mithra, the solar god, i. 95, 102, 103;
bow of, 107.

Mitras, the sun, =• witch at a riddle, i.
30, 31; 52.

Blole, the, ii. 73, 74.

Monkey, original home of myth of, ii.
97 ; equivalents, 97, 98 ; and Vislmus,
99; mythical significations, 99; king
nf, mo, 101 ; Hanumant, 101-106 ; mis-
taken for a man, 103 ; tail of, 107

43S

INDEX.

divination from, 107 ; and Jove, 108 ;
as stupid, 108 ; musician, 119.

Monster, the celestial, i. 10, 12 ; subdued
by Indras, 12-14 ; tbat keeps back the
■waters, ii. 393 ; killing of, 394, 395 ; and
the egg of the duck, 395 ; the eggs of,
396 ; the aquatic, 404.

Moon, the mythical nature and office of,
i. 18 ; as a pearl, 54 ; as a good fairy,
56, 57 ; as a bull, 58 ; Indian, ii. 87.

Mother of gold and her three dwarf sons,
i. 153 ; story of the, "who recovers her
hands and son by throwing her arms
into a fountain, ii. 31 ; and the hands
of gold, 31.

Mouse, transformed by the penitent into
a beautiful maiden, ii. 65, 66 ; and the
mountain 66 ; and maiden, 69 ; the
grateful, 70 ; and sparrow, 70, 71 ; the,
Paicharpax, 71.

Muses, the, and the bee, ii. i223.

Mtish (mtishas, &c.), ii. 43.

Music in the heavens, sorrow-inspired, i.
149.

Mythology, the Greek, i. 262 ; mobile
nature of the objects of, 319, 320;
allegorical treatment of, 421, ii. a Semi-
tic, 412 ; the science of, 422 ; principal
error in the scientific study of, 422, 423 ;
concord of the learned in, 423 ; way to
study, 424 ; animal, 425 ; product of
imagination, 427.

Myths, the central interest and most
splendid moments of, i. 15, 16 ; de-
velopment of objects in the, into per-
sonalities with relationships, 320, 321 ;
the negative as a factor in the forma-
tion of, 322; the uncertain subjective
in, 323 ; entrance of variety into, 324 ;
interpretation of, 323-326.

Nakulas, i. 311 ; ii. 43, 51, 52.

Nalas, ii. 404.

Neptune, i. 430.

Netherworld, the, ii. 403.

Nibelungen, the, most solemn moments

of, i. 16 ; 257.
Night and the aurora, i. 36, 37.
Nightingale, as iDrognosticator, ii, 236 ;

whistUng of, 237 ; propitious to lovers,

239.
Nisos and Scylla, ii. 197.
Noah, the Vedic, ii. 335.
Nose, the bleeding, Calmuc story of, i.

131.
Niikteus, ii. 246, 247.
Numbers, sacred, i. 6, 76, 77 ; ii. 416.

Odin, i. 224, 226, 227.
Oiiysseus, i. 266.
Oidin-oidon, i. 398, 399.
Okeanos, the bull-headed, i. 207.
Onokentaura, i. 367-369.
Orpheus, i. 149, 160.
OUer, the monster, ii. 391.
Owl, the, as the bird of death, ii. 244;
as an evil genius, 244 ; and vulture,

244, 245; and the crows, 245, 246;
cunning, 246 ; and Athene, 247 ; eggs
of, 247 ; the male, 247, 248 ; prophetic
faculty of, 249 ; horned, 249, 250.
Ox, the speaking, i. 247 ; and Zeus, 248 ;
as priest, 258.

Pallas and the war of the frogs and
mice, ii. 72 ; and the crow, 254,

Pan and Midas, i. 385 ; and the ass, 387,
391 ; god of shepherds, 387 ; at Mara-
thon, 389 ; 428, 429.

Panayas, the, ii. 19, 20.

P^ndavas, the five brothers, i. 77-79.

Pandora, i. 34.

Pandus, ii. 84.

Paravri^, the blind-lame, i. 32.

Partkshit, King, ii. 84,

Parrot, the, myth of, ii. 320 ; and the
colour haris, 321 ; as Qukas, 321 ; lunar
character of, 322 ; aa counsellor, 322.

Partridge, the devil as, ii. 227 ; Talaus
changed into, 228 ; and peasant, 228 ;

Pasiphae, myth of, i. 237 ; 266,

Peacock, the mythical equivalents of,
ii. 323 ; the hiding of, 324 ; as rival of
the cuckoo, 324 ; and dove, 324 ; Indras
as, 325, 326 ; feather of, and the younger
brother, 325 ; tail of, 326, 327 ; as a
symbol of immortality, 327.

Pearl, the ambrosial, i. 54.

Peasant, riddle-solving, i. 142,

Pfigasos, and Hippocrene, i. 176 ; 291, 305,
338.

Penelope, i. 428 ; and he-goat, ii. 163,

Pepin, the times of, i. 252; King, 255,
256.

Peirithoos and Trikerberos, ii. 39.

Perrault, story of, i. 367.

Perrette, the Calmuc, i. 134, 135.

Peter, St, and the dog, ii. 27.

Phaethdn, i. 277 ; the bull, 277 ; 343,
344.

Phalaris, the bull, i. 239.

Phineus, ii. 74.

Phrixos and Helle, the Russian, i. 409;
429.

Phcenix, the, mythical significance of, ii.
200, 201 ; death of, 200.

Pi9^cS,s, the ass, i. 375, 376.

Piccolino, ii, 151.

Picus, King, ii. 265, 266.

Pike, the luminous, ii. 334 ; the brown,
337, 338 ; and Erailius, 338 ; the phal-
lical, 339 ; and crab and heron, 339 ;
drunk, 349.

Pimpi, the stupid, and the hog, ii. 10.

Pipetta and the sackful of souls, i. 388.

Pipkin, the miraculous, i, 126 ; the
stories of, 243-245%

Piran and Pilsem, i. 314.

Poem, an epic, i. 141.

Polyphemos, i. 266,

Porcupine, the, ashes and quills of, ii.
12, 13.

Pork, virtues of, ii. 10, II.

Porringer, the enchanted, i. 126.

INDEX.

439

Portugal, third son of the King of, and
the dragons, ii. 187-189.

Poseid6n, i. 266.

PragS-patis, i. 47.

Pretiosa, disguised as a bear, ii. 117.

Priapos, i. 394, 396 ; and Silenos, 384.

Pri9nayas, the, i. 6, 16, 17.

Prince, the, and princess of the bird's
egg, i. 170 ; "who three times wins the
race, 291 ; and enchanted mantle, 411.

Princess, three-breasted, i, 86, 122 ; in
the chest, Celtic story of, 241 ; and the
pups, 412.

Proserpina, the Teutonic, i. 252, 260.

Proverb, the, of shutting the stable after
the cow is stolen, i. 231; of shutting
Peppergate, 231 ; recovering the cow's
tail, 232; of the cow's tail wagging
but never falling, 234; of the egg-
hatching cow, 238 ; of the cow and the
hare, of the cow and the moon, 241,
2-^2; of hunting by blowing a horn,
242 ; of the blind cow finding the pea,
243 ; of the laughing cow, 245 ; of the
spinning cow, 250, 251 ; of the cow-
maid that spins, 250.

Proverbs, German, relating to the cow,
i. 229 ; mythical, 230, 231.

Puppets, the three, i. 207.

Purse, the enchanted, i. 126.

Purtlravas, myth of, i. 67.

Piinis, i. 84.

Pfishan, i. 409.

Pyramos and Thysbe, ii. 157.

Pythagoras once a peacock, ii. 327 ; the
belief of, 328.

Quail, the, in Rigvedas, ii. 276 ; as
symbol of the Tzar, 276 ; and Hercules
and Latona, 277 ; and moon, 277 ; the
game of, 277 ; as a bird of omen, 277,
278.

Queen, the blinded, and her servant, i.
218, 219.

Queen-mother, the, and her wicked sister,
i. 412.

Rahus, ii. 252,
Rak&, i. 50, 56.
Ram, the rain-cloud as a, i. 402 ; Indras,

403; Indras and testicles of, 414; de-

vourer of, 415.
Ra,mas, the sun, i, 55, 57-59 ; alter ego of

Indras, 59-62 ; and Lakshmanas, 63,

77, 311, 312, 315 ; ii. 24, 85 ; and Ka-

bandhas, i. 64-66, 81, 86 ; and Bharatas,

374.
R&,m^yanam, the, most solemn moments

of, i. 16.
RS,vanas, the monster, i. 76, 77 ; asses of,

375.
Rebhas, i. 299.
Keinardus Vulj^es, ii. 141.
Henart, Procession du, ii. 140, 141.
Resurrection, offerings symbolic of, i. 48,

49; faith in, 339.
RhodopS and her slipper, ii. 197.

Ribhavas, the brothers, work and work-
manship of, i. 20, 21, 46 ; names and
relationships, 21, 22; identification with
Indras as Agohyas, 2ii; the third of,
20-26; in Hindoo tradition, 25; pro-
tectors of the cow, 27 ; and the even-
ing aurora, 33 ; the three, in search of
the earrings, 79 ; 81, 125.

Riddles, propounding, i. 82, 102, 112 ;
solving of, 143 ; identification by solv-
ing, 206, 207.

Rigr^gvas, the red horse, i. 415, 417.

Rigvedas, the, i. 4, 40 ; 28th hymn of 10th
book, ii. 77, 78; the 103d hymn of,
371-373.

Rikshas, ii. 98.

Ring of recognition, i. 55; of Dushyan-
tas, ii. 350.

Pi,occo, San, and dog, ii. 27-

Rohitas, i. 69-72.

Romeo and Juliet, i. 125.

Romulus, i. 118 ; and Remus, ii. 177.

Round table, the, poems of, i. 257.

Rudras, i. 5, 47, 89 ; ii. 7.

Rustem, the mych of, i. 112-116 ; and the
ass, 379 ; horse of, and the lion, 380.

Sack, the, the hero -in, i 2."7, 239, 240 ;

the dwarf in, 238 ; and the hero cut in

pieces, 295.
Sailors, the, saved in the buffalo's hide,

i. 239.
Saints, i. 355, 356.
Sal, the hero, i. 1 12.
Salamander, the, ii. 380.
Sampo, the Finnish cup of abundance, i.

150.
Samson, i. 236 ; the Hindoo, ii. 104-107 ;

and the lion, 154-156.
Samvaranas, i. 86, 87.
Saram£L, i. 57, 58, 97 ; and the Panayas,

ii. 19-22 ; and the cows in the rock, 19 ;

impersonation of the moon, 21 ; sons

of, 22 ; and Sarameyas, 24.
Sarameyas, ii. 22-24.
Savitar, i. 54, Qo.
Saranyu, i. 347.
Schmierbock, the cunning, i. 413, 416 ;

ii. 151.
Schwanritter, the, ii. 319.
Scylla, ii. 34

Sea-urchin, the, ii. 336, 350.
Sefid, the demon, i. 113.
SelSne, ii. 217.
Serpent, as the privileged demoniac form,

ii. 389 ; tail of, as betraying the devil,

389 ; the devil, and the young widow,

389; -devil, and the waters, 390; the

killing of, the theme of all epics, 392 ;

in the Rigvedas ; 393-396 ; tliat bites

its tail, 396 ; Agnis as, 397 ; Indras,

the Marutas, 397 ; the wisdom of, 397 ;

and the Somas, 397, 398 ; the phallical.

399 ; Anantas, 399 ; Vasukis, 400 ;

and the cloud-monster, 400, 401 ; the

funereal, 401, 402 ; -rope, of Yamas.

402 ; collar of, 402 ; and SHa, 402 ;

440

INDEX.

and riches, 403 ; and the lower world,
403 ; Karkotakas, and Nalas, 405 ; and
hunter, 405 ; as a wise magician, 405 ;
the crested, 406 ; three-headed, 406 ;
skin and tongue of, 407 ; and lost
riches and the dead, 407 ; the white,
407 ; worship of, 408 ; and children,
408 ; and the heads of the family, 408 ;
and the tree, 409 ; and moon, 410 ; tree
guarded by a, 410 ; symbol of, 411 ; the,
in the Persian mythology, 412, 417 ;
the ^ruvara, 412, 413 ; the breath of,
413 ; and frog, 414 ; the two talking,
415, 416 ; the three headed, 416 ; fairy,
and three gifts, 417 ; and king who has
betrayed the maiden, 417 ; the sleep-
ing, with eyes open, 417; and the king's
daughter, 418 ; as whistler, 419.

Sheep, the, triple aspect of, i. 401.

Shepherd's son, ii. 45 ; and Giuseppe, 45.

Shepherdess, the, who proves herself a
queen, i. 209-211.

Siddhi-Kilr, stories of, i. 120 ; Mongol
and Calmuc stories of, 128-135.

Sifrit, i. 213, 214 ; and Brunhilt, 329,
330 ; horse of, 339.

Sijavush, i. 116.

Simurg, the bird, and the child Sal, ii.
188, 189.

Sirens, the, i. 149, 205, 206.

Sister, triple, i. 85.

Sisters, the three, i. 105 ; Calmuc story
of, 130.

Slta, the dawn, i. 26, 55-60, 62, 65, m ;
fire sacrifice of, 67, 69 ; and SaramS,,
ii. 21 ; and the sei-pents, 403.

Sky, the glowing, a fire, i. 69 ; stone of,
96 ; by night, ii. 167 ; winged animals
of, 168.

Slipper, the lost, i. 31 ; enchanted, 126 ;
origin of throwing the, 196.

Snail, the, ii. 74, 75.

Sohrab, son of Kustem, i. 114, 115.

Solabella and her seven brothers, ii.
314.

Solomon, ring of, and the hero, i. 167;
story of the ring of, ii. 175.

Somas, the. i. 8, 18 ; as a bull, and <u
stallion, 19 ; 104.

Son, the, who sacrifices his mother, i.
124.

Sons, three, rape and restoration of the,
ii. 57 ; transformation of, into doves,
57.

Sperm as ambrosia, ii. 181.

Spider, the, and its web, ii. 161, 163,
165 ; and the wasp, 164.

Squirrel, the, and fox, ii. 73 ; in the
Edda, 73. -

St James's Way, i. 422; Day, 422, 423,
430.

Stag, the mythical, ii. 83 ; the golden,
85 ; the hero, ^% ; at the fountain, 86 ;
Eikthyrner, 87; and Telephos, 88 ;
as nourisher of heroes, 88 ; silver
images of, in churches, 88 ; disguise
of, 88, 89.

Stone, mountain of, i, 314 ; the man
turned to, ii. 285.

Stork, the, and heron, ii. 261 ; and
children, 261 ; mythical meaning of,
261 ; and the old man, 262 ; and the
peasant, 262.

Strix, the, ii. 202, 203.

Stymphalian, the, birds, ii. 204.

Styx, the, i. 390.

Sudabe, i. 116.

SudeshnS,, Queen, i. 85.

Sugrlvas, ii. 109.

Sun, the, as a god, i. 7 ; as a bull, 8 ; re-
lations of, ,to aurora, 27 ; as a cow-
herd, 29 ; child of night and aurora,
37 ; the, in relation to the aurora, 27 ;
as a lame hero, 31, 32 ; persecuted
by, and persecutor of, the aurora, 33 ;
as born of aurora, 51 ; the pearl, 54 ;
and the aurora, 56, 65 ; and moon, 65 ;
light of the, and Ssaran, intrigue of,
138 ; firing at, 344 : the, in the cloud,
394.

Sundiis and Upasundas, the inseparable,
i. 310.

Sunlight and Moonlight, i. 315, 316.

Superlatif, i. 259.

SuramS,, i. 57, 58.

Sfiry4, i. 65 ; husband of, 307.

Svagvas, i. 343.

Svetazor and his brothers, i. 192-194.

Swallows as birds of omen, ii. 240 ; the
seven, and Sigurd, 240 ; and the Lord,
240 ; of good augury, 240 ; and the
crow, 241 ; and swan, 241 ; as babblers,
241 ; dreaming of, 241.

Swan, the, and the prince, ii, 311 ; hero
as or on, 316.

Swineherd, the, and the hogs' tails, i.
234.

Sword, the enchanted, i. 126.

Tail, the, value of recovering, i. 235,

237 ; the fox's, 236.
Takshakas, king of serpents, i. 80, 81.
Tapati, legend of the loves of, i. 86, 87.
Tdtos, the Hungarian horse, i. 288, 296.
Tehmime and Rustem, i. 114.
Telephos and the stag, ii. 88.
Tereus, the myth of, ii. 229.
Theodore, the hero, i. 296.
Thief and the pigs, i. 200, 201 ; the, in

the myths, 333.
Thomas, little, and the priest's horse, i.

234 ; the ass, 362.
Thor, and the serpent of Midgard, i. 225 ;

his appetite, 226 ; and the goat, 426 ;

the vessel of, 426 ; ii. 6.
Thraetaona, i. 101, 103 -106.
Three, the number, ii. 416.
Thrita, i. 103-105.
Thunder, son of, thunder-god and devil,

story of, i. 159, 160.
Thunderbolt, the, i. 9, 14 ; symbolic

meaning, 250.
Tiger, tail of, ii. 100.
Tistar, i. 98. ^y

INDEX.

441

Toad, the, as demou and as a diabolic
form, ii. 379 ; the maiden changed into,
379, 3S0; fortune -bringing, 380; sacred-
ness of, 381 ; and the third daughter,
381 ; -births, 383 ; the dried, as an
amulet, 384 ; the -stone, 384.

Tom, little, blind of an eye, and his
brothers, i. 335, 336.

Tortoise and the elephant, ii. 93-95 ; the
incarnation of Vishnus as a, 360-362 ;
originally, 361; names of, 361, 362;
and mountain, 362; and elephant,
363-364; the funereal, 365; buried,
365 ; blood of, 365 ; and frogs, 366 ;
changed into the lyre, 366 ; the shields
of, 366 ; and Zeus, 366, 367 ; and new-
born children, 367 ; mythical mean-
ing, 368 ; German legend of, 368 ; the
island, 368 ; and the hare, 369 ; and
the eagle, 369; and the bird Kruth,
369, 370.

Tree, the ambrosial, guarded by a dragon,
ii. 410, 411.

Trigankus, i. 72-74.

Trieiras, i. 76, 77.

Trigata, 1. 57.

Trinity, Indian, dispute for pre-eminence,
ii. 8.

Tritas, i. 8 ; horse of, 23 ; character and
relationships, 23 ; why called stupid,
23 ; in the well, 24, 25 ; and his
brothers, 25.

Turn -little-Pea and his brothers, story of,
i. 191, 192.

Tuti-Name, the, i. 119.

Tvashtar, i. 21, 34; the Hindoo Vulcan,
ii. 154, 155.

Twilights, the two, i. 18, 27.

Tyrant, the, and the bleating lamb, i. 416,
417.

Tzarovic, Ivan, and his Medea sister
Helen, i. 212-214 ; and his penitent sis-
ter, 214-216 ; and his perfidious mother,
216 ; and his perfidious wife, 216, 217 ;
and his wife Anna, 217.

UccAiH^RAVAS, the horse, i. 288, 289.

Udda,lakas, i. 80.

Ukko, the Finnic thunder-god, i. 147.

Upamanyus, i. 79.

Ursula, St, ii. 118.

Urva^i, the myth of, i. 39 : 67, 84, 170,

273, 365, 369.
Usha, i. 26.
Utankas, myth of, i. 80, 81, 95: 331,

333.

VADHRIMATt, ii. 32.

Vainamtiinen, dwarf-god, i. 147, 148 ;

harp of, 149.
Valkyries, the, and their swan forms, ii.

315.
Valmikam, ii. 43.
Vamri, ii. 43.
Vamras, ii. 44.
Varuuas, i. 52, 69-72, 107.
Vasavas, the, i. 68.
VOL. II.

j Vasishtas, cow of, i. 72-74, 87, 88 ; vain
} attempt at self-destruction, 88, !^)!).
j Valas, the grotto of, i. 13 ; as a cow, 15.

V^yus, i. 5-7.

Vedas, i. 80.

Vegetables, as symbols of generation,
i. 164.

Veretraghna, the bull, i. 103, 104.

Vespasian and the horse's dung, i. 389.

Vesta, i. 384.

Vi(;vamitras, myth of, i. 72-74, 88.

Vi^var^pas, with the three heads, i. 76.

Vikramadityas, the history of, i. 136, 137.

Vishnus, i. 20, 24, 26, 54, 57; personi-
fied in Kam^s, 59 ; three steps of, 301,
302, 334 ; as a wild boar, ii. 8, 9 ; and
Hiranyakshas, 8 ; and the monkeys,
99, 100 ; as haris, 424.

Vivasvant, i. 34.

Vouru-Kasha, sea of, i. 96.
i Vulcan, the Vedic, i. 21 ; the Christian,
ii. 40.

VidnerabiUty of the hero or monster, 1.
82.

Vulture, the, in the classics, ii. 198 ;
feathers of, 198; and the immoital
liver, 198 ; voracity, 199

Vultures, the twin, ii. 184.

Walchelm, the priest, i. 293.

Walnut-tree, and goat, i. 4U5.

"Wasp, wisdom of, ii. 221.

Way, the Milky, i. 421 ; and she-goat,

422.
Weasel, the, ii. 52, 53.
Wedding-ring, the, i. 169.
Whale, the mythical, ii. -337 ; and the

fleet, 345.
Wife, the, and the bewitching voice, i.

137.
Willimar and his vow, i. 356.
Wind, Persian god of, i. 105.
Winds, the, as bulls, i. 7, 12.
Wise men, the seven (Angirasas), i. 17,

28.
Wolf, the, and goat's kids, i. 406, 407 ;
mythical meaning of, 408 ; the mon-
ster, 408 ; the, and the devotee, ii. 142 ;
impersonations of, 142 ; and dog, 143 ;
heroic forms of, 144 ; the she-wolf, 144 ;
I transformation into, 145 ; sent by God
as instrument of vengeance, 146 ; hide
] and teeth of, 146, 147 ; the demoniacal,
j 147 ; as omen of death, 147 ; Skiill and
' Hati, 147 ; disguises of, 147-149.
, Woman, made of wood, story of, i. 137 ;
the old, and her older sister, ii. 6.
Women, knowledge of, i. 246, 247.
Woodman and painter, the, Calmuc story
of, i. 130.
1 Woodpecker, the mythical meaning of,
I ii. 265 ; and King Picus, 265 ; beak of,
i 267 ; and Beowulf, 267 ; of evil omen,
267, 268 ; and dog, 268, 269.
"\A'ren, the, in mythology, ii. 207 ; and
the eagle, 208; and beetle, 208; and
I death of Csesar, 209.

2 F

44 ^

INDEX.

Yamas, i. 23, 71, ii. 25 ; kingdom of,

48, 49 ; son of, 78, 95, 107.
Yay&tis and the girl in the well, i. 83.

84.
Yggdrasil and the four stags, ii. 87.
Ysengrin, the wolf, ii, 141, 149.
Yudhishthiras, i. 77-79, 82.
Yiinx, the bird, ii. 269.

Zaparana, ii. 10.

Zeus and Hera, i. 247, 248 ; the beetle,
and the eagle's eggs, ii. 195 ; eagle of,
195, 196 ; and Latona, 277, 280 ; and
L6da, 318 ; and lo, 327 ; Faber, 352,
353.

Zezolla, the maiden, and the dore, ii.
304, 305.

THE END.

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